this infallible Church is the Church of Rome If they be as they themselves own they are then there are some Articles it seems that must be believed without the Church's Authority upon the single Authority of Scripture and if some why not all why should not the Scripture be as sufficient to authorize us to believe the Rest as these since its Authority is as great in one Text as in another Especially considering 2. That these things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of the Church of Rome are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith The great Reason urged by the Romanists against our Relyance upon the Scripture for our Faith is the Obscurity of it and if this be a good Reason it proves a great deal more then they would have it viz. that we ought not to rely upon Scripture even for those Articles without believing of which we can have no sufficient Ground to rely upon the Authority of their Church For I would fain know is it clear and plain from Scripture that the present Catholick Church of every Age hath Authority to define the Articles of Faith and that in all its Definitions it is infallbile and that the present Church of Rome is this Catholick Church If so how come those Texts upon which those Articles are founded to be understood in a quite different Sense not only by us but by the greatest part of the Primitive Fathers as hath been abundantly proved by Protestant Writers Supposing that we should be so blinded by our Partiality to our own Tenets as to misapprehend plain and clear Expressions of Scripture it is very strange methinks that the Fathers who were never engaged in the Controversy and so could not be biass'd either one way or t'other should yet misapprehend them too What is this but to say that let Men be never so indifferent yet they may be easily mistaken in the Sense of very plain and clear Expressions and if so what signifies either Speaking or Writing But to proceed to some Instances will any modest Man in the World affirm that the Church of Rome's infallibility in defining Articles of Faith to all succeeding Generations is more plainly exprest in those Words of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church than the Divinity of our Saviour is in the Beginning of the first Chapter of St. John's Gospel where it is expresly affirmed that he is God whereas in the other there is not the least mention either of the Church of Rome or of Infallibility or defining Articles of Faith Why may we not then as well depend upon the one Text for the Article of our Saviour's Divinity as upon the other for that of the Church of Rome's Infallibility Again are there not innumerable Texts of Scripture wherein the Articles of Remission of Sin the Resurrection of the Dead the last Judgment and the World to come are at least as plainly exprest as the present Church fo Rome's Infallibility is in any of those Texts that are urged in the Defence of it and therefore if we believe the later upon the Authority of Scripture notwithstanding the pretended Obscurity of it why may we not as well upon the same Authority believe all the former since the former are at least as plainly exprest as the later Either therefore the Scripture is plain enough to be relyed upon as to this Article of the Church of Rome's Infallibility or it is not if it be not we have no Ground for our Dependance upon the Authority of her Definitions and Proposals if it be it 's plain enough to be relyed upon in all other necessary Articles of Faith since these are all as plainly at least express'd in Scripture as that For if we may not rely upon Scripture because it is not plain then where it is equally plain it is equally to be relyed on 3. That when we come to rely upon this Church's Authority we are exposed to far greater Uncertainties than while we relied upon the Authority of Scripture For in the first place we are of all sides agreed that the Scripture is Infallible and that such and such Writing are Parts of Scripture and therefore are absolutely secure that if we follow the true Sense of it it cannot mislead us But the much greater Part of Christians deny that the Church of Rome is Infallible even the Church of Rome it self owns the Authority we rely on to be infallible but all Christians all the World over besides those of her own Communion disallow hers to be so and to forsake our Dependence upon an Infallibility which all own to rely upon an Infallibility which but few in Comparison admit is certainly a very dangerous Venture And then Secondly As for the Infallibility of Scripture we are certain where to find it viz in every Text and in every Proposition therein contained which being all the World of God must be all infallbile But as for the Infallibility of the Roman Church as they have handled the Matter it is almost as difficult to find as to prove it some cry lo it is here and some lo it is there some place it in the Pope only others in the Pope and his College of Cardinals some in the Pope presiding in a General Council others in a General Council whether the Pope preside in it or no. So that in this Church it seems there is Infallibility somewhere but what are we the better for it if we know not where to find it If we go to the Pope for it there have been two or three Popes at once that have decreed against one another and therefore one or t'other of them to be sure were mistaken How then shall we know which is the true infallible one And when I have found the true Pope others tell me I am not yet arrived at the Seat of Infallibility until I have found him in his College of Cardinals and when I have found him here I am still to seek seeing I find the same Pope Eugenius the Fourth for Instance decreeing one Thing in his College of Cardinals and the quite contrary in a general Council and therefore I am sure he could not be infallible in both Therefore otehrs send me to the Pope in a General Council but when I come thither I find my self at a Loss again because I meet with several Instances of one Pope's defining one Thing in one General Council and another Pope the quite contrary in another and therefore in one or t'other Council I am sure the one or t'other Pope was mistaken And as for General Councils themselves there are sundry of them which are owned by some and rejected by others of the principal Doctors of the Roman Communion And even when Councils are legally assembled there are so many nice Disputes among them what it is that makes them General and when it is that they
of Faith which in Reality amounts to no more than this That while a Man believes as that Church believes which Infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation he infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation and it is equally true that while a Man believes as the Scripture teaches which infallibly teaches all that is necessary to Salvation he infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation that is both are equally false For no Man can infallibly believe either the Church or Scripture because Infallibility exceeds the Capacity of humane Nature no Man can so believe either but that he may be mistaken and if he may be mistaken its possible he may not believe all that is necessary to Salvation whether he grounds his Faith upon the Church or the Scripture But because this Church pretends so to secure my Faith while I depend upon her Authority as that I cannot be mistaken for this very Reason I cannot depend upon it because I am sure of this that God never designed for me any such Means of Believing as should render my Faith infallible For to what End should he require me to take so much Pains and Care to secure my Faith from Errors if he hath furnished me with any certain Means of being infallible It would be but applying that Means whatever it is and my Danger would be immediately over and then I need trouble my Head no further being now so secured as that I cannot be mistaken after which it would be very impertinent methinks for God to trouble me with those unecessary Injunctions of trying all Things and holding fast to that which is good of searching the Scriptures and trying the Spirits whether they be of God and taking heed whilst I stand lest I fall What need a Man be at the Expence of all this Labour and Caution whose Faith is already secured Seeing therefore God requires these Things at our Hands it is a plain Case that he never intended us any Method how to be infallbile in believing and therefore since the Church of Rome's Authority is pretended to be such a Method for that Reason it ought to be rejected It 's plain that God intended that our Faith should be a Grace and a Virtue and consequently that it should be an Act of our Wills as well as of our Understandings which supposes the Evidence of it to be irresistible for what Virtue is it to believe that the Sun shines when it glares full in our Eyes Since therefore our Faith must be a free and voluntary Assent upon such Motives as are sufficient to satisfy an honest Mind but not to compel either an obstinate Infidel or self-deceived Hypocrite God did not think fit so to secure our Faith as to leave is impossible for us to err damnably And indeed if he had it would have been no Virtue in us to believe savingly for what Virtue is it for a Man to do that which it is impossible for him not to do It is sufficient that we cannot err damnably in our Faith without some damnable Fault in our Wills but if we eithre refuse to enquire into this Revelation for what is necessary for us to believe or will only enquire into it with a Mind that is byass'd with wicked and sinful Prejudices or will not submit our Understandings to it upon the clearest Conviction there is no doubt but we may be ignorant and we may be deceived in Things of the greatest Moment and it is but just and fit that we should And if notwithstanding these Faults we could not err for God's sake what Virtue would it be to be Orthodox But if with honest humble and teachable Minds we will diligently enquire into divine Revelation we shall there find all the Necessaries to Salvation so clearly and plainly proposed to us that 't will be morally impossible for us either to be ignorant of or deceived about them So that by relying on Scripture you see we are exposed to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith a Virtue and God doth as much require that our Faith should be virtuous as that it should be Orthodox that it should be the Act of an honest humble diligent and teachable Mind as that it should be extended to all Things necessary to Salvation Now our Faith may be Orthodox without an infallible Certainty but it cannot be virtuous and rewardable with it To what purpose then do the Romanists talk of an infallible certainty in Believing Is it reasonable to expect more certainty than God ever intended to give He hath given as much as is necessary for honest Minds and no more and whether Knaves and Hypocrites believe right or wrong is of no great Concernment If therefore our Faith be liable to no other Uncertainty than just what is necessary to try our Honesty that is much better for us in Respect of the Virtue of our Faith than an infallible Certainty Supposing therefore that the Church of Rome were as infallible as it pretends it is certain that the Scripture is as infallible as that but whether we relie upon one or t'other we are fallible still And could that Church render us as infallibly certain as it pretends it would thereby preserve indeed the Orthodoxy of our Faith but then at the same Time it would destroy the Virtue of it For to believe right when we cannot believe wrong is fatal and necessary but to believe right when through our own Default we may be believe wrong this is virtuous and remwardable By what hath been said therefore I think it is sufficiently evident that it is upon the Scripture we are to relie and not upon the Church especially upon the Roman Church for all Things necessary to Salvation and therefore since we are obliged to believe these Things upon pain of Eternal Damnation it necessarily follows that they must be plain and clear and Scripture otherwise we could not be justly so obliged to believe them And thus I have shewn at large that the Scripture is the great Rule of our Faith and Manners and that as such it is both full and clear as containing in it all Things necessary to Salvation and proposing them so plainly and clearly as that upon an honest and diligent Enquiry all Men may find and discover them A Second Discourse Upon JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life WHether these Words are to be rendred Indicatively Ye do search the Scriptures as some would have them or Imperatively Search the Scriptures as our Translation renders them amounts to the same thing For if we render them Indicatively Ye do search the Scriptures it is evident that they are spoken with Approbation Ye do read the Scriptures and ye do very well in so doing For thus we find the Bereans commended for Scarching the Scriptures and Timothy for knowing them from a Child And if to Search the Scripture be a commendable Practice
of other Principles of Christianity as well as those seeing there are no common Principles of Chrstian Religion but what are at least as plainly reealed in Scripture as these But this will spoil all for if Men may be infallibly certain of the Principles of Religion upon Scripture Authority what will become of the Necessity of Mens relying upon the Church which is founded upon this Principle that Men can arrive at no infallible Certainty in Religion by relying upon the Authority of Scripture or indeed any other Authority but the Church's But if I cannot be infallibly certain of those two Principles viz. that they are the Church and Infallible by those Authorities of Scripture which they urge to prove them how can I be infallibly certain of any Thing that they declare and define For if I am not certain that they are the Church for all I know the Church may be infallible and yet they may be mistaken and if I am not certain that they are infallible for all I know they may be the Church and yet still be mistaken In short no Authority can render me infallibly certain but that which is infallible no Infallibility can render me infallibly certain but that of which I have an infallible Certainty Either therefore the Scripture can render me infallibly certain of the Infallibility of their Church and if it cannot I am sure nothing can or it cannot if it can why may it not as well render me infallibly certain of other Principles of Christianity which are at least as plainly revealed in it as that If I cannot how can I be infallibly certain that any Thing she defines and declares to me is true If then the Authority of Scripture can give us an infallible Certainty we have as just a Pretence to it as They it being upon this Authority that we ground our Faith if it cannot neither they nor we can justly pretend to it because they cannot otherwise be infallibly certain of their own Infallibility but by Scripture But the Truth of it is God never intended either that they or we should be infallibly certain in the Mtters of our Religion for after all the Means of Certainty that he hath given us he still supposes that we may err and plainly tells us that there must be Heresies and that even from among the Members of the true Church where infallible Certainty is if it be any where there should arise false Teachers who should bring in damnable Doctrines which could never have happened if he had left any such Means to his Church as should render her Children infallibly certain All that he designed was to leave us such sufficient Means of Certainty in Religion as that we might not err either dangerously or damnably without our own Fault He hath left us his Word and in that hath plainly discovered to us all that is necessary for us to believe in order to eternal Life He hath left us a standing Ministry in his Church to explain his Word to us and to guide us in the Paths of Righteousness and Truth but still he requires us to search the one and attend to the other with honest humble and teachable Minds and if we do not we may err not only dangerously but damnably and it is but fit and just we should But if we diligently search the Scripture and faithfully rely upon its Authority without doing of which we search it in vain if we sincerely attend to the publick Ministry with Minds prepared to receive the Truth in the Love of it though we may possibly err in Matters of less Moment yet as to all Things necessary to our eternal Salvaion our Faith shall be inviolably secured and this is as much as any honest Man needs or as any honest Church can promise 2. From hence also I infer that in the Matters of our Faith and Religion God doth expect that we should make use of our own Reason and Judgment For to what end should he put us upon searching the Scriptures but that thereby we may inform our selves what those Things are which he hath required us to believe and practise But if it were his Mind that we should wholly rely upon the Authority of our Church or of our Spiritual Guides and submit our Faith to their Dictates without any Examination what a needless and impertinent Imployment would this be for us to search and consult the Scriptures Consult them for what if we are not to follow their Guidance and Direction and to take the Measures of our Faith and Manners from them And if for this End God hath obliged us to consult them as to be sure it can be for no other End then he hath obliged us to imploy our own Reason and Judgment to consider what they say and enquire what they mean otherwise he hath obliged us to consult them to no Purpose It is as evident therefore that God will have us use our own Reason and Judgment in discerning what we are to believe and what not in Religion and not lazily rely upon others to see and discern and believe for us as it is that he would have us search and consult the Scriptures and that I think is evident enough from what hath been said to any one that is not resolved to admit of a Conviction And indeed seeing our Reason is the noblest Faculty we have it would be very strange if God should not allow it to intermeddle in the highest and most important Affair wherein he hath ingaged us and seeing it is our Reason only that renders us capable of Religion what an odd Thing would it be for God to for bid us making use of our Reason in the most important Concerns of Religion that is in distinguishing what is true Religion from what is false and what we ought to believe from what we ought to reject I know it is pretended by those who urge the absolute Necessity of submitting our Reason to the Church that they allow Men to make Use of their own Reason and Judgment in discovering which the true Church is and that all they contend for is only this that when once Men have found the true Church they ought to enquire no farther but immediately to deliver up their Reason and Understanding to it and believe every Thing it believes without any farther Examination So that before Men come into their Church it seems they are allowed to see for themselves but after they are in they must wink and follow their Guides and depute them to see and understand for them which to such Men as are not quite sick of their own Reason and Understandings should methinks be a great Temptation to keep them out of their Church for ever For if I may judge for my self while I am out of it but must not while I am in it I must be very fond of parting with my own Eyes and Reason if ever I come into it at all But suppose I was always in it
of the Old Testament and they are they says he which testify of me And to be sure there were no other Scriptures which could testfy of Christ to the unbelieving Jews but only those of Moses and the Prephets these being the only Scriptures whose Testimony they credited But yet the Reason which our Saviour urges to move them to read the Old Testament doth as much oblige us to read the New as well as the Old as it did them to read the Old for in them ye think ye have eternal life that is in them yet think ye have eternal Life promised and all the Necessaries to be believed and done by you in order to your obtaining it proposed to you And indeed as they thought so it was they had eternal Life proposed to them in Hieroglyphicks for that was the Mystery of their Holy of Holies that was the Interpretation of their Land of Canaan and the spiritual Sense of all their general Promises of good Things to come They had all the Articles of Faith and all the Instances of Duty that were necessary to their Attainment of eternal Life exhibited to them in the Writings of their Prophets and the Types and Figures of their Law For it was by this Rule alone that all the Holy Men of the Jewish Nation did live and believe and either this was sufficient to guide and direct them to eternal Life or they were left under a fatal Necessity of falling short of it It was the Law of the Lord that did enlighten their Eyes and rejoyce their Hearts and convert their Souls and it was in keeping it that they found great Reward Ps 19.7 8 11. And therefore either they fell short of the Reward of eternal Life notwithstanding this their Illumination and Conversion or they found it in keeping that Law by which they were illuminated and converted and if in keeping their Law they found eternal Life then it 's certain that in their Law they had it So that these Words of our Saviour for in them ye think ye have eternal life do not imply that they were mistaken in thinking so or at least they only imply that they were mistaken in thinking to obtain eternal Life by adbering to the prime and literal Sense of their Law without pursuing the Mystery and Spiritual Meaning of it which was indeed the Error of the Pharisees with whom our Saviour is here discoursing For the internal Sense and Mystery of their Law was the Gospel all whose Articles of Faith and Precepts of Duty were though darkly and obscurely expressed and represented in the Types and Figures of the Mosaick Institution And hence the Apostle tells that both the Priests and their Oblations did serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Heb. 8.5 So that the heavenly Things contained in the Gospel were the substantial Idea's which those Legal Types and Patterns contained and represented and the same Author calls that Law a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10.1 that is it was an obscure Scheme or Prefiguration of the Mercies of the Gospel of which eternal Life is a principal Part. Since therefore the Law was nothing else but only the Gospel in dark and obscure Cyphers if in this we Christians have eternal Life in that the Jews had it also And therefore the Reason which our Saviour here urges to oblige the Jews to search the Scriptures of the Old Testament for in them ye think have eternal life doth at least equally oblige us Christians to search the Scriptures both of the Old and New For if they had just Reason to think they had eternal Life in the Old Testament and were thereupon obliged to search into it we have rather more Reason to think that we have eternal Life in the New since the New Testament is nothing else but only the Old decyphered and unriddled and therefore we must not only have eternal Life in this as they had in that but we must also have it far more expresly than they In the Prosecution of this Argument therefore I shall endeavour these Two Things I. To shew you that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life II. That this is a very forcible Reason to oblige us to search them I. First that in the Holy Scriptures we have eternal Life that is that in them we have eternal Life proposed to us together with all that is necessary to be believed and practised by us in order to our obtaining it or in other words that the Holy Scripture is a sufficient Rule both of Faith and Manners to guide and direct us to eternal Happiness And this is one Article of the Faith of the Church of England which we are required to explain to the People for so in her sixth Article our Church professes that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein or may be proved thence is not required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Now to make the Scripture a sufficient Rule as to all Things necessary to Salvation there are two Things necessary First That it should be full and Secondly That it should be clear both which the Holy Scripture is in an eminent Degree as containing in it all that is necessary to be believed and done in order to eternal Life And this will evidently appear from these three following Propositions 1. That the Holy Spirit inspired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life 2. That they preached to the World all those Necessaries with which the Holy Spirit inspired them 3. That all those necessary Truths which they preached are comprehended in those Sacred Writings of theirs of which the Holy Scripture consists 1. That the Holy Spirit infpired the Writers of the Scripture with all that is necessary to eternal Life For first our Saviour by whom they were originally instructed declares that as the Father loved him and shewed him all things that himself did Joh. 5.20 so he had made known to them all things that he had heard of his Father Job 17.8 And then when he went from them and ceased to instruct them in his own Person he promised that by his Spirit he would teach them all things and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them Job 14.26 and that by the same Spirit he would guide them into all Truth Job 16.13 If therefore the Spirit did perform this Promise to them as there is no doubt but he did then we are sure that he did teach them over again whatsoever Christ had taught them before and if Christ had taught them whatsoever he had heard of his Father as he declares he had then it is certain either that he taught them all Things necessary to eternal Life or that he himself had not heard from his Father all Things that are necessary thereunto 2. That as
them as what is What is written hath been delivered down to us by the unanimous Tradition and Testimony of the Church of Christ in all Ages which I am sure can never be justly pretended of any one of those unwritten Traditions which the Church of Rome now imposes upon the Faith of Christians Let them but produce the same unanimous Testimony that any one of those Twelve Articles which they have thought meet to superadd to the ancient Creeds was taught by Christ or his Apostles as we do that what is contained in Scripture was so and we will as readily embrace it as any Proposition in Scripture but if this Article be neither to be found in Scripture nor delivered down to us as taught by Christ or his Apostles by the unanimous Testimony of the Church of Christ through all Ages we must crave their pardon if we cannot receive it as Part of the Word of God But how impossible it is to prove by the unanimous Testimony of the Church that any unwritten Doctrine is Part of the Word of God necessary to be believed by all Christians is evident from hence because for several Ages after our Saviour the Church unanimously taught that whatsoever was necessary to be believed was contained in Scripture and for the same Church at the same time to testify that this or that unwritten Doctrine is a Part of God's Word necessary to be believed and yet that all Doctrines necessary to be believed are written is plainly to contradict it self And yet we find the Primitive Fathers unanimously attesting that the Scripture is the Rule from whence we draw all the Assertions of our Faith the last Will and Testimony of our Saviour by which all Controversies are to be decided the Boundaries of the Church out of which it is not to depart the Touchstone of Truth the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith for the Time to come and the only certain Principle of Christian Doctrine and Demonstration in Matters of Faith These are their own Expressions and abundance more than these we meet with to the same purpose and which is very observable they not only assert the Scripture to be a full and adequate Rule of Faith but severely declaim against all Additions to it Thus Eusebius Pamphilus in the Name of the Fathers of the Council of Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. those Things which are written believe those Things which are not witten neither think upon nor enquire after Thus also St. Austin Quicquid inde audieritisè Scriptura sacra hoc vobis bene sapiat quicquid extra est respuite ne erretis in nebula Whatsoever ye hear from the Holy Scriptures let it savour well with you whatsoever is without them refuse lest ye wander in a Cloud St. Bazil declares that it is a manifest falling from the Faith and an Argument of Arrogancy either to reject any point of those Things that are written or to bring in any of those which are not written and that it is the Property of a faithful Man to be fully perswaded of the Truth of those Things that are delivered in the Holy Scripture and not to dare either to reject or to add any thing thereunto Thus Tertullian advers Hermog Si enim non est scriptum timeat Vae illud adjicientibus aut detrahentibus destinatum If what he pretends be not written let him fear that Woe that is denounced against such as add or take away What Likelihood therefore is there that they who thus severely forbid adding any thing to the written Word of God did ever so much as dream of another Word of God consisting of unwritten Traditions And indeed methinks it is very strange if there had been any other Word of God besides what is written there should no notice be taken of it in that which is written especially considering that if it be as necessary to be believed as the Roman Church defines it it is as necessary that we should have Direction where to find it and how to know it when we have it but of this we have not the least Intimation in Scripture For as for those Words of St. Paul 2 Thess 2.15 Hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle all that can be justly inferred from them is only this that the Thessalonians at the Writing of this Epistle had only an Oral Tradition of a great Part of that Gospel which St. Paul had preached to them the Gospels being as yet either not collected into Writing or not dispersed abroad into the Churches so that then this and his former Epistle to them were perhaps the only written Part of the New Testament that was yet arrived to their hands and if so then this Command of holding the Traditions by word did oblige no longer than till they had received the written Gospel because then those Traditions by Word were all recorded in Scripture and being there recorded they were thenceforth obliged to hold them as Scripture and no longer as Traditions by Word But supposing there are still unwritten Traditions in the Church that are not in Scripture but yet were delivered by Christ or his Apostles and so are equally the Word of God with the Scripture I would fain know how we who live at so great a distance from Christ and his Apostles should either know where to find or be assured that they are such when we have them We know very well that even in the Primitive Ages there were sundry counterfeit Traditions which Hereticks pretended to derive from Christ and his Apostles and if it were so easy a matter to counterfeit Traditions then how much more easy is it now I confess Vincentius Lirinensis gives us a very good Rule how to distinguish counterfeit from true Traditions quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est hoc est vere proprieque Catholicum That which was every where and always and by all Christians believed that is truly and properly Catholick And by this Rule we are willing to abide if they can shew us any Article of Christianity not recorded in Scripture which hath been every where and always believed by all Christians we will readily admit it as an unwritten Word of God and with the same Respect and Reverence as we do that which is written But this we are fully assured they will never be able to perform seeing as was shewn before the Primitive Church doth with one Consent attest the Scripture to be an entire Rule of Faith in which all the Articles of Coristianity are contained But we are told that for these unwritten Traditions we must rely upon the present Church of every Age and receive as a divine Tradition whatsoever she defines to be so where by the present Church is meant the present Roman Church that is to say whatsoever this Church defines we must believe it because she defines it which we cannot but think is a hard Case First Because we
it seems the Scripture is plain enough for a well-disposed Child to know the Sense of it so far forth at least as it is necessary to be known and this is as much as we desire If therefore God requires us to read the Scripture as Timothy did the End that we may know and understand it as he did then either we may understand the Sense of it by reading it or else God requires us to read it in vain 4. And lastly From the Obligation we lie under upon pain of Damnation to believe and receive those Necessaries to Salvation contained in Scripture it is also evident that as to all those Necessaries it is plain and clear That we are obliged to believe under pain of Damnation all that the Scriture proposes as necessary to our Salvation is agreed on all hands but how can Men be justly obliged to believe such Things as are obscure and doubtful and uncertain and of which they can have no certain Knowledge Either the Necessaries to Salvation must be plainly and clearly express'd in Scripture or we have not sufficient Reason to believe them and to say God will damn us for not believing those Things which he hath not given us sufficient Reason to believe is to charge him with the most outragious Oppression and Injustice But we are told that though God hath not clearly revealed to us in Scripture those Things which he hath obliged us to believe upon Pain of Damnation yet he hath left us sufficient Reason to believe them for he hath left us to the Conduct of an Infallible Church that is to say of the present Church of Rome in all Ages whom he hath authorized to explain and define to us all Things that are necessary to be believed which we are to receive upon her Authority and not upon the Scriptures so that if we firmly believe what She defines and proposes to us we are sure to believe all Things that are necessary to be believed Now in Answer to this Objection which indeed is the great Foundation that the Faith of those of the present Church of Rome relies on I desire these Things may be seriously considered 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of the present Church of Rome in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture 2. That these Things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of that Church are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith 3. That after all these Things upon our relying on that Church's Authority we are left to the same or greater Uncertainties than upon our relying upon the Authority of Scripture 4. That in relying upon the Authority of the Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainities than just what is necessary to render our Faith virtuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of that Church supposing it to be a certain Ground as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of that Church in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture As for Instance we must in the first Place believe that there is a Church or Society of Christians separated from the World or incorporated by a peculiar Divine Charter Now whether there be such a Church or no is a Question that must be resolved by the Scripture and not by the Church because to believe that there is a Church because the Church saith there is a Church is to take that for granted which is the Thing in Question Secondly We must believe that this Church hath Authority to define and propose to us the Articles of our Faith which must also for the same Reasons be believed on the Authority of the Scripture and not of the Church For to believe that there is a Church that hath Authority to propose to us the Articles of our Faith is to believe that there is a Church which we are obliged to believe and how can I believe this upon the Church's Authority unless I can believe it before I do believe it Thirdly Before we can rely upon this Church's Authority in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe that this Church is infallible for if she be not Infallible how is it consistent with the Truth of God to oblige us to believe Her seeing in so doing he must oblige us whensoever She errs to believe her Errors but that she is infallible is not to be believed upon her own Authority for then her infallible Authority must be the Reason of our Belief that She is Infallible that is we must believe her infallible because we believe her infallible Seeing then we cannot believe it on her own Authority if we believe it at all it must be upon the Authority of Scripture Fourthly Before we can rely upon the Church of Rome's Authority to define to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe the Church of Rome to be this infallible Church But seeing this is no self-evident Principle we must have some other Evidence besides her self to induce us to believe it and what else can that be but Scripture We are told indeed by some of her greatest Divines that there are certain Marks and Notes of a true Church peculiar to the Church of Rome by which we are obliged to believe Her the true Church such as Antiquity Vniversality Holiness of Doctrine c. But seeing no Doctrine can be holy that is not true we must be satisfied that that Church is true before we can know that it is holy so that before we can reasonably submit to her Authority we must be very well assured that her Doctrine is true and this we cannot be assured of by her Authority because that as yet is the Matter in Question and therefore we can be no otherwise assured of it but only by the Authority of Scripture and when we are assured beforehand by the Authority of Scripture that her Doctrines are true her Authority comes too late to assure us Seeing therefore it is evident that there are some if not all the Articles of the Roman Faith that must be known and believe by us upon the Authority of Scripture before we can safely rely upon her Authority to define them to us how can we be obliged to settle our Faith upon her Authority when as before we can reasonably admit her Authority we must believe several of the Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of Scripture For I would fain know are these Articles of Faith or no That there is a Church that this Church hath Authority to define the Articles of our Faith and that in so defining this Church is infallible and that
act Conciliariter as they call it that is so as to render their Decrees perpetually and universally obliging that though we were resolved to build our Faith upon the Authority of this Church yet if we will use that Caution in believing that we ought to do in a Matter of so great Moment we should find our selves involved in greater Uncertainties concerning these Things than we are concerning the Sense even of the most difficult Places of Scripture But then Thirdly When we are pass'd over all these Difficulties we are still at as great a Loss to understand what is the Sense of the Church to be believe by us as what is the Sense of Scripture For the Church hath no other way to deliver her Sense to us but either by Oral Tradition that is by Word of Mouth or by Writing If She deliver her Sense to me by Oral Tradition how can I know what that is who never heard Her speak either in its diffused Body or in a General Council or in any other Representative unless it be that of my own Parish-Priest perhaps who for all I know may be Ignorant or Heretical and so either not understand himself the Church's Oral Tradition or whilfully pervert it to a contrary Meaning And if the Church deliver here Sense to me by Writing as She hath done in the written Decreesof her General Councils must I read over all her Decrees How should I do that who understand not so much as the Languages in which they are written Or suppose they were Translated how shall I know that they are faithfully render'd any more than I do that the Scripture is so But suppose I were certain of this and should thereupon proceed to read them alass I find in them a great many difficult and dubious Expressions yea and at least seeming Contradictions to each other how then can I be more certain of the true Sense of these Writings than of the Sense of the Writings of Scripture But you will say the Church hath digested her Sense of all her Articles of Faith into a plain Creed and Catechism viz. that of the Council of Trent whereby the plainest Reader may without any laborious Enquiries be ready instructed what he ought to believe This I confess is something but as for those Articles of Faith wherein We and the Church of Rome are agreed we find them as plainly express'd in Scripture as in that Creed and Catechism and therefore we have Reason to believe that if those Articles wherein we disagree had ever been intended for Articles of Faith they would have been as plainly express'd there as these but 't is no wonder we should not find them plainly express'd there when we cannot find them express'd there at all But do we not find that the Scriptures even in the plainest Expressions of Articles of Faith have yet been perverted by Hereticks into a contrary Meaning And what then Are not the Words of Councils as liable to be perverted into a contray Meaning as the Words of Scripture For do not the Roman Doctors differ as much about the Sense of their Councils as we do about the Sense of our Scriptures Yea and have we not a notorious Instance of it at this very Day For what can be more contrary than Belarmine's Exposition of the Trent Faith and the Bishop of Condom's And yet both allowed by the Pope who by the Authority of that Council is made sole Arbitrator of the Sense of it But then Fourthly and lastly As to the Sense of Scripture our Reliance on the Authority of that Church leaves us at as great an Uncertainty as it found us For where the Scripture designs to speak plainly as it doth in all Things necessary to Salvation the Church cannot speak plainer and therefore there we may understand the Scripture as well without the Church as with it but where it doth not speak plainly the Church of Rome hath left us not infallible Commentary whereby to understand it so that where the Scripture is plain She hath not made it plainer and where it is obscure She hath left it as obscure as ever So that after all the Noise that is made of Infallibility her Doctors are fain to apply themselves to the same Methods of Understanding Scripture that is to consult the Sense of Antiquity and compare Text with Text and the like that we fallible Protestants do and when they have done all are as lyable to be mistaken as we Nay they themselves confess that even General Councils themselves may be mistaken in their Applications of Scripture that is that they may misapply them to wrong Purposes which they cannot do without mistaking the Sense of them of which there are a great many notorious Instances in the second Council of Nice which to prove it the Duty of Christians to worship Images urges God's taking Clay and making Man after his own Image and likewise that of Esay There shall be a Sign and Testimony to the Lord in the Land of Egypt and also those Passages of David Confession and Beauty is before him Lord I have loved the Beauty of thy House O Lord my Face hath sought for thee O Lord I will seek after thy Countenance O Lord the light of thy Countenance is sealed over us And from that Passage As we have seen so have we heard they argue that there must be Images to look on and because it is said God is marvellous in his Saints they conclude that the Church must be deck'd with Pictures And from No man lighteth a Candle and putteth it under a bushel they wisely infer that Images must be set upon the Altar all which are as remote from their Sense as the first Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis What greater Certainty have they with their Infallibility than we without it We can know as well the Sense of plain Texts of Scripture as of plain Texts of Councils or Creeds or Catechisms and we can as easily pervert the Sense of the one as of the other And as for those that are not plain even Genreal Councils you see for all their Infallibility may be mistaken about them as well as we So that when all comes to all by forsaking the infallible Authority of Scripture to rely upon the infallible Authority of that Church we are so far from ariving at a greater Certainty of Faith that we are involved in greater Uncertainties than ever But then 4. And lastly in relying upon the Authority of Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith vertuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of the Church of Rome supposing it were as sure a Ground of Faith as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it It is pretended though falsly you see that that Church's Authority is so sure a Ground of Faith that while a Man depends upon it he cannot be mistaken in any necessary Article
is no Necessity that they should be informed about them because he who believes that all that the Church teaches is true implicitly believes all that is necessary seeing the Church teaches all that is necessary But the mischief of it is that this compendious Way of Belief is utterly insignificant and doth no way comport with the Design and Intention of a Christian's Faith For God doth not require our Faith meerly for its own sake but in order to a farther End that it may purify our Hearts and Influence our Lives and Manners that is that the Matters which we believe might by being believed by us affect our Wills and continually move and persuade us to abstain from all Vngodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World and if our Faith hath not this Effect upon us St. James assures us that it is a dead Faith and will profit us nothing But how is it possible that our believing such and such Propositions should move and persuade us if we do not know what those Propositions are and what is the true Sense and Meaning of them What Man can be persuaded by such Proposals as he doth not understand and of which he hath no Manner of explicite Knowledge An Heathen that believes that whatsoever God teaches is true doth implicitly believe that Jesus Christ came from God to reveal his Will to Mankind because it is certain that God teaches this but what is he the better for this his implicite Belief What Influence can it have upon his Heard and Manners who perhaps never heard of Jesus Christ nor of any one Proposition which he revealed to the World And so he who believes that whatsoever the Church teaches is true doth implicitly believe that there shall be a future Judgment a Resurrection of the Dead and an everlasting State of Happiness or Misery after Death because all these Things the Church teaches but if he never hear of them or hath no explicite Knowledge and Belief of them how is it possible they should operate on his Will and Affections or ever persuade him to be the better Man or the better Christian And the same is to be said of all the other articles of Christianity So that either we must believe to no Purpose and content our selves with an insignificant Faith that will not at all avail us or take up our Faith upon Trust from fallible Teachers who may mislead us into damnable Errors and if they should we must be liable to answer for it in our Persons and at our own eternal peril or which is the Truth of the Case we must be allowed to enquire and judge for our selves at least in all Things necessary to our eternal Salvation Seeing therefore there are many Things in Scripture which the Scripture it self obliges me upon Pain of Damnation to believe it hence necessarily follows that so far forth as the Scripture obliges me to believe what it teaches it obliges me to understand what it teaches otherwise I must believe I know not what which is impossible and so far as the Scripture obliges me to understand what it teaches it must oblige me to search enquire and judge what it teaches because I cannot understand without enquiring and judging But how can I enquire what the Scripture teaches if I cannot be admitted to read and consult the Scripture And so again there are many Duties in Scripture which the Scripture it self obliges me to practise upon pain of eternal Damnation but how can it oblige me to Practise what it doth not oblige me to Understand or how can it oblige me to Understand what it doth not oblige me to enquire after But how can I enquire what it is that the Scripture obliges me to Practise when I am forbid all access to it and it is lockt up from me in an unknown Tongue In short therefore seeing the Things contained in Scripture are of the highest Moment to the People and it is as much as their Souls are worth not to Believe and Practise what it Teaches and seeing they can neither Believe nor Practise what they do not understand it is of infinite concern to them so far at least to Read Consult and Understand the Scripture as they stand obliged to Believe and Practise its Doctrines and Precepts 6. And lastly From the Vniversal Sense of the Primitive Church in this matter it is also evident that the People are obliged to read or acquaint themselves with the Holy Scripture For the Primitive Church for above six hundred years were so far from debarring the People the use of the Scripture that it continually urged and press'd it upon them as a matter of indispensable Obligation For so Origen wishes That all would do as it is written viz. Search the Scriptures So also Clemens Alexandrinus Hearken ye that are afar off hearken ye that be near the Word of God is hid from no man it is a Light common to all men and there is no Darkness in it So also St. Austin * In Orat. adhort ad Gent. Think it not sufficient that ye hear the Scriptures in the Church but do you also read the Scriptures your selves in your own Houses or get some other to read them to you So also St. Jerom †In Psal 86. The Lord hath spoken to us by his Gospel not that a few but all should understand And elsewhere speaking of the Women that were at Bethlehem with Paula It was not lawful saith he for any one of all the Sisters to be ignorant of the Psalms nor to pass over any day without learning some part of the Scriptures And elsewhere * Ep. ad Coloss c. 3. We are taught saith he That the Lay-People ought to have the Word of God not only sufficiently but also with abundance that so they may be able to teach and counsel others So also St. Chrysostome †Ep. ad Colos Hom. 9. Hear me O Laity get ye the Bible the most wholsom remedy for the Soul and if ye will no more at least get the New Testament St. Pauls Epistles and the Acts that they may be your continual and earnest Teachers And elsewhere he affirms * In Matth. Hom. 3. That it is more necessary for the Lay-People to read the Scriptures than either for the Monks or Priests or any others And to cite no more of the infinite Authorities of the Fathers to this purpose St. Basil observes * In Psal 1. The Scripture of God is like an Apothecarys Shop full of Medicines of sundry sorts that so every Man may there choose a convenient Remedy for his Disease And that the People as well as the Priests were then allowed the Use of the Bible is evident from a notorious matter of Face for when the Roman Emperors endeavoured to force the Christians by Persecution and Torments to deliver up thier Bibles to be burnt that so by extinguishing those Sacred Records they might
them what need they have been recorded What is there in the meer Story of Noah's Drunkenness and Incest and David's Adultery considered abstractly from the good Instructions it gives that should move God to deliver it down to all future Posterity If it serve no good Ends it is recorded to a bad purpose and therefore if for this Reason because it is apt to corrupt Mens Minds the Church be obliged to conceal it now for the very same Reason God was obliged to have concealed it for ever Either therefore we must say that God did very ill in publishing it or that the Church doth very ill in suppressing it for God could have no other End in publishing it to the World but only to instruct the World by it If therefore it be not instructive God was mistaken but if it be it is fit the World should be acquainted with it 3. That this Objection doth expresly contradict the Scripture it self For whereas it tells us that the bad Examples recorded in Scripture would be apt to deprave the Peoples Minds and Manners St. Paul tells us the quite contrary These Things were our Examples to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they i. e. the Israelites in the Wilderness lusted Neither be ye Idolaters as were some of them Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and sell in one day three and twenty thousand Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10.6 7 8.9 10 11. Whereas this Objection urges that there are sundry Passages in Scripture which should the People read would excite evil Thoughts in their Minds The same St. Paul tells us That all Scripture is profitable not only for Doctrine and Reproof but also for correction for instruction in righteousness 2 Tim. 3.16 Whereas this Objection pretends that it would be very unsafe for young People especially to be allowed the Scripture because there are several amorous Stories and Passages in it which will be apt to suggest wanton Thoughts to their gay and amorous Fancies David it is plain was of a quite contrary Mind for wherewith saith he shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word Psal 119.9 than which two Passages what Assertions can be more contrary one to another 4. And lastly That supposing this Objection to be thus far true that there are some Passages in Scripture which may sometimes occasionally excite bad Thoughts in Mens Minds yet this is no just Reason why the Use of Scripture should be forbid to the People For every Thing which the People occasionally make bad Uses of is for that Reason to be forbid to them even Prayer and the Sacraments and the Profession of Christianity ought to be for bidden them as well as the Scripture seeing of the one as well as of the other many People do occasionally make very bad Uses So long as the Scripture is good in it self and apt in its own Nature to instruct and edifie those that read it this is sufficient not only to warrant the Peoples Use of it but to enjoyn and require it and if it sometimes occasion corrupt Thoughts in corrupt Minds this is no more a Reason why the People should be deprived of the Light of it than some bad Mens making ill Use of the Light of the Sun is why the Sun should be extinguished or why the People should be for ever shut up from the Light of it in dark and dismal Dungeons But as for those very Passages in Scripture which do sometimes occasion ill Thoughts in Mens Minds they are so far from doing it of their own Natures that as they are delivered in Scripture there is nothing more naturally apt to repress bad Thoughts and to arm and fortifie Mens Minds against them As for instance The bad Examples recorded in Scripture are generally delivered with infamous Characters severe Prohibitions and dreadful Instances of God's Vengeance attending them which render them much more apt to repress than to excite evil Thoughts in Mens Minds to quicken them to Prayer and Watchfulness against Temptations and when at any Time they have been overcome by them to encourage them to Repentance or when they have overcome them to stir them up to a grateful Acknowledgment of that preventing and assisting Grace of God by which they have been enabled to resist and repel them These are the natural Uses of those bad Examples recorded in Scripture and therefore if instead of Making these Uses of them some Men pervert them to bad Purposes that is their Faults and not the Scriptures It is sufficient that the bad Examples in Scripture as they are there recorded are in themselves of excellent Use to the People but should Men be deprived of the Use of every good Thing they abuse I would fain know what one good Thing would be left free to their Enjoyment And now having proved at large the Peoples Right and Obligation to Use and Search the Holy Scripture and answered the main Objections against it I shall conclude with these two Inferences from the whole 1. If he People are obliged to acquaint themselves with Scripture then they are obliged to receive upon the Authority of Scripture those Divine Truths which it proposes to their Belief For to what other end should we be obliged to read and consult the Word of God but only that we may learn from it what is his Mind and Will but how should we learn from Scripture what God's Mind is if we are not to believe what he therein declares upon Scripture Authority If I must not believe when I read the Scripture that this is God's Mind because the Scripture says so it is impossible I should ever learn God's Mind by reading it and consequently I am obliged to read it to no Purpose For there is nothing can teach me what God's Mind is but that which gives me sufficient Ground to believe that what it teaches is the Mind of God When therefore I read the Scripture and find such a Proposition plainly asserted in it is this a sufficient Ground or no for me to believe it to be the Mind of God If it be then the Authority of Scripture is a sufficient Ground for my Belief If it be not then the Scripture cannot teach me what God's Mind is because it cannot give me sufficient Ground to believe any one Proposition in it to be the Mind of God We are told indeed that we are not to receive the Sense of the Scripture from the Scripture but from the Church who alone hath Authority to Expound it to us and whose Expositions in all Matters of Faith are infallible But if this be so to what
end should we read the Scripture seeing the only End of Reading is to learn the Sense of what we read which according to this Principle is not to be learnt from Scripture So that though there be no other wise End of reading the Scripture but only to learn from it what it means yet it seems for Men to read it for this End is a perfect Labour in Vain seeing it is not from the Scripture but from the Church that they are to learn the Meaning of Scripture For as for the Scripture if these Men are to be believed it is nothing but a heap of unsensed Characters so they expresly term it But what do they mean by it Is it that the Scripture consists of a company of Letters and Syllables and Words that carry with them no determinate Sense that God Almighty hath written and published a Book to the World that means nothing If so then when the Church by its infallible Authority pretends to expound the Scripture Her meaning is not to expound the Sense of it but to impose a Sense on it which was never in it for how can She expound the Sense of a Book which hath no Sense in it If the Church is to expound the Sense of Scripture the Scripture must have a certain determinate Sense in it before She expounds it for to expound the Sense of That which hath no Sense is Nonsense And if the Scripture hath a certain Sense in it antcedently to the Church's Exposition of it why do they call it a parcel of Vnsensed Characters If their Meaning be only this that the Sense of Scripture as it is delivered in Scripture is so obscure and ambiguous that without the infallible Exposition of the Church we can never be certain what it is besides that this is notoriously false the Scripture in all necessary Points both of Faith and Manners being so very plain and clear that any Man that reads it with an unprejudiced Mind may be as certain of the Sense of it as he can be of the Sense of any Writing and consequently of the Sense of any written Exposition of the Church besides this I say it is evident that whatever these Men pretend it is not meerly because of the obscurity of Scripture that they oblige Men to ground their Faith upon the Church and not upon the Scripture For they own as well as we that in many Things the Scripture is very plain and clear and yet they will by no Means allow Men to ground their Belief of these things upon the Authority of Seripture but all must be resolved into the Authority of the Church By which it is evident That if all the Scripture were as plain as the plainest Scriptures they would still contend for the Necessity of Mens relying upon the Church and not upon the Scripture and consequently that the true Reason why they contend for it is not because the Scripture is obscure but because they are resolved to advance their Church's Authority We own as well as they that where the Scripture is obscure Men ought to be guided by the Authoty of the Church which we freely allow to be the best Expositor of Scripture But the true State of the Difference between them and us is this That whereas we require plain Men to judge of plain Things with their own Understandings and all Men so far forth as they are capable to judge for themselves in Matters of Religion and not content themselves to see with the Church's Eyes where they are able to see with their own nothing will satisfie these Men but to have all Men as well Wise as Simple surrender up their Faith and Judgment to the Church and wink hard and believe what-ever the Church believes purely because the Church believes it Whatever they pretend therefore the Truth of the Case is this They will by no means allow us to believe upon the Authority of Scripture not because the Scripture is obscure though this they pretend for were it never so plain the Case would be the same but because they are sensible that this will inevitably subvert their usurped Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of Men. But we must believe upon the Authority of the Church and who is this Church I beseech you Why they themselves are this Church So that whereas God hath published a Book called the Bible on purpose to declare his Mind and Will to the World here are started up a Sort of Men that call themselves the Church who very gravely tell us Sirs You must not so much as look into this Book or if you do must not believe any one Word in it upon its own Credit and Authority For though we do confess it is the Word of God yet we are the sole Judges of the Sense of it and therefore whatsoever we decalre is its Sense how unlikely soever it may seem to you you are bound in Conscience to receive and believe it for this very Reason because wedeclare it In short you must resign up your Eyes your Faith your Reason and Vnderstandings to us and see only with our Eyes and believe only with our Faith and judge only with our Judgment and whithersoever we shall think fit to lead you you must tamely follow us without presuming to examine whether we lead you right or wrong But yet after all to induce us thus to inslave our Understandings to them they themselves are fain to appeal to Scripture and allow us in some Things to judge of the Sense of it and to believe those Things upon its Authority For no wise and honest Man will ever believe either that They are the Church or the infallible Judges of the Sense of Scripture without some Proof and Evidence and for this this they are fain to produce several Texts of Scripture such as Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church Now supposing that to be true which is notoriously false viz. that those Texts do necessarily imply that They are the only true Catholick Church and that as such they are constituted by God infallible Judges of Scripture yet before I can believe so I must judge for my self whether this be the Sense of them or no and if I judge it is I must believe that they are the Church and infallible upon the Scripture's Authority and not theirs for their Authority is the Thing in debate and I cannot believe upon it before I believe it So then though we must believe nothing else upon Scripture Authority yet upon this very Authority we must believe that they are the Church and that they are infallible which are the fundamental Principles of their Religion that is to say we must believe as much upon Scripture Authority as will sever their turn and no more But may I be certain of the Truth of these two Fundamental Principles upon Scripture Authority or no If I may why may I not as well be infallibly certain upon the same Authority
sacred and good as no Man can be guilty of who is not utterly abandoned of all his natural Sense of Religion and Relish of Good and Evil But yet perhaps you may be tempted to change with the Prospect of such Advantages on the one side and Calamities on the other which though it doth not obtain of you that base and wicked Resolution yet doth so far prevail as to engage you upon a fresh Enquiry to try whether upon second Thoughts and better Consideration you can satisfie your own Minds of the Truth of that Religion you are invited to turn to that so you may if possible comply with a good Conscience and secure your Interest in doing your Duty And thus far you are safe enough but before you proceed any farther it concerns you as you tender your everlasting Interest to look into your own Souls and consider seriously whether you are unfeignedly resolved whatsoever the Consequence of Things may be to cleave fast to the Truth of God on which side soever you shall find it Put the Question to your selves over and over O my Soul here are such Advantages and such Calamities before you importuning you to change your present discountenanced Religion for a more thriving and prosperous One Are you now resolved fairly and impartially to examine the Merit of the Cause And if thereupon you still find Reason to believe that your present Religion is the very Truth of Jesus will you rather renounce those Advantages and incur those Calamities than for go it Will you follow the Truth wheresoever you find it and whithersoever it shall happen to lead you though it be from Preferment to Persecution Are you resolved by the Grace of God to prostrate all your temporal Hopes and Fears before it and rather to lose any Good or suffer any Evil than desert it For let me tell you if you find your heart shrink at this Proposal or that you have any reserved Intention if the worst come to the worst rather to part with your Religion right or wrong than to shake hands with your temporal Interest you are in a very unfitting Temper to examine on which side the Truth lies For it is a plain Case your Mind is under a prevailing Byass of temporal Hopes and Fears which will be sure to incline it to favour that side of the Question which is most for your Interest and 't will be impossible for you to examine fairly and judge impartially whilst your Judgment is thus bribed and corrupted by your Interest For your Will hath already determined upon the Matter before ever your Understanding hath heard the Cause and it is your secret Intention right or wrong to forgo your Religion rather than your Interest if ever they come in Competition So that now you will be obliged in your own Defence to use your utmost Art to set the fairest Colours upon the Evidences against your Religion and to stifle and enervate those that assert and maintain it lest they should so confirm you in the Belief of it as that when Occasion requires you will not be able to surrender it up without committing an horrible Outrage and Violence upon your selves Wherefore before you suffer your worldly Hopes and Fears to summon your Religion upon a new Tryal be sure you fix this Resolution in your Souls By the Grace of God I will now lay aside all Interest and Affection and strictly examin the Evidence on both Sides with an equal and unbiass'd Judgment I will attend to nothing but the Reasons of Things and the pure Merits of the Cause and where-ever I find the Truth lies whether on the side of my Interest or against it I will be sure to follow it whatsoever shall be the Event and Issue For if upon the Temptation of any worldly Interest you bring your Religion to a new Tryal with this secret Intention that though it should still aprove it self to your Judgment yet you will rather part with it than abandon that Interest this very Intention will be apt to blind and mislead your Judgment to arm your Wit and Reason against your Religion and to set all your Faculties at work to argue you out of it and pervert you from it to a contrary Faith and Persuasion which if it should accomplish you will certainly be found guilty of a willful Apostacy when you come to be tryed before the Tribunal of God to whose all-seeing Eye the most secret Motions of your Souls are as visible as if they were written on your Foreheads with a Sun-beam who sees your treacherous Heart and false Intention rather to forsake his Truth than your Interest and knows very well that it is this that seduces you and gives Force to those false Reasons and Convictions that impose upon your Judgment and betray your Faith 6. And lastly When you fall under any Temptation to change your Religion consider whether before you were inclined to change you did conscitiously comply with the Obligations of it We have too many Men that pretend to be mighty inquisitive after the true Church and the true Religion and yet live as if there were no such thing as true Religion in the World and quietly allow themselves in such impious Courses as do openly affront the common Principles of all Religions There is nothing they dread so much as Heresy and if you will believe them are monstrously concerned to examine whether the Church with which they now communicate be Catholick or Heretical and yet all this while they persist without any Concern or Remorse in the most damnable Heresy in the World and that is a wicked and immoral Life So that upon comparing their Atheistical Lives with the loud Cry they make about the true Catholick Faith and Church one would be tempted to think that their Christianity began at the wrong End of their Creed and that they believed in the Holy Catholick Church before they believe in God the Father Almighty or in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord Which is such a gross and fulsom Piece of Hypocrisy as one would think any modest Man should be ashamed of For in the name of God Sirs What have you to do to wrangle and make a Noise about Religion whose profligate Manners are a Shame and Scandal to common Humanity It is a Reproach to any Religion for you to name it and Shame to any Church for you to pretend to it and therefore when such as you raise a Cry after the true Church and true Religion it is a plain Case that whatever Pretence you bring upon the Stage you are prompted by some base Interest behind the Curtain And is it not a pleasant Thing to hear such Profligates as these pretend to be Converts who only turn from one Opinion to another but still continue as wicked and unreformed in their Manners under the Opinion they turn to as they were under that they turned from These are such Converts as there is no Church in the World that advances true Piety above worldly Interest but would glory to lose and blush to gain And what Diogenes said of a wicked Fellow that praised him that the Religion may say which those Men turn to What Hurt have I done what wicked Principles am I guilty of that such vile Wretches as these should commend and embrace me For for God's sake what is it that they are converted to Is it to any Thing that renders them wiser or better Men No The contrary is too notorious through the whole Course of their Actions Well then it seems they are converted to something that doth them no manner of Good that serves them to no true End of Religion that is to a meer empty Notion that only gingles about their Understandings but hath no good Influence on their Hearts and Manners Had their Conversion proceeded-upon pure Principles of Conscience that would have obliged them to change their Manners as well as their Opinions there being very few Opinions in Religion so contradictory to the natural Sentiments of Conscience as a vicious and immoral Life Supposing that the Papal Supremacy Purgatory and Transubstantiation were true yet that the contrary Doctrins to these are Errors can never be so evident to any Man's Conscience as that Drunkenness Adultery Fraud and Oppression are Sins and therefore for any Man to pretend that he forsook those Errors out of Conscience who yet makes no Conscience of continuing in these Sins is such a transparent Hypocrisy as hath not Vizor and Disguize enough to abuse either the most Candid or Credulous If therefore before you are resolved to forsake your Sins you are tempted to forsake your Religion it is a plain Case that it is not your Conscience or Conviction that tempts you but your Lust or Interest Had it been Conscience it would have been far more importunate with you to reform your Manners than your Faith and to become good Men than Catholick Believers and therefore under your present Circumstances you ought to be very careful what you do and how you comply with the Temptation lest to all the Rest of your Sins you add that foul and fatal one of Apostacy and thereby fill up the Measure of your Iniquities and finally provoke Almighty God to abandon you as you have abandoned him and give you up for lost and desperate FINIS
to plunge our selves into all those endless Miseries which the loss of our Souls implies What then remains but that being seriously affected with the Sense of our Danger we presently awake out of our Security and with the deepest Concern for our immortal Souls cry out with St. Peter's Auditors Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved Verisly when I reflect upon the strange Unconcernedness of Men about their future Condition I am tempted to think either that they do not believe that they have an immortal Soul in them or that if they do they believe it is impossible it should for ever miscarry For how is it conceivable that Men who in other matters are so solicitous when their Interest is at Stake and exposed to the least Hazard should believe that they have Souls in Danger of perishing for ever and yet take no more Care or Regard of them but like the forgetful Mother who when her House was on Fire to save her Goods forgot her Child lay out all their thoughts upon the little Concerns of this frail and mortal Life and in the mean time forget their precious Souls and leave them perishing in the Flames of Perdition O stupid Creature what art thou made of that canst consider that thou hast an immortal Soul surrounded with so many Dangers of being lost for ever and yet be no more concerned for its Preservation Methinks if thou hadst any Sense in thee having a Prospect of such endless Miseries before thee the remotest Possibility of falling into them should be enough to startle and awake thee but when thou art so near the Brink of those Miseries and hast so many Causes round about thee shoving thee forward and thrusting thee headlong down into them and yet be no more concerned at it is such a Prodigy of sensless Stupidity as Heaven and Earth may justly be astonished at 'T is true if the Danger thou art in were such as is impossible to be evaded it would then be the wisest Course thou couldst take to concern thy self as little as may be about it but rather to live merrily whilst thou mayst and not antedate thy Misery by thinking of the dismal Futurity But God be praised this is not our Case though our Condition be dangerous yet it is far from desperate for if we will use our honest Endeavour and vigorously exert the Faculties of our Nature we not only may but shall escape There are indeed a great many Causes of our Danger a great many Enemies concurring to our Ruin but none of these are able to effect it unless we our selves joyn hands in the fatal Conspiracy If we will be but faithful Friends to our selves and true to our own eternal Interest it will be beyond the power of all those Causes together to do us any material Injury For blessed be the good God those that are for us are far greater and mightier than those that are against us against us we have the World the Flesh and the Devil the weakest of which is I confess a dangerous and puissant Enemy but for us we have God and Angels and our own Reason assisted with the most invincible Motives with vast and glorious Promises that stand beckoning to us with Crowns of Immortality in their Hands to call us off from the Pursuit of our Lusts to the Practice of Virtue and Religion with direful Threatnings that are continually Alarming and warning us of the dreadful Consequents of our Sins and sundry other such mighty I had almost said Almighty Motives as if we would seriously attend to would certainly render our Souls impregnable against all the Temptations of Vice And besides our Reason thus Armed and Accountered we have on our side the Holy Angels of God who are always ready to prompt us to and assist us in our Duty and to second us in all our spiritual Combats against the Enemies of our Souls And besides all these we have with us the Almighty Spirit of God who upon our sincere Desires and honest Endeavours is engaged to aid us and co-operate with us in working out our Salvation whose Grace is abundantly sufficient for us to strengthen us in our Weakness to support us under our greatest Difficulties and carry us on victoriously through the most violent Temptations And being back't with such mighty Auxiliaries how is it possible that we should miscarry unless we are resolved to betray our selves and give fire to the fatal Trains of our Enemies and if we are so bent there is no Remedy for our Obstinacy and it is just and fit we should be left to the dismal and pitiless Effect of our own Folly and Madness For if when we see our sleves in so much danger and it is yet in our Power to escape if we please we will notwithstanding precipitate our selves into Ruin all the World must agree upon an impartial Inquisition for the Blood of our Souls that we murdered our selves that God is just and that his hands are clean from any stain of our Blood and that our own Ruin is wholly owing to our own invincible Obstinacy III. I proceed now to the Third Proposition That our renouncing of Christ and his Religion will most certainly infer the loss of our Souls For as I have shewed you these Words are urged by our Saviour as a Motive to deter his Disciples from forsaking him as is plain from Ver. 24 25. which necessarily supposes that upon their forsaking him this Loss would most certainly and inevitably follow In the Prosecution therefore of this Argument I shall endeavour these two things 1. To shew you what that forsaking of Christ is which infers this Loss 2. Upon what Accounts our thus forsaking him infers it 1. What that forsaking of Christ is which infers this Loss To which I answer there is a Four-Fold Forsaking of Christ which the Scripture takes notice of as capital and damnable to the Souls of Men. 1. When we forsake him by a total Apostacy 2ly When we cowardly renounce the Profession of his Doctrine or any Part of it notwithstanding we still believe and are convinced of the Truth of it 3. When by obstinate Heresy we either add to or subtract from the Faith of Christ 4ly When by any wilful Course of Disobedience we do vertually renounce the Authority of his Laws 1. We lose and forfeit our Souls when we forsake Christ by a total Apostacy from him When after we have been Baptized into his Name and thereby have made a visible Profession of our believing his Doctrines and obeying his Laws we turn Runagadoes and cast off our Belief of the one and disown our Obligation to the other we do most justly incur the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls For so strong and cogent is the Evidence of Christianity that it is not to be supposed that any professed Christian can be either innocently or excusably seduced into a Disbelief of it For Religion being a Matter of the vastest Moment and Concern
he is a Traytor to himself that either takes up his Religion without Examination or that upon Examination refuses to be swayed by the strongest Reason And I am sure it is impossible for any Christian to turn Infidel that is but so honest to himself as first to examine carefully the Reasons of his Faith and then to resolve sincerely not to reject it till better Reasons appear to the contrary But if either through their wilful Ignorance of the Evidence of Christianity or vicious Prejudice against the Purity of it they suffer themselves to be seduced into Apostacy they are false Traytors to themselves and as such are justly liable to all those eternal Damages they expose themselves to And hence it is said of those that draw-back that is apostatize from Christianity not only that God's Soul shall have no pleasure in them but also that they draw back to perdition Heb. 10.38 39. and 2 Pet. 2.20 It is said of those Apostates that their latter end is worse than the beginning and that it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment which implies that Apostates from Christianity do not only forfeit their Souls but that without Repentance they will be for ever forfeited to the most wretched Condition even to the nethermost Degree of Perdition 2ly We lose our Souls when notwithstanding we do still believe and are convinced of the Truth of Christ's Doctrine we do cowardly renounce the Profession of it or any Part of it For when once we have received the Faith of Christ we are thereby obliged not to renounce the Profession of it whatsoever Hazard it may expose us to our blessed Lord having assured us that if we deny him before Men he will also deny us before his Father which is in Heaven Mat. 10.33 And St. Paul also having warned us that if we deny Christ he will also dany us 2 Tim. 2.12 That is that he will reject and abandon us before God and Angels to everlasting Misery and Damnation for so St. John assures us Rev. 2.8 that the fearful and unbelieving i.e. the faint-hearted Cowards that for fear of Persecution renounce the Profession of the Gospel shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Not that in Times of Persecution we are always bound to make an actual Profession and Publication of our Faith to run to the Tribunals of our Persecutors before we are sent for and accuse our selves of those Doctrines for which we are Persecuted but whenever we are apprehended accused and examined by them either upon knowledge or suspicion we are bound under the Penalty of forfeiting our Souls to own and confess our Faith and not to deny any Doctrine or Article of it whatsoever the Consequence may be For in this Case to deny our Belief is not only a wilful Lye which is in it self a damnable Crime but an Act of High-Treason against our Lord and Saviour for by renouncing any Doctrine which he hath revealed and committed to us we do not only betray his Trust but blaspheme his Veracity to deny what we believe he hath revealed being in effect to declare him a Cheat and an Impostor And having thus incurred the Guilt of so black a Treason against our Saviour and wilfully persisting in it what can we expect the Consequence of it should be but the eternal Loss and Perdition of our Souls 3ly We forsake Christ to the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls when by obstinate Heresy we add to or subtract from that Heavenly Doctrine which he hath revealed to us By Heresy I do not mean barely a false Opinion in our Religion whether it be of greater or lesser Moment for I doubt not but the same Error May be an innocent Mistake in one Man and a damnable Heresy in another that in the one it may be the Effect of a weak Understanding but in the other of a perverse and obstinate Will and when the Understanding misleads the Will it is Weakness but when the Will misleads the Understanding it is Wickedness For simple Error is only a defect of Understanding which in a fallible Creature is every whit as inculpable as Sickness in a mortal one but Heresy is a Fault of the Will which is the only Subject of Vertue and Vice When therefore by the wicked Prejudice of our corrupt Wills against the Purity of Christianity our Understanding is betrayed into loose and erroneous Principles when we understand by our vicious Affections and adapt our Opinions to the Interests of our Lusts when we believe for the sake of any darling Vice and suffer our own factious covetous and extravagant Passions either to tempt us to profess those erreneous Opinions which we do not believe or to prejudice us into a Belief of them then is our Error no longer to be attributed to the Weakness of our Understanding but to the Wickedness of our Wills which Improves our Error into a damnable Heresy For he would be a wicked Man though he were not an Heretick that harbours those sinful Lusts which betrayed him into Heresy but by being an Heretick he is much more wicked because now he is wicked under a Pretence of Religion and cloaks his Impieties with the Garments of Righteousness And what greater Prophaneness can any Man be guilty of than to make his Religion a Baud to procure for his Lusts So that if out of a vicious Propension of Will we obstinately persist in any Religious Errors we are not only guilty of that wicked Propension which is of it self sufficient to ruin our Souls but we are also accountable for vitiating our Religion with those erroneous Mixtures by which we have rendered it a Shelter and Protection to our Lust And what the Consequence of this will be St. Jude will inform us who speaking of certain Hereticks who to gratifie their own wicked Inclinations had sophisticated Christianity with sundry black and poisonous Principles pronounces this fearful Doom on them for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever ver 13. 