committed the Oracles of God Therefore Epiphanius proves Epiph. de menâ— pond the Bookes of Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus not to be Canonicall because they were not kept in the Arke And S. Augustin calls the Iewes our Librarie-keepers who are so zealous of the Old Testament that they will rather loose their life then one line of it So carefull also hath the Christian Church beene of both Testaments that many Martyrs have chosen to give their Bodies rather then their Bibles to bee burnt Neither doth it onely belong to the Church to keepe the holy Bookes but also to discerne betweene true Scripture and false And so shee is the Defender of the Scripture to which purpose the Spirit of Christ is given unto her whereby she knoweth the voyce of the Bridegroome Here the Church of Rome hath abused her power and betrayed her trust inserting into the Canon diverse Apocryphall bookes which were not written by divine inspiration nor received by the Church in S. Ieromes dayes And as she is the keeper and maintainer of the holy Records So she is as a Herauld Common-cryer to publish notifie propound and commend these Records as the Word of God unto all men For this cause is the Church called the Pillar of Truth because shee beareth up the Truth by her publicke ministery and sheweth us the holy Bookes So that the Testimonie of the Church is an excellent meanes to know the Scripture to be from God even the first motive and occasion of our faith The Key which openeth the doore of entrance into the knowledge of the Scriptures The Watchman that holds out the light in open view and presents the shining beames thereof to all that have eyes to discerne it The guide that directs and assists us to finde out those Arguments in Scripture wherby the Divinitie of it is proved And so like the morning starre introduces that cleare light which shineth in the word it selfe But the testimony of the Church is not the onely nor the chiefe cause of our knowledge nor the formall object of our faith As the Samaritanes at first believed for the saying of the woman Ioh. IV. 39. but afterward because of his own word saying Now wee beleeve not because of thy saying for wee have heard him our selves And as Nathaneel was induced to come to Christ by the Testimony of Philip but was perswaded to beleeve that he was the Messias by what he heard from himselfe as may appeare by his confession Rabbi Ioh. I. 45 4â— thou art the sonne of God so men are first induced to beleeve that this Booke is the holy Scripture by the Testimony of the Church but after they receive greater assurance when their eyes are opened to see that light which shineth in the Scripture To use a more familiar similitude If a man bring you a letter from your father and tell you he received it out of his owne hand you beleeve him but are better assured when you consider the seale subscription forme of Characters and matter contayned in the Letters So are we perswaded of the divinity of the Scripture The Scripture is an epistle sent unto us from God our father The Church is the messenger and tells us that shee received it from him Wee give credite unto her Report but when we peruse it and consider the divinity of the matter the sublimity of the style the efficacy of the speach we are fully perswaded that the same is from God indeed In a word the Church commends the Scripture to be Gods word not by her owne authority but by the verity of the thing it selfe and arguments drawne out of Scripture which proveth it selfe to be divine even as the Sunne manifests it selfe to bee the Sunne a learned man proveth himselfe to be learned and as Wisedome is justified of her children for which cause the Scripture is called a fyre a hammer a word that is lively mighty in operation a light shining in a darke place All which sheweth that it hath a certayne in-bred power to prove manifest it selfe without any outward testimony And therefore the Authority of the Scripture in respect of us doth not depend vpon the voyce of the Church And yet is the Church bound to give testimony to the Scripture we are bound to heare her Testimony Further as the Church is to propound Sect. 16. so to expound the Scripture apply them by preaching and administration of the Sacraments Wee are all of us so blinde in heavenly mysteries that we may say with the Eunuch of Ethiopia Act. Vâ—ll â—â—4 How can I understand except I had a guide God hath appointed us guides to expound unto us the Scripture and to apply the same for doctrine for confutation for Correction for Instruction These bee the uses of Scripture II. Tim. III. 16. and it is The man of God that is the minister and Pastor who is to expound the Scripture and apply it unto these ends In the II. of Haggai vers 12. the Lord sayth Aske now the Priests concerning the Law And Malach. II. 7. The Priests lips should preserve knowledge and they should seeke the Law at his mouth To them it belongs to teach preach labour in the word divide the word exhort confute rebuke as the Apostle directs his two Sonnes Timothie Bishop of Ephesus and Titus Bishop of Creta When Christ was to remove his bodily presence he established his ministry upon earth when he ascended up on high he gave gifts unto men He gave some to be Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and teachers Eph. IIII. 11. He sent forth his disciples with the like commission as he receaved from his father saying As my father sâ—â—t me even so I send you And agayne Goe teach all Nations baptizing them c. Matth. XXVIII 19.20 That this is the office of the Pastors is manifest and acknowledged by all but they must remember that they expound Scripture by Scripture and according to the meaning of the Law-giver comparing spirituall things with spirituall things and adding nothing of their owne Herein the Church of Rome hath abused her power assigning unto Scripture what sense she pleaseth even that which will make most for her owne turne This is ingenuously confessed by Cusanus Apud Illyâ— Clav. Script p. â— Tract 7. that the Church may expound the Scripture one way at one time another way at an other time still fitting the sense of the Scripture to the practise of the Church As they have done touching these words in the institution of the Sacrament Drinke yee all of this which by the auncient Church sayth he were so vnderstood that even the people were to receave the cup By the moderne Church in another sense But howsoever they have betrayed their trust let us not despise the Iudgement of the Catholick Church in expounding the Scripture For as the Scripture is the perfect rule of faith so the Iudgement of the Church
