milk before Christs blood and this expressed in Latine Verses and one of the Martialists as it were to put him out of his mood and perplexity Why thou Sott quoth he get thee to Gott Who I pray was the cause of this mans perplexity was it not his own extreme superstition most abominable If the Author of this Discourse had proposed any thing on the other side to the Scripture and pretended ambiguity and perplexity which of them he preferred according whereunto to order his faith that Martialists resolution of the doubt might have been congruous enough But onely concerning the Scripture-doubts are here proposed how a man should ground his faith thereupon what he is I know not and whether this be res gesta or ficta I am to seek for the present world is full of jugling But when wee make such doubts unto our selves do we well consider the goodness and wisdom of God in giving us his holy Word to direct us in the wayes of everlasting life if still there were just cause to complain of a perplexed condition whereinto we were cast not knowing whether we shall take hold of it or run away from it as Moses did from his rod when it was turned into a Serpent But do we finde any the like Metamorphosis here yet when the Lord bid Moses take the Serpent by the tail he was bold to do it surely Gods Word is no Serpent but we rather and his Word alone hath power to charm us and make us vomit all our poyson of erroneous and unholy ways and the Lord Christ hath bid us to take hold of them saying Search the Scriptures yet if any thing in this my Answer seem amiss and not answerable to the Authors expectation but savouring as hee thinks of partiality prejudice or passion I confess prejudice against such discourses as these accompting them most vile and nothing becomming an understanding and godly Christian but as for the rest let him impute it to my ignorance that know not so much as what is the way of his passion for he seems to me to be neither Lutheran nor Calvinist and would not seem to bee a Papist though I am most prone to conceive it to be the trick of some Papist least of all doe I know his person or Countrey But let every sober Christian consider well and inquire whether that since the beginning that Gods Word was committed to writing there were at any time any such questions moved untill this last and worst Age of the world when Cajetan the Cardinall a great School-Divine first encountred with Martin Luther and found that no Authority prevailed with him but Scripturall hereupon hee was moved to study Scripture and wrote Commentaries upon it in his old age But Silvester Prierius of Rome he thought that way too far about and therefore took a shorter course and maintained that the Scriptures contained not all things necessary to salvation and therefore the rule of faith to be made compleat must be pieced up with the unwritten Word added to the written Word which unwritten Word they called Traditions Since that the Papists have strengthned themselves with the Authority of the Church yet confess the true Church cannot bee known to be a true Church nor the Authority thereof known but by the Scriptures and the issue of the resolution of the Church must bee the resolution of the Pope concerning the true interpretation of Scripture shamefully obtruding upon us that we make the resolution of our faith into our own private spirit whereas we to the contrary extend the testimony of the spirit onely to each private mans best satisfaction and teach no other herein than the Papists themselves acknowledge to be most true as touching the resolution physicall of our faith as I am able to prove by variety of pregnant evidences ready at hand without any more adoe than the bare transcribing of them Now this light being not of a nature communicable unto others we meddle not with it in disputing upon any other point of Divinity with Papists or any other But therein walk in all our disputations by way of Resolution Logicall either into some confessed principles as concerning the Attributes Divine or into express passages of holy Scripture the meaning whereof if it be excepted against we are ready to justify it by rationall discourse against any adversary nothing doubting but we shall either convict him of obstinacy in shutting his eyes against the clear evidence of truth and make him condemned in his own conscience or at least in the conscience of all sober Christians being well assured that whosoever resisteth the evidence of Gods Word upon pretence of inevidence that Word shall be found of evidence enough to judge him at the last day ¶ This Jesuiticall Question was sent out of Germany when the Assembly of Divines were sitting at Westminster and was translated out of High-Dutch FINIS
illumination of the Spirit I can hardly think any Christian to be so simple or wilfull to reason thus I and my follower are sure of this thing therefore it is true if they should I see no reason but they might proceed one step further and say I my self alone think this to be true and therefore it is true but the Spirit of illumination is given onely to satisfie them that have it not to boast of it but to comfort themselves with it rather much less to obtrude it upon others onely light naturall is communicable unto others by rationall discourse light spirituall is not I cannot more communicate that to another than my seeing or hearing or smelling or tasting Disc Lastly If we build our Religion only upon the Scriptures the learned shall have a great prerogative above the unlearned in the matter of Faith and Religion and shall be more ingaged in thankefulness unto God than they and so Religion shall favor and cleave to good wits Also many have their senses exercised in the Scriptures or are more inventive than others therefore if a man could by disputing and reasoning consute some Thesis and as it were take away a mans opinion from him and become conqueror he should also take away his Religion and the other should be constrained either to take up his Conquerors Religion or against his conscience to keep his own Nor will that Answer serve the turn our Divines and Pastors can answer you though I cannot for then should I believe with another mans faith but saith must bee mine not another mans else should salvation also be another mans If Religion be the service of God certainly it is necessary that I should understand that service which I must perform to my Lord. Seeing God will not reckon another mans service for mine and cannot be served by a Substitute it remains that wee conclude Controversies are to be left to learned men and are not so very necessary It may be answered Then also Religion is to be left to learned men for Controversies are our very Religion for saving the consideration of them there is no difference but Papists are Protestants and Protestants are Papists look how much a man knowes of Controversies so much doth he know of his own Religion The state of a mans salvation is such as his Religion and his Faith Now there is but one salvation and but one faith But if Controversies belong to the learned onely wherefore have Lay-men indured so many afflictions distresses nay and death it self for these controversies sake I know indeed that a Calvinist Doctor one Doctor Bergius a Preacher at Breme affirms in his late published Sermons that Controversies are not meerly necessary to salvation that the Scripture is plain and clear about those things which are necessary to salvation and that there was never any contrariety between the Religious themselves At which also the Leipsich Collation between the Lutherans and the Calvinists seems to aim Consid In all professions whether liberall or mechanicall the learned have a prerogative above the unlearned and what inconvenience is there if it be so in Christian Religion also Doth not S. Peter tell us that the unlearned pervert the Scripture to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3. yet this prerogative is in learning onely not in holiness the unlearned may be as holy as the learned and have as great an interest both in sanctifying grace and in saving glory What said Austin of himself and such like Scholars in comparison of his mother Monica and such like holy though simple women Mulierculae istae lacrimis suis caelum nobis praeripiunt when we have done all we can with all our learning these women with their tears will get heaven before us And as for holiness so for faith an unlearned man may have faith as wel as the learned nay that faith which is called fides infusa may be found in a man unlearned when the faith of him that is learned is found to be no better than fides acquisita a faith naturall and they that have true faith by the inspiration of the holy Ghost shall not want gracious wits howsoever that Religion which is by faith naturall be accompanied with better naturall wits yet an idle wit be it never so good will hardly prove learned and be it never so learned if it be without grace such a mans Religion will prove but vain and though he be able to worst another in disputation yet shall he never pull true Religion in any childe of God be he never so weak and unlearned out of socket because our Faith and Religion consists not in wisdom of words but in the power of the Spirit as S. Paul speaks saying My word and my preaching stood not in the inticing speech of Mans wisdom but in plain evidence of the Spirit and Power That your Faith should not bee in the wisdom of Men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2.4 5. Nay were my Faith only naturall and I had good evidence out of the Scripture for it though that knowledge be no other than such as is annexed to the common profession of Christianity yet the Philosopher tells me that I must not be beaten out of my hold in such a case because I am not able to answer every Sophism or Argument that is brought against it Nay the Philosopher in his Ethicks teacheth me that some are as tenacious of their opinions for which they have but weak reasons as others are of their opinions which they hold confirmed with great strength of Argument so that every way it is an inficete fiction that the most learned must always conquer the Faith and the Religion of the unlearned without flying to any such sculking hole as to say Our Divines and Pastors can answer you though I cannot But I wonder much that any sober Christian upon any pretence should dispute against the building of our Religion onely upon Scripture unless with Papists hee would bring in Traditions or rely on the Church or on the decision of the Pope For if we fly from the Word of God we must rest either upon the word of Man or upon naturall reason A Christian I conceive should think the Scripture sufficient to direct us in the Service of God Our Saviour directs the Jews to the searching of Scripture for the discerning of him And if Controversies be left to learned men yet there is no cause why our Religion should but onely the defence of it controversially maintaining it by variety of Arguments and deductions out of holy Scripture and solving contrary Arguments brought against it in any particular point of Faith but the profession of it surely shall belong to him that sits at Gamaliels feet as well as to Gamaliel himself nor onely to such as sit at his feet but to such also as follow the plow-tail yea and to the weaker sex of women and to children too for even to such belongeth the Kingdom of God And were
