the world of Judgement because the Prince of theis world is condemned by the conversion of those who forefook him to become Christians Therefore S Steven upbraideth the Jews saying Ye stisnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and eares ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost even you also as did your fathers Acts VII 51. Because being convicted by the Holy Ghost which spoke in him that he spoke from God neverthelesse they submit not to his message Therefore our Lord Mark III. 28. 29 30 All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men and blasphemies which they shall blaspheme But whoso shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath no remission for ever but is liable to everlasting damnation Because they said he hath an unclean spirit which you have againe Math. XII 31 32. Luke XII 10. Because being convicted that our Lord spoke did his miracles by the Holy Ghost they blasphemed saying that he spoke and did them by an uncleane spirit For these words and these workes are the meanes by which our Lord accomplished â—his promise Iohn XIV 23. If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and abide with him For before the condition If any man love me be fulfilled the case is that which our Lord expresseth Apoc. III. 20. Behold I stand at the dore and knock And if any man heare my voice and open the dore I will come in to him and sup with him â—e with me But being fulfilled the words of our Lord take place Iohn XVI 15 16 17. If yee love me ye will keep my commandements And I will aske the Father and he will give you an other Advocate to abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because they â—ee it not nor know it but you know it because it abideth with you and is in you For seeing it is manifest by the premises that the undertaking of Christianity is the condition upon which the Holy Ghost is granted as a gift to abide with Christians the preaching of Christianity that is the proposing of those reasons which God by his word hath shewed us why wee should be Christians is the knocking of our Lord Christ by the spirit at the dore of the heart that he may enter and dwell in us by the same spirit according to the words of S. Paul 2. Cor. II. 16. For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said To wit I will dwell and converse among them and will be their God and they shall be my people That which some Philosophers say of the naturall generation of man That the soule frames its owne dwelling being fulfilled in the worke of generation by grace when the Holy Ghost by his actuall assistance frameth the man to be fit for the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost by becoming a true Christian If then we believe that the Holy Ghost was given by God and obtained by Christ as well to make the Gospell effectuall as to move the Apostles to preach it there can no doubt remaine that the preaching of the Gospell that is to say the meanes which the Holy Ghost provideth to make it either sufficient or effectual to convince the world of it is the instrument whereby he frameth himself that invisible house of true believers in which he dwelleth And therefore the meanes whereby Gods grace becomes effectuall to those who imbrace it is the same that renders it sufficient for those who refuse it the difference lying as well in the disposition which it meets with for which the man is accountable as in the spirit of God that presenteth it which renders God the praise when it takes effect and leaves men accountable when it does not If this reason had been in consideration with Socinus and perhaps with Pelagius he would have found it necessary acknowledging as all that read the Scriptures must needs acknowledge that which they find so frequent and so cleare in the Scriptures that the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost is granted to inable those who undertake Christianity to performe it to acknowledge also that the actuall help of it is necessary to make the motives of Christianity effectuall to subdâ—e men to it And by consequence that the coming of the second Adam was necessary to restore the breach which the first had made seeing it was not to be repaired without the same Nor is it to be marveled at that naturall meanes conducted by the grace of Christ should produce supernaturall effects such as I have shewed the obediencâ— of Christianity to be which supposing the Covenant of grace and freedome of mans will cannot be otherwise The reasons which appeare to the understanding and move the will to act contrary to the inclination of originall concupâ—scence in professing Christianity and living according to the same being sufficient to convict it to give sentence that so the man ought to doe And the circumstances in which the spirit of Christ conducteth these motives to the heart which it knocketh at by their means being able to represent them valuable to take effect with him who is moved to the contrary by his originall concupiscence And though meanes naturall because they move a man to proceed according to right reason which nature requires him to doe yet as they are brought to passe and conducted by a supernaturall cause nothing hinders the effect to be supernaturall in such a nature as is by them made capable of acting above nature I do much approve the discourse of some that have indeavoured to shew how this comes to passe thus supposing the covenant of the Law to be the renewing of that which was made with Adam in Paradise for the maintaining of him in the happnesse of his naturall life Which we may suppose though we suppose not that God covenanted not with him at all for the life to come For the dispensation of those blessings of this life which the covenant of nature limited by Moses Law to the happinesse of the land of promise tendreth may well be the advantage which God taketh to make the covenant of Grace acceptable especially to those who by Gods blessing failing of the blessings of the first covenant by that meanes becoming out of love with this present worlâ— meeâ— with the Covenant of Grace in such a disposition as may render it acceptable For so long as things goe well with men in this world it seemes haâ—sh to require them to takeup the Crosse of Christ that they may obtain the world to come But when the comforts of this world faile it is no marvell if any condition that tenders hope in the world to come be welcome If it be said that this renders the grace of Christ effectuall onely to the poore and men oâ— meane condition in the world who have cause to be weary of their estâ—te in it It is answered that it is no marvell if the
had further to learne to make their Praises of God and prayers to God the more Christian He that understandeth this case by the Scriptures of the new Testament must conclude that all preaching is to make men Christians that the praises of God and prayers to God comprehending the Eucharist are the exercise of Christianity The one the next meanes to attaine salvation the other onely the meanes to attaine that meanes So that this dispute also resolveth into that of my second Book whether we are justified by believing that we are justified and predestinate Or by professing and living as Christians For supposing the state of salvation to be obtained by so believing and that so as not to be forfeited any more It is very reasonable to run infinitely after Sermons till a man find himselfe setled in so believing But so that then he shall believe that which he can have no reason supposing the Scriptures to believe Nor shall the frequenting of Sermons serve to show any resonable motive to believe But the very act of hearing a man speake out of the Pulpit by the glasse must be taken for the meanes appointed by God by which when he sees his time he will determine the Elect to believe leaving the Reprobate in their unbeliefe though perhaps after they have slept out more Sermons then the other have done So the opus operatum of hearing Sermons according to this opinion succeeds instead of the opus operatum of hearing Masses according to the corrupt practice of the Church of Rome And in this chang the worke of Reformation according to this opinion must consist But then it will be necessarily consequent that they who have attained this faith give over hearing sermons for the future and not onely Sermons but prayers and all other offices of Gods service and assemblies for the same according to the opinion of that Sect that now thinks themselves above ordinances Which Sect before ever it appeared I had understood by a person of integrity and knowledge that there was a difference of opinion among those who frequented and maintayned Sermons besides the order of the Ecclesiasticall Lawes in England Some thinking it a meanes of faith to confer of the sermon after it is don others laughing at so silly a mistake as thinking to attaine the state of salvation by reason and freewill not by Gods meer Grace Whereby it appeareth that whosoever as I doe makes the preaching of the Gospell that is not speaking out of a Pulpit but showing the reasons which Gods word proposeth to move men to be true Christians the meanes which Gods spirit useth to bring a man to the state of Grace is obliged to grant that it is no otherwise the meanes to maintaine a man in that state then as it is the meanes to maintaine him a good Christian And that his Christianity in the first place consisting in the publike service of God to which he becomes ingaged by being baptized into the Church The offices thereof are the immediate meanes of salvation to which as well as to the offices concerning other men and our selves all teaching of Christians immediately tendeth as all preaching to unbelievers at a distance Now let no man think that I take any pleasure in censuring the proceedings of forraine Churches which I could willingly have passed over in silence had not a pernicious affectation of being like them caryed those that liked not this order to destroy the very being of the English Church out of a desire to change the vertue of it for their oversight For now I must say whatsoever offence it may cause that when it had been well pleaded that the communion of the Eucharist ought to be restored in both kinds with the service of God in a known language And that order ought to be taken that preaching might be frequented for the instruction of the people to infer thereupon for a Law that there be no orders for holding any assembly of the Church without Preaching was to cure the abuse of Private Masses by degrading the Eucharist from the preeminence that it holdeth above all other offices that God can be served with by a Christian And that without colour from the scripture without precedent from any practice of the Church There have been indeed pretenses among us that the word which giveth efficacy to the Sacraments is the word preached Meaning thereby a sermon spoken out of the Pulpit And from hence hath proceeded the affectation of Christning Sermons as if that were the word whereof S. Austine saith Accedat verbum ad elementum fit Sacramentum Nay this preaching afore meate in a long discourse instead of thanksgiving what is it but a mark of that sense which they give S. Paul when he saith that the creature is sanctified by the word of God prayer for the food of Christians 1 Tim. IV. 5 And when Sermons are so affectedly called the Meanes To wit of saving us Is it not manifest that they attribute vnto Sermons that which S. Paul Rom. X. 8-15 and the apostles elsewhere attribute to the preaching of the Gospell whereby a man becomes convict that he ought to become a Christian without which no Christian will grant any man can be saved Whereby we may see what consequence slight mistakes in the very signification of the words may and doe produce For having showed an evident difference between preaching the Gospell to those who as yet believe not and teaching those that are become Christians the further knowledg of their Christianity I may take for granted that it is a mistake when the difference is not made between preaching to an assembly of Christians and declaring the Gospell to unbelievers whom the Apostles could not deale with upon any supposition of Christianity but onely upon the force of those motives which they showed them to imbrace it to whom therefore the onely meanes of their salvation was the knowledge of those motives And though all Christians when they come among unbelievers are bound to preach Christ to them that is to declare unto them the reasons why they ought to be Christians so far as they are able to doe it without prejudice of Christianity Yet to preach it as the Apostles preached it planting with all the Church in which God should be served according to Christianity is that which no private man can doe without authority received by the Church from the Apostles From which authority all that is afterwards don in serving God by the Churches so planted must receive that warrant upon which Christians may ground themselves that it is agreeable to the will of God And upon these termes it is to be granted that sermons preached in the assemblies of Christians are the meanes of their salvation because that the allowance of the Church groundeth a presumption that they are according to Christianity But if this be wanting though it is not necessary that they should be contray to Gods word yet because there is no
The nature and intent of it renders it subordinate to the Clergy How farre the single life of the Clergy hath been a Law to the Church Inexecution of the Canons for it Nullity of the proceedings of the Church of Rome in it The interest of the People in the acts â—f the Church And in the use of the Scriptures 368 CHAP. XXXII How great the Power of the Church and the offect of it is The right of judging the causes of Christians ceaseth when it is protected by the State An Objection If Ecclesiastical Power were from God Secular Power could not limit the use of it Ground for the Interest of the State in Church matters The inconsequence of the argument The concurrence of both Interests to the Law of the Church The Inâ—erest of the state in the indowment of the Church Concurrence of both in matrimonial causes and Ordinations Temporall penalties upon Excommunication from the State No Soveraigne subject to the greater Excommunication but to the lesse The Rights of the Jewes State and of Christian Powers in Religion partly the same partly not The infinite Power of the Pope not founded upon Episcopacy but upon acts of the Secular Powers of Christendom 381 OF THE PRINCIPLES OF Christian Truth The First BOOK CHAP. I. All agree that Reason is to decide controversies of Faith The objection that Faith is taught by Gods Spirit answered What Reason decideth questions of Faith The resolution of Faith ends not in the light of Reason but in that which Reason evidenceth to come from Gods messengers THe first thing that we are to question in the beginning is Whether there be any means to resolve by the use of reason those controverâ—â—es which cause division in the Church Which is all one as if we undertook to enquire whether there be any such skill or knowledg as that for which men call themselvs Divines For if there be it must be the same in England as at Rome And if it have no principles as no principles it can have unlesse it can be resolved what those principles are then is it a bare name signifying nothing But if there be certain principles which all parties are obliged to admit that discourse which admits no other will certainly produce that resolution in which all shall be obliged to agree And truely this hope there is left that all parties do necessarily suppose that there is means to resolve by reason all differences of Faith Inasmuch as all undertake to perswade all by reason to be of the judgment of each one and would be thought to have reason on their side when so they do and that reason is not done them when they are not believed There are indeed many passages of Scripture which say that Faith is only taught by the Spirit of God Mat. XVI 17. Blessed art thou Peter son of Ionas for flesh and blood revealed not this to thee but my Father which is in the heavens II. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes 1 Cor. I. 26 27 28. For Brethren you see your calling that not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen to shame the wise The weak things of the world hath God chosen to shame the strong The ignoble and despicable things of the world hath God chosen and the things that are not to confound the things that are John VI. 45. It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God Heb. VIII 10. Jer. XXXI 33. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their mindes and write them in their hearts These and the like Scriptures then asâ—ribing the reason why wee believe to the work of Gods Spirit seem to leave no room for any other reason why wee should believe But this difficulty is easie for him to resolve that diâ—â—inguishes between the reason that moveth in the nature of an object and that motion which the active cause produceth For the motion of an object supposes that consideration which discovers the reason why wee are to believe But the motion of the Holy Ghost in the nature of an active cause proceeds without any notice that wee take of it According to the saying of our Lord to Nicodemus John 111. 8. The winde bloweth where it listeth and a man hears the noise of it but cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the spirit For wee must know that there may be sufficient reason to evict the truth of Christianity and yet prove ineffectual to induce the most part either inwardly to believe or outwardly to professe it The reason consists in two things For neither is the mater of Faith evident to the light of reason which wee bring into the world with us And the Crosse of Christ which this profession drawes after it necessarily calls in question that estate which every man is setled upon in the world So that no marvel if the reasons of believing fail of that effect which for their part they are sufficient to produce Interest diverting the consideration or intercepting the consequence of such troublesom truth and the motives that inforce it The same is the reason why the Christian world is now to barren of the fruits of Christianity For the profession of it which is all the Laws of the world can injoyn is the common privilege by which men hold their estates Which it is no marvel those men should make use of that have neither resolved to imbrace Christ with his Crosse nor considered the reason they have to do it who if they should stick to that which they professe and when the protection of the Law failes or act according to it when it would be disadvantage to them in the world so to do should do a thing inconsequent to their own principles which carried them no further than that profession which the Law whereby they hold their estates protecteth The true reason of all Apostasy in all trials As for the truth of Christianity Can they that believe a God above refuse to believe his messengers because that which they report stands not in the light of any reason to evidence it Mater of Faith is evidently credible but cannot be evidently true Christianity supposes sufficient reason to believe but not standing upon evidence in the thing but upon credit of report the temptation of the Crosse may easily defeat the effect of it if the Grace of Christ and the operation of the Holy Ghost interpose not Upon this account the knowledg of Gods truth revealed by Christ may be the work of his Grace according to the Scriptures for that so it is I am not obliged neither have I any reason here to suppose being to come in
inward witness of Gods Spirit dictating to his Spirit that they are the word of God it will be utterly impertinent to our purpose For seeking as wee do the means to resolve one another it will be impertinent to allege that which though a man is inwardly satisfied with yet outwardly to another cannot appear And certainly if there be no reason to satisfie another man of the truth of the whole that is of Christianity or of the Scriptures It cannot be expected that there should be satisfaction why this or that should belong to the truth of Christianity or the intent and meaning of the Scriptures For of necessity whatsoever evidence can be made for this or that truth contained in the Scriptures must depend upon the reason for which Christianity is received as Gods truth In fine the reason why controversies in Religion may and are to be ended by dispute of reason is this as hath been premised because that the Holy Ghost which effectually moveth us to believe supposeth sufficient reason moving in the nature of an object proposed to believe Therefore neither the truth of Christianity nor the Scripture is admitted upon the dictate of Gods Spirit but supposing the reasons which convict us that they are to be admitted And correspondently the gift of the Holy Ghost that inableth to continue in the profession and exercise of Christianity supposeth the belief of that Christianity which a man from his heart professes And by consequence the reason why hee is to believe which will not fail to inferre the truth of the Scriptures But if it be said That any person or persons as Rulers of the Church have the promise of inspiration or revelation from God for a ground upon which others are to believe It hath been showed that all such grace supposeth the profession of Christianity and the truth of the Scriptures and therefore the grounds of the same If any man should say as I perceive some have a minde to say that the gift of Infallibility in the Church supposes no such inspiration or revelation but onely the qualities of such persons as have power to conclude the Church and that they do visibly proceed to determine It will be evident that they can no more challenge this right not supposing Christianity and the foundation of the Church than the High Priest of the Jewes could proceed to give answer by Uâ—im and Tummim not supposing that God had given the Law and appointed the Priest so to do The resolution of this Question may make it appear that Christians falling out among themselves maintain themselves upon such grounds as would leave no room for the truth of that Christianity which both suppose Had wee to do with the enemies of it it would easily appear wee must allege such reasons for the truth of Gods Word as might convince the enemies of it and not suppose the truth of it when the question is how it may appear to be true It were therefore fit to consider whether a man can reasonably be a Christian and yet question the truth of the Scriptures or rather not fit to consider that which there can be no doubt in The whole content of the Scripture is either the motives or the mater of Christianity They that professe Christianity suppose the motives of it true which they admit to be sufficient Supposing them true they cannot question the Scriptures that record them Supposing those Scriptures they cannot question those motives for true Whether sufficient is resolved by admitting Christianity Alwaies the same reason that moves a man to be a Christian resolves him to believe the Scripture neither would hee allege any other had hee to do with the enemies of Christianity What those motives are concernes not us proceeding upon supposition of common Christianity to determine differences within it Yet that I may be the better understood my meaning is That the miracles done by those from whom wee have the Scriptures is the onely motive to shew that they came from God and therefore that wee are obliged to receive what they preached and by consequence the Scriptures that containe it Not intending hereby to quit the advantage which the Law hath of Heathenism and the Gospel of the Law in regard of the reasonablenesse and holinesse of the mater of each above other respectively justified by the light of nature But because the businesse is at present onely to shew the evidence wee have that God did send whatsoever reason may be given why hee would send which without other evidence had remained unknown though never so probable or reasonable Not intending hereby to balk that witnesse which the Scriptures of the Old Testament yield to the truth of the New But because that witnesse depends upon the miracles done by Moses and the Prophets to evidence their Commission from God And so the credit which the New Testament hath from the Old is resolved into those miracles which evidenced the sending of Moses and the Prophets and consists in the miracle of fore-telling those things by the one which by the other are fullfilled I know the Jewes expresly deny the credit of the Law to depend upon any miracles done by Moses and the Prophets but onely upon the appearance of God at giving the Law to all that people and speaking to them mouth to mouth The like whereof not having been done nor to be done in giving Christianity belonging to all nations who could not meet at once to receive it they think themselves grounded thereupon that the Law is not nor could be reversed by it Thus are they content that God sending Moses on his ambussage with the miracles which hee gave him for his letters of credit shall be thought not to have convicted Pharao That the Law provided no legal tryal God no evidence to the conscience of his servants distinguishing true and false Prophets which cannot be imagined but by their sayings and doings predictions and other miracles Well may the delivering of the Law have circumstances which no other miraculous action recorded in the Scriptures can compare with Shall that obscure the glory of Christs resurrection fore-told by him expresse to witnesse the truth of his message Shall it make an Ocean of miracles done by him and his Apostles to stand for nothing Shall it disable God himself to do any thing competent to make faith of a message the nature whereof bore not those circumstances which hee had used afore Now if the reason why wee believe the Scriptures to come from God as they pretend be the motives of Christianity strange it is that a man should be troubled how to answer the difficulty that may be made how wee know the truth of those motives speaking onely to Christians which have admitted them to be true But I am sure neither the witnesse of the Church nor the dictate of the Spirit can be alleged to Infidels but by them that would have themselves and this Gospel laught at both at once Seeing
therefore that Christians do believe for the same reasons for the which Infidels ought to believe I shall yield that it is onely the credit of Gods ancient people and of Christs Church that maâ—â—â— evidence that those miracles were truly done which I affirm to be the onely motive to believe being done at such distance of time and place from us But let not those that would learn mistake what is meant by the name of the Church For if you suppose the Church to be a Society of men whereof some by Gods appointment have power to oblige the whole then will the credit of the Scripture be resolved into the authority of the Church if the truth of those miracles on which alone the credit thereof is said to depend be grounded upon such a witnesse of the Church But my meaning is to suppose no more by the name of the Church in this place but the whole number of believers from Christ to the worlds end And so to say that there is no other reason why wee believe that such men as Moses and the Prophets as our Lord and his Apostles did such works as the Scriptures report to evidence that they came from God but the consent of all Christians that have imbraced the Gospel upon that motive Neither shall the Gospel hereby depend more upon the witnesse of man which may fail than it depends upon the witnesse of him who upon seeing what was done by our Lord and his Apostles should be moved to imbrace the Faith For though they had not taken effect with him but for the report of his eyes yet did not the force of them depend upon it Hee that considers shall finde that the consent of all believers in the whole motive of Faith more than supplies the use of our eyes in showing us sufficient reason to believe There is a distance of place as well as of time And God forbid wee should say those that never saw our Lord and his Apostles do the works for which wee believe had not sufficient reason to believe Their ears supplyed to them the use of their eyes inasmuch as experience and common sense shows that those things wherein the world agrees are no lesse certain and evident though morally than those which wee see with our eies Hee that should not traffick into the East or West-Indies or travail to Rome or Constantinople before hee had seen them must resolve not to see them The reason is because the world can have no common interest to deceive or to be deceived Much lesse could the Law of Moses least of all the Gospel of Christ have found credit the one imposing such an endlesse morosity of precepts to observe the other the Crosse of Christ had it not been originally manifest that such things were done to evidence that and this By which it appears that this reason supposes no authority in the Church founded upon the Gospel as a Society communicating in it because it supposes the same in the people of the Jewes as in the Church The authority of the Church standing upon the Gospel that which was over the Jewes on the Law whereof the one was to be removed when the other took place The reason because it referreth nothing to the Church but that intelligency which the community of mankinde furnish one another with for assurance in those things whereof all cannot be eye-witnesses by the consent of all which common reason makes to be as good evidence as our own senses And now it will not be difficult to say how the Scriptures are to be believed for themselves For inasmuch as the motives of believing are things recorded in Scripture it will be necessary to grant that the Scriptures are to be believed for themselves which are to be believed for those things which the Scriptures report But if wee be further demanded for what reason those motives which if true are sufficient to oblige all men to believe are taken to be true Hee that saies because they are recorded in the Scriptures grants that there is no reason to believe the Scriptures granting that there is no reason to believe the motives of faith but the report of those Scriptures the belief whereof supposes the truth of those motives But if wee impute the belief of that truth to the common sense of all who upon the supposition of them have submitted to Christianity and hold it wee have the whole truth of the Scripture evidenced upon such a ground as shall serve to inforce a resolution of whatsoever is questionable in Christianity upon it Whereas they who make the authority of the Church or the dictate of the Holy Ghost the reason of believing must either stand still when they are demanded the reason or give it by supposing Christianity and the Scriptures the truth whereof they pretend to prove by it which is the Circle that I spoke of afore admitting neither principle nor conclusion of discourse To confirm that which hath been said let me demand how the Writings of Homer or Virgil of Aristotle or Plato of Tully or Demosthenes of Hippocrates or Galen come to be admitted without any question for their Writings after some two thousand years more or lesse Is it not because ever since they were penned there have been those that have studied them for paterns of good Language and Oratory for the lest authors in Philosophy and Physick Because by them and through their hands they have been transmitted from age to age Is not their credit by this means so unquestionable that a man would be laught at that should ask other reason for it And yet what is this in comparison of that which is to be said for the Scriptures That all nations having starred aside to worship many Gods one people of the Jewes took upon them the worship of the onely true God according to the Lawes recorded in the books of Moses and that of so ancient time That being planted in the land of Canaan God stirred them up Prophets from age to age to keep them close to the service of their God That howsoever they kept them they alwaies professed to be under those Lawes as Gods That our Lord Jesus and his Apostles by commission from him in due time preached both Jewes and Gentiles to be rebels against God And that neither the Law of nature nor of Moses was able to free them from sin Tendering in Gods name the terms upon which all may be reconciled to God and evidencing their Commission by the works which they did in Gods name That all parts of the civil world being by that means convicted of the truth hereof undertook to professe Christianity notwithstanding the persecutions to which it was lyable and do continue in it till this time Is not this infallible evidence that wee have the very Writings of Moses and of the Prophets and Apostles and that they who left them us were sent by God seeing them admitted for Lawes to mens lives and conversations which
nothing but sufficient evidence that they came from God could have brought to passe Here if any man should say I know I have the Writings of Homer Aristotle or Tully by the Writings themselvs he might be convicted by tendering them to one that knowes nothing of Tully or Homer or Aristotle and asking him whether hee can say by those books whether they be Homers or Aristotles or Tullies Writings Bu◠he that first understands what account the world alwaies hath had their Writings in and studying them finds the marks in them may well say that hee knows the authors by their Writings So tender the Scripture in Ebrew or Greek to a savage of the West-Indies and ask him whether they be the Word of God or not who believes not in God as yet do you believe hee can tell you the truth But convict him of that which I have said how and by what means they came to our hands how they have been and are owned for Lawes to the hearts and lives of Gods people and hee will stand convict to God if hee believe not finding that written in the Books which the men own for the rule of their conversations So by the same means that all records of Learning are conveyed us are the Scriptures evidenced to be mater of historical faith But inasmuch as the mater of them had never been received but by the work of God in that regard they become mater of supernatural faith in regard of the reason moving in the nature of an object to believe as well as in regard of Gods grace moving in the nature of an effective cause I know there have been divers answers made to assoile this difficulty by those that dispute Controversies That the Scriptures authority is better known in order of nature the Churches in that order by which wee get our knowledg as Logicians and Philosophers use to distinguish between notius naturâ and notius nobis because our knowledg rises upon experience which wee have by sense of particulars and yet the general reason being once attained by that means is in some sense better known than that which depends upon it That the authority of the Scripture is the reason why wee believe but the authority of the Church a condition requisite to the same creating in the mindes of men that discreetly consider it a kinde of inferior Faith though infallible which disposes a man to accept the mater of that Faith which God onely revealeth though the reason why we believe is only the act of God revealing that which he obligeth us to believe But all this to no purpose so long as they suppose the foundation of the Church in the nature of a Corporation for the ground of admitting the mater of Faith not the credit of all believers agreeing in witnessing the motives of Faith I remember in my yonger time in Cambridge an observation out of Averrois the Saracene his Commentaries upon Aristotle which as I finde exactly true so may it be of good use That in Geometry and the Mathematicks the same thing is notius naturâ and nobis to wit the first principles and rudiments of those sciences which being evident as soon as understood produce in time those conclusions which no stranger to those studies can imagine how they should be discovered For being offered to the understanding that comprehendsthe meaning of them they require no experience of particulars with sense time brings forth to frame a general conceit of that in which all agree or to pronounce what holds in all particulars Because it is immediately evident that the same holds in all particulars as in one which a man has before his eyes The like is to be said of the processe in hand though the reason be farre otherwise Hee that considers may see that the motives of Faith assured to the common sense and reason of all men by the consent of believers are immediately the reason why wee believe the Scriptures in which they are recorded to be the Word of God without so much as supposing any such thing as a Church in the nature of a Corporation indowed with authority over those of whom it consists The consent of Christians as particular persons obliging common reason both to believe the Scriptures and whatever that belief inferres As this must be known before wee can believe the Scriptures so being known it must be if any be the onely reason why we believe either the Scriptures or that Christianity which they convey unto us And if it be the onely reason why wee believe then is it better known in order of reason as well as of sense to be true than the authority of the Church the knowledg whereof must resolve into the reason why wee are Christians And if this be true then is not the authority of the Church as a Corporation to be obliged by the act of some members so much as a condition requisite to induce any man to believe All men by having the onely true reason why all are to believe being subject to condemnation if they believe not But not if they believe not the Corporation of the Church unlesse it may appeare to be a part of that Faith which that onely reason moves us to believe Neither doth the credit which wee give to all Christians witnessing the motives of Faith to be true by submitting to Christianity in regard of them create in us any inferior Faith of the nature of humane because the witnesse of man convayes the motives thereof to our knowledg But serves us to the same use as mens eyes and other senses served them when they saw those things done which Moses and the Prophets which our Lord and his Apostles did to induce men to believe that they came from God For as true as it is that if God have provided such signs to attest his Commission then we are bound to believe So true is it that if all Christians agree that God did procure them to be done then did hee indeed procute them to be done that men might believe For so great a part of mankinde could not be out of their wits all at once Let not therefore those miracles which God hath provided to attest the Commissions of Moses and the Prophets of our Lord and his Apostles be counted common and probable motives to believe unlesse wee will confesse that wee have none but common and probable motives For what reason can wee have to believe that shall not depend upon their credit Unlesse it be the light of natural reason which may make that which they preach more evidently credible but never evidently true If these works were provided by God to oblige us to believe then is that Faith which they create truely divine and the work of God Though had all men been blinde they had not been seen and had all men been out of their wits wee might presume that they had agreed in an imposture And now it will be easie to answer the
words of S. Augustine contra Epistolam fundamenti cap. V. which alwaies have a place in this dispute though I can as yet admit S. Augustine no otherwise than as a particular Christian and his saying as a presumption that hee hath said no more than any Christian would have said in the common cause of all Christians against the Manichees Ego Evangelio non crederem saith hee nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae moveret authoritas I would not believe or have believed the Gospel had not the authority of the Catholick Church moved mee For some men have imployed a great deal of learning to show that moveret stands for movisset as in many other places both of S. Augustine and of other Africane Writers And without doubt they have showed it past contradiction and I would make no doubt to show the like in S. Hierome Sidonius and other Writers of the decaying ages of the Latine tongue as well as in the Africane Writers if it were any thing to the purpose For is not the Question manifestly what it is that obligeth that man to believe who as yet believeth not Is it not the same reason that obliges him to become and to be a Christian Therefore whether moveret or movisset all is one The Question is whether the authority of the Church as a Corporation that is of those persons who are able to oblige the Church would have moved S. Austine to believe the Gospel because they held it to be true Or the credit of the Church as of so many men of common sense attesting the truth of those reasons which the Gospel tenders why wee ought to believe What is it then that obliged S. Austine to the Church The consent of people and nations that authority which miracles had begun which hope had nourished charity increased succession of time settled from S. Peter to the present the name and title of Catholick so visible that no Heretick durst show a man the way to his Church demanding the way to the Catholick So hee expresseth it cap. 111. And what is this in English but the conversion of the Gentiles foretold by the Prophets attested by God and visibly settled in the Unity of the Church Whereupon hee may boldly affirm as hee doth afterwards that if there were any word in the Gospel manifestly witnessing Manes to be the Apostle of Christ hee would not believe the Gospel any more For if the reason for which hee had once believed the Church that the Gospel is true because hee saw it verified in the being of the Church should be supposed false there could remain no reason to oblige us to take the Gospel for true All that remaines for the Church in the nature and quality of a Corporation by this account will be this That it is more discretion for him that is in doubt of the truth of Christianity to take the reason of it from the Church that is from those whom the Church trusteth to give it than from particular Christians who can by no means be presumed to understand it so well as they may do For otherwise supposing a particular Christian sets forth the same reasons which the Church does how can any man not be bound to follow him that is bound to follow the Church So that the reasons which both allege being contained in the Scriptures the Church is no more in comparison of the Scriptures than the Samaritane in comparison of our Lord himself when her fellow-citizens tell her John IV. 12. Wee believe no more for thy saying For wee our selves have heard and know that this is of a truth the Saviour of the World the Christ For the reasons for which our Lord himself tells us that wee are to believe are contained in the Scriptures But by the premises it will be most manifest that the same Circle in discourse is committed by them who resolve the reason why they believe into the dictate of the Spirit as into the decree of the Church For the question is not now of the effective cause whether or no in that nature a man is able to imbrace the true Faith without the assistance of Gods Spirit or not Which ought here to remain questionable because it is to be tried upon the grounds upon which here wee are seeking And therefore that Faith which is grounded upon revelation from God and competent evidence of the same is to be counted divine supernatural Faith without granting whatsoever wee may suppose any supernatural operation of Gods Spirit to work it in the nature of an effective cause which must remain questionable supposing the reason why wee believe the Scriptures But in the nature of an object presenting unto the understanding the reason why we are to believe it is manifest by the premises that no man can know that hee hath Gods Spirit that knoweth not the truth of the Scriptures If therefore hee allege that hee knowes the Scriptures to be true because Gods Spirit saith so to his Spirit hee allegeth for a reason that which hee could not know but supposing that for granted which hee pretendeth to prove To wit That the dictate of his own Spirit is from Gods Spirit Indeed when the motives of Faith proceed from Gods Spirit in Moses and the Prophets in our Lord and his Apostles witnessing by the works which they do their Commission as well as their message who can deny that this is the light of Gods Spirit Again when wee govern our doings by that which wee believe and not by that which wee see who will deny that this is the light of Faith and of Gods Spirit But both these considerations take place though wee suppose the mater of Faith to remain obscure in it self though to us evidently credible for the reasons God showes us to believe that hee saith it If any man seek in the mater of Faith any evidence to assure the conscience in the nature of an object or reason why wee are to believe that is not derived from the motives of Faith outwardly attesting Gods act of revealing it hee falls into the same inconvenience with those who believe their Christianity because the Church commends it and again the Church because Christianity commends it As for that monstrous imagination that the Scripture is not Law to oblige any man in justice to believe it before the Secular Powers give it force over their subjects Supposing for the present that which I said before that it is all one question whether Christianity or whether the Scriptures oblige us as Law or not Let mee demand whether our Lord Christ and his Apostles have showed us sufficient reasons to convince us that wee are bound to believe and become Christians If not why are wee Christians If so can wee be obliged and no Law to oblige us supposing for the present though not granting because it is not true that by refusing Christianity sufficiently proposed a man comes not under sin but onely comes not from under it but
who professe the true Christ Nor under the Law were granted but to those who professed the true God And for this cause they are called by S. Paul 1 Cor. XII 7. the manifestation of the Spirit because they manifest the presence of God in his Church As 1 Cor. XIV 22-25 hee saith that unbelievers seeing the secrets of their hearts revealed by those graces were moved to fall on their faces and worship God declaring that God is in his Church of a truth Those therefore who are thus witnessed by God upon his witnesse are to be received whatsoever they deliver in Gods name concerning either the Law of Moses or the Gospel of Christ For how can any man imagine that upon every new revelation declared by a Prophet upon every new letter written or act done by an Apostle a new evidence should be requisite to attest a new Commission from God Especially the presumption that God will not suffer his people to be abused by trusting him being necessary and not onely reasonable Since therefore our Lord and his Apostles carry this quality no lesse than did Moses and the Prophets it followes of necessity that their writings and what else they may have ordained are no lesse the Law of God no lesse obliging than the Law of Moses by virtue of their Commission which makes their acts in Gods name to be Gods acts Though civil Law they are not till civil Powers binde them upon their Subjects CHAP. IV. Neither the Dictate of Gods Spirit nor the authority of the Church is the reason of believing any thing in Christianity Whether the Church be before the Scripture or the Scripture before the Church The Scriptures contain not the Infallibility of the Church Nor the consent of all Christians IT is now time to proceed to the resolution of some part of those disputes and opinions which wee showed the world divided into upon occasion of the question how Controversies of Faith are to be tryed and ended That is to say so much of them as must be determined by him that will proceed in this dispute For supposing the premises to be true I shall not make any difficulty to conclude That neither the dictate of the Spirit of God to the Spirits of particular Christians that is the presumption of it nor the authority of the Church that is the presumption of the like dictate to any persons that may be thought to have power of obliging the Church is a competent reason to decide the meaning of the Scripture or any Controversie about mater of Faith obliging any man therefore to believe it And by consequence that the authority of the Church that is of persons authorized to give sentence in behalf of the Body of the Church here understood is not Infallible which if it were it must be without question admitted for a competent reason of believing all such sentences to be Infallibly true The truth of this Conclusion is demonstrated by the premises if any thing in a mater of this nature can be counted demonstrative If whatsoever the Spirit of God can be presumed to dictate to the Spirit of any Christian presupposeth the truth of Christianity as that which must try it whether onely a presumption or truth then can no mans word that professes Christianity be the reason why another man should believe For whosoever it is that gives the sentence by professing Christianity pretendeth to have a reason for what hee professeth which reason and not his judgment if it be good obligeth all Christians as well as him to believe For being once resolved that wee are obliged to believe whatsoever comes from those persons whom wee are convinced to believe that God imployed to declare his will to us Whatsoever is said to come from them must for the same reason be received and therefore by the same meanes said to come from them as it is said that they came from God On the other side whatsoever cannot by the same means be said to come from them can never by any means be said to come from God who hath given us no other means to know what hee would have us believe but those whom hee hath imployed on his message Wherefore seeing the authority of the Church supposeth the truth of Christianity of necessity it supposeth the reason for which whatsoever can be pretended to belong to Christianity is receivable Because supposing for the present though not granting that the Church is a Body which some persons by Gods appointment have authority to oblige it is manifest that no man can be vested with this authority but hee must bear the profession of a Christian and by consequence suppose the reasons upon which whatsoever belongs to the profession of a Christian is receivable For that which cannot be derived as for the evidence of it from those means by which wee stand convicted that Christianity stands upon true motives cannot be receivable as any part of it And therefore however the generality of this reason may obscure the evidence of it to them that take not the pains to consider it as it deserves yet the truth of it supposes no more than all use of reason supposes that all knowledg that is to be had proceeds upon something presupposed to be known In which case it would be very childish to consider that the Church is more ancient in time than the Scriptures at least than some part of them as the Writings of the Apostles for example in some sort then all Scriptures if wee understand the people of God and the Church to be the same thing For to passe by sor the present the Fathers before the Law as the people of Israel were Gods people by the Covenant of the Law before they received the Law written in the five Books of Moses So was the authority of Moses imployed by God to mediate that Covenant both good and sufficient before they by accepting the Law became Gods people And upon this authority alone and not upon any authority founded upon their being Gods people free and possessed of the Land of Promise to be ruled by themselves and their own Governors dependeth the credit of Moses and the Prophets Writings In like manner the being of the Church whether a Society and Corporation or not supposing the profession of Christianity and that the receiving of the Gospel which is the Covenant of Grace and that the authority of our Lord and his Apostles as sent by God to establish it Manifest it is that the credit of their Writings depends on nothing else but is supposed to the being of the Church whatsoever it is Which if it be so no lesse manifest it must be that nothing is receivable for truth in Christianity that cannot be evidenced to proceed from that authority that is more antient than the being of the Church as a truth declared by some act of that authority And therefore it would be childish to allege priority of time for the Church if perhaps
in the Church are both one and the fame act because they proceed both upon the fame of Christianity and preserving Unity in the Church Therefore at present I speak of both under one And if it be demanded whether the Power of binding and loosing do signifie generally binding by Law and not hindering Or particularly binding by shutting out of the Church for sin and loosing by admitting into the Church or retaining in the Church as free from sin I answer that expresly and formally the Power of binding and loosing signifies the later But the former by consequence For in the Common-wealth also the Power of giving Law is the same in generalls with the Power of Jurisdiction in particulars All parts of Soveraignty flowing naturally from that act whereby it becomes settled upon some person or persons Whose will is necessarily the Law whereby it is to be governed in as much as it is not limited by the original establishment thereof and acts done legally by vietue of the fame And so the Disciples of our Lord being prevented by nothing but our common Christianity which our Lord Christ having established left them the framing of his Church what they or those who claim under them shall do to obligue the Church obligeth by virtue of this Power of admitting into or excluding out of the Church And it is truly said that the Power of giving Law to the Church as the Church by virtue the Power of the Keyes belongs to the Church Provided that the effect of it belimited to those things which after the preaching of our Lord remained for his Apostles and Disciples as well as their Assistants and Succcessors to determine for the framing of Gods Catholick Church Before I leave this point I shall desire that the consequence of our Lords discourse may be considered For unlesse the command of resorting to the Church be understood as sending to binde or loose him to the Church that is supposed to be bound to sin or loose from it that which is inferred Whatfoever yee binde on earth will be utterly impertinent to that which went before Tell the Church But if wee suppose the speech to concerne Excommunication and Penance by consequence wee give a good reason why it followes Againe I say unto you that if two of you agree upon earth about any thing to be demanded it shall besall them from my Father in the heavens For supposing as known by the general and original practice of the Church whereof mention hath been made in the premises that the means of loosing from sin was the Prayers of the Church wee conclude that our Lord in the next place could not inferre any thing more proper and pertinent to that which hee had premised than this To wit how the Penitent is to be reslored to the favor of God and upon presumption thereof to the unity od the Church To wit by the Prayers of the Church For when hee sayes the Prayers of two Chrussians will be available with God hee must needs signifie that the Prayers of the Church will be much more available I know there are some Expositors Origen S. Austine and Theophylact of old and Grotius of late who when our Lord having said Let him be to thee as a Heathen or a Publicane inferreth whatsoever yee binde on earth do understand that hereby particular Christians do binde and loose particular Christians when they show them the sin they do and they that do it will or will not make reparations And truly in as much as the knowledge of sin is a condition requisite to make the bond thereof take firm hold upon the conscience whosever procures this knowleg is truly said to binde as hee that shows the means of being loose is truly said to loose him that useth those means But if this were here meant there were no reason why our Lord should send him to the Church whom hee declares to be thus bound which this opinion supposeth Never dreaming of the Synagogue when our Lord faith Tell the Church For to say that a private Christian bindeth or looseth him whom the Church hath first declared to be in the wrong and not otherwife is as much as to say that a private Christian neither bindes not looses but the Church Not because hee cannot binde and loose before God in that sense which I spoke of afore but because hee cannot binde or loose any man as to the Church whom the Church had bound afore by declaring his sin For this opinion supposeth that when our Lord faith Whatsoever yee binde on earth hee speaketh of the sins of those that had refused to hear the Church afore Which being supposed it will remain manifest that when our Lord faith Let him to be thee as a Heathen or a Publicane immediately adding whatsoever yee binde on earth hee doth not onely teach what the wronged party but what every Christian is to do to wit what the acts of the Church oblige him to do as a Christian and one of the Church not as one that is wronged though the discourse rising upon this cafe if thy brother wrong thee end in the mention of him alone let him be to thee as an Heathen and a Publicane because of the reason which follows grounded in the Power of binding and loosing which all Christians are to acknowledg These things being proved I will here repeat and insist upon that observation which heretofore I have advanced in another place that our Lord whom from the premises I suppose to treat here of Excommunication forbids that course to be held in the Church which then was used in the Synagogue namely that private persons should Excommunicate one another The effect of such Excommunications reaching no further than themselves or their inferiors and not obliging any stranger to take such a person for Excommunicate Which observation I oppose to an argument made from that which was used in the Primitive Church for Martyrs and Consessors in bonds for the Gospel to restore to the Communion of the Church those that were under Penance Tertul. de Pudic XXII Ad martyras I. Cypr. Epist X. XI XII XIII XIV XV. XVII XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXXVIII and John the Monk of the deserts of Egypt having Excommunicated the younger Theodosius hee was not satisfied with the Bishops absolution untill the Monk had done the fame Hence it is argued that Excommunication in the Church was the same that had been practised in the Synagogue because private Christians used that Power as private Jewes had done The ansswer is easie to him that will observe the reason of such Excommunication and obsoulution in the Church There were in the Church from the beginning besides those who had the chief authority of governing it divers ranks of persons of special esteem The rank of Widows honored with publick maintenance from the Church as wee understand by S. paul orders I Tim. V. 3-16 The rank of Virgins the Prerogative whereof wee may understand by Tertullians book
