onely supposed related and no more It may bee a custome amongst the Informers and others of that Tribe to dictate to their Popular Auditories out of their Pulpits tanquam de tripode though it be quicquid in buccam and the same to be received upon their bare words as divine Oracles whereupon they need not make any suppositions put no cases to bee demurred on seeing they are ubique and in omnibus peremptory resolved and conclusive But with us it is not so we are not so happy to have our bare words passe we must prove what wee speake and well is it if so and then we finde credence They and the Iesuites are rare men to leade mens Faith and Beleefe so in a string In this passage against me it being ad oppositum and they like enough to bee demanded Proofes for what they say all their accusations of Arminianisme and of Popery though they bee false and slanderous yet are they Magisteriall You cannot finde so much as any one proofe annexed unto any of the imputed Errors or brought in to manifest Ideò this or that is an Error Their Stile runneth These are his words or Thus he writeth c. supposing all men will at least should take it upon their words That what hee so writeth is an Error Such Illuminates are our Classicall Brethren May they be intreated a little to descend from this their Chaire of Infallibility and yeeld somewhat according unto reason by producing that Rule against which touching Finall Perseverance the words produced if so be they are mine every way to all intents and purposes doe offend and for which they may justly bee stiled Errors The Rule produced upon tryall and application M. MOUNTAGU must eyther stand or fall Till then he appealeth to all indifferent censures for suspension of their judgements concerning Errors thus by him Delivered and Published by Authority In the Interim to come somewhat neerer unto the Error heer informed against Doth ARMINIUS maintaine touching finall Perseverance you must tell mee my good Informers for I have not read him that sometime the Called and Elect of God the Chosen ones and Iustified by Faith such as S. PETER was though they doe fall totally for a Time shall yet recover necessarily againe and not fall away finally or for ever If this be Arminianisme and so his conclusion then therein He holdeth with ARMINIUS But I have bin assured that ARMINIUS did hold as the Lutherans in Germany doe not only Intercision for a Time but also Abscission and Abjection too for ever That a man Called and Iustified freely through the grace of GOD in CHRIST might fall away again from Grace Totally finally and become a cast-away as IUDAS was for ever For S. PETER upon admission of this Passage as your selves have related it in your calumniatory Information by M. MOUNTAGU'S conclusion did not could not fall finally for CHRIST prayed for him that he might not fall and CHRIST was ever heard in that hee prayed for So that out of your owne mouthes M. MOUNTAGU is acquitted of Arminianisme for if He say any thing to the point it is that S. PETER could not fall finally from Faith nor lose it for ever irrecoverably For say you These are his words Though S. PETER fell totally he fell not eternally that is hee recovered and persevered unto the end and so touching finall Perseverance at least He teacheth in your own confession no otherwise than your selves do Thus Pure malice and indiscreet zeale make men many times lose their witts they know not where I adde if M. MOUNTAGU be an Arminian you are rather Papists for I demand In denying and forswearing CHRIST did S. PETER fall or did he not fall If abnegation and abjuration and execration will inforce a fall he did Now if he fell he needs must fall totally or finally for Cedo tertium a man falleth not who is not off or down from the Place Grace Multi dantur ad gratiam recessus hee that falleth to day may rise againe to morrow hold out unto the end receive the reward of Righteousnesse in finall Perseverance bee crowned with glory and immortalitie I say no more than you have subscribed if you look unto it After we have received the HOLY GHOST wee may DEPART FROM GRACE given and FALL into Sinne and by the grace of GOD wee may arise againe and amend our lives Artic. XVI Nec beatum dixeris quenquam ante mortem quamdiu enim vivimus in certamine sumus quamdiu sumus in certamine nulla est certa victoria was Catholick Doctrine of old But heer also as in the former passage these Informers mistake me for their owne advantage for I speak but only representatively according to the opinion and Tenent of the Roman Schooles I appeale unto their Honesty at least wise Knowledge are not my wordes laid downe directly thus For in YOUR opinion Iustifying faith may diminish and may be abolished and lost Now Iustification being in an instant c. If in their opinion it may be lost namely faith which