upon their own Authority to begin a new Church and to broach new Doctrines directly contrary to the judgement of the High Priest and Sanhedrin yea after they had pronounced Sentence against Jesus of Nazareth and condemned him to death and excommunicated his followers and punished as many as they could get into their power what could it in their opinion be but the Spirit of Faction and disobedience thus to oppose the Authority of their Church in believing contrary to its decrees and reforming without any power derived from it We see in our Saviours time how severely they checked any of the people who spake favourably of Christ and his Doctrine As though the poor ignorant people were fit to judge of these matters to understand Prophecies and to know the true Messias when he should appear And therefore when some of their Officers that had been sent to apprehend him came back with admiration of him and said Never man spake like this man they take them up short and tell them They must believe as the Church believes what they take upon them to judge of such matters No they must submit to their Governours Have any of the Rulers or Pharisees believed on him but this people which know not the Law are cursed i e. When they set up their own judgement in opposition to the Authority of the Church And after our Saviours death at a solemn Council at Hierusalem when Peter and John were summoned before them the first Question they asked was By what power or by what name have ye done this They never enquired whether the Miracle were wrought or no or whether their Doctrine were true all their Question was about their Mission whether it were ordinary or extraordinary or what authority they could pretend to that were not sent by themselves but let the things be never so true which they said if they could find any flaw in their Mission according to their own Rules and Laws this they thought sufficient ground to forbid them to preach any more and to charge them with Faction if they disobeyed 2. They charged the Christians with Faction in being so active and busie to promote Christianity to the great disturbance of the Jews in all parts This Tertullus accused St. Paul of that he was a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and accordingly the Jews at Thessalonica take the Christians by force and carry them to the Rulers of the City crying Those that have turned the world upside down are come hither also This they knew was the most effectual course to render them odious to all Governours who are apt to suspect all new things as dangerous and think no truth can compensate the hazard of alterations Thus it was especially among the Roman Governours who had learnt from the counsel given to Augustus to be particularly jealous of all innovations in Religion and had much rather the people should continue quiet under an old error than have the peace disturbed for the greatest Truth This was really the greatest difficulty in the way of Christianity it came no where but people were possessed before hand with quite other apprehensions of Religion than the Christians brought among them The Jewish and Pagan Religions were in possession in all places and the people were at ease in the practice of them What then must the Christians do Must they let them alone and not endeavour to convince them of the truth of their own Doctrine If so they are unfaithful to their trust betrayers of truth and false to the Souls of men if they go about to perswade men out of their Religion they know such is the fondness most men have for their own opinions especially in Religion that where they might hope to convince one they might be sure to enrage many especially of those whose interest lay in upholding the old Religion How little doth Reason signifie with most men where Interest is against it Truth and falshood are odd kind of Metaphysical things to them which they do not care to trouble their heads with but what makes for or against their Interest is thought easie and substantial All other matters are as Gallio said questions of names and words which they care not for but no men will sooner offer to demonstrate a thing to be false than they who know it to be against their interest to believe it to be true This was the case of these great men of the Jews that came down to accuse Paul they easily saw whither this new Religion tended and if it prevailed among their people farewell then to all the Pomp and Splendour of the High-Priesthood at Hierusalem farewell then to the Glory of the Temple and City whither all the Tribes came up to worship thrice a year farewell then to all the riches and ease and pleasure which they enjoyed And what was the greatest Truth and best Religion in the world to them in comparison with these These were sufficient reasons to them to accuse Truth it self of deceiving men and the most peaceable Doctrine of laying the Foundation of Faction and Sedition Thus we have considerd the false imputations which were cast upon Christianity at first implyed in these words After the way which is called heresie 2. I now come to the way taken by St. Paul to remove these false imputations which he doth 1. By an appeal to Scripture as the ground and rule of his faith Believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets 2. By an appeal to the best and purest Antiquity as to the object of Worship So worship I the God of my Fathers not bringing in any new Religion but restoring it to its primitive purity 1. By an appeal to Scripture as the ground and rule of his faith The Jews pleaded Possession Tradition Authority of the present Church against all these St. Paul fixes upon a certain and unmoveable Foundation the Law and the Prophets He doth