4ly And lastly We forsake Christ to the Loss and Forfeiture of our Souls when by any wilful Course of Disobedience we do virtually renounce the Authority of his Laws For whilst we continue in any Course of wilful Sin we live in an open Rebellion to our Saviour and do by our Actions declare that we will not have him to Reign over us And accordingly Tit. 1.16 the abominable and disobedient are said to deny God in their works even while they profess to know him and what the Fate of such will be St. Paul hath forewarned us Rom. 2.8 9. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile And the same Apostle speaking of these obstinate
write them down in order that he might know the Certainty of those things wherein he had been instructed From whence I infer that supposing St. Luke performed what he promised his Gospel must contain a full Declaration of the Christian Religion For First by promising to give an Account of those Things which were surely believed among Christians he engaged himself to give an entire Account of Christianity unless we will suppose that there were some Parts of Christianity which the Christians of that Time did not surely believe Secondly In promising to give an Account of those Things of which he had a perfect Understanding from the first and in which his Theophilus had been instructed he also engages himself to give a compleat Account of the whole Religion unless we will suppose that there were some Parts of this Religion which St. Luke did not perfectly understand and in which Theophilus had not been before instructed Thus also St. John testifies of his Gospel Chap. 20. 31. These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name And if it be objected that by these Things the Apostle only means the Miracles of Christ which are the Motives of our Belief and not his Doctrines which are to be believed by us this is notoriously false since by these Things St. John means his Gospel in which not only the Miracles but the Doctrines of Christ are contained and therefore in his first Epistle chap. 5. 13. he saith These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe or continue to believe on the name of the Son of God Where by These Things it 's plain he means only that Christian Doctrine which he had been teaching throughout the whole Epistle From which two Places I argue that all Things necessary to eternal Life are written because he expresly tells us that These Things were written to this end that they might beget and nourish in us that Faith by which we may obtain eternal Life but if that Faith which these written Things was designed to beget in us be not sufficient to eternal Life then were these Things written in vain and the End of writing them which was that we might obtain eternal Life by believing them was wholly frustrated but if that Faith were sufficient to eternal Life then these written Things which begot that Faith and were the Object of it must contain in them all Things necessary to eternal Life for how can they beget in us a Faith that is sufficient to eternal Life unless they propose to our Faith all Things that are necessary thereunto And thus I have endeavoured to demonstrate from Scripture it self which all agree is the Word of God and consequently the most concluding Authority in the World that the Holy Scripture is in it self a sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners to direct Men to eternal Life And if this be so I would fain know by what Warrant or Authority any Man or Church can pretend to obtrude upon the Faith of Christians any unwritten Traditions or Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Worship not recorded in Scripture as of equal Authority with those recorded in Scripture and equally necessary to the eternal Happiness of Men. For that there have been such bold Imposers in the Christian World Irenaeus assures us in the 2d Chapter of his 2d Book against Heresies where he tells us of a sort of Hereticks who taught that the Truth could not be found in the Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknown for as much as it was not delivered by Writing but by Word of Mouth And these Hereticks 1 De Praescrip Haeret c. 25. as Tertullian observes confessed indeed that the Apostles were ignorant and that they did not at all differ among themselves in their Preaching but said they revealed not all Things unto all Men some Things they taught openly and to all some Things secretly and to a few which secret Things were the unwritten Traditions which they sought to impose upon the Faith of Christians And how far the Church of Rome it self doth in this matter tread in the Footsteps of these ancient Hereticks is but too notorious For thus in the Preface of their Catechism it is expresly affirmed by the Council of Trent that the whole Doctrine to be delivered to the Faithful is contained in the Word of God which Word of God is distributed into Scripture and Tradition And in the Councel it self they declare and define that the Books of Scripture and unwritten Traditions are to be received and honoured with equal pious Affection and Reverence In which Words they expresly own another Word of God besides the Scripture viz. Tradition which they equalize with the Scripture it self And this is almost verbatim the very Assertion which both Irenaeus and Tertullian condemn for Heresy and as they are the same so we find they are grounded on the same Authority For those very Texts of Scripture which those ancient Hereticks urged for their Tradition are urged by Bellarmin for the Tradition of his Church Thus for their Tradition as Irenaeus and Tertullian acquaints us they urged that of St. Paul We speak Wisdom among them that are perfect and also O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust and again That good Thing which is committed to thee keep All which Texts are urged by Bellarmin in his 4th and 5th Books de Verbo Dei in behalf of that Tradition which the Church of Rome contends for And 't is something hard that that which was damned for Heresy in the Primitive Church should be made an Article of Faith in the present Roman Not that we do disallow of Traditions universally received in all Churches and Ages for we frankly acknowledge that what is now contained in Scripture was Tradition before it was Scripture as being first delivered by Word of Mouth before it was collected into Writing and therefore whensoever it can be made evident to us that there are any unwritten Doctrines bearing the same Stamp of Divine Authority with those that are written we are ready to recive them with the same Veneration as we do the Scriptures themselves For it is not their being written that doth authorize them but their being from God and our Saviour and his Apostles and therefore when once it 's made appear to us that Christ or his Apostles taught so and so that is sufficient to command our Assent and Submission whether it be made appear from Scripture or Tradition So that the Reason why we embrace some Doctrines and reject others is not merely because the one are written and the other not but because to us who live at so great a distance from Christ and his Apostles it can never be made so evident that what is not written was taught by
evident to any one that reads it to be sure among these Things are contained all that is necessary for Men to know and understand 2. From the avowed Design of writing the Scripture it is also evident that in all Things necessary it is plain and clear For thus concerning the Old Testament St. Paul tells us that whatsoever things were written afore time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 And if they were written for our Learning and Instruction to be sure they were so written as to teach and instruct us that is plainly and clearly especially as to those Things wherein we have most need to be instructed And then as for the New Testament St. Luke tells his Theophilus that the Reason of his writing his Gospel was that he might know the certainty of those things that were surely believed among Christians and wherein he himself had been instructed And if it were to ascertain us of the Principles of Christianity that he wrote his Gospel certainly he would take care to write it after such a Manner as that those that read it might understand it otherwise he must run counter to his own Design Thus also St. John saith that he wrote his Gospel that Men might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God but how could his Gospel induce Men to believe This unless it be so written as that Men may understand it And so also for his Epistles he tells us that he wrote them that they that believed in Jesus might know that they have eternal Life and that they may believe or continue to believe on the name of the Son of God And if this were his End to be sure he would take care to write so as that they might understand otherwise how could they know by his Writing that they had eternal Life or be moved thereby to continue to believe on the name of Jesus For there is nothing can create in Men either Knowledge or Faith but what they understand Seeing therefore the great End of Writing the Scripture was to instruct the World in the great Things of Religion either we must say that both the Writers of the Scripture and the Holy Ghost that inspired them were defective in Skill or in Care so to write as to obtain this End or that their Writings are an effectual Means to obtain it which it is impossible for them to be unless they are plain and clear as to the great Things of Religion In short every wise Agent pursues his End by the most proper and effectual Means and I would fain know whether to write plainly or obscurely be the most proper Means to instruct Men by Writing if to write plainly then either the Apostles wrote so or they were not wise Agents since to instruct was the great End of their Writing The most natural Way of conveying to Mens Minds the Notices of Things is by Words either spoken or written and seeing whatsoever can be spoken in plain and intelligible Words may be written in the same Words there can be no doubt but those Words will be as intelligible when they are written as when they are spoken for why should the same Words be more obscure when conveyed to us by our Eyes than when conveyed to us by our Ears Seeing then the Sense of Scripture may be as plainly conveyed by Words written as by Words spoken and seeing that even those who deny the Plainness of Scripture do yet allow that the Sense of it may be plainly conveyed by Words spoken or which is the same thing Oral Tradition if the Scripture be not plain it can be resolved into no other Reason but this that God would not have it so for there is no Doubt but he could have spoken as plainly as Men and have written as plainly as he spoke and therefore if he hath not done so it was because he would not but to say that he would not write those Things plainly which he thought necessary for all Men to know and which he wrote on purpose that all Men might know is to say that he would and would not at the same time or that he wrote them on purpose that Men might know them and yet that he wrote so as that they might not know them 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read the Scripture it is also evident that in all necessary Things it is plain and clear That God doth not only allow but will and rquire us to read the Scripture I shall shew at large hereafter when I come to treat of searching the Scripture Supposing therefore at present the Thing to be true I would fain know to what purpose should God require us to read the Scripture if in those things which are necessary for Men to know and believe it be not plain and intelligible Doth God require us to read it for the sake of reading it or for the sake of understanding it If the former reading any other Book might as well have answered God's End as reading the Scripture because reading is reading whatsoever it be that we read if the later then either the Scripture is plain and intelligible as to all those Things which he requires us to understand or he requires us to read it in vain For to what Purpose should we read that we may understand if that which we are to read be not plain enough to be understood by us As for Instance the Bereans Acts 17.11 are highly commended for searching the Scriptures daily now I would fain know was this a Virtue in them or was it not If not why are they commended for it if it were it was certainly their Duty What was the Intendment of it was it only that they might be expert Readers Why are they so commended for reading the Scriptures above any other Book seeing that reading any other Book would have done as well for that Purpose as reading the Scriptures But the Text it self tells us that the Intendment of their reading the Scripture was that they might know whether those things were so or no which St. Paul had preached to them but how should they know this by reading the Scripture if the Scripture which they read were not plain enough to be understood by them Again St. Paul gives this as a great Commendation of his Son Timothy that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures whence by the Way we may learn that it is not so great a Reproach to our Church as the Romanists intend it for that we permit Women and Children Tinkers and Coblers to read the Scripture But I pray what was the Meaning of Timothy's knowing the Holy Scripture from a Child Was it that he knew the Words of it only or the Sense of it also If the former a Parrot may be taught as much as Timothy had learned and consequently deserve as high a Commendation as he if the later then
would not be worth our while to receive and peruse the Contents of those Sacred Epistles which by the Hands of his Holy Penmen he hath vouchsafed to direct to us Nor is it a sufficient Excuse for our Contempt to say that in Consideration of our own Proneness to Err and Mistake we ought to content our selves with this that our Spiritual Guides should Read God's Writings for us and deliver the Sense and Contents of them to us For to be sure had God intended that the Priests only should read them he would have directed them only to the Priests and ordered them only to deliver the Sense of them to the the People and therefore since he hath directed them to both this necessarily implies that it was his Intention that both should read them For if God had not directed them to Men neither Priests nor People were obliged to read them and therefore seeing the great Reason why any Men ought to Read them is because they are directed to Men this Reason obliges all Men to Read them because they are directed to all Men. For not to be highly concerned to know and understand what it is that God writes to us is an Argument that we have a very mean Regard both of his Majesty and his Mind and Will But to be sure whosoever is highly concerned to know what such a Writing contains will if he can be very curious to peruse it with his own Eyes at least supposing that it is not unlawful for him so to do because there is nothing gives that Satisfaction to a Man's Mind as the Information of his own Sense So that for Men wilfully to neglect reading the Scripture which God hath so expresly directed to them and thereby not only licensed but obliged them to read it argues a very prophane Disregard both of the Author of it and of the Matter it contains and for any Man or Society of Men to forbid the People to read what God hath written and directed to them is not only to deprive them of a Right which God hath given them but also to acquit them of a Duty which he hath laid upon them For St. Paul in those Epistles which he wrote to the Christian People in general of such and such Churches still takes it for granted that they would read them as being not only warranted but obliged thereunto by his writing them for so Ephes 3.3 4. speaking of that great Mystery of the calling the Gentiles which God had revealed to him concerning which saith he I wrote afore in few words whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ So also 2 Cor. 1.13 We write no other things unto you than what you read that is than what you may at least and are obliged to read by vertue of our writing them to you And as for his Epistle to the Thessalonians which he wrote to that whole Church he gives charge that it should be read to all the Holy Brethren 1 Thes 5.27 So also for that of the Colossians When this Epistle is or hath been read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea Where you see he all along either supposes or requires that what he wrote to all should be read by all and to all If therefore this Authority of St. Paul be sufficient to over rule the Authority of any pretended Successor of St. Peter then it 's certain that reading the Scripture is still the Duty of Lay-men notwithstanding any Papal Prohibition to the contrary 5. From the great Concernment the People have in the Matters contained in Scripture it is also evident that they are obliged if they are able to read it and acquaint themselves with it For as for the Matters which the Scriptures contain they are such as are of everlasting Moment to the People as well as to the Clergy The Articles of Faith which the Scripture proposes are as necessary to be believed by the People as by the Clergy The Precepts of Life which the Scripture prescribes are as necessary to be practised by the People as by the Clergy The Promises and Threats with which the Scripture inforces those Precepts are as necessary to be considered by the People as by the Clergy And seeing both are equally concerned in the great Matters which the Scriptures contain what Reason can be assigned why both should not be obliged to acquaint themselves with them I know 't is pretended that it is the proper Office of the Clergy to study the Scriptures for the People as well as for themselves and that therefore the People are obliged to receive the Sense of the Scriptures upon Trust from their Teachers without making any farther Enquiry But I beseech you are you sure that your Teachers are infallible That they are not so is most certain it being notorious that most of the prevailing Heresies of Christendom were first set on broach by the Teachers of the Church and it is impossible they should be infallible who have so often actually erred even in Matters of the highest Moment Suppose then what is fairly supposable that your Teachers should mislead you and not only into dangerous but damnable Errors are you sure that they shall be damned for you and that you shall escape If so then Heresy in the Laity can never be damnable if they receive it upon Trust from their Teachers and consequently their Souls are as safe under the Conduct of false Teachers as true provided always that right or wrong they believe what is taught them But if your selves must give an Account to God as well for your Faith as for your Manners and are liable in your own Persons to eternal Damnation as most certainly you are as well for Heresy as Immorality then it is the most unreasonable Thing in the World that you should in all Things be obliged to believe your Teachers upon Trust for at this rate a Man may be eternally damned meerly for believing what he is obliged to believe If it be said that the People are not bound to believe what their particular Pastor teaches but what the Church teaches them and the Church cannot err though their particular Pastor may I would fain know how shall the People be otherwise informed what the Church teaches them than by the Expositions of their particular Pastors they being at least as incapable of informing themselves what the Doctrine of the Church is as what the Doctrine of the Scripture is and therefore if their Pastor should err damnably in expounding to them what the Church teaches as it is supposable he may if he be not infallible there is no Remedy but they must err damnably in believing whatsoever their Pastor teaches But we are farther told that it is sufficient for the People that they believe in the gross that whatsoever the Church teaches is true and that as for the particulars there
and had been bred up in its Communion from my Infancy will they allow me when I come to the full use of my Reason fairly to question whether theirs be the only true Church or no and to hear the Reasons and examine the Scriptures and consult the Doctors on both sides No by no means this I am forbid under the penalty of being deprived of the Benefit of Priestly Absolution So that in short they will allow me to make Use of my Reason if I have been bred an Heretick in order to my Reconciliation to their Church but if I have never been an Heretick I must never use my Reason to examine the Truth either of my Church or Religion that is to say I may use my Reason when there is no other Remedy and I must continue a Heretick if I do not But it were much better that I had never had Occasion to use my Reason at all So that according to these Men the Use of our Reason in Religion is only the least of two Evils it is not so bad as to continue a Heretick but if I had never been one it would be very bad and a certain Way to make me one which methinks looks very odd that the Use of my Reason should be necessary to reduce me from Heresy and the disuse of it as necessary when I am reduced to preserve me from relapsing into Heresy 'T is a memorable Passage of the Bishop of St. Mark in the Council of Trent that Seculars are obliged humbly to obey that Doctrine of Faith which is given them by the Church without disputing or thinking farther of it Where by the Church he means the Clergy assembled in that Council So that according to this Man's Doctrine the Faith of the People is a meer Beast of Burthen that right or wrong must bear all the Load that the Priests shall agree to lay upon it and though it should feel it self oppressed by them with never such gross Contradictions or Absurdities it must think no farther of it but tamely trudg on without starting or bogling At this Rate what Tricks may not the Priests play with the Faith of the People Let them invent what Doctrines they please to serve the Interest of their own Ambition and Covetousness the People must believe them without asking why or if they should ask why they must expect no other Answer but this because we have thought to define and declare them For it is by no means allowable that the People should exercise any private Judgment of their own about Matters of Faith no I confess it is not where the Matters proposed to their Faith are false and erroneous because it is a thousand to one but one time or other the People will discover the Frauds and Impostures of the Priests and this would spoil all But if the Matters of Faith are true in all Probability the farther the People enquire into them the better they will be satisfied about them and if in the Exercise of their private Judgments they should in some particulars err that is far more tollerable than that they should be utterly deprived of the Means of being able to give an Answer to every one that asks them a Reason of the Hope that is in them But when God hath given the People reasonable Faculties on purpose that by them they may be able to distinguish what is true from what is false for any Party of Men to forbid them the Use of these Faculties in distinguishing what is true from what is false in Religion in which above all Things they are most highly concerned it is a most injurious Usurpation upon the common Rights of humane Nature For by this Means our best Faculty is rendred useless to us in our greatest Concerns and whereas God gave it to us on purpose to guide and direct us we are utterly deprived of it's Guidance where we have most need of it and where it will prove most fà tal to us if we should happen to err and go astray A DISSUASIVE FROM APOSTACY 1 TIMOTHY I. 19. Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack THese Words are a part of St. Paul's Charge to his Son Timothy wherein he Pathetically Exhorts him as a Valiant Bishop to take all possible Care to preserve the Purity of the Christian Doctrine in his Diocess of Ephesus which at that time abounded with false Teachers whose Business it was to sow the Tares of Heresie and false Doctrine in that large and fruitful Field the Cultivation whereof St. Paul had committed to his Charge And that he might discharge this Office the more effectually the Apostle warns him in the first Place to take Care of himself that he did not suffer his own Faith and Manners to be depraved and corrupted by those lewd and irreligious Principles which those Antichristian Seminaries were then scattering among his People that so he might be an Example to his Flock as well as a Teacher of pure and undefiled Religion And this v. 18. he presses upon him from the Consideration of what had been foretold of him by Divine Inspiration before ever he entered upon his Ministry viz. That he should war a good warfare that is prove a constant and couragious Champion of the Christian Faith which Prophesies he exhorts him to use his utmost endeavour to verifie both in his Profession and Practice by holding or as it is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having or keeping faith and a good conscience which later viz. a good conscience some having put away concerning the former viz. Faith have made shipwrack Before we proceed to the Design of these Words it will be necessary briefly to explain some Terms in them as 1. What is meant by Faith 2. What by a good Conscience 3. What by putting away a good Conscience And 4. What by making shipwrack of the Faith 1. As for the first What is here meant by keeping the Faith I answer By this Phrase Faith we are to understand the Christian Creed or summary of those necessary and essential Doctrines whereof the Christian Religion is composed For at that time there was little else professed and taught in the Christian Churches but only the fundamental Principles of Christianity together with the nearest and most immediate Inferences from them so that few then mis-believed but such as mis-believed in Fundamentals and every Error in Doctrine was generally a Heresie The Christian Faith in those Days lay within a narrow compass and so it continued till the Wantonness and Curiosity of succeeding Ages started disputable Opinions and as they prevailed adopted them into the Family of Faith insomuch that in process of Time sundry Opinions were received that were never so much as heard of in the Apostolical Age and as soon as they were received they were presently declared necessary Articles And as for the contradictory Opinions though Christianity was little or nothing concerned whether they