However thro' the esteem I have for that august Assembly I submit my self and am willing to depend on its prudent determination To the end therefore that amidst so much confusion this weighty matter may be more Cautiously and Piously decided Martin Bucer once a Dominican Bernardin Ochin a quondam Frier and some others qualify'd in the same nature are call'd into England by my Lord Protector and Bishop Cranmer to frame a new Model of Religion and fix the Standard of the English pretended Reformation Let me here desire my Reader to weigh these following lines with that indifference of Judgment and unprejudicateness of mind which an Affair of this importance requires and as I write them with the most sincere Zeal and Uprightness of intention so I most earnestly beg they may be accordingly consider'd by the discreet Christian Reader Bucer therefore stil'd by Arch-Bishop Whitgift a Reverend Learned Painful Sound Father and of whom Sir John Cheek In his Defence page 522. said The World scarce had his Fellow first became a Lutheran then a Zwinglian after that a Lutheran again as may be seen in the Acts of the Synod held at Luthers House in Wittemberg in the year 1589 And Bucer himself in his Commentary on the 6th of St. John and Epist ad Norimb Esseing 26th of St. Matthew asks pardon of GOD for having deceiv'd so many with the Errours of Zwinglius and the Sacramentarians yet after this open Repentance he returns to the same Zwinglianism in England and at his Death as those who were present testifie Schlussem nn Theol. Calv. l. 2. f. 70. Pratcol page 107. embraces Judaism having long before declar'd to Dudley Duke of Northumberland that he doubted whether all was true which the Evangelists relate of CHRIST which if it were none who believ'd CHRIST to be GOD and to have spoken these words This is my Body could deny the Real Presence Ochin whose Opinions were Oracles to the Composers of the Nine and Thirty Articles and whom Bishop Bale terms a Light of Relig. Gover. p. 62. 3. the Church saying That England was happy whilst It had him miserable when it lost him after many changes in Religion turn'd Jew taught Circumcision and wrote a Book in defence of Polygamy Cranmer in Henry VIII's days wrote a Book in defence of the See his Letters in Fox 1279 and Stow p. 1036. Real Presence and another in Edward VI's against it Many such Remarks might be made of Peter Martyr Coverdale and others the grand Masters of the Reformed Church of England Now I desire to know whether these Men were in all these Opinions true Protestants If my Reason is not quite lost I conceive you must answer in the Affirmative for he according to your Doctrine is a true Protestant who guides himself by the HoIy Scripture taken in such sense as appears true to his own reason which he is not oblig'd to submit to the Judgment of any Church whatsoever Why so Because every sound Judgment is a sufficient Judge in Controversy If those Men therefore were of sound judgment and judging according to Scripture as they for the present understood it were now of one Opinion then of another now condemn'd what they once believ'd then again believ'd the Tenet they had so lately Anathematiz'd liv'd Christians dy'd Jews They were notwithstanding in all these Opinions true Protestants If you say they judg'd right when they were Zwinglians wrong when they were Lutherans This is said meerly gratis and is a perfect begging of the Question The Lutherans will rise up and assert that they were then truly inspir'd from above when they judg'd the Zwinglians an abominable Sect And the Jews will challenge them because in their latter days when they were not only more experienc'd but also more grave and serious upon the approach of death they pronounc'd Christ to be no Messias and all the Christian Religion to be nothing but a meer Delusion and Cheat. If being asham'd of such Patriarchs you disown them and say They were deceiv'd in this or t'other Opinion that they were of weak judgment wanted Sincerity Humility Modesty It then follows that the Basis of your pretended Church totters and how shall any one be assur'd that the Fabrick built on such a Foundation is firm solid and warrantable If you say you have only taken from them what was true and agreeable to the right meaning of GOD's Holy Word without the mixture of their various and unchristian Errours I desire you to give me a Rule by which I may be assured of this your certain Choice of only true Doctrine These Men always spake conformably to their present Judgment of Scripture which as you Universally teach is clear and evident in all points necessary to Salvation what certainty have I that this Perspicuity and Evidence was better discern'd by them when they taught this Doctrine than when they deliver'd the Opposite If you tell me you are sure of it because 't is conformable to your own Judgment of Scripture the opposite Party will as confidently affirm they are certain of the contrary because they Judge contrary to the Doctrines which they are assur'd are true and only conformable to GOD's Holy Word The Zwinglian according to his sense of Scripure says He is sure Bucer was deluded when he taught Lutheranism The Lutheran from his Judgment of Scripture avers the same assurance of his having Err'd when he taught Zwinglianism The Jew is as certain that he was deceiv'd in both and was then only in the right when he embrac'd Judaism Where does the Scripture say Luther you understand me right you Zwinglius Err or the contrary But methinks I hear you tell me that I have forgot with whom I argue that yours is not a Religion of any one Man but a Church Establish'd by Law that 't is not only imprudence but even impudence to question the Certainty and Truth of a Religion prescrib'd by so Wise Sincere and Learn'd an Assembly as that of an English Parliament Very good but am I not still free to examine according to my own Sense and Judgment whether this Assembly speak conformably to the sense of the Holy Ghost You reply that I am every Man of sound Judgment being judge of Controversies of Faith. What therefore if according to the conviction of my Understanding I am in my Conscience perswaded that they have all Err'd Holy Scripture seeming clear to me in the contrary sense Am I still a true Protestant while I Judge the Church of England to be a Spurious and False Church If so then I am at the same time a Protestant and no Protestant if not then a Man of sound judgement may cease to be a compleat judge in Controversy If you Preach to me submission of Judgment and implicit Faith you have left your Principles and are become a Papist O but tho' I may securely judge Ten whole Ages and Twelve General Councels to have handed
down to me a false sense of Holy Scripture yet I must by no means question but that now at last an English Parliament has hit upon the right You may as rationally oblige a Man his eyes being wide open not to see at mid-day but I must believe or away to Prison and undergo the severe Penalties of the Law This goes hard I would fain Conform if it stood with my Conscience Let us therefore try for once whether I can't in Prudence and Christian Sincerity secure my Soul by a Conformity to so advantagious a Judgment I find therefore in Henry VIII's time an English Parliament crying down the Pope and placing his Majesty of England in his room and yet I see the same Men persecute as Hereticks those who in other Points joyn'd with the Transmarin Innovators In Edward VI's days I find the same Men declare that Doctrine to be most damnable Heresy which themselves had all along during the Reign of Henry VIII profess'd as Catholick Queen Mary being seated on the Throne I find them Recanting and Condemning themselves and censuring all the Points of Protestancy as Wicked and Heretical and within six years after I see them again pass the same Censure on the Roman Catholick Doctrine to which they had so lately and solemnly been reconcil'd Now give me leave Christian Reader to ask you can I with a safe Conscience leave a Church whose General Councils Lawfully Assembled and approv'd by which I govern my self have not in 1600 years produc'd as I can find any one contradiction in matters of Faith to depend upon Parliamentary Creeds four times wholly inverted in sixteen years Can I in Prudence and Conscience renounce the former to embrace the latter Give me but one pregnant Reason for this and I engage to become your Proselite If you tell me one Parliament was guided by Passion another by Interest but that 't was Queen Elizabeths Parliament which consisted of Men according to the Spirit of GOD Is not this again a manifest begging of the Question Where does the Bible for at present as a good Protestant I admit of no other Rule where I say does the Bible tell me that the Parliament of Queen Elizabeth should be guided by the Holy Spirit and not that of King Henry VIII c. If you shall return to your old Evasion that you are sure on 't because you find that Parliament agree with your own Judgment those who liv'd in King Henry's days will on the same ground of pure Scripture tell me quite another story How then can I be satisfied which of your Judgments is true You will answer me I must judge for my self What therefore if according to my sense of Holy Scripture I judge in my Conscience as in the presence of Almighty GOD I truly do that King Henry VIII's Parliament was Schismatical Queen Elizabeth's Heretical and this as indeed it falls out after a serious long calm dis-interess'd Examen am I still a True Protestant You must grant me to be one because I follow the Protestant Rule which is as you say Holy Scripture as every one after the use of due means does in his own proper judgment understand it What can be more ridiculous than this I am a True Protestant at least in my Principles tho' by those very Principles I judge the Protestant Church to be Schismatical and Heretical The Great Extent of Protestant Charity Or a Dialogue between Eudoxius and Philautus concerning the Protestant Rule of Faith shewing it to be an in-let not only to all Heresy but even to Turcism Judaism and Atheism it self Eudoxius I Shall not Sir I hope offend you by proposing you a few Doubts concerning your Protestant Rule of Faith which is holy Scripture as understood by every sound judgment Philautus So far from it Sir that on the contrary you will very much oblige me Eu. Reading lately Sir the Works publish'd by the first Lights of your pretended Reformation who all give us the same Rule of Faith I discover'd in them a wonderful Spirit of Contradiction and found that they not only differ'd the one from the other in matters of Faith but that the same Men dissented from themselves now teaching one Doctrine then another Phil. When you shall have prov'd your Assertion I will return you a satisfactory Answer Eu. Luther in his Book De Potestate Papae teaches that there are seven Sacraments De Captivitate Babylonica that there are only three ad Waldenses only two and again de Captivitate Babylonica that according to Holy Scripture there is but one In his Sermon of the Eucharist he tells us that in the Sacrament of the Altar there is neither Bread nor Wine but only the Species or appearance of them yet in his Book against the King of England he asserts That he is wicked and a Blasphemer who says The Bread is changed into the substance of CHRIST's Body Concerning the Popes Power he affirms in his Book de Potestate Papae That if it were not Jure Divino and from GOD it could never have subsisted so long and yet in his Treatise de Captivitate Babylonica he often repeats That he is certain the Power of the Pope is the Kingdom of Babylon In Disputatione Lipsiensi he says I do not only believe but certainly know that there is a Purgatory and yet de Abrogandâ Missâ he tells us 'T is more secure to deny Purgatory I have Sir to the number of threescore such Contradictions out of this one Author the first and greatest Light of the Reformation and near as many out of Calvin Beza c. Now I desire to know how I may be assur'd which part of the Contradiction is conformable to Divine Revelation which otherwise Phil. Of contradictory Doctrines you may safely hold that to be true which after a serious and due examin appears to you agreeable to holy Scripture Eu. But what if another be convinc'd of the opposite Phil. He is bound to believe as he comprehends it however different his belief may be from yours Eu. And shall each of us be assured he has Divine Faith relating to such a Mystery tho' we evidently contradict one another Phil. I do not say you shall each of you have Divine Faith concerning that particular point in which you differ but that each of you may safely hold that side of the Contradiction which he verily believes to be true provided you both proceed with sincerity and are neither of you blinded with Passion For the Article may perhaps be of such a Nature that there will be no necessity for either of you to believe it with Divine Faith. Eu. What then say you of a Quaker who grounding himself on his own sense of Holy Scripture believes Baptism as impertinent and superstitious as you do the use of Holy Water Phil. I say the Quaker so believing proceeds not with Sincerity and without Passion Eu. How will you make it appear that you are the only Men
best of Governments left by Christ in his Church wherein every sound man should have Power to cancel the Decisions of the highest Courts and a full liberty of disobeying and opposing the Sentence of the Supream Judges in Law unless it should agree with his own private sense of the same Law. For if in matters of Faith the object whereof is remote from our senses and Essentially obscure to us in this Life every sound Sheep is left Judge over his Pastor and the whole Church what more reasonable than in a Question of meum tuum which we feel with our hands and see with our eyes and which is the ground of all Law and Government every sound man should be his own Judge and Arraign Judge and Condemn his Ruler Governour Prince King or Emperour if in his private Opinion he Judges they proceed not according to Law as he understands it This sequel is so natural and inevitable in our Protestant Principles that it has effectually in all Countreys where-ever Protestancy has spread it self Armed the Subjects against their Temporal Lords as it first had done against the Spiritual and nothing was so ordinary as to see them March to the Field with a Bible under their arms and a Text of Sripture in their Banner to fight the Battle of the Lord against the Princes of the Earth and hence perhaps it was that wise Prince King Iames the First presaging as it were the Fate of his Royal Son said of the Members of Parliament then sitting That they were an Assembly of 300 Kings That all the late Wars of Germany against the Emperour and Lawful Soveraigns happen'd upon their change of Religion is witness beside many others Dretserus A Protestant writer in part 2. Nullenarii 6. pag. 661. Of Basil Geneva Zuitzerland Sweedland Holland see Crispin Chitreus Flor. Rai c. 4 Paradox A true Protestant must grant that our Saviour was much over-seen in the method he took of Converting the World by Teachers and Preachers and laying a reiterated Command upon all men of believing them since really no man is bound to pin his Faith upon anothers sleeve Now the Efficacious way would have been to Command his Life and Actions to be writ in all Languages and compil'd with the Old Testament to be sent into every part of the World for all things necessary to Salvation being clear and evident in Holy Scripture and no body being oblig'd to believe more than the comprehends and as it were sees to be true out of the said Holy Scripture all by this means would or at least might have presently discover'd the nullity of their own false Religions and consequently imbrace common Christianity that is believe so much of Christ and his Doctrine as each one should draw under the Scheme of his own Reason nothing else being necessary to Salvation in our Protestant Principles 5 Paradox Should a Gentleman make the delivery of his Estate saying Sir I deliver unto you a full and free Possession of this Inheritance to dispose of at Discretion in quality of true Owner and Lord but if you touch it against my will or dispose of it in whole or in part otherwise than I shall judge expedient expect to be treated with all the Violence Severity can invent Would not this be a most impertinent and self-destroying Settlement questionless it would Yet this is the procedure of the Church of England Here take says she to all sound Members of the whole Christian Church this Holy Bible Read and Interpret it freely you can't but find out the Truth therein contain'd nor are you oblig'd to submit to any Authority under Heaven against your own Dictamen But if you presume to judge of matters therein contain'd contrary to my Sentiment thereof though you are as able and as free to judge as my self know that no Severity of the Law shall be spar'd in Chastizing you Is not this an admirable Liberty An unparallel'd Charity Millions who never were in themselves or their Ancestors Members of her Communion must be oblig'd against Conscience to come over to her and no body must presume to question her Authority because ipsa dicit and she shall inveigh against Roman Catholicks most violently for requiring that she return to the Union of the Church whose Member she had own'd her self for upwards of a thousand years Is not this a Paradox of Paradox's I must believe she had just reason to separate from the Church of Rome though if I read Scripture till Dooms-day I can find no ground for it I must blindfoldly believe no Subject in the Kingdom has just reason to remain out of her Communion That is I must believe no body but an English Protestant can be a sound Member of the Christian Church or a fit Judge in Controversy And that the Scripture has not for these thousand years been clear to any at all and at present is only so to an English Protestant Which if granted as granted it must be it evidently follows that our English Protestant is the most Uncharitable and Unconscionable Christian in the World. 6. Paradox The true Protestant believes that a Roman Catholick Prays to a Crucifix as well as to Christ himself and attributes as See Advice to the Pulpits the Repres Misrepres much satisfaction to it as to the Blood of his Redeemer That the Roman Catholick Saints were Canonized for Treasons detestable Villanies as a reward of strife and every evil Work That to be false and deceitful is meritorious and worthy of Eternal Life That with Money one may compound with Heaven for unforsaken sins and be absolved without being at all sorry for them That Indulgences serve instead of sanctification and good life Confession to carry on the Plots and projects of the Priests with a hundred such detestable Abominations True Protestant Ministers have laid out the Catholick Tenets under these foul colours for above these hundred years while the whole Body of Roman Catholicks and every Member of them disown condemn and execrate every point thereof in particular Now is it not a mysterious Paradox that a Minister of the Church of England should better understand our Catholick Tenets than the Council of Trent and the whole Body of the Catholick Clergy I do most solemnly protest See the Catechism of the Coun. of Trent in the presence of Almighty God that were these Doctrines and the like taught in the Roman Catholick Church as Protestants say they are I would not remain one hour in her Communion yet the Vulgar must believe it so and why Because it is for the Interest of the Protestant Clergy that the People should live in Apprehension and Horrour of Popery whether by false or true Reports it was always alike to the Protestant Teachers 7 Paradox Although it be evident that King Henry the Eighth never thought of laying the first stone of the Reformation pretended till he was refused by his Holiness the liberty of putting away his