Deut 4. Psal 1. 2 Tim. 3. Luke 16. Act 17.11 And those men are commended who searched the Scriptures and examined the Doctrine of the primitive Preachers by them If the blind lead the blind says Christ both shall fall into the ditch Mat. 15.14 Men will not be excused because they have been misled by their guides and believed as their Church believed Ezek. 3.17 18. Ezekiel tells us that where the people are not warned they shall dye in their iniquity Religion is every man's concernment and every man is obliged to take care of his Soul and not blindly to give himself up to him that pretends to be an infallible guide Be ready always says St. Peter to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you 1 Pet. 3 15. We must then judge of the grounds of our Faith and not take it upon trust 2. I shall represent to you for the better confirming my Proposition the just Exceptions against the contrary belief viz. That the people are bound to lay aside their own discretion and intirely to give themselves up without examining to be led as their guides please I shall shew the dangerous consequences the inconsistency and vanity the impiety and unreasonableness of this principle and that in the following particulars 1. This principle is of the most dangerous consequence It would justifie the Idolatry of the Israelites which was at any time introduced upon them by their H. Priests or false Prophets or evil Kings We reade of their sacrificing in high places their worship of the golden Calf and the Calves of Dan and Bethel of their brazen Serpent and their false Gods. It was not a just excuse for them that the golden Calf was made by Aaron 2 King. 10. They were not without blame for offering upon that Altar which resembled that which was at Damascus because Vriah their H. Priest set it up and Ahaz their King commanded the use of it But we know that God was angry with them when they followed their blind guides which he would not have been had they done well in it This principle would have justified the Jews in rejecting our Saviour For who could blame them for doing that which their H. Priest and Sanhedrim their Priests and Elders had done before It is true he wrought many Miracles But to this they might reply that their Church did not believe them effected by the power of God. Indeed Jesus appeals often to the Scripture but according to this principle to this they might have pleaded that it was not for private men to understand Scripture and that their Church did understand it otherwise They might have pleaded moreover that the interpreting of Scripture did not belong to private men as they were and that they were to be governed by Tradition or the Oral Law and not by the written one onely That they had among them an H. Priest and Sanhedrim Scribes or men learned in the Law and Traditions which latter they received with equal reverence with the Written Word Joh. 7.48 Have any of the Rulers and the Pharisees believed on him say they They were so far from it that they agreed that he who confessed him to be the Christ should be put out of the Synagogue Joh. 9. Would such pretences think ye have served the turn of the Jews By no means They ought to have read the Scriptures to which Jesus appealed to have compared events with prophecies This our Lord puts them upon Joh. 5.39.45 46 47. Act. 17.11 and it was at once their duty and interest to have done it They are commended who took this course This principle might afterwards have justified the Jews in their rejecting the Christian doctrine and the Apostles and first Preachers thereof The Jews might have pleaded against the Apostles many things e. g. The undoubted antiquity of the Jewish Church and novelty of the Christian doctrine The necessity of giving themselves up to the conduct of their Priests whose lips were to preserve knowledge and they were to seek the Law at their mouth They might have pleaded that they were in the safest way to salvation for though they denied the possibility of it to the Christians yet Jesus himself owned that salvation was of the Jews They might have urged the 17th of Deuteronomy to prove the infallibility of their Church with a far greater shew than ever Thou art Peter c. was produced to prove that of the Bishop of Rome It being expresly required Deut. 17.8 10. That in matters of Controversie men should abide by the Sentence of the law pronounced by the Priest or Judge of that time whereas no such thing is said of the Bishop of Rome in the New Testament This principle would effectually have hindred the propagation of the Christian Religion among the Gentil or Pagan part of the world They had their Priests and H. Priests too as well as the Jews they had antiquity to plead and great success and prosperity under their way of worship Sequendi sunt nobis parentes qui feliciter sequuti sunt suos saith Symmachus If this principle might be allowed there could be no way left to spread the faith among them This one principle where ever admitted would have put a perpetual bar to the conversion of Jews and Infidels to the Christian Faith. For what method can we take to bring them over if we cannot convince them that we are in the right and they in the wrong And how can they be made sensible of this if we allow them not the liberty of judging And sure if they be fit to judge of the whole matter they are not unfit to judge of the severals If we allow them the liberty to judge of Christianity before they embrace it it is not reasonable to deny them a judgment of discretion when they are received into the Christian Faith. This principle admitted would have excused the people that should have continued in Arianism when the Bishops and Priests and generally the whole Church was infected with it The Arians once filled the Church called themselves Orthodox and Catholicks and others Hereticks According to this principle the people ought to have continued thus always for they were to be governed by their Bishops and Priests And why should they think themselves obliged to hearken to what you had to offer from Scripture or Reason or the Council of Nice when it was against the sense of the present Church 2. This principle not being self-evident is inconsistent and manifestly destroys it self For 't is liable to be examined and ought to be strictly examined because very much depends upon it If it may be examined by the people they who maintain it have lost their question For then the people are not obliged to despoil themselves of their faculties and wiser powers but may judge in matters of Religion this being of the most principal concernment of all This
kept from the people And they must be allowed their rule when they are obliged to prove all things If they are obliged to give a reason of their hope they must be allowed to examine its grounds 2. This serves for the reproof of those among our selves who do not use that liberty of examining which is allowed them who neither know nor will understand That are crafty and diligent in worldly affairs but supinely negligent in their truest and greatest interest Too many are wedded to their faction and fond opinions and both practice and prescribe that which they condemn in the Ch. of Rome Did they ingenuously examine things and sincerely seek the truth they might easily avoid the Errors Schisms they are now justly charged with 3. Let us then examine the grounds of our faith especially in the points controverted among us at this time then will your Communion with the Ch. of England not be the result of Chance but of Judgment and of choice I know no mark of a true Church wanting here and am sure that many things greatly commend to us her Communion First This Church does not void the necessity of an holy life It cancels none of our obligations to God or man but teacheth the absolute necessity of contrition and repentance and mortification of our lusts And does by no means indulge a liberty of living as we list Secondly She fairly proposeth her Doctrines and does not refuse to have them examined nor deprive her Children of the means of doing it by the clearest light Thirdly Nor are her Doctrines fitted to advance a secular interest or glory Religion is an holy institution heavenly in its principle and pure in its aim and disdains to stoop to mean arts for wealth and worldly dignities Fourthly This Church teacheth nothing that is manifestly false nor puts us upon any practice which is a direct violation of any divine institution Fifthly Nor does this Church want the excellent badge of charity which is indeed the bond of perfectness Religion was designed as the greatest blessing to mankind and the author of the Christian was a great lover of humane race Its precepts are full of kindness and benignity and commend the highest pitch of civility and compassion and the highest flights of friendship Sixthly As obedience to Kings and Governors is a great part of the Christian Religion and an ornament to it and was in an eminent degree practised by the first and best Christians so it is the doctrine of our Church and hath always been the practice of the members of it In a word we pray for our enemies and teach men to give both God and Caesar their due We think it safe to worship no Image and are sure we are right when we pray to God through the mediation of Jesus Christ We know that God hears but cannot say so of Saints and Angels We receive the Sacrament in both kinds as given by Christ and received by the ancient Church And do believe the Sacramental bread after consecration to be what the Apostle calls it more than once For the Doctrine of Concomitance we leave it to them who understand it We pray in a tongue we understand We follow the H. Scriptures believe the ancient Creeds nor do we reject the first general Councils We press men to piety loyalty humility and charity and earnestly desire the salvation of mankind We press men to all manner of good works but place our hope in the mercy of God and merits of his Son. If we live up to our rule we are safe If not 't is not the fault of our Religion 't is our own If we live up to our Religion we shall never be miserable in this world and in the next shall be unspeakably happy Which God of his mercy grant for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and H. Ghost be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen FINIS
Doctrine which I maintain it may be objected will destroy that reverence which is due from the people to their Pastors and make them their Judges Answ 1 Thess 5.13 He. 13.17 1 Cor. 9.11 2 Tim. 5.17 Gal. 6.6 Matt. 104. 1. There is a great honour due from the People to their Pastors This cannot be denied They are bound to pay it by all instances of regard and kindness He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophet's reward 1 Tim. 5.17 2. This honour hath its bounds and measures It is due for the sake of their Master and their Work and in proportion to their faithfulness and labours Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and doctrine But we need not put out our eyes that they may lead us whither they please nor are bound to pay that honour to the Servants and Stewards which is onely due to their Lord and Master 3. That we may give them all due honour though we do not think them infallible This the Apostle supposeth in my Text. For though he had required this esteem from the people towards their Pastors v. 13. yet he commands them to prove all things We are obliged to honour our Judges and Civil Magistrates and may truly doe it though we do not believe every sentence and determination of theirs to be according to exact truth and equity For our Judges in civil matters we are obliged to sit down by their sentence when we do not think it just we are to suffer wrong and not resist It does not hence follow that we must follow our spiritual guides without examining The Civil Magistrate determines onely our outward actions or disposeth of some of our goods and properties which we have power to alienate but he does not prescribe upon our inward sense nor touch upon our Conscience as our spiritual guides do in their commands And though we do not appeal from the Civil Magistrate it cannot hence be inferred that we think him infallible Obj. 3 But this Doctrine some will say will leave us at great uncertainty and our Salvation will be very contingent and hazardous unless we be provided of an Infallible guide without whom we cannot be safe And that God hath made a slender provision for our Souls if we be not thus provided for Answ 1. We are not fit judges of what God ought to doe but ought to thank him for what he hath done We discourse at random and very inconsequently when we undertake to say what is fit for God to doe and then infer he hath done what we judged fit for him to doe At this rate we may as well infer that God hath established a Sovereign Vmpire to decide all civil controversies about meum and tuum For since these things divide the world and are occasions of feuds and wars it may be as fairly said that this is for the interest of the world as an infallible Judge is for that of the Church Shall we then conclude that God hath appointed such an one or else he had been wanting to his Creatures 'T is for the interest of the Church that the Members of it should be free from possibility of sinning as well as of erring and yet we know God hath made no such provision An infallible guide of manners is as necessary as such a guide of controversies and yet we cannot say there is any such And then we have no cause to make such a conclusion 2. That supposing it necessary there should be an Infallible Judge yet this would doe us no good unless we could be infallibly sure of this Infallible Judge And there are two things in this case we must be infallibly certain of viz. 1. That there is some Infallible Judge 2. Who that Judge is Both these are necessary We must be sure of a treasure first and then know where it lies before we can have cause to boast of our wealth 3. That supposing the present Church of Rome were the infallible Church yet the more simple sort of people would not be for all this at any greater certainty For they would have another task upon them viz. to inquire what is the faith and what is the worship of this Church And how will they doe to find that out must they be ruled by what the ignorant and common people doe Perhaps the Church does not allow of all their practices Or shall they be governed by their Parish Priest But that Priest for what they know may err though a Pope or Council cannot Shall they be governed by common consent But there are differing customs and usages in France and Spain and other Countries to which of these shall they adhere Must they be taught by a Pope ex cathedra But how shall they know if this be a true Pope or whether he speak ex cathedra or not Or will you send these people to the Council of Trent Alas 't is a thing well known that the words of that Councils Decrees are sometime general and ambiguous and not fit to direct plain and simple people And yet Pope Pius IV. commanded that without his authority no man should explain them That no man should presume Vllos commentarios glossas annotationes Scholia ullúmve omnino interpretationis genus super ipsius Concilii decretis quocunque modo edere That is By any way to publish any Commentaries Glosses Annotations Scholia or any sort of interpretation whatsoever upon the Decrees of that Council And this under the pain of Excommunication as appears by his Bull for the confirmation of that Council For instance That Council tells us that Images are to be had in Churches and to have due honour given them What this due honour is which they allow how shall the simple man know Whether it be negative or positive honour Whether he give too much or too little Whether he divide it aright between the Image and the Prototype How can he know how to govern himself in this affair Indeed the Council says afterwards that all Superstition must be avoided But what the Superstition is which the Council disallows it does not define And therefore the plain and simple man will be at a loss how to govern himself I shall now make some application of what hath been said 1. This serves for the reproof of those who would deprive the people of that liberty which God hath given them This is to despoil them of the great prerogative of their nature and degrade them into a lower rank of being which is the greatest tyranny imaginable There is nothing so much concerns mankind as Religion and the interest of their immortal Souls We are here put upon trying or proving all things 1 Joh. 4.1 Believe not every spirit says St. John but try the spirits whether they are of God. Christ bids the Jews search the Scriptures Surely then the Scriptures are not to be