that knoweth God heareth vs hereby know wee the Spirit of truth and the spirit of errour Againe the Lord saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye haue loue one to another pointing out the concord and holy agreement which is among the brethren as another marke of the orthodoxe Church As likewise when hee saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in Heauen hee sheweth that good workes are the visible mark of the true orthodoxe Church The true preaching reuerent hearing of the Gospel is a visible mark of our faith and hope Our concord in the Lord is a marke of our Charitie Our good workes are reall and sensible testimonies of our inward Faith Hope and Charitie Where wee finde these three signes we know certainly that there is Christs true Church and iudge charitably that is probably that euery one in whom wee see these outward tokens of Christs true and orthodoxe Church is a true member of the mysticall body of the Lord Iesus I say charitably because outward markes may be outwardly counterfeited by Hypocrites as it is said of Israel They did flatter with their mouth and they lyed vnto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Couenant And of many of these that followed our Sauiour Many beleeued in his Name when they saw the miracles which he did But Iesus did not commit himselfe vnto them because he knew all men Therefore when the people of Israel departed from the Couenant and by their Idolatrie brake as much as in them lay the contract of marriage betweene them and God they ceased in that behalfe to bee Gods true Spouse and people though still they called him their Husband and their God When they made a molten Calfe in the Wildernesse and worshipped the works of their owne fingers God said to Moses Thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt haue corrupted themselues and not my people And Moses to shew that on their part they had broken the Couenant broken the Tables of the Couenant when vnder Achaz they did worse Isaiah called them children that are corrupted their Prince and Gouernours Rulers of Sodome themselues people of Gomorrah their holy Citie an Harlot And God about the same time cried vnto them by Micah Thou that art named the house of Iacob Thou that was â—â—late my people And to the teh Tribes by Hosea Yee are not my people and I will not bee your God After the same manner Christ said to the Iewes which gloried and made their boast that God was their Father If God were your Father yee would loue me Yee are of your father the Deuill And the lusts of your Father yee will doe If we speake of the Romish Church according to this distinction defining the Church by the keeping of the Couenant in purenesse of doctrine and holinesse of life God himselfe hath stript her of that glorious Name calling her spiritually Sodome Egypt and Babylon Sodome in the pollution of her most filthy life Egypt in the abominable multitude of her filthy Idols Babylon in the cruell and bloudie oppression and persecution of the Saints And because she was to cal her selfe as falsly as arrogantly the mother Church the Angell calleth her THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH Because also shee was to bring and magnifie her selfe in the multitude of her Saints hee saith that shee is drunke with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus And taking from her the name of the Church which she challengeth priuatiuely to all other Christian congregations hee nameth her as I haue already said the habitation of Deuils the hold of euerie foule spirit and a Cage of euerie vncleane and hatefull bird In the first sence Moses said to God why doth thy wrath wax hote against THY people because although they had broken the Couenant on their part by the workes of their hands God had not as yet broken it on his part Ieremiah in the greatest heate of their monstruous I dolatries prayed after the same maner Doe not abhorre vs for thy Names sake doe not disgrace the Throne of thy glorie Remember breake not thy Couenant with vs. And Esaiah Thou art our Father we are ALL thy people For so long as God cals a people to him by his word and Sacraments and honoureth them with his name So long also as they consent to be called by his name professing it outwardly they remaine his people although they answere not his calling neither in soundnesse of faith nor in holinesse of life Euen as rebellious Subiects are still true Subiects on the Kings behalfe who looseth not his right by their Rebellion Nay on their owne also in some maner because they still keepe and professe his Name and giue not themselues to any forraine Prince Did Dauid loose his right by the Rebellion of the people vnder his sonne Absalom And therefore when the King subdueth these traitours hee carrieth himselfe towards them both in forgiuing and in punishing as their lawfull and naturall Prince and not as a Conquerour of new Subiects So as a strumpet is a true wife so long as her husband consents to dwell with her and shee is named by his name And as Agar when shee fled from her mistresse Sarai was still Sarais maide as shee confessed saying I flee from the face of my mistresse Sarai In like manner a rebellious fugitiue and whooring Church is still a true Church so long as God keeping the right of a King of a Master of a Husband ouer her giueth her not the bill of Diuorcement but consents that her Name bee called vpon her and shee still calleth her selfe his kingdome his maide his wife Thus God calleth the Iewes His people euen then when he said they were not his people because hee had not broken the band of marriage with them and put them away by diuorcement Therefore he said vnto them Where are the Letters of your mothers diuorcement whom I haue put away Meaning he had not giuen vnto them a writing of diuorcement but did still acknowledge them to bee his spouse notwithstanding their manifold and most filthy Whoredomes with false Gods which he charged them with saying vnto them by Ieremiah Thou hast polluted the land with thy whooredomes and with thy wickednesse Thou hast a whoores forehead and refusest to bee ashamed wilt thou not for this time cry vnto me my father thou art the guide of my youth Turne O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married vnto you Or according to the French translation I haue the right of an Husband ouer you So after hee had called the ten Tribes Lo-ruhama and Lo-hammi saying hee would no more haue mercie vpon them
and that they were not his people he calleth them his people My people saith he asketh counsell at their stickes and their stuffe answereth them But after that God had scattered them among the Medes and other nations of Assyria and broken his couenant with them they became not onely in the second but also in the first sence Iesrehel and no more Israel Lo-ruhama and no more Ruhama Lo-hammi no more Hammi Then was fulfilled the the prophesie Plead with your mother plead For shee is not my wife neither am I her husband So the Iewes which were Gods people in the midst of their idolatrie since they haue denied Christ to bee the Messias the Mediatour betweene GOD and them and haue crucified the Lord of glory are no more Gods people although they beg still that name They are saith Christ the Synagogue of Satan They say they are Iewes and are not but doe lye For seeing God hath broken them off and grafted the Gentiles in their roome they qualifie themselues Gods people as falsely and iniuriously as a whoore lawfully diuorced by her husband calleth her selfe his wife To applie this to the Romane Church which hath adulterated and corrupted the whole seruice of God and is more adulterous then was at any time Iuda or Ephraim and therefore is not a true visible Church in the second sence I say shee is one in some sort in the first In her God doth still keepe his true word in the Old and New Testament as the contract of his marriage with her In her is the true Creed the true Decalogue the true Lords Prayer which Luther calleth the kernel of Christianitie In her Christ is Preached though corruptly In her the Trinitie and Incarnation of Christ are beleeued In her the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are prayed vnto though in an vnknown tongue to the most part In her the little children are Baptised in the Name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost And no Diuine will denie that their Baptisme is a true Sacrament whereby their children are borne to God seeing wee doe not rebaptise them where leauing her they adioyne themselues to vs. Who then can denie that shee is a true Church For out of the Church there is no Baptisme and the Church alone beareth children to God In her sitteth the man of sinne the sonne of perdition who sitteth in the Temple of God which is the Church It s graunted that shee is Babylon in the second sence And Gods people is commanded to come out of Babylon What is Gods people but Gods Church which forsaketh her successiuely as of old the typicall people came out of the typicall Babylon not at once but at many seuerall times If then we applie vnto her Gods commandement exhorting her to come out of Babylon either wee vnderstand not what wee say or we acknowledge her to bee Gods people that is Gods Church though idolatrous rebellious and disobedient Neither shall shee cease to bee Gods people in this sence till the comming of the blessed day when the ayre shall rebound with the shouting of the Saints Babylon is fallen shee is fallen that great Citie because shee made all nations drunke with the wine of the wrath of her fornication I say then that as Ierusalem was at the same time the holy Citie and a Harlot the Temple was Bethel and Bethauen Gods House and a house of Iniquitie the Iewes were Gods people and no people Gods children the Deuils Ephraim was Idammi and Lo-Hammi in diuers râ—spects euen so the Romish Church is both BETHEL and BABEL Bethel from God calling her to the communion of his grace in Christ by his Word and Sacrament of Baptisme Babel from her selfe because shee hath made a gallimaufrey of the Christian Religion confounding pell-mell her owne traditions with Gods Word her owne merits with Christs the bloud of Martyrs with the bloud of the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the world Purgatorie with the same bloud which purgeth vs from all sinne Iustification by workes with Iustification by faith only praying to the Creatures with praying to the Creator Idols of men women beasts Angels with Gods worship the mediation of Saints with the mediation of him who is the suretie of the new Testament and is able to saue to the vttermost all those that come vnto God by him seeing hee euer liueth to make intercession for them Nay as Caluin said truly in the Romish Church Christ is scarcely knowne among the Saints of whom some are in Heauen as the Apostles c. some on Earth as the Pope some in Hell as Saint George an Arrian Hereticke and bloudie Butcher of true Christians Saint Dominicke the firebrand of the warre against the Albigeois Saint Garnet whom Tyburne sent to his owne place to bee rewarded of the Gunne-powder Treason Some did neuer die because they had neuer the honour to liue as Saint Christopher Saint Katherine Saint Vrsule Saint Longin who was a Speare Saint Eloi who was two couple of sharpe nailes and many more of the same stuffe In a word the roaring of the Camards of Bahal is so lowd in that Church that Christs voice is scant heard in her and yet heard both in the mouth of these Babylonian builders which vnderstand not one another and in the mouthes of the people halting betweene Christ and the Pope their Bahal And therefore in that behalfe not the true but a true Christian Church This testimony is the praise of the most wonderfull patience of God who suffereth so long that common hackney to beare his Name It is her shame As it is the shame of a Queane married to a good husband to be conuicted of running vp downe after strangers It s a vantage to vs in our imployment for her conuersion For as when Agar had confessed truly that she was Sarahs maid the Angell tooke her at her word saying Returne to thy Mistresse and submit thy selfe to her and perswaded her Euen so wee take the Roman Church by the necke when shee confesseth that shee is Christs Church as shee is indeed exhorting her to returne vnto Christ to obey his Word to submit her selfe vnto him and to folow the true Faith of the ancient Catholicke and Apostolicke Church Neither is it any vantage to her against vs to inforce vs to returne to her or to vpbraid vs for forsaking her For as Moses when the people had committed Idolatrie tooke his Tabernacle and pitched it without the Campe afarre off from the Campe breaking of all communication with those which had broken the Couenant of the LORD their God till they repented As God said to Ieremiah of the Iewes which had opened their legges to euery one that passed by multiplied their whoredomes Cast them out of my fight and let them goe forth Let them returne vnto thee but returne not thou vnto them As
Men but cannot utterly dischurch it whiles those main principles maintaine a weake life in that crazie and corrupted bodie But is not this language different from that whereto our eares and eies have beene inured from the mouthes and pens of some reverend Divines and professors of our Church Know Reader that the streame of the famous Doctors both at home and abroad hath runne strongly my way I should have feared and hated to goe alone what reason is there then to single out one man in a throng Some few worthie Authors have spoken otherwise in the warmth of their zealous contention yet so as that even to them durst I appeale for my Iudges for if their sound differ from me their sense agrees with me that which as I touched in my Advertisement so I am now readie to make cleare by the instance of learned Zanchius whose pregnant testimonies compared together shall plainly teach us how easie a reconcilement may bee made betwixt these two seemingly-contrarie opinions That worthie Author in his profession of Christian Religion which hee wrote and published in the 70. yeare of his age having defined the Church of Christ in generall and passed thorow the properties of it at last descending to the subdivision of the Church militant comes to inquire how particular Churches may be knowne to be the true churches of Christ wherof he determines thus Illas igitur c. Those Churches therefore doe wee acknowledge for the true Churches of Christ in which first of all the pure doctrine of the Gospell is preached heard admitted and so onely admitted that there is neither place nor eare given to the contrarie For both these are the just propertie of the flocke or sheepe of Christ namely both to heare the voice of their owne Pastor and to reject the voice of strangers Iohn 10. 4. In which secondly the Sacraments instituted by Christ are lawfully and as much as may bee according to Christs institution administred and received and therefore in which the Sacraments devised by men are not admitted and allowed In which lastly the discipline of Christ hath the due place that is where both publiquely and privately charitable care is had both by admonitions corrections and at last if need be by excommunications that the Commandements of God be duly kept and that all persons live soberly iustly and piously to the glory of God and edification of their neighbour Thus hee wherein who sees not how directly he aymes both at the justifying of our Churches and the casheering of the Roman which is palpably guiltie of the violation of these wholsome rules And indeed it must needes be said if we bring the Roman Church to this touch she is cast for a meer counterfeit shee is as farre from truth as truth is from falshood Now by this time you goe away with an opinion that learned Zanchie is my professed adversarie and hath directly condemned my position of the truenesse and visibilitie of the Roman Church Have but patience I beseech you to read what the same excellent Author writes in his golden Preface to that noble worke De natura Dei where this question is clearly punctuall decided There you shall finde that having passed through the wofull and gloomie offuscations of the Church of God in all former ages he descending to the darknesse of the present Babylon concludes thus Deinde non potuit Satan c. Moreover Satan could not in the verie Roman Church doe what he listed as hee had done in the Easterne to bring all things to such passe as that it should no more have the forme of a Christian Church For in spight of Satan that Church retained still the chief foundations of the faith although weakned with the doctrines of men it retained the publique preaching of the word of God thogh in many places mis-understood and mis-construed the invocation of the name of Christ though joyned also with the invocation of dead men the administration of Baptisme instituted by Christ himselfe howsoever defiled with the addition of many superstitions So as together with the symbole of the covenant the Covenant it selfe remained still in her I meane in all the Churches of the West no otherwise than it did in the Church of Israel even after that all things were in part profaned by Ieroboam and other impious and Idolatrous Kings upon the defection made by them from the Church and Tribe of Iuda For neither doe I assent to them which would have the Church of Rome to have no lesse ceased to be the Church of Christ than those Easterne Churches which afterwards turned Mahumetan what Church was ever more corrupt than the Church of the ten Tribes yet we learne from the Scriptures that it was still the Church of God And how doth S. Paul call that Church wherein Antichrist hee saith shall sit the Temple of God neither is it any Baptisme at all that is administred out of the Church of Christ The wife that is an Adulteresse doth not cease to be a wife unlesse being despoiled of her mariage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he againe Wherein you see hee speakes as home for me as I could devise to speake for my selfe and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrarie Looke now how this learned Author may be reconciled to his owne pen and by the very same way shall my pen bee reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himselfe or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plaine then that hee in that former speech and all other classicke Authors that speake in that Key meane by a True Church a sound pure right beleeving Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of existence were all one with truth of doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evill good and is no better than a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true being of a visible Church by the direct maintenance of fundamentall principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the word of God and his Sacraments though not without soule adulteration what judicious Christian can but with mee subscribe to learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true visibilitie of a Church of Christ what should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the