to these also this Infallible Guide is necessary to supply the effect of such studies N. 4 As for the 2d means viz. The Ancients urging the general Exposition and sense of Scriptures testified in the Apostolical Churches to be conformed to Catholicks affirm that this viz. the Apostolick Churches their unanimously delivering such a doctrine or sense of Scripture as received first from the Apostles was always held to be infallible and not liable to errour and all Chri tians held oblâ—ged to believe or embrace such a doctrine or sense of Scripture so generally consented in and the dissenters and opposers thereof always held by the same united and consenting Apostolical Churches for Hereticks in the Faith To which Traditive Doctrine I add here or any necâ—ssary and evident Deduction made by them from such a tradiâ—ive doctrine In both which the Tradition or the Deduction the Câ—urch was con tantly believed to be so preserved by God's providence over it and his Holy Spirit abiding with it as not to err in any necessaries And the unanimous consent of these Churches concerning any doctrine to be Apostolical however their minds were made known whether by Communicatory Letters or Provinciâ—l Synods for it could not be in these times of persecution by a Council General had then the self same authority as afterwards the Decrees and Definitions of Councils And thus is the Dr in urging the 2d means of knowing the true sense of Scripture fallen upon the Infallibility herein of the Church And this was the Infallible Guide in the first times whose Tradition and Ordination for matters of our faith Irenaeus saith ‖ l. 3. c. 4. Chriâ—tians muâ—t have followed and believed had the Apostles lest us no Scriptures and consequently Dissenters had been held no less Hereticks Siquibus saith he speaking of the present Churches de aliquâ modicâ quaestione how much more in greater disceptatio esset nonne oporteret in an iquissinas i.e. by succession recurrere ecclesias in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab eis de praesente quaestione suâ—ere quâ—d certum re liquidum est what was the certain and cleare tâ—uth to which he was to adhere Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias cui ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes Barbarorum corum qui in Christum creâ—unt sine charactere vel atramento scriptam habentes per spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterem traditionem diligenter custodientes c. N. 5 Neither was this general Consent of Churches then consulted or repaired-to only concerning their conserving of the Written Rule of Faith the Canon of Scripture or the Creed that they received from the Apostles the perpetual conservation of which in the Church the Fathers urged against some grosser kind of Hereticks denying the same Creed and some part at least of this Canon but also was consulted and repaired-to concerning the sense wherein the Scriptures and this Creed were understood by these Churches so often as disputes in those times were raised about it by other Hereticks more refined and who admitted the Scriptures and the Creed but varied concerning the sense of them in several points Against both which Hereticks the Fathers urged the prescription of the present testimony of these Churches to those who would consult them concerning the Tradition descending to them from the times of the Apostles And Tertullian frequently complains as of some Hereticks not reâ—eiving the Scriptures so of others misinterpreting them ‖ De praescript adv haeres c. 17. c. Ista Haeresis non recipit quasdam Scripturas siquas recipit adjectio ibus detractionibus ad dispositionem instituti sui intervertit si recipit non recipit integras si aliquatenùs integras praestâ—t nihilâ—minùs â—iversas expositiones commentata convertit Tantum veritati obstrepit adulter sensus quantum corruptor stilus And afterward Dicunt a nobis potius adulteria Scripturarum expositionum mendâ—cia inferri And ubi apparu rit esse veritatem disciplinae fidei Coristianae illic erit veritas Scripturarum omnium traditionum Christianarum Where I note his urging the Church's consenting Exposition of Scriptures as well as reception of Scriptures as prescribing against Hereticks Ib l. 11. It will not I hope be denied that the Primitive Christian Church had a cercain way of understanding the sense of doubtful places as far as it was necessary to be understood and that they wanted nâ— means which Christ had appointed for the ending of controversies This is willingly granted and it is contended that this inerrability in Necessaries accompanied the Clergy and preserved the Church in the unity of a true faith in all even the Primitive times being annexed to the whole Body or much major part of this Clergy not only when met in a General Council but out of it also whenever and however they manifested a concurrence in their judgment and agreement in their doctrine whether it were by several Provincial Councils assembled or perhaps only by some one convened in the place more infested with some new and dangerous errour and ratified by the Apostolick See and other coordinate Churches or not opposed and censured but taciâ—ly admitted by them Or by their Communicatory and Synodical Letters Or whether in their publick Liturgies and Offices Or in a general Consent in their publick Writings and explications of Christian Doctrine In none of which as to the Doctrine Necessary the whole Body of the Clergy or that which in any dissent is to be accepted for the whole did ever erre Of which times before Constantine and the first General Council of Nice thus Mr Thorndike in his Epilogue l. 1. c. 8. The daily intercourse intelligence and correspondence between Churches without those Assemblies of Representatives we call Councils was a thing so visibly practised by the Catholick Church from the beginning that thereupon I conceive it may be called a standing Council in regard of the continual settling of troubles arising in some part and tending to question the peace of the whole by the consent of other Churches concerned which settlement was had and obtained by means of this mutual intelligence and correspondence The holding of Councils being a way of far greater dispatch but the express consent of Churches obtained upon the place being a more certain foundation of peace And afterward he affirms That the succession of Pastors alledged by Irenaeus and Tertullian to convince the Hereticks of their time by S. Augustine and Optatus to convince the Donatists to be Schismaticks proceeded wholly upon supposition of daily intercourse and correspondence between Churches as of force to conclude particular Churches by consent of the whole And this agreement in all times hath kept the Faith of the Church steady and uniform Ib. l. 4 If no such thing was then heard of as an
to believe it just But in matters of Religion such a Judge is required whom we should be obliged to believe to have judged right So that in civil controversies every honest understanding man is fit to be a Judge but in Religion none but he that is infallible at least in all necessary matters Thus he Ib. l. 9 Which absolute obedience we are ready to yield when we see the like absolute command for Ecclesiastical Judges of controversies of Religion as there was among the Jews for their Supreme Judges in matters of law What thinks he of our Lords Dic Ecclesiae and Si Ecclesiam non audierit sit tibi sicut Ethnicus c in the sense wherein Church-Tradition hath understood this Text as applied to the highest Courts of the Church and to their cutting off by a spiritual death the disobedient whether contradicters or dissenters Is there more injustice and tyranny in this than inflicting a corporal death on the dissenters or contradicters under Moses his law This Discourse of the Dr as also what he hath said of the same matter Rat. Account p. 239. I had occasion to examine in the former Discourse § 22. c to which I referr the Reader for what is here omitted Pag. 117. l. 7. Such a pretence implying an infallible assistance of the Spirit of God there were but two ways of proving it either 1. By such Miracles as the Apostles wrought to attest their Infallibility or 2. By those Scriptures from whence this Infallibility is derived What thinks he of a third way of proving it viz. By Tradition But then If the Church-Guides give this evidence of their being infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost in necessaries namely the clear Testimony of the Scriptures I ask is not this sufficient for the world to credit them to be so without their doing Miracles Doth not this Author of the two ways to prove it named just before allow either of them sufficient Now see this latter proved before in Note on p. 113. l. 17. and so I hope we may peaceably take leave of Miracles Pag. 118. l. 2. When I speak of infallibility in fundamentals I there declare that I mean no more by it than that there shall be always a number of true Christians in the world Now whence learns he this that true Christians shall never faile I suppose whence other Protestants do viz. from the Promise of our Lord in Scripture that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against his Church See Archbishop Lawd p. 140. That the whole Church saith he cannot err in doctrines absolutely fundamental seems to me to be clear by the promise of Christ Mat. 16. That the gates of hell c. And it is as clear that the Arch-bishop meant it not only of a number of true Christians as our Author doth here but of true Pastors also and Doctors of the Church If this Promise then be enough for believing of this the non-failing of Christians that shall believe all necessary truth without Miracles will it not supposing such a promise made to them be as sufficient for believing the other the indefectibility of the Church-Guides as to teaching all necessary faith without their doing Miracles Ib. l. 16. But in case any persons challenge an infallibility to themselves antecedently to the belief of Scriptures c such persons are equally bound to prove their infallibility by Miracles as the Apostles were What if they challenge this Infallibility like wise from the Scriptures as most certainly they do This latter challenge of theirs surely will supersede Miracles But let us suppose no such challenge What thinks he if they produce the evidence of Tradition for their Infallibility antecedently to Scripture as also they do Is not this we here suppose there is such a Tradition which is proved before ‖ Note on p. 113. l. 14. a sufficiently clear and self-evident proof of it If not of their Infallibility how then is the same Tradition without Miracles a sufficient proof to Protestants of the Canon or Infallibility of Scriptures Suppose the same promises made no Scriptures written would not the Catholick Church have been what it is and must it then have perpetually-shewn Miracles or no Infallibility as to Necessaries have been believed in it Ib. l. 7 The Sum of which is c. In the Dr's suming of N. O's Answers still somthing is lost as here the Reason is omitted why no such need of Miracles to be done by the Church-Governours delivering only from age to age that Doctrine which by the first Teachers was sufficiently confirmed by Miracles viz. this the Evidence of Tradition which received from the Apostles and from their Ancestors they unanimously convey unto Posterity Yet such Miracles were necessary then to more persons than those Apostles who made the very first Sermons concerning the Gospel because the bare Tradition of a few at the first was not so evidently credible as that which by many Sermons made and Miracles done in many places afterward became Vniversal Pag. 119. l. 12. The necessity of Miracles was to give a sufficient motive to believe to all those to whom the Gospel was proposed Must all then in the Apostles times who received the faith see their Miracles Or if their Miracles only related to them by a creditable Tradition would serve the turn why not the same Miracles related now Pag. 120. l. 1. Those persons ought to confirm that authority by Miracles as the Apostles did And again l. 20. See Note on p. 118. l. 11. N. 1 Ibid. l. 11. Yet he is very loth to let go the Miracles of their Church done in latter times as well as formerly N.O. ‖ See Consid p. 29. is loth to let go the Miracles of their Church i.e. of the Catholick Church East or West for both have been noted for Miracles In latter times i.e. from the Apostles daies to the present there being the same evidences in all ages of the facts I say not of all the facts that are related but of many of them which is sufficient and the same Reasons where and when the World is already Christian in all times for the doing of them N.O. loth to let them go not as to this his affirming a Necessity of them now in the Church for the believing of its Infallibility or any other part of the Christian Doctrine or also for the Conversion of the yet Infidel and Heathen Nations after such a plenitude of Tradition appearing in the greatest part of the world already subdued by the Gospel Of which non-necessity N.O. saith ‖ Princ. Consid p. 29. That Miracles having been wrought by the Apostles in confirmation of that Doctrine which their Successors deliver from them are not now alike necessary to or reasonably demanded of these their Successors N. 2 But he is very loth notwithstanding this to part with true Miracles still wrought in the Church since the Apostles times and these too of the very
in not erring or in believing aright in necessaries here granted to the Church Governours in like manner as to Mechanicks but only their Infallibility in Teaching to others the same necessary things which they themselves believe and by their Infallibility here is meant not passively their not being deceived but actively their not deceiving And that N. O in proving these Church-Governours their believing aright in necessaries hath lost his labour his discourse proceeding as the Dr saith from a very false way of reasoning from believing to teaching To which that I may not be here further tedious in repeating the same things I desire the Reader to review what hath been said to this in the former Discourse § 38. p. 26. Ib. l. 9. Urged as N. O's arguing If God will not be wanting to particular persons in matters necessary to their salvation much less will he be wanting to the Guides of the Church in all matters of faith N.O. inferrs or urgeth no such thing But this is justly inferred Not wanting to the Church Guides in all Necessary matters of faith See note on p. 104. l. 15. Meanwhile from what motive thinks this Author comes that profession of Dr Hammond concerning all matters of faith ‖ Of Heresy §. 14. n. 6. We do not believe that any General Council truly such ever did or shall err in any matter of faith he means in defining it And that of Bishop Bramhal †Vindic. e. 2. p. 9. We are most ready in all our differences to stand to the judgment of a free General Council Ib. l. 5 He goes on No certainly unless it be proved that their guidance is the only means whereby men can understand what is necessary to salvation The following words infer the guidance of Church Governors need to be no means of this at all God having as he saith in the following words provided otherwise for that by giving so clear a Rule in matters necessary that no man who sincerely endeavours to know such things shall fail therein Unless he means the Rule to be clear so as that it needs an Expositor But then should not he say so obscure rather i.e. as to some things and call for a sincere endeavour in private men to learn the sense of it from their Guides and that they may have the more confidence in their guidance should not he tell them with N.O. at least that Scriptures that are so clear to them rude and unlearned cannot but be so to their Guides more versed and studied in them Pag. 142. l. 13. Besides that no man that is acquainted with the proceedings of the Council of Trent will see reason to be over-confident of the sincerity of Councils so palpably influenced by the Court of Rome The sincerity and just proceedings of the Council of Trent are ill learnt from such persons of a contrary interest If all Bishops rightly have an influence on Councils much more ought the Prime Patriarch and other Bishops that assist him Annotations on §. 10. Of the Authority of the Guides of the Church PAg. 142. l. 4 God hath entrusted every man with a faculty of discerning truth and fashood supposing that there were no persons in the world to direct or guide him The Reader may be pleased to review the brief Replyes made to what the Dr urgeth here till his page 150 in the preceding Discourse from § 40. to 47. With a faculty of discerning truth and falshood Meaneth he so as every one to be able to discerne truth from falshood in every thing without any Guide or instructer This is denied In such indefinite terms lies great ambiguity and deceit Pag. 143. l. 13 I hope no one will deny this Nor N.O. doth not In some truths and falshoods more easy ones own judgment or reason may be sufficient in others harder not as put the case in his judging of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Articles of the Trinity Pag. 144. l. 9. All which were to no purpose at all if men were not to continue the exercise of their own judgments about these matters viz matters of Religion Exercise of private mens judgments in all things General Councils Church-Governours N. O allow For this also is an act of our judgment when by it rightly used we find it our duty to submit these our judgments or the particular reasons we have for or against such a point in Religion to the judgment of our Canonical Superiours in such matters as are defined by them and not clear to us Ib. l. 11. Accordingly we find the Apostles appealing to the judgments of private and fallible persons concerning what they said to them It is true All may search all things and welcome For all Truths among right searchers bear witness one to another And after such search if rightly made they may disobey or dissent from the contrary doctrine of an Apostle Yet this also is true that whenever they shall so dissenâ— such judgment is not rightly made which the more it is used rightly the more is one confirmed in the doctrine of our Lord and his Apostles and so of General Councils And in all matters not otherwise clear to them this judgment rightly used will still direct them to obedience of their right and Canonical Pastors But by this bidding the people search and try our Lord or his Apostles secured none if after 〈◊〉 used they either dissented from their doctrine or disobeyed 〈◊〉 commands because in a right judgment made of thâ—◠〈…〉 could not do so And therefore the Apostles commanded 〈…〉 persons as supposing these two things belief of their 〈…〉 and the Vse of ones Judgment well consisting together 〈…〉 fast and firm in the doctrines delivered to them by theâ—◠〈…〉 and not to be carried away with every doctrine becauâ—◠〈…〉 Pastors appointed to guide them and to observe those 〈…〉 sed any Divisions among them contrary to the Doctrâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 and to reject any person heretical c. See Rom. 16. 〈…〉 11.2 Phil. 4.9 Heb. 13.7 1 Tim. 6.10 2 Tim. 3.10.14 Tit. 1.9 3.10 Eph. 4.11 13. Pag. 145. l. 10 They are frequently charged to beware of seducers and false Guides I add and frequently charged to follow their true and Canonical Church-Governours that they may not be misled by those false Guides See the Texts now quoted to which may be added Jude 4. here quoted by our Author Ib. l. 7 They are told that there should come a falling away c. All this more makes for a most close adherence especially of the more simple and less able to examine Controversies to their Canonical Superiours and for their rejecting the doctrines of those Spirits whom upon trial they find to oppose them Being assured from our Lords Promises of lawful General Councils the supreme Church-authority their never erring in things necessary Pag. 146. l. 9. Both shall fall into the ditch We have heard the Dr's plea hitherto Now is it any wonder that Sects so multiply in a
Judge leave his Seat Pag. 196. l. 18. I say the places of Scripture which are alledged for such an infallible Judge are the most doubtful and controverted of any 1. What then If I may be certain of the Infallibility of this Interpreter another way than by these Scriptures that are urged for it viz. by Tradition Is it any news to our Author that Catholicks say this 2ly I may be certain of the Infallibility of this interpreter from those Scriptures not as expounded by this Interpreter but by Tradition I say Tradition both hath declared such Judge Infallible in necessaries and hath also declared the true Sense of these Scriptures to affirm this Which Tradition hath not so clearly delivered the sense of all other doubtful Scriptures Nor if it had is the sense of Tradition in all other Scriptures so easily to be known at least to the meaner sort of Christians as this concerning the Infallibility of the Supreme Church-Guides in necessaries by reason of the Church's more evident practice herein See Note on p. 113. l. 15. Pag. 197. l. 7. I come therefore to the 2d enquiry which is about the means of attaining the certain sense of Scripture in doubtful places without the supposition of an infallible Guide N. 1 The Dr here from this p. 197. to p. 250. makes a long Digression about the means used in the Primitive times of attaining the certain sense of Scripture in doubtful places without the supposing of an Infallible Guide Of these Means he names two One means he saith ‖ See his p. 249. was by examining and comparing places of Scripture with all the care and judgment that may be Where he gathers out of the Ancients such Rules as these That the Scope and designe of Scripture chiefly be regarded and the Connexion well considered that nothing be interpreted contrary to the Coherents that the sense of no plâ—ce is to be so interpreted that it hath repugnancy with others that plain places be not interpreted by obscure nor a many by a few bat the contrary that figurative expressions are not to be understood literally nor thâ—se intended in a plain sense figuratively that examples are to be drawn from plain places to illustrate difficult and from those which are certain to clear the doubtful that in matters of doubt recourse is to be had to the Original Tongues that for understanding Scriptures we are to come with minds duly prepared to it by humility prayer purity of heart love of God and our Neighbour c. and many more N. 2 But if after all this comparing Scriptures the dispute about the sense of them still continues the other Means he saith the Ancients speak of was the examining the Tradition of the Apost lical Churches from the beginning concerning the sense of them delivered from the Apostles ‖ p. 213. For that any one's setting up other expositions of Scripture than the Christian Church hath received from the Apostles times this without any further proof discovers their imposture For as he gives us it out of Tertullian ‖ p. 212. it is unreasonable to suppose that the Apostles should not know the doctrine of Christ or that they did not deliver to the Churches planted by them the things which they knew or that the Churches misunderstood their doctrine because all the Churches were agreed in one common faith and in an exposition of Scriptures contrary to theirs and therefore there is all the reason to believe that so universal consent must arise from some common cause which can be supposed to be no other than the common delivery of it by all the Apostles Again p. 249. He speaks on this manner If after all this i.e. the examining and comparing Scriptures the dispute still continues then if it be against the ancient Rule of Faith universally received perhaps he means the Apostles Creed that is a sufficient prescription against any opinion if not against the rule of faith in express words but about the sense of it then if ancient General Councils have determined it which had greater opportunities of knowing the sense of the Apostolical Church than we it is reasonable we should yield to them but if there have been none such then the unanimous consent of Fathers is to be taken c. N. 3 For the first of these means the attaining the certain sense of Scripture by comparing Texts c. 1. First the Reader may observe that if this proves the non-necessity of an Infallible Guide so it doth the non-necessity of any Guide at all as to teaching us the meaning of the Scriptures For in this first means no repairing at all to our Spiritual Guides fallible or infallible for the sense is mentioned 2ly I grant that there is a means of attaining a sufficient certainty of the sense of some obscure places of Scripture from others more clear without the necessity of any other infallible Guide therein and that the Fathers also have laid down many excellent Rules concerning this and practised them in disputing against Hereticks 3ly The more and the more certain these means are for knowing the sense of Scripture the more they seem to inferr the Infallibility and non-erring of the Supreme Governours of the Church met in Council herein and the more security of their Subject's as to all necessary faith relying on their Judgment Nor do I see any thing that can be replied here but That these Governours well knowing the right sense of Scriptures yet by ambition interest and several other passions may be corrupted from teaching it and also may be induced to define as an Article of their Faith to all posterity the contrary falshoods and themselves also first take their Oath of their belief of the truth thereof which though a very strange charge yet might pass for a more tolerable exception if those who will judge of this swerving and erring of Councils were themselves exempt from any such passions or interests or could well know when they are biass'd with them but otherwise it seems a very poor subterfuge yet the only one they can alledge for disobedience to Councils 4ly It is here to be remembred that if this means by comparing Scriptures c. named before be not such as all men those of weaker judgments and secular emploiments void of literature can use and practise this Infallible Guide for the certain sense of Scripture will still remain necessary to such where useless to some others 5ly That If any others of more liberal education more leisure for study of better capacity after such means used shall remain still in doubt concerning any such Texts in matters necessary as suppose in the Trinity or Deity of our Lord Christ our Lords Satisfaction Justification here also will be need of an Infallible Guide or Judge to decide these things to him Or if all well capable by their parts or condition of life of using this means yet otherwise employed de facto do not use it
without their using such help and not that they are in all these clear CHAP. III. Concerning the Duty of Obedience and submission of Judgment from the Church's Subjects to the Definitions of the Church-Governors in Divine matters and in these the more the more they are Necessary § 19 III. N. O. advanceth yet further against the former Principle That the Church's Subjects have an Obligation of Obedience and submission of Judgment in matters of necessary Faith to their Ecclesiastical Superiors and that considering both the special Ordination and Commission of these persons from Christ for teaching to the World the Truths necessary to Salvation and his charging others to obey them and also their own ignorance and their Superiours study and Learning in such things divine they therefore ought to depend upon and adhere to their directions so much the more in any point of Faith by how much it is esteemed more necessary as wherein there is a much greater hazard if they should err § 20 To this purpose N.O. urgeth Eph. 4.11 c. ‖ See 1 Con. 12.28 That our Lord hath given as Apostles and Prophets so Pastours and Doctors for the consummation of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ surely this in necessaries to their Salvation untill all meet into the unity of faith into a perfect man That henceforth they may not be as children waved and carried about with every wind of Doctrine in the wickednes and craftines of men to the circumvention of Errour Where the Apostle naming the Designe of this Divine Constitution of these Persons to be perfecting of men in the unity of the Faith it would be too much violence Used upon the Text to limit such an Institution only to a Guidance in non-Necessaries to Salvation upon the account of Necessaries sufficiently clear to all men i.e. using a right endeavour to understand them in the Scriptures § 21 Again N.O. urgeth 2 Pet. 3.16 Where S. Peter observes that in his time some persons for any thing we know diligent enough yet through want of learning and the instability of not adhering to their Guides being unlearned saith he and unstable depraved some places of Scripture hard to be understood to their own destruction which shews also these Scriptures hard to be understood in points necessary else how their destruction follow their erring and shews their erring in these also not to be only for want of diligence or Devotion or from their proverseness or folly where the Dr. in his Answer ‖ p. 190. to this Text for the rest he passeth by would chiefly place the reason thereof but for their want of learning saith the Apostle and of stability i.e. in adhering to their true Guides and as the Dr. grants for want of Judgment which care and diligence cannot alwaies supply Urgeth also the Apostles Precept Heb. 13.17 of obeying our Prelates and submitting to them as those who watch over and must render an account of our souls and ver 7 9. of following their faith and not being carried about with diverse and strange doctrines which obedience and following their faith surely is not intended only as to non-necessaries and urgeth our Lords Command also fi non audierit Ecclesiam that he who in matters of controversy did not stand to the determination and sentence of the Church should be held as an Heathen and a Publican § 22 N. O. adds That under the Law also were appointed Judges beside the letter of it Consid p. 25 which was not penned with such clarity but that doubts and controversies might arise concerning the sense doubts saith the Text not only between blood and blood stroke and stroke c. but also between law and commandement statute and judgment ‖ 2 Chron. 