Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse
wrong in giving then in stealing God exspects our gifts not our spoils I fear there is too many a School and Hospital every stone whereof may be challenged Had Zacheus meant to give of his extortions he had not been so careful of his restitution now he restores to others that he may give of his own I give half my goods The Publicans heart was as large as his estate he was not more rich in goods then in bounty Were this example binding who should be rich to give who should be poor to receive In the streight beginnings of the Church those beneficences were requisite which afterwards in the larger elbow-room thereof would have caused much confusion If the first Christians laid down all at the Apostles feet yet ere long it was enough for the believing Corinthians every first day of the week to lay aside some pittance for charitable purposes We are no Disciples if we do not imitate Zacheus so far as to give liberally according to the proportion of our estate Giving is sowing the larger seeding the greater crop Giving to the poor is foeneration to God the greater bank the more interest Who can fear to be too wealthy Time was when men faulted in excess Proclamations were fain to restrain the Jews Statutes were fain to restrain our Ancestors Now there needs none of this Men know how to shut their hands alone Charity is in more danger of freezing then of burning How happy were it for the Church if men were onely close-handed to hold and not lime-fingered to take To the poor not to rich heirs God gives to him that hath we to him that wants Some want because they would whether out of prodigality or idleness some want because they must these are the fit Subjects of our beneficence not those other A poverty of our own making deserves no pity He that sustains the lewd feeds not his belly but his vice So then this living Legacy of Zacheus is free I give present I do give just my goods large half my goods fit to the poor Neither is he more bountiful in his gift then just in his restitution If I have take nought from any man by false accusation I restore it fourfold It was proper for a Publican to pill and pole the subject by devising complaints and raising causless vexations that his mouth might be stopt with fees either for silence or composition This had Zacheus often done Neither is this If a note of doubt but of assertion He is sure of the fact he is not sure of the persons their challenge must help to further his justice The true penitence of this holy Convert expresses it self in Confession in Satisfaction His Confession is free full open What cares he to shame himself that he may give glory to God Woe be to that bashfulness that ends in confusion of face O God let me blush before men rather then be confounded before Thee thy Saints and Angels His Satisfaction is no less liberal then his gift Had not Zacheus been careful to pay the debts of his fraud all had gone to the poor He would have done that voluntarily which the Young man in the Gospel was bidden to doe and refusing went away sorrowful Now he knew that his misgotten gain was not for God's Corban therefore he spares half not to keep but to restore This was the best dish in Zacheus his good chear In vain had he feasted Christ given to the poor confessed his extortions if he had not made restitution Woe is me for the paucity of true Converts There is much stoln goods little brought home Mens hands are like the fishers Flew yea like Hell it self which admits of no return O God we can never satisfie thee our score is too great our abilities too little but if we make not even with men in vain shall we look for mercy from thee To each his own had been well but four for one was munificent In our transactions of commerce we doe well to beat the bargain to the lowest but in cases of moral or spiritual payments to God or men now there must be a measure pressed shaken running over In good offices and due retributions we may not be pinching and niggardly It argues an earthly and ignoble minde where we have apparently wronged to higgle and dodge in the amends Oh mercy and justice well repaid This day is Salvation come to thine house Lo Zacheus that which thou givest to the poor is nothing to that which thy Saviour gives to thee If thou restorest four for one here is more then thousands of millions for nothing were every of thy pence a world they could hold no comparison with this bounty It is but dross that thou givest it is Salvation that thou receivest Thou gavest in present thou dost not receive in hope but This day is Salvation come to thine house Thine ill-gotten metalls were a strong barre to bolt Heaven gates against thee now that they are dissolved by a seasonable beneficence and restitution those gates of glory fly open to thy Soul Where is that man that can challenge God to be in his debt Who can ever say Lord this favour I did to the least of thine unrequited Thrice happy Publican that hast climbed from thy Sycomore to Heaven and by a few worthless baggs of unrighteous Mammon hast purchased to thy self a Kingdome uncorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away JOHN BAPTIST beheaded THree of the Evangelists have with one pen recorded the death of the great harbinger of Christ as most remarkable and useful He was the fore-runner of Christ as into the world so out of it yea he that made way for Christ into the world made way for the name of Christ into the Court of Herod This Herod Antipas was son to that Herod who was and is ever infamous for the massacre at Bethleâ—m Cruelty runs in a blood The murderer of John the fore-runner of Christ is well descended of him who would have murdered Christ and for his sake murdered the Infants It was late ere this Herod heard the fame of Jesus not till he had taken off the head of John Baptist The father of this Herod inquired for Christ too soon this too late Great men should have the best intelligence If they improve it to all other uses of either frivolous or civil affaires with neglect of spirituall their judgment shall be so much more as their helps and means were greater Whether this Herod were taken up with his Arabian warrs against Arethas his father in law or whether he were imployed in his journey to Rome I inquire not but if he were at home I must wonder how he could be so long without the noise of Christ Certainly it was a sign he had a very irreligious Court that none of his Followers did so much as report to him the Miracles of our Saviour who doubtless told him many a vain tale the while One tells him of his brother Philip's
that we might be a singular pattern and strange wonder of his Bounty What should I speak of the wholsome temper of our Clime the rich provision of all usefull Commodities so as we cannot say only as Sanchez did I have moisture enough within my own shell but as David did Poculum exuberans My cup runs over to the supply of our neighbour Nations What speak I of the populousnesse of our Cities defencednesse of our shoars These are nothing to that Heavenly treasure of the Gospel which makes us the Vineyard of God and that sweet Peace which gives us the happy fruition of that saving Gospel Albion do we call it nay as he rightly Polyolbion richly blessed O God what where is the Nation that can emulate us in these favours How hath he fenced us about with the hedge of good Discipline of wholesome Laws of gracious Government with the brazen wall of his Almighty and miraculous protection Never Land had more exquisite Rules of Justice whether mute or speaking He hath not left us to the mercy of a rude Anarchie or a Tyrannical violence but hath regulated us by Laws of our own asking and swai'd us by the just Scepters of moderate Princes Never Land had more convincing proofs of an Omnipotent Tuition whether against forein Powers or secret Conspiracies Forget if ye can the year of our Invasion the day of our Purim Besides the many particularities of our deliverances filed up by the pen of one of our worthy Prelates How hath he given us means to remove the rubs of our growth and to gather away the stones of false Doctrine of Heretical pravitie of mischievous machinations that might hold down his truth And which is the head of all how hath he brought our Vine out of the Egypt of Popish Superstition and planted it In plain terms how hath he made us a truely-orthodox Church eminent for purity of Doctrine for the grave and reverend solemnity of true Sacraments for the due form of Government for the pious and Religious form of our publick Liturgie With what plenty hath he showred upon us the first and later rain of his Heavenly Gospel With what rare gifts hath he graced our Teachers With what pregnant spirits hath he furnish'd our Academies With what competencie of maintenance hath he heartned all learned Professions So as in these regards we may say of the Church of England Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all How hath the vigilant eye of his Providence out