Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	article_n	faith_n	fundamental_a	4,300	5	10.0783	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92140	A free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience tending to resolve doubts moved by Mr. John Goodwin, John Baptist, Dr. Jer. Taylor, the Belgick Arminians, Socinians, and other authors contending for lawlesse liberty, or licentious toleration of sects and heresies. / By Samuel Rutherfurd professor of divinity in the University of St. Andrews.	Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661.	1649 (1649)	Wing R2379; Thomason E567_2; ESTC R203453	351,532	454

of Aegypt Exod. 32. 4 5. Jeroboam who made two Gods and Jehu who was zealous for Jehovah 1 King 13. 6. c. 13. 1 2 3. 2 King 9. 25. 36 37. c. 10. 16. 20 21. and Joram 2 King 5. 7. acknowledged God could kill and make alive and was just in his promises and threatnings yet worshipped the golden calves those who cryed the Temple of the Lord must acknowledge there was but one true God yet they burnt incense to Baal and killed their children to Molech Jer. 7. 4 5 9. 30 31. They that asked of Jehovah the ordinances of their God and fasted to Jehovah Esa 58. 1 2 3 4. yet inflamed themselves under every green tree Esa 57. 5. and slew their children under the clifts of the rocks the heathen knew God and one God who made the heaven and the earth and worshipped him though ignorantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 20 21. Act. 17. 23. yet denyed and hated this logicall consequence that they had forsaken the Lord Jer. 9. 13 14. or Deut. 32. 18. forgotten the rocke that begat them Ps 78. 11. 41. Ps 107. 12 13. that they forsooke him dayes without number yea they did more then God required to keep God in their minde and not forget him as they said they changed him into the forme of corruptible things to be memorialls of God to them and the Lord said For all this they r●fuse to know me they have said It is not the Lord yea they would have dyed for it rather then have said there is no God that made heaven and earth And they did erre indeed in a consequence against the light of nature yet the irreligious and wicked stopping of eyes and eares at naturall consequences in matters of Religion is no innocent 〈◊〉 as is cleare Esa 44. 18. They have not knowne nor understood for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand 19. And none considers in his heart neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say I have but in part of it in the fire yea also I have baked bread upon the coales thereof I have roasted flesh and eaten it and shall I make the residue thereof a● abomination shall I fall downe to the flocke of a tree 20. He seedeth on ashes c. Now as Israel said ever the Creator of the ends of the earth is our God the tree is but a likenesse and resemblance of God Esa 18. 18. Esa 46. 5 6 7. so they denyed this consequence ergo a part of your God is burnt in the fire and with the coals of your burnt God you bake bread roast flesh and warme your bodies when you are cold and worship a lye and an abomination as the Papists say we adore very Christ in and under the accidents of the bread even the same God-man Maries Son who dyed on the crosse yet they deny this consequence ergo a part of your God and Saviour is baken in the oven eaten and cast out with the draught and a part thereof even of the same floore and dough is made a God by the Priest and ye say I will b●● downe and worship the residue of that which the baker did bake and roast in the oven and so yee worship a lye and an abomination as the old Idolaters did Esa 44. yet the Papist will deny this consequence that he multiplyes Gods as loaves are multiplyed in an oven because as Esaiah saith he knoweth not he understandeth not God hath shut his eyes certainly that knowledge he denyes to the Idolator is the naturall knowledge of a naturall consequence if ye worship a bit of an ash-tree or a bit of bread ergo the halfe of your God or the quarter thereof is baken in an oven ergo there is a lye and an abomination in your right hand then the deniall of logicall consequences in Religion and the teaching thereof to others may be and is an heresie and punishable by the Magistrate as Deut. 13. and Exod. 32. so Christ rebukes Matth. 22. Saduces as ignorant of the Scripture when they denyed but the consequence or a logicall connexion as God is not the God of the dead but of the living ergo the dead must rise againe and Abraham must live and his body be raised from the dead And 2. the Idolaters who were to dye by the Law of God Exod. 32. Deut. 13. denyed not the true God more then our false teachers doe now We see no reason why none should be false teachers but such onely as deny fundamentals and that pertinaciously though these by Divines be called Heretickes 1. Rom. 16. 17. Paul saith Now I beseech you brethren marke them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them then as we are not to distinguish where the Law and the Word of God does not distinguish so we are to count them false teachers who lead in a faction in the Church contrary to any doctrine of truth whether fundamentall or not fundamentall and to avoid them as Seducers 2. Peters errour since he beleeved Christ was come Matth. 16. 17. was not fundamentall but consistent with faith yet Paul withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed and if he had pertinaciously gone on to walke not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel since Paul would not have given place by subjection to such no not for an houre Gal. 2. 11 12 13 14 15. he should have been worthy of more then rebuke yea of higher censure the like we must say of Barnabas and other Jewes who all sinned though in a farre inferiour degree with these who came in privily to spye out the Christian liberty of the Gentiles to bring them into bondage under the Ceremoniall law 3. Gal. 1. 8. Paul saith If we or an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel then that which we have preached let him be accursed which place with good warrant our Divines bring against the unwritten traditions of Papists of what kinde soever they be fundamentalls or non-fundamentalls whether they be obtruded as necessary points of salvation or not necessary but accidentalls or arbitrary points yet conducing for the better observing of necessary points for I have proved else-where that Papists esteem their unwritten traditions not necessary points of faith yea many of them to be accidentals serving onely ad mellus esse for order and decency yea and great Doctors of them say neither the Pope nor the Church can devile novum dogma fidei a new article of Faith or a new Sacrament nor can we say that the adding of Romish ceremonialls such as consecrating of Churches baptising of bells signe of the crosse are fundamentall errours and inconsistent with saving faith the text Gal. 1. 8 9. evinceth that they or some other Gospel or doctrine beside that the Galathians had learned for Paul taught the Galathians many points besides fundamentall onely

new Blasphemies now on foot in England are all these blasphemies the Gospel and whosoever suffer for monstrous heresies must they suffer as the Apostles did and must they lay claim to all the comforts that our Saviour hath bequeathed in his Testament to his Disciples who were to suffer for Christs sake and for righteousnesse then surely an erronious and a blaspheming conscience must be righteousnesse and to suffer for blasphemy and Satan must be to suffer for righteousnesse and for Christs sake for these Libertines say the Assembly of Divines teach Blasphemies Popery murthering of Saints for conscience So Baptist so Necessity of Toleration so Ancient Bounds 3. If such as are persecuted and disclaime totally persecution for conscience be the onely true Church and none but they then these Papists in England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who were onely persecuted in your sense of the word Persecution and wrote and petitioned against Persecution and totally disclaimed it are the onely true Church The like I may say of the Arrians in the Emperours times against whom most severe Laws and Edicts were made which to M. Baptist was direfull persecution and yet they totally disclaimed persecution for conscience and pleaded for Toleration So say I of the Arminians in Holland who alwayes plead for liberty of Prophesying and of Anabaptists and all the Sectaries in Germany when they first arose of the Familists and most rigid Anabaptists in New England and of all the vilest Sects Anabaptists Antiscripturists Socinians Familists c. in Old England Yea we may suppose all Papists Iewes and the most abominable Sects living where there are strict Lawes for the onely one true Religion to hold the opinion of totall disclaiming persecution for conscience for sure they are most capable of this opinion hence it shall follow that all these wretched Hereticks shall be the only true Church and body of Christ 4. This monopolizeth the nature and name of the true Church to onely Sectaries that professe they are ready to suffer for their conscience and doe totally disclaime persecution that is for liberty of conscience so this opinion shall be the only essential not and constituent form of the true Church and shall exclude the sound faith of all fundamentalls and the doctrine of the Law and Gospell The vilest Hereticks living holding this one Article of Baptists faith shall be the onely true Church and this opinion shall unite men and societies formally to Christ their head and yet it is no matter of faith except Libertines say none are capable of faith and salvation but such as hold this opinion Hence it must follow all these named Calvinists all the Reformed Churches all the Churches and Saints in New England all the ancient Brownists the old Non-conformists who all disclaimed toleration and licence of conscience must not onely not be the true Church but the malignant Church of such as professe that which they cal Persecution yea and since they detest and abhor liberty of conscience as Atheisticall All these Saints must be uncapable of saving faith and necessarily damned because being professed persecutors and tot●●ly disclaiming toleration they are in the judgement of this Baptist such as have no capacity without Gods infinit● mercy and dispensation converting them to such Libertinisme to be hewne out and squared to such a head as Christ for contrariorum eudem est ratio 5. Forme an Argument Mr. Baptist from your two Scriptures If to persecute for conscience be essentiall to such as are borne of the flesh and to be persecuted for conscience be essentiall to such as are born after the Spirit then to be thus persecuted and to disclaim totally persecution for conscience is an essentiall note of the true Church This Proposition can never be proved in your sense for to be persecuted for conscience that is for a well informed conscience which is sound in the faith of Articles of saving knowledge is indeed such an essentiall note and so we yeeld all but it is nothing for toleration but much against it but to be persecuted for conscience though erroneous and holding Judaisme Turcisme Arrianisme Papisme Familisme c. to be the true and saving way which is the sense of Baptist is no wise a note of such a● are born after the Spirit not doth any place of Scripture by the thirteenth consequence prove the same for Isaac was not persecuted by Ishmael for his erroneous conscience The Text sayes no such thing except Baptist make Isaac an Heretick and a false Prophet If Ishmael persecuted Isaac for his conscience which yet Baptist cannot prove from Scripture sure it was not for the hereticall conscience of Isaac nor will it help Baptist to say in the minde and conception of Ishm●●l Isaac was an Heretick Answ How is that proved the Text sayes no such thing 2. We teach no such thing as that men should be punished by the Magistrate not because they are but because they seem only to ●e Heretickes or because Isaacs and Saints are Hereticks in our mind and conception but because they are so indeed as the Magistrate punisheth not justly a murtherer because he seems in the minde and conception of the Magistrate to be a murtherer but because he is a murtherer and is proved by faithfull witnesses to be a murtherer so is the Heretick proved to be a Heretick by the Magistrate and so convicted that he is self-condemned for we never make the Magistrates thoughts and his conception to be the rule of punishing an Heretick even as we are not to avoid an Heretick after admonition because he is an Heretick in our conception onely for our conception must not be the rule or formall ground of casting out any man from our society and avoiding of him but we avoid him because he is an Heretick in himself nor exhorts Peter any man to suffer for well-doing that is for his conscience or for his erroneous and hereticall conscience that is but an abusing of the word of God for he speaks not of suffering directly for onely Religion true or false though he exclude it not but saith 1 Pet. 4. 15. But let none of you suffer as a murtherer as a theefe as an ill-doer and in so saying he means that no man should as Elimas suffer blindnesse for perverting the faith of Sergius Paulus and I beleeve it will be a peece of labour for Libertines to prove that such opposers of the Gospel as Elimas and Hymeneus who suffered as ill-doers did yet know in their conscience the Gospel to be the onely saving truth and way of God and that against the warning of an illuminated conscience Elimas perverted the right wayes of God However to suffer here as a well doer by Baptists way is to suffer for an hereticall conscience defending and teaching lies in the name of the Lord If so such a well-doer if blasphemously unsound is to be thrust through and stabbed as an Impostor by the Lords

will bide the tryall of the fire and not be consumed and the man rewarded for his so building and bad doctrine will be burns and not abide the Lords fire when it is tryed for false doctrine will vanish in the day of tryall and yeeld the sower of such doctrine no comfort yet he himself keeping the foundation Christ shall be saved but he shall be ●eded and 〈◊〉 afflicted for his fruitlesse building so the day seems to be the day of tryal and fiery persecution coming on all the Preachers of the Gospel to try the● and their doctrine as Rev. 3. 10. the place smels nothing of p●●gato●ie fire and the most judicious interpreters even Es●ins 〈◊〉 Papist ●●pounds i● well of the Lords trying of the sons of Levi Mal. 3. 5. I will not say Amen to Dr. Taylor that to count a man an heretick his opinion must be a plaine upon recession from demonstrative authority which must needs be voluntary vincible and criminall for the Sadduces were wilfull obstinate hereticks in denying the resurrection of the dead a principall Article of faith yet it is not clear that their opinion was an open recession from demonstrative authority The Doctor will not call Christs arg●ing God is the God of dead Abraham Ergo the dead must live againe Matth. 22. demonstrative We may have as much naturall blindnesse as we can hardly see the truth of Christs ascention to heaven and comming againe to judge the quicke and dead by demonstrative authority from Scripture yet those in the visible Church denying these Articles of faith are Hereticks though there may be degrees of voluntarinesse and obstinacy in Hereticks 6. That there must be vinciblenesse in all heresie is anobiguous in the Doctors sense for by vinciblenesse I take he means such vinciblenesse whereby none by their owne industry and strength of freewill may if they be not wanting to that grace which is denyed to none as Arminians say attaine to the light of such consequences as hereticks wilfully deny If this be his meaning he is a friend to Pelagius 2. If he take vincible as opposed to invincible ignorance he Popishly then saith that the Scripture offereth to us many things whereof we may be invincibly ignorant Now invincible ignorance Protestants acknowledge onely in matters of fact or of Gospel-truths never so much as in the letter revealed as Heathens may be invincibly ignorant of Christ and their ignorance not be sinfull as Joh. 15. 22. and Jacob was invincibly ignorant in lying with Leah instead of Rachel There can be no such vinciblenesse or invinciblenesse in an Heretick that hears the Gospel for who ever heare the Gospel and yet remaine ignorant their ignorance is not invincible Nulla est invincibilis ignorantia juris 7. The opinion of Purgatory though it were no heresie as the Doctor saith and bringeth no argument to prove it yet is not simply a finlesse errour in such as know or ought to know since the Scripture is before their eyes that 1. There is no word of God to warrant it 2. Since the word in the Parable of Lazarus and the rich Glutton sheweth us what abideth all men immediately after they dye that the bodies of all goe to the earth and one way or other are buried and the souls either to heaven or hell and this he saith of all mankinde 1. Because all receive either their good things or their evill of suffering in this life 2. All men are such as if they beleeve not Moses and the Prophets will not beleeve though one rise from the dead 3. Christ should be unperfect in this place and in all other places who should not tell us of a third doom befalling some after they are dead and buried where their bodies that were instruments of sin as the rich gluttons tongue was of gluttony should be tormented for their veniall sinnes yea and Purgatory dwells door-neighbour with covetousnesse if the Doctor remembers that Soul-masses to Romish Masse-mongers as well as Durges Requiems M●sses are not a little gainfull 8. Nor is there any errour of things revealed by the wise Lawgiver in Scripture which is meerly speculative in order to Gods end his glory It is no lesse derogatory to the Lawgivers glory not to beleeve A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and there is one God in three persons then to kill our Brother though the former be more speculative farther from the experiments of humane affairs as he speaketh and more difficult and remoter from humane observation then the other Object 1. Errours are then saith he made sins when they are contrary to charity or inconsistent with a good life or the honour of God Answ Not to beleeve what God saith is inconsistent with his honour for nothing intrinsecally is inconsistent with the honour of God not the eating of the tree of knowledge no simple act of loving fearing beleeving all are inconsistent with or agreeable to the honour of God because he commands or forbids them Object 2. No mans person is to be charged with the odious consequences of his opinion though the doctrine may be therefore charged because if he did see the consequences and then avow them his person is chargeable with them Answ The very opinion it selfe may be a blasphemy by consequence though the man see it not to be blasphemy will the Doctor say Hymeneus and Alexander did make shipwrack of faith and blaspheme because they said the resurrection was past Yet Paul 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. chargeth the persons with blasphemy and can the Doctor deny that Hymeneus and Philetus increased unto more ungodlinesse and that their word did eat as a canker in saying that the resurrection was past which yet Paul chargeth on them 2 Tim. 2. 15 16 17. and those that taught circumcision are charged as perverters of soules Act. 15. yet they but perverted soules by consequence The like may be said of such as Paul said tell from Christ and lost all benefit in Christ if they were circumcised Gal. 5. 2. It may be they would retract the heresie if they saw the blasphemies to follow by strong consequence and it may be not since they are selfe-condemned But sure the Lord chargeth the persons of men as making God a lyar who beleeve not his truth and he chargeth Epicurisme Let us eat and drinke for to morrow we shall dye 1 Cor. 15. on the persons that deny the resurrection and if the doctrine be a lye I wonder how these that lye of God since God commandeth to know and beleeve whatever he saith in his word can be innocent Object If no simple errour condemne us before the throne of God since God is so pitifull to our crimes that he pardons many de toto de integro he will far lesse demand an account of our weaknesse the strongest understanding cannot pretend immunity from being deceived Answ Then though Christ said Joh. 8. Except ye beleeve that I

might be objected against the decree of 〈…〉 Quer. 10. Whether on 〈◊〉 are men punished because God 〈◊〉 not bestow the Spirit of grace 〈◊〉 them by which they would flye all evill-doing when they are punished for evill-doing Quer. 11. Whereas this distinct argument presupposeth that the Magistrate should tolerate errors in fundamentalls and in non-fundamentalls because of the difficulty of knowing of fundamentalls must it not follow that men are far rather to be tolerated 〈◊〉 ●●re in fundamentalls 〈◊〉 such as erre in non-fundamentalls and so the more blasphemous that seducing teachers be as if they deny there is a God and that nature and chante rules all and that Christ was an imposter the Gospel a fable the Scripture a meer 〈◊〉 the more they are to be pitied and 〈◊〉 measure of indulgence and toleration is due to them then to such ●● are godly and erre but in lesser points that are more easily 〈…〉 concerning usury accidentall killing of our neighbour or the meaning of some places of Scripture or erre in matters touching Church-government or the like Quer. 12. Since also 〈◊〉 lay for a ground that the Magistrate is not infallible in judging of matters of Religion especially that are supernaturall such as the mysteries of the Gospell the incarnation sufferings and death of Christ his satisfaction for sinners c. and Christians are not infallible in either reaching these to others or in believing them for their faith and practise and therefore the Magistrate ought to tolerate all these how then can this Divine talke of a certainty of knowing and teaching and holding of divine truthe●● for by 〈◊〉 principle of toleration that no man hath infallibility in matters of Religion since the Prophets and Apostles fell asleepe there can be no certainty of faith either in ruler or people but all our faith in fundamentalls or non-fundamentalls must be fallible dubious conjectu●●● And for such as yeeld a toleration in non-fundamentalls but deny it in fundamentals 1. They must quit all arguments used by Libertin●● for toleration from the nature of conscience that it can not be constrained 2. That they 〈◊〉 bee a willing people that follow Christ 3. That 〈◊〉 Lord of the conscience onely 4. That co●pulsion 〈◊〉 hypocrites 5. That to know maintaine a●d 〈◊〉 truths of the Gospel is not in our power as to kill or 〈◊〉 to kill because acts of the understanding fall not 〈◊〉 dominion of free-will 6. That the preaching of the 〈◊〉 and perswading by Scripture and reason not the sword and strong hand is the way to propagate truth and 〈◊〉 pate heresies 7. That the laws of Moses against false 〈◊〉 were onely typicall and perished with other 〈◊〉 and therefore there is no warrant under the N●● Testament for punishing hereticks all these and the like 〈◊〉 with equall strength conclude against toleration of such 〈◊〉 erre in non-fundamentalls as well as in fundamentall 〈◊〉 in neither the one not the other is the conscience to ●●●strained nor can Magistrates be Lords of the 〈◊〉 fundamentalls more then in non-fundamentalls and 〈◊〉 must be a willing people in fundamentalls as in non-fundamentalls nor can the sword but preaching of the word onely be a means of propagating of non-fundamentalls more then of fundamentalls when then Libertines 〈◊〉 lost all these arguments by reason of this 〈◊〉 which here hath no place their cause must bee weake and leane To determine what is fundamentall what not and the number of fundamentall points and the least measure of knowledge of fundamentals in which the essence of saving faith may consist or the simple want of the knowledge of which fundamentalls is inconsistent 〈◊〉 saving faith in minimo quod non is more then Magistrat● or Church can well know Sure it borders with one of Gods secrets touching the finall state of salvation or damnation of particular men And it is as sure this is a fundamentall to belie●● that God is that hee is a rewarder of those that seeke hi● that there is not a name under Heaven by which men may 〈◊〉 saved but by the Name of Jesus that no man 〈◊〉 come to the Father but by Christ that hee that 〈◊〉 not the wrath of God abideth on him and he is condemned 〈◊〉 then he was condemned and under wrath before even from the wombe Nor is this a good argument of Bellius where Christ is what he doth how he sits at the right hand of God how he is one with the Father many things of the Trinity of God Predestination Angels the state of men after this life are points not so necessary to be known for publicans and harlots who enter into heaven may be ignorant of them and though they were knowne they make not a man better according to that if I had all knowledge if I have not love it is nothing For 1. The exact knowledge of these are not so necessary and that is all that this argument can conclude but the Scripture saith no more that publicans and harlots remaining publicans and harlots enter into the Kingdome of heaven in sensu composito nor when it saith The blinde see the deafe heare the dead are raised the meaning should be blinde and deafe remaining blinde and deafe doe see and heare or the dead remaining dead in their graves and void of life doe live and have life but these that were blinde now see when blindnesse is removed otherwise some may take harlotry into heaven with them and because the word of God is a seed when this is in the heart of a dying harlot Christ came to save sinners and to save me how or what way the Spirit sits upon this egge and warmes it and what births of saving truths the Spirit joyned with the spirit of a dying man brings forth who knowes the repenting thiefe knew Christ to be the Saviour of men and a King who could dispose of heaven but what deductions the Spirit made with in who knows nor is it a truth that the knowledge of any revealed truths of God makes no man the better for it leanes on this ground That 1. The spirituall Law of God commands not a conformity between the understanding power of the soule and the Law to require that the minde conceive apprehend and know God and his will as he reveales himselfe to us which yet is included in the command of loving of God with all the heart with all the soule with all the strength and so with all the minde though that knowledge be directed to no other practice but beliefe 2. It leanes upon another false ground that to believe I speake of an intellectuall assenting to divine truth● it being an act of the understanding and a necessary result of knowledge doth not make a man better which yet is most false for beside that it is commanded not to believe a re●●aled truth is a sin and renders men morally ill and wor●● now that text that saith 1 Cor. 13.

with humours mis-apprehending colours that are white and seeing them to be red when they are not so And for that way of trying the two missalls they are but doting fools that would chuse either of them for the word of God may judge them both to be corrupt and superstitious and their trying which of the two was best by a miracle was a foolish and phantasticall tempting of God much like Chilingsworths decyding of controversies of Religion by lotry because Scripture Reason Councells Fathers Doctors Tradition are all insufficient which sure is d●rogatory to the worth and perfection of Scripture which maketh the simple wise Ps 19. and must shew the man that erreth his errour if he shut not his eyes at light Dr. Taylor saith Covetousnesse is often is cause of heresie Thebulis quia rejectus ab Episcopatu ●ierosolymitano turbare capit Ecclesiam saith Egesippus in Eusebius Tertullian turned Montanist for missing the Bishopricke of Garthage after Aggrippinus and so did Montanus for the same discontent saith Nicephorus Novatu● would have been Bishop of Rome Donatus of Car●●age Arri●s of Alexandria Aerius of Sebastia Socrates said Asterius did frequent the Conventicles of the Arrians nam Episcopatum nliquem ambiebat Let the errour be never so great if it be not against an ar●●cle of the Creed if it be simple and have no confederation with the personall iniquity of the man the opinion is as innocent as the person though perhaps as false as he is ignorant and therefore shall burne though he himselfe escape The man cannot by humane judgement be counted an heretick unlesse his opinion be an open recession from plaine demonstrative authority which must needs be notorious voluntary vincible and criminall or that there be a palpable serving of an end accidentall and extrinsecall to the opi●ion but these ends spirituall are hard to be discerned The opinion of Purgatory though false being neither fundamentally false nor practically impious is no heresie Ans 1. I am not so uncharitable of Tertullian as Dr. Taylor for Aerius he maintained no heresie I hope Episcopacy is no article of faith 2. I know no errour in the matters of God speculative but the Lord forbids it in his word If every thing written be written for our instruction fundamentall or non-fundamentall as all the Scripture 〈◊〉 we are under a commandement of God we I say who live in the visible Church are to know all and beleeve all things written be they fundamentall or no for God hath written them all for us Ergo the ignorance of any thing written is a sin and a breach of a command and so 〈…〉 errour Happy are these that know and do Now under doing I comprehend the faith of the Trinity and the most of articles touching Christ which do practically concern me because I sin if I doe not both know and beleeve them else they are written as Aristotles Acroamaticks the ignorance of which in an unlette●ed man I suppose is no breach of a divine command and I conceive the ignorance of the Stories in the old and new Testament of Pauls leaving his cloak at Troas is a sin in all within the visible Church for that the Holy Ghost hath written these not for the instruction of one but of all who heare or may heare of them within the visible Church 2. No error except of the Article of the Creed is arraigned as Heresie by the Doctor but he meaneth by error ignorance and mis-beleif both for I hope the Doctors charitis will not send all to hell many godlie there may be who have much ignorance of God who know not or are simply ignorant of some of the twelve Articles of the Creed and of some of the ten Commandements if therefore error here doth include not beleeving as heresie must necessarily doe the pertinacious mis-beleeving and denying of many Stories in the Bible as of the deluge dividing of the red Sea preserving of Ionah alive in the whales belly raising of Lazarus if obstinacie be added must be no lesse Heresie and an open belying of the God of truth then the denying of an Article of the Creed for the authoritie of God who commands us to know the one as well as the other is in both despised when we are ignorant of either 3. It is to beg the Question to say that any Error in the matters written to us in our Lords Testament which so much concerneth both our knowledge and practise can be simple Errors and have no confederation with personall iniquity for it is as much as if not to read our Husbands love-letter from end to end or to cause to read it if it comes to the wives hard were not our sin against our husband Christ whereas to be ignorant of any thing in it and mis-beleeve it is sinfull ignorance and naturall blindness so the Doctor makes sin so innocent as to have no consideration with sin 4. To say the opinion shall burne though himself ●●cape is to expound the place 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14. most corruptly in a n●w glosse of the Doctors own as if hay and stubb●● that is vaine and unprofitable opinions that are builded upon the foundation Christ were not sinful opinions in the matters of God when as they are hay and stubble to be b●ent 1. Because they are against a Commandment that every man is to take heed how or what he is to build on the foundation v. 10. but he that builds hay and stubble obeyes not that Commandement but let every one take heed how hee buildeth thereupon 2. Building hay and stubble that is vain and fruitless opinions upon the foundation is privatively opposed to building of gold silver and precious stones vers 12. but that is a work of faith and such a work as shall abide and have a reward v. 14. 3. The work that shall be brought to judgement and made manifest so as it shall be burnt with fire and shall be judged to bee a fruitlesse work must be sin But the building of 〈◊〉 and stubble upon the 〈◊〉 Christ is such a work v. 13 14 15. And that the man himself shall be saved because that by faith he is builded upon the foundation Christ but the work burnt with fire will no more prove that the building of hay is not sin then that Peters j●daizing and Davids adul●●ry and murther were not fins because Peter and David are saved for the Apostle there compares the Apostles to builders as before he compared them to 〈◊〉 v. 6 7 8 9. and the preaching of doctrine to a building and he makes Christ the foundation of the building and two sorts of super-structures good doctrine and that is gold and silver and vain and unedifying Toyes added to the doctrine of Christ 〈◊〉 hay and stubble Now he makes the judgement that trieth all doctrine to be fire whether it be the last judgement or fierie afflictions it is no great matter our good doctrine