those things but only in that Tyrannical usurpation of the Popes and irregular devotions of some Votarys which latter ages produced CHAP. XIII Reformation THe story of the Reformation of Religion he distributes into three parts and allots to each a particular Paragraph the first is of its occasion and rise in general the second of its entrance into England the third of its progresse amongst us Of the first he gives us this account The pastor of Christianity upon some sollicitation of Christian Princes for a general compliance to their design sent forth in the year 1517. a plenary Indulgence in favour of the Cruciata against the Turk Albertus the Archbishop of Ments being delegated by the Pope to see it executed committed the promulgation of it to the Dominican Fryers which the Hermits of St. Augustine in the same place toâ—k ill especially Martin Luther c. Who vexed that he was neglected and undervalued fell a-writing and preaching first against Indulgencies then against the Pope c. He that had no other acquaintance with Christian Religion but what the Scriptures and antient Fathers will afford him could not buâ— be amazed at the canting Language of this Story it being impossible for him to understand any thing of it aright He would admire who this Pastor of Christianity should be what this plenary Indulgence should mean what was the preaching of plenary indulgence by Dominicans and what all this would avail against the Turk I cannot but pitty such a poor man to think what a loss he would be at like one taken from home and carried blindfold into the midst of a Wildernesse where when he opens his eies every thing scares him nothing gives him guidance or direction Let him turn again to his Bible and Fathers of the first â—or 500 years and I will undertake he shall come off from them as wise as to the true understanding of this story 〈◊〉 he went unto them The Scene in Religion is plainly changed and this appearance of an Universal Pastor Plenary indulgeâ—â—es Dominicans and Cruciata's all marching against the Turk must needs affright a man accustomed only to the Scripture-notions of Religion and those embraced by the Primitive Church And I do know that if such a man could get together two or three of the wisest Romanists in the world which were the likeliest way for him to be resolved in the signification of these hard names they would never well agree to tell him what this plenary Indulgence is But for the present as to our concernment let us take these things according to the best understanding which their framers and founders have been pleased to give us of them the Story intended to be â—old was indeed neither so nor so There was no such solicitation of the Pope by Christian Princes at that time as is pretended no Cruciata against the Turk undertaken no attempt of that nature ensued not a penny of indulgence-Money laid out to any such purpose But the short of the matter is that the Church of Mentz being not able to pay for the Archiepiscopal Pall of Albertus from Rome having been much exhausted by the purchase of one or two for other Bishops that died suddenly before the Pope grants to Albert a number of pardons of to say the truth I know not what to be sold in Germany agreeing with him that one half of the gain he would have in his own right and the other for the pall Now the Pope's Merchants that used to sell pardons for him in former dayes were the Preaching friers who upon Holy-dayes and Festivals were wont to let out their ware to the people and in plain terms to cheat them of their money and well had it been if that had been all What share in the dividend came to the venders well I know not probably they had a proportion according to the commodity that they put off which stirred up their zeal to be earnest and diligent in their work Among the rest one Fryer Tecel was so warm in his imployment and so intent upon the main end that they had all in their eye that Preaching in or about Wittenberg it sufficed him not in general to make an offer of the pardon of all sins that any had committed but to take all scruples from their Consciences coming to particular instances carryed them up to a cursed blasphemous supposition of ravishing the blessed Virgin so cocâ—sure he made of the forgiveness of any thing beneath it Provided the price were paid that was set upon the pardon Sober men being much amazed and grieved at these horrible impieties one Martin Luther a Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg an honest warm zealous Soul set himself to oppose the Fryers Blasphemies wherein his zeal was commended by all his discretion by few it being the joynt-opinion of most that the Pope would quickly have stopped his mouth by breaking his neck But God as it afterwards appeared had another work to bring about and the time of entring upon it was now fully come At the same time that Luther set himself to oppose the pardons in Germany Zwinglius did the same Switzerland And both of them taking occasion from the work they first engaged in to search the Scriptures so to find out the Truth of Religion which they discovered to be horribly abused by the Pope and his Agents proceeded farther in their discovery then at first they were aware of Many Nations Princes and people multitudes of learned and pious men up and down the world that had long groaned under the bondage of the Papal yoke and grieved for the horrible abuse of the worship of God which they were forced to see and endure hearing that God had stirred up some learned men seriously to oppose those corruptions in Religion which they saw and mourned under speedily either countenanced them or joyned themselves with them It fell out indeed as it was morally impossible it should be otherwise that multitudes of learned men undertaking without advising or consulting one with another in several farr distant Nations the discovery of the Papal Errors and the Reformation of Religion some of them had different apprehensions and perswasions in and about some points of doctrine and parts of Worship of no great weight and importance And he that shall seriously consider what was the state of things when they began their work who they were how educated what prejudices they had to wrestle with and remember withall that they were all Men will have ten thousand times more cause to admire at their agreeement in all fundamentals then at their difference about some lesser things However whatever were their personal failings and infirmities God was pleased to give testimony to the uprighâ—ness and integrity of their hearts and to bless their endeavours with such success as answered in some measure the Primitive work of planting and propagating the Gospel The small sallies of our Author upon them in some legends about what Luther should say
the life which will be maintained in it springing only from secular advantages and inveterate prejudices would together with them decay and disappear Neither can any thing but a confidence of the ignorance of men in all things that are past yea in what was done almost by their own Grandsyres give countenance to a man in his own silent thoughts for such insinuations of quietness in the World before the Reformation The Wars Seditions Rebellions and Tumults to omit private practises that were either raised occasioned and countenanced by the Pope's absolving Subjects from their Allegiance Kings and States from their Oaths given mutually for the securing of Peace between them all in the pursuit of their own worldly interests do fill up a good part of the Stories of some ages before the Reformation What ever then is pretended things were not so peaceable and quiet in those dayes as they are now represented to men that mind only things that are present nor was their Agreement their vertue but their sin and misery being centred in blindness and ignorance and cemented with bloud V. That the first Reformers were most of them sorry contemptible Persons whose Errors were propagated by indirect means and entertained for sinister ends is in several places of this Book alledged and consequences pretended thence to ensue urged and improved But the truth is the more contemptible the Persons were that begun the work the greater glory and lustre is reflected on the work it self which points out to an higher cause then any appeared outwardly for the carrying of it on It is no small part of the Gospels glory that being promulgated by persons whom the World looked on with the greatest contempt and scorn imaginable as men utterly destitute of whatever was by them esteemed noble or honourable it prevailed notwithstanding in the minds of men to eradicate the inveterate prejudices received by Tradition from their Fathers to overthrow the antient and outward glorious Worship of the Nations and to bring them into subjection unto Christ. Neither can any thing be written with more contempt and scorn nor with greater under-valuation of the abilities or outward condition of the first Reformers then was spoken and written by the greatest and wisest and learnedst of men of old concerning the Preachers and Planters of Christianity Should I but repeat the biting Sarcasms contemptuous reproaches and scorns wherewith with plausible pretences the Apostles and those that followed them in their work of preaching the Gospel were entertained by Celsus Lucian Porphyry Julian Hierocles with many more men learned and wise I could easily manifest how short our new Masters come of them in facetious wit beguiling eloquence and fair pretences when they seek by stories jestings calumnies and false reports to expose the first Reformers to the contempt and scorn of men who know nothing of them but their names and those as covered with all the dirt they can possibly cast upon them But I intend not to tempt the Atheistical wits of any to an approbation of their sin by that complyance which the vain fancies of such men do usually afford them in the contemplation of the wit and ingenuity as they esteem it of plausible calumnies The Scripture may be heard that abundantly testifies that the Character given of the first Reformers as men poor unlearned seeking to advantage themselves by the troubling of others better greater and wiser than they in their Religion was received of the Apostles Evangelists and other Christians in the first budding of Christianity But the truth is all these are but vain pretences those knew of old and these do now that the Persons whom they vilifie and scorn were eminently fitted of God for the work that they were called unto The receiving of their Opinions for sinisters end reflects principally on this Kingdom of England and must do so whilst the surmises of a few interested Fryers shall be