for the worlds conversion carried any written Gospell at all wth them wch might be made by themselves much less is it to be thought that they staied to write out theirs having their own breasts so well fraught wth all that and far more than they found ther written especially considering that two of the Evangelists were but their pupills and disciples Nay before those Gospels were written out and completed especially that of S. John the Church of God was spread up and down the world and flourisht in all the duties of Christianity By wch it may appear that even the written Gospell is neither it self necessary to the being of the Church nor the reading or expounding of a text the essentiall work of Christianity As for the Epistles wch be the other part of the new Testament written by S. Paul and others These t is well enough known were pend a long while after the Church of God was perfectly formd and grown up in most parts of the known world in particular after those Churches of Rome Corinth Ephesus Galatia Thessalonica and the rest unto whom they are addrest were perfected in all the essentialls of Christian faith and they were occasiond merely accidentally upon the creeping in of some disorders and errours in those places contrary to the tradition of faith they had received as may soon appear to him that reads and understands the tenour of those spirituall Epistles So then the Church is antecedent to her Scriptur and altogether independant theron either for her being or profession helps of memory as all these writings be do presuppose both the memory and the things to be remembred before those helps were brought to light And so the reading of these Scriptures or hearing them expounded can no wise be the essentiall work of Christian religion or the totall exercise therof but somthing that is altogether independent of them more ancient than they be and that is more intrinsecally a worship homage adoration and service of the most high God than hearing or looking upon words and syllables can be I make no doubt but the whol Scriptur or writing of the new Testament both Epistles and Gospells was merely casuall and accidentall For I find it long ago foretold by the Prophets that the law and government of the Messias should in this differ from the Law of Moses that Moses Law was all committed to paper but the doctrin of Iesus should be writ in the heart and entrailes of his Church You may see one place in the Prophet Ieremy c. 31.33 wch the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrewes applies unto Christ our Lords dayes Heb. 10.16 and S. Paul doth not obscurely allude unto it in one of his letters he wrote to Corinth c. 3.3 Indeed to imprint in the churches breast a law from wch she should never deviat is in my judgment a greater argument of divinity than any written Gospell could afford The things wch Solon Numa Lycurgus Draco and other such like men contrived and dictated for the good of their common wealths did much commend their gravity vigilance and wisedome and elevated them above other men not above manhood Moses himself the most profound judicious Lawmaker the world ever had by the excellency of his written Laws hath merited the title of a divine and sacred legislatour but he is known to be a man by his hand-writing and the paper he wrote on He is a God that writes on the velin of the heart characters indelible unto eternity The Law of Christ onely is written not wth ink but wth the spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart I do also verily think that the religion wch the Son of God deliverd to his church was neither commanded by him to be written nor yet ever intended either by the Euangelists or other of those primitiv writers to be totally set down under the notion of a rule of faith altho so much as ther is of it drawn principally for the use of devotion and charity be a rule of faith also What the occasion might be that moved the four Euangelists to write their compendious Gospells by the little learning I have I could never yet assuredly gather altho I remember I have read somthing thereof in a learned latin book made by a friend of mine called Systema fidei put forth some few years ago wherein be very many things of excellent learning worthy of the Authour but I have not now the book at hand Wt occasion moved S. Paul to write his Epistles unto Rome Corinth and other places is manifest enough and I shall afterward declare it when I shall come to discover the religion of the Apostles and Euangelists and make it appear that they were all papists and of the very self same religion Catholiks be of at this day All this put together that Christ himself neither wrote any thing nor comanded any thing to be written yea gave notice that he would use his speciall prerogative of legislatourship and write his law in hearts promising to animate the body of his Church wth his own spirit wch should lead them into all truth and that the church was disperst over the earth before any Christian writting was made wch was afterwards drawn to confirm and strengthen the faith and devotion it found already planted All this being true it follows apparently that hearing or reading or preaching upon a text is not the great capitall work of Christian Religion Indeed t is childishnes to think that God unto whom all prostration adoration all homage service and worship both of the outward inward man is more than due should be sufficiently served wth a little labour of the lips or ears when a man thinks good so to do Preaching is indeed necessarily antecedent to Christian faith yet it onely disposes unto furrher actions as may easily appear both by autority of Scriptures wch exclaime bitterly against such as hear and go no further and also by the very natur of hearing and all kind of exhortation wch ever tends to somthing besides it self For who ever heard onely to hear and no further who but our mad reformers ever preacht onely to be heard And how can speaking on one side and hearing on the other complete the whol duty of man to his God as if one were nothing but tongue and ear or had receivd nothing from him but those two organs Tell me Madam ingenuously Do not you think you have sufficiently done your duty to God if you go but forth once a Sunday to hear a Sermon and if you read a chapter or two in a week day this is nothing else in effect altho by your favour you do not think you self bound under sin to either but if you like the weather or the parson pleases or your clothes be neat and handsom then you will go forth to church if not you will stay at home if you find your self
security at all of adhering unto any sith I may still in prudence doubt of any even the last separation whether that be the unspotted spous of Christ or a new purification yet to be expected And who can assure me that any such thing shall happen in my life time to be made use of by me or that I shall ever see that glorious church not having spot or wrinkl or any such thing holy and wthhout blemish Eph. 5.27 unto wch I may incorporat my self For the last separation still exclaimes against ' the former as they did against the mother church and that wch is to come will do the like against this Besides these several new ways if they be well examined appear so to dash one against another that altho all of them strike expressy at the mother church yet they wound her through one anothers sides and if any should beleev them he shall not possibly find any thing to adher unto unles he blindly close wth the first he meets and condemn all others wth the sam folly he made chois of this Our later Writers here in England L. Faukland Chillingworth and others driv if I mistake not against Religion in generall and strike as much at any or all as at the Catholick The Socinians they have sprung a mine under the church so deep and dangerous that it makes the very battlements of heaven to shake at least in the eyes of man openly and wthout dissimulation oppugning the very divinity of the Son of God crucifying not so much the lord of glory as the very lordship and glory of that lord finally calling many things in question wch former heretiks left untoucht And now one may meet here in every town villag wth som or other blaspheming openly against the whol Gospell of Christ such as hear them laughing at the conceit without any sens at all or zeal of Gods glory and their own finall hopes This is the fruit of thes new ways fresh wits and daily inventions wherby the utter desolation is day by day consummated Nemo repente fuit turpissimus no man on the sodain was ever made stark naught and be degrees doth every heresy how slight soever it be in the beginning sink it self insensibly into atheism containing most of Catholick faith in the first and imediat separation till by degrees it all expire This is the perfection Religion gets by the addition of new wits and the progres of innovation The knowledg and experience of these mischiefs makes the Catholik church wch is the wisest congregation hath ever been or possibly ever can bee upon earth to curb and stifl every wtsoever innovation as far as lies in her power at its first uprising how small soever it be knowing full well that from such a littl egg is by littl and littl formd a dangerous adder and this in time wingd into a flying serpent MINISTER Can you deny Sr that arts and sciences are all perfected by time so is Religion likwise KNIGT By your favour you ar much mistaken your self in your similitud or would at least beguil me If religion wer a human invention the consequence were good For all inventions of man issuing from an imperfect principl by the application of fresh hands and understandings superadded to the former as new degrees of perfection in the principle do receiv increas and the arts ar then com to the height when they have past through so many hands and heads as be able to imprint so much perfection as the subject or matter is capable to receiv So that all those heads and hands put together as well that perfected as that first invented the science do but make up one complet perfect principle of the art or invention resulting thence wch receives perfection proportionabl to the gradual acces of its original from whence it flows and still as natur and industry perfects that so does the art increase Thus much I can grant And if Religion were an human invention the very same affection would be found in it also T is here to be noted that we do not treat of Theology or scholasticall learning wch is a science superadded to the primary principles of Religion for this I shal grant to be humane as Physick or the civill law is if it be taken precisely according to its conclusions and inferences without respect had to the principles whence it flowes and it may alter in its manner and method as they do But I speak purely of those primary principles whereupon this Theology is founded for these only are faith and the unalterable doctrine of the Christian church This Religion and Faith deliverd unto us by God if the Gospell and Scripturs be true differs as to our present purpose in two points from all other humane sciences First that it issued at first from a principle absolutly complet secondly that ther is not upon earth any principl already existing or possible to exist that can join wth that principl to add to the perfection of the work God who reveald and taught this faith is an infinit intellect and an understanding infinitly actuated of such excessive perfection that it may easlier be admird and worshipt than exprest And therfor the faith that issued from him must have its whol perfection at the first impression and that infinit degrees more absolut than arts and sciences receive at the last that coms forth absolutly pure and perfect thes receiv their perfection such as it is in their progres The further Religion proceeds from its first institution or revelation the more t is sullied by the comerce of man whos practis by deviating from its dictats fouls it as it were by contagion of the vessell but if he shall once dare to enterpose the results of his own judgment wth those revealed articles to deny any or add to any mingling his own urin with that supernaturall current then does the water of life run troubled muddy and corrupted and ceases to be divine nor is ther any way to rectify it but by having recourse to its first pure sours and according to that samplar to clarify it again But human inventions arising at the first unpolisht and rough if their perfection be to be measurd are not called back to their first originall but examind rather by the nearnes to the last and final experiment This is the first difference as concerning our purpos in hand betwixt divine faith and human sciences Religion and arts gods worship and mans works The other is that ther is not upon earth any other principl which may add any thing to Religions perfection renew or alter it in any kind Arts sciences garbs languages and fashions of men thes do expect their perfection from mans industry whence they had their first being and humane industry and wit presumes rightfully to make severall additions alterations and changes in them according to the variety that is in mens fansies These alterations be either perfections or at least so esteemd
they do at least and if they chance for formalitys sake to fall upon any practicall point to speak therof wth no purpos hope or intention of their practise For t is agreed on both sides both preacher people that such practis is popery and nothing requisit to salvation but onely to beleeve Hear a parable Two artificers had each of them an apprentis The first having delivered to his servant exactly all the rules of his art put him presently to work and practis by them assuring him that practis will better his knowledg wch the servant in all singlnesse of heart applying himself to labour according to the dictats of his rule advanced accordingly and so became eminent in the eyes of men and excceedingly beneficiall to the common wealth The other tradesman wth drew from the sight of his prentise all the particular rules and whole method of his art onely deliverd unto him in grosse som experiments and feats thereof by wch notwthstanding he could not perceiv at all either where to begin or how to go on nay he gave his servant one generall caution not to put his hands to any thing his duty being onely once a week to com and sit down before him and hear him discours of the usefulnes and benefit of his trade Onely beleeving in him his work is ended The prentise under such a teacher grew to be a great proficient in works and sentences but never put his hand to any thing either for his own credit or the benefit and service of mankind Nay he mockt at the other apprentis and cald him simple drudg The first of these artificers is the Catholik church the other is the Reformation Do you apply the rest The Catholik Religion is a noble a rational religion well beseeming a complete man to profess well beseeming the Son of God to plant The reformation a vain empty businesse befitting none to receive it but a company of cripples that have neither hands nor feet to use nor none to invent it but dawes and magpies It begins in teaching and ends in preaching Wo to you Pharisees saith our Lord for ye tith mint and rue and all manner of herbs and passe over judgment and justice and the love of God those ye ought to have done and not leave the other undone Luc. 11. Preaching if it be right and pious may be used nay when instructions advise and comfort is necessarily to be applied it ought to be done but the practise wherunton it tends this is not to be left undon The tithing of mint rue and cumin does but figur out under a tipe a consecrating unto God part of the good things we do enjoy from him by fasting almsdeeds and prayer that is to be done these not to be left undone Preaching puts in mind of the works of faith hope and charity that wher is need is to bee used these not to be neglected At one and the same time to preach good things in the pulpet and to cry down the same things by the rules of Reformation is to open a mans mouth and stop his wind pipe All your people go to your Churches wth such a prejudice against the customs of Catholik Church whence they are cut off by the reformation that altho the minister should chance wth singular zeal and eloquence to declaim against sin and cry up the exercises of Christianity yet the auditory is promoted nothing at all therby being aforehand prejudiced by the rules of reformation incorporated and naturalised in their spirit For who can take such words to heart or ever heed them effectually that shall firmly beleev that all we do or can do is sin and wt sin soever we commit we shall sure enough be saved if we do but beleev in Christ. People imbued wth these principles shall never by any Rhetorick either of man or angel be either affrighted from evill wordly pleasures and sin or perswaded to the laborious works of mortification and pennance The sowr grapes of Reformation have so set peoples teeth on edg that they cannot chew good mear T is in vain t is utterly in vain to bid dead men walk or exhort those to the works of life who by the poyson of reformation are made dead and sensles Preaching is to Catholiks a profitable and religious exercise to hereticks if it be orthodox t is a vain work if pseudodox t is a wicked work but to no people nor in no kind is it or can it be the onely work or sole Christian duty LA. Wt be those works Sr Harry you require over and above preaching KN. Even such as the Word of God it self requires The works of faith hope and charity and use of Sacraments prescribed in Gospell a serious and effectuall indeavour against sin according as sacred scriptur prescribes whose precepts must be heeded as obligatory and counsells respected as meritorious offerings We must both beleev in Christ as mediatour and beleev him too as our legislatour Both love him and observ his will and when we do fail reconcile our selves unto him by the means-himself hath ordayned captivating both our will and understanding to his pleasure who is our redeemer and maister and omnipotent Lord. To speak more particularly the works wch Catholiks by their faith are directed and exhorted unto be of two sorts personall and conventuall The personal works be first a constant obedience to the Church in all her dictamens of faith upon this great hinge hangs indeed all true and solid Christianity then an effectuall exercise of homage and piety to God of justice and charity towards our neighbour of sobriety and continence in our selves These things must be done he that does them best shall fare best for it The conventuall a reverent use of Sacraments and a presence at divine psalmody and Sermons according to our occasion and need But the great capitall conventuall work and worship is the venerable and blessed Sacrifice of the Altar every holiday solemnly exhibited every Christian stands obliged to be then present at it tho his devotion may find it each day of the week in our Catholik churches and many thousands of good people serv God every day in this holy rite But this is a free offering of their own not wthout great benefit and comfort to themselvs unto wch Holy church will not oblige This is that great work wch constitutes and essentiates Christian Religion By this it was perfected in its fundamentall worship and duty towards God long before our people had any Scripturs to read and by wch especially seconded wth its other Catholik appurtenancies it would still remain intire altho there were no Scriptures at all either to read or hear For Scriptur as it is expounded by Holy church or rather the traditional doctrin of the church whereof Scripture is a short and compendious coppy is to us Christians a light not to sit idle by but to work by This is the work wch the Disciples and
put both the Byshopricks into one and gave him beath together Wine and wife are to mee as Bath and Wells Let me have beath as the Scotchman said VIC Go your wayes go Wer it not that you cast a glance of your eye now and then upon me when you ar in your pulpet you would be but a dry preacher T is even so Madam LA. Even so be it THIRD DIALOGUE VIC LO I com according as it is written Psa 40.9 Dear Madam good morrow to your Lap. It seemes I am the first to day somewhat earlier than ordinary but so it is written Thou shalt heare my voyce betimes in the morning Psa 5. O Sr Harry wellcom wellcom you could not stay long from us when both the spirit and the bride say Com Rev. 22. I le be the spirit for once especially when I am got up in a morning out of my bed And why not I pray you sith the very ruler of darknes when people are got up for conformities sake transforms himself into an angel of light 2. Cor. 11.14 KN. Health and happines attend my noble Lady this day and ever It pleases my eye Madam to behold the chear of your countenance this morning wch seems to promis to my purposes a good succes LA. I doubt not of good successe both to my wishes and your own if you will but relent a little of that hardnesse and obstinacy is in a manner naturall unto Papists I would not Sr Harry proceed so rigorously as to request you all at once to abjure the whole body of popery but to let fall at first the super fluous parts of it that do hāg looser on and be of least concernment and use and to stand so disposed as to think obstinacy unhandsom in any thing Papists say truely that they are built on a rock I think all their whole church is rock for one may as soon wth his teeth bite off a piece of marble as wrest from them any of their very least opinions so firm tenacious and obstinat ye be all of you Nay to save a whole Kingdom you will relent nothing at all What a masse of money did Harry the eigth spend for six yeares together in Embassadours and agents in Italy France Spain and Germany to procure the testimonys of Universityes and yet he was not able either for love or money although he were a magnanimous noble Prince to purchase so much as the hands or consent of any one University for the lawfulnesse of his affection to his sweet Lady Anne Bullen And the popes Cardinals although they received no small weight of good English gold from our Princely Harry insomuch that they could have wisht he had had his fill of her yet would they not be brought by any means to say he might lawfully do it Your Popes themselvs tho I confes they have been many of them very holy and learned personages yet som of them hav been known to be as bad as the worst and yet even thes have been as Zealous of the integrity of their faith as the greatest Saints and would sooner do ill than say it might be done Simony Pride Gluttony known and acknowledgd sins these some of them would act of their own accord but all the power of earth summond together should not force any of them to abrogat one article of their faith or traditions though it were but the sprinckling of holy water I read not long ago in an authentick story that the nobls and Prelats of England perceiving the resolution rage of K. Harry upon the forementiond affront certified the Pope by a privat Embassadour that if he did not some what relent and condescend to the Kings desires the whole frame of Catholik Religion in England wch already crackt would be utterly overthrown the nobility disgraced monasterys ruind Byshops deposed thousands imprisond and perhaps martyrd and the whole land undon To wch the pope replied frantick man as he was though the whole body of Christs church should be destroyed yea tho heaven and earth should mingle together in its old Chaos of confusion yet would he not declare that lawfull wch in conscience he thought was not so What a crabbed perversnesse was this He was certainly no Gentleman S ◠Harry that would not be perswaded tho heaven and earth should come together to chang his judgment KN. To be obstinat and heady in our own proper opinions is oftimes unseasonabl and unhandsom But the tradition wch the Church preservs is the very depositum of our B. Saviour whether it concern faith or manners practicall or speculativ beleef and no conceptions of privat or human judgments and therfor in al honesty to be preserved entire by the trustee of our Lord who committed it unto his church wth this caution that not one jota or apex therof should be altered And therfore that Pope who would not declare against his conscience although heaven and earth should com together did no more than what his Lord and Maister had said before him Heaven and earth shall pass away my word shall not pass not one jota orapex therof Luc. 21. And it was a doubl madnes in Harry the eigth doing himself evil to expect the church of God should say it was good Nor be there Madam in Faith any superfluous parts but the whole body of it hangs so cōcatenated and cemented together that the taking away of any one particl would ruin the whole fabrick nor will you find in faith any portion less strong than another but al equally invincible Som may be more leading points wherupon others depend and more materiall in their quality but in respect of our beleef the least hath as much firmnes of truth as the greatest And wtsoever sophistry may seem to shake any one apply the like engin to any other and in shall do as much that is to say in very truth nothing at al whatsoever it may appear to do in self beguiling minds Wherfore Madam bereaving me of any of my faith you rob me of all for it is an uncontroulable rule in faith what the Apostle also does as in a good sense it may be applied unto manners Qui delinquit in un◠factus est omnium reus Jam. 2.10 He that fails in one is made guilty of all This you would easily understand if you would consider how we receivd our faith and Christian doctrin For it was all equally handed to us at once and that from the autority of one and the same originall and it was extant in the world before any Scriptures were pend And these sacred Scripturs and other pious Books and also all generall councells that hav ever been celebrated in the Church were formed afterwards directed swayed rectified and ordered by this rule of Traditional doctrin committed to the Church and kept by her So that issuing conformably from one and the same sours all points of faith have an equall proportion of truth however they may differ in their own
materiall weight The intrinsecall valiew of some articles may infer more of necessity and obligation to an explicit beleef and practis but the least and smallest points do wth as much right as the greatest exclude a positiv misbeleef I am not bound to know or practis all things of the churches doctrin but I am bound not to disallow condemn or reject any of her traditionall Christianity has been equally handed from age to age unto us He that formally rejects any thing of this as fals doth vertually deny all the rest sith one and the same veracity deliverd all No mans privat reason invented any part of my beleef and therfor no mans reason can reject it Nay the highest points ar oftimes most contingent and consequently the least capable of a proof as Gods incarnation passion and resurrection and if mans conceits be once permitted to intermedle determin of the lesser or greater probability of points and cast away at his pleasur what himself thinks unlikly he will undoutedly go on from one negation to another till all be overthrown It may chance that in discoursing I may say somtime that all the articles of our Catholik faith be taken out of Scriptur wherin they be implicitly contained But in this I do but speak wth the vulgar and according to the capacity of hearers and t is indeed true in this sens for that all Catholik beleef is conformable to those sacred writings But in very truth to speak with wise men as well as we do think and ever shall beleev wth them the Scripturs themselvs those I mean principally wch make up the new Testament were drawn by the rule of our traditionall doctrin explicit faith and not our explicit faith gathered out of them This may appear by part of my former discours wherein I declared that the penning of Scripturs was meer accidentall and casuall and that all our traditionall faith was more ancient than Scriptur and altogether independent of it So that Scriptur and tradition go indeed hand in hand together as a joint rule of faith yet so as that Scriptur gives tradition the right hand as being its elder and judg of it self aswell as as cojudg wth it of all other doctrins For both Gospells and Epistles written in Apostles name were so far approved or rejected by the Church however they came equally armed wth Apostolicall names prefixt before them as they were found consonant or dissonant to the churches tradition For ther were more Gospells written than the four we hav and far more Epistles than thos the church admitted to her cannon And this is the reason why the Apostles themselvs and Disciples met together to try whether the preachings and writings of all their missionaries were punctually conformable to the tradition they had received from wch meeting S. Paul himself though an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father Gal. 1.1 Yet would he not be exempted from that meeting After three years saith he I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode wth him fifteen dayes Gal. 1.18 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem wth Barnabas and took Titus wth me also And I went up by revelation and comunicated unto them that Gospell wch I preach among the Gentiles but privatly to them wch wer of reputation least by any means I should run or had run in vain Gal. 2.1.2 By wch I think it may be gathered that the church is above the Scriptur and of greater autority than either Paul or Barnabas or any wtsoever single man and member of the Church sith she judges every ones doctrin to the approbation or rejection of it For a judg is more noble than the thing wch is subject to his censur the rule than the thing examined and ruled by it and to giv an approbation is in that formality more excellent than to receiv it Neither was ever any generall councell cald together to teach the church her doctrin But upon the rising of heresys judging by the rule of their tradition the Prelats in councell confirmd the Catholiks in the way they found them in and declared against hereticall innovations that they might desist from further commotion This rule of tradition found in the hands practis of Christians disperst over the earth left them by their forfathers could not fail so long as it was found universally agreeing in the whole Catholik body wch is animated by the spirit of infallibility especially being strengthened by testimony of Apostolicall writings wch were nothing but a part of the churches tradition coppied out or the fathers that succeeded them or other monuments that were yet remaining amongst them As for example the Christians found an injunction of praying for the dead upon the very wals windows gravstones and monuments of their deceased forfathers commended also unto them both by teachers their living books and by books their dead teachers and all children found their parents in the beleef and practice of it And therfor it was concluded that it could be no other than as it was thē esteemd an article of pure Christianity sith the whol body of Christians then present held it so their forgoers and fathers deliverd it sacred Scriptures sufficiently insinuated it Catholik writings and monuments confirmd and comended it unto them So that Madam that piece of popery you would take from me being a part of this Catholik tradition will be as hardly wrested from me as the Gospell it selfe wch the same tradition has deliverd as a coppy conformable for so much as it is unto it selfe the first and universall rule of faith by wch pape himselfe and all generall councells are guided so subject unto it that they can act nothing against it as may appear by the proceedings of the Catholik church from its very first birth and uprising unto this present day Pope Iohn the 22d. a learned man much given to reading found in many places of the Greek and Latin fathers as also in texts of sacred Scriptur as he conceived that the souls of Christians deceased went released out of purgatory thence into some place of repose on this side heaven and eternall bliss where they expected the consummation of their number that all the Catholik body might at the end of the world enter paradis together This opinion by the multitud of autoritys and arguments appeard unto him so probable that he sent it to some Christian Universitys to have their judgment if that were not indeed Christian beleef But they rose up against it and rejected it as dissonant to tradition For the Pape tho he be Overseer of the whole church yet being but one single man he cannot of himself discern the universality of a tradition so well as the whole Catholik body may do and therfor he never defines faith but with that Body conciliarly assembled and if himself i th interim should light upon an opinion how probable soever it
said and done wt is to be thought and beleevd wt is to be hoped and feard wt concerns God and his creaturs wt angels and men wt earth and heaven wt our creation and redemption wt the beginning and end of things First where is the order and method to find out these things You will find that the story and doctrinall part goes hand in hand together wch is not the ordinary way of teaching If I peruse the story of Gospell by it self I shall scarcely find it answerable to my expectation whiles I find mention onely of one howr of Christs birth and not a word more for twelv years together and then but one single action of his appearing in the publick Schools and not a word again of his whole life till almost twenty years after and then onely some works he did in publick for the space of about three years so his death wch is far less than I should expect or desire to know And the doctrine our Lord deliverd is no more of it set down than what he spake incidentally in fields and streets and publick places the three years space of his publik appearance and not a word of any thing he taught his Schollers or Disciples in particular on set purpose without reference to publick speeches which was without all doubt the main doctrin primarily intended both by the Maister his disciples and most copiously explicated Moreover those publick speeches of or Lord we have set down in Gospell they are deliverd us but under certain generall heads and brief notes wthout any order or connexion at all that can appear to any the subtillest wit that is Our Lords Sermon on the mount is the largest piece of doctrin we hav of his deliverd at one time and most heavenly and divine it is like its authour but he that reads the sift sixt and seaven Chapters of S. Mathew where t is set down shall desire connexion And indeed the holy Evangolists collecting their Gospels as brief memorialls did it wthout all doubt the best way And t is sufficient and far better than if all had been set down in that order and fulness of discours our Lord deliverd it For the few separated notions of Christian morality set down in Gospell wer enough to give testimony to the traditionall doctrine the Apostles had methodically received from their master for his Church Finally those speeches of our Lord recorded in Gospell be only some brief sentences and parables questions and replies to interrogatories wch be far short to a whol body of divinity tho abundantly enough for a Church in whos bowels the Messias would imprint his law and intire will It appears then both by the mingling of the story and dogm together by the few parcells of the history it self by the want of that method and connexion in the dogmaticall part wch our dull capacities require for learning and the omission of great many things we should need to be imformd in far more amply than we can find it set down in Scriptur concerning the use of Sacraments government of the Church and a thousand difficulties rising about the exercises of charity and faiths I say it appears by these and such like things that the Scripture of the New Testament was never pend on any purpose to teach us our religion but rather to confirm and ratify by incidentall passages therein such religion and doctrin as should be deliverd by the Church the prime and sole mistresse of faith after God and in place of him in all clearnes of methodical beleef and practise To you saith our Lord to his Apostles Luc. 8.10 it is given to known the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven to others in parables that seeing they may see and not understand The Apostles and the Church derived from them were made acquainted wth the mysteries and secrets of Christian religion for their beleef and practise and the same Church clearly knows and understands them as the mysteries of her own profession and art wch she hath receivd and practisd from the beginning to this day But to others that be aliens and out of the Chuâ—ch it seems our Lord so orderd his speech that they should hear and yet not understand nor everfully perceiv his will till beleeving they were incorporated into his mysticall hody unto which alone all the mysteries of religion are delivered in perspicuity and clearnes This generall purpos and intention of penning the Gospell and other parts of the New Testament as short manuall notes for Christians within the Church or such as are to be congregated unto it from wch Churches hands they have both a larger explicit declaration of their faith and a full and ample practis thereof in her bosom must needs infer such an obscurity as shall obstruct all possibility out of the Church of God by this bare letter ever to arrive to a clear understanding of the waies of Christian Religion This is the first and great cause of that obscurity scripture carries with it unto such as come to seek their religion in a Book wch was never made to teach it nor written for such a propos The churches doctrin as it comes out of her lips that is the thing that converts nations and regenerats unto heavenly life and this written word is a good milk to nurs us up after we are regenerated wch made S. Peter to exhort Christians 1 Pet. as new born babes to desire that sincere milk of the word that they may grow by it 1. Pet. 2. But it is not the thing that givs us the first life Indeed the Scriptur does little or no good but as it is presented by the Church and received with her interpretation and practisd in her bosom wthout wch three things I wil be bold to say it is not the Word of God nor hath it any vertue at all The Ark of God so long as it was upheld by the Priests it comforted and sanctified them but touched or lookt into by others it destroyd them nor was it unto them an Ark of salvation but an offence and occasion of fall If we descend to particulars we shall espy reasons enough of obscurity such as will frustat all desire of any perspicuous discovery of faith to be made by any man wthout the churches help The very history doth afford disputs enough hardly to be answered by the learnedst of divines as they will easily grant that have examind them The Prophesies and mysteries of faith containd therein who is able to trace them And the morall or dogmaticall part tho it seem familiar yet hath it a profoundnesse beyond all human writting Indeed by this it is demonstrated to be the Word of God wch must needs be like himself unsearchable Out of the abundance ef the heart the mouth speaketh saith our Lord and where the heart is immense the word is also incomprehensible I doubt not but there be too many amongst our people in England who read the
scandalous sinners and obstinate Hereticks calling them the censurs of Antichrist not heeding that S. Paul himselfe practised it I thought good saith he to deliver him up to Satan that his Spirit might be safe 1. Cor. 5. IX Finally all Christian buriall in holy ground the said Waldenses contemned as impertinent and vain These be the extravagant opinions concerning Temples As for Purgatory I. Some Greeks and Armenians avoucht ther is no such place wherin soules after their separation are purgd from dregs contracted in the body But the councell of Florence under pope Eugenius the fourth confirmd the contrary Catholik doctrin II. Luther afterward allthough he held Purgatory yet he had three errours concerning it first he taught that souls there might themselvs either merit or demerit again that a soul there was not certain of his salvation thirdly that a soul ther doth sin so long as it abhors those pains and seeketh rest The same autority from whence he had the beleef of purgatory might if he had listed have conserved him from these misbeleefs concerning it III. That almsdeeds prayers pennances and Sacrifices made by the living for the dead and souls in purgatory do nothing at all avail for their releasment was the heresy and errour first of Aerius then of the Armenians then of the Albigenses then of the Waldenses and lastly of Luther But it is confuted by S. Austin S. Gregory Theophylact and S. Chrysostome And four councells have defined against it Carthaginense quartum c. 95. Valense c. 4. decr Toletanum c. 22. and Florentinum for the union of the Greeks under pope Eugenius the fourth As for Hell I. Almaricus stifly denied it affirming there was no other hell but onely a mans owne conscience guilty of sin The Albanenses said that the punishments of hell were no other than what we suffer in this world Hermannus Risswick wthout any exposition denied any such thing as hell at all II. Origen taught that the pains of hell were not to be eternall Both these fansies are against Gospell and rejected by the councell of Lateran under pope Innocent the third Heaven the place of eternall bliss I make no doubt but that many men born Christians if they fell into heresys came at length to that Atheism as to deny it sith I meet wth so many here in England who deride it as a fiction But I have not read of any in authentick authours who did so though concerning the resurrection unto that bliss and finall beatitud many are said to have held erroneously As for Resurrection ther have been at times five erroneous opinions 1. The sadducees amongst the Jewes and among the Christians first Simon Magus then Valentin Apelles Marcus and Cerdon denied all resurrection of the flesh Against these writes S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. II. Eutichius Byshop of Constantinople taught that the body after its resurrection should be invisible and unpalpable S. Gregory not then Pope sent thither embassadour from the Apostolick sea confuted him openly before Tiberius Constantin then emperour so that Tiberius caused Eutichius his book to be burnt III. Origen said that our bodies after resurrection should be still mortall and after many ages fall to dust never to rise more Expresly against Scriptur wher t is said that mortall shall put on imortality 1 Cor. 15. VI. The Armenians defended that all should rise again in mans sex But if this had been true doctrin thē our Lord by saying so had easlier answered the Sadduces argument than by saying as he did that none should marry but they shall all be as the Angels of God Math. 22. Lastly the same Armenians affirmd that our Lord rose not upon sunday but on the Saturday before Me thinks it should be a hard task for them to show how he rose the third day sith he died on Fryday As for Beatitude 1. the Armenians and after them Petrus Abailardus a French man in the time of Pape Innocent the second then Arnaldus Brixiensis from whence perhaps came those hereticks Arnaldistae excomunicated yearly at Rome in caena Domini and lastly Almaricus affirmed that the blessed in heaven do not see Gods essence but behold him in his creatures S. Paul is contrary to these Now we see by a mirrour in an enigm then we shal see face to face 1 Cor. 13. II. Cerinthus would have heavenly beatitude to consist in the delights of the flesh and that Christs kingdom after the resurrection should be earthly wch errour he drew from some carnall Jews being himself contemporary wth S. John the Apostle But t is gainsayed by S. Paul The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but justice and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. Papias Byshop of Hierapolis did indeed teach that Christ after the general resurrection should raign upon earth wth his faithfull retinue who had been sufferers here a thousand years drawn to that opinion by such a speech in Apocalips c. 20. and after him Irneus Apollinaris Lactantius Victorius Pictavensis But they held not the same as Cerinthus nor were pertinacious in their opinion against the church wch I think expounds that place of the blesseds reign wth Christ according to the soul from the howr of death to the generall judgment for there t is added Haec est resurrectio prima this is the first resurrection namely of the soul after the bodies death III. Origen taught that neither misery nor beatitude should be eternall for he conceived certain alternations or vicissitudes of both so that the blessed souls after som years should return to mortal bodys and thence be called again to beatitude in a kind of circle But all Scripture is against this fansy Between us and you is a great Chaos so that such as would pass from hence to you cannot c. Luk. 16. IV. That most perfect finall beatitude is to be had in this life was one of the errours of the Bogards and Beguins religious men and women in Germany censured as I remember in the councell of Vienna under Pape Clement the fift The Bogards suffred for their obstinacy whereat the women afrighted submitted themselvs and remain to this day living honestly in a society wthout emission of any vow so that when they pleas they may go forth and marry V. The same partys said that an intellectuall natur is blessed naturally in it self It had been well they had remembred that the grace of God is life eternall Rom. 6. VI. The Armenians taught that no soul is beatified before doomsday as also some Greeks adding that sinners are not punisht till that day This is the opinion Pope John the 22. propounded to the University of Paris But it was gainsayed by the councel of Florence under Pope Eugenius the fourth as contrary to the churches beleef and the Scripture it self does in a manner expresly refute it We know if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved we have a hous not made by hands eternall in the heavens 2 Cor.
5. At least Catholik tradition wch is the only interpreter of Scriptur and judg of all controversies hath cast it VII That all shall be equall in glory was the paradox of Jovinian a Roman monk in the time of Pape Damasus and Siricius who leaving his profession ran himself into many heresies this opinion is no other for there is one clarity of the Sun another brightness of the moon another of the Stars as one star differs from another in glory so also shall be the resurrection of the dead Cor. 15. Jerom wrote two books against Jovinian and this opinion is disabled by the autority of the councell of Theles in Africa under Pape Siricius of Florence under Pape Eugenius the fourth VIC You might Sr Harry have named my husband me for many of these opiniōs wthout troubling your self wth such ūcouth names for we hold them too and so long as God gives us life and health shall do so stil according as it is written Hold that fast wch thou hast Rev. 3.11 Nay I hold others too wch you now mentiond though I never heard of them before according as it is written We beseech you brethren that ye increass more and more 1 Thess 4. LA. Pray S. Harry speak somthing concerning the Sacraments and what devises have been about them KN. Madam I am now come to it I. the hereticks called Cathari denied all Sacraments the Armenians and long after them Martin Luther Father of the Protestants admitted some according to their owne liking but denied that any had intrinsecall vertue to confer grace But the councell of Trent under Pape Paule the third sesse 7. both defined the Sacraments to be seaven in number according to the Catholik tradition and to confer grace ex opere operato II. That sacred things and spirituall gifts might be purchased wth money was the errour of Simon Magus and the action from him termed Simony condemnd in the 11 Toletan councell c. 8. decret and before by S. Peter himself Non est tibi pars Act. 8. III. Luther taught that in no Sacrament was imprinted any character contrary to the churches doctrine wch teacheth such a seal to be made in baptism confirmation and holy orders confirmd by the councell of Carthage Florence and Trent under Paul the third Sess 7. can 9. In particular concerning Baptism there have been many errours I. Seleucus and Hermias Galatians baptised not in water but fire But the councell of Florence under Eugenius the fourth defined water to be the naturall matter of Baptism II. The Marcites disciples of one Marcus a magician about the Apostles time changed the form of Baptism doing it In the name of the unknown Father of all things and in truth the Mother of all and in him who descended upon Jesus For they held that God preacht in the old law was not the Father of Christ becaus he was unknown The Cataphygians and Paulianists also did not baptise in the name of the Trinity as Catholikes do according to comand of Gospell Baptiseing them in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Mat. 28. III. The said Cataphygians baptised the dead They had their name from the Province of Phrygia whence they came their leader was Montanus who called himselfe the Paraclet and Prisca Maximilla his two Prophetesses The Marcionists did the same who finding any to dye unbaptised they put a living man under the hers of the dead and asked him as if he were the dead man if he desired to be baptised answering yea they baptised him for the dead wch thing they said S. Paul himself did practise 1. Cor. 15. although Marcion their leader is not read to have don any such thing but few hereticks content themselvs wth the errours of their leaders Marcion himself was in the time of Antoninus Pius his countrey Pontus a great stoick Philosopher and being converted to Christian faith he followed the dogmes of Cerdon intermingling many Philosophicall things wth his Christian religion and coming to Rome he seduced many Catholiks where meeting wth S. Polycarp and asking him if he knew him I know quoth S. Polycarp and do acknowledge the eldest son of Satan But against this errour both of the Marcionits and Cataphygias is the definition of the third conncell of Carthage where t is declared that neither the Eucharist nor baptism may be given to the dead IV. The Psallians and Euchitae attributed no vertue at all to Baptism but made all sins to be rased onely by Prayer so likewise the Messalians and Enthusiasts The Manichees also thought that baptism exhibited in water was worth nothing The Albanenses Albigenses likewise rejected baptisme the Armenians took from the Sacraments all power of conferring grace Against this heresy is the decre of the councell of Florence under Eugenius the fourth V. Petrus de Bruis a Frenchman of Narbona who was afterwards burnt in the Town of S. Giles said and taught that baptism was of no avail to Infants that have not the use of reason After him one Henricus bore his Standard from whom the followers of the heresy were called Henricians and Brusians After four hundred years the Anabaptists raised up the heresy again But S. Denis the Areopagite witnesses that children were baptised in the Apostles time c. ult Eccl. Hier. And S. Cyprian two hundred years after and S. Austin after him testify that it was done in their days And the Catholik practise is confirmd by the councell of Lateran under Pope Innocent the third by the councel of Vienna under Clement the fift and the councell of Trent under Paul the third in two Sessions 5. Sess c. 4. 7. Sess can 19. VI. The Donatists rebaptised such as came over to their side beleeving that such as came to the true church was to be baptised again But the first councell of Carthage c. 1 decret as also the councell of Vienna under Pape Clement the fifth and the councell of Florence under Eugenius the fourth defined this opinion as erroneous S. Cyprian and other Byshops of Africa held also that hereticks coming to the Catholik church were to be rebaptised But this they did not defend against the church wth pertinacy as hereticks did but disputed it as a probable opinion not then in their dayes defined and happly upon suspition that hereticks used not the right form and matter One Baltasar a Dutchman of late held morover that all people are to be baptised again when they come to years of discretion becaus he thought the baptism of infants were of no valiew But faith teaches there is but one Baptism Eph. 4. as ther is but one death of Christ wch it figureth Do ye not know that so many as are baptised unto Christ are baptised to his death Rom. 6.3 VII The Armenians taught that baptism ought to be conferred wth the Eucharist and that none can be validly baptised unless he be anointed wth chrism Claudius Taurinensis held baptism without the sign of the