them too but I spare them yet surely I have knowne strange effects of this doctrine and what consequences naturally doe flow from it I leave to the judicious and indifferent consideration of any understanding man Thirdly it produces a strange kind of justification whereby at once all their sinnes past present Ames p. 121. Calvin Inst. l. 3. c. 4. §. 3. and to come are remitted and they without more adoe as sure of heaven as if they were in it already and that without any repentance which with them is no cause of the remission of sinnes neither indeed can bee as comming too late and when that worke is done already by faith or rather before all faith which apprehends the free and full remission of their sinnes ready sealed before all repentance which as they teach ever comes after faith though to say the truth it seldome either precedes or followes after as it ought and indeed I wonder how it should when they hold that neither it nor good workes are of any efficacie in procuring mans salvation Yea so farre have some gone in opposition to repentance and good workes that they blush not to teach that impenitencie it selfe doth not exclude from grace or salvation for they say that impenitencie is but a sinne and the impenitent but a sinner and so the proper object of justification and salvation inasmuch as the Apostle saith This is 1 Tim. 1. 15. a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners so ignorantly and against the maine grounds of Christian faith and piety doe they wrest that most sweet and comfortable place to serve their owne fancies So for good workes though all agree to exclude them from being any meanes of not only of justification but of salvation yet some do admit them as it were spectators and witnesses of the worke done and in that respect require their presence as necessary though they contribute nothing to the worke But others are of a more sublime straine and they think them no way necessary but rather hinderers of salvation and whereas vulgar Christians and the under-forme or ranke of Professors doe make use of them as signes and evidences of their faith and justification these teach as the most new and more refined way that men should try their workes by their faith and that this is the onely way to have constant and untottering comfort which the commission of no sinne can ecclypse or diminish for they beleeving that God loves hath accepted their persons and that once for all must beleeve also that hee will take them altogether with all faults that they are or shall bee gulty of and being his favorits they may be assured that he will give them more liberty and winke at more and grocer faults in them than in unbeleevers and reprobates who may haply be condemned to hell fire for but looking upon a woman to lust after her when these scape with actuall adultery and many other grosse and grievous sins lived dyed in without repentance those being but infirmities in them which in others are scandalous and crying sinnes In which regard they enjoy two notable priviledges First that whereas to others death to them life is the wages of sinne for they so farre extend that of the Apostle Saint Paul Rom. 8. 28. to include sinne and all which together with all things else workes together for their good and salvation Secondly they are by this means exempted from all punishment as well in this world as in the next that all the afflictions which befall them and death it selfe are not punishments for their sins or signes of his displeasure against them whom hee once and ever loved so dearely but onely fatherly corrections and exercises of their graces As their faith is new so are many acts of Gods worship new too I le begin with the principall of them all their Prayers which are farre different from the Prayers of the Church of England for first our Church appointeth publick Prayers after a set and solemne forme Prayers received from the ancient Church of Christ and venerable for their antiquity Prayers wherein the meanest in the Congregation by reason of the continuall use may joyne in and helpe to set upon God with an armie of Prayers Prayers composed with that gravity with such pious and soule-ravishing straines with those full and powerfull expressions of heavenly affection that I suppose the world setting them aside hath not the like volumne of holy Orisons But these are by them slighted and vilified in whose mouthes the short and pithy prayers of the Church are but shreads and pieces and not worthy the name of Prayers and the Letany accounted conjuring And in stead of these regular devotions they have brought in a long prayer freshly-conceived and brought forth by the Minister and that God knowes many times in bald and homely language such as wise men would bee ashamed to tell a tale in even to their equals with many gasping and unseemely pauses and multitudes of irksome Tautologies and which is none of the least defects of it in which none of the Congregation is able to joyne with him or to follow him as not knowing no nor the speaker himselfe sometimes what he is about to say Againe the Church of England hath consecrated certaine places to be houses of publick prayer which places so consecrated and appropriated to that holy Service they judge fit