Imprimatur Feb. 13. 1689. Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã sacris Protestant Certainty Or A Short TREATISE Shewing how a PROTESTANT May be well Assured of the ARTICLES OF HIS FAITH Let every Man be fully Assured in his own Mind Rom. 14.5 LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall 1689. Protestant Certainty Or a short TREATISE Shewing how a PROTESTANT May be assured of the Articles of his FAITH ALthough I doubt not but every real Christian is well perswaded in his own Mind of the Truth of that Evangelical Doctrine taught by our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles which is indispensibly to be believed in order to his Salvation Yet seeing that in these times there is abroad so great a paroxism and fermentation of Dispute about the Certainty of Faith and the means whereby it my be attained and such endeavours used by some Men to unsettle us therein It will be our Wisdom to recollect and consider well of the Grounds which we have gone upon that we may be the better able to hold fast the form of sound of Words that which is good our Faith and Confidence and our Profession of it without wavering unto the End. According as we are Exhorted 1 Thess 5.21 2 Tim. 1.13 Heb. 3.6.10.23 By firmness of Assent and constancy of Profession notwithstanding all the force and fraud whereby we are or may be assaulted And this the rather because our Faith is Precious and a Treasure the keeping whereof is of infinite Concernment to our Souls and because we have been forewarned by Christ and his Apostles that there should come Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing false Prophets pretending infallible Revelation from God false Apostles pretending Mission and Commission from Christ False Teachers bringing in privily damnable Heresies Men of corrupt Minds resisting the Truth Reprobates concerning the Faith and of this sort are they that creep into Houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning and never able to come unto the knowledg of the Truth Matth. 7.15 Ch. 24.3.6 8. Against such Men we have seen many worthy and learned Champions of the Truth enter the Lists being raised up by God to be helpers of our Faith and to contend earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And although their Antagonists have used all the slights of cunning Wrestlers stripping and oiling themselves by superficial and slippery Representations like false Arms that their Adversaries might not know where to have them where to assault them or where to fasten their hold upon them and Proteus like transforming themselves into all Shapes that if possible they might twist themselves out of their Gripe and Grasp yet have they been so effectually handled by them that one would think that were they capable of any impressions from truth or shame they would either have come over or at least have given over before this time Both sides in making their appeals to the Readers do seem to allow us a judgment of discerning both the cause and their defence at least for our own private Safety and Satisfaction But yet they will be understood with this difference The one will allow you to use your Eyes until you have chosen their Side but then you must resign them lest you should chance to see whither they lead you but the other exhort you to keep your Eyes still in your Heads and to make the best use of them you can for your own satisfaction and security that you are fairly dealt withal and not betrayed into Error and Perdition which is certainly the most ingenuous Method of the two and most becoming a good Cause and a good Conscience The Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles is that Faith which all Christians make Profession to believe and they question not but it is the Word of God and therefore infallibly true seeing God is Truth it self and cannot lye But it is much Controverted whether this Doctrine be all contained in the Holy Scriptures or some of it transmitted to these times by oral Tradition or by some other way And seeing we Protestants do profess that all the Articles of our present Faith are contained in the Holy Scriptures as the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Holy Apostles let us sit down and calmly consider with our selves what assurance we have of these and then come to take into consideration those other Articles which are offered to us some other way In both which Inquiries we may receive much Assistance from what hath been publickly offered to us by the Writings of excellent and Learned Men. And I think if we can make out to our selves but these two things we shall have a good Certainty of the Truth of what we believe as all may who have the use of Reason I and will make use of it as they ought 1. That the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God revealed by him and committed to Writing by the infallible Guidance of the Holy-Ghost and contain the Doctrine of Christ his Holy Prophets and Apostles 2. That all the Articles of Faith which we Protestants do believe and profess are recorded in the Holy Scriptures as taught by Christ his Holy Prophets and Apostles and there contained either in express Words or in Principle from which they may be firmly deduced and concluded But before we come to consider these Particulars I shall observe two or three things for our more clear Proceeding and distinguish 1. Between the kinds of Certainty There is a certainty of the thing or Object which is here in the Doctrine believed or the Fides qua creditur and consists in its immutable Truth founded on God's Immutable