of Honesty insomuch that whatever Miracles tend to the Damage of Mankind or the Corruption of Manners they cannot be from God nor can they authorize any Doctrin as Divine that is inconsistent with the forementioned Standard of Justice and Reason And this makes a real Distinction and sensible Difference betwixt the Miracles wrought by Christ or his Apostles and those by Heathen Magicians On the one hand the Miracles always tended to good and were such as might invite Love as well as Admiration On the other hand they were for the most part hurtful to Mens Persons and Estates unless it was sometimes that the Devils cured the Diseases they had caused but it was still to establish a greater Tyranny When the Jews taxed our Saviour with casting out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils he answers to this effect That the Devil was too Wise a Creature to destroy his own Kingdom by casting out Devils especially when sometimes they were made to own themselves to be Devils and to confess Christ to be the Son of God But says he if I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God then the Kingdom of God is come unto you And this was frequent in the Primitive Church that the Christians by a Divine Power overruled all the Powers of Darkness imployed by the Magicians of those times For as to do Works above Nature speaks a Power above her so when those Works tend to the good of Men by promoting Vertue and establishing true Piety they must reasonably be concluded to be from a Divine Author Let this then be the first Step or the Ground of all That whatsoever Doctrin or pretended Revelation destroys Justice or contradicts Reason cannot come from Heaven and ought not to be Believed In the next place when once a Law is established as Divine upon a sufficient Testimony of Miracles no other Revelation that is contrary to it may be allowed until it be repealed and no repeal can be but from the same Authority that enacted it And therefore the repeal cannot be of force till the Authority upon which it stands makes it self manifest by as great if not greater Miracles than were wrought at the Promulgation In this Point was the Prophets Miscarriage that went to cry against the Altar in Bethel who suffered himself to be overcome by the pretence of the old Prophet contrary to his own Commission But without pursuing this farther at present it is manifest and by all Christians acknowledged as such That the Gospel which our Saviour and his Apostles published to the World is neither contradictious to Reason nor destructive of Vertue or good Manners or inconsistent with former Revelations but that on the contrary it proposes the noblest End viz. Eternal Life and directs to the fittest and most agreeable Method for attaining it and therefore must be accounted Divine This being granted it follows That no Doctrin or Revelation which is not reconcilable to this Gospel can be from Heaven or have Power to bind us If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. My present Business being not with Heathens but with Christians I will take it for granted till I see more occasion to prove it That the Apostles and Evangelists who were Divinely Inspired committed to Writing that Gospel which they had received that is as much of the Will of God as might be necessary for Men to Know and Believe in order to their Salvation The late Representers of Popery seem to allow as much when they own the Scripture to be the Word of God of the greatest Authority upon Earth and capable of leading a Man to all Truth It must also be granted That these Scriptures are no otherwise the Word of God than they are rightly Understood and Interpreted And here the Controversie begins about the Sense of Scripture For the Gentlemen of the Communion of the Church of Rome tell us we must receive the Canon of the Scripture and the Sense and Interpretation of Scripture upon the Authority of the Church for so the matter is stated even by their late Writers And this being of great Importance we will consider it Carefully and proceed with as much Clearness as may be a sufficient though short discussion of the Point If we are to receive the Canon and Sense of the Scripture upon the Churches Authority then the Churches Authority is the Ground upon which the Canon and Sense of Scripture depends as to us and if the Canon and Sense of Scripture depends as to us upon the Church then the Church has Authority to ingage and determine our Faith in these two Questions 1. What Books are Canonical and 2. What the Sense of them must be For if I know not the Sense of them I know not the Will of God without which it signifies nothing to have the Books although they had been written with God's own Finger And If the Church has Authority to declare what Books and what Sense of those Books is Divine then the Church has a Power to make me Believe its Declaration I say the Church must have a Power if it has Authority to make me Believe because no Man can Believe more than he can Believe nor help Believing what for the time he does Believe If the Church has a Power to make me Believe it either has it of it self as it were by Nature or it has it from God But of it self the Church can have no such Power because God only has a Dominion over the Minds of Men and is therefore to be Believed by virtue of his own Authority If therefore the Church as it consists of Men who in their private Capacities that is as they are Men may err has no Authority of it self to determine my Faith then the Authority of the Church if it have any to make me Believe must be Supernatural and Divine Which I think is granted by the Author of the Papist Misrepresented and represented when he says he believes no Divine Faith ought to be given to any thing but what is of Divine Revelation 'T is then an established Point That the Churches Authority is not to be believed as Natural but as Supernatural and Divine and if it be Supernatural it cannot be proved out of Natural Principles This the Papists seeing very well lay down Infallibility for the Ground of the Churches Authority So that the Churches Authority arising from its Infallibity no Man can be bound in matters of Faith to submit to the one farther than he can be Convinced of the other and the Church can no longer have a Power over Mens Faith than she is Infallible The Infallibility then of the Church being the Ground of her Authority the Papists expect we should resolve our Faith into it and we will consider how reasonable their expectations are in this Case But first let us remember That all this Authority and Infallability is
challenged for the present Church of this Age or else there is no visible Infallible Judg and so the matter comes to nothing For if they were affixed to the Church of any one Age then our Faith when that Age is expired must resolve it self some other way as we shall see anon This hint being given we proceed in search of this Infallibility which is indeed a safe Basis to rest upon whereever it is found In the first place therefore we must enquire what it is or what is to be understood by it Infallibility properly taken is the knowledge of all things He that does not know every thing may be mistaken in some thing and he that may be mistaken in any thing is not Infallible To know all things is to be Omniscient and so God alone who created every thing by virtue of his own Infinity is absolutely Infallible But for created Beings their Knowledge is confined to such things as the wise Creator has placed within their Capacities and so made knowable as it were by Nature Therefore in other things which are Supernatural and of which we can know no more than is revealed to us Infallibility means a being preserved from all Errour and Mistake about them and by Consequence must it self be a Supernatural and Divine quality imparted according to the good Will and Pleasure of God. And now our Business is come to this to know first Whether any body or no has this Infallibility Secondly if any body has it where he or they are to be found And thirdly how others may be assured that they who pretend to have it have it indeed First Whether any body has this Infallibility I take it for granted upon the foregoing Proofs that it is a Divine Supernatural Gift and being such that it must issue from the good Pleasure of God. Now any Gift whatsoever which is Arbitrary and Depending upon the Will of any one cannot be pretended to in Reason till he in whose Power it is has made his Will known that the Right and Possession of it pass over to him that Claims it In like manner no Divine Gift which concerns more than them who personally pretend to it can have any weight or force without a Divine Testimony to ensure its own Credit Upon this Point the Papists argue That Christ who was not less able or faithfull than Moses in his house would not leave his Church destitute of sufficient means for Peace and Unity 't is granted But then say they without an Infallible Guide beside the Scripture there can be neither reason for Faith nor ground for Peace among Christians A bold Assumption this Nay farther 't is said That Christ has promised to teach his Church all Truth by special Assistance of the Holy Ghost to the end of the World. This indeed is to the Purpose but that if any thing it proves more than they wish For it does as much prove all Christians to be Infallible as one or more For the Promise being indefinite cannot justly be appropriated to particulars and if it contains perpetual Infallibility let them that can shew from that Promise that the Pastors have more right to it than the People But suppose now there is Infallibility in the Church let us see whereabouts it is Lodged that we may have recourse to it to end the Disputes which have so long disturbed the Peace of Christendom For if it cannot be found we shall hardly be made to grant that there is any such thing or if it cannot be come at we shall value it at the rate of all useless things I ask therefore Where this Infallibility is that has been so much talked of Why some have shewed their good will to fix it to the Popes of Rome And one would at first think the Author who represents a Papist looked that way when he told us he did not doubt but God assists them the Popes with a particular helping Grace such as was given to all the Prophets when they were sent to Preach that was Extraordinary Such as was given to Moses when he was made a God to Pharaoh that was Miraculous Sure he forgot the Lives of some Popes or else some late Pope has divided the Sea or turned a River into Blood and so filled him with Wonder that he never thought to make any Reflexions Lastly with such Grace as was given to Caiaphas when he prophesied that Jesus should dye for that Nation A Truth which he utter'd without any good Design as appears by his Sentence afterwards and this instance indeed might well fit Pope Greg. 7. Yet after all this we are told that it is our Choice Whether we will allow the Pope to be personally Infallible or no And if they do not see reason enough to believe it I am sure I do not and so the Pope's Claim must be dismissed as indefensible But is a Council without him then Infallible If it be what becomes of the Pope's Supremacy For whereever Infallibility goes the Supremacy touching matters of Faith must go with it And they cannot be separated since as we shewed above the one has its whole dependance upon the other This difficulty has been apprehended and so to secure the Pope's Supremacy a Council without him has been judged not Infallible And where any Council has wanted the Pope's Confirmation as we see for matter of fact it has been thought to want Authority to Though for all this the Point of Supremacy of how great importance soever is not well agreed among them for Councils have taken upon them to depose the Pope and the French Roman Catholick Divines allow them in it The only expedient in this Case is what some lay down That a Council assembled by and under the Pope whose Authority must confirm their Decrees is Infallible Being come to this as the last effort we will proceed with a regard due to a Tenet of such moment And here I ask again Whether every Bishop and Devine that Debates and Votes in Council be Infallible No this must not be said because there have beeen great Differences among the Divines and contrary Opinions much urged Besides it would make every Bishop as absolute as the Pope to make him Infallible which would quite undo the pretences of the Church of Rome But then if every Bishop in Council be not Infallible for ought I can see this Infallibility must be given to the Pope And if his approbation be indeed necessary to Authorize their Decrees he has e'en most right to it For if the Authentickness of the Decrees depends upon the Pope 't is plain he must have a Negative vote to the Council and if he has a Negative vote to the Council either he must have this Infallibility or there can be none at all of any use But as to the Pope's being Infallible we were told before it is no Article of Faith and so we are at Liberty from them to believe it or
has not sufficiently proved the Doctrins in dispute betwixt us and that if we had no more would be Authority enough for us to refuse them and depart from her since She will not receive us to Communion but upon Conditions which they cannot make out to be reasonable unless we grant that false Supposition of Infallible Authority They ask farther who is to be Judg of the Controversies and Reasonings between us I answer every Man must for himself For as every Man must believe so every Man must have a Reason why he believes and sure every one must be a Judg of his own Reason whether he be Convinced or no. We are told That then there will be Heresies and Schisms it is true there are so and for ought I see will be so still But that 's no more than the Apostle told the Corinthians must be that those which are approved may be made manifest The Church of Rome may appear yet more unequal in Her Pretences for that She advances a Doctrin which cannot be believed even by those who pay the utmost deference to her Authority and that is Transubstantiation which implies several Contradictions Some that own the Churches Infallible Authority and are resolved to rest upon it may so overrule their Minds as to keep them from considering or thinking upon that Doctrin and so for the time do not as it were disbelieve it but whenever they come to weigh it their Minds cannot imbrace it because there can be no Reason for a Contradiction For sure Church Authority cannot go on where the Power of God ceases If it be said it is only a Contradiction in appearance that comes to the same thing for 'till it can be made not to seem a Contradiction it must have the same effect upon all Mens Minds as upon ours who know it to be really a gross one And this makes me sensible That it is a greater absurdity to believe as they say implicitly or indefinitly as the Church believes when a Man considers not what that is than to Pray implicitly or in a general intention with the Church when one knows not what the Church Prays for It being absurd to say a Man believes any thing which the Mind does not particularly imbrace or apply it self to and the Mind cannot be said to imbrace that which it thinks or knows nothing of Here it must not be forgotten that I am not speaking of the Habit but the Acts of Faith. Nor do the Principles I have laid down oblige me to think every one has alwas a true ground for his Faith. I doubt not but many believe upon inducements that would if examined be found Slender and Disproportionate for such it is their good fortune if they believe aright but if they are in the wrong they must answer for not taking greater Care. But if they have used their utmost Care and Diligence and yet continue in the wrong we may leave them without any desperate apprehension to the mercy of God. Most of the Points about which we differ with Rome have been discussed in particular Treatises and so I will meddle little with them having from the first designed in chief to consider the grounds of Faith. I would here have taken leave but that I am stayed with a Pretence That the Faith which we own we had from the Church of Rome I will not here inquire into the merits of this Pretence but examin what use they make of it Suppose now we had the Scripture and the Creeds from them what follows Why then they would have us receive all the rest of their Additional Articles too Indeed if we had received all we believe upon their Churches Authority it had been a better inference But they know we did not receive any Articles upon any Authority but the Reason of them and therefore where that ends our Faith stops and we receive no more They would it seems prescribe and supposing we imbrace some Truths which they pretend to have delivered to us would have us entertain whatever else they offer This is very strange indeed If any one hearing the Devils declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of God as the Gospel tells us they did should have believed him so and Tertullian we know made it a great Argument and appealed to the Heathens upon it when the Devils made Confession must they therefore have believed all the Devils said at any time because they saw reason to believe what they said some times 'T would have been a strange Case with Religion unless Men had been assured the Devil's inclinations to deceive should have always been overruled and they like Caiaphas should have been made to speak Truth whether they would or no. In like manner to have received some Truths from the Church of Rome can be no reason why we should believe others Thus far I have considered the Grounds of Faith and shewed the Weakness and Insufficiency of those Means which the Church of Rome takes to resolve it by I pray God by his Grace so to inlighten the Understandings and dispose the Wills of all Christians that they may heartily endeavor the Peace and Unity of the Church by an humble and impartial Enquiry after Truth the only Way effectually to bring it about Popery has of late been Expounded to a more favourable Sense and Represented in a less formidable Dress than it wore heretofore And so far am I from being angry at it that I am heartily glad hoping it may tend to the Scattering those thick Mists of Prejudice and Ignorance that have obscured the Truth and hindred many from discerning it I only wish they would manifest the Sincerity of their Representation by a Practice answerable to it They took away the Scriptures from some least in reading they should misinterpret it And I wish they would take away Images which have been horribly misunderstood since they now tell the World they think them but as Books to instruct the Ignorant and honorary Remembrances to the Learned This would be one reasonable and fair Step toward restoring Peace and healing the Schism And since we are told that no Power upon Earth can limit alter or annul any Precept of Divine Institution contrary to the Intention of the Law-giver a Position highly reasonable we expect the Cup should be given to all of the Communion seeing that our Saviour instituted and gave that as well as the Bread. And after his Institution the same Night that he was betrayed I cannot find that he made the least Alteration To say our Saviour had no Mind that should be done which he appointed would be very absurd Therefore what he once instituted must continue in force as his Mind still unless they can shew that he altered it and this would be another good Step toward our Union They have now reduced their praying to Saints departed to a desire only that the Blessed would assist them with their Prayers to God as we desire good