that publick prayer be there made as in the places where God is in a more speciall manner present but these places are by them contemned and every place a parlour barne or play-house accounted as holy and fit as they for publick prayer or any other act of Gods worship Thirdly prayers in the Church of England have ever been conceived not only as duties to bee performed but as meanes also sanctified by God for the obtayning of his blessings whereby he is moved to grant our desires but with them they are accounted only duties which must bee done in doing whereof men do not so much move God or dispose him to grant their desires as themselves to receive them Fourthly when we according as our Saviour hath taught us in that holy pattern of prayer which he left with his Disciples do pray that God would forgive us our trespasses wee meane simply and unfeignedly to obtayn fogivenesse and that by this meanes but they praying for forgivenesse of sinnes intend only continuation of that grace of remission of sinnes which they have already received which grace being immutable prayer for that purpose is by them judged altogether superfluous the mayne end therefore that they ayme at in their prayers is that they may grow more and more in sense and assurance of the remission of their sinnes If we passe from prayer to the Sacraments which as our Church teaches are morall instruments to conveigh those graces unto the receivers which the outward signes visibly represent and
INNOVATIONS Unjustly charged upon the Present CHVRCH and STATE OR AN ANSVVER TO THE MOST MATERIALL PASSAGES of a Libellous Pamphlet MADE BY MR. HENRY BURTON AND INTITVLED An Apologie of an Appeale c. BY CHRISTOPHER DOW B. D. LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill M DC XXXVII To the Ingenuous Reader THis Treatise was finished and intended for the Presse at the beginning of Easter Terme last at which time it was expected that M. B. and his Confederates would have had their censure Had it then comne forth the speed it made would perhaps have made some Apology for the defects of it However in all this delay I wanted both leisure and will to adde or alter any thing and resolved to let it passe in its first dresse If it seeme incompt and lesse accurate then might haply be expected the comfort is that with all faults it is a cover fit enough for such a cup. Only one thing may seeme strange That having promised it I adde nothing particularly of the Appeale and its Apology The truth is the onely point of moment which I reserved for that part was The Legality of the Bishops exercising their Jurisdictions in their owne names and of their proceedings in the High Commission The rest excepting his often repeated railings and frivolous reasons which I never thought worthy of any serious answer I have met with in the Sermons and answered so far as I thought fit Now for that point That which was spoken in that High and Honourable Court of Star-Chamber at the Censure and the expectation of somewhat shortly to be declared by Authority for the full clearing of it Made me even when this booke was more than halfe printed to alter my first determination and suppresse those things which I once intended to publish upon that part judging it altogether needlesse if not presumption to bring my poore verdict either to second or prevent so judiciall and authentick a decision and that point excepted I held the rest not worthy a peculiar Chapter I will adde no more save the best wishes of Thine in our common Saviour C. D. THE CONTENTS OF the CHAPTERS Chap. 1. Fol. 1. AN Introduction to the ensuing Discourse containing the reasons inducing the Author to undertake it and his aime in it Chap. 2. Fol. 7. A short Relation or Description of M. H. Burton his course and manner of life Of the occasion of his discontent his dismission from the Court The ground of his dislike and hatred against the Bishops and betaking himselfe to the people The course he hath since taken in his Bookes and Sermons to make himselfe plausible and the Bishops envied Of the Booke called A divine Tragedie c. Chap. 3. Fol. 14. Of this booke of his The parts of it Of the title of his Sermons The dedication of it to his Majesty and some passages in it Chap. 4. Fol. 21. Of the Sermons The Authors intention in the examination of them A generall view of their materialls Their dissonancy from the Text in every part of it Their principall argument Supposed Innovations The Authors pitching upon them as containing the summe of all Chap. 5. Fol. 32. Of the supposed Innovations in Doctrine Of K. James his Order to the Vniversities for reading the Fathers done long since unjustly charged upon the present Bishops By whomsoever procured upon just grounds Not Popish but against Popery King James his other Order for preaching of Election c. justified Chap. 6. Fol. 38. Of his Majesties Declaration prefixed to the Articles of Religion M. Burtons cunning trick to colour his railing against his Majesties actions and the danger that may come of it All truths not necessary to be knowne or taught The Doctrine of predestination in M. Burtons sense best unknowne The Gospell not overthrowne but furthered by the want of it An uncomfortable Doctrine Chap. 7. Fol. 43. Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentalls What are fundamentalls in M. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants Chap. 8. Fol. 58. Of the Doctrine of obedience to Superiours How taught and maintained by the Bishops Wherein it must be blinde and how quick-sighted Chap. 9. Fol. 67. Of the Doctrine of the Sabbath and Lords-day falsely accused of Novelty The summe of what is held or denyed in this point by those whom Mr B. opposeth The Churches power and the obligation of her precepts The maintainers of this doctrine have not strained their braines or conscience Chap. 10. Fol. 73. Of his Majesties Declaration for sports c. M. Burtons scandalizing the memory of K. James about it His wicked censure of His Majesty for reviving and republishing it His abusive jeere upon my Lords Grace of Cant. Five propositions opposed to his so many unjust criminations in this argument Chap. 11. Fol. 78. Of the 1. Proposition The Declaration no inlet to profanenesse His Majesties respect to piety in it Recreations onely permitted not imposed Of the 2. Proposition The sports allowed are lawfull on those dayes and in themselves not against the Law of the Land M. Burtons seeming respect of the Fathers Of Revelling Of mixt dancing how unlawfull and how condemned by the Ancients and by the Imperiall Edicts Of Calvins judgement in this point Of the 3. Proposition The Booke no meanes of violation of the 5. Commandement Chap. 12. Fol. 97 Ministers commanded by His Majesty to reade the Book They may and ought to obey The matter of the Book not unlawfull Things unlawfully commanded may sometimes be lawfully obeyed What things are required to justifie a subjects refusing a Superiours Command Refusers to reade the Book justly punished The punishment inflicted not exceeding the offence Not without good warrant Chap. 13. Fol. 108. Of the Innovation pretended to bee in Discipline The Courts Ecclesiasticall have continued their wonted course of Iustice St. Austines Apology for the Church against the Donatists fitly serves ours The cunning used by delinquents to make themselves pitied and justice taxed Their practises to palliate and cover their faults Mr. B's endeavour to excuse Ap-Evans Mr. Burtons opposites not censorious What they thinke of those whom hee calls Professors and the profession it selfe True Piety approved and honoured in all professions The answere to this crimination summed up The censured partiall Iudges of their own censures How offences are to be rated in their censures Chap. 14. Fol. 113. Of the supposed Innovations
p. 56. for sports and often elsewhere and therefore that they are not the Kings acts What doth he else but perswade the people who for all his glosse beleeve them as indeed who can beleeve otherwise to be his That His Majesty is I tremble to speak it out such as he makes them whom he intitles to those acts And then what may we Calv. Inst l. 4. c 20. et 31. Bucan loc 40 77. See Goodman p. 190. expect to follow but the practise of that doctrine which is taught in many of his Orthodoxe Authors The withstanding and opposing of their commands and deposing of their persons But this passage is better answered by the justice of authority than a Scholers pen. Let us see then what it is he findes fault with in this Declaration First he intimates that Gods truth that is the saving doctrines of Election Predestination effectuall vocation Assurance and perseverance are thereby silenced and suppressed Be it so Is it not better that some truth for a while be suppressed than the peace of the Church disturbed St. Augustine saith It is prositable to keepe in some truth for their Facile est imo utile ut â—aceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Aug. de persev SanctoruÌ„ c. 15. sakes that are uncapable and surely we might truly say of the time when this Declaration was published by His Majesty that men were uncapable of these doctrines When men begin once to strive about names to quarrell about abstruse mysteries to side one against the other and to count each other Anathema as it was with our neighbours and began to be with us was it not time to enjoyne silence to both parties All truths wee know are not of the same rank or of equall necessity some things there are which must be preached in season and out of season but those points he mentions come not within that number And though the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is ful of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons as our Church Article speakes that is if wise men in this argument Artic. 