Narrative which we may find exemplyfied in Mr. Rush. Collections from p 438. to 462. assirmeth that he thrice complained of Mr. Mountagues Arminian Book but he was held up against him by the prevalence of the Duke of Buckingham who magnified him as a well-deserving man that the whole Narrative if he that will read shall have a key put into his hand to unlock several misteries of our Church declining and a character of the men who were most busie to advance the Remonstrant opinions Laud The Doctrine of Praedestination is the root of Puritanism and Puritanism the root of all rebellious and disobedient untractableness in Parliaments and of all schism and sauciness in the Countrey nay in the Church it self this hath made many thousands of our people and too great a part of our Gentry Laytons in their hearts Last Parliament they left their Word Religion and the Cause of Religion and begun to use the name of Church and our Articles of the Church of England and wounded our Church at the very heart with her own name Dr. Brooks his Letter to the Archbishop extant in Can. Doome p. 167. there were then some who were tantum non in Episcopatu Puritani they saw their holy cause would not succeed by opposition therefore they came up and seemed to close with the Church of England in her Discipline to use the Cross and wear the Clothes but for her Doctrine they wave it preach against it teach contrary to what they had subscribed that so through foraign Doctrine being infused secretly and instilled cunningly and pretended craftily to be the Churches at length they might wind in with foraign Discipline also and so fill'd Christendem with Popes in every Parish for the Church and with Popular Democracies and Democratical Anarchies in State App. p. 111. el 43 44. Pacif. The wrathful expressions you are continually using against the Puritans do not work the righteousness of God and they are the more to be disliked because it is sufficiently known that Puritans have been as conscientious as any that ever lived in our Church Laud Puritanism had indeed a form of godliness but denyed the power and for any thing I can discern is as dangerous as Popery the only difference being Popery is for Tyrannie Puritanism for Anarchy Popery is original of Superstition Puritanism the high way to profaneness both alike enemies unto piety Ap. p. 320 321. Pacif. Puritanism the way to profaness How came it then to pass that there was so little of profaneness in Puritans so much of it in those who gloried in their Anti-Puritanism but I leave this to be decided by the Judge of quick and dead who shall render to all according to what they have done in the flesh How is it that of late years you have learned to call all Puritans who will not say a confederacy with you in your Popish and Arminian Errors which have been so generally reputed contrary to the Doctrine of our Church Laud What you call Error that seems to me to be Truth and because the doubts hung in the Church of England unto the Publick Doctrine of the Church of England do I appeal contained in those two authorized and by all subscribed Books of the Articles and Divine Services of the Church let that which is against them on Gods Name be branded with Error and as Error be ignominiously spunged out App. p. 9. Pacif. What ever is against the Word of God or contrary to any opinion which hath been maintained in the Catholick Church by all in all places at all times I am content should be called an error but you know I hope that no Church of Particular Denomination is Infallible and therefore I shall not grant that whatever is against the Tendries of the Church of England is erroneous for I know that our first Reformers and the Composers of our publick Records of Doctrine did place the Nature of Faith in Assurance or a perswasion that our sins are actually pardoned which you will grant to be a mistake but a mistake that was scarce seen by any till of late except Mr. John Fox who indeed placed the Nature of Faith in Recumbence nevertheless in those matters wherein you and I differ I am very willing to be tryed by the Articles and Lyturgy but then I premise this that I take the Homilies to be part of our Churches Lyturgy for the Rubrique in the Communion Office speaks affirmative enough After the Creed shall follow one of the Homilies and the Preface to the first Book of Homilies commandeth all Parsons Vicars Curates c. every Sunday and Holy-day in the year c. after the Gospel and Creed in such order and place as is appointed in the Book of Common-Prayer to read one of the said Homilies Evidently implying as Mr. Lestrange notes they were no more to be omitted then any other part of the Service but where the Rubrique gives a toleration Laud I willingly admit the Homilies as containing certain godly and wholesome exhortations to move the people to honor and worship Almighty God but not as the publick Dogmatical resolutions confirmed by the Church of England the 33. Article giveth them to contain godly and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times which they may do though they have not Dogmatical Positions or Doctrine to be propagated and subscribed in all and every point as the Books of Articles and of Common-Prayer have They may seem to speak somewhat too hardly and stretch some sayings beyond the use and practice of the Church of England both then and now and yet what they speak may receive a fair or at least a tolerable construction and mitigation well enough App. 260. Paeif I am glad to hear you acknowledge that the Homilies do contein certain godly and wholesom exhortations which if all had thought we had not been pestered with a vain discourse pretended to be made by a Lady in defence of Auxiliary Beauty or Artificial handsomeness the which are so expresly condemned by the Homily against excess in Apparel But I am sorry to find you saying that the Homilies are not the avowed Doctrine of the Church for the Preface tells us they were set forth for the expelling of erroneous and poisonous Doctrines and more fully the Orders of K. James The Homiles are set forth by authority in the Church of England not only for a help of non-preaching but withall as it were a pattern for preaching-ministers I have read among the Romanists that there is fides temporum a Faith that followeth the Times It is no marvel saith Cusanus though the practise of the Church expound the Scripture at one time one way and at another time another way for the understanding or sence of the Scripture runneth with the practise and that sense so agreeing with the practise is the quickning Spirit and therefore the Scriptures follow the Church but contrariwise the Church followeth not the Scriptures ad Bohem. Epist. 7.
