Serpent through all his turnings and windings from the primitive times to this present to observe the subtile ways and methods he hath used to note by what steps and degrees he hath from time to time insinuated himself into the very bosom of the Church spreading this deadly poyson over all its Members and every point of Doctrine so that the true Religion at this day lays gasping and labouring for life is a work too great for so small a volum The first Instrument he found fit for this purpose was Simon Magus of whom we read Acts 8. how he bewitched the people of Samaria This Sorcerer is the Father of all Hereticks and his Heresie the cursed womb from whence sprang that numerous brood that now covers the face of the earth and hath raised the devil a mighty Kingdom At this day it is divided though not against it self in two main provinces the Mahumetan in the East in the West the Antichristian of the one the Turk is Viceroy of the other the Pope is Vicar Vnder these two Generalissimoes all those enemies of Christ are listed both the enemies of his Person and the enemies of his Office among whom though there be a seeming difference yet indeed there is a secret league like Sampsons Foxes their heads look contrary ways yet they are all Foxes and joyned together by the tails These are the Foxes that spoyl the Lords Vineyard and do more hurt by secret fraud then the wild Boar by open force Baalam a false Prophet did the Israelites more hurt then the Amorites with all their Armies And that Heretick Arrius did the Christian Church more hurt then the Savage Emperours did with all their Legions No marvell then we are so often warned in holy Scripture to beware of these Seducers and false teachers because they creep in unawares Jude 4. They bring in their Heresies privily and insinuate themselves with fained words 1 Pet. 2.1 3. They have a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 And with their fair outsides get within us surprise and lead us captive And therefore we had need be very wary and never more need then now for Seducers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 4. They compass Sea and Land they fill Town and Country and not only creep into houses but up into high places so bold they are grown Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these resist the truth men of corrupt minds of no judgment concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 But that they proceed no further here are discovered their Errours that being seen they may be shun'd and avoided And though here be not discovered all which is almost impossible yet here are if I mistake not the principal whereunto the rest are but accessory The end of this small work is to furnish the weaker sort with general answers out of Gods own Word to the Arguments of the Adversaries and with plain Reasons if not sufficient to defeat the enemy yet enough I hope to defend themselves that they may be provided for them whensoever they be encountred by them lest being unprepared at unawares they be led away with the Errour of the wicked 2 Pet. 3.17 These are the first fruits of a larger harvest if it be accepted being but a handful taken out of a heap Imprimatur James Cranford March 28. 1648. AN ANTIDOTE Against HERESIE CHAP. I. Of the holy Scriptures THe holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the very Word of God Truth written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and contain all things that are necessary to be known or beleeved to eternal salvation being sufficient of themselves to instruct the Church or people of God thereunto By holy Scripture we understand only those books that were anciently accounted and are now received by the Church of England for Canonical Adversaries and Errours Errours that oppose this truth are many but may all be reduced to these three heads 1. Are those that enlarge the Canon of holy Scripture adding many things to it that are not of it 2. Are those that diminish the same denying some parts and taking some books from it 3. There be those that refuse and reâ—ect the whole debasing and despising the Authority of the holy Scriptures and esteeming no better of them then of humane writings 1. Of this latter sort were anciently Simon Magus Montanus and such deceivers and they are followed at this day by the Anabaptists who call the written Word a dead letter and ground their new doctrines upon revelations dreams and visions whereunto they give such credit that at Sangal a Town of Switzerland one of them cut of his brothers head pretending a revelation or command from heaven so to do Sleidan Comment l. 6. By this art Mahomet brought his damnable religion in credit with the world for having the falling sickness he pretended it was a trance wherein he received revelations frâ—m heaven and by the same art Muncer Becold Cnipperdolling and other false Prophets of the Anabaptists in Germany seduced a world of poor miserable people to their own destruction The Papists say the Scriptures are of no more credit and authority then meer Fables without the Testimony and approbation of the Church and take them quite away from the reading of Lay-people as dangerous and hurtful and have burnt not only the books of Scripture but bodies of men too for having them in a known tongue such bitter enemies they are to the Word of God 2. There be others that deny not the whole but diminish only the Canon of holy Scripture refusing some parts and rejecting some books 1. The whole New-Testament as the Jews do Or 2. all the Old Testament as the new Libertines do who affirm it is abrogated the Socinians who say it is unnecessary and may well be spared 3. And there be others that enlarge the Canon of holy Scripture adding many things to it that are not of it so the Papists do not only traditions or unwritten verities as they call them but fabulous legends also and written lyes upon a pretence of want and defect in the Scriptures as not containing all truths necessary to salvation nor sufficient to instruct us thereunto without a supply of Apochryphal books traditions and divers humane inventions Antidote The Scriptures are the only touchstone to try and discern Truth from Error by and are called a Testament because they are testis mentis the witness of Gods most holy will against all adversaries then and their errours we affirm First that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the very Word of God of sufficient authority and credit without the Church or any humane testimony to establish any point of doctrine and decide any controversie of Religion For such as the authority of the author of any writing is such is the authority of the writing it self but God is the Author of holy Scripture therefore the Scriptures are of
the god of this world hath blinded Their eyes c. 2 Cor. 4.3 The end of the Scriptures is the instruction of the Church Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written were written for our learning and one necessary mean to attain this end is the perspicuity and plainness of the Scripture for if it were dark or doubtful how should it instruct us In vain is it called a Light if it be dark in it self and to no purpose are we sent to learn it if it be so to us The Scriptures are an instrument to beget Faith Joh. 20.31 Rom. 10.17 And the first step or degree of faith is knowledg which the Scriptures could not beget if they were dark difficult or obscure Object But S. Peter says there are many things in S. Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which unlearned men wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Sol. If any thing be hard in one place either it is such as the ignorance thereof will not hazard our salvation or else it is explained and made easie in another place And by unlearned men the Apostle understand not men wanting humane learning as the liberal arts and sciences c. but men unlearned in the Scriptures themselves such as most times the learned and wise men of the world are For it is known that men otherwise unlearned simple aâ—d ignorant coming in humility the fear of God and love of truth using prayer reading comparing of Scriptures c. have attained unto a sufficient measure of saving knowledg For the Scriptures discover themselves by their own proper light one place expounding and opening the meaning of another August de Doct. Christ .l 2. c. 2.9.24 all things are seen by the light but light by it self Lastly Those books that we commonly call Apocrypha are not of divine authority because they were not written by the Prophets or men divinely inspired as the other Scriptures were that are therefore called the Scriptures of the Prophets Rom. 12.26 Our Saviour divides all Canonical Scripture into Moses and the Prophets Luk. 16.29 But none of those books were written by Moses or any of the Prophets nor dictated by the Spirit of God but savour of a prophane and lying spirit as containing matter and stories both vain foolish and fabulous very often contradicting themselves and also the known Word of God as in the books of Tobit and the Maccabees the Stories of Bell and the Dragon are specially to be found The Jews received none of those books in their Canon neither by any of the primitive Christians or ancient Fathers were accounted for Canonical and what account the learned Papists themselves make of them may appear by Arias Montanus who in the front of his Bible hath these words There be added in this Edition the books written in Greek which the Catholick Church following the Canon of the Hebrew reckoneth amongst the Apocrypha CHAP. II. Of the Blessed Trinity Truth THere is but one living and true God everlasting and in the unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Errours This one point of Christian Religion is the very basis or foundation of all the rest and if this be shaken the rest must needs totter and fall to the ground and therefore the devil hath raised up such furious adversaries to oppugn it with strange and monstrous blasphemies as of old did Simon Magus Cerinthus Ebion Manes a Persian a man according to his name furious and mad and such like at this day the adversaries to this doctrine of the Trinity are all the enemies of Christ and his divinity as the unbeleeving Jews all Mahometans Turks Moors and such miscreants among Christians only such as have suckt their principles from the schools of those Infidels They stand marshalled all in two Regiments 1. The first is of those that deny all distinction of persons in the Godhead making the Father Son and Holy Ghost but several names only of one and the same person in regard of some distinct actions or offices This Heresie was commonly ascribed to Sabellius but Noetus a disciple of Montanus hatcht it and Simon Magus layd the egg long before at this day it is revived by one M. Erbury a late Chaplain of the Army who taught That there is but one person in the Godhead and when we read of the Father Son and Holy Ghost we must not take them for so many distinct persons but only as so many appearances of God unto men And truly if M. Erbury had been that Sorcerers own disciple he could not have devised a doctrine more like his as it is recorded by St. Augustin lib. de Haeres ad Quodvultdeum cap. 1. There be others that admit a distinction of these 3 persons but deny the equality of them That the Son and Holy Ghost are not God equal with the Father of one substance and eternity with the Father This was the Heresie of Arius whose chief undertaking was against the Son of God and his eternal generation and of Macedonius who denyed the Godhead of the holy Ghost They are both revived at this day among us that of Macedonius by one M. Biddle who not questioning the Godhead of the Son a point as he professeth wherein he is not yet so well resolved denies only the Godhead of the holy Ghost granting no more but that he is an excellent creature and chief of all the ministring spirits One M. Best not fearing that fearful judgment that befel Arius who burst asunder in the midst like Judas the traitor that his bowels gushed out hath notwithstanding revived his Heresie and in these times of general and desperate Apostacy hath found many favorors and followers Now the fountain of all these impure waters was Simon Magus an impious sorcerer and the conduit that conveyed them to our times almost was Mahomet an impudent impostour For about the year 630. or as others please 670. that vile and lewd Arabian began his cursed book called the Alcoran and therein amongst a multitude of other impure follies impious fables and lyes he raked also together coÌ„mended to his barbarous followers all those Heresies and Blasphemies against the Trinity Out of this filthy puddle Michael Servertus a Spaniard a man better read in Mahomets cursed Law then in the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ suckt his Heresie about the year 1530. for denying the eternal Son of God he was burnt at Geneva and out of his ashes arose that monster Socinus But to pass by particular persons the first Country that made defection from this truth was Transylvania a Country bordering upon the Turks from whom they received this point of their Religion for to gratifie or comply with those barbarous neighbours they abjured their Faith in the holy Trinity about the year 1593. denying the Son and holy Ghost the contagion of this pest is now spread into most places of Christendom The devil hath devised
his Fathers Will unto us that now we need no more any new Revelations and therefore as the Apostle says 2 Pet. 1.16 19 20. We do not follow devised fables for we have a more sure word of prophecy whereunto we take heed even a prophecy of the Scripture or written Word Secondly We read indeed in times of persecution that the very children did beget their own Fathers unto Christ by reading unto them a few plain Chapters out of the New Testament God giving a blessing thereunto when better means were not afforded yet it is evident that bare reading without preaching is not enough neither can we expect a blessing from God upon one without the other when he hath afforded the means and liberty of both The common practise of all both Jews and Christians confirms it who were not content with bare reading but Nehem. 8.9 they read in the Law and gave the sense causing the people to understand the reading Acts 13.15 After the reading they desire a Word of Exhortation And our blessed Saviour the great Doctor of his Church after he had read closed the book and then preacht Luke 4.16 For bare reading without preaching or expounding is as bad to most people as speaking in an unknown tongue which Saint Paul accounts madness 1 Cor. 14.23 Thirdly The grace of Vocation is External or Internal External in the outward preaching of the Gospel Internal in the 1. Illumination or enlightening of the mind with the knowledg of God 2. Renovation Regeneration and Conversion of the heart and will by changing turning and winning the same to cleave unto God by Faith We say then First That the outward calling without the inward is not sufficient to conversion the preacher cannot give Faith and repentance which are the Work of God John 6.29 and the Gift of God 2 Tim. 2.25 It is not moral swasion or force of Argument it is not the enticing words of mans wisdom can change or turn that stony heart that is in the midst of every one of us it is Gods Work Ezek. 36.26 called a Creation Psal 51.10 and therefore his peculiar work John 6.44 None can come to me except the Father draw him saith our Saviour It is not in the power of mans will being in bondage to Satan and the powers of darkness Col. 1.13 to return and come unto God but we are called and beleeve according to the exceeding greatness of his power and according to the working of his mighty power Eph. 1.18 And our Faith stands not in mans wisdom but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.5 Secondly This grace of inward Vocation and Regeneration is irresistible that a man cannot resist the operation of it because the purpose and power of God is in it John 6.37 All that the Father gave me shall come unto me Not that God offers any compulsion or violence to the will for then it were not will he draws us indeed but with cords of love most sweetly wooing us and yet so powerfully winning us after a manner unspeakable that we cannot resist because we cannot but yield our nature being changed by his grace and of unwilling made willing to obey Thirdly This inward calling is immutable because it is according to Gods purpose Rom. 8.28 and that is unchangeable Rom. 11.29 The Gifts and Calling of God are without repentance And so the Regenerate those that are