own party lest they might suppose he had a hard opinion also of them for the major part of them or possible he donbted he should exasperate the whole World about him if he had in his title extended his uncharitable Censure to the full length and that thereupon his Book might primâ facie have been cast aside with a quis legit haec Nemo hercule nemo or have vanished like a Cacodaemon or Spectrum quite out of sight or into Grocers Shops for wast paper as it hath been said of another like unto it in Thuris piperisve cucullos In short never was there man that wrote at the rate as this man hath written How great a Scandal alas hath he brought upon the Christian Profession For should this be received without a publick Contradiction as a Doctrine of Truth among us viz. That not above one in a Million shall be saved our Religion would be the most uncomfortable Religion of any in the World and who among those that are Aliens from it will ever be perswaded to be Converts unto it Nay then may Satan well insult and with triumphant Boastings cry out with a shout O Christ where is thy Victory what is the Blood of God spent for the Salvation of the world become of so little value that so small inconsiderable number can be saved by it Thou O Christ art called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I know not what but a poor Prince and a weak Captain hast thou proved thy self to be when I like a Stout and Valiant Champion indeed have brought the greatest number of those for whose sake thou didst enter the field against me under my Command not above one in a million but shall for ever be subject unto me and consequently never to be delivered from everlasting Destruction Horrendum dictu Never O dear Christians never let our Souls enter into the secrets of this man nor be Baptised with the Baptism that he is Baptised with Somewhat we may discern by him of the miserable Fruits which the late Schism and Rebellion brought forth amongst us that such as he should be preferred then to a place of Dignity in one of our Universities where he might be the more able cum privilegio to do mischeif by his whimsical Opinions However I am glad it is not any of our Nation that hath run into this worst kind of Antichristianism but one that hath been an Intruder amongst us While men slept in those days the Enemy we see hath been busie to sow his Tares yet may these Tares be now plucked up without any hurt to the good Corn yea very much would it be to the advantage of it if they were quite removed And therefore since this Intruder hath disobliged our Nation yea goeth on still to disoblige it more and more it were to be wished that he had his Pass given him to return again to his own Countrey with shame for there is no reason he should stay longer to eat of our Bread or abide in our Nation as he hath by his own Confession upwards of fifty years and yet be so unworthy of this Privilege by his dissenting from us both in the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church creating thereby Troubles to us while we are here in this World and sending us all for the most part packing to Holl when we depart out of it At least I could wish that his Works may have the same Law put in force upon them as the Works and Wares of Aliens are to have by the Statute of the 14th and 15. of Hen. 8th viz. that special Marks be set upon them to prevent the Fraud and other worse Inconveniences that may arise unto us by them I have done with his Title upon which I confess I have insisted too long but that what hath been here written of it may be joyned with that which hereafter followeth in the Refutation of this uncharitable mans absurd Opinion Before I come to his Book there are also some parts of his Epistle to be Reflected upon and to be Reverberated too for that Religious Persons sake to whom he Dedicates his Book and for the sake of all others who may have the hard hap as I have had to Read it First I find no fault with Dedicating his Book to an Honourable Lady one that excelleth in Piety knowledge of and Love to Sacred Things as his words are whom if he had called his Elect Lady it had been pertinent to his purpose for surely he could not but account her as one chosen out of his millions c. Let such Persons whom the King delighteth to honour have all that Honour given them which is their due and when by their exemplary Piety they bring a more than ordinary Lustre upon Religion God himself hath promised to honour them likewise Well then may we that are Ministers of the Gospel by all good ways and means endeavour without flattery to do the same This man I do not call him Minister of the Gospel for that it seems he is not but whatsoever he be he hath so done by his Dedication and I commend him for it It is pity he did not set her name unto it as well as her Title She is a stranger unto me one of whom I never before heard though I have made some inquiry of Persons about me But though I commend him in his design of Dedicating I cannot approve of all that he hath written in it He humbly begs to have leave to lay his Treatise at her Honours Feet for Protection this me-thinks sounds not well and signifies a fear in him as well there might that he failed in his undertaking Why else doth he thus fall a begging when if his Treatise be as it should be according to Truth he needs no such protection of it for no doubt God would protect him in it and the whole Church of God would stand by him against me and all others that should except against it But if otherwise it agree not with the Standard of Truth that is the holy word of God who will not say neither he nor it deserves any Protection at all what then is the matter trow that he so earnestly begs Protection Doth the man fear he shall be knockt on the head that he thus seeks for Protection or will his Treatise be safer at her Honours Feet than it would be upon a Stationers Stall The feet indeed is the sittest place for it that is to be trodden upon or spurned into the fire rather than to be protected being able to do much hurt to those that shall read it or hear it Had he Dedicated his Book to his good Brother or to some other that may be better able than himself to discern the dishonour which he doth to our Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel by it he might not have possibly been in danger thereupon to have fallen into the number of those Millions whom he so much condemns
his new Birth but both were alike Interessed in Gods Grace and Favor 'T is true Esau was Prophane in the Act of despising his Birth-right but so was Judah in the Act of Incontinency c. And he was one whom God hated i. e. did not love as he loved Jacob yet I will not stretch my censure of him so far as to account him a Son of Perdition as Judas the Traitor is Luther on Gen. 17. is very positive for the Salvation of Ismael though it be written of him that he being Born after the Flesh persecuted him that was Born after the Spirit and for ought I see we may be as confident of the Salvation of Esau Certain it is his Father Isaac a holy Man loved him entirely from his very Infancy nor do we find that he ever displeased his good Father by any undutiful Carriage towards him except only in his linking himself with the Daughters of Heth nor by forsaking the True God and falling off to Idols And seeing Isaac had so great Affection to him Strangers that knew him not should not condemn him for a Reprobate But Esau according to your words must be not only a Type of the Reprobate but also of the most excellent Thing in the World to wit The Righteousness of Jesus Christ under which a Jacob a Sinner obtained the Blessing of God What Sense or Truth there is in these words let the wise Reader judge The bare reciting them is to me a clear Refutation of them Only a man would think that you who can set out Idea's of the true Sons of God so roundly with Characteristical Signs and Figures drawn at large out of holy Writ which is easie to be done by any man studious in searching the Scripture but not so easie to find all those Excellencies in any the very best of men for a quis requisivit may suffice to bring down their vaunting Pride in that matter and to shorten your Rolls wherein you glory with much Insultation a man I say would think that you should with a seraphical strain of Holiness magnifie the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ and not dwindle or shrink up that most excellent thing as you call it in so poor jejune unedifying exemplar as Esau was one whom the holy Spirit of God we may well believe never intended to such an Honour But what a stout way is this of enervating all the Arguments of your Adversaries who hold the opinion that is truly Evangelical If bold words without Sense Truth and Reason will do it you have done it to purpose But let us search a little further into your Folly that it may be made manifest unto all men Reflector Those Promises in Ex. 34. and Numb 14. are conditional and only appertain to them that obey the Commandments of God and that repent as David did Answer It is much that you do not call them fine Promises as you in Derision do in the 26 Page of your Book So light account do you make of that which concerns the comfort of poor Sinners but any thing that may lead them to a Despair of their Salvation you aggravate to the uttermost Who ever doubted of this that Gods Promises of mercy are conditional and only appertain to them that obey his Commands But if you mean here by such an Obedience as the Covenant of works did require you make the Gospel of no Effect And who then can be saved Are you your self so exact in keeping Gods Commandments that you may lay a just claim to the Crown of Life by a rightful desert and need not the Passion of thy Redeemer I have that charitable opinion of you that you are not guilty of such a Pharisaical Arrogance Be you then so charitable as not to lay on mens shoulders such Burdens which you your self will not nay cannot touch with one of your fingers Had you confuted St. Paul concerning this very Scripture which you have alledged you would have given a better Interpretation of it than your words seem to carry with them I mean more agreeable to the Tenor of the New Covenant read but what is written by him Rom. 4.3 4 5 6.7 8. and then if you please tell me your mind what you think of obeying Gods Commandments But it is well that you have added Gods Promises belong to those that Repent which is indeed Evangelical but whereas you say they ought to Repent as David did instancing in many of his words taken out of the 32 Psalm not at all to your purpose It is true what David did in Sincerity let every man look to it that he follow his example therein but can you or any man else come near unto him in Holiness Zeal Humility c The examples that are given us in Scripture of the Piety of Gods Eminent Servants are indeed set for our Imitation and let our Souls drive our sluggish Hearts hard after them to the uttermost of our power yet let us do what we can we shall not overtake them neither is it I think I may say required of us that we should for Copies must ever be more excellent than the Apographa that are to follow them otherwise they cease to be Copies Nor doth God command that there shall be in all that are ordained to eternal Life the same degree of Faith spiritual Wisdom and Mortification but as the Apostle faith of Alms 2 Cor. 8.12 so may it well be said of all that we do in the work of our Salvation if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not As a Father deals with his Child whom he loveth so will God deal with all those that shall be Heirs of Salvation what Quality soever they be ofâ— He accepts of the Will for the Deed you and above the Deed. Only let every poor sinner whose heart God hath touched with Remouse see that his mind be fully bent not barely to will but to do so far as he is able that which is acceptable unto God Praying also with all the earnestness of his Soul for Gods Assisting Grace herein For saith the Apostle Phil. 2.13 it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure Reflector Remission of sins belongs to those whose Heaâ—ts are without Guile and Maliee Answer Do you not know that the Heart of man is deceitful above all things It is not safe therefore trusting to your own Heart of which it seems you have some Confidence because you speak so much of the Hearts of Gods people of whom you reckon your self no doubt to be one that they are free from all Guile If I thought yours were so I would as I have heard a good man make the offer to another change Hearts with you and give you all the money in my Purse to boot But let it be as you say for I confess it to be a truth that