But God forbid our Church should have any Doctrines good and wholesome for some times and not for others Laud If there be any difference betwixt us about the sense and meaning of any Clause or Period in Articles Lyturgy Homilies how shall that difference be decided Pacif. It is scarce to be supposed that our Church in her publick Records of Doctrine should use any so great obscurity as that we should if we are unprejudiced need an Interpreter but if there be any need of an Interpreter who fitter then such Martyrs as had an hand in composing of the Articles in King Edw. the 6th his Time or elselived then and were well acquainted with the mind and judgment of the Composers and such Divines as lived and were famous in the beginning of Q Eliz. when the Articles were confirmed and let me tell you it will be a strong presumption that a Doctrine is contrary to the Church if it be contrary to the professed tenents of all or most of those eminent Divines by whose help she did at first recover her self out of Popish darkness Laud How little our old Martyrs did favour the Calvinians in the five points appears plainly by a Book entituled An Historical Narration composed by one who was famous in K. Edw. dayes and Q. Eli. and a voluntary exile for Religion in the raign of Q. Mary Partif Are you not ashamed to call him a famous Divine who created such disturbances in the raign of Q. Eliz. and K. Ed. whose Book is put into the Catalogue of Popish Pamphlets by Dr. Fulke in his answer to Bristow of the reprinting of which A. Laud was so much ashamed that at his tryal he durst not own it but averred that he had put his Chaplain out of his place for putting such a cheat on the world I might rather infer that the English Martyrs were no favourers of Arminianisme because in the late A. Bishops Time the Professor of Mathematicks in Gresham was troubled for but permitting an Almanack in which some Popish canonized Saints names were expunged and the names of some of our own English Martyrs that were Saints indeed put in their room and because by Dr. Bray Pochlintons Altare Christianum was licenced in which how bitter a passage is used against our old Martyrs and Confessors may be seen in the Recantation imposed upon that Doctor Laud It may be the passage might refer to John Wickliffe and such as he and if so I know no reason why it should be recanted for though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his Field more Tares then Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies then sound Catholick Doctrines for they who have consulted the Works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklesiana writ by Harpssield will tell us that Wickliffe among many other errors maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of bread 2. That Priest have no more authority to minister Sacraments then Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawfulito christen a Child in a Tub of Water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Church 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any divine Service in 7. That buryings in Church-yards be unprofitable and vain 8. That Holy-dayes ordained and instituted by the Church are not to be observed and kept in reverence in as much as all dayes are alike 9. That it is sufficient to believe though a man do no good works 10. That no humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian and finally That God never gave grace or knowledg to a great Person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same Dr. Heyl. Cert Epist. p. 151. Pacif. Whether these things are collected out of Wald. and Harpssield I neither know nor have leisure now to examine I find the same things charged and charged in the very same words upon those who indeavoured reformation in King H. the 8th his dayes about Anno. 1536. as may be seen in Mr. Tho. Fuller's History lib. 5. p. 209. 210. 211. I believe those were then slandered and so I think is Wick. if Wald. and Harps have charged all those things upon him for the proof of this let what Dr. James hath collected in his Wick Conformity be consulted for that industrious Scholar hath made it appear out of the Writings of Dr. Wickly that he held no community of goods but what all good Christians hold by a Christian Charity not as touching the right Title and possession as the Anabaptists now and a certain bald Priest in his time did hold And so far was he from holding that good Faith alone would save a man without good Works that he is charged by Walden to have held the Doctrine of merits though very falsly as appears by many passages in his Commentaries upon the Psalms He held vocal confession to a Priest not to be necessary in case a man were truly contrite and sorrowful for his sin with full purpose of amendment unless the party offending do find himself very much grieved in which case he counselleth him to repair unto a Priest that hath cunning and good living But let us joyn issue on the terms formerly propounded What think you of the Church of Rome Laud It may be you account it a piece of Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church Pacif. I account it no Popery to call the Church of Rome a true Church for it was so esteemed by Dr. John Reynolds Chamier Junius Gisbertus Voetius Ludovicus Capellus and his fellow Professor Amyraldus all very learned men and far enough from doting either upon Ceremonies or Prelacy indeed they will much disadvantage themselves in dealing with the Papist about the visibility of the Church who shall affirm that Rome is not a true Church but you know the Pope is made by Romanists to be the Church The Pope ought to tell it to the Church that is to himself saith Bellarmine Do you judg this Pope to be the Antichrist Laud Some Protestant Divines at home and abroad I grant have thought so wrote so disputed so in good zeal no doubt against that insolent and insufferable and outragious Tyranny and Pride of the Bishops of Rome and their infinite enormities in the Church and out of that affection have been too violently forward out of conjectures and probabilities to pronounce the Pope is that Man of Sin and Son of Perdition The Synod of Gapp in France made it a Point of their belief and concluded it peremptorily to be so but who can find it to be the Doctrine of the Church of England what Synod resolved it Convocation assented to it what Parliament Law Proclamation or Edict did ever command it to be
professed or have imposed penalty upon repugnants of non-consentients unto it Ap. p. 143. There is no such Doctrine concerning Antichrist in the Book of Articles or in any other publick Monument or Record of the Church of England but the contrary rather and this appeareth by a prayer at the end of the 2d Homily for Whitsunday viz. That by the mighty power of the H.G. the comfortable Doctrine of Christ may be truly preached truly received and truly followed in all places to the beating down of sin Death the Pope the Devil and all the Kingdome of Antichrist Dr. Pet. Heylin Res. Pet. p. 133. Pacif. There 's scarce any opinion more generally received and owned by Divines that wish well to our reformation then this that the Pope is the Antichrist but I 'le not contend by their testimonies but by passages which I have excerpted out of the Homilies Tom. 1. p. 17. edit. 1623. Justification is not the office of man but of God or man cannot make himself righteous by his own works neither in part nor in whole for that were the greatest arrogance and presumption of man that Antichrist could set up against God p. 38. Honour be to God who did put light in the heart of his true faithful Minister of most famous memory K. H. 8th and gave him the knowledg of his word and an earnest affection to seek his Glory and to put away all such superstitious and Pharisaical Sects by Antichrist invented p. 70. For our Saviour Christ and St. Peter teach most earnestly obedience to Kings but the Bishop of Rome teacheth that they are under him are free from all burdens and charges of the Common-wealth and obedience toward their Prince most clearly against Christs Doctrine and St. Peters He ought therefore rather to be called Antichrist and the successor c. See more of the like nature and purport collected by Dr. Bernard See also the Prayer made for the Fifth of November Laud If a Controversie were referred by the Church or an Heresie to be corrected in the Church which touched the case of the Catholick Church it could not be put over more fitly to any one man by the Church representative in a Council then unto the Pope first Bishop of Christendom of greatest not of absolute power among Bishops Answ. to Gagg p. 29. Pacif. Never did the Church of England call the Pope first Bishop of Christendom nay she censures him for his bold usurpation of such a title Part. 2. Hom. p. 214 215. And he that thinks the Pope to be the fittest to refer a controversie he must bring us to such a Pope as I think did never sit in the See of Rome But it may be you and I have not the same thoughts of the dangerousness of Popery Laud It is a hard case that we shall think all Papists and Anabaptists and Sacramentaries to be fools and wicked persons certainly among all these Sects there are very many wise men and good men as well as erring and although some zeals are so hot and their eyes so inflamed with their ardors that they do not think their adversaries look like other men yet certainly we find by the results of their discourses that they are men that speak and make Syllogisms and use Reason and read Scripture and although they do no more understand all of it then we do yet they endeavour to understand as much as concerns them even all they can even all that concerns repentance from dead works and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Dr. Taylor Epist. Dedic. to Liberty of Pro. p. 9 10. Pacif. A little charity will serve a man to think there are wise men and good men among Sacramentaries and Anabaptists but I do not like your joyning together of Papists Anabaptists Sacramentaries nor do I think that the learned Papists such are all they that can speak and make Syllogisms do endeavour to understand as much as concerns them or all that they can for an easie endeavour will inform them That their Church hath been and is mistaken in many points of great concernment and if she hath been mistaken she is not infallible Laud We have no other help in the midst of our distractions and disunions but all of us to be united in that common term which as it does constitute the Church in its being such so it is the medium of the Communion of the Saints and that is the Creed of the Apostles and in all other things an honest endeavour to find out what truths we can and a charitable and mutual permission to others that disagree from us and our opinions Ibid. p. 33. Pacif. I like it well that the Apostles Creed should be had in reverence but sure there are Articles necessary to salvation that are not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} contained in that Symbole Laud None of those who hold the Creed entire can perish for want of necessary Faith neither are we obliged to make our Articles more particular and minute then the Creed for since the Apostles and indeed our Blessed Lord himself promised Heaven to them who believed him to be the Christ that was to come into the world and that he who believes in him should be partaker of the Resurrection and Life Eternal he will be as good as his word yet because this Article was very general and a Complexion rather then a Proposition the Apostles and others our Fathers in Christ did make it more explicite and though they have said no more then what lay entire and ready formed in the bosome of the great Article yet they made their extracts to great purpose and absolute sufficiency and therefore there needs no more deductions or remoter consequences from the great Article than the Creed of the Apostles Liber Prop. p. 12. Pacif. In this you must allow me to differ from you and so do all that wish well to the reformed Protestant Religion the secinians such a wretched sort of men that Grotius before Crellius had tampered with him counted not worth the name of Hereticks would fain be called and received as Christians because they receive and embrace the Apostles Creed Vid. Jonam Schlict apud Hora. Sosci confut p. 255 256. and yet they deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ they deny his satisfaction to Divine Justice for the sins of his people they deny the Holy Ghost to be a Person or else they make him to be but a finite created Person Hear Smalius contra Frantz Disp. 119. De Ecclesiâ p. 280. Apage istam puerilem tractandi homines pios cordatos rationem In Symbolo ait docenter tres personae Trinitatis In quonam Si aliud ostendat quam Apostolicum quod vocant tanquam humanum Commentum ridebo illud respuam si Apostolicum nego in eo doceri tres Trinitatis Personas Docetur quidam in eo patrem esse Filium Spiritum Sanctum in eos ut hoc concedam
