was learned He like some schismaticks now accounted humane learning heresie and so they may see their error is popish while they condemn learning as if it were popery Next comes Sixtus the fourth Innocentius the eight Alexander the sixt who imprisoned and banished many Cardinals Then followed Pius the third and next Julius the second who by the Emperour Maximilian and the King of Spain and France's aids spoiled the Venetians of many territories yet he received them again into favor and so discontented the Emperour and the King of France that they thought to depose him by their Councill at Pisa But he called another Councill at Rome which disanulled all they did at Pisa He lived in wars all his time Leo the tenth succeeds him He endevoured to suppresse Martin Luther but could not Adrianus the sixt followed and threatned the Duke of Saxony for maintaining Martin Luther Clement the seventh succeeds who poisoned many and was poisoned himselfe Paulus the third followeth whose authority in England was abrogated by King Henry the eighth who called himselfe supreme head in his own dominions in all causes Ecclesiastick and Civill He cursed King Henry the eighth of England therefore and interdicted the Kingdome ratified the order of Jesuites and called a Councill at Trent where the Protestants would not appear because they said that Councill was not lawfully called and the Pope sate Judge who was the party they were to accuse of errors and abusing the Church He carried the Councill to Bononia Iulius the third followed who brought it back again to Trent and sent in Queen Maries daies Cardinall Pool to absolve England from the interdiction of Paul the third But havock was made in England of Protestants Paulus the fourth followed who hated Charls the Emperour who resigned his government to his son Ferdinand and died in a Monastery The Pope approved not this election but Ferdinand esteemed not of his approbation Pius the fourth followed In his time the Councill of Trent called by Paul the third was dissolved which had sate six yeers only of eighteen But before that he sent an Embassador into England to invite the Clergy to that Councill but Queen Elizabeth would not suffer him to land Nor would the Germans send any Scotland also revolted from popery He massacred Protestants at Montalto in Italy to the number of eighty because they met at an house to hear a Sermon They were drawn out one by one and their throats cut but none recanted their Religion Pius the fifth followed who with the Venetians and the King of Spain and his own aids overcame the Turks at Lepanto under the conduct of John of Austria Gregory the thirteenth followed He founded a new Colledge for Jesuites and gave it great revenues to bring up schollers to convert the Germans The Guises faction and the Queen Mother made an horrid massacre in Paris of the Protestants whom they called Huguenots 1572. Which act this Pope commended and sent Charls King of France 40000. Duckats to set forward the war against them This Pope set forth a new Kalender Sixtus the fift followed who excommunicated the King of Navar and the Prince of Condie both Protestants Now was Henry the third killed by a Frier Clement the eighth absolved Henry the fourth King of France from the excommunication of Sixtus the fifth upon his abjuration of the protestation by his Orators which King was slain by a proselyte of the Jesuits called Ravilack Mathe. I desire to know how the Protestant Religion came in and whether it be ancient and how it hath been persecuted by the Pope his adherents whether Princes or Prelates and by what heresies opposed for the Papists still upbraid us that our Religion was begun by Luther who began an innovation in the time of Pope Leo the tenth Against whom Henry the eighth of England did write and obtained the title from the Pope of Defender of the faith Phila. You are to understand that the substantiall points of the Protestant Religion are the same which are grounded upon Scripture and maintained from the Primitive times by the Church Christian but obscured in tract of time by divers heresies and popish traditions which like tares and weeds over-grew the good seed which yet still appeared in divers places of the field of the Catholike Church plain enough to prove a visible being both of the truth and professors of it till the Protestants made a more full declaration of it by refining the old truths from the drosse of heresie and popish superstition Mathe. I desire to have a more plain view of those hereticks that turned from Gospell truths And secondly how the Pope sell off being that the Roman Church did oftentimes excommunicate those hereticks And thirdly how the Protestants came to reform themselves they being once in the bowels of the Romish Church Phila. You know I have shewed many already among the persecuting hereticks yet it shall not be irksome to me if it be not to you to view them a little better especially the Manicheans who sprung up before Arrius with which heresie Augustine was entangled but the Lord God that bringeth good out of evill converted him by the pains of Ambrose Bishop of Millain and he became a great light to Gods people and a confuter of that cursed heresie Manicheus opinions were that there were two beginnings one evil and the other good which is all one as to say there be two Gods No wonder if their patron Manes called himselfe the Holy Ghost Maniches as Montanus did if he proceeded from such principles This Manes forbade flesh and wine neglected the old Testament ascribed the sin of man not to his free will Vid. Aug. cont Mani but necessity because he said mans body was made of the substance of the Prince of darknesse He died a fearfull death Theo. l. 4. c. 4. For as Arrius voided his guts at a draught-house before he came to dispute against the truth so this Manes was sent for being a Persian by the King of Persia to cure his son who died in his hands and he was imprisoned but escaped yet heard of in Mesopotamia was taken and flead Socrat. l. 1. c. 21. and his skin stuffed and set up at the gate of the City Mathe. Sir lest it be too much trouble to you and no great benefit to me to recite all the heresies I desire only the chiefe of them which do directly oppose true Religion Phila. I intend so and therefore first I will shew you the ancient heresies and then the modern that you may see how far the latter are raked out of the former We find some holding God to be like a man because Gen. 1.21 God is said to make man after his image Anthropomorphites but that in the soule and the endowments thereof wisedome and righteousnesse The Author of this heresie was one Ardaeus a Syrian Then followed the Messalians called Euchitae because they thought the whole duty of
who is and ever by Gods grace will be Thine as thou art Christs Benjamin Spencer These Books following are printed and to be sold by William Hope on the North side of the Royall Exchange at his shop next door to St Bartholomews Church THE Faith Doctrine and Religion professed in this Realm of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging Expressed in Thirty Nine Articles by Thomas Rogers The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the Distressed Also his Devout Soule and Free Prisoner by Jos Hall D. D. and B N. The New Covenant Or The Saints Portion by John Preston D.D. Bethel Or A form for Families in which all sorts of both Sexes are so squar'd and fram'd by the Word as they may best serve in their severall places for usefull pieces in Gods building by Matthew Griffith The Holy Lives of Gods Prophets by J. H. The Abridgement of the Body of Divinity of that Famous and Reverend Divine Mr William Perkins A True Relation of the Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Netherlandish Governor and Council there Godly Meditations upon the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Christopher Sutton Doctor in Divinity late one of the Prebends of the Collegiate Church of Westminster A Fountain of Teares by that Reverend divine Iohn Featley D.D. Chaplain to his late Majesty Some Sacramentall Instructions Or An explication of the Principles of Religion by T. B. B D. Pastor of M. O. London A Triumphant Arch Erected and Consecrated to the Glory of the Feminine Sex By Monsieur de Scudery Englished by I. B. Gent. The Generall History of Women Containing the Lives of the most Holy and Prophane the most Famous and Infamous in all ages exactly described not only from Poeticall Fictions but from the most Ancient Modern and admired Historians to our times by T. H. Gent. Heroick Education Or Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the waies of eminent learning and vertues by I. B. Gent. Gerardo the Unfortunate Spaniard Or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers Originally in Spanish and made English by L. D. Poems By Francis Beaumont Gent. Colloquia Plautina viginti Ex totidem M. Plauti Comoediis excerpta Annotatiunculis marginalibus illustrata Opera Alexandri Rossaei A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHETES Mathetes REverend Sir I have presumed upon your goodnesse and long acquaintance you being a lover of truth and of all those that love it to designe this day to wait upon you and to give you the trouble to satisfie some questions whereby my mind may be established in this wavering world wherein severall societies of Christians do all lay claime to truth as theirs only with as great fervency as the two women pleaded before King Solomon for the child which could not possibly have two mothers So surely there is but one truth and but one right and true profession of it Philalethes I hope your Religion is not now to seek Mathe. Not altogether but I confess I would be glad to find satisfaction more fully about that religion in which I was born and bred that so I may not beleeve implicitly as because my parents were of this or that religion but that I may be able to render a reason of mine own faith Phila. Your endeavour is good but I fear you are troubled with the staggers or vertigo a braine giddinesse bred by the inordinate motion of spirits in the ventricle of the brain so I beleeve your mind is made light and frothy by some evil notions unwarily received or by a multitude of good notions not wel disposed like unto good meat that being not well digested will breed a disease as well as vicious diet this may be some cause of your wavering Mathe. I think Sir you say right For I confesse to you that I have met with some spirits that have made me in such a maze and brought me into such a labyrinth that I have turned Seeker of what I had and a Shaker in what I held yet I find my first tenets in the Protestant Religion to be the best but I want confirmation For some tell me that I cannot prove there is a God or that man hath a soule immortall more then other creatures and that it comes only by generation and hath no existence after death And when I endeavour to confute them by Scripture they bid me prove the Scriture to be the word of God when I seek to prove that by Scripture they say it cannot bear witness to its selfe for that is to prove the same by the same If I flie to the tradition of the Church they aske me what Church is the true Church Or if I offer them the sence of Scripture to prove what they demand then they ask me who shall be judge whether that be the true sense or no If I say our Church of England Gabr. Ã porta Biâ—l in can miss lect 23. they deny her to be true If I say the Church of Rome others prove her and her Pope too Hereticall If I say the reformed Churches of Geneva Helvetia or Scotland they tell me they are schismaticall so that I am in a great straight with Job to know where wisdome is to be found Job 28.12 or where is the place of understanding Phila. You need not seek far the word is neer thee from whence such reasons may be deduced that will answer all these opinions But if men will not hear these reasons I must tell them they have no faith but either humane or divelish not divine faith which beleeves that there is a word of God and beleeves God upon that word But I will not anticipate tell me therefore what was the first thing which troubled you Mathe. Even the same with which I troubled my selfe being a child or something else troubled me by casting into my mind what that God was of whom my parents had told me whether he was before the world what he did then before he made it And I have met with some of as little wit as I my selfe then had or else of deeper reach either to bring us into some form which yet we have not had or else to bring us all to confusion and then out of that chaos to raise up a Church of their own framing and boast of it as did Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel which I have built Phila. As these thoughts came into your mind for want of knowledge of God at first so do these scrupulous queries come into it for want of subjecting your selfe to that knowledge which God hath offered to you of himselfe For the soul of man being rational and discoursive will run into many vagaries and grow extravagant without rule and so misse God wherein standeth mans eternall happinesse Mathe. Is there a way then for a man to attain eternall happinesse Quest 1 Phila. Yes First if there were
separation from it the symboll of faction Therefore the ancient Writers counted those that would not be subject to them to be worse then infidels for they held the Church had her externall being and constitution by Bishops and they that did not communicate with Episcopacy were not in the Church Yea more Cyp Ep. 27. in Ep. ad Flo. Pupianum Clem. Ep. 1.3 Ruff. transl Russinus is so bold to say that all Priests Clergy men people nations and languages that would not obey their Bishops should be shut from the communion of the holy Church here and of heaven hereafter Mathe. Many found fault as much with the Liturgy as with Episcopacy Phila. They found none but fained some They pretended that set forms of praier were not to be used in the Church neither considering the authority antiquity nor the conveniency of it First not the authority as that it was appointed by God himselfe Num. 6.23 where the Priests are appointed to blesse the people in a set form of words So Deut. 26.13 the people are injoined a set form of praier after the paiment of his tiths Nor do they consider that the book of Psalms are all set forms of praier or praise and delivered to chiefe Musitians to be set to divers instruments to praise God withall 1 Chron. 16.7 and 1 Chron. 25.3 and 2 Chron. 