visited and looked into for the Iic preservation and Peace of the State for that they being of such different minds and tempers cannot assemble together without eminent and notable danger if the Prince be not always made privy with what passeth among them in their Assemblies and Congregations and therefore they ought to be treated according to the danger that necessarily attendeth such Innovations § Cautilousness is the sinews of wisdom Farilior cautio est ubi manifesta formido And nothing is more dangerous than to be secure in matters of State In some Forreign Countries every Hoast is bound to bring his travelling guest before an Officer there to certifie his Name with the occasion of his coming and intended time of aboad in those parts And in case he stay longer he must again renew his Licence so curious and vigilant also are they to keep their City from Infection that without a Certificate witnessing their coming from wholsom places they may not escape the Lazaretto How more watchful ought Magistrates to be to prevent the Contagion of the Souls of their Subjects and therefore in prudence they ought to inspect and supervise all Pastors and Teachers High and Low that no mischief or disturbance to the quiet State of the Realm be contrived hatched or fomented by their Doctrine or Discipline § In Tuscany when Pius the 4th attempted to give the Office of Inquisition to the Friers of St. Dominic Cosmo the great Duke would not consent why Because those of that Order took part with the Enemies of the House of Medices when they were driven out of Florence Anno. 1494. The same reason and example holds with us and do shew that there ought an Account to be made to the King of all such as are recommended to him either for Orders or Preserments that he may be fully satisfied that their Piety and Duty towards their Prince and Religion the Christian life of the People and the Devotion of the Ecclesiasticks themselves towards their natural Prince and Country may not be prejudicial to their quiet State § Besides these grand reasons of State against Conventicles the 32 Canon of those stiled Apostolical doth Ordain Si quis Presbyter c. deponatur quasi principatus amator existens est enim tyrannus c. Canon 32. That if any Presbyter contemning his Bishop shall colligate a part and erect another Altar of which nature Conventicles are Deponatur as a lover of Empire for he is a Tyrant All which reasons do perswade that Common-wealth Christian or not Christian may for good and sound reasons suppress Conventicles of a dangerous consequence that are really and truly so but not out of fears and jealousies that they will prove so For holy Writ seems very much to favour and warrant Meetings or Conventicles of the Brethren Subjects of any Kingdom solemnly meeting in the name and fear of God either with or without a Priest to the end that their mutual edification among themselves and quickening one another to zeal and constancy in true Faith Piety and Religion and the preserving themselves against Apostacy may thereby be advanced and reinforced No doubt but that many excellent advantages may accrew thereby as provoking one another to love and to good works mutual observance and communicating of each others dispositions tempers gifts experiences vertues failings that they may the better sit themselves to do one another good or to receive comfort and consolation one of another in such Christian Conversation Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is by which expression he seems to rebuke those that did forsake such Meetings but exhort one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching 10 Heb. 24 25. which place together with the practice of the Apostles doth not warrant Publick Assemblies only but also the Private Meetings of Christians for mutual conference and exhorting one another which are not to be neglected nor forsaken but to be used for preserving unity in the Church but not to foster Schism Separation Treason Rebellion or to hinder the more publick Assemblies More fully to the same purport is 1 Cor. 14.23.24.25 to 33. whosoever seriously considers first that this Epistle is wrirten to the Church of God in general and not to Priests which is at Corinth and to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours and then that all the Documents Doctrines and Intimations in that Chapter specified relating to spiritual gifts to prophesying and speaking with tongues are directed to the Brethren and Church in general if therefore the whole Church be come together into some place and all speak c. V. 23. may with good consequence and deduction conclude that all solemn Conventicles and Meetings tending to edification whether 5 or 5000 or whether with or without a Priest are thereby warranted and that it is a fundamental right due to all Christians and a duty incumbent on them all so to congregate and so to glorify God and edify one another and the very order deportment and decency of such Assemblies is therein described and pourtraied out These being the Commandments of God V. 37. with what good conscience then can any discountenance or speak against such Congregations when the same duty is certainly as incumbent upon them that discountenance and speak against them as upon those that countenance or frequent them Is it because they are afraid of the breath of fools to be accounted Puritanical Presbyterian or Independent or that because they think every man in Hell that is worse than themselves or those that are better but in a fools Paradise or that by so frequenting they should crush Arts of compliance plausibility ambition and preferments or that they are afraid of being righteous overmuch what is this else but Demas-like to forsake the fellowship of Saints and to embrace this present World making the Souls of men the most precious thing that ever God created subordinate to their lusts and risings and Balaam-like for hope of honour or preferment become more senseless of Gods Command than was his dumb Ass and like Micha's Levite for a little better reward swallow down Theft and Idolatry flatter profaneness betray the truth of the Gospel and smother and dissemble the strictness and purity of Gods most holy ways § Consider that all Instruction and Edification is not from Priests nor out of Pulpits only Apollos Minister of Caesarea and of Iconia was an eloquent man mighty in the Scriptures instructed in the way of the Lord fervent in the spirit who spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord and spake boldly in the Synagogue and yet Aquila and Priscilla his Wife Tent-makers when they heard him took him home and expounded unto him the way of God more
answerable Practise it may certainly bring them to Heaven What the Particulars of this Liturgy should be I will not here meddle withal only thus If it contain any thing contrary to the Word of God it ought not to be and much less to be enjoyned and if it do the Magistrate must answer for it at the day of his Account and Dissenters thereunto not be blamed Therefore as he tenders the good of his own Soul it behoves him to take care that all therein be warrantable by the Word of God or at least no way contrary unto it and to leave nothing or as little as is possible upon a Moote Point Concerning our own established Liturgy I shall only say this in general for Justification thereof That whosoever consults it shall find no Point of Belief wanting in it absolutely necessary to Salvation and that the Method of it is incomparably good scarce capable of Melioration being but the History of Christ beginning with his Advent and so proceeding to his Nativity Circumcision Epiphany Passion Resurrection Ascention c. all very requisite at least if not absolutely necessary to be known and believed and all justified and made out by suitable Chapters Epistles Gospels Collects Prayers c. containing also a laudable and very reverend Form of Administring the Sacraments and the like for Marriage Burial of the Dead Ordination and Consecration of Bishops and Presbyters and all these according or at least not contrary to the Tenor of Holy Writ and therefore fit to be enjoyned and its use established and the disuse and abuse thereof to be discountenanced by the Magistrate If any be unsatisfied with any Part or Expression or Rite or Gesture or Habit or Vestment therein mentioned or therewith used I refer them to Judicious Hooker never yet answered and others for satisfaction it being not my design to justisie every Particular of this or any other Liturgy but to assert the necessity requisiteness and conveniency of Liturgies in general from the Antiquity and Universal Use of all Christian Churches in all parts of the World In rebus de quibus nil câ—rtislatuit Divina Scriptura mos Populi lâ—ei instituta majorum pro lege tâ—â—â—nd asunt August ad Casulanum which alone almost argues the necessity of it to be established by a Law of Nature or Moral Reason and not to be esteemed of as a thing indifferent that may or may not be used so necessary that without it I cannot see how any Prince can take general cognisance of the Religion of his People Take this also along with you in farther Justification of our Liturgy That by the Order contained in the Book of Common-Prayer on Sundays and Holy-days half an hour before Even-song so the Old Common-Prayer-Book and Canon as I remember or according to the Newer Books after the Second Lesson the Curate of every Parish ought to examine Children sent unto him in some Points of the Catechisme and all Fathers Mothers Masters Dames should cause their Children Servants and Apprentices to resort unto the Church at the time appointed there to hear and to be obediently ordered by the Curate until such time as that they have learnt all that in the said Book is commanded And when the Bishops shall appoint the Children to be brought before them for their Confirmation the Curate of every Parish shall bring or send the Names of those Children of his Parish which can answer to the Questions of the Catechisme And there ought none to be admitted to the Holy Communion until such time as he can say his Catechisme and be Confirmed SOME REMARQUES UPON A DISCOURSE CONCERNING LITURGIES c. NOtwithstanding all the great Care Piety and Prudence of our Fore-fathers successively used Age after Age in compiling of so excellent a thing as a Liturgy and of which this Nation hath received so great benefit that it hath proved by experience to be what once Paul the fourth averred of his great Darling the Inquisition for the Avail against Heresie and defence of the Apostolick See the true Ram to keep out Heresie and Popery yet as of Elder so of more Puny Days but especially since 1640. there have been published Pamphlets sans Nombre villifying and condemning the Use and Imposition of Liturgies besides much Gall which hath dropt from many a bitter Pen against them by the By from Writers writing on other Occasions But of them all that have come unto my view none prima facie carries more shew of Reason and Learning than that which bears the Title of A Discourse concerning Liturgies and their Impositions published 1662. by a nameless Author To answer which would require a large Volume which not being my Work or Design here I shall only tanquam Canis ad Nilum touch and away give you a very short Sum and Account of his large Discourse containing above 170 Pages in Quarto in a small Print and say something to the most material Arguments only of it for there be many of his Averments and Postulata which if we should both give and grant yet would be rather Arguments for than against Liturgies as that Christ never instituted nor appointed Liturgies that the Apostles never used them nor yet the Fathers in the Purest Times For though Christ never Instituted Liturgies it is enough that he commanded Rem Liturgiarum the Matter Worship and Doctrines contained in our Liturgies for of such and such only I desire to be understood If such Reasoning may be allowed for currant Doctrine it will certainly prove as strong against Sermons and Administrations that he or any other preacheth and useth as against Liturgies for certainly Christ never appointed the Form though happily he hath the Matter of the one and of the other jam sumus ergo pares they are both on the same bottom Besides is it reasonable to think it fit that Christ in whom even whilst on Earth dwelled all the fulness of the God-head bodily Col. 2.9 that had the Power of all Matter Form and Language and whatever he spake or thought was infallible should yet tie himself to any stinted Forms of Words The like say I for the Apostles in whom the Spirit also dwelt bodily as in Christ himself even after the same manner though not in the same measure witness those Emanations from their Words from their Touch from their Shadows curing Diseases by Handkerchiefs Aprons and Shadows and witness their Infallible Spirit that what ever they dictated as Truth was Truth and is come down as Scripture to us witness also the Cloven Tongues sitting upon each of them whereby they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and were endowed to speak with Tongues If the Apostles I say after all these Gifts and Graces so miraculously bestowed on them should have limited the Spirit by using stinted Forms happily they would not have been found so faithful in the House of God as was Moses Is it then rational from such Premisses to deduce this Conclusion that
which despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God but our Translation is he therefore that despiseth despiseth not Man but God And this despising God in his Vicar is called 1 Sam. 15.23 a kind of Idolatry Here are two very geat Clerks very opposite each to other How shall we poor Laicks now behave our selves when so great School-men cannot agree the point one accounting it a meritorious Act to resist and the other Rebellion and a kind of Idolatry not to obey Christ's Vicar First Gerson wrote 150 years before Bellarmine's answer came out being in a quiet and sedate temper not ingaged in any disputes and consequently without Bias and void of passion on the other side Bellarmine then living and deeply ingaged in that great Controversie between Rome and Venice about Temporal and Ecclesiastical Power and consequently more subject to passion and Interest very strong Biasses Let us now consider his Texts of Scripture and reasons the first is the part of the same Luke 10.16 as before and must in part receive the same Answer viz. he that despiseth you despiseth me which words were undoubtedly spoken to the Seventy Disciples which represented the Preachers which were to publish Christs Doctrine and not to Peter singly so that what power soever devolves by this Text on Christs Vicar it is but in common with the rest of his Fellow Priests and Bishops so that he can challenge nothing peculiar to himself from this Text. To this Text we will oppose and leave to their consideration Matth. 25.45 that at the day of Judgment Christ will say to the Reprobate Quatenus in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me and likewise we shall oppose the 18. Matth. 6. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his Neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea so that there is Authority of Scripture to shew that Christ takes it for an injury done unto himself that is done unto the least of his Faithful Servants But of Christs Vicar not one word not so much as once named in the whole Bible a term never heard of till about Anno 666. So that he which despiseth c. is alledged out of its natural sence by Bellarmine and in as much ye did it not c. alledged in its proper sence for that admonition or correction is indeed a work of Charity and incumbent on all Christians so it be done with prudence and with due observance of circumstances And on the contrary cum Authoritate imperare cum potentia is against Charity Besides the very construction of the words qui vos spernit c. cannot possibly bear it no more than Dic Ecclesiae can reasonably be understood of the Pope a single person for I never understood that Popes had Pigs in their Bellies tho I will not swear what Pope Joan had in her Weem when she was Delivered of a Son in the open Street as she went to St. John Laterans So that the 10. Luke 16. is to be understood of all Ministers in General among whom I will not deny His Holiness Quatenus a Priest or Bishop to have a right in Common with the rest of his Brethren but no other or greater For in the beginning Bishops and Priests were all one their Institution Commission Imploy and Duties were all one and the same and how when and by whom they came to be differenced and distinguished and an Ecclesiastical Regiment erected and regulated by * Canon Law Laws of their own making whereby they have Metamorphos'd it from a Democracy of all the Brethren together to an absolute Ecclesiastical Monarchy nay Tyranny of a Pope at Rome is not very hard to trace tho very hard to remedy If a Quaker like a bold Britain should Pilgrim it to Rome and there reprove and rebuke the Pope of Popish errors Superstitions and other false Doctrines and that by plain Scripture And the Pope should despise and scorn him not enduring sound Doctrine certainly at the day of Judgment qui vos spernit c. would be laid to the Charge of His Holiness and not unto the despicable Quaker assuredly whoever despiseth the word of truth tho in the mouth of the least of God's little ones despiseth Christ Teachings are not truth because uttered by the Supream Bishop Christ's Vicar the Head of all Christendom but because they are grounded on Scripture the word of Truth and so carry their own awe and warrant with them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isay 8.20 but they that will not hear Moses and the Prophets as no perverters of Scripture will will not be perswaded tho one arose from the Dead Luke 16.31 If the Apostles or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel than that which they have preached may not only be despised but accursed Gal. 1.8 then may not the Pope be despised that thus troubles the Church and labors to pervert the Gospel of Christ The next Scripture which he useth at the same rate is Qui haec spernit non hominem spernit sed Deum 1 Thes 4.8 He that despiseth these things despiseth not Man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit How is it possible that this citation can be to the purpose St. Paul assisted with the Holy Spirit applied qui haec spernit to such things there spoken by himself who could not erre v. 2 3 4 5 6 7. viz that ye should abstain from Fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and honor not in the lusts of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God c. How then can it now be applied to the Pope who for certain hath no other assistance of the Holy Ghost than the rest of his Brethren Neither yet hath he said himself nor his Sycophants for him that he hath any extraordinary Assistance of the Holy Ghost saving only when he doth determine a matter de Fide ex Cathedra and not when he gives Orders in a Stable How can he then freely and righteously according to their own Doctrine in a Decree or an Extravagant which is not in a matter of Faith say qui haec spernit c. he that despiseth these things c. When the Pope shall teach and command Gods own Indubitable Precepts we will not complain of him if he add with all that he that despiseth c. but to equal Popes to St. Paul and their Decrees and Extravagants to Canonical Scripture and make them subservient to their Dictates and Expositions Is not this to make them lyable to the Plagues denounced against them that add or diminish from Gods word Rev. 22.18 And is it not a strange Phanatick presumption and
sit in the seat of God I have a Heart like the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2.6 whilst he exalteth himself above all that is called God above all Magistrates to the Abasure of Gods Lieutenants above measure and much more than he ought attributing that to themselves which is proper and peculiar unto God only Were not our first Parents so tempted by Sathan ye shall be as Gods Gen. 3. I admire Gods insinite patience and mercy yet wonder that they have hitherto escaped the Judgment of Herod and have not long ere this been eaten up of Vermin because to this very day they have not given God the glory by expunging all such expressions bordering so near upon nay indeed are the quintescence of Blasphemy out of their extravagants and Decretals Canons and Authors when by their Indices Expurgatorii they have obliterated and expunged many Divine Truths out of the Antient Fathers and Books nay out of God's own Commandements out of his own Decalogue written with his own finger on Tables of Stone and split another into two that the same number might still remain And are they thus Hogen Mogen in words only Have not their Acts and Enterprises been answerable What say you to deposing of Kings of Emperors or if any thing in Magistracy may be more transcendent To speak of Kings of Italy France England Translating their Kingdoms oft attempted sometimes executed is but to speak them modest in pride and haughtiness these in their esteem being but Dii minorum Gentium what thing you of the deportment of Alexander the Third towards the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa doth it not proclaim him in pride Luciferian Such facts read many in the Cardinal de Rom. Pont. Lib. 5. c. 8. not related only but justified as done de Jure and pleaded as evidence to prove that the Pope hath Supream Power Temporal on Earth tho not directly yet in Ordine ad Deum for all Spiritualia How long Lord Holy and Just dost thou not avenge the Abasures of thy Lieutenants upon that false Prophet Stir up O Lord the Spirit of Princes that once the lofty looks of that proud man may be brought low Who is there amongst the Lords Anointed ones whose heart the Lord hath inclined to be an instrument of his vengeance upon this Pater omnium fornicationum Abominationum terrae his God be with them And if hereto the offering of the People be not willing unworthy they to see the peace and welfare of the everlasting Gospel But that I may not in the least prevaricate with my Lord Cardinal Bellarmine so great a Prince so great a Scholastick nor yet seem in the least to imitate him in his equivocating arguings of which I so much complain I shall joyn issue with him upon his own Instance viz. For the Pope is able to do all that is necessary to the conducting of Souls to Paradise Perche puo five tâ—tto questo che è necessario à condurreâ—i ' anime in Paradiso puo ' levare tutti gli impedimenti che il mundo o' l' demonio con tutta la loro fozza o' astutia and can take away all the Impediments which the World or Devil can lay in the way A doughty Prince doubtless To answer which I must preliminarily once more Interrogate His Holiness Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts Who hath given understanding to the Heart Is it the Inspiration of His Holiness or of the Almighty that giveth understanding Wilt thou then disanul his Judgments Wilt thou rob him of his glory that thou maist seem righteous or that thou maist be Dominus fac totum To conduct the Soul of an Infant into Paradise which is yet in the Mothers Womb and cannot be brought forth alive necessary it is one way or other to make it partaker of Grace can the Pope do it I trow not For neither can he institute a Sacrament for this purpose nor grant that the Child should be cut out of the Mothers Belly and therefore the Pope cannot do any thing necessary to conduct this Soul into Paradice According to like Romish Doctrine a man being Actually in some mortal sin and in this State deprived of his Wits cannot be saved unless he recover his wits again and repent himself can the Pope restore him to his wits again I trow not and yet according to their own Doctrine it is necessary for this Mans Salvation But if he can he shall have my Vote to be Doctor to all the Bedlams in the World Nothing more necessary to Salvation than the Internal motions of the mind Can the Pope influence the Hearts of men by secret Heavenly suggestions and illapses of the Spirit Can he speak unto the Hearts of men in a Dream in a Vision in the Night when deep sleep falleth upon them in slumbrings upon the Bed Can he then open the Ears of men and seal their Instruction All these and much more can and doth God do that he may withdraw Man from his purpose and hide pride from him Job 33.14 15 16 17. No no the fining pot is for Silver and the Furnace for Gold Prov. 17.3 But God only searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins Jer. 17.20 and Ch. 20.12 And their own St. Thomas denyeth that the Pope hath any power over the hearts and minds of men If Bellarmine will not believe nor Scripture nor St. Thomas yet I hope he will believe himself who in his own Book de Rom. Pont. makes a long discourse prescribing limits to the Pope's Authority and touching many things which the Pope cannot do oportet mendacem esse memorem Infinite indeed are the things which are necessary for the conducting a Soul into Paradise which are not subject to the Pope's Authority If He can remove all Impediments which the World and the Devil can lay in the way with all their Subtilty why then doth he not convert all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks Nay can they save their own Souls by removing all Impediments c. then can the Devils too some of them so peerelesly vicious full of all unrighteousness not in their own Persons only but like Jeroboam making Israel to sin St. Paul is too nice and too modest when he reckons Fornicators Adulterers Effeminate Covetous Extortioners 1 Cor. 16.9 10. among the damned Crue Let not the Laws Curse touch them except they be found unholy profane Murtherers Parricides Sodomites Perjured what not Nor he reputed the Man of Sin except he be found amongst Bishops Christian as Ahab amongst Kings of Israel a sine pare a none such that have sold themselves to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Ly their own Chroniclers Martin Polon Anno 986. Platina in Bonifac. 7. in Sylv. 2. in Benedicto 9. Martin Polon Anno 1042. Beno Cardin. de vita gestis Hild. or were their Popes many such Necromancers in express league with the Devil purposely Sacrificing unto him Masters of that Hellish Art to
to the judgments of their Auditors and I never heard that Protestant Divines did ever pretend to greater Abilities than they had or to any Infallibility and if we poor Laicks should not be left to our own free judgments and examinations what better choice can we make than to philip Cross or Pile whether to be Prelate Presbyter Independant Quaker or Phanatick Protestant or Papist Turk or Jew Wherefore hath God differenced us from Bruits by giving us light of Reason and of Conscience if others must have the guidance and custody of them and we be led Captive by the Reason and Conscience of other men We ought no more to rely on another man's light of Reason or of Conscience than on another man's eyes to see or legs to walk withall This were but to put a Cheat upon our selves and to cast the care of our Faith and Religion upon others as if not worthy our own care or concern or as if we be seduced they not we were to answer for it God's Precepts were not given to Popes Prelates Priests Councils Synods or particular Churches or to great Clarks only but to every Individual and every man ought to act according as he is perswaded in his own Heart we are Disciples only not Slaves Besides are not Laicks Priests also Is it not Gospel He hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father Rev. 1.6 and for certain the Holy Ghost and Learning are not the Clergies Peculiar § As to the Romish Clergy I have much more to say unto them not expecting any just or fair dealing from them for that they have treated us far worse than the Aegyptians did the Israelites for they held them in Bondage but four hundred and thirty years but the Roman Pontiffs have evilly treated us more than that time twice told treated us indeed after a very strange rate as if we could not tell ten or as if we did not know our right hands from our left Treated us as the Philistines did Sampson put out our eyes and then make sport with us our understandings must be captivated to the Popes bare ipse dixit whether with or against Reason or Scripture or indeed against our very Sences and we must be content to be led blindfold into the Abyss of ignorance and destruction where Abbaddon reigns and made believe it is our happiness so to be as if ignorance in good earnest were the Mother of Devotion Dominus Deus noster Papa like God on mount Sinai thundring out his Interdicts that none presume to go up into the Mount nor yet to touch but the border of it not so much as to peep into the Scripture without leave forsooth least we be shot thro with the dart of Ex-communication or drawn into the Inquisition tho all Scripture was given indifferently to all Men by Christ and his Apostles as their only Patent and Evidence for their Inheritance reserved for them in Heaven and is in its own nature profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction for Righteousness 2 Tim. 3.10 and tho we are commanded to search them for that in them we have eternal Life 5 John 39. But this ought to be no wonderment to any that they who have kept us blindfold so long should yet desire to keep us hood-winkt still Heroick and publick spirited minds tho long plaid upon and abus'd with shadow of Reason and usurped Powers will at length find words and reasons to ease and right themselves Every Man is too apt to indulge his own fancy and opinions yea and intitle God and his Word to the favouring of them also we shall be all saved or damned according to what our selves not what our Priests do believe and practise Publick refutation of errors tho long received and tho contrary to the design and interest of some and those no small ones hath in its own nature more of Candour and sweetness than of Gall and ought so to be esteemed He doth too proudly scorn his own imperfections and corrupted nature that blusheth to think that he can err and as they betray too much selfishness and weakness who dare not write or speak Truth so do they much more that for ends not good are afraid that Truth should come to light Nature hath not left the most beautiful flesh and blood without some moles some blemishes The Church on Earth tho lovely yet is not without her Naevi some blackness with her oomeliness and to flatter her Children in them is worse than to write a Satyr against them As Revenge is not more due to any Injuries than unto those that are committed against the Church so no Benefits are more valuable than those that are done unto the Church In all Writings great care ought to be taken to write nothing that might give offence nor to omit any thing that can be said in defence of Truth without suffering our Pens to run riot in any thing which by interpretation might be drawn into offence altho the malicious subtilties and prevaricating Wits of some hath made it appear that there can be nothing so moderately spoken which is not subject to depraved expositions My main design is to discover Truth sine formidine oppositi without respect or dread of any interest or party Amicus Praesul Amicus Presbyter Amicus Independens sed magis amica Veritas I am not ignorant how imprudent it is to disoblige or anger great Men or any Party or indeed any number of men I have tasted of that sowr grape already tho by endeavors only to find out Truth by discoursing of it but that Spirit is wretchedly mean that dares not write or speak Truth without a sneaking and pitiful Apology If we had those hungring thirsting and most ardent affections to all sincere uncorrupted and heavenly Truths which are proportional to that Spirit of Christ which is or ought to be in us there would not be such bitter Contests and Animosities as are amongst us for trivials things rather respecting Interest and Domination than the sincere Word of Truth which adds value and honor to every Asserter thereof but receives no value from any Man I have endeavoured quantum in me to do that right to all Perswasions as to urge what may most conduce to the making good of the same and what their cause will rationally bear and that in terms plain and perspicuous without School-tricks If I have missed of my aim the Reason is at hand Bernardus non vidit omnia no more Oraculous or infallible than themselves They that see best see at best but thro a Glass darkly even the Scribes the Wise and the Disputers of this World are many times both far from Certainty and far from Truth and no wonder Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World 1 Cor. 1.20 Elias cum venerit solvit dubia THE SUMME Of Mr. J. M. His TREATISE MR J. M. in his Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes denies the
We find no evil in this Man but if a Spirit or Angel hath spoken unto him let us not fight against God 23. Acts 9. This they did not out of true love to Paul or to the Truth he taught but from love of themselves their Party and their Opinions and from jealous impatiency of contradiction in publick by an Inferiour Sect so when Christ had fully satisfied a curious question captiously proposed by the Sadduces by proving the Resurrection out of Moses saying I am the God of Abraham of Isaack and of Jacob certain of them answered Master thou hast well said 20. Luke 39. Though the Pharises were well pleased of his Probat of the Resurrection against the Sadduces yet for all that they could judge him to death for avouching himself to be the great Judge of those that were raised from the dead whereby it appears that both their approbation and condemnation of our Saviour in these particulars did issue out of one and the same corrupt and monstrous Fountain that could send forth sweet water and bitter 3. James 11. viz. from love of their Party love of Authority over the People and applause of Men from a stubborn opiniative and envious desire to excel their opposites and not to be excelled by any so when John came neither eating nor drinking yet they say he hath a Devil and when the Son of Man came both eating and drinking then Behold a Man gluttonous and a Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners 11. Mat. 18 19. The Devils and unclean Spirits in this kind were in some measure more ingenious than the Jews for when Christ had disobliged them by casting them out as soon as they saw him they fell down before him and cryed Thou art the Son of God 3. Mark 10. But the Scribes which came down from Jerusalem said he hath Belzabub and by the Prince of the Devils casteth he out Devils 21. Acts 22. So the Jews were pleased neither full nor fasting Thus can perverse Spirits and Wits turn and wind any thing never so innocently and plainly spoken or written unto a different or contrary sence The same Spirit of Contention and way-ward emulation reigns at this day through Christendome and rageth oft-times no less in defence of good Causes than of bad and makes many to concur with Schismatical or false Opinions in transforming particular places of Scripture which makes for private desires or designs as factious opposition to the Sadduces did the Pharises to consent unto our Saviour and unto St. Paul in the Points mentioned § The Monks Friars and Jesuits like the Pharises are rare Sophisters can handy dandy shuffle and cut Texts of Scripture with most admirable dexterity Their impertinent Collections to prove Purgatory from such places of Scripture as have no other semblance with it save only that they mention Metaphorical Fire would make an impartial Reader call to mind the Fable of the Apes or Monkies who espying Glow-worms in the night gathered sticks and blowed themselves breathless to make them burn Would not Impudence it self blush and Stupidity tremble at the senseless collections and deduction of these Men. As the Papists and among them the Jesuits more especially have no parallel except the Jews in this kind so in other main Points of their Religion as concerning the Infallibility of the Pope Transubstantiation the Authority of the Church the real Presence their Prayers in an unknown Tongue and the like they do not go so much beyond others as besides themselves The extream desire they have that Sacred Authority should countenance and abet their profitable Tenents makes them wrest and transform Places of Scripture beyond all Construction whereby they do not manifest the Truth but the poyson of their Doctrines and their Zeal and earnestness herein to be a Spice or Symptome of Spiritual madness or Phanaticisme Musing and dreaming are of near alliance He that thinks of nothing but of confirming his own conclusions or apprehensions will quickly perswade himself that the Word of God speaks just so As the Fool thinketh so the Bell clinketh the superstitious Phisiognomer and Palmister are not without their Scripture 13. Ex. 9. And it shall be a sign unto thee upon thy hand and for a memorial between thine eyes c. and that in 37. Job 7. he sealeth up the hand of every Man that all Men may know his Work What is this else but to make deformed Pictures of beautiful Colours or senseless and ridiculous Inferences out of Divine and Supernatural Antecedents or of plain Texts of Scripture Except we do strictly compare the Marginal Quotations of some Jesuitical Anabaptistical Quaking and Schismatical discourses with the Texts and both with the Conclusions intended by the Author one would hardly believe it possible for some Men to speak or write nothing but Gospel-language and yet to speak or write scarce a true or wise or pertinent word to the purpose Desire of Victory and to excel others is a Disease hardly cured in any Men Sects or Parties and oft-times work most indefatigably where it works most secretly Gods Gifts of Wit Learning and Judgment some can admire and magnifie in others and acknowledge them to be above their own yet will they not in conclusion be perswaded that any Men not of their own Sect or Opinion have so pure and clear a Beam of Light as themselves or know so much of Gods Eternal Will and Purposes as they do and it is no marvel that such who for expounding greatest Mysteries have betaken themselves wholly to the Spirit or to the Labours of Men whom they presume to be throughly sanctified i. e. that are free of their Brotherhood and Corporation only or at least served a compleat Apprentiship to their supposed Spirit But the wisest oft miscarry in their Projects and so do these by taking wrong measures in that they think there is no direct way to Grace but by undervaluing helps of Art or gifts of Nature of this misconceit the Quakers the Enthusiasts the Phanaticks are most guilty The first and immediate Issue of this Perswasion is that every action which is not warranted by some express Rule of Scripture apprehended by Grace is not of Faith and being not of Faith it must be a sin so that these two Propositions 1. All Actions warranted by the express Word of God must needs be lawful 2. All lawful Actions must needs be warranted by the express Word of God differ no more in their Logical and Grammatical sence than house-keeping and keeping house do in common understanding utitur Diabolus Testimoniis Scripturarum non ut doceat sed ut fallat S. Ambrose That admonition of St. Paul to the Philip. 2.3 concerns these times as much as those wherein he wrote and the Maintainers of true Religion most of all and it were most happy for Christianity if all Christians could in good earnest embrace it Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let
Civil Powers we need go no farther than to Geneva Rome and Scotland Hierusalem not Rome is the Mother of us all there was the Church of the Jews most eminent and perspicuous when Christ came From this Metropolis of the Holy Land or Palaestine of which God said more than ever he said of any place saying This is my rest here will I dwell for evermore Here did the Messias begin first to build his Church as foretold by the Prophets by teaching the Doctrines of the Messiah remission of sins his tru worship wherein his Spirit was so prevalent as he was acknowledged to be the tru Messiah and so embraced more eminently by Zacharias Elizabeth and John the Baptist Here according to Luke 2. was Christ presented by the impulse of the holy Spirit in the Temple according to the Mosaic Rite Here just and devout Simeon came by the Spirit into the Temple waiting for the consolation of Israel where he acknowledged the Son of Mary to be the true Messiah and prophesied that he was set for the fal and rising again of many in Israel and having sung his sweet Nunc dimittis blessed and declared him a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel Though the number of the faithful was but smal at first yet it did daily grow and encrease being baptized of John his Forerunner in the Temple at Jerusalem and afterwards teaching in their Synagogues and confirming his Doctrins by his Miracles His Doctrins were not confined to Jerusalem only but from thence were afterwards propagated unto other Cities Towns and Villages as to Bethany John 11.18 about 15 Furlongs from Jerusalem where Martha and Mary Sisters and their Brother Lazarus did inhabit amongst other good Christians famous for borrowing an Ass with its Foal to ride into Jerusalem to Emmaus famous for Christs appearing there after his Resurrection to Bethlem where Christ was born to Jerico where Christ instructed Zaccheus touching the Messiah remission of sins good works c. Luke 19.9 there he restored sight to the blind c. Matth. 20. Mar. 10. Luke 18. the like is tru of Ephrain Bethabara Aenon al Judaea al the Region about and beyond Jordan so in Idumaea Samaria Galilaea Capernaum Bethsaida Corazin Genezareth Magdalo Naim Caena the Region of the Gadarens and Girgasins Caesarea Philippi the Coasts of Tyre and Sydon al Syria that the tru Doctrin was preached and planted in al these and more places in the life time of Christ is manifest by the testimony of the Apostles and Evangelists according as Christ a little before his ascension had told them All which were so many separate or several Churches or Congregations as independent each of other as one Apostle was independent of another and the reason why they should be so is as demonstrable for that all the Apostles were alike insallible Whilst Christ was upon Earth he was the supreme Independent Head of al the Churches and so remains to the end of the World for it was he that chose and made the Body his Church and not the Body him to be their Head so that other Heads besides him there never was never will be Governors and Rulers there are and may be God having given the Body power over it self After his Ascension having given them their Commission viz. Go ye and teach al Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe al things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. 