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
Argument from them would in a little time be lost Men grow accustomed to what they see daily and it makes no impression otherwise the Wonders of Day and Night of Summer and Winter the ebbing and flowing of the Sea would work more powerfully on us than they do A superfetation of Miracles would have no effect if it were not a bad one to make the Divine Power in working them be called in question and to lead Men to impute them to some Natural Cause or to some Secrets known only to a few In all which we may conclude that according to what our Saviour said of Moses and the Prophets If Men believe not Christ and his Apostles they would not believe tho' a Man should rise from the dead or that the most uncontested Miracle that they would call for should be wrought for their conviction Another Objection of the Infidels is taken from the differences that are between the Gospels in which the same passages seem to be variously related in different words and in another order of time things being by some set down as done after those things before which they are set by others Questions and Answers are variously stated they also find some reasonings that do not seem concluding even those that are brought to convince gainsayers where there ought to be more exactness There is also a lowness and flatness of style that makes the Books seem but mean nor are they laid in any exactness of method but seem to run in a loose ramble besides that there are many passages in them that look staring as that of Christ's preaching to the Spirits in Prison that of Melchisedeck and some other things that we scarce know what to make of These things look not like the Products of Divine Inspiration But in answer to all this we are to consider the different Orders of Inspiration according to the different ends for which it is given Moses had the Law as the Iews confess by an immediate Communication with God as one Man converses with another expressed by the phrase of face to face or mouth to mouth such a degree seemed necessary for one who was to deliver an entire System of a Religion of Sacred Rites as well as Binding Laws to that Nation But those who were only sent to call on the People to the obedience of the Law and to denounce Judgments upon their disobedience and give out Predictions received a lower degree of Inspiration the Will of God being represented to them in Dreams and Visions in which several Representations were drammatically impressed on their Imaginations and explained by a secret Intimation made by God to them Others had yet a lower degree being animated by a Divine Excitation to compose Holy Hymns and Discourses to the edification of the People now as the Iews divide the Books of the Old Testament in three different Volumes according to these various degrees of Inspiration according to which division our Saviour himself cites the Old Testament in all of which we find that those holy Penmen writ in such a diversity that it is apparent every one was left to his own Way and Geniâ—us as to Style and Composition some being much loftier than others Now to apply this to the New Testament It was necessary that Men sent to publish such a Doctrine should be so divinely filled with the knowledge of it and should be so actuated by that same Influence that assisted them miraculously as neither to be able to mistake nor misrepresent any part of it for the Miracles that they wrought bringing the World under an obligation to believe them it was not possible that they could be left to themselves and be subject to mistakes But after all this every one acted according to his natural Temper and writ in his natural Style so we see a great variety in the whole Composition and Method of their Discourses and Epistles The Gospels were writ either by Apostles or by those who were their companions in labour and whose Books were authoris'd by them but it does not clearly appear what method they intended to follow whether to observe the order of Time or the relation that one Passage might have to another in this they were left to their natural Faculties all that was of consequence was to have the Doctrine and Discourses of Christ his Action and his Miracles faithfully stated to us but in the method of ordering or expressing these they might be left to their natural Powers and in this there might be a particular ordering of Providence that every thing should not be said in the same way by every one as by concert which might have looked liker a contrivance it being more genuine when different persons write in different ways and all agree in the same account of the Doctrine and Miracles There may be also many ways of reconciling small diversities which at this distance may be lost to us things may appear to be different that yet may very well agree of which we find innumerable Instances in Critical Authors and those passages whose agreement they have made out give us very good reason to believe that if we had a greater number of contemporary Books now extant we might understand many more better than we can do in this want of them Passages very like one another might have happened in different times of our Saviour's Life and that which seems to be one story related two different ways may be really two different stories and both may be exactly related So that all this Objection instead of derogating from the credit of the Gospel does really heighten it As for many Answers and Reasonings that do not seem to us to be very concluding we are to consider that in a short Relation in which hints are only given it was impossible to open every thing fully we are also little acquainted with the methods of the Iews Arguings at that time Philo and Iosephus are the only Writers that remain The one is short upon their Customs and Notions and he affecting to write elegantly for the Romans and Greeks gives us very little light this way Philo does indeed much more tho' living long at Alexandria and studying the Greek Philosophy he is so mystical and sublime that it is not easie always to comprehend him yet in him we plainly see how much the Iews were delighted with very dark allusions and reasonings and since it is a just and allowable way of arguing with any to argue from Suppositions granted by them and suitably to their Principles and Notions we who plainly see in Philo that the Iews used them to explain a great deal of Scripture by a dark Cabbala are not to wonder if some Arguments run in that strain For instance we do not see how the last words of the 102 Psalm concerning God's creating all things and his Eternity and Unchangeableness belong to the Messias which yet are applied to him in the Epistle to the Hebrews but
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