of his tower of Heaven watch'd over this Island for good Not an hellish Pionier could mine under ground but he espied him not a dark Lantern could offer to deceive midnight but he descries it not a Plot not a purpose of evil could look out but he hath discovered it and shamed the Agents and glorified his Mercy in our deliverance Lastly how infinitely hath his loving care laboured to bring us to good What sweet opportunities and incouragements hath he given us of a fruitfull obedience And when his Fatherly counsels would not work with us how hath he scruzed us in the Wine-presse of his Afflictions one while with a raging Pestilence another while with the insolence and prevalence of Enemies one while with unkindly Seasons another while with stormy and wracking Tempests if by any means he might fetch from us the precious juice of true Penitence and faithfull Obedience that we might turn and live If the presse were weighty yet the wine is sweet Lay now all these together And what could have been done more for our Vineyard O God that thou hast not done Look about you Honourable and Christian hearers and see whether God hath done thus with any Nation Oh never never was any people so bound to a God Other neighbouring Regions would think themselves happy in one drop of those Blessings which have poured down thick upon us Alas they are in a vaporous and marish vale whiles we are seated on the fruitfull Hill they lie open to the massacring knife of an Enemy whiles we are fenced they are clogged with miserable incumbrances whiles we are free Briers and Brambles overspread them whiles we are choicely planted their Tower is of offence their Winepresse is of blood Oh the lamentable condition of more likely Vineyards then our own Who can but weep and bleed to see those wofull Calamities that are faln upon the late-famous and flourishing Churches of Reformed Christendome Oh for that Palatine Vine late inoculated with a precious bud of our Royal Stem that Vine not long since rich in goodly clusters now the insultation of Boars and prey of Foxes Oh for those poor distressed Christians in France Bohemia Silesia Moravia Germany Austria the Valteline that groan now under the tyrannous yoak of Antichristian oppression How glad would they be of the crums of our Feasts how rich would they esteem themselves with the very gleanings of our plentifull crop of Prosperity How do they look up at us as even now militantly-triumphant whiles they are miserably wallowing in dust and blood and wonder to see the Sun-shine upon our Hill whiles they are drenched with storm and tempest in the Valley What are we O God what are we that thou shouldst be thus rich in thy Mercies to us whiles thou art so severe in thy Judgments unto them It is too much Lord it is too much that thou hast done for so sinfull and rebellious a people Cast now your eyes aside a little and after the view of God's Favours see some little glimpse of our requital Say then say O Nation not worthy to be beloved what fruit have ye returned to your beneficent God Sin is impudent but let me challenge the impudent forehead of sin it self Are they not sour and wilde Grapes that we have yielded Are we lesse deep in the Sins of Israel then in Israel's Blessings Complaints I know are unpleasing however just but now not more unpleasing then necessary Woe is me my mother that thou hast born me a man of contention I must cry out in this sad day of the sins of my people The searchers of Canaan when they came to the brook of Eshcol they cut down a branch with a cluster of Grapes and carried it on a staffe between two to shew Israel the fruit of the Land Numb 13. 23. Give me leave in the search of our Israel to present your eyes with some of the wilde Grapes that grow there on every hedge And what if they be the very same that grew in this degenerated Vineyard of Israel Where we meet first with Oppression a Lordly sin and that challengeth precedencie as being commonly incident to none but the Great though a poor Oppressor as he is unkindly so he is a monster of mercilesness Oh the loud shrieks and clamours of this crying sin What grinding of faces what racking of Rents what detention of Wages what inclosing of Commons what ingrossing of Commodities what griping Exactions what straining
one in the Heart One Baptism so it is one in the Face Where these are truly professed to be though there may be differences of administrations and ceremonies though there may be differences in opinions yet there is Columba una all those are but diversly-coloured feathers of the same Dove What Church therefore hath one Lord Jesus Christ the righteous one Faith in that Lord one Baptism into that Faith it is the One Dove of Christ To speak more short one Faith abridges all But what is that one Faith what but the main fundamental Doctrine of Religion necessary to be known to be believed unto Salvation It is a golden and usefull distinction that we must take with us betwixt Christian Articles and Theological Conclusions Christian Articles are the Principles of Religion necessary to a Believer Theological Conclusions are School-points fit for the discourse of a Divine Those Articles are few and essential these Conclusions are many and unimporting upon necessity to Salvation either way That Church then which holds those Christian Articles both in terms and necessary consequences as every visible Church of Christ doth however it vary in these Theological Conclusions is Columba una Were there not much latitude in this Faith how should we fetch in the antient Jewish Church to the unity of the Christian Theirs and ours is but one Dove though the feathers according to the colour of that fowl be changeable It is a fearfull account then that shall once be given before the dreadfull Tribunal of the Son of God the only Husband of this one Church by those men who not like the children of faithfull Abraham divide the Dove multiplying Articles of Faith according to their own fancies and casting out of the bosome of the Church those Christians that differ from their either false or unnecessary conclusions Thus have our great Lords of the Seven hills dared to doe whose faction hath both devoured their Charity and scorned ours to the great prejudice of the Christian world to the irreparable damage of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus The God of Heaven judge in this great case betwixt them and us us who firmly holding the foundation of Christian Religion in all things according to the antient Catholick Apostolick Faith are rejected censured condemned accursed killed for refusing their gainfull Novelties In the mean time we can but lament their fury no lesse then their errours and send out our hopelesse wishes that the seamlesse coat might be darn'd up by their hands that tore it From them to speak to our selves who have happily reformed those errours of theirs which either their ambition or profit would not suffer them to part with since we are one why are we sundred One saies I am Luther's for Consubstantiation another I am Calvin's for Discipline another I am Arminius's for Predestination another I am Barrow's or Brown's for Separation What frenzy possesses the brains of Christians thus to squander themselves into Factions It is indeed an envious cavil of our common adversaries to make these so many Religions No every branch of different Opinion doth not constitute a several Religion were this true I durst boldly say old Rome had not more Deities then the modern Rome hath Religions These things though they do not vary Religions and Churches yet they trouble the quiet unity of the Church Brethren since our Religion is one why are not our tongues one why do we not bite in our singular conceits and binde our tongues to the common Peace But if from particular visible Churches which perhaps you may construe to be the threescore Queens here spoken of you shall turn your eyes to the true inward universal company of Gods Elect and secret ones there shall you more perfectly finde Columbam unam one Dove for what the other is in profession this is in truth that one Baptism is here the true Laver of Regeneration that one Faith is a saving reposal upon Christ that one Lord is the Saviour of his Body No natural body is more one then this mystical one Head rules it one Spirit animates it one set of joynts moves it one Food nourishes it one Robe covers it So it is one in it self so one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me John 17. 22. Oh blessed Unity of the Saints of God which none of the makebates of Hell can ever be able to dissolve And now since we are thus and every other way one why are we not united in Love why do we in our ordinary conversation suffer slight weaknesses to set off our Charity Mephibosheth was a cripple yet the perfect love of Jonathan either cures or covers his impotency We can no more want infirmities then not be men we cannot stick at infirmities if we be Christians It is but a poor love that cannot passe over small faults even quotidianae incursionis as that Father speaks It is an injurious niceness to condemn a good Face in each other for a little mole Brethren let us not aggravate but pity each others weaknesses and since we are but one Body let us have but one Heart one Way And if we be the Dove of Christ and his Dove is one oh let us be so one with each other as he is one with us And as the Church and Commonwealth are twins so should this be no lesse one with it self and with her temporal head Divisum est cor eorum Their heart is divided was the judgment upon Israel ose 10. 2. Oh how is every good heart divided in sunder with the grief for the late divisions of our Reuben We do not mourn we bleed inwardly for this distraction But I do willingly smother these thoughts yea my just sorrow choaks them in my bosome that they cannot come forth but in sighs and groans O thou that art the God of peace unite all hearts in Love to each other in loyal Subjection to their Soveraign Head Amen As the Church is one in not being divided so she is but one in not being multiplied Here is unus uni unam as the old word is He the true Husband of the Church who made and gave but one Eve to the first Adam will take but one wife to himself the second Adam There are many particular Churches all these make up but one universal as many distinct lims make up but one intire body many grains one bach many drops and streams one Ocean So many Regions as there are under Heaven that do truly professe the Christian name so many National Churches there are in all those Nations there are many Provincial in all those Provinces many Diocesan in all those Dioceses many Parochial Churches in all those Parishes many Christian Families in all those Families many Christian Souls now all those Souls Families Parishes Dioceses Provinces Nations make up but one Catholick Church of Christ upon earth The God of the
Church cannot abide either Conventicles of Separation or pluralities of professions or appropriations of Catholicism Catholick Romane is an absurd Donatian Solecism This is to seek Orbem in urbe as that Council said well Happy were it for that Church if it were a sound lim though but the little toe of that mighty and precious body wherein no believing Jew or Indian may not challenge to be jointed Neither difference of time nor distance of place nor rigor of unjust censure nor any unessential errour can barre our interest in this blessed Unity As this flourishing Church of great Britain after all the spightfull calumniations of malicious men is one of the most conspicuous members of the Catholick upon earth so we in her Communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and faithfull Christians of all ages and times We succeed in their Faith we glory in their Succession we triumph in this Glory Whither go ye then ye weak ignorant seduced souls that run to seek this Dove in a forein cote She is here if she have any nest under Heaven Let me never have part in her or in Heaven if any Church in the world have more part in the Universal Why do we wrong our selves with the contradistinction of Protestant and Catholick We do only protest this that we are perfect Catholicks Let the pretensed look to themselves we are sure we are as Catholick as true Faith can make us as much one as the same Catholick Faith can make us and in this undoubted right we claim and injoy the sweet and inseparable communion with all the blessed members of that mystical body both in earth and Heaven and by virtue thereof with the glorious Head of that dear and happy body Jesus Christ the righteous the Husband to this one Wife the Mate to this one Dove to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen THE FASHIONS OF THE WORLD Laid forth in a SERMON at Grayes-Inne on Candlemas day By J. H. Rom. 12. 2. Fashion not your selves like to this World but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde c. THAT which was wont to be upbraided as a scorn to the English may be here conceived the Embleme of a Man whom ye may imagine standing naked before you with a paire of sheers in his hand ready to cut out his own fashion In this deliberation the World offers it self to him with many a gay misshapen fantasticall dresse God offers himself to him with one onely fashion but a new one but a good one The Apostle like a friendly monitor adviseth him where to pitch his choice Fashion not your selves like to this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minde How much Christianity crosses Nature we need no other proof then my Text. There is nothing that Nature affects so much as the Fashion and no fashion so much as the worlds for our usuall word is Doe as the most And behold that is it which is here forbidden us Fashion not your selves like to this world All fashions are either in Device or Imitation There are vain heads that think it an honour to be the founders of Fashions there are servile fools that seek onely to follow the Fashion once devised In the first rank is the World which is nothing but a mint of Fashions yet which is strange all as old as mis-beseeming We are forbidden to be in the second If the World will be so vain as to mis-shape it self we may not be so foolish as to follow it Let us look a little if you please at the Pattern here damn'd in my Text The world As in extent so in expression the World hath a large scope yea there are more Worlds then one There is a world of creatures and within that there is a world of men and yet within that a world of believers and yet within all these a world of corruptions More plainly there is a good world an evil world an indifferent A good world as of the creatures in regard of their first birth so of men in regard of their second a world of renewed Souls in the first act of their renovation believing Joh. 17. 20. upon their belief reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 19. upon their reconcilement saved Joh. 3. 16. An evil world yea set in evil 1 Joh. 5. 19. a world of corrupt unregeneration that hates Christ and his Joh. 15. 18. that is hated of Christ Jam. 4. 4. An indifferent world that is good or evil as it is used whereof St. Paul Let those that use the world be as not abusing it 1 Cor. 7. 31. This indifferent world is a world of commodities affections improvement of the creature which if we will be wise Christians we must fashion to us framing it to our own bent whether in want or abundance The good world is a world of Saints whose Souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit 1 Pet. 1. 22. To this world we may be fashioned The evil world is a world of mere men and their vicious conditions God hath made us the lords of the indifferent world himself is the Lord of the good Satan is lord of the evil Princeps hujus Seculi And that is most properly the world because it contains the most as it is but a chaffe-heap wherein some grains of wheat are scattered To this evil world then we may not fashion our selves in those things which are proper to it as such in natural in civil actions we may we must follow the world singularity in these things is justly odious herein the World is the true master of Ceremonies whom not to follow is no better then a Cynicall irregularity in things positively or morally evil we may not There is no material thing that hath not his form the outward form is the fashion the fashion of outward things is variable with the times so as every external thing cloaths building plate stuffe gesture is now in now out of fashion but the fashions of Morality whether in good or evil are fixed and perpetual The world passeth and the fashion of it but the evil of the fashions of the world is too constant and permanent and must be ever the matter of our detestation Fashion not your selves like to this world But because evils are infinite as wise Solomon hath observed it will be requisite to call them to their heads and to reduce these forbidden fashions to the several parts whereto they belong I cannot dream with Tertullian that the Soul hath a Body but I may well say that the Soul follows the body and as it hath parts ascribed to it according to the outward proportion so are these parts suited with severall fashions Let your patient attention follow me through them all Begin with the Head a part not more eminent in place then in power What is the
