what evidence can the Church of Rome now give us or what assurance can she have besides the bare name That she is still a Christian Church Onely Vega helps it aswell as he can That in reason and Charity men are not to thinke that the Priest should be so carelesse at the Consecration as not to look to his Intention upon which the Salvation of all menâ— soules dependeth Fourthly for the Sacrament of the Eucharist or of the Altar as they call it First this is in the same Predicament with Baptisme for the Priests intention which if not present at the Consecration of the Host as they call it there is no Transubstantiation no body of Christ and so they worship a wafer instead of Christ and so by their owne Confession in that case they commit materiall Idolatry as a Jesuite confessed in Dispute with Dr Featly But Secondly by the very name of Sacrament of the Altar they destroy the Sacrament that Christ ordained in his last Supper called therfore the Supper of the Lord. For they have turned it from a Supper to a sacrifice yea and that from an Eucharisticall sacrifice as the Fathers called it to a Propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead as is noted before And so this Sacrament they have Non sacramented and made of it a whole burnt sacrifice Secondly they have utterly destroyed the materialls or Element in this their Sacrament the bread and wine that no maâ— should so much as dreame or once take it for the Lords Supper For a Supper cannot be without bread and drinke and heâ—e is neither And so it is neither Supper nor Sacrament And thus they have taken away noâ— onely the cup from the people but the bread also altogether So as there is nothing in their Sacrament but a meere lye meere imaginations Phantasmes of Accidents without subject as we said before And so enough of this And lastly the Church of Rome having disanulled the Sacraments of Grace it hath withall disabled them from being seales of Grace For it is the property of a seale to give a sure and certain Impression and thereby a Confirmation of the Covenant But in Popish Sacraments all certainty is taken away as is shewed and so having lost the seales consequently the Covenant of Grace it selfe is of no force unto them And thus in denying the two Testaments to be the onely rule of Faith and overthrowing the two Sacraments the seales of Faith yea having lost and disclaimed the true Saving Faith it selfe what evidence hath Rome left her to shew and prove that she is now a true Church of Christ or hath the Essence of a true Church Let her shew her evidence As he said Let Baal if he be a god plead for himselfe Yet all this is of no Force to your Lordship but that like Ixion imbracing a cloud for Iuno as it is in that Fable so you imbrace but a cloud or rather the shadow of a cloud instead of the once faire Virgin Rome you must needs have her a true Church still She onely say you misuses the two Sacraments A small triviall trifle to speake of Misusing then is nothing with you What say you then to those wicked Princes and Priests of Israel that misused the Lords Prophets Was this nothing They so misused them that they stoned them to death And so the Church of Rome hath so misused the two Sacraments that they have stoned them them to death and left not one alive But they have made amends for it For say you they have added more even no lesse then five which are as the five wounds wherewith the Lord was crucified to death For those five have eaten out the other two of Christs own ordaining both expressing his death the one for ingrafting us into it the other for growth and strength by it as our spirituall food And these five Sacraments fo humane invention they must have their vertue of conferring Grace ex opere operato being all as they use them a meere evacuating of Christs me it s But time permits not a longer discourse of them Enough is said for Answer And for Conclusion the Church of Rome having taken away the Authority of Scripture and added her own Traditions and having taken away and misused the Lords Sacraments and added their own Sacraments what remaines to that Church but that which the Divine Iohn Concludeth the whole Bible withall I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophecie of this Book If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the Book of this Prophecie God shall take away his part out of the Booke of life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Booke Out of the Holy City which is the Church of Christ. Here then in this holy City is no place for the Church of Rome L. p. 131.132 The Church of Rome both was and was not a right or Orthodox Church before Luther made a breach from it For in the Primitive times of it it was a most right and Orthodox Church but upon the immediate times before Luther or some Ages before that Rome was a corrupt and tainted Church farre from being right And yet both these times before Luther made his breach P. The Conclusion then of your speech here is this That Luther made his breach from the Church of Rome not onely as it was Corrupt and tainted immediately or in some Ages before but also as it was right and Orthodox in her Primitive Times For you say And yet both these times before Luther as well those wherein the Church of Rome was most right and Orthodox as those wherein after before Luther it was corrupt and tainted made his breach And thus you make the rent on the Protestant party to be not onely from the corrupt and tainted Church of Rome but from the most Right and Orthodox Church of Christ. A pestilent speech bewraying the speaker to be in the very gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity and worhty to be abhorred and abandoned of all that beare the name of Protestants But this agreeth with that which we noted before how you exclude all the Protestant Reformed Churches beyond the Seas where your Prelacie and Hierarchy is not erected nor my Lord Bishops Chaire allowed from being any Churches of Christ or members of the true Catholick Church For here also in Luthers rent from the Church of Rome not onely as corrupt and tainted but as once Right and Orthodox you include all those Reformed present Churches and to exclude them out of the true Church of Christ. But as before we have shewed and proved and shall yet more upon fit occasion ministred upon the same cause for which you exclude all Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seas from being Churches of Christ
parts of mans body yet still that member wants other members to beare witnesse unto it that it is a part of mans body As if every particular member of mans body by its inherent proper motion were not a sufficient witnesse not onely to all the rest of the body that it is a living and true organicall body of man but also to it selfe that it is a true living member of this body Or as thus It is not the whole frame of heaven and earth that can assure us that we doe well to thinke that God made all the world for if any one Creature should give testimony to all the rest yet still that Creature would require another Creature to give testimony to it that it is one of Gods Creatures and so we should never come to any pawse to rest our assurance this way that God created the whole world heaven and earth and all the Creatures therein Now what is there besides the Creature that can assure us of this What The Authority of men or the Tradition of the whole world No for By Faith we come to understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were made of things which did not appeare Now whereupon is this Faith grounded Surely on the word of God and confirmed abundantly by the whole frame of heaven and earth and all the Creatures therein not one of them but having a stampe of the Creator upon it to assure us that it is his Creature And how doe we come to be assured that this word of God is contained in the Scripture By the Authority of the present Church Doth Hooker Say so Had you Said The Ancient Church as the Jewes in witnessing for the Old Testament and the Ancient Apostolick Church in witnessing for the New you had said Somthing As also if you had put the Ministry of the Word for the Authority of your present Church For as we said before the Ministry of the Word is Gods own voyce which commends unto us the Scripture as the word of God This is Gods owne ordinary meanes to bring men to Faith and not the Authority and Tradition of I wot not what present Church And now against Mr Hookers sensible Demonstration as you call it I will oppose another Demonstration which is not onely sensible but most true as proving that the testimony of Scripture to be the word of God is in the Scripture it selfe First Paul in the Epistle to the Romans witnesseth that unto the Iewes or Israeliets under the Old Testament were committed the Oracles of God those Oracles were contained in all the severall Bookes of the Old Testament which the Jewes kept intire and inviolate without the mixture of Profane Books And of this Scripture Paul speaketh and testifieth saying All Scripture is given by inspiration from God And Christ himselfe giveth testimony of the Old Testament saying to the Jewes Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternall life and they are they which testifie of me And what those Scriptures were the Jewes knew well enough for they were deposited with them and they kept them as their chiefest treasure And Peter also gives testimony to the Old Testament saying of it that Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost speaking of the Scripture expresly in that place in the former verse And To Him give all the Prophets witnesse Thus the New Testament gives testimony to the Old that it is the word of God And I hope you will not except against this testimony as insufficient Againe the New Testament gives witnesse to it selfe that it is the word of God Peter witnesseth of Pauls Epistles that Paul wrote them according to the wisdome given unto him that is the Holy Ghost And Christ said to Peter I have prayd for thee that thy Faith faile not Yea He sent the Holy Ghost to all his Apostles that should lead them into all truth Ergo what they preached and wrote was the Truth and word of God And Christ made all his Apostles his witnesses who in all their writings beare-witnesse of him both of what they saw and heard and so their record left in writing is true See Luk. 1.2 1 Joh. 1.3 3 Joh. 12. And none writ the New Testament but either Euangelists or Apostles all indued with the Holy Ghost And the Wisdome of Christ reserved his beloved Disciple Iohn as the last surviver of all the rest to write the Book of the Revelation and to conclude as the New Testament so the whole Bible with that Charge If any man adde to this Book or take away from it c. as shewing that the whole and intire Scripture was now compiled and consummate I might be copious in this point But I will summe up all this The New Testament gives testimony to the Old that it is the word of God also to it selfe one Book to another one Apostle to another who were all witnesses of Christ Christ and the Holy Ghost to all the Apostles all their writings being guided by the Spirit of Truth and giving joynt witnesse unto Christ and to the truth of the Gospell Yea and the severall parts beare witnes to themselvs As 1 Cor. 14.37 If any man think himselfe to be a Prophet or Spirituall let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the Commandements of the Lord. And 1 Pet. 5.12 I have written brieflly exhorting and testifying that this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand And Joh. 20.31 These things are written that ye might beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his Name So 1 Joh. 1.3 4. 2 Joh. 5. 3 Joh. 12. And we also â—eare record and ye know that our record is true And as the New Testament doth every where beare witnesse both to the Old and to it selfe both in the whole and every part even by the Spirit of God that speakes and breathes in the whole and every part So the Old Testament in like manner beares witnesse both to it selfe and to the New Testament and that by many Types and Prophecies all which are fulfilled in the New So as these two Testaments are as Ezechiels Wheeles one within another the New Testament being the Old revealed and the Old the New veiled Or they are like the two Cherubims both looking towards the Mercy-Seat which is Christ the Summe of them both the Old looking upon him as he was promised and to come the New as he is now exhibited and come Thus we have here a full true and evident Demonstration that the whole Scripture gives testimony to it selfe that it is the word of God And yet you Say That Truth it selfe cannot say that Scripture it selfe can doe it But you adde L. ibid. That Scripture cannot beare witnesse to it selfe nor any one part of it
smart of it though perhaps an ordinary Bee may smell it out yet I will not take upon me to divine it But if you will contend and offer violence to a whole Hive forcing the Bees beyond their nature though you be never so well armed Cap a pied from top to toe as with Sauls armour so as the Bees cannot reach you yet how shall you escape the sting of the great Master-Bee JESUS CHRIST who is able with one whoope to rayse an army of flies to plague the Aegyptian Tyrants and Taskmasters for their extreame violence offered to his poore Bees And never look that such Bees should ever brook your Priest as having learned by too much experience that he comes not but to kill and take the honey As Christ saith of the Thiefe or Vsurper that climbeth up into the Sheep-fold another way He cometh not but to steale kill and to destroy Againe I must crave a little more of your patience while I somewhat more thorowly Scan your Conjunction of the King and Priest so closse and inseparably together The King and the Priest or The King and the Prelate or The King and the Bishop according to a new Late Start up Proverbe or as you make it a new Maxime in the Politicks No Bishop no King Now for a ground whereon to pitch the Mathematicall Staffe of my ensuing Demonstration I must begge two Aitâ—mata or Demands First That ever a King is good this is such a principle as transcends the Demonstration of Art For He 〈◊〉 Minister of GOD to thee for Good Ergo Good The Second is That a Priest or Prelate as being out of the ranke of Gods Creation and Ordination is ever Bad. These two things granted as they may not be denyed I say It is not good that Good and Bad be joyned together Although as Scaliger saith Malum non est nisi in bono Evill is not but in good But the King and Priest thus linked together are like to two Planets in Conjunction the one as Astronomers tell us Benigne the other Malignant and during the Conjunction the Benigne Planet is not so forcible in its kindly influence as the Malignant is potent in hindering it and in sending forth his own more predominant Malignity not so easily qualified by the Benignity of the other And they say againe that some Planets are of such a temper as they are neither good nor bad but as they are in Conjunction with others if with a good Planet they are good if with a bad evill As we read of King Ioash who so long as good Iehoiada the High Priest lived raigned well but he being dead he by the bad Counsell of his Princes fell to Idolatry So an evill Planet being in Conjunction with an indifferent may cause it to doe hurt which in its owne nature is not much malignant Againe 't is observed of the Oake which for strength among all the Trees may be an Embleme of a King being all overgrown with the Ivie which for its many insinuations and windings every way may well resemble your Priest it thrives not the fewer leaves and branches it puts forth for shade and protection from a shower or storme or heat of Summer and litle fruit to feed the hungry for it is hide-bound so guirt in by the Ivie that it cannot prosper Yea such a Conjunction cannot be more fitly parallelled in my judgement then to the feet of that Image in Daniel the Head whereof was of gold the breast and armes of silver the belly and thighs of brasse his legges of iron his feet part of iron and part of clay The Image represented the Successive Raignes in the Babilonian Monarchy each worse then other till at last it came to ruine And it may be an Embleme of all Kingdomes and States which if they want the ancient Roman Lustration or Purgation every five yeares like some old Statutes of England for a Trienniall Visitation a certain thing which was wont to be called a Parliament or so will according to an old observation in the Politicks easily grow worse and worse As the Roman Poet observed in his time Aetas parentum pejor avis Tulit nos equiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem In English thus Our Fathers Age which they did passe Grew worse then our Grand-fathers was Our selves worse then our Parents be And our next race proves worse then we But we pitch to be silent in the rest of the Image upon the feet mixt of iron and clay the last legges as the Proverb which that Empire went upon Iron as Daniel interprets it signifies strength but Clay brittlenesse which intermeddled with the Iron addes no strength to it but onely makes it swell the bigger which swelling portends and causes ruine For the Iron relying on its mixture with the Clay and the Clay presuming to doe great things by being joyned and backed with the Iron here is the Portent In the Revelation we read of Kings giving their power to the Beast that is giving way to the Beast or to his limbs the Priests to exercise a power over them and their Kingdomes For which cause England was wont to be called the Popes Asse The ten hornes which thou sawest upon the Beast these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eate her flesh and burne her with fire For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the words of God shal be fulfilled On this GOD and on his word will we wait Sure we are that the whore of Babylon with her Priests shall come down into the dust And all Gods people are admonished to come out of her least they partake of her sinnes and receive of her plagues So in due time when Gods word shall be fulfilled the Iron shall unmixe it selfe from the Clay that the one may be preserved and the other goe to his owne place to the earth whence it came and wheâ—eof it is But in the next place for what good end and purpose doe you linke your Priest with the King Because say you They more then any other are bound to looke to the Integrity of the Church in Doctrine and Manners Surely for the first the King we doe in all humility imbrace and acknowledge him as Gods vicegerent bound to doe that office for the true Church of Christ which Gods word hath injoyned and requires of him And that consists generally in â—his as he is Custos utriusque Tabulae the Keeper in trust of both the Tables of the Law he is to see ut currat Lex that Gods Law and Word hina treke that it may run have a free passage without impeachment that the Commandements of the Law be kept Sarta tecta safe and sound without diminishing much lesse demolishing any one of them that nothing be done either in Doctrine or Manners or in the
and their Successors the true Ministers of the Gospell who by their preaching declare who have their sinnes pardoned and who not So as your colouring over your usuall evasion of the Papists about their merits which they say are not absolutely meritorious of themselves but as being dipped and dyed in Christs blood whence they receive the tincture of merit But as the merit of Christ is altogether immanent in himselfe and not transient to us but onely by Imputation through faith and not by any infusion or inherencie as Papists teach So the power of Priestly Absolution is so proper and peculiar to the Person of Christ that it is not communicative or derivative to any Creature No not I say to the Leviticall Priests who otherwise were Types of Christ. They onely offered sacrifices for sinnes but as Types and which could never take away Sinnes as the Apostle speakes And their Office was to discerne and judge of the Leprosie and to pronounce a man cleane or uncleane according to those signes and markes which God himselfe gave Now Leprosie was an Embleme of Sinne. And as those Ministers of the Old Testament did with the Leprosie namely pronounce or declare it onely to be or not to be So the Ministers of the Gospell are to declare unto beleevers the pardon of sinnes by those signes and markes which God hath set in his Word and to impenitent persons condemnation except they beleeve and repent But for power of Absolving men from Sinnes as to Say Thy Sins are forgiven thee that 's Christs voyce alone Never any of the Apostles used this voyce to any Thy Sins are forgiven thee but as Peter said to those that were pricked in their hearts and asked Men and Bretheren what shall we doe Repent saith he and be baptised every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the Remission of Sins But to Say I absolve thee from thy Sins or Thy Sins are forgiven thee is onely his who can give Repentance and Faith These two Prerogatives are inseperable in Christ as Peter sheweth Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give Repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of Sinnes and we are witnesses of these things Saith he Now if you can prove that Christ hath made you Such Princes and Saviours as to give you a power which Symon Magus would have bought with his money to give Repentance to any man then I will without any more adoe confesse that you have also a power to forgive Sins Otherwise not till then by your assumed and usurped Priesthood and presumptuous yea blasphemous forgiving of Sins I Absolve thee you deny Iesus to be the Christ the onely Christ to wit the onely Priest who onely hath merit and power as to give Repentance so remission of Sins to whom he will And thus as you take upon you to be a Priest both by your profession and practise you are an Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth Iesus to be the Christ He is Antichrist Saith the Apostle Iohn Secondly neither were it any great difficulty to prove that you Prelates and that according to your owne Doctrine in many places of your Book do deny Iesus to be the Christ to wit the onely Prophet of his Church For you allow no beliefe that the Scripture is the voyce of Christ the Prophet except the voyce and Tradition of the present Church doe first usher it in And this Church must alwayes be meant of a Prelaticall Church No question of that And for Exposition and Sense of Scripture you deny that the Scripture it selfe and of it selfe hath sufficient light as at after we shall see at large and therefore you referre us either to the Exposition of the Primitive Church or the Decisions of Generall Councels for the right Sense of the Scripture Thus you doe akurōsa as Christ saith or make voyd and of no authority the voyce of Christ by your Tradition Nay you Say also That if a Generall Councel should Conclude and Decree an Errour yet all men ought to yeeld obedience at least externall thereunto till another Generall Councel equall to that shall reverse and correct it And by the way what if it shall make it worse or adde more Errours to it But thus doe you not deny Christ to be the onely Prophet of his Church of whom God Saith Heare Him Him onely His Word onely His Voyce onely when you do not take his Word to be light enough and to be sufficient to interpret it selfe but that you must have recourse to Generall Councels consisting of Prelates as your Oracles to decide all doubts and controversies of Faith Doe you not thus attribute a greater light to men then to the voyce of Christ GOD Saith of Christ that Prophet Heare him in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you but you say In all doubts and controversies of faith heare what a Generall Councel Saith yea though it determine Errours yet all men are bound to yeeld obedience thereunto Thus the expresse voyce and cleare word of Christ that Prophet must depend upon Men and those an Assembly of Prelates or Priests which Christ never ordained in his Church and not men upon It. And so in this respect also denying Christ to be the onely All sufficient Prophet to instruct and establish his Church in all Truth while you deny his word to be Autópistos and Autà rkes of selfe-Credit of it selfe to be beleeved and selfe-sufficient to shew and interpret it selfe you prove your selfe an Antichrist For who is a lyer but he that denyeth that Iesus is the Christ He is Antichrist Your Grace therefore is an Antichrist But I come to the third Instance to which I confesse I thought to have confined my selfe and not to have touched the other two in this place though they be no lesse proper then this which is That you Prelates both by Profession and Practise as you are Prelates doe deny Iesus to be the Christ in that you deny him to be the onely Lord and King of his Church For what is for Christ to be the King of and over and in his Church but as to exercise his Almighty power and Fatherly care and Spouse-like love in protecting and preserving his Church from all evills in comforting her in the midst of afflictions in supplying her with all necessary Graces and Blessings and in vindicating the cause of his People against all their Persecuters and Oppressors So also in bearing a Speciall Kingly Rule in and over their Soules and Consciences in all things concerning Faith in the Worship and Service of God So as the people of God doe and ought to acknowledge Christ herein their onely King and not to suffer their consciences to be captivated and insnared by any ordinance of Man whatsoever in point of faith and ceremonies in Gods service injoyning a necessary conformity thereunto 'T is Christs Prerogative alone in
for this GREAT WITNESSE which here you bring in arayed in Capitall Letters to wit your externall will-worship in many devised Ceremonies of seeming Humility Devotion and Piety the world could not come to know what Religion is in your heart towards God in that internall part of his worship which you Speak of But now through the cleare perspective of your bright shining Devotion without we can discerne what Devotion is within Herby we come to know all that spirit of Infidelity and Apostacie and consequenty of Atheisme and Irreligion which is in your heart Do you set up Altars and adore them and set up Priests to serve at them to which you must needs adde a Sacrifice sutable some materiall and corporall thing Hereby we come to know how in your heart you deny Iesus Christ to be the onely Altar Priest and Sacrifice as is shewed before And were it not for your lowly bowing at the bare nameing of the Name Iesus you should want witnesse to testifie to the world that deep hypocrisie in your heart while in bowing to Iesus you persecute the Lord Iesus Christ in his Word in his Ministers in his Members So as your externall ceremoniall worship is the GREAT WITNESSE to the world that there is in you an Antichristian heart a Popish heart a Superstitious heart an Idolatrous heart an Evill heart of unbelife in departing away from the living God How then with what inward testimony of your Conscience with what evidence of truth can you say that your heart stands right in the Internall worship of God when the externall is so crooked and bowed together with so many lowly duckings and crindgins so as your Head and Feet doe even meet together And is not the Devotion of your heart every way as crooked Doth not your heart bow as and when your body doth And is not the Same object which your body boweth unto the object to which your heart boweth and wherein your internall worship is ultimately terminated and bounded For as Aug. Saith Quis intuetur Semulacrum c. Who beholdeth an Image that is not so affected as to imagine the Divinity to be in that Image which he adoreth And doe not you Say that your God-Almighty is upon your Altar which you bow unto when you Say of your Altar you will have none to fit above God Al-mighty So as either you Locally place God there or you make your Altar your God and goe no further But suppose you doe in and by that Altar which you bow unto worship God Who hath required such worship at your hands Nay hath not GOD in the Second Commandement expresly forbidden any such worship in or by an Image or any such thing as Man deviseth in and by it to represent and worship GOD And such will-worship is it not the fruit of the Will of your Evill Corrupt and Superstitious Idolatrous and Proud Heart whence it springeth and proceedeth O Proud and Blind Hearts indeed that dare make choyce of their owne selfe-pleasing devises in Gods worship thinking thereby to please GOD But GOD abhorres all such will-worship But it is Say you a testimony of your Humility But the Apostle expresly condemneth such voluntary Humility And tell me what is there in all the World seting your Honours and Dignities and Favour in Court aside wherein you take more Pride and Glory then in such counterfeit Humility wherein your Heart is more lifted up in perswading your selfe that thereby the World comes to take you for the most Devout and Pious Prelate or Person in all England and as whereby you so bewitch the Court with an opinion of your incomparable Sanctity then simply in these your externall Ceremoniall Complements Saving onely that they Serve for your GREAT WITNESSES to all the world that your heart stands right in the Service of God which indeed is a Service done to your selfe And this appeares in part through those Swelling words set down at large Characters EXTERNALL WORSHIP GREAT WITNESSE Is not this a cleare expression of a heart full of pride selfe-conceit and vain glory when you doe thus as the Poet said Proijcere ampullas Sesquipedalia verba strout it in such a swelling Style and big words And that the world may yet further see how little I misjudge in this let your own immediate words further witnesse For Say you Take this away this EXTERNALL WORSHIP this GREAT WITNESSE and what light is there left to shine before men that they may See our Devotion and glorifie our Father which is in heaven I remember indeed what Christ said to his Disciples Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven These be the words you play withall as a Descant of your Devotion But cursed is he Saith Christ that addeth to or taketh from Gods word Here you doe both for you leave out good works and in stead of that put in your Devotion and you put out the true Light there which is faith and put in the place of it your false Light which is your blind Devotion I say blind Devotion because of your own devising For as the Prophet saith If they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them So I say of that Feare or Devotion which is taught by the precepts of men Such have no light in them But your Dovotion is your Light when both you and it be blind As I have read of some Creatures that are múopes Mope-eyed as we Say that see better in the darke then in the day To such darknesse is light Such a light is your Devotion And such Devotion was in the Priests of Baal which was mixt or rather inflamed with great zeale Zeale in Launcing themselves that the blood sprang out Devotion in their long Prayers from Morning till Noon And this secundum usum Sacrum after their manner Now might not they have said as you doe This our externall worship is a GREAT WITNESSE to the world of our Zeale to our God and without which what light have we left whereby men may see our Devotion And such also was the Devotion of Hypocrites of whom Christ saith They pray standing in the Synagogues and in the Corners of the Streets that they may be seen of men Now might not these Hypocrites say for themselves This our externall Devotion is the GREAT WITNESSE unto the world that our hearâ—s stand right being testified by standing in Prayer so as without this light men could not see our Devotion So the Pharisees who were curious Masters of Ceremonies in will-worship they wore goodly broad Phylacteries and for pretence made long prayers Might not they also have said as you This our externall worship in long Prayers in our Solemne Robes with goodly Boarders is the GREAT WITNESSE to the world that our hearts stand right and without this Light men could
