respects as bad as ever this indeed is so slight a thing that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our Religion nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived than the giving any sort of encouragement to it for it is one of the greatest and the most mischievous of all those practical Errors which have corrupted Religion These are the most important parts of our whole Commission and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them that they may sink deep into our own minds and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our Natures and Lives and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness and with better advantages when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the Love and Goodness of God If the Condition of this New Covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts then we should publish them with more life and joy to others and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel on our selves and on our labours DISCOURSE III. Concerning the INFALLIBILITY AND AUTHORITY of the CHURCH AFTER we are well setled in the Belief of the Christian Religion our next enquiry must naturally be into the Way and Method of being rightly Instructed in the Doctrine and other parts of this Religion and that chiefly in one great Point Whether we ought to employ our own Faculties in searching into this and particularly into the meaning of those Books in which it is contain'd or Whether we must take it from Oral Tradition and submit to any man or body of men as the Infallible Depositaries and Declarers of this Tradition In this single point consists the Essence of the differences between us and the Church of Rome While we affirm that the Christian Doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the Scriptures and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps and all the skill and application of which he is capable and that he is bound to believe such Doctrines only as appear to him to be contain'd in the Scriptures but may reject all others that are not founded upon that Authority On the other hand The foundation upon which the Church of Rome builds is this That the Apostles deliver'd their Doctrine by word of mouth to the several Churches as the Sacred Depositum of the Faith That the Books of the New Testament were written occasionally not with intent that they should be the Standard of this Religion that we have these Books and believe them to be Divine only from the Church and upon her Testimony that the Church with the Books gives us likewise the Sense and Exposition of them they being dark in many places and that therefore the Traditional Conveyance and the Solemn Decisions of the Church must be Infallible and ought to be submitted to as such otherwise there can be no end of Controversies while every man takes upon him to expound the Scriptures which must needs fill mens Minds with Curiosity and Pride as well as the World with Heresies and Sects that are unavoidable unless there is a living speaking Judge This they also prove from some places of Scripture such as Christ's words to St. Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and unto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Tell the Church I am with you alway even to the end of the World the Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth This is their Doctrine and these are their chief Arguments upon which it is founded There is no point in Divinity that we should more clearly understand than this for it is in it self of great Consequence and is that which determines all the rest if it is true it puts an end to all other Controversies and if it is false it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that Church that pretends to it without just grounds It is also that which of all others the Missionaries of that Church understand the best and manage the most dextrously they are much practised to it and they begin and end all their practice with this which has fair appearances and will bear a great deal both of popular Eloquence and plausible Logick so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd and as ready on the other side of the Argument they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that Church There is not indeed any one point that I know of that has been open'd and examin'd both with that Beauty and Force that is in Chillingworth's Unvaluable Book upon this Subject Few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a Mathematical Evidence as he has pursu'd this Argument and his Book is writ with such a thread of Wit and Reason that I am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it I shall now endeavour in as narrow a compass as is possible to set this matter in its true Light We must then begin with this That the freedom of a man's Thoughts and Understanding is the most Essential Piece of his Liberty and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited therefore any Restraints that are laid upon him in this must be well and fully proved otherwise it is to be suppos'd that God could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing without giving clear and evident warrants for it And as every Invasion on the Liberties of the Human nature ought to be well made out so every Priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of Mankind ought to be also fully proved before others can be bound to submit to it We perceive in our selves and we see in all others such a feebleness of understanding such an easiness to go too quick and judge too fast and such a narrow compass of knowledge that as we see all Mankind is apt to mistake things so we have no reason to believe that any one is exempted from this but as there are evident Authorities to prove it Since then this is a Priviledge in those that have it as well as an Imposition on those that have it not it ought not to be offer'd at or obtruded on the world without a full Proof Probabilities forced Inferences or even disputable Proofs ought not to be made use of here since we have reason to conclude that if God had intended to put any such thing upon us he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way that there should have been no room to have doubted of it Besides all such things as do naturally give jealousy and offer specious grounds of mistrust ought to be very clear Since
the Impieties and Vices of all sorts that are among us and not wonder rather that we have not been made a scene of Earthquakes and Ruins as Sicily Malta and Jamaica have of late been It is to these sins that we ought to turn the minds of our people when they are at any time dejected with ill success we ought to call upon them to repent of and to reform their ways and when that is done or even set about we may then hope that God will change his methods towards us and continue his Gospel among us together with the Blessings of a Iust and Wise Government and of Peace and Plenty These are Subjects on which we ought to dwell much and Preach often But that I may not dismiss this matter without any thing that looks like an Argument I will open to you two great Precedents which you have often heard me enlarge on with much seeming satisfaction and because you have thought that I laid them out in a more particular manner than you had otherwise met with them I will now spread them out before you and that the rather because Arguments from Examples and authorised practices have upon many Accounts a stronger Influence than general reasonings Matters of Fact are easier apprehended and more capable of full proof than points of speculation which do more easily bend to any turn that a Man of Wit may give them than meer Facts which are stubborn and sullen The first of these is taken from the History of the Maccabees which I desire you will consider by these steps That the Jews became the Subjects of the Kings of Babylon by the Entire Conquest which Nebuchadnezzar made of that Nation that after the end of 70 Years they continu'd to be subject to Cyrus who tho he sent them back to rebuild their Temple and tho his Successors suffer'd them both to finish that and to rebuild and enclose Jerusalem yet they continu'd still to be the Subjects of the Kings of Persia this was transferred to Alexander the Great when he conquer'd that Empire And finally they fell to the share of the Kings of Syria and were their Subjects above 140 Years They proved hard Masters to them Antiochus Epiphanes robb'd the Temple in the 143 Year of the Seleucida a great Massacre followed but these were particular Acts of Tyranny and so tho there was great mourning upon this yet it was submitted to For certainly the Peace of Mankind and the Order of the World require that special acts of malversation and even of Trranny should be born rather than that we should shake an established Constitution But in the year 145. he went on to a total Subversion of their Religion by an Edict which required that they should forsake their Law and become one People with him In pursuance os which the Altar at Jerusalem was defiled