we of Bishops They that is the sober part Clevel for There is a Church as well as Kirke of Scots wave enthusiasms and such like dreams and make the Scripture the rule of Faith as well as of manners all the difference then lies in the construction of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they say signifies a preaching ruling and sometimes a lay-elder and our Divines and doubtless with more reason say a Bishop and such an one as hath superintendency over Presbyters too but this having been the subject of the learned pens pro and con I shall say no more but that many of them are worthy in their generations and eminent both for Learning and Piety and have been instrumental too in the Kings and consequently the Churches Restauration let them now come into her bosome who is always willing to receive them and reap at least the fruits of those worthy labours least the controversie betwixt us and them be decided by a third party as that of the Mouse and the Frog in the Fable was to the ruine of both the gladiators And I hope there may be an expedient found out for it for I am sure the Church of England is not of the humor of Pope Paul the fourth Cor. Trid. p. 406. who said rather then he would loose one jot of his due he would see the whole world ruin'd It cannot be said that they were ever immediately guilty of any Soveraign Princes blood yet they were a little School-men like too nice in the distinction betwixt the Politique and the Personal capacities of Princes and did a little too inconsiderately swallow the Vulgar Error of the Kings being one of the three * I humbly propose to those worthy persons of that judgment whether the making the King an Estate makes him not a co-ordinate power and where such is then in reason all matters are to be decided by majority of suffrages and how that will lesson Majesty he is very shallow that cannot discern Estates not having a due regard to the ill consequences of both which naturally are such as must render the assertours of those opinions liable at least to a suspition that they have been far from being zealous in every thing that may advance a peaceable conversation amongst men The next in order is the Church of England whose Credenda matters of Faith are according to the holy Scriptures and the first four general Councils and are such as all her opposers but the buzzardly Quakers believe or at least pretend so to be true and Orthodox she claims a succession of Bishops from the Apostles and hath as much authority for it notwithstanding the Fryer-like tale of the Nags-head-Tavern as any of the most potent of her adversaries she directs Prayers to God according to his command and not to the uncertain ear of a Creature intercessor in fine she believes according as they believed in the purest primitive times and directs mens practice accordingly and though her directions are not so successful perhaps as then yet then there were immoralities as may be seen by the irregularities in the infant Church of Corinth and the impurities amongst the Nicholaitans and filthy Gnostiques it can no more be attributed to her then the Idolatry of the old Israelttes could be to Moses who directed them otherways I shall not use many Arguments for truth needs not many Champions but only say That if Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Authority be an argument of a peaceable conversation the Church of England is to be preferred before all others of our Cognizance witness her brave and patient suffering during the almost 20 years of tumult and tyranny in which her sons asserted their allegiance with so much chearfulness to the loss of their lives and fortunes as is not to be parallel'd in any age to whose restless endeavours and constant struglings against the pretended powers his Majesties happy return may more justly be attributed then to any other second Cause Independency it self was not more eminent for Rebellion then she for Loyalty which is as inseparable from her as light from colour for it s as well known as a Negative can be that never any of her sons ever made defection as to that except one Apostate Bishop which is the less to be wondered at considering there was a Judas amongst the twelve since the Reformation from Rome and though many did pay obedience to the late powers yet it was for wrath not conscience sake All this considered it will appear no great wonder if her sons be still kindly lookt on by his Majesty according to the saying of his Royal Unkle to his Cardinal upon another occasion There was no reason he should forsake them that loved him Lust Ludo. p. 169. to humor the Caprichio's of those that did not love him So what the Spirit said to the Church of Philadelphia may I hope without presumption be applied to that of England Rev. 3.10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the Earth Now we come to the Church Triumphant that of Rome whose Grandeur hath o're gone all the Churches that ever were in the pomp and vanity of this wicked world she professes the well-bred that is the Travelling Religion and thinks I suppose that we are as discerning in the point of Religion as we are in that of Cloaths in love with every thing that is Forraign she would never offer else to impose