Nature appear in time and succession so have their errours done yet to answer directly we are not ignorant when their Principal Deformities befel them the Councel of Trent with many Acts before and since fay enough to this but I wave this at present only this much let me say He is no studied Scholler that is not acquainted with the grounds of an unreconcilable difference betwixt us and Rome See Bishop Hall Dr. Gauden c. Thus let old Rome take the Glory of Religion as of old but now statu quo as it is a Religion made up only of Heathenism Judaism and antient Heresies they are become more then the parallel of Scribes and Pharisees whom yet they do much resemble in many things 1. None pretend to more piety and devotion and to the honour of Christ then they None perform less or do more dishonour Christ then they 2. The reject the Commandment of God to observe the Popes Decretals What he saith must be good though against the express Word of God 3. The Pharisees were very quarrelsome about their Ceremonies and superstitious observations so are these to the height 4. They presecuted the Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep and at last put him to death as an Imposter Deceiver These persecute the Pastors of Christs Flock and slaughter the sheep of Christ from Generation to Generation in the most cruel and barbarous manner imaginable Thus do they imitate the Jewes the persecuting Priests the hypocritical vain-glorious Scribes and Pharisees of those times But yet our Papists stay not here but having rejected the Scriptures the word of God and betaken themselves to their unwritten verities as they call them c. To gain credit to these they have recourse as much as any to Dreams and Visions to Apparitions and Revelations to Extasies and Enthusiasms yea and Diabolical Delusions for many amongst them have been and are the most skilful and exquisite Conjurers and Necromancers in the world And all this is only by such tricks and lying Miracles to gain credit and reputation to their own inventions and de 〈…〉 These things do sufficiently evidence to all that and how the Romanists are fallen from being amongst the first of Christians To be the prime Fanaticks of the world and indeed the principal Authors Patrons and Incouragers of all those kind of people wheresoever For if Fanaticks do pretend much piety and devotion reject the Holy Scriptures be zealous of their own Superstitions and be very violent against them that oppose them and persecute them to the utmost and if they do lean to visions revelations strange miracles c. more then to the Word of God The persecuting Popish Priests c. do act all these things to the utmost ☞ And yet further if I should descend to their Devotions and Religions Performances c. I should lead you into an endless Labyrinth of Idol-imaginations and ridiculous inventions in which they out-strip the very Pagans c. there you shall see such Congies and Crowching such Beads and Babies such Altar-worship and Image-worship such Crossings and Cursings with book bell and candle such advancement of mans and abatements of Christs merits such Adoration of holy Reliques of I know not whom for they have their holy bones and holy stones holy rags and holy bags holy wells and holy bells c. holy graves and holy knaves For some of their Saints were never men and others no better then monsters of men surely never honest men at the best In a word for why should I be endless in this they have so much Vanity and Foppery in their divine service as doth far exceed either Pagan Jew or Hereticks other then themselves in their Religious performances 4. If you add their most unwarrantable uniting the Apocriphal to the Canonical Books of holy Scripture a if of the same Authority and Spirit And that intollerable errour of Transubstantiation rightly styled A Subabomination above all other evils as being a complicated errour against Reason Sense the nature of subsistences and things real in being Against Faith Scripture and the limits of true Religion an Errour of Blasphemy Cruelty and abominable absurdity in changing the food of our souls into corporal food making us Cannibals and Deniers of the true humane nature of Jesus Christ with some antiekt Hereticks In a word The vanities of their divine service are innumerable and their abominations intollerable They have maimed the ten Commandments wounded the Sacraments turned prayer into vain babling and Preaching into legendical lying They defile whatsoever they touch Even the best things that remain amongst them what with their Additions Diminutions strange Interpretation and injurious concealment from the people they do plainly dicover themselves to be the right successors of those Hypocrites the Scribes and Pharisees that did shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men so that they did neither go in themselves nor suffer them that would to go in Mat. 23.13 Thus have they lost their wheat corn in a