seventh Council * Syn. 7. Act. ult p. 886. Con. in Labb Richer H. Conc. Gen. vol. 1. p. 658. Ad calc ejusd act 7 in omn. editionibus concil legitur Epist Synod quam Tarasius c. Et diserte narrat cunctos Patres Honorium damnasse condemned as a Monothilite And he was expresly anathematized for confirming the wicked Doctrine of Sergius The guilt of Heresie in Honorius is owned in the Solemn Profession of Faith made by the Popes at their entrance on the Papacy a Lib. diurn Pontif. con sid 2. p. 41. Autores verò novi hoeretici dogmatis Sergium Pyrrhum Paulum Petru◠Episcopos unà cum Honorio qui pravis eorum assertionibut fomentum impendit pariterque Theodorum Pharamitanum Cyrum Alexandrinum cum eorum imitatoribus c. This matter is so manifest that Melchior Canus b Melch can Loci com l. 6. c. ult p. 242 243. c. professeth no Sophistry is artful enough to put the Colour of a plausible defence upon it A late Romanist hath undertaken to write the History of the Monothilites c Anton. Dez Hist Mon. Par 1678. and the Defence of Honorius seemeth to be the principal motive to that undertaking Yet so great is the power of Truth and such in this case is the plainness of it that in the Apologist himself we find these concessions That the Pope a Id. ib. p. 224. 325 226 218. was condemned by the Council and that the Council was not to be blamed †that Pope Leo the second owned both the Council and the Sentence and that Honorius was Sentenc'd as an Heretick * Id. p. 220. He would abate this guilt by saying b P. 207 208. that Honorius erred as a private Person and not as Head of the Church because his Epistle was hortatory and not compulsive It is true he erred not as Head of the Church for such he was not neither as such was he owned But he erred as a publick person and with Heretical obstinacy For Pope Leo as he noteth said concerning him that he had made it his business to betray and subvert the Holy Faith c Id. p. 122. profanā proditione immaculatam fidem subvertere conatus est Flammam confovit p. 123. Now this matter of Fact sufficeth for the refuting all the fallacious reasonings of the patrons of Papal infallibility For all must agree that they d de Socer Christ p. 40 are not unerring Guides who actually erre The Sieur de Balzac d Socr. Chr. p. 40. mocks at the weakness of one of the Romish Fathers who offered four reasons to prove that the Duke D' Espernon was not returned out of England And offered them to a Gentleman who had seen him since his return There seemeth no fitness in the constituting of such a Arg. V Guide nor any necessity for it Had it been agreeable to Gods Wisdom his Wisdom would not have been wanting to it self God having made Man a Reasonable Creature would not make void the use of deliberation and the freedom of his judgment There is no vertue in the Assent where the Eye is forced open and Light held directly to it It is enough that God the rewarder of them who believe hath given Men sufficient faculties and sufficient means And seing Holiness is as necessary to the pleasing of GOD and to the peace of the World as Union in Doctrine to which there is too frequently given a lifeless assent seing there must be Christian Obedience as long as there is a Church seing as the Guide in Controversie * R. H. Annot. on D. St. Answ p. 81. himself urgeth the Catholick Church and all the parts of it are believed in the Creed to be Holy as well as Orthodox We ask not the Romanists an impertinent Question when we desire them to tell us why a means to infallibility in the judgement rather than irresistibleness in the pious choice of the Will is to be by Heaven provided in the Church Both seem a kind of Destination of equal necessity But though the Reformed especially those of the Prop. V. Church of England see no necessity for an infallible Guide nor believe there is one on the face of the earth yet they do not reject all Ecclesiastical Guidance but allow it great place in matters of Discipline and Order and some place also though not that of an unerring Judge in Matters of Faith At the beginning of the Reformation the Protestants though they refused the judgment of the Pope their Enemy yet they declined not the determination of a Council And in the Assembly at Ausburgh the Romanists and Protestants agreed in a council as the Umpire of their publick difference At this the Pope was so alarumed saith the Sieur de Mezary * Hij A. 1. that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the calling of a Council In the Reformation of the Church of England great regard was had to the Primitive Fathers and Councils And the aforesaid French Historian was as much mistaken in the affairs of Our Church when he said of our Religion that it was a medly of the Opinions of Calvin and Luther a A. as he was afterwards in the affairs of our State when he said King James was elected at the Guild-hall King of England b 10. A. 1603. The Romanists represent us very falsly whilst they fix upon us a private Spirit as it stands in opposition to the Authority of the Catholick Church Mr. Alabaster c See J. Racsters 7 motives of W. A p. 11 12. expresseth one motive to his conversion to the Roman Church in these Words Weigh together the Spouse of Christ with Luther Calvin Melancthon Oecumenical councils with private opinions The Reverend learned Fathers with Arius Actius Vigilantius Men alwayes in their time Burned for Hereticks of which words the former are false reasoning the latter is false History The Bishop of Meaux d Confer avec M. claut de p. 110. reasons after the same fallacious manner Supposing a Protestant to be of this perswasion that he can understand the Scriptures better than all the rest of the Church together of which perswasion he saith very truly that it exalteth Pride and removeth Docility The Guide in controversies d R. H. Annot on D. St. Answ p. 84. puts the Question wrong in these terms Whither a Protestant in refusing the submission of his judgment to the Authority or Infallibility of the Catholick Church in her Councils can have in several Articles of necessary Faith wherein the sense of Scripture is controverted as sure a Foundation of his Faith as he who submits his judgement to the foresaid Authority or also Infallibility Here the Catholick Church is put in place of the Roman Authority and Infallibility are joyned together and it is suggested dishonestly concerning the Reformed that they lay aside
the Authority of the Catholick Church in her general Councils Authority may be owned where there is no infallibility for it is not in Parents Natural or Civil Yet both teach and govern us If others reject church-Church-Authority let them who are guilty of such disorderly irreverence see to it The Christians of the Church of England are of another Spirit Of that Church this is one of the Articles The Church hath power Art 20. to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in controversies of Faith There is a Question saith Mr. Selden * Mr. Selden in his colloquies a Ms. in the Word Church Sect. 5 about that Article concerning the power of the Church whither these words of having power in controversies of Faith were not stolen in But it 's most certain they were in the Book of Articles that was confirmed though in some Editions they have been left out They were so in Dr. Mocket's †Doctr. Polit. Eccl. Angl. A. 1617. p. 129. but he is to be considered in that Edition as a private Man Now this Article does not make the Church an infallible Guide in the Articles of Faith but a Moderator in the controversies about Faith The Church doth not assume that Authority to it self in this Article which in the foregoing * Artic 19. is denied to the Churches of Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch and Rome When perverse Men will raise such controversies who is so fit for Peace sake to interpose as that Church where the Flame is kindled There can be no Church without a creed and each particular Church ought to believe her creed to be true and by consequence must exercise her Authority in the defence of presumed Truth Otherwise she is not true to her own constitution But still she acts under the caution given by St. Augustine a S. Aug. de verb. Dom. super Mat. Ser. 16. You bind a Man on Earth Take heed they be just bâ—nds in which you retain him For Justice will break such as are unjust in sunder And whilest the Church of England challengeth this Authority she doth not pretend to it from any supernatural gift of infallibility but so far only as she believes she hath sincerely followed an infallible Rule For of this importance are the next words of the Article before remembred It is not Lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written And besides the same it ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation b Art 20. After this manner the Church of England asserteth her own Authority and she runs not into any extream about the Authority of Councils or the Catholick Church We make confession of the Ancient Faith expressed in the Apostolical Nicene or Constantinopolitan and Athanasian Creeds The canons of forty reject the Heresie of Socinus as contrary to the first four General Councils c can 5. Our very Statute-Book hath respect to them in the adjudging of Heresie d 1 Eliz. 1. Sect 36. Yet our Church still teacheth concerning them e Art 21. that things by them ordained have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture When controversies arise especially when the doubts concern not so much the Article of Faith it self as the Modes of it we grant to such venerable Assemblies a Potiority of Judgement Or if we Assent not yet for Peace sake we are humbly silent We do not altogether refuse their Umpirage We think their Definitions good Arguments against unquiet Men who are chiefly moved by Authority We believe them very useful in the Controversies betwixt us and the Church of Rome and as often as they appeal to Primitive Fathers and Councils to Fathers and Councils we are willing to go with them and to be tryed by those who were nigher to the Apostles in the Quality of Witnesses rather then Judges We believe that in matters of Truth of which we are already well perswaded there may be added by the Suffrages of Councils and Fathers a degree of corroboration to our Assent In some we say with St. Augustine * Ep. 118. concil in Eccl. Dei saluberimam esse Authoritatem that there is of councils in the church of God a most wholesome though not an infallible Authority And if S. Gregory Nazianzen never saw as he saith a happy effect of any Synod a Greg. Naz. Ep. 42 ad Procopium this came not to pass from the Nature of the means as not conducive to that end but from the looseness of Government and the depraved manners of the Age in which he lived For such were the times of Valens the Emperour It is true there are some among us though not of us who with disdainful insolence contemn all Authority even that of the Sacred Scripture it self These pretend to an infallible Light of immediate and personal Revelation It hath happened according to the Proverb every Man of them hath a Pope within him Henry Nicholas puffed up many vain ignorant People with this proud Imagination Hetherington a Mechanick about the end of the Reign oâ— King James advanced this notion of Personal Infallibility His followers believed they could not erre in giving deliberate Sentence in Religion a See D. Dennisons white wolf And this was the principle of Wynstanley and the first Quakers though the Leaders since they were embodied have in part forsaken it But these Enthusiasts have intituled the Holy Spirit of God to their own Dreams They have pretended to Revelations which are contrary to one another They can be Guides to themselves only because they cannot by any supernatural sign prove to others that they are inspired And such Enthusiasm is not otherwise favoured in the Church of England then by Christian pity in consideration of the infirmity of Humane Nature but in the Church of Rome it hath been favoured to that Degree that it hath founded many orders and Religious Houses and given Reputation to some Doctrines and canonized not a few Saints amongst them The Inspiration of S. Hildegardis S. Catharine of Siena S. Teresa and and many others seemeth to have been vapour making impression on a devout fancy Yet the Church of Rome in a Council under Leo the Tenth hath too much encouraged such a distemper as prophesie * conc Lat. sess 11. A. 1516. inter Labb conc Max. p 291. Caeterum si quibusdam eorum Dominus futur a quaedaÌ„ in Dei Ecclesia inspiratione quapium revelaverit ut per Amos prophetam ipse permittit Paulus Ap. PraedicatoruÌ„ princeps SpirituÌ„ inquit nolite extinguere prophetas nolite spernere hos aliorum fabulosorum mendacium gregi coâ—â—umerari vel aliter impediri minime volumus For private Reason it is the handmaid of Faith we use it and not separately from the Authority of the Church but as a help in distinguishing true from false Authority And in so
