nor uncircumcision availed any thing and that in the new Creature there was neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision but Christ was all in all and that one God did both justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith from all which it is evident that those of the Circumcision might be saved and by consequence that their Religion was a true Religion and yet that their doctrine of Circumcision was an error can be disputed by none who read the Epistles of S. Paul And it is no less clear that they held it an Article of Faith delivered to Abraham by God So here it is plain that S. Paul in one breath both condemns this Opinion as erroneous and yet allows Salvation to such as believed it With how many errors doth S. Iohn charge some of the seven Churches yet they were still the Churches of Christ. The Church in the second Century did generally believe the Millennium as a thing revealed by God which the Roman Church now calls an error yet I hope I. K. will not condemn that Church as holding a false Religion The African Churches held it necessary for Infants to receive the Eucharist from these words Except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man you have no life in you and this was approved by P. Innocent and was continued many Ages in the Roman Church as appears from the Ordo Romanus and yet that Church has declared that not to be necessary by which the Opinion the former Ages had of its necessity is declared an error But it were a strange thing from that to condemn these as holding a false Religion The Franciscans and Dominicans had hot contests about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and both pretended Divine authority and Revelations so that one of those must have held an error The Dominicans and Iansenists believe Predestination and Grace efficacious of it self this the Molinists deny both vouch Scriptures and the definitions of the Church The Canonists Courtiers of Rome and Iesuits have asserted the Popes Infallibility from Scripture and Councils the Sorbon hath always rejected this Now of all these different Opinions the one must be true and the other false since they stand in the terms of a contradiction and they have all vouched God and Scriptures for them therefore those who hold the false side of the contradiction according to I. K's reasoning must be of a false Religion which I believe when he considers more maturely he will find he mistook his measures in this And in fine his Argument will also hold as strong to prove that every Individual of a true Religion must be exempt from all errors in every Opinion whereof he takes God to be the Author For I. K's Argument will be as strong for every thing whereof God is believed the Author as for Articles of Faith So that every mistaken sense of Scripture will turn one to be of a false Religion since every mistaken exposition is an error and yet that being thought the meaning of the place God is believed the author of that meaning and by I. K's consequence of the error it self From all which I may I hope even by I. K's leave infer the necessary distinction between things that are believed to be errors and those that are believed to be Truths For the former to vouch God the Author of what we know to be an error and corruption is certainly so criminal that none of the true Religion can be guilty of it But there be many things which though errors yet any one may very innocently mistake for truths I do not say the mistake does quite excuse the error if the error be fundamental the mistake must be so too But if the error be in a lesser matter it is a lesser error and it will never be made out That if one apprehending an Opinion true embrace it as come from God and as an Article of Faith if he is mistaken in that he strikes at the divine veracity for among men who thinks that any wronged his veracity if another mistook his meaning and understood his words in a different sense from what he intended and expressed Certainly he who so mistakes after the true meaning is cleared cannot be understood to have fastned any reproach upon the Candor of him whose words he mistook all the blame being to be cast only on his want of right understanding This were indeed a hard case if all our mistakings of divine Revelations did infer a charging God with error or corruption But the thing is so clear that I am afraid I have spent too many words about it and this Argument of I. K's cannot but upon first reading appear to all that are accustomed to weigh and examine truth to be a piece of crude ill digested and ill palliated Sophistry Thus far have I followed I. K. through those six points he imagines he has demonstrated and have shewed how true the first four were but how little reason there was to account them such for any thing he said for their proof and how false the other two are And I suppose he will acknowledge that if what is already set down hold true and be founded on good reason I need not follow him through the rest of his Book it being only a direction to his gentle courteous Reader how to manage this method of arguing so as to convince all persons that dissent from the true Religion which he thinks is a Mathematical and sure way of proceeding and such as no man can decline or avoid and in end must be either convinced by it or be forced to confess himself no better than an Ass or a block which