17. can be content to be wise unto sobriety and thus farre truth even in these points is not by the Declaration suppressed nor our Articles of Religion to which we all subscribe hung up upon the wall and cashier'd And though this may in some sense be called a saving doctrine yet not so as the ignorance of it should exclude from salvation However taking it in the sense he intends for those absolute and peremptory decisions desperate positions and high speculations and such as are opposite to the receiving of Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in the holy Scripture and harping upon that will of God which is secret and not declared unto us in the word of God which is the doctrine Multa etenim benè tecta latem neâ—câ—taâ— prosunt c. vid. Carm de Ingrat which he aymes at we may count this doctrine among those things of which Prosper saith that they profit being unknowne And Mr. Burton is much deceived and deceives the people when hee saith Thus the Ministery of the Gospell is at once overthrowne and nothing but orations of morality must be taught the people Indeed Mr. Burtons Gospell is thus overthrowne which consists in such daring speculations But blessed be God the Gospell of Christ by this meanes hath had a freer passage than it was like to have had if things might have beene suffered to have gone on as they begun And then is the Gospel in most vigor when the people by it are instructed what it is that God hath commanded and what they ought to doe which in contempt he calls orations of morality God doth not bring men to heaven by difficult questions the way to eternity is plaine and easie to be knowne To beleeve that Iesus Christ was raised from the dead to acknowledge him to be Lord and Christ and to live soberly righteously and religiously in this present world is the summe of saving doctrine and Christian religion and this is left written for our learning in so plaine characters that he that runs may read it And therefore it is good counsell which the son of Syrach gives Seeke not out the things that are above thy strength But what is commanded Ecclus. 3. 21. thee thinke thereupon with reverence And what the Iesuit thinks of this way of silencing Contzen polit controversies it is not much to be regarded yet it seemes Mr. B. and he jumpe in opinion here as well as in other things But how this should be a meanes to restore the Roman-Catholick religion for men to be enjoyned to hold themselves to the Articles of the Church of England and as it is in the Declaration that no man shall either print or preach to draw the Article aside any way but shall submit to it in the plaine and full meaning thereof c. This I confess is beyond my capacity But by this meanes there is not one Minister almost among a thousand that dare clearely preach of these most comfortable doctrines Of Absolute Election and Reprobation and so soundly and roundly confute So I finde it printed diverse times in the place the Arminian heresie And blessed be God that there are so few that dare and I wish that Mr. B. and those others that have dared would have shewed more obedience to his Majesty As for the comfortableness of that doctrine as they teach it let the poore tormented consciences speake which have by it beene affrighted and driven to desperation I heard one once an acquaintance of Mr. Burtons making this objection against his preaching about reprobation that said It was very fit that therefore it should bee taught that men that found in themselves the marks of reprobation should be driven to horror and despaire and have hell fire kindled in them here in this life A most comfortable doctrine no question CHAP. VII Of the bookes that have beene printed of late Of Franciscus à S. Clara. Desire of peace warranted by S. Paul We and they of Rome differ not in fundamentals What are fundamentals in Mr. Burtons sense The distinction in fundamentalibus circa fundamentalia justified The Church of England not Schismaticall How far separated and wherein yet united with the Romish Church Good workes necessary to salvation Iustification by workes By charity in what sense no Popery Whether the Pope be That Antichrist disputable Of confession Of prayer for the dead how maintained by our Church Praying to Saints justly condemned by Protestants FOr the bookes that he saith of late times have come abroad maintaining Popery and Arminianisme My answer is that Mr. Burton knowes well enough how to get bookes printed in spight of authority and therefore he cannot lay the blame there if any such have past out without license And for those that have Bishop Mount Appeale Dr.
Church or to yeeld them the name of Christians and of a Church and so to difference them from Turks and Pagans to which the profession of the same Creed and their Baptisme is sufficient And though the errors of Popery as now it stands are grosse and palpable yet to make them such as presently and absolutely to cut off all that professe and beleeve them from the Catholick Church and hope of salvation is an uncharitable groundlesse rigor and strictnesse neither can they who are not thus harshly uncharitable be justly taxed nor is it an absurd distinction as he unreverently and absurdly termed it that a Great Prelate who ever he was for he names him not used in the High Commission at the censure of Dr Bastwick when he said that We the Church of Rome differ not in Fundamētalibus but circa Fundamentalia for there may be and indeed are many intercurrent questions concerning points fundamentall disputed among us in which we and they differ and yet the fundamentalls themselves confessed by both sides For example both sides doe professe their agreement and common beliefe of that grand Fundamentall of Christianity that Iesus Christ the Son of God and Sonne of the B. Virgin is the Saviour of the world and that salvation is obtained onely by vertue of his merits Yet we doe not agree in every thing that concerns this principle or how and in what manner this vertue is efficacious unto our salvation Whether it make the good works of those that beleeve in this common Saviour properly meritorious and fully worthy of everlasting life as they will have it or onely as we contend in regard Rhemist on 2 Tim. 4. See B Andr. Ser. of justificat in Christs name of Gods gracious acceptation and by means of his promise and covenant whereby hee hath bound himselfe to reward them So that the distinction is not absurd but may most truely and fitly be said that wee may and doe differ about and not in fundamentalls That which M. Burton out of the Apostle alledgeth to crosse this is most 1 Tim. 1. 19. frivolous and vaine for he might have knowne that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place is better turned of or concerning than either in or about and so a Naufragium fidei fecerunt Beza renders it or as b Fide vacuati sunt Tremellius out of the Syriack they lost their faith so that faith is the merchandise lost or cast away and not any thing about it But granting that to erre in faith and about the faith as they may in some sense be all one yet will not that follow which hee would have but for all that there will be ground sufficient to justifie that distinction and to lay the absurdity upon those that quarrell it But this is an old theme upon which M. B. hath long wrangled and he might now doe well to give it over or if he will needs be doing let him goe lend his help to the Jesuite with whom he sides in opposing this distinction to answer Dr Potters learned and Ans to Char. mistaken Sec. 7 judicious discourse wherein it is fully and unansweraby asserted But M. Burton hath another quarrell yet but it is so weake and silly that I would not grace it with an answer but that haply some of his admirers may think it of greater moment because hee affirmes that thereby is made a change of our very Church c. This is a great matter but how is this made good Thus. My L. of Ely affirmes In his Epist to my Lo Grace of Cant. before his discourse of the Sabbath that the Romish adversary fromt he rising up of some schismaticall spirits among us uncharitably concludes that the whole body of our Church is schismaticall But in good earnest is M. Burton so deeply in love with his schismaticall humour that he cannot be content himselfe alone to be a schismatick but that he will have the maine body of our Church schismaticall or must we needs joyn with the Romish Church in their errors unlesse we wil confesse our selves guilty of the crime of schisme So they would have us indeed and M. B. it seemes so he may shew himself to be at enmity with them cares not though he draw that name upon himself and the whole Church of England whereas it hath been the care of discreet and wise men that have dealt in the controversies betweene us and them to wipe off that unjust and infamous aspersion To whom I referre him and others of his See the Ans to Char. mistaken Sect. 3. minde to be better informed and to learn That the Church of England did reform the errors and abuses of Rome without schisme And that though we have separated from thē in those things which they hold not as the Church of Christ but as the Romane and Pontifician yet we remaine still united both in the bond of charity and in those Articles of faith which that Church yet hath from Apostolicall tradition yea and in those acts of Gods worship which they yet practise according to Divine prescript that is wee and they professe one beleefe of the same Apostolike Creed as it is expounded by the foure first Generall Councels Wee approve with them the things which the Ancient Church of Christ decreed against Pelagius We and they worship and invocate the same God in the Name of the same Iesus Christ And what ever some turbulently-uncharitable haply may doe we study to reduce them from their errors and pray for their salvation accounting them not quite cut off but to continue still members though corrupt ones of the same Catholike Church But the man hath not yet done but to shew that there will come in an universall change in all our doctrine reckons up divers particulars as Iustification by works maintained openly not long agoe at the Commencement in Cambridge Iustification by charity in Mr. Shelfords Booke The Pope not Antichrist Pulpits and preaching beaten downe by the same man in his second Treatise The Virgin Mary Deified in a booke intitled The female glory c. For answere to these I say for the first That hee hath shamefully slandered the University The Heads whereof are more judicious and discreet than to suffer any position which doth directly and in terminis crosse the Articles of our Church to bee openly disputed and maintained That which I suppose he aimes at by his quoting of Fr. à S ta Clara was to this purpose That good Bona opera sunt efficaciter necessaria ad salutem Resp Dr. Duncan works are effectively necessary to salvation which position was intended and maintained in opposition to the enemies of good works of whom some deny their necessity others allowing their presence as requisite deny that they conduce any thing to the furtherance of salvation Now this is not to maintaine Iustification by works for the works here meant were such as follow justification