that were found in the most of its members And it is a fancy to dream of the purity of a Church in respect of its outward order when the power and life of godliness is lost in its members and a wicked device to suppose a Church may not be separated from Christ by unbelief whilest it abides in an externall profession of the doctrine of faith Such a Church though it may have a name to live yet indeed is dead and dead things are unclean We speak of its purity and acceptation thereon in the sight of God neither will men dead in trespasses and sins be terrible unto any as an Army with banners unless they are like those in Lucilius who Vt pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere esse homines sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant credunt signis cor inesse ahenis as Lactantius reports him But you say If they fall by Idolatry and yet keep any parts of Christianity they fall by Heresie But why so would you had thought it incumbent on you to give a reason of what you say Are Idolatry and Heresie the same Tertullian who of all the old Ecclesiasticall Writers most enlargeth the bounds of Idolatry defines it to be omnis circa omne Idolum famulatus servitus Any worship or service performed in reference to or about any Idoll I do not remember that ever I met with your definition of Idolatry in any Author whatever Bellarmine seems to place it in Creaturum aeque colere ac Deum to worship the creature as much or equally with the Creator which description of it though it be vain and groundless for his aeque is neither in the Scripture nor any approved Author of old required to the constituting of the worship of any creature Idolatrous yet is not this Heresie neither but that which differs from it toto genere We know it to be cultus religiosus creaturae exhibitus any religious worship of that whish by nature is not God and so doth your Thomas grant it to be Gregory de Valentia another of your great Champions contends that tanqnam Deo as unto God is to be added unto the definition As though religious worship could be given unto any thing and not as unto God really and indeed though not intentionally as to the worshipper Where a man gives religious worship there he doth ipso facto assign a divine eminencie say he what he will to the contrary Neither will his intention of not doing it as unto God any more free him from Idolatry than an Adultress will be free by not looking on her Adulterer as her Husband I confess he adds afterwards a distinction that is of great use for you and indispensably necessary for your defence de Idol lib. 2 cap. 7. S t Peter he tells us insinuates some worship of Idols cultum aliquem simulachrorum to wit that of the holy Images to be right or lawfull when he deterreth believers ab illicitis Idolorum cultibus from the unlawfull worship of Idols 1 Pet. 4. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This were somewhat indeed if all epithetes were distinguishing none aggravating or declarative When Virgil said dulcia mella premes Geor. 4. he did not insinuate that there was any bitter honey Nor is it allowable only for Poets to use explaining and declaring epithetes but Aristotle allowes it in the best Oratours also so they use not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long or unseasonable ones or the same frequently and the use of this here by Peter is free from all those vices When the Romane Orator cryed out ô scelus detestandum O wickedness to be abhorred he did not intend to insinuate that there was a wickedness not to be abhorred or to be approved But if it will follow hence that your Church is guilty only of lawfull Idolatry I shall not much contend about it Yet I must tell you that as the poor woman when the Physicians in her sickness told her still that what she complained of was a good sign cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good signes have undone me your lawfull Idolatry if you take not better heed will undo you In the mean time as to the coincidence you imagin between Idolatry and Heresie I wish you would advise with your Angelicall Doctor who will shew you how they are contradistinct evils which he therefore weighs in his scales and determines which is the heaviest 22 ae q. 94. a. ad 4. The Church in the wilderness fell by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its making and worshiping a golden Calfe as a representation of the presence of God That they kept some parts of the Doctrine of Truth entire is evident from their proclamation of a feast to Jehovah Do any men in their wits use to say this fall was by Heresie though all agree it was by Idolatry so that your Church might fall by Idolatry and not fall formally by Heresie according to the genuine importance of the word the use of it in the Scriptures or the definition given of it by the Schoolmen or any sober Writer of what sort soever And here I must desire you to stay a little if you intend to take Protestants along with you They constantly return this Answer unto you in the first place and tell you that your Church is fallen by Idolatry It is fallen in the worship which you give unto the Consecrated Host as you call it wherein if the Scriptures which call it bread and the Fathers who terme it the figure of the body of Christ if Reason and all our senses deceive us not you are as plainely Idolatrous as the poor wretches which fall down and worship a piece of Red Cloth So your own Costerus assures us Enchirid. cap. 8. Tolerabilior saith he est eorum error qui pro Deo solunt statuam auream aut argenteam aut alterius materis imaginem quomodo Gentiles Deos suos venerabantur vel pannum rubrum in hastam elevatum quod narratur de Lappis vel viva animalia at quondam Aegyptii quam eorum qui frustum panis colunt Their errour is more tolerable who worship a golden or silver Statue or an Image of any other matter for a God as the Gentiles worshipped their Gods or a ragge of Red Cloth lifted upon a spear as it is reported of the Laplanders or living Creatures as did the Egyptians of old than theirs who worship a piece of bread This is that which made Averoes cry out seeing the Christians eat the God whom they worship let my soul be among the Philosophers You do the same in your worship of the Cross which the chiefest among you maintain â—o be the same that is due to Christ himself And you are in the same path still in the religious adoration you give unto the blessed Virgin your prayers to her and invocations of her which abound in all your books of Devotion and generall practice And what need we mention any
nature and causes of things here below though they know well enough that there was never any agreement amongst the wisest and severest that at any time have been engaged in that disquisition nor is it likely that ever there will be so And herein they can countenance themselves with the difficulty obscurity and importance of the things inquired after But as for the high and heavenly mysteries of the Gospel the least whereof is infinitely of more importance then any thing that the utmost reach and comprehension of humane wisdom can attain unto they may be neglected and despised because there are contentions about them Hic nigrae succus loliginis haec est Erugo mera The truth is this is so far from any real ground for any such conclusion that it were utterly impossible that any man should believe the truth of Christian Religion if he had not seen or might not be informed that such contention and differences had ensued in and about it for that they should do so is plainly and frequently foretold in those sacred oracles of it whereof if any one be found to fail the veracity and authority of the whole may justly be called into question If therefore men will have a religion so absolutely facile aud easie that without diligence endeavour pains or enquiry without laying out of their rational abilities or exercising the faculties of their souls about it without foregoing of their lusts and pleasures without care of mistakes and miscarriages they may be securely wrapt up in it as it were whither they will or no I confess they must seek for some other where they can find it Christianity will yield them no relief God hath not proposed an acquaintance with the blessed concernments of his Glory and of their own eternal condition unto the sons of men on any such terms as that they should not need with all diligence to employ and exercise their faculties of their souls in the investigation of them in the use of the means by him appointed for that purpose seeing this is the chiefest end for which he hath made us those souls And as for them who in sincerity give up their minds and consciences unto his Authority and guidance he hath not left them without an infallible dâ—rection for such a discharge of their own duty as is sufficient to guide and lead them in the middest of all differences divisions and oppositions unto rest with himself and the difficulties which are cast upon any in their enquiring after truth by the errour and deviation of other men from it are all sufficiently recompenced unto them by the excellency and sweetness which they find in the truth it self when sought out with diligence according to the mind of Christ. And one said not amiss of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I dare say he is the wisest Christian who hath most diligently conâ—idered the various differences that are in and about Christianity as being built in the knowledge of the truth upon the best and most stable foundations To this end hath the Lord Jesus given us his holy word a perfect and sure Revelation of all that he would have us to believe or do in the worship of God This he commands us diligently to attend unto to study seach and enquire after that we may know his mind and do it It is true in their enquiry into it various apprehensions concerning the sense and meaning of sundry things revealed therein have befallen some men in all ages and Origen gives this as one occasion of the differences that were in those dayes amongst Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 3. Con. Celâ— 1. When many were converted unto Christianity some of them variously understanding the holy Scripture which they joyntly believed it came to pass that heresie ensued For this was the whole rule of faith unity in those dayes the means for securing of us in them imposed on us of late by the Romanists was then not heard of not thought of in the world But moreover to obviate all danger that might in this matter ensue from the manifold weakness of our minds in apprehending spiritual things the Lord Jesus hath promised his holy spirit unto all them that believe in him and ask it of him to prevent their mistakes and miscarriages in the study of his word and to lead them into all that truth the knowledge whereof is necessary that they may believe in him unto the end and live unto him And if they who diligently and conscientiously without prejudices corrupt ends or designs in obedience to the command of Christ shall enquire into the Scriptures to receive from thence the whole object of their faith and rule of their obedience and who believing his promise shall pray for his Spirit and wait to receive him in and by the means appointed for that end may not be and are not thereby secured from all such mistakes and errours as may disinterest them in the promises of the Gospel I know not how we may be brought unto any certainty or assurance in the Truths of God or the everlasting consolation of our own souls Neither indeed is the nature of man capable of any further satisfaction in or about these things unless God should work continual miracles or give continually special revelations unto all individuals whch would utterly overthrow the whole nature of that faith and obedience which he requires at our hands But once to suppose that such persons through a defect of the means appointed by Christ for the instruction and direction before mentioned may everlastingly miscarry is to cast an unspeakable reproach on the goodness grace and faithfulness of God and enough to discourage all men from enquiring after the truth And these things the Reader will find further cleared in the ensuing discourse with a discovery of the weakness falseness and insufficiency of those rules and reliefs which are tendred unto us by the Romanists in the lieu of them that are given us by God himself Now if this be the condition of things in Christian Religion as to any one that hath with sincerity consulted the Scripture or considered the Goodness Grace and Wisdom of God it must needs appear to be it is manifest that mens startling at it or being offended upon the account of divisions and differences among them that make profession thereof is nothing but a pretence to cloke and hide their sloth and supine negligence with their unwillingness to come up unto the indispensable condition of learning the truth as it is in Jesus namely obedience unto his whole will and all his commands so far as he is pleased to reveal them unto us With others they are but incentives unto that diligence and watchfulness which the things themselves in their nature high and arduous and in their importance of everlasting moment require at your hands Further on those who by the means formentioned come to the knowledge of the truth it is incumbent according as they are
most would do so still did they not judge the evil remediless And if the state of things be in your Catholick Countreys between the Gentry and Clergy as you inform us I fear it is not from the learning of the one but the ignorance of the other And this you seem to intimate by rejecting learning from being any essentiall complement of their profession wherein you do wisely and what you are necessitated to do for those who are acquainted with them tell us that if it were you would have a very thin Clergy left you very many of them not understanding the very Mass Book which they daily chaunt and therefore almost every word in your Missalc Romanum is accented that they may know how aright to pronounce them which yet will not deliver them from that mistake of him who instead of Introibo ad altare Dei read constantly Introibo ad tartara Dei Herein we envy not the condition of your Catholick Countreys and though we desire our Gentry were more learned than they are yet neither we nor they could be contented to have our Ministers ignorant so that they might be in veneration for that Office sake which they are no way able to discharge As to what you affirm concerning England and our usage here in the close of your Discourse it is so utterly devoid of truth and honesty that I cannot but wonder at your open regardlesness of them Should you have written these things in Spain or Italy where you have made pictures of Catholicks put in Bears skins and torn with Dogs in England Eccles. Ang. Troph concerning England and the manners of the Inhabitants thereof you might have hoped to have met with some so partially addicted unto your faction and interest as to suppose there were some colour of truth in what you averre But to write these things here amongst us in the face of the Sun where every one that casts an eye upon them will detest your confidence and laugh at your folly is a course of proceeding not easie to be paraleled I shall not insist on the particulars there being not one word of truth in the whole but leave you to the discipline of your own thoughts Occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum And so I have done with your Prefatory Discourse wherein you have made it appear with what reverence of God and love to the Truth you are conversant in the great concernments of the souls of men What in particular you except against in the Animadversions I shall now proceed to the consideration of CHAP. II. Vindication of the first Chapter of the Animadversions The method of Fiat Lux. Romanists doctrine of the Merit of Good Works IN your exceptions to the first Chapter of the Animadversions pag. 20. I wish I could find any thing agreeable unto Truth according unto your own Principles It was ever granted that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but alwayes to fail and faigne at pleasure was never allowed so much as to Poets Men may oftentimes utter many things untrue wherein yet some principles which they are perswaded to be agreeable unto Truth or some more generall mistakes from whence their particular assertions proceed may countenance their consciences from a sense of guilt and some way shield their reputation from the sharpness of censure But willingly and often for a man practically to offend in this kind when his mind and understanding is not imposed upon by any previous mistakes is a miscarriage which I do not yet perceive that the subtilest of your Casuists have found out an excuse for Two Exceptions you lay against this Chapter in the first whereof by not speaking the whole Truth you render the whole untruth and in the latter you plainly affirm that which your eyes told you to be otherwise First you say I proposed a dilemma unto you for saying you had concealed your method when what I spake unto you was upon your saying first that you had used no method and afterwards that you had concealed your method as you also in your next words here confess Now both these being impossible and severally spoken by you only to serve a present turn your sorry merriment about the Scholler and his eggs will not free your self from being very ridiculous Certainly this using no method and yet at the same time concealing your method is part of that civil Logick you have learned no man knows where You had farre better hide your weaknesses under an universall silence as you do to the most of them than expose them afresh unto publick contempt trimmed up with froth and trifles But this is but one of the least of your escapes you proceed to downright work in your following words Going on you deny say you that Protestants ever opposed the merit of Good works which at first I wondred at seeing the sound of it hath rung so often in my own ears and so many hundred Books written in this last Age so apparently witness it in all places till I found afterwards in my thorow perusall of your Book that you neither heed what you say nor how much you deny at last giving a distinction of the intrinsick acceptability of our works the easier to silence me you say as I say Could any man not acquainted with you ever imagin but that had denied that ever Protestants opposed the merit of Good works you positively affirm I did so you pretend to transcribe my own words you wonder why I should say so you produce testimony to disprove what I say and yet all this while you know well enough that I never said so have a little more care if not of your Conscience yet of your Reputation for seriously if you proceed in this manner you will lose the common Priviledge of being believed when you speak truth Your words in your Fiat Lux p. 15. ed. 2. are that our Ministers cull out various Texts out of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans against the Christian doctrine of Good works and their merit wherein you plainly distinguish between the Christian Doctrine of Good works and their merit as well you may I tell you pag. 25 26 that no Protestant ever opposed the Christian Doctrine of Good Works Here you repeat my words as you pretend and say that I deny that any Protestant ever opposed the Merit of Good works and fall into a fained wonderment at mee for saying that which you knew well enough I never said For Merit is not the Christian but rather as by you explained the Antichri-christian Doctrine of Good works as being perfectly Anti-Evangelicall What Merit you will esteem this Good work of yours to have I know not and have in part intimated what truely it doth deserve But you adde that making a distinction of the intrinsick acceptability of works you say as I say What is that I pray do I say that Protestants oppose the Christian Doctrine of Good Works as you say in your Fiat or do I say that
