Hosea said of Ephraim Ephraim is ioyned to Idols let him alone So Christ saith vnto vs Come out of Babylon my people that yee be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues Her sinnes are a spirituall leprosie And we run away from leprous men though true men and our neerest and dearest friends crying what they are loth to cry Vncleane vncleane lest their breath should infect vs Her sinnes are infidelitie not negatiue but priâ—atiue not in whole but in part As Saint Paul a beleeuing lew was in vnbeliefe when he persceuted the Church And Saint Paul saith vnto vs Be ye not vnequally yoked together with vnbeleeuers c. Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the vncleane thing and I will receiue you and will be a Father vnto you and yee shall bee my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almightie A faithfull subiect will not take a traitour though a subiect by the hand nor I a Papist in matter of his Religion Neither will honest women 〈…〉 with the greatest Lady thogh shee be a great ones wife This I haue euer taught priuately Preached publikely published in Printed Bookes against Papists during these thirtie three yeares of my Ministrie in the French Churches without any aduantage to our Aduersaries without any contradiction of our diuines without any acception taken against it by our Churches or any particular among the brethren which all in their name Preach and publish that they are of the same mind calling themselues The Reformed Churches and our Religion The reformed religion For as the good Kings of Iuda did not build a new Temple call to God a new people set vp a new Religion but repurge and clense the old Temple restore the ancient Religion exhorted Gods people to shake off the new inuentions of the new patched Religion and to returne to the Lord their God by the olde way which their fathers had beaten and Moses had traced vnto them in the Law And as Zorobabel Esdras Nehemiah Ieshuah builded the Wals of Ierusalem vpon the ancient foundation euerie man building next himselfe Euen so the Protestant Diuines haue euerie one next himselfe not builded a new Church vpon a new foundation but repurged the auncient Church of idolatrie superstition false interpretations of the Scriptures and traditions of men whereof shee was fuller then euer Augeas his Stable was full of mucke but beaten downe and burned with the fire of Gods word the Wals of Wood Hay Stubble which the Babylonian builders had raysed vpon the old foundation which is Christ Iesus and edified vpon it a faire Palace of Siluer Gold precious Stones This same is the opinion also of my Collegues of the French Church of this Citie of London If any selfe-conceited Christian thinketh this an aduantage rather then a disparagement disgrace to that punke the Romane Church and taketh thereby occasion to perseuere to be her Bawd or Stalion and to runne a whoring with her I say with the Psalmist The wicked hath left off to bee wise and to doe good And with the Angell Hee that is vniust let him he vniust still And he which is filthy let him be filthy still For neither must an honest heart speake a lie for the good that may come of it Nor conceale in time and place a necessarie truth for any euill that may insue of it If it harden more and more the flintie hearts of some vnto death it will soften and melt the iron hearts of others vnto life that seeing among vs the mudde and dirt of humane traditions wherewith the Pope and his Clergie had furred and soyled the bright-shining glasse of the Gospel wiped away from this heauenly mirror of Gods fauor they may come vnto vs and beholding with open face as in a glasse the glorie of the Lord may be changed with vs into the same image from gloire to glorie euen as by the Spirit of the Lord. Which last effect I pray with my heart your Reconciler may haue with those that are children of peace And so recommending your Lordship with all your learned eloquent sound and vsefull labours to GODS most powerfull blessing and my selfe to the continuance of your godly Prayers and old friendship I remaine for euer Your Lordships most humble and affectionate Seruant Gilbert Primrose From London the 26. of Februarie 1629. ¶ To my VVorthy and much respected Friend Mr. H. CHOMLEY MAster Cholmely I haue perused your learned and full reply to Master Burtons answere wherein you haue in a iudicious eye abundantly righted your self and cleared a iust cause so as the Reader would wonder where an Aduersarie might find ground to raise an opposition But let me tell you Were it a Booke written by the pen of an Angest from Heauen in this subiect I should doubt whether to wish it publique How true how iust soeuer the plea be I find such is the selfe-loue and partialitie of our corrupt nature the quarrell is inlarged by multiplying of words when I see a fire quenched with Oyle I will expect to see a controuersie of this nature stinted by publike altercation New matter still rises in the agitation and giues hint to a fore-resolued opposite of a fresh disquisition So as we may sooner see an end of the common peace then of an vnkindly iarre in the Church especially such a one as is fomented with a mistaken Zeale on the one side and with a confidence of knowledge on the other Silence hath somtimes quieted such like mis-raised brabbles neuer interchange of words This very question was on foot some fortie yeares agoe in the hote chase of great Authors but whether through the ingenuitie of the parties or some ouer-ruling act of Diuine Prouidence it soone died without noyse so I wish it may now doe Rather let the weaker title goe away with the last word then the Church shall bee distracted For that Position of mine which occasioned your vindication you see it sufficiently abetted and determined by so reuerend authoritie as admits no exception I dare say No learned Diuine of our owne Church or the foraine can but subscribe in this our sense to the iudgement of these Worthies To draw forth therefore this cord of contention to any futher length were no lesse needlesse then preiudiciall to the publike peace Hee is not worthy to bee satisfied that will yet wrangle As for those personall aspersions that are cast vpon you by malice be perswaded to despise them These Westerne parts where your reputation is deseruedly precious know your Zeale for Gods truth no lesse feruent though better gouerned then the most fierie of your Censurers No man more hateth Popish Superstition only your fault is that you doe not more hate errour then iniustice and cannot abide wrong measure offered to the worst enemie Neither bee you troubled with that idle exprobration of a Prebendary retribution who would