Idolatrous Altars were set up in all their Cities and every Man was to be put to Death that still adhered to the Law of Moses Here then were Subjects brought under a general Sentence of Death unless they should depart from the Laws of God special Oppressions and violent Acts of Cruelty were submitted to but when they saw themselves involved all in the same common fate they defended themselves Mattathias not only refused to join in the Idolatry that they had set up but killed both him that went to offer the Sacrifice and likewise the King's Commissioner upon which the Historian adds this Reflection Thus dealt he zealously for the Law of God like Pianehas he a nimated his Children to follow his Example and to trust in God but he vouched no immediate warrant that he had from God He charged his Children to be zealous for the Law and to give their Lives for the Covenant of their Fathers to be valiant and to shew thâ—mselves Men in behalf of it for by it you shall obtain glory and he ordered them to take unto them all that observed the Law and to revenge the wrong of their People to Recompence fully the Heathen and to take heed to the Commandment of the Law Upon this followed the Wars of the Maccabees in which they never pretended to any special Authority from any Prophet On the contrary their History tells us That they laid up the Stones of the Altar that had been prophaned by Idolatry in a convenient place till a Prophet should come to shew what should be done with them Thus then we see Subjects defend themselves against their Prince when he designed a total Subversion of their Religion and for this they vouched no immediate nor extraordinary Authority But to give this Argument its entire force We must next see upon what reason we may conclude that this was a justifiable and by consequence an imitable Action As for this tho I think it is scarce necessary to enlarge much on an Apology for the Maccabees their Wars having born such a venerable sound in a course of so many Ages yet to pursue the matter fully we find a Prophesy concerning them in Daniel which is by all Commentators Ancient and Modern applied to them that alone seems to import a full Iustification of them after mention is made of a King that should defile the Sanctuary and take away the daily Sacrifice and set upon it the abomination that maketh desolate to that this is added and such as do wickedly against the Covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries but the People that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits And they that understand among the People shall instruct many yet they shall fall by the Sword and by flame by captivity and by spoil many days And when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little help but many shall cleave to them with flatteries As these words import a plain Prodiction in terms of approbation of the Wars of the Maccabees so all the Commentators that I have yet seen without exception do apply them to them There are also many Commentators who do apply likewise to them those words of the Epistle to the Hebrews Who out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens And there is a particular resemblance observed between these words and some Phrases that occur in the Books of the Maccabees Yet I confess those words are not so express as the former nor are they so Universally expounded in this sense But to conclude this matter The Authority of those Books as it is an Argument of full force against those who acknowledge them to be Canonical so since by the Articles of our Church these Books are to be read for example of Life and for the Instruction of manners tho it doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine and since we read so many Lessons taken out of the Apocrypha These must be acknowledged to be Books of great tho not of Divine Authority And tho according to
Messias during the Second Temple and about the time that our Saviour appeared which disposed them so easily to hearken to every Impostor Their Temple has been destroyed their Nation dispersed their Genealogies lost by which the certainty of their being Abraham's Seed subsists no more and their Sacrifices have ceased now above 1600. Years So that their hatred of us and yet their Books agreeing with ours when joined together make no small part of our Argument But now to come to the strength of our Cause I lay it thus The Gospels were published in the time when many persons were yet alive who knew and were appealed to for the Passages contained in them Which is made out thus First They mention the Temple and Nation of the Iews as still in being which shews they were written before the Destruction of Ierusalem More particularly St. Luke writ the Acts of the Apostles two Years after St. Paul's going to Rome with which he ends that Book And he begins it with the mention of his Gospel as writ some time before that His Gospel also begins with an Account of some other Gospels that had been then writ Now St. Paul's going to Rome happened two or three and twenty Years after the time of our Saviour's Passion and Resurrection so early were these things put in writing They were no sooner written than they were read in the Assemblies of the Christians as the Iews were wont to read the Law and the Prophets in their Synagogues This we do find from St. Iustin's Apology was the practice of his time which was less than an hundred Years after they were written So that we clearly see these Writings were not kept as Secrets to be divulged as the Depositaries of them thought fit according to the way that the Romans had used about the Sybilline Oracles but were immediately copied out for the use of all the Churches and of as many private Christians as could compass the Copying them The Epistles of the Apostles do carry in them Characters that lead us very near the time in which they were written And by comparing those of St. Paul with the Books writ by St. Luke we see when most of his Epistles were writ many of them being before his going to Rome Now these Epistles were addressed to whole Bodies and Churches and they do often appeal to the Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ as matters which were then well known and firmly believed by all Christians From all which I at present infer no more but that these things were published in the time and were known in many remote Provinces soon after they were transacted and were not kept close to be published in some other Age when it might have been easie for bold Impostors to make any thing pass with a credulous multitude Now all this was published near the Fountain and was so soon spread that in Nero's time we know by Tacitus that there were great numbers of them at Rome who had fallen under a publick Odium and on whom Nero though he had burnt Rome himself threw the hatred of that Conflagration and punished them with the severity that such a Crime if truly proved against them had well deserved In the Gospels we have the Relations of our Saviour's Miracles of many of his Transactions with the Iewish Nation so circumstantiated more particularly the Account of his Death and Resurrection is given so minutely that the Iews who might have been easily Masters of the Books in which these were contained had it in their power to have overthrown the credit of them in many Instances if they had found any falshoods in them If they had not sealed the Sepulchre or asked of Pilate a grant to watch it if that Guard had not run away in the night and given out a story of their having fallen asleep the Iews could have well disproved this upon which the whole depended Now as the Iews were engaged both out of their hatred of our Saviour and his Doctrine and to justifie themselves from the Imputations of having shed his Blood and that of his Followers to have pursued this matter so close as to have convinced the World of its falshood so the progress that it made did alarm them too much to make any one imagine that they could despise it They had it also in their power by the Registers which were in their hands and at least during Agrippa's Reign they were in so happy and flourishing a condition that it cannot be said that the ill state of their Affairs took from them either the heart or the leisure to look after this All which received a great confirmation from St. Paul's Conversion who from being one not only of their Zealots and Pharisees but of the most furious Persecutors of this Religion was so strangely struck down and changed while a company of their own People were about him that he became afterwards the most successful of all the first Planters of Christianity He did very frequently appeal to that matter of Fact in which it had been easie to have taken away his Credit if they could have denied it So far then I have gone to shew that this matter was published early and in the sight of those who were both most concerned and most able to have detected any deceit that might have been in it who did not by any Act of which there remains the least print among either the Writings of their own Nation or of the other Enemies to Christianity attempt to discredit it Had not the Genealogies of Christ been taken exactly out of the Temple-Registers the bare shewing of them had served to have confuted the whole for if in any one thing the Registers of their Genealogies were clear and uncontroverted Since these proved that they were Abraham's Seed and likewise made out their Title to the Lands which from the days of Ioshua were to pass down either to immediate Descendants or as they failed to Collateral Degrees Now this shews plainly that there was a double Office kept of their Pedigrees one was natural and might be taken when the Rolls of Circumcision were made up and the other related to the Division of the Land in which when the Collateral Line came instead of the Natural then the last was dropt as extinct and the other remained It being thus plain from their Constitution that they had these two Orders of Tables we are not at all concerned in the diversity of the two Evangelists on this head since both might have Copied them out from those two Offices at the Temple and if they had not done it faithfully the Iews could have Authentically demonstrated their Error in entitling our Saviour to that received Character of the Messias that he was to be the Son of David by a false Pedigree therefore since no Exceptions were made in the time when the sight of the Rolls must have ended the Enquiry it is plain that they were faithfully Copied out Nor
Genius of the Emperor and that they met and Sung Hymns to Christ as a God and were tied by Vows not to commit Adultery nor to Steal or deceive or commit other Crimes and that their Feasts were Innocent and harmless This happening not above Seventy Years after our Saviour's Death shews us how fast this Doctrine did spread and what vast number had then embraced it and yet these being all born and bred with such prejudices against it cannot be supposed to have received it too rashly or to have believed it implicitly The last supposition of Infidelity yet remains to be consider'd which is That something must be yielded to have been published and received concerning this Religion soon after its first appearance but that in process of time the Books might have been Interpolated after all the Eye-witnesses were dead and many Additions of great Importance might have been clapt in afterwards And this indeed is the plausiblest part of their whole Plea for if they yield that the Books which we now have were given out in the same manner as we have them and that they were receiv'd in the Age in which many Eye-witnesses were alive to vouch them then all that can be cavilled at after this is once yielded is so poor and slight that it only shews the incurable obstinacy of those who maintain it This last has more colour there were many Gospels given out at first as St. Luke informs us some false Gospels there were and there was a consierable diversity among some Copies parcels were in some that were left out in others and it could scarce be otherwise while many were Writing what they themselves knew and saw and others might Copy these too hastily and uncorrectly Yet within a hundred years after our Saviour's Death we find this matter was so settled that we see these Books were cited by Iustin and Iremaeus not to mention the Epistles of Clemens Ignatius and Policarp and from them downward in a continued succession of Writers and they were such as we now have them I except only such small variations as might be the mistakes and errours of Copies all which when put together amount to nothing that is of any Importance to the matters of our Belief or the Rule of our Life Now when we consider how near St. Iohn lived to that time and that Irenaeus was instructed by Policarp who was ordained by St. Iohn and lived not far from him when we see what weight Irenaeus lays on the Scriptures in opposition to all Oral Tradition and how positively he makes his appeals to them when we see how soon after that time both the Greek and Latin the Roman and Affrican Churches those of Syria and AEgypt do all agree to cite the same Books in the same words or with inconsiderable variations we have all reason to conclude that this great point of the Books was setled much sooner since by the end of a hundred years they were in all Peoples hands and were read in all the Assemblies of Christians they were also read by their Enemies Trypho in particular as Iustin informs us we see also soon after this that Celsus had read them and indeed it is plain from all the Christian Writers in those Ages that the Books of the N. Testament were in all mens hands they quote them so often in their Apologies and other Books as Writings that were generally read and known such a spreading of Books and multiplying of Copies was a work of time when all was to be writ out and this was so near the Fountain that we have all reason to believe that the Originals at least of St. Paul's Epistles to the Churches were still preserved and tho an Oral Tradition of a Doctrine even for so short a period is so doubtful a conveyance that it were not easy to think that it might not have enlarged a little beyond the truth yet a Tradition of some Books could hardly in so very short a time have been varied or altered chiefly in so important a point as the Resurrection of Christ which was the main Article of their belief and that which runs as a Thread through all the Sermons and Epistles of the Apostles and indeed this being once yielded settles all the rest with it Therefore since we have such a Copious concurrence of Authors that cite those Books all-a-long from that time downwards besides the Epistles of those Apostolical Men St. Clement St. Ignatius and St. Policarp the first having writ in that very time probably before the destruction of Ierusalem and the other two soon after it in which several of the Books of the N. Testiment are cited as Writings then well known and in all mens hands we must from all this firmly conclude that the Books as we now have them are not altered from the form in which they were at first writ They were quickly Copied out for the use of the Churches they were read at the Assemblies of the Christians they were Translated into the vulgar Tongues particularly the Latin and Syriach very early so that they becoming so soon publick and getting into so many hands it was not possible for any one who might have had the wickedness to have attempted the corrupting them to have compassed it afterwards And what noise soever the Enemies of our Faith may make of the various readings and how much soever the bulk of them as they are added to the Polyglot Bible may at first view strike the eye yet when all these are examined they amount not to any one variation in any Article of our Faith and they appear so plainly to be the slips of the Writers that this can never shake any man who will be at the pains to search it to the bottom So that I have now gone round all the suppositions of Infidelity and have I hope clearly evinced that there is not any one of them which is in any sort credible or even possible I will in conclusion consider some few of their Objections indeed all that I have ever met with which seem to have any force Some cannot imagine why our Saviour after his Resurrection shewed himself only to a few and did not come in next day to the Temple and shew himself to that vast Assembly which was then to be there since that must for ever have put an end to all doubting and have silenced all his Enemies This were a very reasonable Objection if God's ways were as our ways our warm tempers that boil with resentment and that pursue eagerly our own Vindication would have no doubt wrought this way but if we go to ask an account of all God's Works or Ways we shall find them very different from our own Notions A great part of his Creation seems useless to us much of it seems defective as well as another part seems superfluously redundant to us there are many very unaccountable things both in the structure of our Bodies and the temper of our