concludes him a mad man I will not follow this with a railery that is as obvious as severe but I love not to mix matters of sport with such serious purposes therefore I follow I. K. no more through the rest of his Book But come next to consider the great support of that cause which he manages both in his Preface and through the rest of his Book that there can be no certainty neither about the true books of Scripture the Decrees of Councils or writings of Fathers without there be a true Church and Religion agreed on which shall both declare to us what Books are true and what not and shall deliver their true meaning to us otherwise endless confusions must follow which plainly appears in the many divisions of the Protestants and the uncertainties they are in about all Controverted points From which the necessity of a true Church appears as much as in a well ordered State there is not only a necessity of clear and good Laws but of Judges to expound them CHAP. VII Of the supposed Inconveniencies J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to Iudge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding Truth THere is nothing about which those of the Roman Church make more noise than the necessity of
and endless wranglings of the Schools in matters of Philosophy in which men being accustomed to that game of disputing and subtilising about nothing and going from those studies to Divinity and carrying that same temper and fiery edge along with them they made all that work about it which hath now so long divided the world They being also by a long practice habituated to many Maxims and Axioms which were laid down for rules not to be enquired into or denyed came really to believe those were true and to carry them along with them to all their Theological debates All which will appear very evident to any that compares their Philosophical and Theological works from which many of their strange inferences and positions did take their rise and I am afraid do still receive their nourishment Thus far I have discoursed of the several prejudices the powers of the natural man do lay in the way of our apprehending and judging aright of Divine truths and the common notions of the moral Philosophy will concur to teach all men that before their minds can be rightly qualified for the understanding any intellectual truth but most chiefly Divine truth we must abstract from all those figures of things which our senses present to us and rise above all grosser phantasms It is no less necessary that our thoughts be serene and free of passion that we may freely and at leisure consider what lies before us without the Byass of preconceived opinions or interests And it is equally rational with these that we have modest minds not vainly puffed up with an opinion of our own knowledge but tractable and docile such as will not stick after clear conviction to confess and retract an error and that we proceed in our reasonings closely and on sure grounds not on vain conjectures and maxims taken up meerly on trust but by a clear progress advance from one truth to another as the Series of them shall lead A man who is thus prepared must next consider all was said in the first four Sections with a great deal more to the same purpose That he be on good grounds perswaded there is a God that there is a true revealed Religion that the Christian Religion is the true Religion These things being laid down he is in the first place by earnest Prayers to beg God's direction to go along with him in all his enquiries which certainly will not be wanting if he bring with him a sincere well prepared mind not byassed nor prepossessed and of this we may be well assured both from the Divine goodness and veracity For as he hath promised that whoso seek shall find so it is a necessary consequent of infinite goodness to assist all that sincerely seek after life and happiness but if any come to this study without he be duly prepared he has himself to thank if he fall into errors and mistakes The next thing an exact searcher into Religion must labour in is once to observe the nature of Christianity and the great designs of it and in this he is not to follow the small game of some particular and obscure passages but to observe through the whole New Testament what was the great end of all our Saviour spoke and did and his disciples testified and wrote If once we comprehend this a right it will be a thread to carry us through particular disquisitions For as there be many natural truths of which we are well assured though Philosophy offers us some Arguments against them in the answering which we are not able to satisfie our Reasons so there may be some divine truths very certainly made out to us and yet there may be places of Scripture which seem so to contradict those truths that they cannot be well answered Again a serious Enquirer will see good reason to believe the Scriptures must be plain evident and clear since they were at first directed to men of very ordinary parts and of no profound understandings and learning therefore he may well conclude those strange Superstructures some have reared up for amusing the world can be none of the Articles of Faith necessary to be believed And as the first Converts were honest simple men so our Saviour and the Apostles spoke in a plain easie stile therefore all these forced Criticisms and Inferences by which some more