Joh. 5. 39. for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me I find that St. Luke writing his Gospel gives his Theophilus this good reason for it That thou mightst know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed Luk. 1. 4. The things which are most surely believed among us v. 1. all things of which himself had perfect understanding from the very first v. 3. I find St. Iohn who wrote last of all the Apostles affirming that tho Iesus did many other Signs which are not written in that Book of his yet these are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through his Name Joh. 20. 30 31. And finally I find St. Paul asserting the Perfection of the Holy Scripture as fully and plainly as any Man can speak 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. saying That the Holy Scripture is able to make a Man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Iesus That all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works Now what more can we desire than to be made wise unto Salvation And we are here plainly told that the holy Scripture is able to make us so What more can be needful to direct us in the Way to Salvation than what we may learn from the Scriptare It is profitable for our Information and Establishment in the Truth for the Confutation of Error and Heresy for the Correction of Vice and Wickedness for our Instruction in Righteousness It is so profitable for all these purposes that thereby the Man of God the Pastor and Teacher may be made compleat and well furnish'd for all the branches of his Office all the works of his holy Calling In short it is able to bring us to Faith in Christ Iesus And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Joh. 3. 16. Furthermore from the same Scripture I also learn that Unwritten or Oral Tradition hath ever been found too deceitful a thing to be relied on for so great a matter as Salvation I find that before the Flood notwithstanding the long Lives of Men the few Principles of Natural Religion and the easiness of learning and remembring things so agreeable to humane Nature yet all Flesh had soon corrupted his Way upon the Earth Gen. 6. 12. and every Imagination of the Thoughts of Man's Heart was only evil continually v. 5. And after the Flood the whole World was quickly over-run with Idolatry So ill was the Doctrine which had been preach'd by Noah and his Sons preserved by Oral Tradition Nay I find that after God was pleas'd to give the Iews his Will in Writing their Teachers had so corrupted the Doctrine of God with their Traditions that it was a great part of our blessed Saviour's business to rescue it from those Traditional Corruptions He reproves the Scribes and Pharisees for transgressing the Commandments of God by their Traditions Mat. 15. 3. shewing them how they had made it of none effect by the same v. 6. And that in vain they worshipp'd God teachiag for Doctrines the Commandments of Men v. 9. And St. Paul warns the Colossians to beware of being deceived through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Col. 2. 6. And the special occasion of writing most of the Epistles yea and the Gospels too seems to be the Danger that Christians were in of being seduced by false Teachers from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles under the pretence of Tradition Such were the Wolves in Sheeps cloathing Mat. 7. 15 False Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. Pretending to another Gospel Gal. 3. 6. Men of Sleight and cunning Craftiness lying in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. From what I find in the Scripture I must needs conclude till I be better inform'd that it is a sufficient Rule for us to go by and that so long as we hold us to it alone in our Faith and Practice there can be no necessity of resorting to the Church of Rome for that unto which our Bibles at home can direct us The Scripture is the Word of God and sure Rule of Faith saith the Infallible Church of Rome if Bellarmine may be believ'd This holy Scripture is able to make us wise unto Salvation saith the this Infallible Scripture and we take no other but this Holy and Infallible Scripture for the Rule of our Faith and Religious Practice say we Protestants What now should hinder me to infer from hence that if the Scripture be the Word of God we Protestants are very well as we are for we have the Word of the Infallible God and if it may stand us in any stead the Word of the Infallible Church as she will needs be accounted to assure us that adhering to the holy Scripture we are in the ready and sure way to Salvation Farther yet as I am a Protestant of the Church of England I do declare in the words of our VIIIth Article That the three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believ'd for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Seeing then we receive and throughly believe the same Creeds and no other which the Church of Rome her self professeth to believe and which were thought by the Catholick Church of Christ for above 400 Years after the first planting of Christianity to contain all Points of Faith necessary for the Salvation of Christians I think I have hence gather'd this farther