of their Law or the Conveyers of their Traditions to them Must he set up his Skill and Reason above theirs Thus we see that if this Reasoning is true it being founded on Maxims that are equally true at all times then it was as true at that time as it is now It is of no force to say that the Miracles which our Saviour and his Apostles wrought gave them such Powers that the people were upon that account bound to believe them rather than their Teachers For one part of the Debate was both the truth of the Miracles and the Consequences that arose from them So the Appeal according to this way of Reasoning did still lie to their Sanhedrim In a word In such Matters every man must judge for himself and every man must answer to God for the Judgment that he has made he judges for no body else but for himself He and He only can be the Judge and if he uses a due degree of Industry and frees himself from every corrupt Biass from Pride Vain-glory and affectation of Singularity or the pursuing any ill ends under those appearances of searching for Truth and the adhering to it he is doing the best thing which according to that nature of which God has made him he can do and so he may reasenably believe that he shall succeed in it Nor is there any pride in this for a man to think according to his own Understanding no more than to see with his own Eyes His Humility ought to make him slow and cautious modest and fearful but no humility can oblige him to think otherwise than he feels he must needs think Among the Works of the flesh Heresies or Sects are reckon'd as one sort and species Now by Works of the flesh are to be understood the appetites of a vicious and depraved nature the meaning therefore of reckoning Heresies among these is this That when a man out of a bad disposition of mind and on ill designs chuses to to be of a party he then is a Heretick but he that in sincerity of Heart goes into persuasions from an overcoming sense of their Truth cannot be one because he does not chuse his persuasion out of a previous ill design but is of it not out of choice but necessity since his Understanding in which those matters may be variously represented offers them so to him that he must believe them to be true in the same manner in which he apprehends them If upon this Principle there happen to be many Sects and Divisions in the Church this is a part of that Wo that Christ left upon the World by reason of Offences and Scandals for he forsaw that they must needs come God has made this present Scene of Life to be neither regular nor secure The strange Follies and Corruptions of Mankind must have their Influence on Religion as well as they have on all other things God has reserv'd a fulness of Light and of unerring Knowledge to another State Here we are in the dark but have light enough if we have honest Minds to use and improve it aright to guide us thither and that is the utmost share that God seems to have design'd for us in this Life we must therefore be contented and make the most of it that we can I go next to shew That the same Difficulties if not greater ones he upon those who build on Infallibility for before they can arrive at the use of it they must have well examin'd and be fully assur'd of two things either of which has greater Difficulties in it than all those put together with which they press us First They must be convinced that there is an Infallibility in the Church and next they must know to which of those many Churches into which Christendom is divided this Infallibility is fastned Unless the design is to make all men take their Religion implicitely from their Forefathers these things must be well consider'd If men are oblig'd to adhere blindly to the Religion in which they were bred then Iews Heathans and Mahometans must continue still where they are If this had been the Maxim of all times Christianity had never got into the World If then men are allow'd to examine things they must have very good reason given them for it before they can believe that there is an Infallibility among men Their own Reason and Observation offers so much against it that without very clear grounds they ought not to receive it Now the reasons to persuade it must be drawn either from Scripture or from outward visible Characters that evidence it The Scriptures cannot be urg'd by these men because the Scriptures as they teach have their Authority from the Testimony of the Church Therefore the Authority of the Church must be first prov'd for the Church cannot give an Authority to a Book and then prove its own Authority by that Book This is plainly to prove the Church by her own Testimony which is manifestly absurd it being all one whether she affirms it immediately or if she affirms it by affirming a Book in which it is contain'd here a Circle is made to run for ever round in Why do you believe the Church because the Scriptures affirm it and why do you believe the Scriptures because the Church affirms them I do not deny but they may urge the Scriptures for this very pertinently against us who acknowledge their Authority but I am now considering upon what grounds a man is to be instructed in the stating the grounds of his own Faith and resolving it into Principles In this an Order must be fix'd and in the progress of it every step that is made must be prov'd without any relation to that which is afterwards to be proved out of that and therefore either the Church or the Scriptures must be first prov'd and then other things must be prov'd out of that which is once fix'd and made good But in the next place if we should suffer them to bring Proofs from Scripture how shall it he prov'd that the true sense of them is that which makes for infallibility Other senses may be given to them which may both agree to the Grammatical Construction of the words to the contexture of the Discourse and to the Phraseology of the Scriptures who shall then decide this Matter It were very unreasonable to prove what is their true Sense by the Exposition that any Church puts on those passages in her own favour that were to make her both Judge and Party in too gross a manner Therefore at least thâ—se passages and all that relates to them must fall under the private Judgment and in these Instances every man must be suffer'd to expound the Scriptures for himself for he cannot be bound to submit to any exposition of them but that which satisfies his own Reason and if this step is once admitted then it will appear as reasonable to leave a man all over to the use of his
Sacrament to Salvation and all Parents having naturally a very tender Concern for their Children nothing but an absolute Authority against which no man durst so much as whisper could have brought the world to have parted with this It were easy to carry this to many other Instances and to shew that not only Ritual Traditions but Doctrinal ones such as were found on Explanations of passages of Scripture have varied It were perhaps too invidious to send men to Petavius to find in him how much the Tradition of the several Ages has vari'd in the greatest Articles of the Christian Doctrine It is no less certain that Origen laid down a Scheme with relation to the Liberty of man's Will and the Providence of God that came to be so universally receiv'd by the Greek Church that both Nazianzen and Basil drew a sort of System out of his Doctrine in which those Opinions were asserted and large Quotations were gather'd out of him explaining them with most of the Difficulties that do arise out of them and as this Book had not only Origen's own Authority to support it but likewise that of those two great Men who compil'd it so it passed down and was the uncontested Doctrine of the Greek Church But St. Austin being engag'd into Disputes with Pelagius fram'd a new System that had never been thought of before him and yet the Worth and Labours of that Father gave it so a vast Reputation that this was look'd on in several Ages as the Doctrine of the Church and Learning vanishing at that time the Roman Empire being then over-run by Barbarians his Book came to be so much read and so universally receiv'd that it gave no small suspicion if any one oppos'd his Tenets yet Cassian who was a Greek and was form'd in their Notions writ a Book of Conferences which contain'd the Precepts of a Monastick State of life that were digested in so good a method and writ with so true an Elevation that it is perhaps one of the best Books that the Ancients have left us This came to be held in such Esteem that all the Monks read it with a particular Attention and Regard In it the Doctrine of Origen and the Greek Church was so fully set forth that this and perhaps this alone kept up a secret opposition to St. Austin's Doctrine tho that came to receive a vast strengthening from Aquinas and the Schoolmen that follow'd him and yet at the time that Luther and Calvin in opposition to the Church of Rome built much upon St. Austin's Authority almost all all that writ against them argu'd according to the Sentiments of the Greek Church but those of Louvain and the Orders of the Dominicans and Augustinians did so maintain St. Austins and Aquinas's Doctrine that tho it was not liked because it seem'd to be too near theirs who were to be condemn'd as Hereticks yet the Council of Trent seem'd still to stick to St. Austin Since that time the Iesuits Order who tho they at first set up for St. Austin's Doctrine yet since have chang'd their minds and taken themselves to the other side have by their Influence both at Rome and in other Courts so chang'd the Sense of the greater part of that Church that it is plain tho St. Austin's Name is too great to be openly disparaged yet they are now generally in the contrary Hypothesis This I only instance to shew that in Speculative Points it is no hard matter to make multitudes go from one Opinion to another and to alter the Tradition of the Church that is to bring one Age of the Church to think otherwise than another did But after all Oral Tradition cannot be set up as the Judge of Controversies much less