were such as serued fitly to leade the Reader into that Sense which vnder the word True comprehendeth only Truth of Beeing or Existencie and not the Due Qualities of the thing or subiect you haue beene causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your discourse you cannot maruell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In briefe your Proposition admits a True sense in that sense is by the best learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For The Beeing of a Church does principally stand vpon the Gratious Action of God calling men out of Darknesse and Death vnto the Participation of sight and life in Christ Iesus So long as God continues this Calling vnto any people though they as much as in them lies Darken this light and corrupt the meanes which should bring them to life and saluation in Christ yet where God Calls men vnto the Participation of life in Christ by the word by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men bee neuer so false in their Expositions of GODS Word or neuer so vntrustie in mingling their owne Traditions with Gods Ordinances Thus the Church of the Iewes lost not her Being of a Church when shee became an Idolatrous Church And thus vnder the gouernment of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their owne Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Sauiour himselfe was borne who were mēbers of that Church and yet participated not in the corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Roman was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in doctrine a false and in practice an Idolatrous Church is a true assertion and of greater vse and necessitie in our Controuersie with Papists about the Perpetuitie of the Christian Church then is vnderstood by those who gainsay it This in your Reconciler is so wel explicated as if any shall continue in traducing you in regard of that Proposition so explained I thinke it wil be only those who are better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning and deeper in loue with strife then truth As for the aspersion of Arminianisme I can testifie that in our Ioint imployment at the Synod of Dort you were as farre from it as my selfe And I know that no man can imbrace it in the Doctrine of Predestination and Grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed vpon by the Church of England nor in the point of perseuerance but he must vary from the common Tenet and receiued opinion of our best approued Doctors in the English Church I am assured that you neither haue deserted the one nor will vary from the other And therefore be no more troubled with other mens groundlesse suspitions then you would be in like case with their idle Dreames Thus I haue inlarged my selfe beyond my first intent But my loue to your selfe and the assurance of your constant loue vnto the Truth inforced me thereunto I rest alwayes Ian 30. 1628. Your louing Brother IO. SARVM ¶ To the Reuerend and learned Master Doctor PREDEAVX professor of Diuinitie in Oxford and Rector of EXCETER Colledge WOrthy Master Doctor Predeaux All our litle world here takes notice of your worth and eminencie who haue long furnished the Diuinitie Chaire in that famous Vniuersitie with mutuall grace and honour Let me intreate you vpon the perusall of this sorie sheete of Paper to impart your selfe freely to me in your censure and to expresse to mee your cleare iudgement concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church you see in what sence I professe to hold it neither was any other euer in my thoughts Say I beseech you whether you thinke any learned Orthodoxe Diuine can with any colour of reason maintaine a contradiction herevnto And if you find as I doubt not much necessitie and vse of this true and safe Tenet helpe me to adde if you please a further supplie of Antidotes to those Popish spiders that would faine sucke poyson out of this herbe It was my earnest desire that this satisfactorie reconcilement might haue stilled all tongues and pens concerning this ill-raysed brabble but I see to my griefe how much men care for themselues more then peace I suffer and the Church is disquieted your learning and grauitie will be ready to contribute to a seasonable pacification In desire and exspectation of your speedie answere I take my leaue and am Your very louing friend and fellow-labourer IOS EXON Right Reuerend Father in GOD VPon the receite of your Reconciler which it pleased you to send me I tooke occasion as my manifolde distractions would permit to peruse what had beene said on both sides concerning the now-being of the Romane Church VVherin I must professe that I could not but wonder at the needlesse exceptions against your Tenet you affirming no new thing in that passage misliked in your Old Religion And this your Aduertisement afterward so fully and punctually cleareth and your Reconciler so acquitteth with such satisfying ingenuitie that I cannot imagin they haue considered it well or meane wel that shal persist to oppose it For who perceiues not that your Lordship leaues no more to Rome then our best Diuines euer since the Reformation haue granted If their speeches haue beene sometimes seemingly different their meaning hath beene alwayes the same that in respect of the common Truths yet professed among the Papists they may and ought to bee tearmed a True visible Church in opposition to Iewes Turkes and Pagans who directly denie the Foundation howsoeuer their Antichristian aditions make them no better then the Synagogue of Sathan This being agreed vpon by those whose Iudgement wee haue good reason to follow cited in your Aduertisement and by others they doe an ill office to our Church in my opinion who set them at ods in this point that are so excellently reconciled and giue more aduantage to the Aduersarie by quarrelling with our worthies then the Aduersarie is like to get by our acknowledgment that they are such a miserable Church as we discouer them to be VVhat I haue thought long since in this behalfe it appeareth in my Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and as often as this hath come in question in our publicke Disputes we determine here no otherwise then your Lordship hath stated it And yet wee trust to giue as little vantage to Poperie as those that doe detest it and are as circumspect to maintaine our receiued Doctrine and Discipline without the least scandall to the weakest as those that would seeme most forward That distinction of Romes case before and since the Councell of Trent holds not to dis-Church it but shewes it rather to be more incureable now then heretofore Neither find I any particulars obiected which those worthy men haue not sufficiently cleared that haue iustifyed
