that knoweth God heareth vs hereby know wee the Spirit of truth and the spirit of errour Againe the Lord saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye haue loue one to another pointing out the concord and holy agreement which is among the brethren as another marke of the orthodoxe Church As likewise when hee saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in Heauen hee sheweth that good workes are the visible mark of the true orthodoxe Church The true preaching reuerent hearing of the Gospel is a visible mark of our faith and hope Our concord in the Lord is a marke of our Charitie Our good workes are reall and sensible testimonies of our inward Faith Hope and Charitie Where wee finde these three signes we know certainly that there is Christs true Church and iudge charitably that is probably that euery one in whom wee see these outward tokens of Christs true and orthodoxe Church is a true member of the mysticall body of the Lord Iesus I say charitably because outward markes may be outwardly counterfeited by Hypocrites as it is said of Israel They did flatter with their mouth and they lyed vnto him with their tongues for their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Couenant And of many of these that followed our Sauiour Many beleeued in his Name when they saw the miracles which he did But Iesus did not commit himselfe vnto them because he knew all men Therefore when the people of Israel departed from the Couenant and by their Idolatrie brake as much as in them lay the contract of marriage betweene them and God they ceased in that behalfe to bee Gods true Spouse and people though still they called him their Husband and their God When they made a molten Calfe in the Wildernesse and worshipped the works of their owne fingers God said to Moses Thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt haue corrupted themselues and not my people And Moses to shew that on their part they had broken the Couenant broken the Tables of the Couenant when vnder Achaz they did worse Isaiah called them children that are corrupted their Prince and Gouernours Rulers of Sodome themselues people of Gomorrah their holy Citie an Harlot And God about the same time cried vnto them by Micah Thou that art named the house of Iacob Thou that was â—â—late my people And to the teh Tribes by Hosea Yee are not my people and I will not bee your God After the same manner Christ said to the Iewes which gloried and made their boast that God was their Father If God were your Father yee would loue me Yee are of your father the Deuill And the lusts of your Father yee will doe If we speake of the Romish Church according to this distinction defining the Church by the keeping of the Couenant in purenesse of doctrine and holinesse of life God himselfe hath stript her of that glorious Name calling her spiritually Sodome Egypt and Babylon Sodome in the pollution of her most filthy life Egypt in the abominable multitude of her filthy Idols Babylon in the cruell and bloudie oppression and persecution of the Saints And because she was to cal her selfe as falsly as arrogantly the mother Church the Angell calleth her THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH Because also shee was to bring and magnifie her selfe in the multitude of her Saints hee saith that shee is drunke with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus And taking from her the name of the Church which she challengeth priuatiuely to all other Christian congregations hee nameth her as I haue already said the habitation of Deuils the hold of euerie foule spirit and a Cage of euerie vncleane and hatefull bird In the first sence Moses said to God why doth thy wrath wax hote against THY people because although they had broken the Couenant on their part by the workes of their hands God had not as yet broken it on his part Ieremiah in the greatest heate of their monstruous I dolatries prayed after the same maner Doe not abhorre vs for thy Names sake doe not disgrace the Throne of thy glorie Remember breake not thy Couenant with vs. And Esaiah Thou art our Father we are ALL thy people For so long as God cals a people to him by his word and Sacraments and honoureth them with his name So long also as they consent to be called by his name professing it outwardly they remaine his people although they answere not his calling neither in soundnesse of faith nor in holinesse of life Euen as rebellious Subiects are still true Subiects on the Kings behalfe who looseth not his right by their Rebellion Nay on their owne also in some maner because they still keepe and professe his Name and giue not themselues to any forraine Prince Did Dauid loose his right by the Rebellion of the people vnder his sonne Absalom And therefore when the King subdueth these traitours hee carrieth himselfe towards them both in forgiuing and in punishing as their lawfull and naturall Prince and not as a Conquerour of new Subiects So as a strumpet is a true wife so long as her husband consents to dwell with her and shee is named by his name And as Agar when shee fled from her mistresse Sarai was still Sarais maide as shee confessed saying I flee from the face of my mistresse Sarai In like manner a rebellious fugitiue and whooring Church is still a true Church so long as God keeping the right of a King of a Master of a Husband ouer her giueth her not the bill of Diuorcement but consents that her Name bee called vpon her and shee still calleth her selfe his kingdome his maide his wife Thus God calleth the Iewes His people euen then when he said they were not his people because hee had not broken the band of marriage with them and put them away by diuorcement Therefore he said vnto them Where are the Letters of your mothers diuorcement whom I haue put away Meaning he had not giuen vnto them a writing of diuorcement but did still acknowledge them to bee his spouse notwithstanding their manifold and most filthy Whoredomes with false Gods which he charged them with saying vnto them by Ieremiah Thou hast polluted the land with thy whooredomes and with thy wickednesse Thou hast a whoores forehead and refusest to bee ashamed wilt thou not for this time cry vnto me my father thou art the guide of my youth Turne O backsliding children saith the Lord for I am married vnto you Or according to the French translation I haue the right of an Husband ouer you So after hee had called the ten Tribes Lo-ruhama and Lo-hammi saying hee would no more haue mercie vpon them
society of all that professe Christian Religion through the whole world howsoever impured who can denie this title to the Roman If in a strict sense it be taken as it is by Zanchius here and all those Divines who refuse to give this style to the Synagogue of Rome for the companie of elect faithfull men gathered into one mysticall bodie under one head Christ washed by his blood justified by his merits sanctified by his Spirit conscionablie waiting upon the true ordinances of God in his pure Word and holie SacrameÌ„ts who can be so shamelesse as to give this title to the Roman Church Both these sentences then are equally true The Church of Rome is yet a true Church in the first sense The Church of Rome long since ceased to bee a true Church in the second As those friendly souldiers therefore of old said to their fellowes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why fight we Stay stay deare brethren for Gods sake for his Churches sake for your soules sake stay these busie and unprofitable litigations put up on both sides your angrie pens Turne your Swords into Sithes to cut downe the ranke corruptioÌ„s of the Roman church and your Speares into Mattockes to beat downe the walls of this mysticall Babylon There are enemies â—now abroad Let us bee friends at home But if your sense be the same you will aske why our termes varie and why wee have chosen to fall upon that maner of expression which gives aduantage to the Adversarie offence to our owne Christian Reader let me beseech thee in the bowels of Christ to weigh well this matter and then tell me why such offence such advantage should bee rather given by my words than by the same words in the mouth of Luther of Calvin of Zanchie Iunius Plessee Hooker Andrewes Field Crakenthorpe Bedel and that whole cloud of learned and pious Authors who have without exceptioÌ„ used the same language And why more by my words now than twentie yeares agoe at which time I published the same truth in a more ful and liberall expression Wise and charitable Christians may not be apt to take offence where none is given As for anie Advantage that is hereby given to the Adversaries they may put it in their eye and see never the worse Loe say they we are of the true visible Church this is enough for us why are we forsaken why are we presecuted why are we solicited to change Alas poore soules doe they not know that Hypocrites leud persons reprobates are no lesse members of the true visible Church what gaine they by this but a deeper damnation To what purpose did the Iewes crie The Temple of the Lord whiles they despighted the Lord of that Temple Is the sea-weed ever the lesse vile because it is dragd vp together with good fish They are of the visible Church such as it is what is this but to say they are neither Iewes nor Turkes nor Pagans but misbeleevers damnablie hereticall in opinion shamefullie idolatrous in practice Let them make their best of this just Elogie and triumph in this style may we never prosper if we envie them this glorie Our care shall be that besides the Church sensible as Zuinglius distinguisheth we may be of the Church spirituall and not resting in a fruitlesse visibilitie wee may finde our selves livelie limbes of the mystical body of Christ which onelie condition shall give us a true right to heaven whiles fashionable profession in vaine cries Lord Lord and is barred out of those blessed gates with an I know you not Neither may the Reader think that I affect to goe by-waies of speech no I had not taken this path unlesse I had found it both more beaten and fairer I am not so unwise to teach the Adversarie what disadvantage I conceive to be given to our most just cause by the other manner of explication Let it suffice to say that this form of defence more fully stops the adversaries mouth in those two maine and envious scandals which hee casts upon our holy Religion Defection from the Church and Innovation than which no suggestion hath wont to bee more prevalent with weake and ungrounded hearts what wee further win by this not more charitable than safe Tenet I had rather it should bee silently conceived by the judicious then blazoned by my free penne shortly in this state of the question our gaine is as cleare as the Adversaries losse our ancient Truth triumphes over their upstart errours our charitie over their mercilesse presumptions Feare not therefore deare brethren where there is on roome for danger Suspect not fraud where there is nothing but plaine honest simplicitie of intentions censure not where there is the same Truth clad in a different but more easie habite of words But if any mans fervent zeale shall rather draw him to the liking of that other rougher and harder way so as in the meane time he keepe within the bounds of Christian charitie I taxe him not let everie man abound in his owne sense Onely let our hearts and tongues and hands conspire together in peace with our selves in warre with our common enemies Thus farre have I Right Honourable in a desire of peace poured out my selfe into a plaine explication and easie accordance Those whom I strive to satisfie are onely mis-takers whose censures if some man would have either laught out or despised yet I have condescended to take off by a serious deprecation and just defence It is an vnreasonable motion to request mindes prepossessed with prejudice to heare reason Whole Volumes are nothing to such as have contented themselves onely to take up opinions upon trust and will hold them because they know where they had them In vaine should I spend my selfe in beating upon such anviles but for those ingenuous Christians which will hold an eare open for justice and truth I have said enough if ought at all needed Alas my Lord I see and grieve to see it it is my Rochet that hath offended and not I In another habit I long since published this and more without dislike It is this colour of innocence that hath bleared some over-tender eyes Wherein I know not whether I should more pittie their errour or applaud my owne sufferings although I may not say with the Psalmist What hath the righteous done Let mee I beseech your Lordship upon this occasion have leave to give a little vent to my just griefe in this point The other day I fell upon a Latine Pamphlet homely for style tedious for length zealously uncharitable for stuffe wherein the Author onely wise in this that he would bee unknowne in a grave fiercenesse flies in the face of our English Prelacie not so much enveighing against their Persons which he could be content to reverence as their verie places I blest my selfe to see the case so altered Heretofore the Person had wont to beare off manie blowes from the function now the verie function wounds the person In what
here meete with no other then the words of a commonly professed truth acquit me so farre as to say there is no reason I should suffer alone And let the wilfull or ignorant mis-takers know that they wound innocencie and through my sids strike their best friends I should not herein desire you to tender my fame if the iniurie done to my name did not reflect vpon my holy station vpon my wel-meant labours vpon almost all the famous and wel-deseruing Authors that haue stood for the truth of God and lastly if I did not see this mis-taken quarrell to threaten much preiudice to the Church of God whose Peace is no lesse deare to vs both then our liues In earnest desire and hope of some few satisfactorie lines from your Reuerend hand in answere to this my bold yet iust suit I take leaue and am Your much deuoted and louing Brother IOS EXON To the Right Reuerend Father in God my verie good Lord and Brother IOSEPH Lord Bishop of Exon these RIght Reuerend and as dearely beloued Brother I haue I confesse beene too long in your Lordships debt for these Letters which are now to Apologize for me that although I had my payment ready and in numeratis at the first reading of your Reconciler yet I reserued my Answere vntill I had perused the two other Bookes and seconds that so I might returne my payment cum faenore In that your Lordships Tractate I could not but obserue the liuely Image of your selfe that â—s according to the generall interpretation of all sound professors of the Gospell of Christ of a most Orthodoxe Diuine And now remembring the Accordance your Lordship hath with others touching the Argument of your Booke I must needes reflect vpon my selfe who haue long since defended the same point in the defence of many others I do therefore much blame the Petulcitie of whatsoeuer author that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him whome besides his excellent writings and Sermons Gods visible eminent and resplendent Graces of Illumination zeale pietie eloquence haue made truely Honourable and glorious in the Church of Christ Let me say no more I suffer in your suffering not more in consonancie of iudgement then in the sympathie of my affection Goe on deare Brother with your deserued Honor in Gods Church with holy courage knowing that the dirtie feete of an Aduersarie the more they tread and rubbe the more lustre they giue the figure grauen in Gold Our Lord Iesus preserue vs to the glorie of his sauing grace Your Lordships vnanimous friend and Brother THO. Couent and Lichfield To the Right Reuerend Father in God IOHN Lord Bishop of Salisburie MY Lord I send you this little Pamphlet for your censure It is not credible how strangely I haue beene traduced euerie where for that which I conceiue to be the common opinion of reformed Diuines yea of reasonable men that is for affirming the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church You see how clearely I haue endeauored to explicate this harmelesse position yet I perceiue some tough mis-vnderstandings will not bee satisfied Your Lordship hath with great reputation spent manie yeares in the Diuinitie-Chaire of the famous Vniuersitie of Cambridge Let me therefore beseech you whose Learning and sinceritie is so throughly approued in Gods Church that you would freely how shortly so euer expresse your selfe in this point and if you find that I haue deuiated but one hayre-breadth from the Truth correct me If not free me by your iust sentence What need I intreat you to pittie those whose desires of faithfull offices to the Church of God are vnthankefully repayed with suspicion and sclaunder whose may not this case be I had thought I had sufficiently in all my writings and in this verie last Booke of mine whence this quarrell is picked showed my feruent zeale for Gods truth against that Antichrian faction of Rome and yet I doubt not but your owne eares can witnesse what I haue suffered Yea as if this calumnie were not enough there want not those whose secret whisperings cast vpon mee the foule aspersions of another Sect whose name is as much hated as little vnderstood My Lord you know I had a place with you though vnworthy in that famous Sinod of DROT where howsoeuer sicknesse bereaued me of the houres of a conclusiue subscription yet your Lordship heard me with equall vehemencie to to the rest swaying downe the vnreasonablenesse of that way I am still the same man and shall liue and die in the suffrage of that Reuerend Synod and doe confidently auow that those other opposed opinions cannot stand with the Doctrine of the Church of England But if for the composing of the differences at home which your Lordship knowes to be farre different from Netherlandish there could haue beene tendred any such faire propositions of accordance as might bee no preiudice to Gods truth I should haue thought it an holy and happie proiect wherein if it be not a fault to haue wished a safe peace I am innocent God so loue me as I doe the tranquilitie and happinesse of his Church yet can I not so ouer-affect it that I would sacrifice one dram of Truth to it To that good God doe I appeale as the witnesse of my sincere he art to his whole Truth and no lesse then euer zealous detestation of al Poperie Pelagianisme Your Lordship will be pleased to pardon this importunitie and to vouchsaue your speedy answere to Your much deuoted and faithfull Brother IOS EXON MY Lord you desire my opinion concerning an assertion of yours wherat some haue taken offence The proposition was this That the Romane Church remaynes yet a True Visible Church The occasion which makes this an ill sounding proposition in the eares of Protestants especially such as are not throughly acquainted with Schoole Distinctions is the vsuall acception of the Word True in our English tongue For though men skilled in Metaphysickes hold it for a maxime Ens Verum Bonum conuertuntur yet with vs he which shall affirme Such an one is a True Christian a True Gentleman a True Scholler a True Souldier or the like hee is conceiued not only to adscribe Truenesse of Beeing vnto all these but those Due Qualities or Requisite Actions wherby they are made commendable or Praise-worthy in their seuerall kinds In this sense the Roman Church is no more a True Church in respect of Christ or those due Qualities and proper Actions which Christ requires then an arrant whore is a True and loyall Wife vnto her Husband I durst vpon mine oath be one of your Compurgators that you neuer intended to adorne that Strumpet with the Title of a True Church in this meaning But your owne Writings haue so fully cleered you herein that Suspition it selfe cannot reaosnably suspect you in this point I therefore can say no more concerning your mistaken proposition then this If in that treatise wherein it was deliuered the Antecedents or Consequents
were such as serued fitly to leade the Reader into that Sense which vnder the word True comprehendeth only Truth of Beeing or Existencie and not the Due Qualities of the thing or subiect you haue beene causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your discourse you cannot maruell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In briefe your Proposition admits a True sense in that sense is by the best learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For The Beeing of a Church does principally stand vpon the Gratious Action of God calling men out of Darknesse and Death vnto the Participation of sight and life in Christ Iesus So long as God continues this Calling vnto any people though they as much as in them lies Darken this light and corrupt the meanes which should bring them to life and saluation in Christ yet where God Calls men vnto the Participation of life in Christ by the word by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men bee neuer so false in their Expositions of GODS Word or neuer so vntrustie in mingling their owne Traditions with Gods Ordinances Thus the Church of the Iewes lost not her Being of a Church when shee became an Idolatrous Church And thus vnder the gouernment of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their owne Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Sauiour himselfe was borne who were mēbers of that Church and yet participated not in the corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Roman was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in doctrine a false and in practice an Idolatrous Church is a true assertion and of greater vse and necessitie in our Controuersie with Papists about the Perpetuitie of the Christian Church then is vnderstood by those who gainsay it This in your Reconciler is so wel explicated as if any shall continue in traducing you in regard of that Proposition so explained I thinke it wil be only those who are better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning and deeper in loue with strife then truth As for the aspersion of Arminianisme I can testifie that in our Ioint imployment at the Synod of Dort you were as farre from it as my selfe And I know that no man can imbrace it in the Doctrine of Predestination and Grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed vpon by the Church of England nor in the point of perseuerance but he must vary from the common Tenet and receiued opinion of our best approued Doctors in the English Church I am assured that you neither haue deserted the one nor will vary from the other And therefore be no more troubled with other mens groundlesse suspitions then you would be in like case with their idle Dreames Thus I haue inlarged my selfe beyond my first intent But my loue to your selfe and the assurance of your constant loue vnto the Truth inforced me thereunto I rest alwayes Ian 30. 1628. Your louing Brother IO. SARVM ¶ To the Reuerend and learned Master Doctor PREDEAVX professor of Diuinitie in Oxford and Rector of EXCETER Colledge WOrthy Master Doctor Predeaux All our litle world here takes notice of your worth and eminencie who haue long furnished the Diuinitie Chaire in that famous Vniuersitie with mutuall grace and honour Let me intreate you vpon the perusall of this sorie sheete of Paper to impart your selfe freely to me in your censure and to expresse to mee your cleare iudgement concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church you see in what sence I professe to hold it neither was any other euer in my thoughts Say I beseech you whether you thinke any learned Orthodoxe Diuine can with any colour of reason maintaine a contradiction herevnto And if you find as I doubt not much necessitie and vse of this true and safe Tenet helpe me to adde if you please a further supplie of Antidotes to those Popish spiders that would faine sucke poyson out of this herbe It was my earnest desire that this satisfactorie reconcilement might haue stilled all tongues and pens concerning this ill-raysed brabble but I see to my griefe how much men care for themselues more then peace I suffer and the Church is disquieted your learning and grauitie will be ready to contribute to a seasonable pacification In desire and exspectation of your speedie answere I take my leaue and am Your very louing friend and fellow-labourer IOS EXON Right Reuerend Father in GOD VPon the receite of your Reconciler which it pleased you to send me I tooke occasion as my manifolde distractions would permit to peruse what had beene said on both sides concerning the now-being of the Romane Church VVherin I must professe that I could not but wonder at the needlesse exceptions against your Tenet you affirming no new thing in that passage misliked in your Old Religion And this your Aduertisement afterward so fully and punctually cleareth and your Reconciler so acquitteth with such satisfying ingenuitie that I cannot imagin they haue considered it well or meane wel that shal persist to oppose it For who perceiues not that your Lordship leaues no more to Rome then our best Diuines euer since the Reformation haue granted If their speeches haue beene sometimes seemingly different their meaning hath beene alwayes the same that in respect of the common Truths yet professed among the Papists they may and ought to bee tearmed a True visible Church in opposition to Iewes Turkes and Pagans who directly denie the Foundation howsoeuer their Antichristian aditions make them no better then the Synagogue of Sathan This being agreed vpon by those whose Iudgement wee haue good reason to follow cited in your Aduertisement and by others they doe an ill office to our Church in my opinion who set them at ods in this point that are so excellently reconciled and giue more aduantage to the Aduersarie by quarrelling with our worthies then the Aduersarie is like to get by our acknowledgment that they are such a miserable Church as we discouer them to be VVhat I haue thought long since in this behalfe it appeareth in my Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and as often as this hath come in question in our publicke Disputes we determine here no otherwise then your Lordship hath stated it And yet wee trust to giue as little vantage to Poperie as those that doe detest it and are as circumspect to maintaine our receiued Doctrine and Discipline without the least scandall to the weakest as those that would seeme most forward That distinction of Romes case before and since the Councell of Trent holds not to dis-Church it but shewes it rather to be more incureable now then heretofore Neither find I any particulars obiected which those worthy men haue not sufficiently cleared that haue iustifyed
Hosea said of Ephraim Ephraim is ioyned to Idols let him alone So Christ saith vnto vs Come out of Babylon my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues Her sinnes are a spirituall leprosie And we run away from leprous men though true men and our neerest and dearest friends crying what they are loth to cry Vncleane vncleane lest their breath should infect vs Her sinnes are infidelitie not negatiue but priâ—atiue not in whole but in part As Saint Paul a beleeuing lew was in vnbeliefe when he persceuted the Church And Saint Paul saith vnto vs Be ye not vnequally yoked together with vnbeleeuers c. Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the vncleane thing and I will receiue you and will be a Father vnto you and yee shall bee my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almightie A faithfull subiect will not take a traitour though a subiect by the hand nor I a Papist in matter of his Religion Neither will honest women 〈…〉 with the greatest Lady thogh shee be a great ones wife This I haue euer taught priuately Preached publikely published in Printed Bookes against Papists during these thirtie three yeares of my Ministrie in the French Churches without any aduantage to our Aduersaries without any contradiction of our diuines without any acception taken against it by our Churches or any particular among the brethren which all in their name Preach and publish that they are of the same mind calling themselues The Reformed Churches and our Religion The reformed religion For as the good Kings of Iuda did not build a new Temple call to God a new people set vp a new Religion but repurge and clense the old Temple restore the ancient Religion exhorted Gods people to shake off the new inuentions of the new patched Religion and to returne to the Lord their God by the olde way which their fathers had beaten and Moses had traced vnto them in the Law And as Zorobabel Esdras Nehemiah Ieshuah builded the Wals of Ierusalem vpon the ancient foundation euerie man building next himselfe Euen so the Protestant Diuines haue euerie one next himselfe not builded a new Church vpon a new foundation but repurged the auncient Church of idolatrie superstition false interpretations of the Scriptures and traditions of men whereof shee was fuller then euer Augeas his Stable was full of mucke but beaten downe and burned with the fire of Gods word the Wals of Wood Hay Stubble which the Babylonian builders had raysed vpon the old foundation which is Christ Iesus and edified vpon it a faire Palace of Siluer Gold precious Stones This same is the opinion also of my Collegues of the French Church of this Citie of London If any selfe-conceited Christian thinketh this an aduantage rather then a disparagement disgrace to that punke the Romane Church and taketh thereby occasion to perseuere to be her Bawd or Stalion and to runne a whoring with her I say with the Psalmist The wicked hath left off to bee wise and to doe good And with the Angell Hee that is vniust let him he vniust still And he which is filthy let him be filthy still For neither must an honest heart speake a lie for the good that may come of it Nor conceale in time and place a necessarie truth for any euill that may insue