believe but this one Point for when once this great Gobbet is swallow'd down the Passage will be so well open'd that all other Points of Faith either go down with it or will slip after it without the least straining or grutching The Authority of God himself speaking in Scripture will be of no farther consideration to us for that we must suppose to be included in the Authority of our Mother the Church And whatsoever we shall thence-forward perceive to be the Will of our Mother we must without all scruple conclude it to be also the Will of our Father The Representer hath lately told us that tho the Scripture which is the Word of our Heavenly Father may be the Law yet the Mother the Roman Church is the Iudg. Having learn'd from her the sense of the Scripture we are obliged to submit to this and never presume on our own private Sentiments however seemingly grounded on Reason and Scripture to believe or preach any new Doctrine opposite to the Belief of the Church And there 's reason for this if it be true which he elsewhere tells us That a Man may very easily frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain proofs for all he means in Scripture the truth whereof as of all other Points of Doctrine stands as he saith upon the same Foundation of the Churches Tradition which if it fail in one leaves no security in any This is indeed to advance the Church to the very top-branch of all Authority and to make the holy Scripture as very a Nose of Wax and as Leaden a Rule as any of that Church ever thought it seeing a Man may form and work it into Creeds of all fashions and find plain proofs in it for any odd Humour or carnal and Worldly Interest This then as far as I can learn by him is the only way for me to be a thorow Papist and a good Catholick I must lay aside my Reason and the Scripture and heed no more what either of these tell me only I must have my Ear open to the Voice of the Church and be wholly at her teaching and command and I shall be safe enough Upon the most serious consideration of the Character which the Papist is pleas'd to give us of himself I cannot find what it is for which they of that Church are so severely bent against us Protestants save only that we will not like tame Animals without any understanding of our own learn to come and go at a whistle or trot on the Road as we are driven and stoop to take on our Backs whatever Load it shall please the Roman Church to lay upon us confessing her to have absolute and uncontroulable Authority over our Faith. The standing out against the Catholick Church makes Men Hereticks and without erring against this no Man is guilty of Heresy said the Iesuit Fisher in his Answer to certain Questions propounded to him by King Iames I. This then is the only Heresy to disown the Authority of the Roman for that he calls the Catholick Church Again saith he One fundamental Error of the Protestants is their denying the Primacy of St. Peter and his Successors the Foundation which Christ laid of his Church necessary for the perpetual Government thereof And again He that forsakes the Church puts himself into a dead and damnable State and may have all things besides Salvation and Eternal Life Bellarmine speaks out and tells us very plainly No Man can tho he would be subject to Christ and communicate with the Celestial Church that is not subject to the Pope If then we believe this Authority of the Roman Church we believe all and if we believe not this we believe nothing at all in the Papists account or to any better purpose than to our own Damnation So that without this Belief our Faith shall never pass for an entire Faith and when we once believe this it shall never be any more question'd whether it be entire or no. Now it seems a very hard matter to believe this great Point of Faith till very good Reasons be given us for it and yet it should seem the want of such Reasons will not excuse us from being Hereticks and in a State of Damnation no not tho we be never so ready to believe it when we shall have Reasons given us for it For he is an Heretick we are told who thinks any thing against the Definition of the Church yet stands so affected that he will think the contrary if he be convinced by Arguments or if the matter be propounded to him by a Learned Man. And on the contrary if we do believe this we can hardly be Hereticks whatever Errors we believe or this Belief draws us into For if a Rustick saith Cardinal Tolet believe his Bishop about the Articles of Faith teaching him some Heretical Doctrine he merits by believing altho it be an Error So weighty a Point is this of believing the Authority of the Roman Church and grounding our entire Faith upon it that I perceive I am concern'd above all things to examine it throughly and this I shall have fitter opportunity to do now I am come to the second thing propounded SECT II. Hitherto I have been considering what ground I have to hope for Salvation as I am a Protestant and of the Church of England I am now in the next place to enquire Whether I can find any Reason to believe that the Church of Rome can put me into a more hopeful Way to it should I turn Papist and be of her Communion Now seeing I have already found that the great Reason why we are held uncapable of Salvation as now we are is this That we have no entire Faith and the Defect in our Faith is this That we believe not all the Articles of the Roman Faith and that which makes it necessary for us to believe all those Articles is the Authority of the Catholick that is as they interpret the Roman Church to declare and define what things are necessary to the Salvation of Christians I perceive I have no more to do for my full Satisfaction in the present Inquiry but to consider what Reason I can have for the owning and submitting to this Authority And to discern this I think this Method fittest to be taken I will inquire into three things I. What things are implied in that Submission to this Authority which is required of me II. What the Grounds and Reasons are whereon this Authority is founded and which should perswade me to submit III. Where this Authority may be found and to whom I must submit And this is all I think that I need to do for I can never think fit to submit my Faith and Conscience and to trust my Salvation to an Authority which either requires of me such things as are
Reason he denies that any Reasons can convince me because 't is plain they cannot convince me before I have judged of them and this I must do by my private Iudgment or by nothing for I have no other But here I am told We are allow'd to make use of our Reason to find out the true Church which may Infallibly guide us into all saving Truth All that is required of us is this that when we have once found this true Church we presume no longer to judg for our selves but captivate our Reason to the Infallible Iudgment of the Church This is something and yet it seems but extorted from them to make a little more plausible what to me seems one of the greatest pieces of Folly in the World I mean the attempt of convincing men by Reason who must not be allow'd to judg of the Reasons whereby they must be convinced I find Reason by a Traditionary Papist compared to a dim-sighted Man who used his Reason to find a trusty Friend to lead him in the Twilight and then reli'd on his Guidance rationally without using his own Reason at all about the way it self Thus are we allow'd Reason to find out the Church of ROME our sure Friend to guide us and on whose Guidance we must rationally Rely after we have captivated our Reason to her and for her sake have resolved to use it no more But now if this Reason which is to direct us to our Guide be such a dimsighted thing and as we heard before Hoodwink'd too so that whilst we follow it we can have no more hope than only that we may possibly stumble into the Catholick Church who will secure us that we shall not in this Twilight mistake a treacherous Enemy for a trusty Friend and then what shall we gain by our rational Reliance on him A dimsighted Man in the Twilight may easily mistake one thing for another else should he not much need a trusty Guide and why he may not mistake his Guide as well as his Way I do not yet know But that I may be satisfied how much I gain by this liberal Concession to use my Reason and private Iudgment in inquiring after the true Church I will a little consider how the PAPIST is wont to talk with me when he would persuade me to take his Church for my only sure Guide First he tells me There is but one true Faith and then that this Faith must be held entirely next that this entire Faith is nowhere to be found but in the true Church After this he begins again and tells me Christ hath a Church upon Earth That there is but one true Church That out of it there is no Salvation and lastly That the ROMAN Church and no other is that one true Church out of which there is no Salvation And till we have found that it is so he will give us leave to judg for our selves And I would thank him for this kindness if he would allow me to enjoy the benefit of it and to make any use of it otherwise it will look but like a Mockery I desire therefore some clear convincing Evidence That the ROMAN Church is the only true Church He cannot to this purpose produce the Consent of all Christians for two parts in three deny it Therefore he gives me a great many Marks or Signs sometimes more sometimes fewer whereby the only true Church must be known from others and spends a great many words in shewing me how they agree to the ROMAN Church and no other That wherein I would next have same Satisfaction is supposing that all his Marks agree to the ROMAN Church and no other how I may know that these are indeed the certain and incommunicable Marks and Proprieties of the only true Church To prove this he betakes himself to the HOLY SCRIPTURE and brings me thence some Texts whereby he says they are clearly proved to be so I now with a very hearty and sincere desire to learn the Truth and with all diligent use of such helps as I can come by read and consider all these Texts and cannot discern in them any Evidenee at all of the thing which they are brought to prove and therefore think it reasonable yet to call for some clearer proof But now when 't is come to this I presently find that his liberal Concession to make use of my Reason and private Iudgment to find out the true Church amounts to no more than I at first suspected that is just nothing For here he retires to his Principle of PORERY That I being a private Person ought not to judg for my self what is the Sense of those Texts of Scripture but must submit my Reason and Iudgment to the Iudgment of the Church yea even before I have found the Church and without any dispute receive the Sense of Scripture from her alone Thus he recals at once all that he had allow'd and undoes again whatsoever he had been adoing to persuade me to his Communion He was giving me Reasons which might convince me in my Iudgment and these at length resolve all into the Authority of the Scripture and yet of this Testimony of the Scripture I must not Iudg and therefore by it I cannot be convinced of any thing but this that the Church of ROME is resolved to be Mistress of all Christians and thinks it enough to convince us that she is so if whilst she sets some of her Sons to hold us up in empty talk of Scripture and Reason to no purpose she step out from behind the Curtain saying Believe it I am she Now I cannot possibly see whatever others may do for I keep yet to my Protestant Principles of Judging for no man but my self how I can embrace POPERY upon any conviction from PAPISTS and I fear I must either take it without any Reason for it or not at all If I cannot know the ROMAN Church to be the only true Church but by the Testimony of the SCRIPTURE and if I cannot understand the Testimony of the SCRIPTURE till I receive the true Sense of it from the ROMAN Church and if I cannot take that for the true Sense of it upon Her Declaration of it so to be unless moved by her Authority I must be persuaded to do the most unreasonable thing in the World to my thinking to believe a Church to be the only true Church for her own Authority which I yet know no more than I do her to be the true Church which it is all along supposed I do not know at all This I think not only unreasonable but impossible I must needs confess my self very hard to be persuaded of the tender goodness of that Mother who lest her Children should get hurt by the dimness of their sight will needs pull out their Eyes and keep them in her Pocket till she has taught them to use them better I am very loath to part with my Reason how dimsighted soever because
unreasonable or can produce no Reason for it self or is so lodged in Obscurity as it cannot be found I. I cannot leave the Communion of the Church of England and enter into that of Rome in obedience to an Authority which commands me to do things unreasonable agreeing neither with the Nature of Mankind nor with the undoubted Principles of Religion If therefore the Church of Rome require such things of me I must be a Protestant still and protest against that Authority which She pretends to And for ought I can yet see I cannot submit to her Authority but upon the hardest and most unreasonable Terms in the World. I must renounce my Reason and my Iudgment I must no longer trust my Senses I must either lay aside or learn to speak dishonourably of God's Word I must not believe a Word that God hath spoken without that Church's Leave I must embrace a Religion for which according to that Church's Principles no Reason can be given to convince me and when I have thus learn'd to do all things without Reason I must do what with Reason I can never do believe all Men whatsoever and how piously soever they otherwise live if they be not of the Roman Communion to be in a State of Damnation If I be deceiv'd in any thing of all this I shall be very glad to know it and I have only this to say for my self that they were Roman Catholicks who should know their own Religion best that have deceived me and if I may be deceiv'd by hearkening to them whom that Church sends abroad to make us Converts I shall be the less encouraged hereafter to embrace her Communion upon their Perswasions Whether all who are already of her Communion either own or know all this it concerns not me to enquire but I think it a Debt of Charity that I owe them to think till they tell me the contrary that they do not and that if they did they would not long continue where they are However till they who taught me these things shall either confess their own Error or shew me my Mistake I must needs think them all true and therefore also account it much safer for me to continue a Protestant than to turn Papist whatever it may seem or be to others First I think nothing can be plainer than that it is more safe to act like understanding and discreet considering Men than otherwise or that the Religion which alloweth Men so to do is safer than that which doth not allow it Now the Protestant Religion alloweth Men to make use of their Reason and Iudgment to discern between Truth and Falshood Good and Evil which the Roman Religion as it seems to me will not allow and therefore it must needs be the safer Religion Christ certainly came not into the World to save Sinners by destroying but rather by restoring and perfecting Human Nature His business was not to deprive us of the use of the most noble Faculty which God had given us but to rectify that and all the rest after they had been depraved by Sin. His Gospel was not preached to close up the Eye of the Soul the Understanding and so to lead Men blindfold to Heaven but to open Mens Eyes and to furn them from Darkness to Light Act. 26. 18. The Apostles preach'd to teach us how to offer unto God a Reasonable Service Rom. 12. 1. And Christ expects that his Sheep should be able to discern the voice of him their Shepherd from the voice of Strangers and avoiding them to follow him only Iohn 10. 4 5. St. Peter exhorts Men to be always ready to give a Reason of the Hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3. 15. And St. Paul bids Men prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess. 5. 21. And St. Iohn exhorts not to believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they be of God 1 Joh. 4. 1. How any Man shall be able to do all this and much more which as a Christian he is obliged to do and not be allow'd the free use of his Reason and judging Faculty I am sure no Man can tell me neither indeed how he can be of any Religion at all for before he can really be of any Religion he must choose it and choose it he cannot till he have rationally consider'd and judg'd of it and of the Reasons which must move him to the choice of it And in Truth to deny a Man the free use of his Reason and Iudgment in Religion is to turn him into a Beast where he should be most a Man and either to make it impossible for him to be of any Religion at all and to serve God like a Man or else to say in effect That Christian Religion is altogether a most unreasonable thing and proper only to unreasonable Creatures Now the Writing Men of the Roman Church tell us nothing more frequently than that no private Man ought to be allow'd to judg for himself in matters of Faith that to allow this is to set the Gate wide open to all Heresies that every Man is bound to sumbit and captivate his Understanding and Iudgment to the Iudgment of the Church that is to all the Definitions of as they call it the Roman-Catholick Church Whatsoever this Church affirms we must believe to be true and whatsoever She commands we must chearfully obey seem the thing to our own private Reason never so false or never so wicked We must not dare to examine the Truth or Lawfulness of her Decrees or Determinations tho Reason and Scripture too seem to us to be against them as we have been lately taught by the Representer for as we receive from Her the Books so from Her only we are to receive the Sense of Scripture Hence it is that they define a Heretick to be one that obstinately opposeth the Sentence of the Church The Doctrines of Fathers Bellarmine some-where tells us may be examined by Reason because they teach but as private Doctors but the Church teaches as a Iudg with all Authority and therefore no Man may dispute the soundness of her Doctrine This then is the first step I must take if I will go over to the Church of Rome I must resolve to see no longer for my self with my own Eyes but give my self up to be led by the Church never questioning the Way I am to go in so long as she leads me And truly so far as I am yet able to discern with my Protestant Eyes it is but needful to close the Eye of Reason before-hand when I am about to go where I must otherwise see such things as no Reason can indure It was therefore very ingenuously spoken as I have heard of Mr. Cressy when he said that the Wit and Judgment of Catholicks is to renounce their own Judgment and depose their own Wit. Yet if this be true I must beg his Pardon if I dare not yet imitate his Example or
follow him thither where according to him I can have nothing to do but to run headlong upon any thing without Wit or Fear Reason he is pleased to call a hoodwink'd Guide and following it all we can hope for is that we may possibly stumble into the Truth or Church Possibly it should seem a Man may stumble upon it with his Eyes in his Head and truly I dare not pull them out lest I should stumble on a blind Leader and we should both fall into the Ditch Secondly Whensoever I resolve to enter into the Roman Communion I fear I must also bid farewell to my Senses or resolve never any more to trust them no not about those things which are the proper Objects of Sense to discern which God gave me my Senses and of which it will be impossible for me to have any distinct knowledg without them How unreasonable and dangerous a thing this is I must needs be very sensible if I be not resolved already to hearken no more to my Reason If I must no longer credit my Eyes about Shape and Colour nor my Ears about Sounds and Words nor my Nose about Smells nor my Palate concerning Tasts nor my Hands and Feeling about Hot and Cold Hard and Soft I shall not know how to believe that God gave me all these Instruments of Sense to any purpose at all I am sure I cannot think my self in a comfortable and safe Condition I know not to what end our Blessed Saviour should bid St. Thomas Handle and see him or how his Faith could be thereby confirmed if such Senses are not to be trusted nor why the Apostle should hope to have the more Credit given to their Narratives by telling us they were Eye-witnesses of the things they relate 2 Pet. 1. 16. Luke 1. 2. Nor why St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 1. 1. should talk so much of hearing seeing and handling as things qualifying them for bearing witness What a Christian am I like to be if I can have no Assurance of what I see or hear if I may not trust my Eyes when I read the Scripture nor my Ears when I hear the Instructions of my Teachers How could the first Christians be sure themselves or assure us that Iesus is the Christ if in hearing his Words and seeing his Miracles and reading the Prophets they might not safely trust their Senses If Sense be not to be trusted all Teaching must be by immediate Inspiration and Faith comes not by hearing as St. Paul affirms it doth and the Infallible Church can teach no more than we except she can teach without Speaking or Writing or any thing that is to be understood by Hearing or Seeing and so Oral and Practical Tradition can be of no more use to us than to the Blind and Deaf On this Supposition I may easily mistake a Harlot for my Mother and stumble into Babylon instead of Hierusalem hearken to the Voice of the Wolf instead of the Shepherd eat and drink Poison instead of wholsome Food and feel no Pain nor Loss when my Eyes are pluck'd out Now if the Church of Rome do not command us to renounce all Credit to our Senses she cannot command us to give any Credit to her Doctrine of Transubstantiation And I fear without our believing this Point she will not admit us to her Communion We believe already a Real Presence of that which we see not yet will not this serve unless we believe also a Real Absence of that which we both see handle taste and smell In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist I am commanded to believe that there is not any Bread but Flesh nor Wine but Blood and yet there I see smell taste and feel both Bread and Wine and nothing else I hear it read that our Blessed Saviour took blessed brake and gave Bread and Wine and of the same he said Take eat and drink I hear St. Paul again and again 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. speak of eating and drinking the Bread and the Cup. And yet I must not trust any of these five Senses but against the clearest Evidence and Testimony of them all I must believe if I can that there is neither Bread nor Wine but that which neither my Senses can discern nor my Reason conceive nor doth the Scripture any where say the very Natural Flesh and Blood of Christ under the Colour and Form the Taste and Smell and all other proper Qualities of Bread and Wine and yet neither that Colour nor Form nor Taste nor Smell nor any other Accident which my Senses there perceive are in the Flesh and Blood tho there is nothing else there for them to be in That tho I break and chew with my Teeth what I take and eat yet I break not nor chew with my Teeth the Body of Christ and yet I take and eat nothing else If I cannot believe this I am told that I have not Faith enough and only because I have yet Reason and Sense too much to be of that Communion This is another step that I must take in going over to the Church of Rome And when I am got thus far I may think it seasonable enough to lay aside the Scripture too For what good Use I can make of it without the free use of my Reason and trusting my Senses I do not understand Thirdly If I be a Lay-man and not of so good credit with the Curate or Bishop as to obtain a License that is if I will not promise to adhere only to the Doctrine of the Roman Church and take all that I read in that sense only which she is pleas'd to give it I must not be suffer'd to read the Scripture at all but must give away my Bible upon pain of being denied the Remission of my Sins And truly if I may be allow'd to read it upon no other terms than of being thus tied up to learn nothing by it but what I am before-hand taught without it I shall think a License too dear even at a very low rate if yet it may be obtain'd as I find it question'd whether it may or no any where else but in such places as a License to read some of their own may prevent their itch of looking into our Translations However whether I be of the Lay or Clergy if I will learn of them who are most busy in endeavouring my Conversion I am sure I must be taught to speak very dishonourably of the Word of God and this seems to be no more than the Religion commended to me requireth I must needs here say That nothing in the World doth and I think I may say ought more to prejudice me against any Religion than to find it constrain'd in its own Defence to say undecent things of that which it grants to be the Word of God. And if I might be thought worthy to advise the Missionaries they should not harp too much on this ungrateful String if they would draw any after them that
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Protestant Resolved c. Marâ— 12. 1687. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. THE Protestant Resolved OR A DISCOURSE Shewing the UNREASONABLENESS Of his Turning Roman Catholick FOR SALVATION The Second Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVIII No Necessity for a Protestant to turn Roman Catholick for Salvation WE are all I hope thus far argeed That sincere Christianity is the sure Way to Salvation That to be saved we must have the Hearts and not content our selves with the bare Name and naked Profession of Christians That the Authority of God and Divine Truth and no worldly or carnal Concern must sway and govern our whole Conversation If we be not religious in good earnest resolving and endeavouring to honour God in Heart and Life according to the Holy Gospel of our Blessed Iesus it 's no matter to us what Religion we profess or to what Church we join our selves Wickedness and Hypocrisy through what Church soever our Way lieth lead assuredly to Hell. A wicked Protestant and a wicked Papist will in Hell be of the same Communion True Christianity is none other but that which was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles and all they who believe and live according to their Doctrine shall be saved Herein again we are all I suppose agreed And if so I think it very reasonable we should agree as well in that which I now add It is not material to enquire whether a Man be of the Church of Rome or of the Church of England to find whether or no he may be saved but he that would satisfy himself of the possibility of Salvation in the Way wherein he now is ought to enquire whether he believe and live according to the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles seeing they who do this are good Christians what other Names soever Men may bestow upon them and all that are such shall be saved If therefore I may be able to satisfy my self that I believe and live according to the Doctrine deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles I have no reason to doubt of the Possibility of my Salvation in the Way wherein I now am tho it were so that I had never heard to this day of any such Thing as a Church headed by a Pope or Bishop of Rome And I am yet somewhat confident that a Man may believe and live according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and never hear of a Bishop of Rome because once Men certainly did so and yet were saved The next thing therefore that I have to do is to enquire by what Means I may certainly know what was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles for by the same Means whereby this may be known I may also know the certain Way to Salvation If there be no such Means left us we are all Fools in professing a Religion the certain Doctrine whereof can by no means be known If such Means there be there must be some certain Records safely convey'd down from their Time to ours for by what other Means we at this distance of so many hundred years should be certainly inform'd what they taught is by me unconceivable These Records then are to be diligently searched into and impartially examined and whosoever is found to believe and practise according to the Doctrine in those Records contained may be concluded to be in the Way to Salvation Such certain Records we have even the Books of the holy Evangelists and Apostles which together with the Books of the Old Testament we call the Holy Scripture In this we are all again unamimous both Papists and Protestants agree that the Doctrine in these Books contained is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and Divine Truth Whence it certainly follows that whatsoever Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine contained in these Books whether it it be taught by Papists or Protestants is to be rejected as none of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles It ought not therefore to satisfy me that this or that Doctrine is taught by the Church of Rome or by the Church of England for by which of them soever it be taught if it be found contrary to the Doctrine of the holy Scripture it is by the Consent of both Churches to be rejected Now seeing we Protestants take this holy Scripture and it only for the Rule of Faith and Life it is certain that holding to this Rule we do not err either in Belief or Practice while on the other side we cannot be sure thot they do not err in both who receive another Rule till it appear that the other Rule which they receive is as true and certain as ours is acknowledged to be Our part of the Rule and that which indeed we take to be the whole being granted us all the Question is about their part of it Ours is on all hands granted to be most sure and certain their 's alone remains disputable and therefore I cannot yet see any reason why I should think their Way safer than our own except it can be safer to follow an uncertain than a certain Rule which I think no body will be so hardy as to affirm The Rule which they of the Roman Communion advance against ours is that of Tradition I am therefore next to to consider First what they understand by it And Secondly what greater reason I can find to perswade me that it is safer to trust to it whether singly or in Conjunction with our own than to our own alone which is the holy Scripture This Tradition consists of such Doctines of Faith and Practice as are supposed to have been taught either by Christ himself or being dictated by the Holy Ghost to his Apostles were delivered by them to the Church not in Writing but in Word only and so have successively been handed down from Father to Son unto the present Age. And these are all according to the Council of Trent to be received with equal affection of Piety and Reverence as the holy Scripture Now I confess if it may appear as evidently to me that Christ or his Apostles left such Doctrines to the Custody of the Church of equal necessity to the Salvation of Christians with those that are written in the Scpipture as it doth that they left us these which are written in the Scripture and if I may be well assured that these very Doctrines which the Church of Rome now holds and pretends to an Authority of imposing upon all Christendome are indeed the very same which were at first as abovesaid deliver'd to the Church I can see no reason why I should not be bound to believe the one as firmly as the other For seeing it is the Authority of the first Preachers of it and not barely the Writings of it that bind me to believe the Doctrine if I can be
equally assured that as well what is unwritten as what is written was preach'd by them as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind I must needs also own an equal Obligation upon me to believe them all alike But neither of these could I ever see clear'd nor can I conceive any hope that I shall hereafter And seeing the proof of both lies wholly upon them who affirm both I cannot be obliged to believe them till by such proof they have convinced me In the mean time it seems enough to me that God himself was pleas'd to signifie to the World his Will in writing which I cannot imagine why He should do had he not intended we should learn his Will from what is written and not from any unwritten Tradition And I am the more confirm'd in this Opinion by this that he did not use this way of revealing his Mind unto Men at the first nor till after the World had had a very long time to discern by experience the Unfaithfulness of unwritten Tradition So that this and some other Considerations whereupon the Papists use to ground their Arguments against both the Necessity and Perfection of the Scripture seem to me very fully to evince both the one and the other and so to leave no room at all for their unwritten Traditions as any part of the Rule of Faith and Life Yet seeing they who are always preaching this Doctrine to us That there is no Salvation for them that are not of their Communion preach it not as a private Opinion of their own or of some few others in that Communion but as the generally received Doctrine of that Church which pretends to be no less than Infallible it concerns me so much the more to use all possible diligence to find out what Truth there may be in this Assertion And that not only because I shall thereby discern the necessity of changing my Religion to make sure of my own future Happiness but also because the Determination of this one Point will at once put an end as it seems to me to all the Disputes that are now between the Papists and Us. If I can find it true that no Man can be saved out of that Communion I shall be a Fool to trouble my self with the Study of the Scriptures and seeking out for my self in them a Way to Heaven when I may be sure by stepping over the Threshold out of the one Church into the other to meet with an Infallible Iudg whom if I do but follow I cannot go amiss And to dispute any longer with my self whether I should do so or not would but shew me fitter for Bedlam than for any Church seeing none but the maddest Man alive would dispute for Damnation On the other side if I shall find it false that a Man cannot be saved out of that Communion I must needs be convinced that the Roman Church which hath determined it for a certain Truth hath already err'd both in Faith and Charity and that having erred she is not Infallible and being not Infallible by her own Confession cannot be that One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation So that as this Assertion of that Church shall be found to be true or false even so will the Popish Religion appear also to be But here I meet with a very great Difficulty in my way as I am going to seek out the Truth or Falshood of this Assertion that however I may be able to satisfy my self yet I shall never for ought I can see be able to satisfy them who are the Authors of it any other way than by a total Submission of my own Iudgment and Conscience too to their Determination and a blind Obedience to their Will. The Dispute as is evident is between two Churches the one whereof challengeth to it self the big-swoln Prerogative of being the Lady and Mother of all Churches a Sovereign Authority of prescribing to the Faith of all Christians the Right and incommunicable Priviledg of being the Sole and Infallible Iudg of all Controversies in Religion finally an unquestionable Power of defining and declaring to all the World the true and only Terms of Salvation Now that this Roman-Mother and Mistress-Church sole Commandress and Infallible Iudg having already in the fulness of Power determin'd it and by her Supreme Authority imposed an Oath upon her Subjects to maintain it That none out of her Communion can be saved should after all this in pure Condescension to Men declared Hereticks divest her self of her Authority lay aside her Infallible Definitions come down from the Tribunal and the Throne of Iudicature and Majesty and stand at the Bar submitting her self and the whole Cause to an indifferent and equal Trial is a thing as little to be hoped for as it is yet unagreed upon by what Law Iury or Iudg the Controversy should be decided And truly on the other side it seems to me altogether as unreasonable in her to accept That we Protestants of the Church of England tho we pretend to nothing of this Exorbitant Power over Her or other Churches or of determining Disputes for all the World should yet upon a naked Summons from Her whose Authority we question and see no reason to acknowledg forthwith subscribe to the Sentence of our own Condemnation without any fair and legal Process or indeed so much as yield to a Trial where our professed Adversaries must be at once the Law-makers Accusers Witnesses and yet this is most notoriously our Case What course now in this Case can be taken by us The Church of Rome tells us expresly and peremptorily We cannot be saved out of her Communion Must we believe her without any more ado That 's indeed the way to make a short end of all our Differences for then we must yield to be Her 's or else run headlong to Damnation But if we believe her not as for my part I know not how we can do till we see some reason why we should do so the Dispute for ought I can see is like to be endless For no such reasons can or ought she to give us if she will be constant to her self and stand to her own Principles as will plainly appear anon and if she desert her own Principles she must yield her self to be fallible and not the true Church and then in vain is all talk of Reasons why they that are not of her Communion should be damned However suppose it be pretended as indeed it is that we have had sufficient Reasons given us why we ought to believe her in this Point This then is the present Question between us Whether she hath given us sufficient reason for this or no. She confidently affirms it We as confidently deny it She calls us obstinate Hereticks for denying it and lays many a heavy Curse upon us We for this think her a very unreasonable and imperious Mistress usurping an Authority over us which God never gave
things which we find not in the Scriptures saith St. Ambrose how can we use them Ambr. Offic. l. 1. c. 23. Let those of Hermogenes his Shop saith Tertullian shew that it is written If it be not written let them fear that Woe design'd for those that add or take away Irenaeus saith that what the Apostles had preach'd the same afterwards by the Will of God they deliver'd unto us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our Faith. St. Hierome against Helvidius calls the Holy Scriptures the only Fountain of Truth Let us bring saith St. Austin for trial not the deceitful Ballances where we may hang on what we will and how we will at our own pleasure saying this is heavy and this is light but let us bring the Divine Ballance of the Holy Scriptures and in that let us weigh what is heavier nay let us not weigh but let us own the things already weighed by the Lord. And elsewhere The Holy Scripture saith he fixeth the Rule of our Doctrine And indeed the excellent sayings of the Antients to this purpose are so well known that I should be very vain to cite any more here If now after all this I should suppose what I can by no means yet grant that God having order'd the Scriptures to be written and said so much in the Commendation thereof they do not yet contain all things necessary to Salvation but that some part of those necessary things as both some Hereticks of old and Papists now would have it believed was only whisper'd privately into the Ears of the Apostles as Mysteries unfit at that time to be communicated to vulgar Christians and that the Apostles tho they were commanded by Christ to preach upon the House-tops that which he had told them privately in the Ear Mar. 10. 