was to answer hâ—s accusations against the Ministers for their transcribing his Errours in their Testimony My book would have swolne into a large volume had I handled the Points according to their own extent and according to the helps afforded by our Divines But I hope I have done enough to shew that he had no cause to complain of the Ministers transcriptions and that all his pretended allegations out of the Fathers Bucer and Mâ— Ball help him not at all but rather speak against him My multiplied occasions have hindered me from so speedy and large an Answer as may be expected but as it is Reverend and beloved friends you have it and my self to serve you in the things of Christ WILLIAM JENKYN From my Study at Christ Church Load Errata Page 4. marg read Paulâ—s voluit p 8. marg l 30. read de Christo l. 35. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 8. l 23. r upheld p. 20. l 23. r. wherein you say c. p â—â— l ult r. tells mâ— it is to c p 23. l. 34. r. it is from God written p. 31. marg r abijcere possit p. 41. l. 24 r. and that truly l. 11. r. you did speak to c. p. 45. l. 33. â—â—jutorium p. 48 marg r. contendunt p 52. marg r Bacer in Iob 6.44 p. 5â— l 32. r with the fathers p. 52 marg r. etesiph ΑΛΛΟΤΡΙΟΕΠῚΣΚΟΠΟΣ OR The Busie Bishop RELIGION never had greater enemies then those of her own house Sion Coll. visited p. 1. And a little after It was never well with RELIGION since the Ministers c. Answ Your work is to kill Religion but your way to do so Ans I perceive is to kisse it You seem to make towards the lips of Religion but your aim is at her fifth rib You advance her head in your Preface but 't is to break her neck in your book In the pretence of your Preface you raise up Religion to the clouds In the performance of your book you lay it among the clods for must not Religion needs fall to the ground when her foundation upon which she stands is pluckt away And takes not â—e away the foundation of religion who denies the Scripture to be that foundation Div. Authority of the Scripturâ—â— p. 18. And doth not John Goodwin deny the Scripture to be that foundation of Religion What else is the English of these words in terminis his own viz. Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originals are the foundation of Christian Religion Away with your hypocriticall exclamations against the enemies of Religion and your Crocodiles tears in that Religion cannot be well for the Ministers were your wit but hair to keen as your will we should in a short time neither have Religion nor Minister left among us But to your stuff The greatest enemies to Religion are in her own house Sion Col. visit p. 1. Answ True For of your own selves saith Paul shall men arise speaking penverse things to draw away Disciples after them Act 20.30 And if of all that are in Religions own house heretikes be her greatest enemies What will become of John Goodwin It was never well with Christian Religion since the Ministers of the Gospel so called by themselves Sion Col. visit p 1. and so reputed by others for want of knowing better cunningly vested that priviledge of the Church of being the pillar and ground of truth in themselves First Answ For the Lectio Your meaning I suppose was and had not rage against the Ministers made you write non-sense you would have said thus The Ministers cunningly vested themselves in or with the priviledge of the Church and not as you doe The Ministers vested the priviledge of the Church in themselves A man may be vested in or with a priviledge but it 's very improper to say a priviledge is vested in or with a man as improper as to say a garment is vested in the man that wears it t were better to say the man is vested in the garment It s a sign your pen is drunk with madnes it doth so stagger and stammer These faults of pure weaknesse I should not regard did I observe either humility in you under the sense of greater in yourself or ingenuity in you in passing by smaller in others But why finde I fault with the vest the phrase of your book The dusty cloaths of your words are good enough for the crooked carcasse of your matter This is Titubare in limite for I may well call the matter crooked if to be true be to be straight for I finde two abominable falsities within the space of two lines 1. That the Ministers of the Gospel are only so reputed by men for want of knowing and considering better 2. That they have vested themselves with the priviledge of being the ground and pillar of truth 1. You say these Ministers of the Gospel are only so reputed for want of considering better Answ 1. 'T is your sorrow to see that they are so much as reputed Ministers But Sir 't is your sin to say they are no more then Ministers reputed If they be no Ministers why disprove you not their calling Why bring you not an argument in stead of a scoff against them But you may write thus with much praise from your deluded followers and little pains to your feeble self 2. Tell me of one man either Minister or private Christian differing from the subscribers only in the point of Independency who dares say thus with you I have heard sundry of the Synodicall dissenters preach and professe the contrary 3. Or are you now got a step or two above Independency acknowledge you any Ministers of the Gospel at all whether your self or any other I observe that you who were wont to stile your self The Minister of a Church such an one as 't is in Colemanstreet now in this last Pamphlet as if you had a minde to be lookt upon under another consideration word your self only Iohn Goodwin a servant of God and men I am sure of men I doubt whether of God haply the Delilah of a Congregation hath entised you to be tampering with the lock of our Ministery you have yeelded already to cast off the word Minister by the next you may have cast off the thing too 4. If you do account your self a Minister I pray tell me in your next which way you had your Ordination whether by that way which the Ministers of London had theirs who you say are no Ministers at all or whether you had it by a Culinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one of your allies You tell the subscribers afterward of sacred unction in a jeer but know that no unction is the lesse sacred for not coming out of the kitchin Secondly You say The Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of the Church of being the ground and pillar of truth and it was â—â—ver happy since Answ I
know not whether you who subvert the whole Scripture intend not also to pervert this 1 Tim. 3.15 By the Church her being the ground and pillar of truth all the Orthodox agree to be meant the Church her maintaining and holding forth the truth now the Church holds up and holds forth the truth either in a way common to all Christians mutuall exhortations a way of profession and practice c. or in a way peculiar to â—ome a ministeriall way of preaching the Word administration of the Sacraments c. If you say the Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of being the pillar and ground of truth the first way 't is ridiculously false profession of the truth being common to the community every one in the Church If you mean as you must needs that Ministers have vested themselves with the priviledge of pillars in the second respect viz. of Ministery 't is odiously false for the Lord Jesus himself and not themselves vested them with the priviledge of holding forth truth by way of Office Christ gave some Pastors and teachers Eph. 4.11 God hath set some in his Church 1 Cor. 12.38 And if in this respect you intend that religion is so miserable because all in the Church may not preach the Word administer Sacraments and because Ministers do c. Speak out Sir It follows not because the Church holds forth the truth therefore that all may hold it forth as Ministers in it Learned Calvin * Galest is sapientia soliue Eâ—clesiae ministe vio censerva tur Quantum ergo onus pastâ—o vibas incumb t quitam inaesti mabilis thesâ—u â—icusâ—odiae prâ—esunt Pauâ—uâ— volnit propâ—sita offâ—â—â— magnitudâ—â—e admoaito esse pastores quaâ—td illuâ— side diligentiâ reveren ia almini lrare debeonr Etenin quam borribilis sutura est ultio si eorii cuâ—pi intercidat veritas Ecclesiâ— enin ideo colâ—â—na est veritatis quia suo â—inisterio can tuetur as propagat Ergo elogium boc al ministeriun verbi refertur quo sublato concideâ— Dei veritas Sustinetur Dei veritas pâ—ra Evangelâ—â— praed cattane Calv. in 1 Tint 3.15 upon this place 1 Tim. 3.15 will inform you better by whom and what the Church in that place of Timothy maintains and preserves the truth Weigh the quotation Quantum onus ergo c. how great a burden therefore â—â—eth upon the Pastors who are to keep so inestimable a treasure as the truth Ecclesia ideo c. Therefore is the Church the pillar and ground of truth because she defends it with the Ministery of the word And â—logium hoc c. This commendation is to be referred to the Ministery of the word which being taken away the truth fals The truth is sustained by the pure preaching of the Word And the subscribers their ministeriall zeal for the truth both in presse and pulpit is the occasion of your rage against them I confesse you may have a further aim viz. to gratifie your deluded followers whose design is to raze and levell the Church of Christ and to preach as well as John Goodwin as indeed they may soon do but the main ground of your rage against these holy men is because they discover your errours You strike at the lanthorn because of the candle in it At the pillar because of the proclamation the Gospel that hangs upon it At the shepherds because they defend their flocks Were it not for these Ministers you would do well enough you think with the people mean while remember Omnis Apostata est osor sui ordinis Religion never had greater enemies then renegadoes