gained to it when as they commanded the Parishes to buy it and then sells it them again that the Priest must have an offering at Easter also a token of a piece of lead a token that they are at unity with the Priest or else they may not have their bread and wine again for which they paid before and this hath been called a great mystery CHAP. XII Concerning Ministers and their Office under the Law and the Gospel BEfore the Law was given forth there were divers did offer sacrifice and buidled Altars unto the Lord as Seth Abel Melchizedeck Abraham Isaac and Jacob who pere guiders and directers of People in the way of righteousness who instructed their Families in the fear of the Lord But after the Law was given forth Aaron and his Sons and they were to offer sacrifice according to the command of the Lord and to perform the worship that God had appointed For that time and age at the Tabernacle and Temple there was Levites who bore the Ark and looked to the vessels and pitched the Camp and divâ—â— other services as singers and readers of the Law and Prophets on their Sabbath dayes and Porters and the like and all these petrained to the first Covenant and Priesthood which was to have an end both the Priesthood and the Law and the service thereof for it was but to continue till the substance came Now Christ being come the end of the Law for righteousness unto all that beleive made after the order of Melchizedeck and not by a carnal commandment he offered up himself once for all and became the Author of eternal Salvation unto them that believe put an end to the first Worship and Priest-hood Before he was offered up he chose Disciples unto him Twelve and also Seventy and endued them with Power and many did Believe through their words and they were not Men of great parts but as they were sitted by the Holy Ghost that gave them utterance and they were sent out not to Preach the Law but the Word of the Kingdom and many did Believe and grew and were confirmed in the Faith and after Christs Ascention the Holy Ghost was Poured forth upon them in a more ample manner and it did bring to their remembrance as Christ had foretold and they received great Gifts for the work of the Ministry some were Prophets some Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors some Teachers and all made Ministers by the Spirit for the work whereunto they were chosen and many were converted and did believe then they that had the Word of God to publish travelled as they were led and Moved by the Spirit to publish the glad tydings of the Gospel and when the Believers were many and many young in the Faith they ordained Overseers or Bishops or Elders who were sound in the Faith to watch over them that were begotten but mark they were approved men and Faithful and of blameless lives not given to covetousness neither did tirannize over them in rigour but were apt to teach and instruct in love and gentelness and they that had been Ancient Laborers in Gods Work did so who had received a Gift to Minister unto others and as to be helpers in the Work of the Gospel and all that were ordained were ordained by the Holy Ghost although its true they had the consent of the Brethren and the Church in that thing and there were also Deacons ordained which served to look to the Widows and for the Ministration of the Poor and these were faithful men and had also a gift Stephen was one full of the Holy Ghost and these were helps unto the Apostles also theâ—e were some Faithful Widows who were examples to younger men and to instruct them and to be patterns unto them and all was as a body knit together in love and served the Lord and strengthened one another in the faith and served one another in love and all these forementioned served the Lord freely and willingly and not for rewards and gifts and benefices and earthly things this was the state and glory of the Church in that time in short and these are the Ministers we read of in the Primitive times But since the Apostacy hath entered in and the Power hath been denied of Godliness there is such a numberless number of names crept in we never heard of then and so many offices and yet none of that work done which the Ministers of Christ did but certain new invented things brought in for worship and service and the power despised and men seeking offices and great titles and great benefits and great revenues and the heritage of God is laid waste and the earth become like a wildernesse unplanted with good and the sheep is scattered And so all may compare these ensuing names and offâ—es with the Apostles dayes and the primitive Church and see if they be alike First of all The Pope his holiness Christs Vicar universal Bishop Metropolitan Bishop Lord Cardinals which were but Priests at the first ordained to baptize the Heathen who came to Rome when the seat thereof began to be had in honour but now they are swelled big and become Princes and the only men to govern States also Monks of divers orders and Friars of divers orders Hieroms order of Austins order Gregorys order Carmalite Friars Cross or Crouchet Fryors of Dominicks order of S. Frances order Benets order and all of these orders sprung up and were ordained in the midnight of darkness within this four hundred years at the most as were easily proved and Trinity order and Brigandine order of Jesuites and Hermites and Anthonies order and Clunisencies order And Nuns sprung up First of one St. Clara one order then Brigidia a widow in the time of Urban the fifth in the year 1370. and all these kind of orders were distitute of the true order of the primitive Church and their service was appointed by them that ordained them and these practised the patched inventious that were given them for worship which hath not concord with the primitive Doctrine