23 / 504
A
Preface
to the Reader.
falem
after the death
of
frames,
and
yet
?amts
is
one
of
them,wbo
is
met
together with
them
/.7.e.48:
nay
mention
is
made
of
Cerinthiu,
and
that
Marke the heritick,
Menander,Bafilides
and Saeurniliu were
known and taken notice
of
by
the Apoftles who
all
lived in
the
feconid
Century,abought the Raigne
of
Hadrian,as
Eufebius ma
itfelteth,and
Clem.
Alex.Strom.lib.7.
But
to
leavefuch husker
as
thefe,unto them who loath
&Wanna, and will
not feed on
the
bread
that our
heavenly
Father hath
fo
plentifully provided
for
all
that
live
in his family
,
or
any
way
belong
to
his
houle
,"
let
us
look onward rothem
that
follow
,
of
whofe
Truth
and
Honefty
we have more affurance.
The
firftGenuine piece
that
prefents
it
felfe
unto
us
,
on
the Roll
of
Antiquity,
is
that
Epi-
file ofClemen's,
which in
the
name
of
the
Church
of
Rome
, he
motet()
the
divided
Church
of
Corinth
,
which being abundantly teftified
to
of
old,
to the
great contentment
of
the chri-
fban world.,
was
publifhed,
here at Oxford
Tome
few yeares
fine;
A
writing full
of
oration
ftmplicity,humility,
&Zeal.As to our
prefent bufinefs much
I
confeffe
cannot
be pleadedfrom
hence, beyond a negativeimpeachment,
of
that
great
and falle
clamour which our eAdvetfa-
rie
have
railed
,
of
the
confent
of
the
primitive Chriftians
with them
in
their
by paths
,
and
and
waies
oferrour.
It
is
true
,
treating
ofa
Subjeél diverfe from any
of
thofe heads
of
Reli-
gion about
which
our
conceits are
,
it
is
not to
be expelled
that
hethould
any
where plainly,
diret7ly,& evidenty deliver his
judgment untothem.This therfore
I
Blatt
only fay,that
in
that
whole
Epiftle
,
there
is
not one
ward,
or
,
or
Tillable
that
gives
countenance to
the
tenent
of
our
adverfaries,in
the matter
of
the Saints
perfeverance:but
that
on the
contrary,there
are
fundryexpreflïons,afferttng fuch
a
foundation
of
the
Dodrine
we
maintain,as
will
with
good
llrength
inferre
the
Truth
of
it.
Tag.
4. Setting forth
the
virtues
of
the
Corinthians
before
theyfell into
the
fchifme
that
occauioned his
Epiftle,
he minds
them
that
:
444
din
orip
iiµi ss
7
rvk7a i4.7denis
7S
ád
A07e7C
,
etc
77i
ar',5
u
ika,s
4
ota
ea
,-mç
^.'tée.,
r IV
4KAETt
P
Q41 Y.
That
God
hash a
certain
number
of
Eleil to
be
faved
and
for whole
falvation by
his
Mercy
the Church
is
to
contend with him,
is
a
principle wholy inconfrfient
with thofe,on which
the
dottrineof
the
SaintseApoflacy
is
bottom'd. Correfponding hereunto
is
that
pottage
of
his
concerning the will
of
God,p,a
z:volmits
i
r
7nÚ4
áya7m7et w'e Cecbtwoti}
r447aaoíve 447e,fc+v,i51;e
crtr
Tç.J
71
w7oxereikçi
CuAríu«7t
0.i%.
A mere
confideration
of
this
paffagecaufeth me
to retal what
but
nowwas fpoken,
as
though the Teftimonie
given
to the
Truth
,
in
this
Epiftle,
was
not
fo
eleare
as
might
be
defrred.The words now
repeated,containe the
very Theirs
contended
for.It
is
the
beloved
of
God
(or
his
Chofen)
whom
he will have made partakers
of
faving
Repen-
tance;
&
hereunto
he
eflablilheth
them(for
with that word
is
the
defer°
in
the
fentence
co
be
fup-
plyed
) by
,
or
With the
a"flmighey
will: becaufe he will have
his
beloved
partakers
of
faving
Repentance, and
the
benefits
thereof,
he confirmes and eftablifhes them in
it, with
his
Omni-
potent,
or
Soveraigne will.
The incontinency, and irreconcileablenefs
of
this
affertion,
with
the
dotrine of
their
Saints Apoflacy,the Learned
Reader
needs
not
any
A
fliftance
to
manifeft
to
him.
Anlwerably
hereunto
he faith
of
God.
odr-
i;uäeërtirn7tniwsm,pag.3l:and
p.66: mentioning the
bleffednefs
of
the
forgivnefs
of
fins,out
of
Pf
3z:he adds.'cifl
a
stator-
(.13s
¡yips7o
cmi
rúo incasnmy
tans;
ruì
o
.0
A,
ins
xe
sêrä
r..e:
ñn,The
Elea of
whom
he
(*peaks,
are thofe,
on whom, through,
and
for Chriff,
God
beflowes
the
bleflednefs
ofJuftificationl
Elea
they
are
of
God
anteecedently
to the
obteining
of
that
bleffednefs and
through that,
theydoe obteine it:
fo
that
in
that fhort
fentence
of
this
Authour,the great pillar
of
the Saints
perfeverane
,
which
is
their
free
Elea
ion
,
the root
of
all thebleffednefs which
afterward they
enjoy,is eftablifhed
:other
paffages like
to thefe,there
are
in
that
Apiflle,which plainly deliver
the primitiveChriftians
of
the Church
of
Rome ,
from any communion
in
the
doarine
of
the
Saints
nApoflaey
,
and
manifefttheir
Perfetserance
,
in
the
doarinc
of
the Saints
Perfeverence,
wherein they had been
fo
plentifully
inftruaed not
long before,
by
the
Epiftleof
Pawl
unto
them.
He who upon
the
Roll
of Antiquity prefents himfelfe
In
the nest
place
to our
confideration,
is
the
renowned Ignatius, concernigwhom
I delire
to begge
fo
much favour
of
the
learned Rea-
der
,
as
to
allow me
a
lived
en
unto
fome
thoughts
and
obfervations,that belong
to another
fubjea,thenthat,
which
I
have
now peculiarly
in
hand
,
beforeI come
to
give him a
tart
of
his
Judgment
in
the
doarine
under debate.
As
tins Ignatius
Bebop
of
the Church
at Antioch,was
in
himfelfe
a
man
of
an excellent fpi-
rit,
eminent
in
holinefs
,
and
to
whom
on the
behelfe
of
Chrifl
it
was
given
not
only
to
believe
on
him
,
but
telfo
filer
for
him,
and on
that
account
of
very
great and high efteem among
the
Chritlians of
that
Age
wherein he lived,
and
fundry others following
,
fo no great
Queftion
an be made but
that
he
wrote toward the
end
of
his pilgrimage
,
when he was
on
hitway to
be