28.19 20. and having filled all the Apostles with the Holy Ghost according to his promise and endued them with tongues they departed and separated and gathered several Congregations or Churches so that the sound went into al the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10.18 According as Christ had told them You shal receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shal be Witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in al Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the Earth Act. 1.8 preaching repentance and remission of sins in his name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 And thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nations Rev. 5.9 As Palestine had the honour and happiness to have the Saviour of the World to be born in her after a wonderful manner and there first to teach his Doctrins the glad tydings of the Gospel and by his death there to seal eternal salvation to Mankind and there by his miraculous Resurrection to becom the first fruits of them that slept and swallowing up death in victory And after his glorious and joyful Resurrection having led captivity captive he gave gifts unto Men and called some to be his Apostles some c. who after they had chosen Mathias in the place of Judas the Traitor and cloven Tongues like as fire having sate upon each of them and al filled with the Holy Ghost and having preached the Gospel at Jerusalem and thereabouts and done many miracles whereby the Word of God and the number of Disciples daily increasing from 120 unto 3000 and more and more daily accruing the chief Pontiffs and Saduces being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead began to persecute them which seem to be the same year that Christ was crucified viz. Anno Aetatis suae 33. and 18 Tiberii scourging some and killing others which persecution occasioned divers of the Brethren to withdraw themselves into neighbouring places which gave opportunity to the Gospel to be more universally spread throughout Palestine the Apostles yet remaining in Jerusalem Act. 8. who afterwards dispersing themselves also spread the Gospel into al Nations after this sort and manner viz. when a certain number of Brethren being converted and well instructed in the true faith agreed among them themselves to build or hire a Temple Tabernacle or House for their joynt meetings and exercising of their Religion hired a Priest and constituted a Church and as the number encreased so that one Church and Priest being not sufficient for them al those who were most remote did build another and fit themselves with more conveniences And about the end of the first Century or beginning of the second for good order and concord and for civility and respect they did bear to their Bishop or Priest custom began to include his consent also which in process of time soon degenerated into usurpation by the Artifices of the Priests or Bishops of which Rome in process of time taking hold made great use to the abusing of the power of the Brethren and to incroach upon the priviledges of the Body of the Church Al this while the Apostles and their Successors were independent one of the other and so were their several and select gathered Congregations The like may be as truly verified of the several Churches gathered in the
teach his Body the Church all things and should continue with them unto the end of the World § For soon after his Ascention the Apostles together with the rest of the Body being met together in a great Assembly and after they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and great Grace was upon them all 4. Act. 31.32.33 and accordingly the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal to one the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge to another faith c. and all by the same Spirit 1. Cor. 12.7.8 and all these for the edifying of the Body of Christ 4. Eph. 12 For though the Body be one yet hath it many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body whereof Christ is the head 1. Cor. 12.12 In the visible Government of the Church Christ appointed and instituted a Priesthood in which likewise it is dissimilar to all temporal Governments which quodam sensuis Independent of the Church though touching the application of the Authority to the Person it is elective and depending of the Body of the Church under this Priesthood is comprehended Bishops and Presbiters now what their Authority and Powers are vide their Commission 28. Mat. 19.20 go teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you always unto the end of the world other Powers besides these and laying on of hands especially coercive I know none derived unto them by any text of Scripture These Bishops these Presbiters these Ministers or Pastors are not Lords and Masters as in the Roman Church but are Servants to the Body of the Church For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake 2. Cor. 4.5 and these Authorities are not coercive but are given them to exhort reprove rebuke beseech intreat for Christs sake and by the mercies of God c. 12. Rom. 3. chap. 15.30 1 Thes 4.1 according to the Doctrines Precepts Rules and Commands set down in Scripture which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and which is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for Correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfected throughly furnished to all good works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 These and such like only are all the Powers that belong unto the Priesthood by any Law of God and there is no need of any other for what concerns punishment for Sins or the breach of moral Duties or municipal laws the Body hath Power to make laws and ordain punishments for any of its Members § I know that they have a long time hooked in by Head and shoulders a kind of coercive Power Excommunication by usurping to themselves the Power of Excommunication a thing I must confess that hath made a great noise and buzz in the world but in truth a magnificum nihil a meer ignis fatuus there being no such thing in the whole new Testament as now used and that which Pope and Presbiter would have to be it is as much in the Power of the Laicks against them as in them against the Laicks and most truly in the Body of the Church In the Romish Church the Bishop or his Vicar excommunicateth without the advice or participation of any many times also the Register only and that which is most important by Authority deligated a Clark of the first Tonsure deputed Comissary in some slight Cause doth excommunicate a Priest Yea Leo. 10. in the Council of Lateran in the 11. Session by a perpetual constitution of his hath granted faculty to a secular person to excommunicate the very Bishops and that which doth more import Navar saith c. 27 no. 11. that if any man shall obtain an excommunication of some Prelate if the obtainer shall not have an intent that the party be excommunicated he shall not be excommunicated moreover he saith ch 23. num 104. that the excommunication pronounced by the Law it self against him that payeth not a Pension for example sake on the Vigil of the Nativity is not incurred by him that payeth it not no not in many month's and years after if the Creditor thereof would not have it incurred But if on the other side after many Month's or Years he would have it incurred it is reputed to have been incurred from the day of the debt from the Vigil of the Nativity and so is the stile of the Court but the Council of Trent hath now expresly provided otherwise Ses 25. c. 3 forbidding secular Princes that they hinder not Prelates to excommunicate nor command that any excommunication be revoked considering that this is no part of their Office by this you may in little see what a nose of wax is made of excommunication and all this and much more grounded and occasioned from wrong Glosses put upon plain Texts But of this more fully hereafter § Though the Congregational men have not fully modelled out unto us the Platform of their Government and Discipline as the Presbyterians have done yet in general they do affirm Independency and Church-Government that to each gathered Church Christ hath given all Power and Authority requisite unto that Order and Discipline which he hath instituted for them to observe and to execute the same with Commands and Rules as before And negatively that there is not instituted by Christ any person or Church more extensive or Catholick entrusted with Power over other Churches and that each particular Church consists of Officers and Members which Members they call Brethren and the Officers they stile Pastors Teachers Elders and Deacons and that there are no stated Synods in a fixed combination of Churches nor any Synods appointed by Christ in any way of sub-ordination to one another nor no one Church to have Power of Censures but of inspection only over other Churches and Members thereof that Counsel and Advice might mutually be communicated That it was so in the days of the Apostles and continued so for some Generations after every Individual gathered Church every Christian Societie as it is natural to all Societies as well Christian as Civil governing it self by its own Laws and Constitutions whithout being obliged to any other superintendency hapily is so manifest that it would not be gainsaid But when the Church became planted and spread its Branches and took root in divers Nations and whole Common-wealths became Christian and Kings and Queens and other Civil Governments became Nursing-Fathers and Mothers of the Church then of necessity for the quiet state of the whole the case came to be altered it being then impossible that every individual Member or Brother of any Christian Kingdom or Common-wealth should personally meet to make Laws
only the Ministers but the Teachers too as also the Elders and Deacons yea even of the Multitude which are willing to conser their gifts received of God 2 Cor. 4.13 to the common utility of the Church Luke 2.46 47. and c. 4.15 16. c. fol. 47.48 § During the Contest between Adrian the Sixth and the German Princes in Anno 1523. in the case of Luther they thinking it reasonable did signify unto his Holiness from the Dyet at Noremberg that married Priests and Religious persons who returned to the world in case they did commit any wickedness that the Prince or Magistrate in whose Territory they shall offend ought to give them their due chastisement which did not please the Pope and therefore he did reply That it would be against the Liberty of the Church and the Sickle would be put into another mans Field and those men would be censured by the World who were reserved unto Christ For Princes should not presume to believe that they were devolved to their Jurisdiction by their Apostacy nor that they could be punished by them and for their other Offences in regard the Character remaining in them and the Order they are ever under the power of the Church neither can Princes do more than delate them to their Bishops and Superiors that they may chastize them Conc. Trid. 27.28 Thus let Pope and Presbyter go hand in hand as to Spiritual Empire and Dominion Though it be besides my purpose to examine particulars yet in the general I cannot but wonder that so many learned and conscientious persons men of great abilities and good lives should countenance and defend that Church Discipline and Government as it is composed and compounded by Calvin the first Brocher and Hammerer thereof as taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God when no Father ever witnessed no Council ever favoured no Church ever found out or practised it since the days of the Apostles and when the general and successive consent of all succeeding Ages is resolute against it as never expounding Pauls words in favour of it till about this last Century and this in opposition unto and derogation of Episcopal Regiment which on the contrary hath been observed every where for many Ages and Generations throughout the Christian world nemine contradicente except the old Heretick Aerius No Church till Calvins time ever alledging or perceiving the Word of God to be against it for if but any one Church upon the face of the whole earth that hath been governed by Calvins or the Scotch Presbytery or any one Church that hath not been ordered by Episcopal Regiment since the death of the Apostles could possibly have been found out no doubt but that we should long since have heard of it with our ears and seen it with our eyes in their Writings for that the Favourers and Abettors thereof have wanted neither abilities industry nor stomack neither to make it known Besides to me it seems strangely improbable I might say impossible that the Church of Christ should never know what belonged to the Government of her self till of late and that the Son of God should be spoiled of half his Kingdom by his own Servants Citizens nay Martyrs for 1500 years together without remorse or remembrance of any one man that so great injury was offered him and without one Champion to throw out his Gauntlet in the demand and challenge of his right Moreover how is it possible that all the Churches in the world should with one consent immediately on the Apostles deaths reject that form of governing the Church according to the Geneva cut which they would fain perswade you to believe was setled and approved by the Apostles and embrace a new and strange kind of Government Episcopal without Precept or Precedent for their so doing for my part I think it much more safe prudent and reasonable to esteem this a new device of Calvins a Chintera of his own brain set up to serve his own ends and to introduce his own Domination than to proclaim so many Apostolick men and antient learned Fathers to be manifest despisers of Episcopal Discipline and voluntary Supporters if not Inventers of Antichrists Pride and Tyranny § I find four Priviledges extraordinary given by Christ to the Apostolic Function requisite for the first founding of the Church What Privileges peculiar to the Apostles which died with them 1. Their Vocation immediate from Christ not from Men nor by Men Gal. 2.12 and their immediate instruction in the mystery of Christ by Christ himself 2. Their Commission extending over all the Earth without limitation to any place 3. Their direction infallible the Holy Ghost guiding them whether they wrote or spake This Office by consent of all Divines begun and ended in their persons to whom at first it was committed And except that Man of sin that hath entred by intrusion and violence into the Prerogatives royal of Christ no man would dare to arrogate the Privileges of this Calling He indeed challengeth as in the right of Peter universal power over the whole Church on earth He assumeth and appropriateth to himself glory of Miracles but all lying in form or end and if we were so mad as to believe infallible assistance of the Spirit in all things that he shall sententiously deliver to the Church out of his Chair of Pestilence Sapientum octavus Apostolorum 41. 4. Their power wonderful as well to convert and confirm Believers as to chastize and revenge Disobeyers whereby they did not only speak with tongues cure diseases work miracles know secrets understand all wisdom but gave the Holy Ghost to others that they might do the like and that they might store the whol world out of hand with meet Pastors and Teachers All which were given to their individual persons and were thought requisite by that wisdom which is above for the first spreading of the Faith and planting of Churches amongst Jews and Gentiles that all Nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight of their Miracles and directed by the truth of their Doctrine § But although all these died with their persons But and what delegated to their Successors to remain for ever yet are there other three and some make four points of Apostolic delegation which have and must have their permanency and perpetuity in the Church of Christ the better to maintain and propagate the Church once setled and Faith once preached As 1. Dispensing the Word 2. Administring the Sacraments 3. Imposing of hands 4. Guiding the Keys to shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven These especially the three first parts of the Apostolic Function are not decayed and cannot be wanted in the Church of God and are now seated in our Bishops and Presbyters by Apostolic successive delegation The first Two by reason they are the ordinary means and instruments by which the Spirit of God worketh each mans salvation must be general to all Pastors and Presbyters the
Fruit thereof Nostrorum quilibet de legibus interrogatus facilius quam nomen suum recitat they knew the Law as well as their own Names To this agrees Acts 15.21 to after times Stories give witness Socrates of the Church at Alexandria once or twice a-week the Scriptures are read in the Assembly and so necessary they thought it that they ordained an Order of Readers who had to that Function their Solemn Consecration So was Julian afterwards the Apostate ordained a Reader in the Church of Nicomedia Then consider the Power of it 1. For discerning things that differ and trial of Doctrines taught by the Preachers to which End Esay calls to the Law and to the Testimony and Beraeans practised it with commendations 2. The People are thereby better acquainted with the Letter of Scriptures and Language of the Holy Ghost which always carries much more Awe Majesty and Conviction than what is not Scripture the Power of it being exceeding great to work knowledge God having in things necessary condescended even unto the meanest Capacity it confirms Faith and always is a strong Preparative to saving Faith and Conversion as to Austin was the obeying of the Voice from Heaven Tolle lege to Junius the reading of St. Johns Gospel in Josiah what remorse and compunction wrought it 2 Kings 22.20 what Godly Sorrow to Repentance wrought it in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.8 9. of such necessity and avail to Gods People is the naked reading of Scriptures in the Congregation These Considerations should and I hope will instruct us to beware how in our Judgment we vilisie this so holy and wholesom an Ordinance of God it being as much Gods Ordinance that the Scriptures be read in the Congregation as that they be interpreted and applied to the People by Preachments Let us not be Monsters in our Worship attributing a Nemis to some Ordinances thereby debasing or derogating from other Ordinances Sathans Policy herein is not inconsiderable that would thereby fain make us prophane Anabaptists or Quakers to contemn all Gods Ordinances by permitting us to over-admire some one that the rest may be despicable in our esteem Prayer amongst Romanists we see half Idolized Preaching too prophanely scoffed at Reading there are that most magnifie There are of another Strain desiring to turn our whole Liturgy after the French or Geneva Schomme into a meer Preachment Know ye not that these all are Holy Ordinances of God necessary useful powerful to their Ends assigned of them all may we not say they are ordained of God they that contemn shall receive condemnation who except prejudice or unpreparedness have forestalled his profiting hath not felt Gods Spirit by reading to enlighten admonish excite mortifie c. or can think God hath in vain with such adjuration enjoyned it to those that are Guides of the Congregation I say as our Saviour of the Commandments Whoso contemns the least of these Ordinances and teacheth Men so he shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.19.29 Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 17. affirms That howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or private yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio Magistrorum nulla Commentatio nulla but in the second Temple when there were no Prophets then did the Scribes and Doctors begin to Comment and make several Expositions on the Holy Text ex quo natae disputationes sententiae contrariae from whence saith he sprang up Debates and doubtful Disputations and most probable it is saith another upon him that from this Liberty of Interpretation sprung up diversity of Judgments from whence arose the several Sects of Pharises Essenes and Saduces who by their difference of Opinions did distract the Multitude and condemn one another even so c. Therefore thrice accursed is that practise of Rome monopolizing Scriptures to the Clergy all Participes Criminis Parties to the Cheat as their Priviledge and Prerogative interdicting the People acquaintance with them without faculty first obtained from the Ordinary to some few but at no hand may be publickly read in a Vulgar Tongue Luke 11.52 Is not this the taking away the Key of Knowledge and hindering those that would enter in what I beseech you was Gods aim in that Gift of Tongues what time he meant to set open to Gentiles the door of Faith but that every one might hear in that Tongue wherein he was born the wonderful Works of God Acts 2.8.11 To what purpose were the Labours of Ancients translating Scriptures into Vulgar Languages as Hierom into the Dalmatian Chrysostome into the Armenian Tongue Vulphilas into the Language of the Goths In Bedes time were extant Translations into six several Languages for the use of the People of this Island Vainly except to the Laity also their use was freely intended This Apostrophe by the By relating only to Romanists who by so doing Amongst Jews under Antiochus 1597. do vilifie the Gift of Tongues and act diametrically contrary to the whole Ch. 14. of the first of the Corinthians thereby making themselves wiser than Christ and his Apostles It can be but a frivolous Cavil for our Anti-liturgists to say that the Intendment of the before-recited Portions of Scripture is for the reading of Scriptures only and not for any thing that is composed by Man whereas St. Pauls Charge to Timothy was general viz. That he should give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.13 If this may be allowed for currant I doubt it may prove as strong against Sermons and where are we then The Sermons of our Priests and of our days are not so the Word of God as the Sermons of the Apostles were nay they are but quodam modo and interpretativè termed Gods Word because his Word is the Subject of which they treat and Liturgies in this sense are or should be as much the Word of God as Sermons for the Wit and Gifts of Man gives equally the Being and Form to them both Will you confine the Spirit and ascribe Vital Operation to Sermons alone or to the Administrations of every Individual Priest only and not unto those composed by Bodies Collective Is that to divide the Word aright nay is it not partial dispensation so to rob Peter to pay Paul to derogate from and to deprive one Gift and Way of Administration of its just Efficacy and Operation and to attribute it wholly to another Gift of the same Stamp Nay is it not imparting the most peculiar Glory of the Word of God unto that which is not properly his Word nor no more his Word than Liturgies are Apostolick Sermons were no doubt unto such as heard them the Word of God and are not their Writings so now to us Sermons are not the only Preaching which doth save Souls Writing or reading of what is written and spoken speaking either extempore or premeditately do differ indeed yet not