Verity There is also a Certainty of the Person or Subject which is the firmness of the assent given unto that certain Doctrine of Faith on cogent Arguments and exists in the Person of him that Believes As for Instance That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners is a Truth certain in it self even before we hear of it But it is not certain unto us till we do know it certainly to be true This last is called Subjective Certainty and this it is which we are now chiefly inquiring after 2. Distinguish between this subjective Certainty or the Certainty of the Assent and the Kind of the Assent given The Assent for its kind may be an Assent of divine Faith caused by a divine Testimony and yet this Faith will have more or less Certainty in it according to the greater or less Certainty which we have of the Divine Testimony that the matter of it is true and that God doth testifie it 3. We must distinguish also between the Certainty or assurance given to another rational Man by discoursive Argument and that further Certainty which every faithful Soul hath particularly within it self For the Arguments causing them are differing and shall be considered
read or hear And as for those other Matters which are further necessary for some Men to their Salvation they are also contained in the Holy Scriptures for else they were not propounded sufficiently to beget a divine Faith for there is no where else a divine Testimony to be found and then they could not be necessary for their Salvation And then for such things as are necessary to be believed only because else we Sin they also must needs be sufficiently proposed in the Holy Scriptures so as that using our best endeavours we may be sufficiently assured from thence of their Truth and divine Authority otherwise they would not be Obligatory But we may and do attain to such assurance by a diligent use of the means which God hath appointed and is wont to bless for that purpose viz. By the due and diligent reading and hearing of the Word with Prayer to God for the direction of his Holy Spirit by comparing of Scripture with Scripture and with the Analogy of Faith and particularly with those necessary Truths whereof we are already convinced and the rest of God's Image in our Souls and by consulting with others especially Ministers who were ordained by God to be the helpers of our Faith and by the Conscientious practising of what we have already attained to the knowledge of By these means used according to the abilities which God hath given all Men may be assured of all such Matters as are needful for Faith and Godliness but some Men may receive a greater Satisfaction and Confirmation therein who are able to search and add the concurrent Exposition of the ancient Orthodox Churches of Christ and the Fathers of the Primitive times agreeing among themselves and with the Holy Scriptures Would Men but make use of such means as these and embrace the Truth when it offers it self in the use of them none would wrest some obscure passages of Scripture to their own Destruction there being other places plain enough from which they might learn the Truth and their own Duty were they but truly humble and desirous to know it Nor would others have any pretence to keep the Scriptures from the People because of their obscurity But we may well suppose that those who do so do it rather because the Scriptures are too plain and express against their corrupt Doctrines and Practices What else should make them so unwilling to trust the People with the second Commandment and hide all the rest of the Scriptures even their very Pater noster in the dark Lanthorn of an unknown Tongue And here I do not expect to be asked how the common People can become assured that they see or hear that they are Letters and Words which they see and hear and words of such a Language and Signification because such mincing would be accounted triffling Altho' to dis-believe ones Senses is no new thing in the Pyrrhonian Philosophy But if we be asked how such People can be assured that their English Bibles agree with the Greek and Hebrew from which they have been Translated We hope our Neighbours will let us know the Secret how themselves are ascertained that what their Priest tells them in English by word of Mouth is agreeable I say not to the Originals but to their Latin Bible or that there is any true authentick Copy of it extant in the World and that the Popes have done correcting and altering its infallibility or confuting their own and how they are certain that it is true which the Priest tells them was done or said at Rome by some-body he knows not who nor when which yet he requires them to believe And then we may use the same or a better Method and hope they will not charge us with Uncertainty But in the mean while if we can have but a moderate Certainty from Sense Reason and humane Testimony concerning such things as these which serve only to propound and hand the object to our Faculties we shall then be better able to assure our selves of the Truth contained in the Letter and learn from whom it came by looking into it than by laying hold on the hand that brings it And for the Certainty which we have concerning the matters of our Faith though we dare not pretend to any subjective Infallibility yet it is as great a Certainty as God was pleased to allow the Church of the Jews before our Saviour's coming which was sufficient in its self both as to proposal of the Object and the Medium inducing Assent to have wrought Divine Faith in them and to have saved them We read that our Saviour sent them to the Scriptures and when they sought for signs from Heaven He did peremptorily reject them No sign shall be given them And when the rich Man in Hell desired on behalf of his Kinsmen on Earth that Lazarus might be sent to testifie to them what Lazarus saw and himself felt Our Saviour puts words into Abraham's Mouth to check his Error Luk. 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and then adds If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the Dead Yea though himself spake by an infallible Spirit and wrought so many Miracles yet he saith to the Jews If ye believe not his Writings how shall ye believe my Words Joh. 5.47 Agreeable unto which St. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.19 That the word of Prophecy is more sure than the Voice which came from Heaven which he had heard for indeed the Glory which accompanied that did so astonish him that he knew not what himself said Mark 9.6 And those who heard the Voice from Heaven in answer to our Saviour's Prayer John 12.29 were so far from being edified or convinced by it that some of them said It Thundered And therefore let us content our selves with the Certainty which God hath given us by his written Word especially having the Types enucleated and Prophecies fulfilled by Christ's Appearing and the Law of God Expounded by our Saviour's Doctrine and having better Assistances for the understanding of the Scriptures than ever the Jewish Church enjoyed And thus much of the Certainty which we have of our Faith from such Considerations as may pass in Argument between Man and Man which I do aver to be abundantly sufficient for any prudent Man to act upon who I am sure would upon less certain Grounds think himself bound to make more hazardous Attempts if he were in but half the danger of losing his Life that he is now in of losing his Soul to all Eternity and therefore it affords a Man a sufficient external Motive of a prudent Belief and Ground to follow it with his utmost Endeavours And therefore if Men be not wrought upon hereby the fault will be found to be in themselves alone And if any shall blame this Certainty as insufficient we may reasonably expect from them that they do not require us to believe any Doctrines
in the general what Certainty we have or may have of all the Articles of our Christian Faith which we do hold to be all contained in the Holy Scriptures or else may by good Inference be deduced from it both what Certainty a Professor may have within himself and also what Certainty he may give of it unto others or receive of them in dispute or by way of Perswasion And as for such Articles in Particular it is neither consistent with the designed brevity of this Paper nor indeed needful to shew where every one of them is contained in the Scriptures or how deduced thence this being already done to every ones Hand in the many excellent Writings and particularly in the Catechisms and Systems of the Christian Faith written both formerly and of later times by learned Men of both Communions whereunto private Persons may have recourse if they have not yet attained sufficient Knowledge and Satisfaction therein by hearing the Word Preached and Reading the Holy Scriptures PART II. BUT besides the Articles of Faith which we in common have received from the Holy Scriptures there are divers other Matters and Articles offered by the Church of Rome as necessarily to be believed by us which she tells us were also delivered and taught by Christ and his Holy Apostles and ought to be received and believed by us equally with those contained in the Holy Scriptures which are not expresly contained in them but have been delivered and conveyed down from Hand to Hand to those very times by word of Mouth or some other way Which are therefore called Traditions or traditional Doctrines from this particular way of conveyance distinct from the Holy Scriptures which is also called Tradition in an active Sense And for the Doctrines themselves which they offer to us if they were really taught by Christ and his Apostles we grant they must needs be infallibly true and the Word of God and attested so to be by the self same Miracles which they wrought to confirm their other Doctrines But we must have good assurance that these were taught by them which we can never have if they contradict those recorded in the Holy Scriptures to have been taught by them whereof we are so well assured already which yet many of them manifestly do Therefore let us see what Grounds or Arguments are offered to us for the Proof that these Doctrines were indeed taught by Christ and his Apostles And these Proofs must at least be equal to those by which we are ascertained that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God else we cannot be obliged to receive these out-lying Doctrines with equal Faith and Certainty which they tell us is due unto them as those recorded in Holy Scriptures For our Satisfaction herein we are offered Infallible Tradition as is pretended that is that some Men have in all Ages to this present day been infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost to deliver these Doctrines to their Successors and infallibly to testifie that they were taught by Christ and his Apostles which is indeed a very great and liberal offer if they can but make it good and too great an offer not to be suspected and therefore we had need to consider it well lest so great a matter if rashly rejected should involve us in Infidelity or if blindly swallowed should prove a Sluce to let in upon us an Inundation of Men's Dreams and Fictions pretending Commission from our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles And that we may the better judge of this Matter let us distinctly consider first the Tradition and then the Infallibility And here it is something surprizing and entertaining to find that some Men after they have to shew the necessity of Tradition told us that without it such and such particular points of Faith cannot be proved from Scripture should yet attempt to prove the same when they come to treat of them in Retail from several Texts of Scripture For instance Bellarmine de verbo Dei non Scripto Lib. 4. cap. 4. Quarto necesse est nosse extare libros aliquos vere Divinos Quod certe ex Scripturis nullo modo haberi potost i. e. That it cannot be known from Scriptures that there are any Books extant in being which are truly Divine and yet the some Man Lib. 1. De verbo Dei cap. 2. can argue in this manner Scripturas certissimas autem atque verissimas esse nec humana inventa sed oracula Divina continere 40. Testis est ipsa Scriptura cujus vera praedictiones Verum igitur est quod dicitur omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata 2 Tim. 3. Verum quod dicunt omnes Prophetae haec dicit Dominus That the Scriptures are most certain and most true and contain not any human Inventions but the Divine Oracles Fourthly The Scripture it self is Witness-whose Predictions are true therefore that is true which it says All Scripture is of divine Inspiration and that is true which all the Prophets say Thus saith the Lord. Nor can it be pretended to be an Argument ad homines since they are never like to convince us of any thing from Scripture which they themselves have told us cannot be proved from Scripture But it seems such a Disputant as Bellarmine can prove that which cannot be proved or rather it shews how little they dare rely upon their own Traditions and how gladly they would beg a little Credit for some others of them by rubbing their Copper Coin against the Gold of Scripture and how little they matter it if they may but advance the reputation of their Traditions though they contradict both the Scripture and themselves also But they offer us Tradition for Proof and why may we not allow Tradition for good Proof that such Points of Doctrine were taught by Christ and his Apostles as well as we have done for the Scriptures being the Word of God But till they can bring us as good Tradition for these as that for the Scripture was they ought not to blame us as unfair and partial if we do not receive them Let them shew us the unanimous Comsent of all the Churches of Christ ever since the Apostles time attesting Matters which they judged to be of universal concernment for our Salvation and let this Testimony and Tradition concerning these things be collaterally corroborated by as evident Beams of Divinity resulting from the things themselves and then we shall be ready to pay a like Assent unto these Doctrines as we do unto those which are contained in the Holy Scriptures But if the Tradition for these exotick or exoterick Doctrines be not to be found in the first and purest Ages of the Church but they have been kept under ground by the Disciplina Arcani as we are told for so many hundred years together and if they have since been rejected by many Churches and are apparently the private Interest of one particular Church and that none of the best which teaches them What reason
from thence returning to recover as much as we can of that which we laid aside to try the Experiment And lastly for the new Demonstrations which some have lately advanced to prove the infallibility of Oral Tradition from the impossibility of its miscarrying and that what is this day declared for Apostolical Doctrine must needs have been always so declared because it cannot be imagined that those who delivered it one day for such should have forgotten what they had heard but the day before or that they would report that to others which they had not heard themselves This I say doth require and needs more Charity and good nature in an Adversary than it is like to meet withal out of their own Communion and but rarely there And really the Demonstration is so extraordinary that did not we see it made use of by themselves we might rather have supposed it to have been hatched by the heat and sweat of some Man's Brain who was no well-wisher to the Doctrines which it is brought in favour of But however that be I am confident that seven Cities will hardly contend for the honour of his Birth who had the felicity to be the first Inventor and for our selves we shall desire to be well assured not only of the goodness and infallibility of their Memories and of their Honesty who all along delivered these things but also of their due attention to and right apprehension of the things which they heard And also that Men of so good Memories might not likewise have so good Inventions or at least some of them as to light upon some private opinions of their own which they might impart unto others and which might insensibly in tract of time be spread abroad and so far liked by the generality that for the very agreableness of them to their Minds and conveniences for their Interests they might be worthy to be ascribed either to some extraordinary Spirit in the Author if known or else to the Apostles themselves And this be spoken without any worse reflection upon their Memories or Fidelity which have been shewn to be a very insufficient enumeration of the possible yea and probable causes of a miscarriage in Oral Tradition But this demonstration has convinced Protestants of this at least that as far as this is confided in Demonstration at present runs very low in the Church of Rome And to keep our Country People from being overmuch convinced by it we shall need only to put them to read a leaf in Chaucer where they may perceive that our Language notwithstanding daily use and Tradition is so much altered from what it was three hundred Years ago that what was then ordinarily spoken is now hardly to be understood But wherever the Romanists shall at length agree to place this their Infallibility nay though every one of their Communion might have it who would but pretend to it let them make the best use of it they can for their own private assurance and comfort But if they will needs make it Argumentative to convince others of the Divine Authority of what they deliver we hope they will first prove to us such their Infallibility by clear promises in Scripture or testimonies from Scripture or else by universal Tradition of the Churches of Christ concerning it or else shew us some unquestionable works of divine Power wrought in Confirmation I say not of their Doctrines but of their own Infallibility in testifying that the Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles which is pretended to have accompanied the Tradition through all Ages and therefore the Miracles must run parallel with it and accompany it in a constant Succession to be the Credential Letters of the successive deliverers and reporters to the Men of each particular Generation For it seems a very unreasonable thing for any Disputant to require such a Postulatum to be granted him by his Antagonist that whatsoever he shall say is not only true but infallibly true which is such a begging of the Question as shews how poorly he is provided to give Men a just satisfaction and is as much as to say He is resolved never to dispute about any thing which he proposes I will add no more but only this upon the whole Master That while the Romanists do offer us more Certainty for the Scriptures being the Word of God than we need They cannot perform to us so much Certainty for those unscriptural Doctrines as we do justly require and expect before we entertain them So prone are some Men to dream of Supererogating while in truth they fall shamefully short of doing their necessary Duty FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Henry Mortlack at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference c. from the pretended Answer by T. C. Wherein the true Grounds of Faith are cleared and the False discovered the Church of England vindicated from the Imputation of Schism and the most important particular Controversie between us and those of the Church of Rome throughly examined By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. and Dean of St. Paul's Folio The second Edition Origines Britannicae Or the Antiquity of the British Churches with a Preface concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain in vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls Folio The Rule of Faith Or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. J. S. Entituled Sure Footing c. By John Tillotson D. D. To which is adjoyned A reply to Mr. J. S.'s third Appendix c. By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Octavo A Letter to Mr. G giving a true Account of a late Conference at the D. of Pauls A second Letter to Mr. G. in answer to two Letters lately published concerning the Conference at the D. of Pauls Veteres Vindicati In an Expostulary Letter to Mr. Sclater of Putny upon his Consensus Veterum c. wherein the absurdity of his Method and the weakness of Reasons are shewn his false Aspersions upon the Church of England are wiped off and his Faith concerning the Eucharist proved to be that of the Primitive Church Together with Animadversions on Dean Boileu's French translation of and Remarks upon Bertram An Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium Wherein is shewn That Antiquity in relation to the Points in Controversie set down by him did not for the first five hundred Years Believe Teach and Practice as the Church of Rome doth at present Believe Teach and Practice together with a Vindication of Veteres Vindicati from the late weak and dis-ingenuous Attempts of the Author of Transubstantion defended by the Author of the Answer to Mr. Sclater of Putney A Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuit in answer to his Letter to a Peer of the Church of England wherein the Postscript to the Answer to the Nubes Testium is vindicated and Father Sabran's Mistakes farther discovered A second Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuite in answer to his Reply A Vindication of the Principles of the Author of the Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium in Answer to a late pretended Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England Scripture and Tradition compared in a Sermon Preached at Guild-Hall Chappel Nov. 27. 1687. By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls the second Edition A discourse concerning the Nature and Grounds of the Certainty of Faith in Answer to J. S. his Catholick Letters by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St Pauls The Council of Trent examined and disproved by Catholick Tradition in the main Points in Controversie between us and the Church of Rome with a particular Account of the Times and Occasions of introducing them Part I. To which a Preface is prefixed concerning the true Sense of the Council of Trent and the Notion of Transubstantiation By Ed. Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls