this knowledge and obedience as cannot admit of any defect or any supplement This Rule can be no other then his written Word therefore written that it might be preserved entire for this purpose to the last date of time As for orall Traditions what certainty can there be in them what foundation of truth can be lai'd upon the breath of man How do we see the reports vary of those things which our eyes have seen done How do they multiply in their passage and either grow or die upon hazards Lastly we think him not an honest man whose tongue goes against his owne hand How hainous an imputation then do they cast upon the God of Truth which plead Traditions derived from him contrary to his written Word Such apparently are the worship of Images the mutilation of the Sacrament Purgatory Indulgences and the rest which have passed our agitation Since therefore the authority of Romish Traditions is besides Novelty Erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly abandoned it and are thereupon unjustly condemned As for those other dangerous and important Innovations concerning Scriptures their Canon inlarged their faulty Version made authentical their fountains pretended to be corrupted their mis-pleaded Obscurity their restraint from the Laity we have already largely displai'd them in another place CHAP. XVII The Newnesse of the universall Headship of the Bishop of Rome THose transcendent Titles of Headship and Universality which are challenged to the Bishop and See of Rome are known to be the upstart brood of noted ambition Simple and holy Antiquity was too modest either to require or tolerate them Who knows not the profession of that holy Martyr in the Councill of Carthage Neque enim c. There is none of us that makes himself a Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannous fear compels his underlings to a necessitie of obedience but perhaps at Rome it was otherwise Heare then with what zeal their own Pope Gregory the Great inveighs against the arrogance of John Bishop of Constantinople for giving way to this proud style His Epistles are extant in all hands so clear and convictive as no art of Sophistry can elude them wherein he calls this Title affected by the said John and Cyriacus after him a new name a wicked profane insolent name the generall plague of the Church a corruption of the Faith against Canons against the Apostle Peter against God himself as if he could never have branded it enough And lest any man should cavil that this style is onely cried down in the Bishops of Constantinople which yet might be justly claimed by the Bishops of Rome Gregorie himself meets with this thought and answers beforehand Nunquam pium virum c. That never any godly man never any of his Predecessors used those Titles and more then so That whosoever shall use this proud style he is the very fore-runner of Antichrist If in a foresight of this Usurpation Gregory should have been hired to have spoken for us against the Pride of his following Successors he could not have set a keener edge upon his style Consonant whereto it is yet extant in the very Canon Law as quoted by Gratian out of the Epistle of Pope Pelagius the second Universalis autem nec etiam Romanus Pontifex appelletur Not the Bishop of Rome himself may be called Universall Yet how famously is it known to all the World that the same Gregorie's next Successor save one Boniface the third obtained this title of Universall Bishop from the Emperour Phocas which the said Emperour gave him in a spleen against Cyriacus Patriarch of Constantinople for delivering Constantina the Wife of Mauritius and her Children or as some others relate it upon a worse occasion And accordingly was this haughty Title communicated by the same power to the See of Rome and by strong hand ever since maintained This qualification their Register Platina confesses was procured not without great contention And Otho Frisingensis fully and ingenuously writeth thus Gregory departed hence to the Lord after whom the next save one Boniface obtained of Phocas that by his authority the Romane Church might be called the head of all Churches for at that time the See of Constantinople I suppose because of the seat of the Empire translated thither wrote her self the first Thus their Bishop Otho Now if any man shall think that hence it will yet follow that the See of Rome had formerly enjoyed this Honour however the Constantinopolitan for the present shouldred with her for it let him know the ground of both their challenges which as it was supposed by Otho so is fully for the satisfaction of any indifferent judgement laid forth in the Generall Council of Chalcedon The same say those Fathers we determine of the priviledges of the most holy Church of Constantinople called new Rome For the Fathers have justly heretofore given priviledge to the Throne of old Rome because that City was then the Governesse of the world and upon the same consideration were the hundred and fifty Bishops men beloved of God moved to yield equall priviledges to the Throne of new Rome rightly judging that this City which is honoured with the Empire and Senate and is equally priviledged with old Rome the then Queen of the world should also in Ecclesiasticall matters be no lesse extolled and magnified Thus they And this act is subscribed Bonifacius Presbyter Ecclesiae Romanae statui subscripsi I Boniface Presbyter of the Church of Rome have so determined and subscribed Et coeteri c. And the rest of the Bishops of divers Provinces and Cities subscribed What can be more plain This Headship of the Bishop was in regard of the See and this headship of the See was in regard of the preeminence of the City which was variable according to the changes of times or choice of Emperours But Binius wrangleth here Can we blame him when the free-hold of their Great Mistresse is so nearly touched This Act saith he was not Synodicall as that which was closely and cunningly done in the absence of the Popes Legates and other Orthodox Bishops at the instance of Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople an ambitious man by the Eastern Bishops onely How can this plea stand with his own confessed subscription Besides that their Caranza in his Abridgement shews that this Point was long and vehemently canvassed in that Council between Lucentius and Boniface Legates of the Romane Church and the rest of the Bishops and at last so concluded as we have related not indeed without the protestation of the said Legates Nobis proesentibus c. The Apostolick See must not in our presence be abased Notwithstanding this act then carried and after this Pope Simplicius succeeding to Hilarius made a Decree to the same purpose not without allusion to this contention for precedency that Rome should take place of Constantinople Yea so utterly unthought of
