analogically or equivocally called a Christian or Member of Christ And such among the sincere are not a distinct Church or Society if they were they should be called the Hypocritical Church and not the Political or Congregate Church But they are as Traytors in an Army or as stricken Ears in a Corn Field But the true Church being One is considered as consenting with Heart and with the Tongue As a Corn Field hath Straw Chaff and Grain and as a Man hath Soul and Body So that it is the same Church that is visible by Baptism and Profession and Invisible by Heart-consent or Sincerity But it is the same thing and not divers that is in the Hearts of the sincere and that is to be professed by the Tongue Even that voluntary practical Faith which is described in Baptism and no other The same Faith which is accepted to Salvation in the sincere and invisible Members of the Church as they are called must be professed by all that will at Age be visible Members And the Knowledge and Belief required in Baptism is so much as prevaileth with the Person to give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as his Reconciled Creator his Saviour and Sanctifier And he that hath so much knowledge as will do this hath as much as is necessary to his reception into the Church Doubtless he that is capable of Baptism is capable of Church Membership and he that is capable of Church Membership is capable de jure as to right of so much Church Communion as he is capable of by real aptitude An Infant is not naturally capable of the actions of the Adult nor half-witted Persons of the receptions and performances of the judicious some cannot understand a Sermon or Prayer or Praise the twentieth part so well as others can do and so cannot receive and do beyond their understanding Some may not so well understand the nature of the Lords Supper as to be really fit at present to receive it And some may be unfit through some extraordinary doubts opinions or lapses But still de jure a Church Member hath right to so much Church Communion as their real qualifications make them capable of For that right is part of the definition of a Church member And to be made a Church member is the work of Baptism And here we must consider of the reason why God would have Baptism to be the Profession of that Faith which maketh us Christians Sometime we are called Believers and said to be Justified by Faith as if it were Faith alone that were our Christianity And yet when it cometh to Church entrance and to the solemn profession of our faith and reception of a Sealed and Delivered pardon we must do more than profess that we believe with the understanding We must give up our selves absolutely by a Vow and Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost renouncing the flesh the World and the Devil which is the act of a resolved Will. And to Will is rationally to Love and Choose By which Christ telleth us that as words of Knowledge in Scripture usually imply affection so the Faith that he means and requireth to our justification is not a meer assent or act of intellection but it is also the wills consent and a practical Affiance As a man Believing the Skill and Fidelity of a Physician doth Desire Will or Choose him for his Physician and Practically Trust him or cast himself upon his Fidelity and care for cure Therefore Christ joyneth both together Mark 16.16 He that Believeth and is baptized shall be saved not principally intending the washing of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience as Peter expoundeth it that is He that so believeth as by hearty consent to devote and give up himself openly and absolutely and presently to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost shall be saved And so the Apostle saith Eph. 4.4 5. There is one Baptism as part of the uniting bond of Christians That is there is one solemn Covenant between God and Man in which we profess our Faith and give up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and are stated in a gracious Relation to him and one another And thus it is that Baptism is reckoned Heb. 6. among the principles And that the ancient Doctors unanimously conclude that Baptism washeth away all sin and certainly puts us into a present state of life That is The delivering up our selves sincerely to God in the Baptismal Covenant is the condition of our right to the benefits of that Covenant from God. From all which it is plain that the Head is but the guide of the Heart and that God looketh more to the Heart than to the Head and to the Head for the Heart And that we are not Christians indeed till Christ have our Hearts indeed Nor Christians by profession till by Baptismal Covenant and profession we deliver up the Heart to Christ Now so far as Consent and Will may be called Love fo far even Love is Essential to our Christianity and to this faith which is required to our baptism and justification And no other faith is Christianity nor will justify us But to them that are here stalled with the