and are deceived Popery Manifested AND THE Papist Incognito made known By way of DIALOGVE between a Papist Priest a Protestant Gentleman and a Presbyterian Divine The Second Part. Pr. YOur Servant Sir I come to see how you do and to spend an hour with you according to my promise G. Sir you are very welcome I am glad to see you and I was very impatient of your coming as much to enjoy your good company my self as to procure it to this old acquaintance of mine who long'd for it as much as I did Pr. Ha I doubt you have too many such acquaintances I know the man and am sorry to see you should keep company with him an Enemy to Christ and Christian Religion Take heed Sir Antichrist is of a very seducing Spirit Pa. Oh how now Master you fall foul upon me already that 's a very coarse Complement to salute me with the odious name of Antichrist But I hope you are not in earnest for my part I am glad to see you and desire to shake hands with you if it will not defile the holiness of yours Pr. Avoid Satan I would not have so much as your shadow to touch me and I am sorry to polute mine eyes with the sight of such a foul object as you are no there ought to be no communication betwixt light and darkness Pa. That 's true too but I 'll warrant you you and I are much of a dye and I am not of so dark a colour as you think I dare say for all your great aversion to me your Religion and mine differ but a little or at least nothing so much as that of the Church of England which you think comes very near to ours I can make it appear that we of Rome are agreed in many things with the English Presbyterians wherein we greatly differ from other Protestants come my good Friend let you and I dispute the case a little you shall find that I 'll give you great satisfaction in it Pr. These be impertinent brags and paradoxes I need no satisfaction in the case I am sure enough of the contrary There are no men under the Sun that hate and abhor Popery so much as we do therefore you may spare your labour and keep your breath for a better use G. Pray Sir don't shrink or else you 'll give him occasion to insult and me to be doubtful Sure after having been these twenty years set about the extirpation of Popery you are not afraid of being now prov'd a Papist Come make him repent of his bold challenge and make it appear that your practice and opinions are as averse to Rome as your words and clamors have been P. Yet still I stand upon my first ground you come very near to the Church of Rome in many things wherein you differ from the Church of England even in those things that are counted the worst of our errours Pr. I shall quickly confute your false and daring Assertion And first your Church doth greatly derogate from the Word of God and makes it inferiour to her Traditions and the Determinations of her Popes and Councils Can you charge us with any such thing Pa. Yes that I can You do greatly undervalue the same Divine Word to set up your Sermons the higher you perswade your people that that is the only Preaching and the true and only Word of God which you deliver out of your Pulpits so that your own Discourses are more attended and more regarded than the Bible it self And so prevalent is this opinion that those of your sort that go to the Parish Churches defer to go in while the Psalms the Chapters and the Epistle and Gospel are reading as if these were not worth the hearing But what is of the mans own making they will listen to attentively and perhaps write it down and repeat it with a great deal of Devotion Gods Word is but a Woodden Dagger with you it doth not reach the heart but the worst Sermon in your Conventicles pierceth the very soul and makes the people sigh and groan and take on most pitifully the powerfulness of Preaching indangers the very heart-strings And so current 't is amongst you that your Preaching is the Word of God that 't is call'd by the name of The Gospel and to hear it is made a Mark of Election So Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs told the Parliament Serm. Print 1. 645. p. 2. When I consider this place Westminster the extraordinary hand of God in bringing the Gospel to be preacht to you here in power those thoughts presently arise there is hope that there are many souls here belonging to Gods Election surely many will come in and imbrace the Gospel here And by the transcribing those sacred Oracles men were to judge of the condition their souls were in Thomas Palmer in a Sermon of his tells the people 1644. p. 28. That to hear Sermons and not write them is like taking water in a Sieve You keep a Shop-Book saith he O be perswaded to keep a Soul-Book that you may know how your Spiritual Estate stands belike those that had much written had very rich souls what increase or decrease of Grace you make this recording of revealed Truths and Soul-experiences from God would be of admirable use in time of trouble This is the difference in the case we undervalue Scripture that we may heed the more the Decrees of our Pope and you that you may the better attend to the dictates of every one of your Sermonizers Pr. I know all you can alledge will come short of what you would prove therefore I don't intend to trouble my self with answering your impertinencies it would but make our Discourse too tedious let this Gentleman be judge betwixt you and I who are in tâ—e right Pa. That will be very well I 'll follow your example and endeavour to shorten our Dialogue by pleading guilty tâ— every Article Charge our Religion with what you will I 'll deny nothing but shew you your â—wn face in that Mirrour you shall reach to me Come proceed Pr. In your publick Worship you use an unknown Tongue which the people doth not understand and thereby you keep them in ignorance that they may not be able to discern the errours of your Religion I am sure you can tax us with no such thing for we make all things plain to our hearers and they are an understanding and a knowing people who have more light in spiritual matters than any people whatsoever Pa. You do but fancy so they are as ignorant as any of us and they understand as little what you say though you speak English yet you speak an unknown Language to the people for you have so spiritualiz'd Religion that you have made riddles and mysteries of the plainest of its Doctrines it all consists in new-coin'd phrases and spiritual notions and fancies and secrets Pray hear what Mr. Francis Cheynell preacht before the Parliament Serm. 1646. p. 2.