30.21 and Ezra 3.11 Nor do they discern that Christ gave his Disciples a set form first giving it them as a pattern in the first year of his ministry Mat. 6.9 and in the third year of his ministry gives it them as a praier expresly to be used Luke 11.2 when you pray say Our Father which praier is not of extempore conception neither for we may find in old Jewish Euchologues most of the petitions not that Christ need to borrow of any but he did it to shew that truth was his freehold wheresoever he found it and to teach us to subject our selves to the spirit in ancient truths rather then to affect extempore raptures Nor do they perceive the antiquity of set forms in the N. T. Church for we find St James the first Bishop of Jerusalem was the first setter forth of Liturgies and he placed there by the Apostles So Titus was left in Creet to set in order things than were wanting and what things they were being they had the Gospell and Sacraments let any man tell you except they were Church Rituals Ignatius also Bishop of Antioch taught his Church Liturgies and Doxologies as appears by the Ecclesiasticall histories He lived in the first hundred years after Christ and from that Church of Antioch Trip. hist l. 10. c. 9. where men were first called Christians Liturgies were derived to other Churches as to Rome it selfe For Gregory the first being Bishop of Rome brought in the form of the Greek Letanies in that Church so that our Liturgy primarily commeth from the Greek Conc. Ancyr 1. tom Con. Conc. Meter not the Latin Church but if it did yet whatsoever is good in it may be used by any Christian Church except we think it not fit to worship Christ because he was sometimes consessed by the devils mouth Nor do they see the convenience of it St Paul did namely that we may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 And Mr Calvin approved it very much writing to the Protector of England in K. Edw. the sixths time that there should be a form of Church Service from which Ministers might not depart in the exercise of their functions that there may be an help to the simplicity of some and a remedy against the levity of others that affect innovations and for the clearer appearance of the unanimity of all Churches among themselves I know they say also that set forms of praier hindereth the gift of the spirit in ministers which would utter it selfe freely but that it is bound up by reading a set form But considering that the minister is the mouth of the people to God I conceive it convenient that the people know what he sollicites God for that they may the more comfortably join with him in praier Nor can I see how the Church is more edified by extempore praier than a set form since the Church is edified as well by Sermons composed as sermons preached Besides the spirit of the Church may edifie her members by her composures as well as any one member may edifie any part of the Church by his voluntary conceptions and expressions which may be done for ostentation or may want consideration and discretion also Nor doth set forms limit the spirit any more then extempore raptures neither in the minister nor people Not in the minister for he hath divers times in private devotions and before and after his Sermon to enlarge himselfe farther as occasion requireth And for his being stinted by the Liturgy there is no reason but he may since the spirit of the Prophet must be subject to the Prophets in their prophecying 1 Cor. 14. and then why not in praying by the spirit of the Church representative which composed the Liturgy And for the spirit in the people it is no more limited by a set form then by a sudden conceived praier for their spirit being equally intent upon this is as much limited as by that and so as the peoples spirit is subjected to the ministers in his praier so much more ought the spirit of the minister be subjected to the spirit of the Churches corporation I have seen many ridiculous pamphlets against the Liturgy more fit for wast paper then to be answered I spoke enough before of this matter in answer to some heresies Some do object that it containeth not praier for all occasions yet I think if they would well consider the Letany they can hardly add any thing to it though upon every particular petition therein they make as long a praier as the whole Liturgy Mathe. But the ceremonies are more offensive then the Liturgy Phila. They need not if people would consider the paucity the indifferency and the power that the Church hath to impose things indifferent For first there was but three the Surplice for the Minister the Crosse for the Baptized and kneeling for Communicants three innocent ceremonies as many of the complainers themselves have confessed in the opinion of wise men yet have they been violently opposed by many that cannot find the medium between affirmative and negative superstition but either rush into the gulfe or dash upon the rock The Praecisian he will have no ceremony without speciall warrant from Scripture like the Sadduces The Papist on the other side will have them necessary to divine worship though not set down in Scripture like the Pharisees traditions of the Elders Between both these lieth a middle way to walk in Zanch. de sacra Script p. 262. bounded with the authority and liberty of the Church in imposing and using
Boniface the third had got the title of universall Bishop they began to break out into strange opinions and manners as that the Chair of Rome was infallible as you see in Pope Agatho his decree and excommunicating Emperours and suffering them to kisse his feet as did Pope Constantine the first and others Condemning Priests marriage and setting up the the service of the Church in Latine as did Nicolaus the first and that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed should be perpetually observed as did Stephanus the fifth and setting up the Masse Purgatory Pilgrimages adoration of images invocation of Saints and transubstantiation and setting themselves above generall Councils in determinations of faith so that no decree or Canon could passe without the Popes approbation They getting thus aloft suppressed all that withstood their tenets From hence it came that the true Religion became eclipsed yet some God raised up in every age who wrote against both their pride and errors though by reason of the over ruling power of the Church of Rome they could not so plainly appear as in the time of Luther and afterwards For Basilius Magnus writes to the Bishops of the West that if they held themselves to be the head yet they could not say to the feet Bas transmar Ep. 77. About the 4th century of years I have no need of you which plainly reproved the Popes usurping supremacy as well as do the Protestants Gregory Nyssâ—n wrote against Pilgrimages to Jerusalem Mount Olivet and Bethelem saying that Pilgrimages from carnall lusts to the righteousnesse of God is acceptable to him Hist Magd. cent 4. cap. 10. and not pilgrimages from Cappadocia to Palestina and that no rewards will be given in the life to come but for such things which are done by the command of God so the Protestants hold also So Hilarius the Bishop of Arls opposed Leo Bishop of Rome by acknowledging that the Bishop of Rome had no dominion over the Churches of France For which though they accused him as a usurper yet he nothing regarded the Popes curses but went to Rome Leo ad Gal. Epis Ep. 77. 