whence it takes its first Rise and Beginning is that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints And he that doth unfeignedly embrace it is so far forth united both to all those whoever heretofore received it And all those who now live in Profession of it but yet we must go a great way further or else we shall come short Home IV. For though this Unity principally relates to the Catholick Church of God Comprehending all Ages and places which is that Body whereof Christ is the Saviour and to whom the great and precious Promises are primarily made yet if we would speak rather os fully then magnisicently we are not so much to Consider in this Case the Church we are united to as the means whereby we are united to it and therefore as Men on Earth we are to consider our selves in statu viatorum as Men that are not only bound to believe but to profess the Faith of Christ Crucified for our Blessed Saviour hath told us That if we be Ashamed of Him and his Words He will be Ashamed of us when He cometh into the Glory of his Father Mark 8. 38. as Men so indispenseably bound â—o that Profession that they must not only hazard but even Actually lose all that is near and dear to them rather then depart from it for the same Christ hath told us That if a Man come to him and hate not Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he cannot be his Disciple Luke 24. 26. as Men who are bound to embody in a common Fraternity and Society that they may joyntly as well as openly make this Profession not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is as the Apostle teacheth Heb. 10. 25. In a word seeing we here live in expectation of the Promises we must submit to all the termes and conditions of the Covenant upon which God hath made their Performance to depend And being the whole tenure of the Gospel doth oblige us on Earth to joyn in a visible Fraternity to a visible Profession to particular duties to visible Professors and to a real not imaginary Obedience to them who Rule over us and Watch for our Souls I see not how we can Challenge the Name of Christians whilest we cast off all Care of these Duties And hence it is Apparent That we cannot be United to that great Catholick Mystical and Invisible Church of God but by becoming Members of his visible Church on Earth as being that part of his Church wherein he hath placed and to which the greatest part of our Duties do particularly Relate To Arrive to the state of Glorified Saints and Angels that Church without Spot or Wrinkle is our Hope and Endeavour But whilest we are on Earth we are only on our Way towards it and are particularly of that part of Gods Church wherein grow Tares as well as Wheat to be distinguished and separated in Gods good time And by our faithful sincere Obedience in this we do through Christ Jesus Require and Preserve a Right and Title in time to be made the immediate Members of the other V. This being our present state and condition our Unity ought certainly to be agreeable and suitable to it and therefore must be visible amongst the visible Professours of the Gospel and what that is or wherein it consists is my present Business to describe But first from the foregoing Premisses I would make this Inference That a Believer at large is only a Christian in Fieri his Faith alone without the other Duties and Accomplishments which the Gospel prescribes to all Christians is not sufficient to give him the full Title of a Christian 'T is true he hath laid a good Foundation but unless he proceed to build thereon he can no more be said to be a Christian then an Artificer can be said to have Erected a fair House when he hath only laid the Ground-Work And the Reason is plain because Faith in its own Nature doth not only incline but oblige to Obedâ—ence And I therefore not only more chearfully Obey Gods Commands because I believe Him faithful who hath promised but I must condemn my self as utterly inexcusable if I disobey Him at the same time that I pretend to believe in Him Hence it is observeable That the word Faith taken Objectively is often in Scripture-phrase used to Signifie not only Revealed Truths but Precepts of Life even the whole Gospel of Christ Jesus or the Law of Faith And where it speaks distinctly of it yet it will have the other to follow it Commanding us to add to our Faith Vertue 2 Pet. 1. 5. And to Shew our Faith by our Works Jam. 2. 8. And accordingly the first Converts to Christianity upon their Owning the Faith thought themselves Obliged to go on to what the Law of Faith Required Thus the â—unuch â—hen Convinced by Philip that Jesus Christ was the Son of God doth not Acquiesce in that Faith but proceeds as far as his present Circumstances would permit and of his own Accord bespeaks Philip See here is Water what doth hinder me to be Baptized Acts 8. 