which are plainly and perspicuously enough set down in the Scriptures without the help and assistance of the Churches infallible authority which the Scriptures cannot be supposed to teach but by places far more doubtful SECT XXII It is our Wisdom therefore to adhere to the Scriptures TO this Rule then let us stick keeping those words of our Saviour always in mind iii. Joh. 21 22. He that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Let that be his Guide who would not go astray in dangerous Paths into which he cannot fall who keeps close to the directions of the Holy Books wherein all necessary Truth being set down as the most ancient and best Doctors unanimously agree we are certain every way by believing them to believe all necessary Truth and if our lives be accordingly without which they tell us our belief will be vain it is impossible we should fail of everlasting Salvation To these alone as St. Austin speaks for himself in his Book of Nature and Grace we owe an absolute consent without refusing any thing they propound to us Whatsoever it be as his words are in his CXII Epistle that is confirmed by the perspicuous authority of the divine Scriptures those viz. which are canonical in the Church it must be believed without any doubting But as for any other witnesses or testimonies to which thou art perswaded to give credit thou mayest believe them or not believe them according as thou perceivest them to deserve or not deserve to be relied on A great reverence is due to the Church and its testimony though less to the present Church of Rome than others because it hath so grosly abused the World by false records and forged Miracles and such like things yet only as to an humane Testimony which cannot equal that of the Holy Scriptures SECT XXIII Which have more manifest notes of certainty than the Church FOR if we take their own way and method to assure our minds that we follow an infallible Guide there is no note which they give of the true Church which they say ought to be our Guide but pleads far more strongly for the Holy Scriptures that we should rather follow them and give an undoubted credit to them I shall not run over all those Notes nor examine the certainty of them but only briefly name some of them and show that if they prove any thing it is the Authority of the Scriptures above the Church First they say the very name of the Catholick Church is venerable and ought to be regarded But as that Name is not proper to them alone so if there be any power in Names to make us respect any thing what more awful than the Name of the Word of God and the Sacred Scriptures which were always given to these Books to which we advise all Christians to adhere The next Note which is Antiquity is on the side of the Scriptures also which more justly claim to be ancienter than all other Books which pretend to any Divinity than the Catholick Church can claim to be ancienter than all other Societies which call themselves by the Name of a Church Nay the Doctrine contained therein must be supposed as I have shown to be before the Church which is made by belief and profession of that Doctrine and the Old Testament certainly written long before the Church was made Catholick As for unity in that the Church is not comparable to the Scriptures whose agreement and consent of parts is admirable And if we speak of the surest bond of true Catholick Vnity it is as manifest as the Sun that the Holy Scriptures lay the foundation of it and preserve us in it if we adhere to them by keeping us close to one Lord one Faith one Baptism but the Church of Rome which hath usurped the Name of Catholick makes this blessed Unity impossible For there being but two ways to it either that we all agree in our Opinions about Religion or that while we differ it be no hinderance to Communion they have made the latter as impossible as the former because they make it absolutely necessary to communion and salvation to believe in every thing as they do The like might be said of Holiness and efficacy of Doctrine which depends upon the Churches speaking according to the Scriptures sanctity of the authors of our Religion which cannot be known but out of the Scriptures the glory of Miracles the light of Prophecy and all the rest but I shall only touch upon one more the Amplitude and Universality of the Church in which they make their boast But herein the Scriptures most evidently excel their Authority being there sacred where the Church of Rome whose Notes these are is not known or not regarded For all Christians in the World of whatsoever Sect they be believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God whereas they alone say that they are the only true Church of God All Christians besides who know any thing of this pretence of theirs absolutely deny it and maintain the Divinity and Authority of the Scriptures against all their Cavils SECT XXIV The great incouragement we have to do so BY following the Scriptures then we follow the surest Guide by their own confession For first by following the Scriptures we are certainly led by God but by following the Church we are only led by Men. And consequently the Faith we build upon the Scriptures is a Divine Faith but the Faith we build upon the authority of the Church meerly can be no more than humane For the Scriptures are fully and amply proved to be of Divine Authority by all those Arguments which are alledged in the Third Book of this Work the like to which cannot be produced to prove the infallible authority of the Church Which cannot so much as pretend that God hath bid us believe it but by sending us