The Ministers of the Gospel claim Nebuchadnezzars preregative among men over the truths of God Sion Col visited p. 1. Whom he would he slew whom he would he saved alive The Nebuchadnezzars are among your selves Ans You have his Palace A Babel for such is your way His property pride far surmounting your Palace and take heed even you in particular lest his portion be also yours The heart of a beast given unto you by God for abusing the heart of a man For the truths of God slain by the Ministers I know none unlesse you mean old heresies lately vampt in your alley for new truths where what ever is strange is true O the patience of the God of truth to suffer you to voice prodigious heresies the truths of God so entitle the true God to so many untruths against God Those which you call truths and yet say are slain by the ministers will continue errours till you prove the contrary And whereas you say that the Ministers slay them did the word spare them the Ministers would do so too who dare do nothing against the truth but for the truth and for their saving some errours alive I pray prove what those errours are and the next edition of the testimony will not be wanting in due severity I wish nothing to the Ministers but good Sion Col visi p 1. Ans Devout soul that can curse and blesse in one breath Two lines off you blasted the Ministers with the title of murderous Nebuchadnezzars and here you blesse them with desires of all good to them but whereas you say you wish nothing in your praier but good to the Ministers I fear you do nothing in your preaching but hurt to the people I wish the Ministers had been in print without their own knowledge or consent Sâ—on Col. visi p. 1. Ans Your grief is not that the book was printed with their but without your consent however the Ministers are bound to interpret charitably this wish of yours that they had been in print without their consent because you your self have sped so well by being in print without your consent when your Church set forth that 〈◊〉 ridioulous paper in commendation of you wherein they extold you to the clouds where indeed you alwaies are when you write Then you were in print against your consent the verses put under your effigies which say that you have the perfections of ten thousand men gathered in you this was against your consent too I warrant you I take care how the Authour will get into your favour again So I might maintain honourable thoughts of their persons Sion Col. visited p. 1. which I have alway laboured to doe my witnesse is oâ— high Is your witnesse on high Answ So is your Judge too but take heed your punishment be not below mock not God nor deceive your self Though I am still opposed by them in my way Sion Col. visited p. 2. Ans You cannot say that you have been opposed by them in Gods way and 't is a mercy for you to be opposed in your own way your way is the way of Balaam and it was an Angel that stopt him in his way The Image stampt upon the Testimony and the men whose names are affixed Sion Col. visited p 2. are very unlike the names subscribed are learned and pious
ΑΛΛΟΤΡΙΟΕΠῚΣΚΟΠΟΣ The Busie Bishop OR The Visitor Visited By way of Answer to a very feeble Pamphlet lately Published by Mr J. G. called Sion Colledge visited In which Answer his Cavils against the Ministers of London for Witnessing against his Errours touching the holy Scriptures and the power of man to good supernaturall are answered and the impertinency of his quotations out of the Fathers Martin Bucer and Mr Ball are manifested By WILLIAM JENKYN Minister of the Word of God at Christ-Church London Cum ex Scripturis arguntur haeretici in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum Scripturarum quasi non rectè habeant neque sint ex â—utoritate quâ—â— variè sint dictae quia non possit ex his inveniri veritas ab his qui nesci an t traditionem Iren lib. 3. adv haeres cap sc Haeretici Scripturarum Lucifugae Tert. de resur carn cap. quadrag sept nec habet quilquam quo surgere possit Ad vitam sacro nisi â—ursum nascitur orâ—u Proâ—p de ingrat cap. 15. non moribus illi scil gratiae Fiâ—mora non causis anceps suspenditur ullis LONDON Printed by A. M for Christopher Meredith at the Crane in Pauls Church yard and Tho. Vnder hill at the Bible in Woodstreet 1648. THE PREFACE TO THE READER More especially to the REVEREND AND LEARNED SUBSCRIBERS Of the late TESTIMONY to the TRUTH of CHRIST within the Province of LONDON Reverend and Beloved SHould the witnesses to truth want enemies they might justly question the truth of that to which they witnesse The Father of lies was not well pleased with your late testimony to the truth He hath exprest his dislike of it with much rage though blessed be God with more weaknesse Never was an Overseer so overseen as was this Bishop in his late visitation of Sion Colledge His Pamphlet speaks him busy but yet more blinde then busy He might with lesse disgrace have contain'd himself within his darker diocesse I mean the alley where he preacheth his errours His weaker eyes like those of the night-bird would have well endured that shady refuge but adventuring upon the wings of his late Pamphlet to oppose his feeble sight to the Sun of truth shining forth in the testimony he discovers such a dazeled and unable eye to guide the course of his wings that I accounted it a matter of no difficulty for any to chase and catch him in an answer His ambition made him so eager of putting out an answer to many men that he took no care at all to put out an answer to one question His other writings are below the most but this last peece was below himself Account it not therefore ambition Reverend Sirs that puts the weakest of your numbers upon undertaking him For the most of you â—â— have performed this task I should have accounted it an act of not to say too great condescention I finde not to my remembranâ—e throughout his papers one quotation taken out either of Scriptures Fathers or modern writers pertinently applied nor any thing like an argument to prove the thing he undertakes to shew viz. why his opinions should not be charged as erroneous But this his double defect he supplieth with abundant rage in opposing Christ in his Scriptures grace Ministers government his rage against the two last reaching up to heaven out of multitudes of instances that might be given take but two out of his Pamphlet 1. Concerning the government which the subscribers approve of he saith That the best successe which with any colour of truth Sion Col. visited p. 26. we can entitle the Presbyterian government unto is to snipp and keep under thriving branches I know he means not branches that thrive in heresies but clearly intends such branches as thrive in holinesse The Lord smite his conscience and touch his heart for this expression before it be wounded so as it will be beyond cure Concerning the Reverend Ministers of Christ in the city Sion Col. visited p. 19. he saith They Foment divisions Multiply distractions Obstruct the quiet composure and setling of things in the land speaks not my Lord just as if he were in his visitation and recompence no degree of all this unworthinesse with any considerable good would any Atheist in England have said more The genuine paraphrase is The Ministers are the troublers and Traitors of the Kingdome All their labours though never so successefull in converting and building up of souls amount not to the least considerable good The Kingdome might well be without them and they do more hurt then good And all this because they cannot conform to his apish inventions That dear respect which I bear to your calling and graces to your late testimony for the truth I might add to that sweet and gracious converse I have enjoyed and do frequently pertake of from you particularly some of you that are members of that Classis where providence hath cast me Especially if my heart be not the greatest liar in the world The love I bear to the Lord Jesus who hath loved me and given him self for me and who is the greatest sufferer of us all by this impure Pamphlet put me upon expressing my self in this endeavour to serve you I know not whether this busy Bishop intends to afford us a second visitation If he doth I hope he will come without invitation and be entertained without welcome even as a busy-body As for the reproaches of his meerly misled followers whether I escape them or sustain them I shall labour to blesse God and love them being assured should I have their stroke it would bein the dark by reason whereof a friend is sometimes strook in stead of afoe but when they have I say not a new but their old light they will love me both again and the more for such a blinde unkindenesse Som of them I know and affectionately love for whom my hearts desire is that they may be saved I desire them to know that I desire to say I can die I cannot be silent when the truths are struck at which I wish not to out-live My hearty request to them is like that of Moses to the People that they would depart from the tents of this man if his Preaching be like his writing that they would not feed upon chalk and coals in corners when the Lord Jesus hath provided them Pastors after his own heart and remember that under Praelacy they hated those doctrines as hell which now they advance to Heaven and that then they spent daies of fasting against those opinions which now they spend Sabbaths in hearing For acrimony if any they finde I desire them not to be offended 1 It s lesse then he deserved 2 more then ever I did bestoâ— upon all the men in the world besides him self put together 3 upon the using of it this charitable construction may be put that I lookt not upon him though some doe as past recovery My work in this short Treatise