is a speciall meanes to direct us in applying this rule Every man doth challenge some trust in the Art he professeth And is there any that hath studyed the Scripture so well as the Bishops Pastors Doctors of the Church in all ages Besides they have a calling to expound the Scripture are therfore called Guides Rulers Lights Spirituall Fathers Teachers Ambassadors of Christ and disposers of the secrets of God Finally they have not onely a calling but a promise of the assistance of the spirit Matth. XXVIII 20. Loe I am with you unto the end of the world By vertue of which promise it is certaine that all the Pastors of the Catholick Church in all ages did never erre dangerously and therefore their Iudgment to be preferred before the opinion of any private man for God hath commaunded us to heare and obey them II. Sect. 17. The Church is to judge of the abilities of men and who are fit for the Ministery to conferre Orders appoint them their Stations and direct them in the exercise of their Function This power was committed unto Timothie and Titus and must continue in the Church untill the end of the world For as now we are not to expect new revelations so neither extraordinary missions And therefore hee that will take upon him the Office of a Minister not being called by the Church Ioh. X. is an Intruder a Thief that commeth not in by the doore but climbeth up another way What will you say then to some Dominees heere amongst you who having no Ordination to our calling have taken upon them to preach and preach I know not what even the foolish visions of their owne heart As they runne when none hath sent them 11 Sam. XVIII 23.29 and runne very swiftly because like Ahimaaz they runne by the way of the plaine So like Ahimaaz when they are come they have no tydings to tell but dolefull newes They think by their puff of preaching to blowe downe the goodly Orders of our Church as the walls of Iericho were beaten downe with sheepes hornes Good God! is not this the sinne of Vzziah who intruded himselfe into the Office of the Priest-hood And was there ever the like heard amongst Christians except the Anabaptists whom some amongst you have matcht in all manner of disorder and confusion III. sect 18 It belongs unto the Church to decide controversies in religion The Apostle sayth Oportet haereses esse There must bee heresies So there must be a meanes to discover reprove condemne those herisies and pronounce out of the word of God for truth against heresie Deut. XVII 8.9.10 Under the Law the Priests assembled together had authority to give sentence in matters of Controversie The same authority did our Saviour give unto the governors of his Church when he gave them the power of the Keyes and commaunded others to heare them for that their sentence is the sentence of God Titus is commanded to reject an hereticke and so hee had power to Iudge him Doe we therfore make the Church an absolute Infallible Iudge of fayth No Onely God is the supreme Iudge of absolute Authority because he is the Law-giver And in all Common-wealths the supreme power of Iudgement belongs to the Law-giver Inferiour magistrates are but Interpreters of the Law Therefore in Scripture these two are joyned together Esay XXXIII 22. The Lord is our Iudge the Lord is our Law-giver And Iames IV. 10. There is one Law-giver able to save and destroy His throne is established in heaven but in earth we may heare his voice in the holy Scripture revealing his will to the sonnes of men whereby he speaketh to us for God now speaketh to us and teacheth his Church not by any extraordinary voyce from heauen not by Anabaptisticall Enthusiasmes but by the mouth of his holy Prophets and Apostles whose sentence is contayned in the holy Scripture Lib. V. that wee may say with Optatus Milevitanus De coelo quaerendus Iudex Sed ut quid pulsamus ad coelum cùm habeamus hic in euangelio testamentum The Iudge is in heaven But we need not goe so farre to know his sentence when we have his will expressed in the Gospell So Moses Deut. XXX v. 11.12.13.14 This commaundement which I commaund thee this day is not hidden from thee neyther is it farre off It is not in heaven neyther is it beyond the sea But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest doe it This word being lively and accompanied with the power of the Spirit doth illuminate the minds of men with the knowledge of the truth reprove convince and condemne error and therefore is said to accuse judge condemne Ioh. v. 45. VII 5. XII 4.8 by our Saviour himselfe And so though properlie the Scripture be not the Iudge but rule of faith yet we call it the Iudge by a Metonymie because God who is the Iudge speaketh in it and by it Poli◠lib. III. c. 16. So the Philosopher sayth The Law is the Vniversall Iudge that magistrates are but Ministers and Interpreters of the Law to apply it to particular causes and persons That which the Magistrates doe in Civill matters the chiefe Pastors of the Church are to doe in matter of Religion If a controversie arise they are to heare the reasons