would not commit to either of them any part of this his Prerogative in appointing what manner of service they thought good or in the fashion of building the Temple Nor yet did the Lord deliver the patterne of these things by tradition but in writing that in nothing they should come short or over shoot their bounds Neither had any of the Kings of Iudah the power afterwards either to adde or alter the least thing but at their perill No not the King and the Priest together as you would now have it So as when in a cafe of necessity no Law or Rule for us to take liberty to doe what we please without warrant from Gods word King Ezechias was to keep the Passeover in the Second Moneth he did it not alone nor with the Priest alone but with the unanimous assent and approbation of all the Princes and People in Ierusalem So as the thing pleased the King and all the Congregation Likewise when King David was to bring the Arke to Ierusalem he did it not alone or with the Priest alone but gathered all the chosen men of Israel together about it And what to doe Not what himselfe and they thought fit but according to the Law and Commandement of the Lord. And is it come to this passe now that the King and the Priest must doe all and that according to their owne Fancie in the worship and service of God When the Priest Vriah had according to the Kings Commandement built an Altar according to the patterne sent him by the King from Damascus on which the King offered Sacrifice did God approve it Is he not branded with this note which sticks upon his name to this day This is that King Ahaz And did not the Lord smite King Vzziah with Leprosie for offering Incense which pertained to the Priest onely And was not Vzzah smitten for but puting his Hand to stay the Arke when the Oxen shook it it not pertaining to him being but a Levite and not a Priest who onely was to meddle with the Arke So dangerous is it for men to take upon them be they Prince or Priest or both to intermeddle in any thing about the service of God which God hath not given them warrant for Now where hath Christ or his Apostles from him left any such power to man Prince or Priest or both as you claim and usurpe or to the Church to ordaine any Ceremonies in Religion to bind the Conscience of his People to the observation of them And if ye have either a pattern or pattent for it from Christ and under black and white in writing not by any unwritten Tradition produce and shew it But none can you shew we are sure I know your usuall places which you use to wrest for this purpose As 1 Cor. 14 4â— Let all things be done Decently and in in Order Hereupon it seemeth your words of decencie and orderly settlement are grounded But what conclude you hence Ergo the King and the Priest although in things of this nature you use the King but as a Cypher to back and countenance the Priest in what he doth may appoint what Ceremonies they please in the service of God But frame your Argument in a Syllogisme All things in the Church are to be done Decently and in Order But for the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose what Ceremonies they please in Gods Service is Decent and Orderly Ergo it is left to the Power of the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose what Ceremonies they please in Gods Service Or thus What is Decent and according to Order is lawfull to be done in the worship of God But for the King and Priest to prescribe and impose Ceremomonies in Gods Service is Decent and according to order Therefore it is lawfull for the King and the Priest to prescribe and impose Ceremonies in the Service of God Now if I have not framed your Argument according to your mind I desire you to mend it But I conceive it is all that can be framed upon that test which you alledge so as if you argue not thus you can make nothing at all of it according to the Rules of Logick Nor for answere First I deny that the Apostle speakes there of the Service of God in Prayer but onely of an Order and Dencie in Prophecying such as was then in use in the Church as first that it should be done one by one and not confusedly Secondly that women should not be permitted to speak in the Church Thirdly that it be not in a strange tongue without an Interpreter And such like And to this hath that of the Apostle particular and immdediate reference Let all things be done decently and in order As for Praying in the Church the Apostle gives no other Rule but this that it be not done in a strange tongue Againe we have before excluded the Priest you speak of from having any thing at all to doe or meddle in Gods service for the Reasons fore-shewed So as if for the King and the Priest you put the Church I answere First your Prelaticall Church is a false Church as hath beed proved and so with your Priest is altogether excluded here from having any such power as to ordain Ceremonies in Gods service to bind the Consciences of Gods people For in so doing you shew your selves to be Antichrists and Tyrants over mens soules as before is shewed Secondly not even the true Churches and Congregations of Christ the King Minister and People put together have power to ordaine and impose any Ceremony in Gods service to bind the Conscience For the Apostles themselves neither had nor exercised any such power We find not any one footstep of it in all the New Testament But in this case Christians were left altogether free And the Apostle admonisheth the Collossians and in them all Christians Saying Beware least any man spoyle you through Philosophy and vaine deceit after the Tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And v. 16. Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day c. which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. Let no man Judge you that is subject not your Conscience to Mans command and ordinance in these things as matter of Religion And v. 20. If ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as living in the world are subject to Ordinances Touch not Tast not Handle not which all are to perish with the using being after the Commandements and Doctrine of men which have indeed a Shew of wisedome in will-worship and humility in neglecting of the body not in any honour to the Satisfying of the flesh The summe of all which is to shew that Christians being freed by Christs death from all humane Ordinances and Traditions in matters of Religion they ought to
Verity is oldnesse of Errour And againe Illud antiquissimum quod â—erissimum That is most ancient which is most true You commend unto us ancient Ceremonies and the ancienter the better so they may fit time and place But here is never a word how fit and agreeable they be to the word of God As Tertullian els where Saith to Hermogenes the Heretick Scriptum esse doceat Hermogenis Officina Si non est Scriptum timeat vae illud adijcientibus c. Let Hermogenes his Shop shew this to be written if it be not written let him feare that woe to all them that adde to or take from the word of God c. But if antiquity be with you in such request you may take in also the Mystery of Iniquity if antiquity will commend it for good For even in the Apostles time as is noted before it began to work though as a Mystery more covertly as not yet then fiting time and place Not time For the Apostles then living thundred it into holes and thickets Not place For not Ierusalem but Rome must be the place for it but was not yet fitted for it And the Devil with his Lyes can plead great antiquity And with his Lyes came in all Errours which may stand in competition for antiquity even with verity it selfe For Satans Religion had the Start for antiquity of time even of the Gospel it selfe as we may see Gen. 3.1.15 And therefore no marvail if your Lady Mother Rome doe stand so much upon the Tiptoes of her antiquity both in her Hierarchy and its whole frame of Errours and Superstitious Ceremonies as all claiming from the antiquity of the mystery of Iniquity the common Grandmother and root whence hath sprung in successive ages the Stock and branches of all Popery But for answere to all your Plea and Pretence of Antiquity we alledge against you the antiquity of Truth And if you plead for antiquity of humane devices because Satans Lyes were born into the world and imbraced before Christ was revealed So as the very foundation of all will-worship and inventions in the service of God was layd in Adams fall from God by the Serpents seducement yet we preferre the Religion of Christ before it because this brings with it the blessing As in the Old Testament when through Adams fall nature had lost her birth-right the blessing still descended upon the younger and that through grace And doth not the antiquity of your ancient Ceremonies take its very rise and Originall from that poyson of pride which the Serpent infused into our First Parents telling them they should be as Gods selfe-wise selfe-sufficient Now there is nothing wherein men would seem more wise and please themselves more in that opinion then their own devises in the worship of God As the Apostle notes of the Gentiles Who professing themselves to be wise they became fooles Wherein wise The Apostle sheweth in their devised worship of God in framing and worshiping false similitudes of God yea even Images of beasts and creeping things Herein they thought themselves very wise men And doe not you so in all your Train of humane inventions in the service of God If you do not think it the highest point of your wisedome why do you make it your main Study and spend all your wits and strength to fill the Church with such inventions But you will Say They are not your owne invention they are ancient and the ancienter the better But your seting them up makes them your own and makes them new againe where they had been antiquated and cast out to the dunghill Nay one thing more for antiquity of your Ceremonies you have from the Old Serpent to be perswaded that you are as Gods that you have all power in your hands over mens Consciences in imposing upon them what Ceremonies you please in the service of God Do you not here take upon you to be as Gods Sit you not in Christs Throne while you thrust him out Thus we see what antiquity not onely your Ceremonies but your absolute Tyranny in imposing of them may justly challenge Well take your antiquity but withall there 's another antiquity goes with it which falls unto you by right of inheritance from that Old Syre of your Ceremonies and that you may find in those words to the Serpent and his Seed Cursed art thou And this is confirmed unto you Deut. 27.26 Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them And doe you not make the word of God of no effect by your Traditions while you set up your Ceremonies for and Essentiall part of Gods service For so you call them in plain termes The externall worship of God which you expresse to be those externall actions which you use in your Church-Service as your devout bowing to your Altars and the like Thus you make Gods word of no authority which alowes of no other worship of God internall and externall but such as he hath expresly commanded in his word To which purpose Christ alledgeth against those hypocriticall Pharisees the Prophet Isaiah in these words This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is farre from me But in vaine they doe worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandements of men Which is expressed in Isaiah thus Their feare towards me is taught by the Precepts of men Where by feare is meant the worship of God as is noted before but you give me new occasion here to mention it againe And I have no other Weapon but Gods word to incounter your vanities withall So they may fit Time and Place Can you find any time or place in these dayes in England so uncivill or so irreligious in your religion as not to intertaine your ancient venerable Ceremonies Or is not time yet ripe for it but that some places at least shut out such guests Why then what 's wanting Have you not a remedy in a readinesse Either the Popes Dispensation to suspend all those without Law that stand out or some Edict or other will serve the turne And no marvaile if your English Christians so long brought up in Christs Schoole think Scorn to be brought back to Romes A.B.C. againe And they have read how Iosua and the Elders of Israel not consulting God were deceived by the Gibeonites faire pretence of longinquity by the appearance of Antiquity Shewing it selfe in their mouldy bread and old Shooes Which was all they had to pretend for themselves to be received into a League with Israel The Same pretence is yours who to strike a League between England and Rome you pretend your Ceremonies come from farre from antiquity it selfe and the Ancienter the better But all this Chaffe will not intice the old Birds into your Snare Your Ceremonies for all their antiquity will not yet fit Time and Place at least not all Places in these Times Why my Lord cannot your zeale