or Papists but yet heartily desire to do good to them both But there is a more mischievous suggestion then this that the design of such Papers is only to raise a new cry and noise about Popery and to alarm the People and disturb the Government with new Fears and Jealousies Truly if I thought this would be the effect of it I would burn my Papers presently for I am sure the church of England will get nothing by a Tumultuary and clamorous Zeal against the Church of Rome and I had much rather suffer under Popery then contribute any thing towards raising a Popular Fury to keep it out We profess our selves as irreconcilable Enemies to Popery as we are to Phanaticism and desire that all the World may know iâ— but we will never Rebell nor countenance any Rebellion against our lawful Soveraign to keep out either we leave such Principles and Practices to Papists and Phanaticks But when we find our People Assaulted by the Agents of Rome and do not think our selves secure from Popish Designs we think it our Duty to give them the best Instructions we can to preserve them from such Errors as we believe will destroy their Souls and cannot but wonder that any men who are as much concerned to take care of Souls as we are should think this a needless or a scandalous undertaking I wish such men would speak out and tell us plainly what they think of Popery themselves If they think this Design not well managed by those who undertake it it would more become them to commend the Design and do it better themselves I know no man but would very gladly be excused as having other work enough to imploy his time but yet I had rather spend my vacant minutes this way then in censuring the good that other men do while I do none my self The Words of the Paper which was sent to me are these IT is my Opinion that the infinite Goodness of our Legislator has left to us a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures which is the Church Now J judge this Church must be known to be the true Church by its continual visible Succession from Christ till our Dayes But I doubt whither or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession and desire to be informed ANSWER THAT Christ has lest a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures I readily grant or else it had been to no purpose to have left us the Scriptures But the latter Clause is very ambiguous for the meaning may either be that we may understand by the Scriptures which is the Church or that the Church is the means whereby we must understand the true sense and meaning of the Scripture The first is a true Protestant Principle and therefore I presume not intended by this Objector For how we should know that there is any Church without the Information we receive by the Scripture I cannot Divine and yet we may as easily know that there is a Church as we can know which is the true Church without the Scripture For there is no other means of knowing either that there is a Church or what this Church is or what are the Properties of a True and Sound and Orthodox Church but by Revelation and we have no other Revelation of this but what is contained in the Holy Scriptures As for the Second That the Church is the means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures it is in some sense very true in some sense very false 1. It is in some sense true and acknowledged by all sober Protestants As 1. If by the Church we understand the Universal Church of all Ages as we receive the Scriptures themselves handed down by them to our time so what ever Doctrines of Faith have been universally received by them is one of the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture For the nearer they were to the times of the Apostles the more likely they were to understand the true sense of their Writings being instructed by the Apostles themselves in the meaning of them And thus we have a certain Rule to secure us from all dangerous Errors in expounding Scripture For the great and fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion are as plainly contained in the Writings of the first Fathers of the Church and as unanimously asserted by them as the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and therefore though we have not a Traditionary Exposition of every particular Text of Scripture yet we have of the great and fundamental Doctrines of Faith and therefore must never expound Scripture so as to contradict the known and avowed sense of the Catholick Church And this course the Church of England takes she receives the Definitions of the four first General Councils and requires her Bishops and Clorgy to Expound the Scriptures according to the profest Doctrines of those first and purest Ages of the Church 2. We ought to pay great deference to and not lightly and want only oppose the Judgement and Authority of the Particular Church wherein we live when her Expositions of Scripture do not evidently and notoriously contradict the sense of the Catholick church especially of the first and best Ages of it For it does not become private men to oppose their Sentiments and Opinions to the Judgement of the church unless in such plain cases as every honest man may be presumed a very competent Judge in the matter and no church nor all the churches in the World have such Authority that we must renounce our senses and deny the first principles of Reason to follow them with a blind and implicite Faith And thus the church that is the sense and Judgment of the catholick church is a means for the finding out the true sense of Scripture and though we may mistake the sense of some particular Texts which the Romanists themselves will not deny but that even infallible councils may do who tho' they are infallible in their conclusions yet are not alwayes so in the Arguments or Mediums whither drawn from Scripture or Reason whereby they prove them yet it is Morally impossible we should be guilty of any dangerous mistake while we make the catholick Doctrine of the church our Rule and in other matters follow the Judgment and submit to the Authority of the church wherein we live which is as absolutely necessary as Peace and Order and good Goverment in the church 2. But then this is very false if we mean that the church is the only means of finding out the true sense of the Scriptures on if by the church we understand any particular church as I suppose this Person does the Roman Catholick that is the particular universal church of Rome or if we mean the church of the present Age or by Means understand such a Decretory sentence as must determine our Faith and command out Assent that we must seek
Rule whereby our Church is reformed and to which we appeal There are but three things necessary to be understood by Christians either the Articles of Faith or the Rules of Life or the external Order and Discipline of the Church and Administration of Religious Offices 1. As for the Rules of Life all those Duties which we owe to GOD and Men they are so plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures that no honest man can mistake them I suppose the church of Rome her self will not pretend that there is any need of an infallible Interpreter to teach men what is mean'd by Loving GOD with all our Heart and our Neighbour as our selves 2. As for the Articles of Faith those which are fundamental to the christian Religion and which every Christian ought to believe are so plain in Scripture that every honest and unprejudiced man may understand them but however as I observed before we govern our selves in these things by the received Doctrine of the catholick church of the first and purest Ages and if this be not a safe Rule we can be certain of nothing And what the catholick Faith was we learn from those short summaries of Faith which were universally owned by all catholick churches For what we now call the Apostles creed was very anciently received in all churches with some little variety indeed of Words and Phrase but without any difference of sense and the catholick Faith was not only preserved in such short Summaries and creeds which were as liable to be perverted by Hereticks as the Scriptures themselves but was more largely explained in the Writings of the ancient Fathers and though this will not enable us to understand every Phrase and Expression of Scripture but we must use other means to do that as Skill in the Original Languages a knowledge of ancient customs and ancient Disputes to which the Apostles frequently aflude a consideration of the Scope and Design of the place c. Yet the catholick Faith received and owned by the Primitive Church is so far a Rule as it directs us to Expound Scripture to a true catholick sense As St. Paul commands the Romans that those who prophesie should Prophesie according to the proportion of Faith Rom. 12. 6. Kat ' analogian pisteos according to the Analogie of Faith That is that in the interpreting the Scriptures of the Old Testament they should expound them to a christian sense according to those Doctrines of the christian Faith which he had taught them and this was a safe Rule for expounding the Old Testament which contained the Types and Figures and Prophesies of the Gospel-State And thus in expounding the new Testament now it is committed to writting we must Prohpesie according to the Analogie of Faith or as he commands Timothy in his Preaching Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard from me 2. Tim. 1. 13. It seems the Apostle had given him a form of sound words according to which he was to direct his Preaching whither this refers to a short summary of Faith such as our Creed is I cannot say though it is not improbable it may but it is plain we have a form of sound words delivered to us by the Catholick Church which contains the true Catholick Faith and therefore ought to be so far a Rule to us in expounding Scripture as never to contradict any thing which is contained in it for that is to contradict the Faith of the Catholick Church And when one great Article of this Faith concerning the Eternal God-head of Christ the Son of God was corrupted by Arius a Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria it gave an occasion for a full Declaration of the sense of the Catholick Church about it And though the effects of that Controversie were very fatal to the Church yet it was very happy that it broke out in such an Age when it could be determined with greater certainty and greater Authority then it could have been in any succeeding Age of the Church by men who were venerable for their Age for their Wisdom for their Piety for their undaunted Confessions under Heathen and Persecuring Emperours who knew what the sense of the Catholick Church was before this Controversie broke out and before External Prosperity had through ease and wantonness corrupted the Faith as well as the Manners of Christians 3. As for matters of External Order Discipline and Government the Universall Practice of the Catholick Church is the best and safest Comment on these General Rules and Directions we have laid down in Scripture There is no doubt at all but the Apostles did appoint Governours and Rules of Order and Discipline in the Churches planted by them what these were the Christians of those dayes saw with their eyes â— in the dayly practice of the Church and therefore the Apostles in those Epistles which they wrote to their several Churches did not give them so punctual and particular an account of those matters which they so well knew before but as occasion served make only some accidental mention of these things and that in such general terms as were well enough understood by them who knew the practice of the Church in that Age but it may be cannot meerly by the force of the words which may be capable of several Senses be so certainly and demonstratively determined to any one sense by us who did not see what was done in those dayes as to avoid all possible Cavils of contentious men This has occasioned those disputes concerning Infant Baptism the several Orders and Degrees of Church Governours the Rites and ceremonies of Religious Worship and the like Those who lived in those dayes and saw what the Apostles did in these matters could not doubt of these things thought it were not in express words said that infants should be baptized with their Parents or that Bishops are a Superiour Order to Presbyters and Presbyters to Deacons or that it is lawful for the Governours of the Church to institute and appoint some significant Rites and ceremonies for the more decent and orderly Administration of Religious Offices But because there is not a precise and punctual account given of these matters in the Writings of the Apostles which there was no need of then when these things were obvious to their very Senses some perverse and unreasonable Disputers who obstinately reject all other Evidence will judge of these things just as they please themselves and alter their Opinions and Fancies as often as they please But now if there be any certain way to know what the practice of the Apostles was in these cases this is the best comment we can possibly have on such Texts as are not sufficiently plain and express without it Now me thinks any reasonable man must acknowledge that the best way to understand the Practice of the Apostles is from the Practice of the Catholick Church in succeeding Ages especially while the memory of the Apostles was fresh and the Church
Governed by Apostolical Men when we cannot reasonably suspect any Deviation from the Primitive Practice and this is the Rule which the Church of England owns in such matters and by which she rejects and confutes both the Innovations and corruptions of the Church of Rome and the wild pretences of Phanaticism So that we do in the most proper sense own the Belief and Practice of the Primitive Church to be the best means for Expounding Scripture We do not leave every man to Expound Scripture by a private Spirit as our Adversaries of the Church of Rome reproach us we adhere to the ancient Catholick Church which the Church of Rome on one side and the Phanaticks on the other have forsaken And though we reject the new invention of an infallible Judge yet we are no Friends at all to Scepticism but can give a more Rational account of our Faith then the Church of Rome can Had we no other way of understanding the sense of Scripture but by Propriety of the Language and the Grammatical construction of the Words and the scope and design of the Texts their connexion and Dependence on what goes before and what follows and such like means as we use for the understanding any other Books of humane composition I doubt not but honest and diligent Inquirers might discover the true meaning of Scripture in all the great Articles of our Faith but yet this alone is a more uncertain way and lyable to the Abuses of Hereticks and Impostors The Socinians are a famous Example what Wit and Criticism will do to pervert the plainst Text and some other Sectaries are as plain a demonstration what wâ—rk Dullness and Stupidity and Enthusiasm will make with Scripture but when we have the practice of the Catholick Church and an ancient and venerable summary of the Christian Faith which has been the common Faith of Christians in all Ages to be our Rule in Expounding Scripture though we may after all mistake the sense of some particular Texts yet we cannot be guilty of any great and dangerous mistakes This use the Church of England makes of the Catholick Church in Expounding Scripture that she Religiously maintains the ancient Catholick Faith and will not suffer any man to Expound Scriptures in opposition to the ancient Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church But though the Belief and Practice of the Catholick Church be the best means of understanding the true sense of Scripture yet we cannot affirm this of any particular Church or of the Church of any particular Age excepting the Apostolick Age or those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles Notwithstanding this the Church of Rome may be no good Expositor of Scripture for the Church of Rome though she usurp the name of the Catholick Church as presuming her self to be the Head and Fountain of catholick Unity yet she is but a part of the catholick Church as the Church of England and the Churches of France aind Holland are and has no more right to impose her Expositions of Scripture upon other Churches then they have to impose upon her If there happen any controversie between them it is not the Authority of either Church can decide it but this must be done by an appeal to Scripture and the sense of the Catholick Church in the first and purest Ages of it For when we say that the belief and Practice of the Catholick Church is the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture we do not mean that the Church is the Soveraign and absolute Judge of the sense of Scripture but the meaning is that those Churches which were founded by the Apostles and received the Faith immediately from them and were afterwards sor some Ages governed by Apostolical men or those who were taught by them and convers'd with them are the best Witnesses what the Doctrine of the Apostles was and therefore as far as we can be certain what the Faith of these Primitive Churches was they are the best Guides for the Expounding Scripture So that the Authority of the Church in Expounding Scripture being only the Authority of Witnesses it can reach no farther then those Ages which may reasonably be presumed to be Authentick and credible Witnesses of the Doctrines of the Apostles and therefore if we extend it to the four first general councils it is as far as we can do it with any pretence of Reason and thus far the Church of England owns the Authority of the Church and commands her Ministers to Expound the Scriptures according to the Catholick Faith owned and profess'd in those days but as for the later Ages of the church which were removed too far from the Apostles dayes to be Witnesses of their Doctrine they have no more Authority in this matter then we have at this day nor has one church any more Authority then another 3. And therefore if by the church being the means of knowing the sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures be understood the Judgment and Sentence and Decree of the church that we must seek no farther for the reason of our Faith then the infallible Authority of the church in Expounding Scripture this also is absolutely false and absurd This is more then Christ and his Apostles assumed to themselves while they were on Earth they were indeed infallible Interpreters of Scripture but yet they never bore down their Hearers meerly with their Authority but Expounded the Scriptures and applied ancient Prophesies to their Events and took the vail off of Moses's Face and shewed them the Gospel state concealed under those Types and Figures they confirmed their Expositions of Scripture by the force of Reason and appealed to the Judgments and consciences of their Hearers whither these things were not so Christ commands the Jews nor meerly to take his own word and to rely on his Authority for the truth of what he said but to study the Scriptures themselves and the Bereans are commended for this generous temper of mind that they were more noble then those of Thessalonica for they daily search'd the Scriptures to see whither the Doctrine the Apostles preach'd were to be found there or not Now I think no Church can pretend to be more infallible then Christ and his Apostles and therefore certainly ought not to assume more to themselves then they did and if the Church of Rome or any other Church will convince us of the truth of their Expositions of Scripture as Christ and his Apostles convinc'd their Hearers that is by enlightning our Understandings and convincing our Judgments by proper Arguments we will gladly learn of them This course the Primitive Christians took as is evident in all the Writings of the ancient Fathers against Jews and Hereticks they argue from the Scriptures themselves to prove what the sense of Scripture iâ— they appeal indeed sometimes to the sense of the Catholick Church not as an infallible Judge of Scripture but as the best Witnesses of the Apostolical Doctrine Thus
found there as the Churches infallibility is But however that be after all this boast of infallibility a Papist has no more infallible Foundation for his Faith then a Protestant has nor half so much We believe the Articles of the Christian Faith because we find them plainly taught in Scripture and universally received as the sense of Scripture by the Catholick church in the best and purest Ages of it A Papist believes the Church to be Infallible because he thinks he finds it in Scripture though the Catholick church for many Ages never found it there and the greatest part of the Christian church to this day cannot find it there Now if they will but allow that a Protestant though a poor fallible Creature may reason about the sense of Scripture as well as a Papist and that the Evidence of reason is the same to both then we Protestants stand upon as firm ground as the Papists here and are at least as certain of all those Doctrines of Faith which we find in the Scripture and are ready to prove by it as they are of their Churches infallibility but then we have an additional Security that we Expound the Scriptures right which they want and that is the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church which confirms all the Articles of our Faith and Rules of Worship and Discipline but gives not the least intimation that the Pope or Church of Rome was thought infallible by them and if the Primitive Church was ignorant of this which is the best witness of Apostolical Tradition it is most probable that no such thing is contained in Scripture though some mercenary Flatterers of the Pope have endeavoured to perswade the World that they found it there So that we have a greater assurance of all the Articles of our Religion from Scripture and Catholick Tradition then a Papist can have of the Churches Infallibility and yet he can have no greater assurance of any other Doctrines of Religion which he believes upon the Churches Infallibility then he has of Infallibility it self So that in the last Resolution of Faith the Protestant has much the advantage of the Papist for the Protestant resolves his Faith into the Authority of the Scriptures Expounded by the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church the Papist resolves his into the Infallibility of the Church which he finds out only by Expounding Scripture by a private Spirit without the Authority of any church but that whose Authority is under dispute And as the Doctrine of Infallibility is of no use in the last Resolution of Faith so it is wholly useless in disputing with such Hereticks as we are who deny Infallibility for it is a vain thing to attempt to impose any absurd or groundless and uncatholick Doctrines upon us by the Churches infallible Authority who believe there is no such infallible Judge but are resolved to trust our own Eyes and to adhere to Scripture and the Catholick Faith of the Primitive Church in these matters And therefore the great Advocats for the Church of Rome are forced to take the same course in confuting Heresies as they call them that we do They alledge the Authority of Scripture the Authority of Fathers and Councils to justifie their Innovations and here we willingl joyn issue with them and are ready to prove that Scripture and all true Antiquity is on our side and this has been often and unanswerably proved by the learned Patrons of the Reformation But there are some very material things to be observed from hence for our present purpose For either they think this a good way to prove what they intend and to convince Gain-sayers the Authority of Scripture and Primitive Antiquity or they do not If they do not think this a good way to what purpose are there so many Volumes of Controversie written Why do they produce Scripture and Fathers and Councils to justifie the Usâ—â—pations of their Church and those new Additions they have made to the Christian Faith and Worship If this be not a good way to convince a Heretick why do they give themselves and us such an impertinent trouble If this be a good way then we are in a good way already we take that very way for our satisfaction which by their own Confession and Practice is a very proper means for the conviction of Hereticks and to discover the Truth and after the most diligent inquiries we can make we are satisfied that the Truth is on our side If the Authority of Scripture signifie any thing in this matter then it seems Hereticks who reject â—he Authority of an Infallible Judge may understand Scripâ—ure without an Infallible Interpreter by the Exercise of Reason and Judgment in studying of them otherwise why do they pretend to expound Scripture to us and to convince us by Reason and Argument what the true sense of Scripture is If the Authority of the Primitive Church and first Christian Writers be considerable as they acknowledge it is by their appeals to them then at least the present Pope or Church is not the sole infallible Judge of controversies unless they will say that we must not Judge of the Doctrine or Practice of the Primitive Church by ancient records and then Baronius his Annals are worth nothing but by the Judgement and Practice of the present Church The sum is this There is great reason to suspect that the Church of Rome her self does not believe her own Infallibility no more than we Protestants do for if she does she ought not to suffer her Doctors to dispute with Hereticks from any other Topick but her own Authority when they vie Reasons and Arâ—uments with us and dispute from Scripture and Antiquity they appeal from the infallibility of the present church to every mans private Reason and Judgment as much as any Protestant does and if the Articles of the Christian Faith may be establish'd by Scripture and Antiquity without an infallible Judge as they suppose they may be by their frequent attempts to do it this plainly overthrows the necessity of an infallible Judge In a word not to take notice now how weak and groundless this pretence of Infallibility is it is evident that it is a very useless Doctrine for those who believe the churches Infallibility have no greater assurance of their Faith then we have who do not believe it and those who do not believe the churches Infallibility can never be confuted by it So that it can neither establish any mans Faith nor confute any Heresies that is it is of no use at all The Church of England Reverences the Authority of the Primitive Church as the best witness of the Apostolical Faith and practice but yet resolves her Faith at last into the Authority of the Scriptures She receives nothing for an Article of Faith which she does not find plainly enough taught in Scripture but it is a great confirmation of her interpretation of Scripture that the Primitive church owned the
from what hath been now said That there being so little credit to be given to the Roman Church onely we cannot receive those Doctrines of Truth which that Church now presses upon our belief upon the account of Tradition For instance That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistriss of all other Churches That the Pope of Rome is the Monarch or Head of the universal visible Church That all Scriptures must be expounded according to the sense of this Church That there are truly and properly seven Sacraments neither more nor less instituted by our blessed Lord himself in the New Testament That there is a proper and propiciatory Sacrifice offered in the Mass for the quick and dead the same that Christ offered on the Cross In short the half communion and all the rest of the Articles of their New Faith in the Creed published by Pope Pius IV. which are Traditions of the Roman Church alone not of the Universal and rely solely upon their own Authority And therefore we refuse them and in our Disputes about Traditions we mean these things which we reject because they have no foundation either in the holy Scripture or in universal Tradition but depend as I said upon the sole Authority of that Church which witnesses in its own behalf For whatsoever is pretended to make the better shew all resolves at last into that as I intimated in the beginning of this Discourse Scripture and Tradition can do nothing at all for them without their Churches definition Though their whole infallible Rule of Faith seem to be made up of those three yet in truth the last of these alone the Churches definition is the whole Rule and the very bottom upon which their Faith stands For what is Tradition is no more apparent then what is Scripture according to their Principles without the Authority of their church which pretends an unlimited power to supply the defect even of Tradition it self In short as Tradition among them is taken in to supply the defect of Scripture so the Authority of their Church is taken in to supply the defect of Tradition But this Authority undermines them both because neither Scripture nor Tradition signifie any thing without their Churches Authority Which therefore is the Rule of their Faith that is they believe themselves To which absurdity they are driven because it is made evident by us that there have been great diversities of Traditions and many changes and alterations made even in things called Apostolical c. And therefore they have no other way but to fly to the judgment of the present Church to determine what are Traditions Apostolical and what are not by which Judgment all mankind must be governed that is we must believe them and they believe themselves which they would have done well to have said in one word without putting us to the trouble of seeking for Traditions in Books and in other Churches But they would willingly colour their pretences by as many fair words as possible and so make mention of Scripture Tradition Antiquity which when we have examined they will not stand to them but take fanctuary in their own Authority saying They are the sole Judges what is Scripture and what Tradition and what Antiquity nay have a power to declare any new point of Faith which the Church never heard of before This is the Doctrine of Salmeron and others of his fellows That the Doctrine of Faith admits of additions in essential things For all things were not taught by the Apostles but such as were then necessary and fit for the Salvation of Believers By which means we can never know when the Christian Religion will be perfected but their Church may bring in Traditions by its sole Authority without end Nay some among them have been contented to resolve all their Faith into the sole Authority of the present Roman Bishop according to that famous saying of Cornelius Mussus promoted by Paul the Third to a Bishoprick upon the fourteenth Chapter to the Romans To confess the truth ingenuously I would give greater credit to one Pope in those things which touch the mysteries of Faith then to a thousand Hierom's Austin's Gregory's to say nothing of Richard's Scotus's c. For I believe and know that the Pope cannot erre in matters of Faith Which contemptuous Speech he would never have uttered to the discredit of those greatmen whom they pretend to reverence if he had not known more certainly that the Tradition which runs among the ancient Fathers is against them then he could know the Pope to be infallible There is no Tradition I am sure for that nor for abundance of other things which rest merely upon their own credit as is fairly acknowledged in two great Articles of their present Creed by our Countrey-man Bishop Fisher with whose words I conclude this particular Many perhaps have the less confidence in Indulgences because their use seems to have been newer in the Church and very lately found among Christians To whom I answer that it doth not appear certainly by whom they began to be first delivered For the Ancients make no mention or very rare of Purgatory and the Greeks to this very day do not believe it nor was the belief either of Purgatory or of Indulgences so necessary in the Primitive Church as it is new And as long as there was no care about Purgatory no body sought for Indulgences for all their esteem depends upon that If you take away Purgatory to what purpose are Indulgences Since therefore Purgatory was so lately known and received in the Catholick Church who can wonder that there was no use of Indulgences in the beginning of our Religion Which is a full Confession what kind of Traditions that Church commends unto us things lately invented their own private Opinions of which the ancient Christians knew nothing In one word their Tradition is no Tradition in that sense wherein the Church alwayes understood it IV. And what hath been said of them must be applied to other particular Churches though some have been more sincere then they None of them hath any Authority to commend any thing as an Article of Faith unto Posterity which hath not been commended to them by all foregoing Ages derived from the Apostles For Vincentius his Rule is to guide us all in this That is Catholick and consequently to be received which hath been held by all and in all churches and at all times V. Which puts me in mind of another thing to be briefly touched that the Ecclesiastical Tradition contained in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches in these days wherein we live is not received by us nor allowed to have the same Authority which such Tradition had at the time of the Nicene Council for the conviction of Heresie The joynt consent I mean of so many Bishops as were there assembled and the unanimous Confessions of so many several Churches of several Provinces as were there delivered hath not