effectually called can never fall wholly away again For Jer. 32.4 God makes an everlasting Covenant with them and puts his fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from him Fourthly This grace of inward Vocation is free otherwise it were not grace not gotten by any diligence and endeavour or given for any dignity or worthiness in the person called but freely according to Gods good pleasure so that the reason why one man receiveth grace another receiveth it not one beleeves another doth not one is converted another is not is not in man that willeth but in God that worketh and dispenseth his grace according to his own pleasure opening the heart of one and not of another John 3.8 The wind bloweth where it listeth c. Even so is every man that is born of the Spirit Lastly It is proper and peculiar to Gods Elect. Acts 13.48 and Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and none else Indeed many are called that are not chosen Mat. 22.14 but none effectually There is a calling of nature and a calling of grace many are called by the voyce of the creatures that never heard the Scriptures many are invited by the Word that are not won by the Spirit have their minds enlightened too and yet their hearts not opened or renewed Many are called outwardly that are not inwardly and effectually this is peculiar to Gods chosen who are called by his Spirit working in due season through grace they obey that calling are freely justified and at last most certainly glorified The Elect are still sure of salvation because the links of this golden chain are so strongly fastened one within another according to Gods unchangeable purpose and invincible power that they can never be broken and undone CHAP. XIII Of Justification AND whom he called Truth them he also Justified and we are Justified or accounted righteous in the sight of God not for any works or worthiness of our own but for the only merits of Jesus Christ and by faith in him our sins being imputed unto him and his Righteousness unto us Adversaries to this Doctrine are the Papists Errours with their brethren the Anabaptists The Anabaptists teach That we are not justified by faith alone but by the cross and affliction The Papists affirm 1. That we are not justified by faith only but by faith and works together and works in their account carry the greatest stroke 2. That we are justified by faith not as an Instrument but as a vertue meriting or deserving and so t is a part of that Righteousness whereby we are justified before God 3. That we are justified before God by a Righteousness that is inherent in us infused not imputed 4 Osiander imagined That we are substantially righteous in Christ as well in Essence as in quality and that the truly righteous do not apprehend Christ by faith but have him and his Righteousness essentially derived unto them so that in our Justification God conveying himself into us maketh us a part of himself So the Familists say That every one of their family is Christ godded with God and deified 5. Many Pharisaical Christians there be that think to be justified by civil and external Righteousness 6. And certain Libertines That taking no care of wel-doing think to be justified by faith alone or a solitary faith 7. A world of carnal people regard neither faith nor works and yet hope to be saved as well as the best This point of Justification Antidote is the greatest that is in Controversie between us and the Papists which they quite
we have in Christ carnally thinking that now we are freed from all care of good works and may follow what course we please Antidote That we ought to follow good works for the Reasons before named is evident by those places of Scripture Ephes 2.10 We are created unto good works that God hath prepared for us that we should walk in them Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might purifie unto himself a people zealous of good works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 We shall be judged at the last day according to our works therefore look to your works So 1 Pet. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 Heb. 10.24 2 Cor. 9.2.3 And our best works have not that worthiness in them to deserve at Gods hand 1. Because they are imperfect Isai 64.6 They are a debt that we owe unto God Luke 17.10 When you have done all you can or are commanded to do say you are unprofitable servants for we do but our duty we must do them to serve not deserve 3. If they were perfect yet they are Gods not ours Phil. 2.13 He worketh in us both the will and the deed Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing 4. If we ascribe merit to our works we make the death and merits of Christ either unnecessary or insufficient Object But eternal life is called a reward Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 et 22.12 Sol. There is a reward of debt and a reward of grace it is the Apostles own distinction Rom. 4.4 Heaven and eternal life is a reward of grace not of debt God hath made himself a debter to us not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us August in Psalm 132.2 It is said we shall be rewarded not for but according to our works the merit of works is plainly set aside and when God doth crown our works he doth but crown his own gifts August Enarr in Psalm 102.3 The Apostle calls the reward of sin wages because it is of due debt but eternal life he calls a gift because it is not of debt but grace Rom. 6.23 4. The Kingdom of Heaven is called not the wages of servants but the inheritance of Saints or those whom God hath chosen for his children 5. The good man of the house i. Christ Mat. 20. payed at night all his labourers equal wages to shew that they received a gift of grace not a reward of works CHAP. XVII Of Death and Burial Truth THere is no man living that shal not see death for our life is but a race that will come to an end and when we have finisht our course here our body shall turn to dust in the earth and our soul return to God that gave it Errours Enemies to this truth were 1. The old Hereticks called Nazarens affirming That the soul of man and the soul of a beast were both of a like nature and substance from whence sprang up those Hereticks in Arabia the stony called therefore Arabici who affirmed That the soul of man dyes with the body even as the soul of a bruit beast doth 2. Others affirmed That the soul did not dye but sleep in the grave untill the day of Judgment Both these Errours are revived at this day by those that affirm The whole man is mortal And books are written of the mortality of the soul Pope John the 23. was of this opinion That the soul should not see God till the day of Judgment 3. Familists say They ought not to bury the dead because it is said let the dead bury the dead 4. And those are greatly to be blamed that despise Christian buriall and though not guilty of Heresie yet of inhumanity that expose their dead friends undecently or irreverently 5. The Papists account burial of the dead a meritorious work borrowing their authority from the book of Tobit The Reason why the Arabians were so easily taken with this Errour of the souls mortality was because they were Antidote and are at this day a very lewd dissolute and theevish people and this doctrine doth fit such peoples turn very well and the same may be the Reason it is received by many at this day happy were it for them if the soul dye or if it but sleep till the day of Judgment it cannot but be a little refreshing to the thoughts of wicked men that seeing their life so uncertain yet they shall not go presently into torment But Eccles 3.19 20. is to be understood of the state of the body after death for of the soul it is said v. 21. That the soul of man goes upward and the soul of a beast goes downward towards the earth Eccl. 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luk. 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees Mat 22.32 puts the Adversary to silence for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Lastly The exceeding joys and hopes of good men and the fears and terrours of wicked men at their departures are sufficient Arguments that the soul sleeps not but goes presently to a place of joy or sorrow whereof the soul hath some secret inklings instinct or divine assurance and whereunto those hopes and fears seem to invite or usher it Secondly After the departure of the soul the body ought to be carryed to the grave and layed up in decent burial if not out of any regard to the party deceased yet out of reverence to the common nature of mankind or of pure shame of that frailty weakness and deformity that our selves are subject to The holy Patriarks and all Gods people of old were very careful of their Sepulchers or burying places as you may read and the Jews used many Ceremonies of comliness at their burials not out of any superstition but in a godly consideration of the Resurrection in the hope whereof those Ceremonies did seem to confirm them and as that doctrine grew clearer so these Ceremonies grew fewer as Tabitha her body was only washed Acts 9.37 And therefore we condemn those numerous superstitious and impious Ceremonies used by the Papists at their burials but yet still we should consider that the dead bodies of our godly and Christian friends are precious things and were the Members of Christ Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall at the last day be raised again and made like unto Christs glorious body in hope whereof in mean space we should lay them up with decency and reverence It is no matter to the dead but 1. It is an honor done to the common nature of mankind 2. A comfort to surviving friends 3. Many ways useful to all that are present CHAP. XVIII Of the Resurrection Truth ALthough our bodies when we are dead shall be turned to dust and ashes yet at the last day they shall be raised again
Papists themselves could never yet agree about the place where the pains what or the time how long it shall last and that the infallible Doctour of the Porphyry Chair cannot resolve it nor will of his charity release them without money as they say he can for money we leave it as a heathenish and sottish invention and if there be no purgatory then pardons and prayers for the dead are of no use and howsoever the pardons of a sinful man or the man of sin cannot be of any value An Irish Gentleman and a Papist being upon a former agreement to pay a certain sum of money to a Priest for Masses said for delivering his fathers soul out of purgatory brought the money and laid it down But quoth he to the Priest be ye sure now that my fathers soul is clear out Yes I 'le warrant you quoth the Priest Nay then quoth the Gentleman by my troth I have even done a childs part if he be out let him take heed how he comes there again and so putting up his money gave the Priest the baffle Countermining one cheat with another If all Papists would serve their Priests so and Pope too it would prove the best Antidote against this Heresie For money is the fuel that feeds this fire if it be fire and not water as some learned Papists have doubted it is CHAP. XXII