mercy to stir up Dr. Luther Bucer Melancthon Calvin and several others to open again the Gospel unto us and by the light thereof to discover the Heathenish superstitions of the Church of Rome who had again revived many practices of old Pagan Rome the Pagan had their purifying Waters called Aquae Lustrales in imitation whereof the Papists have their Holy Water to sprinkle themselves withal when they enter the Church So instead of the Pagan Vestal Fires the Papists have their lamps continually burning day and night before their Altars The Pagans had their Tutelary gods as Protectors of this and that place so have the Papists their several Saints for several Countreys St. Dennis for France St. Iames for Spain St. Peter for Rome St. George for England St. Patrick for Ireland The Pagans carried the Idols of their gods about in Procession with great pomp burning Incense and singing Hymns unto them the Papists do the very same to the Idols of the blessed Virgin and Saints to the reproach rather than the honour of their memory as if they had been Heathen and not Christian Saints Many many more are their superstitious fopperies forsaking the body Christ and follow the infatuating shadows of humane inventions Teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men God only knows what a Chaos of confusion we had been sunk into before this had not God stirred up those Worthies I mentioned when the Pope like a God upon earth had usurped that Anti-Christian power as to thwart the commandments of God and Christ our blessed Saviour as I have already shewed you in many particulars But there is one I have not yet mentioned more remarkable and detestable than any of those I mean the countermanding that solemn and last command of our Lord and Saviour Jesus at his last Supper after he had instituted the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood to our endless comfort and commanded his Apostles to do the same in remembrance of him And I pray you take notice of one circumstance therein which perchance you have never yet observed and 't is this When our Saviour delivered the Bread unto the Apostles he said Take eat this and no more but when he delivered the Cup he gave a more exact command for it saying Drink ye all of this As if he had said Be sure that every one of you partake of the Cup let no one omit it And why so particularly command the Cup more than the Bread Truly with great reason He divinely foreseeing the sacrilegious dismembring of this blessed Sacrament which the Roman Church would make in depriving the people of the Cup. Whereas one would think this Command of our dying Lord and Saviour for us should of all other Commands be most exactly performed to a tittle in every point Yet the Pope as ungratefully as insolently presumes to command to keep the Cup from the People Who could have believed such an insolency had not the whole world seen it By the same rule he might and perchance before this time had not his high presuming power met with such opposition in Germany would have taken away the Bread also and made the People only gazers on and admirers of the great dignity of the Priests who alone were admitted to that Holy Supper for so it is among them now for the most part the Priest saying Mass every day but the common people generally receive the blessed Sacrament but once or twice a year Now had the Pope taken away the Bread also he might have given the very same reason for that as he doth for taking away the Cup. They give two reasons First because it may happen that in delivering the Cup to many people the Wine which they call the Blood may be spilt Why so in giving the Bread some crums may fall and they affirm that Christs body is entirely contained in the least crum Secondly They say the People have the Blood of Christ in his Body when they receive that and therefore they need it not again in the Cup. Though 't is apparent in Scripture that our Saviour gave it in the Cup apart to signifie his bloodshedding from his body saying This is my blood which was shed But 't is no matter what our Saviour said the Pope says otherwise and we must hearken to him he says 't is sufficient for the People to receive the Blood in his Body And so should he say that he is the Head of the Church and if he alone receive the Bread and Cup and no other neither People nor Priest receive either 't is sufficient if the Head receive them the Head stands for the whole Body the Pope guided by the Holy Ghost says so and then who dares say otherwise And thus you see that if we once let go the Scripture farewell all Religion all the commands of God are to small purpose what the Pope says must be a Law Good Lord deliver us The time is welnigh past and I must hasten to an end Wherefore I shall now add only a short reflection on what hath been said with a word of Exhortation in the close You have heard Gods Command to the People of Israel concerning the Old Law That all should read it teach it their Children write it on the doors and posts of their dwellings discourse of it in their Houses by the way and in the fields You have heard also Gods Command to the Prophets To go to all the house of Israel to all the people and cry aloud to them all the day long You have heard our Saviours Command to the Apostles To go and Preach the Gospel to all Nations to every creature You have heard how the Apostles guided by the Holy Ghost directed their Epistles To all the Faithful to all the Saints You have heard Saint Paul strictly command his Epistles to be read to all the holy Brethren And now shall any man be so insolently so desperately wicked as to dare to controul the Command of God so often reiterated and countermand the Scriptures to be shut up from the People Man a worm of the Earth thus to oppose his Creator Nay my beloved hearken yet farther The Romanists declare it to be a sin for the people to read the Scripture And you know the wages of sin is death eternal death so then the Romanists declare it to be Eternal Death for the people to read the words of Eternal Life Stand amazed O ye Heavens at this If this be not transcendent madness and transcendent wickedness too tell me what is To say the Sun is darkness is ten times more tolerable than to say the word of Eternal Life is Eternal Death to him that reads it But now I beseech you mark what a ridiculous Salvo they bring for this their horrid wickedness O say they but you may have leave of your Confessor to read the Scripture if he find you fit for it that is if he find you a dull tame Ass ready to bear all the
would be happy for us but hence comes our misery that instead of practising what we understand we fall to disputing of that we understand not and so we grow into passion from passion into faction from faction into schisms and heresies Were our passion laid aside there would be no need of laying aside the Scriptures but we should read them to our edification whereas we now read them to our destruction and confusion and thus the word of Eternal Life becomes unto us the savour of Death unto Death Wherefore my beloved when you take the Scriptures into your hands to read let your main intention be to observe the Instructions there given for your behaviour and course of life and then labour to stir up your affection and desire to practise it As for matters of belief as much as is necessary will quickly be attained but for practice that will require the whole study of a mans life Neither doth this consist so much in reading as in meditating on what we do read and striving to subdue our hearts in obedience to it and sending up also short but fervent ejaculations to Almighty God for the powerful assistance of his holy spirit to enable us to perform that is the end of all to perform This do and thou shalt live And if we thus read the Scriptures they will be unto us as the words of Eternal Life and the power of God to our Salvation Which God of his infinite mercy grant THE THIRD SERMON ON JOHN V. Ver. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life THE last thing we were upon in handling this Text was that the Scriptures wherein we say we have Eternal Life tells us that we are to hear the Church and he that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican Mat. xviii 17. Here say the Papists we have a plain easie and safe rule to guide all in matters of Faith both learned and unlearned this cuts off all disputes and prevents all errors Hear the Church what the Church believes we must belieue and if we will not hear the Church we are hereticks heathens If this be the safe and only way to heaven what man in his right wits would not take this safe and easie way Doubtless a very easie way and truly I think that is the reason why many so much incline to it most men love an easie way to Heaven and few are found willing to take much pains for it And those few that are conscientious in their way are often scrupulous also and fearful and being wearied with anxieties and disputes in their melancholy moods may be willing to lie down on this specious bank not considering Latet anguis in herba the lurking Adder that there lies concealed For certainly this way is as dangerous as easie far from safe Can any man think it a safe way to forsake the God of truth and his holy word and hearken to vain erroneous men and their doctrines whereof our Saviour bids us beware No Let God be true and every man a liar Rom. iii. 4. But you will say what the Papists here urge is not the Doctrine of men but the Word of God Hear the Church I grant 't is the Word of God but strangely abused by the interpretation of men and wrested very far from the clear meaning of the Text as I shall now shew you Look I pray you a few verses before and see what is the business here treated of and to what this saying relates V. 15. If thy Brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother V. 16. But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established V. 17. And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican I beseech you what is this to our purpose to the determination in matters of Faith Are trespasses matters of Faith No but they will prove from hence by necessary consequence That if you are to hear the Church in matters of fact such as trespasses much more are you to hear the Church in matters of faith They will prove I thought we had laid aside all proofs and consequences for they produce this Text as a clear evident rule to cut off all doubts and disputes a plain and safe way for all men learned and unlearned What is proposed as a plain rule to clear all doubts and determine all controversies ought in it self to be as clear as the Sun so that whosoever is not stark blind must needs see it and then doubtless I am stark blind for I cannot see one word here tending to matters of faith But they will argue thus If we are to hear the Church in temporal matters much more in spiritual matters for the Church being a spiritual body hath more to do in spirituals than temporals As blind as I am I plainly see as gross a mistake here in the word Church as before in the word Trespasses Did not I fully shew you the other day that this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text which we in English translate Church never in Scripture signifies the Clergy but the Congregation of the people the assembly of the faithful though we in English use the word Church very variously which is often the cause of great mistakes and therefore I pray you remember it well that in Scripture it still signifies the Congregation of the People And would the Papists have the Congregation of the People be our Infallible Guide to give rules of Faith and determine all controversies If so I see a sure and fatal consequence to their Infallible Head the Pope he and his triple Crown would soon be tumbled from his Throne to the ground and all his power under foot But put the case we would take the word Church here for the Clergy as the Papists would have us yet this gives no commission farther then to determin trespasses And as for their consesequences 't is very absurd to infer that because God leaves unto men to determin the small matters of this world therefore men may determin matters of that infinite weight as the eternal salvation of Souls For though the Church that is the Congregation should make a wrong judgment in the case yet the party suffering may if he please make great advantage by it for the patient suffering the loss for peace sake as God hath required he shall gain a hundred fold in Heaven but the party that forsakes Gods Wâ—â—d and hearkens to the wrong determination in matters of Faith shall suffer a hundred fold damage in Hell This therefore God reserves to himself and his Holy word unto which we are
Papists farther Object Many damnable Heresies may arise which the Fathers of that Council being no Prophets could not foresee I grant it What then why then it will be necessary to suppress them I grant this also and earnestly desire it Suppress whatever is new set up but set up no more new as necessary to be believed This is the Point we still hold to Men were saved and may still be saved without believing more Till they can confute me in this their talk is vain and without weight And thus all both Men and Women may be able to stop the mouth of Papists with their own Argument when they cry unto you in their absurd wonted manner Hear the Church You must believe as the Church believes answer Yes you do believe as the Church believes as the Church and Council of Nice believed you hold every Article of their Creed 'T is you Papists who believe not as the Church and Council of Nice believed you have altered the Faith and have built a great deal of Wood Hay Stubble upon the old foundation which can never abide the trial of Scripture From whence 't is evident you are the Hereticks for you have wilfully taken up to your selves several Opinions contrary to Scripture which you profess to be the Word of God and therefore you are according to St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned of your selves for you acknowledge the rule and yet go on in your will-worship contrary to the rule Yet notwithstanding all that I have said here I declare this When there are several Opinions and Disputes in a Nation about Matters in Religion the Supream Magistrates and Church-Governours may in Prudence think it necessary for the peace of Church and State to require all that are to enter into places of trust in Church or State to subscribe to such Articles as they conceive most conducing thereto and he that refuses they may refuse him no man is injured by this either in his Salvation or Life or Liberty or Estate he is as free as he was before I hold only to this That no man be required to believe any thing as necessary to Salvation but what is plainly contained in Scripture A Tract concerning the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which I promised in the Preface Good Reader YOu must first understand What it is to take a saying in a Literal or a Figurative sence For example If a Man take a Stick in his hand and say This is my Staff you take this in a Literal sence that is you take it according to the bare words and usual meaning of them that this Staff is his he is the owner of it But if he say This is my Horse you see that Stick is not a real Horse therefore you conceive he means not a real Horse but that as a Horse is used for a help to carry a Man on his way so this Stick helps to support his Body and carry him on his way This we call a Figurative sence that is signifying something otherwise than the bare words usually express For the word Horse is not here taken as usually for a real Horse but for another thing used as a Horse Now all Men that reade the Scripture find it necessary to take many things spoken there in a Figurative sence for it would be contrary to all Reason and Religion to take them in a Literal sence As when our Saviour said I am the Door no Man conceives Christ to be a real Door and therefore he takes it in a Figurative sence by way of comparison to a Door that as a Door is the entrance into a House so Christ tells us he is the Door the entrance for us into Heaven no Man can enter there but by him and his Merits So Christ said I am the Bread that came down from Heaven no Man takes this in a Literal sence according to the usual meaning of the word Bread for real Bread but by way of comparison as Bread nourishes our Bodies so Christ is come down from Heaven to nourish our Souls Again Christ taking Bread in his hand said This is my Body We know that Bread is not Christ's real Body we therefore conceive Christ means a comparison that as this Bread is broken and bruised under your teeth and so passes down into your breast to nourish your Body so my Body shall be broken bruised and killed that by my Sufferings and Death your Souls may be nourished to eternal Life In all reason we must conclude thus unless Christ had said something more to make us think otherwise for we have no other way to understand any thing Christ spoke but according to the Rule of Reason which God hath given us to speak and understand all things But the Papists who understand the former words I am the Bread in a Figurative sence meerly because their Sense and Reason tells them that Christ is not real Bread yet will needs understand these words This is my Body in a Literal sence That the Bread is made Christ's real substantial Body though their Sense and Reason tells them 't is still real Bread for which I desire them to give me a satisfying Reason for in all appearance both Affirmations are of the same nature Certainly then they must shew us some great Motive that induces them to take the two forms of speech so very differently being in themselves both alike First From Reason no Motive can possibly be found for by Reason 't is equally hard to understand Christ to be Bread as Bread to be Christ. Secondly If according to Religion we captivate our Reason in obedience to Faith 't is as easie to believe Bread to be Christ as Christ to be Bread And 't is very impertinent here to talk of God's infinite Power how that can effect things impossible to Reason for we most readily grant it And therefore the Papists do as falsly as foolishly accuse us of Unbelief and that we are wholly guided by our Reason and deny the Bread to be Christ's Body because our Reason cannot comprehend it Do not we believe God created all the World of nothing three Persons to be one God God and Man to be one Person Christ Sure these are harder to believe than that God can change Bread into his Body and we would more readily believe this than the former highest Mysteries had we this miraculous change as plainly set forth in Scripture as those Mysteries greater and harder to be believed Let them then plainly shew us in Scripture that Christ changed the Bread into his Body and we shall as readily believe it as they but they barely tell us Christ said of the Bread This is my Body and we again tell them Christ said I am the Bread They require us to believe the first to be a miraculous change and we likewise require them to believe the second to be as miraculous a change they refuse the second so we refuse the first why not This is
send them the light of his Holy Gospel to shine amongst them Amen So much for the first part of my Text Christ's Command to search the Scriptures Now we come to the second part the reason of the Command For in them ye have Eternal Life a most weighty reason there cannot be a greater than the gaining of Eternal Life We all find by experience in our selves the truth of that saying Iob ii 4. Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his Life For which there is great reason according to nature for all that a man hath affords him no content or comfort in death which takes away the sense of all things If therefore life be so dear unto us because it gives us a capacity to enjoy these poor earthly delights that have so great and drossy an alloy of intermingled cares and troubles which alwaies attend them or if it were possible to enjoy them with more ease and tranquillity yet are they but momentary surely then Eternal Life which alwaies brings with it the enjoyment of heavenly pleasures free from all solicitous care and fear and full of all imaginable delight yea far beyond all that our narrow brain can now imagin for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And this unconceivable delight being to continue beyond Methusalem's Age or the Age of the whole world to have an eternal duration for ever and ever I pray you then consider at how high a value we should esteem the means whereby we are to attain such an excessive weight of glory For the present then my business must be to shew you that the Holy Scriptures contain in them compleatly without any additional requisite the means to attain Eternal Life and then doubtless there will need small exhortation to move you to put a high value on them Let us then fall immediately on this business Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life Though I doubt not to make out this matter absolutely clear unto you yet I fear some weaker persons may stagger a little at one word in my Text and may erroneously fancy that it gives great cause of doubt and that is the word Think ye think ye have Eternal Life Our Saviour doth directly say that in the Scriptures we have Eternal Life but only tells the Iews that they thought they had in them Eternal Life and perchance they thought amiss Who can tell Who can tell certainly he could tell who gave them this counsel to search the Scriptures which you may be sure he would never have done did not the Scriptures contain in them Eternal Life if not it had been a vain thing to search the Scriptures for it and our Saviours Advice had been vain which God forbid we should say or think wherefore we may assuredly conclude that our Saviour who advised the Iews to search the Scriptures he both could tell and would have told them had they thought amiss for he came down from Heaven for this very end namely to teach them and us the way to Eternal Life and therefore says of himself I am the Way and the Truth and the Life I came to teach this unto you and all the world And as St. Paul declares Acts xiii he came to teach first the Iews verse 26. To you is the word of Salvation sent And again verse 46. It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you And our Saviour himself preached only to the Iews and in their sight he wrought all his Miracles All which makes it most evident that he used all means possible to inform them aright in the way to Eternal Life who then can doubt but that if the Iews had been mistaken in their opinion of the Scriptures our Saviour would most readily have corrected their error So that this manner of speaking in our Saviour In them ye think ye have Eternal Life is far from intimating any doubt in this matter 't is rather a fuller conviction of the Iews 't is a way of arguing which the School-men call Argumentum ad hominem which is the shortest and plainest way to confute another You think you your selves confess that the Scriptures contain Eternal Life in them this is a truth you cannot deny And our Saviour Luk. x. 25 26 27 28. fully declares this to be his sence likewise where being asked by a Lawyer of the Iews Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life He said unto him What is written in the Law how readest thou And he answering said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self And he said unto him Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live Here you see our Saviour directs him for the gaining of Eternal Life to look into the Law and when the Lawyer had declared what was written in the Law our Saviour presently concludes This do and thou shalt live thou hast no need to be instructed farther the Law fully declares what thou art to do for the gaining of Eternal Life And this Evangelist St. Iohn who wrote my Text tells us toward the end of his Gospel that he omitted to write many things of our Saviour But these were written that we might believe and believing that we might have Life Now if we can have life by believing these things it follows most evidently that there is no necessity of believing other things If you answer That the belief of other things may prove great helps to Eternal Life and who would not be glad to have all the helps he can to obtain Eternal Life To this I reply That the belief of other things may prove hinderances for ought we know and not helps Were it not then most desperate folly for me to venture upon other things which may prove hinderances to my Salvation when God tells me that he hath revealed unto me by his holy Prophets Apostles and by his own Son all things necessary to Salvation Was not this the business for which our Saviour came into the world as I said before to teach us the way to Eternal Life And when our Saviour went out of the world he left his Apostles to finish the work he had begun promising them that he would send them the Holy Ghost who should lead them into all truth And as the Apostles received the knowledg of all truth so they faithfully delivered it to others for so St. Paul Acts xx assures the Elders of Ephesus whom he sent for to Miletus That he had declared unto them the whole counsel of God and that he had not kept back any thing that was profitable to them vers 20. Mark I beseech you he declares not only necessary things but all things profitable all kept nothing
passages which otherwise we could not well understand Thirdly Where a passage of Scripture may have several significations and thereby make it doubtful what is the more proper meaning of it there those Primitive Fathers can best tell us in what sence it was received in the Primitive Church And surely in doubtful places every modest man will think it fit to incline to those Primitive Godly men whose nearness to the Apostles gave them great opportunities of knowing the true sence and whose godly lives give us great assurance of their fidelity in delivering unto us what they received from their godly Fore-fathers some the very Disciples of the Apostles Several other reasons might be added for our regard and reverence to these Primitive Fathers in their Expositions of the dark or doubtful places of Scripture Yet I humbly conceive nothing of all this is necessary to understand those matters of faith which are necessary to Salvation as that God created and governs the world or the incarnation death and resurrection of Christ. These and such necessary things are so plainly set down in Scripture as that men of ordinary capacity may understand them without any Comment of the Fathers But what if any one or more very learned and very godly Fathers even such as laid down their lives for the faith what if they teach me a Doctrine in which the Scripture is wholly silent Ought I not to believe in them To this I small give you an answer from Tertullian one of the first Christian Writers who lived in the second Century about a hundred and fifty years after Christs Ascension He tells us in his Prescriptions against Heresies that this was the rule among Christians That they were not to believe any thing but that which Christ and his Apostles had delivered unto them in the Scripture Hoc priùs credimus non ess◠quod ultra credere debemus And a little after sets down a Creed which very little varies from that which we have amongst us called the Apostles Creed This saith he is our rule of faith and we believe Nihil esse ultra quod credere debemus That there is nothing more for us to believe for this rule