not here insist upon any particular revelation made to himself but offers the whole matter in dispute to be tryed by a common Rule that was allowed on both sides And his meaning is if they could prove that he either asserted or did any thing contrary to the Law and the Prophets then they had some reason to accuse him of innovation or beginning of a new Sect but if the foundation of his doctrine and practice lay in what themselves acknowledged to be from God then they had no cause to charge him with introducing a new Sect among them But the great Question here is What ground St. Paul had to decline the Authority of the present Church Since God himself had appointed the Priests to be the interpreters of the Law and therefore in doubtful cases resort was to be made to them and not the judgement left to particular persons about the sense of Scripture and yet in this case it is apparent St. Paul declined all Authority of the present
Church for at that very time the High-Priests and Elders came down to accuse him and he takes not the least notice of their judgement in this matter I shall therefore now shew that St. Paul had very great reason so to do and to appeal only to Scripture 1. Because the Authority of the present Church was more lyable to error and mistake than the Rule of Scripture was 2. Because it was lyable to more partiality than that was 1. Because it was more lyable to error and mistake than the Rule of Scripture was It was agreed on both sides that the Law was from God and that the Prophets spake by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost all that was now left was only to find out the true meaning of them and to compare Prophecies with events As in the case of the Messias if the circumstances foretold by the Prophets had their exact accomplishment in Christ as might appear to those who carefully compared them If he were born at Bethlehem of the Tribe of Judah when the Scepter was departed from it and during the second Temple and all other circumstances agreeing then though the ordinary judgement concerning true Prophets belonged to the Sanhedrin yet it was far more reasonable to believe that they were mistaken than that all the Prophecies should be accomplished in a person that was not the true Messias For those Prophecies were not intended only for the Priests and Rulers but for directions to the People that they might be able to judge of the accomplishment of them otherwise when the Authority of the Jewish Church condemned our Saviour the People could have no reason to believe him to be the Messias if they were bound in the sense of Scripture to submit their judgement wholly to the Churches Authority It is plain then that the sense of Scripture may be so evident to private capacities that they are not to submit in it to the present Authority of a Church For notwithstanding all the promises made to the Jewish Church and the command of submitting to the sentence of their Priests and Rulers in a matter of the highest concernment viz. concerning the true Messias men were bound to believe directly contrary to the present Authority in the Church For the people were bound to believe Christ to be the true Messias although the High Priest and Elders had condemned him for a deceiver and malefactor But besides this particular case there may be several others wherein men may lawfully reject the Authority of the present Church and those are when that Authority shall go about to overthrow those things which must be supposed antecedent to the belief of any such Authority as 1. The common sense of mankind 2. The force of a divine Law 3. The liberty of judgement concerning truth and falshood All these must necessarily be supposed before any Authority of a Church but if any Church goes about to overthrow these it thereby forfeits its own Authority over men 1. If it requires things contrary to common sense as in that instance wherein some of the Jewish Rabbies required submission to their Authority viz. in believing the right hand to be the left or the left to be the right if they determined so or supposing the Jews to have required the people to deny that they ever saw any Miracle wrought by Christ or in the Miracle of the Loaves that what they saw and handled and tasted to be bread was true bread or to say that the same individual body might be in a thousand places at once or that things whose nature it is to be in another can subsist without their proper subject what Church soever requires such things as these from its members to be believed gives them just reason to reject its Authority 2. If it requires things contrary to the force and reason of a divine Law as the Jews themselves would have acknowledged if any Authority among them had gone about either to have left out the second Commandment or made it lawful to give Religious worship to Images under any distinctions whatsoever or if the Priests had taken away from the people their share in the sacrifices under pretence of the unsanctified teeth or the long beards of the Laity which were not fit to touch what had been offered in sacrifice to God But we need not put cases among them for our Saviour therefore bids men have a care of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees because by their traditions they made the Commandment of God of none effect as in their Corban if they made a vow to God they thought themselves excused from relieving their Parents and in this way our Saviour generally deals with them shewing that though they pretended to keep the letter of the Law yet by their corrupt additions and false glosses they overthrew the scope and design of it which he thought sufficient reason to reject their Authority and therefore when he bids his Disciples observe and do what soever the Scribes and Pharisees bid them it must be supposed to be only while they keep to the letter and reason of the Law for if he had intended an absolute obedience he would never elsewhere bid his Disciples beware of their Doctrine 3. If it takes away all liberty of judgement concerning truth and falshood in Religion For this is a natural right which every man hath to judge for himself and they that take this away may as well command all men to put out their eyes that they may better follow their Guides But the other is so much worse because it is an assault upon our understandings it is a robbing us of the greatest talent God hath committed to our management it is a rape upon our best faculties and prostituting them to the lusts of Spiritual Tyrants it is not captivating our understandings to the obedience of faith but enslaving them to the proud and domineering usurpations of men wherein they would do by us as the Philistins did by Sampson they would put out our eyes that we might grind in their prison and make them sport I would not be mistaken it is the liberty of judgement I plead for and not of practice that may be justly restrained by the Laws of the Church where the other is allowed because the obligations to peace and unity are different from those to faith and inward assent And that no absolute submission of judgement could be required by the Law of Moses notwithstanding the command of outward obedience in the cases mention'd Deut. 17. 8 9 c. is most evident from hence because that Law makes provision for a sin-offering in case the whole Congregation of Israel sin through ignorance and the thing be hid from the eyes of the Assembly or Supream Council and they have done something against the commandment of the Lord which had been a Law made to no purpose if it had been impossible for their chief Authority to have erred or been mistaken
he did against St. Paul they charge us with bringing in new Sects under the pretence of Reformation or with rejecting the Authority of the present Church which we were bound to obey and thereby laying the Foundation of Faction â—nd Schism These are heavy charges but they are no other than those the High Priest and the Elders made against St. Paul and thanks be to God his Defence and Vindication is ours too for we appeal to Scripture and the best and purest Antiquity and desire to be judged according to these These three things therefore I shall speak to before I conclude 1. That the same reasons which they produce against the Reformation would have held against the spreading of Christianity at first 2. That the same Defence which St. Paul made for Christianity will justifie the Reformation 3. That we have all reason to follow the courage of St. Paul in owning and defending our Religion not with standing the imputations which are cast upon it 1. That the same reasons which they produce against the Reformation would have held against Christianity at first What have all the clamours of our Adversaries for above a hundred years come to but the very same which I have already mentioned as the Jews Objections against Christianity viz. Novelty and Faction Where was your Church before the Reformation produce your succession in all Ages of persons who agreed in all things with you Where were those distinct bodies of men who found fault with those corruptions that you pretend to reform Our Church hath had a constant and glorious succession of Bishops and Martyrs and Consessors and Religious Orders of Men Virgins and Widows But supposing such a distinct succession were not necessary yet shew how it was possible for so many errors and corruptions to come into the Church and no one take notice of them and discover them Where was the watchfull eye of Providence over the Church all this while What all the Pastors asleep at once or all conspiring together to deceive their posterity Besides how can the Protestants ever answer their rejecting the Authority of the present Church which they lived under and to whom God had promised his infallible Spirit how can they clear themselves from faction and disturbing the peace of the Christian world which lived in so great unity and peace before This is the summ of their Objections against the Reformation which are the very same we have mention'd before as produced by the Jews against Christianity If the arguments are good now they were so then if they were good then for all that I can see the High Priest and Elders were in the right and St. Paul in the wrong if they were not good then but are now some remarkable disparity must be shewed between their case and ours and that must lye in shewing these three things 1. That the Christian Church hath greater infallibility promised than the Jewish had 2. That the first Christians had greater reason to reject the Authority of that Church than the Reformers had as to the Church of Rome 3 That the Causes of corruptions in the Jewish Church could not hold in the Christian But if none of these can be made good then the case will appear to be the very same 1. It cannot be proved that the Christian Church hath greater infallibility promised than the Jewish had Of which we have this plain evidence that one of the strongest arguments produced for the infallibility of the Christian Church is taken from the Promises made to the Jewish How often hath Deut. 17. 8 9 10. been made Use of to prove infallibility in the Christian Church If they had any better arguments in the New Testament would they ever run so far back to a Command that most evidently relates to the Jewish constitution Where hath ever God promised that he would dwell in St. Peters at Rome as he did that he would dwell in his Temple at Hierusalem What boastings and triumphs would there have been if any such words had been in the Gospel concerning Rome as there were of old concerning Hierusalem viz. that God had sanctified it that his Name might be there for ever and his eyes and his heart should be there perpetually What pittiful proofs in comparison of this are all those brought out of the New Testament for the Authority and Infallibility of the Roman Church What are all the promises of the Spirit made to the Apostles and remarkably accomplished in them to this plain promise of Gods particular presence in that place for ever Suppose St. Peter had priviledges above the rest of the Apostles how comes the entail to be made to all his successors and only at Rome and no where else Where are the Deeds kept that contain this gift Why are they not produced during all this contest And yet we see in the Jewish Church where such a promise was made to a particular place no such thing as Infallibility was implyed in it 2. It cannot be shewed that the first Christians had greater reason to reject the Authority of the Jewish Church than our Reformers had to reject that of the Church of Rome I know here it will be presently said That the Apostles saw the Miracles of Christ and wrought many themselves and received an immediate Commission from Jesus Christ in whom the Churches Infallibility was then seated All which I grant to be true in it self but cannot be pleaded by them who contend for absolute obedience to the present Churches Authority as infallible My reason is because upon this principle they could not believe Christ to be the true Messias for his being the true Messias depended upon two things viz. the fulfilling of Prophecies and the truth of his Miracles now according to their principles no man could be certain of either of these without the Authority of the Church for the fulfilling of Prophecies depended upon the sense of many obscure places of Scripture about which they say there is a necessity of an infallible Judge and for Miracles they tell us that there is no certain way of judging true and false but by the Authority of the Church Now if these things be so what ground could the first Christians have to believe Christ to be the true Messias when in both these they must oppose the Authority of the present Church 3. They can never prove that the same causes of corruptions do not hold as to the Christian which did as to the Jewish Church For the Christian Church in those Ages which we charge with introducing the corruptions was degenerated into greater Ignorance Barbarism Luxury and Superstition than the Jewish Church in the time of its darkness from the cessation of Prophecy till the coming of Christ. Our Adversaries themselves confess that for a long time there was nothing either of Learning or Humanity among them nothing but ease and luxury and ambition and all manner of Wickedness among the Chief Rulers among them nay
even at Rome there was a succession of fifty of their High Priests so remarkable for their wickedness that Annas and Caiaphas setting only aside their condemning Christ were Saints in comparison of them And is it now any wonder that such errors and corruptions should come into that Church as those we charge them with Nay rather the greatest Wonder seems to be that any thing of Christianity should be preserved among them But besides the sottishness of those times we have many other causes to assign of the corruptions introduced among them as a Complyance with Gentilism in many of their Customs and Superstitions Affectation of new Modes of Devotion among indiscreet Zealots Ambition and constant endeavour to advance the Authority and Interests of the Priesthood above all Secular Power and when for a long time these had been gathering the rude materials together then the Moorish Philosophy happening to creep in among them the Monks began to busie themselves therein and by the help of that a little better to digest that Mass and heap of corruptions and to spend the wit they had to defend and improve them 2. But against all these we stand upon the same defence that St. Paul did we appeal to Scripture and the best and purest Antiquity We pretend to bring in no new Doctrines and therefore no Miracles can be required of us which the Apostles wrought to confirm Christs being the true Messias who was to alter that State which God himself had once appointed All that we plead for is that the Religion established by Christ may serve our turn and that which is recorded by the Apostles and Evangelists to these we make our constant appeal and have the same reason to decline the Authority of the Roman Church that St. Paul had as to the High Priest and Elders when he appealed to the Law and the Prophets Nay we have somewhat more reason because God had once appointed the High Priests and Rulers of the People among them but the Supremacy of the Roman Church was a meer Usurpation begun by Ambition advanced by Forgery and defended by Cruelty But we do not only believe all that is written in the Law and the Prophets but we worship the God of our Fathers of the Fathers of the first and purest Ages of the Christian Church we are not only content to make use of their Authority in these matters but we make our appeal to them and have begged our Adversaries ever since the Reformation to prove the points in difference between us by the testimony of the first six hundred years but from that time to this they are as far from proving any one point as ever they were 3. What then follows from all this but that we should imitate St. Pauls courage in owning and defending our Religion notwithstanding all the false imputations which are cast upon it What a shame would it be for us meanly and basely to betray that Cause for which our Ancestors sacrificed their lives Is the Romish Religion any thing better than it was then What error in Doctrine or corruption in Practice have they ever reformed Nay have they not rather established and confirmed them more Are they any thing kinder to us than they have been No. Notwithstanding all their late pleadings for Evangelical Peace and Charity they can at the same time tell us That the Statutes against Hereticks are still in force against us as condemned Hereticks and we are not so dull not to apprehend the meaning of that viz. that were it in their power they could lawfully burn us to morrow And is not this the height of Evangelical Love and Sweetness Who can but admire the perswasiveness of such arguments to Gospel-meekness and melt at the tenderness and bowels of an Inquisition Let us not deceive our selves it is not the mean complyance of any in going half way towards them will serve their turn there is no chewing their Pills all must be swallowed together or as good in their opinion to have none at all For not only plain Hereticks but the favourers and suspected of Heresie are solemnly excommunicated every year in the famous Bull of Coena Domini and Lindwood their English Canonist tells us whom they account suspected of Heresie viz. All that shew common civility to Hereticks or give Alms to them or that once hear their Sermons This last indeed hath been mitigated by a considerable party among them for notwithstanding the opposition of the Jesuits in this matter and seven Briev's obtained by their means from several Popes forbidding all Roman-Catholicks to come to our Churches yet the Secular Priests have contended for it as a thing lawful for them not only to come to our Prayers and hear our Sermons but to partake of our Sacraments too Which they may allow while they hope to carry on their interest better that way but if once which God forbid the Tide should turn with them then the old Laws of their Church must prevail and nothing will be thought so wholsome as an Inquisition Which it is strange their Advocates for Liberty of Conscience should call only Laws in Catholick Countreys against Hereticks and not Laws of the Church when there are extant above a hundred Bulls and Briev's of Popes establishing confirming and enlarging the Inquisition Since then no favour is to be expected from their Church for whatever they pretend all the severity comes from thence all the favour and mitigation from the clemency and Wisdom of Princes let us endeavour to strengthen our selves by a hearty zeal for our Religion and using the best means to confirm and uphold it And since the Children of this world are in their Generation wiser than the Children of light there are some things practised among them which may deserve our imitation and those are 1. A mighty Industry and Zeal in promoting their Cause they have learn'd of their Predecessors to compass Sea and Land to gain one Proselyte They insinuate themselves into all companies stick at no pains accommodate themselves to all humours and are provided one way or other to gratifie persons of all inclinations for they have retirement for the melancholy business for the active idleness for the lazy honour for the ambitious splendour for the vain severities for the sowre and hardy and a good dose of pleasures for the soft and voluptuous It is not their Way but their Zeal and Industry I propound to our imitation I know not how it comes to pass but so it often happens that they who are most secure of truth on their side are most apt to be remiss and careless and to comfort themselves with some good old sayings as God will provide and Truth will prevail though they lye still and do nothing towards it but certainly such negligence is inexcusable where the matter is of so great importance the Adversaries so many and an account must be given shortly in another world of what men have done
I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Wherein we have these three things considerable 1. The Imputation which Christianity suffered under in its first appearance After the way which they call heresie 2. The Way taken by St. Paul to remove this false Imputation viz. by appeal to Scripture and Antiquity So worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things that are written in the Law and the Prophets 3. The Courage of St. Paul in so freely owning his Religion in the presence of his greatest enemies and when they were in hopes to destroy him for it This I confess unto thee that after the way c. 1. I begin with the false Imputation which Christianity suffered under at its first appearance After the way which is called heresie the same Word which is translated Sect v. 5. and although the Word be indifferent in it self yet where it is taken for a combination of men together against an established Religion and lawful Authority as it was by the Jews when they charged the Christians under this name then it implies in it a twofold accusation 1. Of Novelty and Singularity 2. Of Faction and Sedition 1 Of Novelty A Sect of Heresie in this sense implies in it mens setting up with a new Doctrine which was not heard of before and making that theFoundation of a new Society separate and distinct from the established Church and consequently they must charge the Church they are divided from with errors and corruptions or they make themselves guilty of Schism i. e. unnecessary separation Now upon these two grounds the Jews laid the imputation of a New Sect upon the Nazarenes or Christians 1. Because they could not shew a visible succession in all Ages 2. Because they could not prove the Jewish Church to be guilty of such errors and corruptions as to need a Reformation 1. They could not shew a Succession in all Ages of such persons who agreed in all things with them For where say they were the men to be found in former Ages that taxed the Jewish Church with such errors and corruptions as Jesus of Nazareth did that bid men beware of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees i. e. of the most learned and holy men Had not God alwayes a Visible Church among them they could produce the names of their High Priests in every Age and shew them all the marks of a Visible Church For in Judah was God known and his Name was great in Israel Hath not God said that in his House at Hierusalem he would put his Name for ever and his eyes and his heart should be there perpetually How is it then possible but there must be a constant and visible Succession in all Ages since God would alwayes have a people to dwell among and that might be known to be his people by the outward marks and signs of a true Church But if the Christians pretences held good God must for several Ages have wanted a Church amongst them For none of those things which they charged the Jews with were newly crept in among them but had been delivered down to them by the Tradition of their Fore-fathers in an uninterrupted manner as they thought from the very time of Moses This was their Rule whereby they guided themselves in their actions of Religion and in the sense of obscure places of the Law and the Prophets and in that time after the cessation of Prophecy when the Christians supposed these corruptions to have come in among them they could draw down a constant Succession from the men of the great Synagogue of persons eminent for Learning and Piety that never charged them with any such corruptions as Jesus of Nazareth and his Disciples did Would God ever suffer such dangerous errors hypocrisie and superstitions to prevail in his own Church and raise up no Persons to discover these things till these new Teachers and Reformers arose Were not Hillel and Shammai that so accurately discussed all the niceties of the Law able to find out such gross and open corruptions if any such had been among us Might not we say that not only the Teachers but God himself had slept all that time if he raised up no one Person to discover the coming in of such errors and corruptions Where had God then any true Church in the world if not among his people of the Jews And would he suffer that to be overspread with such a Leprosie and send none of his Priests to discover it And even by the confession of the Christians themselves they were once the beloved and chosen people of God how or when was it that they ceased to be so Do not themselves acknowledge that they receive the Law and the Prophets from our hands And that to us were committed the Oracles of God and that to us pertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises and that ours are the Fathers How is it then possible after all these priviledges to suppose this Church to fall into such a degeneracy as at last to be cast off by God and a new Church to arise out of the ashes of it Thus we may reasonably suppose the Jews to have argued for themselves and on the other side they trampled upon and despised this new Sect of the Nazarenes That had nothing of the Pomp and Splendour of their Church they had only a company of mean and illiterate persons at first to joyn with them the Disciples of their Master were a sort of poor Fishermen and inconsiderable persons men of no Authority or reputation for extraordinary Sanctity or Learning even their Master himself was one of no great severity of life that did not retire from the world and lead an abstracted life but conversed with Publicans and Sinners and put not his Disciples upon Fasting and long Prayers whereas the Pharisees were men of great austerity and mortification much exercised in devotion making frequent and long prayers at certain hours and in whatever place those hours took them Now how is it possible to believe that such devout persons as these are mistaken and the Sect of the Nazarenes only in the right But besides all this Where was their Church before Jesus of Nazareth We offer to produce a personal succession on our side that joyned in constant communion with us at the Temple at Hierusalem let the Christians shew any number of men before themselves that joyned with them in believing what they do and rejecting the abuses which they tax among us if they cannot do this let them then suffer under the just imputation of Novelty 2. But supposing they do not think it necessary to assign a number of men distinct from our Society but say it is enough that though they joyned with them in the worship of God yet they did not in their corruptions yet to
vindicate themselves they must shew how it was possible for such corruptions to come in and no more notice be taken of them Such things could not be introduced without some notable alteration and in such a one the author the time the place the manner may be assigned We can tell say they all these circumstances in the Idolatries of Jeroboam Ahab and Manasseh if so great alterations have hapned in the state of our Church that there is a necessity of reforming it name us the persons the time the place the manner how all these corruptions came in When came men first to forsake the letter of the Scripture and adhere to Tradition Who first brought in the Pharisaical Superstitions What was his name where was his abode who first opposed and condemned him Were all men asleep then to suffer such alterations and to say nothing at all against them What could one Generation conspire to deceive the next and if not how could such changes happen in matters of Religion and no one take care to discover it and prevent the infecting of posterity by it Had no persons any regard to God and the purity of Religion then If they had would they suffer strange fire to come upon Gods Altar and take no notice at all of it Why did not Jesus of Nazareth when he so frequently and vehemently declaimed against the Pharisaical hypocrisie and superstitions and false Doctrines shew to the people when and where and how these things came into the Church of God He only condemns them and speaks sharply against them but he saith not one word to satisfie the Scientifical men among them how it was possible for corruptions to come in and prevail to such a degree and yet no circumstances of time or place be assignable of it Thus the Jews still believed themselves to be the only true antient visible Catholick and infallible Church of God and despised the poor Christians as a novel and upstart Sect of Nazarens which is the first imputation the Christians suffered under 2. They suffered under the imputation of Faction and Sedition which is the second thing implyed in the name of Sect or Heresie here mentioned and that they charged upon them two wayes 1. For not submitting to the Churches Authority 2. For disturbing the peace and quiet of the People 1. For not submitting to the Churches Authority not that the Disciples of our Lord did out of humour or fancy or only to make a party break with the Jews in matters meerly of order and indifferency no on the contrary we find them extreamly cautious of giving any offence in such matters which temper they learnt of their Lord and Master who complyed with many things that others might not take advantage by his omission of them to slight and contemn them thus when others were baptized of John he would be so too not that he had any need of washing away of sin but he would not make use of a particular priviledge to bring any discountenance upon a general duty Thus we see he went up at the solemn Feasts to Hierusalem as others did and not only was present in the Temple but vindicated by a Miracle the order and decency of it by driving out the buyers and sellers from the outward parts of it although they had a fair pretence of being ready at hand to serve the necessities of such as were to sacrifice to God in the Temple nay St. Mark tells us that he would not suffer any vessell to be carried through the Temple and this he did not upon any reason peculiar to the Levitical Law but because it was a House of Prayer And this example his Apostles followed who after they had the Holy Ghost poured upon them yet they attended the Temple at the hours of prayer But most remarkable to this purpose is the instance of St. Paul at that very time when he was seized upon and like to be destroyed by the fury of the Jews For understanding at Hierusalem from St. James that there were many thousands of believing Jews that were still zealous of the Law and were informed that St. Paul among the Gentiles slighted circumcision and the Levitical Customs he to give them all reasonable satisfaction that he intended to make no unnecessary breach among them about indifferent matters submits himself to a legal purification in the Temple for seven dayes together before the end of which the Jews made a tumult and seized upon him and so he was brought to answer the accusations against him in this Chapter Thus careful St. Paul was to give no ground for suspicion that he delighted in disorders and separations this example he did leave to all prudent Christians rather to submit to things which they have no great value for as no doubt at this time St. Paul had very little for the Levitical Customs than to hazard the breaking the peace of the Church for such matters But notwithstanding all this care of the first Christians they could not avoid the imputation of Faction because they would not entirely submit their judgements to the Authority of the Jewish Church For this was the great pretence they stood upon that they were the Governours of the Church by Gods own institution that they were to explain and interpret the Law and the Prophets and this was expressed in the beginning of their Law That in all cases of difficulty they were to go up to the place which the Lord their God should chuse and to go to the Priests and the Levites and to the Judge and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgement And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they of that place which the Lord shall chuse shall shew thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee and the man that will do presumptuously and will not bearken to the Priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the Judge even that man shall dye and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel Upon this place they might certainly much better establish the infallibility of their own Church than others draw an argument for Infallibility in the Christian Church from it However absolute obedience would serve their turn to charge the Christians with Faction in not submitting to their Authority For was not this a matter of difficulty whether the Messias were to be a temporal Prince or not concerning what time and place and person the Prophecies were to be understood Who were the competent Judges in this case but those whom God had established by his Law If the Scribes and Pharisees were charged with false glosses and corrupting the Law by their Traditions the Christians were not to take upon themselves to judge of them but to appeal to the High Priest and the Sanhedrin who were the only lawful Judges in these matters Their duty was submission and patience but by no means ought they