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nature_n	evil_a	good_a	indifferent_a	2,973	5	9.5052	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32857	The religion of Protestants a safe way to salvation, or, An answer to a book entituled, Mercy and truth, or, Charity maintain'd by Catholiques, which pretends to prove the contrary to which is added in this third impression The apostolical institution of episcopacy : as also IX sermons ... / by William Chillingworth ...	Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. Apostolical institution of episcopacy.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. Sermons. Selections.	1664 (1664)	Wing C3890; Wing C3884A_PARTIAL; ESTC R20665	761,347	567

it self but in comparison with those twinkling cloudy stars of Jewish Ordinances and that once glorious but now eclipsed light the Law of Works since then this is the day which the Lord hath made for us we will rejoyce and be glad in it and we will be ready to hearken especially to any thing that shall be spoken concerning our Epiphany concerning that blessed light for many ages removed out of our sight and as on this day beginning to appear in our Horizon 3. The words of my Text I find so full and swelling with expression so fruitful and abounding in rich sense that I am almost sorry I have said so much of them to fit them to this day But in recompence I will spare the labour of shewing their dependance and connexion with the preceding part of the Epistle and consider them as a loose severed Thesis In which is contain'd not only the sum and extract of this Epistle but likewise of Christian Religion in general in opposition both to the Mosaical Law given to the Jews and the Law of Works call'd also the Moral Natural Law which from the beginning of the world hath been assented to and written in the hearts of all mankind The sense of which words if they were inlarg'd may be this We Christians by the tenour and prescript of our Religion expect the hope of Righteousness i. the reward which we hope for by righteousness not as those vain Teachers newly sprung up among you Galatians would have us by obedience unto the carnal Ceremonial Law of Moses but through the Spirit i. by a spiritual worship neither by performing the old Covenant of works which we are not able to fulfil but by faith by such an obedience as is prescribed unto us in the Gospel We through the Spirit wait c. 4. In these words then which comprehend the compleat essence of the Covenant of Grace we may consider First the conditions on mans part required in these words through the Spirit and by Faith Secondly upon the performance of our duty there follows Gods promise or the condition which God will make good unto us and that is the hope of Righteousness or Justification In the former part namely the obedience which is required from us Christians we may consider it first in opposition to the Mosaical Law by these words through the Spirit which import that it is not such an outward carnal obedience as Moses his Law required but an internal Spiritual worship of the heart and soul Secondly the opposition of this new Covenant to the old Covenant of Works in these words by Faith which signifie that we do not hope for salvation by the works of the Law but by the Righteousness of Faith or the Gospel In the second General we may likewise observe first the nature of Justification which comprehends the promises which God has been pleased to propose to us as the reward of our obedience Secondly the interest which we Christians in this life after we have perform'd our duties may have in these promises which is Hope express'd in these words We wait for the hope c. Of these 5. First then of the Covenant of Grace as it is distinguish'd from the Mosaical Law by these words through the Spirit Where we will consider the nature of the Jewish Law and wherein it is distinguish'd from the Christian When Almighty God with a high hand and a stretched out arm had rescued the people of Israel from the Aegyptian slavery and brought them in safety into the Wilderness intending then to settle and reduce them into good order and government himself and by common voluntary consent they all agree to submit themselves to whatsoever laws he shall prescribe unto them as we find Exod. 19. from 3d to the 9th verse Exod. 19.3 c. Judg. 8. So that afterwards Judg. 8. when the people after an unexpected glorious victory obtain'd by Gideon would have made him a King and have setled the government in his house No V. 23. saith Gideon v. 23. I will not rule over you neither shall my Son rule over you The Lord shall rule over you And likewise afterward when Samuel complained to God of the perverseness of the people who were weary of his government and would have a King as the Nations round about them had Thou art deceived saith God It is my government that they are weary of They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me and now are risen up in rebellion against me to depose me from that Dominion which with their free consents I assumed For which intolerable base ingratitude of that Nation in his wrath he gives them a King he appoints his Successour which revenged those injuries and indignities offered to Almighty God to the uttermost upon them 6. Now during the time of Gods reign over them never any King was so careful to provide wholesome laws both for Church and Common-wealth as He was Insomuch as he bids them look about and consider the nations round about them If ever any people was furnished with Laws and Ordinances of such equity and righteousness as theirs were which Laws because they were ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator namely Moses are commonly called by the name of the Mosaical Law and are penned down at large by him in his last four Books 7. The Precepts and prohibitions of this Law are of several natures For some duties therein enjoyn'd are such as in their own natures have an intrinsecal essential goodness and righteousness in them and the contrary to them are in themselves evil and would have been so though they had never been expresly prohibited Such are especially the 10. Words or Precepts written by Gods own finger in the two Tables of stone Other Precepts concern matters of their own nature indifferent and are only to be termed good because they were commanded by a positive divine Law such are the Ceremonial Washings Purifications Sacrifices c. A third sort are of a mixt nature the objects of which are for the most part things in their own nature good or evil but yet the circumstances annex'd unto them are meerly arbitrary and alterable as namely those things which are commanded or forbidden by that which is commonly called the Judicial Law for example The Law of fourfold Restitution of things stollen Theft of its own nature is evil and deserves punishment But that the punishment thereof should be such a kind of Restitution is not in it self necessary but may be chang'd either into a corporal punishment or it may be into a civil death according as those who have the government of Kingdoms and States shall think fit and convenient for the dispositions of the times wherein they live as we see by experience in the practise of our own Kingdoms For the due execution of which Laws and punishment of transgressours God appointed Judges and Rulers and where they failed through want of care or partiality himself

to the Corinthians And say There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man For certainly we will not imagine that the Church or City of Corinth had any such extraordinary Immunity or Charter granted them whereby they should be exempted from the danger of Temptations above all the Christian world besides Therefore let your memories recollect and examin the time past of your lives and tell me Did there ever any Temptation take hold of you or assault you so powerful and irresistable that there was no way left for you but to be overcome by it Take Temptation now in what sense you please either for a misfortune and Affliction or else for a Suggestion to sin Was there ever any calamity any loss any pain any sickness so violent and impetuous but that still you might perceive your selves notwithstanding though perhaps in your outward man unequally match't by it yet in your spirits and minds strong enough to conquer the malice thereof and to convert it into wholesome Physick Again Was there ever any sinful Temptation so strongly urg'd upon you but that you might by the assistance of that Grace which God had already given you or at the least for the asking would have super-added you might easily have dull'd and diverted the force thereof Did not your Consciences even after you were overcome by such a Temptation tell you that it was meer voluntary cowardize in you to suffer your selves to be overcome by it that you willingly surrendred and betray'd those forces which already God had given you 4. Now though I am perswaded this be so evidently true that there is scarce any one here but his Conscience will assure him as much Yet for all this we must not begin hereupon to fancy in our minds any extraordinary worth or dignity in our selves as though by our own power or holiness we could work such wonders No alas nothing less For take away the assistance and guard of our Auxiliary Forces God's free and undeserved Graces within us and his Divine assistance together with the Guard of his blessed Angels without us and there is no Temptation so weak and despicable which we should not suddenly yield unto Nay we should need no outward Tempters to help us to sin our own wicked hearts would save the Devil that labour For nothing is there so vile and abominable whereunto without God's restraining Grace we should not readily and impetuously hasten unto 5. Therefore let us neither defraud God nor our selves of their dues But as we have spoken of the time past so likewise of that which follows If hereafter we shall overcome any temptation as certainly by Gods help if we have but a mind to it we may Let us bless Almighty God for assisting us so farr let us give the glory and Trophies of the conquest to him But on the contrary side if we shall neglect to make use and advantage of those many helps against sin which Almighty God is ready to supply unto us If notwithstanding those many Promises of assistance so frequently set down in Holy Scripture If notwithstanding those many secret whisperings and inspirations of his Holy Spirit in our souls If notwithstanding God's Voyce which as every day's experience can witness unto us continually calls upon us saying This is the right way walk in it and ye shall find rest to your souls we will yet continue to extinguish those good motions to deafen and drown God's voyce and be ready to hearken unto and obey our own filthy lusts and vile affections Let us lay the fault where it is due even upon our own deceitful wicked Hearts or otherwise the time will come when in Hell we shall be evidently convinc'd thereof when the worm of Conscience which never dyeth shall continually torment and gnaw us Let God be true and faithful in his Promises and every man a Lyar. For as hitherto God has been so merciful to you to preserve you that no temptation should take you but such as is common to man so likewise for the time following though perhaps greater tryals may befal you than hitherto you have had experience of yet of this you may be confident that howsoever they may seem grievous yet the same God continues faithful and righteous to fulfil his Promises He will never suffer you to be tempted above that you are able 6. Temptation is 〈◊〉 thing of its own Nature indifferent and is rendred good or evil from the end and intention of the Tempter especially It is nothing else but making a tryal or experiment If good and assay whether that good which seems to be in a subject be true and firmly grounded or no So God may be said to tempt as he did Abraham c. And this he performs not to satisfie his curiosity but meerly out of a good inclination to the party both thereby to confirm his graces in him and to reward them with a greater measure of Glory If evil Temptation is an assay whether that good which seems to be in a man may not by some means or other be extinguish'd and so the person destroyed so the Devil is most properly called the Tempter And of this nature are the Temptations of my Text Now these we find in Holy Scripture to be twofold For either they are apt to draw us from good by way of Discouragement so all manner of afflictions misfortunes persecutions c. are called Temptations because by these a man is inclinable to be frighted from or at last discountenanced in a holy conversation Or else they allure us by way of invitation or sollicitation to evil so wicked pleasing suggestions are said to be Temptations because these are fit to palliate the unloveliness and deformity of sin and thereby to make it desirable unto us It would be but loss of time to heap together Examples of holy Scripture to make good this distinction since it is an Argument which you daily meet withal discours'd of in Sermons 7. But I confess I find it something difficult to determin whether of these two senses with exclusion of the other be intended by St. Paul in my Text whether when he says God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able his meaning should be God by his Wisdom and Providence will so contrive businesses for you that though you are not likely to live in a contiual uninterrupted course of happiness and security but that sometimes you shall dash your foot against a stone you shall be disquieted and molested with afflictions of several natures notwithstanding this you may be confident of that let what misfortue will come how grievous and even insupportable soever it may seem unto you it shall never be so violent and out-ragious but that God will provide a way for you to escape from it there will be a dore left open for you to avoid the furiousness and impetuousness of it either God will arm you with Patience to bear it

that trespass against us How few depend upon God only for their dayly bread viz. the good things of this life as upon the only giver of them so as neither to get nor keep any of them by any means which they know or fear to be offensive unto God How few desire in earnest to avoid temptation Nay who almost is there that takes not the Devils Office out of his hand and is not himself a tempter both to himself and others Lastly who almost is there that desires heartily and above all things so much as the thing deserves to be delivered from the greatest evill Sin I mean and the Anger of God Now beloved this is certain he that imployes not requisite industry to obtain what he pretends to desire does not desire indeed but only pretends to do so He that desires not what he prayes for prayes with tongue only and not with his heart indeed does not pray to God but play and dally with him And yet this is all which men generally do and therefore herein also accomplish this prophecy Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof And this were ill enough were it in private but we abuse God Almighty also with our publick and solemn formalities we make the Church a Stage whereon to act our parts and play our Pageants there we make a profession every day of confessing our sins with humble lowly and obedient hearts and yet when we have talked after this manner 20 30 40 years together our hearts for the most part continue as proud as impenitent as disobedient as they were in the beginning We make great Protestations when we assemble and meet together to render thanks to God Almighty for the benefits received at his hands and if this were to be performed with words with Hosanna's and Hallelujahs and Gloria Patri's and Psalms and Hymns and such like outward matters peradventure we should do it very sufficiently but in the mean time with our lives and actions we provoke the Almighty and that to his face with all variety of grievous and bitter provocations we do dayly and hourly such things as we know and he hath assured us to be odious unto him and contrary to his nature as any thing in the world is to the nature of any man in the world and all this upon poor trifling trivial no temptations If a man whom you had dealt well with should deal so with you one whom ye had redeemed from the Turkish slavery and instated in some indifferent good inheritance should make you fine Speeches entertain you with Panegyricks and have your prayses alwayes in your mouth but all this while do nothing that pleases you but upon all occasions put all affronts and indignities upon you Would you say this were a thankful man Nay would you not make heaven and earth ring of his unthankfulness and detest him almost as much for his fair speeches as his foul actions Beloved such is our unthankfulness to our God and Creatour to our Lord and Saviour our tongues ingeminate and cry aloud Hosanna Hosanna but the lowder voice of our lives and actions is Crucifie him Crucifie him We Court God Almighty and complement with him and profess to esteem his service perfect freedome but if any thing be to be done much more if any thing be to be suffered for him here we leave him We bow the knee before him and put a reed in his hand and a Crown upon his head and cry Hail King of the Jews But then with our customary sins we give him gall to eat and vinegar to drink we thrust a spear in his side nail him to the Cross and crucifie to our selves the Lord of Glory This is not the office of a friend to bewail a dead friend with vain lamentation Sed quae voluerit meminisse quae mandaverit exequi to remember what he desires and execute what he commands so said a dying Roman to his friend and so say I to you To be thankful to God is not to say God be praysed or God be thanked but to remember what he desires and execute what he commands To be thankful to God is certainly to love him and to love him is to keep his Commandements so saith our Saviour Joh. 19. If ye love me keep my Commandements If we do so we may justly pretend to thankfulness which believe me is not a word nor to be performed with words But if we do not so as general y we do not our talk of thankfulness is nothing else but meer talk and we accomplish Saint Pauls prophesie herein also Having a form of thankfulness but not the reality not the power of it If I should reckon up unto you how many direct lies every wicked man tels to God Almighty as often as he sayes Amen to this form of godliness which our Church hath prescribed If I should present unto you all our acting of Piety and playing of Humiliation and personating of devotion in the Psalms the Letanies the Collects and generally in the whole Service I should be infinite And therefore I have thought good to draw a vail over a great part of our Hypocrisie and to restrain the remainder of our discourse to the contrariety between our profession and performance only in two things I mean Faith and Repentance And first for Faith We profess and indeed generally because it is not safe to do otherwise that we believe the Scripture to be true and that it contains the plain and only way to infinite and eternal happiness But if we did generally believe what we do profess if this were the language of our hearts as well as our tongues How comes it to pass that the Study of it is so generally neglected Let a book that treats of the Philosophers stone promise never so many mountains of gold and even the restoring of the golden age again yet were it not marvail if few should study it and the reason is because few would believe it But if there were a book extant and ordinary to be had as the Bible is which men did generally believe to contain a plain and easie way for all men to become rich and to live in health and pleasure and this worlds happiness can any man imagine that this book would be unstudied by any man and why then should I not believe That if the Scriture were firmly and heartily believed the certain and only way to happiness which is perfect and eternal it would be studied by all men with all diligence Seeing therefore most Christians are so cold and negligent in the study of it preferr all other business all other pleasures before it is there not great reason to fear that many who pretend to believe firmly believe it not at all or very weakly and faintly If the General of an Army or an Embassadour to some Prince or State were assured by the King his Master that the transgressing any point of his Commission should cost him his

their fore-fathers intolerable 23. I will conclude this whole point of the difference between Moses his Law and the Law of Faith or the Gospel in Gods own words by the Prophet Jer. 31.31 Jer. 31.31 twice quoted by St. Paul in Heb. ch 8. ch 10. where God saith Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a New-Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah Not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with them After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their hearts and write them in their inward parts c. As if he should say The former Covenant which I made with them by Moses was only written in two Tables of Stone as the Roman Laws were in 12. Tables and required only an outward conformity and obedience for the which they did not need an inward sanctifying spiritual Grace to enable them as the New Covenant of Grace doth And therefore for the performi●● of that I will abundantly afford and supply them with all the Graces o● my Holy Spirit 24. But a little to interrupt this Text You will say What had not the Jews God's Law written in their hearts also did not they worship him in Spirit as well as we No question But this they did not as commanded by Moses his Law but by that Covenant made with Abraham and by him traduced unto them It follows And I will be their God and they shall be my people i. e. I will be their God after a more especial manner then I was unto them in the Wilderness I will not only be their King to govern them in peace and tranquillity out of the danger and fear of their Enemies the Nations about them and preserve them safe in the promised Land but I will keep them from the fury and malice of their spiritual Enemies that would seek to destroy their souls and I will bring them to a Land infinitely exceeding theirs and whereof the Land of Canaan was but a most unproportionable type and shadow even mine own blessed and glorious Kingdom reserved in the highest Heavens for them who sincerely perform the conditions of my New Covenant Thus farr as largely as so small a measure of time would permit me I have told you the difference betwixt the Covenant of Grace and Moses his Law imply'd in these words of my Text through the Spirit I come now to my second particular namely the distinction of the same Covenant of Grace from the Law of works wherein I shall proceed by the same method i. e. shewing you first absolutely the nature of those Laws and then the several differences betwixt them 25. The Law of Works is the same with that to the obedience whereof Adam was oblig'd in Paradise with this exception that besides the Moral natural Law written in his heart the substance whereof is to this day reserved in the minds of all the sons of Adam Adam had a second positive Law injoyn'd him by God namely the forbidding him to eat of the Tree of Good and Evil which one Precept cannot properly be call'd a part of the Law of Works or Nature since the Action thereby forbidden was not of its own nature evil but only made unlawful by vertue of God's prohibition Excepting therefore this one particular Precept the Law which was given to Adam call'd the Law of Works comprehended in it all kind of moral duties referr'd either to God his Neighbour or Himself which have in them a natural essential goodness or righteousness and by consequence the prohibition of all manner of actions words or thoughts which are in themselves contrary to Justice and Reason All these Precepts are generally suppos'd to be contained in the Ten Words written by Gods own finger in two Tables of Stone though with submission I think that those two Tables contain only directly the moral duties of man to God and his Neighbour for it will require much forcing and straining to bring in the duties and sins of a man against his own person within that compass as Temperance Sobriety and their opposites Gluttony Drunkenness Self-incontinency c. 26. The Obligation to this Law is so strict severe and peremptory That it required not only an universal Obedience to whatsoever is contained in that Law in the full extent latitude and perfection thereof but that continual without interruption through the whole cou●●● of a man's life Insomuch that he that should but once transgress it 〈◊〉 least point or circumstance should without redemption or dispensation be rendred culpable as of the breach of the whole Law and remain lyable to the malediction thereof And to this Law in this strictness mentioned are all men living oblig'd who are out of Christ and who either know not of him or are not willing to submit themselves to his New Covenant 27. The Justification which was due to the performance of this Law by Justice and as the wages thereof that is the condition wherein God oblig'd himself to such as fulfill'd it was the promises of this life and that which is to come Long happy and peaceable days in this world and in their due time a translation to the joys and glory of heaven This Justification did not comprehend Remission of Sins as ours does for the Law excluded all hope of pardon after sin no promise made to repentance repentance would do no good The Court wherein they were to be judg'd was a Court of meer rigorous Justice Justice rejoyc'd over and against Mercy Grace Loving-kindness and all those blessed and glorious Attributes whereby God for our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake is pleased and delighted to be known unto the world 28. This Law in the rigour thereof might easily have been perform'd by Adam he had that perfection of grace and holiness given him which was exactly equal and commensurable to whatsoever duties were enjoyn'd him But by his wilful voluntary God forbid we should say enforc'd or absolutely decree'd prevarication he utterly undid both himself and his posterity leaving them engag'd for his debts and as much of their own without almost any money to pay them Without Christ we are all oblig'd to the same strictness and severity of the Law which by reason of our poverty and want of grace is become impossible to be perform'd by us As the blessed Apostle St. Paul hath evidently proved by Induction in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans In the first chapter declaring that the Gentiles neither did nor could perform the Law in the second saying as much for the Jews and in the third joyning them both together in the same miserable desperate estate The conclusion of his whole discourse is All have sinned

loving and careful to do us good And certainly as God is stronger than the Devil so likewise excessive goodness in the Angels will easily prevail against extream malice in the Devil Now it is the nature of Love to be willing to take any pains for the good of the person beloved whereupon St. Paul in that most divine description of the three Cardinal Christian Vertues 1 Thess 1.3 thus expresseth them Remembring your work of Faith and labour of Love and patience of Hope in our Lord Jesus Christ I confess it is the nature of Malice too to be very laborious and observant of all advantages against the subject Hated But this must needs be granted that Love will conquer Malice in the same degree 18. Thus you see we are reasonably well befriended and back'd by these our Auxiliary Forces of our Guardian Angels so that we need not be disheartned if we had no more But beyond all these we have Almighty God to our friend whose power is so unlimitted that without any straining of Himself without the bending of his Bow and drawing his Sword only with unclasping his hand Substractione Manutenentiae with meer letting hold go all creatures in Heaven and Earth would return to nothing Psal 84.11 He is in the language of the Psalmist a Sun and a Shield that is in the phrase of another Psalm a Light and Defence a Sun to discover unto us the secret ambushes and practises of our Enemies and a Shield to protect us from their open force and violence 19. I will some man say there is no man can make any question of God's Power Obj. But the difficulty is How we should be sure of his good will If that were but once procured the Battel were as good as at an end Why Sol. for that we must have recourse to Gods Word there it is that we must find upon what terms businesses stand between him and us And there certainly we shall find words which at the first sight to any ordinary reasonable man would seem to make much for us There are Invitations to a League with him desires and requests as passionate as I think ever Poet strain'd for There are Promises which look as if they were serious and unfeigned they are confirm'd with Vows and solemn Oaths of sincerity and all these seemingly directed to every one of us What can we desire any more especially from Almighty God who stands in no need of our favour and therefore is not likely to bespeak our good opinions of him with dissembling and lies 20. Oh Obj. but it is the easiest matter in the world for a man with a School-Subtilty by an Almighty distinction to cut off any mans right of Entail to those Promises to appropriate them only to our own friends to some two or three that he is pleased to favour Sol. I would to God that men would but consider what end what project Almighty God should have in making his poor creatures believe he means well to them when there is no such matter Would any of you saith our Saviour when his Son shall ask him bread give him a stone or instead of a fish to nourish him a serpent to destroy him If then you which are evil know how to give good gifts If you would not have the heart to mock poor children after this manner How much rather would not God For Gods sake therefore let there be but as much sincerity as much good nature in Almighty God I will not say as in your selves for it may be that would be too much for you to grant but as our Saviour confesseth that there were in the Jews that crucified him And then we all of us have right enough to his promises we shall have no reason to doubt of his good intention to help and assist us so far that unless we delight in destruction unless we will turn sugitives unless we will fight on our enemies side All the Devils in Hell shall not be able to prevail against us And thus much of the first squadrons Michael and his Angels opposed to the Devil and his Angels 21. The second enemy which we professed hostility against in our Baptism was the vain temptations of this world And so forcible and prevailing are the temptations thereof that the Devil who for his powerful managing of this weapon is called the God of this world in his Encounter with our Saviour set up his rest upon it as supposing if this would not serve his turn there were no more fighting for him All this will I give thee said he And such a value he set upon this stake that no less than the extremest degree of horrible Idolatry could serve his turn to oppose against it All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me And when he saw that this proffer would not be accepted he presently quits the field despairing utterly of any success The more dangerous indeed is this enemy I may say more dangerous to us than the Devil himself because we all acknowledge the Devil in person to be our enemy and therefore not one of us will be beholding to him for any thing if he bring us the gift himself a sick man would not be healed by him nor a poor man made rich but scarce one among a thousand has that opinion of the vain pomps and sinful pleasures of the world Our enemy No certainly It is the best and most comforting friend we have in this life all our thoughts are taken up with it it possesseth us at all times we dream of it sleeping and pursue it waking And yet our Saviour saith Ye cannot serve God and Mammon And again How can ye believe who seek honour one of another And again If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him What strength then have we to oppose this enemy 22. Why surely that which would suffice but an ordinary reasonable man and might serve any of us but that we will needs be unreasonable only in things which concern our everlasting welfare And that is the consideration of those unspeakable joyes which shall attend those who can despise the unsatisfying vain pleasures of this life A Philosopher which but reading Plato's Poetical description of the serenity of that life which a vertuous soul delivered from the Prison of the body lives was so far transported with the conceit of it though for ought he knew there was no such thing indeed or if there were perhaps never intended for him that he becomes presently weary of this prison and by a violent death frees himself from it and God only knows what a change he found Whereas we have Gods word for the certainty of that glorious life which his servants shall live yea a great deal of pains he hath taken to make it desirable and amiable unto us by ransacking all the treasures of this world the most costly jewels the most precious metals to embellish

Mat. 18. the Church let him be to thee as a Pagan or Publican And He (b) Luk. 10.16 that despiseth you despiseth me We heard above Optatus Milevitanus saying to Parmenianus that both he and all those other who continued in the Schism begun by Majorinus did inherit their Fore-fathers Schism and yet Parmenianus was the third Bishop after Majorinus in his Sea and did not begin but only continue the Schism For saith this holy Father Caecilianus (c) Lib. 1. cont Parm. went not out of Majorinus thy Grand-father but Majorinus from Caecilianus neither did Caecilianus depart from the Chair of Peter or Cyprian but Majorinus in whose Chair thou fittest which before Majorinus Luther had no beginning Seeing it is evident that these things passed in this manner that for example Luther departed from the Church and not the Church from Luther it is clear that you be HEIRS both of the givers up of the Bible to be burned and of SCHISMATIQUES And the Regal Power or example of Henry the Eighth could not excuse his subjects from Schism according to what we have heard out of S. Chrysostom saying Nothing doth so much provoke (d) Hom. 11. in ep ad Eph. the wrath of Almighty God as that the Church should be divided Although we should do innumerable good deeds if we divide the full Ecclesiastical Congregation we shall be punished no less than they who did rend his natural Body for that was done to the gain of the whole world though not with that intention but this hath no good in it at all but that the greatest hurt riseth from it These things are spoken not only to those who bear office but to such also as are governed by them Behold therefore how lyable both Subjects and Superiours are to the sin of Schism if they break the unity of Gods Church The words of S. Paul can in no occasion be verified more than in this of which we speak They who do such things (e) Rom. 1.31 are worthy of death and not only they that do them but they also that consent with the doers In things which are indifferent of their own nature Custom may be occasion that some act not well begun may in time come to be lawfully continued But no length of Time no Quality of Persons no Circumstance of Necessity can legitimate actions which are of their own nature unlawful and therefore division from Christs Mystical Body being of the number of those Actions which Divines teach to be intrinsecè malas evil of their own nature and essence no difference of Persons or Time can ever make it lawful D. Potter saith There neither was nor can be any cause to depart from the Church of Christ no more than from Christ himself And who dates say that it is not damnable to continue a Separation from Christ Prescription cannot in conscience run when the first beginner and his successors are conscious that the thing to be prescribed for example goods or lands were unjustly possessed at the first Christians are not like strayes that after a certain time of wandring from their right home fall from their owner to the Lord of the Soil but as long as they retain the indelible Character of Baptism and live upon earth they are obliged to acknowledge subjection to Gods Church Humane Laws may come to nothing by discontinuance of time but the Law of God commanding us to conserve Unity in his Church doth still remain The continued disobedience of Children cannot deprive Parents of their parental right nor can the Grand-child be undutiful to his Grand-Father because his Father was unnatural to his own Parent The longer Gods Church is so disobeyed the profession of her Doctrin denyed her Sacraments neglected her Liturgy condemned her Unity violated the more grievous the fault grows to be As the longer a man withholds a due debt or retains his neighbours goods the greater injustice he commits Constancy in evil doth not extenuate but aggravate the same which by extension of time receiveth increase of strength and addition of greater malice If these mens conceits were true the Church might come to be wholly divided by wicked Schisms and yet after some space of time none could be accused of Schism nor be obliged to return to the visible Church of Christ and so there should remain no one true visible Church Let therefore these men who pretend to honour reverence and believe the Doctrin and practice of the Visible Church and to condemn their forefathers who forsook her and say They would not have done so if they had lived in the dayes of their Fathers and yet follow their example in remaining divided from her Communion consider how truly these words of our Saviour fall upon them Woe be to you because you build (f) Mar. 23. ver 29 c. the Prophets Sepulchers and garnish the monuments of just men and say If we had been in our Fathers dayes we had not been their fellows in the bloud of the Prophets Therefore you are a testimony to your own selves that you are the sons of them that killed the Prophets and fill up the measure of your Fathers 46. And thus having demonstrated that Luther his Associates and all that continue in the Schism by them begun are guilty of Schism by departing from the visible true Church of Christ it remaineth that we examin what in particular was that visible true Church from which they departed that so they may know to what Church in particular they ought to return and then we shall have performed what was proposed to be handled in the fifth Point 47. That the Roman Church I speak not for the present of the particular Diocess of Rome but of all visible Churches dispersed throughout the whole world agreeing in Faith with the Chair of Peter 5. Point Luther and the rest departed from the Roman Church whether that Sea were supposed to be in the City of Rome or in any other place That I say the Church of Rome in this sense was the visible Catholique Church out of which Luther departed is proved by your own confession who assign for notes of the Church the true Preaching of Gods Words and due administration of Sacraments both which for the substance you cannot deny to the Roman Church since you confess that she wanted nothing Fundamental or necessary to Salvation and for that very cause you think to clear your self from Schism whose property as you say is to cut off from the (g) Pag. 76. Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which it separates Now that Luther and his fellows were born and baptized in the Roman Church and that she was the Church out of which they departed is notoriously known and therefore you cannot cut her off from the Body of Christ and hope of Salvation unless you will acknowledge your self to deserve the just imputation of Schism Neither can you deny her to be