justifieth then Iustification which is an Effect of faith may also bee lost and may bee recovered after such losse For things transitory are in a like habitude unto being and not being may cease to be and be againe After such losse of Faith and Love transitory in their opinion they againe may revert and finde a being but yet still in their opinion So all heer Delivered Errors or not Errors so or so is still in their opinion not the iudgement specified of M. MOUNTAGU My goodly Brethren this is no faire play to fasten that on me as my Assertion which precisely I relate from anothers mouth which I remember not but as the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and upon that their Doctrine by Them maintained by Him related doe inferre against a Papist a plaine Non sequitur from his owne Tenents unto an inconsequent Argument by Them inferred and opposed against the true and Catholick doctrine of the Church of England touching Iustification by Faith alone CHAP. IV. Of FALLING FROM GRACE The Tenet of Antiquity therein The doctrine of the Church of England in the 16th Article the Conference at Hampton Court the Book of Homilies and the publick Liturgie INFORMERS ANd againe Some hold that Faith may be lost totally and finally which is indeed the Assertion of Antiquity The Learnedst in the Church of ENGLAND assent unto Antiquitie in that Tenet which the Protestants in GERMANIE maintaine at this day having assented unto the Church of ROME MOUNTAGU A Ntiquum obtinent These men are still the same Calumniators and runne still along with all one indirect dealing Their Information in direct tearms standeth thus To make report and no more but to make report of Arminianisme if yet it be Arminianisme which is reported is in point of opinion to bee an ARMINIAN in point of Arianisme with these men to be an ARIAN for M. MOUNTAGU in this case hath done no
it were true which is most false wherewith I am charged by these honest men yet I might answer and what if I doe Who bound the Church of England or Me a Priest and a Member of the Church of England unto defence of all the Decrees or Determinations of that Synod Hath Prince or Parliament or Convocation Edict Statute or Canon I knowe none I have heard of none nor ever shall I hope And till I heare of such quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I answer Let them that are interessed plead for themselves For my part I nor have nor ever will subscribe that Synode absolutely and in all points for in some it condemneth upon the Bye even the discipline of the Church of England but so farre forth onely as their Determinations shall bee found and made conformable unto the doctrine of OUR Church nor I think will the Ferventest amongst you subscribe it in every point For sure I am YOUR Divines as you call them have disavowed sometimes some things resolved of in that Synod as for instance Cooperation of Free-will and Grace Reprobation negative rather than positive But as I said the Synod of Dort is not MY Rule and your Magisteriall Conclusions are NO Rule I hope all not violently precise will say Ampliandum upon your bare imputations who bring nothing to prove me an ARMINIAN but your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee saith thus and thus and we say this is ARMINIANISME Absque hoc And thus much for Arminianisme THE SECOND PART TOUCHING POINTS OF POPERY IN GENERALL CHAP. I. The Author uncharitably traduced His profession for the doctrine and discipline received and commanded in the Church of England Conformable Puritans Furious zeale The Church of Rome not a sound yet a true Church Private opinions disclaimed The Church of England asserted to her owne publick and proper Tenents The cause of all these Imputations NOw come they to POPERY in a larger extent A strange imputation in my opinion considering the subject upon which they work which may argue in them with any indifferent Reader an uncharitable unchristian fiery Puritanicall zeale malice and indiscretion too For did I prevaricate was it a compact between Me and the Papists to collude If I favoured them would I so have handled them as few have beside me in so exasperating a stile Sure A Kingdome I know divided cannot stand But the truth is As with the IESUITE he is an Heretick that is not furioso more a Roman Catholick so with the PURITAN he is a Papist that will not run a-madding with them It is not the first time for this very cause I have been talked of esteemed of traduced as a Papist which I can the better brooke because they have meted this measure to the Church of England it self as sympathizing with Papists in her Liturgy Discipline and Doctrine too It were to be wished that such transported spirits were taught to be more submisse and sparing in their talk I call GOD and all his holy Angels to witnesse I nor