give wilful provocations of this publick revenge by gross open intolerable injuries as Hanun did to David such are incroachments upon their neighbour-territories violating the just covenants of league and commerce by main violences if fourthly they refuse to give just satisfaction where they have unjustly provoked as the Benjamites in case of the Sodomitical villany of their Gibeah Where all where any of these are found well may we brand that people with delight in warre And since they will needs delight in warre God shall fit them accordingly With the froward thou shalt shew thy self froward Ps 18. 26. He shall delight in warring against them He shall rouze up himself as a Giant refreshed with new wine Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hoasts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and revenge me of mine enemies Es 1. 24. These are the Enemies The Defeat follows Rebuke and scatter The two first though bad enough must be rebuked the last must be scattered All Gods enemies may not be to us alike neither aequè nor aqualiter Some are Calves simple though violent some others are Bulls fierce and furious some other Lions from among the reeds ravenous and devouring all these though cruel yet perhaps are not malicious an increpa is enough for them Saul was one of these wild Buls breathing out threatnings against the Church and tossing upon his horn many worthy Christians had it not been pity he had been destroyed in that height of his rage an increpation brought him home God had never such a Champion Now certamen bonum certavi I have fought a good fight saith he justly of himself 2 Tim. 4. 7. This increpa then is Discountenance them dishearten them discomfit them disband them Put them down O Lord and let them know they are but men humble them to the very dust but not to the dust of death to correction as Habacuc speaketh not to a full destruction onely till they humbly bring pieces of silver till they come in with the tributes of peacefull submission of just satisfaction The end of all just was is Peace As we are first bidden to inquire of Abel ere we inferre it offeres ei pacem Deut. 20. 10. so when we hear of Abel we must stint it Warre to the State is Physick to the body This is no other then a civil evacuation whether by potion or phlebotomy What is the end of Physick but health when that is once recovered we have done with the Apothecary He wantons away his life foolishly that when he is well will take Physick to make him sick It is far from us to wish the confusion of the ignorant and seduced enemies of God's Church those that follow Absalom with an upright heart No we pity them we pray for them Oh that they would come in with their pieces of silver and tender their humble obediences to the apparent Truth of God and yield to the laws of both Divine and humane Justice Oh that God would perswade Japâ—â—t to dwell in the tents of Sem Father forgive them for they know not what they doe O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still Jer. 47. 6. But for those other that delight in war Dissipa Domine Scatter them O Lord. Confusion is but too good for them bring them to worse then nothing The perfection and suddenness of this dissipation is expressed emphatically in the beginning of this Psalm by a double Metaphor as smoak before the wind as wax before the fire so scatter them Of all light bodies nothing is more volatile then smoak of all solid none more flitting then wax As wind is to the smoak and fire to the wax so are the Judgements of God to his enemies the wax melteth the smoak vanisheth before them The conceit is too curious of those that make the Gentiles to be smoak who mount up in the opinion of their wisdome and power the Jews wax dropp'd from the honey-comb of their many Divine priviledges No all are both smoak and wax Even so do thou scatter them O Lord and be not merciful to them that offend on malicious wickedness Two thoughts onely remain now for us The first that it must be God onely who must rebuke and scatter The second that it is our Prayer onely that must obtain from God this rebuke this dissipation Both which when I have touched a little I shall put an end to this exercise of your patient Devotion It is God onely that must doe it for vain is the help of man And how easie is it for the Almighty to still the enemy and avenger They are as a potters vessel to his iron Scepter as the thorns or wax to his fire as chaff or smoak to his wind To our weakness the opposite powers seem strong and unconquerable the Canaanitish was reach up to Heaven and who can stand before the sons of Anak When we see their Bulwarks we would think they roll Pelion upon Ossa with the old Giants when we see their Towers we would think they would scale Heaven with the builders of Babel when we see their Mines we would think they would blow up the earth Let the wind of Gods Power but breath upon them they vanish as smoak let the fire of his wrath but look upon them they melt as wax Tyrannous Aegypt had long made slaves of God's people and now will make slaughter of them following them armed at the heels into the chanel of the Sea Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord for the Aegyptians which you have seen to day ye shall see no more for ever Exod. 14. 13. The great Hoast of proud Benhadad will carry away all Samaria in their pockets for pin-dust Ere long ye shall see their haughtie King come in haltred and prostrate Vaunting Sennacherib comes crowing over poor Jerusalem and he will lend them two thousand horses if they can set riders on them and scorns their King and defies their God Stay but till morning all his hundred fourscore and five thousand shall be dead corpses Vain fools What is a finite power in the hands of an infinite Where there is an equality of force there may be hard tugging but where brass meets with clay how can that brittle stuff escape unshattered Let this cool your courages and pull down your plumes O ye insolent enemies of God When ye look to your own sword there is no rule with you Mihi perfacile est c. It is easie for me saith Uldes in the story to destroy all the earth that the Sun looks upon but when God takes you to task what toyes what nothings ye are Behold we come against you in the Name of the Lord of Hoasts It is he that shall rebuke and scatter you He will doe it but he will doe it upon our Prayers Not that our poor Petitions can put mercy into God
Devils and that which Dionysius said to Novatus Any thing must rather be born then that we should rend the Church of God Far far was it from our thoughts to teare the seamless coat or with this precious Oile of Truth to break the Churches head We found just faults else let us be guilty of this disturbance If now Choler unjustly exasperated with an wholesome reprehension have broken forth into a furious persecution of the gainsayers the sin is not ours if we have defended our innocence with blows the sin is not ours Let us never prosper in our good Cause if all the water of Tyber can wash off the blood of many thousand Christian Souls that hath been shed in this quarrel from the hands of the Romish Prelacie Surely as it was observed of olde that none of the Tribe of Levi were the professed followers of our Saviour so it is too easy to observe that of late times this Tribe hath exercised the bitterest enmity upon the followers of Christ Suppose we had offended in the undiscreet managing of a just reproof it is a true rule of Erasmus that generous spirits would be reclaimed by teaching not by compulsion and as Alipius wisely to his Augustine Heed must be taken lest whiles we labour to redress a doubtful complaint we make greater wounds then we find Oh how happy had it been for Gods Church if this care had found any place in the hearts of her Governours who regarding more the entire preservation of their own Honour then Truth and Peace were all in the harsh language of warre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smite kill burn persecute Had they been but half so charitable to their modern reprovers as they profess they are to the fore-going how had the Church florished in an uninterrupted Unity In the old Catholick Writers say they we bear with many Errours we extenuate and excuse them we finde shifts to put them off and devise some commodious senses for them Guiltiness which is the ground of this favour works the quite contrary courses against us Alas how are our Writings racked and wrested to envious senses how misconstrued how perverted and made to speak odiously on purpose to work distast to enlarge quarrel to draw on the deepest censures Wo is me this cruel uncharitableness is it that hath brought this miserable calamity upon distracted Christendome Surely as the ashes of the burning Mountain Vesuvius being dispersed far and wide bred a grievous Pestilence in the Regions round about so the ashes that flie from these unkindly flames of discord have bred a woful infection and death of Souls through the whole Christian world CHAP. IV. The Church of Rome guilty of this Schisme IT is confessed by the President of the Tridentine Council that the depravation of the discipline and manners of the Romane Church was the chief cause and original of these dissentions Let us cast our eyes upon the Doctrine and we shall no less finde the guilt of this fearful Schism to fall heavily upon the same heads For first to lay a sure ground Nothing can be more plain then that the Romane is a particular Church as the Fathers of Basil well distinguish it not the universal though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence This truth we might make good by authority if our very senses