not of weight and Authority to restraine their Liberty so wholy but that they may dissent when they see a reason strong enough so to perswade them as to be willing upon the confidence of that reason and their own sincerity to answer to God for such their modesty and peaceable but as they believe their necessary disagreeing SECT VII Of the fallibility of the Pope and the uncertainty of his Expounding Scripture and resolving Questions BUt since the Question between the Councell and the Pope Numb 1. grew high there have not wanted abettors so confident on the Popes behalfe as to believe Generall Councels to be nothing but Pompes and Solennities of the Catholike Church and that all the Authority of determining Controversies is formally and effectually in the Pope And therefore to appeale from the Pope to a future Councell is a heresy yea and Treason too said Pope Pius II and therefore it concerns us now Epist. ad Norimberg to be wise and wary But before I proceed I must needs remember that Pope Pius II while he was the wise and learned Patrum avorum nostrorum tempore pauci audebant dicere Papam esse supra Concilium l. 1. de gestis Concil Basil. Aeneas Sylvius was very confident for the preheminence of a Councell and gave a merry reason why more Clerks were for the Popes then the Councell though the truth was on the other side even because the Pope gives Bishopricks and Abbeys but Councels give none and yet as soone as he was made Pope as if he had been inspired his eyes were open to see the great priviledges of S. Peters Chaire which before he could not see being amused with the truth or else with the reputation of a Generall Councell But however there are many that hope to make it good that the Pope is the Universall and the infallible Doctor that he breathes Decrees as Oracles that to dissent from any of his Cathedrall determinations is absolute heresy the Rule of Faith being nothing else but consormity to the Chaire of Peter So that here we have met a restraint of Prophecy indeed but yet to make amends I hope we shall have an infallible Guide and when a man is in Heaven he will never complaine that his choyce is taken from him and that he is confin'd to love and to admire since his love and his admiration is fixt upon that which makes him happy even upon God himselfe And in the Church of Rome there is in a lower degree but in a true proportion as little cause to be troubled that we are confin'd to believe just so and no choice left us for our understandings to discover or our wills to chuse because though we be limited yet we are pointed out where we ought to rest we are confin'd to our Center and there where our understandings will be satisfied and therefore will be quiet and where after all our strivings studies and endeavours we desire to come that is to truth for there we are secur'd to find it because we have a Guide that is infallible If this prove true we are well enough But if it be false or uncertain it were better we had still kept our liberty then be cozened out of it with gay pretences This then we must consider And here we shall be oppressed with a cloud of Witnesses For what more plaine then the Commission given to Peter Numb 2. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church And to thee will I give the Keyes And again for thee have I prayed that thy faith faile not but thou when thou art converted confirm thy brethren And again If thou lovest me feed my sheep Now nothing of this being spoken to any of the other Apostles by one of these places S. Peter must needs be appointed Foundation or Head of the Church and by consequence he is to rule and govern all By some other of these places he is made the supreme Pastor and he is to teach and determine all and inabled with an infallible power so to doe And in a right understanding of these Authorities the Fathers speak great things of the Chaire of Peter for we are as much bound to believe that all this was spoken to Peters Successors as to his Person that must by all meanes be supposed and so did the old Doctors who had as much certainty of it as we have and no more but yet let 's hear what they have said a Irenae contra haeres l. 3. c. 3. To this Church by reason of its more powerfull principality it is necessary all Churches round about should Convene ..... In this Tradition Apostolicall alwayes was observed and therefore to communicate with this Bishop with this * Ambr. de obitu Salyri l. 1. Ep. 4. ad Imp. Cypr. Ep. 52. Church was to be in Communion with the Church Catholike .... b Cypr. Ep. 55. ad Cornel. To this Church errour or perfidiousnesse cannot have accesse .... c S. Austin in Psal. contra partem Donat. Against this Sea the gates of Hell cannot prevaile .... d Hieron Ep. 57. ad Damasum For we know this Church to be built upon a Rock .... And whoever eats the Lamb not within this House is prophane he that is not in the Ark of Noah perishes in the inundation of waters He that gathers not with this Bishop he scatters and he that belongeth not to Christ must needs belong to Antichrist And that 's his finall sentence But if you would have all this prov'd by an infallible Argument e L. 2. contra Parmenian Optatus of Milevis in Africa supplies it to us from the very name of Peter For therefore Christ gave him the cognomination of Cephas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shew that S. Peter was the visible Head of the Catholike Church Dignum patellà operculum This long harangue must needs be full of tragedy to all them that take liberty to themselves to follow Scripture and their best Guides if it happens in that liberty that they depart from the perswasions or the Communion of Rome But indeed if with the peace of the Bishops of Rome I may say it this Scene is the most unhandsomely laid and the worst carried of any of those pretences that have lately abused Christendome 1. Against the Allegations of Scripture I shall lay no greater Numb 3. prejudice then this that if a person dis-interested should see them and consider what the products of them might possibly be the last thing that he would think of would be how that any of these places should serve the ends or pretences of the Church of Rome For to instance in one of the particulars that man had need have a strong fancy who imagines that because Christ pray'd for S. Peter that being he had design'd him to be one of those upon whose preaching and Doctrine he did meane to constitute a Church that his faith
integrity of Christian Faith or salvation of our souls Christ declared all the will of his Father and the Apostles were Stewards and Dispensers of the same Mysteries and were faithfull in all the house and therefore conceald nothing but taught the whole Doctrine of Christ so they said themselves And indeed if they did not teach all the Doctrine of Faith an Angel or a man might have taught us other things then what they taught without deserving an Anathema but not without deserving a blessing for making up that Faith intire which the Apostles left imperfect Now if they taught all the whole body of Faith either the Church in the following Ages lost part of the Faith and then where was their infallibility and the effect of those glorious promises to which she pretends and hath certain Title for she may as well introduce a falshood as loose a truth it being as much promised to her that the Holy Ghost shall lead her into all truth as that she shall be preserved from all errors as appears Ioh. 16. 13. Or if she retaind all the Faith which Christ and his Apostles consign'd and taught then no Age can by declaring any point make that be an Article of Faith which was not so in all Ages of Christianity before such declaration And indeed if the * Vide Iacob Almain in 3. Sent. d 25. Q. Vnic Dub. 3 Patet ergo quod nulla veritas est Catholica ex approbatione Ecclesiae vei Papae Gabr. Biel. in 3. Sent. Dist 25. q. Unic art 3. Dub. 3. ad finem Church by declaring an Article can make that to be necessary which before was not necessary I doe not see how it can stand with the charity of the Church so to doe especially after so long experience shee hath had that all men will not believe every such decision or explication for by so doing she makes the narrow way to heaven narrower and chalks out one path more to the Devill then he had before and yet the way was broad enough when it was at the narrowest For before differing persons might be saved in diversity of perswasions and now afterthis declaration if they cannot there is no other alteration made but that some shall be damned who before even in the same dispositions and beliefe should have been beatified persons For therefore it is well for the Fathers of the Primitive Church that their errors were not discovered for if they had been contested for that would have been cald discovery enough vel errores emendassent vel ab Ecclesiâ Bellar. de laici◠l. 3. c. 20. §. ad primam confirmationem ejecti fuissent But it is better as it was they went to heaven by that good fortune whereas otherwise they might have gone to the Devill And yet there were some errors particularly that of S. Cyprian that was discovered and he went to heaven 't is thought possibly they might so too for all this pretence But suppose it true yet whether that declaration of an Article of which with safety we either might have doubted or beene ignorant does more good then the damning of those many soules occasionally but yet certainely and fore-knowingly does hurt I leave it to all wise and good men to determine And yet besides this it cannot enter into my thoughts that it can possibly consist with Gods goodnesse to put it into the power of man so palpably and openly to alter the paths and in-lets to heaven and to streighten his mercies unlesse he had furnished these men with an infallible judgement and an infallible prudence and a never failing charity that they should never doe it but with great necessity and with great truth and without ends and humane designes of which I think no Arguments can make us certaine what the Primitive Church hath done in this case I shall afterwards consider and give an account of it but for the present there is no insecurity in ending there where the Apostles ended in building where they built in resting where they left us unlesse the same infallibility which they had had still continued which I think I shall hereafter make evident it did not And therefore those extensions of Creed which were made in the first Ages of the Church although for the matter they were most true yet because it was not certain that they should be so and they might have been otherwise therefore they could not be in the same order of Faith nor in the same degrees of necessity to be believ'd with the Articles Apostolicall and therefore whether they did well or no in laying the same weight upon them or whether they did lay the same weight or no we will afterwards consider But to return I consider that a foundation of Faith cannot alter unlesse a new building be to be made the foundation is Numb 13. the same still and this foundation is no other but that which Christ and his Apostles laid which Doctrine is like himselfe yesterday and to day and the same for ever So that the Articles of necessary beliefe to all which are the only foundation they cannot be severall in severall Ages and to severall persons Nay the sentence declaration of the Church cannot lay this foundation or make any thing of the foundation because the Church cannot lay her own foundation we must suppose her to be a building and that she relies upon the foundation which is therefore supposed to be laid before because she is built upon it or to make it more explicate because a cloud may arise from the Allegory of building and foundation it is plainly thus The Church being a company of men obliged to the duties of Faith and obedience the duty and obligation being of the faculties of will and understanding to adhere to such an object must pre-suppose the object made ready for them for as the object is before the act in order of nature and therefore not to be produc'd or encreased by the faculty which is receptive cannot be active upon its proper object So the object of the Churches Faith is in order of nature before the Church or before the act and habite of Faith and therefore cannot be enlarged by the Church any more then the act of the visive faculty can adde visibility to the object So that if we have found out what foundation Christ and his Apostles did lay that is what body and systeme of Articles simply necessary they taught and requir'd of us to believe we need not we cannot goe any further for foundation we cannot enlarge that systeme or collection Now then although all that they said is true and nothing of it to be doubted or dis-believed yet as all that they said is neither written nor delivered because all was not necessary so we know that of those things which are written some things are as farre off from the foundation as those things which were omitted and therefore although now accidentally they must be beliv'd
have been believed But I said the fancy was new and I had reason for it was so unknown till yesterday that even the late Writers of his own side expound the words of the confession of S. Peter exclusively to his person or any thing else as is to be seen in a Desens pacis part 2. c. 28. Marsilius b Recommend sacr Script Petrus de Aliaco and the glosse upon Dist. 19. can ita Dominus § ut supra which also was the Interpretation of Phavorinus Camers their own Bishop from whom they learnt the resemblance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which they have made so many gay discourses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. But upon condition I may have leave at another time to Numb 7. recede from so great and numerous Testimony of Fathers I am willing to believe that it was not the confession of S. Peter but his person upon which Christ said he would build his Church or that these Expositions are consistent with and consequent to each other that this confession was the objective foundation of Faith and Christ and his Apostles the subjective Christ principally and S. Peter instrumentally and yet I understand not any advantage will hence accrue to the Sea of Rome For upon S Peter it was built but not alone for it was upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himselfe being the chief corner stone and when S. Paul reckoned the Oeconomy of Hierarchy he reckons not Peter first and then the Apostles But first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. And whatsoever is first either is before all things else or at least nothing is before it So that at least S. Peter is not before all the rest of the Apostles which also S. Paul expresly averres I am in nothing inferiour to the very chiefest of the Apostles no not in the very being a Rock and a foundation and it was of the Church of Ephesus that S. Paul said in particular it was columna firmamentum veritatis that Church was not excluding others for they also were as much as she for so we keep close and be united to the corner stone although some be master builders Vid. Socrat. l. 1. c. 19. 20. Sozom. l. 2. c 14. Niceph. l. 14. c. 40. yet all may build and we have known whole Nations converted by Lay-men and women who have been builders so farre as to bring them to the corner stone 6. But suppose all these things concern S. Peter in all the Numb 8. capacities can be with any colour pretended yet what have the Bishops of Rome to doe with this For how will it appear that these promises and Commissions did relate to him as a particular Bishop and not as a publike Apostle Since this later is so much the more likely because the great pretence of all seemes in reason more proportionable to the founding of a Church then its continuance And yet if they did relate to him as a particular Bishop which yet is a further degree of improbability removed further from certainty yet why shall S. Clement or Linus rather succeed in this great office of headship then S. Iohn or any of the Apostles that survived Peter It is no way likely a private person should skip over the head of an Apostle or why shall his Successors at Rome more enjoy the benefit of it then his Successors at Antioch since that he was at Antioch and preached there we have a Divine Authority but that he did so at Rome at most we have but a humane and if it be replyed that because he dyed at Rome it was Argument enough that there his Successors were to inherit his priviledge this besides that at most it is but one little degree of probability and so not of strength sufficient to support an Article of faith it makes that the great Divine Right of Rome and the Apostolicall presidency was so contingent and fallible as to depend upon the decree of Nero and if he had sent him to Antioch there to have suffered Martyrdome the Bishops of that Town had been heads of the Catholike Church And this thing presses the harder because it is held by no meane persons in the Church of Rome that the Bishoprick of Rome and the Papacy are things separable And the Pope may quit that Sea and sit in another which to my understanding is an Argument that he that succeeded Peter at Antioch is as much supream by Divine Right as he that sits at Rome both alike that is Vid. Cameracens Qu. vel◠est neither by Divine Ordinance For if the Roman Bishops by Christ's intention were to be Head of the Church then by the same intention the Succession must be continued in that Sea and then let the Pope goe whether he will the Bishop of Rome must be the Head which they themselves deny and the Pope himselfe did not believe when in a schisme he sate at Avignon and that it was to be continued in the Sea of Rome it is but offered to us upon conjecture upon an act providence as they fancy it so ordering it by vision and this proved by an Author which themselves call fabulous and Apocryphall under the name of Linus in Biblioth PP de passione Petri Pauli A goodly building which relies upon an event that was accidentall whose purpose was but infinuated the meaning of it but conjectur'd at and this conjecture so uncertain that it was an imperfect aime at the purpose of an event which whether it was true or no was so uncertain that it is ten to one there was no such matter And yet again another degree of uncertainty is to whom the Bishops of Rome doe succeed For S. Paul was as much Bishop of Rome as S. Peter was there he presided there he preach'd and he it was that was the Doctor of the Uncircumcision and of the Gentiles S. Peter of the Circumcision and of the Jewes only and therefore the converted Jewes at Rome might with better reason claim the priviledge of S. Peter then the Romans and the Churches in her Communion who doe not derive from Jewish Parents 7. If the words were never so appropriate to Peter or also Numb 9. communicated to his Successors yet of what value will the consequent be what prerogative is entail'd upon the Chaire of Rome For that S. Peter was the Ministeriall Head of the Church is the most that is desir'd to be prov'd by those and all other words brought for the same purposes and interests of that Sea Now let the Ministerall Head have what Dignity can be imagined let him be the first and in all Communities that are regular and orderly there must be something that is first upon certain occasions where an equall power cannot be exercised and made pompous or ceremoniall But will this Ministeriall Headship inferre an infallibility will it inferre more then the Headship of the Jewish Synagogue
God and lives as contrary to the Lawes of Christianity as a Heretick and I am also sure that I know what drunkennesse is but I am not sure that such an opinion is Heresy neither would other men be so sure as they think for if they did consider it aright and observe the infinite deceptions and causes of deceptions in wise men and in most things and in all doubtfull Questions and that they did not mistake confidence for certainty But indeed I could not but smile at those jolly Fryers two Franciscans offered themselves to the fire to prove Savonarola to be a Heretick but a certaine Iacobine offered himselfe to Commin l. 8. c. 19. the fire to prove that Savonarola had true Revelations and was no Heretick in the meane time Savonarola preacht but made no such confident offer not durst he venture at that new kind of fire Ordeal and put case all four had past through the fire and dyed in the flames what would that have proved Had he been a Heretick or no Heretick the more or the lesse for the confidence of these Zealous Ideots If we mark it a great many Arguments whereon many Sects rely are no better probation then this comes to Confidence is the first and the second and the third part of a very great many of their propositions But now if men would a little turn the Tables and be as zealous for a good life and all the strictest precepts of Christianity which is a Religion the most holy the most reasonable and the most consummate that ever was taught to man as they are for such propositions in which neither the life nor the ornament of Christianity is concerned we should find that as a consequent of this piety men would be as carefull as they could to find out all truths and the sense of all revelations which may concern their duty and where men were miserable and could not yet others that liv'd good lives too would also be so charitable as not to adde affliction to this misery and both of them are parts of good life to be compassionate and to help to beare one anothers burdens not to destroy the weak but to entertain him meekly that 's a precept of charity and to endeavour to find out the whole will of God that also is a part of the obedience the choyce and the excellency of Faith and hee lives not a good life that does not doe both these But men think they have more reason to bee zealous against Heresy then against a vice in manners because Heresy is infectious and dangerous and the principle of much evill Indeed if by a Heresy we mean that which is against an Article of Creed and breaks part of the Covenant made between God and man by the mediation of Jesus Christ I grant it to be a very grievous crime a calling Gods veracity into question and a destruction also of good life because upon the Articles of Creed obedience is built and it lives or dies as the effect does by its proper cause for Faith is the morall cause of obedience But then Heresy that is such as this is also a vice and the person criminall and so the sin is to be esteem'd in its degrees of malignity and let men be as zealous against it as they can and imploy the whole arsenall of the spirituall armour against it such as this is worse then adultery or murther in as much as the soule is more noble then the body and a false doctrine is of greater dissemination and extent then a single act of violence or impurity Adultery or murder is a duell but Heresy truly and indeed such is an unlawfull warre it slayes thousands The loosing of Faith is like digging down a foundation all the superstructures of hope and patience and charity fall with it And besides this Heresy of all crimes is the most inexcusable and of least temptation for true faith is most commonly kept with the least trouble of any grace in the world and Heresy of it selfe hath not only no pleasure in it but is a very punishment because faith as it opposes hereticall or false opinions and distinguishes from charity consists in meare acts of believing which because they are of true propositions are naturall and proportionable to the understanding and more honourable then false But then concerning those things which men now adayes call Heresy they cannot be so formidable as they are represented and if we consider that drunkennesse is certainly a damnable sin and that there are more Drunkards then Hereticks and that drunkennesse is parent of a thousand vices it may better bee said of this vice then of most of those opinions which we call Heresies it is infectious and dangerous and the principle of much evill and therefore as fit an object for a pious zeale to contest against as is any of those opinions which trouble mens ease or reputation for that is the greatest of their malignity But if we consider that Sects are made and opinions are called Heresies upon interest and the grounds of emolument we shall see that a good life would cure much of this mischiefe For first the Church of Rome which is the great dictatrix of dogmaticall resolutions and the declarer of Heresy and calls Heretick more then all the world besides hath made that the rule of Heresy which is the conservatory of interest and the ends of men For to recede from the Doctrine of the Church with them makes Heresy that is to disrepute their Authority and not to obey them not to be their subjects not to give them the Empire of our conscience is the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Heresy So that with them Heresy is to be esteemed clearely by humane ends not by Divine Rules that is formall Heresy which does materially disserve them and it would make a suspicious man a little inquisitive into their particular Doctrins and when hee finds that Indulgences and Jubilies and Purgatories and Masses and Offices for the dead are very profitable that the Doctrine of primacy of infallibility of superiority over Councels of indirect power in temporals are great instruments of secular honour would be apt enough to think that if the Church of Rome would learn to lay her honour at the feet of the Crucifix and despise the world and preferre Ierusalem before Rome and Heaven above the Lateran that these opinions would not have in them any native strength to support them against the perpetuall assaults of their Adversaries that speak so much reason and Scripture against them I have instanced in the Roman Religion but I wish it may be considered also how farre mens Doctrines in other Sects serve mens temporall ends so farre that it would not bee unreasonable or unnecessary to attempt to cure some of their distemperatures or misperswasions by the salutary precepts of sanctity and holy life Sure enough if it did not more concern their reputation and their lasting interest
life for in matters speculative as all determinations are fallible so scarce any of them are to purpose nor ever able to make compensation of either side either for the publike fraction or the particular injustice if it should so happen in the censure But then as the Church may proceed thus far yet no Christian man or Community of men may proceed farther For if they Numb 2. be deceived in their judgement and censure and yet have passed onely spirituall censures they are totally ineffectuall and come to nothing there is no effect remaining upon the soule and such censures are not to meddle with the body so much as indirectly But if any other judgement passe upon persons erring such judgements whose effects remaine if the person be unjustly censured nothing will answer and make compensation for such injuries If a person be excommunicate unjustly it will doe him no hurt but if he be killed or dismembred unjustly that censure and infliction is not made ineffectuall by his innocence he is certainly kill'd and dismembred So that as the Churches authority in such cases so restrained and made prudent cautelous and orderly is just and competent so the proceeding is reasonable it is provident for the publike and the inconveniences that may fall upon particulars so little as that the publique benefit makes ample compensation so long as the proceeding is but spirituall This discourse is in the case of such opinions which by the former rules are formall heresies and upon practicall inconveniences Numb 3. But for matters of question which have not in them an enmity to the publique tranquillity as the Republique hath nothing to doe upon the ground of all the former discourses so if the Church meddles with them where they doe not derive into ill life either in the person or in the consequent or else are destructions of the foundation of Religion which is all one for that those fundamentall articles are of greatest necessity in order to a vertuous and godly life which is wholly built upon them and therefore are principally necessary If she meddles further otherwise then by preaching and conferring and exhortation she becomes tyrannicall in her government makes her selfe an immediate judge of consciences and perswasions lords it over their faith destroyes unity and charity and as if he that dogmatizes the opinion becomes criminall if he troubles the Church with an immodest peevish and pertinacious proposall of his article not simply necessary so the Church does not doe her duty if she so condemnes it pro tribunali as to enjoyne him and all her subjects to beleeve the contrary And as there may be pertinacy in doctrine so there may be pertinacy in judging and both are faults The peace of the Church and the unity of her doctrine is best conserved when it is judged by the proportion it hath to that rule of unity which the Apostles gave that is the Creed for Articles of meer beliefe and the precepts of Jesus Christ and the practicall rules of piety which are most plaine and easie and without controversie set downe in the Gospels and Writings of the Apostles But to multiply articles and adopt them into the family of the faith and to require assent to such articles which as S. Pauls phrase is are of doubtfull disputation equall to that assent wee give to matters of faith is to build a Tower upon the top of a Bulrush and the further the effect of such proceedings does extend the worse they are the very making such a Law is unreasonable the inflicting spirituall censures upon them that cannot doe so much violence to their understanding as to obey it is unjust and ineffectuall but to punish the person with death or with corporall infliction indeed it is effectuall but it is therefore tyrannicall We have seen what the Church may doe towards restraining false or differing opinions next I shall consider by way of Corollarie what the Prince may doe as for his interest and onely in securing his people and serving the ends of true Religion SECT XVI Whether it be lawfull for a Prince to give toleration to severall Religions FOr upon these very grounds we may easily give account of Numb 1. that great question Whether it be lawfull for a Prince to give toleration to severall Religions For first it is a great fault that men will call the severall sects of Christians by the names of severall Religions The Religion of JESUS CHRIST is the forme of sound doctrine and wholsome words which is set downe in Scripture indefinitely actually conveyed to us by plaine places and separated as for the question of necessary or not necessary by the Symbol of the Apostles Those impertinencies which the wantonness and vanity of men hath commenced which their interests have promoted which serve not truth so much as their own ends are farre from being distinct Religions for matters of opinion are no parts of the worship of God nor in order to it but as they promote obedience to his Commandments and when they contribute towards it are in that proportion as they contribute parts and actions and minute particulars of that Religion to whose end they doe or pretend to serve And such are all the sects and all the pretences of Christians but pieces and minutes of Christianity if they doe serve the great end as every man for his owne sect and interest beleeves for his share it does 2. Tolleration hath a double sense or purpose for sometimes by it men understand a publick licence and exercise of a sect Sometimes it is onely an indemnity of the persons privately to convene and to opine as they see cause and as they meane to answer to God Both these are very much to the same purpose unlesse some persons whom we are bound to satisfie be scandaliz'd and then the Prince is bound to doe as he is bound to satisfie To God it is all one For abstracting from the offence of persons which is to be considered just as our obligation is to content the persons it is all one whether we indulge to them to meet publikely or privately to do actions of Religion concerning which we are not perswaded that they are truely holy To God it is just one to be in the dark and in the light the thing is the same onely the Circumstance of publick and private is different which cannot be concerned in any thing nor can it concerne any thing but the matter of Scandall and relation to the minds and fantasies of certaine persons 3. So that to tolerate is not to persecute And the question Numb 3. whether the Prince may tollerate divers perswasions is no more then whether he may lawfully persecute any man for not being of his opinion Now in this case he is just so to tollerate diversity of perswasions as he is to tolerate publike actions for no opinion is judicable nor no person punishable but for a sin and if his opinion by reason
fancy and hath in it nothing of certainty or demonstration and not much probability For besides that the thing it selfe is unreasonable and the holy Ghost works by the heigthning and improving our naturall faculties and therefore is a promise that so concernes them as they are reasonable creatures and may have a title to it in proportion to their nature but no possession or reception of it till their faculties come into act besides this I say the words mentioned in S. Peter's Sermon which are the only record of the promise are interpreted upon a weak mistake The promise belongs to you and to your children therefore Infants are actually receptive of it in that capacity That 's the Argument but the reason of it is not yet discovered nor ever will for to you and your children is to you and your posterity to you your children when they are of the same capacity in which you are effectually receptive of the promise But he that when ever the word children is used in Scripture shall by children understand Infants must needs believe that in all Israel there were no men but all were Infants and if that had been true it had beene the greater wonder they should overcome the Anakims and beat the King of Moab and march so farre and discourse so well for they were all called the children of Israel And for the Allegation of S. Paul that Infants are holy if Numb 20. their Parents be faithfull it signifies nothing but that they are holy by designation just as Jeremy and John Baptist were sanctified in their Mothers womb that is they were appointed and design'd for holy Ministeries but had not received the Promise of the Father the gift of the holy Ghost for all that sanctification and just so the Children of Christian Parents are sanctified that is design'd to the service of Jesus Christ and the future participation of the Promises And as the Promise appertaines not for ought appears to Numb 21. Infants in that capacity and consistence but only by the title of their being reasonable creatures and when they come to that act of which by nature they have the faculty so if it did yet Baptism is not the meanes of conveying the holy Ghost For that which Peter sayes be baptized and ye shall receive the holy Ghost signifies no more then this First be baptized and then by imposition of the Apostles hands which was another mystery and rite ye shall receive the Promise of the Father And this is nothing but an insinuation of the rite of confirmation as is to this sense expounded by divers Ancient Authors and in ordinary ministry the effect of it is not bestowed upon any unbaptized persons for it is in order next after Baptism and upon this ground Peter's Argument in the case of Cornelius was concluding enough à majori ad minus Thus the holy Ghost was bestowed upon him and his Family which gift by ordinary ministery was consequent to Baptism not as the effect is to the cause or to the proper instrument but as a consequent is to an antecedent in a chaine of causes accidentally and by positive institution depending upon each other God by that miracle did give testimony that the persons of the men were in great dispositions towards Heaven and therefore were to be admitted to those Rites which are the ordinary inlets into the Kingdome of Heaven But then from hence to argue that wherever there is a capacity of receiving the same grace there also the same sign is to be ministred and from hence to inferre Paedo-baptism is an Argument very fallacious upon severall grounds First because Baptism is not the sign of the holy Ghost but by another mystery it was conveyed ordinarily and extraordinarily it was conveyed independently from any mystery and so the Argument goes upon a wrong supposition Secondly if the supposition were true the proposition built upon it is false for they that are capable of the same grace are not alwayes capable of the same sign for women under the Law of Moses although they were capable of the righteousnesse of Faith yet they were not capable of the sign of Circumcision For God does not alwayes convey his graces in the same manner but to some mediately to others immediatly and there is no better instance in the world of it then the gift of the holy Ghost which is the thing now instanc'd in this contestation for it is certain in Scripture that it was ordinarily given by imposition of hands and that after Baptism And when this came into an ordinary ministery it was called by the Ancient Church Chrism or Confirmation but yet it was given sometimes without imposition of hands as at Pentecost and to the Family of Cornelius sometimes before Baptism sometimes after sometimes in conjunction with it And after all this least these Arguments should not ascertaine Numb 22. their Cause they fall on complaining against God and will not be content with God unlesse they may baptize their Children but take exceptions that God did more for the Children of the Jewes But why so Because God made a Covenant with their Children actually as Infants and consign'd it by Circumcision Well so he did with our children too in their proportion He made a Covenant of spirituall Promises on his part and spirituall and reall services on ours and this pertains to Children when they are capable but made with them as soon as they are alive and yet not so as with the Jewes Babes for as their rite consign'd them actually so it was a Nationall and temporall blessing and Covenant as a separation of them from the portion of the Nations a marking them for a peculiar people and therefore while they were in the Wildernesse and separate from the commixture of all people they were not at all circumcised but as that rite did seale the righteousnesse of Faith so by vertue of its adherency and remanency in their flesh it did that work when the Children came to age But in Christian Infants the case is otherwise for the new Covenant being establish'd upon better Promises is not only to better purposes but also in distinct manner to be understood when their spirits are as receptive of a spirituall act or impresse as the bodies of Jewish Children were of the sign of Circumcision then it is to be consign'd But this businesse is quickly at an end by saying that God hath done no lesse for ours then for their Children for hee will doe the mercies of a Father and Creator to them and he did no more to the other but he hath done more to ours for he hath made a Covenant with them and built it upon Promises of the greatest concernment he did not so to them But then for the other part which is the maine of the Argument that unlesse this mercy be consign'd by Baptism as good not at all in respect of us because we want the comfort of it this is
persons of much reason and more piety to retain that which they know to have been the Religion of their fore-Fathers which had actuall possession and seizure of mens understandings before the opposite professions had a name And so much the rather because Religion hath more advantages upon the fancy and affections then it hath upon Philosophy and severe discourses and therefore is the more easily perswaded upon such grounds as these which are more apt to amuse then to satisfie the understanding Secondly If we consider the Doctrines themselves we shall Numb 3. finde them to be superstructures ill built and worse manag'd but yet they keep the foundation they build upon God in Jesus Christ they professe the Apostles Creed they retain Faith and Repentance as the supporters of all our hopes of Heaven and believe many more truths then can be proved to be of simple and originall necessity to salvation And therefore all the wisest Personages of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of salvation whilst their errours are not faults of their will but weaknesses and deceptions of the understanding So that there is nothing in the foundation of Faith that can reasonably hinder them to be permitted The foundation of Faith stands secure enough for all their vaine and unhandsome superstructures But then on the other side if we take account of their Doctrines as they relate to good life or are consistent or inconsistent with civill Government we shall have other considerations Thirdly For I consider that many of their Doctrines doe Numb 4. accidentally teach or lead to ill life and it will appeare to any man that considers the result of these propositions Attrition which is a low and imperfect degree of sorrow for sin or as others say a sorrow for sinne commenc'd upon any reason of temporall hope or feare or desire or any thing else is a sufficient disposition for a man in the Sacrament of penance to receive absolution and be justified before God by taking away the guilt of all his sinnes and the obligation to eternall paines So that already the feare of Hell is quite removed upon conditions so easie that many men take more paines to get a groat then by this Doctrine we are oblig'd to for the curing and acquitting all the greatest sinnes of a whole life of the most vitious person in the world And but that they affright their people with a feare of Purgatory or with the severity of Penances in case they will not venter for Purgatory for by their Doctrine they may chuse or refuse either there would be nothing in their Doctrine or Discipline to impede and slacken their proclivity to sinne but then they have as easy a cure for that too with a little more charge sometimes but most commonly with lesse trouble For there are so many confraternities so many priviledged Churches Altars Monasteries Coemeteries Offices Festivals and so free a concession of Indulgences appendant to all these and a thousand fine devices to take away the feare of Purgatory to commute or expiate Penances that in no sect of men doe they with more ease and cheapnesse reconcile a wicked life with the hopes of heaven then in the Roman Communion And indeed if men would consider things upon their true Numb 5. grounds the Church of Rome should be more reproved upon Doctrines that inferre ill life then upon such as are contrariant to Faith For false superstructures doe not alwayes destroy Faith but many of the Doctrines they teach if they were prosecuted to the utmost issue would destroy good life And therefore my quarrell with the Church of Rome is greater and stronger upon such points which are not usually considerd then it is upon the ordinary disputes which have to no very great purpose so much disturb'd Christendome And I am more scandaliz'd at her for teaching the sufficiency of Attrition in the Sacrament for indulging Penances so frequently for remitting all Discipline for making so great a part of Religon to consist in externalls and Ceremonialls for putting more force and Energy and exacting with more severity the commandments of men then the precepts of Justice and internall Religion Lastly besides many other things for promising heaven to persons after a wicked life upon their impertinent cryes and Ceremon all 's transacted by the Priest and the dying Person I confesse I wish the zeale of Christendome were a little more active against these and the like Doctrines and that men would write and live more earnestly against them then as yet they have done But then what influence this just zeale is to have upon the Numb 6. persons of the Professors is another consideration For as the Pharisees did preach well and lived ill and therefore were to be heard not imitated So if these men live well though they teach ill they are to be imitated not heard their Doctrines by all meanes Christian and humane are to be discountenanc'd but their persons tolerated eatenùs their Profession and Decrees to be rejected and condemn'd but the persons to be permitted because by their good lives they confute their Doctrines that is they give evidence that they think no evill to be consequent to such opinions and if they did that they live good lives is argument sufficient that they would themselves cast the first stone against their own opinions if they thought them guilty of such misdemeanours Fourthly But if we consider their Doctrines in relation to Numb 7. Government and Publick societies of men then if they prove faulty they are so much the more intolerable by how much the consequents are of greater danger and malice Such Doctrines as these The Pope may dispence with all oathes taken to God or man He may absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to their naturall Prince Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks Hereticall Princes may be slaine by their Subjects These Propositions are so deprest and doe so immediately communicate with matter and the interests of men that they are of the same consideration with matters of fact and are to be handled accordingly To other Doctrines ill life may be consequent but the connexion of the antecedent and the consequent is not peradventure perceiv'd or acknowledged by him that believes the opinion with no greater confidence then he disavowes the effect and issue of it But in these the ill effect is the direct profession and purpose of the opinion and therefore the man and the mans opinion is to be dealt withall just as the matter of fact is to be judg'd for it is an immediate a perceiv'd a direct event and the very purpose of the opinion Now these opinions are a direct overthrow to all humane society and mutuall commerce a destruction of Government and of the lawes and duty and subordination which we owe to Princes and therefore those men of the Church of Rome that doe hold them and preach them cannot pretend to the excuses of innocent opinions and
