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
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
scripturarum divinarum vacollabit autheritas is a necessary foundation for other subsequent graces that are required in the Christian Religion and without which foundation all godlinesse and religion would in a short time fall to the ground no theologicall grace can be without saith and faith cannot stand if the authority of the Scriptures fall If beleeving can be no foundation of Christian religion why doth the holy Ghost give to faith the name of foundation Heb. 6.1 In these words not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of Faith towards God none will deny that the beleeving the Scriptures to be the word of God is both the ground and an effentiall part of a right faith towards God And therefore if the Apostle calleth faith towards God a foundation he must needs imply that faith towards the Scriptures is a foundation You cavill at the Ministers for saying they testifie to the truth and to their solemn league and covenant Sion Col. visited p. 3. do they mean say you that they give the same testimony to their solemn league and covenant which they do to the truth I observe your scornfull estranging expression Answ Their Covenant You disclalm it it seems you had as good to throw it off in your lines as in your life The Covenant is the Sectaries Shiboleth he cannot speak it plain you deal with the Covenant as the Spaniel with the water when you were swimming for your lives it did bear you up but now you are got to shore safe as you think you shake it off Why is it that throughout this Section you do so undervalue the covenant Is it for the good it hath done to the kingdome or the hurt you fear it may do to you or do you desire to make it break because you cannot make it bend and change as often as your interest doth But to your question do the Ministers give the same testimony to the Covenant that they do unto the truth of Christ I suppose you love to testifie much alike to both As for the Ministers you cannot inforce an equalizing or a prelation of either to other out of these their words And to our solemn league and covenant AND was wont to be a note copulative not comparative And yet I suppose the Ministers testifie with the same integrity and unfainednesse to the one with which they do to the other But note this zealot Paramount for the truths of Christ he who by denying the Scriptures fears not to destroy the word of truth thinks his ears defiled when with the covenant the Ministers do but name the word Truth Like the hypocriticall Pharisees who feared not to be murderers of Christ and yet were afraid of defilemenâ— by going into the Hall Joh. 18.28 I know not what testimony the Covenant is capable of Sion Col visited p. 4. unlesse they will call a regular full and through observation of it a testimony to it the best part of this testimony consisting in going before one another in a reall not a verball reformation You answer your self Ans You say a reall reformation is the best testimony to the covenant True And therefore say I not the only testimony Secondly Doth a reall observation of the covenant hinder a verball testimony to it nay doth it not enforce it I might deservedly question my reality for God and his cause If I would not expresse that reality in words upon occasion given 'T is possible indeed for the verball profession to be without the reall but not possible for the reall to be without the verball but you say the covenant is not capable of a verball testimony to it Alas poor Covenant It seems thou maist be well thought of but not well spoken off Thou maist be capable of a verball opposition and deniall as of being called an old almanack out of date but not of a verball approbation Thy wound is broader it seems then thy plaister But Thirdly How is it that you plead so much for the reall observation of the Covenant I fear not to further the reall but to hinder the verbal I dislike your pâ—ng of zeal for a reall reformation you plead for it only to get the greater advantage against it your heat of zeal for the covenant is like that of some herbs hot in the mouth cold in the stomack To inrich their title they add Sion Col. visited p. 4. As also against the errours and heresies c. Tell not the Ministers of loving rich titles Ans either for themselves or their books your boasting of your selves is as ridiculous as nausecus I pray who are they that assume to themselves or have beâ—owed upon them these titles in print The richly â—nointed A Preacher to the two greatest Congregations in England A heart the best headed and a head the best hearted of all the sons of men A man that hath the gifts and graces of ten thousand rare men met in one Men who look upon the word of Christ as impartially as men made of flesh and bloud are like to do in any juncture of time that may fall out Are not these swelling words these are enriched titles Mat. 21.28 Phil. 2.3 doth this savour of the spirit of Christ and his Gospel he was lowly in heart and bids each to esteem other better then themselves But they add against errours They had need for you are daily adding to errours But this touching of errours is the touching the apple of your eye and the gainfull occupation of your silver shrines 'T is observeable that all along in your book you give not the Reader the least intimation of a dislike of any particular errour though never so damnable mentioned in all the Catalogue Only in your 〈◊〉 age you tell the world that errouts are a great grief to 〈◊〉 heart and that you oppose them in your Ministery 't is a good to beleeve it as to go where 't is done you dare not come neer an expression of dislike to errours by twelve score and now the Ministers expresse their zeal against them how doth your render nature make you weep for Tammuz But there is no further matter if consequence in these words against the errours heresies Sion Col. visited p. 4. and blasphemies of the times c. then in the foregoing words A testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ Therefore these passages are broadly Tautologicall To rectifie you The Ministers in testifying for the truth c. Answ owned the Confession of faith and the doctrines of truth heâ—d forth in the Scripture and in saying against the errours beresies c. they disclaim and discover the things that are opposite unto them they have not the Sectarian art to be friends to truth and to be silent when errours that destroy truth are broached to look toward heaven and earth at the same instant The two fore-mentioned branches are therefore as far from being Tautologicall as you from being either Logicall or
God made the world but to the Chaos out of which God made the worid and â—f God made the world of it I am sure you have mar'd the world by it But 't is so far from being that of which God made the world that it is rather that for which God may destroy the world If I had a captious pen there would be no difficulty to finde a calumniating insinuation against the Parliament Sion Col. visited p 5. Ans For the calcumniating insinuation against the Parliament where lies it turn not Sycophant but give me leave to shew you your calumniating insinuation against the Parliament for this testimony of the Ministers hath been in many a wise Parliament mans hand and for you a mean man in comparison to dare to finde out a calumniation against them which they could never finde out against themselves what is this but for you to prefer your sufficiency to theirs and to shew that they cannot cousult without your assistance But if there be a toleration if doth not follow the Parliament is to be blamed perhaps 't is a toleration not given but taken 'T is not from Parliamentary license but Sectaries their licentiousnesse This present generation is fairly acquitted from being the authours of these errours Sion Col. visited p. 6. because these errours are said in the testimony to be the spawn of old accursed heresies dead and buried long ago and now by seducers revived Now revivers are no authoursâ— Answ I am confident the Sectaries of these times will give you but little thanks for taking from them the honour of being the authours of the mentioned errours Ans their greatest contention being whose invention should be most reputed for and fruitfull of the said errours And whereas you say That revivers of errours are no authours the Sectaries again are little beholding to you for the reviver of an errour is worse and more inexcusable then the authour in as much as the reviver of a buried and a condemned errour sins against the president of the concurrent judgements of holy men in former ages whereas the authour wanted the help of former guides I may truly say that John Goodwin sins more inexcusably then Pelagius whose soul seems by a strange metempsuchosis to be transmigrated into M. Goodwin save only that it meeting with Arminius by the way sifred into him all the flour of wit and brought nothing but the bran of heresie to M. Goodwin because M. Goodwin though he be not guilty of the invention of the errours yet of the publication and propagation of them against the counsels and writings of all the Orthodox since Pelagius his time For your acquitting therefore of this generation you go too far though you are an advocate to plead for errours yet you must not be a judge to acquit them and to acquit a whole generation at one clap is with the most the sea of your charity gaineth so much toward heretikes that it s quite dried up toward the Orthodox You are such a prodigall of charity toward the one that when you should contribute to the other you will be found a beggar But take heed least if you acquit this generation from heresie the next generation condemn your self for heresie Judicium melius posteritatis erit The age to come May passe your doom There are severall Ministers of Christ to my knowledge in the Province of London no Independents commensurable for worth with