Genius of the Emperor and that they met and Sung Hymns to Christ as a God and were tied by Vows not to commit Adultery nor to Steal or deceive or commit other Crimes and that their Feasts were Innocent and harmless This happening not above Seventy Years after our Saviour's Death shews us how fast this Doctrine did spread and what vast number had then embraced it and yet these being all born and bred with such prejudices against it cannot be supposed to have received it too rashly or to have believed it implicitly The last supposition of Infidelity yet remains to be consider'd which is That something must be yielded to have been published and received concerning this Religion soon after its first appearance but that in process of time the Books might have been Interpolated after all the Eye-witnesses were dead and many Additions of great Importance might have been clapt in afterwards And this indeed is the plausiblest part of their whole Plea for if they yield that the Books which we now have were given out in the same manner as we have them and that they were receiv'd in the Age in which many Eye-witnesses were alive to vouch them then all that can be cavilled at after this is once yielded is so poor and slight that it only shews the incurable obstinacy of those who maintain it This last has more colour there were many Gospels given out at first as St. Luke informs us some false Gospels there were and there was a consierable diversity among some Copies parcels were in some that were left out in others and it could scarce be otherwise while many were Writing what they themselves knew and saw and others might Copy these too hastily and uncorrectly Yet within a hundred years after our Saviour's Death we find this matter was so settled that we see these Books were cited by Iustin and Iremaeus not to mention the Epistles of Clemens Ignatius and Policarp and from them downward in a continued succession of Writers and they were such as we now have them I except only such small variations as might be the mistakes and errours of Copies all which when put together amount to nothing that is of any Importance to the matters of our Belief or the Rule of our Life Now when we consider how near St. Iohn lived to that time and that Irenaeus was instructed by Policarp who was ordained by St. Iohn and lived not far from him when we see what weight Irenaeus lays on the Scriptures in opposition to all Oral Tradition and how positively he makes his appeals to them when we see how soon after that time both the Greek and Latin the Roman and Affrican Churches those of Syria and AEgypt do all agree to cite the same Books in the same words or with inconsiderable variations we have all reason to conclude that this great point of the Books was setled much sooner since by the end of a hundred years they were in all Peoples hands and were read in all the Assemblies of Christians they were also read by their Enemies Trypho in particular as Iustin informs us we see also soon after this that Celsus had read them and indeed it is plain from all the Christian Writers in those Ages that the Books of the N. Testament were in all mens hands they quote them so often in their Apologies and other Books as Writings that were generally read and known such a spreading of Books and multiplying of Copies was a work of time when all was to be writ out and this was so near the Fountain that we have all reason to believe that the Originals at least of St. Paul's Epistles to the Churches were still preserved and tho an Oral Tradition of a Doctrine even for so short a period is so doubtful a conveyance that it were not easy to think that it might not have enlarged a little beyond the truth yet a Tradition of some Books could hardly in so very short a time have been varied or altered chiefly in so important a point as the Resurrection of Christ which was the main Article of their belief and that which runs as a Thread through all the Sermons and Epistles of the Apostles and indeed this being once yielded settles all the rest with it Therefore since we have such a Copious concurrence of Authors that cite those Books all-a-long from that time downwards besides the Epistles of those Apostolical Men St. Clement St. Ignatius and St. Policarp the first having writ in that very time probably before the destruction of Ierusalem and the other two soon after it in which several of the Books of the N. Testiment are cited as Writings then well known and in all mens hands we must from all this firmly conclude that the Books as we now have them are not altered from the form in which they were at first writ They were quickly Copied out for the use of the Churches they were read at the Assemblies of the Christians they were Translated into the vulgar Tongues particularly the Latin and Syriach very early so that they becoming so soon publick and getting into so many hands it was not possible for any one who might have had the wickedness to have attempted the corrupting them to have compassed it afterwards And what noise soever the Enemies of our Faith may make of the various readings and how much soever the bulk of them as they are added to the Polyglot Bible may at first view strike the eye yet when all these are examined they amount not to any one variation in any Article of our Faith and they appear so plainly to be the slips of the Writers that this can never shake any man who will be at the pains to search it to the bottom So that I have now gone round all the suppositions of Infidelity and have I hope clearly evinced that there is not any one of them which is in any sort credible or even possible I will in conclusion consider some few of their Objections indeed all that I have ever met with which seem to have any force Some cannot imagine why our Saviour after his Resurrection shewed himself only to a few and did not come in next day to the Temple and shew himself to that vast Assembly which was then to be there since that must for ever have put an end to all doubting and have silenced all his Enemies This were a very reasonable Objection if God's ways were as our ways our warm tempers that boil with resentment and that pursue eagerly our own Vindication would have no doubt wrought this way but if we go to ask an account of all God's Works or Ways we shall find them very different from our own Notions A great part of his Creation seems useless to us much of it seems defective as well as another part seems superfluously redundant to us there are many very unaccountable things both in the structure of our Bodies and the temper of our
the Impieties and Vices of all sorts that are among us and not wonder rather that we have not been made a scene of Earthquakes and Ruins as Sicily Malta and Jamaica have of late been It is to these sins that we ought to turn the minds of our people when they are at any time dejected with ill success we ought to call upon them to repent of and to reform their ways and when that is done or even set about we may then hope that God will change his methods towards us and continue his Gospel among us together with the Blessings of a Iust and Wise Government and of Peace and Plenty These are Subjects on which we ought to dwell much and Preach often But that I may not dismiss this matter without any thing that looks like an Argument I will open to you two great Precedents which you have often heard me enlarge on with much seeming satisfaction and because you have thought that I laid them out in a more particular manner than you had otherwise met with them I will now spread them out before you and that the rather because Arguments from Examples and authorised practices have upon many Accounts a stronger Influence than general reasonings Matters of Fact are easier apprehended and more capable of full proof than points of speculation which do more easily bend to any turn that a Man of Wit may give them than meer Facts which are stubborn and sullen The first of these is taken from the History of the Maccabees which I desire you will consider by these steps That the Jews became the Subjects of the Kings of Babylon by the Entire Conquest which Nebuchadnezzar made of that Nation that after the end of 70 Years they continu'd to be subject to Cyrus who tho he sent them back to rebuild their Temple and tho his Successors suffer'd them both to finish that and to rebuild and enclose Jerusalem yet they continu'd still to be the Subjects of the Kings of Persia this was transferred to Alexander the Great when he conquer'd that Empire And finally they fell to the share of the Kings of Syria and were their Subjects above 140 Years They proved hard Masters to them Antiochus Epiphanes robb'd the Temple in the 143 Year of the Seleucida a great Massacre followed but these were particular Acts of Tyranny and so tho there was great mourning upon this yet it was submitted to For certainly the Peace of Mankind and the Order of the World require that special acts of malversation and even of Trranny should be born rather than that we should shake an established Constitution But in the year 145. he went on to a total Subversion of their Religion by an Edict which required that they should forsake their Law and become one People with him In pursuance os which the Altar at Jerusalem was defiled Idolatrous Altars were set up in all their Cities and every Man was to be put to Death that still adhered to the Law of Moses Here then were Subjects brought under a general Sentence of Death unless they should depart from the Laws of God special Oppressions and violent Acts of Cruelty were submitted to but when they saw themselves involved all in the same common fate they defended themselves Mattathias not only refused to join in the Idolatry that they had set up but killed both him that went to offer the Sacrifice and likewise the King's Commissioner upon which the Historian adds this Reflection Thus dealt he zealously for the Law of God like Pianehas he a nimated his Children to follow his Example and to trust in God but he vouched no immediate warrant that he had from God He charged his Children to be zealous for the Law and to give their Lives for the Covenant of their Fathers to be valiant and to shew thâ—mselves Men in behalf of it for by it you shall obtain glory and he ordered them to take unto them all that observed the Law and to revenge the wrong of their People to Recompence fully the Heathen and to take heed to the Commandment of the Law Upon this followed the Wars of the Maccabees in which they never pretended to any special Authority from any Prophet On the contrary their History tells us That they laid up the Stones of the Altar that had been prophaned by Idolatry in a convenient place till a Prophet should come to shew what should be done with them Thus then we see Subjects defend themselves against their Prince when he designed a total Subversion of their Religion and for this they vouched no immediate nor extraordinary Authority But to give this Argument its entire force We must next see upon what reason we may conclude that this was a justifiable and by consequence an imitable Action As for this tho I think it is scarce necessary to enlarge much on an Apology for the Maccabees their Wars having born such a venerable sound in a course of so many Ages yet to pursue the matter fully we find a Prophesy concerning them in Daniel which is by all Commentators Ancient and Modern applied to them that alone seems