to the Holy Scriptures from whence it derives all its Authority Which is the second thing to be considered and here I will take the liberty to transcribe part of the discourse of a great Man on this Subject with some Additions that by following the Scriptures we follow that which they themselves are forced to follow as was noted before and on which they intirely depend for the proof of their own authority on which they would have us intirely depend Who have reason rather to rely on that which they rely and in so doing tacitely confess the Scriptures are of greatest authority and that they are surer of their Truth than of the Churches Infallibility And Thirdly by following the Scriptures we follow that which must be true if their Church which they would have us follow have any truth in it for their Church cannot but give attestation to them whereas if we follow their Church we must follow that which
the society of minds contains also a conjunction of Bodies Which without all doubt is most profitable also for the right education of those Children that are the fruit of that Conjunction Among the Pagans some few Nations were content with one Wife as the Germans and the Romans Which the Christians now follow that the mind of the Wife being intirely given to the Husband may be compensated with an equal retribution and the government of the Family may the better proceed under the direction of one Ruler and divers Mothers may not bring in discord among Children SECT XVI Touching the use of Temporal goods AND now to come to the use of those things which are vulgarly called Goods we find that thefts were permitted by some Paganish Nations as the Aegyptians and Lacedaemonians and they that did not allow this to private Men did publickly little else as the Romans Who must have returned to their Huts and Cottages the Roman Orator said if they should have been bound to restore to every body his own The Hebrews indeed had no such custome yet their Law that it might sute it self in some measure to the humour of that People permitted them to take usury of strangers amongst other things promising the reward of riches to them that observed the Law But the Law of Christianity for bids not only all kind of injustice towards all sort of Men but also prohibits us to take any carking and excessive care for these transitory things because our mind is not able diligently and duly to attend unto two several matters either of which are enough to take up the whole Man and oftentimes draw us into contrary thoughts and counsels Besides the excessive care both for getting and keeping riches is accompanied with a kind of bondage and anxiety which spoils that very pleasure which is expected from riches Whereas those things that nature is content withall are both few and easily acquired without much labour or charge yet if God bestow any overplus upon us so that we have somewhat to spare we are not commanded to cast the same into the Sea as some Philosophers unadvisedly have done neither must we keep it unprofitably or lavish it out wastfully but rather therewith we ought to supply the wants and exigencies of other Men either by giving or by lending to them that would borrow as becomes those that look upon themselves not as Lords and Masters of the things they enjoy but as Stewards and Dispensers under God Almighty the Father and Master of all knowing also that a benefit well bestowed is a treasure full of good hope which neither the wickedness of Thieves nor the variety of casualties can in the least diminish A rare example of which true and unfeigned liberality we find in the primitive Christians who sent relief as far as from Macedonia and Achaia to the poor that lived in Palestine as if the whole World had been but one Family And here in the Law of Christ this caution is added that the hope of being paid again or getting credit by it do not deflowre our bounty whose beauty and grace is quite lost with God if it have respect to any thing but him And that no Man may pretend for a cloak of his covetousness that he fears he may have need of all that he hath when he grows old or falls into any calamity the Law promises a special care of such Men as observe these Precepts And to work in greater confidence in them puts them in mind of the conspicuous Providence of God in feeding the wild Beasts and Cattle and in adorning the Herbs and Flowres and represents withall what an unworthy thing it would be if we should not believe so Good and so Powerful a God but deal with Him as if He were a bad Creditor whom we will not trust any further than while we have a Pawn or pledge in our hands for our security SECT XVII Of Swearing THERE are other Laws that forbid Perjury but this Law of Christ will have us to refrain also from all kind of swearing unless we be lawfully called thereunto upon necessity Nay enjoyns such faithfulness and sincerity in all our words that there may be no need to exact an Oath of us SECT XVIII Of other Matters MOreover there can nothing be found commendable and praise-worthy either in the Philosophical writings of the Grecians or in the sayings of the Hebrews and other Nations which is not contained in the Precepts of Christianity and that also established by Divine authority as namely concerning modesty temperance goodness decent behaviour prudence the office of Magistrates and Subjects Parents and Children Masters and Servants Man and Wife between themselves and chiefly the eschewing those vices which among many of the Grecians and Romans went under the name and colour of honesty such were the desires of honours and glory And to