destroyes spirituall communion with Christ and with the Holy Ghost and consequently the Article of faith concerning the Communion of Saints For Christ saith to his Disciples I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I goe away for if I goe not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you So as to beleeve Christ to be corporally present on earth and that men have by that meanes a corporall communion with him doth debarre such men from all communion of the Spirit of Christ. And If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his He hath not Christ that hath not his Spirit and he hath not Christs Spirit that rests in the beliefe of Christs corporall presence on earth as before For except I depart saith Christ that is except I be absent from you as concerning my corporall presence the Comforter will not come unto you And thus by a false beliefe of the very manner onely of Christs presence in the Popish Eucharist Christ the Foundation is overthrowne And this errour de modo of the manner of being onely overthrowing the Foundation must needs be a Fundamentall errour if any errour may be said to be Fundamentall My Second Instance is about Christs humane Nature de modo Subsistendi of its manner of subsisting in the Person of the Son of God For to beleeve that it is either after the manner or way of Commixtion or by adherence as one thing cleaving to another or Inherence as an Accident in the Subject or by Conversion into the divine nature or by Concomitancie as Bellarmine saith Christs divinity and soule is present with his body in the Eucharist by Concomitancie all these manners doe destroy the personall union of Christs two natures in one person As those two Hereticks Nestorius and Eutiches the one condemned in the Councel of Ephesus the other in the Councel of Chalcedon the later for holding that Christ had but one Nature the humane converted into the Divine Nature the other that Christ had two Persons both these destroyed Christ the Mediator who is not a Mediator unlesse he be both God and Man in one Person Christ. So Bellarmines devise in holding Christs divine nature and humane soule to be present in and with that body which they frame unto him in the Masse by way of Concomitancie as being inseperable companions destroyes the Sacrifice of Christs Passion wherein the soule of Christ was in death seperated from his body untill his Resurrection Now the Papists say they offer up Christs body in the Masse as representing the Sacrifice of his death and Passion Which how can it be when they say his soule is by concomitancie with his body offered up So as all this while there is no representative or Commemorative much lesse a propitiatory Sacrifice of Christs death Seing in that body as they say Christs soule is inseperably present And againe to say Christs divine nature is present with that body of Concomitancie this destroyes the Personall union For Concomitancie is no personall union of the two natures concomitancie being but an accompanying of each other Whereas the divine nature of Christ doth not accompany the humane nature but assumes it and the humane nature doth not accompany the divine but subsists in it Thus it is cleare that the Consideration of the manner of being onely may possibly prove to be Fundamentall in the Faith L. p. 37. All which pertaines to Supernaturall Divine and infallible Christian faith is not by and by fundamentall in the Faith to all men P. You told us before That things not fundamentall yet to some mens Salvation are necessary and here that all that pertaines to Christian faith is not fundamentall in the faith to all men It seems you have some peculiar way to heaven which is not common to all But take heed least leaving the common road-way of true Saving Faith attended with a holy life you fayle of heaven I am the way the Truh and the Life saith Christ. And is not Christ this way Truth and Life to all that are Saved Is not he to all such as are called both Iewes and Greekes Christ the Power of God and the Wisdome of God But what doe I speake to you of Christ or what doe you speake of Christian faith that know not what Christian faith is otherwise then as you discerne in it some thing for which in whomsoever you find it you persecute it to the death L. p. 39. If new Doctrines be added to the old the Church may be changed in Lupanar errorum which I am loth to English P. Nay are you not ashamed to English it For this you Speake of the Church of Rome and you have told us that the Church of England and of Rome are one and the Same Church And now you Say If new Doctrines be added to the old the Church may be changed in Lupanar errorum And this the Church of Rome hath done as you elsewhere affirme She hath added new Doctrines to the old and such new as She doth with the old aâ— men doe when they put on a new suit make the old a Cast suit But because you are loth to English in Lupanar errorum for the reverend respect you beare to that Venerable Apostolick Sea I will doe as much for you as to English it If new Doctrines be added to the Old as the Church of Rome hath done the Church may be changed into a Stewes of Errours This Phrase you take out of Vincentius Lyrenensis his Sentence quoted in the Margent which is this in English The Church by adding new Doctrines to the old becomes a Stewes of impious and beastly Errours which was before a Sacrary of chast and undefiled verity Whence I note how you not onely smother some of his words but smooth others Saying for The Church becomes a Stewes The Church may be changed So as herein you falsify the worthy Saying of Vincentius when you make but a May be of his Is made But let the Conclusion be If a Church be turned Whore 't is good that all should know her to be so in plain English that they may avoyd her and as Salomon saith remove their way farre from her and not come neere the dore of her house And for this Cause have I taken the Paines to be your Translator L. p. 39. Some Decisions yea and of the Church toâ— are made or may be if Stapleton informe us right without an evident nay without so much as a probable testimony of holy writ But Bellarmine falls quite off and confesses in expresse termes that nothing can be certaine by certainty of Faith unlesse it be contained immediately in the word of God or be deduced out of the word of God by evident consequence And if nothing can be certain then certainly no Determination of the Church it selfe if that Determination be not grounded upon
that coming as neare as you can to the Papists in their Ceremonies you shall thereby bring them to the Church And surely this is the ready way either to bring Papists to your Church or you to their Church But I say the Church was so pestered with Rites and Ceremonies even in Augustins dayes that he complained that Christians were now in a worse case and condition under the Gospel then the Iewes were under the Law for though their yoake was grievous yet those Leviticall rites were of Gods owne ordaining and commandement but Christians saith he are brought under an intolerable yoake of Ceremonies of mens devising and imposing But now on the other side if I should enter into a Comparison between the Reformed Churches since Luther and those Primitive and ancient Churches as aforesaid I know it would be very tedious to your Lordship and extremely move your Patience especially if I should by many degrees preferre Calvin Bezâ— Zanchius Iunius and many hundred more Worthies both for learning and piety and chiefly for Soundnesse in Doctrine in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seaes yea and not a few on this side as Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper all Martyrs Iewel Whitakers Reynolds Perkins with infinite more and all within one Century before such as those Centuries aforesayd produced whose Names for Envy-sake I forbeare to mention Lastly you say you are content to submit to them in all those points of Doctrine If you be then for Shame cleare away those Cloudes which the said Declaration hath over-cast your Articles withall and cast away your Arminian Pelagian sense and take off your Suspension of them and let them speak one single truth as they formerly did and as all understood them according to the Scriptures L. p. 62. The Catholicke Church we beleeve in our Creed to be the Society of all Christians P. What you beleeve is one thing But we beleeve the Catholicke Church of Christ in the Creed to be the number and Society of all the Elect as the next Article expounds it The Communion of Saints but not that Company of all Christians which you name and meane Christians in name and profession tag and ragge pell mell good and bad Papists and Protestants of which the greatest number are no true living members of the true Catholick Church the mysticall body whereof Christ is the Head and which by Faith onely we apprehend for we beleeve the Holy Catholicke Church but cannot discerne with our bodily eyes as we doe a visible Object This is that Church which Christ loved for which he gave himselfe that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word to present it to himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish This we beleeve to be the Holy Catholicke Church and no other But thus indeed as you tell us before you make wider the Gates of the Catholicke Church then ever Christ made them or rather indeed you exclude the Catholicke Church of Gods Elect and set up a new Catholicke Church which may be seen but ought not to be beleeved L. p. 66. Agreed on for me also it shal be that Gods word may be written and unwritten P. Agreed on with whom Even with no lesse then Bellarmine For in the very next words you give us the reason why it is agreed upon for you that Gods word may be written and unwritten For Say you Cardinall Bellarmine tells us truely that it is not the writing or Printing that makes Scripture the word of God but it is the Prime unerring Essentiall Truth God himselfe uttering and revealing it to his Church that makes it Verbum Dei the word of God Doth Bellarmine say so And that truely And to what end I pray you doth the Cardinall say so Is it not to overthrow the Scripture for being the Sole word of God and to bring in another word of God which he calls verbum non Scriptum an unwritten word that is a word besides the Scriptures and equall to the Scriptures which is Romes unwritten Traditions And to this end and purpose Bellarmine using these words doth he tell you truely and is this the reason for which it is agreed on for you that Gods word may be written and unwritten Now though it be true that that which is spoken by God is his word though it be not written yet to us there is now no other word of God but that which is written that which is contained in the Scriptures And this word written is that alone which our Faith is grounded and settled upon According to that of Iohn Many other Signes truely did Iesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Booke But these things are written that ye might beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his Name So as we are not to inquire further what Christ spake or did besides what we find written But your Lordship tells us before of certaine Traditions Apostolicall which it seems are that word of God which may be unwritten For you say If the Scripture be a Foundation to which we are to goe for witnesse if there â—e doubt about the Faith and in which we are to find the thing that is to be beleeved as necessary in the Faith we never did nor never will refuse any Tradition that is Vniversall and Apostolicke for the better exposition of the Scripture And to this place you referre that which you say pag. 58. As for Tradition I have said enough for that and as much as A. C. where 't is truely Apostolicall From which words first we observe that you make but an If of the Scripture as a Foundation If the Scripture be a Foundation and If in it we are to find the thing that is to be beleeved as If it were to be found in any thing else And Secondly how home you come to A C. the Jesuite in admitting Tradition Apostolicke to expound any doubt about the Faith and so with Bellarmine you are agreed for a word of God unwritten as well as written And you further adde here pag. 66. Speaking of the Scriptures their being written gave them no Authority at all in regard of themselves Written or unwritten the Word was the same But it was written that it might be the better preserved and continued with the more integrity to the use of the Church and the more faithfully in our memories So you Now 't is true that by the writing of the Scripturâ—s Gods word contained therein is preserved continued in integrity and the more faithfully kept in our mâ—mories But is thiâ— all Nay the very writing of them though it added no Authority to Gods word in regard of it selfe yet as the Scriptures are to us Gods word is of the greater Authority because written For we acknowledge no other word of God as