believed by English-men before the solemn Protestation of so renowned a King as he was who first casheer'd the Popes Authority in this Nation For what he being alive avowed on his Royal word and vowed as in the sight of the Almighty God was an effect of Light and Conscience in him they will needs have to be a consequent of his lust and levity And what honour it is to the Royal Government of this Nation to have those who swayed the Scepter of it but a few years ago publickly traduced and exposed to obloquy by the Libellous Pens of obscure and unknown persons wise men may be easily able to judge This I am sure there is little probability that they should have any real regard or reverence for the present Rulers farther then they find or hope that they shall have their countenance and assistance for the furtherance of their private Interest who so revile their Predecessors for acting contrary unto it And this Loyalty the Kings Majesty may secure himself of from the most Seditious Fanatick in the Nation so highly is he beholding to these men for their duty and obedience VI. That our departure from Rome hath been the cause of all our Evils and particularly of all those Divisions which are at this day found amongst Protestants and which have been since the Reformation is a supposition that not only insinuates it self into the hidden Sophistry of our Authors Discourse but is also every where spread over the face of it with as little truth or advantage to his purpose as those that went before So the Pagans judged the Primitive Christians so also did the Jews and do to this day Here is no new task lyes before us The Answers given of old to them and yet continued to be given will suffice to these men also The truth is our Divisions are not the effect of our Leaving Rome but of our being there In the Apostasie of that Church came upon men all that darkness and all those prejudices which cause many needless Divisions amongst them And is it any wonder that men partly ledd partly driven out of the right way and turned a clean contrary course for sundry Generations should upon liberty obtained to return to their old paths somewhat vary in their choice of particular Tracts though they all agree to travail towards the same place and in general steer their course accordingly Besides let men say what they please the differences amongst the Protestants that are purely religious are no other but such as ever were and take away external force ever will be amongst the best of men whilst they know but in part however they may not be mannaged with that prudence and moderation which it is our duty to use in and about them Were not the Consequences of our Differences which arise meerly from our solly and sin of more important consideration then our differences themselves I should very little value the one or the other knowing that none of them in their own nature are such as to impeach either our present tranquillity
all of them by Inspiration from God which is most solid This therefore must needs be the sense of his Church which he may be acquainted with twenty wayes that I know not of And here his Protestant vizor which by and by he will utterly cast off fell off from him I presume at unawares That he be no more so entrapped I wish he would take notice against the next time he hath occasion to personate a Protestant that although for method purely adventitious and belonging to the external manner of writing Protestants may affirm that one Epistle is more methodical then another according to those Rules of method which our selves or other Worms of the Earth like to our selves have invented yet for their solidity which concerns the Matter of them and Efficacy for Conviction they affirm them all equal Nor is he more happy in what he intimates of the immethodicalness of that Epistle to the Romans For as it is acknowledged by all good Expositors that the Apostle useth a most clear distinct and exact method in that Epistle whence most Theological Systems are composed by the Rule of it so our Authour himself assigneth such a design unto him and the use of such wayes and means in the prosecution of it as argues a diligent observation of a method I confess he is deceived in the occasion and intention of the Epistle by following some few late Roman Expositors neglecting the Analysis given of it by the Antients but we may pass that by because I find his aim in mentioning a false scope and design was not to acquaint us with his mistake but to take an advantage to fall upon our Ministers and I think a little too early for one so careful to keep an handsom decorum for culling out of this Epistle Texts against the Christian Doctrine of good Works done in Christ by his special Grace out of obedience to his command with a promise of everlasting reward and intrinsick acceptability thence accrewing Thus we see still Incoeptis gravibus plerunque magna professis Purpureus latè qui splendeat unus alter Assuitur panâ—us Sed nunc nonerat his locus Use of Disputing has cast him at the very entrance of his Discourse upon as he supposeth a particular Controversie between Protestants and Roman-Catholicks quite besides his design and purpose But instead of obtaining any advantage by this transgression of his own Rule he is faln upon a new misadventure and that so much the greater because it evidently discovers somewhat