of them Yet after all these Approbations and many repeated Desires to me to publish it I do not pretend to impose this upon the Reader as the Work of Authority For even our Most Reverend Metropolitans read it only as private Divines without so severe a canvassing of all Particulars as must have been expected if this had been intended to pass for an Authorised Work under a Publick Stamp Therefore my design in giving this Relation of the Motives that led me first to Compose and now to Publish this is only to justify my self both in the one and in the other and to shew that I was not led by any Presumption of my own or with any design to dictate to others In the next place I will give an account of the method in which I executed this Design When I was a Professor of Divinity Thirty Years ago I was then obliged to run over a great many of the Systems and Bodies of Divinity that were writ by the Chief men of the several Divisions of Christendom I found many things among them that I could not like The stiffness of Method the many dark Terms the Niceties of Logick the Artificial Definitions the heaviness as well as the sharpness of Stile and the diffusive length of them disgusted me I thought the whole might well be brought into less compass and be made shorter and more clear less laboured and more simple I thought many Controversies might be cut off some being only disputes about Words and founded on Mistakes and others being about matters of little consequence in which Errors are less criminal and so they may be more easily born with This set me then on composing a great Work in Divinity But I stayed not long enough in that Station to go through above the half of it I enter'd upon the same Design again but in another method during my stay at London in the privacy that I then enjoyed after I had finished the History of our Reformation These were advantages which made this Performance much the easier to me And perhaps the Late Archbishop might from what he knew of the Progress I had made in them judge me the more proper for this Undertaking For after I have said so much to justify my own engaging in such a Work I think I ought to say all I can to justify or at least to excuse his making choice of me for it When I had resolved to try what I could do in this method of following the Thread of our Articles I considered that as I was to explain the Articles of this Church so I ought to examine the Writings of the chief Divines that lived either at the time in which they were prepared or soon after it When I was about the History of our Reformation I had laid out for all the Books that had been writ within the time comprehended in that Period And I was confirmed in my having succeeded well in that Collection by a Printed Catalogue that was put out by one Mansel in the end of Q. Elizabeth's Reign of all the Books that had been Printed from the time that Printing-Presses were first set up in England to that Year This I had from the present Lord Archbishop of York and I saw by it that very few Books had escaped my search Those that I had not fallen on were not writ by men of Name nor upon Important Subjects I resolved in order to this Work to bring my Enquiry further down The first and indeed the much best Writer of Q. Elizabeth's time was Bishop Iuel the lasting honour of the See in which the Providence of God has put me as well as of the Age in which he lived who had so great share in all that was done then particularly in compiling the Second Book of Homilies that I had great reason to look on his Works as a very sure Commentary on our Articles as far as they led me From him I carried down my search through Reynolds Humphreys Whitaker and the other great men of that time Our Divines were much diverted in the end of that Reign from better Enquiries by the Disciplinarian Controversies and though what Whitgift and Hooker writ on those Heads was much better than all that came after them yet they neither satisfied those against whom they writ nor stopt the Writings of their own side But as Waters gush in when the Banks are once broken so the breach that these had made proved fruitful Parties were formed Secular Interests were grafted upon them and new Quarrels followed those that first begun the Dispute The Contests in Holland concerning Predestination drew on another Scene of Contention among us as well as them which was managed with great heat Here was matter for angry men to fight it out till they themselves and the whole Nation grew weary of it The Question about the Morality of the Fourth Commandment was an unhappy Incident that raised a new strife The Controversies with the Church of Rome were for a long while much laid down The Archbishop of Spalata's Works had appeared with great Pomp in King Iames's Time and they drew the Observation of the Learned World much after them though his unhappy Relapse and fatal Catastrophe made them to be less read afterwards than they well deserved to have been When the Progress of the House of Austria began to give their Neighbours great Apprehensions so that the Protestant Religion seemed to come under a very thick Cloud and upon that Jealousies began to rise at home in King Charles's Reign this gave occasion to two of the best Books that we yet have The one set out by Archbishop Laud writ with great Learning Judgment and Exactness The other by Chillingworth writ with so clear a Thread of Reason and in so lively a Stile that it was justly reckoned the best Book that had been writ in our Language It was about the nicest Point in Popery that by which they had made the most Proselytes and that had once imposed on himself Concerning the Infallibility of the Church and the Motives of Credibility Soon after that we fell into the Confusions of Civil War in which our Divines suffered so much that while they were put on their own defence against those that had broke the Peace of the Church and State few Books were written but on those Subjects that were then in Debate among our selves Concerning the Government of the Church and our Liturgy and Ceremonies The Disputes about the Decrees of God were again managed with a new heat There were also great Abstractions set on foot in those times concerning Iustification by Faith and these were both so subtile and did seem to have such a tendency not only to Antinomianism but to a Libertine course of Life that many Books were writ on those Subjects That Noble Work of the Poliglot Bible together with the Collection of the Criticks set our Divines much on the study of the Scriptures and the Oriental Tongues
an Argument for it from our Saviour's Example He begins with the dignity of his Person expressed thus That he was in the form of God and that he thought it no robbery to be equal with God Then his Humiliation comes That he made himself of no reputation but took on him the form of a servant the same Word with that used in the former Verse after which follows his Exaltation and a Name or Authority above every Name or Authority is said to be given him so that all in Heaven Earth and under the Earth which seems to Import Angels Men and Devils should bow at his Name and confess that he is the Lord. Now in this Progress that is made in these words it is plain That the Dignity of Christ's Person is represented as Antecedent both to his Humiliation and to his Exaltation It was that which put the value on his Humiliation as his Humiliation was rewarded by his Exaltation This Dignity is expressed first That he was in the Form of God before he humbled himself He was certainly in the form of a Servant that is really a Servant as other Servants are He was obedient to his Parents he was under the Authority both of the Romans of Herod and of the Sanhedrim Therefore since his being really a Servant is expressed by his being in the form of a Servant his being in the form of God must also import That he was truly God But the â—ollowing words That he thought it not robbery to be equal or be held equal for so the word may be rendred with God carry such a natural Signification of his being neither a Made nor Subordinate God and that his Divinity is neither precarious nor by concession that fuller words cannot be devised for expressing an entire Equality Those who deny this are aware of it and therefore they have put another sense on the words in the form of God They think That they signify his appearing in the World as one sent in the Name of God representing him Working Miracles and delivering a Law in his Name and the words rendred he thought it no robbery they render he did not catch at or vehemently desire to be held in equal honour with God And some Authorities are found in Eloquent Greek Authors who use the words rendred he thought it not robbery in a figurative sense for the earnestness of desire or the pursuing after a thing greedily as Robbers do for their Prey This rendring represents St. Paul as Treating so sacred a Point in the Figures of a high and seldom-used Rhetorick which one would think ought to have been expressed more exactly But if even this sense is allowed it will make a strange Period and a very odd sort of an Argument to enforce Humility upon us because Christ though Working Miracles did not desire or snatch at Divine Adorations in an Equality with God The Sin of Lucifer and the cause of his Fall is commonly believed to be his desire to be equal to God and yet this seems to be such an extravagant piece of pride that it is scarce possible to think That even the Sublimest of Created Beings should be capable of it To be next to God seems to be the utmost heigth to which even the Diabolical Pride could aspire So that here by the Sense which the Socinians put on those words they will import That we are persuaded to be humble from the Example of Christ who did not affect an Equality with God The bare repeating of this seems so fully to expose and overthrow it that I think it is not necessary to say more upon this place Acts 20.28 1 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 5.20 Tit. 2.13 Jam. 2.1 The next head of Proof is made up of more particulars All the Names the Operations and even the Attributes of God are in full and plain words given to Christ. He is called God his Blood is said to be the Blood of God God is said to have laid down his life for us Christ is called the true God the great God the Lord of Glory the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and more particularly the Name Iehovah is ascribed to him in the same word in which the LXX Interpreters had Translated it throughout the whole Old Testament Rev. 1.8 Rev. 19.16 So that this constant Uniformity of Stile between the Greek of the New and that Translation of the Old Testament which was then received and was of great Authority among the Iews and was yet of more Authority among the first Christians is an Argument that carries such a weight with it that this alone may serve to determine the Matter The Creating the Preserving and the Governing of all things is also ascribed to Christ in a variety of placâ—s but most remarkably when it is said That by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth Visible and Invisible Whether they be Thrones Col. 1.16.17 â—ohn 2.25 Mat. â—1 27. Mat. 9.6 Joh. 15.26 Joh. 14.13 Joh. 5 25 26. Joh. 6.39 40. or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist He is said to have known what was in man to have known mens secret thoughts and to have known all things That as the Father was known of none but of the Son so none know the Son but the Father He pardons Sin sends the Spirit gives Grace and Eternal Life and he shall raise the dead at the last day When all these things are laid together in that variety of Expressions in which they lie scattered in the New Testament it is not possible to retain any reverence for those Books if we imagine that they are writ in a Stile so full of approaches to the Deifying of a mere Man that without a very Critical studying of Languages and Phrases it is not possible to understand them otherwise Idolatry and a Plurality of Gods seem to be the main things that the Scriptures warn us against and yet here is a pursued Thread of Passages and Discourses that do naturally lead a man to think that Christ is the True God who yet according to these men only acted in his Name and has now a high Honour put on him by him This carries me to another Argument to prove that the Word that was made Flesh was truly God Nothing but the True God can be the proper Object of Adoration This is one of those Truths that seems almost so evident that it needs not to be proved Adoration is the humble Prostration of our selves before God in Acts that own our dependance upon him both for our Being and for all the Blessings that we do either enjoy or hope for and also in earnest Prayers to him for the continuance of these to us This is testified by such outward Gestures and Actions as are most proper to express our Humility and Submission to God All this has
Deuteronomy The First Book of Chronicles Ecclesiastes or Preacher Ioshua The Second Book of Chronicles Cantica or Song of Solomon Iudges The First Book of Esdras Four Prophets the greater Ruth The Second Book of Esdras Twelve Prophets the less And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet it doth not apply them to Establish any Doctrine Such are these following The Third Book of Esdras The Fourth Book of Esdras The Book of Tobias The Book of Iudith The rest of the Book of Esther The Book oâ— Wisdom Iesus the Son of Syrach Baruch the Prophet The Song of the Three Children The History of Susanna Of Bel and the Dragon The Prayer of Manasses The First Book of Maccabees The Second Book of Maccabees All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them Canonical IN this Article are Two important Heads and to each of them a proper consequence does belong The First is That the Holy Scriptures do contain all things necessary to Salvation The Negative Consequence that ariseth out of that is That no Article that is not either Read in it or that may not be proved by it is to be required to be believed as an Article of Faith or to be thought necessary to Salvation The Second is The settling the Canon of the Scripture both of Old and New Testament and the consequence that arises out of that is The rejecting the Books commonly called Apocryphal which though they may be Read by the Church for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners yet are no part of the Canon nor is any Doctrine to be Established by them After the main Foundations of Religion in General in the belief of a God or more specially of the Christian Religion in the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are laid down The next Point to be settled is What is the Rule of this Faith where is it to be found and with whom is it lodged The Church of Rome and We do both agree that the Scriptures are of Divine Inspiration Those of that Communion acknowledge That every thing which is contained in Scripture is true and comes from God but they add to this That the Books of the New Testament were occasionally written and not with the design of making them the full Rule of Faith but that many things were delivered Orally by the Apostles which if they are faithfully Transmitted to us are to be received by us with the same Submission and Respect that we pay to their Writings And they also believe That these Traditions are conveyed down infallibly to us and that to distinguish betwixt true and false Doctrines and Traditions there must be an infallible Authority lodged by Christ with his Church We on the contrary affirm That the Scriptures are a compleat Rule of Faith and that the whole Christian Religion is contained in them and no where else and although we make great use of Tradition especially that which is most Ancient and nearest the Source to help us to a clear understanding of the Scriptures yet as to Matters of Faith we reject all Oral Tradition as an incompetent mean of conveying down Doctrines to us and we refuse to receive any Doctrine that is not either expresly contained in Scripture or clearly proved from it In order to the opening and proving of this it is to be considered what God's design in first ordering Moses and after him all Inspired Persons to put things in Writing could be it could be no other than to free the World from the Uncertainties and Impostures of Oral Tradition All Mankind being derived from one common Source it seems it was much easier in the first Ages of the World to preserve the Tradition pure than it could possibly be afterwards There were only a few things then to be delivered concerning God as That he was one Spiritual Being That he had Created all things That he alone was to be Worshipped and Served the rest relating to the History of the World and chiefly of the first Man that was made in it There were also great advantages on the side of Oral Tradition the first men were very long-liv'd and they saw their own Families spread extreamly so that they had on their side both the Authority which long Life always has particularly concerning Matters of Fact and the credit that Parents have naturally with their own Children to secure Tradition Two Persons might have conveyed it down from Adam so Abraham Methuselah lived above Three hundred years while Adam was yet alive and Sem was almost an hundred when he died and he lived much above an hundred years in the same time with Abraham according to the Hebrew Here is a great period of Time filled up by Two or Three Persons And yet in that Time the Tradition of those very few things in which Religion was then comprehended was so Universally and Intirely corrupted that it was necessary to correct it by immediate Revelation to Abraham God intending to have a peculiar People to himself out of his Posterity commanded him to forsake his Kindred and Country that he might not be corrupted with an Idolatry that we have reason to believe was then but beginning among them We are sure his Nephew Laban was an Idolater And the danger of mixing with the rest of Mankind was then so great that God ordered a Mark to be made on the Bodies of all descended from him to be the Seal of the Covenant and the Badge and Cognisance of his Posterity By that distinction and by their living in a wandring and unfixed manner they were preserved for some time from Idolatry God intending afterwards to settle them in an Instituted Religion But though the Beginnings of it I mean the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai was one of the most amazing things that ever happened and the fittest to be Orally conveyed down the Law being very short and the Circumstances in the delivery of it most astonishing and though there were many Rites and several Festivities appointed chiefly for the carrying down the Memory of it though there was also in that dispensation the greatest advantage imaginable for securing this Tradition all the main Acts of their Religion being to be performed in one Place and by men of one Tribe and Family as they were also all the Inhabitants of a small Tract of Ground of one Language and by their Constitutions oblig'd to maintain a constant Commerce among themselves They having further a continuance of Signal Characters of God's Miraculous Presence among them such as the Operation of the Water of Jealousy the Plenty of the Sixth Year to supply them all the Sabbatical Year and tilâ— the Harvest of the following Year Together with a Succession of Prophets that followed one another either in a constant course or at least soon after one another but