things with spirituall The holy Ghost teaches yet it is upon our co-operation our study and endeavour while we compare spirituall things with spirituall the holy Ghost is said to teach us because these spirituals were of his suggestion and revelation 3. For it is a rule of the Schools and there is much reason Numb 14. in it Habitus infusi infunduntur per modum acquisitorum whatsoever is infused into us is in the same manner infused as other things are acquired that is step by step by humane meanes and co-operation and grace does not give us new faculties and create another nature but meliorates and improves our own And what S. Paul said in the Resurrection is also true in this Question That is not first which is spirituall but that which is naturall and then that which is spirituall The graces and gifts of the Spirit are postnate and are additions to art and nature God directs our councels opens our understandings regulates our will orders our affections supplies us with Objects and Arguments and opportunities and revelations in scriptis and then most when we most imploy our own endeavours God loving to blesse all the meanes and instruments of his service whether they be naturall or acquisite But whosoever shall look for any other gifts of the spirit besides Numb 15. the parts of nature helped by industry and Gods blessing upon it and the revelations or the suppplyes of matter in holy Scripture will be very farre to seek having neither reason promise nor experience of his side For why should the spirit of Prayer be any other than as the gift and spirit of saith as S. Paul calls it 2 Cor. 4. 13 acquired by humane meanes using divine aids that is by our endeavours in hearing reading Catechizing desires to obey and all this blessed and promoted by God this produces faith And if the spirit of Prayer be of greater consequence and hath a promise of a speciall prerogative let the first be proved and the second be shewn in any good record and then I will believe it too 4. And the parallel of this Argument I the rather urge because Numb 16. I find praying in the holy Ghost joyned with graces which are as much Gods gifts and productions of the spirit as any thing in the world and yet which the Apostle presses upon us as duties and things put into our power and to be improved by our industry and those are faith in which I before instanced and charity Epist. Jud. ver 20. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God All of the same consideration Faith and Prayer and Charity all gifts of the Spirit and yet build up your selves in faith and keep your selves in love and therefore by a parity of reason improve your selves in the spirit of prayer that is God by his Spirit having supplyed us with matter let our industry and co-operations per modum naturae improve these gifts and build upon this foundation So that in effect praying in the holy Ghost or with the Spirit Numb 17. is nothing but prayer for such things and in such manner which God by his Spirit hath taught us in holy Scripture Holy prayers spirituall songs so the Apostle calls one part of prayer viz. Eucharisticall or thanksgiving that is prayers or songs which are spirituall in materiâ And if they be called spirituall for the efficient cause too the holy Ghost being the Author of them it comes all to one for therefore he is the cause and giver of them because he hath in his word revealed what things we are to pray for and there also hath taught us the manner And this is exactly the Doctrine I plainly gather from the objected Numb 18. words of Saint Paul The spirit helpeth our infirmities How so it followes immediately For we know not what we should pray for as we ought So that therefore he is the Spirit of supplication and prayer because he teaches us what to ask and how to pray so he helps our infirmities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in the Greek Collaborantem adjuvat It is an ingeminate expression of helping us in our labours together with him Now he that shall say this is not sufficiently done by Gods Spirit in Scripture by Prayers and Psalmes and Hymnes and Spirituall Songs and precepts concerning prayer set down in that holy repository of truth and devotion undervalues that inestimable treasure of the Spirit and if it be sufficiently done there he that will multiply his hopes farther then what is sufficient may possibly deceive himself but never deceive God and make him multiply and continue miracles to justifie his fancy 5. Better it is to follow the Scriptures for our guide as in all Numb 19. things else so in this particular Ephes. 6. 17 18. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God Praying alwayes with all prayer and supplication in the spirit The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit praying in the Spirit is one way of using it indeed the only way that he here specifies Praying in the Spirit then being the using of this Sword and this Sword being the Word of God it followes evidently that praying in the Spirit is praying in or according to the Word of God that is in the directions rules and expresses of the Word of God that is of the holy Scriptures The summe is this Whatsoever this gift is or this spirit of Numb 20. Prayer it is to be acquired by humane industry by learning of the Scriptures by reading by conference and by whatsoever else faculties are improved and habits enlarged Gods Spirit hath done his work sufficiently this way and he loves not either in nature or grace which are his two great sanctions to multiply miracles when there is no need 6. So that now I demand Whether or no since the expiration Numb 21. of the Age of Miracles does not Gods Spirit most assist us when we most endeavour and most use the meanes He that sayes No discourages all men from reading the Scriptures from industry from meditation from conference from humane Arts and Sciences and from whatsoever else God and good Lawes provoke us to by proposition of rewards But if Yea as most certainly God will best crown the best endeavours then the spirit of Prayer is greatest in him who supposing the like capacities and opportunities studies hardest reads most practices most religiously deliberates most prudently and then by how much want of meanes is worse then the use of meanes by so much ex tempore Prayers are worse then deliberate and studyed Excellent therefore is the councell of S. Peter 1 Ep. Chap. 4. ver 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God not lightly then and inconsiderately If any man minister let him doe it as of the ability which God giveth great reason