your Assertion Not to trouble therefore your weightier affairs with my needlesse interposition As that controuersie about the Altar Iosuah 22. had presently a faire end vpon the ful vnderstanding of the good meaning on both sides so I trust in God this shall haue In which I am so perswaded that if it were to bee discussed there after our Scholasticall manner it might well bee defended either pro or con with out preiudice to the Truth according to the full stating which your Aduertisement and Reconciler haue afforded And thus with tender of my due obseruance and Prayers for your happinesse I rest Your Lordships in Christ to be commanded IO. PRIDEAVX From Exon Coll. Marij 9. No. ¶ To my Reuerend and learned friend M. Doctor PRIMEROSE Preacher to the French Church in LONDON WOrthy Master Doctor Primerose you haue beene long acknowledged a great light in the Reformed Churches of France hauing for many yeeres shined in your orbe the famous Church of Burdeaux with notable effects and singular approbation both for iudgment and sinceritie both which also your learned writings haue well approued So as your sentence cannot be liable to the danger of any suspition Let me intreate you to declare freely what you hold concerning the truenesse and visibilitie of the Romane Church as it is by me explicated And with all to impart your knowledg of the common Tenet of those foraine Diuines with whom you haue so long conuersed concerning this point which if I mistake not onely a stubburne ignorance will needs make litigious It grieues my Soule to see the peace of the Church troubled with so absurd a mes prison In exspectation of your answer I take leaue and commend you and your holy labours to the blessing of our God Farewell from Your louing Brother and fellow-labourer IOS EXON To the Right Reuerend Father in God and my very good Lord IOSEPH Bishop of Exceter Right Reuerend Father in God I Haue beene so busied about my necessarie studies for preaching on Sunday Tuesday and this Thursday that I could not giue sooner a full answer to your Lordships Letter which I receiued on Friday last at night whereby I am desired to declare freely what I think concerning the truenesse and visibilitie of the present Roman Church as it is by your Lordship explicated and what is the common tenet of the forraine Diuines with whom I haue so long conuersed beyond the Seas concerning that point I might answere in two lines that I haue read your Reconciler and iudge your opinion concerning that point to be learned sound and true Though that if I durst fauour an officious lie I would willingly giue my Suffrage to those Diuines which out of a most feruent zeale to God and perfect hatred to Idolatry hold that the Roman Church is in all things BABEL in nothing BETHEL And as they which seek to set right a crooked tree bow it the cleane contrary way to make it straight so to recouer and pull out of the fire of eternall damnation the Roman Christians I would gladly pourtray them with sable colours and make their religion more black in their owne eyes then they are in ours the hellish coloured faces of the flat-nosed Ethiopians or to the Spaniard the monstrous Sambenit of the Inquisition But fearing the true reproch cast by Iob in his friends teeth Will you speake wickedly for God and talke deceitfully for him and knowing that we must not speake a lie no not against the Deuill which is the Father of lies I say that the Roman Church is both BABEL and BETHEL and as Gods Temple was in Christs daies at once the house of Prayer and a den of theeues so shee is in our dayes Gods Temple and the habitation of Deuils the hold of euery foule spirit and a cage of euery vncleane and hatefull bird which I proue thus The Church is to be considered three manner of wayes First according to Gods right which he keepeth ouer her and maintaineth in her by the common and externall calling of his Word and Sacraments Secondly according to the pure preaching of the Word and externall obedience in hearing receiuing and keeping the Word syncerely preached Thirdly according to the election of grace and the personall calling which hath perpetually the inward working of the Holy Ghost ioyned with the outward preaching of the Word as in Lydia Thence commeth the answere of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ To begin with the last consideration these only are Gods Church which are Iewes inwardly in the spirit aswell as outwardly in the letter whose prayse is not of men but of God who are Nathaniels and true Israelites in whom there is no guile Inuisible to all men Visible to God alone who knoweth them that are his and each of them to themselues because they haue receiued the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely giuen to them of God and the white stone which no man knoweth sauing he that receiueth it Of this Church called by the Apostle the people which God foreknew Rom. 11. there is no controuersie amongst our Diuines In the second consideration these onely are the true visible Church of God amongst whom the Word of God is truly preached without the mixture of humane traditions the holy Sacraments are celebrated according to their first institution and the people consenteth to bee led and ruled by the Word of God As when Moses laid before the faces of the people all the words which the Lord commanded him and all the people answered together All that the Lord hath spoken we will doe the Lord said vnto Moses Write thou these words For after the tenor of these words I haue made a couenant with thee and with Israel And Moses said to the people Thou hast auouched this day the Lord to bee thy thy God to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Statutes and his Commandements and his Iudgements to harken vnto his voice And the Lord hath auouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee that thou shouldest keepe all his Commandements This condition of the Commandement GOD did often inclucate into their eares by his Prophets As when hee said to them by Ieremiah This thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and yee shall bee my people and walke yee in all the wayes in that I haue commanded you that it may bee well vnto you So in the Gospell Christ saith My sheepe heare my voice and I know them and they follow me But a stranger will they not follow but will flie from him For they know not the voice of strangers where he giueth the first marke of the visibly true and pure Church to wit the pure preaching and hearing of Christs voice As likewise Saint Iohn saith He
