man would not be deceived by them nor plead for them but because they teach many Truths people receive them But first for whatsoever they teach they neither could nor should teach publickly their mouths should be stopped if they received not that their power to teach such Truths from those the Dragon sends and therefore none can receive those Truths from them but they receive the Devil by whose power they teach for as our Saviour saith Mat. 10.40 He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me So he that receiveth those the Beast sends receiveth the Beast and he that receiveth the Beast receiveth him that sent him that is the Devil Further. Did not that Southsayer Balaam teach excellent Truths Numb 23 24 chapters Yea the Southsayers of the Philistims the like 1 Sam. 6. Yea Those in the Gospel preach in Christs Name Mat. 7.22 As many moe testimonies might be manifested And secondly For their bringing of people to Reformation and therein doing great works Did not the Southsayers before recited 1 Sam. 6. shew the Princes their sin in detaining Gods Ark and the judgments against them for the same exhorting them to send it away and not to harden their hearts as Pharoah and the Egyptians hardned their hearts And was not Reformation wrought hereby And did not they that preached in Christs Name cast out Devils and do many and great works of whom our Saviour testifieth he never acknowledged them But let us a little consider wherein the Reformation consistech procured by their preaching in Drunkenness Whoredom Swearing c. moral duties which things whosoever is not reformed in shall never see Gods Kingdom yet which things many of the Philosophers that knew not God abounded in as they that know the Stories cannot deny But do they teach their hearers to hate vain inventions and love God's Law In a general manner of teaching they may but if it come to particular practice you shall see what they will do Do they teach any to submit to that one Law-giver Christ Jesus for the guidance of his Church and not to Antichrists Abominations No they will tell you you must sigh and groan till the Magistrate will reform for you are a private person and must be subject And if the powerful working of Gods Word and Spirit prevail in you to let you see that the Magistrates not reforming will not excuse you at the day of account but that that soul that committeth abomination shall dye and that rather than you will worship the Beast or his Image you will suffer with Christ peaceably separating your self from such open prophanation as neither can nor will be reformed endeavouring to square your self both in your entrance and walking in Christs way unto that golden Rule that he hath left for direction then the best of all those Preachers and Reformers will be hot and bitter labouring with all the turning of devices to turn you and withhold you from Reformation And if they cannot prevail hereby then publish you in their priviledged Pulpits where none may answer them You are a Schismatick Brownist Anabaptist and what not to make the multitude abhor your doings and not to follow you therein and some of them if not all under a colour procure your Imprisonment and trouble by their Canonized Lords or some of their hellish Pursevants And such Preachers of Reformation are the best of them all Indif Oh how have we been besotted in these things for want of true knowledge and understanding from the Scriptures how have I and others satisfied our selves with these things in that our estate was happy perswading our selves thereof when alas our fear towards God was taught by the inventions of men but the reason thereof was we judged our selves by our own perswasions and not by Gods Word Ch. I pray you let not that seem strange unto you that people should perswade themselves of their good estate with God when it is not so The Israelites Gods People thought their estate good many times when alas it was otherwise as the Prophets declared unto them yea our Saviour testifieth that they boasted of God being their Father when they not so much as knew him Joh. 8.19 yea when they were of their father the Devil ver 44. The five foolish Virgins thought their condition good enough and that they should have been let in but it was otherwise Luke 20. The wicked thought they did God service that killed Christs Disciples Joh. 16.2 Mans heart is deceitful Jer. 17.9 Who are more confident of their good estate with God than the Papists notwithstanding all their gross abominations Even so have you and I God pardon us thought beyond all that we were in a good estate having such zealous Teachers that teach so many excellent Truths under the title of Christs Ministers till we came to examine them as the Church of Ephesus did Rev. 2. then we found them to have no other Ministry than that they received from the Beast and his Image which the Dragon gave Rev. 13. Indif Are all without exception in this fearful estate to be case into