they which do such things and without amendment of life shall continue doing them shall not be excused by any pretence of sorrow and good purposes They shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven And again in another Epistle Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor abusers of themselves with mankinde nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers shall inherit the Kingdom of God In Christ Jesus saith the same S. Paul in other places nothing availeth but faith nothing but a new creature nothing but keeping the Commandements of God it is not then a wishing but a working faith not wishing you were a new Creature nor sorrowing you are not but being a new creature not wishing you had kept nor sorrowing you have not kept nor purposing vainly to keep but keeping his Commandements must prevail with him Follow peace with all men and holiness saith the Divine Author of the Epistle to the Heb. without which no man shall see the Lord. Saint Peter in his second Epistle commends unto us a golden chain of Christian perfections consisting of these links Faith vertue knowledge temperance patience godliness brotherly kindness charity and then adds He that lacketh these things is blind and knoweth not that he was purged from his old sins Let his sorrow be never so great and his desires never so good yet if he lack these things he is blind and was purged from his old sins but is not Lastly St. John He that hath this hope purifieth himself even as he is pure the meaning is not with the same degree of purity for that is impossible but with the same kind the same truth of purity he that doth not purifie himself may nay doth flatter himself and without warrant presume upon God's favour but this hope he hath not and again Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous And thus you see all the divine Writers of the New Testament with one consent and with one mouth proclaim the necessity of real holiness and labour together to disinchant us from this vain phansie That men may be saved by sorrowing for their sin and intending to leave it without effectual conversion and reformation of life which it may well be feared hath sent thousands of souls to hell in a golden dream of heaven But is not this to preach works as the Papists do No certainly it is not but to preach works as Christ and his Apostles do it is to preach the necessity of them which no good Protestant no good Christian ever denyed but it is not to preach the merit of them which is the error of the Papists But is it not to preach the Law in time of the Gospel No certainly it is not for the Law forgives no sins but requires exact obedience and curseth every one which from the beginning to the end of his life continueth not in all things which are written in the Law to do them but the Gospel sayes and accordingly I have said unto you that there is mercy alwayes in store for those who know the day of their visitation and forsake their sins in time of mercy and that God will pardon their imperfections in the progress of holiness who miscall not presuptuous and deliberate Sins by the name of Imperfections but seriously and truly endeavour to be perfect Only I forewarn you that you must never look to be admitted to the wedding feast of the Kings Son either in the impure rags of any customary sin or without the wedding garment of Christian holiness only I forewarn you that whosoever looks to be made partaker of the joyes of heaven must make it the chief if not the only business of his life to know the will of God and to do it that great violence is required by our Saviour for the taking of this Kingdom that the race we are to run is a long race the building we are to erect is a great building and will hardly â—ery hardly be finished in a day that the work we have to do of mortifying all vices and acquiring all Christian vertues is a long work we may easily deferr it too long we cannot possibly begin it too soon Only I would perswade you and I hope I have done it that that Repentance which is not effectual to true and timely Conversion will never be available unto eternal Salvation And if I have proved unto you that this is indeed the nature of true Repentance then certainly I have proved withall that that Repentance wherewith the generality of Christians content themselves notwithstanding their great professions what they are and their glorious protestations of what they intend to be is not the power but the form not the truth but the shadow of true Repentance and that herein also we accomplish St. Pauls prediction Having a form of godliness c. And now what remains but that as I said in the beginning I should humbly intreat and earnestly exhort every man that hath heard me this day to confute in his particular what I have proved true in the general To take care that the sin of formality though it be the sin of our times may yet not be the sin of our persons that we satisfie not our selves with the shadows of Religion without the substance of it nor with the form of godliness without the power of it To this purpose I shall beseech you to consider That though sacrificing burning incense celebrating of set festivals praying fasting and such like were under the Law the service of God commanded by himself yet whensoever they proceed not from nor were joyned with the sincerity of an honest heart he professeth frequently almost in all the Prophets not only his scorn and contempt of them all as fond empty and ridiculous but also his hating loathing and detesting of them as abominable and impious The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God Prov. 15.8 What have I to do with the multitude of your Sacrifices saith the Lord Esay the first I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams and of the fat of fed beasts when ye come to appear before me who required this at your hands Bring no more vain oblations Incense is an abomination to me I cannot suffer your new moons nor sabbaths nor solemn dayes it is iniquity even your solemn assemblies My soul hateth your new moons and your appointed feasts they are a burthen to me I am weary to bear them and when you shall stretch out your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and though you make many prayers I will not hear for your hands are full of bloud And again Isa 66.3 He that kils an Ox is as if he slew a man be that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines-flesh he that burneth incense
whom you question first in point of learning and sufficiency and then in point of conscience and honesty as prevaricating in the Religion which they profess and inclining to Popery Their Learning you say consists only in some superficial talent of preaching languages and elocution and not in any deep knowledge of Philosophy especially of Metaphysicks and much less of that most solid profitable subtile and O rem ridiculam Cato jocosam succinct method of School-Divinity Wherein you have discovered in your self the true Genius and spirit of detraction For taking advantage from that wherein Envy it self cannot deny but they are very eminent and which requires great sufficiency of substantial learning you disparage them as insufficient in all things else As if forsooth because they dispute not eternally Utrum Chimaera bombinans in vacuo possit comedere secundas intentiones Whether a Million of Angels may not sit upon a Needle 's point Because they fill not their brains with notions that signifie nothing to the utter extermination of all reason and common sense and spend not an Age in weaving and unweaving subtile Cobwebs fitter to catch flyes than Souls therefore they have no deep knowledge in the Acroamatical part of Learning But I have too much honoured the poorness of this detraction to take notice of it 20. The other Part of your accusation strikes deeper and is more considerable And that tels us that Protestantism waxeth weary of it self that the Professors of it they especially of greatest worth learning and authority love Temper and Moderation and are at this time more unresolved where to fasten than at the infancy of their Church That Their Churches begin to look with a new face Their walls to speak a new language Their Doctrine to be altered in many things for which their Progenitors forsook the then Visible Church of Christ For example The Pope not Antichrist Prayer for the dead Limbus Patrum Pictures That the Church hath Authority in determining Controversies of Faith and to Interpret Scripture about Freewil Predestination Universal Grace That all our works are not sins Merit of good works Inherent Justice Faith alone doth not justifie Charity to be preferred before knowledge Traditions Commandments possible to be kept That their thirty nine Articles are patient nay ambitious of some sense wherein they may seem Catholique That to alledge the necessity of wife and children in these dayes is but a weak plea for a married Minister to compass a Benefice That Calvinism is at length accounted Heresie and little less than Treason That men in talk and writing use willingly the once fearful names of Priests and Altars That they are now put in mind that for exposition of Scripture they are by Canon bound to follow the Fathers which if they do with sincerity it is easie to tell what doom will pass against Protestants seeing by the confession of Protestants the Fathers are on the Papists side which the Answerer to some so clearly demonstrated that they remained convinced In fine as the Samaritans saw in the Disciples countenances that they meant to go to Jerusalem so you pretend it is even legible in the fore-heads of these men that they are even going nay making haste to Rome Which scurrilous Libel void of all truth discretion and honesty what effect it may have wrought what credit it may have gained with credulous Papists who dream what they desire and believe their own dreams or with ill-affected jealous and weak Protestants I cannot tell But one thing I dare boldly say that you your self did never believe it 21. For did you indeed conceive or had any probable hope that such men as you describe men of worth of learning and authority too were friends and favourers of your Religion and inclinable to your Party Can any imagine that you would proclaim it and bid the world take heed of them Sic notus Ulysses Do we know the Jesuits no better than so What are they turned prevaricators against their own Faction Are they likely men to betray and expose their own Agents and Instruments and to awaken the eyes of Jealousie and to raise the clamor of the people against them Certainly your Zeal to the See of Rome testified by your fourth Vow of special obedience to the Pope proper to your Order and your cunning carriage of all affairs for the greater advantage and advancement of that See are clear demonstrations that if you had thought thus you would never have said so The truth is they that run to extreams in opposition against you they that pull down your infallibility and set up their own they that declaim against your tyranny and exercise it themselves over others are the Adversaries that give you greatest advantage and such as you love to deal with whereas upon men of temper and moderation such as will oppose nothing because you maintain it but will draw as neer to you that they may draw you to them as the truth will suffer them such as require of Christians to believe only in Christ and will damn no Man nor Doctrine without express and certain warrant from God upon such as these you know not how to fasten but if you chance to have conference with any such which yet as much as possibly you can you avoid and decline you are very speedily put to silence and see the indefensible weakness of your cause laid open to all men And this I verily believe is the true reason that you thus rave and rage against them as foreseeing your time of prevailing or even of subsisting would be short if other Adversaries gave you no more advantage than they do 22. In which perswasion also I am much confirmed by consideration of the silliness and poorness of those Suggestions and partly of the apparent vanity and falshood of them which you offer in justification of this wicked Calumny For what if out devotion towards God out of a desire that he should be worshipped as in Spirit and truth in the first place so also in the beauty of holiness what if out of fear that too much simplicity and nakedness in the publique Service of God may beget in the ordinary sort of men a dull and stupid irreverence and out of hope that the outward state and glory of it being well-disposed and wisely moderated may ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due unto God's Soveraign Majesty and Power what if out of a perswasion and desire that Papists may be won over to us the sooner by the removing of this scandall out of their way and out of an holy jealousie that the weaker sort of Protestants might be the easier seduced to them by the magnificence and pomp of their Church-service in case it were not removed I say What if out of these considerations the Governours of our Church more of late than formerly have set themselves to adorn and beautifie the places where God's Honour dwels and
to make them as heaven-like as they can with earthly ornaments Is this a sign that they are warping towards Popery Is this devotion in the Church of England an argument that she is coming over to the Church of Rome Sir Edwin Sands I presume every man will grant had no inclination that way yet he forty years since highly commended this part of devotion in Papists and makes no scruple of proposing it to the imitation of Protestants Little thinking that they who would follow his counsel and endeavour to take away this disparagement of Protestants and this glorying of Papists should have been censured for it as making way and inclining to Popery His words to this purpose are excellent words and because they shew plainly that what is now practised was approved by zealous Protestants so long ago I will here set them down 23. This one thing I cannot but highly commend in that sort and order They spare nothing which either cast can perform in enriching or skill in adorning the Temple of God or to set out his Service with the greatest pompe and magnificence that can be devised And although for the most part much basenesse and childishnesse is predominant in the Masters and Contrivers of their Ceremonies yet this outward state and glory being well disposed doth ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due unto Soveraign Majesty and Power And although I am not ignorant that many men well reputed have embraced the thrifty opinion of that Disciple who thought all to be wasted that was bestowed upon Christ in that sort and that it were much better bestowed upon him or the poor yet with an eye perhaps that themselves would be his quarter-Almoners notwithstanding I must confesse it will never sink into my heart that in proportion of reason the allowance for furnishing out of the service of God should be measured by the scant and strict rule of meer necessity a proportion so low that nature to other most bountiful in matter of necessity hath not failed no not the most ignoble creatures of the world and that for our selves no measure of heaping but the most we can get no rule of expence but to the utmost pompe we list Or that God himself had so enriched the lower parts of the world with such wonderfull varieties of beauty and glory that they might serve only to the pampering of mortall man in his pride and that in the Service of the high Creator Lord and Giver the outward glory of whose higher pallace may appear by the very lamps that we see so far off burning gloriously in it only the simpler baser cheaper lesse noble lesse beautiful lesse glorious things should be imployed Especially seeing as in Princes Courts so in the Service of God also this outward state and glory being well disposed doth as I have said ingender quicken increase and nourish thâ—â—ward reverence respect and devotion which is due to so Soveraign Majesty and Power Which those whom the use thereof cannot perswade unto would easily by the want of it be brought to confesse for which cause I crave leave to be excused by them herein if in Zeal to the common Lord of all I choose rather to commend the vertue of an enemy than to flatter the vice and imbecillity of a friend And so much for this matter 24. Again what if the names of Priests and Altars so frequent in the ancient Fathers though not in the now Popish sense be now resumed and more commonly used in England than of late times they were that so the colourable argument of their conformity which is but nominal with the ancient Church and our inconformity which the Governours of the Church would not have so much as nominal may be taken away from them and the Church of England may be put in a state in this regard more justifiable against the Romane than formerly it was being hereby enabled to say to Papists whensoever these names are objected we also use the names of Priests and Altars and yet believe neither the corporal Presence nor any Proper and propitiatory Sacrifice 25. What if Protestants be now put in minde that for exposition of Scripture they are bound by a Canon to follow the ancient Fathers which whosoever doth with sincerity it is utterly impossible he should be a Papist And it is most falsly said by you that you know that to some Protestants I clearly demonstrated or ever so much as undertook or went about to demonstrate the contrary What if the Centurists be censured somewhat roundly by a Protestant Divine for aâ—â—ming that the keeping of the Lord's day was a thing indifferent for two hundred years Is there in all this or any part of it any kind of proof of this scandalous Calumny 26. As for the points of Doctrine wherein you pretend that these Divines begin of late to falter and to comply with the Church of Rome upon a due examination of particulars it will presently appear First that part of them always have been and now are held constantly one way by them as the Authority of the Church in determining Controversies of faith though not the infallibility of it That there is Inherent Justice though so imperfect that it cannot justifie That there are Traditions though none necessary That charity is to be preferred before knowledge That good Works are not properly meritorious And lastly that Faith alone justifies though that faith justifies not which is alone And secondly for the remainder that they every one of them have been anciently without breach of charity disputed among Protestants such for example were the Questions about the Pope's being the Antichrist The lawfulness of some kind of prayers for the dead The Estate of the Fathers Souls before Christ's Ascension Freewill Predestination Universal grace The possibility of keeping God's Commandments The use of Pictures in the Church Wherein that there hath been anciently diversity of opinion amongst Protestants it is justified to my hand by a Witness with you beyond exception even your great friend M. Breerly whose care exactness and fidelity you say in your Preface is so extraordinary great Consult him therefore Tract 3. Sect. 7. of his Apology And in the 9 10 11 14 24 26 27 37. Subdivisions of that Section you shall see as in a mirror your self proved an egregious Calumniator for charging Protestants with innovation and inclining to Popery under pretence forsooth that their Doctrine begins of late to be altered in these points Whereas M. Breerly will inform you They have been anciently and even from the beginning of the Reformation controverted amongst them though perhaps the stream and current of their Doctors run one way and only some brook or rivulet of them the other 27. And thus my Friends I suppose are clearly vindicated from your scandals and calumnies It remains now that in the last place I bring my self fairly off from your foul aspersions that so my Person may
to whom you write though they verily think they are Christians and believe the Gospel because they assent to the truth of it and would willingly die for it yet indeed are Infidels and believe nothing The Scripture tels us The heart of man knoweth no man but the spirit of man which is in him And Who are you to take upon you to make us believe that we do not believe what we know we do But if I may think verily that I believe the Scripture and yet not believe it how know you that you believe the Roman Church I am as verily and as strongly perswaded that I believe the Scripture as you are that you believe the Church And if I may be deceived why may not you Again what more ridiculous and against sense and experience than to affirm That there are not millions amongst you and us that believe upon no other reason than their education and the authority of their Parents and Teachers and the opinion they have of them The tenderness of the subject and aptness to receive impressions supplying the defect and imperfection of the Agent And will you proscribe from heaven all those believers of your own Creed who do indeed lay the foundation of their Faith for I cannot call it by any other name no deeper than upon the authority of their Father or Master or Parish-Priest Certainly if these have no true faith your Church is very full of Infidels Suppose Xaverius by the holiness of his life had converted some Indians to Christianity who could for so I will suppose have no knowledge of your Church but from him and therefore must last of all build their faith of the Church upon their opinion of Xaverius Do these remain as very Pagans after their conversion as they were before Are they brought to assent in their souls and obey in their lives the Gospel of Christ only to be Tantaliz'd and not saved and not benefited but deluded by it because forsooth it is a man and not the Church that begets faith in them What if their motive to believe be not in reason sufficient Do they therefore not believe what they do believe because they do it upon insufficient motives They choose the Faith imprudently perhaps but yet they do choose it Unless you will have us believe that that which is done is not done because it is not done upon good reason which is to say that never any man living ever did a foolish action But yet I know not why the Authority of one holy man which apparently hath no ends upon me joyn'd with the goodness of the Christian faith might not be a far greater and more rational motive to me to imbrace Christianity than any I can have to continue in Paganism And therefore for shame if not for love of Truth you must recant this fancy when you write again and suffer true faith to be many times where your Churches infallibility hath no hand in the begetting of it And be content to tell us hereafter that we believe not enough and not go about to perswade us we believe nothing for fear with telling us what we know to be manifestly false you should gain only this Not to be believed when you speak truth Some pretty sophisms you may haply bring us to make us believe we believe nothing but wise men know that Reason against Experience is alwaies Sophistical And therefore as he that could not answer Zeno's subtilties against the existence of Motion could yet confute them by doing that which he pretended could not be done So if you should give me a hundred Arguments to perswade me because I do not believe Transubstantiation I do not believe in God and the Knots of them I could not unty yet I should cut them in pieces with doing that and knowing that I do so which you pretend I cannot do 50. In the thirteenth Division we have again much ado about nothing A great deal of stir you keep in confuting some that pretend to know Canonical Scripture to be such by the Titles of the Books But these men you do not name which makes me suspect you cannot Yet it is possible there may be some such men in the world for Gusmen de Alfarache hath taught us that The Fools hospital is a large place 51. In the fourteenth § we have very artificial jugling D. Potter had said That the Scripture he desires to be understood of those books wherein all Christians agree is a principle and needs not be proved among Christians His reason was because that needs no farther proof which is believed already Now by this you say he means either that the Scripture is one of these first Principles and most known in all Sciences which cannot be proved which is to suppose it cannot be proved by the Church and that is to suppose the Question Or he means That it is not the most known in Christianity and then it may be proved Where we see plainly That two most different things Most known in all Sciences and Most known in Christianity are captiously confounded As if the Scripture might not be the first and most known Principle in Christianity and yet not the most known in all Sciences Or as if to be a First Principle in Christianity and in all Sciences were all one That Scripture is a Principle among Christians that is so received by all that it need not be proved in any emergent Controversie to any Christian but may be taken for granted I think few will deny You your selves are of this a sufficient Testimony for urging against us many texts of Scripture you offer no proof of the truth of them presuming we will not question it Yet this is not to deny that Tradition is a Principle more known than Scripture But to say It is a Principle not in Christianity but in Reason nor proper to Christians but common to all men 52. But It is repugnant to our practice to hold Scripture a Principle because we are wont to affirm that one part of Scripture may be known to be Canonical and may be interpreted by another Where the former device is again put in practice For to be known to be Canonical and to be interpreted is not all one That Scripture may be interpreted by Scripture that Protestants grant and Papists do not deny neither does that any way hinder but that this assertion Scripture is the word of God may be among Christians a common Principle But the first That one part of Scripture may prove another part Canonical and need no proof of its own being so for that you have produced divers Protestants that deny it but who they are that affirm it nondum constat 53. It is superfluous for you to prove out of S. Athanasius and S. Austine that we must receive the sacred Canon upon the credit of Gods Church Understanding by Church as here you explain your self The credit of Tradition And that not the Tradition of the Present
Saviour speaketh clearly The Gates of Hell (e) Mat. 16. shall not prevail against her And I will ask my (f) Joan. 14. Father and he will give you another Paraclete that he may abide with you for ever The Spirit of Truth And But when he the Spirit of (g) Joan. 16. Truth cometh he shall teach you all Truth The Apostle saith that the Church is the Pillar and ground of (h) 1 Tim. c. 3. Truth And He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and othersome Evangelists and othersome Pastors and Doctors to the consummation of the Saints unto the work of the Ministry unto the edifying of the Body of Christ until we meet all into the unity of Faith and knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man into the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ that now we be not children wavering and carried about with every wind of Doctrin in the wickedness of men in craftiness to the circumvention (i) Ephes 4. of Error All which words seem clearly enough to prove that the Church is universally infallible without which unity of Faith could not be conserved against every wind of Doctrin And yet D Potter (k) Pag. 151 153. limits these promises and priviledges to Fundamental Points in which he grants the Church cannot err I urge the words of Scripture which are universal and do not mention any such restraint I alledge that most reasonable and Received Rule that Scripture is to be understood literally as it soundeth unless some manifest absurdity force us to the contrary But all will not serve to accord our different interpretation In the mean time divers of D. Potter's Brethren step in and reject his limitation as over-large and somewhat tasting of Papistry And therefore they restrain the mentioned Texts either to the Infallibility which the Apostles and other sacred Writers had in penning of Scripture or else to the invisible Church of the Elect and to them not absolutely but with a double restriction that they shall not fall damnably and finally and other men have as much right as these to interpose their opinion and interpretation Behold we are three at debate about the selfesame words of Scripture We confer divers places and Texts We consult the Originals We examine Translations We endeavour to pray heartily We profess to speak sincerely To seek nothing but Truth and Salvation of our own souls and that of our Neighbours and finally we use all those means which by Protestants themselves are prescribed for finding out the true meaning of Scripture Nevertheless we neither do or have any possible means to agree as long as we are left to our selves and when we should chance to be agreed the doubt would still remain whether the thing it self be a Fundamental Point or no And yet it were great impiety to imagine that God the lover of Souls hath left no certain infallible means to decide both this and all other differences arising about the interpretation of Scripture or upon any other occasion Our remedy therefore in these contentions must be to consult and hear Gods Visible Church with submissive acknowledgment of her Power and Infallibility in whatsoever the proposeth as a revealed Truth according to that divine advice of St. Augustine in these words If at length (l) De util cred cap. 8. thou seem to be sufficiently tossed and hast a desire to put an end to thy pains follow the way of the