originall practice of the Church whither in prescribing what is to be believed what is to be professed or what is to be done So manifest must it remain that nothing can be resolved by plurality of votes of Ecclesiasticall Writers as to the point of truth For then were the priviledge of infallibility in the votes of those Writers which themselves disclaim from the substance of what they write And it is to say that what had no such priviledge when it was written if it have more Authors survive that hold it shall be and must be held infallible Which consequences being ridiculous it followeth that for the tryal of truth within the bounds aforesaid recourse must be had to the means premised And the effect of those means every dayes experience witnesseth For the obligation which all men think they have firmly to hold that which by these means they have all concluded from the Scriptures is the consequence of these principles in expounding the same Which obligation though sometimes imaginary in regard that between contradictory reasons the consequence may be equally firm on both sides yet that it cannot be otherwise he that believes the truth of Christianity must needs imagine For true principles truly used necessarily produce nothing but true consequences Which if it be so why should any question be made that the Church may and sometimes ought to proceed in determining the truth of things questionable upon occasion of the Scriptures concerning the rule of Christian faith or which is all one that the exercise of this power by the Church produceth in those that are of the Church an obligation of submitting to the same Indeed here be two obligations which sometimes may contradict one another and therefore whatsoever the matter of them be the effects of them cannot be contraries The use of the means to determine the meaning of the Scriptures produceth an obligation of holding that which followeth from it which obligation no man can have or ought to imagine he hath before the due use of such meanes whither his estate in the Church oblige him to use them or not But the visible determination of the Church obliges all that are of the Church not to scandalize the unity thereof by professing contrary to the same And to both these obligations the same man may be subject as the matter may be to wit as one that hath resolved the question upon true principles not to believe the contrary and as one of the Church that believes the Church faileth in that for which he is bound not to break the unity thereof not to professe against what the Church determineth For I am bold to say again that there is no society no communion in the world whether Civill Ecclesiasticall Military or whatsoever it be that can subsist unlesse we grant that the Act of superiour Power obligeth sometimes when it is ill used In the mean time I say not that this holds alwaies and in matters of whatsoever concernment nor do take upon me generally to resolve this no more then what is the mater of the rule of Faith which he that believes may be saved he that positively believes it not all cannot It shall be enough for me if I may give an opinion whether that which we complain of be of value to disoblige us to our superiours or not As concerning what is questioned amongst us whither it be of the rule of Faith or not But this I shall say that to justifie the use of this power towards God requireth not onely a perswasion of the truth competent to the weight of the point in question in those that determine for the Church but also a probable judgement that the determination which they shall make will be the meanes to reduce contrary opinions to that sense which they see so great Authority profess and injoyn For without doubt there can be no such means to dissolve the unity of the Church as a precipitate and immature determination of something that is become questionable For effectually to proceed to exercise Ecclesiasticall Communion upon terms contrary to that which hath been received afore is actually to dissolve the unity of the Church The ingagement to make good that which men shall have once done being the most powerful Witcheraft and Ligature in the world to blind them from seeing that which all men see besides themselves or at least from confessing to see that which they cannot but see But if we speak of things which concern the communion of the Church in those offices which God is to be served with by Christians or that tend to maintain the same besides the meaning and truth of the Scriptures there remains a further question what is or ought to be law to the Church and oblige them that are of the Church seeing that whatsoever is in the Scripture obligeth not the Church for Law though obliged to beleeve it for truth the resolution whereof will require evidence of the reason for which every thing was done by the Apostles for as it holds or not so the constitution grounded upon it is to hold either alwaies or onely as it holds And this reason must be evidenced by the Authority of the Church admitting that reason into force whither by express act or by silent practice When the Israelites are commanded to eat the Passeover in haste with their loins girt and their staves in their hands there is appearance enough that the intent of it was onely concerning that Passeover which first they celebrated in Egypt not for an order alwaies to continue because then the case required haste and because then the Angell passed over their houses upon the door-posts whereof the blood was commandded to be sprinkled that by that marke he might passe over them to smite the Egyptians For though Philo would have the Passeover to be celebrated at home and not at Jerusalem though perhaps onely by those of the dispersions those that dwelt in the Land of promise being all tied to resort to Jerusalem yet all that acknowledge the Talmud think it not lawfull to celebrate it but at Jerusalem contenting themselves with the Supper and abatng the Lambe as one of those sacrifices which the Law forbiddeth every where but before the Ark. But had not the practice of the Nation and the Authority of the Elders trusted by the Law to determine such matters appeared in the businesse our Lord who according to his own doctrine was subject to their constitutions had not had a rule for his proceeding So in the infancy of Christianity it is no marvail if the Christians at Jerusalem entertained daily communion even at board also among themselves and that they gave their estates to the maintenance of it not by any law of communion of goods but as the common necessity required For what could make more towards the advancement of Christianity And when at Corinth and in other Churches the communion was in use though not so frequent nor giving up their
will divide the Church unlesse an end be put But I say that the Authority of the Church can be no reason obliging or warranting to believe that for truth which cannot be reasonably deduced from the motives of our common faith onely it shall be a reason obliging and warranting to keep the peace of the Church by not scandalizing such determinations thereof as are not destructive to the common faith Much more where the faith is not concerned onely the question is of determining the circumstances of those actions wherein the Communion of the Church is exercised which neither our Lord nor his Apostles have determined shall the disobeying of such determinations be the violating of that unity which all Christians professe that God hath ordained in his Church And now we have an easie account to give how the Prophets Haggai and Malachi send the Israelites to the Priest for resolution in those things which the practice of that people determined to belong to their office to resolve Because it cannot be doubted that their resolutions depended upon upon the acts of that authority which concluded that people by the Law aforesaid of Deut. XVII 8 -12 Which if not infallible and yet authorized by God to warrant the proceedings of his people it will be no marvail if those that act in dependance on them be authorized to warrant the people though further from being infallible To come now to those things that are alleadged to be said of the Apostles and of the Church having already limited the power of the Church not to extend to the faith of Christianity which it presupposeth it will be easie to distinguish it from the power of the Apostles Which though it presuppose the truth of Christianity preached by our Lord as that which they are imployed to introduce and establishâ— yet in order of nature and reason is before the very being of the Church as serving to evidence any truth of the Gospel to them that believe being convicted that they came from God to move them to believe For how can they stand obliged to believe the truth of our common Christianity to be that which God sent our Lord Christ to preach but by standing convict that the Apostles were sent by him to move them to accept of it and thereupon inabled with means to evidence this Commission and trust whereupon the world may safely repose themselves upon the credit of them whose act God owns by the witnesse he yields them for his own The true reason and ground upon which no act of theirs whither by word or writing is refusable by the Church Upon which the truth of things determined by their writings is no more determinable by the Church because the meaning of their words which is the truth sought for is in the words from the time they are said And is it then an unreasonable demand that their Charter He that heareth you heareth me extending to all that falls under their office should not be thought to descend upon the Church indefinitely but according to such limitations as the constitution thereof determineth That is to say not to the effect of creating faith but of preserving peace and unity in the Communion of the Church Not prejudicing neverthelesse that force of evidencing the truth of Christianity and the meaning of the Apostles writings which I have showed to be in the testimony of the Church not by any authority it hath from God but from that conviction which the testimony of such a body of men inferreth I shall not therefore deny that he who heareth or refuseth their successors heareth and refuseth God if that which they would be heard in be within the bounds of that power which God hath assigned them but is not the same that he assigned the Apostles But I shall utterly deny that it is by virtue of these words which were spoken by our Lord at such time as he had not declared whither they should have successors or not For there is very great appearance that they themselves after this expected to see the worlds end and the coming of Christ When the Apostles Mat. XXVI 3. inquire of our Lord When shall these things come to passe And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the worlds end Though our Lord by this answer distinguisheth the time of the destruction of Jerusalem from the end of the world yet by the question there is no appearance that the Apostles did so distinguish before his answer And when his answer contains That this generation shall not be over till all these things come to passe and that not only after he had declared the destruction of Jerusalem but his coming and the end of the world Mat. XXIV 14 -23-29-34 it appeareth that those things which he declares shall forerun the worlds end were to begin before that generation were out when to end being not thought sit then to be said If this interpretation of Grotius which makes good the leter best suffer contradiction yet is it evident by S. Pauls Epistles 1 Cor. XV. 51 52. 2 Cor. V. 11-44 2 Thes IV. 15. 17. that he was not certificed but that the coming of Christ to judgement should be during his time In which S. Iohn by the Apocalypse was more fully informed If these things be true the obedience due to the Apostles successors cannot stand by virtue of this command given when it was not declared whither they were to have successors or not But by those Scriptures whereby it may appear so farre as in due place it shall appear whither or no and upon what terms the Apostles left their Authority with successors which when it appears then by consequence of reason it will be inferred from these words that who hears or refuses them hears or refuses God by whom the Apostles were inabled to leave such part of their power with successors Neither will it be strange that I allow not any Councill in which never so much of the authority of the present Church is united to say in the same sense and to the same effect as the Synode of the Apostles at Jerusalem It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Though I allow the overt act of their assembling to be a legall presumption that their acts are the acts of the Holy Ghost so farre as they appear not to transgresse those bounds upon which the assistance of the Holy Ghost is promised the Church For as for the Apostles I have showed before that they had the Holy Ghost given them not onely to preserve them in the truth of the common profession of Christians but to reveal unto them the true sense of the old Scriptures according to the Gospell which they preached though that grace was common to many more besides the Apostles not to all Christians upon which depended the resolution of the point then in debate Besides I do not intend to depart from that observation which I have made in another place that we find
the walls of the Temple though they commend King Ezekias for causing them to be done out when it appeared that the virtue of them was such that the people forgot their recourse to and dependence upon God because they knew so ready help elsewhere And truly it is nothing strange to mee that the Jews living under the Persian Empire and seeing that there were seven chief Princes which had the great credit in it next the King the successors of the seven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is those seven that killed him that usurped after the death of Cambyses as sometimes I have conceived who having the privilege of perpetual accesse to the King as Herodotus testifieth are therefore said to see the Kings face Esther I. 10 14 Esther VII 14. I say it seems not strange that expressing and thinking of God as of a great Prince as doth the whole Scripture speaking in those terms that men are most apt to conceive they should attribute unto him the like attendance of seven Angels as his principal Ministers the book de Mundo under Aristotles name comparing him also with the King of Persia And yet I will not grant that the seven Spirits before the Throne of God in the Revelation I. 4. IV. 5. V. 6. are those seven Angels because there are seven virtues of Gods Spirit recounted in Esay XI 2 3. which the seven Spirits before Gods Throne may well serve to express The seven Angels that blow the seven Trumpâ—ts Revel VIII 2. being onely that number of Angels whether the principal of Gods Ministers or not who appear seven to represent the plagues of the Trumpets and Vials in seven as the seals of the Book afore Neither is there any hope or fear that any mater of historical truth can be discovered in them which may justly charge them with imposture as if the authors of them could be thought ignorant of the state of Gods people living as they did so high in time In vain it is to imagine that when Judith VIII 6. is said to have kept not onely the Sabbaths New-moons and Festivals of the Law but also the dayes afore which by the Talmud Doctors wee know were afterwards in use among the dispersions of the Jews Hee who writ this book forges when hee sayes they were so anciently in use For either hee must prophesie or they must have been in use when the book was writ And whether in use or not when the story is said to have come to passe will be of no consequence to him that believes it to be of no consequence whether a Parable or not As for the pretense of superstition which the credit thereof may be said thereby to maintain if it be no superstition for the people to whom our Lord preached to observe all that the Scribes and Pharisees injoyned them because they sate in Moses his chair much lesse shall it be superstition for Judith or for those that lived when the book of Judith was penned to have served God two dayes by the appointment of those that sate in Moses chair when as Gods Law named but one And so when the history of Susanna saith that the Jews were allowed in their dispersions to judge maters of life and death among themselves though this perhaps was otherwise under the Chaldeans and that hee who penned it mistook in that circumstance yet justly and certainly might it have been presumed though Origen had never interposed to justifie a thing which upon better because ancienteâ— credit of this author had been justified before that such a power had been exercised at some times by the Jewes in their dispersions Before I go further it will be requisite to answer an objection which I must confess to be material but withall apprehended for more dangerous than it need To wit that some part now received for Scripture of the New Testament the Epistle to the Ebrews and that of S. James by name the Revelation of S. John and some other small pieces have been sometimes questioned and since are received in that nature And what then should hindet those books that sometimes have been questioned whether of the Old Testament or not to be now received for such upon the decree of the Council of Trent I say then that is manifest to him that will take the pains to consider it that the writings of the Apostles were first deposited with those parts of the Church upon occasion and for use whereof they were first penned As for the purpose their Epistles with those Churches to which they were sent where Tertullian in his prescription against Hereticks testifies that the authenticks and originals of them were extant and the Revelation of S. John with the seven Churches Neiâ—her is it to be imagined that the Collection which now wee call the New Testament was then any where extant Nay it is manifest by the beginning of S. Luke there went about certain Gospels which Origen and S. Ambrose upon that place following him sayes were afterwards disallowed Adding that the gift of discerning Spirits mentioned by S. Paul 1 Cor. X. 10. was then extant in the Church as in the Synagogue when it was to be discerned whether true Prophets or not that the Church might rest assured of the writings of those whose commission had been so verified It is therefore reasonable to think that those writings that had been received by some Churches upon the credit of their Authors known to have been inspired by the Holy Ghost gave others an umbrage of something not agreeable with Christianity as the Epistle to the Ebrews of refusing Penance the Revelation of the Kingdom of a thousand years when they came first to know them which from the beginning they had not done much lesse the doubt whether inspired by God or not Neither is the case otherwise excepting terms of scorn which may have been used either in Luthers refusing S. James his Epistle or when the Epistle to the Ebrews is questioned by Erasmus or Cardinal Cajetane as that of S. Jude of late by Salmasius But there is alwayes means to redresse any part of the Church or any Doctor of it in any such mistake so long as there remains means to certifie them from what hand they have been received to wit from persons in whom the Church was certified that the Holy Ghost spoke Which being certified reason would that not onely particular persons but Churches lay down their jealousies by understanding such words as cause jealousies so as they may best agree with the common Christianity But what is all this to the writings of those who can by no means be supposed to have written by the Holy Ghost Shall any act any decree of the Church create them the credit of writings inspired by Gods Spirit which before that act they had not And therefore the case is not the same which the writings which we know never could nor can be received standing the evidence that no evidence can ever be made
produceth the other freedome from bondage either to sin or righteousnesse Not that this state of proficience requires actual indifference which supposeth so great an inclination biasse as that of inbred concupiscence Not determining the will to any action or object but the acts thereof to those taints which the want of a due end right reason and therefore of just measure in a mans desire necessarily inferreth But because in passing from the bondage of sin to the love of righteousnesse it is necessary that a man go through an instance of indifference wherein his resolution shall balance betweene the love of true good and that which is counterfeit It is therefore to be acknowledged that in the state of innocence there had needed no other helpe then the knowledge of Gods will to inable men to performe whatsoever he should require Of the spheare of nature supposing Adam instituted and called onely to the uprightnesse and happinesse of this life or supernaturall supposing him instituted and called to the world to come For where no immoderate inclination of the sensuall appetite created any difficulty what should hinder the prosecution of a reason so unquestionable as the will of God is But is not therefore the knowledge of Gods will revealed by the gospell under reasons convincing man of his obligation to doe it upon the account of his utter misery or perfect happinesse the grace of Christ Knowing by the scriptures alleged before that the means of it are purchased by his crosse that where the reason is so convinced there cannot want motives sufficient to incline the will to make choice Not that I think those reasons not being necessary but onely sufficient would take place were they not managed by Gods spirit Whether for the dificulty of supernatural actions or for the contrary biasse of inbred concupiscence But because in the nature of a sufficient helpe they do actually inable a man to make choice though in regard of the difficulties which contrary inclinations create is is most certaine they would prove addle and void of effect were they not conducted by the grace of God which is called effectuall for the event of it Not that the nature of those helps which prevaile is any other then the nature of those which overcome not which I may well affirme if Jansenius though to the prejudice of his opinion can not deny it but because they are by the worke of providence presented in severall circumstances to severall dispositions and inclinations whether of Gods mere will and pleasure as he is Lord of all things or upon reason of reward or punishment in maters wherein he hath declared himself by the Covenant of Grace So that the same reasons and motives which in some prove void and frustrate coming to effect and reaching and attaining to the very doing of the work which they inable a man to doe it cannot â—e said according to this position of mine that God by the grace of Christ onely inableth to do what he requireth the will of man making the difference between him that doth it and him that doth it not but the very act as well as the ability of doing is duely ascribed to the worke of Gods Grace according to the articles agreed by the Church against Pelagius And this not onely under the Gospell but even under the Law For though I showed you in the first book that the law expressely tenders onely the promise of temporall happinesse in holding the land of Canaan for the reward of the outward and carnall observations thereof Yet I showed you also that in the meane time there was an other traffick in driving under hand between God and his people for the happinesse of the world to come upon their obedience to his Law for such reasons and to such an end and with such measures as he requireth Therefore The Law is spirituall according to S. Paul Rom VII 14. and a grace according to S. Iohn I. 16 17. When he saith Of his fulnesse wee have all received and grace for grace For the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ The grace of the Gospell instead of the grace of the Law And S. Paul againe speaketh of the things which are granted us by the Gospell not in wâ—rds taught by mans wisdome but by the Holy Ghost comparing spirituall things with spirituall things 1. Cor. II. 13. Signifying that he taught the Gospell out of the Law comparing the spirituall things of the Gospell as signified by the Law to the same spirituall things as revealed by Christ And againe when he saith Rom. I. 17. The righteousnesse of God is revealed in the Gospell from faith to faith His meaning is proceeding to the faith of Christ from that which was under the Law True iâ— is indeed and I acknowledge that this spirituall sense of the Law was not to be discovered in the Law nor was discovered under it without the revelation of Gods spirit that placed it there to his friends the Prophets and by them to their disciples and followers But the office of those Prophets being to call the people to the spirituall service of God obedience to his Law out of love which was the intent for which his spirit strove with them as with those before the floud Gen. VI. 2. Whereupon Noe is called the preacher of righteousnesse 2. Peter II. 5. it followes of necessity that there was meanes for them to learne to practice true righteousnesse seeing they are charged for resisting the spirit of God calling them to it S Steven in the seventh of the Acts insisteth not in convincing the Jewes of the truth of Christianity supposing it done by that which had passed but inferrs by all that long speech clearely this That as the Israelite refused Moses for a judge between him and the Israelite whom he wronged as the people were rebellious to him in the wildernesse and turned back in their hearts to Egypt so were they to the prophet whom Moses had foretold concluding therefore Ye stifnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and eares ye doe alwaies resisty the Holy Ghost as your fathers so you also Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute Killing those that foretold of the coming of that righteous one of whom you are now become the traytors and murtherers And our Lord when he telleth them that by honouring the memories of the Prophets and persecuting the Prophets and wise and Scribes Apostles whom he was sending them they owned themselves heires of them that killed the Prophets Mat. XXIII 29 37. showeth that the case was the same with the Prophets of old as with himselfe and his Apostles And whatsoever we read in the old Testament of the grace of God to that people in granting them his spirit or of their ungraciousnesse in resisting the same serves to prove the same purpose It is truly said indeed in rendring the reason why our Lord Christ came not till towards
the later end of the world that God meant first to show the world that all other meanes which he thought fit to use to reclaime man by the fathers and by and under the Law were not to purpose that the necessity of his coming might appeare But that this is not to be understood as if God meant to render them inexcusable by using insufficient meanes that could not take effect But that dispensing to those times such meanes of grace as he found the reasons upon which his secret counâ—ailes proceed to require proportionable to the obedience and service which he required then at their hands He reserves the full measure of them to the coming of his Son proportionable to the difficulty of beraing his Crosse which he purposed for the condition of those promises which he brought And the same is to be said of the Fathers under the law of nature Which if we understand it to be so cailed as if the light of nature then taught and inabled them to please God we contradict not onely the faith hitherto maintained against Pelagius but also the appearances in Scripture of those revelations of that cpmmerce and inâ—rcourse with God whereby they advanced to the state of his friends The book of Iob to the time whereof we see this state lusted presenting most evident instances both of Gods correspondence with the Godly of the Gentiles and of Christians piety in their conversations Now to that state of inocence wherein Adam was created it must needs be a grace oâ— God to make knowne his will because it cannot be supposed that God should imploy his creature in his service and not reward him for doing it with advantage But not as if suck knowledg could give him ability but onely determine the matteâ— of his obedience who had nothing to hinder the doing of that which commanded by God must needs be for his advantage to do Since the fall if reasons provided by God to convince the understanding to incline the will to that which he purposeth for our happinesse may and would prove ineffectuall were they not acted and managed by the holy Ghost Let us not therefore so far miâ—â—ken the counsaile of God in providing them as to imâ—gine the worke is not done by them because it is his speciall grace that makes them effectuall to purpose The indowments of Adam how great soever thâ—y were the event sheweth that they might faile and hâ—d they not failed it must have been ascribed to God for a greater grace then those indowments in as much as these made him accountable to God that would have inâ—itled him to a reward So that by this account it will be no marvaâ—le that the grace of Christ which saveth us in and through this weakenesse of iâ—bred concupâ—scence should be counted greater then that which Adam had in his inâ—â—â—ncy And the same is to be said of the Angels that fell and those that stood How great soever their indowments were had not the motive whatsoever it was that prevailed with the one part to depart from God been prevenâ—ed of taking effect with the rest it might have come to passe as well in all as in some That it did not what can it be ascribed to all being turâ—â—shed with abilities fully corespondent to that which God required at theâ— hands but some dispensation of Gods secret counsail being by no reason of his declared Justice obliged otherwise Not that the Will of Adam or of Angels was not able to doe what God required and hâ—d done it of â—â— selfe without any help added by God But because so gâ—eat is the influence of the makers providence that the events thereof how justly soevâ—â— imputable to the choice of the creature must of necessity have their springs in and from the secret dispensation thereof not concerning his justice Seeing then that as I said before the opinion of Jansenius though it gives account wherein the grace of Christ formally consisteth yet gives no account from whence effectively it proceedeth but the immâ—diate wâ—ll of God â—he question demanding upon what ground it redounds to mans accâ—uâ—t Let them either look about them for a better reason or accept of thâ—s not a destrâ—ying that which it saith but to the introducing of that which it saâ—eth not For it is agâ—eed upon both waies that it is delight in true goodness for the love of God that makes the grace of Christs Gospell effâ—ctual in mens lives and conversations How by the act of that wil which in others rejects it â—â—ndevour to say what the scriptures and faith of the Church will allow But Jansenius his opinion goes no further then that so it is to wit because love is free therefore man is freâ—ly saved howsoever love be brought to passe But the necessity of those actions to which grace determineth which is antecedent in Jansenius his opinion the cause which is Gods will being undeâ—easible iâ— in mine onely consequent upon suposition of efficacy which implyes the being of that which comes to effect grounded upon the foreknowledg of God which supposes the free motion of the reasonable creature If the advantage be such in reconciling the efficacy of grace with the free will of the creature in reconciling the same with Gods foreknowledge and effectuall providence extending to all good and bad it will appeare much more For had Jansenius done his businesse in the mater of supernaturall grace he had not obliged us much unlesse his resolution were an overture to abate the generall difficulty thâ—t remaines But if he sends us for that to the predetermination of God which is said to be requisite upon the geneâ—all account of the creature and the indifference of mans will he leaves us to seeke for a reason how God is not the author of that sin which he determineth the will to do before it determine it selfe If we avoid that as Doctor Strang whom I spoke of before hath done by maintayning against Doctor Twisse that the will is not determined by God to the actions of sin Besides that he is to give account why the same providence of God which is generall to all things should be thought to teach this sort not that all actions as appendâ—nces of Gods creatures having the same dependence upon God which the prerogative of the first cause requi eth we are leâ—t to seeke how that foreknowledge of God which directeth his providence comes informed of the truth of future contingencies For if wee maintaine that the wisdome of God comprehending the inclinations of his creatures and all those considerations which outward occurrences or inward appearances shall present or not present them with to determine their choice cannot thereby cetainely discerne what will come to passe as Doctor Strang maintaines that so there cannot be in God any certtine knowledge of future conditionalls I leave to them that shall peruse this writing what satisfaction it is possible for him to give in the possibility of foreknowing
repaired but by the second coming of the second Adam and those helps of grace which by his obedience in the flesh he purchased to inable us to imbrace and undertake the condition proposed and to proceed in the performance of it to that which God accepteth In fine I have showed that the Sacrament of Baptism is that visible act which legally determineth and limiteth that profession of Christianity which intitleth to the Kingdom of God as consigning the profession of a Christian unto the hands of the Church by the means whereof Christianity is conveyed to us Therefore having showed these things I have no reason to think my selfe obliged to unty these Cobwebs thred by thred which I can sweep away at once with this besome Onely I will stand here so long as to admire whether the boldnesse or ignorance of these new dogmatists of new Religions be the greater when I see the baptism of John counted among the Ceremonies of the old Law for a foundation of this new doctrine of Baptisms never heard of by any Christian till this blessed Reformation was on foot which must be said à fortiori of that Baptism by water which our Lord Christ instituted by them that esteem it not the same Is it possible that any man that believes Christianity to be the Religion now in force to salvation by Gods appointment in opposition to Judaism should imagine that John the Baptist sent to declare our Lord to be the Christ that was sent of God to introduce it to the voiding of Moses Law should set on foot that Baptism whereby he prepared his Disciples for Christ or brought them to Christ by virtue of that Law which he intended to void Is it not essentiall to all the observations of the old Law that they be thought to be figurative of Christ to come at least supposing Christianity Can that Baptism figure Christ to come the intent whereof supposed him to be already come pretending to prepare his Disciples to receive him that was come But whether we say the Baptism of Christ was the same with Johns Baptism or another to say the Apostles of Christ when they baptize with water intended to figure that the Messias was coming from whom they had their commission to Baptize would be no lesse then a spice of madnesse I will also stay so long for Socinus as to answer that suspition which he draws from the words of S. Paul 1 Cor. I. 13 -17 to his purpose Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized into the name of Paul I thank God that I baptized none of you but Criâ—pus and Gaius that no man say that I baptize in my oâ—n name yet I baptized also the house of Stephans further whither I baptized any I know not For Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel If there were any thing in these words to intimate that the precept of baptizing is not of peâ—emptory and perpetuall necessity then must they signifie more then that it was not necessary that it should be done by S. Pauls own hands which is all they contain For he that would say that which was not necessary to be done by S. Paul was not necessary to be done would deserve to be laught at for his pains The question is then was any of them whom S. Paul baptized not left unbaptized or not If not how is it inferred that a man need not be baptized now because then they were not baptized by S. Paul If so how comes Socinus to grant that those who were first converted to Christianity were to be baptized And therefore before Socinus or any man go about to teach a new Religion it were fit for him to learn from the custome and practice of the Church that there is a difference between authority in ordering and ministery in executing And from the custome of the world that what a man does by his minister or officer that he does himselfe in Law though another do it in point of nature Which being supposed a little reason will serve to inferre that the Apostles being principal in the commission of the Gospell were to be imployed in the principall part of it that is in reducing men to Christianity And therefore so farre as that required their attendance inferiour offices which depended upon their order were to be left to the execution of their Ministers But to both these Heresies I say at once in the last place that they belie the very ground which they professe to be Christians The reason why the motives of faith cannot be doubted for truth is because all that are Christians have taken upon them their Christianity for a Law and entred into a communion and body of the Church to live and communicate in the faith and service of God according to certain Laws upon evidence that they come indeed from God Therefore that which all this body hath taken upon it to observe for Law from the beginning and constantly observed till Socinus his or the Antinomians time that belonged to the matter of Christianity as evidently as it is evident that the motives of Christianity recorded in the Scriptures are true which are therefore evidently true because it is evident that they have moved the world to receive Christianity which could not have been done had they been false For if all Christians could be deceived to believe that their Christianity requireth them to be Baptized if they will be saved why might they not be deceived to believe that those things were truly one which the Scripture alledgeth to evidence the Gospell to come from God when as indeed they were not Which is to say that who so pretends to void that which the whole Church observeth for a Law must not think that he can do it by showing that it is not commanded in the Scriptures until he can show that it is come into the Church not according to right having been from the beginning otherwise He must therefore first refuse all that I have said in the first Book to demonstrate that the Church alwaies was from the beginning one body governed by certain Laws originally proceeding from the Apostles by whom power was left it to determine and limite further all that the future estate thereof should require to be further determined for the maintaining of unity in the communion of the Church For granting this it will be impossible to show how so great a body should agree to receive that for a Law and that necessary to salvation as Baptism hath alwayes been esteemed which they received not for such at the beginning from our Lord and his Apostles CHAP. VII The ground of baptizing Infants Originall sinne though not instituted till Christ rose again No other cure for it Infants of Christians may be Disciples are holy The effect of Circumcision under the Law inferreth the effect of Baptism under the Gospel ANd these same are the reasons that I must have recourse to now that
delivering mine opinion what is true not in confining the parties to a mean Wee have seen two men of repute now amongst us cenâ—ure Grotius his labors upon the Scriptures from which I acknowledg to have received much advantage The one of them hath made him a Socinian the other a Papist Both could have given us no better argument that hee was neither than this that hee cannot be both It is not my intent to bring mens persons into consideration with the common concernment of Christianity and of Gods Church To his own Master hee stands or falls I do but instance in an eminent person that must needs be a Papist though never reconciled to the Church of Rome That must needs be a Socinian though appealing to the Original consent of the whole Church Upon which terms how should there be any such thing as Papists or Socinians I remember an admonition of his bitter adversary Doctor Rivet That the Sea of Rome will never thank him for what hee writ And from thence I inferred as charity obliged mee to inferr That the common good of Christianity and of Gods Church obliged him to that for which hee was to expect thanks on no side This for certain Grotius never lived by maintaining division in the Churcâ— Whether any body doth so or not I say not Their Master will judge them for it if they do Now to show the world that I am in a capacity to recall any thing that I have said upon due information I will here pass a Review upon that which I have said to the hardest point that I have spoke to the agreement of Gods fore-knowledg and providence with contingence For I conceive it had need be limited a little further to be free from offenâ—e That the consideration of the object which providence presents a man with determines the Will to every choice that it makes which I argue at large II. 24. may be understood two wayes in the nature of an object which belongs to the formal cause when wee speak of faculties habits and acts which are specified by their objects as the Scholes speak or in the nature of an effective cause Not as if the object were not the effâ—ctive cause in respect to the act of deliberation But because in respect to the act of resolution or choice it determineth onely as an object without consideration whereof the choice could not be made not as a motive effectively producing the choice For I acknowledg in point of reason that there may be such contingencies as the School calls ad utrumlibet where a man is no more inclined to this side than to that And in point of Faith I acknowledg that setting aside the temptations by which the Angels and our first parents that â—ell might be said to incline rather to fall than to stand as they were created by God they were not inclined to fall but to stand Besides should I say that the object â—ffâ—ctively determineth the choice how should I say that which I take express notice of pag. 200. that those contingenciâ—s wherein the will inclineth to the one side as balanced by a propensity of disposition towards it not as every faculty is inclined to the object to which it naturally tends remain uncertain as nevertheless contingencies whatsoever probability that propensiâ—y may create And indeed though it is a perfection in mans knowledg rising from the consideration of the object to say what is like to come to pass though it fail yet to Gods which â—â—â—â—th from God alone it were blasplemy to suppose it to fail because then God should fail The infallibâ—lity therefore of it no being deâ—ivable from the object must necessarily be resolved into the infinity eternity immensity of that perfection which is his nature comprehending the future inclination and resolution of that will moved with a consideration capable to determine it which nothing but the native freedom thereof effectively determineth And if it be further demanded how that reason can stand which resolveth into that which no man understands The answer is necessary that it is an argument of infidelity to demand how in â—â—â—â—rs of Faith It is and ought to be sufficient that it involveth no manner of contradiction that the thing which may not be shâ—ll certainly be and therefore may be known and revealed by God that it shall come to pass For if it be a point of perfection rather to know this than not to know it of necessity God must have it how little soever wee understand how And therefore what appearance soever there may be in the motives which the object preâ—enteth agreeing with the present disposition of the Will that choice wiâ—l follow yet so long as it continueth undetermined though not indifferent by reason of the agreement between the inclination thereof and the motives tendred it is alwayes able to determine it self to the contrary of that which it is moved to though not without appearance of a motive determining it otherwise And the tender of that motive is that act of providence in which I say pag. 201. that Gods determining of future contingencies ends consisting with another whereby hee maintains the will in that ability of taking or refusing which the creation thereof constituteth In which case hee who maintaineth that it is not impossible for the infinite wisedom of God comprehending all things to see what man will do shall not derive his fore-sight from the object but from his very Godhead Onely supposing that it hath proceeded to the work of providence in purposing to place every man in an estate so circumstanced as at each moment hee comprehendeth For as man cannot procâ—ed to chuse this and not that not supposing the consideration upon which the choice proceeds which also must make it a good or a bad choice so neither doth God fore see his choice not fore-seeing the motive which the object presenteth him with Which seeing hee fore-seeth in the purpose of his providence supposing that perfection of his Godhead which his proceeding to the same requireth It is manifest that according to this saying that which hee seeth hee seeth in himself and not in his creature Wherefore I confess it may be said that seeing a Divine when hee is come thus farr must stay here and resolve the rest of his inquiries into the vast and bottomless chaos of Gods infinite perfections it had been better to have said so at the first and never have troubled the Reader with a discourse to prove by the Scriptures that God considereth the state wherein his providence placeth men for the ground upon which hee fore-seeth what they will do which that XXIV Chapter containeth For why should not our ignorance be as learned at the first as at the last But that which hath been said will serve to make the discourse no way superfluous For contingencies that shall be though they be nothing before they câ—me to pass yet is God something and the purpose of his pâ—â—â—â—â—ence
â—omething for the placing of every man every momâ—nâ— â—◠〈◊〉 estate which thereby hee fore-seeth And the possibility oâ— fore-seeing what will follow being something because no conâ—râ—â—iction destroyes the consistence of the terms inâ—errs by the infiâ—â—â—â— perfection of God the actual fore-sight of what will come to pâ—â—â— though not in it self which is nothing yet in God who is all things And all this involving no predetermination of mans will by God the discourse cannot be superfluous which resolveth the foresight of future contingencies into the decree which supposeth the knowledg of things conditionally future not which inferreth the fore knowledg of things absolutely future For by this means nothing that is found in the Scripture will contradict the substance of Faith which predetermination destroyeth though disclaiming all possibility of making evidence to common sense how it may come to pass And though Gods decree to permit sin can be no sufficient ground of his fore sight that what hee hindreth not shall come to pass as I have argued pag. 209. yet if wee consider withall that there is no question of Gods permitting any man to sin but onely him that is prevented with temptation to sin it may not untruly be said that God fore-sees sin in his own deccee of permitting it including the state of him that is tempted in that case wherein God decrees to permit sin In which case God fore-seeth it properly in his decree of placing the man in that estate not of suffering himto sin which the opinion that I contradict in that place absolutely refuseth And upon these terms when it is resolved Chap. XXVI that predestination to the first Grace is absolute you must not understand predestination to the act of conversioâ— but to the helps which effect it For whatsoever be the motives upon which a man actually resolves it in whatsoever circumstance hee meets them nothing but his own freedom determines his conversion though without those helps hee had not or could not have determined it And therefore if it be said that it is a barr to the prayers and indeavors of those that are moved to be Christians to tell them that their resolution depends upon something which is not in their Power To wit that congruity wherein the efficacy of Grace consisteth The answer is That absolutely whatsoever is requisite to the conversion of him who is called to be a Christian is in his Power Though upon supposition of Gods fore-knowledg that may be said to be requisite without which God fore-sees hee will not be converted when absolutely if hee would hee might have been converted and when supposing hee had been otherwise moved hee would have been converted In which case it is absolutely enough to the charging of any man with his duty that absolutely hee wanted nothing requisite to inable him for a right choice Though upon supposition of Gods fore-knowledg the doing of his duty requires whatsoever God fore-sees that it will not be done without it I have no more to say but that the Contents of the Chapters are premised instead of a Table for which they may well serve in books of this nature And that in regard to the difficulty of the Copy and the ordinary faileurs of the Press the Reader is desired to correct the faults that are marked before hee begin and to serve himself in the rest THE CONTENTS OF THE First Book CHAP. I. ALL agree that Reason is to decide controversies of Faith The objection thaâ— Faith is taught by Gods Spirit answered What Reason decideth questions of Faith The resolution of Faith ends not in the light of Reason but in that which Reason evidenceth to come from Gods messengers Page 1 CHAP. II. The question between the Scripture and the Church which of them is Judge in matters of Faith Whether opinion the Tradition of the Church stands better with Those that hold the Scripture to be clear in all things necessary to salvation have no reason to exclude the Tradition of the Church What opinions they are that deny the Church to be a Society or Corporation by Gods Law 3 CHAP. III. That neither the sentence of the Church nor the dictate of Gods Spirit can be the reason why the Scripâ—ures are to be received No man can know that hee hath Gods Spirit without knowing that he is a true Christian Which supposeth the truth of the Scriptures The motives of Faith are the reason why the Scriptures are to be believed And the consent of Gods people the reason that evidences those motives to be infallibly true How the Scriptures are believed for themselves How a circlâ— is made in rendring a reason of the Faith The Scriptures are Gods Law to all to whom they are published by Gods act of publishing them But Civil Law by the act of Soveraign Powers in acting Christianity upon their Subjects 7 CHAP. IV. Neither the Dictate of Gods Spirit nor the aâ—thority of the Church is the reason of believing any thing in Christianity Whether the Church be before the Scripture or the Scripture before the Church The Scriptures contain not the Infallibility of the Church Nor the consent of all Christians 18 CHAP. V. All things necessary to salvation are not clear in the Scriptures to all understandings Not in the old Testament Not in the Gospel Not in the Writings of the Apostles It is necessary to salvation to believe more then this that our Lord is the Christ Time causeth obscurity in the Scriptures aswell as in other Records That it is no where said in the Scriptures that all things necessary to salvation are clear in the Scriptures Neither is there any consent of all Christians to evidence the same 25 CHAP. VI. All interpretation of Scripture is to be consined within the Tradition of the Church This supposeth that the Church is a Communion instituted by God What means there is to make evidence of Gods Charter upon which the corporation of the Church subsisteth The name of the Church in the Scriptures often signifieth the Whole or Catholick Church CHAP. VII That the Apostles delivered to the Church a Summary of Christianity which all that should be baptized were to profess Evidence out of the Scriptures Evidence out of the Scriptures for Tradition regulating the Communion of the Church and the Order of it Evidence for the Rule of Faith out of the records of the Church For the Canons of the Church and the pedegree of them from the order established in the Church by the Apostles That the profession of Christianity and that by being baptized is necessary to the salvation of a Christian CHAP. VIII That the power of Governing the whole Church was in the Apostles and Disciples of Christ and those whom they tooke to assist them in the part of it The power of their Successors must needs be derived from those Why that succession which appears in one Church necessarily holdeth all Churches The holding of Councils evidenceth the Unity of the Church
Imperial Lawes could never be of force to void the Power of the Church Evidence for it 125 CHAP. XV. Another opinion admiâ—ting the ground of Lawfull Impediments What Impediments arise upon the Constitution of the Church generally as a Society or particularly as of Christians By what Law some degrees are prohibited Christians And of the Polygamy of the Patriarchs Mariage with the deceased wives Sister and with a Cousin Germane by what Law prohibited Of the Profession of Continence and the validity of clandestine Mariages The bound of Ecclesiastical Power in Mariage upon these grounds 134 CHAP. XVI Of the Power of making Governours and Ministers of the Church Vpon what ground the Hierarchy of Bishops Priests and Deacons standath in opposition to Presbyteries and Congregations Of the Power of Confirming and the evidence for the Hierarchy which it yeeldeth Of those Scriptures which seem â—o speake of Presbyteries or Congregations 145 CHAP. XVII The power given the XII under the Title of Apostles and the LXX Disciples That the VII were Deacons Of the first Presbyters at Jerusalem and the interest of the People Presbyters appropriated to Churches under the Apostles S. Pauls Deacons no Presbyters No ground for Lay Elders 152 CHAP. XVIII The Apostlet all of equall power S. Peter onely chiefe in managing it The ground for the pre-eminence of Churches before and over Churches Of Alexandria Antiochia Jerusalem and Rome Ground for the pre-eminence of the Church of Rome before all Churches The consequence of that Ground A summary of the evidence for it 161 CHAP. XIX Of the proceedings about Marcion and Montanus at Rome The business of Pope Victor about keeping Easter a peremptory instance The businesse of the Novatians evidenceth the same Of the businesses concerning the rebaptizing of Hereticks Dionysius of Alexandria Paulus Samosatenus S. Cypriane and of the Donatists under Constantine 168 CHAP. XX. Of the constitution and authority of Councils The ground of the pre-eminence of Churches in the Romane Empire The VI. Canon of the Council of Niâ—aea The pre-eminence of the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople Some instances against the Superiority of Bishops out of the records of the Church what offices every Order by Gods Law or by Canon Law ministreth 175 CHAP. XXI Of the times of Gods service By what Title of his Law the first day of the week is kept Holy How the Sabbath is to be sanctified by Moses Law The fourth Commandment the ground upon which the Apostles inacted it Vpon what ground the Church limiteth the times of Gods service Of Easter and the Lent Fast afore it Of the difference of mâ—ats and measure of Fasting Of keeping of our Lords Birth-day and other Festivals and the regular hours of the day for Gods service 190 CHAP. XXII The people of God tied to build Synâ—gogues though not by the leter of the Law The Church to provide Churches though the Scripture command it not Prescribing the form of Gods publick service is not quenching the Spirit The Psalter is prescribed the Church for Gods Praises The Scriptures prescribed to be read in the Church The order of reading them to be prescribed by the Church 203 CHAP. XXIII The consecration of the Eucharist prescribed by Tradition for the mater of it The Lords Prayer prescribed in all Services The mater of Prayers for all estates prescribed The form of Baptism necessary to be prescribed The same reason holdeth in the formes of other Offices 211 CHAP. XXIV The service of God prescribed to be in a known Language No pretense that the Latine is now understood The means to preserve Unity in the Church notwithstanding The true reason of a Sacrifice inforceth Communion in the Eucharist What occasions may dispense in it Communion in both kinds commanded the People Objections answered Who is chargeable with the abuse 217 CHAP. XXV Prayer the more principall Office of Gods service then Preaching Preaching neither Gods word nor the meanes of salvation unlesse limited to the Faith of Gods Church What the edification of the Church by preaching further requires The Order for divine service according to the course of the Church of England According to the custome of the universal Church 273 CHAP. XXV Idolatry presupposeth an imâ—gination that there is more Gods then one Objections out of the Scripture that it is the worship of the true God under an Image the Original of worshipping the elements of the world The Devill And Images Of the Idolatry of Magicians and of the Gnosticks What Idolatry the cases of Aaron and Jeroboam involve Of the Idolatries practised under the Kings and Judges in answer to objections 282 CHAP. XXVI The place or rather the State of happy and miserable Soules otherwise understood by Gods people before Christs ascension then after it What the Apocalypse what the rest of the Apostles declare Onely Martyrs before Gods Throne Of the sight of God 302 CHAP. XXVII The Souls of the Fathers were not in the Devils Power till Christ Though the Old Testament declare not their estate Of Samuels soul The soul of our Lord Christ parting from his body went with the Thiefe to Paradise Of his triumph over the powers of darknesse Prayer for the dead signifieth â—o delivering of souls out of Purgatory The Covenant of Grace requires imperfect happinesse before the generall judgement Of forgivenesse in the world to come and paying the utmost farthing 310 CHAP. XXVIII Ancient opinions in the Church of the place of souls before the day of judgement No Tradition that the Fathers were in the Vâ—rge of Hell under the Earth The reason of the difference in the expressions of the Fathers of the Church What Tradition of the Church for the place of Christs soul during his death The Saints soules in secret mansions according to the Tradition of the Church Prayer for the dead supposeth the same No Purgatory according to the Tradition of the Church 325 CHAP. XXIX The ground upon which Ceremonies are to be used in the service of the Church Instances out of the Scriptures and Tradition of the Apostles Of the equivocation of the word Sacrament in the Fathers The reason of a Sacrament in Baptism and the Eucharist In extream Unction In Mariage In Confirmation Ordination and Penance 340 CHAP. XXX To worship Christ in the Eucharist though believing transubstantiation is not Idolatry Ground for the honour of Saints and Martyrs The Saints and the Angels pray for us Three sorts of Prayers to Saints The first agreeable with Christianity The last may be Idolatry The second a step to it Of the Reliques of the Saints Bodies What the second Commandment prohibiteth or alloweth The second Council of Nicaea doth not decree Idolatry And yet there is no decree in the Church for the worshipping of Images 350 CHAP. XXXI The ground for Monastical life in the Scriptures And in the practice of the primitive Church The Church getteth no peculiar interest in them who professe it by their professing of it
question hereafter for the Principles which here wee seek to decide but supposing sufficient reason propounded to make it evidently credible And hee that alleges Gods Spirit for what hee cannot show sufficient reason to believe otherwise may thank himself if hee perish by believing that which hee cannot oblige another man to believe Here wee must make a difference between those men whom God imployes to deal with other men in his name and those which come to God by their means For of the first it is enough to demand how it appears that they come from God To demand by what means hee makes his will known to them supposing they come from him is more than needs at least in this place For if it be granted mee that the Apostles and Prophets were the messengers of God suppose I cannot tell how Prophesies are made evident to the souls of them to whom the Spirit of God reveals them No body will question Whether or no hee ought to believe these whom hee acknowledges Gods messengers And therefore it will be no prejudice to my purpose to set aside all curious dispute how and by what means God reveales his messages to those whom by such revelations hee makes Prophets But those that derive their knowledg from the report of such as are believed to come from God must as well give account how they know that which they believe to come from such report as why such report is to be believed For if wee believe that God furnished those whom hee imployed with sufficient means to make it appear that they came on his message wee can dispute no further why their report is to be believed If wee believe it not there will be no cause why those who pretend themselves to be Gods messengers should not be neglected as fools or rejected as impostors Nay there will be no cause why wee should be Christians upon the report of those that show us not sufficient reason to receive them for Gods messengers But this being admitted and believed unlesse evidence can be made what was delivered by them that came on Gods message it is in vain to impose any thing on the Faith of them that are ready to receive whatsoever comes upon that score The resolution then of all controversies in Religion which the Church is divided about consists in making evidence what hath been delivered by them whom all Christians believe that God sent to man on his message And therefore there will remain no great difficulty about the force and use of reason in matters of Faith if wee consider that it is one thing to resolve them by such principles as the light of reason evidenceth another to do it by the use of reason evidencing what Gods messengers have delivered to us For all dispute in point of Faith tends only to evidence what wee have received from the authors of our Faith Till that evidence come doubt remaineth when it is come it vanisheth Without the use of reason this evidence is not made though not by that which the light of nature discovereth yet by those helps which reason imployeth to make it appear what wee have received from those from whom wee received our Christianity Which without those helps did not appear But if competition fall out between that which is thus evidenced to come from God on the one side and on the other side the light of reason seeming evidently to contradict the truth of it First wee are certain that this competition or contradiction is only in appearance because both reason and revelation is from God who cannot oblige us to make contradictory resolutions Then there is no help without the use of reason to unmask this appearance I will not here go about to controule that which may be alleged on either side in any particular point by any general prejudice chusing rather to referre the debate to that particular question in which cause of competition may appear then to presume upon any thing which the truth of Christianity the only supposition which hitherto I premise appeareth not so contain Only this I will prescribe It is not the exception of a Christian to say That which the light of reason evidenceth not to be possible is not true though commended to us by the same reasons which move us to be Christians For the nature of God the counsails of God the works of God being such things as mans understanding hath no skill of till it be enlightened by God from above That sense of Gods oracles which the motives of Faith do inforce is no lesse undisputable then it is undisputable whether that which God saith be true or not who inacts his revelations by those motives CHAP. II. The question between the Scripture and the Church which of them is Judge in matters of Faith Whether opinion the Tradition of the Church stands better with Those that hold the Scripture to be clear in all things necessary to salvation have no reason to exclude the Tradition of the Church What opinions they are that deny the Church to be a Society or Corporation by Gods Law THe cure of all diseases comes from the sound ingredients of nature when they get the upper hand and restore nature by expelling that which was against it Neither can the divisions and distempers of the Church be cured but by the common truth which the parties acknowledg when the right understanding of it clears the mistakes which mans weaknesse tainteth it with There is a sufficient stock of sound Principles left all the parties which I mean when all of them acknowledg the Scriptures that is so much of them as all agree to contain the word of God But supposing the truth of them to come from God First it remaines in difference how the meaning of them may be determined when doubt is made of it And then because nothing but the true meaning of the Scripture can be counted Scripture if there be a way to determine that Whether any thing over and above it is to be received for the word of God with it Concerning which point it is well enough known what opinions there are on foot When Luther first disputed against the Indulgences of Leo X Pope those that appeared in defense of them the Master of the Popes Palace and Eckius finding themselves scanted of mater to allege out of the Scriptures betook themselvs to the common place of the Church and the Power of it the force whereof stood upon this consequence That whatsoever the Church shall decree is to be received for unquestionable Afterwards certain Articles extracted out of Luthers Writings being condemned by a Bull of the Pope Luther interposes his appeal to a Council that should decree according to the Scripture alone This is the rise of the great Controversie still on foot between the Church and the Scripture between Scripture and the Tradition of the Church of what force each of them is in deciding controversies of Faith They that hold
the Church to be the onely infallible Judge of all Controversies of Faith necessarily suppose that the Church is by Gods appointment that is Jure divino a Corporation Society or Body of men visible though not Civil because standing upon Gods will revealed in order to the happinesse of the world to come In which Society because in no Society all that are Interessed can act for themselvs it behooveth that there be a publick Authority vested in some persons or Bodies the Act whereof may oblige the whole And thus it may and must be understood that the Church is maintained to be Judge in Controversies of Faith by the definitive sentence of those that have authority to oblige the Body Whether Pope or Council wee dispute not here or what else may be imagined For that as all other Controversies in Religion is to be decided by the resolution of the point now in hand what is the means to determine by reason all such differences Which if it could not be decided without supposing whose authority is to tye the Church there could be no end of differences in the Church whatsoever there will be Here is then an opinion famous enough that the Church is indowed with a gift of Infallability by virtue whereof whatsoever sentence is passed by them that are authorized on behalf of the Church becomes matter of Faith and obliges all men to receive it by the same reason for which they receive the Christian Faith Now they who in opposition to this opinion do maintain the Scriptures to be the onely Judge in Controversies of Faith do involve in this opposition an equivocation manifest enough For it is manifest that their intent is to render a reason by this position why they submit not to that sentence which condemneth their positions in the name of the Church To wit because it is contrary to the Scriptures And further why they with-draw themselves from the communion of that Church which condemneth them and joyn in communion grounded upon the profession of the positions condemned maintaining themselves thereupon to be the true Church of God and those that condemne them the corrupt and counterfeit Whereby it appeareth that in effect they do maintain that there is no Judge provided by God to be visible in his Church with the gift of Infallible But that they are themselves and ought to be Judges to condemne all sentences given against the Scripture by any authority established in the Church By which means the Scripture becomes no more the Judge but the Rule or the Law by which men are to judge Whether they are to stand to such sentences as are given in the name of the Church or not Now if the Scripture be the Law or the Rule by which Controversies of Faith are to be judged there will be no pretense to exclude any means that may serve as evidence to clear the meaning of it And therefore there will be no cause why the Tradition of the Church should not be joyned with the Scripture in deciding Controversies of Faith Not disputing hitherto whether or no it contain any thing that the Scripture containeth not to clear and to determine the sense of the Scripture Whereas they that maintain the sentence of the present Church to be the reason of believing can no way resolve their belief into the Tradition of the Catholick Church Because that supposes only the act of our Lord and his Apostles delivering to the Church that which it holdeth Which who so supposeth can allege no other reason why hee believeth And therefore the sentence of the present Church cannot be the reason why any man should believe that which there was reason from the beginning to believe without it They who to exclude the Tradition of the Church state this position upon these terms That all things necessary to salvation are clearly contained in the Scriptures pretending to limit the generality of the question put it upon an issue not to be tryed till wee have resolved what means there is to determine the meaning of the Scripture For to be necessary to salvation is to be true and something more So that nothing can appear necessary to salvation till it can appear to be true Nor appear to be true untill it can be resolved what means there is to distinguish between true and false Besides how unlimited this limitation is may appear by this Because whatsoever is clear is said to be clear in relation to some sight And there is so much difference between the sight of several Christians that nothing can be said to be clear to all because it is clear to some And that which is not clear to all whose salvation is concerned in it what availes it those to whom it is not clear Now I suppose those that advance these termes will not grant that nothing is necessary to salvation that may be questioned by an argument out of the Scripture which all Christians cannot answer Knowing that such things as themselvs hold necessary to salvation may be assalted by such reasons out of the Scripture as they do not think all Christians fit to resolve Besides they do not pretend that all things necessary to salvation are clear in the Scripture of themselvs but by consequence of reason which may make them clear Now hee that would draw true consequences from the Scripture had need be well informed of the mater of that Scripture which hee drawes into consequence And to that information how can it appear that any thing is more necessary than the Tradition of the Church Therefore though I say not yet whether it be true or false that all things necessary to salvation are clearly contained in the Scriptures yet at the present I say that this is not the prime truth which must give a reason of all that followes upon it but demands a reason to be given for it by those principles upon which the resolution of all maters of Faith depends All this while wee agree upon the supposition that the Church is a Society of men subsisting by Gods revealed will distinct from all other Societies Because as I said those that have departed from the Church of Rome have hitherto pretended their own communion to be the true Church For if it be said that they do not or scarce ever did agree in communion one with another so that they can pretend to constitute all one Church That is not because they do not think that they ought all to constitute one Church but because they agree not upon the conditions Each part thinking that the other doth not believe as those whom they may communicate with ought to believe But this is now manifestly contradicted by two opinions among us though the one can be no â—ect the other as yet appears not to be one The first is that of them that think themselves above Ordinances the Communion of the Church onely obliging proficients and every perfect Christian being to himself a Church Of these
I said there can be no sect as communicating in nothing visible as Christians But I need not have recourse to such an obscure Sect as this For the same is necessarily the opinion of all the sect that makes every Congregation Independent and Sovereign in Church maters For if particular Congregations be not obliged to joyn in communion to the constitution of one Church wee may perhaps understand the collection of all Congregations to be signified at once by the name of the Church but wee cannot imagine that the Church so understood can be obliged by any sentence that can passe in it And if this opinion be true it must be acknowledged as of late years it hath been disputed amongst us that there is no crime of Schisme in violating the unity of the Church but when a breach is made in a Congregation obliged to communicate one with another in Church maters For where there is no bond of unity what crime can there be in dissolving it This is then the ground of all Independent Congregations that there is no such thing as the Church understanding by the name of the Church a Society or Corporation founded upon a Charter of Gods which signification the addition of Catholick and Apostolick in our Creed hath hitherto been thought to determine But there is a second opinion in the Leviathan who allowes all points of Ecclesiastical Power in Excommunicating Ordaining and the rest to the Soveraign Powers that are Christian Though before the Empire was Christian hee granteth that the Churches that is to say the several Bodies of Christians that were dwelling in several Cities had and exercised some parts of the same right by virtue of the Scriptures As you may see pag. 274-279 287-292 Making that right which the Scriptures give them for the time to eschete to the Civil Power when it is Christian and dissolving the said Churches into the State or Common-wealth which once Christian is from thenceforth the Church And this I suppose upon this ground though hee doth not expresly allege it to that purpose Because the Scripture hath not the force of a Law obliging any man in justice to receive it till Soveraign Powers make it such to their subjects but onely contains good advice which hee that will may imbrace for his souls health and hee that will not at his peril may refuse Thus hee teacheth pag. 205. 281-287 If therefore the act of Soveraign Power give the Scripture the force of Law then hath it a just claim to all rights and Powers founded upon the Scripture as derived from it and therefore vested originally in it Hence followeth that desperate inference concerning the right of Civil Power in mater of Religion not for a Christian but for an Apostate to publish that if the Soveraign command a Christian to renounce Christ and the faith of Christ hee is bound to do it with his mouth but to believe with his heart And therefore much more to obey whatsoever hee commandeth in Religion besides whether to believe or to do The Reason Because in things not necessary to salvation the obedience due by Gods and mans Law to the Soveraign must take place Now there is nothing necessary to salvation saith hee but to believe that our Lord Jesus is the Christ All that the Scripture commandeth besides this is but the Law of Nature which when the Civil Law of every Land hath limited whosoever observes that Law cannot fail of fulfilling the Law of Nature These things you have pag. 321-330 The late learned Selden in his first book de Synedriis Judaeorum maintaining Erastus his opinion that there is no power of Excommunicating in the Church by Gods Law grants that which could not be denied that the Church did exercise such a Power before Constantine but not by any charter of Gods but by free consent of Christians among themselves pag. 243 244. Which if hee will follow the grain of his own reason hee is consequently to extend to the power of Ordaining and to all other rights which the Church as a Corporation founded by God can claim by Gods Law And upon this ground hee may dissolve the Church into the Common-wealth and make the power of it an eschere to the Civil Power that is Christian with lesse violence than the Leviathan doth Because whatsoever Corporations or Fraternities are bodied by sufferance of the State dissolve of themselves at the will of it and resolve the powers which they have created into the disposition of it And that this was his intent whoso considereth what hee hath written of the indowment of the Church in his History of Tithes of Ordinations in the second book de Synedriis of the right of the Civil Power in limiting causes of divorce in his Vxor Ebraica hath reason to judge as well as I who have heard him say that all pretense of Ecclesiastical Power is an imposture I say not that hee or the rest of Erastus his followers make themselves by the same consequence liable to those horrible consequences which the Leviathan admits But I say that they are to bethink themselves what right they will assign the Civil Power in determining controversies in Religion that may arise And what assurance they can give their subjects that their salvation is well provided for standing to their decrees Besides I was to mention these opinions here that those who take the sentence of the Church to be the first ground of Faith into which it is lastly resolved may see that they are to prove the Church to be a Corporation by divine Right before they can challenge any such power for it For that which is once denied it will be ridiculous to take for granted without proving it And whatsoever may be the right of the Church in deciding controversies of Faith it cannot be proved without evidence for this charter of the Church as you shall see by and by more at large CHAP. III. That neither the sentence of the Church nor the dictate of Gods Spirit can be the reason why the Scriptures are to be received No man can know that hee hath Gods Spirit without knowing that hee is a true Christian Which supposeth the truth of the Scripture The motives of Faith are the reason why the Scriptures are to be believed And the consent of Gods people the reason that evidences those motives to be infallibly true How the Scriptures are believed for themselves How a Circle is made in rendering a reason of the Faith The Scriptures are Gods Law to all to whom they are published by Gods act of publishing them But Civil Law by the act of Soveraign Powers in acting Christianity upon their Subjects IT would not be easie to finde an entrance into such a perplexed Question had not the dispute of it started another concerning the reason why wee believe the Scriptures whether upon the credit of the Church or for themselves or whether nothing but the Spirit of God speaking to each mans heart
is sufficient to evidence that it is the word of God which they contain This if wee can resolve in our way perhaps wee may discover ground to stand upon when wee come to the main Hee that sayes the Scriptures are to be believed for themselves exposes them to the scorn of unbelievers by tying himself to use no other reason for them least for that reason they should finde that credit which the seeking of it showes they had not of themselves Hee that sayes they are to be believed for the authority of the Church is bound to give account how wee shall know both that there is a Church which some persons may oblige And who is the Church that is who be the men whose act obliges the Church And that without alleging Scripture because hitherto wee have no reason to receive it And being but men how their Act obliges the Church which cannot be showed without showing that God hath founded a Corporation of his Church and given power to some men or some qualities or ranks of men in it to oblige the whole Which how it will be showed without means to determine the sense of the Scriptures the parties agreeing in nothing but the truth of Christianity and of the Scriptures is impossible to be said This position then induces that stop to all proceeding by reason which Logicians call a Circle When a man disputes in a round as a mill-horse grindes arguing this power to be in the Church by the Scriptures without which hee can say nothing to it and arguing the truth of the Scriptures back again by alleging the authority of the Church Which destroyes that supposition upon which all dispute of reason proceeds that nothing can be proved but by that which is better known than that which it proveth But are those that allege the spirit for the evidence upon which they receive the Scripture lesse subject to this inconvenience For is it not manifest that men may and do delude themselves with an imagination that Gods Spirit tells them that which their own Spirit without Gods Spirit conceives How then shall it discerned what comes from Gods Spirit what does not without supposing the Scriptures by which the mater thereof is discernable And is not this the same Circle to prove the truth of the Scriptures by the dictate of Gods Spirit and that by alleging the Scriptures To make the ground of this inconvenience still more evident I will here insist upon this presumption That the gift of the Holy Ghost presupposeth Christianity that is the belief and profession of the Christian Faith And therefore that no man can know that hee hath the Holy Ghost but hee must first know the truth of Christianity and of the Scriptures Not that it is my meaning either to suppose or prove in this place that whoso hath the Spirit of God doth or may know that hee hath it For that is one of those controversies which wee are seeking principles to resolve But that no man can know that hee hath the Spirit of God unlesse first hee know himself to be a true Christian That is to say that supposing for the present but not granting that a man can know that hee hath Gods Spirit and that it is Gods Spirit which moves him to believe this or that hee must first know what is true Christianity and by consequence the means to discern between true and false And this I propose for an assumption necessary to the evidencing of that which followes but not questioned by any party in the Church because it is a principle in Christianity that the Grace of the Holy Ghost is a promise peculiar to those that undertake it Who were they on whom the Holy Ghost was first bestowed Was it not the Apostles and the rest of Disciples assembled to serve God with the Offices of the Church that is to say already Christians When Philip had converted the Samaritanes came S. Peter and S. John to give them the Holy Ghost by laying on their hands till they were baptized Concerning the Disciples at Ephesus Acts XIX 1-6 there is some dispute whether they received the Holy Ghost by the imposition of S. Pauls hands by virtue of the Baptism of John which they had received before they met with S. Paul or whether they were baptized over and above with the baptisme of Christ and thereupon received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of S. Pauls hands But of this they that will have them to have been baptized only with S. Johns baptisme make no dispute that they were fully made Christians by it Can any thing be clearer than S. Pauls words Gal. II. 2-5 That by the hearing of Faith that is obeying it they had received the Holy Ghost which by the works of the Law they could not receive And 2 Cor. XI 4. If hee that cometh preach another Jesus whom wee preached not or yee receive another Spirit which yee received not or another Gospel which yee admitted not Another Jesus another Gospel inferreth another Spirit So Gal. III. 14. That the blessing of Abraham may come upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus that yee may receive the promise of the Holy Ghost by Faith The promise of the Holy Ghost then supposeth the condition of Faith And Gal. IV. 6. Because yee are sons therefore God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Heb. VI. 6. It is impossible for those that were once inlightened and tasted the heavenly gift and became partakers of the Holy Ghost Upon inlightening that is baptisme followes the participation of the H. Ghost And seeing the resurrection of the flesh unto glory is ascribed by S. Paul to the Spirit of God that dwelt in it while it lived upon earth Rom. VIII 10 11. as the resurrection of our Lord Christ is ascribed to the Spirit of holinesse that dwelt in him without measure Rom. I. 4. John III. 34. of necessity the Holy Ghost dwelleth in all them that shall rise to glory But Baptisme assureth resurrection to glory Therefore it assureth the Holy Ghost by which they rise Nor can it be understood how wee are the Temple of God because the Spirit of God dwelleth in us 1 Cor. III. 16. but because the promise of the Holy Ghost dependeth upon that which distinguisheth Christians from other people In fine when our Saviour promiseth John XIV 23. If any man love mee hee will keep my word and my Father will love him and wee will come to him and abide with him Seeing the Father and the Son do dwell in those that love God by the grace of the Holy Ghost the gift of the Holy Ghost of necessity supposeth the love of God in them that have it And yet his discourse is more effectual Rom. VIII 1-9 That there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For as hee inferreth that if any man have not the
remains under that sin which by refusing the Gospel hee refuses to escape The man whom God showes competent reasons to convict him of the truth of Christianity does hee not thereby oblige to believe If so then is Christianity by those reasons and by out Lord and his Apostles advancing them published for Gods Law to all them to whom those reasons become known Suppose that not onely the Apostles but God himself do no more than perswade men to believe can any Secular Power do more For what can it do more in making a Law than declare the will of the Soveraign under a punishment expressed And doth not God declare when hee sends those that are furnished with means to convict the world of the truth of Christianity that it is his will that they become Christians And is it not competent punishment to inact a Law that by disobeying men become incapable of escaping their own sin and the punishment of it If Christianity be no Law because a man hath his choice whether hee will believe or not hath not a thief his choice whether hee will be hanged or not steal or is not the mischief that comes by refusing the Faith as great as that As for the point of justice is not gtatitude justice doth not God oblige them in point of justice whom hee obligeth in point of gratitude doth hee not oblige them in point of gratitude whom by his Gospel hee showes the way to come from under sin to everlasting happinesse Again is it not justice that mankinde should be subjects and not rebels to God doth not the Gospel preach that mankinde are become rebels to God and that they ought to return and become his Subjects If wee can owe a debt of justice to God or to our selves the greatest is that which the Gospel bindeth upon us But suppose not onely that which this Dogmatist granteth that hee who is bound to renounce Christ with his mouth when his Soveraign commandeth is bound to believe him with his heart at the same time let mee demand by what Law hee is bound to it if the Scriptures be not Law Or how a man can be bound to believe in heart that our Lord Jesus is the Christ and not be bound to receive either the mater or the motives to believe that which Christ teacheth which is all that the Scriptures containe Wherefore wee are by no means to admit that which this Author presumes upon as evident truth That it is one thing to demand why a man believes the Scriptures another thing to demand how a man knowes them to be the Word of God and a third by what authority they become Law Because saith hee one man believes for this reason another for that But to know the Scripture to be the Word of God is a thing that no man can do but onely hee to whom this or that Scripture was revealed For it is true that one man believes for this reason another for that if they believe not for that reason for which they ought to believe But there is but one reason for which God requires us to believe namely his will declared by the motives of Faith which hee by his messengers or deputies hath presented us with And hee that is moved to believe for any reason besides that is but called a believer for hee is not such in Gods esteem And hee that by these reasons stands convict that those messengers came from God though hee cannot know by the report of his senses nor by any evidence of the mater which they contain that the Scriptures are the Word of God yet may hee reasonably be said to know that they are so because hee knowes those reasons by which hee stands convict that they are no otherwise And I have now further showed that the publishing of Christianity that is the tendering of the Scriptures with this evidence that they contain the word and will of God bindes them for a Law upon the consciences of all that receive them so obliging them not onely to believe all that they contain to be true but to undertake and do whatsoever they require Wherefore it is true that the Scriptures or Christianity becomes the civil Law of a State because the Soveraign Power thereof inacteth it But wee are further to demand whether Secular Power is able to do this because it is Soveraign or because it is Christian For if because it is Sovetaign it will follow of necessity that those who are not subject to Christian Powers are not obliged to believe the truth of the Scriptures nor to be Christians if there be no other Law to require it at their hands but the will of their Soveraign Because the onely reason which this opinion saith obliges them to believe that is the act of Soveraigne Power is wanting If because it is Christian the question will have recourse what it was that obliged the Soveraign Power to become Christian For the act of Soverâ—igne Power hath no effect upon it self but upon those that are under it And yet the same reason why the Soveraign Power is bound to believe will convince all that are under it that they also ought to believe because concerning them as men or at least as those men whom the motives of Faith are published to not as of this or that Common-wealth But in this businesse I am most ashamed for Euclid's sake that a man so studied in Geometry should build such a vast pretense in Christianity upon such an imaginary ground Forsooth Abraham and the Patriarchs after him and then Moses had the Soveraign Power of their Families and of Gods people the Patriarchs by their birth and estate Moses by the contract of the Israelites accepting of God for their Civil Soveraign and Moses for his Lieutenant The same Patriarchs and Moses were absolute in maters of Religion because Gods people inferiors were to be ruled in it by no other Laws then those which God published to them by the hands of those Superiors Hee that will go about to draw the conclusion from these principles whether granted or onely supposed shall easily see that it followes not For half an eye will serve to distinguish two qualities in the Patriarchs and in Moses the one of Soveraignes the other of Prophets or Depuries and Commissaries or Interpreters of the will of God to his people And this distinction being made I will not be beholden to any man to say which of the two it was that could oblige their inferiors to obey as Gods Lawes those things which persons so authorized should declare in his name For if those whom God by sufficient evidence had witnessed to be his Prophets and messengers should falsify his trust the blame of that which should be done upon such deceit must needs redound upon God And therefore this author pag. 231 287. agreeth with that which I argued even now that revelations and inspirations of Gods Spirit are not granted under the Gospel but to those
it may be said in some regard that the Church was before the Scriptures when as in order of reason it is evident that the truth of Christianity is supposed to the being of it inasmuch as no man can be or be known to be of the Church but as hee is or is known to be a Christian And truly those that dispute the authority of the Church to be the the reason to believe the sentence of it in mater of Faith to be true are to consider what they will say to that opinion which utterly denies any such authority any such thing as a Church Understanding the Church to be a Society founded by Gods appointment giving publick authority to some persons so or so qualified by that appointment in behalf of the whole For this all must deny that admit Erastus his opinion of Excommunication to be true if they will admit the consequence of their own doctrine Which opinion I have therefore premised in staring this Question that it may appear to require such an answer as may not suppose the being of the Church in that nature but may be a means to demonstrate it But as it is not my intent to begg so great a thing in question by proceeding upon supposition of any authority in the Church before I can prove it to be a Corporation founded with such authority as the foundation of it requireth So is it as farre from my meaning to deny that authority which I do not suppose For hee that denieth the authority of the Church to be the reason why any thing is to be taken for truth or for the meaning of the Scripture may take the due and true authority of the Church to be a part of that truth which is more ancient than the authority of the Church Inasmuch as it must be believed that God hath founded a Society of them which professe Christianity by the name of the Church giving such authority to some members of it in behalf of the whole as hee pleased before it can be believed that this or that is within the authority of the Church For that there is a Church and a publick authority in it and for it and what things they are that fall under that authority if it be true is part of that truth which our Lord and his Apostles whose authority is more ancient than the Church have declared Indeed if it were true that the first truth which all Christians are to believe and for the reason of it to believe every thing else is the saying of persons so and so qualified in the Church then were it evident that the belief of that which is questioned in religion could not be resolved into any other principle But if it be manifest by the motives of Christianity that the authority of the Apostles is antecedent to it that all Scripture and the meaning of Scripture which signifies nothing beside it own meaning and Tradition of the Apostles if any such Tradition over and above Scripture may appear is true not supposing it as appeares by the premises then is the authority of the Church no ground of Faith and so not Infallible There are indeed sundry Objections made both out of Scripture and the Fathers to weaken and to shake such an evident truth which are not here to be related till wee have resolved as well what is the reason of believing in Controversies of Faith as what is not In the mean time if wee demand by what means any person that can pretend to give sentence in Controversies of Faith knowes his own sentence to be infallible or upon what ground hee gives sentence Hee that answers by Scripture or authority of Writers that professe to have learned from the Scriptures or reasons depending on the authority of our Lord and his Apostles acknowledges the authority of the Church not to be the reason of believing For what need wee all this if it were If hee say by the same means for which these are receivable that is by revelation from God It will be presently demanded to make evidence of such revelation the same evidence as wee have for the truth of the Scriptures Which because it cannot be done therefore is this plea laid aside even by them who neverthelesse professe to imbrace the Communion of the Church of Rome because they believe the Church to be Infallible But if it be destructive to all use of reason to deny the conclusion admitting the premises then let him never hope to prevaile in any dispute that holds the conclusion denying the premises For to hold the sentence of the Church Infallible when the means that depend upon the authority of our Lord and his Apostles proves whatsoever is to be believed without supposing any such thing when revelation independent upon their authority there is acknowledged to be none averreth Infallibility in the sentence of the Church denying the onely principle that can inferre it And therefore those that speak things so inconsequent so inconsistent I shall not grant that they speake those things which themselves think and believe but rather that like men upon the rack they speak things which themselves may and in some sort do know not to be true For whosoever holds an opinion which hee sees an argument against that hee cannot resolve is really and truly upon the rack and of necessity seeks to escape by contradicting what himself confesseth otherwise Which every man of necessity doth who acknowledging the reason of believing Christianity to lye in the authority of our Lord and his Apostles challengeth neverthelesse that Infallability which is the reason of believing to all sentences of the Church the mater of which sentence if it be true the reason of it must depend immediately upon the same authority upon which the authority of the Church which sentenceth dependeth But the consequence of this assertion deserves further consideration because all that followes depends upon it Suppose that the Scriptures prove themselves to be the Word of God by the reasons of believing contained in them witnessed by the common sense of all Christians For this admits no dispute If the same consent can evidence any thing belonging to the mater of Faith that will appear to oblige the Faith of all Christians upon the same reason as the Scriptures do whether contained in the Scriptures or not For who will undertake that God could not have preserved Christianity without either Scriptures or new revelations And therefore hee chose the way of writing not as of absolute necessity but as of incomparable advantage If therefore God might have obliged man to believe any thing not delivered by writing whether hee hath or not will remain questionable supposing the Scriptures to be the Word of God upon the ground aforesaid Besides there are many things so manifest in the Scriptures that they can indure no dispute supposing the Scriptures to be the Word of God Many things are every day cleared more and more by applying the knowledg
made of a General Council whether constituted according to right or not whether proceeding without force and fraud or not Is it as evident to all Christians as their Christianity or the Scriptures that it is not If it be said that all Catholicks agree that the Pope with a General Council or a General Council confirmed by the Pope cannot erre First what shall oblige them to agree For if they agree not their Infallibility is not evident to all Christians nor if their agreement appear casual can it be taken for a ground of Faith that is undefeifible Then to set aside all the East which contesting the Power of the Pope cannot concurre to this Infallibility about the Councils of Constance and Basle when the dispute between the Pope and Council was at the hottest there lived divers Doctors of repute that have maintained this Infallibility to be the gift and privilege not of the present but of the Catholick Church By name Ockam Alliacensis Panormitane Antoninus Cusanus Clemangis and Mirandula Whose words you may see in Doctor Baron of Aberdene his dispute de Objecto Fidei Tract V. Cap. XIX XX. Further I demand if there be in the Church a gift of Infallibility indâ—pendent upon the Scripture that is obliging to believe the decrees thereof which our common Christianity evidenceth not can it appear without the like reasons for which wee believe the Scripture Where is the evidence that Gods Spirit inspires them with their decrees Nay when wee see Popes and Councils imploy the same means to finde the truth of things in question which other men do would they have us believe that they shall not fail by Gods providence when they use no means but that may fail nor have themselves any reason in them to evidence that they do not fail For if they had they might make it appear But of all things the strâ—ngest is that they should undertake to perâ—wade the world this when as the Church it self never determined it Of all things that ever the Church of any time took in hand to decree it will never appear that ever it was decreed that the decrees of the present Church are to be admitted for Gods truth And therefore there is not so much appearance of any opinion the Church of Rome has that it is true as there is of humane policy in breeding men up in such prejudicate conceits which education makes them as zealous of as of their Faith though meer contradiction to the grounds of it That being intangled in their own understandings to hold things so inconsistent they may be the fitter instruments to intangle others in that obedience to the Church which they hold necessary though upon false reasons For as Antony disputes in Tully de Oratore that no man is so fit to induce others into passion as hee that appears really possessed with the same so is no man so fit to imbroile the true reason and order of believing in another mans understanding as hee that is himself first confounded in it There is indeed a plauâ—â—ble inconvenience alleged if it be not admitted to wit that differences cannot be ended otherwise But to object an inconvenience is not to answer an argument say Logicians Nor is it say I to demonstrate a truth It is requisite the Church should be one Suppose wee this for the present for it is not proved as yet but it is not therefore necessary that the unity thereof should depend upon the deâ—ision of all Controversies that arise what true what false It is a great deal easier to command men not to decide their own opinions than to believe their adversaries For to decide is nothing else but to command all men to judge one part to be true when it appeareth that a great part have already judged it to be false But not to offend him that hath declared a contrary judgment is a thing to be attained of him that cannot see reason to judge the same Charity may have place in all things in question among Christians though Faith be confined to the proper mater of it though wee cannot yet determine what that proper mater is and upon what termes it standeth It remains therefore that all presumption concerning the truth of the Churches decrees presupposeth the corporation of the Church the foundation thereof nor can any way be evidenced by supposing onely the truth of the Scriptures and the consent of Christians as Christians which conveyes the evidence thereof unto us So that the belief of the Scriptures and of all things so clear in the Scriptures that they are not questioned in the Church depending upon the evidence of Gods revelations to his messengers But the belief of the Churches decrees inasmuch as not evidenced by the Scriptures upon the presumption of the right use of the Power vested in them that decree by the foundation of the Church if that foundation may appear they do not allow us the common reason of all men that require us to yield the same credit to both CHAP. V. All things necessary to salvation are not clear in the Scriptures to all understandings Not in the Old Testament Not in the Gospel Not in the Writings of the Apostles It is necessary to salvation to believe more than this that our Lord is the Christ Time causeth obscurity in the Scriptures aswell as in other Records That it is no where said in the Scriptures that all things necessary to salvation are clear in the Scriptures Neither is there any consent of all Christians to evidence the same IN the next place to proceed by steps I must negatively conclude on the other side that all things necessary to the salvation of all are not of themselves clear in the Scriptures to all understandings Whereby I say not that all such things are not contained in the Scriptures as if some thing necessary to the salvation of all were to be received by Tradition alone Nor that being in the Scriptures they are not clear and discernable to the understandings of those that are furnished with means requisite to discern the meaning of the Scriptures But that which I stand upon is that it is not nor ought to be a presumption that this or that is not necessary to salvation because it is not clear in the Scriptures Which if it were admitted whosoever were able to make such an argument against any Article of Faith as all understandings interessed in salvation could not dissolve such as it is plain may be made against the truth of Christianity should have gained this that though it may be true yet it cannot be an Article of Faith To my purpose indeed it were enough in this place to prove that this is not the first truth in Christianity to wit that all things necessary to salvation are clear by the Scriptures For having obtained that there is no Rule to conclude those doctrines which may be questioned not to be Articles of Faith so that it cannot thereupon be
are not clear And surely when they are commanded to stand to the determinations of their Judges in things questionable concerning the Law Deut. XVII 8-12 that which was questionable was not clear to all concerned in the Law and the determining of it was neither adding to nor taking from the Law In like maner hee that should adde to or take from the book of S. Johns Revelations take it if you please for the complement of the whole Bible and say as much either of the whole or of any part of it deserves the plagues written there to be added to him and his part taken away out of the book of Life For who doubteth that falsifying the Scriptures is a crime of a very high nature But so it will be whether all things necessary to salvation be clear in the Scriptures or not Nay falsifying the sense of the Scriptures not altering the words may deserve the very same because the true sense might and ought to have been cleared in the Scriptures as not clear to all that are concerned in it And may not S. Paul bid Anathema to whosoever shall preach another Gospel than that which hee had preached to the Galatians unlesse all things necessary to salvation be clear in the Scriptures First let it appear which cannot appear because it is not true that the Scriptures of the New Testament were written when he preached it Or if not that whatsoever is clear in the Scriptures which wee have is clear in the Scriptures which they had when S. Paul preached The Beraeans had reason to examine S. Pauls preaching by the Scriptures who alleged the Old Testament for it and demanded to be acknowledged an Apostle of Christ according as his preaching agreed therewith But what needed his preaching if the means of salvation which hee preached were clearly contained in the Old Scriptures The miracles related by S. Johns Gospel are written that believing wee may have life Why because there is nothing else requisite to salvation to be believed Or as I said to the Leviathan because hee that comes to believe shall be instructed in all things necessary to his salvation whether by the miracles there related or otherwise And cannot the Law be a light to the steps of them that walked by the Law can it not inlighten their eyes and give wisedom to the simple unlesse all things necessary to salvation be clear in the Scriptures I do maintain for a consequence of the grounds of Christianity that the New Testament is vailed in the Old that David and Solomon being Prophets and the doctrine of the Prophets tending to discover the New Testament under the Old by degrees more and more the Law is called by them a light because it taught them who discovered the secret of the Gospel in it and under it the way to that salvation which only the Gospel procureth And in this consideration it is said Psalm XXV 8 11 13. Them that be meek shall God guide in judgment and such as be gentle them shall hee teach his Law What man is hee that feareth the Lord Him shall hee teach in the way that hee shall chuse The secret of the Lord is among them that fear him and hee will snow them his Covenant And though I cannot here make this good yet will the exception be of force to infringe a voluntary presumption that all things necessary to salvation are clear in the Scriptures because the Law forsooth is a light to the actions of him that lived under it Now to all those Scriptures whereby it is pretended that the Scriptures are clear to them that have Gods Spirit but obscure to them that have it not I conceive I have settled a peremptory exception by showing that the believing of all things necessary to salvation is a condition requisite to the attaining of the Grace or gift of Gods Spirit For if that be true then can no presumption of the right understanding of the Scriptures be granted upon supposition of Gods Spirit and the dictate of it If that exposition of the Scripture which any man pretendeth be not evidenced by those reasons which the motives of Faith create and justifie without supposing it to be made known by Gods Spirit to him that pretends it in vain will it be to allege that the Spirit of God is in him that sets it forth Neither do wee finde that they who pretend Gods Spirit do rest in that pretense least they should be laught at for their paines But do allege reasons for their pretense as much as they who pretend the Church to be Infallible do allege reasons whereby they know that which they decree to be true Which were a disparagement to the Spirit of God if the dictate thereof were to passe for evidence I grant therefore that true Christians have Gods Spirit and that thereby they do try and condemne all things that agree not with our common Christianity and that this is the Unction whereof S. John speaketh But not because the gift of the Holy Ghost importeth a promise of understanding the Scriptures in all Christians but because it supposeth the knowledge of that which is necessary to salvation which is our common Christianity and therefore inableth to condemne all that agreeth not with it If there were over and above a grace of understanding the Scriptures of discovering the Gospel in the Law extant in the Church under the Apostles to which our Lord opened their hearts Luke XXIV 45. and which Justine the Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. affirmeth that the Church of his time was indowed with first it was given in consideration of their professing Christianity Then it tended onely to discover those grounds upon which the Church now proceeds in the use of ordinary reason to exponnd the Old Testament according to the New As for Cartwrights argument I relate it not because I think it worth the answering but that you may see how prejudice is able to transport even learned men from their senses It had been easie for one lesse a Scholar than hee to have said that when Jeremy saith it never came in Gods minde to command their Idolatries hee meanta great deal more that hee had forbidden them under the greatest penalties of the Law Which all that know the Law know to be true When hee forgetteth such an obvious figure you may see hee had a minde to inferre more than the words of the Prophet will prove It is to be observed in this place that there is no mention of things necessary to salvation in all these Scriptures Nor can it be said that this limitation of the sufficience and clearnesse of the Scriptures is as clearly grounded upon the Scriptures as it were requisite that things necessary to salvation should be clear to all that seek to be saved And this shall serve for my answer if any man should be so confident as to undertake to prove the sufficience and clearnesse of them so limited by the consent of the
Church For it is manifest that hitherto the authorities of Church Writers cannot be considered any otherwise than as the opinions of particular persons which no wayes import the consent of the whole Church For whereas hitherto there is nothing to oblige the Faith of any Christian but that which is plaine by the Scriptures and the consent of the Church It no wayes appears as yet how the authorities of Church Writers can evidence the consent of Church I will not therefore be curious here to heap up the sayings of the Fathers commending the sufficience and clearness of the Scriptures One or two I will take notice of because they are all I can remember in which the limitation thereof to things which our salvation requires us to believe is expressed S. Augustine de doctr Christianâ— II. 9. In eis quae aperte in Scripturis posita sunt inveâ—iuntâ—r illa omnia qnae continent fideâ— moresq vivendi In those things which are plainty set down in the Scriptures is found whatsoever that Faith or maners by which wee live doth containe S. Chrysostome in II. ad Thessal Hom. III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things are plain and plain and straight in the Scriptures all things that are necessary are mâ—nifest Whereunto wee may addâ— the words of Constantine to the Council of Nâ—â—â—a in Theodoreâ— Eâ—clef Hist l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the ancient Prophets plainly teach us what wee are to think of God But I will also take notice that the same S. Augustine de doctr Christ III. 2. saith that the Rule of Faith which hee had set forth in the first book is had from the plainer places of the Scripture and the authority of the Church And the same S. Chrysostome in the same Homily sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those things which the Apostles writ and those which they delivered by word of mouth are equally credible Therefore let us think the Tradition of the Church deserves credit It is a Tradition seek no more And Vincentius in the beginning of his Commâ—nitorium or Remembrance confessing the Canon of the Scriptures to be every way perfect and sufficient requires neverthelesse the Tradition of the Church for the steddy understanding of it And therefore I have just ground to say that all that is necessary to salvation is not clear in the Scriptures to all that can reade in the opinion of S. Chrysostome and S. Augustine But to all that reade supposing the Rule of Faith received from the Church to bound and limit the sense and exposition of the Scriptures And therefore may more justly suppose the same limitation whâ—n they speak of the perfection and sufficience and clearnesse of the Scripture at large without confining their speech to that which the necessity of salvation requires us to believe And this is already a sufficient barr to any man that shall pretend the consent of the Church which concurreth to evidence the truth of the Scripture for the perspicuity thereof in things necessary to be believed to all whom they may concerne For so long as Tradition may be requisite besides Scripture that cannot appear When it shall appear whether requisite or not then will it appear how farr the sufficience and perspicuity of the Scripture reacheth And this I come now to inquire CHAP. VI. All interpretation of Scripture is to be confined within the Tradition of the Church This supposeth that the Church is a Communion instituted by God What means there is to make evidence of Gods Charter upon which the Corporation of the Church subsisteth The name of the Church in the Scriptures often signifieth the Whole or Cathelick Church THis presumption then which is able to prejudice the truth by disparaging the means God hath given to discover it And that by possessing men that things pretended to be necessary to salvation would have been clear of themselves to all men in the Scriptures if they were true But nothing conducing to clear the doubtfull meaning of any Scripture that is never so true This presumption I say being removed and the authority of the Church as the reason of believing taken away it remaines that wee affirm whatsoever the whole Church from the beginning hath received and practised for the Rule of Faith and maners all that to be evidently true by the same reason for which wee believe the very Scriptures And therefore that the meaning of them is necessarily to be confined within those bounds so that nothing must be admitted for the truth of them which contradicteth the same Wee saw before that the Scripture consisteth of motives to Faith and mater of Faith That in the motives of Faith supposing them sufficient when admitted for true a difficulty may be made upon what evidence they are admitted for true That the conviction of this truth consisteth in the profession and conversation of all those who from the beginning receiving Christianity have transmitted it to their successors for a Law and Rule to their beliefs and conversations Wherefore there can remain no further question concerning the truth of that which stands recommended to us by those same means that evidence the truth of those 〈◊〉 for which wee receive Christianity Had there been no 〈◊〉 Christianity to have been read in the profession and practice of all that call themselves Christians it would not have been possible to convince the enemies of Christianity that wee are obliged to believe the Scriptures If the professing and practising things so contrary to the interest of flesh and bloud be an â—vidence that they are delivered and received from them who first showed reasons to believe It must first remain evident that there are certain things that were so professed and practised from the beginning before it can be evident that the motives upon which they are said to be received were indeed tendred to the world for that purpose This is that common stock of Christianity which in the first place after receiving the Scriptures is to be admitted for the next principle toward the settling of truth controverted concerning the meaning of them as flowing immediately from the reason for which they are received and immediately flowing into the evidence that can be made of any thing questionable in the same It is that sound ingredient of nature which by due application must either cure all distempers in the Church or leave them incurable and everlasting And truly if it were as easie to make evidence what those things are which have been received professed and practised from the beginning by the whole Church as it is necessary to admit all such for truth I suppose there would remain no great difficulty in admitting this principle But in regard it is so easie to show what contradiction hath been made within the pale of the Church to that which elsewhere otherwhiles hath been received I cannot tell whether men despaire to finde any thing generally received
the visibility of the Church and the assurance that every particular Christian might have during this intelligence and correspondence that holding communion with his own Pastor hee held the true Faith together with the Unity of the Catholick Church Neither putting trust in man which God curseth nor in his own understanding for the sense of the Scriptures but trusting his own common sense as well for the means of conveying to him the mater as the motives of Christianity For why is it enough for Irenaeus and Tertullian for S. Augustine and Optatus to allege the Church of Rome and the succession from the Apostles for evidence that the Faith of those Hereticks was contrived by themselves that the Donatists were out of communion with the Church Because supposing that the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord all communicated in the same Faith which they taught the Churches of their own founding other Churches founded and the Pastors of them constituted by the authority of those Churches must needs be founded and settled upon condition of maintaining and professing the same Faith So that if any Christian or Pastor should attempt the unsettling of any part thereof the people to stand bound rather to follow the original consent of the whole from whence they received their Christianity than any man that should forfeit his ingagement to the whole in the judgment of the whole This being the true ground for the authority of Councils might and did take effect without assembling of Councils S. Cyprian directs his leters to Steven Bishop of Rome to write to the Churches of Gaule to ordain a new Bishop in stead of Marcianus in the Church of Arles because hee had joyned with the Novatians To the Spanish Bishops owning the Deposing of Basilides and Martialis and the Ordaining of those whom they had put in their places notwithstanding that upon false suggestions they had gained Steven Bishop of Rome to maintain them Epist LXV LXVI Could any man in his right senses have attempted this had it not been received among Christians which hee alleges that the people of particular Churches are bound not to acknowledge those for their Pastors whom the communion of the Church disowneth whether assembled in Council or not The acts of Councils themselves such are the creation of a Bishop of Arles in stead of Marcianus of Spanish Bishops in stead of Basilides and Martialis depending upon the authority of the Churches of Rome and Carthage that concurred not to them in presence If this be imputed to any mistake of Gods appointment in the ancient Church it will be easie for mee to allege Tertullians reason to as good purpose against our Independent Congregations as hee used it against the Hereticks of his time For if the chief Power of the Church be vested in those that assemble to serve God at once without any obligation to the resolution of other Congregations then is the trust that a Christian can repose in the Church resolved into that confidence which hee hath of those seven with whom hee joyneth to make a Congregation that the ruling part of them cannot faile Or rathâ—r into that which hee hath of himself and of the Spirit of God guiding his choice to those that shall not faile They presuming themselves to have the Spirit of God without declaring what Christianity they professe for the condition upon which they obtain it need no provision of a Catholick Church to preserve that Faith which the Gift of the Holy Ghost supposeth God who requireth the profession of a true Faith in them upon whom hee bestoweth his Spirit hath provided the communion of his Church for a means to assure us of that which it preserveth That it is presumption in them to oversee this no imposture in the Church to challenge it Tertullians reason determines The Hereticks pleaded that the Churches had departed from the Faith which the Apostles had left them To this after other allegations hee sets his rest up on this one that error is infinite truth one and the same That no common sense will allow that to be a mistake in which all Christians agree They all agreed in the same Faith against those Hereticks because they all agreed in acknowledging the Catholick Church provided by God to preserve and propagate it against our Independent Congregations Thus Tertullian de Praescript XXVIII There have been some Disputers of Controversies that have claimed the benefit of Tertullians exception against the Hereticks of his time in behalf of the Church of Rome Hee pleadeth not that the Catholicks ought not but that they are not bound to admit them to dispute upon the Scriptures being able to condemne them without the Scriptures And they plead that the Reformation not standing to those Pastors whom they acknowledge to possesse the place of those that derived their authority by succession from the Apostles may be condemned without Scripture as not holding the truth who hold not that which is taught by the said Pastors Which is to demand of those of the Reformation for an end of all debates first to acknowledge those Pastors and that which they teach then to take that for the true meaning of the Scripture which that which they reach alloweth or requireth But this supposes the sentence of the Church to be an infallible ground for the truth of that which it determineth And therefore to be accepted with the same Faith as our common Christianity or the Scriptures Which I showed you already to be false It shall therefore suffice mee to say that those men consider not the difference between the plea of the Reformation and that of those Hereticks For they acknowledging our Lord Christ and his Apostles no otherwise than the Alcoran and Mahomet doth where they served their turn made no scruple to say when it was for their purpose that they knew not the depth of Gods minde which themselves by some secret way having attained to know were therefore called Gnosticks That they imparted not the utmost of their knowledge to all alike when that served their turne That therefore the Scriptures were unperfect and revealed not that secret whereby they promised their salvation but by incklings These things you shall finde in Tertullian de Praescript XXII and Irenaeus III. 1. as well as that plea which I mentioned afore that the Churches were fallen from that which they had received of the Apostles Whereas those of the Reformation allege against the Church of Rome that those Hereticks pretended Tradition as they do Without cause indeed For what is Tradition pretended to be delivered in secret to them and by them who tender no evidence for it to that which the visibility of Christianity and the grounds upon which it is settled justifieth But so as to make it appear that they no way disown the Apostles or their writings nor can expect salvation by any other meanes And therefore are manifestly to be tryed by the Scriptures acknowledged on both sides provided the trial
the Synod of Antiochia mad when they writ the Leter which you may reade in Eusebius VII 30. in the name of the Churches represented by that Synod to the rest of the Churches in Christendome signifying the sentence of deposition pronounced against Samosatenus and requiring them to joyn with it If it be madnesse to think them so mad as to summon the rest of the Churches upon an obligation which they did not acknowledge what shall it be to think that this obligation was but imaginary or at least voluntarily contracted not inacted by the will of our Lord declared by his Apostles The Emperor Aurelian being appealed by the Council to cause Samosatenus to be put our of his Bishops house by force who maintained himself in it by force against the sentence of the Synod decreed that possession should be given to him whom the Christian Bishops of Italy and Rome should acknowledge for Bishop by writing to him under that title Certainly this Heathen Emperor in referring the execution of the Synods decree to the consent of those remarkable parts of the Church whereupon the consent of the rest might reasonably be presumed understood the constitution of the Church by his five senses better than those learned Christians of our time who argue seriously that this Paulus Samosatenus was not excommunicated by the Synod of Antiochia but by the Emperor Aurelian For this is the course by which all the acts of the whole Church ever came in force those parts of the Church which were not present at the doing of them concurring ex postfacto to inact them and the civil power to grant the execution of them by secular power Perhaps it will not be fit here to let passe that which Athanasius relates libro de sontentiâ Dionysii Alexandrini That this Dionysius writing against Sabellius gave occasion to the Bishops of Pentapolis who resorted to the Church of Alexandria as wee see by the VI Canon of Nicaea to suspect him of that which afterwards was the Heresie of Arius And that Dionysius of Rome being made acquainted by them with a mater of that consequence to the whole Church this Dionysius writ him an Apology on purpose to give satisfaction of his Faith wherein S. Athanasius hath great cause to triumph that the Heresie of Arius which arose afterwards is no lesse condemned than that of Sabellius presently on foot Grant wee that it was an office of Christian charity to tender this satisfaction where it was become so requisite The example of Samosatenus shows that their addresse tended to question if not to displace their Bishop by the authority of the rest of the Church ingaging the consent of his own had hee been discovered to harbor the contrary Heresie to that of Sabellius And indeed what was the rise of all those contentions about Arius that succeeded in the Church after the Council of Nicaea but this question whether Arius should be re-admitted one of the Presbyters of the Church at Alexandria or remaine excommunicate And those truly that do not believe there is any Church but a Congregation that assembles together for the service of God must needs think all Christendome stark mad for so many years together as they labored by so many Synods to attain an agreement through the Church in this and in the cause of Athanasius that depended upon it But those who believe the power of the Church to eschere to the State when it declares it selfe Christian must think the Emperors Constantius and Valens mad when they put themselves to that trouble and charâ—e of so many Synods to obtain that consent of the Church which in point of right their own power might have commanded without all that ado In the decrees of divers of those many Synods that were held about this businesse you shall finde that those Churches which the said decrees are sent to are charged not to write to the Bishops whom they depoâ—e That is to say Not to give them the stile of Bishops not to deal with them about any thing concerning the Church but to hold them as cut off from the Church Just as the Emperor Aurelian afore commanded possession to be delivered to him whom the Bishops of Italy and Rome should write to as Bishop This little circumstance expresses the means by which the communion of the Church was maintained To wit by continual intercourse of leters and messengers from Churches to Churches whereby the one understood the proceedings of the other and being satisfied of the reason of them gave force and execution to them within their own Bodies And this course being visibly derived from the practice of the Apostles sufficeth to evidence the Unity of the Church established by the exercise of that communication which maintained it When wee see the Apostles from the Churches upon which they were for the time resident dare Leters to other Churches signifying the Communion of those Churches one with another by the communion of all with the Apostles who taught and brought into force the termes and conditions upon which they were to communicate one with another have wee not the pattern of that intercourse and communion between several Churches by which common sense showeth all them that look into the records of the Church that the Unity and Communion of the whole was continued to after ages The words of Tertullian de praescript haeret cap. XX. must not be omitted here Itaque tot ac tantae Ecclesiae una est illa ab Apostolis prima ex qua omnes Sic omnes prima Apostolicae duâ— unà omnes probant veritatem Dum est illis communicatio pacis appellatio fraternitatis contesseratio hospitalitatis Quae jura non alia ratio regit quam ejusdem Sacramenti una traditio Therefore so many and so great Churches are all that one primitive Church from the Apostles out of which all come So all are the primitive and Apostolical while all agree in proving the truth While they have the communication of peace the title of brotherhood the common mark of hospitality Which rights nothing but the same tradition of the same mystery ruleth It is to be known that among the Greeks and Romans if a man had made acquaintance and friendship in a forrain City the fashion was to leave a mark for a pledge of it with one another which was called tessexa upon recognisance whereof hee that should come to the place where the other dwelt was not onely to be intertained by him whereupon these friends are called hospites signifying both hosts and guests but also assiisted in any businesse which hee might have in that place Such a kinde of right as this Tertullian saith there was between Christians and Christians between Churches and Churches Hee that produced the cognisance of the Church from whence hee came found not onely accesse to the communion of the Church to which hee came but assistance in his necessities and business in the name of a Christian
Thus S. Paul calleth Gaius his host and of the whole Church Rom. XVI 23. signifying that as hee intertained him S. Paul so hee was ready to intertaine any Christian as a Christian And addeth to that Epistle a recommendation whereby Phaebe might be acknowledged and received as a Deaconesse of the Church at Cenchreae Rom. XVI 1. Whereas otherwise leter◠were written expresse to that purpose which S. Paul himself calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or commendatory 2 Cor. III. 1. The termes in which S. Paul recommends Phabe are these That yee receive her in the Lord as it becometh the Saints and stand by her in any businesse where shee may stand in need For shee also hath stood by many and by mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Athens was strangers patrone For at Athens a stranger that came to live there could not act for himself but by his patrone The same S. Paul thus chargeth Titus III. 22. Send away Zenas the Lawyer and Apollos with care that they want nothing That is put money in their purse as their journey shall require As the Aegyptians sent away the Israelites with care when they furnished them with all that they demanded Wisedome XIX 2. But the passage of S. Johns Epistle III. 5-10 is very remarkable You saw how in his second Epistle hee forbids them so much as to salute Hereticks much lesse to intertaine them or any that should not bring with him the true Faith That is a cognisance that they professed it Here hee commends Gaius for assisting some Christian strangers that travailed for the name of Christ that is upon the businesse of the Church taking nothing of the Gentiles because themselves were Jewes turned Christians These hee saith had born witnesse to Gaius his love before the Church by writing leters to acquaint the Church from whence they came with their intertainment Wishing him so to dispatch them as may be fitting towards God because by so doing a man assists the truth And whereas Diotrephes had prevailed with the Church not to receive them and did labor particular men to that purpose upon pretense it seemes of some strangenesse between the Jewes and Gentiles that were turned Christians forbids him to be ruled by his factiousnesse Wee heare S. Paul in the end of his Epistles relate the saluations of the brethren that is of the Church from whence hee dates and also of particular persons eminent there to the Body of the Church hee writes to What ground had there been for this intercourse had not the Apostle taught them that they were all of one Body and so ought to preserve themselves How often do they charge them to salute one another with a holy kisse or the kisse of love Rom. XVI 16. 2 Cor. XIII 12. 1 Thess V. 14. 1 Pet. V. 14. which the Constitutions of the Apostles showes was done before the Consecration of the Eucharist to signifie the love of one another in Christ and for Christ wherewith they professed to rceive the same Though Origen upon Rom. XVI sayes it came after Prayer And Tertullian therefore calls it signaculum orationis de Orat. XIV the seal of prayer To wit of that prayer which the Eucharist was celebrated with Therefore chose salutations joyned with the charge of saluting one another in token of this love signifie no lesse than the expression of the same love from forrain Churches which they professed among themselves in the communion of the same mysteries That is that they who absent thus saluted them did no less communicate with them in the same Sacrament than they did with one another who saw one another communicate with one another face to face This is then that communication of peace that title of brotherhood that recognisance of the marks of hospitality which Tertullian allegeth for the means whereby all Churches make one Church the same with that primitive and original Church which was first founded by the Apostles The unity whereof being grounded upon the same Faith delivered and received at the Sacrament of Baptisme is able to make evidence of the same Faith Do not all the records of the Church from the Apostles time justifie the same visible communion in Christianity by the same intercourse and communion of counsailes and businesse which were trouble to no purpose were not the intent of it to maintain the Unity of the Church Look upon the Epistles of Ignatius and observe in them two things for the present purpose The first that Ignatius being carried in bands from Rome to Antiochia the Churches by which hee passed not onely those hee writes his Epistles to but divers others send deputations of the principal persons among them to conferre with him about their present estate Which are the occasions of the leters hee directs to them The second that hee desires them to depute and ordaine certain persons to go to Antiochia to his Church there to congratulate with them that since hee was taken from them they were returned from persecution into their wonted body The preservation whereof I suppose every man will imagine this conference advice and comfort of so many Churches was the means to advance The same is to be seen by that of Clemens or rather of the Church of Rome in whose name hee writes it to the Church of Corinth divided within it self into factions to reduce them to peace and unity For I suppose the premises will show the reason that must oblige the parties to respect the advice of the Church of Rome To wit the obligation of communicating with the whole Church Seeing reason requires that the party which should refuse to return to unity must be refused the communion of the Church of Rome and those Churches by consequence that should adhere to it Look now upon S. Cyprians leters look upon the leters of Dionysius of Alexandria out of which for the greatest part Eusebius hath compiled the seventh book of his Ecclesiastical Histories look upon the rest of the intercourse by which the unity and communion of the Church was maintained distinct from all Heresies and Schisms from the Apostles time till Constantine and let mee know what probable reason can be assigned to move forrain Churches to give that respect to strafigers which was effectual to the purpose intended had not all sides been perswaded that this was the end with the Apostles after our Lord had ordained this the meanes to procure it Take for an instance the leter of tha Synod at Antiochia about Paulus Samosatenus in the place afore quoted There showing that having deposed him they had made a new Bishop in his stead they write further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This wee have given you notice of that you may write to him and receive from him communicatory leters But let him that is deposed write to Artemon and let them of Artemons sect communicate with him These leters then were a mark and cognisance that they acknowledged him
Apostles are certainly their act the declaration of the Church proceeding no further than the means provided by God for that purpose will inable the Church to discerne that this doth appear will have the force of a Law to oblige all Christians not to violate the communion of Christians upon pretense that it doth not appear So the rcason of believing and the evidence thereof are both antecedent to the foundation of the Church But the declaration of the Church obliging those that are within it not to violate communion upon pretense of contrary evidence that is the effect of that right and power which God giveth his Church But there are other acts which the Church will be as often necessitated to do as it becomes questionable in the Church how any of those Offices which God is served with by Christians is to be performed What times at what places what persons are to assemble themselves for that service as of it self it is not determined so were it never so particularly determined by the writings of the Apostles yet so long as the world is changeable and the condition of the Church by that reason not to be limited in that service by the same Rule alwaies the Society of the Church could not subsist without a Power to determine it The persons especially that communicate with the Church if you will have the Church a Society must be indowed with several qualities some of them inabling to communicate passively that is to joyn in the Offices of Gods service For till our time I think it was never quessioned among Christians whether the same persons might minister and he ministred to in the Offices of Christianity Then if some persons be to be set apart for that purpose of necessity it may become questionable by what acts the fame is lawfully done according to the will of God declared by his Apostles Further when it is determined who when where are the Offices of Christianity and the Assemblies of the Church to be celebrated the least circumstance of matter and form of solemnity and ceremony though it make no difference of saith yet is able to create a cause of separation of communion that shall be just on the one side Is it any great Power that is demanded for the Church by the Original constitution thereof when it is demanded that the Church have Power to regulate it self in things of this consequence Let mee be bold to say there is never a Company in London so contemptible that can stand without having the like excepting the determination of maters of Faith And therefore it is a small thing to demand that the Apostles for their time should be able to do it by Power from God so as to be heard in Christs stead Those that received Power from them according to the measure of that Power which they received though they pretend not their acts to be our Lord Christs as the Apostles yet within the bounds of that Office to which they are ordained they have power from God determining their persons though not justifying their acts Suppose then that our Lord Christ assume a Ceremony in use in the Synagogue at such time as hee preached of baptizing those that imbraced Moses Law being born of other Nations to signifie and to solemnize the admission of them that undertake Christianity to the privileges of his New people I suppose it is the act of our Lord that makes this a Law to his Church though it was the Power which God had provided to govern his ancient people that made it a Law to the Synagogue It is no more doubted among men of Learning that our Lord Christ at his last Supper made use of Ceremonies practised among the Jewes at their Passeover in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist the outward act whereof hee appointed to consist in those Ceremonies whereas the inward intent thereof was not known afore For whatsoever they knew of Christ they could not thereby know that hee would institute the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud in those Elements In like maner it had been alwaies a custome of Superiors in the Synagogue according to that of the Apostle Ebr. VlI. 7. Without all contradiction the lesse is blessed by the greater to blesse and to pray for interiors with laying hands upon them or lifting up hands over them So did the Priests so did the Prophets so Isaac Gen. XXVII 4 7 12 19 21 22. Jacob Gen. XLVIII 9 14 17. Aaron Levit. lX. 22. because a man cannot lay hands upon an Assembly all at once The Priests blessing therefore is called among the Jewes listing up of hands and many scrupulous observations there are among them in doing it Num. VI. 23 24 25. So our Lord in doing cures as Naaman thought Elisha would have done 2 Kings V. II. in blessing his Disciples Lue. XXIV 50. and divers the like If then the Apostles of our Lord frequented the same Ceremony in solemnizing Ordination as praying for the grace of the Holy Ghost upon those that received it and in other acts of publick effect in the Church it cannot be conceived that any thing but their owne act brought it in force though the practice of Gods ancient people gave them a precedent for it but it must be conceived that this argues a Society of the Church where such Ceremonies are instituted to celebrate such acts with as were to provide for the maintenance of it Here I must not forget the Law of Tithes and the Title by which they are challenged to be due to the Church For having made that this proved the Church a Corporation by the power of making Lawes within themselves of creating Governors and of Excommunicating If it be demanded where is the common stock and revenue of it seeing no Corporation can subsist without means to maintaine the attendance requisite to those things wherein it is to communicate it will be necessary to show that those who founded the Church have provided for this Tithes are commonly claimed by the Levitical Law And it is not easie to give a reason why other Lawes of the Church should not come in force or stand in force by the Law of Moses if it be once said that Tithes are due to the Church under the Gospel because they were as signed the Levitical Priesthood by the Law Truly it deserves consideration whether they that insist upon the Levitical Law in the claime of Tithes to the Church do not prejudice the cause which they pretend to maintaine For if they look into the tenor of the Law it will easily appear that Tithes of fruits of the earth are assigned the Priesthood by God in consideration of the Land of Promise which hee gave them And that therefore the practice of the Jewes at this very day is due and legal who pay no Tithes of those fruits because the service for which they are due is by the Law prohibited out of the Land of Promise Besides it is
by making that profession which the Church requireth owneth the person of the Church for Corporations are persons in Law for the evidence which hee trusteth in the mater of his Salvation I shall not need to have recourse to the Article of our Creed to prove that hee owneth the unity of it and obligeth himself upon his Salvation to abide in the same Nor indeed have I any need here to repeat the processe by which I have demonstrated the corporation of the Church Here I inferre as clearly gained by it that the effect of binding or loosing men from sin is limited by God to a condition of acknowedging or not acknowledging the Church for two reasons and in two cases For hee that is admitted to Baptisme upon professing the Faith of the Church and undertaking to live as a Christian if hee transgresse this profession forfeits the communion of the Church which hee attained by making it And hee that acknowledgeth the unity of the Church which all that are baptized must needs acknowledge forfeits his share in it by doing that which dissolveth it though hee transgresse not the profession of his Christianity doing it Now it appeareth by S. Paul and our Lord that Christians under Infidels are forbidden to carry any of their sutes out of the Church and commanded to end them among themselves And shall hee not forfeit the benefit of his Christianity and become bound by the sin hee committeth in so doing that doth this I may therefore grant Erastus and this Doctor that Let him be to thee as a Heathen or Publicane signifies be it lawful for thee to implead him before Unbelievers But it must be as I said afore upon supposition that hee is first excommunicate and become no Christian to thee and therefore to be used as a Heathen or a Publicane As also I grant him that to be delivered to Satan signifies not to be excommunicate but supposes it For if S. Paul calling the miraculous graces of the Apostles time the manifestation of the Spirit do teach us that the world was thereby convicted That God of a truth was in his Church as hee saith again 1 Cor. XIV 24 25 then was it to the same purpose and effect that those who were shut out of the Church should become liable to the incursions of evil Spirits To wit To make the difference between the Land of Goshen and the rest of Egypt visible It was therefore necessary that the power of binding or loosing in the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord should be accompanied with the gift of the Holy Ghost which our Lord breathed upon them For by them the world was to be assured upon what termes they might be loosed from sinne and continue in the Unity of the Church which if they forsook they became bound again But there is not the same reason why the same should be thought requisite to the same power in their successors For those terms being once declared and settled hee that professeth and teacheth them as the Apostles have taught is a competent Minister to loose or to bind another not onely though hee have not that gift of the Holy Ghost that may make him appear to be appointed by God to that purpose but also though hee be bound himself because hee undergoes not that which hee professeth Now if the premises be true it is a mistake as grosse as pernicious to imagine that particular Christians by the light common to all Christians are Judges in all things concerning Christianity or the Scriptures For if the attaining of Christianity and Salvation by it require no more but to know the Rule of of Faith and the common precepts of Christian conversation together with the Offices wherewith God is to be served by his Church If the gift of the Holy Ghost be promised to those that are baptized upon undertaking this then is the understanding of the rest of the Scriptures no further required at their hands neither have they any warrant for that which they shall do upon any such presumption as this The Church that hath received of God the trust of maintaining unity in this service of God so as may best stand with the maintenance of that profession which it presupposeth hath by consequence an obligation upon them to stand to the resolution thereof saving that common Christianity which the constitution thereof presupposeth It is therefore utterly a most poisonous doctrine to be infused into the ears of Christian people that they are by their Christianity free to cast themselves into Churches as they may meet with those whom they best like to communicate with It is therefore a thing to stand astonished at that they who have hitherto declamed against any thing in Christianity the reason whereof is not to be derived from the Scripture not seeing in the Scripture any such thing as a Church that was not founded by the Apostles or by commission from the Apostles not in all Christianity any thing ever counted a Church that was not planted by mean authority derived thence to some Church should now think themselves at liberty to build Churches upon no other foundation than an arbitrary agreement of seven persons Suppose I say nothing as yet in what right and interest several Members or rather several ranks and qualities concurre to the resolution of the Church Suppose I grant the power may be so abused that several parts of the Church may stand obliged to provide for themselves without the whole which is al that the common profession of Reformation importeth Shall we not be throughly reformed till we renounce one Catholick Church as visibly a corporation as the Baptisme which we received upon acknowledging of it is visible If every Church be planted by the authority of the Apostles to that effect extant and alive in some Church then is not the communion thereof with all other Churches by the means of that which planted it communicating with all arbitrary but a necessary consequence of that obligation to the Unity of the whole which it gets by being a Church Nor is there any reason why the acts of the whole whether done by representatives in Synods or resolved at distance of time and place by intelligence and correspondence of the absent should any way depend upon the satisfaction of particular Christians how just or how requisite For neither doth their conformity to them in any reasonable construction import any ingagement of their conscience to the justice or necessity of them Unlesse it could be said that a man could not live in society without binding himself to answer for the acts of that society wherein hee liveth Which hee that saith will not find an independent congregation to continue in for four and twenty hours or to enter into onely for one For what obligation can all Christians have to answer for that which our Christianity upon profession whereof we are become Christians containeth not Indeed when the abuse is so visible that the unity of
be said that God granteth the Secular Power any right to punish him for that choice for which hee maketh him unaccountable The ground of my reason lies in that which hath been said against the Infallibility of the Church For if the sentence of the Church be not of force to oblige any man to believe the truth of it much lesse can the sentence of any Christian though never so Soveraign oblige the meanest of his Subjects to believe that Religion to be true which hee commandeth because hee commandeth it And whatsoever penalty the Soveraign inflicteth upon those that concurre not to the exercise of that Religion which hee holdeth forth as when hee denieth them protection in the exercise of their own which as I have showed is no mean one implieth a command of exercising his and is inflicted in consideration of obeying Gods command which the Subject is inabled by God to judge that hee hath against all the world to the contrary So that upon these terms the Secular Power which is inabled to judge for it self upon the same account with the meanest Subject thereof cannot have power to punish any Subject for exercising any Religion which it alloweth not For all Power as I said afore is a moral quality consisting in a Right of obliging another mans will by the act of his will that hath it Therefore if a Subject cannot be obliged by the will of his Soveraign to professe and to exercise that Religion which his Soveraign prescribeth then cannot the Soveraign have power to impose any penalty upon his Subject for professing or exercising that Christianity which hee believeth All Christianity obliging a man to the utmost of his ability to professe and to exercise that Religion which hee believeth to be true And the reason is manifest For Christianity is from God and the Secular Power is from God though by several means Christianity by the coming of Christ and the preaching of his Apostles Secular Power by what means I will not here dispute nor yet suppose any thing that is questionable That which serves my turn is evident to the common reason of all men That by another act of God than that upon which Christianity standeth That Christianity dependeth not upon it That as I argued against the Leviathan by a Law which no Secular Power can abate If therefore God oblige a Christian by his Christianity to serve God otherwise than his Soveraign commandeth hee is bound by the same bond to disobey his Soveraign to obey God which obliged the primitive Christians to suffer death rather than renounce the Faith But I intend not to say that absolutely which I say upon supposition of this Doctors sense Nor do I intend here to dispute that which I have resolved in another place what kind of penalties Secular Power is able to inact that Christianity with which it self professeth The question is now how the Secular Power is able or becomes able to impose penalties in maters of Religion which as a Christian it is not able to oblige the Subject to acknowledge not how far these penalties may extend A question which cannot be answered not supposing the Church A question which is no question supposing it For supposing that God sending Christianity founds for part of it the visible society and corporation of a Church assuring the common sense of all people thereby what is the condition upon which Salvation is to be had by communicating with it What will remain but to conform to the communion of this Church labouring to work out every man his own Salvation by the means which the communion thereof furnisheth Which whoso doth not but pretends to disturbe it will remain punishable by the Secular Power for I have said already that the Church is not inabled to inflict temporal penalties not absolutely because it is Christian but upon supposition that it maintaineth the true Church The acts whereof as Excommunication by the original constitution thereof inforceth So did not the Secular Power inforce that Excommunication it must of necessity become ineffectual when the world is come into the Church and Christianity professed by the State And this is the resolution that I have given in another place that the acts of the Church for the mater of them are limited by the Church that is to say by persons qualified by the Church and in behalf of it but the force that executes them must come from the State For supposing the Church to be founded by God and the power of it resolved into that act wherein this foundation consisteth Whatsoever the Church is by this power inabled to do will belong to the Church by Gods Law to do though the mater of that which it doth be not limited by Gods Law but by the act of men inabled by Gods Law to do it S. Cyprian and others of the Fathers have reason when they argue that the acts of the Church are the acts of God For no man capable of common reason can doubt that what is done by commission from superiour Power is the act of that Power which granted the commission so far as it ownes the execution of it And I have sufficiently limited the Power granted the Church heretofore by the mater of that communion for which it subsisteth and the supposition of the Christianity upon which it subsisteth What is therefore done by virtue of this commission though perhaps ill done for the inward intent with which men do it yet being within the bounds of the Power established by God is to be accepted as his own act without contesting whose act of founding the Church it cannot be infringed Which if it be true so far is the Secular Power from being able to create or constitute a Church by creating that difference of qualities in which the difference between several Members thereof consisteth that it is not able of it self to do any of these acts which the Church that is those who are qualified by and for the Church are thereby qualified to do without committing the sinne of Sacrilege in seizing the Powers which by Gods act are constituted and therefore consecrated and dedicated to his own service into its own hands not supposing the free act of the Church without fraud and violence to the doing of it CHAP. XXI How the Tradition of the Church limits the interpretation of Scriptures How the declaration of the Church becomes a reasonable mark of Heresie That which is not found in the Scriptures may have been delivered by the Apostles Some things delivered by the Apostles and recorded in the Scriptures may not oblige S. Austines Rule of Apostolical Traditions ANd by this means I make account I have gained another principle towards the interpretation of Scripture and resolution of things questioned in Christianity either concerning the Rule of Faith or such Laws and Customs determining the circumstances of Ecclesiastical Communion as I showed afore are understood by the name of Apostolical Traditions Which principle that no
is evident that hee allowes them that which the Apostles had forbidden because it is evident that this is one of those differences which Jews by the Law were bound to make If therefore there be this difference in the Scriptures it is manifest that the leter of them doth not determine what obliges So again the same Apostle 1 Cor. XI 1-16 disputeth at large that men ought not but women ought to cover their heads at praying or prophesying in the Church For the intent whereof though it hath been the subject of whole books in this age I conceive I need go no further than Tertullians book de Velandis Virginibus who living so much nearer the Apostles knew better the custoÌ„ms of their Churches than all the Criticks of this time Hee disputes the case in question then whether Virgins had a privilege not to vail their faces at Divine Service by arguing that they cannot be excepted from S. Pauls words and alleging the example of the Church of Corinth where at that very time the Virgins vailed their faces at Divine Service as other women did Which whether it tye the Church or not at this time it will scarce be granted by those who now practice it not And in another place 1 Tim. V. 3-6 hee showeth that there was then an Order of Widowes whose maintenance hee ordereth to come from the stock of the Church as likewise how they are to be qualified and how imployed Of which Order there is no where any step remaining in the Church at â—resent though nothing be more imperative than the Order concerning it So the precept of the Apostle serves not to oblige the Church at present though by Scripture And if I may use the argument ad hominem upon the supposition of those that I dispute with who intend not to take any thing for true which I prove not as debating the principles of Christian truth it is manifest that the Apostle James V. 14. appointeth that the sick be anointed with oil together with prayers as well for the recovery of their health as for the forgivenesse of their sins Which it is manifest that it cannot appear not to oblige the Church at this time by virtue of that Scripture which injoyneth it And therefore to say nothing at present whether it do indeed oblige the now Church or not those that believe it doth not oblige cannot be able to give a reason why it obligeth not by the Scripture alone And this is the argument whereby I prove that the interpretation of Scripture as concerning mater of Law to the Church or the means to be used in determining what obligeth what not cannot transgresse the tradition and practice of the Church Because that which is propounded in the Scriptures as meer mater of fact may oblige and that which is propounded as mater of precept creating right may not oblige the Scripture not determining whether it intend that obligation to be universal or not For having showed afore that the Church is a Society instituted by God to which these Rules are given as Laws to govern it in the exercise of those Offices wherein the Communion therâ—of consisteth all reasonable men must grant that as the intent and meaning of all Laws is to be gathered from the primitive and original practice of that Society for which they were made so is the reason of all Orders delivered to the Church by the Apostles and by consequence their intent how farr they were to oblige to be measured by the first and most ancient practice of the Church which first had them to use Whereunto let us adde these considerations That the Orders delivered the Church by the Apostles were of necessity in force before mention can be made of them in their writings That the writing of them is neither the reason why they oblige nor a thing thereunto requisite but meerly supervenient to the force of them And that there is sufficient evidence that those motives to believe which the Scripture recordeth but cannot evidence are neverthelesse true and that the truth of those motives cannot be evident but by the Society of the Church which the said Laws do maintain For upon these conâ—â—derations it will appear necessarily consequent that as there be Apostolical Traditions which the Scripture evidently witnesseth so evidence may be made of them without Scripture The Rule of S. Austine how to discern what Traditions do indeed come from the Apostles is well enough known to be this To wit that which is observed over all the Church though it cannot be discerned when where or by whom it came first in force that is in his times by the authority of what Synod it was settled that must be deemed and taken to come from the authority of the Apostles themselves I will not use the terms of Synod or Synods because I conceive the Church was from the beginning by virtue of the perpetual intelligence and correspondence settled and used between the parts of it a standing Synod even when there was no Assembly of persons authorized to consent in behalf of their respective Churches Such things as became requisite to be determined in any Church being thereby so communicated to the rest as the order taken in one either to be accepted by them or redressed Neither will I say that the Rule is so effectual as it is true For I cannot warrant how general the practice of every thing that may come in question can appear to have been over the whole Church nor whether it may appear to have begun from some act of the Church to be designed by some place or persons or not which in S. Austines time I doubt not might be made to appear and being made to appear would maintain the Rule to be true Nor have I need of any such Rule as may serve to discern whatsoever may become questionable whether it come from the Apostles themselves or not It shall suffice mee here to presume thus much that no man can prescribe against any Rule of the Church that it comes not from the Apostles because it is not recorded in the holy Scriptures And therefore that nothing hindereth competent evidence to be made of the authority of the Apostles in some Orders of the Church of which there is no mention in the Scriptures Correspondently to that which was settled afore concerning the Rule of Faith that no man can prescribe against any thing questionable that it is no part of it because it is not evident in Scripture or because such arguments may be made against it out of the Scriptures which every one whose salvation it concerns is not able evidently to assoile And all this being determined I intend neverthelesse that it still shall remain questionable how farr these Orders of the Apostles oblige the Church Because I intend not to prescribe from all this that those Orders which shall appear to have been brought in by the Apostles may not become uselesse to the Church CHAP.
