to think what is false or else that they never had any opportunity of falsifying in the Points they propound to our Belief Certainty of Sense is also required For if the Sense be not certain there could be no infallible Testimony of matter of Fact and Moses's conversing with God in the Mount may be but a Dream nor could there be any certain Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Resurrection and Ascension if God will delude our Senses Wherefore to take away the Certainty of Sense rightly circumstantiated is to take away all Certainty of Belief in the main Points of our Religion Secondly Sense and Reason are rightly circumstantiated the one when the Organ is sound the Medium fitly qualified and the distance of the Object duely proportionated and the like the other when it is accompanied with Moral Prudence rightly so called such as it is defined in the above-said Enchiridion Lib. 2. c. 2. that is to say That this Reason be lodged either in a perfectly-unprejudiced Mind or at least unprejudiced touching the Point propounded For there are some Truths so clear that Immorality it self provided it do not besot a man or make him quite mad puts no bar to the assenting to them that is puts no bar to their appearing to be true no more then it does to the Eye unhurt to the discerning of Colours which the Wicked and Godly do alike upon this Supposition Wherefore The third Conclusion shall be That there be Natural Truths whether Logicall Physicall or Mathematicall that are so palpably true that they constantly and perpetually appear so as well to the Wicked as the Good if they be Compotes mentis and do not manifest violence to their Faculties The fourth That these Natural Truths whether Common Notions or Scientificall Conclusions that are so palpably true that they perpetually appear so as well to the evil as the good are at least as certain and indubitable as any thing that the Reason and Understanding of a man can give assent to that is to say There is at least as great a Certainty of these Axiomes that they are true as there can be of any And therefore because there is acknowledged a Certainty in some Points that our Understanding and Reason closeth with let us set down for The fifth Conclusion That these Natural Truths that constantly appear such as well to the evil as the good if they be not crack'd-brained nor do violence to their Faculties are in themselves most certainly true The sixth That what is a Contradiction to a certain Truth is not onely uncertain but necessarily false forasmuch as both the parts of a Contradiction cannot be true The seventh That no Revelation which either it self or the Revealing thereof or its manner of Revealing is repugnant to the Divine Attributes can be from God The eighth That no Tradition of any such Revelation can be true forasmuch as the Revelation it self is impossible The ninth That no Revelation is from God that is repugnant to Sense rightly circumstantiated This is manifest from the first Ground That Certainty of Faith presupposeth Certainty of Sense duly circumstantiated For if our Senses may be mistaken when they act in due Circumstances we cannot be assured that they are at any time true Which necessarily destroys the Certainty of all Revelation ab extra and of all Tradition and consequently of our Christian Religion Wherefore God cannot be the Authour of any such Revelation by Conclusion the seventh For it were repugnant to his Wisedom and Goodness The tenth That no Revelation is from God that contradicts plain Natural Truths such as were above described This is abundantly clear from Conclusion the 1 2 3 4 6 7. For if Reason where it is clearest is false we have no assurance it is ever true and therefore no Certainty of Faith which presupposes Reason by Conclusion the first Besides by Conclusion the sixth That which is contradictory to a certain Truth is certainly false But Divine Revelation is true Therefore there can be no Revelation from God that bears with it such a Contradiction Nay we may adde That if there were any Divine Truth that would constantly appear to Reason rightly circumstantiated contradictory to any constant Natural Truth God would not communicate any such Truth to men by Conclusion the seventh For the revealing of such a Truth were repugnant to his Attribute of Wisedome it making thereby true Religion as obnoxious to suspicion and exception as false For there is no greater exception against the Truth of any Religion then that it proposes Articles that are repugnant to Common Notions or indubitable Science Besides that one such pretense of true Revelation would enable a false Priesthood to fill the World with Figments and Lies Wherefore God will never be the Authour of so much mischief to mankind And lastly since the first Revelation must be handed down by Tradition and Tradition being but humane Testimony and infinitely more lubricous and fallible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural Science how will it be possible for any but Sots or Fools to believe Tradition against solid Science or a Common Notion So that the Result must needs be either blinde Superstition gross Irreligion or universal Scepticism The eleventh That no Revelation that enforces countenances or abetts Immorality or Dishonesty can be from God This is manifested from the seventh Conclusion For it is repugnant to God's Attributes his Justice Fidelity Goodness and Purity or Sanctity The Image of God is Righteousness and true Holiness Wherefore no Doctrine that tends to Injustice Unrighteousness and Impurity can be a Revelation from God The twelfth That no Interpretation of any Divine Revelation that is repugnant to Sense or Reason rightly circumstantiated or to plain and indubitable Morality whether it be made by a private or publick hand can be any Inspiration from God There needs no new Confirmation of this Conclusion For the same Arguments that prove that no Divine Revelation can be in this sort repugnant do prove also that no Interpretation of any Revelation in this sort repugnant to Sense Reason or sound Morality can be Divine The thirteenth That no Interpretation of Divine Writ that justifies Sedition Rebellion or Tyranny can be any Inspiration from God This is easily evinced from the foregoing Conclusion For Sedition and Rebellion are gross and ponderous Species of Injustice against the Magistrate as Tyranny is also against the People both such high strains of Immorality that no Interpretation of Scripture that justifies these can be true much less Divinely inspired The fourteenth No Church that propounds as Articles of Belief such things as are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason or sound Morality can rightly be deemed Infallible The reason is plain For it appears out of what has hitherto been said that they are already actually deceived or at least intend to deceive others The fifteenth That the Certainty of Faith cannot be grounded upon the Infallibility of any Church
