to mince the matter and give opportunity to new cavils and exceptions by babyâ—meâ—â—y-mouthed Petitions of some small things that there is a strife abouâ— when a man may as honestly all 〈◊〉 once suppose the whole Truth of his side and proceed without fear of disturbance And so wisely deals our Author in this business That which ought to have been his whole work he takes for granted to be already done If this be granted him he is safe deny it and all his fine Oration dwindles into a little sapless Sophistry But he must get the great number of Books that he seems to be troubled with out of the World and the Scripture to boot before he will perswade considerate and unprejudiced men that there is a word of Truth in this Supposition That we in these Nations received not the Gospel originally from the Pope which pag. 354. our Author tells us is his purely his whereas we thought before it had been Christ's hath been declared and shall if need be be further evinced But let us suppose once again that we did so yet we constantly deny the Church of Rome to be the same in Doctrine Worship and Discipline that she was when it is pretended that by her means we were instituted in the knowledge of Truth Our Author knows full well what a facile work I have now lying in view what an easie thing it were to go over most of the Opinions of the present Church of Rome and most if not all their practises in Worship and to manifest their vast distance from the Doctrine Practise and Principles of that Church of old But though this were really a more serious work and more useful and much more accommodated to the nature of the whole difference between us more easie and pleasant to my self then the persuit of this odd rambling chase that by following of him I am engaged in yet lest he should pretend that this would be a division into common places such as he hath purposely avoided and that not unwisely that he might â—â—ve advantage all along to take for graâ—â—â—d that which he knew to be principally in question between us I shall dismiss that business and only attend unto that great proof of this Assertion which himself thought meet to shut up his Book withall as that which was fit to pin down the Basket and to keep close and safe all the long Bill'd Birds that he hoped to Lime-twig by his preceding Rhetorick and Sophistry It is in pag. 362 363. Though I hope I am not contentious nor have any other hatred against Popery then what becomes an honest man to have against that which he is perswaded to be so ill as Popery must needs be if it be ill at all yet upon his request I have seriously pondered his Queries a captious way of disputing and falling now in my way do return him this answer unto them 1. The Supposition on which all his ensuing Queries are founded must be rightly stated its termes freed from ambiguity and the whole from equivocation which a word or two unto first the Subject and then secondly the Predicate of the Proposition or what is attributed unto the Subject spoken of and thirdly the proof of the whole will suffice to do The Thesis laid down is this The Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and mother Church This good St. Paul amply testifies in his Epistle to them and is acknowledged by Protestants The Subject is the Church of Rome And this may be taken either for the Church that was founded in Rome in the Apostles dayes consisting of Believers with those that had their rule and oversight in the Lord or it may be taken for the Church of Rome in the sense of latter Ages consisting of the Pope its Head and Cardinals principal members with all the Jurisdiction dependent on them and way of Worship established by them and their Authority or that collection of men throughout the world that yield obedience to the Pope in their several places and subordinations according to the Rules by him and his Authority given unto them That which is attributed to this Church is that it was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother-Church all it seems in the superlative degree I will not contend about the purity excellency or flourishing of that Church the boasting of the superlativeness of that purity and excellency seems to be borrowed from that of Revel 3.15 But we shall not exagitate that in that Church which it would never have affirmed of it self because it is fallen out to be the interest of some men in these latter dayes to talk at such a rate as primitive humility was an utter stranger unto I somewhat guess at what he means by a Mother-Church for though the Scripture knows no such thing but only appropriates that Title to Hierusalem that was above which is said to be the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 which I suppose is not Rome and I also think that no man can have two Mothers nor did purer Antiquity ever dream of any such Mother yet the vogue of latter dayes hath made this expression not only passable in the world but sacred and unquestionable I shall only say that in the sense wherein it is by some understood the old Roman Church could lay no more claim unto it then most other Churches in the world and not so good as some others could The proof of this Assertion lies first on the Testimony of St. Paul and then on the acknowledgement of Protestants First Good St. Paul he says amply testifies this in his Epistle to the Romans This what I pray That the then Roman Church was a Mother Church not a word in all the Epistle of any such matter Nay as I observed before thogh he greatly commends the faith and holiness of many Believers Jews and Gentiles that were at Rome yet he makes mention of no Church there but only of a little Assembly that used to meet at Aquila's house nor doth St. Paul give any Testimony at all to the Roman Church in the latter sense of that expression Is there any thing in his Epistle of the Pope Cardinals Patriarchs c any thing of their power and rule over other Churches or Christians not living at Rome Is there any one word in that Epistle about that which the Papists make the principal ingredient in their definition of the Church namely subjection to the Pope What then is the This that good St. Paul so amply testifies unto in his Epistle to the Romans Why this and this only that when he wrote this Epistle to Rome there were then living in that City sundry good and holy men believing in Christ Jesus according to the Gospel and making profession of the faith that is in him but that these men should live there to the end of the world he says not nor do we find that they do The acknowledgement of Protestants is next to as little
purpose insisted on They acknowledge a pure and flourishing Church to have been once at Rome as they maintain there was at Hierusalem Antioch Ephesus Smyrna Laodicea Alexandria Babylon c. that in all these places such Churches do still continue they deny and particularly at Rome For that Church which then was they deny it to be the same that now is at least any more then Argo was the same ship as when first built after there was not one plank or pin of its first structure remaining That the Church of Rome in the latter sense was ever a pure flourishing Church never any Protestant acknowledged the most of them deny it ever to have been in that sense any Church at all and those that grant it to retain the Essential constituting Principals of a Church yet averr that as it is so it ever was since it had a being very far from a pure and flourishing Church For ought then that I can perceive we are not at all concerned in the following Queries the Supposition they are all built upon being partly sophistical and partly false But yet because he doth so earnestly request us to ponder them we shall not give him cause to complain of us in this particular at least as he doth in general of all Protestants That we deal uncivilly and therefore shall pass through them after which if he pleaseth he may deliver them to his friend of whom they were borrowed 1. Saith he This Church could not cease to be such but she must fall either by Apostacy Heresy or Schism But who told him so Might she not cease to be and so consequently to be such Might not the persons of whom it consisted have been destroyed by an earthquake as it happen'd to Laodicea or by the sword as it befel the Church of the Jews or twenty other wayes Besides might she not fall by Idolatry or false Worship or by Prophaneness or Licentiouss of Conversation contrary to the whole rule of Christ That then he may know what is to be removed by his Queries if he should speak any thing to the purpose he may do well to take notice that this is the dogme of Protestants concerning the Church of Rome that the Church planted there pure did by degrees in a long tract of time fall by Apostacy Idolatry Heresie Schism and Profaneness of life into that condition wherein now it is But sayes he 1. Not by Apostacy for that is not only a renouncing of the faith of Christ but the very name and title of Christianity and no man will say that the Church of Rome had ever such a Fall or fell thus I tell you truly Sir your Church is very much beholding unto men if they do not sometimes say very hard things of her Fall Had it been an ordinary slip or so it might have been passed over but this Falling into the mire and wallowing in it for so many Ages as she has done is in truth a very naughty business For my part I am resolved to deal as gently with her as possible and therefore say that there is a total Apostasie from Christianity which she fell not into or by and there is a partial Apostasie in Christianity from some of the Principles of it such as St. Paul charged on the Galatians and the old Fathers on very many that yet retained the name and title of Christians and this we say plainly that she fell by she fell by Apostasie from many of the most material Principles of the Gospel both as to Faith Life and Worship And there being no Reply made upon this instanâ—e were it not upon the account of pure civility we need not proceed any further with his Queries the business of them being come to an end But upon his entreaty we will follow him a little further Supposing that he hath dispatched the business of Apostasie he comes to Heresie and tells us That it is an adhesion to some private or singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church That which ought to be subsumed is that the Church of Rome did never adhere to any singular Opinion or Error in Faith contrary to the general approved Doctrine of the Church but our Author to cover his business changes the terms in his proceeding into the Christian World to clear this to us a little I desire to know of him What Church he means when he speaks of the approved Doctrine of the Church I am sure he will say the Roman-Catholick Church and if I ask him What age it is of that Church which he intends he will also say That Age which is present when the Opinions mentioned are asserted contrary to the approved Doctrine We have then obtained his meaning viz. The roman-Roman-Church did never at any time adhere to any Opinion but what the Roman Church at that time adhered unto or taught or approved no other Doctrine but what it taught and approved Now I verily believe this to be true and he must be somewhat besides uncivil that shall deny it But from hence to infer That the roman-Roman-Church never fell from her first purity by Heresie that is a thing I cannot yet discern how it may be made good This conclusion ariseth out of that pitiful definition of Heresie he gives us coyned meerly to serve the Roman-Interest The rule of judging Heresie is made the approved Doctrine of the Church I would know of what Church of this or that particular Church or of the Catholick Doubtless the Catholick must be pretended I ask Of this or that Age or of the first Of the first certainly I desire then to know how we may come to discern infallibly what was the approved Doctrine of the catholick-Catholick-Church of Old but only by the Scriptures which we know it unanimously embraced as given unto it by Christ for its Rule of Faith and Worship If we should then grant that the approved Doctrine of the Church were that which a departure from as such gives formality unto Heresie yet there is no way to know that Doctrine but by the Scripture But yet neither can or ought this to be granted The formal reason of Heresie in the usual acceptation of the word ariseth from its deviation from the Scripture as such which is the Rule of the Churches Doctrine and of the Opinions that are contrary unto it Nor yet is every private or singular Opinion contrary to the Scripture or the Doctrine of the Church presently an Heresie That is not the sense of the word either in Scripture or Antiquity So that the foundation of the Queries about Heresie is not one jot better layed then that was about Apostasie which went before This is that which I have heard Protestants say namely That the Church of Rome doth adhere to very many Opinions and Errors in Faith contrary to the main Principles of Christian Religion delivered in the Scripture and so consequently the Doctrine approved by the Catholick Church
and if this be to fall by Heresie I add that she is thus fallen also from what she was But then he asks 1. By what general Council was she ever condemned 2. Which of the Fathers ever wrote against her 3. By what Authority was she otherwise reproved But this is all one as if a thief arraigned for stealing before a Judge and the goods that he had stoln found upon him should plead for himself and say If ever I stole any thing then by what lawful Judge was I ever condemned what Officer of the State did ever formerly apprehend me by what Authority were Writs issued out against me Were it not easie for the Judge to reply and tell him Friend these Allegations may prove that you were never before condemned but they prove not at all that you never stole which is a matter of fact that you are now upon your tryal for No more will it at all follow that the Church of Rome did never offend because she is not condemned These things may be necessary that she may be said to be legally convicted but not at all to prove that she is really guilty Besides the truth is that many of her Doctrines and Practises are condemned by general Councils and most of them by the most learned Fathers and all of them by the Authority of the Scripture And whilst her Doctrine and Worship is so condemned I see not well how she can escape so that this second way also she is fallen 3. To Apostasie and Heresie she hath also added the guilt of Schism in an high degree For Schisms within her self and her great Schism from all the Christian world besides her self are things well known to all that know her Her intestine Schisms were the shame of Christendom her Schisms in respect of others the ruin of it And briefly to answer the triple Query we are so earnestly invited to the consideration of I shall need to instance only in that one particular of making Subjection to the Pope in all things the Tessera Rule of all Church-Communion whereby she hath left the company of all the Churches of Christ in the world besides her self is gone forth and departed from all Apostolical Churches even that of Old Rome its self and the true Church which she hath forsaken abides and is preserved in all the Societies of Christians throughout the Earth who attending to the Scripture for their only Rule and Guide do believe what is therein revealed and worship God accordingly So that notwithstanding any thing here offered to the contrary it is very possible that the present Church of Rome may be fallen from her Primitive Condition by Apostasie Heresie and Schism which indeed she is and worst of all by Idolatry which our Author thought meet to pass over in silence IV. It is frequently pleaded by our Author nor is there any thing which he more triumphs in That all things as to Religion were quiet and in peace all men in union and agreement amongst themselves in the Worship of God before the departure made by our fore-Fathers from the Roman See No man that hath once cast an eye upon the Defensatives written by the Antient Christians but knows how this very consideration was managed and improved against them by their Pagan impugners That Christians by their Introduction of a new way of worshipping God which their fore-Fathers knew not had disturbed the Peace of humane Society divided the World into Seditious Factions broken all the antient Bonds of Peace and Amity dissolved the whole Harmony of Man-kinde's Agreement amongst themselves was the subject of the declamations of their Adversaries This complaint their Books their Schools the Courts and Judicatories were filled with against all which clamors and violences that were stirred up against them by their means those blessed souls armed themselves with patience and the testimony of their Consciences that they neither did nor practised any thing that in its own nature had a tendency to the least of those evils which they and their way of worshipping God was reproached with As they had the opportunity indeed they let their Adversaries know that that Peace and Union they boasted of in their Religion before the entrance of Christianity was but a Conspiracy against God a consent in Error and Falsehood and brought upon the World by the craft of Satan maintained through the effectual influence of innumerable prejudices upon the innate blindness and darkness of their hearts That upon the appearance of light and publishing of the Truth divisions animosities troubles and distractions did arise they declared to have been no proper or necessary effect of the work but a consequent occasional and accidental arising from the lusts of men who loved darkness more then light because their works were evil which that it would ensue their blessed Master had long before fore-told them and fore-warned them Though this be enough yet it is not all that may be replyed unto this old pretence and plea as mannaged to the purpose of our Adversaries It is part of the motive which the great Historian makes Galgacus the valiant Brittain use to his Countrey-men to cast off the Roman-yoke Solitudinem ubi fecerunt pacem vocant It was their way when they had by force and cruelty layed all waste before them to call the remaining solitude and desolation by the goodly name of Peace neither considered they whether the residue of men had either satisfaction in their minds or advantage by their Rule Nor was the Peace of the roman-Roman-Church any other before the Reformation What waste they had by Sword and Burnings made in several parts of Europe in almost all the chiefest Nations of it of mankind what desolation they had brought by violence upon those who opposed their rule or questioned their Doctrine the blood of innumerable poor men many of them learned all pious and zealous whom they called Waldenses Albigenses Lollards Wicklevites Hussites Caliptives Subutraguians Picards or what else they pleased being indeed the faithful witnesses of the Lord Christ and his Truths will at the last Day reveal Besides the event declared how remote the minds of millions were from an acquiescency in that Conspiracy in the Papal Soveraignty which was grown to be the Bond of Communion amongst those who called themselves the Church or an approbation of that Doctrine and Worship which they made profession of For no sooner was a door of Liberty and Light opened unto them but whole Nations were at strife who should first enter in at it which undoubtedly all the Nations of Europe had long since done had not the holy wise God in his good Providence suffered in some of them a sword of power and violence to interpose it self against their entrance For whatever may be pretended of Peace and Agreement to this day take away force and violence Prisons and Fagots and in one day the whole compages of that stupendious Fabrick of the Papacy will be dissolved and
little purpose and it were easie to turn our Reply that way but because I have not clear Evidence for it I will not charge him with so horrid a presumptuous Insinuation when he declares his mind he shall hear more of ours But he further specifies his meaning in an enumeration of Doctrines that were preached by the first Planters of the Gospel in and unto the extirpation of Gentilism If saith he the Institution of Monasteries to the praise and service of God day and night be thought as it hath been now these many years a Superstitious folly If Christian Priests and Sacrifices be things of high Idolatry If the seven Sacraments be deemed vain most of them If it suffice to Salvation only to Believe whatever life we lead If there be no value or merit in Good Works If God's Laws be impossible to be kept If Christ be not our Law-maker and Director of doing well as well as Redeemer from ill If there be no Sacramental Tribunal for our Reconciliation ordained from by Christ on the Earth If the real Body of our Lord be not bequeathed unto his Spouse in his last Will and Testament If there be not under Christ a general Head of the Church who is chief Priest and Pastor of all Christians upon Earth under God whose Vicegerent he is in Spiritual Affairs all which things are now held forth by us manifestly against the Doctrine of the first Preachers of Christianity in this Land then I say Paganism was unjustly displaced by these Doctrines and Atheism must needs succeed for if Christ deceived us upon whom shall we rely and if they that brought us the first news of Christ brought along with it so many grand lies why may not the very story of Christ be thought a Romance I could wish there had been a little more clearness and ingenuity in this annumeration the mixing of what he takes to be Truths with some Negatives that he condemns in the same Series breeds some confusion in the Discourse And I am also compelled to complain of want of candor and ingenuity in his representation of the Protestant Doctrin in every particular wherein he takes occasion to mention it Let us then separate the things that have no place of their own in this Argument than what is ambiguously proposed after which what remains may be distinctly considered 1. What makes that enquiry in our way at this time If it suffice to Salvation to believe whatever life we lead Who ever said so taught so wrote so in England Is this the Doctrine of the Church of England or of the Presbyterians or Independents Or whose is it Or what makes it in this place If this be the way of gaining Catholicks let them that please make use of it Protestants dislike the Way as much as the End 2. What is the meaning of that which follows If there be no value or merit in good Works Who ever taught that there is no value in good Works that they are not commanded of God that they are not accepted with him that they are not our duty to be careful in the performance of that God is not honoured the Gospel adorned the Church and the World advantaged by them Do all these things put no value on them For their merit the expression being ambiguous unscriptural and as commonly interpreted derogatory to the glory of Christ and the Grace of God we shall let it pass as proper to his purpose and much good may it do him with all that he gains by it 3. If saith he God's Laws be impossible to be kept but Who said so Protestants teach indeed that men in their own strength cannot keep the Laws of God That the Grace received in this life extends not to an absolute sinless perfection in their observation which is inconsistent with the Covenant of Grace and mens walking with God therein but that the Laws of God were in their own nature impossible to be observed by them to whom they were first given or that they are yet impossible to be kept in that way of their sincere observation which is required in the Gospel Protestants teach not that I know of He proceeds 4. If Christ be not our Law-maker and Director of doing well as well as our Redeemer from ill This is a little too open and plain doth he think any man will believe him that Protestants or Presbyterians teach that Christ is not our Law-maker and Director of doing well c. I dare say he believes not one word of it himself what confidence soever he hath taken upon him of imposing on the minds of weak and unstable men Other things mentioned by him are ambiguous as If the seven Sacraments be deemed vain most of them c. Of the things themselves which they term Sacraments there is scarse any of them by Protestants esteemed vain that one of Unction which they judge now useless they only say is an unwarrantable imitation of that which was useful Of the rest which they reject they reject not the things but those things from being Sacraments and a practice in Religion is not presently condemned as vain which is not esteemed a Sacrament There is no less ambiguity in that other Supposition If the real Body of our Lord be not bequeathed to his Spouse in his last Will and Testament which no Protestant ever questioned though there be great contests about the manner of the Sacramental Participation of that real Body the same may be said of some other of his Supposals But I need not go over them in Particular I shall only say in General that take from amongst them what is acknowledged to be the Doctrine of the Papists and as such is opposed by the Church of England or by Presbyterians as Papal Supremacy Sacrifice of the Mass Monasteries of Votaries under special and peculiar Vows and Rules necessity of auricular Confession Transubstantiation which are the things gilded over by our Author and prove that they were the Doctrines all or any of them whereby and wherewith the first Preachers of Christianity in this Nation or any where else in the old known World displaced Paganism and for my part I will immediately become his Proselyte What then can be bound with this Rope of Sand The first Preachers of Christianity preached the Pope's Supremacy the Mass c. By these Doctrines Paganism was displaced If these Doctrines now be decryed as lyes why may not Christ himself be esteemed a Romance For neither did the first Preachers of Christianity preach these Doctrines nor was Paganism displaced by them nor is there any ground to question the Authority and Truth of Christ in case those that do first preach him do therewithal preach somewhat that is not true when they bring along with them an authentick conviction of their own mistakes as was manifested before and might be made good by innumerable other Instances I shall not need to follow him in his declamation to the end of this
all the antient Fathers of the Church they are exhorted unto that they need noâ— understand those Prayers which they are commanded to pray with understanding and wherein lies a principal exercise of their faith and love towards God are the things which are here recommended unto us Let us view the arguments wherewith first the general custome of the Western Empire in keeping the Mass and Bible in an unknown tongue is pleaded But What is a general Custome of the Western Empire in opposition to the command of God and the evidence of all that reason that lies against it Have we not an express Command not to follow a multitude to do evill Besides What is or ever was the Western Empire unto the Catholicism of the Church of Christ spread over the whole world Within an hundred years after Christ the Gospel was spread to Nations and in places whither the Roman power never extended it self Romanis inaccessa loca much less that branch of it which he calls the Western Empire But neither yet was it the custom of the Western Empire to keep the Bible in an unknown Tongue or to perform the worship of the Church in such a Language Whilst the Latin Tongue was only used by them it was generally used in other things and was the vulgar Tongue of all the Nations belonging unto it Little was there remaining of those Tongues in use that were the Languages of the Provinces of it before they became so So that though they had their Bible in the Latin Tongue they had it not in an unknown no more than the Grecians had who used it in Greek And when any people received the Faith of Christ who had not before received the Language of the Romans good men translated the Bible into their own as Hierom did for the Dalmatians Whatever then may be said of the Latin there is no pretence of the use of an unknown Tongue in the worship of the Church in the Western Empire until it was over-run destroyed and broken in pieces by the Northern Nations and possessed by them most of them Pagans who brought in several distinct Languages into the Provinces where they seated themselves After those tumults ceased and the Conquerors began to take up the Religion of the people into whose Countries they were come still retaining with some mixtures their old Dialect that the Scripture was not in all places for in many it was translated for their use was the sin and negligence of some who had other faults besides The Primitive use of the Latin Tongue in the worship of God and translation of the Bible into it in the Western Empire whilst that Language was usually spoken and read as the Greek in the Grecian is an undeniable argument of the Judgement of the antient Church for the use of the Scripture and Church-Liturgies in a known Tongue What ensued on What was occasioned by that inundation of barbarous Nations that buried the world for some ages in darkness and ignorance cannot reasonably be proposed for our imitation I hope we shall not easily be induced either to return unto or embrace the effects of Barbarism But saith our Author Secondly Catholicks have the sum of Scripture both for history and dogm delivered them in their own Language so much as may make for their salvation good orders being set and instituted for their proficiency therein and what needs any more or why should they be further permitted either to satifie curiosity or to raise doubtâ— or to wrest words and examples there recorded unto their own ruin as we see now by experience men are apt to do What Catholicks have or have not is not our present dispute Whether what they have of story and dogm in their own Language be that which Paul calls the whole Counsel of God which he declared at Ephesus I much doubt But the question is Whether they have what God allows them and what he commands them to make use of We suppose God himself Christ and his Apostles the antient Fathers of the Church any of these or at least when they all agree may be esteemed as wise as our present Masters at Rome Their sense is That all Scripture given by inspiration from God is profitable for Doctrine it seems these judge not so and therefore they afford them so much of it as may tend to their good For my part I know whom I am resolved to adhere to let others do as seems good unto them Nor where God hath commanded and commended the use of all do I believe the Romanists are able to make a distribution that so much of it makes for the salvation of men the rest only serves to satisfie curiosity to raise doubts and to occasion men to wrest words and examples Nor I am sure are they able to satisfie me why any one part of the Scripture should be apt to do this more then others Nor will they say this at all of any part of their Mass. Nor is it just to charge the fruits of the lusts and darkness of men on the good word of God Nor is it the taking away from men of that alone which is able to make them good and wise a meet remedy to cure their evils and follies But these Declamations against the use and study of the Scripture I hope come too late Men have found too much spiritual advantage by it to be easily driven from it It self gives light to know its excellency and defend its use by But the Book is sacred he says and therefore not to be sullied by every hand what God hath sanctified let not man make common It seems then those parts of the Scripture which they afford to the people are more useful but less sacred than those that they keep away These reasons justle one another unhandsomly Our Author should have made more room for them for they will never lie quietly together But what is it he means by the Book the Paper Ink Letters and Covering His Master of the Schools will tell him These are not sacred if they are the Printers dedicate them And it 's a pretty pleasant Sophism that he adds That God having sanctified the Book we should not make it common To what end I pray hath God sanctified it Is it that it may be laid up and be hid from that people which Christ hath prayed might be sanctified by it Is it any otherwise sanctified but as it is appointed for the use of the Church of all that believe Is this to make it common to apply it unto that use whereunto of God it is segregated Doth the Sanctification of the Scripture consist in the laying up of the Book of the Bible from our profane Utensils Is this that which is intended by the Author Would it do him any good to have it granted or further his purpose Doth the mysteriousness of it lie in the Books being locked up I suppose he understands this Sophistry well enough which makes it the worse
it alone and traditions they had good store whose original they pleaded from Moses himself directing them in that interpretation Christ and his Apostles whom they looked upon as poor ignorant contemptible persons came and preacht a doctrine which that Church determined utterly contrary to the Scripture and their Traditions what shall now be answered to their Authority which was unquestionably all that ever was or shall be entrusted with any Church on the earth Our Author tells us that this great argument of the Jews could not be any way warded or put by but by recourse unto the Churches infallibility pag. 146. Which sit verbo venia is so ridiculous a pretence as I wonder how any block in his way could cause him to stumble upon it What Church I pray the Church of Christians When that argument was first used by the Jews against Christ himself it was not yet founded and if an absolute infallibility be supposed in the Church without respect to her adherence to the rule of infallibility I dare boldly pronounce that argument indissoluble and that all Christian Religion must be therein discarded If the jewish-Jewish-Church which had at that day as great Church-power and prerogative as any Church hath or can have were infallible in her Judgment that she made of Christ and his Doctrin there remains nothing but that we renounce both him and it and turn either Jews or Pagans as we were of old Here then by our Authors confession lies a plain Judgment and Definition of the only Church of God in the world against Christ and his Doctrine and it is certainly incumbent on us to see how it may be waâ—ed And this I suppose we cannot better be instructed in then by considering what was answered unto it by Christ himself his Apostles and those that succeeded them in the profession of the faith of the Gospel 1 For Christ himself its certain he pleaded his miracles the Works which he wrought and the Doctrine that he revealed but withall as to the Jews with whom he had to do he pleads the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets and offers himself and his Doctrine to be tryed to stand or fall by their verdict Joh. 5.39 46. Mat. 22.42 Luk. 24.27 I say besides the testimony of his Works and Doctrine to their authority of the Church he opposeth that of the Scripture which he knew the other ought to give place unto And it is most vainly pretended by our Author in the behalf of the Jews that the Messias or great Prophet to come was not in the Scripture specified by such Characteristicall Properties as made it evident that Jesus was the Messiah all the descriptions given of the one and they innumerable undeniably centring in the other The same course steered the Apostle Peter Act. 2. 3. And expresly in his second Epistle chap. 2. v. 17 18 19. And Paul Act. 13.16 17 c. And of Apollos who openly disputed with the Jews upon this Argument it is said that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ Act. 18.28 And Paul perswaded the Jews concerning Jesus at Rome both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning until evening Act. 28.23 Concerning which labour and disputation the censure of our Author p. 149. is very remarkable There can be no hope saith he of satisfying a Querent or convincing an Opponent in any point of Christianity unless he will submit to the splendor of Christs Authority in his own Person and the Church descended from him which I take to be the Reason why some of the Jews in Rome when St. Paul laboured so much to perswade Christ out of Moses and the Prophets believed in him and some did not Both the coherence of the words and design of the Preface and his whole scope manifest his meaning to be That no more believed on him or that some disbelieved notwithstanding all the pains he took with them And what was the reason of this failure Why St. Paul fixed on an unsuitable means of perswading them namely Moses and the Prophets when he should have made use of the Authority of the Church Vain and bold man that dares oppose his prejudices to the Spirit and Wisdom of Christ in that great and holy Apostle and that in a way and work wherein he had the express pattern and example of his Master If this be the Spirit that rules in the Roman-Synagogue that so puffes up men in their fleshly minds as to make them think themselves wiser then Christ and his Apostles I doubt not but men will every day find cause to rejoyce that it is cast out of them and be watchful that it return to possess them no more But this is that which galls the man The difficulty which he proposeth as insoluble by any wayes but an acquiescing in the Authority of the present Church he finds assoyled in Scripture on other Principles This makes him fall soul on St. Paul whom he finds most frequent in answering it from Scripture not considering that at the same time he accuseth St. Peter of the like folly though he pretend for him a greater reverence However this may be said in defence of St. Paul that by his Arguments about Christ and the Gospel from Moses and the Prophets many thousands of Jews all the World over were converted to the Faith when it 's hard to meet with an instance of one in an age that will any way take notice of the Authority of the Roman-Church But to return this was the constant way used by the Apostles of answering that great difficulty pleaded by our Author from the Authority of the Hebrew-Church They called the Jews to the Scripture the plain Texts and Contexts of Moses and the Prophets opposing them to all their Churches real or pretended Authority and all her Interpretations pretended to be received by Tradition from of old so fixing this for a perpetual standing Rule to all Generations that the Doctrine of the Church is to be examined by the Scripture and where it is found contradictory of it her authority is of no value at all it being annexed unto her attendance on that Rule But it may be replyed That the Church in the dayes of the Apostles was not yet setled nor made firm enough to bear the weight that now may be laid upon it as our Author affirms pag. 149. So that now the great Resolve of all doubts must be immediately upon the Authority of the present Church after that was once well cleared the fathers of old pleaded that only in this case and removed the Objections of the Jews by that alone I am perswaded though our Author be a great admirer of the present Church he is not such a stranger to Antiquity as to believe any such thing Is the Authority of the Church pleaded by Justine Martyr in that famous dispute with Trypho the Jew wherein these very Objections instanced by our
Author are thoroughly canvassed Doth he not throughout his whole Disputation prove out of the Scriptures and them alone that Jesus was the Christ and his Doctrine agreeable unto them Is any such thing pleaded by Origen Tertullian Chrysostom or any one that had to deal with the Jews Do they not wholly persist in the way traced for them by Paul Peter and Apollos mightily convincing the Jews out of Scripture Let him consult their Answers he will not find them such poor empty jejune Discourses as that he supposes they might make use of pag. 148. and to the proofs whereof by Texts of Scripture he sayes the Rabbies could answer by another Interpretation of them He will find another Spirit breathing in their Writings another efficacy in their Arguments and other evidence in their Testimonies than it seems he is acquainted with and such as all the Rabbies in the World are not able to withstand And I know full well that these insinuations that Christians are not able justifiably to convince confute and stop the mouths of Jews from the Scripture would have been abhorred as the highest piece of blasphemy by the whole antient Church of Christ and it is meet it should be so still by all Christians Is there no way left to deny pretences of Light and Spirit but by proclaiming to the great scandal of Christianity that we cannot answer the Exceptions of Jews unto the Person and Doctrine of our Saviour out of the Scriptures And hath Rome need of these bold Sallyes against the vitals of Religion Is she no other way capable of a defence Better she perished 10000 times than that any such reproach should be justly cast on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel But whatever our Author thinks of himself I have very good ground to conjecture that he hath very little acquaintance with Judaical Antiquity Learning or Arguments nor very much with the Scripture and may possibly deserve on that account some excuse if he thought those Exceptions insoluble which more learned men than himself know how to answer and remove without any considerable trouble This difficulty was fixed on by our Author that upon it there might be stated a certain retreat and assured way of establishment against al of the like nature This he assigns to be the Authority of the present Church Protestants the Scripture wherein as to the instance chosen out as most pressing we have the concurrent suffrage of Christ his Apostles and all the antient Christians so that we need not any further to consider the pretended pleas of Light and Spirit which he hath made use of as the Orator desired his Dialogist would have insisted on the Stories of Cerberus and Cocytus that he might have shewed his skill and activity in their Confutation For what he begs in the way as to the constitution of St. Peter and his Successors in the Rule of the Church as he produceth no other proof for it but that doughty one that It must needs be so so if it were granted him he may easily perceive by the Instance of the Judaical Church that himself thought good to insist upon that it will not avail him in his plea against the final resolution of our Faith into the Scripture as its senses are proposed by the Ministry of the Church and rationally conceived or understood CHAP. X. Protestant Pleas. HIs Sect. 13. p. 155. entituled Independent and Presbyterians Pleas is a merry one The whole design of it seems to be to make himself and others sport with the miscarriages of men in and about Religion Whether it be a good work or no that day that is coming will discover The Independents he divides into two parts Quakers and Anabaptists Quakers he begins withal and longest insists upon being as he saith well read in their Books and acquainted with their persons some commendation he gives them so farr as it may serve to the disparagement of others and then falls into a fit of Quaking so expresly imitating them in their Discourses that I fear he will confirm some in their surmises that such as he both set them on work and afterwards assisted them in it For my part having undertaken only the defence of Protestancy and Protestants I am altogether inconcerned in the entertainment he hath provided for his Readers in this personating of a Quaker which he hath better done and kept a better decorum in than in his personating of a Protestant a thing in the beginning of his Discourse he pretended unto The Anabaptists as farr as I can perceive he had not medled with unless it had been to get an advantage of venting his pretty Answer to an Argument against Infant-Baptism but the truth is if the Anabaptists had no other Objections against Infant-Baptism nor Protestants no better Answers to their Objections then what are mentioned here by our Author it were no great matter what become of the Controversie but it is Merriment not Disputation that he is designing and I shall leave him to the solace of his own fancies No otherwise in the next place doth he deal with the Presbyterians in personating of whom he pours out a long senseless rapsody of words many insignificant expressions vehement exclamations and uncouth terms such as to do them right I never heard uttered by them in preaching though I have heard many of them nor read written by them though I suppose I have perused at least as many of their Books as our Author hath done of the Quakers Any one with half an Eye may see what it is which galls the man and his Party which whether he hath done wisely to discover his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will inform him that is the Preaching of all sorts of Protestants that he declares himself to be most perplexed with and therefore most labours to expose it to reproach and obloquy And herein he deals with us as in many of their Stories their Demoniacks do with their Exorcists discover which Relick or which Saints name or other Engine in that bufle most afflicts them that so they may be paid more to the purpose Somewhat we may learn from hence Fas est ab hoste doceri But he will make the Presbyterians amends for all the scorn he endeavours to expose them to by affirming when he hath assigned a senseless Harangue of words unto them that the Protestants are not able to answer their Objections Certainly if the Presbyterians are such pitiful souls as not to be able any beter to defend their cause than they are represented by him here to do those Protestants are beneath all consideration who are not able to deal and grapple with them And this is as it should be Roman-Catholicks are wise learned holy angelical seraphical persons all others ignorant dolts that can scarse say Boe to a Goose. These things considered in themselves are unserious trifles but seria ducunt We shall see presently whither all this lurry tends for the sting of this whole Discourseis
beautiful and according to the mind of God If our Author be able to make a right Judgement of these things and find them really abounding amongst his party I hope we shall rejoyce with him though we knew the Spring of them is not their Popery but their Christianity For the outside-shews he hath as yet instanced in they ought not in the least to have influenced his Judgement in that disquisition of the Truth wherein he pretends he was engaged He could not of old have come amongst the Professors and Mystae of those false Religions which by the light and power of the Gospel are now banished out of the World where he should not have met with the same Vizards and appearances of Devotion so that hitherto we find no great discoveries in his Messach From the Worship of the Parties compared he comes to their Preaching and finds them as differing as their devotion The Preaching of Protestants of all sorts is sorry pittiful stuffe Inconsequent words senseless notions or at least Rhetorical flourishes make it up the Catholicks grave and pithy Still all this belongs to persons not things Protestants preach as well as they can and if they cannot preach so well as his wiser Romanists it is their unhappiness not their fault But yet I have a little reason to think that our Author is not altogether of the mind that here he pretends to be of but that he more hates and fears then despises the Preaching of Protestants He knows well enough what mischief it hath wrought his Party though prejudice will not suffer him to see what good it hath done the world and therefore doubting as I suppose lest he should not be able to prevail with his Readers to believe him in that which he would fain it may be but cannot believe himself about the excellency of the Preaching of his Catholicks above that of Protestants he decryes the whole work as of little or no use or concernment in Christian Religion This it had been fair for him to have openly pleaded and not to have made a flourish with that which he knew he could make no better work of Nor is the preaching of the Protestants as is pretended unlike that of the Antients The best and most famous Preacher of the antient Church whose Sermons are preserved was Chrysostom We know the way of his proceding in that work was to open the words and meaning of his Text to declare the Truth contained and taught in it to vindicate it from Objections to confirm it by other Testimonies of Scripture and to apply all unto practise in the close And as farr as I can observe this in general is that method used by Protestants being that indeed which the very nature of the work dictates unto them wherefore mistrusting lest he should not be able to bring men out of love with the Preaching of Protestants in comparison of the endeavours of his Party in the same kind he turns himself another way and labours to perswade us as I said that preaching its self is of little or no use in Christian Religion for so he may serve his own design he cares not it seems openly to contradict the practise of the Church of God ever since there was a Church in the world To avoid that Charge he tells us That the Apostles and Apostolical Churches had no Sermons but all their Preaching was meerly for the Conversion of men to the faith and when this was done there was an end of their preaching and for this he instanceth in the Sermons mentioned in the Acts ch 2 3 5 10 7 8 13 14 16 18 19 20 22 24 26 28. I wonder what he thinks of Christ himself whether he preached or no in the Temple or in the Synagogues of the Jews and whether the Judaical Church to whose Members he preached were not then a true yea the only Church in the world and whether Christ was not anointed and sent to preach the Gospel to them If he know not this he is very ignorant if he doth know it he is somewhat that deserves a worse name To labour to exterminate that out of the Religion of Christ which was one of the chief works of Christ for we do not read that he went up and down singing Mass though I have heard of a Fryer that conceived that to be his imployment is a work unbecoming any man that would count himself wronged not to be esteemed a Christian. But what ever Christ did it may be it matters not the Apostles and Apostolical Churches had no Sermons but only such as they preached to Infidels and Jews to convert them that is they did not labour to instruct men in the knowledge of the mysteries of the Gospel to build them up in their Faith to teach them more and more the good knowledg of God revealing unto them the whole counsel of his will And is it possible that any man who hath ever read over the New Testament or any one of Paul's Epistles should be so blinded by prejudicies and made so confident in his assertions as to dare in the face of the Sun whilst the Bible is in every ones hand to utter a matter so devoid of truth and all colour or pretence of probability Methinks men should think it enough to sacrifice their consciences to their Moloch without casting wholly away their reputation to be consumed in the same flames It is true the design of the story of the Acts being to deliver unto us the progress of the Christian faith by the Ministry of the Apostles insists principally on those Sermons which God in an especial manner blessed to the conversion of souls and encrease of the Church thereby but Is there therefore no mention made of Preaching in it to the edification of their Converts or Is there no mention of Preaching unless it be said that such a one preached at such a time so long on such a Text When the people abode in the Apostles Doctrine Acts 2.42 I think the Apostle taught them And the Ministry of the Word which they gave themselves unto was principally in reference unto the Church Ch. 7.4 So Peter and John preached the Word to those whom Philip had converted at Samaria Ch. 18.25 A whole year together Paul and Barnabas assembled themselves together with the Church of Antioch and taught much people Ch. 12.26 At Troas Paul preached unto them who came together to break bread that is the Church until midnight Ch. 20.7 9. which why our Author calls a dispute or what need of a dispute there was when only the Church was assembled neither I nor he do know And ver 20. 27. he declares that his main work and employment was constant Preaching to the Disciples and Churches giving commands to the Elders of the Churches to do the same And what his practice was during his imprisonment at Rome the close of that book declares And these not footsteps but express examples of and precepts
concerning Preaching to the Churches themselves and their Disciples we have in that book purposely designed to declare their first calling and planting not their progress and edification Should I trace the commands given for this work the commendation of it the qualifications and gifts for it bestowed on men by Christ and his requiring of their exercise recorded in the Epistles the work would be endless and a good part of most of them must be transcribed In brief if the Lord Christ continue to bestow Ministerial gifts upon any or to call them to the Office of the Ministry if they are bound to labour in the Word and Doctrine to be instant in Season and out of Season in Preaching the Word to those committed to their charge if that be one of the directions given them that they may know how to behave themselves in the Church the house of God if they are bound to trade with the Talents their Master entrusts them with to attend unto Doctrine with all diligence if it be the duty of Christians to labour to grow and encrease in the knowledge of God and his will and that of indispensable necessity unto salvation according to the measure of the means God is pleased to afford unto them if their perishing through ignorance will be assuredly charged on them who are called to the care and freedom and instructing of them This business of Preaching is an indispensible duty among Christians If these things be not so indeed for ought I know we may do what our Adversary desires us even burn our Bibles and that as books that have no truth in them Our Authors denial of the practice of Antiquity conformable to this of the Apostles is of the same nature But that it would prove too long a diversion from my present work I could as easily trace down the constant sedulous performance of this duty from the dayes of the Apostles until it gave place to that ignorance which the world was beholding to the Papal Apostacy for as I can possibly write so much paper as the story of it would take up But to what purpose should I do it Our Author I presume knows it well enough and others I hope will not be too forward in believing his affirmations of what he believes not himself The main design of this discourse is to cry up the Sacrifice that the Catholicks have in their Churches but not the Protestants This Sacrifice he tells us was the sum of all Apostolical Devotion which Protestants have abolished Strange that in all the writings of the Apostles there should not one word be mentioned of that which was the sum of their Devotion Things surely judged by our Author of less importance are at large handled in them That they should not directly nor indirectly once intimate that which it seems was the sum of their devotion is I confess to me somewhat strange They must make this concealment either by design or oversight How consistent the first is with their goodness holiness love to the Church the latter with their wisdom and infallibility either with their office and duty is easie to judge Our Author tells us They have a Sacrifice after the order of Melchizedeck Paul tells us indeed that we have a High Priest after the order of Melchizedech but as I remember this is the first time that ever I heard of a Sacrifice after the order of Melchisedech though I have read somewhat that Roman Catholicks say about Melchisedechs Sacrifice Our Priest after the Order of Melchisedech offered a Sacrifice that none ever had done before nor can do after him even Himself If the Romanists think to offer him they must kill him The Species of Bread and Wine are but a thin Sacrifice next door to nothing yea somewhat worse then nothing a figment of a thing impossible or the shaddow of a dream nor will they say they are any It is true which our Author pleads in justification of the Sacrifice of his Church That there were Sacrifices among the Jews yea from the beginning of the World after the entrance of sin and promise of Christ to come made to sinners For in the state of innocency there was no Sacrifice appointed because there was no need of an atonement But all these Sacrifices properly so called had no other use in Religion then to prefigure and represent the great Sacrifice of himself to be made by the Son of God in the fulness of time That being once performed all other Sacrifices were to cease I mean properly so called for we have still Sacrifices Metaphorical called so by Analogy being parts of Gods worship tendred unto him and accepted with him as were the Sacrifices of old Nor is it at all necessary that we should have Proper Sacrifices that we may have Metaphorical It is enough that such there have been and that of Gods own appointment And we have still that only one real Sacrifice which was the life and soul of all them that went before The substance being come the light shaddowing of it that was before under the Law is vanished The Apostle doth expresly place the opposition that is between the Sacrifice of Christian-Church and that of the Judaical in this that they were often repeated this was performed once for all and is a living abiding Sacrifice constant in the Church for ever Heb. 10.1 2. So that by this rule the repetition of the same or any other Sacrifice in the Christian-Church can have no other foundation but an apprehension of the imperfection of the Sacrifice of Christ For saith he where the Sacrifice is perfect and makes them perfect that come to God by it there must be no more Sacrifice This then seems to be the real difference between Protestants and Roman-Catholicks in this business of Sacrifice Protestants believing the Sacrifice of Christ to be absolutely perfect so that there is no need of any other and that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fresh and living way of going to God continually with whom by it obtaining remission of sin they know there is no more offering for sin they content themselves with that Sacrifice of his continually in its vertue and efficacy residing in the Church Romanists looking on that as imperfect judge it necessary to institute a new Sacrifice of their own to be repeated every day and that without any the least colour or warrant from the word of God or example of the Apostles But our Author puts in an exception and tells us those words of Luke Acts 13.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are well and truly rendred by Erasmus sacrificantibus illis Domino which one text saith he gives double testimony to Apostolical Sacrifice and Priestly Ordination and he strengthens the Authority of Erasmus with reason also for the word can import nothing but Sacrifice since it was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for other inferiour Ministeries of the Word and Sacraments are not made to God but the people but the
enjoyed and objecting to them their rashness fury and ignorance in demolishing of them As far as I can perceive by his good inclination to this excellency of Religion the imagery of it had he lived in those dayes he would have as easily bid adiew to Christianity as he did in these to Protestantism But the excellent thoughts he tells us that such Pictures and Images are apt to cast into the minds of men makes them come to our Mount Zion the City of the living God to celestial Jerusalem and Society of Angels and so onward as his Translation somewhat uncouthly and improperly renders that place of the Apostle Hebr. 12. A man indeed distraught of his wits might possibly entertain some such fancies upon his entring of an House full of fine Pictures and Images but that a sober man should do so is very unlikely It is a sign how well men understand the Apostle's words when they suppose themselves furthered in their meditation on them by Images and Pictures and yet it were well if this abuse were all the use of them in the Romish Church I wish our Author would inform us truly whether many of those whom he tells us he saw so devout in their Churches did not lay out a good part of their devotion upon the fine Pictures and Images he saw them fall down before Images began first in being ignorant peoples Books but they ended in being their Gods or Idols Alas poor souls they know little of those many curious windings and turnings of mind through the Maeanders of various distinctions which their Masters prescribe to preserve them from Idolatry in that veneration of Images which they teach them when it is easie for them to know that all they do in this kind is contrary to the express will and command of God But that our Author may charge home upon his Countrymen for removing of Images out of Churches he tells us that it is the judgement of all men that the violation of an image redounds to the Prototype True provided it be an image rightly and duly destined to represent him that is intended to be injured But suppose any man against the express command of a King should make an Image of him on purpose to represent him deformed and ridiculous to the people would he interpret it an injury or dishonour done unto him if any one out of allegiance should break or tear such an Image in pieces I suppose a wise and just King would look on such an action as a rewardable piece of service and would in time take care for the punishment of him that made it The hanging of Traitors in effigie is not to cast a dishonour upon the person represented but a declaration of what he doth deserve and is adjudged unto The Psalmist indeed complains that they broke down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or carved works in the walls and seeling of the Temple but that those apertiones or incisurae were not Pictures and Images for the people to adore and venerate or were appointed for their instruction if our Author knows not he knows whither to repair to be instructed viz. to any Comment old or new extant on that Psalm And it is no small confidence to use Scripture out of the old Testament for the Religious use of images of mens finding out and Constitution whereas they may finde as many Testimonies for more Gods enow indeed wherein the one are denyed and the other forbidden Nor will the ensuing contemplation of the means whereby we come to learn things we know not namely by our senses whence Images are suited to do that by the eye which Sermons do by the ear and that more effectually yield him any relief in his devotion for them There is this small difference between them that the one means of instruction is appointed by God himself the other that is pretended to be so absolutely forbidden by him And these fine Discourses of the actuosity of the eye above the ear and its faculty of administring to the fancy are but pitiful weak attempts for men that have no less work in hand then to set up their own wisdom in the room of and above the wisdom of God And our Author is utterly mistaken if he think the sole end of preaching the Cross and Death of Christ is to work out such representations to the mind as Oratory may effect for the moving of corresponding affections This may be the end of some mens Rhetorical Declamations about it If he will a little attentively read over the Epistles of Paul he will discern other ends in his preaching Christ and him crucified which the fancies he speaks of have morally little affinity with all But what if Catholicks having nothing to say for their practice in the adoration of Images seeing the Protestants have nothing but simple pretences for their removal out of Churches these simple pretences are express reiterate commands of God which what value they are of with the Romanists when they lay against their wayes and practice is evident The Arguments of Protestants when they deal with the Romanists are not directed against this or that part of their doctrine or practice about Images but the whole that is the making of them some of God himself the placing of them in Churches and giving them religious adoration not to speak of the abominable miscarriages of many of their Devotionists in teaching or of their people in committing with them as gross Idolatry as ever any of the antient Heathens did which shall at large be proved if our Author desires it Against this principle and whole practise one of the Protestants pretences as they are called laies in the second Commandment wherein the making of all Images for any such purpose is expresly forbidden But the same God say they commanded Cherubims to be made and placed over the Ark. He did so but I desire to know what the Cherubs were Images of and that they would shew He ever appointed them to be adored or to be the immediate Objects of any veneration or to be so much as historical means of instruction being alwayes shut up from the view of the people and representing nothing that ever had a real subsistence in rerum natura Besides Who appointed them to be made As I take it it was God himself who did therein no more contradict himself then he did when he commanded his people to spoil the Egyptians having yet forbid all men to steal His own special dispensation of a Law constitutes no general Rule So that whoever are blind or fools it is certain that the making of Images for Religious veneration is expresly forbidden of God unto the sons of men But alas they were forraign images the ugly faces of Moloch Dagon Ashtaroth he forbad not his own Yea but they are Images or likenesses of Himself that in the first place and principally he forbids them to make and he enforceth his command upon them from hence that when
doctrine and the whole doctrine of the Church of Rome about the Saints departed why should we contend any longer All parties are agreed Let us contend no more about that which is not but if it be otherwise and that neither are these things all the things that the Papists assert and maintain in this matter nor are these things at all opposed by the Protestants a man may easily understand to what end our Author makes a flourish with three or four leaves of his Book as though they were in difference between us Such artifices will neither advantage his cause nor his person with sober knowing men As to his whole Discourse then I shall only let him know that Protestants are unconcerned in it They bear all due reverence to the Saints departed this life and strive to follow them in their course although I must add also that their example is very remote from being the chiefest incentive or rule unto and in the practice of unâ—versal obedience The example of Christ himself and the revealed Will of God in his Word are their rule and guide in attendance whereunto thousands amongst them be it spoken to the praise of his glorious grace do instantly serve God in all good conscience day and night and holding the Head grow up into him who is the fulness of him that filleth all in all To close this Discourse and to come to that which he seems to love as a Bear doth the Stake the practice of the Romish Church in the invocation and adoration of Saints he tells us to usher it in two prety stories out of Antiquity The first of the Jews and last of the Pagans 1. For the Jews that they accused the Christians before the Roman Emperours for three things That they had changed the Sabbath that they worshipped images of the Saints that they brought in a strange God named Jesus Christ. What if they did so Was all true that the Jews accused the Christians of Besides what is here about the invocation of Saints somewhat indeed we have about pictures and images which it seems are contrary to the Judaical Law not a word do we meet with about their invocation of Saints But indeed this is a prety midnight story to be told to bring children asleep as though the Jews durst accuse the Christians before Pagans for having images and pictures when the Pagans were ready every day to destroy those Jews because they would have none A likely matter they would admit of their complaint against them that had them or that the Jews had no more wit then to disadvantage themselves in their contest by such a complaint Besides the whole insinuation is false neither did the Jews so accuse them nor had the Christians admitted any religious use of Pictures or Images in those days And this their defence to the accusation of the Pagans that they rejected all Images makes as evident as if it were written by the Sun-beams to this day Being charged by the Pagans with an Image-less Religion they every-where acknowledge it giving their Reason why they neither did nor could admit of a Religious use of any Image at all I presume our Author knows this to be so and I know if he do not he is a very unfit person to talk of Antiquity Of the like nature is the Story which he tels us of the things the Pagans laughed at the Christians for Amongst these was the Worship of an Asses-head which shews saith he the use and respect they had for Images For the Jews had defamed our Lord Jesus Christ whose head and half-pourtraict Christians used upon their Altars even as they do at this day amongst other things of his great simplicity and ignorance So use men to talk who either know not or care not what to say I would gladly impute this Story of the Asses-head and the Jews accusation to our Author's simplicity and ignorance because if I do not so I shall be compelled to do it unto somewhat in him of a worse name and yet that by-insinuation of the use of the Head and half-portrait of our Saviour upon Altars by the old Christians before Constantine's dayes of whom he speaks will not allow me to lay all the misadventure of this Tale upon ignorance Surely he cannot but know that what he suggests is most notoriously false and that he cannot produce one Authentick Testimony no not one of any such thing whereas innumerable lay expresly against it almost in all the reserved Writings of those dayes For the Story of the Asses-head seeing it seems he knows not what I thought ever puny-Scholar to be acquainted with I hope he will give me leave to inform him that it was an imputation layed upon the Jews not the Christians and that the Christians were no otherwise concerned in the Fable but as they were at any time mistaken to be Jews The figment was inverted long before the Name of Christians was known in the World and divulged before and after by as great wits as any were in the World as Appian Tacitus Trogus and others The whole rumour arising from their Worshipping a Golden Calf in the Wilderness and afterwards his imitation progeny at Dan and Bethel The confutation of the Lye by Josephus is known to all learned men who tells Appian That if he had not had the Head of an Ass and the face of a Dogg he would never have given credit unto or divulged so loud a lye Little countenance therefore is our Author like to obtain from this lowd lye invented against the Jews to prove the worshipping of Pictures and Images among Christians nor is that his business in hand if he be pleased to remember himself but the Invocation of Saints which now at length he is resolved but I see unwillingly to speak unto Had he intended plain dealing and to perswade men by Reason and Arguments he should nakedly and openly have laid down the doctrine and practise of his Church in this matter and have attempted to justifie the one and the other This had been done like a man who liked and approved what his Interest forced him to defend and upon honest Principles sought to draw others to share with him in their worth and excellency But he takes quite another course and bends his design to cover his ware and to hood-wink his Chapmen so to strike up a blind bargain between them Two things he knows that in the Doctrine of his Church about the Veneration of Saints Protestants are offended at 1. That we ought religiously to invocate and call upon pray unto them flying unto them for help and assistance which are the very words of the Trent-Council the avowed Doctrine of his Church which whosoever believes not is cursed 2. That we may plead for acceptance grace and mercy with God for their merits and works which our Author gilds over but cannot deny If he will plainly undertake the defence of either of these and indeavour to vindicate the
first from Superstition and the latter from being highly derogatory to the mediation of Christ both or either to have been known or practised in the first Churches he shall be attended unto To tell us fine Stories and to compare their invocation of Saints to the Psalmists Apostrophe's unto the works of the Creation to set forth the praise of the Lord which they do in what they are without doing more and to deny direct praying unto them is but to abuse himself his Church his Reader and the Truth and to proclaim to all that he is indeed ashamed of the Doctrine which he owns because it is not good or honest as the Orator charged Epicurus In the practice of his Church very many are the things which the Protestants are offended with Their Canonization framed perfectly after the manner of the old Heathen Apotheosis Their exalting men into the Throne of religious Worship some of a dubious existence others of a more dubious Saintship their Dedication of Churches Altars Shrines Dayes to them Their composing multitudes of Prayers for their people to be repeated by them Their divulging faigned ludicrous ridiculous Legends of their lives to the dishonour of God the Gospel the Saints themselves with innumerable other things of the like nature which our Author knoweth full well to be commonly practised and allowed in his Church These are the things that he ought to defend and make good their Station if he would invite others to a fellowship and Communion with him Instead of this he tells us that his Catholicks do not invocate Saints directly when I shall undertake what he knows can be performed to give him a Book bigger then this of his of Prayers allowed by his Church and practised by his Catholicks made unto Saints directly for help assistance yea grace mercy and heaven or desiring those things for their merit and upon their account which as I shewed are the two main parts of their doctrine condemned by Protestants I can quickly send him Bonaventure's Psalter Prayers out of the course of hours of the blessed Virgin our Ladies Antiphonies of her sorrows her seven corporeal joys her seven heavenly joyes out of her Rosary Prayers to St. Paul St. James Thomas Panoratius George Blase Christopher Who not all made directly to them and that for mercies spiritual and temporal and tel him how many years of indulgences yea thousands of years his Popes have granted to the saying of some of the like stamp and all these not out of musty Legends and the devotion of private Monks and Fryers but the Authentick Instruments of his Churches worship and Prayers Let our Author try whether he can justifie any of these opinions or practices from the words of the Lord in Jeremy Though Moses and Samuel should stand before me yet is not my Soul unto this people declaring his determinate counsel for their destruction not to be averted by Moses or Samuel were they alive again who in their dayes had stood in the gap and turned away his wrath that his whole displeasure should not arise or from the words of Moses praying the Lord to rememâ—er Abraham Isaac and Jacob his Servants which he immediately expounds as they are also in a hundred other places by remembring his Covenant made with them and the Oath he sware unto them these are pitiful poor Pillars to support so vast and tottering a Superstruction And yet they are all that our Author can get to give any countenance to him in his work which indeed is none at all Neither do we charge the Romanists with the particular fancies of their Doctors their Speculum Trinitatis and the like no nor yet with the grosser part of the people's practise in constituting their Saints in special presidentships one over Hoggs another over Sheep another over Cows and Cocks like the ruder sort of the antient Heathen which we know our Author would soon disavow but the known doctrine and approved practice of his whole Church he must openly defend or be silent in this cause hereafter This mincing of the matter by praying Saints not praying to them praying to them indirectly not directly praying them as David calls on Sun Moon and Stars to praise the Lord so praying to them as it is to no purpose whether they hear us or no is inconsistent with the doctrine and practise of his own Church to which he seemeth to draw men and not to any private opinion of his own And a wise piece of business it is indeed that our Author would perswade us that we may as well pray to Saints in the Roman-Mode as Paul desired the Saints that were then alive to pray for him We know it is the duty of living Saints to pray for one another we know a certain way to excite them to the performance of that duty in reference unto us we have Rule President and Command in the Scripture to do so the requests we make to them are no elicite acts of Religion we pray to them neither directly nor indirectly but desire them by vertue of our Communion with them to assist us in their prayers as we might ask an Alms or any other good turn at their hands I wonder wise men are not ashamed thus to dally with their own and others eternal concernments After all this at one breath he blows away all the Protestants as childish just as Pyrgopolenices did the Legions of his Enemies they are all childish Let him shew himself a man and take up any one of them as they are managed by any one learned man of the Church of England and answer it if he can If he cannot this boasting will little avail him with considering men I cannot close this Paragraph without marking one passage toward the close of it Laying down three Principles of the Saints Invocation whereof the first it self is true but nothing to his purpose the second is true in the substance of it but false in an addition of merit to the good works of the Saints and not one jot more to his purpose then the other the third is That God cannot dislike the reflexions of his divine Nature diffused in the Saints out of the fulness of his Beloved Son when any makes use of them the easier to find mercy in his sight These are good words and make a very handsome sound Wilt thou Reader know the meaning of them and withall discern how thy pretended Teacher hath colluded with thee in this whole Discourse The plain English of them is this God cannot but approve our pleading the merits of the Saints for our obtaining mercy with him A Proposition as destructive to the whole tenour of the Gospel and mediation of Jesus Christ as in so few words could well be stamped and divulged CHAP. XXI Purgatory SECT 28. WE are at length come to Purgatory which is the Pope's Indies his Subterranean Treasure-house on the Revenues whereof he maintains a hundred thousand fighting men so that it is not probable