was this absolute Primacy and Headship of old as that when the Roman Dition was brought down to a Dukedome and subjected to the Exarchate of Ravenna the Archbishop of Ravenna upon the very same grounds stuck not as Blondus tels us to strive with the Bishop of Rome for Priority of place So necessarily was the rising or fall of the Episcopall Chair annexed to the condition of that City wherein it was fixed But in all this we well see what it is that was stood upon an arbitrable precedency of these Churches in a priority of order and according thereunto the Bishop of Rome is determined to be primae sedis Episcopus the Bishop of the first See A style which our late Learned Soveraign professed with Justinian not to grudge unto the modern Bishops of that See But as for a Primacy of Soveraignty over all Churches and such an Headship as should inform and inliven the body and govern it with infallible influences it is so new and hatefull as that the Church in all Ages hath opposed it to the utmost neither will it be indured at this day by the Greek Church notwithstanding the colourable pretence of subscription hereunto by their dying Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople in the late Florentine Council and the letters of union subscribed by them Anno 1539. Yea so far is it from that as that their Emperour Michael Palaeologus for yielding a kinde of subjection of the Eastern Bishops to the Roman would not be allowed the honour of Christian Burial as Aemilius hath recorded And in our time Basilius the Emperour of Russia which challengeth no small part in the Greek Church threatned to the Pope's Legate as I have been informed an infamous death and burial if he offered to set foot in his Dominions out of a jealous hate of this Usurpation Sect. 2. The Newnesse of challenged Infallibility THE particularities of this new arrogation of Rome are so many that they cannot be pent up in any streight room I will only instance in some few The Pope's Infallibility of Judgment is such a Paradox as the very Histories of all times and proceedings of the Church doth sufficiently convince For to what purpose had all Councils been called even of the remotest Bishops to what purpose were the agitations of all controversal causes in those Assemblies as Erasmus justly observes if this Opinion had then obtained Or how came it about that the Sentences of some Bishops of Rome were opposed by other Sees by the Successors of their own by Christian Academies if this conceit had formerly passed for current with the World How came it to passe that whole Councils have censured and condemned some Bishops of Rome for manifest Heresies if they were perswaded beforehand of the impossibility of those Errours Not to speak of Honorius of Liberius and others the Council of Basil shall be the voice of common observation Multi Pontifices c. Many Popes say they are recorded to have faln into Errours and Heresies Either all stories mock us or else this parasitical dream of impeccancy in judgment is a mere stranger And his disguise is so foul that it is no marvel if Errare non possum I cannot erre seemed to Eberhardus Bishop of Saltzburgh no other then the suit of an Antichrist Sect. 3. The Newness of the Popes Superiority to General Councils HOW bold and dangerous a Novelty is that which Cardinal Bellarmine and with him the whole Society and all the late Fautors of that See after the Florentine Synod stick not to avouch Summus Pontifex c. The Pope is absolutely above the whole Church and above a General Council so as he acknowledges no Judges on earth over himself How would this have relished with those well-near a thousand Fathers in the Council of Constance who punctually determined thus Ipsa Synodus c. The Synod lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost making a Generall Council representing the Catholick Church militant upon earth hath immediately power from Christ whereunto every man whosoever he be of what state or dignity soever although he be the Pope himself is bound to obey in those things which pertain to Faith or to the extirpation of Schism And fifteen years after that the General Council of Basil wherein was President Julianus Cardinall of Saint Angelo the Popes Legate defined the same matter in the same words It is no marvell if Cardinal Bellarmine and some others of that strain reject these as unlawfull Councils but they cannot deny first that this Decree was made by both of them secondly that the Divines there assembled were in their allowance Catholick Doctors and such as in other Points adhered to the Romane Church insomuch as they were the men by whose sentence John Husse and Hierome suffered no lesse then death and yet even so lately did these numerous Divines in the voice of the Church define the Superiority of a Council above the Pope What speak we of this when we finde that the Bishops of the East excommunicated in their assembly Julius the Bishop of Rome himself amongst others without scruple as Solzomen reporteth How ill would this Doctrine or practice now be endured Insomuch as Gregory of Valence dares confidently say that whosoever he be that makes a Council superior to the Pope fights directly though unawares against that most certain Point of Faith concerning Saint Peter's and the Roman Bishops Primacie in the Church Sect. 4. The new presumption of Papall Dispensations FRom the opinion of this supereminent Power hath flowed that common course of Dispensations with the Canons and Decrees of Councils which hath been of late a great eye-sore to moderate beholders Franciscus à Victoria makes a wofull complaint of it professing to doubt whether in the end of the year there be more that have leave by this means to break the laws then those that are tied to keep them Thereupon wishing for remedy that there were a restraint made of those now boundlesse Dispensations and at last objecting to himself that such a Decree of restriction would be new and not heard of in any former Council he answers Tempore Conciliorum antiquorum c. In the time of the antient Councils Popes were like to the other Fathers of those Councils so as there was no need of any act for holding them back from this immoderate licence of dispensing yea if we do well turn over the laws and histories of the Antient we shall finde that Popes did not presume so easily and commonly to dispense with Decrees of Councils but observed them as the Oracles of God himself yea not onely did they forbear to doe it ordinarily but perhaps not once did they ever dispense at all against the Decrees of Councils But now saith he by little and little are we grown to this intemperance of dispensations and to such an estate as that we can neither abide our mischiefs nor
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
known or considered that of old a souldier was a sacred thing and it is worth your notice what in former times was the manner of our Ancestors in consecrating a Souldier or a Knight to the wars Some six hundred years agoe and upward as I find in the history of Ingulphus the manner was this Anglorum erat consuetudo quod qui militiae legitimae consecrandus esset c. He that should be devoted to the trade of war the evening before his consecration came to the Bishop or Priest of the place and in much contrition and compunction of heart made a confession of all his sins and after his absolution spent that night in the Church in watching in prayers in afflictive devotions on the morrow being to hear Divine Service he was to offer up his Sword upon the Altar and after the Gospel the Priest was with a solemn benediction to put it about his neck and then after his communicating of those sacred mysteries he was to remain miles legitimus Thus he who tels us how that valiant and successful Knight Heward came thus to his uncle one Brandus the devout Abbot of Peterborough for his consecration and that this Custome continued here in England till the irreligious Normans by their scorns put it out of countenance accounting such a one non legitimum militem sed equitem socordem Quiritem degenerem This was their ancient and laudable manner some shadow whereof we retain whiles we hold some Orders of Knighthood Religious And can we wonder to hear of noble victories atchieved by them of Giants and Monsters slain by those hands that had so pious an initiation These men professed to come to their combats as David did to Goliah in the name of the Lord no marvel if they prospered Alas now Nulla fides pietásque c. ye know the rest the name of a souldier is misconstrued by our Gallants as a sufficient warrant of debauchedness as if a Buff-Jerkin were a lawful cover for a profane heart Wo is me for this sinful degeneration How can we hope that bloody hands of lawless Ruffians should be blessed with palms of triumph that adulterous eyes should be shaded with garlands of victory that profane and atheous instruments if any such be imployed in our wars should return home loaded with success and honour How should they prosper whose sins fight against them more then all the swords of enemies whose main adversary is in their own bosome and in Heaven If the God of Heaven be the Lord of hosts do we think him so lavish that he will grace impiety Can we think him so in love with our persons that he will overlook or digest our crimes Be innocent O ye warriours if ye would be speedful be devout if ye would be victorious Even upon the Bridles of the horses in Zachary must be written Holiness to the Lord how much more upon the fore-heads of his Priests the Leaders of his spiritual war With what face with what heart can he fight against beasts that is a beast himself It is not Holiness yet that can secure us from blows Job's Behemoth as he is construed durst set upon the holy Son of God himself To our Holiness therefore must be added Skill skill to guard and skill to hit skill in choice of weapons places times ways of assault or defence else we cannot but be wounded and tossed at pleasure Hence the Psalmist Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight The title that is given to David's Champions was not dispositi ad clypeum as Montanus hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but disponentes such as could handle the shield and the buckler 1 Chron. 12. 8. Alas what is to be look'd for of raw untaught untrained men if such should be called forth of their shops on the sudden that know not so much as their files or motions or postures but either slight or filling of ditches He that will be a Petus in Jovius his history or a Servilius in Plutarch to come off an untouch'd victor from frequent challenges had need to pass many a guard and Veny in the fence-school So skilful must the man of God be that he must know as S. Paul even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very plots and devices of that great challenger of hell We live in a knowing age and yet how many teachers are very novices in the practick part of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore are either born down or tossed up with the vices of the Time whose miscarriages would God it were as easie to remedy as to lament Lastly what is Skill in our weapon without an heart and hand to use it Rabshakeh could say Counsel and strength are for the warre 2 Kings 18. 20. Strength without Counsel is like a blind Giant and Counsel without Strength is like a quick-sighted Criple If heart and eyes and lims meet not there can be no fight but tu pulsas ego vapulo What are men in this case but lepores galeati or as Sword-fishes that have a weapon but no heart Hear the spirit of a right Champion of Heaven I am ready not to be bound onely but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus Here was a man fit to grapple with beasts It is the word of the sluggish Coward There is a Lion or a Bear in the way What if there be If thou wilt be a Sampson a David incounter them There is no great glory to be look'd for but with hazard and difficulty When the Souldier said The enemy is strong it was bravely answered of the Captain The victory shall be so much more glorious I have shew'd you the man Qualified I should stay to shew you him Armed armed with Authority without with Resolution within but I long to shew you the Fight A Fight it must be which I beseech you observe in the first place Neither doth he say I plai'd with beasts except you would have it in Joab's phrase as neither did the beasts play with him except as Erasmus speaks Ludus exiit in rabiem He saies not I humor'd their bestiality I struck up a league or a truce with the vices of men No S. Paul was far from this he was at a perpetual defiance with the wickedness of the times and as that valiant Commander said would die fighting The world wanted not of old plausible spirits that if an Ahab had a mind to go up against Ramoth would say Go up and prosper and would have horns of iron to push him forward S. Paul was none of them neither may we He hath indeed bidden us if it be possible to have peace with all men not with beasts If wickedness shall go about to glaver with us Is it peace Jehu we must return a short answer and speak blows Far far be it from us to fawn upon vicious Greatness to favour even Court-sins If here we meet with bloody Oaths with scornful Profaneness with Pride with
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
this sense can be no other then figurative and commemorative Is it really propitiatory Without shedding of blood there is no remission If therefore sins be remitted by this Sacrifice it must be in relation to that blood which was shed in his true personal Sacrifice upon the Cross and what relation can be betwixt this and that but of representation and remembrance in which their moderate Cassander fully resteth Sect. 3. Missal Sacrifice against Reason IN Reason there must be in every Sacrifice as Cardinal Bellarmine grants a destruction of the thing offered and shall we say that they make their Saviour to crucifie him again No but to eat him for Consumptio seu manducatio quae fit à Sacerdote The consumption or manducation which is done of the Priest is an essential part of this Sacrifice saith the same Authour For in the whole action of the Masse there is saith he no other real destruction but this Suppose we then the true humane flesh blood and bone of Christ God and man really and corporally made such by this Transubstantiation whether is more horrible to crucisie or to eat it By this rule it is the Priests teeth and not his tongue that makes Christs body a Sacrifice By this rule it shall be hostia an host when it is not a Sacrifice and a reserved host is no Sacrifice howsoever consecrated And what if a mouse or other vermin should eat the Host it is a case put by themselves who then sacrificeth To stop all mouths Laicks eat as well as the Priest there is no difference in their manducation but Laicks sacrifice not and as Salmeron urges the Scripture distinguisheth betwixt the Sacrifice and the participation of it Are not they which eat of the Sacrifices partakers of the Altar And in the very Canon of the Mass Ut quotquot c. the prayer is That all we which in the participation of the Altar have taken the sacred Body and Blood of thy Son c. Wherein it is plain saith he that there is a distinction betwixt the Host and the eating of the Host Lastly sacrificing is an act done to God if then eating be sacrificing the Priest eates his God to his God Quorum Deus venter Whiles they in vain studie to reconcile this new-made Sacrifice of Christ already in Heaven with Jube haec praferri Command these to be carried by the hands of thine holy Angels to thine high Altar in Heaven in the sight of thy Divine Majesty we conclude That this proper and propitiatory Sacrifice of the Masse as a new unholy unreasonable Sacrifice is justly abhorred by us and we for abhorring it unjustly ejected CHAP. X. The Newness of Image-Worship AS for the setting up and worshipping of Images we shall not need to climbe so high as Arnobius or Origen or the Council of Eliberis Anno 305. or to that fact and history of Epiphanius whose famous Epistle is honored by the Translation of Hierome of the picture found by him in the Church of the Village of Anablatha though out of his own Diocese how he tore it in an holy zeal and wrote to the Bishop of the place beseeching him that no such Pictures may be hanged up contrary to our Religion though by the way who can but blush at Master Fisher's evasion that it was sure the Picture of some prophane Pagan when as Epiphanius himself there sayes it had Imaginem quasi Christi vel Sancti cujusdam the Image as it were of Christ or some Saint Surely therefore the Image went for Christs or for some noted Saints neither doth he finde fault with the irresemblance but with the Image as such That of Agobardus is sufficient for us Nullus antiquorum Catholicorum None of the ancient Catholicks ever thought that Images were to be worshipped or adored They had them indeed but for history sake to remember the Saints by not to worship them The decision of Gregory the Great some 600 yeares after Christ which he gave to Serenus Bishop of Massilia is famous in every mans mouth and pen El quidem quia eas ador ari vetuisses c. We commend you saith he that you forbade those Images to be worshipped but we reprove your breaking of them adding the reason of both For that they were only retained for history and instruction not for adoration Which ingenuous Cassander so comments upon as that he shews this to be a sufficient declaration of the judgement of the Romane Church in those times Videlicet ideo haberi picturas c. That Images are kept not to be adored and worshipped but that the ignorant by beholding those Pictures might as by written records be put in minde of what hath been formerly done and be thereupon stirred up to Piety And the same Authour tells us that Sanioribns scholiasticis displicet c. The sounder Schoolmen disliked that opinion of Thomas Aquine who held that the Image is to be worshipped with the same adoration which is due to the thing represented by it reckoning up Durand Holcot Biel. Not to spend many words in a clear case What the judgement and practice of our Ancestours in this Iland was concerning this point appears sufficiently by the relation of Roger Hoveden our Historian who tells us that in the year 792. Charls the King of France sent into this Isle a Synodal Book directed unto him from Constantinople wherein there were divers offensive passages but especially this one that by the unanimous consent of all the Doctours of the East and no fewer then 300 Bishops it was decreed that Images should be worshipped quod Ecclesia Dei execratur saith he which the Church of God abhorres Against which Errour Albinus saith he wrote an Epistle marvellously confirmed by authority of Divine Scriptures and in the person of our Bishops and Princes exhibited it together with the said Book unto the French King This was the setled resolution of our Predecessours And if since that time prevailing Superstition have incroached upon the ensuing succession of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the old rules stand as those Fathers determined away with Novelties But good Lord how apt men are to raise or believe lies for their own advantage Urspergensis and other friends of Idolatry tell us of a Council held at London in the days of Pope Constantine Anno 714. wherein the worship of Images was publickly decreed the occasion whereof was this Egwin the Monk after made Bishop had a Vision from God wherein he was admonished to set up the Image of the Mother of God in his Church The matter was debated and brought before the Pope in his See Apostolick there Egwin was sworn to the truth of his Vision Thereupon Pope Constantinus sent his Legate Boniface into England who called a Council at London wherein after proof made of Egwin's Vision there was an act made for Image-worship A figment so gross that even their Baronius
future Errours in blowing up the very grounds of these humane devices The First and main ground of both is the remainders of some temporal punishments to be pay'd after the guilt and eternal punishment remitted the driblets of Venial sins to be reckon'd for when the Mortal are defraied Hear what God saith I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Loe can the Letter be read that is blotted out Can there be a back-reckoning for that which shall not be remembred I have done away thy transgressions as a Cloud What sins can be lesse then transgressions What can be more clearly dispersed then a Cloud Wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Who can tell where the spot was when the skin is rinsed If we confesse our sins he is faithfull to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Loe he cleanseth us from the guilt and forgives the punishment What are our sins but debts What is the infliction of punishment but an exaction of payment What is our remission but a striking off that score And when the score is struck off what remains to pay Remitte debita Forgive our debts is our daily Prayer Our Saviour tells the Paralitick Thy sins are forgiven thee in the same words implying the removing of his Disease If the sin be gone the punishment cannot stay behinde We may smart by way of chastisement after the freest remission not by way of revenge for our amendment not for God's satisfaction The Second ground is a middle condition betwixt the state of eternal life and death of no lesse torment for the time then Hell it self whose flames may burn off the rust of our remaining sins the issues wherefrom are in the power of the great Pastor of the Church How did this escape the notice of our Saviour Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and comes not into judgment as the Vulgar it self terms it but is passed from death unto life Behold a present possession and immediate passage no judgement intervening no torment How was this hid from the great Doctor of the Gentiles who putting himself into the common case of the believing Corinthians professes We know that if once our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands eternall in the Heavens The dissolution of the one is the possession of the other here is no interposition of time of estate The Wise man of old could say The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them Upon their very going from us they are in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. John heard from the heavenly voice From their very dying in the Lord is their blessedness Sect. 3. Indulgences against Reason IT is absurd in Reason to think that God should forgive our Talents and arrest us for the odde Farthings Neither is it lesse absurd to think that any living soul can have superfluities of Satisfaction whenas all that man is capable to suffer cannot be sufficient for one and that the least sin of his own the wages whereof is eternall death or that those superfluities of humane satisfaction should piece up the infinite and perfectly-meritorious superabundance of the Son of God or that this supposed treasure of Divine and humane satisfactions should be kept under the key of some one sinfull man or that this one man who cannot deliver his own Soul from Purgatory no not from Hell it self should have power to free what others he pleaseth from those fearfull flames to the full Gaol-delivery of that direfull prison which though his great power can doe yet his no lesse charity will not doth not or that the same Pardon which cannot acquit a man from one hours tooth-ach should be of force to give his Soul ease from the temporary pains of another world Lastly Guilt and Punishment are Relatives and can no more be severed then a perfect forgivenesse and a remaining compensation can stand together This Doctrine therefore of Papal Indulgences as it led the way to the further discovery of the corruptions of the degenerated Church of Rome so it still continues justly branded with Noveltie and Errour and may not be admitted into our belief and we for rejecting it are unjustly refused CHAP. XII The Newness of Divine Service in an unknown tongue THat Prayers and other Divine offices should be done in a known tongue understood of the people is not more available to edification as their Cajetan liberally confesseth then consonant to the practice of all Antiquity insomuch as Lyranus freely In the Primitive Church blessings and all other services were done in the vulgar tongue What need we look back so far when even the Lateran Council which was but in the year 1215. under Innocent the third makes this Decree Quoniam in plerisque Because in many parts within the same City and Diocese people are mixed of divers languages having under one Faith divers Rites and fashions we strictly command that the Bishops of the said Cities or Dioceses provide fit and able men who according to the diversities of their Rites and Languages may celebrate Divine Services and administer the Sacraments of the Church to them instructing them both in word and example Cardinall Bellarmine's evasion is very grosse That in that place Innocentius and the Council speak only of the Greek and Latine tongue For then saith he Constantinople was newly taken by the Romanes by reason whereof there was in Greece a mixture of Greeks and Latines insomuch as they desired that in such places of frequence two Bishops might be allowed for the ordering of those several Nations Whereupon it was concluded that since it were no other then monstrous to appoint two Bishops unto one See it should be the charge of that one Bishop to provide such under him as should administer all holy things to the Grecians in Greek and in Latine to the Latines For who sees not that the Constitution is general Plerisque partibus for very many parts of the Christian world and Populi diversarum linguarum People of sundry languages not as Bellarmine cunningly diversae linguae of a diverse language And if these two only Languages had been meant why had it not been as easie to specifie them as to intimate them by so large a circumlocution The Synod is said to be universal comprehending all the Patriarchs seventy seven Metropolitans and the most eminent Divines of both East and West Churches to the number of at least 2212 persons or as some others 2285. besides the Embassadors of all Christian Princes of several Languages Now shall we think that there were in all their Territories and Jurisdictions no mixtures of inhabitants but only of Grecians and Romans or
Penance and Absolution The antient course as Cassander and Lindanus truly witness was that Absolution and Reconciliation and right to the Communion of the Church was not given by imposition of hands unto the Penitent till he had given due satisfaction by performing of such penal acts as were enjoined by the discreet Penitentiarie yea those works of Penance saith he when they were done out of Faith and an heart truly sorrowfull and by the motion of the Holy Spirit preventing the minde of man with the help of his Divine Grace were thought not a little available to obtain remission of the sin and to pacifie the displeasure of God for sin Not that they could merit it by any dignity of theirs but that thereby the minde of man is in a sort fitted to the receit of God's Grace But now immediatly upon the Confession made the hand is laid upon the Penitent and he is received to his right of Communion and after his Absolution certain works of piety are enjoined him for the chastisement of the flesh and expurgation of the remainders of sin Thus Cassander In common apprehension this new order can be no other then preposterous and as our learned Bishop of Carlisle like Easter before Lent But for this Ipsi viderint it shall not trouble us how they nurture their own childe CHAP. XIV The Newness of the Romish Invocation of Saints OF all those Errours which we reject in the Church of Rome there is none that can plead so much shew of Antiquity as this of Invocation of Saints which yet as it hath been practised and defended in the later times should in vain seek either example or patronage amongst the Antient. However there might be some grounds of this Devotion secretly muttered and at last expressed in Panegyrick forms yet untill almost 500 years after Christ it was not in any sort admitted into the publick service It will be easily granted that the Blessed Virgin is the prime of all Saints neither could it be other then injurious that any other of that Heavenly Society should have the precedency of her Now the first that brought her name into the publick Devotions of the Greek Church is noted by Nicephorus to be Petrus Gnapheus or Fullo a Presbyter of Bithynia afterwards the Usurper of the See of Antioch much about 470 years after Christ who though a branded Heretick found out four things saith he very usefull and beneficial to the Catholick Church whereof the last was Ut in omni precatione c. That in every Prayer the Mother of God should be named and her Divine name called upon The phrase is very remarkable wherein this rising Superstition is expressed And as for the Latine Church we hear no news of this Invocation in the publick Letanies till Gregorie's time about some 130 years after the former And in the mean time some Fathers speak of it fearfully and doubtfully How could it be otherwise when the common opinion of the Antients even below Saint Austin's age did put up all the Souls of the Faithfull except Martyrs in some blinde receptacles whether in the Center of the earth or elsewhere where they might in candida exspectare diem Judicii as Tertullian hath it four severall times And Stapleton himself sticks not to name divers of them thus fouly mistaken Others of the Fathers have let fall speeches directly bent against this Invocation Non opus est patronis c. There is no need of any Advocates to God saith S. Chrysostome and most plainly elsewhere Homines si quando c. If we have any suit to men saith he we must fee the porters and treat with jesters and parasites and goe many times a long way about In God there is no such matter he is exorable without any of our Mediators without money without cost he grants our petitions It is enough for thee to crie with thine heart alone to powre out thy tears and presently thou hast won him to mercy Thus he And those of the Antients that seem to speak for it lay grounds that overthrow it Howsoever it be all holy Antiquity would have both blushed and spit at those forms of Invocation which the late Clients of Rome have broached to the world If perhaps they speak to the Saints tanquam deprecatores vel potius comprecatores as Spalatensis yields moving them to be competitioners with us to the throne of Grace not properly but improperly as Altissiodore construes it how would they have digested that blasphemous Psalter of our Lady imputed to Bonaventure and those styles of mere Deification which are given to her and the division of all offices of Piety to mankinde betwixt the Mother and the Son How had their eares glowed to hear Christus oravit Franciscus exoravit Christ prayed Francis prevailed How would they have brooked that which Ludovicus Vives freely confesses Multi Christiani c. Many Christians worship divâ—s divasque the Saints of both sexes no otherwise then God himself Or that which Spalatensis professes to have observed that the ignorant multitude are tarried with more entire religious affection to the Blessed Virgin or some other Saint then to Christ their Saviour These foul Superstitions are not more hainous then new and such as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with the practicers of them Sect. 2. Invocation of Saints against Scripture AS for the better side of this mis-opinion even thus much colour of Antiquity were cause enough to suspend our censures according to that wise moderate resolution of learned Zanchius were it not that the Scriptures are so flatly opposite unto it as that we may justly wonder at that wisdome which hath provided Antidotes for a disease that of many hundred years after should have no being in the World The ground of this Invocation of Saints is their notice of our earthly condition and speciall Devotions And behold thou prevailest ever against man and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away His sons come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceiveth it not saith Job The dead know nothing at all saith wise Solomon Also their love and their hatred and their envy is now perished neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun No portion in any thing therefore not in our miseries nor in our allocutions If we have a portion in them for their love and Prayers in common for the Church they have no portion in our particularities whether of want or complaint Abraham our Father is ignorant of us saith Esay and Israel acknowledges us not Loe the Father of the Faithfull above knows not his own children till they come into his bosome and he that gives them their names is to them as a stranger Wherefore should good Josiah be gathered to his Fathers
