Judges between them and by his Providence prevents or over-rules all those Disorders which may happen either in Church or State in this World and rewards or punishes both Governours and Subjects according to their deserts in the next And this supresedes all farther Disputes about some hard Cases or the sincerity or insincerity of Governours or Subjects for every man must of necessity judge for himself and God will govern and judge us all which there could be no pretence for if we had not the free exercise of our Reason in the government of our selves The Paper But I know'tis urged The Church of England is guided by Antiquity for the Interpretation of Scripture but every one knows that there is great difficulty in that too even for Scholars at least I am told so for no Church admits of all that is ancient for several Heresies are so and since we say Number makes nothing for Truth and that all men may err and that there is no certain mark by visible Succession to find out which are true Believers in this Confusion the Church of England must be very fortunate not to retain too much as the Arians and Macedonians c. say we do or too little as the Romanists say Answer The Church of England indeed has regard to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church in expounding Scripture not that she fetches all her Expositions from ancient Writers but that she takes care not to expound Scripture in contradiction to the ancient Faith of the Church contained in the ancient Creeds and it requires no great skill in Antiquity to know what this Faith is which we repeat every day in the Apostles Creed and this is a good Argument that we expound Scripture right when the Sense we give of it is what the words and reason of the Text import and agrees with the Faith of the first and purest Ages of the Church Had we no ancient Records we could find out the true Sense of Scripture in all necessary Points of Faith but the Traditionary Doctrine of the Church where the Tradition is plain and clear and therefore easie to be known is a great confirmation of those Interpretations we give of Scripture in conformity to the ancient Belief and confutes all the Evasions and Criticisms of Hereticks For when the words of Scripture may with some Art be expounded to different Senses either to justifie some new or ancient Heresies or the Catholick Faith we need not doubt but that is the true Sense which agrees with the uniform Belief of the Primitive Church who were the best Judges what the Faith of the Apostles was by whom the Scriptures were written and though there were indeed very ancient Heresies yet nothing is plainer in Ecclesiastical History than the distinction between those ancient Heresies and the Catholick Faith and therefore Scholars cannot easily mistake them and as for those who are unlearned that short and ancient Summary of the Catholick Faith contained in the Apostles Creed and expounded by the Nicene Fathers in their Creed which is in every bodies hands and part of our daily or weekly Service is Security enough against all Fundamental Mistakes The Christians of the Church of England have a very plain and easie Resolution of their Faith As for the positive Articles of Faith we have the ancient Creeds which have been received in all Ages of the Christian Church from the times of the Apostles and which the most perverse Hereticks cannot deny to have been the Catholick Faith and yet we do not believe these meerly upon the Authority of Tradition but because we find all these Doctrines plainly taught in Scripture and for this the meanest Christian need not depend wholly upon the Authority of his Guides but has liberty to examine their Expositions and the Reasons of them which are so plain and convincing in the great and Fundamental Articles of our Faith that an honest man who meets with a skilful Guide may satisfie himself about it and see with his own Eyes Now what greater assurance can we have in this case than the harmony and consent of Scripture and Tradition which confirm and justifie each other The Apostles no doubt preached and writ the same things and it is a good Argument That is an uncorrupt Tradition which agrees with the Doctrine of the Scripture and that that is a true exposition of Scripture which agrees with the ancient Formularies of Faith delivered down to us by an unquestionable Tradition from the first Ages of the Church As for negative Articles about which is our only controversie with the Church of Rome since nothing can be an Article of Faith but what Christ or his Apostles have taught we think it sufficient to reject all such Doctrines as are not plainly and expresly taught in Scripture and this the meanest Christian with the help of a Guide may understand For as in Reason it must be when men will prove that to be in the Scripture which is not the Scripture Proofs which are urged by the most learned Doctors of the Roman Communion for their peculiar Doctrines which we reject are so apparently unconcluding that it requires very little skill to confute them And though this were reason enough of it self to reject any Doctrine which arrogates the authority and necessity of an Article of Faith that the Scripture does not teach it yet in most cases we can shew and that to the conviction of the meanest understanding which is honest and unprejudiced that such Doctrines are either in express words or by plain and necessary consequence rejected and condemned in Scripture which is somewhat more than not to be taught there because it is certain no Church can have Authority to teach what the Scripture condemns And then as for Authority we appeal to the best Authority of the Christian Church the three first Ages after the Apostles who are the most credible Witnesses which is all the Authority they can have of the Apostolick Doctrine and Practice and can plainly prove from those venerable Records that the Doctrines and Practices in dispute between us and the Church of Rome were either never taught or actually condemned by those Primitive Fathers And though in other cases it is a hard thing to prove a Negative it is not so here because the proof lies all on the positive side For those who will teach such Doctrines and Practices ought to prove them for without such a Proof they are to be rejected on course and therefore if we can confute their Proofs we need do no more and this is a very easie Task especially with reference to the first three Centuries for since they themselves are now ashamed of the counterfeit Dionysius their Decretal Epistles and such like spurious Writings the wisest of them pretend to very few Testimonies from the first Writers and those which they do alledge are such lame ones as need very little confutation These are the Protestant Grounds of Faith as it is
pretences of such a Judge If we cannot know what is Canonical Scripture without a Judge how shall we know whether there be a Judge For there is no way to know this but by the Scriptures if there be no such Judge appointed in Scripture we have no reason to own him and if we cannot tell what Scripture is without a Judge how shall we find the Judge by the Scriptures And though the Objection be made only against some particular Books of Scripture yet in truth it equally lies against the whole Canon For if we can know any one particular Book of Scripture without a Judge why not the rest No! some of them have been doubted of Right by some Churches who did not know them till they were satisfied by those Churches which kept those Sacred Records that they were true and genuine But the Question is Whether a Book which has been doubted of when that Doubt is removed have not as certain Authority as the rest If it could not then and cannot to this day be proved to be genuine why is it received What Obligation are we under to own it If any Books which we call Canonical were still doubtful it is more natural and reasonable to reject them than to set up a Judge without any Authority to give Authority to them For whether any Book of Scripture be Canonical is matter of Fact and the Doctors of the Church of Rome themselves do not extend Infallibility to matters of Fact and then by their own confession there can be no infallible Judge of the Canon of Scripture but we must content our selves with such Moral Certainty as may be had And if Catholick Tradition be so uncertain that we cannot learn the Canon of Scripture from it what becomes of the Authority of all their unwritten Traditions which they so much boast of Thus some men if they can but make a shew of saying any thing never attend to Consequences nor consider whether their Objections do not make as much against themselves and common Christianity as against Protestants Thirdly The last Argument is That the Author of the Paper can't make those Articles of the Nicene Creed One Holy Catholick Apostolick Church the Communion of Saints agree with the Protestant Religion Here is a little blunder in calling this the Nicene Creed though easily pardonable for it is a jumble of the Apostles and Nicene Creed together The Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints is in the Apostles Creed One Catholick Apostolick Church the Nicene Creed And why does not this agree with the Protestant Religion For we profess to believe both these Creeds as sincerely as the Church of Rome No! How can they be One who disagree by adding in Faith or diminishing from it who do not communicate together in Prayer or Sacraments when they are not agreed in the Essential things how are they One Right Churches which differ in Essentials are not One but I hope there are few Churches do that I am sure they can never prove that we deny any Essential and Fundamental Article of Faith If this proves any thing it proves That all the separate Communions of Christendom are not One Church and what then How is the Church of England more concerned in this than the Church of Rome Can't we believe One Church in the Creed as well as the Church of Rome notwithstanding all the Divisions of Christendom Do the meer Divisions of Christendom prove the Church of Rome to be that One Church or that the Church of England is no Member of this One Church in the Creed The Church is but One from the first planting of it by the Apostles to the End of the World and the Church of Rome as well as We must own that it is but One Church notwithstanding the several Divisions that have been in it in the first Ages of the Church as well as now and therefore the Unity and Communion of the Church must not be estimated by any one Age of the Church but the Apostolick Age must be the Standard of Catholick Unity and Communion as it is of the Catholick Faith Suppose all the Churches of the World at this day were in Communion with the Church of Rome excepting the Church of England Why then you 'l say it would be plain the Church of England were separated from the whole Church of Christ and from Catholick Communion Right from the Church of this Age but the whole Church of this Age is but a very little part of the Catholick Church where it is sound and Orthodox for I hope they will allow the Apostolick Churches and the Churches of the three first Ages to be the best and purest parts of the One Catholick Church and that we must still maintain Communion with them if then the Church of England were separated from all the Churches of this Age yet if she be in Communion with the Apostolick and Primitive Churches she is in Catholick Commun on still if the Apostles themselves were in Catholick Communion To know then whether the Church of England be a true Catholick Church and in Catholick Communion we are not so much concerned to enquire what Churches she communicates with now as whether she be in the Apostolick Communion which is the Fountain and Original of Catholick Communion Now if the Constitution of the Church of England be such as to Doctrine Worship and Government that the Apostles themselves would have owned our Communion had we been in their days how do we come to be Schismaticks now and out of Catholick Communion For if Catholick Communion be the Communion of the whole Catholick Church from the Times of Christ and his Apostles to the end of the world which is but one Church and the Apostolick Churches are the true Measure and Standard of true Catholick Communion then those Churches which to this day are in Communion with the Apostles are in true Catholick Communion And this Test we will stand by though I would not advise the Church of Rome to do so Let us consider whether the Apostles would have rejected our Communion for those Reasons for which the Church of Rome now rejects us Would St. Paul have rejected our Communion because we will not worship God in an Unknown Tongue which he himself forbids 1 Cor. 14. because we will not worship Saints and Angels and Images which the Romanists confess was neither commanded nor practised in those days and which we say was forbid then and understood to be so by all Christians For not owning the Supremacy of Peter when St. Paul himself withstood him as much as we do the Pope of Rome and upon a much less occasion Gal. 2. 11. c. And the African Churches long after in the days of St. Cyprian and by his Authority forbad all Appeals to the Bishop or Church of Rome In a word would the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass Indulgences Purgatory Communion in one kind private and solitary Masses
the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles for they are as much a standing Revelation to the Christian Church as the Law and the Prophets were to the Jews Nay indeed there is more reason now to examine the Doctrine of all Teachers by the Writings of the New Testament than there was under the Jewish Dispensation to examine them by the Old because the New Testament is the last and most perfect Revelation of God's Will and we must expect and receive no more for S. Paul pronounces an Anathema against Angels themselves should they preach any other Gospel Gal. 1. 8 9. whereas the Law it self gave expectations of a more excellent Prophet than Moses and of a more perfect Revelation and therefore as they were to receive no Prophet who contradicted the Law of Moses so we must receive none who preach any thing else than what Christ and his Apostles have taught Now if the New Testament be all that and more than that to us which the Old Testament was to the Jews then we must have the same liberty of judging under the New Testament which the Jews had under the Old For there can be no more danger in our judging of the Sense of the Gospel and examining the Doctrines of all men by it than there was in allowing this liberty to the Jews we have the same natural right to it which the Jews had a Right not owing to a positive Institution but to the reason and necessity of the thing But to set aside this Dispute about the possibility of such an infallible Judge of Controversies this very Consideration proves that Christ never intended it viz. That he has given us the Gospel in Writing as a standing Rule of Faith and Manners and has appointed an Order of Men to study the Scripture themselves and to instruct others in the true Sense and Interpretation of it 1. Because he has given us the Gospel in Writing which is now to us a standing Rule of Faith and Worship as the Law and the Prophets was to the Jews Now the use of a written Law is for every body to understand it and direct their Faith and Manners by it This was the use the Jews were required to make of the Old Testament and certainly the new Testament was writ for the same end or else I know not why it was writ If then we must learn from the Scriptures what we are to believe and practise this inevitably proves that our Saviours intention was that we should judge for our selves for no man can learn any thing from a Writing unless he be allowed to understand it and judge of the sense and meaning of it Now is not this a plain Proof that Christ never intended such a Judge of Controversies whom we must believe with an implicite Faith If I must receive my Faith upon the Authority of a Judge then there is no need of a Rule which I must and can make no use of if I must follow my Rule there is no room left for a Judge for I must judge for my self To resolve my Faith into the Authority of a Rule and of a Judge are as inconsistent as judging and not judging and therefore Christ could not appoint both ways because they contradict each other one requires the exercise of my own Reason and Judgment and the other forbids it and therefore since Christ has given us a written Rule we may reasonably conclude he has appointed no Judge For though a Law and a Judge to execute that Law are very consistent in Civil Government where the Sentence of a Judge does not oblige mens Faith but only authoritatively determine a difference yet they are two very contrary and therefore inconsistent Resolutions of Faith Secondly As Christ has given us a Rule so he has appointed an Order of men to study this Rule themselves and to instruct other Christians in the meaning of it which is an Argument he intended we should understand it For why should we be taught the Scripture but that we may understand it and to what end should we understand it but to make it our Rule To teach and instruct and to determine as a Judge are two very different things the first reserves to us a liberty of judging the second determines us to believe the Dictates of our Judge Now what need of both these If Christ hath appointed a Judge whom we must in all things believe what need of Teachers to instruct men in the Knowledge of the Scriptures If the Scriptures have no sense but what the Judge gives them what an impertinent trouble is it to study the Scriptures Who can interpret them but this infallible Judge And how then can there be so many Teachers if there be but one Judge Or if the Scriptures may be understood and may be taught what use is there of a Judge unless it be to unteach what he has not a mind to and then he may make all other Teachers useless when he pleases Nay if the greatest Apostles were no more than Teachers where is the Judge and yet this is the only Commission Christ gave to all the Apostles and to Peter among the rest to teach those things which he had commanded them The Charge Christ gives to Peter is to feed his Sheep and his Lambs which is the same St. Paul lays on the Elders of Ephesus Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Acts 20. 28. that is to instruct and teach them which is the reason St. Paul assigns for those different Orders of Men in the Church He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes. 4. 11 12 13. Here is no Judge of Controversies mentioned among all these though he had been worth them all and indeed had made all the other useless if there had been any such Office But that which I observe is That the work of an Apostle was to instruct men in the Faith to teach them Knowledge and Understanding what they are to believe and why which is very inconsistent with the Office of a Judge For he who instructs men helps them to understand and judge for themselves but a Judge only imposes upon the Faith and Understanding of men without any liberty of judging If we must not understand our Religion nor use our Understanding in judging between Truth and Error there can be no use for Teachers and therefore that Christ has appointed men to instruct his Church is a proof that he intended they should believe with their Understandings and if all the
as they did and not believe any pretence of Infallibility against my own Sense and Reason I cannot compare the Doctrine of the Law and the Gospel unless I understand them both and I can understand and judge only with my own Understanding and if I must have done thus though I had lived in our Saviours days surely I must do so now whatever infallible Teachers there may be in the World which I think is a demonstration that there neither is nor can be any such infallible Judge whom I am bound to believe purely upon his own Authority But it may be Objected That this proves too much and undermines even the Protestant Resolution of Faith into the Authority of Christ and his Apostles and the Writings of the New Testament as an infallible Rule of Christian Faith and Manners For it seems though we pretend to own their Infallibility yet we must examine their Doctrine by the Law and not believe them to be infallible till we have set in Judgment on their Doctrine and approved it as agreeable to a more infallible Rule and thus we believe their Infallibility because we like their Doctrine not believe their Doctrine because they are infallible Now there is so much Truth in this Objection that I cannot believe that Christ and his Apostles are Teachers come from God unless I be satisfied that they teach nothing contrary to any former Revelation which God has made of his Will for God cannot contradict himself and therefore whoever contradicts what God has before taught can be no true Prophet And therefore though Miracles alone were sufficient to give Authority to Moses who was the first Prophet by whom God made a publick Revelation of his Will yet Miracles alone were not sufficient to give Authority to any succeeding Prophets but their Doctrine also must be examined by its conformity to the Law for though Miracles gave them Authority to make new Revelations yet not to contradict the old So that to examine the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles by the Law so far as to see that they do not contradict it is no more than to examine whether they be true Prophets or not as all men ought to do before they believe any pretenders to Prophecy but when it appears that they do not contradict the Law then that power of working Miracles wherewith they are endowed obliges us to believe then in every thing else upon their own Authority And thus we own Christ and his Apostles to be infallible Teachers and consequently receive the Writings of the New Testament as an infallible Rule of Christian Faith because they were men endowed with supernatural Powers and did not in their Preaching contradict any former Revelation of Gods Will. And this is all that we do or need affirm to destroy the Pretences of an infallible Judge for if I must still judge for my self whether the Doctrine of the Gospel do not contradict the Law then I must judge for my self both of the Sense of the Law and the Gospel or else I cannot judge whether they agree or disagree and therefore there can be no infallible Judge to whom I must submit my own Reason and Judgment in this Inquiry for that were to own their Infallibility before I know whether they are infallible or not Though I must believe whatever an infallible Judge teaches yet I must not believe him till I know him to be infallible and I should think no pretender to Infallibility should exempt himself from such a trial as all Prophets after Moses even Christ and his Apostles themselves submitted to that is to have their Doctrine tried by a standing Revelation Now suppose the Pope or Church of Rome to set up for this infallible Judicature before I can own their Infallibility I must at least examine whether what they teach do not contradict the Law and the Prophets for thus I may and must examine the Gospel it self and if in any one thing they plainly and directly contradict the Law I have nothing more to do with their Infallibility for no man can be infallible who mistakes in any one thing The Church of Rome then teaches That we may give Religious Worship to Saints and Angels and Images Having the Law of Moses in my hand I turn to it and according to the best of my Understanding I find this Worship expresly forbid in the first and second Commandments No say they this is your mistake we are the infallible Judges and you must not trust your own understanding but take the sense of the Church in it By your favour Gentleman say I you are a little too hasty with your Infallibility when I am satisfied you are infallible I will trust you but I am now inquiring whether you are infallible or not and therefore as yet we are upon even ground and I must trust my own Judgment till I find one more infallible Now I say you contradict the first and second Commandments and therefore are not infallible and you would prove that you do not contradict these Commandments from your pretended Infallibility which is the thing yet in question Christ and his Apostles permitted men to judge for themselves whether they contradicted the Law and the Prophets and therefore suffered them to judge of the Sense of the Law too and so must you do also unless you pretend an exemption from all Trial and Examination which Christ and his Apostles never pretended to This shews that even to this day no pretence of Infallibility can exempt men from having their Doctrine tried by the Law and the Prophets for the Gospel it self may still be thus tried and therefore there can be no such infallible Judge as has any Authority to oblige us to believe any Sense they put upon the Law contrary to our own Sense and Reason for then such a Judge as this could not be tried by the Law For if he alone has Authority to interpret the Law no body can try him but himself And this plain Instance I have given of their contradicting the first and second Commandments utterly overthrows their Infallibility till they can prove not by their pretended Infallibility but by plain Reason and Argument that they do not contradict them And we desire no more than to set aside their Plea of Infallibility and we will reason the Case with them when they please And besides this by a parity of Reason this Argument reaches much farther For if the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles must be tried by the Law and the Prophets because no man can have any Authority against a standing Revelation then by the same Reason whoever should now set up for an infallible Guide his Doctrines must be examined by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles which is now an infallible Rule to us And if the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles might be examined by the Law and the Prophets for the very same Reason the Doctrine of all succeeding Bishops must be tried by
and the like have been thought a just Reason in the Apostles days to deny Communion to all those Churches which reject them The Church of England is in Communion with all those Churches from the Apostles days till now who never owned nor imposed those Doctrines and Practices for which we now Separate from the Church of Rome as necessary Terms of Communion which upon inquiry will be found a much more Catholick Communion than that of the Church of Rome for we communicate with more Ages and with more Churches than they do The Church of Rome as now constituted in all its parts and proportions is no older than the Council of Trent which is some time since Luther that we may with more reason ask them Where their Church was before the Council of Trent then they ask us Where our Church was before Luther We find our Church in its Doctrine Worship and Government in the Apostles days but their Church was not made all at a time but one Age brought in one Corruption another another Some aspiring Popes began the Encroachments upon the Liberties of other Churches and others kept the ground their Predecessors had got and as they had opportunity made new Conquests and thus by degrees it grew up into a Papal Omnipotency Some thinking Monks started some uncouth Opinions which were tossed about for a while in Disputes and if they were such as might be of use to advance the Power of the Pope or of the Priest they began to be countenanced at Rome and that made honest men cautious of Opposing and then they grew up into received Doctrines and when it was ripe for that purpose they were dubbed Articles of Faith and at length were digested into method and order refined and polished and received their last Authority from the pack'd Conventicle of Trent And will any man call this Catholick Communion the dividing Terms of which were wholly unknown to the best and purest Ages of the Church crept in by degrees in several later Ages and never received its accomplishment and perfection till since the Reformation it self and is now already in the wane and almost expounded into Protestant Heresie at least so they would perswade us by the Bp. of Meaux and our Modern Representers However this shews how among all the Divisions of Christendom we can prove our selves to be a Catholick Church and in Catholick Communion which is all that we at present are concerned for and let the Church of Rome do as much for herself if she can Upon these Principles she now rejects us it is plain she must have denied Communion to the Apostolick Churches and I am sure they would have denied Communion to her and what is become then of her Catholick Communion which shuts out the Apostles and Apostolick Churches The Paper And how in the Communion of Saints For that which I think makes a Corporation become a Body of Men is the Obligation imposed on those who live in that Corporation to be subject to the peculiar Laws and Government there established for even of those that make Scripture their Rule of all those Churches Answer I suppose the latter part of this is either false or hastily writ If the meaning be that the whole Christian Church in such a Corporation as is under the same individual Government or one governing Head who must give Laws to the whole Church this we utterly deny and it ought to have been proved Christ at first committed the planting and governing his Church to Twelve Apostles who as St. Cyprian affirms had all equal Power and Authority though Christ named Peter only in bestowing the Apostolical Power not to give Peter any Superiority over the rest but only to signifie that unity and harmony of consent which ought to be among them in exercising the Apostolical Power that they were all to act as one Man The Apostles left their Power to the Bishops of the several Churches who had the immediate Inspection and Soveraign Power over their own Churches as the same Father frequently asserts but yet were to govern their several Churches with mutual advice and consent So that the Unity of particular Churches consists in their Obedience and Subjection to their Bishop and in the Communion of all the Members of it in all acts of Worship and Discipline and those who separate from the external and visible Communion of the Church wherein they live without necessary and unavoidable Reasons are Schismaticks who cut themselves off from the Body of Christ. The Communion of the Catholick Church consists not in the Subjection of one Church to another but in the Profession of the same Faith and in the Agreement and Concord of their Bishops in owning each others Churches and maintaining Communion with them upon Catholick Principles and governing their Churches as far as is expedient by common Rules of Worship and Discipline This then being the Constitution of the Catholick Church let us briefly consider what it is that unites particular Churches in Catholick Communion 1. Every particular Church which professes the true Faith of Christ is part of the Catholick Church and by virtue of this Catholick Faith is so far in Communion with the whole Catholick Church and thus we own the Church of Rome her self to be part of the Catholick Church for she professes the true Faith of Christ though with a great mixture of dangerous Errors 2. The Communion of particular Churches does not consist in using the same Liturgies or external Rites of Worship if their Worship be a true Christian Worship and agreeable to the general Laws of the Gospel for every Church has Authority within her self to direct and model her own Worship and therefore if there were no fault in it yet the Church of England is not bound to receive her Liturgies and Worship from the Church of Rome but may use her own without being charged with Schism for doing so 3. Every Catholick Church is bound to receive each others Members to Communion when they come among them which makes them all but one Church one Society Body the Members of which have a mutual right and interest in each other and therefore it is a Principle of Catholick Communion not to adhere so stiffly to the Rites and Usages of our own particular Churches as not to communicate with other Churches who use different Rites from our own if they be innocent Thus far all things are plain and easie but the difficulty is how we shall maintain Communion with those Churches which teach very erroneous Doctrines or use very corrupt and suspected kinds of Worship And therefore Fourthly How corrupt soever any Church be if she still retains the true Faith of Christ we must own her for a Christian Church though a corrupt one which is one degree of Communion with her to own her of the same Body with our selves though as a sick or rotten Member This was the charge against the Novatians and Donatists not only that they