Christ shed for reâ—â—ission of sins the life of the Kingdom of heaven See the unbaptized deprived also of the bread and cup of life is divided from the Kingdom of Heaven where Christ the well of life remains So it appears that the African Church had this custome but held it not necessary to salvation as Baptism But by Gennadius de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis Cap. LII It appears to have been a custome of the Church when Hereticks were reconciled to the Church by confirmation to give their little ones the Eucharist presently upon it And Ordo Romanus de Baptismo prescribes it after the solemn Baptism before Easter which the French Capitulary I. 161. and Alcuinus also de divinis officiis provideth for And in the Eastern Church Dionysius in the end of the booke de Hierarchiâ Ecclesiasticâ In the mean time it is to be considered that there being no order that all should be baptized Infants nor at what age Whereupon St. Gregory Nazianzene Orat. XLII in Sanctum Bapt. advises at three or four years of age it cannot be said to have been a generall custome of the Church Nor that it could be originall from the Apostles because the solemn times of Baptisme at Easter and Whitsontide cannot be thought to have been settled till Christianity was grown very vulgar For as for those that were baptized upon particular occasions or in danger of death it cannot be thought that the Eucharist was celebrated for their purpose nor doth any example appear that it was ever brought them from the Church On the contrary when the times of Baptisme came to be disused because it was found to be for the best that all should be baptized Infants upon this occasion the receiving of the Eucharist came to be deferred as much longer then was fitting in my opinion then it was given too soon in S. Cyprians time according to the example related by him in his Book de Lapsis where the Child whom the Pagans had given bread dipped in the wine that had been consecrated to their Idols because too young to eat of the flesh of their sacrifices receives the Eucharist in the Church CHAP. XXIV Two sorts of means to resolve whatsoever is resolvable concerning the Scripture Upon what terms the Church may or is to determine controversies of Faith And what obligation that determination produceth Traditions of the Apostles oblige the present Church as the reasons of them continue or not Instances in our Lords Passeover and Eucharist Penance under the Apostles and afterwards S. Pauls vail eating blood and things offered to Idols The power of the Church in limiting these Traditions I May now proceed I conceive to resolve generally upon what principles any thing questionable in Christianity is determinable and as franckly as briefly do affirm that there are but two sorts of means to resolve us in any thing of that nature Tradition and Argument Authority and Reason History and Logick For whatsoever any Artist or Divine hath said of the great use of the languages in discovering the true meaning of the Original Scriptures by the ancient Translations as well as the Originalls which I allow as much as they demand they must give me leave to observe that seeing all languages are certain Lawes of speaking which have the force of signifying by being delivered to posterity upon agreement of their Predeoessors all that helpe is duly ascribed to Tradition which we have from the Languages Indeed this is no Tradition of the Church no more then all History and Historicall truth concerning the times the places the persons mentioned in the Scripture concerning the Lawes the Customes the Fashions and orders practised by persons mentioned in the Scriptures in all particulars whereof the Scripture speaks which whether it be delivered by Christians or not Christians as far as the common reason of men alloweth or warranteth it for Historical truth is to be admitted into consequence in inquiring the meaning of the Scriptures and without it all pretense of Languages is pedantick and contemptible as that which gives the true reason to the Language of the Scripture whatsoever it import in vulgar use This helpe being applied to the Text of the Scripture it will be of consequence to confider the process of the discourse pursuing that which may appear to be intended not by any mans fancy but by those marks which cleared by the helps premised may appear to signifie it Which is the work of reason supposing the truth of the Scriptures And whereas other passages of Scripture either are clearer of themselves or being made clearer by using the same helps may seem to argue the meaning of that which is questioned whereas other parts of Christianity resolved afore may serve as principles to inferre by consequence of reason the truth of that which remains in doubt not to be impured therefore to reason but to the truth from which reason argues as believed and not seen this also is no lesss the work of reason supposing the truth of the Scriptures But whereas there be two sorts of things questionable in Christianity and all that is questionable meerly in point of truth hath relation to and dependance upon the rule of faith as consequent to it or consistent with it if we will have it true or otherwise if false I acknowledge in the first place that nothing of this nature can be questionable further then as some Scripture the meaning whereof is not evident createth the doubt And therefore that the determination of the meaning of that Scripture is the determination of the truth questionable For seeing the truth of Gods nature and counsails which Christianity revealeth are things which no Christian can pretend to have known otherwise then by revelation from God and that we have evidence that whatsoever we have by Scripture is revealed but by the Tradition of the Church no further then all the Church agreeth in it all that wherein it agreeeth being supposed to be in the Scripture and much more then that It followeth that nothing can be affirmed as consequent to or consistent with that which the tradition of the Church containeth but by the Scripture and from the Scripture So that I willingly admit whatsoever is alleadged from divers sayings of the Fathers that whatsoever is not proved out of the Scriptures is as easily rejected as it is affirmed limiting the meaning of it as I have said But whatsoever there is Scripture produced to prove seeing we have prescribed that nothing can be admitted for the true meaning of any Scripture that is against the Catholick Tradition of the Church it behoveth that evidence be made that what is pretended to be true hath been taught in the Church so expresly as may inferre the allowance of it and therefore is not against the rule of Faith But this being cleared so manifest as it is that the Church hath not the priviledge of infallibility in any express act which is not justifiable from the universall
question that the sayings and doings of our Lord and his Apostles the matter of the Gospels and Acts and the writings of the Apostles contain the same which the man of God that is Timothy is to Preach and Teach Neverthelesse waving so evident a presumption I am ready to stand to all that the words understood of the whole Bible will argue For granting that all Scripture was inspired by God to this purpose That the man of God might be perfectly furnished to every good worke of edifying believers or convincing gain-sayers of instructing the sonnes of the Church or correcting the rebellious it would be neverthelesse in vain to inferre that therefore all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians are clearly expressed to all understandings in the Scriptures because it is evident that the man of God by being first made a Christian or else a man of God might be instructed in all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians or to the discharge of his particular trust which by learning the Scriptures he might afterwards be more plentifully inabled to know For granting that the Scripture is able abundantly to furnish him that hath learned all that is necessary for a Christian or for a man of God to know with all parts belonging to a man of God It followeth not that the Scripture clearly teacheth him that hath not learned the same all that is necessary to the salvation of all Christians Because he that transgresseth not the substance of Christianity may find in the Scriptures sufficient furniture both for the maintaining and for the advancing of that Christianiy which he acknowledgeth And yet he that trusteth his own sense to find out what is the substance of Christianity by the leter of the Scriptures may well miss of that which God never bade him trust his own sense to find by the Scripture Now if it be demanded how the Law can be said to give light or wisedom to the simple being of it selfe not to be understood I will answer from the peculiar consequence of my position concerning the double sense of the Law For it becometh a Christian to believe that the Law is thus highly extolled by the Brophets whom he is obliged to take for the fore-runners of Christ not for the outward and carnal sense of it as it was the condition of holding the Land of promise and the happinesse thereof but for the inward and spirituall sense as the means whereby the Spirit of God then enlightned them to discern the true inward and spirituall righteousnesse of Christians as I said afore And what is the reason that the Psalmist sairh XXV 11. 13. What man is he that feareth the Lord Him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse The secret of the Lord is among them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant The Covenant of the Lord being clearly expressed to all Israelites whose Ancestors contracting it with God had undertaken to teach it their children But that there was something more in it than all that were of it understood which God teacheth by the Psalmist all that were of it that he was ready to teach them that should come with his fear in their hearts to learn it The same which our Lord tells the Jews of his time Ioh. VII 17. If any man will do the will of my Father he shall know concerning my doctrine whither it be of God or I speak from my selfe For that which our Lord Christ shews shall be expresly received and acknowledged by those who by the Law had been conducted to be willing to do what God should command in point of inward and spiritual obedience To them that stand so affected nothing remaining to be done but to shew them that Christ was come from God with instructions what he vvould henceforth have them to do that vvould be saved Novv if the Prophets Esay and Ieremy promise that under the Gospel all Christians shall be taught of God If our Lord praiseth the Father for revealing to babes the secret thereof vvhich he had concealed from the great and learned of the world If upon the same account it was not flesh and blood but the Father that had revealed to S. Peter the Christ the Son of God I demand whether we shall imagine their meaning to be that God taught them these things without showing them reason sufficient argument to believe them to be true Or having shewed them such that he taught them by inclining them to follow that which he had showed them sufficient arguments to believe If we say that he taught them immediately without showing them any sufficient reason for the truth of that which he taught them to follow we expose our common Christianity to the scorn of all unbelievers whom by consequence we can show no reason why they should become Christians unlesse God make them so before they know why Nay we can show them no reason why we deal with them to become Christians why the Gospel should be preached at all or any man suffer for preaching or professing it in order to reduce the world to it unlesse we suppose that we can show them reason so sufficient why they should be Christians that it may by Gods grace become effectual to make them no lesse But this is the reason why our Lord Christ protesteth concerning the testimonie of Iohn the Baptist which every man sees how available it was to make him receivable of those who before had admitted Iohn to be sent by God professing himselfe sent expresly to bear witnesse to our Lord Christ I say this is reason enough why he professeth neverthelesse not to receive any witnesse from man For had not God provided afore-hand that the witnesse of Iohn should he accepted for the word of God that being so accepted it might leave no doubt in them that had accepted it so considerable a party that those who refused our Lord Christ durst not provoke it as we see by the Gospels that our Lord was come from God in vain had it been for our Lord to alledge his witnesse Wherefore when he alledgeth him alleadging not him but the Father who had procured him to be accepted well truly though alledging witness of Iohn Baptist be renounced the witnesse of man but professeth to speak those things whereby they might be saved only under the witness of God Neither is it strange that the Prophets Esay and Ieremy and the Apostle S. Iohn should say that those who had been thus taught of God should need no instruction from one another because they know all things already or because they had that within them that should teach them all things I confesse if we look impertinently upon that infinity of disputes that remains in the world either about action or about knowledge if we look upon the multiplying of controversies in Religion the least of which dispute of reason decides not and therefore faction determines it may appear a very
the sense of it For if the same Faith which first was preached was afterwards committed to writing by the Apostles and how should those Christians which had not the use of leters be saved otherwise then was it the authority of the Apostles acknowledged by them that found themselves tyed to be Christians which made the Faith to oblige whether delivered by writing or without it The consent of all Churches in the same Rule of Faith serving for evidence of the Apostles act in delivering the same to the Churches Nor can any further reason be demanded why that knowledg which the Gnosticks prerended to have received by secret wayes should be refuted than the want of this And therefore it is in vain to allege that as they scorned the Scripture so they alleged Tradition for this secret knowledge The Tradition which they alleged being secret and such as could not be made to appear But no lesse contradictory to the Tradition of the Church than to the Scriptures both infallibly witnessed by the consent of all Churches And hereupon I leave the sayings of S. Austine setting aside the authority of the Council of Nicaea and affirming that former General Councils may be corrected by later without answer As also the sayings of them who affirm the Faith which our Lord hath taught to be the rock upon which the Church is built For if no building can lay that foundation upon which it standeth then cannot the Church make mater of Faith being founded upon it And that authority which may be set aside or corrected can be no infallible ground of Faith It is true it is pleaded that though in the Church of Rome there be some that do believe that the Church is able to make new Articles of Faith that is to make such determinations in maters of Faith as shall oblige all men to believe them as much as they are obliged to believe all that which comes from our Lord by his Apostles Others that do believe onely that the Church is able to evidence what the Apostles delivered to the Church and that this evidence is the ground whereon particular persons are to rest that whatsoever is so evidenced was indeed so delivered by the Apostles yet both these agree in one and the same reason of believing both of them alleging the Tradition of the Apostles to the Church for the ground of their Faith But this is more than any man of reason can believe unlesse wee allow him that affirms contradictories to ground himself upon one part of the contradiction which the other part of it destroyes For seeing that there must be but one reason one ground upon which we believe all that we believe and that it is manifest that those Articles of Faith which the determination of the Church creates being not such by any thing which that determination supposes are believed to be such meerly in consideration of the authority of the Church that determines them By consequence the Scripture and whatsoever is held to be of Faith upon any ground which the authority of the Church createth is no mater of Faith but by the authority of the Church determining that it be held for such On the other side hee that allowes Tradition to be the reason why hee believes the Christian Faith necessarily allowes all that hee allowes to be mater of Faith not onely to be true but to be mater of Faith before ever the Church determine it So that allowing him to say that hee holds his Faith by Tradition hee must allow mee that hee contradicts himself whensoever hee takes upon him to maintain that the Church creates new Articles of Faith which were not so the instant before the determination of the Church CHAP. XXXII Answer to an Objection that choice of Religion becomes difficult upon these terms This resolution is for the Interest of the Reformation Those that make the Church Infallible cannot those that make the Scripture clear and sufficient may own Tradition for evidence to determine the meaning of the Scriptures and Controversies of Faith The Interest of the Church of England The pretense of Rushworthes Dialogues that wee have no unquestionable Scripture and that the Tradition of the Church never changes AS little shall I need to be troubled at any reason that may be framed against this resolution having answered the prejudice that seems to sway most men to apprehend that God must have been wanting to his Church if all things necessary to salvation be not clearly laid down in the Scriptures For it is very manifest that the very same presumption possesses the mindes of the adverse party that God must needs have provided a visible Judge infallible in deciding all Controversies of Faith Whether the Church or any person or persons authorized in behalf of the Church for the present all is one I shall therefore onely demand that it be considered first that God was no way tied either to send our Lord Christ or to give his Gospel which because it comes of Gods free grace is therefore called the Word of his Grace and the Covenant of Grace Then that hee hath not found himself obliged to provide effectual means to bring all mankinde to the knowledge of it resting content to have provided such as if men be not wanting to their own salvation and the salvation of the rest of mankinde may be sufficient to bring all men to the knowledg of it And when it is come to knowledg all discreet Christians notwithstanding must acknowledg that the motives thereof fully propounded though abundantly sufficient to reasonable persons yet do not constrain those that are convicted by them to proceed according to them as necessary reasons constrain all understandings that see them to judg by them For how should it be a trial of mens dispositions if there were no way to avoid the necessity of those motives that inforce it Now if any knowledg can be had of truth in maters of faith that become disputable it must all of necessity depend upon the sufficiency of those motives which convict men to imbrace the Christian Faith And if there be any such skill as that of a Divine among Christians of necessity all of it proceeds upon supposition of the said motives which not pretending to show the reason of things which they convict men to believe convict them notwithstanding to believe that they are revealed by God For what conviction can there be that this or that is true unlesse it may appear to fall under those motives as the means which God hath imployed so to recommend it Therefore can it not be reasonable to require a greater evidence to the truth of things disputable among Christians than God hath allowed Christianity it self which being supposed on all hands it remains questionable whether this or that be part of it Therefore can it not be presumed that God hath made the Scriptures clear in all points necessary to salvation to all understandings concerned or that hee hath
provided a visible Judg infallible in determining Controversies of Faith either because originally his goodnesse requires it or because wee cannot suppose that men can be obliged to imbrace the Gospel upon other terms It is sufficient that having given the Scriptures hee hath over and above provided the Communion of the Church to preserve the Rule of Faith and the Laws of the Church in the sensible knowledg and common practice of all Christians that the means of salvation might be sufficient and yet men remain subject to trial whether they would render them uneffectual or not to themselvs and the rest of mankinde I confess indeed it would be much for the ease of the parties and would shorten their work very much if it might be admitted for a presumption that all things necessary are clear in the Scriptures or that the Church is an infallible Judg in Controversies of Faith For then the superficial sound of the words of Scripture repeated by rote in the Pulpit or out of the Pulpit would serve to knock the greatest question on the head without any advise what difficulties remain behind undecided upon no lesse appearances in Scripture On the other side a decree of the Council of Trent would serve to put the Scripture to silence without any proffer to satisfie the conscience that is moved with the authority thereof equally obliging with our common Christianity with the sense of the Church on the same side to boot Thus much is visible that they whose businesse it is in England to reconcile souls to the Church of Rome finde their work ready done when they have gained this point and men all their lives afore grounded upon contrary reasons in the particulars which are the subject of the breach change their profession without any coutrary resolution in those particulars that is their former grounds remaining in force Surely nothing were more desirable than a ready and short way to the truth in things so concerning But to pretend it upon a ground which if any thing can be demonstrative in this kinde is demonstratively proved that it cannot be true To wit the authority of the Church decreeing without means to derive that which it decreeth from the motives that should evidence it to be revealed by God This I say to pretend is no better than an Imposture And if this be true I remain secure of that which every man will object against the resolution which I advance that whereas the meaning of the Scripture alone is a thing too difficult for the most part of men to compasse I require further that it be assured by the records of the Church which are endlesse and which no mans industry can attain to know So that the meer despair of finding resolution by the means propounded will justifie to God him that followes probabilities as being all one in that case whether there be no truth or whether it cannot appear to those whom it concerns This Objection I say I do not finde so heavy upon mee that I have any cause to mince but rather to aggravate the difficulty of it having showed that the means provided by God to make evidence of the Faith to the consciences of particular Chaistians is not any gift of infallibility vested in any person or persons on behalf of the whole Church but the Unity of the whole Church grounded upon the profession of the same Faith as the condition of it For in all reason what Unity bindes that Division destroyes And whatsoever Unity contributes to the assurance of a Christian that hee is in the way to salvation so long as hee continues in the Unity of the Church that the Division of the Church necessarily derogates from the same assurance in him that cannot continue in that Unity which is once dissolved and yet believing the Scriptures and our common Christianity to be infallibly true cannot believe the parties to be infallible as they are And what hath hee that desireth the Unity of the Church to do but to aggravate that difficulty of attaining salvation which the division thereof produceth I do therefore grant and challenge as for mine own Interest that it is very difficult for unlearned Christians to discern the truth in those Controversies about which a settled division is once formed as now in the Western Church At least upon so true and so clear grounds as may assure them that they make their choice upon no other interest than that of Gods truth But I do not therefore yield to that which this difficulty it seems hath wrung from Vincentius Lerinensis with whom agreeth the Opus imperfectum in Mat. as you have them quoted afore That there is no means but Scripture to convince inveterate Heresies The reason whereof the later of those authors renders Because those Heresies have their Churches their Pastors and the succession of them and their Communion as well as Catholick Christians For hee supposeth Pastors lawfully constituted to have fallen away to those Heresies And truly the case of this difficulty was put when the Arian Faction had possessed so great a part of the Church that S. Gregory Nazianzene in the place afore quoted acknowledges that the true Church could not be judged by numbers With whom S. Hilary libro de Synodis agreeth But if the same Nazianzene scorn them that value the Church by numbers Liberius in the place afore quoted out of Theodoret revies it upon him in saying that the cause of the Faith could not suffer though hee were alone For not onely the Scriptures continue alwaies the same but though the present Church fail it follows not that the Tradition of the Whole Church must fail with it So long as the original sense of the Whole Church may be evident by the agreement thereof with the Scripture wee may discern what is Catholick without the sentence of the present Church And that which is not so to be discerned for Catholick wee may presume that our salvation requires us not to believe it And therefore Vincentius and his fellow are so to be understood that it is difficult indeed to make evidence to private Christians of Tradition contrary to that which they see received by Heresies And therefore that for the convicting of them in the truth recourie is to be had to the Scriptures But Vincentius who as I showed you acknowledges evidence for Tradition from written records of the Church need not have said that there is no means to convince inveterate Heresies but the Scriptures Be this difficulty then the evidence how much it concerns the salvation of all Christians that the Unity of the Church be restored That the choice of private Christians in maters concerning their salvation be not put upon the sentencing of those disputes the reasons whereof they are not able to manage For being restored upon agreement in those things which it is sufficient for all Christians to believe it will neither be easie for private Christians to frame to themselves opinions
destructive to their particular salvation within that compasse neither will their fall be imputable to the Church but to themselves if they do But neither shall this difficulty be so great an inconvenience in our common Christianity nor so insuperable as it seems to those that are loth to be too much troubled about the world to come For I never found that God pretendeth to give or that it is reason hee should give those means for attaining that truth by which wee must be saved which it should not lye within the malice of man to render difficult for them to compasse whom they concern I finde it abundantly enough for his unspeakable goodness and exactly agreeable with those means whereby hee convicteth the world of the truth of Christianity that hee give those whom it concerns such means to discern the truth of things in debate as being duly applyed are of themselves sufficient to create a resolution as certain as the weight of the mater in debate shall require And such I maintain the Scripture to be containing the sense of it within those bounds which the Rule of Faith and the Lawes given the Church by our Lord and his Apostles do limit For what is more obvious than to discern what the whole Body of the Church hath agreed in what not what is manifestly consequent to the same what not what is agreeable to the ground and end of those Lawes which the Church first received from our Lord and his Apostles what not Let prejudice cast what mists of difficulties it can before the light which God hath given his Church to discover the truth hee that stands out of their way shall discern much more art used to obscure than to discern it Neither is there any reason why it is so hard to make it discernable to all that are concerned but the unreasonable prejudices either of the force of humane authority in mater of Faith and the extent of Tradition beyond the Rule of Faith or that the consent of the whole Church may as well come from Antichrist as from the Apostles If the records of the Church were handled without these prejudices lesse learning than this age shows in other maters might serve to evidence the consent of â— Church in more controversies than wee have to those that would be content to rest in the Scripture expounded according to the same But if the Church that is those that uave right in behalf of the Church being perswaded of a sacrilegious privilege of Infallibility shall take upon them to determine truths in debate to limit Lawes to the Church without respect to this Rule which if they respect they manifestly renounce the privilege of their Infallibility I mervail not that God suffers his people to be tried with such difficulties whose sins I doubt deserve this tryal But then I say further that it is not the providence of God that is the means which hee hath provided to resolve men in debates of Christianity but it is the malice of man that makes that means uneffectual which God hath made sufficient I must now answer an envious objection that this resolution is not according to the positions of those that professe the Reformation with us To which I will speak as freely as to the rest having profess'd my self utterly assoiled of all faction and respect of mens persons to way against the means of finding the truth and for that reason devested even the Fathers of the Church of all authority which their merits from Christianity have purchased to hear what their testimonies argue in point of Historical truth I say then first that may saying no way prejudices the intent and interest of the Reformation whatsoever insufficience it may charge the expressions of Reformers with I know the worst that can be alleged in this point is that Luther in appealing from the Pope and Council called by him to a Council that should judg meerly by the Scriptures first framed this Controversie between the Scriptures and the Church which since hath been alwaies in debate so that hee which will not be tried by the Scriptures alone plainly seems to quit the party and give up the game Who has this imagination though never to apparent let mee desire him to go a little higher to the first commencing of the plea about Indulgences For there can be nothing more manifest than this That when those that undertook that cause against Luther found that the present practice of the Church could not be derived from any thing recorded in the Scripture they were forced to betake themselves to the authority of the Church not that which consisteth in testifying the faith once delivered but in creating that which never was of force untill the exercice of it Here let all the world judg for I am confident the case is so plain that all the world may judg in it whether Luther had any Interest to demand that the Scripture alone should be heard in opposition to the Tradition received from the beginning by the Church tending as I have said to nothing but to limit the meaning of the Scripture Or that his Interest required him to protest that the truth for which hee stood was not to be liable to the Sentence of the present Church And therefore when afterwards hee appealed to a Council which should pronounce by the Scriptures alone if this tend to exclude those means which are subordinate to the attaining of the meaning of the Scriptures I do utterly deny that it can be understood so to be meant by any man that would not defeat his own enterprize And therefore that it must be understood to exclude onely the authority of the present Church so farre as it proceeds not upon supposition of those grounds whereupon the Church is to pronounce For what hinders the sentence of the Church to be infallible not of it self alone but as it proceeds upon those means which duely applied produce a sentence that is infallible And truly were not his plea so to be understood all his Followers Melancthan Chemnitius and others who have written Volumes to show how their profession agrees with that of the Catholick Church should have taken pains to commit a very great inconsequence For as I have argued that those who maintain the Infallibility of the present Church do contradict themselves whensoever they have recourse either to the Scripture or to any Records of the Church to evidence the sense of the Scripture in that which otherwise they professe the authority of the Church alone infallibly to determine So those that will have the Scripture alone to determine all Controversies of Faith and yet take the pains to bring evidence of the meaning thereof from that which hath been received in the Church may very well be said to take pains to contradict themselves Some of our Scottish Presbyterians have observed that the Church of England was reformed by those that had more esteem of Melancthon than of Calvin and
therefore affected a compliance with the ancient Church And truly it is fit it should be thought that they complied with him because hee complied with the Catholick Church for by that reason they shall comply with the Church if in any thing hee comply not with it But it is a great deal too little for him to say that will say the truth for the Church of England For it hath an Injunction which ought still to have the force of a Law that no interpretation of the Scripture be alleged contrary to the consent of the Fathers Which had it been observed the innovations which I dispute against could have had no pretense If this be not enough hee that shall take pains to peruse what Dr. Field hath writ hereupon in his work of the Church shall find that which I say to be no novelty either in the Church of England of in the best learned Doctors beyond the Seas And sure the Reformation was not betrayed when the B. of Sarum challenged all the Church of Rome at S. Pauls Crosse to make good the points in difference by the first DC years of the Church Always it is easie for me to demonstrate that this resolution That the Scripture holding the meaning of it by the Tradition of the Church is the onely means to decide controversies of Faith is neerer to the common terms that the Scripture is the onely Rule of Faith than to that Infallibility which is pretended for the Church of Rome Having demonstrated that to depend upon the Infallibility of the present and the Tradition of the Catholick Church are things inconsistent whereas this cannot be inconsistent with that Scripture which is no lesse delivered from age to age than Tradition is though the one by writing the other by word of mouth and serving chiefly to determine the true meaning of it when it comes in debate And if prejudice and passion carry not men headlong to the ruine of that Christianity which they professâ— it cannot seem an envious thing to comply with the most learned of the Church of Rome who acknowledge not yet any other Infallibility in the Church then I claime rather than with the Socinians the whole Interest of whose Heresie consists in being tryed by Scripture alone without bringing the consent of the Church into consequence and that supposing all mater of Faith must be clear in the Scripture to all them that consult with nothing but Scripture But I cannot leave this point till I have considered a singular conceit advanced in Rushworthes Dialogues for maintaining the Infallibility of the Church upon a new account The pretense of that Book is to establish a certain ground of the choice of Religion by the judgement of common sense To which purpose I pretend not to speak in this place thinking it sufficient if this whole work may inable them who are moved with it duely to make that choice for themselves and to show those that depend on them how to do the like But in as much as no man will deny the choice of Religion to be the choice of truth before falshood in those particulars whereof the difference of Religion consists It is manifest that the means of discerning between true and false in mater of Faith which I pretend cannot stand with that which hee advanceth It consists in two points That the Scripture is not and that Tradition is the certain means of deciding this truth Which if no more were said will not amount to a contradiction against that which I resolve For hee that sayes the Scripture is not the onely means excluding that Tradition which determines the meaning of it doth neither deny that Tradition is nor say that the Scripture is the certain means of deciding this kind of truth But the issue of his reasons will easily show upon what termes the contradiction stands Hee citeth then common sense to witnesse that wee cannot rest certain that wee have those Scriptures which came wee agree by inspiration of God by reason of the manifold changes which common sense makes appearance must come to passe in transcribing upon such a supposition as this That so many Columns as one Book contâ—ins so many Copies at least are made every hundreth years and in every Copy so many faults at least as words in one Column Upon which account 15 or 16 times as many faults having been made in all copies as there are words it will be so much oddes that wee have no true Scripture in any place Abating onely for those faults that may have fallen out to be the same in several copies And if Sixtus V Pope causing 100 copies of the Vulgar Latine to be compared found two thousand faults supposing two thousand copies extant which may be supposed a hundred thousand in any Language what will remain unquestionable It is further alleged that the Scripture is written in Languages now ceased which some call Learned Languages because men learn them to know such Books as are written in them the meaning whereof not being subject to sense dependeth upon such a guessing kind of skill as is subject to mistake as experience showes in commenting of all Authors But especially the Hebrew and that Greek in which wee have the Scriptures That having originally no vowels to determine the reading of it wanting Conjunctions and Preposiaions to determine the signification of him that speaks all the Language extant being contained in the Bible alone the Jews Language differing so much as it does from it the Language of the Prophets consisting of such dark Tropes and Figures that no skill seems to determine what they mean This so copious and by that means so various in the expressions of it though wanting that variety of Conjugations by which the Hebrew and other Eastern Languages vary the sense that to determine the meaning of it is more than any ordinary skill can compasse Adde hereunto the manifold equivocations incident to whatsoever is expressed by writing more incident to the Scripture as pretending to give us the sense of our Lords words for example not the very syllables Adde the uncertainties which the multiplicity of Translations must needs produce and all this must needs amount to this reckoning That God never meant the Bible for the means to decide controversies of Faith the meaning whereof requires many principles which God alone can procure because so indefinite Which the nature of the Book argueth no lesse as I observed being written in no method of a Law or a Rule nor having those decisions that are to oblige distinguished from mater of a farre diverse and almost impertinent nature Upon these premises it is inferred as evident to common sense that the Scripture produces no distinct resolution of controversies though as infinitely usefull for instruction in virtue so tending to show the truth in maters of Faith in grosse and being read rather to know what is in it than to judge by it by the summary agreement of it with that which
that hee hath any end but himself nor that hee doth any thing to any other end than to exercise and declare his own perfections If hee do sundry things which of their nature have necessarily such an end as they attain not it is to be said that Gods end never fails in so much as by failing of the end to which they were made they become the subject of some other part of that providence wherein his perfections are exercised and declared Seeing then that all Controversies concerning the Faith have visibly their original from some passages of Scripture which being presupposed true before the foundation of the Church ought to be acknowledged but cannot be constituted by it And seeing that no man that out of the conscience of a Christian hath imbraced all that is written can deny that which hee may have cause to believe to be the sense of the least part of the Scripture without ground to take away that belief It remains that the way to abate Controversies is to rest content with the means that God hath left us to determine the sense of the Scripture not undertaking to tye men further to it than the applying of those means will inferre And truly to imagine that the authority of the Church or the dictate of Gods Spirit should satisfie doubts of that nature without showing the means by which other records of learning are understood and so resolving those doubts which the Scriptures necessarily raise in all them that believe them to be true and the word of God is more than huge cart-loads of Commentaries upon the Scriptures have have been able to do Which being written upon supposition of certain determinations pretended by the Church or certain positions which tending to reform abuses in the Church were taken for testified by Gods Spirit have produced no effect but an utter despair of coming to resolution or at least acknowledgment of resolution in the sense of the Scriptures Whereas let men capable of understanding and managing the means heretofore mentioned think themselves free as indeed they ought to be of all prejudices which the partialities on foot in the Church may have prepossessed them with and come to determine the meaning thereof by the means so prescribed and within those bounds which the consent of the Church acknowledges They shall no sooner discern how the primitive Christianity which we have from the Apostles becomes propagated to us but they shall no less clearly discern the same in their writings And if God have so great a blessing for Christendom as the grace to look upon what hath been written with this freedom there hath been so much of the meaning of the Scripture already discovered by those that have laid aside such prejudices and so much of it is in the way to be discovered every day if the means be pursued as is well to be hoped will and may make partizans think upon the reason they have to maintain partialities in the Church If God have not this blessing in store for Christendom it remains that without or against all satisfaction of conscience concerning the truth of contrary pretenses men give themselves up to follow and professe that which the protection of secular Power shall show them means to live and thrive by In which condition whether there be more of Atheism or of Christianity I leave to him who alone sees all mens hearts to judge CHAP. XXXIV The Dispute concerning the Canon of Scripture and the translations thereof in two Questions There can be no Tradition for those books that were written since Prophesie ceased Wherein the excellence of them above other books lies The chief objections against them are questionable In those parcels of the New Testament that have been questioned the case is not the same The sense of the Church HAving thus resolved the main point in doubt it cannot be denied notwithstanding that there are some parts or appertenances of the Question that remain as yet undecided For as long as it is onely said that the Scripture interpreted by the consent of the Church is a sufficient mean to determine any thing controverted in mater of Christian truth there is nothing said till it appear what these Scriptures are and in what records they are contained And truly it is plain that there remains a controversie concerning the credit of some part of those writings which have been indifferently copied and printed for the Old Testament commonly marked in our English Bibles by the title of Apocrypha And no lesse concerning the credit of the Copies wherein they are recorded For though it is certain and evident that the Old Testament hath been derived from the Ebrew the New from the Greek in which at first they were delivered to the Church Yet seeing it appeareth not of it self impossible such changes may have succeeded in the Copies that the Copies which the Jews now use of the Old Testament are further from that which was first delivered than the Vulgar Latine as also the Copies of the Greek Testament now extant It is a very plain case that this doubt remaining it is not yet resolved what are the principles what the means to determine the truth in maters questionable concerning Christianity I must further distinguish two questions that may be made in both these points before I go further For it is evidently one thing to demand whether those writings which I said remain questionable are to be counted part of the Old Testament or not Another whether they are to be read by Christians either for particular information or for publick edification at the assemblies of the Church And likewise as concerning the other point it is one thing to demand what Copy is to be held for authentick another thing to dispute how every Copy is to be used and frequented in the Church To wit whether translations in mother languages are to be had and into what credit they are to be received For it is manifest that the one sense of both questions demands what the body of the Church either may do or ought to do in proposing or prohibiting the said writings or Copies to be used by the members thereof for their edification in Christian piety But the other what credit they have in themselves upon such grounds as are in nature and reason more ancient than the authority of the Church and which the being and constitution thereof presupposeth And as manifest as it is that these are two questions so manifest must it needs remain that the one of them to wit that which concerns the authority of the Church and the effect of it does not belong to this place nor come to be decided but upon supposition of all the means God hath given his Church to be resolved of any truth that becomes questionable As for the other part of both questions though it hath been and may be among them that will not understand the difference between principles and conclusions because it is for
primo calore Fidei Catholicae In the first zeal of the Catholike faith That is of his professing it being reconciled to the Church for these things are properly attributed to the profession of Christianity But to barely believing that it is true afarre off and at a great distance Cornelius in his letter to Fabius Bishop of Antiochia concerning Novatianus in Eusebius Eccles Hist VI. 43. Thus describeth Celerinus having been persecuted for the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man who having most stontly through the mercy of God passed through all tortures and confirmed the weaknesse of his flesh by the strength of his faith which strength is not in the mind that judgeth Christianity to be true but by the resolution of the will to stick to it Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. II. alledges Plato that in civil commotions the greatest virtue a man can meet with is Faith To wit in him whom a man trusts though the greatest happinesse be Peace which makes it needlesse Inferring thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it appears that the greatest of wishes is to have peace the greatest of virtues faith Which he would not have alleged for the commendation of the Christian Faith had he not understood it to consist in that trust which a man sincerely engageth as well as in that credit which a man giveth Whereby we may understand why in another place he will have the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the faithfall for Christians to hold the same reason with that of Theognis when he commends a faithfull friend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he is worth gold and silver in a civil dissension Because he places the faith of a Christian in the obligation of Christianity which he undertakes when he expresseth that the honour which it imports lies in the performing of it As Lydia when she intreateth S. Paul in these terms Acts XVI 15. If ye judge me faithful to the Lord come into my house and abide there presseth him if he think her a true Christian as she had professed her self That is faithfull to God and his Church which she must be oblieged to upon the trust that she had taken upon her in becoming a Christian Therefore disputing not long afore against Basilides and Valeutinus the Hereticks who made mens faith to depend necessarily upon the frame of their natures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore is faith no longer the achievement of choice if it be the advantage of nature nor shall he that believes not be justly recompensed being blamelesse he that believeth being no cause Nor shall the property or otherwise of faith or unbeliefe be subject to praise or dispraise And by and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But where becomes the repentance of unbelievers through which comes remission of sins So that neither shall Baptisme be any more reasonable nor the blessed seal the gift of the holy Ghost by Baptisme nor the Son nor the Father from whom it is expected Onely the distribution of natures according to them will be found utterly without God not having for the foundation of salvation voluntary Faith So the voluntary engagement which Baptisme expresly inacteth is that Faith whereby a Christian claimes the promises of the Gospel I know the words of S. Augustine may here be objected Enchirid. Cap. XXXI De hac enim fide loquimur quam adhibemus cum aliquid credimus non quam damus cum aliquid pollicemur Nam ipsa dicitur fides Sed aliter dicitur non mihi habuit fidem Aliter non mihi servavit fidem Nam illud est non credit quod dixi Hoc non fecit quod dixit For saith he we speake here of the credit which we give when we believe something not of that which we engage when we professe something For that also is called Faith But a man meants one way when he sayes he did not give me Faith Another way when he sayes he kept not faith with me For that is he believed not that which I said This he did not what he said As if the consideration of trust to be kept or not to be kept were utterly impertinent to the nature of justifying faith For why were those that were not yet baptized never called Fideles or Believers in the primitive Church though they professed never so much to believe the Christian faith but onely Catechumeni Hearers or Scholars or at the most Competentes or Pretenders when they put themselves forth actually to demand their Baptisme Why but to signifie that the Church had not yet conceived confidence of their Christianity because they had not yet engaged themselves in the profession of it Which having solemnized by Baptisme they were thenceforth called Faithfull the Name signifying as well trusty as Believers having proceeded so farre as to engage themselves to live as Christians because they believed believed Christianity to come from God as it pretendeth There would be no end if I should go about to produce the Fathers for this name of Christians one place or two shall serve for example Tertullian De Exhort castitatis Cap. IV. Spiritum quidem Dei etiam fideles habent sed non omnes fideles Apostoli Ergo qui se fidelem dixerat adjicit postea Spiritum Dei se habere quod nemo dubitares etiam de fideli And truly even Christians have the Spirit of God yet are not all Christians Apostles Therefore S. Paul having called himselfe faithful or a Christian he adds afterwards that he hath the Spirit of God which no man would question in a Christian Whereupon in his Book De Jejuniis Cap. XI you find an Antithesis or opposition between Spiritualis and Fidilis or a meere Christian and one that had extraordinary indowments of Gods Spirit As on the other side de praescript Cap. XII Quis Catechumenus quis Fidelis incertum est Speaking of the hereticks among them It is uncertain who is a Professor who a Scholar And truly he who considers all virtue to consist in the affection of the will not in the perfection of the understanding Considering withall that faith is according to Clemens Alexandrinus where afore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a voluntary assent of the soul Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a voluntary presumption and assent unto piety Shall find great reason to consider what affection of the will it is wherein he places the virtue of faith in a good Christian Especially experience on the one side shewing that hereticks schismaticks and badde Christians who cannot be thought to be endowed with that faith which recommends good ones do really and truly believe all that truth which their Sect or their lust is consistent with And reason on the other side shewing how the believing of it becomes reconcileable with the interest of their sect or of their lust I suppose here that the reason which makes the motives of saith though sufficient to become defeisible is the Crosse of Christ attending the profession of Christianity in
the second Adam is the meanes of our righteousnesse and therefore by that likenesse of reason which S. Pauls discourse proceeds upon the first Adam the meanes of our sinne And to this purpose speaketh that which followeth For when the Apostle argueth that whereas sinne is not imputed when there is no Law notwithstanding death raigned upon all those that had not sinned as Adam did That is by transgressing such an expresse law of God as Adam did transgresse Observing that the Fathers who walked with God whom Adam offended tasted neverthelesse of that death which Adam incurred he inferreth to us that the effect of Adams sinne remaines in the whole kind of his posterity to which death the punishment thereof belongeth And I beseech you of whom speaketh S. Paul but of all mankind when he writeth thus Rom. VII 5-13 For when we were in the flesh the passions of sinne which were by the Law were exercised in our members to bear fruit unto death But now are we voided to the Law that being dead by which we were held that we may live in the new Spirit not in the old letter What shall we say then Is the Law sinfull God forbid Nay I had not known sinne but by the Law For I had not known concupiscence had not the Law said Thou shalt not covet But sinne taking advantage by the commandment wrought in me all concupiscence For without the Law sinne was dead Now I lived somtime without the Law But the commandment coming sinne revived and I died And that commandment which was for life to me was found to death For sinne taking advantage by the commandement deceived me and slew me by it So the Law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good Did then that which was good become death to me God forbid But sinne that it might appear sinne wrought me death by that which was good that sinne by the commandment might become sinfull above measure For though S. Pauls speech here be concerning a Jew in the person of one that of a Jew was become a Christian yet seeing the proposition of the Apostle bears that the Gentile is much more involved in that condemnation to which the Jew is liable that which belongs to every Jew that comes to Christianity will be true much more a fortiori of the Gentile all mankinde being then compleatly divided into Jew and Gentile And therefore let no man think that my present purpose shall ingage me before I can make use of this Scripture to decide the question now on foot among Divines whether S. Paul here speakes in the person of an unregenerate man or regenerate which notwithstanding in another place I may be ingaged to decide For the present it is enough for my turn that an unregenerate man admitting S. Paul cannot refuse his owne case to be that which S. Paul here sets forth to be this That being in the flesh the passions of sinne were exercised in his members and so forth For I know it is said that to be in the flesh is to be in the custome of sinne But what difference makes that in the case when all to whom the Gospel first comes are in the flesh excepting those who under the Law though not by the meer Law came to that state of Grace in which the Fathers stood And therefore it is to me of no consequence whatsoever the meaning of the Apostle may be when he describes those sinfull passions which he saith were exercised in their members to be those that were through the Law I see there are two opinions of his meaning when he saith afterwards That sinne getting advantage by the comandment without which it was dead but the man alive and when it came sinne revived and he died So that the Law which tendred life became to his death because sin by advantage of the Law slew him deceitfully wrought in him all concupiscence For one opinion saies That when an unregenerate man becomes convict that the Law of God takes hold of his inward inclinations which he findes to be evil the inbred corruption of nature not submitting thereto upon this meer conviction flies out into utter defiance of God and his Law in all disobedience to it whereby the concupiscence that is opposed may be satisfied The other saith That the Law of Moses in the outward and literall sence thereof requiring onely civil obedience answerable to that temporall happinesse which it tendereth It is no marvaile that Jewes being tied to the letter of the Law as their study and businesse should think the outward and civile observation thereof to be the utmost intent of it which we see to this day to be the error that detaines them from Christianity And therefore it is properly said according to this opinion that sinne taking this advantage by the Law slew me by deceit But to me this dispute is of no consequence Or rather both opinions are to be admitted in relation to the two severall senses of the Law which I have advanced For as to the literall sense of the Law which the Gentile could have nothing to do with it is manifest this might be For it is manifest that it is become a scandale to the Jew to make him think that he stands right in Gods Court without any Gospel of Christ and thereupon to induce him to defie it But as to the spiritual sense of the law in which the Gentile also hath his interest as concerning things written in the hearts of all men whatsoever the occasion is by which it becomes revived in the heart in which at any time it may have been dead because it neither gives rule to the actions thereof nor bindes it over to judgement most certaine it is and most evident the meaning of S. Paul that when it cometh to convict a man of his duty and by consequence what he is liable to upon the faileure the Law that is for life will prove to death That is if Grace help not sinne will overcome For if the helpe of the Law convicting of one true God his providence and judgement even upon the secrets of the heart were not able to reclaime those that were bred under it to spirituall righteousnesse much lesse shal that conviction whereby the light of nature evidences the same be of force to the same purpose And this is that which S. Paul intimates Rom. VIII 3 4. For whereas the want of force in the Law was weake through the flesh God sending his sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and concerning sinne condemned sinne in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit For if the doctrine of Moses Law which as I have shewed giveth so really eminent advantages towards the choice of true righteousnesse was uneffectuall to the Jewes by reason of the flesh of necessity the light of nature must needs become uneffectual to the Gentiles
given and setting aside his declared will to the contrary may yet give to as many as the Heathen Idolaters ever counted Gods how shall he perswade them that they are the lesse Idolaters because they do it but to one besides God and shall never be moved to do it to any more Whereas supposing the Father Sonne and holy Ghost to be one and the same God we invite them not to worship any but God though we invite them to worship that which they comprehend not but believe And therefore for a direct answer to the difficulty made I must take notice that there are those that pretend to make evidence to naturall reason that it is not onely consistent with but necessary to the perfection of the Godhead that being one and the same singular being it hath subsistence in three several persons Whose opinion and reasons did I write in Latine I should find my self obliged to consider But the greatest part of those whom I write to not demanding these metaphysicks I will neither censure them nor hold my self liable to their censure for it that by not holding up so high I betray the advantage of Christianity to the scorn of unbelievers This I will say that speaking of the Godhead it is not necessary to maintain that which I believe to be evidently possible Which is to say that I may be bound to believe that of God which I cannot evidence to reason that there is no contradiction in it Because what the motives of Faith make evident that it is revealed that I am not able to comprehend how possible or not For though reason force me to attribute to God all that is of perfection and to remove from God all that is of imperfection in the creature yet by all that I understand nothing proper to God Those things that are revealed signifying nothing else but his proper nature incomprehensible to man till he see him as he is What is the Word and Spirit of God besides God I understand not at all But let not therefore to believe that the Word tooke our flesh and not the Father having in it the holy Ghost without measure whereof it giveth a certaine measure to believers And had I a proper conceit of that which they expresse that which seems a contradiction would then appear necessary In the mean time all dispute about essence and persons and natures and all the terms whereby either the Scriptures expresse themselves in this point or the Church excludes the importunites of heresies from the true sense of the Christiane Faith improves no mans understanding an inch in this mystery The service it does is to teach men the language of the Church by distinguishing that sense of severall sayings which is and that which is not consistent with the Faith And if any man hereupon proceed by dicourse upon the nature of the subject to inferre what is and what is not such his understanding is unsufferable When therefore it is said The Father is God the Sonne God therefore the Father is the Sonne Here is nothing like the form of an argument If to make an argument in form you change it and say Whosoever is God is the Father the Sonne is whosoever is God Proving both propositions because The Father is God as also the Sonne and there is but one God Therefore whoso ever is God is the Father Therefore the Sonne is whosoever is God Here you have recourse to the matter in hand trusting no more to the form of your argument but to this consequence That If there be but one God and the Father he then whosoever is God is the Father Which failes because the revelation which shewes the Father to be God showes the Sonne to be the same God which he that did understand God would see to be necessarily consequent Neither is there cause that any thing that we see in the creature should make us marvaile why the Father Sonne and holy Ghost being three who are God should not be three Gods or three substances of the Godhead unlesse a man knew what God is and what the Father Sonne and holy Ghost import in God Nor that the same substance should subsist thrice in three persons unlesse he had a proper conceit of that which person and subsistence signifie in the Godhead Nor shall it follow that every person shall be three persons because God we know by discourse from the creature to be one But what the persons are which we believe to be in God before we think of God is revealed because we understand it not Nor that the persons can be really the same because really the same with the same Godhead because not completely the same with it which though by reason not to be understood grounds the difference between themselves For the same reason shall it not follow that the Sonne is his own Sonne because not Sonne to the Godhead but to his Father And therefore but one Sonne possible because the fullnesse of the Godhead is revealed to dwell bodily in Christ the Father and the holy Ghost The Sonne notwithstanding from everlasting because in God in whom there can be nothing new though brought forth by an operation no lesse from everlasting then incomprehensible In fine the Son alone incarnate though the Father and the holy Ghost abide in him being incarnate Because the Father the Fountaine the holy Ghost the stream that flowes upon believers In whom notwithstanding the Father and the Son dwell John XIV 23. Because they are in the holy Ghost whom the faithful are indowed with As for that which was feared that all discourse of reason all Arts and Sciences that have come from it must fail if we grant not those things which agree or disagree with a third to agree or disagree one with another So farre it is from holding that it seems to clear the truth For if it take place in that discourse which proceeds upon generall terms abstracted from the particulars which we see then can there be no cause why it should take place in that which proceeds upon terms revealed from the immediate sight of God concerning God whom we cannot know otherwise For how should consequences be framed upon terms whereby the things which they signify are not understood Therefore all the dispute that the Schools can have of the holy Trinity and incarnation of our Lord Christ cannot advance us in the understanding of those mysteries but onely teach us by what terms we may expresse our selves in them according to the Faith of the Church And though something evident to reason come in argument with that which is so revealed yet the effect of the argument must follow the nature of that which is revealed and pretend no more then I have said Where you see there is nothing to hinder that discourse which proceeds upon that which men understand of things subject to sense by considering that wherein particulars differ and that wherein they agree to take effect no lesse
not did so order the meanes by which this obedience was effected or not that he might know that it would or would not come to passe And this preaching of the Gospel and the meanes and consequence of it being granted in consideration of Christ that the reason why such meanes was requisite is to be drawn from the fall of Adam and the corruption of mans nature by it And to this sense seeme the words of our Lord to belong John X. 28 29. I give my sheep eternal life nor shall they ever perish nor any man snatch them out of my hand My Father who gave me them is greatest of all nor can any man snatch them out of my Fathers hand Although it seems that he inlargeth the same sense to another effect John XVII 6 -12 I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world Thine they were and me thou gavest them and they have kept thy Word Now know they that whatsoever thou gavest me is from thee For the words that thou gavest me have I given them and they have received them and know of a truth that I am come forth from thee and thou hast sent me I ask for them I ask not for the world but for those that thou hast given me for they are thine And all mine are thine and thine mine and I am glorified in them And I am no more in the world but they are in the world and I come to thee Holy Father keep them in thy Name whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we When I was with them in the World I kept them in thy name These whom â—hou gavest me I kept nor is any of them lost but the Son of perdition that the Scripture may be fulfilled For afterwards it is said that our Lord spake to those that apprehended him to let his disciples go That the word which he had said might be fulfilled I have lost none of those whom thou gavest me John XVIII 9. But all this will not serve to make us believe that his then disciples alone were the men that the Father gave to Christ he having said expresly afterwards John XVII 20. I ask not for these alone but for those that shall believe in me through their word For this showes that he prayes for his then disciples in the common quality of disciples that is of Christians having other prayers to make for the world that is for those that were not As we see by and by John XVII 21. and Luke XXIII 34. But in that he saith so often that the Father had given them him from whose appointment the sufferings of Christ the power which he is advanced to the successe of the Gospel which he publisheth dependeth In that regard I conceive the helps of Gods grace by the second Adam whereby the breach made by the first is repaired necessarily to be implied in Gods giving unto our Lord Christ his disciples And of this sense much there is expressed by S. Paul Ephes I. 3. 11. Blessed God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that hath blessed us with every spirituall blessing in the heavens through Christ As he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blamelesse before him in love Having foreappointed us to adoption to himself through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will To the praise of his glorious grace whereby he made us acceptable in the beloved Through whom we have redemption by his blood even the remission of â—â—nnes according to the riches of his grace which hath abounded to us in all wisdome and prudence Having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself at the dispensation of the fullnesse of times to restore all things both in heaven and in earth through Christ in whom also we have received our lots appoinâ—ed according to the purpose of him that effects all things according to the counsel of his will For not to insist upon the force of those terms and phrases which Saint Paul uses whatsoever blessings it may be said S. Paul hereby signifies to have been appointed to the Ephesians from everlasting as Christians I suppose it cannot be denied that he presupposes that they were also appointed from everlasting to be Christians to whom by so being those blessings should become due And all this so many times and so manifestly said to have been appointed in Christ or by Christ or through Christ that it cannot be questioned that not onely the Gospell by which they were brought to that estate but also the meanes that inforce it and the consequences whereby it takes effect all depend upon Christ and the consideration of his coming to destroy the works of the devil in our first parents CHAP. XIX Evidences of the same in the Old Testament Of Gods help in getting the Land of Promise and renewing the Covenant And that for Christs sake That Christianity cannot stand without acknowledging the grace of Christ The Tradition of the Church In the Baptisme of Infants In the Prayers of the Church In the decrees against Pelagius and other records of the Church IT remaineth now that I shew how the same truth is signified to us in the Old Testament whereof I will point out three sorts of passages tending to prove it and when they are put together making full evidence of it The first is of those wherein it is acknowledged that the inheritance of the Land of Promise is not to be ascribed to any merit or force of their own but to the goodnesse and assistance of God Then which nothing can be produced out of the New Testament more effectuall to shew that whatsoever tends to bring Christians to the kingdom of heaven is to be ascribed to the grace of God There being the same correspondence between the helps of spirituall Grace whereby Christians overcome their spirituall enemies and the help of God whereby the Israelites overcame the seven nations as between the kingdom of heaven and the land of Promise And therefore all those promises whereby God assures them of deliverance from their enemies and maintenance in the possession thereof all acknowledgements of Gods free gift whereby they held that inheritance argue no lesse concerning those helps whereby the children of the Church answering to the land of Canaan here are inabled to continue true spirituall members thereof and to attain the land of promise that is above I shall not need to produce many particulars of this nature whereof all the Old Testament affordeth good store That of Moses Deut. IX 3-8 I must not forget where assuring them of God to go along with them he warns them not to ascribe that favour to their one righteousnesse though he acknowledgeth that God imployes them to punish the seven nations but to his covenant with their Fathers And that God enabled them to cast
the maintenance of no necessity of grace because no originall sinne to deny Christ to be God incarnate that so the grace of God which the Covenant of Grace pretendeth may consist in Gods sending it not in Christs purchasing those helps whereby it is received and observed Which had Pelagius seen how consequent it is to his saying he who held the true faith of the holy Trinity would probably never have proceeded to deny the grace of Christ For would they have the Son of God born into the world and suffer death upon the Crosse on purpose to testifie the Gospel to be Gods message As if the Law had not been received before without it being recommended by such miraculous works of God that the Jews think there cannot be the like motives to believe that it is abrogated by Christianity Be their belief false sure we are Gods arme was not shortned to have no meanes in store to verify his Gospel but the death of his Sonne that he might rise againe to witnesse it For that it should be done to assure them who are perswaded that the Gospel is Gods message of the performance thereof on Gods part is rather a blasphemy then a reason In as much as he who doubts whether God will perform what he doubts not that he hath tied himself to by Covenant believes not God to be God And that we should be better assured of Christs protection because God hath freely bestowed upon him the honour and power of God then because he brought it in time into our flesh which he had from everlasting is a reason which no man can comprehend to be reasonable For whatsoever Grace comes to us by Christ the more originally and inseparably that it belongs to him the better it is assured upon us But one thing I demand of Pelagius aswell as of Socinus For as Socinus expresly grants the habituall grace of the holy Ghost to true Christians as necessary to inable them in performing what they undertake by their Christianity so I suppose Pelagius had the question been put to him would not have refused it I demand then whether a man in reason be more able to do the office of a Christian having undertaken it or to undertake it to wit sincerely while he is free from the ingagement of it That is whether a mans will be able inwardly to resolve without any help of Gods Spirit to do that which without the help of Gods Spirit he cannot performe I suppose the inward act according to all Divines and Philosophers amounts to one and the same in esteem with the outward and the beginning most difficult of all when the proposition of Christianity is most strange For a resolution upon mature debate of reason as in such a case and an engagement upon profession thereof is a meanes powerfull enough to carry a man to undergoe as much hardship as Christianity requires in a thing neither profitable nor pleasant If therefore to the performance of Christianity the assistance of Gods Spirit is requisite then because our nature is averse then much more to resolve us to it Whereby it appears that the same gift of the holy Ghost which being purchased by the obedience of Christ inabled the Apostles to do those things and say those words by which the world stands convict of the necessity of Christianity the same it is that effects the conviction of those who imbrace it and dwelling with them inables them to live in it according to the promise of God to his ancient people Esay LVIII 20. And as for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor thy seeds mouth nor thy seeds seeds mouth from this time for evermore With the like brevity will I plead the Tradition of the Church concerning the Grace of Christ evidencing the same by three particulars The first whereof shall be of the Baptisme of Infants which as there can be no reason for uâ—lesse we believe originall sinne So I do challenge that it could not have come to be a Law to the Church had not the Faith of the Church from the Apostles time supposed originall sinne First negatively from the proceeding of Pelagius He first a Monk in Britaine and traveling thence along to Rome afterwards either by himself or by his agent Coelestius to Constantinople and Carthage through Asia the lesse and Affrick the East Egypt and Palestine and not finding in all this vast compasse any Church in which it had not been accustomed to baptize infants shall any man be now so madde as to imagine that this can be discovered to have been taken up upon misprision or abuse the custome of the Church having been otherwise afore It is time that the mindes of men that are possest of their senses should be imployed about things within the compasse of reason and not to perswade themselves that they see what cannot be because they cannot answer all arguments that may be made against that which is and is to be seen Could Pelagius have found any footing to deny it he was not such an Idiot as to suffer himself at every turn to be choked by the Catholicks objecting the baptisme of Infants every where received in the Church who might easily have put them to silence by saying it was not an originall Catholick practise of the whole Church but the mistake that of some men which had prevailed by faction in some times and parts of the Church as I pretend hereby to maintaine the Reformation against the present Church of Rome Since that ingenious and learned heretick nor any of his complices hath been found to use this plea all men that intend not to renounce their common sense will justify me if I challenge positively S. Austines Rule in a particular of such moment as this is That seeing it is manifest that it was a law to the whole Church that Infants should be Baptized and that there can be assigned no originall of it from any expresse act of the Church in Councill or otherwise it is therby evident that it comes from the order of the Apostles The reason is the unity of the Church the principle upon which all this proceeds whereby it appeares that it is utterly impossible that a point of such importance to Christianity could have been admitted over all the world where Christians were without any opposition or faction to overcome the same had it not from the beginning been acknowledged to proceed from the common principle from which all Ecclesiasticall Law is derived to wit from the authority of our Lords Apostles the founders of the Church It is not my intent hereby to say that the Apostles order was that all should be baptized Infants whose parents were Christians afore Against which I find reasons alledged in Tertullianes book de Baptismo which I cannot deny to be considerable But that no
work of our Christianity and therefore to every part of it and by consequence that this grace is not given us in consideration of any thing that we are able to do towards the obliging of God to bestow it upon us But I will not take upon me to inflame this abridgment with rehearsal of the testimonies of Church Writers that went afore Pelagius in both these points The testimonies of Fathers that went afore him which S. Augustine hath produced are enough to put those to silence which would have originall sin to be a devise of his But Vossius in his History of the Pelagians having comprised as well these as the rest concerning originall sin libro 11. parte 1. Thes VI. and those which concern the necessity of Grace libro III. parte I. Thes I. II. it will not be to the purpose to do any part of that which hath been sufficiently done already over again To me indeed it seems very considerable that Pelagius acknowledging for Grace first free Will and the Law which teacheth the difference between good and bad after that for the Grace of Christ his doctrine and example first then the illumination of the mind by the Holy Ghost Yet alwaies maintained that man without the help of Grace is able to love God above all to keep his Commandments and resist the greatest temptations to the contrary And in all these points was condemned by the Church as you may see there libro III. parte II. Thes I-VIII For certainly there is a vast difference between the doctrine of Gods Laws absolutely necessary to the doing of his Will even for Adam in the state of innocency and the preaching of the Gospell convincing mankind that they are under Gods wrath by sin tendering pardon to them that imbrace it assuring of everlasting life or death according as they observe the profession of it and shewing the way by our Lords example All which the Scriptures ascribe to the coming of Christ as granted in consideration of it How much more when he granteth the illumination of the Holy Ghost to shew what is to be done must he needs transgress his own position which saith that there is no difference between that state in which we are born and that which Adam was made saving his example but the difference between a man and a Babe For were we born as Adam was made what needed Christ to have purchased by his death the gift of the Holy Ghost to enlighten us inwardly in doing that which without it man is born able to do And having granted the reasons and motives upon which Christians act as Christians to be shewed them both outwardly and inwardly by the Grace of Christ to deny the necessity of the sayd Grace to the acts which proceed from the same can have no excuse but one that Christ came only to evidence the truth of his message leaving the embracing or rejecting of it to every mans choyce Which to maintain if Socinus was fain to make our Lord Christ a meer man that there might be no more in his rising after death then a miracle to assure it Pelagius acknwledging the Trinity will be streightned by S. Pauls consequence If righteousnesse come by the Law then is Christ dead in vain supposing the death of Christ to bring that help of Grace which a miracle by evidencing the truth of the Gospel doth not And seeing God could not be moved by any thing that man could do to give our Lord Christ and the helps which his coming bringeth with it there will be no more left for Pelagius to say But that these helps are not granted of Grace but received by the works which men prevent it with The foundation therefore of the Christian Faith consisting in Gods-sending our Lord Christ of his pure free grace by vertue whereof all the effects of it are works of the same Grace Necessary it was that Pelagius should be condemned for the denying of the necessity of Grace to all acts of Christianity and for affirming that Grace is given according to mans merits as you see there Thesi IX XI that he was Both upon the doctrine of S. Paul premised afore that God was not moved by the works either of Jews or Gentiles to send them those helpes to salvation which the Gospel tendreth Nevertheless the preaching of the Gospel and all the help which it bringeth toward the imbracing of it is no less the Grace of Christ because Pelagius was forced for the better colouring of his Heresie to acknowledge it Onely it is not therefore to be sayd that it is all the help which the Grace of God by Christ furnisheth toward that salvation which Christianity tendreth But to be left to further dispute what further help is granted by God before and without any consideration of mans merit to bring to effect those acts in which the discharge of our Christianity consisteth Excluding therefore the pretense of Pelagius that Moses before the godly Fathers pleased God by the meer strength of nature and that salvation was to be had under the Law by the same Besides the good works of the Gentiles wherewith God was pleased according to Pelagius whom the Church condemned in this Article also as you may see there Thes X. And truly Pelagius acknowledging the Gospel to be no more then the declaration of that Will of God by which man is to be saved after Christ as the Law before Christ utterly overthroweth the plea of the Church derived from the Apostles that the Fathers were saved by faith before and under the Law that the New Testament was in force under the Old by vertue of that commerce which God by his word which afterwards being incarnate was our Lord Christ held with the Fathers His Spirit as naturally planted in the word going along to procure the efficacy of it Whereas Socinus though he acknowledgeth the difference between the literal and mystical sense of the Law yet making our Lord Christ a meer man the vertue of whose death could not extend to the salvation of those who lived afore his coming destroyeth the ground of that which he acknowledgeth This supposition that Christianity is more ancient then Judaâ—sme being necessary to the maintaining of the Church against the Synago ue Which is verified by Gods designing of a Church for the spouse of his Sonne before the Fall figured by the marriage between Adam and Eve according to S. Paul Ephes V. 22-33 But presently after the Fall that Word which being incarnate in our Lord Christ having declared enmity betwen the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent saying It shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise the heel of it The first Adam became the figure of the second according to the same S. Paul Rom. V. 14. Whereupon the Spirit of the second Adam in those Preachers of righteousnesse to whom the Word of God came in that Angel whom the Fathers worshipped for God strove form
Catechising which the Church tendered those who stood for Baptisme the subject of that Thanksgiving which the Eucharist was consecrated with do more effectually evidence the common sense of Christians in the mater of our common Christianity then the sayings of divines being solicitous so to maintaine the grace of God that the free will of man which the interest of our common Christianity equally obligeth us justly to maintaine may suffer no prejudice How much more when it is to be justified that those sayings of divines expounded by other sayings of their owne and principles evidently acknowledged by themselves can create no other sense then the necessity of preventing grace might the Church be able and obliged to proceed to those decrees Though as for the persons whom we do not find involved in any further censure then the mark set upon their writings by the See of Rome as there is cause to think that respect was had to them because their principles did not really ingage them in any contradiction to the faith of the Church So is there cause to think that being better informed in it by the treaty of that Council they surceased for the future all opposition to the decrees of it For the evidence of that which hath been said in the point of fact I remit the reader to my author so oft named with these considerations pointing out the consequence of each particular His ingenuity learning and diligence is such that I have neither found my self obliged to quarrel at any thing that he hath delivered in point of historicall truth nor to seek for more then he hath laid forth And by that which hath been said we presume not that the preaching of the Gospel is not the grace of Christ which Pelagius acknowledged necessary to salvation but that the determination of the will to imbrace that grace which the grace of the gospel tendereth is not effected by the will alone without those helps of grace which are granted in consideration of Christ though depending upon the preaching of the Gospel and the reasons and motives which it tendereth to imbrace it Here then you see I might have made a great book to set forâ—h those things which are commonly alledged by those that write of the great dispute between grace and free will now on foot to show what the Church insisted upon and what reasons it did proceed upon against Pelagius But because there is no question made of all this by those that deny the consequences of it it shall serve my turne to have pointed out the reasons of those consequences and now to take notice of this great dispute which is come in my way so crosse that it is not possible for me to voide the difficulties which I have undertaken concerning the Covenant of Grace without voiding of it For having first shewed that the condition which the Covenant of Grace requires on our part consists in an act of mans free will to imbrace and persevere in Christianity till death And now that man is not able to perform this condition without the help of Gods grace by Christ The question is at the height how the act of free will depends upon Gods free grace and a man becomes intitled to the promise for doing that which without the help of Gods grace he cannot do And this the greater because if the help of grace determine the free will of them that imbrace and persevere in Christianity so to do then it seems the sinne and damnation of those that do not so is to be imputed to the want of those helps and Gods appointment of not giving them to those that have them not CHAP. XX. Wherein Originall sinne consisteth What opinions are on foot That it is not Adams sinne imputed to his posterity Whether man were at the first created to a supernaturall end or not An estate of meer nature but innocent possible Originall sinne is Concupiscence How Baptisme voids it Concerning the late novelty in the Church of England about Originall sinne THIS inquiry must begin with the question about originall sinne wherein it consists because thereupon depends the question of the effect and consequence thereof which is to say what is the estate wherein the Gospel of Christ overtakes the naturall man For it is well enough known that there is a question yet on foot in the Church Whether Originall sinne do consist in Concupiscence or in the want of Originall righteousnesse which having been planted in our first parents their posterity ought to have And whosoever thinks there can be little difficulty in this dispute little considers the difficulty that S. Augustine found in satisfying the Pelagians how Concupiscence can be taken away by Baptisme which all Christians find to remaine in the regenerate Seeing there can be no question made that Originall sin is taken away by Baptisme Christianity pretending to take away all sinne and Baptisme being the solemn execution of Christianity that is the solemn profession of the Christian faith This is evidently the onely difficulty that driveth so many of the Schoole Doctors to have recourse not onely to S. Anselms devise of the want of originall righteousnesse but to another more extravagant speculation of a state of pure nature which God might have created man in had he not thought more fit of his goodnesse to create him in a state of supernaturall grace that is to say indowed with those gifts and graces that might inable him to attaine that happinesse of the world to come which is now promised to Christians This state of pure nature they hold to be liable to concupiscence as the product by consequence of the principles of mans nature compounded of a materiall and spirituall a mortall and immortall substance and originally inclined the one to the sensual good of the body the other to the spiritual good of the soul here which the eternal good of it is consequent to in the world to come The nature of man liable to this condition they say was prevented by supernaturall grace as a bridle to rule and moderate the inclination of nature not to come into effect so long as so over-ruled But so that this grace being forfeited by the rebellion of Adam consequently it came into effect without more adoe and that by consequence originall sinne cannot consist in this opposition between the inclinations to sensuall and spirituall good which man hath but in the want of that grace from whence it proceedeth This controversie Doctor Field in his learned work of the Church counteth to be of such consequence that he maintaineth all the difference which the Reformation hath with the Churche of Rome about Justification free will the merit of good works and the fulfilling of the Law and the like to be grounded upon it so that there can be no cause of difference supposing it to be set aside His reason is because the opinion of Justification by inherent righteousnesse supposes that the reluctation of our sensuall
so ballanced But chiefly because I see the subject of the dispute to be all upon the literall and mysticall sense of these Scriptures Without the knowledge whereof I am confident the Faith of a Christian is intire though the skill of a divine is nothing And for the consent of the Fathers how generall soever it be after Irenaeus I have the authority of the same Irenaeus backed by his reason in that excellent Chapter where he distinguishes between the Tradition of Faith and the skill of the Scriptures to resolve me that neither this point nor any other point which depends upon the agreement between the Old Testament and the New as this does can belong to the Faith of a Christian but onely to the skill of a divine But now this being premised and setled it will be easie for me to inferre that a state of meer nature is a thing very possible had it pleased God to appoint it by proposing no higher end then naturall happinesse no harder meanes then Originall innocence to man whom he had made The reasons premised sufficiently serving to shew that there is no contradiction in the being of that which there is so much appearance that it was indeed But I must advise you withall that I mean it upon a farre other supposition then that of the Schoole Doctors They supposing that man was created to that estate of supernaturall happinesse to which the Gospel pretendeth to regenerate Christians hold that it was Gods meer free grace that he was not created with that contradiction between the reason and appetite which the principles of his nature are of themselves apt to produce Whereupon it foloweth that concupiscence is Gods creature that is the indowment of it signifying by concupiscence that contrariety to reason which the disorder of sensuall appetite produceth A saying that hath fallen from the pen of S. Augustine and that after his businesse with Pelagius Retract I. 9. allowing what he had writ to that purpose against the Manichees in his third book de libero arbitrio which he mentioneth againe and no way disalloweth in his book de Dono perseverantiae cap. XI and XII but seemeth utterly inconsistent with the grounds which he stands upon against Pelagius For supposing contrariety and disorder in the motions of mans soul what is there in this confusion which it hath created in the doings of mankind that might not have come to passe without the fall Unlesse we suppose that a man can be reasonably madde or that concupiscence which reason boundeth not could be contained within any rule or measure not supposing any gift of God inabling reason to give bounds to it or preventing the effect of it which the supposition of pure nature alloweth us not to suppose For the very state of mortality supposing the immortality of the soul either requireth in man the conscience of integrity before God or inferreth upon him a bad expectation for the world to come And therefore though the sorrows that bring death might serve for advantage to happinesse were reasonable to govern passion in using them yet not being able they can be nothing but essayes of that displeasure of God which he is to expect in the world to come And therefore this escape of S. Augustine may seem to abate the zeale of those who would make his opinion the rule of our common Faith That which my resolution inferreth is no more then this That supposing God did not create man in an estate capable to attaine the said supernaturall happinesse he might neverthelesse had he pleased have created him in an estate of immortality without impeachment of trouble or of sorrow but not capable of further happinesse then his then life in Paradise upon earth importeth Not that I intend to say that God had been without any purpose of calling man whom he had created in this state unto the state of supernaturall grace whereby he might become capable of everlasting glory in the world to come as Christians believe themselves to be For the meaning of those that suppose this is that God purposed to exercise man first in this lower estate and having proved him and found him faithfull in it supposing Adam had not fallen to have called him afterwards to a higher condition of that immortality which we expect in the world to come upon trial of fidelity in that obedience here which is correspondent to it Whereupon it is reasonably though not necessarily consequent that this calling being to be performed by the Word of God which being afterwards incarnate is our Lord Christ and the Spirit which dwelt in him without measure our Lord Christ should have come in our flesh though Adam had not fallen to do this And this is alledged for a reason why afterwards the Law that was given to Moses covenanted expresly for no more then the happinnesse of this present life though covertly being joyned with that discipline of godlinesse which the people of God had received by tradition from their Fathers it afforded sufficient argument of the happinesse of the world to come for those who should imbrace the worship of God in spirit and truth though under the paedagogie and figures of the Law For they say it is suitable to the proceeding of God in restoring mankind that we understand him first to intend the recovering of that naturall integrity in which man was created by calling his people to that uprightnesse of civile conversation in the service of the onely true God which might be a protection to as many as under the shelter of such civile Lawes should take upon them the profession of true righteousnesse to God Intending afterwards by our Lord Christ to set on foot a treaty of the said righteousnesse upon terms of happinesse in the world to come But thesâ— things though containing nothing prejudiciall to Christianity yet not being grounded upon expresse scripture but collected by reasoning the ground and rule of Gods purpose which concerns not the truth of the Gospel whether so or not I am neither obliged to admit nor refuse So much of Gods counsel remaining alwaies visibly true That he pleased to proceed by degrees in setting his Gospel on foot by preparing his people for it by the discipline of the Law and the insufficience thereof visible by that time which he intended for the coming of our Lord Christ though we say that man was at first created in a state of supernaturall grace and capable of everlasting happinesse For still the reason of Gods proceeding by degrees will be that first there might be a time to try how great the disease was by the failing of the cure thereof by the Law before so great a Physitian as the Sonne of God came in person to visite it This onely I must adde because all this discourse proceeds upon supposition that man might have been created in an estate of meer nature if indowed with uprightnesse capable to attaine that happinesse which that estate required That
effect in which the action of the creature endeth will enforce that God is as properly said to give light as the sunne to burn as the fire to do that act which is essentially sinne as the man that sinnes And therefore at once not to sinne because we suppose his concourse tied by the originall Law of creation to the determination of his creature And to sinne as producing immediately whatsoever is in that action which is essentially sinne For unlesse the species or nature of the act importing generally no sinne were a thing subsisting by it self as by the understanding it is considered setting aside the sinne which the particular that is acted implyeth as Plato is supposed to have maintained his ideas it is impossible that he who doth the act which is essentially sinne should be said truly not to sinne The Law of concurring to the doing of sinne and producing the act which essentially importeth it necessarily drawing the imputation thereof upon him that freely tied himself by setling it Let it once be said therefore that God made the fire able to burn the sunne able to shine the will of man able to make a free choice as he is a reasonable creature and it will be very impertinent to require any action but that of the fire to the consuming of wood but that of the sunne to the dispelling of darknesse supposing God to maintaine or rather to issue every moment the ability of burning or shining once given his creature from his own spring head of being so long as his creature indureth And therefore if ever God made the will able to chuse the doing or not doing of this before that upon the direction not of right reason which directeth not to sinne but alwayes of reason for all choice supposes reason to direct it it is impertinent to suppose any thing requisite to the exercise of this freedome of choice but the maintenance of reason issuing from the fountaine of Gods Wisdome so long as the man continues a reasonable creature If the immediate concurrence of God to the action of his creature make the actions wherein the perfection of his creature consisteth much more the imperfections and faileurs of it a staine to his excellence much more shall the act of determining the choice of his creature free before it be determined impute to God whatsoever it importeth for the worse the imputation whereof or the better is a staine to his excellency And is it possible that God by making the creature capable of such imputations should depose himself from the Throne of his Godhead and set up his creature in his stead in making it able to act that either naturally without his immediate concurrence or morally also by determining that freedom by the use of his own reason and choice which he in no instance afore determineth Certainly they consider not what they grant themselves when they suppose that God made it able so to do when they make the abilities which he giveth unable to do their work till he determine them so to do so that being so determined before they determine themselves they cannot do otherwise And suppose it a contradiction that the will should choose that which no reason why it should chuse appeareth certainly when reason pronounceth the motive that appeareth to be sufficient the action that insueth cannot be said to proceed from a cause indifferent to act or not though the determination thereof be not peremptory till the act follow Now is there any necessity why God should interpose to determine the indifference of the cause otherwise then as inabling it to determine its own indifference Suppose then a sentence past in the Court of Reason importing not onely This is to be done But This shall be done Do we not see every moment protestations made by the sensuall appetite and acts entered of them by the judge Indeed if the matter of them do not bear a plea the sentence remaines But is it therefore necessary that execution follow Witnesse those that act against conscience Witnesse Aristotels dispute of incontinence placing the nature of it in doing the contrary of that which the judgement is resolved ought to be done as if the one could be absolutely the best the other the best at this time Witnesse Medea in Ovid when she saies Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor I see the better but I do the worse For the mouth of conscience is to be stopped with a pretense of repentance to come and so present satisfaction is clear gaine by the bargaine If at length it come to execution of the sentence I demand what it is that makes the resolution from thenceforth peremptory but the same reason that determined the choice afore unlesse we suppose new matter advanced in plea first and afterwards voided If that which was sufficient afore prove not effectuall till now it is not because any thing was wanting without which the will was not able to proceed but because reason to the contrary appeared considerable before I grant there be those that have so farre determined the indifference of their own inclinations that no reason to the contrary appeares considerable to delay execution of the sentence past long since But this appears by experience to take place as well in those who have degenerated to devils incarnate as those who have improved to saints upon earth And therefore cannot be attributed to the force of true good acting beyond the appearance which it createth in the mind because Gods immediate act directs it But partly to the habituall grace of the holy Ghost with the resolution of Christianity presenting true good as lovely and beautifull as indeed it is Partly to the custome of doing even those acts which without the assistance of God Spirit our nature cannot do Upon which as the habituall indowment of the holy Ghost followes by Gods gracious promise So there followes naturally a facility of doing even supernaturall actions which men habituate themselves to by the meer force of custome excluding the consideration of all that reason to the contrary that hath proved abortive and addle long since Which notwithstanding the choice remaines free by virtue of that originall freedome which determined the indifference of every man to those actions the frequenting whereof hath created an habit And this is the ground of that account which we owe that God showing sufficient reason why we ought to be Christians and the world to the contrary our choice hath followed for the better or for the worse For the efficacy of the said reasons on either side implies beside the sufficiency of them onely a supposition of that which comes to passe which the same reasons determine a man to do that remaine uneffectuall till the execution of sentence But if the will of God interpose to determine the will before it determines there can be no more ground for any account why it acteth or acteth not then the earth is to give why it
to doe all the evill that it does and that without this determination no evill can be done with it no evill can but be done For alas the covering will be too shortâ—â— to say that God produceth onely the positive action of sinne the malice incident to it consisting in the meere want of conformity to the rule which it ought to follow proceeding from the imperfection of the creature For the difference between the action of sinne and the sinne which it acteth consisteth meerely in the conceit of mans understanding not apprehending at once all the particulars wherein the action consisteth No action possibly being so badde that in some generall considerations common to those which are good it may not be counted good But those generall considerations expresse not the particular act which is supposed to be sinne So soone as the nature thereof is sufficiently expressed so soone it will appeare to be essentially sinne Therefore if God determine the creature to the act or sinne he determines it to sinne And though upon these termes there can neither be sinne nor vertue good nor evill Law nor Gospel providence nor judgment to come yet upon these termes the actions of the creature will be imputable to God alone though not as good or badde or as the actions of God yet as the actions of him that is supposed to be God in wordes but denied to be God in effect As for that which was said as if otherwise the efficacy of Gods praedestination and that grace which by it he appointeth for those that shall be saved could not subsist or as if otherwise God could not be maintained to be the first cause I will say no more now then what I said of the ground for Gods foreknowledge of future contingences That when I come to say how God determines future contingences I will doe the best I can to render such a reason as may maintaine him to be the first cause and so to foresee all future contingences by the same meanes by which he determines that they shall come to passe without giving just ground to inferre that there is neither contingence in the effect nor freedome in the cause no providence no judgment no Christianity appointed by God But if I faile of giving such a reason I disclaime it here before I give it and will rather allege that I have none to give and yet beleeve both Gods effectuall providence and the freedome and contingence of mens actions then beleive the determination of mans will by the immediate operation of Gods providence to be the sourse of freedome and contingence which I have shewed leaves no roome for contingence or providence And now I may freely grant that Jansenius hath avoided the charge of telling what it is that comes between the last instance of deliberation and the first of resolution by the immediate act of God to inable a man to do that which he that is able to deliberate and act both is not able to bring to passe Which is the same Chimaera with the imagination of infallibility in every sentence of the present Church when it comes to pronounce though the premises upon which it proceedeth do not appear even to them that pronounce infallible Nor will I envy him the advantage that he may make of the distinction between the sense of that which is said to be necessary including this praedetermination and not necessary setting it aside For having shewed that it is to no effect but to destroy contingence that is Christianity and to multiply contradiction to that common sense which all own I may well bid much good do it But I am not therefore bound to believe that it will serve his turn proceeding upon the account of indifference in the creature and the necessary effect of a secondary cause who standeth upon that necessity of Grace which Originall sinne introduceth For how shall he say that setting aside Gods praedetermination the Will may have Grace sufficient to do the work of Grace including the same it cannot but do it who makes the will utterly unable to do it till it be determined to do it And therefore takes away all difference between effectuall and sufficient Grace all intent of Christs dying for them that shall not be saved Indeed if he extend his opinion to the reconciling of mans free will with Gods Providence in matters not concerning the work of saving Grace he may make use of praedetermination in giving account how sinne is foreknown and the rest which hitherto he resolveth not But grounding himself upon the exigence of Originall sinne it were not wisdome for him to scandalize his own opinion by making sinne as necessary by Gods act as he makes the work of Grace There is extant a briefe resolution of the whole question by that learned Gentleman Thomas White where he concludeth Paragr X. That God determineth every man so to determine himself in whatsoever he does by the love of good infused and the causes which his Providence useth to represent it desirable that he cannot do otherwise How he would answer concerning evil is not so plain by his words He sayes indeed it is not the same thing to determine and cause to determine as for the Ammonites and David to kill Vrias But if the murther be duly imputed to David for procuring meanes towards it that might have failed would he have God procure meanes that cannot fail It cannot be allowed but thus that though of themselves they might fail yet supposing the foreknowledge of God that imployeth them that is supposing them to take effect which supposition all the experience in the world concludeth cannot be cleared till the effect follow they cannot fail And the nature of freedome the ground of the account to come consisteth in this that determining a man to act he might not have acted till the act was done For certainly it were a contradiction to say that which determines the will to act speaking not of the thing without but of the consideration thereof in the minde may not be extant when a man determines himself in virtue of it Nay were this consideration whereby God determineth indefeasible of its own nature for as imployed by Gods Providence that is supposing the effect to follow it is it were that very predetermination which I have infringed by the premised discourse coming from God in order of reason first and in the very next instant producing that choice wherein the determination of the will formally consisteth I will therefore conclude that wheresoever through the whole Bible God calls any man or his ancient people or by the Gospell all people to yeild him that inward obedience and worship in spirit and truth which Christianity requireth all this proceeding supposing the corruption of mans nature by the fall of Adam there he will take account of his disbursements by that which the creature shall have done not finally determined to do it by any thing preceding the choice Putting you
or so united to it hâ—â— they cannot fail of it And though the perfection of their estate admitteth no possibility of failing yet it is no waies prejudicial to the honour of God to provide men here of such an estate as is necessarily capable of failing His perfection being such as is necessarily capable of improvement And therefore it is no disparagement to God that he should create a possibility of sinning in that creaâ—ure in which if there were now not a posibility of sinâ—ing there could not be a posibility of attaining happinesse by not sining These things thus setled it remaines that we inquire whether that sufficienâ— grace wâ—ich the difference between the anâ—ecedent and consequent will of God settles be granted indifferently to all mankind or not And my answer is briefely this That God hath provided for all mankind that grace which at a distâ—nce is sufficient to save all mankind But that grace which iâ—â—â—mediately sufficient to save he hath not immediatly provided for all mankind but hath trusted hiâ— Church to provide it for the rest of mankind having left them meanes sufficâ—ent to doe it My reason is this because where God sendeth immediately meanes sufficient to save by converting to Christianity there he will dâ—mand an acount of the neglect of that meanes which hetendreth For I suppose from that which I said in the first book against the Leviathan that as many as come to the knowledg of Christianity are obliged to receive it Certainely he that believes the Christian faith must needs believe that God hath don enough to oblige all that come to knowe the truth of it to submit themselves to it otherwise to remain liable not onely to those sins which they are under when they come to know it but to the guilt of neglecting so great salvation provided tendred by God Now that those who never heard of the gospel of Christ remaine destitute of all meanes to be informed of the truth of Christianity shall not be juâ—ged either for neglecting or transgressing that will of God which it publisheth will appeare by manifest consequence from the expresse wâ—râ—s of S Paul concerning the judgement which the Jewes Gentiles before the â—osâ—ell remaine subject to Rom. XI 12. 16. For as many as have sinned without â—â—â—â—â—w al perish without the law as many as have sinned under the Law shall be 〈◊〉 by the Law For the hearers of the law are not just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified For when the gentiles not having the Law doe by nature the things of the law these not having the law are a law to themselves who shew the workâ— of the law written in their hearts their conscience also witnessing with them and their thoughts interchangably accusing or excusing in the day that God shall judge the secrets of man according to my gospell Some constâ—ue these words thus As many as have sinned without the law shall perish without the law in the day that God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel If those that sin without the Law shall perish without the Law it is manifest that they shall not be condemned for transgressing the law which they never knew And if the ground why they perish be the law that is written in their hearts to which their conscience beares witnesse when their thoughts accuse or excuse them Whether this be at the day of iudgement or not it is plaine the conscience can never accuse a man nor by consequence God condem him for transgressing the will of God which he never knew And if God proceed not with the Gentiles upon the Law which the Isralites onely knew but upon the light and law of nature by which not knowing the Law they found themselves obliged to doe that which it commanded Then shall he not proced upon the Gospell with them who never had meanes to know it but upon the light of nature and the conscience of what they have don or not don according to it or against it And indeed the words of our Lord are plaine enough Iohn III. 17-21 God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved He that believeth on him shall not be condemned but he that beleiveth not on him is condemned already because he believed not in the name of the onely begotten Son of God And the condemnation is this that light is come into the world and men love darknesse better then light because their works are evill For every one that doth evill hateth the light and cometh not to the light that his works be not reproved But he that doth the truth cometh to the light that his works may be manifest that they are done in God For he thaâ— is condemned for not believing because he hates the light must first see the light before he hate it and so positively refuse to believe because his works will not endure the light And no man could doe the truth and that in God but he that was under the law of God Who if he did not the truth which the Law requireth would consequently hate the truth which the gospel preacheth So he that is condemned for not beleiving is he that heareth the gospel and receiveth it not And to this reason we must refer the words of S Paul Act XIV 16. Who in by past ages suffered all Nations to walk in their own waies And againe Acts Xâ—II 3â— God therefore who did oversee the times of ignorance now injoâ—â—râ—h all men every where to repent And Rom. III. 25. 26. Whom God hath proposed for a propitiatory through faith in his blood to declare his righteousnesse because of the passing by of sins that went afore To declare I say his righteousnesse at this present time For we cannot imagin that he will not demand account of the sins that have beene done from the beginning of the world of whom Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord is come with the ten thousands of his holy Angels to doe judgement upon all and to rebuke all the ungodly of them of all the ungodlinesse which they have committed and of all the bad words thay have spoken against him wicked sinners Jude 14. 15. And it is not for nothing that God when he let the Gentiles alone to walke in their owne waies no withstanding left not himself without witnesse doing good giving us raine from heaven and fruitfull seasons filling our hearts with food and gladnesse as S. Pa. proceeds Acts XIV 17. Nor that he made of one blood all Nations of men to dwell upon the face of the whole Earth determining times appointed before to the bounds of their dwelling that they might seeke the Lord if by any meanes they might find him by groping though not far distant from each one of us For in him we live and move and have our being as some also of your Posts have
said For wee are his offspring As the same S. Paul had premised Acts XVII 26. 27. 28. For to what serves his witnesse but to informe the processe of his judgement But God is said to have let them alone passing by their sins because by tendring them his gospel he did not aggravate their judgement in case they should refuse it nor require of them that obedience which it inferreth Whereas by the Gospel the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnes of men that hold the truth in unrighteousnes as S. Paul saith Rom. â— 18. 19. Because saith he that which may be knowne of God is manifest in them for God hath manifested it to them by his works as it followes there So that the Gospel as it declares the judgement of God upon those sins that are done under the light of nature so it declares so much heavier vengeance against those which are done under and against the light which it sheweth Which is the reason why so many times in the Psalmes the bringing in of the gospel is prophesied under the figure of Gods coming to Judgement Psalme L. XCVI XCVII XCVIII And indeed there is necessary reason for this if we believe that God will judge every man according to his works at the last day Which as I shewed you in the dispute concerning justifying Faith that it is a principle of our common Christianity an Article of our beliefe which no man can be saved that holds not So I may thereupon further say That all men that are under the Gospell shall be judged according to that obedience which the gospell and Christianity requireth For if S. Paul had onely said Rom. XI 12 16. As many as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the law And as many as have sinned under the law shall be condemned by the law in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospell by Jesus Christ As the construction which I spoke of even now requires He had onely said that the gospell declareth that God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Which is that which the apostles witnessed as from our Lord Christ to move men to imbrace it But having said also that the Law is not given to the righteous but to the lawlesse and disobedient to the ungodly and sinfull to and if there be any thing opposite to the sound doctrine which is according to the glorious Gospell of the blessed God which I am trusted with 1 Tim. I 9 10 11. He sheweth us also that those who have been under the preaching of the Gospell shall be judged according to that obedience which the Gospell requireth To wit according as they have either performed or neglected it The reason because I have shewed the Gospell not to containe a meere promise of Gods part but a covenant with man by which he must stand or fall as he hath performed the termes of it or not But to neglect the gospell or to transgresse it cannot have been any part of their works that never heard of it and therefore they cannot be judged by it but by the worke of Gods law which is wriâ—ten in their hearts by vertue whereof their conscience bearing witnesse of the works that they have don or not don the thoughts thereof shall accuse or excuse them before God as S. Paul saith of the gentiles during the Law But had they been tendred that grace which is sufficient to save without doubt they must have given account to God of it the account being grounded upon that which a man receives as our Sauiour shewes by the parable of the Talents And that servant which knowes his masters will and prepares not and does according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knowes not and doth things that deserve stripes shall be beaten with a few Saith our Lord Luke XII 47. 48 Not as iâ— any servant knew nothing of his masters will as I have shewed by the light of nature For how should he then doe that which deserves stripes But because many know not that will which our Saviour preacheth and not knowing it are not under account for it Indeed God for his part hath provided that grace which is sufficient for the salvation of all mankind by providing our Lord Christ whose obedience sufferings have purchased the comming of the Holy Ghost upon his disciples and inabled them both by the workes which he had given them to doe and by the interpretation of the old Testament concerning our Lord Christ to tender the world sufficient conviction of his rising againe and of the faith of those promises which he hath made to all them that take up his Crosse to become conformable to his sufferings But these promises are so great that whosoever stands convict that they are true must needs stand convict that hee is in reason bound to imbrace the condition upon which they are tendred unlesse he can make a question whether the world to come is to be preferred before this or not And this I affirme to be sufficient grace contained in the preaching of the gospell which tendreth this conviction to all mankind supposing that no immediate act of God is requisite to determine him that standeth so convict to imbrace it but that it must be the act of his own free choice that must resolve him to it And all this of the meere free grace of God in as much as nothing but his own free grace could have moved him to provide this meanes which only the coming of our Lord Christ could furnish And though for the glory of his goodnesse this meanes is common to all mankind in as much as the motives of faith wherein it consisteth are of the same force and vertue towards all yet is it no lesse the grace of Christ being the purchase of his obedience and sufferings For if it be said that the worke of imbracing the Christian faith is supernaturall in as much as it tendeth to supernaturall happinesse It is to be answered that all the meanes that God uses to induce us to imbrace the same are also supernaturall being provided by Gods immediate act beyond all the force of nature and therefore proportionable to the work which they require And if it be said That the difficulty thereof in regard of originall concupiscence is such as no reason can overcome It is answered That as these motives are the productions instruments of Gods spirit accompaning his word whereby it knocks at the hearts of them to whom this conviction is tendred so they cary with them a promise of the habituall assistance of Gods spirit to move them that yeeld themselves to it to performe that which they undertake notwithstanding Originall concupiscence In the meane time these being the grounds of this sufficience it is manifest that as many as are utterly destitute of these meanes and that by no fault of their own in
this then that which the supposition of free will necessarily requires Certainly Aristotles resolution that they are sure in the alternative but that neither part of it can be certaine That is to say that Peter being tempted shall either deny his master or not but that being contingent it can neither be certaine that he shall nor that he shall not is utterly inconsistent with that particular providence of God over all things which Châ—â—stianty supposeth renders that great mastâ—r as a man too cunning not to see â—he conâ—equence of his own position very sususpicious in a point so neerely concerning the belief of Gods providence Now future contingencies in the notion of contingencies that are not yet come to passe being in themselves nothing that is to say being onely understood to be posible cannot reduce themselves to the nature and state or future contingencies in the notion of contingencies that shall come to passe such as we believe all contingencies that have or shall come to passe to the worlds end were to God from everlasting It is therefore a meere contradiction to imagin that contingencies either by the possibilty of their nature or by the capacity of the cause that is of it selfe utterly undetermined to do rather then not to do to do this rather then that can be an object capable of being known by that knowledg upon which they may be said to be certaine future as things that shal be not as things that may be not as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to distinguish with Aristotle There are indeed those who undertake that when it is said Peter shall deny his Lord Peter shall not deny his Lord the one of which sayings must needs come to passe seeing this necessity must needs be in the object before it be in the saying because the saying is true or fals by reason that the matter of it is so or otherwise before therefore that part which appeares true in time was true from everlasting But that they suppose cannot be by virtue of any or all causes least the effects should no more be contingencies Therefore by virtue of the things themselves because of a contradiction the one part must needs be true the other false And this being of future contingencies they imagin it is which the knowledg of God attaining is therefore called sight because it reacheth that which is in being and therefore present to it But this imagination is a meere contradiction to common reason which is able to tell any man that possibilities differ onely in this from nothing that there are such things as can bring them to passe And therefore have no being at all but in the ability of their causes Whereas suppose them in being before their causes bring them to passe what remaines for their causes to doe which would have nothing to doe if that which they bring to passe were in being before they bring it so to passe And what contingency could then remaine seeing whatsoever is must needs be while it is For this position prevents any supposition that may be made concerning the being of that which is said to be before you can suppose or understand it to be And where is the difference between the being of God and that of future contingencies both being of themselves Surely supposing the necessity of this their being because God could not see them otherwise they would be not only objects denominating that knowledge of God to be sight which reacheth the present being of them but causes on which the sight of God must depend as our sight depends on the object that causeth it The future being therefore of contingencies necessarily supposeth the determination of their causes The contingence of them that thâ—s determination is from their causes themselves freely determining themselves The certainty of them from the infinite reach of Gods understanding comprehending the resolution of the Creature by the present inclination thereof meeting the considerations which it is presented with Wherefore as it is impossible that the will should act unlesse the understanding go before and the resolution of the will to do or not to do this or that necessarily depends upon some act of the understanding shewing by sufficient reason an end sufficient to move the wil to proceed and resolve So doth not the will effectually proceed untill the understanding shews that reason which effectually moves it to proceed Now these reasons proceeding from those appearances which the objects that every man meets with cause in his mind either at the present or by comparing that which outwardly appears at the present with that which is laid up in the storehouse of the mind And God having provided what objects every man in every moment shall meet with to resolve him what to do in every case that may come in debate It cannot be imagined that he provideth this and knoweth not by the means which he proviâ—eth what will be the issue supposing that he knoweth it not by his own resolution to determine a man by his own immediate act to do whatsoever he does And indeed God comprehending what considerations a man every moment is moved with and what be his own inclinations that is moved with the same it cannot seem strange that by this means seeing it appears impossible that by any other means he should comprehend what will so come to pass though knowing that he that acteth had or might have had sufficient reasons to have done otherwise Wherefore if any man ask me whether God know what will come to pass if any case should be put which he knoweth shall never be put which is now called in the Schools Gods middle knowledge because it hath on the one side that knowledge whereby he comprehendeth the natures of all things and the possibilities of all events on the other side the view which he hath from everlasting of all things that have been are or shall be for that tract of time which they endure because I seem to say that this is it which directs Gods providence in resolving what course to hold by which resolution it appears to him what shall come to pass I shall not answer nevertheless without distinguishing That God comprehends not the issues of those future possibilities which men can imagine to themselves and yet comprehends the issues of these future possibilities whereof we suppose him to determine all the circumstances For let a man infinitely endeavour to limit by his understanding all that he can consider in the case of any man left to his freedome he shall never be able to express that consideration which shall be effectuall certainly to determine him that is presented with it Because it is manifest that infinite considerations more may present themselves to move him to do nothing or otherwise But when the word of God speaks of these means which being provided by God determine effectually the resolution of him that is moved by them to wit by
it may be said that a thing comes to passe necessarily and that sense in which it may be said that it must necessarily come to passe For I suppose that the property of our English will help me here to distinguish these two senses to all that consider their mother tongue and may discerne a severall meanâ—ng when a man saies the fire burnes necessarily Peter must necessarily deny our Lord supposing that our Lord had fore told it For when the necessity is understood to be in the cause which the nature thereof though by Gods will determines it is proper to say thaâ— it comes to passe necessarily But when the necessity is understood to stand upâ—n a supposition of the effect either being or knowne to be which knowledg presupposeth it to be being supposâ—d to be true or the like it is proper to say this must needs come to passe or it must of necessity come to passe but not that it comes to passe necessarily because then the necessity must noâ— fall upon the coming of it upon passe but upon the manner by which it comes to pâ—sse I say then if any can inferr upon my saying that the necessity which it infers is antecedent to the being of it I grant I am faln into the inconvenience which I would a void and will disclaime the position upon which it followes But if it be onely consequent upon supposition either that it is or that it is taken to be it is no more then that necessity which is found in all coâ—tiâ—gencies according to all opinions that must allow all things necessarily to be â—hough not to be necessarily supposing that they are Now when I say that God determines the evenâ—s of future contingencies I say not that he doth it by determining their causes to do them speaking of free causes for the contingâ—â—cies which come to passe by the concurrence of naturall causes I grant â—o be meere necessities in regard it is necessary that when every cause actâ— to the uâ—most of his strength that must not onely needs come to passe but come to passe necessarily which the concurrence of severall forces produceth and must needâ— appear in the causes to any that comprehends the force of them all buâ— that this act of his ends in determining the motives which present themâ—elves to such causes Which act is consistent with an other act whereby he mâ—intaines the cause in an ability of doing or not doing that which it is movâ—d to do But that comprehending the inclinations thereof and the force oâ— the motives which it is presented with he comprehends thereby that it will proceed to act though comprehending that it might doe otherwiâ—e shâ—uld it regard those appearances which either habitually it hath or actuâ—lly â—t â—â—ght to have Now I confesse againe it is hard for me to show how it ought actually to have those appearances which habitually it hath But seeing thaâ— supposing this I show evidently how the providence of God iâ— unceâ—easibâ—â— the will remaining free and the effects thereof contingent I will rathâ—r conâ—esse that I cannot shew where their freedome might or ought to move when it does not then destroy the ground of all Christianity Thus much is evident supposing my saying that the certainty of the event includes the supposition of the will acting freely therefore infers no necessity antecedent to it the knowledge upon which providence decrees foreseeing that it will freely proceed being so moved CHAP. XXV The grounds of the difference between sufficient and effectuall How naturall occasions conduce to supernaturall actions The insufficience of Jansenius his doctrine Of sufficient grace under the Law of Moses and Nature ANd now I shall not use many words to declare what it is that makes those helps of grace which of themselves are sufficient effectuall For if all particulars are contayned in their generalls that which is said of all the works of providence must hold in those helps of supernaturall grace whereby it conducteth to the happinesse of the world to come And therefore the efficacy of Gods grace taking efficacy to imply the effect consists in the order which providence useth that the motives of Christianity whether to imbrace or performe the profession of it be presented in such circumstances as may render them accepted of the will to whose judgement for the preâ—ent they so appeare So that the same for nature and kind prove effectall to one which to an other prove void and frustrate For it is manifest that those helps are the grace of Christ even as they are sufficient and supposing them not to take effect And it ought to be manifest that the circumstances in which they are present to every particular person are brought to passe by the conduct of Gods spirit which filleth the world and attaineth from the beginning to the end of all things which come to passe And this spirit and the coming thereof being purchased by our Lord Christ and granted in consideration of his obedience it is easy to bee seen how it is the grace of Christ not onely as sufficient but also as effectuall This resolution then presupposeth two things as proved Chap. XVIII The first That the preaching of the Gospell is the grace of Christ That is to say A Grace granted by God in consideration of Christs merits and sufferings The second That the grace of Christ attaineth and reacheth the very effect of conversion and new obedience and resteth not in having inabled man to doe it of himselfe without the influence of it To make this part of faith better to be understood among believers better to be maintained against unbelievers that which this resolution advanceth is this That the Grace of the H. Ghost purchased by the humiliation of Christ and by his exaltation obtained as it is the meanes which God hath provided for the publishing of his Gospell to the conviction of all who understand it that they ought to submit to the faith and live according to it so it is the meanes to make it effectuall to the conversion of the Nations to Christianity that conversion effectuall in their lives and conversations by presenting the reasons and grounds thereof being of themselves sufficient for the worke to every mans consideration in those circumstances procured by the providence of God which it executeth in which his wisdome â—oresaw that they would takâ— effect and become to the purpose And truly when our Lord saith Iohn XVI 8 9 10. And when he cometh he will convict the world of sin of righteousnesse of judgement Of sin because they believe not in mee Of judgement because the prince of this world is condemned we must understand that the H. Ghost convinced the world of sin because those miracles which the Apostles did by the holy Ghost convincing the world that they spoke the word of God shewed the world that they were under sin and liable to Gods wrath if they became not Christians And that he convinced
meanes that makes the grace of Christ effectuall addresse it selfe especially to that estate o men in which our Lord Christ to whom they so become conformable appeared in the world And for that very reason to figure that estâ—te of mind which the Gospell requires the people of â—sraell were by Gods Law left unâ—uâ—nished of many helps of policy and force by which other nations maintain themselves free from servâ—tude that they might remaine obliged to depend upon Gâ—dâ— immediate assistance providence But it is to be said further That the greatest estates of the world being subject to the greatest crosses through want of successe and those great changes to which they are liable this way of preparation to the kingdome of heaven can no way seeme wanting to any estate when a begger is seen no lesse to doâ—e upon this world then an uncleane person is seen to doâ—e upon that whore by whom he is abused It is moreover to be said That the remembrance of death which must and the inconstancy of this world which may deprive us of all the benefits thereof being by Gods judgement the punishment of sin soures all the content of them that drench themselves deepest in the pleasures of this life and gives them just cause to forsake them all in case they stand not with the hope of the world to come And the very injoying of them being injoyed with that conscience which all Châ—â—stians have of Gods providence and the sense of his hand from whence they come is reasonably an advantage to those who injoy the best successe that can be expressâ—d in the course of this world both to become thankfull to God for it and also to prefer â—â—ernity before it Whereby it may appeare that the course of this world disposed by God upon the terms of the covenant of nature containes â—â— it those opportunities and advantages which the act of Gods providence by the grace of Christ knowes easily how to makâ— effectuall to the supernaturall purposes of it This is the place for the rest of that which I am to say of the opinion of Jansenius setling the efficacy of saving grace upon other grounds then those which I use The ground of it seems to stand upon the observation of S. Augustin de corrept gratia Chap. XI XII Distinguishing between the help of grace without which the worke of grace is not don that by which it is don auxilium sine quo non and auxilium quo and comparing the grace of Christ which cometh to effect notwithstanding originall concupiscence with the grace given Adam which might have come to effect had he pleased but came not notwithstanding his innocenâ—e as more powerfull in our weakenesse then that in his strength For hereupon he will have the grace of Christ to be onely that which takes effect confining that help without which the worke of grace cannot be don to the state of innocence as ouâ— of date now under oâ—iginall sin So that the freedome of the will is so far from being râ—quisite to â—he effects â—hereof that it hath no being but bâ— the meanes of it consisting in that free love of that which God commandeth because he commandeth it which it inspireth As on the other side the counâ—erfeit of it in them that sin without reluctation bâ—cause free from righteousnesse is nothing but the free lâ—ve of sin for the saâ—isfaction of concupiscence It is therefore in his opinion impertinent how necessarily the grace of Christ determineth the wil to imbrace the true good seeing it is the love of it the delight in it which grace worketh in the wâ—ll that determines it willingly and freely to imbrace it To tâ—ke the more distinct view of this plea let us put the case in him who running full speed in a course of sin is caâ—led by the preaching of the Gospell to become a Christian Or to the same purpose in him who being a Christian and runnâ—ng the same race is summoned by his profession and the grounds thereof to reâ—urne to it In this case can any man imagine that the reasons which move us all to be Christians shâ—uld raise no love of true good no dislike to sin no feare of vengeance no desire of everlasting hapâ—iâ—esse in him that considers them as they deserve Especially being managed by the spirit of God which knocketh at the dore of the heart by that meanes Or can any man question as it is â—he feare of vengeance that beginneth so it is the love of good for Gods sâ—ke that conâ—ummateth the resolution of becoming a true Christiâ—â— But the quâ—stâ—â—n being put about changing the chief end of a mans whole life and doings can it be supposed that any man is prevented with such a delight in true gooâ—nesse as iâ—stâ—ntly to abandon the lust which his bâ—sâ—nesse hath been hitherto to satisfie without demurre or regret I doubt not that God can immediatly crâ—aâ—e in any man that appearance of true good that shall without debate or looking back transport him to the prosecution of it That notwithstanding the Covenant of grace he may doe it Which though a rule to his ordâ—nâ—ry proceeding is no Law to his Soveraigne perogative But him that is thus sâ—ved though sâ—ved by grace yet we cannot count to be saved by the Covenant of grace Which proposeth a reward to them who are led by motives thereof notwithstanding the difficulties to the contrary though implying the worke of grace in him that overcometh And this no man more câ—earâ—ly acknowledgeth then Jansenius de gratia Christi VIII 2. where â—â— conâ—esseth that the predetermination of the will by the grace of Christ is not indefeasible but onely when it overcomâ—s as Gods predetermination according to the Dominicans is For by this difference whâ—ch in statiâ—g of this opinion I have not neglected afore the efficacy thereof cannot be attribuâ—ed to â—e â—aâ—ure of that help which overcometh aâ— of an other kind then that which pâ—oveth frustrate And therefore notwithstanding that large and elaborat work of his he hath left us to inquire further whence the efficacy of it proceedeth As having in effect onely resolved us wherein the efficacy of Grâ—ce consisteth in the nature of the formall cause Not from whence it proceedâ—th in the nature of the effective cause which the question indeed demandâ—th And truly the very consideration premised That as freedome from sin coâ—sists in the determination of the will to righteousnesse which the Grace of Chrâ—st effecteth so freedome from righteousnesse in the determination of it to sin which it acteth Inâ—orceth an other kind of freedome common to both estates not importing praise or dispraise but a capacity of either by doing that which no necessity determineth a man to doe And therefore that though the grace of Christs Crosse be the medecine yet till it be freely taken it worketh not the cure This is that freedome from necessity by the present condition of our nature the use whereof
future contingencies For to say that they may be â—oreseen in the deceite of permitting them is to say that that which may be otherwise may be certainely foreseen by certainly knowing that there is nothing to hinder it It remaines that I say what is to be thought of that proposition which some of the School Doctors holdforth That to such as do what is in them to doe by their naturall abilities God gives grace facientâ—bus quod in se est ex vi ibu naturâ— Deus largitur gratiam Because it seems to follow upon â—upposition of that which I have maintained That the unregenerate are notwithstanding originall concupiscence able to do things that are good for a right end though not out of a resolution to doe all for the right end of all which is God and his service For hence it seemeth to be inferred that those who live in civill righteousnesse for honesties sake and not for their particular advantage inconsistent with the generall good of mankind dâ—serâ—ve that God should â—end you those helps of grace which are immediately sufficient to save them by the Covenant of grace But it is manifest that the proposition may be understood in two senses One in point of Fact the other of right Theone making the proposition universal the other particular The one importing that God may tâ—e other that God must give those helps of grace that are immediately sufficient to them that live well according to the light of nature there being a vast difference between Gods giving the helps of grace that are immediately sufficient to them whom he considers to have done such things as the light of nature justifies And his giving them because of the same as obliged so to reward them For the one leaves those sufficient helps gifts of Gods grace by Christ the other renders them rewards of mens works not subject to Gods bounty being prevented with the obligation of justice and therefore establishes that opinion of meritum de congruo which had much vogue in the Schooles and supposeth not but inferreth the Covenant of grace and therefore destroyes it as verifying the effects thereof into those works of man that oblige God to grant those helps which the Gospell pretending to be set on foot by Gods free grace in Christ tendreth Certainly admitting that which hath been proved that the preaching of the gospell is granted in consideration of the merits and sufferings of Christ it cannot by any meanes be maintayned that any works of meere nature can oblige God to send the meanes of knowing the Gospell and conviction of the truth of it without granting by consequence that the very coming of Christ whereof these meanes are the consequence must be imputed to the works of those who in the state of corrupt nature have obliged God to send them the knowledge of Christ Which they could not have had had not the coming of Christ been fiâ—st provided Which by this reason must have been in consideration of the originall merit of their works I say the originall merit of their works because in this case there could be no consideration of Gods promise made out of free grace as the ground of those blessings which God thereby ties himselfe to bestow upon condition of doing that which his Covenant requires though otherwise infinitely exceeding the value of the condition which he requireth For here it is evident that the free grace of God which tenders the promise upon the condition is the originall ground of all the claime that any that is qualified can make to the promise But supposing the workes of corrupt nature to oblige God to give his Gospell it is no more his free grace but the originall merit of those workes to which all the grace of it must be imputed Which as it directly falls into the prime article of Pelagius his heresy that grace is given according to merit and that it is not given to every act being prevented by those acts in consideration whereof this opinion supposes it to be granted So by consequence it makes the publication of the Gospell to be no grace of Christ but the reward of mans merit which is the true consequence of Pelagius his position For though being pressed with those scriptures in which the grace of Christ is so clearely preached that nothing but impudence could deny it he granted that the preaching of the Gospell is as much of Gods free grace as the light of nature by which these workes are done yet in very deed he oâ—erthrewe his owne saying that is gave the Church an undefeasible advantage against himselfe by granting it His heresy being no waies tenable without maintaining the very preaching of the Gospell to be the purchace of mans merit and Christ himselfe the subject of the Gospell by consequence And thus the heresy of Pelagius becomes that very opinion which S. Paul writes against as often as he disputes that a man is justified by grace and not by works Onely with this difference that when he writes against the Jewes arguing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by faith his meaning is that the righteousnesse of the Jewes turned Christians is not to be ascribed to the outward observation of Moses Law but to the Covenant of grace But when he wriets to the gentiles That they attained not the promises of the Gospell by the works which they had don before they heard of it but by the meere grace of God that sent our Lord Christ to bring it But if any man insist that nothing hinders him to suppose the Gospell already set on foot and thereupon to say and hold That by the use of corrupt nature God may be obliged to send the knowledg of it The insufficience of the plea will be evident enough For those works of morall honesty which corrupt nature is able to doe not serving to discharge the obligation thereof to God in those particular occasions upon which they become due because they are void of any whether habituall or actuall intent of that end which they ought to aime at It were ridiculous to tye God to grant the effects of his free grace in sending our Lord Christ to those that are lesse sinners then others And consiâ—ering that which is visible in point of fact it wil be imposible to reduce those things which appear in the propagating and maintaining of Christianity through the world to any difference of works done before the knowledg thereof as the reason of Gods dispensing of it Which may also be said of another opinion that may be and perhaps is held upon termes not prejudiciall to the faith as this seemes to be to wit That God by declaring the Covenant of Grace his inclination to save all the world by it hath tied himselfe to grant such motions and inspirations of true good to all men that if they neglect them not but do what corrupt nature so prevented is able to doe he shall