to import a full Iustification of them after mention is made of a King that should defile the Sanctuary and take away the daily Sacrifice and set upon it the abomination that maketh desolate to that this is added and such as do wickedly against the Covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries but the People that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits And they that understand among the People shall instruct many yet they shall fall by the Sword and by flame by captivity and by spoil many days And when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little help but many shall cleave to them with flatteries As these words import a plain Prodiction in terms of approbation of the Wars of the Maccabees so all the Commentators that I have yet seen without exception do apply them to them There are also many Commentators who do apply likewise to them those words of the Epistle to the Hebrews Who out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the Armies of the Aliens And there is a particular resemblance observed between these words and some Phrases that occur in the Books of the Maccabees Yet I confess those words are not so express as the former nor are they so Universally expounded in this sense But to conclude this matter The Authority of those Books as it is an Argument of full force against those who acknowledge them to be Canonical so since by the Articles of our Church these Books are to be read for example of Life and for the Instruction of manners tho it doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine and since we read so many Lessons taken out of the Apocrypha These must be acknowledged to be Books of great tho not of Divine Authority And tho according to
Argument from them would in a little time be lost Men grow accustomed to what they see daily and it makes no impression otherwise the Wonders of Day and Night of Summer and Winter the ebbing and flowing of the Sea would work more powerfully on us than they do A superfetation of Miracles would have no effect if it were not a bad one to make the Divine Power in working them be called in question and to lead Men to impute them to some Natural Cause or to some Secrets known only to a few In all which we may conclude that according to what our Saviour said of Moses and the Prophets If Men believe not Christ and his Apostles they would not believe tho' a Man should rise from the dead or that the most uncontested Miracle that they would call for should be wrought for their conviction Another Objection of the Infidels is taken from the differences that are between the Gospels in which the same passages seem to be variously related in different words and in another order of time things being by some set down as done after those things before which they are set by others Questions and Answers are variously stated they also find some reasonings that do not seem concluding even those that are brought to convince gainsayers where there ought to be more exactness There is also a lowness and flatness of style that makes the Books seem but mean nor are they laid in any exactness of method but seem to run in a loose ramble besides that there are many passages in them that look staring as that of Christ's preaching to the Spirits in Prison that of Melchisedeck and some other things that we scarce know what to make of These things look not like the Products of Divine Inspiration But in answer to all this we are to consider the different Orders of Inspiration according to the different ends for which it is given Moses had the Law as the Iews confess by an immediate Communication with God as one Man converses with another expressed by the phrase of face to face or mouth to mouth such a degree seemed necessary for one who was to deliver an entire System of a Religion of Sacred Rites as well as Binding Laws to that Nation But those who were only sent to call on the People to the obedience of the Law and to denounce Judgments upon their disobedience and give out Predictions received a lower degree of Inspiration the Will of God being represented to them in Dreams and Visions in which several Representations were drammatically impressed on their Imaginations and explained by a secret Intimation made by God to them Others had yet a lower degree being animated by a Divine Excitation to compose Holy Hymns and Discourses to the edification of the People now as the Iews divide the Books of the Old Testament in three different Volumes according to these various degrees of Inspiration according to which division our Saviour himself cites the Old Testament in all of which we find that those holy Penmen writ in such a diversity that it is apparent every one was left to his own Way and Geniâ—us as to Style and Composition some being much loftier than others Now to apply this to the New Testament It was necessary that Men sent to publish such a Doctrine should be so divinely filled with the knowledge of it and should be so actuated by that same Influence that assisted them miraculously as neither to be able to mistake nor misrepresent any part of it for the Miracles that they wrought bringing the World under an obligation to believe them it was not possible that they could be left to themselves and be subject to mistakes But after all this every one acted according to his natural Temper and writ in his natural Style so we see a great variety in the whole Composition and Method of their Discourses and Epistles The Gospels were writ either by Apostles or by those who were their companions in labour and whose Books were authoris'd by them but it does not clearly appear what method they intended to follow whether to observe the order of Time or the relation that one Passage might have to another in this they were left to their natural Faculties all that was of consequence was to have the Doctrine and Discourses of Christ his Action and his Miracles faithfully stated to us but in the method of ordering or expressing these they might be left to their natural Powers and in this there might be a particular ordering of Providence that every thing should not be said in the same way by every one as by concert which might have looked liker a contrivance it being more genuine when different persons write in different ways and all agree in the same account of the Doctrine and Miracles There may be also many ways of reconciling small diversities which at this distance may be lost to us things may appear to be different that yet may very well agree of which we find innumerable Instances in Critical Authors and those passages whose agreement they have made out give us very good reason to believe that if we had a greater number of contemporary Books now extant we might understand many more better than we can do in this want of them Passages very like one another might have happened in different times of our Saviour's Life and that which seems to be one story related two different ways may be really two different stories and both may be exactly related So that all this Objection instead of derogating from the credit of the Gospel does really heighten it As for many Answers and Reasonings that do not seem to us to be very concluding we are to consider that in a short Relation in which hints are only given it was impossible to open every thing fully we are also little acquainted with the methods of the Iews Arguings at that time Philo and Iosephus are the only Writers that remain The one is short upon their Customs and Notions and he affecting to write elegantly for the Romans and Greeks gives us very little light this way Philo does indeed much more tho' living long at Alexandria and studying the Greek Philosophy he is so mystical and sublime that it is not easie always to comprehend him yet in him we plainly see how much the Iews were delighted with very dark allusions and reasonings and since it is a just and allowable way of arguing with any to argue from Suppositions granted by them and suitably to their Principles and Notions we who plainly see in Philo that the Iews used them to explain a great deal of Scripture by a dark Cabbala are not to wonder if some Arguments run in that strain For instance we do not see how the last words of the 102 Psalm concerning God's creating all things and his Eternity and Unchangeableness belong to the Messias which yet are applied to him in the Epistle to the Hebrews but
we see clear Characters in that Psalm to shew us that the Iews did so expound it Since those words the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory and when the Lord shall build up Sion he shall appear in his Glory together with several passages that follow could not according to the Cabbala of the Iews be understood of any thing but of the Messias and of the Divine Shechinah that was to rest upon him and so according to this all the other parts of the Psalm were also applicable to him If St. Paul argues that the Promise was not made to Seeds but to the Seed of Abraham which seems a bad inference since Seed tho' in the singular is yet of a plural signification this may perhaps be bad Greek unless some corrupt form of Speech had made Seed stand for Son but tho' the Greek is not pure yet the Sense is true and the Argument in it self is good St. Paul's design being to let them see that their being the Seed of Abraham alone was not enough to assure them of the favour of God It was not to all Abraham's Posterity that the Promise was made since neither Ishmael nor Keturah's Children were comprehended within it But it belonged only to Isaac and in that contracting the Promise to one an emblem was given of the Messias in whom singly the blessing of that Covenant was to center and was not to be spread into the whole Nation that descended from him So that what fault soever we may find with the Greek the Sense is true and the Application is useful and we do not know but such a form of Speech might have been then used in common discourse It is certain that the Apostles had no Rhetorick and often their Grammar is not exact But this instead of making against their Writings does really make for them since it shews that they us'd no enticing Words nor laboured Periods no lively Figures nor studied Sentences all was natural without Art or Study which shewed that they knew they needed no borrowed help to support a Cause in which they were sure Heaven would interpose and promote its own concerns and the veneration with which their Writings were received and in which they were held shews that there was somewhat else than the Skill or Eloquence the Persuasives or Arguings of the Authors that begat and maintained their Reputation If we find here and there a Passage that we know not well what to make of this is the fate of all Books that were writ at a great distance from us The Customs and Manners of Men change strangely in a course of many Ages and all Speech especially that which is figurative and dark has such relation to these that if in a Book full of many plain useful and excellent Theories and Rules some Passages come in amongst them which we plainly see relate to some Practice or Opinion of which we are not sufficiently informed such as the being baptised for the dead having power on the head because of the Angels or the like This is nothing but what occurs to us in all ancient Books and what we easily bear with in all other Writings even of a much later Antiquity Weare therefore to