but borrowed from the Iews or Heathen And all these kind of Offices and Officers have been acting their parts this many years and led people into superstitious blindness and further from the Lord then ever But to come to the reformed Churches so called and there is so many Officers and names but few that do accord with the Apostles times either in name or nature As Metropolitan Bishops Arch-bishops Lord-bishops we heard not of Lord Timothy or Lord Titus Bishops before mentioned but to come on to other Orders Arch-deacons Deans and Chapters Prebends and these must attend on some old superstitious Buildings called Cathedrals or Ministers and there performs a service somewhat like the former these are injoyned their service like the Levites and Priests of old by turns and course as once in a month or two it may be and have a hundred or two hundred pounds in the year for the same and
making any Covenants or enquiries after wordly revenews but went from City to City preaching the Gospel of Christ freely as they had received without any conditions from the people And as many as beleived and received the Gospel did Minister freely their hearts being open unto them who had declared unto them spiritual things Acts 4. 34. Mat. 10. 8. c. So that we read of no compulsion or forceing maintenance from any of the Cities whether they beleived or not believed the Father took care of such harvest men and what they received was given freely and there was no complaint though often they denyed that which was profered to them and their care was to make the Gospel of Christ not burdensome or chargable but rather their hands should Minister unto their necessities Act. 18. 3. Again though divers gifts were given unto the Disciples before and after Christs ascention as some to be Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors some Teachers and some Elders or Bishops yet they were all made Ministers by the holy Ghost yet it were large to speak of the Power and of the wisdome and of the enjoyments of God in that day and time and of the gifts and of the order which was in the Church at that time But in a word the Son of God was made manifest and gave them an understanding and they knew him that was true Truth it self and Christ was revealed in them and manifested to them the hope of their Glory Col. 1. 27. Furthermore they came to see over the new Moons and Fasts and feasts and Dayes and Times and Meats and Drinks and nonecould judge of them or ought to judge of them in those cases for they saw the Body Christ for the man-child was brought forth and the woman was cloathed with the Sun who had the Crown of twelve Stars upon her head who brought forth the holy Child Jesus who saves his people from their sins In whom all Shadows Types Figures representations ends This in short was part of the glory of the Primitive Church which would be large to spake of as it was in the first State of its purity But hereafter some fuller thing the Lord may bring forth in his own time and day CHAP. II. Concerning the entering in of the Apostacy and the Declination from that purity of Doctrine Worship and Practice and when it began downwards from the entering of it in until this present age and time CHrist the true Prophet which Moses spake of whom the Lord raised up manifested in the fulness of time he prophesied and declared of false Prophets that should arise Mat. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets which shall come unto you in sheeps cloathing which are inwardly ravening Wolves ver 16. ye shall know them by their fruits and in Mat. 24. 11. But many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many and this came to be seen and fulfilled in the age of the Disciples and John Testified 1 Joh. 2. 18. Little children it is the last times as ye have heard that Antichrist should come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time they went out from us but were not of us and Chap. 4. 3. So they entered in then and went out from the Light from the Power of God which the Apostles preached for the remissions of sins And Jude he testified against such as was entered in who was in Cains way that were degenerated and killed and in Balaams way for gifts and rewards and yet preached up the words which the Apostles spoke but for filthy Lucre and had mens persons in admiration because of advantage And Peter said false Prophets and false Teachers should arise that should bring in damnable Heresies that should deny the Lord that bought them and many should follow their pernicious wayes 2 Pet. 2. 2. And the Apostles wrote to Timothy the Bishop or overseer that the Spirit spoke expresly that in the last times some should depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking lies in Hypocrisie forbiding to Marry and abstain from meats c. 1 Tim. 4. and again Paul in the 2 Tim. 3. saw the Apostacy coming in and perillous times should come that men should be lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters without natural affection Truth-breakers False accusers dispisers of them that are good Traytors Heady High-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the truth having a form of Godliness but denying the power and as the same Apostle saith in another place was enemies to the Crosse of Christ And these went out into the world and this is 1400. years agoe and upwards Then the mystery of iniquity began to work and worught and they went out and did not preach up the Jews Religion the ordinances of the first Covenant But they preached Christ in words and transformed into the form of the Apostles words but denyed the Cross and spoke those things they ought not for filthy Lucre sake and there was the beginning of the Hirelings that care not for the Flock and those went out into the world and many followed their pernicious waies and there held the form but denyed the power and so indeed preached another Gospel and they lived in the liberty of the flesh and held People in the Liberty yet prosylited them into a kind of a faith which was seigned and these kinde of false Apostles and deceitful workers led many after them and there was the beginning of the Apostacy and they published these things in the World and when the Name of Christ came to be in reputation and the preaching of the Gospel to be in request then they for filthy Lucre went out with the words and retained the form not the Jewish from altogether but the form of the Saints worship and practice which were in the Church of Christ which were elect and precious and they grew to such a head and to such a body and became such a number and yet gain-sayers and in Cains way for they were out of the power and out of that which mortifies the deeds of the flesh and they spred themselves over Nations and Kindreds over Tongues and People and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues and People have now got the name of a Church and the seat thereof came to be great the false Church the Harlot Mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots which had denied the Husband Christ the power of God her seate was set upon Nations Kindreds Tongues and People and these were her seate And John said these were the waters which he saw the Whore or false Church sit upon and she turned and all her children against the free-woman the Lords spouse the Lambs Wife and made her fly into the Wilderness for a time times and half a time and she reached out her Golden Cup a fair out-side but full of fornication within and she claimed
Seventhly your Doctrine of Purgatory an invented and an imagined thing as to clense from sin this is contrary to the Primitive Doctrine the blood of Christ clenseth from all sin John 1. 7. and your distinctions of mortal and venial sin is to blind people withal for the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. Eightly Of worshiping and invocation of Angels and Saints as mediators between us and God this is contrary to the primitive Doctrine there is one Mediator between God and man even the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. and he alone makes intercession for all them that beleive Heb. 7. 25. and the Angel reproved John Rev. 22. 8 9. when he would have worshiped him and said unto him see thou do it not for I am thy fellow Servant c. and the Prophet said thou art onr Father though Abraham know us not and Israel be ignorant of us Isay. 63. 6. Ninthly of Reliques and sacred Images this is contrary to what the Lord spake by the Prophets Lev. 26. 1. ye shall make you no I dols nor graven Image neither rear you up a standing Image neither shall you set up any Image of stone in your Land to bow down unto it Deut. 6. 22. neither shalt thou set thee up any Image which the Lord thy God hateth and Ezek. 6. 4 and your Images shall be broken and Rom. 1. 23. there they were condemned that changed the glory of the incorruptable God into an Image made like to corruptable man c. Thus you may plainly see your Idolatrous Image worship is forbidden and condemned in the Law Prophets and new Testament and as for your Reliqne worship you have neither command nor example for it from Christ nor his Apostles Many more things might be enumerated which is found among you in the Apostacy as your voluntary poverty and feigned humility and your wilful vows and many more things which are found to be contrary to the Church of Christ which must be turned from and denyed if ever you come to know the everlasting Gospel which is to be preached again to the Nations by which they must be brought out of all this Apostacy Furthermore as to the practice and Discipline of the Catholick Church as it is called which pleads for antiquity we find it not consonant and agreeing to the Churoh in the primitive times the first hundred years after Christ. As for the vestmeuts your Priests wear at certain times one on this manner another on that your Ecclesiastical men or Church-Officers of several ranks and orders such we find not in the primitive times in that which may be truly called primitive And for the invented holy dayes and their eves for fasting and feasting we find no such things in the Primitive Times and such a service for such a day and such a worship for such a day we find not in the first hundred years after Christ. And for your Lent which one of your Fathers invented and this was his ground because God had the tenth of the increase or Tythes due to himself and for his Ministers under the Law therefore it was necessary that the tenth part of dayes should be allowed as Tythes to the Lord O grosse ignorance and palpable blindness midnight it self came upon you in the time of your visibillity when the True Church was fled into the Wilderness As though the Lord was not Lord of all dayes and as though all dayes were not his and to be used to his glory And your prohibiting meats and distinguishing of meats one holy for such a day another for such a day flesh one day and fish another day as though there were not the flesh of fish or one thing were clean and another unclean And this invented trumpery hath been observed for Catholick and Apostolick Doctrine but by whom we must needs tell you by the Nations Kindreds and Tongues and People upon which the Whore sits and out of which the Beast rose And we will grant you antiquity enough this many hundred years and yet we will prefer the Primitive times before you and bring their Doctrine and practice to reprove you though we do not desire to go in Cains way and to kill Creatures that are out of the Doctrine of Christ and contrary to Apostolick and Catholick Doctrine which wrestled not with the flesh and blood but with spiritual wickedness whose weapons were not carnal but Spiritual and yet they had great might in them and threw down by these weapons that which never could be by Carnal 2 Cor. 10. 4. Again your forbiding to marry which is reckoned by the Apostles Doctrine to be a Doctrine of Devils and contrary unto that the Apostles Doctrine was marriage is honorable in all estates the bed undefiled Heb. 13. 4. And seeing you plead Peter was at Rome and Peters chair and that the Bishop of Rome doth succeed him and hath the Keys as Peter had Why do you exclude the chief Bishops as you account them from marrying and divers other orders seeing Peter had a wife and seeing that it is Catholick and Apostolick Doctrine before you could claim the name of visible Church that a Bishop should be the husband of one wife and should not be covetous nor no striker nor given to Wine nor filthy Lucre c. But since the Bishop of Rome hath appropriated to himself to be the head of the Church and the chief Bishop over all the Catholick Church It hath been manifested how much covetousness and covetous practices hath been acted as money for Pardons and Indulgences and get money for the living and the dead and the invented Purgatory hath filled your coffers and your meritorious works have been sold at a dear rate In so much that a poor Woman who hath lost het husband and he deceased must pay ten shillings for a mortuary that he may be prayed for or some of your merits may be accounted to him which you have in store as a stock to sell to any who come with a prize in their hand And from whence have you all these Tythes have yoâ— not borrowed them of the Jews And yet you are no Jews and such things we do not read among the Iews were Tytheable as Pigs Eggs Hens and Geese to omit greater matters and the smoak passing up the chimneys and that which you call your Peter pence And this is contrary to the Catholick and Apostolick Doctrine which Peter would have been ashamed to ever have mentioned either amongst Iews or Gentiles And now I would ask you a question or two seeing John saw the true Church flee into the Wilderness the woman that was cloathed with the Sun who brought forth the man-child What cause have you to boast of visibility or universality Now when were you in the wildernesse if your Church hath not been so then it demonstrates that your Church is nor the woman cloathed with the Sun for she did fly into the wilderness as with the wings of an Eagle
these thing to be feeble and poor and beggerly things and hath no agreement or congruity with the primitive times And should people be limitted or stinted to such a certain form of words called service or prayer and divine worship Was that ever reckoned divine worship that was not from the Divine Spirit But it may be you will say the words are good or some of them I am not speaking about words but the Spirit from which every service ought to be performed to the Lord God and the primitive Christians prayed in the spirit and with understanding and sung with the spirit and with understandnig 1 Cor. 14. 15. And there was some that knew not what to pray for as they ought but the Spirit helped their infirmities Rom. 8. 26 But you konw what to pray for and how much must be said on such a day or such a time and if there be a Homily or a Sermon Lettany must be missed Now I say if it be Divine worship or any thing wherein God is honoured and the people bettered nothing of it ought to be wanting But these things the Primitive times doth not countenance but when the power was lost and the life gone from and the Spirit erred from these things have come into the latter dayes which have been very perillous times as to them who have kept the Apostolick faith and the order of the primitive Church Many more things we could instance which are practiced as for discipline and order and some for necessity which hath no affinity or union at all with the Primitive Churches but rather are things which are too near of Kin unto her that sits as a Queen upon the waters whose flesh must be burnt with fire who hath drunk the blood of the Saints and how many of the Lords servants have suffered in and about these things not only in the Church of Rome but also by them which have been called reformed many have known and are living witnesses thereof And all these Temples Bells Hour-glasses Pulpits Cushons Altars Tables and Founts which are things that pertain to them that locks they are come out of the Apostacy but the Spiritual minded sees over them and beyond them and before these things And also sees through the Spirit of Prophesie and time when they shall be no more adored worshipped and honoured But God shall be feared in the hearts of the Sons of men and glory shall be given to him and he shall be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth as he was in the Primitive times when the Beast and the false Prophet and them that wrought Miracles before him and all they that have cryed who is able to make war with the Beast and have cryed worship him All must be taken alive Remember that alive in their strength and cast into the Lake and the Mother of Harlors shall be made desolate her Cup of Fornication thrown under foot The Kings of the Earth shall deny it and to give their strength any longer to the Beast and then shall that be fulfilled Rejoce ye Prophets and holy men of God and ye that have suffered for the hour of his Judgement is come and as she hath served the Saints so shall she be served and rewarded double and the day hastens and the times and seasons we see and know as God hath made them manifest The man-child is descended again who hath right to rule the Nations with a rod of iron and break the ungodly in pieces as at potters vessel and stamp the residue of his enemies under his feet And the Church is coming out of the wildernesse again who leans upon the breast of her beloved who is clothing her again with beauty in stead of ashes and putting upon her again the beautiful garments of glory and excellency even his own righteousness and they that see it their hearts shall be made glad and their souls rejoyce in God and their flesh rest in hope for the time is come when she must appear again which hath been retired and hid in a place which God hath prepared for her while the false Church sate as a Queen and the Apostates as Princes and their merchandize sold at dear rates But their joy shall be turned into mourning and alas alas shall be the cry of them that have been in Glory with her for their frankincense odours and sweet perfumes and scarlet and purple and gold and silver and wood and Tin and Iron and Brass none will buy any more none of the Lambs followers nor none of the true Churches children who worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh neither in any outward appearance but in the hidden life of God but in the immortal life which he hath brought to light through his blessed Gospel which he hath caused to be published again the joyful sound whereof many captives have heard and are glad and a numberless number shall hear the joyful sound thereof and shall enquire after the brightness of the rising of the Son Therefore all Apostates Hills and Mountains make room make way the Lord is risen in power and in Glory which shall dazzel the eyes of all the Earthly and shall extinguish and put out the very brightness and the glory of all invented worships in the Apostatized ages and shall bring them that believe in the everlasting Gospel to stability to the rock of ages to the valley of Achor to Mount Sion to the blessing of the everlasting hills And blessed are they that hear and believe and wait to be made partakers of that which the Lord is about to do in the Earth as he hath shewn and foreshewn to his servants the Prophets CHAP. IIII. Now a few words to shew unto all how they may come out of the Apostacy to be members of the true Church which is in God the Lambs wife SO far as God did appear in any age or generation or manifest himself unto the Sons of men in any shadows figures representations or outward appearances the evil Spirit and Serpents seed and evil doer alwayes took up the form of the thing when it came into reputation as largely might be demonstrated and instanced through all ages and Generations till the closure of the Apostles Writings something whereof hath been briefly hinted at before so in this I shall be very brief The Jews held up the Types and Figures of the first Covenant and the ordinances thereof and opposed Christ the Light the everlasting Covenant and also the publishers thereof Moreover when the name of Christ came to be spread abrood then false Apostles and deceitful workers who were enemies to the Cross and to the power of God they preached Christ out of contention and envy and for filthy lucre and by wicked practices made the name of Christians odious among the Heathen as it is this day and caused the worthy name by which the Saints were saved to be blasphemed by their ungodly practices Rom. 2. 24. When the
the first Covenant had many Fasts and Feasts and holy dayes as the Sabbath and feasts of the new Moon and Passeover and Feasts of unleavened bread Penticost the Feast of Tabernacles and Feast of Dedication which are largely shewn in the Books of Moses all which things as the Apostle saith to the Hebrews were but shadows of things to come and not the things themselves which only continued till the time of reformation and till the better hope which brought in the better Covenant which stood upon better promises Now in the Primitive Churches they came to see the end of these things and were brought to him that was the substance in whom all Figures and Shadows do end Câ—l 2. 16 17. Let no man therefore judge you in Meat or Drink or in respect of a holy â—ay which are a shadow of things to come but the Body 〈◊〉 Christ Now afterwards when they minded the form more than the power they run out into those things with many additions some borrowed from the heathen and some by their own invention and then press them as Apostolick Ordinances upon Christians which things stand in force with many until this day too too much among them that are called reformed Victor Bishop of Rome about the year 196. decreed that Easter should be kept and Celebrated on the Sunday from the 14th day of the first Monâ—h that is March to the 22d of the same Now the â—ews kept it sooner and so it is without ground from the Iews practice and meerly an invention of their own which led people back into dayes and about what time they judged any thing to be done which Christ or the Apostles did they invented a day and a time to keep for it as to reverence Sunday in advent and Nativity Circumcision and Epiphany Purification of Mary called Candlemas Lent Palm-Sunday Monday and Thursday on which Christ washed his Disciples feet as it hath been imagined good fryday Easter Penâ—â—â—â—st was kept by the Iews and this they would hold out for an Apostolick example to Christians and for all the former dayes they were invented with many more which have been brought in since And so they were decreed and â—aâ—ified at a Councel at Lions in France that such dayes as either the holy Saints departed this life or did any notable deed a day should be kept holy as they said in that Council for the increase of their Religion there was also other dayes instituted the feast of Saint Steven and Innocents by Pope Bâ—nifaâ—e the fourth and likewise John Baptist and that which they call Lady day Lawrance Michael and Martin and generally of All Saints and these were his institutions which are practised by the Church of Rome and oractised among the Proâ—estants to this day Likewise that which is called Corpus Christi day this was made a holy day and dedicated by Urbane the fourth Sylvester assigned the day of advincula Sancti Petri commonly called Lammas in memorial of Peters pains and persecution Felix the first to magnifie the glorious commendation of Maâ—tyas made a Statute that a yearly oblation should be had in memorial of them And Gregory would that Masse should be said over their Tombes or graves Now Priests read the original of your service over the graves of the dead and see if this be Apostolical The fast of Wednesday and Friday was appointed the one day Christ was Crucified and on wednesday Judas purposed in his mind to beâ—â—ay him Gregory was he that ordained that neither flesh nor any thing that had affinity with it as Cheese Milk Butter Eggs should not be eaten on such dayes as were fasts and here came in this Doctrine of Devils Soulmass day this was begun by Odilo that was Provost or Provincial of Cluniassentis Order upon the occasion he heard about Etna the burning Mountain of Sicily oftentimes great lamentations and cryings and weepings was heard which he supposed to be the wâ—epings of evil spirits that bewailed because the souls of dead men were taken from them by the peâ—itions and Sacrifices of well disposed Christians therefore he appointed his Covent to make a general oblation for all Souls the next day after the feast of all Saints and this great institution was ordained about the year 1002. and so all whose eyes God hath opened will see all this heap of Invention hathbeen practiced since the Beast rose out of the Sea and the Whore hath sat upon the waters which is since the Apostles dayes CHAP. IX Concerning Priests Vestures and Bells which are Practised among Christians as Apostolick Institutions THe Iews high Priests had Vestments and the rest of the Priests who offered Sacrifices and Oblations at the Temple and Tabernacle Lev. 8. 6 7 8 9 c. 13. And Aaron the Priest had a coat girded with a girdle and cloathed him with a robe and put a linen Ephod upon him and put a Brest-plate upon him and a Mitre upon his head And Aarons Sons had coats with Girdles and Bonnets as was commanded by the Lord and Chap. 16. 4. and he put on a linen coat and linen Breeches with a Coat and Mitre and girded it with a linen girdle and these were the holy garments and these Garments were to be put off in the holy place and divers other Garments and Vestments which were worn by the Priest about the Temple-worship and Sacrifice which were Shadows of better things and of more holy Garments but this was in the first Covenant that made nothing perfect which was faulte and was to continue untill the time of Reformation But Christ being come and offered up all shadows had an end and they Preached up the everlasting offering and him who offered up himself once for all Now Christ sent out his Disciples without great provision as to attire for they were to take neither staff nor scrip nor shoes nor mony nor brass in their purses and yet they were to go among them that were like wolves renting and tearing devouring and destroying and there was no great likelihood of obtaining any earthly thing from such while in that nature but the Apostles lived by faith Mat 10. 9. 10. and Luke 10. 3 4. and they were not to take two coats and the Apostle in his travels was often in necessities in hunger and cold and nakedness and did not go in costly array nor in disguised habits but in his old age wore sometimes a Cloak among the Churches which he sent for to Troas an ordinary Garment 2 Cor. 4. 8 9 10. chap 6. 4. 10 the 11 verse 2 Tim. 4. 13. and John the Baptist who was a great Prophet had a Coat made of hair and a leathern-girdle about his loyns Mat. 3 4. and the Primitive Christians wandered up and down in Sheeps skins and Goats skins being destitute of whom the World was not worthy Heb. 11. 37 38. But after the Apostles decease deceitful workers and evil Beasts and they that abode
Earth began to be replenished the cursed Seed grew faster and many great Nations were ignorant of the True God and made Idols and Images of wood and stone of gold and Silver according to the mind of the Crafts man and worshipped them and became in love with them and swore by them Yet Abraham the Father of the faithful feared the Living God of Heaven and Earth and God was with him in all his wayes and he hearked unto his voice and obeyed it and followed the Lord where he led him and God made a Covenant with him and his seed for ever and gave him a Son in his old age and said unto him in blessing I will blesse thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee and this was fulfilled for Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat the twelve Patriarchs and Jacob in the time of famine went into Egypt and sojourned in that land he and his Sons and all that pertained to his family increased became a great people But after many years the Egyptians afflicted them multiplied their burdens insomuch that God considered them the Covenant he had made with Abraham and his seed sent Moses his servant as a Leader to be a guid unto them out of that Land they were brought forth by an outstreched arm and great was their Deliverance and he led them through the wilderness sed them with Angels food and at Mount Sina gave forth a Law and made a Covenant with them sutable to the state wherein they were for their minds were outward and the Covenant was outward their minds was Changeable and Murable and the Covenant was so also And all these states and ordinances pertained to a party which was above the Seed yet they were shadows of good things to come every ordinance in this Covenant was but a figure or shadow of a more Heavenly thing which was but to be in force to wit these ordinances untill the Seed came to be made manifest which ended them all So all Priests Offerings Sabbaths Fasts Feasts Oaths though they were real in their time and all vows yet the Law was changed which pertained to the changeable party when the Seed Christ was revealed who is unchangable The first had an end and continued to the time of reformation take notice of this this Covenant was made to wit the first after the transgression but when and wherein Christ is revealed and manifest the great Reformer the restorer they end he leaves all to the beginning again out of deformity to be for transgression to that in wâ—h man was bound unto God at the first before sin entred and to be for shadows was for all the new Moons Offrings Oaths and Sabbaths were given forth to man when there was a Cloud and a vail and a shadow over within that the glory of the invisible God could not be seen in this state nor his naked clear Glory but as that part comes to be done away and crucified and subjected and the cloud scattered the Shadows and clouds outward pass away the Apostle calls the ordinances outward shadows And Paul to the Corinthians calls them a Cloud theywere all baptized into Moses in the Cloud And when the day appears and Christ who is the Light is manifest the Clouds are scattered and ended the shadows fly away and clear ayr appears glory and clearness is beholden even the Lord with open face and yet man lives and is not afraid of his presence but is glad because of the Light of his counrenance But this is a mystery and these things are hidden from the wise and prudent of this world But this is the some of much there was a time when there were no oath outward before the transgression when man was the Image of God after the transgression the oaths were given forth and the commands outward but in the restoration or reformation they end again and there shall be none for truth it self shall live and it shall testifie in man and there shal be no other witness blessed are they that believes and understands But to come nearer the understandings of all It is granted in the first Covenant under the Law Oaths were commanded and men did and might swear but this was after sin entred into the world many hundred years the Nations who were Heathens swore some by their Kings some by their Heathen Gods the Egyptians swore by the life of Pharcoh the Romans by the life or fortune of Caesar but Israel was to swear by the living God Deu. 10. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God him shalt thou serve and to him shalt thou cleave swear by his Name Lev. 19. 11 12 Ye shal not steal neither deal falsely neither lie one unto another ye shal not swear falsly by my Name neither shalt thou prophane the Name of thy God I am the Lord in Num. 30 2. And if any vow a vow unto the Lord swear an Oath to bind his soul with a bond he shal not break his bond but do all that proceeds out of his mouth And so Josua kept Covenant with the Gibeonites but when Israel revolted from the Lord in their hearts and yet swear a true word and said the Lord lived yet the Prophet Jeremiah saith chap. 5. 2. 23. 10. Though they say the Lord lives yet they swear falsly No truer thing could be said or sworn then that the Lord lived but he lived not in them that did lie steal kill and commit adultery they held the form but were gone from the life and power and then it was a customary thing with them to swear even as it s now among the Apostate Christians and because of which the Land mourns and in 4 chap. 15. verse Though Israel play the harlot yet let not Judea so offend and come not ye to Gilgal neither go ye up to Bethaven nor swear the Lord lives And Amos saith they that swear by the sin of Samaria and say the God of Dan liveth and the manner of Bersheba liveth even they shal fall and never rise up again So when they kept the Covenant of God they swore by the Name of the Lord in truth and in righteousness but when they revolted they kept the words swore without fear prophaned the Name and did swear then by the Heathen by Maleam and the sin of Samaria even as the Apostate Christians now swear by any thing yea even the most religious swearing is by a book which is not the living God And so this kind of swearing hath no ground at all but custome and tradition but still this is granted that the Jews and many of the faithful Fathers swore as Jacob and Abraham and many others and they all died in the faith and yet were not made partakers of the promise but saw through the vail and the shadow and an Oath was a type of Christ the oath of God and the promise but now the promise
did proclaim it in their Assemblies let none that is wise enter none that is learned none that is prudent for thus it is appointed us in the Gospel but if there be any unwise unlearned any foolish let him approach with confidence for these were fit to be the servants of God Ouzetius in his Animadversions page 25 saith that the Gentiles did object against the Christians their rude stile their harsh Language and how they were destitute of all Addresses calling them Rusticks and Clowns So the Christians did again term the Gentiles the Politie the Eloquent and the Learned Clemence Romanus saith in his writing lib. 2. chap 6. Abstain from all the Books of the Gentiles for what have you to do with strange discourses or Laws or false Prophets which Seduce weak men from the Truth In the Council at Carthage there was a Canon made distinct 37. cap. Epist. citante Jac. Laurentio de lib. gentil page 41. Let not a Bishop read Heathen Authors Gracian saith we see that the Priests of the Lord neglecting the Gospel and the Prophets they read Comedies and read love verses out of Beuchlies they peruse Virgil And what is a sin of enforced necessity in Children is become their delight doth not he seem to walk in vanity and darknesse of mind who vexes himself day and night in the study of Lodgick who in the persuit of Phisicall Speculations one while elevates himself beyond the highest Heavens and afterwards precipitates himself below the neather parts of the Earth and diveth into the Abisse and chargeth his memory with the distinct knowledge of verses Petrus Belonius saith in Greece amongst the Christians which were very many there were very few learned men because they esteemed not of it as of nenessity to Christianity though they could speak Greek and some Latine but few could write or read in their Libraries were severall manuscrips of Divinity but no Historians no Philosophers for those were anathomized And all Christians were exhorted not to study Poetry nor Philosophy Yet Reader thou mayest understand that the Greek Church is highly owned for a true Christian Church and highly owned by the Protestants yet neither they nor the Pickards nor Waldenses in Bohemia did value learning so far were they from esteeming of it as the proper true Religion Luther de Institu puer inter aper Wittenburg to 7. fol. 444. Paul exhorteth to beware of Philosophy and vain deceit Col. 2. He had been at Athens and had acquainted himself with that vain-glorious humane wisdome and knew the multiplicity of Contradictions which it had procured What then hath Athens to do with Jerusalem What fellowship hath the Epicures and Stoicks with the Church of Christ Jerome lib. 1. Contra Pelag. what hath Aristotle to do with Paul or Plato with Peter A multitude of Testimonies might be brought to this effect how the Christians did in former ages reject Philosophy and Heathen Authors and all such frivilous stories as no way lawfull for Christians to meddle in nor any way good to propagate Christianity Bishop Usher in Vindication of the Waldenses by way of Apologie he saith God did chuse Fisher-men that so he might not give his glory to another for asmuch as the little ones had asked breâ—d came to receive it and the learned being busied about vain contentions and disputations were sent empty away The Waldenses saith Bishop Usher de success chap. 6. 28. We are not ashamed of our Teachers because they labour with their hands procuring thereby a livelihood to themselves because both the Doctrine and example of the Apostles doth lerd us to such apprehensions And as for the Ceremonies which are found in these Universities and Colledges and popish superstitious practises I shall leave the Reader to read thém else where which are so many and so Superstitious that they come little behind Rome in Idolatry and as for their consecration of Priests and the endlesse rabble of Ceremonies which do attend as such times as they take degrees is well known to many in this Nation And yet these Universities and Schools are elevated in some mens minds as though they were the chief propagators of Christianity when as indeed they are an in-let of Heathenism and Idolatry and no way of necessity usefull for the true Church of God And it is judged by some learned men and that upon good ground that the present fashoned Universities Orders and Habits was from the Dominicans An order instituted by the Pope to suppress the Waldenses and their doctoral degrees by the learned are judged to be no other then Noval and accounted Antichristian by the reformed Churches so called in Scotland France Holland Switzerland and the Calvinists in high Germany And so many Doctors there are in the Universities who never knew how to divide the Word aright nor what it is to convert one Soul unto God A Doctor that is no Teacher he is a dumb dog and an insignificant piece of formality in the Universities which carries a shew of something but is nothing in substance and the chief practise is several ridiculous Solemnities together with constant wearing of a Coull and some other vestments fetcht out of a popish Wardrobe It was an Article of John Wicklifs condemned at Constance who suffered as a Martyr that Graduations and Doctorships in Universities and Colledges as they were in use then did conduce nothing to the Church of Christ Acts and Monuments page 449. Didoclavius in his book Alte Damascanum page 891. saith that Hoods Tippets and Square Caps were introduced by antichrist to promote his splendor and it is a Stage-play dresse and altogether ridiculous being a distinguishment of some men from others by signes useless and destitute of all Ornament Upon their shoulders saith he there hangs down a hood such as fools used to wear being neither handsome nor convenient Bucer refused to wear a square cap and being demanded the reason he answered that God had made his head round Philpot chused rather to be secludvd the Convocation of the Clergy then to wear a hood and a Tippet who died a Martyr for the faith of the Protestant Church as Fox tells us in his Acts and Monuments and the superstitious hoods is but a product of the old Monkish mettel grounded upon the superstitious exposition of that place Heb. 11. they wandred abroad in sheeps skins c. And whether such men are fit to be Ministers of Christ who gives such expositions upon the Scriptures or whether it is not altogether detestable and Idolatrous and savours altogether of Ignorance as to expound such a Scripture as this stand fast having your loyns girt c. And this must signifie the Episcoparian girdles with which they tye their Canonical Coats or long black frocks And whether this is a good foundation for the Colledge Doctors to stand booted and spurd in the Act because there is mention made in Scripture of being shod with the preparation of the Gospel See Statute Accad Oxon.