Church in his time and the same is also described again Ephes 4. from v. 4. to the 17. But I suppose you will be asking Is not then Christ the Head of his Church can the Church have another Head besides Christ I answer Christ is the Head of his Church and yet the Church of Christ by his appointment may have in its external Government another Head that is an external Head by the appointment of Christ I say Christ is the only absolute independent Head but he may appoint a dependent Head derived from him Christ is the sole Head that Governs all both Pastors and People and the cheif Pastor also Thus God is the King of the World may not he therefore have other Kings Reigning under him Now how opposite and contrary your Congregational Churches and all Churches divided from the true Visible Church are to this constitution is easy for you to see What are those Congregational Churches but a confused Rabble of Itching Ears heaping up Teachers to themselves without any either single Person or Assembly of them endowed with power to govern or direct all of their Congregations dispersed in divers Provinces and Countries but every one stands upon its own bottome and hath no dependance of the rest as do the Common-Wealths of Venice Geneva Holland c. so that they have no visible unity amongst them either of coordination or subordination but are politick bodies wholly seperate and disjoyned the one from the other Can you think this the constitution of Christs visible Church on earth Is this One Body Is this a compaction and conjunction by joynts and Nerves mentioned by the Apostles The first and Original Christian Church in our Saviour time was such an united body as St. Paul mentions having then our Saviour for its visible Head and his Disciples for its Members all united together in one visible Communion and was not this Original Church the Model and Platform laid by our Saviour to be imitated and followed in its manner of Government by all succeeding Ages The Apostolical Church next to that of our Saviours time was like unto it where St. Peter was the chief Pastor and the Apostles under him over the whole Church dispersed both amongst Jews and Gentiles as appears Acts 15. and who had power to change this Original and Apostolical manner of union and Government in after Ages into a quite opposite digestion and to bring in a perfect Anarchie I hope from the grounds here laid it will appear as clear to you as I profess it did to me that the visible Church of God on Earth which in the Creed is called the Holy Catholick Church was and is that Rule and Judge that means appointed by God for the conveying of the Christian Faith to the World and to whom all on pain of Damnation were and are by Gods Ordinance to submit as to the Authority appointed by God to teach them what they ought to beleive in order to the attaining of Salvation and that without disputing any more then they would have disputed the decrees and directions of the Holy Apostles were they now living upon Earth consequently that this Authority was infallible It will onely remain that we consider which amongst all those congregations now on Earth which pretend themselves to be this Church of Christ is really and truly this Holy Church and Spouse of Christ For having once found her and knowing that she is so assisted by the Holy Ghost that she cannot teach us an Error instead of a Truth we shall no more dispute the verity of her Doctrines then we should have questioned the Articles of Faith taught by the Holy Apostles or the words of Christ himself Wherefore if this Church this infallible Guide shall teach us that Infants are to be Baptised that it is as lawful to desire the Saints departed to pray for us as to desire the Prayers of those who are living on our behalfs That the body of Christ our Saviour is really and truly present in the Sacrament of the Altar or the Lords Supper or any the like Article of Faith we shall no more doubt of it then the first Christians did dispute the verity of what the Apostles taught them when they informed them that they were to beleive that Christ whom they had seen as man was true and very God that a Virgin still remaining a Virgin might by the power of the Holy Ghost bring forth a child That the body of Christ spirituallized might pass through a Dore the Dore being shut That three could be One and One three For who shall dare to question what God shall tell him to be true And if God now speaks by the mouth of his present Church as he did by the mouth of his Church in the times of the Apostles who shall doubt the truth of those words which proceeded from his mouth Wherefore as to this last question which is now this present Church of Christ which is our infallible Guide and Judge appointed by God for our direction and to whom we are to submit as aforesaid I shall in brief give you that answer which I profess gave me a full and clear satisfaction and it is shortly this The Protestant Church of England and all other Churches different from the Roman do judge and declare and profess themselves to be fallible even according to the infallible word of God If then the said Protestant Church of England or any other Churches different from the Roman be infallible in all that they judge and in that they declare and profess to be true according to the word of God they doubtless are then infallible and speak then the infallible truth when they judge declare and profess that even according to the Word of God they are fallible Therefore infallibly they are fallible Hence again it being thus proved that no Church