he did against St. Paul they charge us with bringing in new Sects under the pretence of Reformation or with rejecting the Authority of the present Church which we were bound to obey and thereby laying the Foundation of Faction â—nd Schism These are heavy charges but they are no other than those the High Priest and the Elders made against St. Paul and thanks be to God his Defence and Vindication is ours too for we appeal to Scripture and the best and purest Antiquity and desire to be judged according to these These three things therefore I shall speak to before I conclude 1. That the same reasons which they produce against the Reformation would have held against the spreading of Christianity at first 2. That the same Defence which St. Paul made for Christianity will justifie the Reformation 3. That we have all reason to follow the courage of St. Paul in owning and defending our Religion not with standing the imputations which are cast upon it 1. That the same reasons which they produce against the Reformation would have held against Christianity at first What have all the clamours of our Adversaries for above a hundred years come to but the very same which I have already mentioned as the Jews Objections against Christianity viz. Novelty and Faction Where was your Church before the Reformation produce your succession in all Ages of persons who agreed in all things with you Where were those distinct bodies of men who found fault with those corruptions that you pretend to reform Our Church hath had a constant and glorious succession of Bishops and Martyrs and Consessors and Religious Orders of Men Virgins and Widows But supposing such a distinct succession were not necessary yet shew how it was possible for so many errors and corruptions to come into the Church and no one take notice of them and discover them Where was the watchfull eye of Providence over the Church all this while What all the Pastors asleep at once or all conspiring together to deceive their posterity Besides how can the Protestants ever answer their rejecting the Authority of the present Church which they lived under and to whom God had promised his infallible Spirit how can they clear themselves from faction and disturbing the peace of the Christian world which lived in so great unity and peace before This is the summ of their Objections against the Reformation which are the very same we have mention'd before as produced by the Jews against Christianity If the arguments are good now they were so then if they were good then for all that I can see the High Priest and Elders were in the right and St. Paul in the wrong if they were not good then but are now some remarkable disparity must be shewed between their case and ours and that must lye in shewing these three things 1. That the Christian Church hath greater infallibility promised than the Jewish had 2. That the first Christians had greater reason to reject the Authority of that Church than the Reformers had as to the Church of Rome 3 That the Causes of corruptions in the Jewish Church could not hold in the Christian But if none of these can be made good then the case will appear to be the very same 1. It cannot be proved that the Christian Church hath greater infallibility promised than the Jewish had Of which we have this plain evidence that one of the strongest arguments produced for the infallibility of the Christian Church is taken from the Promises made to the Jewish How often hath Deut. 17. 8 9 10. been made Use of to prove infallibility in the Christian Church If they had any better arguments in the New Testament would they ever run so far back to a Command that most evidently relates to the Jewish constitution Where hath ever God promised that he would dwell in St. Peters at Rome as he did that he would dwell in his Temple at Hierusalem What boastings and triumphs would there have been if any such words had been in the Gospel concerning Rome as there were of old concerning Hierusalem viz. that God had sanctified it that his Name might be there for ever and his eyes and his heart should be there perpetually What pittiful proofs in comparison of this are all those brought out of the New Testament for the Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Church What are all the promises of the Spirit made to the Apostles and remarkably accomplished in them to this plain promise of Gods particular presence in that place for ever Suppose St. Peter had priviledges above the rest of the Apostles how comes the entail to be made to all his successors and only at Rome and no where else Where are the Deeds kept that contain this gift Why are they not produced during all this contest And yet we see in the Jewish Church where such a promise was made to a particular place no such thing as Infallibility was implyed in it 2. It cannot be shewed that the first Christians had greater reason to reject the Authority of the Jewish Church than our Reformers had to reject that of the Church of Rome I know here it will be presently said That the Apostles saw the Miracles of Christ and wrought many themselves and received an immediate Commission from Jesus Christ in whom the Churches Infallibility was then seated All which I grant to be true in it self but cannot be pleaded by them who contend for absolute obedience to the present Churches Authority as infallible My reason is because upon this principle they could not believe Christ to be the true Messias for his being the true Messias depended upon two things viz. the fulfilling of Prophecies and the truth of his Miracles now according to their principles no man could be certain of either of these without the Authority of the Church for the fulfilling of Prophecies depended upon the sense of many obscure places of Scripture about which they say there is a necessity of an infallible Judge and for Miracles they tell us that there is no certain way of judging true and false but by the Authority of the Church Now if these things be so what ground could the first Christians have to believe Christ to be the true Messias when in both these they must oppose the Authority of the present Church 3. They can never prove that the same causes of corruptions do not hold as to the Christian which did as to the Jewish Church For the Christian Church in those Ages which we charge with introducing the corruptions was degenerated into greater Ignorance Barbarism Luxury and Superstition than the Jewish Church in the time of its darkness from the cessation of Prophecy till the coming of Christ. Our Adversaries themselves confess that for a long time there was nothing either of Learning or Humanity among them nothing but ease and luxury and ambition and all manner of Wickedness among the Chief Rulers among them nay
upon their own Authority to begin a new Church and to broach new Doctrines directly contrary to the judgement of the High Priest and Sanhedrin yea after they had pronounced Sentence against Jesus of Nazareth and condemned him to death and excommunicated his followers and punished as many as they could get into their power what could it in their opinion be but the Spirit of Faction and disobedience thus to oppose the Authority of their Church in believing contrary to its decrees and reforming without any power derived from it We see in our Saviours time how severely they checked any of the people who spake favourably of Christ and his Doctrine As though the poor ignorant people were fit to judge of these matters to understand Prophecies and to know the true Messias when he should appear And therefore when some of their Officers that had been sent to apprehend him came back with admiration of him and said Never man spake like this man they take them up short and tell them They must believe as the Church believes what they take upon them to judge of such matters No they must submit to their Governours Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him but this people which know not the Law are cursed i e. When they set up their own judgement in opposition to the Authority of the Church And after our Saviours death at a solemn Council at Hierusalem when Peter and John were summoned before them the first Question they asked was By what power or by what name have ye done this They never enquired whether the Miracle were wrought or no or whether their Doctrine were true all their Question was about their Mission whether it were ordinary or extraordinary or what authority they could pretend to that were not sent by themselves but let the things be never so true which they said if they could find any flaw in their Mission according to their own Rules and Laws this they thought sufficient ground to forbid them to preach any more and to charge them with Faction if they disobeyed 2. They charged the Christians with Faction in being so active and busie to promote Christianity to the great disturbance of the Jews in all parts This Tertullus accused St. Paul of that he was a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and accordingly the Jews at Thessalonica take the Christians by force and carry them to the Rulers of the City crying Those that have turned the world upside down are come hither also This they knew was the most effectual course to render them odious to all Governours who are apt to suspect all new things as dangerous and think no truth can compensate the hazard of alterations Thus it was especially among the Roman Governours who had learnt from the counsel given to Augustus to be particularly jealous of all innovations in Religion and had much rather the people should continue quiet under an old error than have the peace disturbed for the greatest Truth This was really the greatest difficulty in the way of Christianity it came no where but people were possessed before hand with quite other apprehensions of Religion than the Christians brought among them The Jewish and Pagan Religions were in possession in all places and the people were at ease in the practice of them What then must the Christians do Must they let them alone and not endeavour to convince them of the truth of their own Doctrine If so they are unfaithful to their trust betrayers of truth and false to the Souls of men if they go about to perswade men out of their Religion they know such is the fondness most men have for their own opinions especially in Religion that where they might hope to convince one they might be sure to enrage many especially of those whose interest lay in upholding the old Religion How little doth Reason signifie with most men where Interest is against it Truth and falshood are odd kind of Metaphysical things to them which they do not care to trouble their heads with but what makes for or against their Interest is thought easie and substantial All other matters are as Gallio said questions of names and words which they care not for but no men will sooner offer to demonstrate a thing to be false than they who know it to be against their interest to believe it to be true This was the case of these great men of the Jews that came down to accuse Paul they easily saw whither this new Religion tended and if it prevailed among their people farewell then to all the Pomp and Splendour of the High-Priesthood at Hierusalem farewell then to the Glory of the Temple and City whither all the Tribes came up to worship thrice a year farewell then to all the riches and ease and pleasure which they enjoyed And what was the greatest Truth and best Religion in the world to them in comparison with these These were sufficient reasons to them to accuse Truth it self of deceiving men and the most peaceable Doctrine of laying the Foundation of Faction and Sedition Thus we have considerd the false imputations which were cast upon Christianity at first implyed in these words After the way which is called heresie 2. I now come to the way taken by St. Paul to remove these false imputations which he doth 1. By an appeal to Scripture as the ground and rule of his faith Believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets 2. By an appeal to the best and purest Antiquity as to the object of Worship So worship I the God of my Fathers not bringing in any new Religion but restoring it to its primitive purity 1. By an appeal to Scripture as the ground and rule of his faith The Jews pleaded Possession Tradition Authority of the present Church against all these St. Paul fixes upon a certain and unmoveable Foundation the Law and the Prophets He doth not here insist upon any particular revelation made to himself but offers the whole matter in dispute to be tryed by a common Rule that was allowed on both sides And his meaning is if they could prove that he either asserted or did any thing contrary to the Law and the Prophets then they had some reason to accuse him of innovation or beginning of a new Sect but if the foundation of his doctrine and practice lay in what themselves acknowledged to be from God then they had no cause to charge him with introducing a new Sect among them But the great Question here is What ground St. Paul had to decline the Authority of the present Church Since God himself had appointed the Priests to be the interpreters of the Law and therefore in doubtful cases resort was to be made to them and not the judgement left to particular persons about the sense of Scripture and yet in this case it is apparent St. Paul declined all Authority of the present