all her little tricks upon us The two Pillars or Staves Zec. 11. v. 7. on which this mighty Machine of Popery is supported are not Gods staves of beauty and bands but Supremacy and Infallibility Pope Boniface the 8th was a great Asserter of the former when he made it Authentick Law in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome A new Article of Faith never heard of amongst the Ancient Creeds Antiquity making out the contrary Cited by L. Cook Re. 5. For S. Edw. Laws c. 19. delivers this for Law Rex autem qui vicarius summi Regis est ad hoc constitutus est ut Regnum populum Domini super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam regat defendat ab inimicis maleficos autem destruat By this you may see that the King was owned by the Law then to be Gods Vicar or Vicegerent not foreseeing the proud decree of Boniface Inter omnes convenit quod nemo possit appropriare ullam Ecclesiam cui animarum cura incumbit cum sit res Ecclesiastica Ecclesiastica personae approprianda nisi ille qui jurisdictionem habet Ecclesiasticam sed Gulielmus primus ex se sine quovis alio Ecclesiarum curam personis Ecclesiasticis ut Rex Angliae appropriavit unde ipsum
all out of Father Gage a late converted Dominican hoping it may be as lawful for me to have a Batt at the Pope with the Butt end of a Dominican as it was for Merry Andrew to have one at the Church of England with the Butt end of an Arch-Bishop Rehearsal transprosed and that 's thus When Mr. Gage was at Portabello in his return for England from the West Indies as he was celebrating Mass and being devout in his memento prayer Survey of the West Indies 197. a mouse came and stole away the Wafer which being recovered from her by the help of some Priests though half eaten up was a great motive for him to rub up his Philosophy concerning substance and accident and so resolved as any reasonable man would that what was eaten up by the mouse was no accident but a real substance which no Papist will be willing to say was the substance of Christs body because of the absurd consequence Ergo it must follow it was the sustance of bread and so no Transubstantiation Besides it contradicts the Philosophical Axiome Duo contradictoria non possunt simul semel de eodem verificari two contradictions cannot be verified both together and at the same time for here in Romes Judgment the body of Christ was gnawn and eaten and in another place it was not gnawn and eaten To this purpose Father Gage and rightly too For nothing is more absurd then this Doctrine for it implies contradictions which are reconcilable neither to right reason nor to omnipotency it self for that can do any thing but lye that is act contradictions They 'le tell you of many miracles about it but the greatest I believe i' th case is that men otherwise of great wisdom and learning should so much deny their sense and reason as to believe such a notoriety of contradictions and fopperies And to compleat the absurd consequences of it Dean Tillot son our senses are deceived too in their object and that at a due distance and if they be to be imposed upon in these circumstances all and at the same time their 's an end of all argumentation To conclude that opinion is hazardous even according to their own principles for 't is decreed under an Anathema That the Ministers intention is necessary to the essence of Sacraments C.T. Sess 7. Can. 11.12 and that the Minister who is in mortal sin giveth not the true Sacrament and that certainly made the condition of Henry the seventh Emperour very lamentable being poyson'd by a predicant Fryer in the Sacrament and damned too for committing Idolatry in worshiping the elements for though the Priest might have a right Intention in the consecration yet no man can excuse him from mortall sin in the Execution of so nefandous an act but it may be objected that the Pope who was then at enmity with the Emperour directed it and then the intention was right and no mortal sin in the Priest neither and so the good Emperour that was poison'd in the simplicity of his heart might get to Heaven especially if the Pope would have put to his helping hand as he did to Father Garnet the gunpowder man who died in a worse cause thought not so much out of the Popes favour Fullers Ch. Hist l. 10. p. 41. and so the heavenly Crown would make him ample amends for the loss of his Earthly And here I cannot but admire the great Prudence and Piety of the late Act of Parliament which I know has been much misconstrued by the malice of some and weakness of others who seem to intimate that the Parliament has declared the Sacrament to be meer bread and wine according to the opinion of the Sacramentaries which is most contrary both to the words of the Act and the Doctrine of our Church for the words are these I do believe that there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever which clears the point to the meanest capacity that nothing is affirmed nor nothing denied but Transubstantiation Not Con-substantiation it self the known opinion of the Lutheran Churches although as little believed amongst us as the other so that it is evident that this Act pen'd with all the modesty that became dutiful Sons of our Church and the wisdom befitting most worthy Patriots was not intended to define Doctrines but to distinguish persons The next point to be examined is Praying to Saints crept into the Church before but confirmed by Gregory the Great An. Dom. 590. which is not only against the command of God but more then probably lost labour for the Scripture tells us that Abraham knows us not and Israel is ignorant of us and 't is rational to believe that they are in as great a state of Bliss as Tho. Becket Dominick St. Francis or Ignatius Loyola who was a Gentleman of such behaviour that a Country Justice and no Adam Overdoe neither would have whipt for his good breeding as any body will believe that peruses the life of that glorious Saint Stilling Fan. 273. and indeed so it was done by a Spanish Governor to meliorate his understanding in the Ethiques of putting off his hat to a Magistrate yet all are solved by miracles which are such that all the Romances from Grand Cyrus to Tom Thumb put together compared to them may pass for Classical history To omit the 200 miracles wrought by Ignatius after his death I 'le give you a short story out of Father Cressy Ch. Hist 195. St. Piran fed ten Irish Kings and their Armies with three Cows raised dead men and dead pigs to life Now I wonder what should come into his politique pate to stuff a book with such Tales as these in order to the propagating any opinion soever now Miracles being commonly wrought at the Intercession or by the merit of some Saint or other adjust the praying to them but they being such as are greater then any that the Apostles or our Saviour himself did and to no purpose commonly as St. Bennets mending a Sieve by miracle to save two pence Ex leg in vita Ben. and throwing the Helve after the Hatchet into the water miraculously bringing them together again which either made good or gave occasion for the Proverb may justly bring them under the suspition of Romances not to say worse many tricks have been done by combination which have amazed the credulous people not having the priviledge or opportunity or perhaps skill for an Inquisition or search and therefore pass among some devout ones that have more Faith then reason for miracles of the first Magnitude To omit the antient ones I will give you one of a late date Frier Egan Fran. conv p. 15. About seven years ago a Priest nigh Limbrick named William Sackvel had for 50. s. hired a woman to pretend her self a Criple from her
THE RELIGION Established by Law asserted to conduce most to the true Interest of Prince and Subject As it was delivered in a Charge at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at the Borough of Newark for the County of Nottingham by adjournment for taking the Oaths of Supremacy c. July 21th 1673. According to the late Act of Parliament By Peniston Whalley Esq I. Esdr 3.12 Truth overcometh all things LONDON Printed for John Place at Furnivals-Inne-Gate in Holbourn and Thomas Bassett at the George near Cliffords-Inn in Fleet-street 1674. TO THE READER I Did not intend to have given thee the trouble of an Epistle very well knowing that men are not to be perswaded by Argument to like any thing of this nature that they have an aversion from But that on Sunday Aug. 24. 1673. a day as famous in our English Kalender as the French A Quaker came to discourse with me There were present at the Discourse the chief Constable of the Hundred the Parson of the Town an eminent Physitian besides others about executing the penal Laws wherein he had a five shillings concern I askt him the reason of his opinion knowing that he had been a rational Country-man before he fell into those fopperies He replyed That he had a call from above and the words were Obey the Lord and from that hour he turn'd Quaker and I have reason to believe with as much resolution as any man of any perswasion in the world Now I do not see but it s as good an authority as St. Benets single Testimony of seeing his Sister Scholasticas soul go to Heaven Nay it is as good an Authority and as argumentative as the Independents unintelligible notions about Conversion Sanctification and Grace for they arise but from a self-satisfaction within them as they say which is no more to be urged to a stranger then my Quakers voice nor is this the single saying of this Quaker but if it be inquired you will have the like account from most of them and therefore for ought an indifferent person can judg as good or better authority witnesses Viva Voce being alwaies of more credit then Here-say evidence then the many Revelations about the immaculate conception now made an Article of Faith Cited by Stil or Bell armin's vision to prove auricular confession or Urban the 4th instituting of the Feast of Corpus Christi in confirmation of Transubstantiation upon the Revelation of a certain woman or old Symon Stockes Revelation from the Blessed Virgin for the habit of the Carmelites or as John 19th instituting the Feast of all Souls 1004 upon the dream of the Abbot Odilo Ex Becanth in prol 4 Lib. Sect. who dreamt that he heard the Devils roar for the Souls taken from them by Masses and Dirges By this thou mayst easily see that most of the many differences betwixt Us and the Romanists with the Independents and their Adherents are resolved into Revelations and Fancies and so of no more Authority to indifferent persons than the Enthusiasms of the Quakers But the Church of Rome can by no means fall justly under such a censure considering she is as we say a true Church and acknowledged by all to be ancient and how all along she has been like Syon a City that is at unity in it self but that unity will not be much admired when this short Ecclesiastical History of twenty years commencing 1030 is considered In the Church sate Benet the ninth twelve years Benet is deposed and Silvester the third comes in by Symony and is expelled by Benet and he by the people Ros Chron. he resigneth to Gregory the sixth so now three Popes in Rome all deposed at Sutrium and Clement the second chosen who flyes into Germany and is poysoned Benet again eight months And is not here a blessed harmony for fifteen years Then Leo the ninth succeeds five years but least I should enlarge my volume to the rate of a Play and so undo the Stationer I will only tell thee that I gave it in Charge because I thought it my duty and Printed it because it may from my hands be more indifferently lookt on as one known to have no worldly Advantage by the Church then from a known or suspected Divine who will by prejudiced men which are now too many be looked upon as partial and so may have a better effect then ordinary for though the world generally be Sermon-proof yet possibly it may not be Charge-proof and that encouraged me to make this venture Yet because of a thing like a text which like one of your old fashioned Sermons chimes in every Paragraph some to discredit it will according to their scoffing way call it a Preachment well be it so it was neither preached in a Church nor according to the Liturgy and so consequently a Conventicle a name amongst many so sacred that it apologizes like Corban amongst the Jews for omitting the duties of the fifth commandement and so then there is no great fear of well coming of but let all conventicles take Example a thing more revered now than Precepts and assert the Laws and Religion established as I have done and it s very probable they may get a bill of comprehension and in the mean time his Majesties Justices I believe will be unwilling to disturb them Gentlemen THis being a time that the true Sons of our Church might devoutly wish for but could not Morally few months ago hope so soon to have seen wherein as by a Touch-stone gold is distinguished from baser mettals the true Protestant Religion from Fanaticism and Popery it may not be improper to say something to you by way of Preamble of Religion and the rather because you know there are so many professions all pretending to an Equal and Apostolical Right Now to enable you the better to distinguish I lay this down for a just and true measure of it That Religion is the best and safest that most magnifies God and likewise most advances a peaceable Christian conversation amongst men I shall not say much of the former at present considering that all professions equally pretend to it but make the main subject of my discourse concerning the latter Our blessed Lord and Saviour left this for a standing rule to his Church Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you even so do to them By the strict following of which so much advancing a Peaceable Conversation amongst men she triumph't o're the Roman world in less than three hundred years notwithstanding the opposition of all her Legions The Professours of Christianity amongst us may be reduced to five heads Quaker Independent under which may be comprehended all the Rabble of Sects as Familists Anabaptists Fifth Monarchy men c. for Independency is like a Mathematical line divisibilis in semper divisibilia Presbyterian Church of England and Papist Now when I have set forth the Principles and Practices of all severally it will not
Cloud where he amongst others had contrived the bloody Massacre at Paris the greatest piece of villany and treachery that the world ever knew justified except that of the Mamertines upon their hosts at Messana was slain by a Monk for not being papist enough Sir W. R. l. 1.270 though he had formerly so signalized it by an Act so Heroique that his Holiness thought fit to celebrate by calling his Cardinals together to give God thanks for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian World To omit many more notorious practices it 's very principles are inconsistent with Monarchy for it sets up at the best two Supreams like Hobs his two omnipotents DeCive which will like them too be in a continual state of disobedience to each other which is utterly inconsistent with the ends of Government Now we have a great deal of reason to submit which they call reconciling our selves to the See of Rome when we consider how the Council of Constance broke the publique faith in burning of John Hus and Hierom of Prague C. T. and as the Diet at Wormes would have done in the case of Luther had not the Prince Palatine Lewis used his power as well as reasons against it and no wonder when it is considered what Paul the fourth Decemb. 