society then murther for that destroieth but some men but Heresie and Schisme destroieth or endeavoureth to destroy the Church 2. Murther can but destroy the body but this the soule Murther destroies only naturall life but this destroieth life spirituall and eternall Beside Heresie rents a man from the truth and Schisme from the communion of the Church and so breaks the bond of unity and charity by which God is forsaken as well as the Church and if they think to maintain these rents they have made from the Church of England to be lawfull let them tell you what Church hath lesse error or lesse evill manners and yet maintains none either by her doctrine or authority I beleeve they will find even the Church of Corinth and many of the Churches of lesser Asia to be guilty of greater error and worse manners then the Church of England was when they separated from it and yet Paul cals one the Church of God and Christ in the Revelation doth call the other Churches yet these men while they condemn the Church of England of tyranny they have been more cruell to themselves by separation then the Church could be or was by excommunication Mathe. I pray before you tell me of their punishments let me know what other kind of Sectaries have vexed the Church Phila. Papists when they were in authority they persecuted the Church when they were supprest Papists then secretly they corrupt the Church By Papists I mean not the old before the Trent Councill or rather Conventicle begun in the year 1546. in the time of Pope Paulus the third though they were bad enough but the Papists that sprung up since because they have brought in new errors as other new Sectaries have done As 1. Concerning free will that it works by it selfe with grace in our conversion though the Apostle saith that the naturall man receiveth not the things of God 2. 1 Cor. 2.14 They say originall sin is quite taken away in baptisme so that it ceaseth to be sin yet St. Paul saith that when he doth that which is evill it is by sin that dwelleth in him Rom. 7.17 So they hold that the certainty of salvation depends only upon hope not on faith contrary to John 1.12 saying Christ gave them power to be made the sons of God that beleeved on his name They say the merit of Christs death and obedience is our satisfaction not our righteousnesse but Paul saith he was made to us righteousnesse and made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So they say we are justified by a generall faith of apprehension by which we beleeve the Scriptures to be true but Paul saith by a particular faith of application of Christ and all his merits to our selves as Gal. 2.20 who died for me and gave himselfe for me So they say a man is not justified by faith alone but by other vertues but Paul saith we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law for indeed good works do but justifie our faith not us nor do they justifie us as a cause but are signs and fruits of our justification So they say a man may merit at Gods hands because God hath promised to reward us and Christ hath deserved that out works should merit but Paul refuseth all for Christs merits and desireth only to be found in him Phil. 3.9 and not in his own righteousnesse So they say that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and eternall punishment belonging to them but the temporall we must satisfie in this world or in purgatory It is true we must satisfie men for wrongs done this is but a civill satisfaction So we must fatisfie the Church by some testimony of repentance if we have offended the Church but we know of none we can make to God but only in Christ and for purgatory after life we find none in Scripture but beleeve as death leaves us so judgement finds us So they talk much of traditions to be beleeved as necessary to salvation because the Apostle bids the Thessalonians to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught 2 Thes 2.14 whether by word or by our Epistle But then they ought to prove to us that the traditions which they would have us receive are such as were delivered of Christ to his Apostles or from the Apostles to the Church 2 Tim. 3.16 or else give us leave only to hold that the Scriptures alone hold forth to us all things necessary to salvation So they hold vowes of things not commanded are a part of Gods worship such as is a vowed single life wilfull poverty and blind regular obedience which destroy Christian Liberty and therefore till they prove such things commanded in Scripture they must give us leave to hold only our vow in baptisme and to reject the other as humane inventions of seducing spirits spoken against 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. So they hold the worshipping of images to be a religious work but that is forbidden in the second Commandement which they have taken away and divided the tenth into two Pascha Raubertus first sets it forth in lib de Corp. Christi sang cap 14. Ioannes Diaconus in vita Grego 1. Legend of Simeon Metaphrastes in vit Arsenii the better to bring the people to image-worshipping So they hold Christ to be bodily present in the Communion Bread and Wine a strange opinion which was at first but at School-Question afterward maintained by tales and fictions of Christ appearing in the Sacrament like a little child A shamefull opinion to subject Christ to orall eating and gutturall swallo wing True it is that Christ is really there present in a spirituall and mysticall manner in a Sacramentall relation to the signs and by faith to the beleeving receivers yet I know the Church of Rome hath peremptorily condemned them for hereticks that would not hold the bodily presence For Pope Leo the ninth and Victor the second and Nicolaus the second called Councils against Berengarius who had disproved it by Aug. and Scotus Yet Pope Innocent the third in his Conventicle of Lateran gave it the name of Transubstantiation and ratified the doctrine thereof and hath been the destruction of many a godly Martyrs life in the time of Queen Mary So they call the Lords Supper a sacrifice which they call the Masse and it serves for the quick and dead with them But it is not properly so called but only as it is a memoriall of Christs offering up himselfe or because then we do in Christ offer up our selves a living sacrifice or because we make an offering at that time for the Minister and the poor So they make fasting it selfe a part of Gods worship Rom. 14.17 whereas the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat or drink nor in fasting from it though temperance is a good vertue in a Christian but to set up a necessity of formall fasting as a piece of
the severall magistrates of every Town and Province among themselves The Prince of Orange about the eighteenth of March 1582. was shot in his chamber by a villain through the cheek but he escaped death and the villain was executed and the Frier that set him on to do the work Many other treasons and plots he escaped laied by the Spaniard and the Prince of Parma But at last one Baltazar Gerard pistol'd him at the enticement of one of the Prince of Parmas Councellors as he confessed in hope of a great reward After his death and funerals the States chose his second son Grave Maurice about eighteen years of age to be their head and appointed a Councell to assist him The Prince of Parma recovered now many Towns The French King could not help the Netherlands because he feared the Leaguers who began again to raise troubles in France about 1585. but counselled them to commend their cause to Queen Elizabeth which they did and she assisted them with men and monie and shee had delivered her in caution for the monie Flushing the Castle of Ramekins and Bril and the two sconces This made the Spaniards to use the English hardly that were in his dominions Upon which by Queen Elizabeths commission they recompenced themselves upon the Spaniard at Sea The Pope and the King of Spain therefore Gregor 13. that in England the reformed religion flourished and that the Queen Elizabeth was a great assistant to the Protestant abroad devised how to invade England and depose Queen Elizabeth which plot shewed it selfe some ten years after in the great Armado 1588. called invincible yet by Gods providence the winds scattered it and the English fiered and sunk many so that of an hundred and thirty tall ships scarce thirty returned to carry newes what became of the rest And thus God delivered Queen Elizabeth from this as well as many other particular plots against her roiall person Mathe. Popery being now abolished and even vanquished in England especially did it continue now in peace and unity Phila. No for with hearts griefe I must tell you that those who were protestants by profession yet proved many of them prophane and schismaticall and raised great troubles in the Church Others through surfeting upon peace and the plenty of preaching and printing fell into strange fancies and uncouth opinions to the great dishonour of God and the true Religion Mathe. What were these Phila. In the year 1579. one Matthew Hamont a plough-wright Matthew Hamont maintained horrible heresies against Christ who was burned at Norwich see Stowes chro p. 685. Others fell out with the Church about government and ceremonies as Robert Brown and Harrison by whom and their abetters in Zeland the Church of England was condemned as no Church Others of loose life brought in nicknames upon people more godly then themselves as you shall find hereafter which bred much difference and heart-burnings whispering and evill surmises by which the people have been carried some to prosecute some to persecute one another Mathe. But before we search England resolve me I pray whether or not were the reformed professors quiet and at unity beyond the seas from whom we took fire to reform popery O have not they filled England as well with dissention as at first with Reformation Phila. Heresies and schismes have been in all Churches as tares mong the wheat And so in Germany and the Netherlands ever after reformation strange people sprung up of more strange opinions then faces or fashions As in 1521. Luther having published his doctrine very prosperously whether out of envy to his glory or by mistaking his writings or by misunderstanding Scriptures a strange sect sprung up certainly by Satans instigation in Saxony who boasted that they talked with God and he with them and that he commanded them to kill all the wicked viz. all that would not be of their sect Melancthoâ— The first Author of this sect was one Nicolas Stock Nicholas Stock who pretended that God spake to him by an Angell and revealed his will to him in dreams and promised him the Empire of the world and that the Saints must live alone in the world and he must be their leader to kill all Kings and Princes and clense the Church He said he could discern of spirits and of the elect of God Next to him succeeds his scholler Muncerus Lembertus Hortensius de Anab. Thomas Muncerus who preached in Alset in Thuringia where he gave an oath to his associats who promised to assist him in executing his doctrine which was to kill all the ungodly Princes and Magistrates for which the Duke of Saxony banished him and so he went to Nurenberg and was driven also from thence and so he came to Muthus in Thuringia again and many of his old disciples resorted to him and received his doctrins as oracles especially that part Jo. Sleid. com lib. 5. wherein he declared that all mens goods should be common and all men free and of equall dignity This doctrine brought to him 40000. who fell to pillaging great mens houses and brought away Noble men bound But Count Mansfelt raised an army with other assistants to resist them Muncer preacheth to his company that they should prevaile according to Gods promise namely by abusing some places of Scripture as Psal 68.23 and Psal 149. and perswaded them that they should dip their feet in the blood of the wicked and that their shot could do them no harm Which oration made his followers refuse favor offered them viz. to deliver up the authors of that sedition and return in peace to their dwellings So the Princes discharged their Ordnance upon them and broke their intrenchments of carts and slew many thousands of them upon which they fled and dispersed themselves but most of them to Frankhus whom the Counts army followed and took the Town and Muncer therein and Phifer his associate and executed them and three hundred more Muncerus at his death could shew neither faith nor devotion After him riseth up Melchior Hoffman Melchior Hoffman Ch. Nelles p. 11. who said he was Elias but venting the same errors at Strausburgh was imprisoned and his followers suppressed Then next rose up John Becold John of Leyden a Taylor of Leyden 1533. with many Hollanders he comming to Munster in Wesphalia he kept Conventicles and so seduced many The Magistrates commanded them to depart the City they went out at one gate and came in at another saying they would not desert the cause of God They inticed many neighboring Towns to assist them by fair promises of spirituall wealth and worldly riches and freedome from paying rent tribute or tithes So they turned the Citizens out of the Town plundered the Churches and houses and made orders that the inhabitants should bring in all their mony into the common stock upon pain of death and they burned all books save the Bible One Cniperdolling his vain Prophet Mutus
the form of baptism saying I baptize thee in the name of the Father by the Son Niceph. hist l. 10. c. 35. in the Spirit the baptisme of such indeed is vaine and no baptisme but the baptisme of those that hold the foundation of faith as the Novatians did but built not rightly upon it yet kept the true form of baptizing such might be admitted into the Church again without rebaptization because there is but one truth faith and baptisme Again another error rose up about the year 380. Donatus by Donatus and his disciples Donatus was Bishop of Numidia and held that the true Church was only among those in Africa that held with him contrary to that universall donation which God gave to Christ by promise Psal 2. I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Optatus whom Optatus Bishop of Milevitane confuted in the time of Valentinian the Emperour Also this Donatus affirmed that all that had been baptized in the universall Church save by those of his party ought to be rebaptized whose error the Anabaptists still follow These were worse then the other for they were not only schismaticks but hereticks also for they denied that Article of the Creed which confesseth the Church Catholick yet our Brownists and Anabaptists in these latter times follow their steps by refusing communion with the Church of England and in their uncharitable censures of all that are not of their party Aug. ep 50. as also in defacing the Churches and breaking down Communion Tables for a third error sprung up 1525. by the Anabaptists in Germany of whom I have spoken already They held that children ought not to be baptized til they came to ripe age and can give account of their faith These are very deeply plunged in this old error yea more then any of the former for they not only nullifie all baptisme by Papists or Protestants but deny baptisme to infants also which neither the Novatians nor Donatists did Mathe. But what say you to the third tenet That there ought to be no set form of Praier or Liturgy in the Church Phila. I shall prove that such set forms may be in the Church 1. By Scriptures 2. Antiquity And 3. By reason 1. By Scriptures Liturgy proved lawfull God set a form of blessing the people Num. 6.23 So of confession Deut. 26.5 and of praier Hos 14.2 and Joel 2.17 And therefore the Church may imitate God in this she having the spirit of supplication poured upon her though such forms be not indited to her by immediate infusion Beside we find in Scriptures that holy men of themselves did without any prescription from God set down forms of praier and praises as Moses Num. 10.35 36. and David set Psalms to be sung at certain times as Psal 92. a song for the Sabbath day and Psal 102. is a Psalm for the afflicted So we find some called Psalms of degrees which they sung when the Priests went up the steps to the Temple This they did and yet no doubt could pray by the spirit also In the New Testament also Cyp. de orat dom Christ not only set us a rule to pray by Mat. 6.9 but as a form to use Luke 11.2 When ye pray say our Father c. And Christ used a form thrice saying the same words Mat. 26.39 So the Apostle used a form saying The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and so in many Epistles 2. It may be proved by antiquity and modern history that the Churches from the Apostles had set forms that they might with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.6 And some think that the form of sound words committed to Timothy was some symbole of faith or form of Liturgy But however it is plain that in the first hundred yeers Victorinus Sciaticus in praef Laturg Clem in Epi. ad Corinth Hegesippus both the Greek and Latine East and West Church had set forms which some write they received from the Apostles And surely James chosen Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles had not the name of Liturgus given him for nothing some say from a Liturgy that he composed So likewise in the next age we find that the Christians met every Lords day and had certain select places of scripture read to them and had common praiers beside the ministers particular conceived praier and also sung Psalms So Ignatius writing to the Magnesians an Epistle generally confessed to be his saith Iust Mart. apol 2. ad Antoninum Imperat. and chargeth them to meet all in one place and to have one common praier and to meet in one faith and one hope unblameable in Jesus Christ and so to run as if all were but one to the Church as to one Altar and one Jesus Christ This man suffered martyrdome in the year 107. after Christ And as in the former times they had their common praiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul. apol c. 30. so they had also prescribed praiers as appears in the forms of their praiers for Emperours recited by Tertullian and the short antiphonas and responsories which we find in St Cyprians which are retained in our Liturgies to this time Magd. hist cent 3. viz. Lift up your hearts saith the Minister at the Communion the people answered We lift them up to the Lord. He lived about the year 250. Then next in the time of Constantine the great about 300. and odd years after Christ He commanded praiers to be made in a set form for the welfare of the Empire Euse Eccl. hist lib. 4. c. 19. and the propagation of the Gospell and thanksgivings for that God had given him victory over all the tyrants and persecuters of the Church and he himselfe made a form for his souldiers to say every day And farther the Councill of Laodicea about 368. called after the death of Jovinian the Emperor set down rules that one and the same service should be used morning and evening And when some began to make use of extempore praiers of their own and left the common forms then the Milevitane Councill assembled afterward in the raign of Arcadius about some 400 years after Christ whereof St Austin Bishop of Hippo was president and wherein the hereticks Pelagius and Caelestius who held that man had power and free will to do good without the support of grace were sufficiently confuted This Councill I say made orders that none should in the Churches use any other praiers but those that were composed by the Synod and gives this reason lest some by ignorance or want of care might utter something in the Church that might be dissonant from the Catholike faith to which order not only Presbyters but also Bishops were to be subject After this in the next age Basil and Ambrose Chrysostome makes Liturgies for their Churches And in the next age Gregory and Isidore did the like
THE VVAY To Everlasting Happinesse OR The Substance of Christian Religion Methodically and Plainly handled in a familiar discourse Dialogue-wise Wherein The Doctrine of the Church of England is vindicated The Ignorant instructed and the Faithfull directed in their Travels to Heaven BY BENJAMIN SPENCER Preacher of the Word of God at Bromley neer Bow in Middlesex Take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people Isa 57.14 Anima non purgatur abluendo sed respondendo Tertul. de Resur Carnis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 varietas grata est Et quae non prosunt singula multa juvant Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwaies in remembrance 2 Pet. 1.15 Inquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thyselfe to the search of the Fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing Job 8.8 9. LONDON Printed by W. H. for William Hope and are to be sold at his shop next door to St Bartholomewes Church on the North side of the Royall Exchange 1659. The explanation of the Picture of the Church GEntle Reader here behold A shadowed Church of antick mold Where Christian people meet t' advance God in his holy Ordinance In the outward Court you see In a circle each degree Of Sects both old and new of late Troubling both our Church and State The ancient Chiliast pretends That Christ will shortly make amends To him with bags and fatting farms Whoever suffers wrongs or harms The Jesuite with his naked knife And box of poison alwates rife Stands ready Magistrates to kill That will not buckle to his will The common Papist his sight takes By spectacles the Jesuit makes And whether he readeth verse or prose He must put them upon his nose The Brownist craving a new fashion Prayeth for thorow reformation His broom to give the Pope a fall Sweeps down the windows Church all The Familist and Adamites Share in carnall foule delights But unlesse they leave that vice They 'l misse the blessed Paradise The Antinomian spurns Gods law As if it were not worth a straw Yet law is good if rightly us'd Liberty bad if 't be abus'd The Antisabbatarian No sabbath day endure can But thinks it much unto his praise To hammer out all Holy daies The Anabaptist fire spits In zeal but dipping cools the fits A while but yet he cries anon ' Gainst Paul more baptismes then one The Arminian with his double face Maintaineth universall grace Doubting that if it be not so Whether he shall be sav'd or no. The Leveller makes much adoe Having but little to take to Hopes to make equall poor and rich His silver bell makes humours itch Socinians finding now fit season Offers their cup of faith in reason Which if to cool your heat it faile He fans you with a Foxes taile Independents breake the band Of discipline to none will stand But their own fancy Read the text The Devill did so first and Adam next The Quaker shakes like shudd'ring ducks While joints mouth convulsion plucks I fear 't is some dissembling evill If not possession by a devill The Seeker blindfold gropes about To feel some new Religion out But since he hath the old truth lost He 'll find but error to his cost The regular Priest catcht in the larch Can hardly get or keep a Church In chambers sain to preach about Hoping to drive these hornets out But there is an eie above Fix'd on the Church which God doth love And an ear that hears the cry Of others foolish blasphemy Also a fist wrathfully bent To avenge the innocent And to beat in pieces all Sects and Schismes great and small Therefore repent both all and some Methinks I hear the Bridgroom come Who lest we fall to Anarchie Will bring in the fifth Monarchy Let no man dream of any more Since Daniels vision shew'd but foure I harkned but non spake aright Ier. 8.6 Thine eyes shall see thy teacher's Isai 30.20 I will dash them one against another Ier 13.14 CARO DEORSUM MUNDO CRUCIFIXUS COR SURSUM LIGNO CHRISTI FIXUS Herendo Sepultus Sperando Resultus Gross facit To all his true Christian friends living and dwelling in the famous City of London or Countries adjacent or dispersed elswhere especially to those that have been and are his Parishioners and Auditors B. S. wisheth temporall blessings internal graces and eternall glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Dearly beloved in Christ I Am so much engaged to you that I owe you even my owne selfe who because I cannot alwaies continue with you I Dedicate to you this child of my old age to be your servant whom if you please to entertain into your house I hope it will do you faithfull service for it is neither given to flattering lying nor faction however it may be to filching that from some which they have taken from others and so made up a pack for your profit that shall open it I could offer its service to particular friends by the complement of Dedication if I thought it might honor them as much as their acceptation I know would honor it or not engage them as sureties are for Apprentices to answer for the slips of it in a captious world I commend it therefore only to your service and will answer to my ability for the faults of it my selfe only I desire you would be pleased to accept it as a love token though no requitall of your favours from one disabled by the malignancy of these latter times to shew himselfe so thankfull as he would and holdeth himselfe obliged to be Your faithfull servant in Christ Benjamin Spencer To the grave Governours of St Thomas Hospitall in Southwarke Right Worshipful IF I should not remember you I should forget my selfe you were my first patrons under the wing of whose favour I lived about fifteen years till the people came to be oppressed one by another and the children behaved themselves proudly against the ancient Isa 3.5 and the base against the honorable I suffred in the croud among others by some trivial and other false accusations which if they had been of any weight and proved true the supreme authority at that time sitting would not by Order have given me three parts of my Living whereas other men had but a fist I know my troubles came not upon me by your means nor the detaining of that allowance from any disaffection to me but being loath to stickle with some that overawed you at that time by whose means I and mine have suffered much hardship However hoping that this lame child of mine shall find admittance into your Hospitall love and favour I commend it and my selfe to your service Ben. Spencer To the right Worshipfull Sir John Jacob Knight Noble Sir IT was your favour to make me your Chaplain at Bromley when I was so flieblown by some of Baalzebubs swarm that I resolved upon privacy rather then publick
who is and ever by Gods grace will be Thine as thou art Christs Benjamin Spencer These Books following are printed and to be sold by William Hope on the North side of the Royall Exchange at his shop next door to St Bartholomews Church THE Faith Doctrine and Religion professed in this Realm of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging Expressed in Thirty Nine Articles by Thomas Rogers The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the Distressed Also his Devout Soule and Free Prisoner by Jos Hall D. D. and B N. The New Covenant Or The Saints Portion by John Preston D.D. Bethel Or A form for Families in which all sorts of both Sexes are so squar'd and fram'd by the Word as they may best serve in their severall places for usefull pieces in Gods building by Matthew Griffith The Holy Lives of Gods Prophets by J. H. The Abridgement of the Body of Divinity of that Famous and Reverend Divine Mr William Perkins A True Relation of the Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Netherlandish Governor and Council there Godly Meditations upon the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Christopher Sutton Doctor in Divinity late one of the Prebends of the Collegiate Church of Westminster A Fountain of Teares by that Reverend divine Iohn Featley D.D. Chaplain to his late Majesty Some Sacramentall Instructions Or An explication of the Principles of Religion by T. B. B D. Pastor of M. O. London A Triumphant Arch Erected and Consecrated to the Glory of the Feminine Sex By Monsieur de Scudery Englished by I. B. Gent. The Generall History of Women Containing the Lives of the most Holy and Prophane the most Famous and Infamous in all ages exactly described not only from Poeticall Fictions but from the most Ancient Modern and admired Historians to our times by T. H. Gent. Heroick Education Or Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the waies of eminent learning and vertues by I. B. Gent. Gerardo the Unfortunate Spaniard Or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers Originally in Spanish and made English by L. D. Poems By Francis Beaumont Gent. Colloquia Plautina viginti Ex totidem M. Plauti Comoediis excerpta Annotatiunculis marginalibus illustrata Opera Alexandri Rossaei A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHETES Mathetes REverend Sir I have presumed upon your goodnesse and long acquaintance you being a lover of truth and of all those that love it to designe this day to wait upon you and to give you the trouble to satisfie some questions whereby my mind may be established in this wavering world wherein severall societies of Christians do all lay claime to truth as theirs only with as great fervency as the two women pleaded before King Solomon for the child which could not possibly have two mothers So surely there is but one truth and but one right and true profession of it Philalethes I hope your Religion is not now to seek Mathe. Not altogether but I confess I would be glad to find satisfaction more fully about that religion in which I was born and bred that so I may not beleeve implicitly as because my parents were of this or that religion but that I may be able to render a reason of mine own faith Phila. Your endeavour is good but I fear you are troubled with the staggers or vertigo a braine giddinesse bred by the inordinate motion of spirits in the ventricle of the brain so I beleeve your mind is made light and frothy by some evil notions unwarily received or by a multitude of good notions not wel disposed like unto good meat that being not well digested will breed a disease as well as vicious diet this may be some cause of your wavering Mathe. I think Sir you say right For I confesse to you that I have met with some spirits that have made me in such a maze and brought me into such a labyrinth that I have turned Seeker of what I had and a Shaker in what I held yet I find my first tenets in the Protestant Religion to be the best but I want confirmation For some tell me that I cannot prove there is a God or that man hath a soule immortall more then other creatures and that it comes only by generation and hath no existence after death And when I endeavour to confute them by Scripture they bid me prove the Scriture to be the word of God when I seek to prove that by Scripture they say it cannot bear witness to its selfe for that is to prove the same by the same If I flie to the tradition of the Church they aske me what Church is the true Church Or if I offer them the sence of Scripture to prove what they demand then they ask me who shall be judge whether that be the true sense or no If I say our Church of England Gabr. Ã porta Biâ—l in can miss lect 23. they deny her to be true If I say the Church of Rome others prove her and her Pope too Hereticall If I say the reformed Churches of Geneva Helvetia or Scotland they tell me they are schismaticall so that I am in a great straight with Job to know where wisdome is to be found Job 28.12 or where is the place of understanding Phila. You need not seek far the word is neer thee from whence such reasons may be deduced that will answer all these opinions But if men will not hear these reasons I must tell them they have no faith but either humane or divelish not divine faith which beleeves that there is a word of God and beleeves God upon that word But I will not anticipate tell me therefore what was the first thing which troubled you Mathe. Even the same with which I troubled my selfe being a child or something else troubled me by casting into my mind what that God was of whom my parents had told me whether he was before the world what he did then before he made it And I have met with some of as little wit as I my selfe then had or else of deeper reach either to bring us into some form which yet we have not had or else to bring us all to confusion and then out of that chaos to raise up a Church of their own framing and boast of it as did Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel which I have built Phila. As these thoughts came into your mind for want of knowledge of God at first so do these scrupulous queries come into it for want of subjecting your selfe to that knowledge which God hath offered to you of himselfe For the soul of man being rational and discoursive will run into many vagaries and grow extravagant without rule and so misse God wherein standeth mans eternall happinesse Mathe. Is there a way then for a man to attain eternall happinesse Quest 1 Phila. Yes First if there were
Acts 2.46 that is in their private oratories or upper rooms set apart for holy occasions of which there was no use when Churches were built except for devotion of the private family Another meeting you find Acts 4.23 where God shook the place where they were assembled and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Another meeting you find Acts 6.2 about choosing the seven Deacons of whom Stephen was one who was the first Martyr that suffered death for Christ Acts 7.58 Then began persecution to wax hot by reason of Sauls being too zealous for the Law of Moses Acts 8.4 and so the Church was scattered but he was converted Acts 9. Then had the Church rest and multiplied exceedingly ver 31. and spread very farre and at Antioch they were first called Christians Acts 11.26 Then Herod Agrippa to curry favor with the Jewes Acts 12.2 killed James and imprisoned Peter but God smote him in the midst of his vain glory Acts 12.23 The next speciall meeting of the Apostles was Acts 15.16 the first Councill that ever was who determined the great Question of circumcision negatively that it should not be imposed on the Gentiles Other meetings there were in divers places according as the Church increased and was transplanted in divers regions as Acts 20.7 at Troas Mathe. But had they any publick meeting places called Churches in those times Phila. The first they had were those oratories which the Jewes had on tops of their houses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called the upper rooms which though the Romans called caenaculum or a banquetting room because it was like their feasting rooms on the tops of their houses yet neither the Jewes nor Christians used it but in religious devotions And therefore where Christ eat the Passeover and celebrated his last supper was held a place sacred though appertaining to some private house of some of the disciples In this place some say that Christ appeared to his disciples on the day of his Resurrection Nicepho Bed de locis Sanct. to 3. c. 3. and on the eighth day after to Thomas with the rest and that here James was made Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles and the seven Deacons elected and the first Councill held Cyr. Hieros cat 16. Acts 15. And Saint Cyril cals it the upper Church of the Apostles where the Holy Ghost descended also upon them Acts 2. And it may possibly be the place prophecied of as being neer to mount Sion Psalm 50.2 out of Sion God appeared in perfect beauty in which Psalm the spirit also seems to refuse carnall facrifices which was Gospel-like doctrine Also it is prophecied that out of Sion shall go forth the Law and the word of God out of Jerusalem to which many people shall flock and so they did Acts 2. And thus his foundations were laid in the holy mountains and he hath shewed that he loved the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Jacob Vide Hier in Epitap Paulae epi. 27. because he i. Christ was there produced by the Gospels promulgation which never came from the Temple though divulged from a place neer to Sion which place was enclosed afterward if we may beleeve antiquity with a faire Church called the Church of Sion In process of time as the Church Christian increased no doubt they built places of recess for the worship of God as well as the Jewes had Synagogues whose religion was estranged as much from the religion of the Roman Empire as the Christians was and in these places they did ordinarily assemble to perform divine duties unlesse they were hindred by necessity Mathe. I pray give me some instances of these Phila. We read that as at first they had their upper rooms for oratories so afterward they had places of worship built in fields Euseb eccles hist lib. 2. c. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where they heard the Scriptures interpreted and had severall classes for men and women and sung Psalms and had distinctions of Bishops and Deacons We see also in Pauls Epistles that he salutes some with their houshold only as Aristobulus and Narcissus Assyncritus Rom. 16. Oecume in in Rom. 16. and Col. 4. and Phlegon But others he saluteth with the Church at their house i. all those that there commonly assembled So he salutes Nymphas Col. 4.15 and Philemon and Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16. which sheweth their houses or part of them dedicated to pious uses in common So Theophilus to whom St Luke dedicates his Gospel Hiero. in ep 2. ad Galat. Clem. in Recog lib. 10. and Acts of the Apostles did dedicate his house at Antioch to this purpose this was about thirty eight years after Christ And Eusebius reports that St Mark had divers Churches in Alexandria in his history lib. 2. cap. 16. So St Paul at Corinth as we may collect from 1 Cor. 11.22 saying have ye not houses to eat and drink in or do you despise the Church of God So Joseph of Arimathea and his Colony of Christians built the Church of Glassenbury in England Hist Angli which being burnt was built again by King Henry the second his Letters Patents So Crescens caused a Church to be built at Vienna So in 79. Eus l. 3. c. 4. there was a great Church built at Ephesus by St John saith Eusebius lib. 3. cap. 20. And many were built also in Rome by the Apostles means Euseb l. 2. c. 25 And surely the reason of this dedicating places to holy worship was because Christians being taught by Scriptures that the majesty of God is most sacred and incommunicable so those things by which they worshipped should not be made common And indeed therefore Christians were well admonished by an ancient holy Writer Clem. in epist ad Corinth that we ought to do all things as God had expressed them to be done in regard both of times when and persons whereby and places wherein that so we may be accepted of him all these we find in the first hundred years after Christ Mathe. I pray go on and give me a further light Phila. We find Ignatius reproving Trajan in a Church lib. 3. cap. 19. as Nicephorus reports And 117. the Emperor Adrian commands Christian Churches to be built Dion in Adri. and forbade to place the Images of the Romane Gods therein And Ignatius writing to the Magnesians Vid. Epist ad ad Philad chargeth them to meet in one place to use one common praier with one heart as coming to one Temple of God one Altar and one Christ So we find Polycarpus receiving the Communion in a Church at Rome in the year 169. And Theophylus Antiochenus Eus l. 5. c. 25. in his Epistle to Autolycum saith that as the sea hath Ilands that are fruitfull so the world hath Synagogues called Churches wherein truth was preserved whereby men might be saved And Clemens Alexandrinus distinguisheth the Church
Christ that broke the covenant made between himselfe and the Emperour yet afterward he recalled all that he done and cursed the Emperour who was fain to resign his priviledge for peace sake Next succeeded Gelasius the second without the Emperours consent Henry the fifth Then followed Calixtus the second who compelled the Emperour to yield to his election and ordained that the people should not put away any of their Bishops for their life time Then followed Pope Honorius the second in whose time one Arnulphus came to Rome and preached against the Clergies errors pride and avarices for which they secretly drowned him Innocentius the third succeeds In his time the people grew weary of the Popes Tyranny resolved to be governed by consuls This Pope therefore made an ordinance that whoever laid violent hands upon any of the Clergy he should be excommunicated and not absolved by any man but the Pope only And also Pope Eugenius by cursings and force brought all the Senators of Rome under subjection to himselfe and to receive such into their society as he thought fit Adrian the fourth that was choaked with a flie as he walked made the Roman people submit themselves absolutely to his government Frederick the first Emperour held his stirrop yet he excommunicates the same Emperour Alexander the third succeeds who would not appear at any Councill The Emperour Frederick the first called to decide the stickling between him and Victor for the Popedome and therefore Victor was chosen but Alexander fled into France and in a Councill at Claremount excommunicated the Emperour and Victor After Victors death Frederick the Emperour led an army to Rome This Pope excited all Princes to persecute the Waldenses Pope Alexander flieth to Venice Otto the Emperours son followeth him but encountring the Venetians contrary to his Fathers command was taken captive and so for his sons redemption he was fain to go to Venice and crave the Popes absolution in St Marks Church where kneeling down this proud Pope set his foot on the Emperours neck saying Psal 91.13 thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Dragon In this Popes daies Thomas Becket Bishop of Canterbury was slaine in his own Chappell by some of King Henry of Englands followers But he purged himselfe before the Pope who because he found the Kings anger was the cause thereof he enjoined Henry that he should hinder no appeals to Rome and that none should be declared King of England without the Popes consent Now England begins to be chained by Rome In this age which was about the 1200 years after Christ it pleased God to give more divine light to many men to see and discern Christ from Antichrist and to professe it openly and practically as well as many other Doctors had done in writing The chiefe of these was one Waldus a Merchant of Lyons in France who seeing one of his company in their walking fall down dead he laied it so to heart that he repented earnestly of his former life and became very charitable to the poor and studious of the Scriptures and also to instruct his own family and others that came to him in those tenets which the Protestants afterward held and hold still For which the Bishops that adhered to Rome threatned them with excommunication but they went on and endured much persecution Mathe. I pray what were their tenets Phila. The same which the Protestant now hold As 1. That only Scripture is to be beleeved in matters pertaining to salvation and that it containeth all things necessary thereunto 2. That there is but one Mediator for man to God i. Christ Jesus and Saints are not to be invocated as mediators 3. They denied purgatory and masses sung for the dead rejected traditions as unnecessary to salvation 4. That constrained fast daies difference of meats superfluous holy daies variety of orders of Priests Friers Nuns hallowing of creatures vowes and pilgrimages and humane ceremonies were to be abolished 5. They denied also the Popes supremacy over all Churches States and governments and denied that any degrees should be received into the Church save Bishops Priests and Deacons 6. That the Church of Rome is Babylon and the Pope Antichrist Also they rejected the Popes pardons 7. They allowed the marriage of Priests 8. And they that hear and beleeve the true word of God are the true Church 9. And the communion was to be eaten and not reserved for shew or worship Many of them for these opinions endured persecutions by Pope Alexander the third who excited all Christian Princes to persecute them with fire and sword Third persecution by the Roman Christians Mathe. What other Popes persecuted good Christians Phila. Innocentius the third who did excommunicate King John of England because he would not admit Stephen Langton to be Archbishop of Canterbury approved by the Pope and brought him so far under his power that he was faine to resigne his Crown to the Pope and receive it back again from him for the paiment of a thousand Marks by the year Honorius followed who excommunicated the Emperour Frederick the second who at his coronation had bestowed great gifts upon him yet because he did but expostulate with Thomas one of the sons of Innocentius the third who fled to the Pope about his treason this Pope excommunicates him Honorius the third succeeds and the excommunicates the said Emperour also Gregory the ninth succeeds him and he excommunicates the Emperour Frederick because going against the Turks he returned into Europe to recover himselfe of his sicknesse Innocentius the fourth likewise excommunicated the Emperour Frederick and deposed him and gave away his Empire to William Count of Holland Then followed Alexander the fourth who excommunicated Marfred King of Sicily and burnt the books of one William desancto amore because he writ against the order of begging Fryers Next was Vrbanus the fourth who gave the Kingdome of Sicily from Marfred to Charls Duke of Anjou together with Apulia to be held of him from the Pope by a quitment so Sicily became the Frenches however all afterward destroied by the Sicilians in the time of Pope Martin the fourth Clemens the fourth succeeds him in place and manners He made the said Charls King of Jerusalem paying 40000. crowns yearly to the Chair of Rome He caused him to slay Marfred and the son of Conrade who came into Italy to claim his right and title Next followed Gregory the tenth who interdicted the Church of Florence from all divine service And after him Pope Nicolaus the third took from Charls King of Sicily whom his predecessors bad advanced Hetruria and the dignity of being a Roman Senator and did bring Flaminia Bononia and Ravenna from under the Emperours subjection to himselfe Martinus the fourth succeeded who took the said Charls into favor again but restored to him nothing but the title of a Roman Senator He excommunicated Peter the King of Arragon for laying claim to the Kingdome of Sicily to which
was learned He like some schismaticks now accounted humane learning heresie and so they may see their error is popish while they condemn learning as if it were popery Next comes Sixtus the fourth Innocentius the eight Alexander the sixt who imprisoned and banished many Cardinals Then followed Pius the third and next Julius the second who by the Emperour Maximilian and the King of Spain and France's aids spoiled the Venetians of many territories yet he received them again into favor and so discontented the Emperour and the King of France that they thought to depose him by their Councill at Pisa But he called another Councill at Rome which disanulled all they did at Pisa He lived in wars all his time Leo the tenth succeeds him He endevoured to suppresse Martin Luther but could not Adrianus the sixt followed and threatned the Duke of Saxony for maintaining Martin Luther Clement the seventh succeeds who poisoned many and was poisoned himselfe Paulus the third followeth whose authority in England was abrogated by King Henry the eighth who called himselfe supreme head in his own dominions in all causes Ecclesiastick and Civill He cursed King Henry the eighth of England therefore and interdicted the Kingdome ratified the order of Jesuites and called a Councill at Trent where the Protestants would not appear because they said that Councill was not lawfully called and the Pope sate Judge who was the party they were to accuse of errors and abusing the Church He carried the Councill to Bononia Iulius the third followed who brought it back again to Trent and sent in Queen Maries daies Cardinall Pool to absolve England from the interdiction of Paul the third But havock was made in England of Protestants Paulus the fourth followed who hated Charls the Emperour who resigned his government to his son Ferdinand and died in a Monastery The Pope approved not this election but Ferdinand esteemed not of his approbation Pius the fourth followed In his time the Councill of Trent called by Paul the third was dissolved which had sate six yeers only of eighteen But before that he sent an Embassador into England to invite the Clergy to that Councill but Queen Elizabeth would not suffer him to land Nor would the Germans send any Scotland also revolted from popery He massacred Protestants at Montalto in Italy to the number of eighty because they met at an house to hear a Sermon They were drawn out one by one and their throats cut but none recanted their Religion Pius the fifth followed who with the Venetians and the King of Spain and his own aids overcame the Turks at Lepanto under the conduct of John of Austria Gregory the thirteenth followed He founded a new Colledge for Jesuites and gave it great revenues to bring up schollers to convert the Germans The Guises faction and the Queen Mother made an horrid massacre in Paris of the Protestants whom they called Huguenots 1572. Which act this Pope commended and sent Charls King of France 40000. Duckats to set forward the war against them This Pope set forth a new Kalender Sixtus the fift followed who excommunicated the King of Navar and the Prince of Condie both Protestants Now was Henry the third killed by a Frier Clement the eighth absolved Henry the fourth King of France from the excommunication of Sixtus the fifth upon his abjuration of the protestation by his Orators which King was slain by a proselyte of the Jesuits called Ravilack Mathe. I desire to know how the Protestant Religion came in and whether it be ancient and how it hath been persecuted by the Pope his adherents whether Princes or Prelates and by what heresies opposed for the Papists still upbraid us that our Religion was begun by Luther who began an innovation in the time of Pope Leo the tenth Against whom Henry the eighth of England did write and obtained the title from the Pope of Defender of the faith Phila. You are to understand that the substantiall points of the Protestant Religion are the same which are grounded upon Scripture and maintained from the Primitive times by the Church Christian but obscured in tract of time by divers heresies and popish traditions which like tares and weeds over-grew the good seed which yet still appeared in divers places of the field of the Catholike Church plain enough to prove a visible being both of the truth and professors of it till the Protestants made a more full declaration of it by refining the old truths from the drosse of heresie and popish superstition Mathe. I desire to have a more plain view of those hereticks that turned from Gospell truths And secondly how the Pope sell off being that the Roman Church did oftentimes excommunicate those hereticks And thirdly how the Protestants came to reform themselves they being once in the bowels of the Romish Church Phila. You know I have shewed many already among the persecuting hereticks yet it shall not be irksome to me if it be not to you to view them a little better especially the Manicheans who sprung up before Arrius with which heresie Augustine was entangled but the Lord God that bringeth good out of evill converted him by the pains of Ambrose Bishop of Millain and he became a great light to Gods people and a confuter of that cursed heresie Manicheus opinions were that there were two beginnings one evil and the other good which is all one as to say there be two Gods No wonder if their patron Manes called himselfe the Holy Ghost Maniches as Montanus did if he proceeded from such principles This Manes forbade flesh and wine neglected the old Testament ascribed the sin of man not to his free will Vid. Aug. cont Mani but necessity because he said mans body was made of the substance of the Prince of darknesse He died a fearfull death Theo. l. 4. c. 4. For as Arrius voided his guts at a draught-house before he came to dispute against the truth so this Manes was sent for being a Persian by the King of Persia to cure his son who died in his hands and he was imprisoned but escaped yet heard of in Mesopotamia was taken and flead Socrat. l. 1. c. 21. and his skin stuffed and set up at the gate of the City Mathe. Sir lest it be too much trouble to you and no great benefit to me to recite all the heresies I desire only the chiefe of them which do directly oppose true Religion Phila. I intend so and therefore first I will shew you the ancient heresies and then the modern that you may see how far the latter are raked out of the former We find some holding God to be like a man because Gen. 1.21 God is said to make man after his image Anthropomorphites but that in the soule and the endowments thereof wisedome and righteousnesse The Author of this heresie was one Ardaeus a Syrian Then followed the Messalians called Euchitae because they thought the whole duty of
in the same and heareth not the voice of strangers 2. It makes no Lawes without Gods word 3. That the traditions of the Church cannot bind conscience except they be consonant to Gods Word 4. That Christ hath made full satisfaction for sin and he that saith there is any other way to salvation or to abolish sin denieth Christ 5. That Christ is not received corporally in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 6. That the Masse offered up for the quick and dead is contrary to the Word of God and disgracing the sacrifice of Christ 7. That Christ is only to be invocated as Mediator between God and man 8. That the Scripture sheweth no such place as Purgatory for the purging of soules after death and therefore all popish Ceremonies as Dirges Lamps and Tapers profit not the dead at all 9. That pictures and images of Saints are not to be set up in Churches or to be worshipped 10. That Matrimony is not denied to any order of men but by the word of God permitted to all men and because fornication is forbidden therefore single life is not to be forced upon people All which propositions were defended by Oecolampadius Bucer and others against all opposers and therefore ratified by the Senate and it was decreed that Masses Altars and Images should be abolished In memoriall of this Reformation they caused a pillar to be set up engraven with golden letters with the time when it was done namely 1528. many other Cities as Strousbrough Basil and Geneva followed their example But many other Towns popishly affected did side with Ferdinand the Emperours brother and Deputy in Germany to suppresse this Reformation in Berne and Zurik These Towns were the Lucernates Vrani Suitenses Vnternaldii and Tugiani who much abusing the Reformed Tigurines and Bernatas made them so angry that they stopped the waies to those five Towns that no victuals could come to them Upon this the five unreformed made war upon them and had the better in which skirmishing Zuinglius was slain and his body abused cut in pieces and burned yet the Reformed continued in their religion and peace was concluded by the mediation of the King of France and some Cantons of Switzerland Mathe. But how came England to be Protestants Phila. Henry the seventh King of England had two sons Arthur and Henry Prince Arthur the eldest married Katherine daughter to Ferdinand King of Spain and died without issue Then Henry the eighth his brother being King of England by the advice of his Counsellors and Nobles married the said Lady Katherine that so her dowry might not be carried out of England Which match though contrary to Gods Word was dispensed withall by Pope Julian the second and so continued twenty years Now Charls the fifth Emperour being in England promised to marrie the Lady Mary daughter to Henry the eighth by the said Queen Katherine which the Emperours Councill misliked because that the Lady Mary was begotten by King Henry and his brothers wife and so illegitimate therefore the Emperour forsook the match and married the King of Portugals daughter called Isabel Upon this King Henry's mind began to be troubled and the more because he foresaw that there could be no firm succession to the Crown by children so begotten He propounded therefore this question to all the Universities of Christendome viz. whether his marriage were lawfull they all agreed it was not therefore the King sought a divorce and desired the Popes consent The Pope sent Cardinall Campeius into England who together with Woolsey Cardinall of York was by his authority to judge the businesse Woolsey was inclined to the divorce till he perceived the Kings mind was bent to marry Anne Bulloin who was a Lutheran Of which he advertizing the Pope he sent for his Embassador Campeius who returned to Rome without determining the Kings cause But the King by Doctor Cranmers advice and the Civilians had Queen Katherine divorced therefore the Pope cursed King Henry and his Kingdome of England And the King abolished the Popes authority and tyranny in his Kingdome and enjoined that he should in his dominions only be called Bishop of Rome and that himselfe should be acknowledged supreame head of the Church of England This was the beginning of Reformation of popish abuses as in dissolving of Abbies and Monasteries in England and Wales though Henry the eighth continued in Romish doctrines To the number of 645. vid. Cambden Mr Fox his Martyro p. 2. and many blessed Martyrs were put to death in his time for professing the contrary even after he had abolished the Bishop of Romes authority as Lambert condemned by King Henry himselfe and also of many others by his authority and ministers such as Collins Cowbridge Leiton Puttedew Peke do testifie as also his setting out the six Articles maintaining page 1296. 1. Transubstantiation And secondly that the communion in both kinds is not necessary to be received And thirdly against Priests marriage And fourthly for vowing single life And fifthly Anno 31. regni H. 8. for maintaining the Masse and also sixthly auricular confession to be necessary Which Articles were commended to Commissioners to be put in execution and many good men suffered who held tenets contrary thereunto as Doctor Barns Heirom Garret Marbeck Filmer Testwood and Person and Bennet Kerby Clark Mendelsham and Mistrisse Anne Askew and others burned at Windsor and Ipswich in London and Kent all which shew that though King Henry the eighth did abolish the power of the Pope in Civill and Ecclesiastick matters in England yet popish doctrine was still maintained Mathe. I pray tell me how the Pope came to have such great authority in England in Civil and Ecclesiasticall affairs 2. How Englands Religion came to be corrupted which at first it seems was pure Rom. 1.8 as Romes faith was before the Pope turned Antichristian 3. How the Reformation went on which was revived by King Henry the eight so far as abolishing popish jurisdiction Phila. For the first you may find that the Pope came in by connivance of peaceable and quiet Princes who not discerning the Popes policy after Phocas the Emperour had made him universall Bishop how he did work upon Princes of weak judgement as also upon such as he found to be superstitious or that were litigious and stood in need of his help and so did wind himselfe by intrusion and used his possession with tyranny But this intrusion could never be warranted by any just claime through possession or submission to him in tract of time by custome or prescription the foundation of his first authority being surreptitious for we cannot find any Brittish or Saxon Kings that have obliged themselves or this Kingdome submissively to the Pope But you may find that when Austin the Monk was sent into England by Pope Greg. 1. to bring the Clergy to the ceremonies and service of the Roman Church not to make Christians in England which was done many hundred years before
in the time of King Lucius who desired Baptism of Pope Elutherius for himself and his people that he nor any Priest that came with him into the Isle of Thanet Bed l. 1. c. 26. did preach till they had license from the King But it is of courtesie not duty the Pope hath had much regard in England as appeareth in that his Legats and Nuncioes have had here entertainment But this was no more then they had in other places of the world where their usurped authority was rejected So in Asia and Africa This proveth nothing of any right he had in England for though this Realm hath admitted sometimes appeals to Rome yet you shall find that they have been oftner prohibited and the Popes Buls condemned and his excommunications slighted and his decrees rejected and that the King made Lawes and Ecclesiasticall Canons by Parliaments and Synods without the Popes leave As you may see in the daies of King Egbert and Alfred about the appeale of Wilfride Archbishop of York who was the first that ever appealed before the Norman conquest to the Pope and in whose behalfe the Pope sent Nuncioes to England with a Letter or Bull to restore Wilfride to his pluralities of which the King and great Councill of the Kingdome the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Clergy had divested him But they would not yield to the Popes desire to restore Wilfride til he had submitted himselfe and resigned those Monasteries he held which had moved the contention So after the Norman conquest in the reign of Henry the first Pope Paschalis put a new oath upon Archbishops to be taken when they received their Pall which Anselme the Archbishop having taken thought himselfe obliged to maintain the appellations to Rome but King Henry pleaded the fundamentall lawes which forbad any such appeals without the Kings licence and that they were a violation to the Crown and a Law was made that if any should bring the Popes letter or mandate in the Realm Rog. Hoved. in Hen. 2. he should be executed as a Traitor to the King and Kingdome and every one was forbidden appeals to the Pope It is true that Pope Nicolas grants to King Edward the Confessor and his successors that which he stood in no need of namely the protection of all the Churches in England and to make Lawes with the advice of their Bishops and Abbots in his stead for governing the same This was to make the world beleeve in after time that their authority in these things was derived from the Pope Malm. de gest Pontif. Vâ—d Mat. Par. an 1164. For we find that this was alwaies done by the Saxon and Danish Kings before any such Bull was sent from the Pope yea and disposed of Bishopricks without the Pope so did King William and Rufus his son and they counted themselves as Gods Vicar to govern the Church and to correct any wrong done in Ecclesiasticall Courts Acts of Clarendon which course the Kings of England after the Conquest alwaies followed and acted with the advice and assistants of their Parliaments as we may see in the daies of King Henry the second and by the Statutes of Clarendon which prevents popish jurisdiction by forbidding appeals and disposing benefices and Ecclesiasticall dignities Stat. of Carlile 25. of Edw. 1. But in the reigne of King Edward the first is a notable statute which declares the holy Church of England to be founded in the estate of Prelacy not Papacy and within the Realm of England not without it and by the King and his Peers not by Popes and forreign Bishops and that the Popes encrochments did aim at the ruine of the Church disinheriting of the King and destruction of the Lawes 16. of Ric. 2. c. 5. And in Richard the seconds reign it is set down that the Crown of England hath alwaies been and is free and in no subjection earthly but only to God and to no other and ought not to be submitted to the Pope It is true that King John resigned his Crown to the Pope but that was but done in his distresse he could not do that lawfully wherein the whole Kingdome had the greater share So many Emperours have taken their Crowns from the Pope as you have heard but this hath been done by some of them for greater solemnity and some for fear or out of superstition some to make their party the stronger against their enemies and the Pope hath crowned them but that of right he had any power over the Crown I find none Now for the second Question how Christian Religion came to be corrupted Rom. 1.8 Gild. de exid Conq. Brit. being at first clear as Romes was in its Primitive profession of it 1. It is true that England had a light of the Gospell as it is thought by Joseph of Arimathea and his colony of Christians that came with him to Glassenbury which was in the time of Tiberius the Emperours reign Peter came not to Rome till the second year of Claudius to lay any foundation of a Church there Nor do we find any plain face of a Church in England till King Lucius and his subjects were baptized as you have read by Fugatius and Damianus two Ministers that Elutherius the Bishop of Rome fent to do it at King Lucius his request The Church of Rome continued faithfull 350. yeers after Christ as I have shewed and kept her selfe untainted with heresie and was a covert and protection unto the professors of truth But after the Emperour Constantine and his successors turned Christians Clergy men grew into great favour at Court and so wealth and ease first begate security then covetousnesse then pride next ambition then devising of false tenets to maintain it and superstitions to uphold it then also heresies to mask or depose truth At last getting the title of universall Bishop the Eastern Church falling to decay the world looked on the Pope though not as upon one that should be their superiour in secular matters yet as one that should direct them in doctrines He by subtilty of the Schoolmen and policy and power sowed tares and though he seemed to keep the foundation yet built beside it kept up the truth in unrighteousnesse and delivered to the people by retaile what he pleased shut up the Scriptures and gave them humane traditions Now Princes and Priests being some perswaded of his piety and cozened by his hypocrisie others reverencing of his antiquity and dazeled with his dignity and others being remisse and idle were contented to enjoy the world in quiet and take any Religion that was offered them Thus the world was made dark by Babylons cup and had no feeling of the losse of truth no more then the Pope had except he were touched in his honours and profits But God had pity upon his Church and raised up now and then some to set up his truth as you have see And lastly Luther to oppose the Popes errors and
spoken before An old Sect 130 years ago Secondly Apostolikes because they wandered about without staves shooes or mony They washed each others feet and left houses wives and trades They grew chargeable to the common purse they put away their wives when they pleased at last were excommunicated by the rest of the brethren as idle vagabonds The third were Separatists because they sequestred themselves from the world and brave cloaths marriage meetings feasts and musick and arms looked sad and sighed much The fourth were called Catharists because they pretended purity without sin and said children had no originall sin and denied them baptisme and would not say the Lords Praier The fifth were Silentes because they seldome spake The sixth were called Enthusiasts who said the gift of prophecy by dreams came to them and therefore would lie much in trances like Mahomet when he was in a paroxisme or fit of the falling sicknesse or like our Quakers They said Anabaptisme was holy but childrens baptisme came from the devill The seventh were called Liberians or Libertines who misunderstanding the liberty of Christ to be worldly and carnall thought themselves free from paying rents tributes or tithes though Christ paied tribute to Caesar and also took liberty to commit all uncleannesse The eighth were called Adamites because they thought themselves in the state of innocence and therefore accounted cloaths to be a sign of the curse and therefore went naked as did the old Adamiani 300 yeers after Christ in their Conventicles or Hupocausta under ground caves which were warmed by secret furnaces or stoves in which place they stood naked men and women The ninth sort were called Hutites from their author Iohn Huta These denied Christs divinity with the Arrians The tenth were called Augustinians who conceived there was no entrance into Paradise till Augustin the Bohemian opened it forgetting that Christ said to the thiefe on the crosse this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise The eleventh was the Beuckeldians who said that it was an holy thing to have many wives at once forgetting Mal. 2.14 where it is called trechery against the wife of thy youth of which covenant God is the witnesse The twelfth was the Melchiorists who of one Melchior Hoffman their Prophet at Strausborough whom they look for to come with Elias at the day of judgement and hold that Christ was not conceived and born of the blessed Virgin Mary but only passed through her as water through a conduit in which they agree with the old Eutychians The thirteenth were the Georgians so called of David George the originall of the Familists who thought himselfe a greater Prophet then Christ and that he would rise three yeers after his death and restore the Kingdome of Israel but he was never heard of since The fourteenth were Menorists so called of one Menor a Frisian by whose name for a certain time they were generally called These differed not in doctrines from the rest no more then did the Muncerians and Hutites Some were founded as I have shewed upon ancient heresies some of them hold the same opinions with the rest but have added more to them Many others there were as the Henerobaptist Gastius de Ana. Exord p. 20. that baptized himselfe daily if the weather were temperate Others did follow Servetus who not only denied baptisme to children but denied the deity of Christ who was burnt at Geneva in the year 1553. Hist of Anab. p. 53. Others sottishly abusing Christs words except you become like children you cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven would turnble and battle in their own dung and play like children and innocents and lie with one another but I beleeve not very innocently Calv. contra Libert Some denied the resurrection of the body Deukius held Origens error that in time the devils and wicked men should be saved Others set all Christian duty in praier like the old Euchytae Others so left all things to God that they neglected the means God appointed Vid. Hezychi Stephan Budaeum Others held that all that were not plunged in water were not rightly baptized whereas the Greek word in the New Testament for baptizing signifieth washing or sprinkling as well as plunging as Mark 7.3 and Heb. 9.10 And if the Scriptures gives a word of divers interpretation no doubt but it was that the Church might use such a form in baptizing as the word admits or as the region and weaknesse of the party baptized permitteth Mathe. But do our Anabaptists now among us hold such hereticall opinions Phila. I beleeve all do not hold alike but take them together or severally you shall find all or some either to have a tincture of old heresies or else newly dipped into other colours divers from the truth Mathe. I pray make that appear Phila. Some of them hold that Christ shall come from heaven 1000 years before the generall judgement and shall raign with the Saints upon earth and shall destroy all the wicked viz all that are not of their sect And this before Christ come they have endeavoured to put in practice and so they prove Millenaries and somewhat worse Others hold that they are the communion of Saints and that all those that have been notorious sinners and excommunicate may not be restored again upon their repentance and so they be Novatians Yet this is but a pretence for I find their practice contrary for they do either account their own sins none or else favour them in the punishment Others say that in the true Church there are no scandalous livers and if so it wil be hard to prove their Church to be true though they say the Church is bounded in their societies and therefore separate from all other Christian assemblies therein shewing themselves Donatists Some again of them hold that Christ took not his flesh of the Virgin Mary And so held also the Priscilianists Others of them hold that it is lawfull for the people to lay violent hands on the magistrates and depose and slay them how supreme soever they be and so are plain Jesuits Some of them hold that election is of foreseeen faith and that man hath free will of himselfe to refuse or accept Gods grace and that a true beleever may fall away totally and finally from grace and so are Pelagians contrary to St Johas tenet 1 John 3.9 Others say that there ought to be a parity in the Church of ministers contrary to St Paul who saith that without all contradiction the lesse must be blessed of the greater Heb. 7.7 and therefore left Titus in Creet to ordain Elders i. ministers in every City Also that Church Service and Ceremonies are superstitious and that the Church of England is no true Church and therefore must be left and in this they be Brownists Mathe. How came these into England Phila. After this sect had continued in Germany a long time but not above ten years in any full vigour Gastius de
or born in wedlock for so an heathens child may be as holy as they but holy as heirs to the covenant the vertue whereof is so powerfull that it can rather entitle a wife by an husband or a husband by a wife unto it and therefore much more the child than contrary Mathe. Hath baptisme of Infants been from the Primitive Church or not Phila. I conceive it hath because no man can tell when it began but we find by all ancient writers and Churches Aug. l. 4. â—â— bapt infant and l. 10. de gen ad lit c. 23. that it was practised in their times and things of that nature were alwaies held to be of some decree of a generall Councill or else of Apostolicall tradition Some would bear you in hand that Pope Innocent the third brought it in first who lived about the year 1213. which is about 356 years since whereas we read of childrens baptisme 1000 years before that For Origen that lived about 226 years after Christ alledging Ps 51.5 Orig. in Com. in Ep. ad Rom. cap. 6. In sin my mother conceived me saith that for this cause the Church received a tradition from the Apostles to baptize children Many of the ancient Fathers as Austin and Jerome mention this custome of the Church against those that denied originall sin 1 Cor. 15. as St Paul instanced in the baptizing of the dead to refute those that denied the resurrection So St Cyprian about the year 250. affirmed that children might be baptized before the eighth day And the Milevitane Councill decreed such to be accursed that denied children baptisme especially if sick or in danger of death And Irenaeus before this the Bishop of Lyons Iren. cont Her cap. 39. the Martyr and Disciple to Polycarpus who was scholler to Saint John wrote that children as well as elder people were saved by their new birth in Christ viz. by water and the spirit And from those ancient times look upon all Christian Churches confessions and practice from the beginning you will find it alwaies in use As 1. Among the Greeks who do annually excommunicate the Pope to whom St Paul was preacher 2. The Russian punisheth all with death that refuse or deride it or neglect it and yet call the Pope an Heretick which I think they would not do if they had received baptisme from him To these St Andrew preached So the Abyssins and Aethiopians who received the Gospell by St Mathew So the Armenian Christians to whom St Bartholomew brought the blessed tidings of the Gospell So the captive Christians in Aegypt who received the Gospell by St Mark and yet have no communion with the Pope So the Indians to whom St Thomas preached So did the Brittains who were taught by Simon Zelotes with other sorts of them and it being so generally received one may wonder with Erasmus what devill entred them people that forbad baptizing children which had been evidently done above 1400 years Beside as we find it done long before the Popes corruptions came in so we find it still used by those that are reformed from Popish doctrines even the Protestant reformed Churches as you may see in all their Confessions and Articles of Religion as well in England as France and Germany as the French Galatius de exord Anab. l. 8. Helvetian Bohemian Dutch Saxon and Augustan Confessions all which States and Churches have punished with death those of contrary opinion that either have denied baptisme to children or rebaptized any Cod. Just lib. 1. tit 7. Justinian the Emperour made it a law At Vienna they drowned them England hath burned them Mathe. But they say that they rebaptize because they were not rightly baptized before And they were not rightly baptized because they dipped them not Phila. This is indeed one of their tenets but surely to baptize with though not in water in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be denied to be true baptisme the washing sprinkling or drenching is but the circumstance only and therefore one may fully and rightly be baptized without dipping as I have already shewed you from the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath divers significations and signifieth as well to die colours and wash as well as to dip And whereas they urge the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in alwaies to signifie in because it is said John baptized in Jordan yet they may find it in the third of Matthew to signifie with where St John saith of Christ he shall baptize you with the Holy-Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with fire Beside they consider not the place where they were so baptized in the Primitive times which was an hot Country where it was ordinary for people to wash themselves often in a day nor the time of the first age of the Church when they had hardly Churches or Font nor consider they the multitude of converts which could not be well baptized but in places of much water as Aenon was where John baptized If we should use the same way now and in these cold Countries it might be the death of many tender creatures I know they say our children may stay while they be older Christ was not baptized till he was thirty years of age But they consider not that Christ could not be baptized sooner for John was but new sent with commission from God to baptize nor they perceive not that by deferring it that they indanger the childs salvation it wanting the means appointed whereby they should be brought to Christ their Saviour Mathe. Were not these tenets held by some in the Church before Anabaptisme sprung up in Germany Phila. Yes for about the year 250. after Christ some taught that all that were baptized by Hereticks ought to be rebaptized by the Orthodox Ministers of the Church and their reason was because Hereticks themselves had no part in the Church and therefore could give no baptisme Cyprian Of this opinion was St Cyprian a Bishop of Carthage in Africa martyred in the daies of the Emperour Valerian who beheaded him Against him Stephanus Bishop of Rome opposed himselfe by calling a Synod at Rome against it which concluded that according to the tradition and custome of the Church hereticks and those that were baptized by them might be received into the Church upon submission and recantation of their errors without rebaptizing And I beleeve this opinion of Cyprian hath been the ground of the Anabaptists rebaptization who will not recant it 1. Concil Nic. Can. â— 19 though St Cyprian is reported to have recanted his which they might wel do if they would distinguish of hereticks for some hereticks destroied the foundation of faith as the Samosatenians who said that Christ was not of the substance of the Father but called the Son of God only for his vertues So the Arrians who denied the consubstantiality and coeternity of Christ with the Father and such as did deprave