Of Images Truth THe worship of Images Reliques the Cross c. are not only vain unwarrantable and contrary to Gods Word but also heathenish and abominable Idolatry Errours The Papists not only erect and adore Images themselves but also accurse and condemn as Hereticks to the fire yea to hell fire all those that will not do the like 2. The Pseudo-Lutherans retain Images in their Churches esteeming them not onely as Ornaments but also as lay-mens books to edifie admonish and put them in mind of some heavenly things but yet allow them not to be worshipped doing herein like the Turks who in the sack of Constantinople seeing the Temple of Saint Sophia a goodly structure and the marble pillars enameled and filleted with the pictures of Saints were loth to deface such goodly pieces though Images are contrary to their Law and Religion but only put out their eyes Images were creeping in apace here in England and I saw once the assumption of our Lady wrought upon the Communion Table or Altar cloth as it was called in a Church held in Commendam by Bishop Goodman of Glocester which I note above all other because it is a fabulous legend that the Papists themselves scarce admit The old heathen Romans for a long time had no Images Antidote accounting it sacriledg to present heavenly things by earthly forms seeing we cannot possibly any way attain unto the knowledg of God but in mind and understanding Plut. in Vita Numae The Turks have none nor the Jews as contrary to Gods Law The ancient Christians would not suffer an Image so much as in the Church-porch so jealous they were of Idolatry stealing in The Papists think they quit themselves of Idolatry when they say they worship not the Image but the Saint or diety in the Image But the same excuse is made by Plutarch for the heathen Idolaters who were none of them so sottish to take the Images of wood and stone for Gods able to help them God forbad not only graven Images to be worshipt but also himself to be worshipt in the Image If we make an Image of the true God to worship then we fall either 1. into Idolatry by worshipping the Image or 2. Errour and Heresie by ascribing to God a bodily shape which he hath not Abulensis in Deut. cap. 4. The Images of Saints are not to be worshipt because the Saints themselves are not to be worshipt The worship of Angels is expresly forbidden Col. 2.18 and the Angels themselves forbid it Rev. 19.10 22.9 with this Reason because they are our brethren and fellow servants Much less the Sains whose greatest honor is to be but as the Angels Mat. And the liveliest picture of Christ is in the Scriptures there he is painted before our eyes Gal. 3.1 A man may look upon a Crucifix as long as he lives and never the wiser never the holier In the Bible you have a speaking picture of Christ in a distressed brother a living Crucifix in the holy Supper a more lively Image of his death passion then any painter can devise and shew us those holy Mysteries that a picture can never do Images though not worshipped yet are not useful but hurtful in the place of Gods Worship the picture of Christ is so far from putting us in mind of him that it draws our minds from him tying our imagination to a corporal object Few pray before an Image but they pray likewise unto it a secret belief stealing into their minds that when they look upon it they think it hears them August Enarrat in Psalm 113. And therefore another says it is Diabolicae deceptionis inventum one of the Divels Arch-cheats CHAP. XXIII Of the Church Truth THe Church is the body of Christ or the Church is the whole company of Gods Elect called and gathered by his holy Word and Spirit out of all mankinde from the beginning to the end of the world into one fellowship with Christ and communion one with another And although many are called and but few chosen many are joyned unto the Church that are not united unto Christ hold outward communion with the Saints that have no inward fellowship with the Son of God yet we are in charity to account all those for members of the true Church that are outwardly called and accordingly make profession of the true Faith until the Lord the searcher of all hearts who alone knoweth who are his do make the truth appear as he shall do at the great day of his appearing Errours Adversaries to this truth are 1. Those that say there is no true Church upon earth as the Seekers do 2. Those that would have the visible Church to be voyd of sin and sinners as the Anabaptists Familists Brownists and all Separatists 3. That will have the true Catholick Church to be a mixt company of good and bad together as the Papists do 4. The same Papists to the great contumely and reproach of Christ advance their Pope to be head of the Church 5. To uphold their Antichristian Synagogue among many other they maintain three special errours that are the very props and pillars of the same sc That the Church cannot err That the Church is alwayes visible That the Word and Sacraments are not proper marks of the true Church 6. The Anabaptists abuse the communion of Saints in the Church to bring in a community of goods in the civil state and make all things common The word Church Antidote Chyrch or Kirch we borrow of the Duch among whom it is commonly taken for Gotteshause Gods