in him besides mistake I am sure I have heard as many of our Ministers Preach as he and read as many of their Books as he yet I can testifie that I never heard or read them opposing the Christian doctrin of good works Often I have heard and found them pressing a universal Obedience to the whole Law of God teaching men to abound in good works pressing the indispensable necessity of them from the commands of Law and Gospel encouraging men unto them by the blessed promises of Acceptance and Reward in Christ declaring them to be the way of mens coming to the Kingdom of Heaven affirming that all that believe are created in Christ Jesus unto good works and for men to neglect to despise them is wilfully to neglect their own Salvation But opposing the Christian Doctrine of Good Works and that with sayings â—ulled out of St. Paul 's Epistle to the Romans I never heard I never read any Protestant Minister There is but one expression in that Declaration of the Doctrine of Good Works which he saith Protestants oppose used by himself that they do not own and that is their intrinsick acceptability which I fear he doth not very well understand himself If he mean by it that there is in good works an intrinsical worth and value from their exact answerableness to the Law and proportion to the Reward so as on rules of Justice to deserve and merit it he speaks daggers and doth not himself believe what he sayes it being contradictious for he lays their acceptability on the account of the promise If he intend that God having graciously promised to accept and receive them in Christ they become thereupon acceptable and rewardable this Protestant Ministers teach dayly Against the former Explication of their acceptability in reference to the Justice of God on their own account and the Justification of their persons that perform them for them I have often heard them speaking but never with any Authority or force of Argument comparable to that used by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans to the same purpose But this tale of Protestants opposing the Christian Doctrine of Good Works hath been so often told by the Romanists that I am perswaded some of them begin to believe it however it be not only false but from all circumstances very incredible and finding our Author hugely addicted to approve any thing that passeth for current in his Party I will not charge him with a studyed fraud in the finding it so advantagious to his cause he took hold of a very remote occasion to work an early prejudice in the minds of his Readers against them and their Doctrine whom he designeth to oppose When he writes next I hope he will mind the account we have all to make of what we do write and say and be better advised than to give countenance to such groundless Slanders CHAP. II. Heathen Pleas. General Principles WE have done with his Method or manner of proceeding our next view shall be of those general Principles and Suppositions which animate the paraenetical part of his work and whereon it is solely founded And here I would entreat him not to be offended if in the entrance of this Discourse I make bold to mind him that the most if not all of his Pleas have been long since insisted on by a very learned man in a case not much unlike this which we have in hand and were also long since answered by one as learned as he or as any the world saw in the age wherein he lived or it may be since to this day though he died now 1400 years ago The person I intend is Celsus the Philosopher who objected the very same things upon the same general grounds and ordered his Objections in the same manner against the Christians of old as our Author doth against the Protestants And the Answer of Origen to his eight books will save any man the labour of answering this one who knows how to make application of general Rules and Principles unto particular Cases that may be regulated by them Doth our Author lay the cause of all the Troubles Disorders Tumults Warrs wherewith the Nations of Europe have been for some season and are still in some places infested on the Protestants So doth Celsus charge all the Evils and Commotions Plagues and Famines wherewith mankind in those dayes was much wasted upon the Christians Doth our Author charge the Protestants that
suppose do they believe it themselves for indeed if they do I know not how they can be freed from being thought to be strangely distempered if not stark mad For not to talk of the Tower of London this I am sure of That we have whole Cart loads of Comments and Expositions on the Scripture written by Members of the Church men of all Orders and Degrees and he that has cast an eye upon them knows that a great part of their large Volumes are spent in confuting the Expositions of one another and those that went before them Now whâ—t a madness is this or childishness above that of very Children to lye swaggering and contending one with another before all the World with fallible Mediums about the sense of Scripture and giving Expositions which no man is bound to acquiesce in any further than he sees Reason whilst all this while they have One amongst them who can infallibly interpret all and that with such an Authority as all men are bound to rest in and contend no further And the further mischief of it is That of all the rest This man is alwayes silent as to Exposition of