of it If it harden more and more the flintie hearts of some vnto death it will soften and melt the iron hearts of others vnto life that seeing among vs the mudde and dirt of humane traditions wherewith the Pope and his Clergie had furred and soyled the bright-shining glasse of the Gospel wiped away from this heauenly mirror of Gods fauor they may come vnto vs and beholding with open face as in a glasse the glorie of the Lord may be changed with vs into the same image from gloire to glorie euen as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which last effect I pray with my heart your Reconciler may haue with those that are children of peace And so recommending your Lordship with all your learned eloquent sound and vsefull labours to GODS most powerfull blessing and my selfe to the continuance of your godly Prayers and old friendship I remaine for euer Your Lordships most humble and affectionate Seruant Gilbert Primrose From London the 26. of Februarie 1629. ¶ To my VVorthy and much respected Friend Mr. H. CHOMLEY MAster Cholmely I haue perused your learned and full reply to Master Burtons answere wherein you haue in a iudicious eye abundantly righted your self and cleared a iust cause so as the Reader would wonder where an Aduersarie might find ground to raise an opposition But let me tell you Were it a Booke written by the pen of an Angest from Heauen in this subiect I should doubt whether to wish it publique How true how iust soeuer the plea be I find such is the selfe-loue and partialitie of our corrupt nature the quarrell is inlarged by multiplying of words when I see a fire quenched with Oyle I will expect to see a controuersie of this nature stinted by publike altercation New matter still rises in the agitation and giues hint to a fore-resolued opposite of a fresh disquisition So as we may sooner see an end of the common peace then of an vnkindly iarre in the Church especially such a one as is fomented with a mistaken Zeale on the one side and with a confidence of knowledge on the other Silence hath somtimes quieted such like mis-raised brabbles neuer interchange of words This very question was on foot some fortie yeares agoe in the hote chase of great Authors but whether through the ingenuitie of the parties or some ouer-ruling act of Diuine Prouidence it soone died without noyse so I wish it may now doe Rather let the weaker title goe away with the last word then the Church shall bee distracted For that Position of mine which occasioned your vindication you see it sufficiently abetted and determined by so reuerend authoritie as admits no exception I dare say No learned Diuine of our owne Church or the foraine can but subscribe in this our sense to the iudgement of these Worthies To draw forth therefore this cord of contention to any futher length were no lesse needlesse then preiudiciall to the publike peace Hee is not worthy to bee satisfied that will yet wrangle As for those personall aspersions that are cast vpon you by malice be perswaded to despise them These Westerne parts where your reputation is deseruedly precious know your Zeale for Gods truth no lesse feruent though better gouerned then the most fierie of your Censurers No man more hateth Popish Superstition only your fault is that you doe not more hate errour then iniustice and cannot abide wrong measure offered to the worst enemie Neither bee you troubled with that idle exprobration of a Prebendary retribution who would
your Assertion Not to trouble therefore your weightier affairs with my needlesse interposition As that controuersie about the Altar Iosuah 22. had presently a faire end vpon the ful vnderstanding of the good meaning on both sides so I trust in God this shall haue In which I am so perswaded that if it were to bee discussed there after our Scholasticall manner it might well bee defended either pro or con with out preiudice to the Truth according to the full stating which your Aduertisement and Reconciler haue afforded And thus with tender of my due obseruance and Prayers for your happinesse I rest Your Lordships in Christ to be commanded IO. PRIDEAVX From Exon Coll. Marij 9. No. ¶ To my Reuerend and learned friend M. Doctor PRIMEROSE Preacher to the French Church in LONDON WOrthy Master Doctor Primerose you haue beene long acknowledged a great light in the Reformed Churches of France hauing for many yeeres shined in your orbe the famous Church of Burdeaux with notable effects and singular approbation both for iudgment and sinceritie both which also your learned writings haue well approued So as your sentence cannot be liable to the danger of any suspition Let me intreate you to declare freely what you hold concerning the truenesse and visibilitie of the Romane Church as it is by me explicated And with all to impart your knowledg of the common Tenet of those foraine Diuines with whom you haue so long conuersed concerning this point which if I mistake not onely a stubburne ignorance will needs make litigious It grieues my Soule to see the peace of the Church troubled with so absurd a mes prison In exspectation of your answer I take leaue and commend you and your holy labours to the blessing of our God Farewell from Your louing Brother and fellow-labourer IOS EXON To the Right Reuerend Father in God and my very good Lord IOSEPH Bishop of Exceter Right Reuerend Father in God I Haue beene so busied about my necessarie studies for preaching on Sunday Tuesday and this Thursday that I could not giue sooner a full answer to your Lordships Letter which I receiued on Friday last at night whereby I am desired to declare freely what I think concerning the truenesse and visibilitie of the present Roman Church as it is by your Lordship explicated and what is the common tenet of the forraine Diuines with whom I haue so long conuersed beyond the Seas concerning that point I might answere in two lines that I haue read your Reconciler and iudge your opinion concerning that point to be learned sound and true Though that if I durst fauour an officious lie I would willingly giue my Suffrage to those Diuines which out of a most feruent zeale to God and perfect hatred to Idolatry hold that the Roman Church is in all things BABEL in nothing BETHEL And as they which seek to set right a crooked tree bow it the cleane contrary way to make it straight so to recouer and pull out of the fire of eternall damnation the Roman Christians I would gladly pourtray them with sable colours and make their religion more black in their owne eyes then they are in ours the hellish coloured faces of the flat-nosed Ethiopians or to the Spaniard the monstrous Sambenit of the Inquisition But fearing the true reproch cast by Iob in his friends teeth Will you speake wickedly for God and talke deceitfully for him and knowing that we must not speake a lie no not against the Deuill which is the Father of lies I say that the Roman Church is both BABEL and BETHEL and as Gods Temple was in Christs daies at once the house of Prayer and a den of theeues so shee is in our dayes Gods Temple and the habitation of Deuils the hold of euery foule spirit and a cage of euery vncleane and hatefull bird which I proue thus The Church is to be considered three manner of wayes First according to Gods right which he keepeth ouer her and maintaineth in her by the common and externall calling of his Word and Sacraments Secondly according to the pure preaching of the Word and externall obedience in hearing receiuing and keeping the Word syncerely preached Thirdly according to the election of grace and the personall calling which hath perpetually the inward working of the Holy Ghost ioyned with the outward preaching of the Word as in Lydia Thence commeth the answere of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ To begin with the last consideration these only are Gods Church which are Iewes inwardly in the spirit aswell as outwardly in the letter whose prayse is not of men but of God who are Nathaniels and true Israelites in whom there is no guile Inuisible to all men Visible to God alone who knoweth them that are his and each of them to themselues because they haue receiued the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely giuen to them of God and the white stone which no man knoweth sauing he that receiueth it Of this Church called by the Apostle the people which God foreknew Rom. 11. there is no controuersie amongst our Diuines In the second consideration these onely are the true visible Church of God amongst whom the Word of God is truly preached without the mixture of humane traditions the holy Sacraments are celebrated according to their first institution and the people consenteth to bee led and ruled by the Word of God As when Moses laid before the faces of the people all the words which the Lord commanded him and all the people answered together All that the Lord hath spoken we will doe the Lord said vnto Moses Write thou these words For after the tenor of these words I haue made a couenant with thee and with Israel And Moses said to the people Thou hast auouched this day the Lord to bee thy thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes and his Commandements and his Iudgements to harken vnto his voice And the Lord hath auouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee that thou shouldest keepe all his Commandements This condition of the Commandement GOD did often inclucate into their eares by his Prophets As when hee said to them by Ieremiah This thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and yee shall bee my people and walke yee in all the wayes in that I haue commanded you that it may bee well vnto you So in the Gospell Christ saith My sheepe heare my voice and I know them and they follow me But a stranger will they not follow but will flie from him For they know not the voice of strangers where he giueth the first marke of the visibly true and pure Church to wit the pure preaching and hearing of Christs voice As likewise Saint Iohn saith He