is spiritual heavenly and divine The matter of the thing present the Apostle shews plainly 1 Cor. 10.16 But for the manner of presence we have no such evident demonstration To conclude the truth is present with the signs the Holy Spirit with the Sacrament feeding our souls with the truth of Christs body and blood but the invisible working of that Divine Spirit herein is unsearchable the natural man cannot perceive it because it is spiritual Let us firmly beleeve then what we cannot conceive and rest assured in this truth that we receive in the Sacrament the very body and blood of Christ by Faith though we cannot conceive it by sense or reason CHAP. XXVII Of Reformation Truth THere is no particular Church on earth and never was so priviledged but that it may and many have faln into dangerous Errours both of life and doctrine as the examples of all both former and latter times have witnessed so that there is no Church consisting of men that may err but may need Reformation even as a material building doth need often reparation And for as much as many horrible abuses and superstitions were lately brought through the deceitfulness of some into the Church of England to the great dishonor of Almighty God the decay of piety and imminent ruine of the true Protestant Religion therefore this present Reformation was extreamly necessary and is no Innovation but a Restauration only of our Church to its ancient purity of doctrine discipline and divine worship as it was established by the noble Princes K. Edward 6. and Q. Elizabeth of famous memories Although this truth be as clear as the light Errours as shall immediately be made appear and that this present Reformation hath cast out many gross abuses that contrary to the determinations of our Church have been lately put upon us yet there are divers adversaries that either out of malice or ignorance or both do still with all their might oppose it And so I shall reduce them all under three heads The first is of those that do it of pure malice as all lewd and dissolute persons who hate all reformation whatsoever that shal hedg up their extravagant ways and give a check or stop to their loose courses among these we may reckon some Papists and other Sectaries The second is of those that do it of meer ignorance as divers civil Protestants that think no Religion so ancient as that they were bred in and strangely mistaking Church-men for the Church take up most of their religion upon their credit The third sort do it of malice and ignorance both as divers fiery spirits that think there is no way to reform the Church unless they pull it to pieces as if there were no way to cure the head-ache but to knock a mans brains out There be also divers hypocrites that can drive on a reformation for their own ends and advantages and yet are as great enemies to the truth of it as any of the former Antidote I shall endeavor to satisfie the honest Protestant that is engaged against the reformation for want of better information and would soon perhaps imbrace the truth if he were not courted with so many lyes by deceivers that abound in the world The common complaint and cry is for the Religion that was in Queen Elizabeths time again And that we have not now the same Religion The Answer in brief is that we have the same Religion still not a new And that the true Protestant Religion which was then profest is now not altered but settled being restored to its pristine purity and purged from many abuses wherewith it was but lately corrupted As First Many Popish and Arminian tenents were taught and publickly maintained that are contrary to the doctrine of our Church at first established as will appear by comparing them with the 39. Articles and the book of Homilies the nine Articles of Lambeth and other learned writings of our former Bishops Secondly Many Crucifixes Images or Idols were set up in our most eminent Churches and most eminent places of them and that partly by connivence partly by command of men at that time of most eminent place and note whereby Superstition was nourished and Idolatry committed But now these Images are contrary 1. To the Word of God expresly forbidding them 2. To the judgment of the ancient Christians Fathers and Councels with great zeal condemning them And 3. of our own Church of England as in the book of Homilies and 39. Articles may be seen Thirdly The Communion Table was altered both in name and place from a Table to an Altar from the body of the Church to the head or upper end of the Chancel contrary to express order sâ—t down in the book of Common Prayer before the communion where it is said that the Table shall stand in the body of the Church or in the Chancel and the Priest shall stand at the north side which he cannot do if he stand close up to the wall And if it might be placed according to the discretion of the ordinary yet he must have more discretion then ordinary that will make the end of a table the side as one endeavored to do but that his Geometry failed him Fourthly The Bowing used to the Communion Table was a matter of worse consequence then was commonly imagined It is the attendant on Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation It serves to nourish those Errours still in mens minds ushers in many other Popish superstitions and is the occasion of gross Idolatry Fifthly The rails wainscot and traverse courtains before the Table as if it were the Sanctum sanctorum of the Jews or a Chappel intended for private Mass or as if none were holy enough to approach neer it but the Priest also the Tapers Copes Vestments and many other things lately used though they seemed but small matters to some yet they were not the less dangerous for being little for like little thieves they crept in at our Church windows to open doors to the great ones and if these had continued by this time they would have brought in the whole Mass of Popish Idolatry and those that plead for them are but the devils pimps that seduce the people and under the name of things indifferent would lead them a whoring after Idolls Hereunto we may add that horrible abuse of Excommunication the highest censure of the Church that in the Courts Christian was made a messenger to fetch in fees and men were cast out of the Church for not comming into the Court to say no more Lastly They err as much on the other hand and are to be condemned that scornfully or basely abuse the Church and places set apart for the use of Gods Ordinances which is seldom done but in open or secret contempt of the ordinances themselves Let them among other examples remember that of Julian unckle to the Apostate who in contempt pissed against the Communion Table his bowels rotting out he voyded
his own excrements at his mouth Our own times have not wanted like examples of mans impiety and Gods judgment But leaving them to their nasty stables c. although we know God doth hear us in all places when we call upon him yet that decent places be set apart and beautified with comely ornaments is very fit and becoming such holy duties and services There is one main rub yet that many stumble at and that is the strict examination of communicants and suspension upon some causes from the holy communion to remove this let them understand it is no more but the duty of the Minister formerly enjoyned by the Orders of our own Church as is to be seen in the book of Common Prayer and therefore is no innovation These things and the like duly considered we may see the Errour of many who under the name of the Protestant Religion do most of all oppose it and think to establish the Church of England with those Engines that will utterly destroy it Let all true-hearted Protestants consider these things and as they love the Church of England their Mother vindicate her quarrel against those that have so basely abused her those crafty chapmen that under the name and authority of the Church of England have cheated the people with those counterfeit stuffs that the Church of England never commended but condemned If there be any other alteration in our Church then what â—â—th been mentioned It is not of any subâ—â—â—â—ce but some circumstance there is no alteration in the body but in the apparrel An eminent Doctour of our own says I am sure no friend to Novelism that Clerical habits vestiments are not the body but swadling clothes of Religion and we know there is a time to leave off such things And so all other Ceremonies were judged alterable by those that first ordained them As the Philosopher said of his son Scio me genuisse Mortalem so they knew their decrees when they made them were not Median-Persian Laws but that they might and must be altered if after times should see as good reason to remove these Ceremonies as they themselves did to remove many before See the Prefaces to the book of Common-prayer But the Bishops are put down and that is a great blot to the Reformation But tell me did stately Palaces great attendance and lordly titles agree with the poverty meekness humility of our Saviour whose servants they profess themselves And for a farther trial of the lawfulness of these things a trial that will not deceive Let a form of prayer be drawn and ther◠〈◊〉 a complaint unto Almighty God foâ—â—â—ese things and a supplication to restore them particularly and by name and let me see who dares go into the presence of God with such a prayer in his mouth Things lawful and conscionable we may with comfort pray for but those things that a mans conscience dares not pray for his own conscience condemns for unlawful But the Church is trodden down her lands and goods embeziled c. that is the Bishops Lands c. still a shrewd mistake If they are taken from them and restored to the right owners that every Church may have its proper maintenance and they enjoy the means that take the pains is this sacriledg or Justice And what was it when the Bishops c. held and enjoyed so many tithes and profits properly belonging to other poor Ministers that were Church men as well as themselves and took care of the Churches So much of their means as is not this way due to others may well be employed to settle a more useful Ministry as the present necessities of the Church every where require CHAP. XXVIII Of Toleration THough the Heathen had infinite Gods almost and as many several Religions Ceremonies and forms of worship yet we never read of any contention among them about any difference of Religion the Reason was because the Gods of the Heaven as one says were goods fellows and content to share that glory amongst them that was none of theirs but the true God is a jealous God and cannot endure a partner of that glory that is properly his own And therefore there can be no greater Argument against the Sectaries that they are not of God then their great desire of Toleration of all Religions But Joan. Vlt. a small Errour is sharply taken up it may warn us not to suffer the least Errour though not fundamental for tares if suffered to grow at last will pluck down the wheat We must follow St. Pauls example Gal. 1.5 Who would not give place to false brethren no not for an hour that the truth of the Gospel might continue So we must not give place to any Errourist But as the Apostle says Tit. 1.11 Their mouths must be stopt because their words eat like a canker 2 Tim. 2.17 And though small at first yet will eat out the very heart and life of all Religion at last FINIS