are thought to make the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace and that are set in the least opposition or competition with Christs Merits or in any place save commanded subordination to him nay he says he firmly holds That Works done with a conceit of obliging God by Merit in commutative Justice or as conceited sufficient without a Saviour and the pardon of their failings do more further their Damnation than Salvation Yea p. 97. none but Christ merited of strict distributive Justice according to the Law of Innocency nor by any Works that will save from the charge of sin and desert of death And that thou mayest know what he ascribes to our Graces Holiness or Works He tells us p. 119. we mean by Merit but the moral aptitude for the reward of a free Benefactor who also is Rector when the ordering of a free gift suspended on official conditions is sapientially made a means of procuring obedience This one Clause if understood and he is a bold Traducer of so great a Man that cannot understand words so plain will acquit Mr. B. and inform thee of the place of all Gospel Conditions 1. All Gospel-blessings are the free gifts of Christ as Benefactor they have their being without any regard to what we do therefore nothing in man is a jot of the righteousness or merit for which they are bestowed 2. Christ is our Rector or Governor he will rule us as well as be beneficent to us 3. As a means to incline us to comply with him as Rector he suspends these blessings on terms of what he makes our Duty and wisely orders them as Motives to our Obedience 4. Any Act of our Obedience is no more than a conformity to that Order of his and doth not hinder all we receive from him to be of free gift Obj. But he saith that good Works are necessary to Salvation Answ He doth so and how few deny it But 1. Not if a man dye as soon as he be converted but if he have time p. 94. 2. Their rewardableness is by Gods free Grace and Promise for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness Sacrifice and Intercession their imperfection being pardoned and their holiness amiable through him These are his words p. 76. 3. He saith Not without or as a supplement to the Sacrifice Merits and free Grace of Christ our Saviour and Faith in him p. 93 75. And we give our selves to Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to be saved by his Merits p. 94.4 He saith our best Works will not save a man from the charge of sin and desert of death p. 97. 5. He denies that external Obedience is necessary to our admission into a justified state as he shews in the Thief on the Cross And when he saith we are justified by our Faith Godliness and Works Justification is not taken by him for the pardon of sin which he ascribes wholly to the Merits of Christ but he takes Justification there for our acquittance against the accusation that we are Infidels Ungodly and Hypocrites And saith that against the charge that we are Sinners deserving Hell we are justified by Christ believed in p. 94. His meaning is plainly this Christ alone by his Merits forgives our sins and purchased eternal Life for us But seeing that Christ hath promised to forgive none but the penitent Believer and declared he will destroy all impenitent unbelieving ungodly sinners Now he thinks that we must be truly acquitted that we are not such or we shall not be saved by Christ Yea he thinks that when God justifies a man for Christs Merits he doth also declare a man to be a true Believer because he will justifie no other and will justifie all such and when God admits a man into Glory he doth even thereby adjudge him a believing penitent holy and upright man and free from the charge of being an infidel hypocritical unholy Enemy against whom the Gospel denounceth Vengeance and bars relief Let these things be weighed and none will wonder that he should say on his sick bed No works I will leave out works if he grant me the other And truly in health none spake more humbly of his own Works than he used to do But because some confident weak persons have inferred from that passage that he changed his Principles when he came to dye we shall inform thee that after that passage was utter'd by him even the night before his death Mr. Baxter was asked whether he was of the same sentiments as formerly about Justification He answered That he had told the World sufficiently his thoughts about it by several Writings and otherwise and thither he referr'd them And after a little pause with his Eyes lifted up to Heaven he cryed Lord pity pity pity the Ignorance of this poor City And in the time of his sickness he declared to us and others that his thoughts in these things were the same as formerly Our regards to Mr. B. force the Publication of what we here insert tho' we would not be judged so happy as to arrive at his Light to lead us to a full Agreement with all his Sentiments As to this Book we wish there be not still great need of such helps against Popery and we are assured it will give more light than some greater Volumes on this Subject That God may render it useful shall be the Prayer of Thy Servants in the Gospel Daniel Williams Matthew Sylvester Protestant Religion Truly Stated and Justified c. THE Deceiver calleth his Book The Touchstone of the Reformed Gospel as if he owned a Gospel distinct from that of the Reformed Church And he undertakes to name fifty two points which the Protestants affirm but tells you not where nor proveth his affirmation but you must believe him as a Touchstone of Truth Dec. The first Protestant affirmation feigned is That there is not in the Church One and that an infallible Rule for understanding the Holy Scripture and conserving of Vnity in matters of Faith Answ A meer