thus related In quem alium crediderunt Gentes universae nisi in ipsum qui jam venit Cui enim alii Gentes crediderunt Parthi Medi Elamitae qui habitant Mesopotamiam Armeniam Phrygiam immorantes Aegyptum regionem Africae quae est trans Cyrenem Romani incolae tunt in Hierusalem Iudei Gentes caeterae ut jam Getulonum varietates Maurorum nulli fines Hispanarum omnes termini Galliarum diversae Nationes Britanorum inaccessa loca Romanis Christo vero subdita Sarmatarum Dacorum Germanorum Seytharum abditarum multarum Gentium Provinciarum Insâ—larum multarum nobis ignotarum quae enumerare non possumus in quibus omnibus locis Christi nomen qui jam venit regnaâ— ad Iudaeos Some have sayd and doe yet say that the Church in this sence is a Visible Organicall Politicall body That its visible is confessed both its matter and farme bespeakes visibility as an unseparable Adjunct of its subsisting That it is a body also in the generall sence wherein that word is used or a society of men embodyed by the profession of the same Faith is also granted Organicall in this businesse is an ambiguous terme The use of it is plainly Metaphoricall taken from the members instruments and Organs of a naturall body Because Paul hath said that in one body there are many members as eyes feet hands yet the body is but one so is the Church It hath been usually said that the Church is an Organicall body What Church Paul speakes of in that place is not evident but what he alludes unto is The difference he speaks of in the individuall persons of the Church is not in respect of Office Power and Authority but gifts or graces and usefullnesse on that account such an Organical body we confesse the Church Catholick visible to be in it are persons indued with varietie of gifts and graces for the benefit and ornament of the whole An Organicall Politicall body is a thing of another nature a Politick body or Common-wealth is a Society of a certain portion of mankind united under some forme of Rule or government whose supreame and subordinate administration is committed to severall persons according to the Tenor of such Laws and Customes as that Society hath or doth consent unto This also is said to be Organicall on a Metaphoricall account because the Officers and Members that are in it and over it hold proportion to the more noble parts of the body Kings are said to be Heads Councellors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the constitution of such a Common-wealth distâ—â—ctly as such it is required that the whole hath the same Laws but not that only Two Nations most distinct and different on the account of other ends and interests may yet have the same individuall Laws and customes for the distribution of Justice and preservation of peace among themselves An entire forme of Regiment and government peculiar thereunto is required for the constitution of a distinct Politicall Body In this sence we denie the Church whereof we speake to be an Organicall Politicall Body as not having indeed any of the requisites thereunto Not one Law of Order the same individuall Morall Law or Law for Morall duties it hath but a Law given to the whole as such for Order Polity Rule it hath not All the members of it are obliged to the same Law of Order and Polity in their severall Societies But the whole as such hath no such Law it hath no such head or Governour as such Nor will it suffice to say that Christ is its head for if as a visible Politicall body â—t hath a Politicall Head that Head also must be visible The Commonweal of the Jews was a Politicall body of this God was the Head and King hence their Historian saith their Government was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when they would choose a King God said they rejected him who was their politicall Head to whom a sickle was paid yearly as Tribute called the sickle of the Sanctuary Now they rejected him not by asking a King simply but a King after the manner of the Nations yet that it might be a visible Politicall Body it required a visible supreame Magistrate to the wholeâ—… which when there was none all Polity was dissolved amongst them Judg. 21. Christ is the head of every particular Church its Lawgiver and Ruler but yet to make a Church a visible Organicall Politicall Body it 's required that it hath visible Governours Rulers and of the whole Nor can it be said that it is a Politicall body that hath a supreame Government Order in it as it is made up and Constituted of particular Churches and that in the Representatives convened doth the supream visible power of it consist for such a Convention in the judgement of all ought to be Extraordinary only in ours is utterly impossible and de facto was not among the Churches for 300 years yea never besides the visible Catholick Church is not made up of particular Churches as such for if so then no man can be member of it but by vertue of his being a Member of some visible Church which is false profession of the Truth as before stated is the formall Reason and Cause of any Persons Relation to the Church visible which he hath thereby whether he belong to any particular Church or no. Let it be evidenced that the Universall Church whereof we speake hath any Law or Rule of Order and Government as such given unto it or that it is in possibility