as the living and speaking Judge it is no real being nor do we know where to find it The Tradition of one Body among them differs from another as in the point of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin in which an Opinion has been lately started which is now receiv'd into all their Rituals and has given occasion to many Acts of Worship and publick Devotions which is most expresly contrary to all Ancient Tradition and yet is become now so Sacred that the whole Dominican Order feels no small Inconvenience by their being oblig'd as the Followers of Aquinas to maintain the contrary The Traditions of one Nation are question'd by another particularly in this important Point of the Subject of this Infallibility It is also impossible for any man to find this out must he suspend his Opinion till he has gone round the Church to ask every man what he was bred to This as it could not be suffer'd so it could not be so fully found out as to put a man in the way to end all Controversies in this a private Judgment must again come in For tho it were granted that Oral Tradition is a Rule to judge Controversies by it can never be pretended that it is the living and speaking Iudge that must determine them I come now to the two more receiv'd Opinions in this matter the one puts it in a General Council and the other puts it in the Pope and both the one and the other pretend that the Church Representative is in them As for the pretence of some who seem to make a Third party and believe it to be in a Council confirm'd by the Pope this is only a plausible way of putting it wholly in the Pope for if the Definitions of a Council have no Infallibility in them till the Pope's Consent and Approbation is given then it is plain that all the Infallibility is in him and that he only chuses to exert it in that solemn way For either Christ gave it to St. Peter and his Successors or he gave it not if he gave it not that pretension is out of doors if he gave it to them we plainly see no Limitations in the grant and whatsoever Rules or Methods may have become authoris'd by Practice and Custom they are only Ecclesiastical Constitutions but can never be suppos'd to limit Christ's Grant or to give any share of it to others It will be to no purpose to object here That as some Constitutions our own in particular are so fram'd that the Legislative Authority tho it flows only from the King yet is limited to such a Method that it cannot be exerted but with the Concurrence of Lords and Commons so it may be also in the Church and thus the Pope can only use his Infallibility in Concurrence with a General Council or at least that both together are Infallible But tho human Societies may model themselves as to their Legislation which way they will this will only prove that as to the Government and Administration of the Church she may put her self into such a method as may be thought most regular and expedient and thus the Council of Nice limited the Bishops of a Province to do nothing without the
Argument from them would in a little time be lost Men grow accustomed to what they see daily and it makes no impression otherwise the Wonders of Day and Night of Summer and Winter the ebbing and flowing of the Sea would work more powerfully on us than they do A superfetation of Miracles would have no effect if it were not a bad one to make the Divine Power in working them be called in question and to lead Men to impute them to some Natural Cause or to some Secrets known only to a few In all which we may conclude that according to what our Saviour said of Moses and the Prophets If Men believe not Christ and his Apostles they would not believe tho' a Man should rise from the dead or that the most uncontested Miracle that they would call for should be wrought for their conviction Another Objection of the Infidels is taken from the differences that are between the Gospels in which the same passages seem to be variously related in different words and in another order of time things being by some set down as done after those things before which they are set by others Questions and Answers are variously stated they also find some reasonings that do not seem concluding even those that are brought to convince gainsayers where there ought to be more exactness There is also a lowness and flatness of style that makes the Books seem but mean nor are they laid in any exactness of method but seem to run in a loose ramble besides that there are many passages in them that look staring as that of Christ's preaching to the Spirits in Prison that of Melchisedeck and some other things that we scarce know what to make of These things look not like the Products of Divine Inspiration But in answer to all this we are to consider the different Orders of Inspiration according to the different ends for which it is given Moses had the Law as the Iews confess by an immediate Communication with God as one Man converses with another expressed by the phrase of face to face or mouth to mouth such a degree seemed necessary for one who was to deliver an entire System of a Religion of Sacred Rites as well as Binding Laws to that Nation But those who were only sent to call on the People to the obedience of the Law and to denounce Judgments upon their disobedience and give out Predictions received a lower degree of Inspiration the Will of God being represented to them in Dreams and Visions in which several Representations were drammatically impressed on their Imaginations and explained by a secret Intimation made by God to them Others had yet a lower degree being animated by a Divine Excitation to compose Holy Hymns and Discourses to the edification of the People now as the Iews divide the Books of the Old Testament in three different Volumes according to these various degrees of Inspiration according to which division our Saviour himself cites the Old Testament in all of which we find that those holy Penmen writ in such a diversity that it is apparent every one was left to his own Way and Geniâ—us as to Style and Composition some being much loftier than others Now to apply this to the New Testament It was necessary that Men sent to publish such a Doctrine should be so divinely filled with the knowledge of it and should be so actuated by that same Influence that assisted them miraculously as neither to be able to mistake nor misrepresent any part of it for the Miracles that they wrought bringing the World under an obligation to believe them it was not possible that they could be left to themselves and be subject to mistakes But after all this every one acted according to his natural Temper and writ in his natural Style so we see a great variety in the whole Composition and Method of their Discourses and Epistles The Gospels were writ either by Apostles or by those who were their companions in labour and whose Books were authoris'd by them but it does not clearly appear what method they intended to follow whether to observe the order of Time or the relation that one Passage might have to another in this they were left to their natural Faculties all that was of consequence was to have the Doctrine and Discourses of Christ his Action and his Miracles faithfully stated to us but in the method of ordering or expressing these they might be left to their natural Powers and in this there might be a particular ordering of Providence that every thing should not be said in the same way by every one as by concert which might have looked liker a contrivance it being more genuine when different persons write in different ways and all agree in the same account of the Doctrine and Miracles There may be also many ways of reconciling small diversities which at this distance may be lost to us things may appear to be different that yet may very well agree of which we find innumerable Instances in Critical Authors and those passages whose agreement they have made out give us very good reason to believe that if we had a greater number of contemporary Books now extant we might understand many more better than we can do in this want of them Passages very like one another might have happened in different times of our Saviour's Life and that which seems to be one story related two different ways may be really two different stories and both may be exactly related So that all this Objection instead of derogating from the credit of the Gospel does really heighten it As for many Answers and Reasonings that do not seem to us to be very concluding we are to consider that in a short Relation in which hints are only given it was impossible to open every thing fully we are also little acquainted with the methods of the Iews Arguings at that time Philo and Iosephus are the only Writers that remain The one is short upon their Customs and Notions and he affecting to write elegantly for the Romans and Greeks gives us very little light this way Philo does indeed much more tho' living long at Alexandria and studying the Greek Philosophy he is so mystical and sublime that it is not easie always to comprehend him yet in him we plainly see how much the Iews were delighted with very dark allusions and reasonings and since it is a just and allowable way of arguing with any to argue from Suppositions granted by them and suitably to their Principles and Notions we who plainly see in Philo that the Iews used them to explain a great deal of Scripture by a dark Cabbala are not to wonder if some Arguments run in that strain For instance we do not see how the last words of the 102 Psalm concerning God's creating all things and his Eternity and Unchangeableness belong to the Messias which yet are applied to him in the Epistle to the Hebrews but