The Councell of Pisa deposed Gregory the twelfth and Benedict the thirteenth for Schismaticks and Hereticks The Councell of Constance accused John the twenty third of abominable Heresie Sess. 11. And that of Basil condemned Eugenius as one à fide devium pertinacem Haereticum Sess. 34. an erroneous Person and obstinate Heretick Other instances of the like nature might be called over manifesting that your Popes have erred and been condemned as persons erroneous and therein the Principle of their In fallibility I would be unwilling to tire your patience yet upon your reiterated desire I shall present you with one Instance more and I will do it but briefly because I must deal with you again about the same matter 5. Your Church is fallen by Idolatry as otherwise so in that Religious Veneration of Images which she useth whereunto you have added Heresie in teaching it for a Doctrine of Truth and imposing the belief of it by your Tridentine Determination on the Consciences of the Disciples of Christ. I know you would fain mince the matter and spread over the corrupt Doctrine of your Church about it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silken words as you do the Posts that they are made of with Gold when as the Prophetspeaks of your predecessors in that work you lavish it out of the bagge for that purpose But to what purpose Your first Councell the second of Nice which yet was not wholly yours neither for it condemns Honorius calls Thâ—rnsius the Oecumenicall Patriarch and he expounds in it the Rock on which the Church was built to be Christ and not Peter your last Councell that of Trent your Angelicall Doctor Thomas of Aquine your great Champions Bellarmine and Baronius Suarez Vasquez and the rest of them with the Catholick practise and usage of your Church in all places declare sufficiently what is your faith or rather misbelief in this matter Hence Azorius Institut Lib. 9 cap. 6. tells us that Constans est Theologorum sententia Imaginem èodem honore cultu coli quo colitur id cujus est Imago It is the constant judgement of Divines that the Image is to be worshipped with the same honour and worship wherewith that is worshipped whose Image it is The Nicene Councell by the instigation of Pope Adrian Anathematizeth every one who doth but doubt of the Adoration of Images Act. 7. Thomas contendeth that the Cross is to be worshipped with Latria p. 3. q. 25. a. 4. which is a word that he and you suppose to express Religious worship of the highest sort And your Councell of Trent in their decree about this matter confirmed the Doctrine of that Lestricall convention at Nice whose frauds and impostures were never paralleled in the world but by it's self And do you think that a few ambiguous flourishing words of you an unknown person shall make the world believe that they understand not the Doctrine and Practise of your Church which is proclaimed unto them by the Fathers and Mâ—sters of your perswasion herein and expressed in practises under their eyes every day Do you think it so easie for you Cornieum oculos configere as Cicero tells us an Atturney one Cn Flavius thought to do in going beyond all that the great Lawyers had done before him Orat. pro Muraena We cannot yet be perswaded that you are so great an Interpreter of the Roman Oracles as to believe you before all the Sages before mentioned to whom hundreds may be added And what do you think of this Doctrine and Practise of your Church Hath it been opposed judged and condemned or no The first Writers of Christianity Just In Martyr Irenaeus Origen Tertullian Arnobius Lactantius utterly abhorred the use of all Images at least in Sacris The Councell held at Elibâ—ris in Spain twâ—ve or thirteen years before the famous Assembly at Nice positively forbid all use of Pictures in Churches Can. 36. Plaquit Picturas in Ecclesia esse non debâ—re ne quod colitur adoratur in parietibus depingatur The Councell resolved that Pictures ought not to be in Churches that 〈◊〉 which is worshipâ—d and adored be not painted on walls Cyprian condemns it Epist. ad Demetriad And so generally do all the Fathers as may be gathered in the pittifull endeavours and forgeries of the second Nicene Councell endeavouring to confirm it from them Epiphanius reckons it among the errors of the Gnosticks and himself brake an Image that he found hanging in a Church Epist ad Johan Hierosol Austin was of the same judgement see Lib. de moriâ— Eccles. Cathol cap. 34. Your Adoration of them iâ— expresly condemned by Gregory the great in an Epistle to Serinus Lib. 7. Ep. 111 and Lib. 9. Epist. 9. The Greek Church condemned it in a â—ynod at Constantinople an 775. And one learned man in those last dayes undertaking its defence and indeed the only man of learning that ever did so untill of late they excommunicated and cursed him This was Damascenus concerning whom they used those expressions repeated in the second Nicene Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unto Mansour of an evil name and in judgement consenting with Saracens Anathema To Mansour a worshipper of Images and writer of Falshood Anathema To Mansour contumelious against Christ and traytor to the Empire Anathema To Mansour a teacher of impiety and perverse interpreter of Scripture Anathema Synod Nic. 2. Act. 6. For that it was Johannes Damascenus that they intended the Nicene Fathers sufficiently manifest in the Answer following read by Epiphanius the Deacon And this reward did he meet withall from the seventh Councell at Constantinople for his pains in asserting the veneration of Images although he did not in that particular pervert the Scripture as some of you do but laid the whole weight of his opinion on Tradition wherein he is followed by Vasquez among your selves Moreover the Western Churches in a great Councell at Frankeford in Germany utterly condemned the Nicene Determination which in your Tridentins Convention you approve and ratifie An. 794. It was also condemned here by the Church of England and the Doctrine of it fully confuted by Albinus Hoveden Annal. an 791. Never was any Heresie more publickly and solemnly condemned than this whereby your Church is fallen from its pristine purity But hereof more afterwards It were no difficult matter to procced unto all the Chief ways whereby your Church is fallen and to manifest that they have been all publickly disclaimed and condemned by the better and founder part of Professors But the Instances Insisted on may I hope prove sufficient for your satisfaction I shall therefore proceed to consider what you offer unto the remaining Principles which I conceived to animate the whole Discourse of your Fiat Lux. CHAP. V. Other Principles of Fiat Lux re-examined Things not at quiet in Religion before Reformation of the first Reformers Diparture from Rome no Cause of Devisions Returnal unto Rome no means of Union YOu proceed unto the fourth Assertion
we also do Strom. 4. To this purpose speaks Salvianus de Gub. Lib. 3. Alia omnia idest humana dicta argumentis testibus egent Dei autem Sermo ipse sibi test is est quia necesseest ut quicquid incorrupta verityas loquitur incorruptum sit testimonium veritatis All other sayings stand in need of Arguments and witnesses to confirm them the Word of God is witness to its self For whatever the Truth incorrupted speaks must of necessity be an incorrupt Testimony of Truth And although some of them allowed the Testimony of the Church as a motive unto believing the Gospell or things preached from it yet as to the belief of the Scripiure with faith Divine and Supernaturall to be the Word of God they required but these two things 1. That Self-Evidence in the Scripture its self which is needfull for an indemonstrable Principle from which and by which all other things are to be demonstrated And that Self-Evidence Clemens puts in the place of all Demonstrations 2. The Efficacy of the Spirit in the heart to enable it to give a saving assent unto the Truth proposed unto it Thus Austin in his Confessions Lib. 6. cap. 5. Persuasisti mihi ô Domine Deus non eos qui crederent libris tuis quos tanta in omnibus ferè Gentibus authoritate fundasti esse culpandos sed eos qui non crederent new audiendesesse siqui mihi forte dicerent Unde scis illos libres unius veracissimi Dei Spirituesse humano generi ministratos idipsum enim maximè credendum erat O Lord God thou hast perswaded me that not they who believe thy Books which with so great Authority thou hast setled almost in all Nations were to be blamed but those who believe them not and that I should not hearken unto any of them who might chance to say unto me Whence dost thou know those Books to be given out unto mankind from the Spirit of the only True GOD for that is the thing which principally was to be believed In which words the holy man hath given us full direction what to say when you come upon us with that Question which some used it seems in his dayes A great Testimony of the Antiquity of your Principles Adde hereunto what he writes in the 11 th Book and 3 d Chapter of the same Treatise and wee have the summe of the Resolution and Principle of his Faith Audiam saith he intelligam quomodo fecisti Coelam terram Scripsit hoc Moses scripsit abiit transivit hinc ad Te. Neque enim nunc ante me est nam si esset tenerem eum rogaremeum per Teobsecrarem ut mihi ist a paâ—derct praberem aures corporis mei sonis erumpentibus ex ere ejus At si Hebraea voce loqueretur frustra pulsaret sensum meum nec inde mentem meam tangeret si autem Latinè scirem quid diceret sed Unde scirem an verum dicoret quod si hoc scirem num ab illâ— scirem Intus utique mihi intus in domicilio cogitationis nec Hebraea nec Graeca nec Latina nec barbara verityas sine oris linguae organis sine strepitu syllabarum diceret verum diâ—it ego statim â—â—tus confidenter illi homini tuo dicerem Verumolits Cum ergo illum interrogare non possim Te quo 〈◊〉 vera dixit Veritas rogo Te Deus meus rogo partepeccatis meis qui illi servo tuo dedisti haec dicere 〈◊〉 mihi haEc intelligere I would bear and understand O Lord how thou hast made the Heavens and the earth Moses wrote this he wrote it and is gene and he is gone to Thee For now he is not present with mee if he were I would lay hold on him and ask him and beseech him for thy sake that he would unfold these things unto me and I would cause the ears of my body to attend unto the words of his mouth But if he should speak in the Hebrew tongue he would only in vain strike upon my outward sense and my mind within would not be affected with it If he speak in Latine I should know what he sayed but whence should I know that he spake the Truth should I know this also from him The Truth that is neither Hebrew Greck Latine nor expressed in any Barbarous Language would say unto me inwardly in the dwelling place of my thoughts without the organs of mouth or tongue or noyse of syllables He speaks the Truth and I with confidaence should say unto him thy servam Thou speakest the Truth Seeing therefore I cannot enquire of him I beseech Thee that art Truth with whom he being filled spake the Truth I beseech thee O my God pardon my sinnes and thou who gavest unto him by servant to speak these things grant unto me tounderstand Thus this holy man ascribes his assent into the one unquestionable Principle of the Scripture as to the effecting of it in himself to the work if Gods Spirit in his heart As Basil also doth on Psal. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith which draws the soul unto consent above the efficacy of all rational wayes or methods of perswasion Faith that is wrought and begotten in us not by geometricall enforcements or demonstrations but by the effectuall operations of the Spirit And both these Principles are excellently expressed by one amongst your selves even Baptista Mantuanus Lib. de Patientia Cap. 32 33. Saepenumerò faith he mecum cogitavi Unde tam sâ—adibilis esset ista Scriptura ut tam potenter insluat in animos auditorum unde tantum habeat energiae ut non adopinandum sed ad solidè credendum omnes inflectat I have often thought with my self Whence the Scripture is so perswasive whence it doth so powerfully influence the minds of the hearers whence it hath so much efficacy that it should incline and bow all men not to think as probable but solidly to believe the things it proposeth Non saith he est hoc imputandum rationum evidentiaequas non adducit non artis industriae verbis suavibus ad persuadendum accommodatis quibus non utitur It is not to be ascribed unto the evidence of Reasons which it bringeth not neither to the excellency of Art sweet words and accommodated unto per swasion which it makes no use of Sed vide an id in causa sit quod persuasi sumus eam à prima veritate flâ—xisse But see if this be not the Cause of it that wee are perswaded that it proceeds from the prime Verity He proceeds Sed unde sumus ita persuasi nisi ab ipsa quasi ad ei credendum non sua ipsiâ—â— trahat Authoritas Sed unde quaeso hanc sibi Authoritatem vindicavit Neque enim vidimus nos Deum concionantem scribentem docentem tamen ac si vidissemus credimus tenemus à Spiritu Sancto fluxisse quod legimus Forsitan
of the slaughter'd Disciples of Christ. So that what the Historiâ—n said of the old Râ—mâ—ns in reference unto the Galls or Cimbrians usque ad nostram memoriam Romanâ— alla omniâ— virtuti suae prone esse cum Gall is pro salute non proglorta certari we may apply unto them it is not Truth only but our Temporal safety also that we are enforced to contend with them about And whom they cannot reach with outward violence they endeavour to lade with curses and by precipitate censures and determination to eject them out of the limits of Christianity as to the spiritual and eternal priviledges wherewith it is attended And these things make all hopes of Reconciliation for the future and of present moderation languid and weak as all endeavours after them hither to have been fruitless For whilest they contend that every proposall of their Church every way and mode in the worship of God that is in usage amongst them is not only true and right but of necessity to be embraced and submitted unto and therefore impose them by all sorts of penalties on the consciences and practises of all men is it not evidenâ— that there can be no peace nor agreement in the world but what waste and solitude arising from an extermination of persons otherwise minded then themselves will produce some oâ— them I confess to serve their present supposed advantages have of late declâ—â—med about moderation in matters of Religion and I wish that herein that may be sincerely indeavoured by some which for sinister ends is corruptly pretended by others For mine own part there are no sort of men from whose frame of spirit and waies I shall labour a greater distance then theirs who set themselves against that moderation towards persons differing from them and others in the result of their thoughts upon an humble sincere investigation of the truth and wayes of Christ which himself and his Apostles commend unto us or that refuse to consent unto any way of Reconciliation of dissenters wherein violence is not offered unto the commands of God as stated in their consciences Let the Romanists renounce their principles about the absolute necessity of the subjection of all persons unto the Pope in answer unto that groundless and boundless Authority which in things sacred and civil they assign unto him with their resolution of imposing the dictates of their Church per fas nefas upon our consciences and we shall endeavour with all quietness and moderation to plead with them about our remaining differences and to joyn with them in the profession of those important truths wherein we are agreed But whilest they propose no other forms of Reconciliation but our absolute submission unto their Papal Authority with our assent unto and profession of those doctrines which we are perswaded are contrary to the Scripture with the sense of Catholick Antiquity derogatory to the Glory of God and prejudicial to the salvation of those by whom they are received and our concurrence with them in those wayes of Religious worship which themselves are fallen into by degrees they know not how which we believe dishonourable unto God and pernitious to the souls of men I see no ground of any other peace with them but that only which we are bound to follow with all men in abstaining from mutual violences performing all offices of Christian love and in a special praying for their repentance and coming to the acknowledgment of the Truth On this account was it that some while since upon the desire of some friends I undertook the examination of a discourse entituled Fiat Lux whose Author under a pretence of that moderation which is indeed altogether inconsistent with other principles of his profession endeavoured to insinuate a necessity of the reception of Popery for the bringing of us to peace or agreement here and the interesting of us in any hope of eternal rest and peace hereafter Whether that small labour were seasonable or no or whether any service were done therein to the interest of Truth is left to the judgement of men unprejudiced Not long after there was published an Epistle pretending a Reply unto that discourse being indeed a meer flourish of empty words and a giving up of the cause wherein the Author of Fiat Lux was engaged as desperate and indefensible However I thought it not meet to let it pass without some consideration partly that the design of that Treatise with others of the like nature of late published amongst us might be further manifested and partly that the ends of moderation and peace being fixed between us I might farther try and examine whose and what principles are best suited unto their pursuit and accomplishment I have not therefore confined my self unto an Answer unto the Epistle of the Author of Fiat Lux which indeed it doth not deserve as I suppose himself being judge but have only from it taken occasion to discuss those principles and usages in Religion wherein the most important differences between Papists and Protestants do lie For whereas the whole difference between them and us is branched into two general heads the first concerning those principles which they and we severally build our profession upon and resolve our faith into and the other respecting particular instances in doctrines of faith and practice in Religious worship I have laid hold of occasion to treat of them both of the former absolutely and of the latter in things of most weight and concernment And because the Judgement of Antiquity is deservedly of moment in these things I have not only manifested it to lie plain and clear against the Romanist in instances sufficient to impeach their pretended infallibility which is enough to dissolve that whole imaginary fabrick that is built upon it and centers in it but also in most of the material controversies that are between them and us These things Christian Reader I thought meet to premise towards the prevention of that offence which any may really take or for corrupt ends pretend so to do at the differences in general that are amongst Christians or those in especial which are between us and the Roman Church as also to give an account of the occasion design and end of the ensuing consideration of them THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. 1. AN Answer to the Preface or Introduction of the Reply to the Animadversions page 1. CHAP. 2. A Vindication of the first Chapter of the Animadversions The method of Fiat Lux. Romanists Doctrine of the Merit of Good Works p. 27 CHAP. 3. A defence of the second Chapter of the Animadversions Principles of Fiat Lux re-examined Of our receiving of the Gospel from Rome Our abode with them From whom we received it p. 37 CHAP. 4. Further Vindication of the first Chapter of the Animadversions Church of Rome not what she was of 〈◊〉 Her Fall and Apostacy Difference between Idâ—laâ—ry Apostacy and Heresie Schism Principles of the Church of Rome condemned by the
they seek to promote what can rationally be concluded but that they not only disbelieve themselves what they outwardly profess but also esteem it a fit mask and cover to carry on other interests of their own which they prefer before it and what can more evidently tend unto its disreputation and disadvantage is not easie to conceive Such is the course here fixed on by you It is the Religion of Christ you pretend to plead for and to promote but if there be a word true in it the way you take for that end namely by openly false accusations is to be abhorred which manifests what regard unto it you inwardly cherish And I wish this were only your personall miscarriage that you were not encouraged unto it by the Principles and Example of your chiefest Masters and Leaders The learned Person who wrote the Letters discovering the Mystery of Jesuitisme gives us just cause so to conceive for he doth not only prove that the Jesuits have publickly maintained that Calumny is but a veniall sin nay none at all if used against such as you call Calumniators though grounded on absolute falsities but hath also given us such pestilent instances of their practice according to that Principle as Paganisme was never acquainted withall Lett. 15. In their steps you set out in this your first Reason wherein there is not one word of truth I had formerly told you that I did not think you could your self believe some of the things that you affirmed at which you take great offence but I must now tell you that if you proceed in venting such notorious untruths as here you have heaped together I shall greatly question whether seriously you believe that Jesus Christ will one day judge the world in righteousness For I do not think you can produce a pleadable dispensation to say what you please be it nere so false of a supposed Heretick for though it may be you will not keep faith with him surely you ought to observe truth in speaking of him You tell us in your Epistle to your Fiat of your dark obscuirity wherein you dye daily but take heed S r least Indulgentem tenebris imaeque recessis Sedis in aspectos Caelo radiisque Penates Servantem tamen assiduis circumvolet alis Saevadies animi scelerúmque in pectore dirae Your next Reason is Because he talks of Swords and Blood Fire and Fagot Guns and Duggers which doth more than show that he hath not let go those hot and furious imaginations But of what sort by whom used to what end Doth he mention any of these but such as your Church hath made use of for the destruction of Protestants If you have not done so why do you not disprove his Assertions If you have why have you practised that in the face of the Sun which you cannot endure to be told of Is it equall think you that you should kill burn and destroy men for the profession of their faith in Christ Jesus and that it should not be lawfull for others to say you do so Did not your self make the calling over of these things necessary by crying out against Protestants for want of moderation It is one of the priviledges of the Pope some say to judge all men and himself to be judged by none but is it so also that no man may say he hath done what all the world knows he hath done and which we have just cause to fear he would do again had he power to his will For my part I can assure you so that you will cease from charging others with that whose guilt lyes heavier upon your selves than on all the professors of Christianity in the world besides and give any tolerable security against the like practices for the future I shall be well content that all which is past may be put by us poor worms into perpetuall oblivion though I know it will be called over another day Untill this be done and you leave off to make your advantages of other mens miscarriages pray arm your selves with patience to hear sometimes a little of your own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said wise Homer of old and another to the same purpose He that speaks what he will must hear what he would not Is it actionable with you against a Protestant that he will not take your whole Sword into his bowels without complaining S r the Author of the Animadversions doth and ever did abhorre Swords and Guns and Crusadoes in matters of Religion and Conscience with all violence that may tantamount unto their usuall effects He ever thought it an uncouth sight to see men marching with Crosses on their backs to destroy Christians as if they had the Alcoran in their hearts and therefore desires your excuse if he have reflected a little upon the miscarriages of your Church in that kind especially being called thereunto by your present contrary pretences Quis tulerit Graculos de seditione querentes and Major tandem porcas insane minori It were well if your wayes did no more please you in the previous prospect you take of them than they seem to do in a subsequent reflection upon them But this is the nature of evil it never comes and goes with the same appearing countenance not that it self changeth at any time for that which is morally evil is alwayes so but mens apprehensions variously influenced by their affections lusts and interests do frequently change and alter Now what Conclusion can be made from the premises rightly stated I leave to your own judgement at your better leasure Thirdly You adde Your prophetick assurance so often inculcated that if you could but once come to whisper me in the ear I would plainly acknowledge either that I understand not my self what I say or if I do believe it not gives a fair character of these fanatick times wherein ignorance and hypocrisie prevail'd over worth and truth whereof if your self were any part it is no wonder you should think that I or any man else should either speak he knows not what or believe not what himself speaks That is a man must needs be as bad as you can imagine him if he have not such an high opinion of your ability and integrity as to believe that you have written about nothing but what you perfectly understand nor assert anything in the persuit of your design and interest but what you really and in cold blood believe to be true All men it seems that were no part of the former dismall tempest have this opinion of you Credat Apella If it be so I confess for my part I have no relief against being concluded to be whatever you please Sosia or not Sosia the Law is in your own hands and you may condemn all that adore you not into Fanaticisme at your pleasure but as he said Obsecro per pacem liceat te alloqui ut ne vapulem if you will but grant a little truce from this severity I doubt not but
in a short time to take off from your keenness in the management of this Charge For I hope you will allow that a man may speak the truth without being a Fanatick truth may get hatred I see it hath done so but it will make no man hatefull Without looking back then to your Fiat Lux I shall out of this very Epistle give you to see that you have certainly failed on the one hand in writing about things which you do not at all understand and therefore discourse concerning them like a blind man about colours and as I fear greatly also on the other for I cannot suppose you so ignorant as not to know that some things in your discourse are otherwise than by you represented Nay and we shall find you at express contradictions which pretend what you please I know you cannot at the same time believe Instances of these things you will be minded of in our progress Now I must needs be very unhappy in discoursing of them if this be Logick and Law that for so doing I must be concluded a Fanatick Fourthly You adde Your pert Assertion so oft occurring in your Book that there is neither reason truth nor honesty in my words is but the overflowings of that former intemperate zeal whereunto may be added what in the last place you insist on to the same purpose namely that I charge you with fraud ignorance and wickedness when in my own heart I find you most clear from any such blemish I do not remember where any of those expressions are used by me that they are no where used thus altogether I know well enough neither shall I make any enquiry after them I shall therefore desire you only to produce the instances whereunto any of the censures intimated are annexed and if I do not prove evidently and plainly that to be wanting in your discourse which is charged so to be I will make you a publick acknowledgement of the wrong I have done you But if no more was by me expressed than your words as used to your purpose did justly deserve pray be pleased to take notice that it is lawfull for any man to speak the truth And for my part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said in Lucian I live in the Countrey where they call a Spade a Spade And if you can give any one instance where I have charged you with any failure where there is the least probability that I had in my heart other thoughts concerning what you said I will give up my whole interest in this cause unto you Mala mens malus animus You have manifested your conscience to be no just measure of other mens who reckon upon their giving an account of what they do or say So that you have but little advanced your Charge by these undue insinuations Neither have you any better success in that which in the next place you insist upon which yet were it not like the most of the rest destitute of truth would give more countenance unto your reflection than them all It is that I give you sharp and frequent menaces that if you write or speak again you shall hear more find more feel more more to your smart more than you imagine more than you would which relish much of that insulting humour which the Land groaned under I suppose no man reads this representation of my words with the addition of your own which makes up the greatest part of them but must needs thinks that you have been sorely threatned with some personall inconveniencies which I would cause to befall you did you not surcease from writing or that I would obtain some course to be taken with you to your prejudice Now this must needs savour of the spirit of our late dayes of trouble and mischief or at least of the former dayes of the prevalency of Popery amongst us when men were not wont in such cases to take up at bare threats and menaces If this be so all men that know the Author of the Animadversions and his condition must needs conclude him to be very foolish and wicked foolish for threatning any with that which is as far from his power to execute as the person threatned can possibly desire it to be wicked for designing that evil unto any individuall person which he abhorres in hypothesi to be inflicted on any upon the like account But what if there be nothing of all this in the pretended menaces What if the worst that is in them be only part of a desire that you would abstain from insisting on the personall miscarriages of some that profess the Protestant Religion lest he should be necessitated to make a diversion of your Charge or to shew the insufficiency of it to your purpose by recounting the more notorious failings of the Guides Heads and Leaders of your Church If this be so as it is in truth the whole intendment of any of those expressions that are used by me for the most part of them are your own figments whereever they occurre what Conclusion can any rationall man make from them Do they not rather intimate a desire of the use of moderation in these our contests and an abstinence from things personall for which cause also fruitlesly as I now perceive by this your new kind of ingenuity and moderation I prefixed not my Name to the Animadversions which you also take notice of than any evil intention or design This was my threatning you to which now I shall adde that though I may not say of these Papers what Catullus did of his Verses on Rufus Verum id non impunè feceres nam te omnia secla Noscent qui sis fama loquitur anus Yet I shall say that as many as take notice of this discourse will do no less of your disingenuity and manifold falshood in your vain attempt to relieve your dying Cause by casting odium upon him with whom you have to do like the Bonassus that Aristotle informs us of Hist. Animal lib. 9. cap. 24. which being as big as a Bull but having horns turned inward and unusefull for fight when he is persued casts out his excrements to defile his persuers and to stay them in their passage But what now is the End in all this heap of things which you would have mistaken for Reasons that you aym at it is all to shew how unfit I am to defend the Protestant Religion and that I am not such a Protestant as I would be thought to be But why so I embrace the Doctrine of the Church of England as declared in the 29 Articles and other approved publick writings of the most famous Bishops and other Divines thereof I avow her rejection of the pretended Authority and reall Errours of the Church to be her duty and justifiable The same is my judgment in reference unto all other Protestant Churches in the world in all things wherein they agree among themselves which is in all things necessary that
observed reproved condemned and written against Only unto what shall be discoursed unto this pnrpose I desire liberty to premise these three things which I suppose will be granted Dabitur ignis tamen et si ab inimicis petam The first is that What is by any previously condemned before the embracing and practice of it is no less condemned by them than if the practice had preceded their condemnation Though you should say that your avowing of a condemned errour would make it no errour yet you cannot say that it will render it not condemned for that which is done cannot be undone say you what you will Secondly that Where any opinion or practice in Religion which is embraced and used by your Church is condemned and written against that then your Church which so embraceth and useth it is condemned and written against For neither do Protestants write against your Church or condemn it on any other account but of your opinions and practices and you require but such a writing and condemnation as you complain of amongst them Thirdly I desire you to take notice that I do not this as though it were necessary to the security and defence of the Cause which we maintain against you It is abundantly sufficient and satisfactory unto our consciences in your casting us out from your communion that all the wayes whereby we say your Church is fallen from her pristine purity are judged and condemned in the Scripture the Word of truth whither we appeal for the last determination of the differences between us These things being premised to prevent such evasions as you have accustomed your self unto I shall as briefly as I can give you somewhat of that which you have now twice called for 1. Your Principle and Practise in imposing upon all Persons and Churches a necessity of the observation of your Rites and Ceremonies Customes and Traditions casting them out of Communion who refuse to submit unto this your great Principle of all the Schisms in Europe was contradicted written against condemned by Councels and Fathers in the very first instance that ever you gave of it Be pleased to consider that this concerns the very Life and Being of your Church For if you may not impose your Constitutions observances and customes upon all others actum est there is an end of your present Church State Let us see then how this was thought of in the dayes of old Victor the Bishop of Rome An Dom. 96. condemns and excommunicates the Churches of Asia because they would not joyn with him in the Celebration of Easter precisely on the Lords day Did this practise escape uncontrolled He was written against by the great Irenaeus and reproved that he had cast out of Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whole Churches of God for a triviall cause His fact also was condemned in the justification of those Churches by a Councell in Palestine where Theophilus presided and another in Asia called together for the same purpose by Polycrates Euseb. Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 22 23 24 25. This is an early instance of a considerable Fall in your Church and an open opposition by Councels and Fathers made unto it And do not you S r deceive your self as though the fact of Victor were alone concerned in this censure of Irenaeus and others The Principle before mentioned which is the very life and soul of your Church is condemned in it It was done also in a repetition of the same Instance attempted here in England by you when Austine that came from Rome would have imposed on the Brittish Churches the observation of Easter according to the custome of the Roman Church the Bishops and Monks of these Churches not only rejected your Custome but the Principle also from whence the attempt to impose it on them did proceed protesting that they owned no subjection to the Bishop of Rome nor other regard than what they did to every good Christian. Concil Anglican p. 188. 2. Your Doctrine and Practise of forcing men by carnall weapons corporall penalties tortures and terrors of death unto the embracement of your profession and actually destroying and taking away the lives of them that persist in their dissent from you is condemned by Fathers and Councels as well as by the Scriptures and the light of Nature its self It is condemned by Tertullian Apol. cap. 23. Videte saith he ne hoc ad irreligiositatis elogium concurrat adimere libertatem Religionis interdicere optionem Divinitat is ut non liceat mihi colere quod velim sed cogar colere quod nolim with the like expressions in twenty other places All this externall compulsion he ascribes unto profaneness So doth Clemens Alexand. Stromat 8. So also did Lactantius all consenting in that Maxim of Tertullian Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio The Law of Christ revengeth not its self with a punishing sword The Councell of Sardis Epist. ad Alexand. expresly affirms that they disswaded the Emperour from interpesing his Secular power to compell them that dissented And you are fully condemned in a Canon of a Councell at Toledo Cap. de Judae distinc 45. Praecipit sancta Synodns nemini deinceps ad credendum vim inferre cui enim vult Deus miseretur quem vult indurat The holy Synod commandeth that none hereafter shall by force be compelled to the faith for God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Athanasius in his Epistle ad Solitar falls heavily on the Arians that they began first to compell men to their heresie by force prisons and punishments whence he concludes of their Sect atque ita seipsam quam non sit pia nec Dei cultrix manifestat it evidestly declares it self hereby to be neither pious nor to have any reverence of God In a Book that is of some credit with you namely Clemens his Constitutions you have this amongst other things for your comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ left men the power of their wills free in this matter not punishing them with death temporall but calling them to give an account in another world And Chrysostome speaks to the same purpose on Joh 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He asked them saying Will you also go away which is the Question of one rejecting all force and necessity Epiphanius gives it as the character of thesemi-Arâ—ians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They persecute them that teach the Truth not confuting them with words but delivering them that believe aright to hatreds wars and swords having now brought destruction not to one City or Countrey alone but to many Neither can you relieve your selves by answering that they were true believers whom they persecuted you punish Hereticks and Schismaticks only for they thought and said the same of themselves which you assert in your own behalf So Salvian informs us Haeretici sunt sed non scientes denique apud nos sunt Haeretici apud se non
this that where any persons or Churches are at variance or difference about any thing concerning Religion or the worship of God the Scripture is not sufficient for the Vmpirage of that Difference so that they may be reconciled and center in the Profession of the same Truth I wish you would now tell me what discrepancy there is between the Assertion which I ascribed unto you and that which your self here avow I suppose they are in substance the same and as such will be owned by every one that understands any thing of the matters about which we treat And this is so spoken unto in the Animadversions that you have no mind to undertake the examination of it but labour to divert the discourse unto that which may appear something else but indeed is not so 3. For your Distinction between Protestants and Puritans in England I know not well what to make of it I know no Puritans in England that are not Protestants though all the Protestants in England do not absolutely agree in every punctilio relating to Religion nor in all things relating unto the outward worship of God no more than did the Churches in the Apostles dayes or than your Catholicks do You give us then a Distinction like that which a man may give between the Church of Rome and the Jesuits or Dominicans or the Sons of S t. Benet or of S t Francis of Assize A Distinction or Distribution of the Genus into the Genus and one Species comprehended under it as if you should have said that Animal is either Animal or Homo 4. Though I had rather therefore that you had placed your Instance between the Church of Rome and Protestants yet because any instance of Persons that have different Apprehensions about things belonging to the worship of God will suffice us as to the present purpose I shall let it pass Only I desire you once more that when you would endeavour to render any thing way or acting of men odious that you would forbear to cast the Scripture into a Copartnership therein which here you seem to do The Puritan you say with the Scripture rose up and rebelled Rebellion is the name of an outragious Evil such as the Scripture giveth not the least Countenance unto And therefore when you think meet to charge it upon any you may do well not to say that they do it with the Scripture It will not be to your comfort or advantage so to do This is but my advice you may do as you see cause Tales Casus Cassandra canebat 5. The Differences you suppose and look upon as undeterminable by the Scripture are about things that in themselves really and in truth belong unto Christian Religion or such as do not so indeed but are only fancied by some men so to do If they are of this latter sort as the most of the Controversies which we have with you are as about your Mass Purgatory the Pope we account that all Differences about them are sufficiently determined in the Scriptures because they are no where mentioned in them And this must needs be so if the Word of God be as you here grant the sufficient and only means both of our Conversion and Settlement as well in Truth as in Vertue S r I had no sooner written these words in that haste wherein I treat with you but I suspected a necessity of craving your pardon for supposing my Inference confirmed by your Concession For whereas you had immediately before set down the Assertion supposed to be yours about the Scriptures you adde the words now mentioned Gods Word is the sufficient and only means of our Conversion and Settlement in the Truth I did not in the least suspect that you intended any Legerdemain in the business but that the Scripture and Gods Word had been only various denominations with you of the same precise Thing as they are with us Only I confess at the first view I wondred how you could reconcile this Assertion with the known Principles of your Church and besides I knew it to be perfectly destructive of your design in your following Enquiry But now I fear you play hide and seek in the ambiguity your Church hath put upon that Title Gods Word which it hath applyed unto your unwritten Traditions as well as unto the written Word as the Jews apply the same term unto their Orall Law And therefore as I said before I crave your pardon for supposing my Inference confirmed by your Concession wherein I fear I was mistaken and only desire you that for the future you would speak your mind plainly and candidly as it becomes a Christian and Lover of Truth to do But my Assertion I esteem never the worse though it have not the happiness to enjoy your approbation especially considering that in the particular Instances mentioned there are many things delivered in Scripture inconsistent with and destructive of your notions about them sufficient to exterminate them from the Confines of the City of God 6. Suppose the matters in difference do really belong unto Religion and the worship of God and that the Difference lyes only in mens various Conceptions of them you ask Can the Scripture alone of its self decide the business What do you mean by alone of its self If you mean without mens application of themselves unto it and subjecting of their Consciences unto its Authoritative decisions neither it nor any thing else can do it The matter its self is perfectly stated in the Scripture whether any men take notice of it or no but their various apprehensions about it must be regulated by their applications unto it in the way mentioned On this only Supposition that those who are at variance about things which really appertain unto the Religion of Jesus Christ will refer the determination of them unto the Scripture and bring the Conâ—eptions of their minds to be regulated thereby standing unto its Arbitriment it is able alone and of its self to end all their differences and settle them all iu the Truth This hath been proved unto you a thousand times and confirmed by most clear Testimonies of the Scripture its self with Arguments taken from its Nature Perfection and the End of its giving forth unto men as also from the practise of our Lord Jesus and his Apostles with their directions and commands given unto us for the same Purpose from the Practise of the First Churches with innumerable Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors Neither can this be denied without that horrible Derogation from its Perfection and Plenitude so reverenced by them of old which is objected unto you for your so doing Protestants suppose the Scripture to be given forth by God to be unto the Church â—a perfect Rule of that Faith and Obedience which he requires at the hands of the sons of men They suppose that it is such a Revelation of his Mind or Will as is intelligible unto all them that are concerned to know