Lye if he mean that this is any part of Protestant Doctrine but he may find as crude confused words in some ignorant person that is called a Protestant The Reformed Catholicks hold that there is in the Church one and that an infallible Rule for understanding the holy Scripture and conserving of Vnity in matters of Faith And that Rule is The Evidence of its own meaning as inherent in its self discernible or intelligible by men prepared and instructed by competent Teaching and Study and the necessary help of Gods Grace and Spirit This is that Rule But the Reformed believe not 1. That there is any Rule by which ignorant prejudiced heretical wilfully blind wicked uncapable men can understand such Scripture as they are hereby undisposed to understand unless by a great change made on themselves Nor that any Prince can make a Statute which on Man can misunderstand abuse or violate 2. Nor that Men can understand it
and many others tell us that for all that the Scripture is plain and sufficient Yea so it is in many Thousand particular Texts If this be not so let this Man tell us if he can how it cometh to pass that Papists Greeks and Protestant Commentators agree of the meaning of most of the Scripture perhaps of Nineteen Texts in Twenty if it be not plain But do Protestants say that there is nothing in the Scripture hard to be understood the Father of Lyes will scarce affirm this of them lest their Commentaries and Controversies shame him 2. But what Must the people be forbidden to Read Gods Word because some passages are dark Why not also forbidden to Read Statutes Canons Fathers Jesuits Fryars and the Loads of Papists Controversies Is there nothing hard in all these Volumes what not in all the Canons In all Chrysostom Austin Cyril c In all Lombard Aquinas Bonaventure Scotus Ockam Cajetane and all the Tribe In all Suarez Vasquez Huctado Albictine c In all Cajacius and his Tribe Why are not these forbidden Do but rub your Foreheads and tell me 1. Whether the Law was not darker than the Gospel and yet God charged them Deut. 6. and 11. To teach the words to their Children and that lying down and rising up at home and abroad and to write them on the posts of their Houses and their Gates And every blessed Man Psal 1. was to delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it Day and Night Read Psal 119. 2. Whether Christ did not Preach the words Recorded in the Gospel to the unlearned common people and Peter and Paul and all the Apostles to all the vulgar Jews and Gentiles 3. Whether they writ not their Recorded Epistles to the Vulgar even to all the Churches 4. Whether it is not Gods Word that we must all be Ruled and Judged by and is the Charter of our right to Heaven and should we be forbid to read it 5. Whether Hierom Chrysostom Austin and all the Fathers do not press Men and Women of all Ranks to read or learn and study the Scriptures 6. Whether he be not like Antichrist that will forbid Men to read that which God sent his Son from Heaven to Preach and Christ appointed Apostles Pastors and Teachers to communicate to all the World 7. Whether the Prince of Darkness and Pride himself would not be ashamed openly to say I have so much skill to speak Intelligibly and God so little that you must read my Books and not read his And whether Popes and Priests Volumes are not as unskilfully written as Gods and as like to draw Men to Heresie and Sin 8. Whether he that thus Condemneth God and his Law and extolleth Man's be like to make good his accusation at God's Barr Alas must such things as these be disputed by Men that would be our Infallible Rule 9. Either the knowledge of God's Word is needful or not If not why did God write part of it himself And send his Son to Preach it And his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to write and Record it Are blind Worms fit to accuse God of Folly and needless Work Can Men obey God's Law that know it not But if the knowledge of it be needful to our Obedience and Salvation ask common Reason whether the Difficulties should not rather oblige us to read and study it so much the more â—till we understand it rather than not to read it at all Do their ductile Followers that read it not understand it better than those that study it Day and Night The less we know of needless things the better and quieter we are If God's Law and Gospel be such what a God and Governour have we Can Heathens and Turks Blaspheme him more than to take him for so foolish a Governour of the World as to make a stir by his Son from Heaven and by Angels and Prophets to give them so needless yea pernicious a Law and Gospel as that Men must be kept from reading it lest it Poyson them with Heresie 10. Is it not essential to him that relatively we take for our God to be the Governour of the World and to be our Saviour and the Holy Ghost to deliver and Seal the Gospel as glad Tidings to all Nations And is it not by his Law that God Governeth and by his Gospel that Christ Saveth and the Holy Ghost doth illuminate and Sanctifie And doth not that Man or Clergy then put down God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and set up themselves in the stead who forbid the reading of God's Law and Gospel and Command the knowledge and observance of their own Canons and Dictates instead of them as more Intelligible and safe And is not this as Robert Grosthead told Innocent 4. next the Sin of Lucifer and Antichrist or rather plain Antichristianism it self 11. Is the Stage manner of Massing liker to make the people understand God's Law and Gospel by multitudes of Gestures Motions Crossings Ceremonies that need long Expositions that overwhelm the strongest Memories than the reading and study of the plain and full words of God in Scripture 12. Did this Deceiver ever hear Protestants say that the Apocalypse and Daniel and Ezekiel and the Canticles and the Chronologies of Scripture are all easy to be understood For if he have heard such a Fool did he ever read this in the Confessions of any Church Do not their Commentaries tell the difficulty And ask this Man or his fellow Creature whether the Infallible Pope or Councils have overcome all these difficulties to the Papists and made all this easy to them Or do not their Valuminous disagreeing Commentaries and Controversies shew that they are still as hard to them as to us 13. And ask them whether Pope or Council have ever yet written an Infallible Commentary on the Bible or all such difficult Texts If not is it because they cannot or because they will not And what the better then is their Church for their feigned skill and power infallibly to decide difficult Scripture Controversies What can be more shameless than this pretence in Men that will not do it nor ever did 14. And if still they tell you that the people were always bound to believe and obey the Churches Rites without dispute or Contradiction ask them whether it was not the Church Rulers that killed Christ and called him a Blasphemer and Deceiver and that Persecuted and accused the Apostles And whether the People were bound to believe them as Jewish Papists and whether all the Apostles and Christians were Rebels and Hereticks for not believing them And whether it was not for the Sins of Priests and Princes and the peoples complying with them that God by his Prophets reproved the Israelites and at last forsook them to Captivity 2 Chron. last Jer. 5 last 15. And if they tell you of the Peoples need of Teachers tell them that that is none of the Controversie But whether their Teachers
must teach them to understand God's Book or to throw it away May not the Teacher and the Book consist together Must School-Boys be forbid to Learn their Grammar because they must have a Teacher Must he teach them the Book or teach them without Book But all the Craft is to get all the World to take only such Cheaters as this for their Masters and then Bible or no Bible may serve turn 16. Is it not the Office of Teachers to Translate God's Word into known Tongues that the People may understand it This is the first part of Preaching it If not why do they use Translations in the Church of Rome the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin And why did Sixtus 5th and Clem. 8. make such a stir to Correct the Latin And why do so many Comment on them And the Rhemists turn it into English But what is all this for but to help Men to understand the Book 17. Doth not all the Word of God cry down Ignorance and cry up Knowledge from End to End And what Knowledge is it but Divine of the Word and Law of God What else is the scope of all the first Nine Chapters of Solomons Proverbs and of Psal 1. 19. and 119 c. God saith Hos 4. 6. My People perish for lack of knowledge And Isa 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not save them Ignorance and Blindness are made the common cause of Errour Sin and Misery But we are so far from taking all parts of Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood that we are more than the Papists for first and most diligently teaching them the Essentials the Creed Lord's Prayer and Commandments and Baptism and Church Communion and the Lord's Supper and lesser parts as they grow up what they must learn first their Teachers must instruct them 18. If he say as they still do that the Ignorant will misunderstand the Scripture and every one turn it to his own Fancy and Heresie I answer The way to prevent this is to teach it them diligently what else is the Ministry for and not to forbid it them Every Knave may pervert the Law of the Land to maintain his own ill Cause and must the Law therefore be forbidden them Reason is far more commonly abused than Scripture There is no Heresie or Error no Villany Perjury Cruelty Persecution Oppression or Injustice but Reason is pleaded for it Must Reason therefore be renounced Heresies are for want of understanding God's word and must be cured by understanding it 19. And if all the World must take the Popes or Priests words instead of Gods or for their Rule how shall those in Aethiopia Syria America or here know what the Popes Word is That never see him or any that hath seen him And how shall we know when above twenty times there have been two Popes at once which of them is the Right And when they contradict and Damn each other which of them must we believe And when General Councils accuse them of Errour and Condemn them which is to be trusted with our Souls Or if it be Councils that must be to us instead of Scripture when they Damn each other which must we believe And so abundance of them have done When the Pope and they agreed to depose Christian Princes and give away their Dominions and disoblige their Subjects from all their Oaths of Allegiance is it as true as the word of God that all Subjects must believe and obey them But how shall all the poor People know what the Pope and Councils say and hold They can neither read their Volumes nor understand them nor know which are authentick and true Must they all believe their Parish Priest What if he be as very a Deceiver as the writer of this Touchstone that doth but Cheat from the beginning to the end Yet must we take his word instead of Gods Or when other Priests or Fryars contradict him which of them must we believe What if his Parishoners know him to be ignorant or a common Lyar Yet must our Salvation rest on his word and God's word be forbidden us What if we obey him in Error and Sin will he undertake to be Damned for us Or will his undertaking or Damnation save those whom he mislead c. As to his Citation of Scripture against Scripture it is so palpable a perversion that I will leave any Man that will but Read the Text to his own ability to answer him Rev. 5.1 No Man in Heaven or Earth was worthy to open the Sealed Books that John saw in his Vision What then must no Man therefore open the Bible Or because the Revelation is hard must therefore the People be forbidden to Read it and the rest of God's word which was written for them as sufficient to make them wise to Salvation yea to make the simple wise Psal 19. And with as shameless a Face doth he cite the Fathers against the drift of all their writings and Labours and the Judgment of all the Churches of Christ for many hundred years of its purest foundest Primitive times The Fourth accused Point That Apostolical Traditions and ancient Customs of the Church not Founded in the written word are not to be received nor do oblige us Ans This is but more Deceit by confusion and false report The Reformed Catholicks hold 1. That Memory is not so sure a way to deliver any Laws and Doctrines to Posterity through many hundred years as writing is For it must lie on the Memories of so many Thousands in so many Ages and so many parts of the World Of so many Languages Kingdoms and cross Interests and Opinions in their quarrels and the things to be remembred are so many that this needs no proof with any but Fools or Mad-men What a Religion should we have had if instead of the Bible it must have all been brought us down by the Memories of all the Rabble of ignorant and wicked Popes yea or of the best and by the Memories of all the Prelates and Priests that have pretended to be the Church Why do they themselves write their pretended Traditions if writing them were not needful And why have we all our Statutes Records and Law-Books if the Lawyers and Peoples Memories would keep and deliver them without these When Men's Memories Wits and Honesty are so weak that we can scarce get one Story carried without falsifying through many Hands 2. We hold that God in mercy hath therefore considered Man's Weakness and Necessity and before the Apostles died inspired them to Record so much of his Law and Gospel and Will as was universally necessary for all his Subjects to know in order to Divine belief Obedience and Salvation And hath left nothing of this importance and necessity unrecorded in the Law of Nature God's Visible works and Scripture knowing that after Ages were not to have new universal Legislators to make such Laws for all the
tell him You must believe us that are the Mouth of the Pope and the Pope tho' you think that the Word of God is against it Speak out Deceiver would you have all Men be of their Rulers Religion or not Should the Jews have believed the Church that Christ was a Blasphemer Deceiver and Traytor and the Apostles Seditious Fellows Must we be Mahometans under Turks Persians and Indians and Papists under Papists And why not Lutherans under Lutherans also And so our King shall be our God and our Religion humane Or must Men judge what is true or false good or bad by their own understandings Do Kings and Prelates Rule Men or Dogs and Brutes If Cromwell say He is Supream and King Charles say He is Supream tell us whether we must not use our own understandings to know which of them to believe and obey And must we not do so if the World the Flesh and the Devil say one thing and Christ another And I pray you tell us whether that be Religion that is not Divine and whether it be not our own understanding that must distinguish between God and Man Did not Vulgar Folly fit slothful Fools for Hell they would easily perceive that Popery engaging them to renounce their own understandings maketh us all Voluntary Brutes to gratify the ambition of Men and puts down God from being our Governour and Man from being a Voluntary Subject and turns the Kingdom of Christ into the Kingdom of Beasts The Sixth Point accused That St. Peters Faith hath failed Ans Who could more ignorantly have stated a Controversie 1. Protestants are further from the Opinion that Peters Faith failed than the greatest Papist Doctors Some Protestants hold that no Man that hath true saving Faith doth ever totally lose it much less Peter Others hold that no Elect Person that hath true Faith doth totally lose it And so thought Augustine Others add that though some as Calvin speaks qualecunque semen sidei perderint having no more immutable Grace than Adam had in Innocency yet all that have a Confirmed Radicated Habit persevere And as to Peters Faith all save those called Arminians agree as far as I know that his Faith was not totally lost nor Peter relapsed into a State of Damnation But will all the Jesuits say as much We commonly hold that the Habit of Peters Faith must be distinguished from the Acts and the Act of Assent from the Act that exciteth Confession and conquereth Opposition And that Peters Faith did not totally fail as to the Habit nor the Assent that Christ was the Messiah But that it actually failed as to the latter Act that should conquer Fear Christ said to him and the rest before that Why are ye fearful O ye of little Faith Little Faith is Faith failing in Degree This is our Victory over the World even our Faith saith St. John And did not Peters Faith fail as to part of that Victory when he Curst and Swore that he knew not the Man But by Peters Faith this Deceiver meaneth the Popes Faith And he instanceth in the Scribes and Pharisees that were to be heard because they Sate in Mose's Chair and in Cajaphas the High-Priest Reader see what Christians these Slaves of Christs pretended Vicar are Doth he not plainly infer that the people did well that believed the Priests and the Scribes and Pharisees that Christ was a Deceiver and workt Miracles by the Devil and was a Blasphemer and a Traytor and deserved Death and that cryed Away with him Crucifie him And what wonder if they obey their High Priest when he Commandeth them to Murther Thousands and Hundred Thousands Saints Nicknamed Hereticks when they justifie them that killed Christ and the Apostles because the Church Commanded it unless they will renounce their own plain Consequence And must we indeed believe that the Popes Faith never failed because Peters did not Then we must believe that General Councils that are their Church have been very false and slanderous Reader I will give thee but an Account of one or two when their own most flattering Historians have written of many a long time that they were rather Apostatict than Apostolici and named but to keep the Account of time The great General Council at Constance that Burnt John Hus and Jerome of Prague for Truth and Honesty finding three Popes Heading three Churches called Roman Catholicks had no way to return to Unity but by putting down all three With much adoe they got down two of them But Pope John at Rome had the fastest hold and they had more adoe to get him down and had not the Emperour resolved to back them they had been foiled Hereupon he is accused in the Council First by Fifty Four Articles of such Monstrous Villanies as one would think humane Nature were uncapable of Afterward many more are added of Poysoning Pope Alexander of Incest with his Brothers Wife and the Holy Nuns and Ravishing Maids and Adultery with Men's Wives and much more and of Simony almost incredible And amongst the rest which I forbear to recite lest I tire the Reader they say and prove that he was a notorious Simoniack and a portinacious Heretick That oft before divers Prelates and other Honest Men by the Devils perswasion he pertinaciously said asserted dogmatized and maintained that there is no Life Eternal nor any after this And he said and pertinaciously believed that Man's Soul dieth with the Body and is extinct as are the Bruits And he said that the Dead rise not contrary to the Articles of the Resurrection c. These Articles being shewed to the Pope he confest his Sin and consented to be Deposed and begged Mercy but all in Hypocrisie while he sought to get out of their Hands and Power And now Reader dost thou think that it is the mark of a Heretick and deserveth Burning and Damnation for a Man to think that this Popes Faith failed Were it not for tiring you I would repeat such Articles against many others of them as would make you think that not only the Heathen Philosophers but even Mahomet was a Saint in comparison of these Swinish and Diabolical Popes After this the Great Council at Basil accused Eugenius the 4th of Heresie and multitudes of horrid Crimes and deposed him But he outfaced them and standing it out to the last got the better and the Succession is ever since continued from this Pope that was deposed by a grand General Council Before these Pope John the 12th was deposed by a Council at Rome called by Otho the Emperour for such horrid Villanies as no Pagans that we read of ever matcht Read them but in Baronius and Binnius Drinking Healths in Wine to the Devil and calling at Dice upon Jupiter and Venus besides Murders Simony Incest and all Wickedness are all consistent with Papal Faith And if this be no failing I shall grant that the Popes Faith nor the Devils can never fail The Seventh accused Point That the
Church can Err and hath Errors Ans This is truly and honestly recited All Protestants hold it and marvel that all the Devils in Hell can so befool any as to deny it 1. No Body can tell what it is that they call the Church till they tell us But what ever it is except confirmed Angels and Souls in Heaven if they cannot Err God and our Saviour and the Apostles have Erred For they tell us that we know but in part and if any Man say that he hath no Sin he is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. 1 Cor. 13.12 And in many things we offend all Jam. 2.2 Psal 19.12 Who can understand his Errours cleanse thou me from secret faults It was the Church of which God complaineth that they alway Err in their Hearts and have not known God's ways Psal 95.10 Heb. 3.10 unless Caleb and Joshua were all the Church Isa 53.6 All we like Sheep have gone astray c. If by the Church they mean the Priests how full of Complaints against their Errours are all the Prophets and History of the Kings and Chronicles Isa 3.12 O my people they that lead thee cause thee to Err and destroy the way of thy paths Isa 9.15 16. For the Leaders of this people cause them to Err and they that are led of them are destroyed Mal. 2. The Priests Lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way and ye have caused many to stumble at the Law Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my ways c. Hos 4.6 My people are cut off for lack of knowledge Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will olso reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me Jer. 53.31 The Prophets prophecy falsely and the Priests bear Rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end hereof 2 Chron. 36.14 16 17. All the chief of the Priests and the people Transgressed very much after the abominations of the Heathen But they mocked the Messengers of the Lord and despised his words and misused his Prophets till the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and there was no healing so Isa 1.2 3 4. Reader is it not worse than Infidelity that these Men teach if they say that the Church hath not Erred Was it no Error when Aaron set them up the Golden-Calf nor when they went after the Idols of the Heathen and worshipped in the High places Was it no Error to take Christ for a Deceiver and Blasphemer worthy to be Crucified Was it no Error to reject the Gospel and persecute the Apostles And had the Apostles no Error when they believed not that Christ must Die for our Sins and rise again and ascend to Heaven but thought he must then set up an Earthly Kingdom Was it no Error of Peter Math. 16. to disswade Christ from Suffering for which Christ said Get thee behind me Sathan thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of Men And I think he Erred when Paul openly rebuked his Separation Gal. 2. If all the Church on Earth consist only of persons that have many Errors then the whole Church hath many Errors But the Antecedent is so true that I take him that denyeth it to be so far from knowing what the Church is or what a Christian is that he knoweth not what a Man is and a Church of such are so unfit to be trusted as infallible with all Mens Salvation that they have not the Wit of common illiterate Men or Children And if in all things else they were as mad as in these two Opinions 1. That the Church never did nor can Err. 2. And that all Mens Senses must be denyed for Transubstantiation doubtless they should be kept in Bedlam from humane Converse But for my part I do not think that any Man of them not stark mad doth believe himself that there are any men in the World that have no Error that have any use of Understanding He is far from knowing what Man is that knoweth not that he swarmeth with Errours I oftner doubt whether the greater number of most mens thoughts are true or false But if by the Church they mean only the Pope if he cannot Err then it is no Errour to believe that there is no Life but this and that Mans Soul dieth as the Beasts and that it is lawful to Murther Gods Servants by Thousands or hundred Thousands if all the foresaid Popes in the ages 800 900 1000 1100 Erred not sure there is no such thing as Errour in the World But perhaps by the Church is meant General Councils But 1. If they Erred not in their Decrees doth it follow that therefore they had no Errour 2. But did not the second Council at Ephesus Err Where they tell us that Sola Petri Navicula only the Popes Messengers escaped the Heresie Did not the Council of Calcedon Err in their Opinion when it determined that the Reason of Romes Primacy was because it was the Imperial Seat c. Were all the Councils free from Errour that were for the Arrians And those that were against them And all that were for the Monothelites And those that were against them And all that were for Images and those that were against them c. But at last they come to this that the Pope may Err and Councils may Err but when they agree they cannot Err A happy meeting of Erring persons if they are both cured by it But sure it is not the meeting For the Pope is at Rome when the Council is at Trent Ephesus Constantinople c. If a Council may Err and the Pope Err what proveth it impossible for them to agree in Errour The Pope and Council at Lateran 4th agreed for the Popes deposing Princes that Exterminate not all out of their Dominions that deny Transubstantiation c. Was this no Errour Obj. But this was not a matter of Faith Ans Is it no matter of Faith with them Whether it be Lawful or not according to Gods Law to kill men that believe their Senses and to depose Princes And whether Subjects may break their Oaths of Allegiance and forsake their Prince if the Pope Command them and all because their Prince will not be a Murtherer or Persecutor These are no matters of Faith with them But sure they have made them Articles of their Religion And either the Rebels and Murtherers and Pope and Council Err or else Gods Law and Gospel Err. The Judgment of the Reformed Catholicks is this 1. That there is no man living without Errour 2. That the Apostles of Christ were Commissioned to deliver his Gospel to the World by Word and Record and had his promise of his Spirit to
separating from the far greater part of the Christian World because they refuse Subjection to this usurping Vice-Christ and judging all to Fire and Ruine that renounce not all humane Senses and worship not Bread pretended to be deifyed by daily numerous Miracles of the basest Priests and deposing Kings that will not be such Executioners and justifying their Subjects in Perjury and Rebellion We will not differ with you for the Name whether you will call those that are such Antichrists or Diabolists Whether such a State be the Babylon or far worse as sinning against more Light and by more horrid abuse of the Name of Christ against himself The Fourteenth accused Point That no man nor any but God can forgive or retain Sins Ans False as undistinguished We hold 1. That to forgive Sin being the forgiving of the Punishment of Sin and the obligation thereto 1. Parents may on just cause forgive Corrective punishment to their Children and Masters to their Servants 2. Magistrates may on just cause forgive Corporal punishment to Subjects 3. Equals may forgive Injuries to Friends and Enemies 4. Pastors may on just cause forgive the Church penalties of Excommunication which they had power to inflict And all the Flock must forgive and receive the penitent accordingly 5. When a Sinner by Faith and Repentance truly performeth the Condition of Gods pardon expressed in Scripture the Ministers of Christ are by Office authorized to declare and pronounce him pardoned by God and by the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper to Invest him in a pardoned State by delivering him a Sealed pardon But only Suppositively If his Faith and Repentance be sincere else he hath not Gods pardon of the Divine Punishment This is all true and plain and enough But we detest their Doctrine that say 1. That men can pardon the Spiritual and Eternal Punishment any otherwise than consequently declaring and delivering Gods pardon which shall hold good if the Priest refuse to declare or deliver it 2. Or that Popes or Priests pardon Purgatory pains and Masses and Money and the Redundance of Saints Merits and pleasing the Pope conduce thereto But if you will Speak so absurdly as to say that if the King send a pardon to a Traytor or Murderer the Messenger pardoned him we leave you to your phrases None of the Texts or Fathers cited speak for any more than what we hold The Pastors are to declare men pardoned that God pardoneth And while they so judge according to Gods Word it is pardoned in Heaven But not if they pardon the wicked and impenitent The Fifteenth accused Point That we ought not to confess our Sins to any man but to God only Ans This is a mere impudent Lie 1. We ought to confess our Sin to the Magistrate at his Judicature when we are justly accused of it 2. And to those that we have injured when it is needful to repair the wrong or to procure their forgiveness 3. And to those that we have tempted into Sin or encouraged in it when it is needful to their Repentance 4. And to some faithful bosome Friend when it is needful that such know our Faults that they may watch over us or advise us or pray for our pardon and deliverance 5. And when in Sickness danger of Death or other Affliction we get the Pastors of the Church to pray for us we should confess our Sin to them that they may know on what cause they speak to God for our forgiveness 6. And in any case of Guilt Trouble Fear or Difficulty in which we need the Pastors Counsel for our safety ease and peace of Conscience our selves and other Friends being insufficient hereto we should confess our Sins to the Pastors whose advice we seek As a Patient must truly open his Case to his Physician and a Clyent to his Councellor if he will not be deceived by deceiving them Is all this no Confession But Protestants believe not 1. That we must go to a Physician for every Flea-biting or Scratch or Cut-Finger or to a Lawyer to give him an account of all our Actions Money ot Lands nor to Priests in cases that our selves or ordinary Friends can safely and satisfactorily resolve 2. Nor that our Confessor must needs be a Papist Priest or one chosen by the Pope or our Enemies and not by our selves 3. Nor that we must open all our Secrets to him or make any Confession which will do more hurt than good nor over far to trust the Fidelity of a Knave nor a suspected or untryed person 4. And we have reason to suspect them that are importunate to know our Secrets 5. And when Confession is required as in order to obtain a false forged pardon and to set up the Domination of Usurpers over men's Consciences and over the World it 's then unlawful If Protestants would force Papists to confess all their secret Sins to them would not this same Deceiver say it were unlawful The Sixteenth accused Point That Pardons and Indulgences were not in the Apostles time Ans Another meer Lie as undistinguished Such Pardons as I before owned were in the Apostles times But the Popish feigned pardons were not The Seventeenth accused Point That the actions and passions of the Saints do serve for nothing to the Church Ans Most impudent calumny and falsehood 1. We hold that the Prayers of all the Saints on Earth are of great importance for the Churches welfare 2. And that their Doctrine Counsel and Reproof is so too they being the Lights of the World and the Salt of the Earth 3. And that their Example is of greaâ— benefit to the Church and World whiâ—â— their Light so shineth before men that theâ— may see their good works and glorifie theâ—â— Father which is in Heaven 4. And their Charitable Works of themselves sure are beneficial to the Church And so is their Defence of the Truth 5. And their Sufferings Glorifie Gods Power and his promises of reward and they encourage others to Victorious Constancy Do all these serve for nothing to the Church 6. Yea we are so far from holding what he feigneth that it is not the least cause of our hatred of Popery that it liveth by the Defamations Slander Persecution and cruel Murder of Saints 7. Yea as Abels Blood cryed against Cain so the Blood of Martyrs and dead Saints cryeth for Vengeance against the Persecutors of the Church 8. And seeing Christ saith that the Children of the Resurrection are like or equal to the Angels we have reason to believe that even now they are perfected Spirits Heb. 12.24 And knowing that Angels are very serviceable and beneficial to the Church on Earth we know not how far the Spirits of the just are so too But we have a sufficient Mediator and Advocate with the Father whose Sacrifice Merits and Advocation are perfect and need no supplement And the Spirits of the just do praise him as saved by his Merits and never boast that they
because not only they will not by pravity do what they have natural strength to do but also because they will not choose and do what morally they might have chosen and done as to the wills own power 6. And we still say that whenever a man sinneth it was not because it was naturally impossible to do otherwise as to touch the Moon to see without Eyes or through the Earth c. nor for want of natural faculties nor doth God by Grace give man other natural faculties making him an Animal of another Species But men sin because they will sin and they will because they are tempted and now vitiously inclined from which their wills are made free only in that measure that Gods Grace doth sanctifie them If our Priest would have told us what there is in all this Doctrine of Free-will that he dare accuse and what dare he not cccuse we should have seen cause to consider of his Arguments But now he citeth Scripture as in a Dream The Twentieth accused Point That it is impossible to keep the Commandments of God tho' assisted with all his Grace and the Holy Ghost Ans Still meer Confusion Protestants distinguish 1. Impossibility as natural or Moral 2. Of Grace as perfect or Imperfect and as determitately Operative or only Assisting and not Determining And they hold 1. That no Duty is Impossible or the performing of no Commandment by meer Physical Impossibility The reason is because God commandeth no Physical Impossibles Such as before named to speak without a Tongue to see without Light or Object to know things not knowable or revealed to read without any Teaching or Learning c. If a man indeed disable himself as put out his Eyes that he may not read or cut out his Tongue that he may not Preach the disabling act is vitiously aggravated from all the good to which he disabled himself as if it still had been his Duty But we cannot say that God still commandeth him when Blind to Read or when Dumb to Speak c. Indeed God changeth not his Law but recipitur ad modum recipientis The man hath changed his Capacity and is now no Subject capable of such an Obligation or Command tho' he be capable of punishment for disabling himself and Non-performance Sin is no further Sin than it is Voluntary by the wills Omission or Act immediately or mediately 2. But that it is Morally by our pravity now Impossible for any man to keep all Gods Commandments and never Sin what needs there more than sad experience of the matter of Fact 1. Did he ever know the man himself that from his first use of reason to his Death did spend every minute of his time as God commanded him and did Believe and Love God and Man and all good with as great Love as God commanded him And was as free from every Fault Thought Passion Desire Fear Care Trouble Pleasure Word and Deed as God commanded He would be no small Sinner that were so self ignorant proud unhumbled as to say that he is no Sinner 2. Why else do these Priests force all men to confess their Sins to them if men be such as never sinned 3. Why do they compose all their Liturgies and Offices for their Churches with Confessions of Sin and Prayers for Forgiveness 4. Why do they Baptize all if they have no Sin And in what Sence do they give them the Eucharist 5. How little use do they feign such men to have of a pardoning Saviour 6. In what Sence shall such say the Lords Prayer Forgive us our Sins or Trespasses 7. Doth not the Text expresly call him a Lyar that saith he hath no Sin as aforesaid And Christ condemn the Pharisee that justified himself and justified the confessing Publican But it 's like he will say that he did not mean that any man doth keep all the Commands but that he can do it tho' he do not Ans I again say 1. He can as to natural strength if he were but perfectly and constantly willing But it cannot be that he should be so willing without Grace and Grace is not perfect in this Life 2. The more he boasteth of his Power to keep all Gods Laws the more he condemneth himself that can and will not 3. And frustra fit potentia quae nunquam a nemine reducitur in actum If he confess that no man doth it he must confess such a Moral impossibility as the Prophet meant that said Can the Leopard change his Spots or the Blackmore his Skin Then may they that are accustomed to do Evil learn to do well But perhaps he meant not that it is possible to keep all the Commands for all our Lives but for some short time I answer 1. While a man hath the use of his Reason he doth not reach the commanded degree of Faith Love Joy Heavenlyness one moment of time But indeed when a man is asleep in a Swoun an Apoplexy stark mad c. he may for that time break no Command nor keep any But perhaps he speaketh but of sincere Obedience and not of absolute sinless perfection Ans If so he is a deceiver to feign that we deny it But their Doctrine of Perfection and Supererogation is contrary Obj. But he speaketh not what man can do without Grace but by it's assistance Ans Grace maketh no man absolutely sinless and perfect in this Life Let him know that Protestants do not only say that man by Gods Grace may keep Gods Commandments sincerely tho' not sinlesly and perfectly but that no man of Age and Reason shall be saved that doth not so 2. And that tho' all our Obedience be imperfect the Imperfections are pardoned and our Obedience accepted and rewarded for the Merits of the perfect Obedience Sacrifice and Intercession of our Saviour The One and Twentieth accused Point That Faith only Justifieth and that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation Ans Many wordy Controversies are made about things that in Sence men are commonly agreed in 1. We all believe Gods Word that they were deceived that thought they could be justified either by the Law of Innocency or Nature or the Law of Moses or any meritorious Works of their own without or as a supplement to the Sacrifice Merits and free Grace of Christ our Saviour and Faith in him 2. By Faith is meant Christianity In the Gospel it is all one to be a Believer a Disciple of Christ and to be a Christian. The Christian Faith is that which is exprest in the Baptismal Covenant believing in and giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost To Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to be saved by his Merits and free Grace And this is put in opposition to the Works of Adam's or Moses Law or any other that are conceited to suffice and merit without the foresaid Redemption by Christ And is not this the true Doctrine of all true Christians 2. These