Body The Third is concerning his Ascension and Continuance in Heaven And the Fourth is concerning his returning to judge all men at the Last Day These things are all so expresly affirmed and that in so particular a manner in the New Testament that if the Authority of that Book is once well proved little doubting will remain concerning them It is punctually told in it That the Body of Christ was laid in the Sepulchre That a Stone was laid to the Mouth of it That it was rolled away and upon that Christ arose and left the Death-Cloaths behind him That those who viewed the Sepulchre saw no Body there That in the same Body Christ shewed himself to his Disciples so that they all knew him he talked with them and they did eat and drink with him and he made Thomas feel to the Print of the Nails and Spear It is as plainly told That the Apostles look'd on and saw him ascend up to Heaven and that a Cloud received him out of their sight It is also said very plainly that he shall come again at the Last Day and judge all men both the Quick and the Dead So that if the Truth of the Gospels is once fully proved it will not be necessary to insist long upon the special Proof of these Particulars Somewhat will only be necessary to be said in Explanation of them The Gospel was first Preached and soon after put in Writing in which these Particulars are not only delivered but are set forth with many Circumstances relating to them The Credit of the Whole is put on that Issue concerning the Truth of Christ's Resurrection so thar the overthrowing the Truth of That was the overturning the whole Gospel and struck at the Credit of it all This was transacted as well as first published at Ierusalem where the Enemies of it had all possible Advantages in their hands their Interest was deeply concerned as well as their Malice was much kindled at it They had both Power and Wealth in their hands as well as Credit and Authority among the People The Romans left them at full liberty as they did the other Nations whom they conquered to order their own Concerns as they pleased And even the Romans themselves began quickly to hate and persecute the Christians They became the Objects of Popular Fury as Tacitus tells us The Romans look'd upon Christ as one that set on the Iews to those Tumults that were then so common among them as Suetonius affirms Which shews both how ignorant they were of the Doctrine of Christ and how much they were prejudiced against it Yet this Gospel did spread it self and was believed by great multitudes both at Ierusalem and in all Iudea and from thence it was propagated in a very few Years to a great many remoteCountries Among all Christians the Article of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ was always look'd on as the Capital one upon which all the rest depended This was attested by a considerable number of men against whose Credit no Objection was made who affirmed that they all had seen him and conversed frequently with him after his Resurrection that they saw him ascend up into Heaven and that according to a Promise he had made them they had received extraordinary Powers from him to work Miracles in his Name and to speak in divers Languages This last was a most amazing Character of a Supernatural Power lodged with them and was a thing of such a nature that it must have been evident to every man whether it was true or false So that the Apostles relating this so positively and making such frequent Appeals to it that way of proceeding carries a strong and undeniable Evidence of Truth in it These Wonders were gathered together in a Book and published in the very Time in which they were transacted The Acts of the Apostles were writ two Years after St. Paul was carried Prisoner to Rome and St. Luke begins that Book with the mention of the Gospel that he had formerly writ as that Gospel begins with the mention of some other Gospels that were writ before it Almost all the Epistles speak of the Temple of Ierusalem as yet in being of the Iews as then in Peace and Prosperity hating and persecuting the Christians every where They do also frequently intimate the Assurance they had of a great Deliverance that was to happen quickly to the Christians and of terrible Judgments that were to be poured out on the Iews which was soon after that accomplish'd in the most signal manner of any thing that is recorded in History These things do clearly prove That all the Writings of the New Testament were both Composed and Published in the Age in which that Matter was transacted The Iews who from all the places of their Dispersion went frequently to Ierusalem to keep the great Festivities of their Religion there had occasion often to examine upon the place the Truth of the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and of the Effusion of the Holy Ghost Yet even in that Infancy of Christianity in which it had so little visible Strength no Proof was so much as ever pretended in opposition to those great and essential Points which being Matters of Fact and related with a great Variety of Circumstances had been easily confuted if there had been any ground for it The great Darkness at the time of Christ's Death the rending the Veil of the Temple in two as well as what was more publick the renting of the Rocks at his death His being laid in a new Sepulchre and a Watch being set about it and the Watchmen reporting That while they slept the Body of Christ was carried away The Apostles breaking out all of the sudden into that variety of Tongues on Pentecost the Miracles that they wrought and the proceedings of the Sanhedrim with them were all things so publickly done that as the discovery of Falshood in any one of these was in the power of the Iews if any such was so That alone had most effectually destroyed the Credit of this Religion and stopt its Progress The Writings of the New Testament were at that time no Secrets they were in all mens hands and were copied out freely by every one that desired it We find within an Hundred Years after that time both by the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna by Iustin and Irenaeus not to mention Clemens of Rome who lived in that time or Ignatius and Polycarp who lived very near it That the Authority of these Writings was early received and submitted to That they were much read and well known and that they began very soon to be read at the Meetings of the Christians for Worship and were esteemed by the several Churches as the great Trust and Depositum that was lodged with them So that though by the Negligence of Copiers some small Variations might happen among some of the Copies yet as they do all agree in the main and most signally in
an Oral Tradition which they themselves had not put in writing They do sometimes refer themselves to such things as they had delivered to particular Churches but by Tradition in the Apostles days and for some Ages after it is very clear that they meant only the conveyance of the Faith and not any unwritten Doctrines They reckoned the Faith was a sacred depositum which was committed to them and that was to be preserved pure among them But it were very easy to shew in the continued Succession of all the first Christian Writers That they still Appealed to the Scriptures That they Argued from them That they Condemned all Doctrines that were not contained in them and when at any time they brought human Authorities to justify their Opinions or Expressions they contented themselves with a very few and those very late Authorities So that their design in vouching them seems to be rather to clear themselves from the Imputation of having innovated any thing in the Doctrine or in the ways of expressing it than that they thought those Authorities were necessary to prove them by For in that case they must have taken a great deal more pains than they did to have followed up and proved the Tradition much higher than they went We do also plainly see that such Traditions as were not founded on Scripture were easily corrupted and on that account were laid aside by the succeeding Ages Such were the Opinion of Christ's Reign on Earth for a Thousand years The Saints not seeing God till the Resurrection The necessity of giving Infants the Eucharist The Divine Inspiration of the 70 Interpreters besides some more important Matters which in respect to those Times are not to be too much descanted upon It is also plain That the Gnosticks the Valentinians and other Hereticks began very early to set up a Pretension to a Tradition delivered by the Apostles to some particular persons as a Key for understanding the secret meanings that might be in Scripture in opposition to which both Irenaeus Tertullian and others Iren. I. 3. c. 1 2 3 4 5. Tertul. de presc Cap. 20 21 25 27 28. make use of Two sorts of Arguments The one is the Authority of the Scripture it self by which they confuted their Errors The other is a Point of Fact That there was no such Tradition In asserting this they appeal to those Churches which had been founded by the Apostles and in which a Succession of Bishops had been continued down They say in these we must search for Apostolical Tradition This was not said by them as if they had designed to establish Tradition as an Authority distinct from or equal to the Scriptures But only to shew the falshood of that pretence of the Hereticks and that there was no such Tradition for their Heresies as they gave out When this whole Matter is considered in all its parts such as 1 st That nothing is to be believed as an Article of Faith unless it appears to have been Revealed by God 2 dly That Oral Tradition appâ—ars both from the Nature of Man and the Experience of former Times to be an incompetent conveâ—er of Truth 3 dly That some Books were written for the conveyance of those Matters which have been in all Ages carefully preserved and esteemed sacred 4 thly That the Writers of the First Ages do always Argue from and Appeal to these Books And 5 thly That what they have said without Authority from them has been rejected in succeeding Ages the Truth of this Branch of our Article is fully made out If what is contain'd in theScripture in express words is theObject of our Faith then it will follow That whatsoever may be proved from thence by a just and lawful consequence is also to be believed Men may indeed Err in framing these Consequences and Deductions they may mistake or stretch them too far but though there is much Sophistry in the World yet there is also true Logick and a certain Thread of Reasoning And the sense of every Proposition being the same whether expressed always in the same or in different words then whatsoever appears to be clearly the sense of any place of Scripture is an Object of Faith tho it should be otherwise expressed than as it is in Scripture and every just Inference from it must be as true as the Proposition it self is Therefore it is a vain cavil to ask express words of Scripture for every Article That was the Method of all the Anciâ—nt Hereticks Christ and his Apostles Argued from the words and passages in the Old Testament to prove such things as agreed with the true sense of them and so did all the Fathers and therefore so may we do The great Objection to this is That the Scriptures are dark That the same place is capable of different Senses the Literal and the Mystical And therefore since we cannot understand the true Sense of the Scripture we must not Arguefrom it but seek for an Interpreterofit on whom we may depend All Sects Argue from thence and fancy that they find their Tenets in it And therefore this can be no sure way of finding out sacred Truth since so many do err that follow it In Answer to this it is to be considered That the Old Testament was delivered to the whole Nation of the Iews that Moses was read in the Synagogue in the hearing of the Women and Children that whole Nation was to take their Doctrine and Rules from it All Appeals wâ—re made to the Law and to the Prophets among them And though the Propâ—â—cies of the Old Testament were in their Stile and whole Contexture dark and hard to be understood yet when so great a Question as this Who was the true Messias came to be examined the proofs urged for it were Passages in the Old Testament Now the Question was How these were to be understood No Appeal was here made to Tradition or to Church-Authority but only by the Enemies of our Saviour Whereas he and his Disciples urge these passages in their true sense and in the consequences that arose out of them They did in that Appeal to the rational Faculties of those to whom they spoke The Christian Religion was at first delivered to poor and simple Multitudes who were both illiterate and weak the Epistles which are by much the hardest to be understood of the whole New Testament were Addressed to the whole Churches to all the Faithful or Saints that is to all the Christians in those Churches These were afterwards read in all thâ—ir Assemblies Upon this it may reasonably be asked Were these Writings clear in that Age or were they not If they were not it is unaccountable why they were addressed to the whole Body and how they came to be received and entertained as they were It is the End of Speech and Writing to make things to be understood and it is not supposable That Men Inspired by the Holy Ghost either could not or would