even at Rome there was a succession of fifty of their High Priests so remarkable for their wickedness that Annas and Caiaphas setting only aside their condemning Christ were Saints in comparison of them And is it now any wonder that such errors and corruptions should come into that Church as those we charge them with Nay rather the greatest Wonder seems to be that any thing of Christianity should be preserved among them But besides the sottishness of those times we have many other causes to assign of the corruptions introduced among them as a Complyance with Gentilism in many of their Customs and Superstitions Affectation of new Modes of Devotion among indiscreet Zealots Ambition and constant endeavour to advance the Authority and Interests of the Priesthood above all Secular Power and when for a long time these had been gathering the rude materials together then the Moorish Philosophy happening to creep in among them the Monks began to busie themselves therein and by the help of that a little better to digest that Mass and heap of corruptions and to spend the wit they had to defend and improve them 2. But against all these we stand upon the same defence that St. Paul did we appeal to Scripture and the best and purest Antiquity We pretend to bring in no new Doctrines and therefore no Miracles can be required of us which the Apostles wrought to confirm Christs being the true Messias who was to alter that State which God himself had once appointed All that we plead for is that the Religion established by Christ may serve our turn and that which is recorded by the Apostles and Evangelists to these we make our constant appeal and have the same reason to decline the Authority of the Roman Church that St. Paul had as to the High Priest and Elders when he appealed to the Law and the Prophets Nay we have somewhat more reason because God had once appointed the High Priests and Rulers of the People among them but the Supremacy of the Roman Church was a meer Usurpation begun by Ambition advanced by Forgery and defended by Cruelty But we do not only believe all that is written in the Law and the Prophets but we worship the God of our Fathers of the Fathers of the first and purest Ages of the Christian Church we are not only content to make use of their Authority in these matters but we make our appeal to them and have begged our Adversaries ever since the Reformation to prove the points in difference between us by the testimony of the first six hundred years but from that time to this they are as far from proving any one point as ever they were 3. What then follows from all this but that we should imitate St. Pauls courage in owning and defending our Religion notwithstanding all the false imputations which are cast upon it What a shame would it be for us meanly and basely to betray that Cause for which our Ancestors sacrificed their lives Is the Romish Religion any thing better than it was then What error in Doctrine or corruption in Practice have they ever reformed Nay have they not rather established and confirmed them more Are they any thing kinder to us than they have been No. Notwithstanding all their late pleadings for Evangelical Peace and Charity they can at the same time tell us That the Statutes against Hereticks are still in force against us as condemned Hereticks and we are not so dull not to apprehend the meaning of that viz. that were it in their power they could lawfully burn us to morrow And is not this the height of Evangelical Love and Sweetness Who can but admire the perswasiveness of such arguments to Gospel-meekness and melt at the tenderness and bowels of an Inquisition Let us not deceive our selves it is not the mean complyance of any in going half way towards them will serve their turn there is no chewing their Pills all must be swallowed together or as good in their opinion to have none at all For not only plain Hereticks but the favourers and suspected of Heresie are solemnly excommunicated every year in the famous Bull of Coena Domini and Lindwood their English Canonist tells us whom they account suspected of Heresie viz. All that shew common civility to Hereticks or give Alms to them or that once hear their Sermons This last indeed hath been mitigated by a considerable party among them for notwithstanding the opposition of the Jesuits in this matter and seven Briev's obtained by their means from several Popes forbidding all Roman-Catholicks to come to our Churches yet the Secular Priests have contended for it as a thing lawful for them not only to come to our Prayers and hear our Sermons but to partake of our Sacraments too Which they may allow while they hope to carry on their interest better that way but if once which God forbid the Tide should turn with them then the old Laws of their Church must prevail and nothing will be thought so wholsome as an Inquisition Which it is strange their Advocates for Liberty of Conscience should call only Laws in Catholick Countreys against Hereticks and not Laws of the Church when there are extant above a hundred Bulls and Briev's of Popes establishing confirming and enlarging the Inquisition Since then no favour is to be expected from their Church for whatever they pretend all the severity comes from thence all the favour and mitigation from the clemency and Wisdom of Princes let us endeavour to strengthen our selves by a hearty zeal for our Religion and using the best means to confirm and uphold it And since the Children of this world are in their Generation wiser than the Children of light there are some things practised among them which may deserve our imitation and those are 1. A mighty Industry and Zeal in promoting their Cause they have learn'd of their Predecessors to compass Sea and Land to gain one Proselyte They insinuate themselves into all companies stick at no pains accommodate themselves to all humours and are provided one way or other to gratifie persons of all inclinations for they have retirement for the melancholy business for the active idleness for the lazy honour for the ambitious splendour for the vain severities for the sowre and hardy and a good dose of pleasures for the soft and voluptuous It is not their Way but their Zeal and Industry I propound to our imitation I know not how it comes to pass but so it often happens that they who are most secure of truth on their side are most apt to be remiss and careless and to comfort themselves with some good old sayings as God will provide and Truth will prevail though they lye still and do nothing towards it but certainly such negligence is inexcusable where the matter is of so great importance the Adversaries so many and an account must be given shortly in another world of what men have done