be short admirable is the substantial brevity of these precepts comprehended in these few words that we ought to love God above all things and our Neighbours as our selves that is we must do as we would be done unto SECT XIX Answer to an Objection touching the Controversies abounding among Christians BUT here peradventure some will object against this which we speak concerning the excellency of Christianity and tell us of the great diversity of opinions amongst Christians whereupon there have sprung so many sects and factions as do now abound in the Church For answer whereunto we may observe that the like diversity of opinions happens almost in all kind of Arts and Sciences to wit partly through the weakness of humane apprehension and partly because Man's judgment is hindred and intangled by his affections Howbeit this variety of opinions is contained within certain bounds and limits for there are some common principles agreed upon by all and whereupon they ground their doubts Thus in Mathematicks 't is questioned whether a circle may be made quadrangular but not whether after the taking away of equal parts from equal the residue will not remain equal The same may be seen in natural Philosophy also in the Art of Physick and in other Disciplines In like manner the difference of opinions that is amongst Christians doth not hinder the common consent and agreement in those fundamental principles for which chiefly we have commended Christian Religion the certainty whereof appears in this namely that those which out of mutual and deadly hatred sought all the occasion and matter of contention they could durst not for all that proceed so far as to deny that these Precepts were commanded by Christ no not even those that refuse to frame their lives and actions according to that rule But if there be any Man that will contradict these Principles he is to be accounted like to those Philosophers that denied the Snow to be white For as these are confuted by sense so are those convinced by the unanimous consent of all Christian Nations and of the Books which were written by
Ezekiel hath given a Testimony of exceeding great Piety neither would willingly deceive us nor was himself deceived by the Angel Gabriel Now He taught by the same Angel in the Ninth Chapter of his Prophecie hath left it recorded that before five hundred years should be expired after the promulgation of the decree touching the restoring of the City Hierusalem the Messias should come But now since that time above two thousand years have passed and yet he whom the Jews expect is not come neither can they name any other person to whom that space or time can be rightly applyed which agrees so fitly unto Jesus that Nehumias an Hebrew Doctor who lived about Fifty Years before Christ plainly said then that the time of the Messias foretold by Daniel could not be protracted beyond those Fifty Years then next ensuing And with this note of time agrees another note which we have toucht before concerning the establishing of a dominion over all Nations by a Divine authority after that the posterity of Seleucus and Ptolomy had ceased to reign the latter whereof ended in Cleopatra a little before Jesus was born The third note is set down in the foresaid ix Chapter of Daniel namely that after the coming of the Messias the City of Hierusalem should be overthrown which Prophecie of the Citie 's destruction Josephus himself referreth unto his time whence it follows that the time appointed for the coming of the Messias was then already past Hereunto likewise belongs that in the second Chapter of the Prophet Haggai where God by the Prophet comforteth Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel Governor of Judah and Joshuah the Son of Josedech the high Priest who were sorrowful to see the Temple which they built fall so short of the first Temple with this promise that the glory of the latter house should be greater than the former which certainly can neither be meant of the greatness of the work nor of the matter of the building nor of the fabrick and artificial structure nor of the ornaments of that Temple as may appear by the history of those times both in the Holy Scriptures and in Josephus compared with that of the Temple of Solomon Add to this that the Hebrew Doctors note this latter Temple wanted two of the greatest indowments which the former enjoyed viz. A certain conspicuous Light which was the token of the Divine Majesty there and Divine Inspiration But God himself briefly declares in that very place wherein the latter Temple should excel the former when He promises He would settle as by a sure Covenant His Peace i. e. his favour and loving kindness in that Temple Which the Prophet Malachi declares more largely in his third Chapter Behold I will send my messenger who shall prepare my ways There shall shortly come into his Temple now Malachi lived when the latter Temple was built that Lord whom ye desire even that messenger of the Covenant who is your delight Wherefore the Messias ought to come while the second Temple stood which in the account of the Hebrews comprehends all that time which was between Zerubbabel and Vespasian for in the time of Herod the Great the Temple was not re-edified out of its old ruines but by little and little it was repaired bearing still the name of the same Temple And indeed there was so firm an opinion amongst the Hebrews and the neighbouring People that the Messias was surely to come in those times that many took Herod others Judas Gaulonites and a third sort others that lived about the times of Jesus to be the Messias SECT XV. Answer to that which some conceive touching the deferring of his coming for the sins of the People SOME of the Jews perceiving themselves to be hard put to it by these Arguments concerning the coming of the Messias go about to shift them off by telling us that their sins were the cause why he did not come at the promised time But to omit that those Prophecies express a Decree determined not suspended upon any condition how is it possible that this coming should be deferred by reason of their sins when this also was foretold that because of the many and hainous transgressions of the People the great City should be laid waste a little after the times of the Messias Moreover one reason of the Messias his coming was to cure a most corrupted World and together with rules for amendment of life to bring a pardon for sins past Whence it is that Zachariah saith concerning his times Chap. xiii that there should be then a fountain opened to the house of David and to the Inhabitants of Hierusalem for to wash away sin and uncleanness And it is affirmed by the Hebrews themselves that the Messiah shall be called Ischcopher that is a Reconciler or Expiator of sins But it is against all reason to say that any thing was deferred because of that disease for which it was precisely destinated and appointed SECT XVI Also from the present state of the Jews compared with those things which the Law promiseth TOuching this which we affirm of the coming of the Messias long since into the World the Jews are convinced by very sense God made a Covenant with Moses and promised to them the happy possession of the Land of Palestine so long as they should lead their life according to the commandments of the Law But contrarily he threatned banishment and such like calamities to come upon them if they did grievously transgress the same Yet if at any time when they were oppressed with miseries they repenting of their sins returned unto obedience then would he be moved to have mercy upon the People and cause that though they were scattered to the uttermost parts of the Earth yet should they return again into their own Countrey as we may read in Deut. 30. and Nehem. 1. and elsewhere But now for the space of one thousand five hundred years and more the Jews have wanted a Countrey and a Temple And when they have attempted to build a new one they have been always hindred even by Balls of Fire breaking out in the Foundations and overthrowing the work as Ammianus Marcellinus a Writer who was not a Christian reports When this People in times past had defiled themselves with abominable wickednesses commonly sacrificing even their children unto Saturn accounting adultery to be no sin oppressing and spoiling the Fatherless and Widows and shedding the innocent bloud in great abundance all which the Prophets upbraid them with then did they suffer exile yet not longer than for the space of seventy years during which time also God did not neglect to speak unto them by his Prophets and to comfort them with the hope of a return pointing also at the very time thereof But now ever since they were expelled out of their Countrey they continue banished and contemptible No Prophet comes unto them there is no sign or token of their return Their Masters and Ring leaders as if they
none of the ancient Doctors who have expounded the Creed and there are many of them have given any such sense of that Article of the Catholick Church Nay it was not in the most ancient forms of Faith nor doth the Church truly Catholick teach any thing as necessary to be believed to Salvation but what is contained in the Creed For we do in their own sense believe the Catholick Church but not the Roman Catholick Church which their Creed will have to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches because to omit many other absurdities which are in it there was a Catholick Church before there was a Roman and to say that they believe the Catholick Church meaning thereby the Roman is nothing more than to say they believe themselves SECT VII Their absurd Explication of the Unity of the Catholick Church NOTHING therefore can be further from the Truth than that Explication of the Vnity of the Catholick Church which is delivered in the Roman Catechism published by the Authority of the same Pope Pius IV. in pursuance of the Council of Trent Wherein the Catechumen is taught to believe and profess that the Catholick Church is one not only because of one Faith and other reasons mentioned by the Apostle Ephes iv and because it is subject to one invisible Governor which is Christ But because it is subject also to one visible Governor who holds the Roman Chair the legitimate Successor of St. Peter Concerning whom it is the unanimous opinion of all the Fathers that this visible Head is necessary to constitute and conserve the unity of the Church And to this Head or Pastor Christ hath given the authority of ruling and governing the whole Church as the Vicar and Minister of his Power Thus that Catechism teaches in the First Part the IX Article n. 11 12 13. Which besides that it is confuted by the plain demonstration now mentioned that Christ had a Catholick Church which had unity in it self when there was no Roman Church is directly contrary to the constant Doctrine not only of the Scripture but of all the Fathers whose consent they falsly boast of and of many Popes of Rome and of Councils also both General and particular even of the Councils of Lateran and Trent which by approving the Five First General Councils who condemn this Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome do in effect