different from that Roman is infallible And it being before proved that God hath appointed some Church upon earth to be our infallible Judge it demonstratively followeth that the Roman Church must needs be this infallible Judge because no church different from it that is none but the Roman Church can be this infallible Church But I pray you do not mistake this Argument as some have pleased to do who think the force of it to lye thus viz. The Roman Church claimeth infallibility therefore she is infallible This is nothing like the Argument which I put the force of which lies thus That the Church truly appointed by God for this infallible Judge of controversies cannot possibly be any of those Churches which teach themselves not to be this infallible Judge because they teach themselves to be Fallible if then they be infallible in the doctrine they teach they are infallible when they teach themselves to be fallible Therefore infallibly they are fallible Now the Church which is truly appointed by God to be this infallible Judge must needs have this condition that she doth own her infalibility but
Reason which I shall recount unto you is this that to make the Scripture this sole Rule and Judge is in effect not to make the Scripture so but to make every individual man and woman who take upon them to read and understand the Scriptures such a Rule and Judge unto themselves for what difference is there between judging by my own Reason and judging by a Law to be Interpreted by my own Reason This is to make the Scripture not Gods Word but the word of every private man Hence I concluded that if Christ be God as certainly and infallibly he is and if he truly loved those soules for which he dyed he hath certainly provided for them some more assured means by which to know the true Faith without which he will not save them then by leaving them to the Scriptures to be interpreted by each one as he thinks best for what Law maker was there ever found so ridiculous as to gather a people into a body and give them a Law book in writing to govern them and to be their only judge in all their differences without appointing nay expresly prohibeting that there should be any living judge or Judges or any Court to expound this Law and to have the Executive Authority and jurisdiction from whence there should be no appeal Having considered after this manner what could be said for the private Spirit Reason and the sole sufficiency of Scripture I was in the last place to see what could be said on the behalf of the Catholick Church resolving from these premises that if here I could not find a satisfaction in point of certainty and an infallible assurance I was not to expect it as far as I yet understood from the Principles of Christianity and consequently must conclude that Religion and Faith were no more then Fancy and Opinion I thought it not unreasonable and other persons would doubtless have thought the Argument strong enough if I had sought no further but concluded the Private spirit is not Reason is not the Scriptures are not this Rule and Judge therefore the Church is But I resolved to examine farther and having agreed the point that such a Rule and Judge there must alwaies be of necessity and therefore there hath alwaies been and ever shall be such a One unless we shall say which I hope none will that God is defective in necessaries I found first for the first 2000 years before any Scriptures were written the Church of God was this Rule and Judge Was not Circumcision and other Rights brought in by Abraham and practised by the Church then without any Scripture to try them by what would you have said if you had then lived would you have disobeyed the then Church and rejected those Ordinances because there were then no Scriptures to warrant them Secondly the Church of the Jews was so to the Jews after that the Scripture was written and this by the express direction of Scripture Deut. 17. 8. Thou shal come to the Priests the Levites and unto the Iudge that shall be in those daies and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of Iudgement c. And according to the judgement which they shall tell thee you shall do Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left hand And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest or unto the Iudge even that man shall dye Therfore our Blessed Lord whilst the Jewish Church was yet in being gave directions Mat. 23. 2. 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all therfore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Would God direct them unto punish with Death for not obeying an Authority which might deceive them would our Lord command the doing of whatsoever should be done by an Authority when that Authority was capable of mistaking From hence I concluded that it was possible for the Church of God to be such a Rule and Judge and to be the means appointed by God to give infallible instructions in the Truth Now as concerning the Church in the new Law under Christ I found Thirdly that God had promised such a Church such an Authority by the mouthes of his Prophets Isa 2. v. 2. 3 c. It shall come to pass in the last dayes so the Apostles called the time of the New Law That the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Established in the top of the mountains behold its visibility All Nations shall slow unto it see its Universality and extent and say come ye and let us goe up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob And He that is God will teach us his waies in this his house or Church for out of Sion shall go forth the Law as by the Apostles on Whitsunday and the Word of God from Ierusalem where the first Preaching of the Gospel begun And he shall judge amongst the Nations Not personally for Christ went not of Iewry but by his Churches Tribunal erected amongst all Nations so conspicuously that they may all flow to it Will any one say this judgement which is Gods judgement can be fallible Or that in this Tribunal he that teacheth can teach us Errors Isa 35. 