am nor have beene nor intend to be heerafter eyther Papist or ROMISH Catholick a Papist of State or of Religion but a Priest a member a follower of the Church and Doctrine of the Church of ENGLAND The Originall grounds of Popery are to my understanding against Reason have not their warrant from revealed Truth stand not with the purer practice of prime Antiquity I have been born and bred and brought up in the Confession of the Church of England I have learned loved admired and proposed unto my selfe to follow indeclinably not onely the Discipline of the Church of England whereunto the Puritans and Schismaticks themselves at least the wiser and subtiller sort of them come off roundly now for ends best known amongst themselves remaining quod erant quoad doctrinam tantum non in EPISCOPATU Puritani but the whole and entire Doctrine of that Church proposed in Synods confirmed by Law commanded and established by Act of PARLIAMENT This totall both Doctrine and Discipline I willingly and thoroughly embrace In profession thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lived and will die and will maintaine it by GOD'S grace to bee Antient Catholick Orthodox and Apostolicall I say it againe a never was or will be a Papist no not in heart though many be arrant Puritans in heart that onely for preferment do conforme hold with the Hare and runne with the Hound who so they might vivere and valere would as willingly have up the Presbyterian Anarchie as would THO. CARTWRIGHT were he living though many once Puritans turne often Papists And no marvell for fleeting is commonly from one extreme unto another Men of moving violent Quick-silver Gun-powder spirits can never rely upon middling courses but dum furor in cursu est runne on headlong into extremes And so I may avow I will not bee a Papist in haste because I never was a Puritan in earnest or in jest having found it true in my small observation that our Revolters unto Popery were Puritans avowed or addicted first And yet it must bee granted All powder doth not take fire alike nor are all Puritan Spirits of one disposition With some of them more braine-sick than the rest all my Booke against the Gagger is quickly branded with Popery or scurrility With others more discreet I doe but walk upon the brinks of Popery wherein is some allaying of that former fervency for upon their better advice I am but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the next dore unto it What they thinke or speake I cannot hinder nor doe I greatly care I professe my selfe none of those furious ones in point of difference now-a-dayes whose profession and resolution is That the farther in any thing from communion with the Church of Rome the neerer unto GOD and Truth that we ought to have no commerce society or accordance with Papists in things divine nor almost humane upon pain of eternall damnation but must bid defiance irreconcileable unto them for ever I am absolutely perswaded and shall bee till I see cause to the contrary that the Church of Rome is a true though not a sound Church of CHRIST as well since as before the Councell of Trent a part of the Catholick though not the Catholick Church which wee doe professe to beleeve in our Creed a Church in which among many tares there remaineth some wheat In Essentials and Fundamentals they agree holding one Faith in one Lord into whom they are inserted through one Baptisme Ecclesia Papalis saith FRANCISCUS IUNIUS neither Papist nor Arminian quâ id habet in se quod ad definitionem Ecclesiae pertinet est Ecclesia And I verily am perswaded that I ought not to goe farther from the Church of Rome in these her worst daies than she hath gone away from her selfe in her best dayes I hold it to bee furious zeale without discretion issuing out of ignorance or malice or both in them who proceed so farre in their extravagant
think and speake and write otherwise or you eyther yet both of us may bee deceived But somewhat there was which these men intended and would have said if so bee they could have hit upon it It is a Conclusion of the Romane Schooles The Church cannot Erre which Proposition I may both affirme and deny as it is proposed The Church CANNOT Erre The Church CAN Erre For first it i◠ambiguous subiectivè What the Church is which cannot Erre The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and must be distinguished And secondly we may consider it obiectivè In what things the Church cannot Erre and Quousque that Not erring doth reach forth Extensivè To this purpose I differenced Churches two wayes into Topicall or Particular Churches into Catholick or Vniversall I divided also the objects of erring or not erring two wayes into Fundamentalls or superstructives For Particular locall Churches such as Corinth Ephesus Smyrna Thyatyra Laodicea c. it is in Confesso on both sides that They may Erre for it is evident that they have Erred both in inferiour and in higher points of Faith And so have Erred oftentimes that through their Erring in Fundamentalls in that sort they have ceased to be Churches any more The Catholick or universall Church I considered two wayes conceiving it to be Diffusive or Representative and that diffusion to runne out two wayes into Vniversality of ALL both Time and Place or into Vniversality of Time alone The first is so ample that it fetcheth in the APOSTLES and all and so includeth within the Verge that part of the Catholick Church which is now regnant in heaven and free from all Error as partaking of that blisse which leadeth infallibly holdeth inseparably in all Truth In this sense and acceptation the proposition is not quarrelled The Church so hath not cannot Erre The second divided part stinted from so large an extent is yet enlarged respectively to all members to every member in particular of the Catholick Church living any where at any one time so that the whole aggregation of all Christian professors make and compose this Church And as yet I thinke the Informers doe not quarrell us for Popery Their whole stitch is against the Church Representative in a Generall Councell In which though I should resolve simply and punctually thus A Generall Councell cannot Erre yet could I not be counted a Papist For the Tenent of the Papists if you my Informers know it not in their Schooles is this A Generall Councell can no way Erre in the Decisions finall thereof which is allowed by the POPE By which they necessarily inferre as also they stick not to expresse that unlesse the POPE give ratification any Generall Councell whatsoever may erre in any point of Faith of what nature soever And therefore such is their Doctrine since the IESUITES have domineered in their Schooles all the validity and assurance of not Erring which a Generall Councell hath or can have either in fide or moribus is onely from that impossibility of Erring which the POPE hath as Haeres ex asse unto S. PETER to whom our SAVIOUR behighted that impossiblity alone So that pretend the IESUITES as long as they will that fair and specious shew and title of the CHURCH never so much have they nothing in their mouthes but The CHURCH the CHURCH the POPE is that Church and their conclusion heer is not for the Church but for HIM Now doth Mr. MOUNTAGU come up unto nay looketh he toward this Catholick Roman fancy and infallible madnes Nothing lesse Hee directly pitcheth upon the Church Representative in a generall Councell WITHOUT the Pope I meane without the Pope as Head or exceeding the bounds and limits of a Patriarchicall Bishop I go not unto all things discussed or determinable in a Councell but rest upon that which is Fundamentall Nor doe I resolve it as certum de fide or tender it unto others to be beleeved I say no more but I see no cause why I may not so resolve and that also but upon suppositions if the Councell be truely GENERALL indeed and of SUCH none yet ever erred that ever I yet read or observed in Points Fundamentall And therefore I saw and see no cause but a man may say Such a Councell shall never erre in Fundamentals But concerning Fundamentals if your stitch bee against them I answer with B. MORTON in his Appeale THE beleefe of some Articles is so absolutely necessary for the constitution of a true Church as a reasonable soule is for the essentiall being of a man In such as these are shew me an error Dr. REYNOLDS himself though maintaining the contrary was not able in his VI. Conclusions out of all his reading and yet therein was his excellency to afford us so much as a peece of an example in Antiquity for a Generall Councell erring in FUNDAMENTALS and I am perswaded no man living can instance it Of such onely doe I speak and in such onely do I conceive infallibility and so as I conceive it the promise of OUR SAVIOUR may and doth hold HEE shall leade you into ALL TRUTH as also that other to the same purpose Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I AM THERE in the MIDDEST of them The Church of England may seem to have been of a contrary minde in her determinations and to have taught and prescribed to be so taught that such Generall Councels true and lawfull not onely may erre for possibilitie but also have erred in reality For Artic. XXI we reade thus GENERALL Councels may not be gathered together without the commandement and will of Princes And when they be gathered together for as much as they bee an Assembly of men whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and word of GOD they MAYERRE and sometime HAVE ERRED even in things appertaining unto GOD. Which decision of the Article is not home to this purpose First the Article avoucheth that GENERALL Councels have erred which cannot be understood of my limitation Fundamentals because there is no such Extat of any Generall Councell true and lawfull Secondly things appertaining unto GOD are not all Fundamentals but points of Piety GOD'S Service and Religion which admit a very large interpretation For many things appertaine unto GOD that are not of necessity unto salvation both in practice and speculation In these haply Generall Councels have erred in those other none can erre The Councell of Nice determined the controversie of Easter it was not Fundamentall I put the case that in it they erred It was a thing appertaining unto GOD in his service this may come under the sense and censure of the Article but this toucheth not my opinion concerning only Fundamentals Thirdly the Article speaketh at large concerning Generall Councels both for debating and deciding I onely spake of the determination wherein it may be possible they nor can nor shall erre that may and have erred in the discussing In that very Councell of
mission and commission You cannot produce any time out of any Records or Memorials extant or remembred in which and by which it may appeare that these things were otherwise The Churches of the East Asia Greece and Africa were a long time visible eminent and glorious The Churches of the West have held it out longer Since there first was a Church in England France Spaine and Rome there hath not ceased to bee a Church there And if in any of these places or all these places the Church should cease or not bee visible yet would it be still visible otherwhere though not ever alike nor to like purpose Againe I do call those Some mens doctrines in this point Private Opinions and so well may I doe in respect of the disinvalidity and disproportion of them being private mens opinions and no publick proposals or resolutions of the Church I call them not so in regard of paucity of proposers for they may bee many a strong potent prevailing partie that thus opine and runne a course to themselves in their owne Tenents against or beside publick enacted and authorized doctrine And yet even private opinions also are against you That worthy Divine my deare friend while he lived D. RI. FIELD lib. 111. pag. XIX saith It cannot bee but they are the true Church must by profession of the truth make themselves knowne in such sort that by their profession and practice they may be discerned from other men But without all question that Church must needs be visible the members whereof doe make open and publick profession of their Faith in such sort that by their practice and profession they may be knowne and distinguished from other men And therefore that learned man rightly resolveth That BELLARMINE laboureth in vaine to prove that there is and alwayes hath beene a VISIBLE Church and that not consisting of some few scattered Christians without order or Ministry or use of Sacraments for all this we do grant and most willingly yeeld unto howsoever perhaps SOME FEW have been of ANOTHER OPINION Marke my good Informers D. FIELDS Popery to the purpose and with all D. HUMFREYES another Papist SECRET abodes are no Christian Convocations because this communion of Saints is an OPEN testification of Christianity and D. WILLET no Papist I hope unlesse your selves be saith that The ONLY absence of word and Sacraments doe make a nullity in a Church therefore an existence in a Church is made by their presence But how can you or any man possibly conceive that the Word should be preached and Sacraments administred in a Church Invisible The L. Bishop of LICHFIELD hath as much Popery in this point as M. MOUNTAGU hath In his Appeale thus he writeth Now Protestants and Romanists doe concarre in words and almost in sence So that the difference is not so much in the position as in the application of the Invisibility of the Church And before him long since that IEWELL of his time hath uttered these expresse words The generall or outward Church of GOD is VISIBLE and may be seene in his Defence against HARDING And this Doctrine is sufficiently and to this purpose explaned by that right worthy and learned Deane Dr. WHITE in his just Defence of his deceased Brother against the cavills of a Iesuite And he that hath read moe Papists than ever you have heard of concludeth thus Whereunto our learned adversaries for the greater part agree Great Ignorance then it must be or malice or faction or all that by the Information of these poore Divines M. MOUNTAGU is promoted for a Papist for saying that with moderate men on both sides this Controversie might cease or for calling the opinion of the INVISIBILITY of the Church a private opinion But as I said so I see it fareth still now adayes as with the Iesuite and Iesuited Papist such as be by farre the major part of that side every man is an Heretick a Lutheren a Calvinist