doth the Pope challenge to himself the gift of Prophecie but only of legal Decisions which are no otherwise written then many write and contain no deeper nor more Supernatural Matter then many may invent most of them usually penned in a base and barbarous Logick Phrase his Stile at the best is not peculiar his Character easie to be counterfeited by any man that can pen a Proclamation or frame an Instrument in Civil Courts 7 To recollect what hath been said First seeing God is more to be Believed then Men secondly seeing we have better Arguments to perswade the People that these Scriptures daily read in our Church are Gods own Words then the Priests and Jesuites have that the Tidings which they bring from beyond Sea are the Popes or Churches Decrees or Sentence we may and ought Teach them to relie immediately upon Gods Word preached or read unto them as the surest and most Infallible Rule of Faith the most lively most effectual and most forcible Means of their Salvation Or if the Jesuites will teach them to Believe the Popes Decrees given ex Cathedra or the Churches Opinion indefinitely taken Fide divina by Infallible Faith but the Jesuites or Priests Expositions or Translations of them only Conditionally and with this Limitation If so they be the Pope or Churches Decrees we may in like sort with far greater Reason teach the People to Believe the Scriptures or the Word of God absolutely and our Translations or Expositions of it but Conditionally or with Limitation so far as they are Consonant to the Word of God Seeing it is as probable that we may expound Gods Word as rightly and sincerely as the other can the Church or Popes Edicts we have better Reason to exact this conditional Obedience and Assent in the Vertue and Authoritie of Gods Word which we make the Rule of Faith then they can have to exact the like Obedience by Vertue of the Pope or Churches Edict which is to them the Mistresse of Faith For it is more certain to any man living that Gods Word is most Infallibly True then that the Pope cannot Erre Wherefore if the Absolute Belief of the Popes Infallibilitie and Conditional Belief of the Jesuites or Priests his Messengers Fidelitie or Skill be sufficient to Salvation much more may the Absolute Belief or Assent unto the Infallibility of Gods Word and such Conditional and limited Belief of his Ministers Fidelitie be sufficient for the Salvation of his People who as hath been proved cannot be more certain that the Romish Church saith This or That then we can be of Gods Word For they never hear the Church or Pope speak but in Jesuites or Priests Mouthes And although they knew he said just so as those say yet may a man doubt in Modestie whether the Popes Words be alwayes Infallible but of the Infallibilitie of Gods Word can no man doubt 8 And Here I cannot but much wonder at the preposterous courses of these Romanists who holding an Implicite Faith of Believing as the Church Believes in many Points to be sufficient unto Salvation will yet fasten this implicite Faith upon the present Church of Rome and not refer it rather unto that Church as it was under S. Peters Jurisdiction and Government For if Universalitie be as they contend a sure Note of undoubted Truth then must it needs be more undoubtedly True that S. Peter could not Erre in Matters of Faith then that this present Romish Pope and his Cardinals cannot so Erre For all Papists hold this as True of S. Peter as of this present Pope and all Protestants hold it True of S. Peter not in the present Pope and so did all the Fathers without controversie hold it most True that S. Peter did not teach amisse in his Apostolical Writings So that Universalitie is much greater for S. Peter then for this Pope that now is or the next that shall be 9 For these Reasons fully consonant to their own Positions all Papists me-thinks in Reason should make the same Difference in their Estimate of S. Peter and later Popes which a French Cardinal as the Tradition is at Durham once made betwixt S. Cuthbert and venerable Bede Abeit S. Cuthbert was accounted the greater Saint amongst them whose greater Benefactour he had been in which respect they brought the Cardinal first unto S. Cuthberts Tomb yet because he knew him not so well but only by their Report he praies very warily Sancte Cuthberte si Sanctus es or a pro me But afterwards brought unto Bedes Tomb then in the Consistory because he had been Famous in Forrain Nations from the Commendations of lesse partial Antiquitie he fell to his prayers without Ifs and And 's Vener abilis Beda quia tu Sanctus es or a pro me 10 Proprotional to this Caution in this French-mans Prayers should every modern Papist limit his Belief of the present Popes Infallibilitie in respect of S. Peters And say thus in his heart As for S. Peter I know he Believed and Taught aright And I beseech God I may Believe as he Believed and that my Soul may come whither his is gone as for this present Pope if he believe as S. Peter did be likely to follow him in LIfe and Death I pray God I may Believe as he Believes and do as he Teacheth but otherwise believe me I would be very loath to pin my Belief upon his Sleeve lest happily he run Headlong to Hell to that which should have drawn me up to Heaven For in this Life I walk by Faith and by Faith I must ascend Thither if I ever come There and therefore I dare not fasten my Belief upon any Man whom I would be loath to follow in his Course of Life But most surely might this Implicite Faith be fastned upon Gods written Word contained in the Writings of Moses the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists We know O Lord that Thou hast Taught them All Truth that is Necessary for thy Church to know And our Adversaries confess that thy Word uttered by Them rightly understood is the most sure Rule of Faith for by This they seek to establish the Infallibilitie of the Church and Pope They themselves speak aright by their own Confession where they speak consonantly unto it Wherefore the safest Course for us must be to search out the True Sense and Meaning of it which is as easie for us as them to find as in the Processe of these Meditations God willing shall appear 11 Unto the main Objection concerning the Means of knowing Scripture to be Scripture we have partly answered or rather prevented it in the first Treatise and throughout this whole intended discourse we shall God willing explicate the former general Means or Motives as also bring other peculiar Inducements for the establishing of True Faith unto the particular Articles in this Creed contained For the present Difficultie concerning the Rule of Illiterate Lay-mens Faith or such as understand not those Languages in which
Bellarmine prove that Law was Obscure to him which as he himself confesseth had given Light unto his eyes If it were not why did he pray to God to understand it Then I perceive the Jesuites drift in this present Controversie is to establish a Rule of Faith so easie and infallible as might direct in all the wayes of Truth without Prayer to God or any help from Heaven Such a one it seems they desire as all might understand at the first sight though living as luxuriously as their Popes or minding worldly matters as much as their Cardinals Nili velint nimium esse â—aeci unlesse they would as Valentian speaks desire to be Blinde 5 Surely more blind then Beetles must they be that can suffer themselves to be perswaded that ever God or Christ would have a Rule for mans direction in the Mysteries of Salvation so plain and easie as he should not need to be beholden to his Maker and Redeemer for the true and perfect understanding of it This is a Wisdom and Gift which cometh onely from above and must be daily and earnestly sought for at the hands of God who we may rest assured will be alwayes more ready to grant our Petitions herein with lesse changes then the Pope to give his Decisions in a doubtfull Case â—ad David ask a this Wisdom of him that sate in Moses Chair we might suspect the Pope might be sued unto But Davids God is our God his Lord our Christ our Redeemer and hath spoken more plainly unto us then unto David who yet by his meditations on Gods written Laws added Light to Moses Writings as later Prophets have done to his All which in respect of the Gospels Brightnesse are but as Lights shining in dark places yet even the least conspicuous amongst them Such as will give manifest evidence against us to our eternal Condemnation if we seek this Wisdom from any others then Christs his Prophets and Apostles Doctrine by any other Means or Mediatourship then David did his From Gods Law written by Moses 6 Let us now see what Valentian can say unto the fore-cited Testimonie and to that other like unto it We have also a most sure word of the Prophets to the which ye do well that yee take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a â—…k place untill the day dawn and the day-Star ariseth in your hearts It is true saith the Doctor the word of God is a Light and this Light is clear and illuminates the eyes But it must be considered how it comes to enlighten our eyes Do you su pos that it effects this in as much as every man doth comprehend it within the 〈◊〉 of his private wit or industry as it were in a little bushell Nothing lesse But â—… it as it is placed in the Authority of the Catholick Church as in a Candlestick where it may give Light to all that are in the house For we shall shew saith he â—… place that this Authoritie of the Church is the living Judge and Mistresse of â—…th 〈◊〉 therefore is it necessary that she should carrie this Light which is contâ—… Holy Wâ—it and shew it unto all that associate themselves to her and remain â—… bosome although they be unlearned men and such as are not able by themselves to behold this Light as it is contained in the Scriptures as in a Lanthorn 7 He that could find in his heart to spend his groat or go a mile to see a Camel dance a Jigge let him but lay his finger on his mouth that he spoil not the Pageant with immoderate laughing and he may without any further cost or pains be partaker of as prettie a Sport to see a grand demure School-Divine laying aside his wonted habit of Metaphysical Proof turned Doctour Similitude on a suddain and swaggering it in the Metaphorical Cut. For what one joynt or strain is there in this long laborious vast Similitude that doth any way encline unto the least semblance of Truth or can be drawn to illustrate any such Meaning as this man intended or any way to break the force of our Writers Arguments drawn from the forecited places For first what Semblance is there between a private mans Interpretation or Comprehension of Scripture-sence and the putting of a Light or Candle under a Bushel For what though some one some few or more such men will apprehend this or that to be the full Meaning of some controversed place in Scripture I am by our Churches Doctrine no more bound to Believe them then I am to Believe the Pope of Rome whom I never saw nor knew I am bound to Believe neither of them more then if they should tell me that the whole Light of that candle which shines alike to all were onely comprehended in their eyes For by our Doctrine I may behold the same Light of Scriptures which they do as freely as they Judge of it by mine own eyes and Sense as well as they not onely submit my Sense and judgement unto theirs But if we should as this â—esuite would have us permit the judgement of all Scripture-sence wholly and irrevocably unto the Pope and his Cardinals as if their Consistorie were the compleat Hemisphere or rather the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sphere the whole sphere wherein this heavenly Lamp doth shine then indeed we should see no more of its Light then we could of a Candle put under a Bushell or locked up in some close Room In which Case we might Believe others that it did shine there still but whether it did so or no we could not Judge by our own eyes And in like manner would this Doctor perswade us that we should judge of this Light of Scriptures onely by the Testimonie or Authoritie of such as see it shine in the Consistorie at Rome not with our own eyes Had the Lord permitted but one grain of good wit to have remained in this Bushel of Bran not Impudencie in grain could without Plushing have offered to accuse our Church for hiding the Light of Scriptures under a Bushell when as we contend the free Use of it should be permitted to the whole Congregation But he disputeth of the Light as Blind men may of Colours He lived at Ingolstade and the Light of Gods Word was at Rome lockt up within the compasse of the Consistorie so that he could not see to make his comparison of it Secondly what Proportion is there between the Churches Authority such Authority as he claims for his Church and a Candlestick Let the Consistory be supposed the Candlestick wherein the word of God doth shine as a Light or Candle Doth it indeed shine there unto whom To all that will associate themselves to that Church Come then let every man exhort his Neighbour to repair to the Mountain of the Lord. Shall we there immediately see the Truth of Scriptures clearly and distinctly with our own eyes because the Pope or Trent-Councel holds out unto us the Books
Ministers of Christ and disposers of the mysteries of God Of whom were they so to esteem Of Saint Paul himself and every faithfull Minister Doth he then intimate here any such Prerogative above the meanest of his brethren as the Romish Clergie usurps over the whole Christian World any authority to prohibit either the Dispensers of Gods mysteries from administring or men so carnally minded as were these to whom he wrote from communicating Christs bloud as well as his bodie So the Trent Fathers think and as if for their wilfull denial of the Lords Cup unto the people the Lord had given them the cup of giddinesse to cast them into a Babylonish slumber whilest they consulted about this decree and their Scribes through wretchlesnesse had written what their raving Masters in their sickly or drunken dreams had uttered we find in the same Decree another place of S. Paul immediately annexed though as disproportionable to the former as it is placed in their discourse as a mans head to an horses neck both as unsutable to their intended Conclusion as a super-addition of Fins or Feathers would be to such a monstrous Hippocentaurick combination The place is S. Pauls Conclusion of that discourse concerning the Sacraments Other things will I set in order when I come 16 Granting what is not necessary he spake of ordering matters concerning this Sacrament to receive the wine as well as the bread was no part of their present disorder whose misbehaviour at the Lords Table did minister more just occasions to Saint Paul then long Beards did to the Councel of Constance to denie the use of the Cup might Christs blood and bodie which he had jointly tendered to all be upon any occasion justly severed by man in the administration of his last Will and Testament Whatsoever the number or qualitie of the guests be the great Lords Table must be alwayes so furnished as it was at the first Institution for he hath no respect of persons If a rich stately Prelate come in with a gold ring in goodly vestiments and a poor honest Laick in vile raiments he saith not to him in Pontifical robes come sit you here at my messe where you may drink of my wine as well as eat of my bread nor to the poor Laick stand thou there apart or sit down here under my footstool where thou maiest be partaker of the crummes which fall from my Table though not of my cup which must be kept for thy betters High and low rich and poor all were redeemed with one price all at this offering equal all alike free to tast of every dish so they come with wedding-garments without which even the best must be cast out as unworthy to tast of any part if not of all That part which the Councels of Constance and Trent upon pretences of reverence to the Lords Supper have detained from Modern Christians the Corinthians had received unworthily yet was not the Cup for this reason held superfluous by Saint Paul who onely sought to represse the abuse as knowing the use of it to be most necessarie The matters then he meant to order when he came was to set out this Heavenly banquet with greater decencie and solemnitie not to abridge them of any substantial or material part thereof 17 Nor do the Trent Fathers if we may trust them upon their words For they desirous as it seems to make the whole Christian World as sottish as themselves were impious would make men believe they could juggle away the Cup and never touch the very substance of the Sacrament as if the wine were not as substantial a part of the Lords Supper as was his blood of his bodie or humanitie An integral or material part they cannot denie it to be and such if it be there Apologie is as shamelesse as if a man should let out most of anothers blood cut off his arm or leg or maim him in some principal part and plead for himself I did not meddle with his substance meaning as the Councel I take it here doth his Essence seeing he is yet as truly a reasonable Creature as before 18 But to debar them of that refuge it may be they sought or their followers may yet hope to find in the equivocation of this word substance importing as much sometimes as a material or integral sometimes as an essential part If the Cup be an essential and substantial part of this Sacrament the Councel by their own confession did foully erre in prohibiting Communion under both kinds If no such part it be they might by their own rule have altogether denied the use of it so much as to the sacrificer or conficient but so the very use and end on which the essence of the Sacrament as of all other matters of moral practise immediately depends and by whose expiration instantly most determine should utterly have perished The end and use of this sacred Institution as our Saviour expressely teacheth and the Councel grants was to represent the Testators Death yea so to represent it as we might be partakers of his bodie and blood not spiritually onely but withall as the Trent Fathers contend Sacramentally Admitting then all they can pretend against the necessity of the Cup That whole Christ were in the Bread alone yet this will not preserve the true and fruitfull use of the Sacrament nor salve that deadly wound the essence of it must perforce receive from frustration of the end necessarily ensuing the Cups absence For this Sacrament was ordained as to represent so to exhibit Christs body unto all faithful Communicants not as intire and whole his bloud not as it was inclosed in the veines but the one as torne and rent the other as shed and powred out upon the crosse This is my bloud of the new Testament saith our Saviour which is shed for many for all that receive it faithfully for the remission of sins His Bloud then as shed and powred out is as the loadstar of penitent and contrite hearts whereon the eyes of their faith that seek remission of sins in this Sacrament must be fastened for as the ‖ Apostle saith without shedding of bloud is no remission This was the complement of that inestimable all-sufficient Sacrifice that which represents his precious bloud thus poured out the principal part of this Sacrament as wel in respect of representing his death as in applying remission of sins thereby in general purchased and by this Sacramental Type sealed to every one in particular especially if the Trent Councels Doctrine be true that Christs very bloud which was shed upon the crosse is really present in the Chalice and might be as immediately sprinkled at least upon the lips or doors of every faithful receivers heart as the bloud of the Paschal Lamb was upon the door-posts of the Israelites Thus as Satan the Father of lies so false opinions suggested by him draw men with pleasure into those evils for whose practise in the end
and feeling of his goodnesse and truth of his word 7 Though no Law-giver or Governour whether temporal or spiritual especially whose calling was but ordinary could possibly before or since so well deserve of the people committed to his guidance as this great General already had done of all the host of Israel were they upon this consideration forthwith to believe what soever he should avouch without further examination sign or token of his favour with God without assured experience or at the least more then probable presumptions of his continual faithfulnesse in that service whereunto they knew him appointed Albeit after all the mighty works before mentioned wrought in their presence they had been bound thereunto the meanest handmaid in that multitude had infallible pledges plenty of his extraordinary calling lockt up in her own unerring senses But from the strange yet frequent manifestation of Moses power and favour with God so great as none besides the great Prophet whom he prefigured might challenge the like the Lord in his al-seeing wisdom took fit occasion to allure his people unto strict observance of what he afterwards solemnly enacted as also in them to forwarn all future generations without express warrant of his word not absolutely to believe any governour whomsoever in al though of tried skil and fidelity in many principal points of his service That passage of Scripture wherein the manner of this peoples stipulation is registred wel deserves an exact survey of all especially of these circumstances How the Lord by rehearsal of his mighty works so epassed extorts their promise to do whatsoever should by Moses be commanded them and yet will not accept it offered until he have made them ear-witnesses of his familiarity and communication with him First out of the Mount he called Moses unto him to deliver this solemn message unto the house of Jacob Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you upon â—agles wings and have brought you unto me Now therefore if you will hear my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be my chief treasure above all people though all the earth be mine After Moses had reported unto God this answer freely uttered with joynt consent of all the people solemnly assembled before their Elders All that the Lord commanded we will do was the whole businesse betwixt God and them fully transacted by this Agent in their obsence No he is sent back to sanctifie the people that they might expect Gods glorious appearance in Mount Sinai to ratifie what he had said upon the return of their answer Lo I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear whilest I talk with thee and that they may also believe thee for ever They did not believe that God had revealed his word to Moses for the wonders he had wrought but rather that his wonders were from Gâ—d because they heard God speak to him yea to themselves For their principal and fundamental lawes were uttered by God himself in their hearing 〈◊〉 Moses expresseth These words to wit the Decalogue the Lord spake unto â—… 〈◊〉 â—ulâ—â—tude in the â—ouâ—t out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the 〈◊〉 with a great voice and addâ—d no more And lest the words which they had heard might soon be smothered in fleshly hearts or quickly slide oâ—â— of their brittle memories the Lord wrote them in two Tables of stone and at their transcription not â—oses onely but Aaron Nadaâ— and Aâ—thâ— with the seventy Elders of Israel are made spectators of the Divine glory ravished with the sweetnesse of his presence †They saw saith the Text thâ—… of Isrâ—â—l and unâ—er his feet as it were a work of a Saphire stone and as the 〈◊〉 hâ—aâ—â—n when it is clear And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel â—e 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 also they saw God and did eat and drink After these Tables through Aâ—â—sâ—s anger at the peoples folly and impiety were broken God writes the 〈◊〉 same words again and renews his Covenant before all the people promising undoubted experience of his Divine assistance 8 Doth Moses after all this call fire from heaven upon all such as distrâ—â—t his words â—aron and Mâ—riam openly derogate from his authority which the Lord consirmes again viva voce descending in the †pillar of the 〈◊〉 coâ—…ng these dâ—tractors in the doore of the Yabeâ—â—acce Wherefore were you 〈◊〉 aâ—raid to spâ—ak against my servant even against Moses Thâ—â—s the Lord was 〈◊〉 aâ—gâ—â—e and depaâ—tâ—d leaving his mark upon Miriam cured of her leprosie by Moses instant prayers No marvell if Korah Dathan and â—â—irams judgements were so grievous when their sin against Moses after so many documents of his high calling could not but be wilfull as their perseverance in it after so many admonitions to desist most malitious and obstinate Yet was Mâ—sâ—s further countenanced by the appearance of Gods glory unto all the Congregation and his authority further ratified by the strange and fearfull end of these chief malefactors †foretold by him and by fire iâ—luing from the Lord to consume their confederates in offering incense ungratefull to their God Tantae molis erat Judaeam condere gentem So long and great a work it was to â—…ie Israel in true faith But without any like miracle or prediction such as never saw him never heard good of him must believe the Pope as well as Israel did their Law-giver that could make the Sea to grant him passage the clouds send bread the windes bring flesh and the hard rock yeeld drink sufficient for him and all his mighty host that could thus call the heavens as witnesses to condemn and appoint the earth as executioner of his judgements upon the obstinate and rebellious yet after all this he inflicts no such punishments upon the doubtfull in faith as the Romish Church doth but rather as is evident out of the places before alledged confirms them by commemoration of these late cited and like Experiments making †God 's favours past the surest pledges of his assistance in greatest difficulties that could beset them To conclude this people believed Moses for Godâ— testimony of him we may not believe Gods Word without the Popes testimony of it He must be to God as Aaron was to Moses his mouth whereby he onely speaks distinctly or intelligibly to his people CAP. XVII That the Churches authority was no part of the rule of faith unto the people after Moses death That by Experiments answerable to his precepts and predictions the faithfull without relying upon the Priests infallible proposals were as certain both of the divine truth and true meaning of the Law as their fore-fathers had been that lived with Moses and saw his miracles 1 TO proceed unto the ages following Moses How did they know Moses law either indeed to be Gods Word or the true sence and meaning of it being indefinitely known
to possesse it then shalt thou put the blessing upon Mount Gerâ—…m and the curse upon Mount 〈◊〉 And elsewhere Moses chargeth the People saying These all sons of the free-woman shall stand upon Mount Geriâ—… to 〈◊〉 the peâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—e passe over Jordan Simeon and Levi and Judah and Iâ—â—aâ—har andâ—oseph â—oseph and Benjamin and these sons of the bond-woman shall stand 〈◊〉 Mount Eâ—al to â—urse Reuben Gad and Asher and Zebulon Dan and Nephtali 〈◊〉 the Levites shall answer and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voyce Cursed c Nor was this rehersall more strictly enjoyned by Moses then faithfully performed by Iosuah And all Israel and their Elders and Officers and their â—…ges stood on this side of the Ark and on that side before the Priests of the Levites which bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord as well the stranger as he that is born in the Countrey half of them were over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before that they should blesse the children of Israel Then afterward he read all the words of the Law the blessings and cursings according to all that is written in the book of the Law There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Josuah read not before all the Congregation of Israel aswell before the women and children as the stranger that was conversant among them The like solemnity was to be continued every seventh yeer as Moses commanded them saying Every seventh yeer when the yeer of freedom shall be in the feast of Tabernacles when all Israel shall come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall 〈◊〉 thou shalt read this Law before all Israel that they may hear it Gather the people together men and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and keep and observe all the wordâ— of this Law and that their children which have not known it may hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possesse it 5 Children were to be instructed first privately then publikely that the solemnity of the spectacle might work in them a modest fear and reverence without whose precedent impression true faith hardly findes entrance into the heart of man And without miracles it seldom takes but where the seed of it have been sowen in tender yeers nor doth it usually sink into younger breasts unlesse sucked in with admiration All that Moses all that Josuah all that Priests and Levites all that Parents or other Instructers private or publick could do to such all they aimed at was to propose the infallible word in such sort as might stir up their hearts to receive it with attention and admiration and afterwards to make sure triall of it alwayes sufficient to prove it self by their practise No instructer in that people ever taught his hearers either finally or jointly to rely upon the infallibility of his proposals 6 But the Jesuites heart though his mouth will not utter it thus indictes Did all this stir these Scripturians would seem to make or tatling parents daily invitation of their children to strict observance of this rule take such effect as Moses dreamed of in posterity No. But the reason why it did not was because they sought not in time to supplie the defect or raritie of miracles in latter with more frequent and solemne memorial of such as had happened in former ages or with more abundant meditation upon their written law and diligent observation of their ordinary successe alwayes correspondent thereunto Take heed to thy self saith Moses and keep thy soul diligently that thou forget not the things thine eyes have seen and that they depart not out of thine heart all the dayes of thy life but teach them thy sons and thy sons sons forget not the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb when the Lord said unto me Gather me the people together and I will cause them to hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the dayes that they shall live upon the earth and that they may teach their children The necessity of this and like premonitions was too well manifested by the event The people saith another Pen-man of the sacred Canon had served the Lord all the 〈◊〉 of Josuah and all the dayes of the Elders that out-lived Josuah which had seen all the great works of the Lord that he aid for Israel Not the avouchment or presence of infallible teachers but their sure experience of Gods power and mercy did more surely fasten this peoples assent unto the truth of that which Moses had left written then Moses live-personal proposal could do their Fathers to his words uttered in their audience But after that generation with whom Josuah had conversed was gathered unto their fathers and another generation arose after them which neither knew the Lord nor yet the works he had done for Israel then the children of Israel did weekenly in 〈◊〉 sight of the Lord and served Baal Whence it came to passe that whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was sore against them as the Lord has said and as the Lord had sworn unto them so he punished them sore Notwithstanding the Lord raised up Judges which delivered them out of the hands of their oppressors yet when the Iudge was dead they returned and did worse then their fathers in following others gods to serve them and worship them they ceased not from their own inventions nor from their rebellious way What rule then was left to reclaim them the infallible proposals of their Priests Though these or an Angel from heaven should have proposed any other Doctrine then what was consonant to their written law whose true meaning in this respect every one of them should have known Moses curse before mentioned had overtaken them following it So much were they addicted unto Baals Priests proposals that Angels could scarsly be heard though suggesting nothing but what their Law-giver had taught though assuring them by their presence of such assistance from their mighty God as he had promised Thus when the general of these heavenly souldiers sought to encourage Gideon The Lord is with thee thou valiant man He replies ah my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this come upon us and where be all his miracles which our Fathers told us of and said Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites As if he had said I will not deny but the Lord hath done of old as our fathers have declared unto us Moses story I distrust not but am sure he hath
immediately sent from Heaven not made by multiplication of such bread as they might have bought of ordinary Bakers Nor doth our Saviour seek to win them by out-vying Moses in multitude or magnificence of his miracles but by alluring them to taste and prove his heavenly doctrine For The Experiments that give us the seal and assurance of lively faith must of necessety he within us even in our hearts and in our souls and these are they Had this people without miracles been dicto audiens as they were enjoyned by Moses in that they took him for a Prophet they might in short time have known what Peter confessed Verba vitae aeternae habes Thou hast the words of eternal life whose sweetness once inwardly tasted was much more then all the miracles that could be wrought without his hearers or upon them But of such works these proud Jews never dreamed as not knowing the Scriptures nor the vertue of their Messias who as the Prophets had soretold was to preach the Gospel unto the poor to comfort such as mourned in Sion to whom no miracles could be more welcome then such as he did for what could be more acceptable to the blind then restitution of sight to the lame then right use of his limbs what more grateful message could be uttered to the deaf then Ephata to have his ears opened what to the dumb then unâ—ying of the tongue what to the possessed then to be freed from the tyrannie of Satan or his Ministers Finally as the Evangelist notes he did all things well and unto the best contentment possible of every afflicted soul far above the exigence or significations of their peculiar necessities but further beyond their expectation In every work he shewed his willingnesse in all his power to ease and refresh all that were weary and heavy laden but unto such as thought themselves so whole and sound as no way to need his Physick rather desirous to feed their curious fancies with superfluous or unnecessary wonders he was not willing to give satisfaction by turning Gods graces into wantonnesse or vain ostentation of his power or skil Another especial occasion of this peoples stumbling at this stone elect and pretious was their not considering that many of Moses greatest wonders were types partly of those glorious miracles which Messiah was to work secretly by his spirit manifested only to the â—earts and consciences in whom they were wrought partly of that his glory and power which was outwardly revealed to his Disciples and might so have been to more had they not stumbled as the Proverb is in the very Entry and so departed from him in despair bred from a foolish prejudice that no great good could be expected from a Nazarite of parentage birth and education so mean CAP. XXI Confirming the truth delivered in the former Chapter from the very law given by Moses for discerning the great Prophet further exemplifying the use and force of miracles for begetting faith The manner of trying Prophesies of the similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 1 AS well for farther discovery of Romish blasphemy as ratification of our former assertion let us view with diligence that place of Moses wherein such strict obedience and attention to the Messias doctrine is enjoyned as no where else such as no other may exact without incurring the curse there threatned to the disobedient The Lord thy God will raise thee up a Prophet like unto me from among you even of thy brethren unto him ye shall hearken According to all that thou desiredst the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly when thou saidst Let me hear the voice of my Lord God no more nor see this great fire any more that I die not And the Lord said unto me they have well spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him This prophesie by joynt consent of best interpreters as well modern as ancient Pontificians as Protestants may be truly and literally applied to other Prophets whether of the old or new Testament according to that measure of the spirit they had from him of whose fulnesse all as well such as in time went before him as those that came after him had received grace for grace True it is if we rightly value the strict propriety of every word or clause in the whole context what all historical circumstances put together import or the ful extent of S. Peters paraphrase on the last sentence it cannot be exactly fitted unto any but Christ unto whom only the whole discourse is as fully commensurable as a well made garment to the body that wears it yet is this no impediment why the same rule taken according to some literal circumstances might not usually serve for certain discretion of true Prophets from false as we use to notifie lesser but indefinite quantities of things by the known parts of some greater measure commensurable if we take the whole to substances of a larger size 2 Evident it is out of the literal meaning of this law acknowledged by all that Israel was strictly bound to hearken unto such Prophets as God at any time should raise them up though with most attention and greatest reverence to hear The Prince of Prophets But the question is upon what tearms or how far they were bound to hear all Absolutely and at first proposal of their doctrines without examination of them by the written law So might he that could have set the best leg foremost and stept up soonest into Moses chair have kept the rest of his profession in aw by thundering out Anathema's thence as the Pope doth from S. Peters to all gain-sayers priest or people By what rule then were true Prophets to be distinguished from false By miracles These were means of times effectual but as was intimated more usual for enforcing men to an acknowledgement of the truth in general then for trying particular controversies by amongst true professors in respect of whom they were subordinate to that rule given by Moses in the words immediately following But the Prophet that shall presume to speak a word in any Name which I have not commanded him to speak or that speaketh in the name of other Gods even the same Prophet shall die And if thou think in thine heart How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken When a Prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to passe that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not therefore be afraid of him 3 Before this or any other part of the law was written somewhat in proportion answerable to
are set Free by the Son of God The eleventh Book in Adversarijs Conteining a Treatise upon the Articles of Christs comming to judgement The Resurrection of the dead and Life everlasting The twelfth of the Catholick Church part whereof is Printed and mentioned above Besides a great number of Treatises and Sermons respective Appendices to the Books aforesaid So many as would fill a Page with a Particular Catalogue For the Publishing whereof in due Time and manner and suiting with this Volume The Worthy persons whom the Author made Supervisors of his Will will be conscientious and Prudent Accountants to the Church of Christ And some others Pious and Learned men of that University Chearfull Assistants thereto But here if the Reader be of my Temper Secretum peto I must lead him aside a little to Condole the losse the Great loss of one most Considerable piece Finished and Alas for the Day lost some yeers ago It was The Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood I am bold to say Reader Write this a Prodigie And to render it the more Prodigious take notice that it was lost in the Authors Life Time as his ingenious Amanuensis Mr. B. told me inquiring after it above 9 yeers ago What shall be said or thought of This Surely The World was not worthy of such a Blessing It sentenced it self unworthy thereof by the stupid totall neglect of what he Preached at Court and Printed at Oxon in the Yeer 1637. about The Signes of the Times a Subject neer of Kin to that Treatise The longing impatient desire of Retreiving this Treatise makes me not blush to transform this Preface into a kind of Proclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather into a most humble and earnest Supplication unto the Person that hath this Treatise in keeping if yet it be kept from the Malice of the Destroyer That he will please to bring it in unto the Stationer for whom this Book is Printed upon assurance to receive it again or for it twelve or twenty Copies or a sum of Money Aequivalent if it be Printed For it is the desire and designe of more and more able men then my self to Collect and Publish This Authors Works as Compleat as possibly may be The Earnest whereof is Given in this First Volume with this further Account The Quarto Impression was scarce and dear and ill Printed The weighty and many Quotations of Authors so exceeding falsly figured and disfigured too that it cost so much Time and great Turning sometimes to finde out One single place as none can believe that hath not tried the like nor could all the Authors be found in London This the Famous Library of Oxon and the chearfull Candor of a learned Friend there supplied I am hopefull that the Authors Sence is not altered in the least measure for the least sin in that kind is sacriledge I am sure I was so scrupulously carefull of changing as that I have omitted what I thought necessary correction For example in the Epistle to the Reader line 12. I think I ought to have changed the word Conscience into Conscious or lesse conscience into more conscientious unlesse you will say Conscience there signifies Guilt So Page the 12. Line 3. after And yet These two words They persecuted should be inserted as I conjecture unlesse the comparison betwixt the Roman and Turkish Emperours Subjects make them needlesse So in the 250 page in the Margin surely it ought to have been R. P. but it was R. B. in the old Copie and in the search of Parsons Resolutions not finding absolute evidence that he was the party meant I let R. B. stand Yet have I added now and then a Citation or Note in the Margin As where the Great Businesse of Charles Martell is Related page 110. I have cited divers Authours whom the Reader may consult for his own better satisfaction To conclude There is a saying and men may think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the pecuniary profit be to the Tradesman If my heart deceive me not as divers Nutus Dei did invite the beginning and many remarkable momenta providentiae did encourage the Progresse in a Time of greatest trouble for outward estate so the Glory of God Almighty the Benefit of his Church and Children the doing of some small Thing in a Time of Cashierment that may tend to the discharge of a most unprofitable servants account at the last Day is the gain aimed at And if our Pr Brethren Sons of the same Fathers with us that cast us out viewing well the second and third Books and being here advertised That twenty of those men whom they have put from the Stations wherein God had set them in the Church of England as Factors for the Church of Rome have contributed each man their Symbolum to this Impression will by this be brought to see their mistake and taking this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confess themselves deceived and unwittingly made Proctors for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and transported in this particular became partial and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will be an Accession above expectation The Good Lord lay not this sin to their Charge but reconcile them to their former selves and be Reconciled both to them and us in Christ and prosper the work both dispatched and intended to his Glory and the good of his Church for our Lord Jesus's sake The Prayer of the most unworthy One of all his servants B. O. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 483. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both the Ark and his Habitation But if he say I have no delight in Thee Let him do to me as seemeth good unto Him Good is the Word of the Lord. The Law of the Lord is an undefiled Law converting the soul The Testimony of the Lord is sure and giveth wisdom to the simple Let the Word of God dwell in you plenteously Search the Scriptures Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation In which are some things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the Other Scriptures to their own destruction Remember them which are the Guides or have the Rule over you The Priests lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth He that heareth you heareth me Lo I am with you alway even to the End of the World THE LIFE and DEATH of the Venerable Dr. JACKSON Dean of PETERBROUGH and President of Corpus-Christi Colledge in OXFORD Written by a late Fellow of the same Colledge BEing earnestly desired by an intimate and Powerful Friend to deliver some Character of that Reverend and Learned Doctor Jackson late President of our Colledge I might very well excuse my self from my unworthiness to undertake so weighty a Task I must seriously confess it was not so much the Importunity of that
