promise But that all things may be without confusion and perturbation which cannot so well be avoyded in disputations and conferences I shall orderly and methodically set down what passed between us in our disputation and I will neither adde nor detract from the substance in any thing yea as neere as I can I will keepe the very expressions so that the Gentlemen that were there present when they see it may behold my faire dealing and faithfulnesse in relating every thing Which that I might the better doe I leaned not to my owne memory but made use of their notes that tooke our discourse and have reduced the whole dispute into that order that will make it easie to be understood and as I hope I shall dilucidatly prove the Church of England to be a true Church so also that the Scriptures of the old and new Testament containe all things in them sufficient and necessary for our salvation and that they are the onely and infallible rule to which all Christians are tyed to the end of the world and from which they are not to swerve or decline either to the right hand or to the left but are bound to make it and it onely the absolute rule for the regulating of their faith and the ordering of their manners The which two last propositions were accidentally started partly in examining the proofes and by your evasions and partly by reason of the Gentlemen that were standers by whom you Master Mountague and my selfe are beholding to for their faire carriage towards us both whom I could not but with honour mention not onely for their civility but indeed Christian behaviour But before I set downe my arguments for the proofe of the first question I shall crave leave to bring to your memory wherein I declared my selfe before them all that I agreed with you which was in this point that the ordinary way in Gods providence for the conversion and saving of men was the Church where the Gospell is preached which is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. ver 14. according to that of Saint Paul the first Epistle to Timothy chap. 3. vers 14 15. These things I write unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if I tarry longer that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thy selfe in the house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth In this verse the Apostle in an elegant metaphor compares Gods dealing in making knowne his will and pleasure unto his people and children to the customes of Kings and Princes who in publishing their minds and pleasures to their servants and subjects cause their Proclamations to be set up upon pillars in their houses and before their Palaces and in the Cities and Townes through their Dominions after they have proclaimed them by their Officers appointed to that purpose whether their people may have recourse to know their Royall pleasure And to this custome I say of the Potentates and Monarchs of the earth doth Paul allude in this his expression comparing the Church unto a pillar because in the Church the Lord Jesus the King of Saints and King of Kings doth declare his will and pleasure to his people what he would have them to doe and what he would have them leave undone what they should believe and what they should practice in the performance of all which they may assure themselves of his protection here and of full deliverance from all their enemies and of eternall felicity hereafter So that all those that desire to be saved and to know the true way to Heaven they ought to addresse themselves to the true Church which is the house of God the pillar and ground of truth Now that the Church of England is a true Church and the ground and pillar of truth is that Master Montague you deny and which is my taske to prove Which if I can evince you are bound by your promise to embrace it and to relinquish the Church of Rome But before I begin I thought good to mind you of this that it was your desire I should reduce all this discourse into order and send it to you and you promised me faithfully to answer it You may remember also that you left it arbitrary what Translation I should use either ours or the Rhemists for it was all one to me as I told you and you signified to me in the presence of them all that it was indifferent to you I have therefore made use of our owne because the Translation is best knowne to the people and the other hard to come by and also because many of the learnedâ—â— Papists that have read our last Translation have confest that it commeth farre nigher the originall than any of the former But if you shall hereafter except against it there shall be no difference about that in the handling of the controversie between us for I will then make use of yours But now I come to my argument which is this That Church that teacheth the way the truth and the life against which the gates of hell can never prevaile that is a true Church the house of God the Church of the living God the ground and pillar of truth in which salvation may be found But the Church of England is a Church that teacheth the way the truth and the life against which the gates of hell can never prevaile Ergo the Church of England is a true Church the ground and pillar of truth in which salvation may be found For answer to which you first made your apology that if I meant to proceed in a Syllogisticall way that you were no Schollâ—r To which I replying told you that I knew very well that you were a Scholler and that this way of disputing was the best means of finding out of truth and that I would leave my argument with you and not onely for you but for whomsoever you pleased to assist and help you To which you answered that it was fairly said and that it was a faire and syllogisticall way Notwithstanding you would reject your owne capacity to answer in such a way reiterating your former expression saying that you were no Scholler no Logitian no Philosopher But said you to justifie my selfe to these Gentlemen here I am content to answer to your syllogisme Then I told you that you must deny one of the propositions the major or the minor To which you answered I deny the minor it stands you upon to prove it Here I cite the words verbatim as I find them written by the Scribes But Master Montague before I come to the proofe of my minor give me leave to speake my opinion of you for I desire to traduce no man nor minorise the worth of any man I conceive that you are every way as learned and accomplished for all knowledge in your religion as any of that fraternity as well for your naturall abilities and endowments of wit and understanding
is to a hireling and daily labourer and that their Priests can forgive sinnes as Judges by their owne authority This Master Montague you know is the doctrine and faith of the Church of Rome and a great deale more such stuffe Now I intreat you candidly to tell me whether in your opinion the faith of the Church of Rome or the beliefe of the Church of England concerning Christs Priestly Office be more orthodox and which of them giveth most honour to their Mediator she that ascribeth the whole worke of her redemption to him alone or she that robbeth him of all his Priestly honour and Mediatorship Truly Master Montague if you will but duely consider this businesse and weigh it as it ought to be weighed you will quickly perceive that the Church of Rome doth in word onely acknowledge Christ to be a Priest and Mediator but in deeds and workes overthrowes the right and power of his Priesthood And to speake the verity there can be nothing more blasphemously thought imagined or practised against the honour and dignity of the Lord of life the onely and sole Mediator and high Priest of the everlasting covenant then that the Church of Rome doth against him robbing him of his due glory and overthrowing indeed the whole worke of our redemption making our selves and others our owne saviours and mediators and not Christ alone to whom all the honour and praise of our redemption of due belongeth I could be very large Mr. Montague in aggravating of the impiety and blasphemies of the Church of Rome concerning this point but I will say no more of it for the present but this that it is a doctrine that overthroweth all Christian religion and destroyeth the very foundation of our faith And now I come to the Propheticall Office of Christ where we will briefly take notice whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome be most orthodox in their faith concerning Christs Propheticall Office and which of them more venerably believeth touching that or giveth most honour to Christ the onely Prophet of his Church The Church of England believeth that Jesus Christ was appointed by God himselfe to be the onely and sole Prophet Pastor and Teacher of his Church and that he hath fully and perfectly revealed the whole counsell and will of God concerning the redemption of mankind and preached the Gospell and glad tidings of peace unto the World the which Gospell he doth daily vegetate and quicken in the soules of his people by his holy Spirit and corroborate and confirme by the holy Sacraments And she believeth that he hath delivered all things unto the Church that God the Father commanded him necessary for our salvation and that we are onely to heare him in all things whatsoever he shall say unto us and that every soule that shall not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people Deut. 18. v. 18. Matth. 3. v. 17. Matth. 17. v. 5. Acts 3. v. 22 23. And the Church of England believeth also that Jesus Christ did not onely declare and preach the whole and perfect Will of God unto the Church but also that whatsoever was necessary to salvation was written and penned by his appointment and direction and especiall assistance and is all contained in the writings of the old and new Testament and that not in obscure and ambiguous words but in plaine and evident expressions as farre as is necessary to salvation all which in the sequell of this discourse will be made evident She also believeth that all the people ought according to Christs command read them and that the holy Scriptures are the onely Judge of all controversies and have no need of any humane traditions And she farther believeth that we are to serve and worship God onely as he hath appointed in his holy Word and in the divine Scriptures as Christ the Prophet of his Church hath commanded in them and that whatsoever doctrines not expressed and contained in the Scriptures and written Word or grounded upon it or evidently deduced from it are not to be entertained received or obeyed but to be cast out of the Church as abominable things such as are prejudiciall not onely to our salvation and comfort but injurious also and derogatory to the honour of our great Prophet Jesus Christ whom we are commanded only to heare and listen unto And therefore the Church of England doth reject all those doctrins of Will-worship Image and Crucifix worship Bead worship Bread worship Place worship and all Saint and Angell worship and all those doctrines of Service Letanies Ceremonies and indulgencies and those of Fast-daies and Feast-daies all doctrines of Masses and Sacrifices for soules in Purgatory and prayers for the dead with all their doctrines of Pilgrimages and Monkery with their doctrines of devils prohibiting meats and marriage and all those doctrines of the reall and corporall presence of Christ in their blasphemous sacrifices destructive to the humane nature of Jesus Christ making it present in numberlesse places at once and enervating and overthrowing the al-sufficiency of Christs sacrifice And all their doctrins of transubstantiation self-merit works of supererogation and all the other doctrins they teach in the Church of Rome which would both endlesse needlesse to recount the observing of the which is the onely imployment of the Church of Rome the Church of England doth detest as execrable abominations because our Prophet Christ Jesus hath no where taught them in his holy word which must be the only rule of our faith and worship to the end of the world But now let us heare what the Church of Rome believeth concerning the Propheticall office of Christ that we may see how honourably she esteemeth of it The Church of Rome in word acknowledgeth that Christ was by God appointed to be the Prophet of his Church notwithstanding in deeds they deny that Christ did reveale the whole will of God unto the Church in the holy Scriptures and affirmes that the Scriptures were accidentally written and not purposely to be the rule of faith which by its clarity and brightnesse should determine the controversies in Religion they affirme also that the holy Scriptures are darke and obscure and very dangerous for lay-men and therefore that they are to be taken from them and that the Church hath need of the authority of Fathers and Councels and the helpe of Traditions for the compleating of the holy Scriptures and the making of them a perfect and absolute rule both of our faith and worship whereupon they bring in all those abominable doctrins and traditions I even now made mention of many more and thrust them upon the people as the worship and service of God and by the observation of the which they may merit Heaven as they say when neverthelesse there is not one word in all the booke of God concerning any one of them or any thing delivered by our Prophet Christ Jesus touching them all which things are as
you may yet further be convinced Mr. Montague that the Scriptures of the old Testament contained all things in them sufficient for the salvation of the people of God under the Law before the comming of Christ I thus argue That which was able to keepe men out of the place of the damned and to bring them into the bosome of Abraham and eternally to save them that containes all things in it necessary to salvation But Moses and the Prophets the Scriptures of the old Testament were able to keepe men out of the place of the damned and to bring them into the bosome of Abraham and eternally to save them Ergo the Scriptures of the old Testament contained all things in them necessary for the salvation of all those that were under the Law and the Jewes then had no need of any humane Traditions and much lesse have we having the Gospell joyned unto the Law But for proofe of my Minor heare what Christ saies in the person of Abraham if men desire to escape hell and to be eternally saved let them heare Moses and the Prophets saith Christ let them believe and obey and doe what Moses and the Prophets command them and they shall never be damned and I tell you more saith Christ if men will not believe Moses and the Prophets no traditions will prevaile with such men to move them to repentance and turne them from their evill waies no not miracles For if they will not heare Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Luke 16. ver 28 29 30 31 32. Therefore the Scriptures of the old Testament were not onely sufficient to save those that were under the Law but they were tied onely unto them But for further proofe of the sufficiency of the Scriptures of the old Testament and that they contained all things in them necessary to the salvation of those that were under the Law I shall adde some other arguments and proofes out of the holy Scriptures to evince it Our blessed Saviour in the 5 of John ver 32. Search the Scripture saith he for in them ye thinke to have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me Here is an exhortation yea a command and that from the King of his Church to search the Scriptures which were enough to put all Christians upon that imployment although he had given no reason of it but laid downe his bare simple command onely but he giveth them a reason of this his injunction and that was from the emolument and benefit that would accrue unto themselves by searching of the Scriptures and that was life eternall if you will search the Scriptures saith Christ they will make you happy and save your soules for they containe all things in them necessary to salvation and have eternall life in them and that is manifest by two witnesses and you know saith he what the Law speaketh By the mouth of two or three witnesses every thing shall be confirmed Now saith Christ you your selves give witnesse unto this truth that the Scriptures have life eternall in them and your witnesse is true and I joyne with you in your testimony and I assert and witnesse the same also that they containe all things in them necessary to life eternall Therefore if you will not upon my command search and study the holy Scriptures yet if yee tender your owne eternall good and the saving of your soules which is better to you than the gaining of the whole world then search the scriptures For in them ye have eternall life But it will not be amisse a little more fully to consider and weigh the words of our blessed Saviour for as there is an irrefragable argument and a pregnant proofe in them to evince the al-sufficiency of the Scriptures of the old Testament to those that were under the Law so there will from hence be deduced an infallible demonstration for the confirming of the al-sufficiency of the whole Scriptures those of the new Testament being joyned to those of the old Search the Scriptures saith our Saviour for in them ye thinke to have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me In these words there is a twofold reason or a double argument to prove the al-sufficiency of the Scripture of the old Testament that they contained all things necessary to salvation and in that a greater engagement to the Jewes and stronger motive to put them upon the diligent searching of them The first is the testimony of the Jewes their owne witnesse Yee your selves thinke in them saith our Saviour to have eternall life that is ye acknowledge and verily believe that they containe all things in them necessary to the salvation of your soules and your beliefe is good and your witnesse is true and according to the holy Scripture for all errour and sinne arise from the nescience and ignorance of the Scriptures Ye doe erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God saith Christ Matth. 22. ver 29. Now errour and sinne brings men to perdition and eternall misery and by the knowledge of the Scriptures you come to the knowledge of God and of his power and what a just righteous and holy God he is and a consuming fire and how he hates all sinne iniquity and abomination and by that ye learne to hate sinne shunne and avoyd it and are taught all the right way of pleasing him and how to walke in his Commandements Statutes Ordinances and Judgements by which you shall save your soules and be eternally blessed and because you know not the Scriptures you walke in the by-waies of sinne and vanity to your owne eternall ruine and perdition according to that of Solomon in the 29 of the Prov. v. 18. Where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the Law happy is he Happy here and eternally happy hereafter for ignorance of the Law is the cause of all miseries here and hereafter but the knowledge and the keeping of the Law maketh them forever happy and saveth their soules The same doctrine our Saviour taught Matth. 19. ver 16 17. the Ruler that came to him demanding of him what he should doe that he might have eternall life If thou wilt enter into life saith Christ keep the Commandements For God had made that gracious promise unto his people of life upon their perfect obedience Levit. 18. v. 5. Ye shall therefore keepe my Statutes and my judgements saith the Lord which if a man doe he shall live in them I am the Lord. And the same promise againe often renewed in many places and amongst others in the 20. of Ezekiel vers 11. And I gave them my Statutes and shewed them my judgements which if a man doe he shall even live in them So that all the people of God and the whole Nation of the Jewes were sufficiently convinced of this truth that the Scriptures contained all things in them necessary to salvation and this was
Church under the old Testament so now under the new Testament he hath spake unto us sundry waies viz. by the writings of the Apostles by their Traditions not written and doth daily speak unto us by Ecclesiasticall Injunctions and Canons by Councels and Fathers and by the decrees of the Church all which how contrary they are to the meaning and doctrine of St. Paul every man can easily discerne Yea the very Papists themselves cannot deny it And thus much I thought fit to speak of the hypothesis or hypotheticall connexion of my argument Now for the Assumption it containes these three assertions The first that the Word of God necessary to the salvation of the Church was first delivered by the Prophets and afterwards by Christ and his Apostles which is manifest by the place alledged In time past God spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets but in these last daies he spake unto us by his Sonne Which is also to be extended unto the Apostles by whom Christ spake as is manifest out of the second chapter of this Epistle penned by the same Apostle vers 3. How shall we escape saith he if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoke by the Lord and was confirmed unto us that heard him And in the 20. of Saint John ver 21. As my Father sent me so I send you And Luke 10. ver 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me c. Neither can you Mr. Montague or any deny but that the doctrine of the Gospell was penned and written by the Apostles The second assertion of my Assumption was this that the Word of God delivered by the Prophets is onely to be found in their writings And that is evident from the frequent use of speaking in the holy Scripture which by the Prophets understand the writings of the holy Prophets As in the Epistle to the Rom. chap. 1. v. 1 2. The Gospell of God promised by the Prophets in the holy Scriptures And Luke 16. They have Moses and the Prophets And John 6. vers 45. It is written in the Prophets And Acts 26. vers 27. King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets Luke 24. v. 27. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe and the same vers 44. And St. Peter in his second Epistle chap. 1. vers 19. By the word of Prophesie understands the writings of the Prophets as by the words following is evident For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man saith he but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost And many more places to this purpose might be produced which I omit the truth being so well knowne Neither can any Papist produce an instance or president to the contrary The third assertion in my Assumption is this that there can no reason be given by the Papists why the same should not be determined and ordered concerning the word of God delivered by Christ his Apostles that is concluded or determined concerning the Word of God delivered by the Prophets viz. That the whole Word of God as much as concerned the knowledge faith and salvation of the Church as much as was requisite for their good is delivered and set downe in the writings of the Apostles Therefore Mr. Montague when the Papists doe affirme that there is a dissimilitude in this part or matter till they can shew a reason and that a theologicall reason and grounded upon the Word of God they say nothing and the argument will for ever hold and the conclusion remaine unmoveable that all things necessary to salvation are to be found in the writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles and that we have no need of any Traditions for the making of the Scriptures a compleat rule as the Church of Rome doth impiously and malignantly conclude I confesse Master Montague that I have been very large in this theame but I formerly gave you a reason of it and if I yet say a little more to confirme the truth and for the farther convincing of errour and to undeceive the poore deluded people I hope you will excuse me I therefore shall adde a few more reasons and proofes for the confirmation of the al-sufficiency of the holy Scriptures and that they have no need of any humane Traditions for the making of them a compleat rule Saint Paul in the third of the Galatians vers 15. Brethren saith he I speake after the manner of men though it be but a mans covenant or testament yet if it be confirmed no man disanulleth or addeth thereto Out of which words I thus argue If the Scripture of the new Testament be a Covenant and it be not lawfull to adde unto a Covenant then it is not lawfull to adde any thing to the Scriptures of the new Testament But the antecedent is true ergo the consequent and by vertue of the consequent no Traditions not written by the Apostles nor no unwritten verities as you terme them are to be received or entertained by the Church of God as to be a rule of their faith to be joyned to the Scriptures The connexion is cleare The assumption hath two parts The first is manifest from the very inscription and hath no need of any other proofe The latter is proved out of the words of the Apostle when he saith it is not lawfull to adde no not to a mans covenant or testament and then this conclusion with farre greater reason will ensue and follow that it is much lesse lawfull to adde unto Gods owne Covenant and Testament And they that doe adde their traditions unto the holy Scriptures of the new Testament doe that which is unlawfull unjust and impious and bring that curse and plague upon themselves that is pronounced Revel 22. v. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things saith Christ God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this booke And if any man shall take away from the words of the booke of this prophesie God shall take away his part out of the booke of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this booke That Mr. Montague that is spoke of this Prophesie is spoke of the whole Scriptures and therefore they that accuse the holy Scriptures of imperfection and adde their impious and vaine Traditions unto them are guilty both of addition and detraction to them and make themselves obnoxious to that fearefull curse but the Church of England dares neither adde or take from either the old or new Testament but acknowledge them both to be a most compleat rule and to containe all things in them necessary to the salvation of the Church and to have no need of unwritten verities But that I may farther confirme the truth and convince the erronious opinion of the Church of Rome I thus argue If the holy
a true Church nor the ground and pillar of truth when she is not built upon the foundation of Peter nor teacheth not the way of the truth and the life nor honoureth not Christ as her King Priest and Prophet nor continueth constantly in the doctrines of the holy Prophets and Apostles and in the which the Gospell of Jesus Christ is neither purely preached nor the Sacraments rightly administred and in the which there is not the true invocation of God nor the true religion that Christ the great Prophet of his Church hath taught us All which Mr. Montague I have as I hope so sufficiently proved in this discourse as I am most confident that there is not any rationall man but will easily perceive and you your selfe Master Montague if you have not resolved to shut your eyes at noone day will now clearely discerne which of the Churches believeth best and which of their faiths and beliefes is most orthodox concerning the Kingly Priestly and Propheticall Office of Christ Jesus and which of them giveth the Lord Jesus most honour either she that neither regardeth what Christ commandeth or forbiddeth or she that in all things heareth his voice and followeth the direction of his Word as it is set downe in the holy Scriptures which I have by Gods assistance proved to containe all things in it necessary to salvation and that wee have no need of humane traditions for the making of it a compleat rule and that this Word is onely the sole rule of our faith and manners and that all Christians to the end of the world are tied unto that to be the rule and square both of their faith and manners and that they ought not to swarve from it upon what termes soever And therefore now Mr. Montague I shall look for the performance of your promise viz. that if I could prove the Church of England to be a true Church and that the Word of God contained all things in it necessary to salvation and that it was the onely rule of our faith unto which all Christians were tied to the end of the world all which I conceive I have fully done that then you would be of our Religion and turne Protestant This was your promise Master Montague before all the Gentlemen and the performance of the which will be to the honour of God and your owne eternall comfort and will ever rejoyce the heart of him that wisheth you all happinesse here and hereafter But Master Montague before I shut up this discourse I shall in way of a corollary desire you to ponder and seriously consider not onely the vanity but the impiety of all those tenents you hold in the Church of Rome more than we have warrant for in the Word of God and that you would deale ingenuously betweene God and your owne conscience in the examination of a few Queries that I shall now before I finish my discourse propound unto you I desire you Master Montague to answer mee truely what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Jesus Christ is the onely and sole King and head of his Church and Saviour of his body that infuseth life and spirituall motion into it and all saving graces and that guideth it by his holy Spirit and Word and believeth also that he and he onely is to be obeyed in whatsoever he commandeth or forbiddeth and that we are not in matters of faith and doctrine to follow or heare any voyce or word but what he the King of his Church hath made knowne unto us in his Lawes and heavenly Statutes as they are recorded in the holy Scriptures tell me I pray Master Montague candidly what you think of the condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this beliefe any waies prejudice his salvation though he never heareth of the Pope of Rome whom you and the other Romanists proclaime to be head of the Church and to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose oracles Lawes and Ordinances you affirme ought to be obeyed in all things as the commands of Christ I say if he never heares of so much as the name of the Pope or of any such creature as he is will not his faith in Jesus Christ alone whom hee believeth to be the onely King and head of the Church and Saviour of all such as trust in him save him eternally If you shall affirme that his thus believing will not save him you overthrow the Christian faith and destroy the true Christian religion which teacheth us thus to believe and assureth us that living and dying in so believing and in this faith we shall be saved Againe Master Montague I demand of you what you thinke of the condition of that Christian that shall peremptorily believe that the Pope of Rome is not the King and head of the Church militant but that hee is the enemy of Jesus Christ one guilty of blasphemy as assuming unto himselfe those glorious attributes and prerogatives that are peculiar to Christ alone the King of Saints and King of Kings and the onely head and sole governour of his Church Can this Master Montague his so believing prejudice his salvation or be any sinne against Almighty God If you shall answer that it may then I shall demand your reason why you conceive that it may be any way prejudiciall to his eternall happinesse for where there is no transgression there is no sinne for sinne is the transgression of the Law and what law I beseech you doth that Christian transgresse that believeth that Christ onely is the King and head of his Church and the Saviour of his body and that these incommunicable prerogatives peculiarly belong unto Christ and that they are not to be given to any mortall man and that it is a sinne in any to assume these titles or for any to give them to the Pope Master Montague let me tell you that except you will overthrow the faith of the Gospell you can never make either the ignorance or the contempt of your Romish doctrine concerning the Popes Supremacy any sinne but that a man may live and die in the detestation of it and be eternally saved if by a stedfast and lively faith and full perswasion hee cleaveth unto Christ Jesus the onely head and King of his Church and believes by his alone power to be delivered out of the hands of all his bodily and spirituall enemies Againe Master Montague I desire you to answer me ingenuously what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Christ Jesus is the onely and sole Prophet of his Church and that he hath fully revealed the whole will and counsell of his Father concerning the redemption of man-kind and that all things necessary to salvation are fully and compleatly set downe in his holy Word by his command in the writings of the old and new Testament and that the sacred Scriptures are a perfect rule of themselves for
as in him so for his sake and merits with all that shall believe in him And in this notion they acknowledge him as he is revealed in the holy Scriptures and set forth to be the Saviour of his people from their sinnes Matth. 1. vers â—1 to be that Lambe of God that takes away the sinnes of the world John 1. vers 29. Amongst many examples for the more full illustration of the whole matter these few following may suffice as that in the story of Joseph Genesis 37 where the messengers brought Josephs coat to Jacob his father vers 32.33 See now say they whether it be thy sonnes coate or no. Thâ—n he knew it to be the very coat and said it is my sonnes coate He knew it very well before but here he avoucheth his knowledge of it that is he did acknowledge it with certainty Another example we have of Thomas John 20. vers 25 26 27 28 29. who when the Disciples told him that Christ was risen and that they had seen the Lord be said unto them Except I see his hands and the print of the nailes and put my finger into the print of the nailes and put my hand into his side I will not believe it And eight daies after his Disciples were againe within and Thomas with them then came Jesus and stood in the middest and said Peace be unto you After said he to Thomas put thy finger here and see my hands c. and be not faithlesse but faithfull Then Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God Jesus saith unto him Thomas because thou hast seen me thou beleivest blessed are they that have not seen and have believed Thomas knew well that Christ was wounded but when he saw the wounds then he acknowledged as well his owne infidelity as that Christ was his Lord and his God and in expresse words avoucheth his knowledge with certainty Here the story of the Samaritans John 4. may have place who believed before they saw Christ by the womans relation of him that he was the Messiah but they believed much more after they had both seen and heard him and did publikely acknowledge him to be the Christ the Saviour of the World vers 41. This Christ doth the Church of England though they have neither heard nor seen him believe in and know yea with certainty and approbation acknowledge him to be their Lord and their God and the Saviour of the world and therefore by Christs owne mouth are proclaimed blessed and need feare no mans curses Yea the Church of England doth both know and acknowledge this Christ in as ample a manner as humane frailty can attaine to and publish and preach salvation onely in his name according to the holy Scriptures and will to the last drop of their blood acknowledge him to be their Lord and onely redeemer in the which they are most assured to find comfort in life and death and by the power of whose might to be more than conquerours through him that loved them Rom. 7. vers 37. and are sure of life eternall which Christ himselfe hath promised to them that know him John 17. ver 3. This is life eternall saith he that they know thee to be the onely true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ According to the Prophesie of Isaiah Chap. 53. ver 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall be are their iniquities That Church therefore in the which the knowledge of the onely true God and of Jesus Christ is diligently fully and sincerely taught unto the people and where Christ is received and acknowledged by them to be the eternall Sonne of God and the redeemer of the world that Church is a true Church and is built upon the foundation of Peter and believes as it ought to believe But in the Church of England the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ is knowne acknowledged taught and published in as ample a manner as is above specified as all men can witnesse Ergo it is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter c. And thus much Master Montague shall serve to have spoken of the first part of my syllogisme the truth of all which you cannot deny without wronging your own judgement and the truth it selfe Now I come to the second part viz That the Church of England doth believe in Jesus Christ as it ought to believe which you denied in that it doth renounce all selfe-merit in the worke of redemption and all will-worship and humane inventions in Gods service which is the qualification and very effigies of true and saving faith and which is requisite in any Church to make it a true Church and without which it cannot indeed be a true Church which will evidently appeare when I have described what is meant by beleeving in Jesus Christ and renouncing all selfe-merit in the matter of salvation and all wil-worship humane inventions in Gods service But now to begin with believing To believe in Jesus Christ is nothing else but to owne and embrace him as he is revealed to us in the holy Word of God for the alone onely and perfect Saviour and to place their whole affiance confidence and trust in him onely for salvation and to rely upon him as their onely Redeemer and perfect Saviour and that with a certaine and solid perswasion and invincible assurance according to that of Saint Peter John 6. ver 68. 69. Lord to whom shall we goe Thou hast the words of eternall life And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ the Sonne of the living God Here was a certaine and unmoveable assurance in the Apostles which did evidence the truth of their faith Such was Abrahams faith Rom. 4. ver 19 20 21 22 23 24 25. Who against hope believed in hope c. and being not weake in faith c. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbeliefe but was strong in faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to performe And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Now it was not written for his sake alone but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him who raised up Jesus from the dead Who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our justification In this place we may take notice of the Patriarch Abrahams faith whose example was set down for our imitation that as he believed and gave glory to God by his faith so should we Now consider I pray the variety of the holy Apostles expression in setting downe Abrahams faith Who saith he against hope believed in hope He was not weake in the faith He staggered not at the promise through unbeliefe but was strong in the faith and fully perswaded Here are very glorious praises of Abrahams faith and indeed the praise of the faith of the Saints of old was this that
as they finde it in the written word of the old and new Testament as they make that and that only the Rule of their faith and obedience and no unwritten word or Traditions Councells or Fathers no farther than they are grounded upon the written word contained in the holy Bible And this the Church of England hath good warrant to do from Christs both precept and example and from both the Prophets and Apostles practice John the 5. v. the 39. Search the Scriptures saith Christ for in them yee thinke to have eternall life and they are they which testify of mee And v. 46.47 for had yee believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me but if yee believe not his writings how shall you believe my words Here our Saviour Christ ratifyes Moses his writings to be of Divine authority and equalizes them with if not prefers them before his owne words saying if yee believe not his writings how shall yee believe my words And in the sixteenth of Luke in the person of Abraham Christ sendeth all men that desire salvation to the writings of Moses saying v. 29 30 31. they have Moses and the Prophets let them heare them if they would escape damnation and have eternall life And Dives sayd Nay Father Abraham but if one come unto them from the dead they will amend their lives and repent And he said unto him If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Here our Saviour tyes them precisely to the Scriptures and affirmes they are more prevalent to bring men unto Repentance and to save their soules than any miracles whatsoever and therefore that they are only to be cleaved unto by all the sonnes of Abraham And as he commanded all men to have recourse to Moses and the Prophets so all the time of his life and after his resurrection hee taught all his auditors out of the holy Scriptures Luke the 24. vers 27. and after that our Saviour Christ had upbrayded his Disciples for their unbeliefe He began saith the Evangelist at Moses and all the Prophets and expounded to them through all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe And vers 44. he said unto them These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalmes concerning me Here our Saviour Christ instructs and teaches his Disciples onely out of the written Word and in them all Christians and sends them onely to the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalmist and affirmes that they were the voice of God which the Lord spake and uttered by them All the Prophets likewise sent the people to the written word as Deut. 30. Isaiah 8. ver 20. To the Law and to the Testimonies saith the Prophet if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Here the Lord by his Prophet sends all men to the written Word in which he declared his pleasure and will unto them and affirmes that they that speake not according to that Word they have no light in them that is they are in errour and darknesse according to that of our Saviour Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. ever sending them to the Scripture for knowledge And Malac. 4. the Lord there vers 4. Remember saith he the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements Here all the Church of the Jewes were sent unto the written Word and manded ever to remember that that was left by Gods appointment for the rule of their faith and obedience and to that onely they were stedfastly to cleave And Paul in Acts 24. vers 14. in his owne defence before Felix speakes thus This I confesse unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers believing all things in the Law and the Prophets The written word was the ground of his faith he continued stedfastly in the doctrine of the Prophets and taught all men so to doe proving and confirming his doctrine out of the holy Sciptures of the Prophets and convincing the Jewes out of them from morning to evening Acts 28. ver 23. And in Acts 26. ver 22. Witnessing saith the Apostle both to small and great saying no other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come Nothing but Scripture and the doctrine contained in them was the foundation of both the true Jewish and Christian Church And Apollos a man eloquent and mighty in the Scripture used the same way of teaching Acts 18. vers 28. who shewed by the Scriptures that Jesus was that Christ And Paul to the Thessalonians in the first Epistle chap. 5. vers 19 20. Quench not the spirit saith he despise not the Prophesies a thing worthy the noting after he had exhorted them to nourish in themselves the sparks of the Spirit of God kindled in them that they might not be deluded by any false spirit or conceive they had the Spirit when they had it not he ties them to the rule by which they should try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and that rule was the Prophesies of the old Testament and the studying of them As much as if he had said to the Thessalonians nourish daily within you all the graces of knowledge and wisdome the Spirit of God hath bestowed upon you and increase more and more in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus saying Quench not the Spirit and that you may the better increase in knowledge and abound in all gifts and graces and the truth and that ye may not be led away with any deceiving spirit and vaine delusion instead of true illumination after the manner of many enthusiasts who dreame of new inspirations new lights regulate your whole illumination and your spirit and knowledge according unto the written prophesies of the old Testament follow them and you cannot erre therefore saith he despise not the prophesies but by them try all things and keepe that which is good and agreeable to them and whatsoever is not agreeable to them is a meere delusion and not the true Spirit who is ever like it selfe and therefore he ties them to the prophesies of the old Testament as well as to the Scriptures of the new So Saint Peter in his second Epistle chap. 1. vers 19. We have also a more sure word of the Prophets saith he to the which ye doe well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in our hearts Here the holy Apostle Peter ties all Christians as well to the written Word of the old as to the Scriptures of the new This written Word was the foundation of the Church of the Jewes and
is of all Christians It was the praise of all the Christians of the Primitive Church that they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayer Acts 2. ver 42. and that they searched the Scriptures as the Bereans And Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians chap. 2. vers 19 20. for their comfort tels them that they were not strangers and forainers but Citizens with the Saints and of the hâ—ushold of God and confirmes it unto them with a strong reason that they were the people of God and a true Church because saith he Ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner Stone So that to continue constantly in the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles is an irresistible argument and proofe of a true Church and that it is built upon the foundation of Peter Which when the Church of England continueth in swarving in nothing from that rule but alwaies hearing the voice of Christ it is manifest they are his sheep and are of God for so saith Christ John 8. ver 7. He that is of God heareth Gods Words ye therefore heare them not because ye are not of God speaking there to the unbelieving Jewes And chap. 10. My sheepe saith he he are my voice ver 27. And in Chap. 18. ver 17. Every one saith Christ that is of the truth heareth my voice And St. John in his first Epistle chap. 4. ver 6. saith We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error In these words St. John confirmeth that his own doctrine and the doctrine of all the Apostles was the assured Word of God and that they that were of God did heare it and that they that did not heare it that is obey it were not of God and that by this doctrine alone all men might distinguish truth from errour they that heare this doctrine are of the truth they that heare it not are led by the spirit of errour and are in darknesse Now then Mr. Montague when the Church of England in all things heareth the voyce of Christ and cleaveth onely to the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles the Church of Rome is not grounded upon the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but upon their vain traditions doctrines of men and will not suffer the Word of God to be read amongst the people nor permit the voice of Christ to be heard amongst them this necessarily followes from thence that the Church of England is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter and the Church of Rome is a false Church and founded upon errour and delusion And therefore Mr. Montague if you desire salvation come out of that confused Babylon into the bosome of the Church of England that teacheth the way the truth and the life and you will finde rest unto your soule And this shall satisfie to have spoken of this third part of my proposition Now I come to the fourth part viz. that in the Church of England the Gospell is purely preached repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and the Sacraments rightly administred and in which there is the true invocation of God Another infallible and never deceiving note of a true Church which were it single and alone were sufficient to evince to the whole world that the Church of England is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter and therefore believes as it ought to believe By the pure preaching of the Gospell and right administration of the Sacraments and the true invocation of God I understand when all things are done in the ministry and preaching of the Gospell and administration of the Sacraments and invocation of the name of God and prayer according to Christs institution and according to the commission delivered unto the Apostles without addition of any thing or diminution but observing all things according unto the rule prescribed in all punctuall manner by such as God hath fitted for wisdome learning and all divine knowledge for that holy imployment and who doe accordingly in all uprightnesse sincerity and godly simplicity following the example of Paul 2 Cor. 2. vers 17. We saith he are not as many which make merchandise of the Word of God but of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speake we in Christ The Apostles did nothing in the ministry craftily or coveteously or lesse sincerely than they ought as more fully is expressed in chap. 4. ver 2. where he saith We have cast from us the cloake of shame and walke not in crafrinesse neither handle we the Word of God deceitfully but in declaration of the truth we approve our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God The Apostles preached the Gospell without subtilty and deceipt seeking no lurking-holes to cover their shamelesse dealing they preached not with excellency of words as Paul in 1 Cor. 2. declares or of wisdome in shewing the testimony of God which was the Gospell neither was their word and preaching in the inticing speach of mans wisdome but in plaine evidence of the Spirit and of power and not for self-ends After this example of the blessed Apostle is the Gospell preached by the Ministers of the Church of England who dispense the Ordinances according to their Commission neither adding nor detracting from it in any thing but withall care sedulity and watchfulnesse without base ends and self-respects attend upon the Ministry in their particular places and as they are made Watchmen unto their flockes by God himselfe so they receive the word from his mouth and give warning to the people Ezek. 3. ver 17. and they swerve not from the rule which will the better appeare if we examine the Commission the Lord Jesus gave to the Apostles Matth. 28. ver 19. Goe therefore saith Christ and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway untill the end of the world Their commission was limited that they should speake nothing but what Christ commanded them nothing of their owne heads and braines and keeping themselves within their limits they were ever sure of Gods presence and assistance who had promised them and all their successours in so doing to be with them to the end of the world they were bound therefore to teach nothing but Gods commands and that the holy Apostles observed and commanded all men though an Angel from Heaven should teach otherwise than they had taught them not to heare them under a fearefull curse Galat. 1. Now when the Church of England diligently keepes it selfe to the Commission given by Christ unto his Apostles and preaches the Gospell in all purity without any mixture of their owne
received them from the Lord as baptisme in pure water without mixtures and the Lords Supper in both elements in Bread and Wine with the very words of institution according to Christs appointment and command And withall continually instructs and teaches the people the end for which they were ordained and the right use of them with the true nature and meaning of those mysteries as that they are outward and visible signes wherewith the Lord sealeth and confirmeth to our consciences the sweet promises of his good will and pleasure towards us for the sustaining and supporting of the feeblenesse and weakenesse of our faith and by the which we againe on our owne behalfes doe testifie our piety duty and love towards him as well before him and the blessed Angels as before men and declare unto the people that they are testimonies of Gods favour and good will towards us confirmed by outward signes and are visible forms of invisible grace And the Ministers of the Church of England also prepare the people by wholsome instructions what duties are required at their hands and what requisits are necessarily expected for the making of them capable and worthy partakers of these holy Ordinances and so to communicate in them as they may thereby bring glory to God and edification to others receive the comfort of the right celebrating the holy Sacraments in their own particular all which things I say when the Church of England conscientiously performeth according unto the rule prescribed in the holy Word and the example of Christ and the holy Apostles it is manifest that the Church of England declareth it selfe to be a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter and believeth as it ought to believe Againe when the Church of England teacheth the people to put up all their prayers and supplications to God onely in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ by the assistance of the holy Spirit with an assured faith of being heard according to Christs direction saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Matth. 6. ver 6. 9. and Matth. 21. ver 22. Whatsoever ye shall aske in prayer if ye believe ye shall receive it And John 15. ver 7. and 1 John 5. ver 14. and John 14. vers 13 14. Whatsoever ye aske in my name I will doe it And John 16. ver 23. I say unto you whatsoever ye shall aske the Father in my name he will give it you And John 14. ver 6. I am the way the truth and the life No man commeth unto the Father but by me This way of praying unto God doth the Church of England teach unto the people and instruct them to whom in all calamities to make their addresses according to the doctrine of holy Scripture and that is to God alone Psal 50. Call upon me in the time of trouble c. And St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy ch 2. exhorting all Christians to make prayers and supplications with thanksgiving for all men for Kings and such as are in authority and giving the reason of it because saith the Apostle God will that all men shall be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth that is to say all sorts of men without any difference of nation kind age or order And then he gives them a direction in whose name they shall put up their supplications that they may be accepted and that is in the name of Jesus Christ No man commeth unto the father but by Christ And therefore the Apostle as he did impose upon all Christians that duty of praying for all sorts of men Kings Emperours and Rulers so in that very place vers 5. he bids them put up their prayers in the sole name of Jesus Christ for saith he there is but one God to whom we must pray and there is but one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ Jesus in whose name we must put up all our prayers supplications and thanksgivings For as there is but one God of all Nations Kings Princes and Potentates so there is but one Mediator of all Nations Kings Princes and Potentates who onely hath given a ransome for them and whose blood speaketh better things than the blood of Abel for Abels cals for revenge but Christs blood cals for mercy and atonement and that continually for he is a perfect Mediator both for satisfaction and intercession and hath not resigned that office of intercession and mediatorship to either Saints or Angels and therefore it is great impiety and horrid sacriledge and blasphemy in any to rob Christ of his honour and glory and to ascribe it to the creatures especially when in expresse words the Apostle in the Rom. 8. ver 34. affirmes that Christ being at the right hand of God maketh requests for us And Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 2. v. 1 2. saith My little children these things write I unto you that you sinne not and if any man sinne we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the just and he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours onely but also for the sinnes of the whole world Here Christ is assigned by Saint John to be the Mediator of all sorts of men of all ages and in all places and in that he nominates Jesus Christ to be the Mediator he excludes all other advocates for reconciliation and intercession go inseparably together to give us to understand that he onely is our advocate who is our high Priest The same doctrine the authour to the Hebrews teaches all Christians in Chap. 5. v. 23 24 25. And they truely were many Priests c. by reason of death but this man because he continueth ever hath an everlasting Priesthood Wherefore also he is able to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth and maketh intercession for them From all which places we see that the Priestly Office hath them ediation and intercession so annexed unto it that the one cannot be severed or taken from the other without detestable sacriledge and blasphemy and therefore it must needs be a greater impiety in all such as give the glory of the mediation and intercession to Saints and Angels when notwithstanding in expresse words the Apostle in his Epistle to the Colossians chap. 2. v. 18. hath not onely condemned it as detestable but shewes likewise the reason of it that it is pernicious and destructive to the soules of men and separates them from their head Christ Jesus his words are these Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of Angels c. and not holding the head Here we see the reward of such mens impiety for as they rob Christ of his honour and thrust him from his mediatorship so they by this are thrust out of Heaven not holding the head And in John 10. ver 9. Christ saith I am the doore by me if any man enter in
and sufficiently to salvation whether or no it would then satisfie you and perswade you that the Church of England was built upon the foundation of Peter and was a true Church And if my memory faile not you told me that then the worke was done Whereupon I thus argued That Church that declares preaches and teaches unto the people all that Jesus Christ both taught did and suffered for the salvation of mankind after he had taken humane nature upon him as he was our King Priest and Prophet which is all that we are to believe for the speculative part and declares likewise and preaches plainly and distinctly whatsoever concernes the peoples dutie of love and obedience to God againe for his infinite love to mankind and instructs them in like manner of their duty of love and charity one towards another all which belongs unto the practicall part of religion that Church teacheth all things both for theory and practice necessary for salvation and building them upon the foundation of Peter But the Church of England doth all this ergo Here Mr. Montague you denied my minor then many of the Gentlemen that were standers by Sir Francis Wortly Sir John Gothericke Sir Wil. Morton Sir Edw. Bishop and others whose names I know not demanded of you seeing you denied my minor that you would declare and specifie wherein the Church of England failed either in the speculative or practicall part of Divinity and wherein she was silent in any thing that was necessary to salvation either for theory or practice And you were not then able as they can all witnesse to shew any particular where the Church of England failed in her duty or concealed any thing from the people either for speculation or practice Notwithstanding Master Montague you yet persisted in the deniall of my minor and put me upon my proofe Wherupon I thus argued That Church that teaches the whole counsell of God the knowledge of the onely true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ which is life eternall John 17. and testifies unto the people repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20. v. 21. and instructs them in all things how to believe aright and how to obey aright that Church teacheth all things for theory and practice that are requisite for the making of a true Church and for the building of it upon the foundation of Peter But the Church of England teacheth all these things ergo You againe denied my minor whereupon the Gentlemen as before desired you to instance in any particular where the Church of England was defective or failed in declaring the full counsell of God or in preaching the knowledge of God or of faith and obedience to the people And however Mr. Montague you were not able in any particular to make it appeare where the Church of England was deficient yet you continued in deniall of my minor and urged me to prove it when neverthelesse the truth of it is so evident as very children are able to discerne it All men know that faith and obedience is the whole duty of man Jehosaphat was well instructed in this doctrine and taught it to all his people 2 Chron. chap. 20. v. 20. where he saith Heare ye me O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall ye be established believe his holy Prophets so shall ye prosper And whosoever believeth on him shall not be confounded Esay 28.16 Rom. 9. vers 33. Faith and obedience was the theame of all the Sermons of all the holy Prophets and Apostles and of Christ himselfe as the whole Scriptures witnesse Esay 1. v. 19. the Prophet saith If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eate the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebell you shall be destroyed with the Sword all which proofes cleere the truth of my argument But to satisfie your then desire I prove my minor thus That Church that teaches the people their whole duty both towards God and one towards another and instructs them both what they should doe and what they should leave undone by the observing of the which they may live happily here and come to life eternall hereafter that Church teacheth the whole counsell of God all for theory and practice that is necessary for the making of it a true Church and the building of it up upon the foundation of Peter But the Church of England doth all this Ergo. And for proofe of my minor I cited that of Paul in his Epistle to Titus chap. 2. v. 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and holily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes Many places more may be cited to confirme the truth of my argument as Eccles 12. vers 13 14. where Solomon saith Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter feare God and keepe his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man So in like manner in 1 Sam. 12. ver 13 14 15. God forbid saith he that I should sinne against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way Onely feare the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he hath done for you But if you still doe wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King The truth of my minor is so cleare that there is not a man in whom there is but one eye of reason but can easily perceive and discerne it for the Church of England teacheth and publisheth the whole Law and the whole Gospell and all that is contained in the whole written Word of God both in the old and new Testament and therefore all the counsell of God and all both for theory and practice and whatsoever is necessary for the building of men up upon the foundation of Peter and proving it selfe a true Church But when you were by argument thus urged you at last after many windings and turnings betooke your selfe to the common refuge of all those of your profession to wit to an unwritten word your traditions and affirmed that the Scriptures contained not all things that were to be learned and practised by the people and that the people ought to be as well acquainted with that as with the written Word whereupon Sir John Gotherick a learned Gentleman to assert and maintaine the alsufficiency of the Scripture without the addition of mens traditions cited that of St. Paul to Timothy the second Epistle chap. 3. v. 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction c. The
force of which argument you had thought by a glosse and flourish to have evaded but all the cunning of man cannot doe it as in its due place will appeare But after you had once got your head into this fort and refuge you uttered many things very erroneous equalizing your traditions yea preferring them before the written Word accusing the Scripture of imperfection and denying them that due honour which is to be the rule of our faith and manners and the square by which we must order our lives affirming further more that they were accidentally written and not on purpose to be the rule of our doctrine and manners and that for the making of the Scripture a compleat and absolute rule the unwritten word received and entertained in all ages by tradition ought to be added to it which when the Church of England did not observe and admit of it did not believe as Christ ordained and as it ought to believe for the speculative and practicall parts of Divinity for to believe in Christ effectually and sufficiently to salvation as you said was not enough to believe both the natures of Jesus Christ and all his Offices but it consisted in this that we conforme our selves to a beliefe speculative and to a religion that is practicall for the Church was determined in these two points that is to say without the Church of England would imbrace and entertaine your traditions and believe your unwritten verities as they are commonly termed it could not be a true Church Hereupon I then undertooke to maintaine and prove first that the written Word in it selfe without any unwritten verities or traditions contained all things necessary to salvation Secondly that all Christians were tied to make that and that only the rule of their faith and manners which you said if I could prove you would be a Protestant and after some debate of these businesses and that Sir John Gotherick had said unto you magnifying your unwritten verities that if you could make it appeare that you had as good warrant for your traditions as we could shew for the Scriptures that then he would receive and imbrace them to whom you replyed that you could prove them by better authority than he could prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God But I perceiving at that time that you grew something weary and seeing withall for want of a moderator that things began something disorderly to be handled I told you that I would by writing reduce all those things that were then agitated and bring them into good order and set downe such other arguments as should sufficiently prove the Church of England to be a true Church and send you them all in writing which you not onely liked well of but earnestly also desired me so to doe and I promised likewise in the same writing evidently to prove that the Scriptures of the old and new Testament without any traditions contained all things in them necessary to salvation and that they are the onely rule and square which we are tied unto for the ordering of our faith lives and manners which is now my taske that in the following discourse I have taken upon me and I doubt not by Gods assistance but to make good and maintaine what I have undertaken But before I come to that that all men may see the Church of England faileth in nothing necessary to salvation either in respect of theory or practice although I have formerly proved it yet I thought fit briefly againe to runne over and to declare what she teaches for her beliefe speculative and her religion practicall that I may make use of some of your expressions and wherein she differs from the Church of Rome that the Church of Englands tenent being set downe on the one side and the errours and idolatry of the Church of Rome on the other all men may learne to love and imbrace the Church of England and to abhorre and abandon the Church of Rome that mother of abomination and that you Mr. Montague that have formerly undutifully deserted and forsaken her may with the Prodigall returne and yeild unto her your mother Christian and wonted duty and obedience Which I am confident will be more to your true comfort and honour than ever any thing done by you in all your life And now to begin I affirm for beliefe speculative and religion practicall it is orthodoxly and and clearely taught in the Church of England in all points and to begin with the speculative part Whatsoever I say is required of us to be knowne concerning God is perspicuously taught in the Church of England both in respect of the divine essence and nature of God as also of the persons in the blessed Trinity as likewise of their names and workes and of all their glorious attributes As that there is but one onely true God distinguished into the Father Sonne and holy Ghost the al-sufficient Jehovah Creator and governour of all things which onely living God the Church of England with an unanimous consent doth honour serve and worship in spirit and truth as he himselfe commands John 4. vers 24. and as he hath in all ages been worshipped by all the family of the faithfull that call upon his name in sincerity since the glorious ascension of Christ into Heaven and teaches the people so to worship him The Church of England doth fully likewise instruct the people in what a happy and blessed condition man was created being made after Gods owne Image and likenesse Genes 1. v. 27. and into what misery he afterwards plunged himselfe and all his posterity by reason of his transgression disobedience and infidelity in listning unto the suggestion of the diâ—â—ll as it is at large described in Genes chap. 3. And as it doth daily acquaint them with the nature of sinne the danger of it and the evill consequences that insue upon it as all manner of miseries here and eternall damnation hereafter if by timely repentance they breake not off the course of them which duty they daily exhort them unto In like manner it teacheth the people that next to the eternall love of God who in Christ Jesus made choice of them before the foundation of the world Ephes 1. v. 3 4 5. that they owe the whole worke of their redemption unto Jesus Christ alone who taking humane nature upon him was made sinne for us that knew no sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. vers 21. So that if we consider the whole summe of our salvation and all the parts of it they are contained and comprehended in Christ to whom alone all the honour glory and praise of all our blessednesse both present and future is to be ascribed and not any parcell of it to be attributed to any creature in Heaven or earth So that if any desires to be saved and to be eternally blessed the Church of England instructs them there is no other meanes to
be saved by but by the Name of Jesus Acts 4. v. 12. and that Salvation is onely in him And therefore if they seeke and desire all such gifts and graces of the holy Spirit without which they can neither know God nor believe in him as they ought the Church of England teaches them that they are onely to be found in Christs unction of whose fulnesse we have received grace for grace John 1. And if they want strength and power to subdue their corruptions and to support them in temptation the Church of England teacheth that they may finde them in Christs Dominion and Soveraignty to whom all power in Heaven and Earth is given Matth. 28. ver 18. If they desire purity and innocency they have it in his conception If they desire mercy compassion and commiseration they have it in his birth Who was made like unto us that he might have compassion on us and make our reconciliation with God Heb. 3. v. 17. If we desire redemption we have it in his death and passion If we desire absolution and freedome from guilt we have it in Christs condemnation If we seeke a discharge or delivery from malediction and the curse we have it in his crosse Gal. 3. v. 13. If we seeke for satisfaction and a full payment unto the wrath and justice of God we have it in his sacrifice If we desire to be purged and cleansed from all our sinnes and iniquities we have it in his blood 1 John chap. 1. v. 7. If we seeke for reconciliation we have it in his bitter agony and sufferings 2 Cor. chap. 5. v. 18 19 21. If we seeke the mortification of the flesh and crucifying of the old man we have it in his grave And if we desire and seeke for newnesse of life and vivifying of the Spirit and immortality we have them all in his resurrection Rom. 6. v. 4 5. And if we seeke for the Kingdome of Heaven we have it in his ascension And if we looke for ayd and helpe in time of need and in all our distresses or if we desire plenty sufficiency and the affluency of all good things to supply all our wants and necessities we shall finde them in his Soveraignty and Kingdome And if we wait for a joyfull and dreadlesse expectation of the last judgement we have it in Christ who we know is our Mediator that shall be the Judge both of quick and dead and therefore we doe with joy lift up our heads knowing that our salvation and redemption draweth nigh In a word the Church of England teacheth all these things to the people and that all the riches and treasures of all good things are to be found in Christ Jesus Colos 2. vers 3. and that to him alone they ought to have recourse if they would be replenished and have their wants at any time supplied And whither indeed upon all occasions should we flie but unto Christ for as S. Peter sayeth John 6. vers 68. Lord to whom shall wee goe thou hast the words of eternall like Therefore the Church of England teacheth all men to make their addresses to Christ onely for to him onely is to be ascribed all the honour and praise of our Redemption And the Church of England hath very good reason and warrant out of Gods Word ever to maintaine the truth of this Doctrine that the whole sum of our salvation and all the parts of it are onely to be found in Christ For otherwise they cannot yeeld unto God that honour that is due to him and is to be kept and preserved inviolably for him without any diminution neither can they findâ— that peace and comfort in their consciences if they rely upon any abilitie or forces of their owne or rest in any of their own performances in the which they know there is so much imperfection and so many failings And this were but to forsake the fountaine of living waters and to dig themselves broken cisternes which cannot hold a drop of true comfort besides all this there is great danger in so doing in all respects for to ascribe or attribute any thing unto themselves in the work of redemption is meere blasphemy in that they take away that honour that is wholly and intirely belonging to the Mediator God blessed for ever and ascribe it to a meer creature which is indeed an horrid impiety For the Prophet Isa 53. v. 4. 6. saith that the Father hath layd the iniquities of us all upon his Sonne that by his stripes wee should be healed Which very thing S. Peter in other words expresseth 1 Epist chap. 2. ver 24. saying that Christ did in his body heare our sinnes upon the Tree And S. Paul in the 8 of the Rom. v. 2 3. affirmes that sin was condemned in his flesh when He was made sinne for us and redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us 2 Cor. 5. v. 24. Gal. 3. v. 13. That is to say the power force and curse of sin was killed and slaine in his flesh when hee was offered up and given to be a Sacrifice for us upon whom the whole heape and masse of our sinnes with all the curse and malediction with the dreadfull judgement of God and condemnation of death was layd So that I say the Church of England ascribes all the honour of our redemption to Christ alone and teaches all men that if in the least thing they should rob Christ of his due honour as it is an insufferable sinne and indignity in any to do so by it they câ—â—â—ind no peace in their soules and consciences for being justified by Faith wee have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5. vers 1. who wee know hath fully satisfyed God for us but if any rely upon their owne performances or any workes done by them such is the imperfection of them and so many failings there be alwayes in them that they can never finde any reall and true peace or solid comfort but there will be ever doubtings whether in all things they have done their duty compleatly and as they ought And therefore the Church of England according to the holy Scriptures attributes the whole worke of our redemption to Christ alone and teaches the people that by his stripes they are made whole and so in this speculative belief it fayleth not The Church of England likewise diligently instructeth the people how they may be made partakers of Christ and all his benefits and shewes them the way directly of attaining this felicity and that is by teaching them selfe-deniall and 〈◊〉 humble themselves for their Iniquities Transgressions and 〈◊〉 under God mighty hand and to come out of themselves and exhorts thâ—m to â—y unto Christ and by faith alone to lay hold upon him and â—pply him with all his benefits and merits unto themselves 〈◊〉 which they may stand justified before God and sanctifiedâ— and then it teacheth them also that the ordinary way and
and all rabid cruelty and unheard of inhumanity and in that also the Church of Rome corrupteth yea annihilateth all the offices of Jesus Christ retayning onely his name but adulterating all true christian Religion and by consequence destroying the very humane nature of Jesus Christ making it present in many places at one and the same time and yet not visible a body and no body I say in all these respects a man may without any wrong done to the Church of Rome conclude that shee is no true Church nor the ground and pillar of Truth But to the end Mr. Montague that neither you or any other may think I do too highly prayse the Church of England for the purity of her Doctrine and worship and honouring of Christ or calumniate the Church of Rome when I charge her with all these things of adulterating all the true Christian Religion and annihilating all the offices of Jesus Christ c. I thought it very necessary here to parallell the Doctrine of the Church of England and that of the Church of Rome together that it may the more evidently appeare unto all men under one view as it were in a Table which of the two Churches believeth best concerning Christ his natures and offices and whether of these Religions is most sound and Orthodox touching all things necessary to be knowne and practised by all such as desire salvation by Jesus Christ And to begin with Christs Kingly office The Church of England believeth that Jesus Christ is the onely and sole King and governour of the whole Universe to whom all power in Heaven and Earth is given Mat. 28. but more especially of his Church who by God himselfe was set King over his holy mountaine Psal 2. v. 6. And that he is the King of Righteousnesse Heb. 7. The King eternall Jsa 9. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords Apoc. 17. and that he doth by his mighty power and wisdom uphold and governe all things but with a more peculiar care and in a more speciall manner preserve and defend his Church 1 Tim. 4. v. 10. as that which he hath purchased with his precious blood and by his power redeemed out of the captivity and slavery of Satan and that he is the head of his Church which is his body who infuseth life into it Righteousnesse Peace Joy Happinesse and all the graces of Wisdome and knowledge of God with certainty and assurance of his love and that his Kingdom and Empire is a spirituall and heavenly Kingdome no terrene and fading Monarchy John 18. vers 38. Luke 1. v. 33. And is uphold and governed onely by the scepter of his spirit and word and not by the authority virtue or wisdome of any humane power Shee also believeth that they are the impious and blasphemous inventions of frothy and windy ambition to affirme that Christ appointed any one to be a Vicar and Governour under him over his Church who by an infallible and unerring spirit should moderate and rule it to the end of the World and to assert that Peter was this monarch and Vicar generall and that the Pope is his successor the head and foundation of the Kingdome of Jesus Christ all these assertions and blasphemous titles the Church of England abominateth as derogatory to the honour and dignity of their Lord and King Jesus Christ and injurious and hurtfull to the salvation of mankind Shee also believeth that the Church of Christ which is his Spouse is onely to be governed and ordered by Christ her head and husbands command Will Word and Lawes as they are set downe in his holy Word and not by the decrees determinations authority and traditions either of Councels or Fathers no farther than they are consonant to his Lawes and blessed Word as they are written and set downe in the Bookes of the old and new Testament Shee believeth also that the pure Preaching of the Gospel and the right administration of the holy Sacraments and the true invocation of God are the infallible ensignes of a true Church and the never deceiving markes and notes of the same Withall shee believeth that such is the condition of the Church militant that by reason of persecutions and bloudy Tyranny and the cruelty of the enemies of it she may be brought to so low a condition and be so obscure that shee may be without any visible forme splendor and outward government and lie hid not only from publike view or the eyes of the common people but even from the sight of the dearest servants of God themselves as it hapned not onely in Elias his time but in many ages besides as the holy Scripture abundantly declareth and that the Church doth not alwaies come with observation as our Saviour said of the Kingdom of God in his time that it came not with appearance and magnificence And therefore the Church of England doth not believe that pompe state and outward worldly dignity and riches miracles multitude and grandeur are the markes and notes of a true Church but rather the very characters of the whore of Babylon who sitteth as Queen And this is the beliefe of the Church of England concerning the Kingly Office of Christ and his Kingdome the Church Now Mr. Montague let us see what the Church of Rome believes concerning Christs Kingly Office and Kingdome that both our tenents and beliefes being set downe together it may the better appeare which of our faiths is most orthodox and which of our Churches doth most glorifie and honour Christ their King and magnifie his Kingly dignity and absolute soveraignty The Church of Rome doth in words acknowledge that Christ is the King of his Church but in their workes and deeds they deny it For they make him a terrene Monarch and his Kingdome to be of this world neither doe they admit and allow him to be the sole alone and onely King of his Church but they joyne a Vicar with him and divide the care of governing his Kingdome between him and his Vicar-generall the Pope who they assert to be of an infallible and un-erring spirit and proclaime him to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords the foundation and head of the Church and Lord of all the Kingdomes of the earth that he may dispose of them as he pleaseth and give them to whom he lusteth and take them from any that hath not a desire to humour him all which are titles of blasphemy and unsufferable indignity to the King of Saints and King of Kings the Lord Jesus Christ The Church of Rome believeth and holdeth also that the Kingdome of Christ which is his Church ought to be governed not onely by the Lawes and Word of Christ but by the determinations and decrees of Fathers Councels and Synods and by the Popes Canons and the vaine and impious traditions of men which they doe not onely equalize but preferre before the holy Scriptures They also affirme that the markes and notes of Christs Kingdome are multitudes
succession miracles pompe state and magnificence antiquity unity c. and that it is and alwaies hath been in a perspicuous and glorious forme and visible appearance and the Church of Rome also affirmeth that the pure preaching of the Gospell the right administration of the Sacraments and the true invocation of God are not the notes of a true Church which is most impious to thinke All this which I have now spoke is the beliefe and faith of the Church of Rome concerning the Kingly Office of Christ and his Kingdome the Church as you well know Master Montague Now I intreat you and all men a little to consider whether the faith of the Church of England or the beliefe of the Church of Rome touching Christs Kingly Office and his Kingdome be more orthodox and which of them most honoureth Christ the King And whether the Church of Rome doth any more but in word onely acknowledge Christ to be King and his Church to be his Kingdome but in workes deny them and whether the Church of England doth not both in word and deeds truely honour him for their King and venerate his Church and Kingdome as his Spouse The Church of England gives unto Christ his due honour prerogatives and priviledges and all his glory and dignity as their onely Law-giver and to the utmost of their power and abilities endeavour that his Soveraignty and Royalty may suffer no diminution nor may in the least thing be impeached or damnified and therefore they doe believe that the honour of governing and moderating of his Church is Christs peculiar priviledge and right and so annexed to his Crowne and Royalty and so peculiarly belonging unto the Lord of life as it is blasphemy in any to assume that honour of governing upon themselves or any of his glorious titles as that of Lord of Lords and foundation of the Church which are his Prerogatives and she believes also that it is a great sin and wickednesse in any Christian to allow and approve of such derogation from their King and master Jesus Christ The Church of Rome on the contrary ascribes and gives that honour and glory and those titles of dignity which belong unto Christ onely and are his peculiar Prerogatives unto a mortall Pope Christ and his Kingdomes immortall enemy and divides the government of the Church his Kingdome between Christ and the Pope yea they doe ascribe and give unto their Pope a greater power and authority than Christ assumed unto himselfe or that they give unto Christ For their Pope may both dispense with the Law of God and Christ and breake it when he pleaseth and decree against it as you know very well Mr. Montague which Christ never did or assumed to himselfe and the Church of Rome in all things gives more honour and obedience to the Pope than to Christ For where Christ forbids if the Pope commands they will obey the Pope and neglect Christs command and make nothing of it and where Christ commands and the Pope forbids they listen unto the Pope and obey him and trample Christs command under their polluted feet But for the more cleere evidencing of this truth and that neither you Mr. Montague nor any other may say I falsely charge the Church of Rome consider I pray these few following particulars to omit many more Christ in Matth. 20. ver 25. condemneth all worldly Dominion and princely government in his Church and in expresse words forbids his Apostles and in them all their successors to affect Soveraignty one over another or over the Church of God in these words The Kings of the Nations beare rule over them but it shall not be so among you Contrary unto this command or rather prohibition of Christ the Church of Rome setteth up a most tyrannicall worldly Monarchy and Dominion ruling over both the soules bodies and estates of all sorts rankes and degrees of men and such a Soveraignty as advanceth it selfe above all that is called God and establisheth a government in Christs Kingdome most like to the government of the Kings of the Nations whereas Christ would have the government and rule of his Church most unlike to that kind of government and therefore in this particular it is manifest they preferre the Popes command before Christs the King of his Church Christ in John 5. saith Search the Scriptures for in them ye thinke to have eternall life The Church of Rome on the contrary not onely takes away the Scriptures out of the hands of the people but prohibits the searching and the reading of them yea punisheth the reading of them or but the having of them in their houses in the vulgar tongue with fire and fagot and most blasphemously accuseth them to be the cause of all errours schismes and heresies and of all factions in Kingdomes and States And in this point also you may see how they listen more unto the Pope than unto Christ himselfe Christ Luke 11. instructeth all Christians how to pray saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. And in Matth. 11. Come unto mee all yee that are weary and heavy laden c. The Church of Rome on the contrary commands the people to pray unto Saints and Angels and sends them on pilgrimages to their shrines there of them to demand health in the time of their needs and necessities In this particular in like manner they listen more to the Pope and sleight Christs direction and command Christ in the 24. of Matth. vers 26. saith If they shall say unto you that Christ is in the Desert goe not forth behold he is in the secret places believe it not The Church of Rome on the contrary teacheth and believeth that Christ is really present in all their Masses and that he is there in the hands of their Priests on their Altars and in their Pixes and where they please and that they ought there to give him Divine worship and punish the neglect of such worship with fire and sword and the not believing of that doctrine which is contrary unto Christs command with most cruell deaths and most exquisite tortures You see how in this point also the Church of Rome yeelds more obedience to the Popes command than Christs The Lord Jesus in the institution of his holy Supper Matth. 26. vers 27. tooke the Cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to his Disciples saying Drinke ye all of it The same doctrine was taught by Paul as received by Christ himselfe with a command that it should be continued untill his comming that all that were worthily prepared should take the cup as well as the bread 1 Cor. 11. Notwithstanding this double command of Christ the King the Church of Rome obeyes the Pope and practices the contrary and wholly takes away the cup from the people and will not so much as let them touch it much lesse taste of it a most abominable sacriledge and intolerable disobedience and rebellion Innumerable
set down all the things distinctly plainly and orderly that there may be no difficulty in reading of them the third thing observable is the reason why they were written and not left to Tradition because saith the Evangelist thou maist know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast beene instructed So that the Lord declares by these words that the Pen-men of the holy Scripture did not write accidentally and upon any slight occasion and of their own wills and peculiar motion but that they were moved unto it by God himselfe and that all Scripture was given by Gods inspiration and command and for this end that they may know the certainty of the things wherein they have beene instructed which otherwise they could not have knowne by reason of the great variety and difference that would have beene in them if they had beene delivered by Tradition for every one would have added and detracted as had seemed best unto him unto the story as we see it dayly in all matters and occurrences out of a mans owne sight and beholding with what variety these things many times are related so that no man can tell the truth of them till the eye-witnesses or standers by give the true relation of them by writing to the World which men ordinarily use to believe especially if these men be of credit and reputation that pen them So for the very same end that the certainty of these things might bee knowne that Christ both taught did and suffered for the Redemption of mankind and for the good of the Church to the end of the World the Lord moved holy men to both speake and write what was spoke and written in the old and new Testament for the learning of his people and the teaching of them Patience Comfort Hope Faith and all other graces and that they might indeed have the certainty of his will and pleasure what to cleave and stick to and from which they may not be moved though they should be taught otherwise by an Angell from Heaven Gal. 1. vers 8. And this I say was the end of the writing of the holy Word of God and that by Gods inspiration dictate and command and not accidentally as the Church of Rome blasphemously affirmeth for the enervating of the authority of the holy Scriptures and indeed for the overthrowing of the honour and dignity of our great Prophet Christ Jesus who otherwise should not be as faithful as Moses in the house of God if he had not commanded all things to be writ that he would have taught to his people which is blasphemy to thinke And thus much shall suffice to have spoke for proofe of my first argument that the holy Scriptures were written by Divine inspiration and Gods command and of set purpose and not accidentally and by the Will of men My second Argument is this That which was written for the safety of the people and for the preserving of them in the true Religion that was not accidentally written or by the will of man but by Gods appointment and of set purpose and for the good of all the Church but the holy Scriptures were written for the safety of the people and for the preserving of them in the true Religion Ergo they were not accidentally written or by the will of man but by Gods appointment and of set purpose For proofe of this heare what Paul saith Phil. 3. vers 1. Finally my Brethren saith he rejoyce in the Lord. To write the same things to you to mee indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe Beware of doggs beware of evill workers c. He had preached unto them and taught them the Truth formerly and given them also caveats to take heede of and beware of doggs and of evill workers that is of false Teachers but he did not thinke that sufficent for their safety and for the preserving of them in the Truth unlesse he did set downe in writing the sum of what he had taught and send it unto them with a command also that they should walke and order their faith and manners their lives and conversations according to that they were instructed in by him both in word and example vers 16. Saying let us walke by the same rule I then gave you and now in writing send unto you and see yee swarve not from it and from our example for it is safe for you so to do and by that you shall be preserved from the errors of false Teachers But take notice I pray of the Apostles expression he doth not say only that it was for their safety that he wrote unto them but that it was for their safety that he wrote the same things hee had taught them before to shew unto all men their weakenesse how soon they are ready to forget the things that are taught them of God and how frayle they are and ready to be seduced from the true Religion if they had not the Scripture to guide and direct them and if the Christians in the Apostles time had need of the written word for their safety and that they might be preserved from the errors of the times and they were then tyed to be ruled and governed by them how much more neede have we of the holy Scriptures now when wee have not the holy Apostles amongst us and with how much care and diligence ought we constantly to reade and cleave unto the holy Scriptures seeing that they were by Gods appointment and inspiration and not accidentally written for this very purpose that they might be a rule of direction to us for the preserving of us in the true Religion S. Peter likewise in his second Epistle chap. 1. confirmeth the same truth in these words vers 12. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though yee know them and be established in the present truth 13. Yea I thinke it meete as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance vers 15. Moreover I will indeavour that yee may be able after my decease to have these things alwayes in remembrance In these words we may take notice of these particulars first that those S. Peter wrote unto were not ignorant people but knowing and understanding people and such as were grounded and established in the Truth the second particular that S. Peter neverthelesse thought it meete to stirre them up and put them in remembrance whiles he lived and that they might also be able after his decease to have these things alwayes in remembrance and that the Scriptures might be the everlasting rule to all sorts and degrees of people yea the most learned and knowing men and the most established in the Truth have need of the Scriptures for their still direction and that not for a time but alwayes and this was the end for which the holy Scriptures were pend and that by Gods own appointment who inspired the holy Prophets and Apostles
and all the other Pen-men of the Sacred writ and dictated unto them what they should write and all for the establishing of the people more and more in the Truth and that they might not be carried about with every winde of Doctrine Eph. 4. v. 14. And therefore it doth of necessity follow that the Word of God was not accidentally written or by the will of man but by Gods appointment and by his holy Spirit and of set purpose And this shall suffice to have spoken of my second Argument My third Argument is this That of which there was a necessity of writing for the common salvation and for the encouragement of all Christians earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints that was not penned accidentally and occasionally by the peculiar motion and will of man but by the inspiration and moving of the Holy Ghost and of set purpose But the sacred Scriptures were written of necessity for the common salvation and for the animating and encouragement of all Christians earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Ergo they were not accidentally and occasionally penned and by the peculiar instigation of man but by the inspiration and moving of the Holy Ghost and of set purpose And for proofe of this see what Saint Jude saith ver 3. Beloved saith he when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 2. v. 21. I have not written saith he unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it c. and in the 14 15 16. vers Let that therefore abide in you saith he which ye have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning remaine in you ye shall also continue in the Sonne and in the Father And that is the promise that he hath promised even eternall life These things have I writ unto you concerning them that seduce you Here the Apostle Saint John writes unto knowing and understanding Christians and sets before their eyes the examples of some that were fallen away and gone from them to the end to make them more watchfull and diligent in taking heed unto themselves that they be not led away by the errour of the world but saith he they were not of us for then they would have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us And withall he forewarnes them of false Teachers and gives them rules of direction in writing and directs them to all sorts of people fathers young men and very little children to the end they should all read them and have them continually by them and observe them diligently if they would be preserved from all errours according to that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. vers 12. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and that they might not fall away from the truth he exhorts them in the place above cited to abide in the truth which they had heard from the beginning that was in the faith once delivered unto the Saints and for their comfort he assureth them if that truth they have heard from the beginning shall remaine in them they shall also continue in the Sonne and in the Father that is they shall have eternall life and not onely be freed here from all the errours of the times and of Antichrist but be everlastingly blessed as the expresse words declare and therefore he tieth them all to the written Word which was of purpose penned by the inspiration of the holy Ghost and by the appointment of God and his peculiar motion and not accidentally and by the will of man and for this very end that they might not by vaine Traditions and erroneous opinions of any Antichrists be seduced and fall away as others had done And thus much shall serve to have spoke for the confirmation of my third Argument The fourth and last followeth That which God himselfe writ with his owne hand and that which was penned by speciall command from himselfe for the salvation and edification of the whole Church that was not accidentally and occasionally written and by the peculiar motion of the Pen-men or by the will of man but by the speciall appointment of God and by the inspiration of his holy Spirit and of set purpose but the holy Scriptures were all of them either written by God himselfe and with his owne hand or by his speciall command and appointment and by the inspiration of his holy Spirit and of set purpose for the salvation and edification of the whole Church Ergo they were not accidentally or occasionally written and by the peculiar motion of the Pen-men or by the will of man For proofe of all which let us see what the holy Scripture saith of these things Exod. 31. ver 18. Thus when the Lord had made an end of communing with Moses upon Mount Sinai he gave him two Tables of the Testimony Tables of Stone written with the finger of God And chap. 32. v. 16. Deut. 9. v. 10. The Lord had spoke all these words out of the Mount and there fully declared his will unto them with thunderings and lightnings as is at large described in Exod. 20. yet such was his infinite mercy and love to his people and so gracious he was towards them and so desirous that they might not forget this Law and by that fall into errour and faile in their duty of thankfulnesse and obedience to him in their duty of love and charity towards their brethren as he recorded it and writ it with his owne hand that they might have a more venerable esteeme of it and that not in Paper or Parchment but in more durable materials in two Tables of Stone distinctly and orderly set downe to teach them that it was a perpetuall Law ever binding and to continue to the end of the world And when the Tables were by Moses out of zeale broke the Lord againe of his unspeakeable goodnesse commanded others to be made and he wrote on the Tables according unto the first writing the ten Commandements c. Deut. 10. v. 1 2 3 4. Now that which was written by God himselfe for the salvation of his people and for the preserving of them from all errour that was writ of set purpose and not accidentally and occasionally and by the peculiar motion of man as all men that have not abjured their reason will easily perceive But that is not all Mr. Montague that is to be taken notice of here but we are to consider likewise that what the Lord writ in the two Tables was sufficient to the salvation of his people if we had had no more written so that none could have complained that God
should be a rule of our faith and manners and that it is the very Word of God and his lively Oracles as having the testimony of Christ himselfe Luke 24 Luke 16. John 5. and many other places and Saint Paul Rom. 3. and Saint Peter in his second Epistle chap. 3. v. 15 16. confirmes the authenticality of St. Pauls Epistles and of all the holy Scriptures and affirmes that they were written for the comfort and benefit of all the faithfull and commands them to make them the rule and guide of their faith and manners which if they doe he promiseth them that they shall not be led away by the errour of the wicked and from their owne stedfaâ—â—nesse but that they shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus which is his prayer that they might do and it is and shall be my earnest prayer for you also Mr. Montague that the Lord would open your eyes and that you may see your errours and renounce them and at last believe that the holy Scriptures are Gods very Word and were writ by his speciall command and are to be the rule of our fath and manners and by the which we shall be judged at the last day And this shall suffice to have spoke concerning this point Now I come to prove that the holy Scriptures are not obscure and darke but cleare and perspicuous in all things that concerne salvation David in the 19. Psal ver 7 8. The Law of the Lord saith he is perfect converting the soule The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the Commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes Here are two things Master Montague confirmed by David who wrote by the Spirit of God which cannot erre the first is that the Law of the Lord is perfect and converting the soule and making wise the simple the second that it is cleare illuminating the eyes What Blasphemy then is it in the Church of Rome to accuse the whole Scripture not onely of imperfection but of darknesse and obscurity Yea what else is it but to give the Holy Ghost the lie who saith that the holy Scripture is not onely perfect but illuminating and enlightning the eyes And in Psalm 119. v. 103. Thy Word saith he is a Lampe unto my feet and a light to my waies And in the 130 verse The entrance of thy Word saith he giveth light it giveth understanding to the simple So that there are none Master Montague that will not turne their backe upon this Lampe but may see the light of it And in Proverb 1. ver 2 3 4 5. among the praises of the holy Word he saith That it giveth subtilty to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion And in the 6. chap. ver 23. he saith That the Commandement is a Lampe and the Law is light And in chap. 8. ver 8 9. All the words of my mouth saith he are in righteousnesse c. they are all plaine to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledge Infinite places to this purpose might be cited but I will content my selfe onely with two more out of the New Testament 2 Cor. 4. v. 3 4. If our Gospell saith the Apostle be hid it is hid to them that are lost to whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine into them Take notice Mr. Montague that as the Sunne though it shineth forth never so gloriously and in all its greatest brightnesse yet the blind see never the more in like manner though the holy Scripture be never so cleare and perspicuous in all things necessary to salvation yet the unbelievers and incredulous whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded they can neither see nor comprehend the light of them St. Peter in his second Epistle chap. 1. v. 19. We have also saith he a more sure word of Prophesie whereunto you doe well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the Day-starre arise in your hearts If the holy Apostle Peter compares the writings of the Old Testament to a light and the Scripture of the New Testament unto the Day-starre what wickednesse then is it Mr. Montague in the Church of Rome to accuse all the holy Scriptures of obscurity and darknesse and to make them the cause of all errours and heresies and of all confusions I will now Mr. Montague briefly prove that the people ought to read the holy Scriptures and that it is their duty to study them diligently and that it is a great and insufferable injury and wrong done to them by the Church of Rome to take the Scriptures out of their hands and to prohibite the reading of them for in that they like the Scribes Pharisees and Lawyers take away from them the Key of knowledge and the meanes of their salvation Luke 11. v. 52. contrary to the command of God and Christs precept who was the onely Prophet of his Church whom we are bound to heare and obey in all things Matth. 3. Matth. 17. This Master Montague I will first doe and then come to the point The Lord after that he had proclaimed his Law unto the people and writ it with his owne hand commanded all the people carefully to observe to doe according to that he had taught them and that they might the better remember it he enjoynes them to keepe it in their hearts and to write it upon the Posts of their houses and on their gates the words are these Deut. 6. ver 6 7 8 9 All these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talke of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up And thou shalt bind them for a signe upon thy hand and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and on the gates And in the 11. chapter of the same booke he reiterates the same command vers 18 19 20. Therefore saith the Lord shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soule and bind them for a signe upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes And ye shall teach them your children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest downe and when thou risest up and thou shalt write them upon the doore posts of thine house and upon thy gates Here is precept upon precept as if the Lord could never have spoke enough unto the people to stir them up to the diligent learning and studying of his holy Lawes and all for
their owne good that their daies might be multiplied and the daies of their children as the daies of Heaven upon the earth vers 21. So that it had been a prodigious thing in Israel to forbid the people the reading of Moses his writings and books when God commanded all the people without exception to write his Laws upon the posts of their doores and upon their gates to the end that all men of what ranke or quality soever they were might read them and square their lives according to them and yet the Church of Rome contrary unto Gods command forbids the people either to read or have the Scripture in their houses And in the 34. of Isaiah ver 16. Seeke ye out of the booke of the Lord and read c. The Prophet here addresseth his speech to all the people of the earth as is evident by the beginning of the chapter And in Malachi 4. vers 4. Remember ye saith the Prophet the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and judgements Here likewise all the people are commanded and enjoyned to the reading and remembring of Moses Law Yea Kings themselves and Governours are commanded to read the Law and to governe themselves and the people committed to their charge according to the Law of God Deut. 17. ver 18 19. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdome that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a booke out of that which is before the Priests and the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the daies of his life that he may learne to feare the Lord his God and to keep all the words of his Law and these statutes to doe them that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turne not aside from the Commandement to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdome hee and his children in the middest of Jsrael Hâ—re we see the Kings themselves are as strictly commanded to keepe the Law of God as the meanest of the people And Josua 1. v. 7 8. Only be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest observe to doe according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee turne not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goâ—st This book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then thou shall have good successe Josua was the Generall of their Army and yet hee is by an expresse command injoyned to reade and meditate in the holy Scriptures night and day and commanded not to turne to the right hand or to the left but to order his life and governe the people according to the same all the dayes of his life And Josua in the 23 Chap. vers 6. exhorts the people saying Be ye of a valiant courrage to observe and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses that ye turne not there-from to the right hand or to the left He ties all the people to the written Law and commands universall and constant obedience unto it and promiseth them blessings from God if they shal obey and pronounceth judgements from God against them if they shall rebell and be disobedient and for the more animating of them to the duty of obedience he sets his own example before them Chap. 24. v. 15. with his resolution that hee and his house would serve the Lord if others would not and by that he teacheth every one their duty that if all the world would go from God yet every one of us is particularly bound to cleave unto him and the way to cleave unto the Lord is to follow the direction of his Law and continually to have it before our eyes and in our hearts according to Solomons counsell frequently set down My sonne saith he Pro. 3. vers 1. Forget not my Law but let thy heart keepe my Commandements for length of dayes and yeares of life and peace shall they adde unto thee Let not mercy and truth forsake thee binde them about thy necke write them upon the Table of thy heart So shalt thou finde favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man Solomon contents not himselfe only to teach all men their duty but withall shewes them the benefit that redoundeth and ariseth from it viz. All manner of blessing according to that of S. Paul the first of Timoth. chap. 4. vers 8. Godlinesse is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come And in the sixth Chap. vers 20. My sonne saith he keepe thy fathers commandement and forsake not the Law of thy mother That Law saith Solomon that God gave unto thy Father and to thy Mother and injoyned them in the sixt of Deut. and the 11. to teach unto their children that Law and Commandement keep thou and forsake it not yea binde them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck When thou goest it shall leade thee when thou sleepest it shall keepe thee and when thou awakest it shall talke with thee for the Commandement is a Lampe and the Law is light and reproofes of instruction are the way of life Infinite places more might be alledged out of all the holy Scriptures of the old Testament where all the holy Prophets exhort the people to the studying meditating and reading of the Law and where they pronounce them blessed that delight and meditate in the Law night and day Psal 1. But now let us see what Christ and his Apostles taught us in the new Testament and what the practise of all the Saints and holy men of God was in those dayes Christ in John 5. v. 38. saith Search the Scriptures for in them yee thinke to have eternall life and they are they that testify of mee And in Luke 16. vers 29.30 in the person of Abraham hee sends all that deâ—â—re salvation and to be freed from the torments of Diâ—eâ— to Moses and the Prophets and bids them heare them And tells them farther 〈◊〉 if â—â—y will not heare Moses and the Prophets though one should arise from the dead they would not be perswaded no miracles will be so prevalent and available either to instruct them or deterre them from their sinfull courses as Moses and the Prophets and therefore the Lord Jesus the Prophet of his Church ties them to the written Word And in both these places our Saviour speaketh unto all the people and not unto the Doctors and Teachers onely And S. Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles writing to the Colossians and in them to all Christians as S. Peter in his second Epistle confirmeth
Chap. 3. vers 16.17 saith Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all Wisdome teaching and admonishing one another in Psalmes and hymnes and spirituall songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever yee do in word or deede do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him words Mr. Montague worthy of serious consideration The Apostle sayes not let the Word of God be received into your Families and be sure you have it among your Bookes that you may now and then reade it but saith he let it dwell in you let it be in your hearts and reside there and let it dwell richly in your hearts not in a poore and beggerly manner content not your selves only with the knowledge of some parts of it and storyes of it but be furnished with the full knowledge of all the holy Scriptures that like the good Scribe you may be ever able and ready to bring out of the old and new Treasury that is out of all the old and new Testament the sweete and comfortable promises and gracious instructions by which you may alwayes be able in all conditions to support and comfort your selves and teach and instruct others and let it be your rule and direction for the ordering of your thoughts words and actions that whatsoever you do in word or deede you may doe all in the name of the Lord Jesus all according to his will that you may with rejoycing call upon his name for his speciall assistance and blessing upon what you either do or goe about which you with boldnesse and assurance of being heard may doe if you do that which is good and according to his will and word and therefore be sure you do nothing neither secretly nor openly that you have not a warrant for out of Gods Word and in the doing of the which you may never be ashamed though all the World did see you which you shall never be if you follow the direction of the Word of God and continually set the rule of his Law before your eyes and have it written in your heart which will ever teach you that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our lives Lu. 1. vers 74.75 These are the imployments of Christians holinesse and righteousnesse before him in Gods presence not for a time but all the dayes of our lives universall and constant obedience to be holy in all manner of conversation is required of Christians by the Law of God 1 Pet. 1. and that yee may be alwayes thus imployed and taken up and teach and admonish others concerning their duty and speake the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4. vers 11. Let the Word of God saith he dwell in you richly let it alwayes cohabit with you and reside in your soule that you may live by faith and die with comfort and therefore doe nothing contrary unto this blessed Word and grieve not the holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes 4. vers 30. Mr. Montague I shall now intreate you a little to consider with your selfe and examine how the Church of Rome obeyes these-precepts and commands of God and of the great Prophet and of the blessed Apostle and whether or no by her disobedience and Rebellion shee deservedly hath not lost the Title of a true Church which by S. Paul first of Tim. 3. is called the ground and Pillar of truth in that every true Church putteth not the Candle and light of the Word under a Bushell but setteth it up and holdeth it forth maintaines and defendeth it and offereth it to the view and hearing of every one But doth the Church of Rome this Mr. Montague Nay doth shee not take the Word of God the everlasting Gospell out of the hands of the people and deprive them of that Key of knowledge and punish the reading of it with severest cruelty and the but having of it in their houses in the vulgar Tongue with the Inquisition and death Christ our Prophet sayth Search the Scriptures S. Paul the Teacher of the Gentiles sayth Let the Word of God dwell in you richly c. And the Church of Rome prohibiteth the reading of the Scripture and is so farre from letting the Word of God dwell in the hearts of the people that shee will not permit them to have it in their houses How then is she I pray you the ground and pillar of Truth when shee is the mother of error and confusion for our Saviour in the 22 of Matthew sayth Yee erre not knowing the Scriptures That Church then that taketh away the Scriptures from the People is no true Church but an erroneous and false Church Consider I pray what I say and suffer not your selfe to be deluded But I will go on a little farther to shew the wickednesse and sacrilegious dealing of the Church of Rome in this point and how farre shee is gone from both the precepts of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all the holy Apostles and from the example and practice of all the Primitive Christians whose examples in all well-doing wee are bound to follow Christ in Luke 11. vers 28. sayth Blessed are they which heare the Word of God and keepe it If they be blessed that heare the Word of God and keepe it then they also are no lesse blessed that reade the Word of God and keepe it So saith S. John Revel 1. chap. 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that heare the words of this Prophecy and keepe those things that are written therein for the time is at hand If our Saviour Christ and his blessed Apostles were upon the earth men and women would desire to heare their Sermons What a wickednesse and sacriledge thâ—n is it in the Church of Rome to hinder the people of blessednesse and to keepe them from happinesse and life eternall when they will not let them read the Sermons Christ and his Apostles preached unto the people What will they be able to answer to the righteous Judge of the whole World at the last day for their unrighteous and unâ—ust dealing in robbing the poore people of the Word of Life S. Peter saith 2 Epiâ—t chap. 1. vers 19. Wee have a more sure Word of prophesy to which you dâ—e well to take heed as to a light in a darke place Here S. Peter prayses and commends those that reade the holy prophets and his pretended successor the Pope hee blames those that reade the Gospell and punisheth with fire and faggot those that have either Law or Gospell in their houses What thinke you Mr. Montague of this businesse Tell mee ingenuously the next time I see you what you thinke of your father the Pope whether hee be not as honest a Genleman as ever went over a house Now I pray looke upon the practice
of the primitive Christians it is said of that noble Eunuch Acts 8. vers 27.28 to his eternall prayse that came to Jerusalem to worship that as hee returned sitting in his Chariot hee read Esaias the Prophet Without doubt if hee read him before he was a Christian he read him much more and more frequently after hee was a Christian and if hee read the Prophets before hee understood them it is very like that he was a more diligent Reader of them when he understood them and yet notwithstanding Mr. Montague this was no Church-man that I may speake in your dialect but a secular Lord the Treasurer of the Queene of Ethiopia It was his greatest honour that he was a reader of the holy Scripture and in the Church of Rome it is an infamy and hainous crime that is expiated with death for any secular men to reade the Prophecies and Scriptures or to have them in their houses What thinke you I pray Mr. Montague of this dealing of the Church of Rome towards her sonnes and children Is shee not a very cruell step-mother that thus murthereth her poore childrens soules and bodies that snatcheth the Paps and Breasts by which they should be nourished out of their mouthes and keepes away the Milke of the word from them It is said of the Bereans Act. 17. vers 11. to their everlasting honour that they were more noble than they which were at Thessalonica and wherefore were they more honorable because saith S. Luke they received the Word with all readiness searching the Scriptures dayly whether those things were so And this was a thing very laudable in them and left for our imitation and to be a Lesson for all men that they should examine whatsoever is taught them and by whomsoever by the holy Scripture which to do in the Church of Rome would be punished with all severity as you know very well Mr. Montague It was Timothies praise 2 Tim. 3. v. 15. That he knew the Scriptures from his child-hood and that in those tender yeares hee read the Word of God Here we have the example of a youth to his ever honour who was acquainted with the holy Scriptures and the very reading of them would be punished in old men in Italy or under the Popes Dominions What a desperate height of sacrilegious wickednesse is the Church of Rome now arrived to that dares against the command of God and against all justice and honesty take the Word of God and the holy Scriptures out of the hands of the people for whose cause principally they were writ For the Apostles writ most of their Epistles not to the Presbyters and Bishops but to the Churches in generall To the Churches of God to the sanctified in Jesus Christ and to all those that call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ So Paul to the Corinthians the 1. Chap. 1. vers 2. 2 Cor. 2. vers 1. Galat. 1. vers 2. Ephes 1. vers 1 c. And that hee might cleerly demonstrate that hee writes as well to the people as to the Ministers and Pastors he discriminateth and distinguisheth them Phil. 1. v. 1. Paul and Timothy servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Jesus Christ which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deanes And S. James addresseth his Epistle to the twelve Tribes that are scattered abroade Iames 1. vers 1. And S. Peter writes his first Epistle to the strangers scattered through Pontus Galatia Cappadâ—cia Asia and Bithynia vers 1. And his second Epistle is yet more generall To them that have obtained like pretious faith with us through the Righteousnesse of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ vers 1. What unjustice therefore is it Mr. Montague in the Church of Rome to take these Epistles out of the hands of Christians and Believers to whom they are sent and dedicated S. Iohn in his first Epistle and second Chap. saith that hee writes to Fathers to young men and to little children to this end to oblige and tie all people of what age quality or degree soever they be to reade his Epistle Hee writes his second to an honorable Lady who without doubt made no scruple to reade it in her Family But in the Church of Rome this is not permitted to the people to reade the holy Scriptures or to heare them read in the vulgar Tongue without eminent danger and severe punishment if it be known Although the Apostle in expresse formall words hath commanded that his Epistles should be read by all the people as we may see in his Letters to the Colossians Cha. 4. v. 16. and to the Thessalonians When yee have read this Epistle saith he cause that it be read also in Laodicea c. And in the first of Thess 5. vers 27. I charge you by the Lord saith the Apostle that this Epistle be read to all the holy Brethren But in the Church of Rome such a miserable and degenerating age we live in the holy Scriptures are snatcht and taken out of the hands of the people and impious Legends and scurrilous Pamphlets are put into their hands But to conclude this point S. John in 1 Revelation vers 3. Blessed are they saith S. John that reade and they that heare the words of this Prophesy and keepe those things which are written therein If the Spirit of God Mr. Mountague calls and pronounces those blessed that read the Booke of the Revelation that is the difficultest of all the Scriptures how much more blessed ought wee to thinke those that read the holy Gospells and all the Epistles of the holy Apostles and the other Scriptures which containe many things in them yea all things necessary to salvation very familiar and easy to be understood Therefore needs must that people bee unhappy yea cursed that are deprived not onely of so great felicity but of all true comfort By all this that I have now said to prove that the sacred Scriptures were not accidentally written but by command and that to be a rule of direction to all and that they are not darke and obscure and that the people ought to reade them and study them all which our great Prophet the Lord Jesus hath both taught and confirmed and his blessed Apostles after him whom he hath commanded us to hear saying He that heareth you heareth mee and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent mee Luke 10. vers 16. It is very evident that the Church of Rome doth onely in word acknowledge Christ to bee the King Priest and Prophet of his Church but in workes overthrow all his offices and annihilate as much as in them lies the whole worke of our Redemption and the whole worship of God by bringing in a worship and service of their own which neither the King Priest and Prophet of his Church nor any of his blessed Apostles hath ever taught us But it wil yet more cleerly be elucidated by that that insueth when I shal manifestly prove that
have given an answer to your cavill and evasions which was this that Saint Paul in this place spake onely of the Scriptures of the old Testament because said you Paul writes only of those Scriptures which Timothy had learned from his youth and they were onely the Scriptures of the old Testament that Timothy was instructed in This Mr. Montague was your evasion which if it be true will notwithstanding adde force and strength unto my argument as I then proved and shall by and by more clearely and fully evince But Mr. Montague that Saint Paul in this place joynes the Scriptures of the new Testament with those of the old is most manifest by the addition following saying Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ which words perspicuously evince that to the knowledge of the old Testament he joyneth likewise the doctrine of the Gospell and the Scriptures of the new Testament But you then replied that the doctrine of the new Testament was not at that time written and committed to Pen but onely delivered viva voce and received by Tradition But all this you spake without either ground or any good reason and against all light of right understanding For it is well knowne that this very Epistle to Timothy was either the last or one of the last Saint Paul ever writ it being a little before his death as appeares by the six and seventh verses of the fourth chapter where he saith I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith hence forth there is laid up for me a Crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but to all them that love his appearing So that it is evident that most of all Pauls Epistles were written before this time neither will you deny Master Montague but his first Epistle to Timothy was written before this and in that he had given to Timothy and in him to all the Ministers of the Gospell a perpetuall and sufficient rule how to order and governe the Church unto the worlds end so that all men may perceive that the Apostle joynes the Scriptures of the new Testament with them of the old when he addes through faith which is in Jesus Christ And for further evidence of this consider what Saint Peter writes in his second Epistle chap. 3. ver 15 16. in these words Even as our beloved brother Paul according unto the wisdome given unto him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things c. This Mr. Montague as all men of ordinary wit and all Historians acknowledge was writ some good time and space before this last Epistle and a good time before his death so that the Epistle that Paul writ to the Hebrews his Countreymen to whom Peter also at that time in their dispersion writeth and most of his other Epistles if not all were written when Peter writ this Epistle which by all probability was long before Saint Paul wrote his last Epistle to Timothy so that if you please to take an accurate account of the times it will be evident that all the Apostolicall writings and the whole Scriptures of the New Testament or almost all were then written when Paul writ his last Epistle to Timothy so that not onely the most of Pauls Epistles as Peter witnesseth but Peters first and second Epistle also were then written So that your cavill Mr. Montague and evasion was but a demonstration of the weaknesse of your cause and in nothing impeaches or enervates the dint and force of the argument but rather addes strength and vigour unto it for if I should grant you which I cannot with any reason that the holy Scriptures of the new Testament were not then written when Paul writ his last Epistle to Timothy it would be nothing to the purpose or a matter of any moment seeing that afterward all the doctrine of the new Testament was written and commended by the Pens of the Apostles and Evangelists to future ages and to this end that they should order their faith and regulate all their doctrines and manners according to them with an especiall command from St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. vers 6. That they should not be wise above that which was written Saint John also denouncing a fearefull woe and curse to all those that shall adde unto the holy Scriptures or detract from them Revel 22. ver 18 19. which all they doe Mr. Montague that accuse the holy Scriptures of imperfection which is a great taking away from their perfection and from the honour that belongeth unto them and when they not onely joyne their owne Traditions to the holy Scriptures but preferre them before them which is not onely to be wise above that which is written but prodigiously to adde unto the holy Scriptures which makes you all liable to that curse denounced by Saint John So that if you Master Montague repent not of this so great a sinne The Lord will take away your part out of the booke of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in the Scriptures But now Master Montague I will make it evident that the argument will be of more force and more convince your erroneous opinion of the insufficiency of the holy Scriptures and prove the authority and al-sufficiency of them if the Apostle Paul should there speake onely of the Scriptures of the old Testament as you and your brethren would have him and not of the new also And thus I prove it If the Scriptures of the old Testament are able to make men wise unto salvation much more then are all the holy Scriptures both of the old and new joyned together when those of the new Testament fully and clearely interpret the old and with open face the vaile being taken away set forth Christ unto us I say much more then are they being all joyned with the old Testament able to make men wise to salvation But the antecedent is true ergo the consequent The truth is Master Montague they that say the holy Scriptures containe not all things in them necessary to salvation and that they are not without the Traditions of men able to make us wise to salvation blaspheme and give the lie unto the Spirit of God which affirmeth the contrary saying that they are able to make a man wise to salvation And whosoever Mr. Montague shall deny this golden sentence of Paul that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and profitable c. vers 26. to belong unto the the Scriptures of the new Testament would be thought worthy not onely to be spewed out of the Schooles of all learned Divines but indeed out of the number of all Christians and adjudged unfit for all godly mens society But that
Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets containe all things in them that pertaine unto the old Testament and in expresse words call it a Covenant or Testament and the bookes of the new Testament doe not comprehend all those things that belong unto the new Testament which is also called a Covenant in those Divine writings then the Scripture of the old Testament is perfecter than the Scripture of the new Testament or neither of them both answer to their inscription but the consequent is most false impious and blasphemous false likewise and impious must the antecedent needs be For the consequence Mr. Montague of this hypotheticall connexion it is manifest from the very inscriptions of both the old and new Testament who are called Covenants or Testaments For Saint Paul in the second of Corinth chap. 3. ver 14. speaking there of the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets cals them a Covenant or Testament in these words For saith he untill this day remaineth the same vaile untaken away in the reading of the old Testament which vaile is done away in Christ And Moses in the 29. of Deut. v. 21. According saith he to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this booke of the Law And in the second of the Kings chap. 23. ver 21. it is called the booke of the Covenant The holy Scriptures of the new Testament also are in many places called a Covenant or Testament as in that place Gal. 3. v. 15. Heb. 12. ver 20. And it is most certaine that the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament answer unto their inscription and title neither can there any thing be produced that is not contained in the writings of the holy Prophets that can truly be said to belong unto the old Testament and the knowledge and faith of which thought necessary to the salvation of those that lived under the old Testament Now if the same be not concluded or granted concerning the new Testament who will not easily from thence inferre that the Scripture of the old Testament is perfecter then that of the new and that the Scriptures of the holy Apostles and Evangelists doe not answer to their inscription and title and this title or inscription the new Testament should be interpreted something belonging unto the new Testament which how absurd it is Master Montague you your selfe will easily perceive and therefore that has no need of any farther proofe But for any man to thinke or say that the Scripture of the new Testament is lesse perfect than that of the old is to give the Spirit of God the lie and to overthrow all the doctrine of the holy Apostles and to deny their expresse words as those of Paul in the second of the Corinth chap. 3. ver 8. and ver 18. and them of 2. Peter chap. 1. ver 19. where the Apostle Peter comparing the Scriptures of the old Testament and the new together he compares the old to a candle and the new to a Day-starre Neither yet Master Montague have I ever seene that Christian that durst affirme the Scriptures of the old Testament to be more perfect than them of the new so that this may suffice to have spoke for proofe of my Assumption and from the proofe of it I conclude that the Scriptures of the old and new Testament as they answer to their title and inscription so no man ought under paine and danger of execration to adde unto them or detract from them therefore they have all things in them necessary for the salvation of the Church without the Traditions of men or their unwritten verities Much more Master Montague could I speake for proofe of this truth and to the which you should never be able to answer but that I would not weary you or trouble your patience but lesse than this I could not speake And all that I have here set down doth evidently declare unto you these two things First that the Church of Rome doth onely in word acknowledge Christs Prophetical Office allow him to be a Prophet but in deeds and workes deny it when they heare him in nothing and not onely take away the Scriptures out of the hands of the people for whose cause they were written with a speciall command also that they should read them with a blessing added unto the command but affirm that they were accidentally written and not by the command of God and that they are obscure and darke and that they are not perfect and compleat in themselves without the Traditions of the Church Councels Fathers and the decrees of Synods be joyned to them all which are not onely impious and blasphemous tenents but as I said before overthrow the whole Propheticall Office of Christ and all Christian Religion and bring in other Prophets and another Law and Religion for the serving of God which they themselves have devised by all which they prove themselves to be no true Church and not to be the pillar and ground of truth but the very basis of all errour and abomination and this is the first thing that resulteth from the conclusion of this discourse The second is this that when the Church of England holdeth and believeth all these things viz. that Christ is the onely Prophet of his Church and onely to be heard that he hath fully revealed the will of God to his Church and that the Scriptures were written by the command of God himselfe and that they are not obscure but cleare and perspicuous and that they ought to be read of the people and that they containe all things in them necessary to salvation without the addition of any Traditions of men it followeth that she thinketh and believeth farre more honourably of the Propheticall Office of Christ than the Church of Rome and that she believeth as she ought to believe and is built upon the foundation of Peter and is the ground and pillar of truth and onely dependeth upon the Word and voice of Christ her true sole and alone Prophet And now Mr. Montague I am come to the last thing I undertooke to prove viz. that all Christians are tied to the written Word of God to the end of the world as we finde it penned in the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament and that the written Word of God and that onely is to be the rule of our faith and manners and that we are not to swarve or to depart from it or to listen to any doctrines whatsoever that are not either grounded upon the expresse words of the Scripture or necessarily and infallibly deduced from them or to admit in matters of faith of any Traditions Councels or Fathers no farther than they are consentany and agreeable to the holy Scriptures yea that wee ought not to listen to any doctrines whatsoever are contrary to the revealed Will of God in the Scriptures though the Apostles themselves should rise from the dead to teach us otherwaies than we have been taught or
to walke in for the attaining unto eternall happinesse they are the rule that all men are to be guided by and therefore he proclaimeth him blessed that delighteth in the Law of the Lord and doth meditate in it night and day Psal 1. Solomon likewise in Prov. 3. v. 1 2 3. and in Prov. 6. v. 20 21 22 23. and in many other places sendeth his sonne and all the people to the Law of the Lord for the rule of their lives and manners saying My sonne keepe thy fathers commandement and forsake not the law of thy mother Bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy necke when thou goest it shall lead thee and when thou sleepest it shall keepe thee and when thou awakest it shall talke with thee For the Commandement is a Lampe and the Law is light and reproofes of instruction are the way of life And in Eccles 12. v. 13. Let us heare saith he the conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keepe his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man By all which places it appeareth that the holy Prophets made the written Word of God and that onely the rule of their lives and manners and commanded all people to have ever recourse unto that and that onely for the square to order their lives by And the Prophet Isaiah in the 8. v. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony saith he if they spake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them There was no other rule Mr. Montague knowen to the Prophets for the directing of the people how to serve God and to which they were tied but the Law and Testimonies the written Word and if under the Law they were ever to have recourse unto the Scripture and nothing in matter of faith was to be received which was not contained in the Scripture it was then a perfect rule and the onely rule by which they were to be guided and much more now Mr. Montague ought we to content our selves with the Word of God and to make that the onely rule of our faith and manners and of all our doctrines when the doctrine of the Gospell also written by the Apostles and Evangelists is joyned unto the Law the which hath also fully explained the meaning of all those hidden mysteries and shadowes and brought us into the cleare sunshine of all truths and hath indeed taught us the way the truth and the life The Prophet Jeremiah also in the 6 chap. vers 16. Thus saith the Lord Stand yee in the wayes and see and aske for the old pathes where is the good way and walke therein and yee shall finde rest unto your soules Here the Prophet sends them to the Law and the Testimony that old way and tells them the benefit that will accrue unto them by following his counsell viz. That by it they shall finde rest unto their soules And the Prophet Malachi 4. vers 4. Remember yee saith he the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Jsrael with the statutes and judgments The Law of Moses and the Prophets was the rule Mr. Montague that all Israel was tied unto as that which was an absolute and perfect rule of direction from which they were bound not to swarve and which had no neede of any Traditions for the compleating of it much more now is it a perfect rule when the Gospell is annexed to it and therefore all Christians ought to make the old and new Testament the sole rule of their faith and manners and by all these precepts they are commanded and many more to cleave onely unto it But now Master Montague let us see what precepts and directions wee finde layd downe unto us in the New Testament that by the mouth of both these Witnesses the Truth of God may yet more fully be confirmed In Matthew 17. vers 51. And behold a voyce out of the clouds which said This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare you him And Acts 3. vers 22 23. For Moses truly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise unto you of your brethren like unto mee him shall ye heare in all things whatsoever hee shall say unto you and it shall come to passe that every soule that will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from the people Here are two things Mr. Montague observable first a command viz. that we should heare Christ that Prophet the Lord our God should raise up Secondly the danger that would insue if we heard him not viz. destruction for that is pronounced against those that do not heare him Now let us take notice how he teacheth us John 5. vers 39. Search the Scriptures saith he Here our great Prophet Mr. Montague sendeth us onely to the Scriptures he makes them the onely rule which wee are to follow And in Luke 16. in the person of Abraham hee sendeth all men to Moses and the Prophets vers 29. they have Moses and the Prophets saith he let them heare them This Mr. Montague was the old way to salvation where men might finde rest for their soules Moses and the Prophets and thither doth Christ the onely Prophet of his Church send all men to the holy Scriptures and to the Doctrines contained in them as the absolute and compleat rule that all the Christians are for ever tied to and out of the Scriptures and them onely did Christ confirme all his preaching as is evident out of Luke 24. and many other places averring that the people erred not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. The Apostles likewise in all their Sermons and Writings did the same and inoyned all Christians to cleave unto the holy Scriptures and to make them onely the rule of their faith and manners as by the places following do most cleerly appeare Paul in the 16 of the Rom. v. 17.18 Now I beseech you brethren saith he marke them which cause division and offences contrary unto the doctrine yee have received and avoyd them for they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their owne belly and by good words and faire speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Here the holy Apostle ties the Romans unto the doctrine they had received and which he writ unto them and forbids them to have any communication with any members of that Church that should teach contrary unto that Doctrine they had received for they that are such saith he serve not our Lord Jesus Christ All therefore Mr. Montague that teach any Doctrine contrary unto the written word swarve from the truth and are not by the Apostles command to be communicated with and therefore the written Word must be the onely rule of our direction And in the 4 of the 1 of Cor. vers 6. Hee commands them not to be wise above that that is written tying them ever to the doctrine that is set down in the written Word and in that
written Word for our rule when the Apostle pronounceth all such doctrines either to be the doctrines of devils or at least to lead and turn us from the truth which we ought to preferre before our lives And in Chap. 3. ver 10. A man saith he that is an hereticke after the first and second admonition reject You know Master Montague that he is counted an heretick among you that continues obstinate and perseveres in his owne opinions against the doctrines of the Church of Rome and their vaine traditions and humane inventions but in Gods Dialect they are accounted orthodox and they onely in the holy Scriptures are counted heretickes that persevere and continue in their owne unsound opinions contrary to the faith once delivered unto the Saints and to the wholsome words of our Lord Jesus Christ such onely by S. Paul are proclaimed hereticks with a command unto all Ministers and people after the first and second admonition to reject and to cast them out of the Church as people with whom godly men and the true Disciples of Christ ought to have no fellowship or commerce and therefore Master Montague the doctrine of the holy Apostles as it is set downe in Scriptures is the rule we are tied to for the discerning betweene true and false doctrine and that we are for ever to have before our eyes for the square we must regulate our faith and manners by And in Heb. 13. ver 8 9. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and the same for ever saith the Apostle Be not carried about with strange doctrines c. here the Apostle forbids all men to listen unto the vaine Traditions of men and to be carried about with any strange doctrines such as are not grounded upon the written Word and conformable to the rule of our faith set downe in it and gives a reason why they should be stable and unmoveable in that doctrine for saith he Christ which is the object of our faith doth not change his nature nor quality in his Person Office and Doctrine and therefore it beseemes you likewise to be solid firme and stable and invariable in your faith in him and that you should not be carried about with strange doctrines or give heed unto the Traditions of men which turne you from the truth and in this you ought alwaies to follow the rule prescribed in the Word and to set before your eyes the example of your godly teachers which have the government over you who have preached unto you the Word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation vers 7. and how they continuing faithfull to the end are now dead in the Lord. If you therefore desire to be eternally blessed as they are imitate and follow them in their faith for they were not carried about with strange doctrines but as they taught you the Word of God and not the traditions and commandements of men so cleave you also to that written Word and be not carried about with strange doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace c. As if he should have said all the traditions of men doe not establish the heart with grace for the heart is then onely established with grace when the soule and conscience of a believer reposeth it selfe in the true apprehension and feeling of the mercy favour and love of God in Christ Jesus apprehended by faith and in the assurance of his eternall good will when by faith they lay hold on the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and finde the worke of their spirituall regeneration wrought in their soules which brings forth the fruit of holinesse in all manner of conversation and this onely establisheth the heart with grace and in this consisteth the true worship of God all which the traditions and commandements of men are so farre from teaching as they turne us from them placing religion in outward performances and in observing of mens traditions as worshiping of Images Crucifixes and observing of daies and abstaining from meats c. All which turne us from that spirituall worship of God which God both commandeth and delighteth in For God is a Spirit and they that will worship him according to his Will must worship him in spirit and truth John 4. ver 24. His Will therefore Mr. Montague must be the rule we ought ever to adhere and cleave to if we would not be carried about with strange doctrines and if we desire to have our hearts established with grace I might enlarge my selfe exceedingly in this point and runne through both the Epistles of Peter and the first Epistle of Saint John but I will conclude with that of Saint John in his second Epistle vers 9 10. Whosoever transgresseth saith Saint John and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Sonne If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evill deeds Here Mr. Montague for a conclusion of this point take notice that we are for ever tied to the doctrine of Christ which he the great and onely Prophet of his Church taught us and which we finde writ in the holy Scripture whom we are bound to heare in all things and from the which doctrine we may not swarve nor so much as bid God speed to any that shall teach otherwise unlesse we will partake with them in their evill and so make our selves lyable to the curse and punishment due unto our disobedience in so doing Gal. 1. vers 8. which the Church of England both out of conscience of her duty to the command of her great Prophet Christ Jesus and out of an awfull reverence of his glorious name and out of feare also of that curse that is denounced against all such as transgresse his holy Commandements and are carried about with strange doctrines and abide not in the doctrine of Christ doth with all obedience submit her selfe unto and continually cleaves unto the holy Word of God revealed in his written Word and makes that onely the rule of her faith and manners and by that proveth her selfe to be built upon the foundation of Peter and to teach the way the truth and the life and to honour Jesus Christ and to believe in him aright and as she ought to doe when she owneth him to be her onely King her sole Priest and alone Prophet and followeth the guidance of his Spirit and approaches unto God in his name and mediation and is directed by his Word and heares his voice in all things by all which I say she manifesteth to the whole world that she is a true Church against which the gates of hell can never prevaile and the pillar and ground of truth On the other side it must necessarily follow that the Church of Rome is not
the regulating of our Faith and manners and ought to be the onely square and rule of all our thoughts words actions and of our faith and doctrines unto the end of the world and that there is no need of any humane traditions for the compleating of them and making of them perfect and intire and that all doctrines that are not either grounded upon the expresse words of the Scriptures or evidently and by good consequence deduced from thence ought to be rejected and to be abandoned I pray Master Montague what thinke you of the state and condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this his so believing any way prejudice his eternall salvation though he never heareth of any of your traditions or unwritten verities which you notwithstanding affirm are to be entertained with equall beliefe that the holy Scriptures are by us received and imbraced I say if he never heare so much as of the name of your Traditions and of your Councels Canons or Inâ—unctions will not his faith in the holy Scriptures alone imbracing the doctrine revealed in them and believing that they containe all things in them necessary to salvation save him eternally If you shall affirme the contrary you will not fight against mee but against God himselfe and give the Spirit of God the lie who hath so often declared that believing those things that are writ in the holy Scriptures it will save our soules Againe Master Montague I demand of you what you thinke of the condition of that Christian that shall peremptorily believe that all those Traditions of Purgatory and humane satisfactions of Will-worship and Image-worship of Self-merits and workes of Supererogation of Indulgences and Pilgrimages of praying to Saints and Angels and all the other bundles of your Traditions thrust upon the poore people as the service of God and the meanes by which they may please God are detestable abominations as being things full of blasphemy placing our redemption in other meanes than in the bloodshed and meritorious death and passion of Jesus Christ and denying the perfection of the holy Scriptures and equalizing or rather preferring the Traditions and Inventions of the Pope the enemy of the Lord Jesus before the authority of the written Word which was dictated by the Spirit of Christ himselfe the onely and sole Prophet of his Church whom wee are commanded onely to heare and obey in all things that he hath declared in his blessed Word which is for ever to be the rule of our faith Doe you conceive Master Montague that any Christian so believing and persevering in this his beliefe unto the last houre of his death it can any way prejudice his salvation If you say it may give me I beseech you your reason for sinne onely excludeth men out of Heaven shew me therefore what Law of God any Christian transgresseth in believing Christ to be the onely Prophet of his Church and that he hath fully revealed the Will of God his Father concerning the redemption of man-kind and that this his Will and good pleasure is as much as is necessary to the salvation of the Church is fully set downe and contained in the holy Scriptures and that the written Word of God is compleat in it selfe without any humane Traditions and that we are bound to make that onely the rule of our faith and manners and to reject all doctrines whatsoever are not grounded upon the written Word and much more all such doctrines as lead us from Christ and teach us another way to Heaven than he hath taught us who is our onely Prophet and another way of serving God than he hath appointed I pray Master Montague is the obedience of any man to Christ our Prophets command a sinne or transgression of his holy Law If you say so then you make that a sinne which God accounteth of as a vertue and obedience to his blessed Will and Word and so by your traditions breake the Commandements of God and our glorious Prophet Christ Jesus and by that as by all your other damnable doctrines proclaime your selves open transgressours of his holy Lawes which without speedy and hearty repentance will bring you to eternall perdition Againe Master Montague I intreat you candidly to tell me what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Christ Jesus is the onely and sole Priest of the new Testament and that hee by his obedience death and passion and by the Sacrifice of himselfe once offered upon the Crosse when he was made sinne for us who knew no sinne hath reconciled God the Father unto us and made for ever our atonement with him and laid downe a sufficient ransome for our redemption by the which we are freed from both the guilt and punishment due to our sinnes and transgressions and that the vertue of this his sacrifice as it is ineffable and everlastingly able to save all such as believe in him so it is never to be reiterated but to be applyed unto the soule and hearts of men by such meanes onely as God himselfe hath appointed viz. by the vertue and powerfull working and operation of the holy Ghost by the preaching of the Gospell by the administration of the holy Sacraments by faith and prayer and that hee is our onely high Priest and Mediator both of satisfaction and intercession by whom alone wee have continually accesse to the Throne of grace and that in his Name onely and through his mediation wee are to put up all our prayers supplications and thanksgivings unto God the Father and that there are now no reall Priests on earth for the offering up of any propitiatory Sacrifice for the reconciling of God unto us or any other Mediators in Heaven between God and us that can make God propitious unto us but the man Christ Jesus Tell me Master Montague sincerely what you thinke of the state and condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this his beliefe any way prejudice his salvation though he never heare of your Romish Priests whom you affirme to be reall Priests after the order of Melchisedeck and assert that they offer up the body and blood of Jesus Christ daily a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead Can this his faith I say prejudice the salvation of any man though he never heareth such doctrines as these be or can this his faith prejudice his eternall happinesse though hee never heareth of any other Mediator of the new Testament but Jesus Christ alone or never prayeth to Saint or Angell to entreat their mediation for him with God the Father but onely putteth up all his prayers and praises in the Name of Christ alone I beseech you Master Montague tell me if hee never heard so much as the name of any reall Priests besides Christ or of any other Mediator but of Jesus Christ or of any other propitiatory Sacrifice but of that onely which Christ offered to God the Father upon
they were certainly assured So we read Luke 1. vers 1. Whereof we are fully perswaded c. and Heb. 10. vers 34. And yee tooke the spoyling of your goods with joy knowing in your selves you had in Heaven a better and induring substance So in the first Epistle of St. John chap. 3. vers 2. Behold now are we the sonnes of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when he shall appeare we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is In all the Saints we finde an infallible assurance and an undaunted and unremoveable confidence in Jesus Christ who they believed was delivered for their offences and raised againe for their justification knowing there was no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved Acts 4 ver 11. And this faith in Jesus Christ is that that will support us in all tribulations and finally save us according to that in St. John chap. 3. ver 14 15 16. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Sonne of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God so loved the world that be gave his onely begotten Sonne that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And vers 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned butâ—â— that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Sonne of God And in Chap. 5. ver 24. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Numberlesse testimonies might be accumulated out of the holy Scripture to prove that only to be the true faith and knowledge of Christ when we do conceive him in such sort as he is offered of the Father that is to say clothed with the Gospell for faith hath a mutuall relation to the word and the word to faith because the word is the fountaine of faith and the ground of faith and the mirrour in which faith beholdeth God as Christ saith here He that believeth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life This that I have now said Mr. Montague will I hope give satisfaction to any rationall man if not to your selfe that the Church of England believeth as it ought to believe because it regulates the faith of all Christians according to the word of God and Christ their onely Prophet and therefore it is an unanswerable argument that the Church of England is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter when it joyneth the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and faith in him alone together Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom. 3. v. 25 26. When therefore I say the Church of England joyneth the knowledge of God and Christ and faith in them both inseparably together and makes daily publication of this same doctrine it is evident that it is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter the ground and pillar of truth and where salvation may be attained unto for that Church which shall confesse with the mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in their heart that God hath raised him from the dead shall be saved for with the heart men believe unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Rom. 10. But the Church of England doth all this Ergo it believeth as it should believe and is a Church where salvation may be found And had the Church of England Mr. Montague but this marke alone it were enough for ever to stop the mouthes of all gainsayers and prove that it is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter and believes as it ought to believe And now I come to the qualification viz. That the Church of England doth renounce all self-merit in matter of salvation and all will-worship and humane inventions in Gods service which are requisites in any Church to make it a true Church and without which it cannot be a true Church You may remember Mr. Montague when you heard the name of merit and will-worship you began to bestir your selfe as if it had something troubled you and it doth indeed highly concerne you to looke about you lest falling upon the rocke of your owne merits you dash your selfe in pieces and destroy your owne soule And you affirmed that if you should speake of the doctrine of merits it would last you a weeke Truely Mr. Montague if you should speake a moneth or a yeere together of Christs merits and what he hath done and suffered for the redemption of mankind I should willingly be your anditor and think that nothing sufficient enough could be uttered or expressed to magnifie Gods and Christs love and to stirre up thankfulnesse obedience and love to God and Christ againe for their infinite mercy towards us such miserable creatures as we poore men are But Mr. Montague if you shall speake but one minute of an houre to extoll mans merit or to preach that men by their good workes can or may merit Heaven or if you goe about to establish that blasphemous doctrin for it is no better you shall have just cause to repent all the daies of your life for your so doing for this doctrine tends to overthrow the glorious Gospell and the whole worke of our redemption and Christs sufferings and opens an other way to Heaven than any of the Saints of old knew of who ever taught that Christ onely was the way the truth and the life and not mens merits and workes of supererogation Therefore Mr. Montague that Church that teacheth the free grace and eternall love of God in Jesus Christ unto the people when we were dead in our sinnes and trespasses and that inculcates self-deniall upon all men and urges them in matter of salvation to rely onely upon Christ and his obedience and passion with all his merits and to follow the guidance of his word for the manner of his service and teaches them to reject all will-worship and humane inventions in honouring God that Church believes as it ought to believe and teacheth the true way to Heaven and is built upon the foundation of Peter for all these things are the necessary requisites for the making of a true Church as I shall God willing speedily shew But if I shall be more large upon this point I desire your pardon for in my opinion it is a doctrine of as great concernment as any in Religion and where it is taught it is a sure evidence of a true Church In the handling of the which I will
prove all I shall say out of the holy Scripture which I make the rule of faith All therefore that will believe in Jesus Christ aright and as hee himselfe would have them and be his Disciples they must deny themselves and renounce all selfe-merits for that is the first lesson he teacheth them Mat. the 16 vers 24. If any man saith he will come after me let him deny himselfe and take up his Crosse and follow me and Luke the 9. vers 23. If any man will come after me let him deny himselfe and take up his crosse dayly and follow me This lesson is taught both in the Law and Gospell as in the places now cited and also in the 55 of Isaiah ver 6.7 Seeke yee the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh let the wicked forsake his wayes and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him returne unto the Lord and hee will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon By these testimonies of holy Scripture we learne that the first step to Heaven is selfe-deniall and renouncing our own merits This selfe-deniall consists of three parts The first a meane esteeme of our selves The second a dayly taking up of the crosse The third a following of Christs example and foote-steps in patient doing and suffering what God would have us And this Master Mountague is not an easy lesson to learne But now to leave the two latter parts I will only insist upon the first which is to deny our selves and in self-deniall three things are requisite First for the magnifying of the free grace of God we ought to be humble meane and nothing in our own eyes for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble James 4. and the first of Peter 5. and this was ever the practice of all the Saints Abraham counts himselfe dust and ashes when hee hath to deale with God And Christ Mat. 11. saith Learne of me for I am humble and meeke So that all those that have rightly learned this lesson have no high and overtowring thoughts and conceits of their owne worth or merits but lie low and prostrate before God acknowledging themselves miserable sinners and unprofitable servants when they have done that was commanded them and in a word are weary and heavy laden Secondly we must renounce our own wills and reason and bring them in subjection to the will and pleasure of God not our owne wills and reason therefore but the will of Christ must suffice us his wisdome must be our reason Thirdly we must count all things as dung in comparison of Christ and for the excellency of the knowledge of him and ought to esteeme all things but losse willingly cheerefully relinquishing and forsaking friends riches honours yea if necessity require for the cause of Christ and keeping of a good conscience we must abandon our owne lives and whatsoever is dearest unto us all which cannot consist with the thought of selfe-merit for this lesson teacheth us humility and just cause indeed have all men seriously and unfainedly to be humble for if we looke upon all men since the fall of Adam as they are in their naturall condition we shall finde nothing in them but sinne and corruption and that they are wicked in all their wayes and unrighteous in all their thoughts and therefore they ought to be humble and to forsake and deny themselves and to returne unto the Lord and come unto Christ and be lowly under the mighty hand of God if they will obtaine mercy finde pardon and be exalted this is the first lesson I say we must learne Yea the very regenerate themselves and the dearest Saints and Servants of God whiles they remaine in this Tabernacle of clay and till their soules be unbodyed finde themselves so laden with iniquity transgression and sinne as they have alwayes matter of humiliation never of glorying never of vanting of their own merits never of boasting of their own righteousnesse but rather of seeking another righteousnesse the righteousnesse of Heaven the righteousnesse of Faith which is Christs righteousnesse by which they may appeare before God and this they can never obtaine to without selfe-deniall and renouncing all their own merits But it will not be amisse Master Mountague briefely to take notice of all men in their naturall condition and after their Regeneration and that both before the Law and under the Law and under the Gospell and see Gods own Testimony of them all and the witnesse and testimony the holiest men that ever were and lived gave of themselves and then it will be cleerely evidenced they renounced all selfe-nesse and all their own merits and looked only for salvation by the merits of Jesus Christ And first let us heare what God saith of all the seede of Adam before their Regeneration Genesies the 6 vers 5. and God saw that the wickednesse of man was great upon the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evill continually Note here the spirit of God doth not say that man hath some evill thoughts or that his thoughts are evill sometimes but he asserts First that every imagination or the whole immagination purpose or desire of the heart are evill Secondly that they are evill continually or every day alwaies evill and in the 8. Chap. vers 21. he affirmes the same saying The imagination of mans heart is evill from his youth The corruption therefore of all men begins with them from their Cradle and if God doth not regenerate us it continues and accompanies us to our grave and this is the condition of all men before Regeneration and that before the Law and under the Law and under the Gospell And it could be no otherwise by the Testimony of Job 14. vers 4. Who can bring saith he a cleane thing out of an uncleane Not one All came of a corrupt seede David witnesseth the same Psal 51. vers 5. Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me such a generation of men without selfe-deniall and returning from their wicked waies and forsaking their unrighteous thoughts and imaginations cannot be Christs Disciples This miserable condition of mankind is every where published through the Scripture to being men to a more deepe humiliation and abhorring of themselves Psal the 14. vers 2. The Lord looked downe from Heaven saith the Psalmist upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seeke God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one By this testimony we see the corruption so generall that the Lord exempteth no man from it The same doctrine is confirmed in the 53 Psal and in this condition do all men continue till they are regenerated and begot anew for so long as they are in their naturall estate and till they are in Christ they can do nothing pleasing unto
the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary to salvation that perspicuously and clearly and that they are to be the only rule of our faith and manners and that all Christians are tied onely to them to the end of the world and that they are not to swarve in any thing from them though an Angell from Heaven should teach them otherwise Gal. 1. both which the Church of Rome doth deny and in that manifestly declare that she maketh Christ a Prophet no farther than pleaseth her selfe when she addeth her owne Councels Fathers Canons and Traditions and unwritten verities as they call them and maketh them not onely of equall authority with the written Word of God but preferreth them farre before the holy Scriptures when she affirmeth that without them the Scriptures cannot be a compleat and perfect rule for the ordering of our faith lives and manners which is not onely a point of high blasphemy but indeed an utter overthrowing of the Propheticall Office of Christ as I said before and a bringing in of a new Religion And now Master Montague I am come to prove these two last points viz. that the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary to salvation and that they onely are to be the rule of our faith lives and manners to the end of the world and this you know was the taske I tooke upon me to make good and had your promise if I performed it that you would be a Protestant To begin therefore with the first that the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary and sufficient to salvation I thus prove it That which is able to make us wise unto salvation containes all things in it necessary and sufficient to eternall life and happinesse or else we should be wise but in part But the holy Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation 2 Tim. 3. v. 15 16 17. Ergo they containe all things necessary and sufficient to eternall life and happinesse And by consequence we ought in matters of faith and religion to content our selves onely with the holy Scriptures which is manifest from the nature of the wisdome and perfection the Scripture speaketh of for if the Scriptures be able to make us wise to salvation and the very man of God perfect to every good worke as after we shall see what need then have we of unwritten Traditions For the wisdome that Saint Paul speakes of in this place containes all perfection of knowledge in it and comprehends all manner of Learning and divine Science that may make a man happy here and blessed hereafter What imperfection then Mr. Montague can any man charge the holy Scriptures with when they are able to furnish a man with all accomplished abilities sufficiency and knowledge for living vertuously and piously here in this world and for the saving of his soule eternally for if the Scriptures of themselves be of such vertue and efficacy the Spirit of God working with them that in the matter of salvation that great worke they are able to bring men to perfection yea happiness it selfe and that eternall then we ought onely to cleave unto them and content our selves with their perfection and not listen unto the vaine and lying oracles of the Pope But now to the words themselves in order which are the proofe of my Minor with the occasion of them in the examining of the which I shall also answer to your evasions made at our disputation From a child saith the Apostle to Timothy thou hast knowne the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation c. So that my minor is by this sufficiently proved and much more clearly it will appeare by and by when we consider both the occasion of these words and the other expressions of the Apostle in the following verses and what our Saviour Jesus Christ himselfe saith of the holy Scriptures The Apostle exhorts Timothy in the verse going before which is the 14. saying Continue thou in the things which thou hath learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them In these words the Apostle exhorts Timothy and in him all Ministers and Christians to persevere and continue in the things and doctrines taught by him with a reason why both Timothy and all Ministers and Christians should continue and remaine stedfast in that they had learned Knowing saith he of whom thou hast learned them for he had learned them of Paul the Doctor and Preacher of the Gentiles that elect vessell that was by Christ himselfe appointed to preach and carry his name among the Gentiles Acts 9. and who was guided in all that he taught and writ by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 14. v. 37 38. and who had preached unto them the whole counsell of God Acts 20. and confirmed whatsoever he taught them out of the holy Scriptures by which he convinced his enemies as all his Epistles and Sermons prove and as Paul himselfe witnessed before Felix Acts 24. ver 14. and chap. 28. and as Saint Luke testifies of him Acts 28. ver 23. saying that Paul expounded and testified the Kingdome of God perswading them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning till evening Paul in all his teaching to manifest that he was guided by the unerring Spirit of God confirmeth all his doctrines and preaching by the holy Scriptures which were written by his inspiration and therefore ever like it selfe and with this manner of teaching was Timothy instructed who having been not onely Pauls Scholler but his owne sonne in the faith 1 Tim. 1. v. 2. for he had converted him by his preaching proving every thing he had taught unto him out of the holy Scriptures and therefore he exhorteth him to continue and persevere in what he had learnt of him and formerly been assured of knowing that he proved all by the holy Scriptures which thou saith he art very well verst in having known them from thy childhood and by all this he proved the soundnesse of his doctrine that it was true and sure being grounded upon the written Scriptures and had not onely them for a witnesse of what he writ but he appeales unto Timothy also to be his witnesse in this behalfe as if he should have said Thou Timothy knowest well the Scriptures and that I taught nothing but out of the Scriptures thou art my scholler yea my sonne and canst ever witnesse for me that the doctrine that I have taught is of God for it is agreeable in all things to the inspiration of his holy Spirit as he hath declared himselfe in the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee and all men wise to salvation and in this St. Paul is an example to all Ministers to confirme all by Scripture and this I thought fit to speake of the occasion of these words and now I come to the more full handling of them and by them to prove the truth of my Minor after that I