World in which they should be authoris'd to dissolve the Obligation of the Mosaical Laws and to confirm such parts of them as were Moral and perpetually binding which the Apostles should do with such visible Characters of a Divine Authority empowering and conducting them in it that it should be very evident that what they did on Earth was ratified in Heaven These words thus understood carry in them a plain sense which agrees well with the whole design of the Gospel but whatsoever may be their sense it is plain that there was nothing here peculiarly given to St. Peter As for our Saviour's praying for St. Peter that his faith might not fail and his restoring him to his Apostolate by a threefold charge feed my sheep or lambs it has such a visible relation to his fall and threefold denial that it is not worth the while to enlarge on or to shew that it is capable of no other signification and cannot be carried further And thus I have gone through all that is brought from the Scriptures for asserting the Infallibility of the Church and in particular of the Pope's and have I hope fully shew'd that they cannot bear that sense but that they must genuinely bear a plainly different sense which does no way differ from our Doctrine It was necessary to clear all this for tho as was before made out it is no proper way for them to resolve their Faith by passages out of Scripture yet these are very good objections to us who upon other Reasons do submit to their Authority There remains but one thing now to be clear'd which is this If the Church is not Infallible it does not easily appear what certainty we can have concerning the Scriptures since we believe them upon the Testimony of the Church and we have no other knowledge concerning them but what has been handed down to us by Tradition If therefore this is fallible we may be deceiv'd in our persuasion even concerning them But here a great difference is to be made between the carrying down a Book to us and the Oral Delivering of a Doctrine it being almost as hard to suppose how the one could sail as how the other should not fail The Books being in many hands spread over the whole Churches and read in all their Assemblies makes this to be a very different thing from discourses that are in the Air and to which every man that reports them is apt to give his own Cue A great difference is also to be made between the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judge If in any Age of the Church Councils had examin'd controverted Writings and had upon that past Sentence this had been in deed a judging the matter but no such thing ever was The Codex of the Scriptures was setled some Ages before any Provincial Council gave out a Catalogue of the Books which they held as Canonical For no ancient General Council ever did it and tho the Canonical Epistles of which there not being such a certain Standard they not being addrest to any particular Body that had preserv'd the Originals were not so early nor so universally receiv'd as the others were yet the matter was setled without any Authoritative Judgment only by examining Originals and such other Methods by which all things of that nature can only be made out But this matter having been so fully consider'd and stated in another Discourse I shall dwell no longer on it in this As for the Authorities which are brought from some of the Ancients in favour of the Authority of the Church and of Tradition it is to be considered that though the word Tradition as it is now used in Books of Controversy imports a sense opposite to that which is written in the Scripture yet Tradition is of its own signification a general word that imports every thing which is delivered And in this sense the whole Christian Religion as well as the Books in which it is contained was naturally called the Tradition of the Apostles So that a great many things said by Ancients to magnify the Tradition of the Apostles and by way of Appeal to it have no relation to this matter Besides when men were so near the Apostolical Age that they could name the Persons from whom they had such or such hints who had received them from the Apostles or from Apostolical men Tradition was of another sort of Authority and might have been much more safely appealed to than at the distance of so many Ages Therefore if any thing is brought either from Irenaeus or Tertullian that sounds this way here is a plain difference to be observed between their Age and ours which does totally diversify it But to convince the World how early Tradition might either vary or misrepresent matters let the Tradition not only in but before St. Irenaeus's time concerning the observation of Easter be considered which goes up as high as St. Polycarps's time We find that as the several Churches adhered to the practices of those Apostles that founded them so they had quite forgot the grounds on which it seems these various Observations were founded Since though it is very probable that those who kept Easter on the Iewish day did it that by their condescendence to the Iews in that matter they might gain upon them and soften their Prejudices against Christianity yet it does not appear that their Successors thought of that at all for they vouched their Custome and resolved to adhere to it nor is there any thing mentioned on either side that give us the account of those early but different Observations If then Tradition failed so near its Fountain we may easily judge what account we ought to make of it at so great a distance Many things are brought with great pomp out of St. Austin's Writings magnifying the Authority of the Church in terms which after all the allowances that are to be made for his diffuse and African Eloquence can hardly be justified Yet when it is considered that he writ against the Donatists who had broke the Vnity of the Church upon the pretence of a matter of fact concerning the Ordainers of Cecilian which had been as to the point of fact often judged against them And yet as they had distracted the whole African Churches so they were men of fierce and implacable Tempers that broke out daily into acts of great fury and violence and had set up a principle that must for ever break the Peace and Union of the Church which was that the vertue of all the publick Acts of Worship of Sacraments and Ordinances depended upon the personal worth of him that officiated so that his Errors or Vices did make void all that past through his hands Now when so warm a man as St. Austin had so bad a Principle and so ill a disposition of mind in view it is no wonder if he brought out all that he could think on upon the subject so
respects as bad as ever this indeed is so slight a thing that a greater disparagement cannot de offered to our Religion nor can a greater strengthning of sin be contrived than the giving any sort of encouragement to it for it is one of the greatest and the most mischievous of all those practical Errors which have corrupted Religion These are the most important parts of our whole Commission and therefore we ought to state them first aright in our own thoughts that so we our selves may be fully possessed with them that they may sink deep into our own minds and shew their efficacy in the reforming of our Natures and Lives and then we shall be able to open them to others with more clearness and with better advantages when our hearts are inflamed with an overcoming sense of the Love and Goodness of God If the Condition of this New Covenant were deeply impressed on our thoughts then we should publish them with more life and joy to others and we might then look for the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel on our selves and on our labours DISCOURSE III. Concerning the INFALLIBILITY AND AUTHORITY of the CHURCH AFTER we are well setled in the Belief of the Christian Religion our next enquiry must naturally be into the Way and Method of being rightly Instructed in the Doctrine and other parts of this Religion and that chiefly in one great Point Whether we ought to employ our own Faculties in searching into this and particularly into the meaning of those Books in which it is contain'd or Whether we must take it from Oral Tradition and submit to any man or body of men as the Infallible Depositaries and Declarers of this Tradition In this single point consists the Essence of the differences between us and the Church of Rome While we affirm that the Christian Doctrine is compleatly contain'd in the Scriptures and that every man ought to examine these with the best helps and all the skill and application of which he is capable and that he is bound to believe such Doctrines only as appear to him to be contain'd in the Scriptures but may reject all others that are not founded upon that Authority On the other hand The foundation upon which the Church of Rome builds is this That the Apostles deliver'd their Doctrine by word of mouth to the several Churches as the Sacred Depositum of the Faith That the Books of the New Testament were written occasionally not with intent that they should be the Standard of this Religion that we have these Books and believe them to be Divine only from the Church and upon her Testimony that the Church with the Books gives us likewise the Sense and Exposition of them they being dark in many places and that therefore the Traditional Conveyance and the Solemn Decisions of the Church must be Infallible and ought to be submitted to as such otherwise there can be no end of Controversies while every man takes upon him to expound the Scriptures which must needs fill mens Minds with Curiosity and Pride as well as the World with Heresies and Sects that are unavoidable unless there is a living speaking Judge This they also prove from some places of Scripture such as Christ's words to St. Peter Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and unto thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Tell the Church I am with you alway even to the end of the World the Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth This is their Doctrine and these are their chief Arguments upon which it is founded There is no point in Divinity that we should more clearly understand than this for it is in it self of great Consequence and is that which determines all the rest if it is true it puts an end to all other Controversies and if it is false it leaves us at liberty to examine every thing and gives us the justest and highest prejudices possible against that Church that pretends to it without just grounds It is also that which of all others the Missionaries of that Church understand the best and manage the most dextrously they are much practised to it and they begin and end all their practice with this which has fair appearances and will bear a great deal both of popular Eloquence and plausible Logick so if men are not on the other hand as well fortifi'd and as ready on the other side of the Argument they will be much entangled as often as they have occasion to deal with any of that Church There is not indeed any one point that I know of that has been open'd and examin'd both with that Beauty and Force that is in Chillingworth's Unvaluable Book upon this Subject Few things of this nature have ever been handled so near a Mathematical Evidence as he has pursu'd this Argument and his Book is writ with such a thread of Wit and Reason that I am confident few can enter upon it without going through with it I shall now endeavour in as narrow a compass as is possible to set this matter in its true Light We must then begin with this That the freedom of a man's Thoughts and Understanding is the most Essential Piece of his Liberty and that in which naturally he can the least bear to be limited therefore any Restraints that are laid upon him in this must be well and fully proved otherwise it is to be suppos'd that God could never intend to bring us under the yoke in so sensible and so valuable a thing without giving clear and evident warrants for it And as every Invasion on the Liberties of the Human nature ought to be well made out so every Priviledge which any person claims against the common fate of Mankind ought to be also fully proved before others can be bound to submit to it We perceive in our selves and we see in all others such a feebleness of understanding such an easiness to go too quick and judge too fast and such a narrow compass of knowledge that as we see all Mankind is apt to mistake things so we have no reason to believe that any one is exempted from this but as there are evident Authorities to prove it Since then this is a Priviledge in those that have it as well as an Imposition on those that have it not it ought not to be offer'd at or obtruded on the world without a full Proof Probabilities forced Inferences or even disputable Proofs ought not to be made use of here since we have reason to conclude that if God had intended to put any such thing upon us he would have done it in so plain and uncontested a way that there should have been no room to have doubted of it Besides all such things as do naturally give jealousy and offer specious grounds of mistrust ought to be very clear Since
then all Companies of men that lodge themselves in any Authority and more particularly those who manage mens Consciences and the Concerns of Religion have been too often observ'd to enlarge their powers and to make the most of them they could and that by their means Religion has been often and much corrupted the World has from hence a Right to exact very full proofs before they can be bound to believe any such body of men to be exempted from Error This will yet appear the more evident if that very Body in which this Infallibility is suppos'd to dwell has manifestly corrupted the Morals and the order or discipline of this Religion if they have fill'd the world with Fables if they have fallen under gross Ignorance and have been over-run with Vice and Disorder these must afford great occasion of suspecting them in all other things If Impostures have been set up and promoted with great Zeal in some Ages which have in other Ages of more Light and Knowledge been thrown out and disclaim'd and if we find that the same Methods of Craft and Violence which have been practised in all other Societies have been more notoriously and scandalously practis'd by the men of Infallibility then we have from all these things just prejudices given us against this pretension Now a just prejudice amounts to this That we have no reason to believe a thing unless we see very good grounds to believe it and it gives us all reason to suspect those grounds and to examine them well before we are concluded by them Further This being so great a Matter and that which must settle all other things we have just reason to believe That if God has left such Authorities in the World that he has also made it plain where they lie and with whom they are to be found for it is not imaginable that God should have concluded Mankind under such an Authority and yet not have explain'd so necessary a Point as Who are the Depositaries of it but to have left men to their shifts to find that out the best way they can since till this is clear'd the other is of no use There is a dormant Infallibility they say in the Church but no body knows where for it is no Article of Faith in whom it is vested We are where we were only with this disadvantage that if we think we are sure there is an Infallibility in the Church but are not sure to whom it is trusted we may be resisting this Infallibility by opposing those who indeed have it while we adress our selves for it to others who have it not tho we fancy it belongs to them In all Constitutions among men the most evident thing is this Where rests the Supreme Authority of that Constitution And if this is necessary for the order and policy of the World it is much more necessary that if God has devolv'd so main a part of his own Authority and indeed the dispensing of one of his own Attributes this should be so described and circumstantiated that there should be no danger of mistaking and that there should have been such Characters given by which all the World should have been as infallibly directed to this Authority as it was to be infallible in its Decisions When God consign'd such a Character to the Jewish Nation that the Symbol of his presence was to appear and that Answers were to be given out as he was consulted it was expresly declar'd with whom it was lodged and in what Method the High-Priest was to appear before the Lord with the Vrim in the Breast-plate that so there might be no room left for Imposture or even for suspicion Upon all these reasons we have a very just right to demand of those who call us to submit to their Infallibility to give us such plain express and determinate proofs for it as are proportion'd to the