Catholique Discipline which from Christ himself by the Apostles hath come down even to us and from us shall descend to all posterity And though I conceive that the distinction of Points Fundamental and not Fundamental hath now been sufficiently confuted yet that no shadow of difficulty may remain I will particularly refel a common saying of Protestants that it is sufficient for Salvation to believe the Apostles Creed which they hold to be a Summary of all Fundamental Points of Faith The ANSWER to the THIRD CHAPTER Wherein it is maintained That the distinction of Points Fundamental and not Fundamental is in this present Controversie good and pertinent And that the Catholique Church may err in the latter kind of the said Points 1 THis Distinction is imployed by Protestants to many purposes and therefore if it be pertinent and good as they understand and apply it the whole edifice built thereon must be either firme and stable or if it be not it cannot be for any default in this Distinction 2. If you object to them discords in matter of Faith without any means of agreement They will answer you that they want not good and solid means of agreement in matters necessary to Salvation viz. Their beliefe of all those things which are plainly and undoubtedly delivered in Scripture which who so believes must of necessity believe all things necessary to Salvation and their mutual suffering one another to abound in their several sense in matters not plainly and undoubtedly there delivered And for their agreement in all Controversies of Religion either they have means to agree about them or not If you say they have why did you before deny it If they have not means why do you find fault with them for not agreeing 3. You will say that their fault is that by remaining Protestants they exclude themselves from the means of agreement which you have and which by submission to your Church they might have also But if you have means of agreement the more shame for you that you stil disagree For who I pray is more inexcusably guilty for the omission of any duty they that either have no means to do it or else know of none they have which puts them in the same case if as they had none or they which professe to have an easie and expedite means to do it and yet still leave it undone If you had been blind saith our Saviour to the Pharisees you had had no sin but now you say you see therefore your sin remaineth 4. If you say you do agree in matters of Faith I say this is ridiculous for you define matters of Faith to be those wherein you agree So that to say you agree in matters of Faith is to say you agree in those things wherein you do agree And do not Protestants do so likewise Do not they agree in those things wherein they do agree 5. But you are all agreed that only those things wherein you do agree are matters of Faith And Protestants if they were wise would do so too Sure I am they have reason enough to do so seeing all of them agree with explicite Faith in all those things which are plainly and undoubtedly delivered in Scripture that is in all which God hath plainly revealed and with an implicite Faith in that sense of the whole Scripture which God intended whatsoever was Secondly That which you pretend is false for else why do some of you hold it against faith to take or allow the Oath of
Miracles how shall I proceed at our meeting Or how shall I know the man on whom I may securely relie Procure will you say to know whether he believe all Fundamental Points of Faith For if he do his faith for point of belief is sufficient for Salvation though he err in an hundred things of less moment But how shall I know whether he hold all Fundamental Points or no For till you tell me this I cannot know whether or no his belief be sound in all Fundamental Points Can you say the Creed Yes and so can many damnable Hereticks But why do you ask me this question Because the Creed contains all fundamental Points of Faith Are you sure of that Not sure I hold it very probable (y) Pag. 241. Shall I hazard my soul on probabilities or even wagers This yeelds a new cause of dispaire But what doth the Creed contain all Points necessary to be believed whether they rest in the understanding or else do further extend to practice No. It was composed to deliver Credenda not Agenda to us Faith not Practice How then shall I know what Points of belief which direct my practice be necessary to Salvation Still you chalk out new paths for Desperation Well are all Articles of the Creed for their nature and matter Fundamental I cannot say so How then shall I know which in particular be and which be not fundamental Read my Answer to a late Popish Pamphlet intituled Charity Mistaken c. there you shall find that fundamental Doctrins are such Catholique Verities as principally and essentially pertain (z) Pag. 211 213 214. to be Faith such as properly constitute a Church and are necessary in ordinary course to be distinctly believed by every Christian that will be saved They are those grand and capital Doctrins which make up our Faith in Christ that is that common Faith which is alike precious in all being one and the same in the highest Apostle and the meanest Believer which the Apostle else-where cals the first Principles of the Oracles of God and the form of sound words But how shall I apply these general definitions or descriptions or to say the truth these only varied words and phrases for I understand the word fundamental as well as the word principal essential grand and capital doctrins c. to the particular Articles of the Creed in such sort as that I may be able precisely exactly particularly to distinguish Fundamental Articles from Points of less moment You labour to tell us what Fundamental Points be but not which they be and yet unless you do this your Doctrin serves only either to make men dispair or else to have recourse to those whome you call Papists and which give one certain Rule that all Points defined by Christs visible Church belong to the foundation of Faith in such sense as that to deny any one cannot stand with Salvation And seeing your self acknowledges that these men do not err in Points Fundamental I cannot but hold it most safe for me to joyn with them for the securing of my soul and the avoiding of desperation into which this your Doctrin must cast all them who understand and believe it For the whole discourse and inferences which here I have made are either your own direct Assertions or evident Consequences cleerly deduced from them 20. But now let us answer some few Objections of D. Potters against that which we have said before to avoid our argument That the Scripture is not so much as mentioned in the Creed he saith The Creed is an abstract of such (a) Pag. 234. necessary Doctrins as are delivered in Scripture or collected out of it and therefore needs not express the Authority of that which it supposes 21. This Answer makes for us For by giving a reason why it was needless that Scripture should be expressed in the Creed you grant as much as we desire namely that the Apostles judged it needless to express all necessary Points of Faith in their Creed Neither doth the Creed suppose or depend on Scripture in such sort as that we can by any probable consequence inferr from the Articles of the Creed that there is any Canonical Scripture at all and much less that such Books in particular be Canonical Yea the Creed might have been the same although holy Scripture had never been written and which is more the Creed even in priority of time was before all the Scripture of the New Testament except the Gospel of S. Mathew And so according to this reason of his the Scripture should not mention Articles contained in the Creed And I note in a word how little connexion D. Potters arguments have while he tels us that The Creed (b) Pag. 234. is an Abstract of such necessary Doctrins as are delivered in Scripture or collected out of it and therefore needs not express the authority of that which it supposes it doth not follow The Articles of the Creed are delivered in Scripture therefore the Creed supposeth Scripture For two distinct writtings may well deliver the same Truths and yet one of them not suppose the other unless D. Potter be of opinion that two Doctors cannot at one time speake the same truth 22. And notwithstanding that D. Potter hath now told us it was needless that the Creed should express Scripture whose Authority it supposes he comes at length to say that the Nicene Fathers in their Creed confessing that the holy Ghost spake by the Prophets doth thereby sufficiently avow the divine Authority of all Canonical Scripture But I would ask him whether the Nicene Creed be not also an Abstract of Doctrins delivered in Scripture as he said of the Apostles Creed and thence did infer that it was needless to express Scripture whose authority it supposes Besides we do not only believe in general that Canonical Scripture is of divine Authority but we are also bound under pain of damnation to believe that such and such particular Books not mentioned in the Nicene Creed are Canonical And lastly D. Potter in this answer grants as much as we desire which is that all Points of Faith are not contained in the Apostles Creed even as it is explained by other Creeds For these words who spake by the Prophets are no waies contained in the Apostles Creed and therefore contain an Addition not an Explanation thereof 23. But how can it be necessary saith D. Potter for any Christian to have more in his Creed than the (c) Pag. 221. Apostles had and the Church of their times I answer You trifle not distinguishing between the Apostles belief and that abridgment of some Articles of Faith which we call the Apostles Creed and withall you beg the question by supposing that the Apostles believed no more than is contained in their Creed which every unlearned person knows and believes and I hope you will not deny but the Apostles were endued with greater knowledg than ordinary persons 24. Your
Antiquity of ours A collection of whose testimony we have without thanks to you in your Indices expurgatorii The divine Providence blessedly abusing for the readier manifestation of the Truth this engine intended by you for the subversion and suppression of it Here is no place to stand upon particulars only one general ingenuous confession of that great Erasmus may not be pass'd over in silence Non desunt magni Theologi qui nonverentur affirmare Erasm Ep. lib. 15. Ep ad Godâ—schalcum Ros Nihil esse in Luthero quin per probatos authores defendi possit There want not great Divines which stick not to affirm that there is nothing in Luther which may not be defended by good and allowed authors Whereas therefore you close up this Simile with consider these points and see whether your Similitude do not condemn your Progenitors of Schism from God's visible Church I assure you I have well considered them and do plainly see that this is not D. Potter's similitude but your own and besides that it is wholly made up of mistakes and falshoods and is at no hand a sufficient proof of this great Accusation 92. Let us come now to the second similitude of your making in the entrance whereunto you tell us that from the Monastery D. Potter is fled to an Hospital of persons Universally infected with some disease where he finds to be true what you supposed that after his departure from his Brethren he might fall into greater inconveniences and more infectious diseases than those for which he left them Thus you But to deal truly with you I find nothing of all this nor how it is consequent from any thing said by you or done by D. Potter But this I find that you have composed this your similitude as you did the former of a heap of vain Suspitions pretended to be grounded on our confessions As first that your diseases which we forsook neither were nor could be mortal whereas we assure our selves and are ready to justifie that they are and were mortal in themselves and would have been so to us if when light came to us we had loved darkness more than light And D. Potter though he hope your Church wanted no necessary vital part that is that some in your Church by ignorance might be saved yet he nothing doubts but that it is full of ulcers without and diseases within and is far from so extenuating your errors as to make them only like the superfluous fingers of the gyant of Gath. Secondly that we had no hope to avoyd other diseases like those for which we forsook your company nor to be secure out of it from damnable errors whereas the hope hereof was the only motive of our departure and we assure our selves that the means to be secured from damnable error is not to be secure as you are but carefully to use those means of avoyding it to which God hath promised and will never fail to give a blessing Thirdly that those innumerable mischiefs which followed upon the departure of Protestants were caused by it as by a proper cause whereas their doctrin was no otherwise the occasion of them than the Gospel of Christ of the division of the world The only fountain of all these mischiefs being indeed no other than your pouring out a flood of persecutions against Protestants only because they would not sin and be damn'd with you for company Unless we may add the impatience of some Protestants who not enduring to be torn in pâ—eces like sheep by a company of wolves without resistance choose rather to die like Souldiers than Martyrs 93. But you proceed and falling into a fit of admiration crie out and say thus To what pass hath Heresie brought men who blush not to compare the beloved Spouse of the Lord the only Dove c. to a Monastery that must be forsaken to the gyant in Gath with superfluous fingers But this Spouse of Christ this only Dove this purchase of our Saviours blood this Catholick Church which you thus almost deifie what is it but a Society of men whereof every particular and by consequence the whole company is or may be guilty of many sins daily committed against knowledge and conscience Now I would fain understand why one error in faith especially if not fundamental should not consist with the holiness of this Spouse this Dove this Church as well as many and great sins committed against knowledge and conscience If this be not to strain at gnats and swollow camels I would fain understand what it is And here by the way I desire you to consider whether as it were with one stroke of a spunge you do not wipe out all that you have said to prove Protestants Schismatiques for separating from your Church though supposed to be in some errors not fundamental For if any such error may make her deserve to be compared to a Monastery so disordered that it must be forsaken then if you suppose as here you do your Church in such errors your Church is so disordered that it must and therefore without question may be forsaken I mean in those her disorders and corruptions and no farther 94. And yet you have not done with those similitudes But must observe you say one thing and that is That as these Reformers of the Monastery and others who left the diseased company could not deny but that they left the said communities So Luther and the rest cannot pretend not to have left the visible Church And that D. Potter speaks very strangely when he sayes In a society of men universally infected with some disease they that should free themselves from the common disease could not be therefore said to separate from the society For if they do not separate themselves from the society of the infected persons how do they free themselves frrom the common disease To which I answer That indeed if you speak of the Reformers of a Monastery and of the Desertors of the diseased company as you put the cases that is of those which left these communities then is it as true as Gospel that they cannot deny but that they left the said communities But it appears not to me how it will ensue hereupon That Luther and the rest cannot pretend not to have left the visible Church For to my apprehension this argument is very weak They which left some communities cannot truly deny but that they left them therefore Luther and his followers cannot deny but that they left the visible Church Where me thinks you prove little but take for granted that which is one of the greatest Questions amongst us that is That the Company which Luther left was the whole Visible Church whereas you know we say It was but a part of it and that corrupted and obstinate in her corruptions Indeed that Luther and his followers left off the Practice of those Corruptions wherein the whole Visible Church did communicate formerly which I meant when
without which there can be no hope of Salvation 30 And that he who erreth against any one revealed truth as certainly some Protestants must de because contradictory Propositions cannot both be true doth lose all Divine saith is a very true doctrin delivered by Catholique Divines with so general a consent that the contrary is wont to be censured as temerarious The Angelical Doctor S. Thomas proposeth this Question Whether (o) 23 q. â— aâ—â— 3. in corp he who denieth one Article of saith may retain saith in other Articles and resolveth that he cannot which he proveth Argumento sed contra because As deadly sin is opposite to charity so to deny one Article of saith is opposite to saith But charity doth not remain with any one deadly sin Therefore faith doth not remain after the denial of any one Article of faith Whereof he gives this farther reason Because saith he the nature of every habit doth depend upon the formal Motive and Object thereof which Motive being taken away the nature of the habit cannot remain But the formal object of saith is the supreme Truth as it is manifesied in Scriptures and in the doctrin of the Church which proceed from the same supreme Verity Whosoever therefore doth not relie upon the doctrin of the Church which proceeds from the supreme Verity manifested in Scripture as upon an infallible Rule he hath not the habit of faith but believes those things which belong to faith by some other means than by faith as if one should remember some conclusion and not know the reason of that demonstration it is clear that he hath not certain Knowledge but only Opinion Now it is manifest that he who relies on the doctrin of the Church as upon an infallible Rule will yield his assent to all that the Church teacheth For if among those things which she teacheth he hold what he will and doth not hold what he will not he doth not relie upon the doctrin of the Church as upon an infallible Rule but only upon his own will And so it is clear that an Heretique who with pertinacity denieth one Article of saith is not ready to follow the doctrin of the Church in all things And therefore it is manifest that whosoever is an Heretique in any one Article of faith concerning other Articles hath not faith but a kind of Opinion or his own Will Thus far S. Thomas And afterward A man doth believe (q) Ad. 2. all the Articles of faith for one and the self same reason to wit for the Prime Verity proposed to us in the Scripture understood aright according to the Doctrin of the Church and therefore whosoever falls from this reason or motive is totally deprived of saith From this true doctrin we are to infeâ—r that to retain or want the substance oâ— faith doth not consist in the matter or multitude of the Articles but in the opposition against God's divine testimony which is involved in every least error against faith And since some Protestants must needs eâ—r and that they have no certain rule to know why rather one than another it manifestly follows that none of them have any Certainty for the substance of their faith in any one point Moreover D. Potter being forced to confess that the Roman Church wants not the substance of faith it follows that she doth not err in any one point against faith because as we have seen out of S. Thomas every such error destroys the substance of faith Now if the Roman Church did not err in any one point of faith it is manifest that Protestants err in all those points wherein they are contrary to her And this may suffice to prove that the faith of Protestants wants Infallibility They want the second Condition of Faith Obscurity 31 And now for the second Condition of faith I say If Protestants have Certainly they want Obscurity and so have not that faith which as the Apostle saith is of things not appearing or noâ— necessitating our understanding to an assent For the whole edifice of the faith of Protestants is setled on these two Principles These particular Books are Canonical Scripture And the sense and meaning of these Canonical Scriptures is clear and evident at least in all points necessary to Salvation Now thâ—se Principles being once supposed it clearly followeth that what Protestants believe as necessary to salvation is evidently known by them to be true by this argument It is certain and evident that whatsoever is contained in the word of God is true But it is certain and evident that these Books in particular are the word of God Therefore it is certain and evident that whatsoever is contained in these Books is true Which Conclusion I take for a Major in a second Argument and say thus It is certain and evident that whatsoever is contained in these Books is true But it is certain and evident that such particular Articles for example The Trinity Incarnation Original sin c. are contained in these Books Thereâ—ore it is certain and evident that these particular Objects are true Neither will it avail you to say that the said Principles are not evident by natural discourse but only to the eye of reason cleared by grace as you speak For supernatural evidence no less yea rather more draws and excludes obscurity than natural evidence doth neither can the party so enlightned be said voluntarily to caprivate his understanding to that light but rather his understanding is by a necessity made captive and forced not to disbelieve what is presented by so clear a light And therefore your imaginary faith is not the true faith defined by the Apostle but an invention of your own Their faith wants Prudence 32 That the faith of Protestants wanteth the third Condition which was Prudence is deduced from all that hitherto hâ—th been said What wisdom was it to forsake a Church confessedly very ancient and besides which there could be demonstrated no other visible Church of Christ upon earth A Church acknowledged to want nothing necessary to Salvation endued with Succession of Bishops with Visibility and Universality of Time and Place A Church which if it be not the true Church her enemies cannot pretend to have any Church Ordination Scriptures Succession c. and are forced for their own sake to maintain her perpetual Existence and Being To leave I say such a Church and frame a Community without either Unity or means to procure it a Church which at Luther's first re-revolt had no larger extent than where his body was a Church without Universality of Place or Time A Church which can pretend no Visibility or Being except only in that former Church which it opposeth a Church void of Succession of Persons or Doctrin What wisdom was it to follow such men as Luther in an opposition against the Visible Church of Christ begun upon meer passion What wisdom is it to receive from Us a Church Ordination Scriptures
HE that will accuse any one man much more any great multitude of men of any great and horrible crime should in all reason and justice take care that the greatness of his Evidence do equal if not exceed the quality of the crime And such an accusation you would here make shew of by pretending first Ad. Sect. 1. to lay such grounds of it as are either already proved or else yielded on all sides and after to raise a firm and stable structure of convincing arguments upon them But both these I find to be meer and vain pretences and having considered this Chapter also without prejudice or passion as I did the former I am enforc'd by the light of Truth to pronounce your whole discourse a painted and ruinous building upon a weak and sandy Foundation 2 Ad § 2 3. First for your grounds a great part of them is falsely said to be either proved or granted It is true indeed that Man by his natural wit or industry could never have attained to the knowledge of Gods will to give him a supernatural and eternal happiness nor of the means by which his pleasure was to bestow this happiness upon him And therefore your first ground is good That is was requisite his understanding should be enabled to apprehend that end and means by a knowledge supernatural I say this is good if you mean by knowledge an apprehension or belief But if you take the word properly and exactly it is both false for faith is not knowledge no more than three is four but eminently contained in it so that he that knows believes and something more but he that believes many times does not know nay if he doth barely and meerly believe he doth never know and besides it is retracted by your self presently where you require That the object of faith must be both naturally and supernaturally unknown And again in the next page where you say Faith differs from science in regard of the object 's obscurity For that science and knowledge properly taken are Synonymous terms and that a knowledge of a thing absolutely unknown is a plain implicancy I think are things so plain that you will not require any proof of them 3 But then whereas you adde that if such a knowledge were no more than probable it could not be able sufficiently to overbear our will and encounter with humane probabilities being backed with the strength of flesh and blood and therefore conclude that it was farther necessary that this supernatural knowledge should be most certain and infallible To this I answer that I do heartily acknowledg and believe the Articles of our faith be in themselves Truths as certain and infallible as the very common Principles of Geometry and Metaphysicks But that there is required of us a knowledge of them and an adherence to them as certain as that offense or science that such a certainty is required of us under pain of damnation so that no man can hope to be in the state of salvation but he that finds in himself such a degree of faith such a strength of adherence This I have already demonstrated to be a great error and of dangerous and pernitious consequence And because I am more and more confirm'd in my perswasion that the truth which I there delivered is of great and singular use I will here confirm it with more reasons And to satisfie you that this is no singularity of my own my Margent presents you with a (a) M. Hooker in his answer to Travers his Supplication I have taught that the assurance of things which we believe by the word is not so certain as of that we perceive by sense And is it as certain Yea I taught that the things which God doth promise in his world are surer unto us than any thing we touch handle or see But are we so sure and certain of them If we be why doth God so often prove his promises unto us as he doth by arguments taken from our sensible experience We must be surer of the proof than the thing proved otherwise it is no proof How is it that if ten men do all look upon the Moon every one of them knows it as certainly to be the Moon as another but many believing one and the same promises all have not one and the same fulness of perswasion How falleth it our that men being assured of any thing by sense can be no surer of it than they are whereas the strongest in faith that liveth upon the earth had alwayes need to labour and strive and pray that his assurance concerning heavenly and spiritual things may grow increase and be augmented Protestant Divine of great authority and no way singular in his opinions who hath long since preached and justified the same doctrin 4 I say that every Text of Scripture which makes mention of any that were weak or of any that were strong in faith of any that were of little or any that were of great faith of any that abounded or any that were rich in faith of encreasing growing rooting grounding establishing confirming in faith Every such Text is a demonstrative refutation of this vain fancy proving that faith even true and saving faith is not a thing consisting in such an indivisible point of perfection as you make it but capable of augmentation and diminution Every prayer you make to God to increase your faith or if you conceive such a prayer derogatory from the perfection of your faith the Apostles praying to Christ to increase their faith is a convincing argument of the same conclusion Moreover if this doctrin of yours were true then seeing not any the least doubting can consist with a most infallible certainty it will follow that every least doubting in any matter of faith though resisted and involuntary is a damnable sin absolutely destructive so long as it lasts of all true and saving faith which you are so far from granting that you make it no sin at all but only an occasion of merit and if you should esteem it a sin then must you acknowledge contrary to your own Principles that there are Actual sins meerly involuntary The same is furthermore invincibly confirmed by every deliberate sin that any Christian commits by any progress in Charity that he makes For seeing as S. John assures us our faith is the victory which overcomes the world certainly if the faith of all true Believers were perfect and if true faith be capable of no imperfection if all faith be a knowledge most certain and infallible all faith must be perfect for the most imperfect that is according to your doctrin if it be true must be most certain and sure the most perfect that is cannot be more than most certain then certainly their victory over the world and therefore over the flesh and therefore over sin must of necessity be perfect and so it should be impossible for any true believer to commit any deliberate sin and therefore he
that commits any sin must not think himself a true believer Besides seeing faith worketh by Charity and Charity is the effect of faith certainly if the cause were perfect the effect would be perfect and consequently as you make no degrees in Faith so there would be none in Charity and so no man could possibly make any progress in it but all crue believers should be equal in Charity as in faith you make them equal and from thence it would follow unavoidably that whosoever finds in himself any true faith must presently perswade himself that he is perfect in Charity and whosoever on the other side discovers in his charity any imperfection must not believe that he hath any true faith These you see are strange and portentous consequences and yet the deduction of them from your doctrin is clear and apparent which shews this doctrin of yours which you would fain have true that there might be some necessity of your Churches infallibility to be indeed plainly repugnant not only to Truth but even to all Religion and Piety and fit for nothing but to make men negligent of making any progress in Faith or Charity And therefore I must entreat and adjure you either to discover unto me which I take God to witness I cannot perceive some fallacy in my reasons against it or never hereafter to open your mouth in defence of it 5 As for that one single reason which you produce to confirm it it will appear upon examination to be resolved finally into a groundless Assertion of your own contrary to all Truth and experience and that is That no degree of faith less than a most certain and infallible knowledge can be able sufficiently to overbear our will and encounter with humane probabilities being backt with the strength of Flesh and Blood For who sees not that many millions in the world forgo many times their present ease and pleasure undergo great and toilsom labours encounter great difficulties adventure upon great dangers and all this not upon any certain expectation but upon a probable hope of some future gain and commodity and that not infinite and eternal but finite and temporal Who sees not that many men abstain from many things they exceedingly desire not upon any certain assurance but a probable fear of danger that may come after What man ever was there so madly in love with a present penny but that he would willingly spend it upon any little hope that by doing so he might gain an hundred thousand pound And I would fain know what gay probabilities you could devise to disswade him from this Resolution And if you can devise none what reason then or sense is there but that a probable hope of infinite and eternal happiness provided for all those that obey Christ Jesus much more a firm faith though not so certain in some sort as sense or science may be able to sway our will to obedience and encounter with all those temptations which Flesh and Blood can suggest to avert us from it Men may talk their pleasure of an absolute and most infallible certainty but did they generall believe that obedience to Christ were the only way to present and eternal felicity but as firmly and undoubtedly as that there is such a City as Constantinople nay but as much as Caesar's Commentaries or the History of Salust I believe the lives of most men both Papists and Protestants would be better than they are Thus therefore out of your own words I argue against you He that requires to true faith an absolute and infallible certainty for this only Reason because any less degree could not be able to overbear our will c. imports that if a less degree of faith were able to do this then a less degree of faith may be true and divine and saving Faith But experience shews and reason confirms that a firm faith though not so certain as sense or science may be able to encounter and overcome our will and affections And therefore it follows from your own reason that faith which is not a most certain and infallible knowledge may be true and divine and saving faith 6 All these Reasons I have imployed to shew that such a most certain and infallible faith as here you talk of is not so necessary but that without such a high degree of it it is possible to please God And therefore the Doctrins delivered by you § 26 are most presumptuous and uncharitable viz. That such a most certain and infallible faith is necessary to salvation Necessitate Finis or Medii so necessary that after a man is come to the use of reason no man ever was or can be saved without it Wherein you boldly intrude into the judgment-feat of God and damn men for breaking Laws not of God's but your own making But withall you clearly contradict yourself not only where you affirm That your faith depends finally upon the Tradition of Age to Age of Father to Son which cannot be a fit ground but only for a Moral Assurance nor only where you pretend that not alone Hearing and Seeing but also Histories Letters Relations of many which certainly are things not certain and infallible are yet foundations good enough to support your faith Which Doctrin if it were good and allowable Protestants might then hope that their Histories and Letters and Relations might also pass for means sufficient of a sufficient Certainty that they should not be excluded from Salvation for want of such a Certainty But indeed the pressure of the present difficulty compell'd you to speak here what I believe you will not justifie with a pretty tergiversation to shew D. Potter your means of moral certainty whereas the Objection was that you had no means or possibility of infallible certainty for which you are plainly at as great a loss and as far to seek as any of your Adversaries And therefore it concerns you highly not to damn others for want of it lest you involve your selves in the same condemnation according to those terrible words of S. Paul Thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest For wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same things c. In this therefore you plainly contradict your self And lastly most plainly in saying as you do here you contradict and retract your pretence of Charity to Protestants in the beginning of your Book For there you make profession that you have no assurance but that Protestants dying Protestants may possibly die with contrition and be saved And here you are very peremptory that they cannot but want a means absolutely necessary to salvation and wanting that cannot but be damned The third Condition you require to faith is that our assent to divine Truths should not only be unknown and unevident by any humane discourse but that absolutely also it should be obscure in it self and ordinarily speaking be void even of supernatural evidence Which words
must have a very favourable construction or else they will not be sense For who can make any thing of these words taken properly that faith must be an unknown unevident assent or an assent absolutely obscure I had always thought that known and unknown obscure and evident had been affections not of our Assent but the Object of it not of our belief but the thing believed For well may we assent to a thing unknown obscure or unevident but that our assent it self should be called therefore unknown or obscure seems to me as great an impropriety as if I should say Your sight were green or blew because you see something that is so In other places therefore I answer your words but here I must answer your meaning which I conceive to be That it is necessary to faith that the Objects of it the points which we believe should not be so evidently certain as to necessitate our understanding to an Assent that so there might be some merit in faith as you love to speak who will not receive no not from God himself but a penny-worth for a penny but as we some obedience in it which can hardly have place where there is no possibility of disobedience as there is not where the understanding does all and the will nothing Now seeing the Religion of Protestants thought it be much more credible than yours yet is not pretended to have the absolute evidence of sense or demonstration therefore I might let this doctrin pass without exception for any prejudice that can redound to us by it But yet I must not forbear to tell you that your discourse proves indeed this condition requisite to the merit but yet not to the essence of faith without it faith were not an act of obedience but yet faith may be faith without it and this you must confess unless you will say either the Apostles believed not the whole Gospel which they preached or that they were not cy-witnesses of a great part of it unless you will question S. John for saying that which we have seen with our eys which our hands have handled c declare we unto you nay our Saviour himself for saying Thomas because thou seest thou believest Blessed are they which have not seen yet have believed Yet if you will say that in respect of the things which they saw the Apostles assent was not pure and proper and meer faith but somewhat more an assent containing faith but superadding to it I will not contend with you for it will be a contention about words But then again I must crave leave to tell you that the requiring this condition is in my judgment a plain revocation of the former For had you made the matter of faith either naturally or supernaturally evident it might have been a fitly attempered and duly proportioned object for an absolute certainty natural or supernatural But requiring as you do that faith should be an absolute knowledge of a thing not absolutely known an infallible certainty of a thing which though it be in it self yet it is not made appear to us to be infallibly certain to my understanding you speak impossibilities And truly for one of your Religion to do so is but a good Decorum For the matter and object of your Faith being so full of contradictions a contradictions faith may very well become a contradictious Religion Your faith therefore if you please to have it so let it be a free necessitated certain uncertain evident obscure prudent and foolish natural and supernatural unnatural assent But they which are unwilling to believe non-sense themselves or to perswade others to do so it is but reason they should make the faith wherewith they believe an intelligible compossible consistent thing not define it by repugnancies Now nothing is more repugnant than that a man should be required to give most certain credit unto that which cannot be made appear most certainly credible and if it appear to him to be so then is it not obscure that it is so For if you speak of an acquired rational discursive faith certainly these Reasons which make the object seem credible must be the cause of it and consequently the strength and firmity of my assent must rise and fall together with the apparent credibility of the object If you speak of a supernatural infused faith then you either suppose it infused by the former means and then that which was said before must be said again for whatsoever effect is wrought meerly by means must bear proportion to and cannot exceed the vertue of the means by which it is wrought As nothing by water can be made more cold than water nor by fire more hot than fire nor by honey more sweet than honey nor by gall more bitter than gall Or if you will suppose it infused without means then that power which infuseth into the understanding assent which bears Analogy to sight in the eye must also infuse Evidence that is Visibility into the Object and look what degree of assent is infus'd into the understanding at least the same degree of evidence must be infused into the Object And for you to require a strength of credit beyond the appearance of the object 's credibility is all one as if you should require me to go ten miles an hour upon an horse that will go but five to discern a man certainly through a myst or cloud that makes him not certainly discernable to hear and sound more clearly than it is audible to understand a thing more fully than it is intelligible and he that doth so I may well expect that his next injunction will be that I must see something that is invisible hear something inaudible understand something that is wholly unintelligible For he that demands ten of me knowing I have but five does in effect as if he demanded five knowing that I have none and by like reason you requiring that I should see things farther then they are visible require I should see something invisible and in requiring that I believe something more firmly than it is made to me evidently credible you require in effect that I believe some thing which appears to me incredible and while it does so I deny not but that I am bound to believe the truth of many Texts of Scripture the sense whereof is to me obscure and the truth of many Articles of faith the manner whereof is obscure and to humane understandings incomprehensible But then it is to be observed that not the sense of such Texts not the manner of these things is that which I am bound to believe but the truth of them But that I should believe the truth of any thing the truth whereof cannot be made evident with an evidence proportionable to the degree of faith required of me this I say for any man to be bound to is unjust and unreasonable because to do it is impossible 8 Ad § 4 5 6 7 8.9 10 11 12. Yet
true doctrin this Position of yours thus nakedly set down That any error against any one revealed truth destroies all divine faith For they all require not your self excepted that this truth must not only be revealed but revealed publiquely and all things considered sufficiently propounded to the erring Party to be one of those which God under pain of damnation commands all men to believe And therefore the contradiction of Protestants though this vain doctrin of your Divines were supposed true is but a weak argument That any of them have no divine Faith seeing you neither have nor ever can prove without begging the Question of your Churches infallibility that the truths about which they differ are of this quality and condition But though out of courtesie we may suppose this doctrin true yet we have no reason to grant it nor to think it any thing but a vain and groundless fancie and that this very weak and inartificial argument from the authority of your Divines is the strongest pillar which it hath to support it Two reasons you alleadge for it out of Thomas Aquinas the first whereof vainly supposeth against reason and experience that by the commission of any deadly sinne the habit of Charitie is quite exstirpated And for the second though you cry it up for an Achilles and think like the Gorgons head it will turne us all into stone and in confidence of it insult upon Doctor Potter as if he durst not come neare it yet in very truth having considered it well I finde it a serious grave prolixe and profound nothing I could answer it in a word by telling you that it begges without all proof or colour of proof the main Question between us That the infallibilitie of your Church is either the formal motive or rule or a necessarie condition of faith which you know we flatly deny and therefore all that is built upon it has nothing but wind for a foundation But to this answer I will adde a large consutation of this vain fancie out of one of the most rational and profound Doctors of your own Church I mean Essius who upon the third of the Sent. the 23. dist the 13. § writes thus It is disputed saith he whether in him who believes some of the Articles of our faith and disbelieves others or perhaps some one there be faith properly so called in respect of that which he does believe In which question we must before all carefully distinguish between those who retaining a general readiness to believe whatsoever the Church believes yet erre by ignorance in some Doctrin of faith because it is not as yet sufficiently declared to them that the Church does so believe and those who after sufficient manifestation of the Churches Doctrin do yet choose to dissent from it either by doubting of it or affirming the contrary For of the former the answer is easie but of these that is of Heretiques retaining some part of wholesome Doctrin the question is more difficult and on both sides by the Doctors probably disputed For that there is in them true faith of the Articles wherein they do not erre first experience seems to convince For many at this day denying for example sake Purgatory or Invocation of Saints nevertheless firmly hold as by divine revelation that God is Three and One that the Son of God was incarnate and suffered and other like things As anciently the Novatians excepting their peculiar error of denying reconciliation to those that fell in persecution held other things in common with Catholiques So that they assisted them very much against the Arrians as Socrates relates in his Eccl. Hist Moreover the same is proved by the example of the Apostles who in the time of Christ's passion being scandaliz'd lost their faith in him as also Christ after his resurrection upbraids them with their incredulity and calls Thomas incredulous for denying the Resurrection John 20. Whereupon S. Austin also in his preface upon the 96 Psalme saith That after the Resurrection of Christ the faith of those that fell was restored again And yet we must not say that the Apostles then lost the faith of the Trinity of the Creation of the world of Eternal life and such like other Articles Besides the Jewes before Christs comming held the faith of one God the Creator of Heaven and Earth who although they lost the true faith of the Messias by not receiving Christ yet we cannot say that they lost the faith of one God but still retained this Article as firmely as they did before Add hereunto that neither Jews nor Heretiques seem to lye in saying they believe either the books of the Prophets or the four Gospels it being apparent enough that they acknowledge in them Divine Authority though they hold not the true sense of them to which purpose is that in the Acts chap. 20. Believest thou the Propheis I know that thou believest Lastly it is manifest that many gifts of God are found even in bad men and such as are out of the Church therefore nothing hinders but that Jews and Heretiques though they erre in many things yet in other things may be so divinely illuminated as to believe aright So S. Austine seems to teach in his book De Unico Baptismo contra Petilianum c. 3. in these words When a Jew comes to us to be made a Christian we destroy not in him God's good things but his own ill That he believes One God is to be worshipped that he hopes for eternal life that he doubts not of the Resurrection we approve and commend him we acknowledge that as he did believe these things so he is still to believe them and as he did hold so he is still to hold them Thus he subjoyning more to the same purpose in the next and again in the 26 Chapter and in his third Book De Bapt. contr Donat. cap. ult and upon Psal 64. But now this reason seems to perswade the contrary Because the formal object of faith seems to be the first verity as it is manifested by the Churches Doctrin as the Divine and infallible Rule wherefore whosoever adheres not to this Rule although he assent to some matters of faith yet he embraces them not with faith but with some other kind of assent as if a man assent to a conclusion not knowing the reason by which it is demonstrated he hath not true knowledge but an opinion only of the same conclusion Now that an Heretique adheres not to the rule aforesaid it is manifest Because if he did adhere to it as divine and infallible he would receive all without exception which the Church teacheth and so would not be an Heretique After this manner discourseth Saint Thom. 2.2 q. 5. art 3. From whom yet Durand dissents upon this distinction thinking there may be in an Heretique true faith in respect of the Article in which he doth not erre Others as Scotus and Bonaventure define not the matter plainly but seem to choose
a middle way To the authority of S. Austin and these School-men this may be adjoyned That it is usual with good Christians to say that Heretiques have not the entire faith Whereby it seems to be intimated that some part of it they do retain Whereof this may be another reason That if the truths which a Jew or a Heretique holds be should not hold 〈◊〉 by faith but after some other manner to wit by his own proper will and judgment it will follow that all the excellent knowledge of God and divine things which is found in them is to be attributed not to the grace of God but the strength of Free-will which is against S. Austine both elsewhere and especially in the end of his book De potentia As for the reason alleaged to the contrary We answer It is impertinent to faith by what means we believe the prime Verity that is by what means God useth to confer upon men the gift of faith For although now the ordinary means be the Testimony and teaching of the Church yet it is certain that by other means faith hath been given heretofore and is given still For many of the Ancients as Adam Abraham Melchisedeck Job received faith by special revelation the Apostles by the Miracles and preaching of Christ others again by the preaching and miracles of the Apostles And Lastly others by other means when as yet they had heard nothing of the infallibility of the Church To little Children by Baptism without any other help faith is infus'd And therefore it is possible that a man not adhering to the Churches doctrin as a Rule infallible yet may receive some things for the word of God which do indeed truly belong to the faith either because they are now or heretofore have been confirm'd by miracles or because he manifestly sees that the ancient Church taught so or upon some other inducement And yet nevertheless we must not say that Heretiques and Jewes do hold the Faith but only some part of the Faith For the Faith signifies an entire thing and compleat in all parts whereupon an Heretique is said to be simply an Infidel to have lost the Faith and according to the Apostle 1 Tim. 1. to have made shipwrack of it although he holds some things with the same strength of assent and readiness of will wherewith by others are held all those points which appertain to the Faith And thus farre Aestius Whose discourse I presume may pass for a sufficient refutation of your argument out of Aquinas And therefore your Corollaries drawn from it That every errour aqainst faith involves opposition against God's testimony That Protestants have no Faith no certainty And that you have all Faith must together with it fall to the ground 50. But If Protestants have certainty they want obscurity and so have not that faith which as the Apostle saith is of things not appearing This argument you prosecute in the next Paragraph But I can find nothing in it to convince or perswade me that Protestants cannot have as much certainty as is required to faith of an object not so evident as to beget science If obscurity will not consist with certainty in the highest degree then you are to blame for requiring to faith contradicting conditions If certainty and obscurity will stand together what reason can be imagin'd that a Protestant may not entertain them both as well as a Papist Your bodies and souls your understandings and wills are I think of the same condition with ours And why then may not we be certain of an obscure thing as well as you And as you make this long discourse against Protestants why may not we putting Church instead of Scripture send it back again to you And say If Papists have certainty they want obscurity and so have not that faith which as the Apostle saith is of things not appearing or not necessitating our understanding to an assent For the whole edifice of the faith of Papists is setled on these two principles These particular propositions are the propositions of the Church And the sense and meaning of them is clear and evident at least in all points necessary to salvation Now these principles being once suppos'd it clearly followeth that what Papists believe as necessary to salvation is evidently known by them to be true by this argument It is certain and evident that whatsoever is the word of God or Divine Revelation is true But it is certain and evident that these propositions of the Church in particular are the word of God and Divine Revelations Therefore it is certain and evident that all propositions of the Church are true Which conclusion I take for a Major in a second argument and say thus It is certain and evident that all propositions of the Church are true But it is certain and evident that such particulars for example The lawfulness of the halfe Communion The lawfulness and expedience of Latine Service the Doctrin of Transubstantiation Indulgences c. are the Propositions of the Church Therefore it is certain and evident that these particular objects are true Neither will it avail you to say that the said principles are not evident by natural discourse but only by the eye of reason clear'd by grace For supernatural evidence no less yea rather more drowns and excludes obscurity than natural evidence doth Neither can the Party so enlightned be said voluntarily to captivate his understanding to that light but rather his understanding is by necessity made captive and forc'd not to disbelieve what is presented by so clear a light And therefore your imaginary faith is not the true faith defined by the Apostle but an invention of your own And having thus cryed quittance with you I must intreat you to devise for truly I cannot some answer to this argument which will not serve in proportion to your own For I hope you will not pretend that I have done you injurie in setling your faith upon principles which you disclaim And if you alleadge this disparitie That you are more certain of your principles than we of ours and yet you do not pretend that your principles are so evident as we do â—hat ours are what is this to say but that you are more confident than we but confess you have less reason for it For the evidence of the thing assented to be it more or less is the reason and cause of the assent in the understanding But then besides I am to tell you that you are here as every where extreamely if not affectedly mistaken in the doctrin of Protestants who though they acknowledge that the things which they believe are in themselves as certain as any demonstrable or sensible verities yet pretend not that their certainty of adherence is most perfect and absolute but such as may be perfected and increas'd as long as they walk by faith and not by sight And consonant hereunto is their doctrin touching the evidence of the objects whereunto they
about is clearly detected by our Saviour in his Exposition of the Parable of the Sower in these words When they have heard then cometh the Devil and taketh away the Word out of their Hearts Luk. 7.12 i. e. The Devil will give such people leave freely to hear the Word of God preached to study it dispute it to know and be acquainted with all the curious intricate subtilties of it upon condition that they will promise to resolve not to be a jot the better disposed for it in their lives He can well suffer it to swim in the Brain that the Understanding should be inlightned the fancy affected and pleased with it so that he may have leave to stop the secret intercourse and passages thence to the Heart It troubles him not to have the precious seed of the Word entertain'd by a man so that it may be kept up safe in Granaries and not multiply so that the heart be not plough'd up and furrowed for the receiving of it as long as there is no fruitful Harvest there all goes well 19. He will be so farr from hindering such from going to the Church so that their errant be to learn what they may be able to talk of and maintain discourse with that he could wish every day were a Sunday for them that they might be able by abundance of knowledg fruitless and void of practise to hasten and aggravate their own damnation 20. Now whom the Devil thus uses whom he thus baits nay contents and satisfies with an empty speculative aerial knowledg a knowledg only fruitful in increasing their guilt and torment who can deny to be sottish ignorant easie fools childishly affected with a knowledge glorious only in shew without any substance or depth at all And yet this was a temptation strong enough for Paradise for just so did the Devil entrap Adam at the first so that in him we have received one foil already at this weapon And he proceeds dayly in acting that over again For what was it which destroyed Adam but the preferring of the Tree of Knowledg before the Tree of Life 21. St. James speaking of such persons so insnared seems to take much of the envy and guilt of so cruel a deceit and cousenage as this is from off the Devil Jam. 1.22 and to lay it upon themselves Be not hearers of the Word only but doers also deceiving your selves He confesses such to be fools cousened and deceived people but themselves saith he are their own cheaters wherein lyes a strong emphasis expressing the extream unhappiness of such poor deceived wretches If the cunning insinuation of one that for his own ends pretends friendship to me draw me into some inconvenience or danger the world will think me a fool for being so catch'd and not being able to dive and pierce into his secret purposes But this folly is not of so perfect a strain but that it may deserve both excuse and pity But that man that spends his whole life in contriving and plotting and laying snares for his own soul if after all this ado he be indeed caught in the pit that with so much pains he digged only for himself Would not any man forfeit his discretion that should either excuse or pitty him And in such or worse a case is he that contents himself with bare hearing and knowing the Word 22. Who do you think would undertake to excuse a Pharisee if he should be condemned for want of spiritual wisdom one whose profession it was whose trade and course of life to be conversant in the Scriptures who had spent his age in reading the Holy Writ and teaching others out of it One that was so curious in having the Scripture alwayes near him that he wore it continually about him It was a trimming and ornament to his Apparel It was alwayes in his eyes It was guarded about the wrists of his arms and instead of a-lace or fringe at the bottom of his garment If one after all this curiosity of dressing sedulity in reading industry in teaching should at length with so good parts in such good clothes go down into Hell and so dye for want of true knowledg Who wou'd adventure to excuse him who would dare to pitty him 23. Yet not one or two but the whole Colledge the whole faction of them Matth. 