heap of chaff their Needle in a bottle of straw or mow their Pearl in a Dung-hil their true first and best Religion in a Colluvies a Sink a Quagmire a Quick-sand of Ceremonies Superstitions and humane Inventions so that upon the whole matter they are the greatest Schismaticks Fanaticks yea and Hereticks now throughout the whole world Now to conclude with these whose Errours admit no period and their Superstition no conclusion If God be well pleased with such toyes and trinkets with such fine babies and rattles fit to please Children c. then no doubt they are in the best way to please God and far beyond any others whose Devotions are not so attended with Pageants and brave shews as these be 1. But if the Lord shall say as to them of old Isa 1.12 Who hath required this at your hands to do as you do to sacrifice and to serve me in such a strange manner and then shall proceed against them as there he did against Judah and Jerusalem see vers 21.25 of that Chapter How is the faithful City c. 2. And if Christ shall say of them as he did of those hypocritical Pharisees saying In vain they do worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments Decrees These things do sufficiently evidence and Traditions of men and turn them off with an Ironical speech a scorn saying Full well i.e. full ill ye do reject or frustrate the Commandment of God that ye may keep your own Tradition as it is in Mat. 15.9 Mark 7.9 And then proceed against them with all those woes thundred out against Scribes and Pharisees their Compeers by our Saviours own mouth and inflicted and executed accordingly Mat. 23. per totum Alas What will then become of all 1. Their Will-worship ceremonious and superstitious Devotions 2. Their Tantalogical repetitions of the name of Jesus c. 3. Their Innovation of Saints Images and holy Reliques all will then prove to be no better then vain-babling or
of other Churches viz. the French Dutch Danish Suevick or any of the Lutheran or Calvinian Churches or with any of those of the Eastern Churches now extant The Armenian Constantinopolitan the Syrian Egyptick the Greek Aeuchology that of Cyril or St. Ambrose commonly called Officium Ambrosianum or any other antient or latter yet ours will appear to be the most exact and compleat of any of them and comprehensive of any thing that is excellent in any of them 8. Lastly Our Liturgy it is confessed was penned and allowed by learned Doctors and glorious Martyrs who sealed the truth of the Reformed Religion with their Bloods So than it was the truth of Religion expressed in the Articles set forth by King Edward the sixth An. Dom. 1552. Collected from and suitable to the holy Scriptures for which they dyed rather then for the Liturgy of their own composing which is a great mistake of many both which Articles and Liturgy with some alterations and additions were again revived and ratified by Q. Elizabeth in the beginning of her Reign viz. an 1. Eliz. c. 2. and the same Articles and Liturgy have been continued by K. James and K. Charles the first all of blessed memory and so they remain at this day Yet quaedam in pulchro corpore sunt desideranda emendanda the fairest face may have some blemish c. And I am sure there have been many wise judicious and very learned men who have earnestly and long desired that some few things both in Hierarchy and frame of Church-Government by Episcopacy as also 〈◊〉 the Lyturgy or Form of Gods publick Worship c. might without noise or tumult have been regulated and altered for the prevention of inconveniencies which might ensue But our late Reformers as they pretended and called themselves were of another strain nothing would serve but the ruine of the one and the utter expulsion of the other For my part 1. I should think him an evil Physitian who to cure a Mole a Freckle a Wart or small Wen in a fair face doth kill the person to effect it 2. And him to be as bad a Builder or Workman who to mend a Quarry of glass in a Window or to put on a Tyle upon the house-top c. plucks down the whole house to do it and thus did our late Deformers deal by Episcopacy and the Tyturgy But 1. As by the Extirpation of Episcopacy was ushered in and attended proceeded and succeeded no better then with a most terrible barbarous and bloody civil War to the amazement of wise men the consternation of the best men and the astonistment of all men 2. So the Expulsion of the Lyturgy was preceded with the death of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury nothing else would serve and attended with expunging the clause for the preservation of his Majesties Person out of the Commission of their General in the Army These were the bad Neighbours of two things which were absolutely bad enough in themselves And as the ruine of Episcopacy did serve to enrich a company of greedy Cormorants who Ostrich-like could devour any thing Or like that foolish Aeagle in the Fable would needs have a Morsel a Bit or Gobbet from