on both sides compare them try by the Touchstone of the word weigh them in the ballance of the Sanctuary And so that which the word hath defined in generall they are according to the rule of this word to apply unto the particular cause and controversie pronouncing for truth against error Yet so as they swarve not from the Rule whereunto God hath tyed them Esay VIII 20. To the Law to the Testimony if they speake not according to this word there is no light in them So that the Church doth Iudge and determine controversies not as an absolute infallible Iudge but as a publicke Minister and Interpreter by a subordinate power which yet is more to be esteemed then the Iudgement of any yea of a thousand private men Shee is not the Iudge but interpreter of Scripture Shee doth not Iudge of the verity of Gods Law but of the truth of private mens Iudgements And that especially if the matter in controversie bee of weight when the Bishops are assembled in Councell When there was a Controversie touching Circumcision the Apostles and Elders assembled at Ierusalem for composing the matter Act. XV. The godly Bishops in the primitive Church following their example did at all occasions assemble in Councells for determining Controversies condemning of hereticks and clearing the Truth by their joynt suffrages even in time of persecution under Pagan Emperours they did celebrate diverse Provinciall Synods as at Antioch at Casarea at Carthage And in that famous generall Councell of Nice wherein Arrius was condemned the Fathers saw such a necessitie of this Synodicall Iudgment
of governement back-biters of them that are in dignity speaking evill of those things they know not who promise unto themselves liberty That is the thing at which they ayme liberty for howsoever they seeme to except only against our Lawes yet the thing they would have is a freedome from all Lawes and that it may be lawfull for every man to apparrell Gods worship in what fashion he pleaseth and to doe what seemeth good in his owne eyes as though there were no King in Israel wherby they doe wonderfully please the factious people Et hoc ipso placere cupiunt quod placere contemnunt They seeke to please the people by displeasing of authority IV. They give unto the people both by their doctrine and example incouragement to commit two sinnes whereunto of all others they are most inclined Vsury and Sacriledge VVherefore S. Iude describing those murmurers complainers whose mouths speake proud things sayeth ver 16. They have mens persons in admiration because of advantage And that we may all know whom he meaneth he addeth ver 19. These are they that separate themselves By whose divinity men as I sayd have these two advantages one that they may lend their money upon usury Another that they may safely robbe God of his tythes and devour all manner of holy things This last was the ayme of some Politicians in the kingdome of England they set on discontented men to cry out against the governement of the Church hoping by that meanes to prey upon Bishoprickes and Cathedrall Churches as they had done before upon the Abbeyes V. This their snow-ball of popularity hath gained no small accesse by their lying They traduce those who are not of their faction as men either of scandalous life or mainetayners of false doctrine and such as seeke to draw us backe agayne unto Popery They tell the people of their owne victories in disputations and conferences how they have put others to silence with the strength of their arguments when indeed they have not spoken one wise word They boast of the inward testimony of Gods spirit assuring their consciences of the trueth of their doctrine Ludov. Viv. de verit fid christ l. 4. pag. 178. And this as sayeth a learned writer is Tutissimum mentiendi genus The safest way of lying is for men to intitle God to their owne dreames Lastly But the spâ—ciall meanes wherby they have advanced their faction is by insinuating into the weaker sexe in whom there is least ability of Iudgment By this meanes the Serpent overcame mankind he first tempted the woman and by her seduced Adam By this meanes the Philistines overcame Sampson Iudg XIV 18. They ploughed with his heifer and so found out his riddle And this indeed hath beene the common practise of all haeretickes Act XIII 50. the Iewes stirred certaine devout honorable women to resist Paul These new Gospellers make use of such instruments to oppose the Church and for the most part their Proselytes are of that Sexe as if their generative vertue were so weake that they could beget none but daughters Now to search a litle into the cause of this Besides the weakenesse of their Iudgement to discerne betweene truth and error and the naturall inclination which is in women to pitty two things especially make them in love with that religion one It is naturall unto the daughters of Eve to desire knowledge and those men puff them up with an opinion of science inabling them to prattle of matters of divinity which they and their teachers understand much alike Insomuch that albeit S. Paul hath forbidden women to speake in the Church yet they speake of Church matters more then comes to their share The other is a desire of liberty and freedome from subjection for these teachers allow theÌ„ to be at least quarter-masters with their husbands insomuch that I have not observed that faction to praevaile but where husbands have learned to obey their wives and where will and affection weare the breeches There is a civill constitution in the authentickes against women Non percipientes sacrosanctam adorabilem communionem that would not receive the holy and adorable Communion that they should lose their douries or Ioyntures which if it were in force in this kingdome I thinke some of our Ladies would not be so stiff-kneed choosing rather to goe without that blessed Sacrament