custome before any other businesse discourse or care of Himself were he never so wet or weary to call for a retiring room to pour out his soul unto God who led him safely in his journey And this he did not out of any specious pretence of Holiness to devour a Widows House with more facility Rack their Rents or Enhance their Fines for excepting the constant Revenue to the Founder to whom he was a strict accountant no man ever did more for them or less for himself For thirty years together he used this following Anthem and Collect commanded by the Pious Founder in Honour and Confession of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Salva nos Libera nos Vivifica nos O Beata Trinitas c. Save us Deliver us Quicken us O Blessed Trinity Let us praise God the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit let us praise and Super-exalt his Name for ever Almighty and everlasting God which hast given unto us thy servants Grace by the Confession of a true Faith to acknowledge the Glory of the Eternal Trinity and in the Power of the Divine Majesty to Worship the Unity We beseech thee that through the stedfastness of this Faith we may evermore be defended from all Adversitie which livest and raignest c. This he did perform not onely as a Sacred Injunction of the Founder upon him and all the Society but he received a great Delight in the performance of it No man ever wrote more highly of the Attributes of God then he and yet he professes that he alwaies took more comfort in admiring then in disputing and in praying to and acknowledgeing the Majesty and Glory of the Blessed Trinite then by too curiously prying into the Mysterie He Composed a Book of Private Devotions which some judicious men having perused the same much Extolled and Admired as being replenished with Holy Raptures and Divine Meditations which if it be not already annexed to this Book I hope the Reader will shortly enjoy in a Portable Volume by it self Thus have many other Famous Scholars and Polemical men in their Elder times betaken themselves to Catechizing and Devotion as Pareus Bishop Andrews Bishop Usher and Bellarmin himself seems to prefer his Book De Ascensione Mentis ad Deum Of the Ascension of the Soul to God before any other part of his Works Books saies he are not to be estimated Ex multitudine foliorum sed ex fructibus By the multitude of the Leaves but the Fruit. My other Books I read onely upon necessity but this I have willingly read over three or four times and resolve to read it more often whether it be saies he that the Love towards it be greater then the Merit because like another Benjamin it was the Son of mine old age He seemed to be very Prophetical of the Ensuing times of trouble as may evidently appear by his Sermons before the King and Appendix about the signs of the Times or Divine Fore-warnings therewith Printed some years before touching the Great Tempest of Wind which fell out upon the Eve of the Fifth of November 1636. He was much astonished at it and what apprehension he had of it appears by his words This mighty Wind was more then a Sign of the Time the very Time it self was a Sign and portends thus much That though we of this Kingdom were in firm League with all Nations yet it is still in Gods Power we may fear in his Purpose to plague this Kingdom by this or like tempests more grievously then he hath done at any time by Famin Sword or Pestilence to bury many living souls as well of Superiour as of Inferiour Rank in the Ruin of their stately Houses or meaner Cottages c. Which was observed by many but signally by the Prefacer to M. Herberts Remains I shall not prevent the Reader or detain him so long from the Original of that Book as to repeat the Elogies which are there conferred upon Him I cannot forbear one passage in that Preface wherein he makes this profession I speak it in the presence of God I have not read so hearty vigorous a Champion against Rome amongst our writers of his rank so convincing and demonstrative as D. Jackson is I bless God for the confirmation which he hath given me in the Christian Religion against the Athean Jew and Socinian and in the Protestant against Rome As he was alwaies a Reconciler of differences in his Private Government so he seriously lamented the Publick Breaches of the Kingdom For the Divisions of Reuben he had great Thoughts of Heart At the first Entrance of the Scots into England he had much compassion for his Countrymen although that were but the beginning of their Sorrows He well knew that War was commonly attended with Ruin and Calamity especially to Church and Church-men and therefore that Prayer was necessary and becoming of them Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris c. Give peace in our time O Lord because there is no other that fighteth for us but onely thou O God One drop of Christian blood though never so cheaply spilt by others like water upon the ground was a deep Corrosive to his tender heart Like Rachel weeping for her children he could not be comforted His body grew weak the chearful hue of his countenance was impaled and discoloured and he walked like a dying Mourner in the streets But God took him from the evil to come It was a sufficient Degree of punishment for him to foresee it it had been more then a thousand Deaths unto him to have beheld it with his Eyes When his Death was now approaching being in the chamber with many others I overheard him with a soft voice repeating to himself these and the like Ejaculations I wait for the Lord my Soul doth wait and in his Word do I hope my Soul waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness And he ended with this Cygnean Cantion Psal 116. 5. Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Return unto thy Rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee And having thus spoken soon after he surrendered up his Spirit to Him that gave it If you shall curiously enquire what this Charitable man left in Legacie at his death I must needs answer that giving all in his Life time as he owed nothing but Love so he left nothing when he Dyed The Poor was his Heir and he was the Administrator of his own Goods or to use his own Expression in one of his last Dedications he had little else to leave his Executors but his Papers onely which the Bishop of Armagh being at his Funerals much desired might be carefully preserved This was that which he left to Posterity in pios usus for
tongue Praised be God which hath not put back my prayer nor his mercy from me The fulnesse of his inward joyes was such and Gods providence over him so manifest and wonderful that the present age wherein he lived could not to his seeming but take notice of it whilest the particulars wherein the Lord had heard him were in fresh memory and all posterity he presumes out of the abundance of his own belief should still believe the goodnesse of God from this experimental relation of his goodnesse towards him He that hath least experience of the like in himself would he but attentively mark the fervency of of those mens zeal and vehemency of their godly passions expressed in these here mentioned and many like unaffected strains could not but acknowledge that famous inscription which a later degenerate lascivious Poet out of such a vain-glorious humour as moves some basely descended to usurp the Arms of Noble men whose names they bear sought to bestow on all even upon such as himself was Vates in name but not in quality to belong of right onely to these Psalmists or ancient sacred Poets Fst Deus in vobis agitante calescitis illo Impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet Sure in your breasts Gods Spirit hath his seat T is Divine motion breeds this heavenly heat For who can imagine that the Author of the 74 Psalm v. 9. should complain without some touch of that Spirit which he knew had been more plentiful in such as had gone before him We see not our signes there is not one Prophet more not any that knoweth how long V. 10. O God how long shall the adversary reproach shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever V. 11. Why withdrawest thou thine hand even thy right hand Draw it out of thy bosome and consume them v. 12. Even God is my king of old working salvation in the mids of the earth These sober and constant motions as it were of Systoles and Diastoles between Despair and Hope exprest in this and the 44 Psalm argue that those wonders and noble works which they had heard with their ears and their fathers had told them were no Fables but matters truly and really acted which had left deep impression in their forefathers hearts who had so thorowly felt and tasted the extraordinary Goodness of their God that the longing desire of like Favour is transfused as hereditary to posterity as the desire of such meats as Parents best affect and use most to feed upon usually remains in their Children 2 Or to use the Author of the 42 Psalm his own comparison Braying doth not more sensibly notifie the Harts panting after the water brooks than that Psalm doth his thirsting after the Spirit of Life which sometime had been diffused through his Faculties and had fructified in Joy and comfort but now in these storms of affliction lay hid in his heart onely supporting it with hopes of like fruit against a better season as the sap whereby trees flourish in Summer retiring to the root in Winter preserveth them sound within so that although Frosts may nip and storms outwardly deface them yet they break forth again and bear fruit in the Spring And although I never mistrusted the truth of that dissension betwxt the willingnesse of the Spirit and weaknesse of the Flesh oft mentioned in Scripture yet I know not how it addeth more life to my Belief whilest I see this conflict acted by the Author of the 42 and 43 Psalms The flesh complains as if his heart were ready to close with dejected fear My soul is cast down within me all thy waves and â—â—ouds are gone over me The Spirit like a good Physitian by reiterating that speech of comfort Why art thou cast down O my soul and why art thou so disâ—…eted within me raiseth it up again and dilateth his heart with hope in God against all hope in worldly sight For so he concludeth both these Psalms Wait on God for I will yet give him thanks he is my present help and my God Generally though the Psalmists complaints be oft-times grievous yet they never end them but with Hearty Prayer though God oft-times lay great Plagues upon them yet is their Confidence alwayes as great that he will heal them The beginning of their mournful Ditties alwayes represent the storms of grief and sorrow that had gone over their souls their end and close is like the appearing of the Morning Star foreshewing the removal of the shadow of death wherein they sate Their sudden transitions from grief to joy is even as the breaking out of the Sun from under a thick tempestuous Cloud So that the outward Character of their Songs is a lively representation of that truth which one of them out of his inmost experience hath left registred to the World His wrath endureth but the twinckling of an eye and in his pleasure is life heavinesse may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal 30. 5. 3 This patience in Adversity and confident expectation of deliverance from above compared with the Heathens impatience alwayes ready to accuse their Gods in their unexpected calamities and seeking to vent their grief in Poetical Invectives against them infallibly testifie that the one did onely know the Divine Powers by hear-say the others by experience and that God was near to this people in all which they called upon him and beheld the affairs of the Heathen onely a far off 4 Yet beside these particular lively Characters of experimental joy or grief fear or confidence their consonancy with the historical truth of alterations in the state of Jewry will much illustrate the former observations For albeit the Psalmists in their greatest distresses or calamities murmur not against the Lord God as the Heathens do yet the tenour of some late mentioned with divers other Psalms argue that the people of God in those times wherein they were written either had not such manifest signes of Gods favour or else found not such speedy deliverance from the dangers feared or calamities suffered by them as the Prophet David in the 27 Psalm v. 1. and other of their godly Ancestors had done The Lord saith David is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Though an host pitched against me mine heart should not be afraid though war be raised against me yet I will trust in this to wit upon his former experience of Gods mercies specified v. 2. When the wicked mine mine enemies came and my soes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell But greater was his confidence from the more often experience of Gods favour when as his case otherwise for the multitude and malignity of his enemies was more desperate Psal 3. v. 1. Many were his adversaries that rose up against him and many that said unto his soul when he fled from his son Absolom V. 2. There
God said unto him by a dream I know that thou didst this even with an upright minde and I kept thee also that thou shouldest not sin against me therefore suffered I not thee to touch her Now then deliver the man his wife again for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee that thou mayest live but if thou deliver her not again be sure that thou shalt die the death thou and all that thou hast And Moses witnesseth the ordinarie Prophecie of Ancient times to have consisted of dreams and visions Numb 12. 6 7. If there be a Prophet of the Lord amongst you I will be known unto him by a vision and will speak unto him by a dream My servant Moses is not so that is he is no ordinary Prophet unto him will I speak mouth to mouth and by vision and not in dark words but he shall see the similitude of the Lord. 3 These allegations sufficiently prove that night-dreams and visions were frequent and their observation if taken in sobriety to good use in Ancient times even amongst the Nations until they forgot as Joseph said That interpretations were from God and sought to finde out an Art of interpreting them Then night-visions did either cease or were so mixt with delusions that they could not be discerned or if their events were in some sort fore seen yet men being ignorant of Gods providence commonly made choice of such means for their avoidance as proved the necessary occasions or provocations of the events they feared 4 Much better was the temper of the Nations before Homers time They amongst other kindes of prophecyings and Sooth-sayings held dreams and their interpretations as all other good gifts to be from God As no evil was done in the Grecian Camp which the Gods in their opinion did not cause so Homer brings in Achilles advising Agamemnon to consult their Gods interpreters with all speed for what offence committed against them they had sent the Pestilence into their Camp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But to what Priest or Prophet shall we wend Or Dreamer for even Dreams from Jove descend All those kindes of Predictions had been in use amongst the Heathens as they were amongst the Israelites albeit in later times they grew rare in both for the encrease of wickednesse throughout the World the multiplicity of businesse and solicitude of Humane affairs and mens too much minding of politick means and other second causes of their own good did cause the defect of true dreams and other divine admonitions for the welfare of mankinde 5 This cause the Scriptures give us 1 Sam. 28. 6. Saul who had followed the Fashions of other Nations not the prescripts of Gods Word asked counsel of the Lord but the Lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by Urim nor by Prophets His sins had made a separation between him and the God of Israel who for this cause will not afford his presence to his Priests or Prophets that came as mediators betwixt Saul and him much lesse would he vouchsafe his Spirit unto such Priests or Prophets as were carnally minded themselves This was a rule so well known to the people of God that Strabo from the tradition of it for Moses his story he had not read reckons up this as a special point of Moses his doctrine concerning the worship of the God of Israel his words are to this effect Moses taught that such as lived chastly and uprightly should be inspired with true visions by night and such men it was meet should consult the Divine Powers in the Temple by night-visions but others who were not so well minded ought not to intrude themselves into this sacred businesse or if they would they were to expect no true visions but Illusions or idle Dreams from God they were not to expect any Yet may it not be denied but that the Heathens were oft-times by Gods permission truly resolved by Dreams or Oracles though ministred by Devils of events that should come but seldome were such resolutions for their good So the Witch which Saul most Heathen-like consulted when God had cast him off did procure him a true prediction of his fearful end This is a point wherein I could be large but I will conclude As the Heathens relations of sundry events usual in Ancient times confirm the truth of the like recorded in Scripture so the Scriptures give the true causes of their Being Ceasing or Alteration which the corrupt and Polypragmatical disposition of later Ages without revelation from the cause of causes and disposer of times could never have dreamed of as may partly appear from what hath been said of Dreams more fully from that which follows next of Oracles CAP. X. Of Oracles I Have often and daily occasion for the satisfaction of my minde in sundry questions that might otherwise have vext me to thank my God that as he made me a Reasonable Creature and of a Reasonable Creature a Student or Contemplator so He did not make me a meer Philosopher though Plato thought this deserved the greatest thanks as being the greatest benefit bestowed upon him by his God but never was I more incited in this respect to blesse the day wherein I was made a Christian then when I read Plutarchs Tract of the causes why Oracles ceased in his time Whether Heathen Oracles were all illusions of Devils or some uttered by God himself for their good though oft-times without successe by reason of their curiosity and superstition I now dispute not That Oracles in ancient times had been frequent that such events had been foretold by them as surpassed the skill of humane reason all Records of unpartial Antiquity bear uncontrollal le evidence Nor did the Heathen Philosophers themselves which lived in the Ages immediately following their decay call the truth of their former use in question but from Admiration of this known change they were incited to search the cause of their ceasing Plutarch after his acute search of sundry causes and accurate Philosophical disputes refers it partly unto the Absence of his Demoniacal Spirits which by his Philosophy might dy or flit from place to place either exiled by others more potent or upon some other dislike and partly unto the alteration of the soyl wherein Oracles were seated which yeelded not Exhalations of such a divine temper as in former times it had done and without a certain temperature of exhalations or breathing of the Earth the Demoniacal Spirits he thought could not give their Oracles more then a Musitian can play without an Instrument And this decay or alteration of the soyl of Delphi and like places was in his judgement probable from the like known experience in sundry Rivers Lakes and hot-Baths which in some places did quite dry up and vanish in others much decay for a long time or change their course and yet afterwards recover their former course or strength either in the same places
hath fulfilled his word that he had determined of old time he hath thrown down and not spared he hath caused thine enemies to rejoyce over thee and set up the Horn of thine Adversaries Arise cry in the night in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord lift up thine hand towards him for the life of thy young children that famish for hunger in all the corners of the streets These words perhaps were meant in divers measures of both Calamities but the Complaint following of the later only under Titus Behold O Lord and consider to whom thou hast done thus Shall the women eat their fruit children of a span long shall the Priest and the Prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord the young and the old lie on the ground My Virgins and my Young-men are fallen by the sword thou hast slain them in the Day of Thy Wrath thou hast killed and not spared Thou hast called as in a Solemn Day my Terrors round about so that in the day of the Lords wrath none escaped or remained Those that I have nourished and brought up hath mine Enemy consumed 2 Many particulars here set down by Ieremy are not so much as once intimated by the Sacred Story which describes the Siege by Nebuchadnezzar But no calamity either intimated by any Historical Relations of those times or prefigured in Ieremies complaint but in this later Siege by Titus is most exactly fulfilled as if the Lord had but sown the seeds of destruction desolation by Nebuchadnezzar which now being come to their ful growth ripeness this People must reap according to the ful measure of their Iniquity They are as dry Stubble the Romans as a consuming Fire Nebuchadnezzars Host perhaps slew some but had no occasion to make a General Massacre in the Temple destitute of Defendants ere it was taken the King and his greatest Cōmanders being first fled into the Wilderness nor was it destroyed until the heat of war was past and most of the People lead into Captivity But whilest in this later destruction by Titus it fel by the furious Heat Brunt of War the number of such as were either willing or forced to end their days with it was of all sorts exceeding Great and which was most Miserable many who had taken their Farewel of Life had bid Death Welcome revived again to renew their more then deadly Sorrows to reiterate their bitter Complaints which This Lamentable Accident could only teach them to Act aright and utter with such Tragical and Hideous Accent as was befitting a Calamity so Strange Fearful as never had been known before Even such as Famin had caused to faint having their Vocal Judgements clung together and their Eyes more then half closed up with death upon sight or noise of the Temples crackling in its last and Fatal Fire rowsed up their spirits and resumed their wonted strength to proclaim unto all Neighbour-Regions in shril and lowdest Out-cries That there was Never Any Sorrow like unto this Sorrow wherewith the Lord had afflicted them in the Day of his Fierce Wrath and yet they blow the fire which it had kindled ventilating and inlarging the devouring flame whose extinction the abundance of their Bloud did otherwise seem to threaten by violent Breathing out their last Breath into it The gastly Confusion of this Fearful Spectacle and hideous noise are so lively expressed by Josephus and others that they may well serve the Christian Reader as a map of Hellish misery I onely prosecute the fulfilling of Jeremies Prophecy in particulars related by Josephus as of The Womans Fating Her Child a Thing never heard of in that or any Nation before of the Priests Slaughter both in the Temple and after the destruction of it For Titus otherwise inclined to Mercy seeing it consumed by Fire which he sought by all means to save commanded such of the Priests as had escaped the flame in a By-room adjoyning to be Executed telling them It was fit they should perish with the Temple for whose sake might it have stood he willingly would have saved their lives Again the Massacre of the promiscuous multitude of women and children unfit for War are particularly described with all the circumstances by Josephus Book 7. Chapt. 11. of the Jewish Wars Of six thousand perswaded by a False Prophet to repair unto the Temple there to expect Signs from God of their deliverance not one Man Woman or Child escaped 3 Thus Moses fore-shews the grievous Plagues which hung over this Nations head but then a-far Off Jeremy after points out the Very Place where they shall fall our Saviour Christ onely knew the distinct Period of Time wherein Both the former Prophecies should be accomplished I will not trouble the Reader with Rehersal of particular Calamities fore-told by Him their observation is already made unto his hand by Eusebius and will apply themselves being compared with Josephus so perhaps will not some places of Scripture following though as much concerning the same times For the better understanding of which we must call to mind what was observed before That Hierusalem was the Lords own Seat and the Jews a People set apart by Him and distinguished of purpose from others to Exemplifie his Mercy and Justice in their Prosperity and Distresse Consequent hereunto his pleasure was that in the desolation of Jewry and destruction of the Temple other Nations should be put in mind of their mortality and not think in their hearts that these were Greater Sinners then any other Nation but rather that he who plagued them was Lord of the whole Earth as well as Jewry that the like and more Fearful Judgements did hang over their heads unlesse they would learn by the known Calamities of this People to avoid them So saith the Lord to All the Earth without Exception For Lo I begin to plague the City where my name is called upon and should you go free ye shall not go quit for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore Prophecy thou against them all these words and say unto them The Lord shall roar from above and thrust out his voice from His Holy Habitation he shall roar upon his habitation and crie aloud as they that presse the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth The sound shall come to the ends of the earth for the Lord hath a controversie with the Nations and will enter into judgement with All Flesh and he will give them that are wicked to the sword And thus saith the Lord God of Hosts Behold a plague shall go forth from Nation to Nation and a great whirl-wind shall be raised from the coasts of the earth and the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth they shall not be
this noble Historiographer hath said of this Event Id malum Divinum potius quam Humanum fuit this was a Calamity more then Humane in which the Finger of God was Evidently seen And as it was a Type of the last Day so may it and the like following confirm the truth of Sodoms Destruction Nor did God speak onely once in this Language to the Roman to omit other wonderful works of God in these times to be recounted in their proper place The like fearful Earthquakes with other Prodigious Concomitants fell out in Trajans time at Antioch But the harms not terminate within her Territories or the Cities about her herewith destroyed For abundance of Souldiers and multitudes of other people did repair from all quarters to the Emperour Wintering there some in Embassages some for Suits some upon other Businesses some to see Plays and Pageants Whence the dammage as this Author saith did redound to all that were Subject to the Roman Empire This out of question was the Lords doing That all the world might Hear and Fear his Wondrous Works and wondering enquire after the true Causes and meaning of them Thus Antioch as well as Edom and Babylon is overtaken with the Psalmists curse for Rejoycing in the Day of Jerusalem Besides â—he Massacres of the Jews there committed when Titus came unto that City â—he Inhabitants after their Insinuating Gratulations petitioned with all Humility and Policy that the Reliques of this People for whom there was no place left in their own land might be Extirpate thence comprising the Christians no doubt under this Name 6 Many particulars then known are not registred by such Heathen writers â—…s now are extant many Signs of those Times not regarded by any Heathen all which might witnesse the Truth of our Saviours Predictions and exâ—…ound their meaning were they as well known to us as to the Faithful then â—…ving whose Meditations it seems were so wholly taken up with these Contemplations that they had no leisure to leave their Comments in writing â—…o Posterity That dreadful Wo directed against the women of Hierusalem with child and giving suck did take these Antiochians at the rebound Women in such cases could not die but a double death and yet how many such â—…re slain none can tell Of an infinite company of all sorts starved by their â—…se imprisonment in houses whose foundations were sunk the roof remaining Onely one woman was found alive which had sustained her self and her child by her milk Another child found in the like concavity alive sucking his deceased mothers Duggs In fine saith the Author there was no kind of violent Disaster which did not at this time befal men For the Earthquakes being caused by the Divine Power mens Wits were not their own nor knew they what Medicine to seek for these Miss-haps Such as were on the House-tops had no List to descend to fetch any thing out such as were in the Field had no Mind to return back to fetch their clothes Trajan himself was drawn out at a window by no Mortal Creature as this writer thinks so astonished with this disastrous Sight that for many dayes after the Earthquake had ceased he durst not come into any House See Dion l. 68. 7 Neither of these strange Signs of the Son of Man fell out in any corner of the world but the one in the Chief the other in the Second City of the Empire at that time the Emperours Court so that the whole Worlds Representative as we may so speak was in Danger and all men at least men of all sorts at their Wits End by their terrors all mankind had publick warning to prepare themselves against That terrible and dreadful Day These being such Types of it as the First Destruction of the Holy City and Temple by Nebuchadnezzar was of the Second by Titus so as that which is truly said of the one may in an higher degree be truly avouched of the other 8 Of these times again was that of the Prophet meant I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth Bloud and Fire and Pillars of Smoak the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into Bloud before the great and terrible Day of the Lord come But whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved If we rightly observe the Prophets Method in this place it will both Justifie and Illustrate the former Interpretations of Jeremy and our Saviours Prophecy First he speaks none can deny of Christs coming in the Flesh and Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon all people I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh By The Spirit the Gospel was to be communicated to all Nations and thus as the Evangelist witnesseth at the first descending of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles there were resident at Hierusalem men that feared God of every Nation under heaven and all these at their Baptism received the gift of the Holy Ghost whereby they might manifest the Power and Vertue of the Gospel unto the Countries where they lived If we compare the generality of Saint Lukes speech in that fifth verse with our Saviours Mat. 24. 14. And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached throughout the whole world for a witnesse unto all Nations and then shall the End come We cannot doubt but our Saviours prophecy was verified before the Destruction of Hierusalem which was the End he meant should come But why should the Prophet Joel immediately after his description of the time of Grace adde in the second place I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth bloud and fire and pillars of smoak Doth he call the people of God again unto Mount Sinai to fire blackness darkness and tempest unto the sound of Trumpets the voice of words which they that once had heard should not desire to hear any more No but he would have the world understand That after the Gospel was once proclaimed throughout It the Lord would shew himself as terrible a Judge to all such as did not embrace the Glad Tidings thereof as he had done before to the Israelites at the promulgation of the Law Both that fearful sight in Mount Sinai and those other Prodigious Appariti in Italy and Syria were Types and representations of That Dreadful Day The former was seen and testified by the Israelites onely because the Law was onely revealed to them the horrors of the later are registred by Heathen Writers known and felt by the principal Nations of the World and from them diffused to all others as Earthquakes which begin at the Centre leave their Effects upon the whole Surface of the Earth because the Gospel was at that time communicate to all the inhabited or frequented Parts of the World Those Prodigious Signs then which the Prophet Joel describes and the Heathen witnesse to
recenti spiritu evect a deinsenescente eo destituta aut etiam ponderesuo victa in latitudinem vanescebat candida interdum interdum sordida maculosa prout terrant cineremuè sustulerat Magnum id propriusque noscendum ut Eruditissimo Viro visum est It was told Him That there Appeared a Cloud for Bignesse and Shape never the like seen Up the Gets and goes to an Advantage whence he might the Better see that Strange Sight A Cloud Rose as yet the Beholders knew not from what Mountain afterwards it was found to be Vesuvius much Resembling a Pine-tree For it seemed to have as it were a Long Trunk and Boughs spreading out above Sometime it appeared White other-while Duskie and Dapled or stained and spotted according to the blended proportions of Earth and Ashes He thought it a strange Sight indeed and worthy his Adventuring nearer to View it c. That the Sun was turned into Darknesse that with this Smoak was mixed Fire may appear from the same Authors Words a little after Jam dies alibi illic nox omnibus noctibus nigrior densiorque quam tamen Faces multae variaque lumina solvebant Plin. Ep. 1. 6. Ep. 16. This which occasioned Wonderment to the Heathen was no doubt a sufficient Warning to all Godly Christians to betake themselves to their Prayers to expect the confirmation of their Faith by their mighty deliverance from those dangers wherein innumerable Heathens utterly perished which made the hearts of all man-kind besides to fail This corporal preservation of the Elect from fear or danger whilest Cast-awayes perished and trouble raged among the Nations was that Redemption which our Saviour speaks of And when these things begin to come to passe then look up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draweth nigh For this was a sure Type or pledge of their and our Everlasting Redemption And before the bursting out of that Fire and the erection of those Pillars of Smoak before mentioned God as our Saviour foretold had sent his Angels to gather his Elect together either to places free from those general Calamities or miraculously to preserve them in the midst of them For to deny or suspect the truth of Dions relations I have no reason and yet what other Cause to assign of those Giants Apparitions in Vesuvius and the Towns about it immediately before that danger I know not but only that which our Saviour had given And He shall send his Angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the Four winds and from the one end of the Heaven to the other Thus Dion Ita verores acta Viri multi magniomnem naturam Humanam excedentes quales exprimuntur Gigantes partim in ipsomonte partim in agro circumjacente ac in oppidis interdiu noctuque terram obire at que acra permeare visebantur Posthaec consecuta est maxima siccitas ac repentè ita graves terrae motus facti c. L. 66. The like Gathering of the Elect Ecclesiastick Writers mention in the Siege of Jerusalem and Jewish wars the Godly sit at ease and in peace whilst the Obstinate and Seditious were overwhelm'd with Calamity upon Calamity And yet all the Calamities which accompanied Jerusalems Destruction did in greater measure afflict the Heathens within few years after It was destroyed Above other places Gods plagues hanted the Roman Court that all the world might take notice of our Saviours Prophecies And the Romans albeit they knew not who had given the Advice resolved yet to practise as our Saviour advised Let him saith our Saviour that is upon the house top not come down into the house neither enter therein to fetch any thing out of his house And let him that is in the field not turn back again unto the things which he left behind him to take his clothes So Pliny testifies that in the times above mention'd albeit the Pumice stones did flie about mens ears in the open fields yet they held it more safe during the Earthquake to be abroad then within doors arming their heads with Pillows and Bolsters against the blows they expected In commune consultant intratecta subsistant an in aperto vagentur nam â—…bris vastisque tremoribus tecta nutabant quasi emota sedibus suis nunc huc nunâ— illuc aâ—ire aut referri videbantur Sub dio rursus quanquam levium exesorumque pumicum casus metuebatur quod tamen malorum collatio elezit Cervicalia capitibus imposita linteis constringunt Id munimentum adversus incidentia fuit Plin. Ep. 〈◊〉 6. Ep. 16. This was the beginning of that Great and terrible Day of the Lord foretold by the Prophet wherewith the world was for a long time shaken by Fits as it were by a deadly Fever as may appear from the like calamities in Trajans times related by Dion Our Saviour himself expounds the Prophets words not of One Day but Dayes for there shall be in Those Dayes such tribulation as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created neither shall be So terrible were these dayes that as our Saviour in the next word addeth except the Lord had made an end of them they had quickly made an end of all man-kind Even at that time the world by the Ordinary Course of Gods Justice should have been destroyed but He spared it at the instant prayers of his Chosen as he would have saved Sodom after Judgement was gone out had there been but a few such Faithful men in it as in the fore mentioned times the world had many So merciful is our God so loving unto all the works of his hands that his Son cannot come to Judgement so long as he shall find faith upon the earth Whosoever saith the Prophet shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved yea he shall save others as our Blessed Saviour more fully foretels what the Prophet saw but in part Except that The Lord had shortned those dayes no flesh should be saved but for the Elects sake which he hath chosen He hath shortned those dayes Other Prophesies there be of those times which seem to intimate a final destruction of all Flesh without delay and so no doubt the Prophets themselves conceived of the world as Jonah did of Nineve which he looked should instantly have perished upon the Expiration of the time he had foretold Wrath they had seen go out from the Lord of force enough to have dissolved the Frame of Nature but could not usually foresee either the Number of the Faithful or the dispositions of mens hearts upon their Summons but This Great Prophet who onely foresaw all things not onely foretels the Calamities or Judgements due unto the world but withall foresees the Number of the Elect their inclination to hearty prayers and Repentance by which he knew the fierce Wrath of God whose representation the Prophet saw should be diverted from the world
voice was heard through Portugal surpassing that in Ramah nothing but mourning and weeping and lamentation many a Leah blearing her eyes with weeping for her children and would not be comforted Men and women filling the heavens with more hideous outcries then the Egyptians did at their Fore-fathers departure out of Egypt when the Firstborn of every Family throughout the land was slain at midnight But these were bereft at once of all their loving children in the open Sun Many of them not able either to rescue or dispatch their own bowels become mad with the sight that their eyes had seen and killed themselves Others having better opportunitie account it a part of their happinesse to be able to prevent their childrens washing in the sacred Font by drowning them in draw-wels and ditches In both these calamities at the two fore-mentioned transportations we may see those Prophecies of Moses exactly fulfilled Deut. 28. 30. Thou shalt betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her And again verse 32. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people and thine eyes shall fail at the sight every day and there shall be no power in thy hand Many Moors professing Mahumetism were transported from Portugal the same time but had no such violence offered them what was the reason God would have a manifest distinction between this and other people The Barbarous Moors had some power in their hands the Portugals abstain from like usage of them lest the report coming to the African Mahumetans ears might have moved them to avenge their wrongs upon poor Christians living amongst them But these Jews no where had any Nation none to avenge their grievous wrong which the Lord God of their Forefathers had ordained they should suffer at all times in all places wheresoever they have come without redresse 16 Nor do their Fates change with their Name or Profession For what violence was ever offered to any of this race like to that which these late converts Christned Hebrews but still Jews in misfortunes suffered in Lisbon in the year 1506. Two thousand massacred in three dayes space many not suffered to die of deadly wounds were dragged by their mangled limbs into the market place where the bodies of the living and slain with others half alive half dead were burnt together on heaps The Spectacle was so horrible that it quite astonied the rest of this miserable progenie at other times as desperately set to suffer as Monks furiously to inflict any torture Parents durst not mourn for children nor children sigh for their parents though each haled in others sight to the place of torments lest these significations of their grief and sorrow might bewray them to be of the tormented kinred with whom the least suspicion of alliance was sufficient to make them inherit like plagues ere the breath was out of their predecessors bodies Osorius description of these distressed souls perplexitie shewed in their gesture and cariage during this Massacre may serve albeit he meant nothing lesse as a Paraphrase upon the last words of Moses often-mentioned Prophecie There that is in the utmost parts of the earth the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart and a sorrowful mind and thy life shall hang before thee The disposition of the Divine Providence in affording opportunitie to this licentious out-rage was much what like to that described before in Lin. A great part of these Tragical Actors were German and French mariners which had repaired to Lisbon for other traffick but returned home unpunished burdened with the spoil of these Hebrews goods but more heavily laden with guilt of their bloud albeit their souls were not so deeply died therewith as the Lisbon Monks who had instigated them and others to this Butchery inflamed themselves with this furious zeal only by an unseasonable speech of one poor Hebrew apprehended by the other as derogatorie to our Saviour For whilest the others by long gazing upon the picture of his wounded side through a glasse took the reflex of light thence cast upon their dazled eyes for a Miracle the silly Hebrew whether openly to contradict or unawares uttering to some by-standers what he thought bewrayed his incredulitie How a piece of drie wood should work Miracles 17 Whilest I read so many Christned souls thus Butchered like Beasts for ones denial of divine Honour to a livelesse Image I could not but pause with my self and now I must commend it to the Christian Readers consideration whether that part of Moses prophecie and there thou shalt serve other Gods which thou hast not known nor thy Fathers Wood and Stone may not be understood of the convert Jews throughout the Popes Dominions thus oft times urged to commit Idolatrie with stocks and stones upon more Tyrannical terms if they gainsay then their Forefathers were either by the Assyrian Caldaean Egyptian Roman or any whosoever had led them Captive out of their land If the Monkish Apologizer reply There is a great difference between the Heathen Idol and their Image worship I grant the Idolatrie is of a divers kind and so it seems Moses meant when he threatned this people that after their final transplantation by Adrian and their scattering through Spain and these Western Countries They should serve such Gods as their Fathers had not known For this peoples Forefathers before Moses time and after had known the Heathen gods too well If the Romanist yet rejoyn that in worshipping Christs Image they worship Christ I will not deny but he may think so for so the Jews thought they honoured Moses because they honoured the Letter of his Law But to omit other reasons this and other like outragious Facts committed upon as light occasions shall convince their nice School-distinctions of foul errour and turn their lies with such violence into their throat that as Saint Augustin interprets the Psalmist of these Jews It shall even break their teeth in their mouthes For if the zeal these Monks of Lisbon bare unto this Image had been directed unto Christ they had in some good measure been transformed into the similitude of His gentle meek and merciful disposition It was Wbod-worship doubtlesse which had made them so mad and furious It was their continual adoring of stones which had turned their hearts of flesh into hearts more full of fire then the flint and harder then the hardest Adamant But of the effects of Monkish pitie towards Christ or the Crucifix as also of the Jesuites doctrine concerning Image-worship elsewhere if God permit Thus much of these Jews estate from time to time may suffice for our intended purpose to be further collected in the Chapter following CAP. XXX General collections out of the particular Histories before mentioned the strange dispositions of the Jews and Gods Judgements upon them all Testifying the Truth of Divine Oracles 1 I Cannot but approve Crantzius his judgement of these Jews That they are a perfidious and wicked people worthy to be
some whose Belief unto Divine Oracles hath been confirmed by Experiments answerable unto them 1 THe Method is such as the Simplest Christian may easily learn and the greatest Professors need not to contemn For S. Peter himself that great Doctor of the Circumcision did profit much by this Practise He had often heard that God was no Accepter of Persons This truth was acknowledged by Elihu who had never heard nor read the written law of God He accepteth not the person of Princes and regardeth not the rich more then the poor for they be all the work of his hands The like hath the Wise man from the same reason He that is Lord over all will spare no person neither shall he fear any greatnesse for he hath made the small and great and careth for all alike The same in substance is often repeated in the Book of Life and no man could denie it that had heard it but once proposed if he did acknowledg God for the Creator of all Notwithstanding the fresh Experiment of Gods calling Cornelius to Christian Faith comfirmed S. Peter in the right Belief of Divine Oracles to this effect and as it seems taught him the true meaning of that place Deut. 10. 16. Circumcise therefore the fore skin of your heart as if he had said Glorie not in the circumcision of the flesh and harden your necks no more for the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords a great God Mighty and Terrible which accepteth no persons From this place alone the proud Jews might have learned that the Lord was God of the Gentiles as well as of Them and from the Abundance of his inward Faith enlarged by the forementioned Experiment S. Peter burst out into these Speeches Of a truth I perceive that God is no accepter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him is accepted with him 2 The same Method the Lord himself hath commended unto us in many places of Scripture wondering oft times at the dulnesse of his peoples hearts that could not from the Experiments of His Power Might and Majestie shewed in them or for them acknowledge those Principles of Faith which Moses commended unto them in writing O saith he that they were wise then would they understand this they would consider their later end how should one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight except their strong God had sold them and the Lord had shut them up And again Eehold now for I am He and there is no Gods with me Why should they Believe this They were to take none for gods but such as could do the works of God What were these Such as God avoucheth of himself in the next words I kill and I give life I wound and I make whole neither is there any that can deliver out of my band These and like Effects specified in the former place often manifested amongst this People might have taught them the truth of the former Oracle albeit Moses had been Silent For so the Finger of God manifested in Naamans the Syrian Generals cure which was but one part of the former effects appropriated unto God did write this divine Oracle as distinctly in his heart as Moses had done it in the Book of the Law For after he was cleansed from his leprosie he turned again to the man of God he and all his company and came and stood before him and said Behold now I know there is no God in all the world but in israel And again thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt sacrifice nor offering unto any other God save unto the Lord. This was as much as if he had said Behold now for the Lord is He and there is no other Gods with Him He woundeth and he maketh whole 3 If the cure of Leprosie contrary to Humane Expectation could so distinctly write this divine Oracle in an uncircumcised Aramites heart without any patern or written Copie whence to take it out how much more may the Lord expect that the like Experiments in our selves should imprint his Oracles already written by Moses and other his Servants of old in our hearts and consciences that have these paterns of Naaman and others registred to our hands admonishing us to be observant in this kind But alas we are all by nature sick of a more dangerous leprosie then Naaman knew and yet the most of us far sicker of Naamans Pride then of his leprosie If Gods Ministers shall admonish the curious Artists or Athenian wits of our times as Elisha his Prophet did Naaman they reply with Naaman in their hearts We looked they should have called upon the name of the Lord their God and made us New Men in an Instant and now they bid us wash our selves again and again in the water of life and be clean Are not the Ancient Fountains of Greece that nurse of Arts and Mother of Eloquence and the pleasant Rivers of Italy the School of delicate modern Wits better then all the waters of Israel Are not Tullie and Aristotle as learned as Moses and the Prophets Thus they depart from us in displeasure 4 But if the Lord should command us greater things for our temporal Preferment or for the avoidance of corporal Death or torture would we not do them How much rather then when he saith unto us Wash your selves often in the Holy Fountain the Well of life and ye shall be clean even from those sores which otherwise will torment both body and soul eternally Yea but many read the Scriptures again and again and daily hear the word Preached publickly and yet prove no purer in life and action then their Neighbours The reason is because they hear or read them negligently not comparing their Rules with Experiments daily incident to their course of life their preparation and resolution are not proportionable to the weight and consequence of this sacred Businesse their Industrie and alacritie in observing and practizing the prescripts commended to their Meditations by their Pastors do in no wise so far exceed their care and diligence in worldly matters as the dignitie of these Heavenly Mysteries surpasseth the pleasures or commodities of this brickle earthly life and not thus Prepared to Hear or Read the Scriptures to Hear is to Contemn to Read is to Profane them even the often repetition of the words of life without due reverence and attention breeds an insensibility or deadnesse in mens souls Yet should not such mens want of Sense breed Infidelitie in others rather this Experience of so much hearing and little doing Gods will may confirm the truth of his word concerning such Teachers and Hearers Many in our times not Monkes and Friars only but of their stern Opposites not a Few Having a 〈◊〉 of godliness but denying the power thereof crept into houses and lead captive simple Women laden with sins and lead with divers lusts ever hearing and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth And as the Philosopher said of his moral Auditors Indocilitie that it skilled not whether he were Young or of Youthful affections so is it not the difference of Sex but resolution that makes a good Scholler or non proficient in the School of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST Many men have weak and Womanish and many women Manly and Heroick resolutions towards God and godlinesse 5 The infirmitie which vexed the religious Hanna was not so grievous as that of Naamans she was in our corrupt language as many honest women at this day are by nature Barren or if we would speak as the Prophet did in the right language of Canaan the Lord had made her barren weary she was of her own and according to the ordinary course of nature she saw no hope of being the author of life to others Yet in this her distresse she prayed unto the Lord her God and he granted her desire From this Experiment of Gods Power though not altogether so remarkable in ordinarie estimation as Naamans cure she fully conceives not only the truth of the former Oracle acknowledged by Naaman but more Emphatically expressed by her There is none Holy as the Lord yea there is none besides thee and there is no God like our God nor that other Attribute only of Wounding or making whole so lively uttered vers 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive bringeth down to the grave and raiseth up but Gods Word planted in her heart by her fresh Experience grows up like a grain of Mustard-seed and brancheth it self into a faithful acknowledgement of most of his Attributes The Lord is a God of knowledge and by him enterprises are established the Bowe and the mighty men are broken and the weak have girded themselves with strength they that were full are hired forth for bread and the hungry are no more hired so that the barren hath born seven and she that hath born many children is feeble the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich bringethlow and exalteth he raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among Princes and to make them inherit the seat of glory for the Pillars of the earth are the Lords and he hath set the world upon them He will keep the feet of his Saints and the wicked shall be silent in darknesse for in his own Might shall no man be strong Nor doth it contain it self within the bounds of ordinary Belief but works in her heart like new wine filling it not only with Songs of Joy and Triumph over her envious Enemies Mine heart rejoyceth in the Lord my mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoyce in thy salvation but also with the Divine Spirit of Prophecy The Lords adversaries shall be destroyed and out of Heaven shall he thunder upon them the Lord shall judge the ends of the world and shall give power unto his King and exalt the horn of his Anointed verse 10. 6 The like docilitie was in the blessed Virgin of whom perhaps Annah was the Type both of them verified that saying Verbum sapientisat est One Experiment taught them more then five hundred would do most of us The reason was because their hearts were so much better prepared For as heat in some bodies by reason of the indisposition of the matter causeth heat and nothing else in some scarce that in others brings forth life and fashioneth all the Organs and Instruments thereof so Experiments of Gods power in some mens hearts breed onely a perswasion of his Might or operation in that particular as in those foolish Aramites who vanquished in Battel by the Israelites whom he favoured questioned whether he were a God as well of the Vallies as of the Mountains in others the same or lesse Apprehension of his Power or Presence begetteth life and fashioneth this image in their hearts which thence will shew it self unto others in such ample and entire Confession of his Attributes as Hannah and the blessed Virgin uttered Some again are so ill disposed and indocile that the whole Moral Law of God might sooner be engraven in hardest Marble or Flint then any one precept imprinted in their hearts by such wonderful Documents of his Power as would teach the godly in an instant both the Law and Prophets Imagine some men in our dayes had been cured by like means of such a maladie as Naaman was or some women blessed from above with fruit of their wombes after so long sterilitie as Hannah endured Who could expect that one of ten in either Sex should return to give like thanks to God in the presence of his Priests or Prophets Were Elisha now living he must be wary to work his cure by his bare word and so perhaps he should be censured for a Sorcerer in any case he might not use the waters of Jordan or other like second causes otherwise curious wits would find out some hidden or secret vertue caused in them at least for the time being by some unusual but Benign â—â—â—ect of some Planet or Constellation in whose right they should be entitled either ful Owners or Copartners of that glory which Naaman ascribed wholly unto God And poor Hannah in this Politick Age should not be so much praised for her devotion or good skill in divine Poesie as pitied for a good Hâ—â—â—st wel-meaning silly Soul that did attribute more to God then was his due upon ignorance of Alterations wrought in her Body by natural causes For it is not the custome of our Times to mark so much the ordering or disposition as the particular or present operation of such Agents If any thing fall out amisse we bid a Plague upon ill Fortune or curse mischance if ought aright we applaud our own or others Wits that have been employed in the businesse or perhaps thank God for Fashion sake that we had Good Luck He is to us in our good successe as a friend that lives far off who we presume wisheth well to such projects as he knows in general we are about being unacquainted with the particular means that must effect them or no principal Agent in their contrivance Hence do not I marvel though many do if such men in our times as reap the fruits of the fields which God hath blest in greatest Abundance make no conscience of returning the Tenth part to him that gave the whole when as not one of a thousand either in heart or deed or out of any distinct or clear apprehension of his power or efficacie or true resolution of all effects into the First Fountain whence they flow doth attribute so much as the Tenth nay as the Hundreth part to Gods doing in any Event wherein the industrie of man or operation of second Causes are apparant We speak like Christians of matters past recorded in Scripture but in our discourses of modern affairs our Paganismes and more then Heathenish Solecismes bewray the
Authoritie of some Books it rather ought to confirm his Faith that men disagreeing so much in many opinions so opposite in their affections should so well agree about the number of no fewer then two and twentie Canonical Books of the old Testament Had their authority only been Human or left to the choice of men whether they should be allowed or rejected many that now admit them would reject them because opposite Religions did embrace them That all sorts of Protestants Papists and Jews do receive them is an infallible Argument that he who is Lord of all did commend them to all Nor doth our Church so disclaim all which the Romans above these two and twenty admit as if it were a point of faith to hold there were no more it only admits no more into the same Rank and Order with the former because we have no such warrant of faith or sure Experiments so to do Many of them discover themselves to be Apocryphal and albeit some of them can very hardly or not at all be discerned for such by their Stile Character or dissonancie to Canonical Scriptures yet that none of them indeed are or can be admitted for Canonical without manifest tempting of God is evident from what hath been observed before concerning Gods unspeakable providence in making the Blinded and Perfidious Jews Christ's and our bitterest enemies such trusty Feoffees for making over the Assurances of Life unto us For seeing by them he commended unto us only so many Books of the old Testament as our Church acknowledgeth this is an intallible Argument that His will was we should admit no more Had any more been written before the re-edifying of the Temple by Zerubbabel no doubt the Jews would have admitted them into their Canon For all such as should be written after the Prophet Malachie who is the last of their Canon had left this caveat in the last words of his prophecie for not admitting them Remember the law of Moses my servant which I commanded to him in Horeb in all Israel with the statutes and judgments as if he had said You must content your selves with His Writings such as you have already Consonant to his for any others of equal Authoritie you may not expect until the Expectation of the Gentiles come For no Prophet shall arise untill that time as he intimates in the last words Behold I will send you Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the great and fearful day of the Lord and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest 〈◊〉 come and smite the earth with cursing The Ministery of others for converting souls he supposed should be but ordinarie by the Exposition of the Law and Prophets and the Authoritie of such writ they as much as they listed could not be Authentick or Canonical 3 Some others again of reformed Churches in these our times have from the example of Antiquitie doubted of the authoritie of some Books in the new Testament as of Jude of James the second of Peter and some others Which doubt is now diminished by their continuance in the sacred Canon so long time not without manifest documents of GODS providence in preserving â—hem whose pleasure it may seem was to have these Books of whom the Ancients most doubted fenced and guarded on the one side by S. Pauls Epistles and other Canonical Scriptures never called in question by any but absurd and foolish Hereticks whose humorous opinions herein died with themselves and on the other by the Book of the Apocalypse of whose Authoritie â—hough many of the Ancient for the time being doubted yet He that was before all times did fore-see that it should in later times manifest it self to be â—…is work by Events answerable to the Prophecies contained in it And albeit many Apocryphal Books have been stamped with Divine Titles and obâ—…uded upon the Church as Canonical whilest she was in her Infancie and the sacred Canon newly constitute yet the divine Spirit by which it was written hath wrought them out as new wine doth such filth or grossenesse as mingle with it whilest the grapes are troden S. Johns Adjuration in the conclusion of that Book hath not only terrified all for adding unto or diminishing it â—elf but hath been as it were a Seal unto the rest of this Sacred Volume of the new Testament as Malachies prophecie was to the old the whole Canon it self consisting both of the Old and New continues still as the Ark of God and all other Counterfeits as Dagon 4 Were not our Roman adversaries Doctrine concerning the general principles of Faith an Invention devised of purpose by Satan to obliterate all print â—r impression of Gods providence in governing his Church out of mens hearts how were it possible for any man endued with reason to be so far overgrown with Phrensie as not to conceive their own folly madnes in avouchâ—…g we cannot know what books are Canonical what not but by the Infallible Testimony of the present Romish Church But of those impieties at large hereafter I wil now only infer part of their Conclusion which they still labor but never shall be able to prove from Premises which they never dreamt of For 〈◊〉 profess among others this is not the least reason I have to hold the Apocalypse for Canonical Scripture because the Romish Church doth so esteem it Nor could reformed Churches Belief of its Authority be so strong unless that Church had not denied but openly acknowledged it for Canonical Scripture As the same Beams of the Sun reach from heaven to earth and from one end of the world to another so do the same raies of Gods power extend themselves from generation to generation alwaies alike conspicuous to such as are Illuminate by His Spirit for who thus Illuminate can acknowledg his providence in making the Jews so careful to preserve the old Testament and not as clearly discern the same in constraining the Romish Church to give her supposed infallible Testimony of the Apocalypse Doubtlesse if that Book had been the work of man it had been more violently used by that Church of late then ever the new Testrment hath been by the Jewish Synagogue or any Heretick by the Romanists seeing it hath said far more against â—hem then any whom they account for such ever did But God who â—ade Pharaohs Daughter a second mother unto Moses whom he had apâ—…ted to bring destruction afterwards upon her Fathers house and Kingâ—â—m hath made the Romish Church of old a Dry Nurse to preserve this Book whose meaning she knew not that it might bring desolation upon her self 〈◊〉 her children in time to come For by the breath of the Lord shall she be destroyed her doom is already read by S. John the Lord of late hath intangled her in her own snare whilest she was drawing it to catch others Her childrens Brags of their mothers
or not of Faith which is now to be discussed 5 If that Speech of our Apostle He that doubteth is condemned if he eat were to be universally understood of all Doubts or all Actions we should never have an End of Doubting nor any Beginning of many good and most necessary Works This very Persuasion were it throughly and generally planted in all mens Hearts were enough to bring all States to utter Anarchie and to set the whole World in combustion For what Enterprise is there of greater moment but divers Men will be of divers Minds concerning the Lawfulnesse or Unlawfulnesse of it Who could not by this Exception excuse himself from performance of necessary Allegeance or Service If the Kings Majestie should wage Warre against the Spaniard he that were addicted to their Religion might reply I should be as willing as another to do my King and Countrey any Service but I Doubt whether I may afford him my goods to the hurt and dammage of Roman Catholicks the Cause I am afraid is most Unlawfull and will bring Gods Plague upon this Land therefore I may not hazard my Life in it nor adventure to shed the innocent bloud of our Holy Mother the Churches Children The like might a Lutheran say if War should fall out betwixt our State and the Saxons or if with some other reformed Churches the like might be said by most in our Land Finally there would be continuall Distraction in the mannaging of all publick Affairs But such scrupulous demurs in Civil Matters are either seldom made or quickly answered by the Temporall Sword And are they lesse dangerous in Cases as little doubtfull wherein the Consequents feared are of no lesse moment when they are given to the chief Mannagers of our spiritual Warfare in times wherein Disobedience threatens dissolution of Christs Armie that must fight his Battels against Sathan and the Man of Sin Is the Authoritie of Binding and Loosing Opening and Shutting the Kingdom of Heaven lesse than the Authority of Life and Death or the disposing Powers of Temporal Goods What should be the Reason then that every Scruple should be held sufficient to denie Obedience in matters of greatest Consequence unto Spiritual more than Temporal Authoritie Out of doubt that Rule of Saint Paul doth no more Warrant the one than the other The true Reason is most men fear Temporal Censures more than either Gods or His an ordinary Goal more than Hell and had rather be Door-keepers in great Mens Houses than glorified Saints in Heaven but of this hereafter To proceed then with our Apostles Rule Were it universally to be understood it would bring all Christian Souls into such perpetual miserable inextricable Perplexities as they should alwayes live in suspence and scarce Resolve upon any thing For his Rule holds as true in the Omission of what should be done as in the Commission of what we think should not be done Suppose then thy Pastor Commands thee to Obey in this or that Particular which he verily thinks either necessary to be undertaken by all Christiane at all or most times or else most Expedient for thy Souls health the setting forth of Gods Glory or the Good of others at this present But thou art contrary-minded and doubtest whether thou mayest do it Lawfully or no. Why because thou hast no Warrant for it out of Scripture or because he brings no necessary Reasons why thou shouldest do it but bare Probabilities which cannot oversway that Doubt which thou hast framed unto thy Conscience But he can shew thee expresse Commandment out of Scripture that thou shouldest Obey Him Thou wilt say in things Lawful only This he avoucheth to be such Thou deniest it He can shew thee again expresse words of Scripture that thou shouldest not be wise in thine own conceit but be willing to learn of thy Pastor Who is the Messenger of the Lord of hostes at whose mouth thou shouldest seek the Law and on whom as our Apostle saith thou dost depend Tell me then first by what Place of Scripture thy Disobedience in this particular can be Warranted How canst thou chuse but Doubt whether thy denial of Obedience be of Faith or no seeing Gods Word Commands thee in general tearms to Obey and no where wils thee to Disobey in this particular Or if thou thinkest thou hast some general Warrant for Disobedience because thou supposest this particular to be Unlawful yet how canst thou but doubt whether thou hast learned the Precepts of Christian Modestie as thou shouldest Whether thou hast learned to deny thy Self and thy Assections whether thou hast learned to reverence thy Pastor as Gods Messenger not taking any offence at his Person Finally whether thou hast abandoned all such delights and desires as usually are the Grounds of false Perswasion and Impediments of sincere Obedience If thou canst not be fully and truly resolved in these then must thou doubt whether thou wilt or no whether thy doubt or scruple it self be of Faith or Conscience or of Humour only And if thou canst not but doubt herein then maist thou assure thy self that thy denial of Obedience is not of Faith and therefore Sinful if the Apostles Rule as thou supposest were universally true that whosoever doth any thing of whose Lawfulnesse he doubts doth Sin because he doth it not of Faith But I dare not deny but that sundry of Christs Flock may sometimes either deny or perform Obedience unto their Pastors not without doubt or scruple whether they should do so or no and yet not Sin in either In performing Obedience they Sin not unlesse the doubt be very great or probable and the Evil which they conceive in the Action Extraordinary Again in denying Obedience they Sin not albeit they doubt whether they should do so or no if the Evil which upon mature deliberation and serious forecast they much suspect be Extraordinary such as cannot be recompensed by the Goodnesse which appears in the Act of Obedience nor in the Fruits of the Action it self which their Pastor proposeth as a Motive to undertake it According to those Grounds must our Apostles speech be limited He that Doubteth is Condemned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith 6 What then Is every man that eateth any thing which he Doubts whether it were better for him not to eat straight Condemned God forbid He that hath such a tender Infants squeamish Conscience as to think thus had need to have a very ancient grave wise and moderate Stomack and it were sit he never came at any Feast or Table furnished with varietie of dishes 7 But for a direct Answer to our Apostles Speech It must be granted ‖ that they of whom he speaks did Sin in eating when they Doubted For if they had been as fully perswaded in their Minds as the Apostle himself and sunchie others of their Brethren were they had not Sinned in eating the self same meat yet for all this they sinned not in
through mine Hypocrisie for a little time of a transitory Life they might be deceived by me and I should procure malediction and reproach to mine old Age. This eating which he refused could never have been of Faith that is no way Warrantable by the Doctrine or Principles of Faith which had taught him the contrary as he well exprest in the next words following for though I were now delivered from the Torments of Men yet could I not escape the Hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead Wherefore I will now change this Life manfully and will shew my self such as mine Age requireth 9 And it should be considered that the Parties of whom our Apostle speaks in the forementioned place were never injoyned by any Lawful Superiours either Civil or Ecclesiastick to eat such Meats as they made scruple of yea the very original or fountain of their Scruple was from the expresse Law of God denouncing fearful Judgements against all such as polluted themselves with Unclean Meats so that their eating albeit solemnly injoyned by the greatest Powers on earth could not fall within the Subject of true Obedience because the Laws injoyning it as they conceived stood actually condemned by the expresse Law of God to the contrary in defence whereof many of their Ancestors had exposed their Bodies to most grievous Tortures and the refusal of such Meats as they made Scruple of had been alwayes accounted the justest Title of glorious Martyrdom amongst the Jews And albeit these Laws concerning Unclean Meats were indeed Antiquated at the Alteration of the Priesthood yet should we not marvail if at the first planting of the Gospel many good Christians did make great Conscience of eating such Meats as were forbidden by them when S. Peter himself long after our Saviours Ascension durst scarce take Gods own word against his written Law then not Abrogated as he supposed in this Case For when there came a voice unto him saying Arise Peter kill and eat Peter said Not so Lord for I have never eaten any thing that is Polluted or Unclean And the voice came unto him again the second time saying the things that God hath purified do not thou account Polluted Nor was Peter as it seems yet fully satisfied for it is added in the next words This was so done thrice and the vessel was drawn up again into Heaven All these Circumstances abundantly evince that it was not the bare Doubt or Scruple but the Quality of the things doubted of and the inveterate Opinion or abominable Conceit which the Jews or other of their Instruction had of the Meats themselves that made their eating to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far from being of Faith that it rather seemed to overthrow it Had the excesse of the Danger they feared been lesse or had there been any ordinary Possibility of any proportionable Good to set against it their Sin in eating had been lesse albeit the Grounds of their Scruple had been greater or their Perswasions one way or other lesse setled 10 Albeit this Exposition of our Apostle may seem strange and new to many honest and well disposed Minds in our Church yet in truth the manner of the deduction only is new the Doctrine it self is generally held by all Divines though not expresly in Conclusion yet in the Premises wherein it is essentially contained and may be most evidently deduced Thus. 11 All Sin consists either in preferring none before some the lesse before a greater or a Corporal before a Spiritual Good the Hainousnesse of Sin in the excesse of difference betwixt the true good neglected and the seeming good embraced which is either absolutely evil or else a far lesse good which in competition with the greater good is likewise to be accounted evil Now if whatsoever be not of Faith be a Sin then by the former Rules it is a Sin because a lesse good is preferred before a greater or some evil chosen without any proportionable good that might serve as a sufficient Recompence But if the nature of all Actual Sin consist in one of these two It is questionable how or in what case Doubting or Scruple of what we do doth make our Actions Sinful Briefly it is an External Cause or Circumstance concurring to the making of a Sinful Action not any essential part or internal Circumstance of the Sin it self once caused And it thus concurs only when that which in it self is Evil or proves so in the event would not be â—vil unto us unlesse we had some doubt or scruple that is some Notice or Apprehension of it as Evil In such Cases indeed we should not Sin unlesse we had formerly doubted but to speak exactly we do not sin because we do what we doubt of but because in doing some Actions when we Doubt we exactly prefer Evil before Good which otherwise we should not albeit we did the self same Action For it could not be Evil to us without the Apprehension of its Nature so as the Apprehension of it concurs to the making of it Evil. And because in all Doubts or Scruples there is some Apprehension of Evil therefore when we Doubt in Cases above mentioned our Actions are not of Faith but Sinful But if either we could be fully perswaded to the contrary that is if we could out of sincerity of Conscience setled Judgement discern that very thing which either we our selves sometimes did or others yet Apprehend as Evil not to be truly Evil the same Action which before had been shall not be now sinful unto us because we now prefer not Evil before Good Or again albeit the thing were in it self Evil being prohibited by some positive Law but we upon invincible or unculpable Ignorance did not Apprehend it for such we should not actually sin in doing it because in this Case we could not truly be câ—nsured for preferring Evil before Good seeing the Apprehension maketh it evil to us albeâ—t we did prefer that which was evil before that which was good As for example If a Proâ—â—â—yte should have eaten Swines Flesh being altogether ignorant not by his own but the Priests Negligence of the Israelites Law to the contrary he had done that which was evil because forbidden by the Law but not ill because he had no Apprehension of it as evil but did eat it without all scruple as well as the strong in Faith did in S. Pauls time As doubting in those Cases wherein we have an Apprehension of some excesse of evil makes mens Actions not to be of Faith and want of doubt so all other Circumstances be observed makes them to be according unto Faith †so it oft-times fals out that such as nothing Doubt whether they do ill or no do Sin far more then such as not without great Scruple of Conscience make the same sinisâ—er Châ—ice For oft-times the Causes why men make no scruple or why they Apprehend not the evil which they do are such
by meer Natural precepts For we suppose what afterwards wil manifest it self that all Truths necessary for men to Believe have a distinct relish from all falshood or other unnecessary or superfluous Truths and may be known by their fruit so men wil be careful to preserve the Sincerity of their Spiritual Taste 4 Gods written Word then is the only pure Fountain and Rule of Faith yet not such immediately unto all as it is written but the Learned or Spiritual Instructors only whose Hearts and Consciences must be ruled by it as in all other spiritual duties so especially as they are Instructors in this That they may not commend any Truths or principles of faith unto the illiterate but such as are expresly contained in Gods written Word or at least are in substance the self same with these written Truths If the Unlearned through Gods just Judgement absolutely admit of other principles and equalize them with these such shal lead them into Errour and pervert their faith If they doubt of any mans Doctrine whether it be truly Spiritual or consonant to the foundation of faith they may appeal to Scriptures as they shal be expounded to them by others Finally they are tied to no visible Company of men whom they must under pain of damnation follow but for their Souls Health they may trie every Spiritual Physitian If they wil be Humorous they may but at their own peril both for Temporal Punishment in this life and for Eternal in the life to come 5 For conclusion the Scripture according to our doctrine and the general Consent of Reformed Churches is the only Infallible rule of faith in both respects or conditions of a Perfect Rule First in that it contains all the principles of faith and points of salvation So that no Visible Church on earth may commend any doctrine to others as a doctrine of Faith unlesse it be commended to them for such by the Scriptures by which every ones doctrine that acknowledgeth God for his Lord must be examined as by a Law uncontrollable Secondly in that these principles of faith are plainly perspicuously and distinctly set down to the Capacities of all that faithfully follow their practical rules most plain most perspicuous and easie to all capable of any rule or reason So that this Sacred Canon needs no Associate no Addition of any Authoritie as equally infallible nor more perspicuous then it self to supply what it wants only the Ministery of men skilful and industrious in the search or Exposition of it is to be supposed And all these be they never so excellent and wel conversant in them are unto Scriptures but as the ordinary Expositors of Classick and Authentick Books are unto the chief Authors or Inventors of the science contained in them Supposing that the first Authors were men of extraordinary and infallible skil and their Expositors as they usually are but of ordinary Capacity or Experience in those faculties 6 Finally the Books of Scriptures are to be reputed a more absolute Rule for all Matters of Faith and Divine Mysteries then any Books or Writings of men are for natural sciences or secular professions as in sundrie other Respects so in This that they give as more facile so more infallible directions for finding out their true Sense and Meaning then any other Writings do or Writers could have done who though present could not be so fully Assistant but cannot so much as affoord their presence to their Expositours in the search of Truths rather professed then fully conceived much lesse infallibly taught by them whereas the Spirit of Truth which first did dictate is every where present alwayes Assistant to such as seriously and sincerely seek the Truth contained in these Divine Oracles conducting them from Knowledge to Knowledge both by all such Means as Artists have for increasing their skil and by other Means extraordinary such as none in any other Faculty can have nor any may hope for in the Search of Scriptures but only such as Delight in and Meditate upon them Day and Night SECT II. That the pretended Obscurity of Scriptures is no just Exception why they should not be acknowledged the absolute Rule of Faith which is the Mother-Objection of the Romanist CAP. XII How far it may be granted the Scriptures are Obscure with some Premonitions for the right state of the Question 1 IT is first to be supposed that these Scriptures for whose Soveraignty over our Souls we plead against the pretended Authority of the Romish Church were given by God for the Instruction of all succeeding Ages for all sorts of Men in every Age for all Degrees or divers Measures of his other Gifts in all several sorts or Conditions of Men. This diversitie of Ages and Conditions of Men in several Callings who so wel considers may at the first sight easily discover our Adversaries Willingnesse to wrangle in this point whose usual practise as if they meant to cast a Mist before the weak-sighted Readers eyes is to pick out here and there some places of Scriptures more Hard and difficult then Necessary or requisite to be understood of Every man perhaps of Any man in this Age. The Knowledge of all or any of which notwithstanding those that live after us though otherwise peradventure men of far meaner gifts then many in this present Age shall not therefore need to give for lost or desperate when they shall be called unto this Search For God hath appointed as for every thing else so for the Revelation of his Word certain and peculiar Times and Seasons Daniel though full of the Spirit of Prophecie and one that during the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar and Balthasar his son had as it were continually travelled of Revelations concerning the Estate of Gods Church and the affairs of forrain Kingdoms for many generations to come yet knew not the approaching Time of his peoples deliverance from Captivity until the first year of Darius son of Ahashuerosh And this he learned by Books even in the first year of his Raign I Daniel understood by Books the number of the years whereof the Lord had spoken unto Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem And of his own Revelation he saith And Daniel was commanded to shut up his words and seal up his book unto the end of the Time or as some read unto the appointed Time and then many shall run to and fro and Knowledge shall be increased For at the Time appointed as he intimates in the words following others though no Prophets were to know more of this Prophecy then the Prophet did himself Then I heard it but I understood it not then said I O my Lord what shall be the end of these things And he said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the end of the Time 2 The Prophets of later Ages did see Revelations of matters which had been hid from the Ancient
Rule of Life shall inlighten them unrepented of no other Rule or Authoritie shall teach them the way to Life 4 Since we thus grant that the Scriptures may be Obscure to most men by their own default but perspicuous to others free from like fault or Demerit it remains we further enquire whether the same Scriptures do not most plainly set down First the Causes why they are so Obscure to some and Perspicuous to others Secondly the Remedy or means how their Obscurity or difficulty may be prevented If they plainly teach these two Points this is a sure Argument that they are if not that they cannot be so excellent a Rule of Faith as we acknowledge them For this very Point That the Scriptures in respect of diverse Persons are Obscure and Perspicuous though Obscure to none but through their own Default is a Principle of Christian Faith and therefore must be plainlie set down in the absolute complete Rule of Faith And to omit others in their due place to be inserted what can be more perspicuonsly taught either by Scriptures or other Writings than this Truth God giveth grace to the Humble and resisteth the proud or this He will confound the Wisdom of the Wise or such as Glory in their Wisdom These and like Rules of Gods Justice in punishing the proud and disobedient hold as true in the search of Scripture as in any other matter yea especially herein Thus were the Scribes and Pharisees men of extraordinary skill in Scriptures blinded in the most necessary Points of their Salvation though most plainly set down in Scriptures For what could be more plainly set down then many Testimonies of their Messias Many places of far greater Difficultie they could with Dexteritie unfold how chanced it then they are so Blinded in the other They were scattered in the proud Imagination of their hearts and glorious conceits of their Prerogatives in being Mosis Successours and in their stead simple and illiterate but humble and meek spirited Men raised up to be infallible Teachers of the Gentiles to unfold those Mysteries of Mans Redemption which the Scribes and Pharisees could not see with evidence of Truth to enlighten the sillie and ignorant and convince the Consciences of their learned proud Oppugners By their Ministerie Prophetical and Mosaical Mysteries became a Light unto the Gentile whose life had been in the shadow of death whilest a Veil was laid before the hearts of the most learned Jewes so that even whilst the Sun of Righteousnesse which enlightens every man that comes into the World did arise in their coast and ascend unto their Zenith they groap their way as men that walk in dangerous Paths by dark-night 5 Was the Scripture therefore no Rule of Faith unto these Jews to whom it was so Dishcult and Obscure Or is it not most evident that this Blindnesse did therefore come upon Israel because they hated this Light being carried away with Lowd cries of Templum Domini Templum Domini as the Papists now are with The Church The Church And for words of supposed Disgrace offered to It onely upon a Surmise that Christ had said he would destroy and build It up again brought to seek the destruction of the Glory of It even of the Lord of Glory Thou that wouldest make others beleave the Pope is such dost thou beleeve the Scriptures to be Infallible How is it then whilest thou readest Gods Judgements upon thy Brother Jew thou doest not tremble and quake lest the Lord smite thee also thou painted wall with like Blindnesse seeing thou hast justified thy brother Pharisees stubborn Pride wilfull Arrogancie and witting Blasphemie in oppugning Scriptures And as for all such whose hearts can be touched with the terrour of Gods Judgements upon others in fear and reverence I request them to consider well whether one of the greatest Roman Doctours were not taken with more than Jewish madnesse in mistaking Scripture in it self most plain and easie who to prove the Scriptures Obscurity to be such as in this respect it could not be the Rule of Faith alledgeth for his proof that place of the Prophet And the vision of them all is become unto you as the word of a Book that is sealed up which they deliver to one that can read saying Read this I pray thee then shall he say I cannot for it is sealed 6 The Prophet relates it as a wonder that they should not be able to discern the Truth What Truth an obscure or hidden Truth Impossible to be understood This had been a wonderfull Wonder indeed that men should not be able to understand that which was Impossible to be understood Wherein then was the true Wonder seen In this that they whose eyes had formerly been illuminated by the evidence and clearnesse of the Divine Truth revealed by Gods Messenger should not be able to discern the same still alike clear and perspicuous but now to be shut up from their eyes as appeareth by the similitude of the sealed Book whose Character was legible enough but yet not able to be read whilst sealed A man might as well prove the Sun to be dark because Polyphemus after 〈◊〉 had put out his eye could not see it as the Scriptures by this place to be Obscure The Prophets words entire are these Stay your selves and Wonder they are blind and make you blind they are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with drink For the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes The Prophets and your chief Seers hath he covered And the vision of them all is become unto you c. And more plainly Therefore the Lord said because this people come near me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but have removed their heart from me and their fear towards me was taught by the precepts of men doth he not mean the Blind Obedience of Modern Papists as well as ancient Jews Therefore behold I will do a marvellous work in this People even a marvellous work and a wonder For the Wisdom of the wise men shall perish and the understanding of the prudent man shall be hid The Lord himself foretels it as a wonder that this People should be so ignorant in the Word of God and yet will the Jesuite make us beleeve the Word of God is so Obscure that it cannot be unto us the Rule of Faith when as without the knowledge and light of it not which it hath in it self but which it communicates to us there is no Vision no Knowledge in the Visible Church but such wonderfull Darknesse as the Prophet here describes 7 Let the Reader here give sentence with me whether it were not wonderfull Jewish Blindnesse or wilfull Blasphemie in Valentian so confidently to avouch that the Veil which Saint Paul saith is laid before the Jews hearts was woven a great part out of the Difficulty of Scriptures such Scriptures as the
but like Lessons got by rote It must be quite forgotten at least utterly renounced and laid aside before we can be admitted into the School of Christ in which all in this life are but parvuli petties or children for their simplicity and harmlesse minds for Lowlinesse and Nullity of self-conceit Hence saith our Apostle If any man think himself wise let him become a fool that he may may learn wisdom aright And our Saviour Christ saith unto his disciples except ye be converted and become like litle children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven that is they cannot be capable of this Heavenly Doctrine For true and sanctifying Grace must be ingrafted in this harmlesse simplicity and child-like Disposition 9 It is the Nature and Property of Gods Word to be plain and facile unto such as are of Disposition semblable to it as to the sincere of heart single in life and plain in dealing but obscure and difficult unto the worldly-wise The simplicity of It and the subtilty of the Politician or secular Artist parallel as ill as a straight Rule or Square with a distorted crooked stick The testimony of the Lord saith the Psalmist is sure and giveth wisdom to the Simple The word in the Original silly or credulous such as in worldly affairs are more easie to be deceived then apt to deceive and is rendred by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 parvuli which word it pleased our Saviour to use when he intimates this Perspicuity of Gods Word unto such little ones I thank thee O father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and men of understanding and hast opened them unto Babes It is so O father because thy good pleasure was Such Such as in this whole discourse we have supposed and this place doth prove that is Such as had decreed that the Doctrine of Life should be most difficult and hard to proud disobedient or craftily-minded men but most perspicuous because to be revealed by God unto such little ones And again lest any man should presume upon his Wisdom or Dexterity of Wit he tels us expresly no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And his Will is to reveal himself and his Word unto all and only such as we have said to little Ones or such as become little Children casting off the burthen of Age which hath brought such Faintnesse and wearinesse upon their Souls that they cannot hope for any good successe in the Course which tends to everlasting Life until they be disburthened of all former Cares And hence in the next verse his words are general Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden So they will take up his Yoak which is easie and his Burthen which is light he wil free them from all the grievances and discommodities of their former Yoak learning but this one Lesson of Humility and Meeknesse of him it wil teach them all the rest for by it they shal find rest unto their Souls which Christ wil refresh not as the Pope doth with Anathema's binding unto Negatives but with the true taste of this Water of Life 10 Nor wil any of our Adversaries I hope be so perverse as to say our Saviours Doctrine in this place did hold true only for that time wherein the Knowledge of Christ and Doctrine of his Gospel was to be first published For such perversity would bewray so great ignorance in Scriptures and little experience in the course of Christianity as they would be ashamed to be suspected of For who sees not this Opposition between worldly wisdom and heavenly knowledge to continue stil in their several Professours throughout all Ages Nor can any man be sure his Faith is not humorous or Hypocritical unlesse he be transformed into such a little One as Christ here speaks of and have true Humility surely planted in his heart This is the Fundamental or first Principle whereinto Faith must be resolved even all those Graces or Pledges of Gods favour whereon most rely in trial of their Spiritual Estate must be apparantly seated in this Lowlinesse and Simplicity or else eveâ—y man through the Multiplicity and Subtilty of his own heart shal be over-seen in his perswasions 11 A lively Experiment of our Saviours Doctrine and our Assertion in this point we have in S. Austin as himself witnesseth I purposed to look into the sacred Scriptures that I might see what manner of Writings they were And â—o 〈◊〉 light on a matter altogether hid from the proud and yet not laid open unto children in progresse lowly in processe or issue stately and wrapped in mysteries Finally such as my quality made me uncapable of entrance unto it For the property of it was to grow up with little ones but I disdained to be a little one and swolne with fastuous conceit in mine own eyes I seemed a great one Here Valentian â—ucking poyson out of this reverend Fathers Hony demands importunatly whether it be a matter of no difficulty to procure our freedom from this tumour of viciousnesse To have our hearts purged from that Soot which is as the Jewish veil unto them And finally whether it be so easie a matter as we to his seeming make it to become Humble and meek without which vertues the Scriptures were obscure and difficult unto Austin himself otherwise A man of excellent wit 12 Me thinks this cumbersom Jesuites cholerick strain and Fool-hardy passionate carriage in this whole Controversie doth lively resemble a Strong Sturdy Lubber that had thrust himself unawares into a Quarrel which he is no way able to make good yet so stubborn that he wil not give over but fights and winks and cries and hit he misse he laies about him For can any man think he sees where these fierce Blows would light As much as we have said is most clear out of this very place of Austin which he would throw upon us Most clear it is that unto such as follow our Saviours Method set down before that is unto such as wil become like little Children and begin as it were anew again the Scripture which for the present seems hard to all far entred into the Worlds School is perspicuous clear and easie to be learned â—ut whether it 〈◊〉 hard to become Such a One or whether it be a difficult matter to lay aside all Pride and Self-conceit is no part of the Point now in question nothing at all to this intended Purpose To Man no doubt it is most Hard or rather altogether Impossible But what it is to man once made partaker of the Grace of God and Power of his Spirit let Christ Jesus the Fountain of Grace be Judge He hath told us that his Yoak is easie and his Furthen light Or wil they reply that his Yoak is easie indeed to bear when it is taken up but hard to
heard or learned from his godly Ancestors doth but trace out the Print of Moses footsteps almost obliterate and overgrown by the sloth and negligence of former Times wherein every man had trod what way he liked best And though the same Prophet descend to later Ages as low as Davids Yet he proceeds still by the same Rule relating nothing but such Historical Events or Experiments as confirm the Truth of Moses divine Predictions such as are yet extant in Canonical Scriptures So perfect and absolute in his judgement was that Part of the Old Testament which then was written to instruct not only the Men such as he was but every Child of God that he presumes not to know or teach more them in It was written And thus much this people should have done by Moses Precept without a Prophet for their Remembrancer And these Words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart And thou shalt rehearse them continually unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou tarriest in thine house and as thou walkest by the way and when thâ—… liesi down and when thou risest up And thou shalt bind them for a Sign upon thine hand and they shall be as Frontlets between thine eyes Also thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and upon thy gates And again Sâ—t your hearts unto all the Words which I command you this day that you may command them unto your children that they may observe and do all the Words of this Law For it is no vain Word concerning you but it is your Life and by this Word you shall prolong your dayes 2 Questionlesse they that were bound to observe and do this Law were bound to know it and yet Moses refers them not to his Successor as if it were so obscure that it could not possibly be known without his Infallibility but on the contrary he supposeth it so plain and easie that every Father might instruct his Son in it and every Mother her Daughter It was their own daily Experience of the fruits and benefits in Obeying of their harms and plagues in Disobeying his Precepts which was to seal their Truth unto their Consciences For without such Observation without squaring their Lives and comparing their Thoughts and Actions unto this streight and plain Rule all other Testimonies of men or Authorities of their most infallible Teachers were in vain The Miracles which they had seen to day were quite forgotten ere nine dayes after Nor could their Perswasions or conceit of Moses Infallibility serve them for any Rule when they had shaken off these inward Cogitations and measured not the Truth of his Predictions by Experiments In their Temptations they were as ready to disclaim Moses as alwayes they were to distrust God whose mighty Wonders they had seen To what use then did the sight of all Gods Wonders or of Miracles wrought by Moses serve Motives they were necessary and excellent to incline their stubborn hearts to use this Law of God for their Rule in all their Actions and proceedings and to cause them set their hearts unto it as Moses in his last Words commands them For this Law as he had told them before was in their Hearts 3 Would any man that doth fear the Lord or reverence his Word but set his heart to read over this Book of Deuteronomy or the one hundred and nineteenth with sundry other Psalms but with ordinary Observation or attention that so the Character of Gods Spirit so lively imprinted in them might be as an Amulet to prevent the Jesuites Inchantments It would be impossible for all the wit of Men or Angels ever to fasten the least suspicion on his thoughts whether the Ancient Faithful Israelites did take this Law of Moses for their Infallible Rule in all their proceedings For nothing can be made more evident then this Truth is in it self That the Israelites Swarving from this Rule was the Cause of their departure from their God and the Occasion or Cause of their Swarving from it was this devilish Perswasion which Satan suggested to them then as the Jesuites do unto the Christian People now That this Law was too Obscure too Hard too Difficult to be understood no compleat Rule for their actions without Traditions or relying upon their Priests or Men in chief Authority This Hypocrisie Moses did wel foresee would be the beginning of all their Miseries the very Watch-word to Apostasie For which Cause he labours so seriously to prevent it Deut 30. 14. For this Commandment which I set before thee this day is not hid from thee neither far off but the Word is very near unto thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart to do it How was it in their Mouthes and in their Hearts when it was so obscure and difficult unto them after Moses Death It was in their Hearts and in their Posterity too had they set their hearts to it But as it is true Pars sanitatis est velle sanari It is a part of Health to be willing to be healed so was it here Pars morbi nolle sanari more then a part of this their grievous Disease their Blindnesse of heart was their pronenesse to be perswaded that this Word or Doctrine which Moses here taught was too Obscure and Difficult for them to follow They first began as the Jesuites do to pick Quarrels with God for which their Stubbornnesse he gave them over to their hearts desire And this his Sacred Word which should have been a Lantern unto their feet and a Light unto their paths as it was to Davids became a stumbling Block and a Stone of offence 1 Cor. 1. 23. What was the reason By their swarving from this plain and straight Rule their wayes became crooked and their actions unjust And it is the Observation of the wise Son of Sirach As Gods wayes are right and plain unto the just so are they stumbling Blocks unto the wicked Not Moses himself had he been then alive could have made this or any other true Rule of Faith plain unto these Jews whilest they remained perverse and stubborn And had they without Moses or any infallible Teachers help cast off this Crookednesse of heart Moses his infallible Doctrine had stil remained easie streight and plain unto them For it was in their Hearts though hid and smothered in the Wrinkles of their crooked Hearts In our Saviours time they wil not assent unto the Word written nor unto the Eternal Word unto which all the Writings of the Prophets gave Testimony unlesse they may see a Signe What was the Cause They had not laid Moses Commandments to their hearts For had they from their hearts Believed Moses they had Believed Christ For all whose Miracles wrought for their good in their sight and presence they cannot or wil not see that his Words were The Words of Eternal Life as Peter confesseth John 6. 68. Nor would any Jesuite
have acknowledged as much had be been in their place For why should he Any other might say he had the Spirit of God and that he was the Messias and what if Peter one of his Fellows late a Fisher-man did confesse him The Scribes and Pharisees principal Members of the visible Church deny him to be their Messias And how should they know his Words to be the Word of God unlesse the Church had confirmed them If Christ himself should have said in their hearing as he did to the Jews John 5. 46. Moses wrote of me consider his Doctrine and lay it to your hearts A Jesuite would have replied You say Moses wrote of you But how shal we know that he meant you Moses is dead and saies nothing and they that sit in his Chair say otherwise And verily the Scribes and Pharisees had far greater Probabilities to plead for the Infallibility of that Chair then the Jesuites can have for their Popes who had they been in the others place could have coyned more matter out of that one saying of our Saviour Mat. 23. 2. Sedent in Cathedra Mosis for the Scribes and Pharisees infallible Authority then all the Papists in the world have been able to extract out of all the Scriptures that are or can be urged for the Pope or Church of Romes Infallibilitie 4 The Scribes and Pharisees though no way comparable to the â—esuites for cunning in painting rotten or subtilty in oppugning Causes true and â—…nd could urge for themselves against such as confessed Christ that none of the Rulers nor of the Pharisees did Believe in him but only a Cursed Crew of such as knew not the Law John 7. 48. They could Object the Law was obscure and the interpretation of it did belong to them But could these pretences excuse the people for not obeying Christs Doctrine You will say perhaps they could not be excused because Christs Miracles were so many and manifest These were somewhat indeed if Christ had been their Accuser But our Saviour saith plainly that he would not accuse them to his Father And for this cause he would not work many Miracles amongst such as were not moved with the like already wrought lest he should increase their Sins If Christ did not who then had reason to accuse them Moses as it is in the same place did Moses in whom they trusted and on whom they fastened their Implicite Faith Moses of whom they thought and said We will Believe as he Believed Moses whose Doctrine they to their seeming stood as stifly for against Christs new Doctrine as they supposed as the Jesuites do for the Catholick Church as they think against Hereticks and Sectaries as they term us Why then is Moses whom thus they honoured become their chief Accuser because while they did Believe on him only for Tradition or from pretence of Succession or for the dignity of their Temple Church or Nation they did not indeed Believe Him nor his Doctrine For had they Believed his Doctrine they had Believed Christ For he wrote of Christ So he might thinks the Jesuite and yet write so obscurely of him as his Writings could be no Rule of Faith to the Jews without the Visible Churches Authority Yea rather they should and might have been a Rule unto them for their good against the Visible Churches Authority and now remain a Rule or Law against both to their just condemnation because the Doctrine of Christ was so plainly and clearly set down in these writings had they set their hearts unto them Even the Knowledg of Christ the Word of life it self was in their mouthes and in their hearts For that Commandment which Moses there gave them was That Word of Faith which S. Paul the infallible Teacher of the Gentiles did preach as he himself testifies Rom. 10. 8. If any man ask how this Place was so easie to be understood of Christ or how by the doctrine of Moses Law the doctrine of the Gospel might have been manifested to their Consciences my Answer is already set down in our Saviours Words Had they done Gods Will revealed unto them in that Law they should have known Christs Doctrine to have been of God 5 Had they according to the prescript of Moses Law repented them of their Sins from the bottom of their Hearts the Lord had blotted all their Wickedness out of His remembrance And their hearts once purged of Wickednesse would have exulted in his presence that had made them whole Faith would have fastened upon his Person though never seen before Not the Moon more apt to receive the Sun-beams cast upon it then these Jews hearts to have shined with the Glory of Christ had they cast away all Pride and Self-conceit or the Glory of their Nation but unto them as now they are and long time have been swollen with Pride and full of Hypocrisie Christs Glory is but as clear Light to sore or dim-sighted eyes They wink with their eyes lest they should be offended with the Splendor of it This Doctrine of Christ and Knowledge of Scriptures in points of Faith shall be most obscure to us if we follow them in their foolish pretences of their Visible Church most clear perspicuous and easie if we lay Moses Commandments to our hearts For Truth Inherent must be as the eye-sight to discern all other things of like nature CAP. XVIII Concluding this Controversie according to the state proposed with the testimony of Saint Paul 1 WE may conclude this Point with our Apostle Si Evangelium nostrum tectum est iis qui pereunt tectum est in quibus Deus hujus saeculi excaecavit mentes id est infidelibus ne irradiat eos lumen Evangelii gloriae Christi qui est imago Dei If the Gospel be Obscure or rather hid For it is a Light obscure it cannot be God forgive me if I used that speech save only in our Adversaries persons It is hid only to such as have the eyes of their mind Blinded by Satan the God of this World Of which Number may we not without breach of Charity think he was one who seeing the light and evidence of this place would not see it but thought it a sufficient Answer to say Aposiolus non loquitur de intelligentia Scripturarum sed de cognitione side in Christum The Apostle speaks not of understanding Scriptures but of Knowing and Believing in Christ It is well the Jesuite had so much Modestie in him as to grant this later that he spake at the least of Knowing Christ For if the knowledg of Christ be so clear to the godly and elect then are the Scriptures clear too so far as concerns their Faith For S. Paul wrote this and all his Epistles only to this end that men might truly come to the Knowledge of Christ But he meant of a perfect and true Knowledge not such as Bellarmine when he gave this Answer dreamed of ut neque sit puer neque
Understanding and to moderate Affection which makes us blind 2 The same Method our Saviour useth in a like dispute with the last Clause whereof if we compare the Romanists Doctrine in this Controversie ' it may appear in some sort the same Theirs is our Saviours indeed but quite inverted truly Antichristian They teach we cannot know Mosaical or other Scriptures but by the Popes infallible Proposal The great infallible Teacher tels the Jews they could not Believe him or know his Doctrine though Proposed by him mouth to mouth because they had not Believed Moses Writings If ye beleeve not his Writings how shall ye beleeve my Words yet Christs Words registred by his Apostles and Evangelists must be at the least of like force and use to us as Mosaical Writings were then to the Jews Our Conclusion therefore is invincible If Moses Doctrine alone were a Rule to trie Christs Controversies with the Jews then must it and Christ conjoyned be the Rule whereby all Christians Controversies must be tried From the Opportunitie of this place the judicious Reader though not admonished would observe that our Adversaries unlesse possessed with Jewish phrensie or phantastick madnesse diseases causing men usually misdeem other for such as they most are but least think themselves could not possibly account it a part of folly in us to make the WRITTEN WORD sole Umpire in all Controversies of Religion though not impossible to be thus perverted by these Jews or others of Jewish disposition as are all Hereticks more or lesse For we will give their imaginations a yeers respite to rove about upon condition they will then return an answer what Rule either written or unwritten can possibly be imagined which would not be perverted what Authoritie either living or dead which would not be either disclaimed abused or contemned by men so minded as these Jews who in the live presence of the Son of God the heir of all things by whom the world was made and must be judged thus sought to Patronage the Murther of his Royall Person by the Authoritie of his Fathers Word unto whose Sence they thought themselves as strictly tied as any Papist to the Councel of Trent The Hereticks with whom Saint Augustine had to deal strangely wrested his words against a plain and natural meaning Though so they had done the Bishops of Rome or any others then living not disdaining to call God his Lord their practise had not seemed strange to this reverend Father for he knew the Servant was not above his Master and therefore could not expect his or any mans should be free from any such wrong or violence which he saw offered to Gods Word 3 Our Saviour in the fore-cited Controversies saw well how earnestly the Jews were set to pervert Scriptures for their purpose how glad to find any pretence out of them either to justifie their dislike of his Doctrine or wreak their malice upon his Person Reason he had as great to distast their practise herein as the Pope himself can have to inveigh against Hereticks for the like Neither is there any person now living against whom any intention of Harm can be more heinous then the intention of Murther against him nor any sort of men unlesse the Jesuites Spanish Inquisitors or such as they suborn so cruelly bent as these Jews were to seek blood under a shew of love to pure immaculate Religion Yet doth not our Saviour accuse the Scriptures though capable of so grievous and dangerous misconstruction of Obscurity or Difficultie or of being any way the Occasion of Jewish Heresie or his persecution thence caused nor doth he disswade those very men which had thence sucked this poisonous Doctrine much lesse others from reading but exhorts them in truth and deed not in word and fancie onely to relie on Scriptures as the Rule of Salvation Search the Scriptures for in them ye think and that rightly to have Eternall Life Joh 5. 9. Not intimating the least necessity of any external Authority infallibly to direct them he plainly teacheth it was the internal distorture of their proud affections which had disproportioned their minds to this straight Rule and disinabled them for attaining true Belief which never can be rightly raised but by this square and line 4 It was not then the reading of Scriptures which caused them mistake their meaning and persecute Him but the not reading of them as they should Erre they did not knowing the Scriptures and know them they did not because they did not read them thorowly sincerely searching out their inward Meaning And thus to read them afresh as our Saviour prescribed them laying aside ambitious desires was the onelie Remedie for to cure that distemper which they had incurred by reading them amisse It were a mad kind of counsel better befitting a Witch or cunning woman then a wise man to disswade one from vsing Medicines prescribed him by men of skill because he had incurred some dangerous disease by taking the like out of his own humour or in a fancie either without or contrary to the prescript of professed Physitians yet such and no better our Adversaries advice heretofore hath been and the strength of all their Arguments in the Point now in hand to this day continues this We must not make Scriptures the Rule of Faith because many Heresies have sprung thence and great Dissensions grown in the Church whiles one follows one Sence and another the contrary Whereas in truth the only Antidote against Contentions Schismes and Heresies is to read them attentively and with such preparation as they prescribe as not to be desirous of vain glory not to provoke or envie one another To lay aside all malicionsnesse guile dissimulation and evil speaking like new born babes desiring the sincere milk of the Word whereby we must grow not fashioning our selves according to this present world c. 5 These were delivered as soveraign Remedies against all Epidemical diseases of the Soul by Physitians as Both acknowledge most Infallible For better unfolding and more seasonable applying of these and infinite other like Aphorismes of life we admit varietie of Commentators but are as far from suffering any of whose spirit we have no proof especially any not ready to submit the trial of his Receits unto these sacred Principles and Experiments answerable to them to trie what Conclusions he list upon our souls as the Pope would be from taking what Potions soever any English Emperick should prescribe though disclaiming all examinations of his prescripts by Galen Hippocrates Paracelsus or any other Ancient or Modern well esteemed Physitians Rules 6 If since this late invention of the Popes Infallibilitie our Adversaries do not now as heretofore condemne all Reading Scriptures simply what marvell For as Sathan after once God had spoken to the world by his Son began to change his old note and sought to imitate the Gospels stile by writing his Heresies as God did his new Covenants
Peoples distraction in following some one false Prophet some another fewest of all the true Prophets most their High-Priests and men in Authority might exempt any from acknowledgement of such Prophesies as in the issue proved Divine for the Rule of their Belief If that People either upon the Variety of Opinions or the Authority of the Priests or others might reject the Word of God either preached unto them by the Prophets or read by others or appeal from It to any visible company of men on whose decrees they might safely rely then may the Romanists with some probability teach men to rely upon the decrees of their Church for their infallible Rule not upon Scriptures only But if the People of those times were bound to rely upon MOSES Law and the Prophets Writings against all the World besides albeit joyntly conspiring to teach them otherwise though with Glozes and pretences of Moses Authority then much more must these Writings be of like Authority unto us And all the Mimical Objections which the Jesuites can frame to this or like purpose If the Scripture be the Rule of Faith and must be discerned by private Spirits how comes it to passe that Calvin expounds it one way Luther another Zwinglius a third and yet all think they have the Spirit are the very same in effect with the false Prophet Zedekiah's Exception against Michaiah When went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee 5 Zeclekiah had four hundred more of his opinion and this People had been very dull if conscious of their own factious greatnesse they could not have pleaded all the Papists Arguments against Michaiah all that can be drawn from the Universality or Authority of the Church All which have meer ignorance or incogitancy of a Divine Providence for their Root but branch themselves in their after-grouth into positive Atheism and contradictious Infidelity First their Authors the Priests and Jesuites erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God able to lead men unto Life by this written Way though narrow and private yet straight and plain Afterwards as if they were Satans sworn Takers or authorized Purveyoâ—â—s to furnish Hell with guests observing some who rather idly wish or loosly profer then seriously purpose or earnestly strive to enter in at the streight Gate either sail in their first Adventures or finally miscarry they watch hence all opportunities of haling Passengers to their broad beaten Catholick Way which almost all heretofore have gone as they brag wherein a blind man so he will follow his Guide cannot easily trip so I think until both come at the very Pit-brink of Destruction whereunto it tends directly and infallibly But is this your Catholick Way more plain or better beaten then rebellious Israels or Judahs was Could not these also whilest backed by their blinded Guides have mockt at private Spirits and bestowed Titles upon Gods true Servants because in number fewest and most opposite to their Prelates as foul and odious as Sectaries Schismaticks or Hereticks Or did these willingly and wittingly go astray as knowing their wayes to be the wayes of death Therefore my people is gone into captivity saith the Lord because they had no knowledg Ignorance the Nurse of your Devotion was the true Mother of their Superstition and Idolatry yet was this want of Knowledge which thus proved the fertile Seed of all their insuing Misery the native Fruit of their former Negligence in not practising the known Precepts of Moses Law And because increase of Ignorance in Gods Word did breed in them a greater delight of hearing Lies and pleasant things then the Truth he gave them their Lust as he had done their Forefathers Quails in his displeasure Son of man saith the Lord unto his Prophet these men have set up their Idols in their heart and put the stumbling Block of their Iniquity before their face should I being required answer them Therefore say unto them Thus saith the Lord God Every man of the House of Israel that setteth up his 〈◊〉 in his heart and putteth the stumbling Block of his Iniquity before his face and cometh to the Prophet I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his Idols That I may take the House of Israel in their own heart because they are all departed from me through their Idols 6 This evidently proves that unlesse the Moral Law be duly practised and those stumbling Blocks which the wicked set before their faces removed to seek after such a facile inerrable Rule as the Papists have framed for direction in points of Faith is to solicit a snare for their own Souls as no doubt God gave the Romans for their distast of his Word and that longing after Genulism before mentioned this broken Reed whereon to this day they rely as he had done the Israelites a King in his wrath And though in every Age since the Goths and Vandals over-ran the Empire God hath raised up some poor Michaiah to withstand their state-Prelates Yet those lying Spirits which possessed Ahabs Prophets have ever born greatest sway in that Church seducing Princes and People as they had done Ahab by multitude of Voices to their own Destruction That the Romanists can produce men of great fame and note through many Generations for their defence in some one point or other it skils not much For as God in times past suffered Prophets or Dreamers to take opportunity from their strange Predictions of inticing his people to Idolatry forbidden by his written Law so in every Age his Providence permits men of excellent Gifts and great skill in Scriptures to have yea to seek to establish their plansible Errours under pretences of Revelations secret Assistance or abundant measure of his Spirit that by this means he may try our Fidelity in searching Scriptures and Diligence in trying Spirits as he did the Israelites by such presumptions of Divine Prophesies or Visions And if amongst this great Variety of Opinions I might deliver mine as freely as I willingly submit it to each sober Prophets Censure much more to the Correction of my lawful Superiours I should for ought I yet see to the contrary avouch first that no Christian in any Age but is oft put upon his Trial Whether he love God or the great Ones of this world more Whether he will Confesse or Deny Christ before men Secondly That during these dayes of Peace and Security which we now enjoy our Acquital or Condemnation in both the Two former main Interrogatories stands especially upon our abandoning or abetting their Errours in some points of Danger whose Worth in others we justly admire So much addicted are we for the most part to such mens persons as have been Gods Instruments for our good that upon often experience of those wholesome Medicines wherewith their shops are plentifully furnished we swallow down whatsoever there we find when as perhaps the disease they had to deal with or some other
testimony of the Church whereon all private mens faith must be immediately grounded believing this we shal from it at least conjoyned with Scripture believe all other parts of Gods Word necessary to salvation as wel as the Pope doth these former from the testimony of his publick spirit Wherefore his authority must be unto us altogether as great as the authority of the Godhead is unto him which is far greater unto him then it is or can be to any others for even that which is acknowledged for Gods Word both by him and us must be lesse authentick unto us then the words of this mortal man 11 For though we pardon our adversaries their former absurdities in seeking to prove the Churches authority by the Scripture and the Scriptures by the Churches though we grant them all they can desire even what shal appear in due place to be most false That whiles they believe the Popes particular injunctions or decisions from a presupposal of his universal transcendent authority they do not only believe him or his words but those parts of Gods Word upon which they seem to ground his infallibility yet our former argument holds stil most firm because that absolute Assent which private men must give unto the supposed grounds of their Religion before other portions of Scripture is not grounded upon any preheminencie incident to these words as they are Gods as if they were more his then the rest in some such peculiar sort as the Ten Commandments are in respect of other Mosaical Laws nor from any internal propriety flowing from the words themselves as if their secret character did unto faithful minds bewray them to be more divine then others nor from any precedent consequent or comitant circumstance probably arguing that sence the Romish Church gives of them to be of it self more perspicuous or credible then the natural meaning of most other Scriptures all inspired by one and the same spirit all for their form of equal authority and perspicuitie All the prerogative then which these passages can have before others must be from the matter contained in them and that by our adversaries position is the Churches Infallibility Wherefore not because they are Gods word or were given by his Spirit in more extraordinary sort then others but because they have more affinity with the Roman Lord in late years exalted above all that is called God Father Son or Holy Ghost these places above cited must be more authentickly believed then all the words of God besides As I have read of pictures though not more artificial in themselves yet held in greater estimation amongst the Heathen and freer from contemptuous censure then any other of the same Painters doing only because they represented their great God Jupiter 12 Another difficultie whereunto we demand an answer is whether whiles they assent as they professe not only to the Infallibility taught as they suppose in the fore-cited places but also unto the Infallibility of Scriptures which teach it they acknowledge two distinct assents or but one If but one let them shew us how possibly the Church can be said to confirm the Scriptures if two let them assign the several properties of either whether is more strong whether must be to the other as Peter to his brethren or if neither of them can confirm the other let them declare how the one can be imagined as a mean or condition of believing the other 13 An Hereticks Belief of the Minor proposition in the former Syllogism saith Bellarmin is but weak A Romanists Belief of the same most strong Let this be the Minor Peter feed my sheep or Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith should not fail what reason can be imagined why a Romanists Relief of these Propositions should be so strong and ours so weak The one hath the Churches Authority to confirm his Faith the other hath not What is it then to have the Churches Authority only to know her Decrees concerning those portions of Scriptures If this were all we know the Romish Churches Decrees as wel as the Romanists but it is nothing to know them if we do not acknowledge them To have the Churches Authority then is to Believe it as Infallible and for this reason is a Roman Catholicks Belief of any portion of Scripture more certain and strong because he hath the Testimony of the Church which he Believes to be most Infallible and believing it most infallibly he must of necessity Believe that to be Scripture that in every place to be the meaning of the Holy Ghost which this Church commends unto him for such Let the most learned of our adversaries here resolve the doubt proposed whether there be two distinct assents in the belief of the forementioned propositions one unto the truth of the proposition itself and another unto the Churches infallibility It is evident by Bellarmins opinion that all the certainty a Roman Catholick hath above a Sectary is from the Churches Infallibility For the proposition it self he can believe no better then an Heretick may unlesse he better believe the Church i. e believe the Churches exposition of it or the Churches infallibility concerning it better then the proposition it self in it self and for it self And so it is evident that the Churches authority is greater because it must be better believed 14 Suppose then one of our Church which believes these propositions to be the word of God should turn Roman Catholick his former belief is by this means become more strong and certain This granted the next question is what should be the Object of this his strong Belief the propositions believed Peter feed my sheep I have prayed for thee or anyother part of Gods written word or the Churches authority not the propositions themselves but only by accident in as much as the Church confirms them to him For suppose the same man should estsoones either altogether revolt from that Church or doubt of her authority his belief of the former propositions becomes hereby as weak as it was before which plainly evinceth that his belief of the Church and this proposition were two distinct Beliefs and that this strong Belief was fastened unto the Churches authority not unto the proposition it self immediately but only by accident in as much as the Church which he believeth so firmly did teach it for his Belief if fastened upon the proposition it self after doubt moved of the Churches authority would have continued the same but now by Bellarmins assertion as soon as he begins to disclaim his belief of the Churches infallibility his former strong belief of the supposed proposition begins to fail and of this failing no other reason then already is can be assigned The reason was because the true direct and proper object of his strong belief was the Churches authority on which the belief of the proposition did intirely depend as the conclusion doth upon the premisses or rather as every particular doth on the universal whereunto it
former Precept except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you as peremptorie as any can be for communicating as well sacramentally as spiritually in both kinds it were uncharitable to mistrust Gods mercie towards such poor souls as long for the Cup of Salvation which no man giveth them yea which the Romish Church hath by Decree as peremptorie as she could make denied to all the Laitie without exception to all the Clergie except such as may by a peculiar right challenge his blood as their own by way of exchange because they have made him a Bodie which he had not before 14 Yet is it a small thing with this great Whore to deprive the Christian World of the Lords unlesse she urge it instead thereof to pledge her in the cup of Devils full of the wine of fornication coloured with her adulterate Scriptures authorized no doubt for such purposes Where our Apostle Saint Paul saith that he and his Ministers were Stewards of the mysteries of God the vulgar Roman Edition renders the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latin Dispensatores and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly rendred in this place elsewhere upon carelesnesse rather then any intention of harm as I am perswaded by the Latin Sacramentum Whether upon set purpose of some more learned in that Councel presuming to gull the simple and illiterate by their cunning as Chemnitius probably thinks or whether the mysterie of iniquitie as is more probable wrought unawares in the brains of the ignorant which were the major part and as some have related did oversway the learned uncapable of such impudencie as should give countenance to this ignominious Decree partly from the equivocation of the Latin Dispensatores partly from the synonymical signification which the vulgar hath made of Mysterium and Sacramentum the Beetle-heads have hammered out an interpretation of Saint Pauls words before cited so scurrilously contrarie to his meaning that the Black Dog which is said to have appeared unto Cardinal Crescentius might he have spoken in the Councel could scarce have uttered it without blushing For the Apostle meant such Dispensatores or Stewards as our Saviour speaks of in the four and twentieth of Saint Matthew such as should give their Fellow-servants their just portions without purloining such as daily expected their Masters Return to call them unto a strict Account of their Stewardship For so it is expressely added Moreover or as much as belongs unto our office it is required of Stewards that they be all found faithfull 1 Cor. 4. 2. 15 Not to dispute of the Churches Authority in disposing of Sacraments nor to exagitate the impietie of this decree be the one for the present supposed as great the other as little as they list to make it onely this I would demand of any that is so himself whether he can imagine any men sober or in their right mindes would not assoon have urged that text The fool hath said in his heart there is no God for establishing Atheisme or S. Peters check unto Simon Magus to prove Simonie lawful as derive the Churches authoritie for detaining the least part of the Word of life much lesse the Cup of Salvation from these words Let a man so think of us as of the Ministers of Christ and disposers of the secrets of God What secrets of the Gospel before hid but now to be published to all the World of which the same Apostle elsewhere had said A necessity is laid upon me and wo unto me if I preach it not Of the use or necessity of the Lords Cup not a word in this place not a syllable for the Lord had sent him not to administer this Sacrament but to preach the Gospel of which the Doctrine of the Lords Supper was a part indeed but where expressely and directly he delivers that doth he intimate by any circumstance that either it had been was or might be otherwise administred then according to the patern prescribed by our Saviour at the first Institution Rather his often repetition of these conjunctives This bread and this cup eating and drinking the bodie and bloud c. argue he never thought the one should be received without the other that this prohibition of the Cup was a particular branch of the mysterie of iniquitie not to break out till latter Ages hid from his eyes that had seen the Mysterie it self begin to work As often as ye shall eat this bread saith the Apostle and drink this cup ye shew the Lords death till â—e come Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord. Let a man therefore examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this 〈◊〉 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own dâ—… tion because he discerneth not the Lords Bodie Yet unto the Trent Councel Saint Paul in the former place where he had no such occasion as not speaking one word either of the Doctrine necessitie or use of the Sacraments seems to intimate and that not obscurelie the Churches Authority in dispensing them as the Trent Fathers have done What then might every Minister of Christ every distributer of Gods secrets have used the like authoritie before the Church representative did at least by tact consent approve the practise This place doubtlesse proves either altogether nothing or thus much for the Apostles words are indefinite for their literal sence equally appliable to every faithfull Minister or private dispenser of such secrets not appropriate to the intire publick bodie Ecciesiastick or the Capital or Cardinal parts thereof Of the Corinthians to whom he wrote one said I am Pauls another I am Apollos the third I am of Cephas all boasting in the personal excellencies of their first Parents in Christ as the Papists now do in Saint Peters and his successours Catholick Primacie To asswage these carnal humours in his children their Father that great Doctor of the Gentiles seeks more in this then in any other place of all his Epistles to debase himself and diminish others high esteem either of his own worth or of his calling Who is Paul then and who is Apollos but the Ministers by whom ye believed and as the Lord gave to every man I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase And he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his wages according to his labour For we together are Gods labourers ye are Gods husbandry and Gods building And after a serious incitement of master builders to fidelitie with the like admonition to Gods husbandry or building not to rejoyce in men he concludes as he had begun Let every man esteem us such as I have said
given in Heaven and in earth hath got an interest in the chief Kingdoms of the World disposing such as he can best spare or worst manage to any potent Prince that wil fall down and worship him and his copartner the Prince of darknesse who of late years have almost shared the whole World betwixt them the one ruling over insidels the other over professed Christians And seeing the Pope because his pomp and dignity must be maintained by Worldly wealth and revenews dares not part with the propriety of so many Kingdoms at once as Satan who only looks for honour profered he hath found out a trick to supply his wants for purchasing like honour and worship by his office of keeping S. Peters keys if earthly Provinces or Dominions fail him Gods Word his sons bloud and body all shal be set to sale at this price Fall down and worship him For no man we may rest assured no Nation or Kingdom whom he can hinder shal ever taste of the Lords Cup unlesse they wil first acknowledge lawful authority in him to grant deny or dispose of it at his pleasure which is an homage wherewith the Devil is more delighted then if we did acknowledge him Supream Lord of all the Kingdoms of the Earth for that were as much lesse prejudicial to Christs prerogative royal as a damage in possession or goods would be to a personal disgrace or some foul maim or deformity wrought upon a Princes body CAP. VI. Propounding what possibly can be said on our adversaries behalf for avoiding the force of the former arguments and shewing withal the special points that lie upon them to prove as principally whether their Belief of the Churches authority can be resolved into any divine Testimony 1 UNto all the difficulties hitherto proposed I can rather wish some learned Priest or Jesuite would then hope any such ever wil directly answer point by point For the Readers better satisfaction I wil first briefly set down what possibly can be said on their behalf and after a disclosure of their last secret refuge draw forth thence the dead and putrified darknesse of Romish faith which unto the ignorant and superstitious that cannot uncover the holes and clefts wherein these impostors upon every search are wont to hide it may yet seem to live and breath as the Fable went of S. John the Evangelists body after many years reposal in the grave or as the blinded Jews to this day brag the scepter of Judah yet flourisheth beyond Babylon in Media or some unknown part of India whither no European is likely to resort for a disproval of his relation 2 Unto the Demonstrative Evidences as wel of their error in expounding Scriptures pretended for as of other Scriptures rightly alledged by us against their former or like Decrees they wil be ready to oppose what Bellarmin hath done That the Church must judge of Scriptures Evidence and private errours in expounding it not private men of the Churches expositions Unto the objected dreadful consequences of their decrees could these possibly be erroneous they would regest disobedience to the Church that to disobey it is to disobey God Father Son and Holy Ghost a sin as hainous as mangling of Christs Last Will and Testament as Idolatry On the contrary to obey the Church even in her negative decrees and naked decisions unguarded with any pretence of Scripture much more where this loving Mother for the education of her children wil vouchsafe what she need not to alledge some clause or sentence of Holy writ we obey not the Church only but Gods Word also though not in those particular places which in our judgements either contradict the former or like decrees or else make nothing at all for them yet in texts produced for the Churches transcendent general authority As he that adores the consecrated host in procession because his holy Mother commands him so to do or accounts want of Christs bloud no losse because denied him by her authority although unto private spirits he may seem to contradict that Law Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve doth yet sincerely obey the Holy Ghost and rightly observe the true sence and meaning of these his dictates Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith should not fail Peter feed my sheep Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church From these places once firmly believing the Church possibly cannot erre he must not question whether the the practises by it injoyned contradict the former laws both being delivered by the holy spirit who cannot contradict himself This I take it is the sum of all the most learned of our adversaries can or would reply unto the former difficulties Not to draw faster but rather remitting the former Bonds wherein they have inextricably intangled themselves by their circular progresse in their resolution of faith admit their late doctrine left any possibility of knowing Scriptures acknowledged by both to be Gods word or of distinguishing humane testimonies written or unwritten from divine The present question we may draw with their free consent unto this issue whether their belief of the Churches infallible authority undoubtedly established as they pretend in the fore-cited places can be truly resolved into any branch of the First Truth or into humane testimonies only If into the later only the case is clear that absolutely obeying the Romish Church in the former or like decrees which her authority set aside to all or most mens consciences would seem to contradict Gods principal laws we believe and in believing obey men more then God humane authorities laws or testimonies more then divine 4 The strength or feeblenesse of Roman faith wil best appear if we try it in any one of these joynts Whether by Divine testimony it can be proved that S. Peter had such an universal infallible absolute authority as these men attribute unto the Pope Whether by like infallible testimony it can be proved the Popes from time to time without exception were Peters undoubted successours heirs apparant to all the preheminencies or prerogatives he injoyed Whether either the soveraignty or universality of their authority supposed probable in it self or to themselves or particular injunctions derived from it can be so fully notified to all Christians as they need not question whether in yielding obedience to decrees of like consequences as were the former they do not grievously disobey Gods Word For though the Popes themselves might know this truth by Divine revelation or otherwise their internal assurance unlesse generally communicable by divine testimonies could be no warant unto others for undertaking matters of fearful consequences whereof they doubt not only out of secret instinct or grudging of their consciences but from an apprehension of opposition betwixt the very forms of laws papal and divine 5 First it is improbable that he to whom our Saviour said If thy brother trespasse against thee dic Ecclesiae