the Altar though therewith she set fire on her own nest and ruined her self So the Expulsion of the Lyturgy opened a wide gap to all the whimsical fancies fanatiek Opinions Errours Heresies and Blasphemies that have so abounded and so much infested the Church of God ever since whilst every man was left to his own abilities inventions and expressions and every man that could but talk a little and make use of any good language was presently cryed up for a Gifted Brother and compleatly fitted for the Ministry without any more ado And hence no doubt hath been abundance of Non-sense if not worse uttered by men of weak abilities parts and gifts in celebrating the Mysteries of God And hence have sprung those swarms of Sectaries that have so long anoyed us Yet as the best vertues are attended with a vice on each hand as Liberality with Avarice and Prodigality c. And the best men have enemies and the best business shall be sure of some Opponents So the Liturgy or form of Gods publick worship or the Book of Common-Prayer hath two great enemies 1. Those that set it too high and deify it And 2. Those that vilifie it and too much undervalue it Those set it too high that make it equal in Authority with the holy Scriptures as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 3.16 sent by immediate inspiration from God as the Oracles of God were although it be but the composure of wise and good but not inspired men These people do by the Book of the Common-Prayer as the Children of Israel did by the brasen Serpent reserved and kept as a monument of Gods mercy to their Ancestors was so doted upon as that they gave divine honour to it Then did that good King Hezekiah 2 Kin. 18.4 break it in pieces that God might no longer be dishonoured thereby Take heed beloved of perverting lawful and useful things to evil ends and purposes This sort of people do commit a three-fold Injury viz. Against 1. The Book 2. The Composers And 3. Themselves 1. Against the Book For God hath not given us this book but the holy Scriptures to build our faith and to lay upon them the foundation of our salvation 2. The Compilers and Composers of the Book who I dare say would no more assume the honour of immediate inspiration from God then the Angel would accept of divine worship from St. John Rev. 19.10 So far were they from the errour and vanity of Anabaptists Enthusiasts c. c. Themselves most of all both in the two former injuries now named and especially in the misbottoming their own salvation upon a wrong foundation and relying upon the inventions and composures of men rather then upon the Oracles of God in the holy Scriptures which were spoken and written by divine inspiration Now is not this to for sake the fountain of living waters and hew us out broken Cisterns that can hold no water Others there be who do vilifie and would exclude utterly all forms of prayer and indeed all things else that are conducible to order and decency unity and peace in the Church so much are these men taken with their own fancies and inventions All forms of prayer with them are carnal formal papal c. and do stint the spirit which last is yet no more done by this then by singing of set Psalms which they themselves do practise and make use of in their own Assemblies Sure if these men be in the right and that no forms of Prayers are to be regarded Then to what purpose are all those pious helps to devotion c. which were composed and published for the general good by so many worthy men who were truly learned and godly religious and renowned
art now hungry which doth not befall to God nor the son of God But I will grant that thou art so Then turn these stones into bread for God can change the nature of things at his own pleasure But if thou canst not do this thou art neither God nor the Son of God 1. Mark how the devil strikes at the Deity of Christ and at our Faith by raising such a doubt Answ But mark now the Answer and Resistance of Christ to this Temptation 1. He doth not say I am God and so drive him away 2. But he takes up the sword of the spirit Deut. 8.3 and therewith drives him away for having granted that Bread and bodily food is the usual remedy against hunger Yet saith our Saviour There is no necessity for me to do so For if I be the Son of God know thou That God is not bound to support by bread only as Nature is and men are by the ordinary way of provision Ap. But he hath many other ways and means to sustain and nourish us withall Though here be no bread yet know it is not Bread only or other ordinary food that doth nourish any man but by Gods appointment of it to that end and blessing upon it Besides God can support and supply us miraculously He can nourish us without any food or put the vertue of food into other things and can make poyson to be both meat and medicine Mark 16.18 and Ergo Vpon him will I wait saith Christ and so let us do also Exit Satan he hath done with this shape and this Temptation 2. The