then receive it kneeling By these meanes have they assayed to batter the orders and whole fabrick of our Church which like Caesars bridge Caesâ—de bello Gall. lib. 4. the more it is oppugned the stronger it stands yet they themselves are not all agreed what forme of Policie they would have and I thinke if it were left to their owne choice and frame they would prove as wise as Hermogenes Apes in the fable who would build houses and live after the manner of men but when they went about it they had neither tooles nor skill to effect the worke In the meane time they labour to bring all men in dislike with the present governement like Platoes Euthyphro who accused his owne father and like that ungracious fellow Lamprocleus who slandered his mother Xenoph de dict fact Secrat The Romans did nourish in the Capitol certaine dogs and geese which by their barking and gagling should give warning in the night of theeves that entered in But if they cryed in the day time when men came in to worship then their leggs were broken because they cryed when there was no cause Those men have given a false Allarum crying barking gaggling against us against their mother their brethren as though we were all theeves when there is no other cause but that we desire to worship God reverently which they cannot endure It hath grieved my very soule to see my flocke thus straying in the praecipices of error and schisme and I have endeavoured by all meanes to reduce them unto the unity of the Church whereunto I was rouzed up by your Lordships commands and therefore I presume to offer unto your Lordship this small account of my labours The cause which I maintaine is just the thing which I plead for is order and whether should I then goe for Patronage but unto him who is the admired patterne of Iustice and Patron of order Besides If any thing could proceed from my meannesse worthy of your Lordship it is already deserved by your favours unto my selfe and by your kindnesse unto Gods Church which is such that we were all most unthankfull if we did not acknowledge that your Lordship is next under his sacred Majesty Instaurator Ecclesiae Hibernicae and so a lively Image of him who is the true Defender of the faith upon earth But I forbeare to give your Lordship your deserved prayses lest I be thought like Psapho his bird which sung the prayses of him who nourished her Besides as Alexander would be painted by none but Apelles graven by none but Lysippus one
in the service of God without any speciall warrant but when I considered that this is the very Diana for which you strive and the wall of separation between you the Church I thought fit to inlarge my selfe upon this point to manifest unto all those who love the trueth that sitting hath no more ground in Christ's Institution then kneeling And now to proceed Sect. 36. I will shew you other Ceremonies used by you in Gods worship without any speciall warrant The next to sitting at the Communion is sprinkling in Baptisme for which there is no warrant but the custome of the present Church for the auncient Ceremonie in Baptisme was not aspersion but immersion which Ceremonie was sanctified by the Baptisme of our Saviour Matth. III. 16. Mark I. 10. for the Evangelists say When he was baptized he came out of the water and therefore he went in into the water The same was used by the Apostles and thereunto the Apostle alludeth shewing that the mortification of sinne the increase of that mortification and the vivification of the new man are signified by the Ceremonie of Baptisme for the dipping in Baptisme had three parts their going down into the water their continuance in the water and their comming up out of the water The going downe into the water figureth the mortification of sinne by the power of Christs death for all wee sayeth the Apostle which have beene baptized into Iesus Christ have been baptized into his death The continuance in the water noteth the increase of that mortification by the power of Christs death and buryall We are buryed with him by Baptisme into his death The comming up out of the water ratifieth our rising againe unto newnesse of life Like as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father so wee also should walke in newnesse of life Rom. VI. 3.4 This Ceremonie was continued in the Church for many hundred yeares and to that purpose in ancient times they had places in each Church for dipping called Baptisteria and Lotiones neither was sprinkling generally practised in the Church till 1300. yeares after Christ when to use your owne words Antichrist was in his full height Now can you shew me any reason why you may leave a Ceremonie which was certainly used by Christ by his Apostles and the whole auncient Church and was of singular use for fignification and in stead of it take another not so significant brought into the Church by Antichrist And that yet it shall not bee lawfull for the whole Church to lay downe another Ceremonie to wit sitting at the Communion whereof there is no certainty nor likely hood that ever it was used by Christ or his Apostles or any Church in the world and in place of it to use another which is a great deale more decent and comely Thirdly you use to injoyne pennance to receive penitents in a white sheet and I am sure that if a Surplice in Gods Service be a Ceremonie so is a white sheet in publick pennance and absolution and there is no more warrant for the one then for the other Fourthly you use a Ceremonie in Marriage by joyning of hands and pronouncing of words which are not commaunded Fiftly I could tell you that the time was in the dayes of the Presbyterie when that Church whose orders you so much approve did use a Ceremonie in Ordination and a very strange one It was not imposition of hands but shaking them by the hand to bid them welcome into their Societie because