A VINDICATION â—F THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX Wherein the Principles OF THE ROMAN CHURCH As to Moderation Unity and Truth are Examined And sundry Important Controversies concerning the Rule of Faith Papal Supremacy the Mass Images c. Discussed By John Owen D. D. LONDON Printed for Ph. Stephens at the Gilded-Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard and George Sawbridge at the Bible on Ludgate Hill 1664. Imprimatur Tho. Grigg R. in Christ. P. D. Humfr. Episc. Lond. à Sac. domesticis Decemb. 9. 1663. TO THE READER Christian Reader ALthough our Lord Jesus Christ hath laid blessed and stable foundations of Unity Peace and Agreement in judgement and affection amongst all his Disciples and given forth Command for their attendance unto them that thereby they might glorifie him in the world and promote their own spiritual advantage yet also foreknowing what effect the crafts of Satan in conjunction with the darkness and lusts of men would produce that no offence might thence be taken against him or any of his wayes he hath sorewarned all men by his Spirit what Differences Divisions Schisms and Heresies would ensue on the publication of the Gospel and arise even among them that should profess subjection unto his Authority and Law And accordingly it speedily came to pass For what Solomon sayes that he discovered concerning the first Creation namely that God made man upright but he sought out many inventions or immixed himself in endless questions the same fell out in the new creation or erection of the Church of Christ. The state of it was by him formed upright and all that belonged unto it were of one heart and one soul. But this harmony and perfection of beauty in answer to his Will and Institution lasted not long among them many who mixed themselves with those Primitive converts or succeeded them in their profession quickly seeking out perverse inventions Hence in the dayes of the Apostles themselves there were not only schisms and divisions made in sundry Churches of their own planting with disputes about Opinions and needless impositions by those of the Circumcision who believed but also opposition was made unto the very fundamental Doctrines of the Deity and Incarnation of the Son of God by the Spirit of Antichrist then entring into the world as is evident from their Writings and Epistles But yet as all this while our Lord Jesus Christ according to his promise preserved the root of Love and Vnity amongst them who sincerely believed in him entire as he doth still and will do to the end by giving the one and selfsame spirit to guide sanctifie and unite them all unto himself so the care and Authority of the Apostles during their abode in the flesh so far prevailed that notwithstanding some temporary impeachments of Love and Union in or amongst the Churches yet no signal prejudice of any long continuance befell them For either the miscarriages which they fell into were quickly retrieved by them the truth infallibly cleared and provision made for Peace Vnity and Moderation in and about things of less concernment or else the evil guilt and danger of them remained only with and upon some particular persons the notoriety of whose wickedness and folly cast them out by common consent from the communion of all the Disciples of Christ. But no sooner was that sacred Society 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their immediate successors as Egesippus speaks in Eusebius departed unto their rest with God but that the Church it self which untill then was preserved a pure and incorruppted Virgin began to be vexed with abiding contention and otherwise to degenerate from its primitive original purity From thence forward especially after the heat of bloody and fiery persecutions began to abate far the greatest part of Ecclesiastical Records consists in relations of the Divisions Differences Schisms and Heresies that fell out amongst them who professed themselves the Disciples of Christ. For those failings errors and mistakes which were found in men of peaceable minds the Church indeed of those dayes extended her Peace and Vnity if Justin Martyr and others may be believed to such as the seeming warmer zeal and really colder charity of the succeeding Ages could not bear withal But yet divisions and disputes were multiplyed into such an excess as that the Gentiles fetcht advantage from them not only to reproach all Christians withall but to deterr others from the proâ—ession of Christianity So Celsus in his third Book deals with them for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At first when they were but a few they were of one mind or agreed well enough But being increased and the multitude of them scattered abroad they were presently divided again and again and every one would have his own party or division and as in a divided multitude opposed and reproved one another so that they had no communion among themselves but only in name which for shame they retain So doth he for his purpose as is the manner of men invidiously exaggerate the differences that were in those early times amongst Christians for he wrote about the dayes of Trajan the Emperour That others of them took the same course is testified by Clemens Stromat lib. 7. Augustin lib. de Ovib. c. 15. and sundry others of the antient Writers of the Church But that no just offence as to the truth or any of the wayes of Christ might hence be taken we are as I said before forewarned of all these things by the Lord himself and his Apostles as also of the use and necessity of such events and issues Whence Origen cryes out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Most admirable unto me seems the saying of Paul There must be Heresies amongst you that those who are approved may be manifest Nor can any just excception be hence taken against the Gospel it self For it doth not belong unto the excellency or â—ignity of any thing to free it self from all opposition but only to preserve it self from being prevailed against and to remain victorious as the sacred truths of Christ have done and will do unto the end Not a few indeed in these evil dayes wherein we live the ends of the world and the difficulties with which they are attended being come upon us persons ignorant of things past and regardless of things to come in bondage to their present lusts and pleasures are ready to make use of the pretence of divisions and differences among Christians to give up themselves unto Atheism and indulge to their pleasures like the beasts that perish Let us eat and drink for too morrow we shall dye Quid aliud inscribi poterat sepulchro bovis But whatever they pretend to the contrary it may be easily evinced that it is their personal dislike of that holy obedience which the Gospel requireth not the differences that are about the Doctrines of it which alienates their minds from the truth They will not some of them foregoe all Philosophical inquiries after the
by Gods providence called thereunto and as they receive ability from him for that purpose to contend earnestly for it Nor is their so doing any part of the evil that attends differences and divisions but a means appointed by God himself for their cure and removal provided as the Apostle speaks that they strive or contend lawfully The will of God must be done in the wayes of his own appointment Outward force and violence corporal punishments swords and faggots as to any use in things purely spiritual and religious to impose them on the consciences of men are condemned in the Scripture by all the antient or first writers of the Church by sundry Edicts and Laws of the Empire and are contrary to the very light of Reason whereby we are men and all the principles of it from whence mankind consenteth and coalesceth into civil society Explaining declaring proving and confirming the truth convincing of gainsayers by the evidence of common principles on all hands assented unto and right reason with prayer and supplications for success attended with a conversation becoming the Gospel we profess is the way sanctified by God unto the promotion of the truth and the recovery of them that are gone astray from it Into this work according as God hath imparted of his gifts and spirit unto them some in most ages of the Church have been engaged and therein have not contracted any guilt of the evils of the contentions and divisions in their dayes but cleared themselves of them and faithfully served the interest of those in their generation And this justifies and warrants us in the pursuit of the same work by the same means in the same days wherein we live And when at any time men sleep in the neglect of their duty the envious one will not be wanting to sow his Tares in the field of the Lord which as in the times and places wherein we live it should quicken the diligence and industry of those upon whom the care of the preservation of the truth is by the providence of God in an especial manner devolved and who have manifold advantages for their encouragement in their undertaking so also it gives countenance even to the meanest endeavours that in sincerity are employed in the same work by others in their more private capacity amongst which I hope the ensuing brief discourse may with impartial Readers find admittance It is designed in general for the defence and vindication of the truth and that truth which is publickly professed in this Nation against the solicitation of it and opposition made unto it with more then ordinary vigilancy and seeming hopes of prevalency on what grounds I know not This is done by those of the Roman Church who have given in themselves as sad an instance of a degeneracy from the truth as ever the Christian world had experience of from insensible and almost imperceptible entrances into deviations from the holy rule of the Gospel countenanced by pecious pretences of piety and devotion but really influenced by the corrupt lusts of ambition love of preheminence and earthly mindedness in men ignorant or neglective of the 〈◊〉 and simplicity of the Gospel their Apostâ—cy hath been carried on by various degrees upon advantages given unto those that made the benefit of it unto themselves by political commotions and alterations until by sundry artifices and sleights of Sathan and men it is grown unto that stated opposition to the right wayes of God which we behold it come unto at this day The great Roman Historian desires his Reader in the perusal of his discourses to consider and observe quae vita qui mores fuerint per quos viros quibusque artibus domi militiaeque partum auctum imperium sit Labente â—einde paulatim disciplina velut dissidenâ—â—s primo mores sequatur animo deinde at magis magisque lapsi sint tum ire caeperint praecipites donec ad haec tempora quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus perventum est What was the course of life what were the manners of thâ—se men both at home and abroad by whom the Roman Empire was â—rected and enlarged as also how antient discipline insensibly decaying far different manners ensued whose decay more and 〈◊〉 increasing at length they began violently to decline untill we came unto these dayes wherein we are able to beare neither our vices nor their remedies All which may be as truly and justly spoken of the present Roman Ecclesiastical estate The first Rulers and members of that Church by their exemplary sanctity and suffering for the truth deservedly obtained great renown reputation amongst the other Churches in the world but after a while the discipline of Christ decaying amongst them and the purity of his doctrine beginning to be corrupted they insensibly fell from their pristine glory untill at length they precipitantly tumbled into that condition wherein because they fear the spiritual remedy would be their temporal ruine they are resolved to abide be it never so desperate or deplorable And hence also it is that of all the opposition that ever the disciples of Christ had to contend withall to suffer under or to witness against that made unto the truth by the Roman Church hath proved the longest and been attended with the most dreadful consequents For it is not the work of any one Age or of a few persons to unravel that web of falshood and unrighteousness which in a long tract of time hath been cunningly woven and closely compacted together Besides the Heads of this declension have provided for their security by intermixing their concerns with the Polity of many Nations and moulding the constitutions of their Governments unto a subserviency to their interests and ends But he is strong and faithful who in his own way and time will rescue his Truth and Worship from being trampled on and defiled by them In the mean time that which renders the errors of the Fathers and Sons of that Church most peâ—nitious unto the professors of Christianity is that whether out of blind zeal rooted in that obstinacy which men are usually given up unto who have refused to retain the Truth in the love and power of it or from their being necessitated thereunto in their Councils for the supportment and preservation of their present interests and secular advantages they are not contented to embrace practice and adhere unto those crooked paths that they have chosen to walk in and to attempt the drawing of others into them by such wayes and means as the light of Nature right reason with the Scripture directs to be used in and about the things of Religion which relate to the minds and souls of men but also they have pursued an imposition of their conceptions and practises on other men by force and violence untill the world in many places hath been made a stage of oppression rapine cruelty and war and that which they call their Church a very Shambles
Church yield any obedience or perform any acceptable worship unto God but what was founded on and regulated by his Word given unto them antecedently unto their obedience and worship to be the sole foundation and Rule of it That you have no concernment in what is or may be truly spoken of the Church we shall afterwards shew but it is not for the interest of Truth that wee should suffer you without controul to impose such absurd notions on the minds of men especially when you pretend to direct them unto a Settlement in Religion Alike true is it that the Church gives Authority unto the Scripture Every true Church indeed gives witness or Testimony unto it and it is its Duty so to do it holds it forth declares and manifests it so that it may be considered and taken notice of by all which is one main End of the Institution of the Church in this world But the Church no more gives Authority to the Scripture than it gives Authority to God himself He requires of men the discharge of that Duty which he hath assigned unto them but stands not in need of their suffrage to confirm his Authority It was not so indeed with the Idols of old of whom Tertullian said rightly Si Deus homini non placuerit Deus non erit The reputation of their Deity depended on the Testimony of men as you say that of Christ's doth on the Authority of the Pope But I shall not farther insist upon the disprovement of this vanity having shewed already that the Scripture