they were obliged by no precept But as long as they would be separated or consecrated God obligeth them not to drinke wine nor eate grape or raison Yea Ieremy 35. v. 6. Ionadab the son of Rechab most commendably though he were not commanded did give these Laws to himselfe and his Sonns You shall not drinke wine you and your Children for ever though wine were as common drinke with that nation as beere with us And you shall not build houses and you shall not sow seede and you shall not plant vineyards nor have any But you shall dwell in tabernacles all your days We obeyed the voice of Ionadab our father Wherefore to them by Ieremy v. 18. Thus sayth the Lord for that you have obeyed the commandment of Ionadab your father and have done all things that he commaunded you therefore thus sayth the Lord. There shall not want a man of the stock of Ionadab the son of Rechab standing in my sight all dayes or to stand before me for ever As your Bibles have it This is true for the sonns of promise though not the sons of flesh to the Rechabites be our Religious of which from the time of the Apostles to the last day there shall not faile to be many devout men still standing in Gods sight Lett Protestants shew any such amongst them who can be esteemed of the stock of Ionadab or a Rechabite They are so farre from this that they rayle at us for being followers of superstitious inventions of men when we follow the giver of so Holy Rules as Ionadab gave to his sonne so praised and so rewarded by God for following them Let them tells vs if they can how amongst them it is true there shall not want a man of the stock of Ionadab 4. Suppose the Booke of Iudith if you please to be only a true History which you do not deny from thence then we have a true Relation how piously Iudith lived without any precept who c. 8. 3. having but lived three yeares and a halfe with her husband he dying shee in the higher part of her house made her selfe a secret chamber in which she aboade shut up with her mayds and having cloath of hayre upon her loynes she fasted all the dayes of her life but Sabboths and the feasts of the house of Israel And this though her husband left her much riches and a great family And c. 16. v. 26. There was allso Chastity ioyned to her vertue so that shee knew not man all the dayes of her life after that Manasses her husband was deade And she aboade in her husbands house a hundred five yeares so that she so faire and so rich lived a widdow about sixty nine yeares in Chastity in prayer in a perpetuall fast and hayre cloath Who commaunded her this or who required it at her hands Love of serving God more perfectly 5. Wherefore in the Ghospel to the yong man whom our Saviour loved because he truly for he loves not lying boasters did say that he had kept the commaundments from his youth Mark 10.20 Christ notwithstanding sayd One thing thou lackest Go thy way go sell whatsoever thou hast and thou shalt have a treasure in heaven This one thing was not wanting to any duty which he was bound to performe to be saved For to enter into lyfe Christ did only bidd him keepe the commaundments Matth. 19 v. 7. But sayth our Lord v. 21. If thou wilt be perfect go sell the things thou hast and give to the poore and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me This then is that one thing which thou lackest I say thou lackest this one thing not to the state of saluation for keeping the commandments doth suffice to the state of saluation but thou lackest this to the state of perfection if thou wilt be perfect For this one thing conteines all the three Evāgelicall Counsels First Poverty to sell all and give to the poore Secondly Chastity for him whom he counselleth to sell all and give to the poore he must needs counsel not to take a wyfe with charge of family and Children for else something were to be kept for them Thirdly Obedience Come and follow me under the obedience of those whom I shall place over thee in lawfull authority for our Saviour in person was not to live but a very short time after this See all that followeth in the next Point THE XXIII POINT Of voluntary austerity of life 1. I handle this point apart because there being such dayly practise of these kind of works in our Religion and so little in our adversaryes they scoffing at all we do or suffer in this point we will shew whether they scoffe not at the practise of vertue recommended by Scripture 2. First then observe all that hath beene sayd in the last point doth recommend austerity of life by counselling a chast life which cannot be maintayned unlesse the flesh be tamed by some austerityes neither is Chastity it selfe a small austerity Note allso that they who in the old Law Numb 6. Had a will to separate themselves to God had allso a will to choose an austere life abstayning from wyne the usuall drinke of that countrey How great and voluntary was the austerity of the Rechabites or sonns of Ionadab who neither did drinke wyne nor built houses but lodged abroad in tabernacles nor possessed vineyeards nor sowed corne or any seede And yet how doth God praise and reward them for it Ieremy 35.18 How great and how voluntary was the austerity of Iudith living sixty nine yeares in Chastity in upper roomes retyred from the world allmost in continuall fast continuall hayre cloath most frequent prayer she being so rich and when she began this course so younge and so beautifull Christ allso counselled no small voluntary austerity to him whome he advised for greater perfection to sell all for money being the price of all commodities the want of it brings all incommodities He was advised allso to follow him who had not a hole to shroud his head in What austerity is here counselled 3. Much like this was the voluntary austerity of the first Christians forsaking money the price both of all delights and allso of all convenient accommodation and yet Act. 4. v. 34. As many as were owners of lands or houses sold and brought the prices of those things which they sold and caryed them before the feete of the Apostles Who commaunded this Love of serving God more perfectly For if we speake of any obligation they had no other then we have Hence S. Peter to Ananias c. 5. v. 4. Whiles it remained was it not thine owne and after it was sold in thyne owne power That is thou hadst power to keepe it wholy to thy selfe or to vow it wholy to God after which vow thou hadst no further power to keepe it according to what we proved fully out of Scripture Point 21. n. 1.2 4. But to speake more particularly of that
people Iosue in that dignity did succeed him But he had but part of his glory so Num. 27. v. 18. Take Iosue the sone of Nun a man in whome it the spirit and put thy hand upon him who shall stand before Eliazar Priest and thou ô Moyses shalt put some of thine honour upon him Now the one part of Moyses his honour was to be a secular Prince and commander in chiefe In this dignity Iosue did succeed him But in Levit. Ch. 8. God commanded Moyses to inuest Aaron with the other part of his dignity which was to be High Priest But when Aaron now came to dye God sayd to Moyses Num. 20.26 Take Aaron and his sonne with him and when thou hast unvested the father of his vestiture thou shalt revest therewith Eleazar his sonne Moyses did as our Lord commanded him And thus successively God provided his Church of high Priests Neither for the wikedness of any of them did he cease to governe his Church by them even by heavenly and supernaturall assistance As bad as Cayphas was yet because he was the high Priest he did prophesy Io. 11.51 He sayd not this of himselfe but beeing the high Priest of that yeare he prophesyed that Iesus should dye for the Nation 5. The old law beeing now transferred to the new it was necessary that the Priesthood allso should be transferred these two going togather Hebr. 7.12 wherefore the new law beeing the Lady the old the hand maide as S. Paul speakes the new law allso according to him beeing established upon better promisses Hebr. 8.6 we may with all ground in Scripture expect to see Christs church ever provided of such high Priests as shall by his bounty have many advantages above the high Priests of the old law Christ then intending to build his new church he called to him even amongst the first of his Apostles Simon and presently changed his name into Cephas which is interpreted Peter a Rock Io. 1.42 To this Simon Matth. 16.18 he sayth Thou art Peter which in that language which Christ spoke is as much as to say Thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock I will build my Church The wisest of men designes a sure Rock for the everstanding building of his church in the midst of all windes and waves if any one say that Christ himselfe is a Rock so as not to communicate this Rock-like firmity of his allso to S. Peter he flatly contradicts Christs saying Thou art a Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church If any man should take a fayre stone in his hand and say Thou art a fayre goodly solid stone and upon this stone I intend to rayse a Chappel Who would conceive this man in the last part of his speach to point at any other stone thē that which he had in his hand True it is that Christ is the fundation yet with out any dishonour to him nay to the increase of his honour he communicateth that very title of fundation to others So Eph. 2.20 we are sayd Built upon the fundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ beeing the thiefe corner stone Christ then is the chiefe Rock of an everlasting perpetuity and this by his owne vertue S. Peter is a Rock standing firme everlastingly not by his owne vertue but by the vertue of Christ and made thus not for his owne sake but for Christs churches sake Christ intending that this his church should stand for ever as I proved Point 3. Whence Christ adds upon this Rock I will build my Church We willingly grāt that the church was to be built not upon the shoulders of S. Peter but vpon his faith yet his faith must not be taken as separated from his person but it must be taken as the thing chiefly regarded in his person for which to him personally this dignity was given yet given chiefly for the perpetuall good of the church to be built upon him Wherefore lest the building should be shattered at his death this firme perpetuity of a Rock that is this saith of his which Christ prayed should never fayle Luc. 22.32 was to be derived to his lawfull successors as the chaire of Moyses ever had the successors of Moyses sitting in it for no well ordered common wealth is destitute of sufficient meanes still to provide her of her lawfull Heads and Governours appointed her successively And as it is not enough to say Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords therefore the civil commō wealth needs no other King or Lord. So it seems farr greater non-sense to say that because Christ is the chiefe head and Priest of the church therefore we vpon earth need no other head to governe such a common wealth as the Church is conteining so many severall people of so many nations natures customes and dispositions as be foūd frō the rising of the sūne to the going downe of the same though this so farr spread common-wealth were intended from the beginning to last as long as the Sunne and Moone It was then for this his churches sake that some one was ever to be first and Chiefe in it 6. Now sayth S. Matthew numbring the Apostles Princes of the Church The names of the twelve Apostles be these The first Simon who is called Peter Matth. 10.2 And so in all places where the Apostles are counted as Iudas is allwaise the last so S. Peter is counted first and as it was sayd of Eliazar that he was the Prince of Princes of the Levites Num. 3.32 So amongst the spirituall Princes of Christs Church S. Matthew doth not only count him first but plainly says he was the first The first Simon who is called Peter He was neither the first in order of calling to the Apostle shipe nor in age For his Brother Andrew was before him in both these Io. 1. Again to signifie that he was the head and chiefe in ordinary Christ sayd to him Matth. 16.19 And to thee will I give the Keyes of the Kingdome of heavē For though the power of loosing and binding was afterward given to the other Apostles Iohn 20.23 yet the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven are never in Scripture sayd to be given to any but to S. Peter The giving of the Keyes is wel knowne to signifie naturally the supreme Rule in a citty or familie Hēce the Keyes of the citty are offered to the chiefe Governours at theyr entrance So allso the Keye of the house of David is given to Christ being to reigne in the house of David for ever Here Christ giveth the Keyes to S. Peter as to his successor in the house of God which is the Church of the living God 1. Tim. 3.15 By these Keyes is signified the plenitude of highest power 7. Again Iohn 21.15 Simon of Iohn lovest thou me more then these Feed my lambes And yet again v. 17. Feed my sheepe Note that he would not have required greater love in Peter rather then in any of the rest nor
have sayd lovest thou me more then these if he had not here intended to give him higher dignity in Pastorship then to the rest If every one of the other Apostles be sheep of Christ S. Peter is here made Pastor to every one of them for he is commanded to feed them Note again and principally that the whole flocke of Christ his lambes his sheepe his subjects and theyr Rulers did not consist of those only men who then lived but much more of all such faithfull men as were to be of the flock and Church of Christ even from his days to the end of the world Wherefore this high Pastorship beeing as we sayd chiefly instituted by Christ out of his love and care to his flock and not meerly out of the desire of honoring S. Peter was by ordinary course of succession to be devolved to all posterity 8. And that no man should say that this succession shall everfaile Thus sayth our Lord Ier. 33.17 David shall never want a man to fitt upon the throne of the house of Israël and of the Priests and Levits there shall not faile a man c. And he adds that his Covenant should sooner be made void with the day and the night then his Covenant should be made voide with David his servant That there be not of him a sonne to reigne in his throne and Levits and Priests his Ministers And the Prophet Esau in his last Chapter tells us that in the new law these Levits shall not be borne Levits of the Tribe of Levi or any particular Tribe or Nation but by election they shall be chosen to be Levits out of severall Nations particularly of Italians Graecians Affricans and the Ilands a farre of though the English Bible doth not translate these names I will take sayth he of them to be Priests and Levits But shall there not still be one chiefe Pastour of these never decaying races of Priests and Levits yes there shall And they shall have one shepherd or Pastor over them all Ezech. 37.24 THE EIGHT POINT That this our chiefe Pastor or Pope is not Anti-christ 1. BEcause there is never a pulpit in Englād in which the Pope hath not been preached by all our Ministers to be not only Anti-christ but allso the Anti-christ who is so much spoken of and detested in Scriptures I thought fitt to make my deare country men see with theyr own eyes how unconscionably these theyr Ministers so universally deale with them in this point in which they can not but see if indeede they reade and will understand how flatly and point blank this doctrine is against most manifest Scripture 2. First The Scripture teacheth clearly that Anti-christ is one particulare determinate man and not any ranke of severall distinct men successively living one after the other as Popes do Hence 2. Thess 2.3 Anti-christ is called That man of sin the sonne of perdition The adversary And Apoc. 13.14 An image shall be made of this particular person where as no such image can represent those hundreds of Popes who have sitt in S. Peters chaire Again there it followeth that this particular man shall have a speciall name and such a peculiar number shall expresse this name For it is the number of a man A man I say and not many mē succeeding one an other as Popes are Whence it followeth The number of him is six hundred sixty six Of that Him whom Christ allso insinuated to be one particular man when he sayed Io. 5.43 If an other shall come in his Name him you will receave Whereas no one of the Popes was yet receaved by the Iewes Wherefore of the Pope it is false to say the Iewes have received him And this is the second reason why the Pope according to Scripture is not Antichrist 3. Thirdly this one particular man shall not come untill we be close bordering upon the very last end of the world Mark 13.24 But in those days after that tribulation of Anti-christ the Sunne shall be darkned Popes have beene ever since S. Peters days and that which you all call Popery hath beene as you confess above these thousand yeares and yet the Sunne shines upon the world as clearely as ever 4. Fourthly this one speciall man shall reigne but a short time where as these Popes upholders of confessed Popery have reigned these many Ages Anti-christ shall reigne but three yeares and a half a time and times and halfe a time Dan. 7.25 And Apoc. 12.14 Hence Dan. 12.11 this time is further expounded to be a thousand two hundred and nynety days And the Church a litle after this persecution began shall fly into the wildernesse for a thousand two hundred and sixty days And for this time of 1260. days the two wittnesses shall prophesy Apoc. 11.3 For the persecution of Anti-christ shall last but two and fourty months as it there expressy sayd And Apoc. 13.5 Power was given to the beast to continue two and fourty months The time therefore of Anti-christs reigne shall be short For the elect the days shall be shortned Matth. 24.22 So Apoc. 20.3 it is sayed that the diuel shall be lett loose for the short time of Anti-christs reigne After these things he must be loosened a litle time That is after Christ hath bound up the divel during the long time of the new Testament described there by the complete and perfect number of a thousand yeares he shall be lett loose for the short time of the reigne of Anti-Christ 5. Fiftly all the Ministers in England or out of England can never be able to shew that the Pope did ever kill two such wittnesses as Anti-christ is clearly sayd to kill Apoc. 11.6 That is two witnesses who shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days cloathed in sackloath who shall have power to shutt the heavens that it may not raine in the days of there prophesy and power of the waters to turne them into bloud And to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they will If your Ministers will prove the Pope to be Antichrist they must not only proue that he did kill two such witnesses as they are for the true Anti-christ must doe this but allso they must prove that the Pope did kill two such witnesses in Ierusalem leaving theyr bodyes lying in the streets thereof For this allso the true Anti-christ must do because it followeth v. 7. The beast shall kill them And they re bodyes shall lye in the streetes where theyr Lord was crucified that is in Ierusalem 6. Sixtly Hence appeares that the chiefe seate of Anti-christ shall be at Ierusalem where he shall most shew his power and glory whence it was allso sayd before that the Iewes should receave him and the Holy Fathers commonly say he shall be borne a Iew of the Tribe of Dan which is the cause why that Tribe was not numbred with the rest Apoc. 7. neither could the Iewes receave him if he were not borne a Iew. None