condemn it themselves SECT VIII Which forbids us to joyn in Communion with them upon such Terms TO that Church then we ought to adhere which hath kept the Rule of Faith once delivered to the Saints simple and unmixed with humane inventions Which if we admit as necessary to Salvation we betray the truth of Christ and are false and unjust to innumerable Christian Brethren who by Baptism are admitted into a state of Salvation but hereby unmercifully cut off from the Body of Christ though they have that Faith which makes them true Members of it This is the Great Crime of the Roman Church and may suffice instead of all other demonstrations to prove that they have corrupted themselves and departed from the simplicity that is in Christ For this very Article alone which is a part of their Faith that there is no Salvation but by union with the Roman Catholick Church and that by subjection to it thrusts out of Heaven not only the ancient Christian pious Emperors who refused such subjection But many of their ancient Popes who acknowledged their subjection was due to the Christian Emperors together with the ancient Patriarks and Fathers assembled in many Councils and the most famous Christian Churches the most glorious Martyrs and Saints of Christ that the best times of Christianity have known and to say nothing of after Ages the present Christians of Greece Russia Armenia Syria Ethiopia who by this Article of subjection to the Catholick Roman Church are all excluded from Christian communion and must perish everlastingly For Bellonius says that in his travels he met with Nine sorts of Christians at Jerusalem Eight of which Nine know nothing of this Universal Bishop or do not regard him and of the Ninth there is scarce half that acknowledges his Authority And yet there are Men among them of no mean note and number who have the confidence to tell us that by the Catholick Church which we are bound to believe is to be understood the Bishop of Rome whose Declarations when he will determine any thing to be of Faith we all ought to receive And though we are assured as much as are that there was such a Person as St. Peter that Christ never gave him much less his Successors any Authority at all over his whole Church Yet now to deny the Pope's Supremacy is such a Heresie that let a Man be never so Orthodox in all other points of the Catholick Faith this alone is sufficient to make him be excommunicated and cut off from the Body of Christ Witness our King Henry VIII who was excommunicated and his Kingdom given away for no other fault by a Bull of Paul the Third who affirms in the beginning of that Bull that herein he acted by Divine authority which according as God saith in the Prophet Jeremiah had set him over Nations and Kingdoms to root up and destroy as well as to build and plant having the supreme power over all Kings and People throughout the whole Earth Which certainly is such new Language never known in the Church for many Ages that they who are not convinced thereby of the corruption of Christian Religion in the Roman Church have their Eyes blinded with the Worldly Splendor of it SECT IX But on the other side not to slight Episcopal Authority YET on the other hand it must be acknowledged that this enormous power which they have usurped is a very strong proof of the high Authority of Christian Bishops in the Church and of the great reverence that was paid to them by Christian People Who otherways would never have thus submitted to their will and pleasure had not the obedience which they had been wont always to yield to their authority disposed them to be brought by little and little under an absolute subjection Nor would there have been reason for those Cautions which St. Peter gives to the Governors of God's Church not at Rome but elsewhere 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. not to Lord it over them if they had not been invested with a power which all Christians reverenced so much that it might more easily be abused than contemned and sooner perswade People to follow them with a blind obedience than to slight their judgment and refuse to conform to their Injunctions And therefore whosoever they are that now despise all Ecclesiastical Authority we may be sure they have swerved from the true Principles of Christianity and they also are altogether inexcusable who shake off the Episcopal Government and refuse to be subject to it under a pretence that there ought to be an equality among Christ's
should mistake in the sense of the Scriptures yet they secure us that if we with honest and upright hearts continue to inquire after the truth designing nothing else that error shall not prejudice us But God will either discover to us his mind or not condemn us for our error of weakness not of wilfulness SECT XX. The Vanity of their appeal to Traditions AS for Interpretations of Scripture by Tradition they may be pretended and talkt of but cannot be produced in most places where we are desirous of that help which we gladly receive when we can have it by a truly Universal consent But as for particular interpretations of the ancient Fathers they do not absolutely agree with each other in their Expositions of those Texts upon which controversies of greatest moment are now grounded Nay they oft times propound divers interpretations alike probable And sometimes plainly intimate their doubtfulness and make but imperfect conjectures in such a manner as if they intended to excite Posterity to seek for further resolution Therefore we shall not dissent from them though we do not assent to all their particular interpretations Nay