Priests and Deacons who have been wont to be called the Clergy he speaks of them under this notion of Clergy not like an honest Clergy-man but like a mar-prelate indeed with infinite Disdain repeating the word scossingly enough Clergy Clergy But from whence comes all his clashing like a vaunting Swashbuckler about this word Why he will make us believe we have all this while been mistaken in the word the word Clergy is indeed saith he a Scripture Expression but never but once found in holy Writ and then it signifies Lay-men 1 Pet. 5.3 The Flock not the Shepherds that feed the flock the Presbyter Peter advising his fellow Presbyters or Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neque ut dominantes cleris not lording it over Gods Lot over the Flock there called Clergy-men that is to say Laymen thus he Doubtless this man hath not Read the Holy Scripture with that care as became him or else he hath sancied all men to have as his word is a wide swallow capable of all that he will cram in upon them Whereas if he had had but Clergy Spectacles with him so he wordeth it also he would have seen his opinion here to be a grosser Error even the naked Truth would tell him the said word is more than once or twice or thrice set down in Scripture for besides this of sit Peter which he quoteth let him see Joh. 19.24 Act 1.20 Act. 8.21 Act. 26.18 Col. 1.12 c. Nevertheless he will out of his huge Bounty vouchsafe the favour that the word shall be appropriated as it hath been For thus he writeth Since this word Clergy hath so long obtain'd in the World and also is become part of some Statutes in England mark that I will even let it go as it is and take it in its common Acceptation hereafter I only have said thus much true enough to show that neither the name nor the thing neither the word Clergy nor yet Gods Heritage belongs to this Tribe of Levi more than to other Christians if so much Truly Sir this Tribe of Levi is little beholding to you Yet the best of it is it is not you that can turn them out of their Inheritance You have seemed to be very friendly to them and Oh how much Reverence you have for them But is this your kindness to your Friends Hah these are his own words upon another Account But I will here show his naked Untruth to his shame in this particular It is not to be denyed as it is before said but that all People whatsoever that are in Covenant with God are Gods Clergy Gods Lot Gods Inheritance and blessed be God for it that they are so as all the Israel of God were of old called Gods Inheritance Psal 78.71 c. Yet was the Tribe of Levi then chosen out in a more peculiar manner as is evident by sundry places of Scripture to be Gods Heritage his especially Numb 3. Numb 8. c. And for the service which they did at his Altar he gave them the first Fruits the Tithes and Offerings which were his Due And can any man think but that Ministers of the Gospel have as good a Title to these Priviledges as the Levites had under the Law for even so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 9.14 observe hath the Lord ordained that they which Preach the Gospel should even so live of the Gospel upon which accounts they may well be called Gods Clergy and the Churches Clergy in a more peculiar manner than other People may All Gods People were called his Anointed Psal 105.15.2 Cor. 1.21 yet were there some in publick office among them who had that Denomination given them Honor is Gratiâ and now are there not Titles common to all the Faithful which yet are without any the least scruple ascribed Eminemiae Gratiâ to Ecclesiastical Persons viz. Spiritual Men a term which the Prophet Hosea likewise applied to the Preachers of Gods Word in his days Hos 9.7 Watchmen Churchmen Ministers Priests Disciples And amongst the rest this of Clergy men hath been commonly so used till this Objector hath devised a Cavil against it But Observable it is how he is Choakt with the word Clergy in his tenth and twelfth Pages c. when he can with much facility swallow the word Priest a term more excepted against now-a-days than this of Clergy Neither of which though can in truth be justly cavilled at by him or any man else For the naked Truth is Ecclesiastical Persons are not usually called by us Clergy or Priests with any Reference at all to the order of Aaron or to the disorder of Antichrist as some blasphemously prate but only in a more excellent way as is before said than the community of the People are being as such set apart by God himself to preserve in his Church his publick Worship and Honour to keep a Commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ and to offer up Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving even for the People when they are solemnly Assembled together in their Congregations Neither will the word Church please him as it is upon any Emergency applied to Clergy-men But so long as the word of our Saviour stands in Holy Scripture Mat. 18.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 advising the offended Brother to make his appeal to the Church meaning the Sanhedrim that is the Church-Senate or seventy Elders who then sate by Gods Approbation to hear harder Causes and to decide greater Doubts against Peace and Charity I say so long may we call the Assembly of Ecclesiastical Persons among us be they in Convocation or other Solemn Meetings or Synods the Church of England notwithstanding the Oggannition of all gainsayers whatsoever One Instance more he saith he will produce as if he had not said enough already to his shame He will at last shew what little Pretence the Clergy hath to Entitle themselves alone the Church Representative of England distinct from the Lay-Brethren and that is in making a Canon to cringe to the East thus he wordeth it according to the scossing Language of turbulent Schismaticks and to bow at the Name of Jesus Was there ever any man that made such Pretensions to truth and withal did Print and Publish such notorious Lies where doth he or any else during this last Century of years as for what may be done before it is not now material find such a Canon as he here speaks of that enjoyneth men to cringe to the East Out upon it This false dealing must be Repented if ever he will look for Mercy from Almighty God at the last Day True it is of late viz. in the year 1640 there was a Declaration made by the Convocation then concerning some Rites and Ceremonies to be observed in the Church which with other Canons was Confirmed and Published under the Great Seal of England which Declaration in that part of it which concerns this present purpose is verbatim in this manner Whereas the Church is the
why do you so But before I proceed any further herein let no man here so far mistake me as if I were pleading for Popery It is only to lay open the plain truth in this case without Partiality The Church of Rome is doubtless faulty enough yea most abominable in her Doctrines and Doings yet will it not become us to make it worse than in truth it is She hath Guilt enough upon her that will certainly in Gods due time bring her down wonderfully so that the World shall say Babilon the Great is fallen is fallen But that the aforesaid Opinion of her is a great untruth and consequently that the Doctors Collections from thence were vain shall be here made manifest from that which is past all Contradiction 1. The Author of the said Canon was not a Pope as it hath been Imagined But it was St. Boniface a faithful Martyr of Jesus Christ as in the Title of the said Canon is expressed which Boniface was never Pope but a Virtuous Learned Englishman who lived about nine hundred years past and was the first Archbishop of Mentz in Germany of which People and Countrey he is called the Apostle by antient Writers for that he publickly converted the Nation Erected that Primate See and suffered glorious Martyrdom by the Heathen for the Faith 2. The Canon Si Papa c. was taken by Gratian out of the Writings of that St. Boniface The Introduction into which Canon is according to the words of that Holy Man in this manner Damnatur Apostolicus qui suae Fraternae Salutis est negligens Plagismultis in aeternum vapulaturus The Pope is damned who is negligent in the Affairs of his own Salvation and of his Brethren after which beginneth the Canon Si Papa suae Fraternae Salutis negligens c. Shewing that albeit the Pope have no Superior Judge in this World which may by Authority check him unless he fall into Heresie Yet shall his Damnation be greater than of other sinners for that by Reason of his high Dignity he draweth more after him into Perdition than any other Whereby we may perceive that this Canon was written not to flatter the Pope but to warn him rather of his Peril c. But how then came the World to mistake this Canon as if it said though the Pope should carry many people with him into Hell yet no mortal Creature may presume to say unto him why do you so To give a short Answer to this demand I might relate the story at large and make mention of the names of those Persons engaged in a Contract about this Canon which occasioned those hard words clean differing from the Intent and Scope of it and which did put some upon a more strict Inquiry into it The Result whereof is briefly this some of the words of the said Canon were mis-placed some omitted and some misquoted The omission of that which is in the Canon is this Cum ipso plagis multis in aeternum vapulaturus that such a Pope is to suffer eternal Punishments and to be scourged with many Stripes together with the Devil himself if by his evil and negligent Life he be the cause of others Perdition which Threat being omitted these words as immediately following in the Canon are misplaced and joyned with the Antecedent words which should have been put after viz. Hujus culpas redarguere Praesumit nemo c. That which is mis-quoted is Praesumet for Praesumit no man shall or may presume for no man doth presume to Control Lastly That which followeth containing a Reason of all that went before is left out viz. Quia cunctos ipse judicaturus a nemine est judicandus nisi deprehendatur a fide devius c. For that whereas he is the Judge of all other men he cannot himself be judged by any except he be found to err from the true Faith Here is the case in as few words as it could possibly be put which clearly shew the sinister Sense that hath been put upon that Canon yet this it was certainly which led the Doctor into this Error For saith he it is that which we learn from the Canon Si Papa c. The second mistake is in that he quoteth St. Austin Lib. 1. de verâ falsâ Poenitentia Cap. 5. Affirming that he hath there an excellent Thought as his usual word is whereas if he meaneth by Lib. 1. the first Book as probably that must be the meaning this must go into the mistakes for there is but one Book of that Subject de verâ falsa Poenitentia Neither is that one any of St. Austin's Work But it is thrust in by others as an Appendix only to St. Austin yea more the Author of that Book whoever he was produceth a Sentence out of St. Austin expresly naming him Cap. 17. to which saying of St. Austin the said Author refuseth to give his Consent which is a clear Argument it is not St. Austin's But instead of this mis-quotation I could wish that the Doctor had thorowly perused that Book de verâ falsâ Poenitentiâ for he would have found in that Book a full Confutation of his Opinion concerning a general Damnation and that which I have written in my Antidote to be as fully confirmed Moreover besides these Mistakes the said Doctor after all the dreadful Clamour made of Millions of Millions that shall perish in their sins addeth that which may well be accounted in Effect a plain Contradiction to his Opinion by shewing what is the concurrent Judgment of some English Divines in this Case whom he nameth calling them The true Barnabasses and to whom he subscribes his Consents viz. That the Justice of Gods Tribunal at the last day is full as much laid open in the Pardon of the greatest sinners that Repent as it is in the Vengeance and Punishment of the Impenitent and those that know not God That when Jesus Christ shall come in the last times he will do the same to those that truly have Repented though even at the last Period of their Lives That the Mercies shewen to Zacheus and the Thief upon the Cross were particular and personal but the Comfort which is to be received from thence is common and publick Adding likewise further in the same Page Pag. 39. that the same English Divines do also agree with all the Casuists c. In one considerable mark of a Child of God and which as he saith is comprehensive all Divinity and the practise of Piety and which may also be shut up in one Period to wit that notwithstanding the Atheism whether Speculative or Practical secret or open that Reigns at this day in the World and all the Difficulties which are met with in the Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures which Human Reason cannot unravel and understand a man ought to be strongly and powerfully perswaded of the Truth Goodness and Excellency of the Christian Religion and of this holy
which he and his followers would prove by certain Parabolical Allusions and Semblances that are not Argumentative I shall let it pass as unworthy of any Regard Those Arguments of the first sort viz. Caelius c. that are most pertinent to the matter in hand though this Reflector takes no notice of them or but very little I shall briefly recollect and render an Account of them First The Law in its greatest Rigor says that God punisheth but to the third and fourth Generation but he sheweth Mercy to a thousand Generations Thus they And will not you Mr. Reflector say so too If you will not you must fall under the Curse threatned by the Holy Ghost Rev. 22. viz. God will take your Part out of the Book of Life i.e. Cast you out of his Church so that you shall be uncapable of any of the Blessings belonging to it If you will say thus the Thousands to whom God will shew Mercy would have sounded better under your Pen than that which you have writ of the number of those that shall be Damned And here I cannot but insert what a learned and good Divine hath writ to me when he saw my Antidote against your Book we saith he seldom or never in sacred Pages meet with the terrifying number of the Damned particularly summed up but of the Happy we find Rev. 7. such precise numbers mentioned And some thousands of years before that it is written God had Mercy in store for thousands of them that loved him and kept his Commandments This in truth is the Spirit that hath prevailed among us here in this our Church it being well known that the Genius if I may so call it of our Nation hath always more inclined to Mercy than to Rigor and hath been apt to interpret the Law of God as well as the Law of our Land rather for the Comfort and Benefit of Mankind where such a Construction may upon good terms be allowed then for their Ruine and Destruction I know not Mounsieur what hath been predominant with you in other parts of the World But it is you and such as you are that have joyned with the Roman Faction against us to create Disturbances among us and to lead captive silly People into many absurd Errors which have brought a Cloud over all our Excellency and have eclipsed that glory of Truth and Peace which but for you would long ere this time have dwelt in our Land You go on to tell us what they say viz. Caelius c. That the Mercies of God are of a large Extent that God is slow to Anger ready to Pardon and shew Mercy that he forgives sins of the deepest Dye and that Calvin remarking upon the words which God speaks Ex. 34. of his forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin that God