constant and familiar converse with their Master or else from that plentiful Effusion of the Holy Ghost which He vouchsafed them immediately upon His Restauration to His Heavenly Kingdom That which was thus wonderfully bestowed upon them their Successors are forc'd to acquire by hard Study great Industry frequent and fervent Address to the Fountain of Wisdom For not only the Knowledge of Languages a Calmness of Mind neither ruffled with the storms of Passion nor distracted with the Cares of the World but likewise a piercing Judgment to distinguish between the Literal and Figurative sense to weigh the scope and coherence of things to compare one place with another to illustrate obscure Texts by those which are more plain to consult and find out the sense of Antiquity is required to a right understanding of the Scriptures For they do not only contain things of themselves hard to be understood but moreover those very things are rendred more difficult by the Malice of Satan and the Cunning of his Agents The Enemy hath sown such a prodigious quantity of Tares that 't is very hard sometimes to find out the Wheat What wonder then if such a spawn of Monstrous Opinions flow from the Scriptures falling either into prophane hands or being interpreted by a private self-conceited and unruly Spirit If St. Paul who was caught up into the third Heavens and was even oppress'd with Revelations nevertheless cryes out as well for the Difficulty as the Dignity of his Function Who is sufficient for these things Then certainly it can be no Disparagement to the Laity however quick-sighted they may be in other Affairs to suppose them not such competent Judges here as those of the Clergy are And indeed we hear of very few though never such Despisers of the dull Clergy in their life-time but are very willing to admit of their advice and assistance when they come to Dye IV. Fourthly and lastly The necessity of this Submission appears as 't is the only means to restore Peace and Unity to the Church Happiness and Tranquillity to the State how ineffectual the several Projects of Comprehension Toleration unwarrantable Compliance have proved to effect the Work of Coalition I mean to Compose those Differences and Unite those Divisions which so furiously Rage among us we either are or 't is to be feared by sad Experience may be Taught These Projects can only lay claim to an imaginary Happiness and however plausible they may seem in the Notion yet may they prove dangerous in the Practice at least not attain the ends for which they were design'd For in truth as well may we expect To gather Grapes from Thorns or Figs from Thistles as that a Toleration of Disagreements should produce the blessed Fruits of Peace and Concord These are Contraries and destroy each other Now what other Expedient have we left but the Restoring and Asserting the Discipline of the Church That so they who will neither Hold the Faith nor keep a good Conscience by being deliver'd up to Satan may learn at least not to blaspheme Many and grievous are the Guilts which are charg'd upon the Church of Rome yet such is the Exactness of Her Discipline and the Obedience of Her Sons and Daughters consequent upon it as hath hitherto preserv'd Her from Ruine Now if our Fears of the Increase of Popery be as real as they are pretended methinks it should be no ill Policy to learn Wisdom from our Adversaries for that which preserves a Corrupted Church from Falling in all likelihood will make a Pure One to Flourish However we are little the better for being deliver'd from the Slaveries of an Implicit Faith and Foreign Superstition if we run into Licentiousness Infidelity and Irreligion at Home For who is so blind as not to see that Irreverence and Disrespect for the Lord's Clergy hath been accompanied with a manifest Decay of Piety and a notorious Contempt of the most Essential Parts of Religion That want of Submission to the Just and Piously Determinations of the Church no less Justly and Piously ratified and established by the King and State hath given Birth to such monstrous Variety of Opinions as hath scarce left any Fundamental of the Faith unquestion'd if not denied Atheism creeping in by insensible degrees from indulging too great a Latitude in Matters of Religion And now in the Close of All Let every Man seriously consider with himself the Hainousness and Danger of Schism and the blessed Effects of Obedience The Danger of Schism in that it breaks the precious Vnity of the Church alienates the Affections of the Members thereof Who as they have but one Faith so they should have but one Soul And so instead of Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Forbearance Meekness Temperance those lovely Fruits of the Spirit which adorn private Men and secure the publick Peace there arise Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Evil Surmising Sedition Heresies Murders those ugly Works of the Flesh which dissolve the Bonds of Society and exclude Men from the Kingdom of God How that the Schismatick is arrested with Fears and Jealousies from without when he considers his Sin of Disobedience against those whom the Lord hath set over him and the Dreadfulness of the Churches Censures when justly incurr'd for