virtutis ministerium infirmo commisit ibid. c Guicciard l. 4. hist Imperante Carolo D. nosâ—ro d Paschalis Anno Euangelii 1070. primus omissis Imperatoris annis sui Pontificatus annos subscripsit In daâ— Apostolatus nostri Anno 1. dein Pontificatus Lib. Sacr. Cerem e Greg. l. 1. de major obed cx Innoc. f Capist 77. g Aug. Triumph qu. 44. 1. h Vide diatr. Derens Ep. l. 4. c. 3. §. 2. Unde habet Imperator Imperiiâ— nisi à nobis Imperator quod habet totum habet à nobis Ecce in potesâ—ate nostra est ut demus illud cui volumus Hadrian Ep. apud Avent l. 6. i Innoc. 4. in cap. Licet de â—oâ—o compet k Lib. sacr Cerem l Etiam Imperator aut Rex aquam ad lavandas ejus manus ferre debet primum item ferâ—â—lum c. ibid. m In processionibus c. ibid. n Stapham equi Papalis tenet c. ibid. o Sellam ipsam cum Pontifice humâ—ris suis aliquantuium portare debet Ibid. a Alm. de pe test Eccl. b Cassand 4. patte Consi 7. C. de Libellis 20. dist Aug. Triumph de pot Eccl. q. 13. Vid. Derens ubi supra Cassand Glor. mundi 4. part Cons 7. Iâ—â—oc Host in cap. 1 de Transâ— Inter Epistclas Ambrosâ—i l. 2. Epist 11. Sera tamen contumeltosâ— est emâ—n 〈◊〉 senectutis ibid. Ambros Epist lib. 2. Ep. 1â— Nullus pudor est ad meliâ—ra transâ—re ibid. Non es tantae authoritatis ut errasse te pudeat c. Hier. Apol. adver Ruffin Fr. Jun. de Ecclesia Capitis autem male sani deliâ—â— contagia vitanda sunt ne ipsi artus pesâ—ilenti humore labesecrent Fr. Pic. Mirandula Theor. 23. Maldon in 4. Joan. Nehem. 9. 33. No peace with Rome Et Roma irreconciâ—iabilis Sect. 1. Columba Noae c. Append. to the Book of the Church 3 part chap. 2. Aug. de Baptis contr Donatist lib. 1. c. 8 10. Jun. de Eccl. lib. sing c. 17. Thes Rain 5. Par. in Rom. 16. Hook 3 Book of Eccles pol. c. 1. One Lord one Faith one Baptisme Crak desen Eccles Angel c. 16. Pet. Baro Conc. ad clerum Bunnie treat of Purif D. Some against Penrie Peter Mart. Epistle Answer to Machiavel p. 8. D. Covel Fregevil polit â—ef B. of S. Davids Chap. D. Williams of the Church Confer pag. 75. * Zanc. miscell de Eccles Whitak Câ—uaes 6. c. 1. pag 444 445. in quâ—r Perk. in 1. ad Galat. CameroÌ„ Zanch. ubi supra In quo purum Dei verbum Orthodoxe intellectium sincere pradicaâ—um Sacramenta solâ— legitimè juxta institutuÌ„ Christi administrata c. M. Perk. Ref. Cath. Append. ubi supra Obj. Resp Obj. Resp Ibid. Praefat. de nat Dei Epist l. 2. resp ad Catabaptist Job 13. 7. Matth. 21. 13. 2 Thes 2. 4. Rev. 18. 1 2. Acts 16. 14. 1 Pet. 3. 21. Rom. 2. 28 29. John 1. 47. 2 Tim. 2. 19. 1 Cor. 2. 12. Rev. 2. 17. Exod. 19. 7 8. 24. 3 7. Exod. 34. 27. Deut. 26. 17 18. Jer. 7. â—3 11. 4. John 10. 27 5. 1 John 4. 6. John 13. 35. Matt. 5. 16. Ps 78. 36. 37. John 2. 23 24. Exod. 32. 7. 32. 19. Esay 1â— 4 10 21. Miâ—h 2. 7. 8. Hoâ—â—â—â— 9. John 8â— 42 44. Rev. 11. 8. 14. 8. 17. 5. 6. 18. 2. Exod. 32. 11. Jer. 14. 2â— Esay 64. 8 9. Gen. 16. 8. Esay 58. 1. 50. 1. Jer. 3. 2 3 4 14. Hos â— 6 9. 4. 12. Hos 2. 2. Rev. 3. 9. Rom. 11. 17. 2 Thess 24. Rev. 18. 4. Rev. 14. 8. John 1 29. 1 John 1. 7. Gal. 2. 16. Heb. 7. 22 25. Gen. 16. 9. Exod. 33. 7. Ezec 16. 25. Jer. 15.1 19. Hos 4. 17. Rev. 18. 4. Lev. 13. 45. 2 Coâ— 6. 14 15 1â— 17 18. Neh. 3. 4. 1 Cor. 3. 12. Psal 36. 3. Rev. 22. 11. 2 Cor. 3. 18. * Si Christus Judam passus est cur non ego patior Birrhichioncm Dial. de S. Martino Sever. Sulpâ— I perceive some Readers have unheedily unjustly stumbled at this Proposition as if I had herein slighted the Differences betwixt us and the Romane Church from which I am so far as that I have ever professed to hold them to be on their parts no lesse then damnable Errors and such as by consequence do raze the Foundation If these words have seemed to sound otherwise it is nothing but the Readers inconsiderate mistaking who if he please to bend his second and more serious thoughts upon the place will easily see that my intention is herein only to shew how unjustly the Church of Rome doth charge us with Heresie in denying their Doctrine forasmuch as those Positions of theirs which we are condemned for refusing are far from being Principles of Faith but are things of their own devising imposing For example they condemn us for rejecting the doctrine of Transubstantiation and refusing to hold that the substance of the Bread is by the force of the words truly and really turned into the very Flesh Blood and Bone of Christ Now I say this their doctrine of Transubstantiation is far from being any Principle of Faith but only a point of their own Divinity devised and maintained by themselves They condemn us for refusing to pray to Saints or to worship Images I say that this Doctrine that Saints ought to be invoked or Images worshipped is far from being a Principle of Faith but onely one of their own Theologicall Positions devised and imposed by themselves The like may be and must be said of all their other Points obtruded on the Church wherein I hope no wise Reformed Catholick will think he hath reason to dissent from me or to misdoubt my Proposition
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
doth not cease to be a Wife unless being despoiled of her marriage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good Conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he again wherein you see he speaks as home for me as I could devise to speak for my self and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrary Look now how this Learned Author may be reconciled to his own pen and by the very same way shall my pen be reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himself or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plain then that he in that former speech and all other Classick Authors that speak in that Key mean by a True Church a sound pure right-believing Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of Existence were all one with truth of Doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evil good and is no better then a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true Being of a Visible Church by the direct maintenance of Fundamental Principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the Word of God and his Sacraments though not without foul adulteration what judicious Christian can but with me subscribe to Learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true Visibility of a Church of Christ What should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of Speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the Society of all that profess Christian Religion through the whole world howsoever impured who can deny this title to the Roman If in a strict sense it be taken as it is by Zanchius here and all those Divines who refuse to give this style to the Synagogue of Rome for the Company of Elect Faithful men gathered into one mystical Body under one Head Christ washed by his Blood justified by his Merits sanctified by his Spirit conscionably waiting upon the true Ordinances of God in his pure Word and holy Sacraments who can be so shameless as to give this title to the Roman Church Both these sentences then are equally true The Church of Rome is yet a true Church in the first sense The Church of Rome long since ceased to be a true Church in the second As those friendly Souldiers therefore of old said to their fellows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why fight we Stay stay dear brethren for Gods sake for his Churches sake for your Souls sake stay these busie and unprofitable litigations put up on both sides your angry pens turn your Swords into Siths to cut down the rank corruptions of the Roman Church and your Spears into Mattocks to beat down the walls of this mystical Babylon There are enemies enough abroad let us be friends at home But if our sense be the same you will ask why our terms varie and why we have chosen to fall upon that manner of expression which gives advantage to the Adversary offence to our own Christian Reader let me beseech thee in the bowels of Christ to weigh well this matter and then tell me why such offence such advantage should be rather given by my words then by the same words in the mouth of Luther of Calvin of Zanchie Junius Plessee Hooker Andrews Field Crakenthorp Bedell and that whole cloud of Learned and Pious Authors who have without exception used the same language and why more by my words now then twentie years agoe at which time I published the same Truth in a more full and liberal expression Wise and charitable Christians may not be apt to take offence where none is given As for any advantage that is hereby given to the Adversaries they may put it in their eye and see never the worse Loe say they we are of the true visible Church this is enough for us why are we forsaken why are we persecuted why are we sollicited to a change Alas poor souls do they not know that Hypocrites leud persons Reprobates are no less members of the true visible Church what gain they by this but a deeper damnation To what purpose did the Jews cry The Temple of the Lord whiles they despited the Lord of that Temple Is the Sea-weed ever the less vile because it is drag'd up together with good fish They are of the visible Church such as it is what is this but to say they are neither Jews nor Turks nor Pagans but misbelievers damnably Heretical in opinion shamefully Idolatrous in practice Let them make their best of this just Eulogie and triumph in this style may we never prosper if we envie them this glorie Our care shall be that besides the Church sensible as Zuinglius distinguisheth we may be of the Church spiritual and not resting in a fruitless Visibility we may finde our selves lively lims of the mystical body of Christ which onely condition shall give us a true right to Heaven whiles fashionable Profession in vain cries Lord Lord and is barred out of those blessed gates with an I know you not Neither may the Reader think that I affect to goe by-waies of speech no I had not taken this path unless I had found it both more beaten and fairer I am not so unwise to teach the Adversary what disadvantage I conceive to be given to our most just Cause by the other manner of explication Let it suffice to say that this form of defence more fully stops the Adversaries mouth in those two main and envious Scandals which he casts upon our holy Religion Defection from the Church and Innovation then which no suggestion hath wont to be more prevalent with weak and ungrounded hearts What we further win by this not more charitable then safe Tenet I had rather it should be silently conceived by the judicious then blazoned by my free pen. Shortly in this state of the Question our gain is as clear as the Adversaries loss our ancient Truth triumphs over their upstart Errours our Charity over their merciless Presumptions Fear not therefore dear Brethren where there is no room for danger suspect not fraud where there is nothing but plain honest simplicity of intentions censure not where there is the same Truth clad in a different but more easie habit of words But if any mans fervent zeal shall rather draw him to the liking of that other rougher and harder way so as in the mean time he keep within the bounds of Christian Charity I tax him not let every man abound
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-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
held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall succession How little were the Jewes better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whiles they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever become of the persons Never times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the world but he would have some faithful to entertain him He that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his own times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aarons blood and John Baptist of theirs whence should an holy seed spring if not of the Loyns of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children it is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the stock and the griffe be not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women then the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no lesse progress in vertue then in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews barrenness was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience she was barren of children As John which was miraculously conceived by man was a fit fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse then irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospel as to tie his service to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorised he authoriseth none but the worthy The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the Legal services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universal charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so he carefully observed it the favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we flacken those duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day the lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods own chusing In lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers then sweet perfume these God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations we make the Gospel lesse officious then the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends up his incense within the Temple the people must send up their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went up to heaven The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer up the incense of prayers unto God then Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews and themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prayes within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of accesse to God under the Gospel if we doe not make use of our priviledge Whiles they were praying to God he sees an Angel of GOD as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zacharie's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospel approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The presence of Angels
that we might be a singular pattern and strange wonder of his Bounty What should I speak of the wholsome temper of our Clime the rich provision of all usefull Commodities so as we cannot say only as Sanchez did I have moisture enough within my own shell but as David did Poculum exuberans My cup runs over to the supply of our neighbour Nations What speak I of the populousnesse of our Cities defencednesse of our shoars These are nothing to that Heavenly treasure of the Gospel which makes us the Vineyard of God and that sweet Peace which gives us the happy fruition of that saving Gospel Albion do we call it nay as he rightly Polyolbion richly blessed O God what where is the Nation that can emulate us in these favours How hath he fenced us about with the hedge of good Discipline of wholesome Laws of gracious Government with the brazen wall of his Almighty and miraculous protection Never Land had more exquisite Rules of Justice whether mute or speaking He hath not left us to the mercy of a rude Anarchie or a Tyrannical violence but hath regulated us by Laws of our own asking and swai'd us by the just Scepters of moderate Princes Never Land had more convincing proofs of an Omnipotent Tuition whether against forein Powers or secret Conspiracies Forget if ye can the year of our Invasion the day of our Purim Besides the many particularities of our deliverances filed up by the pen of one of our worthy Prelates How hath he given us means to remove the rubs of our growth and to gather away the stones of false Doctrine of Heretical pravitie of mischievous machinations that might hold down his truth And which is the head of all how hath he brought our Vine out of the Egypt of Popish Superstition and planted it In plain terms how hath he made us a truely-orthodox Church eminent for purity of Doctrine for the grave and reverend solemnity of true Sacraments for the due form of Government for the pious and Religious form of our publick Liturgie With what plenty hath he showred upon us the first and later rain of his Heavenly Gospel With what rare gifts hath he graced our Teachers With what pregnant spirits hath he furnish'd our Academies With what competencie of maintenance hath he heartned all learned Professions So as in these regards we may say of the Church of England Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all How hath the vigilant eye of his Providence out of his tower of Heaven watch'd over this Island for good Not an hellish Pionier could mine under ground but he espied him not a dark Lantern could offer to deceive midnight but he descries it not a Plot not a purpose of evil could look out but he hath discovered it and shamed the Agents and glorified his Mercy in our deliverance Lastly how infinitely hath his loving care laboured to bring us to good What sweet opportunities and incouragements hath he given us of a fruitfull obedience And when his Fatherly counsels would not work with us how hath he scruzed us in the Wine-presse of his Afflictions one while with a raging Pestilence another while with the insolence and prevalence of Enemies one while with unkindly Seasons another while with stormy and wracking Tempests if by any means he might fetch from us the precious juice of true Penitence and faithfull Obedience that we might turn and live If the presse were weighty yet the wine is sweet Lay now all these together And what could have been done more for our Vineyard O God that thou hast not done Look about you Honourable and Christian hearers and see whether God hath done thus with any Nation Oh never never was any people so bound to a God Other neighbouring Regions would think themselves happy in one drop of those Blessings which have poured down thick upon us Alas they are in a vaporous and marish vale whiles we are seated on the fruitfull Hill they lie open to the massacring knife of an Enemy whiles we are fenced they are clogged with miserable incumbrances whiles we are free Briers and Brambles overspread them whiles we are choicely planted their Tower is of offence their Winepresse is of blood Oh the lamentable condition of more likely Vineyards then our own Who can but weep and bleed to see those wofull Calamities that are faln upon the late-famous and flourishing Churches of Reformed Christendome Oh for that Palatine Vine late inoculated with a precious bud of our Royal Stem that Vine not long since rich in goodly clusters now the insultation of Boars and prey of Foxes Oh for those poor distressed Christians in France Bohemia Silesia Moravia Germany Austria the Valteline that groan now under the tyrannous yoak of Antichristian oppression How glad would they be of the crums of our Feasts how rich would they esteem themselves with the very gleanings of our plentifull crop of Prosperity How do they look up at us as even now militantly-triumphant whiles they are miserably wallowing in dust and blood and wonder to see the Sun-shine upon our Hill whiles they are drenched with storm and tempest in the Valley What are we O God what are we that thou shouldst be thus rich in thy Mercies to us whiles thou art so severe in thy Judgments unto them It is too much Lord it is too much that thou hast done for so sinfull and rebellious a people Cast now your eyes aside a little and after the view of God's Favours see some little glimpse of our requital Say then say O Nation not worthy to be beloved what fruit have ye returned to your beneficent God Sin is impudent but let me challenge the impudent forehead of sin it self Are they not sour and wilde Grapes that we have yielded Are we lesse deep in the Sins of Israel then in Israel's Blessings Complaints I know are unpleasing however just but now not more unpleasing then necessary Woe is me my mother that thou hast born me a man of contention I must cry out in this sad day of the sins of my people The searchers of Canaan when they came to the brook of Eshcol they cut down a branch with a cluster of Grapes and carried it on a staffe between two to shew Israel the fruit of the Land Numb 13. 23. Give me leave in the search of our Israel to present your eyes with some of the wilde Grapes that grow there on every hedge And what if they be the very same that grew in this degenerated Vineyard of Israel Where we meet first with Oppression a Lordly sin and that challengeth precedencie as being commonly incident to none but the Great though a poor Oppressor as he is unkindly so he is a monster of mercilesness Oh the loud shrieks and clamours of this crying sin What grinding of faces what racking of Rents what detention of Wages what inclosing of Commons what ingrossing of Commodities what griping Exactions what straining
a man that hath chewed Saffron discolours a Painted face so this blunt sincerity shamed the glorious falshood of Superstition The proud offenders impatient of reproof try what fire and faggot can doe for them and now according to the old word suppressed spirits gather more authority as the Egyptian violence rather addeth to God's Israel Insomuch as Erasmus could tell the Rector of Lovan that by burning Luther's Books they might rid him from the Libraries of men not from their Hearts The ventilation of these points diffused them to the knowledge of the World and now upon serious scanning it came to this as that Honour of Rotterdam professeth Non defuisse that there wanted not great Divines which durst confidently affirm that there was nothing in Luther which might not be defended by good and allowed Authours Nothing doth so whet the edge of wit as contradiction Now he who at first like the blind man in the Gospel it is Beza's comparison saw men like trees upon more clear light sees and wonders at those gross Superstitions and Tyrannies wherewith the Church of God had been long abused And now as the first Hue and Cry raiseth a whole Countrie the World was awakened with the noise and startling up saw and stood amazed to see it s own Slavery and besottedness Mean while that God who cannot be wanting to himself raiseth up Abettors to his Truth The contention grows Books flie abroad on both parts Straight Buls bellow from Rome nothing but Death and Damnation to the opposites Excommunications are thundred out from their Capitoline powers against all the partakers of this so called Heresie the flashes of publick Anathemas strike them down to Hell The condemned reprovers stand upon their own integrity call Heaven and Earth to record how justly they have complained how unjustly they are censured in large Volumes defending their innocence and challenging an undeniable part in the true visible Church of God from which they are pretended to be ejected appeal next to the Tribunal of Heaven to the sentence of a free general Council for their right Profer is made at last of a Synod at Trent but neither free nor general nor such as would afford after all semblances either safety of access or possibility of indifferency That partial meeting as it was prompted to speak condemns us unheard right so as Ruffinus reports it in that case of Athanasius Judicandi potestas c. The power of judging was in the accusers contrary to the rule of their own Law Non debet c. The same party may not be the Judge Accuser Witness contrary to that just rule of Theodericus reported by Cassiodore Sententia c. The sentence that is given in the absence of the parties is of no moment We are still where we were opposing suffering in these terms we stand What shall we say then if men would either not have deserved or have patiently indured reproof this breach had never been Wo be to the men by whom this offence cometh For us that rule of Saint Bernard shall clearly acquit us before God and his Angels Cam carpuntur vitia c. When faults are taxed and scandal grows he is the cause of the scandal who did that which was worthy to be reproved not he that reproved the ill-doer CHAP. III. The Reformed unjustly charged with Novelty Heresie Schisme BE it therefore known to all the world that our Church is onely Reformed or Repaired not made new there is not one Stone of a new foundation laid by us yea the old Wals stand still onely the overcasting of those ancient stones with the untempered morter of new inventions displeaseth us Plainly set aside the Corruptions and the Church is the same And what are these Corruptions but unsound adjections to the Ancient structure of Religion These we cannot but oppose and are therefore unjustly and imperiously ejected Hence it is that ours is by the opposite styled an Ablative or Negative Religion forsomuch as we joyn with all true Christians in all affirmative positions of ancient Faith onely standing upon the denial of some late and undue additaments to the Christian belief Or if those Additions be reckoned for ruines it is a sure Rule which Durandus gives concerning Material Churches appliable to the Spiritual That if the Wall be decayed not at once but successively it is judged still the same Church and upon reparation not to be re-consecrated but onely reconciled Well therefore may those mouths stop themselves which loudly call for the names of the Professors of our Faith in all succession of times till Luther look'd forth into the World Had we gone about to broach any new positive Truths unseen unheard of former times well and justly might they challenge us for a deduction of this line of Doctrine from a pedigree of Predecessours Now that we onely disclaim their superfluous and novel opinions and practices which have been by degrees thrust upon the Church of God retaining inviolably all former Articles of Christian Faith how idle is this plea how worthy of hissing out Who sees not now that all we need to doe is but to shew that all those points which we cry down in the Romane Church are such as carry in them a manifest brand of Newness and Absurdity This proof will clearly justifie our refusal Let them see how they shall once before the awful Tribunal of our last Judge justifie their uncharitableness who cease not upon this our refusal to eject and condemn us The Church of Rome is sick ingenuous Cassander confesseth so Nec inficior c. I deny not saith he that the Romane Church is not a little changed from her ancient beauty and brightness and that she is deformed with many diseases and vicious distempers Bernard tells us how it must be dieted profitable though unpleasing medicines must be poured into the mouth of it Luther and his associates did this office as Erasmus acknowledgeth Lutherus porrexit Luther saith he gave the World a potion violent and bitter whatever it were I wish it may breed some good health in the body of Christian people so miserably foul with all kinds of evils Never did Luther mean to take away the life of that Church but the sickness wherein as Socrates answered to his Judges surely he deserved recompence in stead of rage For as S. Ambrose worthily Dulcior est Sweeter is a religious chastisement then a smoothing remission This that was meant to the Churches health proves the Physicians disease so did the bitterness of our wholsome draughts offend that we are beaten out of doors neither did we run from that Church but are driven away as our late Soveraign professeth by Casaubon's hand We know that of Cyrill is a true word Those which sever themselves from the Church and communion are the enemies of God and friends of
it For as that Father elsewhere In thy sight shall none living be justified He said not no man but none living not Evangelists not Angels not Thrones not Dominions If thou shalt mark the iniquities even of thine Elect saith S. Bernard Who shall abide it To say now that our actual Justice which is imperfect through the admixtion of venial sins ceaseth not to be both true and in a sort perfect Justice is to say there may be an unjust Justice or a just Injustice that even muddie water is clear or a leprous face beautiful Besides all experience evinceth our wants For as it is S. Austin's true observation He that is renewed from day to day is not all renewed so much he must needs be in his old corruption And as he speaks to his Hierome of the degrees of Charity There is in some more in some less in some none at all but the fullest measure which can receive no encrease is not to be found in any man while he lives here and so long as it may be encreased surely that which is less then it ought is faulty from which faultiness it must needs follow that there is no just man upon earth which doeth good and sinneth not and thence in Gods sight shall none living be justified Thus he To the very last hour our Prayer must be Forgive us our trespasses Our very daily endeavour therefore of increasing our Renovation convinceth us sufficiently of Imperfection and the imperfection of our Regeneration convinceth the impossibility of Justification by such Inherent Righteousness In short therefore since this Doctrine of the Roman Church is both new and erroneous against Scripture and Reason we have justly refused to receive it into our Belief and for such refusal are unjustly ejected CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit MErit is next wherein the Council of Trent is no less peremptory If any man shall say that the good works of a man justified do not truely merit eternal life let him be Anathema It is easie for Errour to shroud it self under the ambiguitie of words The word Merit hath been of large use with the Ancients who would have abhorred the present sense with them it sounded no other then Obtaining or Impetration not as now earning in the way of condign wages as if there were an equalitie of due proportion betwixt our Works and Heaven without all respects of pact promise favour according to the bold Comment of Scotus Tolet Pererius Costerus Weston and the rest of that strain Far far was the gracious humility of the Ancient Saints from this so high a presumption Let S. Basil speak for his fellows Eternal rest remains for those who in this life have lawfully striven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not for the Merits of their deeds but of the grace