cannot be denied to him in this case which if it happens to be contrary to the sentence of the Judge he must bear without a tumultuous deportment the consequences of it 6. All the Testimony we have That such a Guide is intended is from the Church of Rome which is the party concerned and lays claim to this Dignity If we ask how it comes to be known that the is vested in this immunity Scripture-promises are presently alledged If we further demand How we shall know that this is the sence of the promise We are told That we must adhere to the interpretation of the Church which understands it so From which it evidently appears That the ultimate ground and reason of our belief in this particular is the Testimony of the Church of Rome For no Community is permitted to have the denomination of a true Church besides that which submits to the Papal Authority If our Blessed Lord the supreme Head of the Church says If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true Joh. 5.31 Much more may this be applied to the Body if it has no other evidence for this fundamental point but what is derived from her self The bare testimony of a party is not a sufficient foundation to build a legal determination upon in any Court of Law 7. The Primitive Constitution of the Church plainly intimates That no one Guide was designed to be Supreme over all the Churches in the World Our blessed Lord left the Apostles in a parity Nothing was spoken to S. Peter concerning any Ecclesiastical Power but what the others were equally concerned in These constituted Bishops over particular Churches in the same equality they themselves were left in Tho' in every Church there is a subordination of the Clergy and People to their own Bishop yet there is none to any which is foreign It is true There is one Catholick Church but the unity of it consists in having one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and not one Bishop and Head to interpret for all and impose what dictates he pleaseth upon them The antient Churches did maintain correspondencies by Communicatory Letters and when extraordinary cases did emerge send their prudential Expedients as the effects of their Charity But we no where read of the exercise of any pretended authority one over the other If there had been any one authorised Guide in controversie for all Churches known in those early times when Heresies and Schisms did arise no question a speedy application would have been made to him for the curing of what was amiss yet we read of no such matter But on the contrary Appeals were prohibited to any foreign Bishop and an express order established That differences should be decided within the Province where they did emerge S. Cyprian asserts so much in his Epistle to Cornelius Epist 55. Pamel Epist 59. Oxon. Nam cum statutum sit omnibus nobis aequum sit c. For when it is appointed to all of us and it is both equal and just That the cause of every one should be heard where the crime is committed and a portion of the Flock is assigned to particular Pastors which every one must rule and govern being under an obligation to give an account to the Lord of what he does It behoves those whom we are set over not to run up and down nor break the firm concord of Bishops by their subdolous and fallacious temerity but there to plead their cause where the Accusers may have witnesses of their crime c. The fifth Canon of the first Council of Nice is of the same importance and is so interpreted by the next General Council held at Constantinople in the second Canon As for the Canons of the Council of Sardica which seem to favour Appeals there is just reason to suspect that they are forged The Fathers of the sixth Council of Carthage knew nothing of them tho' about Forty African Bishops were present at that Convention as Athanasius testifies A matter of such moment could not have been concealed from them when so many of their own Countreymen were witnesses to what was transacted The attempt that was made to father them upon the Council of Nice argues That there was no fair dealing about them If the Canons are genuine it must be remembred That they were made not by a General but a Provincial Synod Tho' the Council was intended to be General yet it proved otherwise by the Oriental Bishops withdrawing themselves and refusing to act in it The decrees of such a Convention have not efficacy enough to rescind and annul what was done before in the Council of Nice An Inferiour Authority cannot abolish what is established by a Superiour If the Council had been General yet if we look well into the Canons pretended to be framed by it they will not amount to that which the Church of Rome thinks to make of them Three things are conceded to the Bishop of that See 1. A liberty in case of judgment already given to deliberate whether the matter ought not to be considered again 2. If he thought so whether he would send any to be present at the hearing of the Cause 3. A freedom to appoint Judges out of the neighbouring Provinces finally to determine Here is no bringing the cause to Rome but the judgment is to be ended where the difference did begin If all this was as real as it is pretended to be it cannot be looked upon as any more than a prudent Expedient in that present juncture The Arians very much prevailed The Orthodox were highly oppressed The Bishop of Rome favoured their cause And to put him into a greater capacity of succouring them such a determination might be condescended unto But the words of the Synod plainly represent it as a novel thing which the Church before was utterly unacquainted with Neither the Institution of Christ nor Primitive Tradition are alledged as the ground of it but an honorary respect to the memory of S. Peter the Bishop of Rome being at that time esteemed as his Successour and very stedfast in that faith which he sacrificed his life for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words of Hosius of Corduba who is represented as the person who did steer all matters under debate in that Convention 8. No provision is made of one infallible Guide in a case of like importance The whole World is one Community under God the Father as the Church is one under Christ All particular Kingdoms are united under some general Laws as the several Churches are in the same rules of Belief and Worship They have all the same light of Reason There is a jus Gentium to which all the Empires of the Universe are obliged to submit Peace is as desirable betwixt them as Unity amongst the several parts of the Church The records of every Nation give an account of the direful effects of Civil as well as Ecclesiastical discord From hence ariseth the most
Sphere of their activity We perceive not with any of our Senses and yet the effects produced by them will not suffer us to doubt of their reality 2. We have as much assurance of the Truth of this Proposition a Deity doth exist as we have of the clearest Axiom in Philosophy the ground of certainty is nothing but a necessary and evident connexion betwixt the Subject and Predicate But there is no Maxim whose Subject and Predicate are more closely united than the parts of this Proposition In the notion of a Deity necessary existence is included and in the notion of necessary existence the nature of a Deity God doth necessarily exist and that which necessarily exists can be no other but God The parts of the Enunciation are reciprocal which argues Truth in the highest Degree 3. This Proposition is not only equal to others but has the advantage in some respects If it be supposed that the existence of a Deity is possible it will from thence follow that it is actual For that is properly said to be possible when there is no repugnancy at all why it may not exist and if there be no repugnancy to hinder the existence of a Deity It is supposed that there is a cause in Being which is able to make it exist A passive power in any thing to be what it is not supposeth an active power which is able to make the mutation This active power cannot be lodged in the Deity it self considered only as possible No meer possible can be the subject of an active power If in any thing distinct it must be either an Inferior or Superior or that which is equal to the Deity An Inferior can produce nothing which is more excellent than it self There can be no Superior to that which is boundless in perfection If in an equal then there is something already in Being which is infinite in power which can be no other but God If it be supposed as impossible that a Deity should exist the same consequence will follow For if it be impossible then all Beings are naturally finite and limited and if so the number of them must be either infinite or finite An infinite number cannot be The parts of all number being essentially finite the product must be of the same nature If finite then it must have the common bounds a first and a last If a first that first must be of it self without any dependence in point of causality for Entity in order of Nature preceding Energy if the first Being was produced by an operation that action must slow from a pre-existent Being and if it be of it self it must be infinite Whatsoever is finite receives its bounds from some cause Entity considered as possible being limitable divers ways and indifferent to what species it is determined to there can be no account given why it should come forth into Act and exist rather under one species than another were there not some pre-determining Cause The thing it self cannot be this Cause for then it had a Being before it was finite nor any other distinct thing because the Being we speak of is supposed to be first This Truth is so vigorous that the depressing of it with this supposition makes it like the Palm to arise with the greater force Lastly If we do but consult the familiar dictates of our understandings they will not fail to lead us into the knowledge of this Truth They naturally suggest to us that something must be Eternal This Eternal must be either the present Systeme of the World or the Cause of it The first cannot be asserted as I have before demonstrated If the second this Cause must be either meer matter or else an immaterial and spiritual substance Matter it cannot be In its productions the deepest Wisdom is discovered which Matter is utterly uncapable of If an immaterial and intellectual substance then there is an eternal Spirit invested with supereminent Power and Wisdom which is the true notion of a God If it be objected that such a Spirit cannot be the efficient of the World because he had no matter to frame it out of and it is universally acknowledged that out of nothing nothing can be made I answer that this Maxim must be limited to a finite power A Being invested with that which is infinite must necessarily be able to create all things out of nothing If an imperfect Being is able out of nothing to make a new mode as we daily see in the cogitations of the Mind and in the motions of the Body Much more must that which is absolute in perfection be able to form a new substance He who eminently contains all things in himself cannot be denied a power to exert a transient action and by it to give some outward expression of what is in himself insensible and permanent effects It is more difficult to conceive how a thing should be eternal without any cause which all grant to be true than to apprehend how a finite Being may be produced out of nothing by an Infinite Power He who seriously ponders the evidence that is given for the existence of a Deity and yet continues in his infidelity has nothing to lay the blame upon but his own obstinacy or unwillingness to have any thing true which may be a curb to his enormous inclinations If he will not be perswaded that any thing is certain but that which is the object of his sense all testimonies whether divine or humane to him are made of no signification and no place will be left for Faith which is conversant about things not seen and rests satisfied with testimonies whose verity there is no just reason to suspect Every thing is not capable of the same degree of evidence but if it has so much as its nature requires common reason will condemn us if we believe it not Now I have finished the first Proposition There is a God who made the World 2. In the Godhead there are Three Persons That we may the better arrive at the knowledge of this great Mystery the following steps are to be taken 1. When God is spoken of in the Sacred Oracles sometimes the plural number is used Let us make man Gen. 1.26 Behold man is as one of us Gen. 3.23 Let us go down and confound their language Gen. 11.7 This is not done in imitation of the stile of Princes who to express their grandeur make use of this number If this mode of speaking had been occasioned by that custom it would have been constantly used at the giving of the Law when the Divine Majesty was displaied in the most awful circumstances and yet then we meet with the singular number Princes use it only in the first person We Constantine We Maximilian In the Bible it frequently occurs in the third and in such construction as is not to be parallell'd in any Record as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos 24.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 10.10 None speak of
and consider That Christ suffered the punishment of our sin what he suffered was in our stead By his Sufferings the damage done by sin is repaired and the mind of the Supreme Rector fully reconciled the verity of the third Proposition will be evident That a full and complete satisfaction is made by Jesus Christ 4. Our acceptance with God is upon the account of this meritorious satisfaction It sets believers free from the Curse of the Law The Curse of the Law doth include the loss of the Divine Favour That which frees us from this malediction must necessarily restore us to our acceptation with God The ransome laid down by our Redeemer as it has an aspect upon the justice of Heaven is said to satisfie as it stands in relation to those benefits it procures for us to merit So that our acceptance is upon the account of the meritorious satisfaction of our Blessed Lord. Therefore S. Paul asserts That God hath made us accepted in the beloved Epb. 1.6 and S. Peter represents our Spiritual Services to be acceptable to God thro' Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2.5 Of this truth there are very early significations Psal 80.15 18. David prays God That he would visit the vineyard which he had made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propter Regem Messiam as the Chaldee Paraphrase expounds it c. 9.17 Daniel prays That God would shine upon the Sanctuary for the Lord's sake The Israelites use to pray with their faces toward the Temple Rev. 21.22 it being a Type of the blessed Messias which they had a great expectation of When Ezekias turned his face to the wall and prayed 2 Kin. 20.2 Jonathan in his Targum says He turned it to the wall of the house of the Sanctuary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At the hour of Prayer Act. 10.9 it was usual to go to the house top That they might have the fairer prospect that way The Hebrews say That in the fire whereby God did declare his acceptance of their Sacrifices there was the appearance of a Lyon to signifie That it was the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah which procured them an interest in the Divine Favour 5. Our acceptance with God is only upon the account of the meritorions satisfaction of his Blessed Son As he has troden the Wine-press alone So the honour of meriting for us is peculiar to him The Romanists indeed speak of the merits of Saints and are not contented to attribute to them so much only as is expedient for themselves but assert an overplus which being blended with the surplusage of the merits of Christ and laid up in a Treasury are the ground and foundation of the Papal Indulgencies But he who considers the true notion of Merit will easily discover all this to be but a fiction It imports a dignity in the work adequate to the reward In the choicest of those services which they perform who arrive at the greatest degree of Sanctity no such worth can be found If it may it must be either innate or derived from without It cannot be the first for the reward is no less than God himself under the fullest disclosures of his Goodness and none of the most Heroick performances can indignity be equal to him Gen. 17. If the Passions and Sufferings of this Life are not worthy to stand in competition and be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed much less the actions There can be no action more noble than with alacrity of mind to suffer what the profession of Religion may expose us to If it be acquired Worth derived from something without it must be either from the Habit of Grace the Spirit of God the Merit of Christ or the Promise All these are pretended by the Romanists as the fountain of it 1. Not from the Habit of Grace Altho' as it descends from the Father of lights it is a good and perfect gift yet considered with relation to the Recipient into which it descends and out of which it does not expel all the remains of the Primitive Apostasy it is but imperfect Now it acting as a quality of this subject it is impossible that it should invest its operations with the highest degree of perfection Nothing can communicate to another That which it has not in it self 2. Not from the Spirit which excites and moves the Soul to act according to the Habit. If any such value be imparted the Spirit in the communication must act as a necessary or a free Cause Not as a necessary for then every Religious action will be meritorious there is no good but the Spirit of God contributes to the production of it and a necessary cause is uniform in all its effects Not as a free cause For if it is not the will of the Holy Spirit to invest us in this life with such a measure of Grace as will prevent all sinful defects We have more than a usual presumption That it is not his pleasure to impress such a dignity upon our services as is proportionable to the eternal reward in the life to come 3. Not from the Merit of Christ If he has merited That we may merit then his deservings communicate to our Services either a finite or infinite value If a finite only then they cannot merit that infinite love which our acceptance supposeth Finite worth is not commensurate to an unlimited and infinite reward If infinite then the works of Holy Men are not inferiour in perfection to the Works of Christ infinity will admit of no degrees A work which is finite in respect of the Principle from whence it proceeds has not capacity enough to receive and entertain boundless dignity The Ocean may as well be included within the confines of a small vessel Christ has procured for us a power to do well and acceptance for those actions which flow from that power but not a power to merit The nature of a meer creature is not reconcileable with such an immunity It cannot under the greatest elevation do any service but that which God may challenge as a just debt and the notion of Merit includes and imports something which is not due 4. Not from the Promise The Promise doth not communicate any excellency to the Work but supposeth it to be in its perfection In the Old Covenant Do this and live Do which imports the work is the Antecedent Live which is the promise of compensation the Consequent The Consequent cannot be the Cause of any thing in the Antecedent If the Promise raises the value and dignity of the Work then the larger the Promise is the greater will the value of the Work be which assertion runs the maintainers of it upon an inevitable contradiction for the more large the Promise is the greater is the Mercy of Heaven and the more value there is in the service the less mercy and kindness there is in the reward Now if the amplitude of the Promise adds a value to the