27. did not yet think themselves obliged to obey this Command in writing all that was necessary but rather to conceal for a time a considerable part of that mysterious Doctrine Yea suppose that this was one principal use of St. Peter's Keys to lock up all these Mysteries in the Cabinet of the Churches Breast let the Church signify what it can to be communicated to the World in after-Ages by piece-meal so as she should find Men prepar'd by a blind credulity to receive them Yet after all I must needs think that we are too hardly dealt with to be called Hereticks for not believing these things till something be produced whereby we may be assur'd either that these things which they commend to us come indeed from Christ his Apostles or that we are obliged to take the Church of Rome's word for a good Assurance It seems to me a very unreasonable thing that we should be condemn'd as obstinate for not believing things never sufficiently proved whilst we know and declare our selves prepared in Mind to yield upon the first rational Conviction Why should not that Church have the charity to forbear her Censures till she have tried the strength of her Arguments Why was the Council of Trent contrary to the Custom of other Councils so liberal of her Curses and so sparing of her Reasons One good Reason would do more to make us of her Communion than a thousand Anathema's Would not a Man suspect that they have no good Reasons to shew who keep them so close The plain Truth is there have been such vain Pretences to Tradition in all Ages one contradicting another that it seems impossible in this Age to discern between true and false Did not Clemens Alexandrinus call it an Apostolical Tradition that Christ preach'd but one Year And did not Irenaeus pretend a Tradition descending from St. Iohn that Christ was about fifty Years old when he was crucified And do the Papists accout either of these to be true Many things might be named which for some time have been received as Apostolical Traditions which the Church of Rome will not now own to be so And those which she owns she can no more prove to be so than those she hath rejected It were easy to shew this even from abundance of their own Writers who assert the Perfection of the Scripture and complain of the Mischief this pretence to Tradition hath done and who confess they cannot be proved to come from the Apostles But I shall now content my self with the ingenuous Confession of the Bishops assembled at Bononia in their Counsel given to P. Iulius the 3 d. We plainly confess say they among our selves that we cannot prove that which we hold and teach concerning Traditions but we have some conjectures only And again In truth whosoever shall diligently consider the Scripture and then all the things that are usually done in our Churches will find there is great difference betwixt them and that this Doctrine of ours is very unlike and in many things quite repugnant to it What said Erasmus long since on the 2 d Psalm They call the People off saith he from the Scriptures unto little humane Traditions which they have honestly invented for their own Profit And Peter Suter a bitter Adversary of his hath these words Since many things are delivered to be observed which are not expresly found in Holy Scripture will not unlearned Persons taking notice of these things easily murmur complaining that so great Burdens should be laid upon them whereby the Liberty of the Gospel is so greatly impaired Will they not also easily be drawn away from the observance of Ecclesiastical Ordinances when they shall find that they are not contained in the Law of Christ And must we be Hereticks for not believing these so uncertain Traditions Must our Faith be accounted defective and not entire meerly because we do not believe what no Man can make us understand to co come from God This seems very hard It is now time for me to consider the second Objection made against our Faith which is That it is not rightly grounded it is not built on the Authority of the Church that is the Church of Rome And indeed so much weight I find laid upon this one Point that I have some reason to think that they who have been very forward at all times to give such liberal allowances of implicit Faith to their Friends at home would be contented with a very small measure of explicit Belief in us if we would once be taught to ground our Faith aright on the sole Authority of that Church It seems to me that for the talk about it they are no such rigid Exactors of an entire explicit Faith in order to Salvation but that if we will explicitly believe this one fundamental Point the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church over all Christians they will deal very favourably with us in most others and excuse our Ignorance easilier than they can perswade us to be content to be ignorant I think I have very good reason to believe this because I know they can have no reason to reject them that