of that most munificent God in which they have trusted Why did I name one when they all with full consent as Cassander witnesseth profess to repose themselves wholy upon the mere Mercie of God and Merit of Christ with an humble renunciation of all worthiness in their own works Yea that unpartial Author derives this Doctrine even through the lower Ages of the Schoolmen and later Writers Thomas of Aquine Durand Adrian de Trajecto afterwards Pope Clictoveus and delivers it for the voice of the then present Church And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his own name professes him the sounder Divine and truer Catholick which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the mere Grace of God and the will of the giver What should I need to darken the aire with a cloud of witnesses their Gregory Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut up all Quid igitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoever he be that pretends his Merits what doth he else but deserve hell by his Works Let Bellarmine's Tutissimum est c. ground it self upon S. Bernard's experimental resolution Periculosa habitatio est Perilous is their dwelling-place who trust in their own Merits perilous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their own Doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voice they are are Hereticks with us or we Orthodox with them and they and we with the Ancients The Noveltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour against Scripture against Reason Sect. 2. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good Works even with an incomprehensible Glory we doubt not we deny not but this either out of the riches of his Mercy or the justice of his Promise But that we can earn this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthiness of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and blood yea for the Angels of Heaven How direct is our Saviours instance of the servant come out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth he thank that Servant because he did the things that were commanded him I trow not So likewise ye when ye shall have done all things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants Unprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thanks not unprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from servants that we may not look for God's reward as of Debt but as of Grace By Grace are ye saved through Faith neither is it our earning but God's gift Both it cannot be For if by Grace then it is no more of Works even of the most Renewed otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Work should be no more Work Now not by works of Righteousness which we have done at our best but according to his Mercy he saveth us Were our Salvation of Works then should Eternal life be our wages but now The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sect. 3. Against Reason IN very Reason where all is of mere Duty there can be no Merit for how can we deserve reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his task that his work is well taken Now all that we can possibly doe and more is most justly due unto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his Royal Law and that sweet Law of his Gospel Nay alas we are far from being able to compass so much as our duty In many things we sin all It is enough that in our Glory we cannot sin though their Faber Stapulensis would not yield so much and taxeth
Thomas for saying so with the same presumption that Origen held the very good Angels might offend Then is our Grace consummate till then our best abilities are full of Imperfection Therefore that conceit of Merit is not more arrogant then absurd We cannot merit of him whom we gratifie not we cannot gratifie a man with his own All our good is God's already his gift his propriety What have we that we have not received Not our talent onely but the improvement also is his mere bounty There can be therefore no place for Merit In all just Merit there must needs be a due proportion betwixt the act and the recompence It is our favour if the gift exceed the worth of the service Now what proportion can be betwixt a finite weak imperfect Obedience such is ours at the best and an infinite full and most perfect Glory The old Schools dare say that the natural and entitative value of the Works of Christ himself was finite though the moral value was infinite What then shall be said of our works which are like our selves mere imperfection We are not so proud that we should scorn with Ruard Tapperus to exspect Heaven as a poor man doth an Alms rather according to S. Austin's charge Non sit caput turgidum c. Let not the head be proud that it may receive a Crown We do with all humility and self-dejection look up to the bountiful hands of that God who crowneth us in mercy and compassion This Doctrine then of Merit being both New and Erroneous hath justly merited our reproof and detestation and we are unjustly censured for our censure thereof CHAP. VII The Newness of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation THE Point of Transubstantiation is justly ranked amongst our highest differences Upon this quarrel in the very last Age how many Souls were sent up to Heaven in the midst of their flames as if the Sacrament of the Altar had been sufficient ground of the bloody Sacrifices The definition of the Tridentine Council is herein beyond the wont clear and express If any man shall say that in the Sacrament of the Sacred Eucharist there remains still the substance of Bread and Wine together with the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and shall deny that marvellous and singular conversion of the whole substance of Bread into the Body and the whole substance of Wine into Blood the Species semblances or shews onely of Bread and Wine remaining which said Conversion the Catholick Church doth most fitly call Transubstantiation let him be accursed Thus they Now let us inquire how old this piece of Faith is In Synaxi sero c. It was late ere the Church defined Transubstantiation saith Erasmus For of so long it was saith he held sufficient to believe that the true Body of Christ was there whether under the consecrated Bread or howsoever And how late was this Scotus shall tell us Ante Concil Lateranense Before the Council of Lateran Transubstantiation was no point of Faith as Cardinal Bellarmine himself confesses his Opinion with a minimè probandum And this Council was in the year of our Lord 1215. Let who list believe that this Subtil Doctour had never heard of the Romane Council under Gregory the Seventh which was in the year one thousand seventy nine or that other under Nicolas the Second which was in the year one thousand and threescore or that he had not read those Fathers which the Cardinal had good hap to meet with Certainly his acuteness easily found out other senses of those Conversions which Antiquity mentions and therefore dares confidently say wherein Gabriel Biel seconds him Non admodum antiquam that this Doctrine of Transubstantiation is not very ancient Surely if we yield the utmost time wherein Bellarmine can plead the determination of this point we shall arise but to saltem ab annis quingentis c. five hundred years agoe so long saith he at least was this opinion of Transubstantiation upon pain of a curse established in the Church The Church but what Church The Romane I wis not the Greek That word of Peter Martyr is true That the Greeks ever abhorred from this Opinion of Transubstantiation Insomuch as at the shutting up of the Florentine Council which was but in the year 1539. when there was a kinde of agreement betwixt the Greeks and Latines about the Procession of the Holy Ghost the Pope earnestly moved the Grecians that amongst other differences they would also accord de Divina panis Transmutatione concerning the Divine Transmutation of the Bread wherein notwithstanding they departed as formerly dissenting How palpably doth the Cardinal shuffle in this business whiles he would perswade us that the Greeks did not at all differ from the Romans in the main head of Transubstantiation but onely concerning the particularity of those words whereby that unspeakable change is wrought whenas it is most clear by the Acts of that Council related even by their Binius himself that after the Greeks had given in their answer That they do firmly believe that in those words of Christ the Sacrament is made up which had been sufficient satisfaction if that onely had been the question the Pope urges them earnestly still ut de Divina panis Transmutatione c. that in the Synod there might be treaty had of the Divine Transmutation of the Bread and when they yet stifly denied he could have been content to have had the other three questions of Unleavened bread Purgatory and the Popes Power discussed waving that other of Transubstantiation which he found would not abide agitation Since which time their Patriarch Jeremias of Constantinople hath expressed the judgement of the Greek Church Etenim verè For the Body and Blood of Christ are truely Mysteries not that these are turned into mans body but that the better prevailing we are turned into them yielding a change but Mystical not Substantial As for the Ancients of either the Greek or Latine Church they are so far from countenancing this Opinion that our learned Whitaker durst challenge his Duraeus Si vel unum c. If you can bring me but one testimony of sincere Antiquity whereby it may appear that the Bread is transubstantiate into the Flesh of Christ I will yield my cause It is true that there are fair flourishes made of a large Jury of Fathers giving their verdict this way whose very names can hardly finde room in a margin Scarce any of that sacred rank are missing But it is as true that their witnesses are grossly abused to a sense that was never intended they onely desiring in an holy excess of speech to express the Sacramental change that is made of the elements in respect of use not in respect of substance and passionately to describe unto us the benefit of that Sacrament in our blessed Communion with Christ and our lively incorporation into
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
of God which is universal not making differences of places or times like an high-elevated Star which hath no particular aspect upon one Region That there is a lawfull commendable beneficial use of Confession was never denied by us but to set men upon the rack and to strain their Souls up to a double pin of absolute necessity both praecepti and medii and of a strict particularity and that by a screw of Jus divinum Gods Law is so mere a Romane Novelty that many ingenuous Authours of their own have willingly confessed it Amongst whom Cardinall Bellarmine himself yields us Erasmus and Beatus Rhenanus two noble Witnesses whose joynt Tenet he confesses to be Confessionem secretam c. That the secret Confession of all our sins is not onely not instituted or commanded Jure divino by Gods Law but that it was not so much as received into use in the Ancient Church of God To whom he might have added out of Maldonat's account omnes Decretorum c. all the Interpreters of the Decrees and amongst the School-men Scotus We know well those sad and austere Exomologeses which were publickly used in the severe times of the Primitive Church whiles these took place what use was there of private These obtained even in the Western or Latine Church till the dayes of Leo about 450. years in which time they had a grave publick Penitentiary for this purpose Afterwards whether the noted inconveniences of that practice or whether the cooling of the former fervour occasioned it this open Confession began to give way to secret which continued in the Church but with freedome and without that forced and scrupulous strictnesse which the latter times have put upon it It is very remarkable which Learned Rhenanus hath Caeterum Th. ab Aquino c. But saith he Thomas of Aquine and Scotus men too acute have made confession at this day such as that Joh. Geilerius a grave and holy Divine which was for many years Preacher at Strasburgh had wont to say to his friends that according to their rules it is an impossible thing to confesse adding that the same Geilerius being familiarly conversant with some religious Votaries both Carthusians and Franciscans learned of them with what torments the godly minds of some men were afflicted by the rigour of that Confession which they were not able to answer and thereupon he published a book in Dutch intituled The sicknesse of Confession The same therefore which Rhenanus writes of his Geilerius he may well apply unto us Itaque Geilerio non displicebat c. Geilerius therefore did not dislike Confession but the serupulous anxiety which is taught in the Summes of some late Divines more fit indeed for some other place then for Libraries Thus he What would that ingenuous Author have said if he had lived to see those volumes of Cases which have been since published able to perplex a world and those peremptory Decisions of the Fathers of the Society whose strokes have been with Scorpions in comparison of the Rods of their Predecessors To conclude This bird was hatched in the Council of Lateran Anno 1215. fully plumed in the Council of Trent and now lately hath her feathers imped by the modern Casuists Sect. 2. Romish Confession not warranted by Scripture SInce our quarrell is not with Confession it self which may be of singular use and behoof but with some tyrannous strains in the practice of it which are the violent forcing and perfect fulnesse thereof it shall be sufficient for us herein to stand upon our negative That there is no Scripture in the whole Book of God wherein either such necessity or such intirenesse of Confession is commanded A Truth so clear that it is generally confessed by their own Canonists Did we question the lawfulness of Confession we should be justly accountable for our grounds from the Scriptures of God now that we crie down only some injurious circumstances therein well may we require from the fautors thereof their warrants from God which if they cannot shew they are sufficiently convinced of a presumptuous obtrusion Indeed our Saviour said to his Apostles and their successors Whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained But did he say No sin shall be remitted but what ye remit or No sin shall be remitted by you but what is particularly numbred unto you S. James bids Confesse your sins one to another But would they have the Priest shrieve himself to the penitent as well as the penitent to the Priest This act must be mutual not single Many believing Ephesians came and confessed and shewed their deeds Many but not all not Omnes utriusque sexus They confessed their deeds some that were notorious not all their sins Contrarily rather so did Christ send his Apostles as the Father sent him he was both their warrant and their pattern But that gracious Saviour of ours many a time gave absolution where was no particular confession of sins Only the sight of the Paralyticks Faith setcht from him Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee the noted Sinner in Simon 's house approving the truth of her Repentance by the humble and costly testimonies of her Love without any enumeration of her sins heard Thy sins are forgiven thee Sect. 3. Against Reason IN true Divine Reason this supposed duty is needlesse dangerous impossible Needlesse in respect of all sins not in respect of some for however in the cases of a burdened Conscience nothing can be more usefull more soveraign yet in all our peace doth not depend upon our lips Being justified by faith me have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Dangerous in respect both of exprobration as Saint Chrysostome worthily and of infection for Delectabile carnis as a Casuist confesseth Fleshly pleasures the more they are called into particular mention the more they move the appetite I do willingly conceal from chast eyes and ears what effects have followed this pretended act of Devotion in wanton and unstaied Confessors Impossible for who can tell how oft he offendeth He is poor in sin that can count his stock and he sins alwayes that so presumes upon his innocence as to think he can number his sins and if he say of any sin as Lot of Zoar Is it not a little one as if therefore it may safely escape the reckoning It is a true word of Isaac the Syrian Qui delicta c. He that thinks any of his offences small even in so thinking falls into greater This Doctrine and Practice therefore both as new and unwarrantable full of Usurpation Danger Impossibility is justly rejected by us and we for so doing unjustly ejected Sect. 4. The Noveltie of Absolution before Satisfaction LEst any thing in the Romane Church should retain the old form how absurd is that innovation which they have made in the order of their
into that sacred order that we stick at There we finde that none but Christ can make a Sacrament for none but he who can give Grace can ordain a Signe and Seal of Grace Now it is evident enough that these adscititious Sacraments were never of Christs institution So was not Confirmation as our Alexander of Hales and Holcot so was not Matrimony as Durand so was not Extreme Unction as Hugo Lombard Bonaventure Halensis Altissiodore by the confession of their Suarez These were ancient Rites but they are new Sacraments All of them have their allowed and profitable use in Gods Church though not in so high a nature except that of Extreme Unction which as it is an apish mis-imitation of that extraordinary course which the Apostolick times used in their cures of the sick so it is grosly mis-applied to other purposes then were intended in the first institution Then it was Ungebant sanabant the oyle miraculously conferring bodily recovery but now Non nisi in mortis articulo adhibetur it is not used but upon the very point of death as Cajetan and Cassander confesse and all experience manifests and by Felix the Fourth drawn to a necessity of addresse to eternall life Sect 2. Seven Sacraments beside Scripture NOT to scan particulars which all yield ample exceptions but to wind them all up in one bottome Whosoever shall look into the Scripture shall finde it apparent that as in the time of mans Innocency there were but Two Sacraments the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge so before and under the Law however they had infinite Rites yet in the proper sense they had but Two Sacraments the same in effect with those under the Gospel the one the Sacrament of Initiation which was their Circumcision parallel'd by that Baptisme which succeeded it the other the Sacrament of our holy Confirmation that spirituall meat and drink which was their Paschall Lambe and Manna and water from the rock prefiguring the true Lambe of God and bread of life and blood of our Redemption The great Apostle of the Gentiles that well knew the Analogy hath compared both Moreover brethren I would not have you ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized in the cloud and in the sea and all did eat the same spirituall meat and all did drink the same spirituall drink for they drank of that spirituall Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ What is this in any just construction but that the same two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper which we celebrate under the Gospel were the very same with those which were celebrated by Gods ancient people under the Law they two and no more Hoc facite Doe this is our warrant for the one and Ite baptizate c. Goe teach and Baptize for the other There is deep silence in the rest Sect. 3. Against Reason IN Reason it must be yielded that no man hath power to set to a seal but he whose the writing is Sacraments then being the seals of Gods gracious evidences whereby he hath conveyed to us eternall life can be instituted by no other then the same power that can assure and perform life to his creature In every Sacrament therefore must be a Divine institution and command of an Element that signifies of a Grace that is signified of a word adjoyned to that element of an holy act adjoyned to that word Where these concur not there can be no true Sacrament and they are palpably missing in these five Adjections of the Church of Rome Lastly The Sacraments of the new Law as Saint Austin often flowed out of the side of Christ None flowed thence but the Sacrament of water which is Baptisme and the Sacrament of blood in the Supper whereof the Author saith This cup is the new Testament in my blood which is shed for you The rest never flowing either from the side or from the lips of Christ are as new and mis-named Sacraments justly rejected by us and we thereupon as unjustly censured CHAP. XVI The Newnesse of the Doctrine of Tradition THE chief ground of these and all other Errours in the Church of Rome is the over-valuing of Traditions which the Tridentine Synod professes to receive and reverence with no lesse pious affection then the Books of the Old and New Testament and that not in matter of Rite and History onely but of Faith and Manners also wherein as they are not unwilling to cast a kinde of imputation of imperfection upon the written Word so they make up the defects of it by the supply of unwritten Traditions to which indeed they are more beholden for the warrant of the greater part of their superadded Articles then to the Scriptures of God Both which are Points so dangerously envious as that Antiquity would have abhorred their mention Neither is any thing more common with the holy Fathers of the Church then the magnifying the compleat perfection of Scripture in all things needfull either to be believed or done What can be more full and clear then that of Saint Austine In his quae apertè c. In these things which are openly laid forth in Scripture are found all matters that contain either Faith or Manners Cardinall Bellarmine's elusion is not a little prejudicial to his own Cause He tells us that Saint Austin speaks of those Points which are simply necessary to Salvation for all men all which he acknowledges to be written by the Apostles But besides these there are many other things saith he which we have only by Tradition Will it not therefore hence follow that the common sort of Christians need not look at his Traditions that commonly men may be saved without them that Heaven may be attained though there were no Traditions Who will not now say Let me come to Heaven by Scripture goe you whither you will by Traditions To which adde that agreat yea the greater part if we may believe some of their own of that which they call Religion is grounded upon onely Tradition If then Tradition be onely of such things as are not simply necessary to Salvation then the greater part of their mis-named Religion must needs be yielded for simply unnecessary to all men And if we may be saved without them and be made Citizens of Heaven how much more may we without them be members of the true Church on Earth As for this place S. Augustine's words are full and comprehensive expressing all those things which contain either Faith or Manners whether concerning Governours or people If now they can finde out any thing that belongs not either to belief or action we do willingly give it up to their Traditions but all things which pertain to either of those are openly comprized in Scripture What can be more direct then that of holy Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
to their sin then to my wrong The main ground of the Exception is That I yield the Church of Rome a true visible Church wherein the harsh noise of a mis-construed phrase offends their eare and breeds their quarrell For this belike in their apprehension seems to sound no lesse then as if I had said The Church of Rome is a true-believing Church or a true part of the mysticall body of Christ a sense which is as far wide from my words or thoughts as from truth it self Wherefore serves this Book but to evince the manifold Corruptions of that foul Church That she is truely visible abates nothing of her abominations For who sees not that Visible refers to outward Profession True to some essentiall Principles of Christianity neither of them to soundnesse of Belief So as these two may too well stand together A true visible Church in respect of outward Profession of Christianity and an Hereticall Apostaticall Antichristian Synagogue in respect of Doctrine and Practice Grant the Romanists to be but Christians how corrupt soever and we cannot deny them the name of a Church Outward Visibility gives them no claim either to Truth or Salvation Shortly then in two things I must crave leave to vindicate my self One that I do no whit differ from my self the other that I differ not from the Judgement of our best Orthodox and approvedly-classicall Divines Both which cleared what have I done It is a grievous challenge this of Inconstancy for though whiles we are here in this region of Mutability our whole man is subject to change yet we do all herein affect a likenesse to the God of Truth in whom there is no shadow by turning especially in Religion so much more as that doth more assimilate and unite us to that unchangeable Deity Lo say they the man that once wrote No peace with Rome now cries nothing but Peace with Rome whiles he proclaims it a true visible Church and allows some Communion with it Alas brethren why will ye suffer a rash and ignorant Zeal thus to lye palpably in your way to Truth Be but pleased to cast your eyes upon the first Chapter of that Book of mine which is thus objected to me in a causelesse exprobration that which long since I wrote of the Irreconcilablenesse of Rome and see if that Section be not a full expression of the same Truth and that in the same words which I have here published There shall you finde taught That there is no other difference betwixt us and Rome then betwixt a Church miserably corrupted and happily purged betwixt a sickly languishing dying Church and one that is healthfull strong and flourishing That Valdus Wiclef Luther did never goe about to frame a new Church which was not but to cleanse restore reform that Church which was That they meant onely to be Physicians to heal not Parents to beget a Church There you shall finde That we are all the same Church by virtue of our outward Vocation whosoever all the world over worship Jesus Christ the only Son of God the Saviour of the world and professe the same common Creed that some of us doe this more purely others more corruptly that in the mean time we are all Christians but sound Christians we are not There ye shall finde this very Objection so fully answered as if it had been either formerly moved or so long since prevented the words are these But how harshly doth this sound to a weak reader and more then seems to need reconciliation with it self that the Church should be one and yet cannot be reconciled Certainly yet so it is The dignity of the outward forme which comprehends this Unity in it self avails nothing to Salvation nothing to Grace nothing to the soundnesse of Doctrine The Net doth not straight make all to be Fish that it hath dragg'd together ye shall finde in it vile weeds and whatsoever else that devouring element hath disgorged The Church is at once one in respect of the common Principles of Faith and yet in respect of consequences and that rabble of opinions which they have raked together so opposed that it cannot as things now stand by any glew of Concord as Cyprian speaketh nor bond of Unity be conjoined That which Rome holds with us makes it a Church that which it obtrudes upon us makes it Hereticall the truth of Principles makes it one the Error and impiety of Additions makes it irreconcilable c. Look on the face therefore of the Roman Church she is ours she is Gods look on her back she is quite contrary Antichristian More plainly Rome doth both hold the Foundation and destroy it she holds it directly destories it by consequent In that she holds it she is a true Church howsoever impured in that she destroies it what semblance soever she makes she is a Church of malignants If she did altogether hold it she should be sound and Orthbox if altogether she destroied it she should be either no Church or devilish but now that she professes to hold those things directly which by inferences she closely overthrows she is a truely visible Church but an unsound one Thus I wrote well-near twenty years agone without clamor without censure And since that in my Latine Sermon to the Convocation did I very ought from this hold Did I not there call heaven earth to record of our innocence in separating from the Romane Church Did I not cast the fault upon their violence not our will Did I not professe Lubentes quidem discessimus c. We willingly indeed departed from the Communion of their Errors but from the Communion of the Church we have not departed Let them abandon their Errours and we embrace the Church Let them cast away their Soul-killing Traditions and false appendances of their new Faith we shall gladly communicate with them in the right of the same Church and hold with them for ever This I freely both taught and published with the allowance with the applause of that most Reverend Synod and now doth the addition of a Dignity bring envy upon the same Truth Might that passe commendably from the pen or tongue of a Doctor which will not be endured from the hand of a Bishop My brethren I am where I was the change is yours Ever since I learned to distinguish betwixt the right hand of Veritie and the left of Errour thus I held and shall I hope at last send forth my Soul in no other resolution And if any of you be otherwise minded I dare boldly say he shall doe more wrong to his Cause then to his adversary That I differ not from my self you have seen see now that I differ not from our learned judicious approved Divines That the Latine or Western Church subject to the Romish Tyranny unto the very times of Luther was a true Church in which a saving profession of the truth of Christ was found and wherein Luther himself received his Christianity
Ordination and power of Ministery our Learned Doctor Field hath saved me the labour to prove by the suffrages of our best and most renowned Divines amongst whom he sites the Testimony of Calvin Bucer Melanchthon Beza Mornay Deering And if since that time it be foully corrupted so as now that acute Author is driven to the distinction of Verè Ecclesia and Vera Ecclesia yet at last he thus concludes But will some man say Is the Roman Church at this day no part of the Church of God Surely a◠Austine noteth that the societies of Hereticks in that they retain the profession of many parts of heavenly truth and the ministration of the Sacrament of Baptisme are so far still conjoined with the Catholick Church and the Catholick Church in and by them bringeth forth children unto God so the present Roman Church is stil in some sort a part of the visible Church of God but no otherwise then other societies of Hereticks are in that it retaineth the profession of some parts of heavenly truth and ministreth the true Sacrament of Baptisme to the Salvation of the Souls of many thousand infants c. Thus he Junius distinguishing betwixt the Church and Papacie determines the Church of Rome to be a truely-living though sick Church whereof the Papacie is the disease marring the health threatning her life and punctually resolves Ecclesia Papalis qua id habet c. The Popish Church in that it hath in it that which pertaines to the definition of a Church is a Church Doctor Raynolds makes it his Position That the Church of Rome is neither the Catholick Church nor a sound member of the Catholick yielding it a member whiles he disproves it sound Paraeus Accusant nos c. They accuse us saith he that we have made a division in departing from the Church Nos verò c. But we have not departed from the Church but from the Papacie Master Hooker is most pregnant for this point Apparent it is saith he that all men are of necessitie either Christians or not Christians If by external Profession they be Christians they are of the visible Church of Christ and Christians by external profession they are all whose mark of recognisance hath in it those things which we have mentioned yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks persons Excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbitie Thus he and going on he shews how it is possible for the self-same men to belong to the Synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ The passages are too long to transcribe and the Books are obvious Doctor Crakenthorp in his learned answer to Spalatensis defends heretical Churches to be truely members of the Catholick Church though unsound ones subscribing herein to the determination of Alphonsus and descending to this particular concludes Haec tamen ipsa tua Romana c. This your Romane Church must be accounted both to be in the Church and to be a Church not simply not according to the integrity of Faith not according to any inward virtue not so effectually that it should avail to Salvation for a man to be in it but yet a Church it is in some respects according to the external profession of Faith and of the Word of God according to the administration of the Sacraments according to some Doctrines of true belief by which as by so many outward Ligaments she is yet knit to the Orthodox and Catholick Church Thus he fully to my words and meaning I might swell up the bulk with many more a Catalogue whereof Brierley hath for his own purpose fetcht up together I will onely shut up this Scene with out late most Learned Soveraign King James who in the Conference at Hampton Court with the acclamation of all his judicious hearers avowed that no Church ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome in Doctrine or Ceremony then she hath departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Christ her Lord and Head Well therefore doth my Reader see that I have gone along with good company in this assertion Although I am not ignorant that some worthy Divines of ours speak otherwise in the height of Zeal denying the Church of Rome to be a true Church to be a Church at all whose contradiction gives colour to this offence But let my Reader know that however their words are opposite yet not their judgement a mutuall understanding shall well accord us in the matter however the terms sound contrary Our old word is Things are as they are taken The difference is in the acception of True and Church both which have much latitude and variety of sense Whiles by True they mean right believing and by Church a company of Faithfull which have the Word of God rightly understood and sincerely preached and the Sacraments duly administred it is no marvell if they say the Church of Rome is neither true nor Church who would who can say otherwise But whiles we mean by a true Church a multitude of Christians professing to agree in the main Principles of Religion how can they but subscribe to us and in this sense yield the Church of Rome both a Church and truely visible So as shortly in a large sense of True Church these Divines cannot but descend to us in a strict sense of both we cannot but ascend to them in fine both agree in the substance whiles the words cross Certainly in effect Master Perkins saith no other whiles he defines his Reformed Catholick to be one that holds the same necessary Heads of Religion with the Romane Church yet so as he pares off and rejects all Errours in Doctrine whereby the same Religion is corrupted wherein that well-allowed Author speaks home to my meaning though in other terms That the Roman Church holds the necessary Heads of Religion gives it a right in my sense to a true Visibilitie that it holds foul Errours whereby the Doctrine is corrupted makes it false in belief whiles it hath a true Being This then may give sufficient light to that passage in my sixth page whereat some have heedlesly stumbled That which I cited from Luther out of Cromerus I finde also alledged by Doctor Field out of Luther himself the words are that under the Papacy is the very kernel of Christianity much good yea all Know Reader the words are Luther's not mine neither doth he say in the Papacy but under it under it indeed to trample upon not to possess or if to possess yet not to injoy Their fault is not in defect of necessary Truths but in excess of superfluous additions Luther explicates himself For his Kernel is the several Articles of Christian belief his all good is Scriptures Sacraments Creeds Councils Fathers all these they have but God knows miserably corrupted That they thus have them is no whit worse for us and little
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
the least substance To affect obscurity or submission is base and suspicious but that LIV. Upon a Corn-field over-grown with Weeds HEre were a goodly field of Corn if it were not over-laid with Weeds I do not like these reds and blews and yellows amongst these plain stalks and ears This beauty would do well elswhere I had rather to see a plot lesse fair and more yielding In this Field I see a true picture of the World wherein there is more glory then true substance wherein the greater part carries it from the better wherein the native sons of the Earth out-strip the adventitious brood of Grace wherein Parasites and unprofitable hang-byes do both rob and overtop their Masters Both Field and World grow alike look alike and shall end alike both are for the Fire whiles the homely and solid ears of despised Vertue shall be for the garners of Immortality LV. Upon the sight of Tulips and Marigolds c. in his Garden THese Flowers are true Clients of the Sun how observant they are of his motion and influence At Even they shut up as mourning for his departure without whom they neither can nor would flourish in the Morning they welcome his rising with a chearfull openness and at Noon are fully displayed in a free acknowledgment of his bounty Thus doth the good heart unto God When thou turnedst away thy face I was troubled saith the man after Gods own heart In thy presence is life yea the fulnesse of joy Thus doth the Carnall heart to the world when that withdraws his favour he is dejected and revives with a smile All is in our choice whatsoever is our Sun will thus carry us O God be thou to me such as thou art in thy self thou shalt be mercifull in drawing me I shall be happy in following thee LVI Upon the sound of a crackt Bell. WHat an harsh sound doth this Bell make in every eaâ—e The metall is good enough it is the rift that makes it so unpleasingly jarring How too like is this Bell to a scandalous and ill-lived Teacher His Calling is honourable his noise is heard far enough but the flaw which is noted in his Life marres his Doctrine and offends those ears which else would take pleasure in his teaching It is possible that such a one even by that discordous noise may ring in others into the triumphant Church of Heaven but there is no remedy for himself but the fire whether for his reforming or judgment LVII Upon the sight of a Blinde man HOW much am I bound to God that hath given me eyes to see this mans want of eyes With what suspicion and fear he walks How doth his hand and staffe examine his way With what jealousie doth he receive every morsell every draught and yet meets with many a post and stumbles at many a stone and swallows many a flie To him the world is as if it were not or as if it were all rubs and snares and downfalls and if any man will lend him an hand he must trust to his however faithlesse guide without all comfort save this that he cannot see himself miscarry Many a one is thus Spiritually blinde and because he is so discerns it not and not discerning complains not of so wofull a condition The god of this world hath blinded the eyes of the Children of disobedience they walk on in the waies of death and yield themselves over to the guidance of him who seeks for nothing but their precipitation into Hell It is an addition to the misery of this inward occaecation that it is ever joyned with a secure confidence in them whose trade and ambition is to betray their Souls Whatever become of these outward Senses which are common to me with the meanest and most despicable creatures O Lord give me not over to that Spiritual darkness which is incident to none but those that live without thee and must perish eternally because they want thee LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts HOW is this Tree overladen with mast this year It was not so the last neither will it I warrant you be so the next It is the nature of these free trees so to powr out themselves into fruit at once that they seem after either sterile or niggardly So have I seen pregnant Wits not discreetly governed overspend themselves in some one master-piece so lavishly that they have proved either barren or poor and flat in all other Subjects True Wisdome as it serves to gather due sap both for nourishment and fructification so it guides the seasonable and moderate bestowing of it in such manner as that one season may not be a glutton whiles others famish I would be glad to attain to that measure and temper that upon all occasions I might alwaies have enough never too much LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water I Should not wish ill to a Covetous man if I should wish all his Coin in the bottome of the River No pavement could so well become that stream no sight could better fit his greedy desires for there every piece would seem double every teston would appear a shilling every Crown an Angel It is the nature of that Element to greaten appearing quantities whiles we look through the aire upon that solid body it can make no other representations Neither is it otherwise in Spiritual Eyes and Objects If we look with Carnal eyes through the interposed mean of Sensuality every base and worthlesse pleasure will seem a large contentment if with Weak eyes we shall look at small and immaterial Truths aloof off in another element of apprehension every parcell thereof shall seem main and essential hence every knack of Heraldry in the Sacred Genealogies and every Scholastical querk in disquisitions of Divinity are made matters of no lesse then life and death to the Soul It is a great improvement of true Wisdome to be able to see things as they are and to value them as they are seen Let me labour for that power and staiedness of Judgment that neither my Senses may deceive my Minde nor the Object may delude my Sense LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills GOod Lord how do we know when we are sure If there were Man or Beast in that Wood they seemed as safe as we now are they had nothing but Heaven above them nothing but firm Earth below them and yet in what a dreadfull pitfall were they instantly taken There is no fence for Gods hand A man would as soon have feared that Heaven would fall upon him as those Hills It is no pleasing our selves with the unlikelihood of Divine Judgments We have oft heard of Hills covered with Woods but of Woods covered with Hills I think never till now Those that planted or sowed those Woods intended they should be spent with Fire but loe God meant they should be devoured with Earth We
Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse
Religion But alas poor souls we are mistaken all this while it is nothing else but pure Piety forsooth which we ignorantly condemn for Cruelty 't is the zeal of Gods house wherewith Good Prelate thou art so inflamed that thou hast hereupon both wished and importuned the utter extirpation of all those Hereticks stabling in the French Territories O forehead O bowels For us we call God Angels Saints to witness of this foul calumniation I wis those whom thou falsly brandest for Hereticks thou shalt one day hear when the Church shall imbrace them for her children Christ for the spiritual Members of his mystical body For what I beseech you do we hold which the Scriptures Councils Fathers Churches and Christian Professors have not in all Ages taught and published To say the truth All that which we professe your own most approved Authors have still maintained whence then is this quarrell Shall I tell you There are indeed certain new Patches of Opinion which you would needs adde to the ancient Faith these we most justly reject and do still constantly refuse They are humane they are your own briefly they are either doubtfull or impious And must we now be cast out of the bosome of the Church and be presently delivered up to fire and sword Must we for this be thunder-strucken to Hell by your Anathemas there to frie in perpetuall Torments Is it for this that a stall and shambles are thought good enough for such brutish animals Good God! See the justice and charity of these Popelings This is nothing but a mere injury of the Times it was not wont to be Heresie heretofore that is so now-a-daies If it had been our Happinesse to have lived in the Primitive times of the Churches Simplicity before ever that Romish Transcendency Image-worship Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory single or half-Communion Nundination of Pardons and the rest of this rabble were known to the Christian world surely Heaven had been as open to us as to other Devout Souls of that purer Age that took their happy flight from hence in the Orthodox Faith of Christ Jesus But now that we are reserved to that dotage of the world wherein a certain new brood of Articles are sprung up it is death to us forsooth and to be expiated by no lesse punishment then the perpetuall torments of Hell-fire Consider this O ye Christians wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole earth consider I say how far it is from all Justice and Charity that a new Faith should come dropping forth at mens pleasure which must adjudge Posterity to eternal death for Mis-believers whom the ancient Truth had willingly admitted into Heaven These new Points of a politick Religion are they indeed that have so much disturbed the peace of Christendome these are they that set at variance the mighty Potentates of the earth who otherwise perhaps would sit down in an happy Peace these are they that rend whole Kingdomes distract people dissolve Societies nourish Faction and Sedition lay wast the most flourishing Kingdomes and turn the richest Cities to dust and rubbish But should these things be so Do we think this will one day be allowed for a just warrant of so much war and bloodshed before the Tribunall of that supreme Judge of Heaven and earth Awake therefore now O ye Christian Princes and You especially King Lewis in whose eares these wicked counsels are so spightfully and bloodily whispered rouse up your self and see how cruell Tyranny seeks to impose upon your Majesty in a most mischievous manner under a fair pretence of Piety and Devotion They are your own native Subjects whom these malicious foreigners require to the slaughter yea they are Christs and will you imbrue your hand and sword in the blood of those for whom Christ hath shed his yea who have willingly lavished their own in the behalf of You and your great Father Hear I beseech thee O King who art wont amongst thine own to be instiled Lewis the Just If we did adore any other God any other Christ but thine if we aspired to any other Heaven embraced any other Creed any other Baptisme lastly if we made profession of a new Church built upon other foundations there were some cause indeed why thou shouldest condemn such Hereticks stabling in France to the revenging sury of thy flames If this thy people have wilfully violated any thing established by our common God or lawfully commanded by thee we crave no pardon for them let them smart that have deserved it is but just they should But do not in the mean time fall fiercely upon the fellow-servants of thy God upon thine own best Subjects whose very Religion must make them loyall suffer not those poor wretches to perish for some late upstart superfluous additions of humane invention and mere will-worship who were alwaies most forward to redeem Thine thy Great Fathers Safety and Honour with the continuall hazzard of their owne most precious lives Let them but live then by thy gracious sufferance by whose Valour and Fidelity thou now reignest But suppose they were not yours yet remember that they are Christians a title wherewith your style is wont most to be honored washed in the same Laver of Baptisme bought with the same price renewed by the same Spirit and whatsoever impotent malice bawle to the contrary the beloved Sons of the Celestiall Spouse yea the Brethren of that Spirituall Bride-groom Christ Jesus But they erre you will say from the Faith From what faith I beseech you Not the Christian surely but the Romish What a strange thing is this Christ doth not condemn them the Pope doth If that great Chancellour of Paris were now alive he would freely teach his Sorbon as he once did that it is not in the Popes power that I may use his owne word to hereticate any Proposition Yea but an Oecumenicall Council besides hath done it What Council That of Trent I am deceived if that were hitherto received in the Churches of France or deserved to be so hereafter Consult with your own late Authors of most undoubted credit they will tell you plainly how unjust that Council was yea how no Council at all It was only the Popes act whatsoever was decreed or established by that pack'd Conclave envassalled to the Seven hills Consider lastly I beseech you how the Reformed Christians stand in no other terms to the Papists then the Papists do to the Reformed Heresie is with equall vehemency upbraided on both sides But do we deale thus roughly with the followers of the Roman Religion Did we ever rage against the Popish Faith with fire and sword Was ever the crime of a poor misled conscience capitall to any soul You may finde perhaps but very seldome some audacious Masse-priest some firebrand of Sedition and contemner of our publick Laws to have suffered condign punishment But no Papist I dare boldly say ever suffered losse either of life or lim merely for his Religion