ingenious than candid Writers would expound them in a sence favourable to their Opinions aâ—e not to be received since these do often represent the divine discourses rather like the little tricks of double-dealing and Sophistry for which an honest Tutor would severely chide his Pupil words are to be understood in their plain meaning and not as Logick or a nicety of Criticism may distort and throw them If then a man will in this method which no honest man can except against go to the search of the Scriptures with a mind prepared as hath been already said he cannot fail of finding out all that is necessary for his Salvation Nor is he to be doubtfully anxious concerning the true Books for none denies but the Churches care in all Ages hath been the great conveyance of this the many various Translations of all Ages and Languages nay and different Religions agreeing in all material points and the Citations out of those Books which we find in a Series of Authors who have lived in the several Ages since they were written agreeing likewise with the Books themselves together with many ancient Manuscripts which do yet remain of a great many Languages may abundantly satisfie even the most severe Inquirer that these be the very Books which the Apostles delivered and were universally received by all Christians The matter of Fact being thus cleared without any necessity of running to the authority of the Church all those scruples which I. K. with the rest of his Brethren would needs raise do vanish since they never distinguish exactly between a Witness and a Judge For the former nothing is required but honesty and good information and we have the agreeing suffrages of many witnesses that do all agree in their Testimony of these Books who though they differed very much in their Expositions of them yet concurred in their verdict about the Books and were checks on one another in the faithful preserving and transcribing them In this sence we do receive the Churches Testimony as the necessary means of conveying these Books to us But an Authority Sacred and Solemnly declared is required in a Judge and this no Church can so much as pretend to but from the Scriptures Therefore the Scriptures being received as Divine cannot depend on the sentence of the Church as a Judge since all its Jurisdiction is derived from Scripture which therefore must be acknowledged before it can be believed But because there be persons of a meaner Condition and not Educated so as to make all the inquiry which is necessary in so important a Business there is therefore a shorter method for such
an Infallible Judge and of the great and visible inconveniencies that appear from the want of it in those Churches that have departed from the Roman Communion I have not long ago proposed a great many Queries to one of I. K's brethren in which I have set before him the many difficulties they must needs be involved in by clearing who this Infallible Judge must be and I shall here repeat nothing of what I said then but shall go on to shew upon what clear and certain grounds we may rest our perswasions about Articles of Faith and divine Truths All Arts and Sciences must be acquired by some rules and methods by which a progress may be made from plainer things to those that are more involved and difficult and if any would desire to understand any Theorem or Problem in Geometry without beginning at the Elements and advancing by Euclid or some other such methods he labours in vain So also if any would without more ado study to know a secret in Chymistry having neither learned to know the terms of Art nor the course of a process he shall not be the wiser though one deliver him their best secrets In like manner if a man will enter into the knowledge of Divine truth without any of those preparations which are necessary he is in a wrong way and the further he engages he is the more out of the way nor can he be ever in the right way till he begin afresh It may justly seem strange that Christian Religion was so plain a thing when the Apostles first delivered it that mean simple people poor women and an illiterate company should have understood it and that it subdued a great part of the Roman Empire before men of great Learning were Converted to the belief of it and all the knowledge they then had of it was by the Sermons and Epistles of the holy Apostles which remain to this day And though at this distance from that time we may have lost the true meaning of some phrases and we have not so particular a History of the state of the first Churches as might help us to understand many passages that seem very dark to us yet for the main of those Books they seem very easie and plain We have also still so perfect a knowledge of the Greek tongue as clearly to understand them But after all this Christian Religion is now become such a strange kind of secret that men with all their Learning and Study can scarce understand it Certainly we must have either changed Religion from what it was at first so that it hath now put on a new face or we are much mistaken in our methods of enquiring into it and examining what things are revealed to us by God S. Paul tells us the Natural man receives not the things of God neither indeed can be for they are spiritually discerned From which it appears that a Renovation of the mind from its natural mould and its being transformed into a spiritual