Scripture who alone is able to part the fray There be two things which I think verily if I were a Papist I should never like in the Pope because methinks they argue a great deal of want of good nature The one is that we treat about That he can see his Children so fiercely wrangle about the sense of Scripture yet will not give out what is the infallible meaning of every place at least that is controverted and so stint the strife amongst them seeing it seems he can if he would And the other is That he suffers so many souls to lye in Purgatory when he may let them forth if he please and that I know of hath received no order to the contrary But the truth is That neither the Romanists nor we have any infallible living Judge in whose determination of the sense of Scripture all men should be bound to acquâ—esce upon the account of his Authority This is all the difference We openly profess we have none such and betake us to that which we have which is better for us They pretending they have yet acting constantly as if they had not and as indeed they have not maintain a perpetual inconsistency and contradiction between their Pretentions and their Practice The holy Ghost speaking in and by the Scripture using the Ministry of men furnished by himself with gifts and abilities and lawfully called to the Work for the oral Declaration or other Expositions of his mind is that which the Protestants cleave unto for the interpreting of the Scripture which its self discovers when infallible And if Papists can tell me of a better way I will quickly imbrace it I suppose I may upon the considerations we have had of the reasons offered to prove the insufficiency of Scripture to settle us in the Truth to end our differences conclude their insufficiency to any such purpose We know the Scripture was given us to settle us in the Truth and to end our differences we know it is profitable to that end and purpose and able to make us wise to salvation If we find not these effects wrought in our selves it is our own fault and I desire that for hereafter we may bear our own blame without such Reflections on the holy Word of the Infinitely Blessed God IX We are come at length unto the Pope of whom we are told That He is a good man One that seeks nothing but our good that never did us harm but has the care and inspection of us committed unto him by Christ. For my part I am glad to hear such news of him and should be more glad to find it to be true Our Forefathers and Predecessors in the faith we profess found it otherwise All the harm that could be done unto them by ruining their Families destroying their Estates imprisoning and torturing their Persons and lastly burning their Bodies in fire they received at his hands If the alteration pretended be not from the shortning of his Power but the change of his Mind and Will I shall be very glad to hear of it For the present I confess I had rather take it for granted whilest he is at this distance than see him trusted with Power for the tryal of his Will I never heard of much of his Repentance for the Blood of those Thousands that hath been shed by his Authority and in his Cause which makes me suspect he may be somewhat of the same mind still as he was Time was when the very worst of Popes exhausted more Treasure out of this Nation to spend it abâ—oad to their own ends thâ—â— some aâ—e willing to grant to the best of Kings to spend at home for their goods Iâ— may be he is changed as to this Design also but I do not know it nor is any pâ—oof offered of it by our Authoâ— Let us deal plainly one with another and without telling us That the Pope never did us harm which is not the way to make us believe that he will not because it makes us suspect that all we have suffered from him is thought no harm let hâ—m tell us how he will assure us That if this good Pope get us into his Power again he will not burn us as he did our Fore-fathers unless we submit our Consciences unto him in all things That he will not find out wayes to draw the Treasure out of the Nâ—tion nor absolve Subjects from their Allegiance nor excommunicate or attempt the Deposition of our Kings or the giving away of their Kingdoms as he has done in former dayes That these things he hath done we know that he hath repented of them and changed his mind thereupon we know not To have any thing to do with him whilst he continues in such Distempers is not only against the Principles of Religion but of common Prudence also For my parâ— I cannot but fear until I see Security tendered of this change in the Pope that all the good words that are given us concerning him are but Baits to enveigle us into his Power and to tell you the truth terrent vestigia How the Pope imployes himself in seeking our good which our Author paints out unto us I know not when I see the effects of it I shall be thankful for it In the mean time being so great a stranger to Rome as I am I must needs say I know nothing that he does but seek to destroy us Body and Soul Our Author pleads indeed That the care and inspection of our condition is committed to him by Christ But he attempts not to prove it which I somewhat marvel at For having professedly deserted the old way of pleading the Catholick Cause and Interest which I presume he did upon conviction of its insufficiency whereas he is an ingenious Person he could not but know that Pasce