Sacrament to Salvation and all Parents having naturally a very tender Concern for their Children nothing but an absolute Authority against which no man durst so much as whisper could have brought the world to have parted with this It were easy to carry this to many other Instances and to shew that not only Ritual Traditions but Doctrinal ones such as were found on Explanations of passages of Scripture have varied It were perhaps too invidious to send men to Petavius to find in him how much the Tradition of the several Ages has vari'd in the greatest Articles of the Christian Doctrine It is no less certain that Origen laid down a Scheme with relation to the Liberty of man's Will and the Providence of God that came to be so universally receiv'd by the Greek Church that both Nazianzen and Basil drew a sort of System out of his Doctrine in which those Opinions were asserted and large Quotations were gather'd out of him explaining them with most of the Difficulties that do arise out of them and as this Book had not only Origen's own Authority to support it but likewise that of those two great Men who compil'd it so it passed down and was the uncontested Doctrine of the Greek Church But St. Austin being engag'd into Disputes with Pelagius fram'd a new System that had never been thought of before him and yet the Worth and Labours of that Father gave it so a vast Reputation that this was look'd on in several Ages as the Doctrine of the Church and Learning vanishing at that time the Roman Empire being then over-run by Barbarians his Book came to be so much read and so universally receiv'd that it gave no small suspicion if any one oppos'd his Tenets yet Cassian who was a Greek and was form'd in their Notions writ a Book of Conferences which contain'd the Precepts of a Monastick State of life that were digested in so good a method and writ with so true an Elevation that it is perhaps one of the best Books that the Ancients have left us This came to be held in such Esteem that all the Monks read it with a particular Attention and Regard In it the Doctrine of Origen and the Greek Church was so fully set forth that this and perhaps this alone kept up a secret opposition to St. Austin's Doctrine tho that came to receive a vast strengthening from Aquinas and the Schoolmen that follow'd him and yet at the time that Luther and Calvin in opposition to the Church of Rome built much upon St. Austin's Authority almost all all that writ against them argu'd according to the Sentiments of the Greek Church but those of Louvain and the Orders of the Dominicans and Augustinians did so maintain St. Austins and Aquinas's Doctrine that tho it was not liked because it seem'd to be too near theirs who were to be condemn'd as Hereticks yet the Council of Trent seem'd still to stick to St. Austin Since that time the Iesuits Order who tho they at first set up for St. Austin's Doctrine yet since have chang'd their minds and taken themselves to the other side have by their Influence both at Rome and in other Courts so chang'd the Sense of the greater part of that Church that it is plain tho St. Austin's Name is too great to be openly disparaged yet they are now generally in the contrary Hypothesis This I only instance to shew that in Speculative Points it is no hard matter to make multitudes go from one Opinion to another and to alter the Tradition of the Church that is to bring one Age of the Church to think otherwise than another did But after all Oral Tradition cannot be set up as the Judge of Controversies much less as the living and speaking Judge it is no real being nor do we know where to find it The Tradition of one Body among them differs from another as in the point of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin in which an Opinion has been lately started which is now receiv'd into all their Rituals and has given occasion to many Acts of Worship and publick Devotions which is most expresly contrary to all Ancient Tradition and yet is become now so Sacred that the whole Dominican Order feels no small Inconvenience by their being oblig'd as the Followers of Aquinas to maintain the contrary The Traditions of one Nation are question'd by another particularly in this important Point of the Subject of this Infallibility It is also impossible for any man to find this out must he suspend his Opinion till he has gone round the Church to ask every man what he was bred to This as it could not be suffer'd so it could not be so fully found out as to put a man in the way to end all Controversies in this a private Judgment must again come in For tho it were granted that Oral Tradition is a Rule to judge Controversies by it can never be pretended that it is the living and speaking Iudge that must determine them I come now to the two more receiv'd Opinions in this matter the one puts it in a General Council and the other puts it in the Pope and both the one and the other pretend that the Church Representative is in them As for the pretence of some who seem to make a Third party and believe it to be in a Council confirm'd by the Pope this is only a plausible way of putting it wholly in the Pope for if the Definitions of a Council have no Infallibility in them till the Pope's Consent and Approbation is given then it is plain that all the Infallibility is in him and that he only chuses to exert it in that solemn way For either Christ gave it to St. Peter and his Successors or he gave it not if he gave it not that pretension is out of doors if he gave it to them we plainly see no Limitations in the grant and whatsoever Rules or Methods may have become authoris'd by Practice and Custom they are only Ecclesiastical Constitutions but can never be suppos'd to limit Christ's Grant or to give any share of it to others It will be to no purpose to object here That as some Constitutions our own in particular are so fram'd that the Legislative Authority tho it flows only from the King yet is limited to such a Method that it cannot be exerted but with the Concurrence of Lords and Commons so it may be also in the Church and thus the Pope can only use his Infallibility in Concurrence with a General Council or at least that both together are Infallible But tho human Societies may model themselves as to their Legislation which way they will this will only prove that as to the Government and Administration of the Church she may put her self into such a method as may be thought most regular and expedient and thus the Council of Nice limited the Bishops of a Province to do nothing without the
consent of the Metropolitan yet whatever may be done in subâ—ltern Bodies where things that are done amiss may be rectifi'd by Appeals the Supream and last Resort must be left to the full freedom in which Christ has constituted his Church It must be further consider'd That Infallibility is not like ordinary Jurisdiction or Legislation which may be moulded according to the conveniences of Society it is a Priviledge which if the Church has it at all she has it by an immediate Grant from Heaven and so she must enjoy and apply it according to the Ten or of that Grant and she cannot expect to have it continu'd to her but as she observes the nature of the Grant Indeed if it were given her at large to be modell'd and lodg'd as she pleases there might be a power in her to limit the use of it to such forms as should be least liable to Exception or Abuse But either it is granted to a single person or to the body in general If it is granted to a single person then he and he only has it He may indeed if he pleases in order to his being better inform'd or obey'd call a General Council but their proceedings are only preparatory to his using the Infallibility which is singly in himself Nor can the Divine Grant be limited as to the exercise or use of it all such Rules must still be at the Pope's discretion On the other hand If the Grant is given to the Community of the Pastors then the Infallibility must be in them and cannot be limited or supposed to stay for the Consent of any one Bishop for whatsoever regard may he had to any one man by reason of the Dignity of his See or his other Circumstances yet still this must be but a point or form of human Prudence for the Infallibility must be where Christ has placed it and cannot be transferr'd from thence or be put any where else So unless it is said that Christ has put this Infallibility between Pope and Council in so express a manner as all Constitutions do which are under a mixed Legislation which is not pretended then it must be lodged either in a General Council or in the Pope and cannot be in both This then is to be examin'd in the next place I begin therefore to examine the Plea for the Infallibility of Councils It is at first no small prejudice against this Opinion that the Church was Constituted and had continu'd 300. years before any thing that has the shadow of a General Council was call'd so if an infallible Judge of Controversies be necessary to the Church here we see she subsisted in her hardest times in which she was the most distrest both by Heresies and Persecutions without one We also see that she has been these last 130. years without one tho there are warm Disputes among them both in Speculative and Practical Doctrines both sides reproaching one another with Heresy and as there is little prospect of a Council neither the Court of Rome nor the Courts of other Princes who have among them taken away all the Primitive and Canonical Rights of the Church which an honest Council must desire to regain being concern'd ever to have one So if a Council were necessary it is not very easy to see how it should be brought together During the Greatness of the Roman Empire it was in the Emperor's power to have brought the Bishops together at his pleasure but now this depends upon the Pope who summons them having obtain'd the consent of the Princes of Christendom which is subdivided into many different Soveraignties This Matter depending then so entirely upon the See of Rome there is no reason to look for one from them for they pretending to have the Infallibility in themselves should very much derogate from that if they summon'd a Council for a decision in Doctrinal Matters they being in possession of judging these at Rome And as for Matters of Discipline except we can imagine that they will be content to part with that Authority which they have assum'd over all Sees and Churches and over all the Canons of the Church we cannot see reason to fancy that they will ever call one If they should the consent of all Soveraigns must likewise be obtain'd for it being a part of the Civil Authority to keep Subjects within the Princes Dominions they cannot be oblig'd to send their Bishops and Divines to a Council unless they please This is a power which seems to belong to them it is certain they claim it and very probably would put it in execution if that matter came to be contested So here are very great Contingencies to be conquer'd before a General Council can be brought together Now it is not very likely that Christ should have left so great and so necessary a power to his Church by which all Controversies must be judged which yet must be at the mercy of so many Accidents before it can be brought to work and that the bringuing together of those Councils should depend so entirely upon them against whose Pretensions or Usurpations it seems to be most necessary But to go more closely to this Opinion If the Infallibility lies in a General Council it is first necessary that we know who are the Members that must constitute this Council whether the Laity have a right to be in it and to Judge or not We find the Brethren as well as the Elders join'd with the Apostles in that first Council to which all subsequent Councils pretend they have succeeded and whose Style It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us is one of the Foundations of this Authority Why then are the Brethren or the whole Church that is Lay Christians whom even the Apostles tho Inspir'd took to consult and judge with them Why I say are they now excluded It is also probable that by Elders or Presbyters are to be meant those to whom that name was afterwards appropriated why then are they shut out In a word If by a Divine Grant Infallibility belongs to a General Council we have a just Right to ask for a Definition of the Council by the same Authority otherwise we may ascribe Infallibility to those to whom God never meant to give it Must this Council consist of all the Bishops of the Christian Church For tho this is both unreasonable and scarce possible yet if the Infallibility is given in common to the Pastors and Bishops of the Church then it will be hard to shut out any from it if because of their distance their Age or their Poverty they cannot come to it and if tho a general Summons is pretended to give all men a right to come yet it is certain that only a few of those who have lived at a distance have come even in the best Ages those few will either be men of a greater degree of Wealth of Heat or of Health and will be probably men pickt out
