in and by the Church of Rome especially since Trent-Council assembled and ended above your hundred years ago is inconsistent with and destructive of this individual Headship true Faith and Church-constitution being nothing else but an Anti-christian miscellany and compound oppositum in apposito of God and the Creature God-man and meer-man in the most material points and principles of Christianity the Persons of both in point of Worship the Power and Authority of both in matters of Faith the Righteousness and Merit of both in point of Satisfaction and Justification the Wills of both in the act of Conversion the Intercession of both in the great office of Mediation yea an universal co-equivalency or equal concurrence of Worth Vertue and Efficacy from both throughout the whole business of Redemption and Salvation especially from Christ and the Virgin Mary constituted therein Corredemptress with her Son and Saviouress a latere as if her Brests as well as his Sides had been no less then sacramental and the Mothers Milk and the Son's Blood equally saving Moreover to prosecute this Religious medley God and the Creature in the Decalogue Christ and the Church in the Creed Scripture and Tradition in the Canon Pater-Noster and Ave-Maria in the Litany Sacrament and Sacrifice in the Supper c. all so many Riddles in the Mystery of Iniquity A Religion consisting of such Trent-Forge-Principles and Practices as these viz. In point of Doctrine Papal Supremacy and Authotity Church Infallibility unwritten Traditions equall'd in authority with the Holy Scriptures the doctrine of Man's free-Will in opposition to God's Free-Grace the Doctrine of Perfection of Merits Pardons and Indulgences redounding from a surplusage of Works of super-erogation and satisfaction as they are termed as if any meer Man could fullfill in obedience beyond what the Law requires and satisfy in penance beyond what Sin deserves a rare Religion the doctrine of Purgatory and Souls Departed the doctrine of Mass-service and Transubstantiation the Consecrating Priestling turning a petty Creator as is supposed converting sacramental Forms into real Substance and Commemoration into Expiation celebrating Christ's Death with his death as well as with his own in destroying instead of discerning the Lord's Body yea both Saviour and Sacrament at once the doctrine of Ministration in an unknown Tongue by means whereof they do most sacrilegiously robb the Children of their Bread in the Scriptures as they do of the Cup in the Supper and many more such like Doctrines not of men onely but of Divels which I list not to dwell upon the Subject being so Frightful In point of Worship Idolatry and Imagery Superstition Saint-Worship c. In point of Polity absolute Tyranny the Keys turned into a Sword sufficiently exercised and dearly experienced throughout the World upon Princes-Crowns their Subjects-Consciences and Protestant-Blood in sanguinary Lawes a bloody Inquisition direful Anathemaes execrable Massacres rageing Persecutions c. the violent Calentures of that Torrid Zone The Religion in fine of that Church which is in Doctrine damnably Heretical in Worship grossely Idolatrous in Polity and Government intollerably Tyrannical in all palpably Antichristian opposite to and virtually destructive of Christs fundamentality and headship in his Person or Natures in his Offices in all their parts in his States in his vertues merits graces priviledges Institutions and ordinances c. in one or more or all of those and consequently destruction of the Catholick Faith and Religion by Himself and his Apostles and the whole successive series of Christians throughout the World professed and practised and finally of the truth of a Christian Church his Body all in effect nullified thereby yea and a false head other foundation and another name being substituted in opposition to the true the Religion I say professed and practised in the Church of Rome and that Church her self especially since Trent-Council being such as is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 described it followeth by necessary consequence that the separation of the Church of England both primitive in her first Reformers and present in their Successours persisting in that happy divorce from her and embodyed into a contradistinct but true Church under Christ the onely true Head in a Joynt profession of his Faith the true Religion is so far from being Schismatical this being ever a causeless and groundless separation in or from matter of true Religion in a true Church that on the contrary it is righteous and Justifyable yea absolutely necessary by the authority of that Law whereby we are strictly commanded to renounce and abjure her society upon peril of sharing in her Plagues from which Good Lord deliver us Sir if in this short defence of our Reformation which it is like may seem a kind of morose Tragedy to an airy Mercurius but that I aim at a further goal you think I have falsified or misrepresented any principle of the Romish Church charge me with it and spare not and if I do not Justify what I have asserted brand me for as great a slanderer as your self Again Sir True Religion being that onely of which the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth is the Author the Holy Scriptures the Word of Truth is the Rule and the Holy Church whereof our Church of England is part the Pillar and Ground of Truth is the publick Trustee Keeper and Conservatory as Pillars or Tables are of affix'd Papers and Proclamations to wit modo forensi non architectonico derived and delivered as is above-said to her from the Apostles and to them by Christ from God himself And the Reformed Religion Faith Doctrine and substantial Worship professed and practised in and by the Church of England being such as may appear from her publick tests and monuments especially the three Creeds Apostolick Nicene and Athanasian and her doctrinal Articles unanimously agreed upon in two several Convocations viz An. Dom. 1562 and 1604 c. compared with the Sacred Canon whose test and trial in the Case she is willing to undergo It follows that the Reformed and onely reforming Religion professed and practised in and by the Church of England is the onely true Religion which when you assault with Argument as now you undermine by Stratagem you shall be dealt withall Moreover Sir The Church of England is no less satisfied in her Clergy then in her Religion that as God hath by a Law of as long duration as that of Sun and Moon in the ordinary course of his Providence appointed to publish and propagate his Truth and instruct his Church by a constant series and succession of persons of holy Order and Office authorised and qualified thereunto so her Clergy is such having derived their orders together with their Religion ex traduce Apostolica from the original Seminary Founders of Christianity in England who are recorded in History the monumental Memory and best Intelligencer in such cases to have been Apostles or Men Apostolical whether Philip or Joseph of Arimathea sent by him as Tertullian
Lazarus from the Dead and his Curing of all manner of Diseases c. for confirmation of his Doctrine the two former one may by the very light of nature be assured of and yet question the last This certainly is no otherwise attested then first in a secondary and subservient order by the Church as a Ministerial mean of conveying to us the truth of matter of Fact and next in a superiour order by the Scriptures themselves as the the Canonical Records of the same and in both in conjunction with the Doctrine by them confirmed and both Doctrine and Miracles as the complex and conjunct object of our Faith equally credible upon Testimony which Faith is as hath been said by the concurrent testimony and inward illumination and motion of the publick spirit of the Holy Scriptures viz. the Holy Ghost ripened into this firm perswasion that the Revelation contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that is both the Doctrine it self and the narrative of the Miracles by which it was confirmed as collateral parts and contents thereof is of a truth the Word not of Man nor Angel but of GOD himself and the onely authentick Canon and Rule of Divine faith worship and obedience which I thank God I am as much confirmed in the belief of not onely to speak with Campian in another perswasion quam me vivere as that I live but as surely as that there is a God by whom I live else had long ere now become a miserable prey to subtil Adversaries who are ever observed primarily as you do to attact their Opponents in the scriptural foundation and that especially in its very fundamentality namely the Divine Authority thereof here Asserted and I hope Evicted Thus Sir I have gone a great way about to bring you by the nearest way home at leastwise if not to gain upon you as a Proselyte yet to guard your Reader against you as an Enemy And now I Challenge you to do your Worst the hurt will be your own none of mine nor I hope of his being that I have arm'd him with an Antidote he shall not need to fear what I promised to produce in the next place viz. your infective example And indeed Sir your whole Rhapsody seemes to be nothing else but a continued exemplification of your Atheisme and Blaspemy expressed in depreciating extenuating debasing and what in you lies nullifying the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and that in the most material Promises Invitations Precepts Narratives c. therein contained which could you by your foul index expurgatorius expunge them the sacred Canon as belike you have them your Creed let the remainder be branded for Apocryphal for me for to instance in a few what greater Promise is there recorded in the whole Book of God then that in Malachi Vnto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his Wings Or Invitation then that of Isaiah Ho every one that thirsteth come ye buy and eat yea come buy Wine and Milk without money and without price Or Precept then that early summons in our Saviour's triennial Preaching Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Or Narrative then that of St. John God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life Or its Parallel that of St. Paul This is a faithful saying and worthy of all Acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to Save Sinners c. And what a poor jejune dilute empty History were the Volume of Holy Scripture and consequently how helpless and hopeless your case and mine and that of all Sinners universally if depauperated of those and their parallel Evangelical contents being that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very quintessence the life and spirit the very soul and substance of that Blessed Revelation consisteth therein and yet most Blasphemously debased and prophaned by your self and prostituted to Contempt in others for which you must be accomptable witness those facetious but blasphemous Laconicks with which you Criticize thereupon viz. that of The Moon of Righteousness upon the first A spiritual Sack-posset upon the next The Soap of Sorrow and Fullers-earth of Contrition upon the third That of the Daughter of God and Dauphin of Heaven upon the fourth and that of a Christmas-Feast consisting of Three Dishes c. upon the last and the like which who but your self can either read or relate without Horrour I guess what your Reply might be here namely that you have onely transcribed the Blasphemies of others to wit those of the Clergy c. But then remember Sir what the doctrine of the Civil Law is approved with all civil men above alledged namely that Publication without Vindication is implicite Accusation especially in a case of of such an universal concern as are the Holy Scriptures which your own interest therein had obliged you to vindicate but that it is plain you have renounced it In short then supposing matter of fact to be matter of sad truth namely that some unhappy Clergy-men have to the disgrace of their function Religion and Scriptures committed such horrid Blasphemies which as yet I do not enquire into but methinks if any such be you should have by name singled them out of the society to their deserved contempt this will not justify you in what I charge you withal It being manifest that you have not only divulged those Blasphemies but divulged them without the least vindication of the Holy Scriptures Religion c. thereby so greatly damnifyed and disparaged which as hath been said is an implicite joyning of issues with the first Aggressors nay that you do industriously throughout your Letters betray and prostitute the same to accumulative contempt in the Laity and that with all imaginable artifice and advantage of an extemporary and occasional witt to use your own idiom in your own praise that cursed Volupia to whose unhallowed Shrines you have presumed to devote and sacrifice God's own Word and Oracles though you might easily have made experiment thereof upon another Theam at a much cheaper rate than that is like to prove of adventurous jesting with a two-edged tool and what plainer instance or argument of A. theism But for a further and fuller exemplification and conviction hereof I will first prompt your Reader with this rule that as in the sacred Decade or Ten commandements in particular so in the sacred Scriptures in general he that offends in any one point is by Divine verdict guilty of all to wit intensively in regard the Divine authority of the whole is violated in any one particular And now or instance in particulars of Scripture not by the Clergy but by you and the whole consequentially in those abused depreciated and what in you lieth exauctorated I do in the next place recommend to your Readers perusal a few pages of your second Letter noted in my Margent
of Origen's Hexapla or the Polyglott Bible otherwise than to be possessors of them in the little Hole over the Oven provided it be large enough to hold it or that they be able to preach with Cloven Tongues or to offer good Hypotheses about the Longitude the Quadrature of the Circle a perpetuum mobile besides Non-residents a Vacuum in Nature besides what you alledg to be in themselves or that they be skill'd in the Circulation Fermentation and all the various Phaenomena of the Blood and in reading of Lectures of Anatomy besides that of the Heart and least of all that they skill in the Mysteries of your approved-of Cobler and Tinker nor yet which comes nearer to Primitive example in the employ of a Customehouse-man or Fisher-man or the like In a word that they be absolute Linguists Orators Philosophers Naturalists Mathematicians Astronomers Civilians Canonists Politicians c. qualified for the Academy as well as for the Church the Chair as the Pulpit and the Bench or Cabal as for either and all this I say upon peril of the censure of Ignorance from you or of Contempt from the Laity else Sir you might as well have extended your charge to the whole sixteen hundreds of years last past as to the last single Century and have quarrell'd the Apostles themselves for their little skill in Politicks or Mathematicks and other Parts of Philosophy and that they were not as dexterous in Squaring of the Circle as many of them were in casting of a Net that they have not left us as exact a Description of the World in the Moon as of that beyond it and especially the Fathers of the Church both Eastern and Western in that of the whole Paternity only one single Duumvirate one for each Climate Origen and Jerome those Christian Masorites were Masters of the Holy Tongue the Hebrew the knowledge whereof is so necessary to that Holy Profession Well then there is a singular sort of Knowledge requisite in the Clergy as such and what that is must as I conceive be determined partly by the respective Exigencies of the Church whose Lights and Guides the Clergy are or ought to be partly by those particular Services which the All-wise Founder of the Society hath appointed and apportioned to each of them therein and both the one and the other again partly by the respective Constitutions of the Church and partly by the Successive Revolutions and Interchanges as corruptions in Doctrine or Life or both Apostacy Captivity and Persecution c. incident thereunto though the Quotient or particular Dimensum and definite proportion of Knowledge res ectively necessary in each Minister for each piece of Service incumbent upon him under each Constitution or Condition of the Church or each emergent exigency thereof is hardly I think determinable by any ordinary Mortal unless he had been with S. Paul in the third Heavens or could see beyond the Firmament and read by that Light which I understand is in accessible Now then the Constitution of the Church being as hath been declared above first Domestical impropriated within the Confines of one Family as from Adam downwards during the Patriarchy from thence advanced to National and at last to Oecumenick or Vniversal as may appear if you turn your Bible backward to the First Adam and then in a reversed order downward again to the Second the great Continent of both Jew and Gentile founded by Christ and his Apostles This Christian Church again being considerable both as originally founded and as successively propagated and both the Jewish and Christian Church being subject to yea frequently the Subjects of Heresie Idolatry Captivity Persecution Contempt c. It is rational to believe that the wise God hath all along appropriated and apportioned persons furnished with sutable Knowledge and necessary Qualifications to all those respective Constitutions Revolutions and emergent Exigencies of his Church Yea in matter of Fact it is certain from History both Sacred and Prophane and very observable amongst other provisions was both the Confusion of Languages preparatory to a National extent in the Jewish Church and the sacred Effusion of them in order to an Oecumenick and Vniversal one in the Christian the chief Subject of this Enquiry The Architect and chief Founder of the Christian Church is Jesus Christ in whom is the fulness both of the Godhead and of Godliness Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge accumulative measures of the Divine Spirit the Apostles his Associates and Ministerial Co-operaries with him in the Plantation were furnished with an extraordinary share in the same Spirit joyntly demonstrating the Divinity of the Word in their mouths by infallible Signs and Seals of it in their hands Oracles with Miracles Again the Church being founded and the chief Founder removed from his Colony and the rest ready to follow the same God who appointed Prophets Apostles and Evangelists for the Original Foundation and Gathering of his Church provides Pastors and Teachers a constant and inviolable Order and Series of Ecclesiastical persons for the successive edification and perfecting thereof in propagating and preserving the received Religion all Copartners in the same hereditary Spirit though with the difference of ordinary and extraordinary between them and their Predecessors and also some considerable diversification amongst themselves as touching particular Gifts or particular set Forms and Degrees of those Gifts or their usefulness and serviceableness in the Church being all universally suted to her particular emergent States Conditions and Exigencies thus in case of carnal Security there is a Boanerges in case of Persecution and Calamity a Barnabas in case of Neutrality and Lukewarmness a Zelotes in case of Heresie or Corruption in Doctrine Champion-Defenders of the Faith Origen against a Celsus Jerome against a Helvidius Jovinian Vigilantius c. Augustine against an Arrius as also Athanasius a Donatus a Manichean a Pelagius c. Basil against an Eunomius Cyprian against a Novatus Hilary against a Constantius Arnobius and Lactantius against obstinate Gentiles nay whole Councils and Consistories of Orthodox Fathers against the prevailing Heresies of their Times successively the Nicene Constantinopolitan Epâ—esine and Chalcedonian against the same number of Arch-Hereticks Arrius Macedonius Nestorius and Eutyches so that the Church is never left without a witness of Gods Truth more than the World is of his Power Moreover in case of Defamation Reproach or Contempt of Religion or Clergy still some or other strenuous Apologist for a Tertullus a Tertullian c. Briefly Sir in this Mystical Body like as it is in the Natural S. Pauls Simile else I durst not use it some of her Official Members are eminent for one gift others for another some for Tongues others for Interpretation of Scripture others for Prophecy or Preaching some for Positives others for Controversie others for a dexterous resolution of Cases of Conscience others again not all for you know Sir a double Cap may fit a Head which a Mitre will not for
power was most honourably eminent as well as in their Predecessors in that those â—erformed by Miracles what these which the above named Father observes to be the greatest of Miracles performed without them save that of Conversion But here a vehement Objection is framed from a Divine Providence against the Clergy usual with all Aâ—heists against Christians in general Though Ministers be called the men of God say you yet when it is observed that God seems to take but little care of them in making them tolerable provisions for this life Let. 1. p. 95. the people are presently apt to think that they do no more belong to God c But what would you infer from hence Sir You will bewray your self again for you speak your self in the people One of two must necessarily be implied either none or which is the same an unjust Providence in God or else no part or share in that Providence for a poorer Clergy Improvidence or injustice in God in that he doth not make competent provisions for the Clergy or else the misery and unhappiness of the poorer Clergy in that they have no part in his Providence and consequently their just ground of Contempt No God! or else no poor Clergy or if poor contemptible are you there Sir Nay even off with your Mascarado profess your self downright for the most desperate Atheist or which is all one Anti-providentialist is one in disguise therefore I assert if truth be you my Proselyte if not I promise you upon conviction to own my self yours First That there is a Divine Providence by which the whole World and all its contents creatures actions states cases and concerns in every kind order and degree whether Metaphysical viz. Generals and particulars things great and small or natural viz. things necessary free and casual or moral viz. actions good and bad or civil viz. conditions prosperous and adverse c. are all preserved governed and conducted to the respective ends allotted them by the wise Creator both particular and peculiar to each and universal or common in respect of the whole and in and by all the supream and ultimate the Creator's own Glory he having no end in working beyond more then motive to it without himself doth necessarily and naturally flow and follow from the Divine perfections and properties namely his Goodness Wisdom and power so that to argue with Nemesius above quoted there is neither will nor skill nor sufficiency wanting in him which is any wayes requisite hereunto and hence as a common connate notion indelibly engraffed upon Rational Spirits acknowledged by at least the generality of very Heathens Again That there is a peculiar kind of Oeconomy or a special Providence whereby God as he upholdeth all things in general by the word of his power to speak with the Scriptures and then I am secure so doth in an especial manner uphold preserve govern and administer his Church more especially the sacred Tribe of his own Ministry is confessed by all Christians Thirdly That God is in all the administrations of his Providence what he is essentially in himself glorious wise holy good and righteous so as that there is nothing of indecency or incongruity to his Majesty in inspecting the least things more then in the greatest no blemish to his holiness in governing the bad and worst of actions more then