Guides of that Church For unless the Scripture be explain'd by some one that cannot err it cannot be understood and ye will dangerously err by reading it as Bellarmin argues And yet whether there be such a Church or whether the Church pretending to it be not a fallible and what is worse a deceiving Church or whether the Guides be not false ones a man cannot be so much as morally sure without he consult and understand the Scripture and when all is done according to this Author's way of arguing he may very well be one of those who wrest the Scripture to his own perdition and consequently hath no good ground for any one act of Faith or can be certain that there is a Church or this or that is the true Church c. This Paragraph of his is a kind of Jargon But it affords occasion to put it to him Who are the false Teachers those that with the Pharisees set up Tradition to an equal Authority with Scripture or those that maintain Scripture alone to be of Divine Authority Those that make Scripture to depend upon the Church or those that make the Church to depend upon Scripture Those that teach we are absolutely to submit to the Church and the Guides of it or those that with the Apostle direct us to follow them only as they follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1 Those that say men err by reading the Scriptures and so take away from them that Key of Knowledg or those that with our Saviour teach them they err for not knowing them Mat. 22. 29 Those that discourage men from reading the Scriptures because of their pretended obscurity or those that with our Saviour require that they search them and that because they are as the Psalmist saith a light to their paths Those that with the Fathers hold the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation may be clearly proved from Scripture or those that make them to depend upon Church Authority Those that derive theirs down for a thousand years after Christ without any proof from Scripture and precedent Antiquity or those that Reformed their Church 1500 years after Christ but can deduce the Genealogy of their Doctrines from Scripture and Genuine Antiquity for 4 5 and 600 years after I ask him again Who are the Hereticks in the sense he gives us those that with the Donatists in St. Austin's time confine the Church to their own party or those that with the Apostle comprehend in it all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 Cor. 1. 2 Those that exclude the whole world if not of their corrupt Communion or those that according to his Quotation from St. Austin maintain a communion with the whole world Methinks after all he might to return his own words be as much afraid to mention that word Heretic as a Murtherer to come up to the murther'd Corps considering what havoc and devastation they have made amongst those they have call'd by that name I shall give him Quotation for Quotation from St. Austin and so conclude this Question It suffices us that we hold that Church which is demonstrated by most manifest Testimonies of the holy and Canonical Scripture And again Shew that there is some clear and manifest testimony given from Holy Canonical Scriptures to this thy Communion and I do confess we are to go over to thee Q. 3. What are the necessaries to Salvation Here plain and full Scripture will be of great use we may expect shoals of Texts What answer from Scripture is given to this Question think you E'en the same as honest Bays returns to a hard one in the Rehearsal YGad I won't tell you No he gives not one word of answer to it tho it be so material Any one may guess at the reason without casting a figure With what Confidence can the Prover thus impose upon the Reader Was there not one word of Answer returned to this Question Of that let the Answer speak Where it 's thus put Q. 3. What are these Necessaries to Salvation The Answer begins thus Our Author offers three Instances of such Necessaries as are not clearly revealed in Scripture viz. the Trinity the Incarnation of our Saviour and the Observation of the Lords Day And of these the Answerer Discourses for near eight Pages together to shew that the Addresser had to little purpose objected against them So that if the Trinity and Incarnation and the Lord's day are necessaries and for that reason were singled out as Instances of the Scriptures insufficiency and obscurity by the Addresser and on the contrary were defended by the Answerer then surely the 3 d Question no more wants an Answer than the Prover wants Confidence that denies it He writes indeed as if the Question was barely proposed in the Answer and he has used some art to confirm it when he has made as many Questions as there are Instances viz. of the Trinity Incarnation and the Lord's day So that Question the 4 th in the Answer is Question the 7 th in the Proof And this he does that the Reader if he has not the Answer before him may not be aware of his Falsification nor suspect that a man that first of all writes for the Publick and then engaged to set down the Questions in the order of the Answerer could be so false to both as to affirm there is not one word of Answer Q 4 'T is in its whole extent this By what Text of Scripture are we plainly taught that God is One in Substance Three in Person For as Joh. 10 50. Christ says I and my Father are One so 17. 21. he prays That all Believers may be One as he and his Father are one This second place may seem to expound the first and then Christ and his Father will be One only morally as all the Believers be One. Or else what Texts declares the Three Persons to be One by identity of substance Ans Not one Text of Scripture to give us the dubious Sense of the two in Question And yet these men pretend to clear Scripture for each Fundamental Point The Answerer supplies this want of Scripture with two Reasons The first is this Of the Three that bear record in Heaven `t is said they are One but of the Three that bear witness on Earth they agree in one I will admit this English Translation tho Apocryphal But what then But if in both were meant only a moral Vnion it would have been as well said of the Three that bear record in Heaven they agree in One therefore they have more than a moral Vnion Is not this special Logic Would not this way of arguing prove equally that the Believers are one with more than a moral Union because otherwise it might as wâ—ll have been said Joh. 17. May they agree in one The Question is Whether this second clear Text concerning the Three that
will set him right and leave him to his Cell for the rest The Answerer's Argument is this when set in due form If all questions and doubts relating to Salvation are to be resolved by Scripture then all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture but all questions and doubts relating to Salvation are to be resolved by Scripture as appears from the Texts quoted above therefore c. I shall here return him my words again because in repeating he has perverted them He takes up with such a sort of Arguments which how useful soever they may prove I will recall it and say with him tho not useful to make some men of their Religion have a plainer tendency to not as he corrupts them may very well make others of none Q. 2. Whether all things necessary to Salvation are clearly contained in Scripture Ans From Scripture not a word However he condescends to deliver His sense and that of his Church on this Qnestion It is That all persons cannot immediately learn all the necessaries to Salvation by meer reading of Scripture that many other helps are necessary to wit attention consideration to be cleared from prejudices and prepossessions from pride love of the world interest obstinacy partiality sloth and besides all this the assistance of teaching Guides and a dependency from God for the Wisdom he hath promised such promises I find made to the Church but not any to particulars that shall refuse to be absolutely guided by the Church So that Scripture is plain in this sense only that by these means it may be apprehended Now by Guides he means not false ones such as Christ bid us beware of and consequently till a Protestant hath a reasonable conviction that his Church-Teachers tho' divided from the Catholic Church and condemned by General Councils tho' Abettors of a Religion of not 150 years settlement tho not in Communion with one Bishop in the whole World out of His Majesty's Dominions yet still are true Guides and till he be morally sure that he wants not himself any one of the ten other dispositions requir`d is to persuade himself that he may very well be one of those who wrest the Scripture to their perdition and consequently hath no good ground for any one Act of Faith. This will create but small comfort to any Protestant Less yet will he find in St. Cyril's Sentence The things that are easie are yet to Heretics hard to understand especially if all those be Heretics according to St. Augustin who when the Doctrine of Catholic Faith is declared to them chuse to oppose it and rather embrace what is their own sense if the Catholic Faith be according to the same Dr a Communion with the whole world so that according as his Scholar St. Prosper defines it a Christian when in Communion with this General Church is a Catholic when separated from her an Heretick I wonder how this man was so confident as to name that word Heretic which his Brethren are usually as much afraid to mention as a murtherer to come up to the murder'd Corps lest by its bleeding he be betray'd He saith that as to this second Question there is from Scripture not a word in the Answer And what needed it when the same Texts that were brought to prove the Scripture contains all things necessary do prove that it plainly contains them As for instance Joh. 20. 31. These are written that ye might believe and that believing ye might have life Where the end for which they were written which was that they might believe and the persons for whom they were written for all Christians sufficiently prove that they were for the manner so exprest as well as from the matter so evident that they might believe So again 2 Tim. 3. 15. The Scriptures are able to make thee wise unto Salvation If they were the Scriptures that Timothy knew from a child and were able to make him wise unto Salvation surely they were plain in those things So again Luk. 10 25. What is written in the Law How readest thou must needs imply the Law was plain to be read and understood So Luk. 16. 29. They have Moses and the Prophets But to what purpose if Moses and the Prophets were not to be understood by them But 2. What proof would he have of this Can he have any plainer proof than from the things contained therein Tolle lege will shew there is a God and God alone is to be worshipped That the Soul is immortal That there is a future state and that a state of rewards and punishments That man is fallen That Christ redeemed him That Christ is the Son of God. That he became man. That he was Crucified and died a Sacrifice for us That he rose from the dead ascended into Heaven is there our Mediator c. of which and the like we may say as Justin Martyr did to Trypho the Jew Attend to what I shall rehearse out of the holy Scriptures proofs which need not to be explained but only to be heard But he goes on However the Answerer delivers his sense on this Question It is