Take heed of both Extremes OR Plain and useful Cautions AGAINST POPERY AND PRESBYTERY By way of DIALOGUE In Two Parts By LVKE DE BEAVLIEV LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1675. TO THE Christian Courteous and Impartial READER I Would fain oblige thee in the beginning of my Book because possibly the rest will not please thee so well Therefore instead of a Preface or a short Advertisement wherewith usually the Reader is put off I give thee an Epistle Dedicatory This I hope will prove acceptable in that it is a new device and also because thou mayst have very cheap the Honour of having had a Book Dedicated to thee But yet besides I assure thee that this Book of itself is worth thy reading for it will make thee see in their natural shape and colours many things which before appeared only under a disguise and if thou art a Lover of Truth as all pretend to be thou canst not but rejoice to see it come out from under the Cloud where before it lay hid And withal thou mayst use it as an Antidote against the Infection of some sugared Poisons which many venture to drink of not knowing their deadly Qualities Therefore I require thee that thou wouldest not fling away the Book as soon as thou findest some things in it against thy former persuasions or thy present liking for oftentimes wholesom Physic is the most unpleasant and if thou readest through and then repentest of thy labour I give it here under my hand that I also will repent of mine but if the Book doth work upon thee the good effect I intended all the Requital I expect is this that as thou art unknown to the Author so thou wouldest not enquire after him because he is unwilling to be known any otherwise than by being Thy Real Friend and Affectionate Well-wisher L. B. P. THE PREFACE MAny Learned Books have been written against the Errors of the Church of Rome by several worthy Champions of the Church of England but usually they read them most that have least need of them while in the mean time they that have but little of knowledge are left unarmed against the Crafts and Subtilties of the Propagators of the Roman Faith I know there is an in-bred Aversion to Popery in the major part of our People but Popery is now a word of a very dubious signification and means rather what every one dislikes than what is so indeed and it is to be seen in the second part of this Book that they that exclaim'd most against what they pleased to call Popery ran themselves into the worst of Popish Errors However 't is not a brutish Hatred or a blind Zeal against unknown Errors can secure us from them A man may easily embrace his mortal Enemy if he knows him not or if he meets him under a disguise Jesuites are Travesty among us and so is their Doctrine they put a strange garb as well upon their Opinions as upon their Persons and I am confident they win more Proselytes by mis-representing the Popish Religion than by proving it to be true Therefore that they might no longer be imposed upon that have not the leisure or the capacity of knowing what the Papists do really believe contrary to that sound and orthodox Doctrine which is profest in the Church of England I have here set down their real Opinions taken out of their most approved Doctors and the Council of Trent itself having transcrib'd their very words without any the least alteration and then Englisht them as faithfully as their sense did require And afterwards I have added some of those places of Scripture which I thought most express against those Errors which our Church hath rejected as being contrary to Gods Word and the Faith of the Primitive Church Now if any man likes those Doctrines of the Church of Rome as they are really in themselves and as they stand in opposition to the Word of God let him embrace them if it so please him but let none flatter himself or be made to believe by others that the Popish Tenets I have mentioned are not so bad as I represent them for I have used the very Words and Expressions of their own Authors which certainly could not be made either better or worse by being transcrib'd by me Perhaps I shall be censur'd for having writ my Book Dialogue-wise and not well manag'd the Intrigue but if they that find fault with this like the matter let them not mind the form if not I had as lieve they should dislike both as but one onely My design was not to make a Dramatic Piece but to make my Actors speak truth This way of writing is easie to the meanest capacities and I am minded to imitate at least in the method that excellent Dialogue called the F.D. However if I can profit those that shall read me I little care whether I please them or not And now if it may be lawful for a Controvertist to moralize a little give me leave to tell thee Dear Reader that what I have written is not to engage thee into Disputes and Religious Quarrels I had rather thou shouldest read The whole Duty of Man and the excellent Discourse which that pious Author hath written against Disputes in his Decay of Christian Piety than this Book of mine By discovering the foul stains of those Religions that make shew of a fair and specious outside my design is not to teach thee how to rail at them or wrangle with their followers But to make thee love and obey that holy Religion which is taught in the Church of England and which promiseth rewards to her followers not for hating those that are of different Persuasions but for obeying the Precepts of Christ If thou art an ill liver no matter what Religion thou art of thy recompence shall be according to thy Works if not thy Creed and a Good Life will do thy soul more good than much Knowledge and Activity in what concerns the Differences among Christians in points of Religion And if thou dost ask me why therefore I should meddle with them and not be wholly employed in the performance of good Works I answer somewhat like as Aphraates did Valens when he came into Antioch to oppose himself to the then prevailing Error of Arius and the Emperor askt him why he had left his Religious Retirement to come into the City Niceph. l. 11. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. When the flock of Christ is in danger of being seduced it behoves me also to do my utmost endeavour for its Preservation And when my heavenly Fathers house is set on fire I will by all means endeavour to quench it and fling water upon it though it were but one drop Imprimatur Tho. Tomkyns Ex Aed Lambethanis Decemb. 13. 1675. Popery Manifested AND THE Papist Incognito made known By way of DIALOGUE between a Papist Priest a Protestant Gentleman and a
where it had been above a thousand years in the Holy Scripture And suppose what is utterly false that soon after its being written all Christian Churches had been so corrupted as to own fifteen hundred years together those Errors which now are amongst you yet still the Scripture had been the same as much to be obeyed and followed as if it had always been so 2 King 22. When Josiah had found the Book of the Law he did not fling it by because it had been hid and neglected during the reign of Manasseh and Amon his Fathers but he caused it to be read before all the people Ibid. 23. that they might observe what was conteined in it So now we have the Holy Scriptures read and preached to us we must not reject them to follow the Customs of some of our Fore-Fathers in whose time they were hid and disregarded for they are as much the Rule of Faith as if they had never been disown'd But I say farther that our Religion was in those Churches in the East and South which never own'd Popery and even amongst you our Religion was professed you believed all along those three Creeds which you and we do still retein which contein the Articles of our Faith but not the new additions which are particular to Rome The Popes universal Supremacy and his Infallibility Transubstantiation Worshipping of Images Purgatory Indulgences c. These are neither in Scripture nor in the first Councils nor in the Writings of the Antient Fathers not so much as in your Creeds an evident mark of their novelty but in the late Councils and Constitutions of the Popes We confess indeed that there is an universal Church out of which there is no salvation according to that known saying of S. Cyprian Deum non potest c. He can be none of Gods children who is not a son of the Church But that Church is the Christian not the Roman Church and to know which is the Christian Church or which is the purest of Christian Churches for they are all Christian in some measure that own Christ we must not consult humane Histories for they cannot inform us of that and if they could we must not build our faith upon mens report De Sacâ—a l. 2. c. 21. Bellarmin saith of humane Histories Faciunt tantum humanam fidem cui falsam subesse potest that they only beget a human saith which may be erroneous Wherefore in the Controversie betwixt us which is the purest Church we must not search old Records and Chronicles to see which was the oldest the most visible or the most large and flourishing Church that is not the Question and if it were still human Histories cannot be the ground of a Christian Faith but we must examin which agrees best with Holy Scripture which we all acknowledge to be the Word of God for no doubt the true Church wherein Salvation may be had is that which holds that Doctrin which God himself hath reveled to Mankind whatever her condition may have been in times past P. There may be something considerable in what you say but you Hereties have strange cunnings and subtilties to justifie your Opinions and yet still for all you have said you are no better than Rebels against your spiritual Sovereign you are Schismatics undutiful Children that have forsaken your Mother the Church The true and only Church wherein Salvation is to be obtein'd guided and governed by the Vicar of Christ upon earth our holy Father the Pope Vna est tantum Ecclesia sub regimine unius Christi in terris Vicarii Romani Pontific is Bellar. de Eccl. l 3. c. 2. But pray do not make such a tedious Discourse as you have just now G. Good Sir sometimes short Questions cannot be answered in few words I could propose one to you much like that as you put to me which I believe would take a great deal of your time to answer that is Where your particular Religion your sacrificing of the real and corporal body and bloud of Christ for the sins of the living and the dead your Worshipping Images and Saints and making them your Intercessors your Purgatory Indulgences c. Where was all that in the time of Christ and his Apostles Whereabout can it be found in Scripture or in the antient Creeds or in the four first General Councils or in the three or four first Centuries But I will not put you to so long and impossible a Task As for our forsaking the Communion of the Church of Rome we were absolutely bound and in a manner forc'd to do it because of the many errors which had crept and been brought into it by the Ignorance Pride Avarice and Ambition of the late Popes of Rome and their Partizans and which were confirm'd by your Church and defended with that violence that it was death to any man to speak in the least against them Now you know 't is a Rule agreed on of all sides that he is not guilty of Schism that separates but he that gives a just cause of Separation wherfore I retort the charge upon you of being Schismatics except you can prove by the Word of God those Doctrins of yours we have rejected to be Divine and Orthodox for we have left your Church upon this account that you had perverted the truth of God and added many false opinions to it which ye impos'd upon the people as if they had been Articles of Faith And we find it in Scripture Ro. 16.17 Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrin which ye have learned and avoid them 't is not said except it be the Church of Rome And in another place Gal. 1.8 Though we or an angel from heaven preach unto you beyond or over and above in the Greec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the vulgar praeterquam quod what we have preached let him be accursed the Pope himself you see is not excepted Again we have left the Communion of your Church because it was Schismatic itself in that it had forsaken the Doctrin taught and believed in the Primitive Church We have come out of Rome to return into the more antient and universal Church We have left the Pope to follow Christ and his Apostles and we have forsaken you no farther than you had forsaken the truth The antient Creeds the first Councils many good and Fundamental Doctrins we hold together in these we hold Communion with you We reject your Communion only in those new Doctrins which ye have superadded to the antient and divine Faith of Christians And so likewise we rebel not against the Pope only we set God above him I 'll still acknowledge him to be a Bishop and the Patriarch of the West and perhaps I had been civil enough never to have disputed his Infallibility and spiritual Sovereignty though I find nothing for it in Scripture had I not found that he hath really erred and that very
have a desire to depart Phil. 1.23 and to be with Christ 2 Cor. 5.8 We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. And our blessed Saviour tells the penitent Malefactor Luk. 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Though it hath been and is still questioned whether the Souls of the Righteous are admitted into the same Mansions of Glory as they shall be after the Resurrection yet that there is Rest and Bliss in their Receptacles is certainly taught by these Scriptures But there is no mention made of Purgatory in the whole Bible 1 Joh. 1.7 Ibid. v. 9. rather we are told That the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin That If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and that Heb. 1.3 Christ by himself hath purged our sins by himself not by the flames of Purgatory I can't but commend the modesty of your Clergy that they have not inserted their new-devised Doctrines in the holy Scripture but rather hid the Scripture from the People but I do hugely suspect their honesty to perswade men to relie upon such imaginary things as Indulgences and Purgatory when the best argument to prove that they can in any wise benefit the People is that they bring great profit to the Church P. Yes I know you would fain bring contempt upon our Clergy I suppose you envy their mighty Power in that they can do more than all Men and Angels besides They have the Keys of Heaven and Hell Bel. de poenit l. 3. c. 2. except they absolve a man though he be never so penitent yet he must be damn'd Si non essent Sacerdotes judices nec vere peccata remitterent nemo periret ex eo solum qued Sacerdotem reconciliantem habere non posset sed c. Moreover they have the power to destroy all the seven Sacraments Without their intention goes along with their ministration the Sacraments are ineffectual and insignificant and they are accursed that don't believe it Bell. de Sacram. L. 1. c. 27. Con. Trident S. 7. Can. 11. Sententia Catholicorum est requiri intentionem faciendi quod facit Ecclesia ut expresse sacra Synodus Tridentina His verbis Si quis dixerit in Ministris dum Sacramenta conficiunt conferunt non requiri intentionem saltem faciendi quod facit Ecclesia Anathema sit G. Indeed if your tale be true your Priests have a most unlimited Power and except they use it aright the poor people are like to smart for it 'T is a thing must make them very dear and precious to the Laity that except they repent a penitent sinner he must go to Hell notwithstanding his repenting and begging for mercy But sure you forget one thing in their commendation that they are as infallible as the Pope nay more that they do as well as God know the hearts of men for 't would be a very odd thing if they should absolve a wicked Hypocrite and send him to Heaven or send a true Penitent to Hell by resusing to absolve him What a dreadful thing must a Priest be amongst you and how careful must your people be to please them when by their only thoughts they can damn them as fast as they will If his intention be wanting when he baptizeth a Child the poor Creature will live and die a Heathen If when he marries he intends it not Master Bridegroom in stead of a Wife hath got none but a Concubine In the Sacrament of the Lords Supper he may chance to make