8. where God promiseth to establish a way of holiness so direct unto us that Fooles should not erre therein Isa 54. 3. 13 17. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles thy children shall be taught of the Lord and every tongue that shall rise against thee in Iudgement thou shall condemne Isa 56. 21. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my spirit infallible that is upon thee and my words infallible also which I have put in thy mouth the mouth by which the Church teacheth and judgeth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever Behold here the spirit of Truth intailed upon the Church to preserve it from Error Isa 60. 10. 12 c. The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls their Kings shall minister unto thee thy Gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought For the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve thee by submitting to thy doctrine shall perish I will make the place of my feet glorious they shall call thee the City of the Lord I will make thee an eternal Excellency thy sun shall no more go down nor shall thy moon withdraw it self but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light If those shall perish who refuse to submit to this Authority to whom God is an everlasting Light and whom he makes an everlasting Excellency we need not fear that it can deceive us or that it can ever so be Eclipsed as to be at any time invisible
AN EPISTLE To the several Congregations of the NON-CONFORMISTS By Cap. ROBERT EVERARD Now by Gods Grace a Member of the Holy Catholick Church of CHRIST Shewing the Reasons of his Conversion and Submission to the said CATHOLICK CHURCH PARIS Printed 1664. If there be any who hath any Value for the Authority of the great St. Austin I shall beseech them to read this following Text of that Saint and to consider whether I have not in my proceedings observed his Rule and Method And let them but change the Word Manichaeus into Iohn Calvin and observe how neerly it will concern them St. Aug. against the Epist of Manichaeus which they call Fundamental c. 5. Edit Paris Tom. 6. 1. 46. IF thou shalt find any one who doth not as yet beleive the Gospel what wilt thou do when he shall say unto thee I do not beleive But neither had I beleived the Gospel unless I had been thereunto moved by the Authority of the Catholick Church Those therefore to whom I submitted when they required me to beleive the Gospel why should I not also yield Obedience unto them when they direct me not to beleive Manichaeus Take your choice If you tell me I must beleive the Catholicks they give me Advice not to give Credit to you and therefore if I beleive them I cannot but refuse to beleive you If you tell me I must not beleive the Catholicks you proceed ill when you go about by the Gospel to perswade me to beleive Manichaeus because it was from the Preachings of the Catholicks that I beleived the Gospel it self If you tell me I did well when I beleived the Catholicks praysing the Gospel but I do ill when I beleive the same persons decrying Manichaeus do you take me to be so stupid as without any Reason given unto me I should beleive or disbeleive what you please c. But if you have any Reason to offer unto me lay aside the Gospel if you hold your self to the Gospel I shall adhere to those upon whose commands I beleived the Gospel and so long as I Obey them I shall not beleive you But if by Accident you should find any thing in the Gospel most evidently touching the Apostleship of Manichaeus you will weaken the Authority of the Catholicks in my esteem who require me not to beleive you but that being weakned I shall not beleive the Gospel because I beleive that by them so that whatsoever you bring from the Gospel will be of no force with me Wherefore if nothing be found in the Gospel for the manifestation of Manichaeus his Apostleship I shall rather give credit to the Catholicks then you But if any thing shall be there found manifest on the behalf of Manichaeus I shall neither beleive them nor you Not them because they told me a Lye of you nor shall I beleive you because you urge that Scripture to me which I beleived upon their Authority who told me a Lye in relation to you I cannot doubt but the Reports which have lately spread concerning me and of my change and Alteration in the great Affair of Religion put you upon an Expectation to hear something from me and that in Print too It having been my constant former Method to give an account of my self to the World that way And although I might very well excuse my self from the same thing now that scribling humor being only in the dayes of my Ignorance when God Almighty pleased to permit a Veil to hang between my eyes and his most glorious Truth Namely the veile of my Pride and Folly Yet least from a total silence the world which in its own Nature is censorious enough should apprehend that I either wanted Charity to my late dear Breathren or Courage to own the Truth or that I thought the way unjustifiable wherein I now Worship and Adore the God of my Fathers these good and Pious men who until the pretended Reformation of Luther and his Followers knew no other way of Worship or Religion then this by which Millions of them were sent into the Bosome of Christ I have at last resolved to give you a short accompt of my self and what hath befallen me since the Happy Restauration of our most Gracious Soveraign to his Crown and Dignities And indeed when I consider the Love which I have ever had for you and the returns of Affection which I have received from many and most of you I think my self more then ordinarily Engaged to be free with you in these things as hoping and in Charity believing that if I can Convince you of the reasonableness of my Proceedings you will approve of what I have done And on the other side if any of you can make it appear wherein I have done amiss you will be so just and this Justice I here challenge from you as to shew me my Errors My carriage whilst I was in Communion with you was I hope alwaies such as to give you a sufficient reason to beleive that I neither was nor am byassable by Worldly Interests and selfish Considerations When I profest my self against Infant Baptisme I had run through almost if not altogether all the several Professions of Châ—istianity then appearing in this Kingdome the Catholique only excepted which as I never had any oppertunity to examine as not meeting with any of that party who were willing to publish themselves to me for such so neither did I think them or their Principles worthy my Consideration having from the joynt and unanimous consent of all our Pulpits beleived those of that party to be so grosly ignorant that to discourse with them in relation to Religion were but to cast away time and labour Being thus prejudiced against the Catholique party it pleased Almighty God to bring me into the company of a Lay Gentleman of that perswasion and to give me occasion to spend some considerable time with him I no sooner understood his Profession as to Religion but I began to attempt him in that wherein I thought as conscious of the weakness of his cause he would never have engaged but I soon found my mistake by his readiness to embrace discourses of that nature And I found also that we had all embraced a most notorious Error while we suffered our selves to be perswaded that the Catholickes were an Ignorant Generation The Gentleman seemed desirous to examine every thing from the bottome and to lay the Ax to the Root and truly I thought that very reasonable as conceiving that where the foundation was unsound the superstructures were not to be relyed on He enquired of me therefore in the first place whether I was sure certain that the Christian Religion in general was more true then the Religions of the Turks Jews or any other which was opposite thereunto and whether I was so certainly and infallibly assured of this that it was not possible for me or for those who taught me Christianity to be mistaken in this And he gave
me this Reason for his Question namely that if neither I my self nor those who taught me that Christianity was the only safe way to Salvation and the only way in which Heaven was to be attained was infallibly certain or were capable of any mistake or might in any possibility commit an errour in this thing then as to me Christianity could be no more then probably true and we could with no colour of Reason condemn the Jew Turk or Pagan since they were as well perswaded of their several waies as we could be of ours upon a fallible certainty and for ought we knew not having any infallible certainty for our Christianity some of them might be in the Right and we in the wrong way And how could you say to a Jew you must become a Christian if you expect to be saved when as if he Examine you strictly and closely in relation to what certaitny you have of the truth of Christianity your Answer will amount to no more then this You conceive you are in the Right and you hope and beleive you are not mistaken But it is possible you may be mistaken in this for every man is a Lyar every man and all men and every Church is fallible and subject to Error and to be mistaken Can such Arguments as these invite a Jew or Turk to become a Christian I confess I was extreamly troubled with this first difficulty and knew not how to answer it plainly and without apparent shuffling and declining the question which I plainly did by urging that if he intended to call the Religion which Christ Established in the world into question and to make a doubt of the mayn and Grand Principle of Christianity which we both of us agreed to be true I should treat no farther and that if himself doubted of the Truth of Christs Religion I was not prepared to Dispute the point This Answer seemed very strange even to my self but it seemed more strange to me that I should find my self Gravelled in such a question as was fit for every one to answer However my Opponent used me Gently and Sweetly and without the least shew of insulting over my weakness he told me that in reason I ought to answer this difficulty for replied he though it may be true and is most certainly true that the Christian Religion upon the true Grounds upon which it is founded is infallibly certain and Divine yet upon the Grounds upon which you may found your beleif thereof it may possibly not be true or certain as to you for example suppose you are told a thing by a known or common perjured person and upon his word you beleive it you cannot be certainly assured that the thing is true because such an Infamous common notorious Lyer tells you so but the thing is really to you doubtful nay more probably false