thereby wonderfully advances the greatness of his own Mercies and that he would have us to know he Pardon 's not only little Sins but also the most Enormous and that God would not command us to say Forgive us our sins if he had not an intention to forgive them for he did not make that Command to send us away from him as you impiously say like Fools as we came Yet is your Sarcasme an Argument against you All which that they say of this matter and much more that you add is true and which all good People who believe there is a God will say How dare you then to contradict it by saying not above one in a Million shall ever by these Infinite Mercies come to Heaven Would any man but you having all these Comfortable Promises of Mercy and Overtures of Grace under your Eye conclude expresly for the Execution of Gods Wrath to the uttermost upon his poor Creatures that have sinned against him But that you after say the Arguments for your Opinion are incomparably more strong and nervous how strong they are we shall see hereafter In the mean time I must tell you these Premises though you slight them as being not Syncategorical with your Position yet are they certainly against you and make for the Truth You say further that they mightily Press As all good Christians will the Infinite Price and Value of the Merit Death and Satisfaction and Redemption of Jesus Christ which is not only efficacious to Pardon you should rather have said to obtain Pardon for an Infinity that 's your word of sins both for their number and their Enormity but also for an Infinity of men That it is extreamly to lessen the ends for which Jesus Christ came into the World to admit that he came only to Redeem one man of a Million That it is not to be believed that Jesus Christ at the right hand of his Father does intercede but for one of a hundred thousand of all mankind What you say to all this we shall see hereafter They do likewise say you mightily urge this Consideration that since none are in a State of Damnation but who are under a perpetual weeping wailing and gnashing of Teeth and an eternal Horror of Conscience for their past Offences it cannot rationally be affirmed of so many millions of Heathen Children that dyed before they came to the use and exercise of Reason And if God be merciful to these as who can determine the contrary it would be ridiculous such is your word as if you had a mind to laugh at God that God has reserved their Parents alive who have the use of Reason to damn them to all eternity what you will say to all this also would be considered for none of all these things move you Moreover who will believe say they that God so loved the World or that he sent his Son into the World not to condemn it but that it might be saved by him That Christ is the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the World and that he being the Bread of Life gave himself to the World to give Life to it c. who will believe that by the World we must understand but one or two Persons among I know not how many thousands or millions in the World And where is that love towards the World to let it walk that is to say perish in its own ways All this and much more is alledged by that Orthodox Evangelical Party against your destructive Opinion as for that other which makes the number equal between the Elect and Reprobate as I have said I meddle not with it And you Mr. Reflector had done better if you had made no mention of it at all For to what purpose do you recite it and their Arguments for it when you may know it is not at this time of any Account scarce a word spoken of it among any unless it be with Contempt But you were willing to muster up your Enemies and drive them before you altogether promiscuously like a brave man at Arms or rather like that Pugnacissimum Animal as it is said of the Gander Armata
Lord c. But little or nothing is written of their Repentance before they died yet will no man be so rash as to doubt of their Salvation Why should you then or your Complices be so peremptory as to cast a scruple about the Salvation of Solomon Cannot you be contented with that which is written of him Favoris Gratiâ but you must have a damnable sling at him as if he were hovering between Heaven and Hell But how else could you maintain your absurd Paradox of your hundred Thousands and Millions of Men that shall perish in their sins in comparison of one that shall be saved We read Joh. 13.1 whom the Lord loveth he loveth to the end and do we not read also again and again that the Lord loved Solomon 2 Sam. 12.24 Neh. 13.26 yea that this Love was confirmed unto him by the best Assurance that could be given him viz. propter Jehovam the Lord loved him for the Lords sake that is for Christ the Messiah's sake in whom all Gods Elect from the beginning of the World to the end are beloved with an everlasting love Did God chuse him out to be one of his Actuaries of his publick Records to his Church viz. the Book of the Proverbs the Book of Ecclesiastes or the Preacher the Book of the Canticles that pure Caelestial Epithalamum or Marriage Song and of two of the Psalms as the Title of them signifies viz. Ps 72. and Ps 127. And can it be probably thought that he should be dignified in this high Degree if he had been no better than a wretched Castaway in Gods eternal Purpose What were there not Heirs enough of everlasting Salvation to be inspired by the Holy Ghost for the office of a publick Notary of Heaven but one must be taken from among the Bondslaves of Hell to make up the number Was he a Preacher sent of God and was not one of his Books called Ecclesiastes his Recantation Sermon which he writ in his old age when he took a more serious view of his by-past Life wherein among other his Follies he sheweth his Abhorrency of his being misled by Women I find saith he more bitter than Death the Woman whose Heart is Snares and Nets Eccles 7.26 and her Hands as Bands Implying that though Death be bitter yet he had rather die than be entangled again in the Snares of a whorish Woman Which option may well be justified if we consider the Aggravations of this sin as they are rendred by a good Interpreter Bishop R. one of a Thousand and a right Reverend Preacher among us in our Church whose words are these viz. They that is wicked Harlots are more bitter than Death more pernicious and bring more heavy Miseries with them We read of the Bitterness of Death 1 Sam. 15.32 And of a worse Bitterness the end of a strange Woman is bitter c. and her steps take hold of Hell Pro. 5.4.5 Death may be sweetued and sanctified made a welcome and desirable thing to a Believer 1 Cor. 15. But the Bitterness of Hell is incurable Death may be honourable to die in a good Cause as our King Charles the Martyr comforted himself in his Death to die in a good old Age to go to the Grave in Peace lamented desired with the sweet savour of a holy Life and many good Works to follow one But to consume and putrifie alive under a Tabes of Impure Lusts to shipwrack a mans Honour ruine his Estate shorten his years consume his Flesh rot his Bones put a Hell into his Conscience to bury his Name his Substance his Soul his Carkass in the Bosom of a Harlot This is a Bitterness beyond that of Death This now is that which Solomon here means and complaineth of And whether this be a sound of Repentance or no judge you And if your judgment be of any value how dare you doubt of his Salvation Being so true a Penitent as you see neither can you but acknowledge him to be so Reflector Nothing can be concluded of the Salvation or damnation of those that were the Types of things to come Answer Can nothing then be concluded of the Salvation of Samson who was an Eminent Type of Jesus Christ So doth our Learned Whitaker demonstrate him to be viz. 1. In sanctitate nativâ 2. In servatoris Munere 3. In juvicto Robore 4. In morte calamitosa cum Hostibus If all this will not satisfie you the Apostles numbring him among the Saints Heb. 11. should convince you that you may conclude of his Salvation I could instance in sundry others as Gideon Jephthah c. But this may suffice to shew you your Errour herein Reflector For it happ'ned sometimes that one Person as Esau who was the Figure and Type of the Reprobate was also that of the most excellent thing in the World viz. The Righteousness of Jesus Christ under which a Jacob a Sinner obtained the Blessing of God Answer Your Reason here is defective both in Sense and Truth worthy therefore of no regard But that you may not flatter your self in your Folly What a confused shuffling words is here like the Quakers jumbling several things together without sense As for Esau it seems you have so much Charity for him as not to conclude him to be a Reprobate though the Spirit of God in Scripture hath noted him to be a prophane Person and one whom God hated But how it came to pass that he hath escap'd your censure of a Reprobate when you make him a Type of the Reprobate I know not it being a Rule in Logick if ever you learnt it de proportionalibus est idem judicium Et quod de uno secundum proportionem affirmatur id etiam de altero If Esau then be a Type of the Reprobate that is hath the Impression of a Reprobate upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the word Type signifies He must needs be a Reprobate But let me demand of you is it for you or I to cast a Figure thus or create a Type of Gods eternal Decree concerning Mankind We should certainly usurp upon Gods Power if what is written in Scripture we may wrest it to our meaning without an express warrant from the Spirit of God And Polanus an Author whom I suppose you approve of saith Typi fuerant Figurae a Deo destinatae ad Res Divinas praefigurandas In Syntag. Let us not then be too bold to thrust our selves into Gods Pavillion by giving our Judgment of things which God hath kept in his own Power For my part I cannot say that Esau was a Type of the Reprobate much less that he himself was a Reprobate This I can say with good probability he was in that Generation admitted into the Church of God by the Sacrament of Circumsion as well as his Brother Jacob who though he took him by the Heel at the Birth signifying his future supplantation of him yet could he not supplant him in
Remission of sins belongs to such and such yet let me ask cannot the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanse the Heart from all Guile and Malice seeing the Evangelist telleth us it cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 And what know you but that this purifying Act may in instanti powerfully operate upon the Hearts of millions of men in the World whom you without any warrant have doom'd to everlasting Destruction Hereafter then I advise you meddle not with the Hearts of men so as to pass your censure upon them lest you be judged at last to be an Intruder upon God who alone is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 1.24 for as it hath been a true word Cathedram in Caelo habet qui corda docet so it is as true Cathedram in corde habet qui ad Caelum ducit Reflector Those words of St. Paul 1 Thess 5.9 God hath not appointed us to Wrath but to obtain Salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ are to be explained by those of the 13 verse of the second Chap. of the second Epistle viz. God hath from the beginning chosen us to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth Your Comment hereupon is this God hath chosen us to be sanctified and hath sunctified us to the end that he might save us Answer Seeing you will have such an Explanation of the former words by the latter though some would have put a difference between them not only in respect of the distance which the Apostle hath set in his writing of them the scope of the Writer not being always the same in one place as it is in the other but because of the Persons whom the Apostle distinguisheth viz. us and you yet I shall chuse rather to let you know that by the words which you insist so much upon viz. through Sanctification of the Spirit is meant the Sanctification wrought in them by the Spirit of God which may be also in millions of millions of Persons not discernable by the World This certainly is that Sanctification which all true Believers are to glory in not boasting of any Holiness or Worthiness of their own as Quakers commonly do but rejoycing in the work of Gods abundant Grace upon them For you must know that which the Apostle here meaneth is not so much an active Sanctification manifested in the Life as that which is passive wherein they are but patients under God though they do indeed actually receive it into their Hearts by Faith God begins with his work of Sanctification and the Believer seconds it with his work of believing both which are here joyned together by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In by or through the Sanctification of the Spirit and Belief of the Truth Whereas if it were an active Sanctification that were here meant such as is commonly visible in the Life of a Believer then may that Doctrine be received again among us which hath justly been exploded by us viz. that we are chosen to Salvation for or because of our foreseen Holiness which is that that you ignorantly contend for But you should remember it is Christ who is all in all in the work of mans Salvation and that it is nothing but Faith which is expected from us That no Flesh should glory in the presence of God 1 Cor. 1.29 and mark what the Apostle there addeth v. 30. For of him are we that is born of him in Christ Jesus who is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption meaning all that is required of us in this matter He is our Wisdom to instruct us our Righteousness to Justifie us our Sanctification to sanctifie us our Redemption to save us What are you then poor man without Christ what is your Wisdom but Folly what your Righteousness but a filthy Rag what your Sanctification but sin at the best your Holiness no better than the Popes Holiness what your Redemption but everlasting Bondage under Satan From all which good Lord deliver you Talk no more therefore so proudly of your Sanctification But let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. By this time I hope you begin to see your Error in making so false a gloss upon that comfortable word of the Apostle viz. God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ Which word will stand firm and strong against your ignorant and absurd Cavils yea and against the gates of Hell neither is it weakened at all by that other word of the Apostle which you have ravished from the pure simplicity of the Gospel but confirmed rather Whereupon I conclude your Argument is so far from that Nervofity you boast of in overthrowing the True and Sound Doctrine of the Common Salvation that it is as weak as water Only it sheweth how apt you are to catch at any thing in Scripture though you wrest it to your own Perdition which may but seemingly strengthen your destructive Opinion Reflector All the world fallen in Adam deserving the Curse and Eternal Damnation it is a signal Mercy to spare some from that General Condemnation Answer We have heard in the late times of Legal Preaching but what can be more legal I mean more disagreeing with the Covenant of Promise than your words here are and in many other places of your Book It is we confess an Eminent Mercy to save some of those that had by their Disobedience made themselves liable to the Curse But to save a numberless multitude or a million for one that shall sink under the Curse is a Mercy more to be magnified yea and might with more truth have been asserted by you than to talk of a general Condemnation Reflector How Excellent soever the Efficacy of Redemption may be it is only for those whom God hath a mind to save Answer Miserable Man do you know what you say A Report hath gone of you that you are mad because you have been thrust out of your Preferment at Oxford If it be so it is the best excuse that you can have for making these frantick Reflections Would any Christian who is right in his Wits speak thus unreverendly of the great work of our Redemption as you have here spoken Do you not know the Excellency of it in its Efficacy You might surely have known it partly by the Price of it not by corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the Precious Blood of Christ partly by the Fruits and Benefits that arise to us by it as the Holy Scripture sets them out viz. we are redeemed from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 from our vain Conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 c. Partly by the end or final Cause that we may be Consecrated to God and the Lamb Rev. 14.4 that our sins may be forgiven Eph. 1.9 that we may receive the Adoption of Children Gal 4. that we may be reconciled to God c. If you know these things why do you
whom you have fancied to be culled out of your Thousands and Millions when it is clear the good Spirit of God speaks it expressy of Adam and his Ofspring as they generally Issue from him in their several Generations Are you then and your Complices sit to meddle with the Holy Scripture when you understand it no better Better surely were it for you if it were as a sealed Book unto you rather than be permitted to wrest it so perniciously to your own destruction There is a Truth I confess in what you here say But seeing you cannot but know that these words of the Apostle from whence you gather this your abundant Favor for one probably of your own gang are of so large an extent as hath been said and that to take them in his sense were utterly to overthrow your damnable Doctrine which rather than you would do you would pervert them to your own private shallow Interpretation since it is so may it not well be said without any offence either before God or Man you are fitter to be a Hewer of wood c. as the Gibeonites were than to divide the Word of Truth to Gods People Had the Apostle here written where Sin abounded Wrath did much more abound this it seems would have gone down easily with you as according to your Palate But blessed be the good Spirit of God whose word it is and blessed be the Hand that first wrote it it is a word of Mercy a word of strong Consolation to the whole Church of God The Magnitude and Redundancy of Divine Grace being infallibly by the abundance of sin made the more conspicuous as the more desperate a bodily Disease is the more is the Virtue and Excellency of the Medicine that Cures it made the more famous and to be extolled Let therefore that word stand firm and stedfast against you which you in your eleventh Paragraph of objections have made light account of viz. that the Grace of God is exalted far above his Judgments and Severities that there where sin has abounded Grace has much more abounded for the solution hereof is not so easie as of many more though you have pretended so of it to your Reader Reflector As to the Salvation of the Children of Heathen Parents or others that is a sealed Book which God doth not permit us to open Answer It is well that you have that Charity for Children yea for the Children of Heathen Parents as well as of others so as not to reckon them among your Thousands and Millions whom you have marked to Destruction for your only Design you say Pag. 27. in this whole Discourse is to speak of men deceased above an Age ago still you shuffle and after they had the exercise and use of Reason It is well I say But you here add the Salvation of such Children is a sealed Book which God doth not permit us to open I will not much argue with you about this though I might nor inquire by what Authority you call the Salvation of Children more than of others who have had the exercise and use of Reason a sealed Book which God doth not permit you to open Possibly you may dream of the Limbus Infantum where Children are kept from the Pains of Hell not having the Pain of Sense but only the Pain of Loss Which Limbus no man could ever open no not the Pope himself for though it is said he hath the Key of Purgatory yet the Key of this place appointed for Children is not it seems committed to his Custody But is the Salvation of Children as you say a sealed Book and is not the Book of Gods Universal Judgment and the Lambs Book of Life sealed Books likewise Yet you dare it seems without Gods Permission yea contrary to Gods express command in Scripture to open these Books and give your Judgment forsooth of them as you please And what is this but to anticipate the Judgment of the great Day The Apostle Reasoned with Faelix of Judgment to come Act. 24.25 and adviseth yea warneth us 1 Cor. 4.5 To judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who is to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Much less should we judge so rashly as to determine of the Number of Gods Elect and that with so peremptory a Sentence as to exclude the major part of Mankind from all hope of Salvation which is the deadly Venome that runs through your whole Discourse It had been good indeed if this your Book had been so sealed that it might have been bound up in everlasting silence never to come forth rather than to do that mischief which it is like to do among poor and weak Christians who have always been apt to despond and not only them but among such as are Prophane to strengthen some in their Atheism which groweth over-Rampant in this Generation and others in their Epicurism and Debaucheries who will be ready to say Seeing there is little or no hope of Mercy for us when we die let us take our Pleasure while we may Eat Drink and be Merry Reflector It is sufficient for us Mortals to know that none is or can be saved but by Jesus Christ But we must not go about to determine whether none are saved but who have known Jesus Christ Answer For us Mortals a word that you use once and again here in your Discourse because you would like your good friends the Quakers take up a form of speech differing from that which is common Otherwise you might have said it is sufficient for us poor Creatures which would have pass'd for current better than your word Mortals For the time will come when this Mortal shall put on Immortality wherein the same Truth shall be known by us then which we now know And do not they that are now Immortal know this that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the World as well and better than we But I must tell you it is not sufficient for us Mortals as you call us to know this for God hath been graciously pleased to Illighten us poor Mortals and those that are Immortal too to know that none can be saved by Jesus Christ but those that are in Covenant with God Why then do you by affirming so gross an Untruth lessen that knowledge which the Spirit of God in Scripture hath given us saying It is sufficient c. Why indeed but because you was loth to extend the work of Salvation so far as to reach to those Thousands and Millions which you will have to be damned for they also may for ought you know be in Covenant with God as well as your self Men may guess at your meaning Don Doctor though you speak it not out as you ought to speak it You say further we must not go about to determine whether none be saved but who have known Jesus Christ Was there ever such a Don known before that will take upon him so imperiously to judge the
If this I say be the true and genuine Sense of those words as in all likelihood it is how can they be so stretcht as they are wont to be to such an use and purpose as is commonly made of them I deny not but we may therehence obliquely infer that a holy Zeal in the Service of our God is good and commendable that we are to strive to enter in at the strait Gate to sight the good fight of Faith c. But to argue from thence that few in these days do take the Kingdom of Heaven by Violence therefore few shall be saved is not to be endured being both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 absurd and Irrational 3. That the Reflector did take his marks amiss for the greatest number of them and that they are defective in sundry particulars as Coincidence Tautology vain Repetitions Contradictions Misinterpretations of holy Scripture c. may be easily proved if we should insist particularly upon them Some of them shall be here produced to that purpose to give an essay of the rest v.g. It is said the Elect of God are to be regene rated and that they are passed from the state of Nature into a state of Grace And what difference is there between these two are they not both one and the same And how often is this repeated by the Reflector It is the common Crambe in his Book ad nauseam usque Though Regeneration be much talkt of yet is it but little understood True the Power of it is to be evidenced in the course of our Lives But the first working of it is without doubt in our Baptism wherein as our Church Liturgy teacheth us we are made Members of Christ the Children of God and Intheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven And what doth this signifie but that we have then passed from the state of Nature into the state of Grace Hence it is that the Minister after we have been Baptised pronounceth openly before the whole Congregation that we are then regenerated and grafted into the Body of Christ's Church And the Church likewise there declareth it to be certain by Gods word that Children which are Baptised dying before they commit any actual sin are undoubtedly saved All which do agree with the Apostles Rules Rom. 6.3 Gal. 3.27 c. If then we are Regenerated in our Baptism and are thereupon changed from the state of Nature into the state of Grace and it be granted that these are the marks of the Children of God and of the Members of Christ can any man pass a definitive Sentence upon us that we belong not to the number of Gods Elect I know and acknowledge there is some difference between an External Profession of Religion which we take upon us in our Baptism by Water and between a Practical Conformity to the Rules of the Gospel and the Example of Christ which Conformity is the Effect of our inner Baptism by sire and which will be visible in the course of our Lives But even this is not limited to any certain time for the work of Regeneration is never at an end while we live in this World it is indeed somewhat like to the ineffable Generation of the Son of God which never ceaseth being as the School men speak of it Actus commensurastes Aeternitati of the same size with Eternity a permanent and everlasting Generation so our New-Birth or Regeneration is not a transient Act but a permanent and continued Act an Act which is still in being all the days of our Lives To this purpose I have heard a most Learned Divine Dr. Collins by name who was in my time Provost of Kings College in Cambridge and Regius Professor of Divinity in that University deliver his Judgment at a Publick Commencement there in these words Quotidie Renati sumus we are every day Regenerated Which being so what judgment can any man make by the work of Regeneration in us of our eternal Election so as positively to determine such an one is Regenerated therefore he shall be saved and such a one is not Regenerated therefore he shall be damned The holy Apostle would that we judge nothing before the time It will be said may we not then judge of men as we find them If they live Righteously Soberly and Holily so far as can be discerned by men may we not say so of them yes without doubt if we go no further in our judging But to judge of Gods eternal Election thereby what is it but to anticipate Gods Judgment as it hath been said before It is to intrude our selves into the secret of Gods Pavillion it is to invade Gods prerogative it is an Arrogancy God will never endure Yet is this a part of that course which according to the Reflectors arguing we are to take in determining of the number of Gods Elect. Another of his marks is to live in the Joys of the Holy Ghost possessing a peaceable serenity of mind and an undisturbed Quiet of Soul without which it is concluded no man can be saved And this is again repeated in the same words Religion consists in a continual Serenity of Joy Peace of Soul Tranquillity of Mind But what then will become of a broken Heart of a wounded Spirit what The Prophet David who knew better the Mind of the Almighty and Merciful God will tell such for their comfort they are Gods Sacrifices which he will not despise what account soever they be made of among uncharitable Men. It were too much to follow the Track of all the Reflections which hath been made of this matter I think I have pursued the chief of them with a tolerable Reverberation only before I conclude I cannot but protest against the strange and vehement Asseverations that are used in the carrying on of this pernicious Doctrine It is said to be as great a Truth as any can be in the World viz. that there is no Salvation but among Christians and that the greatest number of the Elect is amongst the Reformed c. But can a man with any serenity of Soul and Conscience speak thus confidently of Gods secret Counsels and Decrees And what a bold and daring Affront is this which is put upon divine Truth to affirm that this Opinion of the small number of Gods Elect so limited as is here set down is as great a Truth as any can be in the World Surely that which was once unjustly laid upon a Pious and Reverend Prelate of our Church by some Ministers in and about London may most justly be here applied viz. Is this as great a Truth as any can be in the World what is it not a more certain Truth that there is a God Is it not a more certain Truth that Jesus Christ is God and man Is it not a more certain Truth that Christ is the only Saviour of the World As great a Truth as any can be in the World Must this then be an Article of
our Creed the Corner-Stone of our Religion must this be of necessity to Salvation No greater Truth than this which is no Truth at all O that men should not only forget themselves but God also and in their Zeal for their own vain Fancies utter words bordering upon Blasphemy I cannot likewise but protest against that which is written Page 23. where complaining of the neglect of Piety in this Age which is too true and a thing much to be lamented it is said that many masters of Families otherwise Sober Civil True Honest Upright Dealers and good Friends have wholly neglected Family-Duties c. God forbid that I or any man should speak or write a word against the Religious Exercises of good Christians in private that is and shall I hope be ever far from me let them still be continued in their due order provided that the publick service of God as it is now in use among us here in this Church and Nation be not thereby sleighted and brought into Contempt as it hath been in many places especially in populous Cities and Towns Nay it were much better that the Family-Duties were wholly omitted than the publick Worship of God in our Churches and Congregations should be despised The Church certainly hath taken great care for her Children in this matter appointing a method to be commonly used in the Service of God twice a day throughout the year morning and evening commanding the Holy Scripture to be read so daily that the Old Testament shall be read once every year and the New Testament thrice And were it so that the Church-Liturgy were exactly observed in every Church throughout the Nation Ministers and People heartily joyning together as the Common-Prayer-Book doth appoint what a Nation should we be of holy Zealots for Gods Glory Glory would then certainly dwell in our Land and never till then Jesus Christ would be in his Throne amongst us and God would delight in us as his peculiar People Then should we not need to fear the Encroachments of Popery upon us any more if we had once this Unanimity and uniformity setled among us in the daily service of our God O that God would be pleased yet to open the Eyes of the People of this Nation both high and low to see and understand this one needful thing that will above all things else bring Peace unto us and establish it Let Family-Duties I say again be performed in their due time place and order but let them yield the precedency to the publick which of late years they have not done the greater is our sin Yea though the private Piety and Zeal I mean that which is according to knowledge hath been the Fruit and Offspring of the publick Service of our God yet through the Malice of the Devil it hath come to pass that the old word is verified in our Land Filia devoravit Matrem the Mother which under God give a Being to the Daughter is devoured most viperously by her own Issue and the Daughter is perked up in her stead And though a spurious Brood of Errors doth commonly spring from her yet will she pretend that all saving Truth is confined to her private Conventicles Let this then be done and there will be no need to complain any more of the omission of Family-Duties Nor let any be scandalized at that which is here written in the behalf of our Book of Common-Prayer but for Lewis du Moulin's sake let men have better Thoughts of it who while he was in his Health and Jollity did possibly joyn with others in a prejudice against it but when he saw Death the Sergeant of Heaven ready to lead him before Gods Tribunal he then was of another mind to which purpose somewhat shall be here related of that which is published of him by a good hand when he lay dying Doctor Du Moulin having sent to the Reverend Dr. Patrick Dean of Peterborough to desire a Visit from him being of his Parish the Dean immediately upon the Evening of the same day went unto him and was Entertained with many Expressions of great Affection to him and high Esteem of him when after some comfortable words spoken to the sick man he endeavoured with meekness to convince him of his great Offence against the Church of England which he had wronged Intolerably to the great Gratification of its Enemies at such a time when all sober Men should be its Friends and without any real Cause for such imputations as he had charged upon it Whereupon Dr. Du Moulin replyed somewhat needless here to be repeated but yielded thus far as to say well Doctor pray to God to pardon me all my Sins especially my want of Charity Accordingly the Dean kneeled down by his Bed side and began with the Lords Prayer so proceeding to the other Prayers which are appointed by the Order in the Common Prayer-Book for the Visitation of the sick in all which the sick man joyned with lifting up his hands often and other Expressions of Devotion Especially at that passage in the Prayer when there appears small hope of Recovery give him unfeigned Repentance for all the Errors of his Life past c. He gave more than ordinary signs of his fervent Desire and when the Dean had done he gave him most hearty thanks and renewed his Expressions of extraordinary Affection to him and esteem or him A little after the Dean coming to see him again he was so affected with his Kindness in giving him a new Visit that he said Are you come again Sir O how charitable are you This is indeed to return me good for evil And after some discourse with him desired him to Pray with him again for your Prayers said he were very comfortable to me the last time And accordingly he did in the same form of words he had used before With which he was so much affected that when the Dean had solemnly commended him to Gods Blessing in that excellent Form Vnto Gods gracious Mercy and Protection we commit thee the Lord bless thee and keep thee c. he laid hold upon his hand which he held up over him and kissed it with an unusual Passion Such an Example as this one would think should incline People who are apt to speak evil of that excellent Form of Prayer prescribed by the Church in that Book and of the whole Method of Divine Service in it to be much humbled before God for their depraving it and to make better use of it than hitherto they have done by making it their daily Rule for the ordering of their publick and Family-Duties and Devotions with Reverence and godly fear The last thing that I shall here take notice of is that which is added toward the close of these Reflections viz. a plain contradiction of them and which overthroweth all that is before written of the general Damnation in these words They that find there is nothing but Wickedness in them and Death by sin and that
they have only the name of Christians and have denied the Power of Godliness and that they deserve for ever to be cast out of the presence of the Almighty may have hope for even in that miserable and much to be pitied Estate God Counsels the sinner to make use of the Remedy that he offers him and to touch the Scepter of Grace which is extended to him which will infallibly work the Salvation of the Soul for God's ways are not like to mans nor are his Thoughts like to those of sinful flesh his Ways and Thoughts are inconceivable the height and depth of them immeasurable towards sinners that Repent where by the ways of God you are to understand those of his Mercies and not those of his Knowledge and Wisdom This I must say sounds well and I wish that all the rest that is written in that Book of Reflections had agreed thereto but there is as much difference between this and them as there is between the Colours of White and Black I have been willing to add this in the close that if ever it should happen these Papers may come into the Hands of any Disconsolate Soul it may see that here both from the Reflector and my self which may bring some comfort unto it Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ which he spake at his last Supper viz. This is my Body IT is much to be Lamented that there have been so long a time perverse Disputings and uncharitable Dissentions about these words among those who are or should be partakers of the same Precious Faith when if they were understood aright it might well be presumed that instead of Animosities and fiery Persecutions which have too much abounded a sweet Peace and Brotherly Accordance had ere this time happily overspread the Christian World to the Adorning of the Doctrine of God our Saviour even among those that are without It is not too late yet for us to use our utmost endeavour towards the making up of this Peace I say not by affording any Connivence to Error but by rendring an Interpretation rational in the Judgment of all men of these words which may possibly be a great furtherance unto it And if my poor Judgment may be of any Value I think after fifty years Employment that I have had in the work of the Ministery that such a sense may be given of them which though it be not to be found in the common Road of Expositors yet may lead all sorts of People of what perswasion soever they be if they be not possessed with a Spirit of Contradiction to the nearest way of a right Understanding the meaning of our Saviour in them and consequently to a more peaceable and christian-like Living together in the World and loving one another than hath been among us in former times True it is Satan hath prevailed mightily in this his Master-piece of Mischief to sow Discord and Variance about that very thing which our Lord Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace hath ordained to be a means to unite his People together in Love Surely we cannot but be sensible of it O that we would all unanimously agree to counter-work this our grand Enemy by a holy endeavour after Unity in consenting to the truth of these words of our Blessed Saviour according to his own sense of them which sense I say this present Discourse shall aim at and in some measure demonstrate plainly without any wresting or sinister Construction yet with Submission to the Churches determination of it Those who are and will be of the Roman Schism are indeed very free also in making their Complaints of these unhappy Differences I wish that it could not be a true Imputation put upon them viz. A main Cause of all this Quarrelling in this Point hath chiefly had its original from them Ferus Moguntinus Concionator as he is called one of the greatest Moderation among them cryeth out in this manner O dolor super dolorem quod Ecclesiam conjungere deberet per hoc ipsa vel maximè discerpitur scinditur quod ad Pacem Vnioneni servire deberet eo vel maximè utimur ad excitanda Bella Discordias Sectas i. e. O Grief of all Griess that which should knit the Church together in Love and Concord even by that very thing is it chiefly divided and rent in pieces that which ought to work Peace and Union we chiefly make use of to raise and foment Wars Discords and Schisms Thus he And why then will they and he among the rest be still so tenacious as they have a long time been in maintaining their corrupt and prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation A Doctrine but of yesterday not known in the Church till above a Thousand years after the Gospels first Appearance in the World Bishop Hall So young it was saith a Pious and Learned Prelate of our Church that it had not before learned to speak he and sundry other Authors of very good Account affirming that this word Transubstantiation whereby the Roman Church understands the turning of the Sacramental Bread into the Body of Christ was never mentioned or heard or thought of among the antient Fathers or in the Primitive Church Only about six hundred years now past Pope Nicholas the second some say it was Innocentius the third so N. D. a Popish Writer against our Martyrologist in the Lateran Council did set forth Propagate and confirm to the utmost of his Power that opinion of changing the substance of the Bread in the Sacrament as for the Cup their heat doth not reach so much against that which is the Reason that this Discourse is mostly of the Bread and would have made it an Article of Faith and did what he could to have it placed in the Creed whereupon there ensued Corput Christi Day Masses of Corpus Christi and the like Novelties never before known or brought into Use Practice or Observation in any part of the World Yea hereunto do they themselves the Papists give their Consent which they could not possibly avoid that this word Transubstantiation was not used before the time of the said Councel Yet to keep themselves from a total Defeat herein they do withal affirm that the Doctrine of it was held in Effect and Substance from the beginning by the Antient Fathers and maintained by them in other terms such as Mutation Transmutation Transelementation Conversion of the Bread and the like Nevertheless this Evasion will not serve their turn for though they yield us thus much in this Point confessing this word to be a Novelty as they apply it to the Sacrament of the Eucharist yet is it not let all mankind judge an absurd Vanity for any man to Imagine that the said Doctrine should be so generally own'd and so fiercely maintained yet not a fit word to be found out by any in that long Tract of time to shew to the World the full meaning of that Doctrine For as for those words which
they say were then used what do they signifie but the same sense which we who are and must be their Adversaries in this and many other Points of our Christian Profession do and always have acknowledged viz. That there is a change in these outward Elements being turned from a common to a sacred Use after they are Consecrated and set apart according to the first Institution Which certainly was the meaning of the Antients in this Case and no otherwise as shall appear hereafter from very good Authority though 't is true their Zeal did oftimes lead them to many strains of Rhetorick in a just magnifying this great and holy Mystery But will any man that is wise conclude thereupon that to be their Judgment which is now and hath been since their times vainly precended and thrust upon them by the Church of Rome meerly upon the account of their florid Elocutions Hyper bolies and high Expressions used by them to quicken Communicants to their Duty when they come to the Lords Table For our parts we cannot so conclude for then we should condemn our selves who often do the same thing to the same good end and purpose as they did yet abhor this unscriptural Doctrine of Transubstantiation A Doctrine it is that overthroweth the very nature of the Sacrament For unless there be an outward sign really continued in it such as Christ instituted to Represent and assure the Grace he principally intended to the Faith of those that come worthily unto it it is and must be utterly annihilated Neither can it be said that the Accidents of Bread and Wine do remain as a Sign when the Substance is vanished For there can be no Resemblance nor Analogy between those Accidents which have nothing in them of Nourishment and the Body and Blood of Christ whereby the Souls of True Believers are in and by that Sacrament really nourished and strengthned Nor can it be denied that in every Sacrament it is meet and requisite that there be an Analogy or convenient Agreement between the outward Sign and that spiritual good thing which is signified by it This being so may it not be proved to the Teeth of our Adversaries that they are in an Error in this Point and that they vainly pretend to make that to be an Article of Faith which a ma◠may Consute by his fingers ends A Doctrine which like the Eutichian Heresie of old disanuls the Verity of Christs Human Nature For it hath fancied such a Body unto Christ which in one and the same moment of time may be in many thousands of places viz. wherefoever the Massing-Priests shall please to Consecrate their Host which clearly contradicts not only Nature and Reason but the plain word of-Scripture which saith Heb. 4.15 Christ was in all Points temp'red like as we are yet without sin neither will it help them to say as they do weakly enough Christ's Body is now Glorisied For first Christ spake this word This is my Body at his last Supper when he was here upon Earth 2. It is the Crucified Body of Christ which is Represented in the Sacrament not the Glorified 3. Christ's Body is not by being Glorified so devested of its natural Properties as to cease from being a Body and if by being in Glory it be made ubiquitary a Property only belonging to the Divine Nature then shall our Bodies be so too in Heaven which I think no man will say For these Vile Bodies shall be made like unto Christ's Glorious Body Phil. 3.21 It would be too great weariness to my Reader if I should lead him into a consideration of the many gross Absurdities which arise from this upstart Doctrine that which hath been here in short alledged against it is enough to shew the Vanity of it And so long as the Abettors thoroof continue in it all who will be faithful to the Gospel of Christ and his Church must protest against them But we have say they the word of Christ himself for our Warrant for hath not he said This is my Body and may not we without offence say as he hath said viz That it is his Body Yea and one of them none of the meanest as I find it reported of him by a late Writer thus vannteth out his Considence that if God should ask him at the Day of Judgment why he held so he will boldly say Tu docuisti thou hast taught me But is it true that the Spirit of God hath taught him to say so and will he like a dull Schollar 〈◊〉 poring still upon the Letter of his Lesson never labouring to understand the right sense and meaning of it of which gross neglect what account he and his Fellow-Ignaro'es can be ablo to make at the time of publick Examination would be considered by them And is it not say they again possible with God to make good his own word by changing the Substance of the Bread into the Substance of Christs Body though we see it not Wherein they seem to be like the Stoick Philosophers that were of old who proposing things strange and uncouth in foretelling future Events pleaded for themselves saying nihil est quod Deus essicere non possit there is nothing which God cannot bring to pass But as Cicero answered them well in his second Book de divinatione Vtinam Sapientes Stoicos effecisset I wish he had made the Stoicks wise Men So may we wish that these of the Roman Church had more Wisdom in their knowledge of God and his Word than it appears yet they have For us we will not we dare not and God forbid we ever should deny this Attribute of Omnipotency to the great God Creator of Heaven and Earth he hath himself spoken it not once but twice i. e. not once but many times once in the Law and a second time in the Gospel without Retractation That Power belongeth unto him But to argue a posse ad esse will be acknowledged by all to be very Illogical and in this case it is inconsistent with found Divinity For we are taught by the Holy Scripture that Gods Will and Power are ever joyned together only his will makes way for the exerting his Power his actual Power I say which is of the same Latitude and Extent with his Will Our God is in Heaven saith the Psalmist P. 115.3 and doth whatsoever he will not whatsoever he can do So Job What his Soul desireth even that he doth Job 23.13 He can at an Instant overturn the whole course of Nature and Reduce all things to a Chaos by his absolute power or annihilate them but he doth not because he will not There is no doubt but what Christ said is true and what he said he is able to bring to pass for being God equal with the Father we confess with Holy Job he can do all things But the Question is not of the truth of these words nor of his Power in fulfilling them but of the Sense viz.
Whether Christ intended thereby that a new Sacrament should be ordained and continued in his Church till his fecond Advent or because his words being spoken in this manner viz. Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you whether his Apostles should at that time take that Bread which was then broken with his own Hands in their sight and which they did then Eat in his Presence whether I say they should take that Bread for his Human Body made of a Woman Gal 4. which was the next day to be Buffeted Scourged Crowned with Thorns nailed to a Cross and pierced to the Heart with a Spear And this his Body which was present with them sitting at the Table and speaking these very words should contrary to his own meaning and Resolution often before declared by himself in express terms and contrary to the clear Apprehension of his Apostles be free from all this Cruelty and extream hard Usage A very easie Passion certainly it must needs be which Christ endured if this be granted as it must if their Doctrine of Transubstantiation be from that instant time allowed being the thing which they contend for Neither indeed can we say as it is commonly and truly said that there was never Sorrow like unto his Sorrow if he had such a Proxy to suffer for him But without controversie Divine Justice would not now be satisfied with Figures Shadows Representations and Resemblances but seeing the Body is come which they did all typisie the Body it self must be Sacrificed or all mankind must perish for ever This latter part therefore of this Hypothesis must be cashiered and the former retained viz. that Christ intended only by these words This is my Body to ordain a Sacrament in his Church which should be a standing Memorial and Declaration of his Death as the Apostles word 1 Cor. 11.26 signifies till his coming again And herein there cannot or should not at least be any difference between them and us Well then if our Saviours intent was by these words to institute a Sacrament will not all men say that he used a sacramental kind of Speech to that purpose in his forming of such an Ordinance Hither to have we dealt only with our Romish Adversaries those Psendo-Catholicks about this matter We should now shew the Sense which Orthodox-Catholicks have rendred of it But first because there have been some who have joyned with us against those our common Adversaries that have in their haste given such an interpretation of these words as is inconsistent with Truth and Reason lest their Sense should be objected against us as if we were wounded with our own Weapons it will be necessary to shew in one or two particulars what is not the Sense of the Catholick Church of England nor of most of the Reformed Churches that harmoniously agree with it First then the misconstruction which is made of the excellent Form of sound Words in our Liturgy is not the sense of the Church whose Children we are There it is said the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lords Supper which is a most true saying and worthy of all Acceptation But to infer from thence that there is a areal Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in that Bread and Wine is such an Error that they who make this Inference do in Effect pass over to the Tents of the Romanists or Consubstantiate themselves with the Lutherans in their Heterodox Opinion which is also very absurd The truth is those words are not to be understood with a Reference to the Bread and Wine immediately after Consecration as our Venerable Mr. R. Hooker hath excellently declared his Judgment in this point which shall be shewed at large hereafter but to the time in which they that are worthy do really entertain Christ and feed on him in their Hearts after they have Received So the words spoken to them by the Minister when he gives them the Sacramental Consecrated Bread do plainly signifie which words are these Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving And this feeding must necessarily imply a reall Presence of Christ unto them not to any other This mistake therefore of the premised form of sound words in our Liturgy doth not shew the true sense which we are inquiring into Much less doth that form of unfound words devised in the time of the late unhappy Schism and Rebellion among us give any satisfaction herein The words which were imperiously imposed in those times upon every Minister to use when he gave the Bread of his God after he had broken it were these Take ye Eat ye this is the Body of Christ which is broken for you But now I appeal to the Conscience of any man that is able to discern in this Case could these words be thus spoken without assuming presumptuously a power which Christ had not given yea could they be spoken without great offence to the Communicant For might not he well demand how can this man give us the Body of Christ to eat which hath been in Types and shall be really broken for us And what can he think when he heareth these words of the Bread which he seeth with his Eyes and feeleth with his Fingers Ends but that either the Minister is Blind or that he intends to deceive him or that he believes as the Church of Rome believes viz. that the Substance of the Bread is vanished the Accidents of it only remaining and that the Body of Christ is really substantially present in it I know well what they will alledge for their Justification i. e. seeing our Blessed Saviour used this sacramental Form of Speech in his first Institution they likewise may use it in a Conformity to him when they Administer the said Sacrament Which is somewhat like unto him whom I mentioned before who will say unto God at the day of Judgment Tu docuisti thou hast taught me But they may hear that now which possibly they never heard of before or at least did not well consider viz. Because our Saviour like a King that hath command over his Broad-Seal to Confirm or alter it as he pleaseth spake this word This is my Body when he first Instituted this Sacrament it will be too bold an Arrogancy for any man since whatsoever he be who pretendeth to be a Subject unto him to say the Bread is the Body of Christ when he Administreth it Sure I am the great Apostle St. Paul doth not word it in so bold a manner as to say The Cup which we Bless is the Blood of Christ or The Bread which we break is the Body of Christ no but with a pious Modesty worthy of Imitation only thus The Cup of Blessing which we Bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we break is it not the
this Agar is Mount Sinai Rev. 7.9 The seven Heads are seven Mountains So in Sacramentals Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen. 17. â—3 and a token of the Covenant ver 11. And a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4.11 The Lamb is called the Passover Ex. 2.21 The Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 and in this of our Lords Supper This is the Cup of the new Testament These and the like Instances are commonly used in this case and the Form of Speech is so plain that a Child may understand it Thus he But if Similitudes may be of any force I say not in Argumentation but Illustration in my Judgment there can be nothing more Pregnant to this purpose than a Resemblance that may be made between our Saviour himself and this his own Holy Ordinance Two Natures we believe are personally united in Christ the Divine and Human Now as the distinct Properties of these Natures are by vertue of this Hypostatical Union sometimes applyed and made common to both yet remain themselves entire without any Confusion each with other or Conversion into one another in like manner there being in this Ordinance of our Saviour a Sacramental Union between the ontward visible Sign and the inward and spiritual Grace well may the one be denominated by the other yet remain themselves entirely in their own Nature and Substance as they were before the said Union without any confused mixture one with the other or any real Conversion into each other So the Soul and Body of Man while they are united are oft-times put distinctly for the whole Person of a Man yet are both bounded within their original Beings But the truth is this real corporal Conversion of the Bread into the Body of Christ notwithstanding the Confidence which the Roman Party useth by it to bring on their Oral Manducation of Christs Body in the Mass hath no such Warrant as they dream of from these words of our Saviour which they so much harp upon For it is well known among the Learned as my aforesaid Author observeth out of Cameron and Moulin that the Hebrew Tongue or Syriack in which Christ spake doth not use in this form of Speech any Copula of Subject or Predicate either is or signifieth But sometimes and not always Pronoun as in those places before cited in the old Testamenr no is nor was nor any other Verb is there But thus The seven ears of Corn they seven years the four Beasts four Kings which when they come to be Translated into Greek or Latin then the Idiom of the Language requires it and saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is e. g. The Rock is Christ So that they are much mistaken who to bolster up their devised Transubstantiation place the Emphasis here in this word Is which Word probably our Saviour did not speak when he instituted this Sacrament though it be as it must be so rendred by the Evangelists according as it hath been said to the Idiome of the Language in which they wrote Thus in short we see the Sense which hath been wont to be given of these words of our Saviour by Pious and Learned Men and which passeth for current among us of all sorts To which Sense I also for my part do readily subscribe though I do humbly conceive there is something lacking in it and so not fully comming up to our Saviours meaning I come therefore now according to my Promise to deliver my particular Judgment of it My particular I say because I never heard of it before nor in all my Reading met with it in any Author elder or later that hath written of this Subject And it is as followeth Our Lord Jesus Christ intending as it appeareth to put an end to the old Sacrament of the Paschal Lamb for which his Disciples had been so sollicitous and to Institute this of his last Supper in its stead he therefore having first lifted up his Eyes and Hands to Heaven that he might in the Name of his Father Consecrate the chosen Element of Bread and Wine speaks to his Disciples in this manner and form saying This is my Body and this is my Blood q.d. you have taken that for my Body hitherto according to the Rudiments of the Law of Moses for indeed Christ the Lamb of God was praesigured thereby but now This shall be it hereafter till my Coming again So placing the Emphasis in the word This as by way of distinction from the former Sacrament calling it likewise his Body in opposition to the former shadows not making any other change at all but only one Sacrament instead of another which it's true is generally acknowledged but the premised Emphatical Distinction hath not been heeded as it ought to have been from whence have sprung the differences and hot contentions about the manner of Christs Presence The Apostles themselves so understood it for they never after were inquisitive as they had been about the Passover but were no doubt obedient to the Command of their Lord and Master for he had laid this charge upon them in these words Do this in Remembrance of me as much as to say leave the other undone or use it no more and let none other use it in my Name hereafter The Apostle St. Paul who laboured more abundantly than all the rest of the Apostles kept himself precisely to this command in his Apostolical Office So he telleth the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 11.23 that saith he which I have received of the Lord meaning not from Moses but of Christ have I delivered unto you Yea the very words of our Saviour himself which he spake of the Cup do seem to point out this Sense unto us for as he saith of that This is my Blood of the New Testament so his meaning very probably may be of the Bread This is my Body of the New Testament that is which in the time of the New Testament you and all other to the Worlds end shall take for my Body not that which hath been taken for it under the old For by these words he takes away the first Sacrament of the Passover how else comes it to be out of date And establisheth this of his last Supper the first being an ordinance of the Law to continue during the old Covenant the second he will have to be an ordinance of the Gospel as being more apt to agree with his new Covenant This this I say is clearly the thing that our Lord intended by using this form of Speech when he ordained this new Sacrament in his Church viz. This is my Body He would that his Apostles and his whole Church after them should take his meaning as spoken in this manner This Emphatically This Specifically This Substantially This not the former yet this mystically even as the former was is my Body whereby you shall be united together in bortherly Love your Faith also shall be Confirmed and your Souls strengthned and refreshed unto Life Eternal
to raise when extraordinarily they are present the mind therefore feeling present Joy is always unwilling to admit any other Cogitation and in that case casteth off those Disputes whereunto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth c. Thus he And certainly it must be granted by all that he was in the right unles we will be still inquisitive after that which is infinitely above our reach and consequently break into Gods Pavillion where we shall find the dark waters that encompass it will inevitably swallow us up Neither will it be the pretended suffrage of the Antients that will keep us from sinking in this bold Presumption Pretended I say for all that our Pseudo-Catholicks of Rome have boasted of the Antient Fathers as if they were their Coryphaei in their Heterodox Opinions which they hold of this holy Sacrament are but Vanity And let this Eminent Divine approved even by them for his great Learning as shall here be made manifest be heard speak his Judgment also in this particular It appeareth not that of all the Antient Fathers of the Church any one did ever conceive or imagine other than only a mystical Participation of Christs both Body and blood in the Sacrament Neither are their speeches concerning the change of the Elements themselves into the Body and Blood of Christ such that a man can thereby in Conscience assure himself it was their meaning to perswade the World either of a corporal Consubstantiation of Christ with those sanctified and blessed Elements before we receive them or of the like Transubstantiation of them into the Body and Blood of Christ Both which to our mystical Communion with Christ are so unnecessary that the Fathers who plainly hold but this mystical Communion cannot easily be thought to have meant any other change of Sacramental Elements than that which the same spiritual Communion did require them to hold Which being so let the impartial Reader judge whether the Church of Rome hath not lost one of her strongest holds wherein many of her most able Champions have thought themselves to be impregnable It will be no offence I presume to transcribe thus largely the words of that Renowned Author For the plain truth is we who are Clergy-men are obliged in many Respects to be more diligent in perusing his Works then I doubt we are But however though we in this Generation sleight them they have certainly been of very high account with Learned men in former times And which is a thing not common two Kings there have been in our Land who for Learning and Piety were second to no Princes in their Generation that did much exâ—ol Mr. Hocker and his Works First King James of famous Memory gave this Commendation of him that he had received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf on Paragraph in Mr. Hookers writing of the Sacraments then he had in reading large Treatises of that subject written by others though very Learned Men. Again King Charles the blessed Martyr the day before his Death gave a charge to one of his Children the Lady Elizabeth which was to be imparted to the rest to be very conversant in good Books and among others he was pleased to name Mr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy which as he said would arm them against Popery And well may this be a Reflection upon us all that survive him If a Father when he is ready to dye shall thus instruct his Children and such a Father who is Pater Patriae Tanti Meriti Tanti Pectoris Tanti Oris Tantae Virtutis Pater as St. Austin said of St. Cyprian a Father so worthy so Wise so well Spoken so Virtuous so Learned a King that was as it hath been said of him in a publick Phrontistery a Defender of the Faith not only by his Title but by his Abilities and Writings a King who understood the Protestant Religion so well that he was able to defend it against the whole Conclave of Rome and Hell And when he knew it so throughly and died so Eminently for it it will concern us to be very wary how we depart from his Judgment by falling off to the apostatical Church of Rome But for such as have forgotten their Duty and Reverence to the late King our common Father and the Pious Advice that he left us such had need to have a very profound Judgment of their own to bear them out but that it is much to be doubted they will not in the end prove to be wiser than Dapiel as the word of Scripture is no nor so wise as our good Father King Charles the faithful Martyr who gave us all good Counsel if we had the Grace to follow it However if we be willing to be arm'd against Popery let us make use of such means which he commended unto us whereof this is one viz. to be diligent in Reading Mr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Policy Once more therefore I shall add here what the said Author writeth to our present purpose in the close of the same Paragraph wherein he hath not only excelled in casting down strong holds but all vain Imaginations 1 Cor. 10.4 or foolish Reasonings so the Apostles word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie that are exalted against the simplicity of the Gospel When I behold saith he with mine Eyes some small and scarce discernable Grain or Seed whereof Nature maketh a Promise that a Tree should come and when afterwards of that Tree any skilful Artificer undertaketh to frame some exquisite and curious Work I look for the Event I move no Question about performance either of the one or of the other Shall I then simply credit Nature in things natural shall I in things artificial rely my self on Art never offering to make doubt and in that which is above both Art and Nature refuse to believe the Author of both except he acquaint me with his ways and lay the secret of his skill before me Where God himself doth speak those things which either for Height and Sublimity of matter or else for secresie of performance we are not able to reach unto as we may be ignorant without Danger so it is no disgrace to confess we are ignorant Such as love Piety will as much as in them lieth know all things that God commandeth but especially the Duties of Service which they owe to God as for his dark and hidden Works they preserve as becomes them in such cases simplicity of Faith before that knowledge which curiously sisting what it should adore and disputing too boldly of that which the Wit of man cannot search chilleth for the most part all warmth of Zeal and bringeth soundness of Belief many times into great hazard Let it therefore be sufficient for me presenting my self at the Lords Table to know what there I receive from him without searching or enquiring of the manner how Christ performeth his Promise Let Disputes and Questions Enemies to Piety Abatements of true Devotion and hitherto in this cause but over-patiently
prove to us to be but as a Preface to their Writ de Comburendo for their merciless burning of our Bodies But blessed be God we have hitherto been kept out of their reach and blessed for ever of God be the Government which is set over us whereby under God we are still preserved Yet neither do we sleight the words of our Lord which he spake saying This is my Body God forbid that such a Thought should ever enter into our Hearts no but taking them in the sense which he intended they are the Crown of our rejoycing His Promise herein is the greatest Blessing that we can be capable of in this World It is our Life and without it we shall ever be dead in our Sins and Trespasses whatsoever spiritual Quicknings we have in us to heavenly things it is the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ which we have Received into our Hearts by Faith that worketh them in us for we live not as the Apostle St. Paul said but Christ liveth in us It is the Body of Christ and it is the Blood of Christ which filleth the whole inward man inlightning the Understanding Rectifying the Will ordering the Affections putting courage into the Heart to encounter any Difficulties for Christ to suffer any Torments for his sake that can be inflicted upon us by Men or Devils Nay more It is the Body of Christ and it is the Blood of Christ separated each from other which were so taken and Received in the Lords Supper and which continue to be so in the Hearts of those that worthily Received that Holy Sacrament which fully satisfieth all their Hunger and Thirst as bringing a clear Evidence of Christs Death and consequently a full Assurance of the Pardon and Remission of their sins unto them the memorial of Christs Death being the main end why the Sacrament was ordained This in short is that real Presence of Christ in this Holy Ordinance which the Church the Spouse of Christ expecteth so as to be entertained by her Lord at his holy Table and which indeed is only to be desired as being most advantageous unto her As for that Presence of Christ in this Sacrament which Papists contend for let it pass for a Dream as it is It shall even be to use the words of the Prophet As when a hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth Is 19.8 but he awaketh and his Soul is empty And as when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint and his Soul hath Appetite So shall their hoc est Corpus meum I mean their Doctrine of the Transubstantiation of the outward Elements in the Lords Supper into the Body and Blood of Christ prove to be unto them but a miserable Delusion Never never O my God let my Soul enter into their Secret nor be baptised with a Baptism that they are Baptised with And with this Confidence I do shut up this whole Discourse God Almighty give a Blessing unto it FINIS POSTSCRIPT BUt now it seems to strengthen the Popish Interest Hell is broke loose seditious Pamphlets now flutter about for the discrediting our Religion and our Church which hath been acknowledged the best Reformed Church in the Christian World such Pamphlets I say as are not only against the Doctrine of the true Protestant Religion but against the best Ecclesiastical Discipline also witness that scandalous and scurrilous Piece Gratum opus Agricolis Romanis atque Atheistis Entituled the Naked Truth Second Part whereas in many parts of it I say not in all it rather deserves the Title of impudent Untruth as shall be here made manifest past all Contradiction The Author thereof whom I care not to know being he is Prava Avis in Templis nigroque simillima Spectro begins his Epistle to the Reader with a colloguing Insinuation I had almost said with much Craft and Cunning in this manner No man does more Reverence good Bishops than my self and why so But because he does it may be account himself to be one it is an ill Bird then that will defile his own Nest nor saith he does any man less dread them with a slavish fear But non obstante all his Confidence I who am a poor inconsiderable man shall here take the boldness before I go with him a foot further to expostulate with him in this case Who Sir is there that doth so dread them I know a man who is in the seventy seventh year of his Age and in the fifty third year of his Ordination to the office and order of an Evangelical Priest yet in his full strength blessed be God at which Age fears do commonly as other weaknesses take hold of a man but although he hath in his time lived under the Inspection of many Bishops yet had he never such a fear of them upon him nor have I at this day for the plain truth is there neither was nor is any the least need of it Nor is there I believe any one of our Bishops who is willing to be so dreaded for if curteous Affability fatherly Instruction brotherly Condescention tender Compassion towards the weaker sort be to be found in them and that very frequently constantly upon all emergent Occasions presented before them as I know by experience to be in some of them what do these boasting words signifie but a vain-glorious hussing If they be not a most unchristian Suggestion and slanderous Susurration sufficient to make all that followeth in the whole Tract liable to suspition among wise Men. As indeed many other of his following words do I admire them saith he at my distance which he presumeth is not very great but I do not Idolize them and God forbid that he or any man else should I Honour them but I do not fall down and Worship them as if none could kneel unto them to crave their Blessing like dutiful Sons of their Grave and Reverend Fathers and as all good Subjects do to the King being so in Duty bound because he is Pater Patriae can none I say do this but they must thereupon make Idols of them and Worship them I can say saith he my Lord and not add my God But let me ask again does any do so or say so Sure there is not such a Polytheism to be found among us here in this Nation though there be God be merciful to us much Atheisin which is like to grow up to a more prodigious Height than it hath yet attained by the means of this and the like prodigious Pamphlets that are scattered among us The man goeth on in his Apology thus You will not find in this ensuing Inquiry the least tang of Bitterness or yellow Choler no not so much as one tart or harsh Expression being so far from justly disgusting any that I shall not so much as set their Teeth on edge so insipied and simple an Humour have I cherisht all-a-long through this whole Discourse for
House of God Dedicated to his holy Worship and therefore ought to mind us both of the Greatness and Goodness of his Divine Majesty certain it is that the acknowledgment thereof not only inwardly in our Hearts but also outwardly with our Bodies must needs be Pious in it self profitable unto us and edifying unto others We therefore think it very meet and behoveful and heartily commend it to all good and well affected People Members of this Church that they be ready to tender unto the Lord the said acknowledgment by doing Reverence and Obeisance both at their coming in and going out of the said Churches Chancels or Chappels according to the most antient Custom of the primitive Churches in the purest times and of this Church also for many years of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth The receiving therefore of this ancient and laudable Custom we heartily commend to the serious Consideration of all good People not with any intention to exhibit any Religious Worship to the Communion-Table the East or Church or any thing therein contained in so doing or to perform the said Gesture in the Celebration of the holy Eucharist upon any opinion of a corporal Presence of the Body of Jesus Christ on the Holy Table or in the mystical Elements but only for the Advancement of Gods Majesty and to give him alone that Honour and Glory that is due unto him and no otherwise And in the practise or omission of this Rite we desire that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed which is that they which use this Rite despise not them which use it not and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it If this be the Canon that the man means as I believe it is I do appeal to all men that are able to discern between Truth and Error what jost exceptions can be taken against these words is it not evident that they carry in them a sound of much Piety towards God much tenderness of Spirit towards the People of God in perswading them with meekness of Wisdom to consent unto that pious Course there propounded for the advancement of Gods Majesty And what can be more Christian like spoken than that which is there added in the close desiring that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be obseryed which is that they who use this Rite viz. of reverential Gesture in the publick Service of God despise not them who use it not and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it What imposing then is here upon People a cringing to the East It is not expresly disavowed where is that unlawful Canon which is said to be obtruded upon the Church Yea where is that Popish Superstition which hath been and still is mouthed out in these times against Convocations of the Clergy the Clergy Where It will certainly be sound one day to be in the Pens in the Tongues in the Hearts of those that make these causeless uncharitable invectives It is not in the Clergy it is not in their Assemblies nor in their Administrations Oh but to the Bowing at the Name of Jesus he hath some what more to object he will not he saith let that go so He will smite it first with his Tongue rather than confess with his Knee or his Tongue that Jesus is The Lord. And what can he or what doth he say but the same nauseous Crambe which his old Acquaintance of the Separation have said before him Quae omnia protrita prostigata sunt as it hath been said by a Learned man in another case like unto this The Convocation in Amo 1603 doth indeed order that when in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned due and lowly Reverence shall be done by all Persons present as it hath been accustomed Testifying by these outward Ceremonies and Gestures their inward Humility Christian Resolution and due acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ the True and Eternal Son of God is the Only Saviour of the World in whom alone all the Mercies Graces and Promises of God to mankind for this life and the life to come are fully and wholly comprised And is this now to be accounted any so great a Crime in that Synod to make such a Canon that they must be condemned as if they were unworthy to be called Gods Clergy Had they done any thing to the Dishonour of our Lord could they have had a heavier Sentence past upon them It is he saith a Dishonour to the Father and the Holy Ghost to Prefer the second Person before them being co-equal in Glory And therefore may the Lord Jesus Christ account himself dishonoured by this Bowing to him seeing the Father and the Holy Ghost have not the same Honour done unto them These are his chief Objections as for the rest they are so Ridiculous and Prophane that they deserve not a Refutation but to these I return briefly 1. If we did believe that our Lord Jesus took upon him the person of a Man when he was made of a Woman and that we do thereupon ascribe unto him this Honour we should in so doing Dishonour him For first we should deprive him of his highest Honour which is of being God equal with the Father 2. We should thereby derogate from the Father and the Holy Ghost of which he will never approve it being of dangerous consequence to all the three Persons it being also written that we should honour the Son even as we honour the Father Yea then we should believe a Quaternity of Persons contrary to that which is Revealed and Believed ever since the Gospel hath been Preached and Written wherein I consess we should sin sadly But this we do not That therefore cannot be imparted to us in this case nor in any other 2. We do not ascribe this Honour to Christ as he is the second Person in the Trinity the Son of the Father For then indeed we should be partial in the Worshipping of our God presenting one person before another and consequently should be guilty of Idolatry in framing an Imagination of our God in our Hearts otherwise than it is written But thirdly this Honour we do ascribe to Christ as he is Mediator between God and us and no otherwise not exalting him thereby above the first and third Persons but because we would exalt him above every Name that is named among all the Creatures of God either in Heaven or in Earth and we believe in so doing we do not offend It will be said we do give more Honour unto the Name of Jesus than we do to the Name of the Father and of the Holy Ghost It must be answered Jesus we know is a proper Name given to our Saviour at his Birth as all we of the same nature have but there are no such Names given to the Father and the Holy Ghost Neither are the three Persons to be distinguished by Names and Titles but
her faithful Children to bow their Bodies in token of Reverence unto him at the mentioning of his Name in their Solemn Assemblies when they are gathered together for the holy Service of Almighty God I have here given my Reader a sight of some of the ugly Errors contained in that scandalous Pamphlet unjustly called Naked Truth which but a few days past came into my hands And having perceived that a leading man here in our Countrey hath been seduced by it who hath as I have heard spoken these words What will Mr. Lane say to this Let him try if he can answer it I was willing to set Pen to Paper for the Vindication of Truth which hath been miserably abused by this Pretender unto it But having since heard also from some of the Seniors of our College by Winton that one hath already set forth an Answer unto it I shall forbear any further medling therewith And though the Author of it calls them Babies and Boobies such are his immodest terms that will write against him yet I am confident such a work as it may be managed will be acceptable to God and all good men Nevertheless I wish with all my heart that Abuses in our Ecclesiastical Courts those I mean that are not Imaginary but Real if there be any such that they may be removed which I believe the Chief Governours of the said Courts will be heartily willing unto FINIS The Contents of the foregoing Discourse upon the words of our Saviour viz. This is my Body 1. OF the sad Differences that have been about the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Page 71 2. The Romish Doctrine of Transubstantiation proved to be but a late upstart Doctrine p. 72 3. Is is a Doctrine which is destructive to the nature of the Sacrament p. 73 4. It is a Doctrine that disanuls the Verity of Christs Humane Nature p. 74 5. Gods Omnipotency not questioned by us in this case but vainly urged by our Adversaries in it p. 75 6. Of the words used in our Liturgy viz. The Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed Taken and Received by the Faithful in the Lords Supper p. 76 77 7. The Sense of the Church of England in her twenty eighth Article concerning this Point p. 79. 8. The Sense which Orthodox Interpreters give of these words viz. This is my Body approved p. 80 9. A Resemblance taken from the two Natures of Christ Divine and Humane and â—pplied p. 81 10. An Additional Sense of these words viz. This is my Body is here offered to Consideration p. 82 11. Venerable Mr. Hookers Judgment of the real Presence of Christs most blessed Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Eucharist p. 84 12. How the words of our Lord which he spake saying This is my Body are the Crown of our Rejoycing 91 13. The Popish Opinion of the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament is but a Dream 92 Books newly Printed for William Crooke viz. 1680 1681. 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