pag. 16 17 18. Who i. e. Mr Baxter in his Holy Common-wealth or his Political Aphorisms expresseth his mind thus in his additions to his Preface Consider how suitable Popery is with a carnal Inclination Secondly what plausible reasons Papists have to delude poor souls with from their pretended Universality Antiquity c. Thirdly how few of the vulgar are able to defend their faith or to answer to the two great Sophistical Questions of the Papists viz. Where hath your Church been visible in all Ages Only Dr Featley not only in his Disputation with Fisher but in his Manuscript dedicated to the Lord Craven not yet printed and in his Grand Sacriledge particularly concerning the taking away the Cup from the Laity has fully as much as they demanded answered that other point For the Nameless Romanist thus contrives and moulds his subtilties not as Cases of Conscience to be resolved by some learned Divine but as it were laying as Dr Featley resenteth a snare to intangle the Answerers therein Let saith he those points be propounded one after another and receive their positive answer under their hands to the first before they know the second and so in order to the rest when that is done you shall hear further from me What is this saies Dr Featley but in effect to say draw the Protestant Respondents by degrees and by little and little into the snares which I have laid for them and when they are intangled in them I will come and take them and intangle them with their own subscriptions Which Tract of Dr Featley's yea the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it is in the Right Honourable the Lord Craven's hands who is extreamly desired that he would be pleased to communicate it for the Churches good if he have it by him or else I have a transcript which I shall crave his leave to put forth And how prove you the Scripture to be the Word of God Though not only the Papists themselves but especially our Divines as Whitakers against Stapleton and in a large Tract besides yea Arminius himself Vrsinus and all our Catechetical Divines especially the Confession of our English Churches faith against the Popish Traditions and Papal Decretals have abundantly proved the sufficiency perfection and divinity of the Scriptures unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. 16. that they be the word of God only and not of man as spoken and delivered by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 1 Pet. 1. 21. And therefore we may say What is the Chaff to the word of God what are Traditions Legends of Saints to the word of God Jer. 23. 28. Alphonsus de Villega his more refined Legends of the Saints Fourthly how will it take with the people to be told that their forefathers all dyed in the Roman faith which Reverend Mr Hocker that wrote the Ecclesiastical Policy in five books wil abundantly resolve them in And fifthly above all what a multitude of Jesuits and Friers and Priests they can prepare for the work and pour out upon us at their pleasure from Flanders France and Rome and other places and how those sorts of men are purposely trained up for this deceivable and illusive work and have their common Arguments at their fingers end which though they are thred-bare and transparent fallacies to the wise yet to the vulgar and to our unstudied Gentry they are as good as if they had never been confuted or as the best I appeal unto that gloriosum Certamen between King Charles the first and the Marquess of Worcester at Ragland Castle who I say the Marquess wanted not his College of Priests and Popish Jesuits with what hazzard did the Kings Majesty encounter and escape the most subtile Circumventings of that night in single Combats having only for his second Dr Bayley a single Chaplain Sixthly what a world of wealth and secular helps is at their becks in France Flanders Italy Spaine and Germany They have Millions of gold and Navies and Armies ready to promote their work which other Sects have none of So as that the Jesuitical Collegiated Hives for them in all Countries in Italy France Spaine Germany as one of credible Intelligence has mustred only the Jesuits and reported them smal and great Tyrones Veterani Pupils Tutors Pensioners Governors maintained in their Armies and pay are ten times more then all the Students in both Universities and in all the Inns of Court in London too viz. 2000000. Which Computation is taken out of the Muster-book of Harley's Defence Des Jesuits And therefore no marvel that these hives every where so swarm and such multitudes of them are sent to seek their hiving quarters in our England For they account Scotland as yet too poor for them or too cold and barren to thrive in as not having those flores inscripti nomina Regum for them to suck their hony out of Seventhly what worldly motives have their Priests and Friers to promote their zeal Their Superiors have such variety of Preferments and ample Treasures to reward them with and their single life alloweth them so much vacancy from domestick Avocations and withall they so much glory in a zeal in compassing sea and land to make Proselytes that it is an incredible advantage that they get by their Industry the Envious man by them sowing his tares whilst others sleep and are not half so industrious to resist them Eighthly What abundance have they lately wone in England Notwithstanding they have wanted publick liberty and have only taken secret opportunities to seduce persons many of the Nobility Gentry yea and of the Clergy as well as of the Common people and zealous Professors of Religion lately as well as of the profane have been seduced by them and by them Princes in other Countries have been won and the Protestant Religion cunningly worm'd out And what a lamentable increase they had made in England before our Wars by that Countenance and favour which through the Queen was procured them though incomparably short of this absolute Liberty is sufficiently known Ninthly It is not the least of our danger that the most of our Ministers are unable to deal with a Cunning Jesuite or Priest And this is not to be wondred at considering how many of them are young men put in of late in the Necessity of the Churches which the world knows who have caused and there must be time before young men can grow to maturity and an unfurnished Nation can be provided with able experienced men And the Cessation of Popish assaults of late hath disused Ministers from these Disputations The Reformation had seemed to have brought down Popery so low that we grew secure and thought there was no danger of it and the Papists of late have forborn much to meddle with us barefac'd and have played their game under the vizor of their Sects And withall young Ministers have been so taken up with the greater work of winning Souls from common profaneness that
most have laid by their defensive Arms and are grown too much unacquainted with Controversies We have so much noted how Controversie in other Countries hath eaten out much of the power of Godliness that we have fallen by disuse into an unacquaintedness with the means of our necessary defence and whilst we thought that we might lay by our weapons as Sampson his Jaw-bone or David his Goliah's Sword and build with both hands we are too much unready to withstand the adversary Alas what work would liberty for Jesuits and Friers make in our Congregations in a few months space I must confess this though some will think it our dishonour it is not from any strength in their cause but from their carnal advantages and our disadvantages because we are not stored with our learned Garison with the Magazine of Library and maintenance For it is easier to pull down then to build and to set a Town on Fire then to re-edife one house and to wound then to heal But as the fountain was hid at the present from Hagar's eyes so Mr Baxter for the present did not see nor think on the adequate remedy of this viz. Chelsey College Project and design this being to this present utterly to all seeming as it were dead and buried without hope of recovery and so discovery unless some Angel awaken and open our eyes to see it And then if Popery should come in again through our giving over our watch and guards and then doubtless if so not without seven worse devils of Infection Rage Thraldom Superstition Tyranny gross Idolatry Perniciousness what measure Protestants may look for at their hands we need not go out of England and Ireland for proof To use therefore a little more Mr Baxter's words for Chelsey College which he urgeth indeed for another thing I leave it therefore to the Judgment of all men that are not asleep in their security and utterly unacquainted with the advantages and vigilancies of Papists whether this design of restoring and endowing Chelsey College according to the first wisdom of it for the defense of our Church Articles and oppugnation of the Adversaries be not altogether of Christ of the Angel of the New Covenant having discovered it unto our eyes and caused us to see this fountain for our selected and choice men to draw water out of the Well of Salvation Gen. 21. 19. as the strong men of David out of the well of Bethlehem 2 Sam. 23. 16. with Joy for the establishing of the hearts of the Saints in the true grace that they be sound in the faith and so be able and furnished when need is to convince the gainsayers and that the simple at length may be able to confound even the Scribes and the wise of the world who beat their brains with the deceivableness of that unrighteousness to build or rather daube up the Mystery of Iniquity the deceivableness of unrighteousness Thus have I at large related the nature and Condition of Chelsey College the nature of the Causes form uses and ends of prudence for happiness to our Church if we can receive it and the condition for the present of it in its impediments and obstructions so that if it be not now religiously looked unto it must and will be everlastingly forlorn and lost and such an opportunity never more can be hoped for And this I have related as principal and princely Bezaliels have meditated and designed it as a well-drawn and wrought fair piece of Arras and a Pattern to be made up accordingly and as it were from God in the words of Ezekiel Chap. 40. 