temper are necessary as well for the understanding and discerning as the obeying the things of God Now all natural men may be divided into three Classes either they are so immersed in senses and sensible things that all their apprehensions are tinctured with the figures and phantasms which their senses and imaginations present to them or they rise a little above this but are so governed by the heats of nature and passion that either their minds are rendred quite incapable of all serious thoughts or so distorted in them that they do not discern them truly But the highest elevation of the natural man is Reason which hath a fairer appearance and if rightly managed would certainly advance him to a spiritual temper but being fed only with dry Notions and trying them by a false touchstone does strenghthen our errors fortifie our prejudices and swell us with pride and fret us with the itch of an unsatisfiable and useless curiosity Now it will not be ungrateful it is hoped to propose the great hinderances all these several Modifications of the Natural man have given to the right understanding Divine truths and to begin with those of the lowest form One whose mind is immersed in sense either believes nothing but what his senses propose to him or at least tinctures all his Notions with sensible objects Thus the Atheist believes no God because he cannot see him and those of the heathens over whom the power of their senses was strong yet not such as to overcome the Impressions of a Deity left on their Souls did believe the Sun Moon and Stars were Gods being both dazled with the brighter splendor of the day and delighted with the fainter shinings of the night And finding both the pleasant Lightsomness the warm Benignity and fruitful usefulness of their Beams they did adore them as gods and seeing strange effects answering some of their positions and aspects they came to imagine all humane things were governed by them and so framed an entire Theory if so ill grounded a thing can deserve that name of Astrology Others much taken with the greatness and glory of brave Commanders and Princes and having some Notion of the Souls Immortality on their minds did think that after their death they governed this inferiour world and to those Heroes they assigned Stars to dwell in and those gods they represented either by some Symbols the chief whereof was Fire or by some Statues Pillars or other pieces of Sculpture which at least represented that Deity to their Senses if it had not some strangely Magical and Divine influence united or affixed to it They did also prognosticate all future things either by the flight or feeding of Birds or by the inwards of Animals Here then a Religion entirely framed from the Conceptions of the Natural man in its lowest depression and their gross Notions of Religion made them both prejudiced against the Iews who worshipped nothing but a Celestial Deity and more against the Christians whom they called Atheists because they had none of those sensible representations or ways of Worship but their Faith was plain and simple But as the Natural man did thus corrupt the notices of natural Religion it did no less embase the Christian Religion When many natural men were engaged in the profession of it either by Education Custom or Interest who loathing its simple purity did study so to dress it up that it might gratifie their natural minds by bringing in the worship of deceased men and by worshipping them by Images Pictures Reliques and at length making Pictures for the Deity it self and by dressing up all the parts of Religious Worship so as to amuse and delight the senses by affecting an outward grandeur in Processions and other Festivals and in the greatness of their Priests chiefly of their high Priest all which were visibly the effects of minds deeply engaged in sensible things to whom nothing appeared sacred or solemn without it had been adorned with all the
which yet is as morally certain as any thing can be Let then the simplest man in England provide himself of two New Testaments one published by the Church of England another by the Church of Rome as was that of Rheims Now he knows well what animosities be betwixt the Divines of these Churches and that they are engaged so hotly one against another that they agree in nothing but where the Evidence of truth especially in matters of Fact does bind them And yet he comparing these New Testaments will find that though the phrase the position of words and in some few places perhaps the sence varies but upon a survey of the whole he finds that they do plainly agree in all matters of moment So that from this he is perswaded that both have the same true Book which the Apostles did deliver to the Church and the Iews agreeing with us as to the Old Testament is the same Evidence to him that we have those very Books which were held Sacred by the Iews in our Saviour's time And thus by I. K's leave a man may be satisfied what be the true Books without being assured which is the true Church or the true Religion Being then assured about the Books and studying them in the method already set down he shall be certainly directed by God to find out every thing necessary to Salvation and this is far from setting up a private Spirit to lead us Enthusiastically but is an appeal to the Reason and ingenuity that is common to all men For let me ask I. K. how the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are to be understood He himself says the meaning of those is plainly and certainly to be known yet every Reader must expound them to himself in that easie and clear sence which best agrees with the words Is this therefore to set up a private spirit to enterpret these Canons I know he will say and with good reason too that it is far from it and with the same warrant do I assert that the considering of Scripture according to the method proposed is not to interpret it by a private Spirit but by the clear conduct of our understandings directed by the divine Grace which is freely given to all that ask it If after all this it be replyed How is it then that there are such different Expositors and Expositions of Scripture the Answer is plain by sending back the Reader to what hath been said of the corruption of mens minds and as long as men live so ill as they do it is to no purpose to expect they shall think or understand aright Besides there be a great many things in the Scriptures which are not Articles of Faith which every man is not bound to know and conceive aright under the hazard of Damnation and about which there may be disputings and different Opinions without any hazard If any set up particular Opinions in matters justly controvertible and of less moment and impose these on all with severe Sanctions and if he have Authority to cast all out of the Church Society that do not agree with him or if he have not that Authority if he do separate from the Communion of the Church because they will not receive or hearken to his conceits he is a Schismatick for a dogmatizing and dictating spirit if strengthned with power doth always lead to persecution and if it want it to separation And thus I think enough is said for proving that the way to Salvation is not at all uncertain in our Church since it is no other but that new and living way which our Saviour did Consecrate through his flesh But in this we are strongly confirmed when we find the ancient Martyrs Fathers and Doctors of the Church going in the same Method and by it Converting the Nations enduring Martyrdome and giving glory to their most holy Faith and to its most holy Author whose Decrees when met in Councils and Doctrines delivered in their writings do so agree with Ours in all matters of Faith that we decline not to put the whole debates between us and them to this Tryal I. K. thinks we cannot know what Fathers or what Councils to receive but by first acknowledging a true Church which must tell what Fathers and Councils to receive But this being a matter of Fact we are to judge of it as of all matters of Fact that were transacted some Ages ago and by the evidence of Testimonies are to find out the truth concerning the Fathers and Councils and their Writings and Decrees We have good reason to decline the writers of the latter Ages since we plainly see that upon the overthrow of the Western Empire by the Goths and Vandals and other Northern Nations and of the Eastern Empire by the Saracens and other Mahometans Religion and Learning were quickly brought under sad and lasting decays which is confest by writers on all sides And what I. K. says That we may as well expect the whole Gospel in the first Chapter of S. Matthew as all Faith of the Church in the first four General Councils is very impertinently alledged Did we ask for all the definitions of the Church in the first Canon of Nice his comparison might well take place but it cannot be fitly used in our case who say we are the true Catholick Apostolick Christians because we in all things agree with the Churches of God as they were during their greatest purity both in the persecutions and after those for two Ages Certainly if we hold all that Faith they then held and if they were saved we may be so too and you cannot pass a severe sentence on us which will not likewise take hold of them I. K. cannot deny but they stated the Christian Faith in very formal Creeds and one of them expresly decreed That no new addition should be made to the Creed and so we who receive that Creed though at all this distance from them are really in Communion with them from which those have departed who have made such vast additions to the Creed And thus it appears we are in the same way which our Saviour first opened and in which that glorious cloud of witnesses followed him and are still in Communion with Rome as she was when her Faith was spoken of through the whole world and therefore we are in a safe way to Salvation But because Christians must live together in Unity and Charity and in order to that end must associate together in the Worship of God in mutual Councils and other necessary parts of Government and some External rites for maintaining the visible acknowledgment of the Faith therefore we have rules given in Scripture no less express for obeying the Civil powers in all their Commands that are not plainly contrary either to Natural or revealed Religion which is a clear and constant rule by which we may be satisfied if our minds be right prepared and qualified as was before set down And if by
the disorder of our understandings through the corruptions of the natural man we be brought under Errors we have our selves to blame Next to this we are to associate our selves with all who Worship God as long as there is not some great corruption in it so that we can no longer continue in it without sin If others be formal or guilty in it that is none of our fault and can never warrant our departure from that Communion of Saints in worship Therefore the particular Forms of Worship are to be agreed on by the Guides and Pastors of the Church which must still be received by all till they put us to act or assist in somewhat that is evil or be defective in some necessary part of Divine worship And the great rule by which the Guides of the Church ought to compose these Forms is the constant and universal practice of the Churches of God in their best times Calculating these as near as may be to the present Constitutions and tempers of men so as to avoid all unnecessary scandal and to edifie the people by them Therefore we dare appeal to all just and impartial Judges if our Church have not observed this rule in all the parts of our Worship to bring things as near as could be to the Primitive Forms and if in some particulars we have departed from them such as the not Commemorating expresly the dead or receiving gifts in their Names in the holy Communion the not using the Chrism in Confirmation nor the sign of the Cross on all occasions or if we kneel in Churches on Sundays and betwixt Easter and Pentecost which are the most considerable things that now occurr to me in which we are not exactly conform to the Primitive Church these are both things of less importance and by the following Superstition and other abuses were very much corrupted And it is certain that all things not Necessary when much abused how innocent nay how useful soever they may be yet may very reasonably be left out and laid aside as the Pastors of the Church see cause If after all this Evidence there be great divisions among us we owe these next to the corruption or manners to the daily practises of such as I. K. who as is offered to be made out by many have under all disguises laboured the renting us to pieces and our sins are such that these wicked designs prove daily but too successful But after all the mist and dust any may study to raise I doubt not but to serious considerers it will appear that we of this Church are in a clear and safe way and that our doctrine is no other than what our Saviour and his Apostles delivered and what the first Christians and their Successors for many Ages believed and that we are in the same Method of finding out the true Faith which they followed all which I shall conclude with these excellent and divinely Charitable Versicles of our Litany That it may please thee to give to all thy people increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure affection and to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived and that it may please thee to have mercy upon all men We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. THE END A Brief Catalogue of Books newly Printed and Reprinted for R. Royston Bookseller to his Most Sacred Majesty THE Works of the Reverend and Learned Henry Hammond D. D. containing a Collection of Discourses chiefly Practical with many Additions and Corrections from the Author 's own hand together with the Life of the Author enlarged by the Reverend Dr. Fell Dean of christ-Christ-Church in Oxford In large Folio A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament Briefly explaining all the difficult Places thereof The Fourth Edition corrected By H. Hammond D. D. In Folio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a Collection of Polemical Discourses addressed against the Enemies of the Church of England both Papists and Fanaticks in large Folio by Ier. Taylor Chaplain in Ordinary to K. Charles the First of Blessed Memory and late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner Antiquitates Christianae or The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus as also The Lives Acts and Martyrdoms of his Apostles In two parts The first part containing the Life of Christ Written by Ieremy Taylor late Lord Bishop of Down and Conner The second containing the Lives of the Apostles by William Cave D. D. Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty The Second Part of the Practical Christian consisting of Meditations and Psalms illustrated with Notes or Paraphrased relating to the Hours of Prayer the ordinary Actions of Day and Night and several Dispositions of Men. By R. Sherlock D. D. Rector of Winwick The Royal Martyr and the Dutiful Subject in two Sermons By Gilbert Burnet New The Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of Receiving the Holy Communion c. The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God or a Book of Devotions c. Both written by the Reverend S. Patrick D. D. in 12. A Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the present Neglect and Contempt of the Protestant Religion and Church of England c. Considerations concerning Comprehension Toleration and the Renouncing the Covenant In Octavo New Animadversions upon a Book Entituled Fanaticism Fanatically imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. Stillingfleet and the Imputation Refuted and Retorted by S. C. The Second Edition By a Person of Honour In Octavo Reflections upon the Devotions of the Roman Church With the Prayers Hymns and Lessons themselves taken out of their Authentick Authors In Three Parts In Octavo Deut. 13 1. Gal. 1. 8 9. S. Mat. 12. 24 to 31. 1 Thess. 2. 11. 2 Thess. 3. 10. 1 Cor. 7. 4 5.