you be perswaded to forsake your ordinary Guides who lead you not by their own light but by the Lanthorn they hold forth which enables you to judge of their leading and your own walking in the right way and then to look for this Chimerical Guide called the Church For you know 1. General Councils are not standing Guides 2. And how shall particular Christians be infallibly assured and less then that according to the common Hypothesis of Papists will not serve for a ground of divine Faith that a Council when it is assembled is truly a full meeting of only lawful Pastors and that they proceed so as to be assisted by the Holy Ghost since the Learned are not agreed on the Conditions requisite to make the Body of an Assembly fit for the spirit of Infallibility and the unlearned are never able by disquisition to be assured that the Council which pretends to be their Guide is justly qualified to be so 3. Again 3. Remember how silent Councils are in cases of conscience and particular matters of holy life in which there is as much danger if you mistake the way of rushing into Hell as in matters of Faith If reason and ordinary Pastors without any fancy of infallibility can apply Scripture-Light to guide our feet certainly in the way to Heaven why is there more necessity of a Council to teach us matters of Faith than to instruct us in holyness of life Mistake me not I acknowledg the Authority of Councils as useful for the preservation of Peace and for the more vigorous suppression of false teachers which corrupt the truth But I see no absolute necessity of that extraordinary power to teach the Church diffusive the form of wholesome Doctrine established now by the Consent of Ages to the Faith once delivered to the Saints 4. But supposing a general lawful Council to be the only teacher to be trusted how shall particular Christians be infallibly assured of their Doctrine the knowledg whereof is conveyed by no other means but such as are confessedly fallible And therefore you will still be to seek for a sufficient Guide according to the Sense of this Grand-Signior All the objections made against the Holy Scriptures as they are used for instruments to discover the truth and the will of God which certainly they were by God designed to be for the benefit of the People as well as Pastors will be more forcibly urged to the disenabling the Canons of Councils from being a certain Rule of Faith than they can be to the degrading of Scriptures from that dignity in the Church Since the words of a Council in the original cannot be planer nor more expressive of the mind of God then those which the eternal Wisdome and Holy Spirit of God immediately directed the Pen-men of Scripture to endite And their Translations into Vulgar Languages are subject at least to as many uncertainties as the Translations of the Bible And lastly there will still be wanting a living infallible Judg that shall expound and apply the Canons of Councils to particular Christians which may be called with less danger of Blasphemy a Dead Letter and a Lesbian Rule then the Holy Scriptures are when they are defamed by such disparaging Characters fastned upon those Holy Oracles of God by Popish writers who are as the antient Hereticks Lucifugae Scripturarum But notwithstanding his reprehension of me for a feigned correspondence between the Jewish and Christian Church yet at last to maintain the infallibility of general Councils which if granted comes very short of making good his design that we should mistake the Roman Church for the Catholik and the factious Conventicles of Italy packed by the Pope to serve the interest of the Court of Rome for Legitimate Councils He will be an Advocate for the Synagogue And rather then the Successors of the Scribes and Pharisees who imitate their crimes and inherite their woes denounced by our blessed Saviour against them shall lose their priviledg of Infallibility the Jews that in their consistory persecuted David murdered the Prophets set up Idols in the Temple of God corrupted Religion and condemned our Saviour the Truth it self shall have the Gift of Infallibility fined upon them What short-sighted men are other Papists in comparison of this Illuminado who derive the Pedegree of an Infallible Guide from St. Peter when this man deduces it from the Scribes and Pharisees whom Christ calls openly Blind Guides and from the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem who as the Holy Ghost says took counsel against the Lord and against his anoynted Observe what he says viz. If I had proved efficaciously that the High Priest with his forenamed Council taught the people Idolatry or any other breach of Gods Law to be lawful c. I had overthrown the whole fabrick of his Queries Indeed I offered no large proof of it to you Sir whom I know to be so very well versed in the Law and the Prophets that you could not be ignorant of the story and the Sermons which record plainly and reprove sharply the horrid crimes of the Priests and Elders whether in Council or out of Council it matters not since neither place nor company did change their manners in corrupting Religion in seducing the People which certainly was done by doctrine as much as by example and by Authority abused in both in persecuting the Prophets and in complying with Idolatrous Kings to the erecting Idols and Altars to them in the house and City of God to the shutting up of the Temple and extinguishing the Lamps and which is worse than all this to the rejecting of the very Books of the Law that the people might not see that Light which would reprove their deeds of darkness I may ask the Querist as St. Paul did K. Agrippa Believest thou the Prophets But I dare not answer for him as St. Paul did for the King I know that thou believest them For indeed the Prophets assure us that the Priests whose lips should have kept knowledg and should have taught the people the true way of serving God and therefore the people were bound to seek the law from the mouth of Gods appointed Messenger but were not tyed to receive chaff instead of wheat much less poison instead of wine were themselves departed out of the way and caused many to stumble at the Law and broke the covenant of Levi. And notwithstanding their vain presumption controlled by the Prophet Ezekiel which you see is taken up by their successor that the Law should not perish from the Priest yet they that handled the law knew not the Lord the Pastors also were brutish and transgressed against God But though the prevarications of the Priests in the Law and their seductions of the credulous people to their ruine for if the blind lead the blind and none were so blind as Gods servants and messengers were in the Prophet Esays daies that they not both fall into the ditch be
I now make a return to that part as well as to the former and indeed to the whole Question 1. Errors that endanger Salvation do not alwaies destroy it 2. God hath promised to preserve his Church from destruction but not from danger 3. All errors when they are discovered are to be rejected 4. No doctrines offered by any Church to her Children are to be received without examination 5. The Catholick Church as it signifies the whole Body of Christendome is too big to be a teacher that may be consulted and hearkened unto 6. The Church in this mans sense and explication that is an Assembly of chief Pastors in Council may teach errors endangering Salvation Arianism hath been taught in as large Assemblies of chief Pastors as the true Faith hath been 7. But because it is the design of this man that we should take the Roman Church for the Catholick I stick not to say that the Roman Church teaches her children errors that endanger the attaining of Salvation My fift Answer is excepted against for the interposition of these words so long as it continues so which looks like a condition and seem to suppose that the Catholick Church can cease to be so The words are capable of another construction viz. The Holy Catholick Church so long as it continues secured from teaching destructive errors cannot even for that reason abuse the world with forged Scriptures This was then my meaning who had no intention that my last Answer should contradict my first Let us now see what he draws from my Answer if it were Categorical and how rational his inference is For now we are come to the bottom of his project And he thinks he hath catched us so fast in his trap that either we must give him the Cause or be condemned out of our own mouths If mine Answer be says this new fashioned Logician that the Church can never ohtrude false Scripture c. then you must grant that the Catholick visible Church is infallible in the delivery of Scripture If so then is there an infallible Judg upon the earth concerning this point How rash this inference is and how incoherent the conclusion with the premises a few words will serve to discover It is acknowledged on both sides that the primitive Church which received the Scriptures was not and because Gods spirit guided and governed the Church in this important business could not be abused and mistaken in the receiving of Canonical Scripture The Catholick Church being quickly after enlarged and spred through many regions of the earth did together with the Gospel preached receive Copies of the Scriptures which had been communicated by the particular Churches to which they were directed at first unto their neighbour Churches These Scriptures were by all Churches reverenced and preserved as the Grand Charter of their Salvation and the Laws and Records of their Society as the Church was the Kingdome of Christ distinguished from the world The zeal of Christians for their Laws and their knowledg of them which were frequently read in the publick Assemblies according to an * Apostolical order to which we must add above all the Providence of Gods watching over the Church for the preservation of Scriptures being more pretious to God than to Man and as pretious to God as the world it self these being well considered may assure us that it was morally impossible that the whole Church of God should be cousened into the reception of any forged Scriptures And if the Church in following ages could not combine together to coyn counterfeit Scriptures then the Church universal could never obtrude any thing upon the world for Canonical Scripture which was not received from the Primitive Church at first But how doth it follow from hence that the Church is an Infallible Judg in this point A creditable witness is not presently an Infallible Judg. A faithful Depositary that keeps Records is not the same thing with an unerring Judg. The Tradition of the Church Universal which hath derived the Holy Scriptures from age to age is not an Act of Judicature The Nation of the Jews is at this day a credible witness of the divine Original and authority of the Old Testament at least at the first plantation of the Church Christian the Jevvish Church did preserve and deliver the Holy Scriptures intire so much at least as God thought necessary or expedient and if any book vvere lost that by being lost became unnecessary and vvas secured by Gods Providence in the conveyance of his Oracles to Christians Doth it hence follovv that the People of the Jews was a visible Infallible Judg in that point and if so then in all matters of Faith For thus the Papist proceeds If so I require some satisfactory reason says the Querist why the Church should be infallible in this and fallible in other points of Faith c. I have already shewed that the Case is not so as this man imagines therefore I am not bound to give him the satisfaction which he requires Yet for your further information I add this 1. The reception and tradition of Scriptures by the Church is a fact which God orders as expedient for the preservation of Religion 2. The certain number of the Books written by inspiration is not a point of faith necessary for every Christian to know and believe unto Salvation 3. The Catholick Church cannot err in any point of faith necessary to salvation 4. But any particular Church may believe and teach erroneous Doctrine for matter of Faith The Church of Rome which is not the sole keeper of Scripture may and doth err in several points of their Religion and doth impose upon her children uncanonical Books for Scripture and false Doctrines for matters of faith as is evident by the Canons of the Conventicle of Trent And yet it is not in the power of the Church of Rome to abuse the whole Christian world by the imposition of counterfeit Scriptures upon it I shall yet persist in my reflexion upon the Jews that I may shew that the keeping of Scriptures without forgery falsification and corruption is a thing distinct and separable from erring teaching errors The Jews cannot be denied to have been good keepers of the Books even then when they corrupted the Religion enjoyned by the Law written in those Books Never yet was any man so weak as to conclude that the Priests and Rabbies of the Jews were Infallible Judges of the Doctrine concerning the Messias even those who condemned Christ the Son of God to be guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death because they kept the Books of Moses and the Prophets There is now less reason why we should take the present Church of Rome which we evidently see to teach Doctrines and set up a worship as contrary to the Scriptures as darkness is to light to be an infallible Judge of faith upon this account because the Primitive Roman Church in communion with other Churches did
23 Chapter of St. Matthew throughout wherein our Saviour sets out those blind Guides and abominable Hypocrites who had the Key of knowledg as the Pope pretends to the custodie of St. Peter's Keys in such detestable characters as are inconsistent with Infallibility But some will say their corruption in manners doth not infer their erroneousness in Doctrine and therefore Pope Alexander the 6 th though a Devil incarnate might be infallible in the Chair as a learned Lady of the Romish side whom you knew once told me I answer that it will be hard to perswade a sober Christian that hath reverent apprehensions of Gods holy Spirit that the Spirit of Discipline will abide with such unrighteousness and uncleanness or that persons immersed in worldly lusts should enjoy the constant presence and influence of that Spirit which leads humble and holy men into all truth But he that can perswade you that they whom Christ calls blind Guides were not only fit but also infallible Directors may with the same confidence and arguments make you believe that the Sun shines in our Horizon at midnight I do not forget that it is not the Pope's Infallibility but a Councils which the Querist pleads for by the example of the Scribes and Pharisees albeit they were perhaps Doctors of the Law but few of them members of the great Council But I touch this briefly because it may be the next Papist that creeps into your familiarity will be for the Pope or perhaps this person who hath in his second Paper resolved the Catholick Church into a Council will in his next Paper melt down a Council into the Pope which is the more likely to be a Guide because a living person to be consulted with if many reasons did not hinder our acceptance of him for an infallible one But that the Scribes and Pharisees were guilty of teaching for Doctrines obligatory of conscience the traditions of men and did by their devices annul the Commandements of God and encourage men under pretence of Religious Vows to disobey their parents and by false Doctrines involved souls in the guilt of perjury is evident by our Saviours convicting and condemning them Can you now be of the opinion that this ungodly fraternity of Villains could make up an infallible Consistory by possessing the Chair of Moses If you can entertain such a conceit you bless whom Christ hath cursed and put darkness for light and call blind Guides the Seers and so draw down the woe upon your self Indeed such Guides are sit for them who wilfully wink against the light and make themselves slaves to the enemies of true Religion who put out the eyes of their captived Proselytes that they may with quiet grind in their Mills I will conclude my Reply to this Paragraph with one Proposal This Querist defers such honour to the Jewish Priesthood that the Priests ought to be simply believed upon their word till Shiloh came because they or at least a Council of them could not erre in faith I will not instance in the Council that condemned our Saviour because although some plead for Caiphas by vertue of his Priesthood to have been inspired by the Holy Ghost which alwayes assisted the Chair yet perhaps this Querist will not extend the continuance of Infallibility thus far And yet he that hath feigned Christ to assign it to the Scribes and Pharisees cannot give a good and solid account how Caiphas and his Confederates came in that critical hour to lose it or why the people without a manifest Declaration of God to abrogate their Authority should not then also be bound to believe their sentence though it were blasphemy and tended to the murder of the Son of God or how Joseph of Arimathea could be absolved according to this mans principles from being an Heretick and Schismatick for not consenting to the counsel and practice of the High Priest with his Assembly for which very thing the Gospel commends him to be a good and a just person since at that very time the whole Nation of the Jews were obliged according to this mans assertions by Christs own injunction to rest in the Doctrine and Determination of the Council of Jerusalem as infallible in matters of Religion and consequently to deny Jesus to be the Christ Think of this seriously But there is another instance which I aim at It is well known that in the degenerate estate of the Jews there started up a powerful Sect of the Sadducees These though pretending to adhere unto the Law of Moses yet are noted to have been infected with pernicious errors in Religion for they believed not any world of Spirits present or to come and therefore denied the existence of Angels or Spirits departed and the resurrection of the body by the return of souls to resume their earthly tabernacles repaired The heads of this Heresie were the chief of the Nation and as it fell out in the vicissitude of Priests whose office was made venal by the Court the High Priest himself was sometimes a Sadducee Read Act. 4. 1. and 5. 17. when such an Heretick possest the Chair of Moses or Aaron who understood not Moses aright as our Saviour ascribes the error of the Sadducees to their ignorance of the Scriptures you may be sure that men of the same judgement made up the greater part of the Sanhedrim For the an mosity of the Sadducees against the Pharisees together with their interest in the Nobility was such that they would not allow many birds of another feather to pearch upon the same branch of Authority though one Pharisee Gamaliel once was permitted to be of the Council Now then if a Jew loth to rely on his own understanding should desire to be instructed in this main Article of Religion which is the chief root of obedience and supporter of patience to whom should he repair and whom should he believe If you will take the Querists word The High priest with his Council was the true visible Church to be hearkned unto But if they declared their own sense and no body can reasonably imagine that they would contradict themselves or as Balaam once was so they all being met together in Council should by a powerful Enthusiasm be constreined to speak contrary to their own mind and deliver that Truth which they did not approve in their own consciences and should in speaking Truth lye by the power of the Holy Ghost the inquisitive Jew was bound contrary to the general sentiment of the 12 Tribes which did in the Expectation of a Resurrection called the hope of Israel serve God day and night to become a Sadducee to disbelieve Moses and to condemn himself to an everlasting death which should swallow up his person and his piety and separate him for ever from having any communion with the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob. If the Council it self should happen to be divided by factions and interrupted by
as I though he doth worse than dissemble his own knowledg that the Popes Bull enjoyns this Creed to be sworn to by all Ecclesiasticks vvhich are more then Teachers in Universities all dignitaries in Churches all Regulars c. and it strictly charges all Clergy-men to endeavour as much as in them lies that all men under their care and charge shall learn and hold this Faith These animadversions I offer to your assistance in the giving a right judgment of the Gentlemans Reply to mine Answers If you please to offer a Copy of my Letter to the unknown person you may do well And if he shall return any thing that you shall think fit to impart unto me I shall peradventure be at leisure to consider it and tell you what sense I have of it as freely and plainly as I have dealt in the examination of the precedent discourse I conclude in St. Pauls words The Lord give you a good understanding in all things So I rest SIR Your very faithful Servant C. G. THe emptiness of this spare Paper tempts me to recite the Exposition of that acute Commentator Maldonate who though a Jesuite expounds our blessed Saviours Precept Mat. 23. 2 3. far otherwise than this Advocate for the Jewish Chairmen doth His words are these Ergo cum jubet servare facere quae Scribae Pharisaei dum in cathedrâ Mosis sedent dicunt non de ipsorum sed de Legis Moysis doctrinâ loquitur Perinde est enim ac si dicat Omnia quae Lex Moyses vobis dixerunt Scribis Pharisaeis recitantibus servate ac facite secundum autem opera illorum nolite facere ut Hilarius Hieronimus videntur intellexisse The sense of his words is this Therefore when Christ bids them keep and do what the Scribes and Pharisees say whiles they sit in the Chair of Moses he speaks not of their own doctrine but of that of the Law and of Moses For it is all one as if Christ say All those things which the Law and Moses have told you when the Scribes and Pharisees recite them do ye keep and perform but do ye not according to their works as Hilarie and Hierome seem to have understood the Text. Mark that this learned Papist is constreyned by the force of truth and uncontrollable evidence of the false doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees to imply tacitely that those Chairmen could teach a Doctrine far different from that of the Law and of Moses and openly to averr that the Doctrine of the Law and Moses that might then be well known was to be the Object and limit of the Observance and Obedience enjoyned as due to the Ministery of the Scribes and Pharisees The Commentator to justify his Exposition alleges Hilarie and Hierome two ancient and very learned Latine Fathers seemingly at least to have been of his sense in the understanding our Saviours words A Letter of Sir Lucius Carie Lord Viscount Falkland to Mr. F. M. An. Dom. 1636. Frank I Have received not your Letter but your Declamation for I would rather believe that you had a mind to exercise your stile then that you are likely to make Mr. Lees prediction a Prophesie But if it be possible that having carried up Baronius you should be in earnest that you should be moved by the Authority of a Father living 400 years after Christ to the choice of that Religion which I have shewed you in that question of the Chiliasts opposeth seven Fathers the youngest more antient than he and the rest the most antient that are That their Sanctity should move you which not only their own learned Salmeron makes a false Note of the Church but which as I find by their own Authors they have had but so lately that their Piety is but the effect of their Emulation who till we reformed their Doctrine reformed not their lives and owe the purity of their Church to him whom they stile the Author of ours That you should choose them for the convenience of an Infallible Guide when they neither know her Infallibly to be Infallible nor Infallibly what Definitions are hers when those are yet more hard to be understood than to be known and those who have the convenience of so infallible a Director neither agree by what Notes she is to be known nor what Doctrines she teaches and cannot but confess that there are infinite Questions which concern the Duty of our lives of which she is wholly silent and concerning which they are in the same miserable estate in which we are who have none That their Multitude should move you who cannot but know that almost all the world hath been Idolaters and most Christians have been Arrians Indeed if any such Topical Arguments should seem to you worthy to enter the lists with those at least much more apparent Vnreasonablenesses which are in so many of their doctrines as Transubstantiation c. If I say this be possible I doubt not but either at the end of this week or the beginning of the next to say so much more to you as will serve to let you see that those Works of theirs are very weak which may be demolished by a Potgun Till then I pray consider That if God as we say requires our Assent to nothing but to what is apparent to be his Will then there is no necessity of a Guide since those who would deny apparent Doctrines would as well resist an apparent Guide And that they confess that it is Obstinacy in which Heresie consists and which damnation follows and that sure this secret I mean who is guilty of Obstinacy is fitter to be reserved for Him to discover who made the heart then to be judged by them who cannot know it and both parts may keep their Opinions till it shall be made there infallibly appear both whose Opinions are erroneous and whose errors are guilty whereas the subsistence of the Common-wealth will not suffer Criminal matters to stay for so long though a more certain tryal I am in hast for it is late which time I was fain to take lest your Mother should come in Your very affectionate Brother and Servant FALKLAND Pray read Baronius over and carefully Not the Cardinal Baronius whose Annals are compacted to serve the Popes Interest without any regard to truth but a learned Divine of Scotland who hath written solidly De object◠formali fi dei and hath defended his Discourse against Turnbull a Jesuit FINIS * Eph. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †Apoc. 12 9. Joh. 8. 44. Mat. 13. 38 39. †Mar. 6. 3. Joh. 7. 15. * Mat. 23. 8. See Mark 11. 27. 12. 13. Act. 19. 13. Septem urbs clara jugis toti quae praesidet orbi Propert. Apoc. 17. 9 18. Eph. 2. 20. Luk. 16. 29. 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear these If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded if one arise
be seen heard or felt without a deception of the Senses Now it is far more opposite to humane reason to believe one to be three and three to be one and that in the very self same being without any difference or mutation then to believe bread to be changed into flesh or one body to be in more places at once What you say of breach of Charity is misconceit of our doctrine We censure not the Persons but the Doctrine and that maintained pertinaciously and obstinately Now who does so we cannot absolutely judg and therefore pass no absolute judgment upon particulars And this is so far from breach of Charity that it is only out of Charity that we let Protestants know what danger they are in that they may avoid it whereas otherwise we should be Flatterers and Sycophants in letting them go on securely in the danger we conceive them to be in The Council of Trent composed no new Creed at all but gave a Catalogue of such points to be professed by all those who were to teach in publick Academies before they were admitted to that office As the English Protestants do exact a profession of the 39 Articles of such as she admits to Orders I have nothing to do with the proof of any thing till these Queries be answered by Protestants Fourth Section containing an Examination of the foregoing Reply made by the Romanist which was comprised in a Letter to the Gentleman assaulted Mr. F. M. SIR I Received the Papers which you conveyed unto me by many Ambages on the 12th of April since which time I have been intangled in several businesses that allowed me no leisure to consider the Cavils of the Factors for the Court of Rome who are like the Clients of the Idol God of Ekron the Flies not only for their insinuation into secrets but also for their restless importunity who though beaten off from the Hesh they would taint and corrupt yet return again But now though enough hath been lately published by eminent persons in our Church to stop the mouths of gainsayers or at least to secure prudent readers from the dangerous practises of those who like Elymas cease not to pervert the streight waies of the Lord yet I have taken some spare time to examine what is returned to that Paper which you know Sir I writ in your Dining-room whilst you staid a while for your company to dinner Upon the perusal I find nothing that may render the defence of mine own former writing so difficult to me as it may be tedious to you For you will see that Oracle of Solomon verified The beginner of strife is like one that opens a passage to waters As waters let in at a small breach quickly spread to a deluge so you may observe how contentions about Religion begun by admission of a few questions swell to Volumes that cloy or tire rather then instruct readers except they be such lovers of Truth as to seek it with patience But least my silence might give some occasion to the Adversarie of triumphing over our Church whereas indeed neither the validity of our cause or profession nor the credit of our Church depends on so weak a Basis as the acting of one of the meanest of her Children I shall endeavour to repair this breach and to retrench these bitter waters of Romish contentions against the Truth into their own channels And that you may not be affrighted with the very bulk of my Reply I shall not enlarge my discourse to disprove every particular which these Papers may tempt me to contradict but make short animadversions upon whatever occurs and appears material to our present Queries My first Querie ministers no occasion of dispute The second in which he rightly apprehends the main force of my instance against his Queries to lie is attacked by him confidently with such weapons as I may safely trust you to judge of their validity And indeed you that are assaulted in the possession of the truth of Christian Religion conveyed unto you by the light of Gods Word in the Scripture which is held forth by a Ministerie that doth not pretend to Infallibility but professeth legitimate Authority to instruct all under their charge in the Doctrine of the Gospel must be Judge in the Court of your own conscience whether the Roman Questionist or I speak that which is agreeable to the common Rules of Truth And your Reason assisted with the blessing of God the Father of Lights who freely and liberally gives wisdom sufficient to salvation unto all that with humility meekness and resolution of obedience implore his holy Spirit of understanding must be permitted to be your Guide in discovering the True Church from the False and may as well and safely be allowed to distinguish the wholesome Doctrine from the corrupt and noxious since this may be easier and sooner discerned by the agreeableness of any Doctrine to the sence of Scripture in which all things necessary are plain then the truth of a Church can be discovered by those Notes commonly given by the Papists which are uncertain variable difficult to be examined and which is of most importance not infallibly known to be the infallible Notes of a True Church nor infallibly applied to their Church except you will take their Testimony of themselves to be infallible which is the thing in question But not to make unnecessary excursions I shall betake my self to examine his Answer to my second Querie I will not waste time to unfold the Logical term Ignoratio Elenchi though I can shew how unjustly this fallacy is charged upon me and how easily it may be retorted upon him I shall appeal to your reason and leave you to determine who is guilty of mistaking the Argument in debate or of proceeding fallaciously He thinks he hath convinced me of such a sophistical dealing by saying That the Queries about the Christian Church to which those propounded by me ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church But I desire you to consider whether there be not an exact analogy as to the sufficient way and means of salvation between the Christian Church under the Gospel diffused through all Nations and the Jewish Church which was the only Nation which had then the peculiar priviledge to be in Covenant with God and to enjoy the living Oracles of truth and whether there be not a just correspondence in the obligation that lies upon the members of either Church both to serve God sincerely according to his will revealed in his Word and also at the same time to yield obedience to their Superiors in the Lord and according to that Law which was given to Prince and Priests and People The whole Kingdom of Israel at first as it was undivided was the only Church of God And the Kingdom of Judah after the Rent was the only Spouse of God till she had a Bill of Divorce for her
that Infallibility which he did not believe because he saw the contrary the reason why he believed the Scriptures to be preserved in purity and integrity And it is as impertinent to any of my propositions to proceed as he doth that it follows not thence that every private person should find out every particular point of Religion by particular or express proofs out of the written word alone For I neither make nor suppose any such Inference from any thing premised in my fift Querie But Sir I would have you take notice that when we make the Holy Scriptures the Rule of Religion and Instrument to make us wise unto Salvation we do not exclude the Authority of those persons whom Christ hath made dipensers of Holy Mysteries but alwaies suppose the Mynisterie to be a Means appointed for the edifying us in our Holy Faith Again we allow particular Christians that are endowed with the Spirit of understanding which is one of the gifts which Christ received without measure but hath imparted to all his living members according to his good pleasure in a certain measure to try the Spirits and as the Bereans did to examine the agreeableness of their lawful pastors Doctrine to the Scripture And if a Priest though the highest in a Church tells Christians that the Blessed Cup in the Eucharist is not to be given to all them that receive the Holy Bread or that God may be represented by any picture or devise of men in any shape whatsoever or that any meer Creature is to be worshiped with religious worship the Sheep of Christ that know their chief Shephards voice may use their talent of reason to try these doctrines by the touch-stone of truth But we do not affirm that it is necessary for every Christian to deduce and prove every particular point of Religion out of Scripture But since the faith once delivered to the Saints with the rules of Holy Life are now written for our instruction and direction by God himself on purpose that they may be a Light to our feet and make wise the simple and therefore the Testimonies of the Lord are clear sure and plain in all things that are necessary to be believed and practised therefore every one according to the circumstances of his condition and calling is bound more or less to use the means vouchsafed him by Gods providence and may by diligence satisfy his conscience in building his Faith and Obedience upon Scriptum ect It is written Now let us see what our Querist sayes to prove that a Jew was bound to rest upon the Authority of the Priests though they were Idolatrous or infected with Sadducism he endeavors to invalidate my allegations of the Prophet Esay who expressely sayes in the place alledged The leaders of the people caused them to err and they that are lead of them are destroyed Is it not evident that leaning upon their leaders hand and resting upon their Authority was the peoples ruine God therefore not only to secure them from sorcerers as this man restrains the caution but also from all seducers whatsoever who surely would pretend divine warrant to gain credit to their erroneous doctrine for never any one brought false doctrine upon the stage without a vizard advises his people to have recourse to the Law and the Testimony not excluding the Ministerie of the Priest and Levite who were faithful in things concerning God if any such could be consulted with and some such God did reserve in the worst times but giving the people liberty if the Grandees spake not according to that manifest Rule to disbelieve them as destitute of true Light The Prophet indeed doth not forbid men to resort to the present Pastors of the Church but allows them the judgement of Discretion to try the words of their leaders by the Law which shines brightly enough to enlighten their eyes that they may discern Chaff from Wheat and false doctrine from true Let the next Paper if it can shew the contrary for this offers nothing to that purpose Till then and for ever the Law and Testimony written by Gods special design stand for a Rule of Pastors teaching and peoples obeying Next he brings 2 proofs of his assertion out of Deut. 17. 8. 12. Mal. 2. 4. The Devil could find Scriptures to advance his temptations But Consider the violence offered to Gods word by this racking it As to that of Moses there is indeed there an establishment of a High Court without appeal to whose cognizance are referred all important Controversies about the Law of Moses which being in the whole frame of it divine gives a tincture of Religion to those causes that were for the substance Civil or concerned the outward estate or persons of the people In that Court the Priests and Levites who by their office were bound to study the whole Law of God and fit to expound the political Statutes given by the hand of Moses for the government of that Nation but contrived enacted and endited by God himself did sit with the Elders as Judges Now judg you whether the submission required of all Jews being at difference about civil matters to the sentence of that Court signify any thing to enforce upon Jews an obligation to believe and obey the Priests in all things when common reason assured them that their doctrine practise and injunctions were contrary to the Law of God Submission to the sentence of a Supreme Court which was necessary for peace to put a period to contentions did not oblige the party adjudged to believe the sentence to be just though the aggrieved party had no remedy till the judg of all the world appear to do right That those Judges did often turn judgment into wormwood it is evident by the Prophets and it is well known that that Court setled at Jerusalem having taken to themselves the power of judging Prophets did very often condemn the Lords true Prophets Now what Master of reason can ever fairly deduce from the outward subjection which was necessary both for wrath and Conscience to a Supreme Court of Gods institution though the Judges were not infallible in judicature That those Priests were infallible teachers of Religion whose word was to be taken and relyed on without refusal or so much as tryal As to that of the Prophet Malachi it is subtilly done of him to touch it lightly but fraudulently done to cite it imperfectly It is enough that I have already shewed the full sense of the Prophet who declares what the Priests were by their office obliged to do and from their Dignity and Duty aggravates the crime of the debauched Priests of that age who abused both their power and also the people And this sharp reproof is far enough from proving them then to be infallible But this Querist surely presumes you to be a Papist already and of that form that is unlicensed to read the Book of God Else he could not be so stupid as
as the giving of the Eucharist to Infants was once held by D. Innocentius 3. as a Doctrine of Faith and a Tradition of the Church but after 600 years practise wore out insensibly and hath been condemned by the Councils of Constance and Trent with an Anathema and to increases also and therefore their Religion is indeed Irregular But concerning Traditions as the word signifies particular points of beliefe or practise in Christian Religion these 3 Rules are worth Observation 1. Whatsoever is offered to us or enjoyned to us in belief or practise under colour of being a Tradition if it be repugnant to the written word of God or destructive of Gods precepts ought to be rejected by Christians Christs reason together with the refutation of Pharisaical Traditions confirms the Truth of this Rule 2. Whatsoever is obtruded upon us under the pretext of being a Tradition that is neither clearly delivered in nor fairly by good consequence deduced out of Gods written word needs not and ought not to be received as a matter necessary to Salvation The manner of conveniency or necessity wherein things which are strangers to Scripture are held is carefully to be taken notice of For several practises have been in early times introduced under shew of conveniency as the Apostle says some bodily exercises carry a plausible shew of wisdome which having once obtained credit by the favourable commendation of eminent persons and custome have been in succession of time adorned with the Title of Tradition and grown up from being thought convenient to be accounted and prest as necessary to Salvation This danger is to be prevented by circumspection And the perfection of Scripture as it is a compleat Rule of Religion proves the truth and usefulness of this second Rule 3. Doctrines of Faith and divine Worship being secured by Gods written word from intrusions of humane inventions if any Rites or Ceremonies can be proved by fair Testimonies of Antiquity to have been practised by the Church universal of primitive times and are still continued by the Authority of Church Governors as tending to edification or the free and open profession of our Faith whether they be called Traditions or no are not lightly to be rejected much less violently opposed by private Christians Thus much for Traditions as meaning Matters of Religion delivered down from former times to posterity But Tradition often bears another sence and is taken formally for the manner of conveyance of matters that concern Religion which is partly oral partly practical The joynt agreement of Doctrine and practice continued by succession of one Age after another whilst one generation derives to another the whole body of Religion is now called Tradition and of late is asserted by Papists in this Kingdom to be the only Principle and Rule of Faith and affirmed to be of its own nature infallible and incorruptible and to be evident by its own light And thus the order of inquiring for the ancient dayes and old wayes is quite inverted for now we need only as they teach mark what the present Church of Rome doth and because Tradition cannot fail nor vary therefore the Popes Court at this day with the Church Altars Pictures Wafers mangled Eucharist adoration of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Angels and Saints offering of a real Sacrifice for Souls in Purgatory and offering of the Masse to God for the honour of Saints is a true Glasse wherein you may see the face of the Church when St. Peter sate Bishop of Rome This is the aim of the Querists Discourse to set up this Tradition instead of Scripture If you will not believe him you may choose because he tels you plainly it is not his work to prove any thing But I will give you a little touch of proving the vanity of this pretence The experience of all Ages before the flood after the flood in the Jewish Nation and in the Christian Churches doth manifestly shew that the derivation of Religion from mouth to ear from hand to hand from Fathers to children from Priests to Successors from Age to Age this course of Tradition which is opposed unto and preferred before the Scriptural way of preserving and propagating and recovering of Religion hath been and may be quickly corrupted often interrupted and hath suffered notorious changes and may do at any time when sloth and sensuality and neglect of the light and vanity of mind set forward by the Devils malice and cunning make men weary of the true Religion But I will add another Argument to another purpose St. Paul by word of mouth taught the Thessalonians what he thought not expedient to write to wit what hindered the Man of sin from being revealed Here was a matter of consequence that concerned the Church delivered by word of mouth which if it had been written as well as that Character of the Man of sin the fame Scripture which preserved and conveyed the one would have also secured the knowledge of the other to posterity If now an eminent Church failed in deriving one point of Doctrine to after Ages which with little difficulty might have been kept and taught but is now lost for not being recorded in Scripture what likelihood is there that the whole body of Christian Religion was or could be traduced entire and pure meerly by oral Tradition without dependance on the Scripture for 1600 years For my part I think still that as the Church of the Jews were either more or less pure and their Religion more or less Hourished in truth and sincerity as the Governors gave heed more or less to the light of the Law written in like manner according to the degrees of Pastors attendance to the holy Scriptures the Tradition of Christianity hath varied Therefore the Scriptures are the only fixed and stable Rule of Religion 7. Lastly Let us allow the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus non est erratum sed traditum That which hath been taught every where always and by all Pastors of the Church is not an error but a true Tradition If we make Antiquity Universality and Consent twisted together the measure of our faith for certain we shall have a very short Creed and that large Assumentum that new piece of Italian stuff which was woven in the Shop at Trent and by the Popes stitching is added to the old garment of the Church the Constantinopolitan Creed must of necessity be pared off and thrown away But the main thing to be considered at present is the difficulty of applying this Rule for the examination of the Doctrines which pretend to Tradition and the tryal of the Spirits even of all Doctrines before we trust any Teacher is alwayes an act of Christian prudence so long as the world is pestered with false Prophets For can you or any reasonable man imagin that Universal Tradition of the Catholick Church is more evident in it self and more conspicuous to learned
by God to the Church and looks upon Universal Tradition whensoever it appears fair and full with reverence as being the sense of the Church He proceeds to abate the force of my dissuasive of you from entrance into the Roman Church when the condition of your entrance is the renouncing of your senses reason and charity For the two former though the terms seem hard yet his rigour abates nothing of them You must be contented to lose the use of your senses and reason when you become a vassal to Rome To mitigate the severity he tells you this is no more than Scripture and the Protestant Church requires He abuses Scripture in two instances 1. He says was not Lot to deny his senses when he perceived them to be Angels c. I say no and the Scripture doth not say any such thing as this man supposes When God thought fit either to appear himself to the Patriarchs in humane shape clad with flesh in a transitory manner which is generally taken to have been a Praeludium of the words or the Son of God his incarnation or to send Angels invested with humane bodies the servants of God to whom those heavenly messengers were sent so fitted for converse were not bound to renounce their senses but by their reason and their knowledge of Gods way of enter course with his choice servants by Angels they were to regulate the notices of the object which their senses represented unto them 2. He cries out How could our Saviour pass through a croud of People and neither be seen heard or felt without a deception of the senses Judg I pray whether it suits with the Faith and Reverence we owe to Christ the truth it self in his Person Doctrine and Actions to ascribe unto him the deception of the Peoples senses which comes very near to the practise of Magicians and will if admitted diminish the credit of Christs Miracles Our Saviours passage through the multitude so that he escaped their fury and left them in amazement might be wrought many wayes which we are not concerned to imagine and must not determine though we could devise because the Gospel hath not recorded the manner of it But it is rashly and irreverently said to be effected with a deception of the senses But how is Christs action at that time an obligation laid upon Christians to the worlds end to deny their senses in the Eucharist where Christ instituted the material objects of our senses to be the instruments of our faith and the Bread and Wine are designed to be sensible Symbols of spiritual things even as the Water in Baptism is Briefly since our Blessed Saviour the Angels and the holy Apostles have made our senses competent instruments to assist our faith and reason in judging of the truth and presence of Christs Body even after the Resurrection and Christ hath not any where by himself or his Apostles limited the free exercise of our senses nor lessened the credit of their Verdict in the Sacrament of the Eucharist more then in Baptism is it not a horrid tyranny over Christians to require that we renounce both senses and reason and at the command of a Romish Priest believe that there is no Bread and Wine where all our senses almostâ— conspire to inform us of their presence and the very nature of the Sacrament requires it and on the other side to believe that Christs Body is in every consecrated Host and in every crum whole and entire and continues one though divided from it self in a million of places when our senses can give us no information of this presence and our reason assures us that it is inconsistent with many Articles of our Creed But observe the confidence of this Factor who with a fore-head well rubbed tels you that Protestants require you to renounce your senses whereas we think that our Saviours command He that hath ears to hear let him hear holds by proportion in the rest He that hath eyes to see let him see with assurance that the God of truth who fitted man with senses for the service of his Maker as well as for his own benefit doth secure him from deceit in the use of them about their proper objects in Religion as well as in civil conversation As for our Reason this he would perswade you must be renounced in the belief of the Trinity that you may renounce it for the easie swallowing the Camel of Transubstantiation Think what advantage this man gives to Heathens Socinians Anti-Triniarians and indeed all the adversaries of the Gospel by confessing that the prime Article of our faith concerning the God whom Christians worship is more opposite to reason then the scandalous Monster of Transubstantiation The Doctrine of three Persons in one God is indeed a sublime mystery which is beyond the discovery of reason before it is revealed and incomprehensible by reason after revelation as many secrets in the very course of nature cannot be accounted for by our dark and narrow understandings Reason it self tels us that the infinite nature of God is not to be measured by the limited being of the creatures and also that the glory of the invisible God cannot be discovered but by his own manifestation of it and that according to his own good pleasure with different degrees of light as Gods wisdom thinks fit to impart unto man the knowledge of God And lastly Reason resolves that Gods Word especially of himself who like the Sun is seen by his own light is to be believed without dispute Since therefore God in his Word written hath clearly revealed that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are one God it is a kindly office of enlightened reason to bring down every vain thought and weak reasonings that lift up themselves against the knowledge of God and to lead them captive under the obedience of faith But there is no cause why we should struggle with our reason and un-man our selves that we may admit the divelish figment of Transubstantiation whereof there is not the least shadow in the Word of God This subtil Sophister aggravates the difficulty that may be fancied in the Trinity to the greatest advantage of Atheistical cavillers but he would lessen the absurdities of Transubstantiation by an imperfect and false representation of his own Doctrine which hath no ground in Gods Word All that is with any colour alleadged out of Scripture to give countenance to the lie which we are required to believe is the sentence of Christ This Bread is my Body This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood or My Blood of the New Testament Mark now what a vast difference between the speech of our Blessed Saviour The Bread is my Body that is signifies and represents my Body as God himself says Ezek 37. 11. These bones are the whole house of Israel and Ezek. 25. 3. This to wit the Hair before-mentioned is Jerusalem and the definition of the Tridentine Fathers The whole
substance of the Bread is turned into the whole substance of Christs Body and the whole substance of the Wine into the whole substance of Christs Blood Where is this Conversion recorded in the Gospel or Apostolical Epistles that we should offer violence to our reason to work our minds to the belief of it It is also false that you are required only to believe that Bread is turned into Flesh We do believe and that without renouncing our reason that Christ who could turn stones into Bread and did turn water into Wine could turn if he pleased Bread into Flesh and Wine into Blood as easily as he did Water into Blood in Egypt And if Christ should do this at any time the change would be as evident to the senses as it was in all miraculous conversions and the Flesh would be as visible as the Serpent was into which Aarons Rod was turned and the Blood as truly obvious to the eye as the sanguified streams of Egypt But Papists require your unreasonable belief of another thing to wit that the Sacramental Bread is turned substantially into the very Body of Christ which was before that born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is now at the time of every conversion sitting at the right hand of God in glory above the Heavens By the way because it is not my business now to refute this false Doctrine remember that unquestionable Axiome of true Philosophy Nothing is before it is made or whilst it is in making But Christs Body was before the Sacrament and is already when the Priest begins the first syllable of his Magical murmur by which he pretends to make the Body of Christ You see the manifest contradiction which you are obliged by Papists to believe in this insensible conversion Now if you will to please a Papist renounce sense and reason that you may be capable of this rare belief I know no cause why you should not also take Ovid's Poem of Metamorphosis for a veritable History He fraudulently minces the matter again when he speaks of the easinesse of believing that one Body is in more places at one time I know that Thomas Aquinas in his Quodlibets says that the subsistence of one Body in more places at one time is impossible because that which is one in it self cannot be divided from it self without the destruction of its unity and being together But that is not all which you are bound to believe in this device For you must believe if you can that the very Body of Christ which consists of limbs and lineaments distinguished by several proportions and situations and at this time is now in a certain place in Heaven clothed with glory brighter then the Sun is now lurking an invisible and indivisible Body in all the Hosts that are consecrated or inchanted rather in the Papacy and in every crum of every Wafer This is the substance of the Popish Doctrine which the Sophister rarifies into a thin cloud but that hath still gross contradictions in it which are enough to divert a man that would serve God with his reason and understanding from going into the region of darknesse that is the Roman Church He would fain repair the breach which is made in their Charity Here his jugling is unsufferable He conceals the uncharitable condition of your admission into the Roman society To joyn with Papists you must break off communion with all Christians that are not subject to the See of Rome Can you leap over this stumbling stock and think your self in a safe Sanctuarie when you have shut up your self in the Popes cloyster from converse with all Christians besides in offices of Religion But all our complaint of their uncharitableness he sais is our mistake You have read enough of that argument I need say nothing now But see how untowardly this wolf puts on the Sheeps skin on his back He thinks their Charity unreproveable because they as he shamelesly affirms censure not Persons but Doctrine and that maintained pertinaciously Read the Canons of the Council of Trent wherein this is the constant form of cursing their Adversaries Si quis dixerit If any person say so and so let him be Anathema And have not Armes been raised after that the Anathemaes were thundred to extirpate with fire and sword the doctrine of the Gospel by destroying the persons that profess it What truth can you expect from such open lyers as the men of this mould are He says further that neither Papists nor Protestants can absolutely Judge who maintains an error obstinately Where then is their Charity or Justice when they do as the Histories of Christendome sufficiently witness adjudg Protestants to be Hereticks and so render them up to the secular arm to be slaughtered as the Executioners of Papal decrees think fit But the Papists do so abound in Charity that it is only out of Charity that they endeavour our conversion by warning us of dangers I will believe that Romanists seek our Souls Salvation more than English money when out of meer Charity they seriously undertake the conversion of the Strumpets in the Popes Dominions who are in as great danger of being damned as those whom they call Hereticks can be by their profession But they that are the Popes creatures dare not exercise their Charity to the impoverishment of the Popes Exchequer to which the licensed Stewes afford no small contribution Neither will these charitable savors of Souls allow us the same exercise of our Charity in Spain or Italy although we are as firmly perswaded of the danger that Papists are in as they are conceited of our perils and have as much pity and kindness for poor Souls kept in bondage and blindness in spiritual Aegypt as Papists have for us Till we can obtain the same freedome for us to employ our Charity it is not agreeable to justice that Papists should be permitted such liberties as they now take to make an ostentation of their counterfeit Charitie which is indeed carnal Policy to restore the Papal jurisdiction in England He proceeds in his falshood and denies the profession of Faith expressed in the Pope Pius 4. his Bull dated A. D 1554 to be a new Creed Do you not take that to be new in Christianity which is but a little above a hundred years old for the whole mass which is superadded to the antient Creed of the Church was never known for a Creed till that Pope gave it out for one But what name will you find out for this Gentleman who says it is no Creed but a Catalogue of points to be professed by teachers in publick Academies c. If you read the Bull it self you will see that Credo I believe runs through the vvhole body of the form and I acknowledg profess assert firmly embrace this and that are the expressions used in that Creed which is there also called The true Catholick Faith without which no man can be saved The Querist also knows as well