Men but cannot utterly dischurch it whiles those main principles maintaine a weake life in that crazie and corrupted bodie But is not this language different from that whereto our eares and eies have beene inured from the mouthes and pens of some reverend Divines and professors of our Church Know Reader that the streame of the famous Doctors both at home and abroad hath runne strongly my way I should have feared and hated to goe alone what reason is there then to single out one man in a throng Some few worthie Authors have spoken otherwise in the warmth of their zealous contention yet so as that even to them durst I appeale for my Iudges for if their sound differ from me their sense agrees with me that which as I touched in my Advertisement so I am now readie to make cleare by the instance of learned Zanchius whose pregnant testimonies compared together shall plainly teach us how easie a reconcilement may bee made betwixt these two seemingly-contrarie opinions That worthie Author in his profession of Christian Religion which hee wrote and published in the 70. yeare of his age having defined the Church of Christ in generall and passed thorow the properties of it at last descending to the subdivision of the Church militant comes to inquire how particular Churches may be knowne to be the true churches of Christ wherof he determines thus Illas igitur c. Those Churches therefore doe wee acknowledge for the true Churches of Christ in which first of all the pure doctrine of the Gospell is preached heard admitted and so onely admitted that there is neither place nor eare given to the contrarie For both these are the just propertie of the flocke or sheepe of Christ namely both to heare the voice of their owne Pastor and to reject the voice of strangers Iohn 10. 4. In which secondly the Sacraments instituted by Christ are lawfully and as much as may bee according to Christs institution administred and received and therefore in which the Sacraments devised by men are not admitted and allowed In which lastly the discipline of Christ hath the due place that is where both publiquely and privately charitable care is had both by admonitions corrections and at last if need be by excommunications that the Commandements of God be duly kept and that all persons live soberly iustly and piously to the glory of God and edification of their neighbour Thus hee wherein who sees not how directly he aymes both at the justifying of our Churches and the casheering of the Roman which is palpably guiltie of the violation of these wholsome rules And indeed it must needes be said if we bring the Roman Church to this touch she is cast for a meer counterfeit shee is as farre from truth as truth is from falshood Now by this time you goe away with an opinion that learned Zanchie is my professed adversarie and hath directly condemned my position of the truenesse and visibilitie of the Roman Church Have but patience I beseech you to read what the same excellent Author writes in his golden Preface to that noble worke De natura Dei where this question is clearly punctuall decided There you shall finde that having passed through the wofull and gloomie offuscations of the Church of God in all former ages he descending to the darknesse of the present Babylon concludes thus Deinde non potuit Satan c. Moreover Satan could not in the verie Roman Church doe what he listed as hee had done in the Easterne to bring all things to such passe as that it should no more have the forme of a Christian Church For in spight of Satan that Church retained still the chief foundations of the faith although weakned with the doctrines of men it retained the publique preaching of the word of God thogh in many places mis-understood and mis-construed the invocation of the name of Christ though joyned also with the invocation of dead men the administration of Baptisme instituted by Christ himselfe howsoever defiled with the addition of many superstitions So as together with the symbole of the covenant the Covenant it selfe remained still in her I meane in all the Churches of the West no otherwise than it did in the Church of Israel even after that all things were in part profaned by Ieroboam and other impious and Idolatrous Kings upon the defection made by them from the Church and Tribe of Iuda For neither doe I assent to them which would have the Church of Rome to have no lesse ceased to be the Church of Christ than those Easterne Churches which afterwards turned Mahumetan what Church was ever more corrupt than the Church of the ten Tribes yet we learne from the Scriptures that it was still the Church of God And how doth S. Paul call that Church wherein Antichrist hee saith shall sit the Temple of God neither is it any Baptisme at all that is administred out of the Church of Christ The wife that is an Adulteresse doth not cease to be a wife unlesse being despoiled of her mariage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he againe Wherein you see hee speakes as home for me as I could devise to speake for my selfe and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrarie Looke now how this learned Author may be reconciled to his owne pen and by the very same way shall my pen bee reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himselfe or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plaine then that hee in that former speech and all other classicke Authors that speake in that Key meane by a True Church a sound pure right beleeving Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of existence were all one with truth of doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evill good and is no better than a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true being of a visible Church by the direct maintenance of fundamentall principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the word of God and his Sacraments though not without soule adulteration what judicious Christian can but with mee subscribe to learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true visibilitie of a Church of Christ what should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the
were such as serued fitly to leade the Reader into that Sense which vnder the word True comprehendeth only Truth of Beeing or Existencie and not the Due Qualities of the thing or subiect you haue beene causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your discourse you cannot maruell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In briefe your Proposition admits a True sense in that sense is by the best learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For The Beeing of a Church does principally stand vpon the Gratious Action of God calling men out of Darknesse and Death vnto the Participation of sight and life in Christ Iesus So long as God continues this Calling vnto any people though they as much as in them lies Darken this light and corrupt the meanes which should bring them to life and saluation in Christ yet where God Calls men vnto the Participation of life in Christ by the word by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men bee neuer so false in their Expositions of GODS Word or neuer so vntrustie in mingling their owne Traditions with Gods Ordinances Thus the Church of the Iewes lost not her Being of a Church when shee became an Idolatrous Church And thus vnder the gouernment of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their owne Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Sauiour himselfe was borne who were mēbers of that Church and yet participated not in the corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Roman was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in doctrine a false and in practice an Idolatrous Church is a true assertion and of greater vse and necessitie in our Controuersie with Papists about the Perpetuitie of the Christian Church then is vnderstood by those who gainsay it This in your Reconciler is so wel explicated as if any shall continue in traducing you in regard of that Proposition so explained I thinke it wil be only those who are better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning and deeper in loue with strife then truth As for the aspersion of Arminianisme I can testifie that in our Ioint imployment at the Synod of Dort you were as farre from it as my selfe And I know that no man can imbrace it in the Doctrine of Predestination and Grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed vpon by the Church of England nor in the point of perseuerance but he must vary from the common Tenet and receiued opinion of our best approued Doctors in the English Church I am assured that you neither haue deserted the one nor will vary from the other And therefore be no more troubled with other mens groundlesse suspitions then you would be in like case with their idle Dreames Thus I haue inlarged my selfe beyond my first intent But my loue to your selfe and the assurance of your constant loue vnto the Truth inforced me thereunto I rest alwayes Ian 30. 1628. Your louing Brother IO. SARVM ¶ To the Reuerend and learned Master Doctor PREDEAVX professor of Diuinitie in Oxford and Rector of EXCETER Colledge WOrthy Master Doctor Predeaux All our litle world here takes notice of your worth and eminencie who haue long furnished the Diuinitie Chaire in that famous Vniuersitie with mutuall grace and honour Let me intreate you vpon the perusall of this sorie sheete of Paper to impart your selfe freely to me in your censure and to expresse to mee your cleare iudgement concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church you see in what sence I professe to hold it neither was any other euer in my thoughts Say I beseech you whether you thinke any learned Orthodoxe Diuine can with any colour of reason maintaine a contradiction herevnto And if you find as I doubt not much necessitie and vse of this true and safe Tenet helpe me to adde if you please a further supplie of Antidotes to those Popish spiders that would faine sucke poyson out of this herbe It was my earnest desire that this satisfactorie reconcilement might haue stilled all tongues and pens concerning this ill-raysed brabble but I see to my griefe how much men care for themselues more then peace I suffer and the Church is disquieted your learning and grauitie will be ready to contribute to a seasonable pacification In desire and exspectation of your speedie answere I take my leaue and am Your very louing friend and fellow-labourer IOS EXON Right Reuerend Father in GOD VPon the receite of your Reconciler which it pleased you to send me I tooke occasion as my manifolde distractions would permit to peruse what had beene said on both sides concerning the now-being of the Romane Church VVherin I must professe that I could not but wonder at the needlesse exceptions against your Tenet you affirming no new thing in that passage misliked in your Old Religion And this your Aduertisement afterward so fully and punctually cleareth and your Reconciler so acquitteth with such satisfying ingenuitie that I cannot imagin they haue considered it well or meane wel that shal persist to oppose it For who perceiues not that your Lordship leaues no more to Rome then our best Diuines euer since the Reformation haue granted If their speeches haue beene sometimes seemingly different their meaning hath beene alwayes the same that in respect of the common Truths yet professed among the Papists they may and ought to bee tearmed a True visible Church in opposition to Iewes Turkes and Pagans who directly denie the Foundation howsoeuer their Antichristian aditions make them no better then the Synagogue of Sathan This being agreed vpon by those whose Iudgement wee haue good reason to follow cited in your Aduertisement and by others they doe an ill office to our Church in my opinion who set them at ods in this point that are so excellently reconciled and giue more aduantage to the Aduersarie by quarrelling with our worthies then the Aduersarie is like to get by our acknowledgment that they are such a miserable Church as we discouer them to be VVhat I haue thought long since in this behalfe it appeareth in my Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and as often as this hath come in question in our publicke Disputes we determine here no otherwise then your Lordship hath stated it And yet wee trust to giue as little vantage to Poperie as those that doe detest it and are as circumspect to maintaine our receiued Doctrine and Discipline without the least scandall to the weakest as those that would seeme most forward That distinction of Romes case before and since the Councell of Trent holds not to dis-Church it but shewes it rather to be more incureable now then heretofore Neither find I any particulars obiected which those worthy men haue not sufficiently cleared that haue iustifyed
that knoweth God heareth vs hereby know wee the Spirit of truth and the spirit of errour Againe the Lord saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye haue loue one to another pointing out the concord and holy agreement which is among the brethren as another marke of the orthodoxe Church As likewise when hee saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in Heauen hee sheweth that good workes are the visible mark of the true orthodoxe Church The true preaching reuerent hearing of the Gospel is a visible mark of our faith and hope Our concord in the Lord is a marke of our Charitie Our good workes are reall and sensible testimonies of our inward Faith Hope and Charitie Where wee finde these three signes we know certainly that there is Christs true Church and iudge charitably that is probably that euery one in whom wee see these outward tokens of Christs true and orthodoxe Church is a true member of the mysticall body of the Lord Iesus I say charitably because outward markes may be outwardly counterfeited by Hypocrites as it is said of Israel They did flatter with their mouth and they lyed vnto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Couenant And of many of these that followed our Sauiour Many beleeued in his Name when they saw the miracles which he did But Iesus did not commit himselfe vnto them because he knew all men Therefore when the people of Israel departed from the Couenant and by their Idolatrie brake as much as in them lay the contract of marriage betweene them and God they ceased in that behalfe to bee Gods true Spouse and people though still they called him their Husband and their God When they made a molten Calfe in the Wildernesse and worshipped the works of their owne fingers God said to Moses Thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt haue corrupted themselues and not my people And Moses to shew that on their part they had broken the Couenant broken the Tables of the Couenant when vnder Achaz they did worse Isaiah called them children that are corrupted their Prince and Gouernours Rulers of Sodome themselues people of Gomorrah their holy Citie an Harlot And God about the same time cried vnto them by Micah Thou that art named the house of Iacob Thou that was â—â—late my people And to the teh Tribes by Hosea Yee are not my people and I will not bee your God After the same manner Christ said to the Iewes which gloried and made their boast that God was their Father If God were your Father yee would loue me Yee are of your father the Deuill And the lusts of your Father yee will doe If we speake of the Romish Church according to this distinction defining the Church by the keeping of the Couenant in purenesse of doctrine and holinesse of life God himselfe hath stript her of that glorious Name calling her spiritually Sodome Egypt and Babylon Sodome in the pollution of her most filthy life Egypt in the abominable multitude of her filthy Idols Babylon in the cruell and bloudie oppression and persecution of the Saints And because she was to cal her selfe as falsly as arrogantly the mother Church the Angell calleth her THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH Because also shee was to bring and magnifie her selfe in the multitude of her Saints hee saith that shee is drunke with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus And taking from her the name of the Church which she challengeth priuatiuely to all other Christian congregations hee nameth her as I haue already said the habitation of Deuils the hold of euerie foule spirit and a Cage of euerie vncleane and hatefull bird In the first sence Moses said to God why doth thy wrath wax hote against THY people because although they had broken the Couenant on their part by the workes of their hands God had not as yet broken it on his part Ieremiah in the greatest heate of their monstruous I dolatries prayed after the same maner Doe not abhorre vs for thy Names sake doe not disgrace the Throne of thy glorie Remember breake not thy Couenant with vs. And Esaiah Thou art our Father we are ALL thy people For so long as God cals a people to him by his word and Sacraments and honoureth them with his name So long also as they consent to be called by his name professing it outwardly they remaine his people although they answere not his calling neither in soundnesse of faith nor in holinesse of life Euen as rebellious Subiects are still true Subiects on the Kings behalfe who looseth not his right by their Rebellion Nay on their owne also in some maner because they still keepe and professe his Name and giue not themselues to any forraine Prince Did Dauid loose his right by the Rebellion of the people vnder his sonne Absalom And therefore when the King subdueth these traitours hee carrieth himselfe towards them both in forgiuing and in punishing as their lawfull and naturall Prince and not as a Conquerour of new Subiects So as a strumpet is a true wife so long as her husband consents to dwell with her and shee is named by his name And as Agar when shee fled from her mistresse Sarai was still Sarais maide as shee confessed saying I flee from the face of my mistresse Sarai In like manner a rebellious fugitiue and whooring Church is still a true Church so long as God keeping the right of a King of a Master of a Husband ouer her giueth her not the bill of Diuorcement but consents that her Name bee called vpon her and shee still calleth her selfe his kingdome his maide his wife Thus God calleth the Iewes His people euen then when he said they were not his people because hee had not broken the band of marriage with them and put them away by diuorcement Therefore he said vnto them Where are the Letters of your mothers diuorcement whom I haue put away Meaning he had not giuen vnto them a writing of diuorcement but did still acknowledge them to bee his spouse notwithstanding their manifold and most filthy Whoredomes with false Gods which he charged them with saying vnto them by Ieremiah Thou hast polluted the land with thy whooredomes and with thy wickednesse Thou hast a whoores forehead and refusest to bee ashamed wilt thou not for this time cry vnto me my father thou art the guide of my youth Turne O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married vnto you Or according to the French translation I haue the right of an Husband ouer you So after hee had called the ten Tribes Lo-ruhama and Lo-hammi saying hee would no more haue mercie vpon them