by collecting from former Liturgies which kind of form Calvin himselfe approveth and wisheth that there might be such a form from which no Minister might depart Mathe. Yet Calvin and his followers are against the Liturgy and discipline of the Church of England though it be a reformed Church even as the Papists are against Luther and him Phila. It is true Mr Calvins Reformation yet both Luther and he have been great refiners of Christian Religion from drosse and rust of superstition which cleaved thereunto and mud which it collected by running through the dirty channels of Rome that spirituall Babylon It is true that he being bred to the Civill Law yet studied Divinity wherein he proved a great proficient as by his writings appeareth in all which he consenteth with the Protestant truth professed He having occasion to leave France came to Geneva which City had lately been abandoned by the Bishop and Clergy thereof for fear of the people who began to rise against the popish religion there Their civill government was by Magistrates chosen yearly by the people and for Church-government they had then agreed upon none but they chose Calvin for their Preacher and Divinity Lecturer He with two other Ministers perswaded with some ado the people to bind themselves solemnly by oath First never to admit Popery again And secondly to obey such orders in the exercise of Religion as himselfe and the other two had contrived according to the Word of God They consented and yet within a little while repented of it And because Calvin and the other two Ministers would not administer the Communion to those that denied quiet obedience according to their oath those three Calvin and his two associats were banished the Town but within a few years they called him in again He told them that if he undertook to be their Pastor they must admit a compleat form of Church Discipline and should be sworn for ever to observe it The order was that there should be an Ecclesiasticall Court erected which should be alwaies standing that should consist of one Clergy man certaine and two Lay men annually chosen which seemed much to content the people they being alwaies to have the more voices but Calvin knew that the Ministers had ods enough having both art learning and the tongue of perswasion At last the people many of them disliked it and thought it no better then popish tyranny and imagined that Calvin had done all this to please his fantasy as Apelles that pretended to draw the picture of Venus and made it like his beloved Cratina Yet considering the time and place I see not what more acceptable government he could have set up therefore those people thought it better to condescend to him than to dismisse him to their own infamy since they had so importunately recalled him to them yet not many yeers after the Consistory or Ecclesiasticall Court having excommunicated Bertelier the Senate of the Town releaseth him under their common seale But Calvin resolved to withstand that decree at least by refusing to absolve or give the Sacrament to Bertelier which he resolutely did not and in the afternoon on the Lords day after his sermon took his leave of them saying I commend you to God and to the word of his grace and so bid them farewell They of Geneva sent to the Helvetian Churches for their judgement in Calvins discipline and whether they might better change then hold it It was answered that their ordinances were godly and enclined toward the Scripture and that they were better to hold them then to change so Mr Calvins discipline was accepted And as his name grew famous so was his discipline taken up by the French reformed Churches and Scotland and by some exalted in their Sermons so high that they have said that a Minister with his Eldership hath power given from God to excommunicate even Kings and Princes Beza and Erastus hath canvased this point of discipline The first saith that excommunication is a most necessary discipline and Erastus denieth the necessity of Lay Elders to be Ministers thereof By others it hath been cried up for the Lords discipline Mart. Marpr in l. 3. p. 8. yea and that all Christian Churches ought to receive it whether the governors of it will or not And England hath been threatned by libels that since the Brethren cannot prevaile by Petition to Prince Parliament and Councill we must thank our selves if such means be used to bring in discipline as will make all our hearts to ake And I beleeve such hath been used of late years but the disciplinarians have been prevented of their end by men of an higher genius then they have But this hath been the Helena that hath caused so much sharp contentions Mathe. It seemeth that Calvins discipline aimed at a parity of Clergy and Laitie which is the fourth point held by the Anabaptists of which I desire your judgement Phila. Calvin did indeed make them equall in censuring others by his discipline but not as the Anabaptists do for they would have no distinction between Clergy and Lay-men no not in exercising the ministeriall office but that all men perform it that will if gifted But God hath distinguished them as he did Aaron from the Levites and the Levites from the Laity yea before the Law there was that distinction Melchisedech was the Priest of the high God and it seems very nature taught it for Jethro was Priest of Midian And Egypt had Priests too distinct from other men And Christ said to his disciples go yee and teach all nations And St Paul doth plainly distinguish between the Pastor and flock Acts 20.28 and saith they that are taught should communicate to the teacher Gal. 6.6 for all the body must not be an eie or tongue Methinks the judgement that God hath shewed upon men usurping that office should be enough to convince the evill of this opinion as upon Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.31 Upon Miriam Vzza 2 Sam. 6.7 and Vzziah 2 Chro. 26.21 Mathe. They say there is no difference between a gifted Layman and a Clergyman but only ordination which adds no power to a man Phila. Yes it doth for though sufficiency or rather competency of gifts may enable a man to the office yet that ability cannot authorize him to perform the ministry and therefore he is to look for an outward calling by his superiour Rom. 10.15 for how can they preach unlesse they be sent Now they must be sent by such who by a continued succession from the Apostles can derive their ordinations Helver post c. 18. Bohem. Confes c. 9. Aug. Confes art 14. Wittemb Con. art 20. Bern. in Cant. which was long before the Church of Rome fell from the faith even 1600 years ago which calling of Ministers hath been followed by England and the reformed Church who will suffer none to meddle with the administration of holy things without constitution Against whom St Bernard
concluded her worthy of death or a usurper of Judicature if he had authoritatively condemned her he therefore evades it by putting them in mind of their own sins I know some of them do farther object that we read of none in the New Testament that took secular offices upon them yet that will not prove there was none It is sufficient that we read of men in great office called to Christianity and yet do not read that they left their offices for all that but as St Paul adviseth that every man continue in that wherein he was called as the Eunuch Nicodemus Theophilus a great man of Antioch Publius the governor of Malta Sergius Paulus the Deputy of Paphos Erastus the Chamberlaine But if there were none such to be found yet Christ subjecting himself to Caesars tribute and Pilates judgement argueth magistracy lawfull enough To confirm you farther herein you may observe the practice of magistracy and the approbation of the office in the Confessions and Articles of all Christian Churches Mathe. Have these been only the disturbers of the Protestant Religion in England Phila. No I beleeve you hear of many more abroad yet all of them hold somewhat of the Anabaptists opinions or the Papists Mathe. I have heard of Brownists Separatists Arminians Socinians Familists soul-Sleepers Millenaries Levellers Independents Seekers and Shakers of whom I desire to be informed Phila. The Brownists next to the Anabaptists Brownists have much troubled the Church They are called so of one Robert Brown who was School-master of the Free School of St Olaves in Soathwark Vid. Mr Giffords Treause and dreamed like a Donatist of a singular separated Church from the Catholick and imagined he must erect it or separate from the English Church Mr Fox that writ the Martyrologie lookt upon him as one that would set the Church on fire vet he found followers and preached to them in a gravell pit about Islington He departed our of England but returned again and repented and died a member of the Church of England and Parson of a Church in Northampton-shire and if I mistake not was called a-A-Church and if so then he that would be of no Church died Parson of a-A-Church But he had poisoned many which proved Separatists not only from the Church of England and all other reformed Churches but even one from another as the two Johnsons did Prophane Schismat p. 60. the younger libelling upon the Elder in print with many opprobries the elder cursed his brother and father with all the curses of Gods book This separation they confirmed with excommunications nor would Francis be reconciled to his father at his death but sent him even to his grave with the curse These in their separation agree with the old Donatists and new Anabaptists in conceiving that they be only the true Church and that the Gospell is preached no where nor by any truly but themselves and therefore will receive the Communion with no other and they that have gifts may preach and that in the Church there ought to be a parity and will not serve God in Churches because they have been defiled with Popery as if the Babylonish garment and the gold of Jericho may not be consecrate to God though it have been to an Idoll since the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof We are by nature worse then any Church can be made yet God accounts us holy when we are dedicated to him St Paul did not think himselfe the worse defiled because he sailed in the ship called Castor and Pollux two of the heathens gods They will not say the Lords Praier nor endure spirituall governors nor allow paiment of tithes though God did and neither Christ nor his Apostles gainsaid it 1 Cor. 11.8 Nor do they love any ancient customes of the Church as Fonts nor Churches themselves which they call steeple houses nor bels nor Organs It may be they would be called together like the Turks by a Crier on the top of their Meschilis or as some Sects have been by a great Horn. Or had rather sing out of tune then be directed to make a comely symphony I have read of a people that love to do the best things in the worst manner Herodot hist as to make their morter with their hands and mould their bread with their feet They are very erroneous about Gods attributes accounting some of them not essentiall as that love is not of the being of God but that the same love is also in us 1 John yet St John saith that God is love Yet are they very uncharitable in not suffering husband and wife to forgive each other a fault of incontinence though willing to live together but will excommunicate the innocent party if the or she do forgive Yet sure God gives such an example Jer. 3.1 in a higher case of mercy in himselfe though he alloweth not that a woman divorced and marrying another should be received again of the first husband but sheweth that he having not divorced the Church of Israel he would receive her again though she had spiritually committed adultery with Idols They be extreme virulent railers upon our Church and all her Rites so you may know their spirit by their tongues and from whence it is fiered They magnifie their own Sect as Simon Magus was by the Samaritans to be the great power of God Proph. Schism p. 76. but I leave them to canvasse one another as Mr John doth Mr Robinson and and his Deacon whom he cals Noddies Nabalites Doegs Pharisees Shimeites c. They also pretend Scripture for that which Scripture never allowed as to have ordination and excommunication by the multitude that the people should chuse their Pastor that a Pastor and a Doctor distinct in office should belong to every Assembly They avoid our Congregations as prophane Proph. Schism of the Brownists p. 20. p. 27 30.39 but let who will look into their prophanenesse and equivocations to excuse wickednesse and let him forsake the English Church if he can Their singing is confused and yet not every day a new song and so the spirit is confin'd in their Psalms for which they condemn set forms of praier Their prophecying is but censuring other Churches sometimes applauding Sâ— Mr Simson complains of Mr Answ Church and sometime contradicting one another and by that have been divided into divers sorts and called by divers names as Barronists Wilkinsonians Johnsonians Ainsworthians Robinsonians They have been noted to be extream in correction of their servant-maids yea The story of Stedley and Mansfeld their wives with as much undecency as severity But I will not trouble my selfe nor you with such relations but rather desire you to take heed of Schisme and Heresie 1. Because of the evill of it in it selfe 2. Because of the punishment God hath brought upon such Mathe. I pray let me know that Phila. First Heresie and Schisme is a greater sin against humane
fulfill it Mat. 5.17 or why doth the Apostle say that he doth not by his preaching up faith to justifie a man Rom. 3.31 make void the Law but establish it surely by accepting it for a rule of an holy life though not either to justifie or condemn us but to walk according to it out of love to righteousnesse Rom. 7.22 Again 18. They say a man is not bound to pray except the spirit moveth him yet Paul saith pray continually and Peter bids us be sober and watch to praier as if it were a duty and if we look upon it as a duty then we are to do it without expecting farther incitation by immediat infusions So they say that the spirit works in hypocrites by gifts and graces but in Gods children immediatly but then they need not take heed it seems to the sure word of prophecy as saith St Peter which he prefers for the Churches establishment before that of revelation calling it a more sure word of prophecy 2 Pet. 18 19. So they pretend that a Minister that hath not this new light cannot edifie them that have it I wonder then how the Apostles edified the Church who had not this new light or dark lanthorn rather of vaine opinions for I have shewed you that they are contrary to the Apostles doctrins or if their light were the most saving grace of God yet a man that hath it not may edify others by preaching salvation to others though himselfe be a castaway So they say no Christian ought to be prest to the duties of holinesse This is to make the world beleeve that there is no need of preaching 2 Tim. 4.2 yet St Paul bids Timothy to preach in season and out of season and Titus to rebuke and exhort with all authority Tit. 2.15 Mathe. What other Sects troubled the Protestant Church Phila. The Arminians revived the heresie of Pelagius Britto who lived in the daies of the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius who held that men by nature might fulfill the whole Law of God and denied originall sin and said that men were sinners by imitation only of Adams not by carnall propagation contrary to Psal 51. And that children had no need of baptisme for remission of sin and that the Godly men in Scripture that confessed their sins did it for example sake rather then out of guiltinesse whom St Augustine sufficiently confutes and their tenets were condemned by the fift Councill of Carthage in the year 419. as hereticall Also by the Milevitane Councill in Numidia The patron of the Arminians was one Jacobus Arminius professor of Divinity at Leyden in the Low Countries in the year 1605. his followers are called Remonstrants Now as Pelagius being driven from Rome came into England and infected it with his errors though by the travels of Germanus Altisidorensis and Palladius sent hither by Caelestinus Bishop of Rome the land was freed from his poison So Arminius infected England by his writings and his well-wishers such as Conradus Vorstius but was reasonably well stopt by the diligence of King James in sending over certain learned and grave Divines to the Synod of Dort Yet neverthelesse these errors have found many favourers in England though they are against Scriptures and the Articles of the Church of England As concerning prepestination they deny it by saying that it is only the will of God to save them that beleeve and persevere and that there is no other decree of election contrary to Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved and Eph. 1.4 he hath chosen us to salvation before the foundation of the world So Ro. 8.30 whom he hath predestinated them he hath also called So they say election is of faith not of persons but Paul saith God hath called us according to his purpose in Christ before the world 4. That election of us to faith presupposeth in us honesty and humility and a disposition to eternall life whereas it is election that causeth such vertues and not they election Ephes 2.3 4. for by nature we are only given to fulfill the will of the flesh and are by nature the children of wrath as well as others but God who is rich in mercy Rom. 9.11 hath quickned us c. for election is not of works but of him that calleth for he loved us first 1 John 4.10 So 5. They say election is not unchangeable but a man may withstand Gods decree Mat. 24.24 but Christ saith the elect cannot be seduced for Christ loseth not those that are given to him John 6.39 and therefore the chaine holds from election to glorification Rom. 8.30 which certainly is the joy of Gods people that their names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 and therefore none can charge them nor condemn them Rom. 8.33 So 6. They make election generall which is a contradiction Rom. 9.18 God hath mercy on whom he will And to some it is given to know the mysteries of Christs Kingdome not to others Mat. 13.11 to babes and not to the worldly wise Mat. 11.15 16. Mathe. What farther errors hold these Arminians Phila. They say that the cause why God sends his Gospell to one people and not to another is not only Gods good pleasure but because one nation is more worthy then another Deu. 10.14 15 yet Moses told Israel that God chose their fathers out of meer love And Christ said that Chorazin and Bethsaida were a worse people then those of Tyre and Zidon Mat. 11.21 So they say that God ordained Christ to die without any certaine determination of saving any particular man or people Isa 53.10 yet Isaiah saith that when he shall make his soul an offering for sin that he shall see his seed And Christ saith I know my sheep and I lay down my life for my sheep So they teach that God did not intend to establish a new Covenant of grace with man by Christs blood but to make any covenant with man whatsoever either of works or grace But Christ is called the surety of a better estament than was before viz. of works Heb. 7.22 whereby we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption of Christ So they say that all are received into grace and favor alike in the Gospel-covenant and none shall be condemned for originall sin and yet Christ saith I pray not for the world but for those thou hast given me out of the world They say also that God confers equally the benefits of Christs death to men but the cause why some men have them and not others is by reason of their free will chusing it and not of Gods singular gift of mercy effectually working thereunto yet St Paul saith it is not in him that willeth or runneth but in God that sheweth mercy So they say Christ died not for those whom God loved and chose to eternall life because they had no need of it But they perceive not that they were chosen
away that power from the people and setled in the Governors of the City to propound three two Novella Consti 123. or one orthodox and holy man without partiality and the Bishops were to ordaine him and if in six months this was not done then the Metropolitan might settle one So that we may see that the peoples election was not founded on Gods command but upon the reason of humane government and was subject to the Lawes and Canons of Princes and Priests Dist 61. S. for the rule was that in the choice of Priests the people was not to be followed but taught and therefore their power may be forfeited and transferred to the superiour and therefore if the multitude have a right then the Magistrate much more And we find that election of Bishops by default abuse or petition hath devolved to the Prince being a Christian Therefore lest variance should arise as oftentimes it did about the choice of a Bishop Theodosius the Emperor commanded the Bishops then present with him to settle Proclus in the Episcopal chair before Maximianus successor to Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople was buried Pelagius being chosen Bishop of Rome without the Emperors consent was excused by Gregory Platina in Pelag 2. because the Town was besieged and no messenger could passe to the Emperor Greg. Ep. l. 1. c. 5. Dist 62. S. breviter which Gregory was by the Emperor chosen Bishop of Rome without popular votes The Canon Law in this case hath a good rule viz the people is to present the Clergy to elect the Prince to consent Mathe. How came this to Princes hands at first Phila. There were at first few great Princes Christians and so could have no right in this businesse of electing Bishops 2. Bishops though they had greater authority than Presbyters yet they had no endowment but from the common charity and therefore the people after the Apostles time might justly expect some hand in the choice of them and so they had For Fabianus the nineteenth Bishop of Rome was chosen by their full consent and so they generally had it till after Constantine the Emperour But we read of Theodosius the elder commands the Bishops to give him a catalogue of such whom they thought fit to be made Bishop of Constantinople Sozom. l. 7. They did and the Emperour chose Nectarius one not yet baptized and hardly known yet the Councill though he was neither chosen by Clergy nor people thought it their duty after that he was baptized to pronounce him Bishop of Constantinople And this power in Princes arose sometimes from the desire of the Clergy as when Valentinian willed the Bishops to elect a Bishop of Millane to succeed Auxentius the Synod praied him being wise and religious to chuse one So sometimes by reason of differences in the choice it hath been referred to the Emperour and sometimes in regard of favour the Emperour had shewed to them in recalling them from banishment building Cities and Churches for them and giving them endowments to those Churches whereby the people were the more eased and the Bishops more free in the exercise of their function And this was much like the right of patronage which was alwaies allowed and is still with us here in England But if we search antiquity we shall find Synods allowing this power to Princes viz. that no man shall be ordained Bishop without the King Conc. Aurel. 51. Greg. Turonici hist Fran. The Kings of France kept this power and so have our Kings of England to themselves neither suffering Clergy nor people to meddle in the choice but by roiall assent no not the Pope himselfe Henry the first of England sent the Pope word that he would not lose the investiture of his Churches Mat. Paris in Hen. 1. an 1103 for the losse of his Kingdome And no wonder if Emperours and Kings looked narrowly to this power of which as the Pope did strive to rob them on the one side so did the Presbytery on the other Therefore the Statute of Provisors of benefices Stat. Edw. 3. anno 25. Westmo provides cleerly for the King in electing Bishops or collating Bishopricks And this is no more then was allowed to those that founded Churches and gave maintenance to them viz. to present a Clerk for they gave the Church so did the King Ansegilus legum Franciae lib. 1. cap. 84. Statut. de Marlebride Novella Consti 123. cap. 18. but neither King nor patron did consecrate or ordain nor may any Bishop nor authority refuse such being men of good life and learning if they doe the Plea of Quare impedit lieth against them The same liberty was given of ancient times by the Councill of Toledo an 654. And the Roman Lawes determined the same throughout the Empire by all which you may perceive how Princes had the power of electing Bishops Mathe. But I have heard some holy Fathers and Councils to have been against receiving of Bishops from the Princes Palace Phila. It is true Epist Athan. ad solit vitam agentes Athanasius saith that there is no Canon that a Bishop should be sent out of the Palace But Athanasius speaketh of such as were sent from Constantius the Emperour and placed in the Churches by force of his souldiers which was an invasion of the Churches rites because they had no admission by the Bishops So it is true that the second Councill of Nice alledged a Canon Nic. Syn. 2. Can. 3. that all elections of Bishops Presbyters or Deacons made by the Magistrate are void because a Canon saith that if any Bishop obtaine a Church by the help of the secular magistrate let him be deposed and put from the Lords Table and those that communicate with him But this Councill did not deny power to the Emperor or Prince to nominate but to impose a Bishop by his own command against both the Metropolitan and other Bishops admittance and ordination Nic. Syn. 2. Can. 3. Conc. Paris Can. 8. who should properly admit and ordaine them So the Council of Paris will have no Bishop imposed upon the people with the other Bishops leave viz. the Metropolitan and his Com-provincials for if any such were no man should accept him for Bishop And this was decreed long before in the Apostles Canons saying Can. Apost 30. If any Bishop resting on worldly governors by their help obtain a Church let him be deposed and excommunicated and all that join with him Mathe. How did the Bishops govern the Church Phila. They followed the Apostles rule namely to order their speciall congregations by their own singular power but in a matter wherein the whole Church was interessed they governed by Synods and Councils as the Apostles did also Acts 15. which Councils they at first before there was a Christian Magistrate called by consent among themselves or by the chiefe Bishop among them So there were two Synods summoned in Asia about reformation of the
Church and ordaining Bishops Others at Ancira in Galatia and in France and at Antioch against Montanus Others at Rome about the celebration of Easter But when the Emperour Constantine turned to the Christian faith he called the generall Councill of Nice in Bythinia against Arrius who denied Jesus Christ the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father which opinion was there condemned and accursed and Easter day setled to be kept upon the Lords day and not on the Jewes fourteenth of Nisan And so Councils were usually called till the Pope usurped the power striving to wrest it from the Emperour and to set himselfe above Councils But had Charls the fift dealt as roundly with him about the Councill of Trent as the Emperour Sigismund did in the Council of Basil it had not been twenty five years in calling nor so long in sitting and so little good done But that they governed the Church by Councils it may appear from the great Councill of Nice Concil Nic. Can. 5. Con. Ant. Ca. 20 which decreed that there should be in every Province a Synod twice a year So concluded the Councill of Antioch so did the first Councill of Constant Can. 2. So the Council of Chalcedon Can. 29. So the third Council of Toledo Can. 18. So the second Councill of Turo Can. 1. And so good and approved was this government that when the Synod of Antioch sixty years before that of Nisen had condemned Paulus Samosatenus for heresie and he would not yeeld up his Church but kept it by violence they complained to the Emperour Aurelianus an heathen and he drove him out to his shame from Antioch Mathe. Why then are Bishops so much cried down in these latter times Phila. 1. By that spirit that lusteth to envy And 2. By selfe love which if it cannot swell us to be as big as others we do strive like Satan to pull down others to be like our selves 3. By covetousnesse which loves to part Christs coat or to cast lots for it many had rather cloath themselves with the Churches means then Christs merits and wrap themselves warm in his coat rather then trust to the purchase of his Crosse These are the motives whatever the pretences are or else why was not the Abby and Bishops lands reserved to pious uses I beleeve the Commonwealth was more rich by the Churches leases then ever she was by the Churches purchases The Farmer then grew from a Yeoman to a Gentleman and most of the purchasers are now fallen from Gentry to beggery But beside all this it is no wonder if that be cried down in these times of Libertinisme Hieron in 1. Epist ad Titum which was set up for the preventing of schism and heresie whose ground is alwaies pretended liberty of conscience which kind of people are alwaies adverse to Christ and his Spouse the Church and therefore ever persecute the overseers of the flock Cypr. Ep. 55. that they may the better adorn themselves with the ruines of the Church and are no doubt the followers of the great Antichrist and forerunners of the last apostacy of this world since the Church hath been governed by them Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148 for 1500 years and upward or by none or else by a disorderly confusion as we see in those Churches who have cast off Episcopacy as in Switzerland where a Lay man is President of their Consistory And at Zurick and Basil their Consistories are wholly Lay and Ministers are only to advise Yea in other places Ministers are not so much as assistants so that they may use their Ministers like minstrels and chuse whether they will hear them or no for they have no power nor hardly a right derivation of their ministry from the order of Christ and his Apostles Mathe. Whether can you derive your own aright having originally received it from Rome by Popish Bishops Phila. You think it seems that our Bishops took their ordination there at first or that there were no Bishops in England to ordain others but they must needs travell to Rome for it or take it from Rome by delegation and if so you take our Bishops and ministry to be meerly antichristian But suppose we had it from thence that will no more prove our ministry antichristian or popish then our very Bible Gospell or Baptisme if we received it from thence For superstition cannot annihilate the ordinances of God given at first from Christ no more then building stubble upon the foundation can destroy it or than a spring water is utterly spoiled by running from a rock through a clay But our Bishops and Presbytery we derive from the Apostles as we do also our Protestant doctrine professed which though held in unrighteousnesse in the Church of Rome like a captive for a time yet at last redeemed it selfe and came to light and shewed it selfe the true child of God begotten at first in Rome by the word of truth from which shee deviating the truth chose another foster-mother to dwell withall that will maintain her with goods and life and not forsake her to the death So our Bishops and Clergy came not at first from Rome though Rome hath made bold to invade the Church of England But for the first three hundred years after Christ the Pope had nothing to do out of his own Diocesse as may be seen by the Councill of Ephesus order Con. Ephes p. 1. act 7. made in the behalfe of the Cyprian Bishops against the Patriarch of Antioch who challenged their ordination That Councill decreed that the Cyprian Bishops should not be violated in their right and also that no Bishop should busie himselfe afterwards in anothers Province or invade others priviledges Ruff. hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 6. which they enjoied from the beginning By which the Bishop of Rome was shut up within his owne City and Suburbs And we find for certain that the Brittish Bishops did not acknowledge any obedience due from them to the Pope Spel. Conc. anno 601. which they must needs have done if they had their ordination from him and they had reason to stand upon it being Brittany was the elder Church planted by Joseph of Arimathea in Tiberius Caesars time Gild. de conq Brit. and Peter came not to Rome till the second year of the Emperor Claudius to settle that Church Mathe. How came the Brittish Bishops to be consecrated Phila. Some think by those that came with Joseph of Arimathea into England having Apostolike authority such as Simon Zelotes who was crucified in Brittany Jerom. in Catal. script Eccles Others think that some were ordained by Eugaâ—ius and Damianus whom Elutherius Bishop of Rome sent to baptize at the request of King Lucius himselfe and people And if it were so there is no reason to find fault with our Bishops succession from thence he being an holy man and martyr and his two messengers being faithfull Pastours
But the Brittans being conquered by the Saxons we find that the Saxon Bishops were consecrated by Austin whom Gregory the first Bishop of Rome had formerly sent to bring the Brittans to his three rules First that the Brittish Clergy should be subject to the Bishop of Rome Secondly that they should conform to the Roman custome about the celebration of Easter Thirdly that they should join with him in preaching to the Saxons All this they Synodically refused so that Austin was fain to return to Rome to be consecrated himselfe and then to consecrate the Saxon Bishops alone without the assistance of any other Bishops Now they denying thus to be subject to Rome makes others suppose they had their consecration from some Greek Bishops of the East because they stood for the celebration of Easter with the Greek Church which yet was a schisme from the Councill of Nice who decreed it to be kept contrary to the Eastern custome and agreeable with the Church of Rome yet this sheweth that Brittish Bishops had no dependance on the Roman Bishop no more then they of the East who were consecrated without the Bishop of Rome's authority according to the Canons of the Councill of Nice Theodor. in lib. 5. cap. 9. that three of the Bishops of the same Province might consecrate another Bishop as occasion offered it selfe No doubt but Episcopacy was setled in England by the first Christians that came thither as Joseph and Simon Zelotes who having converted King Lucius and many of his people Clem. Epist 1. ad Jacobum fratrem Domini that King took away the Druids and Flamins and heathen Temples and divided them into Bishopricks which was an apostolicall constitution and as Vicar of Christ in his Kingly Office did settle fit men to supply those places and to be in authority over others upon which ground I suppose other succeeding Kings followed him as Ethelwald made wilfrid Bishop of South Saxons Malm. de Gest Pont. Aug. p. 257. and King Alfrid made Oenewolphus Bishop of Winchester Edward the Confessor made Robert a Monk Bishop of London and afterward Archbishop of Canterbury And as the Saxon Kings so did the Norman Kings the like For William the Conquerour chose Lanfrank to be Archbishop and King Rufus chose Anselm to be Archbishop of Canterbury And the Popes laied no claim to the English Churches patronage till the reign of Henry the first And we find anciently in the Greek and Latine Churches the Emperor did elect and erect Bishops and that by the desire of Synods as Valentinian the Emperour was so sollicited by the Synod of Millane So the Emperor Theodosius commanded the Bishops to set up Proclus for Bishop to succeed Maximian Theod. l. 4. c. 6. Soe l. 7. c. 90. Greg Ep. lib. 1. cap. 5. So Gregory the first was appointed by the Emperour Mauritius to succeed Pelagius Bishop of Rome whom the Pontificall it selfe in the life of Pelagius 580 years after Christ admireth as a new and strange accident that he was chosen Bishop without the Emperours consent though the reason was because the Longobards then besieged Rome so straitly that none could passe to the Emperour for his consent And this continued and upon some failings by occasions Dist 63. S. Adrianus was renued to the Emperor as by Pope Adrian to Charlemain and by Leo the eighth after Adrian 130 years in a Synod to Otho that he and his successors should appoint the Bishop of Rome by Ring and Staffe which continued in the Emperours 300 years after and was restored to Henry the fift anno 1111. by Pope Paschalis the second and was never taken from them but by treachery And the same course the Kings of France and England have alwaies used Greg. Turonens bist 10. c. 31. The Statutes of England make it plaine saying that the Church of England is founded in the state of Prelacy within the Realm by the King and Peers thereof 35. Edw. 1. Stat. of Carlile and denieth all the incrochments of the Bishop of Rome which is declared farther in the Statute of provisors and in the reign of Richard the second 16. Ric. 2. c. 5. But this was but only their election and appointment to the place by the Prince their consecration was done by the Clergy namely by the Metropolitan some of his comprovincials according to the Canon of the Nicen Synod Nic Syn. 2. Ca. 3 But how the three Archbishops and the twenty eight Bishops in the time of King Lucius Or appointed to that dignity by the King being Presbyters before for a Bishop is but a Presbyter exalted about two hundred years before that Councill were consecrated is somewhat questionable except done by some of the Eastern Patriarchs or Bishops whose opinion about the celebration of Easter the Brittish Bishops held a long time according to the old rule Obedience followeth ordination Mathe. Why are some men such enemies to Bishops Phila. By envy of their dignity and place as I have said before which makes men swell as the toad in the Fable to be as big as the ox Others out of selfe love and conceit that they like Absolom could do much better if they had their places Others out of a desire of parity And some out of covetousnesse like Judas to put Christ and the Churches portion into their purse and so raise themselves because they cannot be raised and speak evill of others because no body can justly speak well of them For these reasons many have troubled the Church and turned Schismaticks and Hereticks As Thebulis Eus hist l. 4. c. 21. because he could not be a Bishop corrupted the Church with grosse opinions from whence sprung many sects and wretched Hereticks So Arrius because one Alexander had the dignity which he desired Theod. l. 1. c. 2. he broached that damnable heresie that Christ was not of the same substance with the Father So Donatus because he could not be Bishop of Carthage before Cecilianus he pretended that none were of the true Church but himselfe and his followers Aug. de heres c. 22. So Aerius that giddy brain'd heretick said there was no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop with whom the Acephali may be sharers though sprung from one Severus Antiochenus men without an head or without wit so called because they would not live under an head Governor or Bishop Niceph. lib. 18. cap. 45. Eccl. hist except necessity drew them to it and thought they might add their fancies to the Creed it selfe as some in our time that think it lawfull enough to patch up a new Religion with old heresies or new inventions But though these men are against Bishops yet I could wish they were not against Episcopacy lest they fall into the very quintessence of schisme for Bishops may be regulated yet not Episcopacy be extirped since it hath been alwaies held and found to be the bond of Church-union and
in the Primitive time the people stood up at praier every Lords day from Easter to Whitsontide to argue their belief of Christs resurrection which is not now enjoin'd or used So the French prophecie or preach with their heads covered to shew their dominion of teaching their people are uncovered to shew their subjection to his doctrin which is contrary to the Apostles order to the Corinthians All ceremonies are not so fit for all times the Church hath liberty to settle or abrogate them as shee seeth cause which liberty no wise man ever denied the Church but holdeth significant ceremonies to be profitable for the people Calv. opusc p. 344. Calv. instit lib. 4. cap. 10. Chem. Exam. part 4. tract de Imag. p. 13. Zeppe Leg. Mos l. 4. c. p. 312 Juni cont lib. 4. p. 283. Chem. Exam. part 2. p. 32. so that such a mean be kept that Christ be illustrated not obscured I beleeve upon this ground it is that Luther Chemnitius and Calvin allow of pictures in the Church done by way of historicall narration both for ornament and remembrance without any superstition So Holydaies are and may be celebrated in remembrance of some speciall benefit received from God about that time or by some eminent person that he hath emploied for the Churches good And indeed none of these things were thought superstitious till opinion of merit and of efficacious operation was annexed to them But to conclude if ceremonies of humane institution being significant to some duty which Gods worship requireth be unlawfull I see not but men may refuse to take a lawfull oath because ones laying their hand on the book and kissing it Deut. 6.13 signifieth a worshipping God the author of that book in taking the oath and that one doth aver the truth of his conscience towards man as well as his faith towards God in so doing Nor can a man keep the Lords day religiously if it be not a mystical and significant sign to him of the resurrection of Christ past Heb. 4.9 and of our spiritual rest from sin of that eternal rest which is promised to the people of God Nor do I see how people can have any religious respect to Churches if they take them not as signs or shadowes of the celestiall Temple Zanch. de Redemp l. 1. tract de tempt col 703. where the spirits of the faithfull are collected together praising the Lord. Nor can we keep any festivall without casting an eie upon what it relates to in his signification And truly if ceremonies had no signification they were the more fit to be cast out of the Church as unprofitable and as such as the Papists use that want sign and sense Mathe. But having been superstitiously abused they ought rather to be abolished then used in the Church services Phila. Yet in Josh 6.19 the spoile of Jericho is commanded by Joshua to be brought into Gods treasury And Gideon was commanded to take the wood of the idolatrous grove and offer sacrifice Judg. 6.26 We find also that those things which the Jewes abused was continued by godly men Bishops of Jerusalem in the Primitive times as Circumcision though not as a Sacrament but as a sign to shew they came of the line of Abraham So the Feast of Easter was kept by many reverend and worthy Bishops and Martyrs before the Councill of Nice on the same manner and day as did the Jewes but not with the same end as the Jewes did So the Councill of Nice did not abolish the feast of Easter but changed it into the Lords day So the Papists have abused the Lords Supper by erroneous opinions and idolatrous adorations of it which sheweth many good things may be abused and yet are not therefore to be disused this were to deny the use of the Sun because Absalom lay with his fathers concubins in the open light Surely a ceremony washed from superstitious dirt may be used in the Church by mutation or correction Clem. Exam. p. 34. c. 1. Zanc. de Red. in 4. precept p. 678. without utter abscission for they being thus purged are sanctified to holy use And so the Church of England only retained three the Surplice to warn the Minister of purity the Crosse to warn Christians of constancy and kneeling to admonish communicants of humility We know the Papists have abused these and others to superstition but abuse makes nothing evill which is not evill in it selfe And therefore the best reformed Divines have concluded even as ancient fathers have done before them who did not demolish all that was dedicated to idolatrie Calv. opuscul tracb de vitand superst p. 78. but converted them to better use So neither doth Mr Calvin approve of that morosity in men who because some ceremonies of the Papists may not be observed therefore none may yea some non Conformists have written that though the Papists have dedicated Churches to idolatry yet there being a good use for them among us they may be retained as also Popish vestments may be altered and make ornaments for the Church And surely they say well in that and it were good if the rest would not wrest away the liberty of the Church in such things which may make a lawfull use of indifferent ceremonies for conveniency without offence to God Mathe. But yet they are offensive to many good men and therefore to be left off Phila. First we must consider whether they be offensive in themselves or made offensive by the intention of the Church Theo. l. 3. c. 16. as Julian the Apostate set up his image in the Market place among the images of the heathen gods that he that gave eivill respect to his image might be thought also to do honour to them or if they did no respect then they might seem to despise both the gods and the Emperour So he set an Altar neer his throne with a fire upon it and incense upon a table Sozo l. 3. c. 17. and all Officers of his army that came to receive his largesse of gold did first cast some incense into the fire by which many were scandalized or caused to stumble So he caused all the fountains in the region of Antioch to be dedicated to the heathen goddesses and all the meat in the Market to be sprinkled with heathenish holy water yet the Christians were so wise as not to avoid their drink and meat knowing that to the clean all things are clean Tit. 1.15 and also bought what was sold and made no scruple as 1 Cor. 10.25 Then next we must consider whether the offence arises not from our own ignorance and weaknesse and so we be not straitned by the Church but in our own bowels and so like little children that complain their cloaths are to little when their bellies are too full The offence must lie in one of these If it lie in the Agent it is either directly evill as Davids matter of Vriah 2 Sam.
12.24 which was sin or else it is indirectly and so either with or without the intention of the Agent 1. Without his intention as Peter Gal. 2.11 in a partiall complying with the Jewes had no intent to offend the Gentiles 2. With his intention as when men do it of purpose to stumble others So Hereticks by seeming holy and austere have drawn many from the truth as did the Novatians who decreed that men who had fallen by infirmity should never be received again into the Church by which seeming strictnesse they got many followers and continued many years even from the reign of Decius to the reign of Julian and after So we say men may give offences to the weak or to the strong to the strong as Peter was an offence to Christ when he bid him to favor himselfe Mat. 16. for though he spake out of good will yet Christ found it a subtle temptation and so cast it as a stumbling block out of his way 2. To the weak who are not able to distinguish we give offence when we do unadvisedly lay things in their way Mat. 18. which may annoy them before they be aware It is true we are not to offend one of Christs little ones But now things indifferent when they be fully determined by the Church of God we must not be contentious it is not the custome of the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 of which Church we must be more tender then of any particular men 1 Cor. 10.23 But if indifferent things be not at all or but in part determined by the Church of God then we must consider charitably of other mens consciences who are not fully perswaded of the lawfull use of them and therefore they are so far to be used as they may prove no offence to others So 1 Cor. 10.25 Eat and make no question or scruple because God hath given us liberty to use or not use them the earth is the Lords to do thee good but in case of offence against thy brother eat not the earth is the Lords to hurt no mans conscience by my liberty or Gods allowance so that first he saith eat and make no scruple though the Feast was dedicated to Idols for the earth is the Lords and mans superstition cannot abridge thee from the lawfull use of the creature But if a weak brother that is not well satisfied in Christian liberty shall inform thee of the idolatrous Feast saying this meat is offered to idols then use not thy Christian liberty to the wounding of that weak conscience for the earth is the Lords for thee to use lawfully and not licentiously Therefore the Councill of the Apostles Acts 15. though they gave liberty to eat meats that were forbidden by Moses law yet restrained the Christians from things strangled and from blood and things offered to idols left they should offend the Jewish people newly converted to the Christian faith Acts 15.3 So St Paul circumcised Timothy his father being a Greek to shun giving offence to the Jewish converts yet at another time he would not circumcise Titus Gal. 2.3 4. lest he thereby should approve the doctrine of those that imposed upon Christians an absolute necessity of circumcision contrary to the liberty of the Gospell Herein the Apostle carried the matter with great discretion letting religion regulate charity and charity regulate Christian liberty Mathe. But though many things may be lawfull yet not expedient for though one intends no scandall yet it may be taken though not given and therefore such offensive things are to be avoided Phila. Not so for men may be offended at that which must not be avoided for men may be corrupted that take offence in their judgement or in their affections 1. In their judgement as those people were that took offence at Christs doctrine saying that they must eat the flesh of the Son of man else they had no life in them Joh. 6.53 because they understood not the spirituall sense of it ver 52. So in their affection as when by pride men take offence at the simplicity of the Gospell as 1 Cor. 1.23 Christ crucified was to the Jewes a stumbling block and to the Grecians foolishnesse It is true that where there is no declaration of the right use of things indifferent we are to indulge the weak P. M. lo. com class 2. c. 4. p. 201. but where a declaration is or may be had concerning the using or not using such things there we are not to nourish mens presumptions instead of weaknesse I know some pretend that Papists may be the more confirmed in their Religion to see reformed Churches use their ceremonies But I think rather by our reforming what they have abused they may rather see the error of their own religion We may as well refuse their Churches as their ceremonies and they may as well be setled the more in their religion by our not using them but I fear more by abusing them Indeed some ministers have objected against the use of them but yet are now reconciled to them for advantage sake So others say that our use of these ceremonies makes profane persons to contemn all religion but I think rather that mens stripping religion of decent rites doth more confirm prophanesse then clothing of it with decent ceremonies and brings in disparity more then uniformity So some object it is a great hindrance to preachers that cannot conform to them but the necessity of preaching the Gospell ought to overpoize any ceremony because a woe followeth the neglect of one 1 Cor. 9.16 Cartw. replica p. 266. but none for using the other Others say that if some ministers who are non Conformists should submit themselves it were a discredit to them but yet St Augustine wonne himselfe much glory by writing retractations Some again that the command of conformity to a ceremony doth infringe Christian liberty but I say then it must be proved that the Church teacheth that there is a necessity to salvation placed in humane ceremonies or else a necessity of sanctity or of merit or that they must be necessary to Gods worship Indeed if the Church did so I confesse she did destroy Christian liberty V. Calv. Instit lib. 4. cap. 10. Sect. 4. for it is not obedience necessary to mans commandement that infringeth Christian liberty but the opinion of necessity in the matter of command as if to do it were necessary to eternall life This indeed were to offer violence to the scepter of Christ by which a man hath a liberty in things indifferent which invasion the Church of England disclaimeth in the 39 Articles Mathe. God having so setled his Church what is required of it Phila. That it be established in an holy stare of Magistrate Minister and people most agreeable to his revealed truth in Christ that as God the Father was acknowledged by his creation and providence so the Son of God might be worshipped for his redemption and the
in heaven to worship them Therefore the most ancient religious men have set themselves against pictures and images in Churches as did Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus anno 390. as appeareth in his Epistle to John of Jerusalem Epist ad Joan. Jerusal concerning whom see Trip. hist lib. 9. cap. 4. But worst of all is their adoration of the reliques of Saints which hath not any shew of warrant in Scripture nor antiquity but is a meer will-worship Col. 2.23 We find it given neither to Patriarch nor Prophets nor Apostles whose bodies no doubt were more honorable then others till the Church began to be corrupted by idolatry and superstition which they borrowed from heathens and hereticks as Carpocrates who with his Marcellina carried about them little images of silver and gold of Pythagoras Plato Aristotle and also of Christ all which they worshipped Epipha cont Haeres or else from some filthy dreamer Jude ver 8. such an one as Eguainus of the order of Benet an English Monk sware in the Council held in London anno 712. that the Virgin Mary appeared to him in a dream and told him it was her will that her image should be set up in the Churches to be worshipped It was therefore concluded it should be so by Pope Constantine the first and Boniface his Legat then here in England and so images were set up in England It is written Amb. lib. de morte Theodosii that Hellen the Empresse found Christs Crosse but yet she worshipped only him that died upon it But these images and worshipping of reliques might the more easily be obtruded upon the people after that Libraries were destroied by the invasion of the Goths and Vandals by which means ignorance and negligence crept into the Church Much lesse is the signe of the Crosse then to be worshipped as a thing that either sanctifieth or puts the devill to flight as the Papists say for that belongs to the efficacy and merit of Christs death nor have we any command or example in Scripture for so doing It is true that the sign of the Crosse hath been anciently used by Christians as a mark of distinction that they were neither Jewes nor heathens but for worshipping of it or attributing vertue or merit to it I read nothing though I find it used by the confession of Fathers 1400 years agoe even at baptisme Cyprian ad Demet. prop. finem nor thought unfitting by our modern and protestant divines as Bucer Zanchius Zuinglius and others Nor do I think that daies ought to be dedicated to Saints now in the Church triumphant nor to be celebrated in regard of any mysterie inhering to them nor are they more holy then other daies nor the keeping of them a part of divine worship farther then an holy duty done upon that day extendeth it selfe though I know it is lawfull for the Church by a common consent without superstition or idolatry to appoint certain daies for divine duties as to hear the word of God and to pray for the turning away of Gods judgements Aug Epist 128. ad Jan. and to give thanks for benefits received spirituall and temporall As Mordecai appointed the Feast of Purim and Judas Machabeus the Feast of the Dedication But these and all other festivals in the old Testament was set up for the honor of God and so those in the New Testament to the honor of God in Christ one morall in the place of the Jewish Sabbath called the Lords day the other are Ecclesiasticall appointed by the Church in remembrance of what Christ hath done for us But to appoint Holy daies for other use then to God and his worship or to place merit of grace and favor of God in keeping them In vigilis Ap. in fest com Martyrum as the Papists do as appears in their praiers at those times is superstitious so it is also to dedicate such daies to Saints departed I know that some daies of old time hath been kept in the memory of some holy Martyrs for the confirming of Christians in those places where they have suffered but are now out of use Hieron apud Eusebium lib. 4. cap. 14. yet they then did only remember their suffering and gave thanks to God for their constancy in the faith Mathe. What do you count the Church militant to be Phila. That company of faithfull people here upon earth who are governed by one certain head and under his banner do fight against the world flesh and devill and all afflictions in spirituall armour Eph. 6.11 12 13 14 15 16 17. In regard of which battell it comes to passe that the Church militant is not alwaies in one happy state to outward appearance but as Israel and Amaleck one prevailing and sometimes the other like the moon waxing and waining or Noahs Ark sometime tossed on the flood and sometimes resting on the mountain or like Christs ship now in a calm anon in a storm or a lilly among thorns or a childing woman sometimes groaning and anon rejoicing The reason hereof is that God may be known and feared by his Church as a correcting father Pro. 3.13 who will chastise his children for their offences 1 Cor. 11.32 that they may not be disinherited nor condemned with the world the main end whereof is that God may be glorified in delivering of his Church as he was in delivering Israel out of Egypt and from Pharaohs pursuit of them Exod. 15.1 and from the captivity of Babylon Psal 126.2 and that they may learn to hate sin which causeth God to bring afflictions Isa 63.10 and to serve God more sincerely Jer. 31.18 19. by hearty zeal and repentance Rev. 3.19 also that the Church may give an evidence to their profession of the truth Mat. 10.22 and be confirmed to Christ their head Rom. 8.29 who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6.13 and so be distinguished from hypocrites who in time of trouble fall away not understanding that by the crosse the Church is propagated and by dissipation increased and that the blood of martyrdome is the seed of the Church to whom the promise of a better life is made but it must be expected to be performed by hope Mathe. Who is the head of this Church militant Phila. He that is the head of the Church Catholike generally God in Trinity but more particularly Christ who is the Churches mysticall head and she is his body and kingdome Eph. 1.22 and the 4. cap. ver 15 16. and he governeth as her head principally by the scepter of his word and spirit Phil. 2.13 Now thus Christ hath a kingdome naturall or dispensatorie His naturall headship or kingdome is that whereby he reigneth in unitie of essence with the Father and the holy Spirit from all eternity which shall never have an end The kingdome that he hath by dispensation is that free and voluntary kingdome which he received from God for the salvation of
of Princes want discipline yet if the Church be purely visible it hath ordinarily these three notes which indeed freeth it from maintaining error heresie and schisme though all three may possibly be in it 1 Cor. 1.11 and cap. 3.3 1 Cor. 11.19 provided alwaies that the heresie thrust it not into infidelity or cause it not to deprave the doctrines of faith as the Church of Rome hath and so is become adulterous and hereticall So it may be in some things schismaticall so far as to hurt charity not verity by taking occasion unjustly as the Separatists to depart from the Church but not giving occasion to the Church to depart from them as the Papists have done to us like the old Pharisees who gave just occasion to Christ and his Apostles to separate themselves from their traditions Therefore true doctrine is the chiefe note of a true visible Church whereby people are taught as Christs sheep to hear his voice John 10.27 and to continue in his and his Apostles doctrine Acts 2.42 which is the foundation of the Church Eph. 2.20 And for the Sacraments they are commanded by Christ himselfe Mat. 28.19 and Luke 22.19 So also is the administration of discipline set down by our Saviour Mat. 18.17 and used by St Paul 1 Cor. 5.5 upon the incestuous person So that the right use of these must needs be a note of a true visible Church Let the Papists brag of their tearm Catholike I am sure it no way agreeth to them neither in respect of the extension of their Churches bounds which is not universall nor yet in regard of their doctrines which are not according to the Catholike truths confessed by the primitive or orthodox Churches of old and therefore their word Catholike is no note for a true visible Church is not to be judged by a name but by the thing it ought to hold otherwise the Pope like Simon Magus might be thought the great power of God Acts 8.10 Nor doth their boasted antiquity make their Church the more true for many things were said of old which were not intended at the first as they were afterward used Mat. 5. It is not antiquity but his truth that is the ancient of daies that is the note of the Church Aug. Q. 14. vet No. Testam The devill is older then the Church and Idolatry and Paganisme is very ancient and the Jews and the Samaritans pleaded antiquity and held the Gospell of Christ but a novelty yet their Church was not the true Beside if antiquity be a note then the Church Christian and Jerusalem and that of Antioch where Peter taught and sate as superintendent for seven years must be accounted the true Church and not Rome which was planted since but the authority of religion must not be measured by time Cypr. lib. 2. cont gent. Nor doth duration prove it the better for it is neither a proper or inseparable note as appeareth Psal 47.7 8. Rev. 12. And truly the Church of Rome hath not had a continued duration for Bellarmin saith that a Church cannot subsist without a Bishop and the seat of Rome hath been often vacant by wars and schisms among the Popes themselves as hath been formerly shewed you Nor doth their amplitude and multitudes make any thing in this case for them for Satans Kingdome is larger then Christs and his numbers more then Christs little flock who are often like Noahs family in the Ark they have a many of the vulgar Chrysost ad pop Antioch the Church hath a few faithfull one precious stone is worth many toies Nor will succession of Bishops help them to a note for who succeeded Melchisedeck but Christ many hundred of yeers falling between Vid. Athan. laudem in orat Nazian and the place changed also for the Church is not bound to place or persons of men Nor can ordination prove a note since hereticks hath it as well as the true Church neither can we find their ordination alwaies good if Pope Jone was ordained or she ordained any And Liberius the Pope being an Arrian ordained Arrians also Nor doth unity passe for a note except in the faith under one mysticall head Jesus Christ for satan is not divided against satan and very theeves are united together Nor can their miracles prove their Church true because they are false and Antichristian 2 Thes 2.9 and are invented to maintain false doctrines Beside if they were true they were not alwaies a note of a true Church for not only heathen gods have done strange things to perswade their divinity Bel. lib. de notis Eccl. cap. 14. Socrat. hist lib. 7. c. 17. but even heathen men as Vespasian made a blind man see and a lame man walk Mathe. What Church do you hold hath these three notes Phila. The true Christian Protestant Church especially as it was constituted by the first reforming Princes in England for the doctrine thereof is built upon the holy scripture They administer Sacraments in their primitive purity and hold only two generally necessary to salvation i. Baptisme and the Lords Supper rejecting all the spurious Sacraments of the Church of Rome As confirmation which the Church of England did use in a laudable manner and might do much good by using it as it was but not as a Sacrrment for it kept young people in a care to render an account of their faith and Ministers and Parents to teach them Catechisme So pennance was injoined notorious offenders for satisfaction of the Church and to reduce them better manners and to beget fear and shame in others but never held it a Sacrament no more then it did matrimony or ordination As for the fift spurious Sacrament of Rome extreme unction they never used it because not instituted of Christ as a Sacrament It is true Mark 6.13 the Disciples anointed many that were sick with oile and they were healed and St James in cap. 5.14 adviseth them to use oile with praier for the sick but it was no consecrated oile as the papists use Bellar. lib. 1. de extrem unct cap. 3. nor applied for remission of sins to seven parts of their body But you will say we in England at this time want right discipline I answer It is true yet the Church doth maintain it in her doctrines and constitutions but she cannot use it in those times when the shepherd is smitten and the sheep are scattered or else combined against him that they may live at their own liberty without correction by the rod of discipline yea libertinisme is grown to such a height that the disciplinarians themselves who envied the Bishops authority dare not exercise the Presbyterian virge lest they also follow the Bishops dejection Mathe. Might not a Nationall Councill set all right Phila. No doubt it might with Gods blessing so that it were called and impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods
as by remembring his love expressed to us in his death than which none could be greater being endured for us while we were enemies Rom. 5.8 or the horrour of his death being most painfull shamefull fearfull enduring not only the spight of wicked men but an abstraction of the divine comfort for a time so that never was sorrow like his Lam. 1.12 all which was most properly due to us nor remembring the benefits of his death which concerns us as by it the sting of death is taken away though a stain is left the curse of the law is abolished it is to us no killing letter the exaction of the law is nullified we being not bound to every jot and tittle of it for our justification but our weak performances are excepted of God in Christ because we have a right to all Christs righteousnesse and a just claim in him to all the blessings of the law so that neither the corruption of nature can reign over us Rom. 6.14 nor sin bind us over to punishment everlasting and for temporall afflictions they shall all work to our good and glory as they did to Christs Rom. 8.28 Phil. 2.9 Mathe. How may one then rightly remember Christ in receiving the Sacrament and so become a faithfull receiver Phila. These do one include the other For as faith looks upon Christ and his benefits so remembrance cals those things to mind which faith beleeves so that this remembrance must be a beleeving remembrance that the Sacrament presents to us under seal the benefits of Christs death and passion It also must be a thankfull remembrance for those inestimable favours of which I told you Next it must be an obedient remembrance to what he hath commanded and now God in him entreats us to do out of love By all which you may discern how a communicant must be qualified and in what he must especially examine himselfe namely in faith which is the speciall condition of the covenant of grace of which the Sacrament is a seale Now faith must be considered in the cause the nature and the effects of it The causes of faith are the word which is the seed of it and the spirit which is the vertue of this seed both these brings light to discover the darkness of our naturall estate and the comfort in Gospell light Then next a power to regulate and conform us to its own rules and to subdue all opposition 2 Cor. 10.4 Now for the nature of faith it being convinced that the word is of divine authority it gives both an intellectuall assent to the truth of it because God doth avouch it and a fiduciall assent to the goodnesse of it for our own salvation and as to the Word so to the Sacrament which is the seal thereof which goodnesse breedeth in us a love longing and delight in the holy mysteries Upon which followeth an heavenly and holy effect of faith as to desire and hunger after the food of the soule and a strong conversion of it into our soules nutriment and growing in grace by the strength of it more and more Rom. 13. 2 Pet. 2.2 Next a sympathy with Christs members in their griefs and joies Then a readinesse to every good work and a strong repulse of evill upon which followeth affiance in God hope in his promises peace of conscience and joy in the holy Ghost and a continuall fructification in an holy life by the strength of the Word and Sacrament while we walk here in this wildernesse of sin as the Israelites did in the strength of Manna and the Rock-water till we come to the land of everlasting rest Mathe. I thank you for your patience and resolutions of my generall and disordered queries I shall make bold hereafter if God give leave and you will affoord me your assistance in resolving me to trouble you with some other more particular cases But before I part I desire you since there is such divisions among us to tell me what Church you think most safest for one to cleave unto in life and death and what congregation is best to associate my selfe withall Phila. I suppose you find by what hath been said that the Protestant Church is the soundest for doctrine and therefore hold you to their principles of doctrine as they have been set forth and maintained by our * The 39. Articles of the Church of England Church of England in the time of King Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeth and her successors And for matters of discipline it is to be wished that some were setled among us for the suppressing voluptuous living and libertinisme But if it may not be had let us be content with the Gospell preached and pray for reformation As for the Congregation you speak of I hold the publike generally best because Preachers in Churches will make more conscience of what they preach then those of the private conventicles or chambers except it be some that are forced to make such places their refuge to exercise their ministry which in conscience they cannot give over though prosecuted much like as the primitive Doctors were persecuted Mathe. But they that do preach in publike some are of one opinion some of another as Prelaticall Presbyterian and Independent Phila. Let no titles trouble you but trie the spirits whether they be of God by their teaching faith and an holy and good life Let men impose upon others or take up what names they please to themselves be thou content to be a Protestant Christian And for mens private opinions except they publish them to seduce others they must stand or fall to their own master And for joining your selse to a Congregation I will give you no advice but only since you have liberty given use it to the best advantage for your soule by hearing ministers of the soundest judgement and most edifying And because all Congregations are mixed it is best to consort with those that are the most pious in their lives and unanimous in their worship of God Mathe. But some say the learned are not the right Preachers but the plain man though a Tradesman who preacheth by the spirit Phila. Surely the learned are more to be trusted for the soule as a learned Physitian for the body but they go by rule others by rote so do these mechanick preachers they despise learning as some do riches because they despaire to get and so they entitle the spirit to their ignorance of which the spirit is no author but the devill and mans presumptuous sins for the spirit never imploied any about his Church but either he made them able by infusion which they cannot prove he hath them or else by acquisition He gave Isaiah the tongue of the learned as well as Bezaleel and Aholiab the gift of handicraft So Christ took plain men to preach his Gospell but he made them learned by the gifts of the Holy Ghost which he hath not done these So he imploied Paul the learned and
King Henry the eighth to imitate his successors by abolishing his authority in England Now then to your third Question How Reformation went on after King Henry the eighth I have shewed you though that King did write against Luther and abolished the Popes power yet he persecuted the Protestants and those that professed Luthers doctrin of which there were many by reason of his books dispersed in England Luther himselfe was much troubled The Pope sends forth his roaring Bull against him he answereth it and appeals to the next generall Councill But his doctrine was very acceptable to good Christians generally though in some points they differed from him He died in Islebia in the County of Mansfelt Febr. 17. 1546. where he was born Mathe. How thrived the Protestant Religion after Luther Phila. Beyond the seas fell out great troubles A Councill was called at Ratisbone to end controversies of Religion but no agreement and so the Emperour referred the controversie to the next generall or provinciall Councill of Germany but still the popish side desired to suppresse Luthers doctrine but yet decrees against Protestants were suspended yet the fire of malice broke out against them for Henry Duke of Brunsick invaded their Cities the Duke of Saxony resists him in the name of all the Protestants confederate at Smalcaldy and won all his dominions The Emperour and the King of France make peace and both covenant to join to restore the Romish Religion which cost France and Germany great troubles for the King of France sent Minerius Governor of Provence against the Waldenses of whom you have heard who dwelt in some part of that Countrie as in Merindol and Cabriere They of Merindol for fear fled into the woods He spoiled and burned their Towns left desolate Cabriere was delivered upon composition but yet none were spared but some killed in Churches some burned in barns some smothered in caves others sent to the Gallies others starved in the woods But God strook Minerius with a sad disease a fire scorched him within his limbs rotted made bloody urine and died in torments The Emperour Charls the fifth by policy suppresseth these Princes that upheld the Protestants as the Duke of Saxony and others as the Landgrave of Hesse About the year 1546. when the Councill of Trent was gathered to convene where the Emperour and the Pope made a league against the protestants and the Pope gave 200000 Crowns to make war against them to the Venetians and maintained an army for a while to cut them off The Emperour laboured hard with many of the Princes to submit to the Councill of Trent as also the free Cities and in hope they would he desired that the Councill of Trent which was carried from Trent to Bononia might come to Trent again which they refused upon which the Emperour disanulled all they did at Bononia and said he would take care of Religion himselfe And to this end consulted with Princes and Bishops about it who drew out a book of Reformation called Interim to which few would consent and many fled away to other Countries because they would not allow it As Musculus preacher of Ausburgh fled to Switzerland Brentius from Suere to the Duke of Wirtembergh Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius from Germany to England The Pope himselfe would not allow it without correction because it allowed the marriage of Priests and the use of the Sacraments in both kinds though it maintained the rest of the Roman Religion But especially the City of Magdeburgh withstood the book nor acknowledged the Councill of Trent Mathe. How went things now in England Phila. King Edward the sixth now reigning the masse was there forbidden by Parliament and a Book of Common Praier set forth in the English tongue with an order of administration of Sacraments Bonner Bishop of London and Gardiner Bishop of Winchester for their obstinate defence of Romish doctrine were imprisoned But King Edward dying Queen Mary let them out and made great havock of the Protestants and restored the Popes supremacy and the masse in England and got the Parliament to crave absolution of the Pope and Cardinall Pool to absolve the Realm See Fox his Martyrology She neither spared Bishops Ministers nor common people nor spared those who had set her forward to obtain the Crown Her persecution was sharp but God shortned it by her death and Queen Elizabeth whose death was intended succeeded her Mathe. How thrived the Protestants cause now in England and other Countries Phila. In England popish Religion was abolished and the Popes supremacy disanulled King Edwards profession followed Anno 1. Eliza. and his Book of Common Praier allowed again by Parliament But Ferdinand the Emperour succceeding Charls the fift would endure no alteration of Religion and Henry the second King of France would not admit it neither but moved persecution but he being killed by the splinter of a spear at Tilting Francis the second his son succeeds and marrieth Mary Queen of Scots of the Guisian Family which Family endeavoured to abolish the Protestant Religion in France and sent an army into Scotland too for the same purpose which by the aids of Queen Elizabeth was forced to retire This King of France by the advice of the Guisians called a nationall Councill at Orleance under colour to settle Religion But there the Prince of Condie was seized upon and accused of practise against the King But this King shortly died and the Prince of Condie was cleared by a Parliament at Paris and young King Charls the ninth was committed to the care of the Queen Mother and the King of Navar. These governors appoint a disputation by the advice of the States of the Realme at Poyssie 1561. which was four years before Calvin died where Theodore Beza preacher of Geneva and Peter Martyr and Marlorat and the protestant party had the better and the popish side as the Cardinall of Lorain and others concluded with them that Christians do eat in the Sacrament spiritually by faith the body of Christ which died for for us although the Doctors of Sorbon would not agree thereto and so that disputation broke off After which the number of protestants increased and much fear there was of uproars But the Queen Mother assembled the estates at St Germane and made an Edict in January that the professors of the reformed Religion should assemble to hear sermons without the Town and unarmed which grieved the Guisian and popish faction who sought to get the King and Queen Mother into their hands and prevented the King of Navar from the reformed Religion upon hope to have the Kingdome of Navar restored to him againe by Philip King of Spain at the Popes mediation In the mean time the Duke of Guise raiseth an army First Civil war in France and murdered 1500. hundred poor unarmed protestants at Church in the Town of Vassiace neer Champaign Then came to Paris and seized on the King and Queen Mother at Forteblew and