here set down is a compendium of all I do not cite this out of Tertullian as if I would prescribe unto you from him what you are to believe by his Authority for he doth not tell us this as his own opinion but only relates what was the belief and practice of the Church in his Primitive days who was so near after Christ. And this Tertullian is generally believed by the Learned to be as faithful a relater as any antient Writer whatsoever And he was of so great a credit with that learned and godly Father and Martyr of the Church St. Cyprian who lived not many years after Tertullian that he always called him Master and daily read his Works calling to his Servant Da Magistrum Give me my Masters Book to read Which shews he was of great credit But Tertullian after the discourse I now mentioned out of him confirms what he had said by Scripture Authority which is of far more weight than Tertullian and St. Cyprian both citing that place of St. Paul to the Galatians Chap. i. vers 8. Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached let him be accursed Now you must know that the Original Greek from whence our Gospel is translated hath this more effectual to our purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which more exactly in English is rendred thus If any man preach unto you any thing besides what we have preached he doth not say contrary to what we have preached but besides which is the same in effect as to say any thing more And Arius Montanus a learned Papist in the University of Sevil in Spain who translated the Greek new Testament word for word sets it down just as I have done unto you Praeter quod evangelizavimus Besides what we have preached St. Paul means If they shall preach any more as necessary to Salvation for this is to make the Word of God of no effect he having in his Holy Word given us a rule of Faith for our Salvation and then for any one to say you must believe more is in effect to say Gods Word is not sufficient This is an accursed saying according to St. Paul Now if neither St. Paul nor an Angel from Heaven had any Commission to preach any thing besides what is already set down in the Scripture certainly we may shut up our ears to any one or to all the Doctors of the Church preaching unto us any thing more than what is there contained As for Example If they shall preach 't is necessary to obey the Pope to believe Purgatory or the like things which are not expressed in Scriptures let them be accursed as St. Paul saith A second Question may be what you are to do when any Father or Fathers expound a place of Scripture contrary to what you believe is the plain meaning of that place Must you quit your own judgment and believe in them This is just like the Prophet whom God sent to Bethel with an express command not to eat bread there he hearkened afterward to the old lying Prophet who pretending to have received a contrary message from God dissuaded him from what God had commanded for which he was slain by a Lion in his return And surely all men have great reason to expect the like recompence for their disobedience who forsake that which they verily believe is Gods Command and hearken to the Doctrins of men To this my Answer I shall give you another from a person of great Authority St. Austin a most eminent Doctor of the Church In one of his Epistles to St. Ierome he gives a clear judgment in this case First He tells us that when he reads the Holy Scriptures he entirely submits his own judgment to them and absolutely believes every thing there to be true meerly because it is contained there Gods Word is truth it cannot be otherwise therefore whether he understands it or no yet still he believes it truth But as for all other Writers he saith Alios autem ita lego ut quantalibet sanctitate doctrináque praepolleant non ideo verum putem quia ita ipsi senserint sed quia mihi vel per illos autores canonicos vel probabili ratione quod à vero non abhorreant persuadere potuerint Other Writers I so read as that be they ever so Holy ever so Learned I do not therefore believe their opinion to be true because they thought so but so far only as they prove it true by Canonical Scripture or by such reasons as seem not to be contrary to the truth And then tells St. Ierome that he doubts not but he is of the same mind And as for my part I am fully of Saint Austins mind and farther think it
of Truth and the way of Error the way of Godliness and the way of Iniquity the way of Life and the way of Death I most humbly and most earnestly beseech our most Gracious God for his Son Christ Iesus's sake to give you a right understanding in all things and to preserve you continually in the way of Truth Holiness Righteousness and Life Everlasting Amen THE END A SUPPLEMENT To the PRECEDING SERMONS TOGETHER WITH A TRACT concerning the Holy Sacrament OF THE Lords Supper Promised in the PREFACE By the Right Reverend Father in God HERBERT Lord Bishop of HEREFORD London Printed for Charles Harper 1679. A SUPPLEMENT To the Preceding SERMONS IN the Preceding Sermons I have proved these six things 1. That by God's special appointment all persons are to read and learn the Scriptures for their Edification in Faith and good Life and therefore 't is both foolish and impious for vain Man to take upon him to give reasons why the People should not read them 2. The reason of this because that in the Scriptures we have eternal life as our Saviour tells us which St. Paul explicates more particularly saying That they make us wise unto salvation that is they teach us all things necessary for our belief and they throughly furnish us unto all good works that is they teach us all things requisite for good life And these things the Scriptures compleatly contain in themselves without any Humane Doctrines so that if there were no other Writings nor Instructions in the World but the Scriptures alone yet we should not want any thing necessary to eternal life 3. That we are not to believe any thing with Divine Faith but what is clearly contained in Scripture for such a belief is a Duty belonging to God alone and 't is the greatest and most acceptable Duty and Sacrifice we can perform unto God to captivate our understandings in Obedience to Faith in God and therefore to give this principal Divine Service unto Man is high Idolatry and consequently to believe in the Apostles themselves had been great Idolatry had not Christ fully assured us That they should have the Holy Ghost to guide them into all Truth So that to speak properly we do not believe in the Apostles and Prophets but in God the Holy Ghost speaking in them And for this reason we find St. Paul very wary in distinguishing and declaring to the people what he delivered as from the Lord and what he delivered as from himself though he was perswaded he had the Spirit of the Lord even in that But yet no clear and full assurance that it was spoken directly by the Lord. Nay our blessed Saviour himself though God and Man yet would not have us believe in him as Man and therefore assures us That the words he spake were not his but the Father's speaking by him 4. I have proved that we have not any clear and full assurance from God That any Assembly of Men or Church since the Apostles are infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost into all Truth and therefore to believe in any Assembly of Men or Church without this full assurance of the Holy Ghost's speaking in them is Idolatry also for by such a belief you pay them the greatest Divine Worship 5. Though we should grant That some promise of Infallibility were made in Scripture to the Church yet this must include the Laity as well as the Clergy for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Church is always set in Scripture for the Congregation of the Faithful and is not once set for the Clergy distinct from the Laity But there is no such thing as Infallibility granted to any neither Priests nor People nor both together 6. Grant yet farther that the word Church in Scripture should signifie the Clergy and a promise of Infallibility made to them as Successors to the Apostles yet the same Promise being made and the same Authority given to all the Apostles alike the Successor of St. Peter and his Clergy cannot from hence challenge any more Infallibility than the Successors of the other Apostles with their Clergy and Church But the Papists deny this Infallibility to other Churches Certainly then other Churches may as well deny it to them All these things I have proved But now for a fuller conviction of the Papists and perchance for better satisfaction to some others I have a mind to grant yet farther That Christ made some particular Promise to St. Peter above the other Apostles yea and to St. Peter's Successors also 't is impossible from Scripture to prove either of these but let it pass so let us now see how the Papists can from hence fix this Infallibility to the Bishop of Rome and his Churches For I have shewed you from Scripture which doubtless is of better Authority than any Writings the Papists can bring for St. Peter that Rome was comprised in St. Paul's Jurisdiction and that he lived and preached and suffered there But we will pass over this also and yield to St. Peter's Jurisdiction over the whole World What then Then St. Peter was Bishop of Rome and setled his Successor there And how do the Papists prove this They answer that many authentick Historians tell them so is this all their Proof Humane Testimony from History is this a sufficient foundation for a prime Article of Faith on which depends the Salvation of all Christian Souls Is this a sure Rock or rather a bank of Sand to build their Infallibility upon Do not the same Historians relate that St. Peter was Bishop of Antioch and we have more reason to believe History for this because the Scripture tells us he was there but not one tittle of his ever being at Rome but strong Presumptions to the contrary St. Luke in the Acts speaking so much of St. Paul's going thither hath not one word of St. Peter's who being as the Papists believe so eminent an Apostle above all the rest seems somewhat neglected by St. Luke which makes me suspect St. Luke was not of their Opinion And shall we accuse St. Paul also for want of charity or civility never to mention St. Peter in all those his particular and numerous Salutations to and from others in his Epistles we must not think that their quarrel at Antioch where St. Paul withstood St. Peter stuck so long in his mind as to omit all Salutation to him in several Epistles We ought rather in charity to St. Paul to believe St. Peter was not at Rome And truly methinks the Papists themselves who pretend so much to honour St. Peter do him no small dishonour in affirming him to be at Rome when St. Paul answered for himself before Nero the first time St. Paul complaining that no man stood with him but all forsook him And if those Historians which the Papists rely on for St. Peter's being Bishop of Rome speak true in the circumstance of time then he was at Rome when St. Paul first answered