accommodato adorationi erectam aut constitutam modus autem aecomodatus adorationi est cum imago depicta aut sculpta est per se non veluti appendix additamentum alterius rei in ornatum illius rei Beware lest thou make to thy self i. e. to any religious use any grauen image Homily Perill of Idol p. 42. Laud The examples of the Seraphims and Brazen Serpent tell us that to make pictures or statues of creatures is not against a natural reason and that they may have uses which are profitable as well as be abused to danger and superstition Now although the nature of that people was apt to the abuse yet Christianity hath so far removed that danger that our blessed Law-giver thought it not necessary to remove us from superstition by a prohibition of the use of images and pictures and for the matter of images we have no other rule left us in the New Testament the rules of reason and nature and the other parts of the Institution are abundantly sufficient for our security And possibly St. Paul might relate to this when he affirmed concerning the fifth that it was the first Commandment with a promise for the second Commandment had a promise of shewing mercy to thousand generations but because the body of this Commandment was not transcribed into the Christian Law the first of the Decalogue which we retain and in which a promise is inserted is the fift Commandment G. E. part 2. p. 111 112. Pacif. Do you then think that the second Commandment is not retained by us Christians I never thought but that it was if not natural yet moral of universal and perpetual obligation of this judgement were the Ancients Irene lib. 4. cap. 31. August lib. 19. contra Faus cap. 18 Epis 119. cap. 12 Not to speak of Clem Alex. who in his Adhortatory Oration to the Gentiles plainly saith that the Commandment obligeth us as well as the Jews though he seem to be mistaken in giving the sense of it this way also go all Protestants though indeed the Papists do make this law but temporary In a word God allowed the Jews a civil use of Images and other he alloweth not to us under the Gospel who are not so much out of danger of Idolatry and superstition as you seem to imply Laud Images have three uses assigned by the Popish Schools instruction of the rude commonefaction of History and stirring up of devotion they and we also give unto them Gagg p. 300. The pictures of Christ the blessed Virgins and Saints may be made had in houses set up in Churches respect and honour may be given to them the Protestants do it and use them for helps of Piety in rememoration and more effectual representing of the Prototipe Ans. to Gagg p. 818. Pacif. The Church of England teacheth her children quite another lesson Hom. against the peril of Idol Part 3. p. 42. It is unlawful that the Image of Christ should be made or that the Image of any Saint should be made especially to be set up in Temples to the great and unavoidable danger of Idolatry we grant Images used for no Religion or Superstition rather we mean Images of none worshipped or in danger to be worshipped may be suffered but Images placed publickly in Temples cannot possibly be without danger of Idolatry many such passages may be picked out of that Homily which are the more considerable because of all our Homilies it seemeth to be penned with most exactness Laud It is the Consecration that makes Churches holy and makes God esteem them so which though they be not capable of grace yet by their consecration they receive a spiritual power whereby they are made fit for Divine Service and being consecrated there is no danger in ascribing holiness unto them Tedder his Visit Sermon licensed by Dr. Baker an. 1637. Pacif. That Churches do by Consecration receive any spiritual power whereby they are made more fit for Divine Service than other places or that the same company meeting in a private house and praying by the same Spirit should not be as acceptable to God as in the Church is Superstition to affirm nor did the Church of England ever teach any such Doctrine yet I easily grant that in peaceable times and under Christian Princes the people of God ought to have their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that it is a broach of civil decency to employ these places set a part for Gods Worship to any common uses ordinarily Laud We use signing with the sign of the Cross both in the fore-head and elsewhere witness that solemn Form in our Baptism for which we are so quarrelled by our factions the flesh is signed that the soul may be fortified saith Tertullian and so do we Ans. to Gagg p. 320. Pacif. If any one besides the Minister useth signing with the Cross or if he use it at any time but in Baptism or on any place but on the forehead 't is done without any warrant at all from the Church of England and our Church retained the sign of the Cross in Baptism only as an outward Ceremony and honorable Badge but it doth not ascribe any efficacy unto it of fortifying the soul and declares the child to be perfectly baptized before it be signed with the sign of the Cross as plainly appears from the Book of Canons agreed upon 1603. Chapter Of the lawful use of the Cross Laud Baptism of Infants is most certainly a holy and charitable Ordinance and of ordinary necessity to all that ever dyed and yet the Church hath founded this Rite on the Tradition of the Apostles and wise men do easily observe that the Anabaptists can by the same probability of Scripture enforce a necessity of communicating Infants upon us as we do of Baptizing Infants upon them if we speak of an immediate Divine Institution or of practice Apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great Master of Geneva in a Book he writ against Anabaptists was faign to fly to Apostolical Traditive Ordination and therefore the Institution of Bishops must be served first as having fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants and yet they that deny this are by the just Anathema of the Church Catholick condemned for Hereticks Dr. Tayl. Episc. Asser. p. 100 101. Pacif. 'T is gratis dictum that the Institution of Bishops hath fairer plea and clearer evidence in Scripture then the baptizing of Infants nor can you prove that they who deny the Baptism of Infants are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick much less that they who deny the Institution of Bishops superior in order to Presbyters are under the just Anathema of the Church Catholick Hath a whole Book been written to prove that none are to be anathematized who consent to the Articles of the Apostles Creed and must it now be worthy an Anathema to deny Infant Baptism who but a Papist ever said
