And that there is and always will be such a Family in the Earth is as evident as the Covenant which God made with Abraham when the Church was impaled in his little Family and ten Promise of our Saviour to His That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And therefore they that are and know that they are sincere have no reason to value the Censures of Men. 'T is enough that they seek to please God and that he Knows their Integrity for God is infinitely and if we are sincere he cannot Judge otherwise of us and then we are safe our Reward is sure and will be great in Heaven We need not ask leave of Men to be what we are or stand to their Courtesy to bring us into Favour with him that Judgeth Righteously 'T is enough in all reason That God and our Consciences are Ready to Acquit us 4. Lastly The success of this Tryal should Inspire us with Zeal and Resolution to serve and please God in all instances of Obedience to him There is no Duty too hard for a vigorous and Lively Faith There is none but what the Servants of God have discharged before us And when we reflect upon what our great Examples have done and consider how nobly they have acquitted themselves in the same Race that is set before us why should we not aspire to be as brave and Resolute as they were and to break through the Discouragements which could not hinder them from Running and finishing their Course with Joy Did they Climb over the highest Difficulties And may not we be ashamed to couch under the ordinary hardships in Religion Did they depend upon God when nothing but Miracles could Relieve their hopes in him And shall we distrust his goodness and Protection while we actually enjoy them and he is pleas'd to continue so many Visible Tokens of his Favour and Concernment for us Did they leave their Country at God's Command And shall we think it too much but to leave the Vices of ours which have long threatned to turn us out of Possession of it Again did they stick at nothing to please God not so much as at the Offering of an Only Son And shall we that have Better Promises than they had Refuse him so Reasonable a Service as to offer up our Souls and Bodies in holy Flames of Devotion and Love which is the perfect and indisputable Will of God and therefore must be extreamly acceptable to him 'T is ture That without Faith it is Impossible to please God But sure it is not Impossible to Believe and so by vertue of our Faith to obey and please him For this is the Argument of the whole Discourse in this Chapter which out of the Sacred Annals of the Primitive Church presents us with a Catalogue of many Eminent Believers who became the favourites of God by their Faith and Obedience to him And what is the Natural consequence of this But that we who have the same and in some Respects much greater Advantages than they had should endeavour to shew the same greatness of Mind and Invincible Resolution in Gods Service To Conclude we have an Incomparable Pattern of Faith and Piety in the Text Abraham the Friend of God laying himself at his Foot and his Son upon his Altar in Obedience to his Soveraign Will and Pleasure How much more should we at Gods Command Sacrifice our Darling Lusts that would destroy our Souls since one of the two must dye And this is a Sacrifice much cheaper and no less Acceptable to God than Abrahams Oblation was Micah 6.7 8. More grateful to him than thouthousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl Than if thou gavest thy First-born for thy Transgression the Fruit of thy Body for the sin of thy Soul Offer this as the First fruits of thy Faith without which thy very Prayers will be turned into sin Then shalt thou have favour in the sight of God through the meritorious Sacrifice of his only Son and by walking before him as Abraham did may'st assuredly hope after a short Tryal of thy Faith and Patience in this World to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Faithful in the Kingdom of God Which God of his Infinite Mercy grant we may all do through the Merits and Mediation of his Son Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be Ascribed all Honour and Glory Dominion and Power now and for ever Amen Sermon II. ON The Danger of a Mis-inform'd Conscience or mistaken Principles in Religion Acts 26.9 I verily thought with my self That I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth THESE Words are part of the Confession of an Eminent Convert to the Christian Religion A man of Learning and Zeal and Conscience that had the Benefits of a Religious Education and of great natural Endowments and that made a more than an ordinary figure both in the Jewish and Christian Church In the former he was a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Pharisees A Sect which perhaps till the Days of Ignatius Loyola never had its equal in the World And as the Pharisees of any party among the Jews were known to be the keenest against the Christians so he owns himself to have been as errant a Pharisee as hearty and as eager a Persecutor as any of his Order ver 10.11 He was the Man by his own Confession that shut up many of the Saints in Prison and when they were put to Death for their Religion he gave his Voice against them Others he Punisht often in the Synagogues and compell'd them to Blaspheme i.e. to Renounce their Faith in Christ Plin. Ep. Tra. de Christian and to Curse him Using the same Cruelty towards them which the Heathen Governours afterwards did and those that refused this horrid Treachery to their Lord he Persecuted into strange that is Heathen Cities These things were contracy in deed and one would think should be always so esteem'd to the Name of Jesus But there is one thing in St. Pauls Confession which appears to be stranger than all this And that is that it was his Judgment and Conscience that made him thus severe to the Christians and his Zeal to God and Religion that rais'd the Persecution against them It was it seems the prevailing sense of his Mind a Case he had determined within himself that he ought to run down the Religion of Jesus So he tells the King and Court in these Words I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth A hearty Champion you see he had been against the Christian Religion But how came he to fall into an Opinion and to Espouse a Principle that the worst Religion might well be ashamed of The true account of it is St. Paul had been a Right-bred Pharisee Acts 23.6 having suckt in the Principles of that Superstitious
Dictates as essentiael to Christianity which the Scripturs and the next Ancient and venerable Writings do assure us are not There are those that call us Hereticks and have often proved us so as clearly as Fire and Faggot can do it because we are so strait-laced as to Believe but just so many Truths and Articles of Faith as were at first delivered to the Saints And are so Nice and Humorous as not to Believe the flattest contradictions to them There is a Church that for several Ages and in several Councils hath Decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks i.e. the most Orthodox Christians by Fire and Sword and fairly Recommended it as an Eminent Test of Catholick Zeal Others at least there have been who with mighty Confidence pretended to secret motions and Immediate Warrants from Heaven to Worry and Destroy all that should withstand them and their Doctrin I might tire you with instances of both kinds and make it appear that the Zeal of Christians against One another hath in point of Fierceness and Cruelty far exceeded the Pattern in the Text. For the Proof of this I might but desire you to take a short Review of the Ruines which Romish Zeal hath made in Protestant Countries from our own to the very borders of the Ottoman Empire To keep nearest home I might appeal to the Holy League of France for the Utter Extirpation of the Reform'd Religion And to the Barbarous Usage of more than many Thousand Christians in the United Provinces Grot. Annal lib. 1. I mean before the Quarrel began with the Civil Government I might refer you to Inquisitions Invasions and Massacres to the Burning Zeal of the Marian days and the Powder Conspiracy here in England that Master-piece of Inhumanity design'd no doubt to make amends for the long Peace and Tranquility we enjoyed under the Pious and gentle Reign of our Immortal Virgin Queen After these it were cold and endless to mention all the Impious and Unnatural Artifices of the Agents of Rome against the Lives of our Princes the felicity of our Government Foulis Hist of Romish Treasons and Vsurp and the Vitals of our Religion One thing in the general you may observe that when ever the Church of Rome hath lost any thing by dint of Argument she hath presently betaken her self to sharper and deadlier Weapons for the Recovery of it And methinks it is the least of Wonders that a ChurchPamper'd with Power and Wealth and Honours that thinks her self fit to give Law to the whole Christian World and that it is her Unquestionable Right and Duty by all possible means to do it should not wave her Principles and content her self to admonish and Weep over Obstinate Hereticks as our Blessed Lord did over Jerusalem when her designs call for Blood and Cruelty and 't is apparent that Men will not be made Obedient without them On the other hand there has been another sort of men that under pretence of Refining the Reformation have shamefully violated the Pure and Undefiled Religion that came from Heaven And for this I might refer you to the Wicked Outrages of the Anabaptists at Munster and the Terrible Battles which have been fought for little Phansies and affected singularities in Religion I might call to your Remembrance the many Insurrections and what I even Tremble to speak of the horrid Murther of the late Arch-Bishop in Scotland I might desire you to reflect upon the fierce and bloody Attempts which in our Memory and Nation have been managed upon the fifth Monarchy Principles In a word I might carry you to the Tombs of Kings Nobles and Prelates of worthy Patriots and Ministers of Justice of Preachers and Ambassadors of Peace who by hands lifted up to Heaven have been offered to use the Apostles Phrase upon the Sacrifice and Service of your Faith which some call Heresie and according to which we now Worship the God of our Fathers Now to apply these Allusions to the purpose of the Text I shall only observe to you that the chief Actors and Parties in them have at one time or other confest that they verily thought they were engaged in a good Cause many Apologies have been made and many volumes have been written for them Yea many have sealed it with their Blood and pronounc't it with their last breath that the things they did and Dyed for as ill as they look'd towards the World were done out of Zeal to God and Religion that is they thonght they ought to have done them as contrary and Dishonourable