their desires tho but modest will give the party encouragement to believe that they were deservedly desired nay perhaps that they were enforced which opinion alone tho not true but believed to be so might endanger the quiet State of the Church or at least might be a great abetting to their party and obstinacy and keep others from Assenting and Consenting which say some amongst us ought not to be imposed affirming full Assent and Consent in respect of Veracity to be due not to the Scriptures themselves but as they are expressed in their first Original Tongues which opinion if true yet is it no just objection with us for that full Assent and Consent is not required by the Ast of Parliament establishing our Liturgy to the veracity of every thing contained therein but only to the use of it in general § On the contrary in Ballance to these it is averred that it is a Rule in Christian Actions that as evil is not to be done that good may follow so no good of obligation is to be omitted or forbidden for fear that evil may ensue And that the great Wisdom of Experience both of Elder and more puny dayes hath sufficiently taught Posterity that it is sometimes most necessary for the quiet and welfare both of Church and State to yield to the infirmities and scrupulous imperfections of others and to apply and accommodate themselves to that remedy which tho in rigor is not due yet in prudence and equity is convenient and may with good Conscience be tollerated for all Laws ought to be fitted to times and Persons as they alter and change most assuredly the using of some remission in yielding unto the desires of the People in matters which are de jure positivo or Pontisicio of humane sanction only may conduce to the quiet State of the Church but cannot disturb it what else is the whole Regiment or Brigade of things Adiaphorous wherein truth may be on either side without being dissimular to her self If no liberty allowed what availeth the blotting out the hand Writing of ordinances and the Nailing of it to the Cross 2 Col. 14.20 to what end is the purchase of Christian Liberty St. Paul so often boasts of his Doctrine is that he that eats all things or eateth Herbs only or he that esteems one day above another or he that esteems every day alike may do either to the Lord and Eat or not Eat regard or not regard a day Conform or not Conform use or not use Liturgies all may be done to the Lord and why should we then judge one another in the use or disuse of any of these the Kingdom of God is not Meat nor Drink nor Lawn Sleeves nor Surplice nor Capes nor Miter but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 14. Rom. How many things of an indifferent nature might be tollerated in peace and left to Conscience only were it not for great thoughts of heart or for testy Spirits and had we instead thereof but pure Love and Charity and were it not for some secret Hypocrisie that prompts to be ever judging one another saying stand by thy self come not near me for I am Holyer than thou 65 Isay 5. contrary to the Apostolical precept 14 of Rom. 13. let us not therefore judge one another any more but judge this rather that no Man put a slumbling Block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way to impose more things as necessary than ever God made or imposed as necessary and that under severities what is it less than to create stumbling Blocks or contrive occasions for our Brethren to stumble and fall by It cannot be expected that all Man and things in a Church should be Gold and Silver and Precious Stones there will be some Wood some Hay some Stubble Wheat and Tares good and bad humane Ordinances must grow till the Harvest it is the Angels Ministery not ours that must sever them I intend not here that Superstitions Idolatry or Popery should be tollerated or countenanced which as it self extirpates all pure Religion and undefiled and all civil Supremacies to boot so it self ought utterly to be destroyed Root and Branch yet not by Fire and Faggot not by Crusadoes and cursed Inquisitions but by wholsome Laws and discountenances and other mild means that likewise which is absolutely evil either against Faith or manners as Popery is no Law can possibly Tollerate that intends not to unlaw it self but those bordering indifferent things whether of some point of Doctrine not fundamental or of Discipline which tho they may be many yet may be held without the violation or interruption of the unity of the Spirit or of the bond of Peace and may be permitted I appeal to their respective Judgments who they think in the day of their Account will rather be justified they that are instrumental to Impose or Command things that may be spared in the Worship of God or they that Conscientiously tho Erroneously cannot submit unto the use of such things tho in their own and true nature but indifferent Who made the Schisme between Rome and us Rome imposing or we refusing § The Counsel tho but of a poor Woman of Abel being sollowed saved the City and may not I tho the least in the Church of the New Testament Pleading thus impartially pro and con Dissenters now also intreat that Dissenting Brethren in point of Liturgies and Ceremonies imposed that seeing Atheism Apostacy and squinting toward Rome and the countenancing of sin and sinners is so much feared by them that they would be well advised how they forsake their Mother in this her necessity and not so wholly indulge and please themselves in their own fancies and opinions and thereby adventure rather to Sacrifice Church and State to Schism War and Ruine than forsake their Humors I counsel no Man to do ought no not in things in different with a doubting Conscience Fearful are the Examples of such as are unresolved yield to Practice Notwithstanding give me leave with a Worthy and Reverend Divine to propound as a matter not unworthy their Consideration and Deliberation whether this should not be a Ministers resolution viz. To lay down his Ministery for nothing for which also he ought not to lay down his Life and whether with Comfort may Ministers especially after their allowing of our Liturgy and Ceremonies at the time of their Ordination and by their several Subscriptions and otherwise having thus put their hands to the Plough look back and leave their Calling rather than use the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies in our Church teaching as she doth and practising Gods pure Worship detesting all Idolatry and Superstition and urging Ceremonies Innocent Ceremonies not for Ornament much less for necessity of Gods Service but for decency order and policy only and as means to testifie Subscription to the Lawful Power of the Magistrate I appeal to your selves do you in good earnest think that Paul who accounted
were altogether unacquainted with the Doctrines of Ecclesiastical greatness Liberties or Licence rather Immunities and Jurisdictions that are now claimed by the now degenerate and Bastardized Romanists who tho of Rome yet are not true Romanists indeed who under a Spiritual pretence but with a secret ambitious end and desire of Worldly Wealth and Domination would free themselves from the obedience due unto the Prince and by false insinuations take away the love and reverence due by the people unto their Prince and cement it unto themselves And to bring these things to pass they have lately invented a Doctrine of Vniversal Monarchy and have erected an Order of Jesuits and a Court of Inquisition whose main concern and design is to maintain the Popes Power to be above that of Kings which Doctrine was unheard of till the dayes of Hildebrand I. Gregory the Seventh 1073. neither is there any Book found concerning it till about the year 1300. then did they begin to write of it scatteringly Vide Gold astum but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this until about the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. after this the number encreased a little but it was tolerable But after the year 1560. this Doctrine began to encrease in such manner that they gave over writing of other Doctrines and little was printed in Italy but Books in diminution of Secular Authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical The Confessors likewise need no other learning to be approved of whence is universally spread a perverse opinion that Princes and Magistrates are humane Inventions yea and Tyrannical that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Laws and defrauding the Publick Revenues is no sin and he that doth not pay if he can but fly from it remains not guilty before God And contrarywise that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons without any other thought ought to be taken for a Divine Precept and binds the conscience And this Doctrine above all others is the chiefest cause of most or of all the Inconveniencies which have happened in these latter Ages In Italy Books that defend the Princes Temporal Authority and affirm that Ecclesiastical Persons are also subject to publick Constitutions and punishable if they violate the publick tranquillity these are condemned Books and suppressed more than any others They have gelded the Books of Antient Authors by new Printing of them and taken out all which argue or plead for Temporal Aurhority so that if in Authors we find no good Doctrine favouring Temporal Authority we know who hath taken it away If we find any that exalteth the Ecclesiastical we know who hath put it in and in truth we can be assured of the truth of no Book that hath been under their censures And it is also most evident that those who desire to have an unquestionable liberty to brand the lawful Temporal Power and that Doctrine which opposeth it self to their attempts with the name of Tyranny do design that under pretence of Religion they may become Arbitrators of all Government From henceforth these Doctrines and Tenets did wonderfully increase and multiply spawning out others as prodigious and Monstrous as themselves so that in the Sixteenth Century and in the dayes of Paul the Fifth more especially they arrived unto most admirable perfection for in his dayes Books were Printed as one well observes by hundreds Padre Paolo nay by thousands the purports of which being summarily collected by a diligent Observator and Contemporary of the same time he hath Recorded them to be that the Temporal Power of Princes is subordinate to the Power Ecclesiastical and subject to it consequently that the Pope hath Authority to deprive Princes of their Estates for their faults and errors which they commit in Government yea tho they have not committed any fault when the Pope shall judge it fit for the good of the Church that the Pope may free Subjects from their obedience and from their fidelity which they owe unto their Princes in which case they are obliged to cast off all subjection and even to pursue the Prince if the Pope command it and altho they all agreed to hold these maximes yet they were not all at Accord touching the manner for they that were touched with a little shame said so great an Authoriy did not reside in the Pope because Jesus Christ had not given him any Temporal Authority but because this was necessary for the Spiritual Wherefore Jesus Christ giving Spiritual Authority had given also indirectly the Temporal which was a vain shift seeing they made no other difference than of words But the greater part of these men spake plainly that the Pope hath all Authority in Heaven and Earth both Spiritual and Temporal over all Princes of the World no otherwise than over his Subjects and Vassals that he might correct them for any fault whatsoever that he is a Temporal Monarch over all the Earth that from any Temporal Soveraign Prince men might appeal to the Pope that he might give Laws to all Princes and annul those which were made by them for the exemption of Ecclesiasticks they all with one voice denied that they held it by the Grace and Priviledges of Princes altho their Laws to that purpose Constitutions and Priviledges be yet extant but they were not agreed how they had received it some of them affirming that it was de Jure Divino others that it came by constitutions of Popes and Councils But all consented upon this that they are not subject to the Prince no not in case of Treason and that they are not bound to obey the Laws unless it were vi directivâ And some passed so far as to say that the Ecclesiasticks ought to examine whether the Laws and Commands of the Prince be just and whether the People be obliged to obey them and that they owe not unto the Prince either contributions customs or obedience that the Pope cannot erre or fail because he hath the assistance of the Holy Spirit and therefore that it is necessary to obey his Commandments whether they be just or unjust That to him appertains the clearing of all difficulties so as it is not lawful for any to depart from his resolution nor to make reply tho the resolution be unjust That tho all the World differ in opinion from the Pope yet it is meet nevertheless to yield to him and he is not excused from sin who follows not his advice tho all the World judge it to be false Their Books were full also of such other Maxims that the Pope is a God upon Earth a Son of Justice a light of Religion that the Judgment of God and the Pope is one and the same thing as also the Tribunal and the Court of the Pope and God That to doubt of the Power of the Pope is as much as to doubt of the Power of God And it is notable what Cardinal Bellarmine hath
shall be accounted for a Law and hath confirmed it with an accursed Canon viz. that if any man shall say that by the Commandment of God or of necessity all and singular the Faithful of Christ ought to receive both kinds let him be Accursed They are not herewith content but they will impose upon us Five other Sacraments which God never ordained for Sacraments Baptism and the Eucharist Christ Instituted commanded and practised but for those other Five Supernumerary Additionals they are of Papal and not of Christs Institution Of the same Parentage is their leaving out of their ordinary Catechisms one Commandement of the Decalogue written with the Finger of God himself lest it should rise up in Judgment against them for their Idolatries and Superstition Non obstante Gods command Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the word that I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that you may keep the Commandment of the Lord your God which I command you and Non obstante Rev. 22.18 19. If any man shall add to these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Book Which Devillish Arithmetick of adding and subtracting to and from Holy Writ being diametrically opposite to Gods Holy Word must proceed as the rest from their Father the Devil For had they acted and decreed by the Spirit of truth he would have led them into all saving truth But these are so far from that that they hold the Truth in unrighteousness and thange the Truth of God into Lies even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 And in as much as in them lies do make void and null the everlasting Gospel of Christ and set up a new one of their own as one of their own Communion hath collected out of Palavicim's History of the Council of Trent All which considered I cannot but wonder and stand amazed with what confidence the Papalins can preach and write so contrary to the Word of truth of both Testaments with any hope to be believed of others or to be saved themselves thereby being forewarned by the Apostles themselves that tho they themselves or an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Gospel than that which we have preached let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 Let these suffice for should I rake farther I should cloy the Reader usque ad nausâ—am to make scrutiny into their other Doctrines Services and Ceremonies all of the same Father the old Serpent the Devil their Idolatry Pargatory Pardons Indulgencies Merits Works of Supererogation Transubstantiation Incredible Miracles Reliques Prayers for Souls departed Sacrifices for the Dead Pilgrimages distributing their Worship in their publique Masses to so many Saints of their own making more Prayers by many to Mary than to Christ and those to make yet more ridiculous in an unknown tongue and not without ridiculous Gesticulations Consecrations Exorcisins Whisperings Sprinklings Censings c. all phantastical tricks and juglings more besitting the Stages of Piginello or Merry Andrew than the Temple and Service of God Almighty § Do they bely themselves Papists imitate the Heathen in their Worship or do they not in their Worship imitate the very Heathens or have they not borrowed many of their absurd Ceremonies from the Worshippers and Sacrificers of the Heathen Gods Carol. Patin Imperat. Roman Numismata Edit Argentine 1671. so 296. inter nummos Caracallae tells us that the fourth Picture or Medal represents the Poutifical Insigns or Emblems viz. the Lituus or Divining-Staff the Secespita or Sacrificing-Knife the Vrceolum or Flagon the Capedo or Vessel for holding of Incence and the Aspergillum or Sprinkling-bush or Asperforium a Vessel with small holes to sprinkle the Holy-water The Romans used these in the Ceremonies of their Sacrifices The Lituus the constant Sign Note or Embleme of the Augur furnished us with the form of our Pastoral and Episcopal-Staff The Secespita used by the Flamins of both sexes where by the way take notice there were Religious Orders both of Men and Virgins and by the very Pontiffs their Sacrifices or when the Popae Popes slew the Victims as an Instrument unused in the Christian Religion because our Sacrifice is unbloodied The Patera which used to hold the Praecordia of the Victim retaineth the name of Patera in our Religion and is employed for the holding the body of our Saviour Christ The Vrceolus when great was called Vrcâ—um and was appropriated for the holding of Oil Wine Milk and Honey Our Priests use Vessels like to these for the holding of wine and water whilst they celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass The Capedo or Capedunculus differs very little from the Simpulum so called from its holding the Incence was used by the Priest or Pontifex in their Offering The Aspergillum was used by that Age when the people purified with Holy-water then called Aqua lustralis and we in our time retain the same Thus Virgil hath it Aeneid lib. 6. Ossaque tecta Cado texit Chorineus alieno Idem ter socios purà * Verbum lustrale circumtulit undâ Spargens rora leni ramo foelicis Olivae Lustravitque viros dixitque novissima verba Chorineus did his bones in brass inclose And thrice about with Holy-water goes Purging his friends which sprinkingly he cast From happy Olive boughs then spake his last So Ovid 2. Fast Ah nimium faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Tolli stuminea posse putatis aquâ Ah silly souls that deem the guilt of murder Purified may be by Popes (a) Popes Holy-water Holy-water Lustration was nècessary to sacrifice without which they could not sacrifice nor exercise any Religious Rites So Juno returning from Hell was purged by Iris before she went to Heaven Ovid Met. lib. 4. In omnibus sacris Sacerdos quum diis immolat rem divinam facit prius corporis ablutione purgatur c. Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. c. 17. § The Romish Ordinance of Hallowing and Consecrating Consecrations and Exorcisms and Exorcising relates and appertains to many things as it plainly appeareth Every seventh day which we call Sunday when there be many people in the Church assembled the Priest exorciseth as they term it first Salt after Water And when he hath mixed the Salt and the Water together he sprinkleth the People therewith which springling is believed to give health both to Body and (b) Haec Aqua benedicta deleat mihi mea delicta according to the Monkish Rhyme Soul and to drive away the deceits of the devil and purify not only Men but also things without life For it is cast upon the ground and on stones