19.6 seeming to gain-say one another which doubts arising their addresses were to be made to these Judges and whatever their sentence was according to the sentence of the law that these should teach them and according to the judgment that they should tel and inform them they were to do and that upon pain of death To do according to such sentence not only to acquiesce in and yield some kind of external submission to their determination and sentence so as men do to these of secular Courts as to non-resistance and the undergoing such mulcts or punishments as were imposed on them without being obliged meanwhile at all to assent to or believe the truth of that which they determine or consequently act alwaies according to it as thought iust and lawful an answer the Dr. gives in his Rational Account ‖ p. 239. and to which in his late Reply he refers †p. 116. N.O. who had before perused and remained unsatisfied with it made as by him so by Chillingworth and other Protestants but as N.O. expresly cautioned ‖ p. 25. against any such answer to do according to such sentence when they were enjoined the observance of some law that was formerly misunderstood by them and so broken and disobeyed Where none can can be obliged to do a thing as the Jews were by those Judges but is by the same decree obliged to assent and believe the doing it lawful And that this seemed clear enough from the words of the Text for who can reasonably interpret them thus Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand or to the left ver 11. that is Thou shalt not decline in not paying the mulct in which they shall fine thee or not undergoing the corporal punishment they shall inflict on thee Thou shalt observe to do according to all that they shall inform thee and according to the sentence of the law that they shall teach thee ver 10. that is thou shalt suffer what they impose but not obey what they enjoin Again that they were to do according to such sentence upon pain of death not then only when the Litigants do acknowledge their sentence to be juxta legem Dei conformable to God's law for then what sentence of the Judge would stand good but so often as the Judge should declare it to be conformable to God's law And when will a Judge declare his sentence to be otherwise Lastly that if such an obedience as this were now performed to supreme Ecclesiastical Governours and Judges under the Gospel more would not be desired § 23 Thus the Considerations And the Reader may here seriously consider Whether If out of the Gospel were produced in expresse words the like command concerning our Ecclesiastical Governors in Relation to it Namely If there arise a matter too hard for thee c. in the Scriptures of the Gospel thou shalt come to them and they shall shew thee the sentence of Judgment And thou shalt do according to the sentence which they shall shew thee Thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee Thou shalt not decline from
be both an act of prudence and of duty to submit our judgment to our Superiours in whatever they shall define and especially in matters of Necessary Faith § 42 Again p. 144. That the exercise of this Faculty was not to cease as soon as men had embraced the Christian Doctrine Granted as the former and yet our submission of this our Judgment to what doctrines our Superiours shall define be both our duty and a most rational act of this our Judgment and any perswasion of our judgment not rightly used to the contrary no way excuse our non-submission from guilt I say as the exercise of this faculty doth not cease so it must be rightly used which it never is when used it at any time dissents from the doctrine of our Lord or his Apostles or of lawful General Councils whereto is required its assent § 43 Again he saith p. 146. That the Authority of Guides in the Church i.e. for their determining truths in necessaries is not absolute and unlimited but confined within certain bounds and afterward he saith confined to a Rule which if they transgress they are no longer to be followed Be it so when they transgress against their Rule if this be certainly and demonstratively known by any such person is not to follow them this is confessed already by N. O. But Consid p. 73 who is appointed Judge of these Supreme Judges when they transgress against this Rule or when their Subjects have Demonstration for this Their Subjects who are from them to learn the sense of the Rule where difficult and disputed and who are bidden to follow their faith The right exercise of our judgment will not judge so but will judge that if Demonstration were on his side these Supreme Judges having all the same Evidences would have discovered it sooner than he or at least have discovered it when related to them by him and also the Protestants Definition of it concludes it none if these Judges do not discern it such Who then since he is not excused from sin and disobedience by using his judgment if he judge amiss will not think it the safest way still to continue his submission The Socinian in judging the Council of Nice in their Definition of Consubstantiality to have transgressed the Rule they are confined to and so not to be followed is not hereby released at all from his obedience to this Council or secured in his discession from it That authority is none that is only to be obeyed where the Subjects are to approve first of its sentence § 44 Again p. 148. he saith He allows a very great authority to the Guides of the Catholick Church in the best times of Christianity and looks upon the concurrent sense of Antiquity as an excellent means to understand the mind of Scripture in places otherwise doubtful and obscure First for the limitation of places doubtful and obscure This seems to render such Authority useless as to Necessaries in which this Author will have the Scriptures clear and perspicuous Next a right judgment cannot but account all those places so in the sense whereof either the ancient or present major part of Christianity are of a contrary judgment from himself Lastly the looking on such a concurrent sense as an excellent means c. is short and will not serve the turn for the unity of faith it must be looking on it as a Rule requiring our obedience when such sense is declared by their Councils § 45 He proceeds p. 149. That in matters imposed to be believed or practised which are repugnant to plain commands of Scripture or the evidence of sense or the grounds of Christian Religion we assent that no authority of the present Guides of a Church is to overrule our faith or practice But the same thing is here replied as before § 43. in answer to that in his p. 146. concerning the Guides transgressing the Rule § 46 P. 151. He goes on That no absolute submission can be due to those Guides of a Church who have opposed and contradicted each other and condemned one another for errour and heresy True not to both but to one part It is and N. O. hath told him that it is to the Superiour Or in the Supreme Court where a party dissents to the major part joined with the President Lawful Supreme Councils contradicting one another in matters of necessary faith are not by this Author nor cannot be produced § 47 P. 172. He saith That in the present divided state of the Christian Church a man that would satisfy his own mind must make use of his judgment in the choice of his Church and those Guides he is to submit to True now and in all former times wherein also have been Divisions and Anti-Communions in the Clergy and Guides against Guides that we are to make use of our judgment in the choice of a Church But our Judgment there must be used rightly and being so tells us both that we are to obey those who are found by this judgment to be our lawful Spiritual Superiours and which in such divisions be so And whenever in this our judgment is not used rightly but mistakes we are never a whit the more by this so used released from our Obedience Generally in these Answers here is the exercise of our Judgment or liberty to Judge pleaded against absolute Obedience or Submission of it as if the proving of the one annulled the other when as himself urgeth a ‖ p. 144. liberty of Judging may be used also concerning the Apostles Authority and their Doctrines and yet this liberty well consistent with an obligation of absolute Obedience to such their Doctrins Authority as infallible So then is it well consistent also with that to the Supreme Guides of the Church in their defining necessaries if they be in these infallible or if fallible yet with an obligation still of submission of Judgement to them where any are not demonstratively certain of the contrary Which demonstrative certainty of convincing all those to whom proposed no Protestants have in matters debated with Catholicks § 48 Again for qualifications of Obedience p. 178. he brings That we are not to submit to all those who challenge the authority of Guides over us though pretending to never so much power and infallibility And p. 179 not to submit to those who are lawful Guides in all things they may require Both which are most true and yet well consistent with this that we are to submit to our lawful Guides in all their Determinations in matters of necessary faith if they Supreme and Infallible herein and if they fallible in all things of which we are not demonstratively certain to the contrary Thus you see the Dr's Responsory Propositions are admitted and N. O's Obedience no whit lesse established CHAP. IV. Concerning Church-Infallibility as to Necessaries § 49 4ly AGainst such Principle and for submission of private mens judgements to that of the Church N.O.
to do any such thing if Plenaria Concilia taken in their highest capacity are in their stating matters of faith errable and amendable by others following Thus N. O to which the Reader may search what answer he finds returned by this Respondent in so copious a Reply § 76 Whatever the sense therefore of this place be of which see more in the Annotations on p. 255. l. 10. from the bott it cannot be understood of lawful General Councils amending one another as to any matters of necessary faith that such Councils when defining any thing to be by all Christians believed and assented-to when declaring Hereticks all that dissent and perhaps inserting such their Definition into the Creed yet may be amended afterward in this by other latter Councils For this would overthrow the old foundations of the Nicene and Athanasian Creed and whatever can be discovered of one such Council thus erring may well be applyed to any other This also would overthrow particularly S. Austins Veritas eliquata declarata And plenarium Concilium confirmavit consolidavit for Non-Rebaptization the chief if not the only Argument he useth for convincing the Donatist in this point whilst they might here plead somthing was still latens and clausum till more experience in a latter Council should open and disclose it and so must all before cited out of S. Austin be also reversed and all the former Heresies revive again which when pretending Scriptures for their Tenents have been quelled by the judgment of such Councils § 77 Whether then that by emendari is meant not as to dogmata fidei but in some other matters wherein the Highest Councils by being ignorant of some circumstances c are liable to errour Or that by Plenaria which seems the most probable are meant such Councils as were of the Arians many before S. Austin's time but these in several manners irregular and uncanorical that were amended by others following as by the 2d General Council of Constantinople and by that of Sardica as also S. Austin elsewhere particularly instanceth in that of Ariminum called a Plenary Council but wherein the Arian Party unjustly prevailed with the Emperour and falsifyed the sense of its Decrees amended afterward by the Councils and the Church's Judgment in the times following See lib. Contra Maximinum 3. c. 14. There Homousion saith he mult is paucorum fraude deceptis haeretica impietas sub Haeretico Imperatore labefactare caepit sed post non longum tempus liberate fidei Catholicae praevalente Homousion illud Catholicae fidei sanitate i.e. in the Constan inopoluan and Sardinican Council longè lateque defensum est defensum not against the Decree of a former plenary Council but the misinterpretation and tyranny of a minor but then prevalent Party in it sub Haeretico Imperatore I say in whichsoever of the forenamed wayes this passage may be understood as probably it is to be so in the latter this is certain that it cannot be understood of Lawful General Councils amending one another as to any matters of necessary Faith for the reasons but now given Besides the proving of nothing less to them than that Non-rebaptization was a truth could satisfy the Donatist or invalidate the judgment of the Affrican Council under Cyprian as to its determining the Truth The Dr also saying here that S. Austin urgeth this Plenaria priora posterioribus emendâ—ri to take off the great plea the Donatists made from the authority of S Cyprian and his Council which Council of Cyprian was not Plenariam ex universo orbe Christiano shews that S. Austin needed not for confuting them to take Plenatium in any higher-sense than that of S Cyprian's Whereas taking Plenaria in the largest sense and without any limitations will make nothing at all for the Father in his present controversy with the Donatist about Rebaptization Nay more against him For there were no two such Councils that were both General whereof the latter had amended the former concerning Rebaptization at all and had there the same uncertainty of truth would have been in the Decree of the latter as of the former and in this case the Donatist would not have failed to have taken the advantage of the former Council These things I hope the equal Reader will consider though the Dr hath not and will not admit such a sense of this place as if true contradicts what S. Austin saith so often elsewhere and quite ruines this Father's Plea and Cause § 78 Pag. 256.257 I find several places produced wherein S. Austin preferrs clear Scriptures before humane though never so learned authority varying from them but find in him no comparison or opposition between these and the Judgment of a General Council as running counter to one another How could this be when in the Controversy for which he urgeth Scripture he requireth the Donatists to submit to the exposition of the Council § 79 Ibid. He saith The utmost by a careful consideration of S. Austin's mind in this matter that I can find is that in a Question of so doubtful and obscure a nature as that of Rebaptization was it was a reasonable thing to presume that what the whole Christian world did consent in was the truth not upon the account of Infallibility but the reasonable supposition that all the Churches of the Christian World would not consent in a thing repugnant to any Apostolical doctrine or Tradition Consid p. 86 But N.O. presseth that S. Austin's mind was clearly otherwise not that it was only a reasonable thing to presume but a thing most certain that what the whole Christian world did consent in was the Truth as appears in those places cited before § 55. and. 71. else it could not be true what he saith Earundem Scripturarum etiam in hâc re i.e. in Non-rebaptization tenetur veritas cùm id facimus quod universae placuit Ecclesia if the Church may possibly decide it amiss And S. Austin's Siquis falli metuit hujus obscuritate quaestionis Ecclesiam de illâ consulat would no way relieve his being deceived still if the Church consulted might also be mistaken in it Nor especially such Article only upon a reasonable supposition that they erred not in it be inserted in the Creed Before that the Dr therefore should have concluded such to have been S. Austin's mind he should in answering these things alledged by N.O. have shewed such his mind to have agreed with his words § 80 Lastly he concludes thus p. 259 In such a case as this I agree to what S. Augustine saith and think a man very much relieved by following so evident a consent of the Vniversal Church not by vertue of any Infallibility but the unreasonableness of believing so many so wise so disinteressed persons should be deceived Though N.O. hath shewed S. Austin requiring submission of the Donatists upon the General Council's determining a most certain truth Yet this were somewhat well if this
Church Catholick always in one Faith and one Body And by these unfailing Guides the Church hath ever understood the Supreme Governours and Pastors of the Church assembled in a lawful General Council or otherwise unanimously agreeing Of which Councils the first was that convened Act. 15. about stating the Controversy concerning Mosaical Ceremonies when S. Austin saith ‖ Contra Cresconinm l. 1. c. 3. Inter Apostolos de Circumcisione quaestio sicut postea de Baptismo inter Episcopos non parvâ difficultate nutabat And these Fathers of the Church also so assembled as acknowledging and owning the same their Infallibility in Necessaries from the same Divine Promises have accordingly from time to time determined and stated Controversies even in the highest and most necessary points concerning the B. Trinity and concerning the Humanity of our Lord and some of these Decisions that were thought more necessary to be of all men more explicitly known they have inserted into the common Creed and have enjoined to all the members of Christ the belief of them as matters of Faith and as themselves declaring the true and genuine Sense of the Scriptures therein Witness the points inserted by these Councils in the Athanasian Creed and that with an Haec est fides Catholica quam nisi quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit salvus esse non poterit Nay added this also in the Creed concerning themselves and the faithful joined with them that he Catholick Church continues always Apostolica preserâ—ing the Apostles Rules Traditions and Doctrines and Vna indivisa in se divisa ab omnibus aliis viz. such Churches or Congregations as are Heretical or Schismatical As also before in the Apostles Creed it is stiled Sancta i.e. so farr as not to teach any Doctrine in Faith or Manners destructive to Sâ—lvation and therefore among others not to teach Idolatry And accordingly the doctrine of these Fathers and Councils the Church hath generally alledged as certain and infallible against Hereticks N. 2 This Use and Practice of the Church from the beginning is apparent and notoriously known And therefore this apparent also that both the Church Diffusive and these her Councils have thus understood our Lords Promises the thing we here speak of as securing for ever the Infallibility as to Necessaries of these Highest Ecclesiastical Courts and any obscurity in the letter of any of these Scriptures were there any in this matter this Tradition hath cleared to us as to the Sense of them And this Practice of Councils and the Church-Diffusive N. O. hath pressed to any who demand it as a most incontrollable Evidence both of the constant Tradition of such Church-Infallibility as evident as that of the Canon of Scriptures is or more than it for some parts of the Canon since by these Councils also hath this Canon been settled and of the true sense of our Lords Promises in the Scriptures or at least of some of them that are urged for this matter N. 3 Which Promises of our Lord Protestants also extend to the Church after the Apostles times thus far that in general the Church Diffusive shall never fail or err in Necessaries in any age Nay that some Body of Clergy or other shall never fail to teach all necessary truths in this Church in any age as we have seen but now in Dr Field ‖ See Note on p. 107. l. 9 And yet further that General Councils universally accepted have been and always shall be infallible in their Determinations concerning matters of Necessary Faith 1 Of which thus the Archbishop †p. 346. A General Council de post facto after it is ended and admitted by the whole Church is then infallible 2 And then for an universal acceptation I suppose none can be justly demanded greater or larger than that of the four first Councils was And thus Dr St. †Rat. Account p. 537. urged by N. O. That both the truth of Gods promises surely that is in the Scriptures the goodness of God to his people and his peculiar care of his Church seem highly concerned that such a Council should not be guilty of any notorious errour as an errour in any Necessary must be N. 4 Lastly The Scriptures shewing these Promises since the Dr so earnestly calls for them which are usually produced by Catholick Writers and which are the Church's old Armor as the Dr calls it †See p. 127. for this point Armor very venerable indeed for its Antiquity but well preserved from the rust he complains of by the Church's so frequent use of it against such as the Dr. are these and several others Matt. 28.19 20. Jo. 14.16 26. 16.15 c. compared with Act. 15.28 1. Jo. 5.20.27 1. Cor. 12.7 8. Mat. 18.20 compared with 17 18. Mat. 16.18 19. Lu. 23.31 1. Tim. 3.15 2. Tim. 2.19 Eph. 4.11 13. 2. Pet. 3.16 To which Texts may be added all those enjoining Vnity of Opinion as 1. Cor. 1.10 Phil. 1.27 2.2 3. 3.16 Rom. 12.16 17.17 1. Cor. 14.32 33. Which Vnity of Opinion I ask how it can be had unless there be in the Church some Persons whose Judgment Doctrine Faith Spirit all the rest are to follow and conform to Which Scriptures forementioned you may see also briefly vindicated from suâ—â— glosses as Protestants and particularly Dr St. in his Rat. Account †p. 256. c. do put upon them in the 1. Disc concerning the Guide in Controversies § 78. c. But whatever may be urged touching the sense of these Scriptures pro or con by particular Authors yet both the foresaid practice of General Councils built upon such a traditive sense of those Texts as Catholicks contend for and the Church's general approving and acceptation of such practice and submission to it is a sufficient prescription of Tradition to warranâ— and secure such a sense against all contradiction Therefore N. O. p. 57. tells the Dr that Catholicks are not necessitated in arguing against Protestants who grant the Scriptures to be Gods word to use any other Testimony than that of these Scriptures for a sufficiently clear proof of Church-infallibility For that he may safely call this a clear proof even according to the Dr's common reason of Mankind which by the most of the Christian world is taken to be so notwithstanding that a Party engaged by their Reformation in an apparent contrary interest do contradict it And indeed if we look after the fact it self and the fulfilling of such a sense of them as applied to S. Peters Successor and to the Roman other Churches united to it the Dr I think grants that these Churches or their Prelats assembled in their most General Councils from the Apostles days to the present de facto never have erred in points Necessary to the Being of a Church Of which see what is said in the former Discourse § 53. and the places cited out of him in Note on p. 75. l. 5. N. 8. And he seems
distinguishable or diversified from those of our Lord or his Apostles were seen to be really done by false Religions as well and as usually as in the Church Catholick the End wherefore done would be a thing of the greatest uncertainty and most easily mistaken or misrelated and after the Clear evidence of such Miracles done there this end would be represented by every Religion to their own advantage as they pleased and thus all Religions would come to have an undiscernably equal Plea of their Confirmation by Miracles Therefore in the Scripture we finde not the End why the Miracle was done chiefly insisted on or proved to the people Yet the clearing of which End in such case of all Religions doing the same True Miracles were the thing the most necessary but the Fact and from it presently gathered the Catholickness and the Divine approbation of the Person See John 9.16 17 30 31 33. Such and so well attested Miracles therefore as our Lord and his Apostles did I gather never have been never shall be done by any persons in false Religion or that are no members of the Catholick Church 3. And then this granted I may hence safely conclude also that such Miracles do always evidence the Church wherein they are done to be the Catholick and so that Church to which our Lords Promises of Infallibility as to all Necessaries do belong Add to this that if any True Miracles can be shewn in the Roman Church the Dr's words following seem to make good its Infallibility For saith he ‖ p. 121. l. 1. they would do well to shew where ever in Scripture God did bestow a gift of Miracles upon any but for this end i.e. to give evidence of the Authority and Infallibility those by whom they were done and what reason there is that God should alter the method and course of his Providence in a matter of so great concernment to the Faith of Mankind So he If then God never bestows a gift of Miracles for any other end save this then if true Miracles such as our Lord 's be proved Infallibility also is proved to be in the Roman Catholick Church But to reflect on these words of his They would do well to shew c. a litle further If our Author means here by the Miracle's shewing the infallibility of the Worker such an Infallibility as the Apostles had in delivering nothing by word or writing but Gods word and the Dictates of the Holy Ghost I can shew him in Scripture many that were the Instruments of working miracles and had not this as those Corinthians and others in the Apostles times 1 Cor. 12.10 28 30. God bestowing this Gift on several others there besides the Apostles who had not an Apostolical Infallibility Of all which holy persons whom God honours thus with Miracles though it may be said that what such deliver for Gods Faith certainly is so who otherwise would never be assisted with Miracles which are alwaies a seale of truth if delivering falsityes as Divine truths Yet it cannot be said of them as of the Apostles that whatever they deliver is Gods Truth whilst in their delivering it they do not pretend it so as the Apostles did so pretend it and therefore upon doing Miracles were to be believed in such their pretension But if those whom God honours with miracles are to be believed in what they say then cannot their Miracles be urged for an infallibility in all they shall teach or hold who do themselves say and professe the contrary Their Miracles confirm and make good what they pretend to but not more I say then if the Dr means here That whoever have the gift of doing Miracles have likewise such an infallibility in all they say as was in the Apostles it holds not true For the Corinthians also had such a Gift who were not in such a manner infallible But if He means here that none have had this Gift or done any such evident and frequent Miracles but such only as have taught or held the infallible Catholick faith as to all the necessary points thereof the faith I say which being entirely delivered by the Apostles there is no further need of infallibility like to that of theirs for conveying the same as it was received from them to posterity I accord with him and contend that none to this day have had such Gift save such Orthodox persons No Pagans no Hereticks true Miracles such as our Lord and his Apostles did being distinctive signes that accompany and follow only true Believers according to our Lord's promise Mar. 16.17 for whatever Ends these Miracles happen to be bestowed as they may be for many besides the Confirmation of the Catholick Faith Therefore where a Frequency of true Miracles is seen in any Communion we may safely follow the profession of its Faith God having provided that his Catholick Church and true Miracles shall never be parted i.e. that where the latter are there is the former By True Miracles I mean such though it needs not to be all such as our Lord and his Apostles did and so clearly testified by Eye-Witnesses as their's were or might be And I exclude here all such effects though miraculous to us as evil Spirits God permitting have a power to effect by the instrumency and â—pplication of some natural Agents though this transcending any humane Art or Capacity For such miracles I willingly grant both Magicians and also Hereticks and Schismaticks may operate by the assistance of these Angelical powers therein either Voluntary or also constrained as to the inferiour sort of these Spirits compelled thereto by their Superiours But the former such as our Lord and his Apostles wrought surpassing all the power of Nature do also that of Evil Spirits or of any their Instruments are by Christians easily distinguishable from these other Pag. 121. l. 7. Such Miracles as were wrought by Christ and his Apostles we defy all other Religions in the world to produce any like them to confirm their Doctrine i.e. As one may understand him Neither Heathens neither Heretical Churches can ever do any such Miracles as were wrought by our Lord and his Apostles viz. give sight to the blind cure the sick raise again the dead c. From which it follows that whatever Church doth such Miracles must be the Catholick from this that such Miracles whereever they are found in any age do shew the Church wherein they are done to be Infallible in Necessaries for so the Catholick Church is But if here he puts in the last words to confirm their doctrine as limiting the former and carrying such a sense that other Religions beside the Catholick may also do all such Miracles as our Lord and his Apostles did for some other ends but not for this viz. to confirm their doctrine or Religion I think he will have an hard task of it either * to shew that the Historians that have related such miracles have not also applied them
to the justifying of the Doctrine and Religion that such Heathen or Heretical Miracle-workers professed and of the Honour of those Gods they served suppose those Miracles of Pythagoras or Aesculapius or Apollonius Thyanaeus or of the Arian or Donatist-Bishops who urged them against S. Austin for a justification of their sect and orthodoxness of their doctrine Or on the other side * to shew that those who have related our Lord's and his Apostle's Miracles have to give these their just force and value expressed alwaies that they were done to this end the Dr mentions here and not to some other ends from which consequently nothing could be concluded concerning the truth of their doctrine Of which end of them therefore it concerned the world chiefly to be informed not of the fact Or * to shew that our Lord or his Apostles alwaies cleared this to be their end to their Auditors and spectatours which was in the first place necessary to be done But the people we see without examining this argued the men to be from God from their beholding the Miracles done And the Pharisees not dreaming of the necessity of such a circumstance never offered to elude any of our Lords Miracles as for example that done upon the blind man Jo. 9. alledging them to be done not in confirmation of his doctrine but upon some other by-account and so as they might possibly be done also in a false Religion and so his Doctrine to be rendred no way more creditable thereby Ib. l. 10 But such as the Church of Rome pretends scarce any Religion in the world but hath pretended to the same 1st Here that the same Miracles are pretended by other Religions that are by the Roman Church will signify nothing if they have not as good ground for or proof of what they pretend Or if those which are not only pretended but really done in the Roman be only pretended in the other 2ly The Roman Church pretends many such as the whole Catholick Church if such a Church there was in being did in many ages before Luther and even all along from the Primitive times as sufficiently appears in Ecolesiastical History 3ly These Miracles pretended both by the present Roman and by the Ancient Catholick Church were of the very same kind as those wrought by Christ and his Apostles i.e. giving sight to the blinde healing the sick raising the dead casting out devils Fiunt ergò nunc saith S. Augustine multa miracula eodem Deo faciente per quos vult quemadmodum vult qui illa quae legimus in the Scriptures fecit ‖ De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 8. and which Miracles are such as this Authour here seems to say can never be done by any other Religions than the true 4ly That such Miracles were not only pretended but really done in the Church Catholick in the ancienter times as in S. Austin's this Authour I suppose will not deny or also hath granted See in his 2. Disc c. 3. p. 578.580 and then there seems no reason why he should deny the like in the Church of latter ages or in the present If there appear first as no absolute necessity of these Miracles in latter times so neither in S. Austin's 2ly If there be the same ends and benefit of them still in these as in his viz. the greater manifestation of Gods Presence and Providence in his Church the Honour he is pleased to do to his more extraordinary faithful Servants the rewards of a strong and unwavering Faith of obtaining what is asked for his better service and greater glory and lastly that end mentioned by S. Austin our greater edification in the true faith See De Cura pro Mort. c. 16. where he faith that Miracles are done Per Martyrum Memorias quoniam hot novit expedire nobis ad adificandam fidem Christi pro cujus illi confessione sunt paessi 3ly Where the Histories of latter times produce as evident and irrefragable testimonies of the truth of several of these Miracles done in them which is sufficient as those in S. Austin's days had Ib. l. 7 Who all pretend to Miracles as well as the Church of Rome Pretend as well but I hope not so truly nor 2ly so much the pretences of Heathens or Hereticks to Miracles being no way comparable for number or greatness to those pretended in the Church Catholick or Roman No more than Simon Magus his are to those of the Apostles and those few also that are said to be done by the Heathens after the Apostles days seem seigned in emulation of the great reputation of those of Christians But Pretences on any side signify nothing The Catholick and the Roman Church require belief of Miracles not upon pretence but a Rational Evidence Pag. 122. l. 15. But he saith a Christians faith may begin either at the infallible authority of Scriptures or of the Church i.e. That the first Article that a Christian believes or that in his learning the Faith is by his Parents or other instructers first made known to him may be this that the Scriptures are Gods word and infallible or may be this that the Church is Infallible I add or perhaps neither of these but some other As that God hath a Son and that he became Incarnate for his sake and the like Any of which Articles such Christian may savingly and with a Divine faith believe without being made infallibly certain thereof from some other formerly-known Divine Revelation on which this Article may be grounded As for example such person may with a divine and saving faith believe the Scriptures to be Gods word before he believe the Church to be infallible that hath defined the Canon of Scripture Or believe the Church to be infallible before he knows those Scriptures to be Gods Word by which Cnhurch-Infallibillity is proved Ib. l. 18. It seems then there may be sufficient ground for a Christian faith as to the Scriptures without believing any thing of the Church's Infallibility and for this we have reason to thank him whatever they of his own Church think of it Yes there may so A Christian not as yet believing the Infallibility of the Church as divinely assisted may both believe and have a sufficient ground of believing the Infallibility of Scripture viz. the forementioned Tradition And as Catholick Writers ordinarily state it to whom the Dr owes his thanks as well as to N. O It is not necessary that the first thing every Catholick believes or is sufficiently certain of be Church-Infallibility See the Catholick Authors cited in 3d Disc of the Guide § 129. n. 4. c. Ib. l. 3 Nay he goes yet farther and saith That the Infallibility of Scriptures as well as the Church may be proved from its own testimony And adds this Reason For saith he ‖ Princ. Consid p. 37. whoever is proved i.e. by some other medium or granted once infallible in what he saith the consequence is clear without
any Circle or Petitio principii or identical arguing that whatever be doth witness of himself is true And can the Doctor disprove this Pag. 123. l. 5. Not shewing at all how the infallibility of the Church can be proved from Scripture And the reason of this was to shew that Catholicks have no necessity for proving Church-Infallibility to return to the testimony of the Scriptures for it as the Dr and some other Protestants say they must Annotations on his 8. §. The Argument from Tradition for Infallibility PAg. l. 11. The method of his discourse is this c. Whoever learns the method of ones discourse from an Adversary is seldom rightly informed who will not be deceived must consult the Author As for example here in the Dr's giving an account of N. O's Method concerning Tradition he hath fairly left out that which N.O. most pressed viz. these Governours of the Church in their General Councils inserting from time to time as they thought fit their Decisions in the Church's Creeds which shews what opinion both General Councils and the whole Church have had of the Infallibility of their Decisions and which by N. O. was named in the first place and preceded their Anathematizing of Dissenters Pag. 124. l. 8. What thinks he of the Religion of the Patriarcht who received their Religion by Tradition without any such Infallibility 1. First he thinks it somewhat strange to see the Dr plead the certainty of Oral Tradition elsewhere by him so much decried to evade Church-Infallibility 2ly He thinks that in those first times for their Religion people were not left wholly to Tradition which as to many points of their Religion could not have afforded them especially such persons as had not much conversation abroad a sufficient Certainty therein but that then also they had Priests and Prophets endued with Gods Spirit and who as to the Office of Teaching were not only set over them for exhorting thein to a good life but for directing them also in all necessary Credends and Truths and that the traditive doctrine of these Priests so assisted must be granted much more not to be liable to errour in those points wherein the Tradition of the people is thought by the Dr sufficiently certain so that the mor◠the certainty of Tradition is established the more is confirmed their Infallibility also who were the principal Conservers of it 3ly He thinks also that the Church of God had even from the beginning many Positive Divine Laws besides that of Nature prescribing many things in the Worship of God So we find early in Genesis mention of several laws committed afterward to writing by Moses See before Note on p. 85. l. 14. Neither can he suppose Oral Tradition such a faithful and exact Guide in all these laws and to every one so well known and that so free from all controversy in necessary matters as to supersede the necessity of any Church-Infallibility in them But however it be in the Church under the Old Testament the Promises of an infallible guidance by Gods Holy Spirit to its Governours seem much more necessary in the New for the certainty and stability of Christian Religion in all its parts where is such an enlargement made of the Articles of Faith and especially if these should not have been committed to writing Ib. l. 12 No such necessity of infallibility for that purpose viz. for receiving the Scriptures or Churches infallibility by vertue of common and universal Tradition True there is no necessity of Church-Infallibility to prove or assure them of Church-Infallibility or other points of their faith such as are sufficiently evidenced to them by the forementioned Tradition But 1 there is a necessity of Church-Infallibility still that so there may be a stability and certainty in them even to the unlearned as to many other points of Necessary Faith not so clear in Tradition as Church Infallibility is nor so clear as to be thereby self-evident to all Christians As for example for this point of faith the Divinity and Consubstantiality of onr Saviour against the Arian Unless we may perhaps imagine that the same or greater Controversies in Religion that have risen notwithstanding the Scriptures would not so without them See before Note on p. 84. n. 4. a. Next Observe also That Church Infallibility as it is divinely assisted being a Divine Revelation is in its delivering to us the other Articles of our faith much more relied and rested upon in the same manner as all other Divine Revelations are than the Evidence of Tradition in its delivering to us the same Articles though the Ground and Reason that such Infallibility is believed to be a Divine Revelation be Tradition Pag. 125. l. 1. For if the Tradition may be a sufficient ground if faith how comes Infallibility to be necessary Thus Tradition may be a sufficient ground of Faith for some points clearly delivered by it and as to the persons clearly knowing such Tradition and yet Church Infallibility be necessary for many other points not cleared sufficiently to all men by Tradition For things of a sufficiently generall Tradition which Tradition is reposed presently in writings cannot be so well known to all Christians many neither having learning nor much conversation abroad as Definitions of a Council may Ib. l. 7. And that therein the will of God is contained c. Contained but not clearly And this is the reason of putting Church-Infallibility notwithstanding these Divine writings which reason holds also much more for it without them Ib. l. 17. That the Church would otherwise have failed if there had been neither Writings nor Infallibility Might have failed i.e. by erring in such Necessaries as are not as to all clearly delivered by Tradition Ib. l. 9 For we see God did furnish the Church with one the Scriptures and left no footsteps of the other Church-Infallibility Yes the Definitions of the Church contained in the Athanasian Creed are footsteps of it Ib. l. ult Not left in to the determinations of men liable to be corrupted by interest and ambition i.e. Of Lawful General Councils our pretended Infallible Church-Guides Pag. 126. l. 2. But hath appointed men inspired by himself to set down whatever is necessary for us to believe and practise Add and hath appointed others divinely-assisted also as to Necessaries to determine both in belief and practice what the former as to all capacities have not so clearly set down as that they may not be therein mistaken or also by some teachers misguided Witness Dr St.'s testimony hereof Rat. Account p. 58. pressed by N.O. p. 63. where he grants this here said and upon it allows as far as his line will let him go the sense that the Catholick Church in succeeding ages gives of the Scriptures to be a very useful way for them to embrace the true sense of the Scriptures even in Necessaries His own words are It seems reasonable that because art and subtilty may be used by such who
