Faith of the Church Catholick But whence came Filioque in Two of these Three Creeds if not in a Provincial Synod In a General no man thinks it did And some Learned men ascribe that Addition of Faith to the Eighth Synod of Toledo And if a Provincial of Spain may thus decide Points of Faith I understand not why a National of England may not be heard in far less matters Nay in the Fourth of Toledo 't was challeng'd by the Fathers as the proper Right of a National Synod that it might decide Points of Faith as clearly appears in the 3. Can. of that Council You see then the Parallel still holds Hezekiah reform'd but his Two Tribes and our English Princes but their own Territories I come to the last of this Second General The manner of the Reformation He did as well teach the truth as reform the corruptions He took away the high places and he said Ye shall c. Ye shall worship before one altar so his words are set down 2 Chron. 32. at the 12th He did not only remove their Errors as if that past Triumph might suffice them but for the future he enjoin'd the People to employ their Devotion according to God's sacred Law. And did not we so too Witness our Catechisms and our Liturgy our many Forms of Devotion to God and our many enlargements of those Moral Duties we owe to the several ranks of our Neighbours 'T is then but a Calumny and a fond one too to call our Faith a Negative Religion as if to believe that some Men are erroneous were the sole Article of all our Churches Creed Truth is we may thank them for it that 't is with us as with Iudah our Profession must needs now contain some Negatives High places are not allowable maim'd Sacraments must not be suffered nor Images ador'd but yet they may soon see our Positive Tracts are more large than our Polemicks and that we have taken more pains to make men good than to make them Learned or Judicious I heartily wish I could in this regard as well defend some Sons of our Church as I am sure I can our Church it self For many mens ill carriage seem to divide the two clauses here which are so nearly join'd in my Text. They like well to remove High Places and Altars in this regard none shall shew more Zeal than they nay under pretences of such corruptions as these if you please remove Church and all But when we once come to this Ye shall worship before one altar ye shall bow down ye shall bend your selves for so the word here imports ye shall be devout and religious and this not only in your inmost thoughts but in your outward Forms of Deportment they like no such Reformation 't is enough to save them that they have learned to hate Rome and that they are no superstitious Persons Let not such men deceive themselves 'T will one day rise up in Judgment 't will plead against them and severely too that they have been bred Members of such a reform'd Church and yet neither in their Devotions nor their Lives themselves have they shew'd the least Reformation What good will it do these to have been so Christianly allow'd the Blessed Cup in the Sacrament when yet either they come not at all or come in their sins to receive it What will it avail thee to have God's Service perform'd in a Language thou understand'st when either very seldom thou hearest it read or dost not heed at all though thou hear it How will that poor man whom perhaps thou now pitiest plead against thee at that Last Bar of Christ's Judgment I indeed came seldom and with small Devotion to that Sacrament because I was there robb'd of that sacred Cup which I know Thou thy self had'st left me I seldom came to God's Publick Service and being there I fix'd my Mind on some secular Lusts because I could not understand it And in punishment shall I be equall'd to him who was allowed the Cup and in Divine Service might have understood both all Hymns and Prayers Believe it the Reformation was made not to boast of but to use And he who shall declare that he likes the thing and yet is no whit the better for it runs at the best but into a kind of Covetousness a sin St. Paul call'd Idolatry for with such miserable Churls he loves indeed to have the power of this great Wealth and yet he doth ne're mean to use it But we ought to know that when Hezekiah has once removed these High Places here 't is to this great end especially that thenceforth we should be the more carefully devout before that allowed Altar at Ierusalem And yet when we have done this we must look for Scorns and Reproaches For if Iudah or any Child of hers be grown good you may surely expect there will be straight work for Rabshakeh as you 'l see in my last part The Reformation censur'd it 's tax'd of Novelty and Schism and the like But if ye say We trust in the Lord our God is not that he c. 'T was in St. Hierom's time an Hebrew Traditon that this Rabshakeh was born a Iew so that Father upon the 36th of Esay Indeed so it often falls out that Iudah has no man a more bitter Enemy than when one of the Circumcision becomes a Fugitive Nor has our Mother-Church been by any more violently oppos'd than by the hands who have left her by the hands of those sicklemen whose persons she did once baptize But leave the Man come to his Words If ye say unto me We trust in the Lord c. You see Rabshakeh himself was grown so much a Divine as to aver openly That he who puts his Hand to overturn that Religion he professes yea that puts his Hand to overturn it too at the same time while he likes it pretend what he will he trusts not in God he trusts perhaps in the Syrians or in Egypt He goes on Is not this he whose altars c. He Iudah's old God and therefore 't was no less than plain Novelty to leave him These High Places and Altars as he conceiv'd were his too And to leave off to communicate in that Service they once us'd what can this be less than a Schism And have not we been long since nay are we not reproached even unto this day with the very self-same Imputations They have set up a new Church they are wicked Schismaticks So that should the most modest man entertain that Dream of Pythagoras of the transmigration of Souls from one body to another he would not stick at all to affirm that he who was once Rabshakeh was since some tart Pen-man of this latter Century I 'le speak first of that Tax the reproach of Novelty And I beseech you mark how Rabshakeh has here fram'd his Words He strives to lay all upon this Present King Hezekiah took away and Hezekiah said No mention that
and blesseth Patience and Sufferings and Martyrdom either upon pretence to plant it where it now is not or to reform it where it has been planted is of all other kinds of Contentions or Wars the most Turkishly Antichristian And therefore to avoid Quarrels and Blood 't was Hezekiah the King who here reforms the Church of Iudea But yet durst he adventure alone upon an attempt so sacred and so great No you 'l easily find in the circumstances of the Text that he had both a Council and withal a Rule to direct him for if you read the 30 and the 31 of the 2d of Chron. you 'l see this Reformation was made in the time of a most solemn Passover where the Priests and Levites the Princes and the People met and when Saith the Text chap. 30. ver 30. Hezekiah had spoke comfortable words to all the Levites that taught the good knowledg of the Lord. Yea Iosephus seems to put into this Kings mouth a Synodical Oration in the ninth of his Antiquities I say when upon the Kings encouragement the Levites had once taught that good Knowledg then upon such counsel such direction as this then came the Reformation For so Moses was plain in the blessing he gave upon the whole Tribe of Levi They shall teach Iacob thy judgments and Israel thy Law Deut. 33. at the 10. And as he had a Council so 't is as plain by the self-same words he had a Rule too to go by 't was the good Knowledg of the Lord which is in Moses phrase his Iudgments and his Law And lest he should perhaps err in the Interpretation of that sacred Text he had the help of the best Comment too as you but now heard from the 22d of Ioshua 't was the sense and practice of the Hebrew Church whilst she was yet Primitive That the Church of England was reformed by the Power Royal by a Power that made use of the like Counsel and like Rule is a truth I think none here doubts of if any do 't will be soon clear'd both from our Stories and our Laws that first Our Liturgy which Reform'd Gods Publick Service was compos'd by Bishops and others of great Knowledg in Antiquity many whereof attained the Honour of Martyrdom And then the Book of our Articles which reformed the Theological Tenets the common Doctrines of our Church were Compiled by Synods by Convocations by the two Solemn Provincial Councils of London or if you will the two National because both our Provinces concurr'd in the same truth in the years 52 and 62. And that our Rule was the same they here used in Iewry Gods word interpreted by the Sense and Practice of the Ancient Church appears in the next Synod after where 't is decreed in plain words That whosoever undertakes to teach any truth as necessary to salvation which he is not able to make good by Text as 't was understood by the Fathers and the Ancient Church shall be expos'd to Ecclesiastical Censure and Canonical Correction And we cannot think our Church would enjoyn a Rule to her Sons which yet she had not kept her self In this Point then we are hand in hand with Iudah the same Power the same Council the same Rule I go to the next following The Extent of the Reformation 't was only set up in his own Territories Iudah and Ierusalem Indeed Hezekiah wrote Letters and sent to the remains of the Ten Tribes to joyn in this great Action with him but they for the most part contemn'd his Message and slighted his Attempt 2 Chron. 30. The King did exceeding well For 't was to be much wished that in a Design so highly pious as this all Israel would have been unanimous But yet if Ephraim and others will refuse to hear Iudah must mend alone How generally a Reformation was desir'd in these parts of Christendom by men of the choicest Note both for Learning and Piety 't were no hard Task at all to shew you Nay in the very Council of Trent Ten several Kingdoms and States desir'd the Cup for the People both by their Ambassadors and their Prelates Many press'd for a Redress of Service in an unknown Tongue many for many other particulars All were refus'd and the Reason plain Order was there taken you may guess by whom that there were more Italian Prelates sometimes by Twenty sometimes by an Hundred than there were of all the World besides so that in effect all this Christendom would have reformed her self had not Italy oppos'd it Nor can that be call'd a General Council 't was but Patriarchal at the largest since the Bishops of the East and other great Churches were not there no nor those Three long since so most famous Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria and Antioch who though they may be deceiv'd in that Tenet of the Procession of the Holy Ghost yet whatever Error they are in in that point they are in no Heresie as is confess'd by P. Lombard himself and has been oft made unanswerably good by Men as well vers'd in controversal Points as any Christendom has bred But 't is the Artifice of the Western Church to perswade the World that those ancient parts are now fallen from the Church that so within the Curtains of their own Patriarchate she may have General Councils and an universal Church and so though she now make not near a Third part of the Christian World yet with the Donatist she dares profess her self the only Catholick Church and so damns all Mankind without her Neither yet do I deny nay I affirm it rather That a true General Council could best prescribe Remedies unto so large a Disease but to convoke that was extreamly difficult and we are all sure 't was not done For what Christian Princes can now give safe conduct to the Bishops and Patriarchs of those remoter parts of the Church So then if neither a true General Council nor free Patriarchal could be had were 't not strange Imprudence to refuse a Cure because we could not use the best Physicians In this case no doubt it unquestionably holds what Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris has spoken out without Limitation and he as Bell. affirms was Vir doctus pius he was a learned and a good man too and you shall hear that good mans words Nolo tamen dicere c. I will not say faith he but the Church may be reformed by parts yea this is necessary and to effect it Provincial Councils may suffice and in some things Diocesan 't is in his Tract de Gen. Con. unius obed And indeed Particular Churches have gone farther in this kind than our dear Mother e're dream'd of For four things there are chiefly of Synodical Cognizance Articles of Faith Forms of Divine Worship Theological Conclusions for the Peace of each Church and the points of Ceremony Only these Three last were the Subject of our Reformation we still adhering unto the Three Creeds which are the
to the Romans in the 11th chap. verse 21. Be not high minded but fear for if God spar'd not the natural branches take heed lest he spare not thee And that this Text implies the Christian Gentiles may be all cut off quite from Christ is here the Conclusion of Stapleton and of the Remists Notes on that Text and of divers of their way And to say the plain truth that Text I named can well bear no other comment unless we 'l fondly affirm that St. Paul warns the Gentiles to take heed of that mischance which yet indeed could not possibly fall out And then I beseech you observe if that same Church which boasts most of strength may yet run in Non Ecclesiam may become no Church at all she may much more run in Corruptam Ecclesiam into a Church so corrupt in her Publick Worship that she may now need a Reformation I say she may run into a corrupt Church and do but consider her new claim of Infallibility and you 'l easily yield 't is a Victory to prove that Rome may be conquered to make this appear She may err is enough to convince her of no little part of her Errors If you ask me to shew more I shall beg leave to reply That ' t is an Argument I affect not for I had much rather be employed in discourses of good life than in these of controversies as holding that in all kind of Contentions to be the most fit Christian Prayer Give peace in our time O Lord. Yet since I here meet with such Disputes and Waverings in some I 'le think out of Conscience in others either out of Vanity to entertain their time or that under pretence of searching Christian Truths they may indeed drive a Trade I must hence hold it a Duty I owe unto most of those that now hear me yea a Duty I owe to that venerable Church that baptiz'd us all though our now poor afflicted Mother to keep the Fruit of her own Womb from thus trampling on her to keep them as much as in me lies from being gull'd and cheated from her Unity and withal from communicating too deeply in sin with those who have now cast her on the ground If you ask then for the corruptions of the Western Church suppose I instance but in one alone She took the Cup from the People An Abuse set up against as clear Text as e're the High Places were Drink ye all of this saith our Saviour St. Mat. 26. And again as they interpret that Text Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no life in you in that 6th chap. â—o St. Iohn Mark ye have no life in you I know they defend this and make no question at all but some witty Scribe might have been as well able to defend the Iews who for ought I know might have said as they do That the Hebrew Church had power over the Sacraments and Sacrifices are no more or by their new Doctrine of Concomitance they might maintain much more probably that their High Places and Altars were but only us'd as Parts as Appurtenances as Concomitants of the Tabernacle than these that Shed-blood lies in the Host. For Shed-blood it must be This is my very Blood which is shed for you So that to tell us of Blood in the Body of Blood running in the Veins is indeed to shew forth the Lord's Life but not as he commands to shew forth his death till he comes Nay admit the Doctrine of Concomitance which yet in this point is but a meer perfect fiction yet Christ enjoyns Drink ye all of this And I appeal to your own Sences themselves whether to eat Christ's Blood be to drink it Their Publick Service in an unknown Tongue is it not as clearly against the Doctrine of St. Paul 1 Cor. 14. How saith he shall the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understands not what thou say'st in the 16th verse of that chapter Two things you see the Apostle there takes for granted first that the unlearned ought to say Amen at God's Publick Service Secondly they cannot joyn that consent of theirs but to those words they understand I might instance in many more particulars as in the Adoration of Images of Saints of the Eucharist in the Doctrine of Purgatory and those other Articles of the New Creed of Trent whereof some are of dangerous practise nay as Learned men amongst themselves have confess'd Gerson Espensaeus and many others they are of practice among the Vulgar at least some doubt not to add and among the Learned too no less than Idololatrical Others again are made Articles of Faith which yet for ought appears either in the Text or in Antiquity are indeed not so much as probable Opinions So that to say truth there are store of men who have not Ignorance enough to believe such Articles And yet the Western Church has forced many Souls into the Faith of this New Creed both by the Prison and the Stake And in this Tyranny hath shewed her self far worse than e're old Iudah did For though we read of no visible conspicuous number that did avoid the High Places yet in Charity we may think there were some few that did so and yet in this regard we read not so much as one either punished or disgraced by an Hebrew Magistrate 'T is true then that God's Church yea his Christian Church may be stained with some gross foul Corruptions But what Because she may thus err shall each giddy Brain be allow'd to controul or each private Hand to reform her Admit this Disorder once and let a Church be indeed most Apostolick yet you may be assured she shall ne're want Reformers if she have either Sons to be employ'd in Rebellion or Lands to be enjoyed by Sacriledge A Corah then will dare to tell Moses to his face That all the Congregation is holy as holy as himself or the best employ'd in the Tabernacle all Kings and Priests then and all this stir is rais'd not so much that he dislikes the Order of Aaron but that indeed he likes his Revenue And therefore in my Text there 's care had of this A Reformation follows but you 'l find it brought in by no less than by the Power Royal whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath said to Iudah c. This part affords Varieties and I must therefore divide it Here 's then first the Prime Agent in this Reformation I nam'd Hezekiah the King. Secondly the Extent of the Reformation 't was only brought into his own Territories Iudah and Ierusalem Thirdly the manner how he setled it 't was done as well by teaching truth as by reforming corruptions He took away the High Places and he said Ye shall worship before this altar at Ierusalem First of the Prime Agent Hezekiah the King. But to remove these Abuses here did not this Prince first abuse