Imprimatur February 15th 1686. Jo. Edinburgh A COLLECTION OF DISCOURSES Lately Written by some DIVINES of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND AGAINST THE ERROURS and CORRUPTIONS OF THE Church OF Rome To which is prefix'd a Catalogue of the several Discourses EDINBVRGH Re-Printed by John Reid for Thomas Brown Gideon Schaw Alexander Ogston and George Mosman Stationers to be sold at their Shops Anno DOM. 1687 THE CATALOGUE Of the DISCOURSES contained in this Book I. A Discourse concerning the Guide in Matters of Faith with Respect especially to the Romish pretence of the necessity of such an One as is infallible Page 1 II. The Protestants Resolution of Faith being an Answer to three Questions First How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true sense of the Scripture Secondly Whither a visible Succession from Christ to this day makes a Church which has this Succession an Infallible Interpreter of Scripture And whither no Church which has not this Succession can teach the true sense of Scripture Thirdly Whither the Church of England can make out such a Visible Succession Page 31 III. A Discourse about the Charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther Page 57 IV. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is mean'd by it and what Tradition is to be Received and what Tradition is to be rejected Page 82 V. A Discourse concerning the Vnity of the Catholick Church maintained in the Church of England Page 117 VI. A Discourse concerning the Object of Religious Worship or a Scripture proof of the unlawfulness of givng any Religious Worship to any other Beeing besides the One supreme GOD. Page 158 VII A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an unknown Tongue Page 212 VIII A Discourse concerning the Devotions of the Church of Rome especially as compared with those of the Church of England in which is shewn that what ever the Romanists pretend there is not so true Devotion amongst them nor such a Rational Provision for it nor encouragement to it as in the Church established by Law among Vs Page 250 IX A Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints Page 295 X. A Discourse against Transubstantiation Page 345 XI A Discourse concerning the Adoration of the Host as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome wherein an Answer is given to T. G. on that subject and to Monsuer Boileau's late Book de Adoratione Eucharistiae Paris 1685. Page 375 XII A Discourse against Purgatory Page 421 XIII A Discourse concerning Auricular Confession as it is prescribed by the Council of Trent and practised in the Church of Rome With a Postscript on occasion of a Book lately Printed in France called Historia Confessionis Auricularis Page 447. FINIS A DISCOURSE CONCERNING A GUIDE IN MATTERS OF FAITH THE design of this Discourse is the Resolution of the following Query Whither a Man who liveth where Christianity is The Question professed and refuseth to submit his judgment to the Infallibility 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 The moment of this Question 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 The Temptations to believe the Affirmative part of this Question 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 then to give themselves the trouble of a strict Examination of things For there is less Pain in Credâlity 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 fiâst understood Men are not Humble but Slavish But these Temptations prevail not upon honest and considerate Minds which inquire without prejudice The true Resolution of the Query 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 Assânt Thirdly Whatsoever thâse means are every Man 's Personal reason giveth to the Mind that last Weigh which turneth Deliberation into Faith Fourthly The means which God hath given us towards necessary Faith and the ceââainây of it is nât the Authority of any infallible Guide on Earth Yet Fifthly All ãâ¦ã is not to be rejected in our pursuance of the ãâ¦ã in the finding out or ââating of which it is a very ãâ¦ã Sixthly By the ãâ¦ã to us the Holy Scriptures in the ãâ¦ã ââans sufficient to lead us to certainty ãâ¦ã to âiâe Eternal First ãâ¦ã and Profession of the nââessâr ãâ¦ã Faith are annexed Prop. I ãâ¦ã the Chriâââââ Church There ââ but ãâ¦ã and accâââing ââ he saying of Leo the great * Nisi ãâ¦ã Fides non est â M Ser. 2â If ãâ¦ã at all For it cannot be contrary ââ it seââ And though it be ãâã âet Men oâ diââering Creeds âret ãâ¦ã it as the Merchants of Reliââs in the Church of ãâã shew in several places the one ââamless Coat of Christ â âee Ferrand l. 1. c. 1. Sect 4. disquis Relig. 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 * Act. 4. 19 20. 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 * S. Mat. 28. 20. 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 erre 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 erres might have shined with the True Light But the whole Church cannot erre 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 then 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 erre 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 amongst Husbandmen Where was the Corn before it was weeded We have seen that necessary Faith is perpetual and it is as Prop. II manifest that wheresoever God requireth the belief of it he vouchsafeth sufficient means for information and unerring Assent Of all he does not 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 thâ same sum of Doctrines is generally necessary to Salvation yet the Creed of all men is not of equal length seing they have unequal capacities But wheresoever there is a particular Society of Men who call themselves a Church yet erre 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 Tyranâ 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 Articles 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 then an Unbeliever Wherefore our Saviour told the perverse Jews * Joh. 15. 22 23. that if the Messiah had never been revealed 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 Prop. III. is absolutely required but whatsoever those means are the Act of Assent is to be utlimately 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 * To the Reader of the Dis of Govern of Churches 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 believe upon Authority he hath a farther 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 then 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 Judgement What is a True Church and which are the marks of it What is the Roman Church And whither the marks of the True Church do only belong unto the Roman What Men or what Books spââk the sense of that Church They tell us â R. H. Guide in Controv. in Pref. p. 3. 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 ouâ 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
that she died and was not miraculously assumed The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded b Dom. infrâ Oct. Asc in 3. Noct. p. 443. 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 â Infra Oct. Asc 3. Noct. Lect. 8. p. 447. 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 Assert III. 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. Austine who thus applieth himself to Maximinus * S. Aug cont Max. l. 3. 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 Witnesâes 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 Ecclesiasticall 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 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 PROTESTANT RESOLUTION OF FAITH Being an Answer to THREE QUESTIONS I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true sense of the Scripture II. Whither a visible Succession from CHRIST to this day makes a Church which has this Succession an infallible Interpreter of Scripture and whither no Church which has not this Succession can teach the true sense of Scripture III. Whither the Church of ENGLAND can make out such a visible Succession London Printed And Edinburgh Re-printed by J. Reid for T Brown G Schaw A Ogston and G Mosman Stationers in Edinburgh to be sold at their Shops 1686. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THese Papers which are here presented to thee were write for the use of a private Person and by the Advice of some Friends are now made Publick We find how busie the Romish Emissaries are to corrupt our People and think our selves equally concerned to Antiaote them against Popâây and Phanaticism Two extreams equally dangerous to the Government of Church and State in these Kingdoms both in their Principles and Practices and both of them very great Corruptions of the Christian Religion and very dangerous to mens Souls Some of our Clergy have already been so charitable to our Dissenters as to warn them of their danger and by the Strength and Evidence of Scripture and Reason to Convince them of their mistakes and I pray God forgive those men and turn their Hearts who will not contribute so much to their own Conviction and Satisfaction as diligently and impartially to read and consider what is so charitably offered to them Ignorance and mistake may excuse men whâ have no opportunities of knowing better but such wilfull and resolved Ignorance which bars up mens miâds against all means of better Information will as soon damn them as sins against knowledge And now it might justly be thought want of charity to those of the Roman communion should we take no care at all of them nay want of charity to those of our own communion and to Dissenters themselves who are daily assaulted by the busie Factors for Rome For the Disputes against the church of Rome as well as against Dissenters are for the most part too Learned and too Voluminous for the instruction of ordinary People and therefore some short and plain Discourses about the principal Matters in dispute between us is the most effectual way we can take to confirm men in their Religion and preserve them from the crafty Insinuations of such as lie in wait to deceive Some few Attempts which have been already made of that kind give me some hope that several other Tracts will follow that the ruine of the church of England if God shall please ever to permit such a thing whither by Popery or Phanaticism may not be charged upon our neglect to instruct People better Some Persons it seems whose Talent lies more in censuring what others do then in doing any good themselves are pleased to put some sinister constructions on this Design as it is imposible to design any thing so well but men of ill minds who know not what it means to do good for goods sake shall be able to find some bad name for it Some guess that we now write against Popery only to play an after-Game and to regain the Favour and good Opinion of Dissenters which we have lost by writing against them But I know not that any man has lost their Favour by it nor that any man values their Favour for any other reason then to have the greater advantage of doing them good If so good a work as confuting the Errors of the church of Rome will give the Dissenters such a good Opinion of us as to make them more impartially consider what has been writ to perswade them to communion with the church of England I know ââ reason any man has to be ashamed to own it though it were part of his design but whither it is or not is more then I know I dare undertake for those Persons I am acquainted with that they neither value the favour nor fear the displeasure either of Phanaticks
same Doctrines which she does and she looks upon it as a just prejudice against any Expositions of Scripture if they contradict the common Faith of the first Christians and therefore when the words of Scripture are fairly capable of different senses she chooses that sense which is most agreeable with the Catholick Faith and practice of the Primitive Church but should any Doctrines be imposed upon her as Articles of Faith which are no where to be found in Scripture or which are plainly contrary to it as the new Trent Creed is whatever pretence there be for the Antiquity of such Doctrines she utterly rejects them she will not put out her Eyes to follow any other Guide and thanks be to God she needs not reject any truly Catholick Doctrine in this way We still retain the Faith of the Primitive Church and are greatly confirmed in it from that admirable consent there is between the Scriptures as Expounded by us and that Faith which was anciently owned and received by all Christians Having thus shewn in what sense the Church is the Interpreter of Scripture I proceed now to the Second thing contained in this Paper That this Church must be known to be the true Church by its continual visible Succession from Christ till our dayes Now these few words contain a great many and very great mistakes The subject of the inquiry is how we may find out such a Church whose word we may safely take for the true sense and meaning of Scripture Now 1. The Author of this Paper whither ignorantly or designedly I know not alters the state of the Question and in stead of a Church which is an unerring and Infallible Interpreter of Scripture which would be very well worth finding he tells us how we may know a true Church now I take a true Church and and an infallible Interpreter of Scripture to be very different things A Church may be guilty of Schism and Heresie and yet may be a true Church though not a sound Orthodox and Catholick Church for a true Church is such a Church as has all things necessary and essential to the Beeing and Constitution of a Church this a Church may have and superadd other things which are destructive of the Christian Faith and very dangerous and fatal mistakes as we believe and are able to prove the Church of Râme has done and yet we acknowledge her a true Church because she retains the true Christian Faith though miserably Corrupted by Additions of her own as a man is a true man though he be sick of a mortal Disease Now if a true Church may corrupt the Christian Faith we have no reason to rely on the Authority of every true Church for the true sense and meaning of Scripture 2. Let us suppose that by a true Church he means an Infallible Church whose Authority we may safely rely on in Expounding Scriptures this Church he sayes is to be known by a continual visible Succession from Christ till our dayes Now if this visible uninterrupted Succession be the mark of such a true Church as is an infallible Interpreter of Scripture then 1. The Greek Church is an infallible Interpreter of Scripture for she has as visible uninterrupted a Succession from Christ and his Apostles to this day as the Church of Rome has and so we have two infallible Churches not to instance in any more at present who have as good a Succession as either of them which are directly opposite to each other and what shall we do in this Case Must we believe Contradictions or must we dis-believe infallible Churches 3. If a visible Succession from Christ and his Apostles makes aây church an infallible Interpreter of Scripture then all the churches which were planted by the Apostles were infallible All the churches which were planted by the Apostles have an equally visible Succession from Christ those churches which were planted by the Apostles may be presumed as infallible while the Apostles were present with them as they were afterwards and those churches which succeeded these Apostolical churches at the distance of an Age or two may be supposed as infallible as any church of this Age is for if a visible Succession from Christ makes a church infallible why should not a Succession of a hundred or two hundred years make them as infallible as a Succession of sixteen hundred years unless they think that Infallibility increases with the Age of the Church which I could wish true but we see very little sign of it Now according to these Principles all the churches which were planted by the Apostles and have a continual visible Succession from Apostolical Churches through all Ages since the time of the Apostles must be infallible for if a continual visible Succession confers Infallibility and is the mark whereby we must know it then every Church which ever had or has to this day this visible Succession must have Infallibility also which it seems is entailed on Succession And thus we have found out a World of infallibility and it is wonderful how any Apostolical Church came to be over-run with so many Errors and Heresies and to grow so corrupt and degenerate as to provoke GOD to root them up if every Apostolical Church was infallible I cannot imagine how whole Churches which visibly succeeded the Apostles should be infected with Heresie for if Infallibility it self will not secure a Church from Heresie the LORD have mercy upon us 3. This mark he gives how to find out such a true Church at is an infallible Interpreâer of Scripture viz. A continual visible Succession from Christ till this day includes another great mistake for it supposes that there is some church now in being on whose Authority we must rely for the sense of Scripture for otherwise there can be no use of a visible Succession to this day in this Controversie If as I have already Proved at large we must rely only on the Authority of the Primitive Church not of the church of this present Age for the sense of Scripture and that not as an infallible Judge buâ as the most Authentick Witness of the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice then we cannot find out this church by a visible Succession to this day but by examining the ancient Records of the Primitive Church where we shall find what the Faith and Practice of the Church in those dayes was which is the safest Rule to guide us in the Exposition of Scripture Though there were no Church in the World at this day which could prove a continual visible Succession from Christ and his Apostles yet while we have the Scriptures and the Records of the Primitive church we have very sufficient means for the understanding the true meaning of Scripture So that of whatever use this talk of a continual visible Succession may be in other cases it is wholly impertinent in this A church which cannot prove such a continual visible Succession which was not founded by any Apostle
way or other being necessarily included in that belief And thought that he made sincere and sound Disciples if they believed what he preach'd only Jesus and the Resurrection in their full compass and latitude Though we believe all this in a more express and explicite sence all that is contain'd in Scripture in the Apostles Creed or the two other Creeds drawn up by the Church to explain the Christian Religion in some Articles and to oppose the Doctrines of Hereticks yet the first Christians shall be saved and we shall be damned they shall be the Elect and the Church of GOD we must be Reprobates and the Synagogue of Satan Or let Rome shew her wonted Charity and say she doubts also of their Salvation Or did Christ connive at that time of Ignorance or had he as a Lawgiver forgot to declare some part of the Will and Pleasure of GOD and upon better remembrance after so many hundred years suggested it to his careful Vicar Or did Christ knowing their Nature and Circumstances of it that they could not bear them at that time therefore delay the discovery so long Or did these new Articles lie hid so long conceal'd by his Apostles or buried by some lewd Hereticks in the rubbish of those Churches they pull'd down but afterwards found as they say the Cross was and now stored to light Or are these new Articles some way or other contained in the ancient Creeds which we believe and by easie and natural consequences deduced from them Some such fine reasons as these must be pretended otherwise we can safely conclude that our Church is truely ancient and Apostolical though she disowns the late inventions of the Romish Bishop and is known to be the Spouse of Christ by her first features and complexion though she hath cast off the new Italian dress For was the Christian Church the House of GOD irregular in its building wanting of Beams and Pillars the Essentials of Religion till Romes curious and careful Builder cast it into a new Model and compleated it 2. This Question supposeth that the Christian Church ought alwayes to be visible which is not so strictly true For Visible or Invisible make not two Churches but different States Conditions or Respects of one and the same 'T was designed by Christ that all that are baptiz'd into the Communion of his Faith and Church should make an Outward and Vissible Profession of it by their Religious Assemblies and Worship by their Sacraments Discipline and Government whereby being United among themselves and to Christ their Head they should constitute one Body call'd the Catholick church in whose Communion they must live and dye But so it came to pass that the number of Christian People so proâessing and owning the Faith of Jesus was lesser or greater more conspicuous or obscure as Persecutions or Heresies grew and prevailed among them which like raging Plagues wasted whole Countries destroying some perverting others and making many fly into remoter Kingdoms and only some scattered and solitary Christians living in Caves and Wildernesses remained behind or only the face of a distressed Christian Church as it hapned to the Seven Asian and African Churches which now labour under a Mahumetan Pride and Superstition But as it lost in one Countrey it gained in another the Jewish Persecution and others driving several Colonies of Christians into remoter Countries where they spread and enlarged their Religion and many times the distress or triumph of the Church followed the changes and revolutions in the Civil State suffering or flourishing with it And often the abuse of Religion Prostituting of it to Hypocrisie and secular ends the wicked lives of its Disciples or want of Courage or Resolution in its defence hath tempted Providence to permit pestilent Heresies worse then that in these Northren parts to prevail and Paganism to return again but still the promise of Christ to his Church was firm and the Gates of Hell did not prevail against her And though he was forced sometimes to travel from Countrey to Countrey and lookâ small and obscure in the number of her Followers yet still some or other parts and corners of the World and true and zealous Christians in them made up the little flock and shall never faill while the World endures Popery like the Egyptian darkness had overspread this and other Nations yet here and there was as the Israelite that had light in his dwellings and a counter-charm against the Enchantments of Egypt the Gospel that at length did prevail against corruptions and made its Followers visible and numerous They ask us Where was our Religion before Luther As though it was not because it did not visibly appear or no where in the World because not here in England or in other parts where Popery did domineer and the Romish Faction was all and whole Christianity in the World the Catholick Church which implies contradiction and absurdity Christianity here indeed was obscur'd and like the Sun under the cloud but still the Sun was the same and at length conquer'd the Mists 't is a fine Question to ask Where was the Sun before Noon day We will suppose her Followers to be few yet Christ is true though others are lyars for he never promised that the Members of the true Catholick church should be alwayes famous for their numbers or that multitudes should alwayes follow Truth nor ever directed men to follow the Multitude in search of Truth which is found otherwayes not by Votes and Polling for her Did not our Saviour ask the question when he should come again whither at the Destruction of Jerusalem or at the Judgment day whereof the other was a Type and Prefiguration whither he should find Faith on Earth or no Did not the Prophet Luk. 1â â sadly complain in the Reign of Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah that the good man is perished out Mich 7. 2 of the Land and there is none righteous among men they could not then reckon up of the Tribe of Judah Twelve thousand and yet there was true Faith and a Church of GOD though little and Obscure Doth not King David cry Psal 12. 1. out Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the faithful faill from among the children of Men corruption in Faith and Manners usually going together And Elijah tells a sad story of the Children of Israel that they 1 Kin. 19. 10 had broken their Covenant and destroyed the Altars and the Prophets and he only was left alive that they sought his life also God tells him that yet for all that he had seven vers 18. thousand knees that had not bowed to Baal still there was a small Church not infected with Idolatry though obscure and unknown to Elijah Have not some of the Romish Writers told us that at Christs Passion the Church was only left in the Virgin Mary all then forsaking Christ but the holy Mother The Shepheard was smitten and the Sheep disperst
seventh Council * Syn. 7. Act. ult p. 886. Con. in Labb Richer H. Conc. Gen. vol. 1. p. 658. Ad calc ejusd act 7 in omn. editionibus concil legitur Epist Synod quam Tarasius c. Et diserte narrat cunctos Patres Honorium damnasse condemned as a Monothilite And he was expresly 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 a Lib. diurn Pontif. con sid 2. p. 41. Autores verò novi hoeretici dogmatis Sergium Pyrrhum Paulum Petruâ Episcopos unà cum Honorio qui pravis eorum assertionibut fomentum impendit pariterque Theodorum Pharamitanum Cyrum Alexandrinum cum eorum imitatoribus c. This matter is so manifest that Melchior Canus b Melch can Loci com l. 6. c. ult p. 242 243. c. 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 Monothilites c Anton. Dez Hist Mon. Par 1678. 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 a Id. ib. p. 224. 325 226 218. was condemned by the Council and that the Council was not to be blamed â that Pope Leo the second owned both the Council and the Sentence and that Honorius was Sentenc'd as an Heretick * Id. p. 220. He would abate this guilt by saying b P. 207 208. that Honorius erred as a private Person and not as Head of the Church because his Epistle 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 c Id. p. 122. profanaÌ proditione immaculatam fidem subvertere conatus est Flammam confovit p. 123. 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 d de Socer Christ p. 40 are not unerring Guides who actually erre The Sieur de Balzac d Socr. Chr. p. 40. 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 fitness in the constituting of such a Arg. V 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 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 seing 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 seing there must be Christian Obedience as long as there is a Church seing as the Guide in Controversie * R. H. Annot. on D. St. Answ p. 81. 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 judgement 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 Prop. V. 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 Mezary * Hij A. 1. 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 a A. as he was afterwards in the affairs of our State when he said King James was elected at the Guild-hall King of England b 10. A. 1603. The Romanists 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 c See J. Racsters 7 motives of W. A p. 11 12. 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 learned Fathers with Arius Actius Vigilantius Men alwayes in their time Burned for Hereticks of which words the former are false reasoning the latter is false History The Bishop of Meaux d Confer avec M. claut de p. 110. 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 d R. H. Annot on D. St. Answ p. 84. puts the Question wrong in these terms Whither 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 judgement 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
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 of Rome of which profession report is made in the 2d Synod of Nice â Syn. Nic. 2. art 7 sec vers Anastasii Licet enim Honorio post mortem anathema sit dictum ab Orientalibus sciendum tamen est quia fuerat super haeresi accusatus propter quam solam licitum est minoribus majorum suorum moribus resistendi vel pravos sensus libere respuendi c. 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 that case alone he allowed Inferiors so he was pleased to call the Oriental Bishops to reject the corrupt sense of those who are superiour 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 Prop. VI. Faith yet the Holy Scripture is the only infallible Rule of it and by this Rule and the Ministeral Aids of the Christian Church we have sufficient means without Submission to papal Infallability 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 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 that rule of Faith which giveth us all the particular Articles which are necessary to eternal Life By this rule the Primitive Fathers govern'd themselves and this they commended to the Churches And Clemens Alexandrinus a Cl. Alex. Strom. 2. Kanon Ekklesiastikos he Synodia c. Strom. 7 Alethon kai pseudon kriterion does in terms call the Consent of the Old and New Testament the Ecclesiastical Canon and the Touch-stone of true and false I will not multiply Testimonies enough of them are already collected b V. Davenant de Judice normaÌ fidei c. 12. p. 53. c. D. Till Rule of Faith part 4. sect 2. p. 320. c. I will rather pursue the Argument before me in these three Assertions First a Protestant without the submission of his Judgement to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Canonical Books of Holy Scripture Secondly He may without such submission sufficiently understand the Rule of Faith and find out the Sense of such places in those Canonical Books as is necessary to the belief of a true Christian Thirdly This rule of Faith is the principal means of Union in Faith in the Christian Church First a Protestant without the submission of his Assert I. Judgement to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Holy Scriptures It is commonly said by Men of the Roman perswasion but injudiciously enough that we may as well receive our Creed from them as we do our Bible The Scribes and Pharisees might have said the like to the People of the Jews But with the good Text they conveighed down to them a very false gloss and misinterpreted the Prophesies as meant of a pompous temporal Messiah But for the Reformed they have received neither Creed nor Bible from the Church of Rome The first enumeration of those Books they find in the Apostolical Canons and in those of the Council of Laodecea no Westren writings They have received the Scriptures from the Universal Church of all Ages and Places the Copies of them having been as widely dispersed as the Christians themselves And they receive them not from the infallibility of any particular Church but upon the validity of this sure principle that all the Christian World so widely dispersed could not possibly conspire in the imposing of false Books upon them For particular Churches we may of all others suspect the Roman in reference to the Scriptures For what sincerity of dealing may we hope for from such a Cabal of Men as has forged decrees of Councils and Popes obtruded upon the World Apocryphal Books as Books Canonical purged out of the writings of the Fathers such places as were contrary to their Innovations depressed the Originals under an imperfect Latin Copy and left on purpose in that Copy some places uncorrected for the serving of turns For example sake they have not either in the Bible of Sintus or in that of Clement both which though in War against each other are made their Canon changed the word She in the third of Genesis a Gen. 3. 15. for That or He. But contrary to the Hebrew Text to the Translation of the Seventy to the Readings of the Fathers They persist in rendring of it after this manner She shall break thy Head They believe this Reading tendeth most to the Honour of the blessed Virgin whom they are too much inclined to exalt in the Quality of a Mother above her Son The English Translation of Doway hath followed this plain
and partial corruption Secondly A Protestant may without Submission Assert II. of his judgement to the Roman Church find out in the Books of Holy Scripture the necessary Articles of Christian Faith Two things are here supposed and both of them are true First That the Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of our Faith Secondly That the sense of the Words in which these Articles are expressed in Scripture may be found out by a Protestant without the Submission of his Judgement to the Papacy First The Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of the Faith This is true if the Scriptures themselves be so For this they Witness * See S. Joh. 20. 30. 31. c. 21. 25. St. Paul b 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16 17. saith of the Old Testament as expounded of Christ that it was able to make a Man wise unto Salvation Much more may this be affirmed of the entire Canon The Apostles preached the necessaries to Salvation and what they had preached they wrote down * Iren. l. 3. c. 1. concerning the manner of it Eusebius may be consulted â Eus Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 14. For the Primitive Fathers they allowed the Scriptures to be a sufficient Rule Irenaeus said of them they were perfect * Iren. l. 2. c. 47. S. Aug. de doct Christ l. 2. c. 9. and of the words of St. Austine this is the sense Among those things which are plainly set down in Scripture all those things are to be found which comprehend Faith and Good Manners Nay the Romanists themselves attempt to prove their very additional Articles out of the Bible That there are in it the Articles of the Apostolical Creed is evident enough to a common Reader But how the Romish Articles should be found in that Bible which was written some hundreds of years before they were invented is a riddle beyond the skill of Apollo Secondly the sense of the Scriptures in matters necessary to Salvation may be found out by Men of the Reformed Religion without Submission to Roman Infallibility The Learned know the Originals and the true wayes of Interpretation And amongst us those of the Episcopal Clergy have obliged the World with such an Edition of the Bible in many Languages as was not before extant in the Roman Church And a Romanist who writes with great mastery in such matters prefers it before the great Bible of Paris a V. P. S. p. Hist Critique p. 583 Mais elle est plus ample plus commode c. For those of the Laity who are Unlearned they have before them a Translation which erres not in the Faith And the phrases are not so obscure but that by study and Ministerial helps they may understand them They have before them a Translation which erres not in the Faith Of this the Italians and the French may be convinced by comparing the Translations of James de Voragine and the Divines of Lovain with those of Signior Diodati and Olivetan or Calvin And the English may receive satisfaction in this matter by comparing their Translations with that of Doway In all of them they will find the same Fundamental Doctrines of Faith And were there any such material alteration made in our Bible it would appear by the notorious inconsistence of one part of the Canon with another It would have been long ago detected and exposed to publick shame both by the Romanists and the other Dissenters from our Communion But the former are not able to produce one instance and the latter agree with us in the use and excellence of the Translation though in other things they extreamly differ from us And where they do but dream we erâe they forbear not to proclaim it In so much that a difference in the Translations of the Psalter which concerns not Faith or Manners â See Hook Eccl. Pol. Book fifth Sect. 19. and a supposed defect in the Table for keeping Easter have been made by them publick Objections * Mr. Hs. peaceable design renewed p. 14. and stumbling blocks in the way to their Conformity It is true there is a Romanist who hath raved against the Bible of the Reformed in these extravagant words â¡ A. S. Reconciler of Religions Printed 1663. c. 11. p. 38 39. The Sectaries have as many different Bibles in Canon Version and sense as are dayes in the year The Sectarian Bible is no more the Word of GOD then the Alcoran Almanack or Aesops Fables Of great corruption he speaks in general but his Madness has admitted of so much caution that he forbears the mention of any one particular place The Learned Romanists understand much better and the Ingenuous will confess it And they are not ignorant that we Translate from the Original Tongues after having compared the Readings of the most Ancient Copies and of the Fathers Whilst they Translate the Bible from the Vulgar Latin which indeed in the New Testament is a tolerable but in the Old a very imperfect Version If our English Bible were turned into any one of the Modern Tongues by a Judicious Romanists who could keep Counsel it would pass amongst many of that Church for a good Catholick Translation And this is the rather my perswasion because I have read in Father Simon a Historie critique ch 25. p. 392. 393. that not unpleasant story concerning the Translation of Mr. Rene Benoist a Doctor of the Faculty of Paris This Doctor had observed that a new Latin Translation of the Organon of Aristotle performed by a person who understood not the Greek Tongue had been very well received Upon this occasion he was moved to turn the Bible into the French Tongue though he was ignorant of those of the Greek and Hebrew For the accomplishing of this Design he served himself upon the French Translation of Geneva changing only a few words and putting others of the same signification in their room But it seems he was not exact enough in this change of words For he having overlooked some words which were used by the Genevians and not the Romanists a discovery was made by the Divines of Paris and this Edition of the Bible was condemned by them though published under the name of one of their Brethren I do not say that such places of Scripture as contain Matters of Faith are plain to every Man But those who have a competence of capacity who are not prejudiced against the Truth who pray to God for his assistance who attend to what they read who use the Ministerial helps which are offered to them shall find enough in Holy Writ to Guide them to everlasting life In finding out the sense of the Scriptures the Church gives them help but it does not by its Authority obtrude the sense upon them The Guides of it are as Expositors and School-Masters to them And by comparing phrase with phrase and place with place and by other such wayes they teach them how to judge of
or Papists but yet heartily desire to do good to them both But there is a more mischievous suggestion then this that the design of such Papers is only to raise a new cry and noise about Popery and to alarm the People and disturb the Government with new Fears and Jealousies Truly if I thought this would be the effect of it I would burn my Papers presently for I am sure the church of England will get nothing by a Tumultuary and clamorous Zeal against the Church of Rome and I had much rather suffer under Popery then contribute any thing towards raising a Popular Fury to keep it out We profess our selves as irreconcilable Enemies to Popery as we are to Phanaticism and desire that all the World may know iâ but we will never Rebell nor countenance any Rebellion against our lawful Soveraign to keep out either we leave such Principles and Practices to Papists and Phanaticks But when we find our People Assaulted by the Agents of Rome and do not think our selves secure from Popish Designs we think it our Duty to give them the best Instructions we can to preserve them from such Errors as we believe will destroy their Souls and cannot but wonder that any men who are as much concerned to take care of Souls as we are should think this a needless or a scandalous undertaking I wish such men would speak out and tell us plainly what they think of Popery themselves If they think this Design not well managed by those who undertake it it would more become them to commend the Design and do it better themselves I know no man but would very gladly be excused as having other work enough to imploy his time but yet I had rather spend my vacant minutes this way then in censuring the good that other men do while I do none my self The Words of the Paper which was sent to me are these IT is my Opinion that the infinite Goodness of our Legislator has left to us a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures which is the Church Now J judge this Church must be known to be the true Church by its continual visible Succession from Christ till our Dayes But I doubt whither or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession and desire to be informed ANSWER THAT Christ has lest a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures I readily grant or else it had been to no purpose to have left us the Scriptures But the latter Clause is very ambiguous for the meaning may either be that we may understand by the Scriptures which is the Church or that the Church is the means whereby we must understand the true sense and meaning of the Scripture The first is a true Protestant Principle and therefore I presume not intended by this Objector For how we should know that there is any Church without the Information we receive by the Scripture I cannot Divine and yet we may as easily know that there is a Church as we can know which is the true Church without the Scripture For there is no other means of knowing either that there is a Church or what this Church is or what are the Properties of a True and Sound and Orthodox Church but by Revelation and we have no other Revelation of this but what is contained in the Holy Scriptures As for the Second That the Church is the means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures it is in some sense very true in some sense very false 1. It is in some sense true and acknowledged by all sober Protestants As 1. If by the Church we understand the Universal Church of all Ages as we receive the Scriptures themselves handed down by them to our time so what ever Doctrines of Faith have been universally received by them is one of the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture For the nearer they were to the times of the Apostles the more likely they were to understand the true sense of their Writings being instructed by the Apostles themselves in the meaning of them And thus we have a certain Rule to secure us from all dangerous Errors in expounding Scripture For the great and fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion are as plainly contained in the Writings of the first Fathers of the Church and as unanimously asserted by them as the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and therefore though we have not a Traditionary Exposition of every particular Text of Scripture yet we have of the great and fundamental Doctrines of Faith and therefore must never expound Scripture so as to contradict the known and avowed sense of the Catholick Church And this course the Church of England takes she receives the Definitions of the four first General Councils and requires her Bishops and Clorgy to Expound the Scriptures according to the profest Doctrines of those first and purest Ages of the Church 2. We ought to pay great deference to and not lightly and want only oppose the Judgement and Authority of the Particular Church wherein we live when her Expositions of Scripture do not evidently and notoriously contradict the sense of the Catholick church especially of the first and best Ages of it For it does not become private men to oppose their Sentiments and Opinions to the Judgement of the church unless in such plain cases as every honest man may be presumed a very competent Judge in the matter and no church nor all the churches in the World have such Authority that we must renounce our senses and deny the first principles of Reason to follow them with a blind and implicite Faith And thus the church that is the sense and Judgment of the catholick church is a means for the finding out the true sense of Scripture and though we may mistake the sense of some particular Texts which the Romanists themselves will not deny but that even infallible councils may do who tho' they are infallible in their conclusions yet are not alwayes so in the Arguments or Mediums whither drawn from Scripture or Reason whereby they prove them yet it is Morally impossible we should be guilty of any dangerous mistake while we make the catholick Doctrine of the church our Rule and in other matters follow the Judgment and submit to the Authority of the church wherein we live which is as absolutely necessary as Peace and Order and good Goverment in the church 2. But then this is very false if we mean that the church is the only means of finding out the true sense of the Scriptures on if by the church we understand any particular church as I suppose this Person does the Roman Catholick that is the particular universal church of Rome or if we mean the church of the present Age or by Means understand such a Decretory sentence as must determine our Faith and command out Assent that we must seek
the same church notwithstanding these Disputes because it is a very dangerous thing to leave it but they are more beholden to the Inquisition then to infallibility for this Unity 2. How do these Divisions and Heresies which disturb the Church prove that no man can be certain of his Religion If we can certainly know what the sense of Scripture is notwithstanding there are many different Opinions about it then the diversity of Opinions is no Argument against us if we cannot be certain of any thing which others deny dispute or doubt of then how can any Papist be certain that his Church is infallible For all the rest of the Christian Church deny this and scorn their Pretensions to it I may indeed safely acquiesce in the Determinations of an infallible Judge whom I am infallibly assured to be infallible how many contrary Opinions soever there are in the World But when infallibility it self is the matter of the dispute and I have no infallible way to know whither there be any such thing or where this infallibility is seated if diversity of Opinions be an Argument against the certainty of any thing which I am not and cannot be infallibly assured of then it is a certain demonstration against infallibility it self Unless we will take the Church of Romes word for her own infallibility we cannot have the Decision of an infallible Judge in this matter for she will allow no other infallible Judge but her self and yet this is so absurd a way that it supposes that we believe and that we dis-believe the same thing at the same time For unless we before-hand believe the Church to be infallible her saying so is no infallible proof that she is infallible and yet the very demand of a proof supposes that we are not certain of it that we doubt of it or dis-believe it When we ask the Church whither she be infallible it supposes that we are not certain of it otherwise we should need no proof and when we believe the Church to be infallible because she sayes so it supposes that we did before-hand believe that she is infallible otherwise her saying so is no proof The greatest Champions for the Church of Rome never pretended that they could produce any infallible proofâ which is the true Church Cardinal Bellarmine attempts no more then to alledge some Motives of Credibility to make the thing probable and to incline Men to believe it and yet it is impossible we can be more certain of the Infallibility of the Church then we are that it is a true Church and if a Papist have only some motives of Credibility to believe the Church of Rome to be a true Church he can have no greater probabilities that it is an infallible Church Now not to take notice what a tottering Foundation some high probabilities though they amounted to a moral assurance is for the belief of infallibility which is to put more in the Conclusion then there is in the Premises The only use I shall make of it at present is this That we can at least be as certain of the meaning of Scripture as the Papists are that their Church is infallible for they can be no more infallibly assured of this then we are of our interpretations of Scripture and therefore if the diversity of Opinions about the sense of Scriptures proves that we cannot be certain what the true sense of it is the same Argument proves that they cannot be certain that their Church is infallible because this is not only doubted but absolutly denied by the greatest part of the Christian World and was never thought of by the best and purest Ages of it So this Argument proves too much and recoils upon themselves like a Gun which is overcharged and if for their own sakes they will grant that we may be certain of some things which are as confidently denied and disputed by others then the diversity of Opinions in the Church is no Argument that we cannot be certain of our Religion but only teacheth us greater caution and diligence and Honesty in our inquiries after Truth 3. These Divisions and Heresies that are in the Christian Church are no better Argument against the truth and certainty of our Religion then the diversities of Religions that are in the World are against the truth of Christianity The whole World is far enough from being Christian great part of it are Jews or Pagans or Mahumetanes still and this is as good an Argument to prove the uncertainty of all Religions as the different Parties and Professions of Christians are to prove that we cannot be certain what the true Christian Church nor what true Christianity is The Gospel of our Saviour was not designed to offer any force or violence to mens Faith or understanding no more then to their wills Were there such an irresistible and compulsory Evidence in the Gospel that wherever it was Preach'd it should be impossible for any man though never so wicked and ill disposed to continue an Infidel or to prove a Heretick Faith would be no greater a Vertue then forc'd Obedience and Compliance is The Gospel has Evidence enough to Convince honest Minds and is plain enough to be understood by those who are honest and teachable and therefore has its Effects upon those who are Curable which is all that it was designed for Those who will not beleive may continue Infidels and those who will not understand may fall into Errours and believe a Lye and yet there is Evidence enough to Convince and Plainness enough to Instruct well disposed minds and certainty enough in each to be the foundation of a Divine Faith The sum is this Though the Instructions of the Church are a very good means for the understanding of the sense of Scripture yet they are not the only means the Holy Scripture is a very intelligible Book in such matters as are absolutly necessary to Salvation and could we suppose that a man who never heard of a Church should have the use of the Bible in a Language which he understood by a diligent reading of it he might understand enough to be saved 2. If by Church is mean'd any Particular Church as suppose the Roman Catholick Church or the Church of the present Age it is absolutely false to say that the Church in this sense is alwayes a sure and safe means of understanding the Scripture What has been Universally believed by all Christian Churches in all Ages or at least by all Churches of the first and purest Ages of Christianity which were nearest the times of the Apostles and might be presumed best to understand the sense of the Apostles in the great Articles of our Faith is a very safe Rule for the interpretation of Scripture and the general Practice of those Primitive Apostolick Churches in matters of Government and Discipline before they were corrupted by worldly Ambition and secular Interest is a very safe Rule for our Practice also and this is the
Rule whereby our Church is reformed and to which we appeal There are but three things necessary to be understood by Christians either the Articles of Faith or the Rules of Life or the external Order and Discipline of the Church and Administration of Religious Offices 1. As for the Rules of Life all those Duties which we owe to GOD and Men they are so plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures that no honest man can mistake them I suppose the church of Rome her self will not pretend that there is any need of an infallible Interpreter to teach men what is mean'd by Loving GOD with all our Heart and our Neighbour as our selves 2. As for the Articles of Faith those which are fundamental to the christian Religion and which every Christian ought to believe are so plain in Scripture that every honest and unprejudiced man may understand them but however as I observed before we govern our selves in these things by the received Doctrine of the catholick church of the first and purest Ages and if this be not a safe Rule we can be certain of nothing And what the catholick Faith was we learn from those short summaries of Faith which were universally owned by all catholick churches For what we now call the Apostles creed was very anciently received in all churches with some little variety indeed of Words and Phrase but without any difference of sense and the catholick Faith was not only preserved in such short Summaries and creeds which were as liable to be perverted by Hereticks as the Scriptures themselves but was more largely explained in the Writings of the ancient Fathers and though this will not enable us to understand every Phrase and Expression of Scripture but we must use other means to do that as Skill in the Original Languages a knowledge of ancient customs and ancient Disputes to which the Apostles frequently aflude a consideration of the Scope and Design of the place c. Yet the catholick Faith received and owned by the Primitive Church is so far a Rule as it directs us to Expound Scripture to a true catholick sense As St. Paul commands the Romans that those who prophesie should Prophesie according to the proportion of Faith Rom. 12. 6. Kat ' analogian pisteos according to the Analogie of Faith That is that in the interpreting the Scriptures of the Old Testament they should expound them to a christian sense according to those Doctrines of the christian Faith which he had taught them and this was a safe Rule for expounding the Old Testament which contained the Types and Figures and Prophesies of the Gospel-State And thus in expounding the new Testament now it is committed to writting we must Prohpesie according to the Analogie of Faith or as he commands Timothy in his Preaching Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard from me 2. Tim. 1. 13. It seems the Apostle had given him a form of sound words according to which he was to direct his Preaching whither this refers to a short summary of Faith such as our Creed is I cannot say though it is not improbable it may but it is plain we have a form of sound words delivered to us by the Catholick Church which contains the true Catholick Faith and therefore ought to be so far a Rule to us in expounding Scripture as never to contradict any thing which is contained in it for that is to contradict the Faith of the Catholick Church And when one great Article of this Faith concerning the Eternal God-head of Christ the Son of God was corrupted by Arius a Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria it gave an occasion for a full Declaration of the sense of the Catholick Church about it And though the effects of that Controversie were very fatal to the Church yet it was very happy that it broke out in such an Age when it could be determined with greater certainty and greater Authority then it could have been in any succeeding Age of the Church by men who were venerable for their Age for their Wisdom for their Piety for their undaunted Confessions under Heathen and Persecuring Emperours who knew what the sense of the Catholick Church was before this Controversie broke out and before External Prosperity had through ease and wantonness corrupted the Faith as well as the Manners of Christians 3. As for matters of External Order Discipline and Government the Universall Practice of the Catholick Church is the best and safest Comment on these General Rules and Directions we have laid down in Scripture There is no doubt at all but the Apostles did appoint Governours and Rules of Order and Discipline in the Churches planted by them what these were the Christians of those dayes saw with their eyes â in the dayly practice of the Church and therefore the Apostles in those Epistles which they wrote to their several Churches did not give them so punctual and particular an account of those matters which they so well knew before but as occasion served make only some accidental mention of these things and that in such general terms as were well enough understood by them who knew the practice of the Church in that Age but it may be cannot meerly by the force of the words which may be capable of several Senses be so certainly and demonstratively determined to any one sense by us who did not see what was done in those dayes as to avoid all possible Cavils of contentious men This has occasioned those disputes concerning Infant Baptism the several Orders and Degrees of Church Governours the Rites and ceremonies of Religious Worship and the like Those who lived in those dayes and saw what the Apostles did in these matters could not doubt of these things thought it were not in express words said that infants should be baptized with their Parents or that Bishops are a Superiour Order to Presbyters and Presbyters to Deacons or that it is lawful for the Governours of the Church to institute and appoint some significant Rites and ceremonies for the more decent and orderly Administration of Religious Offices But because there is not a precise and punctual account given of these matters in the Writings of the Apostles which there was no need of then when these things were obvious to their very Senses some perverse and unreasonable Disputers who obstinately reject all other Evidence will judge of these things just as they please themselves and alter their Opinions and Fancies as often as they please But now if there be any certain way to know what the practice of the Apostles was in these cases this is the best comment we can possibly have on such Texts as are not sufficiently plain and express without it Now me thinks any reasonable man must acknowledge that the best way to understand the Practice of the Apostles is from the Practice of the Catholick Church in succeeding Ages especially while the memory of the Apostles was fresh and the Church
Governed by Apostolical Men when we cannot reasonably suspect any Deviation from the Primitive Practice and this is the Rule which the Church of England owns in such matters and by which she rejects and confutes both the Innovations and corruptions of the Church of Rome and the wild pretences of Phanaticism So that we do in the most proper sense own the Belief and Practice of the Primitive Church to be the best means for Expounding Scripture We do not leave every man to Expound Scripture by a private Spirit as our Adversaries of the Church of Rome reproach us we adhere to the ancient Catholick Church which the Church of Rome on one side and the Phanaticks on the other have forsaken And though we reject the new invention of an infallible Judge yet we are no Friends at all to Scepticism but can give a more Rational account of our Faith then the Church of Rome can Had we no other way of understanding the sense of Scripture but by Propriety of the Language and the Grammatical construction of the Words and the scope and design of the Texts their connexion and Dependence on what goes before and what follows and such like means as we use for the understanding any other Books of humane composition I doubt not but honest and diligent Inquirers might discover the true meaning of Scripture in all the great Articles of our Faith but yet this alone is a more uncertain way and lyable to the Abuses of Hereticks and Impostors The Socinians are a famous Example what Wit and Criticism will do to pervert the plainst Text and some other Sectaries are as plain a demonstration what wârk Dullness and Stupidity and Enthusiasm will make with Scripture but when we have the practice of the Catholick Church and an ancient and venerable summary of the Christian Faith which has been the common Faith of Christians in all Ages to be our Rule in Expounding Scripture though we may after all mistake the sense of some particular Texts yet we cannot be guilty of any great and dangerous mistakes This use the Church of England makes of the Catholick Church in Expounding Scripture that she Religiously maintains the ancient Catholick Faith and will not suffer any man to Expound Scriptures in opposition to the ancient Faith and Practice of the Catholick Church But though the Belief and Practice of the Catholick Church be the best means of understanding the true sense of Scripture yet we cannot affirm this of any particular Church or of the Church of any particular Age excepting the Apostolick Age or those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles Notwithstanding this the Church of Rome may be no good Expositor of Scripture for the Church of Rome though she usurp the name of the Catholick Church as presuming her self to be the Head and Fountain of catholick Unity yet she is but a part of the catholick Church as the Church of England and the Churches of France aind Holland are and has no more right to impose her Expositions of Scripture upon other Churches then they have to impose upon her If there happen any controversie between them it is not the Authority of either Church can decide it but this must be done by an appeal to Scripture and the sense of the Catholick Church in the first and purest Ages of it For when we say that the belief and Practice of the Catholick Church is the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture we do not mean that the Church is the Soveraign and absolute Judge of the sense of Scripture but the meaning is that those Churches which were founded by the Apostles and received the Faith immediately from them and were afterwards sor some Ages governed by Apostolical men or those who were taught by them and convers'd with them are the best Witnesses what the Doctrine of the Apostles was and therefore as far as we can be certain what the Faith of these Primitive Churches was they are the best Guides for the Expounding Scripture So that the Authority of the Church in Expounding Scripture being only the Authority of Witnesses it can reach no farther then those Ages which may reasonably be presumed to be Authentick and credible Witnesses of the Doctrines of the Apostles and therefore if we extend it to the four first general councils it is as far as we can do it with any pretence of Reason and thus far the Church of England owns the Authority of the Church and commands her Ministers to Expound the Scriptures according to the Catholick Faith owned and profess'd in those days but as for the later Ages of the church which were removed too far from the Apostles dayes to be Witnesses of their Doctrine they have no more Authority in this matter then we have at this day nor has one church any more Authority then another 3. And therefore if by the church being the means of knowing the sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures be understood the Judgment and Sentence and Decree of the church that we must seek no farther for the reason of our Faith then the infallible Authority of the church in Expounding Scripture this also is absolutely false and absurd This is more then Christ and his Apostles assumed to themselves while they were on Earth they were indeed infallible Interpreters of Scripture but yet they never bore down their Hearers meerly with their Authority but Expounded the Scriptures and applied ancient Prophesies to their Events and took the vail off of Moses's Face and shewed them the Gospel state concealed under those Types and Figures they confirmed their Expositions of Scripture by the force of Reason and appealed to the Judgments and consciences of their Hearers whither these things were not so Christ commands the Jews nor meerly to take his own word and to rely on his Authority for the truth of what he said but to study the Scriptures themselves and the Bereans are commended for this generous temper of mind that they were more noble then those of Thessalonica for they daily search'd the Scriptures to see whither the Doctrine the Apostles preach'd were to be found there or not Now I think no Church can pretend to be more infallible then Christ and his Apostles and therefore certainly ought not to assume more to themselves then they did and if the Church of Rome or any other Church will convince us of the truth of their Expositions of Scripture as Christ and his Apostles convinc'd their Hearers that is by enlightning our Understandings and convincing our Judgments by proper Arguments we will gladly learn of them This course the Primitive Christians took as is evident in all the Writings of the ancient Fathers against Jews and Hereticks they argue from the Scriptures themselves to prove what the sense of Scripture iâ they appeal indeed sometimes to the sense of the Catholick Church not as an infallible Judge of Scripture but as the best Witnesses of the Apostolical Doctrine Thus
Tertulliââ argues against Hereticks in his Book De Praescriplionibus âât when they reason about the sense of Scripture they never direct us to any infallible Judge but use such Arguments as they think proper to convince Gain-sayers Nay this is the way which was observed in all the Ancient Councils the Bishops of the church met together for common counsel and advice and in matters of Discipline and Government which were subject to their Authority they considered what was ' most for the publick benefit of the church and determined them by their Authority not as infallible Judges but as Supreme Governours of the church In the disputes of Faith they reason from Scripture and the sense of the catholick church not from their own Authority and what upon a serious debate and inquiry they found to be most agreeable to the sense of Scripture and the Doctrine of the church of former Ages that they determined and decreed to be received in all churches as the catholick Faith That this is so is evident from all the Histories of the most Ancient and celebrated councils which any man may consult who pleases Now I would ask some few Questions about this matter 1. Whither-these councils took a sure and safe way to find out Truth If they did not what reason have we to believe that they determined right If they did then we may use the same way which they did for that which is a good way in one Age is so in another and then there is no necessity of an Infallible Judge to find out the sense of Scripture because we have other certain wayes of doing this the same which all the ancient Councils observed 2. I would know whither it be not sufficient for every Christian to receive the Decrees and Determinations of these councils upon the same Reason and Authority which moved the Fathers assembled in council to make these Decrees Whither for instance we must not believe the Eternal God-head of Christ and that he is of the same substance with his Fatherâ for the same Reasons for which the Nicene Fathers believed this and required all christians to believe it If we must then Scripture and the sense of the catholick church not the Authority of a general council or any Infallible Judge is the Reason of our Faith For the Nicene Fathers who were the first that met in a General council could not believe this upon the Authority of any other General council much less upon their own Authority unless we will say that they first Decreed this then believed it because they themselves Decreed it If Scripture and the sense of the Catholick Church antecedently to the determinations of a General council or any other pretended Infallible Judge be not a sufficient foundation for our Faith then the whole christian World before the council of Nice which was the first general council had no sufficient Foundation for their Faith for there was no particular Bishop or church in those dayes which pretended to be the Infallible Interpreter of Scriptures We Protestants have the same way to understand the Scriptures have the same Reason and Foundation of our Faith which the Nicene Fathers themselves had or which any christan could have before there was any general council and if the church of Rome do not think this enough we cannot help that we are abundantly satisfied with it The Authority of a general council in those dayes was deservedly sacred and venerable not as an infallible Judge which they never pretended to but as the most certain means they could possibly have to understand what was and in all Ages had been the received Doctrine of the catholick church They met together not to make new Articles of Faith which no council in the World ever had any Authority to do but to declare what was the truly ancient and. Apostolick Faith and to put it into such words as might plainly express the catholick sense and meet with the distempers of that Age. For this end Grave and Reverend Bishops assembled from all parts of the christian World not meerly to give their private Opinions of things but to Declare what was the received Doctrine oâ those churches over which they presided and I know no better Argument of an Apostolick Tradition then the consent of all churches as remote from each other as East and West which were planted by several Apostles and differed very much from each other in some External Rites and Usages but yet all agreed in the same Faith And this is the true Authority of those ancient councils that they were most likely to understand the true sense of Scripture and of the Catholick Church This is the Protestant Resolution of Faith and the Nicene Fathers themselves had no other way nor pretended to any other Nay the church of Rome her self as much as she talks of Infallibility makes very little use of it She has never given us an infallible comment on Scripture but suffers her Doctors to write as fallible comments and in many things as contrary to each other as any Protestant Divines do And I cannot imagine what good Infallibility does if an infallible Church has no better means of understanding Scripture then the comments of fallible men that is no better means then every fallible Church has for no man can understand the Scripture ever the better for the Churches being infallible unless this infallible Church improve this glorious Talent of Infallibility in Expounding Scripture which she has not done to this day and I believe never will Indeed it is apparent that infallibility as it is pretended to by the church of Rome can be of no use either in the Refolution of Faith or in confuting Hereticks who deny this Infallibility and then I cannot imagine what it is good for but to multiply Disputes instead of ending them As for the Resolution of Faith suppose I ask a Papist why he believes such Articles as the Divinity of Christ or the Resurrection of the dead to be contained in Scripture If he answer as he must do Because he is taught so by the church which is infallible my next Question is How he knows the Church to be infallible If he says he learns this from Scripture I ask him how he comes to understand the Scripture and how he knows that this is the sense of it If he know this by the infallible interpretation of the church then he runs round in a circle and knows the Scripture by the church and the church by the Scripture as I observed before if he can find out the Churches infallibility by the Scripture without the help of an infallible Judge then it seems the Scripture is to be understood without the infallible interpretation of the Church and if men can find out infallibility in Scripture without the Church I am confident they may find out any thing else in Scripture as well without the Churches infallibility For there iâ no Article of our creed so hard to be
lay so much stress upon it Bellar. Tom. 2. p. 286. if these are Innovations creept into their Church who was the first Author of them when did he begin in whose Reign and in what place did he live who did oppose him what company believ'd on him and what his new Opinions were as they instance in Arrianism and other Heresies And because they fancy we cannot make all these particulars so absolutely plain therefore they say we have falsely charged the Romish Church with new errours and that their Faith is truly ancient and by an uninterrupted Succession of Infallible Bishops hath been convey'd down from Christ and his Apostles in its full purity to this present Age. To satisfie their curiosity the defenders of the Reformation have done this but suppose they could not have been so particular about the birth of these new Errours or had made some mistakes in the compass of time yet however the charge of Innovation against the Romish Church stands firm and good upon these accounts 1. That Reformation carries not so much a respect to the Errour when it began as to the Errour it self Not whither it be sooner or later but whither it be an errour contrary to the true Christian Faith It may serve some honest purposes to know the who and the when the where and the how and other circumstances of its begining and proceeding but the necessity of Reformation springs from the nature of the Errour which came from the invention of men and not the Authority of Christ And matters not much whither Simon Magus who was contemporary with the Apostles was the first Author of it or Pope Hildebrââd at so great a distance 'T is enough that we are certain and sure that the Popish Doctrines which we condemn by comparing them with the Scriptures are not Christs and his Apostles have none of their Images or Superscriptions upon them who only had full Authority to make them current and true Articles of Faith They have indeed indeed Christianity among them but like Joseph's coat so dipt in blood so over-laced with Fopperies and undecent Ceremonies and so many new pieces stitch'd to the old Cloath that the old Fathers if alive would scarce know it to be the true Joseph's and would not trouble themselves so much to ask the time when this came to pass as lament the sadness of the change And the Apostles did not so much care to tell the punctual time to the Disciples when Antichrist should discover himself as to make them stand upon their guard to defend that Faith which he would invade where and whensoever he should come or whosoever he was 2. The difficuity of knowing the precise and punctual times when Errours first began In many sorts of Changes or Innovations 't is hard to know the nice time of their beginning but some latitude of Judging is allow'd and why not in things especially relating to Religion Are there not wild Opinions left upon Record among the Pagan Writers whose Authors are either unknown or which are fasely fathered upon others and as hard to be known as the head of Nile Can the nicest Romanist tell us what Rabbi and in what place and age first superinduc'd the several false Glosses and Senses to the Law of Moses yet our Saviour though he knew them well thought it sufficient to tell them that in the beginning it was not so and by comparing the Mosaick Religion it plainly appears they were new additions to the good old way And how many Errours sprung up in times of Christianity of whose Original and other Circumstances both the Romanists and our selves are yet uncertain And how many things of this nature more near our own times are we puzled about and the difficulty of knowing them ariseth principally from this twofold account 1. From the subtilty of the contrivers of Errours Which many times are the cunning and the wise in their Generation which the necessity of their cause requires Truth being strong and Errour nuturally weak and that slie deceiving Spirits lends it his utmost assistance to serve the design Such men know how to disguise new Falshoods in the old habits of Truth to make them look ancient and venerable they feel and know the temper of the age and fit their Opinions to the interest and pleasure of it They prepare their errours to be received by degrees and one part must draw on the other and the whoâe must be insââsibly swallowed down So it hapned in the adoration and invocation of Saints and Images and the whole structure of the Romish Religion which by severall steps and in many ages advanc'd to its mighty bulk The cunning knew the consequences of their own positions how far theâ would reach which the vulgar eye discern'd not they well foresaw how their Hey and Stuble variety of Phrases and changes of Syllables would at âength fire the Foundation of Religion yet being invented at first by the Angelical Doctours and leaders of an Age for fame and reputation sake they their followers first defended them for bare Truths afterwards for Sacred and Fundamental ones and things at first only piously believed soon after have been adopted into a Creed and men of Rashness and Superstition only great in Place and Office have vented opinions whose fatal conclusions they at first we hope did not know yet the cunning many times have hatcht what they left and improv'd it fatally to Religion the greatness of the man whither an Innocent or an Hildebrand gave the errour its first reputation and the cunning of others its strength and argument Many of the great and knowing heads of the World being corrupted unto the Roman side to defend those errours which had got footing in the Church But how can we unlock the secret methods of Rome or describe the wayes and policies by which the mystery of Iniquity works Yet we are sure it 's carried on by the windings and turnings of the Serpent and men that he imploys upon design to ruin truth for when the Apostle describes the sad Apostacies and defections from the Faith they are said to be wrought by men of Skill Eph. 4. 14. and Art who lie in wait to deceive 2 From the Passions and Infirmities of other men These give the false and busie deceiver an easie Victory When Opinions are so contriv'd as to serve the designs of Pride and Covetousness Ambition and Lust and other Vices they easily pass for mighty Truths their Original is not enquir'd into the Judgment is brib'd and they bear the title of ancient and Primitive or what the deceiver pleaseth For these Passions have effeminated the mind made it soft and slugâish and any bold errour shall slip down rather then be at the charge of a farther search and enquiry to know whither these things be so or no. The Roman Religion being so well cut out in its different Doctrines to hit mens Vices and Passions Gaiety or Melancholy Enthusiasm or Fury
to our Faith The means which Goâ hath given us towards the certain Prop. IV. 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 Consid I. 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 Sadducees 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 * Isai 56 10. Jer. 2. 8. Ez. 7. 26. C. 22. 26. frequent mention and great complaint And the Prophet Malachy â Mal 2. 7. 8. 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 * Deut. 17 8. to 12. 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 See Levit. 4. 13. 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 then the Christian Church which is as wide as the World Also the new Revelation is more clear and distiâct then 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 Consid II. one to the Christian Church And seing such a one cannot be had without God's 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 beeing 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 Man's 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 * S. Mat. 16. 18. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Which Promise concerneth the Church in general and the necessary Faith of it and not any particular persons or places or successions of persons in them And Christ doth here assure us that the Gates of the Grave shall not swallow up the Church that it shall not enter in at them that it shall not die or perish But he doth not say he will preserve it by the means of any Earthly infallible Guide He can by other waves continue it till time it self shall fail The other place of Scripture is the promise of Christ a little while before his Ascension into the Heavens â S. Mat. 28. 20. Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World As long as this Age of the Messiah shall last and that is the last time or Age. This promise is indeed made to the Apostles and to their successorrs also But it is a promise of general assistance and it is made upon condition that they go forth and make Disciples of all Men of all Nations and Baptize them and give them farther instruction in the things which Christ gave in charge to them And some of the successors of the Apostles have not performed these conditions and the Governour of the Church of Sardâs had not held fast what he had received heard Rev. 3. 1. 2 3 As GOD hath not promised an unerring Guide so neither hath he said he hath set up such an one in any Church on Earth He hath not said it either directly ãâã by consequence Tââ places which are supposed directly to affirm this are two and both mistaken One of them is that of Christ to his Disciples after he had given Commission to them to preach the Gospel * Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth Me Me the infallible way and the Truth This Speech if it be extended to all Ministers it makes them all infallible Guides And it is certain they are so as long as they deliver to the People what they received from Christ But the words are especially directed to the seventy Disciples who were taught to preach a plain Fundamental Truth that the Kingdom of GOD was come nigh to the Jews â S. Luke 10. 1 9. And these Disciples were able to give to the Jews a demonstration of the Truth of that Doctrine which they taught by miraculous signs By healing the sick â¡ verse 12. and doâng among them mighty works Another place used as an express Testimony * 1 âim 3. 15. is that in the first to Timothy to whom St. Paul saith that the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth But this place also is misapplied It seemeth to be spoken of that Church of Ephesus in which St. Paul advised Timothy to behave himself with singular care Which place hath so farre failed that the loâty Building called St. John's Church â is now become a Turkish Mosch But iâ it Ryc of the Greek Ch. p. 44. were spoken in a general sense it would amount only to this meaning A Christian Church is like a Pillar sustained by a Pedestal on which a writing is so fixed that all who pass by may see it It is as Jerusalem once was to the Heathen-World a City on a Hill It is a visible Society which giveth notice to Jews and Gentiles of Christianity and is instrumental to awaken their observation and by their sense to prepare the way to their belief For this advertisement being so publickly given to them they have fair occasion of examining the grounds of Christian
Truth which when they find they will be induced to build upon them In this sense likewise though not in this alone Apostolical Men were called Lights and Pillars In the Book of the Revelation * this promise is made to âiâ who persevereth in his Christianity Rev. 3. 12. notwithstanding the cross which it brings upon him Him will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and I will write my name upon him and the name of his God and the name of the City of his God which is new Jerusalem or the Christian Church And St. Chrisostom â In 1 Cor. 9. 2. To phoâon Eccesion ho Themelios tes pisteos ho Stylos c gives St. Paul the Titles of the Light of the Churches the Foundation of the Faith the Pillar and Ground of Truth The Governours of the Church do ministerially exhibit Christian Truth they do not by mere Authority impose it Among the Places which are said to prove by good consequence that there is â living Guide of Faith that in the eighteenth of St. Matthews Gospel * S. Mat. 18. 15 16 17. is the Principal There our Saviour requireth his Followers if their Brethren persisted in their offences to tell it to the Church and to esteem them no longer Members of their Society if they despised the Sentence of it From whence they conclude with strange Inadvertence that such a Decree is therefore infallible But our Lord speaks of their Brothers Trespasses against See Deut. 17. 6. them and not of his Heresie And of the Discipline and not of the Doctrine either of the Synagogue or the Church In which case if we submit even where there is error in the Sentence for Peace sake and because we are come to the last Appeal We worthily sacrifice private Good to publick Order And such Submission is sate in point of property though not in point of Doctrine for we may without Sin depart from our property but not from our Faith Now much of this that has been said in order to the explication of the foregoing places might have been well omitted if I had designed this little Discouâse for the use only of such Romanists as had been conversant with the writings of the Fathers For then I should have needed only to have cited those Ancients and shewed that their sense of these several places was plainly different from the modern interpretations of the Church Men of Rome And by this way of arguing they are self condemned For they fall * Launoy in Epist ad Carol magistruÌ ad Jacob. âevil ad Guil. Voell ad Raeim Formentinum in S. par Epi. according to their own Rule of expounding Scripture by the unanimous consent of the Primitive Fathers who with one voice speak another sense Those who doubt of this may receive satisfaction from the Learned Letters of Monsieur Launoy If God had promised an infallible Guide or told us be had given one to his Church he would doubtless Consid III. have added some directions for the finding of him For to say in general you shall have a Star which will alwayes Guide you withâut all dangerous error and not to inform us in what parâ of the Firmament it is to be seen is to emuse rather then to promise Now God hath no where given us such direction He hath no where pointed us to this Church or that Council to this Person or that Local succession of Men. He hath not said the Guide is at Antioch or Hierusalem at Nice or Constantinople at Rome or Avignon You will say he hath directed us to St. Peter Answer no more than to the rest of the Apostles to whom he gave equal power in their Ordination * Joh. 20. 21. All of whom he made equally Shepherds of the Flockâ â S Mat. 9. 36. C. 10. 6. 2. Pet. 5. 2. to all of whom he gave equal Commission to make Proselytes of all Nations * S. Mat. 28. 16 17 â8 19. And in this sense St. Chrysostom â S. Chrys in 1 Cor. 9. 2. Ten oikoymenen hapasan egkecheirismenos c. affirmed concerning St. Paul that the whole World or the World of the Roman Empire was his Diocese You will reply that he promised on him particularly upon this Rock or Stone this Kipha a Syriac Word of the Masculine Gender â See R. H. Guide in Controv. Dis 1. p. 5. and Socin in Loc. this Peter to build his Church I answer the Ancients took the Word as Feminine * S. Hil. de Trin. â 6. dixit Petras Tu es filius Dei c. super hane igitur Confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est v. Launoy in Epist ad Voellum and understood it rather of his Confession then of his Person If it was spoken of his Person it was spoken by way of Emphasis not Exclusion for there were twelve Foundations â Revel 21. 14. Ephes 2. 20. of these he might be called the first having first preached the Gospel to Jews and Gentiles * Act. 2. 14. 41 47 IV. Consid the Eleven standing up with him and he speaking as the Mouth of the Apostolical Colledge We cannot by the strictest ennumeration find out any living infallible Guide existing in any Age after St. Peter in the Christian Church 1. This Guide could not be the Church diffusive of the first Ages For the suffrages of every Christian were never gathered And if we will have their sense they must rise from the dead and give it us 2. This Guide cannot be the Faith as such of all the Governours of all the Primitive Churches The sum of it was never collected There were anciently general Creeds but such as especially related to the Hereâies then on foot and who can affirm upon grounds of certainty that each Bishop in the World consented to each Article or to each so expressed 3. This Guide is not a Council perfectly free and universal For a Guide which cannot be had is none If such a Council could assemble it would not erre in the necessaries of Faith or there cannot be a regular Flock without a Shepherd and if all the Spiritual Shepherds in the World should at once and by consent go so much astray the whole Flock of the Church Catholick would be scattered And that would contradict the promise of Christ the Supreme Faithful Infallible Pastor But there never was yet an universal Council properly so called Neither can we suppose the probability of it but by supposing the being of one Temporal Christian Monarch of the World who might call or suffer it In the Councils called General if we speak comparatively there were not many Southern or Western Bishops present at them It was thus at that first Occumenical Council the Council of Nice though in one sacred place as Eusebius â Euseb l. 3. vit const c. 7. 8. p. 487â hath noted there were assembled Syrians and Cilicians Phoenicians and Arabians
Palaestinians Egyptians Thebaeans Libyans Mesopotamians a Persiaâ a Socrat. â Hâl c. 8. p. 19. Scythian Bishop and many others from other Countries But there was but one Bishop for Africa one for Spain one for Gaul two Priests as Deputies of the infirm and Aged Bishop of Rome Whilst for Instance sake there were seventeen Bishops for the small Province of * V. Concil Labb Tom. 2. p. 50. c. Isauria yet such Councils are very useful such we reverence but God did not set them up as the only and the infallible Guides of Faith If there were such Guides what Guided the Church which was before them By what rule was Ebion judged before the Council of Nice How can we be infallibly Guided by them in Controversies of Faith not determined by them nay not brought before them nay scarce moved till these latter dayes Such for the purpose are the Controversies about the vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ and of Justification by the Faith of meere recumbence upon his Merits Or how shall a private Man who erres in the Faith be delivered from his Heresy seing he may die some years ere a Council can assemble or being assembled can form its decrees Arius vented his Heresie about ten years before the Council of Nice was called for the suppressing of it And soon after he had given vent to it it spread throughout Egypt and Lybia and the upper Thebes as Socrates â has reported And in a short time many other Provinces and Cities were Socr. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 6. p. 9. infected with the contagion of it And in the pretended Council of Trent no less then five Popes were successively concerned and it lasted in several places longer then two legal lives of a Man * From A. 1545. to A. 1563. There was indeed a Canon in the Western Church â V. Council Const sess 39. for the holding of a Council once in the space of each ten years But that Canon has not been hitherto obeyed and as affairs stand in the Church it is impracticable For the Pope will exclude all the Greek and Reformed Bishops He will crowd the Assembly with Bishops of his own Creation and with Abbots also he will not admit of former Councils unless they serve his purpose not so much as that of Nice it self * V. Greg. magn Ep. 6. 31. Leo. 1. Ep. 53. Gelas 1. Ep. 13. He will be the Judge though about his own Supremacy He will multiply Italians and others who upon Oath â Concil Labb Tom. 10. p. 23. 379. Pontific Roman owe their votes to him He will not hold a Council upon the terms approved by all Romish Princes Nor did they agree at their last Council the Emperour would noâ send his Bishops to Bologna nor the French King his to Tren ' And though the French Church believed the Doctrines of that Synod yet they did not receive them from the Authority of it but they embraced them as the former Doctrines of the Roman Church And the Parisian ' Faculty a A. D. 1542 in coll Soâb See Richer H. conc general vol. 4. p. 162 163. c. prepared the way to the Articles of Trent Notwithstanding all this we firmly believe that at least the first four general Councils did not err in Faith and it is pious to think that God would not suffer so great a temptation in the Church on Earth Yet still we believe those Councils not to be infallible in their constitution but so far as they followed an infallible rule For the greaâest Truth is not alwayes with the greatest number And great numbers may appear on contrary sides The Council of Constantinople under Constantine Copronymus consisting of three hundred thirty eight Bishops decreed against the use of Images in Churches Yet the 2d Synod of Nice consisting of about three hundred and fifty Bishops determin'd for it And a while after in the West the council of Frankford consisting of about three hundred Bishops reversed that decree And after that the council of Trent did re-establish it though there the voting Persons were not fifty With such uncertain doubts of belief must they move who follow a Guide in Religion without reference to a farther rule But here there is offered to us by the Guide in Controversiââ * an Objection of which this is the sum The fifth Canon of the Church of England does declare Object R. H. Annot. on D. Stil Answer p. 82 83. that the thirty nine Articles were agreed upon for the avoidance of the diversities of opinions and the establishing of consent touching true Religion Consent touching true Religion is consent in Matters of Faith Establishing of consent relateth both to Layety and Clergy The third and fourth Canons of 1640. Decree the Excommunication of those who will not-abjure their holding Popery and Socinianism The Reformed Churches in France teach the like Doctrine threatning to cut them off from the Church who acquiesce not in the resolution of a National Synod â¡ Art 31. ch 5 du consisââire si un ou plusieurs c. The same course was taken with the Remonstrants in the Synod of Dort * Syn. Dord sess 138. 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 Answer 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 erre in its deflnitions for it ought not to impose any known error upon its Members But though it believes it does not erre 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 followeth a rule which is infallible And upon this supposition it imposeth Doctrines and excludeth such as with coâumacy dissent from them a See Artic. 20. 21 22. 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 seing 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 Campiain the Jesuite may be believed b camp Rat. 3. p. 180. Rat. 5. p. 185. On the other hand Monsieur Larroque hath Written a Book of the confirmity 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 * Lib. diurn Pontif p. 35. etenâm hujus Apostolicae Traditinis normam quam venerandam Sanctorum 318. Paârum concilium quod in Nicaea c. p. 43. hujusmodi Evangelicam Traditionem And in this sense a Romanist said of Pope Honorius â Ant. Dezallier in Histor Monoth p. 123. 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 * conc ârid Sess 4. decr 1. by a kind of Ecclesiastical coinage stampeth Divine Authority upon Bââks esteemed by the councils and Fathers to be Apochryphal â V. constit Apost can Apost conc Laod. conc Nic. 1. S. Hieron prolog c. Euseb E. H. l. 4. c 26. p. 149. cron l. 2. c. Whilst it hath forged decrees of Popes * V. Blondelli Pseudo Isodorum 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 â V. S. Hieron in Isai c. 6 8. When it taketh away the cup which Pope Gelasius called a grand Sacriledge * Gratian in de consecr dist 2. cap. 2. 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 flower in the Papal prerogative When St. August a S. Aug. tract 30. in Joh. tract 50. and from him the very Breviary b Brev. Rom. Dom infra oct Asc 3. noct lect 7. p. 440. shall expound Christs promise of being alwayes 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 c Innoc. 3. Myst miss l. 4. p. 196. And if the Roman Church falsifieth 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 thâir 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 Popes Legates in the Council of Trent * H. conc Trid. l. 2. 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. Whither the Pope be or be not the Guide Arg. I the Men of the Roman Communion are exposed to dangerous uncertainty For it is not yet determined amongst them whither 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 Beuedict the thirteenth and John the twenty third Again there have been by the account given us in their own Historians â See the Index of Onuphrii vit Pontif. ed. colon 1610. more then 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 * Steph Baluz in miscellan l. 3. p. 471. to 514. for Mauritius Burdin or Gregory the eight 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 S. Bernard â S. Bern. Ep. 219. distracted that church and gave it a wound only not incurable And Baluzius * Baluz ibid. p. 514. difficile tum erat c. professeth that it was then difficult to understand which of the two Gregory or Gelasius was the Legitimate successor of 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 Arg. II. Secondly the Popes themselves in âheir 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 * Lib. diurn Pontif. 2. professio fidei p. 43. Vnde districti Anathematis interdictioni subjicimus siquis unquam seu nos sive est alius qui novum aliquid praesumat contra hujusmodi Evangelicam Traditionem Orthodoxae fidei Christianaeque Religionis integritatem c. Arg. III. They further profess themselves and others to be subject to an Anathema 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 S. 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 S. Peter they have a much fairer pretence then 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 sate higher they would not have pretended to see farther then others Arg. IV. 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
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 Art 20. to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in controversies of Faith There is a Question saith Mr. Selden * Mr. Selden in his colloquies a Ms. in the Word Church Sect. 5 about that Article concerning the power of the Church whither 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 â Doctr. Polit. Eccl. Angl. A. 1617. p. 129. 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 * Artic 19. is 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 a S. Aug. de verb. Dom. super Mat. Ser. 16. You bind a Man on Earth Take heed they be just bânds 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 b Art 20. 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 c can 5. Our very Statute-Book hath respect to them in the adjudging of Heresie d 1 Eliz. 1. Sect 36. Yet our Church still teacheth concerning them e Art 21. 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 Judgement 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 then 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 some we say with St. Augustine * Ep. 118. concil in Eccl. Dei saluberimam esse Authoritatem that there is of councils in the church of God a most wholesome though not an infallible Authority And if S. Gregory Nazianzen never saw as he saith a happy effect of any Synod a Greg. Naz. Ep. 42 ad Procopium 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 happened 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 oâ King James advanced this notion of Personal Infallibility His followers believed they could not erre in giving deliberate Sentence in Religion a See D. Dennisons white wolf 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 canonized not a few Saints amongst them The Inspiration of S. Hildegardis S. Catharine of Siena S. Teresa and 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 a distemper as prophesie * conc Lat. sess 11. A. 1516. inter Labb conc Max. p 291. Caeterum si quibusdam eorum Dominus futur a quaedaÌ in Dei Ecclesia inspiratione quapium revelaverit ut per Amos prophetam ipse permittit Paulus Ap. PraedicatoruÌ princeps SpirituÌ inquit nolite extinguere prophetas nolite spernere hos aliorum fabulosorum mendacium gregi coââumerari vel aliter impediri minime volumus For private Reason it is the handmaid of Faith we use it and not separately from the Authority of the Church but as a help in distinguishing true from false Authority And in so
for no other Reason of our Faith but the Authority of the church in expounding Scriptures I shall discourse something briefly of each of these 1. To say that the church is the only Means to find out the true sense of Scripture is very false and absurd For 1. This supposes the Holy Scriptures to be a very unintelligible Book which is a great reproach to the Holy Spirit by which it was Indited that he either could not or would not speak intelligibly to the World 2. This is a direct contradiction to those Exhortations of Christ and his Apostles to study the Scriptures which were made to private Men and therefore necessarly supposes that the Holy Scriptures are to be understood as other Writtings are by consideing the Propriety of the Words and âânguage wherein they are written the scope and design of the place and such other means as honest and studious Inquirers use to find out the meaning of any other Book 3. If the Scriptures are so unintelligible that an honest man cannot find out the meaning of them without the infallâble interpretation of the Church I would desire to know whither Christ and his Apostles Preach'd intelligibly to their Hearers If they did not to what purpose did they Preach at all By what means were men Converted to the Faith If they did how come these Sermons to be so unintelligible now they are written which were so intelligible when they were spoken For the Gospels contain a plain History of what Christ did and of what he said and the Apostles Wrote the same things to the Churches when they were absent which they Preach'd to them when they were present and we reasonably suppose that they as much designed that the Churches should understand what they wrote as what they Preach'd and therefore that they generally used the same form of words in their writting and in their Preaching And this makes it a great Riddle how one should be very plain and easie to be understood and the other signifie nothing without an infallible Interpreter 4. If the Scriptures be in themselves unintelligible I would desire to know how the Church comes to understand them If by any humane means together with the ordinary Assistances of the Divine Spirit then they are to be understood and then why may not every Christian in proportion to his skill in Languageâ and in the Rules of Reason and Discourse understand them also If the Church cannot understand the Scriptures by any humane means but only by Inspiration for there is no Medium between these two to what purpose were the Scriptures written For we might as well have learn'd the will of God from the Church without the Scriptures as with them GOD could have immediately revealed his will to the Church without a written Rule as well as reveal the meaning of that written Rule which it seems has no signification at all till the Church by Inspiration gives an Orthodox meaning to it 5. And iâ we cannot understand the Scriptures till the Church Expounds them to us how shal we know which is the Church and that this Church is such an infallible Interpreter of Scriptures The Church is to be known only by the Scriptures and the Scriptures are to be understood only by the Church if we will know the Church we must first understand the Scriptures and if we will understand the Scriptures we must first know the Church and when both must be known first or we can know neither it is impossible in this way either to understand the Scriptures or find out the Church For suppose the Church does expound Scripture by Inspiration how shall we be assured that it does so Must we believe every Man or every Church which pretends to Inspiration This is a contradiction to the Apostles Rule not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits How then shall they be tried I know but two wayes either by Miracles or by Scripture Miracles are now ceas'd unless we will believe some fabulous Legends which all wise men in the Church of Rome are ashamed of and if there were real Miracles wrought they are of no Authority against a standing Rule of Faith which the Apostle calls a more sure word of Prophesie If then we must judge of these pretences to Revelation by the Scriptures which is the only way now left then there is a way of understanding the Scriptures without this Revelation for if we must understand the Scriptures by Revelation and Revelation by the Scriptures we are got into a new Circle and can understand neither Obj. But do we not see how many Schisms and Heresies have been occasioned by suffering every one to Expound Scripture for himself How many Divisions and Sub-divisions are there among Protestants who agree in little else besides their opposition to Popery And is it possible to cure this without an an Infallible Interpreter of Scriptureâ Is it not a contradiction to common Experience to say that the sense of Scripture is plain and certain when so few men can agree what it is Ans 1. Yes we do see this and lament it and are beholden to the Church of Rome and her Emissaries in a great measure for it But yet we know thus it has been in all Ages of the Christian Church as well as now and we take the same way to confute these Heresies and to preserve the purity of the Faith and the Unity of the Church which the Primitive Fathers did by appealing to Scripture and the Doctrine and Practice of the Catholick Church which is the best way any Church can take when there is no infallible Judge of controversies And if the Primitive Church had known any such infallible Judge they would certainly have appealed to him at one time or other and it had been impossible that any Errors or Heresies should for any long time together have disturbed the Church but we hear nothing of him for many hundred years after Christ but the ancient Fathers took the same way to confute the Heresies of their dayes which we do now which is a good proable Argument that they knew no better And the present Divisions of the Christian Church are no greater Argument against us then the Ancient Heresies were against the Primitive Church or then the Protestant Heresies as they are pleased to call them are against the church of Rome For what advantage has the church of Rome upon this account above any other profession of Christians Those who are of the same communion are of the same Mind Thus it is among us and it is no better among them for we are no more of their mind then they are of ours nay notwithstanding all their pretences to infallibility most of the Disputes which divide the Protestant churches are as fairly disputed among themselves witness the famous controversie between the Jansenists and Molinists which their infallible Judge never thought fit to determine to this day They live indeed in the communion of
found there as the Churches infallibility is But however that be after all this boast of infallibility a Papist has no more infallible Foundation for his Faith then a Protestant has nor half so much We believe the Articles of the Christian Faith because we find them plainly taught in Scripture and universally received as the sense of Scripture by the Catholick church in the best and purest Ages of it A Papist believes the Church to be Infallible because he thinks he finds it in Scripture though the Catholick church for many Ages never found it there and the greatest part of the Christian church to this day cannot find it there Now if they will but allow that a Protestant though a poor fallible Creature may reason about the sense of Scripture as well as a Papist and that the Evidence of reason is the same to both then we Protestants stand upon as firm ground as the Papists here and are at least as certain of all those Doctrines of Faith which we find in the Scripture and are ready to prove by it as they are of their Churches infallibility but then we have an additional Security that we Expound the Scriptures right which they want and that is the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church which confirms all the Articles of our Faith and Rules of Worship and Discipline but gives not the least intimation that the Pope or Church of Rome was thought infallible by them and if the Primitive Church was ignorant of this which is the best witness of Apostolical Tradition it is most probable that no such thing is contained in Scripture though some mercenary Flatterers of the Pope have endeavoured to perswade the World that they found it there So that we have a greater assurance of all the Articles of our Religion from Scripture and Catholick Tradition then a Papist can have of the Churches Infallibility and yet he can have no greater assurance of any other Doctrines of Religion which he believes upon the Churches Infallibility then he has of Infallibility it self So that in the last Resolution of Faith the Protestant has much the advantage of the Papist for the Protestant resolves his Faith into the Authority of the Scriptures Expounded by the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church the Papist resolves his into the Infallibility of the Church which he finds out only by Expounding Scripture by a private Spirit without the Authority of any church but that whose Authority is under dispute And as the Doctrine of Infallibility is of no use in the last Resolution of Faith so it is wholly useless in disputing with such Hereticks as we are who deny Infallibility for it is a vain thing to attempt to impose any absurd or groundless and uncatholick Doctrines upon us by the Churches infallible Authority who believe there is no such infallible Judge but are resolved to trust our own Eyes and to adhere to Scripture and the Catholick Faith of the Primitive Church in these matters And therefore the great Advocats for the Church of Rome are forced to take the same course in confuting Heresies as they call them that we do They alledge the Authority of Scripture the Authority of Fathers and Councils to justifie their Innovations and here we willingl joyn issue with them and are ready to prove that Scripture and all true Antiquity is on our side and this has been often and unanswerably proved by the learned Patrons of the Reformation But there are some very material things to be observed from hence for our present purpose For either they think this a good way to prove what they intend and to convince Gain-sayers the Authority of Scripture and Primitive Antiquity or they do not If they do not think this a good way to what purpose are there so many Volumes of Controversie written Why do they produce Scripture and Fathers and Councils to justifie the Usââpations of their Church and those new Additions they have made to the Christian Faith and Worship If this be not a good way to convince a Heretick why do they give themselves and us such an impertinent trouble If this be a good way then we are in a good way already we take that very way for our satisfaction which by their own Confession and Practice is a very proper means for the conviction of Hereticks and to discover the Truth and after the most diligent inquiries we can make we are satisfied that the Truth is on our side If the Authority of Scripture signifie any thing in this matter then it seems Hereticks who reject âhe Authority of an Infallible Judge may understand Scripâure without an Infallible Interpreter by the Exercise of Reason and Judgment in studying of them otherwise why do they pretend to expound Scripture to us and to convince us by Reason and Argument what the true sense of Scripture is If the Authority of the Primitive Church and first Christian Writers be considerable as they acknowledge it is by their appeals to them then at least the present Pope or Church is not the sole infallible Judge of controversies unless they will say that we must not Judge of the Doctrine or Practice of the Primitive Church by ancient records and then Baronius his Annals are worth nothing but by the Judgement and Practice of the present Church The sum is this There is great reason to suspect that the Church of Rome her self does not believe her own Infallibility no more than we Protestants do for if she does she ought not to suffer her Doctors to dispute with Hereticks from any other Topick but her own Authority when they vie Reasons and Arâuments with us and dispute from Scripture and Antiquity they appeal from the infallibility of the present church to every mans private Reason and Judgment as much as any Protestant does and if the Articles of the Christian Faith may be establish'd by Scripture and Antiquity without an infallible Judge as they suppose they may be by their frequent attempts to do it this plainly overthrows the necessity of an infallible Judge In a word not to take notice now how weak and groundless this pretence of Infallibility is it is evident that it is a very useless Doctrine for those who believe the churches Infallibility have no greater assurance of their Faith then we have who do not believe it and those who do not believe the churches Infallibility can never be confuted by it So that it can neither establish any mans Faith nor confute any Heresies that is it is of no use at all The Church of England Reverences the Authority of the Primitive Church as the best witness of the Apostolical Faith and practice but yet resolves her Faith at last into the Authority of the Scriptures She receives nothing for an Article of Faith which she does not find plainly enough taught in Scripture but it is a great confirmation of her interpretation of Scripture that the Primitive church owned the
or Apostolical men or has lost the Memory or Records of its first Plantation may yet have very certain means of knowing the true sense of Scripture from the Scripture it self and the Doctrine and Practice of Apostolical and Primitive Churches and a Church which has the most visible uninterrupted Succession from Christ and his Apostles may be so far from being an infallible Interpreter of Scripture that she may be very corrupt and erroneous her self if she forsake the Apostolical Tradition contained in the Writings of the new Testament and Expounded by the Catholick Faith and Practice of the first Churches as we know the Church of Rome has done which is so far from being an infallible Church that we believe her to be the most corrupt Church in the World And thus I think we are prepared to venture upon the last Clause of this Paper wherein the whole force of the Argument such as it is is turned upon the poor Protestant Churches But I doubt sayes the Author of this Paper whither or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession and desire to be informed The sting of which Argument lies in this that we Protestants have no certain way of knowing the true seânse and meaning of Scripture because we cannot prove the continual visible Succession of our Church from Christ unto this day and therefore we ought to go over to the church of Rome who has this visible Succession and receive all her Dictates as infallible Oracles But for Answer to this consider 1. That suppose the Protestant Church could not make out such a continual visible Succession yet we may understand the Scriptures very well without it and need not go to the church of Rome to Expound Scripture for us as I have already shewn at large Had he proved that we had been no church for want of a visible Succession of church Officers or that our Religion were a Novelty which was never heard of it in the world before Luther this had been something more to the purpose but to pretend that we cannot understand the Scriptures for want of a visible Succession is such a loose and inconsequent way of reasoning as a poor fallible Protestant would be ashamed of 2. But pray why can't the Protestant Church of England prove her continual visible Succession from Christ till this day as well as the church of Rome Here was a Christian Church planted in this Nation as very good Historians say as early as at Rome and it has continued here ever since to this day when Austin the Monk came over to England he found here a company of resolute Brittish Bishops and Monks who would not submit to the Usurpations of Rome and the English and Brittish Churches under several Changes and Alterations have continued to this day with a visible Succession of Christian Bishops and what better Succession can Rome shew than this I suppose no Roman Catholick will disown the Succession of the church of England till the Reformation and I pray how came we to lose our Succession then Did the Reformation of those Abuses and Corruptions which had crept into the Church unchurch us Just as much as a man ceases to be the same man when he is cured of some mortal Disease Did not the Church of England consist of the same Persons before the Reformation and after A great many indeed disowned the Reformation but were not all those Persons who were so active and zealous in the Reformation formerly of the Roman communion And did they lose their Succession too when they became Reformers When a Church consists of the same Bishops Priests and People which she had before though she have not all the same that she had when she retains the same ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith which she did before only renounces some Errors and Innovations which she owned before how does this forfeit her Succession The Church of England is the very same Church now since the Reformation which she was before and therefore has the very same Succession though not the same Errors to this day that ever she had and that I think is as good a Succession as the Church of Rome has There are but two things to be considered in the case of Succession Either a Succession of Church Officers or a Succession of the Faith and Doctrines of the Church 1. As for a Succession of Church Officers we have the same that the Church of Rome has Those English Bishops who embraced the Reformation received their Orders in the Communion of the Church of Rome and therefore they had as good Orders as any are in the Church of Rome and these were the Persons who Consecrated other Bishops and so in Succession to this day For as for the story of the Nags-head Ordination that is so transparent a Forgery invented many years after to Reproach the Reformation that I presume no sober Roman Catholick will insist on it But we are Hereticks and Schismaticks and this forfeits our Orders and our Succession together But 1. This charge ought first to be proved against us that we are Hereticks and Schismaticks we deny and abhor both the name and thing and if we be not Hereticks and Schismaticks as we are sure we are not and as the Church of Rome can never prove us to be then according to their own Confession our Orders must be good 2. However be we Hereticks or Schismaticks or what ever they please to call us how does this destroy our Orders and Succession The Catholick Church would not allow in former Ages that Heresie or Schism destroyed the validity of Orders St. Jerome disputes against this at large in his Book Contra Luciferianos And St. Austin allows the Donatists Bishops to have valid Orders though they were Schismaticks and therefore that the Sacraments adminstred by them were valid And indeed if Heresie will destroy Orders and Succession the Church of Rome will be as much to seek for their Orders and Succession as we are which by their own Confession have had several Heretical Popes and no body knows how many Bishops Ordained by them 2. As for Succession of Doctrine which is as considerable to the full as Succession of Orders the great Articles of our Faith are not only plainly contained in Scripture but have been delivered down to us through all ages of the Church by an uninterrupted Succession The Church of Rome her self in her greatest Degeneracy did own all that we do in pure matters of Faith When we reformed the Church we did not make a new Religion but only separated the old Faith from new and corrupt Additions and therefore the quarrel of the Church of Rome with us is not that we believe any thing which they do not believe but that we do not believe all that they would have us The Doctrine of the Church of England is truly Primitive and Catholick taught by Christ and his Apostles owned by the Primitive Church and
excepting the Dispute between the Latin and Greek Church about the Filioque or the Holy Spirits proceeding from the Father and the Son received by all catholick churches to this day which is as compleat and perfect Succession as any Doctrine can have therefore when the Church of Rome asks us Where was our Religion before Luther we tell them it was all the World over all Catholick churches believed what we do though we do not believe all that they do they themselves did and do to this Day own our creeds and Articles of Faith excepting such of them as are directly opposed to their Innovations So that we are on a âure Foundation our Faith has been received in the catholick church in all Ages But now the church of Rome cannot shew such a Succession for her new Doctrines and Articles of Faith which were unknown to the Primitive church for many Ages which were rejected by many flourishing churches since the first appearance of them which never had a quiet possession in her own communion and were never formed into Articles of Faith till the packt conventicle of Trent This I think is a sufficient Answer to this Paper and it pities me to see so many well-meaning Persons abused with such transparent Sophistry FINIS A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed CHURCH OF ENGLAND Made by the PAPISTS Asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before LVTHER LONDON Printed and Edinburgh Re-printed by J. Reid for T. Brown and G. Schaw and A. Ogston and G. Mosman Stationers in the Parliament Closs 1686. A DISCOURSE About the Charge of NOVELTY Upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists c. THe Christian Doctrine was once by the way of trust delivered by Christ and his Apostles unto the Saints Men of Care and Honesty and who should preserve it in its first purity and Spiritual intention only to prescribe methods unto Men by Faith and an Honest conversation how they might arrive at Heaven that this Religion might make a deeper impression upon their minds and memories and be more faithfully kept it was set down in plain and significant Terms and reduced into 2 Tim. 1. 13 14. Rom. 6. 17. 1. Tim. 6. 20. short summaries called a form of sound words that good thing that Form of Doctrine a depositum or trust and by the Church afterwards a creed That it might be believed and valued it was in its own Nature of the greatest importance confirmed with variety of the best of Arguments Miracles Prophecies innocent carriage and Death of its numerous Disciples and severe curses denounc'd against any that should add to or take from it till Gal. 1. 8. 9 Rev. 22. 18. their great Master And its Author Jesus should come from Heaven again Yet notwithstanding all this by the Malice and Subtility of the Devil the Designs and Passions of Men the Ignorance and Negligence of some the Cunning and Industry of others this plain and simple Religion began by degrees to be corrupted by the mixtures of Philosophy and niceness by the Rules of Stat Craft and Policy by idle Traditions and Inventions by the Melancholy of some and the gayety of others and the natural Face of it was so strangely changed that it seem'd another Gospel and you might seek Christianity in the Christian World and yet scarce find it Many Kingdoms and People were to blame in this being Teacherous to their Master and false to their trust suffering so Pure and chast a Religion to be corrupted 2. Cor. 11. 2 or Stolen away but the Church of Rome seems the most Guilty of them all especially upon her own grounds her Bishop being the Infallible Vicar of Jesus to whom are committed the Oracles of GOD once indeed renowned Cyp. Epist Ox. Edit p. 5. 6. Rom 18. Platina vitâ Bon 7. p. 159. vide quaeso quantum degeneraverint c. for her Faith and Pious Governours but now as famous for their Degeneracy as well in Religion as in their Lives Whose Ambition or Interest prostituted the Faith to those Designs and made it Earthly and Sensual or their Negligence and Stupidity suffered the Enemy in the night of Ignorance to sow the tares which so grew up and choakt the Wheat that Faith was turn'd into Fables and Lyes Foppery and Superstition were Nick-nam'd Devotion Ridiculous Gestures and Habits past for Repentance and Mortification the Bible was shut up and contemned and the Legends open'd and praised Honest and Good Men were butchered and unknown Persons and Malefactors canonized Saints with their Pictures and Reliques were made Rivals to Christ in Mediation and Intercession Good Works were spoiled by Merit and Arrogance or done by way of composition for vices the fear of Hell was abated by the invention of Purgatory Christ was fetch from Glory by the Magick of a Priest and put into a Wafer or into a more sordid place riddles and quirks of their Schools were made Articles of Faith in short old truths were rooted up and new errors grafted on them Power and Profit were Stiled the church the court of Rome was brought into the Temple and called the Holy of Holies Such errours as these in the christian Faith came from Rome and infected our Ancient British church not at first planted by the Labours of the Romish Bishops of old but corrupted by their later Emissaries and lasted a long time among us being supported by Power twisted with Interest sutable to the pleasures and vices of Men incorporated into the Government having put out Mens reason to try and discern between Truth and Error and at length became Fashionable Legal Terrible with Fires and censures which made us Sick unto death absolute almost and beyond recovery Such was our condition here of Slavery and Ignorance but it pleased him that dwells between the Golden Candlesticks to dispel our Darkness and restore the Ancient light of Primitive Christianity His Wisdom and Goodness improving the passions and inclinations of some in temporal changes and concerns to Spiritual purposes encouraging the secret groans and desires of others putting many more upon search and enquiry after Truth and infusing courage for it at length came to a resolution of Arguing and Debating the Errors of the Romish Faith and manners of reforming the abuses in Discipline and Devotion and to call back True Christianity again and being dispossest of the Spirit of Rome which oft tore them and rent them till they foamed again are now cloath'd and in their Wits once more upon this account the Friends of Rome call us Hereticks Schismaticks and Innovators Discharge Censures and Excommunications and Eternal Damnation against us are full of Wrath and indignation and to shew a little Wit in their Anger And pretended reason pertly ask the Question where was our Religion before Luther This is the common and trite objection against our Religion very frequent not only in the Mouths of their Bellarmine Campian Smith more Ordinary
Disciples but also of their more Learned Writers who whatever strength they really fancy may be in the Argument it self think it a very proper Weapon to attempt the Vulgar and the Weak withall to amuse and dazle the less discerning eve at least when backâ and set off with the stately Names of Infallibility Succession Anâiquity and the like and they tell us roundly our Faith was but yesterday our Religion is new and upstart as only Henry the Eights and âromwels contrivance they may truly say as much as their Treason was Cecils Plot That our Faith began only in the year 1517 in Saxony by one Martin Luther an Apostate Fryar who for the sake of a fair Nun and other designs renounc'd the Ancient Faith and set up his new Device of Protestantism at Spires which did not quietly last much above seven years for in the year Bellar. Tom. lib. 4. p. 287 1. 25. starts up Zuinglius after two years more he Anabaptists who change and correct Luther's Religion and draw great numbers of his disciples from him and himself for his reward dyed a strange Death great Noises and Crackings were heard in his Tomb which being opened neither Body nor Bones were found and the smell of Brimstone was ready to stifle the standers by And therefore they say we ought to look from whence we are faln to repent of our Heresie and returne to our first Love and not stick so close to our Religion the new invention of so ill a Man That we may therefore keep those firme that are members of our Religion and bring those back that have revolted from us into the Romish Communion we have endeavour'd to give a satisfactory Answer to this their Question Where was your Religion before the times of Luther Not to trouble our selves with such Legends as these and Uncharitableness along with them the Answer is thus 1. Telling them plainly where our Religion was before Luthers time 2. By shewing what Errors and Mistakes are included in the Question 3. To turn the Question upon themselves and ask them some others of the like nature 1. The plain Answer to the Question is this That our Religion was long before the times of Luther and believed and setled in many Kingdoms and Nations of the World and hath neither Novelty nor Singularity in it 'T is an old Religion I am sure 't is of Age and can speak for it self It hath lasted now these 1600 years and more founded at first by Christ and his Apostles handed down to us through many Sufferings and Persecutions and here it is preserved It contracted indeed in the coming down a great deal of rust by the Falseness and Carelesness of its keepers particularly by the Church of Rome we scowr'd off the rust and kept the mettal that 's the Romish Religon this is the English They added False Doctrines to the Christian Faith we left the one and kept to the other this is Ancient those are New Our Religion is the same with that of the Early Christians Martyrs and Confessors believed in the first 300 years and defended by all Councils truely General Our Religion in those first Ages was in Palestine and Greece in Egypt in Antioch where the Discââles Acts 11. 26. were fiâst called Christians and in Rome it self and wherever the great labours of her first Apostles carry'd her to the different and reâote Countries of the World Then and there our Religion lâv'd where Peter Linus and Cletus and all the first and Pious Bishops of Rome did It suffered indeed great variety of changes and conditions by the interest and wickedness of men sometimes more Adulterated and sometimes more Pure it flitted from Country to Country sometimes greater and sometimes smaller in its number sometimes in a dejected and sometimes in a more flourishing state but somewhere or other it was intire and without mixture as it was at first given unto the world and such an old Religion as this we are of holding fast neither more nor less neither adding to nor diminishing what Christ and his Apostles taught and iâ Antiquity must evidence the Truth of our Religion we are safe and secure that we have right on our side And this will appear if we consider these following things 1. What Conformity our Religion carries to that of Christ and his Apostles Let any impartial eye compare them both together and he will find the features and complexion the whole body of Religion the same in both Whatever they delivered out at first as Fundamental to Salvation whatever they instituted as parts of Devotion Discipline and Order we still faithfully retain in our Church and if any Truth of moment hitherto by Fraud or Negligence be concealed from her she is ready to receive it when ever it is made plain not having stopt up the way of Truth by a pretence of Infallibility or want of Modesty to confess an error She hath the same sense of the Nature Offices the Design and whole Undertakings of Christ that the truly Ancient Church had She receives the Creed and Bible and any Traditions that can be made out to be truly Divine in the same meaning and understanding that Christ and his Apostles gave to the first Christians and they to us What their thoughts of Saints and holy Souls departed were ours are thoughts of respect remembrance and imitation not divine Worship Christ instituted proper Figures and Symbols of Bread Wine to represent and confirm to conveigh and commemorate his bloudy Passion and Benefits to Mankind in this sense She preserves the Institution sacred and doth not really Sacrifice or Crucifie the LORD of Life again Christ commanded good works under the penalty of eternal Damnation She doth the same and in our Masters language bids the doers of them call themselves unprofitable Servants beating down Pride and Merit Christ and his Apostles told the World what departing Souls must expect Her sense is the same that there are no second Ventures and Trials to be made neither can a kind Friend with a good Estate left for Masses or Monks compound for a Life ill spent Run through the whole constitution of our Church in Articles of Faith and Rules of Manners you may trace them to Christ and his Apostles time and all other parts of her Government and Order are truly Primitive And it must needs be so if She sincerely folloâs her rule of Faith the holy Scriptures so Ancient so Divine and whatever is declared there essential to Salvation She brings into her Creed and resolves to keep it like a mighty Treasure faithfully unto death And indeed the Church of Rome confesses that what we do retain is ancient and Apostolical but pretends that we are defective in many things and want some necessaries which they have to make an entire Faith But we challenge them to prove that those opinions wherein we differ from them were delivered by Christ or any men divinely inspired in those times
And they seem to acknowledge we do not and therefore to make up the matter pretend a Divine Authority in the Church to cast new Articles and Truths fere de fide almost fit for a Creed and some others of them confess that some of their Opinions as Image-Worship and others were not maintain'd in the first Ages of Christianity for fear of coming too near the Heathens Worship and out of other Prudential considerations so that whosoever doth compare the Doctrine of our Church with that of Christ and his Apostles must needs conclude that our Religion is Ancient Christianity and that the charge of Novelty is groundless 2. The Nature of Reformation which was not to found a New Church but correct an old one Christianity that Pearl of great price was hid with trash and Mat 13. 3. filth that the Romish Church had heap'd upon it our Reformers removed only what loaded and obscur'd it and restored it to its first Beauty and Lustre Such a Reformation indeed is later then their errors and it must needs be so it naturally supposing them before otherwise 't is not Reformation but a destructive change but Primitive Christianity which is our Religion was long before the Dâsease of Popery though the cure of this Disease was after or later then the disease it self but the sound Body of Christianity for which we are concern'd was before them both for 't is not Reformation barely that we are pleased withal no more then with a Pill or Potion but only as necessary to drive away an inveterate Disease and recover an old Religion to its âormer Health When Christ reformed the Jewish Religion from the false senses and glosses that the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it and grafted Christianity upon the old stock will the Romanists call this a New Religion or rather an old one well amended and improved by Divine Authority Bellarmin doth allow this for Truth and saith that Christianity was rather a new State and Condition then a new church and he that can call our Religion New because 't is mended and made now what it was about 1600 years ago may affirm that Christ built a new Temple when he Whipt the buyers and sellers out of the old And that Hezekiah built a 2 Chron. 305 New Sanctuary and Instituted a New Passover because he cleans'd the one and restor'd the other to its first Institution our Reformation did no more it only scal'd off the Leprosie that stuck to the Body of the Romish church it only pair'd off those Additions that Interest or Superstition Niceness or Foppery had glew'd to it what after remain'd was our Religion the same that Christ and his Apostles taught the world at first And if they can shew that any thing hath been added since pernicious to the Nature of the True and Old Religion our church is ready to remove it or that any thing is wanting that is necessary to its complement and perfection she is ready to entertain it with the same spirit of meekness and Wisdom and Regard to the Gospel that she used in the Reformation but hitherto upon good grounds and strict inquiry She is fully satisfied that Her Religion is absolute and compleat Christianity 3. We have many and impartial Judges on our side that our Religion is Pure and Old Christianity The particular church of Rome indeed that supports her self by a pretended Infallibility to be true to her Principle refuses to be tryed by any other Church but will be only Judge of her self and others too yet we that are certain and sure of the Truth of our Religion though not Infallible dare appeal to the Judgment of other Christian churches The Greek church condemns their half Communion the Doctrines of Purgatory Merit and Supererogation The Adoration of Images their locking up the Scriptures in an unknown Tongue their extreme Unction and sale of Masses and laughs at their Infallibility the thing that makes their errours in Faith incorrigible the Arminian Christians reject the Supremacy Baron Tom. 10. P. 256. of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgary and excommunicat those that worship Images The Jacobites the Indians of St. Thomas the Egyptian and Abassine Christians dissent from most or all of the Romish errours which we condemn We have all the truly ancient Christian Churches on our side and most of the Modern whom the busie Emissaries of Rome have not terrified or seduc'd into their Party Our Writters have appealed with great success to the Ancient Councils the holy Fathers and to the Learned and Pious Bishops and Priests of old and from thence discovered the Novelty of the Romish Faith and the good old way of the English Church And they dare not stand the trial when we desire to be determined by the best and infallible Judge the holy Scriptures exept they must give the meaning of them otherwise they load them with Ignominious Names of â Lesbian rule mere Ink and Paper and a Nose of Wax Who will they be try'd by by a Council truly General No except it be called manag'd and Confirm'd by the Pope Will they be Judg'd by any that differ from them yet are men of good honest and unprejudic'd Judgements No they are out of the pale of the Church and stubborn Hereticks And the best reason they have for their assurance that they are in the right is that they are sure they are so and keep themselves safe in their Enchanted Castle of Infallibility The Arabian Philosopher was offended at and abhorr'd their barbarous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and eating of their God and resolv'd to stick to his Philosophical rather then be of such a Christian Religion The Roman Images and the Worship of them have laid a Stumbling block before the Jews who therefore approved our Sentence and condemnation of them having therefore such a number of good Testimonies and Judgements on our side we rise up and reverence the gray Hairs of our Religion which Rome once cloath'd in a wanton and phantastick dress and made it ridiculous which because we have pull'd off and put on its ancient habit and made it look manly with the Image of GOD and Christ upon it they call us Innovators Many of their own Writers have spoke in favour of the English Church and many of their distinctions in a fair sense have concluded for her Doctrine and shewn their dislike of many opinions of their own Church 4. That our Religion was long before Luther will appear from the oppositions that were made to the Papal corruptions which did not enjoy so quiet a life but were frequently disturb'd and cry'd oât against not only by other Churches but by many honest and considering men in their own Communion Men they were not of Interest and Discontent Peevishness and given to change of little Learning and less conscience and not in the World but men eminent in their Generation men of Probity and Studies of Temper and consideration men that stood not alone
but had great numbers of Disciples a visible Society of Christians who followed their Judgements Some of these sadly bewailed the degenerate state of the Roman church others petitioned for and advised not only the correction of the abuses of good Doctrines and innocent Institutions but the Reformation of gross Errours and scandalous Additions to the christian Faith and others in great Authority promised an amendement and to reduce the whole frame of christianity to its Primitive sense Model And the famous council of Trent was promis'd and begun to rectifie Errours and Abuses creept into the Romish Faith and Government yet after a long Sitting it fatally concluded confirming those corruptions which was hop'd after so many complaints and addresses with strong reasons for them should have been throughly redrest and reform'd The Original of their barbarous Inquisition will be a standing record of the frequent and stout oppositions that were made against the Romish Innovation in the christian Faith And so long as the Blood of the numerous Albigenses and Waldenses cryes to Heaven for Vengeance against the Papal cruelty we have a cloud of Witnesses for this Truth who resisted unto Death the new Doctrines of Rome The carriage of old Wicliff and his Followers tells us plainly in story that the corruptions of Rome had no such quiet possession but ever and anone some or other inconsiderable numbers did endeavour to eject them out of their hold though they paid dear for it And so long as the Treachery of their council of Constance about the safe conduct granted to poor Huss and his Disciples in number above forty thousand remains upon record never to be forgotten or forgiven so long we have clear evidences of strong resistance made to the Romish Religion before the times of Luther And in most Countries and times where and when the Romish corruptions began from small and obscure beginings to be gross and plain some or other in greater or lesser numbers began to Renounce and Protest against them What though some of these early Reformers might hold some erroneous Opinions which we our selves condemn yet however they opposed the Romish Church in her corruptions and these tended to a Reformation which was compleated only by degrâeââ and 't is no wonder some Stumbled in such a night of Ignorance And have not the Agents of Rome destroyed the Papers and Records disguis'd their Adversaries and falsify'd their Opinions to serve the power and Interest of their great Mistriss They therefore branded the Waldenses with the name of Manichaism and that they affirmed two Principles or Originals of all things because they asserted that the Emperour was independent of the Pope and that they denyed CHRIST to be the Son of GOD because they could not believe a crust of Bread to be CHRIST And they have fram'd as lewd stories against many excellent Men of the latâr Ages who withstood the approaches of their Doctrine and Government which we certainly know and the more ingenuous among them confess to be notoriously false Though we have reason to believe because of the severity and industry of the Romish Factors ever warm against those who opposed her Practises a great number of Honest and Learned Men as those Ages would afford are buried in obscurity and their names unknown there being an Expurgatorian Index for the merits of such Men as well as Books and Editions yet we have a sufficient Catalogue of them who kept up the Title and claim of old Christianity would not suffer their new Errors to plead prescription 2. By shewing what Errours and Mistakes are included in the Question 1. That these new Errors of Rome are absolutely necessary to the being of a Christian Church For though we believe all that Christ and his Apostles taught all things that are contain'd in the Holy Scriptures all things that undoubted Tradition or good Reason proves to drive themselves from both or either yet because we do not assent and Subscribe to the new Articles of Faith that Rome hath invented for us we cease to be a Christian Church are mark'd for Hereticks which are worse than Pagans with them and must be certainly damn'd Nay should we embrace all the other Doctrines of Rome and deny only the Popes Authority and Supremacy that Epitome of their Christianity it would avail us little we are Heathens still Should we reject but one Article of Pope Pius's Creed suppose the Doctrine of Purgatory or Merit yet because this questions Infallibility the centâe of all their Religion we are in the state of Damnation still Should we receive their Doctrines as probable and in a larger and more favâurable meaning yet because we do not entertain them as Articles of Faith in the sense of the Church our case is not mended we shall meeâ with Fires here and hereafâer for our reward Should we wink and swallow them all down with a good Catholick stomach yet iâ the Bishop of Rome should give out a new Edition of Faith enlarged with many more monstrous Doctrines and Opinions yet if we boggle and kick at them all our former Righteousness shall not not be remembred we are Apostates worse than Truks and Infidels and who can tell what this Infallible and powerful Guide of ââââstendom will do For when things obscure or of an indifferent Nature when things wherein they differ among themselves and only serve a temporal Interest when Opinions which they can dispense withal upon occasion when only the modes and manner of Truth when Contradictories and Doctrines directly leading unto impiety and things Barbarous and Blasphemous have been christened Articles of Faith and Fundamentals of Religion have we not just reason to suspect as ill or worsé may be done again And the intrigues of Trent may be acted once more and as many new Articles of Faith as Titular Bishops by the same Spirit moving in the same manner were not the first and early Christians sound Members of Christs Body though they never thought of such wild Opinions as these and publish'd truths directly contrary to them And could I suppose them to have known these Innovations out of Zeal and Fidelity to their trust would have detested and abhor'd them Was Christ negligent in the discharge of his mighty Office and his Apostles defective in their Duties and Ministry not to acquaint the first Christians with these great truths and were they reveal'd in the Tridentine Council only to us upon whom the ends of the world are come These Primitive Disciples of Christ thought themselves secure of Heaven by this short Creed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God And the contrary was the character of the Man of Sin that denied that Jesus was come in the Flesh that he was the God incarnate and the true Messiah and were scandalized at his meanness and obscurity S. Paul told the Jaylor that certainly he would be saved if he believed that Jesus was the Christ all other Fundamentals of Christianity one
And they farther confess that in the times of Antichrist there shall be neither Pope Monk nor Mass if this be all that Monster is not so terrible as he is painted and their Annalists complain of such sad things as these in the tenth Century And certainly they have read of Ver. 12. 6. 11. 7. 1 Cor. 3. 12. the Woman in the Wilderness and the Witnesses slain and of Hay and Stuble coâering the Foundation Which describe the deplorable condition of the Christian Church and Fopperies Niceties and Inventions of men obscuring the Essentials of the Christian Faith Should a Revolt happen which GOD divert from the Reformed Church of England to Romanism again might not others ask them the same Question Where was your Religion before Eighty three or Eighty four before snch a time Would they not answer at Rome and in England also only kept under and obscur'd by Hereticks and Tyrannical Princes Ours was also here lockt up in Bibles own'd by some numbers desir'd by more onely frighted from a visible profession of it by the Torments that did attend it And Christianity though not so visible yet was purer when it and its professors dwelt in Rocks and Mountains and Denâ places of Privacy and obscurity in the Reigns of Nero and Diâclesian then when some Kings were its Nursing Fathers and Quâens its Nursing Mothers and took possession of the seven Hills And there was a true Church of God though overlay'd and groaning under Arrianism as before Persecution and in Cyprians time as ours once under the Popish Yoke And Cypr Epist p. 59 Ox Edit aspice totum orbem pene vastum c. the truth of Christianity like the truth and essence of other things depends not upon splendid entertainment or judgment of others nor the Church upon the Visible number of its Members but it may be a true Church whither visible or hid which this Question denies 3. This Question supposeth that the Roman Church cannot err but that it remained pure and undefiled as it came from the hands of Christ through the many Centuries of years till it came to the times of Luther and from thence shall so continue till the Worlds end and therefore we made a false charge against them of corruptions in their Religion to excuse our Innovation But we have reason to conclude She hath foully err'd from the Faith and that more fatally and obstinately because She pretends She cannot err For upon what grounds doth She found Her Infallibility Upon the Scriptures They are onely so many dead Letters till the breadth of the Church doth give them life and they are then to do the Church a good turn and give her Infallibility which is such a Circle as makes mens Brains so giddy turning round in it that they scarce know what he Scriptures and what the Church do mean the places of Scripture to prove Infallibility are such which have onely reference to the Apostles themselves their Doctrines or Confessions of Faith as Divine and Infallible but not to their pretended Successours Or else they are restrained not simply Mat. 16. 18. Ioh. 16. 13. Mat. 28. 20 unto all truth but only unto all truth that is necessary to Salvation in which the Pope or a Council cannot err while they follow the Spirit of Truth in the Scriptures and not compel the Spirit and Scriptures to follow them For they do not irresistibly force the minds of Christians into truth Or else relate onely to the Catholick Church and not Mat. 18. 20. to the particular Roman or else are applicable to privaâe Assemblies and their Worship of God which no body but Quakers and Enthusiasts think to be infallible And all the first Ages of Christianity and undoubted Tradition never in the least imagined such an Infallibility as now the Church of Rome dreams of They are at War among themselves where this Infallibility is lodg'd either in the Pope alone or in a General Council alons or in both together the Pope sitting in person there or by his Legates or in the council confirmed by the Pope till they agree among themselves and prove it better we say 't is no where plac'd but in the Scriptures and they do not prove any other person or persons upon Earth to be infallible in their determinations To say such an infallible Judge of Controversies to guide the Church is absolutely necessary and therefore Divine Providence hath plac'd him some where or other and who but the Pope can be the man is only to prescribe methods unto GOD and teach him how to govern his Church and not be thankful for the good old wayes of Salvation and Peace Scriptures an honest Judgment with Divine assistance and humane means he hath chalkt out for us but contrive some new ones of their own Such infallibility must be of no use to the Church of GOD for upon the Romish principles it cannot be known for the Pope before he be Infallible must be Bishop of Rome but the Sacrament of Order according to the Council of Trent receives its validity from the intention of the Priest that when he ordained him Bishop he did what the Church intended and who can tell upon these grounds what this supposed Priest was who gave this Order or dyve into his thoughts and intentions which their Casuists confess may sometimes be very perverse But if there be this Infallibility at Rome why do not the Countries and Religious Orders in Archbishop Laud against Fisher 27 2. them still under their Dominion receive the blessed Fruits of it and still all the brawls and squables among themselves if his Holyness be at leasure and it be worth his while And why should not the Champions of Rome bend all their power to prove this main point of Infallibility when all other controversies would fall under and submit unto its power a compendious way to make the Christian world at Peace and Unity with its self But why need we labour to disprove the Popes Infallibility when themselves put their shoulders to it and do the work for us in disputing among themselves whither the Pope being an Heretick may be deposed by which Question they confess that he may fall into heresie which is errour of the highest nature carrying wilfulness and obstinacy with it And acordingly these Infallible men have been guilty of Heresies as Pope Honorius of Monothelitism and Liberius of Arrianism and the like and many of them liv'd most debauched lives as fatal to Christianity as Heresie and Fallibility and wherein Providence is highly concerned This Doctrine of Infallibility looks like a plain contrivance of the Romish Church having some way or other slipt into these gross errors from smal beginings finding them not defensible by all the sleights and arts of their cunning heads are forc'd to quit their hold and betake themselves to their common Sanctuary of Infallibility that let these things be what they will in dispute between us and them
they are sure they are great Truths by vertue of Infallibility which is one of the Miracles of Rome which can change the nature of things Fowlis hist Preface p. 1. which may be true in England and the quite contrary at Rome as Father Cotton and other Jesuites affirmed at Paris For it 's plain to all impartial judgements that their Doctrine of Purgatory Transubstantiation and the like are not to be found in the Scriptures are utterly unknown to the truely ancient Fathers and the eldest and purest times of Christianity and contrary to the reason of mankind They may as well tell us that the City of Rome was never sackt and spoil'd because some Flatterers humour'd her Pride and arrogance calling her Vrbs aeterna immobile saxum Grot in Apoc. c. 17. the immortal city and impregnable Rock as that these gross errors never invaded and ruin'd the Christian faith because of the fine name of Infallibility which they arrogate to themselves And may as well put out our eyes and then bid us see if we can discover any errours in the Romish Church And St. Peter's being at Rome proves no more that he left Infallibility behind him then consecrated clouts sent from Rome that the Infant that wears them shall ever after be a firm defender of the Romish Faith 4. This Question will serve any Heresies or errours that have got some Antiquity on their side against a Reformation If it be true in this case 't is so in all others and then what a shelter have they provided for all Heresies if they chance to live long to be safe and secure in and escape correction And there are many errours contemporary with Christianity it self in its first plantation in the World at least followed it very close at the heels such were the Ancient Gnosticks the Carpocrations or Ebionites the spawn of Magus and others who can plead great Antiquity on their side and as properly ask any Reformer of their Heresies Where was his Religion before such a time as the inconstant World began to favour his new Faith and Innovation And so Errours once superinduced upon the Truth will become by Age Truth it self and are never to be mended for fear of this pert Question and charge of Innovation And it 's plain that new and old are but uncertain Characters to judge of Truth and Falshood by there being sometimes a new Truth that is lately discovered to be so but really old and an old errour kept up a long time by force or art and walking in the garb of Truth but truly new having come in after the Truth it vies with Time like a River many times bringing down Straw and Trash leaving weightier things behind which when they come to be retriev'd are called new Fashions and Inventions When Abraham restored the true Worship of GOD and stript it of Idolatry and Superstition the Chaldean Priests whose Power and Interest was shaken by it were very brisk and ready to charge this pious and mighty Man from the East with Novelty and Singularity in his Religion the false service of GOD in Isaiah 41. 2. these Countries being then ancient and almost universal though the Patriarchs Religion did derive it self from a very ancient stock that of Adams in Paradise kept up by an Enoch and a Noah in single Families when all Flesh had corrupted their wayes and now delivered unto Abraham and now all the Gen. 6. 11. sticklers for a false Religion began to upbraid the Sons and Followers of Abraham's Faith with Novelty and askt them Where was your Religion before the times of Abraham who set up his but yesterday and scorns and uncharitably damns all his Forefathers who of old liv'd beyond the River in our Religion The same Objection might have been cast in the teeth of Moses when he was settlling a Religion delivered to him by GOD in opposition to the Idolatries and false Devotions of the World and to serve his farther designs of providence that he affected Novelty and Singularity that all the World stood against him in this and one of his Disciples afterward was inhumane and uncharitable in praying Psalm 79. 6. GOD to pour out his indignation upon the Heathen who had not known his Laws And his Successor Joshua might have met Josb 24. 15. with the same fare when he bids his People choose whom they will serve either the Gods beyond the Floud and in Egypt or the Gods of the Amorites Old and great Nations who might have had this Objection in its full strength on their side or the GOD of Abraham and stoutly tells them Let that plausible Argument weigh withthem what it will as for my self and his Family they would serve the LORD And as this Religion might degenerate in descending Ages so any Restorer of it might be set upon by the same frivolous Objection and so it hapned to our Messias and his fore-runner who was to restore all things who when he began to reform the false glosses and corrupt senses which the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon the Law of Moses and cry down their Traditions which made the Commands of GOD of none effect was look'd upon as an Enemy to Moses a Blasphemer of the Law a Prophaner of the Temple and a Changer of all their Religion whose Design was onely to fill up their Law and restore it to its Natural Beauty and Perfection and before Abraham was I am not only in his Divine Nature and designation to his Office but in his Religion also which now he was going to to teach the jew and Gentiâe too And Heb. 9. 10. now the times of a general Reformation being come and the Apostles were Preaching this excellent Religion unto all the World Jew and Gentile conspire together in the same Language and call them setters forth of strange Gods and new Acts 24. 14. Acts 28. 22 Heresies Heads and Contrivers of new Sects and Wayes and are whipt for Vagrants and Impostors who would cheat the World out of their old paternal Religions that were entail'd upon them teach them to speak ill of the Gods of their Fathers and Predecessors and to think they all dyed in a false Religion and to embrace a new-fangled Faith of a few illiterate and rambling fellows who had turn'd the World upside down And had this Argument prevail'd then as much as the Romanists do desire it should new we should have had no Christianity among us the Idol-Gods of our Ancestors in this Island their Woodens and Twisters would have prescribed against Christ himself 3. To turn the Question upon them and ask them some others of the like nature Men that are insolent and ever boasting of the Antiquity of their Family and upbraiding others with their obscure Birth and Extraction do many times meet with some cross Questions about the Head and Fountain of their Families which many times proves onely to be a Shepheard or meaner Original made
glorious with arrogant Titles and borrow'd Names Search into the Pedegree of Romes Religion we do not find Christ or St. Peter or any of his Apostles to be the Authors of it but Pride Interest and Design old Vices indeed but new Fathers of a Christian church which brought in a late and new generation of Opinions and additions to Christs Religion clothing them with the venerable Names of Primitive and Apostolical Where was the Romish Religion before the Council of Trent concluded onely about the year 1563. of a latter date then when Luther first began which legitimated all their Innovations the issue of Scholastick Wranglings pretended Dreaââs and Visions forc'd and unnatural Senses of Scripture Ambition and Profit the Fxchequer of Rome to be made Sons of the Church and Fundamentals of the Christian Faith Many of their own Writers confess that for 1400 or â 500 years the Pope was not believ'd to be infallible till of late some of their flaming Zealots have vested him with infallibility whereby the Roman Church is sick unto death and no cure is to be applyed because she is so certain and sure that she is well Their lewd Doctrine of Transubstantiation was not made an Article of Faith till the Council of Laâeran under Innocent the third above 1200 years after Christ and many of their own Writers are still dissatisfied about it The Title of Vniversal Bishop was obtained by Pope Boniface the Third not till about 600 years after Christ fearing a powerful Rival the Constantinopolitan Bishop who affected the same and therefore by the Popes themselves was declaimed against as proud and Antichristian but now by Hypocrisie and base compliance with the wicked Phocas who was guilty of Treason and Murder against the Emperour Mauritius Rome gained the delicious point and has made it a fundamental Article of her new Religion though the Popes came not up to their swaggering temper and Power of Hectoring Christian Princes some hundred of years afâerwards The Doctrine of Purgatory which some derive from the Platonick Fancies of Origen the Montanism of Tertullian pretended Visions and Pagan Stories Rhetorical Flourishes and doubtful Expressions of the later Fathers yet it was not positively affirmed till about the year 1140. and not made an Article of Faith till the Council of Trent then indeed a good Estate became a surer way to Heaven then a good Life and Conversation The use of indulgences was the Moral to the Fable of Purgatory and began to grow much what about the same time though it came not to the height and perfection till Pope Leo the Tenths time when Luther so stoutly opposed them then Heaven was set to sale and the best Chapman was the greatest Saint though they boast of the second Council of Nice for the Antiquitie of their Image Worship And if it will do thern any good so they may of Simon Magus who was of an elder date and a very fit Patron of Acts 11. 13 such an Opinion yet the Council of Frankfurt condemned it and the purest times did not so much as allow the making of Images And it was not the Catholick Doctrine in France for almost 900 years after Christ nor in Germany till after the 12th Cââtury then indeed such a Doctrine might be very proper when true Religion was turned into Pageantry and a form of Godliness The number of the seven Sacraments is now an Article of the Romish Faith yet the Council of Florence ended in the year 1439 was the first Council and Peter Lombard the first man that precisely fixt that number That the Laity ought to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper onely in one kind was never made an Article of Faith till the Council of Constance concluded in the year 1418 then indeed that Council with the greatest insolence and a direct Invasion of the Authority of CHRIST took the Cup from the Laymens mouths notwithstanding as it was then acknowledged the Institution of CHRIST to the contrary and they may as well Christen the Laicks Children only in the name of the Holy Ghost leaving out the Father and the Son by the way of concomitancy it being as Lawful to Baptize as Communicat by the halfes For what cannot such a pretended Power do The prohibiting of Priests to Marry was not in perfection as 't is now till Pope Gregory the Sevenths time Let them tell us where 't is said by Christ or his Apostles or any of the truly Ancient Writers of the christian Church that Pennance is a Sacrament or that Auricular Confession is necessary to Salvation or that Prayers ought to be made in an unknown Tongue or that good works are strictly meritorious or where can they find the many Impieties and absurdities of their Mass in those early times of Antiquity And since they are fond of asking us this Question we might ask them many more about the many Fopperies and Innovations in their Faith and Devotion and many they are and large is the inventory almost as many as are the Christian Truths in direct opposition to them or prevarication from them But they seem to confess the newness of their Religion when they arrogantly set up a Power in their Church to frame new Articles of Faith and many things only Opinions and Notions at first have grown up by degrees to Fundamental Truths and having once slipt into errour they are bound to maintain it for the Reputation and Autâority of Holy Church And who knows how many of this Nature are upon the Romish forge ready to be put into their Creed and where must we end not till it be believed that consecrated Feathers and Holy Water can convey Divine Grace to us and drive away wicked Spirits and the Weathercocks of our Churches be thought Pâillars of it Would the Champions of Rome speak out they would tells us as their Eckius did the Duke of Bavaria That the Doctrine of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers though not by the Scriptures 't is a plain confession that we have the truest Antiquity on our side and in the beginning it was not so But we add that we have the Fathers also on our side for otherwise what mean their Expurgat orian Indices of the Fathers and other Ancient Writters but that they very well know that these are old Enemies to Pope Pins's new Creed and the Truth in them confounds their errour Such an account as this about the Original and Progress of their new Additions to the old Faith was convenient to be given not because the Nature of the thing did necessarily require it for it had been sufficient only to have prov'd that these Romish Additions to the Christian Faith are contrary to the Word of GOD and no where to be found in any of the Divine Writings the only Infallible Rule of Faith and that they have no power of minting new Articles Fundamental to Salvation but because the Disciples of Rome so frequently ask us the Question and
Power or Design it 's no wonder it did prevail in a sly and silent manner interest having put out their eyes this Kingdom came not with observation and the approaches of the Enemy in the night of Ignorance viz. the darkness that could be felt of the ninth tenth and eleventh century when all good Learning and Manners too were fast asleep the time when many of the new devices of Rome were hammering out and the noise not heard were not discovered till they had taken possession and then by vertue of Power and great Names defended their Title And their own Writers confess that many of the great Guardians of Faith the Popes of Rome were very Vicious and Illiterate persons whose Vice and Ignorance kept them nodding while the little Theives the Notions and Speculations of men of Wit and Interest set open the Churches doors for the greater Errours to come crouding in Our Saviour confirms the truth of this when he compares his Church to a Field which had been sown by him and his Apostles with very good seed Wheat or some other Grain but while men sleept when Christians were grown wicked and careless ignorant or factious comes the Enemy and scatters the Tares and a new harvest of Weeds Heretical Doctrines Superstitious Practices Foppish and Phantastick Mat. 13. 24 25. Rites over-ran and choakt the purer Grain And the Apostle tells his Disciples that men of dangerous principles abusing the grace of God speaking evil of Dignities and despising Dominions and denying Christ that bought them had creept in unawares being well disguis'd with fine Names and pretences Jude 4. while good men were careless and sleept And when most begin to broach nâw Errours and spread their inventions for mighty Truths they do it with all the skill and artifice that so bad a design can possibly require Errour and Innovation necessarily calling for the utmost cunning and slyness to its aid and assistance Religion therefore may easily suffer a considerable change yet good men know not how neither the time nor authors of it It being therefore only absolutely necessary for us to know that whensoever and howsoever these errours in the Church first sprung up that they were contrary to the Primitive Faith of Christ and his Apostles and therefore were to be amended and weeded up notwithstanding the common question where was our harvest of Wheat before the Weeders our Reformers came for the Church of England finding old Christianity strangely over-grown with the new Doctrines and Creeds of Rome contrary to the Offices of CHRIST the designe of his undertaking for Mankind and the true spirit of his Religion it became a duty as much as they lov'd their Souls and would be true and loyal unto CHRIST to shake off these new and sinful Impositions and restore true and primitive Christianity Had our differences with Rome consisted only in things less fit and proper used by them in their religious Offices or in Rituals or Gestures not so decent they might have had some pretence to roar against us for breaking off Communion with her but when they plow up the very Foundation as one of her Pagan Captains did the Walls of Jerusalems Temple and lay all waste before them their new additions eating out the very Heart of old Religion to thunder out damnation against us because we renounce her Communion in this is to add uncharitableness and other gross Vices to their former sin as though they could not preserve Christianity but by defacing of it more Our Prince being constituted by GOD a nursing Father of the Church and our Bishops in their Episcopal power being co-ordinate with him of Rome or any other in the Christian World ought under the penalty of Damnation and did accordingly reform the Romish corruptions which had tainted the Vitals of Christianity an indispensable duty it was to preserve the Primitive Faith like a chast Virgin and not to suffer it to be 2 Cor. 11. 2. longer prostituted to the Designs and Passions of men by a solemn Vow and our Souls were at stake we had engag'd to preserve it pure undefiled therefore with all just and proper wayes and methods we were bound earnestly to contend for it In duty therefore to our Lord and Masters Command at such a time we began our Reformation but wish that it had been promoted and compleated many years before though the same Question would have been as fitly asked then or any other time except they think that errours must be immortal and the gates of Heaven shall not prevail against them The goodness and wisdom of our Reformation would be readily acknowledg'd and imitated did not Fame and Ambition Power and Secular Interest infect the Eye and change the natural shape and colour of things and 't is a sign the cause of Rome wants strength when such a trifling only popular Objection against our Reformation is made so powerful to preserve their Disciples in their Communion and amuse our own And we need say no more against it but this and 't is no Roman uncharitableness and rigour That if Rome notwithstanding all the clear evidence against her new and upstart Opinions shall obstinately defend them and contemn a wise and pious Reformation let her suffer the just punishment of her wilful errours He that will prefer an old Disease before a new Cure let him be for ever sick For we have healed Babylon and she was not healed FINIS A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION Shewing what is meant by it AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be Received AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be Rejected The third EDITION EDINBURGH Printed by J. Reid 1686. A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION AN Obligation being laid upon us at our Baptism to believe and to do the whole will of GOD revealed unto us by Christ Jesus it concerns every one that would be saved to enquire where that whole intire Will of God is to be found where he may so certainly meet with it and be so informed about it that he may rest satisfied he hath it all And there would be no difficulty in this matter had not the worldly interest of some men raised Controversies about it and made that intricate and perplexed which in it self is easie and plain For the Rehearsal of the Apostles Creed at Baptism and of that alone as a Summary of the Faith whose sincere profession intitles us to the Grace there conferred warrants the Doctrine of the Church of England in its VI Article that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation But this strickes off so many of the Doctrines of the present Roman Church which are not to be found in the Scripture nor have any countenance there that they are forced to say the Faith once delivered to the
Saints mentioned by St. Jude is not intirely delivered in the Scripture but we must seek for the rest in the Traditions of the Church Which Traditions say they are to be received as a part of the Rule of Faith with the same Religious Reverence that we do the Holy Scripture Now though this is not really the bottom of their heart as will appear before I have done but they finally rest for their satisfaction in matters of Faith somewhere else yet this being plausibly pretended by them in their own Justification that they follow Tradition and in their Accusations of us that we foresake Tradition I shall briefly let all our People see who are not willing to be deceived what they are to judge and say in this business of Tradition About which a great noise is made as if we durst not stand to it and as if they of the Roman Church stedfastly kept it without any variation neither of which is true I shall plainly shew in this short Discourse The meaning of the Word Which for clearness sake shall begin with the meaning of the word TRADITION which in English is no more than delivering unto another and by a Figure signifies the matter which is delivered and among Christians the Doctrine of our Religion delivered to us And there being two wayes of delivering Doctrines to us either by writing or by word of mouth it signifies either of them indifferently the Scriptures as you shall see presently being Traditions But custom hath determined this word to the last of these wayes and distinguished Tradition from Scriptures or writings at least from the Holy Writings and made it signifie that which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures or Writings For though the Scripture be Tradition also and the very first Tradition and the Fountain of all true and legitimate Antiquity yet in common Language Traditions now are such ancient Doctrines as are conveyed to us some other way whither by word of mouth as some will have it from one Generation to another or by humane Writings which are not of the same authority with the Holy Scriptures How to judge of them Now there is no better way to judge aright of such Traditions then by considering these four things First The Authors of them whence they come Secondly the matter of them Thirdly Their Authority Fourthly The means by which we come to know they derive themselves from such Authors as they pretend unto and consequently have any authority to demand admission into our belief 1. For the first of these every body knows and confesses that all Traditions suppose some Author from whom they originally come and who is the diliverer of those Doctrines to Christian people who being told by the present Church or any person in it that such and such Doctrines are to be received though not contained in the Holy Scriptures because they are Traditions ought in Conscience to inquire from whom those Traditions come or who first delivered them By which means they will be able to judge what credit is to be given to them when it is once cleared to them from what Authors they really come Now whatsoever is delivered to us in Christianity comes either from Christ or from his Apostles or from the Church either in General or in part or from private Doctors in the Church There is nothing now called a Tradition in the Christian World but proceeds from one or from all of these four Originals 2. And the mater which they deliver to us which is next to be considered is either concerning that Faith and godly life which is necessary to Salvation or concerning Opinions Rites Ceremonies Customs and things belonging to Order Both which as I said may be conveyed either by writing or without writing by the Divine Writings or by Humane Writings though these two wayes are not alike certain 3. Now it is evident to every understanding that things of both sorts which are delivered to us have their Authority from the credit of the Author from whence they first come If that be Divine their Authority is Divine if it be onely Humane their Authority can be no more And among Humane Authors if their Credit be great the Authority of what they deliver it great if it be little its Authority is little and accordingly must be accepted with greater or lesser Reverence Upon which score whatsoever can be made appear to come from Christ it hath the highest authority and ought to be received with absolute submission to it because he is the Son of God And likewise whatsoever appears to have been delivered by the Apostles in his Name hath the same Authority they being his Ministers sent by Him as He was by God the Father and indued with a Divine Power which attested unto them In like manner whatsoever is delivered by the Church hath the same Authority which the Church hath which though it be not equal to the foregoing the Church having no such Divine Power nor infallible Judgement as the Apostles had yet is of such weight and moment that it ought to be reverenced next to theirs I mean the sense of the whole Church which must be acknowledged also to be of greater or lesser Authority as it was nearer or farther off from the times of the Apostles What was delivered by their immediate Followers ought to weigh so much with us as to have the greatest Humane Authority and to be looked upon as little less then Divine The Universal consent of the next Generation is an Authority approaching as near to the former As the Ages do one to another But what is delivered in latter times hath less humane Authority though pretending to come but without proof from more early dayes and hath no Authority at all if it contradict the sense of the Church when it was capable to be better acquainted with the mind of Christ and of his Apostles As for particular Churches their Authority ought to be reverenced by every Member of them when they profess to deliver sincerely the sense of the Church Universal and when they determine as they have power to do Controversies of Faith or decree Rites and Ceremonies not contrary to GOD's Word in which every one ought to acquiesce But we cannot say the same of that which comes from any private Doctor in the Church Modern or Ancient which can have no greater Authority than he himself was of but is more or less credible according as he was more or less diligent knowing and strictly religious 4. But to all this it is necessary that it do sufficiently appear that such Doctrines do really come from those Authours whose Traditions they pretend to be This is the great and the only thing about which there is any question among sober and judicious persons How to be sufficiently assured that any thing which is not delivered unto us in the Scriptures doth certainly come for instance from CHRIST or his holy Apostles For in this all Christians are
the holy Scriptures into the hands of the Pagans were look'd upon by Christians as men that were content to part with their Religion For which there could be no reason but that they thought Christian Religion to be therein contained and to be betrayed by those who delivered them to be burnt By which I have proved more then I intended in this part of my Discourse that in the holy Scriptures the whole Will of God concerning our Salvation is contained Which is the true Question between us and the Church of Romeâ Not whither the Scripture be delivered to us as the Word of GOD or no in this our People ought to tell them we are all agreed but whither they have been delivered to us as the whole Will of GOD. And from that Argument now mentioned and many more we conclude that Universal Tradition having directed us unto these Books and no other they direct us sufficiently without any other Doctrines unto GOD and to our everlasting rest And if they urge you farther and say that the very Credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition tell them that it is a Speech not to be endured if they mean thereby that it gives the Scripture its authority and if they mean less we are agreed as hath been already said for it is to say that Man gives authority to GOD's Word Whereas in truth the holy Scriptures are not therefore of Divine Authority because the Church hath delivered them so to be but the Church hath delivered them so to be because it knew them to be of such authority And if the Church should have conceived or taught otherwise of these Writings then as of the undoubted Oracles of GOD she would have erred damnably in such a Tradition I shall sum up what hath been said in this second particular in a few words Christ and his Apostles at first taught the Church by word of mouth but afterward that which they preach'd was by the commandment of GOD commited to writing and delivered unto the Church to be the ground of our Faith Which is no more then Irenaeus hath said in express words L. 3. C. 1. speaking of them by whom the Gospel came unto all Nations Which they then preached but afterward by the Will of GOD delivered unto us in the Scriptures to be in time to come the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith III. And farther we likewise acknowledge that the sum and substance of the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures hath been delivered down to us even from the Apostles dayes in other wayes or forms besides the Scriptures For instance in the Baptismal Vow in the Creed in the Prayers and Hymns of the Church Which we may call Traditions if we please but they bring down to us no new Doctrine but only deliver in an abridgment the same Christianity which we find in the Scriptures Upon this there is no need that I should enlarge but I proceed farther to affirm IV. That we reverently receive also the unanimous Tradition or Doctrine of the Church in all Ages which determines the meaning of the holy Scripture and makes it more clear and unquestionable in any point of Faith wherein we can find it hath declared its sense For we look upon this Tradition as nothing else but the Scripture unfolded not a new thing which is not in the Scripture but the Scripture explained and made more evident And thus some part of the Nicene Creed may be called a Tradition as it hath expresly delivered unto us the sense of the Church of GOD concerning that great Article of our Faith That JESUS CHRIST is the Son of GOD. Which they teach us was alwayes thus understood the Son of GOD begotten of his Father before all worlds and of the same substance with the Father But this Tradition supposes the Scripture for its ground and delivers nothing but what the Fathers assembled at Nice believed to be contained there and was first fetch'd from thence For we find in Theodoret L. 1. C. 6. that the famous Emperour Constantine admonished those Fathers in all their Questions and Debates to consult only with these heavenly inspired Writings Because the Evangelical and Apostolical Books and the Oracles of the old Prophets do evidently instruct us what to thiâk in Divine matters This is so clear a Testimony that in those dayes they made this compleat Rule of their Faith whereby they ended Controversies which was the reason that in several other Synods we find they were wont to lay the Bible before them and that there is nothing in the Nicene Creed but what is to be found in the Bible that Cardinal Bellarmine hath nothing to reply to it but this Constantine was indeed a great Emperour but no great Doctor Which is rather a Scoff than an Answer and casts a scorn not only upon him but upon the great Council who as the same Theodoret witnesseth assented unto that speech of Constantine So it there follows in these words That most of the Synod were obedient to what he had discoursed and embraced both mutual Concord and sound Doctrine And accordingly St. Hilary a little after extols his Son Constantius for this that he adhered to the Scriptures and blames him only for not attending to the true Catholick sense of them His words are these in his little Book which he delivered to Constantius I truly admire thee O Lord Constantius the Emperour who desirest a Faith according to what is writen They pretended to no other in those dayes but as he speaks a little after look'd upon him that refused this as Antichrist It was only required that they should receive their Faith out of God's Books not merely according to the words of them but according to their true meaning because many spake Scripture without Scripture and pretended to Faith without Faith as his words are and herein Catholick and constant Tradition was to guide them For whatsoever was contrary to what the whole Church had received and held from the beginning could not in reason be thought to be the meaning of that Scripture which was alledged to prove it And on the other side the Church pretended to no more then to be a Witness of the received sense of the Scriptures which were the bottom upon which they built this Faith Thus I observe Hegesippus saith in Euseb his History L. 4. C. 22. that when he was at Rome he met with a great many Bishops and that he received the very same Doctrine from them all And then a little after tells us what that was and whence they derived it saying That in every succession of Bishops and iâ every City so they held as the Law preached and as the Prophets and as the Lord. That is according to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament I shall conclude this particular with a pregnant passage which I remember in a famous Divine of our Church Dr. Jacksons in his Treatise of the Catholick Church Chap. 22. who writes
to this effect That Tradition which was of so much use in the Primitive Church was not unwritten Traditions or Customs commended or ratified by the supposed infallibility of any visible Church but did especially consist in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches And the unanimous consent of so many several Churches as exhibited their Consessions to the Nicene Council out of such Forms as had been framed and taught before this Controversie arose about the Divinity of CHRIST and that voluntaâily and freely these Churches being not dependent one upon another nor overswayed by any Authority over them nor misled by Faction to frame their Confessions of Faith by imitation or according to some patern set them was a pregnant argument that this Faith wherein they all agreed had been delivered to them by the Apostles and their Followers and was he true meaning of the holy Writings in this great Article and evidently proved that Arius did obtrude such interprerations of Scripture as had not been heard of before or were but the sense of some private persons in the Church and not of the generality of Believers In short the unanimous consent of so many distinct visible Churches as exhibited their several Consessions Catechisms or Testimonies of their own Forefathers Faith unto the Council of Nice was an argument of the same force and efficacy against Arius and his Partakers as the general consent and practice of all Nations in worshipping a Divine Power in all Ages is against Atheists Nothing but the ingrafted notion of a Deity could have induced so many several Nations so much different in natural disposition in civil Discipline and Education to effect or practise the duty of Adoration And nothing but the evidence of the ingrafied word as St. James calls the Gospel delivered by CHRIST and his Apostles in the holy Scriptures could have kept so many several Churches as communicated their Confessions unto that Council in the unity of the same Faith The like may be said of the rest of the four first General Councils whose Decrees are a great confirmation of our belief because they deliver to us the consent of the Churches of CHRIST in those great Truths which they assert out of the holy Scriptures And could there any Traditive Interpretation of the whole Scripture be produced upon the Authority of such Original Tradition as that now named we would most thankfully and joyfully receive it But there never was any such pretended no not by the Roman Church whose Doctors differ among themselves about the meaning of hundreds of places in the Bible Which they would not do sure nor spend their time unprofiâably in making the best conjectures they are able if they knew of any exposition of those places in which all Christian Doctors had agreed from the beginning V. But more then this we allow that Tradition gives us a considerable assistance in such points as are not in so many letters and syllables contained in the Scriptures but may be gathered from thence by good and manifest reasoning Or in plainer words perhaps whatsoever Tradition justifies any Doctrine that may be proved by the Scriptures though not found in express terms there we acknowledge to be of great use and readily receive and follow it as serving very much to establish us more firmly in that Truth when we see all Christians have adhered to it This may be called a confirming Tradition of which we have an instance in the Doctrine of Infant-Baptism which some ancient Fathers call an Apostolical Tradition Not that it cannot be proved by any place of Scripture no such matter for though we do not find it written in so many words that Infants are to be baptised or that the Apostles baptised Infants yet it may be proved out of the Scriptures and the Fathers themselves who call it an Apostolical Tradition do alledge testimonies of the Scriptures to make it good And therefore we may be sure they comprehend the Scriptures within the name of Apostolical Tradition and believed that this Doctrine was gathered out of the Scriptures though not expresly treated of there In like manner we in this Church assert the authority of Bishops above Presbyters by a Divine right as appears by the Book of Consecration of Bishops where the persons to be ordained to this Office expresses his belief That he is truly called to this Ministration according to the will of our LORD JESVS CHRIST Now this we are perswaded may be plainly enough proved to any man that is ingenuous and will fairly consider things out of the holy Scriptures without the help of Tradition but we also take in the assistance of this for the conviction of gain-sayers and by the perpetual practice and Tradition of the Church from the beginning confirm our Scripture proofs so strongly that he seems to us very obstinate or extreamly prejudiced that yields not to them And therefore to make our Doctrine in this point the more authentick our Church hath put both these Proofs together in the Preface to the Form of giving Orders which begins in these words It is evident unto all men diligently reading the holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been three Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons I hope no body among us is so weak as to imagine when he reads this that by admitting Tradition to be of such use and force as I have mentioned we yield too much to the Popish Cause which supports it self by this pretence But if any one shall suggest his to any of our people let them reply That it is but the pretence and only by the Name of Tradition that the Romish Church supports it self For true Tradition is as great a proof against Popery as it is for Episcopacy The very foundation of the Popes Empire which is his succession in St. Peters Supremacy is uâterly subverted by this the constant Tradition of the Church being evidently against it And therefore let us not lose this Advantage we have against them by ignorantly refusing to receive true and constant Tradition which will be so far from leading us into their Church that it will never suffer us to think of being of it while it remains so opposite to that which is truely Apostolical I conclude this with the Direction which our Church gives to Preachers in the Books of Canons 1â71 in the Title Concionatores That no man shall teach the people any thing to be held and believed by them religiously but what is consentaneous to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and Ancient Bishops have gathered out of that very Doctrine This is our Rule whereby we are to guide our selves which was set us on purpose to preserve our Preachers from broaching any idle novel or popish Doctrines as appears by the conclusion of that Injunction Vain and old Wives Opinions and Heresies and Popish Errours abhorring from the Doctrine and
our Church for a certain Truth which hath been demonstrated by many of our Writers who have shewn that the ancient Doctors universally speak the language of St. Baul 1. Cor. 4. 7. Not to think above that which is written I will mention only these memorable words of Tertullian who is as earnest an Advocat as any for ritual Traditions but having to deal with Hermogenes in a question of Faith Whither all things in the beginning were made of nothing urges him in this manner I have no where yet read that all things were made out of a subject matter If it be written let those of Hermogenes his shop shew it if it be not written let them fear thââ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is alloted to such ââ adde or take away The very same Answer should our People make to those that would have them receive any thing as an Article of Faith which is not delivered to them by this truly Apostolical Church wherein we live If it he written let us see it if it be not take heed how you adde to the undoubted Word of GOD. We receive the holy Scriptures as able to make us wise to Salvation So they themselves tell us and so runs the true Tradition of the Church which you of the Romish perswasion have forsaken but we adhere unto 3 And we have this farther reason so to do because if part of God's Word had been written and part unwritten we cannot but believe there would have been some care taken in the written Word not onely to let us know so much but also inform us whither we should resort to find it and how we should know it if it be absolutely necessary for us to be acquainted with it But there is no such notice nor any such directions left us nor can any man give us any certain Rule to follow in this matter but onely this To examine all Traditions by the Scripture as the supreme Rule of Faith and to aâmit only such as are conâormable thereunto 4. For which we have still this farther reason that no sooner were they that first delivered and received the holy Scriptures gone out of the world but we find men began to adde their own fancies unto the Catholick Truth which made it absolutely necessary to keep to the Tradition in the holy Scriptures all other growing uncertain This is observed by Hegesippus himself in Euseb l. 3. c. 32 that the Church remained a chast Virgin and the spouse of Christ till the Sacred Quire of the Apostles and the next Generation of them who had had the honour to be their Auditonrs were extinct and then there began a plain Conspiracie of impious atheistical errour by the fraud of Teachers who delivered other Doctrine Which was a thing Saint Paul feared even in his own life time about the Church of Corinth 2 Cor 1. 3. lest the Devil like a wily Serpent should beguil them and corrupt their minds from the original simplicity of the Christian Doctrine wherein they were first instructed And if it were attempted then it was less difficult and therefore more endeavoured afterward as shall appear anone by plain History which tells how several persons pretended they received this and that from an Apostle Some of which Traditions were presently rejected others received and afterwards found to be impostures Which shews there was so much false dealing in the case that it was hard for men to know what was truely Apostolical in those dayes if it came to them this way onely and therefore impossible to be discerned by us now at this great distance of time from the Apostles who we know delivered the true Faith but we have no reason to rely upon mere Tradition without Scripture for any part of that Faith when we see what Cheats were put upon men by that means even then when they had better helps to detect them then we have It is true the Fathers sometime urge Tradition a as proof of what they say But we must know that the Scriptures were not presently communicated among some barbarous Nations and there were some Hereticks also who either denied the Scriptures or some part of them and in these cases it was necessary to appeal to the Tradition that was in the Church and to convince them by the Doctrine taught every where by all the Bishops But that mark this I pray you of which they convinced them by this Argument was nothing but what is taught in the Scripture 5. With which we cannot suffer any thing to be equalled in authority unless we would see it confirmed by the same or equal Testimony This is the great reason of all why we cannot admit any unwritten Traditions to be a part of the Word of GOD which we are bound to believe because we cannot find any truths so delivered to us as those in the holy Scriptures They come to us with as full a Testimony as can be desired of their Divine Original but so do none of those things which are now obtruded on us by the Romish Church under the name of Tradition or unwritten Word of God For the Primitive Church had the very first Copies and authentick Writings of those Books called the New Testament delivered by the Apostles own hands to them And those Book confirm the Scriptures of the Old Testament and they were both delivered to Posterity by that Primitive Church witnessing from whom they received them who carefully kept them as the most precious Treasure so that this written Word hath had the general approbation and testimony of the whole Church of Christ in every Age untill this day witnessing that it is Divine And it hath been the constant business of Doctors of the Church to expound this Word of GOD to the People and their Books are full of Citations out of the Scripture all agreeing in substance with what we now read in them Nay the very Enemies of christianity such as Celsus Porphyry Julian never questioned but these are the Writings of which the Apostles were the Authors and which they delivered Besides the Marks they have in themselves of a Divine Spirit which indited them they all tending to breed and preserve in men a sense of GOD and to make them truly vertuous Not one word of which can be said for any of those unwritten Traditions which the Roman Church pretend to be a part of GOD's Word For we have no testimony of them in the holy Scriptures Nor doth the Primitive church affirm she received them from the Apostles as she did the written Word Nor have they the perpetual consent and general approbation of the whole church ever since Nor are they frequently quoted as the words of Scripture are upon all occasions by the Doctors of the Church Nor do we find them to be the Doctrine which was constantly taught the People Nor is there any notice taken of them by the enemies of our Faith whose Assaults are all against the Scriptures In short they are
from what hath been now said That there being so little credit to be given to the Roman Church onely we cannot receive those Doctrines of Truth which that Church now presses upon our belief upon the account of Tradition For instance That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistriss of all other Churches That the Pope of Rome is the Monarch or Head of the universal visible Church That all Scriptures must be expounded according to the sense of this Church That there are truly and properly seven Sacraments neither more nor less instituted by our blessed Lord himself in the New Testament That there is a proper and propiciatory Sacrifice offered in the Mass for the quick and dead the same that Christ offered on the Cross In short the half communion and all the rest of the Articles of their New Faith in the Creed published by Pope Pius IV. which are Traditions of the Roman Church alone not of the Universal and rely solely upon their own Authority And therefore we refuse them and in our Disputes about Traditions we mean these things which we reject because they have no foundation either in the holy Scripture or in universal Tradition but depend as I said upon the sole Authority of that Church which witnesses in its own behalf For whatsoever is pretended to make the better shew all resolves at last into that as I intimated in the beginning of this Discourse Scripture and Tradition can do nothing at all for them without their Churches definition Though their whole infallible Rule of Faith seem to be made up of those three yet in truth the last of these alone the Churches definition is the whole Rule and the very bottom upon which their Faith stands For what is Tradition is no more apparent then what is Scripture according to their Principles without the Authority of their church which pretends an unlimited power to supply the defect even of Tradition it self In short as Tradition among them is taken in to supply the defect of Scripture so the Authority of their Church is taken in to supply the defect of Tradition But this Authority undermines them both because neither Scripture nor Tradition signifie any thing without their Churches Authority Which therefore is the Rule of their Faith that is they believe themselves To which absurdity they are driven because it is made evident by us that there have been great diversities of Traditions and many changes and alterations made even in things called Apostolical c. And therefore they have no other way but to fly to the judgment of the present Church to determine what are Traditions Apostolical and what are not by which Judgment all mankind must be governed that is we must believe them and they believe themselves which they would have done well to have said in one word without putting us to the trouble of seeking for Traditions in Books and in other Churches But they would willingly colour their pretences by as many fair words as possible and so make mention of Scripture Tradition Antiquity which when we have examined they will not stand to them but take fanctuary in their own Authority saying They are the sole Judges what is Scripture and what Tradition and what Antiquity nay have a power to declare any new point of Faith which the Church never heard of before This is the Doctrine of Salmeron and others of his fellows That the Doctrine of Faith admits of additions in essential things For all things were not taught by the Apostles but such as were then necessary and fit for the Salvation of Believers By which means we can never know when the Christian Religion will be perfected but their Church may bring in Traditions by its sole Authority without end Nay some among them have been contented to resolve all their Faith into the sole Authority of the present Roman Bishop according to that famous saying of Cornelius Mussus promoted by Paul the Third to a Bishoprick upon the fourteenth Chapter to the Romans To confess the truth ingenuously I would give greater credit to one Pope in those things which touch the mysteries of Faith then to a thousand Hierom's Austin's Gregory's to say nothing of Richard's Scotus's c. For I believe and know that the Pope cannot erre in matters of Faith Which contemptuous Speech he would never have uttered to the discredit of those greatmen whom they pretend to reverence if he had not known more certainly that the Tradition which runs among the ancient Fathers is against them then he could know the Pope to be infallible There is no Tradition I am sure for that nor for abundance of other things which rest merely upon their own credit as is fairly acknowledged in two great Articles of their present Creed by our Countrey-man Bishop Fisher with whose words I conclude this particular Many perhaps have the less confidence in Indulgences because their use seems to have been newer in the Church and very lately found among Christians To whom I answer that it doth not appear certainly by whom they began to be first delivered For the Ancients make no mention or very rare of Purgatory and the Greeks to this very day do not believe it nor was the belief either of Purgatory or of Indulgences so necessary in the Primitive Church as it is new And as long as there was no care about Purgatory no body sought for Indulgences for all their esteem depends upon that If you take away Purgatory to what purpose are Indulgences Since therefore Purgatory was so lately known and received in the Catholick Church who can wonder that there was no use of Indulgences in the beginning of our Religion Which is a full Confession what kind of Traditions that Church commends unto us things lately invented their own private Opinions of which the ancient Christians knew nothing In one word their Tradition is no Tradition in that sense wherein the Church alwayes understood it IV. And what hath been said of them must be applied to other particular Churches though some have been more sincere then they None of them hath any Authority to commend any thing as an Article of Faith unto Posterity which hath not been commended to them by all foregoing Ages derived from the Apostles For Vincentius his Rule is to guide us all in this That is Catholick and consequently to be received which hath been held by all and in all churches and at all times V. Which puts me in mind of another thing to be briefly touched that the Ecclesiastical Tradition contained in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches in these days wherein we live is not received by us nor allowed to have the same Authority which such Tradition had at the time of the Nicene Council for the conviction of Heresie The joynt consent I mean of so many Bishops as were there assembled and the unanimous Confessions of so many several Churches of several Provinces as were there delivered hath not
between us the chief design of this attempt Now that we may not charge them nor they us falsly or rashly I. It may be convenient first to lay down some Principles concerning this Church in which they and we seem mostly agreed though all our Writers express not themselves alike clearly herein II. To propound the chief Bands of Unity within this Church III. To mark out the most obvious Defections from them by the Romanists IV. To shew the Reformation in the Church of England proceeded and was framed with all due regard to the preservation of them V. To clear it of the most common Objections VI. To consider the strong obligations from hence upon all sorts of Dissenters among us to embrace and continue in its ommunion I. The former will soon be dispatcht which I reduce to the following particulars 1. That our Blessed Saviour alwayes had and alwayes will have a Church in the World in which his Doctrine hath been and shall be so far profest and his Sacraments so effectually administred that they who rightly improve them may not want necessary supplies for their present spiritual life or future hopes of Salvation though the extent of the Church as to its boundaries and the perfection of it in degrees may be vastly different at one time and in one place from another This many Prophesies in the Old Testament and Promises from our Saviour in the New give abundant ground for our Faith to rely upon and the experience of all Ages hitherto hath confirmed 2. That this Church is a distinct Society within it self furnished with sufficient Authority in some to Govern and Obligation in others to be subject necessary to every Society which the power of the Keyes given by our Lord to received in or shut out and the exercise of Discipline from Divine Precept and Scripture Example evince beyond all exception But then this Ecclesiastical Power in whomsoever placed or strained to what height soever can never extend to vacate or change the express Institution of Christ or take away our Obligation to his revealed Truth and direct Commands In case of any competition the Apostles defence may be ours We must obey God rather then man And St. Pauls profession We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth And again If we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel c. let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. 3. This Church must be visible as every Society is more or less whose parts are so and whose Profession must be so Our entrance into it is in a visible manner by Baptismal Initiation Our oblidged Communion with it is in diverse outward sensible Acts which the representation of it by a Body or Building might prove More clearly is it likened to a city on a Hill which cannot be hid Mat. 5. 14. Set up as the Light of the World an Ensign to the Gentiles which all Nations should flee unto or else it would witness against them wherein its Followers should take Sanctuary and find a Refuge 4. Within these Boundaries we have the only hopes of safety here and happiness hereafter What GOD may do by his supereminent unaccountable power in an extraordinary case is presumption for us but to inquire into Out of this Atk there is no prospect given to us of any escape from the Universal Deluge a S. Cyprian Ep. 60 p. 143. Ed. Ox. Si aliquis ex talibus fuerit apprehensus non est quod sibi quasi in confessione Nominis blandiatur cum constet si occisi ejusmodi extra Ecclesiam fuerint Fidei coronam non esse sed poenam potius esse perfidiae Nec in Domo Dei inter unanimes habitaturos esse quos videmus de pacifica Divina Domo furore discordiae recessisse S. August Caeteri in Conc. Cirtensi adv Donatistas Ep. 152. T. 2. p. 696. Edit Frob. 556. Quisquis ergo ab hac Ecclesia Catholica fuerit separatus quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet hoc solo scelere quod a Christi unitate disjunctus est non habebit vitam Sed ira Dei manet super eum Quisquis autem in hac Ecclesia bene vixerit nihil ei praejudicant aliena peccata Idem Ep. 204. ad Donatum Presbyterum Donatist T. 2. p. 834. Foris autem ab Ecclesia constitutus separatus a compage unitatis vinculo Charitatis aeterno supplicio punireris etiamsi pro Christi nomine vivus incendereris All the spiritual Promises concerning this life or a better are made to this Church the Members of this Body who is the Head Therefore the Apostles preach to Jews and Gentiles the necessity of receiving this Character Seeing there is no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved as St Peter attests Acts 4. 12. 5. This church is but one It is an Article of our Faith exprest in our Creed to believe it so For there be many members yet but one Body One Spirit quickning all One LORD and Head over all One GOD and Father of all one Faith one Baptism one Hope of our Calling in all as the Apostle argues Eph. 4. 4. 5. 6. 7 c. II. Now we are to enquire what are the chief Bands of Unity in the Church which make keep and evidence it to be one How we may secure our selves within this Garden enclosed this Spring shut up this Fountain sealed as the Ancients usually apply that Cant 4. 12. to this one Enclosure of the Church 1. This appears in the Vnity of Belief not only inwardly but in the outward profession of the same Faith which was once delivered to the Saints and hath been generally preserved and continued down throughout all Ages of the Church In testimony whereof the most eminent Bishops upon their first Consecration sent to their Brethren confessions of their Faith 2. In the Vnity of a Tertullian de praescript Haeret. c. 20. p. 209. Sic omnes primae Apostolicae dum una omnes probant unitatem Dum est communicatio Pacis appellatio Fraternitatis contesseratio Hospitalitatis quae jura non alia ratio regit quam ejusdem Sacramenti una traditio S. August adv literas âeâiliani T. 7. p. 132. Charitas Christiana nisi in unitate Ecclesiae non potest custodiri Ibid. p. 473. de bapt adv Donatist l. 6. Etiamsi Christi Baptismum usque and Sacramenti celebrationem perceperunt tamen vitam aeternam nisi per Charitatis unitatem non consequuntur Et Ibid de unitate Ecclesiae c. 2 p. 510. Ecclesia corpus Christi est unde utique manisesâum est eum qui non est in membris Christi âhristianam salutem habere non posse membra autem Christi per unitatis charitatem sibi copulantur per eandem capiti suo cohaerent quod est christus Charity and Affection as Fellow-members one of another as well as of the same Head that if one suffer
first 600. years 1. By Usurpation upon the Rights of other Churches every degree of Exaltation gained being the depression and diminution of them till all power was in a manner swallowed up by the Papal ambition and none left to any oâher which was not dependent hereupon in its Original and altogether precarious in its administration So that here alone it must be immediately derived from Christ but to all others by commission from Him Thus in the choice of the chief Governours of the Church all must await his consent and confirmation where he does not alone forcibly obtrude them and must pay for it a round sum for an acknowledgement at their entrance and an after Tributary Pension out of their income and take a formal Oath of subjection at their admittance and own their own Authority from his Delegation and be lyable to have their sentences reversed at his pleasure and flee as far as his Judicatory and stand to the tryal of it when he is pleased to call any cause to himself Nay if a controversie arise between him and any Prince or State the whole Kindom or Nation shall lie at once under his Interdict the Clergy be with-held from the exercise of their Function and the People from the benefit of publick Divine Worship and Sacraments Of these and such like effects of the plenitude of Apostolick Power so much talkt of lately they would do well to shew us any thing like a Plea from Scripture or Antiquity within the bounds forementioned or for some Ages after in the greater part certainly so great a change could not be effected without some notice and complaints struglings and contentions of which Church History is fâll Their early Faith spoken of throughout the world in St. Pauls time The eminent Zeal of the first Bishops of that Church most of whom if we may credit the account generally received of them sealed to the former with their bloud Their continued constancy in the Orthodox Profession thereof amidst the corruptions or defections of so many others particularly in the time of the Arrian Persecution The concurrent opinion of the Foundation of their Church being laid by the two chief Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and the honour of the Imperial Seat wherein they were placed c. gave them great repute and advantagious recommendation in those first Ages None will much contend with them about priority of Order or Precedence But when the preheminence of the first Bishop came to be improved into a Patriarchate and that swelled into the Title of the Universal Bishop which a S. Greg. l. 4 Reg. Ep. 32. Absit à cordibus Christianornm nomen islud blasphemiae in quod omnium Sacerdotum honor adimitur dum ab uno sibi demenâer arrogatur c. Et alibi in Epist passim St. Gregory so severely condemned in the Bishop of Constantinople and that at last grew into the stile of the sole Vicar of Christ and Soveraign Monarch of the whole Church when the interposition of a Friendly and Brotherly Arbitration which all persons in distress or under the apprehensions of injury are apt to flee unto and amplifie made way by degrees for the challenge of an ordinary Jurisdiction and that at first from the pretence of Canonical priviledge to that Divine Right and Sanction and then to prevent all scruple about its determinations these must be back'd with the vindication of an infallible conduct When instead of that charitable support they at first readily bestowed on other Churches in their distress they now made use of this power to rob them of what was left taking the advantage of the poverty and oppression of some under the common Enemy or the confusion of others through Domestick distractions to raise themselves out of their spoils then no wonder if other Churches complain and strugle under the yoke which they could not presently or easily throw off Indeed had not this claim of the Church and Bishop of Roâe risen to such an extravagant height in the arrogance of its pretended Title and been strained to that excess in the exercise of its assumed Authority so as not to leave it in the power of other churches to take all due and necessary care of their own members or provide for them all needful supplies these might more easily have born their usurpation of more power then ever they could prove belonged to them They that have learnt the Humility of Christs School and who are more concern'd to perform their Duty then vindicate their Priviledge and know how much safer it is to obey then command and easier to be Governed then to Govern will not be much moved at what others fondly assume knowing still that the more difficult account awaits them But then this power became most intolerable when it was made use of to purposes so much worse then it self which were beside the former 2. The weakning of the power of Temporal Princes and disturbing the Civil Rights of men a Cracanthorp's defence of Constantine and against the Popes temporal Monarchy Although our blessed Saviour assured Pilate his Kingdom was not of this world yet his pretended Vicar here on earth can hardly say so for beside the Temporal Dominions unto which he hath entitled himself a Soveraign Prince there are few other Kingdoms or States on this side of the world in which he hath not or had not almost as great a share of the Government as their immediate Princes at least so far as to prescribe bounds to their Administrations and subject in great measure all Laws and Persons to his Foreign Courts Jurisdiction and Decrees yea their Purses to his Exactions and upon the least dispute hath withdrawn so great a number of his immediate dependants who scarce own any other Governours and raised so many disturbances that great Princes and States have been forced at last to yield Not to mention the Arrogance it at length grew up unto in dethroning Princes giving their Kingdoms to others authorizing their Subjects to rebel against them or all wayes to oppose them and what oft follows if not expressed to murder them as in their late Sentence against some of our Neighbour Princes But before much of this may be seen in the long contentions between some of the Western Emperours particularly Henry the Third and Fourth and the Popes as we have them discribed in their own Authors b Sigonius de regno Italiae Also to go no farther their various contests with several of our Kings especially Henry the second and the almost continual complaints in all our Parliaments before the Reformation of the encroachments made by them upon the Civil Rights of Prince and Subject by vexatious and chargeable suits and appeals as far as Rome by Insolencies and diverse Rapines committed under the shelter of their protection and defended from due punishment and by their extravagant Extortions c. abundantly prove Now though these Usurpations grew by degrees and were practised
first General Councils are received with great Veneration and a particular a In libro canonum in Synodo Londinensi an 1571. titulo de concionatoribus Imprimis videbunt ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod a populoreligiose teneri credi velint ãâã quod consentaneum sit doctrinae Veteris Novi Testamenti quodquo ex illa ipsa doctrina catholici Patres Veteres Episcopi collegerint Injunction was laid upon its Ministers to press upon none the necessary belief of any Doctrine but what may be proved from Scripture and the generall current of the Expositions of the Fathers thereupon So carefull it hath been in all points to keep within the bounds of catholick Principles in those first instilled into its young Disciples in the catechisms and in those delivered in its Articles to be subscribed by such to whom it entrusts any Office that the positive part of them will hardly be disowned by our very Adversaries and can scarce appear otherwise to any then the common Faith of all christians of Orthodox repute in all Ages And for other determinations in the Negative she only declares thereby how little concerned she is to receive or own the false or corrupt additions to the first unalterable Rule No church hath professed and evidenced a more awful and tender regard to Antiquity next to the express Word of GOD. Both which she oft appeals to desires to be ruled by and where their footsteps are not sufficiently clear chooses not to impose upon her own Children nor censure her Neighbours keeps within the most safe and modest boundaries is not forward in determining nice and intricate disputes which have perplexed and confounded many in their hasty and bold Positions particularly about the Divine Decrees and such like sublime Points In which few understand where the main stress of the Controversie lies It may be none can comprehend the depth of the matters upon which the Decision ought to grounded But alas how many have been forward to lay down and fiercely contend for on each side their private opinions herein as the first Rudiments of Theology to be placed in their very Creeds or Catechisms and so a foundation must be laid for endless Contests and Divisions But most cautious hath our Church been in not laying such occasions to fall in the way of any So that both sorts of Adversaries have made their complaints against her for not being positive and particularly in such Declarations though none can charge her justly with defect in any point of Faith so owned in the best Ages of the Church 2. As clear and unexceptionable hath been her proceeding in Church Government preserving that form which from all Testimonies of Antiquity hath continued in the Church from the very Apostles under the conduct and happy Influence of which Christianity hath been propagated and continued throughout the World whatever different measures some other Reformed Churches have taken whither forc'd by necessity or swayed by particular inclination or prejudice The Church of England kept up the universally received distinct prime Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons not desiring to censure others who can best answer for themselves but endeavouring to confine her self to what was most Canonical and Regular and to shew how little affected she was to alteration from any establishment except in notorious corruptions and abuses And how necessary she thought due Order and Subordination in the Church to prevent Schisms and Heresies and to give the greater Authority and advantage to her Ministrations and finally to free her self from all suspicion of irregularity in her Succession derived down from Christ and his Apostles which she as much as any Church in the World may pretend unto And though some intermediate Ages have been blemished with much degeneracy yet she was concerned only to separate this but retain and convey down to others whatsoever good and wholsome provision she received from those before Farther to evince this particular care was taken by express Law a See the Statute 25 of Henry the 8. cap. 19. Sect. 7 expresly revived 1 Eliz c. 1. sect 6. to confirm the Rules of Government or Canon Law before received in the Church till some better provision could be made so far as it contradicts not the Law of the Land or the Word of GOD making as few changes in the outward face of the Church as was possible and sensibly proving it her design properly not to destroy but build nor yet therein to erect a new but reform an old Church 3. Alike Canonical and orderly hath been her Constitution in matters of Worship Her Forms of Prayer and Praise with the whole order of her Liturgy are composed with the greatest temper and expressed in the most plain and comprehensive terms to help forward uniform devotion pious Affection the most Orthodox Profession and catholick communion So that I think it may be universally affirmed that there is not any thing required in her publick Service necessary to those who communicate with her which any that own the name of christians or are owned for such by the general body of them can almost scruple unless because it is a Form by one sort and because it is ours by another sort But how unreasonable herein are both So careful she hath been to lay the ground of most catholick Unity and to remove whatever might obstruct it This our Adversaries the Romanists confirmed by their own practice when for several years as we have been told a Camdeni Eliz. an 1570 in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign they frequented our churches joyn'd in our Prayers and Praises attended on our Sermons and other Instructions and received as some add our Sacraments according to the order for substance the same as now and had it is like done so still having nothing to object against them but from the after-prohibition of the Pope who had reason to fear they who were so well provided of all needfull supply and defence at home might thus by degrees be withdrawn from subjection to his Authority abroad that darling point never to be dispensed or parted with whatever else might have been yielded b Camd. Eliz. an 1560. Our Reformers who composed our Liturgy carefuly collected the remainders of true Primitive Devotion a camdeni Eliz an 1560. then in use and separated from them all those corrupt additions which ignorance superstition and crafty policy had mixed therewith Therefore it is so far from being an objection that any part of our Liturgy was translated from the Roman Offices that while nothing is retained contrary to wholsome Doctrine and sound Piety it is a convincing argument of her impartial Sincerity and desire to preserve Uniformity as much as possible with all christians abroad as well as at home in her own Members securing all the Substantials of Worship according to the plain sense of Scripture and the pattern of the Primitive church And as to Circumstantials
and Ceremonies she is sensible when they are too numerous how apt they are to darken the inward and more essential luster of Religion and prove a burden instead of a Relief to its Worship which she takes notice c Preface to the common prayer concerning Ceremonies why some are abolished St. Augustine complain'd of in his time But have since so encreased in the Eastern as well as Western Churches that it must argue a great aw to make the Service look like any thing serious and Sacred However this number alone where the particulars are not otherwise obnoxious tempts some to spend all their zeal therein and diverts them from things more necessary or gives too much occasion to others to quarrel about them Yet withal being apprehensive how needful it would be to maintain Order and Decency She hath kept some though very few and those most plain and unexceptionable in their nature most significative of the end for which they were appointed and most ancient and universal in their Institution and practice hinted in the tittle of our Liturgy as it is changed from the former And to prevent all differences hereabout she hath expressed her sense of them so clearly and explicitely that one would think no peevish obstinacy had room to interpose a scruple however the event hath proved Thus abundantly hath the Church of England vindicated her Reformation from all pretence of Apostacy from the True Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Church and shewed in all instances how careful she hath been to preserve the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace with all the Members thereof Nor hath she been wanting in any respect or reverence due thereunto No Church being more cautious and sparing in its determinations more Canonical in its Impositions more Regular in its Succession and more charitable in its Censures making all necessary provision for her own Children so within the bounds of Catholick Unity that had other Churches observed the like method or measures way had been made for an universal consent a Touto gar en pote tes Ecclesias to kauchema hoti apo ton peraton tes oikumenes epi ta perata microis symbolaiois ephodiazomennoi hoi ex hekastes Ecclesias adelphoi pantas pateras kai adelphous euriscon S. Basil Ep. 198. T. 3. p. 409. and every true Christian where ever he came would have found his own Church wherewith to communicate without hesitancy in all Religious Offices And as b St. Augustin observed in his time he would have needed but to enquire for the Catholick Church and no Schismatick would have darred to divert him to their Conventicles But if after the confusions and disorders of so many Centuries amidst such a depraved state by corrupt manners diversities of opinions and perplext Interests so great a happiness be not to be hoped for now that private person or particular Church will clear themselves before GOD and all good men that do what is in their power towards it and pray to Him to amend what they cannot change and in the mean time make the best use of what means they enjoy Upon which Premises an easie Solution is given to the old cavilling question Where was your Church before the Reformation or that time We answer Just where it is Thereby no new Church was set up no new Articles of Faith brought in no new Sacraments no new order of Priesthood to minister in holy things all which would have indeed required new Miracles and a new immediate Authority from Heaven so attested only the old were purged from impurities in Doctrine Worship and Practice which in passing through so many degenerate Ages they had contracted and that an ordinary Power might suffice to do If we were in the Catholick Church before we are so still and hope to better purpose We are not therefore out of it because there rash Censures have excluded us and then they unreasonably take advantage to argue against us from their own act We never formally shut them out what ever they have done to us What degrees of corruption in Faith or Manners may be consistent with the bare being of a Church or the possibility of salvation therein is needless and dangerous for us nicely to enquire it may be impossible for us to know I am sure it is most safe for us to reform what we know to be amiss and to leave those who do not to stand or fall by their own Master It is a very ill requital of our Charity if it be turned into a weapon of offence to wound or slay us by that by which we shewed our desire of their Cure But they and we must stand another trial and await a finall infallible Sentence which ours here cannot change The best security that we know to meet it with comfort will be to use the most strict impartiality with our selves and the greatest Charity to others Yet our Adversaries glory in nothing more then in the name of the Catholick Church and boast in no Title so much as that of Catholicks which hath had deservedly so great veneration in all Antiquity But their claim here truly examined will prove as fallacious and arrogant as in any other instance For the term Catholick if we respect the notation of the word or the most constant use of it is the same as Vniversal and so joyned to the Church signifies the general Body of all Christians dispersed throughout the World opposed to any distinct Party or separate Communion Thus we find it constantly applied by St. Augustin in all his Tracts against the Donatists St. August de unitate Ecclesiae c 2. T. 7. p. 5. 10. Quaestio certe inter nos versatar ubi sit Ecclesia utrum apud nos an apud illos quae utique und est quam majores nostri Catholicam nominarunt ut ex eo ipso nomine ostenderent quia per totum est Ibid. c. 3. p. 514. Christi Ecclesia canonicarum Scripturarum Divinis certissimis testimoniis in omnibus Gentibus designata est Et c. 4. ab ejus corpore quod est Ecclesia it a dissentiunt ut eorum communio non sit cum toto quacunque ea diffunditur sed in aliqua parte separata inveniatur manifestum est eos non esse in Ecclesia catholica Et. c. 12. p. 533. aliud Evangelizat qui periisse dicit de caetero mundo Ecclesiam in parte Donati in sola Aârica remansisse Item de fide symbolo in eam partem de Ecclesia catholica T. 3. p. 149. Haeretici de Deo falsa sentiendo ipsam fidem violant Schismatici autem discissionibus iniquis a fraterna Caritate dissiliunt quapropter nec Haereticus pertinet ad Ecclesiam Catholicam quae diligit Deum nec Schismaticus quoniam diligit proximum and so opposed to them who went about to shut it up within their own Party and straitned Communion therein too closely imitated by our Adversaries who in spite of name
or thing make the same inclosures about the Catholick as about the Roman Church and are as free in their severest censures of all others and as haughty in what they assume to themselves alone as they were though not proceeding upon the same grounds But what that holy Father every where presseth upon them reacheth as nearly our Antagonists the indispensable necessity of Charity that great bond of Unity in the Church and principal evidence of the Divine Spirit which animates the whole without which the highest gifts and most Sacred Ministrations are rendered ineffectual This is one of the prime characteristick notes of the true Catholick Church and every living Member thereof and nothing is more opposit to their Principles and Practices who have formally excluded all other christians and churches from any share therein not only those in the West that have deservedly cast off that Power which they had unjustly arrogated and tyrannical exercised but also the Greeks and others in the East that never owned any subjection to them But most securely may the Church of England glory in true Catholicism which to all her other priviledges and advantages that she may boast of above almost any other Church still maintains and evidences the greatest charity to others of any that I know in the world makes no other inclosures then those which GOD himself hath made not assuming any Authority to command yea or to pass hasty judgment upon any but only to provide for her own the best she can and with such tender regard to common Christianity and the Rights of all other Churches that she seems designedly to have chalk'd out the way of restoring the most desirable ââuits of Christian Unity throughout the whole Church and we should have been sensible of considerable effects by it had other Churches pursued like methods That Church sure is most Catholick that makes provision for the most Catholick Communion Peace and Unity and which imposes no other terms or conditions of it but those most universally received throughout all Ages in all places and by almost all Christians which may soon decide the competition whither the Church of England more truely vindicates to her self a part of the Catholick Church or they of Rome arrogate to themselves the whole Or which are the Schismaticks from it they which exclude none whom they own no power over but invite all to them and joyn with any in what is good and agreeable to the Institutions of our common LORD or they who shut out all but those who will subject themselves to their usurp'd Authority and most unjustfiable Impositions a Firmilianus de Stephano Episcopo Rom. ad Cyprianum Ep. 7â p. 228. Ox. Ed. Siquidem ille vere Schismaticus qui se a Communione Ecclesiasticae unitatis Apostatam fecerit dum enim putas omnes a te abstineri posse solum te ab omnibus abstinuisli Farther the term Catholick is sometimes taken for Orthodox and so the Catholick Church interpreted for that which holds the Catholick Faith opposed to heretical Opinions and Doctrines as well as to Schismatical Separations b S. Cyril Hieros Cat. 18. p. 2. Catholike men âââ kaletai dia to kata pases einai tes oihoumenes apo peraton ges heos peraton kai dia to didaskein catholikes kai anellei pos hapanta ta cis guosin anthropon elthein ophelonta dogmata Sozomen Hist L. 7. c. 4. In this sense the Church of England hath as good a claim in the Catholick Church as any whatever Receiving all the Articles of Christian Faith delivered in Scripture and received in the Primitive Ages for more than five hundred years No Principles having been so formally declared then and for some time after as the catholick Faith of all christians and as such necessary to be own'd which she rejects whatever private opinions there might be then among some eminent Doctors of the Church in which they oft differed one from the other or although there might be some observances then generally received which she thinks her self not bound to retain But ill will this charecter agree to the Romanists who have added so many new dangerous Articles to the common Faith of Christians not only beside the original Rule which they cannot but own with us but too often against it and the professed belief of the first and best Ages of the church Wherefore we reject not these Innovations meerly from negative arguments because not sufficiently proved and yet that way of arguing hath been alwayes allowed in the Fundamentals of Faith which must be grounded upon express Divine Authority and Testimony But we lay the greatest stress of our aversations to them upon that direct opposition which we undertake to prove most of them have to the common Faith and revealed Will of GOD which they and we both own And surely that Church in this acceptation is most Catholick that relies on such Catholick Principles and refers all others to be examined by this touchstone V. But in the fifth place some Objections lie in our way fit to be answered Object 1. They urge against us that we reject several Doctrines since formally determined in the Church by the known and received Authority thereof in Councils more general or particular which they pretend were believed through all Ages but then established when they came first to be called in question Answ We are not much concerned in the first part of the objection though very many exceptions might come in especially as to the formality and regularity of those Councils but as to the latter part in which the main stress lies here we never refused a fair trial thereof 1. From Scripture against which no Authority Civil or Ecclesiastical in single persons or the greatest Assemblies no time or custome of whatever date can prescribe a Tertullian de velandis virginibus c. 1. p. 172. hoc exigere veritatem cui nemo prescribere potest non spatium temporum non patrocinia personarum non privilegium regionum S. Cyprian Ep. 63. p. 155. Quare si solus Christus audiendus est non debemus attendere quid alius ante nos faciendum putaverit sed quid qui ante omnes est Chriflus prior fecit neque enim hominis consuetudinem sequi oportet sed Dei veritatem S. Basil de judicio Dei T. 2 p. 392. ejus moral T. 2. p. 423. S. Hierom. adv Joh. Hieros T. 2. p. 185. in eodem T. ex Ep. Aug. ad Hierom. p. 353. 359 c. This hath been ever received till of late as the perfect and intire Rule of all necessary doctrines of Faith and practice of which abundant Testimonies may be seen in most Protestant Writers 2. We appeal also to the Primitive and best Ages of Christianity which either knew nothing of these Additions that we can find or sometimes give as express declarations against them as could be expected at this distance But to take off much of the strangeness of
so harsh an imputation at first sight wherewith we charge a great part of the Church for a considerable time and that they and we may be less scandaliz'd at the first mention of these defections 3. We may consider the various Cautions in the New Testament against corrupt Doctrines and Manners which at the least in general are foretold would creep into the Church if some of them we now charge be not particularly described therein 4. We may compare matter of fact with the experience of the like degeneracy of the Jewish Church in various instances so nearly resembling these as nothing more and from the same plea of Oral Tradition âet against as clear evidence and as emphatical promises to preserve them from Apostacy as any particular Church at least can now pretend to 5. We may consult the tendency of laps'd mankind In the best how weak it is and apt to be imposed on In others how prone to corrupt and distort the best Institutions cast a mist before the clearest discoveries and offer violence to the strongest convictions to shelter their vices and promote their unwarrantable interests especially in times of ease plenty and outward prosperity In which we may compare common experience in lesser Societies which however wisely directed at first regularly founded and strongly guarded on all sides without a very careful Inspection and sometimes vigorus opposition so many corruptions will creep in as to need frequent reformations to reduce them back to their primitive Constitution And although an especial providence be concerned for the guard and conduct of Gods Church yet neither Scripture nor experience warrant us to expect its happy Influence by miracles now for the effecting of that which may be accomplished by the use of ordinary and regular means of his own appointment 6. We may reflect upon the particular Ages of the Church which we charge especially with these defections from about the eight century to the Reformation wherein if all or most of them did not come in yet they grew to that extravagant height as to gain establishment for Principles of Christianity These Ages are charged by their own Authors as well as ours and stand most sensibly convict of the grossest Barbarism Stupidity Ignorance depraved Manners and all such corrupt Inclinations in all Orders and Degrees especially the ruling part as were most likely to make way for such changes and Innovations 7. We have some farther sensible proof of a design in many within that time to impose upon the credulity of others and bring in strange Doctrines and unwarrantable Practices by the many Fabulous Stories feigned Apparitions and Revelations several of which they themselves will hardly now defend then brought into the Church to confirm these points in difference and which almost only the people then received for their Instructions to entice them first into an awful opinion of and then a confident relyance upon these things Nay farther among the many spurious Writings which then crept into the World under the most venerable names of the renowned Fathers of the Church now mostly discarded by themselves when their shameless Impudence hath been so full exposed yet few of them there are in which this contrivance is not legible throughout to advance these Opinions and Practices So that we are indebted to the Reformation those great men which laboured in it and some of the most moderate and learned of their own side with the Art of Printing then newly found out that almost all Ancient Authors and Records have not lost their Authority which would have been much endangered among such gross depravers of Antiquity whose constant business it was to mar good Authors by their Interpolations Additions or Substractions or vent new ones under counterfeit old names to serve corrupt ends But we are somewhat beholden to their ignorance and stupidity for doing it so grosly that there was need of little skill or observation to discover their Impostures 8. To which may be added in the last place against the supposed presumption in private persons or particular Churches to judge of publick Establishments by a seeming Superiour Authority that without some judgement of discretion in the former there is no room for a proper Moral Act much less are they capable of a truely Religious Obligation which an absolute implicite faith perfectly destroyes But whilst every man is bound to prove his own work and must bear his own burden he must examine the grounds of his assent according to his capacity and determine himself by the best motives he can procure and is concerned at his utmost peril to do it with all due respect to the Authority and Judgement of his Superiours as well as the evidence of the things themselves which are no where in any Government beside thought inconsistent These considerations duly weighed may obviate those first prejudices which usually lie in the way to intercept all thoughts of farther trial and examination of particular points in controversie and may silence or shame the late idle vaunts of such who pretend to reason us out of our senses and undertake to demonstrate it á priori impossible that ever any false opinion should get into the Church or prevail therein I wish these men would try their pains and subtilty to prove it impossible there could be any such thing as wilful sin in the world I presume they might have as good Topicks to pretend to it from all convictions of Reason or Interest But after the most artificial composures herein they would hardly believe themselves or be credited by others against their experience It were well if they might prevail to make that less frequent which all must own so unreasonable in it self and destructive to us Object 2. But our Adversaries will yet urge upon us that supposing not granting such a degeneracy in the Church and need of Reformation yet this should have been done in order to preserve Catholick Vnity by common consent in a general Council and with most mature deliberation and consultation Answ 1. This was most earnestly desired and insisted on by the first Reformers witness the great Importunities of Charles the Fifth with the Pope upon their instance 2. When this seemingly prevailed and a pretended Council was called it was far from being free or general The Italian and mere titular Bishops outnumbred all the rest and both one and the other were overawed by the Popes immediate Dependants or Delegates and all things carried by such stratagems of Policy or partiality of interest that the only care taken was to fix the disease and not provide for the cure by the best account we have of those transactions So that some Princes of their own communion entred their Protestations against its proceedings disowning any Obligation to be tied up to their determinations 3. As the divided state of Christendom now stands it is rather to be wish'd for then supposed almost possible From the different Interests and inclinations of Princes who will hardly
condition of those who lived in that Communion before the Reformation many of them groaned under those Oppressions from which we are happily freed nay whatever charitable allowance may still be made for them who now live within those Boundaries where they have little opportunity of knowing better and are under vaââ prejudices by contrary Education and the severest awe over them Now far I say these cases may be pleadable must be left to GOD and their own Consciences As for those born and bred among us who have been treacherously deluded into Apostacy from us or will persist in their hereditary obstinate averseness to us against the Clearest conviction which they may receive and in opposition to the express Laws of GOD and of the Land to the perpetual disturbance of the State and confusion of the Church there appears no room for any excuse to lessen their Crime or alleviate their doom which will be mightly encreased when all manner of hidden and crafty Artifices or open violence against the common Rights of Humane Society and moral Honesty as well as the Faith and Charity of Christs Church are imployed and consecrated into a religious but blind Zeal for the destruction of both No marvel if the Nation awakened with the effects hereof which it hath sometimes felt and oftner had reason to fear have provided some severe Laws for an aw over them and to stop the first beginnings of such exorbitant attempts ready to break through all ordinary inclosures and which will hardly be restrained by the usual methods of Government No temper is more difficulty mastered or more mischievous if let loose then such a false fiery zeal which neglected burns all before it But whatever may have been their Treatment of us formerly or we may justly apprehend would be still had they any opportunity which GOD pervent we ought not and hope shall not ever desist from wishing and endeavouring as much as is in our power their real welfaâe and so of all our implacable Enemies and therein their hearty Union with us in the holy Offices of Religion and Fellowship of GODs Church where they live with the sincere renounciation of those dangerous Errours and Practices that hitherto keep them at a distance from us In Conclusion instead of querulous expostulations or catching occasions to find fault we have great reason to admire and adore that gracious Providence which amidst so many Confusions Disorders and Corruptions that prevail too much in most places âound about hath placed our Lot in so happy a soil and provided for us so goodly a Heritage and safe Retreat in the Bosom of that Church whose Charity is as eminent as its Faith and its Order as signal as its Purity whose Arms are alwayes open to receive its returning Enemies with the most tender Compassions as well as to cherish its faithful Friends with the wholsom and indulgent provisions where nothing is wanting to ensure our safety and encourage our proficiency in every thing that is good and excellent Which upon former tâal of both the opposit extremes the whole Kingdom hath seen necessary to fâee back into to repair the Confusions and Devastions they had brought and in its most dangerous Convulsions here hath found the readiest Cure and under whose name her very Enemies desire to shelter themselves which finally engages us to express our gratitude for so peculiar Priviledges by â ready and impartial Obedience to the holy Doctrine we are taught and a fruitful improvement of all those happy Advantages which we enjoy therein That our Lives may be answerable to our Profession and our pious vertuous peaceable and charitable Conversation may be in some proportion as defensible and remarkable as the Principles we proceed upon or the benefitâ we lay claim to This would most effectually silence the captious Cavils of our Enemies on every side and more powerfully invite them to our communion then all other the most demonstrative Arguments When their very senses would bear witness that GOD is in us of a truth I hope we are not distitute of some such eminent Examples of unfeigned Piety true Holiness and universal Probity GOD Almighty increase their number more and more Yet whatsoever may be the effect thereof upon other men this method would unquestionably ensure our own firmest Peace here and everlasting Salvation hereafter Here we keep certainly within our own bounds and may most safely and profitably spend all our Zeal while other men please themselves in diverting it aâroad to what they have no power over It seems horribly ââuseous to hear men quarrel fiercely about the best church who live in the most open defiance to all Religion and I doubt there are too many of all denominations chargeable herewith Yet whatever the case of others prove it will be most safe and pious to bring it home and close to our selves Be our Church or our Profession never so much better then any other if we be not also suitably better then other men they will rise up in judgment against us at the last But by a careful and diligent observance of its sacred Prescriptions we shall justifie our Reformation throughout put a stop to the Reproaches and shame the calumnies of our Adversaries and which is the Summary of all good intentions and endeavours bring honour to our great LORD and Master the Author and Finisher of our Faith FINIS A DISCOURSE Concerning the Object of RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OR A SCRIPTURE PROOF OF THE UNLAWFULNESS of giving any Religious Worship to any other Beeing BESIDES THE ONE SUPREME GOD EDINBVRGH Re-Printed by J. Reid MDC LXXXVI A DISCOURSE Concerning the Object of Religious Worship The INTRODVCTION OF all the Disputes between âs and the Church of Rome there is none of greater concernment then that about the Object of Religious Worship We affirm as the Scripture has taught us that we must worship the LORD our GOD and serve him only the Church Mat. 4. 10. of Rome teaches that there is a degree of Religious Worship which we may give to some excellent Creatures to Angels and Saints and Images and the Host and to the Reliques of Saints and Martyrs If they are in the right we may be thought very rude and uncivil at least in denying to pay that Worship which is due to such excellent Creatures and very injurious to our selves in it by losing the benefit of their Prayers and Patronage If we be in the right the Church of Rome is guilty of giving worship to Creatures which is due to GOD alone which is acknowledged on all hands to be the greatest of sins and therefore this is a dispue which can never be compromised though we were never so desirous of an union and reconciliation with the Church of Rome for the Incommunicable glory of GOD and the salvation of our Souls are too dear things to be given away in complement to any Church And should it appear in the next world for I believe it will never
prohibite the worship of all those Gods which were then worshipped in the world will any one in theirs wits hence conclude that if the folly and superstition of men should set up a new race and generation of Gods in after ages that the worship of these new Gods is not as well forbidden by this general Law as the worship of those gods which were worship'd at that time when this Law was given If this were true possibly Pagan Rome it self was not guilty of Idolatry for most if not all of their Gods might be of a later date then the giving the Law 3. Now since no such distinctions as these appear in Scripture it is impossible they should justifie the worship of Saints and Angels which is so expresly forbidden by the Law if we will acknowledge them to be distinct Beeings from the Supreme God for if they are not the Supreme GOD we must not worship them for we must worship none but God No distinctions can justifie us in this case but such as GOD himself makes for otherwise it were easie to distinguish away any Law of God Humane Laws will admit of no distinctions but such as they make themselves for a distinction does either confine and streighten or enlarge the Law and he who has power to distinguish upon a Law has so far power to make it If the Law says that we shall worship no other Beeing besides God and we have power if we have but wit enough to invent some new distinctions between the worship of good and bad spirits between Supreme and Subordinate absolute and relative worship this makes a new Law of it for it is one thing to say thou shalt worship GOD only and quite contrary to say thou shalt worship God only and good Spirits God with a supreme and absolute good Spirits with a subordinate and relative worship This I think is sufficient to shew that we must admit of no distinctions upon a Divine Law but what the Scripture it self owns and therefore since those distinctions with which the Church of Rome justifies her worship of Saints and Angels are no where to be found in Scripture they have no authority against an express Law 3. The next course the Papists take to justifie their Creature-worship in contradiction to that Law which expresly commands us to worship none but God is an appeal to such authorities as they think sufficient to decide this matter Now I shall not say much to this for I believe all Mankind will acknowledge that no Authority less then Divine can repeal a Divine Law and therefore unless God himself or such persons as act by a Divine Authority have repealed this Law no other Authority can do it That Christ and his Apostles have not repealed this Law I have already proved that the whole Church in after Ages had any Authority to repeal this Law I desire them to prove For the authority of the Church as to the essentials of Faith and Worship is not the authority of Law-givers but of Witnesses The Church never pretended in former Ages to make or to repeal any Divine Laws but to declare and testifie what the belief and practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Churches was and it is unreasonable to think that they should have any such Authority for then Christ and his Apostles preached the Gospel to little purpose if it were in the power of the Church to make a new Gospel of it when they pleased But indeed could it appear that the Apostles did teach the Christians of that Age and the Church in those Ages which immediately succeeded the Apostles did practise the worship of Saints and Angels we should have reason to suspect that we and not they are mistaken in the sense of that Law which commands us to worship none but God But then none can be admitted as competent witnesses of this matter but those who did immediately succeed the Apostles or conversed with Apostolical men and Churches And thanks be to God there is no appearance of creature-worship in those Ages we dare appeal to the testimony of Fathers and Councils for above three hundred years and those who come after come a little too late to be witnesses of what was done in the Apostolick Churches especially when all the intermediate Ages knew nothing of it I shall not fill up this discourse with particular âitations which learned men know where to find since the Roman Doctors can find nothing in the Writings of the first Fathers to justifie the worship of Saints and Angels and the Protestant Writeâs find a great deal in those Ages against it Indeed at the latter end of the fourth Century some of the Fathers used some Rhetorical Apostrophes to the Saints and Martyrs in in their Orations which the Church of Rome interprets to be Prayers to them but though other See Bishops Ushers Answer to the Jesuits Challenge Learned men have vindicated those passages so far as to shew the vast difference between them and solemn and formal Invocation which is not my business at this time yet there are several things very well worth our observation towards the true stating of this matter As 1. That these Fathers came too late to be witnesses of the Apostolical practice which they could know no otherwise then we might know it if there had been any such thing viz. by the testimony and practice of the Church from the Apostles till that time This was no where pretended by them that the Invocation of Saints had been the practice of the Catholick Church in all ages and they could have no proof of this unless they had better Records of former times then we have at this day and such as contradicted all the Records which we now have of the Apostolick and Primitive Churches and I believe few men will be so hardy as to assert this and me thinks there should be as few who are so credulous as to believe it and I am sure there is no man living who is able to prove it 2. Nay the particular sayings of these Fathers by which the Romanists prove the Invocation of Saints do not prove that it was the Judgement and practice of the Church of that age They no where say that it was and it does not appear to be so by any other Records Let them shew me any Council before or in those times when these Fathers lived that is in the fourth Century which decreed the worship of Saints and Angels Let them produce any publick offices of Religion in in those dayes which allows this worship and if no such thing appears those men must be very well prepared to believe this who will without any other evidence judge of the practice of the Church only from some extravagant slights of Poets and Orators and if even in those dayes the worship of Saints was not received into the publick offices of the Church methinks we may as well live without it still and they must either grant
would inquire into the lawfulness of such things as appertain to Divine Worship we must apply our selves to the Holy Scripture being in matters of that nature to determine of Right and Wrong Lawful and Unlawful according to the Directions Commands and Prohibitions of it If we would be satisfied about their Expedience we must consider the Nature Ends and Use of what we inquire about This therefore is a proper method for the Resolution of the foregoing Question But because the Apostle in his Discourse upon this Subject 1. Corinthians 14. doth argue from the ends and use of the several Offices belonging to Divine Worship and because the like Order may give some light and force to what follows I shall first of all I. Treat of the Ends for which Divine Worship and the several Offices of it were instituted II. Consider whither those Ends may be attained when the Worship is performed in a Tongue not understood III. Whither the worship so performed as to leave those ends unattainable will be accepted by GOD IV. I shall consider the Apostle's Discourse upon this Argument and whither it can be reasonably concluded from thence That Divine Worship so administred as not to be understood of the people is unlawful I. In the first of these the Masters of Controversie in the Romish Church do proceed with great tenderness and no little obscurity For would we know what the Worship is they would have in an Unknown Tongue they answer it is the publick only they defend For as for private saith one It is lawful for P. Sancta not in Epist P. Molinaei c. 17. n. 6. T. G. First reply to Dr. Stelingfleet sect 3. every one to offer his lesser Prayers to GOD in what Tongue soever he pleaseth And saith another All Catholicks are âaught to say their private Prayers in their Mother Tongue As if it were possible to assign such a vast difference betwixt them when the Dispositions Reasons and Ends required and intended are the same that what is lawful expedient and necessary in the one is unlawful inexpedient and unnecessary in the other Or as if the saying private Prayers in Latin was never heard of practiseâ or encouraged in their church Again Would we understand to what purposes the Divine Offices do serve and whither the Edification Instruction and consolation of the people be not some of those Ends. Bellarmin answers De verbo l. 2. c 16. Sect obj quart 1. That the principal end of Divine Offices is not the instruction or consolation of the People but a worship due to GOD from the Church As if there were no regard to be had to the special ends of those Offices such as the Instruction and Consolation of the people Or as if GOD could be honoured by that Worship where those ends are not regarded 2. The Rhemists add That Prayers are not made to teach make learned or increase knowledge Annot. 1. cor 14. P. 63. though by occasion they sometimes instruct but their especial use is to offer our Hearts desires and Wants to God c. As if there were no Offices in God's Worship appointed for Instruction and increase of Knowledge and which are performed in an Unknown Tongue amongst them as well as Prayer Or as if their Adversaries did either deny it to be the special use of Prayer To offer our hearts c. to God Or did affirm that the special use of it is To teach make learned and increase knowledge as they with others Censur proposit Erasmi prop. 5. Poncet dis cord de L' Auvis ch 1. do falsly suggest and would fain have believed But to set this in a better light and that we may understand what are the Ends and Uses for which Divine Worship was appointed and after what manner they are to be respected It is to be observed 1. That Divine Worship in its first notion respects God as its Object and so the end of it in general is the giving Honour to him by sutable Thoughts Words and Actions 2. That he hath appointed several wayes and Offices by which he will be so honoured and in which as the Honour doth terminate in him so there redounds from thence benefit to the church 3. That the Benefits redound to the church according to the nature of those Offices and the special Ends they were designed unto As the Word of God is for our instruction and comforâ c. The Lord's Supper for the increase of Faith in God and love to him through Jesus Christ The praising of God is to raise our Affections and to make us more sensible of his goodness and to quicken us in our duty The special use of Prayer that I may use the Words forecited Rhem. Annot. is to offer up our Hearts Wants and Desires to God and that by conversing with him Part. 4. c. 2. Sect 7. 8. we may be the more ardently excited to the love and adoration of him as the Trent Catechism doth express it 4. That those Offices are to be performed so as may effectually answer those Ends and as we may receive the benefits they were appointed for From whence it follows 5. That if the Offices of Divine Worship are to be performed by Words those Words and that Tongue in which they are administred must be such as will not obstruct but promote and in their nature are qualified to attain those Ends. And if those Ends cannot be aââained without the Tongue in which the service is performed be understood It makes that means as necessary in its kind as the End and it is as necessary that the Tongue used for those Ends in Divine Worship be understood as that those Ends should be respected or that there should be a Tongue used at all For it is not God but Man that is immediately respected in the Words since there is no more need of Words to GOD then of Words that are vulgarly understood and so it is not for him but Man that this Tongue or that or indeed that any Tongue at all is used And if it be requisite that there be a a Tongue and Words used in publick Worship and which all persons present are supposed to joyn in and receive benefit by then it is as necessary for the same reason to use Words significant and understood as to De Doct. Christ l. 4. c. 19. use any Words at all For saith S. Austin what doth the soundness of speech profit if not followed with the Understanding of the âearer seing there is no reason at all for our speaking if what we speak is not understood by them for whom that they might understand we spoke at all From what hath been said we may be able to vindicate such Arguments of the Protestants Divine service in a known and vulgar Tongue as were taken from the Ends of worship against the replyes made to them by their adversaries of the Romish Church As 1. The Protestants argue in general that
the End of Divine Offices is for the Edification Instruction and Consolation of the people but these Ends cannot be attained in a Tongue not understood by them To this it is replyed That the Proposition is false because the chief end of Divine Offices Bellarm. de verbo l. 2. c. 16 Seb. Object 4. is not the Instruction or Consolation of the people but a worship or Honour due to GOD. An answer that became not so great a Man For 1 He argues as if those Ends were opposed which are not only consistent as Principal and Subordinate but also inseparable in the Case such are the Honour of God and the Edification of the Church 2 The Answer is not to the purpose unless it could be proved That either the Edification of the People iâ no End of the Divine Offices or that the worship is compleat though that End be not respected or attained in them But if it be an End and the Service defective without that End be pursued then it is not that this is a subordinate End and the other a Principal that will destroy the force of the Argument and justify the use of an Unknown Tongue when persons are not edified by it 2. The Protestants argue in particular that there can no profit proceed to the Church from Prayers not understood To this it is answered That it is false because the prayer of the Church is not made to Bellarm. ibid Sect. Object 2. Ledesma c. 13. n. 11 the people but to God for the people And so there is no need that the people understand and it is sufficient if God understands But 1 if this argument hold it will prove that which they do decline and be a reason as well for private as publick Prayers in an unknown Tongue For Private Prayer is also made to GOD and by this way of reasoning it will follow That it is sufficient that God understands it though it is not understood by him that useth it 2 Grant we to them what is not to be denied That Prayer is not made to the people but to GOD for the people Yet grant they must and do to us that It is the offering up our Hearts Wants and Desires to God and is to excite us to the ut suprâ Love and Adoration of him But if we cannot offer up our Hearts Wants and Desires to GOD nor to be excited to the Love and Adoration of him by what we do not understand then it is as necessary for us to understaud as it is to have those Qualifications when we pray For both are supposed for that we pray respects GOD but that we speak in publick prayer respects the Church And though the principal End as they call it be regarded and it be an Honour and worship given to GOD Yet if the less principal be neglected and the Service is not ordered to the encrease of Faith Love and Devotion in those that offer it as it cannot be where the Words and so the things prayed for in those Words are not understood it makes the Honour said to be given to God next to none And it is much at one whither there was no end at all propounded in Worship or such an End as through a defect in it shall render the service no better in it self and no more acceptable to GOD then if there were none But of this more anone II. I shall consider whither these Ends for which Divine Service is appointed can be attained when it is performed in a Tongue that is not understood The Apostle saith That the Offices of Divine Worship are intended and should be ordered for the Edification of the Church 1 Cor. 14. 4 5. That is say the Rhemists explaining that Phrase Pag. 461. For increase of Faith true Knowledge and a good Life But when this comes to be applyed to the Case of Divine Service administred in an unknown Tongue they set aside the increase of Knowledge and Instruction as if it were not concerned in it So doth Bellarmân who saith Though the Minds of common people be not instructed by De verbo l. 2. c. 16. Sect. Objâ 2. Service in an Unknown Tongue yet their affections are not without the benefit of it If this Argument signifies any thing it must be either because Divine Service is not aâmeans appointed for our Instruction and then he must thwart not only the Apostle who saith it is for Edification and consequently for Instruction a Branch of it but also their own Church in the Council of Trent which saith That the Mass doth Sess 22. c. 8. contain great Instruction for the Faithful Or else he must say that the means of Instruction may be rendred ineffectual at the pleasure of the Church as it is granted it is by being in an unknown Tongue and yet neither the Church be blamed nor the Institution of such means for such an End be disparaged nor the Souls of Men receive any damage by the want of that Instruction and the Means appointed for it So that as far as Instruction is an end and the Divine Service is a means for that Eend it is granted that the keeping it in an Unknown Tongue doth defeat that end For he saith That the Minds of common people are not instructed by Service in an Vnknown Tongue And now what an usurpation is this upon God to withhold that means that he has appointed or to defeat the Means of that End that he hath appointed it for What an injury to the Souls of Men And how much accessory must that Church be to the Miscarriage and Damnation of such as perish for want of that knowledge and Instruction the Service and Offices of the Church do contain and they might receive from it But suppose that end be lost and the peoples Minds be not instructed yet their Affections are not without the benefit of it This is spoken with a Caution and Reservation becoming one that saw farther into the consequences of what he said then he cared to own He saith at large their Affections are not without the benefit of it But how the Affections could be benefited without the Mind is instructed or what the benefit is which the Affections are not without he is sparing to tell us But however the Rhemists advance a little farther for they with no little confidence do determine Annotat. in 1 Cor. 14. p. 462. It is plain that such as pray in Latin though they understand not what they say do pray with as little tediousness with as great Affection and Devotion and oftentimes more then others that pray in a Tongue they understand The Cardinal told us that the Affections are not without benefit though the mind be not instructed But now it is to a Demonstration plain in these Mens account that not only the benefit is as great as if people do understand but oftentimes greater then if they did understand So that what more self evident then
that all do read and silence being made that all hear This is also agreeable to the former Opinion of the Church of Rome it self and for proof of which what can we desire more then the Declarations of Popes and Councils and this we have For we read of a permission given by the Pope to the Moravians at the instance of Cyril who had Aeneas Sylvius Hist Bohem. l. 1. c. 13. Aunâ 260. converted them and other Nations of the Sclavânians to have Divine Service in their own Tongue and that he and the Conclave were induced to it when not a few did oppose it by a voice from Heaven that said Let every Spirit praise the LORD and every Tongue confess to him as Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope relates And Pope John the VIII not long after in Anno 880. writes thus to S fento opulcer a Prince Coneil Tom. 24. Epist 217. Paris 1644. of the Sclavonians We command that the Praises and Works of our Lord Christ be declared in the same Sclavonian Tongue For we are admonished by sacred Writ to praise the Lord not only in three but in all Tongues saying Praise the Lord all ye Nations praise him all the people And the Apostles filled with the Holy Ghost spake in all Tongues And S. Paul admonisheth Let every Tongue confess and in the first to the Corinthians he doth sufficiently and plainly admonish us that in speaking we should edifie the Church of God Neither doth it hinder the Faith or Doctrine to have the Mass sung or the Gospel and Lessons well translated read or other divine Offices sung in the same Selavonian Tongue because he who made three principal Tongues viz. Hebrew Greek and Latine made all to his praise c. And consormable to this is the Decree of the Council of Lateran under Innocent III. Anno 1215. that because in Con. 9. many parts within the same City and Diocess there are many people of different manners and Rites mixed together but of one Faith We therefore command that the Bishops of such Cities or Diocesses provide fit Men who shall celebrate Divine Offices according to the diversity of Tongues and Riâes and administer the Sacraments This may be farther confirmed by the very Offices of the Church of Rome but this is sufficient Vid. Cassandri Liturg. c. 36. to shew that the Church of Rome hath departed from Scripture Antiquity and it self when it doth require that Divine Service be performed in a Tongue unknown to the people and that it was never the opinion of the Fathers nor any Church nor even of the Church of Rome that it is most expedient to have it so performed So little was it then thought that religious things the less they are understood Epist Cleri Gall. Collect. p. 63. Epist P. Alex. 7. in Collect. p. 69. Hosius p. 64. Bellarm. Sect. Septimâ P. Sanct. c. 17. n 3. E. W. Truth will out p. 45. 47. Rââerus c. 22. Portraiture c. 14 p. 224. Bellarm. l. 1. de ââssa c. 11. Sanders orat p. 72 Râem Annot p. 461. the more they would be admired and that to preserve a reverence for them and the people from dangerous errours it is requisâte to keep them from being understood So little was it pleaded that there are any Tongues sacred in themselves and that as the three upon the Cross of Christ are to be preferred before others and to exclude the rest so the Latine as next to the head of Christ is the most venerable of the three So little was it then thought that there is a certain kind of Divinity in Latin and something more of Majesty and fitter to stir up Devotion then in other Tongues So little were they afraid that Latin would be lost if the service were not kept in it or however so little evident is it that they valued the preservation of that Tongue above the Edification of the Church Lastly So little did they think of the expedience of having the service in one common Tongue as Latin That Christians where-ever they travel may find the self same Service and Priests may officiate in it as at home As if for the sake of the few that travel the many that stay at home should be left destitute and for one Mans convenience 10000. be exposed to eternal perdâioâ These are Arguments coined on purpose to defend the Cause and so are peculiar to the Church that needs them II. Let us consider whither from the time of its having been a Rits it hath been the Rite of every Church To this I shall only produce their own Confessions Cassander Liturg c. 11. 13. 15 Ledesm c. 33 n. 5 Bellarm. c. 16. sect obj ult Salmer on in 1 cor 16. sect septime for it is acknowledged that the Armenians Egyptianâ Habassines Muscovites and Sclavânians have their Service in a Tongue known to the people And their giving them the hard Names of Hereticks Schismaticks and Barbarous will not save the Council from being fallible when it saith It is the rite of every church But were there no such Churches in the World that herein practised contrary to the Church of Rome yet it would no more justifie her then it can make that good which is evil that expedient which is mischievous to the Church of God or reconcile one part of the Council to the other that when it hath declared The Masi contaiâââ great instruction for the people yet adds That it is expedient and an approved Rite that it be not celebrated in the Vulgar Tongue But say they this is granted If there were no interpretation but that is provided for by the Council for it is ordered That lest Christs sheep should hunger all that have the care of Souls shall frequently expound c. And that we are now to consider SECT IV Whither the Provisions made by the Council of Trent for having some part of the Mass expounded be sufficient to countervail the mischief of having the whole celebrated in a Tongue not understood of the People and to excuse the Church of Rome in the injunction of it THis is the last refuge they betake themselves to S. C. Answ to D. Piece 7. 175. Sanders orat p. 63. confessing that without an Interpretation S. Paul is against them but with this they plead he is for them But what shall we then think of the case in their Church at a time when as the people could not understand so the Priests could not interpret and wanted both the gift and had not acquired so much as the art of it What shall we think of their case and their Church that hath neither provided nor doth use such an Interpretation as the Apostle speaks of but what differs as much from it in respect of the light it gives to the people as both that and the Tongue they use do in the way by which they are obtained If it were a translation what a ludicrous thing would it be for
hold a Vulgar Tongue necessary in Divine Service and doth both absolutely forbid their own Missal to be so translated and persecute those that have so used it And yet they cannot dare not say it is unlawful in it self For it is better to have it in the Vulgar then not at all saith one It is matter of Discipline saith a second It hath been granted in some cases is acknowledged by others And it is most expedient to have it in the Vulgar saith a fourth And if so why this diligent Cassander de off pii viri p. 86â care to prevent and suppress it Why this out-cry against it Why this Severity What need of such Decrees and Anathema's of Councils What need such Commands of the Popes for Princes to oppose it with all their force as that of Gregory VII to Vladislaus of Bohemia what reason is there for a general Convention of the Clergy of a Kingdom to proceed against a translation of their Missal When if we consult the ends for which the publick Service was inââitutâd iâ we consult the reason of the thing if we consult Scripture or âathârs or the practice of the Church for about seven hundred Years together we shall find that it is not only expedient but necessary to have it in a Tongue understood of the people and that the Church of Rome that is so forward in its Anathema is under a precedent and greater oââ even that of the Apostle Whosoever shall preach any other Gospel let him be Anatâemâ So that which is most to be respected the Anathema of Heaven or that of the Council the command of God or a Decree of a Pope the Church of God in its best times or the particular Church of Rome in latter Ages whither the edification of the Church of God or the will and interest of a corrupted Church is not difficult to conceive And therefore we may end as we began with the Church Art 24. of England It is a thing plainly repuguant to the Word of God and the ãâã of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers ââ the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understââd of the people FINIS A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DEVOTIONS OF THE Church of Rome Especially as compared with those of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In which it is shewn That whatever the Romanists pretend there is not so true Devotion among them nor such rational Provision for it nor Encouragement to it as in the Church established by Law among us EDINBURGH Re Printed by John Reid Anno DOM. 1686. A DISCOURSE Concerning the DEVOTIONS Of the Church of Rome IT is certain one of the greatest Commendations that can be given of any Church or body of Christians that a man can with Truth afirm of it that the Doctrines which they profess the Rules and Orders under which they live that the frame and constitution of the Church tendeth directly to make men more pious and devout more peââtent and mortified more heavenly minded and every way of better Lives then the way and profession of other Christians For to work men up to this holy frame and disposition was one of the main designs of the Gospel of Christ which intends to govern mens Actions and reform their Temper as well as to inform their Understandings and direct their belief And in this particular it differs much from all the Ethicks of the learned Heathen For whereas they design'd especially to exalt the passions and to raise up the Mind above it self by commending the high and pompous Vertues thereby to stir men up to great designs and to appear bold and braving in the affairs of this Life the Gospel is most frequent in commendation of the humble lowly and mortifying Vertues which would reduce the Mind to it self and keep Men within due bounds and teach them how to behave themselves towards God and to live in a due regard to another Life Now there is scarcely any thing which the Church of Rome doth more often urge for her self or with greater confidence pretend to excel the Church of England in then by endeavouring to perswade that the Frame of their Church is more fitted for the exciting of Devotion and a good Life then ours is And so they will boast of their severe Rules and Orders the Austerities of their Fasts and Penances the strict and mortifyed Lives the constancy and incessancy of Devotions used among them and would thence inferre that that mâst needs be the best Religion or way of serving God in which these practices are enjoyn'd and observed That the Tree must needs be good by such excellent Fruitâ and that if all other Argument fail yet they say they have this to show for themselves that in their Communion there is at least somewhat more like that great Self-denial and Morââfication so often made necessary under the Gospel then is to be found in the Reformed Churches or particularly in the Church of England Now laying aside all Disputes concerning Points of Doctrine in controversie between them and us in which it hath been abundantly shewn that they err in matters of Faith and that in what they differ from us they differ also from the Scripture and the true Church of Christ in all the best Ages I 'll confine my self to examine their Preâââce to Devotion where I doubt not but it will sufficiently appear that they are as much deficient also in Regularity of Practice that there is not that true Foundation laid for such Devotion as God accepts nor that strict Provision made for it nor that real Practice of it which they would make us believe but that even the best which they pretend to is such as doth by no means befit a truly Christian spirit I 'll discourse in this Method 1. I 'll instance in the several Expressions of Devotion the Motives to it or Assistance of it whâch the Church of Rome pretends to and on which she is used to magnifie her self 2. I will alledge the just Exceptions which we have against such their Pretences 3. And then shew that they are so far from encouraging true Devotion that many things both in their Doctrine and Discipline directly tend to the Destruction of it 4. I 'll shew what excellent Provision is made in the Church of England for the due exercise of all the parts of Devotion and what Stress is laid on it and on a good Life among us First Though Devotion is properly and chiefly in the mind a due sense of God and Religion yet it is not sufficient if it stop there For there are certain outward Acts which are either in themselves natural and proper Expressions or else are strictly required of us by God as Duties of Religion and Evidences of the devout temper of our Minds and these are called Acts of Devotion And all the Commendation that can be given of any Church on Account of Devotion must be either that there is a true Foundation
Devotion to perswade men that the worth and value of it is such as that you may by it purchase Heaven not only to your selves but for others also 9. Their belief of Purgatoây and of the validity of Prayers for the Dead doth naturally tend to excite men to Devotion say they for here is a greater Scope and Occasion for our Prayers we may hope to be instrumental to more good more Persons to be relieved and helped by our Prayers then are supposed in the Devotions of the Church of England 10. And especially their Doctrine and Practice of Confession Penance and Absolution they look on as so necessary to Devotion that it is a wonder with them that there should be any shew of it where these are received and practised For a particular Consession of all Sins to a Priest being so strictly required they say is the readiest way to bring men to a sense of and shame for their Sins and Penance being also imposed presently on them will surely make Men to be more afraid of sining again when they see it must cost them so dear and that they may not despair or despond by Reason of the Multitude or Weight of their former Sins but may be encouraged to strive more earnestly against sin for the future the Priest gives them Absolution of what is passed at the same time encouraging their hope as well as exciting their fear and endeavouring by the same method both to allure to force and to shame Men into Amendment Lastly they insist much also on the Validity of their Ordinations the Truth and Succession Unity and Authority of their Church and the Obedience that is payed to the Rules and Orders of it as mighty Helps and Assistances and Encouragements to Devotion when they are so sure of the Sacraments being duly administred and all other Acts of Authority rightly performed when the Laws of the Church for the punishment of Offenders are duly executed and when the Church hath Power to oblige all to an Uniform and Regular Practice All these things say they do either encourage and excâte men to Devotion or asâist or direct them in their exercise of it give more room or afford better occasions for it or else shew more fully the Necessity of such and such parts of it then what is received and practised in the Church of England and therefore the Church of England that wants these wanteth also much of the Occasion Matter Opporâââities and Argâââts for Devotion so that they laying a side all disputes concerning Articles of Faith they doubt not but it will be readilâ granted that at least they are a more devout People whatever their belief iâ their practies is more agreeable to that self denial and Mortification commanded in Scripture that God is more constantly and reverently served among them then he is among us that they take more pains are at more Cost and trouble in the worship of God which they think is an Instance of a good religious mind and will be most secure of God's Acceptance These are I think indeed the most that they do urge for themselves in this point and there is something of appearance of Truth in all this Most of these Instances are such as may perhaps be very taking at first fight with some People they having a shew of Regularity Strictness and Severity or else of being proper helps and Assistances of Devotion For men are wont to admire any thing that looks oâd or big especially if others have but the confidence highly to praise and extol it But if we examine them we shall find them to fall infinitely short of such specious pretences some of them to be unlawful and those that are good in themselves to be some way or other spoiled in the use of them alwayes they ârr in some matterial part or circumstance and taken altogether they have nothing in them which evidence any true devout temper either designed to be wrought by the Church or actually working in the People Much less do they bespeak greater Devotion then is required and practised in our Church For it hath been well observed by the judicious Sir Edwin Sandyes that the Church of Rome hath so contrived its Rules and Orders as rather to comply with and fit every Temper and Inclination good or bad then to work any real good effect on any And therefore as it hath several things which openly agree with and please the profane and debauch'd so it must be granted that it hath somewhat also to suit with and graâifle the melancholly Temper where the devoutly disposed may find somewhat an agreeable Retreat And therefore one would be apt to suspect that the most strict and severe of their Orders were kept up rather out of a politick end to please and quiet the People then really to advance true piety to God and Devotion But however it is plain that taking the whole Frame of that Church together it doth not design to promot serious and true Devotion but only to make a Noise and to appear so to do For when I see the same Church tho' sometimes seeming to countenance the utmost severity as necessary yet at other times to give all Liberty and let the Reinâ loose to all kind of Debauchery I have just reason to âear they are not in earnest for Religion For all such irregular Heats are a sign of a bad Principles or a distemper'd Constitution Just as if I should see the same person sometimes desperately dissolute and debauch'd and at othertimes intollerably strict and severe and this interchangeably and often I shall much question his strictness whither it be sincere If his sense of Piety were real it would be more lasting and uniform and therefore without breach of charity I think I may look on him in his severity rather to act a part on a Stage and to serve a present Turn and Occasion then to be really in his mind what such strictness would represent him And therefore whatever true Devotion is in any of that Communion ought to be ascribed to somewhat else then to the Constitution of that Church For even those things which they are used to boast most of which I have mentioned already we shall easily find to have little that is truly commendable much that is greatly faulty in them and if their best things are no better what are the worst If the subject of their Glory is shameful what will become of the rest 2 And therfore I 'll now shew what we have justly to except against their fore-mentioned pretences to Devotion 1. As for Monkery in general which they boast so much of calling it Status Perfectionis religiosus as if besides the State of Men in Holy Orders that were a State of Perfection and nothing else worth the Name of Religious We confess that scarcely as to any thing concerning the Externals of Religion doth the Church of England distinguish it self from the Romish Church so much as that there is
them Very remarkable is that form of Confession in the Reformed Roman Ordinar missae 217. Missal I confess to Almighty God to the ever blessed Virgin to Hessed Michael Arch-Angel to blessed John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul to all the saints and to you Brethren that I have sinned in thought word and deed They make Vows to them nothing is more common then at entrance into Religious Orders thus Francis Albertin de Angel Custod p. 224. Horst in dedic sect 2. p. 83. to express their Devotion I Vow to God and the blessed Virgin then to Vow that their whole life shall be devoted to the blessed Virgin or some other Saint according to the famous Pattern I humbly beg of thee Oh Mother of all Clemency that thou wouldest vouchsafe to admit me into the number of those who have devouted themselves to thee to be thy perpetual servants Another of this kind not much inferiour to it we meet with in Horstius viz I firmly resolve henceforth to serve thee and thy Son with all Faithfulness and for ever to cleave to thee They offer up Laud and Praise to them and intreat them to hear and receive their Thanksgiving thus Brev. Rom in fest S. Jacob. to St. James they pray that he would joyfully hear the acknowledgements that as right and due they paid to him 'T is usual with their Learned Men to conclude their Books with praise to God and the Blessed Virgin particularly Valentia and Bellarmine the letter of which thus ends his Book concârning the Worship of faints praise be to God and to the blessed Virgin also to Jesus Christ Morstius before had it thee and thy Son Bellarmine here the Blessed Virgin and then Jesus Christ whereby we Bellarm de cul-Sanct Lyon Edit Laus deo virginique Mariae Jesu item Christâ may see they give her not only an equal part with God in their Praises but by placing her before Christ seem to give her somewhat of preeminence above him 5. They appoint Angels and saints Deputies and Lievtenants under God in the Government of the World and stick not to make them Cuardians Patrons and Patronesses over particular Kingdoms Cities Churches and single persons The Scripture indeed frequently speaks oft he Knowledge presence Dignity occasional Ministry and Embassies of holy Angels but that delegation of power the Romanists give them whereby they make them share Empire and Dominion with God in the Government of the world can be as little proved of them as of saints departed however I am chiefly to consider their Doctrine and practice in reference to the latter they teach the people to make choico of one or more out of the number of the saints to be their Patron to Love them to imitate them through their hands Horst parad Animae sect 2. to offer daily their works to God to commend themselves to their protection at all times especially in difficulties and temptations they give to one saint this precinct and to another that to one power over this malady over that to others more of this you have drawn to the life in the forementioned excellent Homily of our Church against Idolatry out of which I shall only âull some passages and refer âhe Reader for farther satisfaction to the Homily it self it compares such saints in the Roman Church to whom they allot Homil of Idolat the defence of certain countries to the Dii Tutelares of the Gentile Idolaters such to whom the safety of certain Cities are cammitted to their Dii presides and such to whom Temples and Churches are Builded and Altars Erected to their Dii Patroni it tâlls us that the Romanists have no fewer saints then the Heathens had Gods to whom they give the Honour due to God every Artificer and profession has his special saint as a peculiar God for example Scholars have St. Nicholas and St. Gregory Painters St. Luke neither lack souldiers their Mars not Lovers their Venus amongst Christians The sea and waters amongst the Romanists as well as Cities and Countries have their special Saints to preside over them as amongst the Heathens they had Gods all diseases have their special Saints as Gods the Curers of them the Pox St. Roch the Falling-Evil St. Cornelis the Toothach St. Apollonia neither do Beasts and Cattle lack their Gods with us for St. Loy is the Horsleach and St. Anthony the swineheard c. where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean time Who saith the Heavens be mine the Earth is mine the whole World and all that therein is but we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City Peace nor War to Rule and Govern neither Man nor Beasts nor their diseases to Cure and as if we doubted of his ability or will to help we joyn to him another as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings such as Learn GOD and St. Nichol as be my speed such as sâeese GOD help and St. John to the Horse God and St. Loy save thee thus are we become like Horses and Mules that have no understanding Oh Heavens Oh Earth What madness and wickedness against God are Men fallen into What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and Maker This is not written to reproach the Saints but to condemn the Foolishness and Wickedness of Men who make of the true servants of GOD false Gods by attributing to them the Power and Honour which is Gods and due to him only II. On what occasion this Doctrine and Practice began and spread in the Church GReat was the Honour the Primitive Christians had for the Martyrs and Confessors they frequented their Tombs erected Altars on the places of their burial highly esteemed their bones and reliques âhere they rehearsed their good works done in their life time and their Faith Patience and Constancy shewed at Death here they blessed God for that Grace that was given to them and for that good that accrued to themselves by their example here they proposed their vertues for imitation and had their own Piety and Zeal enflamed by the remembrance of them and the Christian cause being then harassed on every side by implacable Enemies the Malice of the Jew and the subtity of the Greek and the Power of the Roman combining with their united force to destroy and root it up it pleased God not only by the demonstration of a Divine power in the Apostles and their immediate Successors whilst they were alive but also by many wonderful things done at their Tombs when the were dead and by sensibly answering Prayers that were there puup to him to confiâm the Truth of Christianity to declare hi approbation of the sufferings of his servants and to encourage others to Seal the Doctrine of the Gospel with their Blood as they bad done To them in a particular manner may that of the Apostle be applied Wâom GOD did foreknow Rom. 8. 29 30. them he did predestinate
to be conformed to the Image of his Son and âhom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he Justified and whom he Justified them he Glorified The Apâstle having said in the verse before verse 28 We know that all things work together for good unto them that love GOD to them who are called according to his purpose adds as a proof of what he had said whom he did foreknow would be persons of Great and noble minds and so fit for the work them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son them he did decree to suffer for his sake and by sufferings to be made conformed to his Son who was made perfect through sufferings and whom he did predestinate them he also called them in due time he actually called forth to suffer for his name and whom he called them he justified them he approved of as Faithfull Servants as Loyal Souldiers as Invincible Champions of Truth and Righteousness and whom he Justified he Glorified them he Crowned with Honour and Renown here and with immortal Glory hereafter This was the Testimony God bore to the Apostles and first Bishops of the Church to the Authority they had received to the Doctrine they taught and for which they died this was the Honour the Primitive Christians deservedly shewed to their Victorious Martyrs they did not Invocate them but Loved their Memories Commemorated their Vertues and Blessed God for their example they performed to them not any part of Religious Worship that was Cultus officiâsus dilectionis soâietatis specialis observantia S. Aust contr Faust l. 20. 21. ou latreutikâs alla schetikos kai ti metikâs Cyril l. o. contr Jul. due to God only but as they called it an officious Worship a Worship of Love and society a special and particular observance a respect convenient and proper and which they could not but think was due to them on the account of the great service they had done to the the cause of Christ and the more then ordinary worth and excellency that shined in them But afterwards in succeeding Ages when through the good providence of God and favour of Constantine the great the church had rest and ease and Prosperity began to dawn upon it the Devil finding he coulde not prevail over the Christian Faith by fiery trials and temptations betook himself to other more secret it may be but equally dangerous stratagems and by working on the strong inclinations and affections of Men to ease and softness he too successfully attempted to deprave and corrupt it by loose and superstitious Doctrines most Men are for some kind of Religion whither the Devil will or no which because he canâot hinder he labours what he can it may be such that whilst it pretends fair may do them but little good and Men are forâard enough to close with that which offers at carrying them to Heaven on the easiest terms The Church being now out of Persecution and Riches and Honours attending that profession for which such multitudes had lost all and endured the flames the people began to be more loose and vain in their conversations then when they still expected martyrdom now they began to place their Religion in shews and pretences more then in a sincere and substantial Piety and whereas before they were wont to frequent the Tombs of the Martyrs that at the sight of the place their affections might be raised their Devotions enlivened and their Faith and Charity receive farther degrees of warmth and heat from their burning and shining examples now they placed all their Religion in the bare outward observance of that Solemnity and took more care to Honour the Saints by their lofty Praises and commendations of them then to become Saints themselves by imitating their Graces and Vertues and that what was wanting in the one they might make up in the other they now began to fall into many Superstitious Conceits and Opinions concerning them to break out into too lavish and indeed extravagant expressions of their worth and to fly too high in their Panegyricks and Laudatory Orations Now they began To attribute the miracles done at the Martyrs Tombs to the Martyrs own Power or at least mediation with God the common People observing that many Cures were wrought upon those that at those monuments applied themselves to God were led by degrees to look upon them as so many Testimonies of the Martyrs great interest in the Court of Heaven and instead of begging relief of God to speak directly to the Martyrs themselves To fancy that the Souls of Martyrs were alwayes hovering about their Tombs and Ashes and so joyned their Intercessions with the Prayers of Christians that were put up to God in those places so 't was objected by Vigilantius to St. Hierom To wish that the Martyrs would Pray for them Oret pro nobis Flavianus so they cried out in the Council of Chalcedon Let Flavianus Pray for us and in Theodoret's History of the Lives of the Fathers we find in the close of most of them though some think them not to be his words but Additions and Insertions afterwards I wish and desire that by their Intercession I may obtâin Divine help To commend themselves to the Martyrs intercessions Commendare nos orationi St. Aust to beg to be heard for their sakes to be helpt by their prayers to be vouchsaf't the effects of the Prayers that were made by them in behalf of the Church below To pray to them upon supposition if they heard or knew what was done here below Hear oh thou soul Nazian Orat. 2. in Jultan ei de iis soi kai ton hemeteron esti logos Orat. ând in Gorgon of great Constantius sayes St. Gregory Nazianzen if thou hast any understanding of these things the like he hath in his Funeral Oration which he made upon his sister Gorgonia If thou hast any care of things done by us and Holy souls receive this Honour from God that they have any feeling of such things as these receive this Oration of ours By such steps and degrees as these the frequenting the places where the Martyrs were enshrined and Honouring their Names and Memories was turned into Superstitious Devotion and that soon ended in solemn and downright Invocation To all this we may add what a Learned Author of our own has ingeniously guest that the great compliance Dr. Tenison and yielding of the Roman Christians in this particular to those Northern Nations the Goths and Vandals when they invaded and overun the Empire did not a little contribute to raise and propagate this Saint-Worship and Invocation in the Church of all the Heathen Nations none were more Zealously Devoted to the Worship of Daemons then those were whereof he gives many Testimonies now it 's not improbable that the Christians to mollify their fierce natures and to induce them the more readily to embrace Christianity might indulge them still that
penalties then of temporal death and Eternal damnation And therefore to undeceive if possible these deluded souls it will be necessary to examine the pretended grounds of so false a Doctrine and to lay open the monstruous absurdity of it And in the handling of this Argument I shall proceed in this plain method I. I shall consider the pretended grounds and reasons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine II. I shall produce our Objections against it And if I can shew that there is no tollerable ground for it and that there are invincible Objections against it then every man is not only in reason excused from believing this Doctrine but hath great cause to believe the contrary FIRST I will consider the pretended grounds and reasons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine Which must be one or more of these five Either 1. The Authority of scripture Or 2ly The perpetual belief of this Doctrine in the Christian Church as an belief of of this Doctrine in the Christian Church as an evidence that they alwayes understood and interpreted our Saviour's words This is my body in this sense Or 3ly The authority of the present Church to make and declare new articles of Faith Or 4ly The absolute necessity of such a change as this in the Sacrament to the comfort and benefit of those who receive this Sacrament Or 5 ly To magnify the power of the Priest in being able to work so great a Miracle 1. They pretend for this Doctrine the Authority of Scripture in those words of our Saviour This is my Body Now to shew the insufficiency of this pretence I shall endeavour to make good these two things 1. That there is no necessity of understanding those words of our Saviour in the sense of Transubstantiation 2. That there is a great deal of reason to understand them otherwise First That there is no necessity to understand those words of our Saviour in the sense of Transubstantiation If there be any it must be from one of these two reasons Either because there are no figurative expressions in Scripture which I think no man ever yet said or else because a Sacrament admits of no figures which would be very absurd for any man to say since it is of the very nature of a Sacrament to represent and exhibit some invisible grace and benefit by an outward sign and figure And especially since it cannot be denied but that in the institution of this very Sacrament our Saviour useth figurative exressions and several words which cannot be taken strictly and literally When he gave the Cup he said This Cup is the new Testament in my Bloud which is shed for you and for many for the remission of Sins Where first the Cup is put for Wine contained in the Cup or else if the words be literally taken so as to signifie a substantial change it is not of the Wine but of the Cup and that not into the bloud of Christ but into the new Testament or new Covenant in his bloud Besides that his bloud is said then to be shed and his body to be broken which was not till his Passion which followed the Institution and first celebration of this Sacrament But that there is no necessity to understand our Saviour's words in the sense of Transubstantiation I will take the plain concession of a great number of the most learned Writters of the Church of Rome in this Controversie a de Euch. l. 3. c. 23. Bellarmine b in 3. dis 49. Qu. 75. Sect. 2. Suarez and c in 3. part dis 150. Qu. 75. art 2. c. 15. Vasquez do acknowledge Scotus the great Scholman to have said that this Doctrine cannot be evidently proved from Scripture And Bellarmine grants this not to be improbable and Suarez and Vasquez acknowledge d in sent l. 4. dist 11. qu. 1. n. 15 Durandus to have said as much e in 4. sent Q. 5. quod 4. q. 3. Ocham another famous schoolman sayes expresly that the Doctrine which holds the substance of the Bread and Wine to remain after the consecration is neither repugnant to Reason nor to Scripture f in 4 sent Q 6. art 2. Petrus ab Alliaââ Cardinal of Cambray say plainly that the Doctrine of the substance of Bread and Wine remaining after Consecration is more free from absurdity more rational and no wayes repugnant to the authority of scripture nay more that for the other Doctrine viz. of Transubstantiation there is no evidence in scripture g in canon Miss Lect. 40. Gabriel Biel another Schoolman and Divine of their Church freely declares that as to any thing express'd in the Canon of the scripture a man may believe that the substance of Bread and Wine doth remain after Consecration and therefore he resolves the belief of Transubstantiation in to some other Revelation besides scripture which he supposeth the Church had about it Cardinal h in Aquin 3. part Qu. 74 art 1. Cajetan confesseth that the Gospel doth no where express that the Bread is changed into the Body of Christ that we have this from the authority of the Church nay he goes farther that there is nothing in the Gospel which enforceth any man to understand these words of Christ this is my body in a proper and not a metaphorical sense but the Church having understood them in a proper sense they are to be so explained Which words in the Roman Edition of Cajetan are expunged by order of Pope i Aegid âânink de sacrâââ Q. 75. art 1. n. 13. Pius V. Cardinal k de sacram l. 2. c. 3. Contarenus and l Loc. Theolog l. 3. c. 3. Melchior Canus one of the best most judicious Writers that Church ever had reckon this Doctrine among those which are not so expresly found in scripture I will add but one more of great authority in the Church and a reputed Martyr m contra captiv Babylon c. 10 n. 2. Fisher Bishop of Rochester who ingenuously confesseth that in the words of the Institution there is not one word from whence the true presence of the flesh and blood of Christ in our Mass can be proved So that we need not much contend that this Doctrine hath no certain foundation in Scripture when this is so fully and frankly acknowledged by our Adversaries themselves Secondly If there be no necessity of understanding our Saviours words in the sense of Transubstantiation I am sure there is a great deal of reason to understand them otherwise Whither we consider the like expressions in scripture where our Saviour sayes he is the door and the true Viue which the Church of Rome would mightily have triumph'd in had it been said this is my true Body And so likewise where the Church is said to be Christ's body and the Rock which followed the Israelites to be Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. They drank of that Rock which followed them and that Rock was
denial that Transubstantiation hath not been the perpetual belief of the christian church And thâs likewise is acknowledged by many great and learned men of the Roman church a In Sent. l. 4. Dist 11. Q. 3. Scotus acknowledgeth that this Doctrine was not alwayes thought necessary to be believed but that the necessity of believing it was consequent to that Declaration of the Church made in the council of Lateran under Pope Innocent the III. And b In sent l. 4. dist 11. q. 1. n. 15. Durandus freely discovers his inclination to have believed the contrary if the Church had not by that determination oblidged men to believe it c de Euchar. l. 1. p. 146. Tonstal Bishop of Durham also yields that before the Lateran council men were at liberty as to the manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament And d In 1. Epist ad corinth c. 7. citan te etiam Salmerone Tom. 9. Tract 16. p. 108. Erasmus who lived and died in the communion of the Roman Church and then whom no man was better read in the ancient Fathers doth confess that it was late before the Church defined Transubstantiation unknown to the Ancients both name and thing And e De Haeres l. 8. Alphonsus a castro sayes plainly that concerning the transubstantiation of the bread into the body of Christ there is seldom any mention in the ancient Writers And who can imagine that these learned men would have granted the ancient Church and Fathers to have been so much Strangers to this Doctrine had they thought it to have been the perpetual belief of the Church I shall now in the Second place give an account of the particular time and occasion of the coming in of this Doctrine and by what steps and degrees it grew up and was advanced into an Article of Faith in the Romish Church The Doctrine of the Corporal presence of Christ was first started started upon occasion of the Dispute about the Worship of Images in opposition whereto the Synod of Constantinople about the year DCCL did argue thus That our Lord having left us no other Image of himself but the Sacrament in which the substance of bread is the image of his body we ought to make no other image of our Lord. In answer to this Argument the second Council of Nice in the year DCCLXXXVII did declare that the Sacrament after Consecration is not the image and antitype of Christs body and bloud but is properlie his body and bloud So that the corporal Body of Christ in the sacrament was first brought in to support the stupid worship of Images And indeed it could never have come in upon a more proper occasion nor have been applied to a fitter purpose And here I cannot but take notice how well this agrees with * De Eucharist l. 1. c. 1. Bellarmine's Observation that none of the Ancients who wrote of Heresies hath put this errour viz. of denying Transubstantiation in his catalogue nor did any of the Ancients dispute against this errour for the first 600 years Which is very true because there could be no occasion then to dipute against those who denied Transubstantiation since as I have shewn this Doctrine was not in being unless amongst the Eutychian Heretiques for the first 600 years and more But â¡ Ibid. Bellarmine goes on and tells us that the first who call'd in question the truth of the body of the Lord in the Eucharist were the ICONOMACHI the opposers of Images after the year DCC in the Council of Constantinople for these said there was one image of Christ instituted by himself viz the bread and wine in the Eucharist which represents the body and bloud of Christ Wherefore from that time the Greek Writers often admonish us that the Eucharist is not the figure or image of the body of the Lord but his true body as appears from the VII Synod which agrees most exactly with the account which I have given of the first rise of this Doctrine which began with the corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament and afterwards proceeded to Transubstantiation And as this was the first occasion of introducing this Doctrine among the Greek so in the Latine or Roman Church Paschasius Radbertus first a Monk and afterwards Abbot of Corbey was the first broacher of it in the year DCCCXVIII And for this besides the Evidence of History we have the acknowledgment of two very Eminent Persons in the Church of Rome Bellarmine and Sirmondus who do in effect confess that this Paschasius was the first who wrote to purpose upon this Argument * Descriptor Eccles Bellarmine in those words this Author was the first who hath seriously and copiously written concerning the truth of Christs body and bloud in the Eucharist And â In vita Paschasii Sirmoâdus in these he so first explained the genuine sense of the Catholick church that he opened the way to the rest who afterwards in great numbers wrote upon the same Argument But though Sirmondus is pleased to say that he only first explained the sense of the Catholique Church in this Point yet it is very plain from the Records of that Age which are left to us that this was the first time that this Doctrine was broached in the Latin Church and it met with great opposition in that Age as I shall have occasion hereafter to shew For Rabanus Maurus Arch-biship of Meâtz about the year DCCCXLVII reciting the very words of Paschusius wherein he had deliver'd this Doctrine hath this remarkable passage concerning the novelty of it â¡ Epist. ad Heribaldum c. 33. Some sayes he of late not having a right opinion concerning the Sacrament of the body and bloud of our Lord have said that this is the body and bloud of our Lord which was born of the Virgin Mary and in which our Lord suffered upon the cross and rose from the dead which errour sayes he we have opposed with all our might From whence it is plain by the Testimony of one of the greatest and most learned bishops of that Age and of eminent reputation for Piety that what is now the very Doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the Sacrament was then esteem'd an Errour broach'd by some particular Persons but was far from being the generally received Doctrine of that Age. Can any one think it possible that so eminent a Person in the Church both for piety and learning could have condemned this Doctrine as an Errour and a Novelty had it been the general Doctrine of the Christian Church not only in that but in all former Ages and no censure pass'd upon him for that which is now the great burning Article in the Church of Rome and esteemed by them one of the greatest and most prenicious Heresies Afterwards in the year MLIX when Berengarius in France and Germany had raised a fresh opposition against this Doctrine he was compelled to recant it by pope Nicholas
and the Council at Rome in these words * Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Lanfranc de corp sang Domini c. 5. Guitmund de sacram l. i. Alger de sacram l. 1. c. 19. that the bread and wine which are set upon the Altar after the consecration are not only the Sacrament but the true body and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ and are sensibly not onlie in the Sacrament but in truth handled and broken by the hands of the Priest ground or bruised by the teeth of the faithful But it seems the Pope and his Council were not then skilful enough to express themselves rightly in his matter for the Gloss upon the Canon Law sayes expresly â Gloss Decret de conse crat dist 2. in cap. Ege Berengarius that unless we understand these words of BERENGARIVS that is in truth of the Pope and his Council in a sound sense we shall fall into a greater Heresie then that of BERENGARIVS for we do not make parts of the body of Christ The meaning of which Gloss â cannot imagine unless it be this that the Body of Christ though it be in truth broken yet it is not broken into parts for we do not make parts of the body of Christ but into wholes Now this new way of breaking a Body not into parts but into wholes which in good earnest is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome though to them that are able to believe Transubstantiation it may for any thing I know appear to be sound sense yet to us that cannot believe so it appears to be solid non-sense About XX years after in the year MLXXIX Pope Gregory the VII Began to be sensible of this absurdity and therefore in another council at Rome made Berengarius to recant in another * Waldnes Tom. 2. c. 1â Form viz. that the bread and wine which are placed upon the Altar are substantially changed into the true and proper and quickning flesh and bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ and after consecration are the true body of Christ which was born of the Virgin and which being offered for the Salvation of the World did hang upon the cross and sits on the right hand of the Father So that from the first starting of this Doctrine in the second council of Nice in the year DCCLXXXVII till the council under Pope Gregory the VII th in the year MLXXIX it was almost three hundred years that this Doctrine was contested and before this mishapen Monster of Transubstantiation could be lick'd into that Form in which it is now setled and establish'd in the Church of Rome Here then is a plain account of the first rise of this Doctrine and of the several steps whereby it was advanced by the Church of Rome into an Article of Faith I come now in the Third place to answer the great pretended Demonstration of the impossibility that this Doctrine if it had been new should ever have come in in any Age and been received in the Church and con-consequently it must of necessity have been the perpetual belief of the Church in all Ages For if it had not alwayes been the Doctrine of the Church when ever it had attempted first to come in there would have been a great stir and bustle about it and the whole Christian World would have rose up in opposition to it But we can shew no such time when first it came in and when any such opposition was made to it and therefore it was alwayes the Doctrine of the Church This Demonstration Monsieur Arnauld a very learned Man in France pretends to be unanswerable whither it be so or not I shall briefly examine And First We do assign a punctual and very likely time of the first rise of this Doctrine about the beginning of the ninth Age though it did not take firm root nor was fully setled and establish'd till towards the end of the eleventh And this was the most likely time of all other from the begining of Christianity for so gâoss an Errour to appear it being by the confession and consent of their own Historians the most dark and dismal time that ever happened to the Christian Church both for Ignorance and Superstition and Vice It came in together with Idolatry and was made use of to support it A fit prop and companion for it And indeed what tares might not the Enemy have sown in so dark and long a Night when so considerable a part of the Christian World was lull'd a sleep in profound Ignorance and Superstition And this agrees very well with the account which our Saviour himself gives in the Parable of the Tares of the springing up of Errours and Corruptions in the Field of the Church * Matth. 13 24. While the men sleept the Enemy did his work in the Night so that when they were awake they wondered how and whence the tares came but being sure they were there and that they were not sown at first they concluded the Enemy had done it Secondliâ I have shewn likewise that there was considerable opposition made to this Errour at its first coming in The general Ignorance and gross Superstition of that Age rendered the generality of people more quiet and secure and disposed them to receive any thing that came under a pretence of mystery in Religion and of greater reverence and devotion to the Sacrament and that seemed any way to countenance the worship of Images for which at that time they were zealously concern'd But notwithstanding the security and passive temper of the People the most eminent for piety and learning in that Time made great resistance against it I have already named Rabanus Arch-Bishop of Mentz who oppos'd it as an Errour lately sprung up and which had then gained but upon some few persons To whom I may add Heribaldus Bishop of Auxerres in France Io. Scotus Erigena and Ratramnus commonly known by the name of Beriram who at the same time were imployed by the Emperour Charles the Bald to oppose this growing Errour and wrote learnedly against it And these were the eminent men for learning in that time And because Monsieur Arnauld will not be satisfied unless there some stir and bustle about it Bertram in his Preface to his book tells us that they who according to their several opinions talked differently about the mystery of Christs bodie and bloud were divided by no small Schism Thirdlie Though for a more clear satisfactory answer to this pretended Demonstration I have been contented to unty this knot yet I could without all these pains have cut it For suppose this Doctrine had silently come in and without opposition so that we could not assign the particular time and occasion of its first Rise yet if it be evident from Records of former Ages for above 500. years together that this was not the ancient belief of the Church and plain also that this Doctrine was afterwards received in the Roman Church though we could
not tell how and when it came in yet it would be the wildest and most extravagant thing in the world to set up a pretended Demonstration of Reason against plain Experience and matter of Fact This is just Zeno's Demonstration of the impossibility of motion against Diogenes walking before his Eyes For this is to undertake to prove that impossible to have been which most certainly was Just thus the Servants in the Parable might have demonstrated that the Tares were Wheat because they were sure none but good seed was sown at first and no man could give any account of the punctual time when any Tares were sown or by whom and if an Enemy had come to do it he must needs have met with great resistance and opposition but no such resistance was made and therefore there could be no Tares in the field but that which they call'd Tares was certainly good wheat At the same rate a man might demonstrate that our King his Majesty of great Britain is not return'd into England nor restor'd to his Crown because there being so great and powerful an Army possess'd of his Lands and therefore oblidged by interest to keep him out it was impossible He should ever come in without a great deal of fighting and bloud shed but there was no such thing therefore he is not return'd and restor'd to his Crown And by the like kind of Demonstration one might prove that the Turk did not invade Christendom last year and besiege Vienna because if he had the most Christian King who had the greatest Army in Christendom in a readiness would certainly have imployed it against him but Monsieur Arnauld certainly knowes no such thing was done And therefore according to his way of Demonstration the matter of fact so commonly reported and believed concerning the Turks Invasion of Christendom and besieging Vienna last year was a perfect mistake But a man may demonstrate till his head and heart ake before he shall ever be able to prove that which certainly is or was never to have been For of all sorts of impossibles nothing is more evidently so then to make that which hath been not to have been All the reason in the world is too weak to cope with so tough and obstinate a difficulty And I have often wonder'd how a man of Monsieur Arnaulds great wit and sharp Judgement could prevail with himself to engage in so bad and baffled a cause or could think to defend it with so wooden a Dagger as his Demonstration of Reason against certain Experience and matter of Fact A thing if it be possible of equal absurdity with what he pretends to demonstrate Transubstantiation it self I proceed to the Third pretended Ground of this Doctrine of Transubstantiation and that is The Infallible Authority of the present Church to make and declare new Articles of Faith And this in truth is the ground into which the most of the Learned Men in their Church did heretofore and many do still resolve their belief of this Doctrine And as I have already shewn do plainly say that they see no sufficient reason either from Scripture or Tradition for the belief of it And that they should have believed the contrary had not the determination of the Church oblidged them otherwise But if this Doctrine be obtruded upon the world merely by vertue of the Authority of the Roman Church and the Declation of the Council under Pope Gregory the VII or of the Lateran Council under Innocent the III. then it is plain Innovation in the Christian Doctrine and a new Article of Faith impos'd upon the Christian World And if any Church hath this power the Christian Faith may be enlarged and changed as often as men please and that which is no part of our Saviour's Doctrine nay any thing though never so absurd and unreasonable may become an Article of Faith oblidging all Christians to the belief of it when ever the Church of Rome shall think fit to stamp her Authority upon it which would make Christianity a most uncertain and endless thing The Fourth pretended ground of this Doctrine is the necessity of such a change as this in the Sacrament to the comfort and benefit of those who receive it But there is no colour for this if the thing be rightly consider'd Because the comfort and benefit of the Sacrament depends upon the blessing annexed to the Institution And as Water in Baptism without any substantial change made in that Element may by the Divine blessing accompanying the Institution be effectual to the washing away of Sin and Spiritual Regeneration So there can no reason in the world be given why the Elements of Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper may not by the same Divine blessing accompanying this Institution make the worthy receivers partakers of all the Spiritual comfort and benefit designed to us thereby without any substantial change made in those Elements since our Lord hath told us that verily the flesh profiteth nothing So that if we could do so odd and strange a thing as to eat the very natural flesh and drink the bloud of our Lord I do not see of what greater advantage it would be to us then what we may have by partaking of the Symbols of his body and bloud as he hath appointed in remembrance of him For the spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament doth not depend upon the nature of the thing received supposing we receive what our Lord appointed and receive it with a right preparation and disposition of mind but upon the supernatural blessing that goes along with it and makes it effectual to those Spiritual ends for which it was appointed The Fifth and last pretended ground of this Doctrine is to magnify the power of the Priest in being able to work so great a Miracle And this with great pride and pomp is often urg'd by them as a transcendent instance of the Divine Wisdom to find out so admirable a way to raise the power and reverence of the Priest that he should be able every day and as often as he pleases by repeating a few words to work so miraculous a change and as they love most absurdly and blasphemously to speak to make God himself But this is to pretend to a power above that of God himself for he did not nor cannot make himself nor do any thing that implies a contradiction as Transubstantiation evidently does in their pretending to make God For to make that which already is and to make that now which alwayes was is not only vain and trifling if it could be done but impossible because it implies a contradiction And what if after all Transubstantiation if it were possible and actually wrought by the Priest would yet be no Miracle For there are two things necessary to a Miracle that there be a supernatural effect wrought and that this effect be evident to sense So that though a supernatural effect be wrought yet if it be not evident âo sense it
is to all the ends and purposes of a Miracle as if it were not and can be no testimony or proof of any thing because it self stands in need of another Miracle to give testimony to it and to prove that it was wrought And neither in scripture nor in profane Authours nor in common use of speech is any thing call'd a Miracle but what falls under the notice of our senses A Miracle being nothing else but a supernatural effect evident to sense the great end and design whereof is to be a sensible proof and conviction to us of something that we do not see And for want of this Condition Transubstantiation if it were true would be no miracle It would indeed be very supernatural but for all that it would not be a Sign or Miracle For a Sign or Miracle is alwayes a thing sensible otherwise iâ could be no Sign Now that such a change as is pretended in Transubstantiation should really be wrought and yet there should be no sign and appearance of it is a thing very wonderfull but not to sense for our senses perceive no change the bread and wine in the sacrament to all our senses remaining just as they were before And that a thing should remain to all appearance just as it was hath nothing at all of wonder in it we wonder indeed when we see a strange thing done but no man wonders when he sees nothing done So that Transubstantiation if they will needs have it a Miracle is such a Miracle as any man may work that hath but the confidence to face men down that he works it and the fortune to be believed And though the Church of Rome may magnify their Priests upon account of this Miracle which they say they can work every day and every hour yet I cannot understand âhe reason of it for when this great work as they call it is done there is nothing more appears to be done then it there were no Miracle Now such a Miracle as to all appearance is no miracle I see no reason why a Protestant Minister as well as a Popâsh Priest may not work as often as he pleases or if he can buâ have the patience to let it alone it will work it self For surely nothing in the world is easier then to let a thing be as it is and by speaking a few words over it to make it just what was before Every Man every day may work ten thousand such Mâracles And thus I have dispatch'd the First part of my Discourse which was to consider the pretended grounds and Reasons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine and to shew the weakness and insufficiency of them I come in the SECOND place to produce our Objections against II. it Which will be of so much the greater force because I have already shewn this Doctrine to be destitute of all Divine warrant and authority of any other sort of Ground sufficient in reason to justifie it So that I do not now object against a Doctrine which hath a fair probability of Divine Revelation on its side for that would weigh down all objections which did not plainly overthrow the probability and credit of its Divine Revelation But I object against a Doctrine by the mere will and Tyranny of men impos'd upon the belief of Christians without any evidence of Scripture and against all the evidence of Reason and Sense The Objections I shall reduce to these two Heads First the infinite scandal of this Doctrine to the Christian Religion And Secondly the monstrous and insupportable absurdity of it First The infinite scandal of this Doctrine to the Christian Religion And that upon these four accounts 1. Of the stupidity of this Doctrine 2. The real barbarousness of this Sacrament and Rite of our Religion upon supposition of the truth of this Doctrine 3. Of the cruel and bloudy consequences of it 4. Of the danger of Idolatry which they are certainly guilty of if this Doctrine be not true 1. Upon account of the stupidity of this Doctrine I remember that Tully who was a man of very good sense instanceth in the conceit of eating God as the extremity of madness and so stupid an apprehension as he thought no man was ever guilty of * De Nat. Deorum l. 3. When we call sayes he the fruits of the earth Ceres and wine Bacchus we use but the common language but do you think any man so mad as to believe that which be eats to be God It seems he could not believe that so extravagant a folly had ever entered into the mind of man It is a very severe saying of Averroes the Arabian Philosopher who lived after this Doctrine was entertained among Christians and ought to make the Church of Rome blush if she can * Dionys Carthus in 4. dist 10. art 1. I have travell'd sayes he over the World and have found divers Sects but so sottish a Sect or Law I never found as is the Sect. of the Christians because with their own teeth they devour their God whom they worship It was great stupidity in the People of Israel to say Come let us make us Gods but it was civilly said of them Let us make Gods that may go before us in comparison of the Church of Rome who say Let us make a God that we may eat him So that upon the whole matter I cannot but wonder that they should chuse thus to expose Faith to the contempt of all that are endued with Reason And to speak the plain truth the Christian Religion was never so horribly exposed to the scorn of Atheists and Infidels as it hath been by this most absurd and senseless Doctrine But thus it was foretold that â 2 Thess 2. 10. the Man of Sin should come with power and Signs and Lying Miracles and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness with all the Legerdemain and jugling tricks of falsehood and imposture amongst which this of Transubstantiation which they call a Miracle and we a Cheat is one of the chief And in all probability those common jugling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus by way of ridiculous imitation of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation Into such contempt by this foolish Doctrine and pretended Miracle of theirs have they brought the mosâ sacred and venerable Mystery of our Religion 2. It is very scandalous likewise upon account of the real Barbarousness of this Sacrament and Rite of our Religion upon supposition of the truth of this Doctrine Literally to eat the flesh of the Son of man and to drink his bloud St. Austine as I have shewed before declares to be a great Impiety And the impiety and barbarousness of the thing is not in truth extenuated but only the appearance of it by its being done under the species of bread and Wine For the thing they acknowledge is really done and they believe that they
they saw them were deceived then there might be no Miracles wrought and consequently it may justly be doubted whither that kind of confirmation which God hath given to the Christian Religion would be strong enough to prove it supposing Transubstantiation to be a part of it Because every man hath as great evidence that Transubstantiation is false as he hath that the Christian Religion is true Suppose then Transubstantiation to be part of the Christian Doctrine it must have the same confirmation with the whole and that is Miracles But of all Doctrines in the world it is peculiarly incapable of being proved by a Miracle For if a Miracle were wrought for the proof of it the very same assurance which any man hath of the truth of the Miracle he hath of the falsehood of the Doctrine that is the clear evidence of his senses For that there is a Miracle wrought to prove that what he sees in the Sacrament is not bread but the body of Christ there is only the evidence of sense and there is the very same evidence to prove that what he sees in the Sacrament is not the Body of Christ but bread So that here would arise a new Controversie whither a man should rather believe his senses giving testimony against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or bearing witness to a Miracle wrought to confirm that Doctrine there being the very same evidence against the truth of the Doctrine which there is for the truth of the Miracle And then the Argument for Transubstantiation and ãâã Objection against it would just balance one another and consequeââly Transubstantiation is not to be proved by a Miracle because thâ would be to prove to a man by some thing that he sees that he dâ not see what he sees And if there were no other evidence that Trââsubstantiation is no part of the Christian Doctrine this would ââ sufficient that what proves the one doth as much overthâââ the other and that Miracles which are certainly the best and higââ external proof of Christianity are the worst proof in the world of Trââsubstantiation unless a man can renounce his senses at the same tââ that he relies upon them For a man cannot believe a Miracle withoââ relying upon sense nor Transubstantiation without renouncing it Sâ that never were any two things so ill coupled together as the Doctriââ of Christianity and that of Transubstantiation because they draw sâveral ways and are ready to strangle one another because thâ main evidence of the Christian Doctrine which is Miracles is resââved into the certainty of sense but this evidence is clear and poiââ blank against Transubstantiation 4. And Lastly I would ask what we are to think of the Argumeââ which our Saviour used to convince his Disciples after his Resurrectâon that his Body was really risen and that they were not deluded by â Ghost or Apparition Is it a necessary and conclusive Argâment or not * Luke 24. 3â 39. And he said unto them why are yââ troubled and why do thoughts arise in your heartsâ Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self âââ a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me hââ But now if we suppose with the Church of Rome the Doctrine oâ Transubstantiation to be true and that he had instructed his Disâciples in it just before his death strange thoughts might justly havâ risen in their hearts and they might have said to him Lord it iâ but a few dayes ago since thou didst teach us not to believe our senses but directly contrary to what we saw viz. That the bread whicâ thou gavest us in the Sacrament though we saw it and handled iâ and tasted it to be bread yet was not bread but thine own natural body and now thou appealest to our senses to prove that thiâ is thy body which we now see If seeing and handling be an unquestionable evidence that things are what they appear to ouâ senses then we were deceived before in the Sacrament and if they be not then we are not sure now that this is thy body which we now see and handle but it may be perhaps bread under the appearance of flesh and bones just as in the Sacrament that which we saw and handled and tasted to be bread was thy flesh and bones under the form and appearance of bread Now upon this supposition it would have been a hard matter to have quieted the thoughââ âf the Disciples For if the Argument which our Saviour used did âârtainly prove to them that what they saw and handled was his ââdy his very natural flesh and bones ãâã because they saw and âandled them which it were impious to deny is would as strongââ prove that what they saw and received before in the Sacrament was âot the natural body and bloud of Christ but real bread and wine ând consequently that according to our Saviours arguing after his âesurrection they had no reason to believe Transubstantiation before âor that very Argument by which our Saviour proves the reality of his âody after his Resurrection doth as strongly prove the reality of bread ând wine after consecration But our Saviours Argument was most ââfallibly good and true and therefore the Doctrine of Transubstanââation is undoubtedly false Upon the whole matter I shall only say this that some other âoints between us and the Church of Rome are managed with some âind of witâ and subtilty but this of Transubstantiation is carâied out by mere dint of impudence and facing down of Manâind And of this the more discerning persons of that Church are of âate grown so sensible that they would now be glad to be rid of this âodious and ridiculous Doctrine But the Council of Trent hath fastâned it to their Religion and made it a necessary and essential Point of their Belief and they cannot now part with it if they would it is like a Mill-stone hung about the neck of Popery which will sink it at the last And though some of their greatest Wits as Cardinal Perron and of late Monsieur Arnauld have undertaken the defence of it in great Volumes yet it is an absurdity of that monstrous and massy weight that no humane authority or witâ are able to support it It will make the very Pillars of St. Peter's crack and requires more Volumes to make it good then would fill the Vatican And now I would apply my self to the poor deluded People of that Church if they were either permitted by their Priests or durst venture without their leave to look into their Religion and to examine the Doctrines of it Consider and shew your selves men Do not suffer your selves any longer to be led blindfold and by an implicit Faith in your Priests into the belief of nonsense and contradiction Think it enough and too much to let them rook you of your money for pretended Pardons and counterfeit Reliques but let not the Authority of any Priest or Church perswade you out of your senses
Credulity is certainly a fault as well as Infidelity And he who said blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed hath no where said blessed are they that have seen and yet have not believed much less blessed are they that believe directly contrary to what they see To conclude this Discourse By what hath been said upon this Argument it will appear with how little truth and reason and regard to the interest of our common Christianity it is so often said by our Adversaries that there are as good arguments for the belief of Transubstantiation as of the Doctrine of the Trinity When they themselves do acknowledge with us that the Doctrine of the Trinity is grounded upon the Scriptures and that according to the interpretation of them by the consent of the ancient Fathers But their Doctrine of Transubstantiation I have plainly shewn to have no such ground and that this is acknowledged by very many learned men of their own Church And this Doctrine of theirs being first plainly proved by us to be destitute of all Divine Warrant and Authority our Objections against it from the manifold contradictions of it to Reason and sense are so many Demonstrations of the falsehood of it Against all which they have nothing to put in the opposite Scale but the Infallibility of their Church for which there is even less colour of proof from Scripture then for Transubstantiation it self But so fond are they of their own Innovations and Errours that rather then the Dictates of their Church how groundless and absurd soever should be call'd in question rather then not have their will of us in imposing upon us what they please they will owerthrow any Article of the Christian Faith and shake the very foundations of our common Religion A clear evidence that this Church of Rome is not the true Mother since she can be so well contented that Christianity should be destroyed rather then the Point in question should be decided against her FINIS A DISCOURSE Concerning the ADORATION OF THE HOST As it is Taught and Practiced in the CHURCH of ROME Wherein an Answer is given to T. G. oâ that Subject And to Monsieut Boileau's late book De Adoratione Eucharistiae Paris 1685. EDINEVRGH Re-printed by John Reid Anno DOM 1686. A DISCOURSE OF THE ADORATION Of the HOST c. IDolatry is so great a Blot in any Church what ever other glorious Marks it may pretend to that it is not to be wondred that the Church of Rome is very angry to be charged with it as it has alwayes been by all the Reform'd who have given in this among many others as a just and necessary Reason of their Reformation and it must be confessed to be so if it be fully and clearly made good against it and if it be not it must be owned to be great Uncharitableness on the other side which is no good Note of a Church neither as grievous Slander and most uncharitable Calumny which will fall especially upon all the Clergy of the Church of England who by their Consent and Subscription to its Articles and to the Doctrine of its Homilies and to the Book of Common Prayer do expresly join in it For it is not the private Opinion only of some particular and forward men in their Zeal and Heat against Popery thus to accuse it of Idolatry but it is the deliberate and sober and downright Charge of the Church of England of which no honest man can be a Member and Minister who does not make and believe it I might give several Instances to shew this but shall only mention one wherein I have undertaken to defend our Church in its charge of Idolatry upon the Papists in their Adoration of the Host which is in its Declaration about Kneeling at the Sacrament after the Office of the Communion in which are these remarkeable words It is hereby declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or unto any corporal presence of Christs natural Flesh and Blood for the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians Here it most plainly declares its mind against that which is the Ground and Foundation of their Worshipping the Host That the Elements do not remain in their natural Substances after Consecration if they do remain as we and all Protestants hold even the Lutherians then in Worshipping the consecrated Elements they worship meer Creatures and are by their own Confession guilty of Idolatry as I shall shew by and by and if Christs natural Flesh and Blood âe not corporally present there neither with the Substance nor Signs of the Elements then the Adoring what there is most be the Adoring some things else then Christs body and if Bread only be there and they adore that which is there they must surely adore the Bread it self in the opinion of our Church but I shall afterwards state the Controversie more exactly between us Our Church has here taken notice of the true Issue of it and declared that to be false and that it is both Unfit and Idolatrous too to Worship the Elements upon any account after Consecration and it continued of the same mind and exprest iâ is particularly and directly in the Canons of 1640. where it sayes a Canon 7. 1640. about placing the Communion Table under this head A Declaration about some Rites and Ceremonis That for the cause of the Idolatry committed in the Mass all Popish Altars were demolish'd so that none can more fully charge them with Idolatry in this point then our Church has done It recommends at the same time but with great Temper and Moderation the religious Gesture of bowing towards the Altar both before and out of the time of Celebration of the Holy Eucharist and in it and in neither a Ib. can 7. 1â40 Vpon any opinion of a corporal presence of Christ on the Holy Table or in the mystical Elements but only to give outward and bodily as well as inward worship to the Divine Majesty and it commands all Persons to receive the Sacrament Kneeling b Rubric at Communion in a posture of Adoration as the Primitive Church used to do with the greatest Expression of Reverence and Humility tropo proskynesios kai sebasmatos St. Cyrill of Hierusalem speaks c Cyril Hierosolym Catech. Mystag 5. and as I shall shew is the meaning of the greatest Authorities they produce out of the Ancients for Adoration not to but at the Sacrament so far are we from any unbecoming or irreverent usage of that Mystery as Bellarmine d Controv. de Eucharist when he is angry with those who will not Worship it tells them out of Optatus that the Donatists gave it to Dogs and out of Victor Vticencis that the Arriaâs trod it under their Feet
when your fear cometh so St. Luke 15. The rich Glutton is tormented who was alwayes for spending his present time in riot and luxury he applauds himself in his wisdom and foresight when he had made such plentifull provisions for many years ease and pleasure but alas how soon is his unprepared Soul surprized with a sad arrest of Death how blank did the Fool then look when he heard the fatal news that that night should put an end to all his hopes How was he confounded with the terrours of the other World poor Wretch how did he tremble when he found himself beset with Devils and damned Spirits On the other side Lazarus is comforted because he did his work in this World through much poverty and hardship he got at last to Heaven This is the case of all Men an eternity of happiness or misery awaits them hereafter there is no other state of things so great and so unalterable the Divine Providence hath made use of all the best and wisest methods to disabuse the enchanted reason of Man that he may not be miserable but happy for ever and if Men could be brought seriously to reflect on the dismal and astonishing events of a wicked life they would never suffer themselves to be so much imposed upon by Cheats and Impostâââs who recommend to them an implicite Faith and a belief in such a state as Purgatory whereby their eyes are shut that they may not be affrighted by the sight of their misery The fears of one Party betray Men into Superstition the vices of another into Atheism the covetousness of a third draws them into most pernicious mistakes about the World to come But if Men would be at the pains to enquire into the affairs of Religion and be not indifferent whither their condition hereafter be happy or miserable they will easily discover its principles to be highly reasonable and the keeping of its Commandments to be their highest interest they will plainly see the paths of Truth and Blessedness for it sets down the most easie rules both for living well and for believing right because errours in Belief are the less destructive of Christianity and the ends thereof then a general viciousness of manners is But if Men will be Fools and follow trifling opinions no wonder if they perish by their own folly do they believe the immortality of the Soul a future state or a judgment to come If they believe all this to what a degree of madness do they act that will venture the fury of an Almighty vengeance for the sake of obeying one sort of Men who have contrived New and Antiscriptural Articles of Faith who will run the hazard of forfeiting an eternal Happiness and of being cast into an eternal Flame because they fansie their Church is an infallible guide whereas St. Paul writting to the Romans speaks not one word of their priviledge of infallibility but rather puts them in fear in the 11. chap. That they as well as the Jews were in danger of falling away St. Peter also in his Catholick Epistles doth not once acquaint the Christians whom he writes to what Guide they were follow after his departure there was no need for any such thing for he had all along told them that by following the Scripture they may be saved having then an infallible way there was no use at least no necessity of an infallible Guide But as the Church of Rome without any colour of reason sets up for an infallible Guide in points of Controversie so with like boldness she may lay claim as some of her disciples do to demonstration in matters of Faith whereas if we will define Faith to be that assent by which we receive the word of God as such and upon account thereof give assent to all things which therein are propounded to us to be believed then there are to be assigned two several acts of Faith one of which is that judgment by which we acknowledge that word to be truly divine the other is that assent which we give to all those things that are contained therein Faith in the former respect is less certain then science but in respect of adherence is more certain then the other Now there cannot be so great a certainty in Faith as in science the Mathematicks for instance because Faith is more lyable to doubting then science is If any Man perceives the strength and force of a Geometrical Demonstration he cannot in the mean while doubt of the conclusion but now a true Believer doth often strugle with doubting and unbelief wherewith his Faith is assaulted and yet it ceaseth not to be true Faith We must confess that the mind doth less clearly perceive this to be the word of God then it doth those things which are self-evident and the conclusions logically deduced from There is no reason therefore that any one should fear to acknowledge that assent to be also less certain notwithstanding it follows not upon this account that Faith is uncertain for That which arises not to the certainty of the science is not therefore uncertain for although that certainty which is called Moral be of an inferiour degree to Demonstration yet it is a true certainty leaves the mind satisfied and free from doubt But how can a Man be said to have a certainty greater then that of science when he hath not that certainty of evidence from the Arguments upon which the matter is grounded It may be answered that no Man can deny but there may be just cause why a Man may adhere to the objects of his Faith more strongly then the Arguments brought for the truth thereof do require For when a Man is sufficiently perswaded by due reasons and arguments that what is propounded to him for Divine Revelation is indeed such this Man if he duly attends and seriously considers that it is God who speaks he will be wholly bent to yield obedience thereunto he will entertain the word of God with the highest veneration he will closely adhere to it and he will be fully resolved to suffer and renounce all things rather then withdraw his assent from those matters of Faith which are contained in it and confirmed by it From thence there arises in his mind a greater or at least a more effectual adherence to the Articles of his Faith then there is in Science for the mind so affected and disposed doth more affectionately embrace and more firmly hold that word of God then any thing else by what light soever it be propounded or by whatever strength of demonstration it be confirmed Neither is there any knowledge which he doth so carefuly retain nor is there any assent which he will suffer so hardly or with such difficulty to be forced from him which firmness of Faith and strong adherence of mind to the objects of it is not produced by the evidence thereof but by the great weight and moment of it for the mind being enlightened by the holy Spirit understands
Church and Christian will be both lost which would be as if a Prince should knock all his Subjects on the Head to keep them quiet 'T is true this would be an effectual way to procure it but by these means he must lose his Kingdom and make himself no Prince into the bargain 'T is no doubt but if Men were ignorant enough they would be quiet but then the consequences of it would be that they would cease to be Men. Lastly They frustrate the effects of real Religion by their Pretences to extraordinary Power and Priviledges that is they pretend to make that lawfull which is unlawfull Bellarmine saith that the Pope may declare vice to be vertue and vertue vice by this practice they attempt to change the reason of things which all Mankind agree to be unalterable By this pretended Power they can turn attrition into contrition that is they can make such a consternation of mind as fell upon Judas when he went and hanged himself to be contrition by the Priest's Absolution they can mâke bodily Pennance to be of equal validity with an inward change of mind and true Repentance they pretend they can produce by I know not what magical force strange spiritual effects by vertue of Holy Water and the Cross they are also much puff't up with a Power they assume of Absolving Men from solemn Oaths and Obligations They boast much of the efficacy of Indulgences for the pardon of sin and for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory by which Invention they detract from the efficacy of God's Grace as if it were not sufficient to prepare us for and at last to bring us to Heaven unless we pass through this imaginary Purgation after Death by which also they themselves are deceived whilst they couple prayer for the Dead and Purgatory together as if the one did necessarily suppose or imply the other But they doe not for though the sins of the Faithfull be privately and particularily forgiven at the day of Death yet the publick promulgation of their pardon is to come at the day of Judgment Christians then may be allowed to pray for this consummation of Blessedness when the Body shall be reunited to the Soul So we pray as often as we say Thy Kingdom come or come Lord Jesus coââ quickly this is far enough from being a Prayer to deliver them out of Purgatory besides the Roman Church is not able to produce any one Prayer publick or private nor one Indulgence for the delivery of any one Soul out of Purgatory in all the Primitive times or out of their own ancient Missals or Records All these things before mentioned are not to be justified but thus the Papists have endeavoured to spoil the best Religion that ever was made known unto Men. Whereas the Christian Religion as it is professed in the Reformed Church is quite another thing for it doth neither persecute nor hold any principâes of faction or disturbance but only those of peace and obedience to the Laws of God and Man if there be any agitatours of Miscief and Treason it is the fault of particular parties and not to be charged upon the Reformed Church which Church holds the Worship of God and all other offices of Religion to be performed in the Vulgar Tongue so that Knowledge may be thereby had and promoted which Knowledge of Religion if any Man doth abuse for the ends of Pride Rebellion or Heresie he doth it at his own peril and God will judge him for it But St. Paul is so far from allowing any Service to God in an unknown Tongue that he calls it a piece of madness 1 Cor. 14. 23. If the whole Church be come together into one place and all speak with divers tongues and there come in the unlearned will not they say that you are mad that is they may justly say so Now a Man would wonder that any society of Men retaining the Name of Christians should zealously press that to be necessary for the Christian Church which St. Paul hath said to be a piece of madness The same Reformed Church owns the free use of the Scriptures both in publick and private calls upon Men as our Savâour did to search them for these make the Man of God perfect and do richly furnish him for every good work and by their help we are able to render a reason of the hope that is in us We do declare that the Preachers of the Church ought not to take away the Key of Knowledge from the People as our Saviour charges the Pharisees or as St. Augustine saith They do not command Faith in Men upon peril of Damnation to shew their superioritie but they appear as Officers do direct and give Counsel not with Pride to rule but in Compassion to lead others into the way of Truth and to recover them out of mislakes In short we tell the People that the Scripture is the only rule of their faith that it is full and perspicuous in all matters necessary for good life and practicâ so that if they use diligence and mind them well they may easily understand them and be satiâfied we never demand any implicite Faith from them neiâher do we expect that they should resign up their Faculties as others believe blindfold and withâut reason Therefore the Reformed Church is honest in all its dealings doth not deceive Men âe any wâyes of fraud or faâshood such as the whole Doctrine of Merit âs and the Relieving of Souls out of Purgatory by Massâs But there is a plâce in the World where Coelum est venale Deusque Heaven and God himself is set to sale The premisses considered we may conclude that the Church of England had good reason to declare in her twenty second Aââcle that The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of Reliqâes and aâso Invââation ââ Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warraâââ of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God For the whole Scripture is against Purgatory wheâein wâ reaâ 1 Joh. 1. 7. That the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin that the Children of God who die in Cââist do rest from their labours that as they are absent from the Lord wâââe theâ aââ in the body so when they are absent from the body âhey aâe present with the Lord Joh. 5. 24. They come not into Judgemenâ but pass from Death to Life The same Doctrine is taughâ bââââ ancient Fathers of the Chuâchâ Tertullian Tertul. lib de patien ch 3. sayes it is an Injury to Christ to maintain that such as be called from hence by him are in a Cyprian de Mortali sect 2. edit Goulart state that should be pitied Thus St. Cyprian affiâms the Servants of God to have Peace and Rest as soon as they are withdrawn from the storms of this lower World And Hilary observes in the Gospel Hilar. in Psal 2. of the
Rich Man and Lazarus S. Basil Prooem in Regulas c. that every one is sent eiâher to Abraham's bosome or to torments as soon as this Life is ended St. Baâil declares this Nazianz. orati 9. ad Julianum World to be the time of Repentance the other of Retribution this of Hierom. Epist 25. Working that of receiving a Reward So Nazianzen in his Funeral Orations plainly denies âhat after this Life there is any purging to be expected and therefore he tells us that it is better to be purged now then be sent into torments where the time of punishing is and not of purging St. Hierome also comforts Paula for the Death of her Daughter after this manner let the Dead be lamented but let us whom Christ cometh forth to meet after our departure be the more grieved because so long as we remain here we are Pilgrims from God I could cite more Fathers to this purpose but the Testimonies of these may suffice to shew that all were not of Bellarmin's minâ as he pretends by his precarious assertion that antiquity constantly taught there was a Purgatory Whereas the Grecians are so far from being of his Faith that they do not believe it at this day The oldest and best Authours that I know to be on his side are Plato in his Gorgias and Phoedo Tully in the end of the Dream of Scipio and Virgil in his sixth Aeneide Tertullian likewise when he was an Heretick seemed to favour his opinion and Origen was very much of that Beâief who acknowledges no other punishment after this life but Purgatory-pains only Notwithstanding the Romish Clergy have the confidence to impose this extravagant Doctrine upon the World now it was never heard of in the Church for the space of a Thousand years after the Birth of our Sayiour when Thomas Aquinas and other Fryars had framed the cheat the Doctours of the Greek Church did publickly oppose it afterwards the Pope and his Agents prevailed so far in the Council Council Florentin sess 25. at Florence that for Peace sâke they were contented to yield That the middle sort of Souls were in a Place of punishment but whither that were Fire Darkness and Tempest or something else they would not contend But as I have said the Greek Church the Muscovites and Russians the Cophtites and Abassines the Georgians and Armenians could never be brought to submit to it But this opinion with some others no less absurd and ridiculous came into the World when Ignorance and Interest had fatally depraved the Primitive purity of the Christian Faith and Worship The broachers of these Fictions are very crafty and industrious in contriving wayes how they may fasten them upon credulous People and although it is more then an hundred years since our Ancestours threw off the Pope's Tyranny yet if he doth not meet with a proportionable zeal in their Posterity to oppose his designs it will not be hard to conjecture the success of a vigorous attacque and a faint defence As therefore we are Memberr of a Christian Church in which we may assuredly find Salvation if we continue in it let us be firmly united among our selves against all innovations in Religion As we have no other rule of Faith and practice then the Holy Scripture let us reject all notorious innovations that are obtruded upon us for fundamentals As we are taught to be obedient to the supreme Magistrate not only for Wrath but Conscience sake so we are bound to avoid the Communion of that Church which claims a power of deposing him and of knocking those on the head who keep close to the Faith once delivered to the Saints What obligations then have we to the Church we are of and to the Religion we profess which hath delivered us from the Laws of the Roman Religion that are written in Bloud that hath recovered us from the Idolatrous practice of the heathen World that will not suffer us to Worship Images or fall down to the stock of a Tree that doth not rob us of the benefit of publick Prayers by putting them into an unknown tongue that doth not enjoyn an implicite Faith or blind obedience but allows to every Christian a judgmentââ of Discretion who keeps within the bounds of due obedience and submission to his lawfull Superiours that he may prove all things hold fast That which is good a Church that hath no pardons at a set price for guilty persons no forged miracles to amuse the credulous and ignorant no pompous shews Beads Tickets Agnus Dei's Rosaries to please the Vulgar or to gratifie the superstitious If therefore we have any love of our Religion or any concern for the happiness of our Church and Nation if we have any desire to hold the freedom of our Consciences or any care for the eternal safety of our Souls it behoves us to beware of the Emissaries of Rome in whose success we must expect to forfeit all these interests every one of which ought to be dearer to us then our lives Let us not be imposed upon by the specious Name of Roman Catholick it is a mere contradiction one of the Pope's Bulls as if he should say universal particular a Catholick Schismatick Let us not be afraid to encounter this pretended Catholick with the Councils and Fathers though these are a Labyrinth an intangled Wood which Papists love to fight in not so much with hope of victory as to hide the shame of an open overthrow which in this kind of combat many of our Divines have given them But let them bound their Disputations on the Scripture onely and an ordinary Protestant well read in the Bible may turn and wind their ablest Doctours for as among Papists their ignorance in the Scripture chiefly upholds Popery so amongst Protestants the frequent and serious reading thereof will soonest baffle it And we need not doubt of an entire conquest if we add to this the amendment of our lives with all speed left through impenitency pride luxury bold and open Atheism uncharitable jarring and pelting at one another through stubborn disobedience to the Laws of GOD and Man we run into that sottishly which we seek so warily to avoid the worst of Superstitions that enervates and destroyes the whole design of Christianity FINIS A DISCOURSE CONCERNING AURICULAR CONFESSION As it is prescribed by the COUNCIL OF TRENT And practised in the CHURCH of ROME With a Post script on occasion of a Book lately printed in France called Historia Confessionis Auricularis EDINBVRGH Re-printed by John Reid Anno DOM. 1686. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING AURICULAR CONFESSION THE Zealots of the Church of Rome are wont to Glory of the singular advantages in the Communion of that Church especially in respect of the greater means and helps of Spiritual comfort which they pretend are to be had there above and beyond what are to be found amongst other Societies of Christians Which one thing if it could be as substantially made out as
here undertake to make good which is accounted a difficult Province but the Council of Trent hath relieved us in that particular by founding the Institution expresly upon that one passage of the Gospel Joh. 20. 2z So that we shall not need to examine the whole Body of Scripture to discover what footsteps of Divine Institution may be found here or there for the Councill wholly insists and relies upon that Text of St. John and therefore if that fail them the whole Hypothesis falls to the ground Now for the clearing of this let us lay the words before us and they are these He breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained Here I appeal to any Man that hath Eyes in his Head or Ears to hear whither in this Text there be any one word of Auricular Confession or much less of such a circumstantiated one as they require And this is so manifest and notorious that their own ancient Canonists and several of their learned Divines are ashamed of the pretence of Divine Institution founded upon this or any other passage of Scripture and therefore are content to defend the practice of the Church of Rome in this particular upon the account of the Authority and general usage of the Church which we shall come to examine by and by in its due place In the mean time I cannot choose but admire the mighty Faith of a Romanist who can believe in spight of his own Eyes It seemed to us an unsuperable difficulty heretofore for a Man to perswade himself that in the Sacrament of the Eucharist Bread was transubstantiated into Flesh because it was against the express Testimony of Sense yea although for that there was the countenance of Five figurative but mistaken words to support the credulity but this of the Sacrament of Penance clearly out does it for here a Man must believe a thing to be when as there is not so much as one word for the ground of his Faith or the proof of the thing in question How many Sacraments may not such men have if they please What voluminous Creeds may not they swallow and digest What Mountains may not such a wonderful Faith remove But let us hear what they have to say for themselves perhaps in the first place they will plead the Authority of the Council of Trent which hath peremptorily determined the sense of the passage of the Gospel to the purpose aforesaid Indeed that Council in the third Canon of their fourteenth Session doth damne all those who deny that a Sacrament of Penance and Auricular Confession is prescribed in that Text of St. John or who apply it to any other purpose But in so doing they both usurp a Prerogative which was never pretended to or practised by any Council before them and withal they betray a consciousness that the Text it self yeilded no sufficient evidence of the thing which they designed to countenance by it for what Councils ever till now brought a Text and then imposed an Interpretation upon it contrary to the words And then back'd that Interpretation with an Anathema If the Text were plain or could be made so why was not that done And to be sure if that cannot be done by other means the curse will not do it at least to any but very obedient Roman consciences Besides if this course be allowed I see not but a Council may bring in what Religion they please having first made a Nose of Wax of the Holy Scripture and then writhed it into what shape they best phansy for in such a case if the words of the Gospel do not favour me I can govern the sense and if the letter be silent or intractable I can help that with an Interpretation and if I have authority or confidence enough to impose that under the peril of Anathema I am no longer an Interpreter or a Judge but a Law-giver and need not trouble my self with Scriptum est but may if I will speak plain say decretum est and the business is done But if neither the Letter of Scripture nor the Authority of a Council will do in this case then in the second place they think they have at least some colour of Reason to relieve them and if they cannot find Auricular Confession in the Text yet they will by consequence infer it thence for they say although indeed it is true it is not here expresly mentioned yet it is certain that our Saviour in the Text before us instituted a Sacrament of penance and therefore Auricular Confession must necessarily be implied because absolution cannot be without confession Here the Reader will observe that the point in Question between us is very much altered for we are now fallen from the consideration of the Divine Institution of Auricular confession in particular to that of a Sacrament of Penance in general i. e. from direct proof to a subintelligitur But we will follow them hither also and for the clearing of this matter we will briefly consider these three things 1. Whither that can properly be said to be of Divine Institution and necessary to salvation which depends on an inference and is proved only by an innuendo 2. Whither it can be reasonable to assert that our Saviour there institutes a Sacrament of Penance where not only Auricular confession but the whole matter of such a Sacrament is left undefined 3. Whither if our Saviour had done that which it is plain he hath not that is had here instituted and appointed all those things which by the church of Rome are required as the material parts of Penance yet this could have been a Sacrament 1. For the first of these we have no more to do but to consider the force and signification of this word Institution Now that in the common use of men especially of those which speak distinctly and understandingly implies a setting up de novo or the appointing that to become a duty which was not knowable or at least not known to be so before it became so appointed For this word Institution is that which we use to express a positive command by in opposition to that which is Moral in the strictest sense and of natural obligation Now it is very evident that all things of this Nature ought to be appointed very plainly and expresly or els they can carry no obligation with them for seing the whole Reason of their becoming matter of Law or Duty lies in the will of the Legislator if that be not plainly discovered they cannot be said to be instituted and so there can be no Obligation to observe them because where there is no Law there can be no Transgression and a Law is no Law in effect which is not sufficiently promulged Is it not therefore a very strange thing to tell us of an Institution by implication only and yet at the Sess 14. c. 2. same