or thing make the same inclosures about the Catholick as about the Roman Church and are as free in their severest censures of all others and as haughty in what they assume to themselves alone as they were though not proceeding upon the same grounds But what that holy Father every where presseth upon them reacheth as nearly our Antagonists the indispensable necessity of Charity that great bond of Unity in the Church and principal evidence of the Divine Spirit which animates the whole without which the highest gifts and most Sacred Ministrations are rendered ineffectual This is one of the prime characteristick notes of the true Catholick Church and every living Member thereof and nothing is more opposit to their Principles and Practices who have formally excluded all other christians and churches from any share therein not only those in the West that have deservedly cast off that Power which they had unjustly arrogated and tyrannical exercised but also the Greeks and others in the East that never owned any subjection to them But most securely may the Church of England glory in true Catholicism which to all her other priviledges and advantages that she may boast of above almost any other Church still maintains and evidences the greatest charity to others of any that I know in the world makes no other inclosures then those which GOD himself hath made not assuming any Authority to command yea or to pass hasty judgment upon any but only to provide for her own the best she can and with such tender regard to common Christianity and the Rights of all other Churches that she seems designedly to have chalk'd out the way of restoring the most desirable â—â—uits of Christian Unity throughout the whole Church and we should have been sensible of considerable effects by it had other Churches pursued like methods That Church sure is most Catholick that makes provision for the most Catholick Communion Peace and Unity and which imposes no other terms or conditions of it but those most universally received throughout all Ages in all places and by almost all Christians which may soon decide the competition whither the Church of England more truely vindicates to her self a part of the Catholick Church or they of Rome arrogate to themselves the whole Or which are the Schismaticks from it they which exclude none whom they own no power over but invite all to them and joyn with any in what is good and agreeable to the Institutions of our common LORD or they who shut out all but those who will subject themselves to their usurp'd Authority and most unjustfiable Impositions a Firmilianus de Stephano Episcopo Rom. ad Cyprianum Ep. 7â— p. 228. Ox. Ed. Siquidem ille vere Schismaticus qui se a Communione Ecclesiasticae unitatis Apostatam fecerit dum enim putas omnes a te abstineri posse solum te ab omnibus abstinuisli Farther the term Catholick is sometimes taken for Orthodox and so the Catholick Church interpreted for that which holds the Catholick Faith opposed to heretical Opinions and Doctrines as well as to Schismatical Separations b S. Cyril Hieros Cat. 18. p. 2. Catholike men â—â—â— kaletai dia to kata pases einai tes oihoumenes apo peraton ges heos peraton kai dia to didaskein catholikes kai anellei pos hapanta ta cis guosin anthropon elthein ophelonta dogmata Sozomen Hist L. 7. c. 4. In this sense the Church of England hath as good a claim in the Catholick Church as any whatever Receiving all the Articles of Christian Faith delivered in Scripture and received in the Primitive Ages for more than five hundred years No Principles having been so formally declared then and for some time after as the catholick Faith of all christians and as such necessary to be own'd which she rejects whatever private opinions there might be then among some eminent Doctors of the Church in which they oft differed one from the other or although there might be some observances then generally received which she thinks her self not bound to retain But ill will this charecter agree to the Romanists who have added so many new dangerous Articles to the common Faith of Christians not only beside the original Rule which they cannot but own with us but too often against it and the professed belief of the first and best Ages of the church Wherefore we reject not these Innovations meerly from negative arguments because not sufficiently proved and yet that way of arguing hath been alwayes allowed in the Fundamentals of Faith which must be grounded upon express Divine Authority and Testimony But we lay the greatest stress of our aversations to them upon that direct opposition which we undertake to prove most of them have to the common Faith and revealed Will of GOD which they and we both own And surely that Church in this acceptation is most Catholick that relies on such Catholick Principles and refers all others to be examined by this touchstone V. But in the fifth place some Objections lie in our way fit to be answered Object 1. They urge against us that we reject several Doctrines since formally determined in the Church by the known and received Authority thereof in Councils more general or particular which they pretend were believed through all Ages but then established when they came first to be called in question Answ We are not much concerned in the first part of the objection though very many exceptions might come in especially as to the formality and regularity of those Councils but as to the latter part in which the main stress lies here we never refused a fair trial thereof 1. From Scripture against which no Authority Civil or Ecclesiastical in single persons or the greatest Assemblies no time or custome of whatever date can prescribe a Tertullian de velandis virginibus c. 1. p. 172. hoc exigere veritatem cui nemo prescribere potest non spatium temporum non patrocinia personarum non privilegium regionum S. Cyprian Ep. 63. p. 155. Quare si solus Christus audiendus est non debemus attendere quid alius ante nos faciendum putaverit sed quid qui ante omnes est Chriflus prior fecit neque enim hominis consuetudinem sequi oportet sed Dei veritatem S. Basil de judicio Dei T. 2 p. 392. ejus moral T. 2. p. 423. S. Hierom. adv Joh. Hieros T. 2. p. 185. in eodem T. ex Ep. Aug. ad Hierom. p. 353. 359 c. This hath been ever received till of late as the perfect and intire Rule of all necessary doctrines of Faith and practice of which abundant Testimonies may be seen in most Protestant Writers 2. We appeal also to the Primitive and best Ages of Christianity which either knew nothing of these Additions that we can find or sometimes give as express declarations against them as could be expected at this distance But to take off much of the strangeness of
that these Fathers whose authority they alledge mean'd no such thing by these Rhetorical flourishes as they extract out of them or else that they introduced a new and unknown worship into the Christian Church and then let them prove that some few Fathers of the fourth Century without the publick authority of the Church had authority enough of their own to change the object of worship contrary as the Church in former Ages believed to an express Divine Law which commands us to worship none but God 3. Nay I farther observe that these Fathers whose authority is urged for the invocation of Saints by the Church of Rome do no where dogmatically and positively assert the lawfulness of Praying to Saints and Angels and many Fathers of the same Age do positively deny the lawfulness of it which is a plain argument that it was not the judgement and practice of the Church of that Age and a good reasonable presumption that these Fathers never intended any such thing in what they said how liable soever their words may be to be expounded to such a sense Gregâ—ry Nazianzen indeed in this Book against Julian the Apostate speaks to the Soul of Constantius in this manner Hear O thou Soul of great Constantius if thou hast any sense of these things c. But will you call this a Prayer to Constantius does this Father any where assert in plain terms that it is lawful to pray to Saints departed a hundred such sayings as these which are no Prayers to Saints cannot prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints against the Doctrine of the Fathers of that Age. Thus is his Funeral Oration for his Sister Gorgonia he bespeaks her to this purpose that if she knew what he was now a doing and if holy Souls Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. in Gorg. did receive this favour from God to know such matters as these that then she would kindly accept that Oration which he made in her praise insteed of other Funeral Ocsequâ—es Is this a Prayer to Gorgonia to intercede for him with God by no means He only desires if she heard what he said of her which he was not sure she did that she would take it kindly Whereas in that very Age the Fathers asserted that we must pray only to God and therefore they define Prayer by its relation to God That Prayer is a request of some good things made Basil Orat in Julit Martyr Greg. Naz. Orat 1. de Oratione Chrys in Genes Homil. 30. Aug. De clvit Dei l 22 cap. 10. by devout Souls to God that it is a conference with God that it is a request offered with supplication to God Which is a very imperfect definition of Prayer were it lawful to pray to any other Being besides God St. Austin tells us that when the names of the Martyrs were rehearsed in their publick Liturgies it was not to invoke them or pray to them but only for an honourable remembrance nay he expresly tells us that the worship of dead men must be no part of our Religion for if they were pious men they do not desire this kind of honour but would have us worship Idâ—â— de vera Religione cap. â—5 GOD honorandi ergo sunt propter imitationem non adorandi propter Religionem they are to be honoured for imitation not to be adored as an act of Religion The Council of Laodicea condemned the Worship of Angels and so does Theodoret Oecumenius and others of that Age. It is notoriously known that the Arrians were condemned as guilty of Idolatry for worshipping Christ whom they would not own to be the true GOD though they owned him to be far exalted above all Saints and Angels and to be as like to GOD as it is for any creature to be and those who upon these Principles condemned the worship of the most perfect and excellent Creature could never allow the worship of Saints and Angels So that through the worship of Saints and Angels did begin abouâ— this time to creep into the Church yet it was opposed by these pious and learned Fathers and condemned in the first smallest appearances of it which shews that this was no Catholick Doctrine and Practice in that Age much less that it had been so from the Apostles and I think after this time there was no authority in the Church to alter the object of worship nor to justifie such an Innovation as the worship of Saints and Angels in opposition to the express law of God The sum of this Argument is this Since there is an express Law against the worship of any other Beeing besides the supreme God the Lord Jehovah which never was expresly repealed whatever plausible reasons â—ay be urged for the worship of Saints and Angels they cannot justifie us in acting contrary to an express Law of God THE END A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE CELEBRATION OF Divine Service IN AN UNKNOWN TONGUE UPon this Argument the Church of England doth fully declare it self in these words It is a Article 24. thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the Custome of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers in the church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood of the people But if we consult the Doctors of the Church of Rome about it we shall find them as in most other Comment in Eccles 5. 1. points differing extremely amongst themselves Mercer a very learned person and Professor of Hebrew at Paris is so free as to say Temere fecerunt c. They amongst us have done rashly that brought in the Custome of praying in an Vnknown Tongue which very often neither they themselves nor our people understand And Cardinal Cajetan saith Melius est c. It is better for our Church that the publick Prayers in the Congregation be said in a Tongue common to the In 1. Ep. Corinth c. 14. Priests and People and not in Latine Others of them are of another Mind and say that the having Divine Service in a Tongue known to the people is new and prophane and the Doctrine requiring it Diaboli calliditatem sâ—pit smells of the craft of the Devil And that the Church in making use of the Latine Tongue therein received it by inspiration from the Holy Ghost as a late Author saith Stapleton Quaest quodl Quaest 2. Sixtus Senens biblioth l. 6. â—nnot 263. Portraiture of the church of Jesus Christ c 14. With what consistence soever the former sort may speak to Truth and Reason yet I am sure the later speak with consistence enough to the Opinion Declarations and Practice of their church as is evident from the Council of Treâ—t the present Standard of the Doctrine of the church of Rome which I find thus Englished to my Hands by a noted person of their Cone Trid. Sess 22. c. 8. S. c. Answ to Dr. Pierce c. 15. church Though the Mass contain great instruction for GODS faithful people yet it seemed
God Outward Acts of worship are declarative of the inward respect and veneration of the Soul to God as words are of the inward thoughts and apprehensions of the mind and as when I use such words which acording to common custom signify such a Proposition I must be concluded to mean and intend that Proposition so when I use such outward Acts of Worship which by Custom or Institution signify the Honour due to God to any other I must be thought to ascribe the Honour that 's due to God to that other The Coriâ—â—â—ians although they knew that an Idol was nothing in the World yet because they observed the Feasts that were dedicated to the Honour of the Idol Eating and Drinking in the Idols Temple are said by the Apostle to Drink the 1 Cor. 20. 21. Cup of Devils and to be partakers of the Devils Tables and to have Fellowship with Devils that is by doing those actions that in those places were used to signify the Worship of the Heathen Gods although they intended no Religion but Civility and Complement in the compliance they are said to Worship those Heathen Gods who were not Gods but Devils The Israelites that halted betwixt God and Baal although they could not but have higher apprehensions of God then Baal Yet by bowing the Knee to Baal and Kissing his Mouth by using those outward 1 Kings 19. 18. Acts of Worship wherewith the Heathens Worship'd him are said to be guilty of Idolatry In sume was a mental reservation of keeping the Heart to God and intending the highest degrees of Honour and Worship to him sufficient to clear Men from Idolatry whilst they perform outward Acts Instituted and customarily observed for Religious worship Exod. 32. 8 to any besides God the Israelites could not be guilty of it when they Sacrified to the Golden-Calf they had made nor the Wiser sort of Heathens who whilst they knew the vulgar Gods to be no Gods but Cheats and Devils did out of fear of punishment comply with the vulgar practice of burning Incense to them and the Primitive Fathers were very much mistaken who judged not only those Christians who at the Emperors Command sacrificed to Idols against their Consciences guilty of Idolatry but even those who though no threats could move them to do it in Libellatici person did yet either purchase Certificates that they had done it when they did it not or procure some others their Heathen Friends and servants to do it for them implicitly to be guilty of it I shall name but one Scripture more Col. 2. 18. Let no Man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary Humility and Worshipping of Angels and not holding the head Where we see the Apostles expresly condemns the Worship of Angels as forsaking of Christ and not â—olding the head and if the Worship of Angels it follows with greater force of reason the Worship of Saints departed What this Worship was Theodoret upon the place informs us where he says that the Jews that is Jewish Christians Having received the Law by the Ministration of Angels and holding that the God of all was Invisible and in accessible taught that Men ought to obtain the favour of God by the Means and Intercession of Angels and the same Father tells us that they had Oratories or Chappels of St. Michael This St. Paul calls â—ot holding the head because they set up more Mediators besides Christ who was the only one appointed by God and they that joyn others with him do forsake him accordingly the Council of Loadicea condemned it as Idolatrous the words of the Canon are these That christians Council Laâ—d can 35. ought not to forsake the Church of God and Invocate Angels because they that do so forsake our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and give themselves to Idolatry St. Paul and the Canon both speak so direct and home against the Romanists that Baronius it seems was hard put to it to answer them when he 's forc'd to beg Theodoret's Pardon and tells him with his good leave that he understood neither the one nor the other that it was the Religious Worship of false and Heathenish Gods not that of good Angels that was forbid and condemned by both of them and that those Oratories of St. Michael were set up by Catholicks and not by Hereticks it being then the practice of the Church to Invocate Angels And now though we might safely venture Theodoret's Judgment and Credit against Baronius's yet we have no need of his Authority to find out the true meaning of the Text whoever considers that the Apostle condemns the Worship of Angels in general and duly weighs the series of his Discourse will easily apprehend that it is not levelled against the Heathens who had not yet embraced Christianity but adher'd to the Worship of their false Gods but a sort of Judaizing Christians who retaining still a mighty Veneration for Angels as the supposed givers of the Law endeavoured to introduce the Worship of them into the Church of Christ Let no Man beguile you of your reward in Worshipping of Angels not holding the head the Apostles Argument to disâ—wade them from that Worship is that by doing so they forsook Christ which could not have been an Argument to the Heathens who had never yet believed on him VI. That the Fathers of the first and purest Ages till after three hundred are all express and positive in their Writings against it HOw fully the sacred Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament do condemn the Invocation of Saints you have seen already now that the Fathers of the purest Ages understood the Scriptures in the same sense as Protestants do as to this particular and are also very clear in their writings against it will appear from these following Considerations 1. They generally denied the Doctrine on which this of Saint-Invocation is founded viz. that Saints departed do now reign in Heaven and enjoy the Beatifick Vision 'T is by this blessed priviledge especially of seing God that the Romanists ground their belief that the perfected Spirits of just Men in Heaven come to see all things in him to know the Petitions and to be acquaintwith the requests of their humble Supplicants but now the Primitive Fathers have peremptorly affirmed that the Saints departed are not yet admitted to the sight of God but are only kept in certain hidden receptacles in the full enjoyment of Peace and rest till the general Resurrection this they have not only asserted in so many words and endeavoured to Iren. l. 5. c. 31. prove from our Saviours Soul being in Paradise which they will not have to be the highest Heaven but thinking them in a condition not yet fully and compleatly happy instead of Invocating them Chrysos Tom. 6. p. 998. did Pray for their farther Bliss Consummation So that denying the foundation they can't be supposed to grant the Doctrine built upon it No fewer then Eighteen
Business of confession that now it was become plainly impossible And so much for that But for the second part of this impeachment viz. That the Auricular confession now used in the Church of Rome is mischievous to Piety This remains yet to be demonstrated and we will do it the rather in this place because it will be an abundant confirmation of all that hath been discoursed under the two former heads and might indeed have saved the labour of them but that we were unwilling to leave any pretence of theirs undiscused for if this practice of theirâ— appear to be mischievous to Piety it will never by any sober Man be thought either to have been instituted by our Saviour or to have been the sense and usage of the Catholick Church whatever they pretend on its behalf Now therefore this last and important part of my charge I make good by these Three Articles following First This Method of theirs is dangerous to Piety as it is very apt to cheat People into an Opinion that they are in a better condition then truly they are or may be in towards God as that their sins are pardoned and discharged by him when there is no such matter The Church-men of Rome complain of the Doctrine of sâ—â—e reformed Divings touching assurance of Salvation that it fills men with too great confidence and renders them careless and presumptuous but whatsoever there is in that it is not my business now to dispute it however methinks it will not very well become a Romanist to aggravate it till he have acquitted himself in the point before us for by this Assurance Office of theirs they comply too much with the self-flattery of Mens own Hearts they render Men secure before they are safe and furnish them with a confidence like that of the Whore Solomon speaks of who wipes her Mouth and saith I have done no evil For Men return from the Confessors Chair as they are made to believe as Pure as from the Font and as Innocent as from their Mothers womb as if God was concluded by the act of the Priest and as if he being satisfied with an humble posture a dejected look and a lamentable murmur God Almighty would be put off so too Ah nimium faciles qui tristia criminâ— c. Ah cheating Priests who made fond Men believe That God Almighty pardons all you shrieve Perhaps they will say this is the fault and folly of the Men not of the Institution of the Church But why do they not teach them better then Nay why do they countenance and incourage them in so dangerous mistakes For whither else tend those words in the Decree of the Council of Trent ipsi Deo reconciliandis q. d. that by this way of confession c. men are reconciled to the sess 14. Can. 1 Divine Majesty himself or those other forcited where the Priest is said to be the Vicar of Christ and in Ibid. cap. 5. his steed a Judge or President or especially what other meaning can those words have where it is said Ibid. cap. 2. that this Rite is as necessary as Baptism for as in that all sins are remitted which were committed in former time so in this sins committed after Baptism are likewise remitted Now I say what is the natural tendency of all this but to make People believe that their Salvation or Damnation is in the Power of the Priest that he is a little God Almighty and his discharge would certainly pass current in the Court of Heaven But there is sophistry and juggle in all this as I thus make appear for 1. The Priest cannot pardon whom he will let him be called Index and Praeses never so for if his Sentence be not according to Law â— will be declared Null at the Great Day only it may be good and valâ—â— in the mean time in foro Ecclesiae and here lies the cheat 2. Nor are all sins retained or unforgiven with God that are not pardoned by the Priest it is true in publick Scandals till the sinnâ—r submit to the Church God will not forgive him For what that binds on Earth is in this sense bound in Heaven but what hath the Church to do to retain oâ— to bind the sinner in the case of secret sins where it can charge no guilt on him 3. Nor is it properly the act of the Priest which pardons but the Tenor of the Law and the disposition of Mind in the Penitent agreeable thereunto qualifying him for Pardon to which the Pardon is to be â—â—pâ—â—ed As it is not the Herald which pardons but the Prince who by his Proclamation bestows that Grace upon those who are so and so qualified 4. Nor Lastly Can the Priest be said to pardon so properly by these Majestick words Absolvoâ—te as by his whole Ministry in instructing People in the Terms of the New Convenant and making Application of that to them by the Sacraments this he hath Commission to do but those big words I cannot find that he hath any where Authoriâ—y to pronâ—unce and therefore as I think I observed before the Ancient Church had no form of Absolution but only receiving Peniâ—ents to the Communion And the Greek Church had so much modesty as to Absolve in the third Person not in the first to shew that their Pardon was Ministerial and Declarative only All these things notwithstanding the People are let to go away with such an Opinion as aforesaid because it is for the Grandeur and Interest of the Priesthood that they should be cheated but these misapprehensions would vanish if their teachers would be so just as to distinguish between God's Absolution and the Absolution of the Church the first of which extends to the most secret sins the latter to open Scandals only the one delivers from all real guilt the other from external Censure only of the latter the Priest may by the leave of Church have the full dispensation so that he is really pardoned with her that haâ—h satisfied the Priest but of the former he dispenses but conditionally To confirm all which I will here add only two Testimonies of the judgment of the Ancient Church The first is of Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea in his Epistle to St. Cyprian reckoned the Seventy Fifth of St. Cyprians where speaking of holding Ecclesiastical councils every Year he gives these reasons for it Vi si qua graviora sunt communi consilio â—â—rigantur lapsis quoque fratribus post lavacrum salutare a Diabolâ— vulueratis per poenitentiam medela quaeratur non quasi a nobis remissionem peccatorum consequantur sed ut per nos ad intelligentiaâ— delictorum suorum convertantur Domino plenius satisfacere cogantur partly saith he that by joint advice and common consent we may agree upon an uniform Order in such weighty Affairs as concern our respective churches partly that we may give relief and apply a remedy to those who by the temptation of the Devil
for no other Reason of our Faith but the Authority of the church in expounding Scriptures I shall discourse something briefly of each of these 1. To say that the church is the only Means to find out the true sense of Scripture is very false and absurd For 1. This supposes the Holy Scriptures to be a very unintelligible Book which is a great reproach to the Holy Spirit by which it was Indited that he either could not or would not speak intelligibly to the World 2. This is a direct contradiction to those Exhortations of Christ and his Apostles to study the Scriptures which were made to private Men and therefore necessarly supposes that the Holy Scriptures are to be understood as other Writtings are by consideing the Propriety of the Words and â—â—nguage wherein they are written the scope and design of the place and such other means as honest and studious Inquirers use to find out the meaning of any other Book 3. If the Scriptures are so unintelligible that an honest man cannot find out the meaning of them without the infallâ—ble interpretation of the Church I would desire to know whither Christ and his Apostles Preach'd intelligibly to their Hearers If they did not to what purpose did they Preach at all By what means were men Converted to the Faith If they did how come these Sermons to be so unintelligible now they are written which were so intelligible when they were spoken For the Gospels contain a plain History of what Christ did and of what he said and the Apostles Wrote the same things to the Churches when they were absent which they Preach'd to them when they were present and we reasonably suppose that they as much designed that the Churches should understand what they wrote as what they Preach'd and therefore that they generally used the same form of words in their writting and in their Preaching And this makes it a great Riddle how one should be very plain and easie to be understood and the other signifie nothing without an infallible Interpreter 4. If the Scriptures be in themselves unintelligible I would desire to know how the Church comes to understand them If by any humane means together with the ordinary Assistances of the Divine Spirit then they are to be understood and then why may not every Christian in proportion to his skill in Languageâ— and in the Rules of Reason and Discourse understand them also If the Church cannot understand the Scriptures by any humane means but only by Inspiration for there is no Medium between these two to what purpose were the Scriptures written For we might as well have learn'd the will of God from the Church without the Scriptures as with them GOD could have immediately revealed his will to the Church without a written Rule as well as reveal the meaning of that written Rule which it seems has no signification at all till the Church by Inspiration gives an Orthodox meaning to it 5. And iâ— we cannot understand the Scriptures till the Church Expounds them to us how shal we know which is the Church and that this Church is such an infallible Interpreter of Scriptures The Church is to be known only by the Scriptures and the Scriptures are to be understood only by the Church if we will know the Church we must first understand the Scriptures and if we will understand the Scriptures we must first know the Church and when both must be known first or we can know neither it is impossible in this way either to understand the Scriptures or find out the Church For suppose the Church does expound Scripture by Inspiration how shall we be assured that it does so Must we believe every Man or every Church which pretends to Inspiration This is a contradiction to the Apostles Rule not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits How then shall they be tried I know but two wayes either by Miracles or by Scripture Miracles are now ceas'd unless we will believe some fabulous Legends which all wise men in the Church of Rome are ashamed of and if there were real Miracles wrought they are of no Authority against a standing Rule of Faith which the Apostle calls a more sure word of Prophesie If then we must judge of these pretences to Revelation by the Scriptures which is the only way now left then there is a way of understanding the Scriptures without this Revelation for if we must understand the Scriptures by Revelation and Revelation by the Scriptures we are got into a new Circle and can understand neither Obj. But do we not see how many Schisms and Heresies have been occasioned by suffering every one to Expound Scripture for himself How many Divisions and Sub-divisions are there among Protestants who agree in little else besides their opposition to Popery And is it possible to cure this without an an Infallible Interpreter of Scriptureâ— Is it not a contradiction to common Experience to say that the sense of Scripture is plain and certain when so few men can agree what it is Ans 1. Yes we do see this and lament it and are beholden to the Church of Rome and her Emissaries in a great measure for it But yet we know thus it has been in all Ages of the Christian Church as well as now and we take the same way to confute these Heresies and to preserve the purity of the Faith and the Unity of the Church which the Primitive Fathers did by appealing to Scripture and the Doctrine and Practice of the Catholick Church which is the best way any Church can take when there is no infallible Judge of controversies And if the Primitive Church had known any such infallible Judge they would certainly have appealed to him at one time or other and it had been impossible that any Errors or Heresies should for any long time together have disturbed the Church but we hear nothing of him for many hundred years after Christ but the ancient Fathers took the same way to confute the Heresies of their dayes which we do now which is a good proable Argument that they knew no better And the present Divisions of the Christian Church are no greater Argument against us then the Ancient Heresies were against the Primitive Church or then the Protestant Heresies as they are pleased to call them are against the church of Rome For what advantage has the church of Rome upon this account above any other profession of Christians Those who are of the same communion are of the same Mind Thus it is among us and it is no better among them for we are no more of their mind then they are of ours nay notwithstanding all their pretences to infallibility most of the Disputes which divide the Protestant churches are as fairly disputed among themselves witness the famous controversie between the Jansenists and Molinists which their infallible Judge never thought fit to determine to this day They live indeed in the communion of
agree together in the Summons place or time of meeting or about the persons who are to resort to it from their several Dominions While the Roman Empire was intire the Emperours Edict alone was Summons sufficient to almost the whole Christian Church But now who shall take upon him to call or invite so many from so distant places no way under his Authority And that the Pope ever pretended to this power till of late can scarce be pleaded against such clear evidences and Examples and where he is so much concerned it will be judged more unreasonable for him to demand it If this difficulty were overcome by any consent or condescension yet so many jealousies and cross interests are behind that will be and have been laid in the way of their first meeting together with a requisite peaceable disposition as are not easily foreseen and less readily governed not to interpose the difficulties of the journeys from such distant places and of the discontinuance so long from home of the chief Governours of the Church many doubts and controversies of the number and quality of persons having right to vote therein by themselves or representatives will not soon be adjusted and without these and such like be determined there is no preparation made for so venerable an Assembly After all when never so duely met we have neither Reason Promise or Example to suppose them now infallibly Ecclesia non numerus Episcoporum Tertullian de pudicitia c. 22. guided in their determinations but that they or the greater part may be mistaken themselves or mislead others through passion and false interest or be carried away in the noise or torrent of a multitude or be imposed on by the crafty He that considers matter of fact more then the finest Schemes and most subtil