Laudensium Apostasia OR A DIALOGUE In which is shewen That some Divines risen up in our Church since the greatness of the late Archbishop are in sundry Points of great Moment quite fallen off from the DOCTRINE Received in the CHURCH of ENGLAND By HENRY HICKMAN Fellow of Magd. Colledg Oxon. Stand ye in the wayes and see and ask for the old paths Where is the good way and walk therein Jer. 6. 16. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them who are given to change Prov. 24. 21. LONDON Printed by D. Maxwell for SA. GELLIBRAND at the Sign of the Ball in St. Pauls Churchyard 1660. A PREFACE To the READER Christian Reader PErhaps thou art not ignorant that I set forth a little Pamphlet intituled A Justification of the Fathers and Schoolmen the drift whereof was to shew That the generally received opinion of the Privative Nature of sin was neither so absurd nor so impious as it had been represented by a Luxuriant pen After about a twelve moneths labour and travail Mr. T. P. conceived and brought forth something which he called the Discoverer Discovered elemented of such palpable untruths as did scarce ever drop from the pen of any person pretending to learning or ingenuity In way of Appendix to that monstrous peece something was added relating to me but so worded and managed as if the Authors design had been only to make an essay whether it were not possible when he despaired to subdue my judgment by reason at least to conquer my patience by clamour I had hoped that after he had shot so many bitter words against my credit and reputation we should at last have received something from him savouring if not of the meekness of a Christian yet of the Candor of a Scholar But contrary to my desire I still find him foaming out his own shame and as is the nature of seducers waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived In such a case what is most adviseable Should I pay him with words as bad as he brings that were impossible unless I would have been at the charges to keep and maintain for some time a factor at Billings-gate 2. If such a course had pleased some wanton wits yet it must needs have much displeased the more sober and judicious to whom I must strive to approve my self and my writings Should I chastise the folly of the man with a more innocent satyr Mr. Bagshaw hath so done and what is the effect of it why after an Apologetical Parenthesis for bringing so unclean a thing into a Gentlewomans presence he is arraigned before the Tribunal of Mris. Peito and is told that it is the honour of her Sex that they read Mr. P's writings and the shame of ours that we so much slight them in which way if Mr. Bagshaw should follow him it would be such a peece of as scarse hath had its parallel since the time that the two Kings after some years fighting about Religion left the controversie at last to be decided by the fisti-cuffs of their two For what though Mris. Peito be a gentlewoman made up of grace and every thing that may render her amiable as I believe she is yet being but a Gentlewoman she cannot well be presumed to be a meet Umpire in so great a Controversie as that of Gods Decrees Shall I therefore take notice of the Argumentative part of his book then there 's nothing for me to do he having never ventured to make the least assault on the rational part of my book save that he once saith That I make no difference betwixt an action and a quality and why so because forsooth I say the Action of hatred as if they who say the act of Adultery or actus adulterii in Latine do presently make adultery not a quality but an action The folly of such reasonings are already made manifest but the huge plot is to make the world believe I am a Compilator a Plagiary Is this worth writing a book about then sure we are prodigi temporis cujus solius honesta est avaritia If Mr. P. be of the temper of the Cardinal in the Council of Trent who said That he could willingly consent to a Reformation but only he liked not that it should be brought about by means of such a poor Monk as Luther or if he have any thing of the humour of Bucephalus in him who would be mounted by none but Alexander If he can be content to acknowledg that his cause is fallen to the gronnd I can easily so far gratifie his ambition as to let it be thought that the blow was given by a learneder hand then my own Let Mr. P. have as low thoughts of me as he pleaseth I shall alwayes endeavour to have lower thoughts of my self I daily more and more see how far I fall short not only of what others have attained unto but also of what I my self might have attained had I but spent my time with that diligence and industry which for the future I shall aim at Yet shall I not altogether leave that blot which Mr. P. and his egregious advocates Dr. H. and M. O. have let fall to dry on my name I am charged to have played the Plagiary and to make good the charge Mr. P. hath employed I know not how many hands to pick up any words or phrases that they could meet with in any Authour that had affinity with my words and phrases and when they were so picked to fagot them up together with an intent that they may by him be made publick for my disgrace Had he made it appear that I had borrowed any set continued discourse from any Author he had then though not helped his own cause yet sufficiently disgraced me But seeing he only chargeth me with taking here and there a quotation and applying it to my purpose naming the first Authour though not the second the matter is not much if the charge were true Whether it be so or no will shortly be tryed But 1. Were I a Plagiary I should not be alone others and those none of the meanest are impeached of the like crime by Authors who are at least as much to be regarded as Mr. P. Concerning some of the Ancients let Dr. Brown be heard Enquiries into vulgar and common errors Lib. 1. ch. 6. Not a few of the Ancients have written transcriptively subscribing their names unto other mens endeavours and meerly transcribing almost all they have written the Latines transcribing the Greeks the Greeks and Latines each other Thus hath Justine borrowed all from Trogus Pompeius and Julius Solinus in a manner transcribed Plinie Thus have Lucian and Apuleius served Lucius Pratensis men both living in the same time and both transcribing the same Author in those famous Books Entituled Lucius by the one and Aureus Asinus by the other in the same measure hath Simocrates in his Tract de Nilo dealt with Diodorus Siculus as may
