Man who liveth where Christianity is profess'd and refuseth to submit his Judgment to the Infallibilty of any Guide on Earth and particularly to the Church or Bishop of Rome hath notwithstanding that refusal sufficient means still left him whereby he may arrive at certainty in those Doctrines which are generally necessary to the Salvation of a Christian Man Satisfaction in this Inquiry is of great Moment For it relateth to our great end and to the way which leads to it And it nearly concerneth both the Romanists and the Reformed If there be not such a Guide the Estate of the Romanists is extreamly dangerous For then the Blind take the Blind for their unerring Leaders and being once misled they wander on without correcting their Error having taken up this first as their fixed Principle that their Guide cannot mistake the way On the other hand If God hath set up in his Church a Light so very clear and steddy as is pretended the Reformed are guilty of great presumption and expose themselves to great uncertainty by shutting their Eyes against it Now there lyes before Men a double Temptation to a belief of the being of such a Guide in the Christian Church Sloth and Vitious Humility of Mind Sloth inclineth Men rather to take up in an Implicit Faith than to give themselves the trouble of a strict Examination of things For there is less Pain in Credulity then in bending of the Head by long and strict Attention and severe Study Also there is a Shew of Humility in the deference which our understandings pay unto Authority especially to that which pretends to be under Christ Supreme on Earth Although in the paying of it without good reason first understood Men are not Humble but Slavish But these Temptations prevail not upon honest and considerate Minds which inquire without prejudice after Truth and submit to the Powerful Evidence of it Such will resolve the Question in the Affirmative and they may reasonably so do by considering these Propositions which I shall treat of in their order First The Christian Church never yet wanted nor shall it ever want either the Doctrines of necessary Faith or the Belief and Profession of them Secondly Wheresoever God requireth the Belief of them he giveth means sufficient for Information and unerring Assent Thirdly Whatsoever those means are every Man 's Personal reason giveth to the Mind that last Weight which turneth Deliberation into Faith Fourthly The means which God hath given us towards necessary Faith and the certainty of it is not the Authority of any Infallible Guide on Earth Yet Fifthly All Ecclesiastical Guidance is not to be rejected in our pursuance of the Doctrines of Christian Faith in the finding out or stating of which it is a very considerable help Sixthly By the help of it and Principally as it offers to us the Holy Scriptures in the Quality of the Rule of Faith we have means sufficient to lead us to certainty in that Belief which is necessary to Life Eternal First The Acknowledgment and Profession of the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Faith are annexed inseparably to the Christian Church There is but one Faith and according to the saying of Leo the great If it be not one it is not at all For it cannot be contrary to it self And though it be but one yet Men of differing Creeds pretend to it as the Merchants of Relicks in the Church of Rome shew in several places the one seamless Coat of Christ This one Faith never did nor ever shall in all places fail The Apostles were themselves without error both in their own assent to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and in the delivery of them They heard the Oracles of Christ from his own mouth and they were Witnesses of his Resurrection And they spake what they had seen and heard And they gave to the World Assurance of the Truth by the miraculous signs of their Apostolical Office And if they had not had such Assurance themselves and could not have given proof to others of their mission there would have been a defect in the first promulgation of the Gospel and such as could not afterwards have been amended That which at first had been delivered with uncertainty would with greater uncertainty have been conveighed down to after Ages and Men who in process of time graft error upon certain Truth would much more have grafted error upon uncertain Opinion Ever since the Apostles times there has been True Faith and the Profession of it in the Catholick Church And it will be so till Faith shall expire and Men shall see him on whom they before believ'd For a Church cannot subsist without the Fundamentals of Christianity And Christ hath Sealed this Truth with his promise that there shall be a Church as long as this World continues I mean by a Church a visible Society of Christians both Ministers and People for publick Worship on Earth cannot be invisible But the True Faith and the Profession of it is not fixed to any place or to any succession of Men in it God's Providence has written the contrary in the very Ashes of the Seven Churches of the lesser Asia Neither is any particular Church though so far infallible in Fundamentals as to be preserved from actual error an infallible Rule to all other Christians If they follow the Doctrine of it they err not because it is true but if they follow that Church as an unerring Guide or Canon they mistake in the Rule and Motive of their Faith For that particular Church which Teacheth Truth might possibly have err'd and the Church which errs might have shined with the True Light But the whole Church cannot so err in any Age for then the very being of a Church would cease Neither doth it hence follow that the Faith of the Roman Church when Luther arose was the only true and certain Doctrine For that Church was not then the only visible