23. you shall find in Matth. 23. very near their end No less then eight woes denounced against them by our Saviour himself who is not very forward to destroy he came upon a farr other business and all those woes for their folly and blindness In the denouncing of every Woe but one he styles them Hypocrites And an Hypocrite you know is the veryest fool in the world for he thinks to cousen and put a cheat upon God whom yet himself confesses to be Omniscient and who knoweth all things In that single woe he calls them blind guides elsewhere Fools and blind This was our Saviour's judgment of them and you may rest upon it that it was upon sufficient grounds 24. But their folly and ridiculous madness will yet more appear if you take notice of the opinion and judgment that these very Pharisees gave of themselves It is in Joh. 7.48 49. The occasion of it was this The great Council of the Sanhedrin seeing so many of the ignorant people as they thought seduced by our Saviour To remedy any further spreading of so dangerous a contagion They by common advice send Officers to attach him and to make him sure enough for preaching The Officers find him busie instructing the people and instead of laying hands on him themselves are even caught and almost bereft of their Infidelity When Sermon was done they return to their Masters the Rulers and Pharisees without their Prisoner and give a good account why they did not fulfil their command in telling them they never heard a better Preacher in their lives Never man say they spake like this man Joh. 7.46 These wise Magistrates pitying the simplicity and easiness of their Sergeants answer them thus Ver. 47 48 49. Are ye also deceived Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who know not the Law are cursed Implying that if the people had been as well read in the Law of God as their Teachers were they would have kept themselves safe enough from the ensnaring Sermons of Christ But now they may see what difference there is between men utterly unacquainted with Gods Word and themselves how subject they are to destruction and to be cursed of God 25. How is it possible for the wit of man to imagine folly and madness of a more perfect strain Our Saviour Christ who is Truth it self did not exact Faith from his followers meerly for his Miracles sake but sent them to search the Scriptures For they saith he testifie of me Joh. 5.39 And yet these wise men impute it to their knowledg of the Law that
they were freed from this curse into which the poor ignorant people fell How cunningly have these fooss layed a snare for their own lives 26. Alas What could the poor people think when they heard their Doctors and Magistrates men that were gods to them that sate in Moses Chair condemned of such extream folly and indiscretion What will become of us might they say if the Pharisees from whom all that we know is but a thin thrifty gleaning have so many Woes denounc'd against them for want of spiritual knowledge 27. Certain it was There were many poor souls whom the Pharisees kept out of Heaven for company Our Saviour tells them so much Ye neither go into Heaven your selves nor suffer others to go in But they were such as they had infected with their Leaven Such as made those rotten superstructions which those great Doctors built upon the Word foundations of their Faith and Hope And as certain it is that many there were upon whom God out of his gracious favour and mercy had not bestowed such piercing brains and enquiring heads as to make them acquainted with their dangerous Opinions and Traditions They were such as made better use of that little knowledg they had than to vent it in discourse or in maintaining Opinions and Tenents against the Church They heard the Word with an humble honest heart submitting themselves wholly to it and restored their Faith to its proper seat the Heart and Affections and it was fruitful in their lives and practise The wisdom of Solomon himself as long as he gave himself to Idolarty and Luxury was folly and madness to the discretion and prudence of these poor despised people 28. Thus you see The Fool that in my Text is so madd as to say There is no God may have wit enough to understand more nay in the opinion of the world may make a silly fool of him that has laid up in his heart unvaluable treasures of spiritual wisdom and knowledg And therefore the Latin Translation following St. Paul might more significantly have styled him Imprudens than Insipiens For the wisdom which is according to Godliness doth most exactly answer to that Prudence which moral Philosophers make a general over-ruling Vertue to give bounds and limits to all our Actions and to find out a temper and mean wherein we ought to walk And therefore a most learned Divine of our Church yet alive knew very well what he said when he desin'd our Faith to be A spiritual Prudence Implying that Faith bears the same office and sway in the life and practise of a Christian as Prudence of a moral honest man 29. Now saith Aristotle there may be many intemperate youthful dissolute spirits which may have an admirable piercing discerning judgment in speculative Sciences as the Mathematicks Metaphysicks and the like because the dwelling upon such contemplations does not at all cross or trouble those rude untamed passions and affections of theirs yea they may be cunning in the speculative knowledg of vertues But all this while they are notwithstanding utterly invincibly imprudent because Prudence requires not only a good discerning judgment and apprehension but a serenity and calmness in the passions 30. Therefore the same Philosopher does worthily reprehend some Ancients who called all vertues Sciences and said that each particular vertue was a several Art requiring only an enlightning or informing of the Reason and Understanding which any for a little cost and small pains-taking in frequenting the learned Lectures of Philosophers need not doubt but easily to obtain 31. This conceit of so learned a man does very well deserve our prosecution And it will not be at all swerving from the business in hand Therefore I shall shew you how the Moralist by the force of natural Reason hath framed to himself a Divinity and Religion resembling both in method and many substantial parts the glorious learning of a Christian I told you the fore-named Doctor did very well to call our Faith or Assent to supernatural Mysteries A spiritual Prudence 32. Now besides moral prudence nay before the moralist can make any use thereof or exercise it in the work of any vertue there is required another general Vertue which the Philosopher calls Universal Justice which is nothing else but a sobriety and temper in the affections whereby they are subdued and captiv'd unto well inform'd Reason So that whatsoever it commands to be done there is no rebellion no unwillingness in the Passions but they proceed readily to execution though it be never so distasteful to sense 33. Now how well does this express the nature of Charity for What else is Love but a sweet breathing of the Holy Spirit upon our Passions whereby the Holy Ghost does as it did in the beginning of Genesis incubare aquis move by a cherishing quieting vertue upon the Sea of our Passions Did not the same Spirit come to Eliah in a soft whisper He walks not in Turbine in a strong wind to raise a Tempest in our Affections Now when we have received this ipsissiman Dei particulam as Plato said of the Soul this shred or portion of the Holy Spirit which is Charity how evenly and temperately do we behave our selves to God and all the world besides How willingly and obediently do we submit our selves to the performance of whatsoever Faith out of Gods Word doth enjoyn us 34. But yet the Analogy and proportion between these two is more evident and observable That Universal Justice is no particular singular vertue neither hath it any particular singular object As other vertues have For example Temperance or Abstinence which hath to do with sensual delights and pleasures and none else But when it is determined to and fastens on the object of a particular vertue it is converted into and incorporates with that very vertue for example If I do exercise this general Habit of observing a mean and temper in things that concern diet or sensual pleasures it becomes Abstinence if upon objects of terrour it becomes Fortitude or Magnanimity Just so is it with Charity For 35. Charity is a vertue which never goes alone and is busied in solitary places being reserved and excluded from the society and communion of other Graces But it is that which seasons gives life and efficacy to all the rest without which if it were possible for me to enjoy all the Graces that the bountiful hand of God ever showred upon reasonable Creature yet if St. Paul speak truth I should be nothing worth It is that which fulfils all the Commandements This is evident to all that shall but sleightly and in haste read over 1 Cor. 13. beginning with vers 4. and so onwards 1 Cor. 13.4 c. where we may behold almost all the vertues that can be named enwrapped in one vertue of Charity and Love according to the several Acts thereof chang'd and transform'd into so many several Graces It suffereth long and so 't is Longanimity It is kind
wrought upon are meerly befool'd by the Devil or rather by themselves for so I told you that Saint James says And for an example I propos'd the learned Pharisees who for all their learning and knowledg in the Scripture yet our Saviour denounceth eight several Woes against them for being Fools and blind Guides So that the Fool in hand was not oppos'd to a Learned man but to a Prudent man And therefore a worthy Doctor of our Church did well define Faith to be A spiritual Prudence that is a knowledg sought out only for practise And there I compared Faith with moral Prudence and the fruit thereof Charity with the vertue of Universal Justice Therefore lest the very Heathen should rise up in judgment against us for not doing so much with the help and advantage of Gods Word as they could without it I did and do beseech you not to content your selves with meer knowing and hearing with only a conceit of Faith without Works for that was an ancient Heresie in the Nicolaitans whom God by name professeth an Hatred to as Eusebius tells us And for an effectual motive I told you how at the last great Tryal you shall not be catechis'd How well you can say your Creed or how many Catechisms without Book but How fruitful in works of Charity your Faith hath been And so I come to the second member of the First General namely the consideration how dangerous and grievous a burden Knowledg will be where it is fruitless and ineffectual of which briefly 43. I will once again repeat that divine sentence of the Psalmist in Psal 111.10 The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom Psal 111.10 and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter i.e. Till a man put his knowledg in practise he is so farr from being a good man that he is scarse a man hath not the understanding of a man till he do till he fall a work he was wiser a great deal before he gained his knowledg Knowledg alone is a goodly purchase in the mean time It is so worthy a purchase that as it should seem by our Saviours account till a man have obtained some competency in knowledg he hath gotten no right to the Kingdom of Darkness and Hell 44. For certainly no man can justly challenge damnation but he that is burdened with Sin Now he that hath no knowledg but is utterly blind in his understanding hath no sin that is in comparison the words are Joh. 9.39 c. And Jesus said for judgment I am come into this world Joh. 9.39 c. that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind Not as if Christ did imprint or inflict blindness upon any man but only occasionally that is those which walk in darkness and love it when the light comes upon them and discovers their wandring they hate it and turn their eyes from it and become more perversly and obstinately blind In the same sense that St. Paul saith Rom. 7. Sin taking occasion by the Law becomes more sinful whil'st sin is not oppos'd it goes on in its course quietly but when the Commandement comes and discovers and rebukes it it becomes furious and abominable and much more raging and violent 45. There follows Vers 40. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him Are we blind also There is nothing in the world that a Pharisee can with less patience endure than to hear any intimation given that he may be suspected of folly And therefore they were not so sensible or conceited of some wrong received when our Saviour call'd them Generation of Vipers as they are when their wisdom and discretion are call'd in question Witness this answer when no man spake to them they suspiciously demand whether Christ in his last words meant them or no. But what answers our Saviour 46. Jesus said unto them Vers 41. If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say We see therefore your sin remaineth As if he had said So little shall this supposed knowledg and wisdom that ye have profit you that you shall curse the time that ever you saw the holy Word of God and wish that all the Sermons that ever you heard all the gracious Invitations and sweet Promises which God by the ministery of his Servants the Prophets hath sent unto you had been sentences of some horrible death and torments from the mouth of a severe Judg. For your sins which otherwise had not been so insupportable now by your abusing the knowledg which God hath given you by your wilful contempt of those many invitations which have continually sounded in your ears are become as a Mountain upon you to crush you into powder You have hang'd a Milstone about your own necks which shall irrecoverably sink you into the bottomless comfortless pit whereas otherwise there might have been some hope of escape 47. And yet for all this let not any one favour and cherish himself in this conceipt That he thanks God he is ignorant enough that a very little practise will serve his turn his knowledg is not so much that it should put him to too great a labour in expressing it in the course of his life For whosoever he be that dares entertain or give way to such a thought as this is Let him be sure that if he do not know so much as God requires at his hands especially now that God hath sealed up the Scripture-Canon now that the whole Will of God is revealed this very ignorance alone will be a thousand weights to fasten him on the earth to make him sure for ever ascending to God in whom there is no darkness at all 48. For it is not so with an ignorant man as it is with one that is blind who if he will be sure not to tempt God by venturing and rushing forward in paths unknown unto him may live as long and as safe as he that is most quick-sighted No Ignorance alone though it be not active and fruitful in works of darkness is crime enough For with what colour of reason will such a one expect the reward of the Just Such a one will not doubt but that the Gates of Heaven are barr'd against the sottish blind ignorant Heathen to whom God never revealed any part of his Will yet himself may fare well enough Is not this a degree beyond madness it self What does such a one think that because he lives among religious people and such as are well acquainted with the way to Heaven that himself shall be sure to go for company Does he make no doubt of his part in the Resurrection of the Just because he was born in England or in such a year of our Lord when the Gospel flourished Nay shall it not be much more tolerable for the worst of the Heathen than for a such a man 49. For if the Heathen were left
