A Preface to the Reader. falem after the death of frames, and yet ?amts is one ofthem,wbo is met together with them /.7.e.48: nay mention is made ofCerinthiu, and that Marke the heritick, Menander,Bafilides and Saeurniliu were known and taken notice ofby the Apoftles who all lived in the feconid Century,abought the RaigneofHadrian,as Eufebius ma itfelteth,andClem. Alex.Strom.lib.7. But to leavefuch husker as thefe,unto them who loath &Wanna, and will not feed on the bread that ourheavenly Father hath fo plentifully provided forall that live in his family , or any way belong to his houle ,"let us look onward rothem that follow , ofwhofeTruth and Honeftywe have more affurance. The firftGenuine piece that prefents it felfe unto us , on the Roll ofAntiquity, is that Epi- file ofClemen's,which in the name of the ChurchofRome , he motet() the divided Church ofCorinth , which being abundantly teftified to ofold, to thegreat contentment of the chri- fban world., was publifhed, here at OxfordTome few yeares fine; Awriting full oforation ftmplicity,humility, &Zeal.As to our prefent bufinefs much I confeffe cannot be pleadedfrom hence, beyond a negativeimpeachment, ofthat great and falle clamour which our eAdvetfa- rie have railed , ofthe confent of the primitive Chriftians with them in their by paths , and and waiesoferrour. It is true , treating ofa Subjeél diverfe from any of thofe headsof Reli- gion about which our conceits are , it is not tobe expelled thathethould 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 ofouradverfaries,in the matter of the Saintsperfeverance:but that on thecontrary,there are fundryexpreflïons,afferttng fuch afoundation of theDodrine wemaintain,as will with good llrength inferre the Truthof it. Tag. 4. Setting forth thevirtues of theCorinthians before theyfell into the fchifme that occauioned his Epiftle, he minds them that : 444 din orip iiµi ss 7 rvk7a i4.7denis 7S ádA07e7C , etc77i ar',5 u ika,s 4 ota ea ,-mç^.'tée., r IV 4KAETt P Q41 Y. That God hash a certain number ofEleil to be faved and for whole falvation by his Mercy the Church is tocontend with him, is aprinciple wholy inconfrfient with thofe,on which the dottrineof the SaintseApoflacy is bottom'd. Correfponding hereunto is that pottage ofhis concerning the will of God,p,az: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 Teftimoniegiven to the Truth , in this Epiftle, was not fo eleare as mightbe defrred.The words now repeated,containe the very Theirscontended for.It is thebeloved ofGod (or his Chofen) whom he will have made partakers of faving Repen- tance; &hereuntohe eflablilheththem(for with that word is thedefer° in the fentence co be fup- plyed ) by , or With the a"flmigheywill: becaufe he will have his beloved partakersoffaving Repentance, and the benefits thereof, he confirmes and eftablifhes them in it, with his Omni- potent, or Soveraigne will. The incontinency, and irreconcileablenefsof this affertion, with thedotrine oftheir Saints Apoflacy,the Learned Readerneeds not any A fliftance to manifeft tohim. Anlwerably hereuntohe faith of God. odr- i;uäeërtirn7tniwsm,pag.3l:and p.66: mentioning the bleffednefs ofthe forgivnefsof fins,out ofPf3z:he adds.'cifl a stator- (.13s ¡yips7o cmi rúo incasnmytans; ruì o .0 A, ins xesêrä r..e: ñn,TheElea of whom he (*peaks, are thofe, on whom, through, and for Chriff, God beflowes the bleflednefs ofJuftificationl Elea they areofGod anteecedentlyto the obteiningof that bleffednefs and through that, theydoe obteine it: fo that in that fhortfentence of thisAuthour,the great pillar of the Saints perfeverane , which is their freeEleaion , the rootofall thebleffednefs which afterward they enjoy,is eftablifhed :other paffages like to thefe,there are in that Apiflle,which plainly deliver the primitiveChriftians of the Churchof Rome , from any communion in thedoarineofthe Saints nApoflaey , and manifefttheir Perfetserance , in the doarincof the Saints Perfeverence, wherein they had been fo plentifully inftruaed not long before, by theEpiftleof Pawlunto them. He who upon the Rollof Antiquity prefents himfelfe In the nest place to our confideration, is therenowned Ignatius, concernigwhom I delire to begge fo much favour of the learned Rea- der , as to allow me a liveden unto fome thoughts and obfervations,that belong to another fubjea,thenthat, which I havenow peculiarly in hand , beforeI come to give him a tart of his Judgment in thedoarine under debate. As tins Ignatius Bebopof the Church at Antioch,was in himfelfe a manofan excellent fpi- rit, eminent in holinefs , and to whom on the behelfe of Chrifl it wasgiven not only tobelieve on him , but telfo filerfor him, and on that account ofvery 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 ofhis pilgrimage , when he wasonhitway to be
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