as they really were to the Name of Jesus I come now in the second place 2. To shew whece it is that Men are liable to be thus Misguided by Erroneous Principles and Transported with this Extravagant and destructive Zeal I confess 't is very natural to men to be warm and zealous for their own Doctrines and Sentimests ill so much that they that have the Truth on their side have not always the Charity and Good-Nature that should attend it But that this Inclination should so mightily raise the Spleen and fire the Spirits of Men That it should grow so violent Quarrelsome and Impetuous as to scorn the Restraint of Laws both Divine and Humane and break down all the Fonces of Government to set up the Kingdom fo Christ which is not of this World That the Disciples of so meek a Master as our Saviour was and the Professors of so Charitable and obliging so Holy and Healing an Institution as Christianity is should think themselves bound to promote every Crude Opinion with the Sword Nay that inspired and as they call themselves Infallible Men should be so much out of the way so exceedingly fierce and angry with all that are not of their Minds as to devote them to Present and Eternal Ruine These things are so extreamly full of Scandal and Contradiction that without a Demonstration of the Truth it were scarce Charity to believe the possibility of them But let us do that Right to Christianity and our selves as to see where the fault lyes and what it is that under the pretence of Conscience has wrought so much Misery and Coufusion in the Christian World To assign all the causes of these Evils would require more Time and Patience than the present occasion will allow I shall therefore confine my self to such as I think have the greatest Interest in them and are best able to answer for them 1. The first is Bad Education which has a strange Influence upon the Spirits and Persuasions of Men and is able to change the sweetest natural Dispositions into the Bitterest and fiercest Tempers The great Spring and Mover of Humane Actions in the Judgment of the Mind and therefore the first Information of the Judgment which is the Business of Education must have a mighty stroke in the Conduct of the Life of Man and the rather because the Impressions we receive of things while our Minds are free from all suspition and Prejudice are
Establisht Religion of the Nation but because we have throughly tryed and examined the Grounds of it because we have proved it by a Rule which cannot fail us and do find it to be the very Religion which Christ and his Apostles have revealed in the Gospel Now if we have taken up our Religion upon due confidweration and Judgment it very highly concerns us for the sake of it to live according to its excellent Rules and Precepts and to be as steddy in our walk as we pretend to be sure of our way to Heaven If we go wide from the Paths we have made streight and do not Obey the Doctrine we profess to believe upon clear and convincing Evidence we condemn our selves and give just Occasion to the Adversary to triumph over us and to twist us with the great need we had of a Reformation to make us worse than we need to have been without it We put a sharper Weapon into their hands than any they were ever able to forge against it A Witty Men may make a hard shift to say something for Romish Errors but there is not a word to be spoken for an Antichristian Life With what face can we inveigh against Popish Indulgences while we allow our selves as great a liberty in sinning as they do If we are heedless and undevout in our Prayers we may blush to say we cannot dispence with Latin Service because it is an hinderance to Devotion And is it not much at one whether he that in the holy Sacrament eateth or drinketh Judgment to himself does it in both Kinds or but One Or what signisies a change or no change in the substance of the Elements to him that discerns not the Lords Body Or why may not an Implicit Faith serve to make an Empty Profession as well as any Protestant Faith in the World And indeed if that were all we design by being Protestants it were hardly worth the while to be so For as without Faith it is Impossible to Please God So without Holiness as the Apostle tells us in the verse immediately after the Text No man shall see the Lord. We that are Protestants profess a great Veneration of the Scriptures both as a Rule of Faith and Manners And therefore we can never excuse our selves if we do not Govern our Lives as well as our Judgments and Opinions by them And there are those that will not excuse our Religion but raise Objections against it out of those very Actions it expresly Condemns and Warns us of the Infinite Danger of It is I confess very unreasonable that Religion should Answer for the Faults which it Aimes to Rectify Yet it must be Own'd a Real and Mighty Prejudice to it to be Contradicted by its own Professors and Betrayed by those that pretend a Hearty Zeal and Concernment for it And we have the more Reason to be Cautious on this hand because our Religion is so Excellent in it self and so fully Justified by its Learned Advocates that it requires nothing more for its Defence and Vindication from t is than that we should Adorn it by our Holy Conversations and keep the Enemy out of those Breaches which our Divisions have made and our Lusts have Widen'd for them And this is our Proper Post In which we may do Excellent service tho we may not be so fit to engage in the Field of Controversies merely by Exercising our selves unto Godliness by keeping to the Plain Rules and standing to the Principles of our Holy Religion This I say is our Proper Task And by this means we shall utterly Defeat our Adversaries and put them to the same strait that Daniel did the Caldeans Dan. 6.5 by leaving them no Occasion against us Except it be Concerning the Law of our God And for that we give them leave to Try their utmost skill And if by fair Reasoning and Arguments such as are fit to be used in the great Concernment of mens Eternal Salvation they can Win the Victory let them wear it I wish the mean while we could clear our selves as well as we can our Religion I wish we could all shew out of a Pure Conversation that our Lives are measured by the Laws as our Faith is by the Revelations of the Gospel I do not speak this as if I thought our Adversaries had the advantage of us in this respect but because it may be Justly expected that we who have the best Religion should live at the best Rate That we who pretend to understand what we believe and to know whom we Worship and have Renounc't the Errours and Corruptions that spoil the Religion of other men should be extreamly careful that we do not Blemish our own That we do not stain the Purity of our Profession and Furnish Men with Objections against it by our vain and vicious Conversations Let us consider the Necessity of walking by the Rules and obeying the Laws of our Religion in order to our own safety and Happiness Tho a Man knew every Foot of his Way to Heaven and were Acquainted with all the Crooked and Deceitful Paths which others are lost and Bewildred in yet if he will not make use of his knowledge to Direct his Steps and keep on in the way he should go he can never arrive to that Blessed Place We must not think to Fly to Heaven with a Wish or to be saved by being Orthodox or excused from doing our Duty because we know it Tho we had all knowledge and all Faith without Obedience and Holiness of Life I know not of what importance they would be to us but only to Intitle us to the greater Damnation The Sanctions of the Gospel are the same to Men of all Persuasions The worst of which will hardly Deny that a good Life is as Necessary to make a good Christian as a sound and Orthodox Faith So that 't is not Believing as the Church Believes nor Believing the Truth as it is in Jesus nor Relying upon him for salvation that can bring us to Heaven while we bid Defiance to his Laws Heb. 5.9 For he is the Author of Eternal Salvation to them only that Obey him If we are ill Men it matters not what we are besides Any Religion will serve a wicked Man as well as the Best And become him a great deal better than the Pure and Undefiled Religion which the Son of God brought down from Heaven with him And which of all Religions in the World Denounceth the most Terrible Threatnings against its own Professors that Reject the Mild and Reasonable Conditions of it Rom. 2.7.8 To them that by patient Continuance in Well-doing Seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality It promises Eternal Life But unto them that Obey not the Truth how Zealous soever they may be in the Defence and Profession of it It denounceth Indignation and wrath Tribulation and Anguish without Respect of Persons upon every Soul of Man that doth Evil. So that if we live
Greater Light we may be sure to make Streight Paths for our Feet till we come to the Perfect Fruition of them Nor are we commanded only to search the Scriptures but to prove all things by them to try the Spirits whether they be of God 1 Thes 5.21 1 Job 1.4 Luk. 12.57 and to judge of our selves what is Right That is we must use our own Reason and Judgment in comparing matters in Controversie with the Infallible Rule of Scripture For some Rule we must have to Prove and Try and Judge by And it is plain the Scripture takes no notice of any other Rule but it self and that of Modern and Unwritten Tradition as Opposite to it And this is security enough against any Dangerous Error considering that the Gospel is as much a standing Revelation to the Christian Church as the Law and the Prophets were to the Jews 5. We find the happy Effect of this Course so far that persons of ordinary capacity after a competent Trial of it do rightly believe and understand all that is necessary to their Eternal Salvation The necessary Articles of Religion are so visible in the Scriptures that it is the hardest thing that can be for an Ingenious Reader to overlook them That there is but One God that He only ought to be Worshipped that he sent his Only Begotten to Die for us that he Died and Rose again that as many as Repent of their Sins Believe and Obey the Gospel shall be Saved These and other Principles of Religion are so clearly and fully exprest in Scripture that there is no need of an Infallible Interpreter to certifie for them A common Understanding with the ordinary Means of Knowledge can reach the Discovery I mean without the help of a Roman Telescope or standing upon the Shoulders of St. Peters's pretended Successor This we know the Certainty of we feel it in our selves and we see the Demonstration of it in ten thousand Instances and do not think the worse of our Faith for being Protestant i. e. immediately Grounded upon the Evidence and Authority of Scripture We look upon it as our Inviolable Birth right to judge of Plain Truths when we see them And for this we have the general Sense of Mankind on our side and cannot think it reasonable to put it to any man to judge for us whether or no there is a God a Christ or a Heaven That all necessary Truths are plain is allowed by all Christians but those that make Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation which are so far from being plain that there is not the least mention of them in the whole Gospel And if all things that are Necessary are Plain then I hope a plain man may judge of them and without asking leave of any other man may believe them and so doing he certainly is in a state of Salvation And then the Church that declares he is not cannot be Infallible unless a Church can Err and be Infallible at the same instant 6. It is far easier for men who implore the Direction of God and use the Helps which he affords them to find their way to Heaven in the Scriptures than to find an Infallible Guide on Earth to lead them to it It must be granted that there are Obscure as well as Plain Passages in Scripture Some Places so very Dark and Intricate that they even Pose the most skilful and judicious Guides But thn our Happiness is that our Way does not lie Thorough them and that there is Light enough in innumerable other places to direct our Steps and to bring us in a Streight Line to Everlasting Bliss and Perfection I do not say that every thing tht concerns our Salvation is so clearly revealed that no man can be ignorant of it But that we may know as much as is needful for us if we apply our minds to it and laying aside all prejudice against the Truth beg of God to Preserve us from Error all which we have great encouragement to do since he has promised us the assistance of his Spirit in the search of Truth The Church of Rome indeed offers to put us into a shorter and easier Method of finding out Truth and to bring us to a Guide that will Infallibly shew us every step of our way So that we need not be at the Pains of any Tedious Inquiries nor any longer in danger of missing our Aim in them through the weakness of our own Fallible Judgments And who would not gladly embrace so Free and kind an Offer as this provided there be no Trick or Fallacy it it The Tryal of which will appear if the Proposes of this way of certainty be able to satisfy us in a few reasonable Cases without which as great as the Courtesy seems to be we cnnot prudently Accept of their Offer If a man should freely proffer me the Indies I must say it is a very Noble Gift if he can make it good and when he has convinced me that he can I will thankfully accept it from him but before he can give me Satisfaction about it I find ther must be a few words exchanged between us and therefore if he Pleases I desire him to tell me how he came to be the Owner of so vast a Treasure which is or lately was in the possession of so many Great and Potent Princes And which way he will put me into Possession of it c. If he cannot Answer these Queries as I believe he cannot I am sure he can never conveigh the Indies to me and therefor I will never trouble my Head more about them And thus I fear it will fall out in the case of an Infallible Guide to all Christians who were there such a Church or Person as they boast of at Rome that could infallibly solve all Doubts and put an end to all Controversies in Religion were richly worth both the Indies together But before I accept of the Conduct of this Guide I must desire to be satisfied in a few things in reference to him As 1. How I may be certain that there is such a Guide or Judg of Controversies For I find there is a great Controversy in the Church about it And if I can never be assured that there is such an one till he has ended all Controversies which is the great blessing the Church of Rome Promises from him 't is in vain in this Age of Controversies to enquire any farther after him But suppose it were not may I or any other Protestant determine this Controversy by the use of our own Fallible Judgments If we may then it seems a Fallible Judgment may do more sometimes than an Infallible Judg. However a Fallible Judgment is all the Judgment that we have and if by it we may be certain of an Infallible Guide which at Rome goes for a leading Article of Faith I see no Reason why we may not by the same means be certain of all the Rest and if we may
be so it is plain there is no need of the Guide we are seeking for and then I doubt after all our searching we shall never be able to find him But there is one Argument above all that there is no such Guide viz. That Christ never Promised There should be one always in his Church And without a Promise from him we can never be certain that there is We know what is pretended in this matter and what Texts are produce for it but after the strictest and most deliberate Enquiry into the meaning of them we can find no evidence of any such Promise nor discern the least shadow or Footstep of a visible Infallible Guide We own indeed that God has Promised the Guidance of his Spirit to all that desire the Knowledg of his Ways but we the rather think that he has not promised any other Infallible Guide than this For what need is there of the Inward Direction of the Spirit in the Search of Truth when we have a Guide at hand that can lead us Infallibly into it and save us the labour of searching after it But did not our Saviour Promise to send his Spirit upon the Apostles and were not they Infallible Guides True but did he Promise to make their Successors in all Ages Infallible too If he did every Successor has an equal Claim And then how comes the Church of Rome to talk of but one Infallible Guidfe since the Death of the Apostles and to Appropriate that extraordinary favour to here self If he did not she must shew us a particular Charter or Promise that Infallibility should never depart from the See of Rome and when she does that we may allow her to be Infallible But supposing that Christ had promised an Infallible Guide it may be convenient to know 2. Whether or no he has given him Authourity to suspend the Judgment of all Christians in matters of Religion This we must say is a distinct Power from Infallibility unless we can imagin that our Saviour and his Apostles tho they were infallible did not know the extent of their Power For 't is plain they did not affect any such Authority or treat their Disciples in this manner but both required them to prove the Truths which they heard Act. 17.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and commended their Ingenuity in proving them by the Scriptures Besides a Guide whose Directions we must blindly follow without examinig the Grounds and Tendency of them seems to be a very improper means of bringing men to Heaven For surely God did design that in the exercise of our Religion we should act like men and not lay aside our Reasonand Judgment as things that are dangerous to our salvation 'T is true not to Judge at all is a certain way not to err but it is a very blind and unlikely way to bring men to the knowledge of the Truth without which their Obedience can never be a Reasonable Service And theresore if any Church or Person under colour of Infallibility shall assume an absolute Authority over the Consciences of men before I resign up my Judgment to them I must desire to be informed not only how they come to be infallible but what Commission they have to oblige me to believe as they please and to strangle my own Sense and Reason if they offer to oppose any Doctrine of theirs tho never so absurd or contradictory to them But suppose still there were Reasons to convince me that there is an infallible Judge and that there ought to be no Judge besides him yet because he cannot be useful to me till I know who he is there is another great Question to be resolved before I can prudently commit my self to him viz. How I may certainly know where to find him And here I meet with one vast Discouragement at the very entrance into this enquiry Namely that the same Church which alone pretends to this Infallible Guide is very uncer tain who he is Some chain Infallibility to St. Peter's Chair and place it in the Person of the Pope But this is the most Interessed Party as depending entirely upon the Pleasure of him whom they call Infallible Others send us to General Councils some of whcih have condemn'd the Pope for an Heretick and contradicted the Decrees of former Councils But then what think we of Oral Tradition Or the Doctrine of the Universal Churcvh conveighed by Father to Son from the Apostles Time down to the Present Age The General consent I confess of the Christian Church so far as it reaches is an excellent means to find out the sense of Scripture But we are not speaking now of Tradition or the Church as a Witness of Truth but of the Authority of any Church or Guide to prescribe a Rule of Faith and Practice by Vertue of an Insallible Assistance This is the thing we are enquiring after and where the Seat of this Authority is and all we can certainly learn hitherto is this That seeing there are so many controversies in the Church of Rome about it it will be a very hard thing to find it there And that in the Judgment of a considerable part of that Church a man may tire himself and be in quest of his Infallible guide all his Days and never come within sight of him at last For suppose he takes the Pope to be the infallible Oracle he is thought to be mistaken by all those that stand for a General council and if he go to a General council he is lost in the opinion of all that declare for single infallibility And the men for Oral tradition think they are all deceived that look for infallibility in any one Person or Party in the Church What must we do now that have so much choice of infallible guides and nothing to determine our choice Many we pick and choose at a venture But that cannot be safe because they have occasion sometimes to lead contrary to one another and therefore cannot be all infakubke and none of them speaks of more infallible guides than one Must we then weigh their Reasons and the Scriptures they produce for their several claims These we have often heard and considered and cannot but admire the confidence of men who pretend to sound the infallibility and other Prerogatives of the Bishop and Church of Rome upon Texts that speak not the least Syllable of them Whereas matters of this importance ought to be exprest in the easiest and plainnest Words that he that runs may read them If not only the Peace and Unity of the Church but every man's salvation depends as our Adversaries must say upon the Right understanding of there Texts we have that confidence in the Goodness of our Saviour that we certainly believe he would not expect we should find out a meaning in therm that by no good Rule of Interpretation can be collected from them And for this Reason we cannot think our selves obliged when any thing is said