89. and to the Popes face maintained that Christ did not appoint Peter to be head over the rest of the Apostles nor had the Pope from Peter any such power so hold the Protestants So the Councill of Constantinople called by the Emperour Constantinus Copronymus deposed and excommunicated Germanus the Patriarch of that City for allowing the worshipping of images which sin also the Protestants abhor Serenus the Bishop of Marsieles in France brake down all images in the Church of his Diocesse more then 1000. yeers past so the Protestants So Albertus Gallus and Clement and Sampson Scotish men said Hist Magd. cent 8. cap. 10. that the Pope of Rome was the author of lies a disturber of the Christian peace a corrupter and a deceiver of the people and for this suffered bonds and imprisonment in France by the procurement of Pope Zacharias So the Protestants hold So Claudius Thurinensis cast down images and abolished the worshipping of the crosse out of his Diocesse of Thurin by Piedmont and said they might as well worship the Asse upon which Christ did ride and said that he was not to be accounted an Apostolike Bishop that sate in the Apostolike Chair but he that performed the Apostolike Office So think the Protestants Theophilactus Bishop of Bulgaria writ that Antichrist would spring up in the decay of the Roman Empire and called the marriage of Priests honourable and a step to Church government So held St Paul 1 Tim. 3.4 5. So the Protestants hold Berengarius a Deacon at Argiers writ against the popish opinion of transubstantiation or conversion of the bread and wine in the Sacrament into the very body and blood of Christ But he following the opinion of Augustine and Joannes Scotus he was condemned unheard by a Councill called at Rome by Pope Leo the ninth for an heretick Whose opinion the Protestants also do hold Radulphus Patriarch of Antiochia refused to be subject to the Pope of Rome saying that Antiochia was the ancient Chair of St Peter and therefore had a prerogative above Rome So think the Protestants if St Peters being Bishop of a place can give prerogative Arnulphus in his preaching Opus Tripart much reproved the Roman Clergy for their lewd lives of the number of holy daies spent rather in lawlesse pleasures then devotions and against the number of begging Fryers and the unchast behaviour of Church-men He was drowned by them in the night as is reported About this time sprung up Waldus of whom you have heard formerly His opinions be these following 1. That the Scriptures are only to be beleeved in matters of faith and contain all things necessary for faith and manners 2. That Christ is the only Mediator and that Saints are not to be invoked 3. He held traditions not necessary to salvation and denied Purgatory and Masses sung for the dead 4. That constrained fast daies and making difference of meats superfluous holy daies variety of superstitious orders of Priests and Monks Friers and Nuns hallowing of creatures vowes and also pilgrims and humane ceremonies were to be abolished and that no degrees should be received into the Church but Bishops Priests and Deacons 5. They denied the Popes supremacy over other Churches States and Governments 6. That the Church of Rome is spiritual Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and rejected the Popes pardons and allowed the marriages of Priests 7. And that they that hear the true word of God and beleeve it are the true Church 8. And that the Communion was to be eaten and not reserved for shew or worship For which opinions they endured persecutions of Pope Alexander the third who excited all Christian Princes to persecute them with fire and sword all which the Protestants hold for which they also have been persecuted as shall appear Hildebertus also abhorred the pride of Rome and said that Rome if it had no Rulers or at least such as did not violate the faith Bernard Abbot of Claravell held free justification by Christs merits and thought that all Christian people had conspired against Christ and that those were the chiefe persecutors that had the highest places in the Church So thought Protestants Nichetes Bishop of Nicomedia held against Anselmus Bishop of Havelburgh that the Pope was not the principall Bishop and that the power of binding and loosing was not given to Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles even as they all received graces alike on the day of Pentecost Act 2. So hold the Protestants About 1300. yeers after Christ 1300. true Religion began to be much darkened by schoole disputations by many that followed school disputations and Peter Lombards Sentences as Albertus Magnus Aquinas Alexander de Ales and Scotus called Dunce of the Town in Scotland where he was born but of a most subtile wit But God still stirred
reign of the Emperour Charls the fifth who much endeavoured to suppresse him 1. By convening the estates of Germany at the Town of Worms But before I come to his story you may see that there was in every age some that professed the Protestant tenets of Religion before Luthers time I could reckon abundance more but I avoid prolixity and reserve the reader to the Catalogues and Martyrologies of Religious men I return therefore to Martin Luther who being summoned appeared at the Convention at Worms but would revoke nothing of his writings which were concerning 1. The grounds of Christian Religion The second contained a reproofe and detection of papacy and popish doctrines and manners The third sort contained an opposition of those particular persons who did abet and maintain the Roman tyranny and deface his writings none of which he would recant He had safe conduct back again to his own Country but the Emperour to please the Pope who had not yet confirmed him in his Empire sent out a Writ of outlawry against Luther and all his adherents commanding Luther to be apprehended and his books burnt Then followed another Convention at Norinbergh of the estates of Germany to suppresse Luther to which the Pope excited them by his Legate Cheregatus But the estates found it dangerous to proceed with rigor against him but desired to reserse it to the next free Councill called in Germany and in the mean time they would take care to prevent disorders But in the mean time an hundred grievances at least were presented by the Germans to that Convention and by them to the Pope the chiefe whereof were 1. That many things were prohibited by humane constitution that were not prohibited of God and many things rejected which were of God commanded 2. That the Popes pardons were insufferable which perswading the people of the power of them was the cause of many abominations committed because for mony they might be pardoned 3. That Ecclesiasticall men are free from the secular power whatever they commit 4. That Priests are suffered to have Concubines for monie and the chaster men are compelled to pay monie for them and so may have them if they will But no answer came either from Pope Adrian or Clement the seventh after him though he sent Cardinall Campeius to the next Convention at Norinberg But Ferdinand the Emperours brother and Cardinall Campeius the Duke of Bavaria and some Bishops Joan. Sleidan Comment assembled themselves in a Conventicle at Ratisbone and ratified certaine Articles against Luther and his books Afterward were two other Conventions at Spiers in the first many bils of complaints were put up against Monks and Friers and the priviledges of the Clergy above the Civill power Also against holy daies and that the difference of meats and ceremonies might be free and that the Emperour would appoint a Provnciall Councill since a generall could not be had in Germany for matters of Religion or else suspend the decree of Worms against the followers of Luther and himselfe the last was granted And at the next convention at Spiers was by a few Princes decreed That such Cities as had altered Religion should make no farther change and that other places should obey the decree of Wormes till a generall Councill That all men should use the masse that would even where it was abolished That Anabaptists should be punished to death and ministers should teach by the Churches interpretations That the doctrine of the Lords Supper should not be received That no Princes should receive strangers that for Religion came to their dominions This was resisted by the Duke of Saxony and the Prince of Brandenberg and the Princes of Luneberg and the Landgrave of Hesse and some others and made protestation against it and that name is given to all that decline the Romish Religion The name Protestants To these did cleave fourteen Cities who appealed to the Emperour and a generall Councill or a Provinciall They sent Embassadors to the Emperour who handled them very roughly with threatnings Therefore the Protestants bound themselves in a Covenant at Smalcaldy to assist each other if any of them were pursued for Religion This discontented the Councill of the Empire The Emperour published a decree that though the confession presented to him at the Town Augusta was consuted to which the Protestants were not suffered to reply The Augustane Confession but willed to return to the Romish Church yet he would give them a space to return In which time they should keep peace and alter Religion no farther but suffer every man to follow the Church of Rome that pleased The Protestants answered they could not obey that decree with a safe conscience Therefore the Emperour set forth another Decree wherein he confirmed the Romish Religion in all points and that his Court called the Chamber should proceed against the Protestants in judgement and that no Protestant Prince should bear office in his Court and that all Papists should be taken into his protection against their own Princes therefore the Protestants and their Embassadors met again at Smalcaldy and confirmed their league begun Vlricus Zuinglius after this being Preacher of Zurick shewed himselfe also against the Popes pardons and other corruptions he was opposed by the popish preachers The Senate of Zurick appoints a publike disputation Zuinglius sets out seventy Articles before hand to be disputed of Faber Stapulensis whom the Bishop of Constance sent to dispute against Zuinglius declined the disputation and referred it to a generall Councill Therefore the Senate proclaimed throughout all their territories that the traditions of men should be abolished and the Gospell of Christ purely taught out of the Old and New Testament Against which the Helvetians convened at Lucerna and decreed that no man should deride the Masse and that Luther should not be mentioned that Images should not be violated and that all decrees of the Bishop of Constance should be obeied and in 1625. appointed a disputation at Baden to maintain popish tenets of transubstantiation and the Masse invocation of Saints and for the maintenance of Images and Purgatory which Ecchius offred to maintain and prove He was opposed by Oecolampadius Preacher of Basil and others Zuinglius was not permitted by the Senate of Zurick to be there because the Helvetians were his fierce and deadly enemies It was concluded that all should remain in that Religion they had hitherto kept and should admit of no new doctrine in their dominions but should sollow the authority of the Councill The Senate and people of Berne not content herewith one of the chiefe Cities of Helvetia assigned a disputation there to be held called all the Bishops about them thereunto granted safe conduct to all that would come thither The disputation was to be decided by Scriptures the Propositions to be disputed upon were these 1. That the true Church which is the mysticall body of Christ riseth out of Gods Word and continueth
in the time of King Lucius who desired Baptism of Pope Elutherius for himself and his people that he nor any Priest that came with him into the Isle of Thanet Bed l. 1. c. 26. did preach till they had license from the King But it is of courtesie not duty the Pope hath had much regard in England as appeareth in that his Legats and Nuncioes have had here entertainment But this was no more then they had in other places of the world where their usurped authority was rejected So in Asia and Africa This proveth nothing of any right he had in England for though this Realm hath admitted sometimes appeals to Rome yet you shall find that they have been oftner prohibited and the Popes Buls condemned and his excommunications slighted and his decrees rejected and that the King made Lawes and Ecclesiasticall Canons by Parliaments and Synods without the Popes leave As you may see in the daies of King Egbert and Alfred about the appeale of Wilfride Archbishop of York who was the first that ever appealed before the Norman conquest to the Pope and in whose behalfe the Pope sent Nuncioes to England with a Letter or Bull to restore Wilfride to his pluralities of which the King and great Councill of the Kingdome the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Clergy had divested him But they would not yield to the Popes desire to restore Wilfride til he had submitted himselfe and resigned those Monasteries he held which had moved the contention So after the Norman conquest in the reign of Henry the first Pope Paschalis put a new oath upon Archbishops to be taken when they received their Pall which Anselme the Archbishop having taken thought himselfe obliged to maintain the appellations to Rome but King Henry pleaded the fundamentall lawes which forbad any such appeals without the Kings licence and that they were a violation to the Crown and a Law was made that if any should bring the Popes letter or mandate in the Realm Rog. Hoved. in Hen. 2. he should be executed as a Traitor to the King and Kingdome and every one was forbidden appeals to the Pope It is true that Pope Nicolas grants to King Edward the Confessor and his successors that which he stood in no need of namely the protection of all the Churches in England and to make Lawes with the advice of their Bishops and Abbots in his stead for governing the same This was to make the world beleeve in after time that their authority in these things was derived from the Pope Malm. de gest Pontif. Vâ—d Mat. Par. an 1164. For we find that this was alwaies done by the Saxon and Danish Kings before any such Bull was sent from the Pope yea and disposed of Bishopricks without the Pope so did King William and Rufus his son and they counted themselves as Gods Vicar to govern the Church and to correct any wrong done in Ecclesiasticall Courts Acts of Clarendon which course the Kings of England after the Conquest alwaies followed and acted with the advice and assistants of their Parliaments as we may see in the daies of King Henry the second and by the Statutes of Clarendon which prevents popish jurisdiction by forbidding appeals and disposing benefices and Ecclesiasticall dignities Stat. of Carlile 25. of Edw. 1. But in the reigne of King Edward the first is a notable statute which declares the holy Church of England to be founded in the estate of Prelacy not Papacy and within the Realm of England not without it and by the King and his Peers not by Popes and forreign Bishops and that the Popes encrochments did aim at the ruine of the Church disinheriting of the King and destruction of the Lawes 16. of Ric. 2. c. 5. And in Richard the seconds reign it is set down that the Crown of England hath alwaies been and is free and in no subjection earthly but only to God and to no other and ought not to be submitted to the Pope It is true that King John resigned his Crown to the Pope but that was but done in his distresse he could not do that lawfully wherein the whole Kingdome had the greater share So many Emperours have taken their Crowns from the Pope as you have heard but this hath been done by some of them for