Loosing the same that is said here to Peter is said to all the Apostles Matt. xviii 18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And again Ioh. xx 23. Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And what a silly childish noise do they make with those words said to Peter unto thee will I give the keys of heaven for the whole sence of those words is fully contained in those Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained For 't is sin that shuts us out of Heaven and when sin is remitted Heaven-Gate is again opened Whoever then hath power to remit and retain sin he hath the keys of Heaven to all intents and purposes Where is then I pray you S. Peter's preheminence over any other Apostle for the Church was built on all the Apostles as well as on Peter and they all had the keys of Heaven given unto them But now mark what goes before in Iohn xx 21. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you This cuts off all manner of pretence to the least precedency of power given to Peter before the rest of the Apostles for our Saviour here saith unto them all As my Father sent me even so send I you Even so in the self same manner And sure the Papists are not so desperate as to say St. Peter had a higher and more powerful Commission than Christ himself and as you see Christ here gives all the Apostles Commission equal with himself As my Father sent me even so send I you So that 't is impossible Peter could have a greater Is it not then a strange presumption for the Papists to boast of such a transcendent power and preheminence given to Peter above the rest of the Apostles as to make him Lord and Master over them which doubtless would have raised no small indignation in the rest of the Apostles We see when Iames and Iohn desired only the precedency before the rest no Lordship but only to sit the one on his right hand the other on his left they were greatly offended at it Wherefore to make Peter their Lord and Master must needs offend them far more yet we find not the least murmuring at it because they found no precedency at all given him And do not we see how St. Paul though a late born Apostle out of time took the boldness to resist him to the face when he walked not uprightly which you may be sure St. Paul would not have done had he taken St. Peter for Christ's High Priest Lord over all for St. Paul repented for having too severely reproved the High Priest of the Iews though he did it unwittingly and for his cruel injustice Certainly whoever reads the two first Chapters of S. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians if he be not much possest with S. Peter's preheminence before hand must needs see that S. Paul gives him no such thing but rather the contrary mark I pray you S. Paul's design there 't is to shew that he received not the knowledg of the Gospel nor the Commission to preach it from man but from Christ only And therefore as soon as Christ had revealed himself to him and sent him to preach Immediately I conferred not says he with flesh and blood neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before me but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days But other of the Apostles saw I none As if the seeing the other Apostles Iames and Iohn whom in the next Chapter he calls Pillars had carried more appearance of his receiving Commission from man than his seeing Peter and tarrying with him fifteen days Now had Peter been as the Papists would have it Head of the Church Lord over all the seeing of Peter Head of the Church and tarrying with him so long had signified far more towards his receiving Commission from man than had he seen all the other Apostles and tarried with them fifteen months for Peter being Head he and not the other Apostles was to give him Commission And then again when he names the great Pillars of the Church who seemed to be somewhat more than the rest he puts Iames in the first place But though they seemed to be somewhat yet whatever they were S. Paul tells us it maketh no matter to him he gave them not any subjection how not any subjection no not for an hour for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him but contrariwise mark I pray you contrary to all subjection they gave unto him yea and unto Barnabas also the right hand of fellowship far from any Lordship over Paul or over Barnabas either though he were none of the twelve for he and they were all fellows in preaching the Gospel dividing the work betwixt them Paul and Barnabas to preach unto the Heathen and they unto the Circumcision Is it not then most evident by all this that S. Peter was no Lord nor Head over the rest of the Apostles nor did he outlive all the rest and so become Head of the Church by survivancy S. Iohn that great and beloved Apostle outlived him long and 't is thought all the rest and then by survivancy he should be Head and consequently his Successor Head of the Church not S. Peter's Successor for S. Peter himself was not Head And then I pray you tell me when S. Peter was dead and S. Iohn remained Who was then Head of the Church Was S. Peter's Successor whoever he was Linus or Clemens was he Head and Lord over S. Iohn or S. Iohn over him Speak I beseech you No your modesty will not suffer you to say that your Pope Linus was Head and Lord over S. Iohn the beloved of our Lord. I dare venture my life on it Linus never assumed any such Lordship to himself for Eusebius tells us that when Polycarpus a Successor of S. Iohn came to Rome to treat with Anicetus a Successor of S. Peter about the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter which was then much disputed the Church of Asia holding it at one time and the Church of Rome at another Anicetus S. Peter's Successor did not assume any Lordship over Polycarpus nor require him to submit unto the Roman Custome No he was so far from it that he gave the honour to Polycarpus and the precedency to celebrate the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper in his own Church at Rome This was a mark of great honour and precedency for in those days the Chief did always celebrate If then your Church had no Headship over the Asian Church in the time of S. Iohn nor in the time of Polycarpus many years after I
burthen of his imposed Superstitions and zealously embrace them then perchance you may have leave as I said of your Confessor to read the Scriptures and then 't is no sin Your Confessor your Confounder thus insolently to usurp over your Christian Liberty You that are called to the glorious liberty of the Children of God and have heard God the Father speaking unto you in the Law God the Son speaking to you in the Gospel God the Holy Ghost speaking to you in the Apostles three Persons one Almighty God commanding you to read the Scriptures and teach them your Children must you now ask a silly blind worm of the Earth leave to read them Can you ever suffer your selves thus to be blindfolded fettered and enslaved under Popish Tyranny Thus to be deprived of the Gospel the Word of Life the Power of God unto Salvation No Beloved I hope you will never be so infatuated by deluding words nor so terrified with any threatning powers upon Earth or under the Earth as to quit this Heavenly Food of your Souls Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Earthly Food entreth into the belly and so passeth out into the draught but this Heavenly Food the Word of God abideth for ever and shall nourish up our Souls unto Everlasting Life This ought to be our daily bread herein we should read and meditate day and night and say with David I have more delight in thy Commandments than in thousands of gold and silver For here we find a Heavenly Treasure for our Souls here we learn all things profitable for our Salvation this is the Book which teaches Priests that blessed work of gaining Souls unto Christ by sound Doctrine and godly Example which will make them shine in this World as Stars in the Firmament Let your Light so shine This is the Book that teaches Princes and all Magistrates their duty to God for the People to administer justice with uprightness to shew mercy with prudence to subdue the rebellious to protect the oppressed and this will make them feared loved and even adored as Gods upon Earth I said ye are Gods this Book will teach the People their duty and piety towards God their duty and loyalty to their Sovereign reverence to all in Authority love and peace with their fellow Subjects Here great ones learn humility rich men charity poor contentedness the oppressed patience the afflicted comfort it worketh all in all to Gods glory and our own eternal happiness Happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God and his Holy Law for their instruction in all things as we have other Books may be helps to Devotion and give us some instruction for life but all come much short of this Holy Book When you would have a Tree thrive and bear fruit you dig about it you manure it with soil and water it all these are good helps yet all these without Sun-shine upon it effect little 't is the Sun that fetches up the sap causes it to budd blossom and bear fruit And so 't is that Sun of Righteousness who there speaks to us and sends the powerful raies of his grace upon our hearts 't is he that worketh in us and causeth us to bring forth fruit The Law of the Lord as David saith converteth the Soul it doth not only instruct the Soul as other Books but also converts the Soul gives life unto Souls dead in sin for 't is the word of life the power of God unto salvation And blessed be the infinite goodness and mercy of God who so freely imparts this Heavenly Blessing to us all Come come hither all ye that hunger and thirst ofter Righteousness come Clergy come Laity come Male and Female come Old and Young come Rich and Poor come and ye shall all be satisfied Come buy without money and without price for our God is a most gracious God he will not send any one away empty no but giveth liberally to all men And to this our most gracious God be ascribed as is most due all honour and praise majesty and glory now and for ever Amen The Second SERMON ON JOHN V. Ver. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life THE former part of this Text Search the Scriptures I have already treated of shewing you that this Command of our Saviour belongs to all conditions of men and women and that 't is not only lawful but pious also and profitable for all to read the Scriptures and to teach them their Children that from their very infancy they may suck in the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby And this I proved unto you by the whole current of the Bible both Old and New Testament And therefore it is a strange presumption very foolish and very impious for vain man born ignorant as the wild Asses Colt to pretend to give reasons for shutting up the Scripture from the People God having so expresly and so often commanded all to read the Scriptures And consequently 't is a blasphemous speech to say that the peoples reading the Scripture causeth them to fall into schisms and heresies for it casts a reproach upon Gods Command making him the Author of Sin But now put the case that the peoples reading of Scripture were the real cause of their falling into Schisms and Errors which God forbid we should say in earnest but only let us suppose it and then consider whether or no it be not far worse with them that shut up the Scripture from the people than with us that let them read it For first none of our Sectaries that depend on Scripture fall into such damnable Errors as the Papists Idolatrous worship and dismembring the blessed Sacrament and some others Secondly we have but few in corners here and there run into Errors not one of a hundred or scarce of a thousand whereas their whole Church from the lowest to the very highest People Priests Bishops Archbishops Pope and all as it was with the Iews in their fits of Idolatry all run into the same Nay 't is worse with these than with the Iews for these have not recovered themselves out of their Errors many hundred years together but most obstinately persist in them notwithstanding the many learned Protestant Writers that have so palpably discovered them yet like Demetrius the the Silver-Smith with his Crafts-men so the Pope and his adherents animate one another saying their Craft will be in danger to be set at nought their Idol-Temples would be despised and their wealth and magnificence utterly destroyed And thus Beloved you see the miserable and desperate condition of these poor blinded and fettered Christians the Pope hath got them fast within his enchanted Chain and 't is his interest never to let them go and all this by shutting up the Scripture Lord have mercy upon them and
beseech you tell me from whence sprang this mighty Headship of the Pope to be Lord of the whole World Successors as Successors can challenge no more Authority than their Predecessors had If the present Bishop of Salisbury hath no Authority over the Bishop of Lincoln certainly Salisburies Successor can have none over Lincolns Successor And so Saint Peter having no Lordship over S. Iohn nor any other Apostle Peter's Successor can have none over their Successors this is clear How then Did Christ ever come again upon Earth to establish this Headship or Did an Angel come from Heaven to do it Though I must tell you should an Angel come from Heaven and preach any other Doctrine than what is in Scripture we are fully warranted not to receive it But if neither Christ nor Angel nor any one Scripture declare this Headship is it not a most unreasonable thing to require us to believe this as a matter absolutely necessary to Salvation and to believe it with as full assurance as we believe Christ was born of the Virgin or that Christ was Crucified and that he rose from the dead Let them shew us then in such plain Scripture words that the Pope is to be Head of the Church that the Church of Rome shall be Infallible unto the worlds end that we are to receive all her Doctrines as the Oracles of God or that in the Church of Rome we have Eternal Life Let them but shew us some promise some command plain like this and we shall readily submit really we should be heartily glad to see it it would save us much trouble But beloved you all know there is nothing like this in all the Scripture How then dare any man venture the eternal salvation of his Soul and in obedience to the Church of Rome practise things so apparently contrary to Gods Commands as to worship Images pray unto Saints receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in one kind and such like as I mentioned formerly I know there are in the writings of several Fathers many expressions which highly magnifie the Authority of the Church in general and some for the Church of Rome in particular all which signifie very little if you consider the circumstances and motives for their so speaking When the Church was infested with Heresies the Orthodox Fathers disputing with them used all the Arguments they could to reduce them to the Truth but perverse men not hearkening to their reasons their last and pressing Argument was the Authority of the Church which they set forth with great lustre to make the Argument more powerful and force their submission unto it And because the generality of the Church in those days by Gods blessing was not yet infected with errors they urged the Authority and true belief of the Universal Church to reclaim the particular Heretical Churches from their Error and the most general Language being then Greek they used the word Catholick which in that Language signifies Universal and hence arose the phrase of the Catholick Church Moreover it pleased God to preserve the Roman Church in the true Faith with great Zeal and Piety for many years their Bishops being successively Martyr'd by the Heathen Emperors and their Officers at Rome And their true Faith being celebrated also in Scripture by S. Paul it was magnified by the true believing Fathers of other Churches as Antioch Ephesus Constantinople Alexandria c. that it might the more move the Heretical Members of their Churches to conform unto it telling them how S. Peter and S. Paul the two great Pillars of the Church were Martyr'd there and therefore they ought to believe no Error could enter that Church which was so sanctified with the blood of those two great Apostles and divers other famous Martyrs All which they uttered with great zeal that they might make the unbelievers to reverence it the more and submit unto it As when two of our Lawyers differ in opinion he that hath the Lord Chief Justice Coke on his side will magnifie him as such an Oracle of the Law that could not err and say all that his wit can invent to set it forth it doth not therefore follow that he seriously thinks Coke to have been infallible no more do these sayings of the Fathers conclude the Roman Church to be infallible as I shall now shew you by one Example sufficient to satisfie any man without farther trouble S. Cyprian was a Bishop and Martyr of the true Catholick Church as famous for Learning and Sanctity as for his Faith and Martyrdom he wrote a zealous Tract for the unity of the Church wherein he uttered those sayings which the Papists have so frequently in their mouths Habere non potest Deum Patrem qui Ecclesiam non habet Matrem he cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his Mother And As no man was saved out of Noah ' s Ark so no man can be saved out of the Church Which being spoken by so great a man seem to carry great Authority with them But if I might freely speak my mind I would say of them that they are fine flourishing sentences sounding handsomely to the ear but cannot much satisfie a mans reason unless he had clearly exprest what he means by the word Ecclesia Church I know full well what the Papists mean by it they mean the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy and all those that are of his Faith and Communion and believe that no man can be saved that is not in that Communion And this is with them the Mother Church and Noah's Ark. But I shall now plainly shew that S. Cyprian meant no such thing for in the beginning of this Tract he declares that St. Peter whom the Papists would needs have to be the Founder of their Church had no Authority over the rest of the Apostles and Churches founded by them but that all the Apostles were of equal honour and authority Pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis Which saying he fully confirmed by his practice which is the clearest exposition of a mans meaning for a great dispute arising between him and Stephen the Bishop of Rome about Rebaptizing those which were Christned in Heretical Churches S. Cyprian declared his Judgment was for Rebaptizing Stephen declares the contrary and both parties adhering stifly to their own opinions the dispute grew so high that Cyprian held a Council of all the African Bishops and there Decreed that they ought to be Rebaptized for there being but one Baptism which was to be had only in the true Church the Heretical Baptism being done out of the true Church was no Baptism Here 't is plain S. Cyprian meant by the word Church his Church and all that were in Communion with him Stephen on the other side calls a Council at Rome and there Decrees that the Heretical Baptism being performed in due manner though the Priest Baptizing were an Heretick out of the Church yet the Baptism
as the Iews people and Priests also erred and so grosly erred as to become Idolaters yet the Oracles they bare never erred so we may too truly say to the proud boasting Papists their whole Church Pope Princes People have and do all err and so grosly err as to be guilty of great Idolatry worshipping and praying and thereby giving Gods glory to Saints and Angels to Pictures and Images This is most rationally and learnedly proved by Dr. Stillingfleet now the Reverend Dean of St. Pauls and most practically and palpably shewed in a small Book Intitled A Letter to a Friend concerning Popish Idolatry which in one hours reading fully declares it Of which Letter I will say only this That I am sure all there set down is truth for with my own eyes I have seen all having lived many years abroad amongst them But I grant they are not all practised here in England for two reasons First They would be ashamed to set up Pictures and Images here publickly to worship in the face of the Gospel-Sunshine where very Children would deride them And Secondly the Laws and Government would not suffer them Wherefore to conclude this point whoever reads the Gospel and by that examines the Doctrines of the Romish Church shall see that she is not the infallible Church she is pretended to be as plainly as you see the Moon is not the Sun you will discover such foul black spots in her face as may assure you she is not that beautiful beloved Spouse set forth in the Canticles for she hath so foully erred against the truth of the Gospel in several things which I have formerly laid before you as makes it most evident that she is neither truth nor so much as the pillar of truth but the pillar of error stifly mainteining several errors and doth not so much as hold forth the Gospel of truth to teach the people the way to Heaven but shuts it up from the people that she may lead them blindfold into error And so much be spoken concerning this Text The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth If any man can give a better exposition of this Text I shall be glad to learn it of him but I am sure the Papists have not yet by all that ever I saw or heard of They bring us another Text much like this Matth. the last Chapter where Christ sends forth his Disciples to teach all Nations promising to be with them in teaching unto the end of the world This Text I fully answered in my last Sermon Moreover these words being spoken by our Saviour to all the Apostles in general and their Successors of necessity gives equal Commission to them all and therefore makes more against the superiority of the Romish Church than for it for by this all Churches planted by other Apostles have the same promise The Papists therefore have one Scripture more which they urge particularly for their Church but it hath been so oft disputed and so fully confuted by whole Volumes of our Writers as a man would wonder to see them like Cats knockt down and quite dead in all appearance yet rise up again with this Text in their mouths It is this Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Matt. xvi 18. As to this I shall give you the heads only of several answers as plainly and briefly as may be for your more easie remembrance But I pray you still remember what we are searching Scripture for and that is a plain easie rule to determine all doubts that may arise in matters of faith And certainly this Text is not such but as far or farther from that than the former for 't is a figurative speech all along it speaks of building on a rock and the gates of Hell of binding and loosing almost every word a figure and the greatest Doctors and Fathers of the Church have disputed very variously about it the Papists cannot deny it and therefore this cannot be a plain easie rule to clear doubtful matters it being so doubtful in it self Let us now hear what the Text it self saith Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Is here any one word that the Church shall be infallible and cannot err The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church therefore say they she cannot err The veriest dunce in the University would be ashamed to make such ridiculous consequences Put the case God had promised the King of England that the French King should not prevail against him must it therefore follow that 't is impossible the French King should set foot upon English ground or kill any one of our Kings Subjects or take any of his Ships Rare nonsence Many Princes after several battels lost much of their Country invaded yet have prevailed and driven out the Enemy many a man after several wounds received hath prevailed and killed his Adversary Let then the Papists go and learn what that means The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Gen. iii. 15. The seed of the Woman crushed the Head of Satan and prevailed against the gates of Hell though the Prince thereof bruised and wounded him in the heel Many errors and Heresies have bruised and wounded the Church yet have not prevailed to destroy it the vitals the fundamentals have still been preserved That profession of Peter whereon Christ built his Church was Thou art Christ the Son of the living God This saith hath still been preserved in the Church the gates of Hell never could prevail against it This is all our Saviour here promised and this he hath ever to this day made good and will assuredly make good to the end of the world But put the case these words The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church did imply some infallibility promised to the Church in general yet how come the Papists to challenge this insallibility to the Church of Rome and deprive all other Churches of it Why say they Christ here promises to build his Church on St. Peter 'T is false the Text doth not say Thou art Peter and upon thee will I build my Church but Upon this rock will I build my Church and that rock was Christ 1 Cor. x. 4. Christ the Son of the Living God whom Peter professed on this rock was the Church built But suppose yet farther that our Saviour had promised he would build his Church on Peter what then Yet not on him alone for St. Paul tells us Eph. ii 19 20. That the House of God which is the Church of God is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ Iesus himself being the chief corner stone built upon other Apostles and Prophets also as well as on Peter but chiefly on Christ himself And then for those words Binding and