the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Ch. All that submit obey or worship the Beast without exception for there is no respect of persons with God So saith the Lord If any man worship c. These worshippers under the Beast's Image may be divided into two sorts First those that ignorantly perswade themselves that all that is practised is good and acceptable to God Secondly those that see and acknowledge many things to be evil which they would gladly have removed but because they cannot without the Crosss of Christ partly for that and partly by the perswasion of their Prophets that the things are not fundamental and the like pretences all submit and teach men so Indif Some affirm There be thousands in England that never worshipped the Beast c. but be careful to keep the Commandments of God and Faith of Jesus Ch. Such are not under these Judgments but if their meaning be of any that submit to these Ordinances appointed for these Assemblies such Teachers preach peace when there is none strengthen the wicked that they cannot return from their wicked way by promising them life whose reward shall be according to the reward of such false Prophets Ezek. 13.1 and chap. 14.10 because they follow their own spirit and have not received it from the Lord for thus saith the Lord Such shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God Indif It is also affirmed by some That in respect of personal graces some of the Professors as they are called are the Children of God and may be communicated with privately though in respect of their Church actions they are members of Antichrists body to whom are Judgments of God appertaineth Ch. This opinion proceedeth not from Gods Word but from man's vain heart by the suggestion of the Devil which that it may evidently appear let us
to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm before the Ordinary or any other having power to take such Presentments or Indictments or if the Minister petty Constable or Church-wardens or any two of them shall at any time hereafter complain to any Justice of Peace near adjoyning the place where any person complained of shall dwell and the said Justice shall find cause of suspition that then any one Justice of Peace within whose Commission or Power any such person or persons shall at any time hereafter be or to whom complaint shall be made shall upon notice thereof require such person or persons to take the said Oath And that if any person or persons being of the age of eighteen years or above shall refuse to take the said Oath duly tendered unto him or her according to the true intent and meaning of this Statute that then the persons authorized by this Law to give the said Oath shall and may commit the said Offender to the common Jayl c. Where we see that if any take the said Oath at their first apprehension they are not to be committed or if they being committed take the said Oath at the next open Court they are be set at liberty if they will not take the said Oath to be in a Premunire as is at large in the Statute declared and as is daily practised with Papists and others Ant. The Kings Majesty requireth your Allegiance to be testified by your coming to Church Ch. I pray let me demand this Question Doth the King require my coming to Church to worship and serve God or to worship and serve the King If to worship and serve the King I am ready to obey if to worship and serve God which none can do but of conscience the King himself saith he never intended to lay any thing to the charge of any for the cause of conscience and this coming to Church being a cause of conscience if not he why do you lay any thing to my charge for the same And therefore you wrong his Majesty in thus affirming for his Highness requireth only my faithful allegiance to be testified by the aforesaid Oath and therefore hath ordained it as I shall shew by his Highness own testimony If I should come to Church and not in conscience but for other respects as many Papists and other Hypocrites do to God it were most abominable and what faithfulness can be hoped for in such towards his Majesties Person and State Can any godly wise man think that he that playeth the dissembling Hypocrite with God that he will do less with men and will not work any villany if it were in his power and therefore herein you compelling me by tyranny to bring my body whereunto my spirit cannot be brought you compel me to hypocrisie with God and man for if my heart were not faithfull in sincerity to his Majesties Crown and Dignity as I take God to witness before whom I must be condemned or justified it is these courses would rather harden my heart to work villany than otherwise Now for his Majesties many Testimonies in his Writings they are worthy to be recorded with thankfulness to the Highest for guiding his heart and pen to write such things In his apology for the Oath of Allegiance pag 4 he saith speaking of such Papists as took the Oath of Allegiance And I gave a good proof that I intended no Persecution against them for conscience cause but only desired to be secured of them for evil obedience which for conscience cause they were bound to perform And pag. 60. speaking of Blackwel the Arch-Priest he saith I never intended to lay any thing to the said Arch-Priests charge as I have never done to any for cause of conscience And pag. 127. he saith First for the cause of their punishment I do constantly maintain that which I said in my Apology That no man either in my time or in the late Queens ever dyed here for his conscience for let him be never so devout a Papist nay though he profess the same never so constantly his life is in no danger by the Law if he break not out into some outward act expresly against the words of the Law or plot not some dangerous or unlawful practice or attempt c. Where we may see in short what is the whole sum that he requireth And in his Majesties Speech at the last Session of Parliament Anno Dom. 1609. where he saith he sheweth his Subjects his heart he saith thus I never found that blood and too much severity did good in matters of Religion for besides it is a sure Rule in Divinity that God never loves to plant his Church by violence and bloodshed natural reason may even perswade us and daily experience proves it true that when men are severely persecuted for Religion the gallantness of many mens spirits and the wilfulness of their humours rather than the justness of their cause makes them take a pride boldly to endure any torments or death it self to gain thereby the reputation of Martyrdom though but in a false shadow A most undoubted Truth which if be as most manifest it is by the Testimony of the holy Ghost throughout Christs Testament as before is proved then how cursed are all the rank of you that continually break this sure Rule of God thus confidently acknowledge by his Majesty planting your Church by violence and bloodshed forcing many thousands against their consciences to be of your Church and to receive your Sacraments by all the persecutions that would follow if they do not yeeld and those that fear God more than men and dare not yeeld casting them into noisom Prisons amongst most wicked Blasphemers of God to the wounding of their souls dividing them from their Wives Children and Families and from their Callings some an hundred miles and more utterly consuming that substance they have which sustaineth the blood of them their Wives and Children seldom or never affording them Release but either by yeelding to you against their consciences or else by consuming their bodies to death in Prison Banishment or the like leaving them and their Wives to horrible temptations of Adultery by parting them and their Wives and to all manner of evil in taking them from their Callivgs and so leaving them in continual Idleness Is Gods Church thus planted or do Christs Disciples thus plant Indif Oh I see this spiritual power is little inforiour cruelty to the Romish spiritual power I pray how or when was this set up Ch. Henry the eight casting off Pope Clement the seventh and so the Popes Power anno 1534 set up this Spiritual Power under him See Acts and Mon. pag. 1201 c. Indif I pray you shew the likeness between these two spiritual powers Ch. I will do my best endeavour which is but small First the Romish spiritual Power doth make Laws to the Conscience and compel all thereunto by Excommunication Imprisonment Banishment Death and the like
that shineth unto all there is no obscurity in it hear you it you that be far off and you that be nigh Next him Austin God hath bowed down the Scriptures to the capacity of Babes and sucklings that when proud men will not speak to their capacity yet himself might After him Chrysostom The Scriptures are easie to understand and exposed to the capacity of every Servant and Plowman and Widow and Boy and him that is most unwise Therefore God penned the Scriptures by the hands of Publicans Fishermen Tentmakers Shepherds Neat-herds and unlearned men that none of the simple people might have any excuse to keep them from reading and that so they might be easie to be understood of all men the Artificer the Housholder and Widow woman and him that is most unlearned Yea the Apostles and Prophets as Schoolmasters to all the world made their Writings plain and evident to all men so that every man of himself only by reading them might learn the things spoken therein Next Justin Martyr saith Hear the words of the Scripture which be so easie that it needs no exposition but only to be rehearsed And this the Protestants say was the perpetual and constant judgment of the antient Church c. And further pag. 21. he alledgeth Theodoret who writ of his times You shall every-where see these points of our Faith to be known and understood not only by such as are Teachers in the Church but even of Coblers and Smiths and Websters and all kind of Artificers yea all our Women not they only which are Book-learned but they also that get their living with their Needle yea Maid-servants and Waiting-women and not Citizens only but Husbandmen of the Country are very skilful in these things you may hear among us Ditchers and Neat-herds and Wood-setters discoursing of the Trinity and the Creation c. The like is reported by others And say the Protestants his Doctrine that was President in the Trent-Conspiracy That a Distaff was fitter for Women than a Bible was not yet hatched c. Oh it were well if the contempt of these pious practices were paled only within the Romish profession and were not practised in and among those that profess themselves to be separated there-from as what is more frequent in the mouthes of many Protestants yea the Bishops themselves than these and such like words Must every base fellow Cobler Taylor Weaver c. meddle with the exposition or discoursing of the Scriptures which appertains to none but to the Learned Yea do they not forbid their own Ministers to expound or discourse of the Scriptures read their 49 Canon which is No person whatsoever not examined and approved by the Bishop of the Diocess or not licensed as is aforesaid for a sufficient and convenient Preacher shall take upon him to expound in his own Cure or elsewhere any Scripture or Matter or Doctrine but shall only study to reade plainly and aptly without glozing or adding the Homilies already set forth or hereafter to be published by lawful Authority c. So that not only Jesus Christ and his Apostles who are alive in their Doctrine though not in their persons are forbidden all exposition of the holy Scriptures or Matter or Doctrine not being licensed by the Bishops but also their own Ministers who have sworn Canonical obedience to them Yet when they are put to answer the Papists who practise the same thing they take up both Scriptures and antient Writers to confute it CHAP. 5. The Learned in humane learning do commonly and for the most part erre and know not the Truth but persecute it and the professors of it and therefore are no further to be followed than we see them agree with Truth THe next thing in order is seeing the Lord revealeth his secrets to the humble though wanting humane Learning that we now prove on the contrary That God usually and for the most part hideth his secrets from the Learned and suffereth them to erre and resist the Truth yea so far as to persecute it and the Professors of it And first let us begin with the Learned Heathen who were behind none in humane Learning the wise-men of Egypt how did they resist the glorious and powerful Truth of God delivered by Moses yea they resisted it with such signs and lying wonders that the heart of Pharaoh and all his people were hardned against it Exod. 7.11 12 13. and 8.7 And what was the cause of Babels destruction but their trusting in the Learned Isa 47.13 Thou art wearyed in the multitude of thy Counself c. And Isa 44.25 I destroy the tokens of thy Southsayers and make them that conjecture fools and turn the wisemen backward and make their knowledge follishness The things of Gods dealing none of the Learned of Egypt or Babel could interpret but Joseph and Daniel Next come to the learned Priests and Prophets of the Jews Whose lips should have preserved Knowledge and at whose mouth the people should have sought the Law But saith the Lord Mal. 2.7 8. They are gone out of the way they have caused many to fall by the Law c. Also Isa 29. Stay your selves and wonder they are blind and make you blind they are drunken but not with Wine they stagger but not with strong drink for the Lord hath convered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes the Prophets and your chief Seers c Therefore the Lord said Because this people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but have removed their heart far from me and their fear towards me was taught by the precepts of men Therefore behold I will again do a marvallous work in this people a marvellous work and a wonder for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid c. And Isa 56.10 c. Their watchmen are all blind they have no knowledge c. And these Shepherds cannot understand for they all look to their own way every one for his own advantage and for his own purpose Also Jer. 8.9 c. The wise-men are ashamed they are afraid and taken lo they have rejected the Word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them c. And Jer. 14.14 c. and 50.6 My People have been as lost sheep their Shepherds have caused them to go astray and have turned them away to the mountains c. And Micah 3. Night shall be unto them for a vision and Darkness for a divination the Sun shall go down over the Prophets and the Day shall be dark over them c. For they have no answer of God they build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity c. And Zeph. 3.4 Her Prophets are light and wicked persons her Priests have polluted the Sanctuary they have wrested the Law And in the time of our Saviour How had they made the Commandments of God of no authority by