greater solemnity and some for fear or out of superstition some to make their party the stronger against their enemies and the Pope hath crowned them but that of right he had any power over the Crown I find none Now for the second Question how Christian Religion came to be corrupted Rom. 1.8 Gild. de exid Conq. Brit. being at first clear as Romes was in its Primitive profession of it 1. It is true that England had a light of the Gospell as it is thought by Joseph of Arimathea and his colony of Christians that came with him to Glassenbury which was in the time of Tiberius the Emperours reign Peter came not to Rome till the second year of Claudius to lay any foundation of a Church there Nor do we find any plain face of a Church in England till King Lucius and his subjects were baptized as you have read by Fugatius and Damianus two Ministers that Elutherius the Bishop of Rome fent to do it at King Lucius his request The Church of Rome continued faithfull 350. yeers after Christ as I have shewed and kept her selfe untainted with heresie and was a covert and protection unto the professors of truth But after the Emperour Constantine and his successors turned Christians Clergy men grew into great favour at Court and so wealth and ease first begate security then covetousnesse then pride next ambition then devising of false tenets to maintain it and superstitions to uphold it then also heresies to mask or depose truth At last getting the title of universall Bishop the Eastern Church falling to decay the world looked on the Pope though not as upon one that should be their superiour in secular matters yet as one that should direct them in doctrines He by subtilty of the Schoolmen and policy and power sowed tares and though he seemed to keep the foundation yet built beside it kept up the truth in unrighteousnesse and delivered to the people by retaile what he pleased shut up the Scriptures and gave them humane traditions Now Princes and Priests being some perswaded of his piety and cozened by his hypocrisie others reverencing of his antiquity and dazeled with his dignity and others being remisse and idle were contented to enjoy the world in quiet and take any Religion that was offered them Thus the world was made dark by Babylons cup and had no feeling of the losse of truth no more then the Pope had except he were touched in his honours and profits But God had pity upon his Church and raised up now and then some to set up his truth as you have see And lastly Luther to oppose the Popes errors and
society then murther for that destroieth but some men but Heresie and Schisme destroieth or endeavoureth to destroy the Church 2. Murther can but destroy the body but this the soule Murther destroies only naturall life but this destroieth life spirituall and eternall Beside Heresie rents a man from the truth and Schisme from the communion of the Church and so breaks the bond of unity and charity by which God is forsaken as well as the Church and if they think to maintain these rents they have made from the Church of England to be lawfull let them tell you what Church hath lesse error or lesse evill manners and yet maintains none either by her doctrine or authority I beleeve they will find even the Church of Corinth and many of the Churches of lesser Asia to be guilty of greater error and worse manners then the Church of England was when they separated from it and yet Paul cals one the Church of God and Christ in the Revelation doth call the other Churches yet these men while they condemn the Church of England of tyranny they have been more cruell to themselves by separation then the Church could be or was by excommunication Mathe. I pray before you tell me of their punishments let me know what other kind of Sectaries have vexed the Church Phila. Papists when they were in authority they persecuted the Church when they were supprest Papists then secretly they corrupt the Church By Papists I mean not the old before the Trent Councill or rather Conventicle begun in the year 1546. in the time of Pope Paulus the third though they were bad enough but the Papists that sprung up since because they have brought in new errors as other new Sectaries have done As 1. Concerning free will that it works by it selfe with grace in our conversion though the Apostle saith that the naturall man receiveth not the things of God 2. 1 Cor. 2.14 They say originall sin is quite taken away in baptisme so that it ceaseth to be sin yet St. Paul saith that when he doth that which is evill it is by sin that dwelleth in him Rom. 7.17 So they hold that the certainty of salvation depends only upon hope not on faith contrary to John 1.12 saying Christ gave them power to be made the sons of God that beleeved on his name They say the merit of Christs death and obedience is our satisfaction not our righteousnesse but Paul saith he was made to us righteousnesse and made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So they say we are justified by a generall faith of apprehension by which we beleeve the Scriptures to be true but Paul saith by a particular faith of application of Christ and all his merits to our selves as Gal. 2.20 who died for me and gave himselfe for me So they say a man is not justified by faith alone but by other vertues but Paul saith we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law for indeed good works do but justifie our faith not us nor do they justifie us as a cause but are signs and fruits of our justification So they say a man may merit at Gods hands because God hath promised to reward us and Christ hath deserved that out works should merit but Paul refuseth all for Christs merits and desireth only to be found in him Phil. 3.9 and not in his own righteousnesse So they say that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and eternall punishment belonging to them but the temporall we must satisfie in this world or in purgatory It is true we must satisfie men for wrongs done this is but a civill satisfaction So we must fatisfie the Church by some testimony of repentance if we have offended the Church but we know of none we can make to God but only in Christ and for purgatory after life we find none in Scripture but beleeve as death leaves us so judgement finds us So they talk much of traditions to be beleeved as necessary to salvation because the Apostle bids the Thessalonians to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught 2 Thes 2.14 whether by word or by our Epistle But then they ought to prove to us that the traditions which they would have us receive are such as were delivered of Christ to his Apostles or from the Apostles to the Church 2 Tim. 3.16 or else give us leave only to hold that the Scriptures alone hold forth to us all things necessary to salvation So they hold vowes of things not commanded are a part of Gods worship such as is a vowed single life wilfull poverty and blind regular obedience which destroy Christian Liberty and therefore till they prove such things commanded in Scripture they must give us leave to hold only our vow in baptisme and to reject the other as humane inventions of seducing spirits spoken against 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. So they hold the worshipping of images to be a religious work but that is forbidden in the second Commandement which they have taken away and divided the tenth into two Pascha Raubertus first sets it forth in lib de Corp. Christi sang cap 14. Ioannes Diaconus in vita Grego 1. Legend of Simeon Metaphrastes in vit Arsenii the better to bring the people to image-worshipping So they hold Christ to be bodily present in the Communion Bread and Wine a strange opinion which was at first but at School-Question afterward maintained by tales and fictions of Christ appearing in the Sacrament like a little child A shamefull opinion to subject Christ to orall eating and gutturall swallo wing True it is that Christ is really there present in a spirituall and mysticall manner in a Sacramentall relation to the signs and by faith to the beleeving receivers yet I know the Church of Rome hath peremptorily condemned them for hereticks that would not hold the bodily presence For Pope Leo the ninth and Victor the second and Nicolaus the second called Councils against Berengarius who had disproved it by Aug. and Scotus Yet Pope Innocent the third in his Conventicle of Lateran gave it the name of Transubstantiation and ratified the doctrine thereof and hath been the destruction of many a godly Martyrs life in the time of Queen Mary So they call the Lords Supper a sacrifice which they call the Masse and it serves for the quick and dead with them But it is not properly so called but only as it is a memoriall of Christs offering up himselfe or because then we do in Christ offer up our selves a living sacrifice or because we make an offering at that time for the Minister and the poor So they make fasting it selfe a part of Gods worship Rom. 14.17 whereas the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat or drink nor in fasting from it though temperance is a good vertue in a Christian but to set up a necessity of formall fasting as a piece of
of Babylon who like Daniels stone put all the former monarchies down by setting up a new spirituall kingdome in mens hearts to which even Kings themselves should be subject Now when he came he found the Church of the Jewes in much confusion by Sects and schismes of Pharisees and Sadduces Herodians and few that would entertain his doctrine yet some there was that were his disciples and followers whom having converted by preaching and confirmed by miracles and given his Sacraments as seals of his New Testament he suffered death by the Jewes envy and the unjust judgement of Pilate for mans redemption as hath been declared and rose the third day after for our justification and about 40 daies after having instructed and confirmed them in the rule of his spirit all kingdome in the Church he ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Ghost down upon them who were with the rest of his disciples his visible Church which they mightily increased by their travels among the Gentiles after the Jewes had persecuted and despised the Gospel Mathe. Where was now the visible Church Phila. It was translated to the Gentiles who were before without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel Eph. 2.12 strangers from the covenant of promise and had no hope but were without God in the world destitute of all good and possessed with all evill though convinced of a godhead by nature Rom. 1.19 but rightly knew him not some said that he was One of himselfe another that the world was his son so that when they came to worship God Orph. in 1 Sect. de Deo Tresmig in Pimaud c. 9. they did it by idols as I have told you seeking God downward in the creature by which they should have been led upward to God yet God of his infinite mercy takes this wild Olive and plants it upon the stock of the Jew Jesus the root and off-spring of David that they might be the children of Abraham by living in the faith of Abraham which is rightly to be a true visible Christian whether Jew or Gentile Mathe. Wherein consisted Abrahams faith Phila. In beleeving that God would raise up one out of his seed in whom mankind should be blessed even Jesus Christ whose sufferings were signified by sacrifice without which analogicall relation they could never have savoured sweetly with God And as beleeved on Christ to come so Christians beleeve on the same Christ passed And this beliefe is the essentiall being of a true Christian that is a trusting upon Christ by faith for perfect redemption And this is that makes the difference between the visible and invisible Christian for the visible or externall Christian is one that partaketh of the visible priviledges of the Church as Word and Sacraments but not of the invisible graces thereof they hear and understand not they receive but perceive not they read but beleeve not they beleeve literally not spiritually they conceive but do not produce Christ but abortively But the other Christian is not only visible by profession and participation of the common rites of the Church but is also a partaker of the invisible graces offered and conveied under those outward mysteries of the Church by the grace of faith which only justifieth him to Godward Jam. and produceth good works whereby he is justified in his faith with man and approved a true visible Christian But God requires only faith to justifie before him Orig. in Rom. 3. cap. for the Lord required not of the penitent theefe what before he had wrought nor did expect what work he should fulfill after he beleeved but being justified by the confession of his faith in Christ our Saviour joined him as a companion with himselfe being now ready to enter into Paradise And that this is the essentiall being of a true Christian these Authors following will manifest namely that such invisible Christians are justified before God by faith Rom. 3. without the deeds of the Law so saith Ignat. in Epi. ad Ephes Justin in dial cum Tryphon Clem. Alex. in strom 7. Aug. ad Bonif. l. 3. c. 5. Chrysost in Genes hom 26. Ambr. in Rom. 3. Basil mag de humilitate Victor Antiochenus in Marc. 5. Raban in Ecclum c. â— Remigius in Psal 29. Idiota c. 6. de conflictione carnis animae Giselbert in alterc c. 8. Theoph. in Rom. 10. Bern. serm 3. de adventu dom Rupertus in lib. 7. in Joh. c. 7. Foleng in Psal 2. Fulgent ad Monim l. 1. Honorius in spec Ecclus de nat dom Ferus in 1 p. pass dom Aquin. in Lect. 4. super Gal. 3. sic in Rom. 3. All these hold with St Paul Rom. 3. and c. 10. with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation Therefore the Primitive Church baptized after such confession was made as Abraham was circumcised after he beleeved Rom. 4.11 yet Isaac was circumcised and all the children of Israel at eight daies old except when they travelled through the wildernesse into the faith of Abraham So the children of Christians were baptized into the faith of their converted parents Cypr. â—p 59. See the bapt of the Church of Geneva printed 1641. they beleeving in their parents in whom as infants they had only sinned and for whom their parents beleeved as well as for themselves And though this practice be not set down in the Scripture by verball command yet considering that Christ gave some commandements by voice to his disciples touching things pertaining to the kingdome of God Act. 1.2 3. And this practice being of so great antiquity in that kingdome of God i. that is the Church we need not make doubt of it except we will be contentious against the Churches custome See Hookers Eccles Politic. lib. 1. sect 14. Dr Field on the Church l. 4.30 1 Cor. 11.16 which ought to over-rule mens fancies and stand as a law to quiet conscience because the Church is directed by the same spirit that gave the Scriptures 1 of Thes 4.8 and therefore Paul exhorts them to keep the traditions they had been taught either by word or by Epistle And that baptizing of infants was an Apostolicall tradition may be gathered both from Councils and Fathers as I have in part declared and of which you may read farther in Aug. l. 10. de gen ad lit c. 23. So Orig. Com. in 6. Rom. Cypr. Epi. ad Fidum Concil Cartha and Concil Melivitan doth curse those that deny baptisme to children See also Irenaeus in his 2. lib. cant Heres c. 39. And if it were so anciently practised and no direct time set down when it began we may well conceive that it was delivered to the Church by by the Apostles and not taken from the Pope who did not apeare many hundred years after baptisme of children was used in the Church Now this baptisme is the first mark of a visible Christian who next is discovered by those works which
in the same and heareth not the voice of strangers 2. It makes no Lawes without Gods word 3. That the traditions of the Church cannot bind conscience except they be consonant to Gods Word 4. That Christ hath made full satisfaction for sin and he that saith there is any other way to salvation or to abolish sin denieth Christ 5. That Christ is not received corporally in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper 6. That the Masse offered up for the quick and dead is contrary to the Word of God and disgracing the sacrifice of Christ 7. That Christ is only to be invocated as Mediator between God and man 8. That the Scripture sheweth no such place as Purgatory for the purging of soules after death and therefore all popish Ceremonies as Dirges Lamps and Tapers profit not the dead at all 9. That pictures and images of Saints are not to be set up in Churches or to be worshipped 10. That Matrimony is not denied to any order of men but by the word of God permitted to all men and because fornication is forbidden therefore single life is not to be forced upon people All which propositions were defended by Oecolampadius Bucer and others against all opposers and therefore ratified by the Senate and it was decreed that Masses Altars and Images should be abolished In memoriall of this Reformation they caused a pillar to be set up engraven with golden letters with the time when it was done namely 1528. many other Cities as Strousbrough Basil and Geneva followed their example But many other Towns popishly affected did side with Ferdinand the Emperours brother and Deputy in Germany to suppresse this Reformation in Berne and Zurik These Towns were the Lucernates Vrani Suitenses Vnternaldii and Tugiani who much abusing the Reformed Tigurines and Bernatas made them so angry that they stopped the waies to those five Towns that no victuals could come to them Upon this the five unreformed made war upon them and had the better in which skirmishing Zuinglius was slain and his body abused cut in pieces and burned yet the Reformed continued in their religion and peace was concluded by the mediation of the King of France and some Cantons of Switzerland Mathe. But how came England to be Protestants Phila. Henry the seventh King of England had two sons Arthur and Henry Prince Arthur the eldest married Katherine daughter to Ferdinand King of Spain and died without issue Then Henry the eighth his brother being King of England by the advice of his Counsellors and Nobles married the said Lady Katherine that so her dowry might not be carried out of England Which match though contrary to Gods Word was dispensed withall by Pope Julian the second and so continued twenty years Now Charls the fifth Emperour being in England promised to marrie the Lady Mary daughter to Henry the eighth by the said Queen Katherine which the Emperours Councill misliked because that the Lady Mary was begotten by King Henry and his brothers wife and so illegitimate therefore the Emperour forsook the match and married the King of Portugals daughter called Isabel Upon this King Henry's mind began to be troubled and the more because he foresaw that there could be no firm succession to the Crown by children so begotten He propounded therefore this question to all the Universities of Christendome viz. whether his marriage were lawfull they all agreed it was not therefore the King sought a divorce and desired the Popes consent The Pope sent Cardinall Campeius into England who together with Woolsey Cardinall of York was by his authority to judge the businesse Woolsey was inclined to the divorce till he perceived the Kings mind was bent to marry Anne Bulloin who was a Lutheran Of which he advertizing the Pope he sent for his Embassador Campeius who returned to Rome without determining the Kings cause But the King by Doctor Cranmers advice and the Civilians had Queen Katherine divorced therefore the Pope cursed King Henry and his Kingdome of England And the King abolished the Popes authority and tyranny in his Kingdome and enjoined that he should in his dominions only be called Bishop of Rome and that himselfe should be acknowledged supreame head of the Church of England This was the beginning of Reformation of popish abuses as in dissolving of Abbies and Monasteries in England and Wales though Henry the eighth continued in Romish doctrines To the number of 645. vid. Cambden Mr Fox his Martyro p. 2. and many blessed Martyrs were put to death in his time for professing the contrary even after he had abolished the Bishop of Romes authority as Lambert condemned by King Henry himselfe and also of many others by his authority and ministers such as Collins Cowbridge Leiton Puttedew Peke do testifie as also his setting out the six Articles maintaining page 1296. 1. Transubstantiation And secondly that the communion in both kinds is not necessary to be received And thirdly against Priests marriage And fourthly for vowing single life And fifthly Anno 31. regni H. 8. for maintaining the Masse and also sixthly auricular confession to be necessary Which Articles were commended to Commissioners to be put in execution and many good men suffered who held tenets contrary thereunto as Doctor Barns Heirom Garret Marbeck Filmer Testwood and Person and Bennet Kerby Clark Mendelsham and Mistrisse Anne Askew and others burned at Windsor and Ipswich in London and Kent all which shew that though King Henry the eighth did abolish the power of the Pope in Civill and Ecclesiastick matters in England yet popish doctrine was still maintained Mathe. I pray tell me how the Pope came to have such great authority in England in Civil and Ecclesiasticall affairs 2. How Englands Religion came to be corrupted which at first it seems was pure Rom. 1.8 as Romes faith was before the Pope turned Antichristian 3. How the Reformation went on which was revived by King Henry the eight so far as abolishing popish jurisdiction Phila. For the first you may find that the Pope came in by connivance of peaceable and quiet Princes who not discerning the Popes policy after Phocas the Emperour had made him universall Bishop how he did work upon Princes of weak judgement as also upon such as he found to be superstitious or that were litigious and stood in need of his help and so did wind himselfe by intrusion and used his possession with tyranny But this intrusion could never be warranted by any just claime through possession or submission to him in tract of time by custome or prescription the foundation of his first authority being surreptitious for we cannot find any Brittish or Saxon Kings that have obliged themselves or this Kingdome submissively to the Pope But you may find that when Austin the Monk was sent into England by Pope Greg. 1. to bring the Clergy to the ceremonies and service of the Roman Church not to make Christians in England which was done many hundred years before