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost For the promise is made unto you and to your children And the same day were added to the Church about three thousand souls Saint Paul for Conclusion takes his Farewel of them as no part of his peculiar charge only tels them it was his and his fellow Barnabas duty to admonish them Then Paul and Barnabas spake boldly and said It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles For so hath the Lord commanded us saying I have made thee a light of the Gentiles that thou shouldest be the salvation unto the end of the World And when the Gentiles heard it they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed Thus the Word of the Lord was published throughout the whole Country But the Jews stirred certain devout and honourable women and the chief men of the City and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their Coasts Acts 13. 46. 7 Thus it is as true of graces as natures ordination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the power and efficacy of Christs chief Apostles is restrained unto their proper and limited Sphere God alwayes blessing those endeavours best that are imployed within the precincts of that peculiar charge whereto he appoints us By that which hath been said it may appear that Saint Peters and Saint Pauls prerogatives how great soever were both personal to expire with themselves although a title of supremacy over the Gentiles might be pretended with much greater probabilitie from S. Paul then from S. Peter whose peculiar charge was the Jew as may be yet further manifested by the place most urged for his and his Successors oecumenical jurisdiction bequeathed as the Romanists suppose in these words Peter feed my lambs Peter feed my sheep 8 But the natural circumstances of that place compared with the late exposition of the former deads all their blows thence intended against us ere they can rightly frame themselves to fetch them A little before these words were uttered Peter desirous to approve his excessive love to our Saviour and manifest more then an ordinary desire of his company that had appeared unknown unto him but from Johns notification girt his coat about him and cast himself into the Sea whiles the other Disciples not above two hundred Cubits from Land came by ship to meet him After a short dinner passed as the text seems to insinuate in silence at least not entertained with such variety of discourse as might either interrupt some private intimation made to Peter of future conference or put the former occasion of this following exhortation out of the other Apostles memory our Saviour enjoyns Simon the son of Jona to feed his Lambs and again and again to feed his Sheep He sees him then like a loving Souldier desirous by his adventurous approach unto him to recover his former reputation much impaired by denying him Whether our Saviour check or cherish this desire I question not much lesse determin His speeches with the former circumstances import thus much Thou hast made profession of more then ordinary love unto me of readinesse to lay down thy life for my sake though all others even these thy fellows should forsake me willing I see thee by thy present hazard of it to make thy former words good But wouldest thou have me yet to shew thee a more excellent way I have told thee it long since Thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren SIMON the Son of JONA if thou desire to prove thy self a CEPHAS or testifie the sincerity of thy faith and love which by the powers of darknesse were of late so grievously shaken Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Yea seeing thou thrice deniedst the Shepheard of thy soul I say unto thee the third time Feed my sheep Let the memory of thy fore-passed threefold sin also let this my present threefold admonition excite thee unto triple diligence in thy charge to shew such pitty and compassion as I have shewed to thee unto that lost and scattered Block which have denied me or consented to my crucifying Let thy faithful performance of what I request thee at my farewel be the first testimony of thy love to me to be lastly testified by the losse of thy life which thou didst promise me when I gave mine for my sheep but shalt not pay until thou hast fulfilled this my request Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thine hands and another shall gird thee and lead thee whither thou wouldest not John 21. 18. 9 But here Bellarmin alwayes exceeding witty either to elude Scriptures whose natural meaning is evidently against him or to collect a gulling sence from such as nothing at all make for him would infer that the Possessive Mâ— necessarily refers Peters charge or jurisdiction unto all the flock that called Christ their Lord Owner For seeing after his resurrection there was but one Fold for this great Shepherd to say My sâ—… could not distinguish one sort from another and therefore none to be exempted from Peters oversight But the Flock though One in respect of the Oâ—… which had purchased all with one price did consist of sheep much different in Breeding and Retaining their several Marks some were of the Circumcision others of the Uncircumcision the former had been our Saviours peculiars charge in his life time for he was not sent but unto the lost sheep of Israel these he might with note of distinction call My sheep As if a Shepherd raised to better fortunes should purchase a great many more sheep then he was wont to look to himself and refer both sorts to severall keepers though both to Fold together in the evening he might Signanter say to the one look well to my sheep though both Flocks were his by right of possession but onely the one his by a peculiar relation of former charge or over-sight And thus as we have said before the Jews were committed peculiarly to Saint Peters care Albeit consonantly to the former exposition of both places alledged our Saviour by My sheep might onely intimate his tender care over his flock without distinction that Peter might more carefully feed as many as he could personally look to seeing the proof of his love to his Lord and Master and of his fidelity which had failed did consist herein As for Bellarmines other collections that our Saviour by mentioning his sheep should mean Prelates or Superiours by his little sheep so their vulgar distinguisheth inferiour Pastors by his lambs meer Laicks such as have Fathers but
Hebrew and Syriac as Bellarmin objects but rather his perfect knowledge of Christ as The onelie Rock of Salvation which made him think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek should imply no more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One belonging to that sure foundation whereon the Church is built Would God Bellarmin could plead ignorance in these Tongues for his excuse even he that hath no acquaintance with the Syriack but by the affinity of it with the Hebrew or with neither but from the Common Analogie betwixt them and Modern Tongues destitute of such varietie of formations or Cases as are facile and plentifull in the Greek and Latin cannot be ignorant that Abstracts or Substantives whilest given as names to men are usually equivalent to the concrete or Adjective whereby they are oft-times expressed in Latin as in our English we attribute the Substantive or Abstract name of Countries unto Earls or of Towns unto Barons whom our Soveraigne Lord when he speaks in Latin would call Essexius in English he cals Essex so Roger Mortimer with us is Rogerus de mâ—ri mortuo with Latin Writers Even in the Latin it self wherein the distinction between Abstracts and Concretes or Substantives and Adjectives is obvious and apparant the Fundamentall Abstract or Substantive is given oft-times by way of cognomination to expresse some relation between it and the party denominated from it in value no more then the adjective or denomination in the oblique case so Scipto taken properly or in it direct and primarie signification is a Walking staffe Baculum But attributed to Cornelius the first of that Honourable Familie called Scipiones implies no more then one that had been instar Baculâ— or Scipionis in stead of a rod or walking staffe to his blind decrepit Father so Scropha though attributed in the Abstract unto another Family in Rome imports not that their Ancestors had been Swine or their mother a Sow but onely some particular relation to that Creature The like we may say of Asina and Bestia names of other Roman families And if I mistake not that famous Professor which hight Victoria in the abstract was but Franciscus à victoria de victoria or victorius In like sort although it were true that Cepha in the Syriack did onely signifie a rock or fundamental stone yet seeing all grant that Christ was truly and principally such the same name given unto Simon the son of Iona must imply no more then a denominative reference unto the rock so as if he had been called in Latin Simon Petra or in English Simon Rock this could imply no more then Simon de Petra or Petreus Simon a Rock or of the Rock 2 But whatsoever the Syriack Cephas or the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the place cited do import it will be demanded why our Saviour bestowed this name on Simon the son of Jona at his first coming to him The particular references betwixt him and the rock it self or Chief Stone might be so many as might convince him of curiosity perhaps of folly that would peremptorily or precisely determine what one should give occasion to this denomination Most probable it is that he who knew what was in man did at the first sight of Simon see in him or mean to bestow upon him some extraordinary aptnesse to apprehend the words of eternall life or to descry the Gate of the Lord whereby the righteous were to enter or which is equivalent Christ to be the Chief corner stone spoken of by the Psalmist Herein I willingly assent to Beliarmin that Saint Peter was the first that distinctly did apprehend or at least by confession open the great mysterie of Christianitie and foundation of true Religion God Incarnate in our flesh Thus much the circumstances of that place seem to infer For Jesus when he came unto the coasts of Caesarea he asked his Disciples whom do men say that I commonlie known by the name of the Son of man am and they said some say John Baptist some Elias and others Jeremiah all to this effect that he was some one of the Prophets or as Nathanael in his confession meant such a Son of God as they had been These were in the way but came not neer the main foundation which Peter first uncovers for when our Saviour demands But whom say ye whom I must appoint as chief Builders and principal Parts of that spirituall Temple which is toward that I am Then Simon Peter answered and sad Thou art The Christ The Son of the living God And from his first discoverie of this rock or chief corner stone he might well be denominated a rock or stone as Maximus was named Messala from a town in Sicily so called which he had taken or as we might denominate some famous Mariner from some notable place which he should first discover To this effect doth our Saviour replie unto Saint Peter Blessed art thou Simon the son of Joâ—a for not flesh and bloud not the chief Builders amongst the people but he that laid this pretious stone in Sion hath uncovered the same to thee And seeing thou hast said what should be said and thought of me I onely say of thee Thou hadst not thy name for nought rightly wast thou called a Rock or stone that hast so plainly opened the way unto that very rock whereon I mean to build my Church Had our Saviour meant Peter had been That Rock or were his words to be interpreted as in effect the Papists do He had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ues Petra illa super quam c. But seeing he addes no Emphasis to Peters name but unto petra these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are but an actuall expression or more definite specification of what had been potentially included in the indeterminate transitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 revelaâ—… for where our English reads flesh and bloud hath not revealed It unto thee the original is verbatim hath not revealed to thee to wit that rock whereupon 〈◊〉 build my Church The direct current then of our Saviours speech is thus Blessed art thou Simon the son of Jonah for not flesh and bloud but my Father which is in heaven hath revealed that Rock to thee whereupon I will build my Church against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail whereof thou according to the Omen of thy name long since given by me shall be the first living stone by whom all others shall be squared ere admitted into this spiritual aedifice 3 That our Saviour did not expresly mention any other rock or stone before he said to Simon Thou art Peter doth nothing prejudice this exposition It sufficed that God and the Rock of salvation Messiah the Chief Corner Stone The Christ were then known and yet are held as Equivalent even amongst the learned Papists that the Disciples to whom he then spake did no lesse perfectly know more ready to acknowledge as much as our Adversaries
cause us either through fear of disgrace or other danger skulk or run from mens presence as a learned Hebrician expresseth the Hebrew word rendred by the vulgar non festinabit he shall not hasten or to expresse the full value of both these Apostles speeches by the last and most potent object of shame Believing in Christ we shall not be Found naked in that last day nor wish the Mountains for a covering to our shame but enabled by sure Hope to stand before the Son of man for not ashamed of him before men in this life he will not be ashamed of us in that day Then shall that victory of this spiritual house over the impotent assaults of Hell gates be manifested Thus by Saint Peters own exposition The Son of the living God whom he confessed was that living Stone from whose strength this spiritual house whereof he and his flock were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lively stones becomes so strong To make either Saint Peter or his successors joynt though secondary supporters of this glorious work were to divide our Faith betwixt Christ and Them For it only stands by faith and confidence immediately fastened upon the Foundation or supporters If then we may not so fasten our faith either upon Peter or his successors we can receive no other strength from them then we do from Christs other Apostles and that is only from their Ministerial Function in squaring and fastening us unto this living stone To this purpose saith S. Paul Other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Whosoever was himself builded on him albeit he never heard of S. Peter albeit the doctrines he heaped upon this foundation were but hay and stubble or matter alike apt to take fire yet the flame wherein these idle speculations of his brain were to perish should but singe his clothes not devour his substance because by faith united unto that living stone which without any other intermediate sconce or fence doth quench the flames of hell and keep them from scorching any even the last and uppermost that shall be built upon him unto the worlds end For the same Apostles rule is universal both in respect of time and persons If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him up from the dead thou shalt be saved 8 But did S. Paul by special revelation utter this as a mysterie altogether unknown before unto the faithful Rather by participation of the same spirit which spake in the Prophet he only unfolds the Oracle late expounded I must confesse without distinct apprehension of so good warrant then as is now suggested For the Apostle to prove his former assertion urgeth that place of the Prophet Whosoever believes in him shall not be ashamed So then with S. Paul it is all one to believe in Christ raised from the dead or in the corner stone rejected of men allowed of God And it seems the declaration made unto S. Peter that Christ whom he confessed howsoever a Rock to fall upon to both the houses of Israel was the sure Foundation of the faithful which the Prophet foretold should be laid in Sion made his ignorance to say no worse in disswading his master from suffering such disgrace and ignominy of the Elders bigh Priests and Scribes more inexcusable because it had been so plainly foretold that the corner stone was to be basely esteemed of them ere advanced of God Hence our Saviour reproves him so sharply Then he turned back and said unto Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me because thou understandest not the things that are of God but the things that are of men As if he had said shall this Rock become a stumbling stone unto thee also unto whom it was first revealed What I now told thee the Prophet long since foretold It was the Lords doing and should have been marvellous not offensive in thy sight Hast thou never read how the builders must first refuse That Stone which the Lord wil afterwards appoint Chief in the corners From remembrance of this check S. Peter it may be whiles he paraphrased upon this place used not the Psalmists but our Saviours words Ye come saith he as unto a living stone disallowed not by the builders but of men chosen not of the Lord but of God howsoever elsewhere he more fully parallels these two as S. Paul had done Christ crucisied and raised again the stone cast aside and constituted as head of the corner Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazaret whom ye have crucified whom God raised again from the dead even by him doth the man stand here before you whole This is the stone cast aside of you builders which is become the head of the corner neither is there salvation in any other for among men there is given none other Name under heaven whereby we must be saved Then is there no other whose name imported as much as a Rock or stone to support men against all commotions the powers of hell could raise against them 9 So our Saviour takes the husbandmen killing of the Lord of the Vine-yard son and the builders rejecting the head stone of the corner as equivalent First he demands When therefore the Lord of the Vine-yard shall come what will be do to those husbandmen that had slain his son they reply he will cruelly destroy those wicked men and will let out his Vine-yard unto other husbandmen which shall deliver him the fruits in their seasons And this judgement they had given against themselves he ratifies by the like expresse sentence which the Lord already had past upon them Read ye never in the Scriptures the stone which the builders refused the same is made the head of the corner This was the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Therefore say I unto you the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation which shall bring forth the fruits thereof and whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder 10 This may suffice for proof that S. Peters confessing the Son of man to be The Christ the son of the living God was all one with our Saviours declaration Upon this Rock will I build my Church c. because Christ and the livingstone which God had promised to found in Sion are unto sacred Writers and all participants of that spirit by which they wrote The self same Nor is there any thing more usual with the holy Ghost then to refer like speeches of our Saviour unto places of Scripture more different in words then the two former alledged albeit there be no such identity of persons time and place or continuation of discourse to manifest their mutual coherence
how great soever his Authority was the Pope can have have no pretence to be his successor therein For the edification of the people committed to him by our Saviour was to be finished before Ierusalems destruction since which time Israel hath been perpetually scattered amongst the Nations without a shepherd to gather them And when it shall please the Lord as it is probable it will to reduce them to his fold their Ruler shall be of their own people strangers shall have no more dominion over them 3 Had the Pope derived his right from Saint Thomas Rartholomew or other Apostle which have no writings extant this might have yeelded some surmises not so easie to be disproved that Romish traditions did contain the summe at least of all these Apostles unwritten Doctrine if from Saint Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and first planter of faith amongst the Romans as much commended by him as any other of his children in Christ the improbabilitie had been much lesse then now it is in Peters case that the Bishop of Rome if any should have succeeded him But when that people began to grow out of love with the truth fashioning themselves unto this present world the disease whereof Saint Paul forewarned them it was Sathans policie to present unto them longing after such a Monarchical state as their Heathenish Predecessours had such shews of Peters Supremacie and residencie at Rome as by the Divine permission had either crept into some of the Ancients religious cogitations or else in time of darknesse have been shufled by the Predecessors of these cheating mates late discovered into their writings as sit baits to entice them unto this derivation of that absolute power from Peter to their greater condemnation and our good For God no doubt in his providence ordered this their blindnesse to illuminate us as he did the fall of the Jews to confirm the Gentiles in faith seeing of all the Apostles Peters prerogatives as hath been shewed were most evidently personal all to determin with himself unto which observation his own writings also give testimony Even a little before he was to leave the world where he most manifested his earnest desire of preserving his flock found in faith after his death he gives no intimation as shall be shewed more at large hereafter of any Successor unto whom they were to repair His present Epistle he foresaw would be more availeable to this purpose then any Tradition from him I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though that he have knowledge and he established 〈◊〉 present truth For I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to â—… you up by pretting vnto in remembrance seeing I know that the time is at hand that I must lay down this my Tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewea me I will endeavour therefore alwayes that ye also may be able to have remembrance of those things after my departing 4 As for peculiar direction of later times whence perpetual infallibilitie must be derived it cannot be gathered from his writings that he knew so much as his brother Paul did Albeit in this point these two great pillars of Christs Church more famous then all their fellow Apostles besides for present efficacie of their personal ministerie come far behind the Disciple whom Jesus loved whose written Ambassage was in a peculiar sence to tarry till Christs last coming unto judgement as he himself did unto Christ first coming to destroy Jerusalem and forewarn the Nations Besides the Doctrine of common salvation necessarie for all to know plentifully set down in this Disciples Epistle his Revelations contain infallible directions peculiar to every age And as in some one gift or other every Apostle almost exceeds his fellowes so if amongst all any one was to have this prerogative of being the ordinary Pastor or to have ordinary succeslours as Aaron though inferiour to Moses in personal prerogatives during his life had after his death this doubtlesse was Saint John who ascribes that unto the diligent Expositors hearers or Readers of his Books which the Romanist appropriates to such as relie upon the visible Churches determinations never questioning whether it be that Babylon which Saint John deciphers or no Blessed is he saith Saint John that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophesie and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand Blessed they are that read it with fear and reverence or so affected as this Disciple was for unto such the Lord will by means ordinary by sober observation of the event reveal his secret intent as he did it unto him by the extraordinary gift of Prophesie for the testimoâ— of Jesus is the spirit of Prophesie Revel 19. 10. 5 It is evident the Spirit of God intended to shew Iohn and Iohn to shew the faithfull all the Eclipses that should befall the Church until the worlds end His prophesies since his death were so to instruct the world of all principal events present or to come as Histories do of matters forepast Now as he in our times wherein God inspires not men with Moses spirit is accounted the best Antiquary that is most conversant and best seen in the faithfull Records of time not he that can take upon him to divine as Moses did of the worlds state in former Ages so since the gift of prophesie ceased he is to be esteemed the most infallible teacher the safest guide to conduct others against the forces of hell chiefly heresies or doctrines of Devils that can best interpret him who first descried them and in his life time forewarned the Churches of Asia planted by Saint Paul and watered by him of the abominations that threatned shortly to overspread them and after them the whole visible Church until these later times Doth the Pope then professe more skill in Saint Iohns Revelations then any other If he do let him make proof of his Profession by the evidence of his Expositions But from this Apostle he pretends none at all and we demand but any tolerable proof of succession from S. Peter 6 A supreme oecumenical Head say the Parasites to the Sea Apostolique is as necessary now as in Saint Peters time therefore he must jure civino have a Successour But neither doth Scripture or Reason admit any such Head as they have moulded in their brains either then or now As hath been abundantly proved and their own instances brought to illustrate the probabilitie of such a device contradict them For admit that Christ and earthly Princes stood in like need of Deputie-Governours in their absence would the King of Spain were he to go on Pilgrimage unto his Kingdom of Jerusalem leave but one Deputie over all the Dominions of Spain and Portugal the West Indies Sicilie Naples and Millain Or leaving but one would indue him with such absolute power over all his Subjects in these
either Antichristian blindnesse not to see or impudency of no meaner stock not to acknowledg that the Pope by this mean might appropriate unto himself the honour due unto God play upon his Creator in such sort as if a corrupt Lawyer having evidences committed to his trust should by vertue of them take up rents and let leases to the Land-lords dammage and Tenants overthrow And what is most villanous unto whatsoever prerogatives though most prejudicial to the divine majesty his Parasitical Canonists shal blasphemously entitle this most holy Father The Son of God and his faithfullest servants Apostles or Prophets must be brought forth to abet the forgery as if evidence given in Court by infamous Knights of the Post should in the final day of hearing be produced under the hands and seals of free Barons or other chief Peers of the Land for as was intimated before whatsoever the Pope though in his own cause shall say it must by this doctrine be supposed that Christ doth say the same Yea if it should please his Holiness to avoach ex Cathedra that these words Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melechisedech are truly and literally meant of himself as Christs Viâ—ar or of perpetual succession in Peters Chair the evidence must be taken as upon the Almighties oath who in that place hath sworn as much as these words import but what that is the Pope must judge That then he permits Christ the title of his soveraign Lord and urges others to subscribe unto his laws as most divine is just as if some Polititian should solicit the whole body of a kingdom solemnly to acknowledge one othewise lawful heir unto the Crown for their Monarch most omnipotent and absolute whose wil once signified must be a law for ever inviolable to all his subjects not with intent that he should in person retain such perpetual soveraignty over them but that he might have absolute power to dispose of his kingdom as he pleased unto the worlds end or to nominate others as absolute in his place whilest he spent his dayes as a sojourner in a forrain land Finally not the most treacherous and detestable plot the most wicked Pope that hath been is or shall be could desire to effect but may by this device be countenanced with as great and sacred authority as were the best actions our Saviour ever undertook which as may better appear from what shall be said in the next Section is to make every Popes authority as much greater then our Saviours as their lives and actions are worse then his was 3 Suppose some Devil should possesse the Popes place in similitude of a man as some Papists think the great Antichrist who shall challenge as great authority as the Pope doth shall be a Devil incarnate or the son of a Devil might he not hold his dignity by the same plea the Jesuites make for their Lord and Master Could he not be content to pretend Christs name or succession from S. Peter as Simon Magus might he have obtained what he desired would have done for his own advantage could he not urge the authority of Gods word to confirm his own over it and all that is called Gods If in such a case it might not be permitted men to examin his allegations out of Scriptures how could the devil himself be convinced by Scriptures or deposed from his supremacy thence pretended And can we doubt whether he which makes no other plea then the Devil were he in place might is not that Filius Diaboli The great Antichrist Were we not taught that the sons of this world are wise only in their own generation we might justly wonder that any men indued with natural wit could be so blind as at the first sight not to descrie the politick Sophisins used by the Romanist to cozen Christ of his kingdom As their whole Religion is but the image of the old Roman policy so their main plot of Templum Domini Templum Domini the Church the Church as if all were rebels against Christ that wil not swear absolute fealty to the Church Romish may be most fully paralleled by the like practise of such cunning States-men as having alwayes one eye to the advancement of their own private fortunes live under an absolute Monarch of himself royally minded but not much intermedling in the affairs of greatest moment Opportunity of high place under a king upon what occasion soever thus sequestred that poor mens complaints cannot possesse his ears tempts politicians to effect their own purposes under pretence of his right and to condemn all of treason or disroyalty that will not obey their designs directed in their Soveraigns name though most abhorrent from the disposition of his Royal heart were he acquainted with such lamentable grievances of his poor Subjects as are the usual consequents of Princes gracious Favours upon great Ones The more absolute such a Princes lawful authority the greater is native subjects love unto him is the more may both be abused by such unthankful officers As it is the Soveraign conceit all men have of Christs kingdom which keeps the silly in such servility unto the Pope his pretended agent 4 This is the only difference in these two cases otherwise most like An earthly Prince may live and die deluded of his Machiavillian States men over whom he hath no power after he himself is once subject But Christ lives and reigns a King for ever and though his throne be in the highest heavens beholds the things done on earth He sees and yet suffereth his pretended officers to detain such as love darknesse more then light in grossest ignorance and blind subjection to the Prince of darkenesse and his associates he sees and yet suffers them detain all such as delight in lies more then in truth from acquaintance with his Holy spirit He sees and yet suffers their foulest villanies to be countenanced by his sacred laws he sees and yet suffers his holy name to be abused to the establishing of Antichristian Heresies he sees and yet suffers his glory made a stale for maintenance of their secular pomp He is the keeper of Israel and cannot so slumber as any abuse should escape his notice his indignation shall not sleep for ever but in due time he wil rouse himself as a Lion awaked to take vengeance upon all the workers of iniquity on them above others who have thus usurped his throne on earth taking that judgement during the time of his supposed absence wholly into their hands which beloâ—…nly unto him Even so come Lord Jesu Holy and True and with the breath of thy mouth destroy him that hath destroyed truth and sincerity from amongst the Sons of men SECT III. Containing the second degree of great Antichrists Exaltation in making his authority more absolutely infallible then any the visible or representative Church of the Jews Moses or the Prophets ever had Finally in making it greater then Christs or
dayes they were to undertake what the Priests appointed and to obey his advice at least by cautelous obedience untill the event did prove the truth But neither was this certain manifestation of Gods will so absolutely promised unto the Priests but not living according unto the direction of Gods Law he might fail in his Oracles Nor was this peoples Prerogative above others without all limit that if they lived no better then others did they should as often as they asked counsel of God infallibly know whether the answer were from him or no albeit there were no defect in the Priest For this reason the Lord answered not Saul when he asked Counsel of him neither by dreams nor by visions nor by Urim nor by the Prophets for Saul was now cast off by God not willing to vouchsafe an answer unto his demands which argues that the revelation made to the Priests was also manifested to the party solemnly and in sincerity of heart proposing the questions whereof he desired to be resolved 5 That the Priest had no such priviledge or absolute promise of Gods infallible presence as the Pope challengeth is apparant from the law of temperance prescribed And the Lord spake unto Aaron saying thou shalt not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee when ye come into the Tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die This is an ordinance for ever throughout your generations that ye may put difference between the holy and unholy and between the clean and unclean and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes the Lord had commanded thee by the hand of Moses If these Priests themselves were unholy and unclean they could not infallibly discern between the holy and unholy between the clean and unclean if they lived not according to this they could not teach the children of Israel the rest of Gods expresse lawes much lesse could they infallibly manifest unto them his will in all doubts and controversies But the Pope so absolute is his Prerogative which the Jesuites attribute unto him must be thought to be infallibly assisted by the Holy Spirit albeit he lead a most unhallowed unclean polluted life 6 But for the promise made unto Levi and his seed God himself by his Prophet Malachy most expresly interprets the meaning of it And now O ye Priests this commandement is for you if ye will not hear it nor consider it in your heart to give glory unto my Name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blessings yea and I have cursed them already because ye do not consider it in your heart behold I will corrupt your seed and â—â—st dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn feasts and you shall be like unto it and ye shall know that I have sent this commandement unto you that my covenant which I made unto Levi might stand saith the Lord of hosts My covenant was with him of life and peace and I gave him fear and be feared me and was afraid before my Name the law of truth was in his mouth and there was no iniquitie found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equitie and diâ— turn many from iniquity for the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and theysâ—â—ll 〈◊〉 thâ— law at his mouth As if he had said Such Priests I have had in former times and such might your praises from my mouth and your estimation with men have been had you framed your lives according to the Rules which my servant Moses had set you But were these Priests against whom he here speaks infallible in their doctrine still because Gods promise was so ample unto Levi If they were not why doth Bellarmin bring this place to prove the Popes infallible Authority in teaching divine truths If they were why doth the Lord complain in the words immediately following But ye are gone out of the way ye have caused many to fall by the law ye have broken the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts Therefore have I made you also to be despised and vile before all the people because you keep not my wayes but have been partiall in the law 7 This place alone though many others might be brought clearly evinceth Gods promise unto Levi and his posterity during the time of their priesthood to have been Conditional not Absolute And as Gods promise of Infallibility was unto him and his seed such was the Obedience due to them and their Authority not absolute but conditional and where the precepts may seem universal yet are they to be limitted oft-times by the Condition of the Priests life 8 But sundrie Propositions there be in Scriptures for their Form Universal which are also absolutely true in their proper subject whose full extent or limits not withstanding are not always Evident Whence many mistake in stretching them too far others seeing them fail in some particulars which seem comprehended under the universality of their forme suspect the absolutenesse of their truth and account them rather morally probable or conditionally true then necessary and certain yet are they most absolutely necessary and certain onely their universality is to be limited by their proper subjects This is a common difficulty in all Arts though lesse apparent in the Mathematicks or Metaphysicks or other like abstract contemplative Sciences But in Philosophie as well natural as moral many general rules there be most true and evident to such as know the nature or quality either of the subject or matter whereunto they are applied or of these particulars whence the induction was gathered and yet are obscure and doubtfull unto others who mark the universality of their form not so well acquainted with the nature of those subjects in which their truth is principally and most evidently seen not so able to discern the Identitie or Diversity the proportion or disproportion which other subjects may have with the former but of the triall of rules in Arts if God permit elsewhere I will now instance in Scripture onely what proposition could be for the form more universal what precept conceived in words more general then that of sanctifying the Sabbath In it thou halt do no manner of work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non facies ullum opus The Scribes and Pharisees putting a Religion in the letter of the Law as the Jesuites now do when it may make for their advantage did conclude from the generalitie of this precept that our Saviour brake the Sabbath when he healed the sick upon it Their pretences if we respect the universalitie of the Proposition only were far more probable then the Papist can pick any for their purpose Yet Jewish still in that they considered not the end of the Sabbath which might have limited the universal form of the precept and restrained it unto some kind of works onely for not all but onely all those works which were
Popes cause as they would make all other in Gods they could tell how to limit such commands though delivered in most universal and ample termes This is the matter then which so vexeth their devout hearts and sets them besides themselves with furious zeal in this argument that any Christian should be as wary and circumspect lest he should prove disloyall unto the Creator and Redeemer of mankind as they are lest they should disobey the advancer and supporter of their Order 16 But to come nearer the point and instance in some Precepts of obedience delivered in most general forme Might the literal or Logick note of Universalitie carry away such absolute soveraignty as they contend for far greater reason there is why every father or master should be an absolute Pope over his own familie then why the Pope of Rome should be a father of all Christian Congregations an absolute Judge of Scripture or master over mens faith Saint Paul Col. 2. 20. Commands children to obey their fathers in All things for that is well-pleasing unto the Lord which is as much as if he had said in obeying them you obey the Lord. Again he commands servants to be obedient unto them that are their masters according to the flesh in All things not with eye-service as men pleasers but with singlenesse of heart fearing God Both these precepts are conceived in termes as general as any precept for obedience to spiritual Governours In the Precept concerning wives obedience to their husbands the note of universalitie is omitted for he saith Wives sabmit your selves unto your husbands as it is comely in the Lord not in all things Had the Apostle made any mention of obedience unto spirituall Governours or were there any hope to comprehend Pastors under the name of fathers or masters it would quickly be inferred the note of universality was purposely added by our Apostle in these later precepts that men might know absolute obedience without limitation or examination was due unto the Pope 17 But the Holy men of God whose mouthes alwayes spake out of the abundance of their hearts as the spirit gave them utterance and were not curious to cast their words in such exact scholastick moulds as men addicted to artificial meditations having their brains more exercised then their hearts in Gods word usually do even where they seem to speak most Universally for the Form are to be Universally understood only in that subject or matter which for the present they mind most As when our Apostle commands servants and children to obey the one their masters the other their parents in all things the meaning is as if he had said ye that are christian servants be ye most willing to yield all obedience that is due unto masters ye that are christian children to yield all obedience unto your parents which is convenient for any children to yield to theirs So that the universal note doth rather injoyn a totality of heartinesse and cheerfulnesse a perfection of sincerity in performing that obedience which other children ought to their fathers or servants to their masters then any way extend the object of christian childrens or servants obedience to more particulars then others were bound unto at the least he doth not extend the object of their obedience to any particulars which might prejudice the sincerity of their obedience due unto other commanders whilest he enjoyneth servants to obey their masters in all things he reserves their allegiance intire unto Princes and higher powers Such must be obeyed both by masters and servants by fathers and sons Much more doth God when he injoyns obedience in most ample form unto Kings or spiritual governours reserve obedience due to himself most intire and absolute 18 Yet intire and absolute it cannot be unless it depend immediately and absolutely upon his laws unless it be exempt from the uncontrollable disposal or infallible direction of other authorities Nor can Christ be said our supream Lord unless our obedience to him and those laws which he hath left us do limit and restrain all other obedience due unto any authority derived from him and his laws more then a Prince could be said to be that servants supream Lord or Soveraign which were bound absolutely to obey his Master in all points without examination whether his designments were hot contrary to the publick laws and statutes of his Prince and Country Wherefore as the oath of Allegeance unto Princes doth restrain the former precepts Servants obey your Masters in All things that is in all things that are not repugnant to publick laws nor prejudicial to the Crown and dignity of your Soveraign so must that solemn vow of fidelity made unto Christ in Baptism and our dayly acknowledgement of him for our Soveraign Lord restrain all precepts injoyning performance of obedience to any power on earth and set these immoveable bounds and limits to them Obey thy King and Governour in All things that is in All things that are not repugnant to the laws and ordinances of the Great King thy supream Lord and Governour Whilest thou obeyest him thou doest wel in disobeying them as wel as that servant that takes Arms against his Master in the Kings desence whilest thou disobeyest him all other obedience is rebellion Ye are bought with a price saith our Apostle be not ye the servants of men Service according to the flesh he else-where approves he strictly injoyns for that is freedom in respect of this servitude of mind and conscience in being wholly at any other mans disposition 19 Nor is it more difficult for Christs servants to discern when governours solicit them to disloyalty against him then for servants according to the flesh to know when their masters seduce them unto rebellion so Christian men would fear God as much as natural men do earthly Princes Such as fear God are sure of a better expositor of his laws for fundamental points then servants can have for their Princes The transgression of both are easie to discern in the beginning of revolts or Apostasies but the later more difficult when traitors or usurpers are grown strong and can pretend fair titles unto soveraignties or coin false pedegrees yet it is not impossible for sober and observant spirits in such a case to foresee what party to follow unto such the Signs of the time and carriage of the several causes will bewray who have the true title But this difficulty is in none in our spiritual obedience challenged by the Church of Rome for that Church in words confesseth Christ to be the true King and supream Lord no usurper which is as much as to say the Pope is an usurper and a rebel that dares in deeds and substance challenge the soveraignty from him as you heard in the former dispute by making claim to this unlimited unreserved obedience Upon what grounds especially we are now to examin by these rules hitherto discussed CAP. XII The authority of the Sanhedrim not so
to the right hand or to the left Was he to take all this pains only that he might learn to execute the Priests indefinite sentence This any heathen might have done But the Kings of Israel albeit they were not to meddle in the execution of the Priests office were not withstanding to be so well skilled in Scriptures as to be able to judge whether the Priest did according to that Law which God had set him to follow and to controle his definitive sentence if it were evidently contrary to Gods word which both were absolutely bound to obey 5 It may perhaps here be objected that the King had no such assurance of infallibility in judgement as the Priest had and therefore it was requisite he should rely upon the Priests definitive sentence What construction then can any Jesuite make of these words A divine sentence shall be in the lips of the King his mouth shall not transgress he saith not in execution of judgement given by the Priests but in judgement given by himself seeing it is an abomination to Kings to commit wickednesse for the throne is established by justice And again ‖ Righteous lips such as the Priests should and might have been but usually were not are the delight of Kings and the King loveth him that speaketh right things This place if we respect either the abstract form of precept or plenitude of Gods promise for abiliment to perform it is more plain and peremptory for the Kings then any can be brought for the High Priests infallibility in giving definitive sentence yet doth it not necessarily infer Kings shall not but rather shews that they should not or that they might not at any time erre in judgment so they would stedfastly follow those rules which God hath prescribed them For when God saith A divine sentence shall be in the lips of Kings this speech doth no more argue a perpetual certainty in giving righteous sentence then if he had said A corrupt or erroneous sentence shall not be in the lips of the King or his mouth shall not transgresse in judgement For as that which God saith shall not be done oft-times is done so may that which God saith shall be done be oft-times left undone Who is he then would make this collection God saith Thou shalt not steal that is no man shall steal ergo there can be no thieves no theft committed yet is our adversaries collection as foolish The Priests lips shall preserve knowledge Ergo they cannot erre in giving definitive sentence as again The spirit shall lead you into all truth they shall be all taught of God therefore the Church shall be infallibly taught by the spirit and shall as infallibly teach others live they as they list 6 These places shew what should be done and what God for his part will infallibly perform so men would be obedient to his word but neither do these or any of like nature include any infallibility of not erring without performance of due obedience in practise of life nor do they necessarily conclude that men alwayes shall perform such obedience The most which they infer is this that Governours by duty are bound to perform that performing such obedience in practise of life they might be freer from errour in their doctrine or difinitive sentence And it was abstinence and integrity of life that was to preserve sincerity of judgement in Princes as well as Priests lips for which reason Princes had their precepts of temperance answerable to those rules prescribed for the Priests So Solomon teacheth kings Give not thy strength unto a woman nor thy wayes this is to destroy Kings it is not for Kings O Lemuel it is not for Kings to drink wine nor for â—rinces strong drink lest he drink and forget the decree and change the judgement of all the children of affliction This place evidently shews that if their Princes were of riotous or intemperate lives they had no promise that they should not pervert the judgement of the children of affliction The conclusion hence arising is all the places that can be brought either for the King or Priests authority rather shew what manner of men they should be both in life and judgement then â—…ure them of any infallibility of judgement if they be dissolute in life This was a point never dreamt of by any before the Popes notoriously infamous lives did discredit the Titles of sanctity and infallibility which from a concert of their predecessors integrity they have usurped and inforced their parasites to frame a distinction of sanctity in doctrine separated from sanctity in life 7 It is questionable where both Priests and Princes of Judah had not an extraordinary priviledge above all other nations both for being infallible in their definitive sentences whilest they lived according to the laws which God had given them and also for their more then ordinary possibility of living according to such laws Gods blessings as is most probable in both thâ—se respects were extraordinary unto their Princes and Priests yet not so mâ—nitely extraordinary that either of them might without presumptuous blasphemy hope for ordinary integrity such as the more civil sort of heathens had much lesse for any absolute infallibility if they were extraordinarily wicked in their lives or unfaithful in their other dealings Even the peoples wickednesse did impair the force and vertue of these extraordinary blesings promised to their Kings and Priests God gave them Priests as well as Princes in his anger such as should be pliable to their humor not such as should infallibly direct them against the suggestions of the world and flesh for their spiritual good So that these gracious promises both for their spiritual and temporal governours sincerity in judgement did depend in part upon the condition of this peoples life 8 The usual Proverb was most true though the words thus inverted Like people Like Priests Thus did the wise Son of Sirach interpret Gods promises both to Priest and Princes †Because Phineas ofâ—leazar â—leazar had zeal in the fear of the Lord and stood up with good courage of heart when the people were turned back and made reconciliation for Israel therefore was there â—…venant of peace made with him that he should be the chief of the Sanctuary and of his people and that he and his posterity should have the dignity of the Priesthood for ever And according unto the covenant made with David that the inheritance of the kingdom should remain to his son of the Tribe of Judah so the heritage of Aaron should be to the only son of his son and to his seed God give us wisdom in our heart to judge his people in righteousness that the good things that they have be not abolished and that their glory may endure for their posterity 9 From what we have said it is most evident that the precepts injoyning obedience unto civil Magistrates are as large and ample as any can be found for obedience unto spiritual
another manner then the Lacedâ—monians did Lycurgus laws were from Apollo For when the Law which enjoyns the worship of one God was given unto the people it did appear as far forth as the divine providence did judge sufficient by strange signs and motions whereof the people themselves were spectators that the creature did perform service to the Creator for the giving of that Law But we must believe as firmly as this people did Moses that all the Popes injunctions are given by God himself without any other sign or testimony then the Lacedemonians had that Lycurgus laws were from Apollo Yet is it here further to be considered that the Israelites might with far lesse danger have admitted Moses laws then we may the Popes without any examination for divine seeing there was no written law of God extant before his time whereby his writings were to be tried No such charge had been given this people as he gives most expresly to this purpose Now therefore hearken O Israel unto the ordinances and to the Laws which I teach you to do that ye may live and go in and possesse the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you Ye shall put nothing unto the word which I command you neither shall ye take ought there from that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you But was the motive or argument by which he sought to establish their belief or assent unto these commandments his own infallible authority no but their own experience of their truth as it followeth Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-Peor For all the men that followed Baal-Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed every one from among you but ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day so gracious and merciful is our God unto mankind and so far from exacting this blind obedience which the Pope doth challenge that he would have his written word established in the fresh memory of his mighty wonders wrought upon Pharaoh and all his host The experiment of their deliverance by Moses had been a strong motive to have perswaded them to admit of his doctrine for infallible or at the least to have believed him in his particular promises When the snares of death had compassed them about on every side and they see no way but one or rather two inevitable wayes to present death and destruction the red sea before them and a mighty host of bloud behind them the one serving as a glasse to represent the cruelty of the other they as who in their case would not cry out for fear He that could have foretold their strange deliverance from this imminent danger might have gotten the opinion of a God amongst the Heathen yet â—… confidently promiseth them even in the midst of this perplexity the utter destruction of the destroyer whom they feared Fear ye not stand 〈◊〉 and behold the salvation of the Lord which he will shew to you this day for the Egyptians whom you have seen this day you shal never see again The Lord shal fight for you therefore hold you your peace Notwithstanding all this Moses never enacts this absolute obedience to be believed in all that ever he shall say or speak unto them without farther examination or evident experiment of his doctrine For God requires not this of any man no not of those to whom he spake face to face alwayes ready to feed such as call upon him with infallible signs and pledges of the truth of his promises For this reason the waters of Mâ—rah are sweetned at Moses prayer And God upon this new experiment of his power and goodnesse takes occasion to re-establish his former covenant using this semblable event as a further earnest of his sweet promises to them If thou wilt diligently hearken O Israel unto the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and wilt give ear unto his commandments and keep all his ordinances then wil I put none of these diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians for I am the Lord that healeth thee As if he had said This healing of the bitter waters shal be a token to thee of my power in healing thee Yet for all this they distrust Gods promises for their food as it followeth cap. 16. Nor doth Moses seek to force their assent by fearful Anathema's or sudden destruction but of some principal offenders herein For God wil not have true faith thunder-blasted in the tender blade but rather nourished by continuance of such sweet experiments for this reason he showres down Manna from heaven I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel tell them therefore and say At evening ye shall eat flesh and in the morning you shall be filled with bread and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God For besides the miraculous manner of providing both Quails and Manna for them the manner of nourishment by Manna did witnesse the truth of Gods word unto them They had been used to grosse and solid meats such as did fill their stomacks distend their bellies whereas Manna was in substance slender but gave strength and vigour to their bodies and served as an emblem of their spiritual food which being invisible yet gave life more excellently then these grosse and solid meats did So saith Moses Therefore he humbled thee and made thee hungry and fed thee with Manna which thou knowest not neither did thy Fathers know it that he might teach thee that man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. 6 Yet in their distresse so frail is our faith until it be strengthned by continual experiments they doubt and tempt the Lord saying Is the Lord amongst us or no Nor doth Moses interpose his infallible authority or charge them to believe him against their experience of their present thirst under pain of eternal damnation or sufferance of greater thirst in hell such threats without better instruction in Gods word and the comfort of his spirit may bring distrusts or doubts to utter despaire and cause faith to wither where it was wel nigh ripe they never ripen and strengthen any true and lively faith Moses himself is fain to cry unto the Lord saying What shall I do unto this people for they be almost ready to stone me As the Papists would do to the Pope were he to conduct them thorow the wildernesse in such extremity of thirst able to give them no better assurance of his favour with God then his Anathema's or feed them only with his Court-holy-water or blessings of wind But even here again God feeds Israels faith with waters issuing out of the rock making themselves eye-witnesses of all his wonders that so they might believe his words and promises nay himself from their own sense
dealt far otherwise with us 7 But doth this defect of faith in him convince the Law of imperfection rather the object of his distrust might have taught him to have believed the perfection of Moses Law which had so often forewarned them of such oppression by their enemies when they forsook the God of their fathers These forewarnings had Gideon believed aright he had not distrusted the Angels exhortation What was the reason then of his misbelieving or rather overseeing that part of the law Not ignorance of Gods word in general for the miracles related by Moses he had in perfect memory What then want of sufficient authority to propose unto him these particular revelations or their true meaning This is all the Romanist can pretend Yet what greater authority could he require then that Angel had which spake unto Gideon Our Apostle supposeth any Angels proposal of divine Doctrines to be at the least equivalent to Apostolical Though we saith he whether Paul or Cephas or which he supposeth to be more an Angel from heaven preach unto you otherwise then we have preached unto you let him be accursed Or if we respect not onely the personal authority of the proposer but with it the manner of proposing Gods word What proposal can we imagine more effectual then this great Angel of the Covenants replie unto Gideons distrustfull answer and the Lord looked upon him and said Go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites have I not sent thee 8 Whether Gideons diffidence after all this were a sin I leave it to be disputed by the Jesuites A defect or dulnesse no doubt it was and onely in respect of the like in us they hold a necessity of the visible Churches infallibilitie unto whose sentence whosoever fully accords not is by their positions uncapable of all other infallible means of divine faith To pretend doubt or distrust of Gods Word once proposed by it yea to seek further satisfaction or resolution of doubts then it shall vouchsafe to give is more then a sin extreme impiety Yet had this great Angel stood upon his authority in such peremptory termes Gideon had died in his distrust For after a second replie made by Gideon Ah my Lord whereby shall I save Israel behold my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least in my fathers house and a further promise of the Angels assistance not like the former have I not sent thee but I wil therefore be with thee and thou shalt smite the Madianites as one man he yet prefers this petition I pray thee if I have found favour in thy sight then shew me a signe that thou talkest with me Depart not hence I pray thee until I come unto thee and bring mine offering and lay it before thee After he had by more evident documents fully perceived it was an Angel of the Lord that had parlied with him all this time erecting his dejected heart with these comfortable words Peace be with thee fear not thou shalt not die He yet demands two other signes before he adventures upon the Angels word But after it is once confirmed unto him by experience of his power in keeping his fleece drie in the middle of moisture and moistning it where was nothing but drinesse about it he is more confident upon a Souldiers dream then a Jesuite in like case would be upon the Popes sentence or blessing given ex Cathedra When Gideon heard the dream told and the interpretation of the same he worshipped and returned to the host of Israel and said Up for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian 9 Nor he nor his people could at any time have wanted like assurance of Gods might and deliverances had they according to the rule which Moses set them turned unto him with all their heart and with all their soul but as far were they as the Papists from admitting his words for their rule of faith The unwritten traditions of Baal were at the least of equal or joint authority with his writings and in deed and action though not in word and profession preferred before them Longer then their assent was by such miraculous victories as Gideon had now gotten over the Midianites as it were tied and fastned to the blessings and cursings of Moses law this stiff-necked generation did neither cleave to it nor to their God But when Gideon was dead they turned away and went a whoring after Baalim and made Baal-Berith their God and remembred not the Lord their God which had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side Miracles after the Law-given were usually either tokens of precedent unbelief or for signes to unbelievers serving especially to put them in mind of what Moses had foretold the attentive consideration of whose predictions wrought greater faith and confidencie in such as without miracles laid this law in their hearts then this people conceived upon the fresh memory of Gideons extraordinary signes and glorious victory 10 The like occasions of such distrust as were observed in Gideon were frequent in those times wherein the four and fourtieth Psalm was written yet the Authour of it is not so daunted with the oppression of his people as Gideon was The manifestation of such reproach contempt and scorn as Moses said should befall them did alwayes animate such as indeed had used the Law as a perpetuall rule to notifie the diversitie of all successe good or bad by the degrees of their declining from it or approach unto it The greater calamities they suffered the more undoubted Experience they had of divine truth contained in Mosaical threats the more undoubted their Experience of their truth upon consciousnesse of their own transgressions the greater motives they had upon sincere and hearty repentance to apprehend the stability of his sweetest promises for their good No depression of this people but served as a countersway to accelerate intend or enlarge the measure of their wonted exaltation so long as they rightly weighed all their actions and proceedings in Moses ballances equalizing their permanent sorrow for sins past unto their wonted delight in transient pleasures 11 Thus when Jeremy more admired then distrusted Gods mercies in tendering the purchase of his kinsmans sield to him close prisoner for denouncing the whole desolation of his Countrey when the Kings and Princes of Judah had no assurance of so much possession in the promised land as to inherit the sepulchres of their fathers the Lord expels not his suspensive rather then dissident admiration with signs and wonders as he had done Gideons doubt or his stiff-necked fore-fathers distrust By what means then by the present calamities which had seized upon the Cities of Judah and that very place wherein his late purchased inheritance lay When he cast these and the like doubts in his mind Behold the Mounts they are come into the City to
take it and the City is given into the hand of the Caldeans that fight against it by means of the sword and of the famin and of the pestilence and what thou hast spoken is come to passe and behold thou seest it And thou hast said unto me O Lord God Buy unto thee the field for silver and take witnesses for the City shall be given into the hand of the Caldeans Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah saying Behold I am the Lord God of all flesh is there any thing too hard for me The Lord had stricken Jacob with the wound of an enemy and with a sharp chastisement for the multitude of his iniquities wherefore he cried for his affliction and said My sorrow is incurable not considering who it was had done all this unto him for because the Lord had killed they must believe he would make alive again Their present wounds inflicted contrary to the rules of politick defence were the best pledges of their future health beyond all hope of State-Chirurgions And this is the very Seal of Jeremiahs assurance from the Lords own mouth Thus saith the Lord like as I have brought all this great plague upon this people so will I bring upon them all the good I have promised them And the fields shall be possessed in this land whereof ye say It is desolate without man or beast and shall be given into the hand of the Caldeans Men shall buy fields for silver and make writings and seal them and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin and round about Jerusalem So absolute and al-sufficient was Moses's his law in particular actions much more in general or doctrinal resolutions that God himself for confirmation of his Prophets and this distrustful peoples faith in a point by humane estimate most incredible thought it sufficient to be a remembrancer to the Law-giver For the Lord here saith to Jeremiah concerning this particular Moses many generations before had universally foretold Now when all these things shall come upon thee either the blessing or the curse which I have set before thee and thou shalt turn into thine heart among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee then the Lord thy God will cause thy Captives to return and have compassion upon thee and will return to gather thee out of all the people where the Lord thy God had scattered thee Though thou wast cast unto the uttermost part of heaven from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee and from thence will he take thee And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed and thou shalt possesse it and he will shew thee favour and will multiply thee above thy fathers By this rule of Moses according to the prediction of Jeremiah doth Nehemiah afterwards frame his prayers to God and direct his enterprise for restauration of Jerusalem We have grievously sinned against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the judgements which thou commandedst thy servant Moses I beseech thee remember the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses saying Ye will transgresse and I will scatter you abroad among the people But if ye turn unto me and keep my commandments and do them though your scattering were to the uttermost part of the heaven yet will I gather you from thence and will bring you unto the place that I have chosen to place my name there Now these are thy servants and thy people c. O Lord I beseech thee let thine ear now hearken to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and I pray thee cause thy servant to prosper this day and give him favour in the presence of this man He saw the truth of Moses divine prediction confirmed by the Kings present grant of his petition and speedy restauration of Jerusalem albeit a Prophet by profession had disswaded the enterprise as likely to prove dangerous to his person CAP. XVIII That the Society or visible Company of Prophets had no such absolute authority as the Romish Church usurps 1 DId the Records of Antiquity afford us any the least presumption to think that absolute belief or obedience might safely be tendered by inferiours as due to any visible Company of men without examination of their proposals by Moses writings since they were extant the society of Prophets in all respects the Romanists can pretend had the most probable title to this prerogative Their profession or calling was publick and lawful their distinction from all others eminent their persons and places of residence visible and known their promises for enjoying the extraordinary presence or illuminations of Gods spirit peculiar many of them venerable for their integrity in civil dealings and sanctity of private life some of them endued with the gift of miracles In all these and many like considerations that fraternity or collegiate society might justly have pleaded all the priviledges a publick spirit can grant to one sort of men before others For if the more or lesse expresse testimony of Gods word for extraordinary assistance of his spirit or the different measure of his illumination or manner of immediate teaching be that which makes some mens spirit more publick then their brethrens this difference was greater between the Priests or Prophets and people of old then since God spake unto the world by his Son yet what Prophet did once intimate the necessity of his proposal for notifying the truth of Scriptures What one did ever bewray the least desire to have his interpretations of them universally held authentick or his particular predictions absolutely assented unto without further trial then his bare assertion without examination of them by Moses doctrine already established 2 Had they been the infallible Church representative had their assertions though given by joynt consent ex Cathedra or in the most solemn manner used in those times been of such authority as the Romanist would perswade us a Councel of their Prelates lawfully assembled is Gods people had stood bound to embrace whatsoever a major part of that profession had resolved upon but this inference though necessarily following the supposed premises the Jesuite I know dare not affirm lest Ahabs bloud untimely shed by confidence in their infallibility cry out against him Yet Bellarmin too wel knowing the liquorish temper of this prâ—â—â—a age for the most part acquainted with none but table-talk Divinity to be such as wil swallow down any doctrine be it never so idle profane or poisonous so it be saneed with pleasant conceit and merriment would put us off with this jest That as in Saxony one Catholicks verdict were to be taken before four hundred Lutherans so should one of the Lords Prophets have been followed in those times before five hundred of Baals And Ahab no doubt had so done had not the Devil taught his Divines then as he hath done Bellarmin and his fellows
manifested to the peoples consciences was to over-sway the contrary proposals of known Prophets though never so peremptory Nor was it impossible for Prophets to avouch their own conceits under the name of divine Revelations more immediately sent from God then the Pope pretends witnesse the †man of God that went from Judâ—h to Bethd seduced by his fellow Prophets faigned revelation from an Angel counselling him to divert into his house contrary to the Lords commandment given before The ones dealing was I confesse most unusual so was the others death yet a lively document to cause all that should hear of it until the worlds â—nd take heed of dispensing with the word of the Lord once made known unto themselves upon belief of more manifest revelations or instructions by what means soever given to others either for recalling or restrainingâ— Hence may the Reader desâ—ry as wel the height of our adversaries folly as the depth of their impiety making their Churches authority which by theâ— own acknowledgement cannot adde more books to the number of the Canon already finished but only judge which are Canonicâ—… which not â—ar greater then theirs was that did preach and write these very books which both we and they acknowledge for Canonical For the Prophets words were no rule of faith until examined and tried by the written word precedent or approved by the event the Popes must be without trial examination or further approbation then his own bare assertion CAP. XIX That the Church representative amongst the Jews was for the most part the most corrupt judge of matters belonging to God and the reasons why it was so 1 â—… Ut was the neglect of Moses law or this peoples inward corruption abounding for want of restraint by it the sole cause of their dulnesse in perceiving or of their errour in perverting the things of Gods spirit This overflow of wickednesse served as a tide to carry them but the continual blasts of such vain doctrine Templum Domini Templum Domini the Church the Church was like a boisterous wind to drive them headlong into those sands wherein they alwayes made shipwrack of faith and conscience The true Prophets never had greater opposites then the Priests and such as the Papists would have to be the only pillars yea the only material parts of the Church representative Not withstanding whom the Fathers had traduced for impostors or Sectaries and oft times murdered as Blasphemers of the Deity or turbulent members of the State the Children reverenced as men of God and messengers of peace unto the Church and common-weal What was the reason of this diversity in their judgement or doth it argue more stedfast Belief in posterity No but more experience of the events foretold oft-times not fulfilled until the Priests and other opposits either coaevals or ancients to the Prophets were covered with confusion The childrens motives to believe particulars oppugned by their parents were greater and the impediments to withdraw their asâ—â—nt from them lesse That the children should thus brook what their fathers most disliked in the Prophets is no more then we may observe in other Writers Few much reverenced in any faculty by posterity but had eager detractors in their flourishing dayes Vicinity alwayes breeding Envy And even of such as did not aemulate them for their skil nor would have been moved with envy at their fame or glory they were not esteemed as they deserved being defrauded of due praise by such of the same profession as better pleased the predominant Humor alwayes next in election to the lavish Magnificats of present times but usually rejected by posterity when that particular humour evermore shorter lived then the humorous began to change Thus in every Faculty have those Authors which most applied themselves to solidity of truth neglecting new-fangle tricks or flashes of extemporary wit endured in greatest request and best Credit throughout all ages as meats strongest and most nourishing not most delicate are fittest for continual diet What the Latin Poet said of his Poems every Prophet might have more truly applied unto his writings Mox tibi si quis adhuc pretendat nubila livor Occidet meriti post me referentur bonores Though clouds of envy now may seem thy splendent rayes to choak These with my ashes shall dissolve and vanish as their smoak What whilst I breath sharp censures blast when my leaf fals shall spring Thy fame must flourish as I fade Grave honour forth shall bring It was a method most compendious for attaining such eternity of fame as the continual succession of mortality can affoord us which is given by another Poet but in Prose Dum vivas virtutem colas invenies famam in Sepulchro He that hunts after Vertue in his whole course of Life shall be sure to meet with Fame after Death but hardly sooner least of all could these Prophets be much honoured in their own Country whilest men of their own profession carnally minded possessed the chief seats of dignity sometimes the best stay and pillars of faith in Gods Church most capable of that infallibility which their proud successors did more boast of Yet were even these seducers alwayes willing to celebrate the memory of ancient prophets because the authority given to their sayings or reverence shewed unto their memory by the present people over whom they ruled did no way prejudice their own dignity or estimation which rather increased by thus consorting with the multitude in their Laudatoes of Holy men deceased Thus from one and the same inordinate desire of honour and praise from men did contrary effects usually spring in these masters of Israel The dead they reverenced because they saw that acceptable unto most and likely to make way for their own praise amongst the people but fear lest the living Prophets should be their corrivals in Suites of Glory whereunto their souls were wholly espoused did still exasperate and whet the malice of impatient minds conscious of their own infirmities against their doctrine which could not be embraced but their estimation must be impaired their affections crossed their politick projects dashed The higher in dignity the Priests and Rulers were the more it vexed them such poor men as the true Prophets for the most part were should take upon them to direct the people Their objections against those men of God their scurrilous taunts and bitter â—… their odious imputations forged to make way for bloudy persecutiâ—… are most lively represented by the like practises of the Romish Clergâ—e â—…d almost as many years against the Albigeans Hussites and geâ—… against all whom they suspect to have any familiarity with the Spirit â—… testimony against them is as authentick as evident only overâ—…gh Gods permission in the worlds sight by prejudice of privateâ—… Thus when poor Michaiah would not say as the King would have â—… the politick State-Prophet Zidkiah son of Chenaanah gave him a â—… the cheek to beat an answer out to
this demand Wehn went the â—… the Lord from me to thee As many a proud Prelate would in like â—… upon his poor brother that should crosse his opinion specially â—…er belonging though but a far off unto the State Sirrha I â—… know your place before whom and in what matter you speak Nor did â—… only but 400. more no otherwise discernable for false Pâ—…â—uch trial as we contend for as if they would have bound the â—… followed most voices in besâ—owing victory perswade the King â—… Ramoth Gilead But my former assertion is fully ratified by â—… reply to the others demand When went the c Thou shah see â—… that day when thou shalt go from chamber to chamber to hide thee â—… but such as were neuters before after they see his 〈◊〉 in Ahabs overthrow did take Micaiah for a Prophet as true as 〈◊〉 â—… 3 In like manner when Jeremy a poor Prophet and Priest of Anathoth had â—… Jerusalem among the Prelates and Prophesied the truth but truth â—… to the State beâ—… â—… upon that City and her towns Pashur the son of Immer the Priest which was appointed governour in the house of the Lord intreats him worse then Zidkiah had done Micaiah He could have flouted him with as good applâ—â—se of his complices as the Inquisitors can a Protestant now â—â—u that can read State fortunes a far off can you tell where you shall lodge your self this next night if you cannot take him for a better prophet that can And by Pashurs Prophesie he was to take up his lodging in his way home in the Stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin near unto the house of the Lord whose desolation he had threatned The like entertainment he found again at the whole multitudes hands but by the Priests and Prophets instigation Now when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord bad commanded him to speak unto all the people then the Priests and the Prophets and all the people took him and said Thou shalt die the death Why hast thou prophesied in the name of Lord saying This house shall be like Shiloh and this City shall be desolate without an inhabitant As if the Church of God could possibly erre or the gates of hell prevail against the splendor of it would the Romish Clergie adde should the Lord send a Prophet with such tidings unto Rome And did they not learn this interpretation of Christs promise unto his Church from the hypocritical Jews their predecessors which made the like comment in Jeremiahs time upon Gods words as pregnant for the High Priests succession as S. Peters Come and let us imagin some devise against Jeremiah for the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor counsel from the wise nor the word from the Prophet come and let us smite him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words Away with the Heretick The manifestation of like affection in the Prelates towards Gods Prophets did embolden Shemâ—… the Nehelemite to write from Babylon unto Zephaniah the high Priest and his associates to this effect The Lord hath made thee Priest for Jeâ—oiada the Priest that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord for every man that raveth and maketh himself a Prophet to put him in prison and in the stocks Now therefore why hast not thou reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth which prophesâ—â—d unto you This captivity is long build houses to dwell in and plant gardens and eat the fruits of them 4 But when Pashur found the Omen of that name which Jeremiah gave him when he and his mates proved indeed Magor-Missabib a terror to themselves and all about them when they saw with their eyes all the miseries there expressed then was Jeremiah held for a true Prophet especially by such as out-lived the captivity to see the truth of his Prophesie for their good as exactly fulfilled as this had been for their harm whilest according to his prediction Shemaiah and his seed were rooted out from amongst Gods people happily replanted in their native soil For from the reasons set down before posterity did alwayes better judge of prophesies then the age wherein their Authors lived at the least the younger and meaner sort of that age which out-lived the event usually better digested their doctrine then the ancient or men of dignity that envied them Credit amongst the people yet were not such as lesse maligned them greater believers universally as was said before but only of some few particulars For if a new Prophet should have risen amongst them he was almost as evil entreated by the present Clergie or others whose humors he contradicted This is evident by the Scribes and Pharisees and the chief Rulers of the Jewish Church in our Saviours time They builded the tombs of the Prophets and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous and said as they verily thought If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the bloud of the Prophets yet made they the people of their own time so mad as to be partakers with them in the bloud of that great Prophet their long desired Messiah the only Saviour of the world Throughout the whole Story almost of the old Testament the truth proposed may appear that the visible Church if it be taken in such a sence as the Romanists take it was the most corrupt Judge either of the truth or true meaning of Gods word that the people seduced by their goodly shews and glorious titles of Moses successors were stil brought into the combination of bloud until they brought upon themselves their postetity and the holy City All the righteous bloud that was shed upon the earth from the bloud of Abel the righteous until the bloud of their Messiah 5 But though their cruelty and hypocrisie be so notoriously known as it even seems to point out the like in the modern Romanist yet some honestly minded wil perhaps demand how the people of those ages wherein the Prophets lived could possibly know the truth of their Prophesies seeing for the most part they saw a major part of men in Ecclesiastick authority bent against them This happily may tempt unsetled minds to think the Lord had determined his Prophets should have Cassandra's Fates never to be believed till remedy were past The peoples mistaking of their predictions was in a sort Fatal yet not necessary but upon supposition of former neglect God sent them Prophets for their good but their wickednesse turned his blessing into cursings their hypocrisie and folly made them so blind that they could not discem The Signs of the Times until woful experience the fools only School-master began to teach them when their time for lore was ended A prudent man saith the wise-man seeth the plague and hideth himself but the foolish go on still and are punished But wherein doth that prudence consist
answer in the Prophets own words as elsewhere he himself did read them then best interpreted by The signes of the Time that John might see by the Event he was The Man of whom Isaiah speaks He whom the Lord had anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor whom he had sent to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the Captives and recovering of sight to the Blind to set at liberty such as were bruised and that he should preach the acceptable yeer of the Lord. The multitude of blind men restored to sight in theirpresence was a good preparative to dissolve that sussusion which had blinded their hearts the releasing of so many from the possession of unclean spirits was an ocular demonstration he was the man appointed to preach deliverance to the Captives plagues and sicknesses then cured by him in great abundance were sure pledges to the observant that he was the great Physitian of body and soul so often spoken of by Isaiah Besides Johns moving this doubt at that very instant wherein such variety of miracles of all or most of which his Disciples one or other were eye-witnesses did concur all so well suited to the severall predictions of Isaiah and these as John could instruct them all unquestionably meant of the Messias was an infallible argument of Gods unspeakable providence in thus disposing times and seasons for their fuller resolution The like disposition of the divine Providence might the ingratefull Nazarites have observed First that when he stood up to read in the Synagogue they should deliver the book of the Evangelicall Prophet before any other afterwards that he should at the first opening light upon that very place wherein his late miracles yet rise in all mens mouthes as appeareth by Saint Mark were fore-told especially if they had diligently marked the meannesse of their own estate the manner of his coming thither moved as the Evangelist saith By the Spirit which as the ‖ Prophet had foretold was to be upon him and did manifest it self at that time by his strange escaping his turbulent country-mens desperate attempts against him This melodious harmony betwixt his works and Gods word already established and this sweet disposition of the divine providence in causing the one sound in mens ears whilest the other were in their eyes were in his heavenly wisdom the best means to establish true and lively Faith he never exacted blind obedience which who so suffers to be imposed upon him by others or seeks to enforce upon himself strives to put out that light of nature or inferiour grace whereby he should view and mark the wayes of God alwayes confirming his truth already revealed by Experiments and Signs of the Time proportioned to them 6 From these instances to omit others the Reader may resolve himself in what sense Christs works are said to bear witnesse of his Divinity or condemn the Jews of insidelity Both which they manifestly did yet not in themselves not as severally considered or sequestred from all Signs of times and seasons but as they involved such concurrence of Gods providence or presupposed such prophetical predictions as have been intimated Every miracle was apt of it self to breed admiration beget some degree of faith as more then probably arguing the assistance of a power truly divine But seeing Moses had forwarned God would suffer seducers to work wonders for the trial of his peoples Faith who besides him that gave them this liberty could set them bounds beyond which they should not passe who could precisely define the compass of that circle within which only Satan could exercise the power he had by that permission Be it granted which is all men otherwise minded concerning this point demand that Beelzebub himself with the help of all his subjects can effect nothing exceeding the natural passive capacity of things created he must be as wel seen in the secrets of nature as these subtile spirits are that can precisely desine in all particulars what may be done by force of nature what not Hardly can we without some admonitions to observe their carriage discern the slight of ordinary Juglers much more easily might the Prince of darknesse so blind our natural understanding as to make us believe were the light of Gods word taken away that were effected by his power which had been wrought by the finger of God that secret conveyance of materials elsewhere preexistent into our presence was a new creation of them 7 For mine own part until I be by some others better instructed I rest perswaded our Saviour taught the same doctrine I now deliver thus much at least Such signs and wonders might be wrought by seducers that such as would gaze on them and trust their own skil in discerning their tricks should hardly escape their snares If any man say to you Lo here is Christ or lo he is there believe it not For false Christs shall arise and false Prophets and shall shew Signs and Wonders to deceive if it were possible the very elect And possible it was to have deceived even these if it had been possible for these not to have tried their wonders by the written word Wherefore necessary it was that which immediately follows should be written for our instruction But take you heed this he spake to his elect Apostles be hold I have told you all things before Much easier it was for such seducers to counterfeit his greatest wonders with deceitful sleights undiscoverable for the present then in these plain distinct predictions of matters so far above the pitch of ordinary observation so to imitate him as time should not detect their impostures nor experience convince them of open folly or their soothsaying of grossest falshood And consequently this very Oracle compared with the event was of more force to establish true Faith then any one miracle he ever wrought considered alone Yea this foolish expectation the Jews had their Messias should work mighty but pompous and vain-glorious wonders did make them not prefashioned in mind to those descriptions the Prophets had made of his first coming in humility undervalew both his true miracles and heavenly doctrine Even such as are said to have believed in him for the works they had seen him do seemed doubtful whether to acknowledg him for some great Prophet or for their long looked for Messias Many of the people saith S. John believed in him and said When the Christ cometh will he do more miracles then this man hath done And as the same Evangelist elsewhere tels us such as had tasted of his miraculous goodnesse and in huge troops followed him for their daily food that had no where to lay his head by night desire a further sign that they might see and believe the father had sent him His late satisfying five thousand hungry souls with five loaves they deemed much lesse then Moses sustaining six hundred thousand so long with Manna a meat
over Satan himself then in Moses over his Schollers the Enchanters especially whiles compared with known Prophesies of the Messias did point him out to be The womans Seed ordained of old to bruise the Serpents head to be the Son of man appointed to erect the everlasting Kingdom foretold by Daniel unto whose and other prophesies he refers his enemies in that speech But if I by the spirit or as S. Luke reads by the Finger of God cast out Devils then is the Kingdom of God come unto you Yet were not all his miracles of this kind thus considered so effectual to confirm the faithful or so pregnant to condemn all unbelievers as the former Rule of Moses For this cause after the former dispute ended he gave his adversaries such a Sign as if it did follow would infallibly prove him to be that great Prophet Moses there speaks of and consequently leave them liable to Gods heavy judgement without excuse for not hearkening unto him Of which hereafter 6 Here I may once for all conclude that the power of doing miracles was as effectual to assure such as did them of salvation as sight of them done was to establish spectators in saving faith But the power of casting Devils out or doing greatest miracles was no infallible pledge of salvation to such as did them much lesse could the acknowledgement of this divine power in them breedful assurance of true faith in others but only serve as a means to cause them rely upon the Law and Prophets as their only rule and to taste and prove the bread of life proffered to them by our Saviour which alone could ascertain them their names were written in the book of life But to proceed by the former rule 7 If others by Experiments answerable to it were known to be true Prophets Christ likewise by his known supereminency in that which approved them was to be acknowledged for The Prince of Prophets Now if we revise the History of the old Testament how few Prophets shall we find endowed with the gift of miracles such as were did exercise their power rather among Idolaters then true professors So when Gods messengers were brought to as open competition with Baals Priests in the King of Israels as Moses had been with the Enchanters in Pharaohs Court Elias makes his Calling as clear as the light by calling down fire from heaven which Baals Priests attempting in most furious manner could not effect but Elias professed thus much before as Baals Priests no question had done so as the event answering to his prediction not to the others did by Moses rule demonstrate him to be them not to be Prophets of the living God But when the like controversie was to be tried between Zidkiah and his four hundred complices on the one part and Micaiah on the other before King Ahab in whom Elias late miracles and later threats had wrought such a distaste of Baal and such a liking of the truth in general as he would not consult either any professed servant of the one or open oppugner of the other for his future successe Micaiah as was observed before appeals to this law of Moses as most competent Judge between such as joyntly did embrace it If thou return in peace the Lord hath not spoken by me as if he had said what Moses there doth he hath not put his word in my mouth And having brought his controversie to this trial he desires the people to contestate the issue thus joyned and he said hearken all ye people From this and many like cases ruled by the former express and pregnant law of Moses Jeremy pleads his warrant being born down by the contradictions of Hananiah a professed Prophet of the Lord as he was but of greater favour in the Court because he prophesied peace unto the present state and good successe to the Projects then on foot Even the Prophet Jeremiah said So beâ—it the Lord so do the Lord confiâ—…ly words which thou hast prophefied to restore the vessels of the Lords house and all that is carried Captive from Basel into this place But hear thou now this word that I will speak in thine ears and in the ears of all the people The Prophets that have been before me and before thee in times past propheted against many Countries and against great kingdoms of war and of plagues and of Pestilence And the Prophet which prophesieth of peace when the word of the Prophet shall come to passe then shall the Prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him Ezechid likewise refers himself to the same trial amongst such as were professed heared of the word in general which they would not obey in particular And to thou art unto them as a jesting song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can sing well for they hear thy words and do them not And when this â—oweth to passe for lo it will come then shall they know that a Prophet hath been among them 8 From these debatements we may gather in what cases the former rule held for certain First negatively it was universally true for he that prophesied any thing which came not to passe did sufficiently prove himself to be no true Prophet but a Counterfeit So did not every prediction of what afterwards came to passe necessarily argue it to have been from God Yet as the force and vertue of many things not such of themselves became evident from vicinity or irritution of their contraries so though God permitted some to foretel strange events for trial of his peoples faith yet this power he restrained when the controversie came to a Formal trial then he caused the true Prophets words to stand whiles the predictions of the false and the Princes bloud which relied upon them fell to the ground like Dagon before the Ark. So as the fulfilling of what the one and frustrating of what the other had said did sufficiently manifest the one had spoken of himself presumptuously the other what the Lord hath put into his mouth Hence is the determination easie what means this people had to discem amongst true Prophets which was That Great one in all things like to Moses First if events foretold did sufficiently testifie of his divine spirit his own witnesse of himself would be authentick because a true Prophet could hardly lie or make himself greater then he was This is an argument which directly confutes such as acknowledge Christ to have been a Prophet sincere in doctrine and mighty in deeds and yet deny him to be The Prince of that profession The great Mediator of the new Covenant both which he often avouched Because the quantity of that spirit whose sincere quality manifested him to be a Prophet would notifie his excessive Greatnesse in that rank and order or more directly to the question 9 The great Prophet there spoken of was to be known by his similitude with Moses who was as the Symbol or
proportional Mean between him and lesser Prophets Other in these few gifts wherein they resembled their father came far short of him Christ in all far exceeded him Others were all of Jacobs line raised up by Gods appointment so to instruct their brethren in doubtful cases as they should not need to consult sorcerers or entertain familiarity with wicked spirits Christ to omit the eminency of his Prophetical function till hereafter besides this common fraternity with his people was in more especial manner Abrahams seed and in particular sort raised up by Jehovah his God by intrinsick assumption into the unity of his person not by external assistance or impulsion of his spirit Ruseâ—… likewise he was in a strict and proper sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from amid this people being as it were extracted out of the pure virgin as the first woman was out of the man by Jehovahs own immediate hand from his cradle to his crosse most exactly answering to that delineation of the Great Prophet and Mediatour to be revealed which was exhibited first in Moses when he stood before the Lord in Horeb. His strange deliverance from Herodian butchery whiles all the Infant males besides did perish was fully parallel to the others exemption from Pharaohs cruelty like to Moses he was in the number of his Disciples in communication of his spirit unto them in admitting them to more special participation of his secrets in the peculiar testifications of his familiarity with God in his fasting in his transfiguration in multitude of miracles But these and the like I leave to the Readers observation 10 The peculiar and proper undoubted notes of the great Prophet there spoken of wil be most conspicuous in our Saviour if we compare him first with Moses then with ordinary Prophets according to that difference the Lord himself made between these and Moses If there be a Prophet of the Lord among you I will be known to him by a vision and wil speak unto him by dream My servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all mine house Unto him wil I speak mouth to mouth and by vision not in dark words but he shall see the similitude of the Lord. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant even against Moses It is said signanter he should see the similitude of of God not God for as the Evangelist saith No man hath seen God at any time so was it told Moses from the Lords own mouth that he could not see his face and live Yet saw this great Prophet more of God then all the Prophets beside Herein then was Christ like unto him but far above him that He was in the bosome of his father not admitted to see his back parts only and hath declared him to the world Moses from the abundance of his Prophetical spirit so perfectly foretold the perpetual estate of his people from the Law given to the time of their Messias as the best Prophets may seem to be but his schollers From participation of that fulnesse which was in Christ hath that Disciple whom he loved far exceeded Moses as wel in the extent weight and variety of matters foretold as in the determinate manner of foretelling them And I know not whether if it were possible to call both Christ and Moses from heaven their presence though more glorious then it was upon Mount Tabor would be more forcible to illuminate the Jew or Athiest then serious reading the books of Deuteronomy and the Revelation comparing the one with the Jews known misery the other with Ecclesiastical Stories the late abominations of the Papacy and Romanists more then Jewish blindnesse The one shews Moses to have been the father of Prophets the other Christ from whose immensurable fulnesse John had that extraordinary measure of the spirit to be The Fountain of Prophesies whose supereminencies and inexhaustible fulnesse may yet be made more apparent by comparing him not with Moses the Symbol or Mean but with the other extream to wit the rank of lesser Prophets 11 It is rightly observed by the Schoolmen Lumen Propheticum erat aliqualiter aenigmaticum these ordinary Prophets illuminations were not so evident or distinct as certain they discerned rather the Proportion then Feature of truth which they saw but as it were through the cover or in the case not in it self And albeit the event did alwayes prove their answers true oft-times in an unexpected sence yet could they not alwayes give such answers when they pleased Nor did the light of Gods countenance perpetually reside upon them as the Suns brightnesse doth by reflexion upon the stars they had their vicissitude of day and night daily Eclipses overcastings many their chief illuminations came but as it were by Flashes Thus Jeremy in the late cited controversie dares not adventure to give the people a sign for confirmation of his doctrine or other more distinct or determinate prediction besides that of the general event about which the contention was That he knew because the Lord had put it into his mouth would in the end condemn his adversarie of presumption But after Hananiah had outfaced him with a sensible sign of his own making breaking the yoak which he had taken from Jeremiahs neck on which the Lord had put it and boldly avouched in the presence of all the people Thus saith the Lord even so will I break the yoak of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel from the neck of all nations within the space of two years the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah again and sends him back with this message to his adversary Hear now Hananiah the Lord hath not sent thee but thou makest this people to trust in a lie Therefore thus saith the Lord Behold I wil cast thee from off the earth this year thou shalt die because thou hast spoken rebelliously against the Lord. So Hananiah the Prophet died the same year in the seventh moneth Not long after this event were both Prince and people of Jâ—dah rooted out of the land the Lord had given them because contrary to Moses adminition they reverenced the Prophet that spake presumptuously and would not hearken unto the words which the Lord put in Jeremiahs mouth Elisha likewise to whom Elias had given a double portion of his spirit in respect of his fellows of all the Prophets unlesse Elias might be excepted most famous for the gift of miracles a lively type of the Messias in raising from death and giving life had his spirit of Divination but by Fits needed Musick to tune his spirits unto it He gave the barren Shunamite a son of death notwithstanding he knew not as the Lord of life did of Lazarus in his absence nor could he by her unusual gesture or strange signs of sorrow distinctly divine the true cause of her coming only when Gehezi went to thrust her away he said as much as he knew Let her
alone for her soul is vexed within her and the Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told it me 12 But from the perpetual and internal irradiation of the Deity bodily or personally such as the Apostle speaks dwelling in Christ and incorporate in his substance this spirit of Prophesie if without prejudice so we may call it did never wain was never Eclipsed alwayes most splendent in him as light in the Moon in the full As he never foretold any thing which came not to passe so could he at all times when he pleased foretel whatsoever at any time should befal his friends or foes with all the circumstances and signs consequent or precedent From this brightnesse of his glory did John Baptist who was sent from God as the morning staâ— to usher this Sun of righteousnesse into his Kingdom become more then a Prophet for distinct illuminations concerning matters to come A Prophet he was in the womb and bare witnesse of that light which enlightneth every man that cometh into the world before he came into it himself or saw this bodily Sun when he could not speak he danced for joy at his presence and at his first approach after Baptism he thus salutes him Behod the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world What Prophet did ever so distinctly prophesie of his passion and so fully instruct the people what was foresignified by the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb yet was John himself secured by the former rule that he spake this by the spirit of the Lord not out of fancy not presumptuously For til this Baptism he knew him not but he that sent him to baptize with water he said unto him Upon whom thâ—â— shâ—lt see the spirit come down and tarry still upon him that is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And he saw it so come to passe and bare record that this was the Sonne of God From this more then Prophetical spirit of John manifested by this and the like testifications of Christ all afterwards approved by the event did the people gather Christ not John to be That Great Prophet mighty in word and deed For after he had escaped the violence offered him at Jerusalem and went again beyond Jordan into the place where John first baptized Many saith the Evangelist resorted unto him and said John did no miracle but all things which John spake of this man were true And many believed in him there For his works sake no doubt but for these as accompanied with the former circumstances of place and Johns predictions John had witnessed he was the Son of God mighty in deed and word and reason they had to think his works were the works of his Father that his priviledges were the priviledges of the only begotten Son and heir of all things when John though a Prophet and more then a Prophet for his portion of the divine spirit was yet restrained by reason of his approach that was before him from doing such wonders as meaner Prophets had done To such as rightly observed this opposition between Johns power in words and his defect in deeds or Christs superabundant power in both the case was plain John was but the Cryer the other in whose presence his authority decreased the Lord whose wayes he was sent to prepare 13 If unto the variety of Christs miracles compared with Johns predictions and other prophesies we joyn his arbitrary usual manner either of foretelling future or knowing present matters of every kind many such as no prophet durst ever have professed to belong unto himself our Faith may clearly behold the sure Foundation whereon it is built That he even he himself who had said by the Prophet I am the Lord this is my Name and my glory will I not give unto another neither my praise to graven Images Behold the former things are come to passe and new things do I declare before they come forth I tell you of them did at the Fulnesse of Time manifest his Glory in our flesh by the practise there mentioned of foretelling things strange and unheard of to the world Prophesies of former times were fulfilled in his personal appearance and made their period at the beginning of his preaching Whatsoever concerns the state of the world chiefly the Gentiles since came from him either as altogether new or was refined and renewed by him For what man among the Nations yea what Master in Israel did from the Law or prophets conceive aright of the new birth by water and the spirit or of that everlasting Kingdom whereunto only men so born are heirs predestinate These were the new things which he only could distinctly declare before they came forth 14 That their Messias was to be this God here spoken of by Isaiah dwelling and conversing with them in their nature and substance might have been manifested to the Jews had they not been hood-winked with pride and malice from that common notion even the most vulgar amongst them had of his divine spirit in declaring secrets and foretelling things to come What one miracle done by Christ did ever take so good effect with so great speed in best prepared spectators as his discovery of Nathaneels heart in presence and outward carriage in so great distance Rabbi saith Nathaneel Thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Though faith be the true gift of God onely wrought by his Spirit yet no question but Nathaneel was more inclined to this confession from the generall notion of the Messias divine spirit even by it he was capable of that promise habenti dabitur And our Saviour highly approves and so rewards this his docility Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the fig-tree believest thou thou shalt see greater thing then these What were they Miracles Yes for so he saith to him and the rest of his hearers Verily verily I say unto you hereafter shall you see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon The Son of Max. Then miracles it seems were more effectual to confirm Faith then this Experience of his Prophetical spirit Not of themselves but joyned with it or as thus foretold by him and foresignified by Iacobs vision which compared with the Event whether that were at his ascension or no I now dispute not did plainly declare him to be The Way and The Door by which all enter into the house of God 15 Upon the first apprehension of like discovery made by him did the poor Samaritan woman acknowledge he was a Prophet and upon his avouching himself to be more then so she takes him indeed for the expected Messias of whom she had this conceit before That when he came he should tell them all things From this preconceived notion working with her present Experience of his divine Spirit able to descrie all the secrets of her heart she makes this proclamation to her neighbours
did his words give life unto his greatest works his Divinations were to his Miracles as his humane soul was to his body And no question but the conception of their Faith that heard him preach was as immediately from those words of eternal life which issued from his mouth as ours is from the Word preached by his Messengers To what other use then could miracles serve save onely to breed a praeviall admiration and make entrance for them into his hearers hearts though his bodily presence at all times was not yet were his usuall works in themselves truly glorious more then apt to dispell that veil of prejudice commonly taken against the meannesse of his person birth or parentage had it been meerly naturall not occasioned through wilfull neglect of extraordinary means precedent and stubborn opposition to present grace most plentifully offered His raising others from death to life was more then sufficient to remove that offence the people took at that speech If I were lift up from the earth I should draw all men unto me To which they answered We have heard out of the Law that the Christ bideth forever and how sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lift up Who is that Son of Man 18 To conclude then his distinct and arbitrary foretelling Events of every sort any Prophet had mentioned many of them not producible but by extraordinary miracles withall including divine testifications of farre greater glory ascribed to him then Moses or any Prophet ever challenged was The demonstrative Rule according to Moses prediction whereunto all visible signes and sensible miracles should have been resolved by their spectators as known effects lead contemplators unto the first and immediate causes on which their Truth and Being depends That Encomium This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear him with the like given by John Baptist Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world unto all such as took him for a true Prophet did more distinctly point out the similitude peculiar to Him with Moses expressed in the forecited place of Deuteronomy literally though not so plainly as most Readers would without direction observe it seeing even interpreters most followed either neglect the words themselves in which it is directly contained or wrest their meaning Unto him shall ye hearken according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly Their request then was Talk thâ—â— with us and we will hear but let not God talk with us lest we die Here the whole multitude bound themselves to hear the word of the Lord not immediately from his mouth but by Moses For whiles the people stood afar off he onely drew neer to the darknesse where God was This their request and resolution else-where more fully expressed the Lord highly commended I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken Oh that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all my commandements alway that it might go well with them and with their children for ever If we observe that increment the literal sence of the same words may receive by succession of time or as they respect the Body not the Type both which they jointly signifie the best reason can be given of Gods approving the former petition and Israels peculiar disposition at that time above others will be this That as posterity in rejecting Samuel rejected Christ or God the second Person in Trinity so here the Fathers in requesting Moses might be their spokesman unto God requested that Great Prophet ordained to be the Author of a better Covenant even that promised womans seed their brother according to the flesh to be Mediator betwixt God and them to secure them from such dreadfull flames as they had seen so they would hearken as then they promised unto his words as unto the words of God himself esteeming him as the Apostle saith so farre above Moses As he that builds the house is above the house And in the Emphasis of that speech Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him purposely resumed by Moses with these threats annexed as if he had not sufficiently expressed his mind in the like precedent Unto ‖ him ye shall hearken The same difference between Moses and the Great Prophet then meant is included which the Apostle in another place expresseth He that despiseth Moses Law dieth without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye he shall be worthy which treadeth under foot the Son of God and counteth the blood of the Testament as an unholy thing Untill the soveraignty of the Law and Prophets did determin that Encomium of Moses did bear date There arose not a Prophet siâ—â—e in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knâ—w face to face but vanished upon the Criers voice when the Kingdom of heaven began to appear The Israelites to whom both promises were made did far exceed all other nations in that they had a Law most absolute given by Moses yet to be bettered by an Everlasting Covenant the Former being as an earnest penny given in hand to assure them of the Latter In respect of Both the name of a Soothsayer or Sorcerer was not to be heard in Israel as in the nations which knew not God much lesse expected a Mediator in whom the spirit of life should dwell as plentifully as splendor doth in the body of the Sun from whose fulnesse ere he visibly came into the world other Prophets were illuminated as those lights which rule the night are by that great light which God hath appointed to rule the day at whose approach the Prince of darknesse with his followers were to avoid the Hemisphere wherein they had raigned In the mean time the testimonies of the Law and Prophesies served as a light or candle to minish the terrors of the night Even Moses himself and all that followed him were but as messengers sent from God to sollicit his people to reserve their alleageance free from all commerce or compact with Familiar spirits until the Prince of glory came in person 19 Thus without censure of their opinion that otherwise think or teach albeit the continuance of Prophets amongst this people were a mean to prevent all occasions of consulting sorcerers or witches yet the chief ground of Moses disswasion from such practises according to the literall connexion of these words The nations which thou shalt possesse hearken unto those that regard the times and unto sorcerers as for thee the Lord the God hath not suffered thee so with those following hitherto expounded The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet was the consideration of their late mighty deliverance by Moses the excellencie of
their greatest wonders seemed but Apish toyes howsoever difficiles nugae And some of these juglers either out of the strength of their own illusions or upon the presumption of their profane skill in deceiving others have adventured to foretell their resurrection but were not able to dissolve the bands of death their everlasting durance in whose prisons hath openly shewed they spake presumptuously that not Mahomet himself the greatest of them was that Great Prophet foretold by Moses What was the reason then the Jews would not the Turks unto this day will not believe in Christ crucified For the inhabitants of Jerusalem Saint Paul hath answered Because they knew him not nor yet the words of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him The same Apostle though indued with the power of miracles yet in that place rather useth Davids words then his own works to prove Christs resurrection Of which that saying of Christ was most truly verified in the obstinate Jews Not hearing Moses and the Prophets so as to be moved by them to true repentance neither were they perswaded though this great Prophet of whom they wrote was raised from the dead again 22 Were we well acquainted either with that manner of interpretation or those prenotions the Apostle supposed as known when he used that testimony of the Psalmist Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee to prove our Saviours resurrection it would not be hard to perswade us Moses words hitherto expounded were as literally meant of Gods raising his Son out of his Maiden grave as out of his virgin Mothers womb And I make no question but the conclusion of S Peters Sermon Unto you whom a little before he had termed children of the Prophets hath God raised up his Son were meant by him of his raising Christ from the dead And yet are these words but an application of the former principal text he there insists upon Moses said unto the Fathers The Lord your God shall raise up unto you a Prophet even of your brethren like unto me ye shal hear him all things whatsoever he shall say unto you And unto this resurrection doth the strict propriety of that phrase from the middest of thee well agree For these things were not done in a corner but in Jerusalem the Metropolis of Judea not without expresse notice given to the rulers Moses indeed foretold his own death and whatsoever other Prophets raised up by God unto this people did foretell came still to passe yet none ever foretold his own raising up But seeing Christ First raising from the virgins womb though most miraculous was yet more private he forewarned the world to expect This Second altogether as powerful but more publick And in it again he is like to Moses raised up by God to be a Saviour of his people out of that Ark which without divine especial providence had been his Tomb. This similitude amongst the rest betwixt Christ and Moses as wel in their later as first birth but especially the notice our Saviour gave unto his enemies of the later hath made them unwittingly Prophets to their wo. For seeing it hath left their unbelief without excuse their last errour concerning his Resurrection is become worse then the first concerning his Birth Neither could have seemed incredible though both most miraculous to this ungratious seed of Jacob had they looked as the Prophet willed them unto the rock whence they were hewn and to the hole of the pit whence they were digged The mighty increase of Sarahs womb no better then dead and strange multiplication of Isaacs seed beyond the posterity of all the people with whom he sojourned did but portend the fruitful of-spring of the Virgins only Son should in number and dignity far surmount the sons and daughters of all the fertile mothers in Judea Isaacs posterity had been great yet able to be numbered by David But his generation who shall declare that was cut out of the land of the living Therefore strang there even of one and him as dead or destinated to death as Isaac was yea of one truly dead that made his grave with the wicked as many as the stars in the skie in multitude in dignity greater and as the sand by the sea store innumerable Mightier was the encrease of that Rock wherein he made his grave whence we are hewen then of that pit whence Israel according to the flesh was digged His exaltation since hath been their fall For seeing they would not believe his predictions as their Lawgiver had commanded the world may clearly see the curse indefinitely there denounced against all such as would not hear fulfilled upon that stubborn generation according to the full extent of S. Peters paraphrase upon it Not one or a feâ—â—only were destroyed out of the people as Korah Dathan and Abiram for disobedience unto Moses but the whole people or nation were utterly rooted out of the land All which with all particular circumstances and signs precedent or ensuing this great Prophet in his life time had so distinctly foretold that if we compare former Prophets with him they may seem to have but dreamed he alone that put these unknown ditties into their heads to have had the perfect skill of right interpreting their meaning CAP. XXII That the method used by the great Prophet himself after his resurrection for planting faith was such as we teach The excesse of Antichrists exaltation above Christ The Diametrical opposition betwixt the spirit of God and the Spirit of the Papacy 1 MOses was to be acknowledged a great Prophet because the whole host of Israel infallibly knew the Lord was with him in all he did every Prophet after him to be known by the Rules which he had given for their discernment Christ Jesus to be taken for The Great Prophet and Mediator of the everlasting Covenant because in words in works in all his wayes exactly answerable to Mosaical and prophetical Characters of the Messiah that was to come This sweet Harmony of legal Types or ancient prophecies as wel with the whole course of his blessed life as with his ignominious and cruel death or manner of his glorious resurrection I should either have esteemed or regarded lesse had not my Saviour himself preferred the assurance of prophetical testimonies before the certainty of their senses that had conversed with him in their life time admitted to conference with him after his rising from the dead For so we read of two Disciples which had seen his miracles heard his doctrine and acknowledged him for a Prophet mighty in word and deed but yet distrusted the report of his resurrection after it had been the second time confirmed by such of their fellows as had doubted with them yea their Master himself had told them as much before his death And had he not good reason then to upbraid them with distrust having now
Ariadna's thread as now it is thought to guide us through the Labyrinth of errors Such was S. Peters love to truth that he would have so fastned it to all faithful hearts as none should ever have failed to follow it in following which he could not erre Doubtlesse had any such conceit lodged in his breast this discourse had drawn it out his usual form of exhortation had been too mild his ordinary stile too low This doctrine had been proclaimed to all the world with Anathema's as loud and terrible as the Canons of any Papistical Councel report 2 But he followed no such deceitful Fables when he opened unto them the power and coming of Christ whose Majesty as he had seen with his own eyes so would he have others to see him too But by what light By Scriptures What Scriptures Peter feed my sheep Nay but by the Light of Prophesie That is a Light indeed in it self but unto private spirits it is no better saith Valentian then a light put under a bushel unlesse the visible Church do hold it out Where did the visible Church keep residence in those dayes In S. Peter I trow How chances it then he saith not fix your eyes on mine that have seen the glory of the Lord and the Prophets light shal shine unto you If by his commendation and proposal it were to shine he had said better thus Ye do well in that you give heed unto me as to your only infallible teacher that must confirm you in the truth of Prophetical Writings and cause them shine in your hearts but now he saith 2 Pet 1. 19. Ye do well in that ye take beed unto the Prophets as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day-star arise in your hearts This light of Prophets illuminated the eyes of Peters faith albeit with his bodily eyes he had seen Christs glory For speaking comparatively of that testimony which he had heard in the Mount he adds We have also a surer word of the Prophets That the Lord hath been glorified in the Mount his Auditors were to take upon his Credit and Authority nor could he make them to see this particular as he himself had done but that Christ Jesus whom he saw glorified in the Mount was the Lord of Glory he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a surer testimony then his bodily sense the light of Prophets This then was the commendations of his flock that they looked upon it which shined as wel unto them as him to all without respect of persons that take heed unto it able to bring them not to acknowledg Peters infallibility but to the day-star it self whole light would further ascertain them even of the truth the Prophets and the Apostles taught For Christ is in a peculiar manner the first and the last in the edifice of faith the lowest and the highest stone in the corner refused by the master builders or visible pillars of the Jewish Church their faith was not grounded up on the Prophets whose words they knew not and not knowing them they knew not him but unto such as raise their faith by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true square and line Chist is both the Fundamental Rock which supporteth and the chief corner stone that binds the whole house of God and preserves it from clefts and ruptures 3 But lest his followers might look amisse upon this prophetical light rightly esteemed in the general S. Peter thought it necessary to advertise them not to content themselves with every interpretation or accustomary acknowledgment of their truth grounded on others relations reports or skill in expounding them or multitude of voices that way swaying This had been as if a man that hath eyes of his own should believe there was a Moon or stars because a great many of his honest neighbours had told him so A thousand witnesses in such a case as this were but private testimonies in respect of that distinct knowledge which every one may have that list That the Lord should preserve light in Coshen when darknesse had covered the whole face of Egypt besides seems unto me lesse strange but more sensibly true then before whilest I consider how in this age wherein the light of his countenance hath so clearly shined throughout those parts of Europe whence the Gospel came to us Ingolstade should still sit in darknesse environed with the shadow of death That her great professor Valentian born I take it within these fourscore years should grope at noon day as if he had been brought forth in the very midnight of Popery or died welnigh three hundred years ago Scarce Scotus himself not Ockam questionlesse though shut up in a prison where no light of any expositor had ever come could have made a more dunstical collection of the Apostles words then he hath done Saint Peter meant one of these Three First that there can be no certain or probable way of expounding Scriptures by our proper wit or industry or Secondly that one or other place of Scripture cannot be rightly expounded by human wit or industry but so compared they rightly may or Thirdly that the Scriptures cannot certainly and infallibly be expounded every where without the sentence of some other common infallible authority which in this respect is to be held as judge of faith in the Church The Apostle he infers did not mean the first or second ergo the third So as the force and wisdom of the Apostolical admonition is this No man by his private industry or study howsoever imploied either he thought not of the holy Ghosts direction or assistance or did not except it no not by any search of Scripture it self can certainly and infallibly understand the doctrine of Scriptures in controversies of which S. Peter in that place speaks not one word but it is necessary he learn this of some other publick authority in the church by which the Holy Ghost speaks publickly and teacheth all His reason follows more dunsticall then the collection it self For the Apostle straight subjoyns As the holy men of God did speak in Scriptures not by human authority but divine so likewise cannot the Scriptures be possibly understood by any human or private industry of this or that man but by some other authority likewise divine by which the holy spirit which is the Author of Scriptures may be likewise the most certain interpreter of Scriptures 4 Had another read thus much unto me and bid me read the Author or his works wherein it was found I should presently have named either Erasmus Moriae Encomium Frishlins Priscianus Vapulans or some such like Comedian disposed in merriment to pen some old Dunces part Cannot the Sun of righteousnesse infuse his heavenly influence by the immediate operation of his spirit or doth his influence want force without conjunction with this blazing Comet or falling star Was it not the authority of this spirit which made S. Peter himself to
erring is more stedfastly to be believed as more credible in it self then either the Canon of Scriptures or any thing therein contained because these become actually credible unto us onely by the Churches Declaration which cannot possibly ought avail for their belief unless it were better believed 6 Perhaps the Reader will here challenge me that this last instance proves not all that I proposed in the Title of this chapter For it onely proves the Popes supremacie is better to be believed then that Christ is come in the flesh that God did ever speak to men in former ages by his Prophets and â—…tter by his Son But this infers no absolute alienation of our belief from Christ seeing even in this respect that we believe the Church or Pope so well we must needs â—elieve that Christ is come in the flesh and that God hath spoken to us sundry ways for thus much the Pope avouâ—â—eth Yea but what if the Church teach us that Christ is our Lord and Redeemer and â—et urge us to do that which is contumelious to his Majesty What if it teach us that these Scriptures are Gods Word and yet binde us by her infallible dâ—â—â—â—es to break his Laws and give his spirit the lye Should we make profession of believing as the Pope teacheth and yet take his meaning to be only such as Marnixius whom we better believe would make it His Holiness would quickly pronounce us Apostat's from the Catholick faith Or if this suffice not the indifferent Reader for satisfying my former promise let him have patience but for a while and I will pay him all 7 Their first main position That no private man can certainly know the Canon of Scriptures to be Gods Word but by relying upon the present Church infers as much as hath been said much more will follow from their second That no man can certainly be perswaded of the true sense and meaning of particular propositions contained in the general Canon without the same Churches testimony unto whom the authentick interpretation or dijudication of Scriptures â—holly belongs Imagine the former parties now fully perswaded of the Scriptures divine truth in general should by the Consistory which late Câ—â—â—chized them be questioned about the meaning of some particular plaâ—â—â— Consist We hope you adore the consecrated host with Divine worship as oft as you meet it in procession Cat. Desirous we are to do any thing that becomes good Christians and obedient Sons unto our holy mother the Church but we cannot satisfie our consciences how this may stand with the principles of Christianity Your Holinesses for which we rest yours unto death have assured us these sacred volumes are the very words of God and his words we know must be obeyed Now since we know these to be his words we have found it written in them Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve It is we doubt our simplicity that will not suffer us to conceive how the consecrated Host can be adored as God without open breach of his commandement For to our shallow understanding there is no necessity to perswade us Christ God and man should be hid in it These words Hoc est corpus meâ—m may bear many interpretations no way pregnant to this purpose And it is doubtful whether Christs Body though really present in the Sacrament should retain the same presence in procession whereas the former commandement is plain We must worship the Lord our God and him only must we serve Consist Ye think this Text is plain to your late purpose we think otherwise Whether is more meet ye to submit your private opinions to our publick spirits or us that are Pastors to learn of you silly sheep Cat. Therefore are your servants come unto you that they may learn how to obey you in this decree without Idolatry well hoping that as ye enjoyn us absolutely to obey you in it so ye can give us full assurance we shall not disobey the Spirit of God in the former great commandement whose exposition we most desire 8 Would these or like supplications though conceived in Christian modesty though proposed with religious fear and awfull regard of their persons though presented with tears and sighes or other more evident signes of inward sorrow find any entrance into Romish Prelates ears or move the Masters of the Inquisition house to forbear exaction of obedience to the forâ—er or other Decree of the Trent Councel Were the Form of the Decree it self unto private judgements never so contradictory to Gods expresse written lawes or the consequence of practizing as it prescribes never so dreadful to the doubtful conscience How much better then were it for such silly souls had they never known the Books of Moses to have been from God for so committing idolatrie with stocks and stones or other creatures they had done what was displeasing to their Master and justly punishable yet with fewer stripes because his will was not made known unto them But now they know it and acknowledge the truth of this Commandement To what end That they may be left without all excuse for not doing it They see the general truth of Gods Oracles that they may be more desperately blinded in wilfull perverting the particulars For what glory could the allurement of silly ignorant men to simple idolatry be unto great Antichrist Let them first subscribe to the written Lawes of the everliving God and afterwards wholly submit themselves to his determinations for their practise and so the opposition betwixt him and the Deity betwixt his injunctions and the Decrees of the Almighty may be more positive more directly contrary The Heathen or others not acknowledging Gods Word at all are rightly termed unbelievers men thus believing the Scriptures in general to be Gods Word from the testimony of the Church and yet absolutely relying upon her judgement for the meaning of particular places are transported from unbelief to misbelief from grosse ignorance to wilfull defiance of God and his Lawes Finally they are brought to know Gods Word that they may doubt in this and like fearful practises enjoyned that so first doubting and afterwards desperately resolving absolutely to follow the Churches injunction against that sence and meaning of the divine decrees which the holy Spirit doth dictate to their private consciences they may without doubt be damned for not abiding in the truth Like their first parents they hear Gods sentence but prefer the interpretations of Sathans first-born before their own because it must be presumed he is more subtle then they Or to referre the two main streames of thâ—s iniquity to their proper heads The first That we cannot know the old or new Testament to be Gods Word but by relying upon the Church makes all subscribers to it real Atheists or Infidels and Christians onely in conceit or upon condition If the Church whose authority they so highly esteem be as infallible as is pretende Heretofore I have
quam à Deo homines avocare ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sui ab intellectu verae religionis avertere cum sint ipsi poenales quaerere quas ad 〈◊〉 comiâ—es quâ—â—â—… en soul fecerint errore participes Hi tamen adjurati per Deum verum à nobis statim cedunt fatentur de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extre coguntur These were the effects of Christs triumph over Satan sure pledges that the strong man was 〈◊〉 cast cut And the like power had not been so manifest before among the Sons of men * * 1 Kings 22. 24. †〈◊〉 5. 15. ‖ 〈◊〉 1◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a â—… * This Law of Deuteronomie holds true in proportion throughout al Ages If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of dreams and give thee a sign or wonder And the sign and the wonder which he hath told thee come to Passe saying Let us 〈◊〉 after other Gods which thâ—u hast not known and let us serve them Thâ—u shalt not â—eaâ—ken to the words of that Prophet or unto that Dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul Deut. 13. 1. †1. Cor. 1. 26. * Phil. 2. 3. †1 Cor. 14. 32. That this 〈◊〉 â—… the 〈◊〉 should rather move all 〈◊〉 Christians to 〈◊〉 all in â—… 〈◊〉 of men then to rely upon any â—… 14. â—… Psal 119. 99. Heb. 3. 5. Psal 119. 100 * That our means for â—iscerning the â—â—â—ginal Causes oâ— O◠〈◊〉 of Conâ—…ns are fully â—â—ui â—aâ—â—nt to the Romish Churches †â—â—llaâ—miâ— lib. 3. de justif cap 3 4. c. disputes so eagerly against this Bishop as might have 〈◊〉 a Censurâ—â—f Irregulâ—…ty had â—e liâ—â—â— in his Diâ—â—esse ‖ Apostolica authoritate inhibemus omnibus tam Ecclesiasticis personis cujuscunque sint ordinis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qâ—â—m â—aiâ— is quocunque honore ac potestate praeditis Praelatis quidem sub interdicti ingressus Eccâ—… que â—uâ—rint sub eâ—communicationis latae sententiae poenis ne quis sine authoritate nostra audeat ullos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glosâ—â—s annotationes scholia ullumve omnino interpretationis genus super ipsius conciliâ— decretis quoâ—… aâ—â— quidquam quocunque nomine etiam sub praetextu majoris decretorum corroborationis aut executiâ—… â—… colore statuere Bullae Pij quarti super confirmatione oecum gener Concil Trident. * Maldoâ—atus censuâ—e of thâ—se men for dissenting as he thinks from their Church is so sharp and peâ—â—â—pâ—oâ—y as might well have caused Contention should his writings have come into their hands Impediunt nos quo â—inus acriter vehemeâ—ter invehamur in haereticos Catholici quidam qui nescio qua imprudentia hereticis se junxerunt Neminem nomino nâ—minem viâ—latae accuso religionis scio Catholicos scio doctos scio religiosos ac probos viros esse sed minimè profecto utilâ—m atque fidelem in hac re operam Ecclesiae navaverunt Quod contra Scripturae sensum contra Patrum omnium inter pretationem contra tacitum iâ—o minime tacitum sed satis superque explicatum consensum Ecclesiae dixerint atque contendeâ—int hoc loco de Sacramento non agi quod ut Benignissimè dicam est Temerarium gravioribus condemnarem verbis nisi crederem viros bene Catholicos Errore magis animi quam vitio in Haereticorum sententiam impegisse Maldonat Comment in sext Johan In this sense Christ is said to have come not to send Peace but a Sword unto the World That this very challenge of this insallible Authority of the Râ—mish Church for ending all Controversies â—â—th necessarily 〈◊〉 the greatest Diâ—…tion from it that can be in all relâ—giâ—us minds * â—… whether from the known or possible fruits of the Romish Churches Means so excellent as is pretended â—… Argument can be drawn to work a prejudicial conceipt in mens minds That it were â—… Authority to their Church before they come to direct examination of the main point what â—… Scriptures * See 〈◊〉 14 â—… 5 c. * Non ignoraâ—at dens multas in Ecclesia exorituras disâ—iculâ—ates circa fidem debuit igitur ju dicem aliqueÌ„ 〈◊〉 a providâ—◠〈◊〉 iste 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non potest elle Scriptura neque Spirâ—aus revelans privatus neque princeps saecularis igâ—tur princeps Ecclesiasticus aut solus aut cerâ—e cum coÌ„silio coÌ„sensu Coepiscoporum Neque enim singitur neque singi potest aliquid aliud ad quod hoc judicium pertinere posse videatur Bellarm. lib. 3. de verbo Dei cap. 9. * Christs Church having by our Doctrine a most infallable written Law and living though but fallible Ecclesiastick Judges is much better provided 〈◊〉 in all matters Spiritual then Politick â—…ties whose Laws as wel as Judges are faluble in matters Câ—vil †The utmost Bounds of all Christian Obedience unto any Authority on earth is only to abide a peaceable â—ial before the lawful Judges patiently to imbrace the Penalty inslicted but not to think about Penalties soever they shall 〈…〉 cause for which 〈…〉 be just or such as shal staâ—â— for good in the day of final Judgement for so earthly Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absâ—lute Authority over our Souls which is Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Adversaries go in t that a Prâ—viâ—cial Councel conjirmed by the Pope is as authentick as a General wherein be were presâ—â—t thâ—ugh a sâ—nt in the other 〈◊〉 acâ—quainted with particular Circumstances or carâ—â—ag of the Connoversie Much more availeable should a Popes Confirmation of such Councels be who were present and uel acquainted with all Occasions or other Circumstances of the Conâ—orersie or the Division Wherefore if Reason without Scripture might divide this Comrover sie it were more 〈◊〉 to have a many Popes as sâ—â—eralyâ—ce Statâ—â—o or Monarchies * Convenit etiam inter nos adversaries Sâ—… intelligâ— debere to Spiritu quo factae sunt id est Spiritu sancto Quod Apostolus Peâ—… Epist 2. cap. 1. doe et cum ait Ho◠〈◊〉 intelligentes quod omnis Prophetia Scripturae propria interpretatione non sit Non enim humana voluntate allata est aliquando Peopheâ—a sed Spirtu Sancto inspirati loquuti sunt Sancti Dei homines Ubi B. Petrus probat non debere exponi Scriptur as ex proptio ingenio sed secundum dictamen Spiritus Sancti quia non sunt scriptae humano ingenio sed ex inspiratione Spiritus Sancti Bel. lib. 3. de verb. Dei cap. 3. †2 Pet. cap. 1. vers 20. 21. ‖ Tota igitur quaestio in â—o posita est ubi sit iste Spiritus Nos enim existimamus hunc Spiritum etsi multis privatis hominibus saepe conceditur tamen cetto inveniri in Ecclesia id est in Concilio Episcoporum confirmato à summo Ecclesiae totius Pastore sive in sun mo Pastere cum Concilio aliotum Pastorum Bellarmin ibid. In this place as he professeth he will not dispute
justlie challenge him of Partialitie and Disobedience in not giving as much to his Authoritie as to the former But as the Truth revealed unto him by the meanest of Gods Servants binds his Conscience to Believe it so the Varietie of other mens Opinions be it never so great the Authors and Favourers of them never so well learned never so stiff and confident in maintaining them ought to be no Motive either to disswade him from assenting unto the Truth known or to discourage him in the industrious and sober search of it by such good Means as God hath appointed for his Calling For there hath been as great Varietie of Opinions in other Sciences and Faculties as in Divinitie yet no later Jesuite nor other learned Papists that I have read or heard of for these diverse hundred years have sought to prove that no man can be certain he knows any thing because many think they know that which they do not Or if any Jesuite will renounce Aristotle and revive the old Academicks Opinion That there can be no certainty of any thing but onely an Opinion our Universities shall be ready to answer him albeit hereby they should disenable their supposed infallible Rule as much as ours In the mean time holding Aristotles Doctrine about the certaintie of Sciences for true they answer themselves in all they can Object against us in this Point For they neither denie a Certaintie in secular Arts because many erre nor do they perswade young students in their Schools to give over their studious and industrious searching into speculative Sciences because many have taken much pains in them to little purpose Nor do they hold it sufficient for good scholars in such matters to relie wholly on other mens judgements without any triall of Conclusions or examination of Arguments according to the Principles of those Sciences which they have professed In a word the Varietie of Opinions hath not yet occasioned them to create a Pope of Arts and secular sciences albeit such a Creature were by their Arguments much more necessarie or at least lesse harmefull in those Faculties then in matters of Religion For in them we have no promise for the assistance of a secret Teacher the true Illuminator of our souls whose Authority is as infallible as the Spirit of Truth Aristotle takes it for an infallible token that there is a Certaintie to be had in Sciences because all men think themselves certain in their Perswasions of things that may be known as well those that know not the Truth but onely think they know it as those that know it indeed If Aristotles Argument which the Jesuites so acknowledge be good then is their Argument in this Cause most absurd Many men say they perswade themselves they know the right sense of sundry places in Scripture when they do not therefore no man no private man no man but the Pope qui neque Deus est neque homo by any search or industrie can be sure that he hath it Whereas by Aristotles reason which indeed is a Rule of Reason the contrarie rather followes That there is a Certaintie to be had concerning the Truth and true sense of Scripture by all such as seek it aright because even such as erre and seek it amisse are strongly perswaded of their Certaintie in it From the same Topick do the Schoolmen and other judicious Contemplators prove a Certaintie of true and perfect Blisse able alone to satiate the greedie Appetite and stay the unconstant longing of mans Soal because even misereants and such as indefatigablie hold on like Dromedaries in those ungracious Courses which in wiser Heathens sight lead directly unto Infalicitie and true Miserie cannot cast away all conceit of Happinesse from which they wander but rather suppose it to be seated in those sensuall Pleasures which they follow Yet would our Adversaries Arguments disprove all Certaintie in apprehension of true Happinesse with greater probaâ—… then they can impeach the assurance of private Spirits in any other point-of Faith as might to omit other reasons be proved by this one Because some of their Popes none of which as they suppose can erre in ordinary matters of Faith never have any tast or apprehension of true Happinesse 4 Of the manner of knowing the true Sense of Scripture occasion will be given us in the last part of this Discourse of the Impediments which trouble most men in this search and of the Original of all Errors in Divine Mrters and the Means to avoid them we shall speak by Gods assistance in the Article of the Godhead Thus much may now suffice that no man ought to be disinayed in seeking or despair to find the true Sense and Meaning of Scriptures in all Points necessarie for him in his Calling because other men much more expert in all kind of Learning then himself have foully erred in this search and finally missed of that they sought For out of the Rules of Scripture already set down when such Temptations shall arise in our brests we may quell them thus They who have gone astray were much better learned then I in all kind of Knowledge It may be they were hence more confident of their Gifts for scientia inslat their excellent Knowledge might puss them up with self-conceit and he that is wisest of all hath said I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and the understanding of the Pruden shall be bid it may be as they were exceeding Wise so they much gloried in their Wisdom but I will seek to glorie onely in the Lord of whom I have received every good Gift I have and will alwaies esteem this best which shall teach me not to rejoyce above that which is meet in any other As they were Prudent so it may be they were Proud and the Scripture saith Deus resistat superbis God resisieth the Proud and such as trust too much to their own conceit As for me I will not be high-minded but fear for the same Scripture tels me Deus dat gratiam humilibus yea grace to understand the true Sense and Meaning of his gracious Promises made in Christ And in confidence of them I will continue these my daily Prayers Lord grant me true unfained Christian Humility and with it grace to know the wonderfull things of thy Law Others have erred of far more excellent natural parts even men of deepest reach and surest Observation It may be as their Wits were stronger and their Understandings riper so their Wills were unrulier and their Desires or Affections greener But O Lord break the stubbornnesse of my Will purifie my Heart and renue a right Spirit within me so shall I see thee and thy goodnesse in thy Word which shall enlighten me to teach thy Waves unto the wicked and convert sinners unto thee so shall thy Law thy perfect Law convert my Soul for thy Testimonies are sure and give Wisdom to the Simple Yea but they who first instructed me in thy Word do dissent
from me in the interpretation of it It may be they have not followed those Rules which thou taughtest them Lord give me grace to meditate aright upon thy Testimonies so shall I have more understanding then my Teachers But what if the most reverend and Ancient Fathers of former times were of a contrary mind O Lord they were faithfull servants in the House and yet faithfull but as Servants not as thy Son and it may be thou didst suffer those thy worthy Servants to go awry to try whether I thy most unworthy Servant would forsake the footsteps of thine anointed Son to follow them but Lord teach me thy Statutes so shall I in this point wherein I differ from them have more understanding then the Ancient Thy Name hath been alreadie glorisied in their many excellent Gifts all which they received of thy bounteous hand and it may be that now it is thy pleasure in this present Difficultie to ordain thy praise out of such Infants mouthes as mine They out of this thy fertile and goodly field have gathered many yeers Provision for thy great Houshold thy Church but yet either let somewhat fall or left much behind which may be sufficient for us thy poor Servants to glean after them either for our own private use or for that small flock which thou hast set us to feed And let all sober-hearted Christians judge yea let God that searcheth the very heart and reins and Christ Jesus the Judge of all mankind give judgement out of his Throne whether in reasoning thus we are more injurious to the Ancient Fathers deceased then they unto the Ancient of dayes and Father of the World to come in denying the free Gifts and Graces of his Holy Spirit unto succeeding as well as former Ages We reverence the Fathers as men endued with an especiall measure of his Grace as men that have left many excellent Writings behind them fit for the instructions of later Ages as well as former They will not honour God as much For their Arguments conclude if any thing Him to have been a gracious God and his Spirit a Guide onely of some few Generations of old but in this present and all late past They make him a God his Spirit a Guide and his Word a Rule onely of the Pope who must be the onely God the onely Guide and his Decisions about Scripture the onely Rule of all other mens Faith yea a Rule of Scripture it self as shall afterwards appear SECT IV. The last of the three main Objections before proposed which was concerning our supposed defective Means for composing Controversies or retaining the unity of Faith fully answered and retorted That the Roman Faith hath no Foundation THE last Objection is Our Church hath no Means of taking up Controversies seeing we permit the Use of Scriptures unto all and every man to follow that Sense of them which he liketh best We do indeed permit every man to satisfie his own Conscience in matters of Salvation and God forbid for by his Apostles he hath forbidden we should usurp any Supreme Lordship or absolute Dominion over their Faith Yet a Christian Obedience unto Pastors we require in the Flock unpossible in our judgement to be performed aright unlesse undertaken more for Conscience then for fear of Punishment And as Obedience if not framed by Conscience can never be sincere so Conscience unlesse regulated by the Sacred Canon man needs be erroneous and alwayes relish more of Superstition then Religion The Gospel we ever esteemed as a gladsom Message of Peace and Salvation and do we by seeking to square mens thoughts and affections unto it prepare their hearts to deadly Warre It is we know and you denie not the Fountain of Life apt to season the waters of Marah and Meribah a Medicine able to allay all bitternesse of Contention and qualifie the poisonous roots of Strife and do we by setting it open for fainting Souls to quench their thirst dig pits of Destruction for them to fall into The Scriptures in general we have proved to be a plain and facile Rule a Light unto mens feet and a Lantern unto their paths and do we by permitting the free Use of it to all first explicated and unfolded by the Dispensers of Divine Mysteries lay stumbling-Blocks in their way not possible to be descried or avoided or spread a snare to catch their Souls in Darknesse we permit everie man to follow that Sense or Meaning of it which his Conscience hketh best but we permit no man to frame the liking of his Conscience to his Lust we teach the contrarie as a Principle of Faith and Christian Obedience If any disobedient Spirits list to contend where they should perform Obedience we know the Church of God hath no such Custome all such Contentions we detest and labour as much as you by all Means lawfull to quell The same Internall Means God 's Word are alike free to both but more used by us which relie more upon them all the Difficultie is about Means External CAP. XXVI Containing the true state of the Question or a Comparison between the Romish Church and ours for their Means of preventing or Composing Controversies 1 THe Question them must be first whether we can as well discern such as read Scriptures as you such as read your Church Decrees with Contentious minds Secondly whether we have Means as forcible and effectual as you have any to reform them or stay the spreading Contagion of their Heresie To begin with the later 2 Such as you discern to be contentious or to dissent from that Doctrine which you conceive or teach for true you threaten with what The Pope or Churches Curse Such as we discern to breed Contentions amongst us or Dissentions from that Truth which we in Conscience think all ought to professe we threaten with Death and Damnation and the terror of that Dreadfull-Day which shall accomplish that we denounced against all 〈◊〉 by whom Offences come Will not the continual preaching of this Doctrine be as forcible to deterre a man from sowing Sedition as the Anniversarie Solemnitie of the Popes Curse Will men Believe a Jesuite from the Pope when they will not Believe Moses and the Prophets nor Christ Jesus himself But you will say although men will not be kept in Order with Peters Keves yet will they dread Pauls Sword or rather if they will not dread the fire of Hell which must but long hence torment their Souls yet will they stand in awe of the fagot alwaies readie in your Church for plaguing Hereticks If this were the best Means to stop mens mouthes from professing what they are in Conscience perswaded the Scripture tels them The Fundamentall Points of Christianitie had never been known either to you or us Christian Religion it self had been martyred with Christs Martyrs But as their Ashes was the fertilest Soil wherein the seed of the Gospel could be sown so was the long and cruel Oppression of
Spirit our Comforter and Instructer have far greater interest in our Souls and Consciences then either Aristotle or Plato or any other Philosopher or Philosophie it self hath in our Opinions or Perswasions 6 But though Gratitude to our God could not move us are those blessed hopes of Immortality so little worth as upon every light or no occasion we should adventure their eternal losse And yet idly desperately and frantickly adventure it we do unlesse such as urge us with solemn subscription to this more then Monarchical Supremacy over our souls enstamped not with any Roman Caesars but Gods own Image Superscription can shew us sufficient Warrant that thus to offer up not only the calves of our lips but even our Faith the best Tribute our hearts can yield wholly into Christs pretended Vicars hands be not a witnesse of our Rebellion against Christ himself the Supream Lord as wel of them that challenge this Authority as of us of whom this servile subjection is exacted All the warrant or Evidence which in this case they can pretend must either be drawn from the Rules of Reason or from the Scriptures the Rule as we contend of Faith which for this reason may justly controul all pretended Rules of Natural Reason And as we have said before if the Pope be as usually he is but homo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a witnesse then both Scripture and Reason teach us that he cannot perceive the things of God nor the Meaning of his Spirit for as our Apostle saith they are foolish unto him And if they be foolish to him then is he as foolish a Judge of them and of all things that must be Spiritually discerned as the meerest natural Idiot would be of natural Philosophie or other secular Arts or Sciences Even to this one place of Scripture uttered by the Spirit of God and the Ministry of that Apostle no sufficient Answer can be given without the evident Testimony of the same Spirit under some Prophets Apostles or Evangelists hand either mitigating or restraining that sense which the words naturally import and we collect whose Probability in it self and Consonancy with other Scriptures are so great that we stand bound by our general Allegiance which we ow unto GODS Spirit to suspect all men for Incompetent Judges or witnesses in matters concerning GOD unlesse we know certainly of what Spirit they are or have great Inducements to presume them of a better Spirit and in more favour with the Spirit of God then they themselves report their Popes to be CAP. XXIX That their Arguments drawn from conveniency of Reason or pretended Correspondency between Civil and Ecclesiastical Regiment do prejudice themselves not us 1 THat this is no general Dictate of common Reason or any part of the Law of Nature Reason and common Sense make evident And we may rest assured hereof in that no Jesuite nor other Stickler for the Popes Authority hath been so impudent hitherto as to avouch thus much That there are some Probabilities or Conveniencies which in Reason might perswade any indifferent man that there must be some one Umpire or Tribunal Seat by whose Authority all Controversies of Religion must be determined BELLARMINE thus goes about to prove GOD was not ignorant that many Difficulties about Faith would arise in the Church What then In Reason then he was to provide his Church of a Judge suppose he were But this Judge cannot be the Scripture nor any private revealing Spirit nor any Secular therefore an Eccesiastical Prince which may determin such matters either of himself alone or at least with the advice and consent of Bishops his Associates Nâ—… hath any yet as nor can any indeed imagin any other to whom the Judgement of these things can possibly appertain 2 That neither the Scripture nor any private man nor secular Prince is this Judge he labours to prove by Arguments whose strength hath been broken in the former Discourses concerning the Obscurity of Scriptures and the Varieties of Interpretations But how cunningly soever his sagacity may seem to have cast about he is at the same default Valentian and Sacroboscus were all of them over-ran the Sent by leaping from one Extream to another without search of the Mean betwixt them for they take it as granted that we deny all living Judges of Controversies because we acknowledge no absolute Infallibility in any Our Assertion is The Scripture is a Law or Rule most infallible whereby every man must judge himself whereby such as are in lawful Authority may judge others for not judging themselves by it but not alwayes infallibly Nor can it stand with the sobriety of Christian Wisdom to expect such a precise determination of all Points disputed much lesse disputable among the learned as might bind all men to an absolute Belief whether explicit or implicit of this or that determinate sense all others excluded Notwithstanding the more conscious any ordinary Judge is of his own or others Fallibility or Facility of erring dangerously if they should take upon them strictly to determin all Religious doubts much more all doubts in matters of Religion that might be moved the more infallibly may he rest assured that many cases of that Quality are very doubtful that in sundry of many Opinions all to his knowledge possible as much may be as probably alledged for any one as for other Now the true and proper Use of an Ecclesiastick Judge or Magistracy is not only to punish Oppugners of Truths either evident in themselves and infallibly Believed of all Christians or generally received by the best and most unpartial Writers in every Age but as wel to moderate mens carriage in Controversies of the former nature sometimes by restraining all peremptory Assertions one way or other all exasperating censures or contumelious contradictions as in difficulties aquipendent betwixt an equality of contrary Probabilities sometimes as in matters not so useful or unto whose search the Signs of times present do not solicit us by enjoyning a general Silence that all may hearken with better attention to GOD alwayes speaking by the ordinary Course of his Providence albeit softly and leasurely yet distinctly and audibly to quiet minds already instructed in that Heavenly knowledge though not simply unto all for many of us can perfectly distinguish mens voices whiles they repeat what in part we know though not whiles they pronounce matters unheard before or altogether unknown to us 3 By this it may appear would our Adversaries make an equal comparison that God hath better provided for his Churches Regiment in matters Spiritual then Common-weales in Temporal First the Scripture is a Rule as al-sufficient for all such Businesses as any Temporal Laws could be for effecting their proper End albeit we should suppose the Lord had dictated them immediately as he did the Scriptures This our Adversaries cannot deny unlesse they doubt whether the eternal Spirit have as great skil in Heavenly matters as
in Secular For as we shewed before he moved Holy men to write the Scriptures that we by them might attain eternal life Secondly besides this most infallible Rule or Law we admit an equal Necessity of Ecclesiastical and Temporal Judges an equal Authority in both to give Sentence viva voce And albeit we deny any absolute Infallibility in either yet the Possibility of not erring we acknowledge so much greater in the Judge Ecclesiastick as his Directory Rule is more certain and Authentical But here I must request these great Disputers of Rome if their Frenzie ome but by fits and admit Lucida intervalla one time or other upon their good dayes or in their sober hours if God send them any to bethink themselves wel what manner of Judge they require in matters Civil or meerly Secular such an one as cannot possibly erre in judgement one whom neither Ignorance lewd Desires nor exorbitant Affections can cause to swerve either from the undoubted Rules of Natural or Civil Equity the fundamental Laws of his Country or the chief Law-givers true intent and meaning If they willingly grant that our Civil Magistracie which they acknowledge lawful and necessary in its kind may sometimes judge wrongfully in Causes by nature most determinable by ordinary course of Civil Justice as for example in condemning Priests and Jesuites or generally in matters of Life and Death with what foreheads can they demand we should Believe the Pope or other Ecclesiastick Judge cannot possibly give erroneous sentence in any matters of Religion many of which are of that nature as can admit no other use of external or coactive Power save only severe restraint of all precise Determinations or curious search one way or other And to admit though in Cases meerly Civil such an absolute inerrable Tribunal from whose censure no man though ready with patience to brook the execution of heaviest bodily doom it could inflict may so much as in the secrets of his Heart or Conscience so far appeal as to examin whether the determination be right or wrong were either secretly to deny or openly to praeoccupate or prevent Christs Final Judgement wherein even Supream Judges shal be judged and all forepast decisions examined by the written Word which these men disclaim for any Authentick Rule of Faith the Right approved the Wrong reversed by Him whose peculiar Prerogative it is though now usurped by the Pope to put a Final End to all controversies viva voce 4 Notwithstanding be it supposed for disputations sake that God had appointed such an Authentick Tribunal as these Drunkards dream of for deciding matters of Religion yet were it most grosse to think might Reason alone without Scripture be admitted Judge there should be but one Supream Tribunal for the whole Christian World Even common Sense were Reason silenced might instruct us that it were much more convenient for every several Kingdom every free State or Societie of men to have such a Consistorie or Supream Tribunal amongst themselves For by the means might all differences in Opinions be far sooner known more narrowly sifted and present notice taken of every Circumstance concerning their Occasions Progresse or Favourers the controversie it self quicklier decided the Offenders more speedily punished and the like occasions better avoided Whereas for every Nation to resort to Rome or for the Pope to send his Legates into every corner of the Christian World would procure great toil and long labour with little successe The causers of contentions or maintainers of Heresies might often die in their Sins before the controversie were examined or the Truth so manifested as might move their to Repentance or recantation of their Errours the Information might be impertinent partial imperfect or false the Opinion or supposed Herenr being happily first set abroach in the presumed Hereticks Countrie Dâ—aleci would be worse understood of the Pope whose Instruction in many principal circumstances must oft-times depend upon disagreeing hear-sayes for his Holiness sees no better his Infallible-ship hears no farther in matters de facto then meaner men his plenarie Power even while he gives Sentence ex cathedra is not able to understand more Tongues then many Linguists may in a meaner seat his Fatherhood understands none besides his mother-Tongue so wel as the natural inhabitants of every Countrie do their own proper native Language Many such Inconveniences might be alledged for which might we chuse what manner of Ecclesiastick Government God should appoint us we should make choice of a Supream Judge in all causes Ecclesiastical at home rather then go to Rome to have them heard If the Controversers were to go from Norway the Seas might be frozen and the enemies possesse the Land The passages from sundrie other places might all be so stopt as we should have greater controversie in going to Rome then that for which we were to go Or if the Election of men for by man is the Pope elected could give such Infallibility to any the manner of such Elections would be much more agreeable to the Rules of Gods Providence and the example of Christs Apostles if all the Congregation which was to relie upon his Infallibility should first make choice of some few most excellent and famous men renowned for Learning and Integritie afterwards all with one mind and one heart pray unto the Lord to shew by lot which was the man to whom he would undoubtedly vouchsafe this infallible Assistance of his Holy Spirit Thus might Reason or common Sense without Scripture be Judge what manner of Government were fittest for Christs Church we could bring far greater Reasons for a multitude of Popes or Ecclesiastical Monarches for one at least in every Nation then either our Adversaries bring or can be brought for one general Monarch over the Universal Church Militant 5 And albeit this challenged large extent of the Romish Churches Authoritie over others were the Authoritie it self otherwise for the Qualitie moderate had been in former times not altogether so unreasonable yet were it at this day to be abandoned as a turbulent device apt for nothing so much as perpetual disturbation of publick Peace throughout Christendom now divided into so many several Soveraignties and governed by so many absolute Princes or States no way dependent one of another And Bellarmin's Reasons brought for to prove the Monarchical government of the Church would with far greater Probabilities infer a conveniencie for a several Monarchical Government in every particular State then for one general Monoâ—rch over all While the Christian World was governed by one absolute Monarch or Emperour and all the peculiar customes or priviledges of several Nations like divers members of the same Bodie conformable one to another by their common subordination to one supream Imperial Law the Vertue of a like Ecclesiastical Authoritie might have been equally diffused throughout the whole Bodie thereof as the splendor of the Sun throughout the whole Hemisphere of the Air and other aetherial and coelestial Bodies
was the Church unto which all must from which none may appeal Or if Peter the Pope if he wil be Peters successor must in cases of controversie appeal unto the Church How is he then as our adversaries contend the Church or such a part of it unto whom all even Peter himself were he alive must appeal Must others appeal to him as Judge in his own cause or he unto himself alone Not as alone but so a late Papists to my remembrance answers Gerson as accompanied with his fellow Consul his Chaire which is to him as Caesar was to Julius and so shal Gods word be to both as Bibulus was to Julius Caesar a meer pretence or bare name of authority nothing else Yet if that word avouch that neither S. Peters or his successors Faith could ever fail in determining controversies we contradict it not the Popes decisions only if we do not in all doubtful doctrines fully rely upon them CAP. VII That neither our Saviours prayers for the not failing of Peters faith Luke 22. 32. nor his commending his sheep unto his feeding John 21. 15. prove any supremacy in Peter over the Church from which the authority of the Pope cannot with probability be derived 1 IS it then probable our Saviours prayers for S. Peter did collate any authority upon him either oecumenical for extent or soveraign for others dependence on it or absolutely and perpetually infallible for time without integrity of life or other condition besides such Cathedral consultation as is required in the Pope to support it Rather the proper effect they aimed at was an extraordinary assistance in the practise of such points as already had been or afterwards should be revealed unto him Our Saviour while he uttered them did clearly foresee all his followers should be sifted by Satan he that professed greatest love and resolution more then all the rest in such fearful sort that without this promised supportance his faith had utterly failed which though afterwards it proved much stronger by this shaking yet whether stronger then was any of his fellows is uncertain most unfit to be disputed Howsoever no circumstance in that place prognosticates or aboads such extraordinary future strength rather all suppose for the present a peculiar necessity of his Masters prayers for him as foreseeing his tripping to use the mildest censure would be so dangerous as the memorial of his recovery might be a perpetual incouragement to all back-sliders against distrust of Gods mercies No man so fit to raise up such as are fallen or wallow in the filth of sin as he that hath firmly apprehended grace from above or rather is so apprehended by it and yet can withall out of a sincere and humble acknowledgement of his relapses stoop lower then others in spiritual graces his inferiours and as it were let himself into the pit of despair wherein sinners lie linking their present frailty in his own forepassed infirmities It much disagrees with my temper ever to exaggerate the sins of Gods Saints yea I think the denial of Christ was lesse sinful in Saint Peter then the like would be in many others that have received lesse grace because the temptation was above measure extraordinary permitted no doubt to this end that he might be a more faithful comforter of his brethren whose faith was feeble crazed or decayed He that hopes with fruit to reprehend or exhort men much daunted or ashamed at the foulnesse of their offences must as far as truth will suffer him acknowledge himself to be a sharer in his own reproofs to have been sometimes tainted with the original of their present grief for so the parties grieved will be lesse jealous and conceit the medicine better Thus the royal host in the Poet cheers up his Princely guest amated at the mention of his infamous ancestors Ne perge queri casusque priorum Annumerare tibi Nostro quoque sanguine multum Erravit pietas nec culpa nepotibus obstat Tu modo dissimilis rebus mereare secundis Excusare tuas Did Parents shame their children stain sweet Prince thy case were mine For Piety sometimes her course did alter from our line The bleminsh though did not descend Let vertue be thy guide So shall thy fame thy Parents faults though Foul and Monstrous Hide 2. By these and like circumstances may our Saviours words But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Therefore when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren be construed most appositely to his meaning What was it then Peter was to strengthen in others That which had been defective in in himself Was that his charity his faith or both We read saith Bellarmin Peters charity did fail that his faith did fail we never read In vain then doth Bellarmin in vain do all his fellows labour to prove our Saviour should in these words ratifie a perpetually indeficient purity of Roman faith for Peter was to repair in others what had been impaired in himself to prevent if it were possible the like fall in such as did or to themselves did seen to stand to convert restore and strengthen such as in like or worse sort had denied their Redeemer With much greater probability might the Romanists seek to establish a perpetual indeficient Christian charity in Peters successors had Peters love or charity only failed But the bad lives and manners of the Roman Clergie would give too manifest evidence against them in this attemp In this respect have these stout challengers taken upon them the defence of a never-failing faith because not so easily confuted For it is a matter very hard I must confesse to prove That faith can never fail which may deny Christ so formally and constantly as Peters did without defect The best is that by their own confession this place can prove the acts or exercises of Roman faith to be no better then S. Peters was in this denial of Christ His offence they grant was foul but his faith without defect So may Popes be monstrously luxurious in their lives but alwayes infallible in their Doctrine Reader consult with thine own heart and give sentence as in the sight of God of the whole frame of their Religion by the foundation and of the foundation such as they willingly acknowledge faith to be of all true Religion and every Christian vertue by Bellarmins testimony If Peter became as they pretend the Fundamental Rock by confessing that Religion doubtlesse which hath no better ground of infallibility then Peters Faith not secured from a threefold denial of Christ was first planted by the Spirit of Error and of Antichrist 3 Not to dispute any longer what it was but who they were S. Peter was to strengthen all without exception This justly may seem impossible seeing the exercise of his Ministery could not extend to all Nations much lesse unto all ages Yet these words bequeath no hereditary royal jurisdiction over all persons but rather injoyn personal acts
of penitency unto Saint Peter for his former personal offence He had found extraordinary mercy at his Lord and Masters hands and was to communicate the like unto his fellow servants more guilty of his offence Christ after his faith had failed did convert and strengthen him against the like temptation and he converted was commanded to convert and strengthen others Whom Not such as by conversion might become his brethren or rather his children in Christ but rather such as were hewn out of the same rock and could truly call Abraham their father Sarah their Mother joint professors with him of Moses Law and the Prophets more then his brethren and associates in denying him of whom Moses and all the Prophets bare testimony 4 To subtract all matter of calumniation from men too much disposed to cavil without any probable cause or just occasion notwithstanding his threefold denial of Christ I deny not a triple or quadruple prerogative in Peter in respect of Christs other Apostles yet consisting not in any authority more infallible in it self or more soveraign for superiority over such as were to depend upon him as a chief messenger of the Lord of Hosts but in an extradinary efficacie of his ordinary Apostle-ship In what respect then was his ordinary Ministrie or Apostle-ship so extraordinarily powerful In respect of the universal Church throughout all Ages or of the Jewish Synagogue for the time being only S. Paul confutes the former as evidently as he plainly avoucheth the later When they saw the Gospel over the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the Gospel over the circumcision was unto Peter for he that was mighty by Peter in the Apostle-ship over the circumcision was also mighty by me towards the Gentiles James and Cephas and John which were counted to be pillars knew of the grace that was given unto me they gave to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship that we should preach unto the Gentiles and they unto the circumcision 5 Here the lesse in speech I amplifie the more in heart and mind I tacitely admire the unspeakable power and wisdom of our God that by the extraordinary offences or infirmities of one or two can firmly establish the faith of all his Saints Albeit he used the Ministerie of every other Apostle in reconciling the world unto himself yet Paul and Peter were as the two principal intermediate elements proportioned and qualified of purpose for the more apt connecting this mixt inferiour Globe with the Heavenly Sphere the sons of men with the son of God the one by symbolizing with the Jew the other with the Gentile in his sin both with Christ in true wisdom in all good gifts and graces of the spirit Saint Pauls offences against God manifested in the flesh have the same proportion to Saint Peters that the ignorance infidelity or idolatry of the Gentiles had with the Jews delinquency or Apostacy from the God of their Fathers Saint Paul had not known our Saviour in the flesh ignorant of his wisdom in teaching or power in working and in his ignorant zeal unto Moses and the Law did persecute his followers and disciples after his resurrection hereby made a fitter Symbole for reconciling the Gentiles unto God whom they had not known usually misled in a blind devotion to their dumb Idols and traditions of their elders to hate and persecute the Jews the only professors of true Religion the only servants till that time of the everliving God S. Peter had long conversed with our Saviour heard him teach as never man taught seen him do what no man else could ever do his eyes had beheld the brightnesse of his excellent glory and out of his apprehension of his Deity he had professed more then ordinary love ‖ Lord I am ready to go with thee into the Prison and to death yet when he comes unto his trial flatly denies that ever he knew him hereby more fitly qualified for recovering the backsliding Apostatical Jews who had known the Lord and all the wonders which he had wrought for Israel they had professed such love and loyaltie to him as no people could do more unto their Gods posterity stil retaining the protest ations of their Religious fathers All this is come upon us yet do we not forget thee neither deal we falsely concerning thy covenant Our hearts are not turned back neither our steps gone out of thy paths Surely for thy sake are we slain continually and are counted as Sheep for the slaughter Yet when he came in the similitude of man to exact obedience and allegeance at their hands they wil not know him but as Samuel had foretold cast him off from raigning over them and openly protest against him We have no King but Caesar 6 Answerable to this observation is the successe of their Apostleship registred by the Evangelist We never read so many Jews at once so throughly converted by our Saviour or so seriously affected with his Doctrine in his life time as with that memorable sermon of S. Peter The manner of his reiterated appellations Ye men of Judea and ye all that inhabit Jerusalem Ye men of Israel Men and Brethren Of mentioning Gods promises made to them and to their children of his reply his earnest beseeching and exhorting them that had appealed joyntly to him and the other Apostles argue these were the brethren he in particular was injoyned to convert confirm and strengthen And like a skilful Surgeon that knew by his own recovery how to prick their consciences without giving them a deadly wound he presseth them in the last place with crucifying the Lord of glory The mention whereof had been enough in others judgement to have moved them to despair but this comforter knew by experience that to be throughly toucht in heart as he had been for such foul offences past was the readiest way to that true repentance which he found and such repentance the surest holdfast of lively faith But he that was thus powerful in the circumcision became a stone of offence unto the Gentiles with whom he had to deal at Antioch For by his tripping in an uncouth way as being out of his natural Element he made them stumble justly reproved for his amphibious conversation with men of tempers so contrary by S. Paul under whose hand the edification of the Gentiles did better prosper Yet he nothing so powerful in converting the Jews though his zeal towards them was no lesse then S Peters was his endeavours to sow the seed of life in their hearts as great but with small hope of seeing any fruit of his labours But it wil be worth the Readers pains I am perswaded to observe that albeit he presse the Jews at Antioch with the very same arguments but more forcibly and artificially framed wherewith S. Peter had converted so many yet is enforced to make a contrary conclusion Peter concludes in hope prognosticating successe Amend your lives and