the tallest Subscribers Sion Col. visited p. 6. though not to some of them in Church livings by two or three for whom God provided some better thing then to suffer them to fall into the snare of so unworthy a subscription You said even now Ans they were only reputed the Ministers of Christ for want of mens knowing better and now you say They are the Ministers of Christ to your knowledge you want a better memory for so little honesty You add That these Ministers have not subscribed the Testimony but now you see many of their names subscribed in this last Edition of the Testimony Will you say they are Ministers You finde that they love not to be disgraced with the praises of your pen for abstaining You say that the subscribers exceed the rest in two or three Church livings These are exceeding daies only for Sectaries The Orthodox have but short commons they are rich in imploiments and poor in paiments You are quite contrary you are paid for being a hearer of your people but it were well with the Orthodox if they were paid for preaching to their people You are the Preachers under worldly glory The Orthodox are under the croâ—â— however I desire to be as far from envy at your condition as imitation of your own opinions Your gains would be my joy were not religion the looser You scraple together a few saying or passages out of severall mens books whereof some are fair truths c. Sion Col. visited p. 7. Answ For the fairnesse of your truths ther 's not one of them but hath a face of soot and of a blackmore but I beleeve they are accounted fair in their own Countrey in Errour-alley but in an orthodox region they are very deformed To reproach mens opinions without answering any one reason or ground upon which they build their assertions Sion Col. visited p. 7. is the Way for propagation of them There is not one mentioned errour in all the Catalogue Answ but is its own reproach and its own refutation And the frequency of your being braid in the morter of an answer hath made hitherto but little of your folly to depart from you A confutation would adde too much reputation to the errours Besides when Sectaries see that their errours deserve disputation they thereby think that they deserve estimation 't is their custome to turn truths into controversies and controversies into truths And at all disputations you still go away with the victory but especially when you are able to say nothing The present work of the Ministers was discovery Refutation if judg'd convenient may follow You rend a parcel of words out of the body of a large discourse Sion Col. visited p. 8. Answ which may carry some face of an unsound saying It seems your fair truths of which you even now spake have but a foul face surely the best part of all your errours is the face if Satan intended to limn any part well it would be that and for the rending the parcel of words out of the body of the discourse If you have a desire that the whole body should be seen the Reader is in the margin referr'd to it and yet if any parcel of a passage seem'd to make for you the Subscribers set down that too but indeed commonly the whole passage was a wrapt complication of errours You shew not in what part of their sayings the errour lies Sion Col. visited p. 8. Answ There 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sion Col. visited p. 9.
distinctnesse your writings throughout have more of words then matter and yet more of mud then either But At your command I shall consult the pages wherein you would be thought to say The Scriptures are the Word of God In the former as also pag. 17. where you seem to be most full in declaring your sense You say to this purpose That you grant the matter and substance of the Scripture The gracious counsels to be the Word of God as That Christ is God and man that he died that he rose again c. You are come to a high pitch of ingenuity I assure you These things you having said you thinke you may lawfully charge the Ministers with craft and wickednesse for setting down barely that conclusion of yours pag. 18. Questionles no writing whatsoever whether Translations or Originals are the foundation of Christian Religion 1. But what will please you The Subscribers are in some strait how to content you when they only set down the conclusion and result of your words you say they deal wickedly because they expresse no more and when they cite a whole page you say they doe it that they may represent you to the Reader for a man of monstrous and prodigious errours one of which cannot be expressed or contained in fewer words then would fill a whole page Yet on the other side If they pitch only upon the errour you say they cite your words barely and suppresse craftily your sense 2. Though the Subscribers did set down this your Conclusion without reciting your long-winded passages which you premise yet deserve they not this your reviling Div. author of Scrip p. 18. as if they had wrong'd you For the conclusion being the result of the premisses if your conclusion be crazie and hereticall your premises must needs be so too and therefore the setting of them down would not have helped you at all and if the conclusion be not hereticall why doe you not defend it against the accusation of the Subscribers which you neither doe nor dare to doe but only send the Subscribers to the thirteenth page leaving the poor eighteenth to mercie 3. Suppose you had in the thirteenth page written the truth therefore ought you not to be blamed for writing errours in the eighteenth page Nay ought you not the rather to be blamed Suppose that found truths were laid on the top of your book might you not be blamed for laying rotten errours at the bottome Satan knows that the one must make the other vendible and the Subscribers did but labour herein to spoil his mercat 4. I suppose the subscribers did not set down your sense concerning the divine Authority of the Scriptures in the thirteenth page because it had no relation either clear or doubtfull to the passage in this eighteenth page For in the thirteenth page you say you assert the Scriptures to be the word of God and here in the eighteenth page you come with your Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originalls are the foundation of Christian Religion But you seem to complain that you who have granted the Scriptures i.e. the gracious counsels matter substance of them to be the word of God should be blamed though you say Questionlesse no writing whatsoever is the foundation of Christian religioâ— but mistake not for though you have granted what no Papist nay what no christian in a sense did ever yet deny yet upon what ground have you granted even this you give the reader nothing to shew for this grant but only your good nature and ingenuity you tell me pag. 13. that you beleeve the precious counsells matter and substance of the Scripture to be of divine authority but though you beleeve so yet what ground give you me to beleeve so with you none I am sure p. 10. Div. Autho. where you deny both the English Scriptures and the Hebrew and Greek Originals themselves to be the word of God Div. Autho. p. 10. Nor give you me any ground to beleeve with you that the counsells of the scriptures are the word of God in p. 12. when you say That they who have the greatest insight into the originall languages yea and who beleeve the Scriptures unto salvation Div. Autho. p. 12. cannot upon any sufficient ground beleeve any originall copie under heaven whether Hebrew or greek to be the word of God with a world of such stuff Nor give you any ground to beleeve the matter counsells c. of the Scripture to be the word of God p. 18. where you say Questionlesse no writing whatsoever whether translations or originalls are the foundation of Christian religion much lesse in that of Hag. p. 38. where in regard of the mortality of words you make the meaning of the originalls impossible to be certainly understood nay by all these passages of yours you hinder me from beleving as much as in you lieth that the matter substance counsells c. of the Scriptures are the word of God for how can any beleeve the matter substance c. of the Scripture to be the word of God when as he must be uncertain whether the written word or Scriptures wherein that matter is contained are the word of God or no I suppose when you say that the matter of the Scriptures represented in translations and originals is the word of God p. 17. you suppose that it should be beleeved for such but upon what ground ought I to beleeve it I hope you will not say because a province of London-Ministers saith it is to be beleeved nor barely because the spirit tels me is to be believed for the word of God 2 Pet. 1 19. for the spirit sends me to the written word and bids me by that to trie the spirits and tells me I must beleeve nothing to be from God or for my own eternall good but what I finde written I therefore desire to go to the written word as revealâ—d by God for the building my confidence upon the counsells and matter of the Scriptures as pardon through Christ c. But then J. Goodwin tels me this written word is not Gods word nor are any writings in the world Originals or Translations to be lookt upon as such If so they must be the word of vain man and so I have no more to shew for the precious truths that Christ died for sinners and lost man c. then mans word I pray consider what are become of your disciples to use your own phrase their soul provisions their hope of eternall blessednesse when as thus you deny the written word How doth my soul pitty your poor deluded followers who have such a soul starving or soul-poysoning shepheard set over them the Lord knows I hardly write these things with dry eyes Whereas therefore you send the subscribers and readers to your pages alledged I shall do the like and desire them to take notice that you make no distinction between the res credenda and the ratio
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
