record never to be forgotten or forgiven so long we have clear evidences of strong resistance made to the Romish Religion before the times of Luther And in most Countries and times where and when the Romish corruptions began from small and obscure beginnings to be gross and plain some or other in greater or lesser numbers began to Renounce and Protest against them What though some of these early Reformers might hold some erroneous Opinions which we our selves condemn yet however they opposed the Romish Church in her corruptions and these tended to a Reformation which was compleated only by degrees and 't is no wonder some Stumbled in such a night of Ignorance And have not the Agents of Rome destroy'd the Papers and Records disguiz'd their Adversaries and falsify'd their Opinions to serve the Power and Interest of their great Mistriss They therefore branded the Waldenses with the name of Manichaism and that they affirm'd two Principles or Originals of all things because they asserted that the Emperour was Independent of the Pope and that they deny'd Christ to be the Son of God because they could not believe a crust of Bread to be Christ And they have fram'd as lewd stories against many excellent Men of the later Ages who withstood the approches of their Doctrine and Government which we certainly know and the more Ingenuous among them confess to be Notoriously false Though we have reason to believe because of the severity and industry of the Romish Factors ever warm against those who oppos'd her practises a great number of Honest and Learned Men as those Ages would afford are buried in obscurity and their names unknown there being an Expurgatorian Index for the merits of such Men as well as Books and Editions yet we have a sufficient Catalogue of them who kept up the Title and claim of old Christianity and would not suffer their new Errors to plead prescription 2. By shewing what Errors and Mistakes are included in the Question 1. That these new Errors of Rome are absolutely necessary to the being of a Christian Church For though we believe all that Christ and his Apostles taught all things that are contain'd in the Holy Scriptures all things that undoubted Tradition or good Reason proves to derive themselves from both or either yet because we do not Assent and Subscribe to the new Articles of Faith that Rome hath invented for us we cease to be a Christian Church are markt for Hereticks which are worse than Pagans with them and must be certainly Damn'd Nay should we embrace all the other Doctrines of Rome and deny only the Popes Authority and Supremacy that Epitome of their Christianity it would avail us little we are Heathens still Should we reject but one Article of Pope Pius's Creed suppose the Doctrine of Purgatory or Merit yet because this Questions Infallibility the centre of all their Religion we are in the State of Damnation still Should we receive their Doctrines as probable and in a larger and more favourable meaning yet because we do not entertain them as Articles of Faith in the fense of the Church our case is not mended we shall meet with Fires here and hereafter for our reward Should we wink and swallow them all down with a good Catholick Stomach yet if the Bishop of Rome should give out a new Edition of Faith enlarg'd with many more Monstrous Doctrines and Opinions yet if we bogle and keck at them all our former righteousness shall not be remembred we are Apostates worse than Turks and Infidels and who can tell what this Infallible and Powerful Guide of Christendom will do For when things obscure or of an Indifferent Nature when things wherein they differ among themselves and only serve a Temporal Interest when Opinions which they can dispense withal upon occasion when only the modes and manner of Truth when contradictories and Doctrines directly leading unto Impiety and things Barbarous and Blasphemous have been Christen'd Articles of Faith and Fundamentals of Religion have we not just reason to suspect as ill or worse may be done again And the intrigues of Trent be acted once more and as many new Articles of Faith as Titular Bishops by the same Spirit moving in the same manner were not the first and early Christians sound Members of Christs body though they never thought of such wild Opinions as these and publisht Truths directly contrary to them And could I suppose them to have known these Innovations out of Zeal and Fidelity to their trust would have detested amd abhor'd them Was Christ negligent in the discharge of his mighty office and his Apostles defective in their duties and Ministry not to accquaint the first Christians with these great Truths and were they reveal'd in the Tridentine Council only to us upon whom the ends of the World are come These Primitive Disciples of Christ thought themselves secure of Heaven by this short Creed that Jesus was the Christ the son of God And the contrary was the Character of the Man of Sin that deny'd that Jesus was come in the Flesh that he was the God incarnate and the true Messiah and were Scandaliz'd at his meanness and obscurity St. Paul told the Jaylor that certainly he would be sav'd if he believed that Jesus was the Christ all other Fundamentals of Christianity one way or other being necessarily included in that belief And thought that he made sincere and sound Disciples if they believ'd what he Preacht only Jesus and the Resurrection in their full compass and latitude Though we believe all this in a more express and explicit sense all that is contain'd in Scripture in the Apostles Creed or the two other Creeds drawn up by the Church to explain the Christian Religion in some Articles and to oppose the Doctrines of Hereticks yet the first Christians shall be Sav'd and we shall be Damn'd they shall be the elect and the Church of God we must be Reprobates and the Synagogue of Satan Or let Rome shew her wonted Charity and say She doubts also of their Salvation Or did Christ connive at that time of Ignorance or had he as a Lawgiver forgot to declare some part of the will and pleasure of God and upon better remembrance after so many hundred years suggested it to his careful Vicar Or did Christ knowing their Nature and Circumstances of it that they could not bear them at that time therefore delay the discovery so long Or did these new Articles lye hid so long conceal'd by his Apostles or buried by some lewd Hereticks in the rubbish of those Churches they pull'd down but afterwards found as they say the Cross was and now restored to light Or are these new Articles some way or other contain'd in the Ancient Creeds which we believe and by easy and natural consequences deduc't from them Some such fine reasons as these must be pretended otherwise we can safely conclude that our Church is truly Ancient and Apostolical though She disowns
A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed Church of England MADE By the PAPISTS asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before LUTHER LONDON Printed for Robert Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Fincham Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate-street 1683. A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists c. THe Christian Doctrin was once by the way of trust delivered by Christ and his Apostles unto the Saints Men of Care and Honesty and who should preserve it in its first purity and Spiritual intention only to prescribe methods unto Men by Faith and an Honest Conversation how they might arrive at Heaven that this Religion might make a deeper impression upon their minds and memories and be more faithfully kept it was set down in plain and significant Terms and reduced into short summaries called a Form of sound Words that good thing that Form of Doctrin a depositum or trust and by the Church afterwards a Creed That it might be believed and valued it was in its own Nature of the greatest importance confirmed with variety of the best of arguments miracles prophecies innocent carriage and Death of its numerous Disciples and severe Curses denounc't against any that should add to or take from it till their great Master and its Author Jesus should come from Heaven again Yet notwithstanding all this by the Malice and Subtilty of the Devil the Designs and Passions of Men the Ignorance and Negligence of some the Cunning and Industry of others this plain and simple Religion began by degrees to be Corrupted by the mixtures of Philosophy and niceness by the Rules of State Craft and Policy by idle Traditions and Inventions by the Melancholy of some and the gayety of others and the natural Face of it was so strangely changed that it seem'd another Gospel and you might seek Christianity in the Christian World and yet scarce find it Many Kingdoms and People were to blame in this being Treacherous to their Master and false to their trust suffering so Pure and Chast a Religion to be Corrupted or Stolen away but the Church of Rome seems the most Guilty of them all especially upon her own grounds her Bishop being the Infallible Vicar of Jesus to whom are committed the Oracles of God once indeed renowned for her Faith and Pious Governours but now as famous for their Degeneracy as well in Religion as in their lives Whose Ambition or Interest prostituted the Faith to those Designs and made it Earthly and Sensual or their Negligence and Stupidity suffered the Enemy in the night of Ignorance to sow the tares which so grew up and choakt the Wheat that Faith was turn'd into Fables and Lyes Foppery and Superstition were nicknam'd Devotion Ridiculous Gestures and Habits past for Repentance and Mortification the Bible was shut up and contemned and the Legends open'd and praised Honest and Good Men were butchered and unknown Persons and Malefactors Canonized Saints with their Pictures and Reliques were made Rivals to Christ in Mediation and Intercession Good Works were spoil'd by Merit and Arrogance or done by way of composition for vices the fear of Hell was abated by the invention of Purgatory Christ was fetcht from Glory by the Magick of a Priest and put into a Wafer or into a more sordid place riddles and quirks of their Schools were made Articles of Faith in short old truths were rooted up or new errors grafted on them Power and Profit were Stiled the Church the Court of Rome was brought into the Temple and called the Holy of Holies Such errours as these in the Christian Faith came from Rome and infected our Ancient British Church not at first planted by the Labours of the Romish Bishops of old but Corrupted by their later Emissaries and lasted a long time among us being supported by Power twisted with Interest sutable to the pleasures and vices of Men incorporated into the Government having put out Mens reason to try and discern between Truth and Error and at length became Fashionable Legal Terrible with Fires and Censures which made us Sick unto Death absolute almost and beyond recovery Such was our condition here of Slavery and Ignorance but it pleased him that dwells between the Golden Candlesticks to dispel our Darkness and restore the Ancient light of Primitive Christianity His Wisdom and Goodness improving the passions and inclinations of the some in temporal changes and concerns to Spiritual purposes encouraging the secret groans and desires of others putting many more upon search and enquiry after Truth and infusing courage for it at length came to a resolution of Arguing and Debating the Errors of the Romish Faith and manners of reforming the abuses in Discipline and Devotion and to call back True Christianity again and being dispossest of the Spirit of Rome which oft tore them and rent them till they foamed again are now cloth'd and in their Wits once more upon this account the Friends of Rome call us Hereticks Schismaticks and Innovators Discharge Censures and Excommunications and Eternal Damnation against us are full of Wrath and Indignation and to shew a little Wit in their Anger And pretended reason pertly ask the Question where was our Religion before Luther This is the common and trite Objection against our Religion very frequent not only in the Mouths of their more Ordinary Disciples but also of their more Learned Writers who whatever strength they really Fancy may be in the Argument it self think it a very proper Weapon to attempt the vulgar and the Weak withal to amuse and dazle the less discerning Eye at least when backt and set off with the stately names of Infallibility Succession Antiquity and the like and they tell us roundly our Faith was but yesterday our Religion is new and upstart as only Henry the Eighths and Cromwells contrivance they may truly say as much as their Treason was Cecils Plot. That our Faith began only in the year 1517. in Saxony by one Martin Luther an Apostate Fryar who for the Sake of a faire Nun and other designs renounc't the Ancient Faith and set up his new Device of Protestantism at Spires which did not quietly last much above seven years for in the year 1525. starts up Zuinglius and after two years more the Anabaptists who change and correct Luther's Religion and draw great numbers of his Disciples from him and himself for his reward dyed a strange Death great Noises and Crackings were heard in his Tomb which being opened neither Body nor Bones were found and the smell of Brimstone was ready to stifle the standers by And therefore they say we ought to look from whence we are faln to repent of our Heresy and return to our first Love and not stick so close to our Religion the new invention of so ill a Man That we may therefore keep those firm that are members
former Health When Christ reformed the Jewish Religion from the false senses and glosses that the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it and grafted Christianity upon the old stock will the Romanists call this a New Religion or rather an old one well amended and improved by Divine Authority Bellarmin doth allow this for Truth and saith that Christianity was rather a New State and Condition than a new Church and he that can call our Religion New because t is mended and made now what it was about 1600 years ago may affirm that Christ built a New Temple when he Whipt the buyers and sellers out of the old And that Hezekiah built a New Sanctuary and Instituted a New Passover because he cleans'd the one and restor'd the other to its first Institution our reformation did no more it only scal'd off the Leprosy that stuck to the Body of the Romish Church it only par'd off those Additions that Interest or Superstition Niceness or Foppery and glew'd to it what after remain'd was our Religion the same that Christ and his Apostles taught the World at first And if they can shew that any thing hath been added since pernicious to the Nature of the True and Old Religion our Church is ready to remove it or that any thing is wanting that is necessary to its complement and perfection she is ready to entertain it with the same spirit of meekness and Wisdom and Regard to the Gospel that she used in the Reformation but hitherto upon good grounds and strict inquiry She is fully satisfied that Her Religion is absolute and compleat Christianity 3. We have many and impartial Judges on our side that our Religion is Pure and Old Christianity The particular Church of Rome indeed that supports her self by a pretended Infallibility to be true to her principle refuses to be tryed by any other Church but will be only Judge of her self and others too yet we that are certain and sure of the Truth of our Religion though not Infallible dare Appeal to the Judgment of other Christian Churches The Greek Church condemns their half Communion the Doctrines of Purgatory Merit and Supererogation The Adoration of Images their locking up the Scriptures in an unknown Tongue their extream Unction and sale of Masses and laughs at their Infallibility the thing that makes their errors in Faith incorrigible the Armenian Christians reject the Supremacy of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgatory and Excommunicate those that Worship Images The Jacobites the Indians of St. Thomas the Egyptian and Abassine Christians dissent from most or all of the Romish errors which we condemn We have all the truly Ancient Christian Churches on our side and most of the Modern whom the busy Emissaries of Rome have not terrified or seduc't into their party our Writers have Appeal'd with great success to the Ancient Councils the Holy Fathers and to the Learned and Pious Bishops and Priests of old and from thence discover'd the Novelty of the Romish Faith and the good old way of the English Church And they dare not stand the trial when we desire to be determin'd by the best and Infallible Judge the Holy Scriptures except they must give the meaning of them otherwise they load them with Ignominious Names of a Lesbian rule mere Ink and Paper and a nose of Wax Who will they be try'd by By a Council truly General No except it be called manag'd and confirm'd by the Pope Will they be Judg'd by any that differ from them yet are Men of Good Honest and unprejudic't Judgments No they are out of the Pale of the Church and Stubborn Hereticks And the best reason they have for their assurance that they are in the right is that they are sure they are so and keep themselves safe in their inchanted Castle of Infallibility The Arabian Philosopher was offended at and abhorr'd their barbarous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and Eating of their God and resolv'd to stick to his Philosophical rather than be of such a Christian Religion The Roman Images and the Worship of them have laid a Stumbling Block before the Jews who therefore approved our Sentence and Condemnation of them having therefore such a number of good Testimonies and Judgments on our side we rise up and reverence the grey Hairs of our Religion which Rome once Cloth'd in a Wanton and Phantastick dress and made it ridiculous which because we have pull'd off and put on its Ancient habit and made it look Manly with the Image of God and Christ upon it they call us Innovators Many of their own Writers have spoke in favour of the English Church and many of their distinctions in a fair sense have concluded for her Doctrine and shewn their dislike of many opinions of their own Church 4. That our Religion was long before Luther will appear from the oppositions that were made to the Papal corruptions which did not enjoy so quiet a life but were frequently disturb'd and cry'd out against not only by other Churches but by many honest and considering Men in their own Communion Men they were not of Interest or Discontent Peevishness and given to change of little Learning and less Conscience and note in the World but Men Eminent in their Generation Men of Probity and Studies of Temper and Consideration Men that stood not alone but had great numbers of Disciples a Visible Society of Christians who follow'd their Judgments Some of these sadly bewail'd the degenerate State of the Roman Church others petition'd for and advised not only the correction of the abuses of good Doctrines and Innocent Institutions but the reformation of Gross Errors and Scandalous Additions to the Christian Faith and others in great Authority promised an amendment and to reduce the whole frame of Christianity to its Primitive Sense and Model And the famous Council of Trent was promist and begun to rectify Errors and Abuses crept into the Romish Faith and government yet after a long Sitting it fatally concluded confirming those corruptions which was hop'd after so many complaints and addresses with strong reasons for them should have been thoroughly redrest and reform'd The Original of their Barbarous Inquisition will be a standing record of the frequent and stout oppositions that were made against the Romish Innovation in the Christian Faith And so long as the Blood of the numerous Albigenses and Waldenses crys to Heaven for Vengance against the Papal cruelty we have a cloud of Witnesses for this Truth who resisted unto Death the new Doctrines of Romes The carriage of old Wicliff and his Followers tells us plainly in story that the corruptions of Rome had no such quiet possession but ever and anon some or other in considerable numbers did endeavour to eject them out of their hold though they paid dear for it And so long as the Treachery of their Council of Constance about the safe conduct granted to poor Huss And his Disciples in number above forty thousand remains upon