or do deserve not the least notice from men who will seriously contemplate the hand power and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them The next thing undertaken by our Author is the ingress of Protestancy into England and its progress there The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Ann Bullen with the divorce of Queen Katharine told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself is that which he chooseth to flourish withall I shall say no more to the story but that English-men were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown Fryer or two before the open redoubled Protestation of one of the most famous Kings that ever swaid the Scepter of this Land before the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland These men whatever they pretend shew what reverence they have to our present Soveraign by their unworthy defamation of his Royal Predecessors But let men suppose the worst they please of that great Heroick Person What are his miscarriages unto Protestant Religion for neither was he the Head Leader or Author of that Religion nor did he ever receive it profess it or embrace it but caused men to be burned to death for its profession Should 〈◊〉 by way of Retaliation return unto our Author the lives and practices of some of many not of the great or leading men of his Church but of the Popes themselves the Head sum and in a manner whole of their Religion at least so farre that without him they will not acknowledge any he knows well enough what double measure shaken together pressed down and running over may be returned unto him A work this would be I confess no way pleasing unto my self for who can delight in raking into such a sink of Filth as the lives of many of them have been yet because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity if he proceed in the course he hath begun it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home That Poysonings Adulteries Incests Conjurations Perjuries Atheism have been no strangers to that See if he knows not he shall be acquainted from stories that he hath no colour to except against For the present I shall only mind him and his friends of the Comaedian's advice Dehinc ut quiescunt porro mâ—neo desinant Maledicere malefactae ne noscant suâ— The declaration made in the days of that King that he was Head of the Church of England intended no more but that there was no other person in the world from whom any Jurisdiction to be exercised in this Church over his Subjects might be derived the Supreme Authority for all exterior Government being vested in him alone That this should be so the Word of God the nature of the Kingly Office and the antâ—ent Laws of this Realm do require And I challenge our Author to produce any one Testimony of Scripture or any one word out of any general Council or any one Catholick Father or Writer to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the Church in his sense an head of Influence which is Jesus himself and an head of Government which is the Pope in whom all the sacred Hierarchy ends This taking of one half of Christs Rule and Headship out of his hand and giving it to the Pope will not be salved by that expression thrust in by the way under him For the Headship of influence is distinctly ascribed unto Christ and that of Government to the Pope which evidently asserts that he is not in the same manner head unto his Church in both these senses but He in one and the Pope in another But whatever was the cause or occasion of the dissention between King Henry and the Pope it 's certain Protestancy came into England by the same way and means that Christianity came into the World the painful pious Professors and Teachers of it sealed its truth with their bloud and what more honourable entrance it could make I neither know nor can it be declared Nor did England receive this Doctrine from others in the days of King Henry it did but revive that light which sprung up amongst us long before and by the fury of the Pope and his adherents had been a while suppressed And it was with the blood of English-men dying patiently and gloriously in the flames that the truth was sealed in the dayes of that King who lived and dyed himself as was said in the profession of the Roman faith The Truth flourished yet more in the dayes of his pious and hopefull Son Some stop our Author tels us was put to it in the dayes of Queen Mary But what stop of what kind of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan Dioclesian Julian a stop by fire and sword and all exquisite cruelties which was broken through by the constant death and invincible patience and prayers of Bishops Ministers and People numberless a stop that Rome hath cause to blush in the remembrance of and all Protestants to rejoyce having their faith tryed in the fire and coming forth more pretious than Gold Nor did Queen Elizabeth as is falsly pretended indeavour to continue that stop but cordially from the beginning of her Reign embraced that faith wherein she had before been instructed And in the maintenance of it did God preserve her from all the Plots Conspiracies and Rebellions of the Papists Curses and Depositions of the Popes with Invasions of her Kingdomes by his instigation as also her renowned Successor with his whole Regal posterity from their contrivance for their Martyrdom and ruin During