and signature and into the Colledge of Apostles the doors being shut and into the glories of his Father through the solid orbs of all the Firmament so he came also into the world without doing violence to the Virginal and pure body of his Mother He contents not himself to assert the perpetual Virginity of Mary which is not denyed by any Protestant but will abuse Scripture to prove it viz. that of Ezek. 44. 2. p. 27. Ibid. He adopts the uncertain conceit of Christs being laid in a Manger between Sheep and Oxen and for this quotes Hab. 3. 4. whence no such thing is deducible And p. 28. he writes in favour of Vows of Poverty for he saith That many wise men make such Vows whereas no wise man did ever make such a Vow or if he did the making of the Vow was no part of his Wisdom I le not follow that Author any further though seeing his books are so greedily bought up by our Gentry it would be pains well spent if some one who abounds with leisure would pick up his Popish passages that the world might see what a kind of man he is whom they so much admire For my part I think I could produce hundreds of Papists that were less Popish then he though I do not take him to be a perfect through-paced Tridentine Papist Nor would I be thought to impute all his opinions to every one with whom I deal in the ensuing Tract they are not all of a mind in all things But they have all if I mistake not departed more or less from the Protestant Doctrine by which means the Papists will be hardned in their errors and some scandal be cast on our Reformation Reader I shall finish thy trouble when I have only minded thee of two or three things relating to the temper of those Divines whose Opinions I relate 1. I have observed they are hugely nncharitable to those that are of a different mind from them though in smaller matters 'T is notorious that they have unchurched all the Transmarine Churches for want of such an Officer as they are not convinced that Christ did ever Institute And 't is also well known that Mr. Montague condemns those Churches of great impiety which do not observe Christmas 2. They do pretend great Antiquity for their Opinions whereas if all things were well observed and examined no such Antiquity could be pleaded I had thought to exemplisie this in Mr. Montagues Discourse about the time of Christs Nativity but that is already done to my hand by Gisber Voetius whom if thou wilt consult thou wilt be abundantly satisfied Let me instance in the observation of the Lent Fast concerning which Dr. Heylin Fid. Veter p. 163. thus declares himself The Lent Fast was not alone of special use to the advancement of true godliness and increase of Piety but also of such reverend Antiquity that it hath good right and title to be reckoned among the Apostolical Traditions which have been recommended to the Church of God To prove this he alledgeth the Canons of the Apost. Can. 69. and Ignatius in his Epistle to the Philippians But he might have done well to consider that of August Epist. 86. ad Casul As for the authorities he quoteth they are both spurious as is proved by the most learned Usher Tertullian also is by the Doctour produced But what Tertullian not Tertullian the Orthodox Father but Tertullian turned Montanist and grown to such a degree of pride that he ventured to call the Orthodox Psychicos and it may well be questioned whether his magnifying the quadragesimal Fast had not in it a spice of Montanism for we find in Eusebius Hist. Eccl. lib. 5. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in That Montanus is by Apollonius branded for an Heretick because he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Let any one who counts it worth his labour consult Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 25 26. Socrates lib. 5. cap. 21 Sozom. lib. 7. cap. 19. Nic. Calis lib. 4. cap. 39. he will see that the Primitive Church did not impose the observation of the forty dayes Fast as a matter of necessity yea he will be of the mind of Cassian Collat. 21. cap. 30. Observantiam quadragesimae quamdiu Ecclesiae illius primitivae perfectio inviolata permansit penitus non fuisse c. If any one think that the example of Christs fasting doth oblige us to imitation let him pause upon that of Chris {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In Mathae Homil. 47. Therefore when ever thou findest Antiquity pleaded mark well and by comparing Editions enquire whether that which is brought be as ancient as is pretended and not something foisted into the writings of the Ancients by men of later times See also whether the Testimonies do prove that for which they are produced for it would be great weakness to think that every Father who mentioneth or commendeth Episcopacy doth presently allow or approve of such an Episcopacy as did here obtain in England and as some would fain have restored The question is not whether Antiquity had Bishops but whether Antiquity did believe a Bishop to be of a superior order to a Presbyter and if that were proved it would be a second question whether that superiority of order were founded on humane or Divine institution and if it could be proved that there is a Divine Institution of and for a Bishop it may still be questioned whether that divine institution do make him so necessary and essential to Ordination that any Ordination which is made by meer Presbyters is in naturâ rei null and void I am fully convinced that Imposition of hands is a Rite no way to be omitted in Ordination yet if any apprehending that Ceremony to have been proper and peculiar to the Apostolical times should omit it I should be loath to say that the person Ordained without it was no true Minister there are examples for many things in Scripture for which there is no precept and there may be necessitas praecepti for many things which yet are not necessary necessitate medii multa fieri non debuerunt quae tamen facta valuerunt I conclude all with an earnest desire and prayer That such a spirit of Love may be poured out upon us as that whereunto we have already attained we may walk by the same rule and bear with one another in those lesser things in which we differ fer and that we may have them in high esteem who first sealed our Reformation with the loss of their lives and not meddle with those who are given to changes Vnto which ends if what I have done may contribute any thing I shall account I haue not laboured in vain H. H. ERRATA PAge 3. l. 28. read Gret p. 5. l. 5. r. scrutemur l. 16. r. tractatum p. 10. l. 17. r. that whole narrative he that will read p. 11. l. 27.
Students not only privately within the Colledg walls but also publickly in the Schools Thus runs the decree extant Libro senioris procuratoris B. fol. 35. A. Decretum Convocationis Anno Domini 1579. Jan. 27. ad extirpandam haeresin quamcunque ad informandam juventuntem in verâ pietate Vetus statutum contra Haereticos perverse de Christianâ fide sentientes renovandum in usum revocandum duximus additâ hac explanatione Ad extirpandam Haeresin quamcunque ad informandam in verâ pietate juventutem Libros hosce legendos censemus statuimus viz. Catechismum Alexandri Nowelli majorem Lat. aut Graec. Vel Catechismum Johannis Calvin Lat. Gr. aut Hebr. vel Elementa Christianae Religionis Andreae Hyperii Vel Catechesin Heidelbergensem pro captu auditorum arbitrio legentium 2. His adiungi possunt Henrici Bullingeri Catechismus pro adultis Institutiones Calvini vel Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae vel articuli Religionis in Synodo Londinensi Latine conscripti autoritate regia editi cum explicatione locorum Communium testimoniis è sacra scriptura aut interdum è patribus desumptis Ad primam lectionem Juniores ad secundam provectiores omnes nullo gradu insignitos astringi volumus 3. Catechismos omnes sanae huic doctrinae contrarios aliosque libros superstitiosos Papisticos legi haberi penitus interdicimus 4. Hanc legendi interpretandi provinciam demandamus privatim Tutoribus publice alicui Catechistae in singulis Collegiis Aulis per praefectos assignando 5. Quo Decretum hoc diligenter inviolate observetur examen habeatur domi per Catechistam aut etiam Praefectos in Academiâ singulis anni terminis per Procancelarium adhibitis praeleetoribus sacrae Theologiae qui à studiosis convocatis profectus rationem exigant 6. Si quis discentium aut docentium negligentior ant alioqui culpabilis deprehendatur judicio praefectorum aut si opus sit Procancellarii corrigatur puniatur I would fain know how it came to pass that there 's no mention of this Decree in our new Statutes if our late Grandees did not steere a course quite contrary to our old Protestant Divines Nor do I know any ground that the Articles of our Church and Calvins Institutions which this Decree joyned together should now with so much Zeal be put asunder Laud Private Opinions heretofore especially if countenanced by some eminent Name were looked on as the publick resolution of the Anglican Church and the poor Church condemned for teaching those Opinions which by the Artifice of some men had been fastned on her Dr. Crackanthorp when he was commanded to make answer to the Archbishop of Spalato his Consilium redeundi chose rather to defend those Lutheri Calvini dogmata which had been charged upon this Church in the Bishops Pamphlet then to assert this Church to her genuine Doctrine They that went otherwise to work were like to speed no better in it or be otherwise requited for their honest Zeal then to be presently exposed to the publick envy and made the common subject of reproach and danger So that I must needs look upon it as a bold attempt as the times then were in Bishop Mountague of Norwich in his answer to the Popish Gagger and the two Appellants to lay the Saddle on the right Horse to sever or discriminate the opinions of particular men from the received and authorized Doctrines of the Church of England to leave the one to be maintained by their private fautors and only to defend and maintain the other And certainly had he not been a man of a mighty Spirit and one that could easily contemn the cryes and clamours which were raised against him for so doing he could not but have sunk remedilesly under the burden of disgrace and the fears of ruine which that performance drew upon him To such an absolute Authority were the Writings and Names of some men advanced by their diligent followers that not to yield obedience to their ipse dixits was a crime unpardonable It is true King James observed the inconvenience and prescribed a remedy sending instructions to the Universities bearing date Jan. 18. 1616. wherein it was directed among other things That young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in Fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long on Compendiums and Abbreviations making them the ground of their studie And I conceive That from that time forwards the names and reputations of some leading men of the foraign Churches which till then did carry all before them did begin to lessen Divines growing every day more willing to free themselves from that servitude vassalage to which the authority of those names had enslaved their judgements But so that no man had the courage to make such a general assault against the late received opinions as Bishop Mountague though many when the ice was broken followed gladly after him Dr. Heylin Preface to Theologia Veterum Pacif. You have given me a large account how as you conceive Calvin Bullinger c. came to decrease but such as is no way satisfactory for 1. It is gratis dictum that the reading of Fathers Councils c. will make any one abate his esteem of any Orthodox Cystem 2. It is no way probable that King James should by his instructions in An. 1616. design the hindering of the Calvinian Doctrines who appeared so very zealous An. 1618. against the Tenets of Arminius who did contradict Calvin in those points which of all others held by him are most liable to exception 3. Nor is it any way probable that if any Calvinistical or Lutheran Dogmata had been super-induced to the Articles of our Church which had the least seeming contrariety to them that none should be either acute enough to discern such superseminations or couragious enough to pull up such tares but only Richard Mountague B. D. Had he only learned to deny himself had the spirit of courage and resolution departed from all the English Clergy and rested upon him alone Sure I am that Dr. Forbes of Edenburgh leaveth this Mr. Mountague under this censure that he too much complyed with Calvinism in the point of justification Propter puritanorum undique strepentium clamores nescio quomodo refugerit ad distinctionem Forbes de Justif. lib. 2. c. 5. 4. 'T is scarce credible if Mr. Mountague had only separated chaffe from the wheat and distinguished only the received Doctrines of the Church from some busie Puritans private Opinions that he should have been so severely censured for his Book by the Parliament and confuted by some Divines of great note and learning and as conformable as himself particularly by his Reverend and much Reverenced Diocesan And Archbishop Abbot in his
and they answer the objections of the despairing as well as of the presumptuous concluding at last thus God which hath promised his mercy to them that be truly repentant although it be at the later end hath not promised to the presumptuous sinner either that he shall have long life or that he shall have true repentance at the last exd And I pray you why may not God work the habit of saving grace and give the Holy Ghost to those who are ready to give up the ghost are not such habits infused Laud We may as well say there can be a habit born with us as infused in to us for as a natural habit supposeth a frequency of actions by him who hath natural abilities so doth an infused habit if there were any such it is a result and consequent of a frequent doing the works so that to say that God in an instant infuseth into us an habit of chastity is to say that he hath in an instant infused into us to have done the acts of that grace frequently Un. Necess p. 272. Pacif. I see not any absurdity in saying a habit may be born with us Original righteousness is thought to have the nature of an habit yet had not the Protoplast lapsed it had been born with us and been natural to us and me thinks it is no strange thing that there should be habits in the soul which are not the result and consequence of frequent actions for what think you of the gratiae gratis datae are not they habits and yet were they not instantaneously produced in the souls of Prophets and Apostles it would be strange that there should be from a natural man any supernatural action were not the natural faculty first elevated by some supernatural habit infused into us we being only the recipients Laud This device of infused habits is a fancy without ground and without sense without authority or any just grounds of confidence and it hath in it very bad effects for it destroys all necessity of our care and labour in the wayes of godliness all cautions of an holy life it is apt to minister pretences and excuses for a perpetually wicked life till the last of our dayes making men to trust to a late repentance it puts men upon vain confidences and makes them relie for salvation upon dreams and empty notions it destroys all the duty of man and cuts off all entercourse of reward and obedience Unum Necess 273. Pacif. This is high language especially seeing it must needs concern almost the whole Protestant Church whose suffrage certainly will gain an opinion some credit and esteem among sober modest persons verily why there should be more non-sense in infused habits then in acquired habits I know not and cannot reject a distinction generally received without some very pregnant reason as for what you pretend that the doctrine of infused habits doth produce sad effects destroying all necessity of care and labour c. it moves me not you hold I suppose that the soul is not ex traduce but by immediate creation Creando infunditur infundendo creatur yet none ever thought on this account that marriage and due benevolence among married people is needless the new creature is the workmanship of God but yet there are certain antecedaneous preparatory works wrought by attendance on Ordinances whereby the soul is qualified and made a fit and meet receptacle for supernatural grace if we resist these we make a bloudy adventure upon the patience forbearance and long sufferance of God But this conceit of destroying labour and endeavour of making Exhortations needless and useless is an old stale objection of the Pelagians and Massilians the grand adversaries of divine grace confuted by Austin Prosper Fulgentius Laud A special confession unto a Priest of all our sins committed after Baptism so far forth as we remember is necessary unto salvation in the judgement of Fathers Schoolmen and almost all Andquitie not only Necessitate praecepti but also necessitate medii so that according to the ordinary or revealed means appointed by Christ there can be no salvation without the foresaid Confession Mr. Adams referente Pryn. in Canterbury's Doom p. 192. Pacif. I shall now know what to think of those who cry all Fathers Schoolmen Antiquity that they do but boast of things that they never examined for he that is any way conversant in the writings of the Fathers cannot but know that no such doctrine is generally delivered by them nor do all the Schoolmen deliver any such Doctrine sure I am the Church of England hath imposed no such burden on her sons and members nay she hath most clearly determined against the necessity of this Confession in her Homilies Part. 2. Of the Sermon of Repentance p. 266 267. And in her Lyturgy she only adviseth it where a mans conscience is so perplexed that he cannot extricate himself without calling in the assistance of another Laud Men are taught that they must pass through the terrors of the Law before they can receive the mercies of the Gospel The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring the Synagogue to Christ it was so to them who were under the Law but cannot be so to us who are not under the Law but under Grace for if they mean the Law of Works or that imposition which was the first entercourse with man they lose their title to the mercies of the Gospel if they mean the Law of Moses then they do not stand fast in the liberty by which Christ hath made them free but whatsoever the meaning be neither of them can concern Christians Unum Neces p. 42. Pacif. Do you then think that the Law is of no use to us Christians Laud The use that we Christians are to make of the Law is only to magnifie the mercies of God in Jesus Christ who hath freed us from so severe a Covenant who does not judge us by the measures of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand But we are not to subject our selves so much as by fiction of Law or fancy to the curse and threatnings of the Covenant of Works or of Moses his Law though it was of more instances and less severity by reason of the allowance of Sacrifices for Expiation Un. Neces p. 41. Pacif. I judge with all Divines that we are to make another use of the Law then that you mention we are to use it as a regula officii to shew us our duty how much we owe to God and how much God may justly require of us and so it will be a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ for whilest we see how much short we fall of our duty we shall see a necessity of closing with Christ upon the terms and conditions of the Gospel we are as much under the Law of Moses the moral part of it as ever were the Jews and the Jews were as much under grace as we aeque I say though not aequaliter Laud Every