36. And consonantly hereto it is Observable That the primitive Church did Vouchsafe the Title of Fideles to no Adult Persons but such as were in full Communion And did Men perswade themselves that their Faith did so indispenseably oblige them to all Christian Duties that without their sincere Endeavour even Faith it self became defective it would make a fair Advance towards Unity And till they do so I see no Reason to hope for it VI. But now to Return to the thing in Hand As we are Men on Earth and Probationers for Heaven our Unity must be such as is Required by this our state and consequently must consist in such matters as Unites all the visible Professors of the Gospel into such a Body or Society which God hath instituted and designed for his Worship on Earth But then we are to Consider That as we are United to the Catholick invisible Church of God by being United to his visible Catholick Church on Earth so we are United to this visible Catholick Church by being United to some true part of it or by becoming Members of some particular Church for no Member can be United to the Body all over or to the whole immediately but is United to the Body by being United to it in some part For the Body is not one Member but many 1 Cor. 12. 14. And as these fitly Framed altogether make the whole so by Vertue of this Union each Member hath a Communication with the Whole and is both capacitated to discharge his Duty to the Whole and to Receive Supplies from and claim an Interest in the Whole VII Now being that our Belief in the Son of God and that he is the Head of the Body his Church if considered Antecedently to and separately from other Christian Duties doth rather
that his Saying will be true when St. John and Anatolius can be proved to be of the particular Church of Rome and Bishop Coleman and Beda to be no Authors XIX He proceeds telling us That it is a Notorious Lie of John Fox in saying That St. Beda Aâ—firmeth this Custom of Keeping Easter with the Jews to have been here in Britain in his time as though all Britain had used it whereas in divers Places he doth expressly Attribute the same to the Scots that dwelled in the Island of Ireland principally as also to some of them that dwelt in Britain and to fome Britains themselves But all the English Church saith he was free from it Indeed it is a Mistake both in Parsons and Fox if they thought any of them kept it with the Jews in the strict sense For in that famous Northumbrian Disputation their Enemy Wilfrid doth not deny their Keeping it on the Lords Day but accuseth them with a false Account from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth of the Moon But if there were any other some who kept it the Roman way I would know who they were what were any of their Names and in what parts of these Islands they dwelt Here all Instances utterly failed the Jesuite and therefore he subtilely passeth it by never offering at any proof But I need not insist on this because I haue already proved that all the Christians of these Isles till Augustines time kept Easter the same way and different from the Roman Beda himself tells us That Wilfrid was Confident that his Doctrine was Omnibus Scottorum Traditionibus jure Praeserendam So that as Confident as he was yet they wâ—re all against him by his own Confession without anâ— of F Pâ—rsons Exceptions And in the Beginning of the Dispute Coleman's Assertion is this Pasca hoc quod agere soleo à Majoribus meis accepi qui me huc Episcâ—pâ—m miserunt quod omnes Paetres nostri virâ— Deo dilecti eodem modo Celebrasse noscuntur Bed Ecc. Hist lib. 3. cap. 25. As â—or his English Church being free i. e. from this Errour nothing could be said more impertinent and ridiculous For if he mean before Augustine's time his English Church were then all Pagans If he speak of what was in or after Augustine's time it is nothing to the purpose for no Body denies but that Augustine brought in the Roman way the Dispute is concerning what was the Practice here before And now F. Paersons may take his Lye again as being the true Father of it XX. Upon this false Foundation he frames this Trifling Argument which he seems to make great Account of That the Britons can no more be said to be of Eastern Conversion then a Man could say the first Preachers to them were Pelagians because in Beda's time some Reliques of the Pelagian Heresic might be found amongst them To which I Answer That the Case is quite otherwise And if in Beda's or any others time the Britons had been found as unanimously Agreeing in the Pelagian Heresie as they were in the Paschal Solemnity and no Footsteps appearing that it had been otherwise any Man would Conclude That their first Preachers had been Pelagians or Men infected with the same Heresie if they were not known by the same Name And thus he ought to have laid his Argument to make the Parallel run true to the Reality of the Cases But he was more Crafty then so for that had been to Confute himself Next he triumphs over Fox for saying That Beda affirms this Custom concerning Easter to have been in Britain almost 1000 yeares after Christ Whereas saith he Beda was a much older Author and died in the Year 735. Well but what if all this should be done by Miracle without one I know not how it could and Beda should appear almost 300 yeares after his Death to some drowsie Monk and tell him this â—ale F. Parsons if it had made for him would have Hugg'd such a Revelation But after all it is only a mistake if not a wilful One though Fox's heedless way of Expression gave too much Occasion for it for his meaning is this That Beda affirmeth Easter to be so kept by the Britons in his time and that the same Custom continued after his time amongst them so long as to be Practised almost 1000 yeares after Christs time And all this is very true as shall appear Anon. XXI To Revenge this Wrong as he thinks done to Beda he falls foul upon the Magdeburgenses for making Jeoffery of Monmoutb to live about 700 years after Christ Jeoffery's Testimony indeed Gauled him forely and therefore it was to be shuffled off by any means Whether he hath done the Magdeburgenses Right in that thing I neither know nor care For their Errour as to the time of Jeoffery's Life doth nothing invalidate his Testimony But if it were good before their mistake it is so still so that this is only Cavilling Besides though Jeoffery of Monmouth lived in the time of King Stephen which is above 500 yeares since and so is no Yesterdays Author yet the Work it self is much older For he was not the Author but Translator of that History which was written Orginally in the Brittish Language and Accounted an Old Book before he was born as Lambard and others have proved and therefore the Testimony is more Considerable and deserves a better Answer after all the Magdeburgenses Account may Refer to the Matter of the Testimony and Time when the thing was Transacted not to Jeoffery's Life and then it will be too Modest and too favourable To less purpose is his time spent in proving Jeoffery to be no Cardinal I should be prone to believe him if I had no other Reason but his Relating a Truth so prejudicial to the Interest of the Court of Rome But if he was not a Cardinal he might be as honest a Man 'T is certain he was a Bishop and as such was a much better Man especially if the Pope would suffer them to be what Christ and his Apostles made them and not Appropriate all that Authority to the Roman See to a Share of which every Bishop hath as good Right and Title as himself XXII At length after a deal of Shuffling Lying and Rayling he comes to the Matter of Jeoffery's Testimony And that he Answers easily and so may any Man who takes no Care to speak Truth but only what may serve his Turn He says There is not a Word in it of not Acknowledging the Popes Supremacy I know not how there should for such a Supremacy as is now Claimed was not then Lick'd into form He might have Remembred that the Transactions there mentioned relate to the time of Gregory the Great then whom no Man wrote more fiercely against the Supremacy Or which is in effect the same thing the setting up an Universal Bishop Or if he had bethought himself of what he elsewhere tells us That the Britons would not Communicate with Augustines
Converts then Dogs he might have made it a strong Argument for their professing Obedience and Subjection to the See of Rome In fine he will have their Answer Amount to no more but this That only they would not Acknowledge Augustines Superiority over them seeing be was sent only to the English And that the Authority of their own Arch bishop was not taken away by his coming for any thing they knew but remained as before 3 Conver cap. 2. sect 14. What pity is it that Augustine did not better inform them it seem's they would have been a very obedient People had they known the Pope's Orders and been told the Truth of the Matter But it is an unlucky thing that when a Man with Working his Wits has devised an Answer that would do the Business he should not have the Privilege to make it pass for Truth unless it be so in it self Now all this is spoken by a Figure called Fiction which the rude Vvlgar call Lying For the Britons no more regarded the Pope then they did Augustine I have already set down the Answer of Dinothus Abbot of Bangor to which Jeoffery's words Relate and he who will be at the pains to read it will see That it is as expressly and directly Levelled against the Pope's Authority or Supremacy if it must be so called as could be well fâ—amed They impugne Augustines Authority by denying the Pope and own no Superiour but the Bishop of Caerleon who was to oversee under God over them or according to the Brittish had the only Eye over them under God And this they Confirm by their unanimous Practice despising all Orders from Rome and obstinately refusing all Communion with Augustine and his Successors Yet this and more F. Parsons Chymistry can melt into Obedience and an Acknowledgement of the Pope's Supremacy At this Rate who can doubt of Miracles in the Church of Rome XXIII In the next place he is highly Offended with the Magdeburgenses for speaking so irreverently of Pope Innocent the First and his Testimony That all the West Churches were Founded by St. Peter on his Disciples and Successors And it is no wonder if Pope Innocent spoke out for himself and it may go a great way where they have not to do with such Hereticks as expect Proofs If this be true why has F. Parsons discovered some such First Founders of the Brittish Churches as were none of Peters Disciples or Successors His Forgetfulness sometimes doth his Holy Father as much injury as the Magdeburgians malice neither doth it carry any force of Truth because by rheir own Confession there was a time when Easter was not so exactly observed as now it is whether there was a Stated Church at Rome then or not and that the Conversion of the Britons was at that time I see not any better Account can be Given To Help out this he tells us of Two more Popes Honorius and John the fourth who wrote to the Irish to reduce them from this Errour But Honorius will do him small service because in that Account which Beda gives of his Letter Ecc. Hist lib. 2. cap. 19. it is clearly implied that the whole Nation was involved in it and so we have a Pope on our Side to set against him that follows His Pope John was searce Pope then at Best he was but â—lect And the Letter seems to comâ— as ' I may say from the Chapter in the Vacancy of the See and of those many who joyn in Writing it Hilarius the Arch-Presbyter not John is first mentione but for once let John have the Credâ—t of it and he then will tell us That this Heresie i.e. concerning Easter was but lately sprung up amongst them and only some sew infected with it But now how John and Honorius will Agree about this I cannot tell For once I will be so kind to F. Parsons as to try if I can make them Friends The Brittish and Irish Usage was in this Western part of the World a great Singularity in those days Now if John had a Mind to draw them off from it who can blame him from speaking favourably and representing the Matter as inoffensively as could be The Way to Win Men is not to provoke them and we sometimes seem not to believe that a Man is so bad as we know he is because we would not harden him with shame but have a defire to make him better But when Men purposely and designedly speak sparingly their Words are not to be brought as an Evidence of the whole Matter But the Truth is they had little knowledge of our state but by uncertain Relations Gregory the Great himself when he saâ— the English Children Sold in the Market knew not whether their Nation was Christian or Pagan Augustine even for some time after his Coming hither knew not the Usage of the Britons yea even Laurentius his Successor had much such an opinion of the Irisb as F. Parfons till Time and Experience undeceived him And therefore such Forreigners as were far more ignorant of our Affairs we may justly except against as incompetent Witnesses especially they being the very Men who taught these Men their Errour which their Eyes and Eares after Convinced them of XXIV But now comes the Knocking Argument to this Effect That neither Damianus and others sent by Eleutherius nor St. German and his Fellows who came twice hither to oppose the Pelagianâ— make any mention of this Usage which they would have done and Amended it too had they found it here Because saith he both Pope Pius and Pope Victor had before Condemned it for Heretical I could thank the Jesuite for this Argument for it mortally Wounds his own Cause I will not again dispute the Mission of Damianus or Deruvianus or what other Names the Jesuite will give Him nor will I insist on it that Germanus and Lupus were sent by the French at the Request of the Britons and not by the Pope But if that Usage was universally practised by the Bâ—itttish and Irish and no good Instance appear that it was ever otherwise as I have already proved and that it continued for a long time after then it will unavoidably follow that the Britons were not under the Roman Jurisdiction nor thought themselves bound to stand to the Popes Determination Yea fuâ—â—her that these very Men whom he saith the Pope sent were of the same Mind or else dealt very unfaithfully in making no stir about it Nay being the French Churches did Communicate both with Brittisb and Irish at that time when they not only Maintained this Usage in opposition to Rome but refused Communion with their Bishops It is an Argument that they neither thought the Bishop of Romes Decrees did bind the Britons nor that the thing was so Heretical in it self For certainly they would never have so freely and Friendly Maintained Communion with them had they stood in open opposition and professed disobedience to their proper Patriarch By this a Judgement
stand seized of as good Authority to interpret Scripture as any they can justly pretend to And that we use it more duely and rightlâ— may appear hence That we not only diligently use all lawful Means to come to the Knowledge of Truth but Condemn all those ill Arts which obscure or corrupt it We have no Index Expurgatorius to Expunge or Alter any Passages in the primitive Fathers or any other honest Authors if they do not please us yet by this one base unpaidonable Aâ—tifice the Romanists whilst they have been undermining the sufficiency of the Scriptures have shaken the Authority and weakned the Evidence of Tradition and so difarmed the Church of her best Weapons of Defence for certainly a Tradition is best proved by those who lived in or near those times when it was delivered But how shall we believe their Testimony when their Writings are daily Curtail'd Changed and Falsified at pleasure And had not that God who takes Care of his Church caused the Chear to be discovered it would have done more Mischief then all the diligence and pains of all the Romanists in the World could ever have made a just satisfaction for But this it is for a particular Church to set up for Infallibility which is a point that can never be gained without putting out the Eyes of all at present living and stopping the Mouths of all that went before them For though I beleeve that God will never deâ—ert his Church in all parts of it in Matters necessary to Salvation yet he has not given her any Power over the Faith but She is Tied to that and that alone which was at first delivered to the Saints And if the Roman or any other Church or an Angel from Heaven should teach any other doctrine then what we have received they ought to be so far from being regarded that if we follow St. Paul they ought to be Accursed That we Adhere to the Scriptures thâ— Romanists cannot justly blame us because they themselves Acknowledge their divine Authority For see the Council of Trent doth Sess 4. decret de Can ' Script ' but they accuse us as too strict Scripturists upon two Accounts First because we Admit not Tradition to be of equal Authority with the Holy Scriptures Secondly because we receive not several Books as Canonical or of unquestionable divine Authority which they have thrust into the Canon As for Tradition and its Authority I shall Treat of it more distinctly in the next Paragraph and there answer this Accusation As for the Canon of Scripture we own the very same and no other which the Church of God hath Handed down to us after the Canon of Scripture was Compleated As for those Books Called Apocrypha which the Council of Tâ—ent first made Canonical it is Apparent That we do not by that Title utterly Condemn them but rather Repute them of an Inferiour or Ecclesiastical Authority because we Read them in our Churches for Instruction of Manners and inciting to good Living And sometimes use them for the Illustration of Doctrine but never to Introduce or Found any Doctrine upon and this is as much as the Ancients allowed them The Jewish Church was the Keeper and Preserver of the Canon of the Old Testament as much as the Christian is of the Old and New now But they had none of those Books in their Canon And therefore if any Assert that those Books do belong to the Canon the Consequence will be That the Jewish Church did not preserve the Canon of Scripture entire and true and for the same Reason any one may suspect the Christian and so render the Authority of the whose dubious So injurious are the Romanists to the Faith it self whilâ—st they set up their own Authority against the whole Church of God Besides if they will not own that we received the entire Canon of the Old Testament from the Jewish Church they ought to tell us from whom â—e did receive it and to whose Custody it was Committed till the time of Christ and his Apostles But whoever will be at the pains to read the Scholastical History of the Canon of Scripture Written by our Learned Dr. Cosins Bishop of Duresâ—ne will be abundantly satisfied that the Tridentines under pretence of Tradition have Enlarged the Canon of Scripture contrary to the Tradition of the Church of God in all Ages even to their own time Thus when Modern Mens bare word must be allowed a sufficient Authority to Vouch a Tradition a Pretence of Tradition is set up against the truth of it and so Tradition it self rendred doubtful or useless And therefore I shall not trouble my self to pursue those many particular sâ—uffling pleas which they use to Justify themselves in offering violence to the Sacred Canon But if you would know the true Reason which it was their Business to Conceal I believe Spalato hath Hit on it Suas non poterant Nâ—nias ex Sacrâ Scripturâ verè Canonicâ probare ideoque noluerunt permittaere us 〈◊〉 aliae Scripturae etiam non Canonicae eriperentur quo suas qualescunque â—aberent â—â—â—retras unde spicula desumerent ac praeterea viderent ac praeterea ne viderentur â—ein aliquâ Protestantibus cedere aâ—t consentire maluerunt etiam falsa tueri 〈◊〉 de Repub. Ecc. lib. 7. cap. 1 Num. 28. XLIV He that doth believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God must of course believe their Sufficiency or that they contain all Matters necessary to Salvation for they give this Testimony to themselves And he that believes them to be the Word of God must believe the Testimony they give either of themselves or others St. Paul saith They are able to make Man wise to Salvaâ—ion 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16. But that cannot be so unIess they contain at least all things necessary thereto But though the Scriptures be thus sufficient and contain a certain Sense in themselves yet by reason of the distance of time when they were Wrote through Unskilfulness in Oriental Customes and Phrases where they were Wrote through Ignorance of some particular Tenets which some Argumentative part of Scripture is Levelled against and â—uch like Causes But above all through the Perverseness of evil Men and Seducers it so falls out That those Scriptures which are of a certain Sense yea plain in themselves are made obscure to us and we either become doubtful of their Meaning or follow a wrong Meaning For what is or can there be so plain and easie which some wiâ—ked Men have not or cannot render intricate and perplexed especially to weak Judgements and faciIe Tempers Now for the Discovery of the true Sense of Scripture in this Case true and genuine Tradition is possibly the best Help and surest Refuge and to Wrest the Scriptures out of the Hands of Hereticks and Restore the Rule to its true Force right Use and proper Meaning perhaps there is not a surer nor more effectual way for our Blessed Saviour Himself Wrote