THE Doubting Conscience Resolved In Answer to a pretended perplexing QVESTION c. Wherein is evidently proved That the holy Scriptures not the Pope is the Foundation whereupon the Church is built OR That a CHRISTIAN may be infallibly certain of his Faith and Religion by the holy Scriptures By WILLIAM TVVISSE D.D. Prolocutor of the Assembly of DIVINES Written at the desire of Samuel Hartlib Esquire for the satisfaction of his Friends beyond the Seas and now divulged in print for more publick Edification LONDON Printed for Thomas Mathews at the Sign of the Cock in St Pauls Church-yard 1652. SIR I Have read this learned and satisfactory Answer to the Perplexing Question and Doubtfull Case of Conscience in the life time of D. Twisse and if you shall please to give it your Imprimatur I think it may be advantageous in this juncture of time I rest Yours Ja. Cranford May 3. 1652. Imprimatur Edm. Calamy THE APPROBATION OF That Reverend Father of the Church Joseph Hall Bishop of NORWICH In a Letter to his worthily respected friend Mr. W. S. Worthy Sir I Return you many thanks for the favour you have done me in affording me the view of this solid and seasonable piece of Dr. Twisse in full answer to this pretended Questionist who under the colour of a Perplexing Case of Conscience from a Preacher of the Gospell sends forth a foolish kind of challenge to all Protestant Divines Had you not named the Author of the satisfactory Answer and seconded it by anothers attestation I could both have known and avouched him There is a face of a style by which we Scholars know one another no less than our persons by a visible countenance whosoever hath read the witty accute exercitations of this Author upon the writings of Doctor Jackson will easily finde him in this Tractate both for form and matter This sculking and disguised Chalenger could not have met with a meeter Combatant a man so eminent in School-Divinity that the Jesuits have felt and for ought I see shrunk under his strength in their Scientia Media and whom the States of the Netherlands out of the fame of his worth would fain have tempted away with large profers to a Publick Professorship in one of their Universities I onely wish he had met with a more able Adversary For certainly as I intimated to you in my last this Beagle whosoever he be whether out of misprision or craft hunts counter and runs all the while upon a wrong ground vainly supposing that differences in points not fundamentall make a diversity of Religions and weakly conceiving that because there are many false claims to Truth in the world God hath not left us means enough in his revealed Will to distinguish Truth from Error as if because there are store of counterfeit coyns abroad it could not be safe for a man to receive or possible to discern currant money whereas if his wit would have served him he might have considered that all both Agenda and Credenda necessary to salvation which only can difference Religion are clearly laid down in the sacred Oracles of Scripture with which if any refractory soul will unjustly quarrell he may by those helps which God hath left to his Church be either convinced or shamed in the mean while it is no reason that his absurd obstinacy should cast any blemish upon the clear face of truth or be any prejudice to others who are blessed with better apprehensions whose not-forestalled souls out of that judgment of discretion which God hath endowed all wise Christians withall upon due search may by those good means which God hath held forth to us give himself so ful satisfaction in all important Truths as wherein he may securely rest with a resolute defiance of all oppositions Had this Questionist but consulted with learned Bishop Davenant's irrefragable Discourse De judice ac norma fidei he had forborn the blurring of his Paper and spared the labor of this his perplexed and shuffling proposall of his pretend edly-perplexing Question which in very truth is no other than a stale and often exploded Cavill newly furbushed over with a false colour of a tenderly-conscientious irresolution The man will finde himself here over-answer'd and receive too much honour from such an Antagonist in that it may be said of him Aeneae magni dextrâ cadis Now since you are pleased to desire my Opinion of the whole work to speak freely One or two passages I confess to meet with in this learned and weighty Discourse as concerning the name and number of the Apocalypticall Beast 666. which doe not altogether carry my assent That Mysterie must and will lye still close after all the scanning of the sharpest Wits and Judgements But for all the Doctrinall points I cannot but applaud them as worthy of the Authour and satisfactory to the Reader and convictive of the Adversary Farewell from your much devoted Higham April 29. 1652. J.H.B.N. A Perplexing Question OR A doubtfull Case of CONSCIENCE Of a certain Preacher of the GOSPEL OVR Religion is our Faith Faith either saves or condemns justly ought we therefore to be able to understand and prove our Faith But now there ariseth a great doubt to me and other of the simpler sort of Christians Whether it be possible for us to have an infallible certainty of our Faith out of the holy Scriptures and so consequently to rely on and trust to this faith as to an unshaken foundation The reason of our doubting is this Both Papists and Calvinists holding contrary opinions do maintain and prove by the holy Scriptures as they suppose the contrary to that which the Lutherans hold seriously affirming that in the Scriptures the Lutheran Religion is condemned and theirs confirmed Which thing no man will deny to be an evident Argument of the obscurity of the holy Scriptures If there be two Physicians of equall learning and of the same intent in curing the sick that is alike desirous to cure the disease and if these Physicians should out of one and the same Book gather the one that a Fever is cured with wine and the other that wine is as bad as poyson to them that have the Fever how I pray shall we know which of these two to take part withall A man can gather nothing but that the remedy for that disease is obscurely expressed in that Book Some may object The Sects doe not follow the Scriptures onely but they add their traditions the Calvinists add their reason the Anabaptists their dreams I answer They do so in those things which are not cleerly taught in the holy Scriptures but in the controversies between them and Lutherans they proceed not so but by Scriptures they fight against Lutheran Tenents which are confirmed by the Scriptures and indeavour by the help of the Scriptures to sight for and defend their own which the Lutherans by Scriptures doe condemn Nay more there are some viz. the Anabaptists that urge the
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceived them that dwelt on earth by the means of his miracles This is that Man of Sin St. Paul speaks of whose comming was in the effectuall power of Satan in signs and lying wonders and in all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 10. and by his cunning practices got at length as many heads to his body and horns to his head as the Dragon had and got him a mistress too like himself the Whore of Babylon whom John saw Rev. 17.6 drunken with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Witness the slaughters made and barbarous outrages committed upon the Waldenses who first proclamed to the world that Rome was the Whore of Babylon and the Pope Antichrist But in these later days the Lord hath blasted that Man of Sin with the breath of his mouth and broken off many horns of the Beast which hath provoked those Antichristian Generations in a very high degree Rev. 12. and the Devill undoubtedly hath now greater wrath than ever because he knoweth that he hath but a short time Now of late yeers his greatest Proctors the Jesuits have not spared to profess despair of prevailing in their cause by disputation as appears by Westons Preface to his Book De triplici hominis statu The Gordian knot of Controversies in Religion must be cut assunder by some Alexanders sword Belike this sect was privy to some intentions on foot for the raising of such Meteors as at length have broken forth into those storms which since have exercised all Germany if not all Christendom in the West And I have read a discourse written by one who was sometimes Secretary to the Pope discovering the practices of those times and relating a counsell for the propagating of Religion erected and instituted by Clemens Octavus that whining Pope thereby concealing the bloody and barbarous intention of his heart some say that for all his whining he was as impure as bloody Now these courses wherewith they travelled many years being now brought forth unto the light I wonder not a little that they persist in their motive learning which of all others is of the basest allay and hath more of the nature of a charm than of a medicine to cure Error in a rationall way For I cannot be perswaded otherwise but that some vile Jesuite hath an hand in this Argument to style himself a Preacher of the Gospell for though he holds the Pope to be Judge of Controversies yet I presume when he preacheth he doth not take his Text out of the Popes Canons but out of the Word of God and we know there are Dutch Jesuits as well as Spanish Jesuits and I have heard that when the Arminian quarrells were rife in the Netherlands some Jesuits have insinuated themselves amongst them and preached in their Congregations to promote the Arminian cause though not known to be any other than their own Ministers This Preacher of the Gospell shapes his discourse at pleasure calling it a Perplexing Question or a Doubtfull Case of Conscience whereas it contains nothing but a threed-bare and old worn-out Argument he was ashamed to say that it proceeds concerning the Scripture lest the conscience of every sober Christian should rise against it therefore he balks that and shapes it to proceed Concerning the foundation of the Religion of the Protestants and others which have made a separation from the Pope Now this foundation is no other than the Scripture of the Prophets and Apostles which S. Paul calls the foundation whereupon the Church is built And the Perplexing Question and Doubtfull Case of Conscience comes to this Whether the Scripture or the Pope be the foundation whereupon the Church is built I do not well understand what he means by distinguishing those who have made a separation from the Pope into Protestants and others for none separate from the Pope but by reason of the corruptions they finde in the Church of Rome in the way of Error and Heresie Superstition and Idolatry and their bloody and barbarous disposition against all those that cannot brook her abominations and Protestants have their name from their protestation against these their courses As for the Question Whether