liars so that you must take it then upon the credit of those who by your own principles may as well deceive you as you me Can you tell who wrote that book O yes you name me presently twenty several persons which you can no more prove to be authours of the books than any thing contained in the writings although their names may be there prefixed Those persons at least as they were men of several conditions priests kings lawyers poets historians fishermen doctours so did they live in several times and places of the world and differ both in these things and also in their very stile and manner of writing as much as any can do A brachman in India teacher of morality two thousand years ago William the conqueror King of England six hundred years ago dictatour of our law and our Sir Kenelm Digby Knight and Philosopher lately author of a Natural Philosophy Do these three differ any more then St. John Moses and Salomon either for time place condition or stile of writing I trow not how then came all those with so much diversity of their own to write the word of God more than these and how they and no other Who first gave them their autority or was it given or onely declared and by what power and vertue could it be declared by any that knew them not and lived so long after them How com laws poems sermons histories letters visions so many several fansies in such diversity of composure to be dictated from one divine hand and how do they conspire together in such variety of times to make at length one vlume of faith And yet too they must not all be either of signification or validity just as they lye and sound but some in this manner some in that Moses law must not bind in its judicial or ceremonial part which makes up in a manner all the whole Pentateuch but onely in the truth of story and morality some books must be taken according to the literal sense and not in any mystical one some in the mystery and not the letter and som again according to both What shall guide us in these things a parable must not be looked on as a story nor yet morallised in all its pars but onely in the capital intention no words must be culled forth to prove any thing out of the road of his mind and purpose who spake them no axiom of holy writ is to be taken by halves nor yet in any sense was not thought of by the authour an objection is not to be proposed for a conclusion nor any trope or metaphor perverted all words must speak to the writers scope not against it as he made them to do who brought texts against veneration of Saints out of St. Jo. Chrysostoms speeches made expresly in honour of them and others against monarchy drawn out of the book of Kings and many such like cautions there be I cannot now think of What autority or rule shall conduct us in all these uncertainties The Catholick indeed has one by which he passes on uniformly and quietly in the course of his religion as the sun in the firmament without noise or trouble but others jumble and justle one against another like coaches in a street O the Scripture and truth therein contained will discover it self Does it not very fairly whiles we are all of us together by the ears not for the Bible but with it You must beleeve What should I beleev and why I expect a perswasion to beleev not a command and to hear not that I must beleev but what and not onely what to credit but why and wherefore O but you may discern in these writings the very marks of Gods hand appearing Though there be such marks yet it seems by our many divisions we cannot read of our selves what those marks would have or what Church and doctrin they would establish and to whom can those marks appear to be Gods but to them only who have seen Gods hand aforetime or stood by him when he wrote Porphirius was as good a marks-man and understanding Philosopher as perhaps ever was and yet he deserted Christianity and all the whole Bible for want of the marks of divinity in it as others for the same reason have at times rejected many particular books I justifie neither him nor them but only speak thus much to show how instable a thing man is when he relyes upon his own judgment Have not we known wicked hypocrites to speak as fine words as any be in scriptur and by those their marks to deceiv many and I doubt not but Antichrist when he appears will do so But how came this book into England for it was not it seems any part of it written here It was brought hither you will say at the lands first conversion all of it together in one volume If this be true as true indeed it is then we had it from the Pope of Rome whether we speak of the conversion of Englishmen or Brittons And shall I build my beleef upon the autority of a book if indeed it could make it out sent us from him whom our own ministers do publickly proclaim to be an impostour and antichrist or can I in reason so condemn him and not suspect it If he did not onely present it us but made his catholick beleevers with so much labour and industry to transcribe it all the world over before printing was invented as a sacred and venerable thing a man might think in reason there were somthing in it to favour him and his religion which being once accepted under the notion of divine writings men would not easily dare to contradict and nothing at all against him O but the Pope did not make the book nor any of his predecessors This is more than either you or I can prove sith that book so much of it as belongs to Christianity was never found in our countrey but as taken and sent from him and it is no hard matter to make a book for my own ends and for its ampler autority to father it upon some renowned person the better to promote my design Truly such places as speak so plainly the Churches autority the real presence absolution of sins by man episcopal government and the like papal doctrin are apt enough to suggest such thoughts and some of our first reformers upon that very account did shrewdly suspect and were not afraid to say it that the Pope had at least a finger in many such like places which he might in their opinion easily do when he had once overwhelmed the earth with his mists of errour and made the people so credulous that he might do what he pleased And if I do indeed think the Pope to be Antichrist and a seducer I cannot rationally beleev or trust unto any book he sends me more than I do to his doctrin which he sayes is there grounded sith I have indeed but his word for the autority of
Christian So am I. Have you meditated seriously upon the promises of Gospel and hopes of a future resurrection I have don so too have you lived justly soberly and piously in this world expecting our blessed hopes in the comming of our Lord Jesus in glory I do the same and if I may speak on word secundum insipientiam perhaps more in mortification more frequent more abounding in charity more constant in the integrity of all my dealings more chast and sober less intangled in this present world or any affections therof more affected to my maker and redeemer and I am perswaded that God doth inhabit and dwell within me Why then do you trouble me he was of another spirit who said Siquis aliter sentit Deus ipsi hoc revelabit He that never judged amiss in points of Religion had so much meeknes in him as to conceit if any one in this or that particular thought otherwis than himself that God either had or would reveal it him and so abstained from censuring wheras you condemn all men that think not as you do who for aught I know think aright of nothing The very true beleef and right judgment of things whence is it or how come we by it If it be mans own operation you cannot tell but that I have it If it be Gods work you cannot blame me if I have it not his gifts are free and dispensed as himself pleases Am I in fault or do I deserv to be vext and harassed by my neighbour becaus the Kings majesty hath not given me a chain of gold Whether he hath promised it or no I am sure the performance is only in his hand and my duty being don I cannot in justice be either checkt or beaten for default of the donary which is to com only from above and if my King or God detain it it is a vertue in me to be resigned and think he hath a reason for it altho I know it not and that I have it not may be indeed my misery but not my fault St. Paul having severely chid the people of Corinth in his first Letter he wrote to them for their many disorders and some such like dissentions though in a far inferiour degree as ours in England be and their great obstinacy and feuds therupon with variety of pious rhetorick upon every subject they so contentiously disagreed in insinuated at last that whatsoever they might pretend for those their various Schismes from the power and Spirit of God even as we here do yet God was not indeed and really amongst them at all for God saith he is not the God of dissention but of peace and then he addes a great Oracle which he left behinde him for after ages to stop all dissentious feuds that might ever arise in any people about the preheminence of doctrin in Christianity wherin each one may pretend to be chiefest guide An à vobis saith he verbum Dei processit an in vos solos pervenit Did the word of God proceed from you or unto you only did it com as if he should have said you have not reason you people of Corinth to stand so much upon your opinions in matters of religion or to contest so hotly about them to your mutuall disparagements and breach of peace sith the Gospel and word of God neither came forth from any of you nor yet did it com only to you that any of you should therby and otherwis it could not be presume to be teacher of the rest in opinions and waies they cannot in their reason approve of unles they should prefer your autority before it Here then is prescribed a most oraculous rule both to know whence the right Christian truth is to be deduced in any matter of doubt and whose conduct is to be rejected whatever light or knowledg any one may pretend by way of priviledg for the obtaining over other men the preheminencie of a guide or leader That man or those people who can rightly challenge a power of leading other men in a way of religion must be such and only such as either the word of God came from or unto whom alone the word of God came And it must needs in reason be so for who should teach us in any science or resolv any doubts arising in it but the maister who first shewed it if any such can be found or which at first professed it I ask then all these our religious duellists both Anabaptist and Quaker Presbyterian and Protestant Did the word of God com from you or came it unto you alone and unto which of you did it first come that we may adhere unto that party without dispute He from whom it came must have the primary guidance over all and he unto whom it first came must carry a secondary presidentship over all such as be derived from him but which of you is it that can pretend to either That it came not alone to either our Puritan or Protestant is evidently apparent sith by the testimony of the apostle it went forth unto all the ends of the earth and indeed our own experience and knowledg of severall Kingdomes that be Christian would sufficiently witnes that without any testimony at all and that it came not forth from either of them is as manifest as the other sith the word and Gospel of Christ was in the world many ages before any of those waies were extant and the Puritan with all their factions found that word here in England in the hands of the Protestant and the Potestant it is well enough known wrested it from the Roman Catholick who had lived in it a thousand years before any Protestant was known or heard of in the Land◠and the catholick received it from his Papal Pastour or Bishop the Brittain from Pope Eleutherius the Saxon from Pope Gregory the Great as all histories witness Let us take heed then we incurr not the censur of mad men for pretending with so many furious quarrells both by tongue and pen and sword a precedency in religion one over another where according to this great oracle of S. Paul it is manifest that none of us can have any nay by this rule we cannot have so much as truth amongst us any further then we are conformable unto him from whom the word of God came or to them unto whom it first came and if we make a strict examin we shall find that they unto whom the Gospel in this nation first came were not either Protestants Presbyterians or Independents and he from whom it came was one whom all these do hate Where then is truth and which of these duellists hath the precedency in it I mention not the the Papist or Roman Catholick amongst the rest both becaus he raises not troubles but is on the suffering side oppugned by all opiniasters of what ever kind they be and defamed and vexed by them all who notwithstanding upon the same account of religion defame and
witty jest and jeer and so having given it a flap with a fox tail they pass on soberly to other matters in hand as is commonly done in the pulpits of witty preachers or if they handle it more seriously they do either for their own advantage mistake the doctrin or the proofs they bring against it whether through fraud or ignorance 't is hard to say and the foundations of catholick religion which be tradition and scripture they do so variously expound in severall times and places that one text shall have twenty several interpretations which if they be not catholick pass all for good here and at one time an autority of a father or councel shall be accepted and diversly interpreted in another time and place quite rejected now one piece of catholick doctrine shall be vehemently cryed down and at another time taken up again and maintained and at one and the same time in several parts of the world twenty points for example of catholick faith shall all of them be somewhere received and somewhere rejected amongst Protestants for they being still their own maisters may choos and throw away what they pleas and as long as they list without controul wheras the Romans keeping still one and the same treasury of religion and faith afford matter for them all either to take or leave either to approve or laugh at as they lâ—st as a well furnished table affords wanton children both what they may feed upon themselves and what being full they may spoil and play with and cast to the dogs §. 15. Scripture ANd whence com all these divisions only from this that every man hath a reason an interpretation a light a spirit of his own by which the bible which is now in all mens hands is made to speak what we pleas and our thoughts and tongues are our own what lord shall us controul This is a sad case while all of us upon those only motives which all men may take up at any time to abuse his innocent neighbour proceed to mutual hostility without end The very books that have been written against Roman catholick this last hundred years as they be furious and virulent so be they also so many and various that they would if they were all brought together fill up the Tower of London and by them have people been inflamed to such a height against the Romans that their bodies dignities honours fame houses and goods have been ineffably harrassed to this day And yet no body can say what ill that religion ever did in the world until Henry the eights dayes when it was first rejected and persecuted and when we have laid them in the dust we fly upon one another and pull and tear upon the same motiv all that stands in our light Reflect countrimen upon your selves shall we continue in a contest that can never possibly be ended and being prosecuted to the utmost must needs infer a general ruin upon all for whatsoever we say against any one may be said by any other against our selves and proved by the same argument and the same thing may be done to us upon the same account we do it to another All appellation to a visible judg is by anticatholicks jointly excluded and to the Roman catholick with whom unity hath ever dwelt we will not return nor can it be yet expected for the general disrepute unto that way hath so filled our ears and hearts that hating the very name of Papist we have not power to consider soberly what their religion may be Nay we are verily perswaded even from our nurses milk that Protestants are the only professors and Papists enemies to the gospel although to all the world besides the gospel is well enough known to be the Roman catholicks own and sole religion by which they walked and lived here in England many hundred years unto a fruitfulnes of all good works before Protestancy appeared and we pretend to fight against them only for the gospel and with the gospel whiles they forsooth are beleeved to have nothing at all to defend themselvs but a little traditional trumpery of mans inventions with a greater heap of vices of their own And upon this account proceed all our books that are written against Papists and popery in effect like unto that picture that was carried not long ago up and down the Protestant world wherein was drawn a fair ballance as a type of the two religions in whose left hand scale hanged beads girdles cardinals caps monks hoods fryars cowles disciplines crosses to signifie Popery in the other a fair great Bible to signifie Protestancy which hanging upon the ground quite weighed up the other scale into the air as light as very vanity And so credulous is the generallity of mankind that by such toies as these we are carried away unto not onely a dislike but even the highest detestation and contempt of a sacred religion without further examination But what do I speak of the generallity of the vulgar Even our sober and most judicious men who in other things speak and think like oracles in this busines of popery are not abashed to speak like children that talk of hobgoblings in the dark so prevalent is a prejudice brought upon us by the virulent impression of often iterated calumnies Nor are we able by the restraint of this great prejudice either to read the books or ponder seriously the reasons of our catholick neighbours for their faith Yea I have heard som Protestants in other things most wise and judicious to say openly that as for Papists he loved their persons but their religion he hated in his heart the reason is clear he knew the one and not the other And as we do all of us by this old imbibed prejudice detest Popery though we know not what it is so by any new-received dislike when we have once bodied with any one faction we revile all the rest and none will yield to another although in all reason that religion that hath precedency of time with all the other helps any juniour way can pretend unto might one would think have so much if not precedency yet equallity of respect as not to be by a way that is new in the world so bitterly reviled especially when all that venemous bitterness which by any junior sect is cast upon his foregoer may and is as heavily thrown upon himself by his successour But thus rancour and malice spreads abroad in our hearts and whole kingdom against his rule and doubtles to his great displeasure who carefully obliged us to the contrary rules of love and which is to be lamented the first sours and origin of all these defamations is the Pulpit where both by word and example we are taught to defame and hate even those we do not know We may fear som great curs lies upon our poor nation for these our unnatural disorders even so far as to blind us that we cannot see the truth Unto his dogs set upon
Antichrist frog caterpillar serpent c. Besides the absence of the person we calumniate flout and expose to derision is a circumstance that does not a little aggravate the fact and renders it no less foolish and irrational than 't is unjust and rude It is a wonder that our Protestant byshops should countenance these disorders A wise woman will not hear her child call her neighbor Whore without the application of a just rebuke knowing that such like impudence being countenanced may imbolden him at last to call Her so too Indeed the judgment is already com home to our doors for now our byshops of England are as contumeliously treated in the pulpits by their own ministers as the byshop of Rome was by their connivance and applaus abused aforetime in the same place by the self-same persons Nor have ther been any in this land more furiously bent these last twenty years against our good King than they who to flatter our former princes most passionately reviled the Pope and the seed of those men who in the dayes of Edward the sixth Queen Elisabeth and King James plotted so vehemently against the Catholick Church and nobility even to their utter disgrace and ruin under a pretens of establishing our State were now the onely great fighting sticklers against our State and Monarchy I give only this note by the way to reach all men to do to another as they would others do to them and no othewaies for God is just and punishes all iniquity of men oftentimes with those very rods and scorpions which themselves used before to plague their innocent neghbours who when they knew the justice of God yet would they not understand that they which do such things are worthy of death and not only they who do them but they also who consent and yield compliance to the doers But that I may a little lay open to my countreymen the unreasonablenes of our proceedings in hating and reviling a Person whom Catholicks on the contrary do so much esteem and love to what I have already said let thus much be added That the Pope is one whose whole life and study is to defend innocence promote concord and maintain unity of Faith in the world nor is ther any man but he alone that looks to the general safety of all Christianity and in all times like a faithful pastour he hath so don it as if it were not so much his office to do it as his nature And this we might easily see if we would look over antient stories and not suffer our selves to be misled by the reports of those who think themselves undon if he that would curb their extravagancies should com to be thought of according to his true deserts I might make it good in many particulars but I will content my self onely to run over briefly the eighteen general councels that have been in several ages in the Christian world and their results and motives wherby men may be perswaded to think that the Pope is so far from what we in England are made to conceiv of him that he is the only man that hath fought in all times for the unity of faith for concord and the good of all Christendom when other byshops and believers under him began many of them to revolt and disturb our welfar Nor had we had any thing left us at this day either of truth or unity humanly speaking had not he been set over us and watched to make and keep us happy even against som of our wills 1. Arrius a priest in Alexandria had seduced many priests deacons nuns byshops and princes to beleev amiss against the divinity of Jesus Christ our Lord when Pape Sylvester rose up against him and fought stoutly for the honour of our Messias in his general councel at Nice in the year 325. and so did other Popes his successours after him for som hundred years together 2. Pape Damasus in the second general councel at Constantinople with the like spirit of fortitude maintained as valiantly the divinity of the Holy Ghost against Macedonius priest and byshop of Constantinople and Eunomius that insolent Cappadocian and all their retinue as he did likewise that of Christ an 381. 3. When Nestorius a byshop with his priest Anastasius gave great scandals in Constantinople by denying the virgin Mary to be mother of God for that in Christ they said were two persons and one of them was the son of the virgin the other son of God Pape Celestin stood up and quelled them and all their adherents in his councel at Ephesus in the year 430. 4. Pape Leo in a fourth generall councell at Chalcedon an 450. stopped the mouthes of Eutyches an Abbot in Constantinople and Dioscorus deacon in Alexandria who by their great dislike of Nestorius opinion ran into the other extream and affirmed Christ our Lord to have not only one person but one nature too which was as scandalous and as much against the faith of beleevers as was the former 5. In the fifth general councel at Constantinople an 553. when all the oriental part of the Church was in a combustion about the three heads or contents of Theodore byshop of Mopsuesten an epistle of Ibas and Theodoret byshop of Cyrus his writings against S. Cyril who had been all three honourably mentioned in the councel of Chalcedon and yet their writings were then found very scandalous and faulty Pape Vigilius though very sick and weak yet by his writings from his chamber he laboured abundantly and to good effect to asswage the feud 6. Pape Agatho in the sixth general synod at Constantinople an 680. when Cyrus Sergius Macarius and many other learned unquiet priests and byshops monothelites had spread the Eutichian heresy under other notions and taught that Christ had but one will and operation with much offence to the people he rose up and manfully resisted and subdued them 7. Pape Adrian combated no less for the use of images and crucifix against Gregorius Neocaesariensis Paul patriarch of Constantinople and several other Iconoclasts who tore and preached them down contrary to the judgment and practis both of the Christians then living and all their predecessors in the seventh general councel at Nice an 787. And in one and the same place was maintained by the whole catholick world both the images and divinity of the crucified Messias 8. Not long after in the eight general councel at Constantinople an 869 Pape Adrian the second defended the innocence of the great patriarch Ignatius whom suttle Photius by the help of some potentates in Constantinople had expelled his byshoprick and put himself in his place miserably harassing and vexing both the good prelate Ignace and all his adherents to the great disturbance of the East who were all in a hot feud about it 9. In the ninth general councel at Lateran an 1122 when after infinity of troubles the Church had recovered her peace pape Callixtus the second like a good vigilant pastour laboured to
then presume of his knowledg and what motives has he in himself to do so which another wants Be it scriptures prophesies visions light or inward assurance boast of what you pleas all the earth will do the like and with the self-same confidence For let Philosphers speak what they pleas of the certainty of object which som men have over and above the certainty of subject I am not able to conceiv how an objectiv certainty can stand without evidence or how it may consist with that mutability I see to be in the world for men do depart as well from a good religion wherein they would have to be certainty of object as from a bad one wherein they allow only a certainty of subject which is nothing but a personal self-willed resolution in their wayes Since men therefor do thus abound all of them in their own sens haply without sence if a thousand voices may be of force against one single one how does it behoove us if we would be truly wise to walk all our dayes not in disputes and disquietness without end but in humility and fear But som will say all this is nothing to us since Christ our Lord hath revealed to us both God himself and all necessary truths concerning him of all which we may be confident But stay a while and ponder what I have already spoken do not all nations say as much for themselvs What then should we doubt of our faith in Christ no in no wise But I must speak a bold word these very dissentions of ours about that faith in its branches so hot so various so extravagant are apt to inferre a suspicion of it in its very root are not hundreds in our own countrey become atheists already upon that very motiv and these men supposing substantial change once made in religion and deliberately admitted are rather to be commended for their wit than blamed for they do but that sodainly which all the land will will come to by degrees If the Papist or Roman catholick who first brought the news of Christ and his Christianity into the land as all men must needs know that have either heard or read of Christianities ingress into England or other countreys and kingdoms for we do no sooner hear news of Christianity than Popery and his crucifixes monasteries reliques sacrifice and the like I say if the Papist be now becom so odious as we see he is and if the faith he brought and maintained a thousand years together be now rent all asunder by sects and factions which bandy all to the ruin of that mother religion if all her practical truths wherein chiefest piety consists be already abolished as erroneous does not this justify the pagan whom this catholick Christian displaced to make way for his own law And must not this be a certain way and means to introduce atheism which naturally follows that faith once removed even as a carkas succeeds a living body once deceased for one truth denied is a fair way to question another which came by the same hand and this a third till the very autority of the first revealer be at stake which can no more defend himself than he can his law for the same axe and instrument that cut down the branches can cut up the root too and if his reverence for which all the rest was beleeved defend not their truth it must needs at length utterly fail in his own For all the autority they had was purely from him and he falls in them before he falls in himself no man can deny this that shall seriously lay his hand upon his heart and ponder things as he ought And he that once ceases to beleev in Christ whom before he worshipped I am sure he will turn atheist if his wit and reason proceed consequently and beleev nothing A little more to specify my meaning If the institutions of monasteries to the praise and service of God day and night be thought as it hath been now these many years a superstitious folly if Christian Priests and sacrifices be things of high idolatry if the seven sacraments be deemed vain most of them if it suffice to salvation to beleev what ever life we lead if there be no value or merit in good works if Gods laws be impossible to be kept if Christ be not our law maker and directour of doing well as well as redeemer from ill if there be no sacramental tribunal for our reconciliation ordained for us by Christ upon earth if the real body of our Lord be not bequeathed unto his Spous in his last will and testament if there be not under Christ a general head of the Church who is chief Priest and Pastour of all Christians upon earth under God whose Vicegerent he is in spiritual affairs all which things are now held forth by us manifestly against the doctrin of the first preachers of Christianity in this land then say I paganisme was unjustly displaced by these doctrins and atheism must needs succeed for if Christ deceived us upon whom shall we rely and if they that brought us the first news of Christ brought along with it so many grand lyes why may not the very story of Christ himself be thought a Romance And erunt novissima pejora prioribus the latter condition of this land under atheism catholick faith once utterly extirpated must needs be far wors than it was in paganisme before it was planted Far sweeter is that body put case a statue of stone that was never animated than is any carkas of man after the soul is departed And are not we in a wood now who shall lead us out The maze is made greater by the consideration of the multitude of sects now reigning amongst us all which as they do unanimously conspire against that catholick Church they have deserted so do they wrangle now about every thing wherein they first agreed and conspired against her hating and execrating one another even unto war and bloodshed and the utter desolation of our distressed nation Quid est veritas and on whose side is God all this while does he not lie hid and say nothing and leav us wholly to our selvs by a judgment unsearchable in these our affairs even as in other courses of this world i th interim all opinions utter fine words all presume of themselvs all are peremptory and censur not only their neighbours but even the whole earth round about Where is truth here saith one nay not there but here quoth another neither there nor there but here saith a third but so many heres and there 's sounds nothing to a rational man but either every where or no where and which to conclude is impossible for man of himself stedfastly to resolv Here is Christ and there is Christ in the judgment of Christ himself signifies neither here nor there If they say saith our Lord here is Christ or there is Christ do not ye go forth or follow them and
And if the salt have lost his savour wherewith shall it be seasoned Nor can we be ignorant that this Episcopacy-power was set up in England many years after Reformation-ingress by the ambitious policy of som men who falling from their former humility-spirit set up that chair of a State-spirituall for themselves which when another sate in it they used all kind of endeavour force and power to throw it down Can prelate-affecters deny that Episcopacy-power was by the first and purest reformation-light utterly subverted If you know it not the smallnes of your judgment will comdemn you if you know it and do the contrary you are condemned in your own judgment and if the Reformation was impure in this then was Protestant Reformation corrupt both in its first birth and the most glorious of all its enterprises wherein our consciences were withdrawn from the tyrant-yoaks of inveigling men unto the sweet influences of Christ who as he is the great pastour of souls so he is sure not to mislead his flock by any such passions as do frequenty domineer in man when he is once set over his fellow servants pride ignorance self-will and interest And if we be once brought again to the same ancient servil yoak of conscience-tyranny to receive our light and influences from men as before we did under Popery why may we not by the same strong tide of an irresistable self-leading power be driven uncontroulably to the same or greater errours Except you will say that the Archbishop of Canterbury is a surer and more unerring guide than the Romish byshop both of them I am sure be men and equally fallible who standing either of them betwixt us and home may by their usurped power over consciences which be only subject to the invisible Lord of truth lead us again either into our ancient or some new invented errour and if they impose the yoak who can resist them But the Lord of truth cannot lye and the beams of his light falling immediately upon his peace-messengers as once upon the apostles in cloven tongues of fire untainted with the interposition of any intervening obstacle must needs be both clear and true I will teach you all things saith he to his apostles he said not that one of them should teach another nor did those cloven tongues descend first from Christ upon Peter from Peter to Andrew from Andrew to John and so forward in an hierarchical line which Papists imagine in their Church but from Christ alone immediately upon them all Nor can you move us at all by telling us as you do of ancient tradition for Episcopacy-power even from Christ time unto this present age sith all those times and places are concluded by the pious Reformation under popish darknes which began even in Pauls time when the mystery of iniquity even this mystery of papall tiranny began to work and so overwhelmed the whole earth till at length the Lord was pleased by the foolishnes of preaching to enlighten those little ones who were predestined to beleev a truth aforetime hidden to all the sons of men Did we not all appeal from such popish traditions to the oracle to the gospel to the word of God and to the truth that cannot lye And what other instrument did we make use of to the abolishing of that human supremacy over mens souls which now again by erroneous tradition you would contrary to your own principles obtrude upon us than that very word and oracle And the gospel which as it is now by Reformation-purity put into every mans hand so is every man the ministers successors to the apostles by the help of Christs light which by frequent prayer they unite to themselvs the people by light they receiv from gospel-ministers to interpret and understand it is totally with us and for us Look into the gospel of Matthew c. Hic subauditur longus textuum catalogus ab initio ad finem Biblii contra episcopatum If you reply that we must for the sense of all these places have recours unto the Church what Church do you mean yours out of which you say we are fallen or the popish Church which both you and we deserted Take which you will for the same reasons and gospel-verities equally reject them both and if we must hearken to your Church out of which you say we are fallen why then did not you obey that Church out of which you sell your selves if that were in errour and therefore to be deserted yours is in no better condition but the invisible congregation of the faithfull which in our first reformation we took to be the Church can never fail And if you begin now to take the Church in a popish sense for any hierarchicall prelacy you do at once condemn your selves both of inconstancy and dissimulation and also of violation of gospell and rebellion against that visible Church our forefathers found themselves in unto which it seems now by this tenour of your speech they were bound by their Christianity to obey Scripture autority you have none for you nay it is all against you human words and practises being now rid by Christ of all those servil yoaks we valiew not and the true light of purest Reformation which you have deserted sith it is with us as at the beginning we must not forfeit nor do any thing may obstruct the ingoings and out-goings of little Christ within us Whiles the Presbyterian is hotly busied in this his plea against the Prelate-Protestant the Independent touches his elbow and advises him to bethink himself least with the same weapon he wound his adversary and kill himself For if such reasonings saith he be of value what will then becom of the clerical Presbyterian black coat which being derived from popery finds no more grounds in scripture than episcopacy hath Are not all men equally subject to Christ and capable alike of his divine influences and so indeed it is said of the times of Christianity And they shall be all taught of God How then com other teachers to intrude betwixt us and God to obstruct and taint and variously infect his light those upon whom the Holy Ghost descended were all lay men as we be and som of them women too But as soon as the Presbyterian turning upon him called him fanatick the protestant cried In neither barrel better herring ye are both so It was presently replied by them both when did the spirit leav us to speak unto you by what light or scripture can you make that good you that are blinded in your own errours The Catholick coming by When theeves fall out quoth he honest men may hope to come to their own goods again §. 14. Protestant pro and con WHat advantage then can the pious Quaker have against the zealous Presbyterian or both of them against the honest Protestant whiles all of them find words enough out of scripture and reasons thence deduced to throw at one another and each side is both
disputant and moderatour both opponent and maister of the chair both interpreter and judg The Roman catholick I do not here mention for the taking Him for his guide and judg from whom he first received his scriptur and faith and expecting all resolutions of doubts only from his lips can never stagger or fall into perplexity But with Protestant Presbyterian and Independent whose utmost resolv is in their own hands the case is otherwayes And the combat that is amongst them is the most desperate imaginable whiles any visible speaking judg being excluded by them all each one fights against all the rest with the same topick ratiocinations that none but he that uses them must judg Scripture is for us scripture is easy and we have it the spirit that is in us teaches all truth the light from above us is only to direct us and not men who are lyers c. And these if they prevail overthrow him that uses them so that to the same combatant must needs happen by the same means both death and victory and the same autorities and argumentations if any of them obtain his desire must bear both a probility for him and a prejudice against him Thus the Protestant if he do or will pretend to convince the Presbyterian then must he at the same time and for the same reasons yield to the Roman catholick with whose discourse and arguments he flourishes and triumphs against him and yet being uttered from the mouths and pens of Catholicks against himself he contemned and jeered them And if the Presbyterian texts and reasons be of force against the Protestant then must the Protestant fall by that instrument by which himself stands and subsists against the Papist against whom he hath ever used those very assertions and arguments and the Presbyterian too must stand and fall upon the same account the same weapon laying him dead before the Independent which against the Protestant supports him The Independent if he be able by strength of his light and spirit to maintain himself against all his foregoers Presbyterian Protestant and Papist then by the same reasons must he needs fall when a new fansy rises by any succeding generation A strang case and indeed a meer riddle but a certain truth And the Catholick all this while to a disinterested understanding whiles all his enemies condemn one another stands uncontroulably justified in his oppositions to them The Independent is in the wrong saith the Presbyterian and Protestant the Presbyterian erres saith the Protestant and Independent the Protestant is deceived saith the Independent and Presbyterian you are all mad men quoth the Roman Catholick you first abused and supplanted me and now by the same wayes and means you do supplant and abuse one another But if I may interpose my judgment the Protestant although I honour his gravity above all the rest seems to be in a wors case than either Presbyterian or Independent for these in maintaining themselvs and their wayes do but strike home the first principles of protestant reformation whereas the Prelate-protestant to defend himself against them is forced to make use of those very principles which himself aforetime when he first contested against popery destroyed as be the difference betwixt clargy and laiety the efficacy of episcopal ordination the autority of a visible Church unto whom all are to obey and the like so that upon him falls most heavily even like thunder and lightning from heaven utterly to kill and cut him asunder that great oracle delivered by S. Paul in his letter he wrote to the Christians of Galatia Sī quae destruxi iterum haec aedifico praevaricatorem me constituo If I build up again the things I formerly destroyed I make my self a prevaricatour an impostour a reprobate A heavy sentence But truth will out and wisdom will be justified at long running even by her greatest adversaries It seems that those pieces of popery we so desperately inveighed against for our own interest were indeed not evil but good The Protestant may indeed with some plausible show excuse himself and say that the first Reformers though sent from God yet might they notwithstanding have some little mixture of humane passion and infirmity and so out do their work and decry more then in truth they ought to have don as he that would straighten a crooked wand bends it as much the other way to the end that by that over force it may at length recover its mediocrity and straightnes and what ever is done amiss by earnestnes of passion may by a second thought be mended And this excuse would find place in any busines of humane concernment but whether it may be of any weight in affairs of religion and divine faith I leav others to judg for what may be pretended by all unto endles changes can never be rightly said by any and S. Paul having assigned that property as a signal mark of a prevaricatour I should think we may beleeve it without further dispute However by the reassuming of this episcopacy be it the substance or shadow of Popery or what you pleas our English Protestant Church became by that means the very best and choisest flower of all the Reformation no order no decency no peace no uniformity in all the world where Protestancy was received like unto that we here enjoyed under our bishops in England nor could any man by the force of nature suspect any the least rottennes in the foundation of such a handsom fabrick I am sure I had not but by a strang chance that happened to me in my childhood And although our Prelate-Protestant is not able to answer the Presbyterian objection standing upon his own first principles of reformation which do indeed and ever will justify all revolts to the worlds end yet by the principles of his Recovery those I mean by which he reassumed Episcopacy too precipitously decried by the first reformers which principles be firm and good and right Christianity he will easily frustrate and dissolv all opposition but then he must creep into the bosom of Roman catholicks and beg the assistance of their arguments which before he foolishly contemned For every Body be it what it will natural politick or spiritual must so long as it remains entire and sound have the same principal parts and organs it was born withal and cannot endure long even in a contrary posture of them without dissolution and ruin Take any kingdom that is settled in monarchy and if you endeavour once the subversion of that Polity you do at the same time take away the life of all her laws and rights and utterly disturb her happines and peace which are so mixed and intangled in the very nerves and sinews of her laws and these again so settled upon the polity as upon the prime innate influent Calid and radicall primogeneal Humid that all goes together and take part alike either in weal or woe This truth we have had a sad experience of in the
that a nation such as England is so wise and serious in all other things so judicious and grave should be perswaded by any mans words against the dictamen of their own reason if they would but consult it to beleev any such thing of this innocent faith when they cannot but clearly see in all histories both our own and others that amongst all the pretended wayes of Christianity only catholick religion both sets up and preservs the Crown which giddy headed sects indanger Som of our english clergy tell us of a thousand I know not what dangers of the Pope thereby to get the assistance of secular power to their own ends but what is indeed the occasion they know assuredly that the Pope if he were once admitted would both separate them from the secular life they lead and bring into order their exorbitant opinions And what harm if both these things were done If we do but search antiquities we shall find that none of our ecclesiastiastical benefices were given by princes and people to maintain a wife and children but only such single abstracted contemplative men as had consecrated themselvs and all their whole affections to God to serv him in all singlenes of heart in prayer and fasting and perfect charity and in the sacrifice of the altar all the dayes of their life without any solicitude after this world as priests of antient Christianity did and not for women and children unto whose generation against ecclesiastical custom and constitutions our ministers give as much attendance as any secular man whatsoever and generate children which after their death unles they show in their life time more of wordly solicitude than their spiritual state permits must lie upon the parish and as for ordering our dissentions in points of faith I should think not only the Pope who would assuredly do it but any whatsoever thing in the world though it were but an owl in an ivy bush should deserv thanks if he effected it But I return to my story §. 18. Item NOt only the kingdoms of the continent Germany Hungary Italy France Spain but all the Northern coasts and islands Denmark Norway England Ireland and the isles about them were now in a full and quiet possession and profession of their catholick religion when upon a little occasion heaven so willing it for some great sin or neglect of mankind the whole scene was changed on the sodain and catholick faith in our northern coasts to the grief and amazement of all that were then alive utterly abolished even by the discontent of one person and he but a private one neither upon this occasion The Pastour of Christianity upon some solicitation of Christian Princes for a general compliance throughout all Christendom to their design sent forth in the year 1517. a plenary indulgence throughout the world in favour of the Cruciata against the Turk Albertus byshop of Mentz delegated by the Pope to see it executed in Germany committed the preaching and promulgation of it unto the Dominican friars which the hermits of St. Austin within the same place took ill but especially Martin Luther a preacher and professour in that order esteeming himself the best deserving man in the town grew exceeding wroth that any should be chosen before himself to execute that work which was likely to have as great an auditory and confluence of people as might happen in a mans life time to the no small repute of him who should be thought worthy before another to divulge the bull and make the exhortation sermon in the behalf as it were of the whole Christian world Vexed therfore that he was thus neglected and as he thought undervaliewed not only by words but books and papers secretly thrown about he diminished first the dominicans then the byshop then indulgences themselvs Catholick superiours and princes blamed this misdemeanour of Luther as a practis of much danger and sedition but he grew not any thing better thereby but rather more head-strong and furious as unlawful passion increases by the very means of mitigation inveighing now with more boldness as far as he durst both against Prince and Prelate too Insomuch that the duke of Saxony after a year or two invited friar Luther to his court where by dispute and colloquy with the eminent doctour Eckius if he could not make his caus good he might grow better principled at least for Gods sake and his own good condescend to moderation and peace But Luther after much tiresom talk told at last very boldly both the duke and his doctour too that the quarrel was not begun for God nor for God should it be ended And so departing thence he proceeded now with more virulent words to incens the people unto whom he promised liberty from their vowes and fastings and other penitential observances whereby he perverted much of the laity clergy and religious people both men and women who 't is strange to consider it violating their vowes deserted that Catholick Church besides which they had never known nor heard of other to follow the serpentine enticements of one private person and he if not the worst yet at least none of the best that ever were Thus when one ram has leapt over a hedg all the other poor sheep so many as be within ken of the fact are apt to follow So prone is man to go astray like sheep and do amiss to our own ruin without any other reason for it than the sight of a president acting before us what our own naturall inclination is apt of it self without the curb of religion or law of its own natur to embrace And so much was the world disposed at that ill hour to a dissolute loosnes that Luther was still gaining upon people even from his first apostacy But when he had once married himself unto Catherine Bore a Nun by him seduced out of the monastery of Mymick contrary to both theâ—r vowes so that he was now become a sure and fast enemy as well to continence as before he had shown himself to abstinence 't is wonder how fast they flocked to him on all sides not only from the vulgar laiety but even from all instutes and profession and countries even the priests and votaries of chastity Oecolampadius a monk of S. Briger Jacobus Praepositi an Augustine Andreas Carolstadius an archdeacon in Wittenberg Suinglius a cannon of Constance Martin Bucer a dominican fryar Lismanin a Franciscan Richerius a Carmelite John Calvin a curate priest Philip Melanchton out of Germany Michael Servetus out of Spain Bernardin Ochyn and Peter Martyr out of Florence John Alasco out of Poland Sebastian Castalio out of France Beza out of Burgundy Stancar and Valentine Gentile out of Italy Blandrate Alciate and David Georg out of Transylvania c. who being all hitherto catholicks took occasion now by the example of Luther to fall away whereby as the body of holy Church was purged of some unquiet spirits so was Luthers retinue in a short space
thing as honey and sugar in nature It is true also that the death of Christ upon the cross was both a true and solemn sacrifice but that is passed away and is the object of our faith not an external rite about which the Church may meet and com together at all times to worship God as is this representation of it which our Lord instituted for that very end before his death Nor is the passion of our Lord proper to us Christians alone as the real figuration of it which himself instituted for all the sacrifices of the old law were accepted in order to that passion to com even as ours in respect of it now past And since there were true sacrifices in the old law amongst the Jews why should there not be also in the new which is beleeved to be more perfect about which Christians should assemble to offer up with it and it order to it all their requests and praises For Christ our Lord took not away those things which God his father in the old law instituted as being not contrary to him but only perfected and changed them into better things both precepts sacraments and sacrifice too and of this last it behooved him to be more careful then all the rest for otherwise sith sacrifice is the only worship proper and peculiar unto God by utterly taking it away he had not augmented but dimished his Fathers glory All other kinds of worship we Christians have for certain which the Jews ever had invocation adoration vows hymnes feasts fasts faith hope charity and prais must only that which only is proper to the almighty be excluded especially sith we have all the reasons to honour God by sacrifice the Jewes ever had we are an extern and visible congregation as they were we have the passion of the Messias to be represetned before our eyes now with us past as with them it was to com we have the same God with the highest worship to be honoured for our sins to be appeased for favours to be invocated for received benefits to be praised But if any will be contentious and not heed all this which is nothing but pious reason let him look upon the primitive Church in the apostles time whereof we have some clear footsteps delivered us in the Acts of the Apostles and he shall find that the apostles and apostolical Christians placed their religion not in hearing or making sermons for they had none but in attending to their Christian liturgy and all antiquity will attest it The sermons mentioned in that book were only in defence of Christianity made to the Jews Pagans for their conversion not to any Christians at all Such was St. Peters first speech to the Jews and Gentiles that brake in amongst the Christians in Jerusalem after their Messach ended and the holy Ghost fallen upon them c. 2. after this to other Jews c. 3. c. 5. then to Cornelius a pagan c. 10. So likewise spake S. Stephen to the Hebrew Priests and Jews c. 7. Saint Philip to the Ethiopian Eunuch c. 8. St. Paul to the synagogue in Pisidia c. 13. to others in Iconium c. 14. to Gentiles in Macedonia c. 16. again to other Jews in Thessalolonica and heathen Philosophers in Athens c. 17. both S. Paul and Apollo to the Jews at Corinth and Ephesus c. 18. c. 19. at Troas also he defended Christ and his religion against all that resisted it speaking even till midnight c. 20. but this was dispute and so the text calls it rather than a preaching and made una sabbati saith the same text cum convenissemus ad frangendum panem so that it was not the work they came together for but an additament to it So likewise he spake to other Jews in Jerusalem c. 22. to Foelix and Agrippa painims c. 24. c. 26. to the Jews in Rome for their conversion c. 28. And no where was ever sermon made to formal Christians either by St. Peter or Paul or any other as the work of their religion they came together for nor be there other sermons in that book but what I have mentioned nor did the Christians ever dream of serving God after their conversion by any such means but only by their Eucharistian leiturgy and sacrifice bread-fraction or Messach as is apparent in that book I will mention but one place in the beginning of the 13. ch which speaks thus Ministrantibus illis Domino jejunantibus dixit spiritus sanctus c. Whiles they were administring to our Lord and fasting the holy Ghost said Separate me Paul and Barnabas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Erasmus renders well and truly sacrificantibus illis Domino which one text gives double testimony both to apostolical sacrifice and priestly ordination For that ministerial function no man can doubt but that it was a publick work of religion and it could be no other than their great Christian Sacrifice as the words do manifestly import since it was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to our Lord for other inferiour ministeries of the word and Sacraments are not made to God but to the people but the apostles were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administring leiturgying sacrificing to our Lord whent his segregation of Paul and Barnabas from the laiety to the clergy which cannot otherwise be imagined to be done but by sacredotal consecration was to be effected And all that whole book testifies sufficiently that the apostles and primitive Christians ever came together to their Dominicum or Educhdrist to their liturgy or messach and not to any sermon not ad audiendam concionem but ad frangendum panem It would griev any Christian heart to see the poor Catholicks of England so miserably harassed pillaged imprisoned hated hanged by their own allies and countreymen as they have been now a hundred years for the profession of that great work of Christianity which Christ and his apostles taught them and that they should undergo the same disgrace and ruin by such as call themselves Christians yea the only pure ones for that very self same act of Religion for which both the Apostles themselves and all primitive Christians were so cruelly persecuted by Jew and Pagan But the God of mercies look in his good time both upon the persecutour and sufferer with compassion and favour them becaus they have done it ignorantly in incredulity these becaus for his fear and love they have persevered hitherto through many great afflictions in his service and patiently withstood all opposition even unto bloodshed and death until this day But Catholicks had their lession read them long ago and they have it by heart by this time They will saith their Lord and master lay their hands upon you and persecute you delivering you into custody and prisons dragging you before Kings and presidents for my names sake and ye shall be betraied by parents children kinsfolk and friends and some of you they will put to death and ye shall be a hatred unto all
head and half pourtraict Christians used upon their altars even as they do at this day amongst other things of his great simplicity and ignorance Some will haply say if this were all that is done to saints to keep the pictur and read the lives of such renowned personages who consecrated themselvs to Gods glory and service for the incitement of our affections unto the like virtuous atchievements I should not much blame it But papists over and above this do pray to saints too and that is no wayes excusable Give me leav to reply to this That which you now say you cannot much blame has been made so odious that never a Catholick in England durst for this hundred years so much as let a Crucifix hang in his chamber lest both he and it should be torn asunder by us And what you judg in excusable their praying to saints which I have so often heard and read in our protestant Churches and books objected so eagerly and constantly against them when I found it other-wayes than we in England conceiv it to be I was glad both for their sakes and ours too I did therfor curiously examin and turn over the whole Roman Breviary and Missal which is the devotion of the Catholick Church and contains almost a fourth part of it a commemoration of several Saints according to the daies of the year wherin they flitted hence into a better life And I did not meet with so much as any one prayer addressed to any saint or angel of heaven no not upon those dayes wherin commemoration of them is made but directed all of them from the very first prayer to the last unto God the father by Jesus Christ in the unity of the holy ghost either exprest or implied And their practis herin is conform to antient tradition confirmed by their own law in a councel at Carthage under Pope Siricius an 397. wherin it was declared and ordained that all publick prayers of the Church should be made directly unto God the Father And Catholicks even upon a saints day making their prayer to God beg only of him amongst other their requests that the good works of such a saint in whom he glorified himself may speak better things for them than they can themselvs deserv For example upon St. Bennets day Intercessio nos quaesumus Domine Benedicti Abbatis commendet ut quod nostris meritis non valemus ejus patrocinio assequamur Upon the feast of St. Francis O God who by the merits of St. Francis doest inlarge thy Church with a new off-spring grant unto us by the imitation of him to despise earthly things and enjoy celestial And so run all the other praiers of the Church wherin any invocation of saints is made directed ever unto almighty God by his son Jesus Christ And this is no more than what was ever don in the Hebrew Church both befor and after Christianity was in the world as the works of ancient Rabbies can witnes and no less holy writ it self when it makes almighty God sooner as it were condescending to the peoples petition by the mediation of the merits of glorious patriarchs whom he singularly favoured and his wrath and displeasur against the Jews then at a height when he refuses to hear those saints in their behalf If Moyses and Samuel saith the sacred text Jer. 15. should stand before me yet is not my soul unto this people that is to say he would not in the behalf of such desperate wicked people accept of the praiers even of those saints that were most dear unto him and this was spoken by the prophet long after Moses and Samuel was dead Long before this the Patriarch Jacob does most plainly insinuate this custom of saints invocation as ordinary and familiar among the Hebrews when being to bless his two nephews Ephraim and Manasseh he speaks thus The angel who brought me out of all my evils bless these children and upon them be invocated my name and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac Gen. 48. And ther is a formal prayer to that purpose Exod. 32. which expresses as much invocation of saints as any or all the praiers of the Christian Church do ever use Remember saith Moses remember O God Abraham Isaac and Israel thy servants unto whom thou hast sworn by thy self saying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven Which prayer was after imitated by Daniel c. 3. Withdraw not O Lord thy mercy from us for Abraham thy beloved Isaac thy servant and Israel thy holy one And if Daniel and Moses praied to saints well may we do it and if that of theirs was not a praying to saints but only to almighty God by the concurrence of their merits then is the Catholick Church to be not excused only but commended for she does the like in those prayers of hers she makes any mention either of saint or angel and no otherwise In their letanies indeed and short ejaculations Catholicks seem to invocate saints directly when in one part of them they say Holy Mary pray for us St. Peter pray for us c. But this though in words and sound it seems direct yet in sense and purpose it is indirect so that sancta Maria ora pro nobis omnes sancti Dei intercedite pro nobis is in sense but this Sancta Maria omnes sancti intercedant pro nobis ad Dominum ut nos mereamur c. And if we ponder it right it must needs be so for when I pray any one to pray for me considering the object and matter of my desire which both of us must joyn in I do not properly speaking pray to him but by him and only desire in my good affection that the prayers he makes for all may be available unto me And this is the more apparent becaus the letanies are directed unto God beginning continuing and ending with him Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy Father of heaven God Have mercy on us O Son redeemer of the world God Have mercy on us c. Holy Mary pray for us St. Michael pray for us c. Be propitious spare us O Lord. From all evil Deliver us O Lord c. By the mystery of thy incarnation Deliver us O Lord. By thy nativity Deliver us O Lord c. We sinners Beseech thee to hear us That thou grant us peace We beseech thee to hear us c. Lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world spare us O Lord c. Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy Our Father c. Thus the letanies run and he that directs continues and ends his letany or praier to God must needs pray to him and objectively to none but him So that the interposition of any intercessour must needs be indirect in sense however it be exprest in words and can signifie no more but this that God would gratiously accept of the prayers they make in our behalf For
along with him in his train and service all those holy prophets and patriarks of the old law who had in their place of detention waited for the consolation of Israel I say St. Peter must suppose that proposition on which the firmitude of his whole discours was chiefly grounded to be admitted by the Jews for true otherwise his argument had been inefficacious and had neither proved Christs ascension nor yet Jesus to be Christ and if the Jews had beleeved Davids soul to be in heaven though not his body yet still the argument in my judgment had fallen short All this infers that the Hebrew Church did beleev a detention of spirits citra coelum and that the Rich man might go to hell before Christ but Lazarus the happy went but into Abrahams bosom that is to say unto that repose where Abraham David and all the antient patriarks expected the light and redemption of Israel and not into heaven it self And they might very well so beleev for how can any one hope for that upon anothers gift which he never promised when he promised all other things but it heavenly bliss amongst all the fair promises made in the law of Moses was never so much as mentioned nor those people ever put in hope of it for any good work they should do But in the new testament of our Messias heaven which himself should open to his faithful is frequently promised as an immens motive and incitement to good words they should for his love by the assistance of his grace act and persever in unto the end Yet so too as that in the execution of this promis it is sufficiently insinuated that if any spirit issue out of his body not absolutely purified himself may indeed by the use of such means of grace as our Lord instituted be saved yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. And therfore our blessed Saviour speaking of the severall trespasses we make in this life gives us this counsel to set all right and straight as far as we can while we are here in via in the way of this life for if once by death we be delivered up to the place of hold detention or prison ther will be no getting forth thence till the utmost farthing be paid Math 5. that is as holy fathers do jointly interpret the place till absolute satisfaction be made either by sufferance or suffrages And that redemption or remission of some sins may be had after this life is enough insinuated unto us by himself when he tells us that there be some sins that shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come For if any should tell me here in England that som criminall offences will neither be pardoned at the Sessions nor at the Kings bench at Westminster he sufficiently insinuates if he speak properly that releas may be had for som other offences in both the places S. Paul in his epistles although he do somtimes indirectly hint at this doctrin of expiation after this life yet does he not directly make use of it as a topick place either in his exhortation to vertue or disswasion from vice But the reason is manifest for being a thing mixt of good and ill it could serv sufficiently to neither purpos and heaven being now lately promised to all those that walk piously in Christ Jesus was a more full and stronger motive of perswasion as also was hell a greater argument of affrightment then the interjacent place of expiation however penall could be which by reason of the temporality of the sufferance and hopes of approaching glory admits some comfort to mitigate the terrour and again by reason of the penalty of that condition and trouble of expectation carries enough of terrour to allay to comfort of the place And yet incidentally and without design ther is there to be found as much of purgatory as of the liturgy the trinity primitive absolution and other mysteries of faith In a word the thought of heaven served well both to incourage people to the utmost perfection of charity and good works and to comfort them also in tribulations which the memory of their expiation before it could not do And on the other side if any were wicked for such a one purgatory would neither be a seasonable nor sufficient menace Yet both all their life time and especially when they came to dye all records of primitive times will tell us how careful the antient Christians were to provide for their souls assistance after death And accordingly S. Austin commends the piety of his mother Monica in that she begged so earnestly of him her son to be mindful of her soul when he stood at the altar to pray heartily for her after her deceas and he sets down at large in the ninth book of his Confessions c. 12. and 13. the dirge and sacrifice and prayers he made both for her and her husband Patricius And the doctrin of expiatory punishments after this life he teaches in several places of his many learned volumes In his 20 book de civitate dei c. 9.13.16 and 24. In his comment upon the 37 psalm In his book of fifty homilies hom 16. In his 41 sermon de sanctis In the 110 chapter of his Enchiridion In his book de cura pro mortuis c. 2. and 4. By which and other places we may see that S. Austin was not only of this catholick opinion but he was also a priest himself who both taught and practised it sacrificing at the altar for souls departed And so was S. S. Bede German Constantinopolitanus Jo. Damascen and Alcuin in the eight age of the Church not to mention later times S. S. Isidore Eligius and the fathers of the eleventh councel of Tolledo in the seventh age S. S. John Climacus Gregory the great and the Fathers of the councel of Valentia in the sixt S. S. Jo. Chrysostome with the above-named S. Austin Paulinus Eucherius Lugdunensis Victor Vticensis Socrates and Theodores in the fist S. S. Eusebius Caesariensis Athanasius Basilius Magnus Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus Gregorius Nazianzen and Nyssen Epiphanius Ambrosius and Hieronimus in the fourth S. S. Eusebius Alexandrinus Zeno Veronensis and Origen in the third S. S. Ireneus Hermes and Tertullian in the second who were all of them priests catholick Roman priests and publickly taught as I am able to make it apparent out of their works this venerable religious doctrin of the souls expiation after death before it arrive to heavenly bliss by the prayers and pennances and alms deeds of the faithful left behind them in this world and did it and practised it themselvs in their houses altars and oratories according as they had received it from the first age which they found in an universal beleef and practis of the same truth as even yet appears by the antient liturgies and testimonies of S. Matthews S. Mark S. James the elder and the younger S. Clement and S. Denyse the Areopagite Thus Popery did
in old times and so it doth still And I hope none of us hereafter will have the heart to hate and persecute that religion whose charity and goodnes is so great that it extends beyond the very horison and utmost limits of this world §. 29. Pope THe catholicks as I perceived by their books and practises do all the world over pray for their Pape and pastour with a most tender affection which I esteemed a piece of most civil piety practised in all ages for the comfort and good of him they look upon as supreme head and governour of their religion under God upon earth We may perceiv in the epistles of good St. Paul that to pray for one another was a thing very familiar to the primitive Christians but when S. Peter their prince and head fell into danger the whole Church then united their supplications in his behalf as one in whose welfar they were universally and in a more peculiar manner all of them concerned Peter was kept in prison saith the sacred text in the Acts and prayer was made without intermission by the Church unto God for him I doubt not but that they praied likewise for other apostles too that God would keep and bring them out of danger but the writer of that Story gives us no notice of any universal praier made for any one but only Him the head and prince of all the whole congregation therby to intimate the singular respect and love they did universally bear him But we in England do not more ordinarily call a Spade a Spade than we do traduce defame execrate the Pope and proclaim him whom also we do not know leud wicked sensual proud seducer serpent Antichrist and I know not what and that not only in our ordinary society but in books and sermons not only som of us but all hate him not in England only but all protestant places not now only but in all times since Protestancy began and our very children by that time they com to be eight or nine year old are by our example and imitation inabled to say after us like parrets Pope is a rogue pope is a rogue This behaviour of ours if it be not impious yet no man I should think will after serious consideration deny it to be unmannerly And what kind of spirit must this be that delights so much in defamations and curses Surely the spirit of God is a meek civil and quiet spirit Either the Pope is good or evil if he be good why do we hate him if bad why do we not pray for him as gospel teaches us to do even for our enemies and sinners but still defame and curs him to make him wors I