it alone and traditions they had good store whose original they pleaded from Moses himself directing them in that interpretation Christ and his Apostles whom they looked upon as poor ignorant contemptible persons came and preacht a doctrine which that Church determined utterly contrary to the Scripture and their Traditions what shall now be answered to their Authority which was unquestionably all that ever was or shall be entrusted with any Church on the earth Our Author tells us that this great argument of the Jews could not be any way warded or put by but by recourse unto the Churches infallibility pag. 146. Which sit verbo venia is so ridiculous a pretence as I wonder how any block in his way could cause him to stumble upon it What Church I pray the Church of Christians When that argument was first used by the Jews against Christ himself it was not yet founded and if an absolute infallibility be supposed in the Church without respect to her adherence to the rule of infallibility I dare boldly pronounce that argument indissoluble and that all Christian Religion must be therein discarded If the jewish-Jewish-Church which had at that day as great Church-power and prerogative as any Church hath or can have were infallible in her Judgment that she made of Christ and his Doctrin there remains nothing but that we renounce both him and it and turn either Jews or Pagans as we were of old Here then by our Authors confession lies a plain Judgment and Definition of the only Church of God in the world against Christ and his Doctrine and it is certainly incumbent on us to see how it may be waâ—ed And this I suppose we cannot better be instructed in then by considering what was answered unto it by Christ himself his Apostles and those that succeeded them in the profession of the faith of the Gospel 1 For Christ himself its certain he pleaded his miracles the Works which he wrought and the Doctrine that he revealed but withall as to the Jews with whom he had to do he pleads the Scriptures Moses and the Prophets and offers himself and his Doctrine to be tryed to stand or fall by their verdict Joh. 5.39 46. Mat. 22.42 Luk. 24.27 I say besides the testimony of his Works and Doctrine to their authority of the Church he opposeth that of the Scripture which he knew the other ought to give place unto And it is most vainly pretended by our Author in the behalf of the Jews that the Messias or great Prophet to come was not in the Scripture specified by such Characteristicall Properties as made it evident that Jesus was the Messiah all the descriptions given of the one and they innumerable undeniably centring in the other The same course steered the Apostle Peter Act. 2. 3. And expresly in his second Epistle chap. 2. v. 17 18 19. And Paul Act. 13.16 17 c. And of Apollos who openly disputed with the Jews upon this Argument it is said that he mightily convinced the Jews publickly shewing by the Scripture that Jesus is the Christ Act. 18.28 And Paul perswaded the Jews concerning Jesus at Rome both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning until evening Act. 28.23 Concerning which labour and disputation the censure of our Author p. 149. is very remarkable There can be no hope saith he of satisfying a Querent or convincing an Opponent in any point of Christianity unless he will submit to the splendor of Christs Authority in his own Person and the Church descended from him which I take to be the Reason why some of the Jews in Rome when St. Paul laboured so much to perswade Christ out of Moses and the Prophets believed in him and some did not Both the coherence of the words and design of the Preface and his whole scope manifest his meaning to be That no more believed on him or that some disbelieved notwithstanding all the pains he took with them And what was the reason of this failure Why St. Paul fixed on an unsuitable means of perswading them namely Moses and the Prophets when he should have made use of the Authority of the Church Vain and bold man that dares oppose his prejudices to the Spirit and Wisdom of Christ in that great and holy Apostle and that in a way and work wherein he had the express pattern and example of his Master If this be the Spirit that rules in the Roman-Synagogue that so puffes up men in their fleshly minds as to make them think themselves wiser then Christ and his Apostles I doubt not but men will every day find cause to rejoyce that it is cast out of them and be watchful that it return to possess them no more But this is that which galls the man The difficulty which he proposeth as insoluble by any wayes but an acquiescing in the Authority of the present Church he finds assoyled in Scripture on other Principles This makes him fall soul on St. Paul whom he finds most frequent in answering it from Scripture not considering that at the same time he accuseth St. Peter of the like folly though he pretend for him a greater reverence However this may be said in defence of St. Paul that by his Arguments about Christ and the Gospel from Moses and the Prophets many thousands of Jews all the World over were converted to the Faith when it 's hard to meet with an instance of one in an age that will any way take notice of the Authority of the roman-Roman-Church But to return this was the constant way used by the Apostles of answering that great difficulty pleaded by our Author from the Authority of the hebrew-Hebrew-Church They called the Jews to the Scripture the plain Texts and Contexts of Moses and the Prophets opposing them to all their Churches real or pretended Authority and all her Interpretations pretended to be received by Tradition from of old so fixing this for a perpetual standing Rule to all Generations that the Doctrine of the Church is to be examined by the Scripture and where it is found contradictory of it her authority is of no value at all it being annexed unto her attendance on that Rule But it may be replyed That the Church in the dayes of the Apostles was not yet setled nor made firm enough to bear the weight that now may be laid upon it as our Author affirms pag. 149. So that now the great Resolve of all doubts must be immediately upon the Authority of the present Church after that was once well cleared the fathers of old pleaded that only in this case and removed the Objections of the Jews by that alone I am perswaded though our Author be a great admirer of the present Church he is not such a stranger to Antiquity as to believe any such thing Is the Authority of the Church pleaded by Justine Martyr in that famous dispute with Trypho the Jew wherein these very Objections instanced by our
he be in good earnest indeed he calls us to an easie welcome imployment namely to defend the holy Word of God and the wisdom of God in it from such slight and trivial exceptions as those he layes against them This path is so trodden for us by the Antients in their Answers to the more weighty Objections of his Predecessors in this work the Pagans that we cannot well erre or faint in it If we are called to this task namely to prove that we can know and believe the Scriptrue to be the Word of God without any respect to the Authority or Testimony of the present Church of Rome that no man can believe it to be so with faith Divine and Supernatural upon that testimony alone that the whole counsel of God in all things to be believed or done in order to our last end is clearly delivered in it and that the composure of it is a work of infinite wisdom suited to the end designed to be accomplished by it that no difficulties in the interpretation of particular places hinder the whole from being a compleat and perfect rule of Faith and Obedience we shall most willingly undertake it as knowing it to be as honourable a service and employment as any of the sons of men can in this world be called unto If indeed himself be otherwise minded and believes not what he says but only intends to entangle men by his Sophistry so to render them plyable unto his further intention I must yet once more perswade him to desist from this course It doth not become an ingenious man much lesse a Christian and one that boasts of so much Mortification as he doth to juggle thus with the things of God In the mean time his Reader may take notice that so long as he is able to defend the Authority Excellency and Usefulness of the Scripture this man had nothing to say to him as to the change of his Religion from Protestancy to Popery And when men will be perswaded to let that go as a thing uncertain dubious useless it matters not much where they go themselves And for our Authour methinks if not for reverence to Christ whose book we know the Scriptures to be yet for the devotion he bears the Pope whose book he sayes it is he might learn to treat it with a little more respect or at least prevail with him to send out a book not liable to so many exceptions as this is pretended to be However this I know that though his pretence be to make men Papists the course he takes is the readyest in the world to make them Atheists and whether that will serve his turn or no as well as the other I know not 6. We have not yet done with the Scripture That the taking it for the only rule of faith the only determiner of differences is the only cause of all our differences and which keeps us in a condition of having them endless is also pretended and pleaded But how shall we know this to be so Christ and his Apostles were absolutely of another mind and so were Moses and the Prophets before them The antient Fathers of the Primitive Church walked in their steps and umpired all differences in Religion by the Scriptures opposing confuting and condemning Errors and Heresies by them preserving through their guidance the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace In these latter dayes of the world which surely are none of the best we have a few unknown persons come from Rome would perswade us that the Scripture and the use of it is the cause of all our differences and the means of making them endless But why so I pray Doth it teach us to differ and contend Doth it speak contradictions and set us at variance Is there any spirit of dissension breathing in it Doth it not deliver what it commands us to understand so as it may be understood Is there any thing needful for us to know in the things of God but what it reveales Who can tell us what that is But do we not see de facto what differences there are amongst you who pretend all of you to be guided by Scripture Yea and we see also what Surfeitings and drunkenness there is in the world but yet do not think bread meat and drink to be the causes of them and yet they are to the full as much so as the Scriptures are of our Differences Pray Sir do not think that sober men will cast away their Food and starve themseâ—â—es because you tell them that some continually abuse and surfeit on that very kind of food which they use Nor will some mens abuse of it prevail with others to cast away the food of their souls if they have any design to live eternally 7. The great safety and security that there is in committing our selves as to all the concernments of Religion unto the guidance rule and conduct of the Pope is another great principle of this Discourse And here our Author falls into a deep admiration of the Popes dexterity in keeping all his Subjects in peace and unity and subjection to him there being no danger to any one for forsâ—king him but only that of Excommunication The contest is between the Scripture and the Pope Protestants say the safest way for men in reference to their eternal condition is to believe the Scripture and rest therein The Romanists say the same of the Pope Which will prove the best course methinks should not be hard to determine All Christians in the world ever did agree That the Scripture is the certain infallible word of God given by him on purpose to reveal his mind and will unto us About the Pope there were great Contests ever since he was first taken notice of in the world Nothing I confess little or low is spoken of him Some say he is the head and spouse of the Church the Vicar of Christ the successor of Peter the supreme Moderator of Christians the infallible judge of Controversies and the like others again that he is Antichrist the man of sin a cruel Tyrant and Persecutor the evill Servant Characterized Mat. 24.48 49 50 51. But all as far as I can gather agree that he is a Man I mean that almost all Popes have been so for about every individual there is not the like consent Now the question is Whether we shall rest in the Authority and Word of God or in the Authority and Word of a Man as the Pope is confessed to be and whether is like to yield us more security in our assiance This being such another difficult matter and case as that before mentioned about the Bibles being the Popes book shall not be by me decided but left to the Judgment of wiser men In the mean time for his feat of Government it is partly known what it is as also what an influence into the effects of peace mentioned that gentle means of Excommunication hath had I know one that
