their Church declares it nor is any sense or meaning to be fixt upon as the certain sense of any Scripture but what they determine to be the meaning of the place Accordingly the Trent Council out of their great power have determined the vulgar Latin Translation of the Bible to be authentick and equal to the Greek and Hebrew originals Council of Trent Ses 4 though their own authors acknowledge it to be most false defective and in many things ridiculous Now then our faith is not ultimately resolved into the Scriptures we do not believe and obey because we know and are sure from Scripture that this is the mind of God but because the Pope or Church declare it to be the mind of God yea though the words of Scripture plainly condemn what they teach or though the Translation of a Scripture be contrary to the original which was indited by the spirit of God immediately yet if they say this is the meaning of the place and the true translation of it we must believe it The foundation then of all our faith and obedience is the determination of the Church or Pope Obj. But they are infallible they say Answ This they can never prove but if they were if I must believe meerly upon their Testimony and saying they are infallible my faith is still resolved into the witness of men their testimony concerning themselves is but a humane Testimony they do not cannot prove it by any divine infallible proof therefore my faith and obedience must ultimately pesolve into humane authority The Apostles were infallible yet had not they dominion over the faith of the Church 2 Cor. 12.24 to command what should be believed and practised but they proved by infallible and divine Testimony of miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost that what they taught came from God and so the belief of the people was built upon the Testimony of God to the Apostles doctrine 1. Cor. 2.4 5. the Apostle saith his preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and of power That their faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God If their faith had been grounded upon the Apostles own Testimony of his self that he was infallible and upon his determination concerning any Scripture or doctrine out of his own wisdom though he had seemed to prove it strangely their faith had stood upon the authoty wisdom of man but therefore their faith was built on God because his spirit did powerfully demonstrate what the Apostle preacht to be from God therefore unless the Papists can prove their infallibility by miracles and demonstration of the spirit theirs is but a humane Testimony and so we know it is and a false one too and therefore it is an intolerable abuse to take the Church off from faith and obedience to Christ as the head commanding and ruling her and from the holy Spirit as inditing and confirming the holy Scriptures and to subject her to the authority and determinations of fallible and sometimes most wicked men To let pass that the Papists themselves not being agreed who is the infallible supreme judge whether the Pope Council or the whole Church no man of them hath any sure foundation for his Faith If they say the Scripture declares who is the supreme infallible Judge I answer that Judge must again tell us what is the meaning of that Scripture The Pope saith it means him the Council and Church say it means them here are three pretenders to supreme and infallible authority and to interpret the Scripture which soever a man adheres to it is two to one but he is mistaken however here is no way to determine who is the infallible Judge unless there be infallible marks and Testimonies of it given by God and then they are of the supreme authority and neither Pope Council nor Church themselves but such they can never produce Thus the whole matter is but an inconsistent juggle to bring the Church into subjection to the Pope 3. Because the Church of Rome takes away the Scriptures from the people yea and alloweth the Clergy themselves the use of the corrupt vulgar Translation of the Bible only Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10.14 How then shall the people get Faith or grow in it when they must not have the Scriptures to read themselves nor have them read to them by their teachers but in an unknown tongue and that Translation so corrupt also that if any of them should understand Latin they would yet have much difficulty to find the truth The Scriptures are Christs Law whereby he governs his Church and the peoples Magna Charta the Charter of all their priviledges and of all Gods promises spiritual and temporal to take this from them is to deprive them both of the rule of their obedience and of the foundation of all their faith and hope in God This is not to be endured upon any pretence whatsoever 4. Because they impose the celebration of Gods worship in an unknown tongue the Papists celebrate their prayers Sacraments and singing of Psalms all in Latin which as they know the people understand not so they would not have them understand it by this means the people are deprived of all true worship For worship is the reverence and affection of the soul to God either in ascribing honour to him or desiring of him and trusting in him for whatever we need This it is impossible man should give to God in and by those words and expressions which he understandeth not which for what he knows may blaspheme God or beg a curse instead of a blessing which as managed by illiterate Priests oftentimes are nonsense and signifie nothing and sometimes contrary to sound Doctrine yea may at all times for what the people know be directed to an Idol or a Devil instead of God For preaching of the word the Papists pretend but little to it And thus the Roman Church is a Church of Christ which acknowledgeth not him for her head and Governour nor his word for her rule and Law nor his worship for her practice but sabjecteth her self to a wicked man under the name of Christs Vicar taketh his will for her Law and his institutions for her worship without Question and without understanding This is an abuse Jot to be tolerated 5. The Idolary that the Papists impose on the Church the Apostle is express You cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils 1 Cor. wor-10 20 21. and these Devils he saith are shipped in Idols by Idolaters with whom therefore we must have no communion now the greatest part of the Papists worship consists in the worship and invocation of Saints Angels and the Virgin Mary and their waser-God which they practise upon the very same grounds on which the Heathens worshipt their Idols and therefore are Idolaters as well as the