believed to belong to the Unity of Faith Lastly The Determinations of your Church you make to be the next efficient Cause of your Unity now these not being absolutely infallible leave it like Delos flitting up and down in the Sea of Probabilities only This we shall manifest unto you immediately at least we shall evidence that you have no cogent reasons nor slable grounds to prove your Church infallible in her Determinations At present it shall suffice to mind you that she hath Determined Contradictions and that in as eminent a manner as it is possible for her to declare her sense by namely by Councils confirmed by Popes and an infallible determination of Contradictions is not a Notion of any easie digestion in the thoughts of a man in his right wits We confess then that we cannot agree with you in your Rule of the Unity of Faith though the thing its self we press after as our Duty For 2. Protestants do not conceive this Vnity to consist in a precise Determination of all Questions that are or may be raised in or about things belonging unto the Faith whether it be made by your Church or any other way Your Thomas of Aquine who without question is the best and most sober of all your School Doctors hath in one Book given us 522 Articles of Religion which you esteem mraculously stated Quot Articuli tot Miracula All these have at least five Questions one with another stated and determined in explication of them which amount unto 2610 Conclusions in matters of Religion Now we are farre from thinking that all these Determinations or the like belong unto the Unity of Faith though much of the Religion amongst some of you lyes in not dissenting from them The Questions that your Bellarmine hath determined and asserted the Positions in them as of faith and necessary to be believed are I think neer 40 times as many as the Articles of the antient Creed of the Church and such as it is most evident that if they be of the nature and importance pretended it is impossible that any considerable number of men should ever be able to discharge their duty in this business of holding the Vnity of Faith That a man believe in generall that the holy Scripture is given by inspiration from God and that all things proposed therein for him to believe are therefore infallibly true and to be as such believed and that in particular he believe every Article or point of Truth that he hath sufficient means for his instruction in and conviction that it is so revealed they judg to be necessary unto the holding of the Unity of Faith And this also they know that this sufficiency nf means unto every one that enjoys the benefit of the Scriptures extends its self unto all those Articles of Truth which are necessary for him to believe so as that he may yield unto God the obedience that he requireth receive the holy Spirit of promise and be accepted with God Herein doth that Vnity of Faith which is amongst the Disciples of Christ in the world consist and ever did nor can do so in any thing else Nor doth that variety of Apprehensions that in many things is found among the Disciples of Christ and ever was render this Vnity like that you plead for various and incertain For the Rule and formall Reason of it namely Gods Revelation in the Scripture is still one and the same perfectly unalterable And the severall degrees that men attain uuto in their Apprehensions of it doth no more reflect a charge of variety upon it than the difference of Seeing as to the severall degrees of the sharpness or obtuseness of our bodily eyes doth upon the Light given by the Sunne The Truth is if there was any common measure of the Assents of men either as to the intension of it as it is subjectively in their minds or extension of it as it respecteth Truths revealed that belonged unto the Vnity of Faith it were impossible there should be any such thing in the world at least that any such thing should be known to be Only this I acknowledg that it is the Duty of all men to come up to the full and explicit acknowledgment of all the Truths revealed in the word of God wherein the Glory of God and the Christians Duty are concerned as also to a joynt consent in Faith objective or propositions of Truth revealed at least in things of most importance though their faith subjective or the internal assent of their minds have as it will have in severall Persons various degrees yea in the same Persons it may be at different seasons And in our labouring to come up unto this joynt-acknowledgment of the same sense and intendment of God in all revealed Truths consists our endeavour after that perfection in the Vnity of Faith which in this life is attainable as our moderation doth in our walking in peace and love with and towards others according to what we have already attained We may distinguish then between that Unity of Faith which an interest in gives Vnion with Christ unto them that hold it and Communion in Love with all equally interested therein and that Accomplishment of it which gives a sameness of Profession and consent in all acts of outward Communion in the worship of God The first is found in and amongst all the Disciples of Christ in the world where-ever they are the latter is that which moreover it is your Duty to press after The former consists in an Assent in generall unto all the Truths of God revealed in the Scripture and in particular unto them that we have sufficient means to evidence them unto us to be so revealed The latter may come under a double consideration for either there may be required unto it in them who hold it the joynt perception of and assent unto every Truth revealed in the Scripture with an equall degree of certainty in adherence and evidence in perception and it is not in this life wherein the best of us know but in part attainable or only such a concurrence in an assent unto the necessary Propositions of Truth as may enable them to hold together that outward Communion in the worship of God which we before mentioned And this is certainly attainable by the wayes and means that shall immediately be layed down And where this is there is the Vnity of Faith in that compleatness which we are bound to labour for the attainment of This the Apostolicall Churches enjoyed of old and unto the recovery whereof there is nothing more prejudiciall than your new stating of it upon the account of your Churches Proposals This Unity of Faith we judg good and necessary and that it is our Duty to press after it So also in generall do you It remains then that we consider what is the way what are the means and Principles that Protestants propose and insist upon for the attainment of it that is in answer
And that A man once rid of his Authority may as easily deride and as solidly confute the Incarnation as the Sprinkling of Holy water so resolving our faith of the Incarnation of Christ into his Authority or Testimony Yea and in the same page That if it had not been for the Pope Christ himself had not been taken in the world for any such Person as he is believed this day And p. 378. to the same purpose The first great fundamental of Christian Religion which is the Truth and Divinity of Christ had it not been for him had failed long ago in the world with much more to the same purpose Hence it is evident that in your judgment all Truth and Certainty in Region depends on the Popes Anthority and Infallibility or as you express it his unerring guidance This is your Principle this you propose as the only medium to bring us unto that Settlement in Religion which you suppose the Scripture is not able to do What course should we now take would you have us believe you at the first word without further triall or examination would you have a man to do so who never before heard of Pope or Church We are commanded to try all things and to hold fast that which is good to try pretending Spirits and the Beraeans are commended for examining by the Scripture what Paul himself preached unto them An implicit Credulity given up to such Dictates is the height of Fanaticism Have wee not reason then to call you and your copartners in this design to an accoun â—how you prove that which you so strenuously assert and suppose and to examine the Principles of that Authority whereunto you resolve all your faith and Religion If upon mature consideration these prove Solid and the Inferences you make from them Cogent it is good Reason that you should be attended unto If they prove otherwise if the first be false and the latter Sophistical you cannot justly take it ill of him that shall advise you to take heed that whilest you are gloriously displaying your Colours the ground that you stand upon do not sink under your feet And here you are forced to go many a step backward to fix your first footing untill you leave your Pope quite out of sight from whence you advance towards him by severall degrees and so arive at his Supremacie and Infallibility and so we shall have Reditum Diomedis ab interitu Meleagri 1. Your first Principle to this purpose is That Peter was the Prince of the Apostles and that in him the Lord Jesus founded a Monarchy in his Church So pag. 360. you call him the head and Prince of the whole Congregation Now this wee think no meet Principle for any one to begin withall in asserting the foundation of Faith and Religion Nor do we think that if it were meet so to be used that it is any way subservient unto your design and purpose 1. A Principle fundamental or first entrance into any way of Settlement in Faith or Religion it cannot possibly be because it presupposeth the knowledg of and assent unto many other great fundamental Articles of Christian Religion yea upon the matter all that are so For before you can rationally talk with a man about Peters Principality and the Monarchical state of the Church hereon depending you must suppose that he believes the Scripture 〈◊〉 be the Word of God and all things that are taught therein concerning Jesus Christ his Person Nature Offices Work and Gospell to be certainly and infallibly true for they are all supposed in your Assertion which without the knowledg of them is uncouth horrid insignificant and forraign to all notions that a man can rationally entertain of God or Religion Nay no attempt of proof or confirmation can be given unto it but by and from Scripture whereby you fall directly into the Principle which you seek so carefully to avoid namely that the Scripture is the only way and means of setling us in the Truth since you cannot settle any man in the very first proposition which you make to lead him into another way but by the Scripture So powerfull is Truth that those who will not follow it willingly it will lead them captive in Triumph whether they will or no. 2. It is unmeet for any purpose because it is not true No one word from the Scripture can you produce in its confirmation wherein yet if it be not revealed it must pass as a very uncertain and frivolous conjecture You can produce no suffrage of the Ancient Church unto your purpose which yet if you could would not presently render any Assertion so confirmed infallibly certain much less fundamental Some indeed of the 4 th Century call Peter Principem Apostolorum but explain themselves to intend thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first or Leader not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince or Ruler And when the ambiguity of that word began to be abused unto pretensions of Preeminence the Council of Carthage expresly condemned it allowing none to be termed Princeps Sacerdotum Many in those dayes thought Peter to be among the Apostles like the Princeps Senatus or Princeps Civi atis the chief in their Assemblies or Principall in dignity how truly I know not but that he should be amongst them and over them a Prince in Office a Monarch as to Rule and Power is a thing that they never once dreamed of and the Asseveration of it is an open untruth The Apostles were equall in their Call Office Place Dignity Employments All the difference between them was in their Labours Sufferings and Success wherein Paul seems to have had the pre-eminence who as Peter and all the rest of the Apostles every one singly and for himself had the care of all the Churches committed unto him thought it may be for the better discharge of their Duty ordinarily they divided their work as they found it necessary for them to apply themselves unto it in particular See 2 Cor. 11. And this equality between the Apostles is more than once insinuated by Paul and that with speciall reference unto Peter 1 Cor. 1. Gal. 1. 18 19. ch 2. 9. And is it not wonderfull that if this Assertion should not only be true but such a Truth as on which the whole faith of the Church was to be built that the Scripture should be utterly silent of it that it should give us no Rules about it no directions to use and improve it afford us no one instance of the exercise of the Power and Authority intimated no not one but that on the contrary it should lay down Principles exclusive of it Matth. 22. 25 26. Luk. 22. 26. And when it comes to make an enumeration of all the Offices appointed by Christ in his Church Eph. 4. 11. should pass over the Prince and his Office in silence on which all the rest were to depend You see what a Foundation you begin to build upon a meer
for our Saviour tells us in the next words that the world cannot receive him that is men of the world carnally minded men cannot do so for he is the peculiar inheritance of those that are called sanctified and do believe Now if ever there was any world in the world any of the world in the earth some many of your Popes have been so and therefore by the testimony of Christ could not receive the Spirit that he promised unto his Church Again it is promised unto the Church Mysticall or Catholick in the first and chiefest notion of it that all her children shall be holy all taught of God and all that are so taught as our Saviour informs us come to him by saving faith you will not I am sure for shame affirm that this Promise hath been made good to all either Children or Fathers of your Church Innumerable other Promises made to the Catholick Church may be instanced in which you can no better or otherwise apply unto your Church than one of your Popes did that of the Psalmist to himself Thou shalt tread on the Lion and the Basilisk when he set his foot on the neck of Fredrick the Emperour But the Arguments are endless whereby the vanity of this pretence may be disproved I shall only adde Sixtly That it is contrary to all Story Reason and common sense For it is notorious that far the greatest part of Christians that belong to the Catholick Church of Christ of have done so from the dayes that Christianity first entred the world successively in all Ages never thought themselves any otherwise concerned in the Roman Church than in any other particular Church of name in the world And is it not a madness to exclude them all from being Christians or belonging to the Catholick Church because they belonged not to the Roman This I could easily demonstrate throughout all Ages of the Church successively But we need not insist longer on the disproving of that Assertion which implyes a flat Contradiction in the very terms of it If any Church be the Catholick it cannot therefore be the Roman and if it be the Roman properly it cannot therefore be the Catholick 2. If you shall say that you mean only that you are a Particular Church of Christ but yet that or such a Particular Church as hath the great Priviledges of Infallibility and universall Authority annexed unto it which makes it of necessity for all men to submit unto it and to acquiesce in its Determinations I answer 1. I fear you will not say so you will not I fear renounce your claim unto Catholicism I have already observed that your self in particular affirm the Roman and Catholick Church to be one and the same It is not enough for you that you belong any way to the Church of Christ but you plead that none do so but your selves 2. Indeed you do not own your selves in this very Assertion to be a Particular Church your claim of Universall Authority and Jurisdiction which you still carry along with you is inconsistent with any such concession 3. To make the best of it that we can what ground have you to give us this Difference between the Churches of Christ that one is fallible another infallible that one hath power over all the rest that one depends on Christ all the rest on that one where is the least intimation given of any such thing in the Scripture where or by whom is it expresly asserted amongst the Antient Writers of the Church Was this Principle pleaded or once asserted in any of the Antient Councels Some ambiguous expressions of particular Persons most of them Bishops of Rome in the declining days of the Church you produce indeed unto this purpose But can any rationall man think them a sufficient foundation of that stupendious fabrick which you endeavour to erect upon them I suppose you will not find any such Persons hasty in their so doing Those who are already engaged will not be easily recovered For new Proselytes unto these Principles you have small ground to expect any unless it be of Persons whose lives are either tainted with sensuality which they would gladly have a refuge for against the accusations of their Consciences or whose minds are entangled with worldly secular advantages suited to their conditions tempers and inclinations Thus I have with what briefness I could shewed you the uncertainty indeed falsness of those Generall Principles from which you educe all your other pleas and reasonings into which they must be resolved And now I pray consider the ground-work you lay for the bringing of men unto a Settlement in the Truth and unto the unity of Faith in opposition to the Scripture which you reject as insufficient unto this purpose The summe of it is an acquiesceney in the proposals and Determinations of your Church as to all things that concern faith and the worship of God The two main Principles that concurre unto it we have apart considered and have found them every way insufficient for the end proposed Neither have they one jot more of strength when they are complicated and blended together as they usually are by you than they have in and of themselves as they stand singly on their own bottoms A thousand falshoods put together will be farre enough from making one Truth A multiplication of them may encrease a Sophism but not adde the least weight or strength to an Argument An army of Cripples will not make one sound man And can you think it reasonable that we should renounce our sure and firm Word of Prophecy to attend unto you in this chase of uncertain Conjectures and palpable untruths Suppose this were a way that would bring you and us to an Agreement and take away the evil of our Differences I can name you twenty that would do it as effectually and they should none of them have any evil in them but only that whch yours also is openly guilty of namely the Relinquishment of our Duty towards God and Care of our own Souls to come to some peace amongst our selves in this world which would be nothing else but a plain Conspiracy against Jesus Christ and rejection of his Authority At present I shall say no more but that he who is lead into the Truth by so many Errors and is brought unto establishments by so many uncertainties hath singular success and such as no other man hath reason to look for Or he is like Robert Duke of Normandy who when he caused the Saracens to carry him into Jerusalem sent word unto his friends in Europe that he was carried into Heaven on the backs of Devils It may also in particular be easily made to appear how unsuited your means of bringing men unto the unity of faith are unto that Supposition of the present Differences in Religion between you and us which you proceed upon For suppose a man be convinced that many things taught by your Church are false and contrary to the
satisfaction the things which they do believe and let men be esteemed to beleive and to have attained degrees in the faith according as they are taught of God with an allowance for every ones measure of means light grace gifts which are not things in our own Power and we shall be nearer unto quietness than most men imagine When Christians had any unity is the world the Bible alone was thought to contain their Religion and every one endeavoured to learn the mind of God out of it both by their own endeavours and as they were instructed therein by their guides neither did they pursue this work with any other end but only that they might be strengthened in their faith and hope and learn to serve God and obey him that so they might come to the blessed enjoyment of him Nor will there ever I fear be again any Unity among them untill things are reduced to the same state and condition But among all the vanities that the minds of men are exercised with in this world there is none to be compared unto that of their hoping and endeavouring to bring all Persons that profess the Religion of Jesus Christ to acquiesce in the same opinions about all particulars which are any way determined to belong thereunto especially considering how endlesly they are multiplied and branched into instances such for ought appears the first Churches took little or no notice of nay neither knew nor understood any thing of them in the sense and termes wherin they are now proposed as a tessera of Communion among Christians In a word leave Christian Religion unto its primitive Liberty wherein it was beleived to be revealed of God and that Revelation of it to be contained in the Scripture which men searched and studied to become themselves and to teach others to be wise in the knowledg of God and living unto him and the most of the Contests that are in the world will quickly vanish and disappear But whilest every one hath a Confession a Way a Church and its Authority which must be imposed on all others or else he cryes to his nearest relations Lupis agnis quanta sortito obtigit Tecum mihi discordia est We may look for peace Moderation and Vnity when we are here no more and not sooner So that III. If those Theologicall Determinations that make up at this day amongst some men the greatest part of those Assertions Positions or Propositions which are called Articles of Faith or Truth which are not delivered in the words that the Spirit of God teacheth but in termes of Art and in Answer unto Rules and Notions which the world might happily without any great disadvantage been unacquainted withall unto this day had not Aristotle found them out or stumbled on them might be eliminated from the City of God and Communion of Christians and left for men to exercise their wits about who have nothing else to do and the Doctrine of Truth which is according unto Godliness left unto that Noble Heavenly Spirituall generous amplitude wherein it was delivered in the Scripture and beleived in the first Churches innumerable Causes of strife and Contentions would be taken away but ferri video meà gaudia ventis small hopes have I to see any such impression and consent to besall the minds of concerned men and yet I must confess I have not one jot more of the reuniting the Disciples of Christ in love and concord But most men that profess any thing of Divinity have learned it as an Art or humane Science out of the road compass and track where of they know nothing of the mind of God nay many scarce know the things in themselves and as they are to be believed which they are passing skilfull in as they are expressed in their arbitrary termes of Art which none almost understand but themselves And is it likely that such men who are not a few in the world will let go their skill and knowledge and with them their repntation and advantage and to sacrifice them all to the peace and agreement that we are seeking after Some learn their Divinity out of the late and Modern Schools both in the Reformed and Papall Church in both which a Science is proposed under that name consisting in a farrago of Credible Propositions asserted in termes suited unto that Philosophy that is variously predominant in them What a kind of Theology this hath praduced in the Papacy Agricola Erasmus Vives Jansenius with innumerable other Learned men of your own have sufficiently declared And that it hath any better success in the Reformed Churches many things which I shall not now instance in give me cause to doubt Some boast themselves to learn their Divinity from the Fathers and say they depart not from their sense and idiome of expression in what they beleive and profess But we find by experience that what for want of wisedom and judgement in themselves what for such reasons taken from the writings which they make their Oracles which I shall not insist upon much of the Divinity of some of these men consists in that which to avoid provocation I shall not express Whilest men are thus preing aged it will be very hard to prevail with them to think that the greatest part of their Divinity is such that Christian Religion either as to the matter or at least as to that mode wherein alone they have imbibed it is little or not at all concerned in nor will it be easie to perswade them that it is a Mystery layed up in the Scripture and all true Divinity a Wisedom in the Knowledg of that Mystery and skill to live unto God accordingly without which as I said before we shall have no Peace or agreement in this world Nobis curiositate opus non est post Jesum Christum nec inquisitione post Evangelium sayes Tertullian Curiosity after the Doctrine of Christ and Philosophicall inquisitions in Religion after the Gospel belongs not unto us As we are IV. It were well if Christians would but seriously consider what and how many things they are wherein their present Apprehensions of the mind and will of God do center and agree I mean as to the substance of them their nature and importance and how far they will lead men in the wayes of pleasing God and coming to the enjoyment of him Were not an endeavour to this purpose impeded by many mens importunate cryes of all or none as good nothing at all as not every thing and that in this or that way mode or fashion it might not a litlle conduce to the Peaâ—e of Christendom And I must acknowledg unto you that I think it is prejudice Carnall interest love of Power and present enjoyments with other Secular Advantages joyned with Pride Self-will and contempt of others that keep the professours of Christianity from conspiring to improve this Consideration But God help us we are all for Partyes and our own exact being in the right and therein
the only Church of Christ in the earth at least that others are so only so far as they agree with us we being our selves the Rule and Standard of all Gospell Church state laying weight upon what we differ from others in for the most part exceedingly above what it doth deserve Were the Same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus the same frame of spirit that was in his blessed Apostles we should be willing to try the effects of his love and care towards all that profess his Name by a Sedate Consideration at least how far he hath instructed them in the knowledg of his will and what effects this learning of him may produce And to tell you truly I do not think there is a more horrid monster in the earth than that opinion is which in the great diversity that there is among Christians in the world includes happiness and Salvation within the limits and precincts of any party of them as though Christ and the Gospell their own faith obedience and sufferings could not possibly do them any good in their station and condition This is that Alâ—cto Cuitristia bella Iraque insidiaeque crimina noxia Cordi Odit ipse pater Plâ—ton odere sorores Tartareae Monstrum Tot sese vertit in ora Tam saevae facies tot pullulat atra Colubris Whereever this opinion takes place which indeed bidâ— defiance to the Goodness of God and the blood of Christ with a Gigantick boldness for men to talk of Moderation Vnity and Peace is to mock others and to befool themselves in things of the greatest importance in the world altera manu ostentant panem alter a lapidem ferunt for my own part I have not any firmer perâ—wasion in and about these things nor that yields more satisfaction and contentment unto my mind in reflections upon it than this that if a man sincerely beleive all that and only that wherein all Christians in the world agree and yield obedience unto God according to the guidance of what he doth so beleive not neglecting or refusing the knowledg of any one Truth that he hath sufficient means to be instructed â— he need not go unto any Church in the world to secure his Salvation Hic murus aheneus esto It is true it is the Duty of such a man to joyn himself unto some Church of Christ or other which walks in professed subjection unto his institutions and in the observation of his appointments But to think that his not being of or joyning with this or that Society should out him off from all hopes of a blessed eternity is but to entertain a viper in our minds or to act suitably to the Principles of the old Serpent and to put â—orth the venome of of his poyson Some of the Antients indeed tell us that out of the Catholick Church there is no Salvation And so say I also buâ— withall that the beleif mentioned of the Truths generally embraced by Christians in their present divisions in the world I still speak of the most famous and numerous Societies of them and its profession do so constitute a man a member of the Catholick Church that whilest he walks answerably to his profession it is not in the power of this or that no not of all the Churches in the world to divest him of that Priviledge Nor can all these cryes that are in the world We are the Church and we are the Church you are not the Church and you are not the Church perswade me but that as every Assembly in the generall notion of it is a Chorch so every Assembly of Christians that ordinarlly meet to worship God in Christ according to his appointment is a Church of Christ Haec mi pater Te dicere aequum fuit id defendere when you talked of Moderation and Unity such Principles as these had better become you than those which you either privately couched in your Discourse or openly insisted on Men that think of Reducing unity among Christians upon the precise terms of that Truth which they suppose themselves insolidum possessors of Ipsi fibe somnia fingunt do but entertain themselves with pleasant dreams which a little Consideration may awake them from Charity condescension a retrenchment of opinions with a rejection of secular interests and a design for the pursuit of generall obedience without any such respect to the Particular enclousures which diversity of opinions and different measures of Light and Knowledge have made in the field of the Lord as should confine the effects of any Duty towards the Disciples of Christ unto those within them with the like actings of minds suited unto the example of Jesus Christ must introduce the desired Vnity or wee shall expect it in vain These are some of my hasty thoughts upon the Principles of Protestants before mentioned which you and others may make use of as you and they please In the mean time I shall pray that we may amidst all our Differences love one another pray for one another wait patiently for the communication of farther Light unto one another leave evil surmizes and much more the condemning and seeking the ruine of those that dissent from us which men usually do on various pretences most of them false and coyned for the present purpose And when we can arrive thereunto I shall hope that from such generall Principles aâ— before mentioned somewhat may be advanced towards the Peace of Christians and that there will be so when the whole concernment of Religion shall in the Providence of God be unravelled from that worldly and secular interest wherewith it hath been wound up and entangled for sundry Ages and when men shall not be ingaged from their cradles to their graves in a precipitate Zeal for any Church or way of Profession by outward Advantages inseparably mixed and blended with it before they came into the world In the mean time to expect unity in profession by the Reduction of all men to a precise agreement in all the Doctrines that have been and are ventilated among Christians and in all Acts and wayes of worship is to refer the Supream and last Determination of things evangelical to the sword secular power and violence and to inscribe vox ultima Christi upon great guns and other engines of war seing otherwise it will not be effected and what may be done this way I know not Sponte tonat coeunt ipsae sine flamine nubesâ— CHAP. 10. Further Vindication of the second Chapter of the Animadversions the remaining Principles of Fiat Lux considered IT is time to return and put an end unto our review of those Principles which I observed your Discourse to be built upon The next as laid down in the Animadversions p. 103. is That the Pope is a good man one that seeks nothing but our good that never did us harm but hath the Care and inspectirn of us committed unto him by Christ. In the Repetition hereof you leave out all
destructive in your reception unto all that reason and sense whereby we are and know that we are men and live But suppose your prejudice and partial addiction unto your way and faction may be allowed to countenance you in this monstrous comparing and coupling of things together like his who Mortua jungehat corpora vivis is your inference from your enquiry any other but this that the Scripture setting aside the Authority of your Church is of no use to instruct men in the Truth 〈◊〉 all things are alike uncertain unto all And 〈◊〉 you farther manifest to be your meaning in your following enquiries See say you if the Jew do not with as much plaufibility deride Christ as you his Church And would you could see what it is to be a zealot in a faction or would learn to deal candidly and honestly in things wherein your own and the souls of other men are concerned Who is it amongst us that derides the Church of Christ Did Elijah deride the Temple at Jerusalem when he opposed the Priests of Baal or must every one presently be judged to deride the Church of Christ who opposeth the corruptions that the Roman faction have endeavoured to bring into that part of it wherein for some ages they have prevailed What Plausibility yon have found out in the Jews derision of Christ I know not I know some that are as conversant in their writings at least as you seem to have been who affirm that your arguings and revilings are utterly destitute of all plausibility and tolerable pretence But men must have leave to say what they please when they will be talking of they know not what as is the case with you when by any chance you stumble on the Jews or their concernments This is that which for the present you would perswade men unto That the Arguments of the Jews against Christ are as good as those of Protestants against your Church credat Apella Of the same nature with these is the remainder of your Instances and Queries You suppose that a man may have as good reasons for the denyal of Hell as Purgatory of Gods Providence and the Souls Immortality as of any piece of Popery and then may not want appearing incongruities tautologies improbabilities to disenable all Holy Writ at once This is the condition of the man who disbelieves any thing proposed by your Church nor in that state is he capable of any relief Fluctuate he must in all uncertainties Truth and error are all one unto him and he hath as good grounds for the one as the other But Sir pray what serves the Scripture for all this while Will it afford a man no Light no Guidance no Direction Was this quite out of your mind or did you presume your Reader would not once cast his thoughts towards it for his relief in that maze of uncertainties which you endeavour to cast him into or dare you manage such an impeachment of the wisdom and goodness of God as to affirm that that Revelation of himself which he hath graciously afforded unto men to reach them the knowledge of himself and to bring them to settlement and assurance therein is of no use or validity to any such purpose The Holy Ghost tells us that the Scripture is profitable for doctrine and instruction able to make the man of God perfect and us all wise unto salvation that the sure Word of Prophecy where unto he commands us to attend is a light shining in a dark place directs us to search into it that we may come to the acknowledgement of the Truth sending us unto it for our settlement affirming that they who speak not according to the Law and the Testimonies have no light in them He assures us that the word of God is a light unto ou◠feet and his Law perfect converting the soul That it is able to build us up and to give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified that the things in it are written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his name See also Luke 16. 29 31. Psal. 19. 18. 2 Pet. 1 19. John 5. 39. Rom. 15. 4. Heb. 4. 12. Is there no truth in all this and much more that is affirmed to the same purpose or are you surprized with this mention of it as Caesar Borgia was with his sickness at the death of his father Pope Alexander which spoiled all his designs and made him cry that he had never thought of it and so had not provided against it Do you not know that a volume might be filled with Testimonies of antient fathers bearing witness to the sufficiency and efficacy of the Scripture for the settlement of the minds of men in the knowledge of God and his worship Doth not the experience of all Ages of all places in the world render your Sophistry contemptible are there not were there not millions of Christians alwayes who either knew not or regarded not or openly rejected the Authority of your Church and disbelieved many of her present proposals who yet were and are stedfast and in moveable in the faith of Christ and willingly seal the Truth of it with their dearest blood But if neither the Testimony of God himself in the Scriptures nor the concurrent suffrage of the antient Church nor the experience of to many thousands of the Disciples of Christ is of any moment with you I hope you will not take it amiss if I look upon you as one giving in your self as signal an Instance of the power of prejudice and partial addiction to a party and interest as a man can well meet withall in the world This discourse you tell me in your close you have bestowed upon me in a way of supererogation wherein you deal with us as you do with God himself The Duties he expresly by his commands requireth at your hands you pass by without so much as takeing notice of some of them and others as those of the second Command you openly reject offering him somewhat of your own that he doth not require by the way as you barbarously call it of Supererogation and so here you have passed over in silence that which was incumbent on you to have replyed unto if you had not a mind vadimonium deserere to give over the defence of that Cause you had undertaken and in the room thereof substitute this needless and useless diversion by the way as you say of Supererogation But yet because you were to free of your Charity before you had payed your debts as to bestow it upon me I was not unwilling to require your kindness and have therefore sent it you back again with that acknowledgement of your favour where with it is now attended CHAP. 13. Faith and Charity of Roman Catholicks YOur following Discourse pag. 44 45. is spent partly in the Commendation of your Fiat Lux and the Metaphysical abstracted scourses of
over the flocks but Ministers of their faith By these are the flocks of Christ governed as by shepherds appointed by him the great Bishop and Shepherd of their souls according to the Rules by him prescribed for the rule of the one and obedience of the other But if by governed by another man you mean absolutely supreamly at his will and pleasure then we deny that any Disciple of Christ is in the things of God so to be governed by any man and affirm that to assert it is to cast down Jesus Christ from his Throne But you say if he be not immediate head unto all but Ministers head the people and Christ heads the Ministers this in effect is nothing but to make every Minister a Bishop Why do you not plainly say what it is more then manifest you would have All this while you heed no more the Laws of the Land then constitutions of the Gospel Answ. I have told you how Christ is the immediate Head unto all and yet how he hath appointed others to preside in his Churches under him and that this should infer an equality in all that are by him appointed to that work is most senseless to imagine nor did I in the least intimate any such thing but only that therefore there was no need of any one supream head of the whole Catholick Church nor any place or room left for such an one without the deposition of Christ himself Because the King is the only supream Head of all his people doth it therefore follow that if he appoint Constables to rule in every parish with that allotment of power which by his Laws he gives unto them and Justices of Peace to rule over them in an whole County that therefore every Constable in effect is a Justice of Peace or that there is a sameness in their office Christ is the head of every man that is in the Church be he Bishop or Minister or private man and when the Ministers are said to head the people or the Bishops to head them the expression is improper an inferiour Ministerial subordinate rule being expressed by the name of that which is supream and absolute or they head them not absolutely but in some respect only as every one of them dischargeth the Authority over and towards them wherewith he is intrusted This assertion of Christs sole absolute Headship and denial of any Monarchical state in the Church Catholick but what ariseth from thence doth not as every child may see concern the difference that is about the superiority of Bishops to Ministers or Presbyters For notwithstanding this there are degrees in the Ministry of the Church and several orders of men are engaged therein and whatever there are there might have been more had it seemed to our good Lord Christ to appoint them And whatever order of men may be supposed to be instituted by him in his Church he must be supposed to be the Head of them all and they are all to serve him in the Duties and Offices that they have to discharge towards the Church and one another This headship of Christ is the thing that you are to oppose and its exclusiveness to the substitution of an absolute Head over the whole Catholick Church in his place because of his bodily absence from the earth But this you cast out of sight and instead thereof fall upon the equality of Bishops and Ministers which no way ensues thereon Both Bishops and Presbyters agreeing well enough in the Truth we assert and plead for This you say is contrary to the Gospel and the Law of the Land What is I pray that Christ is the only absolute Head of the Catholick Church No but that Bishops and Ministers are in effect all one But what is that to your purpose will it advantage your Cause what way ever that problem be determined Was any occasion offered you to discourse upon that Question Nay you perceive well enough your self that this is nothing at all to your design and therefore in your following discourse you double and sophisticate making it evident that either you understand not your self what you say or that you would not have others understand you or that you confound all things with a design to deceive for when you come to speak of the Gospel you attempt to prove the appointment of one supream Pastor to the whole Catholick Church and by the Law of the Land the Superiority of Bishops over Ministers as though these things were the same or had any relation one to another whereas we have shewed the former in your sense to be destuctive to the latter Truth never put any man upon such subter fuges and I hope the difficulties that you find your self perplexed withall may direct you at length to find that there is a deceit in your right hand But let us hear your own words As for the Gospel the Lord who had been visible Governour and Pastor of his flock on earth when he was now to depart hence as all the Apostles expected one to be chosen to succeed him in his care so did he notwithstanding his own invisible presence and providence over his flock publickly appoint one And when he taught them that he who was greatest among them should be as the least he did not deny but suppose one greater and taught in one and the same breath both that he was over them and for what he was over them namely to feed not to tyrannize not to domineer and hurt but to direct comfort and conduct his flock in all humility and tenderness as a servant of all their spiritual necessities and if a Bishâ—p be otherwise affected it is the fault of his Person not his place And what is it that you would prove hereby is it that Bishops are above Ministers which in the words immediately foregoing you asserted and in those next ensuing confirm from the Law of the Land is there any tendency in your Discourse towards any such purpose Nay do not your self know that what you seek to insinuate namely the instiâ—ution of one supream Pastor of the whole Catholick Church one of the Apostles to be above and ruler over all the rest of the Apostles and the whole Church besides is perfectly destructive of the Hierarchy of Bishops in England as established by Law and also at once casting down the main if not only foundation that they plead for their station and order from the Gospel For all Prelate Protestants as you call them assert an equality in all the Apostles and a superiority in them to the 70. Disciples whence by a parity of reason they conclude unto he superiority of Bishops over Ministers to be continued in the Church And are you not a fair Advocate for your Cause and well meet for the reproving of others for not consenting unto them But waving that which you little câ—re for and are not at all concerned in let us see how you prove that which we know you