of the good no tyranny or violence offered to the liberty of second causes from the infallibility of the first more then to the liberty of the first from the natural necessity which is in many of the second no violation lastly of his justice in the dissimilary and widely different how seemingly soever unrighteous administrations of prosperity and adversity to and in the world is as the first by very Pagans and the second by all Christians acknowledged by all Orthodox sober learned what then to make of you in such an arraignment of this Providence the Reader be judge As for the seeming inequality of Divine administrations of adversity to the righteous and prosperity to the wicked in somuch that it is their canonical definition these are the ungodly that prosper in the world to the vehement perplexity of many God's very autocrasy or absolute power and prerogative by vertue whereof he being the Omnipotentiary and soveraign Proprietary of the whole world Jure potest quicquid potest may do by right whatever he can do by power accountable to none for his actions may suffice to vindicate his Justice But as for you the very Heathens have offer'd satisfaction in this case amongst whom I recommend to you Socrates Plato Seneca but especially Plutarch sufficient to school you not only in the doctrine of a Divine Providence in general but ineven that of a holy just and righteous one and that in the very present difficulty But as for others in case the Academy fail I am sure the Sancturry will not Davids Oracle will afford Davids resolution in this very case if consulted with suitable devotion Besides one very material consideration in this case is this namely that there is a kind of miscellany of good and bad in the best and worst of all whilst on this side another world good natural moral or spiritual as well as evil now the righteous God whose pure and holy nature inclines and obligeth him to an equal love to the good and abhorrency of the bad on the one hand often owns and crowns that natural moral good in the wicked with a temporary reward as his portion in this life and on the other frequently chastiseth the evil that is in the righteous with a temporary punishment reserving the eternal full and plenary recompence of both viz. misery in the former and glory and happiness in the latter to another world so that external states and occurrences are but a very sallible Index of that interest in God by you mentioned I might add several other considerations for satisfaction herein as that the very afflictions of the righteous poverty for instance in the Clergy are by a wise God intended and by themselves improved for real advantages the Cherem turned into Rachem as the Jews use to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and others but I hasten towards a conclusion Lastly Sir what is by you insinuated as an argument against a Providence is a considerable argument for one namely the Poverty of that Clergy which yet maugre all opposition slanders reproaches prejudice and contempt is preserved and maintained as the more immediate Eleemosynary Dependants upon Divine Providence herein most observable which I conceive to have been one reason why Christ as I noted before interdicted his Disciples the Scrip as well as the Purse but I proceed having declared enough for the conviction of any sober or rational namely that there is a Divine Providence general in the World and special in the Church that this Providence is universally holy just and righteous that it is so far from being inconsistent with
to understand that Sacred Truth might have been easily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by tradition from father to son conveyed preserved all that time pure entire and incorrupt free from the above-named Inconveniencies yea one single Trinmvirate might have performed this for the whole Two thousand years mentioned namely Adam Methuselah and Shem Methuselah living above Two hundred years with Adam and Shem who lived to the Fiftieth of Isaack's Age which was about the Two thousandth one hundredth and Fiftieth of the Age of the World about a hundred with Methuselah But now being that the Church-Line hath been since far extended her constitution advancing from Domestical to National and from That to Oecumenick and Vniversal Japhet perswaded to co-tabernacle with Shem and moreover the Life of Man very much since curtail'd being contracted by Sacred Horoscope to seventy or at most eighty years yea very rarely protracted to that insomuch that many successive Sages of the Church would not suffice to perform that now which that one single ternion did before and thus the case infinitely altered It followeth that for a preventive expedient against the Three-fold Inconveniency above-specified namely oblivion corruption and suppression a scriptural and written Rule is most Convenient And lastly that it is most congruous to the Nature and Honour of GOD to indulge his Creatures such a Revelation Rule and Directory is most convincingly manifest from his own infinite Perfections partly and partly from the concerns of his Glory and Honour in his own Worship being rightly performed and his Creature 's Happiness being fully secured for to urge but one argument in this one piece of Sacred Oeconomy which is Nemesius's concerning a Divine Providence in general should not God in condescention to his Creatures necessity and conveniency mentioned as well as in compliance with the Interest of his own Honour therein concerned afford him such a Revelation of his Mind and Will and Rule of Faith and Life this non-indulgence or refusal must necessarily proceed either from want of Wisdom or of will or of power and sufficiency in God as if either he were not Wise enough to understand how to gratifie his Creature or indeed consult his own interest herein or not Good Gracious and Kind enough to his Creature or Faithful enough to his own interest to do it or else in case of both Skill and Will yet not Able or Sufficient enough hereunto But now being that God as is evident by the very light of Nature is infinitely Wise infinitely Good and All-sufficient it were desperate treasonable Blaspemy committed against Heaven to assert any of those Defects and therefore in fine by the best of consequence as a special supernatural Revelation of the divine Mind and Will and Rule of Faith and Life is to the Creature absolutely Necessary and a Scriptural and Written one most Convenient So it is most congruous and suitable to the Divine both nature and honour to afford and indulge his Creature this most needful useful Scriptural Rule and Revelation Lastly Sir That this necessary-expedient Revelation of God and his Will this Canon Rule and Directory of Divine Doctrine and Worship and Christian Faith and Life c. is no other then what is contained in that System of Sacred Truth the Volume of the Scripures of the Old and New Testament as approved and received throughout the Reformed Churches is as rationally demonstrable as either of the former This being that only Revelation to which the necessary properties and conditions of such a Canon do appertain which are summarily these two namely Divine Authority in respect of the Original and universal sufficiency in respect of the end it being absolutely requisite that such a Rule should both proceed from not Man Church or Angel but God himself as its Author and also by due proportion correspond to the ends and intendments specified as a plain and plenary description of and direction to the true God true Worship true Happiness and the appropriated means of the acceptable performance of that Worship and infallible attainment of that Happiness what more Rational and may that Instrument Method and Model of Revelation be for ever exploded the Church of God as apocryphal which is devoid of either property The one is a compound of infallible Veracity and authoritative Power expressed in the Revelation as being by its Sacred Author whose essential properties those are both inspired and instituted for the only authentick and unalterable Canon of his Church the former requiring our Faith the latter our Obedience Both in their respective analysis ultimately resolvable into the same as their very formal and Fundamentall Reason a principle of natural Conscience as well as that of the Authors eternal Power and God Head So that the Christian Religion framed by this Canon is of all others the most rational as being founded partly upon the Veracity of that God who can neither deceive nor be deceived partly upon his Supremacy or potestative Right by vertue whereof quicquid libet licet he may as the Creature 's Soveraign Proprietary enjoyn and exact of him whatsoever Worship or Service his own absolute but righteous Will shall dictate or direct and if any of the English Clergy offer to court your assent or obedience hereunto as other let them for ever inherit your Contempt The other property again by me considered as relating to both matter and manner of Revelation is the absolute perfection of the Canon whereby it is conceived as a Sacred Pandect or Ecyclopoedy expressely or implicitely directly or consequentially to comprehend the whole Counsel of God concerning all things necessary to be either known and believed or observed and practised in order to God's Glory and Man's happiness with so much clearness and perspicuity as that all both literate and illiterate may in a due and diligent perusal of the same attain to a competent skill and knowledg therein So that that onely Revelation must necessarily be the authentick Organ and Instrument Canon and Rule of Divine Doctrine and Worship Christian Faith and Obedience to which those two Canonical properties and conditions agree viz. that authority in respect both of inspiration and institution and that all-sufficiency in respect both of matter and manner of discovery so as that all Faith and Obedience yielded to the Revelation must be resolved into the veracity and supremacy of its Author expressed therein as the formal object or objective Reason of both aswell as into the universally perfect and all-sufficient Testimony it self as the material one and not into the testimony either of Church with the Papist or of Spirit with the Enthysiast both committing a most absurd and putid Circle in giving the reason of their hope asserting the truth and authority of the Canon by those respective testimonies and again in a reversed method the truth of those testimonies as being no other way known to be true by the Canon therefore to be equally declined Now that the Revelation of
that I single out such matchless instances of your extemporal and occasional Witt which let me tell you none but some unsanctified Humster for your Hector will ever afford an Amen to or reckon other then facetious villany remember for a check to it though Noah's Flood mentioned in your Hector's Litany be past yet St. Peter's Fire is still to come which all your holy Water cannot quench Ignorant-Poor Clergy indeed if a profligate Hector-Rampant shall out-vie them in their faculty being no further hallowed then with your outside consecration of a double Cap Cassock and Girdle Again As touching the other grand part of the Ministerial Office namely Preaching It is your peremptory assertion Sir in the Words of some great Patron an Intimado possibly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom you adopt for your mouth that such Preaching as is usual in the Church of England is a hinderance of Salvation Lett. 1. p. 81. rather then the means to it and the explication of what you intend by the epithete usual you reserve to the good time c. but what I will give the World to understand presently and yet plough with no other then your own Heiffer That Preaching of the Word of God by persons of Holy Order duly authorised and qualified hereunto is a Divine Institution that such Preaching is the ordinary meanes of Salvation and that the Preaching usual in the Church of England of which a fuller vindication hereafter is such She and I in her is obliged to believe till She see better Authority for altering of her Creed or Clergy then you or your Masters are like to produce in haste But the emphasis of your assertion lyeth in the adjunct viz. usual with which you epithet the Preaching by you tax'd and what you intend by usual Preaching in the Church of England must be traced by its extreams or opposites Now then the extream or opposite of usual Preaching must either be 1. Extraordinary high performed in the Holy Tongues Hebrew and Greek through an immediate illapse and inspiration of an infallible Spirit and if so Christus corpore Paulus ore nothing less will serve your turn then then St. Augustine's wish the audible Preaching of Christ or an Apostle in person visibly re-incorporated into the Church or else 2. Extraordinary low and mean possibly by way of prescribed Homily the Church speaking in this as the Spirit in the former but this you know is performable by the meanest Desk-Man one of your Contemptibles though never Master of other Language or Literature then what he may owe to a Mothers Nurses or School-Dames discipline or 3. Extraordinary in respect of Church Office order and degree as being performed onely by Primates or Prelates c. but neither do I take this to be the meaning of your unusual Preaching for besides the great breach of charity implied in it as if all the Preachers in the Church of England were Hinderers of Salvation except onely two saving Graces and twenty four Dominical Vertues if once the inferiour order and Body of the Clergy be brought into Contempt I am sure the Most and Right Reverend must look to share in the Destiny Or else lastly but of that anon It is not a little observable Sir I hope your Reader will sense you accordingly that while you expose our Preachers to the contempt of the Laity you amuse them with dark Reserves touching their Preaching The Clergy and Religion is the very Theme Argument and subject-matter of your Letters those you presuppose a contempt of the Grounds and Occasions of this Contempt you have engaged in an Enquiry into with pretence of friendly redress those grounds and occasions you summarily reduce to two viz the ignorance and Poverty of the Clergy of which anon in the explication and demonstration of those two characters the Preachers are plainly described whose Preaching you averr to be a hinderance of Salvation Now then the usual Preachers of the Church of England are plainly described by you and in them the usual Preaching what then can be the meaning or Mystery of your Reserve that the usual preaching that hinders Salvation which one would think you have sufficiently explained yet you will not here goe about to explain Lett. 1. p. 81. Lett. 2. p. 101. and that the reasons of your scrible might be further explained when occasion should require undoubtedly profound all naught and that I may unmask and detect you according to my promise I will spell out the Original by your own Copy for therein as God would have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your speech bewrayeth you and by good consequence draw a summary conclusion touching the designe charged upon you from your own premises and that in A third assault made by you upon both Doctrinal and Ministerial foundation joyntly the Reformed Religion and Clergy more expressely Ad hominem then All such preaching as is at present usual in the Church of England is a hinderance of Salvation rather then the meanes to it But the Preaching used in the Church of England for an hundred Yeares last past is such as is at present usual therein Therefore the Preaching used in the Church of England for an hundred Yeares last past is a hinderance of Salvation c. Sir of this Categorick Syllogisme for form unexceptionable as you must needs know if your Logicks match your Ethicks the premisses are your own and I hope you will not deny the conclusion which is a compendious glosse and Comment upon the pestilent designe of your Letters of Enquiry The Major proposition Consists of your own express words above scann'd onely your indefinite is by me turn'd into an universal which you know the Rules of School will justify me in as well as the matter in debate such preaching and all such Preaching are equivalent The minor proposition or assumption is your own too as appears partly by express words partly by the scope series tenour and contexture of your Discourse disown it if you can Lett. 1. p. 58 59 It would be an endless thing Sir say you to your Correspondent to count up all the Follies that have been for an hundred Yeares last past Preached and Printed of this kind Now what kind of Follies you mean is plain from your foregoing Narrative concerning ridiculous Preaching by way of impertinent nay Lett. 1. p. 32 38 45 c. sometimes Blasphemous Metaphor Similitude Tales or such as is apt to bring Contempt upon the Preacher and that Religion which he professeth of which afterwards when I come to enquire into matter of Fact so that the argument standeth thus That Preaching which is full of Follies or such useless and ridiculous things as are apt to bring Contempt upon the Preacher and the Religion by him professed is such as is at present usual in the Church of England and therefore by you supposing it such exposed to Contempt But the Preaching usual in the Church of England for an Hundred
Years last past is full of such Follies c. Then the conclusion followeth by clear consequence viz. that therefore the Preaching usual in the Church of England for an Hundred Years last past is such as is at present usual therein and consequently by your own position a hinderance of Salvation rather then the means to it the Preachers Fools and the Preaching Murther That is to say the Faith and Doctrine usually Preached yea and Printed too for both Press Pulpit Writings as well as Sermons are by you charged contended for lived and dyed in yea and by many of them sealing with their Blood what they professed by Tongue or Pen dyed for by our first Reformadoes Protestant-Champions and Church-Worthies our Marian Martyrs all our Orthodox Learned Pious Painful Preachers under the Reign of Q. Elizab. K. James Charles the first in times past and what hath been still is under our present Soveraign King Charles the II. usually Preached published is a hindrance of Salvation rather then the means to it consequently the Church of England since the Sun of Righteousness arose in it with his healing wing of Reformation no true Church for as extra Ecclesiam nulla salus there is no ordinary Salvation without the Line of Church-Communion so there is no true Church without the appropriated meanes of Salvation and then according to your Divinity Ichabod farewell Church of England And now Sir what do you think of your self upon recollection or what will your Reader think of you have I not here convincingly made out against you from your own Principles and positions a base unworthy pestilent designe upon the Reformed Religion and Clergy and in them upon our Church to what in you lies the utter subverting and nullifying of the whole And what you mean by your mysterious reserves namely that what you intend by usual Preaching Lett. 1. p. 81. Lett. 2. p. 101. you will not here go about to explain and the reasons of your Letters might be further explained when occasion should require but I have done it to your hand in a paraphrase very congruous to the original what you mean I say by such Reserves and shrew'd hints as those are we may by this time very plainly perceive especially with the additional help of a short Glosse of your own dropt from you it seemes unawares a great way off from the Text where you explain the good time by those despaired of dayes of vertue Lett. 1. p. 124. of having the Tithes restored to the Church most unjustly robb'd of them by the Sacrilegious Church-Publican Henry the Eight to wit when like a wise Man he rejected the Yoak of Papal Supremacy Anglia non patitur duos Caesares which other Christian Princes Issachar like couch and crouch under and forraged its Antichristian supports Monkish Nests and Nurseries with which the Nation was at that time much more over-stock'd then now it is with an Orthodox Clergy though in so doing he onely kill'd the Pope's Body as Luther said of him in the mean time saving his Soul c. Encrease of Church-Patrimony Sir I do as heartily wish and pray for as your self but I 'll be sure that it be a Reformed Church which upon any such score I enter into my Litany but this you aim to subvert But good Sir pray tell me how comes it to pass that you adventure to explain the good time in the plausible circumstance of Church-Tyth which you doe so mysteriously conceal in the concern of usual-Church Preaching 'T is very odd here you are express but in the case of Preaching you treat your Reader with Morose Reserves what I intend by usual Preaching I shall not here go about to explain the reasons of my Writing may be further explained when occasion shal require Sir I doe not like these odd hints of your hic nunc I understood by your last Lett. 2. p. 200. that you was gon into Devonshire to secure the World from your being ever troublesom in this kind any more Amen said I a good riddance and what other kind of trouble you design for it the God of Heaven knowes your reticentiae's of time place and occasion when where and upon what account you intend it may be by Letters of Credence to be produced in a good time further to explain to us the reasons of your Enquiry and what you understand by usual Preaching in the Church of England I must tell you are very suspicious what do you mean to comment upon it with the sensible gloss of Fire and Faggott or a second dose of the Jesuite's Powder or the new game of Trapp-Law or t'other Coal from the Altar because the first did not the business and thus of Inquisitor turn Executioner In the name of God Father Son and Holy Ghost we defie the Divel and all his Works Being that your Charge Sir is commenced from and coextended with Englands Evangelick Century and blessed Aera of Reformation the hundred Yeares last past whereas had it been limited to the last twenty or thirty we had less suspected your morals and consequently Vulpes Bovem agit the Reformed Religion and Clergy therein attacted and what in you lies subverted insomuch that it is plainly manifest that the Christian Religion founded and fixed in the Nation is with you the Apple of contention who therefore criminates Ministers being two bent upon Preaching of it Lett. 2. p. 72. index sufficient of yours It highly concerns the Church of England to stand in Justification of her first Reformation her original Protestancy and remonstrance against and separation from the Church of Rome the Religion by her professed her Clergy the official Preachers and Publishers of that Religion and the usual Preaching of that Clergy which in her name as her Advocate I have vouch'd to doe Well then The Essentials constitutive of a true Church Sir of the Mystical aswell as of the natural Body being these three namely the Head the Body and intimate Vnion and Communion between both the onely Head of the Christian Church being Jesus Christ God and Man in one Person appointed and anointed by God the Father King Priest and Prophet thereof the only mystical Ligament and bond of Community in this holy Corporation being the Divine Spirit originally derived from the Head through the whole Body the Church as Heiress thereof being the common foundation of that Sacred patronymick Christian under the New Testament as well as of that other Meschiahim as Eusebius notes under the Old or the Catholick Faith the product of that Spirit or both whence it comes to pass that the Founder Foundation Superstructure and medium or instrument of conjunction are all in Holy Scripture propounded as so many Vnites admitting of no consort or collateral One God and Father of all One onely Lord Mediator Saviour Foundation Name Way c. One Body One Spirit Faith Hope and Religion And being that the Religion professed and practised