Church on Earth The Greek Church for instance sake was than more visible than now it is and more Orthodox The Rich Papacy having much prevailed upon the necessities of it by Arguments guilded with Interest That Church did not err in Fundamental Points the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father by the Son which the Romans accuse of Heresie being easily acquitted of it if Men agreeing in the sense forbear contention about the Phrases Besides if our Fore-Fathers under the Papacy embraced the True Faith we have it still the Faith not being removed but the Corruption Their Question therefore Where was your Religion before Luther is not more pertinent amongst Disputers than this is amongst Husbandmen Where was the Corn before it was weeded We have seen that necessary Faith is perpetual and it is as manifest that wheresoever God requireth the belief of it he vouchsafeth sufficient means for information and unerring Assent Of all he does not
The same course was taken with the Remonstrants in the Synod of Dorâ— Wherefore Protestants ought not to detract from the Authority of general Councils whilst they assume to themselves so great a Power in their particular Synods The force of this Objection is thus removed Every Church hath Power of admitting or excluding Members else it hath not means sufficient to its end the order and concord of its Body Every particular Church ought to believe that it does not err in its definitions for it ought not to impose any known error upon its Members But though it believes it does not err it does not believe it upon this reason because God hath made it an infallible Guide but rather for this because it hath sincerely and with Gods assistance followed a rule which is infallible And upon this supposition it imposeth Doctrines and excludeth such as with contumacy dissent from them 4. This Guide is not the present Church declaring to particular Christians the sense of the Church of former Ages How can this declaration be made seeing Churches differ and each Church calls it self the true one and pretendeth to the Primitive pattern The Church of Rome hath on her side the suffrages of all the Councils and Fathers the first the middle the last if Campian the Jesuite may be believed On the other hand Monsieur Larroque hath Written a Book of the Conformity of the Protestant Churches in France with the Discipline of the Christian Ancient Church taking it for granted that their Doctrine was Catholick And we likewise pretend both to the Doctrine and Discipline of it All of us cannot be in the right The Roman Church without any proof calleth her self the Church Catholick and she pretendeth to conveigh to us the sense of the Ancient Fathers and Councils which sense was that they understood formerly by the word Tradition And in this sense a Romanist said of Pope Honorius that he had broken the rule of Tradition But how can we esteem that Church a faithful representer of the sense of the Ancients whilst the Reformed consult the Ancients with equal ability and find a contrary sense in them Whilst the Church of Rome by a kind of Ecclesiastical Coinage stampeth Divine Authority upon Books esteemed by the Councils and Fathers to be Apochryphal Whilst it hath forged decrees of Popes and like a deceitful Gibeonite rendred that which was really new in appearance old and mouldy on purpose to promote imposture How doth it give us the sense of the Ancients when it owneth what it formerly disowned as Canonical the Epistle to the Hebrews When it taketh away the Cup which Pope Gelasius called a grand Sacrilege When it now rejecteth the Communicating of Infants which in former times was esteemed by many a very necessary point When a former Pope Gregory condemns the Title of Universal pastor as Anti-Christian and a latter insists upon it as the choicest flour in the papal Prerogative When St. Austin and from him the very Breviary shall expound Christs promise of being always with his Church of the presence of his Divinity and of his Spirit and not of his Body And Pope Innocent the third shall interpret them as meant also of his corporal presence And if the Roman Church falsifyeth written Tradition how shall we trust her for Oral And how and at what time did that Oral Tradition remove from Greece to Rome where the Greek Church which it alloweth to have been once possessed of the true Tradition is accused of Heresie At the same time I suppose that the Chappel of the Virgin removed from Nazareth to Loretto This principle of Oral Tradition is most uncertain to their Judges and to those to whom they offer it it is most obscure It is a principle on which they can serve a purpose in justifying novel Doctrines as Oral Traditions not known to any but the Roman Church which pretendeth to the custody of them 5. God hath not set up any one Person in the Catholick Church in the Quality of an unerring Guide in the Christian Faith The Bishops of Rome who pretend to this Prerogative do but pretend It is a tender point and the Pope's Legates in the Council of Trent were enjoyned to give forth this Advertisement that the Fathers upon no account whatsoever should touch it or dispute about it They who examine it will soon reject it as false and useless And 1. Whether the Pope be or be not the Guide the Men of the Roman Communion are exposed to dangerous uncertainty For it is not yet determined amongst them whether they are to follow the Pope with or without or against a Council Yet a Pope hath owned a Council which deposed other Popes and by decree set it self above them or rather vindicated the superiority due to it Thus Martin the fifth received the Papal Mitre from the Council of Constance after it had deposed Gregory the twelfth Benedict the thirteenth and John the twenty third Again there have been by the account given us in their own Historians more than twenty formed Schisms in that Church two or more Popes pretending at the same time to the infallible Chair and each of them not being without their followers and giving Holy Orders And at this time there is risen an Apologist for Mauritius Burdin or Gregory the eighth though he was ejected by the Roman Church which received Gelasius into his place Burdin being disliked by them as a Creature of Henry the Emperour This Schism saith St. Bernard distracted that Church and gave it a wound only not incurable And Baluzius professeth that it was then difficult to understand which of the two Gregory or Gelasius was the Legitimate successour of Pope Paschal Now how useless to them is the pretence of a Guide when they want some other Guide who should tell them which of the pretenders they may securely follow Secondly the Popes themselves in their Solemn Profession suppose themselves liable to the misleading of the People even in Matters of Faith For having owned the Faith of the Six general Councils They further profess themselves and others to be subject to an Anatâ—ema if they advance novelty contrary to the aforesaid Evangelical Tradition and the integrity of the Orthodox and Christian Faith Thirdly If the Pope challengeth this Power of infallible Guidance he must lay claim to it by his succeeding of St. Peter in the Chair Apostolical But then by equal reason the successors of each Apostle may challenge the office of an infallible Guide For the Power which Christ gave to St. Peter he gave to the rest It was not special And for the Bishops of Antioch who first succeeded St. Peter they have a much fairer pretence than those of Rome The Truth is Hierusalem was properly the Mother-Church Though Rome was the Imperial City and if by this means the Popes had not
was hortatory and not compulsive It is true he erred not as Head of the Church for such he was not neither as such was he owned But he erred as a publick person and with Heretical obstinacy For Pope Leo as he noteth said concerning him that he had made it his business to betray and subvert the Holy Faith Now this matter of Fact sufficeth for the refuting all the fallacious reasonings of the patrons of Papal infallibility For all must agree that they are not unerring Guides who actually err The Sieur de Balzac mocks at the weakness of one of the Romish Fathers who offered four reasons to prove that the Duke D' Espernon was not returned out of England And offered them to a Gentleman who had seen him since his return There seemeth no sitness in the constituting of such a Guide nor any necessity for it Had it been agreeable to Gods Wisdom his Wisdom would not have been wanting to it self God having made Man a Reasonable Creature would not make void the use of deliberation and the freedom of his judgment There is no vertue in the Assent where the Eye is forced open and the Light held directly to it It is enough that God the rewarder of them who believe hath given Men sufficient faculties and sufficient means And seeing Holiness is as necessary to the pleasing of God and to the peace of the World as Union in Doctrine to which there is too frequently given a lifeless Assent seeing there must be Christian Obedience as long as there is a Church seeing as the Guide in Controversy himself urgeth the Catholick Church and all the parts of it are believed in the Creed to be Holy as well as Orthodox We ask not the Romanists an impertinent Question when we desire them to tell us why a means to infallibility in the judgment rather than irresistibleness in the pious choice of the Will is to be by Heaven provided in the Church Both seem a kind of Destination of equal necessity But though the Reformed especially those of the Church of England see no necessity for an infallible Guide nor believe there is one on the face of the Earth yet they do not reject all Ecclesiastical Guidance but allow it great place in matters of Discipline and Order and some place also though not that of an unerring Judge in Matters of Faith At the beginning of the Reformation the Protestants though they refused the judgment of the Pope their Enemy yet they declined not the determination of a Council And in the Assembly at Ausburgh the Romanists and Protestants agreed in a Council as the Umpire of their publick difference At this the Pope was so alarumed saith the Sieur de Mezeray that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the calling of a Council In the Reformation of the Church of England great regard was had to the Primitive Fathers and Councils And the aforesaid French Historian was as much mistaken in the affairs of Our Church when he said of our Religion that it was a medly of the Opinions of Calvin and Luther as he was afterwards in the affairs of our State when he said King James was elected at the Guild-hall King of England The Romannists represent us very falsly whilst they fix upon us a private Spirit as it stands in opposition to the Authority of the Catholick Church Mr. Alabaster expresseth one motive to his conversion to the Roman Church in these Words Weigh together the Spouse of Christ with Luther Calvin Melancthon Oecumenical Councils with private opinions The Reverend and Learned Fathers with Arius Aetius Vigilantius Men always in their time Burned for Hereticks of which words the former are false reasoning the latter are false History The Bishop of Meaux reasons after the same fallacious manner Supposing a Protestant to be of this perswasion that he can understand the Scriptures better than all the rest of the Church together of which perswasion he saith very truly that it exalteth Pride and removeth Docility The Guide in Controversies puts the Question wrong in these terms Whether a Protestant in refusing the submission of his judgment to the Authority or Infallibility of the Catholick Church in her Councils can have in several Articles of necessary Faith wherein the sense of Scripture is controverted as sure a Foundation of his Faith as he who submits his judgment to the foresaid Authority or also Infallibility Here the Catholick Church is put in place of the Roman Authority and Infallibility are joyned together and it is suggested dishonestly concerning the Reformed that they lay aside the Authority of the Catholick Church in her general Councils Authority may be owned where there is no infallibility for it is not in Parents Natural or Civil Yet both teach and govern us If others reject Church-Authority let them who are guilty of such disorderly irreverence see to it The Christians of the Church of England are of another Spirit Of that Church this is one of the Articles The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith There is a Question saith Mr. Selden about that Article concerning the power of the Church whether these words of having power in Controversies of Faith were not stolen in But it 's most certain they were in the Book of Articles that was confirmed though in some Editions they have been left out They were so in Dr. Mocket's but he is to be considered in that Edition as a private Man Now this Article does not make the Church an infallible Guide in the Articles of Faith but a Moderator in the Controversies about Faith The Church doth not assume that Authority to it self in this Article which in the foregoing it denied to the Churches of Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch and Rome When perverse Men will raise such Controversies who is so fit for Peace sake to interpose as that Church where the Flame is kindled There can be no Church without a Creed and each particular Church ought to believe her Creed to be true and by consequence must exercise her Authority in the defence of presumed Truth Otherwise she is not true to her own constitution But still she acts under the caution given by St. Augustine You bind a Man on Earth Take heed they be just bonds in which you retain him For Justice will break such as are unjust in sunder And whilest the Church of England challengeth this Authority she doth not pretend to it from any supernatural gift of infallibility but so far only as she believes she hath sincerely followed an infallible Rule For of this importance are the next words of the Article before remembred It is not Lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written And besides the same it ought not to enforce any thing to
be believed for necessity of Salvation After this manner the Church of England asserteth her own Authority and she runs not into any extream about the Authority of Councils or the Catholick Church We make Confession of the Ancient Faith expressed in the Apostolical Nicene or Constantinopolitan and Athanasian Creeds The Canons of forty reject the Heresie of Socinus as contrary to the first four general Councils Our very Statute-Book hath respect to them in the adjudging of Heresie Yet our Church still teacheth concerning them that things by them ordained have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture When Controversies arise especially when the doubts concern not so much the Article of Faith it self as the Modes of it we grant to such venerable Assemblies a Potiority of Judgment Or if we assent not yet for Peace sake we are humbly silent We do not altogether refuse their Umpirage We think their Definitions good Arguments against unquiet Men who are chiefly moved by Authority We believe them very useful in the Controversies betwixt us and the Church of Rome and as often as they appeal to Primitive Fathers and Councils to Fathers and Councils we are willing to go with them and to be tryed by those who were nigher to the Apostles in the Quality of Witnesses rather than Judges We believe that in matters of Truth of which we are already well perswaded there may be added by the Suffrages of Councils and Fathers a degree of Corroboration to our Assent In sum we say with S. Austâ—ne that there is of Councils in the Church of God a most wholesome though not an infallible Authority And if S. Gregory Nazâ—anzen never saw as he saith a happy effect of any Synod this came not to pass from the Nature of the means as not conducive to that end but from the looseness of Government and the depraved manners of the Age in which he lived For such were the times of Valens the Emperour It is true there are some among us though not of us who with disdainful insolence contemn all Authority even that of the Sacred Scripture it self These pretend to an infallible Light of immediate and personal Revelation It hath hapned according to the Proverb every Man of them hath a Pope within him Henry Nicholas puffed up many vain ignorant people with this Proud Imagination Hetherington a Mechanick about the end of the Reign of King James advanced this notion of Personal Infallibility His followers believed they could not err in giving deliberate Sentence in Religion And this was the principle of Wynstanley and the first Quakers though the Leaders since they were embodied have in part forsaken it But these Enthusiasts have intituled the Holy Spirit of God to their own Dreams They have pretended to Revelations which are contrary to one another They can be Guides to themselves only because they cannot by any supernatural sign prove to others that they are inspired And such Enthusiasm is not otherwise favoured in the Church of England then by Christian pity in consideration of the infirmity of Humane Nature but in the Church of Rome it hath been favoured to that Degree that it hath founded many Orders and Religious Houses and given Reputation to some Doctrines and canoniz'd not a few Saints amongst them The Inspiration of S. Hildegardis S. Catharine of Siena S. Teresa and many others seemeth to have been vapour making impression on a devout fancy Yet the Church of Rome in a Council under Leo the Tenth hath too much encouraged such distemper as prophesie For private Reason it is the handmaid of Faith we use it and not seperately from the Authority of the Church but as a help in distinguishing true from false Authority And in so plain a case as Heresie if our Church thinketh a private Man may without an infallible Guide on Earth judge aright of it it does but believe as Pope Adrian believed as he professed in a Synod at Rome of which profession report is made in the second Synod of Nice For speaking of the Sentence against Pope Honorius he excuseth it in point of good behaviour because it was given in the case of Heresie For in that case and in that case alone he allowed Inferiors so he was pleased to call the Oriental Bishops to reject the corrupt sense of those who are superior to them I will hasten to the next Proposition after I have added one thing more which relates to the guidance of Ecclesiastical Authority And it is this Those of the Unlearned Laity who are Members of the Church of England have much more of the just guidance of Ecclesiastical Authority than the like order of Men in the Church of Rome For the Authentick Books of that Church being all written in the Latin Tongue the illiterate People resolve their Faith into the ability and honesty of their Confessor or Parish Priest They take it upon his word that this is the Doctrine this the Discipline this the Worship of their Church Whereas each Minister in our Church can direct the People to the Holy Bible to the Books of Homilies Articles Canons Common-Prayer Ordination as set forth in their native Tongue by publick Authority Of this they may be assured by their own Eyes as many as can but competently read They do not only take this from the mouth of a Priest but from the Church it self Where the Laws of the Church and the Statutes of the Civil Government are written in an unknown Tongue there the Unlearned depend more upon private than publick Authority for they receive the Law from particular Priests or Judges Though Ecclesiastical Authority be a help to our Faith yet the Holy Scripture is the only infallible Rule of it and by this Rule and the Ministerial Aids of the Christian Church we have sufficient means without Submission to papal Infallibility to attain to certainty in that Faith which is generally necessary to Salvation I do not mean that by believing the whole Canon of the Scripture in the gross we thereby believe all the necessary Articles of the Faith because they are therein contained That looks too like a fallacy and it giveth countenance to an useless Faith For he that believes on this manner hath as it were swallow'd a Creed in the lump only whereas it is necessary for a Christian to know each particular Article and the general Nature and Tendency of it Otherwise his Faith will not have a distinct influence upon his Christian behaviour to which if it were not useful it were not necessary To believe in general as the Scripture believes is with the Blind and Flexible Faith of a Romanist to believe at adventure He believes as his Church believes but he knows not what is the belief of his Church and therefore is not instructed by that Faith to behave himself as a Member of it The Scripture is
require this belief for to all the Gospel is not preached and where it is preached there are Infants and Persons of Age so distempered in Mind as to remain unavoidably Children in understanding And though the same Sum of Doctrines is generally necessary to Salvation yet the Creed of all Men is not of equal length seeing they have unequal capacities But wheresoever there is a particular Society of Men who call themselves a Church yet err actually in the necessary Articles of the Faith it is certain they were not forced into that error for want of external means For the Just Judge of the World would never have required Unity in the Faith upon pain of his Eternal displeasure if he had not given to Men Power sufficient for such Unity No Tyrant on Earth has been guilty of such undisguised injustice as that is which maketh a Law for the punishment of the Blind because they miss their way The Artâ—cles of Christian Religion come not to the Mind by natural reason but by Faith and Faith comes by hearing or reading and where these means are not offered a Man is rather an Ignorant Person than an Unbeliever Wherefore our Saviour told the perverse Jews that if the Messiah had never been reveal'd to them they had not been answerable for the Sin of Infidelity But that since he was come to them and by them despised their Infidelity was blackned with great aggravation The means then are sufficient wheresoever the end is absolutely required but whatsoever those means are the Act of Assent is to be ultimately resolved into each Mans Personal reason For no Man can believe or assent but upon some ground or motive which appears credible to him He could not believe unless he had some reason or other why he believed When all is done said Mr. Thorndike Men must and will be Judges for themselves I do not quote the saying because it is extraordinary but because that Learned Man said it who was careful to pay to Authority its minutest dues If a Man believes upon Authority he hath a further reason for the believing of it He is not willing to take Pains in examining that which is proposed to him or he thinks himself of less Ability in understanding than those from whom he borrows his Light If he desireth another to judge for him his