Devil acts the part of a seeming Saint a devout Zelot He will go next to the holy City and try what he can do there He taketh up Christ and carrieth him as Gods Spirit did Philip Acts 8.39 He caught him away Doct. Mark what the Devil can do if God permit he can carry away wicked men quick into hell And wonder not that Christ suffered the Devil to carry him who suffered his Instruments to crucifie him When he had brought Christ thither he sets him upon a Pinacle of the Temple a place as fit as dangerous to serve his turn to tempt our Saviour The City the Temple all here minded men of piety of the true worship of God and here the Devil will turn Deceiver and because Christ had foil'd him with Scripture before he will cite Scripture too and perswade Christ to leap down upon the Reason alledged in Psalm Psal 91.11 12. Doct. Note 1. We must take heed of Temptations in the Church in holy places and duties in great Assemblies as well as in the Wildernesse The Devil did not cast Christ down but bid him cast himself down Doct. Note 2. The Devil may tempt and perswade to evil he cannot compel Hoc tantum pertinet quod egit in principio Seducere c. Iraeneus The Devil cites Scripture but withal he adds and concealeth at his pleasure viz. Cast thy self down and to keep thee in all thy ways misinterpreteth and misapplieth averteth all as impious Hereticks his Disciples do Mendacium abscondens per Scripturam quod faciunt omnes Haeretici saith Irenaeus Note 3. That no Temptation of Satan is more pernicious and dangerous than that which is coloured with misapplied Scripture and shew of sanctity But beware the Devil and his Ministers when they are like Angels of Light 2 Cor. 11.14 15. Ap. Thus the Devil perswaded Christ to tempt God hoping to find him either to be an Imposter if he received hurt by the fall or the Son of God by preserving himself in the fall Answ But mark how Christ with the same Weapon this Sword foils him again by producing a general prohibition that concerneth all men Deut. 6.16 Ye shall not tempt the Lord q. d. It becomes none to tempt God much less him whom I know and thou doubtest to be the Son of God ☞ And then is God tempted when ordinary means are neglected besides and against the Counsel and Warrant of Almighty God Ap. And so should I do if neglecting the stairs by which I may descend with safety I should Sponte non jussus a Patre solum aâ—te provocatus praecipitem me dare vellem freely at thy provocation without my Fathers command cast my self down head-long Exit Satan the second time 3. He acts the part of a mighty Monarch and will try what great gifts will do and they use to do much Deut. 16.19 1. He takes him up into an exceeding high mountain a fit place for ostentation and to take the prospect and view of many excellent Things 2. There he shews him all the kingdomes of the world and the glory of them i.e. The Excellency Riches Splendor Beauty and whatsoever is admirable in them and these he presents to Christs senâ—es by Vision at least else he could not do it 3. All these he impudently claims as his own and in his power to dispose of promiseth to give them all to Christ 4. His only demand was Prostratus adora me do but fall down and worship me and all shall be thine Ap. A dangerous tentation and made up of lies and mischief how thâ—nk you would such a Promise have prevailed with many a Worldling Doct. Note That the glory of the world is a choice bait of the devil to catch and ensnare mens souls But mark how Christ doth answer this his most abominable presumption 1. To his Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abi Satana Get thee hence Satan be gone blasphemous Devil This he spake with such Authority that he durst stay no longer 2. Then to his Temptation he takes up the same Weapon the Sword of the Spirit as before and out of those Scriptures Deut. 6.13 and 10.12 20. and 13.4 which Christ citeth thus Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Thou thinkest that if I do not worship thee then I am the Son of God but if I do then thou knowest I am not the Son of God Be gone Devil and know you that it is an universal Precept and Command upon every Creature To give divine honour unto God their Creator Ap. Thus the Devil by a threefold Temptation tryes to know who Christ is whether the Son of God or not and when all is done he is forc'd to be gone as wise as he came to him without any satisfaction Thus did he do by Christ viz. He did act as a friend in the wilderness or divine in the Temple a mighty Monarch in the world with great promises but prevailed not Ap. And if he did thus by our Saviour what will he not do by us he will try all his wiles and shapes Hence is the great difficulty of our right using welâ—ing arming this weapon well against him For sometimes he acteth as the Prince of Darkness then as the red Dragon as an Angel of light one while he tempteth to desparation then to presumption now he frights with Terrours the