forsooth they were loath in any thing to have a conformitie with the auncient Apostolick Church Sixtly you professe to honour the Church of Geneva as a fit patterne unto all other Churches and yet they use the Ceremonie of godfathers in Baptisme and wafer Cakes in the Communion against which one Ceremonie I could say more then can be said against all the Ceremonies of our Church Finally the lifting up of the eyes to Heaven the spreading out of the hands the knocking of the breast sighing and groaning in Gods service are Ceremonies used by none so much as by your selves And yet I confesse that if they proceed from a sincere heart they are lawfull expressions of devotion By this time you doe all see that whereas you deny Ceremonies in Gods worship which are not commaunded you are evidently convinced by your owne practise I thinke that I have said enough Sect. 37. to overthrow that ground which you have laid that no Ceremonies ought to bee used in Gods service without a speciall warrant from the word Now for the conclusion of this poynt I will appeale unto the confessions of the reformed Churches and the suffrages of divines You professe to approve the Articles of the Church of England as contayning nothing but trueth though not so manie particulars as you account to be matters of faith and those Articles doe ascribe such a power to the Church to ordaine Ceremonies as you may see in the XX. Article The Church hath power to decree rites or Ceremonies and againe in the XXXIIII Article Every particular or Nationall Church hath authority to ordaine change and abolish Ceremonies The same you may reade in the Articles of Religion of the Church of Ireland which were printed in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth As for the Iudgement of other Reformed Churches I shall referre you to the Harmony of Confessions and the writings of their learned Divines where you may learne I. That it is not only lawfull but expedient and requisite to use Ceremonies in Gods worship II. That those Ceremonies should be significant III. That it is not necessary that the same Ceremonies bee observed in all Churches at all times IV. That we are not bound to observe all those Ceremonies which were used by the Apostles and the Primitive Church V. That we may retain some Ceremonies used by the Iewes namely Ceremonies of order not of prefiguration VI. That we may use some Ceremonies used by the Pagans VII That wee may retaine some Ceremonies of the Papists VIII That the governors of the Church have power to make choice of Ceremonies to change and abrogate some and to ordayne others as they shall see occasion Finally That wee are bound to observe all Ceremonies which are injoyned by lawfull authoritie provided that they bee qualified with these conditions following Instit lib. IV. c. 10. §. 14. Mr Calvin requireth three conditions That they have In numero paucitatem in observatione facilitatem in significatione dignitatem I. For number they should be few for when the Church is pestered with the multitude of them it makes the estate of Christians to be more intollerable then the condition of the Iewes as it is in the Church of Rome whose missalls are larger then the booke of Leviticus whereof Gerson Polydore Virgill and others did complaine in their time II. They should bee easie for observation III. For signification they should be grave decent and
When a King of a heathen becomes a Christian he loses not that temporall right which hee had but acquires a new right in the spirituall goods of the Church so if afterwards of Christian he become Heathen he loseth the new right which he had acquired in the benefites and priviledges of the Church but not the old temporall right which hee had unto his Crowne So Bernard told the Pope In criminibus non possessionibus potestas vestra The Church hath power to censure offences namely with the sentence of excommunication not to take away possessions But I might have spared this labour Sect. 41. for you are not the men who ascribe too much to the censures of the Church but indeed too little and set them all at naught If a man for his faction disobedience be cast out of the Church you thinke him so much the neerer heaven as one who hath witnessed a good confession and is very zealous for the truth then you account him most worthy of your company as if our Saviour had said If hee refuse to heare the Church Let him be unto thee as a faithfull brother So little doe you regard the sentence of the Church which our Saviour hath commaunded you to obey saying sit tibi Let him bee unto thee as a Heathen man and a Publicane for which he gives a reason in the words following saying Verily I say unto you What soever yee bind on earth shall be bound in heaven that is the sentence pronounced by the Church is ratified by God himselfe Here I cannot dissemble the injury that is done unto the Church by you in those parts for her Instructions are not received her Ordinations are neglected her determinations despised her orders contemned her lawes trodden under foote her censures derided In nothing shee is heard And these who refuse to heare her yee are so farre from accounting them As Heathens and Publicanes that you esteeme them as Saints and Martyrs and account us no better then Heathens Publicanes and persecuters you open heaven only to those that are of your faction damne all that approve not your fantasies and so condemne all Churches that are or have beene except your owne Conventicles That it is a wonder to me how you can professe to beleeve The holy Catholicke Church for never any ancient Church observed these orders which you seeke to obtrude upon the world as the discipline of Christ and the seepter of his kingdome And never any Church since the Apostles dayes wanted our orders which you reject as unlawfull and Antichristian So that that which you account the true Church is not Catholicke and that Church which is Catholick is not holy Thus have you lost one article of your Creed It was so with the Donatists in ancient times and almost in every thing their courses were so like unto yours that as oft as I consider your opinions and practise I doe remember them and thinke it is Vetus fabula pernovos histriones as though by a Pythagorean transmigration their soules had taken up their mansion in your bodies Which I will instance in some particulars The Donatists did not only separate from the Catholicke Church but most arrogantly esteemed their owne faction to bee the only true Christians in whose assemblies salvation was to be found a Beelesia una est eam tu frater Parmeniane apud â—os solos esse dixisti Optat lib. 2. post Nitimini suadere hominibus apud vos sotos esse Ecclesiam So have you appropriated unto your selves the styles of Brethren Good men Professors As if all others who favour not your faction had no brotherhood in Christ no interest in goodnesse made no true profession of the Gospell The Catholickes acknowledged the Donatists to be their brethren loved pittyed and prayed for them b Velint nolint fratres nostri sunt Aug in Psal 32. Concordate nobiscum flatres diligimus vos hoc vobis volumus quod nobis Id. Ep. 68. But the peevish schismatickes requited their love with hatred esteemed them no better then Pagans and disdayned to salute them c Isti qui dicunt non esâ—is fratres nostri Paganos nos dicunt Aug in Ps 32. Vos odio noâ— habetis fratres utique vestros auditorum animis infunditis odia docentes ne Ave dicant cuiquam nostrum Optat. lib. 4. So albeit we have reached foorth unto you the right hand of fellowship yet have you answered us with disdaine terming us formalists time-servers worldlings Papists Arminians limmes of Antichrist and no better then reprobates But for my owne part I passe very little to be judged of you for all your malice you shall have my pitty and my prayers The Donatists thought all things polluted by the touch of Catholickes and so washed their Church walls and their vestiments broke their chalices scraped their Altars d d Rasistis Altaria fregistis calices lavastis pallas parieâ—es inclusa spatia salsa aqua spargi praecepistis Optat. lib. 6. So these men thinke that our service-booke our Ceremonies our Churches and all are polluted with the Papists though they descended unto them from the ancient Church and we have better right unto them then they had And therefore where they had power they did not wash the Churches but in a sacrilegious furie pull them downe to the ground burnt the vestiments broke the chalices or converted them to private uses and razed the Altars esteeming a beggerly cottage fitter for Gods service then a magnificent Temple much like the officers of Iulian who when they saw the holy vessells of the Church cryed out En qualibus vasis ministratur Mariae filio What stately plate is this for the Carpenters sonne The Donatists taught that the efficacie of Sacraments depends on the dignity of the Minister and so would not receive the Sacrament from any but such as they esteemed just men that is to say men of their owne faction e De Baptismo dicere solent tune esse verum baptismum Christi com ab homine Iusto datur Aug. Ep 167. And are not some of you of the same minde who refuse the Sacrament though they might have it after their owne fashion onely because the minister hath conformed himselfe unto the orders of the Church The Donatists taught that the Church ought not to tollerate evill persons in her Communion that Communion with such persons polluteth and profaneth the Church And that therefore all the Churches of the world were perished because they communicated with Caecilianus f Donatistae pertinaci dissensione in heresin schisma verterunt tanquam Ecclesia Christi propter crimina Caeciliani de toto terrarum â—â— be perierit Aug. cont â—pist Parmen l. 3. Id. de haeres ad quod vult cap. 69. And was it not upon the very same ground that your brethren the Brounists did run both out of the Church and out of their witts they built their conclusions upon your premisses
desperate cause make no small advantage by their lying were it indeed God's as they beare the world in hand it would not need such props as those to support it Wilt thou mak a lye for God sayth Iob a one doth for a man to advantage his neighbour The Apostle proveth the resurrection of Christ by this inconvenience which would follow if Christ were not risen 1. Cor. XV. 1â— Then wee are found false witnesses of God for wee have testified of God that he hath raised up Christ If the Apostle had beene of these mens mind this had been no Argument for that testimony which they gave of the resurrection of Christ was a speciall motive to draw men unto the faith And so conduced unto their cause but for all that if it had been an untruth they should have been found false witnesses which God cannot endure though done with an intent to advance his owne service Amongst the sixe things which the Lord doth hate Solomon reckons a false witnesse that speaketh lyes and him that raiseth up contention among brethren And againe Prov. VI. 16. XIX 9. A false witnesse shall not be unpunished and he that speaketh lyes shall perish Yet have these men so accustomed their tongues thereunto that now Ab corum ere pallida veritas fugit But it is ordinary with these men to belye their Ordinary I wish their malice their madnesse had here stayed But as though the burning of one Temple had not beene enough to make them famous L. Bishop of Derrie they have most shamefully traduced a Reverend and worthy Praelate of our Church who came in but by accident making him to rave throughout their whole Libell whereas it is well knowne if he had entered the lists of disputation with them which he did not