any Christian bee altogether and infallibly certain of his Faith and Religion by the holy Scriptures and safely rely upon it against all tentations and objections Is this the Perplexing Question Is this the Doubtfull Case of Conscience It is now above 1600. years since Christs Resurrection and the comming down of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost who ever was known to make question of this in the Church of God untill this last hundred years wherein so great and generall a separation hath been made not from the Church of God but from communion with the Church of Rome After Christs practice in incountring Satan and that after a manner competent to every simple Christian not discovering the Devills adulterating the Text Psal 91. He shall give his Angells charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes which last clause in all thy ways the Devill omitted but replying Mat. 4. It is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God and reprehending the Sadduces for not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God imputing their error to this their ignorance and shewing how little need there is that any man should rise from the dead to tell men of that place of torment in case they have Moses and the Prophets and that who so will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe though a man rise from the dead Luk. 16. and counselling the Jews to search the Scriptures Joh. 5. and justifying them in their opinion thinking them to be sufficient to direct them unto everlasting life Afterwards the Apostles submitted their Doctrine to be examined by the Word of God The Bereans being commended for this Act. 7. and professing that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 3.15 After the antient Fathers have called the triall of Controversies to the Word of God and Constantine at the Councill of Nice referred all the Bishops there assembled to proceed according to this and both Chrysostome and Austin have professed that all things necessary to salvation are clearly set down in Scripture and in the Controversie between Hierome and Austin about Pauls reproving Peter whether it were done seriously or in pretence onely Hierome pleading variety of Fathers for his way and Austin opposing the clear evidence of the Text against them all And Papists themselves many of the more ingenious sort of them having been found to confess that the last resolution of our faith ought to be made into the Word of God and the contradictory nature of the Popish Tenet in proving the true Church by the Scriptures and the Scriptures by the Church having been made manifest to
the world by Divines After all this I say that a Preacher of the Gospell should be brought upon the Stage to propose such a Question as Whether any Christian can bee certain of his faith by the holy Scriptures nor propose it onely but to call it A Perplexed Question and a Doubtfull Case of Conscience is so unshamefast a course as in my judgment it becometh none but such an one as hath a mores forehead and cannot be ashamed Yet I consider the condition of these present times in Germany where the Antichristian Congregations have confederated themselves and taken counsell against Gods Secretaries and as Pharaoh pursued the Israelites thinking to overtake them and that their lust should be satisfied upon them so these have not onely thought so but done so it is not impossible but that some weak Preacher of the Gospell may fall into their hands and be so charmed with fears or hopes or both as to be drawn unto their lure and brought to do them this piece of service as to propose such a Question and name the child after this manner For these times are the very hour and power of darkness and Satan is not yet bound though we trust his binding is not far off And it is not strange that men should be given over to believe lies and to become some Jesuits Proctor calling men to relieve a scrupulous and perplexed conscience and to intreat all Christians especially the Calvinists Divines and Preachers with all due respect to give a Solution to this proposed Question and this in Dutch whereas I had thought that this Question had neither being life or motion in any other part of the Christian world but onely in this our England Well let us consider wherein the perplexity of this Question consists or what it is that makes it Disc Our Religion is our Faith Faith either saves or condemus justly ought we therefore to be able to understand and prove our Faith Cansid The first proposition That our Religion is our Faith is brought in to no purpose the Argument here used subsists well enough without it such as it is The faith that saves is an act in man but that which is to be proved is no act in man but the object of that act the thing believed what conscience the Author of this discourse had I know not but I doubt he will appear to be but of little wit Disc But now there ariseth a great doubt to me and others of the simpler sort of Christians Whether it be possible for us to have an infallible certainty of our Faith out of the holy Scriptures and so consequently to rely and trust to this faith as to an unshaken foundation Consideration Let my Faith be never so certain and my Repentance and good works never so sincere I trust neither to the one nor to the other Christ is the Rock and foundation whereupon Gods Church is built upon which we are built by the knowledge of Christ and faith in Christ and in him alone I trust both for the keeping of me in this knowledge and faith of Christ and for the bringing of me thereby unto salvation as Paul saith 1 Cor. 1.20 I know whom I have trusted and I know that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him And 1 Cor. 1.30 God hath made him unto us wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption Who so doubts whether it be possible to have any certainty of faith out of the holy Scriptures I demand of him whether he doubts of the possibility for a man to have any certain faith at all or no if he doubts whether this be possible who seeth not that it is more fit this Question should be proposed in the first place and upon the solution thereof and not afore to proceed to inquire by what this certainty may be had if he doubts not but that this is possible let him shew us how or by what means he is assured hereof as namely whether by naturall reason or by the word of the Pope or by the word of an Angell And indeed if the Question were proposed indifferently and fairly with distinction we should soon perceive how little cause there is to call this a Perplexed Question or a Doubtfull case of Conscience though these forms savour of no learning nor judgement for the perplexity that is found in this Argument is not in the Question if it be it is the meer fault of the propounder exhibiting it in perplexed terms the meaning whereof cannot be easily unfolded but rather in finding out the truth thereof and that is onely in case the reasons be of equall moment on both sides wherewith the truth is incombred so that the light and convincing evidence thereof cannot easily break forth and appear Then as for a case of Conscience that is a very alien notion and ill applied in this place for cases of Conscience are onely touching what we ought to doe in a certain case but this is onely touching possibility of assurance as Whether we can have any certain faith by the holy Scriptures But let us proceed distinctly And 1. Let us inquire Whether a man can have any certain faith at all I answer 1. They may for many have had it as it is defined by S. Paul Heb. 11. to be the evidence of things not seen the ground of things hoped for and there the Apostle reckons up a Catalogue of many that had such a faith I presume the propounder of this if he be a Christian makes no question hereof And that Abraham the Father of the faithfull Rom. 4.18 19 20. was such a one who against hope believed in hope and being not weak in faith he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and that all the true children of Abraham have the like faith as Abraham had 2. But then let us distinguish when we treat of possibility this may be understood either in reference to the power of Nature or in respect of the power of God and according to this distinction I answer That it is utterly impossible to believe this by power of Nature Mat. 16. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in heaven and 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man perceives not the things of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned And Esa 53.1 Who hath believed our report and to whom hath the arm of God been revealed And Joh. 12.39 Therefore they could not believe because Esaias saith again he hath blinded their eyes and hardned their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted and I should heal them And Rom. 8.8 They that are in the flesh cannot please God and consequently they cannot have faith for surely by faith we please God But then on the other side it is most
true that by the power of God a man may believe Act. 18.27 They believed through grace And Phil. 1.29 To you it is given not onely to believe in him 〈◊〉 to suffer for him and to believe and find mercy at Gods hands are all one Rom. 11.30 Now if it be granted that faith may be had in what degree of certainty soever what sober Christian can make doubt but that if question be made about the means whereby we may have it it may be had by holy Scripture as well as by any other means yea and far better considering that faith is in the proper notion thereof the assent to somewhat from the authority of the speaker and if the speaker is but a man it is no better than faith human if the speaker be God that and that alone makes it to be faith divine Now we all confess that the holy Scripture is the Word of God and therefore if by any word faith may be had in what degree of certainty soever sure it may be had by the Word of God yea and that no other way can Divine Faith be had but by the Word of God not by the word of the creature whether man or Angell And if faith may be wrought by the power of Gods Spirit in the heart of any man he that makes question whether this may be done by the holy Scriptures had need of some good measure of Ellebore to purge his brain for he seems to me to be in the next degree to a mad-man for seeing faith is no faith unless it depend upon some word that God should work his faith by another word than his own is as uncouth and contradictious assertion I should think as ever was heard among the learned But it may be this Author through the confusion of his wits hath not hitherto been so happy as to deliver himself fairly of his own meaning Therefore let us take notice of the Discourse it self whether it may bear any better state of the Question than yet we have been acquainted with For I guess that in the issue the state of the Question will come to this Whether it be possible for us by the holy Scripture to have any certain assurance of the meaning of it Disc The reason of our doubting is this Both Papists and Calvinists holding contrary opinions do maintain prove by the holy Scriptures as they suppose the contrary to that which the Lutherans hold seriously affirming that in the Scriptures the Lutheran Religion is condemned and theirs confirmed Which thing no man will deny to be an evident Argument of the obseurity of theholy Scriptures If there be two Physicians of equall learning and of the same intent in curing the sick that is alike desirous to cure the disease and if these Physicians should out of one and the same Book gather the one that a Fever is cured with wine and the other that wine is as bad as poyson to them that have the Fever how I pray shall we know which of these two to take part withall A man can gather nothing but that the remedy for that disease is obscurely expressed in that Book Consid The sum of all this is that the Scripture is obscure and that which the Author would infer from hence is this therefore it is impossible to be sure of the meaning of it whereby now I perceive the Perplexed Question and Doubtfull case of Conscience comes but to this in plain terms Whether it be possible for a man to be sure of the meaning of Scripture the Author maintains the Negative proves it because the Scripture is obscure and the obscurity of Scripture he proves by this that men differ in the exposition of it Now this I will examine in order and first observe the dodging disposition of this Author and manifest evidence of his corrupt affection and that he comes to this work with an intention not to seek the truth but to circumvent it rather For whereas the force of his Argument to prove that the Scripture is obscure is but this that Divines differ in the interpretation of Scripture yet it served his turn rather to instance in Papists and Calvinists joyning together in the interpretation of Scripture contrary to the Lutherans Might he not as well give instance in Papists and Lutherans holding together in interpretation of Scripture contrary to the Calvinists Might he not as well have instanced in Lutherans and Calvinists joyning together in the interpretation of Scripture contrary to the Papists undoubtedly he might for it is but an indefinite proposition and the matter is clearly contingent Now an indesinite proposition in a contingent matter is confessed in Schools to have no greater force than of a particular proposition As much as to say they differ one from another in the interpretation of some Scriptures Now this may very well be true not onely of Papists differing from Protestants but of Papists differing from Papists as Maldonate from Jansemus and Protestants from Protestants not onely Lutherans from Calvinists but one Lutheran from another and one Calvinist from another in the interpretation of some places of Scripture Nay doth not one Father differ from another after this very manner And do not Modern Divines even Papists as well as Protestants take liberty of dissenting from all the Antients in the interpretation of some places of Scripture Witness Maldonate in the interpretation of that Mat. 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit who takes a way of interpretation different from all the Antients by his own confession And Cardinall Cajetan when he was put upon the studying of Scripture by occasion of his conference with Martin Luther who would hear nothing but Scripture see what a profession he makes in his entrance upon writing Commentaries on the Scriptures Si quando occurrerit novus sensus Textui consonus nec à sacra Scriptura nec ab Ecclesiae Doctrina dissonus quamvis à Torrente Doctorum sacrorum alienum aequos se praebeant censores And when Austin takes notice of the multiplicity of translations of the Scripture he was so far from being offended thereat that he professed there was more profit than damage redounding thereby to the Church and why may it not be so by different interpretations also it being more easie to judge which of them is the right or by refuting them all to find out the true interpretation than at the first dash to find out the true meaning 2. Observe the absurd and malicious carriage of this Author 1. In shaping different Religions according to different interpretations of Scriptures whereas I have shewed that the force of the proposition is onely a particular namely that they differ in the interpretation of some places of Scripture which difference I have shewed may be found and ever hath been found more or less even amongst them that are of the same Religion as amongst none have been more different interpretations of Scripture found than amongst the Antients
the number of Christs Church 144. and the number most momentous arising by the Calculation thereof is the number 12. the root thereof and no other calculation belongs to a single number than that which is called the extraction of roots and the number 25. found to be the root of 666. so far as it comes to be said in the usuall way of Arithmetick to have a root discovering strange mysteries concerning the delineating of that Beast the body of Antichrist in a wonderfull manner No marvell if these mysteries were hidden from the Prophets themselves who wrote those Prophecies for first the knowledge of them was nothing necessary to their salvation 2. God had appointed a certain time when the light of them should break forth to irradiate his Church with unspeakable consolation when they stood most in need thereof the accomplishment of those Prophecies drawing neer Christ spake in parables to some not to all yet some of his parables were understood by them even against whom they were spoken in particular Those that were not understood by the multitude our Saviour revealed to his Disciples as often as they sought it yea and other mysteries too namely the signs fore-going the destruction of Jerusalem his own coming and the end of the world Mat. 24. It is true the Scriptures contain the mysteries of godliness which are not apprehended according to their condition but by the Regenerate but as for the meaning of the Scripture it is quite of another nature which this Author considers not and is incident to a reprobate yea in such a measure as to make him an able Doctor in the Church and Orthodox throughout which may tend to the edification of others when in the mean time such a one shall fall short of the salvation of his own soul The secrets of the Lord which he reveals to them that fear him is the secret of his Covenant Psal 25. There is a secret also in Faith-Catholike and in all the mysteries of godliness which is peculiar to the Regenerate only and it is to discern the wisdom of God and the power of God in them which have true Faith A reprobate may believe the same things by a naturall faith onely yea believe it and carry themselves like good scholars too while they instruct others therein Still we say that the Scripture is plain and clear enough as touching all things necessary to salvation and all this discourse is plausible onely through distinction and to deny the Scripture to be fairly intelligible to one that is desirous to know the meaning of it is a great disparagement to the Word of God and dishonor to God himself disparaging either his goodness that would not or his wisdom that he knew not how to order it so that by searching the Scriptures they might have eternall life If before the Law men had a light whereby they might finde the truth more clearly than we then the former times were times of greater light and grace than the later but this is contrary both to the generall judgment of the Christian world and to universall experience For as light naturally increaseth more and more untill it be perfect day so it hath been with light spirituall yet the Sun the fountain of light naturall hath sometimes gone backward ten degrees not so the sun of rigteousness men have gone backward I confess in the course of their obedience but God hath gone forward rather than backward in the course of administration of his grace We doe not say there was a meer blindness or blindness at all in Gods children although in present discourse not of mans blindness but of Gods progress in causing the irradiation of his light but this we say that the word of the Prophets was a most sure word to which our fore-fathers did well to take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place but now a long time day hath dawned and the Gospell is the day-star that ariseth in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 For that God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness is he which hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 And in these dayes of grace we all behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord with open face and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 To say that though all things be not necessary to be known yet nevertheless there may be had a certain and infallible way of interpreting whereby the most and most necessary Controversies may be decided is to represent a shew of Antithesis where there is none But that is little materiall but here is a declination to the contrary extreme hitherto the clearness of Scripture hath been opposed here an infallibility of interpreting is introduced but Medio tutissimus ibis and vertue usually consists in a mediocrity which Horace calls auream Mediocritatem Since the Apostles days the true Church of Christ challengeth to her self no infallible authority of interpreting Scripture 't is enough that in things necessary to salvation the Lord assures us by his Spirit that we are not deceived that is sufficicient for the state of grace and as for infallibility let us be content to have that condition reserved for the state of glory I nothing doubt but by study and care and pains most Controversies may be so clearly decided as shall be sufficient either for the converting of a capable Hearer to the imbracing of it or for the convicting him of obstinacy in withstanding it but I little looked that the beginning of this discourse would have so unsutable an end Mr. Dury as I remember is occupied about some such methode as this I wish heartily it may succeed well but take heed we do not cry down all performances that have gone before us as if they were palpable insufficiencies in comparison to our own new inventions whether in clearing truths controversial or obscure places of Scripture Well we shall rest contented with that measure we are arrived unto untill a greater measure of light arise above the Horizon of our Sphere and whensoever it comes I trust we shall give it that respect which it deserves and right thankfully entertain it whether in the way of illustration which best pleaseth the sense or in the way of demonstration which most justifieth the judgment Disc Nor am I moved with that Objection that it is enough for the Lutherans that they are assured of the truth of Lutheranism though others cannot see and believe it for this is not that which I would have I enquire how a man may be sure not of his own opinion but of the truth Now if I believe and determine that such a thing is true this is my opinion yet is not therefore the truth seeing truth and opinion have nothing in them alike and stedfast perswasion changeth not the essence