been so overcome by the men of Labour and Learning that even the Church that boasts of Infallibility would have made a small progress without their Endeavours And why should we imagine that a Religion which we feel to be so hard in practice should be made so easy in the speculative part that we should be in no danger and need no Industry to understand it A Promise of the Spirit is indeed pretended that the Church should be thereby guided into all Truth But it is to be consider'd that this Promise was made personally to the Apostles who were Inspir'd and so were infallibly guided which appears more plainly from the following words and he shall shew you things to come that is clearly a promise of the Spirit of Prophesy to which since no Body of men can now pretend they cannot claim the other neither for both must go together according to the force of those works Nor is there any reason from those words to conclude that this any more than the Inspiration of the Apostles was to descend to others after them or if any will through a parity of Reason think that this was to continue in the Church why should it not belong to every Christian and not be confin'd to any Body or Succession of men especially since those who think that the same parity will hold as to the other effects of the Spirit promis'd there of its dwelling in them of bringing things to their remembrance of giving them Confort Peace Ioy and Victory over the World and that these do descend to others after the Apostles do believe that they belong to all Christians and are not to be contracted to a small number Now if all the other promises were to descend thus why not this of being led into all Truth as well as the rest For all promises even tho express'd in positive words do carry a condition naturally in them so that when this promise is believ'd to belong to all Christians yet it is not absolute but supposes men's using their utmost Endeavours with an honest and good Mind in which case no man can deny but that whether that promise was specially meant to them or not yet it shall be so far accomplish'd in them that they shall be left in no Error that shall be fatal to them but that either they shall be deliver'd from it or that it shall be forgiven them since it is inconsistent with the Notion of infinite Goodness that any man should perish who is doing all he can in order to his Salvation If it be said That Error does disturb the Peace and Order of the Church beyond what is to be apprehended from Sin Error runs men into parties and out of those Factions do arise which break not only the Peace of the Church but the whole order of the World and the Quiet of Civil Society whereas Sin does only harm to those who are guilty of it or to a few who may be corrupted by their ill example But to this it is to be answer'd That Sin does naturally much more mischief to Mankind than Error he that errs if he is not Immoral with it is quiet and peaceable in his Error therefore still the greatest mischief is from Sin which corrupts men's Natures through its own Influence And the mischief that Error does procure arises chiefly from the pretensions to Infallibility or something that is near a-kin to it for if men were suffer'd to go on in their Errors with the same undisturbed quiet that they have for most of their sins they would probably be much quieter in them since Sin of its nature is a much fiercer thing than a point of Speculation can be suppos'd to be but if men apprehend Inquisitions or other Miseries upon the account of their Opinions then they stand together and combine for their own Defence and Preservation so that it is not from the Errors themselves but from the methods of treating them that all those Convulsions have arisen which have so violently shaken Churches and Kingdoms But the last and Main thing that is urg'd on this Head is That no private Understanding is strong enough to find out Truth in all the points of Religion that it is an indecent and an insolent thing for private men for Tradesmen perhaps or for Women to pretend to expound Scripture or to judge in points of Religion This feeds Pride and self-conceit beyond any thing that can be imagin'd whereas a Spirit of Submission and Humility of thinking others particularly Superiours wiser than our selves has so great a resemblance to the Spirit of the Gospel and seems to agree so well with the design of this Religion that we must believe it to be a part of it This is indeed specious but after all it is to be consider'd that God has made us of such a nature that our apprehensions of things must determine us whether we will or not and it is not likely that God would make us as he has done and yet at the same time so limit our Faculties that they should not be imploy'd in the Matters of Religion We naturally love Freedom and we believe things the more firmly the more profoundly we have inquir'd into them when we come to be once fully satisfi'd about them when we find our selves oft call'd on in the Scriptures to search them to prove all things to try the Spirits when we see a great part of the New Testament was directed to whole Churches to all the Saints that is to the whole Body of the Christians when so much of it is writ in the Style of one that argues that descends from that Apostolical Authority by which he might have commanded those he writes to to receive and rest in his Decisions and that lays things in their natural Connexions and Consequences before those he writes to we see in that such an appeal to their Reasons and that even in the Age of Miracles in which there was another sort of Characters of the Divine Commission that render'd the Apostles Infallible when I say this Appeal was made to their Reasons and Understandings at that time it seems much more reasonable that in the succeeding Ages men should have a right to imploy their Faculties in finding out the Sense and examining the Books of the New Testament Here let us consider the state of every Iew at that time and see if this reasoning for Authority and Infallibility was not then as strong to keep him in Judaism There was a Controversy between the Apostles and the Sanhedrim whether Iesus was the Messias or not A decision of this was in a great measure to be made from the Prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the Messias which were urg'd by the Apostles but the Rabbies the Scribes and Pharisees put other senses on these Now what was a private Iew to do Must he take upon him to judge so intricate a Controversy Must he pretend to be wiser than all the Doctors
is urged that the Books of the Scriptures cannot be of use to us if there is not in the Church a living speaking Iudge to declare their true sense Now this is rather more necessary with relation to the Decrees of Councils which as they are Writings as well as the Scriptures so they being much more Voluminous and more artificially contrived and couched need a Commentary much more than a few plain and simple Writings which make up the New Testament If then the Councils must be expounded there must be according to their main reasoning an Infallibility lodged somewere else to give their sense And the necessity of this has appeared evidently since the time of the Council of Trent for both upon the Article of Divine Grace and upon their Sacrament of Penance there have been and still are great debates among them concerning the meaning of the Decrees of that Council both Parties pretending that they are of their side Who then shall decide these Controversies and expound those Decrees This must not be laid over to the next General Council for then the Infallibility will be in an Abeyance and lost during that Interval So this Inference leads me to the last Hypothesis That the Infallibility is in the Pope and in him only And it must be confessed that this is the only Opinion that is consistent to it self in all its parts Here is a living and speaking Iudge and if he is not Infallible it is plain that they have no Infallibility at all among them And yet his Infallibility as it is a thing of which no man ever dreamt for the first nine or ten Ages so it has such violent presumptions against it that without very express proof it will not be reasonable to expect that any should believe it The Ignorance of most Popes the Secular Maxims by which they are governed the Political Methods in which they are elected the Forgeries chiefly of their Decretal Epistles by which their Authority was principally asserted and which are now as universally rejected as spurious as they were once owned to be genuine their aspiring to the same Authority in Temporals for many Ages which they have gained in Spirituals their having dissolved the whole Authority of the Primitive Constitutions and Ancient Canons of the Church and all that practice of Corruption that is in all their Courts by which the whole order of the Church is totally reversed All these are such lawful and violent Prejudices against them that they must needs fortify a man in opposition to any such Pretensions till it is very plainly proved These Characters agree so very ill with Infallibility that it is not easy to believe they can be together Since for above 800 years together the Papacy as it is represented by their own Writers was perhaps the worst Succession of men that can be found in any History And it will seem strange if God has lodged such wonderful Power with such a sort of men and yet has taken so little care of them to make them look like the proper Subjects of that Authority We do plainly see that the Primitive Church even when they enlarged their Papal Authority as to Government did it what out of a respect to St. Peter and St. Paul who they believed founded that Church and suffered Martyrdom in it and what or most chiefly out of their regard to the dignity of that City it being the Head of the Empire under which they lived and this appeared by their giving the same Priviledges to Constantinople when it became the Imperial City which was made second to the other and equal to it except only in order and rank But as for the Doctrine of the Church tho still the regard to St. Peter went far yet when Liberius subscribed to Semiarianism it was never pretended that his Authority had in any thing altered the case which must have been urged if he had been believed Infallible The Case of Honorius does fully discover the sense of the Church in the Sixth Century concerning their Infallibility He was condemned as a Monothelite by a General Council which was confirmed by several Popes who did by name condemn him Now we are not a whit concerned in his Cause and Condemnation whether it was just or not and whether it was upon a due examination or not It is enough for us that a General Council as well as several Popes in that Age had never dreamt of Infallibility otherwise they could not have condemned him or believe him capable of Heresy This might be brought down to many later Instances in which several Popes have been charged with Heresy one shall suffice They have pretended to an Authority from Christ to depose Kings and to transfer their Dominions to others This they have not only done by force and violence but by many solemn Decisions in which this Authority has been claimed as founded on several Passages of Scripture not forgetting those In the beginning not In the beginnings did God create and the great light that rules the day these with many more they have urged both from the Old and New Testament This they did with the utmost pomp of solemn Declarations and upon this Head they filled the World with Wars Some few writ against these Pretensions but the Popes stood to them and carried them on in a course of five or six Centuries with all possible vigour And during those Ages this Doctrine grew to be universally received by the Learned and Unlearned by all the Universities all the Divines Canonists and Casuists not one single Person daring to oppose so strong a Current So that Cardinal Perron was in the right when he affirmed that this was the Doctrine universally received in the Church for the last six Centuries without contradiction before Calvin's days and those few that seemed to write against it durst only oppose the Pope's direct Power in Temporals as the Superior Lord to whom Kings were but Vassals but durst not contradict his Authority over them in case of Heresy This then being so publick and uncontested a Point as it shakes the Authority of Oral Tradition and shews how Doctrines even in points in which mens Interests did strongly oppose them could get into the Church though not derived down from the Apostles so it totally destroys the Pope's Pretensions to Infallibility in the Opinion of all such as think this to be simply unlawful and that it subverts the Order which God has setled in the World For there is not any one Fact in History that can be less contested than that the Popes have assumed this Authority and that they have vouched Divine Warrants for it To this also we may well add another train of Difficulties about the Right to chuse this Pope in whom it is vested what number is necessary for a Canonical Election and how far Simony voids it and who is the Competent Judge of the Simony or in the case of different Elections who shall judge which of
World in which they should be authoris'd to dissolve the Obligation of the Mosaical Laws and to confirm such parts of them as were Moral and perpetually binding which the Apostles should do with such visible Characters of a Divine Authority empowering and conducting them in it that it should be very evident that what they did on Earth was ratified in Heaven These words thus understood carry in them a plain sense which agrees well with the whole design of the Gospel but whatsoever may be their sense it is plain that there was nothing here peculiarly given to St. Peter As for our Saviour's praying for St. Peter that his faith might not fail and his restoring him to his Apostolate by a threefold charge feed my sheep or lambs it has such a visible relation to his fall and threefold denial that it is not worth the while to enlarge on or to shew that it is capable of no other signification and cannot be carried further And thus I have gone through all that is brought from the Scriptures for asserting the Infallibility of the Church and in particular of the Pope's and have I hope fully shew'd that they cannot bear that sense but that they must genuinely bear a plainly different sense which does no way differ from our Doctrine It was necessary to clear all this for tho as was before made out it is no proper way for them to resolve their Faith by passages out of Scripture yet these are very good objections to us who upon other Reasons do submit to their Authority There remains but one thing now to be clear'd which is this If the Church is not Infallible it does not easily appear what certainty we can have concerning the Scriptures since we believe them upon the Testimony of the Church and we have no other knowledge concerning them but what has been handed down to us by Tradition If therefore this is fallible we may be deceiv'd in our persuasion even concerning them But here a great difference is to be made between the carrying down a Book to us and the Oral Delivering of a Doctrine it being almost as hard to suppose how the one could sail as how the other should not fail The Books being in many hands spread over the whole Churches and read in all their Assemblies makes this to be a very different thing from discourses that are in the Air and to which every man that reports them is apt to give his own Cue A great difference is also to be made between the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judge If in any Age of the Church Councils had examin'd controverted Writings and had upon that past Sentence this had been in deed a judging the matter but no such thing ever was The Codex of the Scriptures was setled some Ages before any Provincial Council gave out a Catalogue of the Books which they held as Canonical For no ancient General Council ever did it and tho the Canonical Epistles of which there not being such a certain Standard they not being addrest to any particular Body that had preserv'd the Originals were not so early nor so universally receiv'd as the others were yet the matter was setled without any Authoritative Judgment only by examining Originals and such other Methods by which all things of that nature can only be made out But this matter having been so fully consider'd and stated in another Discourse I shall dwell no longer on it in this As for the Authorities which are brought from some of the Ancients in favour of the Authority of the Church and of Tradition it is to be considered that though the word Tradition as it is now used in Books of Controversy imports a sense opposite to that which is written in the Scripture yet Tradition is of its own signification a general word that imports every thing which is delivered And in this sense the whole Christian Religion as well as the Books in which it is contained was naturally called the Tradition of the Apostles So that a great many things said by Ancients to magnify the Tradition of the Apostles and by way of Appeal to it have no relation to this matter Besides when men were so near the Apostolical Age that they could name the Persons from whom they had such or such hints who had received them from the Apostles or from Apostolical men Tradition was of another sort of Authority and might have been much more safely appealed to than at the distance of so many Ages Therefore if any thing is brought either from Irenaeus or Tertullian that sounds this way here is a plain difference to be observed between their Age and ours which does totally diversify it But to convince the World how early Tradition might either vary or misrepresent matters let the Tradition not only in but before St. Irenaeus's time concerning the observation of Easter be considered which goes up as high as St. Polycarps's time We find that as the several Churches adhered to the practices of those Apostles that founded them so they had quite forgot the grounds on which it seems these various Observations were founded Since though it is very probable that those who kept Easter on the Iewish day did it that by their condescendence to the Iews in that matter they might gain upon them and soften their Prejudices against Christianity yet it does not appear that their Successors thought of that at all for they vouched their Custome and resolved to adhere to it nor is there any thing mentioned on either side that give us the account of those early but different Observations If then Tradition failed so near its Fountain we may easily judge what account we ought to make of it at so great a distance Many things are brought with great pomp out of St. Austin's Writings magnifying the Authority of the Church in terms which after all the allowances that are to be made for his diffuse and African Eloquence can hardly be justified Yet when it is considered that he writ against the Donatists who had broke the Vnity of the Church upon the pretence of a matter of fact concerning the Ordainers of Cecilian which had been as to the point of fact often judged against them And yet as they had distracted the whole African Churches so they were men of fierce and implacable Tempers that broke out daily into acts of great fury and violence and had set up a principle that must for ever break the Peace and Union of the Church which was that the vertue of all the publick Acts of Worship of Sacraments and Ordinances depended upon the personal worth of him that officiated so that his Errors or Vices did make void all that past through his hands Now when so warm a man as St. Austin had so bad a Principle and so ill a disposition of mind in view it is no wonder if he brought out all that he could think on upon the subject so
the Article of our Church the arguing from any one passage in them is not to be allowed yet if Subjects standing on their own defence in the case of a total Subversion is to be esteemed Rebellion then we bind up with our Bibles and recommend to our People two Books that set out a History with great pomp and with an Air of much Piety which was no other than a down right Rebellion To this the only answer that I have ever yet seen made is That the Iewish Dispensation being founded on Temporal Promises whereas the Christian Religion is a Doctrine of the Cross things of this kind might have been Lawful among them tho they are not so to us and that the rather because by a Practice that was authorised from the Example of Phinehas and the praise given him for it private Men might among the Jews when the Magistrate was remiss fall upon Offenders and punish them especially in the case of Idolatry This is all that seems to be offered with any colour of Reason to take off the Argument from the practice of the Maccabees and therefore the considering and stating it aright will determine the whole matter First then The true Arguments against Resistance being drawn from the Magistrates having the Sword from God together with all the Topicks that belong to that head they are equally obligatory to all Nations and all Religions it being no part of any special Doctrine delivered in the New Testament but arising from the Attributes of God and the Peace and Order of the World which did bind Jews as well as Christians tho there are indeed Specialties in the Christian Religion that do enforce this the more and aggravate the transgression of it more apparently So that if Subjects defending themselves in the case of a Total Subversion it must ever be remembred that I am now only arguing upon this Supposition is the sin of Rebellion it was a sin to the Jews to the Maccabees in particular as well as it is a sin to Christians As for that of the Zealots tho at first appearance it seems to be of some force yet when examined it will be found to have very little in it If we consider the first Authorities for Zealots we shall find that the Jews stretched this matter beyond all bounds so that to their mistakes about it they owed a great part of their last fatal Miseries which ended in their ruin This matter has been also too implicitly taken by many Christian Writers from them The first beginning of Zealotism was in the Instance of Phinehas his killing Zimri and Cosbi but before this was done Moses who was the chief Ruler did command all the Judges of Israel that every one should slay his men that were joined to Baal-Peor Phinehas was one of these Judges for as Eleazar had been set over the Tribe of Levi when his Father was High-Priest so Aaron being dead at this time and Eleazar made High-Priest in his stead Phinehas was now over the Tribe of Levi and thus Moses Command was in particular directed to him therefore though the Zeal with which he executed it was highly acceptable to God yet it was exactly Regular since Moses had given a general Order for it After this followed some Instances of Men eminently authorized by God by the Gifts of Prophecy and Miracles who did in some Cases punish Idolaters such was Samuel's hewing Agag in pieces in execution of the Divine Command and Elijah's ordering all the Priests of Baal to be killed after he had by an astonishing Miracle proved that Jehovah was the true God and that he was his Prophet This was suitable to their Dispensation which being a Theocracy an authorized Prophet might well have entred upon the Functions of the Magistrate when the King himself was in fault and the Law was openly profaned Upon the same grounds our Saviour after his Miracles had openly declared that he was sent of God did whip the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple when they had profaned the Court of the Gentiles and had made that House of Prayer a Den of Thieves Thus it is plain That none of the Presidents from the Zealots of the Old Testament could justify private Men such as Mattathias and his Children to do any thing that was of it felf irregular and unlawful Phinehas his practice was a Precedent for acting in the matters of their Law with much spirit and courage but it could not justify any man who should presume to do that which was not otherwise lawful for him to do and though the Spirit of the Christian Religion is very different from the Spirit by which Elijah and other Prophets under the Old Testament were acted as our Saviour told his Disciples particularly in this that whereas in the one Prophets did immediately by Miracles or otherwise punish some Offenders in the other all was to be managed with a Spirit of Gentleness and Charity yet after all the lasting Rules of Morality and Human Society were the same then that they are now This Instance I think does fully justify those who seeing a total Subversion of our Religion so far advanced that the Pope's Authority was publickly owned and that all the Laws that secured it were declared to be under a Dispensing Power which was in it self a total Subversion of our Constitution did think it lawful to accept of a Deliverance to concur in it and to assist towards it The other Instance is taken from the first beginnings of Christianity's being the Legal and Authorized Religion of the Roman Empire and from the first Council that is esteemed General where a Precedent is laid down that is no less full for justifying those who tho they did not concur in procuring our Deliverance yet have since closed in it with all humble Gratitude and Obedience to those whom God made the Instruments in so great a Work After Constantine and Licinius had given out those Edicts at Milan by which the Christians had full liberty both for their Belief and Worship and had all the Rights and Immunities of other Corporations granted them Licinius being still in his heart an Enemy to that Religion began in the Year 319 to persecute the Christians He durst not for fear of Constantine fall upon them openly but his Intentions being well understood by his Ministers the Governours of the Provinces committed in many places great Cruelties He likewise turned the Christians first out of his Houshoud and next out of all his Armies He made a Law against relieving such as were in Prison by which those who relieved them were to be punished as Complices of their Crimes He apprehending that most of the Bishops wisht well to Constantine and that in their hearts they were set against himself went on by degrees in his design against them he by one Edict forbade the Bishops to meet together or to meddle with the Concerns of one another's