That all persons cannot immediately learn all necessaries by meer reading of Scripture that many other helps are necessary to wit attention consideration And can he say any thing to the contrary Some things are so plain as that with the meer reading of them they are immediately understood Others require attention and consideration and yet be plain though not equally as plain as the former The Answerer further proceeded to shew the mind ought to be clear'd from prejudices And doth this detract any thing from the perspicuity of Scriptures For the Propositions may be plain but yet be obscure to him that is under prepossessions as was shewed at large in the Answer All which were there sum'd up thus If men come with an honest heart and use a competent diligence with a dependence upon God's assistance for the wisdom he hath promised I know nothing necessary to Salvation but what is plainly taught in Scripture and may be learn'd from it What hath the Prover to say to this Such promises of obtaining wisdom from God I find made to the Church but not to any particular that shall refuse to be absolutely guided by the Church But is not this promise made to particulars without any mention of the Church that he is to learn it from What thinks he of the place the Answerer had his eye upon Jam. 1. 5. If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God and it shall be given him What of Joh. 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God Now it should have been according to our Author's projection If any man lack wisdom or would know whether the Doctrine be of God let him go to the infallible Church to the Vicar of Christ or a Council called by him or to the
Whether we may be infallibly certain out of the Church or how we can find out the Church infallibly if the Church alone be infallible and that we cannot be infallibly certain till we come into the Church Q. 9. Where is the Seat of Infallibility in the Church whether in every particular Person or the Supreme Pastor or a General Council And whether they all agree in this matter Q. 10. Whether what they disagree in can be the Sentiment of the whole Church or that we are hound to believe what they cannot agree in Q. 11. Whether we are any more bound to believe the Infallibility of their Church which they thus disagree in than the Address would perswade us we are not obliged to believe the Trinity because the Arians tho Christians deny it Q. 12. How one at a vast distance of Time or Place can be infallibly assured of the Certainty of those Decrees which are said to proceed from an Infallible Power or that he can be any more certain of the Truth Certainty and Sense of these than he can be of the Truth Authority and Sense of Scripture Q. 13. Whether our Saviour has not spoken as plainly and intelligibly in Scripture as his pretended Vicar or their Councils have done in their Decrees and Canons Q. 14. Whether when the Persons that publish or give the Sense of those Decrees and Canons are Fallible a Person can be infallibly certain that these are the very Decrees or that the true Sense of them Or whether a Person in these Circumstances can be any more certain tho a Member of an Infallible Church than another may be that is a Member of a Fallible Church Q. 15. Whether for example we can be any more certain that there ever was such a Pope as Pope Pius or that ever there was such a Creed drawn up by him or that this or that is an Article or the Sense of it than we are that the Scriptures are the Word of God and that the Doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation are clearly contained in them These are the Questions in the Answer and which I have drawn out in order I hope they shew themselves to be Sense it remains to the Prover to shew they have no difficulty to be resolved All well-meaning Protestants finding that Scripture interpreted the Protestant-way is so far from being an easie and clear Rule of Faith that a Protestant in the Answer to an Address made to the Ministets of the Church of England approved by a Chaplain to the highest Ecclesiastical Authority under the King cannot as much as teach by it the first Principles of Christian Religion will seek a better method of using that Divine Rule and not be hereafter so easily imposed upon by those Guides who give them but their own private fancies under the Veil and Name of the Word of God. I was I confess surprized to find Guil. Needham c. approving this Answer but God and Truth are of our side Et inimici nostri sunt Judices the weakness of our Opposers Arguments bear a proof to it Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam I may now leave the case to all well-meaning Protestants for who that is of that number or indeed is impartial but may soon discern who they are that make the Scripture a Rule of Faith Whether those that resolve all Necessaries to Salvation wholly into it or those that join Tradition with it in Esteem and Authority They may again as soon discern Whether the Scripture be Easie and Clear and best understood in the Protestant Method when it 's Translated for Vulgar use in the Mother Tongue and the People are allowed and exhorted to read it or in the Popish Method when it 's kept in an unknown Tongue or if Translated not permitted to be read by them Whether again They feed them with their own private Fancies that teach the people nothing but what both Teacher and Hearer learn from Scripture or they that make things necessary to be believed and done which are not contained in Scripture I find our Author surpriz'd to find Guil. Needham a Chaplain to the highest Eeclesiastical Authority under the King we know who they are that set up an Ecclesiastical Authority above the King to approve the Answer But why so surprized When it 's likely G. N. was as confident as the Prover could be on his own that God and Truth are on the Answerer's side and perhaps might have a good opinion of his Performance though I grant it 's likely not as good as our Author hath of his own Clear Proof Here I should have ended but it seems the poor Answer has met with another Adversary one as he himself tells us that at a full mixed Assembly in the City so laid it open that most of the Protestants there ashamed of it found no better Salvo than to disown the Answerer as an Ignorant Scribler who had betrayed his Cause I wish this successful Undertaker had but given us a Breviate of the Case as he propounded it to that Assembly for if he managed it in the same way as his Friend the Prover has done or as he himself has answered the Preservative sometimes omitting sometimes mangling and at all times Misrepresenting his Adversaries Arguments I will for once excuse my Friends the Protestants if they then thought the Answerer worthy of no better a Character than is here related who I hope for the future they will have less reason to believe an Adversary and use that kind of liberty which the Church of Rome so much envies them and belongs to them as Men and as Christians and judg for themselves by seeing with their own eyes whether the Cause is maintained or betrayed But after all I know not whether I may not have as little reason to believe him concerning these Protestants as they had to believe him concerning the Answer FINIS Books lately Printed for Richard Chiswell THE Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4 o. Mr Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto published in his True Account his True and Full Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he calls Dr. T 's Rule of Faith. By Th. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrines and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of Transubstantiation Being a sufficient Confutation of Consensus Veterum Nubes Testium and other late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 4 o. An Answer to the Representer's Reflections upon the State and View of the Controversy With a Reply to the Vindicator's Full Answer shewing that the Vindicator has utterly ruin'd the New Design of Expounding and Representing Popery 4 o. An Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4 o. An Abridgment of the Prerogatives of St. Ann Mother of the Mother of God with the Approbations of the Doctors of Paris thence done into English with a PREFACE concernining the Original of the Story The Primitive Fathers no Papists in Answer to the Nubes Testium to which is added a Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints in Answer to the Challenge of F. Sabran the Jesuit wherein is shewn that Invocation of Saints was so far from being the Practice that it was expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers 4 o. An Answer to a Discourse concerning the Celibacy of the Clergy lately Printed at Oxford 4 o. The Virgin Mary Misrepresented by the Roman Church In the Traditions of that Church concerning her Life and Glory and in the Devotions paid to her as the Mother of God. Both shewed out of the Offices of that Church the Lessons on her Festivals and from their allowed Authors Dr. Tenisons Sermon of Discretion in giving Alms. 12 o. A Discourse concering the Merits of Good Works The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome demonstrated in some Observations upon the Life of Ignatius Loyola Founder of the Order of Jesus A Vindication of the Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4 o. Reflections upon the Books of the Holy Scripture in order to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion in 3 Parts 8 vo In the Press The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for Proof of the Points of their Religion Examin'd and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In several distinct Discourses Five whereof are published viz. Popery not founded in Scripture The Introduction Texts concerning the Obscurity of Holy Scripture Of the Insufficiency of Scripture and Necessity of Tradition Of the Supremacy of St. Peter and the Pope over the whole Church In Two Parts Of Infallibility The Rest will follow Weekly in their Order Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof De Praesc Ep. 7. Vindication De verbo non Scripto l. 4. c. 12. SS dico secundo Script Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof De Doctr. Ch. l. 2. c. 9. Vindication Contr. Liter Petiliani l. 3. c. 6. Clear Proof Vindication De Verbo l. 4. c. 10. ss Respondeo ad primum De Verbo l. 4. c. 10. ss Neque Ut supra C. 12. ss Respondeo ad C. 11. ss Septimo Clear Proof 1 Tim. 6. 20. 2 Tim. 1. 13. Vindication Cap. 10. 8. Quod autem Clear Proof Luc. 10. 25. Luc. 16. 29. Vindication Clear proof Mat. 7. 15. In Jo. l. 1. c. 4. L. 4. de Bapt. cont Don c. 16. L 2 con Gaud. In Dim H. Vindication De Verbo l. 4. c. 4. ss septimo De Unit. Eccles c. 18. C 19. Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof Vindication De Christo l. 1. c. 4 c. De Christo l. 1. c. 4. ss Quod autem De Christo l. 1. c. 6. ss Secundo probo Clear Proof Vindication Epist Imper. Theod. n. 6. Concil Tom. 4. Ad Monach. Aegypt ss 12. Clear Proof Gen. 2. 3. Vindication Epist 118. Contr. Adimant c. 16. Nova Collectio Concil Baluz p. 10. Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof Cc. 2. in Psal 30. De Vnit Eccl. l 4. c. 8. Gal. 5. Vindication De Pastore c. 14. Clear Proof Vindication Clear Proof Vindication An Answer to Dr. Sherlock's Preservative