his Disobedience How that he is tormented with sad and uncomfortable Reflections from within being Vnstable in all his Ways ever learning but never coming to the Knowledge of the Truth but being abandon'd to the Delusions of a Private Spirit he is miserably toss'd to and fro with every Wind of Doctrine till at length he makes an Eternal Shipwrack of the Faith On the contrary the blessed Effects of Obedience how the Humble Christian by an happy Resignation of his Judgment there where our Lord seems to demand it enjoys a perpetual Peace and Freedom from Dispute together with all his Fellow-Members of the same Mystical Body As for those great Mysteries of Godliness which concern his Salvation though they are above his Reason yet not above his Faith and he had rather rely on the Churches Decisions of them when he finds no place of Scripture plainly contrary to such Decisions than either give way to his own Curiosity or heed to the Disputers of this World left he should thereby wrest them to his own Destruction And this he thinks he may do with less trouble to himself and greater assurance of the Truth and so he continues sound in the Faith without being skill'd in those unhappy Controversies in which the Disputers of this World have involv'd it And this Harmony of Faith and Doctrine is always accompanied with an entire League and Union of Charity that common Badge by which Christians were once distinguish'd from the rest of the World and a Blessed Vniformity of God's Publick Worship and Service whereby the Members of the Church Militant in some sort resemble the Saints of the Church Triumphant In a Word in this Obedience the Humble Christian goes on securely and chearfully in the Ways of God's Commandments And instead of troubling his Head with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Religion practiseth those plain but most important Duties of Godliness Righteousness and Sobriety which will render his Life happy here and crown him with Eternal Felicity hereafter FINIS
within her Governours all Triumphant without they had not defac'd Her Innocent Beauty and made Her Militant in the worst of Sences However they can no way be excused who think they can never be secure from Papal Supremacy but by demolishing the Evangelical Hierarchy and introducing a Presbyterian Parity into the Catholick Church and to avoid the Necessity of having an Infallible Judge leaving every private prepossessed Fancy to the Perspicuity of Scripture whereby men are often bewildred in a Labyrinth of Errors seduc'd into those by-paths which lead to the Pit of Destruction For notwithstanding that Beam of Divine Light which shines so bright in the Scriptures it seems some men have Eyes either so weak as to be dazled at the sight of it or else so blind with Pride or Malice as not to perceive it For St. Peter tells us there are in the Scriptures some things hard to be understood which unlearned and unstable men wrest unto their own Destruction And therefore the Unlearned should do well to consult their Teachers the Unstable those that are found in the Faith which brings me to my second general Consideration That though the Scriptures be clear in themselves yet Private men abandoning their Guides and following their own corrupt Fancies may deprave and distort them to their own destruction Who those Wresters were or what those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are wherewith St. Peter chargeth the Epistles of his beloved Brother Paul I shall not strictly inquire the Apostle having pass'd them over in a profound silence it will be difficult at this distance of time exactly to define yet 't is not improbable that either the Gnostick or Cerinthian Hereticks were here chiefly aim'd at who upon a mistake of some Predictions became the Founders of a Temporal Dominion of Christ after His Resurrection wherein His Followers in their New Jerusalem should wallow in sensual Lusts and Pleasures spend the space of a Thousand Years as in a Nuptial Festivity and enjoy the all that is in the World the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eye and the Pride of Life in as ample and exquisite a manner as the most Epicurean Soul could effect or covet A Fancy in its first Original meerly Jewish afterwards entertain'd by some Judaizing Christians and finally rather rectified than abandoned by some of the Fathers in the Primitive times And if those sublime Wits who had all the Learning which either Jerusalem Athens or Rome could boast were nevertheless mistaken in their Expositions of some abstruse Texts of Scripture whilst they deliver'd their Opinions but as private Doctors what wonder if the unlearned and unstable wrest them to their own Destruction That they have de facto done this is manifest since 't will be hard to instance in any one Century which is not either chargeable with new Heresies or the reviving and improving of old And the most extravagant Opinions which ever yet saw the light have still shrouded themselves under the Patronage of Holy Writ What shall we say then shall we condemn the Scriptures of Sin Shall we say That the Scriptures are of themselves either productive of Error or not a sufficient Store-house of Truth God forbid The Scriptures are Holy Just and Good but private men wrest them to their own Destruction And this they do First By their Ignorance Secondly By their Instability I. First By their Ignorance where it will be presently objected that Ignorance is so far from being a cause of Error or Impiety that in a sober sence 't is truly the Mother of Devotion The Wisdom of this World is given in by Tertullian as the prime Cause of Heresie None were greater Tormentors of the Scriptures than the Philosophers for which Reason they are branded by the same Author with the Title of Arch-Hereticks Particularly the Valentinian Heresie concerning the portentous production of the Gods comes from the Platonists Marcion's Vnconcern'd and Lazy God was first set up by the Stoicks the Mortality of the Soul was the Doctrine of the Epicureans the Impossibility of the Resurrection of the Flesh of the whole stream of Philosophers The Apostle tells us Not many Mighty not many Wise not many Noble were chosen cautions his Proselytes against Philosophy and vain Deceit and concludes the Wisdom of this World Foolishness with God Wherefore by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unlearned in this place we are not to understand Ideots and those who never knew Letters but we must understand those who will not be instructed by the Masters of Divine Wisdom the Nolentes discere those who refuse to hear the Church of the Living God which alone is the Pillar and Foundation of Truth And so their Learning like Julian's only qualifies them to deride the Doctrines of a Crucified God and by their Wisdom they become the more formidable Enemies of Christ's Kingdom Thus if Lucifer the Son of the Morning fall from his Allegiance whole Legions of the Heavenly Host are involv'd in the Rebellion That Heresie spreads like the Contagion of a Leprosie which hath an Arrius for its Founder and a Constantius for its Promoter And the Mahumetan Religion owes as well its monstrous Birth as its fatal Increase to the Malice and Cunning of an Apostate Jew and a Renegado Christian And to give but one instance more but of a far more Modern Date and therefore of more dangerous consequence That unhappy man Socinus a person otherwise of singular Wit and Learning but being in this sense unlearned i. e. having entertain'd so slender a Notion of the Church as to date a general Defection from the very Deaths of the Apostles upon this Perswasion thought it not Robbery to make himself equal to the most Oecumenical Councils to contradict the most receiv'd Doctrines of the Church and from this contempt of his Mother to proceed to that daring pitch of impiety as to deny even the Lord that bought him so dangerous is it for private men to rely solely upon the perspicuity of Scripture or to measure the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Incarnation of the Godhead his Consubstantiality with the Father by the scantling of Humane Reason Cedat curiositas fidei gloria saluti was the Advice of as great a Wit as any Age hath bred Our Curiosity must give place to our Faith the thirst of Temporal Glory to the benefits of Eternal Salvation 'T is true by our Reason we are first dispos'd to be Christians for no Creature beneath the Rational is capable of Divine Revelation but when once we have given up our Names to Christ 't is by our Faith we are saved but if we assent to no Doctrines but such as our Reason fully comprehends this is no longer Faith but Science and so we may continue Infidels whilst we go under the Notion of Christians And since we live in such a knowing Age wherein all captivating the Vnderstanding though it be to the Obedience of Faith is made the subject of Grievance and Complaint And
is so far from lessening the Authority that it rather conciliates reverence to the Judge The Profession of Physick doth not therefore become useless because the Aphorisms of Hippocrates contain the necessary Rules for Health and may be understood by those who are capacitated and will take the pains to do it The Scriptures they do clearly contain the Doctrines of Salvation And one way whereby Christ prov'd himself the true Messias was by answering that Character the Prophets had given of Him that the Poor should have the Gospel Preached unto them i. e. Men as of small Capacities and less Estates so of humble and teachable Dispositions men who are Poor in Spirit as well as in Fortune And the perfection of the Christian Law consists in this that therein God hath prescribed a reasonable service The Rules of Life which are therein laid down are not so much the product of absolute Power and Soveraignty as the Result of infinite Mercy and Goodness And these His Attributes led Him to consult the wants and commiserate the Necessities of the meanest of Mankind And therefore as when He took upon Him to deliver Man He did not abhor the Virgins Womb and that He might become a Sacrifice for Sin was content to be disarray'd of His own Eternal Glory to take upon Him the Form of a Servant and to humble Himself to the Death the shameful Death of the Cross so likewise when He took upon Him the Office of a Teacher by a wonderful Condescent He accommodated His Doctrines to the Reason and humane Affections of His Auditors His Laws obtain'd as much by their suitableness to our Natures as the Authority of the Speaker When He preach'd His Divine Sermon to the Multitude He did not amuse them with Mystical Theology or torture their Understandings with profound Subtilties but as He was the Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of His Person so He declar'd the Law of God in a most Plain and Perspicuous manner Mahomet indeed that grand Impostor was well Advis'd to pen his Alcoran in swelling Words and mystical Phrases and as in some things to Restrain so in others to Indulge the sensual Appetite For by this Stratagem that sottish People with whom he had to do were content to part with their natural Right to gain an Unlawful Freedom and to Admire what they were never like to Understand But our new and perfect Law-giver Christ Jesus having no other design but the Salvation of Souls and being every way Adorn'd for so noble a Purpose though He made the Gate Narrow and the Path Strait yet He hath promised it shall be Open'd to all that Knock and none unless Wilfully need mistake the Way which leads to Eternal Life But then because He knew there was no Rule so plain but it might be Mistaken no Precept so clear but it might be Perverted no Doctrine so pure but it might be Corrupted Because He foresaw there would arise false Prophets and false Teachers whose business it would be to Seduce the Ignorant and Debauch the Credulous Because He foresaw a perpetual Succession of Gnosticks who in all Ages would set up the Dagon of their own lascivious Fancies in opposition to the Ark of His Covenant and be so audacious as even to confront Divine Revelations with carnal Reasoning therefore to obviate and prevent the mischiefs of such grievous Wolves before He took His Journey into his far Country out of a tender care of that Flock which He had purchas'd with his Blood He appointed Overseers and Pastors of his Flock committed to them and them only the care of Feeding his Flock amplified their Commission with the like Authority which he had receiv'd from his Father promis'd to be with them unto the End of the World and to assist them with that Spirit which should guide them into all Truth If then the Scriptures be so clear as to be understood even by the Multitude then much more by the Disciples in general If by the Disciples in general much more by the College of the Apostles who were His special Favourites and of his Cabinet-counsel If the Nations to whom these Ministers in Chief and Plenipotentiaries for Christ made known the Will of God were throughly instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven then much more both they and their Successors upon whom they in obedience to their Masters Command conferr'd the same Pastoral power which they had receiv'd from Him The Clearness then of Scripture cannot reasonably be urg'd in Prejudice of Christ's Ministers for whatsoever is from hence alledg'd in favour of the People the advantage will be still greater on their side Thus hath God promis'd the Assistance of his Spirit to all private men who sincerely endeavour to find out the Truth then much less will He be wanting to the Governours of his Church to whom He hath committed the care of the Souls of those private men and given power even to confer the Holy Ghost Are the Scriptures clear to them much more to those whom the Son of God hath signaliz'd and set apart for the Lights of the World Two Things are usually brought to hinder this Procedure Either that those Promises of Assistance were made only to the Apostles or else that they depend on the conditioned Righteousness of Men. Where by the way it may be Observ'd that by the First of these the Claim of the People is utterly cut off and by the Second they have as small Advantage But they who argue this might do well to consider that this Objection may strike at the very Foundation of the Faith For if those promises of Assistance which Christ made to his Church be Hypothetical if they depend on the Performance of Men then may the Foundation totter the Gates of Hell prevail Christianity decay and the Gospel it self be lost out of the World before the End thereof notwithstanding all Christ's fair promises to the contrary If they had been confin'd only to the Apostles the Christian Religion had not long surviv'd its Author every Martyrdom of an Apostle had pull'd down a Pillar of the Church and by consequence the whole Fabrick must have fallen to the ground in the very first Century of our Lord. Happy indeed had it been for Christendom that the Imperiousness of some Modern Bishops of Rome had not brought an Odium though unjustly upon Episcopacy in general that their too much Lording it over the Flock had not given Advantage to the Enemies of Church-Authority and their challenging to themselves at least an indirect Power in Temporals had not alarm'd the Kings of the Earth to stand up and take Counsel how they might destroy so dangerous an Vsurpation of the pretended Vicegerent of the Lords Anointed Happy had it been if for the Support of their Secular Greatness they had not wrested the Scriptures to countenance such Doctrines as have no clear and solid Foundation therein and that under pretence of making the Church all Glorious