the people worship nothing but a Wafer if he doth not intentionally consecrate And who knows but that intention might be wanting in the Ordination of a Priest of the Pope himself or of some of their Predecessors and then how great are the mischiefs that follow thereupon Are not those very pious Doctrines and don 't they well deserve the Councils curse that will not believe them Your Clergy-mens Power is indeed much to be admired that they can get credit to such stuff as this and impose so grosly upon the people P. No wonder if you are injurious to our Ministers when you are so to the Sacraments themselves making them to be but signs to put us in mind of what they signifie We differ as much from you in this as in the precedent Article for we are taught by the holy Council That Sacraments confer Grace to the Receivers Cone Trident. S. 7. Can. 8. Bel. de effectu Sacram. l. 2. c. 1. opere operato by their own immediate vertue and efficacy As the fire burns by its self saith Bellarmine not by the dryness of the wood so the Sacraments give Grace by their own selves without any disposition or qualification be required of the Receiver and not as Hereticks say by exciting faith c. Catholici probant Sacramentorum efficaciam non pendere ab ulla qualitate suscipientis Nam ut ignis urit Et c. 3. c. Et ibid. Titulus Capitis tertii quod Sacramenta ex opere operato conferant gratiam Non ut concio excitando fidem ut dicunt haeretici G. By Mr. Bellarmine's good leave we derogate nothing from the Ordination or the Ministrations of Clergy-men much less from the two Sacraments which Christ instituted they all really give and exhibit what they signifie by them God conveys his Grace really and effectually at all times and to all Receivers non ponentibus obicem that do not hinder their efficacy by their indisposition and perverseness But 't is very strange that you make spiritual Graces to be inherent in things material as if they were their natural properties and make those Elements to work upon our souls by themselves more powerfully than that very matter that is personally united to them And 't is likely to prove a great hindrance to Devotion and Holiness to tell the people that whatsoever their preparations or the condition of their Souls be they shall certainly receive the Grace offered in the Sacraments so that if a dying wicked man can but make the Priest to believe that he hath attrition or contrition enough to be in a capacity of having the Sacrament administred to him then the Absolution and Extream Unction will conjure him up to Heaven by their abstruse and powerful vertue And then who would be at the trouble of living soberly righteously and godly as the Gospel requires when one may be saved without it I might bring Sacriptures against this opinion but it confutes it self and I believe the Owners of it will rather mis-represent than defend it But sure the Fathers of Trent were got in an ill mood when they did curse those that would not believe that under the Gospel there is seven Sacraments instituted by Christ as they did in the Canons of their seventh Session for one might
greatly indanger but in no wise advance your Salvation What makes us admit of a possibility of your being sav'd is because you hold still the same Creed with us and because though you have much shaken and weakned yet ye have not quite overthrown the Foundation that is Jesus Christ and his saving merits which we hope will avail to those of your Church that trust in them though they ignorantly believe those things as would make them ineffectual if understood or relied on As for your so much cryed up Succession it signifies no more than this that now the Pope is Bishop of the same Town as St. Peter was or at least a Town of the same name for old Rome hath been destroyed long agone But pray supposing that St. Peters Successors were to be the Heads of the Church who told you that he did not leave that priviledge at Antioch where his Sea was first How many Ruptures and Schisms hath there been in your Succession and how many hath there been of your Popes guilty of the greatest Impieties and worst of Heresies Your own Authors can inform you as also how good and bad Orthodox and Heretick Bishops have succeeded one another in all Seas But make the best of it as you can what is it to the truth or untruth of those points we differ about Because now _____ sits in the same Chair as St. Peter did therefore there is a Purgatory and men ought to Worship Images and the Pope is infallible c. A very Logical Inference as good as that of the man who because he sate in Tullies Pew would needs perswade himself and others that he had Tullies Eloquence But there is Miracles daily wrought in your Church by some Saint or other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is something indeed but 't is common to all Religions Monsieur Bernier a man of your Church will tell you as an eye-witness of it that the Turks and Gentiles pretend to the same and are more perswaded of the truth of their Miracles than I believe many in your Church are of the truth of yours But let me tell you that Miracles are for Infidels not for Believers St. Paul could not heal Trophimus to him a beloved Christian though among the Unbelievers he could even raise up the dead We believe the Religion Preached by the blessed Apostles upon the account of those Miracles they wrought when they were yet alive without their Reliques and Images work the same wonders now we are perswaded of the truth of what they then delivered And the truth is you are so your selves You don't pretend your new Miracles to confirm those Essential Doctrines of the Christian Religion which you and we are agreed about Your greatest Miracle-mongers have hardly reported any one Miracle wrought these five or six hundred years in these parts of the World to authorize Christian Religion or to prove the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity or of the two Natures united in Christ into one person about which points were most of the ancient Heresies or any one Article of the Creed they are all to confirm your new-found Doctrines The Cures as the Saints work upon those that worship their Images the appearing of dead Folks to beg for Masses and Prayers the return of Souls out of Purgatory to tell how hot the fire is and how well worth ones money Indulgences are the wonders done by your Fryars or the Founders of their Orders or of some one who is to be Canonized and most of them so ridiculous and so absurd that I believe the most serious Bigot amongst you can hardly hold laughing at the reading of your Legends and Books of Miracles And so of those three things you so much relied on the first is against you the second signifies nothing and the last exposeth to contempt those Doctrines it should justifie P. Well I did not think that you could say so much for your selves and I assure you I shall hereafter have a better opinion of you than ever I had thus much at least shall I be profited by our long Discourse and now Sir fare you well I thank G. Nay don't thank me 't is I should thank you for telling me so plainly those Doctrines of your Church we disagree about and which usually you so misrepresent to those of our Religion that they hardly ever know the truth of what your Church believes But pray don't go away yet I 'll help you to that company as you will like much better than mine I 'll tell you whose 't is when first I have desired these two things of you First that you would consider how greatly suspicious it is that your Church maintains those Doctrines we call Errours more for their profitableness to her than for any other reasons because they all tend to the increasing of her Riches or Authority The Popes Infallibility and his Power of disposing of all the World for the good of Souls the exemption of the Clergy from the power of the Civil Magistrate the requisiteness of their intention in the administring of your Sacraments how powerful how honourable and withal how dreadful must the belief of these make your Church and Church-men The Doctrine of Purgatory of Jubilees Pardons Indulgences and worshipping of Saints the best part whereof is the offering to them what Estates what Riches what a world of profit doth it bring to the Head and all the Members of your Clergy In those points of Christian Religion that concern not her Interest your Church is sound and Orthodox those beggerly Heresies of the Arians Eutichian Macedonians c. are condemned and detested by her as much as ever they were by the first Councils yours are Golden Errours if they are gross and palpable yet they are profitable and advantageous The Pope is none of those mean Souls that will hold erroneous Opinions meerly out of perverseness and obstinacy Si Jus violandum c. si Religio adulteranda regnandi causa if he errs at least he shall reign by it And so now reciprocally the Popes Greatness is the best argument to maintain those Errours whereby he got it the splendor of his own and the interest he hath in the Courts of several Princes the dependency all the Clergy hath upon him the numerous Legions of Souldiers he hath quartered in all Abbeys and Monasteries and the influence they have upon the common people his Inquisitions and his Ravilliacks these be the best proofs to evidence the truth of those Doctrines we have rejected as well as to uphold his Pontifical Chair over the Throne of Christian Princes The other is that remaining in the Communion of your Church you would think those the most substantial Articles of your Faith which were delivered by the Apostles confirm'd by the first Councils and now believ'd by you and us together and that upon them you would lay the greatest stress of your future well-being You cannot but see by what I have objected out of
Superstitions down with her Altars and Images down with her Rags and Reliques they be but Jezabels fragments let them be used as Jezabel was used Help Royal Sovereign to throw her down help to throw her down more and more ye that are of the Honourable Court of Parliament Every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ help to throw her down never let us halt as we have done betwixt God and Baal 'T is probable that had Royal Sovereign helpt to pull down Jezabel you had not pulled him down with her being he proved refractory to the Church you judged it requisite in ordine ad spiritualia to make him feel that Power of yours he would not acknowledge Nay when there were some hopes of an Accommodation Christopher Love who died a Martyr for your Kirk was so afraid the Holy War should be ended and Christ not set upon his Throne you know what that means that Preaching at Vxbridge before the Commissioners he made use of another mans words as he said to exhort them to go on in fighting for God 'T is the Sword saith he not Disputes nor Treaties must end this Controversie therefore turn your Plowghshears into Swords to fight the Lords Battels to avenge the Bloud of Saints which hath been spilt Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently and cursed is he that keepeth back his Sword from Bloud Jer. 48.10 Some silly Cavaliers thought indeed that the War betwixt the King and Parliament was about matters of Priviledges but S. Marshall told them soundly of their simplicity in a Sermon before the Parliament and Mayor and Aldermen S Marshal 1643. p. 21. Noble and resolute Commanders fight the Battels of the Lord Jesus Christ All Kingdoms except the Malignants in England do now see that the question here is Whether Christ or Antichrist shall be Lord or King Go on therefore couragiously you can never venture your Bloud in such a Quarrel Christ shed his Bloud to save you from Hell venture yours to set him up upon his Throne So Jos Boden told the Kentish Committee pag. 11. Jos Boden 1644. That they were fighting for the Lamb against the Beast And at the 13 pag. Besides their wondring after and worshipping the Beast Rev. 13.4 Have they not gathered together in Arms and Armies against the Lord and against his Christ belike they did not give that name to their Parliament Priviledges Nay are they not daily more and more mad and desperate in their mischief conceived against the Church Do they not daily beat up their Alarms and bid defiance to the people of the most High I would have every Christian stand upon his reputation and not discover pusillanimity after such proud Challengings What hath Antichrist done for them that they dare be so bold And what hath not Christ done for us that we should now in these days of daring be dastardly hen-hearted and effeminate This Sermon was called An Alarm beat up in Sion to War against Babylon and it well deserves to be transcribed but that it is too long In all these you see we hear of nothing but the Whore the Beast Babylon and Antichrist which were to be destroyed not one word of any Civil matters or differences if there was any it was forgotten your Church-Champions were so intent upon the Lords Work and it prospered so well in their hands that they could think of nothing else Joh. Bond 1644. p. 59. As Sampson with the Philistines saith one of the Saints so let us die with Babylon if we cannot out-live Antichrist and the Enemies of Reformation let us adventure our selves to death in the Cause yea let us take hold of the Pillars of the Church of Dagon of the Temple of Antichrist and say Now let me die with Antichrist Rome and Babylon The War was so wholly and intirely upon Gods account as you said that though betwixt the Inhabitants of the same Kingdom yet you would not have it to be a Civil War It is not a Kingdom divided against it self J. Arrowsmith 1643. p. 69. saith Mr. Arrowsmith to the Parliament but one Kingdom against another the Kingdom of Christ divided against that of Antichrist and this Antichristian Kingdom will rage as much as they can to their power to shed Bloud but the Lord hath them in this Chain and hath sent forth his host against them They were not the Parliaments Forces but the Host of the Lord sent against Antichrist Therefore they were so earnestly exhorted never to shrink but joyfully to lose their very lives in so good a cause Mr. Midhope at the Funeral of Colonel Gold exhorted the Militia thus St. Midb 1644. p. 24. Noble Commanders be active for Christ ye cannot do or suffer too much in his Cause Lay out your Time Strength Parts your All for Christ fear no loss here ye cannot drive a more gainful Trade Could any thing more have been said to the blessed Martyrs Or did ever the Pope recommend his Croisadoes more highly What hath been said proves it to the full that you valued your intended Reformation more than Christianity it self which 't is no thanks to you if it was not quite destroyed by these most nefarious and unchristian actings Now two Witnesses more will make it altogether unquestionable that from the beginning to the end that cursed War was raised and fomented to maintain your new-fashioned Religion and to bring about your Reformation Mr. Cheynell told the Parliament F. Cheynel 1646. p. 32. Consider the cries and out-cries of the Godly Party of this Kingdom for a Reformation they speak plain and tell you that they have fasted prayed and wept for a Reformation they have exhausted their Treasures many of them ventured their Lives lost their Limbs their Bloud their Friends for a Reformation you have promised us a Reformation N. B. we have paid for a Reformation you are therefore indebted to us of a Reformation we are bound to challenge such a Reformation as will quit cost and answer the price we have paid and the pains we have bestowed c. And Mr. Jenisson a Scotch-man in a Sermon at New-castle Rob. Jen. 164â— p. 29. The late designs of the Popish and Malignant Party tending to the utter subversion of our Religion and of our Liberties occasioned the National Covenant between England and Scotland and the joining in Arms for the defence of their Religion N. B. Now I hope it is clear enough that it was you chiefly if not alone that raised and fomented that execrably Holy War to establish your projected Religion and Discipline And if you dare say to the contrary you must give the lye to your own Fellow-labourers for you see I have it from them So I humbly conceive that you and I have made it appear that you are not only not subject to Kings and Princes but ever in some sort their Superiours and that when you judge Religion concerned you will lose the
much happiness with many secret and glorious things after all their trouble so saith the same Author ibid. pag. 6. We shall see at last that the mercy God intended for us was worth all the troubles and bloud c. God hath many Promises to his Church to accomplish many Prophecies to fulfil many glorious things to declare many Mercies for his Saints to bestow and these stirs among us will make way for all And so Mr. Joh. Bond 1644. Bond tells the Parliament That the present work of Salvation and Reformation they had in hand was carried on in a mystery was a shadowed master-piece altogether made up of stratagems paradoxes and wonders and so the comfort is it shall be a great Salvation a Salvation from Babylon But this will suffice at present to shew that the people was deluded more ways than one and to give a warning to the following Generation that so they never be drawn into Rebellion by the same arts and pretences as their Fathers were It would be endless to rehearse all the equivocations jugglings and deceits as were used to seduce the people next time we meet perchance you shall hear more of them What I have said now is enough to prove that your words signifie nothing but what you please that your dissimulations are deep and specious and that you never want arts and evasions to plead innocency and salve your credit after the foulest doings and miscarriages Now you differ but a very little from the Church of England and you are for Obedience to the King whatever some of you may have said or done heretofore Very good That 's as much as to say That do you what you will you are resolved ever to be in the right and never to acknowledge your selves faulty in the least for fear of losing the repute of Infallibility But let it be considered 1. That I have proved what I charged upon you not by the words of the obscure and ordinary but of the most famous men of your Party who must needs have known the Tenets and Doctrines of your Sect and who were then and are still now cryed up and followed by your Disciples and Admirers 2. That those words of theirs I have cited were not taken out of Libels or prophane Books nor were spoken heedlesly in the heat of dispute but are to be found in their Sermons and were delivered out of their Pulpits in the powerfulness of Preaching as being the Word of God 3. That those Sermons were not preached in Country-Towns or to ordinary Congregations where any stuff preached after the tone and manner in use among you had been as good as the best but almost all of them before the Parliament where none but great men were admitted to preach and where to be sure they preached none but their best Sermons and moreover that those Sermons were printed with the names of the Authors and with License and Approbation 4. That 't is more likely they would then deliver their true Opinions and speak out what was in their hearts when they had the power in their hands and were free to speak what they pleased than now they are under fear and restraint and are fain to conceal or dissemble what they would then openly preach and proclaim 5. That they not only preached Sermons but they and their Disciples lived Sermons also your practice and Doctrine agreed excellently well what was preach'd was acted there was none of their good Instructions lost you approved what they said by doing accordingly and you generally own'd by a practical belief those Doctrines I have set down as yours out of your most approved Authors Lastly It is manifest by my Quotations that your Ministers rendred the last King odious to his people and preacht him out of his Throne and Kingdom but 't is no where to be seen that they ever preach'd this King into the favour of his people again or used their powerful eloquence to have him restor'd to his Right And since his return though you have given over printing yet most of you have kept up the Faction and in stead of crying peccavi have still endeavour'd to weaken the Church and draw Disciples after you and your Synods have never disclaimed those men who by their Preaching had kindled up the late Rebellion and the Preachers have never recanted their former Opinions but either justified or disguised them nay many of them own still the Obligation of that infamous Oath call'd the Covenant whereby they acted and warranted all their wickedness Therefore though the people may be excused having been deluded and imposed upon yet you the Ministers and Heads of the Faction can never with all the wit you have plead any thing that can justifie you from owning the worst of Popish Errours Now let our Judge speak if he pleaseth G. I confess I am somewhat amazed at what I have heard I never thought so much could be said for proving a Conformity betwixt Papists and Presbyterians in so many points but yet I will decide nothing nor make any reflections upon what you have said I 'll rather transcribe and print your discourse and leave the Reader to think and to judge as his own discretion shall advise him Only seeing that you are most chiefly agreed in denying the King that Supreme Authority which God hath given him and pretending a certain Power and Jurisdiction over him in ordine ad spiritualia for the good of souls or to phrase it aright for to advance Gods Cause and to set up Christ I shall set down some Texts of Scripture which plainly evince the contrary and then desire all Christians to yield a chearful and loyal Obedience until they have been told from Heaven that the Pope or Classis are impowered from God to act contrary to his Word in this particular First For the Authority of the Supreme Magistrate over all that live in his Dominions read Rom. 13.1 and 2. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation v. 5. Wherefore ye must be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Here you see that neither Pope nor Puritan is excepted but every soul is to be subject this was written when the Higher Powers were Heathen bloudy Persecutors of Christianity who endeavoured to destroy the Gospel and yet for all that they must not be rebelled against and their Authority must not be resisted Whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and therefore we must be subject to them not only for fear of their anger but also for fear of Gods not only for wrath but also for conscience sake In Tit. 3.1 Put them in mind saith the Apostle to be subject to principalities and powers to obey