this Catholick Church ordinarily there is no Salvation 3. That is the Holy Catholick Church which professeth that One Holy Catholick Faith once for all delivered unto the Saints whereof the Holy Scriptures are the Conservative and Rule 4. That Holy Catholick Church teaches no error destructive of Salvation 5. Therefore cannot so long as it continues so abuse the world by imposing false or forged Scriptures upon it Quere further What reason now from hence can be deduced why any rational person should desert the Church of England that adheres to the acknowledged Rule of Faith the Scriptures and enter into the present Church of Rome which at the threshold requires him to renounce his Senses Reason and Charity and obliges him to the belief of a Creed composed a few years ago at Trent which we desire the Papists to prove was the Catholick Faith of the truly antient and Catholick Church Third Section containing the Papists Reply N. 1. A Categorical Answer to the Queries concerning the Jewish Church I Admit the promises of God here mentioned respectively to Jews and Christians A. to 1. Q. To the first I answer affirmatively A. to 2. Q. The Second commits a fallacy of Ignoratio elenchi The Queries about the Christian Church to which these ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church nor on every one or any particular mumber of the Priests or Pastors of the Church but upon the representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matter of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when questions arise about any of them I therefore answer that when any such question arose amongst the Jews they were neither to have their last refuge to the Kings of Israel or Judah nor to the State Magistrates or common people for resolution in what they were to believe but to the lawful High Priest for the time with his High Council or Synod of other chief Priests and Doctors in the Law of Moses And they were to conform their belief to what they defined and taught them so that whatsoever either the Kings or some number of inferior Tribes or some particular Priests taught practised or believed contrary to the Doctrine and definition of this Supreme Spiritual Council was to be held erroneous and those who held forth such erroneous Doctrine pertinaciously or practised publickly contrary to it were to be esteemed in their doctrine Hereticks and in their practise Nonconformists to the True Church or Separatists from it If therefore a Jew in the times mentioned in the Querie should have demanded which was then the True Visible Church wherein Salvation could be acquired the answer must have been That it was the High Priest then being and all these believers who conformed their Faith Practises and Communion to him and his high Council ut supra And all such as stood in opposition against him and division from him were Aliens so long as they continued in that state from the True Church Now if the Querist had proved efficaciously that the High Priest with his fore named Council taught the people either Idolatry the common sin of the Jews or any other breach of Gods Law to be lawful or any error against Gods Revelations to be true or any of his Revelations to be false he had overthrown the whole fabrick of my Queries But seeing this is not yet done by him his Queries are neither an Answer nor any obstruction to mine and therefore they remain in their full vigour against him For notwithstanding all he says in his second Query which is the main force of his instance I have clearly shewed a Jew of those times which was then the True Visible Church out of which Salvation could not be had Now it is impossible to prove any such matter unless he enervate the words of our Saviour Mat. 23.2,3 where he says That whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught who had and did sit in Moses his chair that is succeeded in his Spiritual authority was to be observed and done by all the Jewish people which supposes evidently they could not teach them either error in Faith and Manners as part of Gods word for then he should have commanded to do evil and believe errors so that they were infallible in their teaching till Shiloh came And the reason why they were so infallible says our Saviour was because they sate upon Moses his chair and so governed successively the Church of God faithfully in matter of doctrine as he did in his time Upon the chair of Moses have sate the Scribes and Pharisees All therefore that they shall say unto you Observe and do it And this reason proves not only those that sate then when our Saviour spake these words but that all those who sate before them ever since the time of Moses were infallible in all divine doctrines both of Faith and Manners A. to Q. 3. The third Querie is therefore thus answered That the Jewish Church understood ut supra could not teach any error as matter of Divine Faith or Religion A. to Q. 4. To the fourth Querie I answer That though from the precedent Answers it followes that the Jewish Church by divine direction preserved the Holy Scriptures so entirely that it never rejected any true part of Gods written word nor received into their Canon of Gods written word any Book or Sentence which was not his word yet it followes not thence that every private person should find out every particular point of Religion by particular or express proofs out of that written word alone but that the Authority of the Jewish Church ut supra in matters controverted should interpose it self and determine the controversie Nor do the two Texts quoted in the Querie prove thus much For that Esa 8.20 proves only this that they were neither to have recourse to Soothsayers nor to extraordinary visions but to the Law and Testament when doubts arose Now this is so far from forbidding to have recourse to the present respective Priests and Governors of the Church that the Law and Testament command expresly that recourse is to be had to them in doubtful cases Deut. 17. from the 8 th to the 12 th verse and Malachi 2. from the 4 th to the 8 th In which places the interpretation of the Law is reserved to the Priest and the disobedience to the Priests command declared to be so great a sin that it is to be punished with no less than death And for the Scriptures themselves it was so far from the Ordinance of Moses his Law that every particular or private Believer had license or opportunity or ordinary possibility to peruse them and gather from them by his sole perusal what was and what was not to be believed as private Protestants now do that the Law was only to be read to them once in Seven years Deut. 31.10,11 and
was accordingly performed by Esdras Nehem. 8.1,2,3 And this was all we read in Scripture of the common People knowing the written word And it appears that the people were so far from undertaking by their own private judgements to attain to the full meaning of every hard sentence in the Law that it is said v. 79. that the Levites interpreted to the people and that Esdras taught them And v. 13. not only the people but the inferior Levites and Priests came to Esdras the chief Priest to hear from him the interpretation of the Law Now the respondent if he will make a parallel between the common people of the Jews and his Protestants must produce some clear place of Scripture where the Books of the Law of Moses and not only they but the whole Old Testament was as common and familiar in the houses and hands of every ignorant Jew as the Old and New Testament is now in the houses and hands of every ignorant Protestant which I believe he will find a very hard task seeing Printing being then unknown to the world it would have been very difficult to have found so immense a number of copies as are now since Printing of the Bible amongst Protestants Yet are not we of opinion that the Scriptures are either not profitable as Saint Paul says they are or not sufficient supposing them to be the written word of God by some precedent proof by way of Rule to make us wise unto Salvation For they contain many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expressely to all who are not willfully pertinacious and what they contain not in particular expressions by general rules they refer to the Church and the chief Governors of it to learn them from their mouths or from the Vniversal Tradition of Christendome But that every particular Christian is to receive and know what he is to believe what not by his sole perusal of Gods written word as though every particular point of Christian Faith were particularly set down in it or by particular respective consequences or other particular proofs concerning every such point to be deduced from it is so great a Paradox that no man I think who hath his right senses can averr it For besides the unlearned which is the far greater part of Christendome whereof a very great part know neither to write nor read and therefore depend upon the credit of others what are the words of Scripture or if they can read know no other save their Mothers tongue and thereby are subject to a thousand misconstructions of the words or Phrases in the Original or if they arrive to the knowledge of the original know not the true Rules of interpretation of Scripture and thereby run into errors or if they know them out of Pride or self conceit of their own wit and jugdment will not apply them And as to the Learned seeing they after all their industry skill in Languages comparing one place with another c. are yet so far from according one with another in the interpretation of divers places of Scripture touching points of Faith controverted that there is no hope after 150 years discord they will ever come to an agreement But suppose some learned men might have a greater insight into Scripture and approach nearer to the sense of it then those that are less learned or the ignorant yet Scripture interpreted by private mens judgment cannot be a sufficient Rule of Faith or means to obtain it For the Rule and means appointed by almighty God to attain Faith must be common and universal to all sorts of Christians nor must there be one rule and means for the learned and another for the unlearned Seeing Scripture cannot be sufficiently interpreted by the sole means of Scripture by the unlearned as I have shewed and Scripture interpreted by private men cannot be the Rule and Means appointed by Almighty God for the guiding of consciences in all points of Faith there must therefore be some other for the unlearned and consequently for all Now this other means and rule can be no other excogitable unless we run to the Sole private Spirit of Phanatiques which is more absurd then all the rest save the direction and universal Tradition of Gods Catholick Church as is above declared As to your last sentence I acknowledg That he who can answer these Queries may answer mine and the same substantial answer mutatis mutandis will satisfie a good conscience in both Nor did I ever think my Queries unanswerable for I know I could answer them my self or any one may do who assents to the Principles of the Roman Church But I propounded my Queries to Protestants and shewed they are unanswerable by them and from them only it is from whom I in this occasion expect an answer N. 2. Now let us weigh the Categorical Answers To the first the Answer seems to be affirmative Onely there is some dubiousness in the word Christianity For all Hereticks make a visible profession of Christianity Supposing therefore you mean true Christianity in their whole Profession the Answer is accepted To the second you add the word Ordinarily If therefore you mean by this that some may be saved in extraordinary cases out of the visible Church I take the Answer to be affirmative that some may be saved out of the visible Catholick Church which I think is contrary to the stream of all Christian Antiquity The third hath nothing of a Categorical Answer For I demand amongst all different pretended professions which is now the Holy Catholick Church by designation of some one or some set number of Professions now on foot And you tell me what the Holy Catholick Church is but give no designation of any particular profession or professions of Christians Or if you intended to make a designation you have answered obscurum per aequè obscurum which can be no Categorical Answer For it is now as obscure among Christians which profession that is which now professeth the true Catholick Faith once for all delivered to the Saints c. as it is which is now the Holy Catholick Church Your fourth Answer is defective ex insufficienti enumeratione partium and not Categorical For I put two parts in my Querie Destructive of Salvation or indangering of it You answer to the first but you say nothing to the second wherein notwithstanding was the main force of the Querie Your fifth Answer is not Categorical because only conditional You say The Catholick Church so long as it continues so cannot c Now this conditional So long as it continues so supposes that the Catholick Church can cease to be the Catholick Church which is both contrary to your answer to the first Querie wherein you grant that there is in all ages a Visible Catholick Church and a most damnable error in Christianity For if the Visible Catholick Church can ever cease to be Christ who hath promised it shall ever be Eph. 4.10,11,12 c. will become a false Prophet But suppose you had given a Categorical Answer That it can never obtrude false Scripture c. then you must grant that the Catholick Visible Church is infallible in the delivery of Scripture If so then is there an Infallible Judg upon the earth concerning this point If so I require some satisfactory reason why the Church should
be infallible in this and fallible in other points of Faith seeing it is as great absurdity to abuse the world with salse Faith as with false Scriptures Or what authority is there either in Scripture or Antiquity which limits the infallibility of the Church to the sole determination of Scripture Or is it not as pornicious to a Soul to be put in danger of damnation by having a dangerous error taught it by the Church as by having some Books happily less dangerous than that error imposed upon it by the Church To your Conclusion I answer The reason why you are to desert the Protestant English Church is not because it adheres to the Scriptures as a Rule of Faith for the Roman doth that as well as the Protestant but because they will have that the sole Rule in exclusion of Vniversal Tradition and the voice of the Catholick Church Nor is it any reason to refuse to join with the Roman Church because it enjoyns one to renounce his Senses and Reason For it enjoyns this no more than Scripture and the Protestant Church does For was not Lot to deny his Senses when he perceived them to be Angels whom his eyes ears and touch taught him to be living men And how could our Saviour pass through a whole crowd of people and neither be seen beard or felt without a deception of the Senses Now it is far more opposite to humane reason to believe one to be three and three to be one and that in the very self same being without any difference or mutation then to believe bread to be changed into flesh or one body to be in more places a once What you say of breach of Charity is misconceit of our doctrine We censure not the Persons but the Doctrine and that maintained pertinaciously and obstinately Now who does so we cannot absolutely judg and therefore pass no absolute judgment upon particulars And this is so far from breach of Charity that it is only out of Charity that we let Protestants know what danger they are in that they may avoid it whereas otherwise we should be Flatterers and Sycophants in setting them go on securely in the danger we conceive them to be in The Council of Trent composed no new Creed at all but gave a Catalogue of such points to be professed by all those who were to teach in publick Academies before they were admitted to that office As the English Protestants do exact a profession of the 39 Articles of such as she admits to Orders I have nothing to do with the proof of any thing till these Queries be answered by Protestants Fourth Section containing an Examination of the foregoing Reply made by the Romanist which was comprised in a Letter to the Gentleman assaulted Mr. F. M. SIR I Received the Papers which you conveyed unto me by many Ambages on the 12th of April since which time I have been intangled in several businesses that allowed me no leisure to consider the Cavils of the Factors for the Court of Rome who are like the Clients of * Beelzebub the Lord of Flyes 2. Reg. 1,2,3 the Prince of Devils Musca est meus pater clam illum nihil haberi potest Plaut the Idol God of Ekron the Flies not only for their insinuation into secrets but also for their restless importunity who though beaten off from the flesh they would taint and corrupt yet return again But now though enough hath been lately published by eminent persons in our Church to stop the mouths of gainsayers or at least to secure prudent readers from the dangerous practises of those who like Elymas cease not to pervert the streight waies of the Lord Act. 13.10 yet I have taken some spare time to examine what is returned to that Paper which you know Sir I writ in your Dining-room whilst you staid a while for your company to dinner Upon the perusal I find nothing that may render the defence of mine own former writing so difficult to me as it may be tedious to you For you will see that Oracle of Solomon verified Prov. 17.14 The beginner of strife is like one that opens a passage to waters As waters let in at a small breach quickly spread to a deluge so you may observe how contentions about Religion begun by admission of a few questions swell to Volumes that cloy or tire rather then instruct readers except they be such lovers of Truth as to seek it with patience But least my silence might give some occasion to the Adversarie of triumphing over our Church whereas indeed neither the validity of our cause or profession nor the credit of our Church depends on so weak a Basis as the acting of one of the meanest of her Children I shall endeavour to repair this breach and to retrench these bitter waters of Romish contentions against the Truth into their own channels And that you may not be affrighted with the very bulk of my Reply I shall not enlarge my discourse to disprove every particular which these Papers may tempt me to contradict but make short animadversions upon whatever occurs and appears material to our present Queries My first Querie ministers no occasion of dispute The second in which he rightly apprehends the main force of my instance against his Queries to lie is attacked by him confidently with such weapons as I may safely trust you to judge of their validity And indeed you that are assaulted in the possession of the truth of Christian Religion conveyed unto you by the light of Gods Word in the Scripture which is held forth by a Ministerie that doth not pretend to Infallibility but professeth legitimate Authority to instruct all under their charge in the Doctrine of the Gospel must be Judge in the Court of your own conscience whether the Roman Questionist or I speak that which is agreeable to the common Rules of Truth And your Reason assisted with the blessing of God the Father of Lights who freely and liberally gives wisdom sufficient to salvation unto all that with humility meekness and resolution of obedience implore his holy Spirit of understanding must be permitted to be your Guide in discovering the True Church from the False and may as well and safely be allowed to distinguish the wholesome Doctrine from the corrupt and noxious since this may be easier and sooner discerned by the agreeableness of any Doctrine to the sence of Scripture in which all things necessary are plain then the truth of a Church can be discovered by those Notes commonly given by the Papists which are uncertain variable difficult to
be examined and which is of most importance not infallibly known to be the infallible Notes of a True Church nor infallibly applied to their Church except you will take their Testimony of themselves to be infallible which is the thing in question But not to make unnecessary excursions I shall betake my self to examine his Answer to my second Querie I will not waste time to unfold the Logical term Ignoratio Elenchi though I can shew how unjustly this fallacy is charged upon me and how easily it may be retorted upon him I shall appeal to your reason and leave you to determine who is guilty of mistaking the Argument in debate or of proceeding fallaciously He thinks he hath convinced me of such a sophistical dealing by saying That the Queries about the Christian Church to which those propounded by me ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church But I desire you to consider whether there be not an exact analogy as to the sufficient way and means of salvation between the Christian Church under the Gospel diffused through all Nations and the Jewish Church which was the only Nation which had then the peculiar priviledge to be in Covenant with God and to enjoy the living Oracles of truth and whether there be not a just correspondence in the obligation that lies upon the members of either Church both to serve God sincerely according to his will revealed in his Word and also at the same time to yield obedience to their Superiors in the Lord and according to that Law which was given to Prince and Priests and People The whole Kingdom of Israel at first as it was undivided was the only Church of God And the Kingdom of Judah after the Rent was the only Spouse of God till she had a Bill of Divorce for her spiritual whoredoms And therefore let any indifferent Reader judge whether I proceeded not upon a good ground when I compared the present Catholick Church with the only Church though then confined to one Nation since both are equally furnished by God with sufficient means to preserve Religion and both are equally liable to corruption in their members and if you will believe St. Paul's warning to the Church of Rome Rom. 11.18 22. the visible Roman Church is more then equally with that of the Jews obnoxious to a grand apostacy and excision There is indeed one difference between the particular members of the Jewish Church under the Law and particular Christians under the Gospel for which the condition of Gods servants under the Old Testament was much harder then ours is under the New For the prescript service of God being of old tied to the Temple at Hierusalem and the people being bound to worship God there when the Temple was shut up and the worship of the Lord wholly laid down as under King Ahaz read 2 Chron. 29.7 or when the City and Temple were polluted and prophaned with the execrable Altars and Images of Baal of the Sun and of the Host of Heaven and Devil-worship which were set up by Manasseh who required obedience of Priests and People and filled Jerusalem with the blood of them who chose to obey God rather than Man See 2 Chron. 33.3,9 2. Kings 24.4 Gods faithful servants must needs have been in a sad streight between their zeal for Gods House and service and their obligation to their superiors who caused at least urged them to err and to do worse then the Heathen as the Holy Ghost speaks in that story when there was no appearance as this Romanist fondly dreams of a standing Council assistant to the High Priest resident at Hierusalem as a Visible guide in Gods way but the Priest that shewed their heads were all Sycophants and Seducers Joh. 4 21,24 But now the Service of God being spiritual and not tyed to any one place nor the Law of Christ confined to one Bishops chair only but the Church being spred throughout all nations and every Church that is associated orderly in any Kingdom or Nation or being endowed with a sufficient power of conduct and government in which the Christian Magistrate is concerned if a prevalent party of Governours be not only corrupted in matters of Religion but also so abusive of power that the communion with that Church be unsafe Christians are much more at liberty than the Jews were because by removal of their habitation they may leave a gangrened limb of the Catholick Church and joyn to a sounder part where they may be it in the East or in the West offer a pure oblation and incense unto God with acceptance upon the Altar Christ Jesus Malac. 1.11 Heb. 13.10.15 This advantage of freedom and safety for the Service of God and working out their own salvation a Christian gains above a Jew by the propagation of the Gospel unto the Gentiles and the settlement of particular Churches in several Territories under several jurisdictions But still the parallel holds between Jews and Christians both in regard of their duty to God and their Governours and in respect also of the provision for their eternal Salvation when the iniquity of the times is such that their Governours will either make the people committed to their charge drunk with the poysoned wine of their fornications or make themselves drunk with the blood of Martyrs Apoc. 14.8 17.6 But he goes on to tell us that his Queries proceed upon the Representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matters of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when Questions arise about any of them 1. Now Sir again I appeal to your reason 1. whether you did apprehend or could divine or by any thing in those Queries imagine that by the Visible Catholick Church which he supposes must be consulted as the Guide of Salvation is to be understood a truly general Council lawfully assembled But now you may be satisfied that when the Papists make a noyse with crying up the Catholick Church they do not mean the Body of the Christian Church diffusive over the whole earth which though it cannot err in matters of Faith necessary to Salvation for then it should cease to be a Church by not holding the head Christ Jesus yet can not this be a Guide because it cannot be consulted by particular Christians or others who having got an incling of the truth and desirous of Salvation may be inquisitive for a Guide And though every Christian which is a sound member of the Catholick Church by holding the true Faith and being ready to joyn upon every good occasion with all his Fellow-members in the worship of God through Christ Jesus according to the Rules of the Gospel be obliged to communicate his Light to any man that wants it yet is not every man that agrees with the Catholick Church an Infallible Guide And less than
when they turned it into a den of thieves God deserted his own habitation and laid it wast So he that reads the Gospel will quickly perceive this figment of Infallibility not so much usurped by Scribs and Pharisees themselves as pinned upon them by Papists overthrown by our Saviour Christ were they secured from error in expounding the Law and teaching the people the sense thereof Mat. 5.20 c. whose partial righteousness our Saviour condemns as inconsistent with true justice and whose corrupt glosses Christ confutes and opposes his own authority to their comments which adulterated the meaning of Gods law But because it may be said that this was a defect in them for want of light and spiritual obedience was the proper Doctrine of the Gospel so that this is not enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees of error in Doctrine I answer Rom. 7.14 that St. Paul says the Law is in it self spiritual and it was a gross seducing the people in faith and manners to teach such carnal Doctrines as incouraged and hardned men in sin and kept them from repenting of their vain thoughts and vile lusts which lodged in their hearts But to go a step further Christ that commanded obedience to them which necessarily must be limited by the standing and known Laws of Gods people Mat. 16.11,12 expresly warns his Disciples to beware of the Leaven of their Doctrine If Christ did by the Precept alledged evidently suppose as the Querist says that the Scribes and Pharisees could teach the people no error in faith and manners then why did our Saviour go about to secure his Disciples by such a Caution whereas they had no reason to suspect that which the Scribes and Pharisees offered them for the food of their souls Their very sitting in Mose's Chair was a sufficient assurance that they were as faithful in the House of God as Moses if you will take this mans word Christ meant and said so and were so wise as they could not be mistaken and so honest as they would not give sowr Leaven instead of heavenly Manna Oh brave Patron of the accursed Scribes and Pharisees But Sir I believe you have read the 23 Chapter of St. Matthew throughout wherein our Saviour sets out those blind Guides and abominable Hypocrites Luk. 11.52 who had the Key of knowledg as the Pope pretends to the custodie of St. Peter's Keys in such detestable characters as are inconsistent with Infallibility But some will say their corruption in manners doth not infer their erroneousness in Doctrine and therefore Pope Alexander the 6 th though a Devil incarnate might be infallible in the Chair as a learned Lady of the Romish side whom you knew once told me I answer that it will be hard to perswade a sober Christian that hath reverent apprehensions of Gods holy Spirit Wisd 1.5 that the Spirit of Discipline will abide with such unrighteousness and uncleanness See Joh. 14.17 or that persons immersed in worldly lusts should enjoy the constant presence and influence of that Spirit which leads humble and holy men into all truth But he that can perswade you that they Mat. 15.14 whom Christ calls blind Guides were not only fit but also infallible Directors may with the same confidence and arguments make you believe that the Sun shines in our Horizon at midnight I do not forget that it is not the Pope's Infallibility but a Councils which the Querist pleads for by the example of the Scribes and Pharisees albeit they were perhaps Doctors of the Law but few of them members of the great Council But I touch this briefly because it may be the next Papist that creeps into your familiarity will he for the Pope or perhaps this person who hath in his second Paper resolved the Catholick Church into a Council will in his next Paper melt down a Council into the Pope which is the more likely to be a Guide because a living person to be consulted with if many reasons did not hinder our acceptance of him for an infallible one But that the Scribes and Pharisees were guilty of teaching for Doctrines obligatory of conscience Mat. 15.3 9. the traditions of men and did by their devices annul the Commandements of God and encourage men under pretence of Religious Vows to disobey their parents and by false Doctrines involved souls in the guilt of perjury is evident by our Saviours convicting and condemning them Mat. 23.16,17,18,19,20 Can you now be of the opinion that this ungodly fraternity of Villains could make up an infallible Consistory by possessing the Chair of Moses If you can entertain such a concelt you bless whom Christ hath cursed and put darkness for light and call blind Guides the Seers Esa 5.20 and so draw down the woe upon your self Indeed such Guides are fit for them who wilfully wink against the light and make themselves slaves to the enemies of true Religion who put out the eyes of their captived Proselytes that they may with quiet grind in their Mills I will conclude my Reply to this Paragraph with one Proposal This Querist defers such honour to the Jewish Priesthood that the Priests ought to be simply believed upon their word till Shiloh came because they or at least a Council of them could not erre in faith I will not instance in the Council that condemned our Saviour because although some plead for Caiphas by vertue of his Priesthood to have been inspired by the Holy Ghost which alwayes assisted the Chair yet perhaps this Querist will not extend the continuance of Infallibility thus far And yet he that hath feigned Christ to assign it to the Scribes and Pharisees cannot give a good and solid account how Caiphas and his Confederates came in that critical hour to lose it or why the people without a manifest Declaration of God to abrogate their Authority should not then also be bound to believe their sentence though it were blasphemy and tended to the murder of the Son of God or how Joseph of Arimathea could be absolved according to this mans principles from being an Heretick and Schismatick for not consenting to the counsel and practice of the High Priest with his Assembly for which very thing the Gospel commends him to be a good and a just person Luk. 23.50,51 since at that very time the whole Nation of the Jews were obliged according to this mans assertions by Christs own injunction to rest in the Doctrine and Determination of the Council of Jerusalem as infallible in matters of Religion and consequently to deny Jesus to be the Christ Think of this seriously But there is another instance which I aim at It is well known that in the degenerate estate of the Jews there started up a powerful Sect of the Sadducees Act. 5.17 These though pretending to adhere unto the Law of Moses yet are noted to have been infected with pernicious errors in Religion for they believed
it be not a direct Answer to his Question yet it shall strangle or stifle his intended Conclusion in the conception and it is this A Man may be a member of Christs body which we now call the Catholick Church and be in the Ark out of which there is no Salvation though he be not in communion with the chief Governors of the Roman Synagogue Let him deny this if he dare make an open forfeiture of his charity Let him disprove it if he can There was a visible Church and Salvation attained in it before there was a stone laid at Rome of a spiritual Temple for Jerusalem was the mother and Mistress of all Churches and not Rome as the Father of lies teaches Papists to say and swear and it may be so again when Babylon the great the City seated on seven hills is fallen as a milstone cast into the bottom of the Sea In the mean time the old position of Dr. Jo. Reynolds is worthy of Remembrance The Roman Church is neither the Catholick Church nor a sound member of the Catholick Church Read the Bul. of P. Pius 4. which enjoyns all Clergy-men and all in Religious Orders to swear to the new Creed whereof this is one Article I acknowledge the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Roman Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches My Answer to his third Querie is very magisterially but ridiculoussy censured by him to have nothing of a Categorical Answer The Proposition is for certain Categorical because it is not hypothetical Let the Question and the Return be compared and this will appear defective in nothing necessary to an Answer The demand is this I desire to know by designation which amongst them all which pretend to be the Catholick Church or a part of it is now the Catholick Church The Answer runs thus That is the Holy Catholick Church which professeth that one Holy Catholick Faith once for all delivered to the Saints c. ut supra He says I give no designation of any particular profession or professions of Christians That is to say if I mistake not his meaning I do not name Protestants or Papists the Church of England or of Rome or of Greece or of Germany Indeed if I had so done I had then given an Answer that could not satisfie any rational man For no Church denominated from the place of habitation which way of distinction of Churches is usual in Scripture or from some bond of union which is not general to all Christendom can properly and truly be called the Catholick that is the Universal Church But I that was at liberty to design it as well as I could did give a significant Character of the Catholick Church taken from its proper office and action The Querist says I tell what the holy Catholick Church is Very good But I do not design which of so many several professions in the world is now the Catholick Church Now if he expect that I should play the fool and say that a particular Church is properly the Catholick Church I hope you will not be offended if I do not satisfie his expectation And when I have designed the Church Universal so that a man may understand what it is I think with the same labour I have told him which is it because the Church Universal is but one as he that tels what the Sun is designs which is the Sun because there are not many Suns And because the Church is a collective body that is one by aggregation of similar parts each of which lesser Societies is called a Church I have given him a Mark whereby he may know whether any particular Society be a member of that Body since the one faith runs through the one body and is the life of that body and of every limb of it But my fault is that I design one obscure thing by another that is equally obscure I will mend my fault if I do not justifie my self from having committed one I confess all spiritual things are obscure to men that are meerly carnal or natural but where the Gospel shines if it be attended unto it brings light with it whereby we may discern things that differ For judging or discerning of a true Church from a false we must first know in some measure what is Truth Mat. 7.16,17,18 For if we must discern a good tree from a bad by the fruit as our Saviour directs us to do then we must first know what is good and bad in fruit and then consider what fruit the tree bears and from thence give a judgement of the tree This is the method which we must take in the enquiring for a true Church Till we know what is Truth and that is * Thy scil Gods Law is the Truth Psal 119.142 Gods Word is the Truth Joh. 17.17 the Faith once delivered to the Saints we cannot know what Church brings forth good or bad fruit Profession of faith is bearing of fruit The goodness of this fruit is Truth that is agreeableness to the Word of God It is therefore necessary that we know the Truth before we can know a Church to be true Now though the Truth or the holy Catholick Faith may be under doubt and debate yet hat God set it up in the Scriptures so conspicuously 2 Cor. 4.3 that if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that perish Therefore I added to the Character of the Church by which I designed it to be known that is the profession of faith the means whereby we may know what the faith is which being professed is the sole certain mark of a true Church For the marks of the Church which Romanists commonly give are separable from the Truth and if they be taken singly without truth are false and treacherous indices whereas the true faith of it self is a sure note of a true Church And I pointed at Scripture which is the Rule of faith on purpose in mine Answer that I might not be thought to send a man to look for a thing in the dark without a light And now Sir do you judge whether I have deserved blame by my designation of the Catholick Church by professing the Catholick Faith But to make mine Answer both applicable to the Question and also useful to you I shall a little explicate and enlarge my sence It is presumed that the enquiry after a Church is made by a Christian that may be distracted in the variety of visible Societies differing one from another but every one equally pretending to be a Church but his distraction is the greater because of all Societies only the Roman Synagogue doth challenge to her self to be the Ark out of which there is no salvation There are three Reasons which may move Christians to enquire for a Church or a visible Society of Christians 1. That they may serve God and offer up the spiritual sacrifices of praise and prayer by Christ Jesus Heb. 13.15 1 Pet.
2.5 2 Pet. 3.18 2. That they may grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. That they may joyn with Gods people and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace by communicating together in Gods holy Ordinances To compass these ends a Christian is not concerned to enquire where the Catholick Church is for it is confessedly diffused through the Nations but so spread by Gods dispensation of the light that the Sun of righteousness doth not at one time arise to all parts of the world Besides the Candlestick is moveable from any place and the Kingdom of God may be transferred from one Nation to another Apoc. 2.5 neither hath God by any the least indication of his will and pleasure encouraged any portion of mankind or part of the world to promise to themselves a perpetual establishment of the Church in that place and in that successive body of men which at some time hath been or is now irradiated with the Gospel It is therefore not at all material to trouble our selves with delineations of the Catholick Church which hath no set or certain limits of extent That which concerns us to know is what Church pretending to be a member of the Church Universal for no men but Papists that can admit contradictions into their Creed will speak such non-sense with deliberation as that is when they call a particular society of Christians combined under one-Bishop the Universal Church is fit and safe to be communicated withal that we must reap the benefits of a Christian Congregation Therefore the Question is now whether the Church wherein I was born and baptized and by Gods Providence am seated under its government or another different society of Christians which invite me to their communion be such a company as I may safely joyn with them in all publick offices of Religion For if it be I am bound to communicate with that Church as being a member of the Body of Christ the unity of which Body I am bound to maintain The Truth therefore of the doctrine taught the integrity and purity of the divine worship celebrated and the way of administring Ecclesiastical power must be examined by some Rule and known to be agreeable to the Gospel of Christ before a Christians conscience can be satisfied of the necessity of communion with that Church upon this account because it is a member of a Church Catholick Since then it is the custome to call any publick society of Christians that are compacted together by a frame of political government into one body a Church that particular Church is a member of the Catholick which holds that Faith the profession whereof constitutes the Church Catholick He that sleights this Designation would have dealt kindly with us if he had discovered unto us a better way or a clearer Light by which we might find the Church and discover a true Church from a vain pertender Till he or some other do that office for us we think it best to seek for a Church if we were now to seek by looking for the light of truth in it which alwaies shines in the house of God And because truth and peace are both the legacies of Christ bequeathed unto the Church we may do well to try what society of Christians doth follow peace and edification of the Body of Christ If the Church of Rome that sets up Images of God which are the teachers of lies in their Temples and by her Anathemaes makes divisions in Christendome be tryed by those two marks I leave the event to any one that will impartially pronounce sentence according to the evidence of fact in the whole bulk of their doctrines and Devotions and in their publick Government My fourth Answer hath the same fate with the former to be called not Categorical I must learn new Logick as well as new Theologie to understand this Gentleman But it is charged with defect because it reflects not upon the whole Question and takes no notice of the tail wherein the sting of the Scorpion lies I confess mine Answer comes short in that particular because I did not apprehend then the last clause of his question to be of any moment For I thought it enough that the Church Catholick is secured from any error that is destructive of Salvation But because I am now informed that the main force of the Querie lies in this Whether the Holy Church so designed can teach any error as matter of Faith endangering of Salvation I now make a return to that part as well as to the former and indeed to the whole Question 1. Errors that endanger Salvation do not alwaies destroy it 2. God hath promised to preserve his Church from destruction but not from danger 3. All errors when they are discovered are to be rejected 4. No doctrines offered by any Church to her Children are to be received without examination 5. The Catholick Church as it signifies the whole Body of Christendome is too big to be a teacher that may be consulted and hearkened unto 6. The Church in this mans sense and explication that is an Assembly of chief Pastors in Council may touch errors endangering Salvation Arianism hath been taught in as large Assemblies of chief Pastors as the true Faith hath been 7. But because it is the design of this man that we should take the Roman Church for the Catholick I stick not to say that the Roman Church teaches her children errors that endanger the attaining of Salvation 5. My fift Answer is excepted against for the interposition of these words so long as it continues so which looks like a condition and seem to suppose that the Catholick Church can cease to be so The words are â—…pable of another construction viz. The Holy Catholick Church so long as it continues sacured from teaching destructive errors cannot even for that reason abuse the world with forged Scriptures This was then my meaning who had no intention that my last Answer should contradict my first Let us now see what he draws from my Answer if it were Categorical and how rational his inference is For now we are come to the bottom of his project â— And he thinks he hath catched us so fast in his trap that either we must give him the Cause or be condemned out of our own mouths If mine Answer be says this new fashioned Logician that the Church can never ohtrude false Scripture c. then you must grant that the Catholick visible Church is infallible in the dolivery if Scripture If so then is there an infallible Judge upon the earth concerning this point How rash this inference is and how incoherent the conclusion with the premises a few words will serve to discover It is acknowledged on both sides that the primitive Church which received the Scriptures was not and because Gods spirit guided and governed the Church in this important business could not be abused and mistaken in the receiving of
Canonical Scripture The Catholick Church being quickly after enlarged and spred through many regions of the earth did together with the Gospel preached receive Copies of the Scriptures which had been communicated by the particular Churches to which they were directed at first unto their neighbour Churches These Scriptures were by all Churches reverenced and preserved as the Grand Charter of their Salvation and the Laws and Records of their Society as the Church was the Kingdome of Christ distinguished from the world The zeal of Christians for their Laws and their knowledg of them which were frequently read in the publick Assemblies according to an * Col. 14.16 Appostolical order to which we must add above all the Providence of Gods watching over the Church for the preservation of Scriptures being more pretious to God than to Man and as pretious to God as the world it self these being well considered may assure us that it was morally impossible that the whole Church of God should be cousened into the reception of any forged Scriptures And if the Church in following ages could not combine together to coyn counterfeit Scriptures then the Church universal could never obtrude any thing upon the world for Canonical Scripture which was not received from the Primitive Church at first But how doth it follow from hence that the Church is an Infallible Judg in this point A creditable witness is not presently an Infallible Judg. A faithful Depositary that keeps Records is not the same thing with an unerring Judg. The Tradition of the Church Universal which hath derived the Holy Scriptures from age to age is not an Act of Judicature The Nation of the Jews is at this day a credible witness of the divine Original and authority of the Old Testament at least at the first plantation of the Church Christian the Jevvish Church did preserve and deliver the Holy Scriptures in tire so much at least as God thought necessary or expedient and if any book vvere lost that by being lost became unnecessary and vvas secured by Gods Providence in the conveyance of his Oracles to Christians Doth it hence follovv that the People of the Jews was a visible Infallible Judg in that point and if so then in all matters of Faith For thus the Papist proceeds If so I require some satisfactory reason says the Querist why the Church should be infallible in this and fallible in other points of Faith c. I have already shewed that the Case is not so as this man imagines therefore I am not bound to give him the satisfaction which he requires Yet for your further information I add this 1. The reception and tradition of Scriptures by the Church is a fact which God orders as expedient for the preservation of Religion 2. The certain number of the Books written by inspiration is not a point of faith necessary for every Christian to know and believe unto Salvation 3. The Catholick Church cannot err in any point of faith necessary to salvation 4. But any particular Church may believe and teach erroneous Doctrine for matter of Faith The Church of Rome which is not the sole keeper of Scripture may and doth err in several points of their Religion and doth impose upon her children uncanonical Books for Scripture and false Doctrines for matters of faith as is evident by the Canons of the Conventicle of Trent And yet it is not in the power of the Church of Rome to abuse the whole Christian world by the imposition of counterfeit Scriptures upon it I shall yet persist in my reflexion upon the Jews that I may shew that the keeping of Scriptures without forgery falsification and corruption is a thing distinct and separable from erring teaching errors The Jews cannot be denied to have been good keepers of the Books even then when they corrupted the Religion enjoyned by the Law written in those Books Never yet was any man so weak as to conclude that the Priests and Rabbies of the Jews were Infallible Judges of the Doctrine concerning the Messias even those who condemned Christ the Son of God to be guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death because they kept the Books of Moses and the Prophets There is now less reason why we should take the present Church of Rome which we evidently see to teach Doctrines and set up a worship as contrary to the Scriptures as darkness is to light to be an infallible Judge of faith upon this account because the Primitive Roman Church in communion with other Churches did hand down to posterity the holy Scriptures without any falsification since the Church of Rome at this day doth both accept and impose upon her own Children and would but cannot upon others Apocryphal Books for Canonical I have now shewed that these Queries are not unanswerable by Protestants adhering to their own principles or Axioms I desire you to consider the result of the whole design Except you allow him at first that the Roman-Church is in propriety of speech the Catholick Church this disquisition can advance you not an hairs-breadth to a better opinion of the Roman Church for a Guide then you had before For after all the clamour made for resolution of these Queries concerning the Catholick Church the main Question stands as it did Whether the Church of Rome at this day be to be subjected unto as an infallible Guide and to be communicated with all other Churches being abandoned and particularly the Church of England whereof you are now a setled member Till this be resolved you that know the frame of our Church and the module of our Religion may stay safely where you are It remains now that I examine his Answer to my conclusive Querie And I shall briefly note what you may by your own reason or experience discover either absurd or false in it He doth not require you to desert the Reformed Church of England for adhering to the Scriptures as the Rule of Faith For the Roman Church doth that as well as the Protestant as he says If this Querist do not pretend to Infallibility and Authority over you he will out of modesty allow you to examine whether Papists do as well that is as fully and firmly adhere to the Scriptures as English Protestants Certainly they do not well own them for a Rule who accuse them of obscurity and imperfection and make it a point of faith that the defectiveness of Scriptures must be supplied with unwritten Traditions And as certain it is that we who maintain the fulness of Scriptures in delivery of all things necessary to salvation and the perspicuity in that delivery and therefore admit of no point of Religion that is a meer stranger unto the Scripture do more closely stick to that Rule then the Papists But because you are free to examine the adherence of Papists to the Scriptures in particulars by comparison with the English Protestants try whether a mangled Eucharist the real Sacrifice of Christ by a Priest