is there that a suspected and accused Party 's own Word should be admitted as his sufficient Justification Especially in things known to be false by Sense and Reason and contrary to Holy Scripture and therein contrary to that far mor general certain and impartial Tradition for the Scriptures being the Word of God. The as for the Infallibility of this Delivery we know that there is no such Attribute as Infallibility belonging to any Creature or its actings although it be impossible in sensu Composito for any one to err or deceive while he thinks and speaks the Truth and therefore all Mans Infallibility consists in his Faculties being guided infallible by the Infallible God and by Him kept from Error and so far and so long as he is so he can neither deceive nor be deceived Yet even then he is fallible in himself But now that God ever did or will ever so guide any Man we must come to know it either by his Promise to do it or his Testimony that he has done it or by the Testimony and Tradition of others concerning it As for his Promise 'T is very true that our Blessed Saviour did Promise to his Holy Apostles and Disciples That his Spirit should guide them in all Truth John 16.13 i. e. Those Truths which he had taught them vers 14 15. And that by enabling them to remember them John 14.26 And also into Truth concerning things to come for so it follows in verse 13. And that the Holy Ghost should dwell in them Chap. 14.17 Now if this Guidance be understood of Infallible and as promised to all Christ's Disciples and all their Successors in their common Faith it will prove that all true Christians are infallible which perhaps will be thought too much Or if promised only to all the Apostles and all their Successors in the Ministry of the Gospel this also will prove too much for the Romanists purpose But the truth is that though the Promise be to be applied to all the Apostles and Disciples and all their Successors yet not to all in the same extent of Guidance for then all their Successors must have the Spirit of Prophecy and the afore-knowledge of things to come which is not pretended by any to be true and common Experience shews the contrary The assistance therefore and guidance promised relates diversly to those to whom the Promise was made 1. As to all holy Disciples in all Ages whom the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie it guides them by infallibly bringing them to believe all Truths necessary to be believed by them in order to their Salvation so that they shall not fail to believe them who are therefore said to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 And to be the Sons of God and to have the Spirit dwelling in them Rom. 8.9 John 14.17 But yet they are not subjective infallible in their Faculties or Act of Believing but only as guided by the Holy Spirit 2. As to all the Holy Apostles and divers others Holy Disciples of that Age the Guidance promised is to instruct and enable them infallibly to know remember and Preach unto others the whole Counsel of God taught by our Saviour for Mans Salvation and to confirm that Assistance in Teaching by miraculous Works and to some of them infallibly to pen is also and unto some to fortel things to come 3. And as to all the Successors of the Apostles in the office of the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel whether single or conjoyned the Guidance of the Holy Ghost promised is not immediate constant or subjective infallible but is only so far forth as by its Pastoral Gifts and Graces it enables them to discover and deliver those Truths which it hath inspired others in that first Age infallibly to record in the Holy Scripture and which it now intends by their Ministry to work the Hearts of all who shall be Saved to give a true divine Faith unto and by it to bring them infallibly to Salvation For which Purpose Christ hath promised to be with them alway even to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 assisting them by Gifts protecting their Persons and blessing their Labours and that the true doctrine of Faith which St. Peter had professed and should both Preach and Pen by infallible Assistance should never fail to be Preached and Believed nor his personal Belief of it wholly fail but continue to eternal Life and that the Gates of Hell should not be able to prevail against his Church but that there should always be on Earth a faithful People professing the Gospel Truth and worshiping God in the Spirit But for any Infallibility that such Successors have in giving the meaning of Scripture we cannot find that Christ ever promised it much less to any particular Church or Pastor above all the rest And indeed some interpretations of Scripture which those have given us who pretend most to Infallibility are so evidently false and vain not to say prophane that they have thereby sufficiently convinced us of the Vanity of their own Pretensions And as for that appropriating Claim which is laid to it by the particular Church of Rome and those of its Communion there are many shrewd and violent Presumptions in prejudice of it As 1. That the Assertors of it are not yet agreed in what Ensuring-Office to lodge their Infallibility whether in the Bishop or in a General Council or both or in oral Tradition and it may well seem strange to us that those who as is now pretended did formerly make so much use of it should forget in what Cabinet they laid up so precious a Jewel or forget to deliver the Keys of it to ther Successors which alone if ever they had it may sufficiently shew how possible it is for a Tradition to miscarry 2. It is also vilely suspicious that they so keep up their Traditions in their Sleeve for either they cannot or will not ever give out a perfect Catalogue of their traditional Doctrines which as they tells us are kept up in reserve with wise Men perfectioribus in occulto tradita Which truly has an evil appearance as if they did purposely conceal the just number of them that so they might forge some upon occasion to serve a turn when there should be need of a new Article to promote the interest of that Church in some present juncture of affairs though we would willingly be so Charitable as to hope it is not so 3. But how shall we ever be able to overcome the so many Contradictions which have happened between Pope and Pope yea the Pope and himself between Council and Council pila minantia pilis we cannot see how such Contradictions can be consistent with a Spirit of Infallibility and in the mean while what a scandalous diversion was it to the World to see two or three Popes at once thundring out Anathema's and tilting their Infallibilities at one another and a Council at last putting them all in a
Bag together It seems very unworthy of the whole Blessed Trinity to assert that the Holy Ghost that holy Dove which was wont to inhabit only those Candida tecta of pure and sanctified Souls and to move and inspire only Holy Men of God 2 Pet. 1.21 under the mosaick Dispensation should now in times of a more plentiful effusion of its Grace and Holiness under the Gospel take up its residence in and give out Oracles from such impure Sinks of Sin Error and Ignorance as many of those who have pretended to this infallible Guidance are confessed to have been That the Holy Spirit who is so apt to be grieved by the resisting of his Motions and even by corrupt Communication Eph. 4.29 should digest things so contrary to his holy Nature and not withdraw from such a Soul Or can it be imagined that the Holy Jesus would ever by his Promise oblige the Holy Spirit to such an Office And for those few others among them who were holy and good Men we must be well assured that they were true Bishops but whether they were duly elected and ordained or so much as Baptised their Doctrine of the Priests Intention being necessary to a Sacrament makes it impossible for us to know and for one that is not so qualified such Assistance is not claimed or pretended to And as for Councils being infallible the claim allows it only to General Councils Which certainly may best of any pretend unto it from the Promise as being supposed to be the universal Church represented and thereby also impowered to conclude all by its Determinations But was there ever a true General Council besides that at Jerusalem Acts 15. whose Canons are recorded in the Holy Scriptures of which we are well assured that it was infallibly guided in decreeing as St. Luke was also in recording of its Canons but that Council tells us nothing of a successive Infallibility in the Church of Rome nor any thing of these its Doctrines And for all other Councils be they what they will all their decisions were to be guided by the Holy Scriptures and not to be received if contrary thereunto as the best and most ancient of them have professed and practised and so did the Holy Fathers own concerning them and acknowledge concerning their own Writings never pretending to give or admit of any infallible rule of Faith distinct from the Holy Scriptures And if they did not pretend to it but rather disclaim it we have little reason to believe others who pretend to it for them but rather to suspect that they do therein but serve their own private Interest And if we do but well consider the Pretence we shall find it clogged with so many Uncertainties that it can never make its way through them to give any tolerable Security to particular Christians which yet it is now made use of for 1. For first a private Christian may be convinced of Truths delivered in the Holy Scriptures and firmly believe them and yield Obedience to the Commands therein contained and be assured that in so doing he shall not fail to attain Salvation and not only morally and rationally assured but also have a Divine supernatural Faith thereof wrought in his Heart by the Gift of God and the Operation of the Holy Ghost as was shewed before Now either of these Convictions or Beliefs do bind the Man not to let go those Truths which he hath so believed whereof Christ will one day take an Account how they have been kept by him as he did of the Churches Revel 3.8.10 And therefore he must neither through Carelessness lose them nor through Cowardise deny them through Treachery betray them nor through Apostacy renounce or disclaim them Wherefore I see not how one that hath so believed the Truth can resign up himself to others and compromise his Faith to believe whatsoever they shall offer to him Since thereby he would trust his eternal Concernments in the Hands of Men foregoing that sure hold which God had given him on