as such to put any such Law or Rule into execution that it hath any homogeneous Ruler or Rulers that have the care of the Administration of the Rule and Government of the whole as such committed to him or them by Jesus Christ that as it hath the same common spirituall and known Orders and Interests and the same Specificall Ecclesiasticall Rule given to all its Members so it hath the same Politicall interest Order and Conversation as such or that it hath any one cause constitutive of a Politicall Body whereby it is such or hath at all the forme of an Instituted Church or is capable of any such forme and they that doe so shall be farther attended to CHAP. VI. Romanists charge of Schisme on the account of separation from the Church Catholick proposed to consideration The importance of this plea on both sides The summe of their charge The Church of Rome not the Church Catholick Not a Church in any sence Of Antichrist in the Temple The Catholick Church how intrusted with interpretation of Scripture Of intepretation of Scripture by Tradition The interest of the Romane Church herein discharged All necessary truths believed by Protestants No contrary principle by them manifested Profane persons no members of the Church Catholick Of the late Romane Proselyts Of the Donatists Their businesse reported and case stated The Present
state of things unsuited to those of old Apostacy from the Vnity of the Church Catholick charged on the Romanists Their claime to be that Church sanguinary false Their plea to this purpose considered The blasphemous mannagement of their plea by some of late The whole dissolved Their inferences on their plea practically prodigious Their Apostacy proved by instances Their grand Argument in this cause proposed Answered Consequences of denying the Roman Church to be a Church of Christ weighed LEt us see now what as to conscience can be charged on us Protestants I meane who are all concerned herein as to the breach of this union The Papists are the persons that undertake to mannage this Charge against us To lay aside the old Plea subesse Romano Pontifici and all those â—eats wherewith they jugled when the whole world saâ—e in darknesse which they doe not now use at the entrance of their charge The summe of what they insist upon firstly is The Catholick Church is intrusted with the interpretation of the Scriptures and declaration of the Truths therein contained which being by it so declared the not receiving of them implicitely or explicitely that is the disbelieving of them as so proposed and declared cuts off any man from being a member of the Church Christ himselfe having said that he that heares not the Church is to be as an Heathen man or Publican which Church they are that is certaine It is all one then what we believe or doe not believe seeing that we believe not all that the Catholick Church proposeth to be believed and what we doe believe we believe not on haâ— account Ans Their insisting on this plea so much as they doe is sufficient to evince their despair of making good by instance our faylure in respect of the way and principles by which the unity of the visible Church may be lost or broken Faile they in this they are gone and if they carrie this plea we are all at their disposall The summe of it is the Catholick Church is intrusted with sole power of delivering what is truth and what is necessary to be believed This Catholick Church is the Church of Rome that is the Pope or what else may in any juncture of time serve their interest But as it is known 1. We deny their Church as it is stiled to be the Catholick Church or as such any part of it as particular Churches are called or esteemed So that of all men in the World they are least concerned in this Assertion Nay I shall goe farther Suppose all the members of the Roman Church to be found in the Faith as to all necessary Truths and no way to prejudice the Advantages and priviledges which accâ—â—e to them by the profession thereof whereby the severall individualls of it would be true members of the Catholick Church yet I should not only deny it to be the Catholick Church but also abideing in its present Order and Constitution being that which by themselves it is supposed to be to be any particular Church of Christ at all as wanting many things necessary to constitute them so and having many things destructive utterly to the very Essence and being of that Order that Christ hath appointed in his Churches The best plea that I know for their Church state is that Antichrist sits in the Temple of God Now although we might justly omit the Examination of this pretence untill those who are concerned in it will professedly owne it as their plea yet as it lyes in our way in the thoughts of some I say to it that I am not so certaine that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to sit in the Temple of God seeing a Learned man long agoe thought it rather to be a setting up against the Temple of God Aug. de Civitate Dei lib. 10. cap. 59. But grant the sence of the expression to be as it 's usually received it imports no more but that the man of sinne shall set up his power against God in the midst of them who by their outward visible profession have right to be called his Temple which intitles him and his Copartners in Apostacy to the name of the Church as much as changing of mony and selling of Cattle were Ordinances of God under the old Temple when by some mens practising of them in it it was made a den of Theeves 2. Though as to the plea of them and their interest with whom we have to do we have nothing requiring our Judgements in the case yet ex abundanti we adde that we deny that by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ the Catholick Church visible is in any sence intrusted with such an interpretation of Scripture as that her declaration of Truth should be the measure of what should be believed or that as such it is intrusted with any power of that nature at all or is inabled to propose a Rule of Faith to be received as so proposed to the most contemptible individuall in the world or that it is possible that any voice of it should be heard or understood but only this I believe the necessary saving Truths contained in the Scripture or that it can be consulted with all or is as such intrusted with any Power Authority or Jurisdiction nor shall we ever consent that the Office and Authority of the Scriptures be actually taken from it on any pretence As to that of our Saviour of telling the Church it is so evidently spoken of a particular Church that may immediately be consulted in case of difference between Brethren and does so no way relate to the businesse in hand that I shall not trouble the Reader with a debate of it But doe we not receive the Scripture it selfe upon the Authority of the Church I say if we did so yet this concernes not Rome which we account no Church at all That we have received the Scripture from the Church of Rome at first that is so much as the Book its selfe is an intollerable figment But it is worse to say that we receive and own their Authority from the Authority of any Church or all the Churches in the World It is the expression of our Learned Whitaker Qui Scripturâ—â—â— non credit esse divinam nisi propter Ecclesiae vocem Christianus non est To deny that the Scripture hath immediate force and efficacy to evince its own Authority is plainly to deny them on that account being brought unto us by the providence of God wherein I comprize all subservient helps of humane Testimony we receive them and on no other But is not the Scripture to be interpreted according to the Tradition of the Catholick Church and are not those interpretations so made to be received I say among all the figments that these latter Ages have invented I shall adde amongst the true stories of Lucian there is not one more remote from Truth then this Assertion That all that any one Text of
Scripture may be interpreted according to the universall Tradition of the Catholick Church and be made appeare so to be any farther then that in Generall the Catholick Church hath not believed any such sence to be in any portion of Scripture which to receive were destructive of Salvation And therefore the Romanists tell us that the present Church that is theirs is the keeper and interpreter of these Traditions or rather that its Power Authority and Infability being the same that it hath been in former Ages what it determines is to be received to be the Tradition of the Catholick Church for the triall whereof whether it be so or no there is no rule but its own determination which if they can perswade us to acquiesce in I shall grant that they have acquired such an absolute dominion over Vs and our Faith that it is fit that we should be Soul and Body at their disposall It being then the work of the Scripture to propose the saving Truths of Christ the beliefe and profession whereof are necessary to make a man a member of the Church so as to make them of indispensable necessity to be received if they can from them convince us that we doe not believe and professe all every one of the Truths or Articles of Faith so necessary as expressed we shall fall down under the Authority of such conviction If not we professe our Consciences to be no more concerned in the Authority of their Church then we judge their Church to be in the priviledges of the Church Catholick But 2. It may be we are chargeable with manifesting some principles of Prophanenesse wherewith the beliefe of the Truth we professe hath an absolute inconsistency For those who are liable and obnoxious to this charge I say let them plead for themselves For let them professe what they will and cry out 10000 times that they are Christians I shall never acknowledge them for others then visible enemies of the Crosse Kingdome and Church of Christ Traytors and Rebells are not de facto Subjects of that King or Ruler in reference to whom they are so Of some who said they were Jewes Christ said they lyed and were not but the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 2 9. Though such as these say they are Christians I will be bold to say they lye they are not but slaves of Sathan Though they live within the Pale as they call it of the Church the Catholick Church being an inclosure as to profession not place yet they are not within it nor of it any more then a Jew or Mahumetan within the same precinct suppose they have been Baptized yet if their belly be their God and their lives dedicated to Satan all the Advantage they have thereby is that they are Apostates and Renegadoes That we have added any thing of our owne making profession of any thing in Religion absolutely destructive to the fundamentalls we professe I know not that we are accused seeing our crime is asserted to consist in detracting not adding Now unlesse we are convinced of failing on one of these three accounts we shall not at all question but that we abide in the unity of the visible Catholick Church It is the common cry of the Romanists that we are Schismaticks Why so because we have separated our selves from the communion of the Catholick Church what this Catholick is and how little they are concerned in it hath been declared How much they have prevailed themselves with ignorant soules by this plea we know Nor was any other successe to be expected in respect of many whom they have wonne over to themselves who being persons ignorant of the righteousnesse of God and the power of the Faith they have professed not having had experience of communion with the Lord Jesus under the conduct of them have been upon every provocation and temptation a ready prey to deceivers Take a little view of their late Proselyts and it will quickly appeare what little cause they have to boast in them With some by the craft and folly of some Relations they are admitted to treat when they are drawing to their dissolution These for the most part having been persons of dissolute and profligate lives never having tasted the power of any Religion whatever they have professed in their weakenesse and disturbed dying thoughts may be apt to receive any impression that with confidence and violence is imposed upon them Besides it is a farre easier proposall to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and so by Purgatorie to get to Heaven then to be told of Regeneration Repentance Faith and the Covenant of Grace things of difficulty to such poor Creatures Others that have been cast down from their hopes and Expectations or out from their enjoyments by the late revolution in these Nations have by their discontent or necessity made themselves an easie prey to their zeale What hath been the residue of thir Proselytes What one who hath ever manifested himselfe to share in the power of our Religion or was not prepared by principles of superstition almost as deep as their own have they prevailed on But I shall not farther insist on these things To returne Our communion with the visible Catholick Church is in the unity of the faith only The breach of this union and therein a relinquishment of the communion of the Church lyes in a relinquishment of or some opposition to some or all of the saving necessary truths of the Gospell Now this is not Schisme but Heresie or Apostacy or it is done by an open profligatenesse of life so that indeed this charge is nothing at all to the purpose in hand though through Grace in a confidence of our own innocency we are willing to debate the guilt of the crime under any name or title whatever Unto what hath been spoken I shall only adde the removeall of some common objections with a recharge on them with whom principally we have as yet had to do come to the last thing proposed The case of some of old who were charged with Schisme for separating from the Catholick Church on an account wholy and cleerly distinct from that of a departure from the faith is an instance of the judgement of antiquity lying in an opposition to the notion of departure from the Church now delivered Doth not Augustine Doe not the rest of his Orthodox contemporaries charge the Donatists with Schisme because they departed from the Catholick Church And doth not the charge rise up with equall efficacy against you as them At least doth it not give you the nature of Schisme in another sence then is by you granted The Reader knows sufficiently if he hath at al taken notice of these things whereto find this cloud scattered without the least annoyance or detriment to the Protestant cause or of any concerned in that name however by lesser differences diversified among themselves I shall not repeate what by others hath been
them the least direction to make their addresse to him that should succeed Peter in his Power and Office for reliefe and redresse Strange that it should be of necessity to Salvation to be subject to him in whom this power of Peter was to be continued that he was to be one in whom the Saints were to be consummated that in Relation to him the Unity of the Catholick Church to be preserved under paine of damnation should consist and yet not a word spoken of him in the whole Word of God But they say Peter had not only an Apostolicall power with the rest of the Apostles but also an ordinary power that was to be continued in the Church But the Scripture being confessedly silent of any such thing let us heare what proof is tendered for the establishment of this uncouth Assertion Herein then thus they proceed It will be confessed that Jesus Christ ordained his Church wisely according to his infinite wisedome which he exercised about his body Now to this wisdome of his for the prevention of innumerable evils it is agreeable that he should appoint some one person with that power of declaring truth and of Jurisdiction to enforce the receiving of it which we plead for For this was in Peter as is proved from the texts of Scripture before mentioned therefore it is continued in them that succeed him And here lyes the great stresse of their cause That to prevent evills and inconveniences it became the wisedome of Jesus Christ to appoint a person with all that Authority power infallibility to continue in his Church to the end of the world And this plea they mannage variously with much Sophistry Rhetorick and Testimonies of Antiquity But suppose all this should be granted yet I am full well assured that they can never bring it home to their concernment by any Argument but only the actuall claime of the Pope wherein he stands singly now in the world which that it is satisfactory to make it good de fide that he is so will not easily be granted The truth is of all the attempts they make against the Lord Jesus Christ this is one of the greatest wherein they will assert that it became his wisedome to doe which by no meanes they can prove that he hath done which is plainly to tell us what in their judgement he ought to have done though he hath not that therefore it is incumbent on them to supply what he hath been defective in Had he taken the care he should of them and their Master that he and they might have ruled and reviled over and in the house of God he would have appointed things as now they are which they affirme to have become his wisedome He was a King that once cryed Si Deo in creatione adfuissem mundum melius ordinassem But every Fryar or Monck can say of Jesus Christ had they been present at his framing the world to come whereof we speake they would have told him what had become his wisedome to do Our Blessed Lord hath left sufficient provision against all future emergencies inconveniences in his word Spirit given promised to his Saints And the one Remedie which these men have found out with the contempt and blaspemy of him and them hath proved worse then all the other evills and diseases for whose prevention he made provision which he hath done also for that remedy of theirs but that some are hardned through the righteous judgement of God and deceitfulnesse of sin The mannagement of this plea by some of late is very considerable say they Quia non de verbis solum Scripturae sed etiaÌ„ de sensu plurima coÌ„troversia est si ecclesiae interpretatio non est certâ—… intelligendi norma ecquis erit istiusmodi Controversiae judex sensuÌ„ enim suuÌ„ pro sua virili quisque defendet quod si in Exploranda verbi Dei intelligentia nullus est certus judex audemus dicere nullam rempublicam fuisse stultius constitutam Sin autem Apostoli tradiderunt Eccclesiis verbum Dei sine intelligentia verbi Dei quomodo praedicarunt Evangelium omni Creaturae quomodo decuerunt omnes Gentes servare quaecunque illis fuerunt a Christo commendata Non est puerorum aut Psittaeorum praedicatio qui sine mente dant accipiuntque sonum Walemburg Con. 4. Num. 26. It is well that at length these men speak out plainly If the Pope be not a visible supreame Judge in over the Church Christ hath in the constitution of his Church dealt more foolishly then ever any did in the constitution of a Commonwealth If he have not an infallible power of determining the sense of the Scriptures the Scripture is but an empty insignificant word like the speech of Parats or Popyniaies Though Christ hath by his Apostles given the Scriptures to make the man of God wise unto Salvation and promised his spirit unto them that believe by whose assistance the Scripture gives out it s own sence to them yet all is folly if the Pope be not Supreame and Infallible The Lord rebuke them who thus boldly blaspheame his word and wisdome But let us proceed This Peter thus invested in power that was to be traduced to others went to Rome and Preached the Gospell there It is most certain nor will themselves deny it that if this be not so and believed their whole fabrick will fall to the ground But can this be necessary for all sorts of Christians and every individuall of men among them to believe when there is not the least insinuation of any such thing in the Scripture certainly though it be only a matter of fact yet being of such huge importance and consequence and such a doctrine of absolute indispensable necessity to be believed as is pretended depending upon it if it were true and true in reference to such an end and purpose as is pleaded it would not have been passed over in silence there where so many things of inconceivable lesse concernment to the Church of God though all in their respective degrees tending to edification are recorded As to what is recorded in story the order and series of things with the discovery afforded us of Peters course place of abode in Scripture doe prevaile with me to think stedfastly that he was never there against the selfe contradicting testimonies of some few who took up vulgar reports then when the mystery of iniquity had so farre â—pâ—rated at least that it was judged meet that the chiefe of the Apostles should have lived in the chiefe City of the World But that we may proceed grant this also that Peter was at Rome which they shall never be able to prove and that he did Preach the Gospell there yet so he did by their own Confession at other places making his residence at Antioch for some years what will this availe towards the setling of the matter under consideration There Christ