for Miracles they tell us that there is no certain way of judging true from false but by the Authority of the Church Now if these things be so what ground could the first Jewish Converts have to believe Christ was the true Messiah or a worker of true Miracles when in believing both these things they must oppose the Authority of the then present Church 4. All that hath been discoursed in answer to the former pleas serves also against this For who shall be judg whether these Miracles were true and were sufficient to confirm the Christian Faith those Persons whose Office it was to judg both of true Prophets and true Miracles or those who had no power or commission so to do Was not the Jewish Sanhedrim and other Rulers of that Church more able Judges of the Truth and the validity of any Miracles pretended to be wrought by Christ and his Apostles than was that Multitude which as experience teacheth may be imposed upon with ease Were not those Guides who were appointed to be Judges in all other matters the proper Judges of this Controversie Have we not reason to believe their judgment was as free from interest and passion and their endeavors to search out the truth of these relations as sincere as was the judgment or endeavours of the Laity When therefore these Church-Guides did notwithstanding those pretended Miracles of Christ and his Apostles conclude unanimously that Christ was a Deceiver was it not absurd to say that what they so universally determined might be discerned by any private judgment to be the clearest falshood that vulgar persons had demonstration in this matter against the judgment of the whole body of their Guides and that their common reason was able to discern that to be manifestly true which the same common reason of their Superiors judged to be manifestly false Thus have we seen that Scripture and Reason do more countenance the Jew pleading against our Lord and the first Christian Converts than they do countenance the Papist pleading against Protestants In the last place the Jew may argue from Tradition thus viz. These Spiritual Guides in making this determination and passing of this judgment concerning Jesus were guided by that Rule Synod Tri◠Sess 4. which by the greatest part of Christians I mean the Roman Catholicks is highly magnified and equaled with the Holy Scriptures viz. Tradition acknowledged by the present Church for such And so your Jesus must also upon this account be deemed an Impostor or the pretences and pleadings of the Romanist against the Protestant from the Tradition of the Church must be acknowledged to be vain For 1. It is most certain that the Jews had a Tradition generally received amongst them that their Messiah at his coming should restore the Kingdom to Israel That he should subdue the Nations under them and should erect a Temporal Dominion in the Jewish Nation over all their Enemies Even the Disciples of our Lord did constantly believe this Article till by the Holy Ghosts descent upon them they were better informed Matth. xviii 1. Matth. xx 21. Witness their contests who should be greatest in that Kingdom and the desire of the Sons of Zebedee to sit one at his right hand another at his left hand in it This was our Faith saith Cleopas Luke xxiv 21 we trusted that this Jesus should have Redeemed our Israel And when they were assembled after the Resurrection their first enquiry is this Act. i. 6. Lord wilt thou now restore the Kingdom to Israel It is therefore certain that this was the received Tradition of the whole Jewish Church grounded as they supposed upon the Scriptures which did necessitate them to expect a glorious Messiah 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. p. 249. B. not such a one saith Trypho as your mean and despised Jesus was 2. It was also a Tradition which generally obtained amongst the Jews that their Elias who was called the This bite was to appear again in person before the advent of the true Messiah Mal. iv 5. so was that place of Malachi Translated by the Seventy three hundred and eighty years before our Saviours coming Behold I send unto you Elias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the great and glorious day of the Lord come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dial. p. 268. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark ix 11. All we expect saith Trypho that Christ should be anointed by Elias who is for to come and because this Elias is not come we think your Jesus cannot be the Christ Accordingly the Scribes or the Expounders of the Law did with one voice declare it necessary that Elias should first come 3. It was the general Tradition of the Jews that the Law of Moses should be perpetually obliging to them and that it was to be observed even in the days of the Messiah On this presumption certainly it was that Christs Disciples after his Resurrection were strict observers of the Law of Moses for a considerable time and so were also many thousands of the Jewish Converts St. Peter was so nice in observation of the Jewish customs that till he was informed better by a vision he thought such meat was utterly unlawful as was forbidden by the Law so that when in that vision he was bid to slay and eat he presently cries out as a man tempted to an unlawful act Act. x. 14. Not so Lord for I have never eaten any thing that is unclean St. James gives an account to Paul of the great Zeal that all the Jewish Converts had to the Law of Moses in these words Act. xxi 20. Thou seest Brother how many thousand of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the Law He farther tells him how highly they were all offended with him Verse 21. because they were informed he had taught that they were not obliged to yield obedience to the Constitutions and Customs of the Jewish Law and lastly doth exhort him to do what might be proper to cause these Zealots to believe that he also walked orderly and kept the Law Verse 24. a Chron. 2. St. Jerom and b Lib. 2. c. 45. Sulpicius inform us that fourteen immediate succeeding Bishops with their flocks were all observers of the Law of Moses And by the unbelieving Jews nothing was more abhorred than the thoughts of changing their Mosaick Customs For upon this account St. Stephen was accused of Blasphemy against Moses and the Law Act. vi 11 14. because he said that the Messiah should change the customs which Moses had delivered to them This accusation before the Scribes the Elders and High-Priest was deemed sufficient to prove him guilty of that capital offence of Blasphemy On this account they bring St. Paul before the judgment seat of Gallio because say they he did persuade men to worship God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. xviii 13. against or otherwise than was commanded by the Law of Moses
worship vain That they transgressed the commandment of God by their Traditions That notwithstanding their instructions the people were as sheep without a Shepheard Matt. ix 36. Matt. xv 14. or only had such Guides as would most certainly if they submitted to their guidance lead them to the pit Hence therefore I infer 1. That even those Spiritual Guides who are by Gods appointment constituted to instruct his people and to feed his flock for such our Lord acknowledged the Scribes and Pharisees and Rulers of the Jewish Church to be may scatter and destroy that flock And they who are set for the judgment of the Lord and for controversies may violate corrupt pervert that Law they should interpret they may be partial in it they may depart out of the way they may make the Commandments of God of none effect and his whole worship vain by their traditions they may cause their sheep to err stumble and go astray and that so dangerously that they who are led by them shall be destroyed with them and find no entrance into bliss And hence I hope I may assume the boldness to conclude against the Infallibility of our Spiritual Governours or the concurring judgments of the major part of them which is sufficient to root up even the foundations of the Romish Babel 2. Hence I infer that notwithstanding all the formentioned Scriptures which say it was the duty of the people to ask of their Spiritual Guides the meaning of the Law and seek the knowledg of it at their mouths and to enquire after their judgments in all those Controversies they were not able to resolve I say hence I infer that notwithstanding this the people were not absolutely obliged to rest in the decision of the major part of these Church Guides or bound to practise all that they approved for then an obligation must be laid upon them not only to err in judgment with them to countenance false Prophets and to speak peace to themselves when there is no peace but also to violate the Law and to comply with their false glosses and corrupt interpretations of it nay which is more unreasonable they must be then obliged to be destroyed to fall into the pit and to exclude themselves from the enjoyment of Christ Kingdom Whereas it is a contradiction to say that God obligeth any Person to transgress his Law and it is little less than Blasphemy to say hâ— doth require them to destroy themselves to falâ— into the pit or to deprive themselves of the enjoyment of his Kingdom Hence therefore I infeâ— this Corollary That neither are all Christian people Churches 〈◊〉 Nations absolutely bound to rest in the decisions of thâ— major part of Christian Bishops or to practise all thâ—â— they approve and impose Which proposition overthrows that absolute and blind obedience to their Church Guides or Councils which Romanists â—â— stifly plead for 3. Hence it is also evident that private persons or that the minor part of the whole Church may have sufficient ground either from reason or cleaâ— Scripture for their refusal of assent and of submission to the Authority and definitions of the major part of their Church Guides for the Jews were bound to believe Christ to be the true Messiah although the High Priest and the Elders had pronounced him a deceiver and a Malefactor They were obliged to believe his Miracles were wrought not by Belzebub but the Spirit of God that Christs Kings was not of this world that John Baptist was that Elias which was for to come and that to eat with hands unwashed to heal the sick to pluck some ears of Corn upon the Sabbath day were not unlawful actions although the major part of their Church Guides taught and believed the contrary Matt. xv 5. They were obliged not to void that Law of nature which required Children to relieve their own distressed Parents and therefore stood obliged not to comply with those traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees which made the word of God of none essect and would not suffer them to yield obedience to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark vii 8. And seeing they had many traditions and decrees of the like nature which obtained amongst them and only were rejected by the Saduces and the Disciples of our Lord in none of these could they comply with their Church Guides without the violation of that Law of God which sure they had sufficient ground and reason to observe In a word in all those cases in which they were not bound to rest in the decisions of the major part of their Church Guides or practise what they did approve that is in all the cases mentioned in the former head they must have had sufficient ground either from Scripture or from Reason for their refusal of submission to them Now these three inferences do fully justifie the Reformation of the Church of England 4. From what hath been discoursed we may see the weakness of those pleas the Roman Doctors make in their own defence and of the Arguments they use to shew that 't is impossible they should be guilty of those corruptions in Doctrine or in manners which we charge them with For their most specious pretences are to this effect that we confess the Church of Rome was once both true and Orthodox shew then say they how we did cease to be so whether by Schism or Heresie With Schism you cannot justly charge us R. H. Rational account disc 3. Chap. 5. §. 63. p. 203. for that can never be of a much major and more dignified part in respect of a less and inferior subject to it because this main body in any division is rightly taken for the whole from which a separation is Schism and to which every Member ought to adhere as to the body and head here upon earth to which it belongs we therefore being the much major and more dignified part of the Church cannot be Schismaticks in reference to Protestants who are and were at their departure a less and an inferior body to us If Heresie be the crime charged upon us by what Church were we condemned what body of men before you found fault with those corruptions which you pretend to reform for sure it was not possible for so many errors and corruptions to come into the Church and no one take notice of them could this be so where was the watchful eye of providence over the Church But if we could suppose this providence was unconcerned for preservation of the Church could all the Pastors fall asleep at once or could they all conspire together to deceive their Posterity Moreover since God will always have a visible Church what can you mention besides that which holds Communion with the Church of Rome as the then present visible Church of Christ when you began your reformation except perhaps some Eastern Churches which you dislike almost as much as that of Rome And if that Church could teach such
A SERMON IN CONFUTATION Of R. H. the AUTHOR OF The Guide in Controversies SHEWING That his most plausible Arguments produced against Protestants do more effectually conclude for Judaism against Christianity BY DANIEL WHITBY D. D. Chantor of the Church of Sarum Religio nunquam magis periclitatur quam inter Reverendissimos Luther London Printed for H. Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-Yard R. Bentley and M. Magnes in Russelstreet Covent-Garden 1679. A SERMON ON John vii 47 48 49. Are ye also deceived have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who knoweth not the law is accursed THE Miracles of our Blessed Saviour by which his Doctrine was confirmed were so exceeding many and exceeding great that they prevailed on those plain hearted people who beheld them to believe that he who wrought them was indeed the Christ For many of the people believed on him saying when Christ cometh will he do more miracles than these Verse 31. These apprehensions of the Vulgar did so Alarum the Chief-Priests and Pharisees who saw their Interest Authority and Credit with the people must decline as fast as that of Christs prevailed that they forthwith dispatcht their Officers to take him and bring him to them Verse 32. These Officers when they had heard the gracious words which issued from the mouth of Christ were themselves taken by him they who were sent to bring Christ to the Priests and Pharisees were themselves brought to Christ and so these Converts neglect to do the Office of the High-Priests Serjeants And being asked the reason why they had not brought Christ they boldly answer that they had heard such gracious and heavenly words proceeding from him as never man before him spake and therefore could not think it fit to apprehend so excellent a person as he was The Pharisees hearing this answer do presently conclude their Officers must be deceived in these kind thoughts of Christ and offer this as they supposed convincing Argument to prove it viz. that though the giddy multitude who had no knowledg of the Law and therefore no capacity to understand the mind of God contained in it might be enclined to think that Jesus was indeed the Christ yet since the Rulers of the Church the Sanhedrim seeing the Doctors and Expounders of the Law the Scribes and Pharisees believed not on him but did unanimously reject him as a vile Impostor they must be certainly deceived who apprehended otherwise concerning him because they followed the verdict of the ignorant and giddy multitude in opposition to the better judgments and the mature deliberations of their Church Guides and learned Clerks Now amongst all the Arguments by which the Emissaries of the Church of Rome endeavour to beguile unstable souls and beget in them a suspition that they have been seduced from the Church none is more plausible than this which by the Pharisees is here laid down I therefore shall endeavour 1. To propound the Argument which is here urged by the Pharisees to prove our Jesus could not be the true Messiah in its full strength and vigor And 2. To shew that what the Papists do produce to prove that Protestants must be deceived is exactly parallel to what the Pharisees did or might produce against our Saviour and the same arguments might with equal reason have been urged by the unbelieving Jews against our Lords Disciples and those who laid the first foundations of and became early converts to the Christian Faith As they are urged by the Papists against our departure from the Church of Rome Now the Argument contained in the Text is this viz. You must be certainly deceived if you believe that Jesus is the Christ Because you do by entertaining this perswasion contradict the judgment of your Church Guides which God hath set over you For they have frequently assembled for the determination of this grand debate Whether this Jesus was the Messiah promised to the Jews or not and they have constantly determined that he was not the Christ And have unanimously concluded that he deserved to be punished as a vile Impostor and that all who did confess that he was the Christ should be excommunicated In an assembly consisting of Chief Priests and Pharisees they positively declare that Christ could be no Prophet because he was a Galilean John vii 52. Verse 41 42. This all say they who search the Scriptures may plainly see Moreover they determine in my Text Verse 47 48 49. that all who so esteemed him were themselves deceived and that they lay exposed to this delusion for want of knowledge in the Law In the ninth Chapter of St. John Verse 16. the Pharisees again declare that this man could not be of God because he did not keep the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John ix 22. xii 42. Moreover these Pharisees and other Rulers of the Church determined and agreed together that whosoever did confess that Jesus was the Christ should suffer excommunication They therefore thought themselves infallibly certain Disc chap. 4. S. 64 65 69.70 if excommunication be as R. H. informs us an evidence of a claim to be infallible that Christ was not the true Messiah Mark iii. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elsewhere the Scribes and Pharisees do positively conclude that Christ did only Cast out Devils through Beelzebub Joh. xi 47 50 53. After some days they again call a Council and there determine that it was fit that Christ should die This the High-Priest declares and all the Pharisees Luke xxii 66. and the Chief-Priests agree to execute A full Assembly consisting of the High-Priests and all the Chief-Priests Presbyters and Scribes Christ being brought before their Council do with one voice declare that he was worthy to die as a Blasphemer and also that by their Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God After his death the Chief-Priests and the Pharisees with one consent pronounce him a deceiver When the Disciples began to witness that he was risen from the dead Matth. xxvii 63. the High-Priests Rulers Elders Scribes and all the kindred of the High-Priest assemble at Jerusalem and strictly do command them not to speak at all Act. iv 6 18. or teach in the name of Jesus Soon after the High-Priest the Sanhedrim and all the Elders of Israel Act. v. 40. being met in Council repeat the same command and chastise the Apostles for their disobedience to it If therefore the decrees of many Councils consisting of the Guides of the whole Jewish Church may be esteemed sufficient to decide a Controversie it must be certain that Jesus Christ was not the true Messiah promised to the Jews but a Deceiver and Blasphemer Now as a Romanist Rational Account Disc 1. Chap. 6. S. 59. P. 58. having produced five Provincial and two General Councils falsly so called for that portentous Doctrine of Transubstantiation saith If the Decrees of so
sighted Person should profess himself certain that an object is white when a multitude of others the most clear sighted that can be found having all the same means of a right sensation as he hath pronounce it black or of another colour V. Rational account disc 2. Chap. 5. §. 42. p. 141. Moreover if these Scriptures or reasons be so clear even to the ignorant and unlearned Jew must they not be as clear to their Church-Guides and may not then their judgments more securely be rely'd upon at least for any thing which is presumed to be clear Disc Chap. 3. §. 37. p. 24. For if Scriptures be maintained so clear in necessaries that every one using a right endeavour cannot mistake in them then shall the Church Governours much rather by reason of this clearness obvious to every Rustick not err in them and so shall the people the more the Rule of faith is proved to be clear the more securely rely on and be referred in them to their direction 4. If you pretend a more sincere endeavour in those few converts to find out the sense of Scripture or search out the truth in these matters which in the case of the Beraeans your Scripture seemeth to assert Answ I Answer still with the same Author Disc Chap. 1. p. 4 5. that since all parties do pretend sincere endeavour in the right understanding of the Scriptures and after it do differ so much in their sense of it it follows that such sincere endeavours being indifferently allowed to all parties the sense of Scripture and the verdict of true reason ought to be pronounced clear if on any on that side as the major part doth apprehend it which certainly was not the Primitive Converts but the unbelieving Jews and their Ecclesiastical Superiors Ibid. p. 24. For surely we have reason to presume that the Chief Guides of the Church in their consults concerning a point necessary to Salvation delivered in Scripture as that of the Messiah was use at least so much endeavour as a plain Rustick doth to understand the meaning of it And whatsoever other thing is supposed necessary besides sincere endeavour or is understood to be included in it as freedom from passion and secular Interest or also a freely professing the truths which their sincere endeavour discovers to them none can rationally imagin but that these supream Church Governours should be as much or more disengaged herein than private men Ibid. p. 145. And that passion and interest blind private men or our selves sooner than General Councils or a major part of the Church See therefore here the wisdom of the unbelieving Jews who to preserve themselves from erring in this matter made use of the securest way that reason could imagine Rat. Account Disc 1. Chap. 7. §. 77. p. 74. saith R. H. or that Christians are prescribed whilst for the sense of the Scriptures that were controverted in this point of the Messiah they chose not to rely on their own judgments but on that of the Supremest Guides of the Church and Judges of Divine Truth that were afforded them on earth and so if they erred yet took the wisest course to have missed erring that Religion or Reason could dictate To which Guides also the subjects of this former Communion all believed submission of their private judgments to be due and to be commanded from whence also it follows that till they are convinced of error in this point viz. that no submission was due to the Decrees of all these Councils and the concurring judgment of those Spiritual Guides by whom your Jesus was condemned they are not capable of being convinced in any other matter If lastly you affirm that the common people had conviction and demonstration from the Miracles of Christ of the falshood of the Decrees and the Interpretations of their Church Guides in this matter and of the truth of that Christianity which they embraced in opposition to those said Decrees Answ This I confess is a great truth but then the Roman Doctors cannot plead it without rejecting most of their professed Tenets and their strongest pleas for absolute submission to the Major part of their Church Guides For 1. Admit our Saviour and his Apostles wrought true Miracles how did the vulgar perceive them so to be but by their senses and how did they infer from them the truth of Christianity but by their private Reasons Rat. Account Disc 1. Chap. 6. §. 62. p. 63. Now the evidence of sense and reason must be both neglected saith the Romanist when a Divine Revelation declares any thing contrary to them This and this only being their defence of Transubstantiation against the common sense and reason of mankind Now of the certainty of a Divine Revelation or the true sense of Scripture they make the judgment of the Major part of their Church Guides to be sufficient evidences and so there was sufficient evidence according to this Rule that all the Miracles which Christ and his Apostles seemed to work were done in opposition to Divine Revelation or the true sense of Scripture 2. Certain it is that the Rulers of the Jews and the prevailing part of the whole Nation differed from the converted Christians in their apprehensions of these Miracles and judged them all Diabolical Impostures or trials of their Faith c. Rat. Account Disc 4. Cons 2. p. 384. Now this seems necessary to be granted saith R. H. that in what kind of knowledg soever it be whether of our sense or reason in what ever Art or Science one can never rightly assure himself concerning his own knowledg that he is certain of any thing for a truth which all or most others of the same or better abilities for their cognoscitive faculties in all the same external means or grounds of the knowledg thereof do pronounce an error So that where all or most differ from me it seems a strange pride not to imagine this defect in my self rather than them especially when as all the grounds of my science are communicated to them and when as for my own mistakes I cannot know exactly the extent of supernatural delusions According therefore to this Rule it was strange pride in the first Converts to Christianity among the Jews to judg the Miracles of Christ or his Apostles true when most of their own Nation as well as Heathens differed from them in that apprehension and spake so freely every where against the Sect of Christians 3. The truth of the pretences of our Lord and his Apostles depended on two things Stillingfl ibid. p. 42. viz. the fulfilling of Prophesies and the truth of his Miracles Now according to the Roman Principles no man could be certain of the truth of either of these without the Authority of the then present Church For the fulfilling of Prophesies depended on the sense of many obscure places of Scripture of which say they the Major part of the Church-Guides must judg And