consequence and admirably serving the turn of the rankest Sectaries Who not being able to keep up their Congregations any longer or to keep their Disciples from ours by trivially declaiming against our Ceremonies They ferment them now by instilling into them new fears and jealousies of our Doctrines Warning them away from our Churches as if there was some strange Fury working or some Innovations contriving in the Church of England and as if we were allowed to preach and maintain even in our City-Pulpits new Articles of Faith Socinian or Pelagian in opposition to the Catholick and truly Primitive How unsufferably J. O. for one has reflected not only upon some particular Persons but upon the whole Church of England and its Governers upon this account any one may read that does but run over his Survey of a discourse concerning Ecclesiastical Polity No wonder then if now they are transported with joy when an Author appears as one dropt down from heaven to plead their Cause vouching himself a Son of the Church of England teaching as one having Authority like a Father venturing at first dash upon the tenderest Point in the World concerning Articles of Faith implying and supposing all along that some are extremely to blame for improving the Faith not by confirming but enlarging it asking whether the state of Salvation be alter'd ' and what need any other Articles In what Church does he ask these Questions and how monstrous impertinent are they here if we do nothing like it Well! to begin with him and follow him step by step through his many turnings and windings and sometimes nothing but a rope of Sand to guide me He makes a discovery to us in the first place that That which we commonly call the Apostles Creed is the sum of Christian Faith And again that the Primitive Church received this as the sum total of Faith necessary to salvation Why not now I answer it is so now and all true Sons of our Church hold it so now Then why this Question Why that which follows Is the state of Salvation alter'd No doubt the terms of Belief on which Salvation is ordinarily attainable are never changeable but like God himself who establisht them fixt and immoveable But still he follows his blow though he fights with the Air If it be compleat saies he what need any other Articles There may have been needful heretofore not only other Articles but other Creeds for the farther explication of those Articles in the Apostles Creed and yet in those new Creeds not one new Article The Apostles Creed is the sum of Christian Faith True yet I hope he will not think the Nicene the Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creeds were superfluous and unnecessary And in his Chapter about preaching he seems concerned for this last the Athanasian and yet his censure is so bold upon Constantine the Emperour and some godly Bishops he conceives more zealous than discreet and so do some godly Bishops conceive of this Author and his pique at the new word Homoousios carries such an ugly reflection upon that Creed that I scarce dare understand him But we shall have more of this hereafter He would have men improve in Faith but rather Intensivè than Extensivè to Confirm it rather than Enlarge it And yet 't is certain that all formal and mortal Hereticks that are not Atheists are justly condemn'd for want of due extension in their Faith He prays us to remember the Treasurer to Candace Queen of Aethiopia whom Philip instructed in the Faith His time of Catechizing was very short and soon proceeded to Baptism This is soon pronounc'd as he uses to do but not prov'd It does not appear how long or how short was the time of his Catechizing or how many Leagues they travelled together before they proceeded to Baptism 'T is true there needs no great length of time to propose and demonstrate Christianity as St. Peter and the Apostles did it in few words and especially out of the Prophesies of the Old Testament which the Eunuch was then reading But then a great deal must and may be learnt in a little time as the prime Articles of Faith are so strongly and rationally knit together that 't is indeed impossible to teach or learn any one of them without teaching or learning them all Whereas then our Author proceeds thus But Philip first required a confession of his Faith and the Eunuch made it and I beseech you observe it I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and straightway he was baptized How no more than this no more What! nothing of the Holy Ghost till he heard of him in the Baptismal form What does he mean then by that which immediately follows This little grain of Faith being sound believed with all his heart purchased the kingdom of Heaven Had he believed the whole Gospel with half his heart it had been of less value in the sight of God 'T is not the quantity but the quality of our Faith God requireth I answer the true and full notion of Saving Faith is embracing from the whole heart the whole Fundamental truth of the Gospel Why does he talk then of the whole Heart and yet supposes but half or a part of this Fundamental truth Does he dream that St. Philip the Evangelist Christen'd the Eunuch after Christ's Ascension into Heaven only as St. John the Baptist brought men to his Baptism before Christ appeared in his Ministry upon earth and made him such a Disciple as those whom St. Paul found in Ephesus that had not so much as heard whether there were any Holy Ghost to whom thereupon St. Paul proved Christianity from their Master the Baptist's Testimony and to make them perfect Christians which they were not before but only a sort of Disciples Baptized them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts 19. Yet this Author will not let go his hold and will needs be thus objecting against himself But sure the Eunuch was more fully instructed It may be you are sure of it but I could never yet meet with any assurance of it nor any great probability of it Yes I am sure of it if he means by more fully instructed taught other Fundamental Articles beside this one that Jesus Christ is the Son of God And I will give him one demonstration of what I say which is more than a Probability out of the story it self and he might have met with this demonstration in it himself if he could have seen but an inch before him for we find in the story that the Eunuch himself made the motion to the Evangelist and reminded him of baptizing him Therefore 't is evident they had discourst before even of this particular though we are told no more in express words but that St. Philip preacht to him Jesus the Faith of Jesus Yet he had brancht out this Faith into all its Fundamental Articles and had declar'd to him even the necessity of Baptism which he understood
Imprimatur Febr. 23. 1676. H. London ANIMADVERSIONS Upon a Late PAMPHLET Entituled THE Naked Truth Or THE TRUE STATE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH The Second Edition LONDON Printed by T. R. and are to be sold by Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard 1676. ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE TITLE THE DEDICATION AND Epistle to the READER OF all the Rarities which of late have been the discourse of the Town where men spend much of their time as the men of Athens did either in hearing or telling some New thing nothing has been more talkt of than a cerrain Pamphlet call'd The NAKED TRUTH Now having got a sight of it and scann'd it throughout I am abundantly satisfied not only from his Style which is sometimes Enthusiastick but from his Matter and Principles if he stick to any that the Author is a Borderer upon Fanaticism and does not know it But by Naked Truth he seems to mean Christianity without either Welt or Guard as they say and not set off with Ceremony For his Title-page stands thus The Naked Truth or the True State of the Primitive Church This Title-page of his he explains very sufficiently p. 17. In the Primitive times saies he in the greatest Storms when the whole World of Jews and Gentiles were Enemies to the Church and not one of your Ceremonies in the Church to preserve it The simple Naked Truth without any Surplice to cover it without any Ecclesiastical Policy to maintain it overcame all and so would do now did we trust to that and the Defender of it If he means its great Defender in Heaven we put our whole Trust in him or if he means his Vice-gerent upon Earth the Defender of the Faith we repose an intire Confidence as we ought in the gracious Declarations and Expressions His Majesty is pleased to repeat upon all Occasions of his perpetual good Affection and Compassion for the Church of England Or if by Trusting to the simple Naked Truth this Author means the Truth of our own Cause we dare trust to that and to many Defenders of that too But if trusting to the Naked Truth be to this Pamphlet and this Project we dare not trust to it Why this is stripping the Church bare to the very skin nay Skin and all must go an Article of a Creed if need be for he spends his first long Chapter in Reforming there too and reducing the Faith to I know not what Naked Truth Methinks he should have call'd his Pamphlet The TRUTH FLEY'D for NAKED TRUTH is too short and not spoken through his Subject But Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his life for This he contends on his Principle of Self-preservation This he concludes the only possible expedient to keep out Popery This is his healing Salve This is the product of his Fasts the Answer to his Prayers the effect of his seeking God as he takes care to acquaint us This has been the Travel of his mind since he had these thoughts which he has been humbly conceiving these two years time enough for an Elephant to bring forth in This is the thing which he Dedicates to the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament Pity it was not presented to the Lords during the last Session then I believe it would have been delivered over by their Lordships to be confuted by the same experienc'd hand that took to task a more Primitive piece of Naked Truth viz. the Solemn League and Covenant in the Palace-yard at Westminster where it expired into ashes As for those Noble Patriots in the House of Commons 't is probable they would have voted him their Thanks too after the same manner for laying a Libel at their doors making a breach upon their glorious Act of Uniformity and violating their Act their most necessary Act against Printing without a License though he makes a neat Excuse whilst he is doing it that he does it against his Conscience for which he very poentiently begs pardon of God and Them and so sins on for all this while he goes on with his Printing and Publishing it without a License How he will justifie his claim to the Title of An Humble Moderator I cannot imagine unless Assuming Imposing and turning all upside down be the signs of Humility and immoderate Zeal for one Party to be the qualification of a Reconciler or Moderator In his Address to the Reader he gives an Account why he is so scrupulously careful to conceal his Name because he cannot bear reproach So all that is like to fall upon the poor Fatherless and Motherless Pamphlet though he would have done a piece of Justice to have named himself and so to have cleared others for it has been confidently laid to the charge of more than one Reverend person who I have great reason to believe and am several waies assured had no manner of hand in it yet he does himself and me a particular favour in making it impossible for me to reflect upon his Person which I know no more than the Man in the Moon only as he makes himself the Patron of so vile a Cause For whosoever vents his own Amusements to the Churches great and real prejudice and that 's this case he must not think to scape for the Godliness of his Style nor for a man of good Intentions as sure he is or else he would never give the Devil so much more than his due as to make so strange a Protestation as he does here that he would never condemn any good Action though done by the Devil as if he supposed the Devil might do some such for ought he knows but Hell it self they say though we never heard before of any good Actions there yet it is full of Such as were once full of good Intentions Animadversions upon his first Chapter concerning Articles of Faith I Confess when first I saw this Jewel of a Pamphlet and had run over two or three pages of this Chapter I suspected its Author for some Youngster that had been dabling among the Socinian Writers and was ambitious of shewing us his Half-Talent in the way I was quickly delivered from this jealousie by his Orthodox contradictory expressions in other places But I find he is one of the Men of the Second Rate as I take leave to style them that hardly ever see to the Second Consequence Therefore once for all I protest that I do not charge Him with many of his own most obvious Consequences as his opinions for 't is plain he does not discern them But the Church may justly complain of him for thrusting out such crude indigested matter without communicating these conceptions of his to some that would have shew'd him the weak and blind-sides of them Now since the mischief is done to undo the Charm again it becomes a duty to Expose him and most of all for this Chapter where he has most expos'd himself a Chapter of most pernicious
that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen and a Publican spoken of private differences between man and man to be referr'd to the Determination of the Church that is the Congregation of the Faithful which they usually and by order should assemble in and refer this to the Church in General in matters of Faith not in the least pointed at there He will have much ado to make us believe that a man is not bound to tell his Brother of Heresie a matter of so great Consequence and to tell it to the Church if his Brother will not hear him and yet prove that he is bound to do this in matter of private difference or petty quarrel between them Wherefore to borrow his own Conclusion of this matter I pass this over as very Impertinent And so is that which follows I do not believe nor am I bound by Scripture to believe such Expositions as the Popish Church makes of this place That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Who bids him believe the Popish Expositions But if that place be not spoken of the Roman Church therefore does it signifie nothing to prove the Visibility or Indefectibility of the Catholique Church But 't is plain he advances the notion of a Church Invisible a Church that shall be driven into the Wilderness where her Ninety nine Ceremonies are to be left to attend her scarce visible in the World whereas the Learned understand that place of the Churche's Persecutions the first three hundred years which made it the more illustriously visible and our nineteenth Article calls it the visible Church of Christ Now he proceeds to the business of General Councils whether they may Err in some points of Faith The Church of England acknowledges they may Err and have Err'd in things pertaining to God No doubt of it But this Author immediately flies higher with a why not in some points of Faith All the Evangelical Doctors grant says he that the later General Councils have Err'd if so why not the former what promise had the former from Christ more than the later True there is no more promise to a Council of the fourth Age or to that of Nice than to one that should be held in the seventeenth if it were as General and as free He asks concerning this promise The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church what 's this to a general Council which is not the thousandth part of the Clergy nor the thousand thousandth part of the Church We shall find him mistaken in this Account at long running Lastly he shews his charitable Divination in foretelling how much more mischief General Councils would have done if more of them had been conven'd But say you says he No General Council determin'd those errors Why because none was call'd about them had any been call'd who can doubt but they would have avow'd that in the Council which they all taught in their Churches This he says but his Yea's and Nay 's are no Oracles with us For why should they be when a General Council is not so with him Then presently he humbly craves pardon for his bold presumption viz. of these hard sayings against General Councils And I as humbly beg leave to speak for them in behalf of the Church of England and the Law of the Land both which I 'me sure I have on my side and both give much deference to General Councils The twentieth Article of our Church has these words The Church has Authority in matters of Faith And the Statute of the Land runs thus Eliz. 1. c. 1. That none however commissioned shall in any wise have authority or power to order or determine or adjudge any Matter or Cause to be Heresie but only such as heretofore have been determined ordered or adjudged to be Heresie by the authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresie by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such as hereafter shall be ordered judged or determined to be Heresie by the Court of Parliament of this Realm with the Clergy in their Convocation But for all this we do not confess or acknowledge all or many of those for General Councils which they at Trent or which Bellarmine is pleas'd to account for such a parcel of eighteen of them But those very few we count for General which the Church Universal before the unhappy breach between East and West receiv'd for General But now to unravel the skein which is much entangled and ruffled in his confused way the diminutions he puts upon general Councils may be reduc'd to these three Heads 1. That General Councils may err in points of Faith because they have no promise to the contrary 2. Because they want Numbers even of the Clergy being not the thousandth part of them and therefore to put this Argument as far as ever it will go are not truly General 3. Because of the prejudices they that should sit in Council would bring along with them then who can doubt but they would avow that in the Council which they all taught in their Churches 1. In answer to his first Exception I premise these limitations If by erring in some points of Faith he means some points belonging to the Piety of Faith as Divines use to speak or to the Perfection of Faith or remotely belonging even to the essence or necessity of Faith and wounding it by far-fetcht Consequences I will not deny but even great Councils may possibly be circumvented for a time yet I may safely venture with our Learned Pious Dr. Hammond in his Paraenesis to reckon it among the pio credibilia or a thing piously credible as we say that God will not permit a Council truly General and Free to err in Fundamentals which thus far only I presume to explain that God will never permit them to deny and declare against any Fundamental Truth and much less to affirm and declare any Fundamental Errour to be a Truth and least of all to declare it a Fundamental Truth And if this Author asks which of God's Promises give us encouragement to hope and believe this I refer him to the Prophet Isaiah ch 30. v. 20. And though the Lord give you the bread of Adversity and the water of Affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a Corner any more but thine eye shall see thy Teachers That this Chap. is Evangelical will not I suppose be denied and so is that Isai 54. 17. and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment shalt thou condemn If this be denied to be spoken of the Christian Church I prove it undeniably from our Saviour's application of the Context And all thy Children shall be taught of God It was then a Prerogative of the Christian Church that her Teachers should be driven into