but think that a sad profession of Religion which enforceth men to decry the use and excellency of that which let them pretend what they please is the only infallible Revelation of all that Truth by obedience whereunto we become Christians I do heartily pity Learned and Ingenious men when I see them enforced by a private corrupt Interest to engage in this woful work of undervaluing the word of God and so much the more as that I cannot but hope that it is a very ingrateful work to themselves Did they delight in it I should have other thoughts of them and conclude that there are more Atheists in the World than those whom our Author informs us to be lately turned so in England This then is the Remedy that Protestants have for their evils This the means of making up all their differences which they might do every day so far as in this World it is possible that that work should be done amongst men if it were not their own fault That they do not so blame them still blame them soundly lay on Reproofs till I cry Hold but let not I pray the word of God be blamed any more Methinks I could beg this of a Catholick especially of my Countrey-men That whatever they say to Protestants or however they deal with them they would let the Scripture alone and not decry its worth and usefulness It is not Protestants Book it is Gods who hath only granted them an use of it in common with the rest of men And what is spoken in disparagement of it doth not reflect on them but on him that made it and sent it to them It is no Policy I confess to discover our secrets to our Adversaries whereby they may prevent their own disadvantages for the future But yet because I look not on the Romanists as absolute Enemies I shall let them know for once that when Protestants come to that head of their Disputes or Orations wherein they contend that the Scripture is so and so obscure and insufficient they generally take great contentment to find that their Religion cannot be opposed without casting down the word of God from its excellency and enthroning somewhat else in the room of it Let them make what use of this they please I could not but tell it them for their good and I know it to be true For the present it comes too late For another main Principle of our Authors Discourse is VIII That the Scripture on sundry accounts is insufficient to settle us in the Truth of Religion or to bring us to an agreement amongst our selves and that 1. Because it is not to be known to be the word of God but by the Testimony of the Roman Church And then 2. Cannot be well Translated into any vulgar Language And is also 3. In its self obscure And 4. We have no way to determine of what is its proper sense Atqui hic est nigrae sumus Caliginis haec est Aerugo mera I suppose they will not tell a Pagan or a Mahumetan this story At least I heartily wish that men would not suffer themselves to be so far transported by their private Interest as to forget the general concernments of Christianity We cannot say they know the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Authority of the Church of Rome And all men may easily assure themselves that no man had ever known there was such a thing as a Church much less that it had any Authority but by the Scripture And whither this tends is easie to guess But it will not enter into my head that we cannot know or believe the Scripture to be the word of God any otherwise than on the Authority of the Church of Rome The greatest part of it was believed to be so before there was any Church at Rome at all and all of it is so by Millions in the World who make no account of that Church at all Now some say there is such a Church I wish men would leave perswading us that we do not believe what we know we do believe or that we cannot do that which we know we do and see that millions besides our selves do so too There are not many Nations in Europe wherein there are not Thousands who are ready to lay down their lives to give testimony that the Scripture is the word of God that care not a rush for the Authority of the present Church of Rome And what further evidence they can give that they believe so I know not And this they do upon that innate evidence that the word of God hath in it self and gives to its self the testimony of Christ and his Apostles and the teaching of the Church of God in all Ages I must needs say There is not any thing for which Protestants are so much beholding to the Roman Catholicks as this That they have with so much importunacy cast upon them the work of proving the Scripture to be of Divine Original or to have been given by inspiration from God It is as good a work as a man can well be imployed in and there is not any thing I should more gladly en professo ingage in if the nature of my present business would bear such a Diversion Our Author would quickly see what an easie Task it were to remove those his Reproches of a private spirit of an inward testimony of our own Reason which himself knowing the advantage they afford him amongst vulgar unstudied men trisles withal Both Romanists and Protestants as far as I can learn do acknowledge That the Grace of the Spirit is necessary to enable a man to believe savingly the Scripture to be the Word of God upon what Testimony or Authority soever that faith is founded or resolved into Now this with Protestants is no private Whisper no Enthusiasm no Reason of their own no particular Testimony but the most open noble known that is or can be in the World even the voice of God himself speaking publickly to all in and by the Scripture evidencing it self by its own Divine innate light and excellency taught confirmed and testified unto by the Church in all Ages especially the first founded by Christ and his Apostles He that looks for better or other Testimony Witness or Foundation to build his faith upon may search till Dooms-day without success He that renounceth this shakes the very root of Christianity and opens a door to Atheism and Paganism This was the Anchor of Christians of old from which neither the Storms of Persecution could drive them nor the subtilty of Disputations entise them For men to come now in the end of the World and to tell us That we must rest in the Authority of the present Church of Rome in our receiving the Scripture to be the word of God and then to tell us That that Church hath all its Authority by and from the Scripture and to know well enough all the while that no man can know
by his example he commends unto them But it will be said He only shews the uncertainties that are about Scripture that men may not expect by or from them deliverance from the darkness and ignorance before spoken of Suppose then they come to be perswaded of such an uncertainty What course shall they take Apply themselves to the Roman-Church and they are safe But seeing the being of a Church much less the Roman-Church hath no foundation in the light of Nature and men can never know any thing of it especially of its Prerogative but by and from the Scripture whose Authority you have taught them to question and made doubtful to them What remains for rational men but to renounce both Scripture and Church and betake themselves to your commendable piece of witty Atheism This is the old lurry The Scripture cannot be known believed understood but by the Church the Church cannot be proved to have Being Constitution or Authority but by the Scripture and then if you doubt of the Authority of that proof of the Church you must return to the Church again and so on until all Faith and Reason vanish or men make shipwrack of their Faith and become brutish in their Understanding pretending to believe they know neither what nor why And this imployment of raising surmises and stirring up jealousies about the Word of God it's Pen-men and their Authority do men put themselves upon I will not say to gratifie the Roman-Court but I will say in obedience to their prejudices lusts and darkness and saddest drudgery that any of the sons of men can be exercised withal And if he would be believed he professeth himself an Anti-Scripturist and in that profession which he puts upon himself an Atheist For my part I am amazed to think how men are able to hold their Pens in their hands that an horrour of the work they have before them doth not make them shake them out when they are thus traducing the holy Word of Christ and exciting evil surmises about it Should they deal with a man of any Power and Authority they might not expect to escape his indignation even to publish to all the World that he is indeed an honourable person but yet if men will question his Honour Truth Honesty Authority and affirm him to be a Cheat Thief Murderer Adulterer they cannot see how they can be disproved at least he would have a difficult task in hand that should endeavour to free him from objections of that nature Yet thus men dare to deal with the Scripture that Word which God hath magnified above all his Name If this be the Spirit that breathed in the Apostles the holy Army of Martyrs of old and all the Fathers of the Primitive Church I am much mistaken nay I am greatly so if with one consent they would not denounce an Anathema against such a defence of any Religion whatever But you will say The same person defends also the Scripture just as he in the Poet did Pelilius Me Capitolinus convictore usus amicoque A puero est causaque mea permulta rogatus Fecit incolumnis laetor quod vivit in urbe Sed tamem admiror quo pacto Judicium illud Fugerit A defence worse and more bitter then a down-right accusation I am not now to observe what prejudice this excuse brings to the cause of our Author with all intelligent persons having noted it once and again before nor what contentment Protestants take to see that the Truth they profess cannot be shaken without inducing men to question the Fundamental Principles of Christian Religion and if this course be persisted in for ought that I can understand the whole Controversie between us and the Romanists must needs be at last reduced unto this head Whether the Scripture of the Old and New-Testament was given by Divine Inspiration For the present having in the consideration of the general suppositions of this Treatise spoken before to this head I shall not need to answer particular Exceptions given in against its Authority nor do I think it incumbent on me so to do unless our Author own them for his sense which if he be pleased to do I promise him if God give me life to give him a distinct answer to every one of them and all that is contained in them Moreover these things will again occurre in his 15. Section where he expresly takes the Scripture to task as to its pleas for judging of and setling Men in the Truth Proceed we to his next Section p. 126. CHAP. VIII Use of Reason Sect. 11. THis Section is set apart for the cashiering of Reason from having any hand in the business we deal about and the truth is if our Author can perswade us first to throw away our Bibles and then to lay aside the use of our Reason I suppose there is no doubt but we shall become Roman-Catholicks This work it seems cannot be effected unless men are contented to part with Scripture and Reason all that whereby they are Christians and Men. But unless our Author have emptyed Circe's Box of Oyntment whereby she transformed Men into Swine he will confess it somewhat a difficult task that he hath undertaken Methinks one of these demands might suffice at once But he presumes he hath put his Countrey-men into a good humor and knowing them free and open-hearted he plyes them whilest they are warm We have indeed in this Section as fair a flourish of words as in any other but there can be but little reason in the words that men make use of to plead against Reason it self And yet I am perswaded most Readers think as well of this 〈◊〉 as any in the Book To whom the unâ—easonableness of this is evident that of the others is so also and those who willingly imbibe the other parts of his Discourse will little strain at this Nothing is to be trusted unto Prejudice Nor if we will learn are we to think strange of any thing Let us weigh then impartially what is of Reason in this Discourse against the use of Reason What ever he pretends he knows full well that he hath no difference with any sort of Protestants about finding out a Religion by Reason and adhereing only to its dictates in the Worship of God All the World of Protestants profess that they receive their Religion wholly by Revelation from God and no otherwise Nor is it about ascribing a Soveraignty to Reason to judge of the particulars of Religion so Revealed to accept or refuse them according as that shall judge them suitable or not to its principles and liking This is the Soveraign dictate of Reason That whatever God reveals to be believed is true and as such must be embraced though the bottom of it cannot be sounded by Reason's line and that because 〈◊〉 reason of a man is not absolutely reason but being the reason of a man is variously limitted bounded and made defective in its ratiocinations An objective
