of Princes want discipline yet if the Church be purely visible it hath ordinarily these three notes which indeed freeth it from maintaining error heresie and schisme though all three may possibly be in it 1 Cor. 1.11 and cap. 3.3 1 Cor. 11.19 provided alwaies that the heresie thrust it not into infidelity or cause it not to deprave the doctrines of faith as the Church of Rome hath and so is become adulterous and hereticall So it may be in some things schismaticall so far as to hurt charity not verity by taking occasion unjustly as the Separatists to depart from the Church but not giving occasion to the Church to depart from them as the Papists have done to us like the old Pharisees who gave just occasion to Christ and his Apostles to separate themselves from their traditions Therefore true doctrine is the chiefe note of a true visible Church whereby people are taught as Christs sheep to hear his voice John 10.27 and to continue in his and his Apostles doctrine Acts 2.42 which is the foundation of the Church Eph. 2.20 And for the Sacraments they are commanded by Christ himselfe Mat. 28.19 and Luke 22.19 So also is the administration of discipline set down by our Saviour Mat. 18.17 and used by St Paul 1 Cor. 5.5 upon the incestuous person So that the right use of these must needs be a note of a true visible Church Let the Papists brag of their tearm Catholike I am sure it no way agreeth to them neither in respect of the extension of their Churches bounds which is not universall nor yet in regard of their doctrines which are not according to the Catholike truths confessed by the primitive or orthodox Churches of old and therefore their word Catholike is no note for a true visible Church is not to be judged by a name but by the thing it ought to hold otherwise the Pope like Simon Magus might be thought the great power of God Acts 8.10 Nor doth their boasted antiquity make their Church the more true for many things were said of old which were not intended at the first as they were afterward used Mat. 5. It is not antiquity but his truth that is the ancient of daies that is the note of the Church Aug. Q. 14. vet No. Testam The devill is older then the Church and Idolatry and Paganisme is very ancient and the Jews and the Samaritans pleaded antiquity and held the Gospell of Christ but a novelty yet their Church was not the true Beside if antiquity be a note then the Church Christian and Jerusalem and that of Antioch where Peter taught and sate as superintendent for seven years must be accounted the true Church and not Rome which was planted since but the authority of religion must not be measured by time Cypr. lib. 2. cont gent. Nor doth duration prove it the better for it is neither a proper or inseparable note as appeareth Psal 47.7 8. Rev. 12. And truly the Church of Rome hath not had a continued duration for Bellarmin saith that a Church cannot subsist without a Bishop and the seat of Rome hath been often vacant by wars and schisms among the Popes themselves as hath been formerly shewed you Nor doth their amplitude and multitudes make any thing in this case for them for Satans Kingdome is larger then Christs and his numbers more then Christs little flock who are often like Noahs family in the Ark they have a many of the vulgar Chrysost ad pop Antioch the Church hath a few faithfull one precious stone is worth many toies Nor will succession of Bishops help them to a note for who succeeded Melchisedeck but Christ many hundred of yeers falling between Vid. Athan. laudem in orat Nazian and the place changed also for the Church is not bound to place or persons of men Nor can ordination prove a note since hereticks hath it as well as the true Church neither can we find their ordination alwaies good if Pope Jone was ordained or she ordained any And Liberius the Pope being an Arrian ordained Arrians also Nor doth unity passe for a note except in the faith under one mysticall head Jesus Christ for satan is not divided against satan and very theeves are united together Nor can their miracles prove their Church true because they are false and Antichristian 2 Thes 2.9 and are invented to maintain false doctrines Beside if they were true they were not alwaies a note of a true Church for not only heathen gods have done strange things to perswade their divinity Bel. lib. de notis Eccl. cap. 14. Socrat. hist lib. 7. c. 17. but even heathen men as Vespasian made a blind man see and a lame man walk Mathe. What Church do you hold hath these three notes Phila. The true Christian Protestant Church especially as it was constituted by the first reforming Princes in England for the doctrine thereof is built upon the holy scripture They administer Sacraments in their primitive purity and hold only two generally necessary to salvation i. Baptisme and the Lords Supper rejecting all the spurious Sacraments of the Church of Rome As confirmation which the Church of England did use in a laudable manner and might do much good by using it as it was but not as a Sacrrment for it kept young people in a care to render an account of their faith and Ministers and Parents to teach them Catechisme So pennance was injoined notorious offenders for satisfaction of the Church and to reduce them better manners and to beget fear and shame in others but never held it a Sacrament no more then it did matrimony or ordination As for the fift spurious Sacrament of Rome extreme unction they never used it because not instituted of Christ as a Sacrament It is true Mark 6.13 the Disciples anointed many that were sick with oile and they were healed and St James in cap. 5.14 adviseth them to use oile with praier for the sick but it was no consecrated oile as the papists use Bellar. lib. 1. de extrem unct cap. 3. nor applied for remission of sins to seven parts of their body But you will say we in England at this time want right discipline I answer It is true yet the Church doth maintain it in her doctrines and constitutions but she cannot use it in those times when the shepherd is smitten and the sheep are scattered or else combined against him that they may live at their own liberty without correction by the rod of discipline yea libertinisme is grown to such a height that the disciplinarians themselves who envied the Bishops authority dare not exercise the Presbyterian virge lest they also follow the Bishops dejection Mathe. Might not a Nationall Councill set all right Phila. No doubt it might with Gods blessing so that it were called and impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods
THE VVAY To Everlasting Happinesse OR The Substance of Christian Religion Methodically and Plainly handled in a familiar discourse Dialogue-wise Wherein The Doctrine of the Church of England is vindicated The Ignorant instructed and the Faithfull directed in their Travels to Heaven BY BENJAMIN SPENCER Preacher of the Word of God at Bromley neer Bow in Middlesex Take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people Isa 57.14 Anima non purgatur abluendo sed respondendo Tertul. de Resur Carnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 varietas grata est Et quae non prosunt singula multa juvant Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwaies in remembrance 2 Pet. 1.15 Inquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thyselfe to the search of the Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Job 8.8 9. LONDON Printed by W. H. for William Hope and are to be sold at his shop next door to St Bartholomewes Church on the North side of the Royall Exchange 1659. The explanation of the Picture of the Church GEntle Reader here behold A shadowed Church of antick mold Where Christian people meet t' advance God in his holy Ordinance In the outward Court you see In a circle each degree Of Sects both old and new of late Troubling both our Church and State The ancient Chiliast pretends That Christ will shortly make amends To him with bags and fatting farms Whoever suffers wrongs or harms The Jesuite with his naked knife And box of poison alwates rife Stands ready Magistrates to kill That will not buckle to his will The common Papist his sight takes By spectacles the Jesuit makes And whether he readeth verse or prose He must put them upon his nose The Brownist craving a new fashion Prayeth for thorow reformation His broom to give the Pope a fall Sweeps down the windows Church all The Familist and Adamites Share in carnall foule delights But unlesse they leave that vice They 'l misse the blessed Paradise The Antinomian spurns Gods law As if it were not worth a straw Yet law is good if rightly us'd Liberty bad if 't be abus'd The Antisabbatarian No sabbath day endure can But thinks it much unto his praise To hammer out all Holy daies The Anabaptist fire spits In zeal but dipping cools the fits A while but yet he cries anon ' Gainst Paul more baptismes then one The Arminian with his double face Maintaineth universall grace Doubting that if it be not so Whether he shall be sav'd or no. The Leveller makes much adoe Having but little to take to Hopes to make equall poor and rich His silver bell makes humours itch Socinians finding now fit season Offers their cup of faith in reason Which if to cool your heat it faile He fans you with a Foxes taile Independents breake the band Of discipline to none will stand But their own fancy Read the text The Devill did so first and Adam next The Quaker shakes like shudd'ring ducks While joints mouth convulsion plucks I fear 't is some dissembling evill If not possession by a devill The Seeker blindfold gropes about To feel some new Religion out But since he hath the old truth lost He 'll find but error to his cost The regular Priest catcht in the larch Can hardly get or keep a Church In chambers sain to preach about Hoping to drive these hornets out But there is an eie above Fix'd on the Church which God doth love And an ear that hears the cry Of others foolish blasphemy Also a fist wrathfully bent To avenge the innocent And to beat in pieces all Sects and Schismes great and small Therefore repent both all and some Methinks I hear the Bridgroom come Who lest we fall to Anarchie Will bring in the fifth Monarchy Let no man dream of any more Since Daniels vision shew'd but foure I harkned but non spake aright Ier. 8.6 Thine eyes shall see thy teacher's Isai 30.20 I will dash them one against another Ier 13.14 CARO DEORSUM MUNDO CRUCIFIXUS COR SURSUM LIGNO CHRISTI FIXUS Herendo Sepultus Sperando Resultus Gross facit To all his true Christian friends living and dwelling in the famous City of London or Countries adjacent or dispersed elswhere especially to those that have been and are his Parishioners and Auditors B. S. wisheth temporall blessings internal graces and eternall glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Dearly beloved in Christ I Am so much engaged to you that I owe you even my owne selfe who because I cannot alwaies continue with you I Dedicate to you this child of my old age to be your servant whom if you please to entertain into your house I hope it will do you faithfull service for it is neither given to flattering lying nor faction however it may be to filching that from some which they have taken from others and so made up a pack for your profit that shall open it I could offer its service to particular friends by the complement of Dedication if I thought it might honor them as much as their acceptation I know would honor it or not engage them as sureties are for Apprentices to answer for the slips of it in a captious world I commend it therefore only to your service and will answer to my ability for the faults of it my selfe only I desire you would be pleased to accept it as a love token though no requitall of your favours from one disabled by the malignancy of these latter times to shew himselfe so thankfull as he would and holdeth himselfe obliged to be Your faithfull servant in Christ Benjamin Spencer To the grave Governours of St Thomas Hospitall in Southwarke Right Worshipful IF I should not remember you I should forget my selfe you were my first patrons under the wing of whose favour I lived about fifteen years till the people came to be oppressed one by another and the children behaved themselves proudly against the ancient Isa 3.5 and the base against the honorable I suffred in the croud among others by some trivial and other false accusations which if they had been of any weight and proved true the supreme authority at that time sitting would not by Order have given me three parts of my Living whereas other men had but a fist I know my troubles came not upon me by your means nor the detaining of that allowance from any disaffection to me but being loath to stickle with some that overawed you at that time by whose means I and mine have suffered much hardship However hoping that this lame child of mine shall find admittance into your Hospitall love and favour I commend it and my selfe to your service Ben. Spencer To the right Worshipfull Sir John Jacob Knight Noble Sir IT was your favour to make me your Chaplain at Bromley when I was so flieblown by some of Baalzebubs swarm that I resolved upon privacy rather then publick
up some to maintain the cause of his truth As Arnoldus de nova villa a Spaniard who held in his time That the devill had seduced the world from the truth of Christ That the faith then commonly taught was the faith of devils That Christian people were led by the Pope to hell That the Cloisters had no charity and falsified the doctrine of Christ That the Ministers did not well to mix Philosophy with Divinity That masses are not to be celebrated nor that Priests ought to sacrifice for the dead All which the Protestants hold Gulielmus de Sancto Amore a Master of the University of Paris applied all the texts of Scripture that make against Antichrist to the Pope and his Clergy and proved the Friers to be false Prophets and writ against their wilfull poverty shewing that Christ when he said Mat. 19.21 Go and sell all thou hast and give it to the poor did not intend actuall but habituall poverty namely that we should not impoverish our selves when no need requireth but that in our affections we should be ready so to do when the confession of Christ and his glory shall require it that then we be ready to leave all for his sake So say the Protestants also But this man was condemned for an heretick and exiled and his books burnt So Laurence an English man and a Master of Paris 1300. and Peter John a Minorite and Robertus Gallus a Dominican Frier wrote that the Pope was Antichrist and Rome was great Babylon and that the Pope was an Idoll that had eies but would not see the abominations of his Church for desire of riches So the Protestants hold likewise Robert Gostred Bishop of Lincoln would not admit at the Popes command for an Italian boy to be one of the Prebends of his Church but writ to him that it was a devilish sin to defraud the people of the preaching of the Word by setting those in place that could not perform the Ministeriall office but only take the milke and wooll of Christs sheep He prophecied in his sicknesse that the Church should not be delivered from Romes Aegyptian bondage but by a bloody sword So think the Protestants Marsilius Patavinus affirmed that the Pope had not authority over other Bishops much lesse over the Emperour 1400. lib. defens pacis and that the Pope and the Clergy should be subject to Magistrates and that the head of the Church is Christ and that he never appointed any Vicar to be universall head thereof that Bishops ought to be chosen by the Clergy and that the marriage of Priests is lawfull and that St Peter was never at Rome that the Church of Rome is a den of theeves and that Popish doctrine leads to eternall death So hold the Protestants also Michael Cesenas Provinciall of the Grey Friers writ against the Popes pride and supremacy and cals him Antichrist and Rome Babylon the great whore drunk with the blood of the Saints that there were two Churches one of the wicked very flourishing wherein the Pope reigned the other of godly men afflicted over whom Christ reigned So hold the Protestants This man had many followers The Pope cursed him and burned many of them as they did also the Protestants John Wickliffe a Professor of Divinity in Oxford in King Edward the thirds time wrote many learned books of Logick and Philosophy Morality and Divinity and of the speculative Art He discovered the error of the Papists about Sacraments and so made himselfe many enemies But he had many friends and followers beyond the seas as John Huss and Jerome of Prague In whose defence fifty four Nobles of Moravia writ sharp reprehending the popish party for taxing Bohemia and Moravia with heresie Mr Moor. And many Nobles of England about the year 1385. did maintain Wickliffs doctrine namely Lord Montague Lord Clifford Earle of Salisbury Lord Latimer and Nevill Mathe. What were the points of Wickliffs doctrine Phila. That the substance of bread and wine remained in the Sacrament of the Altar after the words of consecration 2. That it is not found that Christ instituted or confirmed a Masse 3. That it is presumption to affirm that the children of the faithfull dying unbaptized are damned 4. That in St Pauls time there were but two orders of Clerks namely Elders and Deacons 5. That the causes of divorcement for spirituall consanguinity or affinity are not founded on the Scriptures 6. That he which is in the Church most serviceable and humble is Christ neerest Vicar in the Church militant 7. That if extrme or corporall unction were a Sacrament neither Christ nor his Apostles would have omitted it 8. That whatsoever the Pope commandeth without a cleare deduction from the Scriptures is to be accounted hereticall 9. That it is folly to beleeve the Popes pardons 10. That it is not necessary to beleeve the Church of Rome to be the supreme head of other Churches 11. That a Priest may preach the Word of God with authority from the Pope 12. That the Church of Rome is the synagogue of Satan nor is the Pope the Vicar of Christ nor of his Apostles 13. That if any man enter into a private Religion he is made thereby the more unfit to serve God The Protestants follow these positions John Huss the Bohemian followeth Wickliffe in time and doctrine for which he was burnt by the Councill of Constance though he was promised safe conduct His great offence was that he appealed to Jesus Christ which they took for a contempt of the Apostolike See Some report of this good Martyr that though they burnt the Goose for so Huss signifieth yet out of his ashes should rise a Swan so Luther signifieth that should trouble them worse then he had done So Luther did indeed Jerom of Prague died also as did John Huss about the year 1415. Hieronymus Savonarala an Italian Monk was a great adversary to the popish Clergy yet preaching nothing but the plain word of God as touching 1. The free justification in Christ through faith 2. That the communion ought to be administred in both kinds 3. That popish pardons were of no effect 4. Denied the Popes supremacy 5. Preached against the filthinesse of the Cardinals and Clergy 6. That the Keies were not only given to Peter 7. That the Pope did neither follow the life nor doctrine of Christ and that he attributed more to his own pardons then to Christs merits and therefore was Antichrist 8. That the Popes excommunications are not to be feared and he that doth fear them is excommunicated of God 9. That auricular confession is not necessary All which he stood unto with two Friers who were all three hanged openly and then burned And now began the Art of Printing which did ruine the Pope more then preaching Martin Luther was by the speciall providence of God called forth to fight the cause of truth against the Pope even out of the Cloister of Augustinian Friers in the
reign of the Emperour Charls the fifth who much endeavoured to suppresse him 1. By convening the estates of Germany at the Town of Worms But before I come to his story you may see that there was in every age some that professed the Protestant tenets of Religion before Luthers time I could reckon abundance more but I avoid prolixity and reserve the reader to the Catalogues and Martyrologies of Religious men I return therefore to Martin Luther who being summoned appeared at the Convention at Worms but would revoke nothing of his writings which were concerning 1. The grounds of Christian Religion The second contained a reproofe and detection of papacy and popish doctrines and manners The third sort contained an opposition of those particular persons who did abet and maintain the Roman tyranny and deface his writings none of which he would recant He had safe conduct back again to his own Country but the Emperour to please the Pope who had not yet confirmed him in his Empire sent out a Writ of outlawry against Luther and all his adherents commanding Luther to be apprehended and his books burnt Then followed another Convention at Norinbergh of the estates of Germany to suppresse Luther to which the Pope excited them by his Legate Cheregatus But the estates found it dangerous to proceed with rigor against him but desired to reserse it to the next free Councill called in Germany and in the mean time they would take care to prevent disorders But in the mean time an hundred grievances at least were presented by the Germans to that Convention and by them to the Pope the chiefe whereof were 1. That many things were prohibited by humane constitution that were not prohibited of God and many things rejected which were of God commanded 2. That the Popes pardons were insufferable which perswading the people of the power of them was the cause of many abominations committed because for mony they might be pardoned 3. That Ecclesiasticall men are free from the secular power whatever they commit 4. That Priests are suffered to have Concubines for monie and the chaster men are compelled to pay monie for them and so may have them if they will But no answer came either from Pope Adrian or Clement the seventh after him though he sent Cardinall Campeius to the next Convention at Norinberg But Ferdinand the Emperours brother and Cardinall Campeius the Duke of Bavaria and some Bishops Joan. Sleidan Comment assembled themselves in a Conventicle at Ratisbone and ratified certaine Articles against Luther and his books Afterward were two other Conventions at Spiers in the first many bils of complaints were put up against Monks and Friers and the priviledges of the Clergy above the Civill power Also against holy daies and that the difference of meats and ceremonies might be free and that the Emperour would appoint a Provnciall Councill since a generall could not be had in Germany for matters of Religion or else suspend the decree of Worms against the followers of Luther and himselfe the last was granted And at the next convention at Spiers was by a few Princes decreed That such Cities as had altered Religion should make no farther change and that other places should obey the decree of Wormes till a generall Councill That all men should use the masse that would even where it was abolished That Anabaptists should be punished to death and ministers should teach by the Churches interpretations That the doctrine of the Lords Supper should not be received That no Princes should receive strangers that for Religion came to their dominions This was resisted by the Duke of Saxony and the Prince of Brandenberg and the Princes of Luneberg and the Landgrave of Hesse and some others and made protestation against it and that name is given to all that decline the Romish Religion The name Protestants To these did cleave fourteen Cities who appealed to the Emperour and a generall Councill or a Provinciall They sent Embassadors to the Emperour who handled them very roughly with threatnings Therefore the Protestants bound themselves in a Covenant at Smalcaldy to assist each other if any of them were pursued for Religion This discontented the Councill of the Empire The Emperour published a decree that though the confession presented to him at the Town Augusta was consuted to which the Protestants were not suffered to reply The Augustane Confession but willed to return to the Romish Church yet he would give them a space to return In which time they should keep peace and alter Religion no farther but suffer every man to follow the Church of Rome that pleased The Protestants answered they could not obey that decree with a safe conscience Therefore the Emperour set forth another Decree wherein he confirmed the Romish Religion in all points and that his Court called the Chamber should proceed against the Protestants in judgement and that no Protestant Prince should bear office in his Court and that all Papists should be taken into his protection against their own Princes therefore the Protestants and their Embassadors met again at Smalcaldy and confirmed their league begun Vlricus Zuinglius after this being Preacher of Zurick shewed himselfe also against the Popes pardons and other corruptions he was opposed by the popish preachers The Senate of Zurick appoints a publike disputation Zuinglius sets out seventy Articles before hand to be disputed of Faber Stapulensis whom the Bishop of Constance sent to dispute against Zuinglius declined the disputation and referred it to a generall Councill Therefore the Senate proclaimed throughout all their territories that the traditions of men should be abolished and the Gospell of Christ purely taught out of the Old and New Testament Against which the Helvetians convened at Lucerna and decreed that no man should deride the Masse and that Luther should not be mentioned that Images should not be violated and that all decrees of the Bishop of Constance should be obeied and in 1625. appointed a disputation at Baden to maintain popish tenets of transubstantiation and the Masse invocation of Saints and for the maintenance of Images and Purgatory which Ecchius offred to maintain and prove He was opposed by Oecolampadius Preacher of Basil and others Zuinglius was not permitted by the Senate of Zurick to be there because the Helvetians were his fierce and deadly enemies It was concluded that all should remain in that Religion they had hitherto kept and should admit of no new doctrine in their dominions but should sollow the authority of the Councill The Senate and people of Berne not content herewith one of the chiefe Cities of Helvetia assigned a disputation there to be held called all the Bishops about them thereunto granted safe conduct to all that would come thither The disputation was to be decided by Scriptures the Propositions to be disputed upon were these 1. That the true Church which is the mysticall body of Christ riseth out of Gods Word and continueth
in the time of King Lucius who desired Baptism of Pope Elutherius for himself and his people that he nor any Priest that came with him into the Isle of Thanet Bed l. 1. c. 26. did preach till they had license from the King But it is of courtesie not duty the Pope hath had much regard in England as appeareth in that his Legats and Nuncioes have had here entertainment But this was no more then they had in other places of the world where their usurped authority was rejected So in Asia and Africa This proveth nothing of any right he had in England for though this Realm hath admitted sometimes appeals to Rome yet you shall find that they have been oftner prohibited and the Popes Buls condemned and his excommunications slighted and his decrees rejected and that the King made Lawes and Ecclesiasticall Canons by Parliaments and Synods without the Popes leave As you may see in the daies of King Egbert and Alfred about the appeale of Wilfride Archbishop of York who was the first that ever appealed before the Norman conquest to the Pope and in whose behalfe the Pope sent Nuncioes to England with a Letter or Bull to restore Wilfride to his pluralities of which the King and great Councill of the Kingdome the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Clergy had divested him But they would not yield to the Popes desire to restore Wilfride til he had submitted himselfe and resigned those Monasteries he held which had moved the contention So after the Norman conquest in the reign of Henry the first Pope Paschalis put a new oath upon Archbishops to be taken when they received their Pall which Anselme the Archbishop having taken thought himselfe obliged to maintain the appellations to Rome but King Henry pleaded the fundamentall lawes which forbad any such appeals without the Kings licence and that they were a violation to the Crown and a Law was made that if any should bring the Popes letter or mandate in the Realm Rog. Hoved. in Hen. 2. he should be executed as a Traitor to the King and Kingdome and every one was forbidden appeals to the Pope It is true that Pope Nicolas grants to King Edward the Confessor and his successors that which he stood in no need of namely the protection of all the Churches in England and to make Lawes with the advice of their Bishops and Abbots in his stead for governing the same This was to make the world beleeve in after time that their authority in these things was derived from the Pope Malm. de gest Pontif. Vâ—d Mat. Par. an 1164. For we find that this was alwaies done by the Saxon and Danish Kings before any such Bull was sent from the Pope yea and disposed of Bishopricks without the Pope so did King William and Rufus his son and they counted themselves as Gods Vicar to govern the Church and to correct any wrong done in Ecclesiasticall Courts Acts of Clarendon which course the Kings of England after the Conquest alwaies followed and acted with the advice and assistants of their Parliaments as we may see in the daies of King Henry the second and by the Statutes of Clarendon which prevents popish jurisdiction by forbidding appeals and disposing benefices and Ecclesiasticall dignities Stat. of Carlile 25. of Edw. 1. But in the reigne of King Edward the first is a notable statute which declares the holy Church of England to be founded in the estate of Prelacy not Papacy and within the Realm of England not without it and by the King and his Peers not by Popes and forreign Bishops and that the Popes encrochments did aim at the ruine of the Church disinheriting of the King and destruction of the Lawes 16. of Ric. 2. c. 5. And in Richard the seconds reign it is set down that the Crown of England hath alwaies been and is free and in no subjection earthly but only to God and to no other and ought not to be submitted to the Pope It is true that King John resigned his Crown to the Pope but that was but done in his distresse he could not do that lawfully wherein the whole Kingdome had the greater share So many Emperours have taken their Crowns from the Pope as you have heard but this hath been done by some of them for greater solemnity and some for fear or out of superstition some to make their party the stronger against their enemies and the Pope hath crowned them but that of right he had any power over the Crown I find none Now for the second Question how Christian Religion came to be corrupted Rom. 1.8 Gild. de exid Conq. Brit. being at first clear as Romes was in its Primitive profession of it 1. It is true that England had a light of the Gospell as it is thought by Joseph of Arimathea and his colony of Christians that came with him to Glassenbury which was in the time of Tiberius the Emperours reign Peter came not to Rome till the second year of Claudius to lay any foundation of a Church there Nor do we find any plain face of a Church in England till King Lucius and his subjects were baptized as you have read by Fugatius and Damianus two Ministers that Elutherius the Bishop of Rome fent to do it at King Lucius his request The Church of Rome continued faithfull 350. yeers after Christ as I have shewed and kept her selfe untainted with heresie and was a covert and protection unto the professors of truth But after the Emperour Constantine and his successors turned Christians Clergy men grew into great favour at Court and so wealth and ease first begate security then covetousnesse then pride next ambition then devising of false tenets to maintain it and superstitions to uphold it then also heresies to mask or depose truth At last getting the title of universall Bishop the Eastern Church falling to decay the world looked on the Pope though not as upon one that should be their superiour in secular matters yet as one that should direct them in doctrines He by subtilty of the Schoolmen and policy and power sowed tares and though he seemed to keep the foundation yet built beside it kept up the truth in unrighteousnesse and delivered to the people by retaile what he pleased shut up the Scriptures and gave them humane traditions Now Princes and Priests being some perswaded of his piety and cozened by his hypocrisie others reverencing of his antiquity and dazeled with his dignity and others being remisse and idle were contented to enjoy the world in quiet and take any Religion that was offered them Thus the world was made dark by Babylons cup and had no feeling of the losse of truth no more then the Pope had except he were touched in his honours and profits But God had pity upon his Church and raised up now and then some to set up his truth as you have see And lastly Luther to oppose the Popes errors and
12.24 which was sin or else it is indirectly and so either with or without the intention of the Agent 1. Without his intention as Peter Gal. 2.11 in a partiall complying with the Jewes had no intent to offend the Gentiles 2. With his intention as when men do it of purpose to stumble others So Hereticks by seeming holy and austere have drawn many from the truth as did the Novatians who decreed that men who had fallen by infirmity should never be received again into the Church by which seeming strictnesse they got many followers and continued many years even from the reign of Decius to the reign of Julian and after So we say men may give offences to the weak or to the strong to the strong as Peter was an offence to Christ when he bid him to favor himselfe Mat. 16. for though he spake out of good will yet Christ found it a subtle temptation and so cast it as a stumbling block out of his way 2. To the weak who are not able to distinguish we give offence when we do unadvisedly lay things in their way Mat. 18. which may annoy them before they be aware It is true we are not to offend one of Christs little ones But now things indifferent when they be fully determined by the Church of God we must not be contentious it is not the custome of the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 of which Church we must be more tender then of any particular men 1 Cor. 10.23 But if indifferent things be not at all or but in part determined by the Church of God then we must consider charitably of other mens consciences who are not fully perswaded of the lawfull use of them and therefore they are so far to be used as they may prove no offence to others So 1 Cor. 10.25 Eat and make no question or scruple because God hath given us liberty to use or not use them the earth is the Lords to do thee good but in case of offence against thy brother eat not the earth is the Lords to hurt no mans conscience by my liberty or Gods allowance so that first he saith eat and make no scruple though the Feast was dedicated to Idols for the earth is the Lords and mans superstition cannot abridge thee from the lawfull use of the creature But if a weak brother that is not well satisfied in Christian liberty shall inform thee of the idolatrous Feast saying this meat is offered to idols then use not thy Christian liberty to the wounding of that weak conscience for the earth is the Lords for thee to use lawfully and not licentiously Therefore the Councill of the Apostles Acts 15. though they gave liberty to eat meats that were forbidden by Moses law yet restrained the Christians from things strangled and from blood and things offered to idols left they should offend the Jewish people newly converted to the Christian faith Acts 15.3 So St Paul circumcised Timothy his father being a Greek to shun giving offence to the Jewish converts yet at another time he would not circumcise Titus Gal. 2.3 4. lest he thereby should approve the doctrine of those that imposed upon Christians an absolute necessity of circumcision contrary to the liberty of the Gospell Herein the Apostle carried the matter with great discretion letting religion regulate charity and charity regulate Christian liberty Mathe. But though many things may be lawfull yet not expedient for though one intends no scandall yet it may be taken though not given and therefore such offensive things are to be avoided Phila. Not so for men may be offended at that which must not be avoided for men may be corrupted that take offence in their judgement or in their affections 1. In their judgement as those people were that took offence at Christs doctrine saying that they must eat the flesh of the Son of man else they had no life in them Joh. 6.53 because they understood not the spirituall sense of it ver 52. So in their affection as when by pride men take offence at the simplicity of the Gospell as 1 Cor. 1.23 Christ crucified was to the Jewes a stumbling block and to the Grecians foolishnesse It is true that where there is no declaration of the right use of things indifferent we are to indulge the weak P. M. lo. com class 2. c. 4. p. 201. but where a declaration is or may be had concerning the using or not using such things there we are not to nourish mens presumptions instead of weaknesse I know some pretend that Papists may be the more confirmed in their Religion to see reformed Churches use their ceremonies But I think rather by our reforming what they have abused they may rather see the error of their own religion We may as well refuse their Churches as their ceremonies and they may as well be setled the more in their religion by our not using them but I fear more by abusing them Indeed some ministers have objected against the use of them but yet are now reconciled to them for advantage sake So others say that our use of these ceremonies makes profane persons to contemn all religion but I think rather that mens stripping religion of decent rites doth more confirm prophanesse then clothing of it with decent ceremonies and brings in disparity more then uniformity So some object it is a great hindrance to preachers that cannot conform to them but the necessity of preaching the Gospell ought to overpoize any ceremony because a woe followeth the neglect of one 1 Cor. 9.16 Cartw. replica p. 266. but none for using the other Others say that if some ministers who are non Conformists should submit themselves it were a discredit to them but yet St Augustine wonne himselfe much glory by writing retractations Some again that the command of conformity to a ceremony doth infringe Christian liberty but I say then it must be proved that the Church teacheth that there is a necessity to salvation placed in humane ceremonies or else a necessity of sanctity or of merit or that they must be necessary to Gods worship Indeed if the Church did so I confesse she did destroy Christian liberty V. Calv. Instit lib. 4. cap. 10. Sect. 4. for it is not obedience necessary to mans commandement that infringeth Christian liberty but the opinion of necessity in the matter of command as if to do it were necessary to eternall life This indeed were to offer violence to the scepter of Christ by which a man hath a liberty in things indifferent which invasion the Church of England disclaimeth in the 39 Articles Mathe. God having so setled his Church what is required of it Phila. That it be established in an holy stare of Magistrate Minister and people most agreeable to his revealed truth in Christ that as God the Father was acknowledged by his creation and providence so the Son of God might be worshipped for his redemption and the
as to break the Sabbath rather then an holy day or the Lent fast and flesh eaten on Friday is more punished then theft or adultery Again he maintains the doctrine of devils by forbidding marriage and meats 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3 and maintains heathenisme for true Religion by commanding the worship of images and the adoration of dead Saints which was the practice of the heathens in worshipping of their Daemons Beside this Antichrist doth equall if not prefer the blessed Virgin Mary before Christ as may be seen by the titles they give unto her as the Turks set Mahomet above Christ And farther his religion is patched up of other petty Antichrists and therefore certainly he is the great Antichrist For as the Valentinian hereticks and Marcion when they were confuted by Scripture they said that the Scriptures were insufficient obscure and of no authority so do the Papists Aug. cont Pelag. Epipha her 42. So as the Pelagians held free will to remain in man fallen for the choosing of any spirituall good so do the Papists So the Marcionite held women might baptize so do the Papists Iren. l. 1. c. 13. The Carpocratians denied to Lay men the reading of the Scriptures so do the Papists that their mystery of iniquity may not be discovered The Manicheans held the body of Christ to be but imaginary so do the Papists in that they tell us of the body of Christ in the Sacrament without its true proprieties Aug. haer 71. And as they gave only the bread in the Sacrament so do the popish Priests The Tassiani did forbid Priests marriage so doth the Pope Euseb lib. 5. eccl hist c. 17. Montanus invented lawes for fasting so did the Papists The Collyridiani worshipped the Virgin Mary whom Epiphanius cals idolaters haeres 79. The Marcionits preferred virginity above all things Epiph. haeres 2. so do the Papists The Carpocratians had images of Christ to worship so have the Papists And the hereticks called Apostolici admitted none into their fraternity unlesse they deprived themselves of their goods and renounced matrimony so do the popish Monks and Friers The Armeni worshipped the crosse so do the Papists And also in many other things the Pope licks up the vomit of old heathenisme and heresie and differs from the true Christian Religion in sixty and odd severall points But beside the papacy appeareth to be the great Anrichrist because he denieth Jesus to be Christ not in words 1 John 2.22 but in effect because he denieth the person of Christ and his office For in his doctrine of transubstantiation in the Lords Supper he denieth the proprieties of Christs humane nature and by consequent his Mediatorship So he makes void his Propheticall office as if he had not perfectly revealed the will of his Father John 15.15 and therefore the Pope deviceth other doctrines as necessary to salvation So he disanuls Christs Priestly office by setting other Priests to offer a sacrifice of the masse for quick and dead Heb. 10.14 and annihilates his sole Mediatorship and intercession 1 Tim. 2.5 by appointing the mediation of Saints Also he abrogates Christs Kingly office by assuming to himselfe all power in heaven and in earth Concil Lateran sess 10. yea arrogates to himselfe power over soules departed to send them to purgatory and fetch them out at his pleasure Clem. 6. in sua bulla Rev. 13.13 Nicol. Lyra. in cap. 4. Daniel or to canonize them Saints as he thinks fit Again he useth false signs and lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9 pretending to cast out devils and make images to sweat weep or smile which kind of wonders if they had any semblance of truth yet are not to be expected in these latter times however they were necessary in the first planting of the Church Greg hom 19. in Evang. and ministers are rather to be judged to be true because they do none rather then otherwise saith Chrysost in 49. hom on Mat. for they were necessary that the world might beleeve yet after men do beleeve Aug. lib. 22. de civil dei it were strange to expect miracles But beside the Pope exerciseth the power Civill and Ecclesiastick as Rev. 13.12 whereby the power of the first beast is meant in authentique Writers the power of the Roman Empire which was much wounded and weakned Rev. 13.12 but healed by the Popes taking on himselfe the authority thereof and so becomes rich and potent being adored with gold and silver and adorned with purple and scarlet Rev. 17.4 And farther you may know this beast by his marks of cruelty and therefore as the first beasts bodily shape is likened to a Leopard Rev. 13.2 his mouth like a lion and his feet like a bear as if all the cruell properties of Daniels beasts were met in him together with the blasphemous tongue of Antiochus Epiphanes whom Polybius cals Epimanes the mad man So the Popes cruelty and tyranny is set forth in the second Beast Rev. 13.11 like a lamb but spake like a dragon exercising it on true Christians as it is foretold Rev. 13.15 17. that all that would not worship the first beasts image that is the Pope himselfe should be killed and that none should buy or sell but such as bore some mark of his obedience Otto the first to Pope John the twelfth 942. as the mark of the Beast by his ordination of Priests and oath taken of Emperours and Princes or that bore his name by imposition on the people called Papists of Papa Grat. distinct Q. 3. the Pope or Roman Catholicks or else that had the number of his name by subjecting themselves to the soveraignty of the Latine Church as Michael Paleologus was fain to promise to Gregory the tenth 1273. at Lions in France that he would subject himselfe and his people to him till which time he would suffer no aid to go out of the West to relieve the Christian Greek Churches in the East And thus he sits in the Temple of God as a politick tyrant that is in their consciences whom he hath seduced and commanded to serve him who would seem to be the true Church and Temple of God and yet are in the mean time but the Citizens of spirituall Babylon which is interpreted to be Rome by St John built on seven hils It is true that he speaks of two beasts Rev. 17.9 Rev. 13.1 11. the first is generally taken to be the successive heathenish estate of the Roman Empire which persecuted the Christians openly the other the successive estate of Popes after the apostacy from the Gospel-truth who by idolatry superstition and persecution and Seat in Rome became the image of the first Beast It is simple to think that Antichrist is one man as it were to say that Israel were the name of one man only whereas it is the name of a whole nation also So Sion is the name of a hill yet it signifieth also the Church And