and that they were not his people he calleth them his people My people saith he asketh counsell at their stickes and their stuffe answereth them But after that God had scattered them among the Medes and other nations of Assyria and broken his couenant with them they became not onely in the second but also in the first sence Iesrehel and no more Israel Lo-ruhama and no more Ruhama Lo-hammi no more Hammi Then was fulfilled the the prophesie Plead with your mother plead For shee is not my wife neither am I her husband So the Iewes which were Gods people in the midst of their idolatrie since they haue denied Christ to bee the Messias the Mediatour betweene GOD and them and haue crucified the Lord of glory are no more Gods people although they beg still that name They are saith Christ the Synagogue of Satan They say they are Iewes and are not but doe lye For seeing God hath broken them off and grafted the Gentiles in their roome they qualifie themselues Gods people as falsely and iniuriously as a whoore lawfully diuorced by her husband calleth her selfe his wife To applie this to the Romane Church which hath adulterated and corrupted the whole seruice of God and is more adulterous then was at any time Iuda or Ephraim and therefore is not a true visible Church in the second sence I say shee is one in some sort in the first In her God doth still keepe his true word in the Old and New Testament as the contract of his marriage with her In her is the true Creed the true Decalogue the true Lords Prayer which Luther calleth the kernel of Christianitie In her Christ is Preached though corruptly In her the Trinitie and Incarnation of Christ are beleeued In her the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are prayed vnto though in an vnknown tongue to the most part In her the little children are Baptised in the Name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost And no Diuine will denie that their Baptisme is a true Sacrament whereby their children are borne to God seeing wee doe not rebaptise them where leauing her they adioyne themselues to vs. Who then can denie that shee is a true Church For out of the Church there is no Baptisme and the Church alone beareth children to God In her sitteth the man of sinne the sonne of perdition who sitteth in the Temple of God which is the Church It s graunted that shee is Babylon in the second sence And Gods people is commanded to come out of Babylon What is Gods people but Gods Church which forsaketh her successiuely as of old the typicall people came out of the typicall Babylon not at once but at many seuerall times If then we applie vnto her Gods commandement exhorting her to come out of Babylon either wee vnderstand not what wee say or we acknowledge her to bee Gods people that is Gods Church though idolatrous rebellious and disobedient Neither shall shee cease to bee Gods people in this sence till the comming of the blessed day when the ayre shall rebound with the shouting of the Saints Babylon is fallen shee is fallen that great Citie because shee made all nations drunke with the wine of the wrath of her fornication I say then that as Ierusalem was at the same time the holy Citie and a Harlot the Temple was Bethel and Bethauen Gods House and a house of Iniquitie the Iewes were Gods people and no people Gods children the Deuils Ephraim was Idammi and Lo-Hammi in diuers râ—spects euen so the Romish Church is both BETHEL and BABEL Bethel from God calling her to the communion of his grace in Christ by his Word and Sacrament of Baptisme Babel from her selfe because shee hath made a gallimaufrey of the Christian Religion confounding pell-mell her owne traditions with Gods Word her owne merits with Christs the bloud of Martyrs with the bloud of the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the world Purgatorie with the same bloud which purgeth vs from all sinne Iustification by workes with Iustification by faith only praying to the Creatures with praying to the Creator Idols of men women beasts Angels with Gods worship the mediation of Saints with the mediation of him who is the suretie of the new Testament and is able to saue to the vttermost all those that come vnto God by him seeing hee euer liueth to make intercession for them Nay as Caluin said truly in the Romish Church Christ is scarcely knowne among the Saints of whom some are in Heauen as the Apostles c. some on Earth as the Pope some in Hell as Saint George an Arrian Hereticke and bloudie Butcher of true Christians Saint Dominicke the firebrand of the warre against the Albigeois Saint Garnet whom Tyburne sent to his owne place to bee rewarded of the Gunne-powder Treason Some did neuer die because they had neuer the honour to liue as Saint Christopher Saint Katherine Saint Vrsule Saint Longin who was a Speare Saint Eloi who was two couple of sharpe nailes and many more of the same stuffe In a word the roaring of the Camards of Bahal is so lowd in that Church that Christs voice is scant heard in her and yet heard both in the mouth of these Babylonian builders which vnderstand not one another and in the mouthes of the people halting betweene Christ and the Pope their Bahal And therefore in that behalfe not the true but a true Christian Church This testimony is the praise of the most wonderfull patience of God who suffereth so long that common hackney to beare his Name It is her shame As it is the shame of a Queane married to a good husband to be conuicted of running vp downe after strangers It s a vantage to vs in our imployment for her conuersion For as when Agar had confessed truly that she was Sarahs maid the Angell tooke her at her word saying Returne to thy Mistresse and submit thy selfe to her and perswaded her Euen so wee take the Roman Church by the necke when shee confesseth that shee is Christs Church as shee is indeed exhorting her to returne vnto Christ to obey his Word to submit her selfe vnto him and to folow the true Faith of the ancient Catholicke and Apostolicke Church Neither is it any vantage to her against vs to inforce vs to returne to her or to vpbraid vs for forsaking her For as Moses when the people had committed Idolatrie tooke his Tabernacle and pitched it without the Campe afarre off from the Campe breaking of all communication with those which had broken the Couenant of the LORD their God till they repented As God said to Ieremiah of the Iewes which had opened their legges to euery one that passed by multiplied their whoredomes Cast them out of my fight and let them goe forth Let them returne vnto thee but returne not thou vnto them As
