society of all that professe Christian Religion through the whole world howsoever impured who can denie this title to the Roman If in a strict sense it be taken as it is by Zanchius here and all those Divines who refuse to give this style to the Synagogue of Rome for the companie of elect faithfull men gathered into one mysticall bodie under one head Christ washed by his blood justified by his merits sanctified by his Spirit conscionablie waiting upon the true ordinances of God in his pure Word and holie SacrameÌ„ts who can be so shamelesse as to give this title to the Roman Church Both these sentences then are equally true The Church of Rome is yet a true Church in the first sense The Church of Rome long since ceased to bee a true Church in the second As those friendly souldiers therefore of old said to their fellowes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why fight we Stay stay deare brethren for Gods sake for his Churches sake for your soules sake stay these busie and unprofitable litigations put up on both sides your angrie pens Turne your Swords into Sithes to cut downe the ranke corruptioÌ„s of the Roman church and your Speares into Mattockes to beat downe the walls of this mysticall Babylon There are enemies â—now abroad Let us bee friends at home But if your sense be the same you will aske why our termes varie and why wee have chosen to fall upon that maner of expression which gives aduantage to the Adversarie offence to our owne Christian Reader let me beseech thee in the bowels of Christ to weigh well this matter and then tell me why such offence such advantage should bee rather given by my words than by the same words in the mouth of Luther of Calvin of Zanchie Iunius Plessee Hooker Andrewes Field Crakenthorpe Bedel and that whole cloud of learned and pious Authors who have without exceptioÌ„ used the same language And why more by my words now than twentie yeares agoe at which time I published the same truth in a more ful and liberall expression Wise and charitable Christians may not be apt to take offence where none is given As for anie Advantage that is hereby given to the Adversaries they may put it in their eye and see never the worse Loe say they we are of the true visible Church this is enough for us why are we forsaken why are we presecuted why are we solicited to change Alas poore soules doe they not know that Hypocrites leud persons reprobates are no lesse members of the true visible Church what gaine they by this but a deeper damnation To what purpose did the Iewes crie The Temple of the Lord whiles they despighted the Lord of that Temple Is the sea-weed ever the lesse vile because it is dragd vp together with good fish They are of the visible Church such as it is what is this but to say they are neither Iewes nor Turkes nor Pagans but misbeleevers damnablie hereticall in opinion shamefullie idolatrous in practice Let them make their best of this just Elogie and triumph in this style may we never prosper if we envie them this glorie Our care shall be that besides the Church sensible as Zuinglius distinguisheth we may be of the Church spirituall and not resting in a fruitlesse visibilitie wee may finde our selves livelie limbes of the mystical body of Christ which onelie condition shall give us a true right to heaven whiles fashionable profession in vaine cries Lord Lord and is barred out of those blessed gates with an I know you not Neither may the Reader think that I affect to goe by-waies of speech no I had not taken this path unlesse I had found it both more beaten and fairer I am not so unwise to teach the Adversarie what disadvantage I conceive to be given to our most just cause by the other manner of explication Let it suffice to say that this form of defence more fully stops the adversaries mouth in those two maine and envious scandals which hee casts upon our holy Religion Defection from the Church and Innovation than which no suggestion hath wont to bee more prevalent with weake and ungrounded hearts what wee further win by this not more charitable than safe Tenet I had rather it should bee silently conceived by the judicious then blazoned by my free penne shortly in this state of the question our gaine is as cleare as the Adversaries losse our ancient Truth triumphes over their upstart errours our charitie over their mercilesse presumptions Feare not therefore deare brethren where there is on roome for danger Suspect not fraud where there is nothing but plaine honest simplicitie of intentions censure not where there is the same Truth clad in a different but more easie habite of words But if any mans fervent zeale shall rather draw him to the liking of that other rougher and harder way so as in the meane time he keepe within the bounds of Christian charitie I taxe him not let everie man abound in his owne sense Onely let our hearts and tongues and hands conspire together in peace with our selves in warre with our common enemies Thus farre have I Right Honourable in a desire of peace poured out my selfe into a plaine explication and easie accordance Those whom I strive to satisfie are onely mis-takers whose censures if some man would have either laught out or despised yet I have