reason is given by Aquinas 2. part q. 97. Art 3. Because the Law of God proceedeth from the will of God and therefore may not be altered by Custome proceeding from the will of Man 7. In that regard very well doth S. Cyprian write lib. 2. Epist 3. ad Caecilium If only Christ is to be heard we ought not to regard what any before us hath thought fit to be done but what Christ who is before all hath first done For we must not follow the Custome of Man but the truth of God And in another place Custome without truth is nothing but Antiquity of Error Idem ad Pomp. cont Epist. Steph. Papae God alone is the Law-giver of his Church Nothing must be ordained concerning the Things which belong to Religion without the Word of God 1. THe Reason of that is because God alone is the Law-giver of his Church And the onely Author of the Doctrine Concerning Faith or Belief And Religious Worship That God is the onely Authour of the Doctrine concerning Faith or Belief we prove it by the following Arguments 1. THe 1. is taken from the Nature of Faith For all the Doctrines of Faith in regard of the matter which is to be believed must have a certain infallible and undoubted Truth Now it is the property of God alone to be infallibly true of his own nature Let God be true but every man a lyar saith S. Paul Rom. 3.4 And therefore God alone is the Author of the Doctrine of Faith 2. The 2. Argument is taken from the Quality of the Articles of Faith For the proper documents and Doctrines of Faith do exceed the capacity and apprehension of the Creature And therefore they could not be revealed but onely by the Creator Such is the Doctrine of the Trinity of the Persons in the unity of an Essence Such is the Doctrine of the Eternal Birth of the Son of God Such that of the Procession of the Holy Ghost And such that of the hypostaticall union of the two Natures of Christ Divine and Humane And such are all other Articles concerning Faith properly and strictly taken which in that they are above the naturall knowledge of the Creature cannot be known by us but by the supernaturall Revelation of the Creator Of all them this of Christ may be said Flesh and Bloud hath not revealed these things unto mankind but God the Father which is in Heaven Matth. 16.17 3. The 3. Argument is taken from the reward of Faith and the punishment propounded to unbelief and infidelity Which doe manifestly argue that it belongeth to God alone to frame and prescribe to Men Articles and dogmes concerning beliefe and Faith For the reward propounded to Faith is Eternall Life Iohn 3.36 And that is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6.23 And the punishment denounced against infidelity is Eternall Death Which punishment God alone is able to inflict Christ teacheth it Matt. 10.28 in these words Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell He teacheth it also John 3.36 when he sayes that he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him 2. That God is the onely Author of the Doctrine concerning Religious Worship We prove it by the following Arguments 1. THe 1. Argument is taken from the Relation which is between God And the Church God alone in the Spiritual Government of the Soul is Soveraign Monarch Is the Housholder Is the Husband In regard of his Church This Church in regard of her Relation to God Is Called The City of God The House of Cod The Spouse of God Now who should be so Impudent As to prescribe Laws to a Foreign City Concerning her Duties to her King Or to Another Mans Family Or to Another Mans Wife Concerning the Manner Of Obeying And Rendring Service To her Master Or to her Husband 2. The 2. Argument is taken From the Reward And Punishment Annexed to the Works of Divine Worship For the Works of Divine Worship Piously observed have from the Munificence of God a Promise of Eternal Reward But being Neglected or Contemned a Commination of Eternal Death From whence it may be Gathered That God Alone who is the Lord of Life and Death Hath the Power To Ordain such Works And to Injoin Them By the Empire of a Law-giver 3. The 3. Argument is drawn from the Prohibition of God For God himself by an Expresse Law hath attributed to Himself Alone The Authority to Ordain his Service Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not adde thereto nor diminish from it From whence also is that of our Saviour Matth. 15.9 But in vain they do worship me Teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men 4. The 4. Argument is Because the Works of Worship depend from the Will of God who is to be Worshipped Therefore God is not Worshipped at all by those Works By which he did not declare whether he would be Worshipped or Not. But in This None can know the Will of God unlesse he doth reveal it and Injoines it For who hath known the Mind of the Lord Or who hath been his Counsellour That is Confirmed by This That all whosoever did think to Worship God with their own Invented Works Did provoke him to Anger rather than honour him Nay they are found To have worshipped the Devil Or the Idols of their own heart rather than God They went a whoring with their own Inventions Therefore was the wrath of God kindled against his People Psal 106.39 40. §. The onely Ground and Rule of Faith And Divine Worship Is the Holy Scripture 1. NO Mortal Creature can Teach Religion 2. Nor Carnal Man can attain true knowledge unlesse God Instructs Him And his Spirit lead Him to the Truth 3. The Phrophets Agree to the Truth of this Doctrine Esa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony 4. So doth Christ Joh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me 5. And so do the Apostles calling the Scriptures a Rule As S. Paul doth Gal. 6.16 And as many as walk according to this Rule And Philip. 3.16 Let us walk by the same Rule 6. And so do the Ancient Fathers and Doctors Sequi Divinas Literas De fide ad Reginas c. To follow this Rule saith Cyrill is the Path unto Heaven And to be led by this Canon is the way to Salvation And S. Irene Non per alios Dispositionene Salutis cognovimus By the Scriptures we Learn to be saved §. Also The Holy Scripture ought to be among us the Supream Interpreter of Scriptures And the Judge of Controversies 1. FOr Confirmation of That this Language of the Reformed is to be noted and observed How better say They would it stand with
That they were grounded upon the Word of God because there is no passage which formally saith That the Son is consubstantial to the Father and that it is not a Created God 2. The Nestoreans also could say That they were grounded upon the Word of God because there is no formal place which saies That in Jesus Christ there are not two Persons 3. So much could say the Eutichians For there are no places which formally saies That the two Natures of Christ be not confused and that the Human Nature hath not swallowed up by the Divine Nature 4. Likewise the Jews who reject Jesus Christ with a prodigious obstinacie could say That they were grounded upon the Word of God because that in Moses and in all the Prophets there is not any place which saith formally That Jesus the Son of Mary born in Bethlehem under the Empire of Caesar Augustus is the Messias 5. In a word the Religion of the Mahometans could be said to be grounded upon the Word of God For there is no Text in the Bible which saith that Mahomet is a false Prophet and that his Religion is impious and abominable and that the Paradise which God promiseth to his children is not a carnal Paradise § The necessarie consequences that are drawn out of the Scriptures are as valuable to prove the falshood of a Belief as the formal Texts are as also to prove the Truth of a Belief ANd so whensoever we are to confirm the Truth and to confute Errors and Untruths it is lawful to make use of two kind of Arguments drawn out of the Canonical Books of Scripture Namely 〈◊〉 of those who expressely and as in as many words are drawn out of the Holy Scriptures Secondly of those which are drawn out of them by good and lawfull Consequence 1. Certainly those that would reject Consequences drawn out of the Reason of Holy Scriptures should condemn Jesus Christ who made use of Consequences to prove the Resurrection against the Sadducees For after he had produced the place of Moses Exod. 3.6 where God calleth himself the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He inferres by a good Consequence for proofe of the Resurrection God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living 2. Truely whosoever is against the drawing out of any Consequence doth abolish all the common sense and all use of Reason which consists onely in that 3. We acknowledge That Faith proceeds another way then Humane Sciences do for Faith drawes all her Proofs from the Divine Authority but as the most famous School-men do observe the Sacred Divinity is Argumentative that is to say That it doth not abolish but on the contrary makes more Noble the use of Argumentation and Discourse We allow besides That the Rules of Logick are not Articles of Faith But notwithstanding we say that they are Tools and Instruments to handle all knowledge with order and certainty And Consequently the Theological Matters Fraud This is a Fraud of some Jesuites that in Disputations concerning Religion they will ever Question and never Answer 1. FOr it belongs to him that Affirmeth a Thing to prove it otherwise one might Affirm all things impudently 2. According to this Rule It belongeth then unto those who maintain That every day Christ is to be offered in a Propitiatory Sacrifice who maintain The Prayers unto the Dead to Justifie their Belief by the Word of God And to make us see That it hath been written and set down in clear and formal words or that it is drawn from it by a Necessary Consequence This is another of the Frauds of the Church of Rome 1. That the taking away of the Cup from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 2. Forbidding Marriage to Priests 3. And Divine Service being in an unknown Tongue to the People are onely grounded upon worldly Interest 1. This is true in Regard of the taking away the Cup from the Communion COncerning the taking away the Cup from the Sacrament This is the language of the Doctors of the Church of Rome That if it were possible to grant to the people the use of the Cup without doing any wrong to the Faith it should be a thing of small importance but that could not be because by the grant of the said use of the Cup a gate should be opened to require that all the Ordinances which are of positive right should be broken And yet say they They are they by which alone the Prerogative given by Christ to the Curch of Rome is conserved 2. This is true in regard of the Prohibition of Marriage to Clergie Men. FOr say the said Doctors from the Marriage of Clergie men if it were granted it should happen that they having a Family Wives and Children should no more depend from the Pope but from their natural Prince and their affections towards their issue would make them agree to all things wrongful unto the Church that they should indeavour to render Livings Hereditarie And in a short time the Holy Seat should be Restraned in the onely City of Rome That before the Coeliba or Single Life had been decreed The Roman See drew no thing at all from other Towns and Countries but by it was become Master of such a great number of Benefits Of whom by the Marriage of Clergie men it should be deprived in a short time 3. This is true in regard of Divine Service in a Tongue unknown to the people FOr say the said Doctors from the use of the vulgar Tongue in the Celebration of Divine Service it should follow that every one should esteem themselves Divines That the Prelates Authoritie should be vilified and that Heresie should creep in All. Of a most considerable Contradiction of the Principal Doctors of the Church of Rome in regard of their Doctrine That the Kingdom of Heaven And Eternal Life is due as a Debt to our good works 1. VVE Reformed do Teach That he that sinneth hath deserved death worthily in respect of the sin committed which is a Transgression of Gods will and Commandement And for which without Remission there is no hope to Escape eternal Condemnation 2. But can he that worketh well for one or two or for more good Works claim unto himself as a due Debt the Kingdome of Heaven for the same 3. The Reformed Doctors do deny it for many strong Reasons 4. The Popish Doctors in the Schooles and in handling Controversies of Religion that are between the Reformed and the Church of Rome do openly affirm it maintaining that the Kingdome of Heaven and Eternal Life is due as a due Debt to our good works 5. 1. But howsoever it is now for a Fashion with great Countenance and vehement Disputation avouched by some Doctors of the Roman Church that we merit Heaven by our good works 2. Yet we are perswaded that no Adversary of Conscience can otherwise think or dare in peril of Death otherwise say but that he hath deserved for
his sinnes punishment and death everlasting and cannot avoid the same if God will render to his works the reward that of due belongeth unto them 3. And therefore casting away all trust in his works will ask pardon and mercy not claim any debt or due reward of the Lord. 4. So though in their life time many of such Doctors be obstinately bent and have in their mouth nothing so much as good works Merits Reward Due Debt Recompence for their well doing Yet the time drawing neer when they must hold up their Hands at the Bar of the Lords Judgment Seat and there must make answer for themselves and their works must be tried by the Law of God They give over their former confidence They have no joy in themselves yea they distrust their own works They tremble and quake inwardly They are in fearful heavinesse and perplexity of mind They know not whither to turn themselves 5. And if God give such grace unto them that they see and forsake their Error of deserving Heaven then they confesse they are sinners and therefore guilty of Death 6. And then learn that Lesson in their end which afore in their life time they would not understand The Burden of Ceremonies which are now laid upon the Members of the Roman Church Is an Intolerable Burden 1. 1. SOme of the Fathers after the 300 years that they might more easily draw the Gentiles to Christianism did Tolerate and Admit with an alteration of the end and manner some Ceremonies of the Gentiles in Chiristian Religion 2. Wherein no doubt their intention was godly to wit 1. To use their Christian libertie in matters Adiaphorous and not Morallie evil according to the Apostles rule Tit. 1. v. 15. Vnto the pure all things are pure Rom. 14. v. 14. There is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean to him it is so 2. And to amove a present offence and occasion which hindred Gentiles from receiving the Christian faith to wit the difference of outward Ceremonies and Customes 2. But in succeeding Ages when the Gentiles were converted and when the Church needed not further to accommodate it self to the weakness of the Heathen And that things at first admitted by way of toleration should rather have now been removed and worn out Superstitious persons contrary to this make daily addition and increase borrowing more and more from the superstition of Jews and of Gentiles until at length they overwhelmed Christianity with an intolerable burthen of ceremonies 3. 1. Making the easie yoak of Christs Gospel heavier then the state of Jews and of Gentiles 2. And by this means they obscured Gods truth and only made people ceremonious whereas they should have been made pious Of the false Worship of the Church of Rome 1. IN the Church of Rome there is a Religious worship and the devotion of many members of the same doth eat up their time and their estates too 2. But the Divine worship of the Church of Rome is not a true but a false worship 3. For the Papists devotion is not emploied and exercised in the true worship of God according to his word but according to mans will and invention 4. That is to say in praying to Saints In worshipping Images In suffrages for the dead In seeing Masses And adoring the Hoste And telling out a set number of Pater Nosters and of Ave Maries upon hallowed Beads In making superstitious Vows And going to Pilgrimage And abstaining from certain Meats And wearing Hair-cloth And whipping themselves And creeping on all four to a Crucifix and the like 5. Of all which we demand as God doth of the Jews by the Prophet Esay chap. 1. v. 12. Who required these things The Church of Rome is guilty of abominable Idolatry And in what it doth consist 1. VVHatsoever Church attributeth Divine honour to a creature is guilty of abominable Idolatry But the Church of Rome attributeth Divine honour to divers creatures as appeareth in the instances following 1. Do they not devote themselves dedicate Temples consecrate Altars appoint Offices make daily Prayers vow Pilgrimages and present Offerings to the blessed Virgin and do all such outward Acts us properly appertain to Latria Is not this to equalize her with her Son The same is also true in regard of the other Saints 2. Do they not make an Idol of the Cross of Christ when they profess that they worship it Cultu Latriae Gretser the Jesuit in his Book of the Cross saith we affirm according to the more common and received opinion in the Schools That the Cross of Christ is to be worshipped with Latry that is Divine worship 3. Do they not make an Idol of the Sacramental bread or the Host as they call it to which they pray and confess before which they fall down when it is carried in solemn Procession on Corpus Christi day 4. Lastly do they not make Idols of their Images and of the Relicks of Saints before which they burn Incense and bow down when they pray directing their prayers towards them and fastening their eyes on them 2. This Conclusion then justly and Rightly follows That the Church of Rome is guilty of Abominable Idolatry The Church of Rome is guilty of Idolatry IN six things the Church of Rome doth commit Idolatry 1. In worshipping the Host which the Priest holds and calling God that which is not God 2. In attributing to Saints the honour which belongeth onely to God 1. Praying to them 2. Calling them Mediators 3. Asking salvation of God by their merits 4. Believing that they know the hearts and thoughts of men 3. Particularly in calling the Virgin Mary Inventrix of Grace The Queen of Heaven The Lady of the World For Kingdome and Empire over all creatures belongeth onely to God 4. In the adoration and worship of Images 5. In the adoration of the Cross 6. In the adoration and worship of Bones of Rags and other relicks of the dead 1. The Papists do commit many things which the Heathen Idolaters did do and so are like unto them in those regards 2. In particular they put the Saints in the place of the Gods and Goddesses of the Pagans THough we forbear to fasten the name of Heathenish Idolaters upon Papists yet surely they do the same things as they did 1. The Heathen carried their Gods of Gold and Silver upon their shoulders Baruch 6.4 So do the Papists bear out their images and relicks inclosed in chasses of gold and silver in their solemn Processions on high dayes 2. The Heathen decked their images as if they were men and women with apparel and who knoweth not that Papists put costly apparel on their images Almost every Saint among them hath his Holy-day and his Working-day suit 3. The Heathen lighted Candles before their images though the image seeth not one of them And do not the Papists set Tapers before theirs 4. The faces of the Heathen Idols were blacked with smoak
possesse all the Parts of the Roman Church 2. The Adversaries do force us Reformed to open the Sores of their Church which we had rather not touch But they are so unreasonable that they neither spared us nor themselves 1. Bernard who was the onely Religious Man the Church of Rome had for many years How often and how grievously doth he bewaile the most desperate Estate of the Roman Church In Cant. Serm. 33. De Conversione Pauli Thus he writeth A shameful Contagion spreadeth spreadeth over the Body of the wicked Church The Servants of Christ serve Antichrist from the Sole of the Foot to the Crown of the Head nothing is sound With these and the like Speeches used Bernard to bewaile and complain of the Intolerable wickednesse of the Church of Rome which he would never have done without sufficient Reason moving thereunto 2. Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope writeth that Charitie was waxed cold and Faith utterly gone And what manner of Church shall we judge this to have been when she had lost both Faith and Charity 3. What shall we further Recite Petrarch Mantuan and other Poets both Learned and Famous which feared not with Satyrical Verses to Inveigh against the Pope and against the Cardinals and against the whole Clergy 4. All things were then so out of order that all sins might without controlement both be practised and openly blamed 3. This is true in regard of the Popes Court. ST Bernard doth not fear to describe it Ad Eugenium Papam Lib. 4. In these words amongst these You Eugenius being their Pastor walk decked with much Pretious Apparel If I durst speak it These are rather Pastors for Devils then for Christs sheep Your Court usually receiveth good Men but maketh few good there the wicked are not made better but the good far worse A number of such places could we alledge out of him Of the great and scandalous Incontinency of the Roman Clergie by reason of their Single Life 1. THere was never generally or in regard of the greater number any true Chastity in the Popish Clergy And ever since the Law of Single Life was obtruded Whoredome and Baudery so shamefully distained them that they became a by word to the Christian world 2. Bernard complaineth in this sort If according to Ezekiel his Prophesie we dig through the wall we shall find in the house of God an horrible abomination For after and besides fornication Adultery and Incest the very passions of Ignominy and works of filthiness Rom. 1.27 are not wanting for which the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha the very nurses of filthinesse were predamned Some of the Priests of the Church are besprinkled with the lothesome and mattery filth of this uncleannesse and abstaining from the remedy of Wedlock they brake out into all flagitious wickednesse 3. Aventine in the Story of Pope Gregory the 7. the Author of this compelled Eunuchisme speaketh in this manner And thou O vigilant Gregory what wouldest thou have done if fortune had reserved thee until our daies In which to dally with women to whore to drink to ravish and deflowre Virgins to adulterate Wives is become the principal study of Priests In so much that Cauda salax Sacrificulorum in proverbium abiit 4. Whereas the Papists in specious words rejected Wedlock in their Clergie yet indeed they did practise and admit it For although their Bishops and Priests kept no Women under the Title of Wives yet they generally maintained Lemans and Concubines which were an inferiour kinde of Wives 5. The Gloss upon the Legate Otho contains these words If a Priest keep his Concubine privately within his own or his friends house he incurreth not the penalty of this Constitution Peter Ravennas and Michael Lochmaine living about the Year 1490. report That many Clerks in their dayes kept Concubines as their Wives and brought up Children And Clemanger The Priests being at a Fee with the Prelates do commonly and openly keep their Concubines 6. That which we have said of Bishops and Priests is also true in regard of the Popes For Onuphrius saith in the Life of Pope Alexander the VI. That if this Pope at any time were not oppressed with business he devoted himself to all sorts of pleasure without respect Being especially addicted to Women of which he begate four Sons and Daughters The chief of his Lemmans was Vannocia a Roman which by reason of her Beauty and amorous Dalliance and marvellous fruitfulness in his meaner Fortunes he detained in a manner as a lawful Wife Pope Hildebrand the Father of the General Decree of single Life in the Clergie was reported to have lulled night and day without any shame in the Armes and Embracings of the great Countess Maud. And that she being surprized with the stolne Dalliance of this Pope regarded not second Marriage after the death of her first Husband Read Antonine reporting the like of Pope Clement the fift Nay Pope Leo the tenth was defamed for Sodomitical filthiness with his Pages and Chamberlains saith Joacus a Romish Bishop In what Regard the Names of Catholiques is given to the Members of the Church of Rome by some of the Reformed 1. THe Papists ought not to Triumph much for the Name of Catholiques which is given them by some of the Reformed 2. For their Meaning is to give it them no otherwise then usually the Name of Man is given to one Deadly sick or in whose Body there is nothing but skin and bone 3. He is a Catholique not who followeth the Popish Apostasie but that professeth the Doctrine of Christ God from Time to Time hath raised Godly Men that have cryed against the Errors of the Roman Religion and Church and have Discovered them 1. COncerning the Errors and Idolatries of the Roman Church when they Established themselves and chiefly when Endeavour was made to make them pass in Form of Law and to oblige to the reception of them as of Articles of Faith God did raise many godly Men who couragiously did oppose themselves to that 2. Thereupon let the Catalogue of the witness of Truth composed by Flaccus Illyricus be read and the Mysterie of Iniquity or the History of Papacy written by the most Famous and Learned Philip de Mornay 3 And not onely from among those who openly have shaken off the Popes Yoke but moreover even among those that are remaining in his Outward Communion God hath given the Grace to Acknowledge and to some of them even to Deplore and Detest publiquely great Number of Abuses and Corruptions that are in the Church of Rome Concerning the Greek Churches 1. 1. THe Greek Church could never yet be brought to joyn it self to the Church of Rome and it is as opposite to Her as ever the Reformed Church was Exception of the Jesuites 1. THis is very false say the Jesuites for in the Florentine Council the Emperour Paleolus together with the Grecians and Armenians freely acknowledged the Pope to be the Vicar of Christ and embraced the
to swerve from the right way See Revel 14.4 6. As on the contrary in the said Scriptures simplicity of Faith is called Virginity See 2 Cor. 11. v. 2 7. The Difference which is between Heresie and Schisme is as the Difference which is between Faith and Charity Heresie is the Poyson of Faith and infecteth the Doctrine thereof Schisme is the wound of Charity and by which the Church is divided which Division is not for points of Faith but for the Ceremonies and Discipline of the Church received and established in her since a long time and well grounded upon the Word of God and that by a Spirit of contention and trouble to purchase the glory of some particular and extraordinary wisdome and sufficiencie 8. Hereticks are called Antichrists 1 John 2. v. 18. because they are fore-runners of the great Antichrist the man of sin and the Son of Perdition Heresie is a most dangerous thing and spreads soon over the whole body of the Church and produceth woful Effects 1. HEresie like a Canker soon spreads over the whole body of the Church 2. And if it be not looked into killeth and that eternally thousands of Souls breaketh the bonds of nature and cutteth asunder all sinews of humane society putteth enmity variance and implacable discords in Families soweth Seeds of Sedition in the State reacheth Daggers and Daggers to Subjects to assacinate the Sacred Persons of the Lords Anointed layeth Traines in the deep Vaults of disloyal hearts to blow up Parliaments and to offer whole Kingdomes for an Holocaust Of the Impudency of Error and Hereticks in these Times IN this wretched Time Error and Hereticks which were wont but to whisper men in the Eare and to mumble between the Teeth have been so bold as to step into the Pulpit and to belch out blasphemies against God and the true Christian Religion Concerning the Books of Hereticks whether they are to be tolerated or absolutely abolished by the Prince 1. Concerning the Books of Hereticks this is our Judgement that of them 1. Some are Magicall 2. Some are Defamatorie Books 3. Some are Blasphemous Books 4. And some are Books full of divers Errors 2. The Magicall Books are to be burned Acts 19.19 3. The Defamatory Books are to be forbidden The Emperours Constitutious do ordain a Capital Punishment for the Authors of them 4. The Notoriously Blasphemous Books of Hereticks are also to be abolished 5. Concerning the Books of Hereticks which containe divers Errors the reading of them is not to be permitted to every one and chiefly not to those who did not yet sufficiently know the grounds of true Faith and Religion 6. But for that they are not absolutely to be abolished but the reading of them is to be permitted to the Learned 7. Which we prove by the following Arguments The first is taken from the Apostles Injunctions Prove all things saith S. Paul 1 Thes 5.21 And S. John 1. Epist 4. v. 1. Brethren believe not every very Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God The 2. Argument is taken from the Commodities and Utilities which proceeds from the reading of such Books In the Books of Hereticks such things are written by which the Heresies themselves are confuted Besides it is profitable to know what is happened in every Age. The 3. Argument is this Which of the Fathers hath been free from all kind of Errors And in the Books of the Gentiles and of the Jews many things are contained contrary to the true Christian Faith and yet we do not abolish them Hereticks and Deceivers and Impostors grace themselves with high and strange Titles and glorious Names to blear the eyes of the simple 1. THeudas said he was some great one Simon Magus stiled himself the great Power of God Montanus arrogated to himself the Title of Paracletus the Comforter and to his three Minions Priscilla Maximilla and Quintilla the names of Prophetesses Manes bare himself as if he were an Apostle immediately sent from Christ 2. Therefore it is a silly shift of a bankrupt Disputant in the Schools to argue à vocibus ad res from the bare name of things to their nature De Not. Eccles and yet Bellarmine fights against us with this Festraw We are Sir-named Catholicks therefore we are so The Devil often maketh of women strong Instruments to dispread the Poyson of Heresie 1. SImon Magus had his Helena Marcion his female Fore-runner Apelles his Philumena Montanus his Maximilla Donatus his Lucilla Elpidus his Agape Priscillian his Galla Arius the Prince his Sister Nicholaus Antiochenus his Feminine Troops and Quires and all Arch-hereticks some Strumpets or other to serve them for Midwives when they were in Travel with Monstrous and mis-shapen Heresies Thou sufferest the woman Jezabel We must avoid the familiar company of Gods Enemies and of true Religion for fear of Infection 1. FOr such enemies are like Jacobs Poplar rods they are like the two Rivers in Mercator Axius and Aliacmon like the two Fountains in Spain whereof Maginus 1. Omnia Injecta respuit refuses all that is cast into it 2. Omnia injecta sibi assimilat makes all things cast into it like to it self 2. The danger is noted by Solomon Prov. 6.27 And by the sharp speech of Jehu the Prophet to Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 18.3 2 Chron. 19.2 3. Therefore is the Exhortation of the Apostle Wherefore come out from amongst them and touch no unclean thing 2 Cor. 6.17 4. If Saint John the Evangelist would not stay in the Bath with Cerinthus the Heretick shall we dare freely to communicate with worser Hereticks Of the Chief Errors of the Socinians 1. Their Errors concerning the Vnity of the Divine Essence and the Trinity of Persons THey deny the Trinity of Persons They deny the Divinity of the Son They say that the Birth of the Son is altogether impossible They deny the Divinity of the Holy Ghost They denie that the Holy Ghost is a Person They maintain that the Holy Ghost is onely the Power of God They teach that the Holy Ghost dwelling in the hearts of the Faithful is nothing else but a firm and certain hope of Eternal Life They deny that a particular operation of the Holy Ghost be required for the production of Faith They deny also that in God there be a certain natural Justice and Mercy 2. Their Errors concerning Christ the Mediatour THey deny that there be two Natures in Christ the Divine and the Humane They deny that Christ is risen from the Dead by his own power and vertue They deny that Christ by his Death did satisfie for our sins or that he be dead to merit Salvation unto us They deny that Christ hath reconciled us unto God They deny that Christ be come to fulfil the Law for us on the contrary they say that Christ hath added new Commandments to the Law They deny that Christ upon the Altar of the Cross did offer himself to God for us They deny also that
THat a godly man cannot with an entire Conscience retain and enjoy that which belongeth unto him but that he is to make common whatsoever means he hath 2. That a Christian man without wronging his conscience cannot exercise Marchandise nor Cookerie neither make Armes 3. That it is lawful for Wives to divorce themselves for different Religion and to marry with another Person which shall not differ in Religion The Spirit is not without the Word and must be examined by the Word of God against Anabaptistical Enthusiasts TRy the Spirits whether they be of God or no by the Word of God 1 Joh. 4.1 To the Law and to the Testimony saith the Prophet Esaiah if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Esa 8.20 And if we saith the Apostle or an Angel from Heaven preach unto you any other Gospel than what ye have received let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 That is saith S. Augustine than what is contained in the Prophetical and Apostolical writings August contr tit Petil. lib. 3. c. 6. Of Schism and Schismaticks 1. SChisme is a Dissention or Separation when one or more separate and rent themselves from the outward fellowship of the Faithful cutting asunder the Peace and Unity of the Church upon some dislike of some Rites and Orders therein lawfully received and observed or else upon different Opinions about their Teachers 2. As Heresie is a departing from the Communion of the Church in respect of Doctrine so Schism is a cutting off ones self for External things An example hereof we have 1 Cor. 1.10 c. In these words every one of you says I am Pauls I am Appollos I am Cephas and I am Christs 3. There are two kinds of Schism one is Simple and without any conjunction of Error in Doctrine The other is Mixt that is to say that it is conjoined with some Error in Doctrine 4. It is not the Separation that makes the Schism but the Cause of the said Separation as the Doctors of the Cannon Law do teach 5. This cause of Separation must not be the corrupt Life and Manners of some Members of a particular Church but onely Errors Heresies and Idolatry 6. In this regard the Reformed Churches are not Schismatical Because for such a cause they have separated themselves from the Roman Church 6. It is rather the Roman Church which is Heretical and the Pope Head of the same because they have given the cause of the Separation by their Heresies their Idolatry their Persecutions and their Tyrannie 8. Before this Separation of the Reformed from the Roman Church there hath been great Schismes in her by the plurality of Popes which she had at the same times 9. There hath been also many Schisms in the said Roman Church by the Division of her Doctors 10. The Reformed Church do wish the Convocation of a lawful Council to reform the Errors and Abuses of the Roman Church 11. Besides the Roman Church other Churches have been Schismatical as that of the Donatists and of the Novatians who for some Faults of some Members of the Church did separate themselves from the Communion of the Church 13. There is a great danger in Schisme although it be not as great an evil as Heresie and therefore the remedy must be applied unto it as soon as it doth appear Of the False Religions in general and conjointly 1. Of Pagans and Gentiles 2. Of the Modern Jewes 3. Of Turks and Mahumetans which are all Enemies of the Church of God 1. Of Pagans and Gentiles 1. THe Pagans and Gentiles are ignorant of the true God of the truth of his Word 2. And among them some are found who not by consequence and as if they did not mind and mean it but by expresse profession do worship the Devil builds Temples unto him and render unto him Religious Worship 2. Of the Modern Jewes THe Modern Jewes which are now scattered among the Nations of the Earth are virulent enemies of Christ and of his Church for having persecuted the Saviour during his Life they injure him and blaspheme against him after his Death 3. Of the Turks and Mahumetans THe Turks and Mahumetans do preferre their Mahumet to Christ and do follow the pernitious Doctrine which the Alcoran doth propound unto them Of the False Religion of the Ancient Pagans in particular 1. THe Principle and the Rule of the true Religion is the Word of God 2. The Marks of the true Religion are 1. The true knowledge of the true God 2. The true Worship of the true God 3. The true Mean of Mans Reconciliation with God 3. Let now every one consider well whether all that is to be found elsewhere than in the Ancient Judaical Religion and in the true Christian 4. Truely not among the ancient Pagans 1. For instead of a Word of God which enlightneth us to Salvation there were but Ambiguous Vain Frivolous Oracles which did not speak neither of the Glory of God nor of Mans Salvation 2. Instead of the true God among them onely were found Devils Men and Idols 3. Instead of a sufficient Mediatour they only had Washings which pass not further then the skin Slaughters of Men Sacrifices of poor wretched condemned for their Crimes 5. How could there have been a true Religion among the said Pagans since they did not know nor had the true God how could there have been among them an assured and certain Religion since the true God did not speak unto them and how could there have been a saving Religion among them since the true God did not intervene in it What differences there are between the true God and the false Gods of ancient Pagans and Gentiles THe true God is stiled the Living God in opposition to the Heathen Idols which were without Life Sense or Motion 1. They had eyes and saw not ears and heard not hands and handled not whereas the true God hath no eyes yet seeth no ears yet heareth no hands yet worketh all things 2. The Heathen Idols were carried upon mens shoulders or Camels backs as the Prophet Esay excellently describeth the manner of their Procession Esa 46.1 2 3. But contrariwise the true God beareth his Children and supporteth them from the womb even to their old age and gray hairs 3. The Heathen Gods as S. Augustine observeth in the Siege of Troy saved not them that worshipped them but were saved by them from Fire and Spoile whereupon he inferreth what folly was it to worship such Gods for the preservation of the City and Countrey which were not able to keep their own keepers but the true God preserveth them that serve him and hideth them under the shadow of his wings Of the great multitude and diversity of the Gods acknowledged and worshipped by the Pagans 1. THe Assyrians worshipped as many Gods as they had Towns 2. The Persians had as many Gods as there be Stars in the Heaven and Fires on Earth 3. The