make the best use we can of that which we do understand and to let those other places lie till we can find out their true meaning That of Christ's going in the Spirit to Preach to the Spirits now in Prison is perhaps one of these unless we believe that by Prison is to be meant according to the use of that word and others like it in the Septuagint the darkned state of the Gentile World who were shut up in Idolatry as in a Prison or in Chains under the power of the God of this World In this sense there is nothing easier to be apprehended than that period which imports only that Christ by vertue of the Holy Ghost that he had poured out upon his Apostles was calling the Gentile World out of their Ignorance and Idolatry And as in the days of Noah those who were disobedient perished in the Flood while there was an Ark prepared for those who would go into it So says he our rising out of the Waters that being the last piece of the Baptismal Ceremony as it was then practised and being the representation of our rising again with Christ was that which now saves us In all this the sence is clear and good tho the manner of the expression be a little dark The way of all the Easterns even to this day in all their discourses being obscure and involv'd where a great deal is supposed to be already understood we are not to wonder if we should find some parts of the New Testament writ in that strain As for that of Melchisedeck as the words lie they seem to be a riddle indeed but with a little observation we will find that passage concerning him in the Epistle to the Hebrews to be as plain as any thing can be The design of a great part of this Epistle is to shew that the Messias was to be a Priest and was to offer up a Sacrifice but not to be of the Family of Aaron since he was to spring out of the Tribe of Iudah nor to be a Priest after that Order or according to the Rules of that Institution but according to the Psalm to be a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck Now the Rules or Order of the Aaronical Priesthood were that every Priest was to be descended from that Line to be born of a Mother that had not been a Widow or Divorced and this gave him who was thus received a right to transmit his Priesthood to his descendants in a Genealogy derived from him These Priests were also tied to their Turns in attending on the Temple which were called their Days in which they were admitted to serve at Thirty which was therefore the Age of the beginning of their days and at Fifty they were dismissed and were no more bound to attend than if they had been naturally dead so this was the end of their Life as to their Priesthood Now in opposition to this Melchisedeck was a Priest without Father and Mother that is He was immediately called to it of God and it did not devolve on him by descent nor was he to derive this in a Genealogy to his Posterity He came â—ot on to an attendance on the service of God at such an Age nor went he out at another but was a Priest of God for ever that is of a long continuance according to the common use of that word which only imports a constancy in any thing Melchisedeck was a Priest for term of Life which answers the signification of the word but was a Type of him that in the strictest sense was to be a Priest of God for ever Thus if we conster that verse by a reverse which is very
World in which they should be authoris'd to dissolve the Obligation of the Mosaical Laws and to confirm such parts of them as were Moral and perpetually binding which the Apostles should do with such visible Characters of a Divine Authority empowering and conducting them in it that it should be very evident that what they did on Earth was ratified in Heaven These words thus understood carry in them a plain sense which agrees well with the whole design of the Gospel but whatsoever may be their sense it is plain that there was nothing here peculiarly given to St. Peter As for our Saviour's praying for St. Peter that his faith might not fail and his restoring him to his Apostolate by a threefold charge feed my sheep or lambs it has such a visible relation to his fall and threefold denial that it is not worth the while to enlarge on or to shew that it is capable of no other signification and cannot be carried further And thus I have gone through all that is brought from the Scriptures for asserting the Infallibility of the Church and in particular of the Pope's and have I hope fully shew'd that they cannot bear that sense but that they must genuinely bear a plainly different sense which does no way differ from our Doctrine It was necessary to clear all this for tho as was before made out it is no proper way for them to resolve their Faith by passages out of Scripture yet these are very good objections to us who upon other Reasons do submit to their Authority There remains but one thing now to be clear'd which is this If the Church is not Infallible it does not easily appear what certainty we can have concerning the Scriptures since we believe them upon the Testimony of the Church and we have no other knowledge concerning them but what has been handed down to us by Tradition If therefore this is fallible we may be deceiv'd in our persuasion even concerning them But here a great difference is to be made between the carrying down a Book to us and the Oral Delivering of a Doctrine it being almost as hard to suppose how the one could sail as how the other should not fail The Books being in many hands spread over the whole Churches and read in all their Assemblies makes this to be a very different thing from discourses that are in the Air and to which every man that reports them is apt to give his own Cue A great difference is also to be made between the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judge If in any Age of the Church Councils had examin'd controverted Writings and had upon that past Sentence this had been in deed a judging the matter but no such thing ever was The Codex of the Scriptures was setled some Ages before any Provincial Council gave out a Catalogue of the Books which they held as Canonical For no ancient General Council ever did it and tho the Canonical Epistles of which there not being such a certain Standard they not being addrest to any particular Body that had preserv'd the Originals were not so early nor so universally receiv'd as the others were yet the matter was setled without any Authoritative Judgment only by examining Originals and such other Methods by which all things of that nature can only be made out But this matter having been so fully consider'd and stated in another Discourse I shall dwell no longer on it in this As for the Authorities which are brought from some of the Ancients in favour of the Authority of the Church and of Tradition it is to be considered that though the word Tradition as it is now used in Books of Controversy imports a sense opposite to that which is written in the Scripture yet Tradition is of its own signification a general word that imports every thing which is delivered And in this sense the whole Christian Religion as well as the Books in which it is contained was naturally called the Tradition of the Apostles So that a great many things said by Ancients to magnify the Tradition of the Apostles and by way of Appeal to it have no relation to this matter Besides when men were so near the Apostolical Age that they could name the Persons from whom they had such or such hints who had received them from the Apostles or from Apostolical men Tradition was of another sort of Authority and might have been much more safely appealed to than at the distance of so many Ages Therefore if any thing is brought either from Irenaeus or Tertullian that sounds this way here is a plain difference to be observed between their Age and ours which does totally diversify it But to convince the World how early Tradition might either vary or misrepresent matters let the Tradition not only in but before St. Irenaeus's time concerning the observation of Easter be considered which goes up as high as St. Polycarps's time We find that as the several Churches adhered to the practices of those Apostles that founded them so they had quite forgot the grounds on which it seems these various Observations were founded Since though it is very probable that those who kept Easter on the Iewish day did it that by their condescendence to the Iews in that matter they might gain upon them and soften their Prejudices against Christianity yet it does not appear that their Successors thought of that at all for they vouched their Custome and resolved to adhere to it nor is there any thing mentioned on either side that give us the account of those early but different Observations If then Tradition failed so near its Fountain we may easily judge what account we ought to make of it at so great a distance Many things are brought with great pomp out of St. Austin's Writings magnifying the Authority of the Church in terms which after all the allowances that are to be made for his diffuse and African Eloquence can hardly be justified Yet when it is considered that he writ against the Donatists who had broke the Vnity of the Church upon the pretence of a matter of fact concerning the Ordainers of Cecilian which had been as to the point of fact often judged against them And yet as they had distracted the whole African Churches so they were men of fierce and implacable Tempers that broke out daily into acts of great fury and violence and had set up a principle that must for ever break the Peace and Union of the Church which was that the vertue of all the publick Acts of Worship of Sacraments and Ordinances depended upon the personal worth of him that officiated so that his Errors or Vices did make void all that past through his hands Now when so warm a man as St. Austin had so bad a Principle and so ill a disposition of mind in view it is no wonder if he brought out all that he could think on upon the subject so
the Holy Ghost fell visibly on Cornelius and his Friends Can any man forbid water that those should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we And with this he settled the minds of those who were a little offended at that action This shews that no pretence to a high dispensation of the Spirit can evacuate that Precept since on the contrary an evidence of the giving the Holy Ghost was pleaded as an Argument for baptizing Nor does any one passage in which Baptism is mentioned in the New Testament limit it to that time and intimate that it belonged only to the beginnings of Christianity or that it was to determine when it was more fully setled so that this with the constant practice of all succeeding Ages without a shadow of any Exception must conclude us as to this Point Our Saviour did also appoint the other Sacrament to be continued in remembrance of him by which St. Paul says we shew forth his death till he come Now these words cannot be understood of any supposed inward and spiritual coming since the most signal coming in that sense was the effusion of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and yet after that time the Apostles continued to practice it and delivered it to the Churches as a Precept still obligatory till Christ should come If then we ought still to remember him and shew forth his death if it is the Communion of his Body and Blood if it is the new Covenant in his Blood for the remission of sins then as long as these things are Duties incumbent on us so long we must be under the obligation of eating that Bread and drinking that Cup. Further If Christ has left different Gifts to different Orders of men some Apostles some Prophets some Evangeliste and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for edifying the Body of Christ till we come unto a perfect man and are no more in danger of being tossed to and fro and carried away with every wind of doctrine These words do plainly import That as long as mankind is under the frailties of this present state and in this confused Scene that some of these Orders must still be continued in the Church and that those Rules and Preceps given to Timothy and Titus concerning such as were to be ordained Bishops or Elders that is Priests and Diacons were to be lasting and standing Rules for indeed if the design had not been to establish that Order for the succeeding Ages there was less need of it in that in which there was such a plentiful Measure of the Spirit poured out upon all Christians that such Functions in that time might have been well spared if it had not been for this that they were then to be setled under the Patronage if I may so speak of the Apostles themselves from whom they were to receive an Authority which how little necessary soever it might seem in that wonderful time yet was to be more needed in the succeeding Ages Therefore we may well conclude That whatsoever was ordered concerning those Offices or Officers of the Church in the first Age was by a stronger parity of reason to be continued down through all the Ages of the Church and in particular if in that time in which Women received the Gifts of the Holy Ghost so that some prophesied and others laboured much in the Lord that is in the Gospel yet St. Paul did in two different Epistles particularly restrain them from teaching or speaking in the Church to which he adds That it was a shame for Women to speak in the Church that is it might turn to be a reproach to the Christian Religion and furnish Scoffers with some colours of exposing it to the scorn of the Age. This was to be much more strictly observed when all those extraordinary Characters that might seem to be exemptions from common Rules did no longer continue As for those distinctions into which they have cast themselves of the Hat and the denying Titles and speaking in the singular Thou and Thee it is to be considered That how unfit soever it be and how unbecoming Christians to be conformed to this world yet it rather lessens than heightens the great Idea that the world ought to have of the Christian Religion when it states a diversity among men about meer Trifles Our Saviour and his Apostles complied as much in all innocent Customs as they avoided all sinful ones Honour to whom honour is due is a standing Duty and though the bowing the Body and falling prostrate are postures that seem liker Idolatry and more abject in their nature than the Hat yet the very Prophets of God paid these respects to Kings Outward Actions or Gestures signify only what is entended to be expressed and what is generally understood by them so that what is known to be meant only for a piece of Civil respect can never be stretched to a Religious respect and though that abject homage under which the Iewish Rabbies had brought their Disciples and which they had exprest in Titles that imported their profound submission to them was reproved by our Saviour yet we see that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir or Lord was then used as commonly as we now do since Mary Magdalen called him whom shee took for a Gardener Sir or Lord. And St. Paul gave Festus the Title which belonged to his Office it being the same that Claudius Lysias gave Felix who certainly was not wanting in that and that being the Title of men of Rank St. Luke adresses both his Books to Thephilus designing him in one ofthem in the same manner Words signify nothing of themselves as they are meer sounds but according to the signification in which men agree to use them so if the speaking to one man in the plural number is understood only as a more respectful way of treating him then the plural is in this case really but a singular Indeed these things scarce deserve to be so narrowly lookt into The Scruple against Swearing is more important both to them and to the Publick They have indeed the appearance of a plain Command of our Saviour's against all manner of Swearing which is repeated by St. Iames but this must be restricted to their communication according to the words that follow since we find Swearing not only commanded in the Old Testament but practised in the New The Apostles swear at every time they say God is witness and more solemnly when God is called for a record upon their Soul The Angel of God lifts up his hand and swears by him that lives for ever and ever God swears by himself and an Oath for confirmation that is for affirming any matter is the end of all Controversy We find our Saviour himself answered upon Oath when adjured by the High Priest to tell If he was the
can have such influence both on our Lives and in our Death as the Belief of another World and of the Account that is to be made after Death Nothing strikes the hatred of Sin or the obligations to Vertue deeper than the whole Theory of the Death and Sufferings of Christ. The Rules given in the Gospel to all the Orders of Men and in all the Relations of Life would make all Families and Societies both easie and happy the obligation to strict justice to all others and to an abatement of what in justice we might demand from others by doing as we would be done by The Rules of not only passing by and forgiving Injuries but of loving Enemies and doing good for evil the tenderness as well as the extent of our charity the measures and manner of our bounty to the Poor the modesty of deportment the condescending gentleness as well as the unaffected humility that are enjoined have all such Characters in them so suited to our Faculties and to Human Society to the calm of a man's mind as well as to the comforts of his life to fortifie him against misfortunes and to support him against the feebleness and frailties of his Nature that he who will suffer himself to weigh all this carefully must feel a strong disposition to believe a Religion to be true that agrees with the highest thoughts that we can have of God and the best Seeds or Principles that we feel within our selves All this receives a vast accesfion from the simplicity of the Worship prescribed by it which consists chiefly in the exercise of the sublimest thoughts that we can entertain of God and the justest that we ought to have of our selves all which are to be expressed in the most genuine and simplest manner possible with the fewest but the plainest and most significant Rites Thus a great advance is made when a Man can be induced to lay all these things together The whole moral and practical part of Christianity together with the modesty and reasonableness of its Worship are great Inducements if not Arguments to believe all the rest of it And this will appear the more sensibly if one sets by it the Idolatry and Magick the Cruelties and Brutalities that have defiled the whole Gentile World either as we find them anciently even among the Politest Nations of Greece and Rome and as they continue to this day in so great a part of the World which lies still under the darkness of Paganism according to the Descriptions that Navigators and Travellers have given us Here is the first foundation to be laid To this is to be added That a Nation which hates our Religion does yet retain many Books that give a vast strength to it and so much the greater as they the Iews I mean have preserved those Books with great care It was a remarkable step when those Books were put in a Language of greater extent and more certainly understood than that in which they were first writ and that long before our Religion appeared which was done by the Men of that Nation That Translation was received and long used by them which prevented endless Disputes that must have otherwise arisen in the beginnings of Christianity concerning the true rendring of many Passages in them which relate to an extraordinary Person that was to be sent to them and was looked for by them under the name of the Messias For the Hebrew Language as it was little known so it was capable of such different Readings and Interpretations that if the matter had not been setled before by an Authentical and Authorized Translation it does not well appear how it could have been done A Christian would not have had credit enough nor a Iew honesty enough to have given a Work of this kind in which the World would have acquiesced Now in these Books as there are some Predictions that seem looser and more general such as those concerning the Seed of the Woman the Seed of Abraham and the Issue of David so some chiefly of the later Prophets fixed upon a period of time as that he should come during the Second Temple and within a limited course of Years and that he should be cut off but that afterwards the City and Sanctuary should be destroyed That Desolations were determined till the War should be at an end Now without entring into the exact adjusting of the time limited of 70 Weeks we do certainly know that their Temple and City were destroyed many Ages ago and but a few Years after that he whom we believe to be that Messias had appeared among them and was cut off by them So that either it must be owned that this was not a true Prophecy or the Messias came before the destruction of Ierusalem This Argument receives a vast strength by those who have made out the point of Chronology of the 70 Weeks of Years that is 490 Years which does exactly agree to the interval of time This whole Matter receives a great confirmation from that Unvaluable History which Iosephus a Iewish Priest and a Man of great Learning and Judgment well skill'd both in Civil and Military Affairs and full of zeal both for his Country and Religion has writ in so particular a manner he having been an Eye-witness and a considerable Actor in the whole Affair Whosoever is at the pains to compare that dismal Scene with our Saviour's Predictions sees such an agreement between them that this is no small Argument to prove the truth of the whole Religion Nor is it to be past over without a special remark that we have this piece of History writ by a Iew who cannot be suspected had a Christian writ it he might perhaps have been thought too partial to his Religion or had a Roman writ it he might have been suspected to have aggravated matters for raising the Triumphs of his Country but there lies no possible colour of suspicion against Iosephus And since he mentions the Story both of the Forerunner and of the Disciple of our Saviour this is a great presumption either that the Passage relating to our Saviour himself is genuine or that if he said nothing of him it was because he knew he could say nothing that could derogate from his Credit and that he would say nothing to raise it For it is plain from those Relations concerning St. Iohn Baptist and St. Iames that he was acquainted with the beginnings of our Religion besides that we see a particular Curiosity possessed him of being well informed concerning all the different Sects that were among them and their particular Tenets and Customs There are so many Passages in the Gospel of which the Iews must have had such Full and Authentical Information that if they had been falsly related it must have been in their power to have confuted them beyond the possibility of a contradiction So that as to this part of the Argument so much is certain That the Iews looked for their
Messias during the Second Temple and about the time that our Saviour appeared which disposed them so easily to hearken to every Impostor Their Temple has been destroyed their Nation dispersed their Genealogies lost by which the certainty of their being Abraham's Seed subsists no more and their Sacrifices have ceased now above 1600. Years So that their hatred of us and yet their Books agreeing with ours when joined together make no small part of our Argument But now to come to the strength of our Cause I lay it thus The Gospels were published in the time when many persons were yet alive who knew and were appealed to for the Passages contained in them Which is made out thus First They mention the Temple and Nation of the Iews as still in being which shews they were written before the Destruction of Ierusalem More particularly St. Luke writ the Acts of the Apostles two Years after St. Paul's going to Rome with which he ends that Book And he begins it with the mention of his Gospel as writ some time before that His Gospel also begins with an Account of some other Gospels that had been then writ Now St. Paul's going to Rome happened two or three and twenty Years after the time of our Saviour's Passion and Resurrection so early were these things put in writing They were no sooner written than they were read in the Assemblies of the Christians as the Iews were wont to read the Law and the Prophets in their Synagogues This we do find from St. Iustin's Apology was the practice of his time which was less than an hundred Years after they were written So that we clearly see these Writings were not kept as Secrets to be divulged as the Depositaries of them thought fit according to the way that the Romans had used about the Sybilline Oracles but were immediately copied out for the use of all the Churches and of as many private Christians as could compass the Copying them The Epistles of the Apostles do carry in them Characters that lead us very near the time in which they were written And by comparing those of St. Paul with the Books writ by St. Luke we see when most of his Epistles were writ many of them being before his going to Rome Now these Epistles were addressed to whole Bodies and Churches and they do often appeal to the Life Death Resurrection and Ascension of Christ as matters which were then well known and firmly believed by all Christians From all which I at present infer no more but that these things were published in the time and were known in many remote Provinces soon after they were transacted and were not kept close to be published in some other Age when it might have been easie for bold Impostors to make any thing pass with a credulous multitude Now all this was published near the Fountain and was so soon spread that in Nero's time we know by Tacitus that there were great numbers of them at Rome who had fallen under a publick Odium and on whom Nero though he had burnt Rome himself threw the hatred of that Conflagration and punished them with the severity that such a Crime if truly proved against them had well deserved In the Gospels we have the Relations of our Saviour's Miracles of many of his Transactions with the Iewish Nation so circumstantiated more particularly the Account of his Death and Resurrection is given so minutely that the Iews who might have been easily Masters of the Books in which these were contained had it in their power to have overthrown the credit of them in many Instances if they had found any falshoods in them If they had not sealed the Sepulchre or asked of Pilate a grant to watch it if that Guard had not run away in the night and given out a story of their having fallen asleep the Iews could have well disproved this upon which the whole depended Now as the Iews were engaged both out of their hatred of our Saviour and his Doctrine and to justifie themselves from the Imputations of having shed his Blood and that of his Followers to have pursued this matter so close as to have convinced the World of its falshood so the progress that it made did alarm them too much to make any one imagine that they could despise it They had it also in their power by the Registers which were in their hands and at least during Agrippa's Reign they were in so happy and flourishing a condition that it cannot be said that the ill state of their Affairs took from them either the heart or the leisure to look after this All which received a great confirmation from St. Paul's Conversion who from being one not only of their Zealots and Pharisees but of the most furious Persecutors of this Religion was so strangely struck down and changed while a company of their own People were about him that he became afterwards the most successful of all the first Planters of Christianity He did very frequently appeal to that matter of Fact in which it had been easie to have taken away his Credit if they could have denied it So far then I have gone to shew that this matter was published early and in the sight of those who were both most concerned and most able to have detected any deceit that might have been in it who did not by any Act of which there remains the least print among either the Writings of their own Nation or of the other Enemies to Christianity attempt to discredit it Had not the Genealogies of Christ been taken exactly out of the Temple-Registers the bare shewing of them had served to have confuted the whole for if in any one thing the Registers of their Genealogies were clear and uncontroverted Since these proved that they were Abraham's Seed and likewise made out their Title to the Lands which from the days of Ioshua were to pass down either to immediate Descendants or as they failed to Collateral Degrees Now this shews plainly that there was a double Office kept of their Pedigrees one was natural and might be taken when the Rolls of Circumcision were made up and the other related to the Division of the Land in which when the Collateral Line came instead of the Natural then the last was dropt as extinct and the other remained It being thus plain from their Constitution that they had these two Orders of Tables we are not at all concerned in the diversity of the two Evangelists on this head since both might have Copied them out from those two Offices at the Temple and if they had not done it faithfully the Iews could have Authentically demonstrated their Error in entitling our Saviour to that received Character of the Messias that he was to be the Son of David by a false Pedigree therefore since no Exceptions were made in the time when the sight of the Rolls must have ended the Enquiry it is plain that they were faithfully Copied out Nor
heart to our very thoughts words and looks has nothing of the air or genius of Imposture in it A Religion that flatters no part of Mankind no not those who are in possession of the greatest esteem has a farther character of truth in it The Iews valued themselves upon their being Abraham's Posterity and their having a Law of many Precepts given them by God among them the most popular were the Pharisees who valued themselves chiefly upon many voluntary Observances as fences and outworks to the Law which kept them out of danger of disobeying Now a great part of the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles was designed to beat them out of these to discover the Hypocrisie of the Pharisees to shew them that all the Gentile Nations were now to be set on the same level with them and that thenceforth the obligation and vertue of all their Legal Performances was at an end The Apostles shewed as little inclination to gratifie or flatter the most admired part of Heathenism I mean the Philosophers who delighted in lofty Eloquence refined Subtilty and sublime Metaphisicks But nothing of all this appearing among them they were despised by the Philosophers who esteemed all Inspiration Madness and were prepossessed against both Miracles and Prophecies as no better than Juggleries There was nothing left to gain but the Rabble and Herd and yet these were not flattered neither They are always struck with Pomp and Magnificence they love Sights and Shows and a splendid Exterior in Religion to which both Iews and Gentiles had been so much accustomed that besides the difficulty of making them forsake the Religion of their Fathers in which they had been educated which is always a thing of an ill sound and of a bad appearance they were to draw them from Pageantry to Simplicity and from outward and costly Shews to a naked plain way of strictness and purity In all these things it must be confessed that there is nothing of the methods of Imposture Now to suspect that any Artifice lies hid when all appearances contradict it is a very unreasonable piece of jealousie and looks as if Men were resolved to suspect only for suspicion's sake When therefore there is positive proof brought on the one side of Miracles publickly done attested by great numbers of Witnesses published in the same Age while great multitudes were yet alive who were appealed to and who did so confirm these Books that they were read in all the Assemblies of the Saints or Christians as the Text and Rule of their Belief as well as of their Manners when I say all this is proved and when there appears nothing neither in the Doctrine it self nor in the management of the Apostles and their first Converts to furnish us with any colour of apprehending any foul dealing it is an unreasonable thing still to stand upon the general Argument of the possibility of an Imposture But though it be not necessary and indeed in many cases not possible to prove a Negative yet this Argument is so full of evidence that even that may be undertaken here There are four things possible that may be alledged as methods to support the possibility of a Deceit put on the World in this matter The 1 st is That the Apostles intended a Deceit which they contrived and managed successfully The 2 d is That they themselves were dcceived and were made Tools to abuse others The 3 d is That the whole Matter went about in Tales and Stories till by every one's magnifying them they grew to be believed without strict enquiry and due proof made And the 4 th is That the Books which contain this Doctrine were at first more sparingly writ but were afterwards interpolated many Passages being put in them that had not been in them at first I have never met with nor can I imagine any other Hypothesis for Infidelity to found upon and I am not afraid to name all these because I am very certain I can demonstrate the absolute Incredibility of every one of them As to the first Of the Apostles having contrived and managed this on design to abuse the World We see nothing in them that looks like this a plain Simplicity and unaffected Honesty appears in all their Discourses and Actions They were not bred to Literature Eloquence or Policy some one or all of which are necessary for Men who venture upon such Undertakings And therefore Persons utterly unfurnished in them are little to be suspected But if Men be without all these helps at least they must be naturally subtile and dextrous bold and daring Since Nature when well moulded may be capable of great matters without the refinings of Art Now the Apostles as they were all except St. Paul of Galilee which bred the most contemptible Men of all Iudea so they were Fishermen by their Trade which of all the Imployments that we know does naturally flat the Spirits the most They are in the Water much in the Night for most part and in open Boats which exposes them to such cold and flegmatick Air that this must needs dull their Spirits exceedingly But let us suppose them to be as capable either of the wickedness of contriving or of the skill in managing such a Fraud as prophane Men can fancy them to be I go next to shew that the Supposition is absurd The Resurrection of Christ was the main point upon which all the rest turned I am now to suppose what shall afterwards be proved That this matter went abroad at first in the same manner in which we do now read it in the Gospel and so in this place I am only to shew that the Relation which we now have could not be the contrivance of the Apostles Our Saviour was laid in a new Tomb not an Ancient Sepulchre to which there might have been secret Avenues that had been so long forgot that they were known only to some few persons This was both newly made and hewen out of a Rock So it might have been well examined and a passage could not be wrought into it in a night or two This happened likewise in the beginning of the Paschal Solemnity when it was Full Moon which in so pure an Air gives a very bright light At that time Ierusalem was so full of People all the Iews coming up to keep the Feast that it being then their Summer since we see handfulls of Corn were to be offered up at that time as the First-fruits of the Years growth we have reason to believe that great numbers who could not be conveniently lodged in Ierusalem were in so pleasant a time and at so great a Rendezvous walking in the Fields in the night-time These things cannot be denied The Apostles had also seen that one of their number of whom they had suspected no such thing before had betrayed our Saviour that the fear with which they themselves were struck upon his-apprehension had made them all run away and forsake him and in
ordinary of bringing the last word the govern the whole period placing the word Priest at the head of it nothing can be plainer and more full to the point that is there driven at And thus many passages that appear difficult when they are but slightly looked at become very intelligible when more attentively examined and as we can make this out in a great many Instances so if there are others in which we do still stick we have all possible reason to impute our Ignorance to our wanting a sufficient number of helps and of Books writ in that Country and at that time from which we might better collect the Opinions Customs Phrases and Allusions of those Parts and Times For since the Books of our Religion were writ for the use of plain and simple People to whom they were addrest and in whose hands they were to be put they must have been writ in a popular and not in a Rhetorical or Philosophical Style which tho it is more correct and more lasting yet it is both drier and more laboured and shews always more of Art than of Nature I have now gone over all the Heads that I thought necessary to make this discourse full in all its parts I have left nothing behind me that seemed to be material I have not been afraid to lay open all the secrets of Infidelity with the utmost strength that I could ever find them urged in because I was fully satisfied in my own mind that I could answer them all There is only one particular remaining which I have reserved to the last place because it affords a proper conclusion to this Discourse One of the main things in which Infidels support themselves is that tho they speak out yet let others deny or disguise their Thoughts as much as they please either out of Interest or Modesty since their Doctrine has an ill sound in the World yet they think with them because they live with them and not according to the Doctrine which they espouse and they seem to conclude with some advantage That we collect what men think much more infallibly from what they do than from what they say And this they urge with much Malice And would to God that I could add with as much injustice against too many of our selves Whose arguings upon these Heads are so much the less to be regarded than other Mens because we have espoused the Cause and have made it our own both in point of Reputation and Interest I wish and pray that we may all resolve on the only effectual Confutation of which this is capable by setting such a patern to the World and leading such exemplary Lives that in these they may see how firmly we believe that to which we endeavour to persuade others who wait for our halting and are critical in observing our failings and malicious in aggravating them It gave the chief strength to the first Apologies that were made for Christianity that they durst appeal to the Lives of the Christians to give the World a right Idea of their Doctrine whereas we must now decline that Argument and appeal from the Lives of Christians to their Doctrine Yet wheresoever numbers embrace any thing there must especially in a course of many Ages follow upon it a great declining from what was while they were fewer in number and that the thing was newer and fresher upon their Thoughts Besides that the best Christians are those who are the least known their Modesty and Humility leading them to hide their best Actions whereas those who make the most noise and the greatest show are for the most part hot or designing Men. A Man may also be really a much better Man than one would take him to be that sees him only on one side and does not know him wholly The frailties of some Mens natures will hang heavy upon them and sometimes burst out even in scandalous instances notwithstanding all their principles and struglings to the contrary Therefore upon the whole matter tho we cannot deny but that there is too much truth in this prejudice yet it is but a prejudice and cannot bear much weight So that it is a most unaccountable piece of folly to venture Mens Souls and their eternal Concerns upon a reflection that as it is not generally true so has no solidity in it Yet after all the use that we ought to make of it is that we ought to frame our own Lives and the Lives of all that are in our Power as much as may be to a Conformity to our Doctrines that so the World may observe in us such a true and unaffected course of solid Vertue and useful Piety that we may again recover that Argument which we have too much lost for the truthand beauty of our Religion from the Lives of those who believe and practise it and that so the Apologies now writ which in all other respects are the strongest that ever were may again have their full perfection and their entire effect upon the World DISCOURSE II. Concerning the Divinity and Death OF CHRIST THE main Articles of the Christian Religion as it is distinguished from all other Religions are those which relate to the Person and Sufferings of Christ and therefore it is of the last importance for us to have our Notions concerning these right and truly stated and that the rather because in the Age in which we live the laughing at every thing that is resolved into a Mystery passes for a piece of Wit and has the Character of a free and inquisitive Mind And while some would have every thing taken for a Mystery others set their strength to the decrying of every thing that is proposed as such as if that were an Imposition upon Human Nature and the bringing Mankind under a Yoke that it cannot and ought not to bear Therefore that I may treat of this Matter in a proper method and with a due clearness I shall first in general consider this Prejudice against all Mysteries and when I have thus prepared my way I shall come to the consideration of those which I intend now to treat upon Mystery in its first and common signification stood for some Sacred Rites by which Men were initiated into any form of Religion which the Priests of corrupt Religions kept as Secrets that either they might by that concealment encrease the value of them which if they had been generally known might have appeared so slight and mean as to have become contemptible or that they might hide some Immoralities or Frauds in the management of them and all those Theories which were kept up from the Herd and only communicated to confiding persons were also given out under this Name as things known only to those that were initiated In this sense there is no secret in Christianity no hidden Rites nor concealed Doctrines that are not trusted to the whole body of Christians But by an extent of the use os this word it came to be
respects as bad as ever this indeed is so slight a thing that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our Religion nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived than the giving any sort of encouragement to it for it is one of the greatest and the most mischievous of all those practical Errors which have corrupted Religion These are the most important parts of our whole Commission and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them that they may sink deep into our own minds and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our Natures and Lives and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness and with better advantages when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the Love and Goodness of God If the Condition of this New Covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts then we should publish them with more life and joy to others and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel on our selves and on our labours DISCOURSE III. Concerning the INFALLIBILITY AND AUTHORITY of the CHURCH AFTER we are well setled in the Belief of the Christian Religion our next enquiry must naturally be into the Way and Method of being rightly Instructed in the Doctrine and other parts of this Religion and that chiefly in one great Point Whether we ought to employ our own Faculties in searching into this and particularly into the meaning of those Books in which it is contain'd or Whether we must take it from Oral Tradition and submit to any man or body of men as the Infallible Depositaries and Declarers of this Tradition In this single point consists the Essence of the differences between us and the Church of Rome While we affirm that the Christian Doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the Scriptures and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps and all the skill and application of which he is capable and that he is bound to believe such Doctrines only as appear to him to be contain'd in the Scriptures but may reject all others that are not founded upon that Authority On the other hand The foundation upon which the Church of Rome builds is this That the Apostles deliver'd their Doctrine by word of mouth to the several Churches as the Sacred Depositum of the Faith That the Books of the New Testament were written occasionally not with intent that they should be the Standard of this Religion that we have these Books and believe them to be Divine only from the Church and upon her Testimony that the Church with the Books gives us likewise the Sense and Exposition of them they being dark in many places and that therefore the Traditional Conveyance and the Solemn Decisions of the Church must be Infallible and ought to be submitted to as such otherwise there can be no end of Controversies while every man takes upon him to expound the Scriptures which must needs fill mens Minds with Curiosity and Pride as well as the World with Heresies and Sects that are unavoidable unless there is a living speaking Judge This they also prove from some places of Scripture such as Christ's words to St. Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and unto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Tell the Church I am with you alway even to the end of the World the Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth This is their Doctrine and these are their chief Arguments upon which it is founded There is no point in Divinity that we should more clearly understand than this for it is in it self of great Consequence and is that which determines all the rest if it is true it puts an end to all other Controversies and if it is false it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that Church that pretends to it without just grounds It is also that which of all others the Missionaries of that Church understand the best and manage the most dextrously they are much practised to it and they begin and end all their practice with this which has fair appearances and will bear a great deal both of popular Eloquence and plausible Logick so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd and as ready on the other side of the Argument they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that Church There is not indeed any one point that I know of that has been open'd and examin'd both with that Beauty and Force that is in Chillingworth's Unvaluable Book upon this Subject Few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a Mathematical Evidence as he has pursu'd this Argument and his Book is writ with such a thread of Wit and Reason that I am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it I shall now endeavour in as narrow a compass as is possible to set this matter in its true Light We must then begin with this That the freedom of a man's Thoughts and Understanding is the most Essential Piece of his Liberty and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited therefore any Restraints that are laid upon him in this must be well and fully proved otherwise it is to be suppos'd that God could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing without giving clear and evident warrants for it And as every Invasion on the Liberties of the Human nature ought to be well made out so every Priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of Mankind ought to be also fully proved before others can be bound to submit to it We perceive in our selves and we see in all others such a feebleness of understanding such an easiness to go too quick and judge too fast and such a narrow compass of knowledge that as we see all Mankind is apt to mistake things so we have no reason to believe that any one is exempted from this but as there are evident Authorities to prove it Since then this is a Priviledge in those that have it as well as an Imposition on those that have it not it ought not to be offer'd at or obtruded on the world without a full Proof Probabilities forced Inferences or even disputable Proofs ought not to be made use of here since we have reason to conclude that if God had intended to put any such thing upon us he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way that there should have been no room to have doubted of it Besides all such things as do naturally give jealousy and offer specious grounds of mistrust ought to be very clear Since
being Typical it was much more reasonable to have expected an Oral Tradition of its signification Their Prophets express'd themselves in a very dark and figurative way full of strange Allusions and lofty Phrases and since these were to lead them to the Messias and yet seem capable of very different Senses all this required an Infallible Expounder They were one Nation so that Unity was in many respects most necessary to their Preservation they were for many Ages strongly set on Idolatry so that a solemn publick and Infallible Authority was the more necessary There were also provisions in their Law much more express than any can be pretended in the New Testament requiring them when they had any Controversies within their Gates to come up to the Temple to the Priest that stood there to minister before the Lord as well as to the Judge and they were upon pain of death to submit to their Determinations This matter is set out in such a variety of large and positive Expressions that tho perhaps that passage belongs to their Law Suits But by the way that of tell the Church seems to be limited to the same sort of matters yet if a parity of Reason or if the Letter of the Law is consider'd this will go much further towards an absolute Submission which seems to suppose an Infallible Authority than any thing that can be alledged for the like out of the New Testament not to mention other Expressions of asking the Law at the Priest's mouth and that his Lips should preserve knowledge for he was the Minister of the Lord of Hosts These things I say seem to make out a very fair Title to Infallibility under the Mosaical Dispensation and they continu'd to be not only the True but indeed the Only Church that God had on Earth till the Dispensation of the Gospel was opened They had still among them the Federal Means of Salvation which is all that is necessary to the Being of a Church Our Saviour join'd both in Temple and Synagogue-Worship which alone is enough to prove them to have been a true Church In this we plainly see the Sophistry of one Argument which perhaps makes some Impression on weak minds That a True Church must be true in its Doctrine it must indeed have those things that are necessary to keep up its Federal Relation to God so the Iews had their Circumcision and Sacrifices together with the rest of the Temple-Service But yet that Church had fallen under two great Errors that had a vast Extent as well as a very fatal Consequence They understood all the Prophecies of the Messias in a literal sense of a Temporal Prince and a Glorious Conqueror Here Oral Tradition fail'd in that which of all other things was the most important for them to understand aright since their mistakes in this occasion'd their rejecting the True Messias which drew on their final Ruin The other Error was also very fatal for it brought them under a vast Corruption of their Morals They thought the ritual part of their Religion was of such high Value in the sight of God that this alone together with many invented Rites that had been handed down to them by Tradition were of such Value in the sight of God that they did compensate for the grossest Immoralities and excuse from the most important Obligations of the Moral Law These things had pass'd down among them by Tradition from their Fathers and had corrupted all their Notions about Religion so that here we see all the arguings from a seeming necessity of things for an Infallible Authority are only vain Imaginations which do not hold in Instances in which we have all the plausible Reasons of looking for them Nor does it appear that it is any greater Imputation on the Goodness of God that he has not provided an Infallible Remedy against Error than that he has not provided an Infallible Remedy against Sin Sin is that which of its own nature bears the greatest opposition to the Attributes of God and to his Dominion and that does defile and corrupt our Souls the most We can much more easily apprehend that God can bear with a man that lives in Error than with one that lives in Sin The one can consist with good Intentions and a Probity and Integrity of heart for he who is in Error may think that he is serving God in it and so it can dwell in the same breast with the Love of God and of our Neigbhour which are driven out by Sin The true design of Religion is to give us such degrees of Light and Knowledge as may preserve us from Sin and purify our Hearts and Lives Holiness is a much more certain Character of a man's being in the favour of God than all the degrees of Knowledge possible Upon all these grounds we may conclude that there is no reason to think that God should have made a more certain Provision against Error than he has made against Sin Now what are the Provisions against Sin God offers the free pardon of all past sins to encourage us to forsake them he gives us secret Assistances to fortify our Endeavours against sin he sets before us unspeakably vast Rewards and Punishments and he accepts of a sincere tho imperfect Obedience so here a great deal is left to the freedom of our Wills God will not work in us as in necessary Agents but having made us capable of Liberty he leaves us to the use of it and if we perish our perdition is of our selves And therefore if we will not apply our Faculties and use our best Endeavours to become truly Holy the blame must lie upon our selves for God will not convey into us by his Power such Principles and Dispositions as shall force us to be good and unless we do what lies in us at the same time that we pray to him for inward Aid from him we have no reason to hope that he will hear us In like manner He has call'd us to a Religion that lies in a very little compass he has order'd it to be deliver'd to us in Books writ in a great simplicity of Style he has given us Understandings capable of knowledge and of great Industry in the pursuit of it and we feel this difference in our natures in seeking after Truth from following after Holiness that there is no natural disposition in us to Error or against Truth whereas there are born in us Propensities that we feel to be deeply rooted in us against Holiness and in favour of sin Among men some are naturally inquisitive made and fitted to dive deep into profound Searches these men do in Religion as well as in all other Arts and Sciences so open and clear the way to slower and lazier minds that they render things easy to them And as we have no reason to imagine that God should have laid insuperable Difficulties in the way to Divine Knowledge so those few that are in it have
Sacrament to Salvation and all Parents having naturally a very tender Concern for their Children nothing but an absolute Authority against which no man durst so much as whisper could have brought the world to have parted with this It were easy to carry this to many other Instances and to shew that not only Ritual Traditions but Doctrinal ones such as were found on Explanations of passages of Scripture have varied It were perhaps too invidious to send men to Petavius to find in him how much the Tradition of the several Ages has vari'd in the greatest Articles of the Christian Doctrine It is no less certain that Origen laid down a Scheme with relation to the Liberty of man's Will and the Providence of God that came to be so universally receiv'd by the Greek Church that both Nazianzen and Basil drew a sort of System out of his Doctrine in which those Opinions were asserted and large Quotations were gather'd out of him explaining them with most of the Difficulties that do arise out of them and as this Book had not only Origen's own Authority to support it but likewise that of those two great Men who compil'd it so it passed down and was the uncontested Doctrine of the Greek Church But St. Austin being engag'd into Disputes with Pelagius fram'd a new System that had never been thought of before him and yet the Worth and Labours of that Father gave it so a vast Reputation that this was look'd on in several Ages as the Doctrine of the Church and Learning vanishing at that time the Roman Empire being then over-run by Barbarians his Book came to be so much read and so universally receiv'd that it gave no small suspicion if any one oppos'd his Tenets yet Cassian who was a Greek and was form'd in their Notions writ a Book of Conferences which contain'd the Precepts of a Monastick State of life that were digested in so good a method and writ with so true an Elevation that it is perhaps one of the best Books that the Ancients have left us This came to be held in such Esteem that all the Monks read it with a particular Attention and Regard In it the Doctrine of Origen and the Greek Church was so fully set forth that this and perhaps this alone kept up a secret opposition to St. Austin's Doctrine tho that came to receive a vast strengthening from Aquinas and the Schoolmen that follow'd him and yet at the time that Luther and Calvin in opposition to the Church of Rome built much upon St. Austin's Authority almost all all that writ against them argu'd according to the Sentiments of the Greek Church but those of Louvain and the Orders of the Dominicans and Augustinians did so maintain St. Austins and Aquinas's Doctrine that tho it was not liked because it seem'd to be too near theirs who were to be condemn'd as Hereticks yet the Council of Trent seem'd still to stick to St. Austin Since that time the Iesuits Order who tho they at first set up for St. Austin's Doctrine yet since have chang'd their minds and taken themselves to the other side have by their Influence both at Rome and in other Courts so chang'd the Sense of the greater part of that Church that it is plain tho St. Austin's Name is too great to be openly disparaged yet they are now generally in the contrary Hypothesis This I only instance to shew that in Speculative Points it is no hard matter to make multitudes go from one Opinion to another and to alter the Tradition of the Church that is to bring one Age of the Church to think otherwise than another did But after all Oral Tradition cannot be set up as the Judge of Controversies much less as the living and speaking Judge it is no real being nor do we know where to find it The Tradition of one Body among them differs from another as in the point of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin in which an Opinion has been lately started which is now receiv'd into all their Rituals and has given occasion to many Acts of Worship and publick Devotions which is most expresly contrary to all Ancient Tradition and yet is become now so Sacred that the whole Dominican Order feels no small Inconvenience by their being oblig'd as the Followers of Aquinas to maintain the contrary The Traditions of one Nation are question'd by another particularly in this important Point of the Subject of this Infallibility It is also impossible for any man to find this out must he suspend his Opinion till he has gone round the Church to ask every man what he was bred to This as it could not be suffer'd so it could not be so fully found out as to put a man in the way to end all Controversies in this a private Judgment must again come in For tho it were granted that Oral Tradition is a Rule to judge Controversies by it can never be pretended that it is the living and speaking Iudge that must determine them I come now to the two more receiv'd Opinions in this matter the one puts it in a General Council and the other puts it in the Pope and both the one and the other pretend that the Church Representative is in them As for the pretence of some who seem to make a Third party and believe it to be in a Council confirm'd by the Pope this is only a plausible way of putting it wholly in the Pope for if the Definitions of a Council have no Infallibility in them till the Pope's Consent and Approbation is given then it is plain that all the Infallibility is in him and that he only chuses to exert it in that solemn way For either Christ gave it to St. Peter and his Successors or he gave it not if he gave it not that pretension is out of doors if he gave it to them we plainly see no Limitations in the grant and whatsoever Rules or Methods may have become authoris'd by Practice and Custom they are only Ecclesiastical Constitutions but can never be suppos'd to limit Christ's Grant or to give any share of it to others It will be to no purpose to object here That as some Constitutions our own in particular are so fram'd that the Legislative Authority tho it flows only from the King yet is limited to such a Method that it cannot be exerted but with the Concurrence of Lords and Commons so it may be also in the Church and thus the Pope can only use his Infallibility in Concurrence with a General Council or at least that both together are Infallible But tho human Societies may model themselves as to their Legislation which way they will this will only prove that as to the Government and Administration of the Church she may put her self into such a method as may be thought most regular and expedient and thus the Council of Nice limited the Bishops of a Province to do nothing without the
divide from us any of the appearances of vertue in a sober and grave deportment a modest and humble way of behaviour a solemn seriousness the fear of an Oath a plain simplicity of living a mutual union and tenderness for one another and a seeming to be in earnest in the matters of Religion together with a true strictness in breeding their Youth to understand Religion and study the Scriptures let us not deny that which we see to be true but let us study to bring our selves and our people to outdo them in these things and to add to these an exact probity and justice candor and truth fidelity and integrity a meek and gentle behaviour free from rash censuring and evil speaking a universal Charity to all Mankind a readiness to forgive Injuries to do good for evil and liberality in our bounty to the necessitous straitning our selves to relieve others And if we can bear with them by our charity as well as the Law tolerates them in their Opinions we may hope by the blessing of God in a competent time to overcome all their Prejudices and so to heal all our Divisions and to become of one heart and mind FINIS THE CONTENTS DISCOURSE I. COncerning the Truth of the Christian Religion Pag. 1. DISCOURSE II. Concerning the Divinity and the Death of Christ. 25. DISCOURSE III. Concerning the Infallibility and Authority of the Church 52. DISCOURSE IV. Concerning the Obligations to continue in the Communion of the Church 83. Books lately Printed for R. Chiswell A Discourse of the Pastoral Care By the Lord Bishop of Sarum 8 vo An Imperial History of the Late Wars of Ireland from the beginning to the end In two Parts Illustrated with Copper Sculptures describing the most Important Places of Action Written by George Story an Eye-witness of the most Remarkable Passages 4 to A Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts By George Tully Sub-Dean of York 8 vo Memorials of the Most Reverend Thomas Grammer Archbishop of Canterbury Wherein the History of the Church and the Reformation of it during the Primacy of the said Archbishop are greatly illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now first published in Three Books Collected chiefly from Records Registers Authentick Letters and other Original Manuscripts By Iohn Strype M. A. Fol. Origo Loegum Or A Treatise of the Origin of Laws and their Obliging Power As also of their great Variety and why some Laws are immutable and some not but may suffer change or cease to be or be suspended or abrogated In Seven Books By George Dawson M. A. Fol. A Brief Discourse concerning the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common Prayer in Answer to a Book Intituled A Brief Discourse of the Vlawfulness of Common-Prayer Worship By Iohn Williams D. D. 4 to A True Representation of the Absurd and Mischievous Principles of the Sect commonly known by the name of the Muggletonians 4 to 1 Macc. 1.20 24 25. V. 41. V. 54. V. 57. 2 ch 24 25. V. 26. V. 50. V 64. V. 67 68. 4 Macc. 46. 11 Dan. 31 32 33 34. 11 Heb. 34. Art 6. 25 Num. 5. 3 Num. 32. 20 Num. 28. 1 Sam. 15.33 1 Kings 18.40 21 Mat. 13. 9 Luke 55 56. Eus. Chron Theoph. Anonim Vales. Eus. l. 10. c. 8. Eus. de Vit. Con. l. 1. c. 5. c 53. Eus. l. 10. c. 8. De vit Con l. 2. c. 2. cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eus. l. 10. c. 8. Lib. 10. Principatum totius Orbis affectans Eus. Vit. Const. l 3 c. 12. Theod. l. 7 De Vit. Const. l. 3 c. 11. Theod. l. 1. c. 20. 9. Dan. 24 25 26 27. Justin. Apol. 2. 1 Pet. 4.12 â—â— Acts 22. 16. Matth. 16 25. Rom 15.19 1 Cor. 14. 2 Cor. 12.12 3 Gal. 5. 1 Thes. 1.5 1 Tim. 1.20 Heb. 2.4 Sueton. in Claudio Tacit. annal 15. 1 Cor. 2.4 6 Heb. 4.5 Plin. Lib. 10. Ep. 97. Luke 16.31 Numb 12.8 Heb. 1.10 11 12. V. 15 16. Gal. 3.16 1 Pet. 3.19 Isa. 61.42 Isa. 7.49 Isa. 9.1 2. Heb. 6.20 Heb. 7.3 Psalm 110 4. Lev. 21.7 13.14 2 Hag. 6.7 8 9. 2 Cor. 3 18 1. Heb. 3. 1. John 14. 2 Cor. 4.4 Verse 6. 18. Mat. 7. 1 Cor. â— 5 6. 1 Thes. 1.9 4 Gal. 8. 2 Phil 10. Heb. 1.6 Rev 5.8 4. Mat. 10. 19 Rev. 10. Isa. 42.8 Deut. 13.1 2. 2 Col. 9. 1. Çol. 16.17 2 Jam. 1. 1 Cor. 2.8 2 Tit. 13. 1 John 5.20 1 Rev. 8.21 Joh. 17. 3 Phil. 21. 1 Tim. 6.17 18. 2 Phil. 6. 5 John 21. to 29. 6 John 54. 1 Tim. 3.16 9 Rom. 5. 1 Joh. 2.2 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Cor. 15.3 2 Cor. 5.21 1. Gal. 4. 3. Gal 13. 2 Tit. 14. 20 Mat. 28. 3 Rom. 25. 4 Rom. 25. 5 Rom. 6.10 11. and to the end 1 Cor. 1.30 1 Eph. 7. 1 Col. 14.20 21. 1 Joh. 29. 9 Heb. 11 12 13 14. 8.26.28 10. Heb. 10 12 14 19. 13. Heb. 12.20 22. Luke 44. 26. Mat. 36 37 38. 4. Rom. 3. 2. Rom. 12. 3. Rom. 28. 5. Gal. 6. 2 James 12. to the end 3 John 18. 16 Mat. 18 19. 18. Mat. 20 28 Mat. 20. 16. Joh. 13. 1. Tim. 3.16 17. Deut. 8 9 10 11 12 13. 2. Mal. 7. 16. John 13. 5. Gal. 20. 6. Joh. 5 3. 15. Act. 23. to 30. Athan. de Deer Sin Nicen. Aug. con Maxim l. 3. c. 19. 1 Tim. 3.15 28. Mat. 20. 2 Cor. 6.16 13 Heb. 5. 16. Mat. 18 19. 2. Eph. 20. 3. Rev. 7. 11. Luke 52. 18. Mat. 18. 22. Luke 32. 21. Joh. 15. 13 Joh. 35. 17. St. Joh. verses 11 21 22 23. Verse 23. 1 Cor. 10.23 2 Kings 18.4 14. Rom. 13. â— Vers. 23. 15. Act. 9. 16. Rom. 1. 1 Tim. 5.9 1 Pet. 5.14 16. Rom. 16. 1 Cor. 16.20 2 Cor. 13.12 1 Cor. 11.21 6 Rom. 3 4 5. 2 Col. 12. 13. John 14 15. 14. Rom. 19. 1 Cor. 14.26 40. 5. Gal. 1. 16 Acts 3.21 Acts 24. 1 Cor. 9.20 5 Gal. 6. 6 Gal. 15. 14. Rom. 17. V. 18. V. 5. V. 23. 2 Col. 16. 14. Rom. 6. V. 13. V. 15. 1 Cor. 3.5 2 Cor. 3.6 6.4 11.23 3 Eph. 7. 1 Col. 23 25. 6 Eph. 21. 4 Col. 7. 1 Thess. 3.2 8. Rom. 28 29. 12. Rom. 1. 10. Mark 13. 1 Cor. 7.14 2 Acts 39. 12. Exod. 11. 2 Thess. 3.14 1 Cor. 5.11 1 Cor. 11.28 3. Jam. 5. 7. Zech. 5. 8 Zech. 19. 9. Esther 21.27 10 John 22. 28. Mat. 20. 3. John 5. 16. Mark 16. 10 Act. 47. 11 Act. 17. 1 Cor. 11.26 4 Eph. 11 12 13 14. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tit. 1. 1 Cor. 14.34 35. 1 Tim. 2.11 13 Rom. 7. 2 Sam. 20.41 1 Sam. 24.8 1 Kings 1.23 23 Mat. 8.9 10. 20 John 15. 26 Acts 25. 23 Acts 26. 1 Luke 3. 5 Mat. 34. 5 Jam 12. 1 Rom. 9. 1 Thess. 2.10 2 Cor. 1.23 10 Rev. 5 6 6 Heb. 16.17 18. Lev. 7. 1 Sam. 14.24 38 39. 17. Judg. 2. 26. Mat. 63 64. 1 Sam. 2.36 1 Cor. 9.11 13 14