condescended to take off by a serious deprecation and just defence It is an vnreasonable motion to request mindes prepossessed with prejudice to heare reason Whole Volumes are nothing to such as have contented themselves onely to take up opinions upon trust and will hold them because they know where they had them In vaine should I spend my selfe in beating upon such anviles but for those ingenuous Christians which will hold an eare open for justice and truth I have said enough if ought at all needed Alas my Lord I see and grieve to see it it is my Rochet that hath offended and not I In another habit I long since published this and more without dislike It is this colour of innocence that hath bleared some over-tender eyes Wherein I know not whether I should more pittie their errour or applaud my owne sufferings although I may not say with the Psalmist What hath the righteous done Let mee I beseech your Lordship upon this occasion have leave to give a little vent to my just griefe in this point The other day I fell upon a Latine Pamphlet homely for style tedious for length zealously uncharitable for stuffe wherein the Author onely wise in this that he would bee unknowne in a grave fiercenesse flies in the face of our English Prelacie not so much enveighing against their Persons which he could be content to reverence as their verie places I blest my selfe to see the case so altered Heretofore the Person had wont to beare off manie blowes from the function now the verie function wounds the person In what
case are we when that which should command respect brands us What blacke Art hath raised up this spirit of Aerius from his pit Wo is mee that zeale should breed such monsters of conceit It is the honour the Pompe the wealthe the pleasure hee saith of the Episcopall Chaire that is guiltie of the depravation of our Calling and if himselfe were so overlayd with greatnesse hee should suspect his owne fidelitie Alas poore man at what distance doth hee see us Foggie Ayre useth to represent everie object farre bigger than it is Our Sauiour in his temptation upon the Mount had onely the glorie of those Kingdomes showed to him by that subtile Spirit not the cares and vexations Right so are our dignities exhibited to these envious beholders Little doe these men see the toyles and anxieties that attend this supposedly-pleasing eminence All the revenge that I would wish to this uncharitable Censurer should bee this that hee might bee but for a while adjudged to this so glorious seate of mine that so his experience might taste the bewitching pleasures of this envied greatnesse hee should well finde more danger of being over-spent with worke than of languishing with ease delicacie For mee I need not appeale to Heaven Eyes enow can witnesse how few free houres I have enjoyed since I put on these Robes of sacred honour In so much as I could finde in my heart with holy Gregorie to complaine of my change were it not that I see these publique troubles are so many acceptable services to my God whose glorie is the end of my being Certainly my Lord if none but earthly respects should sway me I should heartily wish to change this Pallace which the Providence of God and the bountie of my gracious Soveraigne hath put mee into for my quiet Cell at Waltham where I had so sweet leasure to enjoy God your Lordship and my selfe But I have followed the calling of my God to whose service I am willingly sacrificed and must now in an holy obedience to his Divine Majestie with what cheerefulnesse I may ride out all the stormes of envie which unavoidably will alight vpon the least appearance of a conceived greatnesse in the meane time what ever I may seeme to others I was never lesse in my owne apprehensions and were it not for this attendance of envie could not yeeld my selfe any whit greater than I was what ever I am that good God of mine make mee faithfull to him and compose the unquiet spirits of men to a conscionable care of the publique peace with which prayer together with the apprecation of all happinesse to your Lordship and all yours I take leave and am Your Lordships truly devoted in all hearty observance and dutie IOS EXON TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Wisedome and Charitie IT is no easie matter for a man so far to mortifie his self-love as to neglect himselfe for the publique good to vaile his private ingagements though with some seeming disadvantage to the peace of the Church that which is too apparent in the present occasion Whiles there might be some colour of ambiguitie of termes and possibilitie of misconstruction in that Position concerning the true being and visibility of the Roman church I could the lesse marvell that a mistaking should breed a quarrell but now after so clear an explication as I have given of my sense and so satisfactory a reconcilement as no ingenuous Christian can except against I am not a little troubled to see the peace of the church yet disquieted with personall and unkinde dissertations Surely what ever may bee pretended not one haire of any Christians head can be indangered in that assertion of mine yet not so much mine as the most of the reformed Divines of Christendome as it is by them