did not save us the labour Secondly No particular Church to say nothing of the universal since the Apostolick times can have power to make a Fundamental point of Faith It may explain or declare it cannot create Articles Thirdly Onely an errour against a point of Faith is Heresie Fourthly Those Points wherein we differ from the Romanists are they which onely the Church of Rome hath made Fundamental and of Faith Fifthly The Reformed therefore being by that Church illegally condemned for those Points are not Hereticks He is is properly an Heretick saith Hosius who being convicted in his own judgment doth of his own accord cast himself out of the Church For us we are neither convicted in our own judgment nor in the lawful judgment of others we have not willingly cast our selves out of the Church but however we are said to be violently ejected by the undue sentence of malice hold our selves close to the bosome of the true Spouse of Christ never to be removed as far therefore from Heresie as Charity is from our Censurers Only we stand convicted by the doom of good Pope Boniface or Sylvester Prierius Quicunque non c. Whosoever doth not rely himself upon the Doctrine of the Romane Church and of the Bishop of Rome as the infallible rule of Faith from which even the Scripture it self receives her force he is an Heretick Whence follows that the Church of Rome condemning and ejecting those for Hereticks which are not is the Authour of this woful breach in the Church of God I shall therefore I hope abundantly satisfie all wise and indifferent Readers if I shall shew that those Points which we refuse and oppose are no other then such as by the confessions of ingenuous Authors of the Roman part have been besides their inward falsities manifest upstarts lately obtruded upon the Church such as our ancient Progenitours in many hundreds of successions either knew not or received not into their Belief and yet both lived and dyed worthy Christians Surely it was but a just speech of S. Bernard and that which might become the mouth of any Pope or Council Ego si peregrinum c. If I shall offer to bring in any strange opinion it is my sin It was the wise Ordinance of the Thurians as Diodorus Siculus reports that he who would bring in any new Law amongst them to the prejudice of the old should come with an Halter about his neck into the assembly and there either make good his project or dy For however in humane constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the later orders are stronger then the former yet in Divinity Primum verum The first is true as Tertullian's rule is the old way is the good way according to the Prophet Here we hold us and because we dare not make more Articles then our Creeds nor more sins then our Ten Commandements we are indignely cast out Let us therefore address our selves roundly to our promised task and make good the Novelty and Unreasonableness of those Points we have rejected Out of too many Controversies disputed betwixt us we select only some principal and out of infinite varieties of evidence some few irrefragable testimonies CHAP. V. The Newness of the Article of Justification by inherent Righteousness TO begin with Justification The Tridentine Fathers in their seven moneths debating of this point have so cunningly set their words that the Errour which they would establish might seem to be either hid or shifted yet at the last they so far declare themselves as to
to their sin then to my wrong The main ground of the Exception is That I yield the Church of Rome a true visible Church wherein the harsh noise of a mis-construed phrase offends their eare and breeds their quarrell For this belike in their apprehension seems to sound no lesse then as if I had said The Church of Rome is a true-believing Church or a true part of the mysticall body of Christ a sense which is as far wide from my words or thoughts as from truth it self Wherefore serves this Book but to evince the manifold Corruptions of that foul Church That she is truely visible abates nothing of her abominations For who sees not that Visible refers to outward Profession True to some essentiall Principles of Christianity neither of them to soundnesse of Belief So as these two may too well stand together A true visible Church in respect of outward Profession of Christianity and an Hereticall Apostaticall Antichristian Synagogue in respect of Doctrine and Practice Grant the Romanists to be but Christians how corrupt soever and we cannot deny them the name of a Church Outward Visibility gives them no claim either to Truth or Salvation Shortly then in two things I must crave leave to vindicate my self One that I do no whit differ from my self the other that I differ not from the Judgement of our best Orthodox and approvedly-classicall Divines Both which cleared what have I done It is a grievous challenge this of Inconstancy for though whiles we are here in this region of Mutability our whole man is subject to change yet we do all herein affect a likenesse to the God of Truth in whom there is no shadow by turning especially in Religion so much more as that doth more assimilate and unite us to that unchangeable Deity Lo say they the man that once wrote No peace with Rome now cries nothing but Peace with Rome whiles he proclaims it a true visible Church and allows some Communion with it Alas brethren why will ye suffer a rash and ignorant Zeal thus to lye palpably in your way to Truth Be but pleased to cast your eyes upon the first Chapter of that Book of mine which is thus objected to me in a causelesse exprobration that which long since I wrote of the Irreconcilablenesse of Rome and see if that Section be not a full expression of the same Truth and that in the same words which I have here published There shall you finde taught That there is no other difference betwixt us and Rome then betwixt a Church miserably corrupted and happily purged betwixt a sickly languishing dying Church and one that is healthfull strong and flourishing That Valdus Wiclef Luther did never goe about to frame a new Church which was not but to cleanse restore reform that Church which was That they meant onely to be Physicians to heal not Parents to beget a Church There you shall finde That we are all the same Church by virtue of our outward Vocation whosoever all the world over worship Jesus Christ the only Son of God the Saviour of the world and professe the same common Creed that some of us doe this more purely others more corruptly that in the mean time we are all Christians but sound Christians we are not There ye shall finde this very Objection so fully answered as if it had been either formerly moved or so long since prevented the words are these But how harshly doth this sound to a weak reader and more then seems to need reconciliation with it self that the Church should be one and yet cannot be reconciled Certainly yet so it is The dignity of the outward forme which comprehends this Unity in it self avails nothing to Salvation nothing to Grace nothing to the soundnesse of Doctrine The Net doth not straight make all to be Fish that it hath dragg'd together ye shall finde in it vile weeds and whatsoever else that devouring element hath disgorged The Church is at once one in respect of the common Principles of Faith and yet in respect of consequences and that rabble of opinions which they have raked together so opposed that it cannot as things now stand by any glew of Concord as Cyprian speaketh nor bond of Unity be conjoined That which Rome holds with us makes it a Church that which it obtrudes upon us makes it Hereticall the truth of Principles makes it one the Error and impiety of Additions makes it irreconcilable c. Look on the face therefore of the Roman Church she is ours she is Gods look on her back she is quite contrary Antichristian More plainly Rome doth both hold the Foundation and destroy it she holds it directly destories it by consequent In that she holds it she is a true Church howsoever impured in that she destroies it what semblance soever she makes she is a Church of malignants If she did altogether hold it she should be sound and Orthbox if altogether she destroied it she should be either no Church or devilish but now that she professes to hold those things directly which by inferences she closely overthrows she is a truely visible Church but an unsound one Thus I wrote well-near twenty years agone without clamor without censure And since that in my Latine Sermon to the Convocation did I very ought from this hold Did I not there call heaven earth to record of our innocence in separating from the Romane Church Did I not cast the fault upon their violence not our will Did I not professe Lubentes quidem discessimus c. We willingly indeed departed from the Communion of their Errors but from the Communion of the Church we have not departed Let them abandon their Errours and we embrace the Church Let them cast away their Soul-killing Traditions and false appendances of their new Faith we shall gladly communicate with them in the right of the same Church and hold with them for ever This I freely both taught and published with the allowance with the applause of that most Reverend Synod and now doth the addition of a Dignity bring envy upon the same Truth Might that passe commendably from the pen or tongue of a Doctor which will not be endured from the hand of a Bishop My brethren I am where I was the change is yours Ever since I learned to distinguish betwixt the right hand of Veritie and the left of Errour thus I held and shall I hope at last send forth my Soul in no other resolution And if any of you be otherwise minded I dare boldly say he shall doe more wrong to his Cause then to his adversary That I differ not from my self you have seen see now that I differ not from our learned judicious approved Divines That the Latine or Western Church subject to the Romish Tyranny unto the very times of Luther was a true Church in which a saving profession of the truth of Christ was found and wherein Luther himself received his Christianity
Ordination and power of Ministery our Learned Doctor Field hath saved me the labour to prove by the suffrages of our best and most renowned Divines amongst whom he sites the Testimony of Calvin Bucer Melanchthon Beza Mornay Deering And if since that time it be foully corrupted so as now that acute Author is driven to the distinction of Verè Ecclesia and Vera Ecclesia yet at last he thus concludes But will some man say Is the Roman Church at this day no part of the Church of God Surely a◠Austine noteth that the societies of Hereticks in that they retain the profession of many parts of heavenly truth and the ministration of the Sacrament of Baptisme are so far still conjoined with the Catholick Church and the Catholick Church in and by them bringeth forth children unto God so the present Roman Church is stil in some sort a part of the visible Church of God but no otherwise then other societies of Hereticks are in that it retaineth the profession of some parts of heavenly truth and ministreth the true Sacrament of Baptisme to the Salvation of the Souls of many thousand infants c. Thus he Junius distinguishing betwixt the Church and Papacie determines the Church of Rome to be a truely-living though sick Church whereof the Papacie is the disease marring the health threatning her life and punctually resolves Ecclesia Papalis qua id habet c. The Popish Church in that it hath in it that which pertaines to the definition of a Church is a Church Doctor Raynolds makes it his Position That the Church of Rome is neither the Catholick Church nor a sound member of the Catholick yielding it a member whiles he disproves it sound Paraeus Accusant nos c. They accuse us saith he that we have made a division in departing from the Church Nos verò c. But we have not departed from the Church but from the Papacie Master Hooker is most pregnant for this point Apparent it is saith he that all men are of necessitie either Christians or not Christians If by external Profession they be Christians they are of the visible Church of Christ and Christians by external profession they are all whose mark of recognisance hath in it those things which we have mentioned yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks persons Excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbitie Thus he and going on he shews how it is possible for the self-same men to belong to the Synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ The passages are too long to transcribe and the Books are obvious Doctor Crakenthorp in his learned answer to Spalatensis defends heretical Churches to be truely members of the Catholick Church though unsound ones subscribing herein to the determination of Alphonsus and descending to this particular concludes Haec tamen ipsa tua Romana c. This your Romane Church must be accounted both to be in the Church and to be a Church not simply not according to the integrity of Faith not according to any inward virtue not so effectually that it should avail to Salvation for a man to be in it but yet a Church it is in some respects according to the external profession of Faith and of the Word of God according to the administration of the Sacraments according to some Doctrines of true belief by which as by so many outward Ligaments she is yet knit to the Orthodox and Catholick Church Thus he fully to my words and meaning I might swell up the bulk with many more a Catalogue whereof Brierley hath for his own purpose fetcht up together I will onely shut up this Scene with out late most Learned Soveraign King James who in the Conference at Hampton Court with the acclamation of all his judicious hearers avowed that no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome in Doctrine or Ceremony then she hath departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Christ her Lord and Head Well therefore doth my Reader see that I have gone along with good company in this assertion Although I am not ignorant that some worthy Divines of ours speak otherwise in the height of Zeal denying the Church of Rome to be a true Church to be a Church at all whose contradiction gives colour to this offence But let my Reader know that however their words are opposite yet not their judgement a mutuall understanding shall well accord us in the matter however the terms sound contrary Our old word is Things are as they are taken The difference is in the acception of True and Church both which have much latitude and variety of sense Whiles by True they mean right believing and by Church a company of Faithfull which have the Word of God rightly understood and sincerely preached and the Sacraments duly administred it is no marvell if they say the Church of Rome is neither true nor Church who would who can say otherwise But whiles we mean by a true Church a multitude of Christians professing to agree in the main Principles of Religion how can they but subscribe to us and in this sense yield the Church of Rome both a Church and truely visible So as shortly in a large sense of True Church these Divines cannot but descend to us in a strict sense of both we cannot but ascend to them in fine both agree in the substance whiles the words cross Certainly in effect Master Perkins saith no other whiles he defines his Reformed Catholick to be one that holds the same necessary Heads of Religion with the Romane Church yet so as he pares off and rejects all Errours in Doctrine whereby the same Religion is corrupted wherein that well-allowed Author speaks home to my meaning though in other terms That the Roman Church holds the necessary Heads of Religion gives it a right in my sense to a true Visibilitie that it holds foul Errours whereby the Doctrine is corrupted makes it false in belief whiles it hath a true Being This then may give sufficient light to that passage in my sixth page whereat some have heedlesly stumbled That which I cited from Luther out of Cromerus I finde also alledged by Doctor Field out of Luther himself the words are that under the Papacy is the very kernel of Christianity much good yea all Know Reader the words are Luther's not mine neither doth he say in the Papacy but under it under it indeed to trample upon not to possess or if to possess yet not to injoy Their fault is not in defect of necessary Truths but in excess of superfluous additions Luther explicates himself For his Kernel is the several Articles of Christian belief his all good is Scriptures Sacraments Creeds Councils Fathers all these they have but God knows miserably corrupted That they thus have them is no whit worse for us and little
better for themselves would to God they were theirs as well in true use as in possession It was an ill descant that a nimble Papist made upon those words of Luther which yield them the kernel of Christianity If we have the kernel saith he let them take the shell Soft friend you are too witty Luther did not give you the kernell and reserve us the shell He yielded you both kernell and shell such as it is but the shell rotten the kernell worm-eaten Make much of your kernell but as you have used it it is but a bitter morsel swallow that if you please and save the shell in your pocket Neither think to goe away with an idle misprision We are a true visible Church what need we more why should we wish to be other then we are Alas poor souls a true Visibility may and doth stand with a false Belief Ye may be of a true visible Church and yet never the nearer to Heaven It is your interest in the true mysticall body of Christ that must save your Souls not in the outwardly visible your Errours may be and are no less damnable for that ye are by outward profession Christians yea so much the more Woe is me your danger is more visible then your Church If ye persist wilfully in these gross Corruptions which do by consequent raze that foundation which ye profess to lay ye shall be no less visible spectacles of the wrath of that just God whose Truth and Spirit ye have so stubbornly resisted The God of Heaven open your eyes to see the glorious light of his Truth and draw your hearts to the love of it and make your Church as truely sound as it is truly visible Thus in a desire to stand but so right as I am in all honest judgements I have made this speedy and true Apologie beseeching all Readers in the fear of God before whose bar we shall once give an account of all our overlashings to judge wisely and uprightly of what I have written in a word to doe me but justice in their opinions and when I beg it favour Farewell Reader and God make us Wise and Charitable THE RECONCILER AN EPISTLE PACIFICATORY Of the seeming Differences of Opinion concerning the Trueness and Visibility of the Roman Church By JOS. EXON TO THE Right Honourable and Truly Religious My singular good Lord EDWARD Earl of NORWICH My ever Honoured Lord I Confess my Charity led me into an Errour Your Lordship well knows how apt I am to be overtaken with these better deceits of an over-kinde credulity I had thought that any dash of my Pen in a sudden and easie advertisement might have served to have quitted that ignorant Scandal which was cast upon my mistaken Assertion of the true Visibility of the Romane Church The issue proves all otherwise I finde to my grief that the misunderstanding tenacity of some zealous spirits hath made it a quarrel It cannot but trouble me to see that the Position which is so familiarly current with the best Reformed Divines and which hath been so oft and long since published by me without contradiction yea not without the approbation and applause of the whole representative body of the Clergy of this Kingdom should now be quarrelled and drawn into the detestation of those that know it not As one therefore that should think it corrosive enough that any occasion should be taken by ought of mine to ravell but one thred of that seamless Coat I do earnestly desire by a more full explication to give clear satisfaction to all Readers and by this seasonable Reconcilement to stop the flood-gates of contention I know it will not be unpleasing to your Lordship that through your Honourable and Pious hands these welcome Papers should be transmitted to many Wherein I shall first beseech yea adjure all Christians under whose eyes they shall fall by the dreadful Name of that God who shall judge both the quick and the dead to lay aside all unjust Prejudices and to allow the words of Truth and Peace I dare confidently say Let us be understood and we are agreed The Searcher of all hearts knows how far it was from my thoughts to speak ought in favour of the Romane Synagogue If I have not sufficiently branded that Strumpet I justly suffer Luther's broad word is by me already both safely construed and sufficiently vindicated But do you not say It is a true visible Church Do you not yield some kinde of Communion with these clients of Antichrist What is if this be not Favour Mark well Christian Reader and the Lord give thee understanding in all things To begin with the latter No man can say but the Church of Rome holds some Truths those Truths are God's and in his right ours why should not we challenge our own wheresoever we find it If a very Devil shall say of Christ Thou art the Son of the living God we will snatch this Truth out of his mouth as usurped and in spight of him proclaim it for our own Indeed there is no communion betwixt light and darkness but there is communion betwixt light and light Now all Truth is Light and therefore symbolizeth with it self With that light therefore whose glimmering yet remains in their darkness our clearer light will and must hold communion If they profess Three Persons in one Godhead Two Natures in one Person of Christ shall we detrect to joyn with them in this Christian Verity We abhor to have any Communion with them in their Errours in their Idolatrous or Superstitious practices these are their own not ours If we durst have taken their part in these this breach had not been Now who can but say that we must hate their evil and allow their good It is no countenance to their Errours that we imbrace our own Truths it is no disparagement to our Truths that they have blended them with their Errours Here can be no difference then if this Communion be not mistaken No man will say that we may sever from their common Truths no man will say that we may joyn with them in their hateful Errours For the former He that saith a Thief is truly a man doth he therein favour that Thief He that saith a diseased dropsied dying body is a true though corrupt body doth he favour that Disease or that living carkass It is no other no more that I say of the Church of Rome Trueness of Being and outward Visibility are no praise to her yea these are aggravations to her falshood The advantage that is both sought and found in this Assertion is onely ours as we shall see in the sequel without any danger of their gain I say then that she is a True Church but I say withall she is a false Church True in Existence but false in Belief Let not the homonymie of a word breed jarres where the sense is accorded If we do not yield her the true Being of a Church why do we
of the forein Divines with whom I have so long conversed beyond the Seas concerning that Point I might answer in two lines that I have read your Reconciler and judge your Opinion concerning that Point to be learned sound and true Though that if I durst favour an officious lie I would willingly give my Suffrage to those Divines which out of a most fervent Zeal to God and perfect hatred to Idolatry hold that the Roman Church is in all things BAâ—EL in nothing BETHEL And as they which seek to set right a crooked Tree bow it the clean contrary way to make it straight so to recover and pull out of the fire of eternal Damnation the Romane Christians I would gladly pourtray them with sable colours and make their Religion more black in their own eyes then they are in ours the hellish-coloured faces of the flat-nosed Ethiopians or to the Spaniard the monstrous Sambenit of the Inquisition But fearing the true reproach cast by Job in his friends teeth Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him and knowing that we must not speak a lie no not against the Devil which is the Father of lies I say that the Roman Church is both BABEL and BETHEL and as God's Temple was in Christs daies at once the house of Prayer and a den of thieves so she is in our daies God's Temple and the habitation of Devils the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird Which I prove thus The Church is to be considered three manner of waies First according to Gods right which he keepeth over her and maintaineth in her by the common and external Calling of his Word and Sacraments Secondly according to the pure Preaching of the Word and external Obedience in hearing receiving and keeping the Word sincerely preached Thirdly according to the election of Grace and the personal Calling which hath perpetually the inward working of the Holy Ghost joyned with the outward Preaching of the Word as in Lydia Thence cometh the answer of a good conscience toward God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ To begin with the last Consideration These onely are Gods Church which are Jews inwardly in the spirit as well as outwardly in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God who are Nathanaels and true Israelites in whom there is no guile invisible to all men visible to God alone who knoweth them that are his and each of them to themselves because they have received the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely given them of God and the white stone and new name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Of this Church called by the Apostle the people which God foreknew Rom. 11. 2. there is no controversie amongst our Divines In the second Consideration these onely are the true visible Church of God amongst whom the Word of God is truly preached without the mixture of humane Traditions the holy Sacraments are celebrated according to their first institution and the people consenteth to be led and ruled by the word of God As when Moses laid before the faces of the people all the words which the Lord commanded him And all the people answered together All that the Lord hath spoken we will doe The Lord said unto Moses Write thou these words for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel And Moses said to the people Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God and to walk in his waies and to keep his Statures and his Commandments and his Judgements and to hearken unto his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandements This condition of the Commandement God did often inculcate into their ears by his Prophets As when he said to them by Jeremiah This thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the waies that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you So in the Gospel Christ saith My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me But a stranger will they not follow but will flie from him for they know not the voice of strangers where he giveth the first mark of the Visible true and pure Church to wit the pure Preaching and Hearing of Christs voice As likewise St. John saith He that knoweth God heareth us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of Errour Again the Lord saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another pointing out the Concord and holy agreement which is among the Brethren as another mark of the Orthodox Church As likewise when he saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven he sheweth that good Works are the visible mark of the true Orthodox Church The true Preaching and reverend Hearing of the Gospel is a visible mark of our Faith and Hope our Concord in the Lord is a mark of our Charitie our good Works are real and sensible testimonies of our inward Faith Hope and Charitie Where we finde these three Signes we know certainly that there is Christs true Church and judge charitably that is probably that every one in whom we see these outward tokens of Christs true and Orthodox Church is a true member of the mystical body of the Lord Jesus I say charitably because outward marks may be outwardly counterfeited by Hypocrites as it is said of Israel They did flatter with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant and of many of those that followed our Saviour Many believed in his Name when they saw the Miracles which he did But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men Therefore when the people of Israel departed from the Covenant and by their Idolatry brake as much as in them lay the contract of Marriage between them and God they ceased in that behalf to be Gods true Spouse and people though still they called him their Husband and their God When they made a molten Calf in the wilderness and worshipped the works of their own fingers God said to Moses Thy people which thou broughtest out of the Land of Egypt have corrupted themselves and not my people And Moses to shew that on their part they had broken the Covenant broke the Tables of the Covenant When under Achaz they did worse Isaiah called them children that are corrupted their Prince and Governours Rulers of Sodome themselves people of Gomorrah their holy
more praise the mercy and wisdome of the giver and exercise the charity and thankfulness of the receiver The essence of our Humanity doth not consist in Stature he that is little of growth is as much man as he that is taller Even so also Spiritually the quantity of Grace doth not make the Christian but the truth of it I shall be glad and ambitious to adde cubits to my height but withall it shall comfort me to know that I cannot be so low of stature as not to reach unto Heaven CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger IT was a good rule of him that bade us learn to pray of Beggers with what zeal doth this man sue with what feeling expressions with how forceable importunity When I meant to passe by him with silence yet his clamour draws words from me when I speak to him though with excuses rebukes denials repulses his obsecrations his adjurations draw from me that Alms which I meant not to give How he uncovers his Sores and shews his impotence that my eyes may help his tongue to plead With what oratory doth he force my compâ—ssion so as it is scarce any thank to me that he prevails Why doe I not thus to my God I am sure I want no lesse then the neediest the danger of my want is greater the alms that I crave is better the store and mercy of the Giver infinitely more Why shouldst thou give me O God that which I care not to ask Oh give me a true sense of my wants and then I cannot be cool in asking thou canst not be difficult in condescending CXXXIX Upon a Medicinall potion HOW loathsome a draught is this how offensive both to the eye and to the scent and to the tast yea the very thought of it is a kinde of sickness and when it is once down my very disease is not so painfull for the time as my remedy How doth it turn the stomach and wring the entrails and works a worse distemper then that whereof I formerly complained And yet it must be taken for health neither could it be so wholsome if it were lesse unpleasing neither could it make me whole if it did not first make me sick Such are the chastisements of God and the reproofs of a Friend harsh troublesome grievous but in the end they yield the peaceable fruit of Righteousnesse Why do I turn away my head and make faces and shut mine eyes and stop my nostrils and nauseate and abhor to take this harmlesse potion for Health when we have seen Mountebanks to swallow dismembred toads and drink the poisonous broath after them only for a little ostentation and gain It is only weaknesse and want of resolution that is guilty of this queasinesse Why do not I chearfully take and quaffe up that bitter cup of Affliction which my wife and good God hath mixed for the health of my Soul CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel THE Prophet meant it for no other then a fearfull imprecation against Gods enemies O my God make them like unto a wheel whereby what could he intend to signifie but instability of condition and suddain violence of Judgement Those spoaks of the wheel that are now up are sooner then sight or thought whirled down and are straight raised up again on purpose to be depressed Neither can there be any motion so rapid and swift as the Circular It is a great favour of God that he takes leisure in his affliction so punishing us that we have respites of Repentance There is life and hope in these degrees of suffering but those hurrying and whirling Judgments of God have nothing in them but wrath and confusion O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger I cannot deprecate thy rebuke my sins call for correction but I deprecate thine anger thou rebukest even where thou lovest So rebuke me that whiles I smart with thy Rod I may rejoyce in thy Mercy CERTAIN CATHOLICK PROPOSITIONS Which A Devout Son of the CHURCH Humbly offers to the serious consideration of all ingenuous Christians wheresoever dispersed all the world over To all them who through the whole Israel of God follow Absolom with a simple heart BE not deceived any longer dear Christian Souls be ye free that ye may be safe There is a certain Sacred Tyranny that miserably abuses you and so cunningly beguiles you that you chuse rather to erre and perish God hath given you Reason and above that Faith do not so far wrong your selves as to be made the mere slaves of anothers will and to think it the safest way to be willingly blinde Lay aside for a while all prejudice and superstitious side-taking and consider seriously these few words which my sincere love to your Souls and hearty ambition of your Salvation hath commanded me as before the awfull Tribunall of Almighty God to tender unto you If what I say be not so clear and manifest to every ingenuous judgment that it shall not need to borrow further light from abroad condemn this worthlesse scroll and in your severe doom punish the Author with the losse of an hours labour But if it shall carry sufficient evidence in it self and shall be found so reasonable as that to any free minde it shall not perswade but command assent give way for Gods sake and for your Souls sake to that powerfull Truth of God which breaks forth from Heaven upon you and at last acknowledge besides a world of foul Errours the miserable insolence and cruelty of that once-Famous and renowned Church which to use Gerson's word will needs make Faith of Opinion and too impotently favouring her own passions hath not ceased to persecute with fire and sword the dear and holy servants of God and at last notwithstanding all the vain thunderbolts of a proud and lawlesse fury make much of those your truly-Christian and religious brethren who according to the just liberty of Faithfull men refuse and detest those false and upstart Points of a new-devised Faith But if any of you which God forbid had still rather to be deceived and dote upon his received Errors and as angry Curres are wont shall bark and bay at so clear a light of Truth my Soule shall in silence and sorrow pity that man in vain I wis we have had disputing enough if not too much Away from henceforth with all these Paper-brablings God from Heaven shall stint these strifes Wonder O Catholicks and ye whom it concerns repent Certain Catholick PROPOSITIONS which a devout Son of the Church humbly offers to the serious consideration of all ingenuous Christians wheresoever dispersed all the World over I. EVery true Christian is in that very regard properly capable of Salvation and for matter of Faith goes on in the ready way to Heaven II. Whosoever being duely admitted into the Church of God by lawfull Baptism believeth and maintaineth all the main and essential Points of Christian Faith is for matter of belief a true Christian III. The Summe of the Christian