Church where such Pleas as these are permitted to be urged in such a sense as to set men at liberty from the submission of their judgment to the Decisions and definitions of General Councils upon pretence that there shall be many seducers and a falling away and departing from the Faith and upon pretence of Force and Fraud used in the most General Counci's that could be convened for many past Generations Which falling away and departing from the Faith c. why should they not be rather applied to these New Sects and former Heresies and from them be inferred a closer adherence and Obedience to their lawful Church Governours Ib. l. 8 The Apostles told them they had no dominion over their faith What not so far as to oblige them to obey and submit to their Apostolical Doctrine What not such dominion as S. Paul urged 1. Tim. 1.20 to the blasphemers of the Gospel and as he commanded Titus to use Tit. 3.10 Consider the Acts of the Apostolical Council Act. 15. But the Text speaks here of any unjust dominion or authority to treat the faithful as he pleased in punishing or mulcting those who walk uprightly in the faith to alter change censure any thing therein for his own profit or advantage See Dr Hammond on the place Ib. l. 4. No present Guides whatever names they go by ought to usurp such an authority over the minds of men which the Apostles themselves did not challenge although there were greater reason for men to yield up their minds wholly to their guidance If to yield up their minds be to submit their judgments were not Christians obliged in this to the very Apostles and their Doctrines See before Note on p. 144. l. 11. See we not the effects here of the Dr's 13th Principle in the people 's not needing Guides for understanding necessary Scriptures but meanwhile in the Scriptures being needful to them for trying by it their Guides Pag. 147. l. 7. Where there is a Rule for them the Church-Governours or Guides to proceed by there is a rule for others to judge of their proceedings If here He means by these others those who doubting of the true sense of the Rule repair to these Guides to learn from them the true sense of it which is only to the purpose that these are again to judge by the Rule doubted of whether the Guides have given the right sense what is this but that these are finally to determine the sense of the Rule for the determining of which they consult their Teachers As if the Consulters concerning the meaning of a Law when the Judge hath given them the sense of the Law should again by this Law examine the truth of the sense of the Judge and act finally according to their own not his sentence Ib. l. 13. Where the rule by which the Guides of the Church are to proceed hath determined nothing there we say the authority of the Guides is to be submitted unto For otherwise there would be nothing left wherein their authority could be shewn Doth not he say here the Church's Authority is to be submitted to in nothing but things left indifferent by the Scriptures Then it hath no authority in determining Controversies of faith but why then saith the 20th Article of the Church of England that the Church hath authority of expounding Scriptures in Controversies of faith and by what authority hath the Council of Nice determined Consubstantiation But so often as the sense of the Scriptures to any is doubtful may not the Scriptures here be said as to such persons to have deteâ—mined nothing and then are they not in these if in a Necessary point to repair to the determination of their Ecclesiastical Guides If so all will be well still and thus all come to submit to the sentence of the Judge but those who are certain before hand of the sense of their Rule Ib. l. 11 We plead for the Church is authority in indifferent Rites and Ceremonies But suppose the Question be whether such Rites and Ceremonies are indeed indifferent As they are taken by some not to be so because God will admit nothing into his worship but what himself hath first expresly commanded and prescribed What authority is to end this I say for such who hold some Ceremonie unlawful and repugnant to Scripture are they or the Church to judge of this unlawfulness and may the Church lawfully enjoin it and oblige them under excommunication to practise it Or will it not come at last according to these Principles that the Subjects not the Church are to decide the indifferency or non-indifferency of such Ceremonies Pag. 148. l. 7. Wee allow a very great authority to the Guides of the Catholick Church in the best times of Christianity And look upon the concurrent sense of Antiquity as an excellent means to understand the mind of Scripture in places otherwise doubtful and obscure In the best times of Christianity But do not you then in all times Or is not their authority the same in all times If various who is Judge of this their Subjects As an excellent means to understand c. This will not serve the turn it must be as an authorized Expositor of the true sense of Scriptures doubtful and obscure in Necessary matters to whose definitions all ought to submit not only to make use of their advice This Church-Tradition makes good this such Protestants as our Author oppose Ib. l. 13. We reject the ancient Heresies condemned in them But doth he acknowledge and reject all that as Heresy that hath been or shall be condemned by all lawful General Councils for such Ib. l. 11 We reject nothing that can be proved by an Vniversal Tradition from the Apostolical times downwards That can be proved But who shall judge of the proof where any thing is disputed whether it be Tradition Apostolick Our selves or the present Church-Governours Ib. l. 5 We see no reason to have those things forced upon us now which we offer to prove to be contrary to their the primitive times doctrine and practice Offer to prove To whom To any whose final judgment you will stand to Name them Shall it be to a General Council But this may err you say It erring shall it be to a Second But if one err so may all And who shall judge when It doth not err Demonstration shall decide it And who judge when it is a clear demonstration if any deny it to be so Pag. 149. l. 1. The Controversy is Whether the Guides of the Apostolical and Primitive times ought not to have greater authority over us than those of the present Church in things wherein they contradict each other Here again who shall judge this difference concerning their contradiction denied by Catholicks denied by the latter Councils of the Church that plead Tradition and their agreement with the former Ib. l. 8. But we profess to yield greater reverence and submission of mind to Christ and his Apostles than
Heresies both ways are used but not necessary therefore that all writings against them use both Or that Councils condemning them register the reason of their condemnation But so it is that this Council of Antioch in their Epistle to Paulus Samosatenus do use both as they urge the Scriptures so also the Church's consentient Tradition in these words Decrevimus fidem scripto edere exponere quam a principio aceepimus habemus traditam servatam in Catholicâ Sanctâ Ecclesitâ usque in hodiernum diem And Qui Filium Dei non esse Deum praedicat hunc alienum esse ab Ecclesiastica regula arbitramur omnes Ecclesiae Catholicae nobiscum consentiunt Pag. 228. l. 1. I would advise them to be conversant in the Divine Oracles ‖ Athanas cont Arian S. Athanasius in all th gives very good advice for in the Father's confuting Heresies by Scriptures and by Councils Scriptures have the prime place with Athanasius's limitation there writing to Bishops and those quibus gratia data est ut discernant spiritualia whilst he saith there Contra Arian Orat. 1. simplex non firmiter institutus dum solummodo verba Scripturae considerat statim illorum astutiis seducitur Especially these Scripture-proofs are necessary to Bishops when dealing with Adversaries that contemn Councils as now also Scriptures are urged by Catholicks to Protestants declining Church-Authority Ib. l. 7. But did not the Arians plead Scripture as well as they how then could the Scripture end this Controversy which did arise about the sense of Scripture This Objection was never so much as thought of in those days What thinks He of Tertullian's Prescription against Hereticks quoting Scriptures from Church-authority declaring Apostolical Tradition concerning the sense of such Scriptures c. 15. Scripturas saith he obtendunt hac suâ audacià statim quosdam movent in ipso verò congressu firmos quidem fatigant infirmos capiunt medios cum scrupulo dimittunt And Quid promovebis exercitatissime Scripturarum cùm si quid defenderis negetur ex diverso si quid negaveris defendatur Hunc igitur potissimum gradum obstruimus non admittendi eos ad ullam de Scripturis disputationem i.e. by transferring the Controversy to be tried by the consentient Doctrine and Tradition of the Church Catholick Or what thinks he of the words of Athanasius in the same Oration that is here quoted advising those he writ to thus Zelum Domino zelate retentâ Patrum fide quam Fatres qui Nicaeae convenerant scripto professi sunt Ne sustinueritis eos qui contra eam novis rebus student etiamsi dictiones ex sacris literis scribant Ib. l. 9. They did not in the least desert the proofs of Scripture because their adversaries made use of it too No why should they the true sense of which was on their side and this also evident enough to some mens reason But to those not by this way convinced they pressed also the universal Tradition of the Church and the Definitions of its General Councils as infallible and to be submitted to by all private judgments For which to view this Author he speaks of Athanasius See the beginning of his Epistle to Epictetus Bishop of Corinth Ego arbitrabar saith he omnium quotquot unquam fucre haereticorum inanem garrulitatem Nicaeno Concilio sedatam esse Nam Fides quae inibi a Patribus secundum sacras Scripturas tradita confessionibus confirmata est sat is mihi idonea efficaxque videbatur ad omnem impictatem evertendam c. And therefore he saith the Bishops thereof afterward divesis Conciliis istos lucifugas quae Arii sunt sapientes communi calculo unius spiritus incitatu anaethemate percusserunt Quâ igitur audaciâ fit ut post tanti Concilii authoritatem disceptationes aut quaestiones instituantur And Quae ita manifestò prava pervâ—rsaque sunt ea euriosiùs tractare non oportet ne contentiosis hominibus ambigua videantur sed tantummodò ad ea respondendum est quod ipsum per se sufficit ea orthodoxae Ecclesiae non esse neque majores nostros ita senfisse And Si vultis filii Patrum esse non debetis sentire diversa ab iis quae Patres ipsi conscritserunt Again in the beginning of his Epistle to the Affrican Bishops Sufficiunt ea quae Niceae confessa fuere satisque per se virium habent quemadmodum superiùs diximus tum ad subversionem impii dogmatis tum ad tutelam utilitatemque Ecclesiasticae doctrinae And Neque Deum metuerunt ita dicentem Ne transmoveas terminos aeternos quos posuerunt Patres tuiâ— Qâ—â—accusat Patrem aut Matrem morte moriatur neque patres nostros quicquam reveriti sunt denunciantes anathema si quis contraria suae ipsorum confessioni sentiret Plusquam decem Synodos jam instituerant c. Verbum autem illud Domini per Occumenicam Niceae Synodum in aeternum manet And in the close of that Epstile after citing the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.2 Laudo vos quod quemadmodum tradidi vobis traditiones ita eas servatis he goes on Ipsa enim Nicaena Synodus reverâ trophaeum columnaque est ubi omnes haereses inscriptae ostentui sunt alluding to Col. 2. 15. then declaring how this Council established the Faith he saith Quam Patres statuissent de fide in Filium id statim adjectum voluere Credimus in Spiritum Sanctum And in his Epistle de Synodis he saith of these Fathers shewing their just authority in matters of faith that In negotio Paschatis placuit ut adderetur Visum est ut omnes obtemperarent De fide verò non scripserunt Visum est sed Ad istum modum credit Catholica Ecclesia statim confessio ipsa credendi adjuncta est ut ostenderent eam non novam esse sententiam sed Apostolicam quae ipsi scripsissent non esse sua inventaâ— sed Apostolorum documenta Pag 223. l. 11 So Athanasius saw no necessity at all of calling in the assistance of any infallible Guides to give the certain sense of Scripture in these doubtful places Of any infallible Guides or of any Guides at all he may say for here are none mentioned fallible or infallible No necessity then of the Council of Nice in Athanasius's judgment Review the places but now mentioned and see more in Note on p. 245. l. 1. This Author hath need of very credulous Readers Pag. 230. l. 15. Yet he no where saith that without the help of that Tradition it had been impossible to have known the certain sense of Scripture Nor do Catholicks say so They say only that the Church Governours met in a General Council are infallible in their decisions of necessary faith by reason of an evident Tradition of such an Apostolical Doctrine or sense of Scripture descending to them Or by some necessary Deduction of theirs made from such traditive doctrine in the same
Methodius and others and of the other qui substaatiam Dogmatis of the Trinity tenentes in consectarius quibusdam non nihil a Regulâ deflectunt he numbers only three Justin Martyr Athenagoras and Theophylus Antiochenus Praefat. c. 3. he saith also Longè plures extiterunt quibus aut scripto comprehensa aut sine scripto praedicata fidei verit as permanavit ad postâ—ros All is represented here contrary what trust may his Reader repose upon this Author's Citations Or what great regard seems he to have of the Credit of the Fathers or of the security of Tradition on which the Ancient Writers cited before lay so great weight for conviction of Hereticks even in the Delivering the Doctrine of the Trinity Whilst he writes here on this manner to weaken both The usefulness of Tradition I am told is for explaining the sense of Scripture But there begins a great Controversy in the Church about the explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity I desire to know whether Vincentius his Rules will help us here It is pleaded by S. Hierome and others That the Writers of the Church might err in this matter or speak unwarily in it before the matter came to be throughly discussed if so how comes the Testimony of erroneous or unwary Writers to be the certain means of giving the sense of Scripture And in most of the Controversies of the Church this way hath been used to take off the testimony of persons who writ before the Controversy began and spake differently of the matter in debate I do not deny the truth of the allegation in behalf of those persons but to my understanding it plainly shews the incompetency of Tradition for giving a certain sense of Scripture when that Tradition is to be taken from the Writers of the foregoing Ages and if this had been the only way of confuting Arius it is a great Question how he could ever have been condemned if Petavius or S. Hierom say true Thus this Dr. Ib. l. 2. It is pleaded by S. Hierome and others that the Writers of the Church might err in this matter or speak unwarily c. The Writers Our Author deals much in indefinite i.e. doubtfu terms S. Ierome speaks only of those few Ancients quoted by Ruffinus Of which Ancients too Origen is cited by S. Athanasius †De Synod Nicaen Decret is for the orthodox opinion and apologized for that Quae disputandi certandique gratiâ scripsit ea non quasi ipsius sint verba aut quasi ipse it a sentiat sed corum qui cum eo contentiosiùs disputarunt accipienda sunt And also the most considerable of them Dionysius Alexandrinus is amply vindicated by him writing a Treatise of it And some of the rest possibly may be defended on the same account as Dionysius who then opposing Sabellianisme a contrary Heresy to Arianisme had occasion to speak in vindication of our Lord's Humanity and might have their sense mistaken But however the errour of some may well consist with the Notion of Vniversality as taken by Vincentius and whilst some ancient Writers happen to be either unwary in their expression or also faulty in their opinion the certain sense of the Scriptures may be learnt from others more numerous and not only from the Writers which in the three first Ages were but few but from the general Doctrine of the other Church-Prelates And so it was learnt by the Council of Nice which pleaded the constant Tradition of the former times for the doctrine they defined See Athanasius in his Epistle to the Africans for the very expressions used by the Council Neque saith he hâc in parte sibi ista vocabula finxerunt sed a Patribus qui ante fuerunt ea didicerunt quemadmodum diximus and a little before mentions Eusebius Nicomediensis the ring-leader of the Arians confessing it Again Ibid Sufficit Nicaena quae cum veteribus Episcopis consentit And Si post tot documenta postque testimonia veterum Episcoporum c. Again in his Tract de Synod Nic. Decretis Est ibi saith he ut Patres tradiderunt verae disciplinae magisteriâ— urgumentum ubi eadem confitentur nec a se invicem nec a majoribus dissentiunt Qui saith he shewing the constancy of Tradition tametsi diversis temporibus vixerint aequè tamen simul eodem tendunt ut unius Dei prophetae ejusdem sermonis interpretes Quae enim Moses docuit eadem ab Abrahamo observata sunt quae porrò Abraham observavit eadem Noe Enoch agnoverunt urging Gal. 1.8 Si quis vobis evangelizaverit praeter hoc quod accopistis anathema sit And afterward contends Patres qui Nicâ—ae convenerunt non a se haec vocabula finxisse sed ab aliis olim accepisse quoting there several of the Ancients and among the rest Origen and Dionysius Alexandrinus concluding thus Ecce nos demonstramus istiusmodi sententiam a Patribus ad Patres quasi per manus traditam esse But lastly in a Tradition any way less evident as to the universality thereof in former Writers yet we are secure of these Supreme Church-Gover nours assembled their not defining an errour in Faith necessary both from the light they may have from Scriptures always principally consulted by them as the chief of Traditions and where their learning and practice therein may discern that clear which is obscure to others and from our Lords promised assistance of them with his Holy Spirit of which we have a most clear and evident Tradition Meanwhile is not Vincentius his Rule by this Authors discourse here made unserviceable in one of the chief points wherein Vincentius against the Hereticks relied on the evidence of former Tradition i.e. in the Divinity of our Lord And is not the Dr for strengthening the Protestant cause in some manner become an Advocate for the Arian Let the Reader review it Pag 246. l. 17. And if this The Tradition of foregoing ages had been the only way of confuting Arius it is a great question how he could ever have been condemned if Petavius or S. Hierome say true I think the Reader hath seen what little countenance our Author hath had from these two whilst he would here insinuate to his Reader that the former written Church Tradition was either on Arius his side or not against him What stone will not a contrary interest turn to unfix or dishonour our Holy Mother the Church Pag. 247. l. 5. And in this regard we acknowledge a great reverence due to the decrees of such General Councils as that was Acknowledge a great Reverence due But Quaere Whether yield assent and Submission of Judgment to all that all such lawful General Councils do or shall define And if so upon what account can this be save on the evidence that Scripture and Tradition yields of their perpetual assistance from our Lord in necessaries not to mistake either the sense of Scripture or truth of Tradition so as to convey
comprehension amended by the 2d General Council of Constantinople and that at Sardica For as is said if we understand saepè here of legal plenary Councils we find none at all before his times either as to Rebaptization or any other points of faith amending one another These things then being left to the Reader 's consideration which may best fit the place I add N. 4 4. Lastly That whatever the sense be this place can never be understood of Lawful General Councils amending one another as to any matters of necessary faith that such Councils when defining any thing to be by all Christians believed and assented to when declaring Hereticks all that dissent and perhaps inserting such their Definitions into the Creed yet may be amended after this by latter For this would overthrow the old foundations of the Nicene and Athanasian Creed and whatever could be shewn of one such Council thus erring Hereticks at their pleasure would apply to any other This also would overthrow particularly S. Austin's Veritas eliquaata declarata And plenarium Concilium confirmavit consolidavit for Non-rebaptization the chief if not the only argument he useth for convincing the Donatists whilst they might here plead this was still latens and clausum till more experience in a latter Council should open and disclose it and so must all before cited out of S. Austin be also reversed and all the former Heresies revive again which pretending Scriptures for their Tenents have been quelled by the judgment of such Councils Pag. 256. l. 4. Would he assert that all Councils how General soever may be amended by following Councils and yet bind men to believe that the decrees of the former Councils do contain the unalterable will of God i.e. Supposing S. Austin here to speak of absolutely General and Legal Conncils would he assert that in some things as in matters of fact a Council may possibly erre and so may be amended by others following which Council in some other things its Definitions of faith delivers the unalterable will of God cannot be amended Yes This may well be But I conceive this Father not to speak here of absolutely General and legal Councils their being amended by others The Council of Nice preceded the Arian Councils which pretended to amend it Did not S. Austin bind men to believe the Decree of Nice which Decree he saith ‖ Contra Maximin l. 3. c. 13. In Concilio Nicaeno adversus Haereticos Arianos a Catholicis Patribus veritatis authoritate authoritatis veritate firmatum est How is that so confirmed that is still liable to amendment Or if all decrees are not how know we when they are so Or are those Decrees that are so liable universally to be believed Dissenters anathematized the Creeds enlarged with them till such time as they be amended Ib. l. 11. Which words of his cannot be understood of unlawful Councils of matters of fact or practice but do refer to the great Question then in debate about rebaptizing Hereticks If S. Austins words touching former General Councils erring and being amended by latter do reser as our Author here saith to the point of Rebaptization the Father hath destroyed his great Argument of the Donatists their certainly erring in it because a General Council had defined the contrary to it the Decree of which Council might err and be repeal'd by another And this after that his former words namely that Provincial Councils are to yield without dispute to those which are General if he had stopped there had clearly confuted them 2ly S. Austins words also as applied to this point would be false for never was any former General Council concerning this point of Rebaptization corrected by a latter the first decreeing for it the latter against it Ib. l. 11 He S. Austin grants that the arguments drawn from the Church's authority are but humane Humane authority saith Archbishop Lawd ‖ p. 124. may be infallible enough and an argument drawn from it convincing Especially from that of General Councils which are divinely assisted not to err in necessaries But this Authority meanwhile is no hindrance that S. Austin may not also urge with and rather than it but he never doth as contrary to it the Divine Authority in Scriptures where he thinks them to all Rational men cleare and manifest Pag. 257. l. 6. And elswhere he appeals not to the judgment of men but to the Lords ballance None of these instances imply any comparison or opposition made by S. Austin between the Scriptures and the judgment of a General Council as if these Scriptures might be cleare where the Judgment of the Council contrary but imply that these Scriptures where cleare may be disceded from by some private though learned mens judgments and in any such case are doubtless to be preferred before them But whither tend these quotations To the liberty of private men to judge of the definitions of General Councils That is of Donatists to judge of that of Nice made against them in Rebaptization This destroys S. Austins whole designe which was to have them to acquiesce in the Decree of a General Council Ib. l. 12 The utmost by a careful consideration of his mind in this matter that I can find is that in a question of so doubtful and obscure a nature as that was which had been so long bandied in the Churches of Africa and from thence spred over all the Churches of the Christian world it was a reasonable thing to presume that what the whole Christian world did consent in was the truth not upon the account of an infallibility but the reasonable supposition that all the Churches of the Christian world would not consent in a thing repugnant to any Apostolical doctrine or tradition Here our Author saith that in a Question of so doubtful obscure a nature and that had been first so much discussed it is a reasonable thing to presume a reasonable supposition not then a certain Position that all the Churches in the world will not consent in a thing repugnant to any Apostolical Doctrine or Tradition so Non-rebaptization put in the Creed may be a presumed Truth and the Donatist's a presumed Heresy Where I think he will not say we do presume things that we are certain of Is then S. Austin's In hac re tenetur à nobis veritas Scripturarum and Christus perhibet testimonium Ecclesiae suae Columna firmamentum veritatis And veritas eliquata consolidata come to this a reasonable supposition and a fair presumption of Truth But yet will He stand to this that whatever the Church in her General Councils shall consent to it is a reasonable supposition that she consents to nothing repugnant to any Apostolical Doctrine or Tradition and that such may be presumed a Truth If so will not this inferr a duty of Assent also to all her Decrees at least as presumed truths And if in a Question of so
the just authority of Bishops To this nothing to N. O's Considerations I say Let him perform his duty to Superiour Councils and to the Pope so far as he is obliged by the Church-Canons and concerning any Controversy of other usurped Authority let him acquiesce as a regular Son of the Church in the Council's Decisions those as well of any of its latter Councils so lawful as of the former and all is well Ib. l. 14. N. O's words Which more Comprehensive Body in any dissent and division of the Clergy according to the Church Canons ought to be obeyed It follows in N. O. and which hath hitherto in her supremest and most generally accepted Councils in all ages from the beginning required such submission under penalty of Anathema Which words expressing more plainly what N. O. means by the more comprehensive or universal Body of the Church's Hierarchy the Dr omits here And it seems was willing to mistake his meaning by what he saith below p. 283. That by the more universal Church N. O. fairly understands no more but the Church of Rome Ib. l. 8 I answer that the Church of England in reforming herself did not oppose any just authority then extant in the world Yes The Church of England then reformed and changed several matters of Doctrine against the Definitions of many former Superiour Councils which were accepted and unanimously obeyed by the whole Body of the other Churches viz. by all those that were free from the Mahometan yoke and among those by the Church of England also till Luthers appearance to which Definition and unanimous consent of these Churches in them she stood obliged as a part to the judgment of the Whole But many of which Doctrines also reformed by her were and are still to this day believed and practised by the Eastern Churches also under the Mahometan servitude which he who is curious to inform himself may see sufficiently cleared in the 3d Discourse Concerning the Guide in Controversies ch 8. This then the departing in their doctrine of the two Metropolitan Churches of England from the greater Body of these many Co-Metropolitan Churches all accepting and submittingto the Decisions and Determinations of many former superiour Councils even all those from the 2d Nicene called the 7th General Council to that of Trent to which Councils the Church of England was and still is obliged as well as the rest and did also submit till the times of Luther is the Discession from the more Comprehensive and universal Authority and from the Holy Catholick Apostolick Church if any then extant which Catholicks charge upon them And perhaps it is the consciousness of the truth of this discession that makes this Author in several places before maintain ‖ p. 242. That the Church he means Catholick in any one or more ages since the Apostles times may be deceived and †p. 241. that Vniversality in any one age of the Church being taken without the consent of Antiquity is no sufficient Rule to interpret Scripture by and that when he speaks of standing to the judgment of the Church he declines that of the present Catholick Church unless joined with the judgment of the Catholick Church of all ages past till that of the Apostles to the constant doctrine of all which first proved to him he is content to yield See for this what he saith by and by ‖ p. 282. But the Church thought otherwise of them What Church I pray The Primitive and Apostolical that we have always appealed to and offered to be tried by The truly Catholick Church of all ages that we utterly deny to have agreed in any one thing against the Church of England And before p. 244. Let saith he the Popes Supremacy c be proved by as universal consent of Antiquity as the Articles of the Creed are and then let them charge us with Heresy if we reject them And p. 259. Let the same evidences be produced for the consent of the Vniversul Church from the Apostolicat times in the matters in dispute between our Church and that of Rome and that controversy of Infallibility may be laid aside Where still a proof not of the decision of the Catholick Church in some latter age but of the Consent of the Vniversal Church from the Apostolical times is demanded for his yielding a submission to it Nor will the Judgment of the present Church be current with him for deciding what was the Consent of the former the judgment of this he reserves to himself Pag. 281. l. 1. The dispute was then concerning the Pope's Supremacy over our Church The reforming Articles of the Church of England not only opposed this but many other Definitions of the former Church But neither could they justly reject this Supremacy so far as it was by the Canons of former superiour Councils established That only could be ejected that was unjustly usurped Ib. l. 11. Which is sufficiently known to have been the beginning of the breach between the two Churches The breach of the Church of England in the Reformation was not only from the Communion of the Roman concerning the Popes supremacy but of the Gallican Spanish and all the other Occidental or Oriental Churches in matters wherein they were united in the Resolutions and Decrees of several former Councils Where or at what point the Breach began matters not so much as where it ended Or the full charge that the whole breach contains Ib. l. 15. What should hinder our Church from proceeding in the best way it could for the Reformation of it self The Canons and Definitions of former Superiour Councils should hinder the Church from reforming any thing contrary to them as this Church did It follows Ib. l. 17. For the Pope's Supremacy being cast out as an usurpation our Church was thereby declared to be a free Church The Pope's Supremacy established by the Canons of the Church in Superiour Councils cast off by whom It can by none lawfully unless by Church-Councils of equal authority to those that allowed it The Church of England was thereby declared to be free Free what from the authority of superiour Councils and the Bishop of the Prime Apostolick See presiding in them By whom so freed 1 By Itself or by the Governours of this particular Church i.e. by one member declaring against the whole or 2 by the Secular Magistrate abrogating Church-Canons and Constitutions and Decisions made in Ecclesiastical and spiritual affairs Neither valid Ib. l. 6 Authority to publish Rules and Articles But not contrary to the Rules and Articles of Superiour Councils Pag. 282. l. 3. His unjust power was cast off and that first by Bishops who in other things adhered to the Roman Church Their adhering in other things justifyes not the Catholick Bishops for their breach in this This Author well knows the first casting off the Pope's power began not at the Bishops and he hath heard I suppose of their great Reluctance and Cromwel's negociations with
to the end of the world on purpose to expound the Scriptures and out of these to teach them all Necessaries for their salvation and to keep them stable and fixed from being tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine that capricious fancies may imagine there or malicious pretend Necessary to inform them that are to learn of these Pastors the true sense of Gods Word according to former church-Church-Tradition and that they are to rest in their judgement as Dr Field hath and follow their faith as the Apostle ‖ Heb. 13.7 that they may not usurp their Office c. Lastly that supposing these Guides also should erre yet it is better for them still that all erre one errour which is the errour of their Guides because there will be at least some unity and peace in that and some excuse for the errour of Inferiours yea also in probability more verisimilitude than that every one should erre a several and his own errour to the utter ruine of Peace and a greater deviation from Truth But that which our Authour hath changed here and in stead of submission of judgement put only in general terms due obedience and submission and this due to be stated as I apprehend not by these Governours but those that owe it leaves all Sects still to enjoy their own tenents how absurd or impious soever and with these also to enjoy the Communion of the Church notwithstanding a due submission called for by it So that its subjects are still left to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine that blowes though the Apostle saith God hath appointed Governours to prevent it nor are tied to follow the Faith of their Guides as the Apostle requires nor to learn the sense of Scripture where this is disputed from those whom our Lord hath appointed to teach it them So that notwithstanding this latter defence made here by this Author I see no reason but that I may conclude these Notes on his Reply as N.O. doth his Considerations on his Principles That since it is the Church's Authority that must rectify such diversity of Opinions for the attaining unity and peace in the points controverted this Authority is necessary in the first place to be established in stead of leaving every fancy to perspicuity of Scripture And that the prudent may consider whether the authority of a Church must not necessarily be much debilitated and brought into contempt and daily like to wane more and more where such a new way is taken up of its Defence that he thinks himself its best Advocate and Pleader of its cause who doth most endeavour to set forth the defects and failings of all Ecclesiastical Societies Prelates and Councils in which office I appeale to the candid and equal Reader whether this Author hath not in this Discourse vigorously emploied his Pen and who best proves no Scripture-Promises made to them Nay where to the end to evacuate the Infallibility of any Society or Church in Necessaries is set up a Counter-Lay-Infallibility of private men if onely sincere endeavourers for understanding Holy Writ in all the same Necessaries Where therefore such new Maxims are still spread abroad and received with applause which were first made more current and common by Mr Chillingworth forced to it as the last refuge left to shelter him from Obedience to a just Church-Authority it is no great wonder if the broachers of new Sects and extravagant fancies in Religion the Contemners of Church-Authority and of the Clergy who first contemned and vilified themselves do daily in such parts so exceedingly multiply and increase Sed Tu Pastor Bone adduc istas oves perditas in Ovile tuum ut vocem tuaem audiant fiat unum Ovile unus Pastor Amen Pag. 290 l. ult Dr St's Conclusion I have thus far considered the main Foundations upon which N.O. proceeds in opposition to my Principles there is now very little remaining which deserves any notice and that which seems to do it as about Negative Articles of Faith and the Marks of the true Church I shall have occasion to handle them at large in the following Discourse I have perused his following Discourse in Vindication of the Protestants Grounds of faith and find nothing answered to what N.O. hath objected p. 76. concerning the Protestants Negative Articles of Faith or hath urged p. 86. concerning the Marks or evidences by which among many pretenders that Church may be known from which known we are to learn Truth But I wonder not at it since in this Discourse pretending to answer N. O's Considerations no reply is returned to a greater part of them Nor the arguings in his Principles justified where they are by N.O. questioned Which perhaps may be the reason why he saith here only that he hath thus far considered the main Foundations upon which N.O. proceeds the Structure it self remains yet unconsidered and as for his digging here at the Foundation it hath been but lost labour If the Church be a sure Foundation N. O's must stand FINIS
necessaries In the Declaration of both which they are always preserved from error by the super-intending of the Divine Providence and the assistance of the Holy Spirit And that supposing the sense of Scripture without recurrence to such Tradition be cleare enough to some yet that it is not so to all who therefore in their faith of such necessaries must depend on the authority direction infallibility of their Guides Unless our Author will say the Condition of all Christians is well capable of using all means possible Pag. 232. l. 5. The same course is taken by Epiphanius c. S. Hilary and S. Epiphanius it seems do endeavour to confute Hereticks out of the Seriptures What then Ib. l. 18. After the Guides of the Church had in the Council of Nice declared what was the Catholick faith yet still the controversy was managed about the sense of Scripture and no other ways made use of for finding it than such as we plead for at this day Was not the Decree of this Council after it held perpetually by the Catholicks urged against them And if not submitted to by them the more to blame the Hereticks of those days as now also the Proâ—estans after the 2d Nicene Laterane Florentine and Trent Councils who did not acquiesce in such a just authority as that of Nice and though I think Mr Chillingworth would not yet will not Dr St. as to the Nicene Council say the same with me These then though denying submission to Councils yet not to Holy Scriptures the Fathers did in those daies as Catholick Doctors do now out of Principles coneeded by them and common to both endeavour to convince them Ib. l. 4 That none of the Catholick Bishops should once suggest this admirable expedient of Infallibility Did not these Bishops continually press to them the consentient Tradition of the Churches and the Definition of the Council of Nice To what end this if it acknowledged by them fallible Might an Authority not infallible put their definitions in the Creed and so it remains to this day in the Dr's Creed upon that account Could it exact belief and anathematize all Dissenters and not profess itself Infallible Pag. 233. l. 7. When they so frequently in Councils contradicted each other See this great Friend of Councils Before ‖ p. 149. the charge was Ancient Church and Councils contradicting those of latter times but now it is grown higher to the Ancient contradicting Ancient without any qualification of Councils held by Hercticks contradicting Councils Catholick for then the sense had been lost But I hope our Adversary is not yet gone so far as to affirm any Council equal in authority with that of Nice contradicting it but if unequal that of Nice only will stand in force Ib. l. 13. If the sense of Scripture were in this time to be taken from the Guides of the Church what security could any man have against Arianism since the Councils which favoured it were more numerous than those which opposed and condemned it i.e. If the sense of the Scripture concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were to be taken from the Guides of the Church met in the Council of Nice what security from thence could we have against Arianisme since the Arian Councils were more numerous than that of Nice and therefore more obligatory than it Doth not our Author here a litle too sar unmask himself Doth he hold then Christians to owe no obedience to the Definition of the Council of Nice against Arianisme Time was when he said ‖ Rat. Account p. 375. We profess to be guided by the sense of Scripture as interpreted by the unanimotes consent of the Fathers and the four first General Councils will he say here If these Councils interpret the Scriptures in the right sense i.e. in his And That the Church of England looks on it as her duty to keep to the Decrees of the four General Councils and so of Nice the first of them Then either the Arian Councils must not be more numerous as here he affirms they were or the more numerous I mean as to the persons present in it not always the more valid which is true But if we are now to defend the authority of the Council of Nice againâ—t the Dr. we muâ—t know that if he there speaks of the plurality of the Arian Councils they many and that of Nice only one this number is no prejudice to any one Council that is of greater authority if he speaks of the plurality of Bishops in some one Arian Council then though there were present in the Nicene Council not above four or five Bishops from all the West Yet that the whole West and all its Bishops accepted it which they never did any of the Arian Councils Therefore Athanasius ‖ Epist ad Episcop Affrican after those Arian Councils held speaks thus of that of Nice Huic certè concilio universus orbis assensum praebuit And Verbum illud Domini per Occumenicam Niceae Synodum in aeternum manet Sive enim quis numerum cum numero comparet tanto major est Nicena Synodus particularibus Conciliâ—s quantum totum sui aliqua parte And 2ly That had the Arian Bishops throughout the whole world at some time outnumbred the Catholick yet these after once pronounced Heretical by the lawful General Council of Nice were invalidated hereby whilst such from having any lawful Vote in a future Council the Catholick Clergy and Bishops remaining a distinct Body from them to whom and not to them the Christian world owed its obedience Ib. l. 9 S. Gregory Nazianzen ‖ Epist 55. declares he had not seen a good issue of any one of them c. He spake this of the many Arian Councils of his time ful of faction and ambition the chief leaders being great Favorites to Constantius an Heretical Emperor Or perhaps of some Council also held at Constantinople wherein he by such contention amongst the Bishops there suffered much but this he said exclusively doubtless both to the first General Council that of Nice Of which he saith ‖ Orat. in laud. Hiero. that Paâ—res nostri pinsque ille hominum mundus qui Nicaeam perrexerunt certis finibus ac verbis Divinitatis doctrinam circumscripserunt And †Orat. in laud. Athanas Sanctum Concilium Niceae habitum at que illum lectissimorum virorum numerum Spiritum Sanctum in unum coegisse and exclusively again to the 2d General Council that of Constantinople which he was a member of and subscribed What need I now trouble my self or the Reader with vindicating Bellarmine on this matter Meanwhile would not the Dr here have his Reader believe that this Father had a mean esteem of the first and second General Councils Pag. 234. l. 7 S. Augustine ‖ Cont. Maximin l. 3. c. 14. in dealing with Maximin as the Arian expresly sets aside all authority of the Guides of the Church as to the sense of Scripture