credendi the matter to be beleeved and the ground of beleeving that thing the objectum materiale formale fidei the matters to be beleeved are those precious truths of God which you name p. 13. and such like the ground of beleeving them is the revelation of God in his written word Nor can any one beleeve those truths with a divine faith as the truths of God Hoc verbum quod multis vicib is multisque modâ—â—olim Deus proserre voluâ—t visum est ei lem literis libris ad Ecclosie suae usum consignare unâ— codem sem per manente verbo etsi non uno modo tradito Riv. Cat. Oath Par. 9. â— unlesse he first beleevs that they are revealed and made known by God This Revelation of God hath alwaies been the foundation of faith and as the Apostle Heb. 1.1 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath afforded this at divers times after divers manners to his Church sometimes by a lively voice at other times by writing the authority of the revelation being the same the manner of revealing divers * But now since the truths of God were expressed in writing what is the grouad of your faith but this it is written and if you deny the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the words and say that they are not from divine inspiration you must of necessity also deny the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the matter and hold that the matter which you say is only the word of God is unworthy of a Christians belief I pray what course took Christ and his Apostles to prove their doctrinall assertions Mat 44.6.7.10 Mat. 1.2 Mar. 9.12 Mar. 11.17 Luk. 18.31.22.37 24 44 46. Joh. 10.34 Act. 13.33 15.85 Rom. 3.4 10.81 9.13 11.26 12 19. 14 11. 13.9 â—â— 1 Cor. 1.19 1 Cor. 1.31 1 Cor. 2.9 9.9 1 Cor 15.54 2 Cor 9.9 Gal. 3.13 4.22 Heb 10.7 1 Pet. 11.6 Mar. 15.28 Act. 8.32.35 Rom. 9.17 10.11 11.2 Gal. 4. â—0 1 Tim. 5.18 1 Pet. 2.6 Mat. 21.42 26 56 Luk. 24.27.45 Act. 17.2 11. 18.28 Rom. 1.2 16.26 1 Cor. 15 3. and the matters they taught but by the Scriptures and when they would render them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit for belief they evermore tell how it is written Consult with the places in the margin and you will finde that the matter substance precious counsells c. contained in the Scriptures are proved to be credenda things to be beleeved because they are written deny then the written word as you do in terminis to be the word of God and what formall object hath faith poor faith without a written word Yeeld your self to that evident Scripture Joh. 20.31 These things are written that yee might beleeve that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that beleeving ye might have lift through his name God makes these matters Christ is the son of God and life is to he had through his name to be the objects and matter of my belief but God makes the ratio or ground of my beleeving of these matters to be their revelation by writing See also Act. 14.24 Paul saith he beleeved all that was written in the Law and the prophets So Rom. 15.4 Things were written aforetime that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope So if you beleeve not Moses writings how shall you beleeve my words Joh. 5.47 6. Therefore doth not your sending me only to the counsels matter substance of Translations and Originals as the Word of God and your deniall that the written Word is such clearly shew That you send me not to that Word of God which the Scripture every where speaks of but to some other the Scripture using to call the written Word of God the Scripture and very often though in a Translation The command of Christ Joh. 5.39 is to search the Scriptures and were not they the written Word How readest thou Luk. 10.26 Vnderstandest thou what thou readest Act. 8.30 and what Scriptures were those the Apostle calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 given by inspiration of God meaneth the Apostle neither Originals nor translation or both rather It were easy to shew how in this point of your deniall the Scriptures for the foundation as faith and Scriptures oppose you so likewise sundry holy and learned writers that have had occasion to touch upon the subject Let these following asserting the Scriptures for the word of God and so the foundation of faith and Christian Religion suffice for the vindication of the written word from the contempt you cast upon it a Quo plenius impressius tam ipsum quam dispositiones voluntates adiremus instrumentum adjecit literaturae si quis velit de Deo inquirere inquisitum invenire invento credere credito deservire Tertul. Apol. cap. 18. That we might go to God his counsells and will more fully and vigorously he added the instrument of writing if any would enquire of God finde him beleeve in him and serve him Tertullian b Non per alios salutis nostrae dispositionem cognovimus quam per eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuâ—um Irenaeus Advers Here 's lib. 3. cap. 1 vide lib. 3. c. 2. We know not Gods disposall or ordering of our salvation but by those by whom the Gospel came to us which they formerly preached afterward by the counsell of God delivered to us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our faith Irenaeus c Singuli Sermones syllabae apices puncta in divinis Scripturis plena sunt sensibus Hier in cap. 1. ad Eph. The severall speeches syllables tittles points in the divine Scriptures are full of sense Hier. d Persuasisti mihi Domine Deus non eos qui crederent libros tuos quos tantâ omnibus serè gentibus authoritate fundasti esse culpandos sed eos qui non crederent nec audiendos esse si qui forte mihi dicerent unde scis illos libros unius veracissimi Dei spiritu esse humano generi ministratos id ipsum enim maximè credendum erat Aug Conf lib. 6. O my Lord God thou hast perswaded me not that they who beleeved thy books which thou hast founded with so much authority in almost all nations were to be blamed but those who beleeved them not and that those were not to be heard who might haply say to me whence dost thou know that those books were administred to man-kinde by the Spirit of the only most true God for this thing was chiefly to be beleeved Augustine e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. hom 1. in Mat. If it be blame-worthy to stand in need of the writing of the Scripture and not to imbrace the grace of the spirit how great a fault is it after the enjoyment of
doing Mr Ball saith pag. 249. that though God do not enable men to come to him yet if men reason thus Why doth he then intreat us and perswade us c. they may as well plead against the foreknowledge of God If God foreknew that men would not return why doth he intreat us and he concludes that these are ignorant and blinde imaginations You say pag. 26. Div. Auth. Naturall men may doe such things as whereunto God hath promised acceptation and upon improvement of naturall abilities grace alwaies follows p. 200. Mr Ball saith p. 237. That they who use well their supernaturall gifts shall be enriched with an increase but he saith also that men unregenerate cannot use their naturall gifts so as to procure acceptation You hold that they who have only the Sun Moon and Starres and the goodnesse of God in guiding of the world have sufficient means of beleeving granted to them c. But Mr Ball saith God exacts of the Gentiles given up to the vanity of their mindes that they should seek him in the way wherein he will be found if they would be saved when they have not means sufficient to bring them to the knowledge of the truth And pag. 247. Many Infidels have departed this life before they had means to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God denies to some both means and grace Your erroneous writings are as repugnant to Mr Ball as if you had laid his book before you not for citation but contradiction For the opinion which this grand subscription voteth an error in me about a naturall mans power to good supernaturall Sion Col. visit p. 20. I desire the whole covent of two and fifty with all that dogmatize with them to know that it is no new doctrine in the Reformed Churches Think you that the Subscribers take you to be the author of this errour Answ did not your self even now acquit this generation from the invention of it and the other errours by the lamentable subterfuge of only a revivall of them who knows not that the Church hath been anciently disturbed with your doctrine about freewill to good supernaturall The Centurists observe that very early was the faith of Christ corrupted in this point The errour of Pelagius was born before John Goodwin may it was confuted and condemned in many counsells it rebreathed in the Massilians was entertained by some Schoolmen and varnished over by Arminius before ever you were a well willer to it Instead of denying the strangenesse of it you should have proved the truth of is and instead of pleading that it hath been in the Church have proved it the doctrine of the Church But why shun you novelty This is the way to loose your Athenian Proselytes who love novelty better then truth And how prove you it is no new doctrine Sioa Col visi p 21. You say that There is not an hairs breadth of power to supernaturall good more attributed by me to naturall men then is clearly asserted by Paulus Testardus Pastor of the Reformed Church of Blois Ans 1. But of what standing was Testardus his Treatise printed 1633 speaks him but of yesterday and too young to be the author of an old doctrine 2. Who was this Testardus that his authority is so praevalent with you Vinlicie Redemptionis Ep. to the Reader Though you so highly prize him yet my Reverend friend M Stalbam whose judgement in the matter of Discipline though I am not fully inform'd ost yet for modesty and learning he much exceeds you and he so far abhors these opinions of yours that he asserts concerning this Testardus upon through examination of him that his colours are the colours of grace while he fights for nature and of a covenant of grace while he sights for a covenant of works and nature That he findes the universalists of this time have lighted their candle after Arminius was stincking in the snuff and socket from this Testardus Nay he conceives also that even Oats that infamous Sectary suckt severall errours from Testardus The very time of the edition of Testardus was when we were pestered with a number of such Testardusses when the good work carried on was the advancement of Arminian and Popish dictates above the Scripture and I know not whether it was long after that time that your self began to dogmatize and sow your tares in your parish of Colemanstreet 3. You say that Testardus his book was approved by two of the order of Presbytery but if the authority of a province of Ministers be as you say truly a weak support for the judgements of men in matters of doctrine surely the testimony of two Ministers is none of the strongest grounds to build your assertions upon 4. Did not your heart smite you when you wrote that the doctrine of Testardus is the received doctrine of the Reformed Churches in France and asserted for Orthodox by a province of Ministers in France Spanhem de gratiâ univers p. 31. Anatome Arminianismi enoda tio gravissimarum quest Why cite you not the confessions of the Gallicane churches Are you a stranger to the synod of Dort confirmed by the Synods of France to the writings of Pet. Molinaeus the most noted Minister of the French Churches and designed by them as their delegate to that Synod And whence have you it that the province of Ministers in Orleance approved of Testardus his writings Did you never read that it was prohibited in the Synod of Alenzon Spanhem de gratiâ univers pag. 1. to publish any such tractates as this of Testardus and what hindered that there was no more severity used and with what face can you aver that treatise approved by a Synod in France whereas therefore you scoff at the subscribers for saying that the Confession of faith advised by the Assembly of Divines is agreable to the Confessious of other Churches You are desired in your next to shew in any of these points whereof we are now speaking any materiall difference between their confessions and ours The confession of faith presented by the Assembly to the Parliament agrees to the Confession of the last named Churches though not to the semipelagian Theorems of a dough-baked Testardus I shall add no more but this to tell you that when you went about to make Testardus your Patron you spake to the whole Colledge or Covent as you call it of the 52. and all that dogmatize with them against your opinion In which passage you bring in and that truly the whole number of 52 as testifying against you whereas pag. the second you say that neither Dr Gouge nor Mr Calamy nor M Case nor Mr Cranford nor sundry others were either the Authours or subscribers of the Testimony A crazy conscience Sion Col. visie p. 23. and a brittle memory are very ill companions For the proof of your doctrine about naturall mans free will and power to good supernaturall you cite a passage out
power to render the motions of grace in effectuall to it self all the requifite motions of grace being afforded If you grant that grace is certain infallible and determinative in its operation upon the will I desire lastly to know whether you mean that this invincibility and infallibility of the working of grace be only to be lookt upon as such respectu eventus in regard of what doth fall out and de facto doth come to passe or whether the certain determination of the will by grace proceedeth from the powerfull nature of that grace of God which as Austin saith no hard heart is able to refuse untill I clearly understand your minde in these particulars the pretending of the adjutory of grace in the generall renders you but suspected in the thoughts of the most and truly satisfactory to none The residue of the soil in your Pamphlet is so light and sandy for the subiect as for the manner of handling any subject it is such all over that now my pen will plough apace I first meet with a long winded sentence consisting of above ten lines which is a complication of falsities reproaches and non-sence If I can discern any thing through a fog of words Sion Col. visited p. 25 Answ it hath something like these particulars It is the calamity of these times to iudge truth and errour commensurable with the votes of the Ministers The calamity of the times is in that we do not judge truth and errour commensurable with the vote of the Scripture Such sectaries as your self have thrown away that measure that so you might trade in your ware-house with the greater advantage and instead thereof you make use of a false measure your own imagination My soul pitties your cheated chapmen But how is it you will not have truth and errour commensurable with the vote of the Ministers If M. Goodwins vote be not the standing measure of truth and errour for his followers what is I am sure according to his principles the written word cannot be it Sion Col. visited p. ult for that is not the word of God Name a third measure Sir but if it should happen to be an Enthusiasme I shall expect but a faint prosecution of your ingagement against quaerisme as you call it or seeking which you say you are now opposing in your publike Ministery And I beleeve that you are doing so as truly as you are opposing Antiscripturisme and Manicheisme the former whereof you patronize and the latter you understand not as I have proved They have engrossed the honour and reputation of being Orthodox unto themselves Sion Col. visited p. 25. Ans You grieve that others should be reputed Orthodox alone without you but why do you not grieve that others should be Orthodox alone with you Reality is better then Reputation and 't is better to be then to be accounted Orthodox And as for honour that will flie from you as long as you flie from honesty Intreat God to give you the heart of an Orthodox Minister and you will soon have the honour of such an one otherwise know that your present dishonour is nothing to your future shame either to posterity or eternity Think upon it in time 't is friendly advice They the Ministers Sion Col. visited p. â—5 still square their votes concerning truth ' and errour by the traditions of the Elders he meaneth the Fathers If you be not for traditions Ans you are for nothing since you have thrown off the written word For ought I know tradition is the best flower in your garden but charge not the Ministers with being for any traditions but written and for these I confesse they are so zealous that for your opposing them they have deservedly placed you in the forlorn of the erroneous And scoff not too much at the Elders I knew the time even when you were writing the preceeding page that you would fain have been beholding to them And could you then have perswaded those Elders to have blest you with but one tradition you would not now have blasted the tradition of the Elders But now you are like a beggar who when he cannot prevail for an alms goeth away railing But I marvell how the younger I mean Bucer and Ball escape your reviling They were as far from pitying you and as forward in chastising you as the Elders I shall add Some of Pelagius's friends may haply take it ill at your hands that when you were shooting reproaches among the Elders you did not desire your Patron Pelagius to stand aside Sir to be short with you the Ministers sometimes use but never depend upon the traditions of the Elders One of the best traditions that ever I learned from any of the Elders was from Tertullian and 't is this Custome without truth is but the antiquity of errour Your next passage breaths a malice ranklie savouring of atheisme Your book goeth out like a snuff and now fumeth with nothing but reproaches against the government of Christ Prophanation of Scripture and elevation of your self The Ministers of the Province of London Sion Col. visited p. 25. cannot but be full of this information that there was more of the truth and power of Religion in England under the Praelaticall government then in all the reformed Churches besides The best successe unto which they can with any colour of truth entitle this government is but the successe of gardiners sheers which prosper only by the snipping off and keeping under those thriving branches which else would out-grow their fellows You say that travellers have fild the Ministers of London Ans with information but there 's one that I fear hath fild you with this among a great deal of other false information I fear 't is he that is the greatest traveller and the greatest liar in the world The Lord rebuke thee Satan For your telling us that the praelaticall government was more blest with the power of religion then any reformed Church Quiâ—â—â—â— in cathedrâ â—â—gebit ingebeâ—nâ— I know not why you mention it unlesse it be to make Satan sport as if you were his jester Or to give aquavitae to Antichrist in his fainting fits Was the power of religion more under praelaticall govornment then in any reformed Churches Here 's a good commendation in the mean time for Independent Churches for praelaticall government had more religion you say then ALL the Reformed Churches And if so I say then Independent Churches too unlesse you will evade my argument by saying that Independent Churches were not then formed or if they were formed were not reformed so well as the praelaticall but so as you may scratch Presbytery you care not though you wound your self 2. Why tell you not the reader that the power of religion decayed in the daies of no government as well as it thrived in the daâ—es of praelaticall government you were afraid the Reader would have drawn this conclusion thence It s better with Religion