their bare saying to be taken against others By all that I have said then if allowed it will appear that there is a clear difference between the Authority of a Prince in things Civil and in things relating to Worship and Religion for as his Authority about things Civil is unquestionable and entersares with no Law of God whatever and can have no pretence therefore to intrench upon the Conscience or upon any prior obligation or duty that a man oweth unto God and as it must for all these reasons be necessarily and indispensibly obeyed and submitted unto by all his Subjects so on the contrary a Prince especially as a Protestant can put out no Law about Divine Worship but his Subjects so far as they are Protestants are bound in Conscience and by the very Principles of that Religion which they profess not only to consider it but to examine it whether it be agreeable to the Word of God or not and if it appear not to be such at least according to the best of their understandings as they will have a Plea always not to submit to it by reason it intrencheth upon a prior obligation that they have both in Conscience and according to the Principles of their Reformation unto God and according also to the sixth Article of the Church of England it self so this Plea cannot well with Justice be denied them if no Crime whatever in their Conversation can be proved against them nor can men in this case be actually punished and proceeded against without the sense and grief of that wrong or oppression that is manifestly done to them and suffered by them especially seeing their non-conformity to the said Laws proceeds not as we said either from their Election or Liberty nor yet from any breach of duty or affection to their Prince but only from what appears to them to be an inevitable or indispensible necessity that ariseth and is occasioned from their meer Profession as they are of the Protestant Religion To which end let me humbly beg leave to offer one argument more also which is That the thing which doth Essentially distinguish a Protestant from a Papist more than any note mark or character whatsoever besides is that a Papist by his Principles as a Papist may not and indeed cannot dispute any Law whatever relating to the Worship or Service of God provided it be declared and established by what he acknowledgeth to be the Church because he takes the Authority of the Church for the whole Argument or for the only Foundation of all his Obidence unto God rather than the Divine Authority of the Scripture or Word and because he presumeth the Church also to be a thing altogether holy and such as neither hath erred nor can err for should he question this he must question the whole of his Religion it self whereas the Protestant Church on the other hand having separated from the Church of Rome not only upon the supposition that she hath actually erred but that she hath been grosly corrupted as well in Manners as in Faith and having for the better justification of her own Practice both in matter of Worship and in all things relating to Doctrine and Faith set up the Scriptures as the sole and Soveraign Rule of Gods mind and will to his Church as she cannot challenge the exercise of any Authority therefore that is beyond that of the Scriptures or of any that is not subordinate to the Scriptures it self so it is expected that all the duties consequently which she requires and all those Articles or Points of Faith which she at any time recommends to such as are the Members of her should always be enforced from those Arguments properly and only which are drawn from the Scriptures because it is this which she her self hath appealed unto and this only which she challengeth to justifie her A Protestant then that understands the grounds of Religion or that hath been at all instructed in the rise or Principles of Reformation taking this for the very first Article of his Faith that a Church may err and may have corruption in it and may in its Worship possibly swerve and depart from the pure Mind Word and Wisdom of God and laying this no less firmly as the foundation of his belief on the other hand viz. that the Scriptures cannot err nor can be other than unalterable and incorruptible Rule of Gods Law and of his will and mind to his people he cannot possibly hold the Authority of the Church to be Divine any further or otherwise than as it appears to be clearly grounded upon the Scripture as the word of God and consequently the tye or obligation which he hath to obey the Church so far as it relates to the Conscience and binds the Conscience ariseth out of no other ground than from the conformity which he seeth or is perswaded that the Church hath in her Laws Orders and Doctrines to the said Word and consequently if this conformity doth or shall once cease in the said Church a Protestant as a Protestant cannot but judge his tye or obligation to her as a Church ought to cease also with it And this being the true state of that Radical or Essential difference that is between the Principles of a Protestant and the Principles of a Papist as a Papist if a Church then that professeth her self to be a Protestant or the Clergy rather who are the Rulers properly of it shall not much consider or regard the justifying of what Laws and Orders she makes by the consonancy they expresly have to the Law or Mind of God in his Word which is his Rule to the Church nor shall much concern it self to clear and inforce the Faith and Doctrine which she holds by the evidence of its truth or by the authority of it as sufficiently grounded upon that word that is absolutely divine but shall on the contrary in whatsoever she commands or in the things she teacheth constrain and exact an obedience from her Members to her self and to her own