your selves to wave I should have wholly passed by this discourse unto which no occasion was administred in the Animadversions but now as you have hanâ—dled the matter unless I would have it taken for granted that the Principles of the Roman Church are more suited unto the establishment and promotion of the interest and Soveraignty of Kings and other supream Magistrates and in particular the Kings of these Nations then those of Protestants which in Truth I do not believe I must of necessity make a little further enquiry into your Discourse And I desire your pardon if in my so doing any thing be spoken that suits not so well your interest and designs neither expecting nor desiring any if ought be delivered by me not according to Truth To make our way the more clear some of the ambiguous expressions which you make use of to cloud and hide your intention in your enquiry after the Head of the Church must be explained 1. By the Church you understand not this or that particular Church not the Church of this of that Nation Kingdom or Countrey but the whole Catholick Church throughout the world And when you have explained your self to this purpose you endeavour by six Arguments no less p. 67 68. to prove that no King ever was or can be Head of it He said well of old In causa facili quemvis licet esse disertum I wonder you contented your self to give us six Reasons only and that you proceeded not at least unto the high hills of eighteenthly and nineteenthly that you talk of in your Fiat Lux where you scoff at the preaching of Presbyterians it may be you will scarely ever obtain such another opportunity of shewing the fertility of your invention So did he florish who thought himself secure from adversaries Caâ—ut altum in praelia tollit Ostenditque humeros latos alternaque jactat Brachia protendens verberat ictibus auras But you do like him you only beat the ayre Do you think any man was ever so distempered as to dream that any King whatever could be the absolute Head of the whole Catholick Church of Christ we no more think any King in any sence to be the Head of the Catholick Church then we think the Pope so to be The Roman Empire was at its hight and glory when first Christianity set forth in the world and had extended its bounds beyond those of any Kingdom that arose before it or that hath since succeeded unto it And yet within a very few years after the Resurrection of Christ the Gospel had diffused it self beyond the limits of that Empire among the Parthians and Indians and unto Britannorum Romanis inaccessa loca as Tertullian calls them Now none ever supposed that any King had power or Authority of any sort in reference unto the Church or any members of it without or beyond the precise limits of his own Dominions The Enquiry we have under Consideration about the Power of Kings and the obedience due unto them in Ecclesiastical things is limited absolutely unto their own Kingdoms and unto those of their subjects which are Christians in them And this Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu concussa quiescunt A little observation of this one known and granted Principle renders not only your six Reasons altogether useless but surpersedes also a great part of your Rhetorick which under the ambiguity of that expression you display in your whole Discourse Secondly You pleasantly lead about your unwary Reader with the ambiguity of the other term the Head Hence p. 58. you fall into a great exclamation against Protestants that acknowledging the King to be the Head of the Church they do not supplicate unto him and acquiesce in his judgement in Religious affairs as if ever any Protestant acknowledged any King or any mortal man to be such an Head of the Church as you fancy to your selves in whose determinations in Religion all men are bound spiritually and as to their eternal concernments to acquiesce and that not because they are true according to the Scripture but because they are his Such an Head you make the Pope such an one on earth all Procestants deny which evacuates your whole Discourse to that purpose p. 58 59. It is true in opposition unto your Papal claim of Authority and Jurisdiction over the subjects of this Kingdom Protestants do assert the King to be so Head of the Church within his own Realms and Dommions as that he is by Gods appointment the sole fountain and spring amongst men of all Authority and Power to be exercised over the Persons of his subjects in matters of external cognizance and order being no way obnoxious to the direction supervisorship and superintendency of any other in particular not of the Pope He is not only the only striker as you phrase it in his Kingdoms but the only Protector under God of all his subjects and the only Distributor of Justice in rewards and punishments unto them not depending in the administration of the one or other on the determinations or orders of your Pope or Church Not that any of them do use absolutely that expression of Head of the Church but that they ascribe unto him all Authority that ought or can be exercised in his Dominions over any of his Subjects whither in things Civil or Ecclesiastical that are not meerly Spiritual and to be ministerially ordered in obedience unto Christ Jesus And that you may the better see what it is that Protestants ascribe unto the King and to every King that is Absolutely supream as his Majesty is in his own Dominions and withall how exceeding vain your unreasonable reproach is which you cast upon them for not giving themselves up unto an absolute acquiescency in humane determinations as meerly such on pretence that they proceed from the Head of the Church I shall give you a brief account of their thoughts in this whole matter First They say that the King is the supream Governor over all Persons whatever within his Realms and Dominions none being exempted on any account from subjection unto his Regal Authority How well you approve of this Proposition in the great astignations you pretend unto Kingly power we shall afterwards enquire Protestants found their perswasion in this matter on the Authority of the Scripture both Old Testament and New and the very Principles constituting Soveraign Power amongst men You speak fair to Kings but at first dash exempt a considerable number of their born subjects owing them indispensible natural Allegiance from their jurisdiction Or this sort are the Clergy But the Kings of Judah of old were not of your mind Solomon certainly thought Abiathar though High Priest subject to his Royal Authority when he denounced against him a sentence of death and actually deposed him from the Priest hood The like course did his successors proceed in For neither had God in the first provision he made for a
Platin. vita Gregor 6. Sigon de Reg. lib. 8. From that time forward untill the Reformation no one age can be instanced in wherein great open and signal opposition was not made unto the Papal Authority which you seek again to introduce The instances already given are sufficient to convince the vanity of your pretence that never any opposition was made unto it Of the same nature is that which you nextly affirm of all the Bishops and Priests of Africa Egypt Syria Thrace Greece and all the Christian world by an hundred experiments acknowledging the supream spiritual Authority of the Roman Patriarch I must I see still mind you of what it is that you are to speak unto It is not the Patriarchate of your Pope with the Authority Priviledges and preheminences which by virtue thereof he layes claim unto but his singular succession to Christ and Peter in the absolute Headship of the whole Catholick Church that you are treating about Now supposing you may be better skilled in the affairs of the Eastern Church then for ought as I can yet perceive you are in those of the Western let me crave this favour of you that you would direct me unto one of those hundred experiments whereby the acknowledgment you mention preceding the Conversion of the Nothern Nations may be confirmed It will I confess unto you be a singular kindness seeing I know not where to find any one of that nature within the time limited noâ— to tell you the Truth since unto this day For I suppose you will not imagine that the faigned Prosessions of subjection which poverty and hopes of supplies from the Court of Rome hath extorted of late from some few mean persons whose Titles only were of any Consideration in the world will deserve any place in this disquisition Untill you are pleased therefore to favour me with your information I must abide in my ignorance of any such experiments as those which you intimate The Artifices I confess of your Popes in former dayes to draw men especially in the Eastern Church to an acknowledgement of that Authority which in their several seasons they claimed have been many and their success various Sometimes they obtained a seeming compliance in some and sometimes they procured their Authors very shrewd rebukes It may not be amiss to recount some of them 1. Upon all occasions they set forth themselves the dignity and preheminence of your See with swelling Encomiums and Titles asserting their own Primacy and Power Such self assumings are many of the old Papal Epistles stuffed withall A sober humble Christian cannot but nauseate at the reading of them For it is easily discernable how Antievangelical such Courses are and how unbecoming all that pretend themselves to be Disciples of Jesus Christ from these are their chiefest Testimonies in this Case taken and we may say of them all they bear witness to themselves and that contrary to the Scripture and their witness is not true 2. When and wherever such Letters and Epistles as proclaimed their Priviledges have been admitted through the inadvertency of Modesty of them to whom they were sent unwilling to quarrel with them about the good opinion which they had of themselves which kind of entertainment they yet sometimes met not withall the next successors allwayes took for granted and pleaded what their predecessours had presumptuously broached as that which of right and unquestionably belonged unto them And this they made sure of that they would never lose any ground or take any one step backwards from what any of them had advanced unto 3. Wherever they heard of any difference among Bishops they were still imposing their Vmpirage upon them which commonly by the one or other of the parties at variance to ballance thereby some disadvantages that they had to wrestle withall was admitted yea sometimes they would begin to take part with them that were openly in the wrong even Hereticks themselves that they might thereby procure an address to them from others which afterwards they would interpret as an express of their subjection And wherever their Vmpirage was admitted they were never wanting to improve their own interest by it like the old Romans who being chosen to determine a Controversie between other People about some lands adjudged them unto themselves 4. If any Person that was really injured or pretended so to be made any Address unto them for any kind of Relief immediately they laid hold of their Address as an Appeal to their Authority and acted in their behalf accordingly though they were sometimes chidden for their pains and advised to meddle with what they had to do withall 5. Did any Bishops of note write them Letters of respect presently in their rescripts they return them thanks for their profession of subjection to the See Apostolick so supposing them to do that which in truth they did not they promise to do for them that which they never desired and by both made way for the enlargment of the confines of their own authority 6. Where any Prince or Emperour was entangled in his affairs they were still ready to crush them into that condition of trouble from whence they could not be delivered but by their assistance or to make them believe that their adherence unto them was the only means to preserve them from ruine and so procured their suffrage unto their Authority Unto these and the like heads of Corrupt and sinful Artifices may the most of the Testimonies commonly pleaded for the Popes Supremacy be referred By such wayes and means hath it been erected Yet far enough from any such prevalency for seven hundred years as to afford us any of the experiments which you boast of The next thing you except against in my story is my affirming that Austin the Monk who came hither from Rome was a man as far as appears by story the little acquainted with the Gospel In the repetition of which words to keep your hand in ure you leave out that expression as far as appears by the story which is the evidence whereunto I appeal for the Truth of my Assertion and add to aggravate the matter the word very very little and then add here is the thanks that good St. Austin hath who out of his love and kindness entred upon the wild forrest of our Paganism with great hazards and inexpressible sufferings of hunger cold and other corporal inconveniencies But in the place you except against I acknowledge that God made him a special instrument in bringing the Scripture or Gospel amongst us which I presume also he declared according to the light and ability which he had But you are your own Mothers Son nothing will serve your turn but absolute most pure and perfect For what I have further intimated of him there are sundry things in the History of his coming hither and proceedings here that warrant the suggestion The Questions that he sent for Resolution unto Gregory at Rome discover what manner of man he
was Let a man be never so partially addicted unto him and his work he must acknowledge that their frivolousness and impertinency considering the work he had in hand discover somewhat besides learning and wisdom in him So also did his driving of 10000. men besides an innumerable company or women and children altogether into the river Swale in Yorkshire and there causing them to baptize one another His Contest with the British Bishops about the time of the observation of Easter breaking the peace for a Circumstance of a Ceremony that hath cost the Church twenty times more trouble then it is worth is of the same nature And I desire to know whence you have your story of his inexpressible suffering here amongst us All that I can find informs us that he was right meetly entertained by King Ethelbert at his first Landing by the means of Berda his wife a Christian before his coming with all plentifull provision for himself and his companions The next news we hear of him is about his Archiepiscopacy his Pall and his Throne from whence he would not rise to receive the poor Brittans that came to confer with him Further of his sufferings as yet I can meet with nothing And these are the things which you thought your self able to except against in my story or the Progress and Declension of Religion The summ of it I shall now comprize in some few Assertions which you may do well to consider and get them disproved 1. The First is That the Gospel was preached in this Island in the dayes of the Apostles by persons coming from the East directed by the Providence of God for that purpose most probably by Joseph of Arimathea in chief without any respect to Rome or mission from thence 2. That the Doctrine preached then by them was the same that is now publickly professed in England and not that taught by the Church of Rome where there is a discrepancy between us 3. That the story of the coming of Fugatius and Damianus into the Province of Brittain sent by Eleutherius unto Lucius is uncertain improbable and not to be reconciled unto the state and condition of the Affairs in these Nations at the time supposed for its accomplishment 4. That about the fourth fifth and sixth Centuries the Generality of the Professors of Christian Religion in the world were wofully declined from the 〈◊〉 zeal piety faith love and purity in the worship of God which their Predecessors in the same Profession glorified God by and that in particular the 〈◊〉 Church was much degenerated 5. There the Bishops of Rome for five hundred years never laid claim unto that Soveraign Power and Infallibility which they have challenged since the dayes of Pope Gregory the seventh 6. That the Bishops of Rome in that space of time pretending unto some disorderly Supremacy over other Bishops and Churches though incomparably short of their after and present pretences were rebuked and opposed by the best and most learned men of those dayes 7. That the distraction of the Provinces of the Western part of the Empire by Goths Vandals Hunns Saxons Alans Franks Longobards and their associates was to less just in the holy Providence of God upon the account of the moral evils and Superstitions of the Professors of Christianity amongst them then was that which afterwards ensued of the Eastern Provinces by the Saracens and Turks 8. That these Nations having planted themselves in the â—rovinces of the Empire together with Christianity either received anew or retained many Pagaâ—ish Customs Ceremonies Rites and Opinions therewithal 9. That their Kings by Grants of Priviledges Donations and Concessions of Power made partly out o blind zeal partly to secure some interests of their own exceedingly advanced the Papal Power and confirmed their formerly rejected pretensions 10. That when they began to perceive and feel the pernicious effects and consequences of their own facility their grants being made a ground of farther incroachments they opposed themselves in their Laws and Edicts and Practices against them 11. That there was on all hands a sad declension in the Western Church in Doctrine Worship and Manners continually progressive unto the time of Reformation These are the principal Assertions on which my story is built and which it supposeth If you have a mind to get them or any of them called to an account and examined I shall if God will and I live give them their confirmation from such undoubted records as you have no just cause to except against CHAP. 18. Reformation of Religion Papal contradictions Ejice ancillam SOme of your following leaves are such as admit of no useful consideration Wilful mistakes diversions from the Cause under debate with vain flourishes make up both pages in them I shall pass through them briefly and give you some account from them of your self and your prevarication in the Cause whose defence you have undertaken Pag. 75. you undertake the thirteenth chapter of the Animadversions which discusseth the Story of the Reformation of Religion which you took up on common fame Fama malum quo non aliud velocius ullum And that you may be able to say somewhat to the discourse before you or to make a pretence of doing so you wholly pass by every thing that is contained in it and impose upon me that which is not in it at all which you strenuously exagitate For whereas a little to take off your edge in reflecting on the Persons whom you supposed instrumental in the Reformation especially King Henry the eighth I minded you how easie a thing it was to deprive you of your pretended Advantage by giving you an account oâ— the wicked lives with the brutish and Diabolical practâ—ces of many of your Popes whom you account the Heads of your Church and the very Center wherein all the lines of your Profession meet you feign as though I had imposed all the crimes I intimated them to be guilty of and many more whose names you â—eap together upon Popery or the Relâ—gion that you profess yea that I should say that it is nothing else but only an heap of the wickconâ—sses by you enumerated Now this I did not do but you feign it of your own heads that you may have somewhat to speak against and a pretence of intimating in the close of your discourse that you have considered the Chapter about Reformation whereas in truth you have not spoken one word unto it nor unto any thing contained in it And yet when you have done as if you had been talking about any thing wherein I am in the least measure concerned you come in in the close with your grave advice That I should take heed of blaspheming that innocent Catholick flock which the Angels of God watch over to protect them As though a man could not remember the wicked crimes of your nocent Popes but he must be thought to blaspheme the innocent flock of Christ which never had greater enemies in this world
then some of them have been If this be to blaspheme then some of your own Councils all your Historians many of the most learned men of your Church are notorious blasphemers But you wilfully mistake and begg that their Schismatical Papal faction may be esteemed the innocent Catholick Church of Christ without a Concession whereof your inferences and perswasions are very weak and feeble Of the like nature unto this is your ensuing discourse about the Contradictions which you fancied in your Fiat Lux to be imposed on Papists pag. 77. Two things you insist upon waving those that you had formerly mentioned as finding them in their examination unable to yield you the advantage you thought to make of them you feign a new contradiction which you say is imposed on Papists For say you while our Kings reign in peace then the Papist Religion is persecuted as contrary to Monarchy when we have destroyed that Government then is the Papist harrassed spoyled pillaged murdered because their Religion is wholly addicted unto Monarchy and Papists are all for Kings These are Contradictions is there not somewhat of the power of darkness in this But you again mistake and that I fear because you will do so There was no Persecution of Papists in this Land at any time but what was in persuit of some Laws that were made against them Now not one of those Laws intimate any such thing as that they were opposite unto Monarchy but rather their design to promote a double Monarchy on different accounts in this Nation the one of the Pope and the other of him to whom the Kingdom was given by the Pope and who for many years in vain attempted to possess himself of it And on that account were you charged with an opposition to our Monarchs but not unto Monarchy it self And yet I must say that if what hath been before discoursed of your faith and perswasion concerning the Papal Soveraignty be well considered it will be found that if not your Religion yet the Principles of some of the chief Professors of it do carry in their womb a great impeachment of Imperial Power Nor can I gather that in the times of our Confusion you suffered as Papists for your friendship and love to Monarchy whatever some individual Persons amongst you might do Seeing some of you would have been contented with its everlasting Seclusion so that your interest in the land might have been secured And whether your Popes themselves be not of that mind I leave to all men to judge who know how much they are wont to preferr their own interest before the rights of other men In the mean time you may take notice that whilest men are owned to persue one certain End they may at several times fix on mediums for the compassing of it opposite and contrary one to another Haec non successit alia aggrediamur via when one way fails another quite contrary unto it may be fixed on And whilest it is supposed that their end is the promotion of the Papal Interest it is not improbable but that at several times you may make use of several wayes and means opposite and contrary one to another and that this may be imputed unto you without the charge of Contradictions upon you But you may if you please omit discourses of this nature I am none of those that would charge any thing upon you to your disadvantage in this world Neither do I desire your trouble any more then mine own My aim is only to defend the Truth which you oppose Your next attempt is to vindicate your self from any such intention in your application of ejice ancillam cum puero suo as I apprehended Whither what you say to this purpose will satisfie your Reader or no I greatly question For my part as I shall speak nothing but what I believe to be according unto truth so if I am or have been at any time mistaken in my apprehension of your sense and mind I am resolved not to defend any thing because I have spoken it Homo sum and therefore subject to mistakes though I am not in the least convinced that I was actually mistaken in my conceptions of your sense and meaning in your Fiat But that we may not needlesly contend about words yours or mine I shall put you into a way whereby you may immediately determine this difference and manifest that I mistook your intention if I did so indeed And it is this Do but renounce those Principles which if you maintain you constantly affirm all that in those words I supposed you to intimate and this strife will be at an end And they are but these two 1. That all those who refuse to believe and worship God according to the Propositions and Determinations of your Church are Hereticks 2. That obstinate Hereticks are to be accursed persecuted destroyed and consumed out of the world Do but renounce these Principles and I shall readily acknowledge my self mistaken in the intention of the words you mention If you will not so do to what purpose is it to contend with you about one single expression ambiguously as you pretend used by you when in your avowed Principles you maintain whatever is suggested to be intimated in it Thus easily might you have saved your longsome discourse in this matter And as for the embleme which you close it with of the Rod of Moses which as you say taken in the right end was a walking staff in the wrong a Serpent it is such a childish figment as you have no cause to thank them that imposed it upon your credulity CHAP. 19. Of preaching the Mass And the Sacrifice of it Transubstantiation Service of the Church WE are arrived at length unto the Consideration of those particulars in your Roman faith which in your Fiat you chose out either to adorn and set off the way in Religion which you invite your Countreymen to embrace or so to gild it as that they may not take any prejudice from them against the whole of what you profess The first of these is that which you entituled Messach which you now inform us to be a Saxon word the same with Mass. But why you make use of such an absolete word to amuze your Readers withal you give us no account Will you give me leave to guess for if I mistake not I am not far from your fancy Plain downright Mass is a thing that hath gotten a very ill name amongst your Countreymen especially since so many of their forefathers were burned to death for refusing to resort unto it Hence it may be you thought meet to wave that name which both the thing known to be signified by it in its own nature and your procedure about it had rendred obnoxious to suspicion So you call it by a new old name or an old new name that men might not at first know what you intended upon your invitation to entertain them withal and yet it may be
that they would like it under a new dress which the old name might have startled them from the Consideration of But Mass or Messach let it be as you please we shall now consider what it is that you offer afresh concerning it and hear you speak out your own words Thus you say p. 81. Having laughed at my admiration of Catholick Service you carp at me for saying that the Christians were never called together to hear a Sermon to convince me you bring some places out of St. Pauls Epistles and the Acts which commend the Ministry of the Word This indeed is your usual way of refuting my Speeches You flourish copiously in that which is not at all against me and never apply it to my words least it should appear as it is impertinent I deny not that Converts were further instructed or that the preaching of Gods Word is good and usefull but that which I say is that Primitive Christians were never called together for that end as the great work of their Christianity This I have clearly proved Well Sir without retorsion which just indignation against this unhandsome management of a desperate Cause is ready to suggest be pleased to take a little view of your own words once more pag. 279. you tell us that the Apostles and Apostolical Christians placed their Religion not in hearing or making Sermons FOR THEY HAD NONE but in attending to their Christian Lyturgie and the Sermons mentioned in the Acts were made to the Jews and Pagans for their Conversion not to any Christians at all Could I now take any other course to confute these false and impious Assertions then what I did in the Animadversions I proved unto you that Sermons were made unto Christians by the Apostles for their edification that order is given by them for the instant preaching of the Word in and unto the Churches unto the end of the world and that those are by them signally commended who laboured in that work and what can be spoken more directly to the confutation of your Assertion You would now shrowd your self under the ambiguity of that expression the great work of their Christianity which yet you make no use of in your Fiat The words there from which you would get countenance unto your present evasion are these Nowhere was ever Sermon made to formal Christians either by St. Peter or Paul or any other as the work of their Religion that they came together for nor did the Christians ever dream of serving God after their Conversion by any such means but ONLY by the Eucharist or Liturgy Here is somewhat of the work of their Religion which they came together for nothing of the great work of their Christianity Now that preaching was a work of their Religion that they came together for though not the only work of it noâ— only end for which they so convened which no man ever dreamed that it was and that the Primitive Christians did by and in that work serve God hath been proved unto you from the Scripture And all Antiquity with the whole story of the Church gives attestation to the same Truth Sir it were far more honourable for you to renounce a false and scandalous Assertion when you are convinced that such it is then to seek to palliate it and to secure your self by such unhansome evasions Preaching of the word unto believers is an Ordinance of Christ and that of indispensible necessity unto their edification or growth in Grace and knowledge which he requireth of them In the practice of this ordinance were the Apostles themselves sedulous and commanded others so to be So were they in the Primitive following times as you may learn from the account given us of Church meetings by Justin Martyr and Tertullian in their Apologies and all that have transmitted any thing unto Posterity concerning their Assemblies For this end to hear the word preached Christians came together not only or solely or exclusively to the administration of other Ordinances but as to a part of that worship which God required at their hands and wherein no small of their spiritual advantage was enwrapped To deny this as you do in your Fiat is to deny that the Sun shines at noon day and to endeavour to dig up the very roots of Pâ—ety Knowledge and all Christianity to what ends and purposes and for the enthroning of what other thing in your room let all indifferent men judge And I shall take leave to say that to my best observation I never met with an Assertion in any Author of what Religion so ever more remote from truth sobriety and modesty then that of yours in your Fiat pag. 275. Nor did the Primitive Christians for 300. years ever hear a Sermon made unto them upon a Text but meerly flocked together at their Priests appointment unto their Messachs This I say is so loudly and notoriously untrue and so known to be so to all that have ever looked into the stories of those times that I am amazed at your confidence in the publishing of it It may be you will hope to shelter your self under the ambiguity of that expression made unto them upon a text Supposing that an instance cannot be given of that mode of preaching wherein some â—ertain Text is read at the entrance of a Sermon and principally insisted upon But this Fig leaf will not cover you from the just Censure of knowing men For 1. Their following adversative but meerly is perfectly exclusive of all preaching be it of what Mode it will be 2. The reading of one certain Text before Preaching is not necessary unto it but all preaching is and ever was upon some Text or Texts that is it consisted in the explication and application of the word of God that is some part of portion of it 3. Whereas it is certain that our Saviour himself preached on a Text Luk. 4. 17 18 19 20 21. as also did his Apostles Act. 8. 35. and the Fathers of the following Ages it is sufficiently evident that that was also the constant mode of preaching in the first 300. years as may be made good in the instance of Origen and sundry others You go on and except against me for saying that we hear nothing of your Sacrifice of the Mass in the Scripture and say you will neither hear nor see say you the passion of our Lord is our Christian Sacrifice do not I say sâ— too but that this incruent Sacrifice was instituted by the same Lord before his death to figure out daily before our eyes that passion of his which was then approaching in commemoration of his death so long as the world should last I must desire you to stay here a little This Sacrifice you make the main of Christian Religion Protestants for the want of it you esteem to have no Religion at all We must therefore consider what it is that you intend by it for I suppose you would not have us accept of we know not
able to except against in that discourse will speedily appear In the mean time pray take notice that I have no eagerness to oppose either you or your Church so you will let the Truth alone I shall for ever let you alone without opposition It was the defence of that and not an opposition to you that I was engaged in In the same design do I still persist in the vindication of what I had formerly written and shall assure you that you shall never be opposed by me but only so far and wherein I am fully convinced that you oppose the Truth Manifest that to be on your side and I shall be ready to embrace both you and it For I am absolutely free from all respects unto things in this world that should or might retard me in so doing But that I may hereafter speak somewhat more to the purpose in opposition unto you or else give my consent with understanding unto what you teach pray inform me how I may come to the knowledge of the customs of your Church which you say I neither do nor will understand I have read your Councils those that are properly yours your Mass Book and Rituals many of your Annalists or Historians with your writers of Controversies and Casuists all of the best note same and reputation amongst you Can none of them inform us what the Customs of your Church are If you have such Egyptian or Elâ—usinian mysteries as no man can understand before he be initiated amongst you I must despair of coming unto any acquaintance with them For I shall never engage into the belief of I know not what For the present I shall declare you my apprehension as to that Custome of your Church as you call it which we have now under consideration and desire your charity in my direction if I understand it 〈◊〉 aright It is your Custome to keep the Scriptures from the people in an unknown tongue somewhat contrary to this your former custome in this last age you have made some Translations out of a Translation and that none of the best the use whereof you permit to very few by virtue of special dispensation pleading that the use of it in the Church among the body of its members is useless and dangerous Again it is the Custome of your Church to celebrate all its publick worship in Latine whereof the generality of your people understand nothing at all and you forbid the exercise of your Church worship in a vulgar tongue understood by the Community of your Church or people These I apprehend to be the Customes of your Church and to the best of my understanding they are directly contrary 1. To the End of God in granting unto his Church the inestimable benefit of his Work and worship and 2. To the Command of God given unto all to read meditate and study his Word continually And 3. Prejudicial to the souls of men in depriving them of those unspeakable spiritual advantages which they might attain in the discharge of their duty and which others not subject unto your Auâ—hority have experience of And 4. Opposite unto yea destructive of that edification which is the immediate end of all things 〈◊〉 to be done in publick Assemblies of the Church And 5. Forbidden expresly by the Apostle who inforceth his prohibition with many cogent reasons 1 Cor. 14. And 6. Contrary to the express practice of the primitive Church both Judaical and Christian all whose worship was performed in the same language wherein the People were instructed by preaching and exhortations which I presume you will think it necessary they should well understand being 7. Brought into use gradually and occasionally through the 〈◊〉 negligence of some who pretend in the Churches of those dayes when the Languages wherein the Scripture was first written and whereinto for the use of the whole Church it had been of old translated as the Old Testament into Greek and the whole into Latine through the Tumults and Wars that fell out in the world became corrupted or were extirpated And 8 A means of turning the worship of Christ from a rational way of strengthening faith and increasing Holiness into a dumb histrionical shew exciting brutish and irregular affections and 9 Were the great cause of that darkness and ignorance which spread its self in former dayes over the whole face of your Church and yet continueth in a great measure so to do And in summ are as great an Instance of the power of inveterate prejudices and carnal interests against the light of the Truth as I think was ever given in the world These are my apprehensions concerning the Customs of your Church in this matter with their nature and tendency I shall now try whither you who blame my misunderstanding of them can give me any better information or Reason for the change of my thoughts concerning them But Carbones pro thesauro instead of either further clearing or vindicating your Customs and practice you fall into Encomiums of your Church a story of a Greek Bishop with some other thing as little to your purpose Fur es ait Pedo Pedius quid crimina rasis Librat in Antithetis doctas posuisse figuras Lundatur You are accused to have robbed the Church of the use of the Scripture and the means of its Edification in the worship of God and when you should produce your defensitive you make a fine Discourse quite to other purposes Such as it is we must pass through it First you say I have heard many grave Protestant Divines ingenuously acknowledge that divine Comfort and Sanctity of life requisite unto Salvation which Religion aymes at may with more perfection and less inconvenience be attained by the Customs of the Roman Church then that of ours For Religion is not to fit perching upon the lips but to be got by heart it consists not in reading but doing and in this not in that lives the substance of it which is soon and easily conveighed Christ our Lord drew a Compendium of all divine Truths in two words which our great Apostle again abridged into one Ans. 1. I hope you will give me leave a little to suspend my assent unto what you affirm Not that I question your veracity as to the matter of fact related by you that some Persons have told you what you say but I suppose you are mistaken in them For whereas the Gospel is the Doctrine of Truth according unto Godliness and the promotion of Holiness and Consolation which cannot at all be promoted but in wayes and by means of Gods appointment is the next end of all Religion they can be no Protestant Divines who acknowledge this end to be better attainable in your way then their own because such an acknowledgement would be a vertual renunciation of their Protestancy The judgement of this Church and all the reall grave Divines of it is perfectly against you and should you condescend unto them in other things would not embrace