13. I told you I remember my Text was a Law and I repent not of the expression though I know not how since our divinity has been imprison'd and fetter'd in Theses and distinctions we have lost this word Law and men will by no means indure to hear that Christ came to command us any thing or that he requires any thing at our hands he is all taken up in promise All those precepts which are found in the Gospel are nothing in these mens opinions but mere promises of what God will work in us I know not how sine nobis though indeed they be delivered in fashion like Precepts 14. These and many other such dangerous consequences do and must necessarily arise from that new invented Fatal Necessity A doctrine that fourteen Centuries of Christianity never heard of If we will enquire after the old and good waies we shall find the Gospel it self by its own author call'd a Law For thus saith the Psalmist in the Person of Christ Psal 2.7 I will preach the Law whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And how familiar are such speeches as those in our Saviour's mouth This is my command a new commandement I give unto you Ye shall be my Disciples if ye do those things which I command you Among the ancient Fathers we find not only that Christ is a Law-giver but that he hath published Laws which were never heard of before That he hath enlarged the ancient precepts and enjoyned new and yet now 't is Socinianism to say but half so much Clemens Alexandr 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in fine saith that Christ is more than a Law-giver he is both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quotes S. Peter for it 15. Well then my Text is a Law and a preparatory law it is the voyce of one crying Prepare the waies of the Lord let all hills be depressed and all valleys exalted It bears indeed the same office in our conversion or new birth that Aristotle assigns to his Privation in respect of natural Generation It hath no positive active influence upon the work but it is Principium Occasionale a condition or state necessarily supposed or prerequired in the subject before the business be accomplished For as in Physical Generation there can be no superinduction of forms but the subject which expects a soul must necessarily prepare a room or mansion for it which cannot be unless the soul that did before inhabit there be dispossessed So it likewise comes to pass in our Regeneration there is no receiving of Christ to dwell and live with us unless we turn all our other guests out of doors The Devil you know would not take possession of a house till it was swept and garnished and Dares any man imagine that a heart defiled full of all uncleanness a decayed ruinous soul an earthly sensual mind is a Tabernacle fit to entertain the Son of God were it reasonable to invite Christ to sup in such a mansion much more to rest and inhabit there 16. In the ordinary sacrifices of the old Law God was content to share part of them with his servants the Priests and challeng'd only the inwards as his own due And proportionably in the spiritual sacrifices his claim was My son give me thy heart He was tender then in exacting all his due It was only a temptation we know when God required of Abraham that his only son Isaac should be offer'd in holocaustum for a whole burnt-sacrifice to be utterly consum'd so that no part nor relicks should remain of so beloved a Sacrifice Yet even in those old times there were whole burnt-offerings whereby besides that one oblation of Christ was prefigured likewise our giving up our whole selves souls and bodies as a living reasonable sacrifice unto God And therefore our Saviour Christ who came to fulfil the Law not only by his obedience thereto but also by his perfect and compleat expression of its force and meaning doth in plain terms resolutely and peremptorily exact from all them that purpose to follow him a full perfect resignation of themselves to his disposing without all manner of condition or reservation 17. This was a Doctrine never heard of in the world before compleatly delivered Never did any Prophet or Scribe urge or inforce so much upon Gods people as is herein contained Yet in the Evangelical Law we have it precisely and accurately press'd insomuch that the holy Spirit of God has taken up almost all the Metaphors that can possibly be imagin'd the more forcibly to urge this so necessary a Doctrine 18. We are commanded so perfectly and wholly to devote our selves to Gods service so earnestly and resolutely to undertake his Commands that we must determine to undervalue and despise all earthly and transitory things besides nay from the bottom of our hearts we must hate and detest all things how gainful or delightful or necessary soever they seem if they do in any measure hinder or oppugn us in our journey to Christ 19. We must not so much as look upon Christ or glance our eyes upon his glorious mercy express'd in suffering and satisfying for us for S. Luke calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we must resolve to keep them there fix'd and not deign to think any creature to be a spectacle worthy our looking on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.11 saith S. Paul we have no English term that can fully express the force of this word for it is not only as we have it translated looking unto Christ but taking off our speculations from other objects and fastning them upon Christ the author and finisher of our Faith 20. When we have been once acquainted though but imperfectly with this saving knowledge we must strait bring our understandings into captivity unto the obedience thereof and whatsoever other speculations we have how delightful soever they be unto us yet rather then they should over-leaven us and as Knowledge without charity is apt to do puff us up we must with much greater care and industry study to forget them and resolve with S. Paul to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified 21. When we have had notice of that inestimable Jewel the Kingdome of Heaven so called by our Saviour in the Parable exposed to sale though our estate be never so great our wares never so rich and glorious yet we must resolvedly part with all we have utterly undoe our selves and turn bankrupts for the purchasing of it Hence are those commands Sell all thou hast And lest a man should think that when the land is sold he may keep the money in his purse there follows And give to the poor And such care is taken by the holy Ghost in those expressions lest any evasions should be admitted lest it should happen that such a Merchant should find no chapman to buy his wates nor which is scarce possible hands to receive his money
directions than he has thought fit 42. I beseech you therefore my beloved Brethren by all means make use of any advantages which may serve to render you more earnest more eager and resolute in your obedience to those holy and perfect Commandements which he hath enjoyn'd you If you cannot find your selves arriv'd as yet to that height of perfection as that Love and Charity cannot wrest from you sufficient carefulness to obey him Let fear have its operation with you fear and horrour of that terrible issue which shall attend the wilful and habitual transgressours of his Laws And you need not suspect this course as unwarrantable for you shall have St. Paul for your example even that Paul for whose miraculous conversion Christ was pleas'd himself in Person to descend from his Throne of Majesty that Paul who laboured in the Gospe more than all the rest of the Apostles that Paul whose joy and hearts comfort it was to be afflicted for the Name of Christ Lastly that Paul who for a time was ravish'd from the Earth to the third Heaven after a most inexpressable manner and there heard things that cannot be uttered This Paul I say shall be your example who after all these things found it yet a convenient motive and received great encouragement and eagerness to proceed in his most blessed conversation even from this fear Lest whilest he preached to others himself should become a cast-away 43. And when Fear has done its part let Hope come in Hope of that happy Communion which you shall once again have with those friends which may be purchased in this life at so easie a rate Hope of that eternal weight and burden of joy and glory which is reserved in Heaven for you if you hold fast the rejoycing of the Hope stedfast unto the end Heb. 3.6 Let a comfortable meditation of these things encourage and hearten you to proceed from one degree of holiness to another till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect Man to the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ And for an example in this take that whole cloud of witnesses mustered together in Heb. 11. Or if they will not serve the turn take an Example above all examples an Example beyond all imaginable exceptions even our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ himself concerning whom the Author of the same Epistle it was St. Paul sure saith Chap. 12. That for the joy which was set before him despised the shame and endured the Cross c. 44. God knows we have need of all manner of encouragements and all little enough for us so sluggish and immoveable so perverse and obstinate are we Therefore for Gods sake upon any terms continue in the service of Christ make use of all manner of advantages and though ye find hope or fear predominate in you these servile affections as they are commonly call'd yet for all that faint not dispair not but rather give thanks to Almighty God and God who sees such good effect of his Promises and Threatnings in you of which all the Scripture is full from one end to the other will in his good time fill your hearts full of his Love even that perfect love which casteth out fear and of that perfect Love which shall have no need of Hope He will perfect that his good work in you unto the end 45. To conclude all Whether ye shall perform this Commandement of Christ or whether ye shall not perform it It cannot be avoided Everlasting habitations shall be your reward Only the difference is Whether ye will have them of your Enemies providing whether ye will be beholding to the Devil and his Angels your ancient mortal Enemies to prepare everlasting dwellings for you And who can dwell in everlasting fire saith the Prophet Who can dwell in continual burnings Or whether ye will expect them from the assistance of those just persons whom you have by your good works eternally oblig'd to you even those blessed and glorious Habitations which God the Father Almighty hath from the beginning of the world provided and furnish'd for you which God the Son by his meritorious Death and Passion hath purchased for you and for the admission whereunto God the Holy Ghost hath sanctified and adorn'd you that in thankfulness and gratitude you your selves may become everlasting Habitations pure and undefiled Temples for him to dwell in for ever and ever Now unto these glorious and everlasting habitations God of his infinite mercy bring us even for Jesus Christ his sake To whom with the Father c. The Seventh Sermon LUKE XIX 8. And if I have defrauded any man by forged cavillation I restore unto him four fold THe Son of man saith our Saviour of Himself in the end of this story is come to seek and to save that which was lost Vers 10. And how careful and solicitous he was in the discharge of this employment and business about which his Father sent him this story of Zacchaeus out of which my Text is taken will evidently and lively discover For here we have a Man that among ten thousand one would think were the most unlikely to become a Disciple of Christs so indispos'd he was for such a change so unqualified in all respects For first he was Rich as the third verse tells us and if that were all his fault yet in our Saviour's judgement which was never uncharitable being so clogg'd and burdened with these impedimenta as even the Heathens could call Riches it would be as hard for him to press through and enter in at the streight gate without uneasing and freeing himself from them as for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle 2. But secondly these his Riches as it would seem were scarce well and honestly gotten For his trade and course of life was a dangerous trade obnoxious to great almost irresistible temptations A great measure of grace would be requisite to preserve a man incorrupt and undefiled in that course and so ill a name he had gotten himself that all that afterwards saw Christs familiarity with him were much offended and scandaliz'd at it for we read in the 7. verse Vers 7. that when they all saw it they murmured saying that he was gone in to lodge with a sinful man with one famous and notorious for a great oppressour 3. Yet notwithstanding all this such was the unspeakable mercy and goodness of Christ that even of this Stone so scorned and rejected of all the people he raised a son unto Abraham as we find in the 9. verse Vers 9. And to bring this to pass he took occasion even from a vain curiosity of this Zacchaeus an humour of his it may be such a one as afterward possessed Herod though God knows he had not the same success namely to see some strange work performed by Christ of whom he had heard so much talk This opportunity