Authority as absolute and as unsubordinate to the Word of God and therefore to her own Authority as it is a distinct thing from the said word that Church or the Clergy rather which are the Rulers of it so far as she doth this in any Doctrine or in any Law that she makes indispensible doth so far cease in her Principles and practice to be Protestant and doth so far disclaim not only a main and chief ground of her separation from the Church of Rome but the very Principle it self upon which she pretends to guide her self and justifie her self in her Reformation For if it cannot be denied that this was one main and great cause of our separation from the Church of Rome viz. because she had made her self and her Commands absolute and had set up an Authority in the matters of worship and faith above that of the Scripture as the word of God and secondly because she did not
governed by a Protestant Prince than by any other and consequently it may be further seen whether it be any way adviseable for his Majesty or any way advantagious to his affairs still to commit the whole trust of the Church and of Religion it self entirely into the hands or Government of the Clergy To the end therefore that I may with all clearness represent the difficulties that do attend the Protestant Religion with the Government of it as things now stand I shall humbly crave leave to lay down this as the Foundation of my whole Argument which I humbly conceive will hardly be denied me by any Viz That in the Protestant Church the Prince professing himself to be of the Reformed Religion cannot any way remove or take away the use of the Scriptures from the common people the use or restoration of them in the Vulgar Tongue being accounted one main part if not the chiefest priviledge of any that came by the Reformation it self Which being granted me another difficulty is created by it inevitably for seeing the Prince is no way able to remove the use of the Scriptures from the common people he can never possibly be able to remove the influence and effects which the Divine Authority of the Scriptures must have and cannot but have upon the minds and consciences of the said people as the Scriptures are acknowledged to be the only Word the alone Rule of the mind of God unto his people this Character or apprehension of the Dignity and Authority of the Scriptures being so essential to our Reformation it self that there is no Protestant can so much as doubt of it it being that which is not only commonly taught in our Pulpits but frequently inculcated to us while we are Children by our Parents and by those Masters which take the care of us while we are at School And therefore this Principle of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures being from our very Education thus firmly rooted in us it must unavoidably make the influence and effects to be equally as strong and equally as powerful upon the Consciences of us even as they themselves are that is equal with the very Authority of God himself and especially upon all such as re religiously educated and bred so that there is no obligation or tye wha ever which is capable to be laid on men upon any civil outward or temporal account that is able to have any part of that strength or influence upon them as the Scriptures must necessarily have upon and over the generality of all persons in the Protestant Church which is another consequence that cannot be removed by the Civil Government The strength and prevalency of which tye as made upon the Consciences of all persons as Protestants by or from the Scriptures is yet the more considerable because whatever Worship Service or Religion we as Protestants do profess to give unto God we profess it only from the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and from the Authority of them as they are thus owned and accounted by the Protestant Church to be our Supreme and consequently our immediate tye in all that we believe and in all that we act as Protestants towards God hath not its termination or its dependance so much upon men or upon the Church as upon the Scripture or Word of God itself we judging it lawful enough to forsake the Church when we once judge the Church in what it believes or in what it acts or practiseth toward God to have forsaken the Word and our Prosession or Religion being thus founded I mean out of conscience purely to Gods Word every man then properly as a Protestant if he be sincere doth as much believe that the worship whatever it be which he professeth is as truly agreeable to the Mind and Will of God as is the very Scripture it self and consequently that he is as much to contend for the said Worship as he is bound to contend for the Authority of the Scripture it self for these two being taken by him but for one thing viz. the Authority of the Scripture and the truth and authority of what he professeth consequently the same tye that binds him to the Scripture must of necessity bind him to that Religion whatever it be which he as a Protestant professeth unto God and consequently if there be no tye so firm or so strong upon the Conscience as that of the Divine and absolute Authority of the Scripture is as we have proved there is not there can be no tye stronger than what Protestants as such and as sincere must necessarily have for that Religion whatever it be that they do respectively profess unto God And this now being made clear and undoubted viz. that the tye and obligation that every man hath to the worship which he professeth unto God properly as a Protestant lieth in and riseth immediately from the Scriptures and it being likewise cleared that the highest tye which can possibly be laid upon the Conscience of any man is that proceeding from the Scriptures as they are the only Rule of Gods mind and will to us it must necessarily follow that if a Prince can neither remove the use of the Scriptures themselves nor remove the obligation which they have above all things upon the Consciences of men even from their very Education as they are the only Word of God he can never possibly remove the obedience which men will always conceive themselves obliged to give to the said Word in whatsoever it be they apprehend it doth clearly command seeing this obedience is looked upon to be the same and no other with an obedience given to God himself and if an obedience given unto God be in conscience also infinitely preferrable to any obedience to man then must an obligation to the Law and Will of God be always preferrable to and stronger than any obligation whatever to the Law or command of men which is a third thing that can no way possibly be avoided And consequently if the Law of the Church cannot in the matter of Worship any way compel or bind men to obedience further or otherwise than as they apprehend it to be agreeable to the Law of God or to the Law of his Word then neither can the Law of the Prince or the Law of the Civil Government bind mens Consciences in the matter of worship further or otherwise than the Law of the Church viz. no otherwise than as the said Law appears to them to be agreeable to Gods Law which is the Law of his Scriptures or Word and consequently it can never be avoided by any Prince as a Protestant but his Authority as relating purely to things civil with the efficacy of it must stand upon one Rule his Authority as relating to things of Divine Worship with the efficacy of it must necessarily and unavoidably stand upon another Rule and therefore that his Authority over his Subjects in the one and in the other of these must of
necessity be distinguished which is the fourth thing that we say cannot in any Protestant Government possibly be prevented For if no Law can possibly eradicate the notion that there is a God no endeavour of man whatever can hinder then his being worshipped by such at least as have a sense of his being and do verily believe that he is Wherefore if we are trained up from our Childhood and train'd up not only as men but as Protestants firmly to believe that God will accept of no worship at all from us but what is agreeable to his Word and if it be a thing continually inculcated to us even from our very Infancy that it is in a conformity to this Word alone that all Religion whatever doth consist then it is not reason only but experience it self which attests it that a man may as soon quit his notion that there is a God or to be afraid to own it and may as soon quit that notion that God is to be worshipped or be afraid to own it as he may quit or be afraid to own as a Protestant this notion viz. that God is so only to be worshipped and no otherwise then as he hath set down in his Word And if this notion then about his Word as the only rule of the worship of God be as firmly planted in us by our Education as any notion can be planted in us that belongs to our nature as men it must needs follow that a Government may as well and with as good success hope or propound to it self by a Law to extinguish common notions as hope or propound to it self by a Law to extinguish among Protestants the notion of the necessity of worshipping God according to his Word And therefore if it be rightly considered it will likewise appear that it must be to him that is truly educated as a Protestant every way as grievous to be commanded by a Law to forsake Christianity it self as to be commanded by a Law to forsake that worship which he as a Protestant cannot but believe in his heart is alone agreeable to the Mind and Law of God which is that worship that is given to God directly conformable to his Scripture or Word and of the truth of this the Martyrs in Queen Mary's time are a competent witness And consequently they that pretend to take another measure of Protestantism than according to what is thus firmly rooted in the hearts of men both by their Education and by the very Principles and Doctrine of the Reformation do seem but to prevaricate only with the Reformed Religion and with the sixth Article of the Church of England and do if not in wo ds yet in actions seem manifestly to declare that they neither really believe the Scriptures or the Christian Religion or the Reformation to be of God for if the whole of the Christian Religion be contained in the Scripture and in the Scripture alone as the sixth Article of the Church of England doth both plainly and expresly confess it is then to make the Rule of the Word to be our Rule wholly as Christians in the worship of God is so far from an obstinacy in us and so far from any thing of humour or superstition or conceitedness that the contrary can be no way dispensible and much less maintainable before God and therefore there is neither any part of Popery it self nor any thing of Idolatry though never so gross but it may be as easily imposed upon and as easily entertained by a Protestant as any worship may which he evidently seeth or is sufficiently perswaded of in his Conscience to be against the mind of God or against the rule of his Word seeing it is this rule that is the only Index of his mind as to us and it is this rule alone to which all promises of God are entirely made and all the promises of God being made to this rule only this rule and no other must then as we are Christians be the alone Foundation both of all our hope and of all our trust toward God and must consequently be the only ground upon which we can as Christians have any expectation of salvation and life and consequently the whole interest and concern of our Souls at least as we are Protestants doth and must stand entirely upon the said Word Which deductions if they cannot any way possibly be denied the disobeying then f all such Laws in the matter of worship as are not agreeable to the Word of God or which at least appear not to be so is a thing wholly inevitable and is impossible to be avoided in a Protestant Government even as we are rational persons because there is a threefold reason that necessarily impells it First as it hath its rise from that most forcible and indelible Character wh ch is writ in the minds of all men viz. that seeing God is he ought to be worshipped in some manner or another of necessity Secondly as it hath its rise from that Character which hath equal force with the other in the minds of us as we are bred Protestants viz. that God is no other way to be worshipped nor will accept of any worship from us as Christians but what is agreeable to his Word which two Principles seeing by reason of our Education they make but one indeed in our hearts as we are Protestants they do and must constrain us as soon to abandon all worship it self unto God as to abandon that worship which is properly agreeable to his Word because so far as we abandon this we do abandon all worship that is according to our Principles as Protestants either acceptable with God or agreeable to the Mind of God wherefore if to these two we shall add the third ground of its rise which is as certain also as either of the other viz. that we neither have hope in God nor any promise made us by God further than as we obey him in his Word or further than as we worship him according to the rule of it I say these three things being now joyntly considered and seriously weighed by us what man is there or what man can there be who firmly believes there is any such thing as Salvation and Life who will not run any hazard rather than forbear what he judgeth to be the worship of God or rather than he will observe such a worship unto God as he cannot but know or cannot at least but verily believe to be contrary to his mind and contrary to the rule of his Word If it be evil then for any man to believe that God is indispensibly to be worshipped after some manner or another or evil for a man to believe that there is no other rule of his will or mind to us as we are Christians but his word and therefore no other rule wherein his worship is contained besides his said word or if it be evil to expect that God will most truly faithfully and fully perform
sufferings groans and complaints of divers others that are poured out in the very bitterness of their souls unto God and when the said Protestant Church or the said ruling Clergy shall nevertheless have no sense at all of these things nor seem to be in the least â—…oved or concern'd for them And these things if they be considered I humbly offer it whether any man as rational can draw any other conclusion from them but that the said Protestant Church c. do not believe themselves at all when they write against the Papist for these things and notwithstanding they do seem in their Books to threaten the Church of Rome with the dreadful Judgments of God because of their cruelty and of their persecution of men for Conscience sake yet they do indeed but laugh in their Sleeves at it and do intend to frighten them only with Scare-crows Bug-bears and Pot-guns seeing they credit none of these things themselves as likely to befal any such actions or such as are the Authors of it for would it not be a great uncharitableness for any man to imagine or rather would it not be a thing very absurd to apprehend that the Protestant Clergy should do the very same things which the Church of Rome doth if they did really believe themselves in what they usually write against the Church of Rome when they threaten them with the Judgments of God upon them for the said things If to avoid this then which they may look upon perhaps as some imputation or reflection upon the said Protestant Church or the ruling Clergy of it shall deny the case to be the same and shall say that the grounds or principles upon which they persecute men are much different from those of the Papist or Church of Rome let themselves lay down the state of it and shew us wherein the greatness of the said difference doth consist and wherein it is plainly such and so great as that though we are to believe and ought to believe that the Judgments of God will unquestionabâ—y reach the Church of Rome for this their cruelty and persecution and for the unrighteousness of it yet we are not to believe or so much as to imagine they will ever befal the Protestant Church or the ruling Clergy of it notwithstanding any persecution that they are guilty of For if the fact for which men are punished by the said Protestant Clergy be the very same or of the same nature with that for which the Popish Clergy do punish men viz. for their worshipping of God and for their worshipping of him not contrary to the Scripture or contrary to any thing that seems clearly and plainly their duty in the word of God but contrary only to some Order or other in the Church and if the quality of the persons that do suffer and that are punished by the Protestant Clergy are the same also with the quality of those that are punished by the Popish Clergy viz. such men as are neither blameable in nor so much as accused or charged by them with or for any crime or any immorality in their lives or conversations but such as otherwise demean themselves in all duty and with all subjection to their Superiours I say if both these are the very same one with another where can or doth the Essential Difference â—e between the persecution of the Popish Clergy and the persecution of the Protestant Clergy or between the nature of the one and the nature of the other unless it be strictly in this viz. that the Protestant Clergy do pretend to believe the Scriptures to be the Supreme Rule and Mind of God to his Church and if ask'd do freely grant that men are not bound in Conscience to any Rule superiour to this nor can be in the things of Faith or in things relating to the worship of God and yet with the same breath that they say this and at the very same time that they own it they persecute their Brethren not only in their Liberties but in the r Goods Fortunes and Estates and sometimes in their Lives also through nasty Prisons and want of conveniences for acknowledging the said Scriptures to be such as they themselves own to be and for that they conform themselves to it accordingly not in word or pretence but in deed and truth whereas the Popish Clergy though they persecute men for the same Crime yet they do not give so much honour to the Scriptures nor do so much as pretend to it but which of these two are for this very cause the greater Crimes before God I must leave to rational men to consider In the mean time I am most sure of this viz. that whether our first Reformers did well or not well in calling the Church of Rome Antichrist and in charging her with Innocent Blood and in putting the name of the Scarlet Whore for this reason upon her and whether the guilt of that Blood will ever be wiped off from her or not in the sight of God yet notwithstanding 't is most certain that the peculiar stain and discredit of it is now manifestly lessened if it be not wholly blotted out for it is impossible that the Church of Rome should ever hereafter grant these things to be stains or crimes proper only to her which she doth not only see but can daily observe the Protestant Church to follow her in and to follow her in upon such grounds as are far less justifiable in the said Protestant Church according to the Principles they profess than they are in her self and that this is not a thing ever to be hoped or expected from her hereafter is the more clear in regard the said Church of Rome hath already in so many words sharply and closely retorted it upon our very Church that in the very thing which we blame the said Church of Rome for and accuse her criminally of and pretend to be one main ground why we could no longer have any communion with her which was her setting aside the sole authority of the Scripture and persecuted such as desired to walk according to the rule of it we our selves have not only imitated her but have out-gone her and done so much worse than she ever did by how much we have contradicted the Principles we profess which she hath not and that she hath not only cast this reproach upon us in words but alledged several arguments to confirm and such as have not to this very day been answered by us is matter of Fact And therefore if in all Courts of Judicature matter of Fact be good Evidence and if the highest Evidence that can be given in matter of Fact is when the Fact is able to speak and attest it self or when it is capable to be attested to by thousands then is the Evidence which I here bring every way as good and every way as valid to prove what I affirm which for the greater notice I again here repeat Viz. That the Church of Rome hath expresly justified her self from the Crime of unjust persecution and blood by instancing our practise of the same thing one toward another as Protestants or as a Reformed Church And therefore that she hath by this instance justly exonerated her self from the sole guilt of this evil and consequently from the sole guilt of her being that Babylon mentioned Rev. 17. which we have formerly fixed singly upon her and attributed to none beside her And that beside the discharging her self from the sole and only guilt of this Crime she hath produced several arguments also and those of weight to make it appear that we in our persecution one of another as Protestants and Reformed Churches are far more unjust upon the Principles we profess than she is upon her own Principles how much soever we have pleased to inveigh against her and revile her That these arguments she hath no way scrupled publickly and openly to divulge in English to the end that every man that is rational may the 〈◊〉 examine them consider them and judge of them And that we have not pleaded as yet to the said arguments or to the Retorsion she hath thus made upon us either by denying the fact it self absolutely or by distinguishing the respective circumstances and grounds of it which may give her the more just occasion to think we are conscious to our selves of our own guilt And seeing all this is pure matter of fact one of these 2 conclusions therefore do seem to me to be utterly impossible to be avoided viz. either that we haâ—… done very evil in charging the Church of Rome as Antichristian and very eâ—… in separating from her as guilty of that blood of the Saints which is meâ—tioned Rev. 17.6 and which must nevertheless inevitably be charged somewhere and very evil to impose the name of the Scarlet Whore and of â—…bylon upon her Or if we as a Protestant and as a Reformed Church have said all this râ—… in judgment and really in truth against her then have we done much wâ—… our selves in being actually guilty of the same things which we have so â—…minally charged upon her and condemned her for and in our giving her 〈◊〉 this means not only an occasion to justifie her self against us but to upbrâ—… us for doing herein much more irregularly and much more inexcuseably 〈◊〉 her self So that it still remains that the Church of Rome is guilty of Iâ—…cent Blood or not if guilty of Innocent Blood none that is sober then 〈◊〉 doubt but she must be liable to the extreme Judgments of God at length 〈◊〉 it and therefore it remains likewise that we our selves as a Protestâ—…