Grace to the outward Circumcision nor yet to the Water of Baptism The use of these Sacraments was not to work that Grace which they had before but to be a solemn Engagement to them to perform their part of the Covenant and to confirm the Promise of God to them And therefore we find also Faith required before Baptism can be administred Acts 8. 36 37. What doth hinder me says the Eunuch to be baptized And Philip said If thou believest with all thine Heart thou mayest Faith is pre-required before Baptism and therefore is not wrought by the Sacrament of Baptism We find indeed that upon the solemn profession of their Faith by their admission of the Sacrament of Baptism there were sometimes greater measures of the Spirit poured out upon some Acts 19. 5 6. But it was in consideration of their Faith which went before Baptism that these Measures of the Spirit were given to them Their Baptism was only a testification of their Faith Ephes 1. 13. After ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise So when Baptism is called the Baptism of Repentance it is not because Repentance was wrought by it but because it was a Sign and Testification of it and farther engaged to it We therefore also find that Justification and Salvation are every-where in the Scripture ascribed to Mens Faith and Repentance and not to the Sacraments as they would be if the Sacraments were the proper and immediate Causes of that Grace by which we are justified and saved Thus Rom. 1. 17. The Just shall live by Faith. And so Gal. 2. 20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God. And this Faith and so all Grace and Holiness is wrought by the Spirit by means of the Word Rom. 10. 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God And John 3. 8. As the Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit God oftentimes in an imperceptible manner conferring his Grace and not confining it to the Sacraments So that the Sacraments do not give but only seal to us the Promise of Grace and Life 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. In the Ark of Noah a few that is eight Persons were saved by Water The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth now save us But by Baptism I mean not the putting away the filth of the Flesh or that the outward Act of washing the Body serveth to this Salvation which God doth not lay on any outward Ceremony otherwise than as it is an Act or Exercise of our Faith and Obedience But the Answer of a good Conscience towards God in the Covenant of Baptism when a Person being ask'd doth really and faithfully engage and promise to believe in and give up himself to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil Baptism is but the celebration of this saving Covenant and it is covenanting sincerely that is the Condition of Salvation and washing is but the Sign As Rom. 2. 25. Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keepest the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made Vncircumcision So it may be said of Baptism with respect to the Gospel It is not any Sacrament in it self that gives Grace or Justification or acceptance with God but thereby the Benefits promised are sealed to them that perform the Conditions Thus vers 28 29. He is not a Jew whom God will accept and justify who is one outwardly only in the Ceremony Neither is that Circumcision acceptable which is only outward in the Flesh and therefore 't is not the external Sacrament which gives the Grace but he is a Jew justified and accepted of God that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter or Ceremony whose Praise is not of Men but of God. The like may be said of the Christian and his Baptism So Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision nor the outward washing of Baptism neither but Faith which worketh by Love. 'T is this and nothing else that avails to the Christian's Salvation But if the Sacraments themselves did work Saving-Grace the same might be as well affirmed of them It is said indeed Rom. 6. 4. We are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we should also walk in Newness of Life The meaning of which is this that we by our Baptism enter into a Profession Engagement or Undertaking to give over all Sin and to live a new regenerate Life in conformity to the Death and Life of Christ This Profession was represented and signified by their going down into the Water and being as it were buried in it and then rising out of it again It is not Baptism which works this Grace of Mortification but that proceeds from our believing Reception and hearty submitting our selves to the form of Doctrine delivered to us by the Spirit of Grace in the Gospel vers 17. And it is by the Spirit that we are enabled to mortify the Deed of the Body Rom. 8. But Baptism testifies and represents our Profession and Engagement to do it It is said also Gal. 3. 27. As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ his Spirit and Nature and are become his Members There being baptized into Christ signifies those that have sincerely consented to that baptismal Covenant of which the outward Baptism was a Badg and Profession It was not by virtue of their Baptism but by 〈◊〉 of their Faith which they professed in their Baptism that they became Members of Christ Vers 26. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus According to John 1. 12. To as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God even to them that believed in his Name So John 3. 5. Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit c. It is the Spirit 's Regeneration which is asserted and which is only mentioned vers 8. But this spiritual Regeneration was represented by the Water of Baptism So Tit. 3 5. The washing of Regeneration that is Regeneration signified and sealed in Baptism or which is to the Soul as a laver or washing is to the Body to cleanse it from Sin. So Ephes 5. 25 26. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctif◠it and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word It is the Regeneration it self which is there intended by the washing of Water which is said to be wrought by the Word because by the means of the Word we are cleansed from the filth of Sin as the filth of the Body is cleansed by the washing of Water But yet this Regeneration is signified and represented in Baptism and there all do make a profession of it ERRATA PAge 52. line 5. read Judiciously P. 67. l. 19. r. is directly P. 81. l. 3. r. what words P. 84. l. 3. r. beneficial P. 104. l. 30. r. God is said P. 118. l. 20. r. yet He. P. 123. l. 9. r. with them P. 140. l. 24. r. in to the understanding P. 145. l. 23. r. from these words P. 147. l. 21. r. rite P. 152. l. 16. r. even after P. 168. l. 32. r. throw on Advertisement of some Books lately printed against Popery 1. A Modest Enquiry Whether St. Peter were ever at Rome and Bishop of that Church 2. The Fallibility of the Roman Church demonstrated from the manifest Error of the Second Nicene and Trent Councils which assert That the Veneration and honorary Worship of Images is a Tradition Primitive and Apostolical 3. A Demonstration that the Church of Rome and her Councils have erred by shewing that the Councils of Constance Basil and Trent have in all their Decrees touching Communion in one kind contradicted the received Doctrine of the Church of Christ 4. A Treatise of Traditions Wherein is proved That we have Evidence sufficient from Tradition 1. That the Scriptures are the Word of God. 2. That the Church of England owns the true Canon of the Books of the Old Testament 3. That the Copies of the Scripture have not been corrupted 4. That the Romanists have no such Evidence for their Traditions 5. That the Testimony of the present Church of Rome can be no sure Evidence of Apostolical Tradition 6. What Traditions may securely be relied upon and what not The Second Part.
And vers 15. Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance Which seems to be done by his putting St. Mark to write this Gospel from his Mouth Thus St. Jude says That he gave all diligence to write unto them of the common Salvation and that it was needful for him to write unto them vers 3. And if it was needful for that Age it was much more needful for After-ages We may be sure our Saviour and his Apostles would have that done which was needful in their own Judgments for Mens Salvation And we are likewise assured by St. John that it is done fully as it was needful it should be done that nothing might be left to the uncertainty of Tradition John 20. 31. These things are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have Life through his Name He shows that the writing of these Things is needful to be a Foundation of right Faith to Men and that enough was written then in his own and the other Gospels and Writings which it is said he had seen to be a Foundation of that Faith in Men which is needful to their eternal Salvation So that no saving Truth was left to be conveyed by Tradition at all which yet does not argue the uselessness of what Books were after added as was said before 1 John 1. 4. These things write we unto you that you may rejoice and that your Joy may be full So that the Scripture giving us sufficient knowledg as to what concerns our Faith and Comfort in order to Eternal Salvation how can we imagine any deficiency in it but must needs suppose that it contains in it all the material Objects of Faith and Matters of saving Practice Or how can we depend upon Tradition as distinct from the Scripture which was ever so decried for uncertain mischievous and 〈◊〉 Therefore we conclude with our Church That Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation 〈…〉 whatsoâ—ver is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Artic. 6. It is a sufficient evidence of the vanity and uncertainty of Tradition unwritten that amongst all the Sayings and Works of our blessed Saviour which St. John tells us were so many John 21. 25. That if all the things which he did should be written every one I suppose that even the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written Yet there is not one of all these come certainly to our knowledg but what is written in the Holy Scriptures And we have fair warning also given us of Tradition now in the New Testament 2 Thess 2. 2. Be not soon shaken 〈…〉 or be troubled neither by Spirit nor by Words nor by Letter as from us as that the Day of Christ is at hand Let no Man deceive you by no means By which it appears that even in the Apostles Times there were forged Writings and feigned Traditions which some had the boldness to obtrude for Apostolical Doctrines This is a fair warning to us now much more in these later Ages to give but little heed to any thing however pretended to be never so much Apostolical that is not contained in the Sacred and Apostolical Writings which are owned to be undoubtedly such And indeed how can we believe that the Evangelists and Apostles in all the Writings that they wrote and it does not appear that they wrote any other besides those we have when they write many things that are not so absolutely necessary to be known in order to Salvation yet should omiâ— so many things that are so as the Church of Rome pretends And that when they speak so often of Baptism for Instance that they should never tell us of the Salt and the Spittle the Exâ—cisms and Wax-candles but speak only of being baptized in Water in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost or that they should never when they speak so much of Worship tell us of the worshipping of Saints and Images or of praying for the Dead when they give us so many directions about Prayer c. We must hold fast the Traditions say they which we have been taught by the Apostles 2 Thess 2. 15. But we cannot believe that these and such-like things were ever taught by them when we have nothing at all of any of them in all their Writings And that exhortation could be then meant only of those things which the Thessalonians had heard from them and were very sure of that they were Apostolical Doctrines And which we doubt not were no other but what were after set down in the holy Writings and in them conveyed to us It is impossible for the Church of Rome to shew that they were any other by Tradition only when the traditional conveyance of Points is evidently so uncertain and that which we have been so warned against Yet after all note that all this is nothing against the Tradition of the Universal Church as a means of delivering down to us the Holy Scriptures themselves the number of the Books and the Names of the Authors c. Nor against that which is concurrent with Scripture or corrolorative of it in any Point of Faith or Practice but against that which is urged as a Rule of saving Faith and Practice distinct and different from it and sometimes contrary to it and is pretended to be the Tradition of the Universal Church from the Apostles Age but can never be proved to be so There is no fear of falling into Error therefore either through Ignorance or Infidelity as to such Traditions But we must say as our Saviour Mark 12. 24. Do ye not therefore err because ye know not the Scriptures And as the ignorance of Scripture is the Source and Fountain of Error so on the contrary then to follow the guidance of the Scripture is the way to be preserved from Error CHAP. II. That the Holy Scripture is dark and obscure Bellarm. de Verbo Dei. lib. 3. cap. 5. UPon this ground it is that they withhold the Scripture from the common People pretending that they are not capable Judges of the Sense of it and if they should read it more prejudice than benefit would arise to them from it But this is contrary to that which is written Psal 19. 7 8. The Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Commandment of the Lord is pure or clear enlightning the eyes Can Darkness enlighten Mens Eyes or can it make wise the Simple if it be not Intelligible by them Psal 119. 105. Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path And vers 130. The entrance of thy Words giveth Light It giveth understanding unto the Simple When a Man hath but begun to
there arose another Generation after them that knew not the Lord nor yet his Works which he had done for Israel And the Children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim And they forsook the Lord God of their Fathers which brought them out of the Land of Egypt and followed other Gods of the Gods of the People that were round about them and bowed themselves to them and provoked the Lord to anger And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth How was the Face of the Church disfigured at that Time when they publickly worshipp'd false Gods He that would see the several Ecclipses of the Church of Israel then let him read this History of the Judges particularly Chap. 2. 3 4 6 10. And 2 Chron. 15. 3. When Israel was for a long season without the True God and without a teaching Priest and without the Law. In the Reign of Rehoboam the Son of Solomon ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel revoked from the Service of God and publickly worshipp'd the Calves in Dan and Bethel which were made by the Commandment of Jeroboam 1 King. 12. And if you desire to see how much the Face of the Church was disfigured and how often the Service of God was interrupted read the History of the Kings The ten Tribes were the greatest part of the Church of Israel But in them the Church was so obscured in the Time of Ahab that Elijah complained 1 King. 19. 10. The Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets with the Sword and I even I only am left and they seek my Life to take it away God had indeed reserved to himself 7000 Men that had not bowed their Knees to Baal And 1 King. 18. 4. When Jezebel had put to death the Prophets of the Lord Obadia took an hundred Prophets and hid them by fifty in a Cave and sed them with Bread and Water So that there was a Church then left in Israel but iâ— was so obscured that Elijah himself could not see it In the Kingdom of Judah also there was sometimes the same obscure State of the Church As in the Time of Ahaz 2 Chron. 28. 24 25. For Ahaz gathered together the Vessels of the House of the Lord and cut them in pieces and shut up the Doors of the House of the Lord and he made him Altars in every corner of Jerusalem And in every several City of Judah he made high Places to burn Incense unto other Gods and to provoke to anger the Lord God of his Fathers Repeated again 2 Chron. 29. 6 7. There was no other Church of God then upon Earth but what was among the Children of Israel and Judah and there was not any one Temple dedicated to the Worship of the True God but that at Jerusalem But yet you see that was prophaned the Service of God banish'd Idolatry establish'd And what external Form of a Church then was there there where the true God was not acknowledged or served So in the Time of Manasseh 2 Chron. 33. 4 5. Who built again the high Places which Hezekiah his Father had broken down and he reared up Altars to Baalim and made Groves and worshipped all the Host of Heaven and served them Also he built Altars in the House of the Lord whereof the Lord had said In Jerusalem shall my Name be for ever Which was as great a Promise as ever was made to any Church and if there had been any Promise designed ever to secure the State and Splendour of the Church in any place 〈◊〉 â—ould think this had been such an one If 〈◊〉 had been but a like Promise made or half 〈…〉 said of the Church of Rome what confiâ—â—nt boasting and brags should we have had yet you see Jerusalem and the Temple filled with Idols And it is moreover to be observed that at this time the State of the Church was so corrupt that there were no Copies of the Law to be found extant among the People but the Book of the Law was found in the restoring of the Temple by Josiah at the reading of which as a new thing the King was mightily terrified 2 Chron. 34. 18 19 20. which is a plain Argument that the Law was but little known and the Copies of it generally lost And the Prophet Jeremy saith Jer. 11. 13. That according to the number of thy Cities were thy Gods O Judah And according to the number of the Streets of Jerusalem which is yet called the Holy City Matth. 27. 53. have ye set up Altars to that shameful thing to burn Incense unto Baal And what Corruptions did the Prophet Isaiah complain of before Chap. 1. In the time of the Captivity the whole Land was a desâ—lation and an astonishment Jer. 25. 11. the Temple of Jerusalem was demolish'd and the Service of God beaten down So in the New Testament there are Prophecies of great defections and much obscurity that there should be in the Church 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. For the time will come that they shall not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears And they shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and shall be turned unto Fables So 1 Tim. 4. 1. The Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter Times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils or rather Doctrines concerning Demons or a sort of under-Gods or angelical Mediators with God speaking lies in hypocrisy having their Consciences â—eared with an hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding 〈◊〉 abstain from Meats How well doth this agree to 4. Church of Rome Rev. 12. 6. The Woman by which the Church is represented fled into the Wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God there to lie hid for a time during the rage of the Dragon It is very unjust and unreasonable then to demand that at all times we should shew the visible State of the True Church Rev. 13. 15 16 17. The time is prophesied of that the second Beast shall cause that as many as will not worship the Image of the former Beast shall be killed And he causeth all both small and great rich and poor free and bond to receive a Mark in their right hand and in their forehead and that no Man might buy or sell save he that had the Mark or Name of the Beast or the Number of his Name And how should the Church then during this Tyranny have a visible and flourishing State And the Papists themselves allow that in the time of Antichrist there shall be an universal defection for a time It is certain in Fact that many Churches founded by the Apostles themselves have quite fallen away to Mahometanism And in the time of Athanasius the whole World almost was become Arian And in the Ages just before the Reformation the Purity of the Church was so