The Practice of Piety, Treatise · Part 40
Now followeth the Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord.
THE Practice of Piety in dying for the Lord, is termed Martyrdom.
Martyrdom is the testimony which a Christian beareth to the Doctrine of the Gospel, by enduring any kind of death: to invite many, and to confirm all, to embrace the truth thereof. To this kind of death, Christ hath promised a Crown: aforeign.Be thou faithful unto the death, Rev. 2. 1…. … in f…st. … invit. Johan Flo…es Hist. ad An. 65.and I will give thee the Crown of life. Which promise the Church so firmly believed, that they termed martyrdom it self a Crown. And God to animate Christians to this excellent prize, would, by a prediction, thatbActs 7. Stephen, the first Christian Martyr, should have his name of a Crown.
Of Martyrdom there are Three kinds.
1. Solâ voluntate, in will only, as John the Evangelist, who (being boiled in a Cauldron of Oil) came out rather annointed than sod: and died of old age at Ephesus.
2. Solo opere, in deed only: as the Innocents ofcMatth. 2. Acts and Monuments. 1 Pet. 2. 19. …ausa, non pass…o, facit Martyrem. Aug. Ep 61 Non mortes …d mores, …r. Boys. Tho. Aquin. 1, 2. quaest. 17. art. 6. Bethlehem.
3. Voluntate & opere, both in will and deed, as in the Primitive Church, Stephen, Polycarpus, Ignatius, Laurentius, Romanus, Antiochianus, and thousands. And in our days, Cranmer, Latimer, Hooper, Ridley, Farrar, Bradford, Philpot, Sanders, Glover, Taylor, and others innumerable, whose fiery zeal to God's Truth, brought them to the flames of Martyrdom; to seal Christ's Faith. It is not the cruelty of the death, but the innocency and holiness of the cause, that maketh a Martyr. Neither is an erroneous Conscience a sufficient warrant to suffer Martyrdom: because Science in God's Word, must direct Conscience in man's heart. For they who killed the Apostles, in their erroneous Consciences, thought they did God good service: Joh 16. 2.and Paul of zeal breathed out*Acts 9. 1. Phil. 3. 6. slaughters against the Lord's Saints. Now whether the cause of our Seminary Priests and Jesuits be so holy, true, and innocent, as that it may warrant their Conscience to suffer death, and to hazard their eternal salvation thereon,Epistola ad Romanos, is now Epistola in Romanos. let Paul's Epistle written to the ancient Christian Romans (but against our new Antichristian Romans) be judge. And it will plainly appear, that the Doctrine which St. Paul taught to the ancient Church of Rome, is ex diametro opposite in 26 fundamental points of true Religion, to that which the new Church of Rome teacheth and maintaineth. For St. Paul taught the Primitive Church of Rome,
1. That our Election is of God's free Grace, and not ex operibus praevisis, Rom. 9. 11. Rom. 11. 5, 6.
2. That we are justified before God by faith only, without good works, Rom. 3. 20, 28. Rom. 4. 2, &c. Rom. 1. 17.
3. That the good works of the regenerate, are not of their own condignity meritorious, nor such as can deserve Heaven, Rom. 8. 18. Rom. 11. 6. Rom. 6. 23.
4. That these Books only are God's Oracles and Canonical Scripture, which were committed to the custody and credit of the Jews, Rom. 3. 2. Rom. 1. 2. Rom. 16. 26. such were never the Apocrypha.
5. That the Holy Scriptures have God's authority,*Note that the Scripture saith, God saith, and the Scripture concludeth, is all one with Paul. Rom. 9. 17. Rom. 3. 4. Rom. 11. 32. conferred with Gal. 3. 22. Therefore above the authority of the Church.
6. That all, as well Laity as Clergy that will be saved, must familiarly read or know the Holy Scripture, Rom. 15. 4. Rom. 10. 1, 2, 8. Rom. 16. 26.
7. That all Images made of the true God are very Idols, foreign Having reference to what he spake before. Rom. 1. 23. Of Images.R. 1. 23. & R. 2. 22. conferr'd.
8. That to bow the knee religiously to an Image, or to worship any Creature is meer Idolatry, R. 11. 4. and a lying service, R. 1. 25.
9. That we must not pray unto any but to God only, in whom we believe, Rom. 10. 13, 14. Rom. 8. 15, 27. therefore not to Saints and Angels.
10. That Christ is our only intercessor in Heaven, Rom. 8. 34, Rom. 5. 2 Rom. 16. 27.
11. That the only Sacrifice of Christians, is nothing but the spiritual Sacrificing of their souls and bodies to serve God in holiness and righteousness, R. 12. 1 R. 15. 16. therefore no real sacrificing of Christ in the Mass.
12. That the religious worship called dulia, as well as latria, belongeth to God alone, Rom. 1. 9. Rom. 12. 11. R. 16. 18. conferr'd.
13. That all Christians are to pray unto God in their own native language, R. 14. 11.
14. That we have not of our selves, in the state of corruption, free will unto good, Rom. 7. 18, &c. Rom. 9. 16.
15. That Concupiscence in the regenerate, is sin, Rom. 7. 7, 8, 10.
16. That the Sacraments do not confer grace ex opere operato, but sign and seal that …t is conferred already unto us, Rom. 4. 11, 12. Rom. 2. 28, 29.
17. That every true believing Christian may in this life be assured of his salvation, Rom. 8. 9, 16, 35, &c.
18. That no man in this life, since Adam's fall, can perfectly fulfil the Commandments of God, Rom. 7. 10, &c. Rom. 3. 19, &c. Rom. 11. 32.
19. That to place Religion in the difference of meats and days, is superstition, Rom. 14. 3. 5, 6, 17, 23.
20. That the imputed righteousness of Christ, is that only that makes us just before God, Rom. 4. 9, 17, 23.
21. That Christ's flesh was made of the Seed of David, by Inca…nation; not of a Wafer Cake, by Transubstantiation. Rom. 1. 3.
22. That all true Christians are Saints, and not those whom the Pope only doth Canonize, Rom. 1. 7. Rom, 8. 27. Rom. 15. 31. Rom. 16. 2. and 15. Rom. 15. 25.
23. That Ipse, Christ, the God of Peace: and not Ipsa, the Woman, should bruise the Serpent's Head, Rom. 16. 20.
24. That every soul must of conscience be subject, and pay Tribute to the higher powers, that is, the magistrates which bear the Sword, Rom. 13. 1, 2. &c. and therefore the Pope and all Prelates must be subject to their Emperors, Kings and Magistrates, unless they will bring damnation upon their souls, as Traitors, that resist God and his Ordinance, Rom. 13. 2.
25. That Paul (not Peter) was ordained by the grace of God, to be the chief Apostle of the Gentiles, and consequently of Rome, the chief City of the Gentiles, *It seems by Rom. 15. …0, 29. and the whole last Chapter, that the Christians who were in Rome before Paul came thither, were converted by those Preachers whom he had sent thith…r bef…re him: for he calls them his helpers, v. 3, 9. kinsmen, v. 7, 13. fellow-prisoners, v. 7. the first fruits of Achaia, where he had preached v. 7. all familiar to him, and to Tertius, who writ the Epistle, v. 22. And therefore they came so joyfully to meet Paul … App…i Forum, hearing that he was coming towards Rome, Acts 28. 15.Rom. 15. 15, 16, 19, 20, &c. Rom 11. 14. Rom. 16. 4.
26. That the Church of Rome may err, and fall away from the true Faith, as well as the Church of Jerusalem, or any other particular Church, Rom. 11. 20, 21, 22.
And seeing the new upstart Church of Rome teacheth in all these, and in innumerable other points, clean contrary to that which the Apostle taught the Primitive Romans, let God and this Epistle judge betwixt them and us, whether of us both stands in the true ancient Catholick Faith, which the Apostle taught the old Romans? And whether we have not done well to depart from them, so far as they have departed from the Apostles Doctrine? And whether it be not better to return to St. Paul's Truth, than still to continue in Rome's Error? And if this be true, then let Jesuites and Seminary Priests take heed and fear, lest it be not faith, but faction; not truth, but treason; not Religion, but Rebellion, beginning at Tiber, and ending at Tyburn, which is the cause of their deaths. And being sent from a troublesome Apostatical See, rather than from a peaceable Apostolical Seat, because they cannot be suffered to perswade Subjects to break their Oaths, and to withdraw their Allegiance from their Sovereign, to raise Rebellion, to move Invasion, to stab and poison Queens, to kill and murther Kings, to blow up whole States with Gun powder, they desperately cast away their own bodies to be hanged & quartered; and (their souls saved, if they belong to God) I wish such honour to all his Saints that sends them.Psal. 149. 9. And I have just cause to fear, that the miracles ofaUt Alexandri causa iis qui ill…m scire cupiunt pate…t: judicatus est Ephesi ab AEmilio Frontino Proconsule, non propter professionis nomen, sed propter perpetrata latr…cinia, cùm j…m esset, prevaricator (& pr…ditor) Eu…eb. Hist. Eccles lib. 4. cap. 18. Lipsius's Two Ladies, Blunstone's Boy, Garnet's Straw, and the Maid's fiery Apron, will not suffice to clear that these men are not Murtherers of themselves, rather than Martyrs of Christ.
And with what conscience can any Papist count Garnet a Martyr, when his own conscience forced him to con…ess, that it was for Treason, and not for Religion that he died? But if the Priests of such a Gunpowder Gospel be Martyrs, I marvel who are Murtherers? if they be Saints, who are Scythians? & who are Canibals, if they be Catholicks?
But leaving these, if they will be filthy to their filthiness still, let us (to whose fidelity the Lord hath committed his true faith, as a precious†1 Tim. 6. 20 Prov. 24. 21 1 Pe…. 2. 17. depositum) pray unto God, that we … lead a holy life, answerable to our holy faith in piety to Christ, and obedience to o…r King; that if our Saviour shall ever count us *Acts 5. 41.worthy that honour to suffer Martyrdom for his Gospel's sake: be it by open burning at the stake, as in Q. Mary's days; or by secret murthering, as in the Inquisition-house; or by outragious massacring, as in the Parisians Mattens; in being blown up with Gun-powder, as was intended in the Parliament-House: we may have grace to pray for the assistance of his holy Spirit, so to strengthen our frailty, and to defend his cause; as that we may seal with our deaths the evangelical truth which we have professed in our lives. That in the days of our lives we may be†Luk. 11. 28. blessed by his word in the day of Death,Rev. 14. 13. be blessed in the Lord, and in the day of judgment be thehMat. 25. 34. blessed of his Father, *Rev. 22. …0.Even so grant, Lord Jesus. Amen.