were it so that by the Ministry of the Roman-Church of old the Faith was first planted in these Nations would that one inch promote our Author's pretensions unless he could prove that they did not afterwards lose or corrupt at least that which they communicated unto us which he knows to be the thing in Question and not to be granted upon request though made in never so handsome words To say then That the Gospel is the Romanists own Religion from them you had it you contend about that which is none of your own hear them whose it is from whom you had it who have the precedency before you is but to set up scare-Crows to fright fools and children Men who have any understanding of things past know that all this bluster and noyse comes from emptiness of any solid matter or substance to be used in the case 2. It is also doughtily supposed That whatever is spoken of the Churnh in the Scripture belongs to the Roman Church and that alone The Priviledges the Authority the Glory of the Church are all theirs as the madd-man at Athens thought all the Ships to be his that came into the Harbour I suppose he will not contend but that if you deny him this all that he hath said besides is to little purpose And I believe he cannot but take it ill that any of his Readers should call him to an account in that which he every where puts out of question But this he knew well enough that all Protestants deny that they grant no one priviledge of the Catholick Church as such to belong to the Roman All that any of them will allow her is but to be a putrid corrupt member of it some say cut off dead and rotten But yet that the Catholick Church and the Roman are the same must be believed or you spoil all his market The Church is before the Gospel gives testimony unto it none could know it but by her Authority nothing can be accepted as such but what she sets her seals unto so that to destroy the Church is to destroy the Gospel What then I pray Suppose all this and all the rest of his Assertions about the Church pag. 199 200 c. to be true as some of them are most blasphemously false yet What is all this to his purpose Why this is the Roman-Church of which all these things are spoken It may be the Roman-Church indeed of which much of it is spoken even all that is sinfully derogatory to the glory of Christ and his Apostles upon whom and whose Authority the Church is built and not their Authority on it Ephes. 2.18 19 20. But what is truly spoken in the Scripture of the Church doth no more belong to the Roman then to the least Assembly of Believers under Heaven wherein the Essence of a true Church is preserved if it belongs unto it at all And yet this rude Pretence and palpable Artifice is the main Engine in this Section applyed to the removal of men from the Basis of the Scripture The Church the Church the Roman-Church the Roman-Church and these forsooth are supposed to be one and the same and the Pope to have Monopolized all the priviledges of the Church contrary to express Statute-law of the Gospel Hence he pretends That if to go out from the Catholick be evil then not to come into the Roman is evil when indeed the most ready way to go out of the Catholick is to go into the Roman 3. Moreover it is taken for granted That the Roman Church is every way what it was when first planted Indeed if it were so it would deserve as much particular respect as any Church of any City in the World and that would be all As it is the case is altered But its unalteredness being added to the former Supposition of its Oneliness and Catholicism it is easie to see what sweet work a witty man as our Author is may make with this Church among good company Many and many a time have the Romanists attempted to prove these things but failing in their attempt they think it now reasonable to take them for granted The Religion they now profess must be that which first entered England and there saith our Author it continued in peace for a thousand years when the truth is after the entrance of their Religion that is the corruption of Christianity by Papal usurpations these Nations never passed one age without tumults turmoils contentions disorders nor many without wars bloud and devastations and those arising from the Principles of their Religion 4. To this is added That the Bible is the Pope's own Book which none can lay claim to but by and from him This will be found to be a doubtful assertion and it will be difficult to conclude aright concerning it He that shall consider what a worthy person the Pope is represented to be by our Author especially in his just dealing and mercifulness so That he never did any man wrong and shall take notice how many he hath caused to be burned to death for having and using the Bible without his consent must need suppose that it is his Book For surely his heavenly mind would not have admitted of a provocation to such severity unless they had stoln his goods out of his Possession But on the other side he that shall weigh aright his vilifying under-valuing of it his preferring himself and Church before and above it seeing we are all apt to set a high price upon that which is our own may be ready to question whether indeed he have such a property in it as is pretended Having somewhat else to do I shall not interpose my self in this difference nor attempt to determine this difficulty but leave it as I find it free for every man to think as he seeth cause 5. But that which is the chief ingredieet of these Sections is the plea that We know not the Scripture to be the word of God but by the Church that is the present Church of Rome which he manageth by urging sundry objections against it and difficulties which men meet withall in their enquiry whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone he interweaves in his discourse many expressions and comparisons tending directly to the slighting and contempt both of its Penmen and Matter which is said to be Laws Poems Sermons Histories Letters Visions several fancies in a diversity of composure the whole a book whereby men may as well prove their negative in denying the immortality of the soul heaven or hell or any other thing which by reason of many intricacies are very difficult if not impossible at all to be understood see p. 190 191 192 c. Concerning all which I desire to know whether our Author be in good earnest or no or whether he thinks as he writes or whether he would only have others to believe what he writes that he may serve his turn upon their credulity If
used in the late times to say of the Excommunication in Scotland He would not care for their Devil were it not for his horn and I suppose had not Papal Excommunication been alwayes attended with Warrs Bloud Seditions Conspiracies Depositions and Murders of Kings Fire and Faggot according to to the extent of their Power it would have been lesse effectual then our Author pretends it to have been Sir do but give Christians the liberty that Christ hath purchased for them lay down your carnal weapons your Whips Racks Prisons Halters Swords Faggots with your Unchristian Subtilties Slanders and fleshly Machinations and we and you shall quickly see what will become of your Papall Peace and Power These are the goodly Principles the honest Suppositions of the discourse which our Author ends his Third Book withal It could not but have been a tedious thing to take them up by pieces as they lie scattered up and down like the limbs of Medea's Brother cast in the way to retard her persuers The Reader may now take a view of them together and thence of all that is offer'd to perswade him to a relinquishment of his present profession and Religion For the Stories Comparisons Jests Sarcasms that are intermixed with them I suppose he will know how to turn them to another use Some very few particulars need only to be remarked As 1. No man can say what ill Popery did in the world untill Henry the Eighths dayes Strange when it is not only openly accused but proved guilty of almost all the evill that was in the Christian world in those dayes particularly of corrupting the Doctrine and Worship of the Gospel and debauching the lives of Christians 2. With the Roman Catholicks unity ever dwelt Never The very name of Roman Catholick appropriating Catholicism to Romanism is destructive of all Gospel-unity 3. Some Protestants say they love the Persons of the Romanists but hate their Religion the Reason is plain they know the one and not the other No they know them both And the pretence that people are kept with as from knowing what the Religion of the Romanists is is vain untrue and as to what colour can possibly be given unto it such an infant in comparison of that vast Giant which of the same kind lives in the Romish Territories that it deserves not to be mentioned 4. Protestants are beholding to the Catholicks that is Romanists for their Universities Benâ—fices Books Pulpits Gospel For some of them not all For the rest as the Israelites were to the Aegyptians for the Tabernacle they built in the Wilderness 5. The Pope was antiently believed sole Judge and general Pastor over all Prove it ask the antient Fathers and Councils whether they ever heard of any such thing they will universally return their answer in the Negative 6. The Scripture you received from the Pope Not at all as hath been proved but from Christ himself by the Ministry of the first planters of Christianity 7. You cannot believe the Scriptures to be the word of God but upon the Authority of the Church We can and do upon the authority of God himself and the influence of the Churches Ministry or Authority into our believing concerns not the Church of Rome 8. You account them that brought you the Scriptures as lyars No otherwise then as the Scripture affirms every man to be so not in their Ministry wherein they brought the Word unto us 9. The Gospel separate from the Church can prove nothing Yes it 's self to be sent of God and so doing is the foundation of the Church Sundry other passages of the like nature might be remarked if I could imagine any man would judge them worthy of consideration CHAP. XII Story of Religion THe fourth and last part of our Author Discourse is spent in two Stories one of Religion the other of himself His first of Religion is but a summary of what was diffused through the others parts of his Treatise being insinuated piece-meal as he thought he could make any advantage of it to his purpose Two things he aims to make his Readers believe by it First That we in these Nations had our Religion from Rome And secondly That it was the same which is there now professed Those whom he tels his Tale unto are as he professeth such as are ignorant of the coming into and progress of Religion amongst us wherein he deals wisely and as became him seeing he might easily assure himself that those who are acquainted before his Information with the true state of these things would give little credit to what he nakedly averrs upon his own Authority For my part I shall readily acknowledg that for ought appears in this Book he is a better Historian then a Disputant and hath more reason to trust to his faculty of telling a Tale than managing of an Argument I confess also that a slight and superficial view of Antiquity especially as flourished over by some Roman-Legendaries is the best advantage our Adversaries have to work on as a thorough Judicious search of it is fatal to their pretensions He that from the Scriptures and the Writings extant of the first Centuries shall frame a true Idea of the State and Doctrine of the first Churches and then observe the adventitious accessions made to Religion in the following ages partly by mens own inventions but chiefly by their borrowing from or imitation of the Jews and Pagans will need very little light or help from artificial Arguments to discover the defections of the Roman-Party and the true means whereby that Church arrived unto its present condition To persue this at large is not a work to be undertaken in this seambling chase It hath been done by others and those who are not unwilling to be at the cost and pains in the disquisition of the Truth which it is really worth may easily know where to find it Our present task is but to observe our Author's motions and to consider whether what he offers hath any efficacy towards that he aims at A triple Conversion he assigns to this Nation The first by Joseph of Arimathea about which as to matter of fact we have no contest with him That the Gospel was preached here in the Apostles daies either by him or some other Evangelist is certain and taken for granted on all hands nor can our Author pretend that it came hither from Rome but grants it to have come immediately from Palestine Whether this doth not overthrow the main of his plea in his whole Discourse concerning our dependance upon Rome for our Religion I leave to prudent men to judge Thus farr then we are equal As the Gospel came to Rome so it came to England to both from the same place and by the same Authority the same Ministry All the question is Whether Religion they brought with them that now professed in England or that of Rome If this be determined the business is at an issue We are perswaded Joseph
abide not in the Truth so they never did nor can depart from it Well then that we may not displease them at present let us put the case so as I presume they will own it Suppose Men or a Church intrusted by Christ authoritatively to preach the Gospel do propagate the Faith unto others according to their duties these being converted by their means do afterwards through the craft and subtilty of seducers fall in sundry things from the Truths they were instructed in and wherein their Instructers do constantly abide yea say our Adversaries this is the true case indeed I ask then in this case What is and ought to be the formal Motive to prevail with these persons to return to their former condition from whence they were faln Either this that they are departed from the Truth which they cannot do without peril to their souls and whereunto if they return not they must perish or this that it is their duty to return to them from whom they first received the Doctrine of Christianity because they so received it from them St. Paul who surely had as much authority in these matters as either the Pope or Church of Rome can with any modesty lay claim unto had to deal with very many in this case Particularly after he had preached the Gospel to the Galatians and converted them to the Faith of Christ there came in some false Teachers and Seducers amongst them which drew them off from the Truth wherein they had been instructed in divers important and some fundamental points of it What course doth the Apostle proceed in towards them Doth he plead with them about their falling away from him that first converted them or falling away from the Truth whereunto they were converted If any one will take the pains to turn to any Chapter in that Epistle he may be satisfied as to this Enquiry it is their falling away from the Gospel from the Truth they had received from the Doctrine in particular of Faith and Justification by the bloud of Christ that alone he blamed them for yea and makes Doctrines so farr the measure and rule of judging and censuring of Persons whether they preach the Word first or last that he pronounceth a redoubled Anathema against any creature in Heaven or Earth upon a supposition of their teaching any thing contrary unto it chap. 1.8 He pleads not we preached first unto you by us you were converted and therefore with us you must abide from whom the Faith came forth unto you but saith If we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel let him be accursed This was the way he chose to insist on and it may not be judged unreasonable if we esteem it better then that of theirs who by false pretending to have been our old would very fain be our new Masters But the mentioned Maxim lets us know that the Persons and Churches that have received the Faith from the Roman-Church or by means thereof should abide under the rule and conduct of it and if departed from it return speedily to due obedience I think it will be easily granted that if we ought to abide under its rule and conduct whither ever it shall please to guide us we ought quickly to return to our duty and task if we should make any loapment from it It is not meet that those that are born Mules to bondage should ever alter their condition Only we must profess we know not the Springs of that unhappy Fate which should render us such Animals Unto what is here pretended I only ask Whether this right of Presidency and Rule in the Roman-Church over all persons and Churches pretended of old to be converted by her means do belong unto her by vertue of any general right that those who convert others should for ever have the conduct of those converted by them or by vertue of some special Priviledge granted to the Church of Rome above others If the first or general Title be insisted on it is most certain that a very small pittance of Jurisdiction will be left unto the Roman-See in comparison of that vast Empire which now it hath or layeth claim unto knowing no bounds but those of the Universal Nature of things here below For all men know that the Gospel was preached in very many places of the World before its sound reached unto Rome and in most parts of the then-known World before any such planting of a Church at Rome as might be the foundation of any Authoritative Mission of any from thence for the Conversion of others and after that a Church was planted in that City for any thing that may be made to appear by Story it was as to the first Edition of Christianity in the Roman-Empire as little serviceable in the Propagation of the Gospel as any other Church of name in the World so that if such Principles should be pleaded as of general equity there could be nothing fixed on more destructive to the Romanist's pretences If they have any special Priviledge to found this claim upon they may do well to produce it In the Scripture though there be of many Believers yet there is no mention made of any Church at Rome but only of that little Assembly that used to meet at Aquila's house Rom. 16.5 Of any such Priviledge annexed unto that meeting we find nothing The first general Council confirming Power and Rule over others in some Churches acknowledge indeed more to have been practised in the Roman-Church then I know how they could prove to be due unto it But yet that very unwarrantable Grant is utterly destructive to the present claim and condition of the Pope and Church of Rome The wings now pretended to be like those of the Sun extending themselves at once to the ends of the Earth were then accounted no longer then to be able to cover the poor Believers in the City and Suburbs of it and some few adjacent Towns and Villages It would be a long Story to tell the Progress of this claim in after-times it is sufficiently done in some of those Books of which our Author says there are enough to fill the Tower of London where I presume or into the fire he could be contented they should be for ever disposed of and therefore we may dismiss this Principle also III. That which is the main Piller bearing the weight of all this fine Fabrick is the Principle we mentioned in the third place viz. That the Roman Profession of Religion and Practise in the Worship of God are every way the same as when we first received the Gospel from the Pope nor can they ever otherwise be This is taken for granted by our Author throughout his Discourse And the Truth is that if a man hath a mind to suppose and make use of things that are in question between him and his Adversary it were a folly not to presume on so much as should assuredly serve his turn To what purpose is it
to mince the matter and give opportunity to new cavils and exceptions by babyâ—meâ—â—y-mouthed Petitions of some small things that there is a strife abouâ— when a man may as honestly all 〈◊〉 once suppose the whole Truth of his side and proceed without fear of disturbance And so wisely deals our Author in this business That which ought to have been his whole work he takes for granted to be already done If this be granted him he is safe deny it and all his fine Oration dwindles into a little sapless Sophistry But he must get the great number of Books that he seems to be troubled with out of the World and the Scripture to boot before he will perswade considerate and unprejudiced men that there is a word of Truth in this Supposition That we in these Nations received not the Gospel originally from the Pope which pag. 354. our Author tells us is his purely his whereas we thought before it had been Christ's hath been declared and shall if need be be further evinced But let us suppose once again that we did so yet we constantly deny the Church of Rome to be the same in Doctrine Worship and Discipline that she was when it is pretended that by her means we were instituted in the knowledge of Truth Our Author knows full well what a facile work I have now lying in view what an easie thing it were to go over most of the Opinions of the present Church of Rome and most if not all their practises in Worship and to manifest their vast distance from the Doctrine Practise and Principles of that Church of old But though this were really a more serious work and more useful and much more accommodated to the nature of the whole difference between us more easie and pleasant to my self then the persuit of this odd rambling chase that by following of him I am engaged in yet lest he should pretend that this would be a division into common places such as he hath purposely avoided and that not unwisely that he might â—â—ve advantage all along to take for graâ—â—â—d that which he knew to be principally in question between us I shall dismiss that business and only attend unto that great proof of this Assertion which himself thought meet to shut up his Book withall as that which was fit to pin down the Basket and to keep close and safe all the long Bill'd Birds that he hoped to Lime-twig by his preceding Rhetorick and Sophistry It is in pag. 362 363. Though I hope I am not contentious nor have any other hatred against Popery then what becomes an honest man to have against that which he is perswaded to be so ill as Popery must needs be if it be ill at all yet upon his request I have seriously pondered his Queries a captious way of disputing and falling now in my way do return him this answer unto them 1. The Supposition on which all his ensuing Queries are founded must be rightly stated its termes freed from ambiguity and the whole from equivocation which a word or two unto first the Subject and then secondly the Predicate of the Proposition or what is attributed unto the Subject spoken of and thirdly the proof of the whole will suffice to do The Thesis laid down is this The Church of Rome was once a most pure excellent flourishing and mother Church This good St. Paul amply testifies in his Epistle to them and is acknowledged by Protestants The Subject is the Church of Rome And this may be taken either for the Church that was founded in Rome in the Apostles dayes consisting of Believers with those that had their rule and oversight in the Lord or it may be taken for the Church of Rome in the sense of latter Ages consisting of the Pope its Head and Cardinals principal members with all the Jurisdiction dependent on them and way of Worship established by them and their Authority or that collection of men throughout the world that yield obedience to the Pope in their several places and subordinations according to the Rules by him and his Authority given unto them That which is attributed to this Church is that it was once a most pure excellent flourishing and Mother-Church all it seems in the superlative degree I will not contend about the purity excellency or flourishing of that Church the boasting of the superlativeness of that purity and excellency seems to be borrowed from that of Revel 3.15 But we shall not exagitate that in that Church which it would never have affirmed of it self because it is fallen out to be the interest of some men in these latter dayes to talk at such a rate as primitive humility was an utter stranger unto I somewhat guess at what he means by a Mother-Church for though the Scripture knows no such thing but only appropriates that Title to Hierusalem that was above which is said to be the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 which I suppose is not Rome and I also think that no man can have two Mothers nor did purer Antiquity ever dream of any such Mother yet the vogue of latter dayes hath made this expression not only passable in the world but sacred and unquestionable I shall only say that in the sense wherein it is by some understood the old Roman Church could lay no more claim unto it then most other Churches in the world and not so good as some others could The proof of this Assertion lies first on the Testimony of St. Paul and then on the acknowledgement of Protestants First Good St. Paul he says amply testifies this in his Epistle to the Romans This what I pray That the then Roman Church was a Mother Church not a word in all the Epistle of any such matter Nay as I observed before thogh he greatly commends the faith and holiness of many Believers Jews and Gentiles that were at Rome yet he makes mention of no Church there but only of a little Assembly that used to meet at Aquila's house nor doth St. Paul give any Testimony at all to the Roman Church in the latter sense of that expression Is there any thing in his Epistle of the Pope Cardinals Patriarchs c any thing of their power and rule over other Churches or Christians not living at Rome Is there any one word in that Epistle about that which the Papists make the principal ingredient in their definition of the Church namely subjection to the Pope What then is the This that good St. Paul so amply testifies unto in his Epistle to the Romans Why this and this only that when he wrote this Epistle to Rome there were then living in that City sundry good and holy men believing in Christ Jesus according to the Gospel and making profession of the faith that is in him but that these men should live there to the end of the world he says not nor do we find that they do The acknowledgement of Protestants is next to as little
c. THe Title of this Chapter was proposed the persuit of it now ensues The first Paragraph is a declamation about sundry things which have not much blame-worthy in them Their common weakness is that they are common They tend not to the furtherance of any one thing more then another but are such as any Party may flourish withal and use to their several ends as they please That desire of honour and applause in the world hath influenced the minds of men to great and strange Undertakings is certain That it should do so is not certain nor true so that when we treat of Religion if we renounce not the Fundamental Principle of it in Self-denyal this consideration ought to have no place What then was done by Emperours and Philosophers of old or by the later School-men on this account we are little concerned in Nor have I either desire or design to vellicate any thing spoken by our Author that may have an indifferent interpretation put upon it and be separated from the end which he principally persues As there is but very little spoken in this Paragraph directly tending to the whole end aimed at so there are but three things that will any way serve to leaven the mind of his Reader that he may be prepared to be moulded into the form he hath fancyed to cast him into which is the work of all these previous Harangues The first is his inâ—â—nuation That the Reformation of Religion is a thing pretended by aemulous Plebeians not able to hope for that Supervisorship in Religion which they see intrusted with others How unserviceable this is unto his Design as applyed to the Church of England all men know for setting aside the consideration of the influence of Soveraign Royal Authority the first Reformers amongst us were persons who as they enjoyed the right of Reputation for the Excellencies of Learning and Wisdom so also were they fixed in those places and conditions in the Church which no Reformation could possibly advance them above and the attempt whereof cost them not only their dignities but their lives also Neither were Hezekiah Josiah or Ezra of old aemulous plebeians whose lasting glory and renown arose from their Reformation of Religion They who fancy men in all great undertakings to be steered by desire of applause and honour are exceeding incompetent judges of those actions which zeal for the glory of God love to the Truth sense of their duty to the Lord Jesus Christ and compassion for the souls of others do lead men unto and guide them in and such will the last Day manifest the Reformation traduced to have been The Second is a gallant commendâ—tion of the Ingenuity Charity Candor and sublime Science of the School-men I confess they have deserved good words at his hands These are the men who out of a mixture of Philosophy Traditions and Scriptureâ— all corrupted and perverted have hammâ—â—ed that faith which was afterwards confirmed under so many Anathemaes at Trent So that upon the matter he is beholden to them for his Religion which I find he loves and hath therefore reason to be thankful to its Contrivers For my part I am as far from envying them their commendation as I have reason to be which I am sure is far enough But yet before we admit this Testimony hand over head I could wish he would take a course to stop the mouths of some of his own Church and those no small ones neither who have declared them to the world to be a pack of egregious Sophisters neither good Philosophers nor any Divines at all men who seem not to have had the least reverence of God nor much regard to the Truth in any of their Disputations but weâ—â— wholly influenced by a vain Reputation of Subtility desire of Conquest of leading and denominating Parties and that in a Barbarous Science barbarously expressed untill they had driven all Learning and Divinity almost out of the World But I will not contend about these Fathers of Contention let every man esteem of them as he seems good There is the same respect in that bitter reflection which he makes on those who have managed differences in Religion in this last Age the Third thing observable That they are the Writers and Writings that have been published against the Papacy which he intends he doth more than intimate Their Disputes he rells us are managed with so much unseemly behaviour such unmanerly expressions that discreet sobriety cannot but loath and abhor to read them with very much more to this purpose I shall not much labour to perswade men not to believe what he sayes in this matter for I know full well that he believes it not himself He hath seen too many Protestant Books I suppose to think this Cenâ—â—re will suit them all This was meet to be spoken for the advantage of the Catholick cause for what there hath been of real offence in this kind amongst us we may say Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extra Romanists are Sinners as well as others And I suppose himself knows That the Reviling and Defamations used by some of his Party are not to be paralleld in any Writings of man-kind at this day extant About the Appellatioâ—s he shall think meet to make use of in reference to the Persons at variance we will not contend with him Only I desire to let him know That the reproach of Galilean from the Pagans which he appropriates to the Papists was worn out of the World before that Popery which he pleads for came into it As Roman-Catholicks never tasted of the sufferings wherewith that Reproach was attended so they have no special right to the honour that is in its remembrance As to the sport he is pleased to make with his Countrey-men in the close of this Paragraph about losing their wits in Religious contests with the evils thence ensuing I shall no further reflect upon but once more to mind the Reader that the many words he is pleased to use in the exaggerating the evils of mannaging differences in Religion with animosities and tumults so seemingly to perswade men to moderation and peace I shall wholly pass by as having discovered that that is not his business nor consequently at present mine It is well observed by him in his second Paragraph that most of the great Contests in the world about perishing things proceed from the unmortified lusts of men The Scripture abounds in Testimonies given hereunto St. James expresly From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight and warr yet you have not chap. 4.1 2. Mens lusts put them on endless irregularities in unbounded desires and foolish sinful enterprizes for their satisfaction Neither is Satan the old Enemy of the well-fare of mankind wanting to excite provoke and stir up these lusts by mixing himself
Truth our Reason supposes all that it hath to do is but to judge of what is proposed to it according to the best Principles that it hath which is all that God in that kind requires of us unless in that work wherein he intends to make us more then men that is Christians he would have us make our selves less then Men even as Brutes That in our whole obedience to God we are to use our Reason Protestants say indeed and moreover that what is not done reasonably is not Obedience The Scripture is the Rule of all our Obedience Grace the Principle enabling us to perform it but the manner of its performance must be Rational or it is not the supposition of Rule or Principle that will render any act of a man Obedience Religion say Protestants is revealed in the Scripture proposed to the minds and wills of men for its entertainment by the Ministry of the Church Grace to Believe and Obey is supernaturally from God but as to the Proposals of Religion from Scripture they averre that men ought to admit and receive them as men that is judge of the sense and meaning of them discover their truth and finding them revealed acquiesce in the Authority of him by whom they are first revealed So far as men in any things of their concernments that have a moral good or evil in them do refuse in the choice or refusal of them to exercise that judging and discerning which is the proper work of Reason they un-Man themselves and invert the order of Nature dethroning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Soul and causing it to follow the faculties that have no light but what they receive by and from it It 's true all our carnal reasonings against Scripture-Mysteries are to be captivated to the Obedience of Faith and this is highly reasonable making only the less particular defective collections of reason give place to the more noble general and universal principles of it Nor is the denying of our reason any where required as to the sense and meaning of the words of the Scripture but as to the things and matter signified by them The former Reason must judge of if we are men the latter if in conjunction with unbelief and carnal lusts it tumultuate against it is to be subdued to the Obedience of Faith All that Protestants in the business of Religion ascribe unto men is but this that in the business of Religion they are and ought to be men that is judge of the sense and truth of what is spoken to them according to that Rule which they have received for the measure and guide of their Understandings in these things If this may not be allowed you may make a Herd of them but a Church never Let us now consider what is offered in this Section about Reason wherein the concernment of any Protestants may lye As the matter is stated about any one's setting up himself to be a new and extraordinary Director unto men in Religion upon the account of the irrefutable Reason he brings along with him which is the spring and sourse of that Religion which he tenders unto them I very much question Whether any instance can be given of any such thing from the foundation of the World Men have so set up indeed sometimes as that Good Catholick Vanine did not long since in France to draw men from all Religions but to give a new Religion unto men that this pretension was ever solely made use of I much question As true Religion came by Inspiration from God so all Authors of that which is false have pretended to Revelation Such were the pretensions of Minos Lycurgus and Nunia of old of Mahomet of late and generally of the first Founders of Religious Orders in the Roman-Church all in imitation of real Divine Revelation and in answer to indelible impressions on the minds of all men that Religion must come from God To what purpose then the first part of his Discourse about the coyning of Religion from Reason or the framing of Religion by Reason is I know not unless it be to cast a Blind before his unwary Reader whilest he steals away from him his Treasure that is his Reason as to its use in its proper place Though therefore there be many things spoken unduly and because it must be said untruly also in this first part of his Discourse until toward the end of Pag. 131. which deserve to be animadverted on yet because they are such as no sort of Protestants hath any concernment in I shall pass them over That wherein he seems to reflect any thing upon our Principles is in a supposed reply to what he had before delivered whereunto indeed it hath no respect or relation being the assertion of a Principle utterly distant from that imaginary one which he had timely set up and stoutly cast down before It is this That we must take the words from Christ and his Gospel but the proper sense which the words of themselves cannot carry with them our own reason must make out If it be the Doctrine of Protestants which he intendeth in these words it 's most disadvantagiously and uncandidly represented which becomes not an ingenious and learned person This is that which Protestants affirm Religion is Revealed in the Scripture that Revelation is delivered and contained in Propositions of Truth Of the sense of those words that carry their sense with them Reason judgeth and must do so or we are Brutes and that every ones Reason so farr as his concernment lies in what is proposed to him Neither doth this at all exclude the Ministry or Authority of the Church both which are entrusted with it by Christ to propose the Rules contained in his Word unto Rational Creatures that they may understand believe love and obey them To cast out this use of Reason with pretence of an antient sense of the words which yet we know they have not about them is as vain as any thing in this Section and that is vain enough If any such antient sense can be made out or produced that is a meaning of any Text that was known to be so from their Explication who gave that Text it is by reason to acquiesced in Neither is this to be make a man a Bishop much less a chief Bishop to himself I never heard that it was the office of a Bishop to know believe or understand for any man but for himself It is his Office indeed to instruct and teach men but they are to learn and understand for themselves and so to use their Reason in their Learning Nor doth the variableness of mens thoughts and reasonings inferr any variableness in Religion to follow whose stability and sameness depends on its first Revelation not our manner of Reception Nor doth any thing asserted by Protestants about the use of Reason in the business of Religion interfere with the rule of the Apostle about captivating our Understandings to the
Obedience of Faith much less to his assertion That Christians walk by Faith and not by Sight seeing that without it we can do neither the one nor the other For I can neither submit to the truth of things to be believed nor live upon them or according unto them unless I understand the Propositions wherein they are expressed which is the work we assign to Reason For those who would resolve their Faith into Reason we confess that they overthrow not only Faith but Reason it self there being nothing more irrational than that belief should be the product of Reason being properly an assent resolved into Authority which if Divine is so also I shall then desire no more of our Author nor his Readers as to this Section but only this that they would believe that no Protestant is at all concerned in it and so I shall not further interpose as to any contentment they may find in its review or perusal CHAP. IX Jews Objections THe title of this Third Chapter is that No Religion or Sect or Way hath any advantage over another nor all of them over Popery To this we excepted before in general that that way which hath the truth with it hath in that wherein it hath the truth the advantage against all others Truth turns the scales in this business wherever and with whomsoever be found and if it lie in any way distant from Popery it gives all the advantage against it that need be desired And with this only enquiry With whom the Truth abides is this disquisition What wayes in Religion have advantage against others to be resolved But this course and procedure for some reasons which he knows and we may easily guess at our Author liked not and it it is now too late for us to walk in any path but what he has trodden before us though it seem rather a maze then a way for Travellers to walk in that would all pass on in their Journey His first Section is entituled Light and Spirit the pretence whereof he treats after his manner and cashiers from giving any such advantage as is inquired after But neither yet are we arrived to any concernment of Protestants That which they plead as their advantage is not the empty names of Light and Spirit but the truth of Christ revealed in the Scripture I know there are not a few who have impertinently used these good words and Scripture-expressions which yet ought no more to be scoffed at by others then abused by them But that any have made the plea here pretended as to their settlement in Religion I know not The truth is if they have it is no other upon the matter but what our Author cals them unto to a naked Credo he would reduce them and that differs only from what seems to be the mind of them that plead Light and Spirit that he would have them resolve their faith irrationally into the Authority of the Church they pretend to do it into the Scripture But what he aimes to bring men unto he justifies from the examples of Christians in antient times who had to deal with Jews and Pagans whose disputes were rational and weighty and pusled the wisest of the Clergy to answer So that after all their ratiocination ended whether it sufficed or no they still concluded with this one word Credo which in Logick and Philosophy was a weak answer but in Religion the best and only one to be made What could be spoken more untruely more contumeliously or more to the reproach of Christian Religion I cannot imagine It 's true indeed that as to the resolution satisfaction and settlement of their own souls Christians alwayes built their faith and resolved it into the Authority o◠God in his word but that they opposed their naked Credo to the disputes of Jews or Pagans or rested in that for a solution of their objections is heavenly-wide as far from truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I wonder any man who hath ever seen or almost heard of the Disputes and Discourses of Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Theophilus Antiochenus Athenagoras Tertullian Lactantius Chrysostom Austin Theodoret and innumerable others proving the faith of the Christian Religion against the Jews from Scripture and the reasonableness of it against the Pagans with the folly and foppery of theirs could on any account be induced to cast out such a reproach against them But it seems Jacta est alea and we must go on and therefore to carry on the design of bringing us all to a naked Credo resolv'd into the Authority of the present Church a thing never heard of spoken of nor that it appears dreamed of by any of the ancient Christians The objections of the Jews against the Christian Religion are brought on the stage and an enquiry made how they can be satisfactorily answered His words are Pag. 142. In any age of the Christian-Church a Jew might say thus to the Christians then living Your Lord and Master was born a Jew and under the jurisdiction of the High Priests these he opposed and taught a Religion contrary to Moses otherwise how comes there to be a faction but how could he justly do it no humane Power is of force against God's who spak◠as you also grant by Moses and the Prophets and Divine Power it could not be for God is not contrary to himself And although your Lord might say as indeed he did that Moses spake of him as of a Prophet to come greater then himself yet Who shall judge that such a thing was meant of his person For suice that Prophet is neither specifyed by his name nor characteristical properties well said Jew who could say it was he more then any other to come And if there were a greater to come then Moses were surely born a Jew he would being come into the world rather exalt that Law to more ample glory then diminish it And if you will further contest that such a Prophet was to abrogate the first Law and bring in a new one Who shall judge in this case the whole Church of the Hebrews who never dreamed of any such thing or one member thereof who was born a subject to their judgments This saith he is the great Occumenical difficulty and he that in any age of Christianity could either answer it or find any bulwark to set against it so that it should do no harm would easily either salve or prevent all other difficulties c. The difficulty as is evident lay in this That the Authority and Judgment of the whole Church of the Hebrews lay against Christ and the Gospel That Church when Christ conversed on earth was a true Church of God the only Church on earth and had been so for 2000 years without interruption in its self without competition from any other It had its High Priest confessedly instituted by God himself in an orderly succession to those dayes The interpretation of Scripture it pretended was trusted with
Author are thoroughly canvassed Doth he not throughout his whole Disputation prove out of the Scriptures and them alone that Jesus was the Christ and his Doctrine agreeable unto them Is any such thing pleaded by Origen Tertullian Chrysostom or any one that had to deal with the Jews Do they not wholly persist in the way traced for them by Paul Peter and Apollos mightily convincing the Jews out of Scripture Let him consult their Answers he will not find them such poor empty jejune Discourses as that he supposes they might make use of pag. 148. and to the proofs whereof by Texts of Scripture he sayes the Rabbies could answer by another Interpretation of them He will find another Spirit breathing in their Writings another efficacy in their Arguments and other evidence in their Testimonies than it seems he is acquainted with and such as all the Rabbies in the World are not able to withstand And I know full well that these insinuations that Christians are not able justifiably to convince confute and stop the mouths of Jews from the Scripture would have been abhorred as the highest piece of blasphemy by the whole antient Church of Christ and it is meet it should be so still by all Christians Is there no way left to deny pretences of Light and Spirit but by proclaiming to the great scandal of Christianity that we cannot answer the Exceptions of Jews unto the Person and Doctrine of our Saviour out of the Scriptures And hath Rome need of these bold Sallyes against the vitals of Religion Is she no other way capable of a defence Better she perished 10000 times than that any such reproach should be justly cast on the Lord Jesus Christ and his Gospel But whatever our Author thinks of himself I have very good ground to conjecture that he hath very little acquaintance with Judaical Antiquity Learning or Arguments nor very much with the Scripture and may possibly deserve on that account some excuse if he thought those Exceptions insoluble which more learned men than himself know how to answer and remove without any considerable trouble This difficulty was fixed on by our Author that upon it there might be stated a certain retreat and assured way of establishment against al of the like nature This he assigns to be the Authority of the present Church Protestants the Scripture wherein as to the instance chosen out as most pressing we have the concurrent suffrage of Christ his Apostles and all the antient Christians so that we need not any further to consider the pretended pleas of Light and Spirit which he hath made use of as the Orator desired his Dialogist would have insisted on the Stories of Cerberus and Cocytus that he might have shewed his skill and activity in their Confutation For what he begs in the way as to the constitution of St. Peter and his Successors in the Rule of the Church as he produceth no other proof for it but that doughty one that It must needs be so so if it were granted him he may easily perceive by the Instance of the Judaical Church that himself thought good to insist upon that it will not avail him in his plea against the final resolution of our Faith into the Scripture as its senses are proposed by the Ministry of the Church and rationally conceived or understood CHAP. X. Protestant Pleas. HIs Sect. 13. p. 155. entituled Independent and Presbyterians Pleas is a merry one The whole design of it seems to be to make himself and others sport with the miscarriages of men in and about Religion Whether it be a good work or no that day that is coming will discover The Independents he divides into two parts Quakers and Anabaptists Quakers he begins withal and longest insists upon being as he saith well read in their Books and acquainted with their persons some commendation he gives them so farr as it may serve to the disparagement of others and then falls into a fit of Quaking so expresly imitating them in their Discourses that I fear he will confirm some in their surmises that such as he both set them on work and afterwards assisted them in it For my part having undertaken only the defence of Protestancy and Protestants I am altogether inconcerned in the entertainment he hath provided for his Readers in this personating of a Quaker which he hath better done and kept a better decorum in than in his personating of a Protestant a thing in the beginning of his Discourse he pretended unto The Anabaptists as farr as I can perceive he had not medled with unless it had been to get an advantage of venting his pretty Answer to an Argument against Infant-Baptism but the truth is if the Anabaptists had no other Objections against Infant-Baptism nor Protestants no better Answers to their Objections then what are mentioned here by our Author it were no great matter what become of the Controversie but it is Merriment not Disputation that he is designing and I shall leave him to the solace of his own fancies No otherwise in the next place doth he deal with the Presbyterians in personating of whom he pours out a long senseless rapsody of words many insignificant expressions vehement exclamations and uncouth terms such as to do them right I never heard uttered by them in preaching though I have heard many of them nor read written by them though I suppose I have perused at least as many of their Books as our Author hath done of the Quakers Any one with half an Eye may see what it is which galls the man and his Party which whether he hath done wisely to discover his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will inform him that is the Preaching of all sorts of Protestants that he declares himself to be most perplexed with and therefore most labours to expose it to reproach and obloquy And herein he deals with us as in many of their Stories their Demoniacks do with their Exorcists discover which Relick or which Saints name or other Engine in that bufle most afflicts them that so they may be paid more to the purpose Somewhat we may learn from hence Fas est ab hoste doceri But he will make the Presbyterians amends for all the scorn he endeavours to expose them to by affirming when he hath assigned a senseless Harangue of words unto them that the Protestants are not able to answer their Objections Certainly if the Presbyterians are such pitiful souls as not to be able any beter to defend their cause than they are represented by him here to do those Protestants are beneath all consideration who are not able to deal and grapple with them And this is as it should be Roman-Catholicks are wise learned holy angelical seraphical persons all others ignorant dolts that can scarse say Boe to a Goose. These things considered in themselves are unserious trifles but seria ducunt We shall see presently whither all this lurry tends for the sting of this whole Discourseis
fixed in the Scripture Of the same importance is the next Section pag. 170. Entituled Protestants Pro and Con wherin the differences that are amongst many in these Nations are notably exagitated I presume in the intention of his mind upon his present design he forgot that by a new change of Name the same things may be uttered the same words used of and concerning Christians in general ever since almost that name was known in the world Was there any thing more frequent among the Pagans of old than to object to Christians their Differences and endless Disputes I wish our Author would but consider that which remains of the Discourse of Celsus on this Subject particularly his charge on them that at their beginnings and whilst they were few they agreed well enough but after they encreased and were dispersed into several Nations they were every where at variance among themselves whereas all sorts of men were at peace before their pretended Reformation of the Worship of God and he will find in it the sum of this and the four following Sections to the end of this Chapter And if he will but add so much to his pains as to peruse the excellent Answers of Origen in his third Book he will if not be perswaded to desist from urging the objections of Celsus yet discern what is expected from him to reply unto if he persist in his way But if we may suppose that he hath not that respect for the honour of the first Christians methinkes the intestine irreconcileable brauls of his own Mothers children should somewhat allay his heat and confidence in charging endless differences upon Protestants of whom only I speak Yea but you will say They have a certain means of ending their Controversies Protestants have none And have they so the more shame for them to trouble themselves and others from one generation unto another with Disputes and Controversies that have such a ready way to end them when they please and Protestants are the more to be pittied who perhaps are ready some of them at least as farr as they are able to live at Peace But why have not Protestants a sure and safe way to issue all their differences Why Because every one is Judge himself and they have no Umpire in whose decision they are bound to acquiesce I pray Who told you so Is it not the Fundamental Principle of Protestantism that the Scripture determines all things necessary unto Faith and Obedience and that in that determination ought all men to acquiess I know few Roman-Catholicks have the prudence or the patience to understand what Protestancy is And certain it is that those who take up their knowledge of it from the Discourses and Writings of such Gentlemen as our Author know very little of it if any thing at all And those who do at any time get leave to read the books of Protestants seem to be so filled with prejudices against them and to be so byassed by corrupt affections that they seldom come to a true apprehension of their meanings for who so blind as he that will not see Protestants tell them that the Scripture contains all things necessary to be believed and practised in the Worship of God and those proposed with that perspicuity and clearness which became the wisdom of it's Author who intended to instruct men by it in the knowledge of them and in this Word and Rule say they are all men to rest and acquiess But sayes our Author why then do they not do so why are they at such fewds and differences amongst themselves Is this in truth his business Is it Protestants he blames and not Protestancy mens miscarriages and not their Rule 's imperfection If it be so I crave his pardon for having troubled him thus farr To defend Protestants for not answering the Principles of their Profession is a task too hard for me to undertake nor do I at all like the business let him lay on blame stil until I say Hold. It may be we shall grow wiser by his reviling as Monica was cured of her intemperance by the reproach of a Servant But I would fain prevail with these Gentlemen for their own sakes Not to cast that blame which is due to us upon the holy and perfect Word of God We do not say nor ever did that who ever acknowledgeth the Scripture to be a perfect Rule must upon necessity understand perfectly all that is contained in it that he is presently freed from all darkness prejudices corrupt affections and enabled to judge perfectly and infallibly of every truth contained in it or deduced from it These causes of our differences belong to individual persons not to our common Rule And if because no men are absolutely perfect and some are very perverse and froward we should throw away our Rule the blessed Word of God and run to the Pope for rule and guidance it is all one as if at noon-day because some are blind and miss their way and some are drunk and stagger out of it and others are variously entised to leave it we should all conspire to wish the Sun out of the Firmament that we might follow a Will with a Wisp I know not what in general needs to be added further to this Section The mistake of it is palpable some particular passages may be remarked in it before we proceed pag. 173. he Pronounceth an heavy doom on the Prelate Protestants making them Prevaricators Impostors Reprobates an hard sentence but that it is hoped it will prove like the flying Bird and Curse causeless But what is the matter Why in dealing with the Presbyterians They are forced to make use of those Popish Principles which themselves at first rejected and so building them up again by the Apostles rule deserve no better terms But what I pray are they why the difference betwixt Clergy and Laity the efficacy of Episcopal Ordination and the Authority of a visible Church unto which all men are to obey There are but two things our Author needs to prove to make good his charge First that these are Popish Principles Secondly That as such they were at any time cast down and destroyed by Prelate-Protestants I fear his mind was gone a little astray or that he had been lately among the Quakers when he hammered this charge against Prelate Protestants For as these have been their constant Principles ever since the beginning of the Reformation so they have as constantly maintained that in their true and proper sense they are not Popish Nor is the difference about these things between any Protestants what-ever any more then verbal For those terms of Clergy and Laity because they had been abused in the Papacy though antiently used some have objected against them but for the things signified by them namely that in the Church there are some Teachers some to be taught Bishops and Flocks Pastors and People no Protestant ever questioned Our Author then doth but cut out work
be made a Topick for these ends and purposes that is that indeed that is of no use in Religion The trouble and comfort of it are by a due mixture so allaid as to their proper qualities that they can have no operation upon the minds of men to sway them one way or other Had some of our Forefathers been so far illuminated all things had not been at the state wherein they are at this day in the Papacy but it may be much more is not to be expected from it and therefore it may now otherwise be treated than it was yerst-while when it was made the sum and substance of Religion However the time will come when this Platonical Signet that hath no colour from Scripture but is opposite to the clear testimonies of it repugnant to the grace truth and mercy of God destructive to the mediation of Christ useless to the souls of men serving only to beget false fears in some few but desperate presumptions from the thoughts of an after-reserve and second venture after this life is ended in the most abused to innumerable other Superstitions utterly unknown to the first Churches and the Orthodox Bishops of them having by various means and degrees crept into the Roman-Church which shall be laid open if called for shall be utterly exterminated out of the confines and limits of the Church of God In the mean time I heartily beg of our Romanists that they would no more endeavour to cast men into real scorching consuming fire for refusing to believe that which is only imaginary and phantastical CHAP. XXII Pope SECT 29. IT is not because the Pope is forgotten all this while that he is there placed in the rear after Images Saints and Purgatory It is plain that he hath been born in mind all along yea and so much mentioned that a man would wonder how he comes to have a special Paragraph here alloted to him The whole book seems to be all-Pope from the very beginning as to the main design of it and now to meet Pope by himself again in the end is somewhat unexpected But I suppose our Author thinks he can never say enough of him Therefore lest any thing fit to be insisted on should have escaped him in his former discourses he hath designed this Section to gather up the Paralipomena or ornaments he had forgotten before to set him forth withall And indeed if the Pope be the man he talks of in this Section I must acknowledge he hath had much wrong done him in the world He is one it seems that we are beholding unto for all we have that is worth any thing particularly for the Gospel which was originally from him for Kingly Authority and his Crown land with all the honour and power in the Kingdom One that we had not had any thing left us at this day either of Truth or Unity humanely speaking had not he been set over us One in whom Christ hath no lesse shewen his Divinity and Power than in himself in whom he is more miraculous then he was in his own person One that by the only Authority of his place and person defended Christ's being God against all the world without which humanely speaking Christ had not been taken for any such person as he is believed this day So as not only we but Christ himself is beholding to him that any body believes him to be God Now truly if things stand thus with him I think it is hightime for us to leave our Protestancy and to betake our selves to the Irish mans Creed That if Christ had not been Christ when he was Christ St. Patrick the Pope would have been Christ. Nay as he is having the hard fate to come into the World so many ages after the Ascension of Christ into heaven I know not what is left for Christ to be or do The Scripture tells us that the Gospel is Christ's originally from him now we are told It is the Popes originally from him That informes us that by Him the wisdom of God Kings Reign and Princes execute Judgement now we are taught That Kingly Authority with his Crown-land is from the Pope That instructs us to expect the preservation of Faith and Truth in the world from Christ alone the establishment of his Throne and Kingdom for ever and ever His building guidance and protection of his Church but we are now taught that for all these things we are beholding to the Pope who by his only Authority keeps up the faith of the Deity of Christ who surely is much ingaged to him that he takes it not to himself Besides what he is for our better information that we may judge aright concerning him we may consider also what he doth and hath been doing it seems a long time He is one that hath never been known to let fall the least word of passion against any nor move any engine for revenge one whose whole life and study is to defend innocence c. That by his general Councels all held under and by him especially that of Nice hath done more good than can be expressed Careful and more than humanely happy in all ages in reconciling Christian Princes c. One who let men talk what they will if he be not an unerring guide in matters of Religion and Faith all is lost But how shall we come to know and be assured of all this Other men as our Author knows and complains speak other things of him Is it meet that in so doubtful and questionable a business and of so great importance to be known we should believe a stranger upon his word and that against the vehement affirmations at least of so many to the contrary The Scripture speaks never a word that we can find of him nor once mentions him at all The antient Stories of the Church are utterly silent of him as for any such person as he is here described speaking of the Bishop of Rome as of other Bishops in those dayes many of the Stories of after-ages give us quite another Character of him both as to his personal qualifications and imployment I mean of the greatest part of the series of men going under that name In stead of Peace-making and Reconciliation they tell us of fierce and cruel warrs stirred up and mannaged by them of the ruine of Kings and Kingdoms by their means and instead of the meekness pretended their breathing out threatnings against men that adore them not persecuting them with Fire and Sword to the utter depopulation of some Countreys and the defiling of the most of Europe with bloudy cruelties What course shall we take in the contest of assertions that we may be able to make a right Judgment concerning him I know no better than this a little to examine apart the particulars of his Excellency as they are given us by our Author especially the most eminent of them and weigh whether they are given in according to truth or no. The first that
and Spring of all the false Worship Superstition and Idolatry wherewith the faces of many Churches are defiled To suppose he can perswade theÌ„ to any better respect of him than they have by telling them how fine a gallant Gentleman he is and what a great way off from them and the like stories is to suppose that he is to deal with fools and Children For my own part I approve no man's cursing or reviling of him let that work be left to himself alone for me I desire men would pray for him that God would convert him and all his other enemies to the truth of the Gospel and in the mean time to deliver all his from their policy rage and fury We may easily gather what is to be thought of the other encomiums given to him by our Author by what hath been observed concerning those we have passed through as that his whole life and study is to defend innocency c. It must needs be granted that he hath taken some little time to provide for himself in the world he had surely never arrived else to that degree of excellency as to tread on the necks of Emperours to have Kings hold his stirr up to kick off their Crowns to exceed the Rulers of the earth in worldly pomp state and treasures which came not to him by inheritance from St. Peter and whether he hath been such a defender of Innocency and Innocents the day wherein God shall make inquisition for blood will manifest The great work he hath done by his General Councils a summary of which is given us by our Author is next pretended All this was done by him yea all that good that was ever done by General Councils in the world was done by him for they were all his Councils and that which was not his is none I shall only mind our Author of what was said of old unto one talking at that rate that he is pleased here to do Labore alieno magnam partam gloriam Verbis saepe in se transmovet qui habet salem Qui in te est All the glory and renown of the old antient Councils all their labours for the extirpation of heresies and errours and the success that their honest endeavours were blessed withal with the seasoning of one little word his are turned over to the Pope They were his Councils a thing they never once dreamed of nor any mortal man in the dayes wherein they were celebrated Convened they were in the Name and upon the Institution of Christ and so were Hâ—s Councils were called together as to their solemn external Convention by the Emperors of those days and so were not their Councels but Councils held by their Authority as to all the external concernments of them This the Councils themselves did acknowledge and so did the Bishops of Rome in those days when they joyned their Petitions with others unto the Emperors for the convening of them and seldom it was that they could obtain their meetings in any place they desired though they were many of them wise at an after game and turned their remoteness from them into their advantage As they were called by the Emperors so they were composed of Bishops and others with equal suffrages How they come to be the Pope's Councils he himself only knows and those to whom he is pleased to impart this secret of other men not one Indeed some of them may be called his Councils if every thing is his wherein he is any way concerned such was the first Council of Nice as to his pretended Jurisdiction such that of Chalcedon as to his Primacy such were sundry famous Conventions in Asrick wherein his pretentions unto Authority were excluded and his unseemly frauds discovered Nay there is not any thing upon the Roll of Antiquity of greater and more prodigious scandal then the contests of Popes in some African Councils for Authority and Jurisdiction Their claim was such as that the Good Fathers assembled wrote unto them that they would not introduce secular pride and ambition into the Church of Christ and the manner of managing their pretentions was no other but down-right forgery and that of no less then Canons of the first memorable Council of Nicâ— which to discover the honest African Bishops were forced to send to Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch for Authentick Copies of those Canons upon the receipt whereof they mollified the forgery with much Christian sobriety and prudence unto the Bishop of Rome himself and enacted a Decree for the future to prevent his pretentions and claims Besides as the good Bishops averr God himself testified against the irregular interposition of the pretended power of the Bishop of Rome for whilest they being synodically assembled were detained and hindred in their procedure by the Romanists contests for Superiority Apiarius the guilty person being convinced in his conscience of his many notorious evils and crimes from a just censure whereof the Roman Interposition was used to shelter him of his own accord cast himself at the feet of the Assembly confessing all his wickedness and folly Of the six first Councils then there is no more reason to call them the Pope's or to ascribe their atchievments unto him then there is to call them any other Bishop's of any City then famous in the world In that which he calls the seventh General Council indeed a Coventicle of ignorant tumultuous superstitious Iconolaters condemned afterwards by a Council held at Frankfurt by the the Authority of Charles the Great he stickled to some purpose for Images which then began to be his darlings and though we can afford that Council to be His for any concernment we have in it yet the story of it will not allow us to do so it being neither convened nor ruled by his Authority though the brutish Monks in it were willing to shelter themselves under the splendor and lustre of his See About those that follow we will not much contend it matters not whose they were unless they had been better especially such as laid foundations for and stirred up Princes to shed the innocent blood of the Martyrs of Christ to some of their perpetual ignominy reproach and ruin But yet our Author knows or may know what long contests there have been even in latter ages Whether the Council should be the the Pope's Council or the Pope should should be the Council's Pope and how the Pope carried it at last by having more Arch-bishopricks and Bishopricks in his disposal than the Councils had And so much for the Pope's Councils Our Author adds that he hath been more than humanely happy in reconciling Christian Princes but yet I will venture a wager with him that I will give more Instances of his setting Princes together by the ears then he shall of reconciling them and I will manifest that he hath got more by the first work than the latter Let him begin the vye when he pleaseth If I live and God will I will try
there is any Church or any Church Authority but by the Scripture is to speak Daggers and Swords to us upon a confidence that we will suffer our selves to be befooled that we may have the after-pleasure of making others like our selves Of the Translation of the Scripture into vulgar Tongues I shall expresly treat afterwards and therefore here passe it over 3. It s Obscurity is another thing insisted on and highly exaggerated by our Author And this is another thing that I greatly wonder at For as wise as these Gentlemen would be thought to be he that has but half an eye may discern that they consider not with whom they have to do in this matter The Scripture I suppose they will grant to be given by inspiration from God if they deny it we are ready to prove it at any time I suppose also that they will grant That the end why God gave it was that it might be a Revelation of himself so far as it was needful for us to know him and his mind and will so that we may serve him If this were not the end for which God gave his Word unto us I wish they would acquaint us with some other I think it was not that it might be put into a Cabinet and lock'd up in a Chest If this were the end of it then God intended in it to make a Revelation of himself so far as it was necessary we should know of Him and his Mind and Will that we might serve him For that which is any one end of any Thing or Matter That he intends which is the Author of it Now if God intended to make such a Revelation on of Himself his Mind and Will in giving of the Scripture as was said he hath either done it plainly that is without any such Obscurity as should frustrate him of his end or he hath not and that because either he would not or he could not I wish I knew which of these it was that the Roman Catholicks do fix upon it would spare me the labour of speaking to the other But seeing I do not that they may have no evasion I will consider them both If they say It was because he could not make any such plain Discovery and Revelation of himself then this is that they say That God intending to reveal Himself his Mind Will plainly in the Scripture to the sons of men was not able to do it and therefore failed in his Design This works but little to the glory of his Omnipotency and Omnisciency But to let that pass wherein men so they may compass their own ends seem not to be much concerned I desire to know Whether this plain sufficient Revelation of God be made any other way or no If no otherwise then as I confess we are all in the Dark so it is to no purpose to blame the Scripture of Obscurity seeing it is as lightsom as any thing else is or can be If this Revelation be made some other way it must be by God himself or some body else That any other should be supposed in good earnest to do that which God cannot though I know how some Canonists have jested about the Pope I think will not be pleaded If God then hath done this another way I desire to know the true reason why he could not do it this way namely by the Scripture and therefore desisted from his purpose But it may be thought God could make a Revelation of Himself his Mind and Will in and by the Scripture yet he would not do it plainly but Obscurely Let us then see what we mean by plainly in this business We intend not that every Text in Scripture is easie to be understood nor that all the matter of it is easie to be apprehended We know that there are things in it hard to be understood things to exercise the minds of the best and wisest of men unto Diligence and when they have done their utmost unto Reverence But this is that we mean by plainly The whole Will Mind of God with whatever is needful to be known of him is revealed in the Scripture without such Ambiguity or Obscurity as should hinder the Scripture from being a Revelation of him his Mind and Will to the end that we may know him and live unto him To say that God would not do this would not make such a Revelation besides the reflection that it casts on his Goodness and Wisdom is indeed to say that he would not do that which we say he would do The truth is all the Harangues we meet withal about the Obscurity of the Scripture are direct Arraignments of the Wisdom and Goodness of God And if I were worthy to advise my Roman-Catholick-Countreymen I would perswade them to desist from this Enterprize if not in Piety at least in Policy For I can assure them as I think I have done already that all their endeavours for the extenuation of the Worth Excellency Fullness Sufficiency of the Scripture do exceedingly confirm Protestants in the truth of their present perswasion which they see cannot be touched but by such horrible Applications as they detest 4. But yet they say Scripture is not so clear but that it needs interpretation and Protestants have none to interpret it so as to make it a means of ending differences I confess the interpretation of Scripture is a good and necessary work and I know that he who was dead and is alive for ever continues to give gifts unto men according to his Promise to enable them to interpret the Scripture for the edification of his Body the Church If there were none of these Interpreters among the Protestants I wonder whence it is come to pass that his Comments on and interpretations of Scripture who is most hated by Romanists of all the Protestants that ever were in the World are so borrowed and used that I say not stollen by so many of them And that indeed what is praise-worthy in any of their Church in the way of Exposition of Scripture is either borrowed from Protestants or done in imitation of them If I am called on for instances in this kind I shall give them I am perswaded to some mens amazement who are less conversant in these things But we are besides the matter It is of an infallible Interpreter in whâ—se Expositions and Determinations of Scripture-sense all Christians are obliged to acquiesce and such an one you have none I confess we have not if it be such an one as you intend whose Expositions and Interpretations we must acquiesce in not because they are true but because they are his We have infallible Expositions of the Scripture in all necessary Truths as we are assured from the Scripture it self But an infallible Expositor into whose Authority our faith should be resolved besides the Scripture it self we have none Nor do I think they have any at Rome what-ever they talk of to men that were never there nor I