I know not what that is not a desperate Papist to goe unto the Divell with them though it be upon a second pouder-plot so also with our Puritans very Sibs unto those Fathers of the Society every Moderate man is bedaubed with these goodly habiliments of ARMINIANISME POPERY and what not unlesse hee will be frantick with them for their Holy Cause Yet well fare BELLARMINE a man of a better spirit than some of the Paternitie who ingenuously confesseth concerning this particular Notandum est multos ex nostris tempus terere dum probant ABSOLUTE Ecclesiam non posse deficere nam CALVINUS caeteri Haeretici id concedunt And that learned Deane of CARLILE of late against FISHER saith the same It is but lost labour to spend time in proving against us that there is alway in the world a true Church for we have ever acknowledged it and have ever been Papists in opinion for so doing or else these good Fellowes are and ever will bee I know what I could have produced many moe to purpose and amongst them diverse whom they will not cast off for Papists as M. PERKINS M. CLAPHAM D. SPARKS c. I will yet adde a little more Poperie to the former and so leave my friends and Informers to chew the Cud upon it as they do after Lectures The Church of Rome hath ever beene visible The Church of Rome is and ever was a true Church since it was a Church Therefore the true Church hath been visible I say Remember it lest you mistake my saying or maliciously mistake it a True Church ratione essentiae and Being of a Church not a Sound Church every way in their Doctrine CHAP. V. Touching ANTICHRIST The Pope and Prelacy of Rome Antichristian That hee is Magnus ille Antichristus is neyther determined by the publick doctrine of the Church nor proved by any good argument of private men Difference among Divines who The Man of sinne should be The markes of the great Antichrist fit the Turkish Tyrannie every way aswell as the Papacie The peace of the Church not to bee disquieted through varietie of Opinions No finall Resolution to bee yet had in this point INFORMERS COncerning ANTICHRIST thus hee writeth I professe ingenuously I am not of opinion that the Bishop of ROME personally is THAT ANTICHRIST nor yet that the Bishops of ROME successively are THAT ANTICHRIST Chap. X. pag. 74. MOUNTAGU WHat if I am not of that opinion what if ingenuously I professe so much that I am not of that opinion as indeed I am not I was occasioned to shew my opinion in the point by the Gagger who charged our Church in generall with the private Fancy and opinion of some men that the Pope of Rome was that very Antichrist mentioned and foretold in the Scripture I must needs avow it or disclaime it That I could not doe without wronging the Church and my selfe therefore I thought it an honest mans part ingenuously to professe what I thought Sure it
he is seated in Constantinople that is also in Rome For Constantinople is known to have been called New Rome was so named by CONSTANTINE himselfe the Founder had in Church and Common-wealth in both States 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every way equalled priviledges with the elder Rome Senators and one of the yearely Consuls The adjacent country was then called Romania and is so corruptly termed by the Turks at this day Rumilio or Rum-ili that is the Roman Country It was the Emperiall Citie then when MAOMET that false Prophet and Antichrist arose as well as Rome indeed rather then Rome since the time that CONSTANTINE to the great advantage of barbarous nations enemies unto the Roman State translated the state of the Empire thither And lastly this great and Emperiall CITY bearing rule over the Kings of the earth is likewise as well as ROME seated upon seven hills at or neere unto the Sea indeed in a Foreland or Landstreight where two Seas meet the only Seat in the world for an Emperiall See For which cause it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by NICETAS The City with seven tops Vrbs septicollis by PAULUS DIACONUS so acknowledged by IANUS DOUZA a Gentleman of the Netherlands in his Iournall and by M. RICHARD KNOLLS in his Turkish History with others Now upon these premised considerations of the Marks of that Antichrist so fitting the Turkish State and Tyranny every way it may seeme probable that MAOMET the false Prophet and the Turkish State as the Beast may at least be assumed into association with the Pope and Papacy in making up that Antichrist and Antichristian Kingdome or State opposite unto the State and Kingdome of CHRIST and Christians which respectu finis may be accounted one in opposition against GOD and CHRIST though the meanes of effecting it be many different and diverse Turcisme one way may oppose CHRIST as it doth vi apertâ by fiery force and Ropery bee ad oppositum another way fraude and insidijs as it