hath all its Authority both in its self and in reference unto us from Him whose Word it is and wee have also made is appear that your Assertions to the contrary are meet for nothing but to open a door unto all Irreligiousness Prophaneness and Atheism so that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing sound or savoury nothing which an heart carefull to preserve its Loyalty unto God will not nauseate at nothing not suited to oppugn the fundamentals of Christian Religion in this your Position This ground well fixed you tell us 11. That the Church is infallible or cannot erre in what she teacheth to be believed And we ask you what Church you mean and how far you intend that it is infallible The only known Church which was then in the world was in the Wilderness when Moses was in the mount Was it infallible when it made the golden Calf and danced about it proclaiming a feast unto Jebovah before the Calf was the same Church afterward Infallible in the dayes of the Judges when it worshipped Baalim and Aftaroth or in the dayes of Jeroboam when it sacrificed before the Calves at Dan and Bethel or in the other branch of it in the dayes of Ahaz when the High-Priest set up an Altar in the Temple for the King to offer Sacrifice unto the gods of Damascus or in the dayes of Jehoiakiâ— and Zedekiah when the High-Priest with the rest of the Priests imprisoned and would have slain Jeremiah for preaching the word of God or when they preferred the worship of the Queen of Heaven before that of the God of Abraham Or was it infallible when the High-Priest with the whole Councel or Saâ—edrim of the Church judicially condemned as far as in them lay their own Messias and rejected the Gospel that was preached unto them You must inform us what other Church was them in the world or you will quickly perceive how ungrounded your generall Maxim is of the Churches absolute infallibility As farre indeed as it attends unto the Infallible Rule given unto it it is so but not one jot farther Moreover we desire to know What Church you mean in your Assertion or rather what is it that you mean by the Church Do you intend the Mystical Church or the whole number of Gods Elect in all Ages or in any Age militant on the Earth which principally is the Church of God Ephes. 5. 26 Or do you intend the whole diffused body of the Disciples of Christ in the world separated to God by Baptism and the Profession of saving truth which is the Church Catholick visible Or do you mean any particular Church as the Roman or constantinopolitan the French Dutch or English Church If you intend the first of These or the Church in the first sense we acknowledge that it is thus far infallible that no true member of it shall ever totally and finally renounce lose or forsake that faith without which they cannot please God and be saved This the Scripture teacheth this Austin confirmeth in an bundred places If you intend the Church in the second sense we grant that also so far unerring and infallible as that there ever was and ever shall be in the world a number of men making Profession of the saving Truth of the Gospel and yielding professed subjection unto our Lord Jesus Christ according unto it wherein consists his visible Kingdome in this world that never was that never can be utterly overthrown If you speak of a Church in the last sense then we tell you That no such Church is by virtue of any Promise of our Lord Jesus Christ freed from erring yea so farre as to deny the fundamentals of Christianity and thereby to lose the very being of a Church Whilst it continues a Church it cannot erre fundamentally because such Errours destroy the very being of a Church but those who were once a Church by their failing in the Truth may cease to be so any longer And a Church as such may so fail though every Person in it do not so for the individual members of it that are so also of the Mysticall Church shall be preserved in its Apostasie And so the Mysticall Church and the Catholick Church of Professors may be continued though all particular Churches should fail So that no Person the Church in no sense is absolutely freed in this world from the danger of all errours that is the condition wee shall attain in Heaven here where we know butin part wee are incapable of it The Church of the Elect and every member of it shall eventually be preserved by the power of the Holy Ghost from any such errour as would utterly destroy their Communion with Christ in Grace here or prâ—vent their fruition of him in Glory hereafter or as the Apostle speaks they shall assuredly be kept by the Power of God through faith unto salvation The Generall Church of Visible Professors shall be alwayes so farre preserved in the world as that there shall never want some in some place or other of it that shall profess all needfull saving Truths of the Gospel in the belief whereof and obedience whereunto a man may be saved But for Particular Churches as such they have no security but what lyes in their diligent attendance unto that Infallible Rule which will preserve them from all hutfull Errours if through their own default they neglect not to keep close unto it And your
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
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
it if thy use the means by him appointed to come unto a right understanding of it They suppose that what is not taught therein or not taught so clearly as that men who humbly and heartily seek unto him may know his mind therein as to what he requireth of them cannot possibly be the necessary and indispensable Duty of any one to perform They suppose that it is the Duty of every man to search the Scriptures with all diligence by the help and assistance of the means that God hath appointed in his Church to come to the knowledg of his mind and will in all things concerning their Faith and Obedience and firmly to believe and adhere unto what they find revealed by him And they moreover suppose that those who deny any of these Suppositions are therein and so farre as they do so injurious to the Grace Wisedem Love and Care of God towards his Church to the Honour and perfection of the Scripture the Comfort and establishment of the Souls of men leaving them no assured Principles to build their Faith and Salvation upon Now from these Suppositions I hope you see that it will unavoidably follow that the Scripture is able every way to effect that which you deny unto it a sufficiency for For where I pray you lyes its defect I am afraid from the next part of your Question Has it ever done it that you run upon a great mistake The defect that follows the failings and miscarriages of men you would have imputed unto the want of sufficiency in the Scripture But wee cannot allow you herein The Scripture in its place and in that kind of Cause which it is is as sufficient to settle men all men in the Truth as the Sunne is to give light to all men to see by But the Sunne that giveth light doth not give eyes also The Scripture doth its work as a Morall Rule which men are not necessitated or compelled to attend unto or follow And if through their neglect of it or not attendance unto it or disability to discern the mind and will of God in it whether proceeding from their naturall impotency and blindness in their laps'd condition or some evil habit of mind contracted by their giving admission unto corrupt prejudices and Traditionall Principles the work be not effected this is no impeachment of the Scriptures sufficiency but a manifestation of their weakness and folly Besides all that unity in faith that hath been at any time or is in the world according to the mind of God every Decision that hath been made at any time of any difference in or about Religion in a right way and order hath been by the Scripture which God hath sanctified unto those ends and purposes And it is impossible that the miscarriages or defects of men can reflect the least blame upon it or make it esteemed insufficient for the end now enquired after The pursuit then of your Enquiry which now you insist upon is in part vain in part already answered In vain it is that you enquire whether the written Word can settle any man in a way that neither himself nor present adherents nor future Generations shall question For our enquiry is not after what may be or what shall be but what ought to be It is able to settle a man in a way that none ought to question unto the worlds end So it setled the first Christians But to secure us that none shall ever question the way whereinto it leads us that it is not designed for nor is it either needfull or possible that it should be so The Orall preaching of the Sonne of God and of his Apostles did not so secure them whom they taught The way that professed was every where questioned contradicted spoken against and many after the profession of it again renounced it And I wonder what feat you have to settle any one in a way that shall never be questioned The Authority of your Pope and Church will not do it Themselves are things as highly questioned and disputed about as any thing that was ever named with reference unto Religion If you shall say But yet they ought not to be so questioned and it is the fault of men that they are so You may well spare me the labour of answering your Question seeing you have done it your self And whereas you adde or with as much probability dissent from it either totally or in part as himself first set it when the very preceding words do not speak of a mans own setting but of the Scriptures setling the man only embracing what that setleth and determineth It is answered already that what is so setled by the Scripture and received as setled cannot justly be questioned by any And you insinuate a most irrationall Supposition on which your Assertion is built namely that Errour may have as much probability as Truth For I suppose you will grant that what is setled by the Scripture is true and therefore that which dissents from it must needs be an errour which that it may be as probable indeed as Truth for we speak not of appearances which have all their strength from our weaknesses is a new notion which may well be added to your many other of the like rarity and evidence But why is not the Scripture able to settle men in unquestionable Truth When the people of old doubted about the wayes of God wherein they ought to walk himself sends them to the Law and to the Testimony for their instruction and settlement Isa 8. 20. And we think the counsell of him who cannot deceive nor be deceived is to be hearkned unto as well as his command to be obeyed Our Saviour assures us that if men will not hear Moses and the Prophets and take direction from them for those wayes wherein they may please God they will not do it whatsoever they pretend from any other means which they rather approve of Luk. 16. 29 31. Yea and when the great Fundamental of Christian Religion concerning the Person of the Messiah was in question he sends men for their settlement unto the Scriptures Joh. 5. 39. And we suppose that that which is sufficient to settle us in the foundation is so to confirm us also in the whole superstructure Especially considering that it is able to make the man of God perfect and to be thoroughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. What more is required unto the settlement of any one in Religion wee know not nor what can rationally stand in competition with the Scripture to this purpose seeing that is expresly commended unto us for it by the Holy Ghost other wayes are built on the conjectures of men Yea the Assurance which we may have hereby is preferred by Peter before that which any may have by an immediate voyce from Heaven 2 Pet. 1. 19. And is it not an unreasonable thing now for you to come and tell us that the Scripture is not sufficient
to give us an unquestionable settlement in Religion Whether it be meet to hearken unto God or men judge you For our parts wee seek not for the foundation of our settlement in long uncertain discourses doubious conclusions and inferences fallible conjectures sophisticall reasonings such as you would call us unto but in the express direction and command of God Him we can follow and trust unto without the least fear of miscarriage Whither you would lead us wee know not and are not willing to make desperate experiments in things of so high concernment But since you have been pleased to overlook what hath been discoursed unto this purpose in the Animadversions and with your usuall confidence to affirm that I no where at all speak one word to the Case that you proposed I shall for your further satisfaction give you a little enlargement of my thoughts as to the Principles on which Protestants and Romanists proceed in these matters and compare them together that it may be seen whether of us build on the most stable and adequate foundation as to the superstruction aymed at by us both Two things you profess if I mistake not to ayme at in your Fiat at least you pretend so to do 1. Moderation in and about our differences whilest they continue 2. The reduction of all dissenters unto an unity in faith and Profession Things no doubt great and excellent He can be no Christian that aymes not at them that doth not earnestly desire them You profess to make them your Design Protestants do so also Now let us consider whether of the two you or they are fitted with Principles according unto the diversity of Professions wherein you are engaged for the regular accomplishment and effecting of these ends And in the consideration of the latter of them you will find your present Case fully and clearly resolved For the first of Moderation I intend by it and I think so do you also the mutuall forbearance of one another as to any effects of hatred enmity or animosities of any kind attended with offices of Love Charity Kindness and Compassion proceeding from a frame of heart or gracious habit of mind naturally producing such effects with a quiet peaceable deportment towards one another during our present differences in or about any thing in Religion Certainly this Moderation is a blessed thing earnestly commended unto us by our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles and as necessary to preserve peace among Christians as the Sunne in the firmament is to give light unto the world The very Heathen could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation is the life of all things and nothingis durable but from the Influence which it receives from it Now in pressing after moderation Protestants proceed chiefly on two Principles which being once admitted make it a Duty indispensable And I can assure you that no man will long follow after moderation but only he that looks upon it as his Duty so to do Incident provocations will quickly divert them in their course who pursue it for any other ends or on any other accounts The first Principle of the Protestants disposing them to moderation and indispensably exacting it of them as their Duty is that amongst all the Professours of the Name of Christ who are known by their Relation unto any Church or Way of Note or Mark in the world not actually condemned in the Primitive or Apostolicall times there is so much