your communion whilest you impose upon them a necessity of Celebrating the worship of God in a tongue unknown unto them amongst whom and for whose sâ—ke it is publickly celebrated The reasons you subjoyn to the concession you mention I presume are your own they are like to many others that you make use of The best sense of the entrance of your words that I can make is in that description they afford us of the worship of your Church as to the peoples concernment in it The words of it may â—it perching upon your lips as on the tongue of a Parrot or it may be may be got by heart or as we say without Book when the sense of them affects not your minds nor understandings at all If in these vain loose expressions you design any thing else it seems to be an opposition between reading and studying the Scriptures or joyning with understanding in the prayers of the Church the things under Consideration and the getting of the power of the word of God to dwell in the heart which is skilfully to oppose the means and the end and those placed in that relation not only by their natural aptitude but also by Gods express appointment and command So wisely also do you oppose reading and doing in general as though reading were not doing and a part of that obedience which God requires at our hands and a blessed means of helping and furthering us in the remainder of it For certainly that we may do the will of God it is required that we know it And what better way there is to come to the knowledge of the will of God then by reading and me litating in and upon the word of Truth wherein he hath revealed it with the advantage of the other means of his appointment for the same end in the publick preaching or proposition of it I am not as yet informed And I wish you had acquainted us with those two words of our Saviour and that one of the Apostle wherein they give us a Compendius of all Divine Truths For if it be so I am perswaded you will be to seek for your warrant in imposing your long Creeds and almost Volumes of Propositions to be believed as such But you cannot avoid mistakes in things that you might omit as not at all to your purpose Our Saviour indeed gives us the two general heads of those duties of Obedience which are required at our hands towards God and our Neighbours and the Apostle shews the Perfection of it to consist in Love with its due exercise but where in two or three words they give us the Compendium of all Divine Truths which we are to believe that we may acceptably perform the Obedidience that in general they describe we are yet to seek and shall be so for any information you are able to give us In your following Discourse you make a florish with what your Church hath in Gospels Epistles Good books Anniversary observations and I know not what besides But Sir we discourse not about what you have but what you have not nor will have though God command you to have it and threaten you for not having it You have not the Scripture ordinarily in a language that they can understand who if they are the Disciples of Christ are bound to read study and meditate in it continually which are therefore hindred by you in the discharge of their duty whilest you neither enter into the Kingdom of heaven your selves nor suffer them that would Nâ—y you have burned men and their Bibles together for attempting to discharge that duty which God requireth of them and wherein so much of their spiritual advantage is enwrapped Neither have you the entire worship of God in a tongue known to the people whereby they might joyn in it and pray with understanding and be edified by what they hear which the Apostle makes the end of all things done or to be done in publick Assemblies but are left to have their brutish affections led up and down by dumb shews pestures and gestures whereunto the Scripture and Antiquity are utter strangers These things you have not and which renders your Condition so much the worse you refuâ—e to have them though you may though you are entreated by God and man to make use of them yea where great and populous nations under your power have humbly petitioned you that by your leave and permission they might enjoy the Bible and that Service of God which they could understand you have chosen rather to run all things into confusion and to fall upon them with fire and sword then to grant them their request O curvae in terris animae caelestium inanes But you add Besides what you mention what can promote your Salvation for say you What further Good may it do to read the letter of St. Paul ' s Epistles to the Romans for example or Corinthians wherein Questions and Cases and Theological discourses are treated that vulgar people can neither understand nor are at all concerned to know And I pray you tell me ingenuously and without heat what more of Good could acrew to any by the translated letter of a book whereof I will be bold to say that nine parts in ten concern not my particular either to know or practice then by the conceived substance of Gods will unto me and my own duty towards him Sir I shall deal with you without any blameable heat yet so as he deserves to be dealt withall who will not cease to pervert the right wayes of the Lord. And 1. who taught you to make your apprehensions the measure of other mens faith and practice If you know not of any thing needfull to promote Salvation but what you reckon up in the usage of your Church hinder not them that do It is not so much your own practice as your Imposition of it on others that we are in the consideration of Would it worth suffice you to reject as to your own interest the means appointed of God for the furtherrance of our Salvation and that you would not compell others to joyn with you in the refusal of them Is it possible that a man professing himself a Divine a Priest of the Catholick Church an Instructor of the Ignorant an undertaker to perswade whole Nations to relinquish the way of Religion wherein they are engaged to follow him and his in wayes that they have not known should profess that he knows not of what use unto the promotion of the Salvation of the Souls of men the use of the whole Scripture given by inspiration of God is Be advised not to impose these conceptions of your fancy and mind as it seems unexercised in that heavenly treasury on those who have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 senses exercised therein so as to be able to discern between good and evil It no other reason can prevail with you I hope experience may give you such a despair of success as to cause
guilty Person hired to fight with wild beasts and to cousin their rage proposed a Picture with this Inscription Ononychites the God of the Christians he had Asses ears hoofed on one foot carrying a Book and in a gown we laughed at the name and shape but they ought immediately to have adored this double shaped Deity who have received Gods mingled with Doggs and Lyons heads You see how well you have given us the words of Tertullian which you pretend to do saying he adds these words But I confess though he sayes no such matter it is like enough he would have wondred at the name of Onochoetes had the villain given it unto his picture For neither he nor any man else knows what it should mean He knew well enough what Ononychites signified and laughed at it It is but Asinungulus which it may be comes neerer their understanding I confess some would read it Onochoerites as if it were compounded of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of those words of Epiphanius concerning the Gnosticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say their Sabaoth had the form of an Ass seme of a Hogg But Tertullian in the description of the Picture mentions no part of a Hogg nor rejects the abomination of the Gnosticks as was the manner of the Christians when charged with their silliness and folly as may be seen abundantly in Origen against Celsus But who or what your Onochoetes should be no man knows But see your further unhappiness You prove not by your Quotation that which no man denyes namely that the Christians also were charged with the worship of an Asses head which if you had but looked into Tertullian himself you must have found him expresly affirming it in the beginning of that Chapter from whence your story is taken Much less do you prove any thing of the Christians placing the head and half Portraicture of our Saviour upon their Altars before or in the dayes of Constantine which was that alone that was incumbent on you to have done And now to give a brief view of that whole Portraicture that you have drawn of your self in your Epistle I shall only mind you of those words of mine that your Assertions were notoriously false and that you could not produce so much as one Testimony of any such thing were not by me used at all in reference unto the Pagans charge upon the Christians for worshipping an Asses head but unto what you said about the use of the Picture of Christ on the Altars of Christians with the rise of the charge mentioned from thence This you know to be so for my words must needs lye before you in your attempt for a reply unto them and finding them to be true and that you were not able to produce one Testimony no not one in the confirmation of what you had written you pretend them now to be spoken in reference unto that whereunto you know they did not at all relate the thing it self being acknowledged by me This dealing becomes not any man pretending to ingenuity or professing Christianity What remains of your Epistle is Personal Men are busie and not so far concerned I am sure in me nor I am almost perswaded in you as to trouble themselves with the perusal of what belongs unto us personally For my part I know it is my duty in all things especially in those that are of such near concernment unto his Glory as are all his Truths and Worship to commend my conscience unto God and to be conversant in them in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in fleshly wisdom not corrupting the word of Truth nor lying in wait with any subtile sleights to deceive And this through his Grace I shall attend unto whatever reward I may meet withal in this world For I know in whom I have believed who is able to keep that which I desire to commit unto him And for your part I desire your prosperity as my own I rejoyce in your quiet and shall never envy you your liberty and do pray that you may receive Grace Truth and Peace from him who alone is able to bestow them on you FINIS
secondly he actually did so Neither of these can you prove or produce any Testimony worth crediting in confirmation of it Did it necessarily follow from hence because that was the place where Peter died But this was accidentall a thing that Peter thought not of for you say that a few dayes before his death he was leaving that place Besides according to this insinuation why did not every Apostle leave a Successour behind him in the place where he dyed and that by vertue of his dying in that place or produce you any Patent granted to Peter in especiall that where he dyed there he should leave a Successour behind him But it seems the whole weight of your faith is layed upon a matter of fact accidentally falling out yea and that very incertain whether ever it fell out or no. Shew us any thing of the will and institution of Christ in this matter As that Peter should go to Rome that he should fix his seat there that he should dye there that he should have a Successour that the Bishop of Rome should be his Successour that unto this Successour I know not what nor how many Priviledges should be conveyed All these are arbitrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inventions that men may multiply in infinitum at their pleasure For what should set bounds to the imaginations of men when once they cast off all Reverence of Christ and his Truth Once more Why did not Peter fix a Seat and leave a Successor at Antioâ—h and in other places where he abode and preached and exetcised Episcopal Power without all question Was it because he dyed at Rome This is to acknowledg that the whole Papacy is built as was said upon an accidentall matter of fact and that supposed not proved Further if he must be supposed to succeed Peter I desire to know what that succession is and wherein he doth succeed him Doth he succeed him in all that hee had and was in reference unto the Church of God Doth he succeed him in the manner of his Call to his Office Peter was called immediately by Christ in his own Person the Pope is chosen by the Conclave of Cardinals concerning whom their Office Priviledges Power Right to choose the Successour of Peter there is not one iota in the Scripture or any Monuments of the best Antiquity and how in their Election of Popes they have been influenced by the interest of powerfull Strumpets your own Baronius will inform you Doth he succeed him in the way and manner of his Personal Discharge of his Office and imployment Not in the least Peter in the pursuit of his Commission and in obedience unto the command of his Lord and Master travailed up and down the world preaching the Gospel planting and watering the Churches of Christ in patience self-deniall humility zeal temperance meekness The Pope raigns at Rome in case exalting himself above the Kings of the earth without taking the least pains in his own Person for the conversion of Sinners or edification of the Disciples of Christ Doth he succeed him in his Personal Qualifications which were of such extraordinary advantage unto the Church of God in his dayes his Faith Love Holiness Light and Knowledg you will not say so Many of your Popes by your own confession have been ignorant and stupid many of them flagitiously wicked to say no more Doth he succeed him in the way and manner of his exercising his Care and Authority towards the Churches of Christ as little as the rest Peter did it by his prayers for the Churches personal visitation and instruction of them writing by inspiration for their direction and guidance according to the will of God The Pope by Bulls and Consistorial Determinations executed by intricate Legal Processes and Officers unknown not only to Peter but all Antiquity whose ways practices orders terms S t Peter himself were he upon the earth again would very little understand Doth he succeed him in his Personal Infallibility agree among your selves if you can and give an answer unto this inquiry Doth he succeed him in his power of working Miracles you do not so much as pretend thereunto Doth he succeed him in the Doctrine that he taught it hath been proved unto you a thousand times that he doth not and wee are still ready to prove it again if you call us thereunto Wherein then doth this Succession consist that you talk of In his Power Authority Jurisdiction Supremacy Monarchy with the Secular Advantages of Riches Honour and pomp that attend them things sweet and desireable unto carnall mindes This is the Succession you pretend to plead for And are you not therein to be commended for your wisdome In the things that Peter really enjoyed and which were of singular Spiritual advantage unto the Church of God you disclaim any Succession unto him and fix it on things wherein he was no way concerned that make for your own Secular advantage and interest You have certainly layed your design very well if these things would hold good to Eternity For hence it is that you draw out the Monarchy of your Pope direct and absolute in Ecclesiasticall things over the whole Church indirect at least and in ordine ad Spiritualia over the whole world This the Diana in making of Shrines for whom your occupation consists and it brings no small gains unto you Hence you wire-draw his Cathedrall Infallibility Legislative Authority Freedom from the Judgment of any whereby you hope to secure him and your selves from all opposition endeavouring to terrifie them with this Medusa's head that approach unto you Hence are his Titles The Vicar of Christ Head and Spouse of his Church Vice-Deus Dius alter in Terris and the like where by you keep up popular venexation and preserve his Majestick distance from the poor Disciples of Christ. Hence you warrant his practices suited unto these pretensions and Titles in the deposing of Kings transposing of Titles unto Dominion and Rule giving away of Kingdoms stirring up and waging mighty warres causing and commanding them that dissent from him or refuse to yield obedience unto him to be destroyed with fire and sword And who can now question but that you have very wisely stated your Succession This is the way this the progress whereby you pretend to bring us unto the Vnity of faith If we will submit unto the Pope and acquiesce in his Determinations whereunto to induce us we have the Cogent Reasons now considered the work will be effected This is the way that God hath as you pretend appointed to bring us unto Settlement in Religion These things you have told us so often and with so much Confidence that you take it ill we should question the truth of any thing you averr in the whoe matter and look upon us as very ignorant or unreasonable for our so doing Yea he that believes it safer for him to trust the everlasting concernments of his soul unto the Goodness Grace and Faithfulness of
God in his Word than unto these Principles of yours is rejected by you out of the limits of the Catholick Church that is of Christianity for they are the same To make good your judgement and censure then you vent endless Cavils against the Authority Perfection and Perspicuity of the Scriptures pretending to despise and scorn whatever is offered in their viâ—dication This rope of Sand composed â— false suppositions groundless presumptions inconsequent inferences in all which there is not one word of infallible Truth at least that you can any way make appear so to be is the great Bond you use to gird men withall into the Unity of Faith In brief you tell us that if wee will all submit to the Pope wee shall be sure all to agree But this is no more but as I have before told you what every party of men in the world tender us upon the same or the like condition It is not a meer agreement wee aym at but an agreement in the Truth not a meer Vnity but a Unity of Faith and Faith must be built on Principles infallible or it will prove in the close to have been fancy not Faith carnall imagination not Christian belief otherwise wee may agree in Turcism or Judaism or Paganism as well as in Christianity and to as good purpose Now what of this kind do you tender unto us Would you have us to leave the sure word of Prophesie more sure than a voyce from Heaven the Light shining in the dark places of this world which wee are commanded to attend unto by God himself the Holy Scripture given by Inspiration which is able to make us wise unto Salvation the Word that is perfest sure right converting the Soul enlightning the eyes making wise the simple whose observation is attended with great reward to give heed yea to give up all our Spirituall and eternall concernments to the credit of old groundless uncertain Stories inevident presumptions fables invented for and openly improved unto carnal secular and wicked ends Is your request reasonable Would wee could prevail with you to cease your importunity in this matter especially considering â—the dangerous consequence of the admission of these your Principles unto Christianity in generall For if it be so that S t Peter had such an Episcopacy as you talk of and that a continuance of it in a Succession by the Bishops of Rome be of that indispensable necessity unto the preservation of Christian Religion as is pretended many men considering the nature and quality of that Succession how the means of its continuation have been arbitrarily and occasionally changed what place formerly popular Suffrage and the Imperial Authority have had in it how it came to be devolved on a Conclave of Cardinals what violence and tumults have attended one way what briberies and filthy respects unto the lusts of unclean Persons the other what Interruptions the Succession it self hath had by vacancies Schisms and contests for the place and uncertainty of the Person that had the best right unto the Popedome according to the customes of the dayes wherein he lived and that many of the Persons who have had a place in the pretended Succession have been plainly men of the world such as cannot receive the Spirit of Christ yea open enemies unto his Cross would find just cause to suspect that Christianity were utterly failed many Ages ago in the world which certainly would not much promote the Settlement in Truth and Unity of Faith that we are enquiring after And this is the first way that you propose to supply that Defect which you charge upon the Scripture that it is insufficient to reconcile men that are at variance about Religion and settle them in the Truth And if you are able by so many uncertainties and untruths to bring men unto a Certainty and Scttlement in the Truth you need not despair of compassing and thing that you shall have a mind to attempt But you have yet another Plea which you make no less use of than of the former which must therefore be also now you have engaged us in this work a little examined This is the Church its Authority and Infallibilâ—ty The truth is when you come to make a practical Application of this Plea unto your own use you resolve it into and confound it with that foregoing of the Pope in whom solely many of you would have this Authority and Infallibility of the Church to reside Yet because in your mannagement of it you proceed on other Principles than those before mentioned this pretence also shall be apart considered And here you tell us 1. That the Church was before the Scripture and giveth Authority unto it By the Scriptures you know that wee understand the Word of God with this â—ne Adjunct of its being written by his command and appointment We do not say that it belongs unto the Essence of the Word of God that it be written Whatever is spoken by God wee admit as his Word when wee are infallibly assured that by Him it was spoken and that wee should do so before himself doth not require at our hands for he would have us use our utmost diligence not to be imposed upon by any in his Name Therefore wee grant that the Word of God was given out for the Rule of men in his Worship two thousand years before it was written but it was so given forth as that they unto whom it came had infallible assurance that from Him it came and his Word it was And if you or any man else can give us such assurance that any thing is or hath been spoken by him besides what we have now written in the Scripture wee shall receive it with the same faith and obedience wherewith wee receive the Scripture its self Whereas therefore you say That the Church was before the Scripture if you intend no more but that there was a Church in the world before the word of God was written wee grant it true but not at all to your purpose If you intend that the Church is before the Word of God which at an appointed time was written it may possibly be wrested unto your purpose but is farre from being true seeing the Church is a society of men called to the knowledg and worship of God by his Ward They become a Church by the call of that Word which it seems you would have not given untill they are a Church of Effects produce their Causes Children beget their Parents Light brings forth the Sunne and Heat the Fire So are the Prophets and Apostles built upon the foundation of the Church whereof the Pope is the Corner stone So was the Judaical Church before the Law of iâ— constitution and the Christian before the Word of Promise whereon it was founded and the Word of Command by which it was edified In brief from the day wherein Man was first created upon the earth to the days wherein we live never did a Person or