Confirmation of my Assurance that we Protestants are in the direct Way to Salvation that we are of the very same Religion and no other in all the necessary Points of Christian Faith whereof the Catholick Church evidently was in the first and purest Ages of it In the four first General Councils no other Articles of Faith were held needful to be believed by Christians but those of these Creeds which we entirely own and believe Either then it is true That these three Creeds contain all necessary Points of Christian Faith or it is not If it be true we are safe enough and can with no colour of Reason be said to err in Faith or to deserve the Name of Hereticks If it be not true then were all those Primitive Christians as much Hereticks as we are and knew no more than we do what belong'd to the Salvation of Christians And strangely partial is the Church of Rome in approving the Faith of those Councils which one of their most famous Popes and Saints is said to have reverenced as the four Gospels and yet to condemn ours tho in all
Points the very same Especially when the Third of those Councils held at Ephesus in the Time of Pope Celestine did expresly decree That it should not be lawful to utter write or compose any other Faith besides that which had been defined by the Holy Fathers congregated in the Holy Ghost in the City of Nice Ordering that all they should be punish'd who tender'd any other to such as had a desire to be converted to the Knowledg of the Truth whether they were Gentiles Jews or of any other Heresy Whereby 't is plain that the Fathers in this third Council did conclude that Creed to comprehend the entire Faith of a Christian And indeed a Man would think that the Council of Trent had in the Beginning of it been altogether of the same mind when of the same Creed it thus declared it self That it is that Principle wherein all that profess the Faith of Christ do necessarily agree and the Firm and Onely Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail I may I think upon these Considerations without more ado be very well satisfied of the Safety of the Protestant Religion The Papists themselves must grant That whatsoever we believe or practise as of necessity to Salvation really is so and therefore that we do not err either in our Faith or Practice whilst we live according to our own Principles For if we err in either so far do they err also and not they only but all the Christian World. And here we may press them with their own way of Arguing and to much more purpose than they are wont to use it against us When they would convince us that their Religion is the safer they are wont thus to argue That Religion is the safer wherein by the Confession of both Sides a Man may be saved but both Sides confess that a Man may be saved in the Popish Religion and both Sides do not confess that a Man may be saved in the Protestant Religion therefore the Popish Religion is the safer Supposing now this way of arguing for the Safety of their Religion from the Confession of both Parties be of any strength as they must suppose it to be who so often and confidently use it then must the like Argument from the same Medium be altogether as strong for us I would only beg of them to grant me this and I hope they will not say my Request is unreasonable That that Religion is the safest all the Doctrines whereof are the truest If they will not grant me this they must grant it safer to hold some false Doctrines than all true But if they think this absurd then must they give me leave thus to argue That Religion is the safest wherein all Doctrines held or taught as necessary to Salvation are by the Confession of both Sides certainly true Now both Sides confess that all Doctrines held or taught in the Protestant Religion are certainly true and both Sides do not confess that all Doctrines held and taught in the Popish Religion are certainly true therefore the Protestant Religion is the safer The same Articles of Faith the same Rules and Precepts of Life the same Acts of religious Worship the same holy Sacraments the same holy Orders of Ministers which we have the very same have they also But they have many things of all these sorts which we have not no nor any other Christians but those of their own Communion And therefore to strengthen my Argument yet more I say If that Doctrine and Practice be the safest wherein all good Christians agree we are sure that ours is the safest because all good Christians do agree in them and that theirs is not safe because all good Christians do not agree in them Nay let me add this more Our Religion is either safe and true in all things pretended by us necessary to Salvation or there is no such thing as a safe and true Christian Religion in the World visibly professed and if so it will follow that Christ hath no true visible Church upon Earth which I am confident no Papist will say The Consequence is plain because all Christians all the World over that make any Figure of a Church hold the same both Faith and Practice with us in what we account necessary to Salvation the Church of Rome it self not excluded Tho it be very certain that we positively and affirmatively hold nothing in Faith or Practice as necessary to Salvation but what is held by the Church of Rome her self and all other Christian Churches yet will not the Men of that Church allow us any possibility of being saved whilst we are Protestants And he who of late hath been at some Pains to represent the Papist to us in his fairest Dress hath labour'd as hard in this Point as in any other to shew that his Church is not uncharitable in the Doctrine She delivers concerning our desperate Estate Now although I am not enquiring whether this Doctrine be charitable or uncharitable but only whether it be true or false yet for my better Satisfaction I will examine all that he saith to this purpose He tells us His Church doth nothing herein but what she hath learn'd of Christ and his Apostles And if he can shew me this I must needs be fully satisfied being verily perswaded they never taught any thing uncharitable or untrue To shew this he tells us how Christ Mark. 16. 16. hath said He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And this is all his Church delivers in this Point If this be all She delivers we cannot call her uncharitable for it for we our selves willingly subscribe to this Sentence of our Blessed Saviour Only we think he did not here teach and authorise the Church of Rome to say That all who are not of her Faith and Communion shall be damn'd tho she knows they believe all that Christ sent his Apostles to teach them I do not find in the Roman Ritual that the Church of Rome in the Baptising either of Infants or adult Persons uses or requires any other Confession of Faith but that only of the Apostles Creed which is the same we use and if to beleive and be baptised in this Faith be enough for the Salvation of Papists why is it not enough also for Protestants And if the Additional Articles of the Trentine Faith and P. Pius his Creed be necessary to Salvation why is there no mention made of them in the Roman Order of Baptism He adds that of St. Paul 1 Tim. 4. 1 2 3. where foretelling of some who in later times would come and preach a Doctrine forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God hath created to be received he brands them with the infamous Title of Men that depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils And several other Places of Scripture he then produceth to shew that Hereticks such
Circumstances as encourage us to hope very well of them as to their future state However if it so well deserve our Consideration what 's become of our Forefathers doth it not as well deserve the Consideration of the ROMANISTS what is become of many of theirs Yea What will become of the greatest part of the Christian World who live and die out of their Communion And if they would have us think the worse of the Reformation left by thinking well of it we should be wanting in Charity to our Fathers which yet we are by it no way obliged to be should it not move them to think the worse of their Religion that it constrains them to think so uncharitably not only of their Fathers but of all the World but themselves only How many most Eminent and Worthy Persons How many great and famous Churches must I be obliged by embracing the ROMAN Faith to believe excluded from SALVATION Upon these terms I cannot see how 't is possible for me to be Reconciled to the Church of ROME without professing my self an irreconcileable Enemy to all the Christian World besides I must turn Hector and call all other Christians damn'd Hereticks I must needs say this appears not to me like that Meek and Lamb like Spirit of the Blessed JESUS which is given by him to his Dove-like Spouse that thus Rants it in his pretended Vicars and their Adherents It seems not to be much a kin to that Christian Charity which hopeth and believeth all things and thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. 7. I must make nothing of condemning all PROTESTANTS and PROTESTANT Churches of what other Denomination soever and these alone are no inconsiderable part of Christians These Hereticks saith Bellarmin possess many and ample Provinces ENGLAND SCOTLAND and why not IRELAND DENMARK SWEEDLAND NORWAY no small part of GERMANY POLAND BOHEMIA and HUNGARY he might have said also of FRANCE and HELVETIA It was anciently the Custom saith Tolet that the POPE did three days every year tho now but once a year viz. upon the Holy Thursday he means the Thursday immediately before Easter call'd Coena Domini with great Solemnity before all the People thunder out his Sentence of Excommunication against all Hereticks of what Name or Sect soever but against the Queen of ENGLAND which was then Q. Elizabeth by name with all their Believers Receivers Favourers and Defenders against all that read their Books publickly or privately with what intention soever or under whatever pretence tho there be no Error in them or with a design to consute the Error if there be any without his Holiness's License against the Keepers Printers and Defenders in any manner of the same against all Schismaticks and such as pertinaciously withdraw themselves and depart from their Obedience to the POPE against any one that shall so much as say that Calvin was a good man against all that appeal from the