is In which respect as DANIEL may well tell us of one horn so S. IOHN remembreth a Beast with two Hornes MAOMET in the East the POPE in the West both Hornes pushing fiercely against the Saints yet so also that it may be probable which ZANCHIUS hath Miscellan lib. III. and LAMBERT also upon the Apocalypse that beside these two after these both it is not unlikely out of both these impious opposite States one notorious singular mischievous Antichrist may arise towards the finall consummation of the world who in fradulent colluding malicious craftinesse in impious execrable and transcendent wickednesse through hereticall impostures and lying miracles shall goe beyond all other that ever lived in the world and bee fitted with all signes and markes of Antichrist unto the full so as no exception can bee taken against any in any one point Surely if the Generall of the Iesuites Order should once come to be Pope sit in PETERS chaire as they call it I would vehemently suspect him to bee the party designed for out of what nest that accursed bird should rather come abroad than out of that Seraphicall Society I cannot ghesse and but ghesse For in resolution I say with that IEWELL of England in pag. CCCXCIII I will not say the POPE is ANTICHRIST GOD will reveale him in his time and he shall be knowne yet is it probable hee may be of that rank I will not say the TURKE is Antichrist though it bee probable that Antichrist may come from thence the Turkes power being increased and inlarged by the Popes policy as the same B. IEWELL hath observed it well that it may not seem strange two opposite in State may conspire in opposing Piety For all these and whatsoever is beside these in this particular denoted being all prophecies and predictions of things to come obscurely and mystically delivered are but opinions and conjectures not intended not to be received as finall resolutions For my part I desire not to contest with any man about them nor would I willingly have mens mindes or the peace of the Church disquieted with them It is an evill disease in the world among Divines in things of indifferency they cannot endure dissentients He is not my friend I will hold no correspondency with him that will not per omniae and in omnibus bee of my minde There is a Rule of faith we acknowledge it commend it and have recourse unto it Things that are straight and direct and according to that Rule confessedly need not application are not commonly brought to be applied to that Rule but things of different or doubtfull standing these need application and are applied confessedly by the perpetuall practice and tradition of the Catholick Church in consent of Fathers Wee apply things doubtfull unto Scripture our Norma and exact and absolute Rule of faith and manners We consent and agree it is Antichristian to dissent from to reject that Rule and him an Antichrist that doth so or proposeth any thing as Credendum against that Rule The Pope doth this Let him then be an Antichrist in S. IOHN'S acceptance There are many Antichrists But whether hee bee THAT Antichrist or not I dare not presume to determine without speciall warrant in such a case If you have any speciall illumination or assurance by divine revelation or rather strong perswasion through affection much good may it do you keepe it to YOUR selves presse it not on others that in such cases desire sapere ad sobrietatem rather than resolve without good warrant CHAP. VI. Touching IUSTIFICATION The state of a meere naturall man who to please GOD must become a new creature That newnes cannot be wrought without a reall change of a sinner in his qualities In what sense it may be said that there is an Accesse of justification both by daily receiving remission of new sins and by increase of grace in joyning vertuous and good deeds unto Faith INFORMERS TOuching Iustification thus hee writeth A sinner is then iustified when hee is made iust that is translated from the state of nature to the state of grace as COLOS. I. XIII which Act is motion as they speak betwixt two terms and consisteth in forgivenesse of sinnes primarily and grace infused secondarily CHAP. XVIII pag. CXLII MOUNTAGU AND this all this in generall in particular is our Informers Popery Strange Popery Of what religion are you M. Informers YATES and WARD For in Christian Religion a man is and may be considered two waies as I also have considered him according unto a twofold state The state of nature to which hee was formed and the state of grace to which he is reformed as hee was in ADAM depraved and lost as hee is in CHRIST IESUS sought out found and healed of his maladies In his Being Subsisting and Constitution every man is first a naturall man in that state standing hee pleaseth not GOD. He can doe nothing saith CALVIN that can please him or be accepted of him His