4. Son of man behold with thine eyes and hear with thine ears and set thy heart upon all that I shall shew thee for to the intent that I might shew them am I sent unto you Wherein you have not only a Synopsis and clear declaration of a Tower of Ophel a Church Garrison but also motives pregnant and powerfull enough of Archbishop Abbott's or one of the Fellows even flexanimous to hearten and help onward the Affair 1. From the Papists and Jesuits their industry and lavishing of gold for defence of their Idolatry and Antichristianism 2ly From the necessity as they account it to uphold the Mystery of Iniquity and from the necessity for us also to work counter unto them 3ly From the danger that our Church and Cause may be in if we provide not in time 4ly From the excellency of being valiant for the Truth 5ly From the honour of Christ and his Church and our King and Country 6ly From the reproach which otherwise will redound unto us 7ly Besides the suffering of the Abomination of Desolation suddenly to overspread us and so the adversaries to work their pleasure upon mens souls and have occasion to upbraid us saying Why is there a price in the hand of foolish English men to get wisdom and they have no heart to lay it out for wisdom So that after all this Remonstrance about the matter and heads of the motives so faithfully inforced and improved there needs no more inculcating of them but only praying to remember and consider what has been so carefully and conscionably urged and the Lord give us understanding in all things Only may I humbly crave leave to urge in fine what we have found and what was not considered and what the Spirit advertiseth the Church of Philadelphia Rev. 3. 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience that is as the Apostle does paraphrase 1 Thes 1. 3. the work of faith the labour of love the patience of hope for all these are joyntly to be ingaged in the work therefore I will keep thee from the hour of Temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the face of the Earth that is to try their Faith to try their Love to try their Hope their Faith whether it work by Love their Love whether it be sincere and zealous for the Truth their Hope whether it indure unto the end in patience Heb. 6. 10 11 12. rejoycing in hope patient in tribulation and out of faith hope and love laying out themselves for this College leaving the success prospering and blessing to the Lord Christ And this the rather if our expectation be according to the fifth-Monarchy mens perswasion which is not an Heresie and so not to be condemned but to be looked for but to be endeavoured after but to be prayed for that Christ his second coming in bringing and setting up his Kingdom may so appear And in a sort is not this hour of temptation come upon us of England and has it not been even for no less then fourty years almost trying our Faith whether we will and do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it our Love and Charity whether we will contribute any thing liberally to maintain the Champions of our Faith whether we will cast this sure anchor in the most holy place Heb. 6. 19. knowing and believing this most
certainly that as Mr Archer expresseth in his Forerunner of Christ's personal Reign on earth pag. 50. and 55. and Mr Mede Rev. 11. 7. his opinion is that Popery shall yet again for a while universally prevail in those Countries and Nations out of which it hath been expelled Mr Cartwright's Preface to the Gloriosum Certamen And therefore ought we not of England to advance this College thus to prepare to give the head of the Dragon his last deadly wound that the Prince of Peace may set up his Scepter of peace and be the Solomon of peace in governing his Saints in all the blessings of Peace and beauties of holiness that we may seek and love to have and keep the saving Truth in love and peace Zach. 8. 19. But as one saith Si nos iri perditum vult Dominus Jesus hâ—câ—tamen solamini erit nos nihil omisisse virtutis ad eluctandum ruinam as the two Witnesses in sackcloth or rather as becomes a Couragious souldier stantem in bellow mori in hope of a most glorious resurrection like that which the Roman Florus speaks of the holding out the last siege of Carthage Vt morsus morientium sunt maximè mortiferi sic plus negotii fuit cum semiruta quam cum integra Carthagine or as it is said of Sampson Judg. 16. 30. the dead which he slew at his death were more then they which he slew in his life-time And then the hope of everlasting rest after all our labours shall sweeten all our labours ease our torments mitigate our sorrows comfort our hearts that they faile not in their labour nor faint in their travail nor sink under their burden nor fall under their Crosses nor dye for sorrow of their wound but may say I have fought the good fight and finished my course and kept the faith 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. Henceforth the spirit hath said we shall be pillars Rev. 3. 12. in the Temple of our God Finally may I humbly adde a word of the probable means of as it were buoying up this Ship of the sunk College to be rigged and to ride again as a Pretorian ship in its haven with respect to his most Gracious Majesty and the Great Wisdoms of his Councel and Parliament because it is said expressly that Kings shall be nursing Fathers and Queens nursing Mothers to the Church Esay 49. 23. Whatsoever the penury may seem to be in regard of the late great losses and exhaustings because of the sweeping tempests that have left as it were nothing or little good yet is it not the word of the Lord by Haggai The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts So that if it please Almighty God to stir up and put into the Kings Majesties heart an heroick care and resolution to set about the advancing and restoring of this ruinous College by taking the Course which his Royal Grand-father did viz. granting forthwith his Letters Patents once again generally all over England for a Collection of three years to be made and that the Archbishops Graces would be earnest with the Bishops of their Dioceses to sollicit their particular Ministers and that the Peers of the Upper house and the Burgesses of the Commons house would by their Munificence be exemplary Leaders unto the Collective body more respectively the new Bishops revived and restored as men of God to their Sees and dignities to act as Intelligences and Angels of the Churches in their own Spheres though possible their Sees are much impaired as having had the Line of Ahab upon them and Plummet of Samaria Yet if they shall meditate liberal things Esay 32. 8. or devise liberal things and out of their grave and gracious wisdoms prompt and promote unto the Kings Majesty a more probable way of wisdom then at first was projected and become also not only exhortative but exemplary to their power for so important godly and necessary a work especially the most Reverend Fathers Canterbury Winchester London Lincoln Yorke Durham c. This may doe much and much contribute towards the speedy adorning and advancement of the College to its due perfection and placing it in its sphere of activity yea and to the settling of it to become a pattern and president for Imitation to foreign Protestant Churches also in Christendom not yet in the Popes Captivity and dungeon of darkness of his Mystery of Iniquity and deceivableness of unrighteousness And if the late Archbishop Laud could have imagined that such Wolves and Monsters of Heresy upon his being put to death would have been in such readiness like Serpents and Toads and venemous creeping noxious beasts at the root of the stately Palm-tree of our Church in readiness I say thronging with their Fry whose word was Viam inveniam aut faciam to crawle up even so all over the fruitfull branches of this Palm for the shepheard being smitten how would the sheep be scattered how would he have roused up and awakened himself as the Cock who with his wings clappeth himself to have been most vigilant over them especially when Dr Featley being assigned the Provost of Chelsey College by Dr Sutcliffe his studious and solicitous obtaining of him and resigning all his Authority and power unto him sollicited Bishop Laud at London House to favour and further the College when the Church looked upon him as a son upon his Father and Patriot because of his fair opportunity by his high advancement for the greatest affaires of the Church which King Charles the First was pleased to grace and intrust him withall How would he have known and remembred that it was incumbent upon him to have served 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have looked upon Chelsey College as a grand business of Christ's as well as to be so zealous for the re-edifying of Pauls and not have daunted Dr Featley's suit with that short hasty word Cui bono as Pilate once seemed to have done to Christ What is Truth His eye with his heart being so immoveably fixed upon the repairing of the dead and decaying walls of Pauls Church not in the interim providently eying and spying the mischiefs Calamities Chaos of Heresies Sects and Schisms by Satan's Panurgy and by the madness of the people to be drawing in upon us like the Trojan Horse for want of that publick armature sword and spear of the spirit the spiritual sword of God's Word in the mouths of his more select Ministers those living stones of his spiritual Tower of Armory Could I say his Graces wisdom I mean Archbishop Laud's who was omni laude dignus have commanded his heart to have beheld and heeded the Angelical face of Chelsey College Project as Dr Featley presented it unto him and on a time did it more fully and freely at Fulham when he was better at leasure had not the Importunity of Pauls still been too clamorous in his ears for expediting it how would he not doubtless have