and me both understood and interpreted since we call all Christians to no lesse detestation of the abhominable corruptiōs Idolatries of the Roman Church notwithstanding the yeeldance of a bootlesse visibilitie then those that deny it the being and name of a Church yea wee raise more strong advantage against the adversary by this grant then by that denyall Neyther is here the least contradiction to any clause of the Articles of our Church of England in that sense wherein I have delivered my selfe such is my true filiall honor to that our holy Mother that I should hate my selfe if I should offer to oppose any of her sacred dictates how ever it may sound to an ignorant eare In every opposition there must be supposed the same subject the same respect the same understanding of both Else how ever the words run the matter disagrees not For example If one man shall say The Church is visible materiall consisting of lime and stone Another shall say The Church is invisible immateall not consisting of any earthly stuffe these two doe not contradict each other whiles the one speakes of the outward fabricke of the Church the other of the spirituall state of the Church Neyther is it otherwise in my assertion and that which is counter-alledged from the Articles or Homilies of the Church as I have sufficiently explained my sense both in my Advertisement and Reconciler It is not for me to cloy my Reader with repetitions Now lest I might perhaps seeme partiall to my own cause and flatter my selfe in my own opinion I have craved the judgement of some of the most eminent approved Divines of our Church the French whose names are justly reverend whose workes have made thē famous in our gates I have of many hundreds selected only foure two Bishops and two Doctors such as whose very mētion is able to stop the mouth of calumny and to make ignorance ashamed of it selfe I have taken the boldnes to publish their private Letters in answer to mine Peruse them Reader and take satisfaction and confesse it was thy mistaking and not my errour that made me appeare foule Farewell and love peace and the God of peace be with thee I. E. To the Right Reuerend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Couentree and Lichfield MY Lord may your leasure serue you to read ouer this poore sheete of Paper and to censure it Your name is left out in the Catalogue of some other famous Diuines mentioned in the body of it that you might not be forestalled I suffer for that wherein your selfe amongst many renowmed Orthodoxe Doctors of the Church are my partner As if you had not already said it enough I beseech your Lordship say once more what you thinke of the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church Your excellent and zealous writings haue iustly won you a constant reputation of great learning and no lesse sinceritie and haue placed you out of the reach of suspicion No man can no man dare mis-doubt your decision If you find any one word amisse in this explication spare me not I shall gladly kisse your rod and hold your vtmost seueritie a fauour But if you
and that they were not his people he calleth them his people My people saith he asketh counsell at their stickes and their stuffe answereth them But after that God had scattered them among the Medes and other nations of Assyria and broken his couenant with them they became not onely in the second but also in the first sence Iesrehel and no more Israel Lo-ruhama and no more Ruhama Lo-hammi no more Hammi Then was fulfilled the the prophesie Plead with your mother plead For shee is not my wife neither am I her husband So the Iewes which were Gods people in the midst of their idolatrie since they haue denied Christ to bee the Messias the Mediatour betweene GOD and them and haue crucified the Lord of glory are no more Gods people although they beg still that name They are saith Christ the Synagogue of Satan They say they are Iewes and are not but doe lye For seeing God hath broken them off and grafted the Gentiles in their roome they qualifie themselues Gods people as falsely and iniuriously as a whoore lawfully diuorced by her husband calleth her selfe his wife To applie this to the Romane Church which hath adulterated and corrupted the whole seruice of God and is more adulterous then was at any time Iuda or Ephraim and therefore is not a true visible Church in the second sence I say shee is one in some sort in the first In her God doth still keepe his true word in the Old and New Testament as the contract of his marriage with her In her is the true Creed the true Decalogue the true Lords Prayer which Luther calleth the kernel of Christianitie In her Christ is Preached though corruptly In her the Trinitie and Incarnation of Christ are beleeued In her the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are prayed vnto though in an vnknown tongue to the most part In her the little children are Baptised in the Name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost And no Diuine will denie that their Baptisme is a true Sacrament whereby their children are borne to God seeing wee doe not rebaptise them where leauing her they adioyne themselues to vs. Who then can denie that shee is a true Church For out of the Church there is no Baptisme and the Church alone beareth children to God In her sitteth the man of sinne the sonne of perdition who sitteth in the Temple of God which is the Church It s graunted that shee is Babylon in the second sence And Gods people is commanded to come out of Babylon What is Gods people but Gods Church which forsaketh her successiuely as of old the typicall people came out of the typicall Babylon not at once but at many seuerall times If then we applie vnto her Gods commandement exhorting her to come out of Babylon either wee vnderstand not what wee say or we acknowledge her to bee Gods people that is Gods Church though idolatrous rebellious and disobedient Neither shall shee cease to bee Gods people in this sence till the comming of the blessed day when the ayre shall rebound with the shouting of the Saints Babylon is fallen shee is fallen that great Citie because shee made all nations drunke with the wine of the wrath of her fornication I say then that as Ierusalem was at the same time the holy Citie and a Harlot the Temple was Bethel and Bethauen Gods House and a house of Iniquitie the Iewes were Gods people and no people Gods children the Deuils Ephraim was Idammi and Lo-Hammi in diuers râ—spects euen so the Romish Church is both BETHEL and BABEL Bethel from God calling her to the communion of his grace in Christ by his Word and Sacrament of Baptisme Babel from her selfe because shee hath made a gallimaufrey of the Christian Religion confounding pell-mell her owne traditions with Gods Word her owne merits with Christs the bloud of Martyrs with the bloud of the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the world Purgatorie with the same bloud which purgeth vs from all sinne Iustification by workes with Iustification by faith only praying to the Creatures with praying to the Creator Idols of men women beasts Angels with Gods worship the mediation of Saints with the mediation of him who is the suretie of the new Testament and is able to saue to the vttermost all those that come vnto God by him seeing hee euer liueth to make intercession for them Nay as Caluin said truly in the Romish Church Christ is scarcely knowne among the Saints of whom some are in Heauen as the Apostles c. some on Earth as the Pope some in Hell as Saint George an Arrian Hereticke and bloudie Butcher of true Christians Saint Dominicke the firebrand of the warre against the Albigeois Saint Garnet whom Tyburne sent to his owne place to bee rewarded of the Gunne-powder Treason Some did neuer die because they had neuer the honour to liue as Saint Christopher Saint Katherine Saint Vrsule Saint Longin who was a Speare Saint Eloi who was two couple of sharpe nailes and many more of the same stuffe In a word the roaring of the Camards of Bahal is so lowd in that Church that Christs voice is scant heard in her and yet heard both in the mouth of these Babylonian builders which vnderstand not one another and in the mouthes of the people halting betweene Christ and the Pope their Bahal And therefore in that behalfe not the true but a true Christian Church This testimony is the praise of the most wonderfull patience of God who suffereth so long that common hackney to beare his Name It is her shame As it is the shame of a Queane married to a good husband to be conuicted of running vp downe after strangers It s a vantage to vs in our imployment for her conuersion For as when Agar had confessed truly that she was Sarahs maid the Angell tooke her at her word saying Returne to thy Mistresse and submit thy selfe to her and perswaded her Euen so wee take the Roman Church by the necke when shee confesseth that shee is Christs Church as shee is indeed exhorting her to returne vnto Christ to obey his Word to submit her selfe vnto him and to folow the true Faith of the ancient Catholicke and Apostolicke Church Neither is it any vantage to her against vs to inforce vs to returne to her or to vpbraid vs for forsaking her For as Moses when the people had committed Idolatrie tooke his Tabernacle and pitched it without the Campe afarre off from the Campe breaking of all communication with those which had broken the Couenant of the LORD their God till they repented As God said to Ieremiah of the Iewes which had opened their legges to euery one that passed by multiplied their whoredomes Cast them out of my fight and let them goe forth Let them returne vnto thee but returne not thou vnto them As
your Assertion Not to trouble therefore your weightier affairs with my needlesse interposition As that controuersie about the Altar Iosuah 22. had presently a faire end vpon the ful vnderstanding of the good meaning on both sides so I trust in God this shall haue In which I am so perswaded that if it were to bee discussed there after our Scholasticall manner it might well bee defended either pro or con with out preiudice to the Truth according to the full stating which your Aduertisement and Reconciler haue afforded And thus with tender of my due obseruance and Prayers for your happinesse I rest Your Lordships in Christ to be commanded IO. PRIDEAVX From Exon Coll. Marij 9. No. ¶ To my Reuerend and learned friend M. Doctor PRIMEROSE Preacher to the French Church in LONDON WOrthy Master Doctor Primerose you haue beene long acknowledged a great light in the Reformed Churches of France hauing for many yeeres shined in your orbe the famous Church of Burdeaux with notable effects and singular approbation both for iudgment and sinceritie both which also your learned writings haue well approued So as your sentence cannot be liable to the danger of any suspition Let me intreate you to declare freely what you hold concerning the truenesse and visibilitie of the Romane Church as it is by me explicated And with all to impart your knowledg of the common Tenet of those foraine Diuines with whom you haue so long conuersed concerning this point which if I mistake not onely a stubburne ignorance will needs make litigious It grieues my Soule to see the peace of the Church troubled with so absurd a mes prison In exspectation of your answer I take leaue and commend you and your holy labours to the blessing of our God Farewell from Your louing Brother and fellow-labourer IOS EXON To the Right Reuerend Father in God and my very good Lord IOSEPH Bishop of Exceter Right Reuerend Father in God I Haue beene so busied about my necessarie studies for preaching on Sunday Tuesday and this Thursday that I could not giue sooner a full answer to your Lordships Letter which I receiued on Friday last at night whereby I am desired to declare freely what I think concerning the truenesse and visibilitie of the present Roman Church as it is by your Lordship explicated and what is the common tenet of the forraine Diuines with whom I haue so long conuersed beyond the Seas concerning that point I might answere in two lines that I haue read your Reconciler and iudge your opinion concerning that point to be learned sound and true Though that if I durst fauour an officious lie I would willingly giue my Suffrage to those Diuines which out of a most feruent zeale to God and perfect hatred to Idolatry hold that the Roman Church is in all things BABEL in nothing BETHEL And as they which seek to set right a crooked tree bow it the cleane contrary way to make it straight so to recouer and pull out of the fire of eternall damnation the Roman Christians I would gladly pourtray them with sable colours and make their religion more black in their owne 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 reproch cast by Iob in his friends teeth Will you speake wickedly for God and talke deceitfully for him and knowing that we must not speake a lie no not against the Deuill which is the Father of lies I say that the Roman Church is both BABEL and BETHEL and as Gods Temple was in Christs daies at once the house of Prayer and a den of theeues so shee is in our dayes Gods Temple and the habitation of Deuils the hold of euery foule spirit and a cage of euery vncleane and hatefull bird which I proue thus The Church is to be considered three manner of wayes First according to Gods right which he keepeth ouer her and maintaineth in her by the common and externall calling of his Word and Sacraments Secondly according to the pure preaching of the Word and externall obedience in hearing receiuing and keeping the Word syncerely preached Thirdly according to the election of grace and the personall calling which hath perpetually the inward working of the Holy Ghost ioyned with the outward preaching of the Word as in Lydia Thence commeth the answere of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ To begin with the last consideration these only are Gods Church which are Iewes inwardly in the spirit aswell as outwardly in the letter whose prayse is not of men but of God who are Nathaniels and true Israelites in whom there is no guile Inuisible to all men Visible to God alone who knoweth them that are his and each of them to themselues because they haue receiued the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely giuen to them of God and the white stone which no man knoweth sauing he that receiueth it Of this Church called by the Apostle the people which God foreknew Rom. 11. there is no controuersie amongst our Diuines 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 bee 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 vnto Moses Write thou these words For after the tenor of these words I haue made a couenant with thee and with Israel And Moses said to the people Thou hast auouched this day the Lord to bee thy thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes and his Commandements and his Iudgements to harken vnto his voice And the Lord hath auouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee that thou shouldest keepe all his Commandements This condition of the Commandement GOD did often inclucate into their eares by his Prophets As when hee said to them by Ieremiah This thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and yee shall bee my people and walke yee in all the wayes in that I haue commanded you that it may bee well vnto you So in the Gospell Christ saith My sheepe heare 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 giueth the first marke of the visibly true and pure Church to wit the pure preaching and hearing of Christs voice As likewise Saint Iohn saith He