the sure word of Prophecy to which he ought to bind himself as unto a Rock or Mast But were that Lawful for him to resign up his Faith to the Decisions of a general Council yet before he could do it prudentially it were fit he should have good Assurance given him 1. That the Council whose Canons are offered to his Faith was really a General Council and duly elected by all that were to be represented and concluded by it But if he must suspend till the Church of Rome be agreed on a just list of general Councils I believe he may wait till Dooms-day for at present they fluctuate between Eight and one and twenty as they do for the Notes of the Church between Costerus his three and Bozius his Hundred 2 That the major number of Suffrages were always for the truth and had the infallible Guidance on their side and therefore that they were never contradicted by the greater number in any other such general Council and that the Canons made were the judgment of that major Part and not of the lesser 3. That these Canons which are now offered to us are the genuine Canons which that major part did then make and subscribe unto and not since counterfeited or corrupted and that here are all For Bellarmine and Baronius we see make no scruple to cashier a Canon out of an admitted Council if it be not for their turn upon pretence that the Pope consented not to that Canon though he did to all the rest and also that a like divine Providence hath watched over these Canons as hath done over the Holy Scriptures And yet further if the Romanists think by this Argument to produce in Christians an infallible Assent of a Divine Faith unto these Doctrines then the Priest who brings them to Mens Ears had need not only to be infallible in receiving and delivering them but also give Evidence that he is so by some unquestionable Miracle And yet after all this unless the faculty of the hearer be infallibly guided to assent unto it he will not believe infallibly for we find that many of the Jews did not so much as believe although they heard our Saviours Doctrine and saw his mighty Works All which and many more that might be named are so great Incertainties that they are sufficient to deterr any prudent Christian from ever parting with his present Security for a new one which is thus attended tho it were Lawful for him to do it But how much better is it a for a well-grounded Christian to keep his sure Footing on the Terra firma of Holy Scriptures than to commit himself to so great Uncertainty Which seems to be an adventure not much unlike the Methods of the new Philosopher who would perswade us to strip our selves of all the prejudices of Faith Sense Reason yea and of our very first notions that we may the better swim unto that rocky Truth That we have a Being and
from thence returning to recover as much as we can of that which we laid aside to try the Experiment And lastly for the new Demonstrations which some have lately advanced to prove the infallibility of Oral Tradition from the impossibility of its miscarrying and that what is this day declared for Apostolical Doctrine must needs have been always so declared because it cannot be imagined that those who delivered it one day for such should have forgotten what they had heard but the day before or that they would report that to others which they had not heard themselves This I say doth require and needs more Charity and good nature in an Adversary than it is like to meet withal out of their own Communion and but rarely there And really the Demonstration is so extraordinary that did not we see it made use of by themselves we might rather have supposed it to have been hatched by the heat and sweat of some Man's Brain who was no well-wisher to the Doctrines which it is brought in favour of But however that be I am confident that seven Cities will hardly contend for the honour of his Birth who had the felicity to be the first Inventor and for our selves we shall desire to be well assured not only of the goodness and infallibility of their Memories and of their Honesty who all along delivered these things but also of their due attention to and right apprehension of the things which they heard And also that Men of so good Memories might not likewise have so good Inventions or at least some of them as to light upon some private opinions of their own which they might impart unto others and which might insensibly in tract of time be spread abroad and so far liked by the generality that for the very agreableness of them to their Minds and conveniences for their Interests they might be worthy to be ascribed either to some extraordinary Spirit in the Author if known or else to the Apostles themselves And this be spoken without any worse reflection upon their Memories or Fidelity which have been shewn to be a very insufficient enumeration of the possible yea and probable causes of a miscarriage in Oral Tradition But this demonstration has convinced Protestants of this at least that as far as this is confided in Demonstration at present runs very low in the Church of Rome And to keep our Country People from being overmuch convinced by it we shall need only to put them to read a leaf in Chaucer where they may perceive that our Language notwithstanding daily use and Tradition is so much altered from what it was three hundred Years ago that what was then ordinarily spoken is now hardly to be understood But wherever the Romanists shall at length agree to place this their Infallibility nay though every one of their Communion might have it who would but pretend to it let them make the best use of it they can for their own private assurance and comfort But if they will needs make it Argumentative to convince others of the Divine Authority of what they deliver we hope they will first prove to us such their Infallibility by clear promises in Scripture or testimonies from Scripture or else by universal Tradition of the Churches of Christ concerning it or else shew us some unquestionable works of divine Power wrought in Confirmation I say not of their Doctrines but of their own Infallibility in testifying that the Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles which is pretended to have accompanied the Tradition through all Ages and therefore the Miracles must run parallel with it and accompany it in a constant Succession to be the Credential Letters of the successive deliverers and reporters to the Men of each particular Generation For it seems a very unreasonable thing for any Disputant to require such a Postulatum to be granted him by his Antagonist that whatsoever he shall say is not only true but infallibly true which is such a begging of the Question as shews how poorly he is provided to give Men a just satisfaction and is as much as to say He is resolved never to dispute about any thing which he proposes I will add no more but only this upon the whole Master That while the Romanists do offer us more Certainty for the Scriptures being the Word of God than we need They cannot perform to us so much Certainty for those unscriptural Doctrines as we do justly require and expect before we entertain them So prone are some Men to dream of Supererogating while in truth they fall shamefully short of doing their necessary Duty FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Henry Mortlack at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference c. from the pretended Answer by T. C. Wherein the true Grounds of Faith are cleared and the False discovered the Church of England vindicated from the Imputation of Schism and the most important particular Controversie between us and those of the Church of Rome throughly examined By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. and Dean of St. Paul's Folio The second Edition Origines Britannicae Or the Antiquity of the British Churches with a Preface concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain in vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls Folio The Rule of Faith Or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. J. S. Entituled Sure Footing c. By John Tillotson D. D. To which is adjoyned A reply to Mr. J. S.'s third Appendix c. By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Octavo A Letter to Mr. G giving a true Account of a late Conference at the D. of Pauls A second Letter to Mr. G. in answer to two Letters lately published concerning the Conference at the D. of Pauls Veteres Vindicati In an Expostulary Letter to Mr. Sclater of Putny upon his Consensus Veterum c. wherein the absurdity of his Method and the weakness of Reasons are shewn his false Aspersions upon the Church of England are wiped off and his Faith concerning the Eucharist proved to be that of the Primitive Church Together with Animadversions on Dean Boileu's French translation of and Remarks upon Bertram An Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium Wherein is shewn That Antiquity in relation to the Points in Controversie set down by him did not for the first five hundred Years Believe Teach and Practice as the Church of Rome doth at present Believe Teach and Practice together with a Vindication of Veteres Vindicati from the late weak and dis-ingenuous Attempts of the Author of Transubstantion defended by the Author of the Answer to Mr. Sclater of Putney A Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuit in answer to his Letter to a Peer of the Church of England wherein the Postscript to the Answer to the Nubes Testium is vindicated and Father Sabran's Mistakes farther discovered A second Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuite in answer to his Reply A Vindication of the Principles of the Author of the Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium in Answer to a late pretended Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England Scripture and Tradition compared in a Sermon Preached at Guild-Hall Chappel Nov. 27. 1687. By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls the second Edition A discourse concerning the Nature and Grounds of the Certainty of Faith in Answer to J. S. his Catholick Letters by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St Pauls The Council of Trent examined and disproved by Catholick Tradition in the main Points in Controversie between us and the Church of Rome with a particular Account of the Times and Occasions of introducing them Part I. To which a Preface is prefixed concerning the true Sense of the Council of Trent and the Notion of Transubstantiation By Ed. Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls