These two irrefragable Conclusions being thus praemised : This Quaere may be thus resolued : The onely infallible way to determine , to finde out the ancient , the vndoubted Doctrines of our Church , is to compare them with the Rules of triall : The originall Touch-stone by which all Theologicall Conclusions must bee examined , is the Scriptures : and these , ( together with the Ancient Fathers , and approued Councels ) wee dare to challenge as our owne , if the naked truth of our Assertions were the thing in Issue : But our present inquirie being of a different nature , to discouer the true Ancient Doctrines of our Church , and distinguish them from pestilent vpstart Errors ; wee must heere proceed by other Triers ; euen the Articles , Homilies , Common Prayer Booke ; the publike Euidences , Records , and Declarations ; with the concurrent Testimony of all the learned Writers of our Church : the onely Grand-Iury-men to try , the best Euidences , the sole Witnesses to proue , the most impartiall and able Iudges to determine the Doctrines of our Church . That which all these doe ioyntly , cleerely , fully vote , confirme , approue , and testifie , a Parliament may safely declare , and ratifie to bee ; that which they all , or most disclaime , a Parliament may iustly censure not to bee ; the vndoubted and resolued Doctrine of our Church .

If then all these giue vp their ioynt and seuerall suffrages for our Anti-Arminian Conclusions ; If they all passe Sentence against their opposite Arminian Errors , ( as this present Treatise will vndenably prooue them to haue done ) you may confidently declare , resolue , re-establish the one , as being ; exile , yea damne the other , as not being , the Ancient , receiued , and vndoubted Doctrine of our English Church .

And why should you now make any doubt or scruple of passing such a sentence ? Neuer were there any truthes more copiously confirmed ; more constantly defended ; more posit●uely resolued ; more aboundantly propagated ; more generally Preached ; more vnanimously imbraced ; more vncontrolably published , more peremptorily established in our Church , then these Anti-Arminian Tenents , which I heere present vnto you : There is scarce one publike ( whether Ancient or Modern ) Act , Record , or Euidence of our Church , since her Reformation hitherto , but doth in terminis , at least in substance , guie iudgement for them : Scarse a learned or godly Martyr of note or eminency in our infant Church , but hath planted them with his hand , watred them with his bloud . Scarce one Diuinity Professor in either of our Vniuersities ; hardly an Orthodox or renowned Writer in our Church , from the beginning of King Edward the 6. his Raigne till this very present : but hath subscribed them with his hand and feale , and transmitted them to posteritie in some publike Worke. Not one constant Preacher of a thousand , who hath not proclaimed them in the Pulpit . Scarce a Graduate in Diuinitie , but hath either in Lectures or Disputes , defended them in the Schoole . Scarce an Act , or Commencement hath passed in either of our Famous Academies , wherein all , or some of them , haue not bene publikely affirmed in Diuinity Exercises . Not one authorized or approued Writer of our Church ( for I count not * * Three of their bookes were not lycensed . Barret , Thomson , Mountague , or Iackson such , the only opposites to them , that I know off , and those generally opposed , by all our Orthodox Diuines ) who did euer once oppugne them : Yea al such who haue formerly but barked against them in their inconsiderate Sermons , haue beene forced to sing a publike Palinodie for their paines : as the Recantations of Barret , Sympson , and others largely testifie : And shall wee now beginne to question , whether they are the Doctrines of our Church or no ? because some pur-blinde , squint-eyed , ideall Arminian Nouellists , begin for to dispute it ? What is this but to make a scruple , whether the day be light , or no ; because Buzzards , and blind-men cannot see it ? or sottishly to enquire , whether the Sunne stands centred in one constant climate , whiles the massie Earth wheeles round ; because one brainesicke Copernicus out of the sublimitie of his quintessentiall , transcendentall Speculations , hath more senselesly , then Metaphysically , more ridiculously , then singularly auerred it ? Shall others wilfull , gainefull , and aspiring blindnesse , make vs to doubt our eye-sight ? or shall the absurd and idle Quaerees of some Romish or Temporizing Spirits , so vnsettle vs in our long-professed faith , as to cause vs now to question the most positiue , palpable , and resolued Principles of our reformed Religion ? Yea so farre to besot vs , as to put vs to this irrationall , this frantique scrutinie ; Whether that bee the vndoubted Doctrine of our Church , which shee hath alwayes hitherto beleeued , embraced , professed as a truth : or that rather which she hath alwaies Diametrally opposed , yea censured as an Error ? O let not vs be so vnchristianly , so Atheistically wauering in the Fundament all Tenents of our long-professed Faith , as that this Apostolicall , Stigmaticall brand of an admired subitane Galathian Apostasie ; * * Gal. 1. 6. cap. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. ( I maruell that you are so soone remoued from him , that called you into the grace of Christ vnto another Gospell : O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you , that yee should not obey the truth , &c. ) With the disgracefull and soule-pricking obloquies of our insulting Aduersaries ( who will be apt to vaunt , that we now begin to doubt of our Religion , and fall backe to them ) should now iustly seize vpon vs , for our halting in these oft , yea , * * The Articles of Ireland composed 1615. & the Synod of Dort : 1619. 1620. haue resolued al these points in terminis . late resolued points , in which both we and our Forefathers haue beene so long instructed . Alas , why should Papists ; why Turkes , or Atheists thus reproach vs : Where now is your reformed Religion , in which you haue thus long reposed your Saluation , and imbarqued all your soules ? Where is the Faith , the Doctrines of your Church , which you haue thus pertinatiously embraced since your reuolt from Rome ? Where is the precious bloud of all your glorious mocke-Martyrs , in which you haue so long gloried ? Where the Orthodoxie , Learning , and Solidity of your much renowned Academies ? of your vnparallel'd Martyr , Bucer , Tyndall , Latimer , Beacon , Cranmer , Iewell , Nowell , Veron , Fox , Fulke , Reinolds , Whitakers , Hooker , Hutton , Cartwright , Hill , Babington , Willet , Perkins , Abbots , Field , Crakenthorpe , Whites , Vsher , Prideaux , Ward , Benefield , Sharpe , Sybthorpe , Ames , Featley , Wilson Carleton , Dauenat , Morton , Goad , Belcanckquall , Burtons , your imcomparably learned King Iames , ( the Phaenix of his Age , and eminentest of his ranke for solid learning ) with all your other Centuries of Writers in which you so much triumph ? Where the Authority of your Church , you Parliaments , or your Articles ; that you now begin to doubt , yea , question and re-examine the truth and verity of these dogmaticall Conclusions , which all these haue planted , watered , sealed , and setled thus among you ? What a shame , a brand a downefall will this bee to our Religion ? What an inexpiable blemish , and intollerable disgrace to all our godly Martyrs ; to these our famous Writers ; to our learned Soueraigne of blessed memorie ; to his two vnparalleld Predecessors Queene Elizabeth , and King Edward : to our whole glorious , and flourishing Church , since the beginning of her Reformation to this present ? What a griefe , a heart-breaking to all faithfull members of our Church & State ? yea , what a dangerous Praecipice , and fatall ouerture to all our soules : if wee should now beginne to plucke those foundations vp , on which wee haue thus long built , the hopes , the structure of our eternall happinesse : or to call that into question , which wee haue so oft resolued for the vndoubted Orthodox beleefe and Tenent of our owne ; yea , of the Catholike and Apostolike Church of Christ , from age to age , which can neuer totally , nor finally erre in Fundamentall truthes ?

Memorable is the answere of that blessed ancient b b Eusebius Eccles. Hist. l. 4 cap. 15. Niceph: Calist Eccles. Histor. l. 3. c 34. Martyr , Policarpus , when hee was vrged by the Pro-consul to blaspheme and denye Christ , that so hee might escape : Fourescore and sixe yeeres ( saith hee ) haue I serued him , neither hath hee offended me in any thing ; and how can I now reuile or denie that King , which hath thus kept mee ? Surely not to ascend to Wickcliffe , Bradwardine , Bede , or Anselme ( who all concurred with vs in our present Tenents ) but to confine our selues vnto the Ages of those later Martyrs , and Writers of our Church , which I haue heere recorded : I can safely say , ( and I hope I haue sufficiently euidenced it in the ensuing Catalogue : that our Church hath * * Mr. Tyndall with whom we begin our Catalogue was Martyred in the yeere 1536. Iohn Frith in the yere , 1533. Dr. Barnes in the yeare 1541. King Edward was crowned in the yeare 1546. So that these points haue continued in our Church well-nigh an 100. yeares . this fourescore and sixe yeeres , and more ; euen constantly embraced , and defended these Anti-Arminian Theses , neither did they euer offend , or doe her harme in any thing : ( yea , they haue beene so farre from preiudicing , or offending , that they haue accumulated her with all varieties of blessings , of contentments , making her c c Isay 51. 3. as the very Eden , and Paradise of God , while they dwelt in peace within her , whereas now shee ebbs and sinckes together with them : ) And shall shee now proue so vngratefull to her gracious God ; so iniurious to these blessed truthes , ( wherein the very marrow of all true Christian comfort , yea the strength , the ground and certainety of our Saluation rest , though some haue ●leited them as meere curious , and nice Disputes , ) as now to question , yea silence and restraine them , when they haue thus long kept her in such peace and glory , as * * Prisca parēnescit , aequalem poster● nullum Exhibitura dies : praeteritis m●li●r ma●orque futuris . Cambdeni Brittan . pag. 160. no former age hath euer matched , nor subsequent dayes ha●e hopes to parallell ? What , shall we thus requite the Lord for these his documents , wherein his incomprehensible Wisdome , Freedome , Mercy , Iustice , Power , Grace , and glory , shine foorth in greatest luster ; as after all the good they haue brought vpon vs , to dis-inherit them of their ancient Freedome , and by certaine Politike , and insensible gradations to shoulder them out of our Church ; that so Popery and Arminianisme ( the fertile mothers of all licentious dissolutenesse ) may possesse their throne ? Shall wee thus repay our blessed Martyrs for all their glorious sufferings , as now for to dis-martyr , yea , vncrowne , and tread them vnder foot , by disputing , or doubting these Theologicall positions , which they haue canonized , and sealed to vs with their bloud ? Shall we thus retaliate the very Pillars of our Church , and Patrons of our Faith , euen all our learned Writers , as to brand them for illiterate , erronious , and seducing Nouellers , to their eternall infamy , in rooting vp these fundamental Truths which they haue planted ; or re-implanting those Pelagian , Arminian , Popish Errors , which they all haue laboured to extirpate ? Shall we now proue so vnnaturall to our Mother Church , as to rip vp her wombe that bare , or cut off her duggs that nourished vs , in offering violence to these her sacred Assertions , which did at first begette vs vnto grace , and now cheerish and prepare vs vnto glory ? Or shall wee bee so iniurious , so destructiue to our owne distressed soules , as to strippe them naked of all coelestiall comforts ? to vnbottome them of all their hope and stay ? or to leaue them destitute of Saluation , in depriuing them of all these sweete and rauishing cordialls ? in dis-lincking that Golden , that Adamantine chaine of Gods immutable and free Election ; whereon their very happinesse , comfort , and Saluation are alone suspended ? Let this , let this , bee far from all our thoughts ; at leastwise from our practise . Farre be it from any of vs , especially , from you right Christian Worthies , intrusted with the care and safety of Religion , as to question or doubt of these Orthodox , these sweet Conclusions , so long estated , so oft resolued in our Church , without any retractation , or controll .

Your onely care , your worke is now , to defend , to settle them , not dispute them ; to damne , yea , quite extirpate their opposite Arminian Errours , ( which like Tares spring vp apace among vs , and ouergrow our Wheate , ) not to honour , countenance , or equalize them with them , by putting them both to triall : to question , censure , and condemne , their audacious open Aduersaries , their secret dangerous Master-vnderminers , d d Sunt enim quidam qui sustissime damnatas impietates , adhuc liberius defendendas putant : et surt qui occultius penetrant domos , et quod in aperto non clamare metuunt , in secreto seminare non quiescunt . Sunt autem qui omnino siluerunt magno timore compressi : sed adhuc corde retinent , quod ore iam proferre non audent , qui tamen possent fratribus ex ●rioreipsius dogmatis defensione esse notissim●● Proinde alii seuerius● coercendi , alii vigilantius vestigand● : alii tractandi guidem lenius , sed non segnius sunt docend● , vt si non timentur ne perdant , non tamen negligantur , no pereant . Aug. Epist. 105. Sixto . It was his speech of the old , I may as truly apply it to our new Pelagians . who are of different rankes , and must be dealt with in a various manner ; ) not to discusse their verity , of which our Church was neuer yet suspitious , in the least degree . Proceede , therefore as you ( Gods name be blessed ) haue already done : to inquire out the Heads , the Nurseries , rootes , and grand Protectors of our Popish , our Arminian mungrell rabble , ( which swarme like Locusts in our Church of late ) combining both together ( as is iustly feared ) to eate out our Religion by degrees , to spoile vs of these temporall immunities , of those coelestiall treasures of Gods sauing truth , which are farre dearer to vs , then our dearest soules : and when you haue once discouered them ( as you may quickely doe , since practise , fame , and iealousie haue made them so notorious , ) it will be worth your labour to hew them downe with speede , both root and branch , at once ; else all your superficiall hacking of some smaller Issues , will but increase their growth , augment their strength , and multiply their fruit , their branches , and al-daring practises , when the time , the feare of lopping are but passed ouer . Trampling we know on Camomile stalkes , doth but make them grow the thicker , spread the faster : it is the breaking , not the bruising of the roote that kills it . The mowing down of weedes , of grasse ; the lopping off of lesser branches doth neuer hinder , but aduance their growth ; not lessen , but augment their number : The rootes must first bee stocked vp , or else the blades , the stalkes , the branches will not , cannot wither , or giue ouer budding . Strike therefore at the roots , as well as at the branches of these preuailing Factions , else all your lopping , will turne but into pruning : your launching into festring ; your medicine into poyson , to kill our Church the Patient , but strengthen her diseases , which haue hitherto got ground vpon vs , by all those former Parliamentary lenitiues and verball purges , which your Medicinall skill applyed to them .

It is noted of Pelagianisme , ( of which the doctrinall part of Popery , in the points of Grace , and the whole body of Arminianisme are the reuiued ashes , and new-raysed Goasts , ) e e Illustris olim protulit Britannia dogma hoc super●●●● , &c. Festus Hommius in Co●onidem Gulielmi● Arnesij . that it tooke its rise in England , f f Hierom. aduersus Pelagium ad C●isiphontem : Argumentum : Prosperi Cronich●n . Bibliothecha Patrum : Tom. 5. pars 3. pag 1●2 . Bede . Ecclesiast. Hist: Gentis Anglorum lib. 1. c. 10. Meredith Hammers Chronograph p. ●89 . Pelagius the Father of it being himselfe a Brittaine , and a Monke of Bangor : What a regained Honour were it to our Nation ; What an inutterable benefit to our Church ; What a glory to this your Honourable and great Assembly , if you could now at last eternally interre it in the soile that bare it ; and make its ancient ( now its second ) wombe , its last , its endlesse Graue ? It was said by one of note , some fewe yeeres past : ( and I wish it may be Prophetically true at least . )

That England had both hatched and destroyed this monster of old , of new Pelagianisme , which Arminius and his followers had then newly raised from Hell , to which it was of old condemned : But alas , we see its liuing , and springing vp like Hydraes heades ; It s former * * Multae dum leuiter corriguntur saepius maiorae co●surgunt . Cabilonense Concil. 1● Can. 13. ouer-indulgent decapitations both at Dort , at home , being but a blood-letting to increase its future vigour , not a fatall blow to bring it to its finall period ; because it cut not off those master-veines which gaue greatest , though but hidden life and growth vnto it . O therefore giue , and strike it , and its Arminian Issue now at last , a finall , fatall , and heart-killing blow , which needes no iteration ; and bury them this once so deepe , so sure , that they may neuer neede a second Funerall .

But how you will say , may this bee done ? I will informe you in a word or two .

It is Storied of the h h Math. 27. 60 to the end . chiefe Priests and Pharises ( who were euer the greatest and most imbittered enemies to Christ and his Apostles , as their successors , who will needes be stiled Priests , haue since bene to his members , ) that hauing crucified our blessed Sauiour , because they would bee sure to keepe him from rising from his graue againe , according to his promise : they did not onely suffer him to lye intombed in a rocky Sepulchre , to the doore of which there was a great stone rolled : but they likewise went and made the Sepulchre sure , sealing the stone , and setting a watch , for feare lest his Disciples should come by night , and steale him away , and say that hee was risen . What these vile miscreants vainely did in Antichristian , doe you Right noble Christians , in true Christian Policie : Pelagius with his late-born brat Arminius , hath beene oft times buried by sundry a a Concilium Palestinum● Africanum . Arausicyaum : Ancient , ( some b b Synod of Dort , 1619. 1620. Conuocation of Ireland , 1615. in their Articles then composed Moderne ) Councels , and * * Hierom. contra Pelagianos Augustin . 7. Tom-pars . 2. Prosper . Fulgentius Bernard . Orosius . Bradwardine . Fathers of the Church , but yet they haue alwaies risen from the dead againe , to the great disquiet of all true Christian Churches : If then you chance to crucifie them once againe ( as now wee hope , wee pray you may , for feare their life proue all our deathes : they being the Archest Traitors to our Church , our State , our soules , and sauing Grace : ) you must not only see them intombed for the present , though it be in graues of stone : but likewise watch , and seale their Sepulchres , making them sure for all succeding Ages , by some inexorable , strict , and vigilant Acts of Parliament , which no Charme , no Wile , no Force , or Policie may euade ; Else their Disciples will come by night againe , ( as they haue oft times done ) and steale them quite away ; and not onely say , but to our great disturbance , prooue ; that they are once more risen from the dead : So shall their last resurrection be farre worse , our second danger , your latter Error , farre greater then the first ; which God forbid .

Now the GOD of grace , and wisdome , so ayde , direct , and guide your Honours with his Spirit , in this great weighty Worke , ( which needes an heauenly power to accomplish it : ) that wee , to our vnutterable ioy and comfort , may now at last behold , our drooping and declining Orthodox Religion ( the onely Center , Pillar , Bulwarke , Garrison , Honour , Treasure , and conseruer of our declining State , which ebbes and flowes together with it ) reuiued , aduanced , established , and secured once againe , against all Forraine , all Domestique hostile Forces , all Stratagemes that oppugne it : and that all our eyes may see with tri●mph , all Popery , all Olde , all Newe Pelagianisme , with all the grand Fomentors , and Master-springs that feede them , ( in despight of all their new-erected and much adored Altar-Idols , ) arraigned at your dreadfull Barre , condemned at your great Tribunall ; executed before your faces : layd dead and prostrate at your feet : interred in some brasen Dungeon ; yea sealed vp , and strictly watched with such enuironing , cautelous , ir-repealable , and adamantine Lawes , as may so presse them downe for all eternitie , that they may neuer raise themselues , nor yet bee raised in our Church againe .

It is not , yea it cannot be vnknowne to your grauities , that olde Pelagius , and Faustus , who haue lyen dead and rotten in their graues 1100 yeares , or more , haue by a kinde of d d See Plutarch De his qui sero a Numine puniuntur . Diogenes Laert lib 8. Pythagoras . Platonis Phaedon : Tertullian de Anima , Hierom. Epist. 59. cap. 2. Pythagorean Metempsy chosis , revived in Arminius and his followers now of late , ( as e e Haec venenatissimorum dogmatum abominatio habet etiam nunc viventes mortuos , mortuosque viventes . Nam Crigines , Priscillianus , et Iovinianus olim apud se mortui in his vivunt ; et non solum vivunt , verum etiam loquunt●r ; nunc vero Pelagius et Caelestius in his viventes mortui , ecce adversus Ecclesiam , quod mi erum est ; et quod multo m●erius est in Ecclesia palam sibilant , &c Orosius de Libertate Arbitrii contr. Pelag. Bibl. Patrum , Tom 15 p 144. Origen , Priscillian , and Iouinian did in them ) and not onely spoken openly against the grace of God , and doctrines of our Church , which is miserable ; but even publikely preached and written against them in our Church , without any Ecclesiasticall censure or controll ; which is farre worse : It was the complaint of a Reuerend and learned Prelate of our Church about some ten yeares since , in an Epistle Dedicatorie vnto his Maiesty then Prince of Wales : f f Teterrimus hal●tus nostras quoque partes nescio quo vento●● impetu perflavit , et Theologos nost●os nonnullos ita de nentarit , vt relicto fi lei trito , et proba●o tramite , ●n Arminii ansractas et praecipicia se commiserint , et dogmate etiamnum destruant Articulos Religionis , quos prius propria subscriptione confirmarunt . Robertus . Abbot Episc , Salisbuciensis , De Gratia et Persev , ●anctoru● , Epist. Ded● That the stinking vapors of Arminius ( whose heresies hee there learnedly encounters ) had beene blowne ouer from the Belgique shores vpon our English coast , and so infatuated some of our Diuines , that leauing the beaten and approued path of faith , they betooke themselues vnto the crooked wayes and praecipices of Arminius , destroying the Articles of our Religion with their Tenents , which they had formerly confirmed by their owne subscription . What hee lamented and condoled then , we haue much more cause to complaine of now ; when as these contagious vapours haue not onely dangerously infected many , but likewise animated some g g Stat ergo Goliah , proh dolor , in Ecclesia , superbia immanissimus , carnah potentia tumidus , omnia se per se posse confidens et non solum stat ; verum et provocat ; simulque per dies plurimos sanctum Israel manifesti timoris exprobrat : Orosius contra Pelag Apologia . Goliahs , to bid professed defiance to the host of Israel in Arminius his quarrell , and to take vp armes in his defence , against the oft resolued and subscribed Doctrines of their Mother Church , who hath enriched them with sundry fauours ; and yet alas , h h Orosius Ib. Ab Ecclesia siquidem haereseos impugnator expellitur , et nutriri in sinu Ecclesiae haereticus inuenitur : the impugners of Arminius his Champions haue beene questioned , and molested ; when as they were neuer hitherto once publikely conuented by any Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction , for these their dangerous Innouations .