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
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
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
that in the twilight a troubled fancy might be made imagine that they saw Christ which being affirmed by those who were on the secret the rest might so far comply with those who said they saw him as either to imagine it or at least to yield to the rest so as to say that they saw him for so conceits do sometimes spread and whole crouds fancy they see or hear things being faced down by the boldness of a few impudent persons and this being once set about the same Artifices might prevail again and again upon the same weaknesses This might look tolerable if there were no more to be said for the Resurrection of Christ than one or two transient views but continued discourses the reaching his Hands and Side to be felt to Christ's appearance to numbers in full day-light with all the Series of what passed between him and his Disciples and finally his blessing them and being parted from them and ascending up to Heaven but above all the wonderful Pentecosts that followed it the strange Effusion of the Holy Ghost and the extraordinary Gifts that were then given were things in which it was not possible for men to be deceived So that the Apostles did either certainly know that all those things which they attested were true or that they were false there can be no mean in the matter and indeed this objection is so slight that it scarce deserved to be considered The 3 d. pretence is more specious That the History of the Gospel passed easily upon the World without due Examination that it appears both by some hints that are in the New Testament and several passages in Iosephus that the Iews were at that time very credulous and were apt to follow every Pretender they were broken into several Sects and under great Distractions and Oppressions which prepare men to hearken after Novelties so that great numbers might run in upon Rumours and they being once engaged they might reckon that in honour they could not go off and would stick to it even to the hazard of their Lives So we see some Enthusiasts and Sectaries in all Ages have courted Martyrdom and endured great Misery with a triumphant Firmness But to answer all this a great difference is to be made between points of Speculation and matters of Fact in the former men drink in persuasions and then they grow to be so full of them especially when a conceit of their own understanding is twisted with them so that they think it an Affront to their own Reason at least a detracting from its reputation to confess so publickly that they were mistaken but in matters of Fact the thing is quite otherwise these are to be strictly enquired into and a man's believing them imports no more but that he had a good Opinion of those that informed him nor is it any reproch to be too easy in this it rather argues a man to be candid and good in himself which makes him to apt too think well of others and to believe them and how firm soever men may be to Opinions when they have once approved themselves so that Self-love works secretly yet they are still ready to re-examine matters of Fact when their first Informations are called in question especially if they are like to suffer considerably for owning and espousing them It is very true that the Iews had so general an expectation of a Messias about this time that they were apt to run after every Pretender yet they were as apt to forsake him when their hopes failed them But all their expectations run in so different a Channel from what they saw in our Saviour that how much soever their Curiosity might have prompted them once to run to him their prejudices drew them so strongly from him that nothing but mighty and unanswerable Evidence could make them still adhere to him They had groaned long under the Slavery of a bloody Tyrant they hated Herod and his Family they could not bear the Roman Yoke that was coming over them They fancied a Messias should come in whom the Characters of a Moses and a David should meet that he should raise the Honour of their Nation and establish the Observances of their Laws There were three things in our Saviour and his Doctrine any one of which was sufficient to disgust them 1 st His mean and humble Appearance whereas they looked for a glorious Conquerour and a magnificent Prince When he made nothing of paying tribute to Caesar and despised the offers of a Crown they could not but despise him for it according to their Notions 2 ly His seeming to set a low value on the Observances of the Law and his Disciples setting the Gentiles at liberty from them was of all things that which appeared to them the most odious and impious they were so accustomed to a Reverence for those Rites that no sort of Immorality could strike them so much as a coldness in them and therefore they could not bear some Liberties which our Saviour or his Disciples took on the Sabbath day even tho' those could have well been reconciled to the Letter of the Law And 3 ly besides the common fondness that all men have for their Countrey they had so particular a value for their own for Abraham's Circumcised Posterity and such a contempt for all the Heathen Nations who were no better than Dogs in their esteem that the many broad hints that appeared in our Saviour's Parables and Discourses in favour of the Gentiles and the open Declaration which the Apostles soon after made of bringing them into an equality of Dignity and Priviledges with themselves was such a stone of stumbling to every natural Iew that nothing besides a full and uncontested Evidence could have ballanced it Therefore tho' it may be confessed that the Circumstances the Iews were in made them easy to be practised upon and to run as often as any said see here is the Messias or there he is yet their Prejudices and false Notions were so rooted in them that as a great many of them left our Saviour and fell off from his Apostles when they understood the Tendencies of his Doctrine So those that stuck to him were without doubt so far shaken by those prejudices that they made them examine all things the more critically and particularly look into those wonderful matters of Fact that were believed among them so that how easy soever their first Credulity might have been they must have re-consider'd the matter more narrowly before they could overcome Principles and Notions that were so deeply rooted in them Men are not easily carried to forsake their Friends and Families to draw upon them the Hatred and Curses of their Countreymen These things have a Charm and Authority in them which few can withstand but when it rested not there but went on to all sorts of Outrages to the spoiling their Goods the imprisoning their Persons to cruel Whippings to the beheading some and the Stoning
do propose him as the proper Object of Adoration at the same time that they commanded the World to renounce all Idolatry and to serve the living God St. Paul gives this Definition of Heathenish Idolatry that it was a worship given to those who by nature were not Gods yet he prays to Christ he prays for Grace Mercy and Peace from him to all the Churches he writes to he gives him Glory for ever and ever a Phrase expressing the highest Act of Adoration he believes in him he serves him he gives Blessing in his Name he says That all in Heaven and Earth must confess him and bow before him a Phrase importing Adoration he says the Angels of God worship him In other Epistles this is also often mention'd and in St. Iohn's Visions all the Hosts above are represented as falling down before him to worship him Now the bare Incurvation does not import Divine Worship but may be made â—o a Creature yet Incurvation join'd with Prayers Acts of Faith and Trust and Praises is certainly Divine Worship Since then our Saviour in his Temptation said to the Devil that according to the Law we must worship the Lord our God and serve him only since also the Angel when he reproved St. Iohn for falling down before him bids him worship God then when these things are laid together and it appears that all the Acts of Adoration by which we worship God are also ascribed to Christ and offered up to him either it must be confess'd that he is truly God or that the Christian Religion sets up Idolatry at the same time that it seems to design the pulling it down every where as if Idolatry had only been to be changed in its object and to be transfered from all others to the Person of our Saviour This point of the worship of Christ is so plainly set forth in the New Testament that the chief Opposers of the Article of his Divinity have asserted it with so much Zeal that they deny that such as refuse to pay it to him deserve to be called Christians and yet there is not any one point that is more fully and frequently condemned through the whole Scriptures than the worshipping a Creature It is also a main part of all the Exhortations of the Apostles Angels were often sent on Divine Deputations as the Instruments of the great God but yet they were never to be worshipped Idolatry is an Evil in it self and is not only the Transgression of a positive precept but it is a transferring of the Honor and Homage due to the Author of our Being and the Fountain of all our Blessings and the ascribing these to a Creature it is a worshipping the Creature besides the Creator And if the same Acts of Prayer and Thanksgiving in the same words can be offered up both to the Creature and the Creator then how can we still think that God is a jealous God and that he will not give his Glory to another In a word this is that which seems so sensible that one does not know what to think of those men's Reasons who cannot bring themselves to believe any thing concerning the Divine Nature which differs from their own Notions and yet can swallow down so vast an Absurdity that is more open to the compass of their Understandings as that the same Acts in which we acknowledge and adore God should be at the same time offered up to a Creature But to urge this a little more closely it is well known how averse the Iews were to all the appearances of Idolatry in our Saviour's time their Zeal against the figures of the Roman Eagles set over the Temple-gates by Herod and against the Statue of Caligula besides many other Instances prove this beyond all question They were much prejudiced against the Apostles as well as they had been against our Saviour and the Apostles do in several passages of their Epistles set down these their prejudices together with their own Answers to them They excepted to the abrogating the Mosaical Ordinances and to their calling in the Gentiles and associating themselves with them but it does not appear that they did ever charge them with Idolatry nor do the Apostles in any hint ever offer to vindicate themselves from that Aspersion Now if Christ had been only a Man Defi'd advanc'd to Divine Honor or if he had been ever so Noble a part and even the first part of the Creation and had been now made the Object of the worship of the Christians let any Man see if it is conceivable that the Iews who were such implacable Enemies to Christianity should not have held to this as their main Strength chief Objection Since as this was a very popular thing in which it was easy to draw in all their Country men so it was the easiest as well as the most important part of their Plea they might have yielded that all the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles were true and yet upon this pretence of Idolatry they had the express words of their Law on their side If there ariseth among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreams and giveth thee a Sign or a Wonder and the Sign or the Wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken to the words of that Prophet or that Dreamer of Dreams for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your Heart and with all your Soul This was such an express and full Decision of the Case that he may imagine any thing that can imagine that they could have past it by and that they should not have objected it or that the Apostles if their Doctrine had been either that of the Arians or of the Socinians should not have either answer'd or prevented the Objection since they dwell long upon things that were much less important Several that join'd themselves to Christianity were scandaliz'd and fell back to the Iews but it does not appear that any of them ever charged them with Idolatry or that the Iews ever reproach'd them with it which yet we cannot think they would not have done if the Christians had offer'd Divine Adoration to a Creature to one that was a meer Man newly dignifi'd or that had been made by God before all his other Works Here a Creature was made a God and the Christians were guilty of serving other gods whom their Fathers had not known This cannot be retorted on us who believe that Christ was God by vertue of the Indwelling of the Eternal Word in him The Iews could make no Objection to this who knew that their Fathers had worshipped the Cloud of Glory because of God's resting upon it So the adoring the Messias upon the supposition of the Godhead's dwelling Bodily in him could bear no debate among the Iews
Discourse and with such a variety of Expressions that it is not easy to imagine how any thing could be more plainly told He is call'd the High-Priest that was consecrated to offer up Sacrifices for the people it is said That he has entred into the Holy Place by his own Blood having obtain'd Eternal Redemption for us his Blood purges our Consciences from dead woks to serve the living God he hath put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself and was once offer'd to bear the sins of many we are Sanctifi'd by the offering of the Body of Christ once for us all and after he had offer'd one Sacrifice for sins he for ever sate down on the right hand of God having by that one Offering for ever perfected them that are sanctified so that we enter into the holiest by the Blood of Iesus He is also compared to the Sacrifice that was burnt without the Camp and that he might Sanctify the people with his own Blood he suffer'd without the Gate and he is call'd that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant Now let it be consider'd That as this Argument is in some places closely pursu'd in many chosen and strict Expressions so it returns in a great variety of Phrases through the whole Epistles in so many different places and on so many several occasions that nothing can appear plainer in words than that the Apostles cosider'd this as the Capital Article of their whole Doctrine and the Main Point given them in Commission In their preaching to all Nations they inculcate it chiefly they repeat it often and for ought I have been able to judge they have not left one single Phrase that belong'd to Sacrifices in the Old Testament which they have not appli'd to the Death of Christ in the New It is true they mention his Resurrection often as the Great and Eminent Proof of Christ's being the Messias but they never apply that with those lively and inflam'd Expressions to men's Consciences that they do his Death and Sufferings The Merit is plainly put there the Resurrection being the Glorious Reward and Consequence of it Upon his Death and Cross it is that they dwell the most they set an infinite Value upon his Loving us and dying for us Now if he had only di'd for our good tho it is not to be deni'd but that this was a great Evidence of perfect Love yet the world was full of Stories of men that had di'd for their Country so that barely the dying for our good if it had not been likewise in our stead could not have born such a sublime Strain as that is in which they set this out If our Saviour had only been to endure those bodily Torments how violent soever it does not give any extraordinary Character of him that the very night before he was so exceedingly amaz'd at the prospect of what he was entring upon that he became sorrowful even to the death and was in such a bodily Agony that his Sweat fell down as great drops of Blood which shews that his Mind was then in a much more unconceivable and unsupportable Agony so that an Angel was sent from Heaven to comfort him Now if there was no more in his Sufferings than that which we see here is a depression far below what great Heroes have express'd even during the most extream Sufferings and yet it was at a distance from them only upon the prospect of their coming on All the while before our Saviour knew they were coming and yet till then no Agony is heard of which intimates that there was somewhat peculiar in it which some Churches have in their Liturgies call'd very properly his unspeakable and unutterable Sufferings They are so indeed for we who have only a Notion of vast Agonies in the Mind when Rack'd with the Horror of guilt it cannot bear the apprehensions of the Wrath of God and the reproaches that arise from a wounded Conscience cannot apprehend what could have rais'd such amazing Sorrows in so pure and unspotted a Soul that was conscious to it self of no sin and so could fear nothing from a just and good God therefore we must not pretend to explain what we cannot understand But to return to the main Argument When this whole Collection of the ways in which the Death of Christ is propos'd to the World in the New Testament is laid together we must conclude that either this Death was a propitiatory Sacrifice or we must for ever despair of finding out the meaning of any thing that can be express'd in words Nothing could be plainer said nor oftner repeated in a greater variety of Expressions proper to signify this and not proper for any thing else I do not deny but those who would turn all this another way have found to every one of these passages somewhat that seems to favour the diverting them to another signification but as it was observ'd before if some of the Sacrificatory Phrases have by some Authors and upon some occasions been brought down to a signification less important it will not from thence follow that Discourses that are a contexture of those Notions and Forms of Speech should be so wrested from their natural Signification to a sense so far below the genuine and receiv'd Importance of the words And indeed I do not see what we can make of any part of the New Testament or how much of it we can receive with any degrees of Esteem if we do not believe the Death of Christ to have been a truly Expiatory Sacrifice offerr'd up to God in our stead Nor does this at all contradict the freedom of the Grace of God in pardoning sin which is so much set forth in Scripture since there is matter enough for Free-Grace to exert it self notwithstanding the Atonement made by Sacrifice For God might have in the strictness of Justice demanded satisfaction from our selves so his commuting the matter and accepting of it in the person of another is a very high Act of his Grace then our Saviour's offering himself up so freely for us was a signal as well as an undeserv'd Act of Love in that he died for us while we were yet Enemies and tho this Act belong'd to his Human Nature yet the Union between it and the Eternal Word that dwelt in him may very well entitle God to it so that in that respect this also may be call'd an Act of God's Grace The offering this to us on such easy terms and the exacting only a sincere obedience as the condition of it without insisting on an entire Obedience is another part of the Grace of it and finally The proposing such vast Rewards to our poor services and the conveying the knowledge of this to some Nations when others are left in Darkness and Ignorance are very great and undeserved Acts of Love and Mercy so that the sense of our Saviour's dying for us as our Sacrifice does not at
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