is come for then mens hearts will be so filled with fears and cares to avoid the present evil and to preserve what they have in this world as that they will not be able to make a right judgment of things relating to the world to come but their reason will be so biassed by their affections as then to think those Arguments for the Popish Religion rational and plausible which now they think very simple and absurd Wherefore now in this time of peace and calmness when your reason is not disturbed with tumults nor your conscience awed with dangers I here ask you in the presence of God Are your judgments convinced by those Arguments which I have laid before you in Gods Holy Word that the Scriptures contain in themselves compleatly Eternal Life and thus you ought to take them alone for the only rule of faith and that you are not to hearken to any Doctrines of men ever so holy ever so learned farther than they can make their Doctrine evident to your understandings by plain places of Scripture and that whatever miracles are pretended to be wrought by them if they tend to prove any things which you according to the best of your understanding verily believe are against Scripture you are to take them for lying wonders wrought by that great deceiver and tempter of mankind the Devil Are you now fully perswaded of all this or no For your fuller satisfaction I repeat it again and do you consider it well Are your judgments c. If you doubt of any part of this I as your lawful Pastor set over you by God and the King his vicegerent require you to repair to me and propose your doubts and I hope by Gods assistance to give you full satisfaction And if you are already satisfied then in Gods name I require you to hold fast to the Scriptures his Holy Word and not to suffer your selves to be carried away with any wind of Humane Doctrine And when if ever times of change and danger come and your judgment begins to alter from what now seems to you apparent truth and fully agreeable to Gods Holy Word you ought to conceive that alteration proceeds from the delusion of the devil the world and the flesh not from any new inspiration from God for he is the same to day and for ever he cannot change 't is you that change But perchance some will say in those days This Papist tells me things I never heard of before new and better arguments and upon better information I may and ought to change to better resolutions Oh my beloved take heed 't is not better information but the old man loves to have it so for it will then make better for his enjoyment of this world But I will now take from you this subterfuge you shall not 'scape me so Go now to the ablest Papist you can hear of consult with such see what new and better arguments they can now give you and if you think you have met with such come to me I shall take any pains to give you better satisfaction But if you come no more at me now but in the change of times your heart and reason change I shall if I so long live and you ought infallibly to conclude 't is not Reason nor Religion but the blindness of your heart and the corruption of your flesh that leads you blindly away from the God of truth to follow the Doctrine of erroneous man For no doubt you may now in times of settlement and quiet make a far better judgment of things than in times of bustle and danger No man whilest he carries this house of clay about him can mount to that high pitch as to be above the reach of storms and combustions but will undoubtedly be shak'd and disordered with them The stiffest Oak will bend with boisterous winds Wherefore now as I said is the time to make a clear rational judgment of truth and to make also firm resolutions to adhere to that And then if danger comes and your heart be besieged by powerful enemies be sure to observe the counsel of good King Hezekiah 2 King xviii 36. Hold your peace and answer not a word to any deluding Rabshakeh who shall endeavour to withdraw you from our Heavenly King Christ Jesus and his holy Word and revolt to the proud Prince of Babylon the Pope of Rome Disputing is dangerous when interest is the Argument that takes captive the hearts of most men silence then will be the safety And be you assured that in that great and terrible day of the Lord the word that I have now spoken unto you for 't is the Word of God shall judge and condemn you if you swerve from it Lastly for a Conclusion let me advise all those who are not throughly setled in their Religion to endeavour it with all speed no man ever so young ever so strong hath any assurance of life for a day we see it by daily experience and it would be a very sad thing for a dying man to be then to chuse his Religion I advise you therefore not to delay this necessary work and when you are on serious mature consideration well setled in the Faith admit no more of debates for 't is a great artifice of the Devil so to busie mens heads in matters of Faith as wholly to neglect good Life without which Faith is fruitless and dead for though we are justified by Faith yet it must be Faith working by Love Gal. v. 6. And he that loves God keeps his Commandments Iohn xiv 15. and 21. And therefore 't is meer Hypocrisie in those who seem so zealous for the truth of Religion but take no care to live the life of Religion of which sort there are too too many they wear out their Life and their Bible in tumbling it over for Texts to oppose the Papists but pass over all those Texts wherewith they should be armed to oppose the temptations of the Devil These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone Mat. xxiii 23. These persons will be ranked with those who in that final day shall come and say Lord Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name cast out Devils and done many wondrous works and yet shall hear that dreadful Sentence from the Lord I never knew you depart from me all ye that work Iniquity Mat. vii 23. You are then to search the Scriptures both for true Faith and good Life and to captivate yoâ—â— hearts in obedience to Gods Commandments as well as your understandings in obedience to the Faith both are equally requisite to Eternal Life and both are plainly and fully declared in the Scriptures they make us wise unto Salvation and throughly furnish us unto every good work so that we are lest without excuse in either You know these things and happy are ye if ye do them not otherwise And thus Beloved having laid plainly before you out of Gods Holy Word the way
great examples and leaders to piety and godly life but I say it only to prevent our being led into errors by their Authority who though they were very learned and godly men yet still were men and being men were subject to error and for this cause no assurance can be had in the word of man alone but of him only who was God and man for God only is truth And as for the miracles pretended to be wrought by the Fathers of the Church in confirmation of their Doctrine I answer First We find in no authentick Author any miracles wrought by the prime and principal Fathers of the Church in confirmation of any Doctrine taught by them St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Ierome St. Austine St. Chrysostome St. Gregory Nazianzen and such like Secondly For the pretended Fathers of the Church in later Ages and Mothers also it is sufficiently known what gross and ridiculous impostures have been in later Ages noised abroad for great miracles Our learned Dr. Stillingfleet hath sufficiently set them forth in their proper colours These fine devices began about the six hundredth year after Christ and in a few years after they grew as familiar as jugling feats especially in the female sex of whom I find none that wrought them in the Apostles days when true miracles were frequent among men and when there were women certainly as holy as any whatsoever in future Ages We do not find that the blessed Virgin her self ever wrought any miracle though now the Papists will tell you of a thousand wrought daily by several images of hers But this we know that in the later days lying wonders shall be wrought to deceive if it were possible the very Elect and we also know that whatever seeming miracle is wrought contrary to the word of God is a lying wonder for Gods word is truth and all liars that speak against that But these miracles which they pretend to be wrought at the images of the blessed Virgin and other Saints are apparently contrary to the word of God which commands us not to bow down to nor worship any images and consequently these must needs be lying wonders wrought to deceive the people who are thereby induced to worship those images and do daily visit them and prostrate themselves before them with as much reverence and devotion as if Christ himself were there present This is fully known to every man that hath travelled those parts But the Popish Priests here surely ashamed of their own Devotions will boldly deny it and finding us too strongly fortified with Scripture truth to be seduced by their supposititious Saints with their lying wonders and too quick-sighted to be catched with such stauking horses they come upon us with a whole Army of the Church Militant the Universal Catholick Church meaning the Romish Church falsly so called yea and back'd with Scripture too and so fight us at our own weapon and thence thunder out irresistable Cannon Shot He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publicane Matt. xviii 17. Beloved my time would fail me should I now engage in a fresh battel I shall therefore refer this to another time and for the present add only a few words of direction for those who take comfort in reading the Scripture and desire to improve their knowledge therein but meet with many obscure and difficult places which exceed their capacity in which they would gladly be farther instructed To this I answer first That I conceive it fit to advise with some learned orthodox sober and godly Divine if they have any such in their Neighbourhood for give me leave to say men so compleatly qualified are not every where to be found in these unfortunate days But if they can find any such let them desire his assistance and if this godly person can by other plain places of Scripture and clear reason make the sense of that doubtful place evident to his understanding then he may well conclude that to be the true meaning of the Holy Ghost But if this godly Counsellor makes use of any human Authority that is any one or many Fathers of the Church or Councils or the like to make good his exposition and cannot do it by clear places of Scripture or such circumstances as make that doubtful place clear to your understanding but require you to submit meerly to their Authority then you are to afford him no more than a human belief which helps you nothing forward to your salvation for that wholly depends on divine faith and belief in God not in man as I have shewed you And as for the doubtful places pass them over as doubtful and the clear knowledge thereof not necessary to your salvation God requires of no man beyond the talent which he hath given him and in his infinite goodness hath so provided that all things necessary for salvation may be understood of all What can be more plainly set forth to common understanding than it is in Scripture That there is one God Creator of Heaven and Earth one Saviour Iesus Christ the Son of God who dyed for all men rose again the third day ascended into Heaven and shall come again at the last day to judge and reward every man according to his deeds And then for the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and such like necessary things they are also plainly set forth in Scripture even to vulgar understandings And lastly for our course of life what can be more plainly prohibited than fornication adultery all lasciviousness murther striking railing cousening What can be more plainly commanded than to do justice shew mercy charity c. and in sum to do unto all men as we would have them do unto us Now whosoever shall believe and practise all these plain things my Soul for his he shall never miss of his Salvation though he miss the understanding of a hundred places of Scripture many whereof the most learned understand very little better though they can talk more of them When our Saviour represents unto us the great Judgment day Mat. XXV He doth not call any to his right hand because they understood these and these dark places in Scripture nor curse any on his left hand because they understood them not but the whole Judgment depends on doing or not doing Come ye blessed for ye have fed the hungry cloathed the naked c. and go ye cursed for ye have not done so Wherefore the question in the Gospel is Good Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life and our Saviour's Answer is This do and thou shalt live And S. Paul tells us though we understood all Mysteries yet this profiteth not without Charity Charity and the deeds thereof with a firm belief of so much of Scripture as God enables us to understand would undoubtedly bring us to Christ's right hand in that great day Were but our practice according to the measure of our knowledge it
of God to confirm their Doctrine for we have no other assurance of the Doctrine delivered by the Apostles but the miracles which they wrought in confirmation of it Excuse me for herein you are foully mistaken we have our Saviours command given them to preach the Gospel to all the world and we have his promise made to them that he would send the Holy Ghost unto them to lead them into all truth which we are assured did descend upon them working miraculously in divers and sundry manners Wherefore to speak properly we say That we do not believe in the Apostles but we believe in God the Holy Ghost speaking to us by the Apostles And which is yet more our Saviour himself which was both God and man yet he doth not require us to believe in him as man but as God assuring us so Ioh. viii 28. I do nothing of my self but as my father hath taught me I speak these things And again xii 49. I have not spoken of my self but the father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak By which we are fully instructed that we are not to believe in any man living but only in God speaking to us by man and therefore we are not to give Divine Faith to the Doctrine of any man the greatest Saint that ever was unless we are as fully assured that he hath God the Holy Ghost speaking in him as we are that he spake to us by the Apostles And certainly we have no such assurance of any man since the Apostles no special command given by Christ to preach any new Gospel no promise of the Holy Ghost to lead them into all truth no visible descension of the Holy Ghost in after Ages no gift of tongues nor prophesie But it may be you think that at the end of St. Matthews Gospel where Christ sends the Apostles to preach and says Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world this promise must be intended to the Apostles Successors also the Fathers of the Church that Christ would be with them unto the end of the world for the Apostles themselves were not to continue unto the end of the world but their Successors All this I grant that Christ will be with the Fathers of the Church the Successors of the Apostles to the end of the world who succeed the Apostles in their Doctrine as well as in Office Christ will bless them and prosper that Doctrine unto the end of the world Wherefore I pray you consider the whole context of that place Vers. 19 20. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world So long as you teach the things I have commanded you so long I am with you even to the end of the world The promise then of being with them to the end of the world is conditional viz. If they teach the things that Christ hath commanded either by himself or by his Apostles who were guided by his Spirit all which commands of Christ and his Apostles are delivered unto us in the Scriptures On this condition the promise was made in teaching the things commanded and not otherwise What is this to teaching of new Doctrine not commanded by Christ not contained in Scripture Not one tittle of promise made for that nor any commission given to teach new Doctrines but rather a curse for the person teaching any other Gospel than what was already preached be he man on earth or Angel from Heaven Gal. i. 8. Why because the Doctrine preacht by Christ and his Apostles was compleat for our Salvation And therefore we do not find that any one of the antient Holy Fathers doth pretend to any such infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost and thereby require submission and obedience to his Doctrine but rather declares quite contrary as I have newly mentioned unto you out of St. Austine one of the four principal Doctors of the Church who gives us a general rule Not to give any assured belief to any the most learned and most Holy Fathers farther than they can prove their Doctrine by Scriptures that is our compleat rule of faith Is it not then a strange disobedient wilful blind submission to their Doctrine expresly contrary to the rule of faith given by themselves And great reason had St. Austin to give us this rule when he had found as he expresses in another place that St. Cyprian a preceding Father of the Church most eminent for learning and sanctity who laid down his life for the faith this great Doctor Saint and Martyr taught and maintained an error even unto death which error of his was condemned afterwards by the whole Christian Church And not only St. Cyprian but all the great Bishops of Affrica joyned with him in this error And long before St. Cyprian Papias Bishop of Hierapolis whom that famous Bishop of Lyons Irenaeus affirms to have been a Disciple of St. Iohn the Evangelist and very probably he might be so for St. Iohn dyed in the hundred and second year of our Lord and Papias was then a Pastor of the Church He taught if not began as most antient Writers conceive the error of the Chiliasts That Christ should come again to reign here on earth a thousand years Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons mentioned before learnt this error of him and did propagate it farther till at length it infected most Writers of that Age. And this Irenaeus himself was the Disciple of St. Polycarpus and Polycarpus the Disciple of St. Iohn and therefore 't was no wonder that this error was taken up by many Doctors of the Church having two such famous men the Authors of it Yet this error was not long after rejected by the whole Christian Church Good reason then had St. Austin to give us that rule not to subscribe to any Doctrine of the Fathers but such as they proved by Holy Scriptures And it was a seasonable caution to future Ages against his own Doctrine for he himself taught the error that it was necessary to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to Infants and this was an opinion generally believed in the Christian Church for many years though afterwards and to this day concluded a gross error And I beg leave to say this as true as free That whoever reads the Doctors and Fathers of the Church writings of the erroneous customs generally practised in their times but afterwards rejected by the whole Christian Church as well by the Papists as others shall find these Fathers as zealously maintaining by forced arguments and wrested Scriptures those their erroneous customs as the soundest truths God is my record I say not this out of any reproach to them whereof many have been great Champions for the fundamental truths and
to be great impiety to be of another mind which I shall shew you by a familiar example Put the case an authentic Book of the Laws of England confirmed by Act of Parliament tells us There is one King of England namely Charles the Second and that we must all obey him who would not from hence undoubtedly conclude there is but one King Charles the Second whom we ought to obey But now come two or three esteemed great Doctors of the Law and tells us we are quite mistaken in the meaning of the Law which though it tells us there is one King yet from hence it doth not follow but that there may be more than one and we assure you there are a hundred Kings whom we ought to obey Were not this very absurd and contrary to all reason that the Law should formally declare unto us there is one King if there were a hundred or twenty or two yet forsooth we must quit our reason and believe these Lawyers there are a hundred Were not this directly to believe these Lawyers rather than the Law Just so the Scripture the Word of God tells us There is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus and that we ought to present our supplications to God by him from whence we undoubtedly conclude according to reason that there is but one Mediator But we meet with some great Doctors of the Church who tell us we are quite mistaken for though the Scripture name one yet notwithstanding there are a thousand Mediators Saints and Angels by whom we ought to present our supplications but shew us no other Scripture to make this good yet require us to believe it meerly because they tell us so were not this to forsake Gods Word and believe in man rather than in God which I say is downright Idolatry For the better understanding this my assertion I must shew you what Faith is Divine and Human. Divine faith is the gift of God saith St. Paul Eph. ii 8. a grace infused into our minds by God whereby we believe his holy Word to be so true as that 't is impossible it should be otherwise and though it seem contrary to our reason yet it captivates our understanding in obedience to the faith and makes us believe it meerly because God said it Human faith is when we believe upon the Authority of another man who tells us such a thing because we believe him an understanding and honest man he will not easily be mistaken or deluded nor will he tell a lie Yet we know the wisest may be deceived and the truest may tell a lie So that all Human belief still supposes a possibility at least that it may not be true Herein then lies the difference between Divine faith and Humane That there is no possibility of untruth in Divine faith Therefore we say that we believe in God we entirely submit and captivate our understanding to Gods Word he is truth it self But when we speak of man we say that we believe man not that we believe in man for this implies an impossibility of untruth in that man and we undoubtedly believe the thing meerly because he spake it Such a belief is due only unto God and is called Divine Faith and is a supernatural gift of God unto us There is no such thing in nature the natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can be know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. ii 14. Having thus informed you what Divine and Humane Faith is I come now to the business of Idolatry I say then To believe in man that is to believe any thing to be infallibly true meerly because such a man said it and to venture your Salvation on it is directly Idolatry yea though an Angel said it For in so believing in man or Angel you make him God I mean you worship him as God Yea it is the greatest Idolatry you can perform for you give him the principal and greatest worship of God To offer incense to sacrifice Rams and Bulls is nothing to this Idolatry nay to sacrifice your own body to man is much inferior to it for 't is but sacrificing so much dirt One Soul is worth a hundred bodies of beasts or men and therefore to sacrifice your Soul and your reason the principal highest faculty of your Soul to captivate your understanding in obedience to faith in man is the highest act of Divine Worship and consequently to give this to man is most abominable Idolatry And contrariwise to worship God with our Soul and captivate our understanding in obedience to faith in him is the most acceptable service we can possibly perform this is the justifying act the saving grace this alone acquires Heaven and without this the whole world cannot purchase it Without this faith 't is impossible to please God Heb. xi 6. and with this Abraham so pleased God as that God thereupon promised to multiply his seed as the stars of Heaven and as the sand which is upon the sea shore and that all the nations of the world should be blessed in him Gen. xxii 17 18. I hope you are now fully satisfied that to believe in any man ever so learned ever so holy is great Idolatry for therein you make him God God hath three peculiar Attributes Unus Verus Bonus God is one God is true God is good Our Saviour questioned that man that called him good Why callest thou me good there is none good but one that is God Mark x. 17 18. As if he had said Why callest thou me good dost thou believe me to be God otherwise thou oughtest not to call me good So we may say Why call you this man true Do you believe him God for there is none true but God no man perfectly true so true but he may be deceived or false And therefore the Psalmist saith All men are liars that is all men have by nature the vice of falshood in them as well as other vices and so 't is not only possible but probable also that any man may tell a lie if God give him not the grace of truth Much more is it possible and probable for any man to be deceived and speak a falshood though he intend it not God only is perfectly true he can neither deceive nor be deceived But now perchance you think to wave this Idolatry which I have laid to your charge by answering that you do not believe in the Fathers of the Church as you believe in God you do not worship them with Divine faith Say you so what then with Humane faith only Why then I am sure your Humane faith shall never save you you were as good lay it by we are saved only by Divine faith not of our selves it is the gift of God But what if your Saints in whom you believe work miracles then you will say you believe in them with a Divine and saving faith their miracles being wrought by the power