Will is you should do and with all your endeavour apply your selves to follow the same First you must have an assured Faith in God and give your selves wholy unto him Love him in Prosperity and Adversity and dread to offend him evermore Then for his Sake Love all Men Friends and Foes because they be his Creation and Image and Redeemed as you are Cast in your Minds how you may do good unto all Men unto your Powers and hurt no Man Obey all your Superiours and Governours Serve your Masters Faithfully and Diligently as well in their absence as in their presence not for dread of Punishment only but for Conscience Sake knowing that you are bound so to do by Gods Commandments Disobey not your Fathers and Mothers but honour them help them and please them to your Power Oppress not Kill not Beat not neither Slander nor Hate any Man but Love all Men speak well of all Men help and Succour every Man as you may yea even your Enemies that hate you that speak Evil of you and that do hurt you Take no Mans Goods nor Covet your Neighbours Goods wrongfully but content your selves with that which ye get truly and also bestow your own Goods Charitably as Need and Case requireth Fly all Idolatry Witchcraft and Perjury Commit no Adultery Fornication or other Unchastness in Will nor Deed And Travelling continually during this Life thus in keeping the Commandments of God wherein standeth the Right Trade and Pathway unto Heaven you shall not fail as Christ hath promised to come to that Blessed and Everlasting Life where you shall Live in Glory and Joy with God for ever 'T is as impossible as any thing can be that they who do these things and continue in them to the end of their Lives should miss of Eternal Glory and Happiness To say that such a Faith such Obedience such a Life as our Church propounds and Teacheth persisted in till they pass out of this World cannot through the Merits of Christ Save Men is to Damn the Blessed Apostles and all the Primitive Saints and Martyrs who if they went to Heaven at all went thither by believing and Living according to the Scriptures and call upon us to follow their Faith their pure or unspotted Lives considering the end of their Conversation the Glories in which they shine in the Blessed mansions above This is the Rock upon which we of the Church of England Build our hopes of a Crown of Glory this is a Guide that cannot deceive but will lead us safely to the Blessed place we aspire after they that walk by this Rule the Rule of the Holy Scripture are in a sure way to Salvation and if they persevere cannot miss of it But if we remove our Thoughts now to the Church of Rome it will be Evident that there is at most but a Possibility of Salvation in the Communion of it because of its disagreement with and repugnancy to the Holy Scriptures So far is this Church from doing them the Right and the Honour as to confess that they comprehend all things necessary to Salvation that it affirms the contrary that they do it not without the help of Traditions which they of that Communion receive and Honour with an equal Devotion and Reverence So saith the Council of Trent expresly Sacrosancta oecumenica generalis Tridentina Synodus in spiritu sancto Session the 4th page 19 Legitimè congregata c. This Holy Oecumenical and general Council of Trent being Lawfully called together in the Holy Ghost having this ever before their Eyes that all Errours being destroyed or taken away the very purity of the Gospel might be preserved in the Church which being promised before by the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God with his own Mouth first publish'd and afterwards Commanded it to be Preach'd to every Creature by his Apostles as the Fountain of all saving Truth and Discipline or Instruction of manners and knowing this Discipline and Truth to be contained in the written Books and in Traditions not written which being received by the Apostles from Christs own Mouth or by the Apostles themselves the Holy Ghost prompting them to it as it were handed down are come to us This Council following the Examples of the Orthodox Fathers doth with equal Devotion and Reverence receive and honour all the Books of the Old and New Testament because the same God is the Authour of them both and the Traditions themselves belonging both to Faith and Manners as deliver'd by Christ by word of mouth or dictated by the Holy Spirit and kept by continual Succession in the Catholick Church So that their Rule of Faith consists of two distinct parts the Scriptures and Traditions the word of God written and the word of God not written but transmitted by word of Mouth from Age to Age from Generation to Genertion Now though it be certain that the word of God be equally true and equally obligatory to all Persons whether it be written or not written which way soever it be propounded or convey'd to them yet how shall it appear or be proved that what they call the Unwritten word of God is really so not a wicked cheat imposture They say it is his word we say it is not the Primitive Church saith nothing at all of it but asserts and maintains the sufficiency or fullness of the Scriptures or written word of God that is that it contains all things necessary to be believed and done to the obtaining Eternal Life and Happiness as is fully proved by many Protestant Writers And when the Ancient and Orthodox Fathers speak of Traditions and call upon any to observe and obey them they either mean by those Traditions the Doctrine of Christ deliver'd to the Christian Church in the Writings of the Apostles or the Ordinances made either by the Apostles themselves or the Bishops that succeeded them in their Apostolical Office for the decent and orderly performance of Gods Worship The first is indeed the Word of God but then it is his written word the other are not the word of God at all but humane Constitutions and no farther Obligatory than they are agreeable to the General Rules the Scriptures give for Conducting the Circumstances of Religion the Church having Power as Ours truly affirms to Decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority Article the 20. in Controversies of Faith though it be not Lawful for the Church to Ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written This is all the Ancient Fathers mean by Traditions when they speak of or require the Observation of them but they make no such Distinction as this of the written and unwritten word of God neither do they say that the first is imperfect or doth not sufficiently instruct Mankind to Salvation unless it be supply'd with the other This is a Blasphemy which the Apostate Church only is guilty of but was never heard of in the
Primitive times Besides the Holy Scriptures or written word of God as I remarked before call upon us to search and study and meditate in them nay to believe and obey or Live according to them and Promise Eternal Happiness and Salvation to all that do these things but they make no mention of the word of God not written do not Command any to enquire or search after or trouble their Heads about any such thing as the Unwritten word of God 'T is true indeed St. Paul praises the Obedient Members of the Church of Corinth that kept 1 Cor. 11. 2. the Traditions or Ordinances which he deliver'd to them But these were no part of the word of God either written or not written but things in their own nature Indifferent That the Men should Pray in publick with their Heads uncover'd and the Women with their Heads cover'd Verses 4th and 5th He gives this charge also to Timothy hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of 2 Tim. 1. 13. me in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Which form of sound words was either the Creed which the Apostles agreed upon as a summary of the Chief things that were to be believed and profess'd by all Christians or else the whole Doctrine of Christ containing all things to be done as well as believed to Salvation which if not then were before the Apostles left the World intirely written for the Instruction of all that should Imbrace the Christian Religion But doth not Christ tell his Apostles I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now By which saith the St. John 16. 12. Church of Rome it appears That Christ spoke many things that were not written and it is not credible that the Apostles would not deliver these by word of mouth to the Church To which a Reverend Bishop of ours gives this Satisfactory Answer that Christ doth not say Bishop Davenane de judice norma fidei page 18. Multa habeo quae non potestis in posterum scribere I have many things to say unto you which you cannot hereafter write but which you cannot now bear Postea autem Spiritu sancto illuminati portare ea potuerunt praedicare mundo ac demum scriptis toti Ecclesiae Commendare but afterwards being inlightned by the Holy Ghost they could both bear them themselves and Preach them to the World and at last in their writings Commend and Transmit them to the whole Church But let us grant saith he that these things were such as are not written yet who is so impudent and rash as to dare to specifie or assign what those things were This is such Transcendent Presumption that none but the Church of Rome dares venture on which takes the boldness to Father all her Dreams Fables and Errours upon God calling them his Traditional or Unwritten word As for those words of St. John which they insist so much upon There are also many other things which Jesus did the which if they should be Chap. 21. 25. written every one I suppose that even the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written These neither prove the necessity nor Authority of their Traditional or Unwritten word of God Fatemue enim multa esse quae fecit Jesus quae tamen ab Evangelistis scripta non fuerunt for we Page 18. confess saith that Learned Authour that there were many things which Jesus did that are not written by the Evangelists but these many things were not Doctrines necessary to Salvation but Miracles or sayings which we may be ignorant of without any detriment to Religion or Salvation so St. John himself tells us And many other Signs truly did Jesus in the Chap. 20. 30. 31. presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name Which utterly destroys the necessity of their Unwritten word of God for if what is written be enough to perswade Men to believe in Christ and that believing be sufficient to save or bring them to Eternal life that do it then no more can be necessary but St. John affirms both these therefore the Romish Traditional or Unwritten word of God is at best a needless or superfluous thing Besides it is and must be with all thinking Men a mighty Objection against this Unwritten word of God as they call it that the Church of Rome hath the sole Custody or keeping of it the Primitive Church after the Canon of the Scriptures was compleated says nothing at all of it for all the Fathers cry up and maintain the Perfection and Sufficiency of the written word of God and all the Reformed Churches adhere to this in Opposition to that Unwritten Word How then came Rome by it Is God so partial such a Respecter of Persons as to Communicate it to that Church and not to others Or is it a Cheat or Artifice of the nequam ingeniosi the witty or Crafty Deceivers to help at a dead lift This is the very Truth Many of their Doctrines and Practices they plainly perceiv'd did openly clash with and contradict the Holy Scriptures or written word of God and therefore there was no way to defend them to acquit their Church from Errour and Impiety but to cry up Tradition and make it of equal Authority with the Scriptures But this will not do it for doth God use to contradict himself There are that say he hath two Wills the one secret the other reveal'd and that the one is contrary to the other which is neither better nor worse than downright Blasphemy the Church of Rome with equal Blasphemy affirms that God hath two Laws or Words the one contained in the Scriptures the other transmitted by Oral Tradition and they plead this in Defence of those Doctrines which are contrary to that being beaten from the Scriptures and having no shelter or protection for their Errours there they Fly for refuge to Tradition as if that could bear them out or support their Cause and so they make the infinitely Wise and Righteous God contradict himself which he must needs do if he hath declared his will to Mankind two several ways that is by Scritpure and Oral Tradition and this affirms things which that deny's and gainsays They had rather if they could do it prove the points in controversy by the Scriptures as the most satisfactory and convincing proof but not being able to do that they are constrained either to confess their Errours or to pretend Tradition to vouch and countenance them That they will not do because it is against their Worldly Interest inconsistent with their Honour and Profit This they had better not do because the Cheat is so Evident that none but weak Persons will be gull'd and deluded by it for we know that must
needs be an Abominable Cheat which they call the Unwritten word of God because by this they evacuate or make the other voy'd and of no Effect Command what in the Scripture God forbids and forbid what he Commands condemn what he allows allow what he condemns make that necessary which he leaves Arbitrary or Indifferent and that Indifferent which he makes necessary using the Scriptures as one Procustes a Theevish Inn-keeper in Germany is said to have Treated his Guests who having but one Bed for all Comers if he that was to lye in it was too long for the Bed he would cut off his Feet or Legs till he had made him of an equal length for it if too short he would rack and stretch him out till he had made him of a fit size for it Thus doth Rome by her Traditions inlarge and alter add to and take from pervert and wrest the Scriptures to her own and the Destruction of Multitudes of those that give up themselves to her Conduct For I desire it may be considered what an horrid injury and affront it is to the Laws of God to those Sacred Books that contain so Choice and most Precious a Treasure as the Words of Eternal Life which they propound to us must needs be to use them thus Nay what abominable insolence and contempt of God it is to accuse them of Inperfection to affirm they do not give Men sufficient Instruction to Salvation which they say they do Is there any thing that Princes do more highly resent or more severely Punish than the contempt of their Laws and Royal Edicts when instead of paying a ready and cheereful Obedience to them any Persons censure and carp at them Falsly call them obscure and defective Institutions that do not reach the ends or designs they were made for and take upon them to forge new ones to put out Counterfeit Edicts and Mandates in the Princes name which he knew nothing of and gave no consent to Just thus doth the Church of Rome treat the Great Lord and Ruler of all the World accuses his Laws contained in the Scriptures of Imperfection say's they are obscure and defective dark and unintelligible Institutions in themselves and forges new ones which it calls his Traditional or Unwriten Laws and is Fonder of or Prefers them before the other which must needs provoke his Anger and bring down his most fearful Judgments upon it even all the Woes Plagues and Curses denounc'd in Scripture against them that commit so Insolent and Hainous a Wickedness And as they affront and dishonour the Scriptures by receiving Traditions with equal reverence and devotion so in defiance to them they have Inlarged the Faith Multiply'd the Sacraments Chang'd all the Principal parts of Religion which they propound to the Christian Church They neither Believe nor Worship God according to the Scriptures but to the Faith once delivered to the Saints they have added new and false Propositions and instead of the Pure and Holy Worship God requires disgrace and provoke him with their Images and leaving the old Paths and the good way of his appointing they have invented new means and conditions of Salvation For all the points Controverted between Them Us are plainly and evidently Repugnant to the Scriptures as would appear by a particular Examination of them But this is not proper to the Subject I have in hand and hath been so fully and Unanswerably proved by many Eminent Divines of our Church Famous in their Generations Men of Renown the excellent Bishop Jewel Dr. Feild the two Whites the Arch-deacon in his way to the true Church and his Brother the Bishop of Ely in his Defence of it By Arch-Bishop Laud in his admirable Book against Fisher by the Reverend Bishop of Down in the Defence of his Disswasive from Popery to the Learned and Excellent labours of which worthy Men I refer the Reader that it is needless for me to do it again But if any of the Church of Rome think I wrong their Mother by charging her with forsaking the Scriptures I am ready to make it good when they require it of me and will prove the points in Debate between the Church of England and theirs to be contrary to Scripture and therefore most dangerous Errours and Innovations And if they depart from the Scriptures as t is certain they do which only are able to make Men wise unto Salvation and by which all Christians shall be judged at the last and great Assize of the World there must needs as all the Reformed Churches truly believe and teach be great peril of Damnation in the Communion of that Church They are out of the way which God commands all Men to walk in that would obtain the Immortal Glories and Felicities of his Heavenly Kingdom and therefore if they be Saved it must be by extraordinary ways or means 'T is possible that God whose Mercies are Infinite may save the Ignorant and well meaning People amongst them that follow the Romish Guides in the Dr. Potter Answer to Charity mistaken page 78 79. Simplicity of their Hearts Who either have not as a learned Person of our Church observes sufficient means to find the truth or else after the use of the best means they can have find not Sufficient motives to convince their Conscience that they are in Errour 'T is possible also that they who lived all their days in the Communion of the Church of Rome may repent at their Death humbly beseech God to pardon all their Sins and Errours known and unknown and so find Mercy from him who is not extreme to mark what is done amiss But if that Ignorance or this Repentance do not help them though we take not on us to pass the Dreadful doom upon them yet our Charity to their Souls obliges us to tell them their Condition is exceeding Dangerous 'T is therefore great Uncharitableness to himself for any Man that Considers what a Blessed and Desirable thing Eternal Happiness is that thinks what it is to live with God his Angels and Saints in Glory unconceivable in joys unspeakable and endless to venture his Soul in the Romish Communion where there is the greatest hazard of losing it and at most but a poor Possibility of saving it A Church which I cannot better describe than in the Words of the Person I last mentioned who was a learned and a moderate Man She brings forth Children unto God by their Baptism but then Poysons them in their Breeding Dr. Potter pages 14 15 16. When they ask for Bread she gives them a Stone and Serpents instead of Fishes To the Word of God she adds and equalls her own Traditions she reads unto them that Word but in an unknown Tongue teaches them to Pray but in Latin which they understand not directs them to call upon God but withal upon Saints and Angels to Worship God but also dumb Blocks and Images She sends them to Legends and Pictures for much
is to dread and fly from damnation one way and to run into it another But that their hatred of it is most just appears from the causes of it which are the Errours and Corruptions of the Romish Church in Doctrine and Worship and the intolerable Rapines Exactions and Cruelties of it The Errours and Corruptions of its Doctrine and Worship our People know very well that the Church of Rome locks up the Holy Scriptures which contain that most precious Treasure the words of eternal life in a forreign language which they do not understand and casts the greatest contempt upon them by denying their sufficiency and perfection by inlarging the Faith which they propound by setting up such a way of worship as they forbid and say God abhors and against which they denounce the most dreadful curses and horrible punishments by giving Men Dispensations to do what they condemn and to omit what they require These and their other Errours are such an heap of dirt and rubbish as hath made not only our People but other Nations hate so foul a Church which being often reproved and chidden for it will not reform or cast it out of doors but retains or keeps it as tenaciously as if it were an heap of Silver or pure Gold Our People have no mind to worship Images to creep to a Crucifix to pray to Saints that can neither hear nor help them to kiss and fall down to their mouldy Reliques nor to adore a consecrated Wafer but would fain that they may please God and save their Souls keep themselves from Idols believe and live and worship their Creator as he commands them in the Holy Scriptures and therefore they abominate the Church of Rome because it would not allow them if they were Members of it so to do but would force them to make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and that which is the result of these Eternal Happiness and Salvation The other things that disgust our People and render them such implacable enemies to the Romish Church are its intolerable Rapines Exactions and Cruelties Our People are not ignorant nor is it possible they should so long as we have so many Records and Histories relating them what spoil and havock the Romish Clergy made of the Estates of their Forefathers cheated them of their Money by selling them Pardons and Indulgences by telling them they might be redeemed if not from Hell yet from Purgatory a Prison of the Popes making and in a manner as disconsolate and uneasy for the time the poor captives stay there as Hell it self if they were to be believed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold How they exhausted the Treasure drain'd away the wealth of the Nation by Peter Pence and First-fruits and Tenths and Fees for Dispensations and investing Bishops and Appeals and I know not how many other ways so that the Kingdom groan'd under their insatiable avarice and beg'd of God and his Anointed to ease them of such an intolerable burthen and oppression not to suffer our Silver Thames as it is called to be the unhappy Channel to carry out the English Treasure and cast it upon the banks of Tyber to support the pride and grandeur of a Forraign Patriarch And indeed the Flux was so violent that if it had not been stop'd in time it would have destroy'd the Body Politick have let out the Bloud and Spirits of the Nation discouraged their industry and thereby beggar'd the People for seeing their land devoured by Strangers and Forreigners reap the fruit of their labours being forced to send great sums abroad and haunted continually with lazy Monks and begging Friars at home the miserable People had no encouragement to imploy their time and labour to get Wealth for such Caterpillers to Devour And if Popery produce such oppressions lay such grievous or heavy burthens upon them 't is no wonder that the People are no fonder of it and being by our Laws freed from such ravening Wolves as the Romish Clergy were when they had the Rule or Authority here have no mind they should return any more lest their long and forced abstinence render them more hungry then formerly and whet their appetites so that a moderate morsel or revenue cannot satisfie them But Mony is not the only thing they thirst after for they delight in Bloud and Cruelty think they do God good service and offer him the most acceptable Sacrifice when they kill those they falsly call Hereticks and root them out of the Land of the Living Men of such a fiery or burning Zeal that when they have Power in any measure equal to it they make Living Bonefires or Burnt Offerings of all that dissent from them and will not truckle to their Superstition Their horrid Massacres in France their savage Executions by Duke Alva and others in the Low Countries their Inhumane Butchering and cutting Peoples Throats in Ireland their Gunpowder Plots their Racks and Inquisitions the Fires they make for the Living and their Damning the dead Saints or Christians as far as the Popes Anathema's or Curses can do it to the everlasting Flames of Hell are sufficient Instances and Monuments of their bitter Zeal and barbarous Cruelty These have enlightened and convinced a great part of the Christian World that they are not of Christ have none of his good Spirit in them who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Their Law against Hereticks as the Learned 1 Epist ad Wading Jesu Ant. Chap. 8 Pag. 126. Episcopis observes is so Cruel Bloudy and Nesarious so contrary to the mild and merciful Genius of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that Royal Law of Charity which he would have extended to our very Enemies that I doubt not to affirm that cannot be the Holy Church as they call and would have it believed to be in which so barbarous a Law so cruel a Discipline so inconsistent with right reason and common humanity is in force and practice These things have created in our People a mighty aversion to and hatred of Popery and if their hatred kept within its due bounds and shewed it self in just and lawful ways they would deserve great honour and commendation for it but to be so inflamed at every discovery of any Popish Plots or Designs or by the impious frauds and artifices of the Seditious who are always spreading false rumours of Popery to do mischief as to cast off the Loyalty Justice and Honesty which our Lord requires of all that profess his Religion this instead of haters of Popery proves them to be the Enemies of Christ and equal Criminals with the worst of Papists for every wise and good man therefore hates Popery because it prompts the Zealots for it to do such evil and wicked things as are destructive of Salvation but if Zeal against Popery put men upon any sinful and therefore damnable Practices these are certainly as bad if not worse then those and both of them
Royal Throne without a Rival a Rival did I say nay a most imperious Master that is very hard to please and yet if he be not pleased and humour'd in all things 't is a thousand to one but he will jostle him out of it and lay his Honour in the dust A Church in which he can Exercise but a part and that the meanest and most ignoble part of his Authority that only which concerns the Civil Polity and Rights for he may not meddle with Religion nor the Ministers of it who are exempt from his Jurisdiction and Sworn Vassals to his Superiour and as such ready to revenge the Injuries and Affronts the Prince offers to their great Masters if he dares be so rash and unadvised as to be guilty of any but of that afterwards A Church in which he that is Gods Image and Representative less only then God must sneak and truckle Meanly to an Upstart and Usurper a meteor drawn from the Earth and raised on high by Pride Avarice and Cruelty What Temptation then could his Royal Highness who is a wise Prince of a brave and generous Spirit and so exceeding tender of his Honour that he must needs in the highest manner resent the least Violation of his Right all diminution or lessening of his Power all invasion and usurpation of the Priviledges and Prerogatives belonging to it both by Divine and Humane Right if the Crown should descend to him What Temptation I say could such a Prince have to joyn himself to a Church in which he shall be so degraded and dishonour'd be a Vassal Underling to one that unjustly insolently and prophanely exalts himself above all that is called God that is all the Kings of the Earth Especially if we consider that the Church he forsakes or goes from Courts his stay by giving her Kings their full Authority all the Priviledges Prerogatives and Preheminences belonging to them in this that is the Church of England the King is declared Supream not only in Temporal but in all Causes Ecclesiastical superintends Religion as well as Civil Rights governs the Clergy chuses the Bishops convenes them when he sees cause to make Canons Constitutions Authorises Impowers them to consult debate to order conduct the Circumstances of Religion the Essentials of it being determined by God in Scripture what they agree upon he doth at their humble Petition if he approve of them by his Royal Edict confirm or pass into Laws Ecclesiastical and when they have effected what he called them together for he dismisses or dissolves the assembly Here the Kings Power within his Realms and Dominions is affirm'd and declared to be the Highest Power under God Canon 1 of the Canons Anno 1603. to whom all Men as well Inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Laws owe most Loyalty and Obedience And whosoever shall deny or oppose the Royal Supremacy is to be Excommunicated Canon 2. ipso facto and not to be restored but only by the Arch-Bishop after his Repentance and publick Revocation of those his Wicked Errours So that they must be blind or wilfully shut their Eyes that do not see a vast difference in this great affair between ours and the Church of Rome in this the Pope is Supream Governour in all causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical nay in Temporal too so far as they concern Religion in that our Church I mean she Supremacy is given intirely to our Kings whose Power is expresly declared to be the highest under God and their Authority extended to all Persons as well Clergy as People and to all causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal In the Church of Rome if the Prince claim the Supremacy which belongs to him by Divine Right he is Reputed and Treated as an Heretick that is Excommunicated and Deposed and if any of his Subjects dare to assert and openly maintain his Supremacy as in Duty and Conscience they are bound to do because it is their Princes undoubted Right they are Condemn'd to Dye and Adjudg'd Guilty of such a Crime as cannot be purged but by casting them into the Fire In our Church all the Clergy are requir'd to the uttermost of Canon 1. their Wit Knowledg and Learning purely and sincerely without any colour or dissimulation to teach manifest open and declare four times at least every Year That all Usurped and Forreign Power forasmuch as the same hath no Establishment nor Ground by the Law of God is for most just Causes taken away and abolish'd and that therefore no manner of Obedience and Subjection within His Majesties Realms and Dominions is due unto any such Forreign Power but that the King is Supream Governour Canon 55. in all his Realms and Dominions in all causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal Or as it is express'd in the excellent Canons of the Year 1640 A Supream Power is Canon 1. given to this most excellent Order that is of Kings by God himself in Scripture which is that Kings should Rule and Command in their several Dominions all Persons of what Ranks or Estates soever whether Ecclesiastical or Civil and that they should restrain and punish with the Temporal Sword all stubborn and wicked doers The Care of Gods Church is so committed to Kings in Scripture that they are commended when the Church keeps the right way and taxed when it runs amiss and therefore her Government belongs in chief unto Kings for otherwise one Man would be commended for anothers Care and taxed for anothers Negligence which is not Gods way And if any of our Clergy or Laity dare to impugn or oppose the Royal Supremacy they are Anathematiz'd or decreed to be Excommunicated which is the greatest Punishment the Church can inflict and the most dreadful one any Man can suffer in this World 'T is most apparent then that our Church gives and secures to the Crown that great and most precious Jewel the Supremacy which is the chief Glory and Ornament of it which the Church of Rome so unjustly steals from and Robs it of Here the Prince hath no Rival nor Competitor none to insult or Domineer over him as in the Romish Communion no Lord at all over him but the great Governour of all the World God Almighty to whom it is his Glory as well as Duty to be Subject and submit himself in all things And as our Church doth not diminish or lessen the Power of her Kings so it is so far from pretending any Jurisdiction or coercive Authority over them that it abhors and detests it declares it to be Treason both against God and the King for any to claim or challenge such Authority over them For any Person or Persons to set up maintain or a vow in any their said Realms or Territories Canons of 1640. Canon 1. respectively under any pretence whatsoever any Independent Coactive Power either Papal or Popular whether directly or indirectly is to
the Preacher out And as Preaching cannot unless they be forced to hear and the just Correction of the Laws drive them from their Conventicles to our Assemblies so Writing hath done no good upon them all the excellent Books that have been written both formerly and of late Years by the excellent Divines of our Church in which all their exceptions against it have been fully answer'd all their scruples satisfi'd all their Pleas and Apologies for their Separation throughly confuted and the Authors of them put to all the shame and silence Men of their Confidence are capable of yet they are never the better but persist stubbornly in their wicked Schism and prove to all the World that they are such as hate to be Reformed the crafty seducers tell their Credulous followers that such are Lewd and ungodly Books and that frights them so that they dare not upon any Terms give them the Reading all that their guides think fit to do in the case is to imploy some Pragmatical Fellow to write an Answer which how silly or impertinent soever is admired and applauded by the whole Faction as an Incomparable piece and the Author hugd and caress'd by the Brethren and Holy Sisters as a very precious Man Nor can any better success be reasonably expected from the other way that of Conference because if they will not hear our Clergy Preach nor Read the excellent Books they have writ in defence of the Church they will be as averse especially when they have their Liberty to private Conference be with great difficulty brought to admit the Charitable Person that comes to undeceive them or if they do they are generally so ignorant and so conceited that it is very hard to make them understand the nature of the things disputed what Schism is and how exceeding Sinful and if this be done they are so highly conceited of their own Gifts and Godliness as to think themselves Wiser and Holyer than he that offers them Instruction Besides they are such Slaves to so wholly at the Command of their own Guides and Teachers that if they tell them their separate Meetings are Innocent and Holy Assemblies and those of the Church so impure or defiled with Popish Prayers Ceremonies and other Humane Inventions that it is not safe for them to venture their precious Souls in them they believe such lying words as firmly as if they were Divine Truths and adhere to them in spight of all the Scripture and Reason that can be brought against them These therefore and all other vain projects laid aside the Government if it will be safe and happy must with great and earnest care endeavour to reduce them to the Church which can be effected no other way but by a strict Executing the Laws upon all Dissenters an unwearied persisting in it letting them see that if they dare be so impudent as to Affront Transgress the Laws and defie Authority that both will and dares do Justice upon such bold Offendors This in time will make them leave their Fooling to give it no worse Title Teach the People to shun the Meeting-Houses with the same caution and waryness as they do the Dreadful and Disconsolate Places where Misery and Ruin dwell This will put them upon serious Thoughts and Considerations Oblige them strictly to Examine the Cause for which they Suffer prompt them to ask themselves such questions as these what harm or venom is there in the Ceremonies of the Church that we should be so affraid of them as to run from the Communion of it Do not our own Guides and Teachers confess the Doctrine of it to be pure or agreeable to the Scriptures Are there not abundance of Learned Pious and Holy Men that Live and Dye in the Communion of it and can we think that such Men are not Saved And if they be Why will not the same Faith the same Doctrine the same Prayers and Holyness carry us to Heaven Are not the Doctrine Government and Worship the same that were Taught exercis'd and used by those brave and Holy Men that with such admirable zeal and courage suffer'd Martyrdom in the Reign of Queen Mary How can that be Popery now which was practic'd by them who would rather burn at a Stake then turn Papist and are we Wiser or more Conscientious than they The Wise Merciful Correction of the Laws will by degrees bring the Offendors to a sight and abhorring of their Errours and produce in them such good Thoughts as these and consequently ingage them to return from whence they are fallen I mean to our Holy and Excellent Church which will put an Happy end to all our Schisms and Divisions and the People by coming constantly to our Pious Loyal Assemblies will in a little time Learn to Fear God and the King and meddle no more with them that are given to change But if this great means of reducing them be waved or neglected or coldly prosecuted such a Blessed and desirable Revolution can never be attained but our fewds and contentions will be Immortal and we shall be as the scorn of so the most Miserable and Distracted Nation in the World Without this nothing can reduce them but in Conjunction with and Subordination to it there are other things that will contribute very much to it as the Exemplary Piety and strict Conformity of the Clergy and the putting them into such a Condition that they may not depend upon the Benevolence of the People for their Maintenance Their Exemplary Piety that none be suffer'd to Dishonour our most pure and holy Church by their Evil and unsuitable Lives for though 't is certain we have the most Learned Pious Unblamable and therefore Excellent Clergy in the World yet if there be any irregular Persons amongst them as 't is possible there may in such a great Body of Men be here and there one that forgets himself that care be taken and means used to Reform them that they give no Offence Minister no Occasion to any to Reproach the Church or to speak Evil of our most Holy and Undefiled Religion We see how cautious and careful the Schismatical Preachers are to seem Holy that they may gain the Esteem and Veneration of the People and lead them by the Noses whether and to what they please and if the shadow in them to be sure the Substance of Holiness a Vertuous and unblamable Life in all our Clergy will gain them great Authority with the People and convince them that must needs be an Holy Church that hath so Pious Regular and Excellent a Clergy The next is their strict Conformity that all of them be compell'd to observe all the Orders and Constitutions of the Church Unless this be done the People can never be drawn off from their prejudices against and misperswasions concerning them but will think them unlawful Impositions because some of the Clergy do not observe them and they will admire applaud and follow those that do not observe them as
such a Treacherous Precarious way of Communicating them We see how strangely the Ancient History of the World and the greatest Transactions of it whilst they were thus Transmitted were Depraved and Corrupted so intermix'd with Lies and Fables as they passed down the Channel of Time and Ages that the truth of things was either quite lost or very difficultly to be found out being cover'd or in a manner Buried under such an heap of Dirt and Rubbish that the Wisest and most Sagacious minds after all their care and endeavours to search it out were very doubtful and could not come to a full Determination what to believe or what to reject some things they saw had an appearance of Truth but then the Fables mixt therewith disgrac'd and render'd them so Suspicious that they knew not what to think of them And therefore the All-wise and most Merciful God as he was pleased to offer Immortal Happiness to Mankind and to tell them upon what terms or conditions he would admit them to and bless them with it so he took care to have these most weighty things Conveyed down to all Ages and Generations of Men in the safest way requiring those he imploy'd to deliver his Laws to Mankind to commit them to Writing nay delivering some of them the Ten Commandments that is to Moses Inscribed or Written upon two Tables of Stone Exodus 32. 16. which way of Transmitting them is most durable or lasting and therefore the safest and they that say the contrary Reproach Disparage the Wisdom of God because he thought fit thus to Convey them to us and when these Writings were compleated by the Addition of the New Testament to the Old nothing could be wanting to instruct Mankind in all the parts of their Duty and to tell them all the terms or Conditions of their Eternall Happiness and Salvation To say they are imperfect and do not give Men sufficient Direction for the attaining this great end is to Blaspheme the Glorious Author of them to Arraign his Wisdom to revile his Goodness and to contradict these Sacred Writings which call upon us to search and study them and invite us to perform the Duties they require of us with the offer of Salvation if we do it and the Denunciation of Damnation if we refuse to do it Now if all those things united or conjoyned cannot bring the observers of them to the Salvation they promise then the Scriptures do not say true and therefore God is not the Author of them This the Church of Rome doth not dares not say but owns the Truth of all they say and confesses them to come from God only it says they are insufficient and obscure that is do not speak enough tell those that consult them all things necessary to Salvation nor speak so plainly and intelligibly as to be understood without an infallible Interpreter to declare the true and full Sense or Meaning of them The first cannot be because if the Scriptures say do these things and thou shalt live be Eternally happy and Blessed As for Instance believe in Christ Repent of thy Sins keep the Commandments of God and tell us what they are as it is apparent they do and promise Salvation to them that so believe Repent and keep the Commandments of God then they speak fully to the purpose tell him or them that Read them enough to save them if they perform it and consequently must be sufficient and then to add I know not what unwritten Verities as they are called as Supplements to them is both a Wicked and a Vain thing 't is Wicked both as it invades Gods Authority will not let him prescribe appoint all the Terms or Conditions upon which he will give Eternal Life and Glory to his Church and People Wicked also as it disgraces his Laws and charges them with defects they are not Guilty of 'T is vain too and altogether needless like Lighting up a Torch or a Candle when the Sun Shines in all his Glory for they that cannot see or find the way to Heaven by the Glorious Light or Direction of the Holy Scriptture will never do it by the help of the dark Lanthern of Oral Tradition this is apter to seduce or draw those that follow it out of the Right way than to guide them into it That cannot deceive any because it gives them a full and perfect Description of it tells them This is the way walk ye in it And as they speak fully to this great point give an exact and perfect Answer to every one that asks them that Important Question What shall I do that I may have Eternal Life So they speak plainly and intelligibly to it and every Reader may if he brings with him an humble and Teachable Mind Learn and understand all his Duty his Duty as the Apostle divides it to God his Neighbour and himself to God in Acts of Piety to his Neighbour in Acts of Justice and Charity to himself in Acts of Temperance or Sobriety 'T is very Foolish as well as Sinful for Men to cry out of the Obscurity or Darkness of the Scriptures only to serve a Worldly Interest by it when those parts of them that describe our Duty are said to be a Light a Light unto our Pathes and a Lantern to our Feet those must needs be Blind that cannot see the Light because it is the Nature or Property of it to be Visible 'T is true indeed there are degrees of Light one Light being greater and more Radiant than another thus the Law was a Light but yet weak and dimm in Compare with the Gospel which is so great and Illustrious a Light that the Apostle saith If it be hid it is hid to them that Perish that are so in Love with their Sins as to resolve to persist though they Perish in them and therefore shut their Eyes against the Gospel which comes as a Light to shew them their Errour They that say the Scriptures are Obscure and unintelligible must say that either God could not or would not declare his Mind so as to be understood by Men If they say the first they degrade him because if he could not do it he hath not the Wisdom or Intelligence of a Man and therefore cannot be God every Man of Common Sense that is able to speak being also able to speak his Mind so as to be understood If they say the other they Vilifie and Disgrace him for if he would not speak so that Men might understand him then it is meer mockery to offer them Eternal Happiness upon such Conditions as they do not cannot understand and hateful Cruelty to threaten them with Everlasting and Intolerable Punishment for Transgressing such Laws and omitting such Duties as are above their apprehension To say as the Papists do that God hath took care to remedy this Obscurity of the Scriptures by appointing an Infallible Guide or Interpreter to explicate or unridle the meaning of them and
that he cannot Err in the doing of it is to say that which all the World can never Prove for how doth it appear that God hath Constituted or Commission'd him to be the Sole Expounder of Scripture more than any other Bishop or Doctor of the Church Doth not our Lord say to all the Apostles nay to the seventy Disciples He that heareth you heareth me Did not he speak to them all when he said Go ye into all the World and Preach the Gospel to every Creature How then came his Holyness to have the Monopoly or Sole power of Interpreting Scripture Did it descend to him from St. Peter that cannot be because he never claim'd never pretended to it never had it Solely himself and the Successor cannot without Usurpation chalenge a greater Power nor plead a larger Commission than he had whom he pretends to Succeed 'T is certain that all the Apostles received an equal Authority and the same Commission from Christ and therefore all Bishops now being the undoubted Successors of the Apostles have an equal Power and Right to Interpret Scripture and there is by Divine Right no difference at all between them what is is either by Humane Constitution or by Usurpation and Incroachment And if he connot shew a Patent from God to prove him to be the only Authoritative Interpreter of his Laws how will he make good the other proud Word which he prefixes before it That he is the only and Infallible Expounder of Scripture He knows very well that a great and the wisest part of the World deny his Infallibility and Laugh at him for pretending to it How then will he convince them that he hath it by Reason no no! that gives no Testimony to such a gross and palpable Absurdity Reason says to be a Man and to be Exempt from all Possibility of Errour are Inconsistent Will he prove it by Scripture some Texts are brought from thence for fashion sake to colour the business as those that contain the promise of our Lord to his Apostles to send them the Holy Ghost to guide or St. John 16. 13. lead them into all Truth but this promise either proves too little or too much to do the feat for either it is a Peculiar promise belonging to the Apostles only who needed an Extraordinary Assistance from Christ that they might Transmit his Doctrine full and intire to Succeeding Ages and then was Personal and Expired with them and so doth not concern his Holyness for though the Holy Ghost guided them into all Truth yet he either not having the Holy Ghost or Refusing to follow his guidances may run into all Errour Or if it was not a Personal or Peculiar promise belonging to the Apostles only but Equally to their Successors then it proves more than he would have it That all the Bishops in the World are Infallible for the promise was made not to St. Peter only but to all the Apostles and therefore what nonsense and Ridiculous Partiallity is it to Restrain a general promise made to the whole Colledg of Apostles to the Successours of one of them for if they that Succeed St. Peter be Fully and Perfectly lead into all Truth then the Successors of all the Apostles are so and consequently all the Bishops in the World are Infallible and then his Holiness will have but a bad Market for his Expositions of Scripture for few People will be at the trouble to go to Rome for them because they may have them from their own Bishops Well but doth not our Lord say to St. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will Build my Church and the Gates St. Mat. 16. 18. of Hell shall not Prevail against it These are certainly the Words of Christ but they confer no peculiar Priviledg or Prerogative upon St. Peter nothing but what was equally given to all the Apostles for the Rock Signifies either his Confession Thou art Christ the Son of the living God which is the Rock the great and Vers 16. Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith upon which the Church is Built or if it concern his Person that he should be an Excellent Instrument as the other Apostles were and therefore are also called Foundation Stones to bring in Converts and Disciples unto Christ and to raise or Build him up a Church in the World which the Gates of Hell all the Power and Policy of the Devil should never be able Totally to ruin or destroy These Words then speak nothing for the pretended Infallibility And indeed the greatest Champions for it are so far from thinking it fully proved in Scripture that they are not agreed about it To fix it in the Popes Person they dare not because the many and gross Errours of his Life would confute and shame them and therefore as a Man they confess he can and may and doth Err To ascribe it to his Chair either to his Office or Dignity as Bishop or to him as Bishop of Rome and Successor to St. Peter in that Patriarchal See is silly for if he could Err before he can do so still because his being made Bishop doth not change his Nature but his Office and being the same Man why may he not be the same falliable or erring Man he was before The place he is Bishop of can make no Difference in the case because no reason can be given why the Bishop of Rome should be more Exempt from Errour than the Bishop of Munster To place the Infallibility in the Pope and a general Council is as unreasonable because if they can Err apart they may united and they confess that a general Council may Err if it be not Confirmed by the Pope and t is plain they think the Pope without it may Err or else t is idle to add a general Council to him but the uniting or putting two Erring parties together cannot make them Infallible To say that a General Council Confirm'd by the Pope cannot Err is unanswerably confuted by this argument of a great and excellent person The Pope never Confirms a Council till it be finish'd Arch-Bishop Laud against Fisher pa. 274. when it is finish'd before the Popes Confirmation be put to it either it hath Erred or not Erred if it hath Erred he ought not to confirm it or if he do it is a voyd Act because no power can make Errour or falsehood to be Truth if it hath not Erred then it was True before he Confirmed it and so his Confirmation signifies nothing And not withstanding all the stir they make about the Popes Infallibility they do not believe it themselves for the School-Men and Writers of Controversies as that Author observes put the case whether the Pope coming to be an Heritick Pa. 269. may not be Deposed and the Common Law as he adds says expresly That he may be Deposed for Heresie now if he can fall into Heresie and may be Deposed for it then he cannot be Infallible And
as the Scriptures give no testimony of it so neither reason nor any thing else can prove his Holiness to be Infallible because he is not and there is no need that either he or any other Bishop should be so because God hath fully and clearly propounded to us in the Scriptures all things necessary to Salvation as I have already Prov'd and for that part of them that is obscure we are certain we may be Saved without the knowledg of it otherwise the Merciful God that loves us and desires our Salvation would have made it plain to us Now to bring this Discourse home to the great Point in hand if Eternal Happiness and Salvation be the kind offer or Proposal of God and this cannot be had but upon certain Terms or Conditions which must be determin'd and reveal'd by him determin'd because that is his Right and none but he hath Authority to do it reveal'd because unless he declare upon what Terms he will save them Mankind can never know them nor consequently obtain the proposed happiness and those Terms or Conditions be fully and intirely plainly and intelligibly deliver'd in the Scriptures then that and none but that is the true Church in which Salvation may certainly be had that adheres or cleaves to the Scriptures and follows them as the great and only Rule of Faith and Manners of all things that is necessary to Salvation This is the only sure Mark of the true Church that may be rely'd upon without this all other Signs are false Fires and deceitful Lights that mislead their unwary followers but he that chuses his Church by its Profession of the Christian Faith and Doctrine contained in the Scriptures is safe and in such a Society where nothing is wanting to Salvation but if he leaves that he may wander up and down the World in vain seeking Rest but finding none All then that will be necessary to make good my Assertion in both the parts of it that there is a certainty of Salvation in the Church of England and at most but a Possibility of it in the Church of Rome is briefly to shew the agreement of ours and the Repugnancy of theirs to the Scriptures That Church which affirms that the Holy Scriptures Comprehend all things necessary to Salvation and that nothing but what is contained in them is to be press'd or requir'd as such and receives them as its sole or intire Rule agrees fully and perfectly with them but our Church affirms those and doth this therefore it adheres or keeps close to the Scriptures Holy Scripture it saith containeth all things necessary Article the 6. to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Unto a Christian it declares there can be nothing either more necessary or profitable than the knowledg of Holy Scripture forasmuch as in it is Homily the 1. contained Gods true word setting forth his Glory and also Mans Duty and there is no Truth nor Doctrine necessary for our Justification and Everlasting Salvation but what is or may be drawn out of that Fountain and Well of Truth In Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew what to believe what to Love and what to look for at Gods hands at length This is as full a Declaration of the perfection sufficiency of the Scriptures as can be made and that our Church receives them as the sole or intire Rule of Faith is so Evident that the Church of Rome confesseth it by making it an Accusation or Objection against it though this be to upbraid it with that which is its Glory I mean its strict adherence to the Scriptures and if they did not confess it it might be unanswerably proved by comparing the Doctrine of our Church with those Sacred Writings which whosoever doth will find a most perfect Union or agreement between them that it observes and follows and adheres to them in all things as if the same good Spirit that Inspir'd the Holy Prophets and Apostles to Pen them did in a more than ordinary manner guide and direct our Reformers to the same Faith or Sum of things to be believed the same Rule of Life or Paths of Piety and Holiness the same Object and way of Worship the same Sacraments and all other things which they propound to Mankind either as the Terms and Conditions upon which God will save them or Dr. Potter Answer to Charity mistaken pa. 13. Page 14. as helps and means to inable them to perform those Conditions So that no Church as a Learned and excellent Person speaks doth afford more Plentifully the means of Grace nor more abound with all helps and advantages of Piety than this of ours The word of God is diligently Preach'd amongst us the Sacraments of Christ Reverently Administred Abuses in both are removed the two Extremes of Religion Superstition and Prophaneness are avoided The Ignorant are Instructed the Disorderly admonish'd Comforts are applyed to the Afflicted Terrours to the Impenitent Censures and Punishments to the Obstinate In our Liturgy Policy and Ceremonies in the Government of our Prelates in the Diligence of Inferiour Pastours in the whole Face of our Doctrine and Discipline we have a most near and fair Resemblance of Reverend Antiquity All tending to the gaining of Souls to Christ and to guide them in the way of Peace As great Assurance Assurance then as any Christian hath that the Scriptures are true so full and absolute a certainty is there of Salvation in our Church because it teaches and requires all those things and no other that the Scriptures teach and require as necessary to Salvation and to the Performers of which they promise Eternal Life and Happiness and therefore if the Scriptures say true as all Christians acknowledg they do there can be no doubt or question at all of being saved in the Church of England unless Men will either not believe and Live as it teacheth and Commands them or if they do it will not persevere or continue in so believing and Living to the end of their Lives And therefore that none who are Members of this most Holy and Excellent Church may deprive themselves of so great a good as that Immortal Happiness is by their Evil and Unsuitable Living I shall conclude this Discourse with that admirable Exhortation which their Mother the Church gives them to obey or keep the Commandments of God their Father which is this Wherefore as ye have any Zeal to the Right and Pure Honouring of God as you have any Regard to Homily of Good Works Part. 3. p. 35. your own Souls and to the Life that is to come which is both without Pain and without End apply your selves chiefly above all things to Read and hear Gods word mark diligently therein what his
the Kingdom of Heaven which must in Reason signifie something more than other Christians have otherwise they that are not would be as Blessed as they that are Persecuted nay more Happy because they would without being Miserable in this obtain Crowns as Glorious and Rewards as great as they in the other World the Apostle also Affirms It is a Faithful saying if we be 2 Tim. 2. 11 12. Dead with him we shall also Live with him if we Suffer we shall also Reign with him if we Deny him he also will Deny us And if they that Suffer with or for shall Reign with him and they that deny him to escape Suffering shall be disown'd or deny'd by him every Man that believes he Reigns in Heaven and considers what a Blessed Desirable thing it is to Reign be Glorifi'd there with him instead of being Affrighted at it will think it most Prudent and Reasonable to deny himself take up his Cross and follow him to part with every thing that is Dear to Suffer every thing that is Dreadful to him here when he cannot keep the one nor avoid the other without Sin that he may obtain such a transcendent Reward and so admirable or illustrious an Exaltation This will Teach him to Reckon with St. Paul That the Sufferings of this present time are not Worthy to be compared Rom. 6. 18. with the Glory that shall be Revealed in him the present Suffering or Affliction as he tells us elsewhere being Light and but for a Moment but the Glory Great and Durable a far more Exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory And as the Holy Scriptures make such High and Noble Offers to all that Suffer for Christ so 't is certain the Primitive Church which was the best Expounder of Scripture thought the Martyrs had a greater Reward than other Pious Christians an Additional Coronet over and above the great Crown of Righteousness and accordingly St. Cyprian speaks of two Epist Martyribus Confes Christ ad finem Crowns the one white as the Gracious Recompence of good Works of their pure and unspotted Lives the other purple as the Glorious Reward of their Dying for the Faith of Christ But however that is the Apostle puts it out of doubt that there are Degrees of Glory and Different Rewards in Heaven There is one Glory of 1 Cor 15 41. 42. the Sun and another Glory of the Moon and another Glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another Star in Glory so also is the Resurrection of the Dead And if there be different Rewards after this Life it is Reasonable to believe the Blessed Martyrs have the most sparkling Crowns and the biggest Recompence in the Glorious Regions above because they gave the highest Testimony of their Love and Zeal for Christ by Dying for him 'T is not then so Miserable and Despicable a thing as the Excluders think it to take up the Cross and follow Jesus to suffer all manner of Injuries Oppressions Miseries nay Death it self for his Sake because he hath Promis'd great Rewards to them that do it and having all Power both in Heaven and Earth he must needs be able to accomplish or make good that Promise 'T is true indeed no Man ought to part with his Life or Estate when he can keep them Innocently He Suffers as a Fool that doth it when there is no Danger of Sinning if he Suffer not But to use any Unjust or Sinful Arts to free our selves from Suffering such as the Project of Exclusion is must needs be highly Impious and Unchristian For Gods Sake let us keep to the same Laws of Christ do the thing that is Right and leave the rest to his Watchful and Gracious Providence then if we Suffer our Innocence will be our Comfort and Support and we shall have the Blessed hope of passing by Death to the Rich and most Happy Inheritance provided for us in Heaven Let us Labour to be good to lead the Pure and Pious Lives our Religion requires of us and then we can have no Just Cause to Tremble or be Affraid to Dye The Living saith Solomon know that they must Dye and that they can by no Art or Means avoid it And seeing we must do it can we ever Dye more Honourably Bravely and Christianly than for owning the Holy Faith and Religion of our Dear Redeemer who gave himself to Death the most bitter and shameful Death of the Cross for us So that we have his Example to invite the Noble Army of Martyrs to animate or encourage and the great Rewards they are possess'd of to ingage us patiently to bear the Cross when our Lord is pleased to send it 'T is certain that as the Laws now are no Man can be deprived either of his Life or Estate meerly for professing the Reform'd Religion therefore whilst they continue we are as safe and secure as we can desire to be So that till they are changed no Man can Suffer for that and it will be a very difficult undertaking to change them because the Laws in Favour of our Religion cannot be Abolish'd or taken Off but by consent of Parliament and it will be no easie thing for a Popish Prince if at any time such an one comes to the Crown to get a Parliament that will do it because the Knights and Burgesses that serve in Parliament without whose consent according to our present Constitution no Laws can be either Made or Abolish'd are not chose by the Prince but by the People who are so far from Electing Papists that they are too prone to Chuse Men of the other Dangerous extreme and so Ruin us that way But if either the Prince should by his writ Summon or the People so forget themselves as to Elect any Papists yet when they are so Call'd and Elected they cannot Sit as the Laws now are till they have openly and in the most solemn manner Renounced their Religion which no Men of any Honour or Conscience will do If it be said they may have Dispensations from his Holiness to take any Oaths and make any Declarations to Capacitate them to Sit in Parliament I Demand of them that say so why the Popish Lords who left the House upon that Act did not make use of that Expedient to evade the Law there is no question but they might have had Dispensations to do it and therefore their leaving the House satisfies me that they thought no Dispensations could Warrant or make it Lawful for them so to Renounce and Abjure their Religion We are as safe then already as Laws can make us and they that are so busie to get new ones trouble themselves to no purpose for if those we have at present cannot secure our Religion no other can do it Whilst the Laws then continue as they are and for my part I do not apprehend how they can be changed we cannot Suffer but if these that are a Safe-guard and Defence to
so many and great expressions of his Goodness proved himself a Father and a Friend to or Lover of mankind takes no notice or care of them is to say the falsest and most unreasonable of all things because it is either to deny Wisdom Power and Goodness or to make them Superfluous or of no use at all And if he protect or take care of any 't is most reasonable to suppose the just and pious persons are those he extends that favour to because they do in some measure resemble him and are the only Persons he delights in for The Eyes of the Lord saith the Prophet are over the Righteous and his Ears are open to their Prayers that is he loves and favours them highly hears them graciously and therefore guards or defends them carefully This is so certain that it is a very hard if not impossible thing to find any Nation or People professing his Truth and obeying his Laws whilst they continue in that profession and obedience so forsaken by God as to be given up to the will of their Enemies to be Ruin'd that is and destroy'd by them Their Zeal for his Glory their Reverence for his Laws their Piety and Holiness must decline and degenerate before he will cast them off particular persons though of great Innocence and Vertues may and do frequently suffer in this World but then their Crowns are brighter and their Reward greater for it in that which is to come but as for Societies of pious and good People if they be not rewarded upon Earth they cannot be rewarded at all their present Peace Safety and Prosperity being all the recompence they can receive from God as a Nation And it is a truth attested by the observation and experience of all the World that Judgments seldom if ever come Calamity and Ruin rarely fall upon a People till their great and general contempt of his Laws provokes the Almighty to inflict them Let it be our earnest care and endeavour therefore to become a righteous Nation and an holy People make it appear that we truly love our Religion by leading the pure and blameless Lives it requires of us then we shall be as safe and happy as we can possibly be in this World for the tender Providence of God will watch over and preserve our King and Us either make our Enemies to be at Peace with or deprive them of all Power to hurt us then the Truth shall flourish in this our Earth and our excellent Religion take such deep root in the Nation that no power nor policy either of Devils or Men shall be able to hurt or destroy it These as they are innocent so they are sure preservatives which every Man may and ought to make use of And besides these we have excellent Laws which are a mighty safe-guard and defence both to the King and the Establish'd Religion so that we want nothing for our security having the gracious Providence of God to guard and protect us if we commend our selves to it by devout Prayer and holy Living and such Laws to be a preservative to us that it is a vain thing to attempt either to mend or multiply them because if these cannot secure us none can All that can be done more is to remove the Subsect 7. Scandals or whatever may give his Royal Highness supposing him to be a Papist any cause to be offended at our Church for though it be not just to blame that for the Errours and Misdemeanours of them that either are or pretend to be of it because it gives no countenance nor encouragement to them yet seeing our adversaries take every occasion to asperse it 't is both prudent and necessary to take out of the way whatever may have any colour or appearance of a just objection against it create in him an ill Opinion either of Us or the Religion we profess These may be reduced to Three Heads The lamentable Schisms or Divisions that are amongst us The open Prophaneness and Wickedness into which the Nation is lapsed The great Injustice and Indignities that have been offer'd to the Duke himself First The lamentable Schisms or Divisions amongst us there being no where more sharp and bitter contentions more implacable feuds and quarrels such numerous and peevish Sects as amongst us that profess the most Pure and Primitive Christianity for by the just judgment of God our Adversaries say ever since we departed from the Catholick Church so they call the Roman like the Dove that went out of the Ark we can find no rest for the Soles of our Feet cannot agree amongst our selves nor follow that Peace without which and holiness the Apostle affirms no Man shall see the Lord but divide and subdivide separate or run from one another and are become a very Babel or Confusion This they object against and think a mighty reproach to us nay take it for a sure Prognostick of the approaching fall and ruin of our Church because our Lord affirms that an House or Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand which they use as an Artifice to draw People from us To this I answer that it is true indeed our Schisms or Divisions are great and deplorable that we are broken into Sects and Factions are a distracted and divided Nation But then the Question is how we came to be so and what the causes are from which they spring That the guilt of them doth not ly upon our Church is certain because it gives no just provocation to any to Separate from the Communion of it it teaches no False nor Erroneous Doctrines makes no new Articles of Faith nor any other Conditions of Salvation but those propounded and requir'd as such in Scripture It sets up no forbidden Way of Worship presumes not to inlarge the Essentials of it or to make any thing a part of Gods Worship which he hath not injoyn'd as such 'T is true indeed our Church determins the modes and circumstances of it because all Churches do it and they are not determin'd in Scripture and are so necessary to be determin'd that unless it be done the Essentials or Moral part of Gods Worship cannot be perform'd and because the leaving them Arbitrary would produce endless disorders and confusions But then these Ceremonies are not culpable as to their number unlawful in themselves as contrary to the word of God sinful in their use as being made means of grace or having any holiness ascribed to them or so highly esteemed as to be thought necessary to recommend or render the worship it self acceptable or pleasing to God nor made of perpetual obligation but are declared to be mutable Constitutions or such as may be changed or varyed as occasion serves nay quite abolish'd or taken away upon just causes by the same Authority that Instituted or Ordained them The Government also of our Church by the Right Reverend Bishops is that which is Commended in Scripture was Instituted by Christ Setled by his Apostles
and hath Continued in the Catholick Church without any opposition till Aerius first and the Disciples of Calvin since resisted and where they had power cast it out I appeal then to all the wise and sober World whether the Schisms and Divisions amongst us be not causeless and unprovoked there being no just offence given nothing done by our Church to fright or drive the People from the Communion of it or prompt them to set up several Meetings And if the Divisions we are afflicted with cannot be truly charged upon the Church where must the Blamely or who shall father the base and mischievous Brat They that lay it at the Jesuits door charge them to be both the beginners and continuers of the Schisms amongst us have reason for what they say because the Zealots of that Church think every thing lawful that tends to the good and advantage of the Catholick Cause And nothing can be more serviceable to that than our Divisions and Quarrels divide and rule is a Maxim approved by all the Wicked Politicians If they can but set those they would master at strife and variance they conclude they will thereby so weaken and consume one another as to become an easy prey to them Such Divisions Produce deadly feuds and quarrels implacable hatreds and animosities and are the Causes of cruel Wars for Differences in Religion are for the most part managed with such heat and passion that the contenders proceed from words to blows from disputing to fighting for their beloved Opinions or if they forbear that for a time yet in any exigences of State or Publick dangers they will not afford one another that mutual help and assistance which are necessary for their preservation but one party will look on and see the other subdued if not lend their helping hands to destroy them But the more united any people are the better able they must needs be to defend themselves against a common Enemy but being broken into Sects and Factions their strength is Little and not Sufficient to repel the assaults of their Enemies Cyrus as Herodotus relates intending to Conquer Scythia came to a great River that stop'd his march for as it ran in one channel or current it would have Endanger'd his Army Swallowed them up if they had ventured to ford it whereupon he made use of this Stratagem to cut or divide it into many parts rivulets and sluces which so weaken'd its force that they passed over without any danger at all This seems to be the Policy of the Jesuits in dividing us for if all our people kept within their proper Channel our Church the attempts of Rome would signify nothing but like a mighty torrent we should easily bear down all opposition be strong enough to defend ourselves against them but the Sects and Factions they have caused amongst us weaken and give them great advantages against us For hereby many are Scandaliz'd and turn Papists because they think the Contentions we are ingaged in will be sure to ruin us at last and therefore imagin themselves safer in St. Peters boat than in a ship so leaky and full of breaches as our Church is By this means also great numbers are frighted from Religion in general become Atheists concluding that to be a meer Fable about which there are so many and such endless quarrels and bickerings and which the professors of after so long time and so much consideration are not will never be agreed about and it is indifferent to them that believe all Religion a cheat which gets uppermost for they that are really of none can and will seem to be of any Church or Perswasion they can either get or save by if either their safety or profit require it they can creep as devoutly to a Crucifix as they can kneel to God Almighty Lastly by drawing multitudes of People from it the Jesuits have great hopes of gaining their so much desired and so long endeavour'd point The destruction of our Church for we see how Zealous and Industrious the Dissenters have been and are to ruin or pluck it down which shews them to be set on by the Jesuits and their Agents to do their work for them though perhaps they know not do not consider whose servants they are for if our Church be destroy'd Popery will certainly rise out of the ruins of it there being nothing to make head against it when that is gone this is the great Bulwork or Fort Royal which if they can take either by undermining Treachery or open Force the day is theirs So that they who charge our Divisions upon the Jesuits as the Authors of them have reason to justify that charge and the truth of it is so fully proved by the excellent Dean of St. Pauls in the Preface to his unreasonableness of Separation to which I refer the Reader that nothing needs Page 1â— be added to it And being the first Sowers of these Tares the Causers and Fomenters of our Divisions when they broak in upon our Church presently after the Reformation and which they have with their utmost care and diligence propagated and continued ever since with what face can they Upbraid us with or make them an Objection against it for them to set us together by the Ears and then blame us that we do not agree to be the Incendiaries and stir up Strife amongst us from Age to Age from Generation to Generation and then reproach us with our Contentions is worse than Heathen Malice and Knavery this is as barbarous as if a Man should set his Neighbours House on fire and then blame him for letting it burn We had lived in great Peace and Concord and there had been no Schisms amongst us if they had not help'd to disturb the one and promoted the other and our Wounds would be presently closed we should return to our Ancient Unity and live in the happiest Peace if They and their chief Agents the leading Schismaticks that imbroyl and divide us were as upon all accounts they deserve to be Excluded or Driven out of the Nation 'T is certain that not only all Protestants but the Papists themselves at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign came to our Churches and if Pius Quintus had not forbidden the Romish party to Communicate with they had not Separated from us and his Emissaries the Priests and Jesuites did under colour of setting up a more Pure and Spiritual way of Worship seduce many Protestants from the Church and cause woful broyls and dissentions which put that prudent and excellent Queen upon such methods as did effectually suppress and quiet them and it is most Unreasonable and right Jesuitical practice for them to father their base and wicked off-spring upon us to cause divisions amongst us and then reproach us with them Besides they that thus accuse and upbraid us with ours have many differences amongst themselves those of their Religious Orders are notorious and managed with great heat and earnestness