necessarily retain a gradual Imperfection throughout And they will be sure to pitch on that Degree that is most for their own ease and the satisfaction of their own Lusts. Sophr. This is a very searching Doctrine indeed Philotheus But what do you drive at an absolute perfection quoad partes quoad gradus as the Schools phrase it Philoth. I drive at an absolute Sincerity by this Doctrine O Sophron that a man should not allow himself in any known Wickedness whatsoever but keep an upright Conscience before God and before men Forasmuch as his own Conscience tells him by virtue of this Doctrine that if he be not wanting to himself God is both able and willing by the Assistence of his Spirit to free him from all his Corruptions And the Scripture plainly declares that this is the end of Christ's coming namely Tit. 2.12 That denying all ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Ver. 13. looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity according to that exhortation of S t. Peter Wherefore gird up the loins of your minde 1 Pet. 1.13 c. be sober and of a perfect hope in the grace that is brought to you through the Revelation of Iesus Christ As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to former Lusts in your ignorance But as he that has called you is holy so be ye holy in your whole Conversation in every thing you doe Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy And our Blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount Matt. 5.48 Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect And S t. Paul to the Ephesians witnesses for our Saviour that this was the end of his giving himself as a Ransome or of dying for his Church Eph. 5.26 27. namely That he might sanctifie it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish like the Lamb's Wife in the Revelation which is the new Ierusalem Sophr. I must confess Philotheus these places sound at an high pitch of Sanctity which Christians are called to and yet fall so infinitely short of Philoth. That is for want of this Faith I plead for a Faith in the Power of God and in the Spirit of the Lord Iesus for the purging away all our Corruptions For the New Birth is the Son of the Promise and is that Isaac the Joy of the whole Earth But he is conceived by Faith in the omnipotent Spirit of God who from the four winds blew upon the slain in the Valley of dead mens bones Ezek. 37.9 and made them stand up a numerous Armie who gave the promised Seed to Abraham Rom 4.18 c. who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many Nations For he considered not his own body now dead nor the deadness of Sarah's wombe he staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform This Faith therefore in the Promise of the Assistence of the Spirit of Christ in the new Birth is that which must renew the World into the living Image of God and make all the Nations of the Earth blessed which must bring the new Ierusalem from Heaven and will call down God himself to pitch his Tabernacle amongst men Phil. 4.13 I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Euist. Even wonders of wonders I think But this Faith Philotheus in the Power of God and in the Assistence of his Spirit to enable us to extirpate and mortifie all our Corruptions to an happy Resurrection to Life and Righteousness was not the Faith that our first Reformers were so zealous in How was it then I pray you that they should miss of so useful a Truth Philoth. They did not wholly miss of it XXXII The Doctrine of Faith in the Power of God's Spirit for the ridding us of Sin why not so much insisted on at the beginning of the Reformation Euistor in that they did zealously call to men to relinquish humane Tradition and to betake themselves to the pure Word and to the Belief and faith of the Gospel according to that more infallible Rule Wherefore that Faith which they preached having for its Object the pure Gospel of Christ the Doctrines according to Scripture this Doctrine of Faith in the omnipotent Spirit for the vanquishing of Sin being also contained in Scripture must be part of the Object of the Faith which they preached Euist. That is I acknowledge O Philotheus in some sense true But their zeal ran mainly out in declaring and crying up that part of Faith which respects onely Iustification in the bloud of Christ and free Remission of our sins Philoth. And it was very seasonably cry'd up as being a very plain Gospel Truth and such as was trode down under foot in the Church of Rome for the more absolutely enslaving the people of God and holding them under an hard Bondage in that Mysticall Babylon or Land of Egypt they laying many heavy burthens of Superstition upon them onely to advance the King of Egypt's Interest and so to extinguish the Light and Comfort of the Gospel Wherefore that Truth of Iustification by Faith being so accommodated to shake off the Roman Yoke it is no wonder it was so zealously insisted upon and so generally inculcated by the first Reformers Sophr. But this was not all Philotheus For severall things passed from some of them who were otherwise very successful Instruments in the Reformation that seem not onely to favour humane Infirmities and to dishearten men from attempting any such Conquests over our Lusts and Corruptions as your Doctrine animates us to but also on the contrary to savour much of rank Antinomianism as ill a disease as can seise on the Church of Christ. Philoth. I acknowledge O Sophron that Divine Providence might permit such misinterpretable Expressions in some of the first Reformers But you know Luther himself who is most suspected yet wrote against the Antinomians and the Harmonie of Confessions of all the Protestant Churches adjoyns the Doctrine of Sanctification or a Good life to that of Justification by Faith But that such a pitch of Holiness as we now treat of should have been exacted so zealously by the first Reformers from their Followers seems not congruous nor seasonable for those Times The over-severe Inculcation of such Doctrine in opposition to the false Righteousness of Romanism would have drawn away but few Auditours from that Church whose Sanctity was onely carnal They would have thought they had been
particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull