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A96120 The way to make all discerning lovers of truth of one mind: for the stronger opposition of those who would ruine them with errours and discords flowing from them. / By A lover of truth and peace ; published with authority. Lover of truth and peace. 1687 (1687) Wing W1169A; ESTC R186320 8,063 40

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there are obscure intoxicating parts of it that are too strong for our weak Brains Witness the uncharitable contradictory Sects sprung from it whose Bloody Effects have sufficiently appear'd in our own Nation But since obscure places ought to be explained because nothing in the word of God can be impertinent and that a great part of the World which ought to be saved cannot read and few that can do well understand what they read Reason doth lead us to the necessity of laying aside what we understand not and leave it all to a learned Umpire Church as we do the Moot Points of the Common Law to the Learned in that Profession as I before hinted But how to be sure of this true Church let us learn if we can out of the plain Texts of the Canonical parts of an Episcopal Protestant Bible We find that in St. Mark Chap. 16. ver 15. 16. our Saviour said to his Disciples And be said unto them Go ye into all the the World and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved But he that believeth not shall be damned And in St. Matthew Chap. 28. ver 20. Christ's own Words Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World. And in St. John Chap. 14. ver 16. And I will pray the Father and be shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever We find apparently in these three Texts that Damnation is denounced to all mis-believers And Christ hath promised to be with his Church to the end of the World. Which is a plain demonstration that it must be always a visible true Church to the end of the World. And God farther declar'd that whatsoever this Church bindeth or looseth on Earth shall be so in Heaven And St. Matthew Chap. 17. 18. And if be shall neglect to hear thee tell it unto the church and and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven In this Text all that deny to hear the true Church are condemned as Heathens And to proceed to more proofs of the Foundation of a true Church in the Apostles Christ's words to St. Peter are found in St. Matthew Chap. 16. ver 18 and 19. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And St. John Chap. 21. ver 15 16 17. there are three Repetitions of Christ to St. Peter Feed my Lambs feed my Sheep feed my Sheep Now these Texts do evidently imply that St. Peter was a Favourite and if any one of the Apostles had Supremacy over the rest it must be He. But now I shall proceed to prove by a Text that the Apostles were all Bishops for if Judas was one the rest are not to be doubted for in the Reproofs of Judas it is written in the Acts Chap. 1. ver 20. For it is written in the Book of Psalms Let his Habitation be desolate and let no Man dwell therein and his Bishoprick let another take And now let the Calvinists and all other Sectaries that Covenanted and fought against Popery and Prelacy and deposed our English Bishops excuse their Persecution if they can of Bishops as Usurpers Unlawful and Antichristian Sure they will not say the Apostles were Antichristian Nor need we any further Proof out of St. Paul's Epistle to Titus and Timothy to make out that there were Bishops as well as Presbyters in God's Church in his time But we may without doubt conclude that John Calvin when he separated from all Episcopal Churches he did revolt from the Apostles and their true Successors be they whom they will and so incurred the Penalty or the Text already mentioned That be that will not hear the Church shall be as a Heathen Man and a Publican He renounced that Church which Christ said he was with to the end of the World. And he was worse than any other Independant for he established a coersive Power in every Parish as absolute as that of a Bishop in his Diocess and left no Power to correct the ill manners of any of his Rulers but the remote one of a National Synod The Roman Greek Lutheran and English Bishops are all alike obliged to this Presbiterian Reformer but he design'd that the heavy charge of Idolatry should justifie all the Confusion of his Doctrine and therefore few of his Followers if any will kneel to receive the Sacrament But the Roman Catholicks and Episcopal Protestants of England if not the rest do kneel to shew their Respect to what God's Word hath given them though they differ whether they should follow the Literal or Mystical Sense of the Text. But I shall endeavour to make it appear that no Christian Church can be guilty of Idolatry The Church which Christ is always with cannot because God hath forbidden it often And none of the rest believe or have taught a multiplicity of Gods. Nor have any Christians commanded the Worshipping of Images or any thing but a Triune God replenished with Infinite Wisdom Power and Charity As for Idolatry it consisteth not in outward respects to Creatures without an evil concurrence of the Heart to Worship and prefer a Senat of Gods before the only true Monarchical God. For we must all turn Quakers if signs of our Civility and Humility are forbidden no man must put off his Hat to another nor bow down his Head in Salutation much less kneel to a Soveraign Prince to kiss his Hand or kneel at his Prayers in a Room where a Crucifix or Picture is But I would satisfie the very Quakers that the Idolatry which the Primitive Christians avoided was the entring into a Pagan Church there to Worship a forbidden Idol as a denyal of Christ before Men who then would deny them before his Heavenly Father And now I shall proceed to the Marks of the true Church that my Readers may easily find it And first for the universality of the true Church I shall only cite one Text out of St. Mark Chap. 16. ver 15. And he said unto them go ye into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature Now whatever Church is most extended and doth yet continue Preaching to most Nations must needs be preferred before those Churches that want this Mark. As for the Succession it must be where Christ is always in a visible Church for Men to hear And if any Church proves an Historical Succession from any of the Apostles and no other Church pretends to the same that must be the true Church which Christ is always with and which whosoever refuses to hear must be a Heathen Man as in the Texts before mentioned Lastly the Nature of all Governments necessarily requiring an Umpire to avoid Discords both in Church and State we may conclude that Bishops are necessary Overseers of the Presbiterian Clergy and Archibishops are continued in England which was once a part of another Church to regulate the failings of dispersed Bishops And if there were but two Archbishops in the World they might as Men erre in matters of Fact and so want an Overseer to regulate their Divisions Manners and Discipline So that we naturally rise to a Successor of Christ as absolute in matters of Faith as if Christ were visibly with him who hath promised to be always with him as is above proved Now tho' St. Peter's Style is fairest to the Monarchical Church-Power by the foremention'd Texts yet I shall forbear to pronounce the Succession but shall conclude with a certain rule to find it out by and that is examin who have been the chief Bishops to call and dissolve the major part of general Councils since the Emperors who did it in the Infancy of the Church left it And if general Councils are the Parliaments of Christendom and that it is a madness to think that God's Blessing is not more upon so many Learned and Pious Men of all Christian Nations expounding hard places of Scripture then upon the Inteterpretation of any private Spirit we may conclude that the Prelate who assembles and dissolves the chosen Divines of all Christian Nations at his Pleasure and never got this Power by force of Arms must be the Universal Spiritual Monarch whom Christ hath promised to be always with to the end of the World as above cited ERRATA PAge 3. l. 20. instead of to the Sun read the Sun p. 6. l. 20. instead of Chap. 21. ver 29. read Chap. 29. ver 21. p. 17. l. 12. instead of affected read effected p. 25. l. 7. instead of Chap. 17. and 18. read Chap. 18. ver 17. and 18. FINIS LONDON Printed by Nat. Thompson at the Entrance into Old Spring Garden near Charing-Cross 1687.