then true and yet the thing in it self is true so if in the Apostles times one had beleived Christianity to be true not because the Apostles taught him so but because Simon Magus affirmed it to him in this case who sees not that such a mans faith had not been true but that the whole thing to him had been uncertain the belief of it being grounded upon a wrong Foundation which was no waies certain From all which it is evident that no Heretick can have true Faith this I shall farther prove in regard the contrary is an error broached publikely by Mr. Baxter in his Treatise against Mr. William Iohnson who hath fully silenced Mr. Baxter beyond all possibility of replying with reason in relation to this perticular the proof which I give is in this Argument Whosoever hath true Faith beleiveth the thing beleived or the material object of Faith for the Divine Authority of God revealing it But no Heretick beleiveth so Therefore no Heretick hath true Faith The Major is granted by all because Christian Faith must rest upon Gods Revelation as its formal object The Minor is proved thus whosoever beleives the material object of Faith or the thing beleived for the Divine Authority of God revealing it must beleive all things which are as sufficiently propounded to him to be revealed by God as are those Articles which he doth beleive And must beleive nothing as a Revelation of God which is as sufficiently declared to him to be erroneous or not a Revelation as the Articles of Faith are to be revealed But every Heretick either refuseth to beleive something which is so sufficiently propounded to him to be revealed from God or beleives something as a Revelation which is so sufficiently declared to him to be erroneous or not revealed from God Therefore no Heretick hath true Faith The first part of this Major is proved thus Whosoever refuseth to beleive what is so sufficiently propounded to be revealed by God either refuseth all that is so propounded or beleives some things and refuseth to beleive others as sufficiently propounded as those which he beleives If he refuseth all he can have no true Faith for he belives nothing and is therefore no Christian If he beleives some and refuseth others equally propounded then he beleives not those things which he doth beleive for the Divine Authority revealing for when two things are equally propounded to the understanding they ought to worke equally upon it but upon his own wilful choice or private judgement refuseth some and ascents to others As to the second part of the aforesaid Major viz. That no man can have true Christian Faith who beleives any thing as a Revelation which is as sufficiently propounded to him to be Erroneous as the Articles by him beleived are propounded to be Revelations the very same Authority which affirms the one denying the other Suppose the same Authority acknowledged doth sufficiently propound to a Calvenist the Articles of Faith as revealed from God and at the same time assures him that his conceit of the Popes being the great Antichrist was never revealed from God but is a manifest error in Faith In this case our Calvenist must disbeleive that propounding Authority and thereby lose his Faith in the former Articles by him beleived and have no true faith in the first or he must beleive the same Authority in the second because it is the same Authority in both For that very Authority which propounds the Articles of Faith as revealed of God propounds the other as not revealed and as contrary to Gods Revelation By all which it is most evident that if your Faith be built upon a wrong Foundation it is of no value nor doth it give you any certainty nor is it indeed Faith but Humor and Opinion This Discourse seemed to me so convincing that I could not but agree unto it and therfore I told him as a full answer to his first question that I embraced Christianity and that sort of Christianity to which I adheared in opposition to all others because the Scriptures which are Gods Word taught me so to
and treatises from whence I made several Collections the Heads of which I recommend to your considerations they being such as had by the Gracious assistance of Almighty God such a prevailing power upon my understanding as to convince me of the errors of the way wherein I then was and to bring me to the Knowledge of the Divine truths of the Catholick and Christian Faith I gathered from the true interpretation of that Text of Scripture Heb. 11. 6. Without Faith it is impossible to please God And of that Mar. 16. 16. He that beleiveth not shall be damned And of that other Ephes 4. 5. There is but one Faith and one Baptisme one Lord Iesus That the faith which was to save me and by the which I was to please God must certainly be the true Faith which cannot be found in contrary Opinions it being but One and of contraries One only can be true I also collected from that Text 2. Cor. 10. 5. Bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ That this Faith or beleiving was to be seated in the understanding that the understanding was to submit not dispute And that this Act To beleive was a Command or Precept of Almighty God who will have his Will obeyed by all his Subjects and the not obeying of which is punished with eternal Damnation Lastly I found from that Text Heb. 10. 