your 16 th Sextion mentioned before which continueth from p. 59. to 116. wherein are sundry passages â—o this purpose whereof the last was one and the rest we shall touch as we meet with them And here I cannot though I said I would no more wonder but admire that such Speeches should flow down so fast from the Sea of Canterbury which is a mighty Catarrhact or distillation of the eye drowning the sight and flowing from such an abundant humour in the head as it is like to turne into a Dropsie possessing and putrifying the whole body which if not prevented by some remedy from hâ—aven must needs prove Epedemically mortall You are the first Antagonist of Iesuites that ever uttered such things and you might well have given them leave to utter such base Speeches of the holy Scriptures as more proper for a Jesuite then one pretending the Faith of a Protestant But the difference is not great nor matters is much which of you be the mouth having all one Spirit and being all one and the Same Church So as being the Metropolitan of that Church which with Rome is one and the Same you have the greater priviledge to speake in the language of that pregnant Mother who is so full of the names of Blasphemy against the word of God Now is not the Scripture so demonstratively evident in it selfe as to enforce assent What then shall doe it Probable Arguments from the light of Nature But Nature is blind as we shewed before of naturall Reason And againe how can that which is but probable confirme that which is truth For the Scripture is Truth it selfe As Christ saith Thy word is Truth Now there being strictly no proportion between Probability and Truth how can the Light of Nature which you say is but probable confirme that which is truth And we shewed also how the Naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God which things are contained in the Scripture But you adde Arguments from humane Testimony confirme the Scriptures to be Gods word That which is but humane cannot strengthen that which is Divine I receive not the Testimony of man saith Christ. So the Scripture is so farre above humane testimony that it can receive no strength from it no more then God can receive strength from the creature Gods word from mans word And the Scripture being Gods written word is above Mans bare word As Christ tells the Jewes who took Christ for a meere Man If ye beleeve not Moses his writings how shall you beleeve my words Thereby implying That Writings the Scripture are above mans words Againe humane testimony in Comparison to Gods word is but a lye For every man is a lyer Moreover in saying The Scripture is not evident enough to demonstrate it selfe to be the word of God and to enforce assent but being strenthened by Probable Arguments from the light of Nature and of humane Testimony 't is then wilfullnesse and pride to suspect it Here you set the light of Nature above the word of Grace probability above Truth humane Testimony above Divine Man above GOD. For Christ tells us that the Scriptures beare witnesse of him And you Say the Scriptures are not sufficient witnesses of themselves and so consequently of Christ without mans testimony So as hereby you disable the Scripture as being an incompetent witnesse of Christ because not evident enough in themselves without humane Testimony So as how you can cleare your selfe from blasphemy I see not But this is but one degree For you adde The light which is in Scripture is not light enough it cannot beare sufficient witnesse to it selfe Now you open your mouth a little wider to blaspemy But we shall have yet more of ths Suffe out of your Wardrobe Of which I may say this by the way That you bewray how grosly and palpably blind you are in discerning the Scriptures glorious brightnesse being like that Woman in Lipsius who being blind her selfe blamed the house she was in for being very darke So you because you are blind your selfe the god of this world having blinded your eyes therefore you blame the holy Scriptures of GOD for being darke not bright enough to to beare witnesse to it selfe Why Surely all light is Sui index sui Communicativum it is a witnesse to it selfe that it shineth So as all in the house doe see it yea though it be but the light of a Candle as Christ saith If therefore the Scriptures have not so much light in them as all may see it to shine forth then they have no light at all For if there be any light at all it will shew it selfe But this you will not stick to tell us anon that the Scripture hath no light in it selfe and therefore no mervaile if here you say the Light that is in it is not bright enough And you tell us here also That the Testimony of the Holy Ghost ordinarily is not so much as considerable in this Question Why What is the Question Is it not how or by what meanes we beleeve the Scriptures to be the word of GOD Is not this the Subject Question of this whole 16 th Section and which you handle throughout And this being so have you forgotten what you told us before of this beliefe that the Scripture is the word of GOD Namely that faith is the gift of God of God alone and an infused habit in respect whereof the Soule is meerely recipient and that the sole infuser is the Holy Ghost and Till the Spirit of God move the heart of man he cannot beleeve And now doe you come and tell us The Holy Ghost ordinarily is not so much as considerable in the Question Yea but here you tell us this is not the Question What then Namely how the Scripture may be proposed as a Credible Object fit for beliefe And for this you set us downe a rule of Proposall which must of necessity take its rise from the Tradition or Authority of the Present Church Whereof we shall heare more anon But by your leave this is not the Question but the other For this your manner of Proposall you put it not as a Question but as an a'Ãtema a Question begged not to be argued and disputed upon as the nature of a Question is to be but you doe dogmatÃzein obtrude and force upon us a novell opinion of your owne devising without proofe of Reason Argument or Authority from the Scripture And therefore we deny your Question or Position as Heterodox or a Paradox contrary to the truth of God word which is the onely rule of determining all Questions in Divinity about faith whereof this is not the least How or by what meanes a man comes to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God Now for the determining herof you would tye us to the one only manner of Proposing the Scripture as a Credible object fit for beliefe and that is necessarily to
begin at the Tradition or Authority of the present Church or els there is no dealing with you But what if we shall propose a better manner and way of propounding the Scripture as a Credible object fit for beliefe And this we shall doe God assisting overthrowing your false way and vindicating the onely right and true safe and sure way that will certainly lead us to this beliefe That the Scripture is the word of God And for a ground hereof I lay down the Contradictory of your words for my true Position which is this That the light which is in Scripture it selfe is bright enough it can and doth of it selfe beware sufficient witnesse to it selfe For proofe hereof The Scripture is the witnesse of Christ as is said before and a witnesse must be a sufficient and competent witnesse without all exception els 't is rejected Now the Scripture is without all exception it is a holy true and faithfull witnesse free from all vice or defect It is pure and perfect so as it needs nothing to be added to it So Salomon Every word of God is pure Adde thou not unto his word least he reprove thee and thou be found a lyer Adde thou not Ergo it is a most perfect and competent witnesse Againe as the Scripture is every way a Competent and sufficient a perfect and Compleat witnesse without all exception So it brings full and cleare Evidence with it for that whereof it is a witnesse For this Salomon saith All the words of my mouth saith Wisdome are in righteousnesse there is nothing froward or perverse in them they are all plaine to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledge The Scripture is plaine cleare and evident So Peter saith Ye have a bebaâ—oterón tòn prophetikon logon a most sure word of Prophecie whereunto you doe well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place The Scripture then is a most sure witnesse and it is a light that shineth The light is not in it as the fire in the flint but it a light shining forth as the light of the Sun Thy word saith David is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path And The entrance of thy words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the Simple The very first entrance or gate as the word signifieth of Gods word doth illuminate and give light it giveth understanding to the Simple the rude and ignorant it enlightneth the eyes Now all this could not be without a light that shineth and that clearely too such as upon the first entrance of it giveth light and understanding to the simple But how comes this light of the Scripture to shine forth I Answere First of its own proper nature Let but an unregenerate Man read the Scriptures and he shall feele such a Convincing light in them as he will perceive there is a Divine power in them But this light of Scripture by Gods owne appointment shines forth more bright and is more effectuall when it is preached Of this the Apostle saith If all prophecy that is preach the word of God as in that place and there come in one that beleeveth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth Now whence is all this Conviction and Confession but from the power of Gods word preached So Heb. 4.12 The word of God is quicke and powerfull and sharper then any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soule and Spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart This this is that that dazleth mans clearest reason convinceth and confoundeth his Conscience and as a mighty Engine batters down and layes levell Strong holds and all high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ as the Apostle speakes And is Gods word the Scripture preached in the power and purity of it a discerner of the thoughts and intents of mans heart Then let that man tell me whether without any more testimony this be not the very word of God And that there is in it Theiónti a divine Spirit and power that thus can search into the inmost bowels and secrets of mans heart So as as the Samaritan woman said to her neighbour Come and see the man that hath told me all that ever I did is not he the Christ So a naturall man thus convinced and confounded by the power of Gods word and Secrets of his heart discovered may he not now truely report and say Come and heare that word which hath discovered unto me all the Secrets of my heart must not that needs be Gods owne word So as this Discovery is it not by that native operative effectuall and resplendent penetrating lihgt shining in the Scripture the beames whereof are displayed in the Ministry of this word of God what is it then that enforceth and even extorteth this assent and confession from a naturall man but the cleare evidence of Gods word preached that the Scripture is the word of God which is so preached And to bring this a little neerer home and set it closse against your owne Gate What Say you my Lord for I must deale plainly with you seeing you are so bold with the Scripture will you be tryed by this word of God whether it have not sufficient Light in it selfe and of it selfe even to convince your owne heart and Conscience that the Scripture is the word of God I say in and of it selfe without all those circumstances which you put as necessary previous inducements to this beliefe whereof your Church Authority is ever the Prime Will you be content but to make tryall of your selfe in this Case How is that Why doe but once come into some obscure poore Parish Church where there is a good Zealous and Orthodox Preacher and come disguised as Ahab at the Battell of Ramoth Gilead in a private manner not in your Pontificalibus with your long Sattentraine carried after you et magna comitante Caterva a troope of gallants at your heeles So as none takes notice of you much lesse the Preacher and come your selfe in person not sending your tà o'ta your Long Eares I meane your Scouts and Spies Informers Promoters Priests or Pursuivants Delators and Sycophants for these will seldome tell you the truth of things But I say come your selfe in a private disguise and so stand muffled up in the Croud and hearken diligently to the Preacher first how he doth o'rthotomein tòn lógon divide his text aright as it were anatomising and ripping up the bowels of it and then how fitly he grounds his docttrines or points of Instruction upon his
kind of Light potentially in the Scripture as fire in the flint which must be struck out with the steele Nay you compare it but to the light of a Candle and yet not all that neither for the Candle must first be lighted The Scripture then of it selfe is but as a Candle in the box of 12 in the pound as you Say ibid. which hath no Light till it be lighted And Tradition of your present Church must light the Candle And surely then may not the Tradition of your present Church put out the light of this Candle again after you have lighted it As the Pope crowned the Emperour with his feet and then struck the Crown off again with his foot to teach the Emperour that his Crown was at his Holinesse Devotion to dispose of as he pleased So may you do with the Scripture light the Candle and put it out again As you have don with the Doctrines of Grace with the Sabbath or Lords day with preaching and the like And Thy word is a light So David But not So you For David Said Thy word is a lampe unto my feet and a light unto my pathes So say not you You like not it seems such a lampe and light to your wayes For wayes you leave out as the Devil did when he recited that Scripture Psal. 91.11 He shall keep thee but he left out In all thy wayes as Luk. 4.10 And you could never have the hap hitherto to cite Scripture right And no marvaile if you be out of your way when you come to the Scripture seeing you can find no light in it to give you sufficient direction But you Adde A Light Therefore it is as much a manifestation to it selfe as to other things Even just as much as if you had Said A blind man seeth as much in the darke as in the day So 't is here with the Scripture for the light you allow it And what 's that But none still no light till the Candle be lighted 'T is just so then as I say I guest your meaning right But you adde Not till there hath been a preparing Instruction what light it is till the Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it hath cleared his understanding How I am here at a losse except you helpe me out and cleare the understanding of your words For before you must have the Candle first lighted and here you seem to grant some light when 't is once discovered to be a preparing instruction what light it is I pray you my Lord deale plainly with us Speake out Hath the Scripture a light in it or no before the preparing instruction hath shewed what light it is For to shew what light it is doth necessarily presuppose that there is a Light And if there be a Light how is it true that you Say Not till it be lighted by Tradition of the Church Must Tradition doe all both light the Candle and also shew what light it is Or doth Tradition with the same act of lighting the Candle shew also what light it is If so then I begin through this darke lanterne of yours to discerne what light the Scripture hath namely a borrowed light lent it by Tradition For you say The Candle is not lighted till Tradition light it Or if I be out 't is for want of Cleare Light from your darke Lanthorne But here followes a worse perplexity For from the lighting the Candle of Scripture by Tradition you come to the lighting of another Candle namely the Clearing of the naturall mans understanding by the Tradition of the Church and Gods grace put to it 'T was well you put Gods grace to it For if the Tradition of your present Church have but Gods grace put to it it may worke wonders But stay Cannot your Churches Tradition or Authority doe the deed without Gods grace at least doe its office of the fore-horse as the necessary prime leader Or is your Churches Tradition some jade that puts all the brunt upon the next horse that follows Then you should rather give Gods Grace the Precedencie But now I remember this Grace of God is but an ordinary Grace as you told us before which at the most worketh but an ordinary morall and probable beliefe that Scripture is the word of God but not certaine and evident So as the naturall mans undestanding being but thus farre cleared to have a probable opinion of Scripture to be Gods word except you can bring him to beleeve in Christ and forsake his sins his opinion will but aggravate his condemnation so much the more But what evidence can you shew us that your Church Tradition is certainly seconded with so much ordinary Grace For if your Tradition be derogatory from the Credit of the Scripture you cannot hope for the least degree of ordinary Grace to give it either assistance or attendance It behoves you therefore to prove that this your Authority in this point is from God is Gods ordinance and if so you may then easily perswade us that Gods grace will accompany his owne Ordinance But this you will hardly prove But will Say Traditions are Traditions and therefore not to be proved from Scripture and this Church-Tradition is that which the Scripture must be proved and tryed by And so here upon belike it is that you conclude So Tradition of the present Church is the first morall motive to beleeve The Conclusion might serve the turne well enough if you had but good logicall or rationall Premises to bring it in better then yet you bring for the inducing of beliefe That Scripture is the word of God L. ibid. So after Tradition of the present Church hath taught and informed the Soule the voyce of God is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe And then here 's double Authority and both Divine that confirmes Scripture to be the word of God Tradition of the Apostles delivering it and the internall worth and argument in the Scripture obvious to a Soule prepared by the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace P. The more you speake the more we come to Sound the depth of your meaning You told us before of the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace put to it by which the naturall mans understanding is first cleared And here Tradition of the present Church alone doth the deed for you say After Tradition of the present Church hath taught and informed the Soule then the voyce of God is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe Surely my mind gave me all this while that although for fashion sake and for a colour you named the grace of God in the second place after your Tradition yet your principall ayme was to advance the Credit of your Church-Authority as that alone which does the deed This this is it that cleares the naturall mans understanding this it that teacheth and informeth the Soule Tradition I say of the present Church before the voyce of God is plainly heard in the
Scripture it selfe As if you had Said The Tradition of the present Church does all it openeth the blind eyes of the naturall mans understanding to see and the deafe eares of his Soule to heare for after it hath cleared his understanding and taught and informed the Soule then the voyce of GOD is plainly heard in the Scripture it selfe And besides you tell us here that after Tradition of your present Church hath taught and informed the Soule the voyce of GOD is plainly heard in the Scripture Ergo not till then Ergo your Tradition opens the eares of the deafe And then there 's double testimony and both Divine What Tradition of the Apostles delivering it You meane surely the divine Tradition of your present Church one of your obstruse Apostolick Traditions Otherwise what doth the mention of the Apostles Tradition in this place And thus you acquaint us with the whole Mystery of your new Divinity New I call it because it is contrary to the old For the old is which is not yet antiquated The Commandement of the Lord that is the word of God is pure inlightening the eyes And vers 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soule the testimony of the Lord 〈◊〉 sure making wise the simple And Psal. 119.30 mentioned before The entrance of thy words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the simple Now who is the blind and simple but the naturall man before his Conversion and Regeneration And what is that which inlightens his eyes and cleares his understanding Gods word For The entrance of thy words giveth light it giveth understanding unto the Simple The light of Gods word going forth in the Ministry of it is the first that makes entrance into the Soule Now doth not your Lordship grant all this Yes you cannot but confesse it but alwayes provided that it is ever understood the Tradition of the present Church must prepare the way first that must first cleare the naturall mans blind eyes of his understanding that must first teach and informe his Soule before Gods word can inlighten his eyes and give understanding to the Simple But do you consider what you Say The Scripture you must needs confesse you cannot deny inlightneth the eyes Well but you Say againe your Tradition must first cleare the understanding and light the Candle of Scripture Now to cleare the understanding is to open the eyes How then can Gods word be said to open and enlighten the eyes when they are cleared before Or how can it give understanding to the simple when the Soule is taught and informed before The Tradition of the present Church prevents all and saves the word that labour Unlesse you will say The Tradition of the present Church is a preparing instruction to the opening of the eyes by the Scripture as the anoynting of the blind mans eyes with clay went before his washing in the poole of Siloam whereupon he received his sight Indeed your Church-Tradition in this Case might well be compared to the daubing of a naturall mans blind eyes with Clay to confirme him in his blindnesse that he shall never see so long as he depends upon the necessity of your present Church-Tradition as a preparing instruction to cleare his understanding and to teach and informe his soule as without which he shall never come to have his eyes inlightned by the word of God So as in very truth this Tradition Authority voyce of the present Church which you every where so plead for and presse as a necessary previous inducer yea clearer of the naturall mans understanding and teacher and informer of his Soule before he can plainly heare the voyce of God in the Scripture it selfe is a Doctrine of Damnable Blasphemy against Christ and his holy word For this clearing of the naturall mans understanding this inlightning of the blind eyes of his mind this teaching and informing his Soule is both the proper and prime act of Christ of his Spirit and of his word working together Of the words inlightning David hath sufficiently informed us before And Christ sends us to the Scriptures for search and not to any Church Tradition as bearing witnesse of Christ and so directing us to him for eternall life And Saith Christ No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him and I will rayse him up at the last day As it is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me Heard What The Tradition of the present Church No the preaching of Gods word which is Gods owne voyce as we said before this voyce in the eare being accompanied with Gods learning and teaching within as Augustine hereupon well notes is that which brings us unto Christ Thus the Lord opened the heart of Lydia that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul It was not the Tradition of the present Church but as she was hearing the word the Lord opened her heart both to attend and to beleeve Pauls Doctrin◠And Luke 24.45 Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures Away then with your Blasphemous Romish Doctrine of Tradition of your present Church from having any thing to doe in this divine businesse wherein onely God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and the voyce of God in the Ministry of his Word have the whole and sole worke in opening both the eyes and eares of mans Soule to see and heare the wondrous things of Gods Law contained in the Scriptures As David Saith Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law But you adde And then here 's double Authority and both Divine that confirmes Scripture to be the word of God Tradition of the Apostles delivering it and the internall worth and argument in the Scripture obvious to a Soule prepared by the present Churches Tradition and Gods Grace And. Then Sill Then and not before all goes currant Worth in Scripture comes in with their double Divine Authority Then when the Soule is prepared as before with the present Churches Tradition Els all the fat is in the fire Nor Apostles Tradition Nor worth in Scripture are worth a rush in this matter And thus all must depend upon your present Churches Tradition Still But here you bring in againe Gods Grace as a Second to your Tradition But I told you before and tell you againe that your present Churches Tradition hath nothing to doe with Gods Grace nor with any Grace of God not with common and ordinary Grace Gods Grace is a concomitant and Assistant unto his owne Ordinance But for the Authority and Tradition of the present Church to be a necessary inducer to the beliefe of Scripture by clearing a naturall mans understanding and teaching and informing his Soule is none of Gods ordinance but an Antichristian Romish presumption and therefore hath no promise of
to another it is grounded upon Nature which admits of no created thing to beare witnesse to it selfe and is acknowledged by our Saviour If I beare witnesse of my selfe my witnesse is not true that is is not of force to be reasonably accepted for truth P. Though the Scripture as it is considered in the written Letter be a Creature yet the matter of it the Light the Truth the Authority and Evidence of it is meerly Divine as wherein God hath imprinted and expressed his Divine Nature Counsell and Will So as as is said before we must never abstract the Scripture from that Spirit of God which is alwayes in it and with it as a cleare and sufficient witnesse of it and as the very life and Soule of it Whereas you with the Papists take the Scripture for no other but as a bare Letter or barke of a Tree or dead Corps without any Divine Spirit in it But you aledge Christ Saying of himselfe If I beare witnesse of my selfe c. You must know that Christ here speaks as the Jewes took him for no other as a meere Man But take him as Christ God-man in one Person and is he not a'utâ—pistos worthy of himselfe to be beleeved And what Saith he when the Pharisees objected unto him Thou bearest record of thy selfe thy record is not true Though I beare record of my selfe yet my record is true Saith he For is not Gods record true And againe v. 17. It is written in your Law that the testimâ—ny of two men is true I am one that beare witnesse of my selfe and the Father that sent me beareth witnesse of me So may the Scripture say Though I beare record of my selfe yet my record is true for the Father speaketh in me and Christ speaketh in me and the Holy Ghost speaketh in me and all these joyntly beare witnesse in me with me and to me that I am the word of God And in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established And hereunto might I adde the many Divine and Admirable works and effects which the word of God produceth all which beare witnesse abundantly that the Scripture is the word of God Why what works what effects doth it produce Yea what not It enlightneth the eyes it quickeneth dead Soules it is that great Engine of battery that subdueth the world unto Christ. It is the sharpe two-edged sword lively and mighty in operation c. it is the mighty power of God to Salvation it is to all men the sweet savour of God the savour either of life unto life or of death unto death Loe my Lord what think you now of this Word Is it trow â—ou onely a dead letter being of such a Divine and Spirit-full efficacie as no word of man is or can be And here might I bring many negative proofes to shew it cannot be the Word of Man But let this suffice I will passe on L. p. 89. No man can set a better State of the Question then Hooker doth his words are these The Scripture is the ground of our beliefe the Authority of man that is the name he gives to Tradition is the Key which opens the doore of entrance into the Knowledge of the Scripture P. We have already answered sufficiently that the Scripture is both the Garden wherein all the pleasant Flowers and wholesome Fruits of Paradise are planted and grow which are of that beauty fragancie sweetnesse and relish as he that beholds them smells to them and tasts of them may easily discerne they are not of a terrene or earthly nature Non vox hominem sonâ—t and it selfe is the Key that lets in those that will to tast of her Fruits which I say when they once tast they will Say This is none other but the Garden and Paradise of God even the Word of God This is that Key of knowledge for the taking away whereof Christ denounceth a Woe to the Pharises And that by this Key is not meant Tradition is plain seeing the Pharisees did not take away Tradition but they exalted it so farre as therby they made the Word of God of none effect Is this the Tradition that you call the Authority of Man and so highly commend which the Pharisees used for no other Key but as a false Key or picklocke to robbe the Scripture of their Divine Authority But if you understand by Tradition here the Delivery of the Scripture from hand to hand to be kept as a Depositum by the Church of God thus the Scripture is a rich Cabinet full of precious Jewels together with the Key or Spring-lock so united unto it as it is a part of the Cabinet and so deposited with the Church of God as by the Ministry and preaching of the Word the Key is turned and the Cabinet unlocked the Key being no other but of Gods owne making and appointing and so the Cabinet thus opened and man looking into it his eyes being also opened by the same Key there he finds that goodly Pearle of the Kingdome and that rich Treasure which to purchase he goes and sells all that he hath But suppose now for all this we should either grant your Lordship such a Key as Prelaticall Authority whereby you assume a power of opening an entrance to men to read the Scriptures when the Key is once in your hand what if you should prove so closse fisted and so churlish a Keeper as not to suffer them to come to read the Scriptures as you have done in not suffering them to heare them preached on the Lods dayes at least in the After-noones As also in so keeping fast under Locke and Key those precious Jewels of the Doctrines of Gods Grace as aforesaid as the Ministers themselves may not come at them once to touch them So as it might prove a dangerous thing and too suspicious if you had such a Key of Authority or the Authority of such a Key put into your hand men should rather be shut out from the Scriptures then have the entrance open to goe freely to them when they will But if you will needs perforce wrest this Key as the Preaching of Gods word out of the hands or from between the teeth of Godly Ministers as you have done we have no remedy but to complain to the Lord of the Vineyard and pray him to vindicate his Key out of such Hucksters hands and to force you to give up your usurped false Keyes L. p. 91. Could the Pope and his Clergie put this home upon the wâ—â—ld as they are gone farre in it that the Tradition of the Present Church is Divine and Infallible how might they and would they then Lord it over the Faith of Christendome contrary to S. Peters Rule whose Successors certainly in this they are not P. Thus you confesse there is or may be a Lording of the Clergie over the Faith of Christendome or Christians contrary to S.
the Scripture depends not upon the Church wheron then On the Author Say you and the opinion we have of his Sufficiencie Here be two things which you couple together 1. The Author 2. The opinion we have of his Sufficiencie 1. For the Author which is God 't is true that God himselfe is the Author of the Scripture and so it is the word of God and God the Author beares witnesse of the Scripture that it is his owne word And where doth God beare this witnesse Is not this his witnesse in the Scripture it selfe Doth not his Spirit speake in it and tell us that it is his word Saith not his Spirit expresly that All Scripture is given by Inspiration from God And doth not the Scripture it selfe tell us this Saith it not then of it selfe that it is Gods word And so saying doth it not beare witnesse to it selfe that it is the word of God And is not the witnesse therof true And if true doth not the credit of the Scripture depend upon it selfe as it is the word of God that speaks in it that it is the word of God Or how can you so seperate the Author from the Scripture he speaking in it but that you must confesse the credit of the Scripture to depend upon it selfe when you acknowledge it depends upon the Author For as God was in the Soft and Still voyce so he is in the Scripture which is the Soft and Still voyce of God And as Elias knew by the soft and stil voyce that the Lord was in it So we know by the Soft and Still voyce of God the Scripture that God is in it and therein speakes unto us And what God therein speakes unto us the Scripture which is his voyce speakes unto us So as the Scripture being Gods own voyce speaking unto us what it saith is of the Same credit that God himselfe the Author and Speaker is of And therfore if the Credit of Scripture depend upon the Author it depends withall upon it selfe because it is Gods own voyce But Secondly you couple here with the Author the opinion we have of his Sufficience So as first it seems you doe not allow the Credit of Scripture to depend simply and Solely upon the Author but withall upon the opinion we have of his Sufficiencie And what if we fayle in our good opinion of the Authors Sufficiencie Wheron will you then hang the Credit of the Scripture Surely it must depend upon our opinion That 's the dint of your speech But of our selves we are altogether ignorant of Gods Sufficiencie How then or whence shall we come to have such an opinion of his Sufficiency as whereon the Credit of the Scripture may infalliby depend From the Authority or Tradition of the present Church Alas your present Church will tell us that the holy Trinity may be expressed in a Picture and that God the Father may be pictured like an Old Man because Christ in Daniel is called the Ancient of dayes For thus you pleaded against Mr. Sheruile in the Starre-Chamber when you fined him 500. pound to the King for defacing the Images of the Trinity in his owne Church-window he being a Justice of Peace If therefore the Almighty and Incomprehensible God may be expressed in an Image what opinion can we have of his Sufficiencie to be the God of truth and the Author of the Scripture as whereon the credit therof may depend when we expresse and represent him by that which is a lye a meere vanity For the Scripture calls an Image a lye as Esa. 44.20 And a teacher of lyes Hab. 2.18 And vanity wind and confusion Esa. 41.29 And falshood Jer. 10.14 And v. 16. God the portion of Iacob is not like them And an Image made to represent God is a lye and falsehood because it is a false representation of God For God is a Spirit Invisible And Esa. 40.18 To whom will ye liken God Or what likenesse will ye compare unto him And the Second Commandement expresly forbids any Image to be made to represent God by So as the practise of your present Church in adoring and seting up and maintaining Images in Churches and Copes and the like whereby you represent God doth teach men a base and false opinion of God and so of his All-Sufficiencie And therfore Secondly in Saying Wee upon the opinion Wee have of his Sufficiency you that are the Setters up and maintainers of lying Images of God in your Churches must needs be those Wee upon whose opinion of Gods Sufficiency must depend the Credit of the Scripture And what opinion can you have of Gods truth that represent him by a lye and falshood And what opinion can you have of his Sufficiency in being the Author of the Scripture that hold and affirme his Scripture and word to be an insufficient witnesse to prove it selfe the word of God And what opinion can you have of Gods Sufficiency who doe every where by your open practises and your Shamelesse blasphemies in fathering your lyes upon God in this your Book as hath been noted but now proclaime to the world what little feare or dread you have of his Majesty as if he were not a just God in punishing wickednesse or in his power insufficient to tame proud Rebells Thus if by the Tradition of the present Church we cannot come to such a knowledge of God as to have a right opinion of his Sufficiencie whence shall we have it Surely all true knowledge of God is to be learned from the Scripture But that you make to be of no credit but as it depends upon the Author and your opinion of his Sufficiency which what it is we have taken a Scantling of And so the conclusion is from these your Premisses that No credit of Scripture to teach no true knowledge of God no right opinion of his Sufficiency nothing for the Credit of the Scripture to depend upon and having no credit in and of it selfe Ergo the Scripture is of no Credit at all This is the very Summe and Sequele of your Speech and indeed the upshot of those sharpe arrows which you have with all your might and malice let fly at the Credit of Scripture to give it the deaths wound Yet you adde L. p. 111. Scripture though it give light enough for Faith to beleeve yet light enough it gives not to be a convincing Reason and proofe for Knowledge P. These words are to be expounded by what you have formerly Sayd Though it give light enough that is though it should or could give â—ight enough For that it doth not give light enough for Faith to beleeve you have plainly told us As pag. 80. The light which is in Scripture is not bright enough it cannot beare sufficient witnesse to it selfe If it cannot then neither can it give light enough for faith to beleeve For sufficient light for Faith to beleeve springs from a sufficient light in Scripture to beare
of God inwardly inclining our hearts and sealing the full assurance of the sufficiency of all three unto us We meet Who Surely you never met with this Spirit of God in your conversing with the Text it selfe Which if you had you would not have uttered such things Yet if this Third ground you had put single by it selfe as the sole excluding the former it were true Divinity but puting the two former before it as necessary inducing causes to perswade the Scriptures sufficiency you do therby utterly overthrow it as also that Spirit of God breathing in it and inwardly inclining and perswading the heart to beleeve For how come we to meet with the Spirit of God in our conversing with the Text but because conversing a â—ight by prayer and humility we find it breathing and speaking unto us in his own word and voyce For the Spirit is never seperated from his word as is shewed before Now if Gods Spirit breath in the Scripture and in our reading thereof with a mind rightly disposed we find the same speaking effectually unto us to the setling of our faith is this spirit and word tyed to any necessary dependance of any outward things as without which it can have no operation Doth not this spirit as the wind to which Christ Compares it blow where it listeth Can you by any art or invention cause the wind to blow Doth not God bring it out of his Treasures But your Conclusion is the foulest of all For you say this Spirit of God sealeth the full assurance of the sufficiency of all Three unto us That is First of your Church Tradition as aforesaid 2dly Of the light of Nature And â—dly and in the last place of the Scripture But you make the sufficiency of these 3 equall and alike Saving that you give your Church Tradition and the light of Nature the Precedency of the Scripture And in saying that Gods Spirit sealeth the sufficiency of those two to wit Church Tradition and light of Nature for the reason aforesaid which are altogether insufficient and are a meere lye and falshood and have no ground nor warrant from Scripture but are contrary thereto and destroy the credit authority and sufficiency thereof I must tell you that herein you do most impiously blaspheme the spirit of Truth as if it were the Author Approver and ratifier of a lye And you adde And then an not before we are certaine that the Scripture is the word of God both by Divine and Infallible proofe Here still you shut out from the Scripture all Self Authority sufficiency and Testimony to prove it selfe the word of God not allowing it so much as you doe to Tradition and the light of Nature for these say you perform their offices sufficiently but you have nothing to say for the Scripture as if that had any thing at all to doe but to wait upon the good pleasure of Lady Tradition and light of Nature for their Commendation and approbation and then having their good words this is sufficient to bring in the Spirits testimony to seale the sufficiency of all three the Scriptures sufficiency being this to be recommended by the other two And then and not before we are certain that the Scripture is the word of God both by Divine and infallible proofe but not of the Scripture it selfe in any case But say you our certainty is by Faith and so voluntary not by knowledge of such Principles as in the light of Nature can enforce assurance whether we will or no Why what certainty can we have but by Faith in Christ But what mean you by voluntary By your Free-will That which Luther calls Servum Arbitrium servile Will such as mans naturall will is to Spirituall things And surely this you mean by voluntary For before you do so highly magnifie the light of Nature as being of such sufficiencie as we need not doubt of your good opinion of the Naturall Will of man having as much liberty in heavenly things as light Well by Faith and so voluntary not by knowledge of such Principles as in the light of Nature can enforce assent whether we will or no. You spake of such Principles before which we answered as also the forceing of assent We come now to the close of the 16 th Section L p. 116. I have said thus much upon this great occasion because this Argument is so much pressed without due respect to Scripture And I have proceeded in a Syntheticall way to build up the Truth for the benefit of the Church and the Satisfaction of all men Christianly disposed And a little after I labour for Edification and not for Destruction P. When I look back to the premises of this Argument and now upon the conclusion I cannot but stand amazed at two things 1. Your notorious vilifying or rather nullifying the Authority sufficiency and Testimonys of the Scripture to prove it selfe to be the word of God and 2 dly your egregious hypocrisie here in the close of all as if you had done all with due respâ—ct to Scripture And how finely you would seem to put it off from your selfe but laying the blame upon others as the Jesuites As if you had taken all this paines to vindicate the Scripture from that Disrespect which Iesuites haâ—e of it in their pleading for Church-Tradition And yet doe not you tell us before that you goe the same way with the Iesuites in advancing Church-Tradition onely you say you goe not so faare as they And wherein I pray you doe you come short of them They say Scripture Authority that it is the word of God depends upon the Authority and Tradition 〈◊〉 of the Church and you say Scripture without Church-Tradition of no Credit Authority or sufficiencie to prove it selfe the word of God Nay you goe further â—or for all your Tradition and the light of Nature going before yet not one word hath dropt from your pen that Scripture I say after all your preceding inducements is sufficient of it selfe to prove it selfe the word of God but that still its Authority is precaria at the good will of Tradition and Authority of the present Church whose sufficiency you preferre before the Scripture in many respects as hath been shewed And you haue proceeded in this way you say Synthetically What 's that That is in the true Eâ—imon of the word by way of composition or confederation with the Jesuite to bring both the Churches to a reconciliation by your mutuall discrediting of the Scripture as Herod and Pilate could not be made Friends but in consenting to put Christ to death And as Pilate gratified Herod in sending Châ—ist bound unto him whereupon they became Friends so you here ingratiate your selfe with Rome in sending her this Book as I suppose it is there before this time wherein you present her with the Scripture bound in the fetters of Tadition which puts on your Synthesis or League in a faire forwardnesse the
Tradition introduceth the knowledge of them P. I doe but name these your words as before being but an Inculcation and Confirmation of such things as I have abundantly Confuted before Onely this I adde That if the Scripture be not before the Tradition or Authority of the present Church whence hath the present Church this her Authority and so whence her Testimony the Credit to be of that absolute necessity to bring men to beleeve the Scripture to be the word of God Must you not be forced to come into the same Circle where a little before you found A.C. as to say which yet you never went about to prove to prevent the losse of your labour the Scripture authoriseth Church-Tradition and Church-Tradition necessarily introduceth beliefe of Scripture to be the word of God But if you be in this Circle there I leave you L. p. 121. This Principle then The Scriptures are the Oracles of God we cannot say is cleare and fully manifest to all men simply and in selfe-light for the reasons before given P. The Reasons we have weighed and found them too light But to all true beleevers in Christ This Principle The Scriptures are the Oracles of God is cleare and fully manifest and that simply and in selfe-light For the reasons and proofes before given and which all true Christians and Saints of God Confesse L. ibid. Yet we say After Tradition hath been our Introduction the Soule that hath but ordinary Grace added to Reason may discerne light sufficient to resolve our Faith that the Sun is there P. As this so often repeated by you usque ad nauseam as crambe bis cocta Coleworts twise boyld and to no other purpose it seemeth but to fill the empty belly of this your volume and to make your present Church Authority swell the bigger with its ventosity is but a repetion of the former So I shall not need to repeat the Refutation Onely this Do or can you discerne the Sun in the Scripture by the light of your divine Candle your Church Tradition And hath it not so much shining light or is it so over-clouded or ecclipsed with the black letters as nothing but the Authority of the present Church must in the first place put to her hand to withdraw the Curtaine Surely the Sun is so glorious in it selfe as be it never so much clouded yet that will shew day above our heads if we doe but looke up L. ibid. Now men may be apt to thinke out of Reverence that Divinity can have no Science above it But your own Schoole teacheth me that it hath namely The knowledge of God and of the blessed in heaven P And truly my Lord how ever you account and Reverence Divinity yet for my part I do not onely most highly reverence it but conceive and beleeve the excellencie of it to be so transcendent as I hold there can be no Science above it For what is Divinity in its native and proper Notion Divinity in its proper Prime and most sublime Notion is the Deity or God-head it selfe Theiòtes signifying the Divinity or Deity the derivation from â—eòs GOD. This is the Prime Notion of this word Divinity The second Notion of Divinity is pan tò gnoston tou Theou all which may be known of God which being in God as the light in the Sun comes to be made known unto us as by so many beames shining partly though in Comparison more obscurely in his works and partly and that most clearely in his word and most gloriously in Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse himselfe the brightnesse of his Glory and the expresse Image of his Person the very light of the Scripture and so of his Church And of this Divinity as Christ is the full patterne and perfect platforme so the Essence of the eternall Deity and the subsistances of the 3 Persons in that one Godhead together with all the glorious Attributes of God but also the whole Mystery of Christ the Redeemer comprehending and expressing whatsoever is necessary for us to know and beleeve for our Salvation In which respect the Scripture may be called and that most proproperly as by a Title proper to it quarto modo Gods Divinity-Booke and his Churches Divinity-Schoole So that in the Scripture we have a most perfect and Compleat body of Divinity of all Divinity of whatsoever holy knowledge of God and of Christ and of our selves requisite to our Salvation and the setting forth of the Glory of God In which respect unlesse a man will presume above that which is written we may truly say That Divinity being but one and the same and Science therof one and the Rule of this Science but one all comprehended in the Scripture That Divinity hath no Science above it Yet your Lordship hath learned in the Iesuites or Romes Schoole wherein it seems you have been more trained up then in Christs Schoole That Divinity hath a Science above it And what is that super-science I pray you The knowledge of God say you and of the blessed in heaven If you meane such a knowledge of God and of the blessed in heaven as is not revealed in the Scripture I say Quae supra nos quid ad nos And it is presumption to conceive of any other knowledge of God fit for us to know then what is revealed in the Scripture wherein is declared the whole counsell of God concerning his Glory and our everlasting good And for the knowledge of the blessed in heaven If you meane of the blessed Angels we may know as much of them as the Scripture hath made known unto us But this knowledge is not a Science above Divinity And if you meane the knowledge of the blessâ—d Saints in heaven it is the same with that of the Saints on earth onely Differing in Degrees of perfection Or if you had meant the knowledge that is in God and in the blessed in heaven you should so have exprest it In and not Of. But I think you speake of such a speculation as is above the Spheare of our expression Onely something though it be de non ente you must say that we may take notice what a profound Proficient you are in Romes Schoole in teaching us such a sublime and hyperbolicall Science as is inexpressible in Babylons language and therfore the fitter to darken the lustre of that Divinity which so gloriously shineth and is so exactly set forth in the Scripture But you have plentifully shewed us what Reverence you beare to this Divinity L. p 122. In the margent I would fain know why leaning too much upon Tradition may not mislead Christians as well as it did the Iews P. And I would fain know why leaning so much upon Tradition of the present Church as you doe might not be the Cause that hath lead you so much to undervalue the Scriptures and may not mislead Christians by teaching them as base an opinion of the whole Scripture as the Jewes have
tâ—e Rule and Foundation of our Faith but what we find written in the holy Scriptures This is that word of God which is authenticall of Authority to his Church and therefore Authority to us because written So as your unwritten word whereiâ— you agree with Bellarmine and your Apostolicke Traditions wherin you come home to your A. C. the Jesuite we receive none of them all as authentick or to have any thing to doe to expound the Scripture in any doubt about the Faith But if you can shew us any Traditions Apostolick we will by your leave examine them by the Scriptures and not the Scriptures by them You name baptizing of Infants for a Tradition Apostolicke We doubt not but the Apostles baptized the Infants of beleeving Parents For the Infants or Children of such are holy as the Apostle sheweth And so they belonged to the Covenant And as the Children of the Jewes in the old Testament were circumcised as pertaining to the Covenant and promise made to Abraham and to his Seed So Baptisme succeding in place of Circumcision as a Seale of the Same Covenant belongs to all Children of beleeving Christian Parents As the Apostle saith Therefore it is of Faith that it might come by Grace and the Promise might be sure to all the Seed not to that onely which is of the Law but to that also which is of the Faith of Abrahâ—m who is the Father of us all So as beleeving Christians have the same interest in the Covenant with Abraham and their Children or Infants have the like priviledge of Baptisme as the Infants of the ancient Israelites had for Circumcision Therefore the Baptizing of Infants was certainly practised by the Apostles as well as the baptising of beleeving Parents So as we doe not baptize Infants because you tell us it is a Tradition Apostolicke but because it is as clearely and firmely grounded in the Scripture as the baptizing of beleeving Parents We exclude therefore whatsoever Word unwritten or Traditions Apostolicke as you call them as being either partiall or equall Rules of Faith with the Scriptures as Bellarmine calls them or as Interpreters and Iudges of the Scripture in doubts about Faith as you are bold to affirme We have no word of God but the Scripture we acknowledge no Traditions Apostolicke but what we find they delivered in Scripture The Prophets in the old Testament sent Gods people to the Scripture for information instruction resolution in all matters of Faith and Cases of Conscience To the Law and to the Testimony Saith Isaiah if they Speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them He Saith not To the Traditions of our Fathers but To the Law and to the Testimony Gods word written Els there is no light in men they are blind guides that in matters of Faith lead us any where but to and by the Scriptures And the Prophet Ieremiah They have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisedome is in them All wisdome without this word of God is foolishnesse all knowledge without this is ignorance and blindnesse So our Saviour Christ Search the Scriptures for in them ye thinke to find eternall life and they are they which testifie of me So as Christ allowes us no other Testimony of him and of Faith in him but the Scriptures We must erunan Search them not the Archives or Sacraries of blind Traditions though guilded over never so faire with the name of Apostolick nor of any pretended word of God unwritten And Christ answereth the Lawyer when he asked what he should doe to inherit Eternall life What is written in the Law How readest thou And the Apostle That none presume above that which is written And Whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope And Peter We have a more sure word of Prophecy to wit the Scriptures of the old Testament whereunto ye doe well that ye take heed In all which places and many more the Scripture is still commended to us as the onely absolute sufficient perfect and compleat Rule of our Faith in all matters or doubts of Faith touching our Salvation So as it hath no other interpreter but it selfe not any Tradition not any word unwritten But of this you will give us occasion to speak more at after L. p. 72 73. Faith is the gift of God of God alone and an Infused habit in respect whereof the soule is meerely recipient The Sole Infuser is the Holy Ghost Till the Spirit of God move the heart of man he cannot beleeve P. I confesse when first I read these words I began to muse with my selfe and to argue thus What is my Lord of Canterbury turn'd Orthodox no Arminian in the Doctrine of Grace But looking a little further and observing both the Authors you alledge as Stapleton a great man with you and other Popish Authors as is usuall with you throughout your Book and also considering of what Faith you here Speak I changed my conceit and found that you were no Changeling For wheras I thought that all this faire â—â—ourish of Faith is the gift of God of God alone A habit infused The Holy Ghost the Sole Infuser The soule meerely recipient Till Gods Spirit move mans heart he cannot beleeve had been meant of that Grace of Saving and Iustifying Faith which the Scripture teacheth and particularly the Apostle Ephes. 2.8 By Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God c. I imagined I say that as you used the Apostles very words and the Language of Scripture so you had done it in the sense and mind of the Apostle and of the Scripture which Speaks so of the Saving and Iustifying Faith But when I found the contrary I confesse I blushed at my folly in having such a conceit of you having had so much experience both of your usuall perverting of Scriptures and your corrupt sense throughout your Book and considering that light and darknesse cannot stand together and how you hâ—ve altogether suppressed the Preaching of the Doctrines of Grace and finding that all this Faith you Speake of is nothing els but that historicall Faith in beleeving the Scriptures to be the word of God which beliefe is common to the very Reprobates and Devils themselves who beleeve and tremble Phristouâ—i they quiver and Shake as when mens teeth Chatter in their head in extreme cold And yet how doe you abuse the Scripture and your Reader in giving to this Faith those peculiar Attributes which are proper and peculiar to the onely Saving Grace of Saving Faith the Sole Infuser Giver and worker whereof is the Holy Ghost Tell me how come the Devils to that historicall faith whereby they beleeve the Scripture to be the very word of God and all things therein to be most certainly true and so all
those plagues written therein and threatned against Reprobates and Devils shal be most certainly inflicted in beliefe whereof they tremble What have they this Faith given them of God and is the Holy Ghost the Sole Infuser of it or any Infuser of it at all And yet I say This historicall faith is that which you Speake of here For you do in that 16 th Section consisting of about 30 leaves in folio Speake of that Faith alone which beleeves the Scripture to be the word of God the onely subject of that long and tedious Discourse wherein you have spent so much sweat to so small purpose And the words immediately preceding doe shew this And your words immediately following are to confirme it which you alledge out of Stapleton Saying The Holy Ghost did not leave the Church in Generall nor the true members of it in particular without Grace to beleeve what himself had revealed and made credible Wherupon you inferre a little after Till the Spirit of God move the heart of man he cannot beleeve be the object never so credible Thus we see your mind at full what Faith what Gift of God what Grace this is which you Say none but the Holy Ghost giveth to his Church namely not that faith not that gift of God not that Grace not that worke of the Holy Ghost whereby a man comes to beleeve in Christ and to be indued with the Grace of Regeneration and Sanctification the proper worke and gift of the Holy Ghost whereof the Apostle speaketh in the fore-cited place but such a faith such a grace as the Councel of Trent professeth and aloweth and so that which Stapleton and all other Pontificials write of which is common to all wicked men and Reprobates as we have elswhere fully proved L. p. 75. The world cannot keep a man from going to weigh the Scripture at the Ballance of Reason whether it be the word of God or not For the word of God and the Book containing it refuse not to be weighed by Reason And pag. 76. For Reason by her own light can discover how firmely the Principles of Religion are true but all the light Shee hath will never be able to find them false P. 'T is â—rue that mans naturall Reason being not bridled by grace is so head-strong that the world it selfe cannot restrain it within its owne bounds but will be medling But yet though Reason be not excluded from giving her voyce and assent to the Scripture yet She must know her place She must come in the Reere of all and as a hand-maid not as a Mistresse Nor is it Reasons office to bring her ballance to weigh the Scriptures whether it be the word of God or not for herein She hath no negative voyce but onely of assent So as in this respect as a Judge Gods word refuseth to be weighed by Reason much lesse can it be true that Reason by her own light can discover how firmly the Principles of Religion are true For mans Reason being but Naturall and Gods word Supernaturall there is no proportion between them and Reason can no more judge of Scripture in this respect then a blind man can judge of colours So as Reason must not come in with her ballance and weights till a man be illuminated by the Scriptures themselves and by the Spirit of God and then being convinced of the truth thereof She gives her full assent that the Scripture is the word of God The Apostle saith The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned How say you then That Reason by her own Light can discover how firmly the Principles of Religion are true Point blanke against the Apostle The Lord openeth the heart of Lydia to attend to the things spoken of Paul Now if the naturall man by the light of his naturall reason receiveth not nor is thereby capable of the things of the Spirit of God contained in the Scripture but that they are foolishnesse unto him untill God open the heart and reveale those things by his Spirit as the Apostle saith then Reason cannot judge of Scripture by her owne light For what is Reasons light in a naturall man Surely darknesse it selfe unto Spiritâ—all things Ye were once darknesse saith the Apostle Darknesse in the very abstract Mans naturall understanding and Reason darknesse And therefore as Christ saith If the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse And Rom. 8.5 They that are after the flesh tà tes sarkòs phronousin doe savour the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Spirituall things are as unsavory to a naturall mans Reason as wholesome meat is to an aguish palate They are unto him morÃa foolishnesse saith the Apostle And Rom. 8.6 The wisdome of the flesh is death and ekthrà emnity against God and it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Ye saith Ieremy Every man is brutish in his own knowledge Can you then hale the Scripture to the barre of mans naturall Reason which is brutish to be judged by it whether it be Gods word or no And David saith Surely men of low degree are vanity Yea say you Men of low degree but not so men of high degree of learning and parts But take all with you Surely men of low degrâ—e are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be layd in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanity What men of low degree vanity and men of high degre a lye Yea Surely yea altogether lighter then vanity it selfe being â—ayd in the ballance But in what ballance In the uneven ballance with the false Scales of your naturall Reason No but in the Ballance and with the weights of the Sanctuary your Reason must be weighed And this ballance of the Sanctuary is the Scripture If then your Reason must be weighed at the ballance of the Scripture and there be found too light yea lighter then vanity yea altogether lighter then vanity yea Surely altogether lighter then vanity yea a very lye then what weights can your Reason bring being altogether lighter then vanity it selfe whereby to weigh the Scriptures Or how shall Reason which is a lye with her unequall Ballance and false weights weigh verity it selfe But if all this will not put you out of conceit of your naturall Reason as an incomptent Judge of Scripture to be the word of God which must needs argue the truth of Scripture that mans Reason is blindnes darknes emnity against the truth brutish vanity a ly altogether lighter then vanity it self give me leave a little to put you to it You perswade your selfe that you can by the strength and light of your naturall Reason judge or weigh the Scripture whether it be Gods word and discover how firmely the Principles of Religion