the two other Books and seconds that so I might return my payment cum foenore In that your Lordships Tractate I could not but observe the lively Image of your self that is according to the generall interpretation of all sound Professours of the Gospel of christ of a most Orthodox Divine And now remembring the Accordance your Lordship hath with others touching the Argument of your Book I must needs reflect upon my self who have long since defended the same Point in the defence of many others I do therefore much blame the Petulcity of whatsoever Author that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him whom besides his excellent Writings and Sermons God's visible eminent and resplendent Graces of Illumination Zeal Piety and Eloquence have made truely Honourable and glorious in the Church of Christ Let me say no more I suffer in your suffering not more in consonancy of Judgement then in the sympathy of my Affection Goe on dear Brother with your deserved Honour in God's Church with holy courage knowing that the dirty feet of an adversary the more they tread and rub the more lustre they give the figure graven in Gold Our Lord Jesus preserve us to the glory of his saving Grace Your Lordships unanimous friend and Brother THO. Covent and Litchfield TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOHN LORD Bishop of SALISBURY MY Lord I send you this little Pamphlet for your censure It is not credible how strangely I have been traduced every where for that which I conceive to be the common Opinion of Reformed Divines yea of reasonable men that is for affirming the true Being and Visibility of the Roman Church You see how clearly I have endeavoured to explicate this harmless Position yet I perceive some tough misunderstandings will not be satisfied Your Lordship hath with great reputation spent many years in the Divinity-Chair of the famous University of Cambridge Let me therefore beseech you whose Learning and Sincerity is so throughly approved in God's Church that you would freely how shortly soever express your self in this Point and if you finde that I have deviated but one hairs breadth from the Truth correct me if not free me by your just Sentence What need I to intreat you to pity those whose desires of faithful offices to the Church of God are unthankfully repaied with Suspicion and Slander whose may not this case be I had thought I had sufficiently in all my Writings and in this very last Book of mine whence this quarrell is picked shewed my fervent zeal for God's Truth against that Antichristian Faction of Rome and yet I doubt not but your own ears can witness what I have suffered Yea as if this calumny were not enough there want not those whose secret whisperings cast upon me the foul aspersions of another Sect whose name is as much hated as little understood My Lord you know I had a place with you though unworthy in that famous Synod of Dort where howsoever sickness bereaved me of the houres of a conclusive Subscription yet your Lordship heard me with equall vehemency to the rest crying down the unreasonableness of that way God so love me as I do the tranquillity and happiness of his Church yet can I not so overaffect it that I would sacrifice one dram of Truth to it To that good God do I appeal as the witness of my sincere heart to his whole Truth and no-less-then-ever-zealous detestation of all Popery and Pelagianisme Your Lordship will be pleased to pardon this importunity and to vouchsafe your speedy Answer to Your much devoted and faithfull Brother JOS. EXON TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD JOSEPH Lord Bishop of EXON these My LORD YOU desire my Opinion concerning an Assertion of yours whereat some have taken offence The Proposition was this That the Roman Church remains yet a True Visible Church The occasion which makes this an ill-sounding Proposition in the ears of Protestants especially such as are not throughly acquainted with School Distinctions is the usuall acception of the word True in our English Tongue For though men skilled in Metaphysicks hold it for a Maxime Ens Verum Bonum convertuntur yet with us he which shall affirm such a one is a true Christian a true Gentleman a true Scholar or the like he is conceived not onely to adscribe Trueness of Being unto all these but those due Qualities or requisite Actions whereby they are made commendable or praise-worthy in their severall kinds In this sense the Roman Church is no more a True Church in respect of Christ or those due Qualities and proper Actions which Christ requires then an arrant Whore is a true and loyall Wife unto her Husband I durst upon mine oath be one of your Compurgators that you never intended to adorn that Strumpet with the title of a true Church in this meaning But your own Writings have so fully cleared you herein that suspicion it self cannot reasonably suspect you in this Point I therefore can say no more concerning your mistaken Proposition then this If in that Treatise wherein it was delivered the Antecedents or Consequents were such as served fitly to lead the Reader into that Sense which under the word True comprehendeth onely Truth of Being or Existencie and not the due Qualities of the thing or Subject you have been causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your Discourse you cannot marvell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In brief your Proposition admits a true sense and in that sense is by the best Learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For the Being of a Church does principally stand upon the gracious action of God calling men out of Darkness and Death unto the Participation of Light and Life in Christ Jesus So long as God continues this Calling unto any people though they as much as in them lies darken this Light and corrupt the means which should bring them to Life and Salvation in Christ yet where God calls men unto the Participation of Life in Christ by the Word and by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men be never so false in their Expositions of God's Word or never so untrustie in mingling their own Traditions with God's Ordinances Thus the Church of the Jews lost not her Being of a Church when she became an Idolatrous Church And thus under the government of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their own Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Saviour himself was born who were members of that Church and yet participated not in the Corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Romane was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in Doctrine a False and in Practice an Idolatrous Church is a true Assertion and of greater
use and necessity in our Controversie with Papists about the Perpetuity of the Christian Church then is understood by those who gainsay it This in your Reconciler is so well explicated as if any shall continue in traducing you in regard of that Proposition so explained I think it will be onely those who are better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning and deeper in love with Strife then Truth And therefore be no more troubled with other mens groundless suspicions then you would be in like case with their idle Dreams Thus I have inlarged my self beyond my first intent But my love to your self and the assurance of your constant love unto the Truth inforced me thereunto I rest alwayes Your loving Brother JO. SARUM Jan. 30. 1628. TO THE Reverend and Learned MASTER DOCTOR PRIDEAVX Professor of Divinity in OXFORD and Rector of EXETER Colledge WOrthy Master Doctor Prideaux all our little world here takes notice of your Worth and Eminencie who have long furnished the Divinity Chair in that famous University with mutuall grace and honour Let me intreat you upon the perusall of this sorry sheet of Paper to impart your self freely to me in your Censure and to express to me your clear Judgement concerning the true Being and Visibility of the Romane Church You see in what sense I profess to hold it neither was any other ever in my thoughts Say I beseech you whether you think any learned Orthodox Divine can with any colour of Reason maintain a contradiction hereunto And if you finde as I doubt not much necessity and use of this true and safe Tenet help me to adde if you please a further supply of Antidotes to those Popish Spiders that would fain suck Poison out of this Herb. It was my earnest desire that this satisfactory Reconcilement might have stilled all tongues and pens concerning this ill-raised brabble but I see to my grief how much men care for themselves more then peace I suffer and the Church is disquieted your Learning and Gravity will be ready to contribute to a seasonable Pacification In desire and exspectation of your speedy Answer I take my leave and am Your very loving Friend and Fellow-labourer JOS. EXON TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD And my very good LORD JOSEPH Bishop of EXCESTER Right Reverend Father in GOD UPon the receit of your Reconciler which it pleased you to send me I took occasion as my manifold distractions would permit to peruse what had been said on both sides concerning the now-being of the Roman Church Wherein I must profess that I could not but wonder at the needless Exceptions against your Tenet you affirming no new thing in that passage misliked in your Old Religion And this your Advertisement afterward so fully and punctually cleareth and your Reconciler so acquitteth it with such satisfying ingenuitie that I cannot imagine they have considered it well or mean well that shall persist to oppose it For who perceives not that your Lordship leaves no more to Rome then our best Divines ever since the Reformation have granted If their speeches have been sometimes seemingly different their meaning hath been alwayes the same that in respect of the common Truths yet professed among the Papists they may and ought to be termed a True Visible Church in opposition to Jews Turks and Pagans who directly denie the Foundation howsoever their Antichristian additions make them no better then the Synagogue of Satan This being agreed upon by those whose Judgement we have good reason to follow cited in your Advertisement and by others they doe an ill office to our Church in my opinion who set them at oddes in this Point that are so excellently reconciled and give more advantage to the Adversary by quarrelling with our Worthies then the Adversary is like to get by our acknowledgement that they are such a miserable Church as we discover them to be What I have thought long since in this behalf it appeareth in my Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and as often as this hath come in question in our publick Disputes we determine here no otherwise then your Lordship hath stated it And yet we trust to give as little advantage to Popery as those that doe detest it and are as circumspect to maintain our received Doctrine and Discipline without the least Scandall to the weakest as those that would seem most forward That distinction of Rome's case before and since the Council of Trent holds not to dis-Church it but shews it rather to be more incurable now then heretofore Neither finde I any particulars objected which those Worthy men have not sufficiently cleared that have justified your Assertion Not to trouble therefore your weightier affairs with my needless interposition as that Controversie about the Altar Josuah 22. had presently a fair end upon the full understanding of the good meaning on both sides so I trust in God this shall have In which I am so perswaded that if it were to be discussed there after our Scholastical manner it might well be defended either pro or con without prejudice to the Truth according to the full stating which your Advertisement and Reconciler have afforded And thus with tender of my due Observance and Prayers for your happiness I rest Your Lordships in Christ to be commanded JO. PRIDEAUX From Exon Coll. Martii 9. No. TO My Reverend and Learned Friend MASTER DOCTOR PRIMEROSE PREACHER to the FRENCH CHURCH in LONDON WOrthy Master Doctor Primerose You have been long acknowledged a great Light in the Reformed Churches of France having for many years shined in your Orbe the famous Church of Burdeaux with notable effects and singular approbation both for Judgement and Sincerity both which also your Learned Writings have well approved so as your Sentence cannot be liable to the danger of any suspicion Let me intreat you to declare freely what you hold concerning the Trueness and Visibility of the Roman Church as it is by me explicated and withall to impart your knowledge of the common Tenet of those forein Divines with whom you have so long conversed concerning this Point which if I mistake not onely a stubborn ignorant will needs make litigious It grieves my Soul to see the Peace of the Church troubled with so absurd a misprision In expectation of your Answer I take leave and commend you and your holy Labours to the blessing of our God Farewell From Your loving Brother and Fellow-labourer JOS. EXON TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD And my very good Lord JOSEPH Bishop of EXCESTER Right Reverend Father in God I Have been so busied about my necessary Studies for preaching on Sunday Tuesday and this Thursday that I could not give sooner a full Answer to your Lordships Letter which I received on Friday last at night whereby I am desired to declare freely what I think concerning the Trueness and Visibility of the present Romane Church as it is by your Lordship explicated and what is the common Tenet