Council whether that of Arles or Nice is not to my purpose to enquire and we shall then see what his opinion is of the Churches infallibility by that which he delivers of General Councils as well as any other Church Authority compared with the Scriptures in these remarkable words Who knows not that the sacred Canonical Scripture is contained within its certain bounds and is so far to be preferred before all latter writings of Bishops that there can be no doubt or dispute at all made whether that be true or right which is contained therein but all latter writings of Bishops which have been or are written since the Canon of Scripture hath been confirmed may be corrected if in any thing they err from the Truth either by the wiser discourse of any more skilful person or the weightier Authority of other Bishops or the prudence of more learned men or by Councils And even Councils themselves that are Provincial yield without dispute to those which are General and called out of all the Christian World and of these General Councils the former are often amended by the latter when by some farther tryal of things that which was shut is laid open and that which was hidden is made known without any swelling of sacrilegious pride or stifness of arrogancy or contentin of envy but with holy humility Catholick peace and Christian Charity Can any one that reads this excellent Testimony of St. Augustin delivered in this same matter ever imagine he could so plainly contradict himself as to assert the Churches infallibility in one place and destroy it in another Would he assert that all Councils how General soever may be amended by following Councils and yet bind men to believe that the decrees of the former Councils do contain the unalterable will of God A lesser person than St. Augustin would never thus directly contradict himself and that about the very same Controversie which words of his cannot be understood of unlawful Councils of matters of fact or practice but do refer to the great Question then in debate about rebaptizing Hereticks and hereby he takes off the great Plea the Donatists made from the Authority of St. Cyprian and his Council which they continually urged for themselves 3. He grants that the arguments drawn from the Churches Authority are but humane and that satisfaction is to be taken from the Scriptures in this Controversie For mentioning the obscurity of this Question and the great debates that had been about it before the Donatists time among great and good men and diverse resolutions of Councils and the settlement of it at last by a plenary Council of the whole World but lest saith he I should seem to make use only of humane arguments I produce certain Testimonies out of the Gospel by which God willing I demonstrate how true and agreeable to his Will the Doctrine and practice of the Catholick Church is And else where he appeals not to the Judgement of men but to the Lords ballance viz. To his Judgement delivered in Scripture and in this same case when he was urged by the Authority of Cyprian he saith There are no Writings they have not liberty to judge of but those of Scripture and by them they are to Judge of all others and what is agreeable to them they receive what is not they reject though written by persons of never so great Authority And after all this is it possible to believe that St. Augustin should make the Churches decree in a General Council infallible No the utmost by a careful consideration of his mind in this matter that I can find is that in a Question of so doubtful and obscure a nature as that was which had been so long bandied in the Churches of Africa and from thence spread over all the Churches of the Christian World it was a reasonable thing to presume that what the whole Christian World did consent in was the truth not upon the account of infallibility but the reasonable supposition that all the Churches of the Christian World would not consent in a thing repugnant to any Apostolical Doctrine or Tradition And so St. Augustins meaning is the same with Vincentius Lerinensis as to the Universal attestation of the Christian Church in a matter of Tradition being declared by the decree of a General Council and that decree Universally received but only by the litigant parties in Africa To which purpose it is observable that he so often appeals to the Vniversal consent of Christians in this matter after it had been so throughly discussed and considered by the most wise and disinteressed persons and that consent declared by a Plenary Council before himself was born So that if Authority were to be relyed upon in this obscure Controversie he saith the Authority of the Universal Church was to be preferred before that of several Councils in Africa of the Bishops and particularly St. Cyprian who met in them And whereas St. Cyprian had slighted Tradition in this matter Christ having called himself Truth and not custom St. Augustin replys to him That the custom of the Church having been always so and continuing after such opposition and confirmed by a General Council and after examination of the reasons and Testimonies of Scripture on both sides it may be now said that we follow what Truth hath declared Wherein we see with what modesty and upon what grounds he declares his mind which at last comes to no more than Vincentius his Rules of Antiquity Vniversality and Consent Especially in such a matter as this was which had nothing but Tradition to be pleaded for it the Apostles having determined nothing of either side in their Books as St Augustin himself at last confesses in this matter The most then that can be made of the Testimony alledged out of St. Augustin is this that in a matter of so doubtful and obscure a nature wherein the Apostles have determined nothing in their Writings we are to believe that to be the truth which the Universal Church of Christ agreed in those times when the consent of the Universal Church was so well known by frequent discussion of the case and coming at last to a resolution in a General Council In such a case as this I agree to what St. Augustin saith and think a man very much relieved by following so evident a consent of the Universal Church not by vertue of any infallibility but the unreasonableness of believing so many so wise so disinteressed persons should be deceived Let the same evidences be produced for the consent of the Vniversal Church from the Apostolical times in the matters in dispute between our Church and that of Rome and the Controversie of Infallibility may be laid aside For such an universal consent of the Christian Church I look upon as the most Authentick Interpreter of Holy Scripture in doubtful and obscure places But let them never think to
my life had been For by making me so active in those times when I was uncapable of understanding what they were he seems to represent me as one that had so passionate a zeal for Presbytery in my cradle that I would suck of none but a Scottish Nurse that the first word I pronounced was Covenant that I would go to School to none but Lay-Elders and was cursing Meroz before the Parliament at eight years old Is not this a hopeful beginning for a good Legend Will he saith he or they damn the execrable Covenant as though I had ever any thing to do with it but when I renounced it If I should tell him that as great a Friend as he takes me to have been to Presbytery and the late times even then I was entred into Episcopal Orders by a most worthy and learned Prelate of our Church that I never subscribed any Address to the Usurpers as some in the World have done and those who would now be thought the Kings most loyal Subjects that I never drew off any one person from their Allegiance to the King to submit to to the Popes Nuncio let those who did it clear themselves even such an Apology would give too much countenance to so pitiful a Calumniator I thank him that he hath not charged me with laying the first platform of Presbytery at Geneva or having a hand in the first and second Admonitions in the days of Queen Elizabeth and I might as will charge him with the Gunpowder Treason as he doth me with any thing about the Covenant By this we may guess what Ecclesiastical History we are to expect from him who writes so at random about the matters of our own times But the man is to be pitied he was under one of Mother Juliana's fits he writ with a good mind but he knew not what Some vent must be given to a violent fermentation else the vessel might burst asunder and I hope the good man is somewhat more at ease since he purged away so much Choler I assure him I can with pleasure read what he wrote with rage and laugh at the violence of such passions which like a Gun ill charged may give fire and make a great noise but doth the greatest mischief to him that holds it If I would pursue him through all his heats I must undergo the Ordeal-tryal touch firebrands without hurting my self which although I might do yet I know my Adversaries are so implacable that even that would not convince them of my innocence I leave him therefore to grow cooler and wiser but I beseech him for his own sake that he would attempt no more the justifying the union of nothing with nothing and for the sake of Religion that he would not call God any more an incomprehensible Nothing a Description fit only for the Atheists Catechism If there were any thing in his railing Book which looked like reason or argument I might perhaps at my leisure be perswaded to answer it though I do not love to have to do with mad men no not in their lucid intervals The next that follows is one that goes about to vindicate the Roman Churches devotions and Doctrine of Repentance and Indulgencies he is a meer pattern of meekness compared with S. C. he writes pertinently and without the others bitterness and passion His great endeavour is to clear the honour of his Church from the absurd Doctrines and practices charged upon it And the force of all he saith lies in this that where the Church hath defined nothing in her Councils it is to no purpose to object that such Doctrines are taught by some in it for those who defend their separation from the Communion of a Church by reason of its erroneous or corrupt Doctrines must make it appear that those are taught by it and the belief of them also exacted from its subjects To this purpose S. C. likewise speaks in some of his lucid intervalls and I perceive this is become a common Topick among them to take off the odium of such opinions and practices as they are willing enough but ashamed to defend which I shall in this place briefly remove The thing I was to prove was that persons in the Communion of the Roman Church do run great hazard of their Salvation for which I instanced particularly in several opinions and practices which are very apt to hinder a good life which is necessary to Salvation Now a twofold Question here arises 1. Whether the Church may justly be charged with those Doctrines and practices 2. Whether although the Church may not directly be charged to have decreed them in her Councils yet so much countenance and encouragement be not commonly given to them in that Church that particular persons do run great hazard of their salvation by reason of them For which we are to consider that it hath been the method of the Roman Church to allow many more things in common belief and practice than it hath dared for very shame to decree in Councils especially when such things have been objected by her enemies In this case it hath been thought the most prudent course for the Councils to speak deceitfully and in general terms so as to give as little advantage as may be to their enemies and yet to retain ground enough to uphold their former opinions and practices Which still continuing in Vogue and reputation become so much the more dangerous to mens Souls because their Councils having had opportunity to have declared effectually against them were so far from it that by their doubtful expressions they have left ground enough for the continuance of them Now from hence the Directors of Conscience among them frame their opinions and the people think it their duty blindly to follow them and supposing any one among them should scruple any such Doctrine or practice to whom must he resort but to his Confessors and will any such dare to condemn what is generally received although not decreed by Councils or if he should dare any person rely on his private judgement when it is contrary to the most received Doctrine or practice Besides the promises of Infallibility are supposed by them to be primarily made to the Church and only by way of representation to the Council and therefore Doctrines or practices generally received and allowed by the Teachers of the Church and the Guides of conscience must be received by them as true and good for otherwise those promises would fail to the Church in its diffusive capacity and consequently supposing no General Council it were possible for the most erroneous and pernicious Doctrines and practices to prevail in the Church which must utterly overthrow all pretence to Infallibility But in our present case we need not run so far for I shall here prove that in the most material points insisted on by N. O. viz. the Doctrine of the efficacy of the Sacraments ex opere Operato and of Indulgences we do
Divine Grace assisting him to find out in these Writings the things necessary to Salvation yet after all he cannot certainly understand the meaning of them Which to me appears so absurd and monstrous a Doctrine so contrary to the honour of the Scriptures and the design of Christianity that if I had a mind to disparage it I would begin with this and end with Transubstantiation For in earnest Sir did not our Saviour speak intelligibly in matteâ—s of so great importance to the Salvation of Mankind Did he not declare all that was necessary for that end in his many admirable discourses Did not the Evangelists record his words and actions in writing and that as one of them saith expresly That we might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have life through his name And after all this cannot we understand so much as the common necessaries to salvation by the greatest and most sincere endeavour for that end But it is time now to consider his exceptions against this Principle which are these 1. That God may reveal his mind so in Scripture as that in many things it may be clear only to some persons more versed in the Scriptures and in the Churches Traditional sense of them and more assisted from above according to their imployment which persons he hath appointed to instruct the rest But what is all this to our purpose our Question is not about may be 's and possibilities of things but it is taken for granted on both sides that God hath revealed his mind in writing therefore he need not make the supposition of no writings at all as he doth afterwards the Question is Whether these Writings being allowed for divine revelations of the Will of God he hath expressed the necessaries to salvation clearly therein or not That God may delivers his mind obscurely in many things is no question nor that he may inspire persons to unfold his mind where it is obscure but our question is whether or no these Writings being acknowledged to contain the Will of God it be agreeable with the nature of the design and the Wisdom and Goodness of God for such Writings not to be capable of being understood in all things necessary to salvation by those who sincerely endeavour to understand them But when I had expresly said things necessary for salvation why doth he avoid that which the dispute was about and only say many things in stead of it I do not doubt but there are many difficult places of Scripture as there must be in any ancient Writings penned in an Idiom so very different from ours But I never yet saw one difficulty removed by the pretended Infallible Guides of the Church all the help we have had hath been from meer fallible men of excellent skill in Languages History and Chronology and of a clear understanding and we should be very unthankful not to acknowledge the great helps we have had from them for understanding the difficult places of Scripture But for the Infallible Guides they have dealt by the obscurities of Scripture as the Priest and the Leviâ—e in our Saviours Parable did by the wounded man they have fairly passed them by and taken no care of them If these Guides did believe themselves infallible they have made the least use of their Talent that ever men did they have laid it up in a Napkin and buried it in the earth for nothing of it ever appeared above ground How could they have obliged the World more nay it had been necessary to have done it for the use of their Gift than to have given an Infallible sense of all controverted Places and then there had been but one dispute left whether they were infallible or not but now supposing we believe their Infallibility we are still as far to seek for the meaning of many difficult places And supposing God had once bestowed this Gift of Infallibility upon the Guides of the Church he might most justly deprive them of it because of the no use they have made of it and we might have great reason to believe so from our Saviours words To him that hath shall be given but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath So that not making use of this Talent of Infallibility gives us just reason to question whether God continues it supposing he had once given it to the Guides of the Church since the Apostles days which I see no reason to believe 2. His next exception is from a saying of Dr. Fields who he saith seems to advance a contrary Principle in his Preface to his Books of the Church But O the mischief of Common-place-Books which make men write what they find and not what is to their purpose For after all Dr. Field doth but seem to advance another Principle in his opinion and doth not so much as seem to do it in mine For that learned and judicious Writer sets himself purposely to disprove the Infallibility of the Church in the beginning of his fourth Book and is it probable that any man of common understanding would assert that in his Preface which he had disproved in his Book It is a known distinction in the Church of Rome of the Church Virtual representative and essential by the two first are meant Popes and Councils and of these two Dr. Field saith that they may erre in matters of greatest Consequence yet these are N. O's infallible Guides whose conduct he supposeth men obliged to follow and to yield their internal assent to Concerning the essential Church he saith That it either comprehends all the faithful that are and have been since Christ appeared in the flesh and then he saith it is absolutely free from all errour and ignorance of divine things that are to be known by Revelations or as it comprehends only all those Believers that are and have been since the Apostles times and in this sense he saith the whole Church may be ignorant in sundry things which are not necessary to salvation but he thinks it impossible for the whole Church to erre in anything of this nature But in things that cannot be clearly deduced from the Rule of Faith and word of divine and heavenly Truth we think it possible that all that have written of such things might erre and be deceived But if the Church be taken only as it comprehends the Believers that now are and presently live in the world he saith it is certain and agreed upon that in things necessary to be known and believed expresly and distinctly it never is ignorant much less doth erre Yea in things that are not absolutely necessary to be known and believed expresly and distinctly we constantly believe that this Church can never erre nor doubt pertinaciously but that there shall ever be some found ready to embrace the truth if it be manifested to them and such as shall not wholly neglect the
Church what security could any man have against Arianism since the Councils which favoured it were more numerous than those which opposed and condemned it Yea so mean was the opinion which some of the greatest persons of the Church at that time had of the Guides of the Church met together in Councils that St. Gregory Nazianzen declares he had not seen a good issue of any of them but they rather increased mischief than removed any because of the contention and ambition which ruled in them therefore he resolved to come no more at any of them What had St. Gregory so mean an esteem of the Guides of the Christian Church to think that ambition and contention should sway them in their Councils and not the spirit of God which certainly rules not where the other do Yet this de declares to be his mind upon consideration and experience in that time and if he had lived to those blessed days of the Councils of latter Ages with what zeal and Rhetorick would he have set them forth Never was any answer more jejune to this Testimony than that of Bellarmin viz. that forsooth there could be no lawful Councils called in his time and why so I pray was there not a good Authority to call them But if that had been the reason he did not so little understand the way of expressing himself to assign the cause of it to contention and ambition if he mean quite another thing which he doth not in the least intimate And what if he were afterwards present at the Council of Constantinople doth that shew that his mind was in the least changed but in this Epistle he declares how little good was to be exspected from a Council and yet afterwards by the Emperours command he might be present at one St. Augustin in dealing with Maximinus the Arian expresly sets aside all Authority of the Guides of the Church as to the sense of Scripture in the places controverted between them for he saith I will neither bring the Authority of the Council of Nice neither shall you that of Ariminum but we will proceed by Authorities of Scripture that are common to both of us and by the clearest Evidence of reason It seems then St. Augustin was far from thinking that there could be no certainty of the sense of Scripture if the Authority of the Guides of the Church be set aside But by what means doth he then think that men may come to any certainty about the true meaning of Scripture of that he is best able to give us an account himself having written purposely in this subject in his Books of Christian Doctrine the substance of what he there says may be comprehended in these Rules 1. That the main scope of the Scripture is to perswade men to the Love of God and our Neighbour without which he saith no man doth truly understand it but whosoever interprets Scripture to the advancing of that though he may be mistaken as to the sense of the words yet his errour is not dangerous 2. That in order to the right understanding of Scripture men must apply themselves to it with minds duly prepared for it by a fear of God humility prayer sincerity and purity of heart 3. That all those things which are necessary to Salvation are plainly laid down in Holy Scriptures This is in terms asserted by him as a fundamental principle that in those things which are plainly set down in Scripture all things are to be found which contain our faith and rule of life i.e. All things which are necessary to the Love of God and our Neighbour and consequently to the making us happy And these things men ought especially to read the Scriptures for and the more they find of them the larger their understanding of Scripture is 4. That the obscure places of Scripture are to be understood by the plain For which end he requires frequent reading and using ones self to the language of Scriptures and drawing examples from plain places to illustrate difficult and those which are certain to clear the doubtful For scarce any thing saith he is drawn out of the most difficult places but what is very plainly set down elsewhere 5. That in regard of the infinite variety of Latin Interpreters which it seems were in his time in matters of doubt it was necessary to have recourse to the Original Hebrew and Greek the knowledge of which tongues might therefore be necessary to the knowledge of Scripture because several words are preserved untranslated but those being few the necessity is not so great on their account as the diversity of Interpreters for although those who had translated the Hebrew into Greek might be reckoned up the Latin Interpreters could not Which diversity of translations doth rather help than hinder the understanding of Scripture if the Readers of it be not negligent for some doubtful places are cleared by the difference of readings 6. Where the ambiguity lyes in proper words the clearing of it depends on the circumstances of the place in so much that he determines that it is a very rare and difficult thing to find such an ambiguity in the words of Scripture which may not be cleared from the intention of the Writer or comparing places or searching the Original Language 7. Men must carefully distinguish between proper and figurative expressions for to understand figurative expressions literally is to subject our understanding to carnal conceptions of things and that is saith he a miserable slavery of mind to take signs for things such signs he tells us under the Gospel are the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords supper The great difficulty herein lyes in the finding out the difference between proper and figurative expressions for which he lays down this rule if the words of Scripture command what is good and forbid what is evil it is no figurative expression but if it forbids what is good or command any thing that is evil it must be figuratively understood For which he instances in those words of our Saviour unless ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man ye shall have no life in you Which seeming to command something evil must be figuratively understood of Communicating in the Passion of Christ and calling to mind that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us 8. There is no danger in different senses being given of the same place of Scripture if every one of those senses appear by other places to be agreeable to Truth This being supposed that the person do sincerely enquire after the sense of the Author For saith he that Divine Spirit might easily foresee how many several senses those words are capable of which being agreeable to other parts of Scripture though not the particular meaning of those words the mistake cannot be dangerous therein 9. Where such a sense is given which cannot be proved by other certain
Ancient Creeds we allow on both sides to have been universally received by the Catholick Church but now the Church of Rome adds new Articles to be believed we desire to put the whole matter upon this issue Let the Popes Supremacy the Roman Churches Infallibility the Doctrines of Transubstantiation Purgatory c. be proved by as Universal Consent of Antiquity as the Articles of the Creed are and then let them charge us with Heresie if we reject them But we say the measure of Heresie in the Ancient Church was the rejecting the Rule of Faith universally received among Christians this Rule of Faith we stand to and say no other can be made upon any pretence whatsoever as Vincentius at large proves but what ever things are obtruded on the belief of Christians which want that Vniversal consent of Antiquity which the Rule of Faith had we are bound by Vincentius from plain Scripture to shun them as prophane novelties and corruptions of the Christian Faith These Rules therefore are not barely allowed but pleaded for by us in the test of Articles of Faith as to which Vincentius tells us if not the only yet the chief use of them is 2. But suppose the Question be not concerning the express Articles of this Rule of Faith but concerning the sense and meaning of them how then are we to find out the consent of Antiquity For they might all agree in the words and yet have a different notion of the things As Petavius at large proves that there was an ancient Tradition for the substance of the Doctrine of the Trinity and yet he confesses that most of the Writers of the ancient Church did differ in their explication of it from that which was only allowed by the Council of Nice And he grants that Arius did follow the opinion of many of the Ancients in the main of his Doctrine who were guilty of the same error that he was before the matter was throughly discussed Here now arises the greatest difficulty to me in this point of Tradition the usefulness of it I am told is for explaining the sense of Scripture but there begins a great Controversie in the Church about the explication of the Doctrine of the Trinity I desire to know whether Vincentius his Rules will help us here It is pleaded by St. Hierome and others that the Writers of the Church might err in this matter or speak unwarily in it before the matter came to be throughly discussed if so how comes the Testimony of erroneous or unwary Writers to be the certain means of giving the sense of Scripture And in most of the Controversies of the Church this way hath been used to take off the Testimony of persons who writ before the Controversie began and spake differently of the matter in debate I do not deny the truth of the allegation in behalf of those persons but to my understanding it plainly shews the incompetency of Tradition for giving a certain sense of Scripture when that Tradition is to be taken from the Writers of the foregoing Ages and if this had been the only way of confuting Arius it is a great Question how he could ever have been condemned if Petavius or St. Hierome say true But since a General Council hath determined the contrary to the opinion of these Writers before which Council hath been received by the Universal Church I will not deny that they had better opportunities of knowing what the sense of the Ancient Church was when so many writings were extant which are now lost than we can have at this distance and therefore we yield all submission to a Council of that nature and proceeding in that manner which that of Nice did who did not meerly determine that Controversie by the number of Writers on their side before them but by comparing the opinions afterwards with the Rule of Scriptures and in this regard we acknowledge a great Reverence due to the decrees of such General Councils as that was Therefore next to the Rule of Faith we allow a great veneration to the determinations of lawful General Councils Universally received which Vincentius himself pleads for But supposing no general Councils or such which are not allowed or received for such we are yet to enquire into the ways of finding out Catholick tradition which may interpret Scripture For this end he proposes another means which is The gathering together the opinions of those Fathers alone who living holily wisely and constantly in the faith and communion of the Catholick Church have died in that faith or else for it But still with this reserve that what either all or many of them manifestly frequently and constantly as it were by a Council of them have confirmed by their receiving holding and delivering of it that ought to be held for undoubted certain and firm but whatsoever any one though holy and learned though a Bishop confessour or Martyr hath held against the opinion of others that ought not to be looked on as the judgement of the Church but as his own private opinion and therefore not to be followed Which words I shall not examine with all the severity that some have done for then the proving these conditions to have been observed by any one person would require more pains and be less capable of resolution than the matter it self is but I say that in most of the Controversies this day in the Christian world it may be much more satisfactory to examine the merits of the cause than the integrity of the witnesses these conditions being supposed And yet after all this we must not misunderstand him as though this way would serve to confute all heresies For he tells us yet farther 2. This course can only hold in some new and upstart heresies i.e. in case of the pretence of some new revelation when men pretend to some special grace without humane industry to discover some divine truth not known before but in case of ancient and inveterate heresies he saith we have no way to deal with them but either only by Scripture or else by plain decrees of General Councils for when heresies have been of long continuance then saith he we may have ground to suspect they have not dealt fairly with the Testimonies of ancient times And thus we see what Vincentius hath offered towards the resolution of this great Question how we may be sure of the certain sense of Scripture in controverted places wherein is nothing contained but what we are willing to stand to and very far from the least supposition of any infallibility in the present Guides of the Church for that end Thus far I have taken the pains to search into the opinion of the Primitive Church in this important Controversie which I might carry yet farther if it were at all needful The substance of what is delivered by them is this that if any Controversie arise in the Church concerning the sense of Scripture if the
will suffer the people to try nothing but do teach them wholly to depend on them and to that purpose they have indeed three notable sleights First they forbid them the reading of the Scriptures And the better to be obeyed therein they will not permit the Scriptures to be Translated into the Vulgar Tongue Whereof it came to pass that the people were so easily seduced and drawn from Christ to the Pope from his merits to the Saints and their own merits from his bloody sacrifice whereby only sins are remitted to their most dry and fruitless sacrifice from the spiritual food of his Body and Blood unto a carnal and Capernaitical Transubstantiation from the calling upon his name to an Invocation of Saints and from their sure trust and confidence in his death to a vain imagination of the vertue of their Masses Pilgrimages Pardons and I know not what intolerable Superstition and Idolatry I hope Arch-Bishop Bancroft may for once pass for no Puritan with T. G. But what will he say if the only persons he produces as most partial of his side do give in evidence against him Bishop Mountague is the first whose words are these in the Book cited by him Our predecessors and Fathers coming late out of Popery living near unto Papists and Popish times conversing with them having been nuzzled and brought up amongst them and knowing that Images used to be crept unto incensed worshipped and adored among them c. What thinks he is not this all one as to charge them with Idolatry And more plainly in his former Book But whatsoever you say however you qualify the thing with gentle words we say in your practice you far exceed and give them that honour which is Latria a part of Divine respect and worship And afterwards saith the people go to it with downright adoration and your new Schools defend that the same respect is due to the representer as must be given to the representee So that the Crucifix is to be reverenced with the the self-same honour that Christ Jesus is Ablasphemy not heard of till Thomas Aquinas set it on foot Clear these enormities and others like these then come and we may talk and soon agree concerning honour and respect unto Reliques or Images of Saints or Christ till then we cannot answer it unto our Maker to give his honour unto a Creature His next is Pet. Heylin And now I hope we have at last hit upon a man far enough from being a Puritan yet this very Person gives plain evidence against him For i◠his 4th Sermon on the Tares preached a◠White-Hall Ianuary 27. 1638. H◠hath these words So it is also in the point of Images first introduced into the Church for ornament History and imitation Had they staid there it had been well and no faul◠found with them But when the Schools began to State it that the same Veneration was to be afforded to the Type and Prototype then came the Doctrine to the growth When and by whom and where it was first so stated is not easie to determine and indeed not necessary It is enough that we behold it in the fruits And what fruits think you could it bear but most gross Idolatry greater than which was never known among the Gentils Witness their praying not before but to the Crucifix and calling on the very Cross the wooden and material Cross both to increase their righteousness and remit their sins And for the Images of the Saints they that observe with what laborious Pilgrimages magnificent processions solemn offerings and in a word with what affections prayers and humble bendings of the body they have been and are worshipped in the Church of Rome might very easily conceive that She was once again relapsed into her ancient Paganism With much more to the same purpose His only person remaining is Mr. Thorndike a man of excellent Learning and great piety but if we should grant that he held some thing singular in this matter what is that to the constant opinion of our Church and yet even Mr. Thorndike himself in a paper sent by him 〈◊〉 some whom T. G. know's not long before his death saith That to pray to Saints for those things which only God can give as all Papist do is by the proper sense of the word◠down-right Idolatry If they say their meaning is by a figure only to desire them to procure their requests of God How dare any Christian trust his soul with that Church which teaches that which must needs be Idolatry in all that understand not the figure So that upon the whole matter T. G. cannot produce any on◠Person of our Church that hath clearly an◠wholly acquitted the Church of Rome from the charge of Idolatry It seems then 〈◊〉 Church hath been made up of Puritans i◠T. G's sense of them But if these do no◠satisfy him what doth he think of the Arch-Bishop and Bishops and Clergy of the Convocation A. D. 1640. Were 〈◊〉 these Puritans too And yet in the sevent◠Canon they have these words And albeit at the time or Reforming this Church from that gross Superstition of Popery it was carefully provided that all means should be used to root out of the minds of the people both the inclination thereto and memory thereof especially of the Idolatry committed in the Mass for which cause all Popish Altars were demolished c. What can more express the sense of our Church than the concurrent opinion of Arch-Bishops Bishops and Clergy of both Provinces met in Convocation When we see they so lately charged the Church of Rome with Idolatry Let us now consider what exceptions he takes against the other witnesses produced by me Jewel Bilson Davenant all eminent Bishops of our Church and of great learning are cast away at once as incompetent Persons But why so Why saith T. G. they were all excepted against by our late Soveraign K. Charcles I. in his third paper to Henderson That is a shrewd prejudice indeed to their Authority to be rejected by a Prince of so excellent a judgement and so Cordial a friend to the Church of England But it is good to be sure whether it be so or no. All that he saith of Bishop Iewel is this and though I much reverence Bishop Iewel ' s memory I never thought him infallible So then he must he Puritanically inclined but whence does that follow not surely from the Kings reverencing his memory for that were to reflect upon the King himself not from his not thinking him Infallible For I dare say the King never thought the Pope infallible must be needs therefore think him a Puritan Surely never man was such a Friend to the Puritans as this T. G. who without any ground gives them away some of the greatest honours of our Church and if the Testimony last cited be of any force to prove one a Puritan all mankind and himself too for I plainly perceive by this
of Trent make Orders a Sacrament and one of those which doth imprint an indelible character and doth not that Council pronounce an Anathema against those that denyed the validity of the Sacrament administred by one in mortal sin in case he observes the essentials of it How then can T. G â—scape excommunication from his own Church that denies the validity of the Sacrament of Orders in case of the sin of the Givers of it If the validity of the Sacrament doth not dâ—pend on the worth or quality of the Ministers of it but upon the essentials and the institution of Christ how can the fault of the persons hinder the conveyance of that Authority which they are only the bare instruments to convey Doth T. G. think so in all other Sacraments as in case of Baptism that supposing the Ministers of it have been guilty of Heresie or Idolatry the Sacrament loses its effect Well fare then the Donatists whose opinion this was and in whom it hath been condemned by the Church If it be not so in other Sacraments how comes it to be thus in Orders which he must acknowledge to be as much a Sacrament as Baptism or else he must renounce the Council of Trent And it is observable that the very argument used by the Donatists and others was the same which T. G. here produces viz. his common maxim of Reason and not denyable by any man of common sense that no man can give to another that which he hath not himself to which this answer was given that the Instrument was not the giver but the first Institutor and in case the Minister keep to the Institution the Grace of the Sacrament may be conveyed by him though he hath it not himself But methinks if T. G. had forgotten the Doctrine of the Council of Trent he might have looked into some one or other of their own Authors to have informed himself better of their Doctrine in this matter Vasquez hath a Chapter on purpose to prove that an Heretical excommunicated suspended Bishop is a sufficient Minister of Ordination and saith that all the Schoolmen and Summists are agreed in it and that there can be no doubt at all made of it And did none of these men understand the principle that is undenyable by any man of common sense what a back-blow is this to those of his own Church for Vasquez saith this is determined as a matter of faith among them that the validity of a Sacrament doth not depend on the probity or faith of the Minister And he denies it to be in the power of the Church to hinder the effect of ordination in an excommunicated Bishop because it cannot blot out his Character or take away his power Estius saith that no Crime how great soever whether haeresie Schism or Apostasie no censure how heavy soever as excommunication can hinder the validity of ordination by a Bishop although it be of those who are not subject to his jurisdiction in case he observes the lawful rites of ordination as to the essence of the Sacrament for this reason because ordination belongs to the power of Order which being once received can never be lost but those things which belong to Jurisdiction as absolution and excommunication have no effect where that Jurisdiction is taken away And this Doctrine they all ground upon St Augustins discourse against the Donatists and upon the practice of the Church at that time which did receive those who were ordained among the Donatists without scrupling their Orders as not only appears by the testimony of St. Augustin but by the decree of an African Council to that purpose and that not only at first but when the Schism was Grown inveterate And yet Francis Hallier a late Doctor of the Sorbon tells us that the Donatists were not barely Schismaticks but they were adjudged hereticks for asserting that the efficacy of Sacraments did depend upon the quality of the persons and not upon the merits of Christ. The same Author vehemently disputes against those who assert that the power of Order can be lost by the sin of the person and shews that Doctrine hath been condemned by several Councils before that of Trent as of Arles of Orleans and Constance and undertakes to answer all the instances brought from Antiquity to the contrary as either understood of such hereticks which did not retain the essentials of the Sacrament or only implying the fault committed in giving or receiving them at the hands of such persons but not any invalidity in the Sacrament it self And afterwards he proves that Hereticks are capable of ordination But if these and many others of their later Writers will not satisfy him I desire him to consult their more ancient Authors Thom. Aquinas determins that Hereticks and those who are cut off from the Church may give orders as well as administer other Sacraments the reason he gives is that a power in Consecration is given to a Bishop which can never be taken from him although he will not allow it to be called a Character For several especially of the ancient Schoolmen would not have consecration to imprint a new Character but they were never able to give an intelligible account of what they meant by the Character as distinct from that Sacramental power which was conveyed by consecration and they granted to be indelible as the other was some making it an extension of the Character of Priesthood others a bare extrinsecal denomination added to it but however they held it such as could no more be taken away than the Character of Priesthood Cardinal Bonaventure saith that the validity of Sacraments among Hereticks was a Question much in dispute among the ancient Doctors but that it hath been determined by St. Augustin that they are valid if they preserve the essentials of them and in the matter of ordination he saith that the power of Orders although it be not a distinct Character yet because it is built upon it can no more be taken away than the Character it self but whatever is founded upon Jurisdiction as the power of excommunication and absolution may be taken away But I need not mention any more particular Writers since Morinus acknowledges that for 400. years the opinion of the validity of Orders conferred by Hereticks hath only obtained in the Roman Church Before that time he proves at large that it was more disputable as appears by the Master of the Sentences who accounts it a perplexed and almost insoluble difficulty because of the different opinions of Doctors about it but afterwards St. Augustins opinion was generally received both among the Schoolmen and Canonists and is now become a matter of faith in the Roman Church at least by consequence since the Decrees of Councils And although Morinus will not allow that any decree of their Church hath passed in this matter yet he saith there hath been so long and so universal a
than the cleansing of the Augean Stable This is not to make sport and recreation for the Atheist and debauched nor to give occasion to such persons to turn the Inspirations of Holy-Scripture into matter of Drollery and Buffonry as the author of the second Pamphlet tragically declaims any more than our Saviours unmasking the hypocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees was the destroying the Law of Moses or the discovery of cheats and impostors doth give occasion to suspect the honesty of all mankind Nay so far is it from that that we think the separating of Fanaticism from true inspiration to be one of the best Services that can be done to the Christian Religion which otherwise is in danger of being despised or rejected by the considerate part of mankind But I would fain know of these men whether they do in earnest make no difference between the Writings of such as Mother Iuliana and the Books of Scripture between the Revelations of S. Brigitt S. Catharine c. and those of the Prophets between the actions of S. Francis and Ignatius Loyola and those of the Apostles if they do not I know who they are that expose our Religion to purpose if they do make a difference how can the representing their visions and practices reflect dishonour upon the other so infinitely above them so much more certainly conveyed down to us with the consent of the whole Christian World Thus much may here suffice to represent the arts our Adversaries are driven to to defend themselves I cannot blame them that they would engage Religion on their side but so have all Fanaticks in the World as well as they and I cannot for my heart see but this heavy charge of Blasphemy and undermining Religion does as justly lye on them who deride the Fanaticks among us as on those who have discovered the Fanaticism of the Church of Rome AN EXAMINATION OF THE PAMPHLET Entituled Dr. Stillingfleet against Dr. Stillingfleet HAving thus far laid open their present way of dealing with their Adversaries I now come to a particular consideration of these two Pamphlets and begin with that called Dr. Stillingfleet against Dr. Stillingfleet c. The Author of which is to be commended for so noble an enterprise which few of the Champions of former Ages could accomplish viz. to make his Adversary fall by his own sword But the mischief of it is these Romantick Knights do hurt no where but in Paper and their own imagination But I forget his grave admonition that I would treat these matters seriously and lay aside drollery To be then as grave as he can desire there are these two things which I design to provâ—â— against him 1. That on supposition I diâ—â— contradict my self in the way he insists upoâ—n it that were no sufficient answer to my Book 2. That I am far enough from contradicting my self in any one of the things which 〈◊〉 insists upon 1. Supposing what he contends for were true yet my Book remains unanswered the design of which was to shew that no man can joyn in the Communion of the Roman Church without great hazard of his salvation If I had any where said the contrary this indeed would have made it evident that I had contradicted my self But what then doth the force of all the arguments used by me in this last Discourse fall to the ground because I was formerly of another opinion Let me ask these revolters from the Church of England one question whether they do not now more plainly contradict themselves as to their former opinions than they can pretend that I have ever done I desire to know whether this makes all their present arguments for the Roman Church of no force If they think their present reasons ought to be answered whatever contrary opinion they had before why on supposition I had contradicted in a a former Book what I say in this must this render all that I have said or can hereafter say in this matter invalid Doth the strength of all lye upon my bare affirming or denying was it ever true because I said it if not how comes it to be untrue now because I deny it I do not remember I was ever so vain to make use of my own authority to prove a thing to be true because I believed it and if I had the world is not so vain to believe a man one jot the sooner for it If my authority in saying or denying be of no importance to the truth of the thing then he may prove that I contradict my self and yet all the arguments of my Book be as strong as ever I do not desire any one to follow my opinion because it is mine but I offer reason and authority for the proof of what I say if those be good in themselves they do not therefore cease to be so because they are or seem to he inconsistent with what I have said elsewhere So that self-contradiction being proved overthrows not the reason of the thing but the authority of the person and where things depend meerly upon authority it is a good argument and no where else If a witness in a Court contradicts himself his testimony signifies nothing because there is nothing else but his authority that makes his testimony valid but if a Lawyer at the Bar chance to speak inconsistently if afterwards he speaks plain and evident reason does that take off the force of it because he said something before which contradicted that plain reason If the Pope or those who pretend to be infallible contradict themselves that sufficiently overthrows their pretence of infallibility for he that changeth his mind must be deceived once but for us fallible mortals if we once hit upon reason and truth and manage the evidence of it clearly that reason doth not lose its former evidence because the same persons may afterwards oppose it Suppose I should be able to prove that Bellarmine in his Recognitions contradicts what he had said in his former Books doth this presently make all his arguments useless and him uncapable of ever appearing in controversie more Doth this make all his authorities false and his reasons unconcluding doth it hence follow that he spake no where consistently because once or twice or perhaps as often as his neighbours he contradicted himself But my grave Adversary I. W. imagines that we Writers of Controversies are like Witnesses in Chancery and are bound to make Affidavits before the Masters of this Court of Controversie and that whatever we say is to be taken as upon our oath this indeed would be an excellent way of bringing Controversies to an issue if we were to be sworn whether such a thing as Transubstantiation were true or false and I cannot tell whether this or laying wagers or the Popes infallibility be the best way to end such Controversies for any one of them would do it if people could but agree about it But now my Adversary says that if a
ought to have represented if he had designed any thing but Sophistry and trifling But his game had been then quite spoiled the fine sport of making contradictions had been lost and his cross purposes had come to nothing I now come to see what contradictions he wire-draws from hence by the help of his Propositions 1. Whoever is in a condition wherein he is certainly saved is in no danger or probability of being damned If by he is certainly saved he speaks of the event then he were a hard hearted man that would not grant that he that is actually saved is in no danger or probability of being damned if he means it of a certain way to salvation then it is yet capable of several meanings For to be in a certain way may imply one of these three things 1. That the way it self is so plain that a man cannot miss of it 2. Or that the way is in it self certain but there are so many by-paths and turnings lying hard by it that it is a very hard matter for any man to keep in it 3. To be in a certain way is when not only the way it self is certain but a man keeps constantly in that way According to these several senses this Proposition may be understood if by it be meant 1. He that is in a certain way to salvation is in no danger or probability of being damned i. e. he that keeps constantly in that way which will certainly lead him to Heaven the Proposition is true but impertinent but if by it be meant no more but this that he is in a way which in it self leads to Heaven but there are so many cross and by-paths near it that though it be possible for him to hit it yet it is extreamly hazardous no one can imagine that such a one is in no probability of miscarrying for we say he is in very great danger of it notwithstanding the tendency of the way it self 2. Prop. Whoever lives and dyes in a true way to salvation having conformed to its directions or whoever has done all that was necessary to attain unto salvation is in a condition wherein he is certainly saved The Sophistry of this is so palpable that the weakest eye may discern it for it supposes that true way to salvation wherein he lives to be a very safe and secure way i. e. that it be not only true in it self but free from such errours and corruptions which may endanger salvation and in that sense it is true but very far from the purpose For none of us did ever yield that the Roman Church is a safe way to salvation nay it is expresly denyed by my Lord of Canterbury as well as by me But here lyes still another piece of Sophistry to be taken notice of whoever hath done all that was necessary to attain salvation is in a condition wherein he is certainly saved no doubt of it but the doing all that is necessary to salvation is not bare believing the necessary articles of faith contained in the Creed but obeying the Will of God which cannot be done by those who wilfully adhere to gross and open violations of it as I have charged the Church of Rome to do in her solemn acts of Worship Their cause certainly is at a very low ebb when such pittiful Sophistry must pass for reasoning and demonstration among them Never men had more need of a self-evidencing cause as well as propositions than they so little help do they contribute to it by their Writings 3 Prop. The Roman Church is a true way to salvation and teaches all that is necessary to attain unto it This is granted he saith by me and other Protestants when we acknowledge the Roman Church to be a true Church but in what sense I have already explained so far as to leave no colour of arguing from hence to any contradiction in me For this true way to salvation in our sense is no more but that the Church of Rome doth acknowledge so much of Christian faith as is sufficient to save men on condition they live accordingly and do not by gross corruptions in doctrine or practice render that faith ineffectual to them but withall we assert and maintain that to these necessary articles of Christian faith the Church of Rome hath added such errours and corruptions as make the salvation of any person extreamly hazardous who lives in the communion of it And let them have all the comfort from hence which they can I am sure they have not this that they have brought me to contradict my self by such concessions as these By this his last Proposition comes to nothing whoever lives and dyes in the communion of the Roman Church having conformed to her doctrine lives and dyes in a true way to salvation having conformed to its directions and has done all that was necessary to attain to it Which evidently supposes that we yield that the doctrine of the Roman Church is a safe way to salvation which we utterly deny all that we assert is that so much of the common Principles of Christianity as is retained in the Roman Church is sufficient for the salvation of those who do not wilfully corrupt them by bad opinions and practices or if they have do repent sincerely But for those who conform themselvs to the doctrine and directions of the Roman Church as such we are far from ever saying that such live and dye in a true way to salvation for this were to make those doctrines and directions to be as holy and innocent as we believe them to be false and pernicious See now what a contradiction here is for me to assert the Church of Rome to be a true Church because it retains the Fundamentals of Christianity and yet to make the condition of those who live in it so hazardous in point of salvation by reason of the gross errours which men are bound to believe as necessary points of faith and horrible Superstitions which they must conform to if they follow her directions Surely he could not but know this to be our meaning and consequently to have no shadow of contradiction in it no more than is in this plain Proposition That a possible way to salvation may yet be very dangerous But though Iugglers know their own cheats they would lose their trade if they made them known to the people Something must be said to amuse them and this seemed the prettiest way to confound them by dazeling their eyes with such appearances of contradictions and thereby to perswade their own party that they need not fear the the attaque of such an enemy who falls foul upon himself But it is nothing but the mist he casts before their eyes can make any have such an imagination it is but making things clear and then nothing but order and agreement appears But yet he quarrels with me for making the case of living in willful sin and in the corruptions of the Roman Church
is that it is a foolish thing to make use of a medium as uncertain as the thing which is to be proved by it and therefore if the Infallibility of the the Church be as liable to doubts and disputes as that of the Scriptures it is against all just Laws of reasoning to make use of the Churches Infallibility to prove the Scriptures by And to this no answer can be proper but either by saying that there is no absurdity in such a way of proving or else that the Infallibility of the Church is more certain and evident than that of the Scriptures Which I should be glad to see undertaken by any man who pretends to sense which N. O. doth too much to meddle with it and therefore fairly shuffles it off and turns my words quite to another meaning as though they had been spoken of the doubtful sense of the Decrees of Councils which although elsewhere I had sufficient reason to speak of yet that was not pertinent to this place But this was a way to escape by saying something though not at all to the purpose and yet he gives no sufficient answer to that sense he puts upon my words by bringing a Commentary upon them out of words used by me in another Discourse Wherein I did at large argue against the Infallibility of General Councils and after disproving it in general I undertook to prove that no man can have any certainty of Faith as to the Decrees of any Council because men can have no certainty of Faith that this was a General Council that it passed such Decrees that it proceeded lawfully in passing them and that this is the certain meaning of them all which are necessary in order to the believing those Decrees to be infallible with such a Faith as they call divine The words produced by him do speak of the doubtful sense and meaning of the Decrees of Councils by which I shew that men can have no more certainty of the meaning of them than of doubtful places of Scripture not as though I supposed it impossible for Councils to give a clear decision in matters of controversie so as that men might understand their meaning but I expresly mention such Decrees as are purposely framed in general terms and with ambiguous expressions pressions to give satisfaction to the several dissenting Parties for which I instanced in some of the Council of Trent whose ambiguity is most manifest by the disputes about their meaning raised by some who were present at the making of them I am far enough from denying that a Commentary may make a Text plainer or that a Iudges sentence can be clearer than the Law or that any Council can or hath decided any thing clearer than the thing that is in controversie which are his exceptions but I say if Councils pretend to do more than the Scriptures and to decide controversies for the satisfaction of the World and that men ought to have that certainty of Faith by them which they cannot have by the Scriptures they ought never to be liable to the same ambiguity and obscurity upon the account of which the Scripture is rejected from being a certain rule of Faith For as he saith well Infallibility alone ends not Controversies but clearness clearness in the point controverted which if Councils want they are as unfit to end Controversies as the Scriptures can be pretended to be But this is not the thing intended by me in this Proposition and therefore it needs no farther answer for the only subject of that Proposition is the Infallibility of the Church and not the clearness of the Decrees of Councils But I cannot admire the ingenuity of this way of answering me by putting another sense upon my words than they will bear and by drawing words out of another Discourse without shewing the purpose for which they are there used and leaving out the most material passages which tended to the clearing of them If N. O. thinks fit to oppose that whole Discourse against the Infallibility of General Councils and set down fairly the several Arguments I should be then too blame not to return a just answer but I am not bound to follow him in such strange excursions from the 17. Proposition of this Book to a single passage in a larger Book and from that back to another at a mighty distance in the same Book which being dismembred from the Body of the Discourse must needs lose much of their strength Yet with all the disadvantage he takes them which is such that the best Book in the World may be confuted in that manner he hath no great cause to glory in the execution he hath done upon them In answer to my Lord of Canterburies Adversary who boasted of the Unity of the Roman Church because whatever the private opinions of men are they are ready to submit their judgments to the censure and determination of the Church I had said that this will hold as well or better for our Unity as theirs because all men are willing to submit their judgments to Scripture which is agreed on all sides to be infallible Against these words thus taken alone N. O. spends two or three Pages which might have been spared if he had but fairly expressed what immediately follows them in these words If you say it cannot be known what Scripture determines but it may be easily what the Church defines it is easily answered that the event shews it to be far otherwise for how many disputes are there concerning the power of determining matters of Faith to whom it belongs in what way it must be managed whether Parties ought to be heard in matters of Doctrine what the meaning of the Decrees are when they are made which raise as many divisions as were before them as appears by the Decrees of the Council of Trent and the later of Pope Innocent relating to the five Propositions so that upon the whole it appears setting aside force and fraud which are excellent Principles of Christian Unity we are upon as fair terms of Union as they are among themselves I do not therefore say that the Church of Rome hath no advantage at all in point of Unity but that all the advantage it hath comes from force and fraud and setting these aside we are upon as good terms of Union as they and we do not envy them the effects of Tyranny and Deceit It is the Union of Christians we contend for and not of Slaves or Fools we leave the Turk and the Pope to vie with each other in this kind of Unity although I believe the Turk hath much the advantage in it and I freely yield to N. O. that they have a juster pretence to Vnity without Truth than we Which is agreeable to what he pleads for that they are more united in opinion than we united in opinion I say true or false saith he here matters not we speak here of Vnion not of Truth This and
Governâ—uâ—s of a Christian society the Priviledge of Commanding in things which God hath nâ—t alâ— ready determined by his own Law We plead for the respect and reverence which is due to the Lawful constitutiâ—ns oâ— the Church whereof we are members and 〈◊〉 the just Authority of the Guides it in the exercise of that power which is committed to the Governours of it as the successours of the Apostles in their care of the Christian Church although not in their Infallibility 6. We allow a very great Authority to the Guides of the Catholick Church in the best times of Christianity and look upon the concurrent sense of Antiquity as an excellent means to understand the mind of Scripture in places otherwise doubtful and obscure We prosess a great Reverence to the Ancient Fathers of the Church but Especially when assembled in free and General Councils We reject the ancient heresies condemned in them which we the rather believe to be against the Scripture because so ancient so wise and so great persons did deliver the contrary doctrine not only to be the sense of the Church in their own time but ever since the Apostles Nay we reject nothing that can be proved by an universal Tradition from the Apostolical times downwards but we have so great an opinion of the Wisdom and Piety of those excellent Guides of the Church in the Primitive times that we see no reason to have those things forced upon us now which we offer to prove to be contrary to their doctrine and practice So that the controversy between us is not about the Authority of the Guides of the Church but whether the Guides of the Apostolical and Primitive times ought not to have greater Authority over us than those of the present Church in things wherein they contradict each other This is the true State of the Controversy between us and all the clamours of rejecting the Authority of Church Guides are vain and impertinent But we profess to yield greater reverence and submission of mind to Christ and his Apostles than to any Guides of the Church ever since we are sure they spake by an Infallible Spirit and where they have determined matters of Faith or practice we look upon it as arrogance and presumption in any others to alter what they have declared And for the Ages since we have a much gâ—eater esteem for those neaâ—est the Apostolical times and so downwards till Ignorance Ambition and private Interests sway'd too much among those who were called the Guides of the Church And that by the confession of those who were members of it at the same time which makes us not to wonder that such corruptions of doctrine and practice should then come in but we do justly wonder at the sincerity of those who would not have them reformed and taken away 7. In matters imposed upon us to believe or practise which are repugnant to plain commands of Scripture or the Evidence offense or the grounds of Christian Religion we assert that no Authority of the present Guides of a Church is to overrule our faith or practice For there are some things so plain that no Man will be guided by anothers opinion in them If any Philosopher did think his Authority ought to overrule an Ignorant Mans opinion in saying the snow which he saw to be white was not so I would fain know whether that Man did better to believe his eyes or the prudent experienc'd Philosopher I am certain if I destroy the Evidence of sense I must overthrow the grounds of Christian Religion and I am as certain if I believe that not to be bread which my senses tell me is so I must destroy the greatest Evidence of sense and which is fitter for me to reject that Evidence which assures my Christianity to me or that Authority which by its impositions on my faith overthrows the certainty of sense We do not say that we are to reject any doctrine delivered in Scripture which concerns a Being infinitely above our understanding because we cannot comprehend all things contained in it but in matters lyable to sense and the proper objects of it we must beg pardon if we prefer the grounds of our common Christianity before a novel and monstrous figment hatched in the times of Ignorance and Barbarism foster'd by faction and imposed by Tyranny We find no command so plain in Scripture that we must believe the Guides of the Church in all they deliver as there is that we must not worship Images that we must pray with understanding that we must keep to our Saviours Institution of the Lords supper but if any Guides of a Church pretend to an Authority to evacuate the force of these Laws we do not so much reject their Authority as prefer Gods above them Doth that Man destroy the authority of Parents that refuses to obey them when they Command him to commit Treason That is our case in this matter supposing such Guides of a Church which otherwise we are bound to obey if they require things contrary to a direct Command of God must we prefer their Guidance before Gods If they can prove us mistaken we yield but till then the Question is not whether the Guides of the Church must be submitted to rather than our own reason but whether Gods authority or theirs must be obeyed And I would gladly know whether there be not some Points of faith and some parts of our duty so plain that no Church-Authority determining the contrary ought to be obey'd 8. No absolute submission can be due to those Guides of a Church who have opposed and contradicted each other and condemned one anâ—ther for errour and hereâ—y For then in case of absolute submission a Man must yield his assent to contradictions and for the same reason that he is to be a Catholick at one time he must be a heretick at another I hope the Guides of the present Church pretend to no more infallibility and Authority than their predecessours in the same Capacity with themselves have had and we say they have contradicted the sense of those before them in the matters in dispute between us Yet that is not the thing I now insist upon but that these Guides of the Church have declared each other to be fallible by condemning their opinions and practices and by that means have made it necessary for men to believe those not to be infallible unless both parts of a contradiction may be infallibly true Suppose a Man living in the times of the prevalency of Arrianism when almost all the Guides of the Church declared in favour of it when several great Councils opposed and contradicted that of Nice when Pope Liberius did subscribe the Sirmian confession and Communicated with the Arrians what advice would N. O. give such a one if he must not exercise his own Judgement and compare both the doctrines by the rule of Scriptures must he follow the present Guides even the Pope himself Then he must
sound and orthodox And this was the second way of defending Honorius viz. that he did not err in faith at all and this way is taken by Petavius and others and was the way intended by Petrus de Marcâ as appears by the account given of his design by Baluzius which was first to prove by most evident arguments that the Acts of the Council were never corrupted by the Greeks against the opinion before mentioned and next that he was truly condemned by the Council but not for heresy but only for negligence and remissness I think there needs nothing to shew the weakness of this but barely reading the Anathema of the Council against him which is not for bare negligence but for confirming the wicked doctrines of Sergius And I am apt to think that learned person saw the weakness of his design too much to go on with it and Baronius and Bellarmin saw well enough that whosoever was there Anathematized it was upon the account of heresy that he was so and therefore Baronius would make men believe the Anathema belonged to Theodorus and not to Honorius Petavius thinks that Honorius was deceived but it was only by his simplicity and weakness not understanding the Controversy aright So of old Iohn 4. and Maximus in his dispute with Pyrrhus defended Honorius that he spake indeed of one Will but that say they was to be understood only of one Will in his humane nature Which as Combesis saith is a more pious than solid defence of him and would as well serve for Sergius and Cyrus for Heraclius his Ecthesis and Constans his Type as Honorius his letter For who ever will peruse them will find they all proceed on the same argument that there could not be two wills in Christ but one must be contrary to the other But that which I insist on is this that it is certain the Council approved by the Pope did condemn him for heresy I desire therefore again to know whether he was rightly condemned or not if he was then the Pope must be guilty and so not infallible if not than the Council must be according to Bellarmin guilty of intolerable impudence and errour but in either case there was no infallibility in the Guides of the Church which could require our internal assent to what they declared But another defence is yet beâ—ind which is that though the Pope did erre yet it was in his private Capacity and not as Head of the Church But when doth he act as Head of the Church if not when he is consulted about important matters of faith as this was then supposed to be by two Patriarchs and when the Church was divided about them and there upon solemnly delivers his opinion This is then a meer subterfuge when men have nothing else to say I conclude therefore this Instance of Honorius with the ingenuous confession of Mr. White that things are so clear in the cause of Honorius that it is unworthy any grave Divine to pawn his own honour and that of Divinity too in sowing together Fig-leaves to palliate it Thus far I have shewn that those who pretend the most to be infallible Guides of the Church have opposed and condemned each other from whence it necessarily follows that no absolute submission is due to them unless we can be obliged to believe contradictions I might pursue this much further and draw down the History of these contradictions to each other through the following Ages of the Church wherein Bishops have been against Bishops Popes against Popes Councils against Councils Church against Church especially after the breach between the Eastern and Greek Churches the Greek and the Roman and the Roman and those of the Reformation But a man who is bound to rely only on the Authority of his Guides must suppose them to be agreed and in case of difference among them he must first choose his Religion and by that his Guide 9. In the present divided State of the Christian Church a man that would satisfy his own mind must make use of his judgement in the choice of his Church and those Guides he is to submit to Unless a man will say that every one is bound to yield himself absolutely to the Guidance of that Church which he lives in whether Eastern or Greek Roman or Protestant which I suppose N. O. will never yield to for a reason he knows because then no Revolter from us could be justified The true State then of the present case concerning the Guides of the Catholick Church is this that it hath been now for many Ages rent and torn into several distinct Communions every one of which Communions hath particular Guides over it who pretend it to be the duty of men to live in subjection to them because every Church doth suppose it self to be in the right now the Question proposed is whether it be not fitter for me to submit to the Guides of the Catholick Church than to trust my own judgement I should make no scruple in all doubtful matters to resolve the affirmative supposing that all the Guides of the Catholick Church were Agreed for I should think it arrogance and presumption in me to set up my own private opinion in opposition to the unanimous consent of all the Guides of the Catholick Church in such a case but that is far from ours for we find the Christian World divided into very different Communions The Eastern Churches are still as numerous though not so prosperous as the Roman the extent of the Greek Church alone is very great but besides that there are two other distinct Churches in those parts who break off Communion with the Greek on the Account of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon and the latter sort especially are very far spread in those parts from Armenia to the Abyssine Empire In the time of Iacobus de Vitriaco he saith these two Churches were said to be more numerous than the Greek and the Latin and Bellonius in these later times assures us that the rites of the Greek Church do yet extend farther than the Latin What then makes these Churches to be left out in our Enquiries after the Guides of the Catholick Church Are these such inconsiderable parts of the Body that no regard is to be had to them I believe upon a strict examination notwithstanding the reproach of heresy and Schism which those of the Church of Rome cast upon all but themselves they will be sound much more souâ—d parts of the Catholick Church than the Roman Church is Five great Bodies or Communions of Christians are at this day in the World 1. The most Eastern Christians commonly called Nestorians whether justly or no I shall not now examine these are spread over the most Eastern parts and all live in subjection to the Patriarch of Muzal 2. The Iacobites who are dispersed through Mesopotamia Armenia Aegypt and the Abyssine Empire and live under several Patriarchs of
because it is not mentioned out of what they were made Hermogenes proves they were made out of matter because it is not said they were made of nothing To determine therefore the sense of these places Tertullian shews from reason the repugnancy of the eternity of matter to the attributes of God he compares several places of Scripture together he reasons from the manner of the expressions and the Idiom of Scripture I adore saith he the fulness of the Scripture which shews me both the maker and the thing made but the Gospel likewise discovers by whom all things were made But the Scripture no where saith that all things were made out of matter Let the shop of Hermogenes shew where it is written and if it be not written let him fear the wo denounced to those who add or take from what is written He examins the several places in dispute and by proving that sense which Hermogenes put upon them to be repugnant to reason as he shews to the end of that Book he concludes his sense of Scripture to be false and erroneous Against Praxeas he disputes whether God the Father took our nature upon him and the arguments on both sides are drawn from the Scriptures but Tertullian well observes that they insisted upon two or three places of Scripture and would make all the rest though far more to yield to them Whereas the fewer places ought to be understood according to the sense of the greater number But this saith he is the property of all Hereticks because they can find but few places for them they defend the smaller number against the greater which is against the nature of a rule wherein the first and the most ought to oversway the latter and the fewer And therefore he sets himself throughout that Book to produce the far greater number of places of Scripture which do assert the distinction between the Father and the Son and consequently that it could not be the Father who suffered for us Hitherto we find nothing said of an infallible Guide to give the certain sense of Scripture when the fairest occasion was offered by those who disputed the most concerning the sense of Scripture in the Age wherein they lived viz. by Irenaeus and Tertullian I now proceed to Clemens of Alexandria who in his learned Collections proposes that objection against Christianity that there were many Heresies among Christians and therefore men could believe nothing To which he answers That there were Heresies among the Jews and Philosophers and that objection was not thought sufficient against Iudaism or Philosophy and therefore ought not to be against Christianity Besides the coming of Heresies was foretold and what ever is foretold must come to pass The Physitians saith he differ in their opinions yet men do not neglect to make use of them when they are sick Heresies should only make men more careful what they choose Men ought thereby to endeavour the more to find out truth from falshood as if two sorts of fruit be offered to a man real and waxen will a man abstain from both because one is Counterfeit or rather find out the true from the apparent When several ways offer themselves for a man to go in he ought not therefore to sit down and not stir a step further but he uses the best means to find out the true way and then walks in it So that they are justly condemned who do not discern the true from the false for they who will saith he may find out the truth For either there is demonstration or not all grant demonstration or evidence who do not destroy our senses If there be demonstration there must be search and enquiry made and by the Scriptures we may demonstratively learn how Heresies fell of and that the exactest knowledge was to be found in the truth and the ancient Church Now the true searchers will not leave till they find Evidence from the Scriptures To this end he commends the exercise of mens reason and understanding impartiality or laying aside opinion a right disposition of Soul for when men are given over to their lusts they endeavour to wrest the Scriptures to them But he establishes the Scripture as the only principle of certainty to Christians and more credible than any demonstration which who so have tasted are called faithful but those who are versed in them are the truly knowing men The great objection now is that Hereticks make use of Scripture too I but they saith he reject what they please and do not follow the Body and Contexture of Prophecy but take ambiguous expressions and apply them to their own opinions and a few scattered phrases without regarding the sense and importance of them For in the Scriptures produced by them you may find them either making use of meer names and changing the significations of them never attending to the scope and intention of them But truth saith he doth not lye in the change of the signification of words for by that means all Truth may be overthrown but in considering what is proper and perfectly agreeable to our Lord and Almighty God and in confirming every thing which is demonstrated by the Scripture out of the same Scriptures Wherein Clemens Alexandrinus lays down such rules as he thought necessary to find out the certain sense of Scripture viz. by considering the scope and coherence of the words the proper sense and importance of them the comparing of Scripture with Scripture and the Doctrine drawn from it with the nature and properties of God all which are excellent Rules without the least intimation of the necessity of any Infallible Interpreter to give the certain sense of doubtful places After this time a great dispute arose in the Church about the rebaptizing Hereticks managed by the Eastern and African Bishops against Stephen Bishop of Rome Here the Question was about the sense of several places of Scripture and the practice of the Apostles as appears by the Epistles of Cyprian and Firmilian both parties pleading Scripture and Tradition for themselves But no such thing as an infallibility in judgement was pleaded by the Pope nor any thing like it in the least acknowledged by his Adversaries who charge him without any respect to his Infallible guideship with pride error rashness impertinency and contradicting himself Which makes Baronius very Tragically exclaim and although he makes use of this as a great argument of the prevalency of Tradition because the opinion of Stephen obtained in the Church yet there is no Evidence at all that any Churches did submit to the opinion of Stephen when he declared himself but as appears by Dionystus of Alexandria's Epistles the Controversy continued after his time and if we look into the judgement of the Church in following Ages we shall find that neither Stephens opinion nor his Adversaries were followed for Stephen was against rebaptizing any Hereticks and the others were for rebaptizing all because one
Testimonies of Scripture it must be made manifest to be the sense by clear Evidence of Reason But he rather approves the way of proving the sense of Scripture by other places of Scripture where the interpretation is doubtful So that the way in doubtful places which he prescribes is this either to draw such a sense from them as hath no dispute concerning its being a true Proposition or if it have that it be confirmed by other places of Scripture Besides these he lays down the 7. rules of Ticonius the Donatist which are not of that consequence to be here repeated that which I take notice of is that St. Augustin thought the rules he gave sufficient for understanding the meaning of Scripture in doubtful places but he doth not in the least mention the Infallibility of the Guides of the Church as a necessary means for that end But he doth assert in as plain terms as I have done that Scripture is plain in all necessaries to Salvation to any sober enquirer and what ever consequences are charged upon me for making that a Fundamental principle must reflect as much upon St. Augustin as me and I do not fear all the objections can be made against a principle so evident to reason and so agreeable not only to St. Augustin but the Doctrine of the Catholick Church both before and after him The next after St. Augustin who hath purposely writ of this argument about the sense of Scripture is Vincentius Lerinensis about 4. years after St. Augustins death and 3. after the Council of Ephesus who seems to attribute more to the Guides of the Church than St. Augustin doth yet far enough short of Infallibility He saith that every man ought to strengthen his faith against Heresie by two things first by the Authoriry of the divine Law and then by the Tradition of the Catholick Church which tradition he makes necessary not by way of addition to the Scripture for he allows the perfection and sufficiency of that for all things but only to interpret Scripture by giving a certain sense of it there being such different opinions among men about it For all the Hereticks whom he there names had different senses of Scripture as Novatianus Sabellius Donatus Arius Macedonius Photinus c. But then he bounds this tradition within the compass of the universal consent of Antiquity as well as the present Church or as he expresseth it within those things which were believed every where always and by all persons That we may therefore consider how far these rules of Vincentius will serve for explaining the sense of Scripture we are to take notice of the restrictions he lays upon them 1. That they are to be taken together and not one of them separate from the rest As for instance that of Vniversality in any one Age of the Church being taken without the consent of Antiquity is no sufficient rule to interpret Scripture by For Vincentius doth suppose that any one Age of the Church may be so overrun with Heresie that there is no way to confute it but by recourse to Antiquity For in the case of the Arian heresie he grants that almost the whole Church was overspread with it and there was then no way left but to prefer the consent of Antiquity before a prevailing novelty In some cases the Universal consent of the present Church is to be relyed upon against the attempts of particular persons as in that of the Donatists but then we are to consider that Antiquity was still pleaded on the same side that Vniversality was and supposing that all the Ancient Church from the Apostles times had been of the same mind with the Donatists the greater number of the same Age opposing them would have been no more cogent against them than it was afterwards for the Arians It is unreasonable to believe that in a thing universally believed by all Christians from the Apostles times the Christian Church should be deceived but it is quite another thing to say that the Church in any one or more Ages since the Apostles times may be deceived especially if the Church be confined to one certain Communion excluding all others and the persons in that Church have not liberty to deliver their opinions for then it is impossible to know what the Judgement of the whole Church is And so universality is not thought by Vincentius himself to be alone sufficient to determine the sense of Scripture supposing that universality to be understood according to the honesty of the Primitive times for a free and general consent of the Christians of that Age in which a man lives but since the great divisions of the Christian world it is both a very hard matter to know the consent of Christendom in most of the Controverted places of Scripture and withal the notion of Vniversality is debauched and corrupted and made only to signifie the consent of one great Faction which is called by the name of the Catholick Church but truly known by the name of Roman 2. That great care and Judgement must be used in the applying those Rules for 1. The consent of Antiquity is not equally evident in all matters in dispute and therefore cannot be of equal use 1. There are some things wherein we may be certain of such a consent and that was in the Rule of Faith as Vincentius and most of the ancient Writers call it i.e. the summary comprehension of a Christians duty as to matters of faith which was not so often called the Symbol as the Rule of Faith that I mean which was delivered to persons who were to be baptized and received into the Church this the ancient Church Universally agreed in as to the substance of it And as to this Vincentius tells us his Rule is especially to be understood For saith he this consent of Antiquity is not to be sought for in all questions that may arise about the sense of Scripture but only or at least chiefly in the Rule of Faith or as he elsewhere explains himself alone or chiefly in those Questions which concern the Fundamentals of the Catholick Doctrine which were those contained in the Rule of Faith delivered to all that were to be baptized Suppose men now should stretch this Rule beyond the limits assigned it by Vincentius what security can there be from him that it shall be a certain rule who confined it within such narrow bounds Not that I think his Rules of no use at all now no I think them to be of admirable use and great importance to Christianity if truly understood and applyed i.e. When any Persons take upon them to impose any thing upon others as a necessary matter of faith to be believed by them we can have no better rules of Judgement in this case than those of Vincentius are viz. Antiquity Vniversality and Consent and whatsoever cannot be proved by these Rules ought to be rejected by all Christians To make this plain the
Persons do not allow the Scripture then we are to proceed by the best means we can have without it viz. The tradition of Apostolical Churches from the beginning if they do allow the Scripture then we are to examine and compare places of Scripture with all the care and judgement that may be If after all this the dispute still continues then if it be against the ancient Rule of Faith universally received that is a sufficient prescription against any opinion if not against the Rule of Faith in express words but about the sense of it then if ancient General Councils have determined it which had greater opportunities of knowing the sense of the Apostolical Church than we it is reasonable we should yield to them but if there have been none such then the unanimous consent of Fathers is to be taken so it be in some late and upstart heresies which men pretend to have by Revelation or some special Grace of God Now either all these means were sufficient or not to find out the sense of Scripture if not then the ancient Church was wholly defective and wanted any certain way of finding out the sense of Scripture if these were sufficient then there is no necessity of infallibility in the Guides of the Church to give us a certain sense of Scripture which was the thing to be proved But N. O. towards the conclusion of his Book produces St. Augustin for the Churches Infallibility in delivering the sense of Scripture in obscure places which being contrary to what I have already said concerning him must be examined before I conclude this discourse about the sense of Scripture The place is out of his Answer to Cresconius concerning the obscure point of Rebaptization in these words since the holy Scripture cannot deceive let whosoever is in fear of being deceived by the obscurity of this Question consult the same Church about it which Church the holy Scripture doth without all ambiguity demonstrate And before the truth of the Holy Scriptures is held by us in this matter when we do that which hath pleased the Vniversal Church which the Authority of the Scripture does commend c. All which is false and said to no purpose saith N. O. if the Scripture be not clear in this that this Church can determine nothing in such important contests contrary to the verity of the Scriptures and that we ought to give credit to what she decides for then it would not be true what he says the truth of the same Scripture in this matter is held by us and he who is in fear of being deceived by the obscurity of this Question is no way relieved in following the sentence of the Churth To which I answer That St. Augustin doth not suppose that men cannot attain to any certainty of the the sense of Scripture in this matter without the Churches Infallibility for he saith in the Chapter preceding that in this matter we follow the most certain Authority of Canonical Scriptures but he puts the case that no certain example could be produced out of Scripture then he saith they had the truth of the Scriptures when they do that which pleased the Vniversal Church c. For the explaining St. Augustins meaning we are to consider that there were two Controversies then on foot in the Church with the Donatists the one concerning Rebaptization the other concerning the Church the former he looks upon as more intricate and obscure by reason not only of the doubtfulness of Scripture but the Authority of about seventy Bishops of Africa who had determined for it among whom St. Cyprian was chief which we see in all his disputes with the Donatisis on this subject he is very much perplexed with therefore St. Augustin finding that Controversie very troublesome was willing to bring it to that issue that what the Catholick Church after so much discussing the point had agreed upon should be received as the truth By this means the dispute would be brought to that other Question which he thought much more easie viz. Which was the true Church the Catholick or the Donatists but by no means doth St. Augustin hereby intend to make the Churches Authority to resolve all doubts concernig Scriptures but he thought it much easier to prove by Scripture which was the true Church than whether rebaptization were lawful or not And accordingly his very next words are but if you doubt whether the Vniversal Church be that which the Scripture commends I will load you with many and most manifest Testimonies of Scripture to that end Which is the design of his Book of the Vnity of the Church wherein he shews That those Testimonies of Scripture which speak of the Universality of the Church are very plain and clear and needed no interpretation at all that in this case we are not to regard what Donatus or Parmenianus or Pontius hath said for neither saith he are we to yield to Catholick Bishops themselves if they be at any time so much deceived as to hold what is contrary to Canonical Scriptures By which it is evident that he supposed no infallibility in the Guides of the Church And in terms he asserts that the Church is to be proved by nothing but plain Scriptures neither by the Authority of Optatus or St. Ambrose or innumerable Bishops nor Councils nor Miracles nor visions and Revelations whatever N. O. thinks of them now St. Augustin supposing there was much less ambiguity in Scripture in the Controversie of the Church than in that of Rebaptization he endeavours to bring them to a resolution in the other point for the clearing of this and so he only pursues the method laid down in the Books of Christian Doctrine to make use of plainer places of Scripture to give light to the darker And when they were convinced by Scripture that the Catholick Church was the true Church of Christ he doth not question but they would follow that which was the sentence of the Catholick Church But here lyes the main difficulty on what account the sentence of the Church was to be followed In order to the resolution of it we must take notice of these things 1. That all the proofs which St. Augustin brings for the Church do relate only to the extent and Vniversality of it and not to any Infallibility that is promised to it as will easily appear to any one that will read his discourses on that subject against the Donatists 2. That he asserts no infallibility in the highest Authority of the Church which in many places of his Books of Baptism against the Donatists he makes to be a Plenary or General Council whose Authority he saith was to be preferred before that of St. Cyprian or any particular Councils either in his time or before it which he calls the Authority and decrees of the Vniversal Church So that we see he resolves all the Authority of the Church in this matter into that of a General