therefore to such Arguments as may be well insisted upon and maintained The Canon of the New Testament as we now have it is fully proved from the Quotations out of the Books of the New Testament by the Writers of the First and Second Centuries such as Clemens Ignatius Iustin Irenaeus and several others Papias who conversed with the Disciples of the Apostles is cited by Eusebius in confirmation of St. Matthew's Gospel which he says was writ by him in Hebrew Lib. 3. Hist. c 39. c. 25. He is also cited to prove that St. Mark writ his Gospel from St. Peter's Preaching which is also confirmed by Clemens of Alexandria not to mention later Writers Irenaeus says St. Luke writ his Gospel according to St. Paul's Preaching Eus. l. 2. Hist. c. 15. which is supported by some Words in St. Paul's Epistles that relate to Passages in that Gospel yet certainly he had likewise other Vouchers those who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word though the whole might receive its full Authority from St. Paul's Approbation St. Iohn writ later than the other Three so the Testimonies concerning his Gospel are the fullest and the most particular Lib. 3. cap. 11. Irenaeus has laboured the Proof of this matter with much Care and Attention He lived within an Hundred years to St. Iohn and knew Policarp that was one of his Disciples After him come Tertullian and Origen who speak very copiously of the Four Gospels Tert. l. 4. cont Mar. cap. 1. Orig. apud Eus. lib. 6. cap. 25. and from them all the Ecclesiastical Writers have without any doubting or Controversy acknowledged and cited them without the least shadow of any Opposition except what was made by Marcion and the Manichees Next to these Authorities we appeal to the Catalogues of the Books of the New Testament that are given us in the Third and Fourth Centuries by Origen a Man of great Industry and that had examined the State of many Churches by St. Athanasius by the Council of Laodicea and Carthage Athan. in Synops. Conc. cap. 60. Carth. 3. c. 47. and after these we have a constant Succession of Testimonies that do deliver these as the Canon universally received All this laid together does fully prove this Point and that the more clearly when these Particulars are considered 1. That the Books of the New Testament were read in all their Churches and at all their Assemblies so that this was a Point in which it was not easy for men to mistake 2 dly That this was so near the Fountain that the Originals themselves of the Apostles were no doubt so long preserved 3 dly That both the Iews as appears from Iustin Martyr and the Gentiles Dial. cum Trypho as appears by Celsus knew that these were the Books in which the Faith of the Christians was contained 4 thly That some question was made touching some of them because there was not that clear or general knowledge concerning them that there was concerning the others yet upon fuller enquiry all acquiesced in them No doubt was ever made about Thirteen of St. Pauls Epistles because there were particulaâ— Churches or Persons to whom the Originals of them were directed Tertul. de Presc cap. â—6 But the Strain and Design of that to the Hebrews being to remove their Prejudices that high one which they had taken up against St. Paul as an Enemy to their Nation was to be kept out of view that it might not blast the good Effects which were intended by it yet it is cited oftner than once by Clemens of Rome And though the Ignorance of many of the Roman Church who thought that some Passages in it favoured the Severity of the Novatians Orig. Ep. ad African Orig. Exhort ad Martyr Eusec Hist. lib. 6. c. 20. Hieron Ep. ad Dardan Cyr. Catech 4. that cut off Apostates from the hopes of Repentance made them question it of which mention is made both by Origen Eusebius and Ierome who frequently affirm that the Latin Church or the Roman did not receive it yet Athanasius reckons both this and the Seven General Epistles among the Canonical Writings Cyril of Ierusalem who had occasion to be well informed about it says that he delivers his Catalogue from the Church as she had received it from the Apostles the Ancient Bishops and the Governors of the Church and reckons up in it both the Seven General Epistles and the Fourteen of St. Paul So does Ruffin and so do the Councils of Laodicea and Carthage Apud Hieron Tom. 4. the Canons of the former being received into the Body of the Canons of the Universal Church Can. 60. Can. 47. Irenaeus Origen and Clemens of Alexandria cite the Epistle to the Hebrews frequently Some question was made of the Epistle of St. Iames Iren. l. 3. c. 38. Orig. l. 3. 7. con Cels. Dial. con Marc. Ep. ad Afric Clem. Alex. Ignat. Ep. ad Ephe. Orig. Hom. 13. in Genes Eus. Hist. l. 2. c. 22. l. 3. c· 24 27. Hieron Pref. in Ep. Jac. Orig. cont Marcion Firmil Ep. 75. ap Cypr. Eus. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. the Second of St. Peter the Second and Third of St. Iohn and St. Iude's Epistle But both Clemens of Rome Ignatius and Origen cite St. Iame's Epistle Eusebius says it was known to most and read in most Christian Churches The like is testified by St. Ierom. St. Peter's Second Epistle is cited by Origen and Firmilian and Eusebius says it was held very useful even by those who held it not Canonical But since the First Epistle was never questioned by any the Second that carries so many Characters of its Genuineness such as St. Peter's Name at the Head of it the mention of the Transfiguration and of his being an Eye-witness of it Iren. l. 1. c. 13. Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. Tertul. de Carne Chr. c. 24. Euseb. Hist. l. 6. c. 24. Tertul. de cultu faem are evident Proofs of its being writ by him The Second and Third Epistles of St. Iohn are cited by Irenaeus Clemens and Dennis of Alexandria and by Tertullian The Epistle of St. Iude is also cited by Tertullian Some of those General Epistles were not addressed to any particular Body or Church that might have preserved the Originals of them but were sent about in the nature of Circular Letters so that it is no wonder if they were not received so early and with such an Unanimity as we find concerning the Four Gospel's the Acts of the Apostles and Thirteen of St. Paul's Epistles These being first fixed upon by an unquestioned and undisputed Tradition made that here was a Standard once ascertained to judge the better of the rest So when the matter was strictly examined so near the Fountain that it was very possible and easy to find out the Certainty of it then in the beginning of the Fourth Century the Canon was settled and universally agreed to
The Stile and Matter of the Revelation as well as the designation of Divine given to the Author of it gave occasion to many Questions about it Clemens of Rome cites it as a Prophetical Book Clem. in Ep. ad Coâ— Justin cont Tryphon Irenaeus l 5. c. 30. Eus. Hist. l. 4. c. 24 26. l. 5. c. 18. l. 7. c. 27. Iustin Martyr says it was writ by Iohn one of Christ's Twelve Apostles Irenaeus calls it the Revelation of St. Iohn the Disciple of our Lord writ almost in our own Age in the End of Domitian's Reign Melito writ upon it Theophilus of Antioch Hyppolitus Clemens and Dennis of Alexandria Tertullian Cyprian and Origen do cite it And thus the Canon of the New Testamentseems to be fullymade outbythe concurrent Testimony of the several Churches immediately after the Apostolicaltime Here it is to be observed that a great difference is to be made between all this and the Oral Tradition of a Doctrine in which there is nothing fixed or permanent so that the whole is only Report carried about and handed down Whereas here is a Book that was only to be copied out and read publickly and by all Persons between which the difference is so vast that it is as little possible to imagine how the one should continue pure as how the other should come to be corrupted There was never a Book of which we have that reason to be assured that it is genuine that we have here There hapned to be constant Disputes among Christians from the Second Century downward concerning some of the most important Parts of this Doctrine and by both sides these Books were appealed to And though there might be some Variations in Readings and Translations yet no question was made concerning the Canon or the Authenticalness of the Books themselves unless it were by the Manichees who came indeed to be called Christians by a very enlarged way of speaking since it is justly strange how men who said that the Author of the Universe and of the Mosaical Dispensation was an Evil God and who held that there were Two Supreme Gods a Good and an Evil one how such men I say could be called Christians The Authority of those Books is not derived from any Judgment that the Church made concerning them but from this That it was known that they were writ either by men who were themselves the Apostles of Christ or by those who were their Assistants and Companions at whose Order or under whose Direction and Approbation it was known that they were written and published These Books were received and known for such in the very Apostolical Age it self so that many of the Apostolical men such as Ignatius and Polycarp lived long enough to see the Canon generally received and settled The suffering and depressed state of the First Christians was also such that as there is no reason to suspect them of Imposture so it is not at all credible that an Imposture of this kind could have passed upon all the Christian Churches A man in a Corner might have forged the Sibylline Oracles or some other Pieces which were not to be generally used and they might have apâ—â—ared soon after and Crâ—dit might have been given too easily to a Book or Writing of that kind But it cannot be imagined that in an Age in which the belief of this Doctrine brought men under great Troubles and in which Miracles and other extraordinary Gifts were long continued in the Church that I say either False Books could have been so early obtruded on the Church as True or that True Books could have been so vitiated as to lose their Original Purity while they were so universally read and used and that so soon or that the Writers of that very Age and of the next should have been so generally and so grosly imposed upon as to have cited Spurious Writings for True These are things that could not be believed in the Histories or Records of any Nation Though the Value that the Christians set upon these Books and the constant use they made of them reading a parcel of them every Lord's Day make this much less supposable in the Christian Religion than it could be in any other sort of History or Record whatsoever The early spreading of the Christian Religion to so many remote Countries and Provinces the many Copies of these Books that lay in Countries so remote the many Translations of them that were quickly made do all concur to make the Impossibility of any such Imposture the more sensible Thus the Canon of the New Testament is fixed upon clear and sure Grounds From thence without any further Proof we may be convinced of the Canon of the Old Testament Christ does frequently cite Moses and the Prophets he appeals to them and though he charged the Iews of that time chiefly their Teachers and Rulers with many Disorders and Faults yet he never once so much as insinuated that they had corrupted their Law or other Sacred Books which if true had been the greatest of all those Abuses that they had put upon the People Our Saviour cited their Books according to the Translation that was then in Credit and common Use amongst them When one asked him which was the great Commandment he answered How readest thou And he proved the chief things relating to himself his Death and Resurrection from the Prophecies that had gone before which ought to have been fulfilled in him He also cites the Old Testament Luke 24.44 by a Threefold Division of the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms according to the Three Orders of Books into which the Iews had divided it The Psalms which was the first among the Holy Writings being set for that whole Volume St. Paul says That to the Iews were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 He reckons that among the chief of their Privileges but he never blames them for being unfaithful in this Trust and it is certain that the Iews have not corrupted the chief of those Passages that are urged against them to prove Jesus to have been the Christ. So that the Old Testament at least the Translation of the LXX Interpreters which was in common use and in high esteem among the Iews in our Saviour's time was as to the main faithful and uncorrupted This might be further urged from what St. Paul says concerning those Scriptures which Timothy had learned of a Child these could be no other than the Books of the Old Testament Thus if the Writings of the New Testament are acknowledged to be of Divine Authority the full Testimony that they give to the Books of the Old Testament does sufficiently prove their â—uthority and Genuineness likewise But to carry this matter yet further Moses wrought such Miracles both in Egypt in passing through the Red-Sea and in the Wilderness that if these are acknowledg'd to be true there can be no question made of his being sent of God and authorized by
him to deliver his Will to the Iewish Nation The Relation given of those Miracles represents them to be such in themselves and to have been acted so publickly that it cannot be pretended they were Tricks or that some bold Asserters gained a Credit to them by affirming them They were so publickly transacted that the Relations given of them are either downright Fables or they were clear and uncontested Characters of a Prophet authorized of God Nor is the Relation of them made with any of those Arts that are almost necessary to Impostors The Iewish Nation is all along represented as froward and disobedient apt to murmur and rebel The Laws it contains as to the Political part are calculated to advance both Justice and Compassion to awaken Industry and yet to repress Avarice Liberty and Authority are duly tempered the moral part is pure and suitable to Human Nature though with some Imperfections and Tolerances which were connived at but yet regulated And for the Religious part Idolatry Magick and all Human Sacrifices were put away by it When we consider what remains are left us of the Idolatry of the Egyptians and what was afterward among the Greeks and Romans who were Polite and well constituted as to their Civil Laws and Rules and may be esteem'd the most refin'd Pieces of Heathenism we do find a Simplicity and Purity a Majesty and Gravity a Modesty with a Decencyin the Iewish Rituals to which the others can in no sort be compar'd In the Books of Moses no design for himself appears his Posterity were but in the Crowd Levites without any Character of Distinction and he spares neither himself nor his Brother when there was occasion to mention their Faults no more than he does the rest of his Countrymen It is to be further considered that the Laws and Policy appointed by Moses settled many Rules and Rites that must have perpetuated the Rememâ—rance of them The Land was to be divided by Lot and every Shaâ—e was to descend in an Inheritance The frequent Assemblies at Ierusalem on the Three great Festivals the Sabbaths the New Moons the Sabbatical Year and the great Jubilee the Law of the double Tythe the Sacrifices of so many different kinds the distinctions of Meats the Prohibition of eating Blood together with many other Particulars were all founded upon it Now let it be a little considered whether the Foundation of all this I mean the Five Books of Moses could be a Forgery or not If the Pentateuch was delivered by Moses himself to the Iews and received by them as the Rule both of their Religion and Policy then it is not possible to conceive but that the Recital of all that is contained from the Book of Exodus to the End of Deuteronomy was known by them to be true and this establishes the Credit of the whole But if this is not admitted then let it be considered in what time it can possibly be supposed that this Imposture could have appeared There is a continued Series of Books of their History that goes down to the Babylonish Captivity so if there was an Imposture of this sort set on foot in that time all that History must have been made upon it and an account must have been given of the discovery of those Books otherwise the Imposture must have been too weak to have gain'dCredit Whereas on the contrary thewholeThread of their History represents these Books to have been always amongst them The discovery made in the Reign of Iosias cannot be supposed to be of this sort since how much disorder soever the long and wicked Reign of Manasses might have brought them under and what havock soever might have been made of the Writings that were held Sacred among them yet it was impossible that a Series of Forged Laws and Histories could have been put upon them of which there was still a contiâ—ued Memory preserved among them and that they could be brought to believe that a Book and a Law full of so much History and of so many various and unusual Rites founded upon it had been held Sacred among them for many Ages if it was but a new Invention Therefore this is an extravagant Conceit So that the Book that was then found in the Temple was either the Original of the Law written by Moses's own hand 2 Chron. 34.14 for so the Words may be rendred or it may be understood of some of the last Chapters of Deuteronomy Ch. 26.16 to the End of Deut. which seem by the Tenor of them to have been at first a Book by themselves tho afterwards joined to the rest of Deuteronomy and in the Collection that Iosias was making these might be wanting at first and in these there are such severe Threatnings that it was no wonder if aHeart so tender as Iosias's Dâ—ut 18. 〈◊〉 36. to 〈◊〉 End was verymuch affected at the readingthem Upon the whole matter there is no Period in the whole History of the Iews to which any suspicion of such an Imposture can be fasten'd before the Babylonish Captivity So it must be laid either upon the timâ—s of Captivity or soon after their Return out of it Now not to observe that men in such Circumstances are seldom capable of things of that nature Can it be imagined that a Series of Books that run through many Ages could have been framed so particularly and yet so exactly that nothing in any concurrent History could ever be brought to disprove any part of it That such a thing could pass in so short a time upon a whole Nation while so many men remembred or might well remember what they had been before the Captivity if they had not all known that it was true is a most inconceivable thing These Books were so far from being disputed though we see their Neighbours the Samaritans were inclined enough to contest every thing with them that all acquiesced in them and in that second beginning of their being a State as it is opened in the Books of Esdras and Nehemiah and in Daniel and theThree Prophets of the second Temple all the other Books were received among them without dispute And their Law was in such high esteem that about Two hundredYears after that theKing of Egypt did with much Entreaty and at a vast Charge procure a Translation of it to be made in Greek The Iewish Nation as they live much within themselves where it is safe for them to profess their Religion so they have had the Divine Authority of their Books so deeply infused into them from Age to Age that now above Sixteen hundred Years though it is not possâ—ble for them to practise the main parts of their Religion and though they suffer much for professing it yet they do still adhere to it and practise as much of it as they can by the Law it self which ties the chief Performances of that Religion to one determinate Place This is a Firmness which has never yet appeared in any
other Religion besides the Iewish and the Christian For all the several Shapes of Heathenism have often changed and they all went off as soon as the Government that supported them fell and that another came in its place Whereas these have subsisted long not only without the support of Civil Power but under many severe Persecutions which is at least a good Moral Argument to prove that these Religions had another Foundation and a deeper Root than any other Religion could ever pretend to Yet after all it is not to be denied but that in the Collection that was made of the Books of the Old Testament after the Captivity by Ezra and others or after that burning of many of the Books of their Law under Antiochus Epiphanes mentioned in the Book of Maccabees that some disorder might happen 1 Maccab. 1.56 that there might be such regard had to some Copies as not to alter some maniâ—est faults that were in them but that instead of that they might have marked on the Margent that which was the true Reading And a Superstitious conceit might have afterwards crept in and continued in After-Ages of a mysteryin that matter upon their first letting theseFaults continue in the Text with the Marginal Annotation of the Correction of them There might be also other Marginal Annotations of the Modern Names of Places set against the Ancient ones to guide the Reader 's judgment and afterwards the Modern Name might haue been writ instead of the Ancient one These are things that might naturally enough happen And will serve to resolve many Objections against the Text of the Old Testament All the Numbers of Persons as well as of Years might also have been writ in Numerical Letters though afterwards they came all to be set down in words at large And while they were in Letters as some might have been worn out and lost in Ancienter Copies so others were by the resemblance of some Letters very like to be mistaken Nor could Mens Memories serve them so well to correct mistakes in Numbers as in other Matters This may shew a way to reconcile many seeming differences between the Accounts that are variously stated in some of the Books of the Bible and between the Hebrew and the Septuagint In these Matters our Church has made no Decision and so Divines are left to a just freedom in them In general we may safely rely upon the Care and Providence of God and the Industry of Men who are naturally apt to preserve things of that kind entire which are highly valued among them And therefore we conclude That the Books of the Old Testament are preserved pure down to us as to all those things for which they were written that is in every thing that is either an Object of Faith or a Rule of Life And as to lesser Matters which visibly have no Relation to either of these there is no reason to think that every Copier was so divinely guided that no small Error might surprize him In Fact we know that there are many various Readings which might have arisen from the haste and carelesness of Copiers from their guessing wrong that which appeared doubtful or imperfect in the Copy and from a superstitious adhering to some apparent Faults when they found them in Copies of a Venerable Antiquity But when all those variousReadings are compar'd together it appears that as theyare inconsiderable so they do not concern ourFaith nor ourMorals the setting which right was the main end of Revelation The most important diversity relates to Chronology But the account of time especially in the first Ages is of no Consequence to our believing right or to our living well And therefore if some Errors or Mistakes should appear to be among those different Readings these give no just cause to doubt of the whole And indeed considering the many Ages through which those Books have past we have much more reason to wonder that they are brought down to us so entire and so manifestly genuine in all their main and important parts than that we should see some prints of the frailty of those who copied and preserved them It remains only upon this Head to consider what Inspiration and an Inspired Book is and how far that Matter is to be carried When we talk with one another a Noise is made in the Air that strikes with such Vibrations on the Ears of others that by the motion thereby made on the Brain of another we do convey our Thoughts to another person So that the Impression made on the Brain is that which communicates our Thoughts to another By this we can easily apprehend how God may make such Impressions on mens Brains as may convey to them such things as he intends to make known to them This is the General Notion of Inspiration in which the manner and degree of the Impression may make it at the least as certain that the Motion comes from God as a Man may be certain that such a thing was told him by such a person and not by any other Now there may be different degrees both of the Objects that are revealed and of the manner of the Revelation To some it may be given in charge to deliver Rules and Laws to men And because that ought to be expressed in plain words without Pomp or Ornament therefore upon such occasions the Imagination is not to be much agitated but the impression must be made so naked that the Understanding may clearly apprehend it and by consequence that it may be plainly expressed In others the design may be only to employ them in order to the awakening men to observe a Law already received and owned That must be done with such pompous Visions of Judgments coming upon the Violation of those Laws as may very much alarm those to whom they are sent Both the Representations and the Expressions must be fitted to excite men to terrify and so to reform them Now because the Imagination whether when we are Transported in our Thoughts being awake or in Dreams is capable of having those Scenes acted upon it and of being so excited by them as to utter them with pompous Figures and in a due Rapidity This is another way of Inspiration that is strictly called Prophecy in the Old Testament A great deal of the Stile used in this must relate to the particulars of the time to which it belongs Many Allusions Hints and Forms of Speech must be used that are Lively and Proverbial which cannot be understood unless we had all those concurrent helps which are lost even in the next Age if not preserved in Books and so they must be quite lost after many Ages are past when no other Memorials are left of the time in which they were transacted This must needs make the far greater part of all the Prophetick Writings to be very dark to us Not to insist upon the peculiar Genius of the Language in which the Prophets wrote and on the common
Customs of those Climates and Nations to this day that are very different from our own A Third degree of Inspiration might be when there were no discoveries of Future Events to be made but good and holy Men were to be inwardly excited by God to compose such Poems Hymns and Discourses as should be of great use both to give men clearer and fuller apprehensions of Divine things and also insensibly to charm them with a pleasant and exalted way of Treating them And if the Providence of God should so order them in the management of their Composures that it may afterwards appear that Predictions were intermixed with them yet they are not to be called Prophets unless God had revealed to them the mystical intent of such Predictions So that though the Spirit of God Prophesied in them yet they themselves not understanding it are not be accounted Prophets Of this last sort are the Books of the Psalms Iob Proverbs Ecclesiastes c. According to the different Order of these Inspirations was the Old Testament divided into Three Volumes The Inspiration of the New Testament is all to be reduced to the first sort except the Revelation which is purely and strictly Prophetical The other parts of the New Testament are writ after a softer and clearer Illumination and in a Style suitable to it Now because Enthusiasts and Impostors may â—alsly pretend to Divine Commissions and Inspirations it is necessary both for the undeceiving of those who may be mis-led by a hot and ungoverned Imagination and for giving such an Authority to men truly Inspired as may distinguish them from false Pretenders that the man thus Inspired should have some evident Sign or other either some miraculous Action that is visibly beyond the Powers of Nature or some particular discovery of somewhat that is to come which must be so expressed that the accomplishment of it may shew it to be beyond the Conjectures of the most sagacious By one or both of those a Man must prove and the World must be convinced that he is sent and directed by God And if such men deliver their Message in Writing we must receive such Writings as Sacred and Inspired In these Writings some parts are Historical some Doctrinal and some Elenchtical or Argumentative As to the Historical part it is certain that whatsoever is delivered to us as a matter truly transacted must be indeed so But it is not necessary when Discourses are reported that the Individual words should be set down just as they were said it is enough if the effect of them is reported Nor is it necessary that the Order of Time should be strictly observed or that all the Conjunctions in such Relations should be understood severely according to their Grammatical meaning It is visible that all the Sacred Writers write in a diversity of Style according to their different Tempers and to the various Impressions that were made upon them In that the Inspiration left them to the use of their Faculties and to their previous Customs and Habits The design of Revelation as to this part of its Subject is only to give such Representations of Matters of Fact as may both work upon and guide our belief But the Order of Time and the strict words having no influence that way the Writers might dispose them and express them variously and yet all be exactly true For the Conjunctive Particles do rather import that one passage comes to be related after another than that it was really transacted after it As to the Doctrinal parts that is the Rules of Life which these Books set before us or the Propositions that are offered to us in them we must entirely acquiesce in these as in the Voice of God who speaks to us by the means of a Person whom he by his Authorizing him in so wonderful a manner obliges us to hear and believe But when these Writers come to Explain or Argue they use many Figures that were well known in that Age But because the Signification of a Figure is to be taken from common use and not to be carried to the utmost extent that the words themselves will bear we must therefore enquire as much as we can into the Manner and Phraseology of the time in which such Persons lived which with Relation to the New Testament will lead us far And by this we ought to govern the Extent and Importance of these Figures As to their Arguings we are further to consider that sometimes they Argue upon certain Grounds and at other times they go upon Principles acknowledged and received by those with whom they dealt It ought never to be made the only way of proving a thing to found it upon the concessions of those with whom we deal yet when a thing is once truly proved it is a just and usual way of confirming it or at least of silencing those who oppose it to shew that it follows naturally from those Opinions and Principles that are received among them Since therefore the Iews had at the time of the writing of the New Testament a peculiar way of Expounding many Prophecies and Passages in the Old Testament it was a very proper way to convince them to alledge many places according to their Key and Methods of Exposition Therefore when Divine Writers argue upon any point we are always bound to believe the Conclusions that their Reasonings end in as parts of Divine Revelation But we are not bound to be able to make out or even to assent to all the Premises made use of by them in their whole extent unless it appears plainly that they affirm the Premises as expresly as they do the Conclusions proved by them And thus far I have laid down such a Scheme concerning Inspiration and Inspired Writings as will afford to such as apprehend it aright a Solution to most of these difficulties with which we are urged on the account of some passages in the Sacred Writings The laying down a Scheme that asserts an immediate Inspiration which goes to the Stile and to every Tittle and that denies any Error to have crept into any of the Copies as it seems on the one hand to raise the Honour of the Scriptures very highly so it lies open on the other hand to great difficulties which seem insuperable in that Hypothesis whereas a middle way as it settles the Divine Inspiration of these Writings and their being continued down genuine and unvitiated to us as to all that for which we can only suppose that Inspiration was given so it helps us more easily out of all difficulties by yielding that which serves to answer them without weakening the Authority of the whole I come in the last place to examine the Negative Consequence that arises out of this Head which excludes those Books commonly called Apocryphal that are here rejected from being a part of the Canon And this will be easily made out The chief reason that presses us Christians to acknowledge the Old Testament is the
Testimony that Christ and his Apostles gave to those Books as they were then received by the Iewish Church to whom were committed the Oracles of God Now it is not so much as pretended that ever these Books were received among the Iews or were so much as known to them None of the Writers of the New Testament cite or mention them neither Philo nor Iosephus speak of them Iosephus on the contrary says they had only 22 Books that deserved belief but that those which were written after the time of Artaxerxes were not of equal credit with the rest And that in that Period they had no Prophets at all The Christian Church was for some Ages an utter Stranger to those Books Melito Bishop of Sardis being desired by Onesimus to give him a perfect Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament took a Journey on purpose to the East to examine this matter at its Source And having as he says made an exact Enquiry he sent him the Names of them just as we receive the Canon of which Eusebius says that he has preserved it Euseb. hist l. 4. c. 26. because it contained all those Books which the Church owned Origen gives us the same Catalogue according to the Tradition of the Iews who divided the Old Testament into 22 Books In Psal. 1. according to the Letters of their Alphabet Athanasius reckons them up in the same manner to be 22 and he more distinctly says that he delivered those In Synop. as they had received them by Tradition In Eppasch and as they were received by the whole Church of Christ because some presumed to mix Apocryphal Books with the Divine Scriptures And therefore he was set on it by the Orthodox Brethren in order to declare the Canonical Books delivered as such by Tradition and believed to be of Divine Inspiration It is true he adds That besides these there were other Books which were not put into the Canon but yet were appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who first come to be instructed in the way of Piety And then he reckons up most of the Apocryphal Books Here is the first mention we find of them as indeed it is very probable they were made at Alexandria by some of those Iews who lived there in great Numbers Both Hilary and Cyril of Ierusalem give us the same Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament and affirm that they delivered them thus according to the Tradition of the Ancients Cyril says That all other Books are to be put in a Second Order Catech. 4. Gregory Nazienzen reckons up the 22 Books and adds that none besides them are genuine The words that are in the Article are repeated by St. Ierom in several of his Prefaces And that which should determine this whole matter is Can. 59. and 60. That the Council of Laodicea by an express Canon delivers the Catalogue of the Canonical Books as we do decreeing that these only should be read in the Church Now the Canons of this Council were afterwards received into the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church so that here we have the concurring sense of the whole Church of God in this matter It is true the Book of the Revelation not being reckoned in it this may be urged to detract from its Authority But it was already proved that that Book was received much Earlier into the Canon of the Scriptures so the design of this Canon being to establish the Authority of those Books that were to be read in the Church the darkness of the Apocalypse making it appear reasonable not to read it publickly that may be the reason why it is not mentioned in it as well as in some later Catalogues Here we have four Centuries clear for our Canon in Exclusion to all Additions It were easy to carry this much further down and to shew that these Books were never by any express definition received into the Canon till it was done at Trent And that in all the Ages of the Church even after they came to be much esteemed there were divers Writers and those generally the most learned of their time who denied them to be a part of the Canon At first many Writings were read in the Churches that were in high reputation both for the sake of the Authors and of the Contents of them though they were never lookt on as a part of the Canon Can. 47. Such were Clemens's Epistle the Books of Hermas the Acts of the Martyrs besides several other things which were read in particular Churches And among these the Apocryphal Books came also to be read as containing some valuable Books of Instruction besides several Fragments of the Iewish History which were perhaps too easily believed to be true These therefore being usually read they came to be reckoned among Canonical Scriptures For this is the reason assigned in the Third Council of Carthage for calling them Canonical because they had received them from their Fathers as Books that were to be read in Churches And the word Canonical was by some in those Ages used in a large sense in opposition to spurious so that it signified no more than that they were genuine So much depends upon this Article that it seemed necessary to dwell fully upon it and to state it clearly It remains only to observe the Diversity between the Articles now Established and those set forth by K. Edward In the latter there was not a Catalogue given of the Books of Scripture nor was there any distinction stated between the Canonical and the Apocryphal Books In those there is likewise a Paragraph or rather a Parenthesis added after the words proved thereby in these words Although sometimes it may be admitted by God's faithful People as Pious and conducing unto Order and Decency Which are now left out because the Authority of the Church as to matters of Order and Decency which was only intended to be asserted by this Period is more fully explained and stated in the 35 th Article ARTICLE VII Of the Old Testament The Old Testament is not contrary to the New For both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator between God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look only for Transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil-Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Commonwealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the Obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral THIS Article is made up of the Sixth and the Nineteenth of King Edward's Articles laid together Only the Nineteenth of King Edward's has these words after Moral Wherefore they are not to be heard which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the
Reflections upon that Doctrine It was at first received by the whole Iesuit Order so that Bellarmine formed himself upon it and still adhered to it But soon after that Order changed their Mind and left their whole Body to a full liberty in those Points and went all quickly over to the other Hypothesis that differed from the Semi-pelagians only in this that they allowed a Preventing-Grace but such as were subject to the Freedom of the Will Molina and Fonseca invented a new way of explaining God's foreseeing future Contingents which they called a Middle or Mean Science by which they taught That as God sees all things as possible in his knowledge of simple Apprehension and all things that are certainly future as present in his knowledge of Vision so by this knowledge he also sees the Chain of all Conditionate Futurities and all the Connexions of them that is whatsoever would follow upon such or such conditions Great Jealousies arising upon the Progress that the Order of the Jesuits was making these Opinions were laid hold on to mortify them so they were complained of at Rome for departing from St. Austin's Doctrine which in these Points was generally received as the Doctrine of the Latin Church and many Conferences were held before Pope Clement the Eighth and the Cardinals where the Point in debate was chiefly What was the Doctrine andTradition of theChurch The Advantages that St. Austin's Followers had were such that before fair Judges they must have triumphed over the other Pope Clement had so resolved but he dying though Pope Paul the Fifth had the same Intentions yet he happening then to be engaged in a Quarrel with the Venetians about the Ecclesiastical Immunities and having put that Republick under an Interdict the Jesuits who were there chose to be banished rather than to break the Interdict And their adhering so firmly to the Papal Authority when most of the other Orders forsook it was thought so meritorious at Rome that it saved them the Censure So instead of a Decision all sides were commanded to be silent and to quarrel no more upon those Heads About Forty years after that Iansenius a Doctor of Louvain being a zealous Disciple of S. Austin's and seeing the Progress that the contrary Doctrines were making did with great Industry and an equal Fidelity publish a Voluminous Systâ—m of St. Austin's Doctrine in all the several Branches of the Controversy And he set forth the Pelagians and the Semipelagians in that Work under very black Characters and not content with that he compared the Doctrines of the Modern Innovators with theirs This Book was received by the whole Party with great Applause as a Work that had decided the Controversy But the Author having writ with an extraordinary Force against the French Pretensions on Flanders which recommended him so much to the Spanish Court that he was made a Bishop upon it all those in France who followed St. Austin's Doctrine and applauded this Book were represented by their Enemies as being in the same Interests with him and by consequence as Enemies to the French Greatness so that the Court of France prosecuted the whole Party This Book was at first only prohibited at Rome as a Violation of that Silence that the Pope had enjoined afterwards Articles were pickt out of it and condemned and all the Clergy of France were required to sign the Condemnation of them These Articles were certainly in his Book and were manifest Consequences of St. Austin's Doctrine which was chiefly driven at though it was still declared at Rome That nothing was intended to be done in prejudice of St. Austin's Doctrine Upon this pretence his Party have said That those Articles being capable of two Senses the one of which was strained and was Heretical the other of which was clear and according to St. Austin's Doctrine it must be presumed it was not in that second but in the other sense that they were condemned at Rome and so they signed the Condemnation of them But then they said that they were not in Iansenius's Book in the sense in which they condemned them Upon that followed a most extravagant Question concerning the Pope's Infallibility in Matters of Fact It being said on the one side That the Pope heving condemned them as Iansenius's Opinions the belief of his Infallibity obliged them to conclude that they must be in his Book Whereas the others with great Truth affirmed That it had never been thought that in Matters of Fact either Popes or Councils were Infallible At last a new Cessation of Hostilities upon these Points was resolved on yet the Hatred continues and the War goes on though more covertly and more indirctely than before Nor are the Reformed more of a piece than the Church of Rome upon these Points Luther went on long as he at first set out with so little disguise that whereas all Parties had always pretended that they asserted the Freedom of the Will he plainly spoke out and said the Will was not Free but Enslaved Yet before he died he is reported to have changed his Mind for tho he never owned that yet Melancthon who had been of the same Opinion did freely retract it for which he was never blamed by Luther Since that time all the Lutherans have gone into the Semipelagian Opinions so entirely and so eagerly that they will neither tolerate nor hold Communion with any of the other Persuasion Calvin not only taught St. Austin's Doctrine but seemed to go on to the Supralapsarian way which was more openly taught by Beza and was generally followed by the Reformed only the difference between the Supralapsarians and the Sublapsarians was never brought to a decision Divines being in all the Calvinists Churches left to their freedom as to that Point In England the first Reformers were generally in the Sublapsarian Hypothesis But Perkins and others have asserted the Supralapsarian way Arminius a Professor in Leyden writ against him Upon this Gomarus and he had many disputes and these Opinions bred a great distraction over all the Vnited Provinces At the same time another Political matter occasioning a division of Opinion Whether the War should be carried on with Spain or if Propositions for a Peace or Truce should be entertained It happened that Arminius's followers were all for a Peace and the others were generally for carrying on theWar which being promoted by the Prince of Orange he joyned to them And the Arminians were represented as Men whose Opinions and Affections leaned to Popery So that this from being a Doctrinal Point became the distinction of a Party and by that means the differences were inflamed A great Synod met at Dort to which Divines were sent from hence as well as from other Churches The Arminian Tenets were condemned but the difference between the Supralapsarians and Sublapsarians was not medled with The Divines of this Church though very moderate in the way of proposing their Opinions yet upon the main adhered to St.
by the Prayer of St. Paul for the Ephesians who had already heard the Gospel preached and were instructed in it That the eyes of their understanding being enlightened they might know what was the hope of his calling Eph. 1.17 18 19. and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what was the exceeding greatness of his power towards them that believed This seems to be somewhat that is both Internal and Efficacious Christ compares the Union and Influence that he communicates to Believers to that Union of a Head with the Members and of a Root with the Branches which imports an Internal a Vital and an Efficacious Influence And though the outward means that are offered may be and always are rejected when not accompanied with his overcoming Grace yet this never returns empty These outward means coming from God the resisting of them is said to be the resisting God the grieving or quenching his Spirit Act. 7.51 Eph. 4.30 Jam. 1.17 18. Joh. 13.1 Heb. 13.5 and so in that sense we resist the Grace or Favour of God But we can never withstand him when he intends to overcome us As for Perseverance it is a necessary consequence of Absolute Decrees and of Efficacious Grace For since all depends upon God and that as of his own will he begat us so with him there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning Whom he loves he loves to the end and he has promised That he will never leave nor forsakâ— those to whom he becomes a God We must from thence conclude That the purpose and calling of God is without Repentance And therefore though good Men may fall into grievous Sins to keep them from which there are dreadful things said in Scripture against their falling away or Apostacy yet God does so uphold them that though he suffers them often to feel the weight of their Natures yet of all that are given by the Father to the Son to be saved by him none are lost Upon the whole Matter They believe that God did in himself and for his own Glory foreknow such a determinate Number whom he pitched upon to be the persons in whom he would be both Sanctified and Glorified That having thus foreknown them he predestinated them to be holy conformable to the Image of his Son That these were to be called not by a General Calling in the Sense of these words Many are called but few are chosen but to be called according to his purpose Matth. 20 16. Rom. 8.29 30. Rom. 9.18 And those he justified upon their obeying that Calling and he will in conclusion Glorify them Nor are these words only to be limited to the Sufferings of good Men they are to be extended to all the effects of the love of God according to that which follows That nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. The whole Reasoning in the 9 th of the Romans does so plainly resolve all the acts of God's Mercy and Justice his hardning as well as his pardoning into an Absolute Freedom and an Unsearchable Depth that more express words to that effect can hardly be imagined It is in general said That the children being yet unborn neither having done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of work but of him that calleth Iacob was loved and Esau hated ver 11. ver 17. ver 20. ver 22. That God raised up Pharaoh that he might shew his power in him and when an Objection is suggested against all this instead of Answering it it is silenced with this Who art thou O Man that repliest against God And all is illustrated with the Figure of the Potter and concluded with this solemn Question What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction This carries the Reader to consider what is so often repeated in the Book of Exodus concerning God's hardning the heart of Pharaoh Exod. 4.21.10.18.11.10.14.8 Prov. 16.4 Acts 1.48 Rev. 13.8.3.5.20.12.21.27 Rom. 1.26 28. so that he would not let his people go It is said That God has made the wicked man for the day of evil as it is written on the other hand That as many believed the Gospel as were appointed to eternal life Some are said to be written in the book of life of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world or according to God's purpose before the world began Vngodly Men are said to be of old ordained to condemnation and to be given up by God unto vile affections and to be given over by him to a reprobate mind Therefore they think that Reprobation is an absolute and free act of God as well as Election to manifest his Holiness and Justice in them who are under it as well as his Love and Mercy is manifested in the Elect. Nor can they think with the Sublapsarians That Reprobation is only God's passing by those whom he does not elect this is an act unworthy of God as if he forgot them which does clearly imply Imperfection And as for that which is said concerning their being fallen in Adam they argue That either Adam's Sin and the Connexion of all Mankind to him as their Head and Representative was absolutely decreed or it was not If it was then all is absolute Adam's Sin and the Fall of Mankind were decreed and by consequence all from the beginning to the end are under a continued Chain of Absolute Decrees and then the Supralapsarian and the Sublapsarian Hypothesis will be one and the same only variously expressed But if Adam's Sin was only foreseen and permitted then a conditionate Decree founded upon Prescience is once admitted so that all that follows turns upon it and then all the Arguments either against the Perfection of such Acts or the Certainty of such a Prescience turn against this for if they are admitted in any one Instance then they may be admitted in others as well as in that The Sublapsarians do always avoid to answer this and it seems they do rather incline to think that Adam was under an Absolute Decree and if so then tho' their Doctrine may seem to those who do not examin things nicely to look more plausible yet really it amounts to the same thing with the other For it is all one to say that God decreed that Adam should sin and that all Mankind should fall in him and that then God should chuse out of Mankind thus fallen by his Decree such as he would save and leave the rest in that lapsed state to perish in it as it is to say That God intending to save some and to damn others did in order to the carrying this on in a method of of Justice decree Adam's Fall and the Fall of Mankind in him in order to the saving of his Elâ—ct and the damning of the rest All that the Sublapsarians say in this
common and that openly and fairly For if every good Man that prays earnestly to God for the Assistance and Direction of his Spirit has reason to look for it much more may a Body of Pastors brought together to seek out the Truth in any point under debate look for it if they bring with them sincere and unprejudiced Minds and do pray earnestly to God In that case they may expect to be directed and assisted of Him But this depends upon the Purity of their Hearts and the Earnestness of their Endeavours and Prayers When any Synod of the Clergy has so far examined a Point as to settle their Opinions about it they may certainly decree that such is their Doctrine And as they judge it to be more or less important they may either restrain any other Opinion or may require positive Declarations about it either of all in their Communion or at least of all whom they admit to minister in Holy Things This is only an Authority of Order for the maintaining of Union and Edification And in this a Body does no more as it is a Body than what every single Individual has a right to do for himself He examines a Doctrine that is laid before him he forms his own Opinion upon it and pursuant to that he must judge with whom he can hold Communion and from whom he must separate When such Definitions are made by the Body of the Pastors of any Church all Persons within that Church do owe great respect to their Decision Modesty must be observed in descanting upon it and in disputing about it Every Man that finds his own thoughts differ from it ought to examine the Matter over again with much attention and care freeing himself all he can from Prejudice and Obstinacy with a just distrust of his own Understanding and an humble respect to the Judgment of his Superiors This is due to the considerations of Peace and Union and to that Authority which the Church has to maintain it But if after all possible methods of Enquiry a Man cannot master his Thoughts or make them agree with the Publick Decisions his Conscience is not under Bonds Since this Authority is not absolute nor grounded upon a promise of Infallibility This is a Tenet that with Relation to National Churches and their Decisions is held by the Church of Rome as well as by us For they place Infallibility either in the Pope or in the Universal Church But no Man ever dreamt of Infallibility in a particular or National Church And the Point in this Article is only concerning particular Churches for the Head of General Councils comes in upon the next That no Church can add any thing as necessary to Salvation has been already considered upon the Sixth Article It is certain that as we owe our hopes of Salvation only to Christ and to what he has done for us so also it can belong only to him who procured it to us to fix the Terms upon which we may look for it Nor can any Power on Earth clog the offers that he makes us in the Gospel with new or other Terms than those which we find made there to us There can be no dispute about this For unless we believe that there is an Infallible Authority lodged in the Church to explain the Scripture and to declare Tradition and unless we believe that the Scriptures are both obscure and defective and that the one must be helped by an Infallible Commentary and the other supplied by an Authentical Declarer of Tradition we cannot ascribe an Authority to the Church either to contradict the Scripture or to add necessary conditions of Salvation to it We own after all That the Church is the Dispositary of the whole Scriptures as the Iews were of the Old Testament But in that Instance of the Iews we may see that a Body of Men may be faithful in the Copying of a Book exactly and in the handing it down without corrupting it and yet they may be mistaken in the true meaning of that which they preserve so faithfully They are expresly called the keepers of the Oracles of God Rom. 3.2 And are no where reproved for having attempted upon this Depositum And yet for all that Fidelity they fell into great Errors about some of the most Important parts of their Religion which exposed them to the rejecting the Messias and to their utter ruin The Church's being called the Witness of Holy Writ is not to be resolved into any Judgment that they pass upon it as a Body of Men that have Authority to Judge and give Sentence so that the Canonicalness or the Uncanonicalness of any Book shall depend upon their Testimony But is resolv'd into this that such Successions and Numbers of Men whether of the Laity or Clergy have in a course of many Ages had these Books preserved and read among them so that it was not possible to corrupt that upon which so many Men had their Eyes in all the Corners and Ages of Christendom And thus we believe the Scripture to be a Book written by inspired Men and delivered by them to the Church upon the Testimony of the Church that at first received it knowing that those great Matters of Fact contained and appealed to in it were true And also upon the like Testimony of the succeeding Ages who Preserved Read Copied and Translated that Book as they had received it from the first The Church of Rome is guilty of a manifest Circle in this Matter For they say they believe the Scriptures upon the Authority of the Church And they do again believe the Authority of the Church because of the Testimony of the Scripture concerning it This is as false reasoning as can be imagined For nothing can be proved by another Authority till that Authority is first fixed and proved And therefore if the Testimony of the Church is believed to be sacred by virtue of a Divine Grant to it and that from thence the Scriptures have their Credit and Authority then the Credit due to the Church's Testimony is Antecedent to the Credit of the Scripture And so must not be proved by any passages brought from it otherwise that is a manifest Circle But no Circle is committed in our way who do not prove the Scriptures from any supposed Authority in the Church that has handed them down to us But only as they are vast Companies of Men who cannot be presumed to have been guilty of any Fraud in this matter it appeared further to be morally impossible for any that should have attempted a Fraud in it to have executed it When therefore the Scripture it self is proved by Moral Arguments of this kind we may according to the strictest Rules of Reasoning examine What Authority the Scripture gives to the Pastors of the Church met in lesser or greater Councils ARTICLE XXI Of the Authority of General Councils General Councils may not be gathered together without the Commandment and Will of
to what was set out in its proper Place And although we set a due value upon some of the Apocryphal Books yet others are of a lower Character The First Book of Maccabees is a very grave History writ with much exactness and a true Judgment but the Second is the Work of a mean Writer He was an Abridger of a larger Work and as he has the Modesty to ask his Readers Pardon for his Defects so it is very plain to every one that reads him that he needs often many grains of allowance So that this Book is one of the least valuable Pieces of the Apocrypha and there are very probable Reasons to question the Truth of that Relation concerning those who were thus prayed for But because that would occasion too long a Digression we are to make a difference between the Story that he relates and the Author 's own Reflections upon it for as we ought not to make any great Account of his Reflections these being only his private Thoughts who might probably have imbibed some of the Principles of the Greek Philosophy as some of the Iews had done or he might have believed that Notion which is now very generally received by the Iews that every Iew shall have a share in the World to come but that such as have lived ill must be purged before they arrive at it It is of much more importance to consider what Iudas Maccabeus did 2 Maccab. 12.40 which even by that Relation seems to be no more than this That he finding some things Consecrated to the Idols of the Iamnites about the Bodies of those who were killed concluded that to have been the cause of their Death And upon this he and all his Men betook themselves to Prayer and besought God that the Sin might be wholly put out of remembrance He exhorted his People to keep themselves by that Example from the like Sin and he made a Collection of a Sum of Money and sent it to Ierusalem to offer a Sin-offering before the Lord. So far the matter agrees well enough with the Iewish Dispensation It had appeared in the days of Ioshua how much guilt the Sin of Achan though but one Person had brought upon the whole Congregation and their Law had upon another Occasion prescribed a Sin-offering for the whole Congregation to expiate Blood that was shed when the Murderer could not be discovered That so the Judgments of God might not come upon them by reason of the cry of that Blood And by a parity of Reason Iudas might have ordered such an Offering to free himself and his Men from the guilt which the Idolatry of a few might have brought upon greater Numbers such a Sacrifice as this might according to the nature of that Law have been offered But to offer a Sin-offering for the Dead was a new thing without ground or any intimation of any thing like it in their Law So there is no reason to doubt but that if the Story is true Iudas offered this Sin-offering for the Living and not for the Dead If they had been alive then by their Law no Sin-offering could have been made for them for Idolatry was to be punished by cutting off and not to be expiated by Sacrifice What then could not have been done for them if alive could much less be done for them after their death So we have reason to conclude that Iudas offered this Sacrifice only for the Living And we are not much concerned in the Opinion which so slight a Writer as the Author of that Book had concerning it But whatever might be his Opinion it was far from that of the Roman Church By this Instance of the Maccabees Men who died in a State of mortal Sin and that of the highest nature had Sacrifices offered for them Whereas according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome Hell and not Purgatory is to be the Portion of all such So this will prove too much if any thing at all that Sacrifices are to be offered for the Damned The design of Iudas his sending to make an Offering for them as that Writer states it was that their Sins might be forgiven and that they might have a happy Resurrection Here is nothing of Redeeming them out of Misery or of shortening or alleviating their Torment So that the Author of that Book seems to have been possessed with that Opinion received commonly among the Iews That no Iew could finally perish as we find S. Ierom expressing himself with the like partiality for all Christians But whatever the Author's Opinion was as that Book is of no Authority it is highly probable that Iudas's design in that Oblation was misunderstood by the Historian and we are sure that even his sense of it differs totally from that of the Church of Rome A Passage in the New Testament is brought as a full proof of the Fire of Purgatory 1 Cor. 3. from V. 10. to 16. When St. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians is reflecting on the Divisions that were among them and on that diversity of Teachers that formed Men into different Principles and Parties he compares them to different Builders Some raised upon a Rock an Edifice like the Temple at Ierusalem of Gold and Silver and noble Stones called precious Stones whereas others upon the same Rock raised a mean Hovel of Wood Hay and Stubble of both he says every man's work shall be made manifest For the day shall reveal it because it shall be revealed by fire for the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is And he adds If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon he shall receive a reward and if any man's work shall be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire From the first view of these words it will not be thought strange if some of the Ancients who were too apt to Expound places of Scripture according to their first appearences might fancy that at the last day all were to pass through a great Fire and to suffer more or less in it But it is visible that that Opinion is far enough from the Doctrine of Purgatory These words relate to a Fire that was soon to appear and that was to try every Man's work It was to be revealed and in it every Man's work was to be made manifest So this can have no relation to a secret Purgatory Fire The meaning of it can be no other but that whereas some with the Apostles were building up the Church not only upon the Foundation of Jesus Christ and the Belief of his Doctrine but were teaching Men Doctrines and Rules that were Vertuous Good and Great Others at the same time were daubing with a profane mixture both of Judaism and Gentilism joining these with some of the Precepts of Christianity a day would soon appear which probably is meant of the destruction of Ierusalem and of the Iewish Nation or
Linnen St. Ierom though excessively fond of them denies this very positively and that in very injurious Terms being offended at the injustice of the Reproach Yet as long as the Bodies of the Martyrs were let lie quietly in their Memories the fond Opinion of their being present and hearing what was said to them made the Invocating them look like one Mans desiring the Assistance of another good Man's Prayers so that this Step seemed to have a fair colour But when their Bodies were pulled asunder and carried up and down so that it was believed Miracles abounded every where about them and when their Bones and Relicks grew to encrease and multiply so that they had more Bones and Limbs than God and Nature had given them then new Hypotheses were to be found out to justify the calling upon them every where as their Relicks were spread St. Ierom in his careless way says Hieron ad Vigil they followed the lamb whithersoever he went and seems to make no doubt of their being if not every where yet in several places at once Aug. cura pro mortuis c. 16. But St. Austin who could follow a consequence much further in his Thoughts though he doubted not but that Men were much the better for the Prayers of the Martyrs yet he confesses that it passed the strength of his Understanding to determine whether they heard those who called upon them at their Memories or wheresoever else they were believed to have appeared or not But the Devotions that are spoken of by all of that Age are related as having been offered at their Memories so that this seems to have been the general Opinion as well as it was the common Practice of that Age though it is no wonder if this Conceit once giving some colour and credit to the Invocating them that did quickly encrease it self to a general Invocation of them every where And thus a fondness for their Relicks joined with the opinion of their Relation and nearness to them did in a short time grow up to a direct worshipping of them And by the fruitfulness that always follows Superstition did spread it self further to their Cloaths Utensils and every thing else that had any relation to them There was cause given in St. Austin's time to suspect that many of the Bones which were carried about by Monks Aug. de opere Monach c. 28. were none of their Bones but Impostures Which very much shakes the Credit of the Miracles wrought by them since we have no reason to think that God would support such Impostures with Miracles As on the other hand there is no reason to think that false Relicks would have passed upon the World if Miracles had been believed to accompany true ones unless they had their Miracles likewise to attest their Value so let this Matter be turned which way it may the credit both of Relicks and of the Miracles wrought by them is not a little shaken by it But in the following Ages we have more than Presumptions that there was much of this false Coin that went abroad in the World It was not possible to distinguish the False from the True The freshness of Colour and Smell so often boasted might have been easily managed by Art the varieties of those Relicks the different Methods of discovering them the Shinings that were said to be about their Tombs with the Smells that broke out of them the many Apparitions that accompanied them and the signal Cures that were wrought by them as they grew to fill the World with many Volumes of Legends many more lying yet in the Manuscripts in many Churches than have been published all these I say carry in them such Characters of Fraud and Imposture on the one hand and of Cruelty and Superstition on the other so much Craft and so much Folly that they had their full Effect upon the World even in contradiction to the clearest Evidence possible The same Saints having more Bodies and Heads than one in different Places and yet all equally celebrated with Miracles A great profusion of Wealth and Pomp was laid out in honouring them new Devotions were still invented for them And though these things are too palpably False to be put upon us now in Ages of more Light where every thing will not go down because it is confidently affirmed yet as we know how great a Part of the Devotion of the Latin Church this continued to be for many Ages before the Reformation so the same Trade is still carried on where the same Ignorance and the same Superstition does still continue I come now to consider the last Head of this Article which is the Invocation of Saints of which much has been already said by an Anticipation For there is that Connection between the Worship of Relicks and the Invocation of Saints that the treating of the one does very naturally carry one to say somewhat of the other It is very evident that Saints were not Invocated in the Old Testament God being called so oft the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob seems to give a much better warrant for it than any thing that can be alledged from the New Testament Moses was their Lawgiver and their Mediator and Intercessor with God and his Intercession as it had been very effectual for them so it had shewed it self in a very extraordinary Instance of his desiring that his Name might be blotted out of the Book which he had written rather than the People should perish Exod. 32. â—2 when God had offered to him that he would raise up a New Nation to himself out of his Posterity God had also made many Promises to that Nation by him So that it might be natural enough considering the Genius of Superstition for the Iews to have called to him in their Miseries to obtain the Performance of those Promises made by him to them We may upon this refer the Matter to every Mans judgment whether Abraham and Moses might not have been much more reasonably Invocated by the Iews according to what we find in the Old Testament than any Saint can be under the New Yet we are sure they were not prayed to Elijah's going up to Heaven in so miraculous a manner might also have been thought a good Reason for any to have prayed to him But nothing of that kind was then practised They understood Prayer to be a Part of that Worship which they owed to God only So that the praying to any other had been to a certain Degree the having another God before or besides the true Iehovah They never prayed to any other they called upon him and made mention of no other The Rule was without exception Call upon me in the time of trouble 〈◊〉 52.15 I will hear thee and thou shalt glorify me Upon this Point there is no dispute In the New Testament we see the same method followed with this only exception that Jesus Christ is proposed as our Mediator And that
our Saviour's speaking of giving his Flesh to them to eat it he adds They foolishly and carnally thought Lib. 20. con Faust. c. 21. in Psal. 98. v. 5. that he was to cut off some parcels of his Body to be given to them but he shews that there was a Sacrament hid there and he thus Paraphrases that Passage The words that I have spoken to you they are spirit and life Vnderstand spiritually that which I have said for it is not this Body which you see that you are to eat or to drink this Blood which they shall shed who crucifie me But I have recommended a Sacrament to you which being spiritually understood shall quicken you And tho' it be necessary that it be celebrated visibly yet it must be understood invisibly Primasius compares the Sacrament to a Pledge Comm. in 1 Ep. ad Cor. which a dying Man leaves to any one whom he loved But that which is more Important than the Quotation of any of the words of the Fathers is that the Author of the Books of the Sacraments which pass under the Name of St. Ambrose Lib. 4. dâ— Sacram. c. 5. tho' it is generally agreed that those Books were writ some Ages after his Death gives us the Prayer of Consecration as it was used in his time He calls it the Heavenly Words and sets it down The Offices of the Church are a clearer Evidence of the Doctrine of that Church than all the Discourses that can be made by any Doctor in it the one is the Language of the whole Body whereas the other are only the private reasonings of particular Men And of all the Parts of the Office the Prayer of Consecration is that which does most certainly set out to us the sense of that Church that used it But that which makes this Remark the more Important is that the Prayer as set down by this pretended St. Ambrose is very near the same with that which is now in the Canon of the Mass only there is one very Important variation which will best appear by setting both down That of St. Ambrose's is Fac nobis hanc oblationem ascriptam rationabilem acceptabilem quod est figura Corporis Sanguinis Domini nostri Iesu Christi qui pridie quam pateretur c. That in the Canon of the Mass is Quam oblationem tu Deus in omnibus quae sumus benedictam ascriptam ratam rationabilem acceptabilemque facere digneris ut nobis Corpus Sanguis fiat dilectissimi filii tui Domini nostri Iesu Christi We do plainly see so great a resemblance of the later to the former of these two Prayers that we may well conclude that the one was begun in the other but at the same time we observe an Essential difference In the former this Sacrifice is called the Figure of the Body and Blood of Christ. Whereas in the later it is Prayed that it may become to us the Body and Blood of Christ. As long as the former was the Prayer of Consecration it is not pofsible for us to imagine that the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence could be received for that which was believed to be the true Body and Blood of Christ could not be called especially in such a part of the Office the Figure of his Body and Blood and therefore the change that was made in this Prayer was an evident proof of a change in the Doctrine and if we could tell in what Age that was done we might then upon greater certainty fix the time in which this change was made or at least in which the inconsistency of that Prayer with this Doctrine was observed I have now set down a great variety of Proofs reduced under different Heads from which it appears evidently that the Fathers did not believe this Doctrine but that they did affirm the contrary very expresly This Sacrament continued to be so long considered as the Figure or Image of Christ's Body that the Seventh General Council which met at Constantinople in the Year 754 and consisted of above Three hundred and thirty Bishops when it condemned the Worship of Images affirmed that this was the only Image that we might lawfully have of Christ and that he had appointed us to offer this Image of his Body to wit the Substance of the Bread That was indeed contradicted with much confidence by the Second Council of Nice in which in opposition to what appears to this day in all the Greek Liturgies and the Greek Fathers they do positively deny that the Sacrament was ever called the Image of Christ and they affirm it to be the true Body of Christ. In conclusion I shall next shew how this Doctrine crept into the Church for this seems plausible that a Doctrine of this nature could never have got into the Church in any Age if those of the Age that admitted it had not known that it had been the Doctrine of the former Age and so upwards to the Age of the Apostles It is not to be denied but that very early both Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus thought that there was such a Sanctification of the Elements that there was a Divine Vertue in them And in those very Passages which we have urg'd from the Arguings of the Fathers against the Eutychians tho' they do plainly prove that they believed that the Substance of Bread and Wine did still remain yet they do suppose an Union of the Elements to the Body of Christ like that of the Human Nature's being united to the Divine here a Foundation was laid for all the Superstructure that was afterwards raised upon it For tho' the Liturgies and Publick Offices continued long in the first simplicity yet the Fathers who did very much study Eloquence chiefly the Greek Fathers carried this matter very far in their Sermons and Homilies They did only apprehend the Profanation of the Sacrament from the unworthiness of those who came to it and being much set on the begetting a due reverence for so holy an action and a seriousness in the performance of it they urg'd all the Topicks that sublime Figures or warm Expressions could help them with and with this exalted Eloquence of theirs we must likewise observe the state that the World fell in in the Fifth Century Vast Swarms out of the North over-run the Roman Empire and by a long continued Succession of new Invaders all was sackt and ruined In the West the Goths were followed by the Vandals the Alans the Gepides the Franks the Sweves the Huns and the Lombards some of these Nations but in conclusion the Saracens and Turks in the East made Havock of all that was polite or learned by which we lost the chief Writings of the first and best Times but instead of these many spurious ones were afterwards produced and they passed easily in dark and ignorant Ages All fell under much oppression and misery and Europe was so over-run with Barbarity and Ignorance that it cannot be easily
Body Here then was the Tradition and Practice of the Church falsified which is no small Prejudice against those that support the Doctrine as well as against the Credit of that Council About thirty Years after that Council Paschase Radbert Abbot of Corby in France did very plainly assert the corporal Presence in the Eucharist He is acknowledged both by Bellarmin and Sirmondus to be the first Writer that did on purpose advance and explain that Doctrine He himself values his Pains in that Matter and as he laments the slowness of some in believing it so he pretends that he had moved many to assent to it But he confesses that some blamed him for ascribing a Sense to the Words of Christ that was not consonant to Truth There was but one Book writ in that Age to second him the Name of the Author was lost till Mabillon discovered that it was writ by one Herigerus Abbot of Cob. But all the Eminent Men and the great Writers of that time wrote plainly against this Doctrine and affiâ—med that the Bread and Wine remained in the Sacrament and did nourish our Bodies as other Meats do Those were Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Mentz Amalarius Archbishop of Triers Heribald Bishop of Auxerre Bertram or Ratramne Iohn Scot Erigena Walafridus Strabus Florus and Christian Druthmar Three of these set themselves on purpose to refute Paschase Rabanus Maurus in an Epistle to Abbot Egilon wrote against Paschase for saying that it was that Body that was born of the Virgin that was crucified and raised up again which was daily offered up And though that Book is lost yet as he himself refers his Reader to it in his Penitential so we have an Account given of it by the Anonymous defender of Paschase Ratramne was commanded by Charles the Bald then Emperour to write upon that Subject which he in the beginning of his Book promises to do not trusting to his own Sense but following the Steps of the Holy Fathers He tells us that there were different Opinions about it Some believing that the Body of Christ was there without a Figure Others saying that it was there in a Figure or Mystery Upon which he apprehended that a great Schism must follow His Book is very short and very plain He asserts our Doctrine as expresly as we our selves can do He delivers it in the same Words and proves it by many of the same Arguments and Authorities that we bring Raban and Ratramne were without dispute reckoned among the first Men of that Age. Iohn Scot was also commanded by the same Emperour to write on the same Subject He was one of the most Learned and the most Ingenious Men of the age and was in great Esteem both with the Emperour and with our King Alfred He was reckoned both a Saint and a Martyr He did formally refute Paschase's Doctrine and assert ours His Book is indeed lost but a full Account of it is given us by other Writers of that Time And it is a great Evidence that his Opinion in this Matter was not then thought to be contrary to the general Sense of the Church in that Age For he having writ against St. Augustin's Doctrine concerning Predestination there was a very severe Censure of him and of his Writings published under the Name of the Church of Lions In which they do not once reflect on him for his Opinions touching the Eucharist It appears from this that their Doctrine concerning the Sacrament was then generally received Since both Ratramne and he though they differ'd extreamly in that Point of Predestination yet both agreed in this It is probable that the Saxon Homily that was read in England on Easter-day was taken from Scot's Book which does fully reject the corporal Presence This is enough to shew that Paschase's Opinion was an Innovation broached in the Ninth Century and was opposed by all the Great Men of that Age. The Tenth Century was the blackest and most ignorant of all the Ages of the Church There is not one Writer in that Age that gives us any clear Account of the Doctrine of the Church Such remote Hints as occur do still savour of Ratramne's Doctrine All Men were then asleep and so it was a fit time for the Tares that Paschase had sown to grow up in it The Popes of that Age were such a Succession of Monsters that Baronius cannot forbear to make the saddest Exclamations possible against their Debaucheries their Cruelties and their other Vices About the middle of the Eleventh Century after this Dispute had slept almost two hundred Years it was again revived Bruno Bishop of Angiers and Berengarius his Archdeacon maintained the Doctrine of Ratramne Little mention is made of the Bishop but the Archdeacon is spoken of as a Man of great Piety So that he past for a Saint and was a Man of such Learning that when he was brought before Pope Nicolaus no Man could resist him He writ against Paschase and had many followers The Historians of that Age tell us that his Doctrine had overspread all France The Books writ against him by Lanfranc and others are filled with an impudent corrupting of all Antiquity Many Councils were held upon this Matter and these together with the Terrours of Burning which was then beginning to be the common Punishment of Heresy made him renounce his Opinion But he returned to it again yet he afterwards renounced it Though Lanfranc reproaches him that it was not the Love of Truth but the Fear of Death that brought him to it And his final Retracting of that renouncing of his Opinion is lately found in France as I have been credibly informed Thus this Opinion that in the Ninth Century was generally received and was condemned by neither Pope nor Council was become so odious in the Eleventh Century that none durst own it And he who had the Courage to own it yet was not resolute enough to stand to it For about this Time the Doctrine of extirpating Hereticks and of deposing such Princes as were Defective in that Matter was universally put in Practice Great Bodies of Men began to separate from the Roman Communion in the Southern Parts of France and one of the chief Points of their Doctrine was their believing that Christ was not corporally Present in the Eucharist and that he was there only in a Figure or Mystery But now that the contrary Doctrine was established and that those who denied it were adjudged to be burnt it is no wonder if it quickly gained Ground when on the one hand the Priests saw their Interest in promoting it and all People felt the Danger of denying it The Anathema's of the Church and the Terrours of Burning were infallible Things to silence Contradiction at least if not to gain Assent Soon after this Doctrine was received the Schoolmen began to refine upon it Lib. 4. Dist. 11. as they did upon every thing else The Master of the Sentences would not determine how Christ was Present
the concurrence of other Churches In the way of managing this every Body of Men has somewhat peculiar to it self and the Pastors of that Body are the properest Judges in that matter We know that the several Churches even while under one Empire had great varieties in their Forms as appears in the different Practices of the Eastern and Western Churches And as soon as the Roman Empire was broken we see this Variety did increase The Gallican Churches had their Missals different from the Roman And some Churches of Italy followed the Ambrosian But Charles the Great in compliance with the desires of the Pope got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own Missals and to receive the Roman which he might the rather do intending to have raised a New Empire to which a Conformity of Rights might have been a great Step. Even in this Church there was a great Variety of Usages which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy when the Nation was subdivided into several Kingdoms It is therefore suitable to the Nature of Things to the Authority of the Magistrate and to the Obligations of the Pastoral Care That every Church should act within her self as an entire and independent Body The Churches owe only a Friendly and Brotherly Correspondence to one another but they owe to their own Body Government and Direction and such Provisions and Methods as are most likely to promote the great Ends of Religion and to preserve the Peace of the Society both in Church and State Therefore we are no other way bound by Antient Canons but as the same reason still subsisting we may see the same cause to continue them that there was at first to make them Of all the Bodies of the World the Church of Rome has the worst Grace to reproach us for departing in some Particulars from the Antient Canons since it was her ill Conduct that had brought them all into desuetude And it is not easy to revive again Antiquated Rules even though there may be good reason for it when they fall under that tacit Abrogation which arises out of a long and general disuse of them ARTICLE XXXV Of Homilies The Second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for these Times as doth the Former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the Time of Edward the Sixth and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the People The Names of the Homilies 1. Of the right use of the Church 2. Against Peril of Idolatry 3. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4. Of Good Works First Of Fasting 5. Against Gluttony and Drunkenness 6. Against Excess of Apparel 7. Of Prayer 8. Of the Place and time of Prayer 9. That common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known tongue 10. Of the reverent estimation of God's Word 11. Of Alms-doing 12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 13. Of the Passion of Christ. 14. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 15. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 16. Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost 17. For the Rogation-days 18. Of the state of Matrimony 19. Of Repentance 20. Against Idleness 21. Against Rebellion AT the time of the Reformation as there could not be found at first a sufficient Number of Preachers to instruct the whole Nation so those that did comply with the changes which were then made were not all well-affected to them so that it was not safe to trust this matter to the Capacity of the one side and to the Integrity of others Therefore to supply the Defects of some and to oblige the rest to teach according to the Form of sound Doctrine there were two Books of Homilies prepared the first was published in King Edward's time the second was not finished till about the time of his Death so it was not published before Queen Elizabeth's time The Design of them was to mix Speculative Points with Practical matters Some explain the Doctrine and others enforce the Rules of Life and Manners These are plain and short Discourses chiefly calculated to possess the Nation with a Sense of the Purity of the Gospel in opposition to the Corruptions of Popery and to reform it from those crying Sins that had been so much connived at under Popery while men knew the Price of them how to compensate for them and to redeem themselves from the Guilt of them by Masses and Sacraments by Indulgences and Absolutions In these Homilies the Scriptures are often applied as they were then understood not so critically as they have been explained since that time But by this Approbation of the two Books of Homilies it is not meant that every Passage of Scripture or Argument that is made use of in them is always convincing or that every Expression is so severely worded that it may not need a little Correction or Explanation All that we profess about them is only that they contain a godly and wholesom Doctrine This ratheâ— relates to the main Importance and Design of them than to every Passagâ— in them Though this may be said concerning them That considering thâ— Age they were written in the Imperfection of our Language and some lesser Defects they are Two very extraordinary Books Some of them arâ— better writ than others and are equal to any thing that has been writ upon those Subjects since that time Upon the whole matter every one whâ— subscribes the Articles ought to read them otherwise he subscribes a Blank he approves a Book implicitely and binds himself to read it as he may be required without knowing any thing concerning it This Approbation is not to be stretched so far as to carry in it a special Assent to every Particular in that whole Volume but a man must be persuaded of the main of the Doctrine that is taught in them To instance this in one particular since there are so many of the Homilies that charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry and that from so many different Topicks no man who thinks that Church is not guilty of Idolatry can with a good Conscience subscribe this Article That the Homilies contain a good and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times for according to his sense they contain a false and an uncharitable Charge of Idolatry against a Church that they think is not guilty of it and he will be apt to thâ—nk that this was done to heighten the Aversion of the Nation to it Therefore any who have such favourable thoughts of the Church of Rome are bound by the force of that Persuasion of theirs not to sign this Article but to declare against it as the authorizing of an Accusation against a Church which they think is ill grounded and is by consequence both unjust and uncharitable By necessary for these times is not to be meant
in which Dr. Pocock and Dr. Lightfoot were singularly eminent In all Dr. Hammond's Writings one sees great Learning and a solid Judgment A just Temper in managing Controversies and above all a Spirit of True and Primitive Piety with great Application to the right understanding of the Scriptures and the directing of all to practice Bishop Pearson on the Creed as far as it goes is the perfectest Work we have His Learning was profound and exact his Method good and his Stile clear he was equally happy both in the force of his Arguments and in the plainness of his Expressions Upon the Restoration of the Royal Family and the Church the first Scene of Writing was naturally laid in the late Times and with Relation to Conformity But we quickly saw that Popery was a restless thing and was the standing Enemy of our Church So as soon as that shewed it self then our Divines returned to those Controversies in which no man bare a greater share and succeeded in it with more honour than Bishop Stillingfleet both in his Vindication of Archbishop Laud and in the long-continued Dispute concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome When the dangers of Popery came nearer us and became sensible to all persons then a great Number of our Divines engaged in those Controversies They writ short and plain and yer brought together in a great variety of small Tracts the substance of all that was contained in the Large Volumes writ both by our own Divines and by Foreigners There was in these a Solidity of Argument mixed with an agreeableness in the way of Writing that both pleased and edified the Nation And did very much confound and at last silence the few and weak Writers that were of the Romish side The inequality that was in this Contest was too visible to be denied and therefore they who set it first on foot let it fall For they had other methods to which they trusted more than to that Unsuccessful one of Writing In those Treatises the Substance of all our former Books is so fully contained and so well delivered that in them the Doctrines of our Church as to all Controverted Points is both clearly and copiously set forth The perusing of all this was a large Field And yet I thought it became me to examine all with a due measure of exactness I have taken what pains I could to digest every thing in the clearest method and in the shortest compass into which I could possibly bring it So that in what I have done I am as to the far greatest part rather an Historian and a Collector of what others have writ than an Author my self This I have performed faithfully and I hope with some measure of Diligence and Exactness Yet if in such a variety some important matters are forgot and if others are mistaken I am so far from reckoning it an injury to have those discovered that I will gladly receive any advices of that kind I will consider them carefully and make the best use of them I can for the undeceiving of others as soon as I am convinced that I have misled them If men seek for Truth in the Meekness of Christ they will follow this Method in those private and Brotherly Practices recommended to us by our Saviour But for those that are contentious and do not obey the Truth I shall very little regard any Opposition that may come from them I had no other Design in this Work but first to find out the Truth my self and then to help others to find it out If I succeed to any degree in this Design I will bless God for it And if I fail in it I will bear it with the Humility and Patience that becomes me But as soon as I see a better Work of this kind I shall be among the first of those who shall recommend That and disparage This. There is no part of this whole Work in which I have labour'd with more Care and have writ in a more uncommon Method than concerning Predestination For as my small Reading had carried me further in that Controversy than in any other whatsoever both with relation to Ancients and Moderns and to the most esteemed Books in all the different Parties so I weighed the Article with that Impartial Care that I thought became me and have taken a Method which is for ought I know new of stating the Arguments of all Sides with so much Fairness that those who knew my own Opinion in this Point have owned to me That they could not discover it by any thing that I had written They were inclined to think that I was of another Mind than they took me to be when they read my Arguings of that side I have not in the Explanation of that Article told what my own Opinion was yet here I think it may be fitting to own That I follow the Doctrine of the Greek Church from which St. Austin departed and formed a new System After this declaration I may now appeal both to St. Austin's Disciples and to the Calvinists whether I have not stated both their Opinions and Arguments not only with Truth and Candor but with all possible Advantages One reason among others that led me to follow the Method I have pursued in this Controversy is to offer at the best means I can for bringing men to a better understanding of one another and to a mutual Forbearance in these matters This is at present the chief Point in difference between the Lutherans and the Calvinists Expedients for bringing them to an Union in these Heads are Projects that can never have any good Effect Men whose Opinions are so different can never be brought to an Agreement And the settling on some Equivocal Formularies will never lay the Contention that has arisen concerning them The only possible way of a sound and lasting Reconcilation is to possess both Parties with a Sense of the Force of the Arguments that lye on the other side that they may see they are no way contemptible but are such as may prevail on wise and good men Here is a Foundation laid for Charity And if to this men would add a just Sense of the Difficulties in their own Side and consider that the ill Consequences drawn from Opinions are not to be charged on all that hold them unless they do likewise own those Consequences then it would be more easy to agree on some General Propositions by which those ill Consequences might be condemned and the Doctrine in general settled leaving it free to the men of the different Systems to adhere to their own Opinions but withal obliging them to judge charitably and favourably of others and to maintain Communion with them notwithstanding that Diversity It is a good Step even to the bringing men over to an Opinion To persuade them to think well of those who hold it This goes as it were half way and if it is not possible to bring men quite to think as
that there were many very effectual ways to prevent and avoid or at least to shorten those Sufferings and if the Apostles knew this and yet said not a Word of it neither in their first Sermons nor in their Epistles here was a great Treachery in the discharge of their Function and that to the Souls of Men not to warn them of their Danger nor to direct them to the proper Methods of avoiding it but on the contrary to speak and write to them just as we can suppose Impostors would have done to terrify those who would not receive their Gospel with Eternal Damnation but not to say a Word to those who received it of their danger in case they lived not up to that Exactness that their Religion required and yet upon the main adhered to it and followed it This is a Method that does not agree with common Honesty not to say Inspiration A fair way of proceeding is to make Men sensible of Dangers of all sorts and to shew them how to avoid them The Apostles told their Converts That through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Acts 14.22 Rom. 8.18 they assurâ—d them That their present sufferings were not worthy to be compared to the Glory that was to be revealed and that those light afflictions which are for a moment wrought for them a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Here if they knew any thing of Purgatory a powerful Consideration was past over in silence that by these Afflictions they should be delivered from those Torments This Argument goes further than meer Silence though that is very strong The Scriptures speak always as if the one did immediately follow the other and that the Saints or true Christians pass from the Miseries of this State to the Glories of the next So does our Saviour represent the matter in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Gluâ—ton whose Souls were presently carried to their different abodes the one to be comforted as the other was tormented He promised also to the repenting Thief To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise 〈◊〉 24.43 St. Paul comforts himself in the apprehension of his dissolution that was approaching with the prospect of the crown of righteousness that should be given him after death 2 Tim. 4.8 and so he states these two as certain Consequents one of another to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.2 3. 2 Câ—r 5.6.8 v. 1 2. Heb. 1 10. to be absent from the body and present with the Lord And he makes it appear that it was no peculiar Privilege that he promised to himself but that which all Christians had a Right to expect for he says in general this we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens In the Epistle to the Hebrews the Patriarchs under the Old Dispensation are represented as looking for that City whose builder and founder is God Though in that State the manifestations of another Life were more imperfect than in this In which life and immortality are brought to light they being veiled and darkned in that State And finally St. Iohn heard a voice commanding him to Write Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord that is being true Christians from henceforth or immediately yea Rev. 14 13. saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them The solemnity in which these words are delivered carry in them an Evidence sufficient to determine the whole matter So that we must have very hard thoughts of the sincerity of the Writers of the New Testament and very much disparage their Credit not to say their Inspiration if we can imagine that there are Scenes of Suffering and those very dismal ones to be gon through of which they gave the World no sort of notice But spoke in the same style that we do who believe no such dismal Interval between the Death of good Men and their final Blessedness The Scriptures do indeed speak of a full reward and of different Degrees in Glory as one Star exceeds another They do also represent the Day of Judgment upon the Resurrection of the Body 2 Ep. John v. 8. 1 Cor. 15.41 as that which gives the full and entire possession of Blessedness so that from hence some have thought upon very probable Grounds that the Blessed though admitted to Happiness immediately upon their Death yet were not so compleatly Happy as they shall be after the Resurrection And in this there arose a diversity of Opinions which is very natural to all who will go and form Systems out of some general Hints Some thought that the Souls of good Men were at Rest and in a good measure Happy but that they did not see God before the Resurrection Others thought that Christ was to come down and Reign visibly upon Earth a Thousand Years before the End of the World And that the Saints were to rise and to Reign with him some sooner and some later Some thought that the last Conflagration was so to affâ—ct all that every one was to pass through it and that it was to give the last and highest Purification to those Bodies that were then to be glorified but that the better Christians that any had been they should feel the less of the Pain of that last Fire These Opinions were very early entertained in the Church An itch of intruding too far into things which Men did not throughly understand concerning Angels began to disturb the Church even in the days of the Apostles which made St. Paul charge the Colossians to beware of vain Philosophy Plato thought there was a middle Sort of Men who though they had sinned yet had repented of it and were in a curable condition and that they went down for some time into Hell to be purged and absolved by grievous Torments The Iews had also a Conceit that the Souls of some Men continued for a Year going up and down in a state of Purgation From these Opinions somewhat of a Curiosity in describing the Degrees of the next State began pretty early to enter into the Church As for that Opinion of the Platonists and the Fictions of Homer and Virgil setting forth the Complaints of Souls departed for their not being relieved by Prayers and Sacrifices though these perhaps are the true Sources of the Doctrine of Purgatory and of redeeming Souls out of it yet we are not so much concerned in them as in what is represented to us by the Author of the Second Book of the Maccabees concerning the Sacrifice that was offered by Iudas Maccabeus for those about whom after they were killed they found such things as shewed that they had defiled themselves with the Idolatry of the Heathens All this is of less Authority with us who do not acknowledge that Book to be Canonical According