we cannot more dissent from them than by following their interpretations on such strict terms as the Romanists would bind us all to do when they seem to make for their advantage For then there is not the least surmise or conjecture of any one Father but must suffice against the joynt Authority of all the rest To which Rule of serving their interest they are so true that they stick not to reject any interpretation of the Fathers when they think good and which is more to prefer their own expositions before theirs And so they do in the matter of all other Traditions though called Apostolical For instance the threefold immersion in Baptism which seems to have flowed from an Apostolical Canon is long ago abolished saith their Canus by a contrary custome And so is the custome of giving the communion to Infants which prevailed says their Maldonate for 600. Years in the Church not only antiquated by them but decreed to be unlawful Which clearly shows that they might if they pleased make an end of all the controversies that trouble the Church without any disparagement but rather with the increase of its Authority For challenging a power to alter even the Institutions of Jesus Christ as they have done in taking away the Cup from the People in the Holy Communion and much more those of the Apostles what need all this stir about Apostolical Traditions or the Decrees of the Church which they may lay aside at their pleasure and have laid aside as appears by many other instances besides those now named that may be given of it But it is sufficient for the direction of every honest hearted Man to know which is as certain as any thing of that nature can be and may be undoubtedly relyed on that nothing is clearer in the Tradition of the Church than this that the Doctors of it declare the Scriptures to be full and perspicuous in all needful matters And therefore there needs no other Tradition but the Tradition of the Scriptures which satisfie us abundantly in the Truth of all those things which are universally received SECT XXI And their guilt in what they say about the holy Scriptures THERE cannot therefore be a greater demonstration of their guilt than this that notwithstanding such evident testimonies from the Scriptures themselves and the concurrent stream of the ancient Doctors of Christ's Church they have been forced to avoid this trial by the Scriptures to say so many scandalous things as they have done in disparagement of the Sacred Writings Many of them are commonly known and I am not willing to repeat the rest but only say this great truth that whether they will or no their Church such as it is receives all its Authority from the Scriptures and not the Scriptures from it For we can have no notion as was said before of a Church or of its authority but from the Scriptures Which therefore must be of greater authority than that which receives authority from them and be first supposed to be infallible before they can make us believe any thing else is so For we must be secure of the proof before we can be sure of the thing proved by it otherwise it is no proof but leaves us as much in doubt as we were before it was alledged If they say and what else can be said with any colour of reason that we must indeed learn their Churches infallibility from the Scriptures but then learn the rest from their Church mark I beseech you what follows Then it is manifest First that they themselves make the Scriptures the Rule of Faith in this one Article at least concerning the Catholick Churches infallibility Which we must therefore believe and for no other reason because the Scriptures which we first infallibly believe do teach and prove it Whence it plainly follows that private Men may and must be assured of the Truth of Scriptures without the help of their Churches Authority before they can believe any thing else because it is the ground for their belief of that infallibility which their Church pretends which to them is the General Rule of Faith And from thence it follows further that the Scriptures which to us are the only Rule of Faith ought to be acknowledged by them to be more than so even the Rule of their Rule of Faith And if it be so what reason can any Man alledge why it should not be the immediate Rule of Faith without sending us elsewhere to seek it in all other Articles of the Creed as well as in that of their pretended infallible Church We may appeal to all the World and call Heaven and Earth Angels and Men to witness between us and the Roman Church as a worthy Champion of our Cause did long ago whether the Articles of Christ's Incarnation his Death Passion Burial Resurrection Ascension Intercession the Resurrection of the Dead and life everlasting c. be not much more plainly set down in the Scriptures to any Mans apprehension whatsoever than the infallibility of the present Roman Church is in such words as these Thou art Peter c. Feed my Sheep or any other from whence they challenge it And therefore why should we be required to learn these or any other part of Christian Faith meerly from their Church when we learn them so easily by the Scriptures in which they are to be found more clearly delivered than any thing we read about their Church Let no Man doubt but if the Holy Ghost will teach us that Article of the Churches Infallibility immediately by the Scriptures without the help of the Churches infallible Authority as they themselves are forced to confess because else the Church can have no authority then He will immediately teach us by the same Scriptures any other Article of our Creed and whatsoever is necessary to Salvation