the promoters of them did also promote their authority and strengthen their hands against the Godly and most serious part of the Church But the most usual causes of errors are ignorance of the Scriptures and of the principles of religion founded on them which in the primitive times had a great occasion given it by the prejudicate opinions that new Converts brought from Judaisme and Paganisme and from the new Testament not being fully written in a considerable time and the several books thereof not gathered into one volume in a long space after and chiefly corrupt affections Men will imbrace errors because they love not the truth Vse 1. This sheweth the necessity of adhering to the Scripture and of a standing Ministry If we stick not to the Scripture the pretence of the Spirit and Traditions will lead us into a wilderness where there is no end Heathens Mahometans Papists and all Enthusiasts will distract us by their several and contrary pretensions And if there be not a standing and learned Ministry Apocryphal Scriptures and false interpretations of Scripture will easily beguile the unskilful and hinder the edification of the more wise 2. The Papist's brags of infallibility of the Pope or Church and the necessity of it to the foundation of our faith is as foolish as it is untrue The Apostles and Apostolical men were infallible and yet this will not prevent errors and Heresies of the highest nature either in their own or in the next succeeding ages An infallible head or guide will not secure the Church from errors and divisions unless all the people be infallible likewise certainly able to discern the truth declared to them and perfectly free from all evil affections which may hinder their receiving and submitting to the truth 3. It is no Wonder to see errors and divisions in these last days of the Church sith they were in the first While men are subject to ignorance and evil affections there will be both errors and divisions and if we go to the Church of Rome to avoid all errors and Schisms because they boast of such Unity which was never promised nor long enjoyed by any Church we shall but do like Children that tear many little holes in a garment into one great one that comprehends them all and more and cannot be repaired Obs 2. It is certainly foretold that there should be an Apostasie in the Church The same Apostle almost in the same words foretels it 1 Tim. 4.1 The spirit speaks expresly that some shall depart from the faith The first Christians might be apt to expect the coming of Christ and their everlasting rest to be at hand from the love and joy they had conceived upon their first receiving the Gospel but they are here told that happy time is not so nigh There must come a departure of many from the faith first and many contests and persecutions should ensue thence and therefore they should arm themselves with patience to a conflict before they must expect the Crown When God made the world he made it wonderful great and large and stored it with almost infinite variety of creatures to set forth his own Majesty he hath also continued it some thousands of years with as great variety of providences in his governing of it to shew his manifold wisdom power mercy and justice and what will be the wonderful transactions of the world to come throughout eternity to set forth the glory of the â—ernal God no creature can conceive In like manner when our Lord came from Heaven to purchase a Church to serve him it was not quickly to expire but to conflict with the world and the Devil with enemies without and within through many changes and vicissitudes a considerable time and at last through faith and patience to inherit the promises It was long that the Church continued under the bondage of the Law and there were many changes and declinings of it at several times under the Judges and Kings of Judah but there was one great Apostasie of the Ten tribes under Jeroboam which ended in the ruin of that State and people Such a departure was there to be in the Christian Church signified here by the indeterminate word There shall come a departure or Apostasie for the falling off of a few particular persons was no strange thing but happened in every age Now such Apostasies are permitted 1. To punish the ingratitude of men for the Gospel Because they receive not the love of the truth because Christ and his Gospel are not welcome to the generality of men but any or no religion would content them as well if they might have outward peace and prosperity therefore Christ suffers them to be inticed with Errors and Heresies to their own destruction which at last bring publick calamities and ruin 2. To punish the Hypocrisie of others Some pretend great zeal and affection in the peace of the Church which is either meerly pretended for worldly interest or but a light and transient passion as in the stony ground who can never be perswaded to be zealous and rooted Christians Matth. 13.20 therefore when they have been tryed a convenient time opportunities of backsliding are sufferred to come to discover and shame them 3. To manifest and honour those that are sound 1 Cor. 11.18 19. There must be heresies among you that they which be approved may be made manifest among you When peace and truth meet together the sound and best Christians are unknown and for the most part less regarded than the Hypocrites that make more shew and noise Christ therefore suffers apostasies to come to discover and honour his sincere humble diligent and stedfast servants 4. Errors are also permitted to clear the trut more and make them that are sound more stedfast and strong The truths of the Gospel have in all ages been prejudiced by the zeal and good affection of some well minded as well as by the opposition of enemies because their affection over-run their judgment and their care to get a distinct knowledge of the principles of religion but the appearance of errours and corruptions makes them more careful to search the truth which hath been always more cleared and fortified by occasion of the oppositions against it and those who are upright have been put upon getting a clearer knowledge of the grounds of their faith worship and practices thereby 5. And in all this Christ manifesteth his distinguishing grace to some and his righteous judgments upon others Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness 6. Hereby all are stirred up to diligence and watchfulness When there shall come a falling away of many all are warn'd thereby to take care how they stand lest they also fall Rom. 11.20 Vse Be not therefore suprized at discouraged or tempted by the apostasies of others Though the Church be fair as the Moon she hath
Pagan which did impose her Idolatrous wrship upon the world Lastly that it is Rome Papal as it now is and hath been for many ages past which is this Babylon and not Rome when she shall utterly renounce the Christian faith in the end of the world as some Papists without shadow of reason fancy is proved in that she is arrayed in purple and Scarlet decked with gold and precious stones and pearls which is the garb of the Pope and his Cardinals In that she is the Mother of fornications Idolatries through the earth and that she is drunk with the blood of Saints and Martyrs Rome Papal having destroyed far more Christians than ever Heathen Rome did And that the beast that carries this whore the Roman State is full of names of blasphemy v. 3. the blasphemous titles and power which the Pope usurpeth to himself and his Roman Church above any heathen that ever was And especially in that the ten horns upon the head of the beast that carries this Whore which are ten Kingsarising out of the dissolution of the Roman Empire are said to have received no Kingdom in Johns time but to receive it one hour with the beast v. 12. yea to give their power to the beast to set him up and maintain his Empire and to be deluded by him till God shall turn their hearts against him to destroy him v. 13 -17 The beast himself also was to be the eighth head of the former great beast and yet one of the seven i. c. a new government in Rome for the manner of it not much different from the preceding Emperours all which are apparently fulfilled in the Pope and his adherents For when Augustulus laid down the Empire Ann. Chr. 476. there immediately appeared ten small Kingdomes sometimes more sometimes fewer in this Western part of the world and then the Pope began to usurp the dominion of Rome and both he and they grew up together and strengthened each other till they were all inslaved by him and had inabled him to trample Emperours under his feet likewise the declining or wane of Popedome in these too last ages hath been caused by the withdrawing of these very Princes from his subjection whose Kingdomes were once provinces of Rome and whose predecessors had given their power to the Pope and when a few more shall follow their example the Pope will lofe his triple Crown These things thus explained the Observation is clear Obs It is the command of Christ to all his people to withdraw from the communion of Papal Rome as they would avoid joyning in her sins and to those that have opportunity to forsake the dwellings of Rome as they would escape her plagues When the whole world after the flood apostatized from God and his worship God singled out the family of Abraham and in time increast them to a nation to put his name and to keep up his worship among them for this the rest especially their neighbours in the East hated and opposed them and the heads of this opposition were Egypt Niniveh and at last Babylon in Chaldea which swallowed up all her neighbours Thus there was a long contest betwixt the Church of the Jews who adhered to God and pure religion and Babylon which was become the head of the Pagan Apostasie in the East In like manner the Gospel was no sooner planted and spread throughout the Western world but there began a defection to Idolatry in the worship of Saints and Angels and after some while Rome became the head of this Apostasie and for above 1 thousand years past there hath been a continual contest betwixt a purer part of Christs Church scattered through divers Countries and this Mystical Babylon a certain number specified by one hundred forty four thousand Rev 14.1 have kept themselves pure from the whoredomes of Rome they were Virgins and followed the Lamb whithersoever he went and with them the Roman beast hath continually made war and still seeks to destroy them out of the earth now all that would be the faithful servants of Christ must joyn with this small persecuted company and neither comply with nor submit to Rome nor connive at her power and impositions as they would not be found guilty of her Apostasie and be swept away in her destruction To prove this because we speak to them who are already separated from Rome it will be sufficient to clear these 2 Questions which being cleared will also prove the duty of others to separate from her who yet either adhere to or lean towards her 1. Question whether there was a just ground for the Potestants to separate from the Church of Rome 2. Whether there can be any reconciliation of Protestants to Rome In which I shall be brief because a foundation is in a sort laid for it in the foregoing discourse 1. Qu. Whether Protestants did upon just and necessary grounds separate from the communion of the Church of Rome in her worship and discipline Answ They did which I thus prove 1. Because the Church of Rome hath altered the rule of the Christian faith The Church is a holy Common-wealth under the government of the Lord Jesus Christ and he governs it by his laws contained in the holy Scriptures these are the rule of their worship and obedience to him Math. 28.18 19 20. He that alters this rule altereth the fundamental constitution of the Church But the Church of Rome hath altered this rule they teach the Scriptures to be a defective insufficient rule and therefore they joyn to them the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament and the Traditions of the Church which also they receive and reject at their pleasure Decrees of Councils and decretals and decisions of Popes all these together are the perfect rule that the Papists acknowledge and pretend to I say pretend because the Scripture hath little share in it when it comes to Tryal hereby they have made a new foundation of the Church both of faith and practice For it is not sufficient that we believe and practise all that is in the Canonical Scriptures but we must believe and obey the Apocryphal writings and unwritten Traditions as of the same authority with the Bible thus the Council of Trent hath determined as was shewed before This altereth the very constitution of the Church and subjecteth it to men instead of Christ and this is the root of all apostasie 2. Because the Papists pretend their Pope or Church to be above the Scriptures and to put an authentick authority on them and their sense Thus all our faith and obedience is resolved into the determination of men That the Papists pretend the Pope their Council or Church to be above the Scriptures cannot be denied they give the authority and authentickness to the Scriptures 't is from their command that the Bible is received and if they pleased they might cause it to be laid aside it cannot be known they say that the Scriptures are Gods word but that