many whatsoever this Authour saith have not deprived themselves voluntarily of marriage but have taken it upon them as a yoke and burden which neither they nor their Predecessors were able to beare many sinking under it unto the very pit of Hell And let them labour with their wits and pennes so much as they can they will never by reason nor by the lives of their Priests disprove Christs truth That all men cannot receive it nor prove their owne untruth That all men can receive it And surely the Fornications Adulteries Murders and pollutions that have issued from this Law of Coelibate I doubt not cry aloud to heaven against Rome as once against Sodome for that sore to which it is condemned Hee adds further In like manner Saint Peter saith That Saint Paul in his Epistles had written certaine things which were hard to bee understood and which the unlearned and unstable did pervert to their destruction Saint Augustine declares upon this place that the places misunderstood concerned the doctrine of Iustification which some misconceived to bee by faith alone by occasion of what Saint Paul had writ to the Romanes and of purpose to countermine that errour hee saith that Saint James wrote his Epistle and proved therein that good works were absolutely necessary to the Act of Iustification Hereupon wee may observe two things the one That an errour in this point alone is by the judgement of Saint Peter to worke their destruction who imbrace it And the other That the Apostles Creede which speakes no one word thereof is no good Rule to let us know all the fundamentall points of faith To this I answer First That this Authour goes on still upon a false ground as if wee said that all errours in faith that may damne men were fundamentall and expressely against some Article of the Creede Whereas wee have often affirmed That any errour though not fundamentall may damne men that by a lively faith hold not rightly the fundamentals and so are without Christ. And it seemes that these men were not well grounded and founded by fundamentals in Christ Jesus whom Saint Peter calls unlearned and unstable and their errour the errour of the wicked A generation of vipers turne wholesome food into poyson and abuse Scriptures to their owne condemnation But secondly That faith doth not justifie but that good workes are absolutely necessarie to the Act of Iustification is most untrue and against Saint Augustine himselfe Untrue for a man is justified by faith in Christ and not by his owne merits which in your language are good workes as divers of your owne Authours affirme And a man in the instant of his Justification may dye before he hath had time to do good works and yet his Justification may be good And it is against Saint Austin even in the same place whence the former saying of Saint Peter is taken where you may find that commonly knowne sentence of his Opera sequuntur justificatum non praecedunt justificandum Good works follow justification and doe not goe before it So that whiles this Authour observes two things hee gives more then two scandalls to his Reader For first hee chargeth falsly not Saint Austin onely but Saint Iames with holding this errour That good workes were absolutely necessary to the act of justification And then secondly he will make him to say that the not holding of this errour is an errour which may worke their destruction that embrace it Yea thirdly that the Apostles Creed is no good rule to let us know all the fundamentall points of faith because it speakes no one word to teach us that the Cavaliers errour is a fundamentall point of faith Lastly his owne Doctors doe bring into their Explicites our faith in Christs passion resurrection for justification but not this his Article That good workes are absolutely necessary to the act of justification And if they doe not why doth hee require it of us in our fundamentalls SECT II. Wherein his Exceptions against the 39. Articles of Religion established in this Church are answered BUt having quarrelled in vaine with the Creed to prove the insufficiency of it for fundamentalls now hee comes to the Articles where he thus begins Others say that the Booke of the 39. Articles declares all the fundamentall points of Faith according to the Doctrine of the Church of England but this also is most absurdly affirmed For as it is true that they declare in some confused manner which yet indeed is extremely confused what the Church of England in most things beleeves so it is true that they are very carefull that they bee not too clearly understood And therefore in many Controversies whereof that Book speakes it comes not at all to the main difficulty of the question between them and us and especially in those of the Church and Free-will While the Authour speaks of a confused manner and which is extremely confused his words do returne upon himselfe and his owne discourse For that he may make his discourse confused it seemes hee makes use of this doubtfull word Declare For if wee say That the Booke of Articles declares our fundamentalls of faith wee doe not say it declares all the knots of questions which are between us and the Romists For it is well knowne there are divers controversies between us and the Romists which are not of fundamentalls And neither the Fathers in their rules of Faith neither Romists in their Explicites doe declare the knots of questions which may arise even concerning fundamentalls themselves if the fundamentalls be so expressed that their true and saving sense may bee received and beleeved by the working of that Spirit which makes Christs sheep to hear Christs voice They that thus beleeve shall bee saved though they know not all the knots which cunning and erring men doe make They that write rules of Faith Explicites and Fundamentalls doe not in the same undertake to write all knots of controversies which concerne them And the Cavalier doth not find them in his owne Doctors among their Explicites wherefore the answer which he makes for them let him take for us Secondly for his particulars of the Church and Free-will First for the Church Doth our Church hold that the visibility and inerrability of the Church are fundamentalls And if shee doe not how can this Authour accuse her for not shewing fundamentalls because she shewes not those points which she doth not hold to be fundamentall The Church is not the foundation of the Church but she her selfe is built on that onely foundation Christ Jesus And even your owne men are not agreed about making the Article of the Church one of the Explicites or at least agree not in declaring these points of controversies concerning her to be explicitely beleeved And for Free-will I might aske first Doth this Authour find in any of his Doctors this knot of Free-will for an Explicite But secondly Doth the Councell of
saved who avoyd the mortall infection of these points and what caution must be used to preserve this Charity from crossing with Truth HAving discovered many Untruths in at least foure maine points of this Chapter wee are come to a fifth point whose truth is so powerfull that it overcomes mee and makes mee to acknowledge with the Author That it divides Protestants and right Romists so farre as salvation and damnation And I must cleere either side from uncharitablenesse in saying that these who faile in this point are in a state of damnation And it is very true that hee promiseth That this Reason strikes at the roote which is taken from the nature and propertie of Faith The point is this That whosoever doth give his faith and assent to all the Articles of Christian doctrine yet if hee doe it not upon the right and infallible motive hee hath no saving Faith Now hereunto wee subjoyne That true and right Papists or Romists doe not beleeve upon the true and infallible motive Therefore they can have no saving Faith And indeed though they have many and pernitious errors yet this is the great and generall error that makes up the Mystery of iniquity which wee call the Papacie and the Papists call the Church For the ordinary motive of faith in those who are the right and naturall members of the Head of that Mysterie is to beleeve the Articles of Faith because the Church whose mouth head and spirit is the Pope propounds and commands them to bee beleeved And this Author saith that the onely true and infallible ground is The Revelation of Almighty God and the proposition and direction of the Church Wherein first hee joyneth the Church with God in this ground of Faith and so gives as it were halfe of the ground of Faith to the Church from God and makes it halfe unsafe and damnable But even this halfe hee seemes elsewhere wholly to take away and so to leave men wholly to bee damned by a Faith wholly grounded on a motive which cannot raise a saving and supernaturall Faith for hee saith That if the Church hath not decided propounded and commanded a doctrine to bee beleeved by her children a man may thinke and doe as hee sees cause without incurring the crime of heresie Thus wee see that the Revelation of God is not a motive of Faith of it selfe but the Church is the motive of beleeving Gods Revelation so first wee see the Church to put God aside and to take place of him and knowing who is the Head Heart if not the Whole of this Church wee finde him just in his owne place and that is lifting himselfe up above all that is called God And secondly wee see the deadly motive and ground of Faith proposed by Papists to Popish soules even the word of a man and a Man of sinne on whom whatsoever Faith is finally grounded it can give nothing but damnation Neither are wee put by other Papists to lay pieces together to prove this their damning motive of Faith for besides the common voice of the people that they beleeve as the Church beleeves wee have before heard that the Rhemists acknowledge the Popes to bee an Order of Governors to whom wee are bound to cleave in Religion and to obey in all things And thereupon they infer that A Papist is a Christian man a childe of the Church and subject to Christs Vicar So the Christianity of a Papist and his being a child of the Church depends on his cleaving to the Pope and obeying him in all things But yet againe we may see it more acknowledged in their Writers Lorca brings forth Medina affirming that The Testimonie of the Church doth so farre partake of being the formall object or motive of faith that the utmost resolution of faith is into the authoritie of the Church and the proofes produced for it are to bee heard in the common language of Romists If it bee asked why thou beleevest the Trinity in Unity and thou answer Because God saith it It will then bee demanded of thee how thou knowest that God saith it thou hast no other Answer left but this Because the Church saith it and so are they taught in the Catechisme and so answer both the learned and unlearned Behold the common answer and common faith of Romists Now this object of faith being man and not God it cannot raise that supernaturall and saving faith whose object is the prime Veritie even God speaking to the soules of his servants And seeing this humane faith hath so possessed Romists that their Prophets doe make the obeying and cleaving to the Pope in his doctrine the very Character of a Christian and childe of the Church this Church consisting of these children thus adhering to the Pope is against such truely affirmed not to bee the Church and so may the Homily of our Church clearely bee interpreted which denyeth the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his Adherents to bee the true Church for thus to adhere unto the Pope and to lay beliefe on him is so farre from making a true childe and member of the Church that it makes a member of the Papacie and so of Antichrist it makes a Synagogue for Sathan and Hell and not a Church for Christ and salvation And whereas this Author both in this Chapter and the beginning of the eighth objects it to us that wee condemne their doctrines and account the Church of Rome to bee the Seate of Antichrist and the Synagogue of Sathan Hee hath here seene one reason of it and it is a reason of his owne and his fellowes even because the Romish Doctors and Champions tell us that the Church of Rome is made of those children which beleeve in the Pope And this faith being humane cannot make a Church to Christ but to the Pope and thus the Pope stands in the place of Antichrist for putting Christ out of his place and stepping into it whiles thus hee makes his sheepe to heare his voice before Christs yea both herein and often otherwise against Christ. But a second Reason may bee given of their calling the Church of Rome the Synagogue of Sathan the Church of Rome being taken in a larger sense even for all those parts of mankinde that have reference to Rome For they finde this Church of Rome overspred not onely with this false and Antichristian faith but with other mortall errours and abhominations such are grosse and almost universall Idolatry in the worship of Images and especially of the Sacrament confidence in workes for justification and merit and a grosse ignorance even a not knowing of Christ which before hath beene touched Now many seeing a field overcome with these deadly and killing weeds and so overcome that they seemed to cover the face of the field they tooke it to bee a field of Weeds and not of Corne And because the usuall manner of speaking is to say that a horse is blacke and
have indeed the divine gift of Love and thereby love God as a Father that hath already so merited of them all that they are and have that his merit is to them a most sufficient motive to serve him heartily even with all that might and being which they have received from him Accordingly the man according to Gods owne heart calls upon all mankinde for their service as due to God for making them Come let us kneele and worship before God our Maker Againe the love of God in redeeming us hath deserved all our love and service and accordingly the Apostle rap'd into the third heaven saith The love of Christ constraineth us and why doth it constraine because wee thus judge that if Christ dyed for us wee should live to him Gods merits in creating and redeeming us are strong motives to serve him though wee cannot merit of him though Gods merit is so great that it hath swallowed up all our merits we are therefore to serve him not the lesse but the more the more hee hath deserved beyond our requitall A good Sonne would serve and obey this heavenly Father for that which hee hath done though hee gave him nothing hereafter And surely if there were not such an affection even in humanitie how should thee sonne of a poore father ever doe him service But yet wee doe not stop here because the bounty of our heavenly Father doth not stop but enlargeth it selfe further for though God hath already deserved of us all that we can doe so that all that wee can doe were but our dutie yet hee goes on and promiseth to give rewards even for doing our duty And doth not this reward move us as much being given by free promise as if it were gotten by the