speaking but very little and that not unto them but unto my selfe an armie of such Pigmeyes could not have stood before him To repeat the passages wherewith they basely belye him were but to cherish credulitie in the reader All who were present testifie they never heard him speake any such words And besides a Qui perdere vult faenum emat Asinum A pulâ— If any will lose so much hay as to entertaine that Asse or time as to reade that barbarous Libell They shall finde such unworthy and sordid trash to bee farre from both the candor of his stile and gravity of his Iudgement But it may be said of these men as St Hierom of some in his dayes Existimant loquacitatem esse facundiam Lib. contra Helvid malodicere omnibus bonae conscientiae signum arbitrantur They had sufficient experience of his abilitie in this kinde about two yeares before that in the same place where he so baffled them with the strength of his Arguments that their mouthes being stop't they were evidently discerned to speake through the nose Insomuch that afterward to save the poore remnant of their repute with their followers who were present and perceived them to bee both confuted and convinced they had no other excuse but that they were daunted by the authority of his place and person A miserable subterfuge and no better then that which Foelix the Manichee made for himselfe when in a publicke dispute he was triumphed upon by St Austin but withall unwilling to confesse his ignorance Terret me apex Episcopalis Act. cum Foe lice lib. I. And yet it is well knowne that these men doe not use to deferre so much unto a Bishop as that haeretique or other heathen Philosophers in their conferences and letters did unto that learned father This contumelious and unfaire dealing did once perswade me not to answer the foole according to his foolishaesse But to contemne these Annales Volusî cacatas chartas The subject I have to doe with is so base the parties so unworthy that Vinco seu vincor semper Ego maculor And therefore perceiving them to be fallen out of one brainesickenesse into another that is from babling to scribling as desirous to be press't aswell as suspended I had set up my rest with the Epigrammatist Allatres licet usque nos usque Mart. lib. V. Epig 61. Et gannitibus improbis lacessas Certum est hanc tibi pernegarefamam Olim quam petis in meis libellis Qualiscunque legaris ut per orbem Nam te our aliquis sciat fuisse Ignotus pereas miser necesse est Non deerunt tamen hac in urbe forsan Vnus vel duo tresve quatuorve Pellem rodere qui veliâ—t caninam Nos han à scabie tonemus ungues But since they have sung an Io Paean to their victorie where they have little cause Prov. XIV 15. and by that meanes have seduced a number of simple people as the foolish will beleeve every thing insomuch that many especially of the female sexe have refused to receive the holy Sacrament for feare of Idolatrie I will take some paines breifly as the hast of the presse the importunity of mine owne affayres and present indisposition of my body will give me leave to remove these scruples that the poore people who have beene mis-led by these blinde guides may be reduced unto the unity of the Church which is the thing in this world I most desire That I may truly say with S. Cyprian Opto equidem ut si ficri potest nemo de fratribus pereat consentientis popull Corpus unum gremio suo gandens mater includat I desire if it be possible that none of the brethren perish but that the Church like a glad mother may receive them in her bosome being all of one minde This was the only cause which moved mee to heare their objections I did not admit disputation to call the present lawes in question but in all meekenesse to instruct them that were contrary minded and to settle their unresolved consciences beleeving them to be the men they profess't desirons of truth rather then victory and that if they might receive satisfaction to some few doubtes they were ready to yeeld that obedience which is required And both to conforme themselves unto the present governement to draw their people unto conformity also And in this I followed the example of S. Augustin who admitted Foelix the Manichee unto a publicke conference in the Church before the people wherein the haereticke though stiffe to maintaine his error yet gave the Bishop the reverence due to his place which these men would not affoord unto me and after long babling at last yeelded unto the truth I was not so happy in the successe in regard of the difference betwixt his auditors and mine his making conscience of the truth and accounting it Religion to reverence their Bishop and to beleeve him as Gods messenger but mine resolved never to forsake their opinions though the truth were made never so evident unto them having Iudgements forestalled with praejudice against whatsoever should be spoken by a Bishop whom to despise they account it the
can be no order nor constitution so just but some scrupulous minde or other will dislike it And as they are enemies to Christian liberty so they give just offence to all sorts of men To the Kings Majesty but their disobedience to his Lawes To the Church by foule aspersions and seditious practises They charge her with will-worship Idolatry which is as much as to cal their mother whoore Besides it cannot but grieve her to be bereaved of her children many of whom she sees following those bâ—ind guides through the praecipices of error and schisme They give offence unto all moderate and well affected Christians by forsaking their Communion for no other reason but because that others even the King State Church and all will not follow their fancies and be squared by their wills They give great scandall unto the Papists who observing their practises and mistaking their Tenets for the doctrines of our Church charge us that we are newfangled not carried so much with zeale to the truth as with hatred to them abhorring almost every thing that is used by them and departing further from them then they haue from the Primitive Church Insomuch that I dare say the violent courses of these partiall Divines whose soules hate peace is not the least cause of the Papists separation from us They lay a stumbling blocke before their own followers a number of simple people who by their example are animated or as the Apostle speaketh edified without ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I. Cor. VIII 10. to contemne authority and from that contempt many doe proceed either to open separation or to some degree of disloyall discontentment Finally they give great offence to the weaker sort who are not well grounded in the faith for when they see them who are the greatest zelotes in Religion to make more conscience of a harmlesse Ceremonie then of lying slandering backbiting cosenage Vsury Sacriledge And to urge sitting at the Sacrament more then the duty and comfort of the Sacrament it selfe for their humor to forsake their ministery and for trifles to set all Gods ordinances at sixe and seaven They take occasion from thence to mislike all forwardnesse in Religion esteeming zeale but hypocrisie and so either rest in outward civility or turne altogether profligates So many wayes give they offence Deut. XXVII 18. And Cursed bee he that maketh the blind goe out of the way And let all the people say Amen And now having discomfited the Disputers forlorne hope I come to grapple with his many forces even with his Draconary milites which he sent to assault the reverent gesture which we use at the receiving of the Sacrament Where though his Arguments seeme unto those who looke upon them through the vapour of affection greater and goodlier then they are yet if they would dispell the mists and cloudes of partiality then those reasons which seeme Gyants in their eyes would appeare like little dwarfes In this Conflict I confesse my Answers were very briefe denying only that Proposition which was false sometimes giving instance to show the absurdity thereof Intending to let the Disputer runne his witts out of breath and then if I had not been prevented by being put in mind of the danger of that publick disputation to resume the summe of his proofes make the Auditors sensible of the vanity of them In the mean time I was forc'd to follow or rather goe along with him in his wyld-goose-chase through a rabble of intortuled Syllogismes which to relate I should even blush in his behalfe And indeed the third part of them that are set downe in the Libell were not used in the Court but have been framed since by the Libeller as are also the Answers fathered upon me whereupon he builds the whole frame of his senselesse discourse fighting against his own shadow therefore I can not build upon these Answers which he hath framed for me but I must take the matter a-new into my hands culling out every medium which he used to inforce his Conclusion and waighing them severally in the ballance of reason And besides his bold alleadging the example of Christs Institution whereof I will say nothing now Sect. 31.32.33.34.35 having so fully disproved it in my Sermon that he his fellowes may be ashamed for ever to abuse the world with so false a pretence All his Arguments may be reduced unto these foure I. That kneeling at the Communion hath been abused unto Idolatry II. That in using it there is danger of Idolatry III. That it hath an appearance of Idolatry and will-worship IV. That to kneele at the Sacrament is Idolatry at least as the Disputer was pleased to speake without any president from the Schoole which he never read Corporall Idolatry These foure he confounded together skipping from one to another and back again to the former like a man distracted of his senses But I must play the Chymist to extract them and put them in their severall boxes for the Readers better understanding The first exception against Kneeling is That it hath beene abused to Idolatry What then If that were a sure rule that all things which have been so abused should be abolished we should leave our selves nothing which could be safely used for there is none either of all Gods workes or of the workes of man but it hath in some place or other been some way or other abused to Idolatry How then could our consciences be assured of the lawfull use of any thing which we use whenas we are not sure whether the same thing in some other place be not made an Idoll If there were any force in that Argument it would conclude more strongly against the Sacrament it selfe which hath beene made an Idoll then against Kneeling which never was the object but the naturall expression of worship commonly indifferently used in true worship in false by the servants of God and by Idolaters But here the Disputer tells us that The bread in the Sacrament is a holy and necessary thing which cannot be removed Implying that Kneeling is not so Here I will aske this wise man whether before the Institution of the Sacrament it was not free for our Saviour to have ordayned the same in other Elements then bread wine I thinke he will confesse that he might have appointed other things to bee the outward Elements in that Sacrament So then these Elements were neither necessary nor holy yet did our Saviour make choyce of them notwithstanding that he knew how they had beene prophaned by Gentiles in their Idoll-service a Iustin Martyr Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Matth. XV. 2. Mark VII 3. As he did also appoint water to be the Element in the other Sacrament albeit it was at that time superstitiously abused by the Pharisees in their Lotions Whereupon it necessarily followes that the idolatrous or superstitious abuse of a thing makes it not altogether unfit for Gods service But