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
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
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
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
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
and since it was singly upon this point that they could let it pass without raising Objections or Difficulties about it and since we find in fact that they did let it pass and that the Apostles made no Explanations upon it we have all possible reason to conclude that it was thus understood of all hands at that time I think it is not possible to imagine that this could be otherwise so that upon these Reasons we may well and safely determine that Christ was truly both God and Man and that the Godhead did as really dwell in his Human Nature and became united to it as our Souls dwell in our Bodies and are united to them Having then laid down this Matter from Authorities that run through the whole New Testament and that return often in every Book of it I may now upon greater Advantages refer such as will descend to a more particular Enquiry to all those passages that assert Christ's having created all things Angels as well as Men that he is over all and in all before all things in whom all things do subsist that he is the Lord of Glory the Great God and the true God the Lord Almighty who was is and is to come who knows all things and can do whatsoever he will who is the first and the last the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who alone hath Immortality who was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God who will raise the dead at the last day and judge the World who is God manifested in the Flesh the great Mystery of Godliness who is over all God blessed for ever These and many more such like passages but above all the beginning of the Gospel of St. Iohn on which I need not insist since that has been done with such Strength and Clearness of Reason by a much better Hand All these single passages I say are so many express Proofs of this great Article of our Religion that I am confident those who have clear'd themselves of that great prejudice against it to which the first part of this Discourse was directed cannot read them without feeling that they are wrestling against the full current of the whole New Testament who oppose this I know a great deal has been said to take off the force of every one of them for if a Man resolves beforehand not to believe a thing he may easily bring out matter enough to avoid the most express words that can be invented yet this I dare positively affirm that at their rate of answering passages with which we urge them it were easy to answer the most express words that we could be capable to contrive for setting out our Doctrine to which this is likewise to be added That it will be very hard to preserve any respect for Writings that are filled with such Intimations of so Important a Doctrine all which at first view seem to carry a Sense which they judge Monstrous and Impious and that with much labour and difficulty are wrought to another sense It will not be easy to think those men had the common degrees of Honesty and Discretion not to speak of Inspiration who writ in such a Style with such Phrases and in such a continu'd Strain that ordinary Readers must stumble in every step and that in a point of such vast Consequence as whether a meer Creature is the great and true God or not and that a great deal of Dexterity and Diligence is necessary to give them another sense I must own that if I could think so of the Scriptures I should lose all Esteem for them and could think no other of the Pen-men of them but that their great Affection for their Master had led them to say many things concerning him that were Excessive and Hyperbolical and not strictly true This is literally and without any aggravation the sense that I have of this Matter and the prophane Tribe of Libertines go all into this of laughing down all Mysteries knowing well that when they have once gain'd that point the New Testament it self will be laughed down next in which they are so plainly contain'd And indeed the Christian Religion must be the most self-contradicting of all the Religions in the World since it does so often condemn the worshipping of Creatures and yet heaps all sorts of Divine Honors on a Creature and St. Iohn must be a most incongruous Writer who could at the conclusion of his first Epistle say of Christ Jesus This is the true God and Eternal Life and in the very next words add Little Children keep your selves from Idols when in the very preceding words he had been setting them on to it if St. Paul's definition must hold true that Idolatry is a service to those who by nature are not gods It is true upon this they will recriminate and say That there being nothing more expresly and frequently contain'd in Scripture and that indeed arises more plainly out of our Idea of God than that he is One we destroy that by setting up Three This would press hard if we did affirm three distinct Beings but since that wich is One in it self may be Three in other respects it is only a consequence that they infer but which we deny That we set up more Gods than one and no man is to be charg'd with the suppos'd Consequences of his Doctrine when he himself does not own them but denies them and thinks he can plainly show that they do not necessarily follow from it We do plainly perceive in our selves two if not three different Principles of Operation that do not only differ as Understanding and Will which are only different modes of thinking but differ in their Character and way of Operation All our Cogitations and Reasonings are a sort of Acts in which we can reflect on the way how we operate we perceive that we act freely in them and that we turn our Minds to such Objects and Thoughts as we please But by another Principle of which we perceive nothing and can reflect upon no part of it we live in our Bodies we animate and actuate them we receive Sensations from them and give Motions to them we live and die and do not know how all this is done It seems to be by some Emanation from our Souls in which we do not feel that we have any liberty and so we must conclude that this Principle in us is natural and necessary In Acts of Memory Imagination and Discourse there seems to be a mixture of both Principles or a third that results out of them for we feel a freedom in one respect but as for those Marks that are in our Brain that set things in our Memory or furnish us with words we are necessary Agents they come in our way but we do not know how We cannot call up a Figure of things of words at pleasure Some disorder in our Mechanism hides or flattens them
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
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
divide from us any of the appearances of vertue in a sober and grave deportment a modest and humble way of behaviour a solemn seriousness the fear of an Oath a plain simplicity of living a mutual union and tenderness for one another and a seeming to be in earnest in the matters of Religion together with a true strictness in breeding their Youth to understand Religion and study the Scriptures let us not deny that which we see to be true but let us study to bring our selves and our people to outdo them in these things and to add to these an exact probity and justice candor and truth fidelity and integrity a meek and gentle behaviour free from rash censuring and evil speaking a universal Charity to all Mankind a readiness to forgive Injuries to do good for evil and liberality in our bounty to the necessitous straitning our selves to relieve others And if we can bear with them by our charity as well as the Law tolerates them in their Opinions we may hope by the blessing of God in a competent time to overcome all their Prejudices and so to heal all our Divisions and to become of one heart and mind FINIS THE CONTENTS DISCOURSE I. COncerning the Truth of the Christian Religion Pag. 1. DISCOURSE II. Concerning the Divinity and the Death of Christ. 25. DISCOURSE III. Concerning the Infallibility and Authority of the Church 52. DISCOURSE IV. Concerning the Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church 83. Books lately Printed for R. Chiswell A Discourse of the Pastoral Care By the Lord Bishop of Sarum 8 vo An Imperial History of the Late Wars of Ireland from the beginning to the end In two Parts Illustrated with Copper Sculptures describing the most Important Places of Action Written by George Story an Eye-witness of the most Remarkable Passages 4 to A Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts By George Tully Sub-Dean of York 8 vo Memorials of the Most Reverend Thomas Grammer Archbishop of Canterbury Wherein the History of the Church and the Reformation of it during the Primacy of the said Archbishop are greatly illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now first published in Three Books Collected chiefly from Records Registers Authentick Letters and other Original Manuscripts By Iohn Strype M. A. Fol. Origo Loegum Or A Treatise of the Origin of Laws and their Obliging Power As also of their great Variety and why some Laws are immutable and some not but may suffer change or cease to be or be suspended or abrogated In Seven Books By George Dawson M. A. Fol. A Brief Discourse concerning the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common Prayer in Answer to a Book Intituled A Brief Discourse of the Vlawfulness of Common-Prayer Worship By Iohn Williams D. D. 4 to A True Representation of the Absurd and Mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the name of the Muggletonians 4 to 1 Macc. 1.20 24 25. V. 41. V. 54. V. 57. 2 ch 24 25. V. 26. V. 50. V 64. V. 67 68. 4 Macc. 46. 11 Dan. 31 32 33 34. 11 Heb. 34. Art 6. 25 Num. 5. 3 Num. 32. 20 Num. 28. 1 Sam. 15.33 1 Kings 18.40 21 Mat. 13. 9 Luke 55 56. Eus. Chron Theoph. Anonim Vales. Eus. l. 10. c. 8. Eus. de Vit. Con. l. 1. c. 5. c 53. Eus. l. 10. c. 8. De vit Con l. 2. c. 2. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eus. l. 10. c. 8. Lib. 10. Principatum totius Orbis affectans Eus. Vit. Const. l 3 c. 12. Theod. l. 7 De Vit. Const. l. 3 c. 11. Theod. l. 1. c. 20. 9. Dan. 24 25 26 27. Justin. Apol. 2. 1 Pet. 4.12 â—â— Acts 22. 16. Matth. 16 25. Rom 15.19 1 Cor. 14. 2 Cor. 12.12 3 Gal. 5. 1 Thes. 1.5 1 Tim. 1.20 Heb. 2.4 Sueton. in Claudio Tacit. annal 15. 1 Cor. 2.4 6 Heb. 4.5 Plin. Lib. 10. Ep. 97. Luke 16.31 Numb 12.8 Heb. 1.10 11 12. V. 15 16. Gal. 3.16 1 Pet. 3.19 Isa. 61.42 Isa. 7.49 Isa. 9.1 2. Heb. 6.20 Heb. 7.3 Psalm 110 4. Lev. 21.7 13.14 2 Hag. 6.7 8 9. 2 Cor. 3 18 1. Heb. 3. 1. John 14. 2 Cor. 4.4 Verse 6. 18. Mat. 7. 1 Cor. â— 5 6. 1 Thes. 1.9 4 Gal. 8. 2 Phil 10. Heb. 1.6 Rev 5.8 4. Mat. 10. 19 Rev. 10. Isa. 42.8 Deut. 13.1 2. 2 Col. 9. 1. Çol. 16.17 2 Jam. 1. 1 Cor. 2.8 2 Tit. 13. 1 John 5.20 1 Rev. 8.21 Joh. 17. 3 Phil. 21. 1 Tim. 6.17 18. 2 Phil. 6. 5 John 21. to 29. 6 John 54. 1 Tim. 3.16 9 Rom. 5. 1 Joh. 2.2 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Cor. 15.3 2 Cor. 5.21 1. Gal. 4. 3. Gal 13. 2 Tit. 14. 20 Mat. 28. 3 Rom. 25. 4 Rom. 25. 5 Rom. 6.10 11. and to the end 1 Cor. 1.30 1 Eph. 7. 1 Col. 14.20 21. 1 Joh. 29. 9 Heb. 11 12 13 14. 8.26.28 10. Heb. 10 12 14 19. 13. Heb. 12.20 22. Luke 44. 26. Mat. 36 37 38. 4. Rom. 3. 2. Rom. 12. 3. Rom. 28. 5. Gal. 6. 2 James 12. to the end 3 John 18. 16 Mat. 18 19. 18. Mat. 20 28 Mat. 20. 16. Joh. 13. 1. Tim. 3.16 17. Deut. 8 9 10 11 12 13. 2. Mal. 7. 16. John 13. 5. Gal. 20. 6. Joh. 5 3. 15. Act. 23. to 30. Athan. de Deer Sin Nicen. Aug. con Maxim l. 3. c. 19. 1 Tim. 3.15 28. Mat. 20. 2 Cor. 6.16 13 Heb. 5. 16. Mat. 18 19. 2. Eph. 20. 3. Rev. 7. 11. Luke 52. 18. Mat. 18. 22. Luke 32. 21. Joh. 15. 13 Joh. 35. 17. St. Joh. verses 11 21 22 23. Verse 23. 1 Cor. 10.23 2 Kings 18.4 14. Rom. 13. â— Vers. 23. 15. Act. 9. 16. Rom. 1. 1 Tim. 5.9 1 Pet. 5.14 16. Rom. 16. 1 Cor. 16.20 2 Cor. 13.12 1 Cor. 11.21 6 Rom. 3 4 5. 2 Col. 12. 13. John 14 15. 14. Rom. 19. 1 Cor. 14.26 40. 5. Gal. 1. 16 Acts 3.21 Acts 24. 1 Cor. 9.20 5 Gal. 6. 6 Gal. 15. 14. Rom. 17. V. 18. V. 5. V. 23. 2 Col. 16. 14. Rom. 6. V. 13. V. 15. 1 Cor. 3.5 2 Cor. 3.6 6.4 11.23 3 Eph. 7. 1 Col. 23 25. 6 Eph. 21. 4 Col. 7. 1 Thess. 3.2 8. Rom. 28 29. 12. Rom. 1. 10. Mark 13. 1 Cor. 7.14 2 Acts 39. 12. Exod. 11. 2 Thess. 3.14 1 Cor. 5.11 1 Cor. 11.28 3. Jam. 5. 7. Zech. 5. 8 Zech. 19. 9. Esther 21.27 10 John 22. 28. Mat. 20. 3. John 5. 16. Mark 16. 10 Act. 47. 11 Act. 17. 1 Cor. 11.26 4 Eph. 11 12 13 14. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tit. 1. 1 Cor. 14.34 35. 1 Tim. 2.11 13 Rom. 7. 2 Sam. 20.41 1 Sam. 24.8 1 Kings 1.23 23 Mat. 8.9 10. 20 John 15. 26 Acts 25. 23 Acts 26. 1 Luke 3. 5 Mat. 34. 5 Jam 12. 1 Rom. 9. 1 Thess. 2.10 2 Cor. 1.23 10 Rev. 5 6 6 Heb. 16.17 18. Lev. 7. 1 Sam. 14.24 38 39. 17. Judg. 2. 26. Mat. 63 64. 1 Sam. 2.36 1 Cor. 9.11 13 14
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