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised That Faith if truly Divine must be an infallible assent of our understanding submitting it self obediently to beleive the Revelations of God For otherwise Faith and consequently all Religion may be no more then fancy or Opinion and then no waies certain and if so then no Obligation From whence I thought it did very naturally follow first that there must be some means appointed by God by which we may know this one true Faith from all false Opinions for to require us to beleive upon pain of Damnation and not to give us any means whereby we may know what to beleive were to require us to make Bricks without Straw Secondly that these means must be infallible for we cannot be brought to an infallible ascent by fallible and uncertain means and God would not require us to assent to an Authority which may deceive us Thirdly that the understanding must submit to these means under pain of Damnation for if the understanding were at liberty to submit or not to submit to the means by which Faith is conveyed unto us it would be no fault not to beleive consequently God could not justly damne us for not beleiving Besides whosoever shall refuse to be governed by their means and that Authority which God hath appointed to govern him is a Rebel against God Fourthly that two men of two differing Faiths or beliefs cannot be saved for they both of them knowing that they are bound to be guided and governed by those means which God hath appointed to convey faith unto them and one of them flatly refusing to submit this person who refuseth must be guilty of disobedience to Gods command and consequently cannot be saved Fifthly that ignorant people by such reasonable diligence as is very tollerable to humane frailty and very possible for them may come to the knowledge of these means For otherwise God would have appointed means which would be unprofitable to the end and the far greater number of Souls for whom Christ dyed would not be sufficiently provided for by the sweet Providence of God By which that Prophesy would be ineffectual Esay 35. Say to them that are of a fearful heart be strong fear not behold your God will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the Ears of the deaf unstopped c. And one high way shall be there and a way and it shall be called the Holy way the way faring men though Fooles shall not err therein And thus far I met with nothing but what I esteemed very agreeable with all sorts of people professing themselves Christians All that I ever met with seemed to grant that there must be a way and a Rule there must be means appointed there must be a governing power to judge and decide all doubts and teach us the true way to Heaven with certainty But who this Rule or Iudge is that is the difficulty for when once we have found it I think all persons will agree that they are obliged to submit unto it as to the Apostles if they were actually living or to Christ himself This therefore I thought to be the only question that I was to gain satisfaction unto I therefore ceased to enquire after this doctrine or the other Article as beleiving that if I could once find out this Rule this Judge which God had appointed as the means to direct me and to which I was to submit as to that Authority which God had appointed to Rule and Govern me to teach me what I was and what I was not to beleive I should no more scruple to beleive what that Authority should teach me to be revealed by God then if I heard God himself speaking And I was no way discouraged in my resolution to search when I considered that as God spoke in Antient times by the mouthes of his Prophets before and after the Scriptures were written and by the mouthes of his Apostles before and after the New Testament was written and that the writing of what God directed to be written did not lessen the power of God but that he might still direct by the mouthes of his Prophets and Apostles so possibly I might find God still speaking by an Authority which hitherto I had not been acquainted with I found all the Rules and meanes proposed by every party to amount to four in the whole One party would set up a claim to the Spirit directing them and speaking to their spirits Another will have Reason to be this Rule and Judge A third will set up sole Scripture And the fourth assigneth the Holy Catholick Church of Christ Visible here on Earth to be that Judge and Director And finally that medium appoynted by God himself for the ends before mentioned and to which all Christians were to submit Other then these I never heard of any for I alwaies esteemed the Quakers Light to be either the Spirit or natural Reason and I resolved to rank it under one of those considerations by a name more known to the world then that which they have given it And therefore these I resolved most carefully to examine As to the first touching the Spirit bearing witness in secret with our spirits or in plainer terms the Private Spirit I considered that there is no man in the world Jew or Turk Pagan or Christian but may if he will put on confidence enough affirme that he is taught inwardly by God many of all sorts do this and yet teach contradictions some therefore must be
Many more promises might be collected out of the Old Testament but I come to shew Fourthly that Christ by his own mouth and by the mouthes of his Apostles hath promised to us likewise such a Church Mat. 16. 19. Upon this Rock I will build my Church which he had foretold by his Prophets should be of so vast extent And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 18. 17. He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen or a Publican but if Christ by his spirit doth not preserve this Church from all possibility of teaching me error instead of a truth I may from this Church which Christ obligeth me to hear and unto which obligeth me to submit receive such errors as may damn me Mat. 28. 20. And Loe I am with you alwaies even unto the end of the World this must be meant of the visible Church which was to be in every Age for the Apostles were not to live and to Baptise and teach alway unto the end of the world And therefore if the same assistance and presence of Christ was promised to the Church after the Apostles I think we shall not doubt but that it is the same that is infallible But that it may clearely appear that the Assistance promised by Christ to his Church extended to an infallible security from all errors consider Iohn 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive and v. 26. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I shall say unto you and ch 16. 12. I have many things yet to say unto you but you cannot hear them now howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth But all Truth excludeth all Errors and this for ever which was longer then the Apostles were to live If we therefore enquire by what means this teaching shall be by whom the people shall be taught all Truths and how preserved from all errors St. Paul will tell us Eph. 4. 11. He gave some Apostles succeeding in full Apostolical Authority some Prophets expounders of the Prophets some Evangelists Preachers of the Gospel some Pastors and Teachers to what end For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ For what time Till we all come in the Union of the faith But will these secure us the next verse will tell you That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in waite to deceive Gods intent then was to provide such means for mankinde as might secure them in their beleif in every Age that they might not be deceived by the cunning craft of false Teachers such as now think themselves able by pretending inward Lights Private Spirits and evidence of Scripture by themselves Interpreted to teach us a doctrine contrary to all those who for almost fifteen Ages before them have been and none others teaching a contrary Faith can be named who have been the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastours and Teachers in the Visible Church of Christ In the last place I shall urge that Text of St. Paul to Timothy 1. Tim. 3. 15. The Church of the Living God the Pillar and ground of Truth And may we not securely rely upon that Pillar which God hath erected for us and found our Faith upon that Ground of truth which the God of all truth hath given us for that end To elude their plain and evident Texts I know you are wont to say in the first place that they may have other Interpretations and therefore this is not the truth But will not the same reason hold the Apostles cited many Texts of Scriptures and interpreted them so as to prove Christ the Messias and his Doctrines to be true whereas those Texts might have had other interpretations therefore the Interpretation put on them by the Apostles were not true Who sees not the weakness of this Argument Can you shew with any assurance that these Texts are not capable of these interpretations If not then according to your own principles these interpretations may be true for you who say the contrary are not infallible but may be mistaken Another answer which you use to give is that you are willing to agree that so long as the Church of Christ teacheth conformable to Scripture she is infallible and so long as she doth her Duty she may and ought to be beleived But this is as weak as the former for who sees not that it gives the Church no more priviledge nor allowes it to have any more benefit from these promises then the Divel hath for so long as he teacheth conformable to Scripture he may be beleived A straw may be a Pillar until it bends and Quick-sands sure ground until they yield What assurance can we have that the Holy Apostles did their duty in writing what the Holy Ghost did dictate unto them For if they did not their writings are not to be beleived consequently we are not nor can we be infallibly secure that the Scriptures which we have were dictated by and are by Inspiration from God If you can answer this so as to be secure that the Apostles did their duty the same will be our answer that the present Visible Catholick Church of Christ at all times doth her Duty The fift Argument is that the Church of God was this Rule and Judge this only means to convey Faith and this infallible Guide and Authority when our Blessed Saviour was alive and before the New Testament was written and also in the Apostles times both before and after the whole New Testament was written If not I obliege you to shew some evident Text which proves certainly that after the New Testament was written the Church in the Apostles time was deprived of this priveledge and Authority and that it had been no sinne then to oppose or not submit to the guidance direction government and authority of the Apostles But if notwithstanding this you shall without giving any other Reason insist that the Apostles were this infallible Rule and Judge in their times only until the Canon of Scriptures was finished and then lost their Authority when they had compleated the Canon I pray consider what will be the consequence in case it stands proved that the Canon of Scripture which they finished is now uncompleated by the loss of those Epistles and parcels of the Apostles writings which I have proved to be lost Will it not follow that for the same Reason that an infallible living rule and Judge was necessary before the Canon was compleat the same is now necessary some part