than the Lord Christ's was Can the Disciples convince men more than their Master did If that be a hopeless thing then there will be Controversies even about this Infallibility Which leads to the Third thing III. It appears plainly from hence that God never intended all errors should be kept out of the Church by an Infallible Authority No directly contrary St. Paul saith 1 Cor. xi 19. There must be heresies that they who are approved may be made manifest That is God thinks it just that men should be permitted to follow their own foolish conceits when they will not be guided by the plain directions of his holy Gospel By which means sincere and upright men are discovered and all men are tried whether they will obey the truth or turn aside unto unrighteousness There must be a tryal made of men and therefore such order must not be taken as to make it impossible there should be any heresies No God hath left it more than possible there should for there must be Heresies that there may be approbation made of Believers whether they will sincerly adhere to the plain truths of Christian Religion or part with them for pleasing and gainful errors Besides if God had intended to prevent this by establishing an Infallible Guide to whom all should resort He would have declared this intention the most plainly of all other things And have told us also where to find such an Authority and not have left this to be controverted and disputed which was intended to be the end of Controversies More especially if any one particular Church was to have this authority over all other Churches it would have been most needful that this should have been so clearly taught as to have put it out of all doubt For we can see no reason not so much as that of convenience why one Church should have it and all others want it but in reason every Church should have it if it were to be had that men might not be put to the trouble of going far for Infallible direction And as for that Church which now pretends to it there is the clearest evidence that no Church anciently thought it to have more Authority than other Churches who lookt upon themselves as her equals I speak of the Church of Rome whose Determinations and Traditions in matters of Doctrine were rejected by St. Cyprian Firmilianus and the rest of the African Bishops who write to the Pope as every one knows who reads St. Cyprian's Epistles not as their Superiour but as their good Brother their Collegue their fellow Priest rebuking him with much sharpness taxing him for pretending vainly * V. Epist LXXII LXXV Edit Oxon. to Apostolical Authority where he had none and for not conforming himself to the rule of Truth and Peace delivered by the Apostle and in downright terms affirming that every Bishop in the administration of his Church hath power to act according to his own judgment and that none could impose Laws upon another And as for matters of Ceremony all the Bishops of the East refused to submit to him challenging as much Authority from St. John as the Roman Bishop did from St. Peter This is notorious in the famous Question about Easter and sufficient to show the truth of what Aeneas Sylvius could not but confess before he came to be a Pope that little respect was had to the Roman Church before the Council of Nice And that Council expresly decreed the ancient Customs should be every where observed By which Antioch and Alexandria claimed the same Authority over the Churches subject to their Jurisdiction that the Roman Bishop did within his Diocess And thus it continued for many years after nor do the greater part by far of the Christian World at this day own any such Authority over them as the Bishop of Rome now challenges Let us not therefore be shaken by this Wind of doctrine no more than by any other wherewith this Church hath been troubled For there is no such Infallible Authority left in the Church for the deciding all Controversies much less can that Church lay the sole Claim to that Authority there is left in it or if it could justly pretend to the highest it would not be able to do what a far more miraculous Authority could not effect and there are other means of unity and peace prescribed by God which if men will not embrace there must be discords and dissentions whereby the integrity or falseness of every mans heart will be discovered What Means those are you shall see anon when I have spoken a few words of the Second Observation which now follows II. It is a childish thing to be unsettled in Religion because of this difference or contrariety of Doctrine wherewith the Church is at any time troubled So the Apostle might well call it because there being as I have lately shown you a form of wholsome words left by them in every Church which they planted a Summary of Sound Doctrine called the Faith once delivered to the Saints there could be no reason that any men who had this deposited with them should be unresolved what to believe and unsettled by the Preaching of other Doctrine but their instability proceeded merely from the weakness of their understanding and the strength of their passions These two things are remarkable in little Children as their understandings are weak so their passions are strong and their desires violent From whence it comes to pass that they are not only credulous but fickle and new-fangled as we speak delighting in that to day which they throw away to morrow These make them rash and hasty apt to quarrel one with another about little differences and dispose them to be taken with empty shows and pageantry with things that affect the senses and have a glistering appearance though void of all inward goodness and solid worth and usefulness In short while we are Children in understanding we are naturally injudicious and consequently inconstant We do not judge aright of things that differ and so are carried uncertainly to and fro as the Apostle here speaks from one thing to another and many times from better to worse especially when we meet with confident people who easily impose upon us This is a very dangerous estate and therefore it highly concerns us to get out of it by growing in knowledge and wisdom imitating little Children only in our endeavours to be without guile but labouring as the Apostle speaks in understanding to be men and to have a thorough knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus This St. Peter prescribes as a remedy against unstedfastness in the conclusion of his second Epistle Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things beware lest ye also being carried away by the errour of the wicked fall from your stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who it is most certain hath not left us in doubt
what to believe and what to hold and retain with a firm resolution nor exposed us without any help for it to be carried away by the errour of the wicked but abundantly provided us with all things necessary for the knowledge of the Truth and for our improvement therein unto a state of stedfast belief Which is the third thing III. We are not left by God without the means of being settled in the Faith notwithstanding the Blasts of contrary Doctrine which may be in the Church and notwithstanding the cunning and craftiness whereby they may be managed For it is the very Scope of the Apostle in this place to convince the Ephesians that God had taken such care and made such provision that they might not henceforth be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine c. There was a remedy then against this lightness and inconstancy it was possible to discern truth from falshood the Christian Faith from the vain Doctrines which troubled the Church and if they did not continue Children they might continue stedfast in that Faith and not be moved from it by the violent Blasts of contrary perswasions God did not think fit as you have heard to lay such a restraint upon mens Spirits that none should be able to contradict the truth preached by the Apostles but permitted false Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ for the tryal and exercise of the faithful whom he furnished with sufficient means to preserve themselves in a settled constant belief What those means were I shall briefly lay before you as I find them partly here and partly in other places of the Apostolical Writings and shall treat of them with a particular respect to our selves that we may be established in the truth of his holy Gospel First Nothing is to be admitted without good Proof Secondly In the Proof we make of Doctrines the holy Scriptures must be the Rule whereby we judge Thirdly In the use of this Rule we must take direction of our Spiritual Guides and Governours And Lastly We must live in the sincere practice of all other Duties of Christian Piety First The first Direction is that of this Apostle St. Paul to the Thessalonians 1 v. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good Which is the same with that of St. John 1 iv 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World From whence it is likely Dionysius of Alexandria formed that Precept which he calls an Apostolical voice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye skilful Bankers able to distinguish between good and bad Silver * Euseb L. VII Hist Eccles Cap. 7. Children indeed having not the faculty of discerning take all upon trust but it is a shame if being arrived at the state of Manhood we do not prove and try and examine as the word signifies every thing that is offered to our belief which we ought not to receive merely because confident men would impose it upon us by their Authority And if it will not abide a proof nor stand a tryal we may be certain it is deceitful Ware which they would put off in the dark and not have brought into the light Now in this proof we must be very serious for nothing can be examined thoroughly without an attentive mind Which we must awaken to ponder and consider every thing in the use of the best reason we have and whatsoever appears upon examination and proof to be agreeable to the Faith once delivered to the Saints that we must hold fast and not suffer our selves to be carried from it by any importunities of contrary affections For as we must receive nothing without good reason so we ought not lightly to forsake that which we have good reason to believe When I speak of Reason I do not mean bare natural Reason without the guidance of God's Grace For which we must heartily pray and He no doubt will readily vouchsafe unto all those who seriously seek for it with a desire to be led by it in the ways of truth and holiness For having given us his Son and by him revealed his mind and will unto us it is infidelity to think that he will not guide us by his Grace to understand his mind and will in all things necessary to our salvation Far be such a thought from our hearts which ought to rest satisfied that he will give us his Grace to direct us as freely as he hath given us his Son Christ to inlighten and instruct us He is as little sparing of his Grace as the visible Sun is of its Beams which shine into the eyes of all those who do not by wilful winking shut it out and thereby make themselves not the Sun guilty of their blindness If we love darkness rather than light or will not be at the pains to open our eyes and let it in but instead thereof give up our selves to be led about by others as they shall please to conduct us it is but just with God to deprive us of the power of judging aright and not to let us see when we would because we would not when we might He hath given us the use of Reason which if we will blindly resign to any pretended Authority what is it but to shut our eyes when we should open them or suffer our selves to be hood-wink'd when we should look about us that we be not deceived We can give no account of this to God who did not give us this talent that we should give it away to others but that we should faithfully employ and improve it our selves He never intended that we should let others judge for us but requires us to examine and judge our selves whether there be reason to receive that which is propounded to us by others This is so great a Truth that they who receive things without examination upon mere trust yet have some reason for what they do For no man trusts another till he hath reason to think he is an honest man and will not deceive him He doth not take his bare word for it that he will not deceive him but hath some ground or other to think he will be as good as his word Insomuch that they who seem least to trust to their own reason do really trust it in the weightiest matter when they trust it to chuse one for them whom they may trust They of the Roman Church I mean who would have us give up our Reason to their Authority do not pretend to perswade us to submit to that Authority without some reason for it And to be perswaded by reason as hath been long ago said that to their Authority we ought to submit our Reason is still to follow Reason and not to quit it and blindly resign it And if we must follow Reason in that why not in all things whatsoever Why
is it not as good a Judge of any thing as of their Authority What reason can be given for using our Reason in this single affair and relinquishing it ever after Is it not the same Reason still Was it not given us for our constant Safe-Conduct By what reason then do we trust others to chuse our Religion for us without examining whether what they say be true or no but taking it barely upon their word How do they know that to be true which they propound to us May not we know it by the same means and rely not merely upon their Authority but upon the same reason that they do For they say what they deliver to us either with reason or without If with reason we ought to judge whether it be a good reason or no for why should not we judge as well as they since God hath intrusted us with a faculty whereby to judge If without reason we ought not to follow an Authority which presses things to be believed upon no ground but to look upon those as the most sincere and faithful Directors who would have us to examine and prove consider and ponder all things well before we receive them and who offer to us their assistance therein that we may see with our own eyes what God himself hath delivered to us in his holy Word Which brings me to the next thing Secondly In this proof which we make of every thing propounded to us the Scriptures ought to be the Rule whereby we judge We have no other I have formerly shewn you and they are abundantly sufficient for us and so authentick that our Blessed Lord himself and his Apostles after him constantly appealed to them for the proof of their Doctrine And as they referred all men to the old Scriptures saying no other thing but what the Prophets and Moses did say should come xxvi Act. 22. so we can send them no whither else for their information but to the same Scriptures and to the New Testament according to which if any men do not speak they are not to be received Nay St. Austine ventured to imitate St. Paul and to say * L. III. contra liter Petiliani cap. 6. Let him be accursed whosoever he be I will not say we who are not worthy to be compared with him that said THOUGH WE but though he be an Angel from Heaven who declares to you any thing of Christ or of his Church or of any other matter that belongs to our Faith and Life besides that which ye have received in the Legal and Evangelical Scriptures Unto which the same St. Paul sends Timothy himself for his instruction in both his Epistles to him Where he commands him to give attendance to reading viz. of the holy Scriptures which he had known from a Child and which were able he tells him to make him wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus They being given by inspiration of God that even a man of God like the antient Prophets might be perfected and thoroughly furnished unto all good works for every part of his employment 2 Tim. iii. 15 16. Which place I have explained not long ago and now mention it again because the Apostle directs him to these holy Writings as a means to preserve him in the true Christian belief ver 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures c. What we have learned out of the holy Scriptures we have an assurance of we know from whom they come and are certain we are taught by God when we read these holy Books but cannot be assured of any other Tradition which is not contained here and therefore ought to continue stedfast in our adherence to the Scriptures and both to suspect those who would draw us from this hold and stick to those Guides who bid us stick to this and prove all things by it For it is evident they have no mind to deceive us but do in effect bid us believe God and follow his directions and rely upon his Authority who cannot mislead us and will not suffer us to be mis-led if we continue in the things which we have learnt out of the holy Scriptures For taking them to be our Rule we shall neither admit any thing which is contrary to that Rule nor shall we take any thing to be an essential part of the Christian Faith which is not there delivered unto us For it is not consistent with the notions we have of God's infinite Goodness and Wisdom to believe He would give us a Rule which is defective in necessary things No He hath abundantly provided here for our Instruction in all such matters and as we ought to refuse that which contradicts any part of these holy Books so we ought not to think it necessary that we should entertain any thing which they do not teach us And teach us plainly and evidently for in all necessary things they are very clear and perspicuous Else they could not be a Rule unto us but we must seek for some other The Apostle's Creed for instance which the Ancients called the immoveable Rule of Faith a short Summary of Christian Belief beyond which as they speak we ought not to seek for Faith together with the Nice Creed and Athanasius's which expound the Apostles ought thoroughly to be received and believed for that they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture But whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation This is the Doctrine of our Church in its sixth and eighth Articles unto which let us strictly keep if we would not be carried to and fro uncertainly with the blasts of vain Doctrines which have no certain Warrants in the holy Scriptures and therefore are not to be received or are contrary to them and therefore are to be rejected Here we must fix and believe that here we are safe For the Scriptures want nothing to compleat us in Christian wisdom which they do not wrap up in obscurity but as far as is needful give us a clear understanding of the Doctrines of Faith And make us understand withal if we please to consider them that having laid our foundation well in a firm belief of those great and necessary things which out of the Scriptures are summed up in the Creeds before named we need not trouble our selves about other matters which are not so evident but make it our whole business in this world to raise the solid Superstructure of a holy Life upon the Foundation of Faith in Christ This is the Second thing the holy Scriptures are the Rule whereby we must prove all things from which if we do not depart we cannot be led into any