Justification of Separation from the Church of England, Treatise · Section 158 – Section 159
The 12, and last errour imputed to vsus, is, that your Churches (asXII. you call them) ought to be raced downe, and not to be imployed to the true worship of God. Our mayn reason of this assertion, being (as you say) by making equall Paganism, and Antichristianism, you endevour to weakē M. B.by sundry exceptions. As 1. that there is great difference between Antichristianism, and Pagnism, for this is the worshipping of a false God, and without any profession of the true God: but the other worship the true God, & hold many truthes of God. Paganism was wholly without the Church but Antichrist sits in the Church of God, &c. 2. that we are to prove your Churches to have been built by Antichrist.
We do not make equall Paganism, and Antichristianism, in theAnsw: degree, though wee put not such difference between them as you do. And first we do affirm, that both the one, and the other, are not onelyonly agaynst that 2. connaundement, but the first also. 2. that both of them may in their degree, and for a tyme be in the Church: as also that both of them may in tyme, and in their degree, destroy the true Church of Christ. 3. that as well the reliques, ornaments, and monuments of the one, as of the other are by lawfull authority to be abolished: and in the meane while to be forborn especially in the worship of God, by all such, as fear him, & his judgements denounced agaynst the same, let vsus heare what the scriptures teach in these cases.
The Apostle Paul writing purposely of *2 Thes: 2 3. 4.that man of sin Antichrist, testifieth, that he is an adversary and exalteth himself agaynst all that is called God, or that is worshipped: so that he sitteth in the temple of God as God▪ shewing himself, that he is God. And as Antichrist cānot be rightly discerned of vsus, but in his oppsition vntounto Christ, & exaltation above him, so doth this his exaltatiō appear sudry wayes, by which he doth translate vntounto himself the honour due vntounto God alone, & his sonne our Lord Christ: as in dispensing with the morall law professedly, bynding, and loosing conscience, devising, and imposing forms of religion, trāsferring empires, & kingdoms; & al these doth this earthly God (as he is called) by the plenary power of the seat Apostolicall. The same also it was, which Iohn for saw in “chap: 9. 20.the Revelation namely, that the Antichristians worshipped Divels, & Idols of gold, and silver, & brasse, & stone, & wood, which can neyther see nor hear, nor walk, & agayn, that they †chap: 13. 15. 16.worshipped the beast, which came out of the earth, & the image of the beast, both small, and great, ritch, and poore, free, & bond, & received his mark in their right hand, & in their foreheads. And is the man of sin, & divels, idols, the beast, (al which Antichristians worship) the true God? Or is that notable idol their breadē God in the sacramēt of the altar, which they so much adore, the true God? Yea are the Virgin Mary, & other saynts, to whō they pray go in pilgrimage and perform other devotions, & in whose honour they have built, the very temples we speak of, the true God? Oh Mr Bern: that you should be dravvn to this ple…sor Rome? Surely the hand of God is vponupon you, & it is a fearfull thing you feel it not.
And as Antichristianism doth not vvorship the true God onelyonly, but false Gods, or such as are no Gods, with him: & therefore is both against the 2. & 1. cōmandement as hath been sayd: so neyther is Paganism (as you speak) without all profession of the true God. To let passe that the learned of our natiō have proved the contrary agaynst the Papists, pleading for themselves, as you do for thē, that they worshipped onelyonly the true God, that which is written 2 King. 17. (if there were no more scriptures) doth sufficiently manifest your errour. It is there sayd, that *U: 6. 24.the King of Ashur, taking Samaria, & carying away Israell to Ashur, brought from Babylon, and other Heathenish Countryes, folk, and placed them in the Cities of Samaria in stead of the children of Israel. And in the same place it followeth, that those Babylonians,v: 27. 28. 29. 32. 33. and other Pagans reteyning still their Paganism, and worshipping, as before, the Gods of their own nations, did withall worship Iehovah the true God.
Of like truth with the former is that which followeth, namely, that Paganism was wholly without the Church, but that Antichrist sits in the Church of God.
For first, admit it be true of Paganism in the land of Canaan, before the Israelites entred into it, yet afterwards it was otherwise,Psal: 106. 35. 36. 37. 38. as the scriptures testify: and got too great footing in the Church, in that place as it had done before in all places. 2. it is not true you say that Antichrist sits in the Church of God: he sits in his own Church, into which the Church of God is degenerated: though there remayn vsurped sundry things still, which are of God. It is a great vntruth to affirm that the Popish Synagogue in the present state is the true visible Church of God, vntounto which he hath promised his presence, & given his power. As Paganism hath subverted other Churches, so hath Antichristianism that Church lōg agone.
And here I would demaund of Mr Bern. what he judgeth of the Israelites in, and after Ieroboams apostasie, especially in the time of Ahab, & Iezabell, when †1 king. 17 30. 31. 32.Baall was espetially worshipped, and temples, and altars reared vp vntounto him in Samaria? Doth he judge them at that tyme playn Pagans? Or was their worship simple Paganism? I see not but, as the religion of the Papists, in the opposition it hath to Christianity, is rightly called Antichristianism, so the religiō of the ten Tribes, in the oppositiō it had to the law given by Moses, may fitly be called Anti-Iudaism. And for the Baalims then,Bucer. and there worshipped, they were even as the lesser Gods at this day, Uirell.which are called Patrons, amongst the Papists. The divell to the end he might bring in agayn the old Idolatry, craftily borrowing the names of the holy Apostles, and martyrs, by whom it was in former tymes overthrown, and driven away: and by this meanes it hath put on another person, that it might not be known. Wherevpon it followeth by proportiō, that as “Deut. 12 1. 2. 3. 2 King. 10. 25. 26. 27. 28. & 18. 1. 3 4.the temples, altars, and high places, for those Baalims, & other Idols, were by godly kinges to be razed downe and taken away, & no way to be imployed to the true worship of God, so are the tēples (with their appurtenances) built to the virgin Mary, Peter, Paul, and the rest, though true saynts, yet the Papists false Gods, and very Baalims, to be demolished & overthrown by the same lawfull authority: & in the mean while as execrable things to be avoyded by them which have none authority to deface, or demolish them.
Now howsoever the difference put by M. B. is neyther true, nor to the purpose, if it were true, yet do I graunt a difference, not in respect of the things, but of the tymes, and that there was something legall in many of the cōmaundements given by Moses touching these, and the like execrable things: yet so as there is one, & the same generall, and comon equity, bynding the Iewes then, & vsus now: & that I consider in two respects: the one in the detestation of Idolatry past; and the other in the preservation of it for the tyme to come. And as the godly vnderunder the law were to sh…w their detestation of Idolatry by defacing and abandoning the monuments, reliques, and remembrances of it: so are they now to manifest in the same manner, their just, and zealous hatred of the same, or like impietyes: and as the kings, and mighty of the earth have in former tymes given their power vntounto the beast, and adorned the purple-coloured whore with many ornaments, and with stately temples, & aedifices amongst the rest, so shall they in the day of her full visitation, strip her naked of these, amongst her other ornaments, and leave her desolate. Now for the 2. reason, who is ignorant how many thowsands in the land are most dangerously nourished in their erroneous, & superstitious perswasions by the howses themselves (to let passe the particular both memorials of, and incitements vntounto Idolatry stil appearing in some places more, & in some lesse) knowing none other Church, to which God hath promised his speciall praesence, and wherein he wilbe glorified, save in that of lime, and stone: & putting holynes in the very place: And how well your Church provides for this, appeares in sundry things; as in whyting the walls of the houses, where you silenced the preachers: in bynding the people absolutely to the places, though litle care be taken, what eyther they, or the ministers, to whom they come, do there, so they deale not too faythfully in the Lords buesines: in tying Christiā buriall absolutely to the Church, or Church-yard, where the Minister, with all his holy implements,Service book. Homilies Tome. 2. must meet the corpes at the Church-style, and so with singing, & saying, as is appointed, admit it into the holy ground. And lastly in teaching the people, that by keeping their Churches in good repayr, they shall not onelyonly please God, and deserve his manifold blessings, but also deserve the good report of all godly people. And for the Papists all men know, what claym they lay vntounto the places (as in deed they do farre better fit their pompous religion, then the simplicity of the gospel) what new life they continually receive from them, what religion they put in them, and what devotion they hauehave vntounto them, ever by how much the more superstitiously bent, by so much the mo…e devoutly addicted vntounto them. And so farre is that from truth which you say, Mr Bernard, that the godly, and Church of Page. 157.God have in Popery kept possession of those buildings, for the godly, which should follow them; that, as they were erected by such, as were most superst…tiously seduced, so hauehave they been ever since, the proper posses…ions of the most dangerous seducers in the Romish Synagogue, the Praelates, and their Clergy.
So that the morall equity of those commaundements in the old testiment touching the demolition, and subversion of idolatrous temples, and other the like superstitious monuments, doth as well bynd now, as then. Which commaundements are also in effect renued in the new testament, where the faythfull are charged to †2 Cor: 6 1….touch none vncleane thing; *1 Ioh: …. 21.to keep themselves from idols, which they cannot do, except they keep themselves from their appurtenaunces: to “Iude 23.hate even the garment spotted by the f…sh: not to †Rev: 14. …. ch: 18. 4.receive the least mark of the beast, but to go out of Babylon, ‘†ch: 11. 8.which is also called Sodom, and Aegypt, spiritually, as for other sinns reigning in her, so for her idolatry amongst the rest: which I the rather note, that men may se, it is not we, but the holy Ghost, that compares together Paganish, & Antichristiā Idolatry.
Lastly, where Mr Bernard bids vsus prove that their Churches were built by Antichrist, their records, as Mr Ainsworth observeth, vvill prove it: so will their situation directly East, and West, with the Quyer, or Chauncell alwayes at the East end, and the roodloft in the midle to separate it from the body of the Church, the prophane layity: their vacant places for Images abolished, and their popish pictures still remayning: and lastly their names, even the names of the Apostles, Saynts, and Martyrs, in whose honour they were built, and to whose peculiar service thy were consecrated.
Thus much of the temples, which is the last difference betwixt Mr B. and me, and I confesse the least; and this much also of his book. Something remayns to be spoken of the Ministers Positions, but very breifly, both bycause the things in them for substance, have come formerly into consideration, and also bycause Mr Bernard affoards them no confirmation in his 2. book, being shaken by Mr Ainsworth, as they are.
ANd to omit the bloody doom which these Ministers passe vponuponThe Ministers Positions Examined. vsus all (contrary I am perswaded to their own consciences) that wee are cut of from Christ for our separation from the Church of England, I will consider breifly of their reasons to prove it a true Church.