THE RECONCILER OR An Epistle Pacificatorie of the seeming differences of opinion concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Roman Church ENLARGED With the addition of Letters of Resolution for that purpose from some famous Divines of our CHVRCH By Ios Exon. LONDON Printed for NATH BVTTER 1629. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND truly religious my singular good Lord Edward Earle of Norwich My ever honoured Lord I Confesse my charity led me into an error Your Lordshippe well knowes how apt I am to be overtaken with these better deceits of an over kinde credulitie I had thought that any dash of my pen in a sudden and easie advertisement might have served to have quitted that ignorant scandall which was cast upon my mis-taken assertion of the true visibility of the Romane Church The issue proves all otherwise I finde to my griefe that the misunderstanding tenacitie of some zealous spirits hath made it a quarrell It cannot but trouble me to see that the position which is so familiarly current with the best reformed Divines which hath beene so oft and long since published by mee without contradiction yea not without the approbation and applause of the whole representative body of the Clergie of this kingdome should now be quarrelled and drawne into the detestation of those that know it not As one therefore that should thinke it corosive enough that any occasion should be taken by ought of mine to ravell but one thred of that seamless coat I doe earnestly desire by a more full explication to give cleare satisfaction to all Readers and by this seasonable reconcilement to stop the flood-gates of contention I know it will not be unpleasing to your Lordship that through your honourable and pious hands these welcome papers should be transmitted to many Wherein I shall first beseech yea adjure al Christians under whose eies they shall fall by the dreadfull name of that GOD who shall judge both the quicke and the dead to lay aside all unjust prejudices and to allow the words of Truth and Peace I dare confidently say Let us be understood and we are agreed The searcher of all harts knows how far it was from my thoughts to speak ought in favour of the Roman Synagogue If I have not sufficiently branded that Strūpet I justly suffer Luthers broad word is by me already both safely cōstrued sufficiently vindicated But doe you not say It is a true visible Church Doe you not yeeld some kinde of communion with these clients of Antichrist What is if this be not favour Marke well Christian Reader and the Lord give thee understanding in all things To beginne with the latter No man can say but the Church of Rome holds some Truths those truths are Gods and in his right ours why should not wee challenge our owne wheresoever we finde it If a verie Devill shall say of Christ Thou art the Sonne of the living God wee will snatch this truth out of his mouth as usurped and in spight of him proclaime it for our own Indeed there is no communion betwixt light and darknesse but there is communion betwixt light and light Now all truth is light and therefore symbolizeth with it selfe With that light therefore whose glimmering yet remaines in their darknesse our clearer light will and must hold communion If they professe three Persons in one Godhead two natures in one person of Christ shall we detrect to joine with them in this Christian veritie We abhorre to have any communion with them in their errors in their idolatrous or superstitious practices these are their owne not ours If we durst have taken their part in these this breach had not beene Now who can but say that wee must hate their evill and allow their good It is no countenance to their errors that we imbrace our owne truths It is no disparagement to our truths that they have blended them with their errors Here can be no difference then if this communion bee not mis-taken no man will say that we may sever from their common truths No man will say that we may joyne with them in their hatefull errours For the former Hee that saith a theefe is truly a man doth hee therein fauour that theefe He that saith a diseased dropsied dying bodie is a true though corrupt body doth he favour that disease or that living carcasse It is no other no more that I say of the Church of Rome Truenesse of being and outward visibility are no praise to her Yea these are aggravations to her falshood The advantage that is both sought and found in this assertion is onely ours as we shall see in the sequell without any danger of their gain I say then that she is a true church but I say withall shee is a false Church True in existence but false in beleefe Let not the homonymie of a word breed jarres where the sense is accorded If we doe not yeeld her the true being of a Church why do we call her the Church of Rome What speake we of or where is the subject of our question who sees not that there is a morall trueness and a naturall He that is morally the falsest man is in nature as truly a man as the honestest and therefore in this regard as true a man In the same sense therefore that wee say the Devill is a true though false spirit that a cheater it a true though false man wee may must say that the Church of Rome is a true though false Church Certainely there hath beene a true errour and mis-taking of the sense that is guiltie of this quarrell As for the visibility there can be no question Would God that Church did not too much fill our eie yea the world There is nothing wherein it doth more pride it selfe than in a glorious conspicuitie scorning in this regard the obscure paucitie of their opposers But you say What is this but to play with ambiguities That the Church of Rome is it selfe that is a Church that it is visible that it is truly existent there can be no doubt but is it still a part of the truly existent visible church of Christ Surely no otherwise than an hereticall and Apostaticall Church is and may be Reader whosoever thou art for Gods sake for thy soules sake marke where thou treadest Else thou shalt bee sure to fall either into an open gulfe of uncharitablenesse or into a dangerous precipice of errour There is no feare nor favour to say that the Church of Rome under a Christian face hath an Antichristian heart overturning that foundation by necessarie inferences which by open profession in avoweth That face that profession those avowed principles are enough to give it claime to a true outward visibilitie of a Christian Church whiles those damnable inferences are enough to feoffe it in the true style of heresie and Antichristianisme Now this heresie this Antichristianisme makes Rome justly odious and execrable to God to Angels and
Men but cannot utterly dischurch it whiles those main principles maintaine a weake life in that crazie and corrupted bodie But is not this language different from that whereto our eares and eies have beene inured from the mouthes and pens of some reverend Divines and professors of our Church Know Reader that the streame of the famous Doctors both at home and abroad hath runne strongly my way I should have feared and hated to goe alone what reason is there then to single out one man in a throng Some few worthie Authors have spoken otherwise in the warmth of their zealous contention yet so as that even to them durst I appeale for my Iudges for if their sound differ from me their sense agrees with me that which as I touched in my Advertisement so I am now readie to make cleare by the instance of learned Zanchius whose pregnant testimonies compared together shall plainly teach us how easie a reconcilement may bee made betwixt these two seemingly-contrarie opinions That worthie Author in his profession of Christian Religion which hee wrote and published in the 70. yeare of his age having defined the Church of Christ in generall and passed thorow the properties of it at last descending to the subdivision of the Church militant comes to inquire how particular Churches may be knowne to be the true churches of Christ wherof he determines thus Illas igitur c. Those Churches therefore doe wee acknowledge for the true Churches of Christ in which first of all the pure doctrine of the Gospell is preached heard admitted and so onely admitted that there is neither place nor eare given to the contrarie For both these are the just propertie of the flocke or sheepe of Christ namely both to heare the voice of their owne Pastor and to reject the voice of strangers Iohn 10. 4. In which secondly the Sacraments instituted by Christ are lawfully and as much as may bee according to Christs institution administred and received and therefore in which the Sacraments devised by men are not admitted and allowed In which lastly the discipline of Christ hath the due place that is where both publiquely and privately charitable care is had both by admonitions corrections and at last if need be by excommunications that the Commandements of God be duly kept and that all persons live soberly iustly and piously to the glory of God and edification of their neighbour Thus hee wherein who sees not how directly he aymes both at the justifying of our Churches and the casheering of the Roman which is palpably guiltie of the violation of these wholsome rules And indeed it must needes be said if we bring the Roman Church to this touch she is cast for a meer counterfeit shee is as farre from truth as truth is from falshood Now by this time you goe away with an opinion that learned Zanchie is my professed adversarie and hath directly condemned my position of the truenesse and visibilitie of the Roman Church Have but patience I beseech you to read what the same excellent Author writes in his golden Preface to that noble worke De natura Dei where this question is clearly punctuall decided There you shall finde that having passed through the wofull and gloomie offuscations of the Church of God in all former ages he descending to the darknesse of the present Babylon concludes thus Deinde non potuit Satan c. Moreover Satan could not in the verie Roman Church doe what he listed as hee had done in the Easterne to bring all things to such passe as that it should no more have the forme of a Christian Church For in spight of Satan that Church retained still the chief foundations of the faith although weakned with the doctrines of men it retained the publique preaching of the word of God thogh in many places mis-understood and mis-construed the invocation of the name of Christ though joyned also with the invocation of dead men the administration of Baptisme instituted by Christ himselfe howsoever defiled with the addition of many superstitions So as together with the symbole of the covenant the Covenant it selfe remained still in her I meane in all the Churches of the West no otherwise than it did in the Church of Israel even after that all things were in part profaned by Ieroboam and other impious and Idolatrous Kings upon the defection made by them from the Church and Tribe of Iuda For neither doe I assent to them which would have the Church of Rome to have no lesse ceased to be the Church of Christ than those Easterne Churches which afterwards turned Mahumetan what Church was ever more corrupt than the Church of the ten Tribes yet we learne from the Scriptures that it was still the Church of God And how doth S. Paul call that Church wherein Antichrist hee saith shall sit the Temple of God neither is it any Baptisme at all that is administred out of the Church of Christ The wife that is an Adulteresse doth not cease to be a wife unlesse being despoiled of her mariage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he againe Wherein you see hee speakes as home for me as I could devise to speake for my selfe and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrarie Looke now how this learned Author may be reconciled to his owne pen and by the very same way shall my pen bee reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himselfe or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plaine then that hee in that former speech and all other classicke Authors that speake in that Key meane by a True Church a sound pure right beleeving Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of existence were all one with truth of doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evill good and is no better than a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true being of a visible Church by the direct maintenance of fundamentall principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the word of God and his Sacraments though not without soule adulteration what judicious Christian can but with mee subscribe to learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true visibilitie of a Church of Christ what should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the
case are we when that which should command respect brands us What blacke Art hath raised up this spirit of Aerius from his pit Wo is mee that zeale should breed such monsters of conceit It is the honour the Pompe the wealthe the pleasure hee saith of the Episcopall Chaire that is guiltie of the depravation of our Calling and if himselfe were so overlayd with greatnesse hee should suspect his owne fidelitie Alas poore man at what distance doth hee see us Foggie Ayre useth to represent everie object farre bigger than it is Our Sauiour in his temptation upon the Mount had onely the glorie of those Kingdomes showed to him by that subtile Spirit not the cares and vexations Right so are our dignities exhibited to these envious beholders Little doe these men see the toyles and anxieties that attend this supposedly-pleasing eminence All the revenge that I would wish to this uncharitable Censurer should bee this that hee might bee but for a while adjudged to this so glorious seate of mine that so his experience might taste the bewitching pleasures of this envied greatnesse hee should well finde more danger of being over-spent with worke than of languishing with ease delicacie For mee I need not appeale to Heaven Eyes enow can witnesse how few free houres I have enjoyed since I put on these Robes of sacred honour In so much as I could finde in my heart with holy Gregorie to complaine of my change were it not that I see these publique troubles are so many acceptable services to my God whose glorie is the end of my being Certainly my Lord if none but earthly respects should sway me I should heartily wish to change this Pallace which the Providence of God and the bountie of my gracious Soveraigne hath put mee into for my quiet Cell at Waltham where I had so sweet leasure to enjoy God your Lordship and my selfe But I have followed the calling of my God to whose service I am willingly sacrificed and must now in an holy obedience to his Divine Majestie with what cheerefulnesse I may ride out all the stormes of envie which unavoidably will alight vpon the least appearance of a conceived greatnesse in the meane time what ever I may seeme to others I was never lesse in my owne apprehensions and were it not for this attendance of envie could not yeeld my selfe any whit greater than I was what ever I am that good God of mine make mee faithfull to him and compose the unquiet spirits of men to a conscionable care of the publique peace with which prayer together with the apprecation of all happinesse to your Lordship and all yours I take leave and am Your Lordships truly devoted in all hearty observance and dutie IOS EXON TO THE CHRISTIAN READER Wisedome and Charitie IT is no easie matter for a man so far to mortifie his self-love as to neglect himselfe for the publique good to vaile his private ingagements though with some seeming disadvantage to the peace of the Church that which is too apparent in the present occasion Whiles there might be some colour of ambiguitie of termes and possibilitie of misconstruction in that Position concerning the true being and visibility of the Roman church I could the lesse marvell that a mistaking should breed a quarrell but now after so clear an explication as I have given of my sense and so satisfactory a reconcilement as no ingenuous Christian can except against I am not a little troubled to see the peace of the church yet disquieted with personall and unkinde dissertations Surely what ever may bee pretended not one haire of any Christians head can be indangered in that assertion of mine yet not so much mine as the most of the reformed Divines of Christendome as it is by them and me both understood and interpreted since we call all Christians to no lesse detestation of the abhominable corruptiōs Idolatries of the Roman Church notwithstanding the yeeldance of a bootlesse visibilitie then those that deny it the being and name of a Church yea wee raise more strong advantage against the adversary by this grant then by that denyall Neyther is here the least contradiction to any clause of the Articles of our Church of England in that sense wherein I have delivered my selfe such is my true filiall honor to that our holy Mother that I should hate my selfe if I should offer to oppose any of her sacred dictates how ever it may sound to an ignorant eare In every opposition there must be supposed the same subject the same respect the same understanding of both Else how ever the words run the matter disagrees not For example If one man shall say The Church is visible materiall consisting of lime and stone Another shall say The Church is invisible immateall not consisting of any earthly stuffe these two doe not contradict each other whiles the one speakes of the outward fabricke of the Church the other of the spirituall state of the Church Neyther is it otherwise in my assertion and that which is counter-alledged from the Articles or Homilies of the Church as I have sufficiently explained my sense both in my Advertisement and Reconciler It is not for me to cloy my Reader with repetitions Now lest I might perhaps seeme partiall to my own cause and flatter my selfe in my own opinion I have craved the judgement of some of the most eminent approved Divines of our Church the French whose names are justly reverend whose workes have made thē famous in our gates I have of many hundreds selected only foure two Bishops and two Doctors such as whose very mētion is able to stop the mouth of calumny and to make ignorance ashamed of it selfe I have taken the boldnes to publish their private Letters in answer to mine Peruse them Reader and take satisfaction and confesse it was thy mistaking and not my errour that made me appeare foule Farewell and love peace and the God of peace be with thee I. E. To the Right Reuerend Father in God THOMAS Lord Bishop of Couentree and Lichfield MY Lord may your leasure serue you to read ouer this poore sheete of Paper and to censure it Your name is left out in the Catalogue of some other famous Diuines mentioned in the body of it that you might not be forestalled I suffer for that wherein your selfe amongst many renowmed Orthodoxe Doctors of the Church are my partner As if you had not already said it enough I beseech your Lordship say once more what you thinke of the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church Your excellent and zealous writings haue iustly won you a constant reputation of great learning and no lesse sinceritie and haue placed you out of the reach of suspicion No man can no man dare mis-doubt your decision If you find any one word amisse in this explication spare me not I shall gladly kisse your rod and hold your vtmost seueritie a fauour But if you
here meete with no other then the words of a commonly professed truth acquit me so farre as to say there is no reason I should suffer alone And let the wilfull or ignorant mis-takers know that they wound innocencie and through my sids strike their best friends I should not herein desire you to tender my fame if the iniurie done to my name did not reflect vpon my holy station vpon my wel-meant labours vpon almost all the famous and wel-deseruing Authors that haue stood for the truth of God and lastly if I did not see this mis-taken quarrell to threaten much preiudice to the Church of God whose Peace is no lesse deare to vs both then our liues In earnest desire and hope of some few satisfactorie lines from your Reuerend hand in answere to this my bold yet iust suit I take leaue and am Your much deuoted and louing Brother IOS EXON To the Right Reuerend Father in God my verie good Lord and Brother IOSEPH Lord Bishop of Exon these RIght Reuerend and as dearely beloued Brother I haue I confesse beene too long in your Lordships debt for these Letters which are now to Apologize for me that although I had my payment ready and in numeratis at the first reading of your Reconciler yet I reserued my Answere vntill I had perused the two other Bookes and seconds that so I might returne my payment cum faenore In that your Lordships Tractate I could not but obserue the liuely Image of your selfe that â—s according to the generall interpretation of all sound professors of the Gospell of Christ of a most Orthodoxe Diuine And now remembring the Accordance your Lordship hath with others touching the Argument of your Booke I must needes reflect vpon my selfe who haue long since defended the same point in the defence of many others I do therefore much blame the Petulcitie of whatsoeuer author that should dare to impute a Popish affection to him whome besides his excellent writings and Sermons Gods visible eminent and resplendent Graces of Illumination zeale pietie eloquence haue made truely Honourable and glorious in the Church of Christ Let me say no more I suffer in your suffering not more in consonancie of iudgement then in the sympathie of my affection Goe on deare Brother with your deserued Honor in Gods Church with holy courage knowing that the dirtie feete of an Aduersarie the more they tread and rubbe the more lustre they giue the figure grauen in Gold Our Lord Iesus preserue vs to the glorie of his sauing grace Your Lordships vnanimous friend and Brother THO. Couent and Lichfield To the Right Reuerend Father in God IOHN Lord Bishop of Salisburie MY Lord I send you this little Pamphlet for your censure It is not credible how strangely I haue beene traduced euerie where for that which I conceiue to be the common opinion of reformed Diuines yea of reasonable men that is for affirming the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church You see how clearely I haue endeauored to explicate this harmelesse position yet I perceiue some tough mis-vnderstandings will not bee satisfied Your Lordship hath with great reputation spent manie yeares in the Diuinitie-Chaire of the famous Vniuersitie of Cambridge Let me therefore beseech you whose Learning and sinceritie is so throughly approued in Gods Church that you would freely how shortly so euer expresse your selfe in this point and if you find that I haue deuiated but one hayre-breadth from the Truth correct me If not free me by your iust sentence What need I intreat you to pittie those whose desires of faithfull offices to the Church of God are vnthankefully repayed with suspicion and sclaunder whose may not this case be I had thought I had sufficiently in all my writings and in this verie last Booke of mine whence this quarrell is picked showed my feruent zeale for Gods truth against that Antichrian faction of Rome and yet I doubt not but your owne eares can witnesse what I haue suffered Yea as if this calumnie were not enough there want not those whose secret whisperings cast vpon mee the foule aspersions of another Sect whose name is as much hated as little vnderstood My Lord you know I had a place with you though vnworthy in that famous Sinod of DROT where howsoeuer sicknesse bereaued me of the houres of a conclusiue subscription yet your Lordship heard me with equall vehemencie to to the rest swaying downe the vnreasonablenesse of that way I am still the same man and shall liue and die in the suffrage of that Reuerend Synod and doe confidently auow that those other opposed opinions cannot stand with the Doctrine of the Church of England But if for the composing of the differences at home which your Lordship knowes to be farre different from Netherlandish there could haue beene tendred any such faire propositions of accordance as might bee no preiudice to Gods truth I should haue thought it an holy and happie proiect wherein if it be not a fault to haue wished a safe peace I am innocent God so loue me as I doe the tranquilitie and happinesse of his Church yet can I not so ouer-affect it that I would sacrifice one dram of Truth to it To that good God doe I appeale as the witnesse of my sincere he art to his whole Truth and no lesse then euer zealous detestation of al Poperie Pelagianisme Your Lordship will be pleased to pardon this importunitie and to vouchsaue your speedy answere to Your much deuoted and faithfull Brother IOS EXON MY Lord you desire my opinion concerning an assertion of yours wherat some haue taken offence The proposition was this That the Romane Church remaynes yet a True Visible Church The occasion which makes this an ill sounding proposition in the eares of Protestants especially such as are not throughly acquainted with Schoole Distinctions is the vsuall acception of the Word True in our English tongue For though men skilled in Metaphysickes hold it for a maxime Ens Verum Bonum conuertuntur yet with vs he which shall affirme Such an one is a True Christian a True Gentleman a True Scholler a True Souldier or the like hee is conceiued not only to adscribe Truenesse of Beeing vnto all these but those Due Qualities or Requisite Actions wherby they are made commendable or Praise-worthy in their seuerall kinds In this sense the Roman Church is no more a True Church in respect of Christ or those due Qualities and proper Actions which Christ requires then an arrant whore is a True and loyall Wife vnto her Husband I durst vpon mine oath be one of your Compurgators that you neuer intended to adorne that Strumpet with the Title of a True Church in this meaning But your owne Writings haue so fully cleered you herein that Suspition it selfe cannot reaosnably suspect you in this point I therefore can say no more concerning your mistaken proposition then this If in that treatise wherein it was deliuered the Antecedents or Consequents