and Ambrose Chrysostome makes Liturgies for their Churches And in the next age Gregory and Isidore did the like by collecting from former Liturgies which kind of form Calvin himselfe approveth and wisheth that there might be such a form from which no Minister might depart Mathe. Yet Calvin and his followers are against the Liturgy and discipline of the Church of England though it be a reformed Church even as the Papists are against Luther and him Phila. It is true Mr Calvins Reformation yet both Luther and he have been great refiners of Christian Religion from drosse and rust of superstition which cleaved thereunto and mud which it collected by running through the dirty channels of Rome that spirituall Babylon It is true that he being bred to the Civill Law yet studied Divinity wherein he proved a great proficient as by his writings appeareth in all which he consenteth with the Protestant truth professed He having occasion to leave France came to Geneva which City had lately been abandoned by the Bishop and Clergy thereof for fear of the people who began to rise against the popish religion there Their civill government was by Magistrates chosen yearly by the people and for Church-government they had then agreed upon none but they chose Calvin for their Preacher and Divinity Lecturer He with two other Ministers perswaded with some ado the people to bind themselves solemnly by oath First never to admit Popery again And secondly to obey such orders in the exercise of Religion as himselfe and the other two had contrived according to the Word of God They consented and yet within a little while repented of it And because Calvin and the other two Ministers would not administer the Communion to those that denied quiet obedience according to their oath those three Calvin and his two associats were banished the Town but within a few years they called him in again He told them that if he undertook to be their Pastor they must admit a compleat form of Church Discipline and should be sworn for ever to observe it The order was that there should be an Ecclesiasticall Court erected which should be alwaies standing that should consist of one Clergy man certaine and two Lay men annually chosen which seemed much to content the people they being alwaies to have the more voices but Calvin knew that the Ministers had ods enough having both art learning and the tongue of perswasion At last the people many of them disliked it and thought it no better then popish tyranny and imagined that Calvin had done all this to please his fantasy as Apelles that pretended to draw the picture of Venus and made it like his beloved Cratina Yet considering the time and place I see not what more acceptable government he could have set up therefore those people thought it better to condescend to him than to dismisse him to their own infamy since they had so importunately recalled him to them yet not many yeers after the Consistory or Ecclesiasticall Court having excommunicated Bertelier the Senate of the Town releaseth him under their common seale But Calvin resolved to withstand that decree at least by refusing to absolve or give the Sacrament to Bertelier which he resolutely did not and in the afternoon on the Lords day after his sermon took his leave of them saying I commend you to God and to the word of his grace and so bid them farewell They of Geneva sent to the Helvetian Churches for their judgement in Calvins discipline and whether they might better change then hold it It was answered that their ordinances were godly and enclined toward the Scripture and that they were better to hold them then to change so Mr Calvins discipline was accepted And as his name grew famous so was his discipline taken up by the French reformed Churches and Scotland and by some exalted in their Sermons so high that they have said that a Minister with his Eldership hath power given from God to excommunicate even Kings and Princes Beza and Erastus hath canvased this point of discipline The first saith that excommunication is a most necessary discipline and Erastus denieth the necessity of Lay Elders to be Ministers thereof By others it hath been cried up for the Lords discipline Mart. Marpr in l. 3. p. 8. yea and that all Christian Churches ought to receive it whether the governors of it will or not And England hath been threatned by libels that since the Brethren cannot prevaile by Petition to Prince Parliament and Councill we must thank our selves if such means be used to bring in discipline as will make all our hearts to ake And I beleeve such hath been used of late years but the disciplinarians have been prevented of their end by men of an higher genius then they have But this hath been the Helena that hath caused so much sharp contentions Mathe. It seemeth that Calvins discipline aimed at a parity of Clergy and Laitie which is the fourth point held by the Anabaptists of which I desire your judgement Phila. Calvin did indeed make them equall in censuring others by his discipline but not as the Anabaptists do for they would have no distinction between Clergy and Lay-men no not in exercising the ministeriall office but that all men perform it that will if gifted But God hath distinguished them as he did Aaron from the Levites and the Levites from the Laity yea before the Law there was that distinction Melchisedech was the Priest of the high God and it seems very nature taught it for Jethro was Priest of Midian And Egypt had Priests too distinct from other men And Christ said to his disciples go yee and teach all nations And St Paul doth plainly distinguish between the Pastor and flock Acts 20.28 and saith they that are taught should communicate to the teacher Gal. 6.6 for all the body must not be an eie or tongue Methinks the judgement that God hath shewed upon men usurping that office should be enough to convince the evill of this opinion as upon Corah Dathan and Abiram Numb 16.31 Upon Miriam Vzza 2 Sam. 6.7 and Vzziah 2 Chro. 26.21 Mathe. They say there is no difference between a gifted Layman and a Clergyman but only ordination which adds no power to a man Phila. Yes it doth for though sufficiency or rather competency of gifts may enable a man to the office yet that ability cannot authorize him to perform the ministry and therefore he is to look for an outward calling by his superiour Rom. 10.15 for how can they preach unlesse they be sent Now they must be sent by such who by a continued succession from the Apostles can derive their ordinations Helver post c. 18. Bohem. Confes c. 9. Aug. Confes art 14. Wittemb Con. art 20. Bern. in Cant. which was long before the Church of Rome fell from the faith even 1600 years ago which calling of Ministers hath been followed by England and the reformed Church
marriages and thought fit it were permitted Paulus the second succeeds him He was as unlearned as Pius was learned He like some schismaticks now accounted humane learning heresie and so they may see their error is popish while they condemn learning as if it were popery Next comes Sixtus the fourth Innocentius the eight Alexander the sixt who imprisoned and banished many Cardinals Then followed Pius the third and next Julius the second who by the Emperour Maximilian and the King of Spain and France's aids spoiled the Venetians of many territories yet he received them again into favor and so discontented the Emperour and the King of France that they thought to depose him by their Councill at Pisa But he called another Councill at Rome which disanulled all they did at Pisa He lived in wars all his time Leo the tenth succeeds him He endevoured to suppresse Martin Luther but could not Adrianus the sixt followed and threatned the Duke of Saxony for maintaining Martin Luther Clement the seventh succeeds who poisoned many and was poisoned himselfe Paulus the third followeth whose authority in England was abrogated by King Henry the eighth who called himselfe supreme head in his own dominions in all causes Ecclesiastick and Civill He cursed King Henry the eighth of England therefore and interdicted the Kingdome ratified the order of Jesuites and called a Councill at Trent where the Protestants would not appear because they said that Councill was not lawfully called and the Pope sate Judge who was the party they were to accuse of errors and abusing the Church He carried the Councill to Bononia Iulius the third followed who brought it back again to Trent and sent in Queen Maries daies Cardinall Pool to absolve England from the interdiction of Paul the third But havock was made in England of Protestants Paulus the fourth followed who hated Charls the Emperour who resigned his government to his son Ferdinand and died in a Monastery The Pope approved not this election but Ferdinand esteemed not of his approbation Pius the fourth followed In his time the Councill of Trent called by Paul the third was dissolved which had sate six yeers only of eighteen But before that he sent an Embassador into England to invite the Clergy to that Councill but Queen Elizabeth would not suffer him to land Nor would the Germans send any Scotland also revolted from popery He massacred Protestants at Montalto in Italy to the number of eighty because they met at an house to hear a Sermon They were drawn out one by one and their throats cut but none recanted their Religion Pius the fifth followed who with the Venetians and the King of Spain and his own aids overcame the Turks at Lepanto under the conduct of John of Austria Gregory the thirteenth followed He founded a new Colledge for Jesuites and gave it great revenues to bring up schollers to convert the Germans The Guises faction and the Queen Mother made an horrid massacre in Paris of the Protestants whom they called Huguenots 1572. Which act this Pope commended and sent Charls King of France 40000. Duckats to set forward the war against them This Pope set forth a new Kalender Sixtus the fift followed who excommunicated the King of Navar and the Prince of Condie both Protestants Now was Henry the third killed by a Frier Clement the eighth absolved Henry the fourth King of France from the excommunication of Sixtus the fifth upon his abjuration of the protestation by his Orators which King was slain by a proselyte of the Jesuits called Ravilack Mathe. I desire to know how the Protestant Religion came in and whether it be ancient and how it hath been persecuted by the Pope his adherents whether Princes or Prelates and by what heresies opposed for the Papists still upbraid us that our Religion was begun by Luther who began an innovation in the time of Pope Leo the tenth Against whom Henry the eighth of England did write and obtained the title from the Pope of Defender of the faith Phila. You are to understand that the substantiall points of the Protestant Religion are the same which are grounded upon Scripture and maintained from the Primitive times by the Church Christian but obscured in tract of time by divers heresies and popish traditions which like tares and weeds over-grew the good seed which yet still appeared in divers places of the field of the Catholike Church plain enough to prove a visible being both of the truth and professors of it till the Protestants made a more full declaration of it by refining the old truths from the drosse of heresie and popish superstition Mathe. I desire to have a more plain view of those hereticks that turned from Gospell truths And secondly how the Pope sell off being that the Roman Church did oftentimes excommunicate those hereticks And thirdly how the Protestants came to reform themselves they being once in the bowels of the Romish Church Phila. You know I have shewed many already among the persecuting hereticks yet it shall not be irksome to me if it be not to you to view them a little better especially the Manicheans who sprung up before Arrius with which heresie Augustine was entangled but the Lord God that bringeth good out of evill converted him by the pains of Ambrose Bishop of Millain and he became a great light to Gods people and a confuter of that cursed heresie Manicheus opinions were that there were two beginnings one evil and the other good which is all one as to say there be two Gods No wonder if their patron Manes called himselfe the Holy Ghost Maniches as Montanus did if he proceeded from such principles This Manes forbade flesh and wine neglected the old Testament ascribed the sin of man not to his free will Vid. Aug. cont Mani but necessity because he said mans body was made of the substance of the Prince of darknesse He died a fearfull death Theo. l. 4. c. 4. For as Arrius voided his guts at a draught-house before he came to dispute against the truth so this Manes was sent for being a Persian by the King of Persia to cure his son who died in his hands and he was imprisoned but escaped yet heard of in Mesopotamia was taken and flead Socrat. l. 1. c. 21. and his skin stuffed and set up at the gate of the City Mathe. Sir lest it be too much trouble to you and no great benefit to me to recite all the heresies I desire only the chiefe of them which do directly oppose true Religion Phila. I intend so and therefore first I will shew you the ancient heresies and then the modern that you may see how far the latter are raked out of the former We find some holding God to be like a man because Gen. 1.21 God is said to make man after his image Anthropomorphites but that in the soule and the endowments thereof wisedome and righteousnesse The Author of this heresie was
and then some to set up his truth as you have see And lastly Luther to oppose the Popes errors and King Henry the eighth to imitate his successors by abolishing his authority in England Now then to your third Question How Reformation went on after King Henry the eighth I have shewed you though that King did write against Luther and abolished the Popes power yet he persecuted the Protestants and those that professed Luthers doctrin of which there were many by reason of his books dispersed in England Luther himselfe was much troubled The Pope sends forth his roaring Bull against him he answereth it and appeals to the next generall Councill But his doctrine was very acceptable to good Christians generally though in some points they differed from him He died in â—slebia in the County of Mansfelt Febr. 17. 1546. where he was born Mathe. How thrived the Protestant Religion after Luther Phila. Beyond the seas fell out great troubles A Councill was called at Ratisbone to end controversies of Religion but no agreement and so the Emperour referred the controversie to the next generall or provinciall Councill of Germany but still the popish side desired to suppresse Luthers doctrine but yet decrees against Protestants were suspended yet the fire of malice broke out against them for Henry Duke of Brunsick invaded their Cities the Duke of Saxony resists him in the name of all the Protestants confederate at Smalcaldy and won all his dominions The Emperour and the King of France make peace and both covenant to join to restore the Romish Religion which cost France and Germany great troubles for the King of France sent Minerius Governor of Provence against the Waldenses of whom you have heard who dwelt in some part of that Countrie as in Merindol and Cabriere They of Merindol for fear fled into the woods He spoiled and burned their Towns left desolate Cabriere was delivered upon composition but yet none were spared but some killed in Churches some burned in barns some smothered in caves others sent to the Gallies others starved in the woods But God strook Minerius with a sad disease a fire scorched him within his limbs rotted made bloody urine and died in torments The Emperour Charls the fifth by policy suppresseth these Princes that upheld the Protestants as the Duke of Saxony and others as the Landgrave of Hesse About the year 1546. when the Councill of Trent was gathered to convene where the Emperour and the Pope made a league against the protestants and the Pope gave 200000 Crowns to make war against them to the Venetians and maintained an army for a while to cut them off The Emperour laboured hard with many of the Princes to submit to the Councill of Trent as also the free Cities and in hope they would he desired that the Councill of Trent which was carried from Trent to Bononia might come to Trent again which they refused upon which the Emperour disanulled all they did at Bononia and said he would take care of Religion himselfe And to this end consulted with Princes and Bishops about it who drew out a book of Reformation called Interim to which few would consent and many fled away to other Countries because they would not allow it As Musculus preacher of Ausburgh fled to Switzerland Brentius from Suere to the Duke of Wirtembergh Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius from Germany to England The Pope himselfe would not allow it without correction because it allowed the marriage of Priests and the use of the Sacraments in both kinds though it maintained the rest of the Roman Religion But especially the City of Magdeburgh withstood the book nor acknowledged the Councill of Trent Mathe. How went things now in England Phila. King Edward the sixth now reigning the masse was there forbidden by Parliament and a Book of Common Praier set forth in the English tongue with an order of administration of Sacraments Bonner Bishop of London and Gardiner Bishop of Winchester for their obstinate defence of Romish doctrine were imprisoned But King Edward dying Queen Mary let them out and made great havock of the Protestants and restored the Popes supremacy and the masse in England and got the Parliament to crave absolution of the Pope and Cardinall Pool to absolve the Realm See Fox his Martyrology She neither spared Bishops Ministers nor common people nor spared those who had set her forward to obtain the Crown Her persecution was sharp but God shortned it by her death and Queen Elizabeth whose death was intended succeeded her Mathe. How thrived the Protestants cause now in England and other Countries Phila. In England popish Religion was abolished and the Popes supremacy disanulled King Edwards profession followed Anno 1. Eliza. and his Book of Common Praier allowed again by Parliament But Ferdinand the Emperour succceeding Charls the fift would endure no alteration of Religion and Henry the second King of France would not admit it neither but moved persecution but he being killed by the splinter of a spear at Tilting Francis the second his son succeeds and marrieth Mary Queen of Scots of the Guisian Family which Family endeavoured to abolish the Protestant Religion in France and sent an army into Scotland too for the same purpose which by the aids of Queen Elizabeth was forced to retire This King of France by the advice of the Guisians called a nationall Councill at Orleance under colour to settle Religion But there the Prince of Condie was seized upon and accused of practise against the King But this King shortly died and the Prince of Condie was cleared by a Parliament at Paris and young King Charls the ninth was committed to the care of the Queen Mother and the King of Navar. These governors appoint a disputation by the advice of the States of the Realme at Poyssie 1561. which was four years before Calvin died where Theodore Beza preacher of Geneva and Peter Martyr and Marlorat and the protestant party had the better and the popish side as the Cardinall of Lorain and others concluded with them that Christians do eat in the Sacrament spiritually by faith the body of Christ which died for for us although the Doctors of Sorbon would not agree thereto and so that disputation broke off After which the number of protestants increased and much fear there was of uproars But the Queen Mother assembled the estates at St Germane and made an Edict in January that the professors of the reformed Religion should assemble to hear sermons without the Town and unarmed which grieved the Guisian and popish faction who sought to get the King and Queen Mother into their hands and prevented the King of Navar from the reformed Religion upon hope to have the Kingdome of Navar restored to him againe by Philip King of Spain at the Popes mediation In the mean time the Duke of Guise raiseth an army First Civil war in France and murdered 1500. hundred poor unarmed protestants at Church in the
Spain had deserted the government of the Netherlands and therefore they abjured him and took a new oath to the severall magistrates of every Town and Province among themselves The Prince of Orange about the eighteenth of March 1582. was shot in his chamber by a villain through the cheek but he escaped death and the villain was executed and the Frier that set him on to do the work Many other treasons and plots he escaped laied by the Spaniard and the Prince of Parma But at last one Baltazar Gerard pistol'd him at the enticement of one of the Prince of Parmas Councellors as he confessed in hope of a great reward After his death and funerals the States chose his second son Grave Maurice about eighteen years of age to be their head and appointed a Councell to assist him The Prince of Parma recovered now many Towns The French King could not help the Netherlands because he feared the Leaguers who began again to raise troubles in France about 1585. but counselled them to commend their cause to Queen Elizabeth which they did and she assisted them with men and monie and shee had delivered her in caution for the monie Flushing the Castle of Ramekins and Bril and the two sconces This made the Spaniards to use the English hardly that were in his dominions Upon which by Queen Elizabeths commission they recompenced themselves upon the Spaniard at Sea The Pope and the King of Spain therefore Gregor 13. that in England the reformed religion flourished and that the Queen Elizabeth was a great assistant to the Protestant abroad devised how to invade England and depose Queen Elizabeth which plot shewed it selfe some ten years after in the great Armado 1588. called invincible yet by Gods providence the winds scattered it and the English fiered and sunk many so that of an hundred and thirty tall ships scarce thirty returned to carry newes what became of the rest And thus God delivered Queen Elizabeth from this as well as many other particular plots against her roiall person Mathe. Popery being now abolished and even vanquished in England especially did it continue now in peace and unity Phila. No for with hearts griefe I must tell you that those who were protestants by profession yet proved many of them prophane and schismaticall and raised great troubles in the Church Others through surfeting upon peace and the plenty of preaching and printing fell into strange fancies and uncouth opinions to the great dishonour of God and the true Religion Mathe. What were these Phila. In the year 1579. one Matthew Hamont a plough-wright Matthew Hamont maintained horrible heresies against Christ who was burned at Norwich see Stowes chro p. 685. Others fell out with the Church about government and ceremonies as Robert Brown and Harrison by whom and their abetters in Zeland the Church of England was condemned as no Church Others of loose life brought in nicknames upon people more godly then themselves as you shall find hereafter which bred much difference and heart-burnings whispering and evill surmises by which the people have been carried some to prosecute some to persecute one another Mathe. But before we search England resolve me I pray whether or not were the reformed professors quiet and at unity beyond the seas from whom we took fire to reform popery O have not they filled England as well with dissention as at first with Reformation Phila. Heresies and schismes have been in all Churches as tares mong the wheat And so in Germany and the Netherlands ever after reformation strange people sprung up of more strange opinions then faces or fashions As in 1521. Luther having published his doctrine very prosperously whether out of envy to his glory or by mistaking his writings or by misunderstanding Scriptures a strange sect sprung up certainly by Satans instigation in Saxony who boasted that they talked with God and he with them and that he commanded them to kill all the wicked viz. all that would not be of their sect Melancthoâ— The first Author of this sect was one Nicolas Stock Nicholas Stock who pretended that God spake to him by an Angell and revealed his will to him in dreams and promised him the Empire of the world and that the Saints must live alone in the world and he must be their leader to kill all Kings and Princes and clense the Church He said he could discern of spirits and of the elect of God Next to him succeeds his scholler Muncerus Lembertus Hortensius de Anab. Thomas Muncerus who preached in Alset in Thuringia where he gave an oath to his associats who promised to assist him in executing his doctrine which was to kill all the ungodly Princes and Magistrates for which the Duke of Saxony banished him and so he went to Nurenberg and was driven also from thence and so he came to Muthus in Thuringia again and many of his old disciples resorted to him and received his doctrins as oracles especially that part Jo. Sleid. com lib. 5. wherein he declared that all mens goods should be common and all men free and of equall dignity This doctrine brought to him 40000. who fell to pillaging great mens houses and brought away Noble men bound But Count Mansfelt raised an army with other assistants to resist them Muncer preacheth to his company that they should prevaile according to Gods promise namely by abusing some places of Scripture as Psal 68.23 and Psal 149. and perswaded them that they should dip their feet in the blood of the wicked and that their shot could do them no harm Which oration made his followers refuse favor offered them viz. to deliver up the authors of that sedition and return in peace to their dwellings So the Princes discharged their Ordnance upon them and broke their intrenchments of carts and slew many thousands of them upon which they fled and dispersed themselves but most of them to Frankhus whom the Counts army followed and took the Town and Muncer therein and Phifer his associate and executed them and three hundred more Muncerus at his death could shew neither faith nor devotion After him riseth up Melchior Hoffman Melchior Hoffman Ch. Nelles p. 11. who said he was Elias but venting the same errors at Strausburgh was imprisoned and his followers suppressed Then next rose up John Becold John of Leyden a Taylor of Leyden 1533. with many Hollanders he comming to Munster in Wesphalia he kept Conventicles and so seduced many The Magistrates commanded them to depart the City they went out at one gate and came in at another saying they would not desert the cause of God They inticed many neighboring Towns to assist them by fair promises of spirituall wealth and worldly riches and freedome from paying rent tribute or tithes So they turned the Citizens out of the Town plundered the Churches and houses and made orders that the inhabitants should bring in all their mony into the common stock upon
expounders thereof The next sign is the reviving and publishing the everlasting Gospell and profession of the reformed religion from superstition prophecied Rev. 14.6 which hath been set on foot by the Protestant religion in these latter times The next sign will be the fall of spirituall Babylon which in all likelihood is Rome by the martiall power of Princes Rev. 17.16 17. The other signs will be a generall corruption of manners Then the calling of the Jewes great alterations in heaven and earth but how is not set down But at last shall be seen the sign of the Son of man comming in the clouds Mat. 24.30 but what kind of sign this will be is uncertain Some say it will be the appearance of the Crosse and instruments of Christs passion Lyranus as the spear and nailes that pierced him and the other altogether Others say that a sword shall suddenly fall from heaven to signifie to all true beleevers Lactant. l. 7. c. 1 that the Captain of the Lords host is comming Others think that Christ shall appear with his Crosse carried before him Damianus de moribus Aethiop and a sword in his hand as ready to be revenged on the ungodly that have crucified him and of the enemies to his Crosse Others think the sign of the Crosse shall be carried before him in the clouds Chrysost in Mat. Muscul in Mat. as a testimony that it was he that was crucified or that it shall be the fignall of his triumph against the devill and the world whom by it he hath conquered Col. 2.15 Others say that this signe shall be the body of Christ appearing with all the marks of his wounds about him Dr wilket Calv. Pet. Mart. but whether they shall appear in his glorified body I know not Others say that this sign of the Son of Man shall be his celestiall power and glory with all the eies of the world to him and this is likely to be the sign even himselfe in glorious appearance as Luke 21.27 and Mark 13.19 who names no sign but himselfe Mathe. But how shall men be tried Phila. No doubt but by sufficient law and evidence They that have sinned without law shall perish without law Aug. in Rom. i. those that have sinned by nature without the law moral shall be judged by the law of nature with the law morall and those that sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Beside there shall be sufficient evidence to judge them by for we read of books that shall be opened Rev. 20.12 As first the book of nature and herein the creatures that we have abused shall testifie against us Jer. 17.1 Next the book of Scripture which we have disobeied Luke 12.48 Thirdly the book of Conscience which as a thousand witnesses shall convince us when it shall be awakened which is now asleep Then the book of Gods remembrance for the comsort of good men Mal. 3.16 and the terror of the wicked when God himselfe shall be a swift witnesse against them Lastly the book of life full of the names of Gods children Phil. 4.3 and also Rev. 20.12 yea rather then faile the heavens and the earth shall declare our iniquity and stand up against us Job 20.27 Mathe. What shall be the last issue of this day of judgment Phila. The godly shall have the possession of 1 Thes 4.17 where they shall have First the vision of God which is the very life of the sonle as the Sun is of plants Secondly their own natures perfected 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3.18 their faces shall shine like the Sun their bodies active like spirits and shall have health without the least weaknesse their souls full of knowledge and their heart of perfect holinesse their company Angels and the spirits of just men Heb. 12.23 among whom shall be perfect love and amity Secondly the wicked shall be thrust into hell among the devils where they shall be deprived of the comfortable sight of God and heavenly glory excepting so much as Dives saw to the increase of his own griefe Also a worm of conscience shall ever be gnawing upon them by a remembrance of their sins with the unspeakable torments of fire unquenchable and the horrid presence of devils of which horrid troubles they shall never find ease nor end so that they shall loath the life they have and shall never find that death they desire And then shall follow the creation of new heavens and earth not in substance but in quality for as the old world was not annihilated by the deluge no more shall this by fire but they shall be melted and cast into a new mold as St Peter doth well expresse that though the inferiour heavens shall passe away with a noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth with the works there in shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 Yet though all these things shall be dissolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. ver 11. and 12. and melted neverthelesse we look according to Gods promise for new heavens and earth wherein shall dwell righteousnesse In which also the creature shall have a restitution as appeareth Acts 3.21 and 8.23 from bondage to liberty i. from the bondage of corruption and mutation and the service of wicked mens humors not that all that ever was shall be so but every sort of creature that are then alive at the last day which God made in their severall kinds at the creation shall be restored and for ought I know reserved at the pleasure of God as the examples of his wisedome and power in the creation And last of all then shall Christ deliver up his Kingdome to God the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 not his glorious and eternall estate which he ever did and must enjoy with the Father but his temporall government which was delivered to him with all power by the Father Luke 10.22 to rule in the Kingdome of grace by holy means and ordinances by which he having now subdued all enemies fulfilled all truth and delivered his elect from all sin and punishment and brought them to eternall happinesse he gives up this Kingdome to the Father to rule them in glory not excluding him lse but as the Father ruled by him in the Kingdome of grace so he now in and by the Father in the Kingdome of glory for ever Amen The end of the first Part. A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHEIES Part 2. Mathetes CHrist being thus plainly set forth in the Old Testament how came the Jewes not to beleeve upon him Phila. 1. By their own hardnesse of heart not beleeving the Prophets but also persecuting of them and refusing to hear them Jer. 6.17 2. By the just judgement of God who therefore laid a stumbling block before upon which the father and the sons fell together ver 21. And Christ became to them a stumbling and a rock
called Dunce of the Town in Scotland where he was born but of a most subtile wit But God still stirred up some to maintain the cause of his truth As Arnoldus de nova villa a Spaniard who held in his time That the devill had seduced the world from the truth of Christ That the faith then commonly taught was the faith of devils That Christian people were led by the Pope to hell That the Cloisters had no charity and falsified the doctrine of Christ That the Ministers did not well to mix Philosophy with Divinity That masses are not to be celebrated nor that Priests ought to sacrifice for the dead All which the Protestants hold Gulielmus de Sancto Amore a Master of the University of Paris applied all the texts of Scripture that make against Antichrist to the Pope and his Clergy and proved the Friers to be false Prophets and writ against their wilfull poverty shewing that Christ when he said Mat. 19.21 Go and sell all thou hast and give it to the poor did not intend actuall but habituall poverty namely that we should not impoverish our selves when no need requireth but that in our affections we should be ready so to do when the confession of Christ and his glory shall require it that then we be ready to leave all for his sake So say the Protestants also But this man was condemned for an heretick and exiled and his books burnt So Laurence an English man and a Master of Paris 1300. and Peter John a Minorite and Robertus Gallus a Dominican Frier wrote that the Pope was Antichrist and Rome was great Babylon and that the Pope was an Idoll that had eies but would not see the abominations of his Church for desire of riches So the Protestants hold likewise Robert Gostred Bishop of Lincoln would not admit at the Popes command for an Italian boy to be one of the Prebends of his Church but writ to him that it was a devilish sin to defraud the people of the preaching of the Word by setting those in place that could not perform the Ministeriall office but only take the milke and wooll of Christs sheep He prophecied in his sicknesse that the Church should not be delivered from Romes Aegyptian bondage but by a bloody sword So think the Protestants Marsilius Patavinus affirmed that the Pope had not authority over other Bishops much lesse over the Emperour 1400. lib. defens pacis and that the Pope and the Clergy should be subject to Magistrates and that the head of the Church is Christ and that he never appointed any Vicar to be universall head thereof that Bishops ought to be chosen by the Clergy and that the marriage of Priests is lawfull and that St Peter was never at Rome that the Church of Rome is a den of theeves and that Popish doctrine leads to eternall death So hold the Protestants also Michael Cesenas Provinciall of the Grey Friers writ against the Popes pride and supremacy and cals him Antichrist and Rome Babylon the great whore drunk with the blood of the Saints that there were two Churches one of the wicked very flourishing wherein the Pope reigned the other of godly men afflicted over whom Christ reigned So hold the Protestants This man had many followers The Pope cursed him and burned many of them as they did also the Protestants John Wickliffe a Professor of Divinity in Oxford in King Edward the thirds time wrote many learned books of Logick and Philosophy Morality and Divinity and of the speculative Art He discovered the error of the Papists about Sacraments and so made himselfe many enemies But he had many friends and followers beyond the seas as John Huss and Jerome of Prague In whose defence fifty four Nobles of Moravia writ sharp reprehending the popish party for taxing Bohemia and Moravia with heresie Mr Moor. And many Nobles of England about the year 1385. did maintain Wickliffs doctrine namely Lord Montague Lord Clifford Earle of Salisbury Lord Latimer and Nevill Mathe. What were the points of Wickliffs doctrine Phila. That the substance of bread and wine remained in the Sacrament of the Altar after the words of consecration 2. That it is not found that Christ instituted or confirmed a Masse 3. That it is presumption to affirm that the children of the faithfull dying unbaptized are damned 4. That in St Pauls time there were but two orders of Clerks namely Elders and Deacons 5. That the causes of divorcement for spirituall consanguinity or affinity are not founded on the Scriptures 6. That he which is in the Church most serviceable and humble is Christ neerest Vicar in the Church militant 7. That if extrme or corporall unction were a Sacrament neither Christ nor his Apostles would have omitted it 8. That whatsoever the Pope commandeth without a cleare deduction from the Scriptures is to be accounted hereticall 9. That it is folly to beleeve the Popes pardons 10. That it is not necessary to beleeve the Church of Rome to be the supreme head of other Churches 11. That a Priest may preach the Word of God with authority from the Pope 12. That the Church of Rome is the synagogue of Satan nor is the Pope the Vicar of Christ nor of his Apostles 13. That if any man enter into a private Religion he is made thereby the more unfit to serve God The Protestants follow these positions John Huss the Bohemian followeth Wickliffe in time and doctrine for which he was burnt by the Councill of Constance though he was promised safe conduct His great offence was that he appealed to Jesus Christ which they took for a contempt of the Apostolike See Some report of this good Martyr that though they burnt the Goose for so Huss signifieth yet out of his ashes should rise a Swan so Luther signifieth that should trouble them worse then he had done So Luther did indeed Jerom of Prague died also as did John Huss about the year 1415. Hieronymus Savonarala an Italian Monk was a great adversary to the popish Clergy yet preaching nothing but the plain word of God as touching 1. The free justification in Christ through faith 2. That the communion ought to be administred in both kinds 3. That popish pardons were of no effect 4. Denied the Popes supremacy 5. Preached against the filthinesse of the Cardinals and Clergy 6. That the Keies were not only given to Peter 7. That the Pope did neither follow the life nor doctrine of Christ and that he attributed more to his own pardons then to Christs merits and therefore was Antichrist 8. That the Popes excommunications are not to be feared and he that doth fear them is excommunicated of God 9. That auricular confession is not necessary All which he stood unto with two Friers who were all three hanged openly and then burned And now began the Art of Printing which did ruine the Pope more then preaching Martin Luther was by the speciall providence of God called
these 1. That the true Church which is the mysticall body of Christ riseth out of Gods Word and continueth in the same and heareth not the voice of strangers 2. It makes no Lawes without Gods word 3. That the traditions of the Church cannot bind conscience except they be consonant to Gods Word 4. That Christ hath made full satisfaction for sin and he that saith there is any other way to salvation or to abolish sin denieth Christ 5. That Christ is not received corporally in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 6. That the Masse offered up for the quick and dead is contrary to the Word of God and disgracing the sacrifice of Christ 7. That Christ is only to be invocated as Mediator between God and man 8. That the Scripture sheweth no such place as Purgatory for the purging of soules after death and therefore all popish Ceremonies as Dirges Lamps and Tapers profit not the dead at all 9. That pictures and images of Saints are not to be set up in Churches or to be worshipped 10. That Matrimony is not denied to any order of men but by the word of God permitted to all men and because fornication is forbidden therefore single life is not to be forced upon people All which propositions were defended by Oecolampadius Bucer and others against all opposers and therefore ratified by the Senate and it was decreed that Masses Altars and Images should be abolished In memoriall of this Reformation they caused a pillar to be set up engraven with golden letters with the time when it was done namely 1528. many other Cities as Strousbrough Basil and Geneva followed their example But many other Towns popishly affected did side with Ferdinand the Emperours brother and Deputy in Germany to suppresse this Reformation in Berne and Zurik These Towns were the Lucernates Vrani Suitenses Vnternaldii and Tugiani who much abusing the Reformed Tigurines and Bernatas made them so angry that they stopped the waies to those five Towns that no victuals could come to them Upon this the five unreformed made war upon them and had the better in which skirmishing Zuinglius was slain and his body abused cut in pieces and burned yet the Reformed continued in their religion and peace was concluded by the mediation of the King of France and some Cantons of Switzerland Mathe. But how came England to be Protestants Phila. Henry the seventh King of England had two sons Arthur and Henry Prince Arthur the eldest married Katherine daughter to Ferdinand King of Spain and died without issue Then Henry the eighth his brother being King of England by the advice of his Counsellors and Nobles married the said Lady Katherine that so her dowry might not be carried out of England Which match though contrary to Gods Word was dispensed withall by Pope Julian the second and so continued twenty years Now Charls the fifth Emperour being in England promised to marrie the Lady Mary daughter to Henry the eighth by the said Queen Katherine which the Emperours Councill misliked because that the Lady Mary was begotten by King Henry and his brothers wife and so illegitimate therefore the Emperour forsook the match and married the King of Portugals daughter called Isabel Upon this King Henry's mind began to be troubled and the more because he foresaw that there could be no firm succession to the Crown by children so begotten He propounded therefore this question to all the Universities of Christendome viz. whether his marriage were lawfull they all agreed it was not therefore the King sought a divorce and desired the Popes consent The Pope sent Cardinall Campeius into England who together with Woolsey Cardinall of York was by his authority to judge the businesse Woolsey was inclined to the divorce till he perceived the Kings mind was bent to marry Anne Bulloin who was a Lutheran Of which he advertizing the Pope he sent for his Embassador Campeius who returned to Rome without determining the Kings cause But the King by Doctor Cranmers advice and the Civilians had Queen Katherine divorced therefore the Pope cursed King Henry and his Kingdome of England And the King abolished the Popes authority and tyranny in his Kingdome and enjoined that he should in his dominions only be called Bishop of Rome and that himselfe should be acknowledged supreame head of the Church of England This was the beginning of Reformation of popish abuses as in dissolving of Abbies and Monasteries in England and Wales though Henry the eighth continued in Romish doctrines To the number of 645. vid. Cambden Mr Fox his Martyro p. 2. and many blessed Martyrs were put to death in his time for professing the contrary even after he had abolished the Bishop of Romes authority as Lambert condemned by King Henry himselfe and also of many others by his authority and ministers such as Collins Cowbridge Leiton Puttedew Peke do testifie as also his setting out the six Articles maintaining page 1296. 1. Transubstantiation And secondly that the communion in both kinds is not necessary to be received And thirdly against Priests marriage And fourthly for vowing single life And fifthly Anno 31. regni H. 8. for maintaining the Masse and also sixthly auricular confession to be necessary Which Articles were commended to Commissioners to be put in execution and many good men suffered who held tenets contrary thereunto as Doctor Barns Heirom Garret Marbeck Filmer Testwood and Person and Bennet Kerby Clark Mendelsham and Mistrisse Anne Askew and others burned at Windsor and Ipswich in London and Kent all which shew that though King Henry the eighth did abolish the power of the Pope in Civill and Ecclesiastick matters in England yet popish doctrine was still maintained Mathe. I pray tell me how the Pope came to have such great authority in England in Civil and Ecclesiasticall affairs 2. How Englands Religion came to be corrupted which at first it seems was pure Rom. 1.8 as Romes faith was before the Pope turned Antichristian 3. How the Reformation went on which was revived by King Henry the eight so far as abolishing popish jurisdiction Phila. For the first you may find that the Pope came in by connivance of peaceable and quiet Princes who not discerning the Popes policy after Phocas the Emperour had made him universall Bishop how he did work upon Princes of weak judgement as also upon such as he found to be superstitious or that were litigious and stood in need of his help and so did wind himselfe by intrusion and used his possession with tyranny But this intrusion could never be warranted by any just claime through possession or submission to him in tract of time by custome or prescription the foundation of his first authority being surreptitious for we cannot find any Brittish or Saxon Kings that have obliged themselves or this Kingdome submissively to the Pope But you may find that when Austin the Monk was sent into England by Pope Greg. 1. to bring the Clergy to the ceremonies
must lie in one of these If it lie in the Agent it is either directly evill as Davids matter of Vriah 2 Sam. 12.24 which was sin or else it is indirectly and so either with or without the intention of the Agent 1. Without his intention as Peter Gal. 2.11 in a partiall complying with the Jewes had no intent to offend the Gentiles 2. With his intention as when men do it of purpose to stumble others So Hereticks by seeming holy and austere have drawn many from the truth as did the Novatians who decreed that men who had fallen by infirmity should never be received again into the Church by which seeming strictnesse they got many followers and continued many years even from the reign of Decius to the reign of Julian and after So we say men may give offences to the weak or to the strong to the strong as Peter was an offence to Christ when he bid him to favor himselfe Mat. 16. for though he spake out of good will yet Christ found it a subtle temptation and so cast it as a stumbling block out of his way 2. To the weak who are not able to distinguish we give offence when we do unadvisedly lay things in their way Mat. 18. which may annoy them before they be aware It is true we are not to offend one of Christs little ones But now things indifferent when they be fully determined by the Church of God we must not be contentious it is not the custome of the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 of which Church we must be more tender then of any particular men 1 Cor. 10.23 But if indifferent things be not at all or but in part determined by the Church of God then we must consider charitably of other mens consciences who are not fully perswaded of the lawfull use of them and therefore they are so far to be used as they may prove no offence to others So 1 Cor. 10.25 Eat and make no question or scruple because God hath given us liberty to use or not use them the earth is the Lords to do thee good but in case of offence against thy brother eat not the earth is the Lords to hurt no mans conscience by my liberty or Gods allowance so that first he saith eat and make no scruple though the Feast was dedicated to Idols for the earth is the Lords and mans superstition cannot abridge thee from the lawfull use of the creature But if a weak brother that is not well satisfied in Christian liberty shall inform thee of the idolatrous Feast saying this meat is offered to idols then use not thy Christian liberty to the wounding of that weak conscience for the earth is the Lords for thee to use lawfully and not licentiously Therefore the Councill of the Apostles Acts 15. though they gave liberty to eat meats that were forbidden by Moses law yet restrained the Christians from things strangled and from blood and things offered to idols left they should offend the Jewish people newly converted to the Christian faith Acts 15.3 So St Paul circumcised Timothy his father being a Greek to shun giving offence to the Jewish converts yet at another time he would not circumcise Titus Gal. 2.3 4. lest he thereby should approve the doctrine of those that imposed upon Christians an absolute necessity of circumcision contrary to the liberty of the Gospell Herein the Apostle carried the matter with great discretion letting religion regulate charity and charity regulate Christian liberty Mathe. But though many things may be lawfull yet not expedient for though one intends no scandall yet it may be taken though not given and therefore such offensive things are to be avoided Phila. Not so for men may be offended at that which must not be avoided for men may be corrupted that take offence in their judgement or in their affections 1. In their judgement as those people were that took offence at Christs doctrine saying that they must eat the flesh of the Son of man else they had no life in them Joh. 6.53 because they understood not the spirituall sense of it ver 52. So in their affection as when by pride men take offence at the simplicity of the Gospell as 1 Cor. 1.23 Christ crucified was to the Jewes a stumbling block and to the Grecians foolishnesse It is true that where there is no declaration of the right use of things indifferent we are to indulge the weak P. M. lo. com class 2. c. 4. p. 201. but where a declaration is or may be had concerning the using or not using such things there we are not to nourish mens presumptions instead of weaknesse I know some pretend that Papists may be the more confirmed in their Religion to see reformed Churches use their ceremonies But I think rather by our reforming what they have abused they may rather see the error of their own religion We may as well refuse their Churches as their ceremonies and they may as well be setled the more in their religion by our not using them but I fear more by abusing them Indeed some ministers have objected against the use of them but yet are now reconciled to them for advantage sake So others say that our use of these ceremonies makes profane persons to contemn all religion but I think rather that mens stripping religion of decent rites doth more confirm prophanesse then clothing of it with decent ceremonies and brings in disparity more then uniformity So some object it is a great hindrance to preachers that cannot conform to them but the necessity of preaching the Gospell ought to overpoize any ceremony because a woe followeth the neglect of one 1 Cor. 9.16 Cartw. replica p. 266. but none for using the other Others say that if some ministers who are non Conformists should submit themselves it were a discredit to them but yet St Augustine wonne himselfe much glory by writing retractations Some again that the command of conformity to a ceremony doth infringe Christian liberty but I say then it must be proved that the Church teacheth that there is a necessity to salvation placed in humane ceremonies or else a necessity of sanctity or of merit or that they must be necessary to Gods worship Indeed if the Church did so I confesse she did destroy Christian liberty V. Calv. Instit lib. 4. cap. 10. Sect. 4. for it is not obedience necessary to mans commandement that infringeth Christian liberty but the opinion of necessity in the matter of command as if to do it were necessary to eternall life This indeed were to offer violence to the scepter of Christ by which a man hath a liberty in things indifferent which invasion the Church of England disclaimeth in the 39 Articles Mathe. God having so setled his Church what is required of it Phila. That it be established in an holy stare of Magistrate Minister and people most agreeable to his revealed truth in Christ that as God
the unrepentant yea sins before they are committed yea they say it is lesse dangerous to break Gods Commandements then the Popes as to break the Sabbath rather then an holy day or the Lent fast and flesh eaten on Friday is more punished then theft or adultery Again he maintains the doctrine of devils by forbidding marriage and meats 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3 and maintains heathenisme for true Religion by commanding the worship of images and the adoration of dead Saints which was the practice of the heathens in worshipping of their Daemons Beside this Antichrist doth equall if not prefer the blessed Virgin Mary before Christ as may be seen by the titles they give unto her as the Turks set Mahomet above Christ And farther his religion is patched up of other petty Antichrists and therefore certainly he is the great Antichrist For as the Valentinian hereticks and Marcion when they were confuted by Scripture they said that the Scriptures were insufficient obscure and of no authority so do the Papists Aug. cont Pelag. Epipha her 42. So as the Pelagians held free will to remain in man fallen for the choosing of any spirituall good so do the Papists So the Marcionite held women might baptize so do the Papists Iren. l. 1. c. 13. The Carpocratians denied to Lay men the reading of the Scriptures so do the Papists that their mystery of iniquity may not be discovered The Manicheans held the body of Christ to be but imaginary so do the Papists in that they tell us of the body of Christ in the Sacrament without its true proprieties Aug. haer 71. And as they gave only the bread in the Sacrament so do the popish Priests The Tassiani did forbid Priests marriage so doth the Pope Euseb lib. 5. eccl hist c. 17. Montanus invented lawes for fasting so did the Papists The Collyridiani worshipped the Virgin Mary whom Epiphanius cals idolaters haeres 79. The Marcionits preferred virginity above all things Epiph. haeres 2. so do the Papists The Carpocratians had images of Christ to worship so have the Papists And the hereticks called Apostolici admitted none into their fraternity unlesse they deprived themselves of their goods and renounced matrimony so do the popish Monks and Friers The Armeni worshipped the crosse so do the Papists And also in many other things the Pope licks up the vomit of old heathenisme and heresie and differs from the true Christian Religion in sixty and odd severall points But beside the papacy appeareth to be the great Anrichrist because he denieth Jesus to be Christ not in words 1 John 2.22 but in effect because he denieth the person of Christ and his office For in his doctrine of transubstantiation in the Lords Supper he denieth the proprieties of Christs humane nature and by consequent his Mediatorship So he makes void his Propheticall office as if he had not perfectly revealed the will of his Father John 15.15 and therefore the Pope deviceth other doctrines as necessary to salvation So he disanuls Christs Priestly office by setting other Priests to offer a sacrifice of the masse for quick and dead Heb. 10.14 and annihilates his sole Mediatorship and intercession 1 Tim. 2.5 by appointing the mediation of Saints Also he abrogates Christs Kingly office by assuming to himselfe all power in heaven and in earth Concil Lateran sess 10. yea arrogates to himselfe power over soules departed to send them to purgatory and fetch them out at his pleasure Clem. 6. in sua bulla Rev. 13.13 Nicol. Lyra. in cap. 4. Daniel or to canonize them Saints as he thinks fit Again he useth false signs and lying wonders 2 Thes 2.9 pretending to cast out devils and make images to sweat weep or smile which kind of wonders if they had any semblance of truth yet are not to be expected in these latter times however they were necessary in the first planting of the Church Greg hom 19. in Eâ—ang and ministers are rather to be judged to be true because they do none rather then otherwise saith Chrysost in 49. hom on Mat. for they were necessary that the world might beleeve yet after men do beleeve Aug. lib. 22. de civil dei it were strange to expect miracles But beside the Pope exerciseth the power Civill and Ecclesiastick as Rev. 13.12 whereby the power of the first beast is meant in authentique Writers the power of the Roman Empire which was much wounded and weakned Rev. 13.12 but healed by the Popes taking on himselfe the authority thereof and so becomes rich and potent being adored with gold and silver and adorned with purple and scarlet Rev. 17.4 And farther you may know this beast by his marks of cruelty and therefore as the first beasts bodily shape is likened to a Leopard Rev. 13.2 his mouth like a lion and his feet like a bear as if all the cruell properties of Daniels beasts were met in him together with the blasphemous tongue of Antiochus Epiphanes whom Polybius cals Epimanes the mad man So the Popes cruelty and tyranny is set forth in the second Beast Rev. 13.11 like a lamb but spake like a dragon exercising it on true Christians as it is foretold Rev. 13.15 17. that all that would not worship the first beasts image that is the Pope himselfe should be killed and that none should buy or sell but such as bore some mark of his obedience Otto the first to Pope John the twelfth 942. as the mark of the Beast by his ordination of Priests and oath taken of Emperours and Princes or that bore his name by imposition on the people called Papists of Papa Grat. distinct Q. 3. the Pope or Roman Catholicks or else that had the number of his name by subjecting themselves to the soveraignty of the Latine Church as Michael Paleologus was fain to promise to Gregory the tenth 1273. at Lions in France that he would subject himselfe and his people to him till which time he would suffer no aid to go out of the West to relieve the Christian Greek Churches in the East And thus he sits in the Temple of God as a politick tyrant that is in their consciences whom he hath seduced and commanded to serve him who would seem to be the true Church and Temple of God and yet are in the mean time but the Citizens of spirituall Babylon which is interpreted to be Rome by St John built on seven hils It is true that he speaks of two beasts Rev. 17.9 Rev. 13.1 11. the first is generally taken to be the successive heathenish estate of the Roman Empire which persecuted the Christians openly the other the successive estate of Popes after the apostacy from the Gospel-truth who by idolatry superstition and persecution and Seat in Rome became the image of the first Beast It is simple to think that Antichrist is one man as it were to say that Israel were the name of one man only whereas
31 Confutation of those that reject Scriptures p. 32 Of Scriptures translation p. 33 The judge of Scriptures sense p. 34 How the Scripturesets out God to us p. 35 Of Gods attributes p. 36 How God is to be considered of before the Creation p. 37 Of Angels their degrees p. 38 46 Their fall and sin p. 47 Of Gods operations in himselfe and to us-ward p. 39 Of predestination p. 40 Of Gods externall works p. 45 The world not eternall nor made by it selfe p. 45 46 The place of evill Angels p. 49 What use of the stars p. 53 Why Christians retain the names of Planets on their week daies as did the heathen p. 54 Of the Creation of man p. 55 Of the souls immortality p. 59 Of mans fall p. 61 How the hope of felicity was given and continued to man p. 63 Of the types of Christ p. 64 Of their analogy with the New Testament p. 65 Of the promises and prophecies of Christs Nativity Death Resurrection and Ascension p. 84 Of the departure of the Scepter from Judah p. 85 The necessity of Christs birth by a Virgin p. 86 Of the spirituall relations that Christs Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension hath to us p. 89 How Christs conception is applied to the Holy Ghost ibid. The effects of that conception upon us p. 90 Of the blessed Virgins conception of Christ p. 92 The spirituall effects of Christs birth upon us p. 95 No sin cleaving to Christs conception p. 93 How Christ suffered being God and man p. 96 How could he being just be put justly to death for the unjust p. 98 Of Christs carriage before Pilate and Herod p. 101 The meaning and end of his sufferings p. 103 The testimony of his Godhead in his sufferings p. 106 The necessity of his death p. 107 Whether Christ died in his nature or his person ibid. How Christ was slain from the beginning of the world and yet toward the end p. 108 The mystery of his bones not broken and his side pierced p. 108 Of his burial p. 109 Of his descending into hell p. 111 The honor he got by his resurrection p. 112 Of reverence due to his name p. 113 The benefits ue have by his resurrection p. 114 By his ascension p. 115 By his session in heaven ibid. And by his comming to judgement p. 116 The necessity of the last judgement and of that day p. 117 Of the signs of it p. 118 Of the trial of men then p. 119 The second part beginning next to 119. but figured by 115. Why the Jewes beleeved not in Christ p. 115 Their punishment p. 116 The transferring of the Gospell to the Gentiles p. 117 Association of Christians p. 119 Their first meeting places of Christians for worship p. 120 Their first Churches p. 121 Their persecutions by the Jewes and some others p. 123 Their persecutions by some Emperors p. 123 Persecutions by Hereticks and some others p. 131 Persecution from the Western Church p. 133 Of the growth of Popedome ibid. Popish succession p. 134 How came in the Protestant Religion p. 145 Of heresie and Hereticks before Corstantine p. 128 Persecutions by Arrians p. 131 And by Eutychians p. 132 A view of ancient heresies and modern p. 146 By whom Protestant doctrines were held before Luther p. 148 How the Protestant Religion came into England p. 156 How the Pope got authority in England p. 157 How Christian Religion was first corrupted in England p. 159 How reformation in Religion went on after H. 8 p. 160 How it thrived in England and in forreign parts p. 161 How the English Church was troubled after reformation p. 169 Of the old and new Anabap. p. 171 Baptisme of Infants p. 178 Rebaptization p. 180 Of Litourgie p. 181 Calvins Church government p. 183 Parity of Clergy and Laity p. 185 Of oaths ibid. Sects troubling the Protestant Church p. 187 Gods punishments on divers Sectaries p. 207 Of Bishops and Presbyters p. 208 Forms of governing in all ages by superiours p. 212 Bishops accounted superiour and Presbyters second p. 221 Of election of Pastours p. 225 Government of Churches by Bishops p. 228 How Bishops derived from Rome or otherwise p. 229 Why some are enemies to Bishops p. 230 Of Litourgies and Ceremonies p. 231 Of requisites in a setled Church p. 239 Of the Holy Ghost and his operations on Church people p. 240 Of the sin against the Holy Ghost p. 242 Of the Church p. 244 Of Abrahams faith p. 250 The marks of a true Christian p. 252 Advancement of sanctification p. 256 Of repentance p. 257 Of the Catholike Church p. 261 Of the Church militant p. 264 Of the Churches head p. 265 Of Antichrist p. 267 Why St Paul so covertly describeth the Antichrist p. 272 Whether hereticks and schismaticks be of the body of the Church militant p. 273 Of the Churches visibility p. 275 Of the notes of a true visible Church p. 276 What Church hath those notes p. 278 The good of a nationall Councill p. 279 Of the Communion of Saints ibid. The reason of two Sacraments p. 280 That parents may with confidence bring children to baptisme p. 280 That men may receive the Lords Supper with a mixed assembly p. 281 Of a fit Communicant p. 282 How Christ is to be remembred in the Sacrament p. 285 What congregation is best to associate ones selfe withall and what Church is the safest p. 286 Of the holiness of the Church or place of Gods worship p. 287 Of the Lords day p. 288 FINIS