Reasonings of his own brain how things are oft strangely and unaccountably carried in publick meetings of men of extraordinary Fame yea in some Councils themselves and some of very sacred Repute in the Church a Greg. Naz. Epist 55. p. 814. Ep. 72. p. 829 Ep. 135. p. 864. ejusd Orat. 15 init p 451. Theod. Ep. 112. Vol. 3. p. 582 983. will think this no hard supposal though their orderly Sentence carries the most venerable Authority below Heaven It seems to argue the heighth of Blasphemy to arreign God himself of indiscretion if it be possible for any man or number of men to erre from their Duty And very presumptuous it is to charge the Supreme Providence of defect in the provision for the continuance of his Church if they be capable to fall away yea let GOD be true but every man a liar when brought in competition He will not be tyed up by our most plausible Methods in the way of securing his own Truth which shall at last prevail though condemned Whose wisdom is unsearchable and his wayes oft past our finding out He will bring to pass his own holy designs though by means to us most unlikely or it may be seemingly opposite Whoever seriously reflects upon these things will have little reason to quarrel at the Reformation for want of this formal establishment in Council No Christian or Church is chargeable with the lack of that which is not in their power to procure Men may please themselves with remote Speculations and the fairest hopes and wishes of such an Authoritative Decision of the disputes in controversie but if it be not to be had we must rest content with and make the best use we can of that provision which GOD in mercy hath indulged us for our sufficient satisfaction and safety Every particular National Church directly subject to no other may and ought to reform it self from known Abuses keeping within the Rule of GODS Word avoiding as much as possible giving just offence to any beside and being ready to give an account of its proceedings therein to all and to alter any thing that shall be found amiss or add whatever may be proved wanting to receive others into its Communion and to communicate with them so far as may be consistent with common Christianity owned by all endeavouring to preserve Peace and Unity with all that call upon the same LORD praying to GOD to increase and improve them more and more such hath been the continued aim and proceeding of the Church of England We believe no true Member of this would have refused the general communion of the truely Catholick church in St. Augustine's Age or for some after though possibly every opinion or practice then current be not suited to their present judgement or wish Neither can we think after so strange alteration of circumstances through so many degenerate Ages that holy Father in his eminent zeal for the most a S. Aug. adv Crescon Grammat l. 3. T. 7. p. 273. Ego in Ecclesia sum cujus membra sunt illae omnes Ecclesiae quaâ— ex laboribus Apostolorum notas atque firmatas simul literis canonitis novimus Earum communionem sive in Africa sive ubicunque non deseram Catholick Communion therein would now have been much moved by our present Adversaries arrogant claims of it to themselnes alone though against the Rules and Principles of it with all others No Foundation is laid for it here but by the absolute submission of all others to their usurp'd Authority and rash or impious determinations Now who can hope for an universal Peace and Unity from such terms of accommodation only fit for an insulting Conquerour to impose like those which Nabash the Ammonite propounded to the men of Jabesh Gilead to thrust out all their eyes and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel 1 Sam. 11. 2. Object 3. Sometimes they object to us the personal miscarriages of some ingaged in the Reformation Answ If any did what they ought not or with unjustifiable designs what they ought the Church is no way accountable if what they did in the Reformation as such were good and they had sufficient Authority for doing it which we are ready to maintain that is all she is responsible for were other imputations really true which they oft are not However it will be an endless dispute and if determined would add little to the cause I may add few great and publick changes are brought about where so many interests are concerned either way to promote or hinder them in which all things are carried with that clearness and evenness that were to be desired Private Persons are not chargeable with the supposed defects of publict Administrations of which they have not the management if nothing be required of them against their express Duty and they be provided of all necessary means of their Salvation though they may be inclined to wish some things had been ordered otherwise Object 4. Our Enemies on both sides are apt to object to us the want of due Discipline if not absolutely necessary to the being of the Church yet so far useful to the well-being and
the Rights nor pretends to reverse the just and regular Censures nor countenances the Schismaticks nor disallows the ministrations of any other Church so far as consistent with the express Institutions of our blessed Saviour and the universally received practice of his Church though otherwise mix'd with several corruptions which she wishes removed Object 5. Lastly our Roman Adversaries object to us the many obstinate Schisms and gross Heresies which have sprung up since the Reformation and as they pretend out of it from the forsaking of that bond of Unity in the Catholick Church only to be hoped for in their Communion where alone they say these are prevented or soon cured Answ The first part of matter of fact is too notorious to be denied and too scandalous to be defended but against the latter part of the original of these Schisms and Heresies many just exceptions may be interposed 1. The Reformation gives no countenance to them but severely condemns them and provides sufficient means to prevent or remove them if notwithstanding wicked men of corrupt Principles and depraved manners flee hither for shelter to hide their enormities and abuse or pervert the most wholsom Institutions and advantagious opportunities for their spiritual proficiency to the most contrary purposes The guilt and ill consequence will lie only at their own doors Christians must not debarred of the ordinary means of Grace because some turn this Grace into wantonness St. Peter tells us of some who wrest the Scriptures unto their own destruction but neither he nor any other then or for many Ages after thought this motive sufficient to deprive the People of the use of them made it rather an argument of consulting them with greater caution and and diligence lest being led away with the errrour of the wicked they fall from their own stedfastness 2. There were many Schisms and Heresies sprung up in the first and best Ages of the Church even in the times of the Apostles themselves as appears by several intimations in their Writings and in the immediatly succeeding while many Apostolical men were living and if we compare the account we have of them in the most ancient Authors particularly in Irenaeus they were as wild and extravagant as any of the later date yet the Apologists for true Christianity thought themselves very injuriously charged with those blasphemous Principles or flagitious Practices which they wholly renounced or disowned The evil one is alwayes most busie to sow his Tares amongst the beast Wheat But that which is most to our purpose here to observe is that the same method which the Orthodox Christians then made use of for the Confutation and Conviction of Hereticks and Schismaticks we still appeal to by bringing them to the touchstone of Scripture and next to that the most Orthodox and Catholick Tradition Whereas how short and easie a decision to all debates might have been fetcht hence had they the same apprehension of the Authority and Efficacy thereof by referring all Controversies depending to the determination of the Roman Church the Mother and Mistris of all and to that infallible conduct settled therein but not one word of that only when they make their appeals to her after the express Word of GOD it is in common with many other Churches especially those of Apostolical foundation as in Tertullian Irenaeus St. Augustin c. Where they have to deal with such persons a Tertullian adv Marcion l. 4. c. 5. p. 415. Videamus quod lac è Paulo Corinthii hauserint ad quam regulam Galatae sunt recorrecti quid legant Philippenses Thessalonicenses-Ehpesii quid etiam Romani de proximo sonent quibus Evangelium Petrus Paulus sanguine quoque suo signatum reliquerunt habemus Johannis alumnas Ecclesias Idem de praescript adv Haer. c. 36. p. 215. Percurre Apostolicas proxima est tibi Achaia habes Corinthium si non longe es a Mecedonia habes Philippos habes Thessalonicenses sipotes in Asiam tendere habes Ephesum si autem Italiae adjaces habes Romam Et ibid. c. 32. p. 213. de aliis Quae denique instituuntur tamen in eadem fide conspirantes non minus Apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate doctrinae S Irenaeus adv Her l. 3. c. 3. p. 232. S. Augustin de unitate Ecclesiae c. 10. T. 7 p. 531. ad Corinthios ad Ephesios ad Thessalonicenses ad Colossenses Vos solas Apostoli epistolas in lectione nos antem Epistolas in Lectione ac fide ipsas Ecclesias in Communione retinemus Ibid. c. 16. p. 546. Vtrum ipsi Ecclesiam teneant non nisi Divinarum Scripturarum Canonicis libris oftendant quia nec nos propterea dicimus nobis credere oportere quod in Ecclesia Christi sumus quia ipsam quam tenemus commendavit Milevitanus Optatus vel Mediolaneusis Ambrosius vel alii innumerabiles nostrae communionis Episcopi aut quia nostrorum collegarum conciliis ipsa praedicata est aut quia per totum orbem in locis sanctis tanta mirabilia vel exauditionum vel santitatum fiunt c. quaecunque talia in catholica fiunt ideo sunt approbanda quia in catholica fiunt non ideo ipsa manifestatur catholica quia haec in ea fiunt 3. The pretence of the most absolute Authority in the one part and the extortion of the most implicite Belief and blind Obedience in the other among them have not been able to secure themselves from considerable dissentions and Divisions in opinion and practice If these have not broke out ordinarly into the most open Schisms and Heresies the stop is more due to the craft and policy whereby they oft compromise the matter between both parties or to that outward force and violence which restrains them rather then to any opinion which they themselves have of this ready means of ending all disputes We find in the fiercest debates among them how little heed is given to this infalllible cure farther then interest or necessity inclines them There may be a way of preventing controversies which destroys all Religion and makes way for Atheism in such a case I need not enquire where the advantage lies 4. We may answer most of those mischiefs had their rise from the ruines of the Church of England when that was violently assaulted and broken its Authority despised its constitutions vilified its Order defaced its faithful Adherents persecuted then Faction and Disorder strange Doctrines Phrensical Opinions and all manner of looseness in Principles and Practices came in like a torrent and overspread the Land which before skulkt in corners and were little taken notice of The Restitution of the church hath in great measure put a stop to their progress I know not of any Sect which hath started up since that time But almost every year before brought forth several If her pains and care have not yet been so successfully prevalent as to recover and restore all that have gone astray she hath