being his owne and not the Texts onely wee may upon request allow this place and the next of Christs prayer for unity Iohn 17 to intend unity of affections and yet hee will bee short of his unity in all points of Doctrine And it is wel known that if this were meant the present Romists themselves have not that unity neither those who farre excelled them the ancient Martyrs and Fathers And farre more guilty are they against the prayer of Christ in maintaining division of affections towards Patriarchall Sees and many eminent parts of the catholick Church for the Pope is like Ismael his sword against every man that will not submit to his universall Supremacy And according to this dividing Spirit of the Papacie is it this Authors businesse in this worke to make a division in the Church for false proving is making even where there is an unity for is not this his employment in this Chapter and more hereafter in taking away the distinction of points fundamentall to set Christians by the eares and one to damne another for differing in every little point of doctrine For thus hee saith even soone after his former places of unity and hee would faine have Saint Matthew and Saint Mark to say so with him Whosoever should faile of beleeving any one point of Christian doctrine should be as sure of condemnation as if he had beleeved but any one or none A Foundation laid of Babel it selfe even of division and hatred in the Church of God A Position to which I cannot bee silent for Sions sake nor for my brethren and companions sake whom this Position hath often slaine with death temporall and adjudged to death eternall For let it look as smooth as it will doe you breake up the bowels of it and you shall finde it full of bloud division and damnation This even this is it which hath wrought those fearefull Massacres Treasons Excommunications Fires whereof many horrid spectacles in the second Chapter have been presented And how should it bee otherwise but that it should produce such hellish effects when it teacheth Christians for every failing in the beleefe of any one point of Christian that is in their language Romish or Popish doctrine to accompt other Christians in the state of damnation and to hate them more then heathens So that if the Pope say that the Worship of Images Prayer in an unknown tongue without understanding Rats eating the body of Christ and such other errors bee points of Christian doctrine the man that beleeves them not though hee beleeve in Christ yea all other points but one of these hath forfeited his salvation and is fallen into the odious state of a combustible heretick and of a damnable person But this Author might have beene put in minde of more mercy by one of his allegations for though Christ in the place of Matthew by him alledged willeth that all Nations bee taught to observe whatsoever hee hath commanded yet his owne fellow Romists allow that the breach of some of Christs Commands are not damnable I might alledge a Command of Christ in the Lords Supper Drinke yee all of this which as concerning the lay people they have turned into Drinke yee none of this But I will passe to other Commands such as those are which command the keeping of the morall Law Matth. 5.17.28.48 and forbid every idle thought but the breach of these Commands by inordinate thoughts or small deviations the Romists can make not mortall and damnable but veniall How comes it then that they will allow us no veniall errors and failings in small points of doctrine but any one point of Christian that is in his sense Popish doctrine not beleeved is damnably mortall Is there not in this a great piece of Popish leaven even of the wicked mystery that sinnes against Gods Commands of morall obedience may bee veniall but against the Popes Commands in the least point of doctrine are altogether mortall And doth not the reason appeare to bee this That in the breach of a morall Law as that of coveting our neighbours goods God is offended but the Pope is not hurt but by not beleeving any one point which the Pope delivers for Christian doctrine his Inâ—rrability fals to the ground and so his Supremacy And it were better according to the policie of this wicked Mystery that all the world were burned or damned or set at division then that the Papacie should fall But thus doth the Pope set himselfe above God by valuing offences against himselfe of a more damnable nature then sinnes against God But well it is withall that they shew hereby that God is yet farre more mercifull then the Pope for God they say makes little sins veniall whereas the Pope makes little errors against Popish doctrine deadly and damnable But the truth is to those that are in Christ Jesus God doth make veniall both errors in lesser points of faith which grow by ignorance blindenesse or weaknesse of faith aswell as lesser errors in life by infirmity and weaknesse Christs bloud is a propitiation for all our sinnes aswell sins in the understanding as in the will And to those who attaine to that measure of faith which knits them to Christ Jesus Christ Jesus by his bloud will make other ignorances and unbeliefes in those points of doctrine to which they cannot attain veniall and pardonable and surely our Author is hardly driven to get a shew of proof from Scripture of this doctrine of division and damnation The place of Matthew could not serve for there was only a command to the Apostles to teach all Nations to observe all Christs Commands But we have seene above out of Romists that the breach of some of Christs Commands is not damnable but veniall wherefore another place must be forced to confesse it Accordingly that of Saint Marke is set on the rack but this place speakes not of not beleeving all and every point of doctrine delivered and decreed by the Pope and his adherents but the maine scope of the place is a casting of damnation upon men for the great point of not beleeving in Christ for in the Gospel this is an usuall sense of the word beleeving especially when it stands upon life and death And it seemes this Author can bring no plain place of Scripture to prove that he who beleeves not every small point of doctrine decided by the Pope shall bee damned for if he could these places had not been so unmercifully racked toward it But thus still behold a going on of the Mystery of iniquity Unity unto salvation is urged thereby to make division unto damnation Words are taken from Christ the Head therewith to tear his body into pieces But hereof wee may make this use That when a Papist preacheth to Protestants of unity then let them expect beware of division SECT IIII. The place taken out of the 18. of Matth. is cleared which the Cavalier had perverted to the
and that with a vehemencie for hee injoynes them not barely to follow but as it were to persecute even with a swift and eager prosecution to run after the things of peace yea he adjures the Philippians by all consolation in Christ and by the fellowship of the Spirit and by the bowels of mercy that they be of one accord Finally the Sonne of God our Saviour of whom Melchisedech was a type is the King of peace as well as the King of righteousnesse and his subjects who will partake of his righteousnesse must also partake of his peace Christ hath made peace betweene God and us even peace between heaven and earth not that men being at peace above with God should have discord below among themselves but the peace which is begun in heaven must come downe and dwell among his members on earth wee must be one as he and his Father are one the peace which wee receive from God by Christ wee must impart each to other yea it must rule in our hearts being called to it in one body Accordingly as wee expect peace from God through Christ so let us heare and obey Christ commanding peace amongst our selves Have peace one with another and then let us not doubt but if the Peace of God bee among us the God of peace is also with us Deus semper in pace est Where spirituall and true peace is there ever God is SECT III. That this love and peace are catholick and universall extended to all the members of Christ and that our Church by professing this Catholick love declares her selfe to be a truly Catholick Church THe two excellent and powerfull Graces Love and Peace may not be bounded by us but by God himselfe the Author and Commander of it Him must we follow in the inlarging or straitning of it and not goe from his leading to the right hand or to the left where God commands love and peace we may not forbid them neither whom God by sanctifying hath made fit for our peace must wee accompt common or uncleane and fit for separation Now the extent and bound which God appoints for our love and peace is no lesse then all the Saints even the whole body of Christ the bond of peace is not one jot shorter then the unitie of the spirit If then God have not disdained to bestow on any man his sanctifying Spirit let not man scorne on such a one to bestow his love and peace for hee that denyeth his love and peace to that man in whom is the Spirit hee denyeth his love and peace to the spirit which is in that man Therefore if God have gone before with his saving grace and sanctifying spirit let us not doubt to follow God with our love and peace Now we know that God according to his promise to Abraham hath an holy seed out of all Nations which is the catholick and universall Church if then the Church bee catholick and universall let our love and peace bee also catholick and universall And to this end our affections must be enlarged and made capable of the whole world For hee that will love a catholick Church with a catholick love must not have a narrow love contracted and confined to the measure of one City Kingdome or Nation but extended and enlarged to the measure of all Cities Kingdomes and Nations even of the whole world If that which is to bee loved bee universall the affection which loveth must not be partiall For if the love be but to a part when it should bee to the whole this is not that catholick love which belongs to the Catholick Church and whatsoever title such men may take to themselves they are not true but counterfeit Catholicks for they have not that catholick spirit of love which is in the true catholick Church and by which the catholick Church doth love it selfe with a catholick love But such men by likelihood have a private spirit by which they love a private part and faction and are short of that universall spirit which loveth the universall Church with an universall love for there is a private spirit of love aswell as of faith and it is that kind of spirit which Saint Iames mentioneth a spirit that lusteth after envie after sects and divisions But let us never rest untill wee get that catholick spirit by which we may embrace the catholick Church with a catholick love and then we may bee assured we are not titular but true and reall Catholicks Hereby wee know that wee are of the truth saith Saint Iohn and wee shall assure our hearts before God And wee know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren even the brethren without exception and reservation and hee that dwelleth in this generall and unreserved love God who is love dwelleth in him and he in God And we know that we dwell in him and hee in us because he hath given us his spirit even the spirit of this catholick and universall love Let no man therefore say of another He is of such a Nation with which my Nation is at enmity or of such a Church which professeth some differences with the Church in which I live and therefore I will by no meanes have love and peace with him but remember that in every Nation hee that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of God and therefore doe thou enquire whether this spirit of feare and holinesse be in him which those that have are accepted of God if he be accepted of God take heed hee be not rejected of thee It were a madnesse in thee for Gods sake to hate one whom God loves and for Christs sake to hate a member of Christ. Indeed if he be of a Church infected with errors thou must be wary of him that hee infect thee not with those errors but bee also wary of not hating the spirit of Christ in a member of Christ It is an Apostolicall and so an undenyable Inference If yee have put on the New-man in which is neither Greeke nor Jew Circumcision nor Uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all in all Put on therefore there is a binding force in this therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse c. And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are called in one body Let us then have love and peace with a beleeving Muscovite Grecian AEthiopian Indian if hee be of that one body wherein Christ is all in all and by the unity whereof we are called to love and peace yea from this universall peace and love may not bee excluded any remnant according to the election of grace pertaining to the body of Christ though sojourning in the tents and territories of Rome we may not
death But no wonder is it if this Father drank to his children in this red cup of cruelty when the Father of these Fathers being now ready to goe out of the world drank to his fatherly Sonnes very stiffely in the same cup of the bloud of the Saints For the Pope that hee might shew some contrariety to Christ for which some perchance may espie in him a likenesse of Antichrist when hee was to leave the world as Christ left peace so the Pope leaves war to his Disciples for at parting above all he bequeathes to his Cardinals a legacie of bloud commending to them chiefly the Inquisition as a maine Pillar of the Papacie And if this be the chief Pillar of the Papacy no doubt as the Pope was before contrary to Christ so is the Papacy or Popes Kingdome contrary to Christs Kingdome for Christs Kingdome did grow by the bloud of his owne subjects but the Popes Kingdome must grow by the bloud of them that will not bee subject to him yea by shedding the bloud of Christs subjects But yet wee see him deceived for the bloud of the Martyrs even now as in the Primitive times hath increased the Church and diminished the Papacie Yet still they goe on the divels malice herein overcomming his wit as it did when hee entred into Iudas to kill Christ that Christ by his death might overcome him that had the power of death even the divell And according to this Sathans method of cruelty wee reade of 50000. in a few yeeres hanged beheaded buried alive and burned in the Low-Countries and of 30000. slaine and butchered in a few weekes at and after the Massacre of Paris and of nine hundred thousand slaine since the originall of the Jesuites to the yeere 1580. which is little more then thirty yeers Generally Europe hath beene flaming with fires wherewith Romish charity hath turned Protestants into ashes many of which were burning in this Land some yeers before Queen Elisabeth whom God did send as a gracious raine to quench those fires and to refresh his Inheritance But when shee assayed to quench the Popes fires the Pope sends out his fires to devour her yea many vipers came out of that fire and would have stung her to death but that the hand of God did so shake them off for her from her that the fire which sent them forth became their destruction Declaramus saith the Pope praedictam Elisab eique adhaerentes in praedictis c. We declare that Elisabeth and her adherents in the matters aforesaid have run into the danger of our curse We declare also that we have deprived her from that right which shee pretended to have in the Kingdome aforesaid of England and also from all and every her authoritie dignitie and priviledge Wee chaâ—ge and forbid all and every the Nobles subjects and people and others aforesaid that they dare not to obey her or her will or commandements upon paine of like curse upon them After the bellowing of which Bull or blowing of which Trumpet by Sheba the son of Bichri many inspired with the spirit of the Papacy contrary to that spirit of Saint Peter which said Fear God Honour the King practised treason against Gods Annoynted and their Soveraigne Queene Yea open rebellions have been added by the Popes incitations and incouragements whereof that in the North is recorded to the Popes honour by the Popes owne Historian and others in Ireland we finde in our Stories to have been animated by his owne money souldiers and benediction And here I cannot but with griefe complaine that so learned a man as Doctor Sanders the cunning builder of the Babylonian Monarchie should be so bewitched with the cup of abomination as to bee the Popes Ensigne-bearer in an unnaturall rebellion against his naturall Soveraigne For with him came over a consecrated banner from his holinesse to a most unholy service And yet notwithstanding the Popes blessing the curse of God haunted that designe and the learned man that had abused his wit and learning lost the use of both and so being distracted and pitied and wandering in the mountaines lamentably dyed But the great Fleete of Eighty eight that should have swallowed up both the Queen and her Kingdome comes forth against both having her sails filled with the wind of the Popes Benedictions For the Pope sets forth in print a Cruciate as against Turks and Infidels wherein hee bestowed plenary Indulgences out of the Treasurie of the Church upon all that would joyne their helpe against England And against the Queene hee reneweth his former Buls hee denounceth excommunication hee deposeth her and absolveth her subjects from their allegeance But God curseth where the Pope blesseth and blesseth where hee curseth a most certain signe that the Pope is not of Gods minde yea not so good a Prophet as Balaam Not so good for Balaam said How can I curse where God hath not cursed and not so good a Prophet for of Balaam it was acknowledged Hee whom thou blessest is blessed and hee whom thou cursest is cursed But as the Author to the Hebrews saith of the faithfull and the great vertues of faith so may I say of the faithlesse and miserable effects and issues of their faithlesnesse What! What shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell at large of Stukely Savage Babington Parry and others who by treasons springing from the spirit of the Papacy have assayed to overthrow Kingdomes opened their mouthes like Lions upon Gods annointed have wrought unrighteousnesse and endeavoured by the violence of fire to destroy both King Peers and choice of the people For that master-piece of Satan the very wit of hell may never bee forgotten both as a perpetuall bond of thankfulnesse upon English Protestants for a miraculous deliverance and as an everlasting scandall and detestation of Popery seeing hellish Atheisme or Turcisme hath scarce brought forth such a monster of treason as the zeale of that which these Romists call by the name of Religion And now if wee looke stedfastly on the faces of these treasons rebellions invasions murders and massacres doe they looke like the faire children of charity or like the horrid broods and bastards of uncharitablenesse Charitie her selfe is a chiefe fruit of heavenly wisdome and the daughter is like the mother therefore is charity first pure then peaceable gentle easie to bee intreated full of mercy Behold the amiable and beautifull face of charity But on the contrary see in these Romish actions foulenesse and impurity wars and sedition cruelty and inhumanity A viperous generation that truely representeth and owneth uncharitablenesse for their mother uncharitablenesse a fury which ascendeth from below even from that infernall wisdome which is sensuall and divelish And surely since the actions are so manifest and so manifestly uncharitable how can Rome but by the forehead of an harlot say that shee loves us doth shee
the Pope and in that regard not under the same prelates they may bee of a very good religion and of the one saved Church For so are the Greek Armenian and Abissine Christians A second untruth is his inference upon a catalogue of differences For saith hee wee differ in prime points c. Hereupon his looke tells us he would inferre that we are in some danger for differing in these points But I referre him for the proofe of our safety to one that sheweth himselfe a far truer Roman Catholick then this Cavalier whose businesse is cleane contrary to this Cavaliers even to prove that Protestants are not damnable nor of a different Church for their differences from Romish Catholickes And untill the Cavalier have refuted his Arguments I shall hold these his objections of differences to bee but dead words already vanquished and slaine And let him take this with him as a note that the title of the first chapter of that Booke is the plaine affirmative whereof the title of this chapter is theâ— Negative The truth is the points which this Champion nameth are Popish errours and bring the danger on their side and wee are the more safe for differing from them and they the more unsafe for differing from us and withall unsafe againe for uncharitable censuring us And indeede their danger is so great in the point of justification one of these prime points and making their workes their Saviours that they who hold this errour and thereby withdraw their trust from Christ Iesus if they be in that which is called the Church they are but in it as chaffe in the Barne mixt with the corne but to bee blowne away with the fanne into an unquencheable fire And whereas hee expresseth this difference thus We differ about the justification of soules and the value which the death and grace of Christ our Lord hath imparted to the works of the Children of God Hee is here againe chargeable with an untrue and an unsound expression For wee differ from right Papists about the disvalue and unworthinesse which our persons and our corruptions impart to the works which have otherwise some goodnesse in them as they come from the grace of Christ so that in regard of the imperfection which they have from our corruption wee dare not stand upon them before the Justice and Judgement of God for our justification But we think it most safe to set betweene Gods Justice and our soules a perfect Righteousnesse even the Righteousnesse of Christ Jesus our Head For Christ is the end of the Law and a true commensurate Satisfier of the Divine Justice for every one that beleeveth And in regard of our owne workes wee may say with one that had more good works and works more good then the best of the Romists Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for no flesh is righteous in thy sight this Saint was Gods servant yet he desired that God would not enter into judgement with him These then that will have God to enter in judgement with them it is very likely they are not the servants of God but whatsoever they be they may be sure by this Text they shall not be justified in his sight He comes to a third point and therein hee hath also many and manifest untruths His point is this That it is the Pride of the man in his disobedience to the Church and not the importance or weight of the doctrine that makes the Heresie And this he would prove because Saint Augustine accounts some things heresies which are points of small importance and because the Donatists are accounted hereticks for that which in S. Cyprian was not heresie and againe because Saint Cyprian saith nothing to the Cavaliers purpose that the doctrine of Novatianus was not worth the inquiring because he was not of the Church Here are divers untruths met together a first is the Position it selfe That it is Pride and Disobedience to the Church that makes the heresie A second that if it were disobedience to the Church yet it is not disobedience to the Cavaliers Church the Pope and his Adherents Thirdly It is not true that those places and proofes produced by him doe prove his point of Pride to bee heresie But before I come to a more exact consideration of these particulars I cannot but deliver him backe againe his scornefull objection which hee threw at us in passing to this point as nothing accusing us but him that gave it without reason That the Protestants have taken upon themselves to bee the Reformers of the world without ordinary Mission or Miracles That our Ministers have not ordinary Mission is an untruth so strongly refuted that there needs a great deale of impudence or ignorance to affirme it without new and more proofe And for Miracles to make good a Reformation I never heard that the very Priests of Baal did require them of Iehu nor the idolatrous Jewes of Hezekiah and Iosiah And indeed they might well think there should bee no absolute need of new Miracles to them that brought in no new Law but reformed the Church according to the old which at first was delivered as it were in a cloud of Miracles Neither is it necessary that our Reformation not bringing in a new Gospel but reforming according to the Gospel once delivered to the Saints and at first confirmed by signes should be now again confirmed by Miracles But we leave Romish Miracles to bee the marks of the Man of sinne and his deformation of the Church whose comming must bee with signes and lying wonders and accordingly wee think when Lipsius wrote a Booke of the wonders of Montague and Hall hee did by that Booke prove That the Pope is Antichrist But now to come to his false Position That it is pride and disobedience to the Church that makes the heresie I must tell him that hee hath divers of his owne Romish Doctors and those not ignoble that hold the contrary and therefore hee must not blame his Reader if hee beleeve them before a Cavalier for some hold That not the pride of the person makes the heresie but that an heresie may properly bee called any error contrary to faith considered in it selfe without any respect to the deliverer of it And for this opinion are brought forth these great ones Turrecremata Castro Simancas Couarruncas Gabriel Corduba Secondly a Proposition may be hereticall as some Romists say though the contrary hath not beene decided and decreed by the Church Accordingly wee reade againe That those are not onely hereticall assertions which are defined by Counsels or the Pope but many others which is plaine because this Proposition God is not Three and One was hereticall before the condemnation of Arrius The like hee affirms of the heresie of Nestorius yet again to make the matter more plaine hee saith Whatsoever is expressely contained in Scripture so that no obscurity bee in the sense of the words
not white that hath but a few white haires on him they thought they might say the Church of Rome was the Synagogue of Satan and not a true Church because there is such a multitude of Ignorants Antichristians and Idolaters and so few true worshippers and beleevers But bee it that the Church of Rome being understood in this wide sense wherein it comprehends all that any way looke toward Rome in regard that there was once sowed good corne in it and some of it comes up in some corners of it shal be called a field of corne from that which is most excellent in it surely it concernes Protestants wisely to mannage their unity with it and the division from it When we pursue the unity of charity wee must take heed that we lose not saving verity and when we pursue saving verity we must take heed that we offend not against charity we must so converse with that Church as with a City overcome with the plague we should be very wary of infection in regard of the universall pestilence of it and if we may chuse some places and company that are healthy But from those that live the life of Grace though never so few affection may not be with-drawne but to them belongs both our pity and prayers Yet while we extend our charity to them let us take heede that wee lose not our selves and that our charity doe not swallow up verity and make great sinnes too small nor allow too easie a communion betweene Christ and Beliall nor make salvation larger then the Scripture doth make it For first the Beleevers in the Papacy which make the Papall Church are by their humane faith infected to death except there be a healing of their errour by repentance These are Idolaters for worshipping the Pope and making him their God and rock of their faith Neither will it excuse them that they beleeve what they professe for the more they beleeve by this carnall killing faith the more they are slaine and the deeper they are in damnation Secondly there are worshippers of Images and consecrated bread which are Idolaters in the common and knowne sense of Idolatry And the common sort are exceedingly possessed with this Idolatry and slaine to death with it and I doubt it will bee a difficult matter to save many of the Doctors whom this plague hath infected For though they beleeve this Idolatry which they pofesse to be lawfull yet Idolatry hath beene damnable to many which both thus professed and beleeved it Yea they that beleeve and trust in Idols are the more damnable for thus beleeving Besides many places of Scripture shew that saving grace and the true feare of God doth not commonly dwell especially with dwelling and raigning Idolatry For Grace doth commonly turne out such grosse sinnes when it enters into the soule and accordingly Saint Paul describes the conversion of the Thessalonians to bee a turning from Idols to the living God 1 Thes. 1.9 And so some of the Corinthians were Idolaters but they were washed by regeneration 1. Cor. 6. so that they are not now that which they were before I would have charity to save as many as she might but I know shee cannot save them truly without verity Now the verities of Scriptures seeme to withstand the easie and ordinary salvation of Idolaters and I am sure have made it damnable to many who beleeved it to bee the worship of God and therefore they should be cleered before charity can know that shee hath her desire in true saving of Idolaters And this I propose not to increase damnation which I abhorre in my opposite the Romish Champion but to increase salvation even to save some with compassion by pulling them out of the fire prepared for Idolaters and to save others from falling into it To this end let us behold in the Scripture of truth how Idolatry though professed and beleeved yea though mixt with some knowledge yea seeming feare or service of God hath drawne the wrath of God upon Idolators Israel to whom were anciently given the Promises and newly the Law while Moses was in the Mount made a god of Gold but in that worshiped the God that brought them out of Egypt and proclaimed a feast to him and we finde that presently Gods wrath was ready to wax hot against them to consume them yea though Moses was the meekest man on Earth yet his meeknesse was so incensed against this sinne and these sinners that hee commands every man to slay his Brother Companion and Neighbour And when hee goes to God for a pardon hee doth it not with an extenuation but an aggravation of this sin For hee saith Oh this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of Gold He doth not tell God that it is a veniall or not damnable sin or that their breeding in Egypt might excuse them the cause that made them beleeve that which they here act and professe That an oxe which eateth grasse might represent the Deity and bee worshipped for it But laying aside all excuses and extenuations he calls it a great sinne and thinkes that a blotting out of Gods booke belonged to this sinne and therefore hee offers his owne soule to this punishment for their ransome But behold how fatall a sentence God pronounceth on the sinners of this sinne so shewing it to be damnable Him that sinneth will I blot out of my book and it presently followeth In the day wherein I visit will I visit their sinne upon them Againe in a chapter nearly following this Idolatry wherein Moses is earnest with God for a pardon and God seemes to be so farre intreated as to lead them by his Angell to Canaan yet is he still so strange to them that he calls them still not his own people but the people of Moses Thy people and the people amongst whom thou art But withall hee injoynes them to destroy the Altars of Idolaters to breake downe their Images and to worship no other God and let the reason be observed for it is highly observable For the Lord whose name is Iealous is a jealous God Surely this Jealousie of God is not sufficiently considered by those that are over easie favourable to Idolatry They consider not duly the Nature of Jealousie nor the height breadth of a Jealousie of an Almighty God nor that it is so inward and essentiall in God that it is as it were God himselfe For his name saith hee is Iealous Now Iealousie is the rage of a Man and a man saith Salomon thus enraged will not spare in the day of vengeance What then is the jealousie of God but the wrath of God and what is God when hee is angry but a consuming fire And such hee testifies himselfe to be particularly against this sinne Jealousie in a man may passe by many faults in his wife but it will not indure Adultery for Adultery causeth a divorce which
of the Church but also in many places have judged them miserably to be slain which thing seem to have given the occasion of this wretched schisme See here Rome diseased and her healers cast out that tell her of her diseases yea cruelly slaine And now if the Author be not ashamed let him aske why Protestants fly from Rome yea let him aske of Saint Iohn the Divine why men should go out of Babylon that they may not be partakers of her sins nor of her plagues and of Christ himselfe if they persecute his members in one City why should they fly into another and of the blinde man in the Gospel why doe you stay out of the Synagogue when you are cast out Surely when the Author useth these questions what will his Readers think but that hee is very unreasonable to have Protestants stay where they are cast out or where they must bee spiritually or corporally slain for staying This unreasonablenesse of his puts me in mind of a Captain who espying his enemy going up Ludgate hill faster then hee could follow him having drawn his sword called out to him and sware that if he did not stay he would kill him but the other beleeved that if he had stayed hee should bee killed and therefore went away the faster So this Cavalier when the Pope drives out Protestants before him with excommunications pestilence fire and sword hee cries after them that they shall bee damned if they stay not whereas they doubt that they shall be damned and killed if they stay indeed this was a great fault of theirs that they did not stay to be killed that by taking their death patiently the Pope might goe on with selling Indulgences and his other merchandizes quietly Yet may you heare the Cavalier even cholerick in such unreasonable questioning With what colour could certain single base and filthy men have presumed to depart from the visible Catholick Church of Christ our Lord and to erect their conventicles as they did if they had not at least professed that they could not finde salvation there Where first wee acknowledge the titles to be of the Authors meere bounty out of a Romish Treasurie of charity mistaken and because they beare the superscription of Rome we send them back to Rome as being theirs and not ours But secondly wee deny that they departed from the catholick Church for in the second Chapter we have shewed that Protestants have still communion with the catholick Church they fled not from health but from the plague not from salvation but damnation not from the whole but from the sick Neither did they fly only but were cast out and banished and not only cast out but in danger of death if they stayed except they would deny that the plague of Rome was a disease The remnant that hath salvation there they pity and love as their living brethren in a deadly Pesthouse or Israel in Egypt sweating under the burdens of brick and under the whips of Egyptian and Romish Taske-masters And whereas the Cavalier speaks of Conventicles to his griefe hee sees that they are not shut up in private Conventicles but have obtained large Congregations And being excommunicated from the Romish Synagogue as the blind man from the Jewish Iesus hath found them and vouchsafed his communion to them and he not onely converseth with them but teacheth them he hath taught their Teachers by giving them gifts from on high and hee hath taught the hearers by writing his Lawes in their hearts he hath given them the spirit of prayer and praise and they have prayed heartily against Babylon her Idolatries Invasions Treasons and being heard they have given prayses for the ruines of Babylon and the deliverances of Sion and having such encouragements from Iesus can you blame them if they meet in Congregations where Iesus thus meets with them and is in the midst of them with his grace and blessings As for this Nation whom this Authors words by the language hee writes in should chiefly concerne wee have a true Church and an orderly Reformation Cassander a better Romish Author being Judge And whereas the Cavalier accuseth at once both our straightnesse and our largenesse That being fallen into straights wee become so bountifull and large as to affirme that the differences betweene us concerne not the fundamentall points and that Romists may bee saved I thinke that the Author may misleade his Reader both in our straights and our largenesse for we are at large where he counts us in straights and wee are straighter then his words of our largenesse would seeme to import for few Protestants that I know doe say without limitation That Romists generally may bee saved yea our Author himselfe will not suffer them to bee saved though they hold fundamentals for if they hold them by a humane faith because the Pope their friend tels them so his owne doctrine will not suffer them to bee saved But indeed for those that beleeve fundamentals by a supernaturall faith wee doe say that they may bee saved by this faith But of this in the former Chapter wee have spoken more fully onely let this Authour know that wee doe it not for any straights as hee would perswade but out of largenesse even largenesse of veritie and charitie and I may returne the saying of Saint Paul to all true beleevers even in Sodome and Egypt Yee are not kept straight in us but in your selves for a recompence bee yee therefore enlarged for wee justly expect a returne of the like acknowledgement of our salvatiom from all true members of Christ and say That the denyall of it according to the Authours words Layes an heavie charge of uncharitablenesse upon the denyers SECT II. The Cavalier is angry at the distinction of matters fundamentall or not fundamentall 1. Because some Popish vanities are thereby excluded 2. Because the Popes power to make sleight matters fundamentall is denyed HEe goes on both to cleare and condemne us in this which followes This discourse of theirs and their standing so much upon fundamentall points of faith in the sense which they use is a meere Chimera but it is frequented by them through an high kinde of craft For though it bee most true That some doctrines are in themselves of farre more importance then some others because the knowledge thereof may bee necessary for the performance of some duty which is required at our hands or else because they may containe the very heads and first grounds of Christianity more then others doe and therefore doe exact a more explicite beliefe at the hands of Christians and consequently may be accounted in some respests more fundamentall c. Here though they seeme to accuse us of an high craft and of a Chimera yet withall thus farre hee acknowledgeth our Truth and cleareth it from being a Chimera That some doctrines are of farre more importance then some others containing the very heads and first grounds of Christianitie more then
of it yet I cannot deny that hee hath two Errands one to bring forth a jest upon our Fox and his followers under the names of Fox and Geese But if it had pleased this Author duly to follow this Fox in the reading of his Martyrologie he might have found out the true Fox that followes and teares and destroyes those whom our Author by a new Metamorphosis and Romish transubstantiation hath changed into Birds His second Errand he thus expresseth I finde when they are put to name their particular Professors of former ages they doe but muster up those severall single false doctrines which have bin held by other heretiks by Retaile during ten or twelve 〈◊〉 since Christ our Lord many of which doctrines togethâ—r themselves doe now professe in grosse for what other men of former times did they ever or can they ever name as men of their Religion but such as beleeved some one or two of those hereticall doctrines which now themselves embrace and wherein they are contrary to us But all this as it is not very pertinently brought in to excuse Romish uncharitablenesse so it is not very truly objected for wee can prove our doctrines which hee calls heresies by the Fathers and Scriptures and the Scriptures he cannot deny have beene beleeved above twelve ages Besides Popish Authors doe acknowledge that the Waldenses agree with Protestants in more then one or two doctrines for they are said to bee more then twenty wherein wee agree with them And though afterward this Cavalier affirmes it yet hee proves not that for other points these were expresse hereticks in the Protestants opinion neither doe we hide any fundamentall errours in them which we object against Romists But if these had not beene in the world it is most true that the maine point of Popery which is the Popes tyrannicall headship of the Catholick Church the very root of Idolatries errours and divisions hath in all ages been denyed since it was first broached But our Author is still much displeased with fundamentalls because by them wee have unity with those who have heretofore differed in some doctrines from their Papacy for saith he If it were not for this distinction no man could bee of the same Religion with any other that is not wholly of the same Religion so farre forth at the least as that he must not obstinately deny any one doctrine thereof whether it bee important more or lesse when once as hath beene said it is lawfully and sufficiently propounded and commanded to bee beleeved by the true Church as it is true and certaine when Luther rebelled from the Church of Christ our Lord nor in any age before his time there was in the whole world any one Kingdome or Countrey or City or Town or Family of men or Pastours or Flock yea or any one single person so much as of Luthers own much lesse of the now Protestant Religion which is now forsooth so farre refined beyond his Here the Cavaliers true Church being that confederacie whereof the Pope is the head hee would faine dissolve that solid unity which is made by fundamentals in Christ Jesus the true head to mak a fictitious unity in the Pope But if hee should cast off this onely true and substantiall ground of unity which knits together all the sound Churches that are at this day or ever have been through all Nations on the face of the earth since our Saviour to make an unity by agreeing under paine of damnation in all points propounded and commanded by the Pope and his Church of Rome whether important more or lesse hee shall not onely by this meanes breake the unitie of all the true Churches on earth into pieces but of Rome it selfe For to returne almost his owne words Since the Pope who hath rebelled against Christ and usurped the Headship of the Church first coined and established a Religion in Trent neither then nor in any time before there was in the whole world any one Kingdome or Country or City or Towne or Family of men or Pasture or Flocke yea or any one single person who by a supernaturall Faith which this Authour onely approves did imbrace the whole body and every Article of the Trent Religion Yea even at this day it is not received in divers parts that beare the name of the Church of Rome much lesse in Greece Armenia Syria Ethiopia most of which either know not or acknowledge not this Councell nor the Popes Supremacie All these therefore refusing any of these Articles must be torne in pieces from the body of Christ and cast into Hell fire Thus the Scarlet Whore drunke with the bloud of the Saints speaks in the right voice of the Harlot If she may not have the whole childe let it bee cut in pieces Let the Church be distracted and damned if the Pope may not be her Lord and her Tyrant And so whereas Christ was a head that gave himselfe to death to save his body from damnation is not hee an Antichrist that throwes the body of Christ into hell and damnation to make himselfe the head But in a third place hee objecteth not an use of ours but an abuse of his owne For hee abuseth his Reader in saying to him That the making of this distinction betweene Fundamentall and not Fundamentall points of Faith and the resolving not to declare which is which doth save them with a great part of the ignorant world from the imputation of rigour in their proceeding with us For how could they persecute as they doe without extreme note of cruelty But neither the making nor hiding of Fundamentalls is the cause of prosecuting Romists in this Kingdome but the cause of their punishment hath been their owne making of Treasons miraculously revealed by Gods goodnesse notwithstanding their hiding even in the vaults and depths of the earth And though there were no Fundamentalls of Religion but only Fundamentalls of State the Fundamentalls of State are very plain and cannot well be hidden which justifie the execution of Rebells and Traitours But of this some proofe hath been given in the beginning of this Booke and the Authour will call for more towards the end As for that which followes Yea or even how could they dissent without apparent impiety from our beliefe and practice of those Doctrines wherein wee have had and still have prescription of so many ages if the contrary thereof should be confessed by themselves not to be Fundamentall It is so weak that I wish that some childe and not the Cavalier had spoken it to save his reputation For will any man say that it is impiety to dissent from others in ancient errours though these errours be not Fundamentall Tertullian might have taught our Authour much more wisdome who upon the custome of an errour not very Fundamentall thus saith They that have received the holy Ghost preferre truth before custome SECT IIII. Sheweth the differences amongst Popish Divines about their