Orders Decrees or Mandates of the POPE to a future COUNCIL And 't is very well known that they are not all PROTESTANTS who have done so Neither will this suffice I must also condemn the whole GREEK Church which how Ancient and of how large Extent it is is very well known And some reason there seems to be for it For saith Bellarmin the Greeks in the year 451 in the Council of CHALCEDON consisting of 600 Bishops endeavoured to make the Patriarch of CONSTANTINOPLE equal to the Bishop of ROME And again In the year 1054 they pronounc'd the Bishop of ROME to have fallen from his degree of Dignity and the Bishop of CONSTANTINOPLE to be the first Bishop And tho he pretends that these Greeks were once reconciled to ROME in the Council of FLORENCE yet he adds that they always returned to their Vomit No wonder therefore if this GREEK Church cannot escape Damnation And yet this poor Reprobated Church yields not to that of ROME in any of her own principal Marks of a true Church I read that the Christians of her Communion in NATOLIA CIRCASSIA MENGRELLIA RUSSIA GREECE MACEDONIA EPIRUS THRACIA BULGARIA c. do very near if not quite equal the number of those who are of the ROMAN Communion And yet will not this be enough unless we include in this Sentence of Condemnation all the Assyrian Christians living amongst the Mahometans in BABYLON ASSYRIA MESOPOTAMIA PARTHIA and MEDIA with the Iacobites Armenians Egyptians Aethiopians and the vast Empire of the HABASSINES All these I must look upon as cut off from CHRIST merely for their disowning the POPE's Authority tho they should be found Orthodox in all other points And truly I know not how to get up to that height of Boldness not to be afraid of condemning so many Christians most of which have given and do yet give to the World the most notable Testimony of Fidelity to CHRIST that can be expected in their constant sufferings for the sake of his holy Name and Gospel After this Consideration of whole Churches it seems needless for me to come down to that of single Persons tho confessedly of greatest Note and Eminence in the Church of CHRIST both for Learning and Piety How St. Polycarp Bishop of SMTRNA and a famous Martyr who would not obey P. Anicetus but still keep his Easter contrary to the custom of the ROMAN Church and therein seem'd either as ignorant of his Duty or as stubborn as any PROTESTANT or how his Successor in that See Polycrates who desended himself and his Church so arrogantly against the Authority of the ROMAM Church more than sufficiently declared by P. Victor still pleading the Example of Polycarp and Authority of St. Iohn as tho he had never heard St. Peter was made Prince of the Apostles or that the Bishops of ROME were his Successors in that Authority over all Churches How Irenaeus and all his Fellow-Bishops of the Gallican Church who so presumptuously took upon them to expostulate the matter with the same Victor and in very homely terms to chide him for excommunicating those Asian Christians for not changing their Ancient Customs at his Command How St. Cyprian the holy Bishop of Carthage and Martyr with his Bishops of Africa Numidia and Mauritania joining with him in so contumaciously resisting P. Stephen The Sixty Bishops in the Milevitan Council or those Two hundred and Seventeen whereof the famous St. Austin was one who not only stubbornly rejected the Claim but also manifestly demonstrated the Fraudulence and Forgery of three POPES Zosimus Boniface and Caelestine about appeals to ROME How all these shall be exempted from this Censure I know not Did not the later of these African Councils decree That the Bishop of the first See meaning ROME should not be call'd the Prince of Priests or chief Priest or any such thing but only the Bishop of the first See Did it not Excommunicate every Priest that should Appeal to ROME It seems to me that St. Athanasius could have no great opinion of the Infallibility of P.
than the Scripture till he Interprets for us is hard to say So that all returns to this still That we have her honest Word for her Authority and this is the sole Foundation that I can discover of this prodigious Faith which we must all have or else perish eternally III. And now in the last place seeing it is come to this for ought I see that I must rest upon her own Word or nothing for the Truth of her Sovereign Authority and must upon peril of my own Damnation take upon me this invidious Profession to believe all men damn'd but PAPISTS that I may enjoy the Blessing of my Mother I should be glad to know that She her-self as Infallible as she is could but probably assure me where this Word of her's may certainly be found The REPRESENTER indeed in his confident way hath told me That all the Members of his Religion however spread through the World agree like one man in every Article of their Faith. And if we would know for our learning by what happy means this wonderful Agreement is effected he tells us It is by an equal Submission to the Determinations of their Church that is as I understand it by taking her bare Word for every thing No one of them saith he tho the most learned and wise ever following any other Rule in their Faith besides this of unanimously believing as the Church of God or ROMAN Church believes And if this be so I wonder to what purpose their Learning and Wisdom can serve them any more than their Iudgment and Wit which they have renounced and deposed However if this be true Representing I shall not I hope find it difficult to find out the Church's Word and Authority on which my Faith must stand Every Member of it tho he have no more than the old Collier's Faith can help me to it in any part of the World for all agree like one Man in every Article and therefore sure in this most fundamental one But what now shall I think after this if it should so fall out that hardly one in a hundred of these Members know either where this Church of theirs is to be found or what those Determinations of hers are unto which they so unanimously submit Nay what if their Church it self cannot tell them this When She hath said all She can to inform both them and us suppose it be still two to one that we shall be mistaken in it whatever we take to be the ROMAN Church or her infallible Word This is it that I am now for a Close to inquire into It must needs seem more than a little absurd and exceeding hard to tye a man under pain of Damnation to believe he knows not what and what no body can certainly shew him I mean a Power in the Church of ROME which all men deny but they of her Communion and about which even they who are of her Communion are so divided among themselves that I do not see how ever they can agree about it Is there no Dispute in that Church about this Power Have they not been even at Daggers drawing among themselves about it Is the Controversie yet decided Or can any one promise me that it ever shall There is a great Diversity among the Schoolmen saith our REPRESENTER in their Divinity-Points and Opinions of such matters as are no Articles of Faith and have no relation to it but as some Circumstance or Manner which being never defined by the Church may be maintain'd severally either this way or that way without any breach of Faith or injury to their Religion I will not stay here to ask him what greater diversity he can find amongst the Members of our Church than he here grants to be amongst PAPISTS nor why our Divisions being no greater than theirs nor more nearly related to any Article of Faith should be less consistent with the Unity of the Church as is commonly objected against us than theirs are But I ask whether the Supreme Authority of the ROMAN Church be an Article of the ROMAN Faith or no And again whether all the Members of that Church be as one man unanimously agreed about it or no He will say it may be about the Article they are as to the Substance of it tho not as to all Circumstances But now if it appear that these Circumstances of the Power about which they differ are such as the thing it self will be as good as nothing without them or if they be not as certainly known and believ'd as the Power it self I think it will follow that all their agreement about the Thing is as good as nothing too till these Circumstances be also agreed upon Thus it is then I must for my Salvation believe that there is such a thing as a Supreme Power over all Churches in the Church of ROME and in this all PAPISTS as one man unanimously agree but about the Circumstances of this Power there is a great diversity of Opinions among them yet is this no injury to their Religion Tho without a better agreement about these Circumstances no man in my opinion can be able to satisfie me what their Religion is for these Circumstances about which they differ are no more but such inconsiderable things as these Whence this Power is whether it be of God or of Men of Divine or Human Right only whether it extends over all the World or over all Christians only to Spiritual concerns only or to Temporals also where it resides and is lodg'd in the Church-Diffusive or all Christians especially the Pastors or in the Church-Representative or General Councils or in the Church Virtual or the POPE of ROME These petty Circumstances they differ about and the Church it self knows not how to agree them but what 's all this to the Article it self most firmly believ'd by all that is a Supreme Power in the Church All their Religion rests on the Determinations of their Church all the force of these Determinations to oblige the Faith of men depend on this Supreme Power May not a man however well enough be assured of his Religion tho no man can tell him Whence this Power is Over what it is or Where it is Indeed what other men can do I know not but for my own part I must needs think it a very hard matter to believe this Power and to have any certainty of the Religion founded on this Power without some better Information about these Circumstances of it and therefore before I can yield to be of that Religion I must beseech that Church which will not allow us to be saved without an absolute Submission and Resignation of our selves to her Authority to tell us if not Whence which is yet the most material Circumstance of all the rest yet at least What and Where it is There is challeng'd by this Church a Power of over-ruling our Faith by her Infallible Iudgment and a Power of commanding our Obedience by