but think that a sad profession of Religion which enforceth men to decry the use and excellency of that which let them pretend what they please is the only infallible Revelation of all that Truth by obedience whereunto we become Christians I do heartily pity Learned and Ingenious men when I see them enforced by a private corrupt Interest to engage in this woful work of undervaluing the word of God and so much the more as that I cannot but hope that it is a very ingrateful work to themselves Did they delight in it I should have other thoughts of them and conclude that there are more Atheists in the World than those whom our Author informs us to be lately turned so in England This then is the Remedy that Protestants have for their evils This the means of making up all their differences which they might do every day so far as in this World it is possible that that work should be done amongst men if it were not their own fault That they do not so blame them still blame them soundly lay on Reproofs till I cry Hold but let not I pray the word of God be blamed any more Methinks I could beg this of a Catholick especially of my Countrey-men That whatever they say to Protestants or however they deal with them they would let the Scripture alone and not decry its worth and usefulness It is not Protestants Book it is Gods who hath only granted them an use of it in common with the rest of men And what is spoken in disparagement of it doth not reflect on them but on him that made it and sent it to them It is no Policy I confess to discover our secrets to our Adversaries whereby they may prevent their own disadvantages for the future But yet because I look not on the Romanists as absolute Enemies I shall let them know for once that when Protestants come to that head of their Disputes or Orations wherein they contend that the Scripture is so and so obscure and insufficient they generally take great contentment to find that their Religion cannot be opposed without casting down the word of God from its excellency and enthroning somewhat else in the room of it Let them make what use of this they please I could not but tell it them for their good and I know it to be true For the present it comes too late For another main Principle of our Authors Discourse is VIII That the Scripture on sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the Truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves and that 1. Because it is not to be known to be the word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church And then 2. Cannot be well Translated into any vulgar Language And is also 3. In its self obscure And 4. We have no way to determine of what is its proper sense Atqui hic est nigrae sumus Caliginis haec est Aerugo mera I suppose they will not tell a Pagan or a Mahumetan this story At least I heartily wish that men would not suffer themselves to be so far transported by their private Interest as to forget the general concernments of Christianity We cannot say they know the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Authority of the Church of Rome And all men may easily assure themselves that no man had ever known there was such a thing as a Church much less that it had any Authority but by the Scripture And whither this tends is easie to guess But it will not enter into my head that we cannot know or believe the Scripture to be the word of God any otherwise than on the Authority of the Church of Rome The greatest part of it was believed to be so before there was any Church at Rome at all and all of it is so by Millions in the World who make no account of that Church at all Now some say there is such a Church I wish men would leave perswading us that we do not believe what we know we do believe or that we cannot do that which we know we do and see that millions besides our selves do so too There are not many Nations in Europe wherein there are not Thousands who are ready to lay down their lives to give testimony that the Scripture is the word of God that care not a rush for the Authority of the present Church of Rome And what further evidence they can give that they believe so I know not And this they do upon that innate evidence that the word of God hath in it self and gives to its self the testimony of Christ and his Apostles and the teaching of the Church of God in all Ages I must needs say There is not any thing for which Protestants are so much beholding to the Roman Catholicks as this That they have with so much importunacy cast upon them the work of proving the Scripture to be of Divine Original or to have been given by inspiration from God It is as good a work as a man can well be imployed in and there is not any thing I should more gladly en professo ingage in if the nature of my present business would bear such a Diversion Our Author would quickly see what an easie Task it were to remove those his Reproches of a private spirit of an inward testimony of our own Reason which himself knowing the advantage they afford him amongst vulgar unstudied men trisles withal Both Romanists and Protestants as far as I can learn do acknowledge That the Grace of the Spirit is necessary to enable a man to believe savingly the Scripture to be the Word of God upon what Testimony or Authority soever that faith is founded or resolved into Now this with Protestants is no private Whisper no Enthusiasm no Reason of their own no particular Testimony but the most open noble known that is or can be in the World even the voice of God himself speaking publickly to all in and by the Scripture evidencing it self by its own Divine innate light and excellency taught confirmed and testified unto by the Church in all Ages especially the first founded by Christ and his Apostles He that looks for better or other Testimony Witness or Foundation to build his faith upon may search till Dooms-day without success He that renounceth this shakes the very root of Christianity and opens a door to Atheism and Paganism This was the Anchor of Christians of old from which neither the Storms of Persecution could drive them nor the subtilty of Disputations entise them For men to come now in the end of the World and to tell us That we must rest in the Authority of the present Church of Rome in our receiving the Scripture to be the word of God and then to tell us That that Church hath all its Authority by and from the Scripture and to know well enough all the while that no man can know
by his example he commends unto them But it will be said He only shews the uncertainties that are about Scripture that men may not expect by or from them deliverance from the darkness and ignorance before spoken of Suppose then they come to be perswaded of such an uncertainty What course shall they take Apply themselves to the Roman-Church and they are safe But seeing the being of a Church much less the Roman-Church hath no foundation in the light of Nature and men can never know any thing of it especially of its Prerogative but by and from the Scripture whose Authority you have taught them to question and made doubtful to them What remains for rational men but to renounce both Scripture and Church and betake themselves to your commendable piece of witty Atheism This is the old lurry The Scripture cannot be known believed understood but by the Church the Church cannot be proved to have Being Constitution or Authority but by the Scripture and then if you doubt of the Authority of that proof of the Church you must return to the Church again and so on until all Faith and Reason vanish or men make shipwrack of their Faith and become brutish in their Understanding pretending to believe they know neither what nor why And this imployment of raising surmises and stirring up jealousies about the Word of God it's Pen-men and their Authority do men put themselves upon I will not say to gratifie the Roman-Court but I will say in obedience to their prejudices lusts and darkness and saddest drudgery that any of the sons of men can be exercised withal And if he would be believed he professeth himself an Anti-Scripturist and in that profession which he puts upon himself an Atheist For my part I am amazed to think how men are able to hold their Pens in their hands that an horrour of the work they have before them doth not make them shake them out when they are thus traducing the holy Word of Christ and exciting evil surmises about it Should they deal with a man of any Power and Authority they might not expect to escape his indignation even to publish to all the World that he is indeed an honourable person but yet if men will question his Honour Truth Honesty Authority and affirm him to be a Cheat Thief Murderer Adulterer they cannot see how they can be disproved at least he would have a difficult task in hand that should endeavour to free him from objections of that nature Yet thus men dare to deal with the Scripture that Word which God hath magnified above all his Name If this be the Spirit that breathed in the Apostles the holy Army of Martyrs of old and all the Fathers of the Primitive Church I am much mistaken nay I am greatly so if with one consent they would not denounce an Anathema against such a defence of any Religion whatever But you will say The same person defends also the Scripture just as he in the Poet did Pelilius Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque A puero est causaque mea permulta rogatus Fecit incolumnis laetor quod vivit in urbe Sed tamem admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit A defence worse and more bitter then a down-right accusation I am not now to observe what prejudice this excuse brings to the cause of our Author with all intelligent persons having noted it once and again before nor what contentment Protestants take to see that the Truth they profess cannot be shaken without inducing men to question the Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion and if this course be persisted in for ought that I can understand the whole Controversie between us and the Romanists must needs be at last reduced unto this head Whether the Scripture of the Old and New-Testament was given by Divine Inspiration For the present having in the consideration of the general suppositions of this Treatise spoken before to this head I shall not need to answer particular Exceptions given in against its Authority nor do I think it incumbent on me so to do unless our Author own them for his sense which if he be pleased to do I promise him if God give me life to give him a distinct answer to every one of them and all that is contained in them Moreover these things will again occurre in his 15. Section where he expresly takes the Scripture to task as to its pleas for judging of and setling Men in the Truth Proceed we to his next Section p. 126. CHAP. VIII Use of Reason Sect. 11. THis Section is set apart for the cashiering of Reason from having any hand in the business we deal about and the truth is if our Author can perswade us first to throw away our Bibles and then to lay aside the use of our Reason I suppose there is no doubt but we shall become Roman-Catholicks This work it seems cannot be effected unless men are contented to part with Scripture and Reason all that whereby they are Christians and Men. But unless our Author have emptyed Circe's Box of Oyntment whereby she transformed Men into Swine he will confess it somewhat a difficult task that he hath undertaken Methinks one of these demands might suffice at once But he presumes he hath put his Countrey-men into a good humor and knowing them free and open-hearted he plyes them whilest they are warm We have indeed in this Section as fair a flourish of words as in any other but there can be but little reason in the words that men make use of to plead against Reason it self And yet I am perswaded most Readers think as well of this 〈◊〉 as any in the Book To whom the unâ—easonableness of this is evident that of the others is so also and those who willingly imbibe the other parts of his Discourse will little strain at this Nothing is to be trusted unto Prejudice Nor if we will learn are we to think strange of any thing Let us weigh then impartially what is of Reason in this Discourse against the use of Reason What ever he pretends he knows full well that he hath no difference with any sort of Protestants about finding out a Religion by Reason and adhereing only to its dictates in the Worship of God All the World of Protestants profess that they receive their Religion wholly by Revelation from God and no otherwise Nor is it about ascribing a Soveraignty to Reason to judge of the particulars of Religion so Revealed to accept or refuse them according as that shall judge them suitable or not to its principles and liking This is the Soveraign dictate of Reason That whatever God reveals to be believed is true and as such must be embraced though the bottom of it cannot be sounded by Reason's line and that because 〈◊〉 reason of a man is not absolutely reason but being the reason of a man is variously limitted bounded and made defective in its ratiocinations An objective
it alone and traditions they had good store whose original they pleaded from Moses himself directing them in that interpretation Christ and his Apostles whom they looked upon as poor ignorant contemptible persons came and preacht a doctrine which that Church determined utterly contrary to the Scripture and their Traditions what shall now be answered to their Authority which was unquestionably all that ever was or shall be entrusted with any Church on the earth Our Author tells us that this great argument of the Jews could not be any way warded or put by but by recourse unto the Churches infallibility pag. 146. Which sit verbo venia is so ridiculous a pretence as I wonder how any block in his way could cause him to stumble upon it What Church I pray the Church of Christians When that argument was first used by the Jews against Christ himself it was not yet founded and if an absolute infallibility be supposed in the Church without respect to her adherence to the rule of infallibility I dare boldly pronounce that argument indissoluble and that all Christian Religion must be therein discarded If the Jewish-Church which had at that day as great Church-power and prerogative as any Church hath or can have were infallible in her Judgment that she made of Christ and his Doctrin there remains nothing but that we renounce both him and it and turn either Jews or Pagans as we were of old Here then by our Authors confession lies a plain Judgment and Definition of the only Church of God in the world against Christ and his Doctrine and it is certainly incumbent on us to see how it may be waâ—ed And this I suppose we cannot better be instructed in then by considering what was answered unto it by Christ himself his Apostles and those that succeeded them in the profession of the faith of the Gospel 1 For Christ himself its certain he pleaded his miracles the Works which he wrought and the Doctrine that he revealed but withall as to the Jews with whom he had to do he pleads the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets and offers himself and his Doctrine to be tryed to stand or fall by their verdict Joh. 5.39 46. Mat. 22.42 Luk. 24.27 I say besides the testimony of his Works and Doctrine to their authority of the Church he opposeth that of the Scripture which he knew the other ought to give place unto And it is most vainly pretended by our Author in the behalf of the Jews that the Messias or great Prophet to come was not in the Scripture specified by such Characteristicall Properties as made it evident that Jesus was the Messiah all the descriptions given of the one and they innumerable undeniably centring in the other The same course steered the Apostle Peter Act. 2. 3. And expresly in his second Epistle chap. 2. v. 17 18 19. And Paul Act. 13.16 17 c. And of Apollos who openly disputed with the Jews upon this Argument it is said that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ Act. 18.28 And Paul perswaded the Jews concerning Jesus at Rome both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning until evening Act. 28.23 Concerning which labour and disputation the censure of our Author p. 149. is very remarkable There can be no hope saith he of satisfying a Querent or convincing an Opponent in any point of Christianity unless he will submit to the splendor of Christs Authority in his own Person and the Church descended from him which I take to be the Reason why some of the Jews in Rome when St. Paul laboured so much to perswade Christ out of Moses and the Prophets believed in him and some did not Both the coherence of the words and design of the Preface and his whole scope manifest his meaning to be That no more believed on him or that some disbelieved notwithstanding all the pains he took with them And what was the reason of this failure Why St. Paul fixed on an unsuitable means of perswading them namely Moses and the Prophets when he should have made use of the Authority of the Church Vain and bold man that dares oppose his prejudices to the Spirit and Wisdom of Christ in that great and holy Apostle and that in a way and work wherein he had the express pattern and example of his Master If this be the Spirit that rules in the Roman-Synagogue that so puffes up men in their fleshly minds as to make them think themselves wiser then Christ and his Apostles I doubt not but men will every day find cause to rejoyce that it is cast out of them and be watchful that it return to possess them no more But this is that which galls the man The difficulty which he proposeth as insoluble by any wayes but an acquiescing in the Authority of the present Church he finds assoyled in Scripture on other Principles This makes him fall soul on St. Paul whom he finds most frequent in answering it from Scripture not considering that at the same time he accuseth St. Peter of the like folly though he pretend for him a greater reverence However this may be said in defence of St. Paul that by his Arguments about Christ and the Gospel from Moses and the Prophets many thousands of Jews all the World over were converted to the Faith when it 's hard to meet with an instance of one in an age that will any way take notice of the Authority of the roman-Roman-Church But to return this was the constant way used by the Apostles of answering that great difficulty pleaded by our Author from the Authority of the hebrew-Hebrew-Church They called the Jews to the Scripture the plain Texts and Contexts of Moses and the Prophets opposing them to all their Churches real or pretended Authority and all her Interpretations pretended to be received by Tradition from of old so fixing this for a perpetual standing Rule to all Generations that the Doctrine of the Church is to be examined by the Scripture and where it is found contradictory of it her authority is of no value at all it being annexed unto her attendance on that Rule But it may be replyed That the Church in the dayes of the Apostles was not yet setled nor made firm enough to bear the weight that now may be laid upon it as our Author affirms pag. 149. So that now the great Resolve of all doubts must be immediately upon the Authority of the present Church after that was once well cleared the fathers of old pleaded that only in this case and removed the Objections of the Jews by that alone I am perswaded though our Author be a great admirer of the present Church he is not such a stranger to Antiquity as to believe any such thing Is the Authority of the Church pleaded by Justine Martyr in that famous dispute with Trypho the Jew wherein these very Objections instanced by our
were it so that by the Ministry of the Roman-Church of old the Faith was first planted in these Nations would that one inch promote our Author's pretensions unless he could prove that they did not afterwards lose or corrupt at least that which they communicated unto us which he knows to be the thing in Question and not to be granted upon request though made in never so handsome words To say then That the Gospel is the Romanists own Religion from them you had it you contend about that which is none of your own hear them whose it is from whom you had it who have the precedency before you is but to set up scare-Crows to fright fools and children Men who have any understanding of things past know that all this bluster and noyse comes from emptiness of any solid matter or substance to be used in the case 2. It is also doughtily supposed That whatever is spoken of the Churnh in the Scripture belongs to the Roman Church and that alone The Priviledges the Authority the Glory of the Church are all theirs as the madd-man at Athens thought all the Ships to be his that came into the Harbour I suppose he will not contend but that if you deny him this all that he hath said besides is to little purpose And I believe he cannot but take it ill that any of his Readers should call him to an account in that which he every where puts out of question But this he knew well enough that all Protestants deny that they grant no one priviledge of the Catholick Church as such to belong to the Roman All that any of them will allow her is but to be a putrid corrupt member of it some say cut off dead and rotten But yet that the Catholick Church and the Roman are the same must be believed or you spoil all his market The Church is before the Gospel gives testimony unto it none could know it but by her Authority nothing can be accepted as such but what she sets her seals unto so that to destroy the Church is to destroy the Gospel What then I pray Suppose all this and all the rest of his Assertions about the Church pag. 199 200 c. to be true as some of them are most blasphemously false yet What is all this to his purpose Why this is the Roman-Church of which all these things are spoken It may be the roman-Roman-Church indeed of which much of it is spoken even all that is sinfully derogatory to the glory of Christ and his Apostles upon whom and whose Authority the Church is built and not their Authority on it Ephes. 2.18 19 20. But what is truly spoken in the Scripture of the Church doth no more belong to the Roman then to the least Assembly of Believers under Heaven wherein the Essence of a true Church is preserved if it belongs unto it at all And yet this rude Pretence and palpable Artifice is the main Engine in this Section applyed to the removal of men from the Basis of the Scripture The Church the Church the Roman-Church the Roman-Church and these forsooth are supposed to be one and the same and the Pope to have Monopolized all the priviledges of the Church contrary to express Statute-law of the Gospel Hence he pretends That if to go out from the Catholick be evil then not to come into the Roman is evil when indeed the most ready way to go out of the Catholick is to go into the Roman 3. Moreover it is taken for granted That the Roman Church is every way what it was when first planted Indeed if it were so it would deserve as much particular respect as any Church of any City in the World and that would be all As it is the case is altered But its unalteredness being added to the former Supposition of its Oneliness and Catholicism it is easie to see what sweet work a witty man as our Author is may make with this Church among good company Many and many a time have the Romanists attempted to prove these things but failing in their attempt they think it now reasonable to take them for granted The Religion they now profess must be that which first entered England and there saith our Author it continued in peace for a thousand years when the truth is after the entrance of their Religion that is the corruption of Christianity by Papal usurpations these Nations never passed one age without tumults turmoils contentions disorders nor many without wars bloud and devastations and those arising from the Principles of their Religion 4. To this is added That the Bible is the Pope's own Book which none can lay claim to but by and from him This will be found to be a doubtful assertion and it will be difficult to conclude aright concerning it He that shall consider what a worthy person the Pope is represented to be by our Author especially in his just dealing and mercifulness so That he never did any man wrong and shall take notice how many he hath caused to be burned to death for having and using the Bible without his consent must need suppose that it is his Book For surely his heavenly mind would not have admitted of a provocation to such severity unless they had stoln his goods out of his Possession But on the other side he that shall weigh aright his vilifying under-valuing of it his preferring himself and Church before and above it seeing we are all apt to set a high price upon that which is our own may be ready to question whether indeed he have such a property in it as is pretended Having somewhat else to do I shall not interpose my self in this difference nor attempt to determine this difficulty but leave it as I find it free for every man to think as he seeth cause 5. But that which is the chief ingredieet of these Sections is the plea that We know not the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Church that is the present Church of Rome which he manageth by urging sundry objections against it and difficulties which men meet withall in their enquiry whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone he interweaves in his discourse many expressions and comparisons tending directly to the slighting and contempt both of its Penmen and Matter which is said to be Laws Poems Sermons Histories Letters Visions several fancies in a diversity of composure the whole a book whereby men may as well prove their negative in denying the immortality of the soul heaven or hell or any other thing which by reason of many intricacies are very difficult if not impossible at all to be understood see p. 190 191 192 c. Concerning all which I desire to know whether our Author be in good earnest or no or whether he thinks as he writes or whether he would only have others to believe what he writes that he may serve his turn upon their credulity If
he be in good earnest indeed he calls us to an easie welcome imployment namely to defend the holy Word of God and the wisdom of God in it from such slight and trivial exceptions as those he layes against them This path is so trodden for us by the Antients in their Answers to the more weighty Objections of his Predecessors in this work the Pagans that we cannot well erre or faint in it If we are called to this task namely to prove that we can know and believe the Scriptrue to be the Word of God without any respect to the Authority or Testimony of the present Church of Rome that no man can believe it to be so with faith Divine and Supernatural upon that testimony alone that the whole counsel of God in all things to be believed or done in order to our last end is clearly delivered in it and that the composure of it is a work of infinite wisdom suited to the end designed to be accomplished by it that no difficulties in the interpretation of particular places hinder the whole from being a compleat and perfect rule of Faith and Obedience we shall most willingly undertake it as knowing it to be as honourable a service and employment as any of the sons of men can in this world be called unto If indeed himself be otherwise minded and believes not what he says but only intends to entangle men by his Sophistry so to render them plyable unto his further intention I must yet once more perswade him to desist from this course It doth not become an ingenious man much lesse a Christian and one that boasts of so much Mortification as he doth to juggle thus with the things of God In the mean time his Reader may take notice that so long as he is able to defend the Authority Excellency and Usefulness of the Scripture this man had nothing to say to him as to the change of his Religion from Protestancy to Popery And when men will be perswaded to let that go as a thing uncertain dubious useless it matters not much where they go themselves And for our Authour methinks if not for reverence to Christ whose book we know the Scriptures to be yet for the devotion he bears the Pope whose book he sayes it is he might learn to treat it with a little more respect or at least prevail with him to send out a book not liable to so many exceptions as this is pretended to be However this I know that though his pretence be to make men Papists the course he takes is the readyest in the world to make them Atheists and whether that will serve his turn or no as well as the other I know not 6. We have not yet done with the Scripture That the taking it for the only rule of faith the only determiner of differences is the only cause of all our differences and which keeps us in a condition of having them endless is also pretended and pleaded But how shall we know this to be so Christ and his Apostles were absolutely of another mind and so were Moses and the Prophets before them The antient Fathers of the Primitive Church walked in their steps and umpired all differences in Religion by the Scriptures opposing confuting and condemning Errors and Heresies by them preserving through their guidance the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace In these latter dayes of the world which surely are none of the best we have a few unknown persons come from Rome would perswade us that the Scripture and the use of it is the cause of all our differences and the means of making them endless But why so I pray Doth it teach us to differ and contend Doth it speak contradictions and set us at variance Is there any spirit of dissension breathing in it Doth it not deliver what it commands us to understand so as it may be understood Is there any thing needful for us to know in the things of God but what it reveales Who can tell us what that is But do we not see de facto what differences there are amongst you who pretend all of you to be guided by Scripture Yea and we see also what Surfeitings and drunkenness there is in the world but yet do not think bread meat and drink to be the causes of them and yet they are to the full as much so as the Scriptures are of our Differences Pray Sir do not think that sober men will cast away their Food and starve themseâ—â—es because you tell them that some continually abuse and surfeit on that very kind of food which they use Nor will some mens abuse of it prevail with others to cast away the food of their souls if they have any design to live eternally 7. The great safety and security that there is in committing our selves as to all the concernments of Religion unto the guidance rule and conduct of the Pope is another great principle of this Discourse And here our Author falls into a deep admiration of the Popes dexterity in keeping all his Subjects in peace and unity and subjection to him there being no danger to any one for forsâ—king him but only that of Excommunication The contest is between the Scripture and the Pope Protestants say the safest way for men in reference to their eternal condition is to believe the Scripture and rest therein The Romanists say the same of the Pope Which will prove the best course methinks should not be hard to determine All Christians in the world ever did agree That the Scripture is the certain infallible word of God given by him on purpose to reveal his mind and will unto us About the Pope there were great Contests ever since he was first taken notice of in the world Nothing I confess little or low is spoken of him Some say he is the head and spouse of the Church the Vicar of Christ the successor of Peter the supreme Moderator of Christians the infallible judge of Controversies and the like others again that he is Antichrist the man of sin a cruel Tyrant and Persecutor the evill Servant Characterized Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. But all as far as I can gather agree that he is a Man I mean that almost all Popes have been so for about every individual there is not the like consent Now the question is Whether we shall rest in the Authority and Word of God or in the Authority and Word of a Man as the Pope is confessed to be and whether is like to yield us more security in our assiance This being such another difficult matter and case as that before mentioned about the Bibles being the Popes book shall not be by me decided but left to the Judgment of wiser men In the mean time for his feat of Government it is partly known what it is as also what an influence into the effects of peace mentioned that gentle means of Excommunication hath had I know one that
all the antient Fathers of the Church they are exhorted unto that they need noâ— understand those Prayers which they are commanded to pray with understanding and wherein lies a principal exercise of their faith and love towards God are the things which are here recommended unto us Let us view the arguments wherewith first the general custome of the Western Empire in keeping the Mass and Bible in an unknown tongue is pleaded But What is a general Custome of the Western Empire in opposition to the command of God and the evidence of all that reason that lies against it Have we not an express Command not to follow a multitude to do evill Besides What is or ever was the Western Empire unto the Catholicism of the Church of Christ spread over the whole world Within an hundred years after Christ the Gospel was spread to Nations and in places whither the Roman power never extended it self Romanis inaccessa loca much less that branch of it which he calls the Western Empire But neither yet was it the custom of the Western Empire to keep the Bible in an unknown Tongue or to perform the worship of the Church in such a Language Whilst the Latin Tongue was only used by them it was generally used in other things and was the vulgar Tongue of all the Nations belonging unto it Little was there remaining of those Tongues in use that were the Languages of the Provinces of it before they became so So that though they had their Bible in the Latin Tongue they had it not in an unknown no more than the Grecians had who used it in Greek And when any people received the Faith of Christ who had not before received the Language of the Romans good men translated the Bible into their own as Hierom did for the Dalmatians Whatever then may be said of the Latin there is no pretence of the use of an unknown Tongue in the worship of the Church in the Western Empire until it was over-run destroyed and broken in pieces by the Northern Nations and possessed by them most of them Pagans who brought in several distinct Languages into the Provinces where they seated themselves After those tumults ceased and the Conquerors began to take up the Religion of the people into whose Countries they were come still retaining with some mixtures their old Dialect that the Scripture was not in all places for in many it was translated for their use was the sin and negligence of some who had other faults besides The Primitive use of the Latin Tongue in the worship of God and translation of the Bible into it in the Western Empire whilst that Language was usually spoken and read as the Greek in the Grecian is an undeniable argument of the Judgement of the antient Church for the use of the Scripture and Church-Liturgies in a known Tongue What ensued on What was occasioned by that inundation of barbarous Nations that buried the world for some ages in darkness and ignorance cannot reasonably be proposed for our imitation I hope we shall not easily be induced either to return unto or embrace the effects of Barbarism But saith our Author Secondly Catholicks have the sum of Scripture both for history and dogm delivered them in their own Language so much as may make for their salvation good orders being set and instituted for their proficiency therein and what needs any more or why should they be further permitted either to satifie curiosity or to raise doubtâ— or to wrest words and examples there recorded unto their own ruin as we see now by experience men are apt to do What Catholicks have or have not is not our present dispute Whether what they have of story and dogm in their own Language be that which Paul calls the whole Counsel of God which he declared at Ephesus I much doubt But the question is Whether they have what God allows them and what he commands them to make use of We suppose God himself Christ and his Apostles the antient Fathers of the Church any of these or at least when they all agree may be esteemed as wise as our present Masters at Rome Their sense is That all Scripture given by inspiration from God is profitable for Doctrine it seems these judge not so and therefore they afford them so much of it as may tend to their good For my part I know whom I am resolved to adhere to let others do as seems good unto them Nor where God hath commanded and commended the use of all do I believe the Romanists are able to make a distribution that so much of it makes for the salvation of men the rest only serves to satisfie curiosity to raise doubts and to occasion men to wrest words and examples Nor I am sure are they able to satisfie me why any one part of the Scripture should be apt to do this more then others Nor will they say this at all of any part of their Mass. Nor is it just to charge the fruits of the lusts and darkness of men on the good word of God Nor is it the taking away from men of that alone which is able to make them good and wise a meet remedy to cure their evils and follies But these Declamations against the use and study of the Scripture I hope come too late Men have found too much spiritual advantage by it to be easily driven from it It self gives light to know its excellency and defend its use by But the Book is sacred he says and therefore not to be sullied by every hand what God hath sanctified let not man make common It seems then those parts of the Scripture which they afford to the people are more useful but less sacred than those that they keep away These reasons justle one another unhandsomly Our Author should have made more room for them for they will never lie quietly together But what is it he means by the Book the Paper Ink Letters and Covering His Master of the Schools will tell him These are not sacred if they are the Printers dedicate them And it 's a pretty pleasant Sophism that he adds That God having sanctified the Book we should not make it common To what end I pray hath God sanctified it Is it that it may be laid up and be hid from that people which Christ hath prayed might be sanctified by it Is it any otherwise sanctified but as it is appointed for the use of the Church of all that believe Is this to make it common to apply it unto that use whereunto of God it is segregated Doth the Sanctification of the Scripture consist in the laying up of the Book of the Bible from our profane Utensils Is this that which is intended by the Author Would it do him any good to have it granted or further his purpose Doth the mysteriousness of it lie in the Books being locked up I suppose he understands this Sophistry well enough which makes it the worse
that which you intend that we should agree amongst our selves and wait for your coming with power to destroy us all It were well indeed if we could agree it is our fault and misery if we do not having so absolutely a perfect Rule and means of agreement as we have But yet whether we agree or agree not if there be another Party distinct from us all pretending a right to exterminate us from the earth it behooves us to look after their proceedings And this is the true state of all our Author's Pleas for Moderation which are built upon such Principles as tend to the giving us up unarmed and naked to the power and will of his Masters For the rest of this Section wherein he is pleased to sport himself in the miscarriages of men in their coyning and propagating of their Opinions and to gild over the care and success of the Church of Rome in stifling such births of pride and darkness I shall not insist upon it For as the first as generally tossed up and down concerns none in particular though accompanyed with the repetition of such words as ought not to be scosfed at so the latter is nothing but what violence and ignorance may any where and in any age produce There are Societies of Christians not a few in the East wherein meer darkness and ignorance of the Truth hath kept men at peace in Errors without the least disturbance by contrary opinions amongst themselves for above a 1000 years and yet they have wanted the help of outward force to secure their Tranquillity And is it any wonder that where both these powerful Engins are set at work for the same end if in some measure it be compassed and effected And if there be such a thing among the Romanists which I have reason to be difficult in admitting the belief of as that they can stisle all Opinions as fast as they are conceived or destroy them assoon as they are brought forth I know it must be some device or artifice unknown to the Apostles and Primitive Churches who notwithstanding all their Authority and care for the Truth could not with many compass that end Sect. 5. Pag. 54. The last Section of this Chapter contains motives to moderation three in number And I suppose that no man doubts but that many more might be added every one in weight out-doing all these three The first is that alone which Protestants are concerned to look unto not that Protestants oppose any motive unto moderation but knowing that in this Discourse Moderation is only the pretence Popery if I may use the word without incivility the Design and aim it concerns them to examine which of these pretended motives that any way regards their real principle doth tend unto Now this Motive is the great ignorance our state and condition is involved in concerning God his Works and Providence a great motive to Moderation I wish all men would well consider it For I must acknowledge that I cannot but suppose them ignorant of the state and condition of mortality and so consequently their own who are ready to destroy and exterminate their neighbors of the same flesh and bloud with them and agreeing in the main Principles of Religion that may certainly be known for lesser differences and that by such rules as within a few years may possibly reach their nearest Relations Our Author also layes so much weight on this Motive that he fears an anticipation by men saying That the Scripture reveals enough unto us which therefore he thinks necessary to remove For my part I scarse think he apprehended any real danger that this would be insisted on as an Objection against his motive to moderation For to prevent his tending on towards that which is indeed his proper end this obstacle is not unseasonably layed that under a pretence of the ignorance unavoidably attending our state and condition he might not prevail upon us to increase and aggravate it by entising us to give up our selves by an implicite faith to the conduct of the Roman-Church A man may easily perceive the end he intends by the Objections which he fore-sees No man is so madd I think as to plead the sufficiency of Scripture-Revelation against Moderation when in the Revelation of the Will of God contained in the Scripture Moderation is so much commended unto us and pressed upon us But against the pretended necessity of resigning our selves to the Romanists for a relief against the unavoidable ignorance of our state and condition besides that we know full well such a resignation would yield us no relief at all this plea of the sufficiency of Scripture-Revelation is full and unanswerable This put our Author on a work which I have formerly once or twice advised him to meddle no more being well assured that it is neither for his reputation nor his advantage much less for his souls health The pretences which he makes use of are the same that we have heard of many and many a time The abuse of it by some and the want of an Infallible Interpreter of it as to us all But the old tale is here anew gilded with an intermixture of other pretty stories and application of all to the present humours of men not forgetting to set forth the brave estate of our fore-fathers that had not the use of the Scripture which what it was we know well enough and better then the prejudices of this Gentleman will give him leave to tell us But if the lawful and necessary use of any thing may be decryed because of its abuse we ought not only to labour the abolishing of all Christian Religion in general and every principle of it in particular out of the world but the blotting out of the Sun and Moon and Stars out of the Firmament of Heaven and the destruction of the greatest and most noble parts at least of the whole Creation But as the Apostles continued in the work of Preaching the Gospel though by some the grace they taught was turned into lasciviousness so shall we abide to plead for the use of the Scripture whatever abuse of them by the wicked lusts of men can be instanced in Nor is there any reason in the world why food should be kept from all men though some have surfeited or may yet so do To have a compendious Narration of the Story and Morality of the Scripture in the room of the whole which our Author allows of is so jejune narrow and empty a Conception so unanswerable to all those divine Testimonies given to the excellency of the Word of God with Precepts to abide in the meditation and study of it to grow in the knowledge of it and the mysteries contained in it the commendations of them that did so in the Scripture it self so blasphemously derogatory to the Goodness Love and Wisdom of God in granting us that inestimable benefit so contrary to the redoubled Exhortations of all the Antient Fathers that I wonder
Apostles were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Administring Liturgying Sacrificing to our Lord. For what he adds of Ordination it belongs not unto this discourse Authority and Reason are pleaded to prove I know not what Sacrifice to be intended in these Words Erasmus is first pleaded to whose interpretation mentioned by our Author I shall only add his own Annotations in the explication of his meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he Quod proprium est operantium sacris nullum autem Sacrificium Deo gratius quà m impartiri doctrinam Evangelicam So that it seems the Preaching of the Gospel or taking care about it was the Sacrifice that Erasmus thought of in his Translation and Exposition Yea but the word is truly translated Sacrisicantilus But who I pray told our Author so The Original of the word is of a much larger signification It s common use is to minister in any kind it s so translated and expounded by all learned impartial men and is never used in the whole new Testament to denote Sacrâ—ficing Nor is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever rendred in the Old Testament by the 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nor is that word used absolutely in any Author Profane or Ecclesiastical to signifie precisely Sacrificing And I know well enough what it is that makes our Author say It is properly translated Sacrificing and I know as well that he cannot prove what he sayes but he gives a Reason for what he sayes It 's said to be made to the Lord whereas other inferior Ministerial acts are made to the people I wish heartily he would once leave this scurvy trick of cogging in words to deceive his poor unwary Reader for what I pray makes his made here what is it that is said to be made to the Lord It is when they were Ministring to the Lord so the words are rendred not when they were making or making Sacrifice or when they made Sacrificing unto the Lord. This wild guord made puts death into his Pot. And we think here in England that in all Ministerial acts though performed towards the people and for their good yet men administer to the Lord in them because performing them by his appointment as a part of that worship which he requires at their hands In the close of our Authors discourse he complains of the persecutions of Catholicks which what ever they are or have been for my part I neither approve nor justifie and do heartily wish they had never shewed the world those wayes of dealing with them who dissented from them in things concerning Religion whereof themselves now complain how justly I know not But if it be for the Masse that any of them have felt or do fear Suffering which I pray God avert from them I hope they will at length come to understand how remote it is from having any affinity with the devotion of the Apostolical Churches and so free themselves if not from suffering yet at lest from suffering for that which being not accepted with God will yield them no solid Gospel-consolation in what they may endure or undergo CHAP. XVI Blessed Virgin SECT 23. Pag. 267. THe twenty second Paragraph concerning the blessed Virgin is absolutely the weakest and most disingenious in his whole discourse The work he hath in handâ— is to take off offence from the Roman Doctrine and Practice in reference unto her Finding that this could not be handsomely gilded over being so rotten and corrupt as not to bear a new varnish he turns his pen to the bespattering of Protestants for contempt of her without the least respect to truth or common honesty Of them it is that he says That they vilifie and blaspheme her and cast Gibes upon her which he sets off with a pretty tale of a Protestant Bishop and a Catholick boy and lest this should not suffice to render them odious he would have some of them thought to taunt at Christ himself one of them for ignorance passion and too much haste for his breakfast Boldly to calumniate that something may cleave is a Principle that too many have observed in their dealings with others in the world But as it containes a renuntiation of the Religion of Jesus Christ so it hath not alwayes well succeeded The horrid and incredible reproaches that were cast by the Pagans on the primitive Christians occasioned sundry ingenious persons to search more into their way then otherwise they would have done and thereby their conversion And I am perswaded this rude charge on Protestants as remote from truth as any thing that was cast on the first Christians by their adversaries would have the same effects on Roman-Catholicks might they meet with the same ingenuity and candor That any Protestant should be moved or shaken in his Principles by such Calumnies is impossible Every one that is so knows that as the Protestants believe every thing that is spoken of the blessed Virgin in the Scripture or Creed or whatever may be lawfully deduced from what is so spoken so they have all that honour and respect for her which God will allow to be given to any creature Surely a confident accusation of incivility and blasphemy for not doing that which they know they do and profess to all the world they do is more like to move men in their patience towards their accusers then to prevail with them to join in the same charge against others whom they know to be innocent as themselves Neither will it relieve our Author in point of ingenuity and truth that it may be he hath heard it reported of one or two brain-sick or frantick persons in England that they have cast out blasphemous reproaches against the blessed Mother of God It is credibly testified that Pope Leo should before witnesses profess his rejoycing at the advantages they had at Rome by the fable of Christ. Were it handsome now in a Protestant to charge this blasphemy upon all Papists though uttered by their head and guide and to dispute against them from the confession of the Jews who acknowledge the story of his death and suffering to be true and of the Turks who have a great honour and veneration for him unto this day Well may men be counted Catholicks who walk in such paths but I see no ground or reason why we should esteem them Christians Had our Author spoken to the purpose he should have proved the lawfulness or if he had spoken to his own purpose with any candor of mind or consistency of purpose in the pursuit of his design have gilded over the practise of giving Divine honour to the holy Virgin of worshipping her with Adoration as Protestants say due to God alone of ascribing all the Titles of Christ unto her turning Lord in the Psalms in most places into Lady praying to her not only to entreat yea to command her Son to help and save them but to save them her self as she