by their Princes as the fittest to serve their ends Now if the Divine Grant be to the whole Body it will not be easy to shew that even the most numerous of those Meetings that pass for General Councils were truly such Or if it is said that those few of remote Provinces come in the name of the rest and so represent them it must first appear whether such a thing as Infallibility can be deputed indeed where a Controversy is already known Churches may send men fully instructed in their Doctrine who may be thereby well impower'd to declare how the Doctrine and Tradition has been setled among them But if a Judgment is to be made upon the hearing of Parties and the discussing their Reasons on both sides which must be the case otherwise here is no Infallible Judge then in that case men at a distance who never heard the matter but very generally and partially cannot do this therefore such as come to a Council must have the full power of Judging We know that in Fact such Powers or Instructions are seldom given and in these latter Ages they will not at all be allow'd for the Bishops so instructed must be consider'd as the Proxies of their Principals and vote in their name which is contrary to the practice of all Councils exept that of Basile and can never be endured at Rome where every Italian Bishop tho his See is in some places but a small Parish is reckon'd in the Vote equal with any of those few that come from great Provinces Now these are all Difficulties of such weight that it will not be easy to settle them with any Divine Warrants the Scripture being silent as to all such matters Nor is it clear whether the whole Council must agree in the same Sentence or if a major number tho exceeding by one single voice is sufficient If the Council at Ierusalem is insisted on as the Precedent to other Councils we see that All agreed there And if this Infallibility is a power that Christ has left in his Church as necessary for her Peace and Preservation it may be reasonable enough to suppose that for giving their decisions the more Authority he should so order this matter by his Providence that they should all agree in their Judgments For after all when a thing is carri'd but by One vote tho according to the Rules of all Human Courts it must be good in Law yet it is not easy to think that God would lodge such an Authority and suffer it to turn upon so small and so despicable an Inequality In conclusion It does not appear from the Scriptures whether in such decisions the Bishops should expect a Divine Inspiration such as that which setled the Judgment in the Council of Ierusalem or not The meaning of those words It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Vs seems to be this That as they of themselves were resolv'd on making that decision so an immediate Inspiration which was own'd by them all did finally determine them in their Resolution Or it may be suppos'd to relate to that Effusion of the Holy Ghost upon Cornelius and his Friends that being a solemn Declaration that men might be accepted of God while they were yet uncircumcised and that by consequence the Gentiles were not bound to the observance of those Precepts which did not oblige any but such as were circumcised So that what they then decreed was only a general Inference which they drew from that particular case And so they made a decision in favour of all the Gentiles from that which had happened to Cornelius This is the clearest account that can be given of these words which understood otherwise look as if they had added their decision as the giving a further weight to that made by the Holy Ghost or as a Vehicle to convey it which is too absurd to suppose Now if any build upon that Council they must make the parallel just and shew that the Holy Ghost interposes in their Conclusions To all these Considerations we must add this That the first Councils are to be supposed to have understood their own Authority or at least the sense of the Church at that time concerning it They considered the several Passages of Scripture and framed their Decisions out of them which were afterwards defended by some who had been of their Body not as if their Authority or Decision had put an end to the Controversy They urge indeed the great numbers of the Bishops that made those Decisions but use that rather as a strong Inducement to beget a prejudice in their favour than as an Authority that could not be contradicted In this strain does Athanasius defend the Council of Nice For indeed even that of Numbers was to be sparingly urged after the Council at Arimini where Numbers were on the other side The chief Writers of those times make their Appeals to the Scriptures they bring many Passages out of them and are very short and defective in making out the Doctrine of the Church from Tradition or Fathers Athanasius names not above four and these had lived very near that time two of them Origen and Dionysius were claimed by the other Side There are but few and very late Authorities alledged in the Council of Ephesus and those at Chalcedon made their definition chiefly upon the Authority and reguard to Pope Leo's Letter in which there are indeed very many Allegations from Scripture but not so much as one from any Father Thus it is plain both from the Practice of those Councils and the Disputes of those who writ in defence of their Decisions that it was not then believed that they had any Infallible Authority since that is never so much as once claimed by any of that time that I know of a great deal being said to the contrary by many of them It is true there are some high Expressions both in some of the Councils and in some of the Fathers of that time which import that they believed they were directed by God But this is no other than what may be said concerning any Body of Good and Learned men who use a great deal of pious caution in forming their Decisions Therefore great difference is to be made between a plain assuming an Infallible Authority and Rhetorical Hints of their being guided by the Holy Ghost the former does not appear and the latter shews that such as used those ways of speaking did not think them infallible but they believing that they had made good Decisions did upon that presume that they were guided by the Holy Ghost And thus it appears in a great variety of Considerations that we have no reason to believe that there is an Infallibility in a General Council and that we do not so much as know what is necessary to make one And to sum up all that belongs to this Head The Decisions of those Councils must have an Infallible Expounder as well as it
respects as bad as ever this indeed is so slight a thing that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our Religion nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived than the giving any sort of encouragement to it for it is one of the greatest and the most mischievous of all those practical Errors which have corrupted Religion These are the most important parts of our whole Commission and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them that they may sink deep into our own minds and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our Natures and Lives and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness and with better advantages when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the Love and Goodness of God If the Condition of this New Covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts then we should publish them with more life and joy to others and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel on our selves and on our labours DISCOURSE III. Concerning the INFALLIBILITY AND AUTHORITY of the CHURCH AFTER we are well setled in the Belief of the Christian Religion our next enquiry must naturally be into the Way and Method of being rightly Instructed in the Doctrine and other parts of this Religion and that chiefly in one great Point Whether we ought to employ our own Faculties in searching into this and particularly into the meaning of those Books in which it is contain'd or Whether we must take it from Oral Tradition and submit to any man or body of men as the Infallible Depositaries and Declarers of this Tradition In this single point consists the Essence of the differences between us and the Church of Rome While we affirm that the Christian Doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the Scriptures and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps and all the skill and application of which he is capable and that he is bound to believe such Doctrines only as appear to him to be contain'd in the Scriptures but may reject all others that are not founded upon that Authority On the other hand The foundation upon which the Church of Rome builds is this That the Apostles deliver'd their Doctrine by word of mouth to the several Churches as the Sacred Depositum of the Faith That the Books of the New Testament were written occasionally not with intent that they should be the Standard of this Religion that we have these Books and believe them to be Divine only from the Church and upon her Testimony that the Church with the Books gives us likewise the Sense and Exposition of them they being dark in many places and that therefore the Traditional Conveyance and the Solemn Decisions of the Church must be Infallible and ought to be submitted to as such otherwise there can be no end of Controversies while every man takes upon him to expound the Scriptures which must needs fill mens Minds with Curiosity and Pride as well as the World with Heresies and Sects that are unavoidable unless there is a living speaking Judge This they also prove from some places of Scripture such as Christ's words to St. Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and unto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Tell the Church I am with you alway even to the end of the World the Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth This is their Doctrine and these are their chief Arguments upon which it is founded There is no point in Divinity that we should more clearly understand than this for it is in it self of great Consequence and is that which determines all the rest if it is true it puts an end to all other Controversies and if it is false it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that Church that pretends to it without just grounds It is also that which of all others the Missionaries of that Church understand the best and manage the most dextrously they are much practised to it and they begin and end all their practice with this which has fair appearances and will bear a great deal both of popular Eloquence and plausible Logick so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd and as ready on the other side of the Argument they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that Church There is not indeed any one point that I know of that has been open'd and examin'd both with that Beauty and Force that is in Chillingworth's Unvaluable Book upon this Subject Few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a Mathematical Evidence as he has pursu'd this Argument and his Book is writ with such a thread of Wit and Reason that I am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it I shall now endeavour in as narrow a compass as is possible to set this matter in its true Light We must then begin with this That the freedom of a man's Thoughts and Understanding is the most Essential Piece of his Liberty and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited therefore any Restraints that are laid upon him in this must be well and fully proved otherwise it is to be suppos'd that God could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing without giving clear and evident warrants for it And as every Invasion on the Liberties of the Human nature ought to be well made out so every Priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of Mankind ought to be also fully proved before others can be bound to submit to it We perceive in our selves and we see in all others such a feebleness of understanding such an easiness to go too quick and judge too fast and such a narrow compass of knowledge that as we see all Mankind is apt to mistake things so we have no reason to believe that any one is exempted from this but as there are evident Authorities to prove it Since then this is a Priviledge in those that have it as well as an Imposition on those that have it not it ought not to be offer'd at or obtruded on the world without a full Proof Probabilities forced Inferences or even disputable Proofs ought not to be made use of here since we have reason to conclude that if God had intended to put any such thing upon us he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way that there should have been no room to have doubted of it Besides all such things as do naturally give jealousy and offer specious grounds of mistrust ought to be very clear Since
then all Companies of men that lodge themselves in any Authority and more particularly those who manage mens Consciences and the Concerns of Religion have been too often observ'd to enlarge their powers and to make the most of them they could and that by their means Religion has been often and much corrupted the World has from hence a Right to exact very full proofs before they can be bound to believe any such body of men to be exempted from Error This will yet appear the more evident if that very Body in which this Infallibility is suppos'd to dwell has manifestly corrupted the Morals and the order or discipline of this Religion if they have fill'd the world with Fables if they have fallen under gross Ignorance and have been over-run with Vice and Disorder these must afford great occasion of suspecting them in all other things If Impostures have been set up and promoted with great Zeal in some Ages which have in other Ages of more Light and Knowledge been thrown out and disclaim'd and if we find that the same Methods of Craft and Violence which have been practised in all other Societies have been more notoriously and scandalously practis'd by the men of Infallibility then we have from all these things just prejudices given us against this pretension Now a just prejudice amounts to this That we have no reason to believe a thing unless we see very good grounds to believe it and it gives us all reason to suspect those grounds and to examine them well before we are concluded by them Further This being so great a Matter and that which must settle all other things we have just reason to believe That if God has left such Authorities in the World that he has also made it plain where they lie and with whom they are to be found for it is not imaginable that God should have concluded Mankind under such an Authority and yet not have explain'd so necessary a Point as Who are the Depositaries of it but to have left men to their shifts to find that out the best way they can since till this is clear'd the other is of no use There is a dormant Infallibility they say in the Church but no body knows where for it is no Article of Faith in whom it is vested We are where we were only with this disadvantage that if we think we are sure there is an Infallibility in the Church but are not sure to whom it is trusted we may be resisting this Infallibility by opposing those who indeed have it while we adress our selves for it to others who have it not tho we fancy it belongs to them In all Constitutions among men the most evident thing is this Where rests the Supreme Authority of that Constitution And if this is necessary for the order and policy of the World it is much more necessary that if God has devolv'd so main a part of his own Authority and indeed the dispensing of one of his own Attributes this should be so described and circumstantiated that there should be no danger of mistaking and that there should have been such Characters given by which all the World should have been as infallibly directed to this Authority as it was to be infallible in its Decisions When God consign'd such a Character to the Jewish Nation that the Symbol of his presence was to appear and that Answers were to be given out as he was consulted it was expresly declar'd with whom it was lodged and in what Method the High-Priest was to appear before the Lord with the Vrim in the Breast-plate that so there might be no room left for Imposture or even for suspicion Upon all these reasons we have a very just right to demand of those who call us to submit to their Infallibility to give us such plain express and determinate proofs for it as are proportion'd to the Importance and Unusualness of that which they impose upon us It is a vain thing to prove that this must be in the Church because otherwise a great many Absurdities must needs follow if it were not in it When it is once prov'd that God has given it to his Church we shall very willingly yield that he had very good reasons for it since so extraordinary a Power which might be easily imploy'd to very bad purposes certainly was not to be given but for very good ones but it is a very preposterous way to argue That God must have done such a thing because we fancy that it is necessary to prevent some great Evil or to procure some very great Good For this is only to pretend to prove that God ought to have done somewhat that he has not done unless they can at the same time prove that God has done it this is to conclude That his Ways must be as ours are and that his Thoughts must be as our Thoughts We may at this rate prove as well that the Messias should have appear'd much sooner than he did have shew'd his Miracles and even his Body after his Resurrection more publickly than he did This will prove that the Gospel should have been preach'd to many Nations yet in Paganism and this will rather with an advantage in the Argument prove that there should be no sin left in the world and that no man should be left to perish in his sins and so be damn'd for them It will require no great Art to make it appear that these are much more dreadful things and seem to be much more contrary to God's Nature to his Love to Mankind and to his Church but indeed if we will give our selves scope upon this Argument to fancy that God must do every thing which we imagine would be very convenient we should soon frame an Idea both of his Creation and his Providence that is wholly different from what we perceive it to be We are not capable of so vast a Thought as to take in a Scheme of those great Designs that lie in the Eternal Mind and that are scatter'd in a seeming Confusion through his Works and Ways but are beautiful and orderly as they are gathered together in his Ideas We cannot say what is good or evil with relation to the whole nor what are the properest Methods of bringing about the one or of diverting the other so to conclude the arguing that Christ had dealt ill with his Church if he had not made her Infallible unless it is made out that he has done it is only a reproaching him with this That he has not done that which he ought to have done and that he has not been faithful in discharging the Trust committed to him of his Father Therefore all these are false ways of arguing which cannot work on any but such as measure God by themselves The Argument if true is Infinite and has no bounds It does seem to agree much better with the Jewish Oeconomy that an Infallibility should have been lodg'd among them Their
being Typical it was much more reasonable to have expected an Oral Tradition of its signification Their Prophets express'd themselves in a very dark and figurative way full of strange Allusions and lofty Phrases and since these were to lead them to the Messias and yet seem capable of very different Senses all this required an Infallible Expounder They were one Nation so that Unity was in many respects most necessary to their Preservation they were for many Ages strongly set on Idolatry so that a solemn publick and Infallible Authority was the more necessary There were also provisions in their Law much more express than any can be pretended in the New Testament requiring them when they had any Controversies within their Gates to come up to the Temple to the Priest that stood there to minister before the Lord as well as to the Judge and they were upon pain of death to submit to their Determinations This matter is set out in such a variety of large and positive Expressions that tho perhaps that passage belongs to their Law Suits But by the way that of tell the Church seems to be limited to the same sort of matters yet if a parity of Reason or if the Letter of the Law is consider'd this will go much further towards an absolute Submission which seems to suppose an Infallible Authority than any thing that can be alledged for the like out of the New Testament not to mention other Expressions of asking the Law at the Priest's mouth and that his Lips should preserve knowledge for he was the Minister of the Lord of Hosts These things I say seem to make out a very fair Title to Infallibility under the Mosaical Dispensation and they continu'd to be not only the True but indeed the Only Church that God had on Earth till the Dispensation of the Gospel was opened They had still among them the Federal Means of Salvation which is all that is necessary to the Being of a Church Our Saviour join'd both in Temple and Synagogue-Worship which alone is enough to prove them to have been a true Church In this we plainly see the Sophistry of one Argument which perhaps makes some Impression on weak minds That a True Church must be true in its Doctrine it must indeed have those things that are necessary to keep up its Federal Relation to God so the Iews had their Circumcision and Sacrifices together with the rest of the Temple-Service But yet that Church had fallen under two great Errors that had a vast Extent as well as a very fatal Consequence They understood all the Prophecies of the Messias in a literal sense of a Temporal Prince and a Glorious Conqueror Here Oral Tradition fail'd in that which of all other things was the most important for them to understand aright since their mistakes in this occasion'd their rejecting the True Messias which drew on their final Ruin The other Error was also very fatal for it brought them under a vast Corruption of their Morals They thought the ritual part of their Religion was of such high Value in the sight of God that this alone together with many invented Rites that had been handed down to them by Tradition were of such Value in the sight of God that they did compensate for the grossest Immoralities and excuse from the most important Obligations of the Moral Law These things had pass'd down among them by Tradition from their Fathers and had corrupted all their Notions about Religion so that here we see all the arguings from a seeming necessity of things for an Infallible Authority are only vain Imaginations which do not hold in Instances in which we have all the plausible Reasons of looking for them Nor does it appear that it is any greater Imputation on the Goodness of God that he has not provided an Infallible Remedy against Error than that he has not provided an Infallible Remedy against Sin Sin is that which of its own nature bears the greatest opposition to the Attributes of God and to his Dominion and that does defile and corrupt our Souls the most We can much more easily apprehend that God can bear with a man that lives in Error than with one that lives in Sin The one can consist with good Intentions and a Probity and Integrity of heart for he who is in Error may think that he is serving God in it and so it can dwell in the same breast with the Love of God and of our Neigbhour which are driven out by Sin The true design of Religion is to give us such degrees of Light and Knowledge as may preserve us from Sin and purify our Hearts and Lives Holiness is a much more certain Character of a man's being in the favour of God than all the degrees of Knowledge possible Upon all these grounds we may conclude that there is no reason to think that God should have made a more certain Provision against Error than he has made against Sin Now what are the Provisions against Sin God offers the free pardon of all past sins to encourage us to forsake them he gives us secret Assistances to fortify our Endeavours against sin he sets before us unspeakably vast Rewards and Punishments and he accepts of a sincere tho imperfect Obedience so here a great deal is left to the freedom of our Wills God will not work in us as in necessary Agents but having made us capable of Liberty he leaves us to the use of it and if we perish our perdition is of our selves And therefore if we will not apply our Faculties and use our best Endeavours to become truly Holy the blame must lie upon our selves for God will not convey into us by his Power such Principles and Dispositions as shall force us to be good and unless we do what lies in us at the same time that we pray to him for inward Aid from him we have no reason to hope that he will hear us In like manner He has call'd us to a Religion that lies in a very little compass he has order'd it to be deliver'd to us in Books writ in a great simplicity of Style he has given us Understandings capable of knowledge and of great Industry in the pursuit of it and we feel this difference in our natures in seeking after Truth from following after Holiness that there is no natural disposition in us to Error or against Truth whereas there are born in us Propensities that we feel to be deeply rooted in us against Holiness and in favour of sin Among men some are naturally inquisitive made and fitted to dive deep into profound Searches these men do in Religion as well as in all other Arts and Sciences so open and clear the way to slower and lazier minds that they render things easy to them And as we have no reason to imagine that God should have laid insuperable Difficulties in the way to Divine Knowledge so those few that are in it have
Faculties since these passages and that which necessarily relates to them will lead a man into the understanding of the hardest parts of the whole New Testament If this method is let go they must prove the Infallibility of the Church by Arguments drawn from some other Visible Characters by which a man is to be convinc'd that God has made her Infallible If there were such eminent ones as the gift of Tongues Miracles or Prophecies that did visibly attest this here were a proof that were solid indeed It were the same with that by which we prove the Truth of the Christian Religion But then these Miracles must be as uncontestedly and evidently proved they must also belong to this point that is they must be Miracles publickly done to prove the truth of this Assertion But to this Appeal they will not stand what use soever they may make of it to amuse the weaker and the more credulous The Character of an uninterrupted Succession from the days of the Apostles is neither an easier nor a surer one since other Churches whom they condemn have it likewise nor can it be search'd into by a private man unless he would go into that Sea of examining the History the Records and Succession of Churches This is an Enquiry that has in it Difficulties vastly greater and more insuperable than all those that they can object to us If they will appeal to the vast Extent of a Church that so many Nations and Societies agree in the same Doctrine and are of one Communion this will prove to be a dangerous point for in the state in which we see Mankind Numbers make a very bad Argument It were to risque the Christian Religion too much to venture on a Poll with the Mahometans In some Ages the Semi-Arrians had the better at numbers and it is a question if at this day those that are within or without the Roman Communion make the greatest body Nor must a man be put to chuse his Religion by such a laborious and uncertain way of Calculation To plead a continuance in the same Doctrine that was at first deliver'd to the Church by the Apostles is to put the matter upon a more desperate issue For as no man can hope to see to the end of this so it lets a man in into all Controversies when he is to compare the present Doctrine with that which was deliver'd by the Apostles Let then any Character be assign'd that shall oblige a man to believe the Church Infallible and it will soon appear very evidently that the searching into that must put the world on more difficult Enquiries than any of those that we are pressed with and that in the issue of the whole the determination must be resolv'd into a private Judgment Another Difficulty follows close upon this which is In what Church this Infallibility is to be found Suppose a man was born in the Greek Church at any time since the IX Century how shall he know that he must seek the Infallibility in the Roman Communion and that he cannot find it in his own He plainly sees that the Christian Religion began in the Eastern parts and by every step that he makes into History he clearly discerns that it flourished for many Ages most eminently there but now that there is a breach between them and the Latins he cannot judge to which Communion he is to adhere without he examines the Doctrine for both have the outward Characters of a Succession of Martyrs and Bishops of Numbers and an appearance of continuing in the same Doctrine only with this difference that the Greeks have the advantage in every one of these they have more Apostolical Churches I mean founded by the Apostles than the Latins and they have stuck more firmly with fewer Additions and Innovations to their Ancient Rituals than the Latins have done How can he then decide this matter without examining the grounds of their difference and making a private Judgment upon a private Examination of the Scriptures or other Authorities If it be said that the present depress'd and ignorant state of those Churches makes it now very sensible that there can be no Infallibility among the Easterns To this it is to be answer'd that I have put the case all-along from the 9th Century downward In many of those Ages the Greeks were under as good Circumstances and had as fair an appearance as the Latins had if not better for the outward appearances of the Roman Communion in the next Centuries the 10th and 11th are not very favourable even by the Representation that their own Writers have made of them and if we must judge of the Infallibility of a Church by outward Characters it may be urg'd with great shews of Reason that a Church which under all its Poverty and Persecutions does still adhere to the Christian Religion has so peculiar a Character of bearing the Cross and of living in a constant state of Sufferings that if Infallibility be in the Church as a favour and priviledge from God and not as the effect of human Learning and other Advantages I should sooner believe the Greek Church Infallible than any other now in the World But when these difficulties are all got over there remain yet new and great ones Suppose one is satisfi'd that it is in the Roman Church he must know where to find it without this it is of no more use to him than if one should tell a hungry man that there is food enough for him without directing him where to seek for it he must starve after all that general Information if he has not a more particular direction And therefore it seems very absurd to affirm that the believing of Infallibility is an Article of Faith but that the proper Subject in whom it rests is not likewise an Article of Faith This is the general Tenet of the whole Roman Communion who that they may maintain their Union notwithstanding their difference in this do all agree in saying that the subject of this Infallibility is not a matter of Faith This destroys the whole pretension for all the Absurdities of no end of Controversies of private Judgment and every man's expounding the Scriptures do return here and the whole design of Infallibility is defeated For how can a man be bound to submit to this in any one Instance or to receive any proposition as coming from an Infailible Authority if he does not know who has it Thus according to that Maxim of Natural Logick that a Conclusion can have no certainty beyond that which was in both the Premises if it is not certain with whom the Infallibility dwells as well as that there is an Infallibility in the Church all the noise about it will be quite defeated and of no use If a man had many Medecines of which one was an Infallible Cure of such or such Diseases can it be suppos'd that he would communicate these to the World and tell that one of them
was infallible without specifying which of these was the infallible one There are some things that look so extravagant that really it is an absurd thing to suppose them of which this seems to be evidently one That God should have left an Infallibility to his Church and not have declar'd with whom this the greatest of all Trusts to which probably many would pretend was lodged So that this which is the general Doctrine of the whole Roman Communion has an absurdity in it that cannot be reconcil'd to common sense and reason Many among them put it in the whole diffusive body of all Christians to which purpose the words of Vincentius Lirinensis are perpetually repeated but after all this is only to abuse people for if the sense of the Church in all Places and Ages must be sought for here come endless enquiries and some of them cannot possibly be made the History of many Ages and Churches being lost If this is made the Standard as the labour becomes Infinite so after all it resolves into private Judgment since every man must judge as he sees cause and must collect the sense of Ages and Churches from Authors which as they are often both dark and defective so he must understand them as well as he can by his own Judgment and Observation unless some Infallible Expounder or Declarer of their Sense is set up and then the Infallibility is translated from hence to the Expounder And indeed it is so hard to trace a great many points of Controversy thro even the first and best Ages that the Church must fall under great Difficulties if this Hypothesis is assum'd for maintaining the Infallibility And when all is done we see by the performances of the Writers of Controversy that both sides think they can justify themselves by the Ancient Fathers as well as by the Scriptures So that all these Absurdities that are urg'd against apealing to the Scriptures or arguing from them as that to which all Hereticks do fly and in which they shelter themselves will return here with the more force because these Writings are much more Voluminous and are writ in a much more entangl'd and darker Style so that these two Objections lie against this way That it is both vast if not impossible as to the performance of it and next that after all the pains that can be taken in it it is of no use for private Judgment will still remain so that Controversies cannot be ended in this way Others are for the diffusive Church of the present Age and put Infallibility there for they reckon thus That every Age of the Church believes as the former Age believ'd till this is carried up to the Apostles themselves This is to resolve all matters into Oral Tradition and to suppose It infallible and indeed if we can believe that the generality of Christians have in all Ages been wise honest and cautious and that the generality of the Clergy have in all Ages been faithful and inquisitive we may rely upon this and so believe an Infallibility But at the same time and upon this Supposition we shall have no occasion for it since if Mankind could be brought to such a pitch of Reformation there would be no Controversies and so no need of a Judge to decide them Infallibly But if we will admit that which we see to be true and know to have been true in all Ages that men are apt to be both ignorant and careless of Religion that they go easily into such Opinions as are laid before them by men of Authority and Reputation and that they have a particular liking to superstitious Conceits to outward Pomp and to such Doctrines as make them easy in their ill practices then the supposition of every Age's believing nothing but that which it learn'd from the former falls quite to the ground If we can also imagine that the Clergy have been always careful to examine Matters and never apt to add explanations or enlargements even in their own favours or if on the contrary we see a gross Ignorance running through whole Ages if we find the Clergy to have been ambitious and quarrelsome full of Intrigues and Interests then all this general specious prejudice in favour of Oral Tradition vanishes to nothing All this will be easier to be conceiv'd if we state aright the difference between those times and our own Now Printing has made Learning cheap and easy the disposition of Posts the commerce of Letters the daily publication of Gazettes and Journals fill the World with the knowledge of such things as are now in agitation But when all was to be learn'd from Manuscripts Knowledge was both dear and difficult and the methods of communicating with the rest of the World were both slow and often broken so that this thread of Oral Tradition will not prove a sure Guide There is an humour in men to add to most things as they pass through their hands if it were but an Illustration which seems not only innocent but sometimes necessary Those Enlargements would very naturally be soon consider'd as parts of the Doctrine and to these in a constant gradation new Additions might still be made and Inferences from Illustrations would in conclusion become parts of their Doctrine If I did not limit my self in this Discourse it were easy to apply this both to the Doctrines of Redeeming out of Purgatory to those of praying for the dead or invocating Saints and the worship of Images It is confest by the Assertors of this Hypothesis that the whole face of the Latin Church is chang'd both in her Worship and Discipline tho these are more sensible things than points of meer Speculation which in dark Ages could not be much minded whereas the other are more visible and make a more powerful Impression besides that all those changes arise out of some new Opinions to which they related and on which they are founded A change then that is confess'd to be made in the one does very naturally carry us to believe that a change was also made in the other We do all plainly see that some Traditions that come very near the Age of the Apostles and that seem to be Expositions of some parts of the New Testament were chang'd in other Ages The belief of Christ's reigning a Thousand years on earth is one of these for which tho it is now laid aside in that Church there is another face of a Venerable Tradition than for most of their Doctrines We see a practice that was very Ancient and that continu'd very long which arose out of the Exposition of those words Except ye eat my Flesh and drink my Blood ye have no life in you by which Infants were made partakers of the Eucharist was afterwards chang'd in that Church tho it is much less easy to think how that should be done than almost how any other should be brought about for those words being understood of an Indispensible necessity of the
is urged that the Books of the Scriptures cannot be of use to us if there is not in the Church a living speaking Iudge to declare their true sense Now this is rather more necessary with relation to the Decrees of Councils which as they are Writings as well as the Scriptures so they being much more Voluminous and more artificially contrived and couched need a Commentary much more than a few plain and simple Writings which make up the New Testament If then the Councils must be expounded there must be according to their main reasoning an Infallibility lodged somewere else to give their sense And the necessity of this has appeared evidently since the time of the Council of Trent for both upon the Article of Divine Grace and upon their Sacrament of Penance there have been and still are great debates among them concerning the meaning of the Decrees of that Council both Parties pretending that they are of their side Who then shall decide these Controversies and expound those Decrees This must not be laid over to the next General Council for then the Infallibility will be in an Abeyance and lost during that Interval So this Inference leads me to the last Hypothesis That the Infallibility is in the Pope and in him only And it must be confessed that this is the only Opinion that is consistent to it self in all its parts Here is a living and speaking Iudge and if he is not Infallible it is plain that they have no Infallibility at all among them And yet his Infallibility as it is a thing of which no man ever dreamt for the first nine or ten Ages so it has such violent presumptions against it that without very express proof it will not be reasonable to expect that any should believe it The Ignorance of most Popes the Secular Maxims by which they are governed the Political Methods in which they are elected the Forgeries chiefly of their Decretal Epistles by which their Authority was principally asserted and which are now as universally rejected as spurious as they were once owned to be genuine their aspiring to the same Authority in Temporals for many Ages which they have gained in Spirituals their having dissolved the whole Authority of the Primitive Constitutions and Ancient Canons of the Church and all that practice of Corruption that is in all their Courts by which the whole order of the Church is totally reversed All these are such lawful and violent Prejudices against them that they must needs fortify a man in opposition to any such Pretensions till it is very plainly proved These Characters agree so very ill with Infallibility that it is not easy to believe they can be together Since for above 800 years together the Papacy as it is represented by their own Writers was perhaps the worst Succession of men that can be found in any History And it will seem strange if God has lodged such wonderful Power with such a sort of men and yet has taken so little care of them to make them look like the proper Subjects of that Authority We do plainly see that the Primitive Church even when they enlarged their Papal Authority as to Government did it what out of a respect to St. Peter and St. Paul who they believed founded that Church and suffered Martyrdom in it and what or most chiefly out of their regard to the dignity of that City it being the Head of the Empire under which they lived and this appeared by their giving the same Priviledges to Constantinople when it became the Imperial City which was made second to the other and equal to it except only in order and rank But as for the Doctrine of the Church tho still the regard to St. Peter went far yet when Liberius subscribed to Semiarianism it was never pretended that his Authority had in any thing altered the case which must have been urged if he had been believed Infallible The Case of Honorius does fully discover the sense of the Church in the Sixth Century concerning their Infallibility He was condemned as a Monothelite by a General Council which was confirmed by several Popes who did by name condemn him Now we are not a whit concerned in his Cause and Condemnation whether it was just or not and whether it was upon a due examination or not It is enough for us that a General Council as well as several Popes in that Age had never dreamt of Infallibility otherwise they could not have condemned him or believe him capable of Heresy This might be brought down to many later Instances in which several Popes have been charged with Heresy one shall suffice They have pretended to an Authority from Christ to depose Kings and to transfer their Dominions to others This they have not only done by force and violence but by many solemn Decisions in which this Authority has been claimed as founded on several Passages of Scripture not forgetting those In the beginning not In the beginnings did God create and the great light that rules the day these with many more they have urged both from the Old and New Testament This they did with the utmost pomp of solemn Declarations and upon this Head they filled the World with Wars Some few writ against these Pretensions but the Popes stood to them and carried them on in a course of five or six Centuries with all possible vigour And during those Ages this Doctrine grew to be universally received by the Learned and Unlearned by all the Universities all the Divines Canonists and Casuists not one single Person daring to oppose so strong a Current So that Cardinal Perron was in the right when he affirmed that this was the Doctrine universally received in the Church for the last six Centuries without contradiction before Calvin's days and those few that seemed to write against it durst only oppose the Pope's direct Power in Temporals as the Superior Lord to whom Kings were but Vassals but durst not contradict his Authority over them in case of Heresy This then being so publick and uncontested a Point as it shakes the Authority of Oral Tradition and shews how Doctrines even in points in which mens Interests did strongly oppose them could get into the Church though not derived down from the Apostles so it totally destroys the Pope's Pretensions to Infallibility in the Opinion of all such as think this to be simply unlawful and that it subverts the Order which God has setled in the World For there is not any one Fact in History that can be less contested than that the Popes have assumed this Authority and that they have vouched Divine Warrants for it To this also we may well add another train of Difficulties about the Right to chuse this Pope in whom it is vested what number is necessary for a Canonical Election and how far Simony voids it and who is the Competent Judge of the Simony or in the case of different Elections who shall judge which of
the two pretending Popes was truly chosen It must also be cleared in what form he is to proceed when Infallibility accompanies his Decisions whether he may proceed upon his own sense or with the advice of others and who these must be and what Solemnities in the Publication are necessary to make him speak ex Cathedra Here a great variety of Difficulties arise which ought to be well cleared to us before we can be bound to acquiesce in so great a Point as his Infallibility And we ought to have these things made out by a Divine Authority for if Christ has made a special grant of Infallibility to the Bishops of Rome no Forms nor Rules invented by men can limit that These may be Rules agreed on as fit to be observed but after all if a Pope is Infallible by a Commission from Jesus Christ he must be believed Infallible tho he should break through all those Forms that men have only invented It remains then that we consider those Proofs that are brought to confirm this since without very good ones it is extream unreasonable to urge such a Point or to expect that it should be submitted to Here all that was said formerly against proving this matter from Scripture is to be remembred But waving that in this place the Passages that seem to be formal for the Church in general are brought to support the Papal Authority For if great Powers are given to the Church and if it does not appear that they are any where else then they must be found in him he being the Church-Representative But this is an absurd Imagination unless they can shew us that God has lodged that Representation in that See As for that of 18. St. Matthew 17. for telling the Church and that such as do not hear it shall be to us as Heathens and Publicans it must be confess'd that these words barely in themselves and as separated from all that went before seem to speak out all that they plead for but when the occasion of them and the manner that governs them is consider'd nothing is plainer that our Saviour is here speaking only of such quarrellings and differences as may happen to fall out among Christians who are by these words oblig'd to try all amicable ways of setling them First by private endeavours then by the interposition of Friends and finally by the Authority of that Body or Church to which they belong'd and such as could not be prevail'd on by those methods were to be esteem'd no true Christians but to be look'd on as Heathens or as very bad men They might upon that be excommunicated and prosecuted afterwards in Civil Courts since they had no right any more to the Tenderness and Charity that ought to be among the Members of the Church This Exposition has a fair appearance and looks like being true to say no more at present for that is enough according to what was formerly laid down since the proofs of such a matter as this is ought to be full and home This seems to look more favourable towards the way of the Congregational Churches in which the whole Assembly of the Brotherhood govern all their Concerns but does not so much as by a hint seem to favour the pretensions either of Popes or Councils That Character of the Church given by St. Paul that it is the Pillar and Ground of Truth is a figurative form of Speech upon which it is never safe to build much less to lay so much weight upon it It is a Description that the Iews gave to their Synagogues and is by St. Paul appli'd to the Church of Ephesus for it is visible that it has no relation to the Catholick Church it being only an enforcing consideration to oblige Timothy to a greater caution in his Behaviour there It has visibly a relation to Inscriptions that were made on Pillars but what ever be the strict Importance of the Phrase it is clear that it is but a Phrase and therefore it cannot bear that which is raised upon it Some Reflections have been already made on those Promises of Christ to his Apostles that the Spirit should lead them into all Truth which plainly related to the infallible Conduct under which they were to be put but from these words themselves there is no reason to infer that the Promises were to descend to any after them they relate to an immediate Inspiration so if they prove any thing they prove too much That the Church must still have in it a successive Inspiration It is urg'd that a parity of Reason leads us to conclude That this Promise was still to continue tho not in the same manner in the Church But all such Arguments are only conjectural Inferences and are at best but probabilities so that there is no arguing from them and therefore this can signify nothing Those words of our Saviour's with which St. Matthew concludes his Gospel Lo I am with you always even to the end of the world infer no Infallibility but import only a promise of Assistance and Protection which was a necessary encouragement to the Apostles who were sent out upon so hard and laborious as well as dangerous Commission In both Testaments by God's being with any by his walking with them his being in the midst of them his never leaving them nor forsaking them no more is meant but that he watches over them that he directs assists and protects them and there being a vast difference between all this and Infallibility it can prove noting of that kind So that in conclusion the whole matter must turn upon the words of Christ to St. Peter for these do not relate to the Church in general but seem to belong particularly to him yet there is not so much as a hint given to lead us to apply them to his Successors nor does he give any himself when he was writing his Second Epistle not long before his death since he mentions a Revelation that he had of its being near him yet he does not in those last Warnings against the Corrupters of this Holy Religion give so much as a remote Intimation of any Authority that he was to leave behind him for the Government of the Church and preserving it pure both from Error and Immorality Nor were these words of Christ's so much as pretended for many Ages to import any Authority or Infallibility lodg'd with St. Peter's Successors I do not now question his being at Rome tho that matter is really so doubtful that even there we are far from any degree so much as of human Certainty But to go on with those words of our Saviour's to St. Peter there is one great presumption that lies against any pecular Authority given to him by them since we see not the least appearance either in the Acts of the Apostles or Epistles of any peculiar Appeals or References made to him On the contrary he seems to be call'd to an account for his
going to Cornelius and baptizing the Gentiles he only delivers his Opinion as one person in the Council of Ierusalem but St. Iames gives the definitive Sentence St. Paul never makes any Appeal to him in the Contests of which he writes He settles matters and makes Decisions without ever having recourse to his Authority He seems on the contrary to avoid it and when probably some of the Judaisers among the Galatians were appealing to him or at least to some practices of his St. Paul shews how he had fail'd in those matters for tho the Apostles were so govern'd by Divine Inspiration that they could not err nor be mistaken in points of Doctrine yet as to their Actions they were left to the freedom of their own Wills and so humane frailty might in some Instances have prevail'd over them It is evident from that Epistle that St. Paul own'd no dependance upon him nor did he submit in any sort to him as having any degrees in his Commission or Authority superiour to his own These are all such pregnant Intimations as make it more reasonable to give such a sence to those words as will import no special Authority given to St. Peter since it does not appear that either St. Peter or the Apostles themselves understood them so for since they persist afterwards to have their Disputes which of them was the greatest it is plain they did not understand this to be the Importance of our Saviour's Words And it is as plain that no part of the Scripture-History makes for this but very much against it Now as to the words themselves they begin with an Allusion to his Name and Phrases built upon such Allusions are seldom to be strictly and Grammatically understood By Vpon this Rock will I build my Church many of the Fathers have understood the Person of Christ others which amounts to the same thing faith in him or the Confession of that faith for strictly speaking the Church can only be said to be founded upon Christ and his Doctrine In a secondary Sense it may indeed be said to be founded on the Apostles and upon St. Peter as the first in Order as well as the forwardest among them and since the Apostles are all reckon'd Foundations tho this should be allow'd to be the meaning of these words which yet is a sense in which they were not taken for many Ages it will import nothing peculiar to St. Peter What follows of the gates of hell 's not being able to prevail against it may either be understood according to the Greek Phrase Death which is often thus represented as the entrance to the Grave which is the signification of the word rendered Hell and then the meaning is That the Church which Christ was to found was never to come to a period and to die as the Iewish Religion was then to do Or by a Phrase common among the Iews who understand by Gates the Wisdom and Strength of a Place since their Court and Councils were held near their Gates these words may signify That all the powers of Darkness with all their force and spite should not be able to bear down or destroy this Church but this does not bar any Errors or Corruptions from creeping into any part of it for the word rendred prevail properly signifies an entire Victory by which it should be conquered and extirpated As for the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven that Christ promised to give to him it must again be consider'd that these words are figurative so that it is never safe to argue from them since Figures are capable of larger and narrower Significations No man will carry them so far as to think that the power of giving or denying Eternal Life is hereby put in St. Peter for that is singly in the Mediator's hands This shews how difficult it is to know how much is to be drawn from a Figure By Kingdom of Heaven through the whole Gospels with very few or no exceptions we find that the Dispensation of the Messias is to be understood this appears evident from the first words with which both St. Iohn Baptist and our Saviour begun their preaching Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and this is the sense in which it is taken in all those Parables to which our Saviour compares the Kingdom of Heaven and in those words the Kingdom of Heaven is among you and it cometh not with observation or the like This being laid down as that which will soon appear to every one that shall attentively read the Four Gospels then by the Keys of the Dispensation of the Messias the most natural and least forc'd signification and that which agrees best with those words of the same figure he that hath the Key of the house of David he that openeth and no man shutteth and that shutteth and no man openeth and also with the Phrase of the Key of knowledge by which the Lawyers were described for they had a Key with writing Tables given them as the Badge of their Profession which naturally imported that they were to open the door for others entring into the knowledge of the Law With which our Saviour reproach'd them that they entred not in themselves and hinder'd those that were entring From all these hints I say we may gather that according to the Scripture-phrase by the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven is meant that St. Peter was first to open the Dispensation of the Gospel which he did in the first preaching of it to the Iews after the wonderful Pentecost and this was yet more eminently perform'd by him when he first open'd the door to the Gentiles to which the words of the Kingdom of Heaven seem to have a more particular respect This Dispensation was committed to him and executed by him and seems to be claim'd by him as his peculiar Priviledge in the Council at Ierusalem so we may safely conclude that this is the natural meaning of these words and is all that was to be imported by them and those who carry them further must use several distinctions lest they give St. Peter that which belongs only to our Saviour himself What follows concerning the binding and loosing in Heaven whatsoever he should bind or loose on earth is no special Priviledge of St. Peter's since we find the same words said by our Saviour to all his Apostles so that this was given in common to all the Apostles According to the sense now given of the Kingdom of Heaven these words will be easily understood which are otherwise very dark but they are full of Figures and so are not to be too far stretch'd By binding and loosing we find the Rabbins do commonly understand the affirming or denying the Obligation of any Precept that was in dispute This then being a common form of speech among the Iews a genuine Paraphrase of these words is That Christ committed to the Apostles the dispensation of his Doctrine to the
World in which they should be authoris'd to dissolve the Obligation of the Mosaical Laws and to confirm such parts of them as were Moral and perpetually binding which the Apostles should do with such visible Characters of a Divine Authority empowering and conducting them in it that it should be very evident that what they did on Earth was ratified in Heaven These words thus understood carry in them a plain sense which agrees well with the whole design of the Gospel but whatsoever may be their sense it is plain that there was nothing here peculiarly given to St. Peter As for our Saviour's praying for St. Peter that his faith might not fail and his restoring him to his Apostolate by a threefold charge feed my sheep or lambs it has such a visible relation to his fall and threefold denial that it is not worth the while to enlarge on or to shew that it is capable of no other signification and cannot be carried further And thus I have gone through all that is brought from the Scriptures for asserting the Infallibility of the Church and in particular of the Pope's and have I hope fully shew'd that they cannot bear that sense but that they must genuinely bear a plainly different sense which does no way differ from our Doctrine It was necessary to clear all this for tho as was before made out it is no proper way for them to resolve their Faith by passages out of Scripture yet these are very good objections to us who upon other Reasons do submit to their Authority There remains but one thing now to be clear'd which is this If the Church is not Infallible it does not easily appear what certainty we can have concerning the Scriptures since we believe them upon the Testimony of the Church and we have no other knowledge concerning them but what has been handed down to us by Tradition If therefore this is fallible we may be deceiv'd in our persuasion even concerning them But here a great difference is to be made between the carrying down a Book to us and the Oral Delivering of a Doctrine it being almost as hard to suppose how the one could sail as how the other should not fail The Books being in many hands spread over the whole Churches and read in all their Assemblies makes this to be a very different thing from discourses that are in the Air and to which every man that reports them is apt to give his own Cue A great difference is also to be made between the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judge If in any Age of the Church Councils had examin'd controverted Writings and had upon that past Sentence this had been in deed a judging the matter but no such thing ever was The Codex of the Scriptures was setled some Ages before any Provincial Council gave out a Catalogue of the Books which they held as Canonical For no ancient General Council ever did it and tho the Canonical Epistles of which there not being such a certain Standard they not being addrest to any particular Body that had preserv'd the Originals were not so early nor so universally receiv'd as the others were yet the matter was setled without any Authoritative Judgment only by examining Originals and such other Methods by which all things of that nature can only be made out But this matter having been so fully consider'd and stated in another Discourse I shall dwell no longer on it in this As for the Authorities which are brought from some of the Ancients in favour of the Authority of the Church and of Tradition it is to be considered that though the word Tradition as it is now used in Books of Controversy imports a sense opposite to that which is written in the Scripture yet Tradition is of its own signification a general word that imports every thing which is delivered And in this sense the whole Christian Religion as well as the Books in which it is contained was naturally called the Tradition of the Apostles So that a great many things said by Ancients to magnify the Tradition of the Apostles and by way of Appeal to it have no relation to this matter Besides when men were so near the Apostolical Age that they could name the Persons from whom they had such or such hints who had received them from the Apostles or from Apostolical men Tradition was of another sort of Authority and might have been much more safely appealed to than at the distance of so many Ages Therefore if any thing is brought either from Irenaeus or Tertullian that sounds this way here is a plain difference to be observed between their Age and ours which does totally diversify it But to convince the World how early Tradition might either vary or misrepresent matters let the Tradition not only in but before St. Irenaeus's time concerning the observation of Easter be considered which goes up as high as St. Polycarps's time We find that as the several Churches adhered to the practices of those Apostles that founded them so they had quite forgot the grounds on which it seems these various Observations were founded Since though it is very probable that those who kept Easter on the Iewish day did it that by their condescendence to the Iews in that matter they might gain upon them and soften their Prejudices against Christianity yet it does not appear that their Successors thought of that at all for they vouched their Custome and resolved to adhere to it nor is there any thing mentioned on either side that give us the account of those early but different Observations If then Tradition failed so near its Fountain we may easily judge what account we ought to make of it at so great a distance Many things are brought with great pomp out of St. Austin's Writings magnifying the Authority of the Church in terms which after all the allowances that are to be made for his diffuse and African Eloquence can hardly be justified Yet when it is considered that he writ against the Donatists who had broke the Vnity of the Church upon the pretence of a matter of fact concerning the Ordainers of Cecilian which had been as to the point of fact often judged against them And yet as they had distracted the whole African Churches so they were men of fierce and implacable Tempers that broke out daily into acts of great fury and violence and had set up a principle that must for ever break the Peace and Union of the Church which was that the vertue of all the publick Acts of Worship of Sacraments and Ordinances depended upon the personal worth of him that officiated so that his Errors or Vices did make void all that past through his hands Now when so warm a man as St. Austin had so bad a Principle and so ill a disposition of mind in view it is no wonder if he brought out all that he could think on upon the subject so
no wonder if he raises the Authority and the Priviledges of the Church to a vast height Yet after all these were not his setled thoughts for he goes off from them whensoever he has an eye on his Disputes against the Pelagians for the System which he had framed in those Points could not bear with any other Notion of the Church but that of the persons predestinated to whom all the Promises belonged And thus whatever he himself asserts in his zeal against the Donatists comes to be thrown down when the Pelagians are in his view so we see from hence how much deference is due to his Authority in this Point The last head relating to this whole matter is to explain in what the Authority of the Church does consist what it is both in matters of Faith and Discipline As to matters of Faith it is certain that every Body of men is bound to study to maintain its own Order and Quiet and must be authoris'd to preserve it otherwise it cannot long continue to be one Body This binds the Body of Christians yet much more who are strictly charged to love one another to worship God with one heart and mouth to be of the same mind and judgment to assemble themselves together and to withdraw from all such as cause divisions or corrupt the great Trust of the Faith committed to their keeping It must be therefore a great part of the duty of those that are bound to feed the flock to observe when any begin to broach new Opinions that they may confirm the weak and stop the mouths of gainsayers which as the Apostles themselves did during their own lives so by the charges that they gave to the Churches in their Epistles and more fully by those given to Timothy and Titus it appears that a main part of their Care and Authority was to be employ'd that way When therefore any new Doctrines are started or when there arise Disputes about any part of Religion the Pastors of the Church ought to consider whether or not it is in a matter of any great consequence in which the Faith or Lives of men may be concerned If the point is not of a great importance it is a piece of wisdom to connive at lesser matters and to leave men to a just freedom in things where that freedom is not like to do hurt only even there care is to be taken to keep men in temper that they become not too keen in the management of their Opinions and that they neither disturb the Peace of the Church nor State upon that account If the matters appear to be great either in themselves or in the consequences that are like to follow upon them then the Pastors of the Church ought to consider them with an equal and impartial mind they ought to here Parties fully and weigh their Arguments carefully they ought to examine the sense of the Scriptures and of the best times of the Church upon those Heads and finally to give Sentence In which two things are to be considered the one is That great regard is due to a Decision made by a Body of men who seem to have acted without prejudice or interest For I confess it will be very hard to maintain such a respect for a Company in which matters are carried with so much Artifice and Intrigue as even Cardinal Palavicini represents in the management of the Council of Trent where Bishops were caressed or threatned well paid or ill used as they gave their Voices Such a proceeding as this will rather inflame than allay the opposition but a fair and equitable a just and calm way of examining matters of dispute will naturally beget a respect even in such as cannot yield a submission to their Decrees After all it must be confessed That no Man can be bound to a blind Submission unless we suppose an Infallibility to be in the Church yet Private Men owe to Publick Decisions when decently made a due respect they ought to distrust their own judgments and examine the matter more accurately But if they are still convinc'd that the Decision is wrong they are bound to persist in their own thoughts only they ought to oppose modestly to consider well the Importance of Order and Peace and whether their Opinion even suppose it true is worth the Noise that may be made about it or the Disorders that may follow upon it After all If they are still convinced that their Opinions are true and that they relate to the indispensible Duties of Religion or the necessary Articles of Christianity they must go on as they will answer it to God upon the sincerity of their Hearts and the fulness of their Convictions So that the Definitions of the Church may have very good Effects even when it is not pretended that they are Infallible Another thing to be consider'd in those Decisions is That though they are not Infallible yet they may have Authority in this respect That they are the established Doctrine of such a Body of Christians who will have no other to be taught among them and will admit none to be of their Body or at least to be a Teacher among them who is not of the same mind In this it is certain great Tenderness and Prudence is to be used and the natural liberty of Mankind is not to be too much limited But yet as any Man may fix and declare his own Opinion so certainly by a much greater parity of reason any Society or Body of Men may declare their Opinions and so far fix them as to exclude all other Doctrines and the Favourers of them from being of their Body or from bearing any Office in it So that though such Decisions do not enter into Mens Consciences nor bind them further than as they are convinced by the Reasons and Authorities upon which they are founded yet they may have a vast influence on the Order and Peace of Churches and States As to Rituals it is certain that there are many little Circumstances and Decencies that belong to the Worship of God the Order of Religious Assemblies and their Administrations and that in these the Pastors of a Church by the Natural Right that all Societies have to keep themselves in order must have a Power to determine all things of this nature This becomes yet clearer in the Christian Societies from the Rules that the Apostles gave to the Churches To do all things in Order and for the ends of Edification and Peace There is not one of the Rules laid down in Scripture concerning the Sacraments or the Officers of the Church to which many Circumstances do not belong now either these must be all left to every Man's liberty which must needs create a jarring disagreement in the several parts of this Body that would both breed confusion and look very ridiculous and absurd or there must be an Authority in the Pastors of the Church to meet together and to settle these by mutual consent
Deceency and Beauty as may carry on the Order and Edification of the Church and since some Actions seem to have a very natural tendency to give good Impressions and to raise a seriousness and awe for Divine Performances these may be also appointed by those who are to feed teach and guide their people We see the Iews tho their Religion seems to have in it a sufficient share of Rituals did add a great many Ceremonies to those which Moses gave them They had in their Pascal-Supper a thick sawce of Dates Almonds and Figs pounded together and wrought up into the form of Clay to remember them of the Clay of which their Fathers had made Bricks in the Land of AEgypt and yet our Saviour observ'd this Paschal-Supper with the same addition for this was probably the sawce into which Iudas dipt the Sop. They had likewise a form of Initiating Proselytes into their Religion by Baptism not mention'd in the Old Testament and after this Paschal-Supper the Table was spread a second time and nothing but Bread and Wine was set on it yet tho these two last mention'd were Rites added by them to the Divine Institution our Saviour was so far from condemning them for those additions that he took these and hallow'd them to be the two Foederal Rites of his own Religion Nor does he so much blame the Pharisees for the observation of those Rites which Tradition had handed down to them as because they set that value on them as to make the Laws of God of no effect upon their account when those voluntary assum'd Ceremonies were preferr'd by them to the Moral Law it self so that the over-valuing of Rituals and the imagining that by them Compensation can be made to God for the weghtier Matters of the Law Faith Justice and the Love of God is indeed severely reprimanded by our Saviour but the bare observance of them is no where censur'd by him On the contrary The whole service of the Synagogues was only a human Institution no print of any Divine Precept appearing for it in the whole Old Testament yet our Saviour came to their Synagogues and bore a share in the Acts of Worship that were perform'd there A Feast was Instituted by the Maccabees in commemoration of their having purg'd the Temple from Idolatry which was observ'd by our Saviour and the whole New Testament is full of allusions to some Forms and Rites which were their practised by the Iews in their Worship tho no where instituted in the Old Testament There are also some Precepts given in the New Testament about Ritual Matters which are now taken away only by disuse that is by the Authority of the Church that has discontinu'd the practice of them such is the Decree that the Apostles with the rest at Ierusalem made against the eating of meats strangled or offered to Idols or of blood which as they are join'd with Fornication so the prohibition of them is reckon'd among necessary things yet these are now no more consider'd as forbidden that prohibition being lookt on either as a compliance with the Iews in those precepts which they believe were given to the Sons of Noah or as a direction to keep the Christians at a due distance from all compliances with the Gentiles in their Idolatrous practises And now that all regards to the Iews have ceased with God's rejecting them from being his people at the destruction of Ierusalem and all danger of coming too near the practices of the Gentiles is likewise at an end we living no more among Heathenish Idolaters the nature of the things prohibited by that Decree not being evil in themselves when the ground of the Prohibition ceases all men reckon that the Prohibition must be at an end Here then the Authority and Practice of the Church seems to be strong even in bar to an Apostolical Decree and none of those Bodies that are offended at our Rituals have revived this So at least this Argument is of force against those who do it not for certainly a greater degree of Authority is necessary to take away a practice that has the face of a plain Commandment in Scripture enjoining it than for adding such Rites as are recommended by new Emergencies To this may be added the Practice and Rules given by the Apostles concerning Deaconesses Phoebe and others are mention'd that serv'd in that Function St. Paul also in the Rules that he gives concerning the Age the Qualifications and the Functions of the Widows seems plainly to mean them and we do certainly know that they were in the first Ages of Christianity and were imploy'd in the Instruction and about the Baptism of such women as were converted to the Faith But when afterwards some Scandals rose upon them as the Council of Nice prohibited the Clergy to keep any women that were not very nearly related to them in their houses so in the Fifth Century upon some publick Scandals given by them we find that as they were put down in the Western Church by several Provincial Synods so they insensibly wore out of the Greek Church and yet none in our days have endeavour'd to revive this Institution The kiss of peace was likewise us'd in the Apostles times and is mention'd in their Epistles yet that Rite being perhaps made use of by prophane Scoffers to represent the Assemblies of the Christians as too licentious for the black and unjust Imputations cast on their Meetings seem to have no other Foundation but this it wore out of practice and I do not hear that any in our days have endeavour'd to bring it again in use We see likewise that they had Love-feasts before the Eucharist which was taken from the Iews and tho St. Paul complains of some abuses in this practice he does not condemn it nor order it to be let fall yet it wore out and is not now offer'd to be reviv'd by any among us Thus we see that as to Matters that are expresly mention'd in Scripture with warrants that seem to impose them as standing Rules upon succeeding Ages the abuses or unfitness which afterwards appear'd in them were thought sufficient Reasons for departing from them To these Instances another may be added that must needs press all that differ from us one Body only excepted very much We know that the first Ritual of Baptism was by going into the Waters and being laid as dead backwards all-along in them and then the persons baptized were rais'd up again and so they came out of them This is not only mention'd by St. Paul but in two different places he gives a Mystical Signification of this Rite that it signified our being buried with Christ in Baptism and our being raised up with him to a new life so that the Phrases of rising with Christ and so putting on Christ as oft as they occur do plainly relate to this and yet partly out of modesty partly in regard to the tenderness of
personal and cannot be derived or descend The only Holiness that he could derive was a right to consecrate the common Issue to God which is in some sort a Sanctifying of one another This is a plain and natural meaning of these words and tho they should not seem to imâ—port it so necessarily but that other glosses might be put upon them yet the early practice of the Church mention'd by Irenaeus Tertullian and most copiously by St. Cyprian seems to be a sure Commentary upon them this being a ritual and visible thing in which we may much more safely have recourse to Tradition than in matters of Doctrine it being here remembred That a Practice without warrant in Scripture is not to be so regarded as a Practice that seems to have favourable if not clear warrants for it in Scripture This also agrees with the natural Order of the World Children being put in the power of their Parents by the Laws of Nature who considering their Incapacity must act in their Name and may both procure Rights and Priviledges to them and also lay ties and engagements upon them It is then suitable to the extent of the mercy of God in the Gospel that Parents may offer up their Children to Christ that they may be tied by them to his Religion and received into the blessings and privileges of it When this whole matter is thus laid together I doubt not but the lawfulness of Infant-Baptism will evidently appear and if it is Lawful then according to what was at first made out the Church may oblige all her Members to it The Practice of having Sponsors being but an increase of the security given for the Person 's Education in Christianity the care of the Parents being supposed as already bound upon them by their natural Relation to their Children and it being a great mean if well managed of knitting Neighbours together in new and Christian Bonds all Exceptions to such a Custom seem very ill-grounded and their answering so positively in the Name of the Child does according to the nature of all Acts in the Name of Infants import only that as far as in them lies care shall be taken that the Infant shall make good those engagements in due time Our affirming so positively That all Children who are Baptized and die before they grow to be capable of committing any actual Sin are certainly saved does not only agree with the Idea's of the infinite goodness of God but also with this declaration That the Promises of the Gospel are made to all Christians and to their Children The most general Scruple against our Form in Baptism remains yet to be discussed That we have added to it the Sign of the Cross which is a piece of Popish Superstition Indeed if we use it as was formerly observed as they do with an adjuration of the Devil to go out and not to presume to violate the Sign of the Cross if we breathed cross-ways and pretended by that to infuse Divine Virtues and Blessings here were just objections for in so doing we should assume a power to make Sacraments and to affix Divine Powers to Institutions of our own Therefore nothing of this being retained among us all the Papistical and Superstitious use of the Cross in Baptism is thrown out But since the Primitive Christians did so glory in the Cross that in stead of being ashamed of the Reproach of it they used it upon most occasions Our Reformers designing to restore Primitive Christianity thought that though the abuse of this to so much Superstition made them supercede the frequent practice of it yet in this first initiation to Christianity it was reasonable to use it once for all but with words that shewed they retained none of the Superstitious Conceits of Popery and meant only thereby to own the receiving all Christians into the Doctrine of the Cross and to an obligation to follow Christ bearing his Cross. And thus it is plain that this practice is in it self not only innocent but decent and that there were very plausible Reasons to say no more for enjoining it so that the not using it is the disobeying a just Authority in a lawful Injunction Kneeling in the Eucharist seems not only liable to an imputation of Idolatry but is also under this further prejudice that it is in none of the Ancient Rituals On the contrary we have all reason to believe that for many Ages they did communicate standing since all kneeling in Churches on Sundays or in the time between Easter and Whitsunday was esteemed a crime in Tertullian's time and was forbidded by a Canon of the Council of Nice This Being that of all the Objections raised against us that touches in the tenderest part since this is the great Symbole of the Union of Christians and that in which most formally the Communion of the Church consists it will be necessary to examine it very narrowly It is then first to be considered that outward Actions do signify only that which by a general consent or an express declaration is agreed on as their sense and importance Kneeling to Kings is understood to be only the highest Act of Civil Respect and therefore it is liable to no imputation of Idolatry Therefore if there is an express declaration made of the importance of this Action that it is neither an Adoration of the Bread and Wine nor of the Person of Christ as supposed Corporally present but only a worshipping of God in the acknowledgment of the great Blessings there exibited to us then this Posture cannot be stretched beyond this express Declaration nor is this that kneeling which is enjoined by the Church of Rome for that is only a falling down at the Elevation in acknowledgment of the miraculous change then made Whereas ours is a continued posture of Prayer in which we continue during the whole Office So that Kneeling as used by us does in many respects differ from the Knoeling used in the Church of Rome As for that specious Pretence That in the Primitive times they did not kneel at the receiving the Sacrament it is only an appearance of a Reason In the Primitive times they had a notion of Kneeling as an abject Posture which only became Penitents or the times of fasting They thought that upon other occasions standing in Prayer had an appearance of faith and confidence in God and agreed with those comfortable assurances and that joy to which we are called in the Gospel And therefore those who were in the full peace of the Church were to stand up at Prayers which was most indispensably observed on Sundays and the Fifty days from Easter to Pentecost But standing was then their posture of Prayer so they received the Sacrament in the posture appropriated to Prayer and it were easy to shew from those wery Fathers who mention standing as the posture in which the Eucharist was received that they did consider it as a posture of Adoration and so required all