submit to the Lawes of the King of England but should indeed resolve to obey them in that sense which the King of France should put upon them whatsoever it were I presume every understanding man would say that I did indeed obey the King of France and not the King of England If I should pretend to believe the Bible but that I would understand it according to the sense which the chief Mufty should put upon it Who would not say that I were a Christian in pretense only but indeed a Mahumetan 11. Nor will it be to purpose for you to pretend that the Precepts of Christ are so plain that it cannot be feared that any Pope should ever go about to dissolve them and pretend to be a Christian For not to say that you now pretend the contrary to wit that the law of Christ is obscure even in things necessary to be believed and done and by saying so have made a fair way for any fowl interpretation of any part of it certainly that which the Church of Rome hath already done in this kind is an evident argument that if she once had this power unquestioned and made expedite and ready for use by being contracted to the Pope she may do what she pleaseth with it Who that had lived in the Primitive Church would not have thought it as utterly improbable that ever they should have brought in the worship of Images and picturing of God as now it is that they should legitimate Fornication Why may we not think they may in time take away the whole Communion from the Laity as well as they have taken away half of it Why may we not think that any Text and any Sense may not be accorded as well as the whole 14. Ch. of the Ep. of S. Paul to the Corinth is reconciled to the Latine-Service How is it possible any thing should be plainer forbidden than the worship of Angels in the Ep. to the Colossians than the teaching for Doctrines mens commands in the Gospel of S. Mark And therefore seeing we see these things done which hardly any man would have believed that had not seen them Why should we not fear that this unlimited power may not be used hereafter with as little moderation Seeing devices have been invented how men may worship Images without Idolatry and kill innocent men under pretence of Heresie without murder Who knows that some tricks may not be hereafter devised by which Lying with other mens wives shall be no Adultery taking away other mens goods no theft I conclude therefore That if Solomon himself were here and were to determine the difference Which is more likely to be mother of all Heresie The denial of the Churches or the affirming of the Popes Infallibility that he would certainly say This is the mother give her the childe 12. You say again confidently That if this Infallibility be once impeached every man is given over to his own wit and discourse which if you mean discourse not guiding it self by Scripture but only by principles of nature or perhaps by prejudices and popular errors and drawing consequences not by Rule but Chance is by no means true if you mean by Discourse right Reason grounded on Divine Revelation and common Notions written by God in the hearts of all men and deducing according to the never failing rules of Logick consequent deductions from them If this be it which you mean by discourse it is very meet and reasonable and necessary that men as in all their actions so especially in that of greatest importance the choice of their way to happiness should be left unto it and he that follows this in all his opinions and actions and does not only seem to do so follows alwayes God whereas he that followeth a Company of men may oft-times follow a company of beasts And in saying this I say no more than S. John to all Christians in these words Dearly beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God or no and the rule he gives them to make this tryal by is to consider Whether they confess Jesus to be Christ that is the Guid of their Faith and Lord of their Action not whether they acknowledge the Pope to be his Vicar I say no more than S. Paul in exhorting all Christians To try all things and hold fast that which is good then S. Peter in commanding all Christians To be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in them then our Saviour himself in forewarning all his Followers that if they blindly followed blinde guides both leaders and followers should fall into the ditch and again in saying even to the people Yea and why of your selves judge yee not what is right And though by passion or precipitation or prejudice by want of reason or not using what they have men may be and are oftentimes led in error and mischief yet that they cannot be misguided by Discourse truly so called such as I have described you your self have given them security For what is Discourse but drawing conclusions out of premises by good consequence Now the Principles which we have setled to wit the Scriptures are on all sides agreed to be infallibly true And you have told us in the fourth Chap. of this Pamphlet That from truth no man can by good consequence infer falshood Therefore by Discourse no man can possibly be led to Error but if he err in his Conclusions he must of necessity either err in his Principles which here cannot have place or commit some error in his Discourse that is indeed not Discourse but seem to do so 13. You say Thirdly with sufficient confidence That if the true Church may erre in defining what Scriptures be Canonical or in delivering the sense thereof then we must follow either the private Spirit or else natural wit and judgment and by them examine what Scriptures contain true or false Doctrine and in that respect ought to be received or rejected All which is apparently untrue neither can any proof of it be pretended For though the present Church may possibly err in her judgment touching this matter yet have we other directions in it besides the private spirit and the examination of the contents which latter way may conclude the negative very strongly to wit that such or such a Book cannot come from God because it contains irreconcileable Contradictions but the Affirmative it cannot conclude because the contents of a Book may be all true and yet the Book not written by Divine inspiration other direction therefore I say we have besides either of these three and that is The testimony of the Primitive Christians 14. You say Fourthly with convenient boldness That this infallible Authority of your Church being denyed no man can be assured that any parcell of Scripture was written by Divine inspiration Which is an untruth for which no proof is pretended and besides void of modesty and full of impiety The
to believers is one thing and what he requires of all men as their duty is another and what he will accept of out of grace and favour is yet another To those that believe and live according to their faith he gives by degrees the spirit of obsignation and confirmation which makes them know though how they know not what they did but believe And to be as fully and resolutely assured of the Gospel of Christ as those which heard it from Christ himself with their ears which saw it with their eyes which looked upon it and whose hands handled the Word of Life He requires of all that their Faith should be as I have said proportionable to the Motives and Reasons enforcing to it he will accept of the weakest and lowest degree of Faith if it be living and effectual unto true Obedience For he it is that will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised Reed He did not reject the prayer of that distressed man that cryed unto him Lord I believe Lord help mine unbelief He commands us to receive them that are weak in faith and thereby declares that he receives them And as nothing avails with him but Faith which worketh by love So any Faith if it be but as a grain of mustard-seed if it work by love shall certainly avail with him and be accepted of him Some experience makes me fear that the faith of considering and discoursing men is like to be crackt with too much straining And that being possessed with this false Principle that it is in vain to believe the Gospel of Christ with such a kind or degree of assent as they yield to other matters of Tradition And finding that their faith of it is to them undiscernable from the belief they give to the truth of other Stories are in danger either not to believe at all thinking not at all as good as to no purpose or else though indeed they do believe it yet to think they do not and to cast themselves into wretched agonies and perplexities as fearing they have not that without which it is impossible to please God and obtain eternal happiness Consideration of this advantage which the Devil probably may make of this Fancy made me willing to insist somewhat largely upon the Refutation of it 10. I return now thither from whence I have digressed and assure you concerning the grounds afore-laid which were that there is a Rule of Faith whereby Controversies may be decided which are necessary to be decided and that this Rule is universally infallible That notwithstanding any opinion I hold touching Faith or any thing else I may and do believe them as firmly as you pretend to do And therefore you may build on in God's name for by God's help I shall always embrace whatsoever structure is naturally and rationally laid upon them whatsoever conclusion may to my understanding be evidently deduced from them You say out of them it undeniably follows That of two disagreeing in matter of Faith the one cannot be saved but by repentance or ignorance I answer by distinction of those terms two dissenting in a matter of faith For it may be either in a thing which is indeed a matter of Faith in the strictest sense that is something the Belief whereof God requires under pain of damnation And so the Conclusion is true though the Consequence of it from your former premisses either is none at all or so obscure that I can hardly discern it Or it may be as it often falls out concerning a thing which being indeed no matter of Faith is yet overvalued by the parties at variance and esteemed to be so And in this sense it is neither consequent nor true The untruth of it I have already declared in my examination of your Preface The inconsequence of it is of itself evident for Who ever heard of a wilder Collection than this God hath provided means sufficient to decide all Controversies in Religion necessary to be decided This means is universally infallible Therefore of two that differ in any thing which they esteem a matter of Faith one cannot be saved He that can find any connection between these Propositions I believe will be able to find good coherence between the deaf Plaintiff's Accusation in the Greek Epigram and the deaf Defendant's Answer and the deaf Judge's Sentence And to contrive them all into a formal Categorical Syllogism 11. Indeed if the matter in agitation were plainly decided by this infallible means of deciding Controversies and the Parties in variance knew it to be so and yet would stand out in their dissention this were in one of them direct opposition to the Testimony of God and undoubtedly a damnable sin But if you take the liberty to suppose what you please you may very easily conclude what you list For who is so foolish as to grant you these unreasonable Postulates that every emergent Controversie of Faith is plainly decided by the means of decision which God hath appointed and that of the parties litigant one is always such a convicted Recusant as you pretend Certainly if you say so having no better warrant than you have or can have for it this is more proper and formal uncharitableness than ever was charged upon you Me-thinks with much more Reason and much more Charity you might suppose that many of these Controversies which are now disputed among Christians all which profess themselves lovers of Christ and truly desirous to know his will and do it are either not decidable by that means which God hath provided and so not necessary to be decided or if they be yet not so plainly and evidently as to oblige all men to hold one way or Lastly if decidable and evidently decided yet you may hope that the erring party by reason of some veil before his eyes some excusable ignorance or unavoidable prejudice doth not see the Question to be decided against him and so opposeth not that which He doth know to be the Word of God but only that which You know to be so and which he might know were he void of prejudice Which is a fault I confess but a fault which is incident even to good and honest men very often and not of such a gigantique disposition as you make it to fly directly upon God Almighty and to give him the Lye to his face 12. Ad. § 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. In all this long Discourse you only tell us what you will do but do nothing Many Positions there are but proofs of them you offer none but reserve them to the Chapters following and there in their proper places they shall be examined The summ of all your Assumpts collected by your self § 16. is this That the infallible means of determining Controversies is the Visible Church That the distinction of Points Fundamental and not-Fundamental maketh nothing to the present Question That to say the Creed containeth all Fundamentals is neither pertinent nor true That
S. Augustine spake when they will have men to believe the Roman-Church delivering Scripture but not to believe her condemning Luther and the rest Against whom when they first opposed themselves to the Roman Church S. Augustine may seem to have spoken no less Prophetically than Doctrinally when he said Why should I not most z Lib. de util ere Cap. 14. diligently inquire what Christ commanded of them before all others by whose authority I was moved to believe that Christ commanded any good thing Canst thou better declare to me what he said whom I would not have thought to have been or to be if the belief thereof had been recommended by thee to me This therefore I believed by fame strengthened with celebrity consent Antiquity But every one may see that you so few so turbulent so new can produce nothing deserving authority What madness is this Believe them Catholiques that we ought to believe Christ but learn of us what Christ said Why I beseech thee Surely if they Catholiques were not at all and could not teach me any thing I would more easily perswade my self that I were not to believe Christ than that I should learn any thing concerning him from any other than them by whom I believed him If therefore we receive the knowledge of Christ and Scriptures from the Church from her also must we take his Doctrine and the interpretation thereof 19. But besides all this the Scriptures cannot be Judge of Controversies who ought to be such as that to him not only the learned or Veterans but also the unlearned and Novices may have recourse for these being capable of Salvation and endued with Faith of the same nature with that of the learned there must be some universal Judge which the ignorant may understand and to whom the greatest Clerks must submit Such is the Church and the Scripture is not such 20. Now the inconveniences which follow by referring all Controversies to Scripture alone are very clear For by this Principle all is finally in very deed and truth reduced to the internal private Spirit because there is really no middle way betwixt a publique external and a private internal voice and whosoever refuseth the one must of necessity adhere to the other 21. This Tenet also of Protestants by taking the office of Judicature from the Church comes to conferr it upon every particular man who being driven from submission to the Church cannot be blamed if he trust himself as farr as any other his conscience dictating that wittingly he means not to cozen himself as others maliciously may do Which inference is so manifest that it hath extorted from divers Protestants the open confession of so vast an absurdity Hear Luther The Governors of a Churches o To. 2. Wittemb fol. 375. and Pastors of Christs Sheep have indeed power to teach but the Sheep ought to give judgement whether they propound the voice of Christ or of Aliens Lubertus saith As we have b In lib de principiis Christian dogm li 6. c. 13. demonstrated that all publique Judges may be deceived in interpreting so we affirm that they may err in judging All faithful men are private Judges and they also have power to judge of Doctrins and interpretations Whitaker even of the unlearned saith They c De sacra Scriptura pag. 529. ought to have recourse unto the more learned but in the mean time we must be careful not to attribute to them over-much but so that still we retain our own freedom Bilson also affirmeth that The people d In his true Difference part 2. must be discerners and Judges of that which is taught The same pernicious Doctrine is delivered by Brentius Zanchius Cartwright and others exactly cited by e Tract 2. cap. 1 Sect. 1. Breerely and nothing is more common in every Protestants mouth than that he admits of Fathers Councles Church c. as far as they agree with Scripture which upon the matter is himself Thus Heresie ever falls upon extreams It pretends to have Scripture alone for Judge of Controversies and in the mean time sets up as many Judges as there are men and women in the Christian world What good Statesmen would they be who should ideate or fancy such a Common-wealth as these men have framed to themselves a Church They verifie what S. Augustine objecteth against certain Heretiques You see f Lib. 32. cont Faust that you go about to overthrow all authority of Scripture and that every mans mind may be to himself a Rule what he is to allow or disallow in every Scripture 22. Moreover what confusion to the Church what danger to the Common-wealth this denial of the Authority of the Church may bring I leave to the consideration of any judicious indifferent man I will only set down some words of D. Potter who speaking of the Proposition of revealed Truths sufficient to prove him that gain-saith them to be an Heretique saith thus This Proposition g Pag. â—4 of revealed truths is not by the infallible determination of Pope or Church Pope and Church being excluded let us hear what more secure rule he will prescribe but by whatsoever means a man may be convinced in conscience of divine Revelation If a Preacher do clear any Point of Faith to his Hearers if a private Christian do make it appear to his Neighbour that any Conclusion or Point of Faith is delivered by divine revelation of Gods Word if a man himself without any Teacher by reading the Scriptures or hearing them read be convinced of the truth of any such Conclusion this is a sufficient Proposition to prove him that gain sayeth any such proof to be an Heretique and obstinate opposer of the Faith Behold what goodly safe Propounders of Faith arise in place of Gods universal visible Church which must yield to a single Preacher a Neighbour a man himself if he can read or at least have ears to hear Scripture read Verily I do not see but that every well-governed civil Common-wealth ought to concur towards the exterminating of this Doctrin whereby the Interpretation of Scripture is taken from the Church and conferred upon every man who whatsoever is pretended to the contrary may be a passionate seditious creature 23. Moreover there was no Scripture or written Word for about two thousand years from Adam to Moses whom all acknowledge to have been the first Author of Canonical Scripture And again for about two thousand years more from Moses to Christ our Lord holy Scripture was only among the people of Israel and yet there were Gentiles endued in those dayes with divine Faith as appeareth in Job and his friends Wherefore during so many Ages the Church alone was the Decider of Controversies and Instructor of the faithful Neither did the Word written by Moses deprive the Church of her former Infallibility or other qualities requisite for a Judge yea D. Potter acknowledgeth that besides the Law there was a living Judge in
as in the use of which he requires and expects to be glorified Farewell The First Sermon 2 TIM III. 1 2 3 4 5. This know also that in the last dayes perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy Without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof TO a discourse upon these words I cannot think of any fitter Introduction then that wherewith our Saviour sometime began a Sermon of his This day is this Scriture fulfilled And I would to God there were not great occasion to fear that a great part of it may be fulfilled in this place Two things are contained in it First the reall wickedness of the generality of the men of the Latter-times in the four first verses For by men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud c. I conceive is ment men generally shall be so otherwise this were nothing peculiar to the last but common to all times for in all times some nay many have been lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud c. Secondly we have here the formal and hypocritical godliness of the same times in the last verse Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof which latter ordinarily and naturally accompanies the former For as the shadows are longest when the Sun is lowest and as vines and other fruit-trees bear the less fruit when they are suffered to luxuriate and spend their sap upon superfluous suckers and aboundance of leaves So commonly we may observe both in Civil conversation where there is great store of formality there is little sincerity and in Religion where there is a decay of true and cordial piety there men entertain and please themselves and vainly hope to please God with external formalities and performances and great store of that righteousness for which Christ shall judge the world It were no difficult matter to shew that the truth of St. Paul's prediction is by experience justified in both parts of it but my purpose is to restrain my self to the latter and to endeavour to clear unto you that that in our times is generally accomplished That almost in all places the power of Godliness is decayed and vanished the form and profession of it only remaining That the spirit and soul and life of Religion is for the most part gone only the outward body or carcass or rather the picture or shadow of it being left behind This is the Doctrin which at this time I shall deliver to you and the Use which I desire most heartily you should make of it is this To take care that you confute so far as it concerns your particulars what I fear I shall prove too true in the general To come then to our business without further complement let us examine our wayes and consider impartially What the Religion of most men is We are baptized in our infancy that is as I conceive dedicated and devoted to God's service by our Parents and the Church as young Samuel was by his Mother Anna and there we take a Solemn Vow To forsake the Devil and all his works the vain pomp and glory of the world with all the covetous desires of it to forsake also all the carnal desires of the flesh and not to follow nor be led by them This vow we take when we be children and understand it not and How many are there who know and consider and regard what they have vowed when they are become men almost as little as they did being children Consider the lives and publique actions of most men of all conditions in Court City and Country and then deny it if you can that those three things which we have renounced in our Baptism the profits honours and pleasures of the World are not the very Gods which divide the world amongst them are not served more devoutly confided in more heartily loved more affectionately then the Father Son and holâ— Ghost in whose name we are baptized deny if you can the dayly and constant imployment of all men to be either a violent prosecution of the vain pomp and glory of the world or of the power riches and contemptible profits of it or of the momentary or unsatisfying pleasures of the flesh or else of the more diabolical humours of pride malice revenge and such like and yet with this empty form we please and satisfie our selves as well as if we were lively born again by the Spirit of God not knowing or not regarding what St. Peter hath taught us That the Baptism which must save us is Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh 1 Pet. 3.21 but the answer of a good conscience unto God When we are come to years capable of instruction many which is lamentable to consider are so little regarded by themselves or others that they continue little better then Pagans in a Common-wealth of Christians and know little more of God or of Christ then if they had been bred in the Indies A lamentable case and which will one day lye heavy upon their account which might have amended it and did not But many I confess are taught to act over this play of Religion and learned to say Our Father which art in Heaven and I believe in God the Father Almighty but Where are the men that live so as if they did believe in earnest that God is their Almighty Father Where are they that fear him and trust him and depend upon him only for their whole happiness and love him and obey him as in reason we ought to do to an Almighty Father Who if he be our Father and we be indeed his children will do for us all the good he can and if he be Almighty can do for us all the good he will and yet how few are there who love him with half that affection as children usually do their Parents or believe him with half that simplicity or serve him with half that diligence And then for the Lords Prayer the plain truth is we lye unto God for the most part clean through it and for want of desiring indeed what in word we pray for tell him to his face as many false tales as we make Petitions For who shews by his endeavours that he desires heartily that God's name should be hallowed that is holily and religiously worshipped and adored by all men That his Kingdom should be advanced and inlarged That his blessed will should be universally obeyed Who shews by his forsaking sin that he desires so much as he should do the forgiveness of it Nay who doth not revenge upon all occasions the affronts contempts and injuries put upon him and so upon the matter curse himself as oft as he sayes Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them
his heavy judgment upon us for our great sins and our stupid and stupendious security in sinning and to make us instruments of his designed vengeance one upon another peradventure it would be a seasonable and necessary motion to be made to our King and his Nobles To revive this old Proclamation of the King of Nineveh and to send it with authority through His Majesties dominions and to try whether it will produce some good effect Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Who can tell whether he that hath the hearts of King and People in his hand and turneth them whithersoever he thinketh best may not upon our repentance take our extreamity for his oportunity and at last open our eyes that we may see those things that belong to our peace and shew us the way of Peace which hitherto we have not known but this by the way For my purpose I observe That this Repentance which when the sword of God was drawn and his arm advanced for a blow stayd his hand and sheathed his sword again was not a meer sorrow for their sins and a purpose to leave them nay it was not only laying aside their gallantry and bravery and putting on sackcloth and sitting in ashes and crying mightily unto God of which yet we are come very short but it was also and that chiefly their universal turning from their evil way which above all the rest was prevalent and effectual with God Almighty for so it is written And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented him of the evil that he sayed he would do and he did it not In the Gospel of S. Luke cap. 24. The condition of the new Covenant to which remission of sins is promised is expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name Which place if ye compare with that in the Gospel of S. Matth. Go teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost teaching them to observe all whatsoever I shall command you It will be no difficulty to collect that what out Saviour calls in one place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repentance that he calls in another Observing all that he hath commanded which if repentance were no more but sorrow for sin and intending to leave it certainly he never could nor would have done And as little could S. Paul Act. 20.21 profess that the whole matter of his preaching was nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ It being manifest in his Epistles he preaches and presses every where the necessity of mortification regeneration new and sincere obedience all which are evidently not contained under the head of Faith and therefore it is evident he comprized all these under the name of Repentance In which words moreover it is very considerable as also in another place Heb. 6. where among the fundamentals of Christianity the first place is given to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say it is very considerable that though the word may not very absolutely be rendred Repentance yet we shall do much right to the places and make them much more clear and intelligible if instead of repentance we should put conversion as it is in some of the best Latin Translations So for example if instead of repentance to God Act. 20. and repentance from dead works in the Epistle to the Heb. which our English tongue will hardly bear we should read conversion to God and conversion from dead works every one sees it would be more perspicuous and more natural whereas on the other side if instead of repentance we should substitute sorrow as every true genuine interpretation may with advantage to the clearness of the sense be put in place of the word interpreted and read the place sorrow towards God and sorrow from dead works it is apparent that this reading would be unnatural and almost ridiculous which is a great argument that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which forgivenes of sins is promised in the Gospel is not only sorrow for sin but conversion from sin And yet if it be not so but that Heaven may be purchased at easier and cheaper rates how comes it to pass that in the New-Testament we are so plainly and so frequently assured that without actual and effectual amendment and newness of life without actual and effectual mortification regeneration sanctification there is no hope no possibility of Salvation Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire So S. John Baptist preaches repentance Matth. 3.9 It is not then the leaves of a fair profession no nor the blossoms of good purposes and intentions but the fruit the fruit only that can save us from the fire neither is it enough not to bear ill fruit unless we bring forth good Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Not every one that sayeth unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven So our Saviour Matth. 7.21 And again after he had delivered his most divine Precepts in his Sermon on the Mount which Sermon contains the substance of the Gospel of Christ he closeth up all with saying He that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not and yet these were the hardest sayings that ever he sayed I will liken him to a foolish man which built his house upon the sand that is his hope of Salvation upon a sandy and false ground and when the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that House it fell and great was the fall of it They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts So S. Paul Gal. 5.24 They then that have not done so nor crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts let them be as sorrowful as they please let them intend what they please they as yet are none of Christs and good Lord What a multitude of Christians then are there in the world that do not belong to Christ The works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 20 21. saith the same S. Paul are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings of which I tell you before as I have told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God He doth not say they which have done such things shall not be saved but manifestly to the contrary Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but he says
obedience and as our Saviour said of some so the Scripture could it speak I believe would say to you Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not that which I command you Cast away the vain and arrogant pretence of infallibility which makes your errors incurable Leave picturing God and worshipping him by pictures Teach not for Doctrin the commandements of men Debarr not the Laity of the Testament of Christ's Blood Let your publique Prayers and Psalms and Hymns be in such language as is for the edification of the Assistents Take not from the Clergy that liberty of Marriage which Christ hath left them Do not impose upon men that Humility of worshipping Angels which S. Paul condemns Teach no more proper sacrifices of Christ but one Acknowledg them that die in Christ to be blessed and to rest from their labours Acknowledge the Sacrament after Consecration to be Bread and Wine as well as Christs body and bloud Acknowledg the gift of continency without Marriage not to be given to all Let not the weapons of your warfare be carnal such as Massacres Treasons Persecutions and in a word all means either violent or fraudulent These and other things which the Scripture commands you do and then we shall willingly give you such Testimony as you deserve but till you do so to talk of estimation respect and reverence to the Scripture is nothing else but talk 2. For neither is that true which you pretend That we possess the Scripture from you or take it upon the integrity of your Custody but upon Universal Tradition of which you are but a little part Neither if it were true that Protestants acknowledged The integrity of it to have been guarded by your alone Custody were this any argument of your reverence towards them For first you might preserve them entire not for want of Will but of Power to corrupt them as it is a hard thing to poyson the Sea And then having prevailed so farr with men as either not to look at all into them or but only through such spectacles as you should please to make for them and to see nothing in them though as cleer as the sun if it any way made against you you might keep them entire without any thought or care to conform your doctrin to them or reform it by them which were indeed to reverence the Scriptures but out of a perswasion that you could qualify them well enough with your glosses and interpretations and make them sufficiently conformable to your present Doctrin at least in their judgement who were prepossessed with this perswasion that your Church was to Judge of the sense of Scripture not to be judged by it 3. For whereas you say No cause imaginable could avert your will for giving the function of supreme and sole Judge to holy Writ but that the thing is impossible and that by this means controversies are increased and not ended you mean perhaps That you can or will imagine no other cause but these But sure there is little reason you should measure other mens imaginations by your own who perhaps may be so clouded and vailed with prejudice that you cannot or will not see that which is most manifest For what indifferent and unprejudicate man may not easily conceive another cause which I do not say does but certainly may pervert your wills and avert your understandings from submitting your Religion and Church to a tryall by Scripture I mean the great and apparent and unavoidable danger which by this means you would fall into of losing the Opinion which men have of your Infallibility and consequently your power and authority over mens consciences and all that depends upon it So that though Diana of the Ephesians be cryed up yet it may be feared that with a great many among you though I censure or judge no man the other cause which wrought upon Demetrius and the Craftsmen may have with you also the more effectual though more secret influence and that is that by this craft we have our living by this craft I mean of keeping your Proselytes from an indifferent tryal of your Religion by Scripture and making them yield up and captivate their judgement unto yours Yet had you only said de facto that no other cause did avert your own will from this but only these which you pretend out of Charity I should have believed you But seeing you speak not of your self but of all of your Side whose hearts you cannot know and profess not only That there is no other cause but that No other is imaginable I could not let this passe without a censure As for the impossibility of Scriptures being the sole Judge of Controversies that is the sole Rule for men to judge them by for we mean nothing else you only affirm it without proof as if the thing were evident of it self And therefore I conceiving the contrary to be more evident might well content my self to deny it without refutation Yet I cannot but desire you to tell me If Scripture cannot be the Judge of any Controversie how shall that touching the Church and the Notes of it be determined And if it be the sole Judge of this one why may it not of others Why not of All Those only excepted wherein the Scripture it self is the subject of the Question which cannot be determined but by natural reason the only principle beside Scripture which is common to Christians 4. Then for the Imputation of increasing contentions and not ending them Scripture is innocent of it as also this opinion That controversies are to be decided by Scripture For if men did really and sincerely submit their judgements to Scripture and that only and would require no more of any man but to do so it were impossible but that all Controversies touching things necessary and very profitable should be ended and if others were continued or increased it were no matter 5. In the next words we have direct Boyes-play a thing given with one hand and taken away with the other an acknowledgment made in one line and retracted in the next We acknowledg say you Scripture to be a perfect rule for as much as a Writing can be a Rule only we deny that it excludes unwritten Tradition As if you should have said We acknowledg it to be as perfect a Rule as a Writing can be only we deny it to be as perfect a Rule as a writing may be Either therefore you must revoke your acknowledgment or retract your retractation of it for both cannot possibly stand together For if you will stand to what you have granted That Scripture is as perfect a Rule of Faith as a writing can be you must then grant it both so Compleat that it needs no addition and so evident that it needs no interpretation For both these properties are requisite to a perfect Rule and a writing is capable of both these properties 6. That both these properties are requisite to a perfect Rule
Apocalyps is most truly verified in fictions revelations If any (k) Cap. ult v. 18. shall add to these things God will add unto him the plagues which are written in this Book and D. Potter saith to add (l) Pag. 122. to it speaking of the Creed is high presumption almost as great as to detract from it And therefore to say the Church may add false revelations is to accuse her of high presumption and of pernitious error excluding Salvation 10. Perhaps some will here reply that although the Church may err yet it is nor imputed to her for sin by reason she doth not err upon malice or wittingly but by ignorance or mistake 11. But it is easily demonstrated that this excuse cannot serve For if the Church be assisted only for Points Fundamental she cannot but know that she may err in Points not Fundamental at least she cannot be certain that she cannot err and therefore cannot be excused from headlong and pernitious temerity in proposing Points not Fundamental to be believed by Christians as matters of Faith wherein she can have no certainty yea which always imply a falshood For although the thing might chance to be true and perhaps also revealed yet for the matter she for her part doth always expose her self to danger of falshood and error and in fact doth always err in the manner in which she doth propound any matter not Fundamental because she proposeth it as a Point of Faith certainly true which yet is always uncertain if she in such things may be deceived 12. Besides if the Church may err in Points not Fundamental she may err in proposing some Scripture for Canonical which is not such or else err in nor keeping and conserving from corruptions such Scriptures as are already believed to be Canonical For I will suppose that in such Apocryphal Scripture as she delivers there is no Fundamental Error against Faith or that there is no falshood at all but only want of Divine testification in which case D. Potter must either grant that it is a Fundamental Error to apply Divine revelation to any Point not revealed or else must yield that the Church may err in her Proposition or Custody of the Canon of Scripture and so we cannot be sure whether she hath not been deceived already in Books recommended by her and accepted by Christians And thus we shall have no certainty of Scripture if the Church want certainty in all her definitions And it is worthy to be observed that some Books of Scripture which were not alwayes known to be Canonical have been afterward received for such but never any on Book or syllable defined by the Church to be Canonical was afterward questioned or rejected for Apocryphal A sign that God's Church is infallibly assisted by the holy Ghost never to propose as Divine truth any thing not revealed by God and that Omission to define Points not sufficiently discussed is laudable but Commission in propounding things not revealed inexcusable into which precipitation our Saviour Christ never hath nor never will permit his Church to fall 13. Nay to limit the general promises of our Saviour Christ made to his Church to Points only Fundamental namely that the gates (m) Mat. 16.18 of hell shall not prevail against her and that the holy Ghost (n) Joan. 16.13 shall lead her into all Truth c. is to destroy all Faith For we may be that Doctrin and manner of interpreting the Scripture limit the Infallibility of the Apostles words and preaching only to Points Fundamental and whatsoever general Texts of Scripture shall be alledged for their infallibility they may be D. Potter's example be explicated and restrained to Points Fundamental By the same reason it may be farther affirmed that the Apostles and other Writers of Canonical Scripture were indued with infallibility only in setting down Points Fundamental For if it be urged that all Scripture is divinely inspired that it is the Word of God c. D. Potter hath afforded you a ready answer to say that Scripture is inspired c. only in those parts or parcels wherein it delivereth Fundamental Points In this manner D. Fotherby saith The Apostle (o) In his Sermons Serm. 2. pag. 50. twice in one Chapter professed that this he speaketh and not the Lord He is very well content that where he lacks the warrant of the express Word of God that part of his writings should be esteemed as the word of man D. Potter also speaks very dangerously towards this purpose Sect. 5. where he endeavoureth to prove that the infallibility of the Church is limited to Points Fundamental because as Nature so God is neither defective in (p) Pag. 150. necessaries nor lavish in superfluities Which reason doth likewise prove that the infallibility of Scripture and of the Apostles must be restrained to Points necessary to Salvation that so God be not accused as defective in (p) Pag. 150. necessaries or lavish insuperfluities In the same place he hath a discourse much tending to this purpose where speaking of these words The Spirit shall lead you into all Truth and shall abide with (q) Joan. c. 16.13 c. 14.16 you for ever he saith Though that promise was (r) Pag. 151 152. directly and primarily made to the Apostles who had the Spirit 's guidance in a more high and absolute manner than any since them yet it was made to them for the behoof of the Church and is verified in the Church Universal But all truth is not simply all but all of some kind To be lead into all truths is to know and believe them And who is so simple as to be ignorant that there are many millions of Truths in Nature History Divinity whereof the Church is simply ignorant How many Truths lie unrevealed in the infinite Treasury of God's wisdom wherewith the Church is not acquainted c So then the Truth it self enforceth us to understand by all Truths not simply all not all which God can possibly reveal but all pertaining to the substance of Faith all Truth absolutely necessary to Salvation Mark what he saith That promise The Spirit shall lead you into all Truth was made directly to the Apostles and is verified in the Universal Church but by all Truth is not understood simply all but all appertaining to the substance of Faith and absolutely necessary to Salvation Doth it not hence follow that the promise made to the Apostles of being lead into all Truth is to be understood only of all Truth absolutely necessary to Salvation and consequently their preaching and writing were not infallible in Points not Fundamental or if the Apostles were infallible in all things which they proposed as divine Truth the like must be affirmed of the Church because D. Potter teacheth the said promise to be verified in the Church And as he limits the aforesaid words to Points Fundamental so may he restrain what other Text soever that can be
after this manner Concerning which matter we do not amiss if we produce a testimony out of Books although not Canonical yet set forth for the edification of the Church For Eleazar in the Book of Macchabees c. Which if it be not to reject it from being Canonical is without question at least to question it Moreover because you are so punctual as to talk of words and syllables I would know whether before Sixtus Quintus his time your Church had a defined Canon of Scripture or not If not then was your Church surely a most Vigilant Keeper of Scripture that for 1500. years had not defined what was Scripture and what was not If it had then I demand Was it that set forth by Sixtus or that set forth by Clement or a third different from both If it were that set forth by Sixtus then is it now condemned by Clement if that of Clement it was condemned I say but sure you will say contradicted and questioned by Sixtus If different from both then was it questioned and condemned by both and still lies under the condemnation But then lastly Suppose it had been true That both some Book not known to be Canonical had been received and that never any after receiving had been questioned How had this been a sign that the Church is infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost In what mood or figure would this Conclusion follow out of these Premisses Certainly your flying to such poor signs as these are is to me a great sign that you labour with penury of better Arguments and that thus to catch at shadows and bulrushes is a shrewd sign of a sinking cause 3. Ad. § 13. We are told here That the general promises of Infallibility to the Church must not be restrained only to points Fundamental Because then the Apostles words and writings may also be so restrained The Argument put in form and made compleat by supply of the concealed Proposition runs thus The Infallibility promised to the present Church of any Age is as absolute and unlimited as that promised to the Apostles in their Preaching and Writings But the Apostles Infallibility is not to be limited to Fundamentals Therefore neither is the Churche's Infallibility thus to be limited Or thus The Apostles Infallibility in their Preaching and Writing may be limited to Fundamentals as well as the Infallibility of the present Church But that is not to be done Therefore this also is not to be done Now to this Argument I answer that if by may be as well in the Major Proposition be understood may be as possibly it is true but impertinent If by it we understand may be as justly and rightly It is very pertinent but very false So that as D. Potter limits the infallibility of the Present Church unto Fundamentals so another may limit the Apostles unto them also He may do it de facto but de jure he cannot that may be done and done lawfully this also may be done but not lawfully That may be done and if it be done cannot be confuted This also may be done but if it be done may easily be confuted It is done to our hand in this very Paragraph by five words taken out of Scripture All Scripture is divinely inspired Shew but as much for the Church Shew where it is written That all the Decrees of the Church are divinely inspired and the Controversie will be at end Besides there is not the same reason for the Churche's absolute Infallibility as for the Apostles and Scripture's For if the Church fall into error it may be reformed by comparing it with the Rule of the Apostles Doctrine and Scripture But if the Apostles have erred in delivering the Doctrine of Christianity to whom shall we have recourse for the discovering and correcting their error Again there is not so much strength required in the Edifice as in the Foundation and if but wise men have the ordering of the building they will make it much a surer thing that the foundation shall not fail the building than that the building shall not fall from the foundation And though the building be to be of Brick or Stone and perhaps of Wood yet if it may be possibly they will have a Rock for their Foundation whose stability is a much more indubitable thing than the adherence of the structure to it Now the Apostles and Prophets and Canonical Writers are the Foundation of the Church according to that of S. Paul Built upon the Foundation of Apostles and Prophets therefore their stability in reason ought to be greater then the Churche's which is built upon them Again a dependant Infallibility especially if the dependance be voluntary cannot be so certain as that on which it depends But the Infallibility of the Church depends upon the Infallibility of the Apostles as the straitness of the thing regulated upon the straitness of the Rule and besides this dependance is voluntary for it is in the power of the Church to deviate from this Rule being nothing else but an aggregation of men of which every one hath free-will and is subject to passions and error Therefore the Churche's Infallibility is not so certain as that of the Apostles 31. Lastly Quid verba audiam cum facta videam If you be so Infallible as the Apostles were shew it as the Apostles did They went forth saith S. Mark and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming their words with signs following It is impossible that God should lye and that the eternal Truth should set his hand and seal to the confirmation of a falshood or of such Doctrine as is partly true and partly false The Apostles Doctrine was thus confirmed therefore it was intirely true and in no part either false or uncertain I say in no part of that which they delivered constantly as a certain divine Truth and which had the Attestation of Divine Miracles For that the Apostles themselves even after the sending of the Holy Ghost were and through inadvertence or prejudice continued for a time in an errour repugnant to a revealed Truth it is as I have already noted unanswerably evident from the Story of the Acts of the Apostles For notwithstanding our Saviour's express Warrant and Injunction To go and preach to all Nations yet until S. Peter was better informed by a Vision from Heaven and by the conversion of Cornelius both he and the rest of the Church held it unlawful for them to go or preach the Gospel to any but the Jews 32. And for those things which they profess to deliver as the dictates of humane reason and prudence and not as divine Revelations why we should take them to be divine Revelations I see no reason nor how we can do so and not contradict the Apostles and God himself Therefore when S. Paul says in the 1. Epist to the Corinth 7.12 To the rest speak I not the Lord And again Concerning Virgins I have no commandment of the
Zwinglius first came unto the knowledge and preaching of the Gospel Perkins saith We say that (d) In his Exposâ—t on upon the Creed Pag. 400. bâ—fore the dayes of Luther for the space of many hundâ—ed years an Universal Apostacy overspread the whole face of the earth and that our Protestant Church was not then visible to the world Napper upon the Revelations teacheth that from the year of (e) Propos 37. Pag 68. Christ three hundred and sixteen the Antichristian and Papistical raign hath begun raigning universally and without any debatable contradiction one thousand two hundred sixty years that is till Luther's time And that from the year of (f) Ibid. cap. 12. Pag. 161. col 3. Christ three hundred and sixteen God hath withdrawn his Visible Church from open Assemblies to the hearts of particular godly men c. during the space of one thousand two hundred threescore years And that the (g) Ibid. in cap. 11. Pag. 145. Pope and Clergy have possessed the outward Visible Church of Christians even one thousand two hundred threescore years And that the (h) Ibid. Pag. 191. true Church abode latent and invisible And Brocard (i) Fol. 110. 123. upon the Revelations professeth to joyn in opinion with Napper Fulk affirmeth that in the (k) Answer to a counterfeit Catholique Pag. 16. time of Boniface the third which was the year six hundred and seven the Church was invisible and fled into the wilderness there to remain a long season Luther saith Primò solus eram At the first (l) In praef at operum suorum I was alone Jacob Hailbronerus one of the Disputants for the Protestant Patty in the conference at Ratisbon affirmeth (m) In suo Acatholico vol. à . 15. cap. 9. p. 479 that the true Church was interrupted by Apostasie from the true Faith Calvin saith It is absurd in the very (n) Epist 141. beginning to break one from another after we have been forced to make a separation from the whole world It were over-long to alledge the words of Joannes Regius Daniel Chamierus Beza Ochimus Castalio and others to the same purpose The reason which cast them upon this wicked Doctrin was a desperate voluntary necessity because they being resolved not to acknowledge the Roman Church to be Christ's true Church and yet being convinced by all manner of evidence that for divers Ages before Luther there was no other Congregation of Christians which could be the Church of Christ there was no remedy but to affirm that upon earth Christ had no visible Church which they would never have avouched if they had known how to avoid the foresaid inconvenience as they apprehended it of submitting themselves to the Roman Church 10. Against these exterminating spirits D. Potter and other more moderate Protestants profess that Christ always had and always will have upon earth a Visible Church otherwise saith he our Lord's (o) Pag. 154. promise of her stable (p) Mat. 16.18 edification should be of no value And in another place having affirmed that Protestants have not left the Church of Rome but her corruptions and acknowledging her still to be a member of Christ's body he seeketh to clear himself and others from Schism because saith he the property (q) Pag. 76. of Schism is witness the Donatists and Lucitâ—rians to cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which it separates And if any Zâ—lots amongst us have proceeded to heavier censures their zeal may be excused but their charity and wisdom cannot be justified And elsewhere he acknowledgeth that the Roman Church hath those main and (r) Pag. 83. essential truths which give her the name and essence of a Church 11. It being therefore granted by D. Potter and the chiefest and best learned English Protestants that Christ's Visible Church cannot perish it will be needless for me in this occasion to prove it S. Augustine doubted not to say The Prophets (s) In Psal 30. Com. 2. spoke more obscurely of Christ then of the Church because as I think they did forsee in spirit that men were to make parties against the Church and that they were not to have so great strife concerning Christ therefore that was more plainly foretold and more openly prophesied about which greater contentions were to rise that it might turn to the condemnation of them who have seen it and yet gone forth And in another place he saith How do we confide (t) Epist 48. to have received manifestly Christ himself from holy Scriptures if we have not also manifestly received the Church from them And indeed to what Congregation shall a man have recourse for the affairs of his soul if upon earth there be no Visible Church of Christ Beside to imagine a company of men believing one thing in their heart and with their mouth professing the contrary as they must be supposed to do for if they had professed what they believed they would have become Visible is to dream of a damned crew of dissembling Sycophants but not to conceive a right notion of the Church of Christ our Lord. And therefore S. Augustine saith We cannot be saved unless labouring also for the (u) S. Aug. de Fide Symbolâ— c. 1. Salvation of others we profess with our mouths the same Faith which we bear in our hearts And if any man hold it lawful to dissemble and deny matters of Faith we cannot be assured but that they actually dissemble and hide Anabaptism Arianism yea Turcism and even Atheism or any other false belief under the outward profession of Calvinism Do not Protestants teach that preaching of the World and administration of Sacraments which cannot but make a Church Visible are inseparable notes of the true Church And therefore they must either grant a Visible Church or none at all No wonder then if S. Austin account this Heresie so gross that he saith against those who in his time defended the like error But this Church which (w) In Psal 101. hath been of all Nations is no more she hath perished so say they that are in not in her O impudent speech And afterward This voice so abominable so detestable so full of presumption and falshood which is sustained with no truth inlightned with no wisdom seasoned with no salt vain rash heady pernitious the holy Ghost foresaw c. And peradventure some (x) De ovib c. â— one may say there are other sheep I know not where with which I am not acquainted yet God hath care of them But he is too absurd in humane sense that can imagine such things And these men do not consider that while then deny the perpetuity of a Visible Church they destroy their own present Church according to the argument which S. Augustine urged against the Donatists in these words (y) De Bapt. cont Donat. If the Church were lost in Cyprian's we may say in Gregory's
with whom they agree in Faith which is Schism in the most formal and proper signification thereof Moreover according to D. Potter those boisterous Creatures are properly Schismatiques For the reason why he thinks himself and such as he is to be cleared from Schism notwithstanding their division from the Roman Church is because according to his Divinity the property of (h) Pag. 76. Schism is witness the Donatists and Luciferians to cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which it separates But those Protestants of whom we now spake cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which they separated themselves and they do it directly as the Donatists in whom you exemplifie did by affirming that the true Church had perished and therefore they cannot be cleared from Schism if you may be their Judge Consider I pray you how many prime Protestants both domestical and forraign you have at one blow struck off from hope of Salvation and condemned to the lowest pit for the grievous sin of Schism And withall it imports you to consider that you also involve your self and other moderate Protestants in the self-same crime and punishment while you communicate with those who according to your own principles are properly and formally Schismatiques For if you held your self obliged under pain of damnation to forsake the Communion of the Roman Church by reason of her Errors and Corruptions which yet you confess were not Fundamental shall it not be much more damnable for you to live in Communion and Confraternity with those who defend an error of the failing of the Church which in the Donatists you confess (i) Pag. 126. to have been properly heretical against the Article of our Creed I believe the Church And I desire the Reader here to apply an authority of S. Cyprian Epist 76. which he shall find alledged in the next number And this may suffice for confutation of the aforesaid Answer as it might have relation to the rigid Calvinists 17. For Confutation of those Protestants who hold that the Church of Christ had always a being and cannot err in Points Fundamental and yet teach that she may err in matters of less moment wherein if they forsake her they would be accounted not to leave the Church but only her corruptions I must say that they change the state of our present Question not distinguishing between internal Faith and external Communion not between Schism and Heresie This I demonstrate out of D. Potter himself who in express words teacheth that the promises which our Lord hath made (k) Pag. 151. unto his Church for his assistance are intended not to any particular Persons or Churches but only to the Church Catholique and they are to be extended not to every parcel or particularity of truth but only to Points of Faith or Fundamental And afterwards speaking of the Universal Church he saith It is comfort (l) Pag. 155. enough for the Church that the Lord in mercy will secure her from all capital dangers and conserve her on earth against all enemies but she may not hope to triumph over all sin and error till she be in heaven Out of which words I observe that according to D. Potter the self-same Church which is the Universal Church remaining the Universal true Church of Christ may fall into errors and corruptions from whence it clearly followeth that it is impossible to leave the External communion of the Church so corrupted and retain external communion with the Catholique Church since the Church Catholique and the Church so corrupted is the self-same one Church or company of men And the contrary imagination talks in a dream as if the errors and infections of the Catholique Church were not inherent in her but were separate from her like to Accidents without any Subject or rather indeed as if they were not Accidents but Hypostases or Persons subsisting by themselves for men cannot be said to live in or out of the Communion of any dead creature but with persons endued with life and reason and much less can men be said to live in the Communion of Accidents as errors and corruptions are and therefore it is an absurd thing to affirm that Protestants divided themselves from the corruptions of the Church but not from the Church her self seeing the corruptions of the Church were inherent in the Church All this is made more clear if we consider that when Luther appeared there were not two distinct visible true Catholique Churches holding contrary Doctrines and divided in external Communion one of the which two Churches did triumph over all error and corruption in Doctrine and practice but the other was stained with both For to faign this diversity of two Churches cannot stand with record of histories which are silent of any such matter It is against D. Potter's own grounds that the Church may err in Points not Fundamental which were not true if you will imagine a certain visible Catholique Church free from error even in Points not Fundamental It contradicteth the words in which he said the Church may not hope to triumph over all error till she be in heaven It evacuateth the brag of Protestants that Luther reformed the whole Church and lastly It maketh Luther a Schismatique for leaving the Communion of all visible Churches seeing upon this supposition there was a visible Church of Christ free from all corruption which therefore could not be forsaken without just imputation of Schism We must therefore truly affirm that since there was but one visible Church of Christ which was truly Catholique and yet was according to Protestants stained with corruption when Luther left the external Communion of that corrupted Church he could not remain in the Communion of the Catholique Church no more than it is possible to keep company with D. Christopher Potter and not keep company with the Provost of Queens Colledge in Oxford if D. Potter and the Provost be one and the self-same man For so one should be and not be with him at the same time This very Argument drawn from the Unity of God's Church S. Cyprian urgeth to convince that Novatianus was cut ost from the Church in these words The Church is (m) Epist 76. ad Mag. One which being One cannot be both within and without If she be with Novatianus she was not with Cornelius But if she were with Cornelius who succeeded Fabianus by lawful ordination Novatiâ—nus is not in the Church I purposely here speak only of external Communion with the Catholique Church For in this Point there is great difference between internal acts of our understanding and will and of external deeds Our Understanding and Will are faculties as Philsophers speak abstractive and able to distinguish and as it were to part things though in themselves they be really conjoyned But real external deeds do take things in gross as they find them not separating things which in
it is which is the mark of Heresie the Ancient Fathers tell us more in particular that it is from the Church of Rome as it is the Sea of Peter And therefore D. Potter need not to be so hot with us because we say and write that the Church of Rome in that sense as she is the Mother-Church of all others and with which all the rest agree is truly called the Catholique Church S. Hierome writing to Pope Damasus saith I am in the Communion (h) Lib. 1. Apolog of the Chair of Peter I know that the Church is built upon that Rock Whosoever shall eat the Lamb out of this house he is prophane If any shall not be in the Ark of Noe he shall perish in the time of the deluge Whosoever doth not gather with thee doth scatter that is he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist And elsewhere Which doth he (i) Ibid. lib. 3. call his faith That of the Roman Church Or that which is contained in the Books of Origen If he answer The Roman then we are Catholiques who have translated nothing of the error of Origen And yet farther Know thou that the k Roman faith commended by the voyce of the Apostle doth not receive these delusions though an Angel should denounce otherwise than it hath once been preached S. Ambrose recounting how his Brother Satyrus inquiring for a Church wherein to give thanks for his delivery from shipwrack saith He called unto him (l) De obitu Satyri fratris the Bishop neither did he esteem any favour to be true except that of the true faith and he asked of him whether be agreed with the Catholique Bishops that is with the Roman Church And having understood that he was a Schismatique that is separated from the Roman Church he abstained from communicating with him Where we see the privâ—ledge of the Roman Church confirmed both by word and deed by doctrin and practice And the same Saint saith of the Roman Church From thence the Rites (m) Lib. 1. ep 4. ad Imperatores of Venerable Communion do flow to all Saint Cyprian saith They are bold (n) Epist 55. ad Cornel. to sail to the Chair of Peter and to the principal Church from whence Priestly Unity hath sprung Neither do they consider that they are Romans whose faith was commended by the preaching of the Apostle to whom falshood cannot have access Where we see this holy Father joyns together the principal Church and the Chair of Peter and affirmâ—th that falshood not only hath not had but cannot have access to that Sea And elsewhere Thou wrotest that I should send (o) Epist 52. a Copy of the same letters to Cornelius our Colleague that laying aside all sollicitude he might now be assured that thou didst communicate with him that is with the Catholique Church What think you M. Doctor of these words Is it so strange a thing to take for one and the same thing to communicate with the Church and Pope of Rome and to communicate with the Catholique Church S. Irenaeus saith Because it were long to number the succession of all Chuâ—ches (p) Lib. 3 cont haer c. 3. we declaring the Tradition and faith preached to men and coming to us by Tradition of the most great most ancient and most known Church founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul which Tradition it hath from the Apostles coming to us by succession of Bishops we confound all those who any way either by evil complacence of themselves or vain glory or by blindness or ill opinion do gather otherwise than they ought For to this Church for a more powerful Principality it is necessary that all Churches resort that is all faithful people of what place soever in which Roman Church the Tradition which is from the Apostles hath alwayes been conserved from those who are every where Saint Augustine saith It grieves us (q) In Psal coâ—t patrâ—m Donati to see you so to lie cut off Number the Priests even from the Sea of Peter and consider in that order of Fathers who succeded to whom She is the Rock which the proud Gates of Hell do not overcome And in another place speaking of Caecilianus he saith He might contemâ— the conspiring (r) Ep. 162. multitude of his Enemies because he knew himself to be united by Communicatory letters both to the Roman Church in which the Principality of the Sea Apostolique did alwayes flourish and to other Countâ—ies from whence the Gospel came first into Africa Ancient Tertullian saith If thou be neer Italy thou hast Rome whose (s) Praescr cap. 36. Authority is nâ—er at hand to us a happy Church into which the Apostles have poured all Doctrine together with their bloud Saint Basil in a letter to the Bishop of Rome saith In very deed that which was given (t) Epist ad Pont. Rom. by our Lord to thy Piety is worthy of that must excellent voyce which procâ—â—â—med thee Blessed to wit that thou mayst discern betwixt that which is counterfeit and that which is lawful and pure and without any diminution mayest preach the faith of our Ancestours Maximâ—nianus Bishop of Constantinople about twelve hundred years ago said All the bounds of the earth who have siâ—ccrely acknowledged our Lord and Catholiques through the whole world professing the true faith look upon the power of the Bishop of Rome as upon the Sun c. For the Creator of the world amongst all men of the world elected him he speaks of S. Peter to whom he granted the Chair of Dectour to be principally possessed by a perpetual right of Priviledge that whosoever is desirous to know any Divine and profound thing may have recourse to the Oracle and Doctrin of this Instruction John Patriarch of Constantinople more than eleven hundred years ago in an Epistle to Pope Hormisda writeth thus Because (u) Epist ad Hormis P. P. the beginning of salvation is to conserve the rule of right Faith and in no wise to swarve from the Tradition of our Fore Fathers because the words of our Lord cannot fail saying Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church the proofs of deeds have made good those words because in the Sea Apostolical the Catholique Religion is alwayes conserved inviolable And again We promise hereafter not to recite in the sacred Mysteries the names of them who are excluded from the Communion of the Catholique Church that is to say who consent not fully with the Sea Apostolique Many other Authorities of the Ancient Fathers might be produced to this purpose but these may serve to shew that both the Latin and Greek Fathers held for a Note of being a Catholique or an Heretique To have been united or divided from the Sea of Rome And I have purposely alleadged only such Authorities of Fathers as speak of the priviledges of the Sea of Rome as of things permanent and depending
though I deny that it is required of us to be certain in the highest degree infallibly certain of the truth of the things which we believe for this were to know and not believe neither is it possible unless our evidence of it be it natural or supernatural were of the highest degree yet I deny not but we ought to be and may be infallibly certain that we are to believe the Religion of Christ For first this is most certain that we are in all things to do according to wisdom and reason rather than against it Secondly this is as certain That wisdom and Reason require that we should believe those things which are by many degrees more credible and probable than the contrary Thirdly this is as certain that to every man who considers impartially what great things may be said for the truth of Christianity and what poor things they are which may be said against it either for any other Religion or for none at all it cannot but appear by many degrees more credible that Christian Religion is true than the contrary And from all these premisses this conclusion evidently follows that it is infallibly certain that we are firmly to believe the truth of Christian Religion 9 Your discourse therefore touching the fourth requisite to faith which is Prudence I admit so far as to grant 1. That if we were required to believe with certainty I mean a Moral certainty things no way represented as infallible and certain I mean morally an unreasonable obedience were required of us And so likewise were it were we required to believe as absolutely certain that which is no way represented to us as absolutely certain 2. That whom God obligeth to believe any thing he will not fail to furnish their understandings with such inducements as are sufficient if they be not negligent or perverse to perswade them to believe 3. That there is an abundance of Arguments exceedingly credible inducing men to believe the Truth of Christianity I say so credible that though they cannot make us evidently see what we believe yet they evidently convince that in true wisdom and prudence the Articles of it deserve credit and ought to be accepted as things revealed by God 4. That without such reasons and inducements our choice even of the true faith is not to be commended as prudent but to be condemned of rashness and levity 10 But then for your making Prudence not only a commendation of a believer and a justification of his faith but also essential to it and part of the definition of it in that questionless you were mistaken and have done as if being to say what a man is you should define him A Reasonable creature that hath skill in Astronomy For as all Astronomers are men but all men are not Astronomers and therefore Astronomy ought not to be put into the definition of Men where nothing should have place but what agrees to all men So though all that are truly wise that is wise for eternity will believe aright yet many may believe aright which are not wise I could wish with all my heart as Moses did that all the Lords people could Prophesie That all that believe the true Religion were able according to S. Peter's injunction to give a reason of the hope that is in them a reason why they hope for eternal happiness by this way rather than any other neither do I think it any great difficulty that men of ordinary capacities if they would give their mind to it might quickly be enabled to do so But should I affirm that all true believers can do so I suppose it would be as much against experience and modesty as it is against Truth and Charity to say as you do that they which cannot do so either are not at all or to no purpose true believers And thus we see that the foundations you build upon are ruinous and deceitful and so unfit to support your Fabrick that they destroy one another I come now to shew that your Arguments to prove Protestants Heretiques are all of the same quality with your former grounds which I will do by opposing clear and satisfying Answers in order to them 11 Ad § 13. To the first then delivered by you § 13. That Protestants must be Heretiques because they opposed divers Truths propounded for divine by the Visible Church I answer It is not heresie to oppose any truth propounded by the Church but only such a Truth as is an essential part of the Gospel of Christ 2. The Doctrins which Protestants opposed were not Truths but plain and impious falshoods Neither thirdly were they propounded as Truths by the Visible Church but only by a Part of it and that a corrupted Part. 12 Ad § 14. The next Argument in the next Particle tell us That every error against any doctrin revealed by God is damnable Heresie Now either Protestants or the Roman Church must err against the word of God But the Roman Church we grant perforce doth not err damnably neither can she because she is the Catholique Church which we you say confess cannot err damnably Therefore Protestants must err against God's word and consequently are guilty of formal Heresie Whereunto I answer plainly that there be in this argument almost as many falshoods as assertions For neither is every error against any Doctrin revealed by God a damnable Heresie unless it be revealed publiquely and plainly with a command that a I should believe it 2. D. Potter no where grants that the Errors of the Roman Church are not in themselves damnable though he hopes by accident they may not actually damn some men amongst you and this you your self confess in divers places of your Book where you tell us that he allows no hope of Salvation to those amongst you whom ignorance cannot exouse 3. You beg the Question twice in taking for granted First That the Roman Church is the truly Catholique Church which without much favour can hardly pass for a part of it And again that the Catholique Church cannot fall into any error of it self damnable for it may do so and still be the Catholique Church if it retain those Truths which may be an antidote against the malignity of this error to those that held it out of a simple un-affected ignorance Lastly though the thing be true yet I might well require some proof of it from you that either Protestants or the Roman Church must err against God's word For if their contradiction be your only reason then also you or the Dominicans must be Heretiques because you contradict one another as much as Protestants and Papists 13 Ad § 15. The third Argument pretends that you have shewed already that the Visible Church is Judge of Controversies and therefore infallible from whence you suppose that it follows that to oppose her is to oppose God To which I answer that you have said only and not shewed that the Visible Church is Judg of Controversies
must resolve to obey rather the commands of the Pope than the law of Christ Whereas if I follow the Scripture I may nay I must obey my Soveraigne in lawful things though an Heretique though a Tyrant and though I do not say the Pope but the Apostles themselves nay an Angel from heaven should teach any thing against the Gospel of Christ I may nay I must denounce Anathema to him 66. Following the Scripture I shall believe a Religion which being contrary to flesh and blood without any assistance from worldly power wit or policy nay against all the power and policy of the world prevail'd and enlarg'd it self in a very short time all the world over Whereas it is too too apparent that your Church hath got and still maintains her authority over mens conscience by counterfeiting false miracles forging false stories by obtruding on the world supposititions writings by corrupting the monuments of former times and defacing out of them all which any way makes against you by Warres by Persecutions by Massacres by Treasons by Rebellions in short by all manner of carnal means whether violent or fraudulent 67. Following the Scripture I shall believe a Religion the first preachers and Professors whereof it is most certain they could have no worldly ends upon the world that they should not project to themselves by it any of the profits or honours or pleasures of this world but rather were to expect the contrary even all the miseries which the world could lay upon them On the other side the Head of your Church the pretended Successour of the Apostles and Guide of faith it is even palpable that he makes your Religion the instrument of his ambition and by it seeks to entitle himself directly or indirectly to the Monarchy of the world And besides it is evident to any man that has but halfe an eye that most of those Doctrins which you add to the Scripture do make one way or other for the honour or temporal profit of the Teachers of them 68. Following the Scripture only I shall embrace a Religion of admirable simplicity consisting in a manner wholly in the worship of God in spirit and truth Whereas your Church and Doctrin is even loaded with an infinitie of weak childish ridiculous unsavoury Superstitions and Ceremonies and full of that righteousness for which Christ shall judge the world 69. Following the Scriptures I shall believe that which Universal never-failing Tradition assures me that it was by the admitable supernatural works of God confirm'd to be the word of God whereas never any miracle was wrought never so much as a lame horse cur'd in confirmation of your Churches authority and infallibility And if any strange things have been done which may seem to give attestation to some parts of your doctrin yet this proves nothing but the truth of the Scripture which foretold that God's providence permitting it and the wickedness of the world deserving it strange signes and wonders should be wrought to confirm false doctrin that they which love not the truth may be given over to strong delusions Neither does it seem to me any strange thing that God should permit some true wonders to be done to delude them who have forged so many to deceive the world 70. If I follow the Scripture I must not promise my self Salvation without effectual dereliction and mortification of all vices and the effectual practice of all Christian Vertues But your Church opens an easier and a broader way to Heaven and though I continve all my life long in a course of sin and without the practice of any vertue yet gives me assurance that I may be lett into heaven at a postern gate even by an Act of Attrition at the hour of death if it be joyn'd with confession or by an act of Contrition without confession 71. Admirable are the Precepts of piety and humility of innocence and patience of liberality frugality temperance sobriety justice meekness fortitude constancy and gravity contempt of the world love of God and the love of mankind In a word of all vertues and against all vice which the Scriptures impose upon us to be obeyed under pain of damnation The summe whereof is in manner compriz'd in our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount recorded in the 5.6 and 7. of S. Matthew which if they were generally obeyed could not but make the world generally happy and the goodness of them alone were sufficient to make any wise and good man believe that this Religion rather than any other came from God the Fountain of all goodness And that they may be generally obeyed our Saviour hath ratified them all in the close of his Sermon with these universal Sanctions Not every one that sayeth Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven and again Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likned unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the flood came and the winds blew and it fell and great was the fall thereof Now your Church notwithstanding all this enervates and in a manner dissolves and abrogates many of these precepts teaching men that they are not lawes for all Christians but Counsels of perfection and matters of Supererogation that a man shall do well if he do observe them but he shall not sin if he observe them not That they are for them who aim at high places in heaven who aspire with the two sonnes of Zebede to the right hand or to the left hand of Christ But if a man will be content barely to go to heaven and to be a door-keeper in the house of God especially if he will be content to taste of Purgatory in the way he may obtain it at an easier purchase Therefore the Religion of your Church is not so holy nor so good as the Doctrin of Christ delivered in Scripture and therefore not so likely to come from the Fountain of holiness and goodness 72. Lastly if I follow your Church for my Guide I shall do all one as if I should follow a Company of blind men in a judgement of colours or in the choice of a way For every unconsidering man is blind in that which he does not consider Now what is your Church but a company of unconsidering men who comfort themselves because they are a great company together but all of them either out of idleness refuse the trouble of a fevere tryall of their Religion as if heaven were not worth it or out of superstition fear the event of such a tryall that they may be scrupled and staggered and disquieted by it and therefore for the most part do it not at all Or if they do it they do it negligently and hypocritically and perfunctorily rather for the satisfaction of others than themselves but certainly without indifference without liberty of judgement without a resolution to doubt of it if upon
say that all things considered it was absolutely impossible for you to avoid it is flatly to deny it Others there are that think they have done enough if to confession of sin they add some sorrow for it if when the present fit of sin is past and they are returned to themselves the sting remaining breed some remorse of conscience some complaints against their wickedness and folly for having done so and some intentions to forsake it though vanishing and ineffectual These heat-drops this morning dew of sorrow though it presently vanish and they return to their sin again upon the next temptation as a dogg to his vomit when the pang is over yet in the pauses between while they are in their good mood they conceive themselves to have very true and very good repentance so that if they should have the good fortune to be taken away in one of these Intervalla one of these sober moods they should certainly be saved which is just as if a man in a Quartane Ague or the Stone or Gout should think himself rid of his disease as oft as he is out of his fit But if repentance were no more but so how could St. Paul have truly said That godly sorrow worketh repentance 1 Cor. 7.10 Every man knows that nothing can work it self The Architect is not the house which he builds the Father is not the Son which he begets the Tradesman is not the work which he makes and therefore if sorrow godly sorrow worketh repentance certainly sorrow is not repentance the same St. Paul tels us in the same place That the sorrow of the world worketh death and you will give me leave to conclude from hence therefore it is not death and what shall hinder me from concluding thus also Godly sorrow worketh repentance therefore it is not repentance To this purpose it is worth the observing that when the Scripture speaks of that kind of repentance which is only sorrow for something done and wishing it undone it constantly useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which forgiveness of sins is no where promised So it is written of Judas the son of perdition Matth. 27.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented and went and hanged himself and so constantly in other places But that repentance to which remission of sins and salvation is promised is perpetually expressed by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a through change of the heart and soul of the life and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 3.2 which is rendred in our last translation Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand But much better because freer from ambiguity in the entrance to our Common Prayer Book Amend your lives for the kingdom of heaven is at hand From whence by the way we may observe That in the judgment of those holy and learned Martyrs Repentance and amendment of life are all one And I would to God the same men out of the same care of avoyding mistakes and to take away occasion of cavilling our Liturgy from them that seek it and out of fear of encouraging carnal men to security in sinning had been so provident as to set down in terms the first sentence taken out of the 18 th of Ezekiel and not have put in the place of it an ambiguous and though not in it self yet accidentally by reason of the mistake to which it is subject I fear very often a pernitious paraphrase for whereas thus they make it At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord The plain truth if you will hear it is the Lord doth not say so these are not the very words of God but the paraphrase of men the words of God are as followeth If the wicked turn from all the sins which he hath committed and keep all my Statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die where I hope you easily observe that there is no such word as At what time soever a sinner doth repent c. and that there is a wide difference between this as the word repent usually sounds in the ears of the people and turning from all sins and keeping all Gods Statutes that indeed having no more in it but sorrow and good purposes may be done easily and certainly at the last gasp and it is very strange that any Christian who dies in his right senses and knows the difference between heaven and hell should fail of the performing it but this work of turning keeping and doing is though not impossible by extraordinary mercy to be performed at last yet ordinarily a work of time a long and laborious work but yet heaven is very well worth it and if you mean to go through with it you had need go about it presently Yet seeing the Composers of our Liturgy thought fit to abreviate Turning from all sin and keeping all God's Statutes and doing that which is lawful and right into this one word Repenting it is easie and obvious to collect from hence as I did before from the other place that by Repentance they understood not only sorrow for sin but conversion from it The same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 12.42 is used in speaking of the Repentance of the Ninivites And how real hearty and effectual a Conversion that was you may see Jonas 3. from the 5 to the last verse The People of Niniveh believed God and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them for word came to the King of Niniveh and he arose from his Throne and he cast his Robe from him and covered him with sackcloth and sate in ashes and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Niniveh by the decree of the King and of his Nobles saying Let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste any thing let them not feed nor drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let every one turn from his evill way and from the violence which is in their hands who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away his fierce anger that we perish not Which words contain an excellent and lively pattern for all true penitents to follow and whereunto to conform themselves in their humiliation and repentance And truly though there be no Jonas sent expresly from God to cry unto us Yet forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed yet seeing the mouth of Eternal Truth hath taught us that a Kingdom divided is in such danger of ruin and destruction that morally speaking if it continue divided it cannot stand and seeing the strange and miserable condition of our Nation at this time may give any considerable man just cause to fear that as in Rehoboam's case so likewise in ours The thing is of the Lord intending to bring
of the expression of this Atheism viz. not in words or opinion to deny God but which is worse in the carriage and course of our life to allow him his Attributes and yet not to fear him not to stand in awe of his power which he acknowledgeth to be infinite to distrust his Providence to sleight his Promises neglect his Threatnings which is in effect as much as in him lyeth to tear and ravish from him all his glorious Attributes by living as if God himself were less powerful less wise then himself improvident not deserving so much fear of his power or respect to his command as he would perform to a wretched mortal man that is a little richer or in some place of Authority above him 10. I need travel no further for a division to my own Text Here we may observe likewise First The cause of Atheism and by consequence all the abominable impieties that follow in the Psalm and that is Ignorance Indiscretion Inconsiderance expressed in the person of Nabal The Fool Secondly We have the expression of it not by word of mouth or writing but per motum cordis by the inclination of the heart or affections 11. In the prosecution of the former part which may very well take up and spend this Hour-glass I shall proceed thus First I will consider wherein this folly consists and that is not so much in an utter ignorance of God and his holy Word as a not making a good use of it when it is known a suffering it to lye dead to swim unprofitably in the brain without any fruit thereof in the reformation of ones life and conversation And there I will shew you The extream folly for a man to seek to increase his knowledge of his Master's will without a desire and resolution to increase proportionably in a serious active performance thereof Secondly I will propose to your consideration the extream unavoidable danger and increase of guilt that knowledge without practice brings with it To both which considerations I shall severally annex Applications to the Consciences of you my Hearers and so spend out my time 12. Now I take it for granted that I have hit right in declaring wherein the folly of Nabal in my Text consists namely in an unfruitful knowledg a knowledg that lies fallow is not exercised which if it were not allowed me I would only referr my self for proof unto some of David's Psalms and almost all his Sons Proverbs I should sin against the plenty of matter in my Text more worth our consideration if I should enlarge my self in this point Only one place of David shall suffice and that is in Psal 111.10 where he repeats that old divine Proverb made by God himself Psal 111.10 the Lord knows how long since and by him delivered to man as Job telleth us ch 28. v. 28. The Psalmists words are these The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter 13. I do not now exclude Ignorance from making up some part of this Fool but because the other piece of extream desperate folly is rather the sin of these days namely a barren uneffectual Knowledge Therefore I shall rather insist upon it Yet by the way I shall not fail to discover to you the danger of the other too 14. It is a pretty Observation that the Author of the Narration of the English Seminary founded in Rome has concerning the Method and Order the Devil has used in assailing and disturbing the peace and quiet of the Church with Heresies and Schisms He began saith he with the first Article of our Creed concerning one God the Father Almighty Creatour of Heaven and Earth against which in the first 300. years he armed the Simonians Menandrians Basilidians Valentinians Marcionites Manichees and Gnosticks After the 300th year he opposed the second Article concerning the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ by his beloved Servants the Noetians Sabellians Paullians Photinians and Arrians After the four hundreth year he sought to undermine the fourth fifth sixth and seventh Articles of the Incarnation Passion Resurrection Ascension and the second coming to Judgment by the Heresies of Nestorius Theodorus Eutyches Dioscorus Cnapheus Sergius c. After the eight hundred and sixtieth he assailed the eighth Article concerning the Holy-Ghost by the Heresie and Schism of the Greek Church Lastly since the year one thousand till these times his business and craft has especially expressed it self in seeking to subvert the ninth and tenth concerning the Holy Catholique Church and forgiveness of sins by the aid and Ministery of the Pontificians Anabaptists Familists and the like And with the deceipts and snares of these his cunning Ministers hath he entangled the greatest part of the now Christian world 15. But our blessed and gracious God be praised for it we and some with us have escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler the Net was broken and we were delivered The whole Doctrine of Christian Faith is restored to the Primitive lustre and integrity Nay more which is a greater happiness then God ever created to those his chosen good servants which lived in the Infancy of the Church the profession of a pure unspotted Religion is so far from being dangerous or infamous that we have the Sword of the Civil Magistrate the power and inforcement of the Laws and Statutes to maintain this our precious Faith without stain and undefiled against all Heretical and Schismatical oppugners thereof 16. If ever we forget the goodness and mercy of God in this our deliverance then let our tongues cleave to the roof of our mouths Nay if in our Songs of joyfulness and melody we remember not our escape wherewith the Lord snatched us out of Egypt and our victorious passage through a Red-Sea of Bloud and Ruin Thou O Lord wilt not hear our prayers 27. It was a seasonable admonition that the Apostle Saint Paul gave to other Gentiles after such a glorious victory and deliverance as this of our's Be not high-minded but fear Rom. 11.20 Heresie is not the only Engine that Satan is furnished with to assault and infest the Church of Christ neither is it the most dangerous He has the cunning to destroy Foundations and make no use of Heresie in the work neither You would wonder how it should be possible for the Devil to make an Orthodox Christian one perfect and studyed in all the Points of the Creed and one that can for a need maintain the Truth thereof against all gain-sayers I say it would seem strange for the Devil to make such a one to destroy and utterly demolish the very Foundations of his Faith and yet not at all to alter his opinions neither Yet that it is not only a possible contrivance but too too ordinary and familiar in these times woful Experience hath made it evident 18. The Art and cunning whereby this great work of the Devil 's is brought
and so 't is Courtesie It vaunteth not it self and so 't is Modesty It is not puffed up and so 't is Humility It is not easily provok'd and so 't is Lenity It thinketh no evil and so 't is Simplicity It rejoyceth in the Truth and so 't is Verity It beareth all things and so 't is Fortitude It believeth all things and so 't is Faith It hopeth all things and so 't is Confidence It endureth all things and so 't is Patience It never faileth and so 't is Perseverance 36. You see two glorious and divine Vertues namely Faith and Charity though not naturally express'd yet pretty well counterfeited by the Moralist And to make up the Analogy compleat we have the third Royal vertue which is Hope reasonably well shadow'd out in that which they call Intenâ—io Finis which is nothing else but a fore-tasting of the happiness which they propose to themselves as a sufficient reward for all their severe and melancholick endeavours 37. What shall we say my beloved Friends Shall the Heathenish Moralist meerly out of the strength of natural Reason conclude that the knowledg of what is good and fit to be done without a practise of it upon our affections and outward actions to be nothing worth nay ridiculous and contemptible And shall we who have the Oracles of God nay the whole perfect will of God fully set down in the holy Scriptures in every page almost whereof we find this urg'd and press'd upon us That to know our Masters will without performing it is fruitless unto us nay will intend the heat and add vertue and power to the lake of fire and brimstone reserved for such empty unfruitful Christians and shall we I say content our selves any longer with bare hearing and knowing of the Word and no more God forbid Rather let us utterly avoid this holy Temple of God Let us rather cast his Word behind our backs and be as ignorant of his holy Will as ever our fore-fathers were Let us contrive any course to cut off all commerce and entercourse all communion and acquaintance with our God rather then when we profess to know him and willingly to allow him all those glorious Titles and Attributes by which he hath made himself known unto us in his Word in our hearts to deny him in our lives and practises to dishonour him and use him despightfully 38. It were no hard matter I think to perswade any but resolved hardned minds that Fruit is necessary before any admission into heaven only by proposing to your considerations the form and process of that Judgment to which you every man in his own person must submit The Authors word may be taken for the truth of what I shall tell you for the story we receive from his mouth that shall be Judg of all and therefore is likely to know what course and order himself will observe 39. In the General Resurrection when sentence of absolution or condemnation shall be pass'd upon every one according to his deserts Knowledg is on no side mentioned but one because he hath cloathed the naked and fed the hungry and done such like works of Charity he is taken and the rest that have not done so much are refused Will it avail any one then to say Lord we confess we have not done these works but we have spent many an hour in hearing and talking of thy Word nay we have maintain'd to the utmost of our power and to our own great prejudice many Opinions and Tenents Alas we little thought that any spotted imperfect work of ours was requisite we were resolved that for working thou hadst done enough for us to get us to heaven Will any such excuses as these serve the turn Far be it from us to think so 40. If you will turn to Matth. 7.22 you shall find stronger and better excuses then these to no purpose Mat. 7.22 Many shall say unto me saith Christ Lord have not we prophesied in thy Name These were something more then hearers they had spent their time in preaching and converting souls unto Christ which is a work if directed to a right end of the most precious and admirable value that it is possible for a creature to perform And yet whiles they did not practise themselves what they taught others they became Cast-aways Others there were that had cast out Devils and done many miracles And yet so lov'd the unclean spirits that themselves were possess'd withal that they could not endure to part company then and now were never likely 41. But have not I all this while mistaken my Auditory Were not these Instructions fitter for the Universities Had it not been more fit and seasonable for me to have instructed and catechis'd mine hearers rather than to give them cautions and warnings lest they should abuse their knowledg No surely Instructions to make use of knowledg in our practise and conversation and not to content our selves with meer knowing and hearing and talking of the mysteries of our Salvation cannot in the most ignorant Congregation be unseasonable Even the Heathen which were utter strangers from the knowledge of Gods wayes did notwithstanding render themselves inexcusable for deteining some part of the Truth as it were naturally ingrafted in them in unrighteousness So that there is no man in the world but knows much more then he practises every man hides some part at least of his Talent in a Napkin wherefore let every man even the most ignorant that hears me this day search the most inward secret corners of his heart for this treasure of knowledg and let him take it forth and put it into the Usurers hands and trade thriftily with it that he may return his Lord his own with encrease Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make him Ruler over all his Household 42. And thus I have gone through one member of my First General namely the consideration wherein the Imprudence of the Fool in my Text doth consist In the prosecution whereof I have discovered unto you how severally Satan plants his Engins for the subversion of the Church In the Primitive times when Religion was more stirring and active and Charity in Fashion He assay'd to corrupt mens understandings with Heresies and there by the way was observ'd his order and method how distinctly beginning in those first times with the first Article he hath orderly succeeded to corrupt the next following and now in these last dayes hee 's got to even the last end of the Creed But since by the mercy and goodness of God we are delivered and stand firm in the Faith once delivered to the Saints he hath raised another Engine against us that stand and that is To work that our Orthodox Opinions do us no good which he performs by snatching the Word out of our Hearts and making it unfruitful in our Lives Now those that are thus enveagl'd and
be it spoken do after the true one Having such advantages even above the blessed Apostles and ancient Martyrs Let us walk as becometh the children of God having our eyes fastened upon the Lord our Salvation and conforming our selves freely and unconstrainedly to whatsoever it shall please him to prescribe unto us Not admitting our own carnal reason and wordly wisdom into counsel about his Worship nor believing any thing which he has propos'd unto us in his Word but for the authority of him that spoke it not accepting the persons of men nor perswading our selves to the belief of horrible and unworthy Opinions of God because men affected by us have so delivered It was a grievous complaint that God made by the Prophet Isaiah Cap. 29. v. 13. Their fear towards me is taught by the Commandements of men Isaith 29.13 39. Again we must subdue our Affections to be ruled and squared according to the good Will of God rejoycing to see our most beloved sins discover'd and rebuk'd and even crucified by the powerful Word and Spirit of God Lastly We must be ready for Christ his sake to root out of our hearts that extravagant immoderate Love of our own selves that private affection as Basil calleth it resolving rather to undergo a shameful horrible death then to maintain any inordinate base desire or to take part with our filthy lusts against our Saviour who hath so dearly redeem'd us 40. Thus have you heard in General tearms largely and I fear tediously delivered the sum and effect of this Doctrin of Self-Denyal for the restraining of it to particular Cases I have reserved to another hour Now I will according to my promise as earnestly as I can inforce this necessary duty upon you from the two Circumstances before-mentioned viz. 1. From the greater reasonableness in the thing commanded And 2. Extream Love and Kindness of the Law-giver that hath in his own person given us a perfect example directing us how we should fulfill his command 41. For the first namely the reasonableness of the thing commanded To omit how all creatures in acknowledgment of that duty which they owe to God their Creator do willingly submit themselves to his disposition denying their own specifical private natures for the general good of the world For example The Elements are subject to alterations and deportations to be destroy'd and revived to be Instruments of Gods favour and again of his wrath Surely Man above all the World beside not excepting that glorious heavenly Host of Angels is by a more indissoluble Adamantine chain oblig'd and bound to his Maker For to which of the Angels said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee 42. Again when a great portion of those glorious Spirits had mutinously rebelled against God and Man following the example of their prevarication had with them plung'd himself irrecoverably into extream unavoidable destruction In that necessity God had no respect to those heavenly Spirits which were by nature much more admirable and perfect then we for he did in no wise saith the Apostle take upon him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham and therein performed the glorious work of our Redemption 43. Surely after this great Love than which I dare not say God cannot but I may well say he will never show a greater we his unworthy creatures are bound to express some greater measure of thankful obedience then we were for our Creation And yet even then the least that could be expected from us was a full perfect resignation of our selves to the disposition of that God that gave us our being Therefore now after a work that has cost God all that pains and study in inventing and contriving and so much sorrow and labour in performing Certainly after all this it is no great thing if the Lord should require our whole selves souls and bodies for a whole burnt-offering a Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving If he should require from us our whole substance whole Rivers of Oyl and all the Cattel feeding on a Thousand Hills 44. Yet now he is content that less thanks shall satisfie then was due before ever he perform'd that glorious work Nay he hath after all this taken off and subducted from that debt which we ow'd him for our Creation For whereas then one actual offence against this Law did necessarily draw along with it inevitable destruction yet now our gracious God perceiving that we are but dust accepts of our imperfect sinful obedience nay sometimes of the inward desire and willingness to perform where there is not power to put it in execution Nothing then can be more reasonable then that a Christian should be commanded not to prefer the fulfilling of his own will before Gods Will nor to suffer that his carnal desires should have greater power and sway with him then the command of such a God or Lastly not to withdraw his Allegiance and Obedience due to his Redeemer and place them upon a creature but equal or may be inferiour to himself 45. Secondly Consider the wonderful love and kindness of the Law-giver that hath already tasted unto us tasted nay hath drunk the dregs of this unpleasant bitter potion He by whom all things were made even the Eternal Almighty Word He which thought it no robbery to be equal with God became his own creature and submitted himself to be trod upon reviled hated despised by the worst of all creatures cruel ungodly and perverse sinners He of whose fulness we have all received did utterly evacuate and empty himself of his Glory and Majesty denying to himself such things which he would not even to the most despised creatures For saith he The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man hath not whereon to lay his head 2 Cor. 8.9 Ye know saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 8.9 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich he became poor that ye through his poverty might be made rich So poor he was that he was forced to borrow Tribute money of a Fish and was fain to strain himself to a Miracle to get the Fish to bring it So poor that he was forc'd to borrow a young Colt of strangers never known to him Say saith he The Lord hath need of him A strange unheard of speech The Lord that created the world and can as easily annihilate it Yet he hath need and hath need of a Colt the Foal of an Ass Time would fail me for I suppose the World it self would not contain the Books that might be written of his dangers his temptations his fastings his travels his disgraces torments and death all perform'd without any end propos'd to himself besides our good and happiness 46. It behoved him saith St. Paul to be made like his Brethren in all things Heb. 2.17 18. that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining
Christ as well from being a Judge to condemn the wicked For with as much reason and as great ease he might have given him a Writ of Ease a discharge from that Office as well as the other 55. And now I could wish I had said nothing all this while and likely enough so could you But it grieves me that the portion of time allowed me will not suffer me in any reasonable proportion to contemplate the wonderful mercy and goodness of God who to do us good has given such power to our Nature in Christ to make a new Heaven and a new Earth to restore a new Generation of creatures ten times more glorious and perfect than the first Only now tell me Did not S. Paul with good reason speaking of the Resurrection of Christ give it an advantage and pre-eminence even above his death Is not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my Text the Yea rather verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of great moment and weight Since the Resurrection of Christ actuates and ripens the fruit of Christs Death which without it would have withered and been of no help to us Is not the Doctrine of Christs Resurrection and exaltation with as good reason made an Article of our Creed and as necessarily if not rather to be lean'd upon as any of the rest Nay hath not S. Paul epitomized the whole Creed into that one Article saying in Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt believe in thine heart Rom. 10.9 that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead thou shalt be saved 56. And now 't is time to consider who are the persons whom the Death yea rather the Resurrection of Christ will protect and warrant from condemnation In my Text as we find none to condemn so likewise we cannot light upon any to be condemned In the verse immediately before these words the Elect of God are those which are Justified and therefore must not be condemned And to say the truth though we dispute till the worlds end the event will shew that the Elect of God and only they shall reap the harvest of Christ's sufferings and bring their sheaves with them As for the wicked and Reprobates it shall not be so with them but why it shall not be so with them whether because they have wilfully excluded themselves or because God had no mind they should be any thing the better for these things I will not tell you 57. In the verses on both sides of my Text we find that We are those that must not be condemn'd We which we why Paul and the Romans Jews and Gentiles What all Jews and all Gentiles I told you I will not tell Only thus much let me tell you we may boldly maintain S. Paul's phrase nay it is unsafe and dangerous to alter it Why it is all the comfort we have to live by it is our glory and crown of rejoycing that we are those whose salvation Christ did so earnestly and unfeignedly desire and thirst after that to obtain power and authority to bestow it on us he suffered such torments and blasphemies that Never sorrow was like unto his sorrow which was done unto him wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce wrath 58. Wherefore I beseech you Beloved Brethren even by the bowels of this Jesus Christ that you would give me leave to advise you if there be any here fit to be advised by me if there be any in this company as weak and ignorant as my self And though my heart be deceitful above all things yet as far as I understand mine own heart If I speak these words out of partiality or faction let me be excluded from having my part in those merits I say let me desire you or rather let our holy Mother the Church perswade you in the 17. Article to receive Gods promises in such wise as they are generally set forth unto us in holy Scriptures 59. For consider impartially with your selves what an unreasonable horrible thing is it seeing there are so many several frequent expressions of Gods general love and gracious favour unto Mankind inforc'd and strengthned with such protestations and solemn oaths that the cunning'st Linguist of you all cannot with your whole lives study conceive or frame expressions more full and satisfactory I say then Is it not desperate madness for a man to shew such hatred and abomination at these comfortable and gracious professions of God that he can be content to spend almost his whole age in contriving and hunting after Interpretations utterly contradicting and destroying the plain apparent sense of those Scriptures and will be glad and heartily comforted to hear tidings of a New-found-out Gloss to pervert and rack and torment Gods holy word 60. On the other side Far be it from us to think that it is in our power when we list or have a mind to it to put our selves in the number of Gods elect faithful servants Or to imagine that we have God so sure chain'd and fettered to us by his Promises that we may dispense now then for the commission of a delightful gainful crime Or that when we have business for a sin to advantage us in our fortunes we need not be too scrupulous about it seeing God is bound upon our sorrow and contrition to receive us again into favour Thou wretched Fool Darest thou make an advantage of Gods goodness to assist and patronize thy security 'T is true God has promised Remission of sins to a repentant contrite sinner but has he assur'd thee that he will give thee Repentance whensoever thou pleasest to allow thy self leisure to seek it No Know that there is a time and presuming Security like sleep doth hasten and add wings to that time when there will be found no way for Repentance though thou seekest it with tears And thus more than I meant for the persons 61. And now what remains but that we try an experiment That we may know in what a comfortable state Christ hath set us let us consider and look about us to see if we can find any enemies that are likely to do us any harm For which purpose we shall not meet with a more acurate Spy and Intelligencer than S. Paul who in the remainder of his Chapter after my Text hath mustered them together in one Roll. But first there is one if he were our adversary he would be in stead of a thousand enemies unto us and that is GOD. But him we are sure of in the verse before my Text For it is he that Justifies therefore surely he will not condemn Therefore what say you to Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or the Sword Why these are not worthy the naming for over all these we are more than conquerours More than conquerours what is that Why they are not only overcome and disarm'd but they are brought over to our faction they war on our side 62. Well in the next
file there follow adversaries of better fashion there is Life and Death and Angels and Principalities and Powers who are those In truth I know not but be they who they will they can do us no harm No nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth These are adversaries we should scarce have dream'd of And to make all sure in a word There is no other creature shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 63. Yet for all S. Paul's exactness there remains one enemy behind and that is a sore one of prime note and truly I wonder how the Apostle could miss him And that is Sin I would to God S. Paul had taken notice of him For this one enemy is able to do us more harm than all the rest put together nay but for sin all the rest almost were our very good friends Had we best supply S. Paul's incogitancy and even adventure to put him in the Catalogue too Well let them that have a mind to it do it Truly I dare not And but that I know Martin Luther was a bold-spirited man I should wonder how he durst so confidently have adventured upon it In his Book entituled Captivitatis Babylonicae cap. de Baptismo near the beginning he hath these words Vides quam dives sit homo Christianus sive Baptizatus qui etiam volens non potest perdere suam salutem quantiscunque peccatis nisi nolit credere I will not translate them to you and I would they had never been Englished for by that means it may be some of our loudest preachers would have wanted one point of comfortable false doctrine wherewith they are wont to pleasure their friends and benefactors Only let us do thus much for S. Paul's credit to believe it was not meerly inconsideration in him to leave out Sin in this catalogue that there was some ground of Reason for it For though it may come to pass by the mercy and goodness of God That even Sin it self shall not pluck us out of his hand yet it would be something a strange preposterous Doctrine for a Preacher of the New Covenant to proclaim that we shall undoubtedly obtain the promises of the Covenant though we never so much break the Conditions 64. I do confess my self very guilty and am sorry that I have thus long exercised and wearied your patience And yet for all that have not perform'd that task which I fully resolv'd upon when I adventured upon this subject and that was to spend this time in raising your devotions to the contemplation of the glorious mercies of God expressed to us in Christs Resurrection and exaltation But because other thoughts have carried me away even against my will almost all this while I shall further take leave to wrong and injure your patience with proposing one consideration more which ought by no means to be omitted 65. And that is to take notice of the Person to whom we have been beholding for these unspeakable mercies and that is Christ Christ alone none else mentioned or thought upon If Bellarmine had been to advise S. Paul if he had been privy to the writing of this Epistle it is likely he would not have taken it ill to have had Christs name in the matter of our Salvation But he would not have endured the Apostles utter silence of all helps and aids besides yea though himself acknowlegeth it to be the safest course to put our whole confidence only in the mercy of God yet quia magis honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito because it concerns our credit to put in a little for merit and desert on our side He would not have us so to disparage our selves as to make salvation a meer Alms proceeding meerly out of Courtesie 66. Nay but Oh thou man What art thou that answerest against God What art thou that justifiest thy self before him Nay what art thou that condemnest God making him a lyar all the Scripture over the whole project whereof is this to let us know how unable how sick how dead we are of our selves and therefore ought most necessarily to have recourse to him for our salvation As for us Beloved Christians if we must needs rejoyce let us rejoyce in our infirmities let our glory be our shame and let us lift up our eyes and behold Is 63 1 2. Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah This that is glorious in his apparel travelling in the greatness of his strength And Christ will say It is I that speak in righteousnesse mighty to save But wherefore Lord art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wire-fatt He will answer I have trodden the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me for which reason I am now crown'd with glory and honour and immortality I alone am mighty to save and besides me there is none other 67. And good luck have thou with thine honour Ps 45. Oh Lord ride on because of thy word of truth of meekness and of righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things Terrible things for the King's enemies for them which would not have thee to rule over them And good luck have we with thine honour O Lord ride on because of thy word of truth of meekness and of righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee gracious and comfortable things for us thy servants and sheep of thy pasture who dare not exalt a weak arm of flesh against thee Thy right hand shall mightily defend us in the midst of all our enemies Thy right hand shall find us out and gather us up though lost and consum'd in the grave though scattered before the four winds of heaven And thy right hand shall exalt us to glory and immortality for ever with thee in thy heavenly Kingdom where all the daies of our life yea all the daies of thy glorious endless life we shall with Angels and Archangels say Glory and honour and power and immortality be unto him which sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb and to the Holy Spirit for ever and for ever Amen Amen The Sixth Sermon LUKE XVI 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations THE Children of this world saith Christ are wiser in their generation then the Children of Light To make which good our Saviour in somuch of the Chapter as goes before my Text brings in a Story or as they call it a Parable of a cunning Fellow yet no great Projector neither no very subtile Polititian notwithstanding one who being in an extremity turn'd out of his Office for mispending his Masters Goods had found out a shift and that by meer cousenage to procure so much as would serve to keep him indeed not according to the Port and fashion after which before
the necessity of being good holy and vertuous No by no means I am not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it The righteousness of the Law according to the substance thereof shall be as necessarily required by vertue of that New Covenant which I preach unto you and to which I exhort you all to submit your selves as ever it was by the Old Covenant only because of your weakness and infirmity I will abate the rigour of it Those who notwithstanding my offer of Grace and Pardon upon such easie conditions as I prescribe will yet continue in an habitual state of profaneness and irreligion shall be as culpable nay ten times more miserable than if they never had heard of me for their wilful neglecting so great salvation It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fail For God would be no looser by the annihilation of the world whereas if any part of the Moral Law should expire the very beams and rayes of Gods essential goodness should be darkened and destroy'd 33. In like manner saith St. Paul Rom. 11. ult Rom. 3. ult Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Now if a succeeding Covenant establisheth any part of a Precedent especially if there be any alteration made in the conditions established all obligation whatsoever is taken from the Old Covenant and those conditions are in force only by vertue of the New When the Norman Conquerour was pleas'd to establish and confirm to the English some of the ancient Saxons Laws Are those Laws then become in force as they are Saxon No for the Authority of the Saxons the Authors of those Laws is supposed to be extinguished and therefore no power remains in them to look to the execution of them But by the confirmation of the Norman they are become indeed Norman Laws and are now in force not because they were first made by the Saxons but only by vertue of the succeeding power of the Norman line So likewise when the Gospel enjoyns the substance of the same duties which the old Covenant of Works required Are we Christians enforc'd to the obedience of them because they are duties of the Law By no means But only because our Saviour and only Law-maker Jesus Christ commands the same in the Law of Faith 34. Thus far the New Covenant is in some terms of agreement with the Old inasmuch as the same Moral duties are enjoyn'd in them both as parts of the conditions of both But the difference herein is That the Law commands a precise exact fulfilling of these Precepts as I told you before which the Gospel descending to our infirmities remits and qualifies much For in the Gospel he is accounted to fulfil the moral Precepts that obeys them according to that measure of Grace which God is pleas'd to allow him that obeys God though not with a perfect yet with a sincere upright heart that when he is overcome with a temptation to sin continues not in it but recovers himself to his former righteousness by Repentance and new Obedience Thus much then for the moral Precepts and with what difference they are commanded in the Old and New Covenant 35. In the second place there is another part of Evangelical Obedience which is purely Evangelical and which has no commerce nor reference at all to the Law and that is the Grace of Repentance For saith St. Paul Act. 17 30. Act. 17.30 But now that is by the Gospel God commands all men every where to repent Now Repentance implies a serious consideration and acknowledgment of that miserable estate whereunto our sins have brought us and hereupon an hearty unfeigned sorrow for them a perfect hatred and detestation of them inferring a full peremptory resolution to break them off and interrupt the course of them by new obedience This I say is an obedience purely Evangelical The Law of Works did not at all meddle with it neither indeed could it The Law condemns a man assoon as ever he is guilty of the breach thereof and makes no promise at all of Remission of sins upon Repentance but rather quite excludes it Yet from the grace of Repentance we may gather a forcible argument to make good that which before we spoke concerning the Renewing of the Moral Precepts in the New Covenant For no reasonable man can deny that Repentance is absolutely necessary before a man can be Justified Now what is that for which for example a new converted Heathen repents but the breach of the Moral Law therefore by this necessity of Repentance he acknowledgeth and so do we that by such sins he was excluded from all hope of being Justified Now it were absurd for a man to say that any thing excludes a man from being capable of receiving the promises of a Covenant but only the breaking of the conditions thereof 36. The third part of Evangelical Righteousness is Faith not Moral but Christian which is A relying upon Christ as the only meritorious cause of whatsoever benefit we obtain by the new Covenant It being for his sake both that God bestowes upon us grace whereby we are enabled to perform his will and after we have done our duty that he will freely and not as wages bestow upon us the reward thereof There is another virtue Evangelical which is Hope but of that I must speak in my last point And thus I have gone through the Conditions required on mans part in the New Covenant all which I suppose are implyed in this word Faith which being taken in so general a sense may I conceive be thus not improperly defined viz. To be a receiving and embracing of the Promises made unto us in Christ upon the terms and conditions proposed in the Gospel 37. Now follow the conditions on Gods part comprehended in these words The hope of Righteousness which are equivalent to the term of Justification the nature whereof I shall now endeavour to discover Justification I suppose imports the whole Treasure of blessings and favours which God who is rich in mercy will freely bestow on those whom he accepts as Righteous for his beloved Son our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ his sake which are first Remission of sins and an interest unto the Joyes of heaven in this life and a full consummation both of Grace and Glory in the life to come Some I know think that S. Paul when he discourses of Justification thereby intends only Remission of sins And the ground of this opinion is taken from S. Paul quoting those words of David Rom. 4.6 7 8. when he states the Doctrine of Justification Rom. 4.6 7 8. where he saith that David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin But if this Argument out of the
Epistle to the Romans be of sufficient force for their sense of Justification Then certainly an Argument from as express words in the Epistle to the Galatians will be as concluding for mine in which Epistle he also purposely states the same questions Gal. 3.11 The words are Gal. 3.11 That no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident for the Just shall live by faith Now to live I hope does not signifie to have ones sins forgiven him but to be Saved Therefore unless S. Paul include a right unto Salvation within the compass of Justification that Text might have been spared as nothing at all serving for his purpose Besides Is not Salvation as free as gracious as undeserved an act of God as Remission of sins Is it not as much for Christs sake that we are saved as that our sins are forgiven us Thus much for what I suppose is meant by Justification I will now as briefly and as perspicuously as I can without using Allegories and Metaphorical expressions with which this point is ordinarily much obscured shew you the combination of these two words in what sense I suppose S. Paul may use this proposition We are Justified by Faith without the Works of the Law 38. In the first place therefore I will lay down this Conclusion as an infallible safe foundation That if we have respect to the proper meritorious cause of our Justification we must not take Faith in that Proposition for any virtue or Grace inherent in us but only for the proper and principal object thereof Jesus Christ and his Merits And the meaning of that Proposition must be that we are not justified for the merits of any Righteousness in our selves whether Legal or Evangelical but only for the Obedience and Death of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ Though this be most true yet I suppose that S. Paul in that proposition had not a respect to the Meritorious Cause of our Justification but to that Formal Condition required in us before we be Justified as I think may appear by that which follows 39. I told you even now that I would in this point purposely abstain from using Metaphors and Figurative Allusions and the reason is because I suppose and not without reasonable grounds that the stating of this point of Justification by Metaphors has made this Doctrine which is set down with greater light and perspicuity in holy Scripture than almost any other to be a Doctrine of the most Scholastical subtilty the fullest of shadows and clouds of all the rest For example In that fashion and dress of Divinity as it is now worn slic'd and mangled into Theses and Distinctions we find this point of our Justification thus express'd That Faith is therefore said to Justifie us because it is that which makes Christs righteousness ours it is as it were an instrument or hand whereby we receive lay hold on and apply Christ unto our selves Here 's nought but flowers of Rhetorick Figures and Metaphors which though they are capable of a good sense yet are very improper to state a Controversie withall 40. But let us examine them a little We must not say they conceive of Faith as if it were a Vertue or Grace or any part of Righteousness inherent in us For Faith as a Grace has no influence at all into our Justification Mark the Coherence of these things Faith is considered as an hand or an instrument in our Justification and yet for all it is a Hand it is nothing in or of us for it seems Hands are not parts of mens bodies Again Faith puts on Christ receives him layes hold upon him makes his righteousness ours and yet it does nothing for all that Besides How can Faith be properly call'd an instrument of Justification An Instrument is that which the principal Cause the Efficient makes use of in his operation Now Justification in this sense is an immanent internal action of God in which there is no co-operation of any other agent nor any real alteration wrought in man the object thereof Does God then use Faith as an instrument in producing the Act of Justification No but it is Instrumentum Passivum saith one That is a thing never heard of in nature before and the meaning is sure Faith certainly is something but what a kind of thing we know not By these means it comes to pass that the Doctrine of our Justification as some men have handled it is become as deep as unsearchable a mystery as that of the Trinity 41. Without question there is nothing can be more evident to a man that shall unpartially consider S. Paul's method in his discourse of Justification then that by Faith he intends some operative working grace in us For instance The Apostle proves that we Christians are to seek for Justification the same way that Abraham attained unto it namely by Faith for saith the Scripture in his quotation Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness What was that which was accounted to him His believing That is say some Christ who was the object of his Belief This is a forc'd interpretation certainly and which a Jew would never have been perswaded to But that Christ was not at all intended in that place it is evident for Abraham's belief there had respect to Gods promise made to him of giving him a Son in his old age and by that Son a Seed as innumerable as the stars in heaven as appears Gen. 15.4 5 6. whereas the Promise of Christ Gen. 15.4 5 6. Gen. 18.18 follows three Chapters after to wit Gen. 18.18 Again the Apostle in many places useth these words We are Justified by Faith in Christ and by the Faith of Jesus Christ which speeches of his will admit of no tolerable sense unless by Faith he intends some work or obedience perform'd by us This therefore being taken for granted that by Faith is meant some condition required at our hands and yet my former conclusion of our Justification only for the merits of Christ remaining firm we will in the next place consider what kind of obedience that of Faith is and in what sense it may be said to justifie us 42. What satisfaction I conceive may be given to this Quaery I will set down in this Assertion Assertion That since Justification even as it includes Remission of sins is that Promise to perform which unto us God has oblig'd himself in the New Covenant it must necessarily presuppose in the person to be so justified such an obedience as the Gospel requires namely first Repentance from dead works a conversion to a new obedience of those holy Moral Commands which are ratifi'd in the Gospel and a relying upon Christ as the only meritorious cause of our Justification and Salvation by a particular Evangelical Faith All this I say is pre-required in the person who is made capable of Justification either in the exercise or at least in