choice is determined by the Opinion he hath conceived of him Every Man has his reason though it be a weak one and such as cannot justify it self or him Something at last turns the Ballance though it be but a Feather This the Romanists own as well as the Reformed till it toucheth them in the case of a new Convert To induce a Man of another particular Church to embrace their Communion they submit these weighty points to his private Judgment What is a True Church and which are the marks of it What is the Roman Church And whether the marks of the True Church do only belong unto the Roman What Men or what Books speak the sense of that Church They tell us That the Light of a Man 's own reason first serves him so far as to the discovery of a Guide Also that in this discovery the Divine Providence hath left it so clear and evident that a sincere and unbyassed quest cannot miscarry But when once this Guide is found out the Man is afterwards for all other things that are prescribed by this Guide to subject and resign his reason As if it were not as difficult to judge of such a Guide as of his direction It seems the Roman Church is like a Cave into which a Man has Light enough to enter but when once he is entred he is in thick Darkness But how subservient soever our reason may be to our Faith The means which God hath given us towards the certain attaining of it is not the Authority of any infallible Guide on Earth This will not be disbelieved by those who weigh well the following considerations First God did not set up such a constant infallible Guide among the Jews though at first he gave Assurance to them by Miracle that Moses had received his Commission from him and had brought to them the Tables which he had Written for their direction with his own finger Some of the Sanedrim were of the Sect of the Sadduces who erred in the Fundamental point of a future State Most of them erred in the Quality of the Messiah not considering their Scriptures so much as their Traditions And of the errors of the Levitical Priesthood there is in the Old Testament frequent mention and great complaint And the Prophet Malachy as soon as he had said The Priests lips shall preserve Knowledge he adds this reproof but ye are departed out of the way It is true the Israelites were by God directed in difficult cases to an Assembly of Judges But they were not Judges of controversies in Doctrine but in Property To their sentence the People were to submit as to an expedient for Peace though Judgment might be perverted or mistaken It must be also confessed that God spake to them by the Oracle of Vrim and that the voice of it was infallible But its answers concerned not the necessary Rudiments of the Mosaick Law but emergencies in their civil affairs those especially of Peace and War But if we admit that there was under Judaism a living infallible Guide it does not thence follow that it must be so under Christianity For their small precinct the People of which were thrice in a year to come up to the Temple was much more capable of such a judge than the Christian Church which is as wide as the World Also the new Revelation is more clear and distinct than the old one was and stands not in such need of an Interpreter Secondly God hath no where promised Christians such a judge He hath no where said that he hath given such a one to the Christian Church And seeing such a one cannot be had without Gods supernatural assistance the most knowing amongst Men being subject both to Error and to Falshood it is great arrogance whilst the Scripture is silent to say he is in being And to affirm that if there were not such a Guide God would be wanting in means sufficient for the maintenance of Peace and Truth is presumptuously to obtrude the schemes of Mans fancy upon God's Wisdom He can Govern his Church without our methods Now God hath no where promised such a judge to Christian Men though he hath promised help on Earth and assistance from Heaven to Men diligent and sincere in their inquiries after Truths which are necessary for them There are two places of Scripture which are by some taken for Promises of such a nature though they were not by the Divine Wisdom so intended Of these the First is that which was spoken by Christ unto St. Peter The Gates of Hell shall not
sate higher they would not have pretended to see further than others Fourthly those who have considered the writings of many Popes and the decrees made by them have found no reason to lay their Faith at their Golden Sandal It is manifest to every Learned Man that the Eyes of the Pope are not metaphorically like those of Augustus in which it is said there appeared a brightness like that of the Sun If we had more of their History and more of their Writings we should find more of their errors They have shewed both ignorance and extravagance in opinion and error in the Faith it self There are not perhaps weaker or more absurd passages in any Ecclesiastical Writer than we may find in the works of Pope Innocent the third who was called the Wonder of the World He saith of Subdeacons that they represented the Nethinims or Nathinnims as he calls them and that Nathaniel was one of that Order That the Pope does not use a Pastoral rod because St. Peter sent his Staff to Eucharius the first Bishop of Treves to whom Maternus succeeded who by the same Staff was raised from the dead That the People have seven Salvations in the Mass in order to the expelling the seven deadly Sins and receiving the seven fold Grace of God That an Epistle signifying in Greek an Over-sending or supererogation the word agrees very well to the Apostolical Epistles which are superadded to the Gospel He allots to each Article of the Apostolical and Constantinopolitan Creeds a particular Apostle and finds the mystery in all things that are twelve in number For example sake in the twelve loaves of Shew-Bread in the twelve Tribes twelve hours twelve Months He gives this reason why Water is by the Bishop mixed with Wine in the Holy Chalice because it is said in the Revelation that many Waters signify many People and that Christ shed his Blood for the People He saith that Judas was not at the Sacrament because he was not to drink it new with Christ in his Kingdom which priviledge he had promised to all the partakers He teacheth that Mice eat only the Shews of Consecrated Bread He professeth rather to venerate Sacraments than to prie into them because it is written in Exodus the twelfth concerning the Paschal Lamb Eat not of it raw nor sodden at all with Water but rost with Fire I have not narrowly ransacked the plaits of the Popes Vestments for this is obvious enough and so were a great many other sayings of equal weakness but I am weary of the folly of them There have been other Popes also injudicious even to duncery Eugenius the third approved of the Prophesies or Enthusiastick Dreams of Hildegardis in the Synod of Tryers as Inspirations Pope Zachary judged the true Doctrine of Antipodes to be heretical in the case of the more Learned and Knowing Virgilius Herein the Pope committed a greater error than the poor Priest who Baptized in nomina Patria filia Spiritûs Sancta and whose lack of Latin Boniface the German Apostle would have punished by the Rebaptization of his Proselytes if the said Virgilius had not by application to that Pope prevented it It is true Virgilius was accused as an Heretick who had set up another Sun and another Moon as well as another World of Men whose feet were opposite to ours But Velserus himself hath the ingenuity to confess that this was meant only of the Sun and Moon as shining to our Antipodes as well as to us And that the accusation was framed by ignorant Men who had not the acuteness to understand the Globular form of the Earth and the scheme of the proposer Neither had Pope Zachary himself sagacity enough to discern the nature of this ridiculous charge He who can mistake Truth for Heresie may mistake Heresie for Truth Now that Popes have erred not only in lesser things but even in Matters of Faith is plain from History I will instance only in Vigilius and Honorius for-bearing to speak of Liberius and divers others who swerved from the truly Ancient Catholick Faith Pope Vigilius framed a Constitution in favour of the three Chapters or Nestorian-Writings of Ibas Bishop of Edessa Theodorus of Mopsuestia and Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus This Constitution was published by Cardinal Baronius out of Ancient Manuscript in the Vatican Library And he calls it a Decree in defence of these Chapters In this Decree the Pope doth not only justify these Heretical Writings but with the Followers of Theodorus he falsly chargeth upon the Council of Chalcedon the Epistle of Ibas and calls it Orthodox This charge the Fathers of the fifth general Council shew to be unjust and false That Council condemneth those three Chapters as Heretical And together with them it condemneth Pope Vigilius and others under the name of Sequaces or Followers of Nestorius and Theodorus Baronius himself acknowledgeth that the decree of that Council was set up against the decree of that Pope These Chapters had not been condemned if they had not contained in them the Nestorian-Heresie The Epistle of Ibâ—â— does in particular manner extoll The dâ—râ—â— And the Council affirmeth concerning his Creed that the Father of lies composed it And it denounceth a â—â—rse against both the Composer and the Believers of it Yet doubtless these writings were in themselves inconsiderable enough But the Council opposed them with such rigour because the Faction had made them very popular and advanced them into the Quality of a kind of Bible of the Party For Pope Honorius he fell into the Heresie of the Monothelites That is of those who held that there is but one Will in both the Natures of Christ. This Doctrine he published in his Epistles This he declared in the sixth general Council he is in the seventh Council condemned as a Monothelite And he was expressly anathematized for Confirming the Wicked Doctrine of Sergius The guilt of Heresie in Honorius is owned in the Solemn Profession of Faith made by the Popes at their entrance on the Papacy This matter is so manifest that Melchior Canus professeth no Sophistry is artful enough to put the Colour of a plausible defence upon it A late Romanist hath undertaken to write the History of the Monothelites and the Defence of Honorius seemeth to be the principal motive to that undertaking Yet so great is the power of Truth and such in this case is the plainness of it that in the Apologist himself we find these concessions That the Pope was condemned by the Council and that the Council was not to be blamed that Pope Leo the second owned both the Council and the Sentence and that Honorius was Sentenced as an Heretick He would abate this guilt by saying that Honorius erred as a private Person and not as Head of the Church because his Epistle
Church And as they like so they interpret Had not they governed themselves by this art we should not have found in the writings of their Popes and in the very Canon Law it self those words which were spoken to Jeremiah expounded of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome I have set thee over Kings to root out to pluck up and to destroy The Donatists found their Church in these words of the Canticles Tell me thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flock to rest at noon For they expounded this as it liked them best of the Flock of their party in the Southern Country of Africa Such Expounders of Scripture are those Popish Writers who interpret Feed my Sheep of the Universal Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome and conclude that a Pastor must drive away Wolves or depose Princes hurtful to the Church But the straining of such Metaphorical expressions as an excellent Person saith proves only that they want better proofs And by a like way of interpretation from the same Text it might be concluded that all Christians are Fools because Sheep are silly Creatures No expositions are more besides the sense of the Text or more ridiculous then some of those which may be found in the Authentick Books of the Roman Church And those who composed them appear to have looked asquint on the Scriptures For whilst they looked on them they seem to have looked another way I will instance only in a few of those many absurd expositions with which the Roman Breviary abounds The words of the Angel to the Holy Virgin a Sword shall go through thine own Soul also are interpreted of that word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper then any two-edged Sword And this sense is designed as an evasion of their reasoning who from that Text conclude concerning the blessed Virgin that she died and was not miraculously assumed The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded He was taken up into the aerial not the aetherial Heavens from whence he was dropped in an obscure place on Earth there to remain to the end of the World and then to expire with it They say of Job That when he spake of a Bird and of her path in the Air he by a figure called Christ a Bird and by the motion of it in the Air figured also our Lords Ascension We may perceive by these few Instances what an entrance into the sense of Scripture is like to be given whilst a Pope has the Key of Knowledge in his keeping Thirdly If Men would use the Church as their Ministerial Guide and admit of the Scripture as the only Rule by which all Matters of Faith are to be measured they would agree in the proper means to the blessed end of Unity in the Faith This was the perswasion of St. Austin who thus applieth himself to Maximinus Neither ought I at this time to alledge the Council of Nice nor you that of Ariminum For neither am I bound to the Authority of the one nor you to that of the other Let us both dispute with the Authorities of Scripture which are Witnesses common to both of us Whilst the Romanists ascribe the differences which arise amongst the Reformed to their want of an infallible Guide and to their different interpretations of the Scriptures they unskilfully derive effects from causes which are not the natural Parents of them There is saith St. Austine one Mother of all strifes and she is Pride Neither doth the Scripture divide us nor does the infallibility of their judge unite them Their Union such as it is ariseth from the mighty force of their External Polity and they speak not differently because they dare not and the strength of that Polity arose at first from Rome not as the Chair of St. Peter but as the Seat of the Empire Our divisions like theirs arise as all Wars do be they Ecclesiastical or Civil from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And from these likewise arise generally the misinterpretations of plain Laws and Rules the sense of which must be made to chime according to the Interest of prejudiced Men or else they will not give attention to them If the Lusts and Passions of Men were mortified all Christians agreeing in the certainty of the Scriptures though not of any Living Guide and the words of the one being as intelligible as those of the other All might agree in one Creed and put an end to those unnecessary Controversies which entangle Truth and extinguish Charity FINIS The Question The moment of â—his Question The Temptations to believe the Affirmative part of this Question The true Resolution of the Query Prop. I. * Nisi una est Fides non est L. M.Ser 23. †See Ferrand l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 4. disquis Relig. * Acts 4.19 20. * S. Mat. 28.20 Prop. II. * Joâ— 15.22 24. Prop. III. * To the Reader of the Dis. of Govern of Churchâ—s * R. H. Guide in Controv. in Pref. p. 3. Prop. IV. Consid. I. * Isai. 56.10 Jez 2.8 Ez. 7.26 C. 22.26 †Mâ—l 2.7 8. * Deut. 17.8 to 12. See Levit. 4.13 Consid. II. * S. Mat. 16.18 †S. Mat. 28.20 Revel 3.1 2 3. * S. Luke 10.16 †S. Luke 10.1 9. * Ver. 12. 1 Tim. 3.15 †Ryc of the Greek Ch. p. 44. * Revel 3.12 †In 1 Cor. 9.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * S. Mat. 18.15 16 17. See Deut. 17.6 * Launoy in Epist ad Carol. magistrum ad Jacob. Bevil ad Guil. Voell ad Raim Formentinum in 5. par Epist. Consid. III. * Joh. 20.21 †S. Mat. 9.36 C. 10.6 2. Pet. 5.2 * S. Mat. 28.16 17 18 19. †S. Chrys. in 1 Cor. 9.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. †See R. H. Guide in Controv Dis. 1. p. 5. and Socin in Loc. * S. Hil. de Trin. l. 6. dixit Petrus Tu es filius Dei c. super hanc igitur Confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est v. Launoy in Epist ad Voellum †Revel 21.14 Ephes. 2.20 * Act. 2.14 41 47. IV. Consid. †Euseb. l. 3. vit Const. c. 7. 8. p. 487. Socrat. E. H. l. c. 8. p. 19. * V. Concil Labâ— Tom. 2. p. 50 c. †Socr. Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 6. p. 9. * From A. 1545. to A. 1563. †V. Council Const. sess 39. * V. Greg. magn Ep. 6.31 Leo. 1. Ep. 53. Gelas 1. Ep. 13. †Concil Labb Tom. 10. p. 23 379. Pontific Roman (a) A. D. 1542. in Coll. Sorb See Richer H. Conc. general vol. 4. p. 162 163 c. Object * R.H. Annot. on D. Still Answer p. 82 83. †Art 31. Ch. 5. du consistoire si un ou plusieurs c. * Syn. Dord sess 138. Answer (a) See Artic. 20 21 22. (b) Camp Rat. 3. p. 180. Rat. 5. p. 185. * Lib. diurn Pontif. p. 35. etenim hujus Apostolicae