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
but it bears the Image of weak and unworthy ones If the subscribers be learned and pious I fear they are as unlike you Answ as you say they are unlike their own Testimony But if their Testimony be not for piety and learning like themselves truly friend this your work is for impiety and ignorance just like you a thing upon which John Goodwin fecit need never be written And yet the first side in your late book against the Authority of the Scriptures in my apprehension was very unlike you I mean the verses under your picture which are a very jeer to you The verses say that in you are gathered the perfections of ten thousand men with their gifts and graces c. when as many know that you have more heresies and errours met in you then are dispersed among some thousands in the world and if your heresies unles you are lately impoverished could be bequeathed to ten thousand sectaries they might every one have a childes portion and have sufficient to live like such men when you are dead and gone It was therefore a passage as pernicious as proud which dropt from your pen in your Epistle to your book called The divine Authority of Scriptures where you say that you will endeavour when you are gone that your followers may have your spirit among them A single portion of it would be far too much Rom 12.2 'T were better it might be transformed while you live then be transmigrated when you die The Ministens book is a Testimony against the truths of Josus Christ It testisieth against this pretious truth of Jesus viz. Sion Col visi p. 2. No writing whatsoever whether originals or translations are the foundation of Christian religion wheneas this is asserted for a truth by the great Apostle 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundation can no man lay but Jesus Christ T is a mercy that since you have so little of integrity Ans you have no more of intellect Think you your self able to woo thâ— Scripâ—res to afford you weapons against themselves Can you prove out of the Scripture that there is no Scripture You say Christ is the only foundation therefore not the Scripture But doth the one hinder the other May not Christ be the only foundation in point of mediation and the Scripture in point of manifestation and discovery May not Christ be the foundation upon which I build for salvation and the Scripture the foundation upon which I ground the knowledge of this Saviour I pray answer Whether do you ground your knowledge and belief that Christ is the only foundation of salvation upon this your cited place 1 Cor. 3.11 Other foundation c If you do not why do you alledge it to prove that Christ is the only foundation If you do ground your belief of Christ his being the only foundation upon this place why do you bring this Scripture to prove that Christ his being the foundation hinders the Scripture from being so Is it possible that the known distinction of â—ssendi and engâ—oscendi principium quod quo or a foundation personall and scripturall should be bid from the eyes of this seducer in chief Therefore do I acknowledge the Scriptures to be the foundation of religion because they are appointed by God for the sole manifestation of his will concerning our salvation by Christ we building our confidence that Christ is the only Saviour upon the Scripture which saith so Is my dependence upon a friend for a favour any hinderance to me from building my confidence upon his word also nay do I not therefore build any hopes upon him because upon his word his word revealing his will you do wickedly therefore and weakly to oppose Christ and his word Give me one protestant writer that ever argued thus with you The word is not our foundation because Christ is so I am sure the Apostle saith Eph. 2.20 that we are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles that is their doctrine and yet Christ was the corner stone for all that If you doubt whether by the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles be meant their doctrine concerning Christ Consult our learned and judicious expositours of that place * Quin fundamentum bâ—â— pro doctrina sunatur minâ—è dubâ—um est neque euim patriarch as nomin at aut pâ—oâ— reges sed â—oâ— solos qui offiâ—â—uÌ„ habehant docendiâ—â—aque locet Poulue fidem Ecclesie in â—ac doctrinâ— debere esse fundatam Calv. in loc Doctrinam Apostolorum prophetarum fundamento aedificij comparaâ— Pâ—sc inâ—oc Nos affirmamâ—â— sundamentuâ— illud quo nitititur ecclesiae fides esse doctrinam propheticaÌ„ ApostolicaÌ„ de Ceristo Rolloc in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chryl â—n loe Paulus per Apostolorum fundamentum doctrinaâ— Aposto lorum intelligit Whâ—t Q 2. con 4 de Monarch Pet. p 55â— Vid Chamier de Canone lib. 6. cap. 8. Calvins words are Quin fundamentum hic pro dectrinâ sumatur minime dubiumest and there 's no doubt saith he hut the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles is here put for doctrine Paul names not here the Patriarchs or godly Kings but those only who had the office of teaching and the faith of the Church is founded upon their doctrine Thus far Calvin In like manner Piscator who saith that Paul compareth the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets to the foundation of a house See also what that learned Scot M. Rolloc saith upon the place We affirm that the foundation upon which the faith of the Church is updeld is the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets of Christ To the same purpose also Chrysâ—stome and in their Controversies the learned Whitaker and Chamier who will inform you if understood You complain that this passage of yours is ranked among infamous and pernitious errours viz. That it is no foundation of Christian Religion to believe that the Scriptures are the word of God Believing you say of the Scriptures is an act of man Now no act of man is the foundation of Christian religion Only Christ is the foundation 1 Cor. 3.11 1. In that place of Hagiom out of which this infamous errour is taken you deal craftily or which is most like cloudily for your aim was to prove him guiltlesse who denieth the being of the Scriptures and not that forbeareth the believing of them For your argument Christ is the foundation and therefore not any act of man as the beleeving of the Scriptures 't is very false and feeble for though no act unto which man is enabled by God such as beleeving is a foundation in that sense in which Christ is upon whom we build the hope of our salvation to be obtained by his mediation Yet beleeving of the Scriptures as it is an assenting to a main and prime Credendum viz. that the Scriptures are by divine inspiration Arg lib 1. de doct Christ cap. 37. Tiâ—ubabit sides si
so great an help not to gain by it but to despise the writings as if they had been laid before us in vain and thereby to draw upon our selves greater punishment Chrys f Homin's qui intra Ecclesiae pomaeria sunt de scripturae authoritate non quaerant est enim pâ—incipium Quomodopossunt esse discipuli Christi si doctrinam Christi velint in dubium vocare quomodo verae Ecclesiae membra si de fundamento Ecclesiae dubitare velint Quomodo id sibi probari petent quod ad probanda alia semper assumunt Gerb. loc Com. Tom 1. de S. ser p 7 Sect. 10. Men that are within the pale of the Church make no question of the authority of the Scripture for it is a principle How can they be the Discioles of Christ if they will call the doctrine of Christ into question how can they be members of the Church if they will doubt of the foundation of the Church How can they desire to have that proved which they make use of to prove all other things by Gerhard g In fidei controversiâ—s dijudicandis nec ab Hebraeis nec a Graecis pendere volunt Papistae multiplicatis quaestiunculis quaesivit Iesuita omnem sacrae scripturae fidem a judicio humaâ—o suspendere de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scripturae quâ—â— habemus dubitationem omnium mentibus â—â—jâ—â—unt ut his atheâ—mi radimentis homâ—â—es a vert Dei cognitione abstractâ—s facilius Antichrist dominationi subjiciant Andr Rivet Q 4. de scrip Tom. 1. In determining of controversies of faith the Papists note this M. Goodwin will not stand either to the Hebrew or greek originals and Baily the Jesuite by multiplying questions hath sought to make the belief of the holy Scripture to depend upon mans judgement and they cast doubts into all mens mindes about the authority of the holy Scriptures which we have that by these rudiments of Atheism they might subiect those men to the power of Antichrist whom they have drawn from the knowledge of the true God Andr. Rivet I shall conclude with desiring you in the fear of God to consider whether that complaint which the learned Rivetus makes of Albertus Pighius sute not too evidently with your self whom as Rivet saith uttered such blasphemous expressions as these explicent scripturarij * Explicent scripturarij isti unde nobis certum est haec esse Moysi scripta que sub ejâ—â— nomine legimus si videremâ—â— quiâ— ceâ—tos râ—d deret Mâ—ysi tam multis seculis mortui esse scriptamaâ—â— haec fimilia querebat a nâ—bis prophâ—us iste quae quorsu 〈◊〉 nemo potest ignorare nifi quâ— sponte vult decipâ— Rivetus ubisupra and he saith that the Papists are herein worse then the tradi tores who for fear delivered their Bibles to the Heathen to be burnt Sion Col. visit p. 12. isti c. let these that stand so much for the written word tell us how we can be certain that these are the writings of Moses which we read to go under his name and how can they assure us that these things were written with Moses his own hand who died so many years agoe He concludes with calling this Albertus Pighius a prophane fellow and saith that he that seeth not whether these things tend is willing to deceive himself I verely fear and without any breach of charity that these scripturarij especially of the presbyterian judgement shall not finde that favour from Joha Goodwin that a Sectarian Antiscripturist hath found in his Hagiomastix in which calendar he was highly Sainted Was it in the integrity of your hearts and to discharge your duty conscienciously that you must needs make it an errour or heresie to say that it were needlesse for Satan to blinde the eyes of naturall men if they had not eyes to see and to receive the glorious light of the Gospel when it is declared unto them But there you stop you do not proceed to the next words which have a most horrid aspect Men are not blinde for want of eyes but for want of light and when light or truth is discovered to them they have faculties suitable fit and apt to receive it But what kinde of blindenesse call you that to be in the dark and to have good eyes 't is a blindenesse that can neither in a spirituall or a naturall respect be cal'd a blindenesse the blindenesse of a naturall man is such as argueth a perishing of the power of spirituall seeing or discerning according to the Apostle he cannot know the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2 14 Conversion is the restoring of sight not of light only the opening of the eyes not the bringing of light to them who have eyes already Act. 26.18 raising up and putting life into a dead man and not the unbinding or the unfittering of a living Ephes 2. The words which you deny to be an errour viz. 'T is a needlesse thing for Satan to blinde if they have not eyes to see are very false for notwithstanding Satans making us blinde we are blinde of our selves according to Scripture which saith that naturall men cannot know the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 and yet that the God of this world hath blinded them 2 Cor. 4.4 when the Scripture saith that a naturall man is carried captive by Satan 2 Tim. 2.26 doth it therefore follow he is not a slave to sin because to Satan Satan may keep men in blindenesse and slavery and make men more to please themselves in both but its certain that we are both slaves to sin and blinde in sin also Where or in what clause or phrase of this ensuing period Sion Coll. visted p. 12 13. lies the errour or heresie If God should not make men capable of beleeving I mean indue men with such principles abilities or gifts of reason judgement memory or understanding by the diligent improvement whereof they might come to be convinced of a readinesse and willingnesse in God to receive them into favour upon their repentance upon which Conviction true repentance and turning to God ALLWAIES follows they which are condemned would have their mouths opened against God and furnished with an excuse The Parenthesis I suppose is innocent The consequence If God should not make men capable c. is built upon this principle that a plea for want of power for performance is an excuse in the case of non-performance You have in the setting down of your innocent parenthesi shewn your self very nocent and deceitfull for as if your conscience had taken your former assertion ill at your hands you left cut that word ALLWAIES in your late Pamphlet which word the subscribers charged you with in their testimony and would clearly have carried the sense thus grace and conversion infallibly follow upon mans improvement of his naturall abilities First For your consequence that if God should not make men capeable of beleeving upon that
Theologicall Sion Col. visited p. 4. Heresies are imperiously sentenced as if the chair of Papal Infallibility were translated from Rome to Sion Colledge Name one of those errours in the Catalogue which the Scripture and that writing we cannot as yet deny to be the foundation of religion condemns not Ans if so 't is not Ex imperio but Ex officio to discover them and for your scoff of the Chair of Papal infallibility know that the Ministers are as far from being for the chair of infallibility as for the Chair in Swan-Alley In the next impression mollifie your title Sion Col. visited p. 5. say not against errours and heresies but use this Christian and soft explication as we account and call them errours and heresies Tender-hearted Sir Ans Spare your counsell or if you will give it expect no fee had ever Ministers or Christians such advise given them before Peter was called Satan for bidding Christ to pity himself but what would Christ have called him had Peter desired Christ to have pitied Satan The hereticall devil must not be used gently 'T is a cruell kindenesse to truth to do so Diabolus non est leniter palpandus saith Luther when you had to do with M Edwards of blessed memory then 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pereat Papâ— pereantimpâ— magestratâ— perâ—aut imâ—ioâ—uâ—n dogmaâ—uâ—n patreni pereat totuâ— muâ—dâ— salveâ—ur Deo suâ—gloria suâ—â— verbuâ— suâ— Eâ—tlesia suâ—â— cul 〈…〉 with you rebuke them cuttingly but when we have to do with heresies it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gently must it yes use mollifying expressions I pray deal gently with heresies for I.G. his sake but heresies have more need of Corasives then lenitives of iron then of oyle was Augustine called Malleus Haereticorum for using mollifying expressions had you given us the advice of Luther we would have thankt you Let the pope perish ungodly Magistrates The Patrons of ungodly opinions of errours let all the world perish only let not the glory of God perish his Church his Worship But why speak we of Luthers spirit your advice is more unsutable to the spirit of the Scripture Rebuke them sharply saith the Apostle that they may be sound in the faith Earnestly contend for the faith Damnable heresies Reprobate concerning the faith filthy dreamers Cursed children Vngodly men bruit beasts Clouds without water Tit. 1.13 Jude 3.4.12 2 Pet. 2.1 2 Tim. 3 8. Jude 8. 2 Pet. 2.14 2 Pet. 2.12 c And yet forsooth we must be all for softnesse and mollisying The Lord pardon our sinfull softnesse formerly The time past may suffice to have connived at you Shall you be bolder to sin then we to speak God forbid But wherein must the Ministers expresse their softnesse he tels us for he gives us direction as well as exhortation though he is more wicked in prescribing the manner of doing then the thing to be done Say not a testimony against Errours and Heresies but say as we account and call Errours and Heresies His plain meaning is Be doubtful whether those damnable Errours and Heresies be such or no Be Scepticks Seekers Expectants Dubitants never beleeve any thing When men deny the Scriptures to be the foundation of faith say This is an heresie as we think when men deny the Divinity of the Son and holy Ghost say These are heresies as we conceive when heaven and hell are denied say this is an heresie as we account and so of the rest Non est hoc Christiani pectoriâ— nâ—n delectari ass rtionibus Tolle assertiones Christianismum tuâ—sti Sanctuâ— Spiritas non est scepticus nec opiniones in cord â—us nostris sed assertiones â—psâ vitâ omni experientâ—d certiores producâ—t Luth. Though the Lord hath not with-held you from giving yet for his Christs sake he keep us from taking this advice We who teach others to beleeve shall we beleeve nothing our selves if we may not be so certain as to write against errours how should we be so certain as to die in opppsition to errours Should one lay down his life for he knows not what Did those blessed Martyrs in Queen Maries daies say That Transubstantion was an errour as they thought Besides are there any things in the world so certain as the matters of faith The Apostle speaks Col. 2.2 of a fulnesse of assurance of understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Famous is that speech of Luther which in the margin I give you in his own words Non est hoc Christiani pectoris non delectari assertionibus c. It savours not of Christianity when men are not delighted with positive assertions Take away assertions and thou hast taken away Christianity The holy Ghost is no Sceptick nor doth in produce opinions in our hearts but certain assertions more sure then life it self and all experience c. Certainly if I may know any thing to be a truth I may and must upon that ground know the contrary to be an errour as if I know that this is a truth That Christ is God I certainly know that this is an errour to say He is not God and therefore by your putting us to beleeve nothing for an errour you will constrain us to beleeve nothing for a truth And if this be so to what end serves preaching Do Ministers preach and people hear fables or truths Further if nothing be to be certainly known for an errour with what zeal can any way by you be opposed when as you are and must be uncertain whether you strike a friend or a foe a truth or an errour And if so How can you declaim against the way of Presbytery for ought you know it may be a truth How or why against the restraint of herecicks deniall of liberty of conscience And where are you then Sir But are you so undoubted and certain and positive as you seem to your self to be when you oppose the truth and must we be purely doubtfull when we are opposing of errours Did not you blasphemously deny the Scripture to be the foundation of faith with that astonishing expression going before it Questionlesse no writing whatsoever is the foundation of Christian Religion Though in this last Pamphlet your own conference I hope would not suffer you to put it in Must you say questionlesse for errours and must we come with an as we think against errours You extend your title against a toleration of errours also Sion Col. visited p. 5. Now a toleration is a meer non ens a thing not in being and therefore you testify against that of which God made the World If a toleration be not no thank to you Ans I am confident 't is your darling endeavour to effect it You say that because a toleration is nothing to speak against it is to speak against that which Gud made the world of Prophanely enough But sure you meant not to compare a toleration to the nothing of which