Importance and Unusualness of that which they impose upon us It is a vain thing to prove that this must be in the Church because otherwise a great many Absurdities must needs follow if it were not in it When it is once prov'd that God has given it to his Church we shall very willingly yield that he had very good reasons for it since so extraordinary a Power which might be easily imploy'd to very bad purposes certainly was not to be given but for very good ones but it is a very preposterous way to argue That God must have done such a thing because we fancy that it is necessary to prevent some great Evil or to procure some very great Good For this is only to pretend to prove that God ought to have done somewhat that he has not done unless they can at the same time prove that God has done it this is to conclude That his Ways must be as ours are and that his Thoughts must be as our Thoughts We may at this rate prove as well that the Messias should have appear'd much sooner than he did have shew'd his Miracles and even his Body after his Resurrection more publickly than he did This will prove that the Gospel should have been preach'd to many Nations yet in Paganism and this will rather with an advantage in the Argument prove that there should be no sin left in the world and that no man should be left to perish in his sins and so be damn'd for them It will require no great Art to make it appear that these are much more dreadful things and seem to be much more contrary to God's Nature to his Love to Mankind and to his Church but indeed if we will give our selves scope upon this Argument to fancy that God must do every thing which we imagine would be very convenient we should soon frame an Idea both of his Creation and his Providence that is wholly different from what we perceive it to be We are not capable of so vast a Thought as to take in a Scheme of those great Designs that lie in the Eternal Mind and that are scatter'd in a seeming Confusion through his Works and Ways but are beautiful and orderly as they are gathered together in his Ideas We cannot say what is good or evil with relation to the whole nor what are the properest Methods of bringing about the one or of diverting the other so to conclude the arguing that Christ had dealt ill with his Church if he had not made her Infallible unless it is made out that he has done it is only a reproaching him with this That he has not done that which he ought to have done and that he has not been faithful in discharging the Trust committed to him of his Father Therefore all these are false ways of arguing which cannot work on any but such as measure God by themselves The Argument if true is Infinite and has no bounds It does seem to agree much better with the Jewish Oeconomy that an Infallibility should have been lodg'd among them Their
of their Law or the Conveyers of their Traditions to them Must he set up his Skill and Reason above theirs Thus we see that if this Reasoning is true it being founded on Maxims that are equally true at all times then it was as true at that time as it is now It is of no force to say that the Miracles which our Saviour and his Apostles wrought gave them such Powers that the people were upon that account bound to believe them rather than their Teachers For one part of the Debate was both the truth of the Miracles and the Consequences that arose from them So the Appeal according to this way of Reasoning did still lie to their Sanhedrim In a word In such Matters every man must judge for himself and every man must answer to God for the Judgment that he has made he judges for no body else but for himself He and He only can be the Judge and if he uses a due degree of Industry and frees himself from every corrupt Biass from Pride Vain-glory and affectation of Singularity or the pursuing any ill ends under those appearances of searching for Truth and the adhering to it he is doing the best thing which according to that nature of which God has made him he can do and so he may reasenably believe that he shall succeed in it Nor is there any pride in this for a man to think according to his own Understanding no more than to see with his own Eyes His Humility ought to make him slow and cautious modest and fearful but no humility can oblige him to think otherwise than he feels he must needs think Among the Works of the flesh Heresies or Sects are reckon'd as one sort and species Now by Works of the flesh are to be understood the appetites of a vicious and depraved nature the meaning therefore of reckoning Heresies among these is this That when a man out of a bad disposition of mind and on ill designs chuses to to be of a party he then is a Heretick but he that in sincerity of Heart goes into persuasions from an overcoming sense of their Truth cannot be one because he does not chuse his persuasion out of a previous ill design but is of it not out of choice but necessity since his Understanding in which those matters may be variously represented offers them so to him that he must believe them to be true in the same manner in which he apprehends them If upon this Principle there happen to be many Sects and Divisions in the Church this is a part of that Wo that Christ left upon the World by reason of Offences and Scandals for he forsaw that they must needs come God has made this present Scene of Life to be neither regular nor secure The strange Follies and Corruptions of Mankind must have their Influence on Religion as well as they have on all other things God has reserv'd a fulness of Light and of unerring Knowledge to another State Here we are in the dark but have light enough if we have honest Minds to use and improve it aright to guide us thither and that is the utmost share that God seems to have design'd for us in this Life we must therefore be contented and make the most of it that we can I go next to shew That the same Difficulties if not greater ones he upon those who build on Infallibility for before they can arrive at the use of it they must have well examin'd and be fully assur'd of two things either of which has greater Difficulties in it than all those put together with which they press us First They must be convinced that there is an Infallibility in the Church and next they must know to which of those many Churches into which Christendom is divided this Infallibility is fastned Unless the design is to make all men take their Religion implicitely from their Forefathers these things must be well consider'd If men are oblig'd to adhere blindly to the Religion in which they were bred then Iews Heathans and Mahometans must continue still where they are If this had been the Maxim of all times Christianity had never got into the World If then men are allow'd to examine things they must have very good reason given them for it before they can believe that there is an Infallibility among men Their own Reason and Observation offers so much against it that without very clear grounds they ought not to receive it Now the reasons to persuade it must be drawn either from Scripture or from outward visible Characters that evidence it The Scriptures cannot be urg'd by these men because the Scriptures as they teach have their Authority from the Testimony of the Church Therefore the Authority of the Church must be first prov'd for the Church cannot give an Authority to a Book and then prove its own Authority by that Book This is plainly to prove the Church by her own Testimony which is manifestly absurd it being all one whether she affirms it immediately or if she affirms it by affirming a Book in which it is contain'd here a Circle is made to run for ever round in Why do you believe the Church because the Scriptures affirm it and why do you believe the Scriptures because the Church affirms them I do not deny but they may urge the Scriptures for this very pertinently against us who acknowledge their Authority but I am now considering upon what grounds a man is to be instructed in the stating the grounds of his own Faith and resolving it into Principles In this an Order must be fix'd and in the progress of it every step that is made must be prov'd without any relation to that which is afterwards to be proved out of that and therefore either the Church or the Scriptures must be first prov'd and then other things must be prov'd out of that which is once fix'd and made good But in the next place if we should suffer them to bring Proofs from Scripture how shall it he prov'd that the true sense of them is that which makes for infallibility Other senses may be given to them which may both agree to the Grammatical Construction of the words to the contexture of the Discourse and to the Phraseology of the Scriptures who shall then decide this Matter It were very unreasonable to prove what is their true Sense by the Exposition that any Church puts on those passages in her own favour that were to make her both Judge and Party in too gross a manner Therefore at least thâ—se passages and all that relates to them must fall under the private Judgment and in these Instances every man must be suffer'd to expound the Scriptures for himself for he cannot be bound to submit to any exposition of them but that which satisfies his own Reason and if this step is once admitted then it will appear as reasonable to leave a man all over to the use of his
no wonder if he raises the Authority and the Priviledges of the Church to a vast height Yet after all these were not his setled thoughts for he goes off from them whensoever he has an eye on his Disputes against the Pelagians for the System which he had framed in those Points could not bear with any other Notion of the Church but that of the persons predestinated to whom all the Promises belonged And thus whatever he himself asserts in his zeal against the Donatists comes to be thrown down when the Pelagians are in his view so we see from hence how much deference is due to his Authority in this Point The last head relating to this whole matter is to explain in what the Authority of the Church does consist what it is both in matters of Faith and Discipline As to matters of Faith it is certain that every Body of men is bound to study to maintain its own Order and Quiet and must be authoris'd to preserve it otherwise it cannot long continue to be one Body This binds the Body of Christians yet much more who are strictly charged to love one another to worship God with one heart and mouth to be of the same mind and judgment to assemble themselves together and to withdraw from all such as cause divisions or corrupt the great Trust of the Faith committed to their keeping It must be therefore a great part of the duty of those that are bound to feed the flock to observe when any begin to broach new Opinions that they may confirm the weak and stop the mouths of gainsayers which as the Apostles themselves did during their own lives so by the charges that they gave to the Churches in their Epistles and more fully by those given to Timothy and Titus it appears that a main part of their Care and Authority was to be employ'd that way When therefore any new Doctrines are started or when there arise Disputes about any part of Religion the Pastors of the Church ought to consider whether or not it is in a matter of any great consequence in which the Faith or Lives of men may be concerned If the point is not of a great importance it is a piece of wisdom to connive at lesser matters and to leave men to a just freedom in things where that freedom is not like to do hurt only even there care is to be taken to keep men in temper that they become not too keen in the management of their Opinions and that they neither disturb the Peace of the Church nor State upon that account If the matters appear to be great either in themselves or in the consequences that are like to follow upon them then the Pastors of the Church ought to consider them with an equal and impartial mind they ought to here Parties fully and weigh their Arguments carefully they ought to examine the sense of the Scriptures and of the best times of the Church upon those Heads and finally to give Sentence In which two things are to be considered the one is That great regard is due to a Decision made by a Body of men who seem to have acted without prejudice or interest For I confess it will be very hard to maintain such a respect for a Company in which matters are carried with so much Artifice and Intrigue as even Cardinal Palavicini represents in the management of the Council of Trent where Bishops were caressed or threatned well paid or ill used as they gave their Voices Such a proceeding as this will rather inflame than allay the opposition but a fair and equitable a just and calm way of examining matters of dispute will naturally beget a respect even in such as cannot yield a submission to their Decrees After all it must be confessed That no Man can be bound to a blind Submission unless we suppose an Infallibility to be in the Church yet Private Men owe to Publick Decisions when decently made a due respect they ought to distrust their own judgments and examine the matter more accurately But if they are still convinc'd that the Decision is wrong they are bound to persist in their own thoughts only they ought to oppose modestly to consider well the Importance of Order and Peace and whether their Opinion even suppose it true is worth the Noise that may be made about it or the Disorders that may follow upon it After all If they are still convinced that their Opinions are true and that they relate to the indispensible Duties of Religion or the necessary Articles of Christianity they must go on as they will answer it to God upon the sincerity of their Hearts and the fulness of their Convictions So that the Definitions of the Church may have very good Effects even when it is not pretended that they are Infallible Another thing to be consider'd in those Decisions is That though they are not Infallible yet they may have Authority in this respect That they are the established Doctrine of such a Body of Christians who will have no other to be taught among them and will admit none to be of their Body or at least to be a Teacher among them who is not of the same mind In this it is certain great Tenderness and Prudence is to be used and the natural liberty of Mankind is not to be too much limited But yet as any Man may fix and declare his own Opinion so certainly by a much greater parity of reason any Society or Body of Men may declare their Opinions and so far fix them as to exclude all other Doctrines and the Favourers of them from being of their Body or from bearing any Office in it So that though such Decisions do not enter into Mens Consciences nor bind them further than as they are convinced by the Reasons and Authorities upon which they are founded yet they may have a vast influence on the Order and Peace of Churches and States As to Rituals it is certain that there are many little Circumstances and Decencies that belong to the Worship of God the Order of Religious Assemblies and their Administrations and that in these the Pastors of a Church by the Natural Right that all Societies have to keep themselves in order must have a Power to determine all things of this nature This becomes yet clearer in the Christian Societies from the Rules that the Apostles gave to the Churches To do all things in Order and for the ends of Edification and Peace There is not one of the Rules laid down in Scripture concerning the Sacraments or the Officers of the Church to which many Circumstances do not belong now either these must be all left to every Man's liberty which must needs create a jarring disagreement in the several parts of this Body that would both breed confusion and look very ridiculous and absurd or there must be an Authority in the Pastors of the Church to meet together and to settle these by mutual consent
Minds and if we will quarrel with every thing that does not suit our own Notions we will be very uneasie in our Thoughts There are some Sins for which God gives over all further dealing with Persons and Nations and upon which he delivers them up to their own reprobate minds and when he has used such sufficient means as might well serve to convince and reform them he lets them alone and leaves them to their own hearts lusts Those who had seen so many of our Saviour's Miracles which instead of having a good effect on them did only serve to harden them the more in their opposition to him did well deserve that God should suffer them to harden themselves still more and more and it was enough that Christ shewed himself so often to such a competent number of unexceptionable Witnesses and give them full powers to prove their Testimony concerning him by working such Miracles as he himself had wrought Why he did it in this way and in no other is among the Secrets of his Councils which are to us unsearchable When our Souls become more perfect our Capacities and Faculties more enlarged and our Thoughts more exalted then we may come to understand the reason of these things more perfectly than it is possible for us to do in this depressed and darkned state One thing after all we may gather from our Saviour's words who has pronounced them blessed who have not seen and yet have believed and from the value that in many places of the New Testament is set on faith and on believing that God did not intend to give the World such an undeniable Evidence as that it should be out of their power to disbelieve for to believe either such things as our Senses do plainly perceive or to believe Mathematical Truths is that to which our Nature constrains us and for which we can deserve no sort of commendation Therefore to make our Faith to be both well grounded and also highly acceptable to God it is enough that there are sufficient Reasons offered to us to persuade our belief and that there is no good reason to the contrary tho' we may start possibilities of imaginary reasons against it and a Man who is so far convinced by those that he is from thence determin'd to believe all the other parts of that Revelation both the Promises and the Precepts of it so that he gives himself up to its conduct in the whole course of his Life in the assured expectation of the Promises it sets before him has such a Faith that must certainly be of great value in the sight of God because it has a great effect on the believer himself There is Beauty enough in the Rules of our Religion to oblige every Man to examine well the Authority upon which it rests and to him that will set his thoughts a working upon it this Authority will soon appear strong enough to determine his assent and when that has its due operation upon him then his Faith has had its full effect So that it is no dull nor lazy or implicite Faith on which the New Testament sets so high a value it is a Faith that purifies the Heart that worketh by Love that makes us new Creatures and engages us to keep the Commandments of God So that this Objection has no other force in it but this That God's Ways are a great depth and to us are past finding out A second Objection is That if our Saviour and his Apostles gave such Proofs of their Mission how is it to be imagined that any Man could be so obstinate as to stand it out against so full a Conviction These things were probably enquired into at that time by Men of all sides Curiosity might work on some and Fear on others and those who had drawn the Guilt of his Blood upon them were most particularly concern'd to examine the matter carefully since Blood is apt to raise a Clamour within which is not easily silenced Besides according to the Acts of the Apostles the Iews and even their Sanhedrin seem to have been struck with the Reports of his Resurrection so that they knew not how to gainsay it and were concerned only to stifle and silence it Now it seems somewhat unaccountable how it came that they still stood out and were not overcome with all that Evidence if it was so full as we do now represent it But in answer to this it is to be considered That there is a perversness and depravedness in Humane Nature that cannot be accounted for To some of the Enemies of our Religion I mean the Iews this can be no Objection since Pharaoh's hardning himself against all Moses's Miracles and Messages and even the murmurings of their Forefathers the Israelites in the Wilderness are every whit as extraordinary Instances of the depravation of Humane Nature as these we now consider were but indeed we need not go so far to seek for amazing Characters and Instances of the Madness of Mankind no Laws no Rewards no Punishments no Experience nor Observation can make Men wise or good When Men are once engaged in ill Courses they quickly contract Habits and are soon hardned in them and when Pride and Interest are got on the side of that which of it self was strong enough to overcome them then they become intractable and fierce against every opposition and become really the worse the more they are pursued and dealt with Another Objection is Why do not some of those Miracles that seem to have been with a sort of profusion thrown out abundantly at first now appear to convince the World for these would certainly have a great effect What was said to the first Objection belongs in a great measure to this We are not to ask of God an account of his ways if he has laid enough before us for our conviction and if that is rejected by us we have no reason to expect that he should disturb the Order that he has setled in the Creation to gratifie our humours It were not suitable to that Order that he has so wisely and usefully establish'd that it should be too often put out of its channel It is enough that at the first openings of the Two Revealed Religions that he delivered to the World he gave evident Signs both of his Dominion over the Works of his Hands and of his having authorised those whom he sent to speak in his Name That being then fully done and the Precepts of this Religion bearing such an apparent suitableness to our Natures and to the Interests of all Humane Societies there is no sort of reason for us to demand more proof than that which God was pleas'd to give at first Besides that all Ages and Nations have the same pretended claim to Miracles for they are equally his Creatures and we can fancy no reason why he should be partial to some more than to others Now if there were such a constant return of Miracles the whole