know much good he has don our land even so much good as the Christianity we had from him hath ever wrought amongst us but never any evil no not in the least kind Ministers above all others stand excessively ingaged to him even for the very bread they eat for the formality of their clothes and cassocks they wear for the pulpits they preach in for the parishes and tithes they liv upon for the universities they were brought up in for the degrees they have taken there and the canon of their ordination for the catholick learned books they study and the very gospel they either do or seem to preach all which were originally from the Pope And as for others of the laety if the Churches they meet in once a week and the hopes they have of a life to com if the good wholsom laws of the land if corporations or other orderly dispositions in the kingdom if the antient militia now almost abolished wherein earls and marquesses command the counties dukes over them and the King over the dukes that in a moment all the land might be up at his Majesties beck and the like militia by sea where admiral vice admiral and reere admiral were all subjected to the king besides the train bands for defence of cities so orderly and wisely instituted if kingly autority and his crownland if the orderly sittings and proceedings in Parliament if dignities and titles of honour if the decency of gowns and caps and modes and rules of government in colledges halls and Innes of law if our very fashion of preaching and administring sacraments if all these and several such like things ordered and constituted amongst us be of any worth or commendable or may deserv any thanks we must then be civil towards the Pope and his catholick beleevers who invented disposed and ordered all these things for our good And yet we are so far from thinking of any of these things which might civilise us towards him that transported we cannot our selves tell how with animosity and passion we inveigh endlesly not only against Papists but even against the Pope himself who as he never hurt us so likewise doth he even to this day wish us all both temporal and spiritual good And I should think we might hereupon take occasion to admire at the Popes great civility and temperance not again to be paralel'd in the world who though he hath seen so many hundred virulent books writ against him and heard more words yet hath he never been known to let fall the least word of passion against any nor move any engine for revenge And thus much several of our countrimen have experienced of late years in Rome where railing at the Pope even under his nose as a wicked proud Antichrist they received being called before him no other check but this My friends be peaceable while you are in my territories least the people should fall upon you and hurt you when you are out of my territories say of me what you please I have seldom known any noble person but if his honour were traduced especially if falsly undeservedly and by an inferiour person and frequently and in a high degree but he would move more or less to a just reveng of his right Only the Pape goes quietly on in his cours as the full moon in the firmament which heeds not at all the barkings of so many curres that vainly open their mouths against her But in the interim can there be any thing more unseemly than a young Minister in a pulpit here in England vapouring and talking before a congregation that come thither to hear Gods word against a gentleman a grave venerable person a byshop a Prince who also living a thousand miles off hears not a word he saies and if he did would heed it as little We read a story in the book of Kings of a company of boies that mockt at Eliseus a grave and venerable person as he was going up to Bethel crying Vp baldpate up baldpate and the very bears issuing sodainly out of the woods tore them in sunder May not we justly fear som such like event for the like if not greater crime of ours shall fall upon us who do not only call that venerable person and his priests Baldpate but
for his coming whom you judge so near Nothing is so suspicious as tumultuous piety And I do earnestly request you would seriously peruse two short stories related by wise Gamaliel in the fifth chapter of the Acts and make them a part of your primmer Men Israelites saith he look to these men what you are to do Before these dayes there was one Theodas professing himself to be some body unto whom consented a number of men about four hundred who was slain and all that beleeved him was dissipated and brought to nothing After him there was Judas Galileus in the dayes of profession and he drew people after him and he perished himself and so many as consented to him were disperst And both these rose up under a pretens of piety and if I be not mistaken for Christ too whose reign they would have set up in Palestine before his first coming or thereabouts even as you would now before his second to the disturbance of the kingdom you live in So then good friends setting aside your violent exclamations against all that adhere not to you which you cannot your selves justify for humility and peace is the great and inseparable property of piety if it be true and real our agreement with you is already made for the true light you magnify we praise it too and hope we enjoy it the vice you deplore we do equally detest the coming and reign of Christ we hope and wish for with all Christian resignation and the two horns of ministery and magistracy as soon as the world is grown so good and peaceable as there shall be no further use of them will be taken away but till all iniquity and the wild beasts you speak of be rid out of the earth I hope you will be so rational as not to think we will throw away the onely horns of our safety and if you do well you need not fear the sword either of spiritual or temporal power The apostles were never rebellious to any autority they found established in the world Nor is there any power upon earth can justly disturb a Prince or Kingdom by pretens of any light truth or religion which be it never so true is to be humbly offered not violently intruded upon any The Anabaptist walks with the Quaker and makes up with him a pair of Independents his books carry the like pious strain but have somewhat a clearer colour of art and less of zeal The particular controversy of Infant-baptisme which becaus he allows not of it gives him his special name I will not meddle with But his great argument why children should not be baptised namely becaus they cannot either know what is done to them or concurr themselvs to the effect if it were of force might in my mind equally hinder their corporal nurs to wash or make them clean unto which they are so far from concurring that as much as they are able they resist it and struggle and kick and cry amain when 't is done not knowing what good is done to them and as there is as much need of the spiritual washing as of that so can God as easily with his laver make their souls clean without their help as we their bodies However gentlemen Anabaptists if you will not wash your children you will give us leav I hope to baptise ours which if it should not do them good yet will it for certain do you no harm custom is a tirant and we cannot but keep it it you like it not unusquisque in suo sensu abundet Even as the Papist is defensiv against Protestant Presbyterian and Independent who all hate and persecute him so is the Independent offensiv against them all but the intermediat Presbyterian and Protestant are in an offensiv postur against their foregoers and defensiv against their revolting successors But the Presbyterian very much renowned in these dayes for his zealous prayer and preaching does not so much heed the bitings of his junior Independent weaker than himself both in learning and repute as he does endeavour to disable the Prelate-Protestant his foregoer whose gravity and long continuance in the land with much estimation and applaus cannot without great hostility and force of wit be as he could wish utterly disparaged And so the Presbyterians caus in this great contest bears in a manner this scheme of plea against the Protestant episcopacy Your Monarchick-superintendency wherin one should tirannise and lord it over many in spirituall affairs we can no wayes approâ— against the lively current of Gospel-dispensations in which if any will be greater than the rest let him that may he be so indeed by the form that is in Christ who being in his divinity-fulnes emptied himself into the figure of a servant be made the least We have all one Lord and Maister and we equally his servants unto whom alone we either stand or fall from whose fulnes we receiv all of us grace for grace Did not the maister check his apostles for the like spirit-ambition when they laboured against the vein of the ingoings of humble Christ within their souls to be one greater then another whereas they were all indifferently under him whom they called Lord and maister and by his own testimony very truly And if we be successors to the apostles in soul-ministery and dispensations of Gospel-verities we succeed them also in their absolute independency upon any other Lord but himself who is all in all The first reforming Protestants in the sulnes of time and age of reconciliation-light whom both you and we acknowledg to be indued with most ample gifts and essences of Christ within the closets of their souls struggled and lift and bore up more resolutely against this Papall-government the very Egiptian residence whence succeeding darknes spred it self about the world than any one or other pernicious doctrin might have flowed from that sours unto the obstructing of the light-dispensations from above And not without reason for all doctrin-vassailage was exercised and kept in hand by that Episcopacy-power over mens immortall souls whose command belongs only to him who sees and rules hearts to the utter ruin of all Christian liberty in the Gospel-messengers who now were to administer to the hungry mouths of soul-starved persons not bread of life from heavenly places but husks and chaft from the earthly pallaces of dry and deceitful dictates of men Nor was this Prelate-presidentship ever permitted in any reformed Churches beyond the seas where reformation-light first sprang forth but pulled down and abhorred either as downright Popery or at least the shadow and imitation of it and we who be the lights of the world and salt of the whole earth as we are to refrain from all show of evil so can we not find upon earth any superior spirit-power by which we may be made good for if the primary lights of the world and stars of the firmament be once put out who shall lighten them again whose abode is in earth and clay