saving Truth owned and taught as being received with faith and submitted unto with sincere obedience is sufficient to give them that profess it an Interest in Christ and in the Covenant of Grace and Love of God and to secure their salvation This Principle hath been openly defended by them and I profess it to be mine It is true there are wayes whereby the Truth mentioned may be rendred ineffectuall but that hinders not but that the Principle is true and that the Truth so received is sufficient for the producing of those effects in its kind and place And let men ptetend what they please the last day will discover that that Faith which purifieth the heart and renders the person in whom it is accepted to God by Jesus Christ may have its objective Truths confined in a very narrow compass yet it must embrace all that is indispensably necessary to salvation And it is an unsufferable Tyranny over the Souls and Consciences of men to introduce and assert a necessity of believing whatever this or that Church any or indeed all Churches shall please to propose For the proposall of all the Churches in the world cannot make any thing to be necessary to be believed that was not so antecedently unto that proposall Churches may help the faith of Believers they cannot burthen it or exercise any dominion over it He that believeth that whatever God reveales is true and that the holy Scripture is a perfect Revelation of his mind and will wherein almost all Christians agree need not fear that he shall be burdened with multitudes of particular Articles of Faith provided he do his Duty in sincerity to come to an acquaintance with what God hath so revealed Now if mens common Interest in Christ their head and thereby their participation of the same Spirit from him with their union in the bond of the Covenant of Grace and an equall sharing in the Love of God the Father be the Principles and upon the matter the only grounds and reasons of that speciall Love without dissimulation which Christians ought to bear one towards another from whence the moderation pleaded for must proceed or it is a thing of no use in our present case at least no way generally belonging to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and if all these things may be obtained by vertue of that Truth which is professed in common among all known Societies of Christians doth it not unavoidably follow that we ought to exercise moderation towards one another however differing in or about things which destroy not the Principles of Love and Union Certainly we ought unless we will resolvedly stifle the actings of that Love which is implanted in all the Disciples of Christ and besides live in an open disobedience unto his commands This then indispensably exacts moderation in Protestants towards them that differ from them and that not only within the lines of Protestancy because they believe that notwithstanding that dissent they have or may have for ought they know an interest in those things which are the only reasons of that Love which is required in them towards the Disciples of Christ. There is a moderation proceeding from the Principles of Reason in generall and requisite unto our common interest in humanity which is good and an especiall ornament unto them in whom it is especially if they are Persons exalted above others in place of Rule and Goveanment Men fierce implacable revengefull impatient treading down all that they dislike under their feet are the greatest defacers of the
Image of God in the world and upon the matter the only troublers of humane Society But the moderation which the Gospel requireth ariseth and proceedeth from the Principles of Vnion with Christ before mentioned which is that that proves us Disciples of Christ indeed and will confirm the mind in suitable actings against all the provocations to the Contrary which from the infirmities and miscarriages of men we are sure to meet withall Neither doth this at all hinder but that we may contend earnestly for the Truth delivered unto us and labour by the wayes of Christ's appointment to reclaim others from such opinions wayes and practises in and about the things of Religion and worship of God as are injurious unto his Glory and may be destructive and pernicious to their own souls Neither doth it in the least put any discouragement upon endeavours to oppose the impiety and Prophaneness of men in their corruption in life and Conversation which certainly and unquestionably are inconsistent with and destructive of the Profession of the Gospel let them on whom they are found be of what party Church or way of Religion they please And if those in whose hearts are the wayes of God however diversifyed among themselves by various apprehensions of some Doctrines and Practises would sincerely according to their Duty set themselves to oppose that prophaneness wickedness of Life or open vitiousness of Conversation which is breaking in like a flood upon the world and which as it hath already almost drowned the whole glory of Christian Religion so it will undoubtedly if not prevented end in the woful calamity and finall ruine of Christendome they would have less mind and leasure to wrangle fiercely among themselves and breathe out destruction against one another for their mistakes and differences about things which by their own experience they find not to take off from their Love to Christ nor weaken the obedience he requires at their hands But whilest the whole power of Christianity is despised Conversion to God and separation from the wayes of the perishing World are set at nought and men think they have nothing to do in Religion but to be zealously addicted to this or that party amongst them that profess it it is no wonder if they think their chiefest Duty to consist in destroying one another But for men that profess to be leaders and guides of others in Christian Religion openly to persue carnall and worldly interests greatness wealth outward Splendour and Pomp to live in Luxury and pride to labour to strengthen and support themselves by the adherence of Persons of prophane and wicked lives that so they may destroy all that in any opinion differ from themselves is vigorously to endeavour to drive out of the world that Religion which they profess and in the mean time to render it so unomely and undesirable that others must needs be discouraged from its embracement But these things cannot spring from the Principles of Protestants which as I have manifested lead them unto other manner of actings And it is to no purpose to ask why then they are not all affected accordingly For they that are not so do live in an open contradiction to their own avowed Principles which that it is no news in the world the vicious lives of many in all places professing Christianity will not suffer us to doubt For though that Religion which they profess reacheth them to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts to live soberly and righteously and godlily in this present world if they intend the least benefit by it yet they will hold the profession of it in a contrary practise And for this self-deceiving attended with eternall ruine many men are beholding unto such notions as yours about your Church securing Salvation within the pale of its externall Communion laying little weight on the things which at the last day will only stand them in stead But for Protestants setting aside their occasionall exasperations when they begin to bethink themselves they cannot satisfie their own Consciences in a resolution not to love them because of some differences whom they believe that God loves