great difficulty How Love is that grace of the Holy Ghost which is promised to believers in the Covenant as consequent if it go before it in the Covenanters I answer at present that they must distinguish between 1. Love to Christ as a Saviour of our selves proceeding principally from the just Love of our selves and our Salvation and Love to God above our selves for his own Infinite Goodness as our ultimate end 2. Between the Act of Love and a Habit 3. Between that spark of Love which consisteth in the said consent and is contained in true Faith and that Flame of Love which it self carryeth the name as being the most eminent operation of the Soul. And if hereupon they cannot answer this question themselves I must refer them to the Appendix of the third Chapter of my Christian Directory in which I have largely opened this case with as much exactness as I could reach unto All that remaineth very difficult then as to our judging of the Knowledge of men to be admitted to Christian Church Communion is but what knowledge is necessary in the adult unto their lawful Baptism And to that I say so much as is necessary to an understanding consent to the Baptismal Covenant or to an hearty giving up themselves to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost And here we must know that the same Covenanting words being comprehensive are understood in different degrees according to mans different Capacities even of true believers Insomuch that I do not think that any two men in the world have in all notions and degrees just the same understanding of them And therefore it is not the same distinctness and clearness of understanding which we must expect in all which is found in some or
by Certainty to overcome it 11. When a man hath attained a satisfying degree of perception he is capable still of clearer perception Even as when in the heating of water after all the sensible cold is gone the water may grow hotter and hotter still So after all sensible doubting is gone the perception may go clearer still 12. But still the Objective Certainty is the same that is There is that Evidence in the object which is in suo genere sufficient to notifie the thing to a prepared mind 13. But this sufficiency is a respective proportion and therefore as it respecteth mans mind in common it supposeth that by due means and helps and industry the mind may be brought certainly to discern this Evidence But if you denominate the sufficiency of the Evidence from its respect to the present disposition of mens minds so it is almost as various as mens minds are For recipitur ad modum recipientis and that is a certifying sufficient Evidence of truth to one man which to a thousand others is not so much as an Evidence of probability Therefore mediate and immediate sufficiency and certainty of Evidence must be distinguished From all this I may infer 1. That though God be the Original and End of all Verities and is ever the First in ordine essendi efficiendi and so à Jove principium in methodo syntheticâ yet he is not the primum notum the first known in ordine cognoscendi nor the beginning in methodo inquisitivâ though in such Analytical methods as begin at the ultimate end he is also the first Though all truth and evidence be from God yet two things are more evident to man than God is and but two viz. 1. The present evident objects of sense 2. Our own internal Acts of Intellective Cogitation and Volition And these being supposed the Being of God is the third evident Certainty in the World. 2. If it be no disparagement to God himself that he is less certainly known of us than sensibles and our Internal acts de esse it is then no disparagement to the Scripture and supernatural Truths that they are less certainly known Seeing they have not so clear evidence as the Being of God hath 3. The certainty of Scripture Truths is mixt of almost all other kinds of certainty conjunct 1. By sense and Intellective perception of things sensed the Hearers and See-ers of Christ and his Apostles knew the words and Miracles 2. By the same sense we know what is written in the Bible and in Church History concerning it and the attesting matters of Fact And also what our Teachers say of it 3. By certain Intellectual inference I know that this History of the words and fact is true 4. By Intellection of a natural principle I know that God is true 5. By inference I know that all his Word is true 6. By sense I know Intellectually receiving it by sense that this or that is written in the Bible and part of that word 7. By further inference therefore I know that it is true 8. By Intuitive knowledge I am certain that I have the Love of God and Heavenly desires and a Love of holiness and hatred of sin c. 9. By certain inference I know that this is the special work of the Spirit of Christ by his Gospel Doctrine 10. By experience I find the predictions of this Word fulfilled 11. Lastly By Inspiration the Prophets and Apostles knew it to be of God. And our certain Belief ariseth from divers of these and not from any one alone 5. There are two extreams here to be avoided and both held by some not seeing how they contradict themselves I. Of them that say that Faith hath no Evidence but the merit of it lyeth in that we believe without Evidence Those that understand what they say when they use these words mean that Things evident to sense as such that is Incomplex sensible objects are not the objects of Faith. We live by Faith and not by sight God is not visible Heaven and its Glory Angels and perfected Spirits are not visible Future Events Christs coming the Resurrection Judgment are not yet visible It doth not yet appear that is to sense what we shall be Our Life is hid from our own and others senses with Christ in God. We see not Christ when we rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory Thus Faith is the evidence of things not seen or evident to sight But ignorant Persons have turned all to another sense as if the objects of Faith had no ascertaining Intellectual Evidence When as it is impossible for mans mind to understand and believe any thing to be true without perceiving evidence of its truth as it is for the Eye to see without Light. As Rich. Hooker saith in his Eccl. Pol. Let men say what they will men can truly believe no further than they perceive Evidence It is a natural Impossibility For Evidence is nothing but the perceptibility of the Truth And can we perceive that which is not perceptible It 's true that evidence from Divine Revelation is oft without any Evidence ex natura rei But it may be nevertheless a fuller and more satisfying evidence Some say there is Evidence of Credibility but not of Certainty Not of natural Certainty indeed But in Divine Revelations though not in humane evidence of Credibility is Evidence of Certainty because we are certain that God cannot lie And to say I will believe though without Evidence of Truth is a contradiction or hypocritical self-deceit For your will believeth not And your understanding receiveth no Truth but upon evidence that it is Truth It acteth of itself per modum naturae necessarily further than it is sub imperio Voluntatis And the will ruleth it not despotically Nor at all quoad Specificationem but only quoad exercitium All therefore that your will can do which maketh Faith a moral Virtue is to be free from those vicious habits and acts in itself which may hinder faith and to have those holy dispositions and acts in itself which may help the understanding to do its proper Office which is to believe evident truth on the testimony of the revealer because his Testimony is sufficient Evidence The true meaning of a good Christian when he saith I will believe is I am truly willing to believe and a perverse will shall not hinder me and I will not think of suggestions to the contrary But the meaning of the formal hypocrite when he saith I will believe is I will cast away all doubtful thoughts out of my mind and I will be as careless as if I did believe or I will believe the Priest or my Party and call it a believing God. Evidence is an essentiating part of the Intellects act As there is no Act without an Object so there is no object sub formali ratione objecti without evidence Even as there is no sight but of an Illustrated
censuimus Is it possible that all the Clergy and Nobles of the Roman Kingdom can be so Ignorant of their own and other mens Ignorance as to take all the Decrees of the huge Volumes of their Councils for Certain Truths Either they were certain in their Evidence of Truth before they decreed them or not If they were so 1. How came the debates in the Councils about them to be so hard and so many to be dissenters as in many of them there were I know where Arrians or other Hereticks make up much of the Council it is no wonder But are the Certainties of Faith so uncertain to Catholick Bishops that a great part of them know not Certain Truths till the majority of Votes have told them they are certain Have the poor Dissenting-Bishops in Council nothing of certainty on which their own and all the poor peoples Faith and Salvation must depend but only this that they are over-voted As if the dissenters in the Council of Trent should say We thought beforehand the contrary had been true But now the Italian Bishops being so numerous as to over-vote us we will lay our own and all mens Salvation on it that we were deceived though we have no other reason to think so O noble Faith and Certainty It 's possible one or two or three poor silly Prelates may turn the Scales and make up a majority though as Learned men as Jansenius Cusanus or Gerson were on the other side And if the Jansenists Articles were Condemned or Cusanus his Antipapal Doctrine lib. de Concordia or Gersons for the Supremacy of Councils and de Auferibilitate Papae they must presently believe that they were certainly deceived But what 's become then of the contrary evidence which appeared before to these dissenters As suppose it were in the Council of Basil about the Immaculate conception of Mary or the Question whether the Authority of the Pope or Council be greatest decided there and at Constance and whereof at Trent the Emperor and the French were of one opinion and the Pope of another Was it evidently true before which is made false after by a Majority of Votes 2. And if all these Decreed things were Evident Truths before the said Decrees why have we not those Antecedent Evidences presented to us to convince us 2. But if they were not Evident Truths before what made those Prelates conclude them for Truths Did they know them to be such without Evidence This is grosser than a presumptuous mans believing that he shall be saved because he believeth it or their Doctrine that teach men to believe the thing is true that Christ died for them that thereby they may make it true As if the object must come after the act For then these Prelates do decree that to be true which before was false for ex-natura rei one party had evidence of its falshood that so they might make it true by decreeing that it is so A man might Lawfully have believed his own and other mens senses that Bread is Bread till the Council at Lateran sub Innoc. 3. decreed Transubstantiation And O what a change did that Council make All Christ's Miracles were not comparable to it if its Decrees be true From that day to this we must renounce sense and yet believe we must believe that by constant Miracles all Christians senses are deceived And so that this is the difference between Christians and Infidels and Heathens that our Religion deceiveth all mens senses even Heathens and all if they see our Sacrament and their Religion deceiveth no mans senses saith the grave Author of the History of the Trent Council Ed. Engl. p. 473. A better Mystery was never found than to use Religion to make men insensible And what is the Omnipotent Power that doth this such a Convention as that of Trent while with our Worcester Pate and Olaus Magnus they made up a great while two and forty things called Bishops And after such a pack of beardless Boys and ignorant Fellows created by and enslaved to the Pope as Dudithius Quinqueccles one of the Council describeth to the Emperour and which Bishop Jewel in his Letter to Seign Scipio saith he took for no Council called by no just Authority c. where were neither the Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria or Antioch nor Abassines nor Graecians Armenians Persians Egyptians Moors Syrians Indians nor Muscovites nor Protestants pag. 143 144. For saith he after pag. 489. Now-a-days merciful God! the intent or scope of Councils is not to discover truth or to confute falshood For these latter Ages this hath been the only endeavour of the Popes to establish the Roman Tyranny to set Wars on foot to set Christian Princes together by the Ears to raise Money to be cast into some few Bellies for Gluttony and Lust And this hath been the only cause or course of Councils for some Ages last past So here And can the Vote of a few such Fellows oblige all the World to renounce all their senses who were never obliged to it before And all this consisteth in PRETENDED FAITH and KNOWLEDGE when men must take on them to know what they do not know and make Decrees and Canons and Doctrines suited to their conjectures or rather to their carnal Interests and then most injuriously Father them on God on Christ and the Apostles II. And as the number of Forgeries and Inventions detecteth this publick Plague so doth the number of Persons that are guilty of it How many such superfluities the Abassines in their oft Baptizings and other trifles and the Armenians Syrians Georgians Jacobites Maronites the Russians c. Are guilty of the describers of their Rites and Religion tell us Some would have the State of the Church in Gregory â—sts days to be the model of our Reformation that Pope whom Authors usually call the last of the good ones and the first of the bad ones But is there either Necessity or Certainty in all the superfluities which the Churches then had and which that Great Prelates Writings themselves contain Or were there not abundance of such things then used as things Indifferent of which see Socrates and Sozomene in the Chapters of Easter and must all their Indifferents be now made necessary to the Churches Concord and Communion and all their uncertainties become certainties to us some will have the present Greek Church to be the Standard But alas poor men how many of these uncertainties crudities and superfluities are cherished among them by the unavoidable Ignorance which is caused by their oppressions To say no more of Rome O that the Reformed Churches themselves had been more innocent But how few of them unite on the terms of simple Christianity and Certainties Had not Luther after all his Zeal for Reformation retained some of this Leven he could better have endured the dissent of Zuinglius Carolostadius and Oecolampadius about the Sacrament And if his Followers had not kept up the same superfluities