20.1555 in the Consistory after wards declared a mongst other things that it is an article of Faith That the Pope cannot be bound and much less can bind himself C.T. 396. and that to say otherwise is manifest heresie and if any after that should say so the Inquisition should proceed I shall not say much of Infallibility their second Staff or Pillar because the pretences to it one would think cannot be very strong when you consider that there have been about 30 Schisms in that Church that is more then one Pope at a time and Council against Council too in the Case as that of Basil under Felix the fifth against Florence under Eugenius the fourth besides others and all equally pretending and I think with equal right too to Infallibility which is not much strengthned by the Act of Parliament that declared 2 R. 2. c. 5. that Vrban was duly chosen Pope and so ought to be accepted and obeyed Image worship I shall wave as being by an able Champion of our Church sufficiently proved to be Idolatry notwithstanding the nice distinctions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stilling of Idol and shall speak first of Transubstantiation as being the greatest if not the only part of their Religion that they are content to have the Scriptures extant for but with what reason we shall briefly examine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is my body it is here observable that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the Relative to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ham. annot Mat. 28. bread but of the neuter gender and consequently it is not here said that this bread is my body the body of Christ but either indefinitely this or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take eat this is my body this taking or eating is or denotes my body which is more fully exprest Luke 22.19 This is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance or commemoration of me There are many other arguments made use of thereby this Learned Doctor to whom I refer those that desire further satisfaction in this point whereby he does invalidate the literal and carnal meaning of these words so far as you may as soon prove Extream Vnction by them as Transubstantiation Now having done with the Scriptural part of it Acts Mon. 218. it may not be amiss to tell you that it is but a Novel being but established under Pope Nicholas the second against Berengarius in the Council of Lateran Yet Hildebrand his Successor had no great faith in it though so established when he desired the Church to pray that God would shew by miracle whether Berengarius was rightly condemned or no an argument of his doubting but after he gave a special one that he no longer doubted though I cannot say it was any great argument of Faith when in a fit of madness he burnt the Host because it did not give an answer concerning the success of Henry the Emperor But since that doctrine with a great many other worthy ones hath been confirmed by the Council of Trent Con. Tr. Ses 13. which decreed that Divine honor should be given to the Bread But no wonder if you consider the Bishop of Quinque Ecclesiae's Letter an eminent member of the Council to the Emperour Maximilian the second What good saies he could be done in that Council where Votes were not weighed but numbred and a little after They were hireling Bishops who as Country Bagpipes C.T. 84. could not speak but as breath was put into them the holy Ghost had nothing to do in this Assembly For it consisted of Tituladoe's Beardless boys old flatterers unlearned and simple Ibid. yet fitted by their impudent boldness generals of orders names nor things ever heard of in the primitive time but they are the Popes Mamalukes with whom he doth enslave a great part of the world and desigus the same to the rest Now if the point of Transubstantiation for which divine honor is given to the bread come to be examined by reason which is not wholly to be declined in matters of Faith it will notwithstanding the Fathers of Trent be found little less then a meer Invention God Almighty requires a reasonable service of us 't is then impious to think that we must wave that faculty by which we are distinguished from Brutes in becoming his servants as all men must that believe that Doctrine And though they pretend that the doctrine of the Trinity is as irreconcilable to reason as the other and yet not to be disputed they may as well argue thus the Doctrine of the Trinity is not to be comprehended by reason Ergo the Pope is Infallible St. Peter on the day of Pentecost used other kind of Arguments when 3000 were converted for if he had said Acts 2. from v. 6. instead of God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ that the wafer or piece of bread then shewed them was the same Jesus that not many days before was crucified at Jerusalem what would a rational man think would have been the sequel they would have counted him at the best as they did the Eleven full of new wine V. 13. nay rather some of the Zealots would have stoned him as they afterwards did St. Stephen and St. Paul upon a less occasion Therefore no wonder if the Jesuites so often miscarry amongst the Japaneses a very wise and rational people when the strongest arguments to induce them to Christianity consist in carrying a bit of bread in procession and worshipping it I 'le give you one Philosophical argument for