or may love notwithstanding those Differrences from them or to renounce all Vnion with them who they are perswaded are united unto Christ or not to be moderate towards them in this world with whom they expect to live for ever in another I speak only of them on all sides who have received into their hearts and do express in their lives the Spirituall Power and energy of the Gospel who are begotten unto Christ by the Word of Truth and have received of his Spirit promised in the Covenant of Grace unto all them that believe on him For not to dissemble with you I believe all others as to their present state to be in the same condition before God be they of what Church or way they will though they are not all in the same condition in respect of the means for their Spirituall advantage which they enjoy or may do so they being much more excellent in some Societies of Christians than others This then to return is the Principle of Protestants derived down unto them from Christ and his Apostles and hereby are they eminently furnished for the exercise of that moderation which you so much and so deservedly commend And more fully to tell you my private judgement which whether it be my own only I do not much concern my self to enquire but this it is Any man in the world who receiveth the Scripture of the Old and New Testament as the Word of God and on that account assents in generall to the whole Truth revealed in them worshipping God in Christ and yeelding obedience unto him answerable unto his light and Conviction not contradicting his profession by any practise inconsistent with true piety nor the owning of any opinion or perswasion destructive to the known fundamentals of Christianity though he should have the unhappiness to dissent in some things from all the Churches that are at this day in the world may yet have an internall supernaturall saving Principle of his faith and obedience and be undoubtedly saved And I am sure it is my Duty to exercise Moderation towards every man concerning whom I have or ought to have that Perswasion 2. Some Protestants are of that judgement that externall force ought to have no place at all in matters of faith however Laws may be constituted with Penalties for the preservation of publick outward order in a Nation most of them that Hareticidium or putting men to death for their misapprehensions in the things of God is absolutely unlawfull and all of them that Faith is the Gift of God for the communication whereof unto men he hath appointed certain means whereof externall force is none Unto which Two last Positions not only the greatest Protestant but the greatest Potentate in Europe hath lately in his own words expressive of an heavenly benignity towards mankind in their infirmities declared his
to your Question What it is that can settle any man in the Truth of Religion and unite all men therein And then because you object this unto us as if we were at some loss and incertainty therein and your selves very secure I shall consider what are the grounds and principles that you proceed upon for the same ends and purposes namely to settle any man in the Truth of Religion and to bring all men to an harmony and consent therein Now I shall herein manifest unto you these two things I. That the Principles which the Protestants proceed upon in the improvement whereof they obtain themselves assured and infallible settlement in the Truth and labour to reduce others unto the Unity of Faith are such as are both suited unto and sufficient for the end and work which they design to effect by them and also in themselves of such unquestionable Truth Certainty and Evidence that either they are all granted by your selves or cannot be denied without shaking the very Foundations of Christianity 2. That those which you proceed upon are some of them untrue and most of them dubious and questionable none of them able to bear the weight that you lay upon them and some of them such as the admission of would give just cause to question the whole Truth of Christian Religion And both these S r I crave leave to manifest unto you whereby you may the better judg whether the Scripture or your Church be the best way to bring men unto settlement in Religion which is the thing enquired after 1. Protestants lay down this as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the very beginning and first Principle of their confidence and Confession that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God as the Holy Ghost teacheth them 2 Tim. 3. 16. That is that the Books of the Old and New Testament were all of them written by the immediate guidance direction and inspiration of God the hand of the Lord as David speaks 1 Chron. 28. 19. being upon the Penmen thereof in writing and his Spirit as Peter informs us speaking in them 1 Pâ—t 1. 11. So that whatever is contained and delivered in them is given out from God and is received on his Authority This Principle I suppose you grant to be true do you not if you will deny it say so and we will proceed no farther untill we have proved it I know you have various wayes laboured to undermine the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Holy Scriptures many Queries you put unto men How they can know it to be from God to be true from Heaven and not of men many scruples you indeavour to possess them with against its Authority it is not my present business to remove them It is sufficient unto mee 1. That you your selves who differ from us in other things and with whom our contest about the best way of coming to settlement in the Truth alone is do acknowledg this Principle were proceed upon to be true And 2. That yee cannot oppose it without setting your selves to digge up the very foundations of Christian Religion and to open a way to let in an inundation of Atheism on the world So our first step is fixed on the grand fundamentall Principle of all the Religion and acceptable worship of God that is in the world 2. They affirm that this Scripture evidenceth it self by many infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be so given by Inspiration from God and besides is witnessed so to be by the Testimony of the Church of God from the dayes of Moses wherein it began to be written to the dayes wherein we live our Lord Christ and his Apostles asserting and confirming the same Testimony which Testimony is conveyed unto us by uninterrupted Catholick Tradition The first part of this Position I confess some of you deny and the latter part of it you generally all of you pervert confining the Testimony mentioned unto that of your present Church which is a very inconsiderable part of it if any part at all But how groundlesly how prejudicially to the verity and honour of Christian Religion in generall you do these things I shall briefly shew you Some of you I say deny the first part of this Assertion so doth Andradius Defens Concil Trident. Lib. 3. Neque enim saith he in ipsis Libris quibus Sacra Mysteria conscripta sunt quicquam inest Divinitatis quod nos ad Credendum qua illis continentur religione aliqua constring at Neither is there in the Books themselves wherein the holy Mysteries are written any thing of Divinity that should constrain us by vertue of any religious respect thereunto to believe the things that are contained in them Hence Cocleus Lib. 2. de Authoritate Eccles. Script gathers up a many instances out of the Book of the Scripture which he declares to be altogether incredible were it not for the Authority of the Church I need not mention any more of your Leaders concurring with them you know who is of the same mind with them if the Author of Fiat Lux be not unknown to you Your resolving Vniversal Tradition into the Authority of your present Church to which end there is a Book written not long since by a Jesuit under the name of Vincentius Severinus is no less notorious Some of you I confess are more modest and otherwise minded as to both parts of our Assertion See Malderus Episcop Antwerp de Object Fidei qu. 1. Vaselius Groningen de Potestat Eccles. Epist. ad Jacob. Hock Alliacens in Lib. 1. Sentent Artic. 3. Gerson Exam. dos part 2. Consid. 1. Tom. 1. sol 105. and in twenty other places But when you come to deal with Protestants and consider well the Tendency of this Assertion you use I consess an hundred rergiversations and are most unwilling to come to the acknowledgment of it and rather then suffer from it deny it downwright and that with Scurrilous reflections and Comparisons likening it as to any characters of Gods truth and Holiness upon it unto Livy's Story yea Aesops Fables or a Piece of Poetry And when you have done so you apply your selves to the canvasing of Stories in the Old Testament and to find out appearing Contradictions and tell us of the uncertainty of the Authors of some particular Books that the whole is of its self a dead letter which can prove nothing at all enquiring Who told us that the Penmen of it were divinely inspired seeing they testify no such things of themselves and if they should yet others may do and have done so who notwithstanding were not so inspired and ask us Why we receive the Gospel of Luke who was not an Apostle and reject that of Thomas who one with many the like Cavilling Exceptions But 1. That must needs be a bad Cause which stands in need of such a Defence Is this the voice of Jacob or Esau Are these the expressions of Christians or Pagans from whose
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
imagination and groundless presumption which hath not the least countenance given unto it by Scripture or Antiquity What a perplexed condition must you needs cast men into if they shall attend unto your perswasions to rest on the Pope's unerring guidance for all their Certainty in Religion when the first motive you propose unto them to gain their Assent is a Proposition so far destitute of any cogent Evidence of its Truth or innate Credibility that it is apparently false and easily manifested so to be 3. Were it never so true as it is notoriously false yet it would not one jot promote your design It is about Peter the Apostle and not the Pope of Rome that we are yet discoursing Do you think a man can easily commence per saltum from the imaginary Principality of Peter unto the Infallibility of the present Pope of Rome Quid Pape cum Petro what relation is there between the one and other Suppose a man have so good a mind unto your company as to be willing to set out with you in this ominous stumbling at the threshold what will you next lead him unto You say II. That S t Peter besides his Apostolical Power and Office wherein setting aside the prerogative of his Princedome before mentioned the rest of the Apostles were partakers with him had also an Oecumenical Episcopal Power invested in him which was to be transmitted unto others after him His Office purely Apostolical you have no mind to lay claim unto It may be you dispair of being able to prove that your Pope is immediately called and sent by Christ that he is furnished with a power of working Miracles and such other things as concurred to the constitution of the Office Apostolical and perhaps himself hath but little mind to be exercised in the discharge of that Office by travelling up and down poor despised persecuted to preach the Gospel Monarchy Rule Supremacie Authority Jurisdiction Infallibility are words that better please him And therefore have you mounted this Notion of Peters Episcopacy whereunto you would have us think that all the fine things you so love and dote upon are annexed Poor labouring perfected Peter the Apostle may die and be forgotten but Peter the Bishop harnessed with Power Principality Soveraignty and Vicarship of Christ This is the man you enquire after But you will have very hard work to find him in the Scripture or Antiquity yea the least footstep of him And do you think indeed that this Episcopacy of Peter distinct from his Apostleship is a meet stone to be layed in the foundation of faith It is a thing that plainly overthrows his Apostleship For if he were a Bishop properly and distinctly he was no Apostle If an Apostle not such a Bishop That is if his Care were confined unto any one Church and his residence required therein as the Case is with a proper Bishop how could the Care of all the Churches be upon him How could he be obliged to pass up and down the world in pursuit of his Commission of preaching the Gospel unto all Nations or to travail up and down as the necessity of the Churches did require But you will say that he was not Bishop of this or that particular but of the Church Vniversal But I supposed you had thought him Bishop of the Church of Rome and that you will plead him afterwards so to have been And I must assure you that he that thinks the Church of Rome in the dayes of Peter and Paul was the same with the Church Catholick and not looked on as particular a Church as that of Hierusalem or Ephesus or Corinth is a person with whom I will have as little to do as I can in this matter For to what purpose should any one spend time to debate things with men absurd and unreasonable and who will affirm that it is midnight at noon day I know the Apostolical Office did include in it the power of all other Offices in the Church whatever as the less are included in the greater But that he who was an Apostle should formally also be a Bishop though an Apostle might exercise the whole Power and Office of a Bishop is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat allyed unto Impossibilities Do you see what a Quagmire you are building upon I know if a man will let you alone you will raise a structure which after you have painted and gilded you may prevail with many harbourless Creatures to accept of an habitation therein For when you have layed your foundation out of sight you will pretend that all your building is on a Rock whereas indeed you have nothing but the rotten posts of such Suppositions as these to support it withall But suppose that Peter was thus a Prince Monarch Apostle Bishop that is a Catholick Particular Officer What is that to you Why III. This Peter came and preached the Gospel at Rome Though you can by no means prove this Assertion so as to make it de fide or necessarily to be believed of any one man in the world much less to become meet to enjoy a place among those fundamentals that are tendred unto us to bring us unto Settlement in Religion yet being a matter very uncertain and of little importance I shall not much contend with you about it Witnesses meerly humane and fallible you have for it a great many and exceptions almost without number may be put in against your Testimonies and those of great weight and moment Now although that which you affirm might be granted you without any reall advantage unto your Cause or the enabling of you to draw any lawfull inferences to uphold your Papal claim by yet to let you see on what sorry uncertain presumptions you build your faith and profession and that in and about things which you make of indispensable necessity unto Salvation I shall in our passage remind you of some few of them which I profess seriously unto you make it not only Questionable unto me whether or no but also somewhat improbable that ever Peter came to Rome 1. Though those that follow and give their assents unto this Story are many yet it was taken up upon the credit and report of one or two Persons as Eusebius manifests Lib. 2. cap. 25. Whether Dionysius Corinthius or Papias first began the Story I know not but I know certainly that both of them manifested themselves in other things to be a little too credulous 2. That which many of them built their Credulity upon is very uncertain if not certainly false namely that Peter wrote his first Epistle from Rome which he calls Babylon in the Subscription of it But wherefore he should then so call it no man can tell The Apocalypse of John who prophesied what Rome should be in after-Ages and thereon what name should be accommodated unto it for its false worship and Persecution was not yet written Nor was there any thing yet spoken of or known among the Disciples whence
Totilas Besides if we that are now Inhabitants of England must be thought to have first received the Gospel then when it was first preached unto our own Progenitors in a direct line ascending this will be found a matter so dubious and uncertain as not possibly to be a thing of any concernment in Christian Religion and moreover will exempt most of the chief families of England from your enclosure seeing one way or other they derive themselves from the Antient Britains Such pittifull trifles are you forced to make use of to give countenance unto your cause But let it be granted that Christianity was first communicated unto the Saxons from Rome in the dayes of Pope Gregory which yet indeed is not true neither for Queen Berta with her Bishop Luidhardus had both practised the worship of Christ in England before his coming and so prepared the people that Gregory sayes in one of his Epistles Anglorum gentem voluisse fieri Christianam What will thence ensue why plainly that we must be all Papists or Atheists and esteem the whole Gospel a Romance But why so I pray Why the Categorick Assertions are both clear namely that the Pâ—pist first brought us the news of Christianity and that Papists are now odious But how comes this about we were talking of Gregory and some that came from Rome in his dayes And if you take them for Papists you are much deceived Prove that there was one Papist at Rome in the dayes of that Gregory and I will be another I mean such a Papist as your present Pope is or as your self are Do you think that Gregory believed the Catholick Supremacy and Infallibility of the Pope the doing whereof in an especial manner constitutes a man a Papist If you have any such thoughts you are an utter stranger â—o the state of things in those dayes as also to the writings of Gregory himself For your better information you may do well to consult him lib. 4. Epist. 32 36 38. And sundry other instances may be given out of his own writings how remote he was from your present Popery Irregularities and superstitious observations were not a few in his dayes crept into the Church of Rome which you still pertinaciously adhere unto as you have the happiness to adhere firmely unto any thing that you once irregularly embrace But that the main Doctrines Principles Practices and Modes of Worship which constitute Popery were known admitted practised or received at Rome in the dayes of Gregory I know full well that you are not able to prove And by this you may see the Truth of your first Assertion that Papists brought us the first news of Christianity which you do not in the least endeavour to prove but take it hand over head to be the same with this that some from Rome preached the Gospel to the Saxons in the dayes of Gregory which it hath no manner of affinity withall Your second true Assertion is that the Papist is now become odious unto us but yet neither will this be granted you Popery we dislike but that the Papists are become odious unto us we absolutely deny Though we like not the Popery they have admitted yet we love them for the Christianity which they have retained And must not that needs be a doubty Consequence that is enduced out of Principles where in there is not a word of truth Besides I have already in part manifested unto you that supposing both of them to be true as neither of them is yet your Consequence is altogether inconsequent and will by no means follow upon them And this will yet more fully appear in an examination of your ensuing Discourse That which you fix upon to accept against is towards the close of my Discourse to this purpose in these words as set down by you pag. 40. Many things delivered us at first with the first news of Christianity may be afterwards rejected for the love of Christ and by the Commission of Christ. The truth of this Assertion I have newly proved again unto you and have exemplified it in the instance of Papists bringing the first news of Christianity to any place which is not impossible but they may do though to this Nation they did not I had also before confirmed it with such reasons as you judged it best to take no notice of which is your way with things that are too hard for you to grapple withall I must I see drive these things through the thick obstacles of your prejudices with more instances or you will not be sensible of them What think you then of those who received the first news of Christianity by believers of the circumcision who at the same time taught them the necessity of being circumcised and of keeping Moses Law were they not bound afterwards upon the discovery of the mistake of their teachers to retain the Gospel and the truth thereof taught by them and to reject the observation of Mosaical rites and observations or were they free upon the discovery of their mistake to esteem the whole Gospel a Romance What think you of those that were converted by Arians which were great multitudes and some whole Nations were not those Nations bound for the Love of Christ by his word to retain their Christianity and reject their Arianisme or must they needs account the whole Gospel a fable when they were convinced of the Errour of their first teachers denying Christ Jesus in his Divine nature to be of the same substance with his Father or essentially God! To give you an instance that it may be will please you better There are very many Indians in New England or elsewhere Converted unto Christianity by Prote stants without whose instruction they had never received the least rumor or report of it Tell me your judgement if you were now amongst them would you not endeavour to perswade them that Christian Religion indeed was true but that their first Instructers in it had deceived them as to many particulars of it which you would undeceive them in and yet keep them close to their Christianity And do you not know that many who have in former dayes been by Hereticks converted to Christianity from Paganism have afterwards from the Principles of their Christianity been convinced of their heresie and retaining the one have rejected the other It is not for your advantage to maintain an opposition against so evident a Truth and exemplified by so many instances in all ages I know well enough the ground of your pertinaciousness in your mistake it is that men who receive the Gospel do resolve their faith into the Authority of them that first preach it unto them Now this supposition is openly false and universally as to all persons what ever not divinely inspired yea as to the Apostles themselves but only with respect unto their working of Miracles which gave Testimony unto the Doctrine that they taught Otherwise Gods Revelation contained in the Scriptures is that which the