workers merit yea much more in a noble worker For such a one will reason thus My heavenly Father freely gives mee infinite rewards even an excessively exceeding weight of glory for small and moment any passions and actions hee gives mee that which hee is not bound to give hee gives that which I can never deserve and shall I not couragiously and affectionately serve him who is so freely gracious and bountifull to mee far beyond my deserts But indeed much rather and that contrary to Romish Divinity out of a right consideration of Gods great rewards and our great unworthinesse wee being if Iacob say true lesse then the least of Gods mercies wee may truely affirme That we can have no courage to good workes if wee will not worke without a true confidence of Merits For if Gods rewards be beyond all merits as it needes must bee since hee himselfe whom all that we have and are cannot merit is our exceeding great reward how should there bee good works raised from the confidence in that merit which is not And though there be an excellency in the grace of the Spirit by which wee worke yet even that grace is a free loane and wee are debters to God for it and how can wee merit of him by growing in debt unto him especially because the money wherewith we should pay those debts is of a baser Alloy by the mixture of our corruption then that which wee received and whereby wee became debtors And wee cannot pay debts much lesse become meriters by paying ten borrowed Talents of pure gold with ten Talents of the metall of Nebuchadnezzars Image Therefore the Saints trust perfectly in the grace of God and not in their merits and from that grace as from a boundlesse and bottomelesse Ocean fetch most sufficient motives of good works While they have grace that enables them to worke and grace that forgives the imperfection of their workes and grace that rewards whatsoever goodnesse is in their workes yea even the will for the deede they are mightily encouraged to continue in good workes knowing that Their labour thus is not in vaine in the Lord. And herein their hearts agree with the heart of him that rewardeth them For his eyes are on them that feare him and trust in his mercie They feare God and by good workes keepe his Commandements but they trust not in the merits of their workes but in Gods mercy And in such God takes delight and loves to behold them and if God love to behold them hee will also bring them to behold him in a beatificall vision SECT II. Wherein are contained these two Tenets 1. That the best workes of Gods children are mixed with some sinne 2. That no man doth or will perfectly fulfill the whole Law And yet contrary to the Cavaliers lame Inferences there are encouragements sufficient to good works and to use our best endeavours toward the fulfilling of the Law BUt that which followeth next requires a patient Reader For if the Articles of the Church of England bee but compared with this Authours words I doubt the Reader will feele some need of patience The Authours words are these And what cause can they assigne why men should abstain from sin when they teach them that the best workes which are performed by the greatest Saints in the world are no better then sinnes and they in their owne nature mortall The Articles words are these Albeit that works which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification cannot put away our sinnes and endure the severity of Gods judgement yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ. And the like approbation of good works by the Church of Scotland and forraine Churches of Protestants is to bee seene in the harmonie of Confessions Wherefore I should offend my Reader to say much against this which appeares so plainely to be a scandall even one of those coales of Iuniper which comes from devouring tongues and I wonder it had not burned the tongue or the conscience of the speaker Briefly wee hold that a good tree made good by Regeneration and ingrafted by faith into Christ Jesus bringeth forth good fruit even this fruit of good works and these works as much as they come from the sappe of the roote of Christ Jesus and partake of his fatnesse so much are they good but as much as they partake of us and our remnant of corruption so much are they faulty This faultinesse hath need of mercy and receiveth it through Christ into whom wee are ingrafted but this being removed by Christ the goodnesse which the worke hath from Christ shall eternally bee rewarded And this reward is a very good motive to good works unto all those who with Moses have an eye of faith where with truely to see the recompence of the reward Hee goes on and askes When they teach men that the Commandements of God are not possibly to bee kept by any man even with the helpe of Divine grace what reason can they have either to exhort men to keepe Gods Commandements or to reprove them for infringing the same The Cavalier is here troubled and troubles us with an old
the Pope and in that regard not under the same prelates they may bee of a very good religion and of the one saved Church For so are the Greek Armenian and Abissine Christians A second untruth is his inference upon a catalogue of differences For saith hee wee differ in prime points c. Hereupon his looke tells us he would inferre that we are in some danger for differing in these points But I referre him for the proofe of our safety to one that sheweth himselfe a far truer Roman Catholick then this Cavalier whose businesse is cleane contrary to this Cavaliers even to prove that Protestants are not damnable nor of a different Church for their differences from Romish Catholickes And untill the Cavalier have refuted his Arguments I shall hold these his objections of differences to bee but dead words already vanquished and slaine And let him take this with him as a note that the title of the first chapter of that Booke is the plaine affirmative whereof the title of this chapter is theâ— Negative The truth is the points which this Champion nameth are Popish errours and bring the danger on their side and wee are the more safe for differing from them and they the more unsafe for differing from us and withall unsafe againe for uncharitable censuring us And indeede their danger is so great in the point of justification one of these prime points and making their workes their Saviours that they who hold this errour and thereby withdraw their trust from Christ Iesus if they be in that which is called the Church they are but in it as chaffe in the Barne mixt with the corne but to bee blowne away with the fanne into an unquencheable fire And whereas hee expresseth this difference thus We differ about the justification of soules and the value which the death and grace of Christ our Lord hath imparted to the works of the Children of God Hee is here againe chargeable with an untrue and an unsound expression For wee differ from right Papists about the disvalue and unworthinesse which our persons and our corruptions impart to the works which have otherwise some goodnesse in them as they come from the grace of Christ so that in regard of the imperfection which they have from our corruption wee dare not stand upon them before the Justice and Judgement of God for our justification But we think it most safe to set betweene Gods Justice and our soules a perfect Righteousnesse even the Righteousnesse of Christ Jesus our Head For Christ is the end of the Law and a true commensurate Satisfier of the Divine Justice for every one that beleeveth And in regard of our owne workes wee may say with one that had more good works and works more good then the best of the Romists Enter not into judgement with thy servant O Lord for no flesh is righteous in thy sight this Saint was Gods servant yet he desired that God would not enter into judgement with him These then that will have God to enter in judgement with them it is very likely they are not the servants of God but whatsoever they be they may be sure by this Text they shall not be justified in his sight He comes to a third point and therein hee hath also many and manifest untruths His point is this That it is the Pride of the man in his disobedience to the Church and not the importance or weight of the doctrine that makes the Heresie And this he would prove because Saint Augustine accounts some things heresies which are points of small importance and because the Donatists are accounted hereticks for that which in S. Cyprian was not heresie and againe because Saint Cyprian saith nothing to the Cavaliers purpose that the doctrine of Novatianus was not worth the inquiring because he was not of the Church Here are divers untruths met together a first is the Position it selfe That it is Pride and Disobedience to the Church that makes the heresie A second that if it were disobedience to the Church yet it is not disobedience to the Cavaliers Church the Pope and his Adherents Thirdly It is not true that those places and proofes produced by him doe prove his point of Pride to bee heresie But before I come to a more exact consideration of these particulars I cannot but deliver him backe againe his scornefull objection which hee threw at us in passing to this point as nothing accusing us but him that gave it without reason That the Protestants have taken upon themselves to bee the Reformers of the world without ordinary Mission or Miracles That our Ministers have not ordinary Mission is an untruth so strongly refuted that there needs a great deale of impudence or ignorance to affirme it without new and more proofe And for Miracles to make good a Reformation I never heard that the very Priests of Baal did require them of Iehu nor the idolatrous Jewes of Hezekiah and Iosiah And indeed they might well think there should bee no absolute need of new Miracles to them that brought in no new Law but reformed the Church according to the old which at first was delivered as it were in a cloud of Miracles Neither is it necessary that our Reformation not bringing in a new Gospel but reforming according to the Gospel once delivered to the Saints and at first confirmed by signes should be now again confirmed by Miracles But we leave Romish Miracles to bee the marks of the Man of sinne and his deformation of the Church whose comming must bee with signes and lying wonders and accordingly wee think when Lipsius wrote a Booke of the wonders of Montague and Hall hee did by that Booke prove That the Pope is Antichrist But now to come to his false Position That it is pride and disobedience to the Church that makes the heresie I must tell him that hee hath divers of his owne Romish Doctors and those not ignoble that hold the contrary and therefore hee must not blame his Reader if hee beleeve them before a Cavalier for some hold That not the pride of the person makes the heresie but that an heresie may properly bee called any error contrary to faith considered in it selfe without any respect to the deliverer of it And for this opinion are brought forth these great ones Turrecremata Castro Simancas Couarruncas Gabriel Corduba Secondly a Proposition may be hereticall as some Romists say though the contrary hath not beene decided and decreed by the Church Accordingly wee reade againe That those are not onely hereticall assertions which are defined by Counsels or the Pope but many others which is plaine because this Proposition God is not Three and One was hereticall before the condemnation of Arrius The like hee affirms of the heresie of Nestorius yet again to make the matter more plaine hee saith Whatsoever is expressely contained in Scripture so that no obscurity bee in the sense of the words
But wee see their errour was condemned before by Cornelius and Stephen Bishops of Rome even in the time of S. Cyprian And therefore if there bee no other reason the Donatists may escape the note of Heresie with S. Cyprian But indeede there were other reasons that might aggravate the errour of the Donatists beyond S. Cyprian and make it look more like Heresie A first may be a maintaining of their errour after much evidence and conviction by Scriptures A second because they made this errour a ground of an other errour That it was a just cause to divide from the Church because the Church differed from them in their errour This Cyprian never did for though Cyprian yeelded not obedience to the Pope having decided the point yet he held union with the Church even with those who differed from him in this point of re baptization which may be spoken to the shame both of the old Donatists and the new even the Romists that teare the Church into pieces for every little difference Thirdly the Donatists were thought thereupon to raise another errour contrary to an Article of the Creed That the Church was not Catholick and this the Cavalier might have seene in this very Treatise of Saint Austin ad quod vult Deum from whence hee fetched his former objections Lastly if any man will see the reason of Lirinensis whom this Author produceth he may thus receive it and adde it for a Corollary The Masters are absolved the Disciples are condemned c. whose wickednesse I judge to bee worthy of double hatred both because they feare not to deliver unto others the poyson of Heresie and because with profane hands they tosse the memory of holy men as ashes which were quenched and spread abroad a reviv'd opinion which should have beene buried in silence following herein the steps of their Father Cham who not onely neglected to cover the nakednesse of reverend Noe but also shewed it to others to bee derided As for the answer of Cyprian to him that made the question concerning the doctrine of Novitianus it doth not shew that they that obey not the Popish Church are Hereticks but that Hereticks are cast out of the Church for their Hereticall doctrines And such doctrines whose Authors and Abettors are for them worthily cast out of the Church are not worth the enquiry The Cavalier having passed through many untruths now comes to an impertinence fraught also with untruths Hee would faine prove that because there are some quarrells betweene some Calvinists and some Lutherans therefore Protestants are damnable Hereticks for disobeying the Pope in small matters But he knowes not how to tye this together scarcely with the Jesuiticall cart-ropes of vanity and fraud called Equivocation and mentall Reservation For neither of them doe charge the other with Heresie for disobeying the Pope yea not for disobeying the Church but as they would perswade others in their disputing vehemence for not rightly conceiving some passages of Scripture and I dare so much trust the Cavaliers honesty that he will not say that himselfe beleeves some of those slanders which himselfe produceth from Lutherans against Calvinists Such are corrupting the Scriptures concerning the glorious Trinity the Deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost And hee knowes or might know if he have but begunne with Bellarmines coÌ„troversies whom he names what Greâ—zer speakes of Hunnius one of the Cavaliers chiefe Authors that casts scandalls upon Calvinists in his Epistle prefixed to Bellarmines controversies For there he saith That Hunnius began a kind of writing right Lutherane that is Thrasonicall vaine-glorious furious I had almost said drunken yea he goes from the man to the kind and saith The Lutheran Preachers doe set forth their disputations as if it were upon Meade and Beere and so that they may seeme to smell of that which ariseth from both railing-slanders and madnesse Now if this testimony of Gretzer be true and whatsoever it be I thinke this Cavalier will not give this Father of his the lye then I wonder he would produce testimonies of such whose Disputations as saith his Father Gretzer smell of rayling-Slanders and madnesse So that indeed this argument seemes not to be so much a matter of earnest as of mirth even to make himselfe and his Romish Readers infernally merry with the bitternesse and contentions of christians yet it were not hard to shew patternes of such vomits of Gall brought up from Romish stomacks and indeede here they lye in sight but I had rather they should bee covered with ashes then bee stirred to annoy my Reader and my selfe with the savour of them Only I will give this Champion some animadversions one is that this is a stale objection long since dissolved by that reverend and learned prelate the ever honoured Bishop Iewell And this Bishop hath so torne this objection to ragges that I wonder this Cavalier would stoope so low as to take up such ragges which can never bee well sowed together againe and cloath his book with them A second that it were farre more like the spirit of Moses to say Why doe yee strive seeing yee are brethren then to gather this uncharitable and false Inference Because yee strive yee are not brethren I am passing from this Champions Untruths to his Truth but I cannot passe over an abominable fearefull and manifold Untruth not so much bounded in one part of this Chapter as arising from the whole For his maine drift and plot is and his words doe tell it us That let a point of doctrine bee never so fundamentall and necessary to salvation if his Popish Church doe not decide propound and command it to bee beleeved it is not heresie not to beleeve it But bee the point never so small if the Popish Church decide and command it to bee beleeved then must it bee beleeved upon paine of damnation Now what can bee said more to put the Pope above God to make him Antichrist and his followers Antichristians That which God saith may bee unbeleeved without note of heresie though it bee this maine point This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well-pleased But if the Pope decide and command to bee beleeved that Gossips are such kinne that they cannot marry without incest not to beleeve this is certaine damnation fearefull blasphemies and unhappy Christians whose God is lesse then their Pope and whose Pope is above the highest God But as this makes way for the Mystery of iniquity so it leades fitly to the next point which is this Champions Truth wherein this Mysterie will bee more fully revealed SECT II. The Idolatrie of Papists 1. In making the Pope the foundation of Faith 2. In giving Divine worshâ—p to the Sacramentall Elements and to Images 3. In attributing the merit of salvation to their owne works is such as may sinke many of them into a damnable estate though it may bee charitably hoped of others that they are
having that saving faith the Romists shew want of charity in damning those who are saved Hee was againe out of the way in bringing his owne Romists into schisme and damnation by dividing them from Protestants which have that one saving faith And now he goes further out of the way in removing the reasons that may make for unity though by unity with Protestants Romists may avoid uncharitablenesse schisme and damnation so it seemes hee is so earnest for division and dis-union that to attaine it he will hazzard both charity and salvation to his owne fellow Romists as a high price and farre above the value of that which hee would purchase though it were the richest jewell in the world Yet on hee goes upon this adventure And whereas differences amongst Romists are brought forth to make Romists more equall to differences among Protestants or to some differences betweene Protestants and Romists and likewise to make Romists thinke there may be a spirituall unity notwithstanding some differences because notwithstanding their owne differences they affirme there is an unity among themselves this the Author thinkes too peaceable and therefore strives to take it out of the way Toward this he is willing to deny that there are such differences amongst Romists and he strives to shew that they agree even in those things wherein they differ But differ they doe and strong evidences wee have for it which may hereafter be produced Neither indeede their Poeticall Heade of unity the Pope nor any one man on earth can make the whole Church to bee inwardly of one minde and soule but onely that Lord and maker of Spirits by his owne Spirit his true and onely Vicar For that one Spirit enlightning and guiding the spirits of men with one faith of one word delivered by the ministery directed and enabled by the same one spirit can onely make a true reall internall and spirituall unity And accordingly S. Paul leading us to the unity of faith thus rightly ordereth his words toward unity One Spirit one Lord one Faith And thus hee goes on and sheweth how this one spirit of one Lord which inwardly workes this unity of faith in the Lords body outwardly also concurres to the working of it by the gifts given to the ministery For this working without in the ministery and inabling them to teach one and the same doctrine of saving faith and inwardly working in the hearts and soules of Christs members these members are brought into the unity of faith and so into one body of Christ and as in this body of Christ there are different members of different measures and capacities by the different gifts of the spirit so these different capacities doe not reach or containe one measure of divine truth Christ the Foundation and Head is made knowne to all his members for by this knowledge they become his members and so have they all unity in so much divine truth as knits them to Christ But by reason of their different measures some attaining such holy truths of which others are short there must needs bee a difference in the apprehension of those truths to which some attaine and others doe not come yet in all is a settled desire and purpose to beleeve the whole truth revealed by God if it be also revealed to them that it is the truth of God And so whatsoever force was in the Champions speech That true spirituall faith beleeveth the whole Body of divine doctrine makes not against us but for us and much more for us then for them For we upon the right motive which is God speaking in his word doe beleeve plainly whatsoever we conceive and what we doe not conceive wee beleeve in purpose and intention And thus have wee perfect unity while in the fundamentalls we have an actuall unity of faith and in the lesser points an unity of purpose and will But in this true and kindly unity one Spirit not one Pope doth cause inwardly one faith And againe that one spirit giving gifts to men not to one man outwardly bringeth to the inward unity of faith And indeede that none but the spirit the true vicar of Christ can make this solid spirituall and internall unity it appeares by the confession of the very Romish craft which hath coyned the Pope to be the head of unity For that they might make and prove him to be such they have put him into the place of the holy Ghost and made him the Vicar of Christ accordingly they say that the holy Ghost speaks by him and so the speech of the holy Ghost being infallible verity is a right ground of unity A foule errour and without ground of Scripture which never since the departure of Christ from earth tyed the holy Ghost to one man so that from him the whole Church should fetch Oracles and resolutions But indeed it is a high and blasphemous imposture which puts the Pope in place of the holy Ghost And when this man speakes it pronounceth of him as the people of Herod The voice of God and not of Man And how little this differs from Montanisme I wish Romists would consider who reduced the promise of sending the Comforter Christs Vicar as Tertullian cals him to be performed in Montanus And the very same place doe the Romists apply to the Pope which was applied to Montanus but yet thus it appeares That even they that erre in the application yet hold truth in the position That the holy Ghost is the true root of union though erroneously and blasphemously they put the Pope into his roome and make the voyce of the Pope to bee the voice of the holy Ghost And surely the Pope himselfe plainely shewes that hee doubts his owne spirituall power of making unity and therefore hee flyes to the grosse and materiall instruments of unity the Sword and Faggot And so calling downe fire on those that obey him not if he have any spirit it seems it is not that spirit which Christ said was the Evangelicall spirit of the Apostles but rather of him which is called the Destroyer And indeed this device of man to make unity of faith by one man called the Pope being thus thrust into the place of the Spirit of God as it proceeded from the spirit of errour so hath it made unity in errour as the last best of Popes Gregory the Great did in a manner prophecie but it never will make unity in solide and universall Faith and Truth for the beleevers in this counterfeit head of unity have both gotten from him an unity in many errors and have beene left in many great and weighty differences whereof there is little hope of resolving them into union the sight whereof turnes our eyes from this humane and fictitious Head of unitie to the true roote and meanes of unity set forth by the Apostle And because this Author strives to put away from mens eyes the differences which arise under this false Head of union let us shew him