the Reign of those Royal and Magnificent Princes had the Power and Polity of the Papal world been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet Religion professedly designed they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages of some professing the Protestant Religion in reference to our late King of glorious Memory to triumph in though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them and which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at and hope for As for what he declares in the end of his 10th Paragraph about the Reformation here that it followed wholly neither Luther nor Calvin which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts and reflexions on our Laws Government and Governours is as far as it is true the glory of it It was not Luther nor Calvin but the Word of God and the practise of the primitive Church that England proposed for her rule and pattern in her Reformation and where any of the Reformers forsook them she counted it her duty without reflexions on them or their wayes to walk in that safe one she had chosen out for her self Nor shal I insist on his next Paragraph destined to the advancement of his interest
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
fixed in the Scripture Of the same importance is the next Section pag. 170. Entituled Protestants Pro and Con wherin the differences that are amongst many in these Nations are notably exagitated I presume in the intention of his mind upon his present design he forgot that by a new change of Name the same things may be uttered the same words used of and concerning Christians in general ever since almost that name was known in the world Was there any thing more frequent among the Pagans of old than to object to Christians their Differences and endless Disputes I wish our Author would but consider that which remains of the Discourse of Celsus on this Subject particularly his charge on them that at their beginnings and whilst they were few they agreed well enough but after they encreased and were dispersed into several Nations they were every where at variance among themselves whereas all sorts of men were at peace before their pretended Reformation of the Worship of God and he will find in it the sum of this and the four following Sections to the end of this Chapter And if he will but add so much to his pains as to peruse the excellent Answers of Origen in his third Book he will if not be perswaded to desist from urging the objections of Celsus yet discern what is expected from him to reply unto if he persist in his way But if we may suppose that he hath not that respect for the honour of the first Christians methinkes the intestine irreconcileable brauls of his own Mothers children should somewhat allay his heat and confidence in charging endless differences upon Protestants of whom only I speak Yea but you will say They have a certain means of ending their Controversies Protestants have none And have they so the more shame for them to trouble themselves and others from one generation unto another with Disputes and Controversies that have such a ready way to end them when they please and Protestants are the more to be pittied who perhaps are ready some of them at least as farr as they are able to live at Peace But why have not Protestants a sure and safe way to issue all their differences Why Because every one is Judge himself and they have no Umpire in whose decision they are bound to acquiesce I pray Who told you so Is it not the Fundamental Principle of Protestantism that the Scripture determines all things necessary unto Faith and Obedience and that in that determination ought all men to acquiess I know few Roman-Catholicks have the prudence or the patience to understand what Protestancy is And certain it is that those who take up their knowledge of it from the Discourses and Writings of such Gentlemen as our Author know very little of it if any thing at all And those who do at any time get leave to read the books of Protestants seem to be so filled with prejudices against them and to be so byassed by corrupt affections that they seldom come to a true apprehension of their meanings for who so blind as he that will not see Protestants tell them that the Scripture contains all things necessary to be believed and practised in the Worship of God and those proposed with that perspicuity and clearness which became the wisdom of it's Author who intended to instruct men by it in the knowledge of them and in this Word and Rule say they are all men to rest and acquiess But sayes our Author why then do they not do so why are they at such fewds and differences amongst themselves Is this in truth his business Is it Protestants he blames and not Protestancy mens miscarriages and not their Rule 's imperfection If it be so I crave his pardon for having troubled him thus farr To defend Protestants for not answering the Principles of their Profession is a task too hard for me to undertake nor do I at all like the business let him lay on blame stil until I say Hold. It may be we shall grow wiser by his reviling as Monica was cured of her intemperance by the reproach of a Servant But I would fain prevail with these Gentlemen for their own sakes Not to cast that blame which is due to us upon the holy and perfect Word of God We do not say nor ever did that who ever acknowledgeth the Scripture to be a perfect Rule must upon necessity understand perfectly all that is contained in it that he is presently freed from all darkness prejudices corrupt affections and enabled to judge perfectly and infallibly of every truth contained in it or deduced from it These causes of our differences belong to individual persons not to our common Rule And if because no men are absolutely perfect and some are very perverse and froward we should throw away our Rule the blessed Word of God and run to the Pope for rule and guidance it is all one as if at noon-day because some are blind and miss their way and some are drunk and stagger out of it and others are variously entised to leave it we should all conspire to wish the Sun out of the Firmament that we might follow a Will with a Wisp I know not what in general needs to be added further to this Section The mistake of it is palpable some particular passages may be remarked in it before we proceed pag. 173. he Pronounceth an heavy doom on the Prelate Protestants making them Prevaricators Impostors Reprobates an hard sentence but that it is hoped it will prove like the flying Bird and Curse causeless But what is the matter Why in dealing with the Presbyterians They are forced to make use of those Popish Principles which themselves at first rejected and so building them up again by the Apostles rule deserve no better terms But what I pray are they why the difference betwixt Clergy and Laity the efficacy of Episcopal Ordination and the Authority of a visible Church unto which all men are to obey There are but two things our Author needs to prove to make good his charge First that these are Popish Principles Secondly That as such they were at any time cast down and destroyed by Prelate-Protestants I fear his mind was gone a little astray or that he had been lately among the Quakers when he hammered this charge against Prelate Protestants For as these have been their constant Principles ever since the beginning of the Reformation so they have as constantly maintained that in their true and proper sense they are not Popish Nor is the difference about these things between any Protestants what-ever any more then verbal For those terms of Clergy and Laity because they had been abused in the Papacy though antiently used some have objected against them but for the things signified by them namely that in the Church there are some Teachers some to be taught Bishops and Flocks Pastors and People no Protestant ever questioned Our Author then doth but cut out work
for himself without order from any Protestant when he sets up an excuse for this change in them by a relinquishment of their first Principles and re-assuming Popish ones for their defence against the Presbyterians He that set him a work may pay him his wages Protestants only tell him that what was never done needs never be excused Nor will they give him any more thanks for the plea he interposes in the behalf of Episcopacy against Presbyterians and Independents being interwoven with a plea for the Papacy and managed by such arguments as end in the exaltation of the Roman-See and that partly because they know that their Adversaries will be easily able to disprove the feigned Monarchical Government of the Church under one Pope and to prove that that fancy really everts the true and only Monarchical State of the Church in reference to Christ knowing that Monarchy doth not signifie two heads but one and partly because they have better Arguments of their own to plead for Episcopacy then those that he suggests here unto them or then any man in the world can supply them with who thinks there is no communication of Authority from Christ to any on the Earth but by the hands of the Pope So that upon the whole matter they desire him that he would attend his own business not immix their cause in the least with his which tends so much to their weakning disadvantage If this may be granted which is but reasonable they will not much be troubled about his commendation of the Pope pag. 178. as the Substitute of Christ our only visible Pastor the chief Bishop of the Catholick Church presiding ruling and directing in the place of Christ and the like elogium's being resolved when he goes about to prove any thing that he sayes that they will consider of it But he must be better known to them then he is before they will believe him on his bare word in things of such importance and some suppose that the more he is known the less he will be believed But that he may not for the present think himself neglected we will run over the heads of his plea pretended for Episcopacy really to assert the Papal Soveraignty First he pleads That the Christian Church was first Monarchical under one Soveraign Bishop when Christ who sounded it was upon the Earth True and so it is still There is one sheepfold one Shepherd and Bishop of our souls he that was then bodily present having promised That presence of Himself with his Church to the end of the World wherein he continues its one Soveraign Bishop And although the Apostles after him had an equality of power in the Church among themselves as Bishops after them have also yet this doth not denominate the Government of the Church Aristocratical no more then the equality of the Lords in Parliament can denominate the Government of this Kingdom to be so The denomination of any Rule is from him or them in whom the Soveraignty doth reside not from any subordinate Rulers So is the Rule of the Church Monarchical The subversion of this Episcopacy we acknowledge subverts the whole Polity of the Church and so all her Laws and Rule with the guilt whereof Protestants charge the Romanists He addes It will not suffice to say that the Church is still under its Head Christ who being in Heaven hath his spiritual influences over it It will not indeed But yet we suppose that his presence with It by his Spirit and Laws will suffice Why should it not Because the true Church of Christ must have the very same Head she had at first or else she cannot be the same Body Very good and so she hath the very same Christ that was crucified for her and not another But that Head was Man-God Personally present in both his Natures here on Earth But is he not I pray the same Man-God still the same Christ though the manner of his presence be altered This is strange that being the same as he was and being presert still one circumstance of the manner of his presence should hinder him from being the same head I cannot understand the Logick Reason nor Policy of this Inference Suppose we should on these trisling instances exclude Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever from being the same Head of his Church as he was Will the Pope supply his room Is he the same Head that Christ was Is he God-Man bodily present or what would you have us to conclude A visible Head or Bishop if the Church hath not now over her as at first she had she is not the same she was and consequently in the way to ruine This too much alters the Question At first it was that she must have the same Head she had at first or she is not the same Now that she must have another Head that is not the same or she is not the same For the Pope is not Jesus Christ. These arguings hang together like a rope of Sand And what is built on this foundation which indeed is so weak that I am ashamed further to contend with it will of its own accord fall to the ground CHAP. XI Scripture and new Principles THe next Paragraph p. 182. is a naughty one A business it is spent in and about that I have now often advised our Author to meddle with no more If he will not for the future take advice I cannot help it I have shewed my good will towards him It is his debating of the Scripture and its Authority which I intend This with the intertexture of some other gentle suppositions is the subject of this and the following Section And because I will not tire my self and Reader in tracing what seems of concernment in this Discourse backward and forward up and down as it is by him dispersed and disposed to his best advantage in dealing with unwary men I shall draw out the Principles of it that he may know them where ever he meets them though never so much masked and disguised or never so lightly touched on and also what judgment to pass upon them Their foundation being so taken away these Sections if I mistake not will sink of themselves Some of these Principles are co-incident with those general ones insisted on in the entrance of our Discourse others of them are peculiar to the design of these Paragraphs The first I shall only point unto the latter briefly discuss 1. It is supposed in the whole Discourse of these Sections That from the Roman Church so stated as now it is or from the Pope we here in England first received the Gospel which is the Romanists own Religion and theirs by donation from them whom they have here pleased to accommodate with it This animates the whole and is besides the special life of almost every sentence A lifeless life for that there is not a syllable of truth in it hath been declared before nor
unlearn their antient Barbarism and to encline to the Manners Fashions and Religion of the people to whom they were come and with whom after their heats were over and lusts satisfied they began to incorporate and coalesce Together I say with their manners they took up by various wayes and means the Religion which they did profess And the Bishop of Rome having kept his outward Station in that famous City during all those turmoils becoming venerable unto them unto him were many Applications made and his Authority was first signally advanced by this new race of Christians The Religion they thus took up was not a little degenerated from its Primitive Apostolical purity and splendor And they were among the first who felt the effects of their former barbarous inhumanity in their sedulous indeavour to destroy all Books and Learning out of the World which brought that darkness upon mankind wherewith they wrestled for many succeeding generations For having themselves made an intercision of the current and progress of studies and learning they were forced to make use in their entertainment of Christianity of men meanly skilled in the knowledg of God or themselves who some of them knew little more of the Gospel then what they had learned in the outward observances and practises of the places where they had been educated Towards the beginning of this hurry of the world this shuffling of the Nations was the Province of Brittain not long before exhausted of it stores of Men and Arms and defeated by the Romans invaded by the Saxons Picts Angles and others out of Germany who accomplishing the will of God exstirpated the greatest part of the British Nation and drove the remainders of them to shelter themselves in the Western Mountainous parts of this Island These new Inhabitants after they were somewhat civilized by the Vicinity of the Provincials and had got a little breathing from their own intestine feuds by fixing the limits of their Leader's Dominions which they called Kingdoms began to be in some preparedness to receive impressions of Religion above that rude Paganism which they had before served Satan in These were they to whom came Austine from Rome a man as farr as appears by the story little acquainted with the mystery of the Gospel yet one whom it pleased God gratiously to use to bring the Scripture amongst them that inexhaustible Fountain of Light and Truth and by which those to whom he preached might be infallibly freed from any mixture of mistakes that he might offer to them That he brought with him a Doctrine of Observances not formerly known in Brittain â—s notorious from the famous Story of those many Professors of Christianity 〈◊〉 which he caused to be murdered by Pagans for not submitting to his power and refusing to practise according to his Traditions whose unwillingness to the â—â—ain if they could have otherwise chosen is that which I suppose our Author call's their disturbing good St. Austine in his pious work But you neither will this Conversion of the Saxons begun by Austine the Monk at all advantage our Author as to his pretensions The Religion he taught here as well as he could was doubtless no other than that which at those dayes was profest at Rome mixtures of humane Traditions worldly Policies Observances trenching upon the Superstitions of the Gentiles in many things it had then revived but however it was farr enough from the present Romanism if the Writers and chief Bishops of those dayes knew what was their Religion Papal Supremacy and Infallibility Transubstantiation religious veneration of Images in Churches with innumerable other prime fundamentals of Popery were as great strangers at Rome in the dayes of Grâ—gory the great as they are at this day to the Church of England After these times the world continuing still in troubles Religion began more and more to decline and fall off from its pristine purity At first by degrees insensible and almost imperceptible in the broaching of new opinions and inventing new practises in the worship of God At length by open presumptuous transgressions of its whole rule and genius in the usurpation of the Pope of Rome and impositions of his Authority on the neâ—ks of Emperours Kings Princes and people of all sorts By what means this work was carried on what advantages were taken for what instruments used in it what opposition by Kings and learned men was made unto it what testimony was given against it by the blood of thousands of Martyrs others have at large declared nor will my present design admit me to insist on particulars What contests debates tumults warrs were by papall pretensions raised in these nations what shameful intreating of some of the greatest of our Kings what absolutions of subjects from their Allegiance with such like effluxes of an abundant Apostolical piety this nation in particular was exercised with from Rome all our Historians sufficiently testify Tantaemolis erat Romanam condere gentem The truth is when once Romanism began to be enthroned and had driven Catholicism out of the world we had very few Kings that past their days in peace and quietnesse from contests with the Pope or such as acted for him or were stirred up by him The face in the mean time of Christianity was sad and deplorable The body of the people being grown dark and profane or else superstitious the generality of the Priests and Votaries ignorant and vitious in their conversations the oppressions of the Hildebrandine faction intolerable Religion dethroned from a free generous obedience according to the rule of the Gospell and thrust into cells orders self-invented devotions and forms of worship superstitious and unknown to Scripture and antiquity the whole world groaned under the Apostacy it was fallen into when it was almost too late the yoak was so fastned to their necks and prejudices so fixed in the minds of the multitude Kings began to repine Princes to remonstrate their grievances whole Nations to murmure some learned men to write and preach against the superstitions and oppressions of the Church of Rome Against all which complaints and attempts what means the Popes used for the safe-guarding their Authority and opinions subservient to their carnal worldly interests deposing some causing others to be murdered that were in supream power bandying Princes and Great men one against another exterminating others with fire and sword is also known unto all who take any care to know such things what ever our Author pretends to the contrary This was the state this the peace this the condition of most Nations in Europe and these in particular where we live when occasion was administred in the providence of God unto that Reformation which in the next place he gives us the story of Little cause had he to mind us of this story little to boast of the primitive Catholick faith little to pretend the Romish Religion to have been that which was first planted in these Nations His concernments lye not in
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