absolute of punishing respective The end to which God predestinates is not the end for which he predestinates Grace the reward of the right use of Grace How much of the question the Gospell determines not That our indeavours are ingaged no lesse then if predestination were not it determineth Of the Tradition of the Church and of Semipelagians Predestinatians and Arminians I Am now come to the upshot of the controversy concerning the covenant of grace and free will in imbraceing and performing of the covenant of grace which is the dispute about Gods predestination whether it proceeds upon the absolute will of God or in consideration of mans being qualified as the gospel requires Which though of it selfe never so intricate the premises being supposed must of necessity be thus resolved That predestination being the appointment of grace and glory as reprobation on the other side the decree of not giving effectuall grace and of condemning to paine the appointment of glory and misery cannot be absolute but the appointment to actuall grace and perseverance or not necâ—ssarily is The reason supposing the premises is not liable to be contradicted in either part of it For it cannot stand with the wisdome and truth of God to execute his counsailes upon other reasons and in other considerations then from everlasting he purposed to do Therefore for what reason and in what consideration God shall in due time give life and death to them whom he shall give it to for the same reason he did resolve to give it from everlasting But nothing is more evident in Christianity then this that God at the last day shall give sentence of life and death according as men shall be found to have behaved themselves as Christians or not And all that I have premised to manifest the condition of the Covenant of grace makes good the same For the state of life or death cannot become any mans owne upon other termes then the right and title to it becomes his Therefore God from everlasting determined to give life oâ— death to every man in consideration of his being found qualified for this or for that according â—o those termes which the covenant of grace proposeth On the other side it being resolved that man as he is borne into the world is not able to do any thing that can oblige God to grant him those helps of grace which onely will be effectuall to inable him to imbrace and goe through with that condition which the gospell tendreth It is manifest that the reason why he provides effectually sufficient helps for some which others have not why he tenders them to some in those circumstances in which he knowes they will be effectuall to others not must take rise and begin at his owne free choice in granting maters of free grace to whom he pleaseth and not to others Though of each mans proceeding or not proceeding in the way of Christianity a reason is to be given from the good or bad use of those sufficient helps which he had been prevented with For seeing it was in the meere appointment of God to have caused any man to be borne or after to live where he should have met with sufficient helps to convict him of the truth of Christianity and those so presented to him as he best knew they would not be refused there is nothing more manifest then that it was onely in the meere will of God that it was appointed so as it is and not otherwise But this is no hinderance why the sufficient helps of Gods grace should not proceed from the Will of mans happinesse in God though they take no further effect through mans fauâ—â— And the having or not having of further helps which God either doth or might have seconded them with be imputed to the good or bad use of those which went afore Because it hath been made manifest by the premises that the end of Gods gifts is the happynesse of his creature though it come not to passe But the reason of the particulars which he actually bestowes or refuses is to be resolved into the quality of the persons that receive them or not but so that the order of all depending upon the first helps of free grace which every man is prevented with there is no reason to be given for the whole in the nature of a meritorious cause Against the two parts of this resolution there are two objections one against each which so far as we shall be able to resolve so far shall we be able to leave the businesse cleare For seeing that the end is fiâ—st desiâ—ed and then the meanes the reason why the meanes are desired being derived from the desire of the end and referred to it And that the end of all grace is glory the end of all the meanes of salvation the salvation intended by it It seemes that Gods predestination must of force appoint salvation to them that are to be saved in the first place from thence proceeding to designe the way and order by which the person designed to it may be induced of his owne free choice to accept the meanes of it This slight mistake seemes to have been the occasion of many horrible imaginations which even Christian divines have had of Gods designe from evarlasting to create the most part of men on purpose to gloâ—â—fie himselfe by condemning them to everlasting torments though in consideration of the sins which they shal have don That which had been granted in Gods predestination to life upon this mistake seeming necessarily to extend it selfe to his reprobation signifying the decree of condemning to everlasting torments But the mistake is that the end of the creature by Gods appointment is taken for Gods end Which though it be his end because he appointeth it for his creature yet it is not any end that he seeks for himselfe The reason is so punctually laid downe in the premises that it can be but repeated here That God being of himselfe sufficient for himselfe can have no end upon his creature Because nothing accrues to him nothing goes from him whatsoever accrues to his creature or goes from it And though God having now resolved to make the world for himselfe that is for his owne glory it is necessary we suppose him to designe the government of it so as it may be a fit meanes to obtaine that end yet is it to be much considered that God having once given a Law to his understanding creatures tendring happinesse as the reward of abiding by his Law it can no longer stand with that tender that it should be a fit meanes of Gods glory to give happynesse to his creature not considered as qualified by his law and therefore not to resolve to give it Whether we consider the interest of Gods justice in requiring that Law it cannot be imagined that the love of any creature can move him to waive it Or whether we consider his truth in making it good being once declared it is
is plaine that the objection is the same against S. Paul as against the resolution proposed For as this answer supposes the reason why the Gentiles were converted to be Christians the Jewes not to be resolved into the will of God so the resolution here proposed resolves the reason of the true Christianity and finall perseverance in it of those that shall be saved into that disposition of motives resolving free will which Gods free grace onely appointeth And the question is evidently the same if as one ingredient into the disposition of each mans salvation or damnation it be demanded why God suffered man to fall from the state of innocence but procureth that the preaching of the Gospell arrive at the knowledg of some people and not of others For if supposing sufficient helps of grace the reason where by they become effectuall is neverthelesse resolved into the immediate disposition of God Then though we consider man as not faâ—â—e from the state of innocence and resolve the reason why God should bring him into that estate in which he foresaw that he would fall intending to propagate his kind under the condition of this lapsed estate we have recourse to no other reason then that which S. Paul imployed before us Where we may see the fault which hath been committed by them who to attaine the end of his glory by the absolute salvation of some and damnation of others no otherwaies qualified then as such persons have made the object of Gods predestination to be mankind not made but to be made the purpose of making mankind being the next meanes subordinate to the attaining of that end which the first decree proposed to God For besides that this ingages God to procure the fall of man and the sins in which the reprobate finally persevere no otherwise then the grace in which the Elect depart it makes God to predestinate onely a number and to reprobate the same there being no other consideration possible to be had upon those that are supposed not to be as yet but onely that they may be so many as God shall appoint of either kind So that the glory of God according to this monstrous imagination shall consist onely in saving such a number and in damning such an other rather then one more or one lesse of either sort Neither is this inconvenience cured by the position of those that have been called Sublapsariaus by as monstrous name as the other of Supralapsaians That God seeing mankind Lapsed from the state of innocence resolving to save so many of them to damne so many provided to send our Lord Christ with effectual means to save these leaving those unprovided of sufficient means to find their owne ruine For solong as those that are appointed to be saved and to be damned are qualified no otherwise then as men found in the common case of mans fall the glory of God is made to consist in damning somany of them and saving so many rather then one more or one lesse For the originall corruption in which we are borne though it renders the first Adam unrecoverable without the second yet it leaves every man in every instance undetermined to evill till by his owne choice of evill before good and the habit whâ—ch accrews by custome his naturall inclination to it become so determined that his choice determines without deliberating any more But suppose so many absolutely appointed to life and so many to death in this estate you suppose them respectively determined though not in particular what good or what evill they shall doe yet in generall to sin and to dye in sin or oâ— the other side to attaine the state of grace and to dye in it Vnlesse we thinke that God being God the absolute appointment of his Providence can â—e defeated Whereas in making God determine to save and to damne those who are qualified for each according to the Gospell But to give effectuall meanes of being so qualified to the one which out of his freedome he refutes the others granting them what he deemes to be sufficient we make the glory of God visible here in the one point not disparaging it if in the other it be for the present acknowledged with Saint Paul to be invisible For if there were any other Religion in the World which could pretend maintaynig the differences between good and bad the providence of God in all things and the reward of good and bad in another world to give further reason of the coming in and continuance of evill in the world there might be some pretense of prejudice to the priviledg which Christianity claimeth in maintayning those principles from the inability of declareing the reasons by which God dispenseth the meanes of his effectuall grace But there never was any other religion in the world that could pretend any such thing The Greekish Philosophers who were the Divines of the Gentiles some of them openly professed necessity and fate as the Stoicke thereby destroying freedome and contingence by the consequence Religion and all difference between good and bad much more the truth of Christianity consisting in a treaty for imbracing good and rejecting bad Others supposing this either renounced Providence and by consequence the being of God As Epicurus and his predecessors and followers or at least doubted of it in which mire it is more then probable that our master Aristotle sticks If with Plato and Pythagoras we suppose them clearely to acknowledge all this yet is there a way left either by making the materiall cause coexistent which God from everlasting with Plato or by presupposing those contrarieties of good and evill which Pithagoras imagined to have beene from everlasting made by consequence the principles of all that comes to passe in the World to advance some other cause of good and evill in this world then mans will under Gods providence And it is very remarkable that Epiphanius observes all the Sects of the Gnostickes whereof he of all others hath given us the most particulars proceeded upon a pretence of giving a reason for the coming in of evill into the world To wit by setting up two principles or Gods one the fountaine of evill the other of good Which together with the expresse testimonies of divers others of the Fathers witnessing that they had theire principles from the Greekish Philosophers seems to argue that they took their rise from a pretense of rendring an account of the beginning of evill as well as of good intimating thereby that Christianity did not sufficiently performe it as not pretending all to be declared till the generall judgement And this is the case of Marcionists Manichees For as for Jewes and Mahumetans I suppose there is no man so little read in the difference between them and Christians as to conceive that they can give account of Gods providence in the evill which he maintaineth to be in the world together with the meanes by which some come to life others to
death If Christians by their profession cannot doe it Nor is it to be doubted that the dispute about free will and providence consequently predestination so far as the world to come is acknowledged hath been and in part remaines alive as well among Gentiles Jewes and Mahumetans as we see it is among Christians So that we may justly inferr that seeing no other religion either antecedent to Christianity or that hath come after it can pretend that satisfaction to this dispute which Christianity giveth by the coming in of sin upon the fall of Adam that it is no disparagement to it not to be able to declare the reason of Gods proceeding with particular persons in dispensing to them the meanes of effectuall grace when it remaines manifest both that Christianity goes further in declaring the same then any other Religion can doe and that there may justly be those reasons reserved to God which he notwithstanding the grace which he publishes by Christ findeth no cause to declare The answer then to the objection consists in this That as it is not necessary for the maintenance of Christianity to give account why God disposeth of his effectuall grace as he doth So is there no opinion able to reconcile it to the freedome of mans will without the bonds of Christianity but that which maketh predestination to Glory conditionall to Grace absolute It may be the readers lot as it hath been mine to heare an objection cast forth That if Gods predestination be unmoveable it is vaine for Christans to indeavour to live as Christians And the answer so insufficient as to leave more offense in his mind then before it it was made According to that which is some times said That unskilfull Conjurers some times raise a Devil whom they cannot lay againe For certainely it serves not the turn to say That God as he hath appointed the end so hath appointed the meanes For it is the secret will of God which is alwaies effectuall that appoints the end But his revealed will that appoints the meanes by commanding comes not alwaies to effect And therefore if God have absolutly appointed the end he that knowes not whether he hath appointed it or not can have no reason to goe about the means till he knew it as absolutely appointed as the end is Nor servs it the turn to adxe to say further That God as he apointeth the end so he appointeth also the meanes to be freely imployed by man for the attaining it Which the opinion of Predetermination may say For all the incouragement this can give a man to imploy his freedome to any purpose is That if God determine him he shall freely imploy it if not he shall freely not imploy it to that purpose Which is to say in English That his freedome being called freedom but is not can not be imployed by him that is incouraged to imploy it And therefore it is reasonable for him to say I shall freely doe so if God hath appointed it and freely not do so if he have not appointed it If it be said further and that according to my opinion that no event is determined by God but supposing mans freewill and foreseeing what choice it will make upon the considerations which a man is outwardly or inwardly moved with Neither wil this be enough to move a reasonable mans indevours supposing himselfe absolutely predestinated to life or to death before For that life and death being absolutely appointed becomes Gods end though subordinate to a further end of his glory and not onely the end of the meanes which he provideth for it A thing no lesse destructive to the supreme Majesty of God then to that which I said afore For that which God absolutely desireth that he ingageth his supreme Majesty to execute and bring to effect Vnlesse it can be thought that a Soveraigne can be soveraigne and not stand obliged make it his Interest that no designe of his be defeated Which if God do what availeth it the creature that the will thereof is free and the effects of that will are not determined but by the free choice thereof Whenas being the will of a creature and necessary proceeding upon consideration of those objects which providence inwardly or outwardly presenteth it with it is by a former act of that providence determined to that which may and must be the meanes of producing that end which God had designed afore And upon these termes providence will stand ingaged not to permit but to procure the sins upon which the sentence of eternall death as the good works upon which the sentence of eternall life proceedeth And he who knows that whatsoever he doth though never so freely shall certainely bring him at length to that estate which God had appointed for him before he considered what he would or would not doe wâ—at reason can he have to imploy the indevours of his will to doe what God commandeth for the obtaining or avoiding of that which he hath appointed before any consideration of his indeavours But absolute Predestination to the first helps that effectually bring a man to the state of Grace produceth not the like consequence For as supposing good and bad in the world and that the Gospell is refused by some and imbraced by others it is meerely the worke of providence that a man is borne under the obligation of it or not and cannot be imputed to any act of his owne So he that supposeth that God hath not appointed him to life or to death but in consideration of his own doings shall no lesse stand obliged to follow those sufficient reasons of well doing which Gods spirit by the preaching of the Gospell meetes him with then if it did not lye in the worke of providence to make them effectuall or not As for all the rest of every manâ— life that falls between the time that he is sufficiently convinced that he ought to live and dye a good Christian and that state of grace or of sin in which he deceaseth It is evident that the helps of Grace are dispensed all along upon that reason of reward or punishment which the covenant of grace establisheth For seeing the Holy Ghost is promised to assist all Christians in the performing of that which they undertake by their Baptisme it cannot be imagined that God should destitute any christian of helps requisite of the fulfilling of his Christianity whose profession was not counterfeit from the beginning that is not so reall as it should have been untill he faile of complying with the motions of it There is in deed some difference of opinion according to which a difference will arise in the termes by which we expresse our selves in this businesse There be those in the Church of Rome who hold that a Christian once setled in the state of Grace may by Gods ordinary grace here live without even veniall sin till death Supposing this done the helps of grace which God assisteth such a man
with are the effects of his justice which consisteth in keeping promise Though Originally the effects of meere Grace because it was meere Grace that moved him to make that promise Those that hold absolute predestination to life or to death and justifying faith to be nothing but the revelation of a mans predestination to life can no more allow that such a one may fall from the state of Grace then that Gods promise can faile or Christs death be to no purpose So that not onely the sins which they doe are to them occasion of good as S. Paul saith that all things cooperate for good to them that love God Rom. VIII 28. but the permission which in that opinion is the procuring of them is an effect of their predestination to life according to this opinion also the helps of Geace are the effects of that Justice which consisteth in keeping as well as of that grace which was seen in making Gods promise though the condition of that promise be cleared in this opinion at the first instant that a man believeth in the other not till the last instant that he liveth Though I have already laid aside both the suppositions upon which this opinion standeth yet I suppose it not refuted as yet because there must be a time on purpose to consider the arguments which it pretendeth But because one of the contradictions which it involveth is this that making justification to consist in remission of sins it alloweth the regenerate to become guilty of sin and yet maintaineth him justified at the same time an other contradiction that it involveth must needs be this That the helps of Grace requisite to the saving of him that is justified which as I said afore according to this opinion are due to the elect by the justice of Gods promise are granted of meere grace to the Justifying of him who being justifyed is notwithstanding acknowledged to need remission of sin For to tye God by promise to helpe any man out of sin as often as he shall please to fall back into sin who of Grace may allow waies freely to do it is to make the Gospel a passeport for sin And therefore notwithstanding this opinion I shall not let to presume here before I have spoken to it that the helps of grace requisite to the recovering of him that is falne from the state of grace come not by the vertue of the promise wherein the Covenant of Grace consisteth the right whereof is forfeited in that case but by vertue of that meere grace which first moved God to tender it though in consideration of the merits and suffering of our Lord Christ which purchased it Whereupon the truth is that the helps of grace that are requisite to maintaine them in the state of grace which have attained it are due by that justice of God which consisteth in keeping promise And though Gods cleare dealing with man requires that from the first heareing of the Covenant of grace that is from the first preaching of the Gospell or from the first calling of him that is fallne from the state of grace a man be inabled to imbrace that which is tendred yet that he shall effectually imbrace it will alwaies remaine the effect of meere grace So the gifts of nature and the death of Christ for mankind are provided by God for the salvation of all not as Gods end but as the end of the said meanes which he provideth But that by providing the death of Christ for the salvation of mankind he oblâ—geth himself to grant them who never heard of Christ inspirations and revelations convicting them that they are to be Christians as he obligeth the Church to cause them to heare of Christ I grant not though I find it not to be prejudiciall to the Faith Because then must all men be judged by the Gospell of Christ reason being showed that they to whom it is not preached shall be judged by the Law of Nature And upon these termes S. Paul may reject the demand Why God should complaine seeing no man can resist his will but he may make whomsoever he shall please a good Christian But God to have absolutely appointed all men to life or to death and so to be ingaged by the interest of his Soveraigne Majesty not to see his designe defeated but to provide the meanes by which he designeth to bring his appointment to passe S. Paul might allow the demand and his Gospell to have no answer for it And therefore the comparison of the potter that followes though it hold thus farre that God indeed makes the vessels that come to honour and shame in the world to come by the government of him that made them yet it holdeth not in this that Gods glory is interested to procure them to be saved that shall be saved and them damned that shall be damned as it concerneth the potters trade to be furnished aswel with vessels for dishonourable as for honourable uses Nor wil the instance of Pharaoh bear it according to S. Pauls words For had God spared Pharaohs life out of a designe to bring him to those torments which his obstinacy in refusing the plagues that succeeded should deserve he could not be said to beare with much long-suffering the vessells of wrath that are fit to be destroyed though intending at length to show wrath and make his power known The decree then of predestination proceeding partly upon the terms of the gospell but in those things to which the Gospell extendeth not and in those men that shall be judged by the law of Nature upon the Soverainty of God the reasons whereof either we cannot understand or God will not declare contayneth all the decrees whereby the motives upon which God foresees a man will imbrace and persevere in his Christianity to the end or not persevere to the end whether he imbrace it or not or finally not so much as hearing of it will resolve for the better or for the worse from the beginning of his life to the end of it which our understanding necessarily distinguisheth by the objects which they bring to passe The order of them is the same with the reasons which the Sripture inableth us to give for the effects which they produce either in the nature of the finall or meritorius cause speaking onely of that which comes from Gods declared will not from his secret pleasure Which as it alwaies verifieth his declared will so extends to that which the other compriseth not And it is as easy to comprise in the same decree which is the pure essence of God willing to glorifie it selfe by doing that which it might have glorified it selfe by doing otherwise the order of the reasons upon which all mankind comes to that estate in which they shal continue everlastingly in the world to come Seeing then all the effects of it fall not under Gods revealed will there can be no reason given for the whole decree whether respective to any man or
to mankind Seeing there is a reason to be given for all that fall under the same in the nature of the finall or the meritorious cause God stands as much glorified man as much obliged to worke out his salvation with feare and trembling as if he knew the bottome of Gods secret counsaile And thus the objection is void It remaineth that we consider the Tradition of the Church what it declareth concerning the truth of that which I have resolved or towards it Where we must take notice of the Monkes of Adrymetus under Valentine who received S. Agustines doctrine of Gods effectuall grace and predestination to it from everlasting in such a sense that they inferred from it all indeavours of men all exhortations reproofes instructions and prayers to be utterly fruitlesse and vaine as tending to that which dependeth upon the meere appointment of God which cannot be defeated and without which nothing can serve To rectifie this mistake S. Augustine lived to write them his book yet extant de correptione Gratia wherein he declareth all that he had said of the grace of God and the efficacy thereof to proceed upon supposition of free will in man though inslaved to sin by the fall of Adam from the bondage whereof the grace of Christ voluntarily though effectually redeemeth those that are freed by it whereby as by the rest of his writings concerning the grace of Christ against Pelagius he establisheth two points belonging to the foundation of the Christian faith The first of the freedome of mans will though not from sin since the fall of Adam yet from necessity determing the resolution of it when by the treaty which the Gospell advanceth it is invited to imbrace Christianity and to live according to it Which were all a mere nullity were not any man free to resolve himselfe upon it The second of the grace of God by Christ which if it may be purchased by the indevour of mans free will then was it not necessary to send our Lord Christ as the second Adam to repaire the breach which the first Adam had made This being the sum of the Catholike faith in this mater and the rest which is advanced to shew how those two points both stand true together belonging to the skill of a Divine not to the faith of a Christian so far as by maintayning them men destroy the foundation of Christianity on neither side Which it is no marvail that some things which S. Augustin had said in giving a reason hereof seemed to some to do seeing those that accepted of his doctrine in Africk drew from it a consequence utterly destructive to Christianity I speake of those in the parts of France about Provence and Marsailles who inferring from S. Augustines saying that in his opinion God makes the farr greater part of men on purpose to condemne them to death seemed to mainetaine the beginning of salvation to come from those indeavours of mans will born as he is under originall sin which God faileth not to second with those helps of Grace which the mater requireth There is great appearance of that which Jansenius disputeth so eagerly de Haeresi Pelag. VII 5. sâ—q that the maine ground of their opposition was the decree of predestination which S. Austine would have to be absolute As being perswaded that thereby the effects of free will become fatal in which that reason of reward and punishment which the Covenant of Grace establisheth requires contingence And herewith the occasion which Faustus pretendeth for the writing of his book de Gratia et Libero Arbitrio agreeth To wit that a certaine Priest called Lucidus is required by him in the name of a Synod held at Arles under Leontius Bishop to recant certaine positions tending to maintaine the necessity of being damned for originall sin by the foreknowledg of God in them for whom Christ dyed not dying onely for sin And this by a letter subscribed by one of the Bishops This recantation being made Faustus pretendeth to write at the intreaty of the Synod to lay forth their sense and reasons But to have added something upon the decree of an other Synod held afterwards at Lions True it is indeed which Vâ—ssius observeth Historiae Pelag. VI. Thesi XIV that whereas some of them insisted on nothing else others proceeded to deny the necessity of preventing grace For whatsoever we say of Cassianâ— who hath writ to severall purposes in severall places Faustus manifestly affirmeth that by the act of free will in beginning to believe a Christian obtaines the grace of God which his owne choice preventeth Which if we understand the Faith which he speaketh of to signifie Christianity and the act of believing to consist in becoming a Christian is nothing else but the fundamentall faith of Christianity That the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost is granted in consideration of a mans turning Christian But who believes that the actuall grace of the Holy Ghost whereby the world is converted to be as well as convicted that it ought to be Christiane is obtayned by the exaltation as purchased by the humiliation of Christ which Faustus supposing the preaching of the Gospell being the meanes which it useth no way denyeth acknowledgeth by consequence that act of faith which preventeth the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost to be prevented by the actuall helps of Grace which the preaching of the Gospel importeth And Jansenius de Haeresi Pelag VIII 1-9 acknowledgeth that they had no designe to destroy the grace of God through Christ as Pelagius had therefore did acknowledg not onely the outward preaching of the gospel but inward inspiration to make it effectuall Onely that making the effect of that grace which God appointeth to depend on free wil they fel into the heresy of Palagius which they desired to a void Now Pelagius indeed acckowledged that grace which the preaching of the gospell signifyed according to his own opinion which was false For not believing that our will is any thing the worse for Adams fall he could not allow that Christ hath purchased any help to repaire the breach and to cure the disease which he had made But as he could not deny it to be an act of bounty in God to propose the reward of everlasting life which is supernatupall So he must affirme that it is purchsed by the merre naturall act of free will without any help of grace granted of Gods mercy in Christ in consideration of his obedience And by this meanes he brought the death of Christ to no effect Seeing God might have assured the tender of his gospell to come indeed from him without it And so the merit of grace that is the reason that obliges God to give it is originally ascribed to the works of free Will according to Pelagius But according to those who acknowledging Originall sin acknowledg the cure of it by the helpe of grace purchased by Christ which the preaching of the gospell bringeth not
people without expressing any consideration in regard whereof he would doe it And likewâ—se our Lord in the Parable of the master that forgave his servant ten thousand talents Mat. XIIII 23 Seemes to expresse Gods pardon which his Gospell publisheth to be free from any consideration in which it is either proclaimed or granted But as I said to our Antinomians who will needes beleive upon the warrant of the Prophets words that their sinnes are pardoned meerely in consideration of Christ without regard to any disposition requisite to qualify them for it by the Gospell That it was neither requisite nor fit that the termes upon which the blessinges promised by the Gospell are granted should be expressed by the Propheâ—y that onely foretelleth the coming of it being to be gathered from that proportion which the Law in regard of the land of promise holds to the Gospell in regard of the world to come So say I to the Socinians who will needs have the same wordes to signify That supposing the disposition that qualifies for the promises of the Gospell they suppose no consideration of the obedience of of Christ That though the termes of the Gospell are not expressed by the Prophet foretelling the coming of it as being included in those of the Law by virtue of the proportion aforesaid it were strange to thinke that the coming and death of Christ is not sufficient since to determine the meaning of the Prophets words to it And so likewise to the Parable that if our Saviour found it not fit to expresse the consideration upon which the pardon which the Gospell publishes is passed yet his death and suffringes coming after to interpret the intent of that which he hâ—d said before that was to be declared it is strange that they should not be thought sufficient to adde that consideration which before he had neither expressed nor denyed As for the free grace of the Gospell I challenge all the reason in the world to say If Gods free act in providing the means of salvation by Christ and sending him to publish the conditions upon which he is ready to be reconciled to those that accept them tendering withall sufficient help so to doe be not a valuable reason for which the Gospell is to be called the Covenant of grace though granted in consideration of thâ—t ransome by Christ which the free grace of God provideth Whether our Antinomians have not as good reason to say that the promises of the Gospell are not free if they require the condition of Christianity as the Socinians if they suppose Christ and his obedience Here followes I confesse a very valuable reason of Socinus so long as that satisfaction of Christ which the Church teacheth is not understood which it is no mervaile if it cary them aside not understanding the faith and doctrine of the Church aright They allege that there can be no ground in reason upon which one man may be punished for another mans sinne Guilt being a morall consequence of an act that is naturally past and gone that is for the present nothing in rerum natura upon a due ground of reason which imputes the acts of reasonable creatures to their account because they are under a Law of doing thus and not otherwise But that thâ— sinnes of one man should be imputed to another who cannot be obliged for another to doe or not to doe that which redounds to the others account if done or not done is no more possible then that he should have done or not done that which the other is supposed to have done or not done If it be said that Christ voluntarily took upon him the punishment of our sinnes as a surety answeres for his freinds debt It is acknowledged that this way turnes off the Debt from him that it is payd for to the surety but extinguishes it not as the undergoing of punishment extinguishes the crime in all the Justice of the world so that he who had right to punish can exact that no more for which he hath received satisfaction once Which is to say that the sufferinges of Christ are not the punishment of our sinnes And I truely doe freely acknowledge that the instances which have been brought either out of the scriptures to show that one man hath been punished for another mans sin among civil people so that it is not to be thought against the light of nature are either insufficient or impertinent to the case For I have learned from my beginning in the Schooles that God when he visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children does not inflict upon them more punishment then their owne sinne deserues but makes their sinnes his opportunity of bringing to passe his judgements against the sinnes of their predecessors or those who in regard of other relations are reasonably taken to be punished by their punishment And this I will here prove no further but taking it for granted inferre that it comes not home to the case of our Lord Christ purchasing us by his death remission of sinnes everlasting life But my reason is because it is evident to me that one mans doings or sufferings may be understood or said to be imputed to another two wayes First immediately and personally supposing that there is a ground in reason for it And this that opinion requires which holds that faith which alone justifieth to consist in beleiving that a man is praedestinate to life meerely in consideration of Christs death suffering for the elect alone For how should we be justified by beleeving this but supposing that Christ suffered upon this ground to this purpose But having showed this opinion to be utterly false by showing that the Gospell supposes the condition of Christianity in that Faith which alone justifieth I must here presume that this sense of the imputation of Christs merits and therefore this intent of his death is meerely imaginary And the supposition whereupon it proceedes to wit that one mans doings or sufferings may be personally and immediately imputed to another mans account utterly unreasonable And therefore must and doe say that as it is sufficient so it is true that the sufferings of Christ are imputed unto us in the nature of a meritorious cause moving God to gâ—ant mankind those termes of reconcilement which the Gospell importeth This is evident by the opposition which S. Paul maketh betweene the disobedience of Adam and the obedience of Christ Rom. V. 12. 18. 19. Where discovering the ground of our reconcilement with God whâ—ch the Gospell publisheth he imputeth it to the obedience of Christ in the rest of his discourse attributing it to his death For having said that Christ died for us being sinners and that we are justified by his bloud and reconciled by the death of his sonne being enimies he inferreth therefore as by one man sinne came into the world and death by sinne and so death passed upon all Signifying by the other part of the comparison which he rendreth not
that would onely be saved So that the workes whereby they are pursued must be called workes of supererogation because he that does them layes out more upon Gods service then he is obliged to do They are the words of our Lord to the disciples Mat. XIX 11 12. All are not capable of this word of not marrying For there are Eunuchs which were so born from their mothers wombe And there are Eunuchs which were made Eunuchs by men And there are Eunuchs that have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven He that is capable let him hold this Here it is said that God hath made some men of such constitution of nature that they are able to containe themselves from marriage and that this is the gift of continence which whoso hath falls under a command of not marrying whoso hath not of marrying But when our Lord exhorts those that are able to containe themselves from marriage to strive for that grace certainely he makes not that a gift of nature which he would have a man indeavour to attaine He that is exhorted to make himself an Eunuch is not so made by God but from God he hath the grace to preferre the kingdom of heaven before even that content which God alloweth him here and if he betray not that grace by preferring that content before the clearest and securest meanes of attaining it he will not faile of grace to performe that which he resolves for Gods sake And truely it were strange that the Gospel should make that grace which conducts to the height of Christianity to consist in an indowment of nature But S. Pauls wordes will take no nay 1 Cor. VII 25-28-36 37 38. Of Virgins I have no precept of the Lord but give advise as having received mercy of the Lord to be faithfull I think then this expedient for the present necessity that it is good for a man to be thus Art thou tied to a wife seek not to be loose Art thou loose from a wife seek not a wife But if thou marry thou sinnest not and if a virgine marry she sinneth not Onely such shall have affliction in the flesh But I spare you Againe If a man think he deales unhansomly with his Virgine if she passe her flour and so it must be let him do as he please he sinneth not let him marry But he that standeth firme in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath resolved this in his heart to preserve his Virgine doeth well So he that marrieth her doeth well but he that marrieth her not doeth better Is the sunshine more manifest then this A man may resolve either of both for his daughter a Virgine supposing her will to follow his as generally the duty of the children is which S. Paul here supposeth and not sinne but do well yet better in containing from marriage because of the advantage which that state yeildeth Christianity as S. Paul showes Therefore he declares that God hath given no law in it but his Apostle gives that advise for the best which his Lord had done The same Apostle of Widowes 1 Tim. V. 5 9-14 She that is a Widow indeed and desolate hopeth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day And let no Widow be listed under threescore years old having been the wife of one husband having a testimony for good works that she hath bred up her children entertained strangers washed â—he Saints feet helped the afflicted followed every good work But refuse younger Widowes for when they grow wanton against Christ they will marry Being to be condemned because they have renounced their first faith And withall they learn to be idle and to go about from house to house and not onely idle but tattlers busie bodies speaking things unfitting Therefore I would have the younger marry Here is againe a clear case Timothy is directed to liâ—t some Widowes for the service of the Church in the state of Widowes others to refuse That which commends the one for the preferment is the exercise of those workes which they could not have had opportunity for in the state of wedlock That which renders the others dangerous is because for them to desire marriage is to grow wanton against Christ Wherefore when S. Paul would have them to marry it is not because he denieth in the next words that state of proficience which he had acknowledged just afore but because it is better to hold the mean then to fall from the highest ranck of Christianity Which serves to resolve his meaning as well as his Masters 1 Cor. VII 1 2 6 7. For that which you writ to me about it is good for a man not to touch a woman But because of fornication let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband But this I speake of indulgence not by command For I would all men were even as my self But every one hath his proper grace of God some thus some otherwise Doth not the grace of God in married people assiâ—t in the offices of Christianity towards those relations which marriage procureth Correspondently therefore the Grace of God in the continent is not a natural temper obliging them so to live But the helps that inable them to discharge themselves like Christians in a higher rank among Christians So that the perfection of Christianity lies not in the state of continence but in the rank of it That is to say in â—hose offices of Christianity wherein their estate gives them opportunity to be conversant the state being no otherwise so accountable then because there is a presumption that persons are such as they ought to be and as their state gives them opportunity to be The perfection of Christianity then consisteth in the love of God and in his service and the service of Christians for Gods sake That is in spending a mans life in those offices in which there is most regard to God least to our owne temporall interest But is it unreasonable to count that a state of perfection which generally and in reason is the meanes for it because it is found to be practised to other effects Is it unreasonable to think that God who hath need of all states for the service of his Church and giveth those severall graces which are requisite to make severall men serviceable for severall states should not determine by law but leave to their choice whom he indues with those graces that which containes not the work of Christianity but being indifferent by kind is neverthelesse by kind the meanes to procure it Saint Paul gives this reason why he wrought for his living rather then take any thing of the Corinthians in these termes It were better for me to dye then that any man should void that which I glory in For if I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of for necessity lies upon me yea woe to me if I preach not the Gospel For if I do
wee have received from our Lord Christ and his Apostles But if from hence any man would inferr that seeing the Sacrament of the Eucharist that is to say the body and bloud of Christ crucified there present by virtue of the Consecration is a propitiatory and impetratory Sacrifice for the Congregation there present for their relations and for the Church therefore it is so whether they proceed to receive the Eucharist or not therefore it is so whether they proceed to offer up the Eucharist present by their prayers for the necessities of the Church or not therefore it is so whether they pray with the Church or noâ— the consequence will straight appear to fail because those reasons which make it such a Sacrifice make it so in order to the receiving or to the offering of it by the prayers of the Church in behalf of the Church It is well enough known what opinions and abuses in the use and concerning the virtue of Masses had vogue under the dark time of the School though noâ— authorized by the Catholick Church For in regard the Eucharist can pretend no virtue by the nature of the work impertinent to any spiritual effect but meerly by the institution of Christ the efficacy thereof ex opere operaâ—o according to the language of those dayes and by virtue of the very â—oâ—ke was so extended as to take effect without any good motion in them thâ—t celebrate it And the intent of the Priest whose act the consecration was tâ—ken to be was thought to extend it to whom and to what he pleased And â—â—â—â— so farre from requiring that any but the Priest should communicate that even at this day it is not thought necessary by the looser sort of that side that the people should understand what the Priest does or sayes much lâ—sse assâ—t him with their devotions the intent of the Priest which the Canon it selfe alwaies extends to all that are present serving to give it virtue On the other side how hath this been taken construed As if every Mass pretended to sacrifice Christ a new who by offering himselfe once hath perfited for ever those who are sanctified as saith the Apostle Heb. X. 14. And therefore as if every Mass did challenge the virtue of Christs sacrifice upon the Cross And it is true the properties and efâ—ect of things signified are in some certain sense truly attributed to the signs But he that inlarges his Language beyond that sense may give and he that understands not the limitations requisite may take offense when there is no need Otherwise the reasons of those limitations are evident enough to save any sober and charitable men either from inflanâ—ing or taking up offenses For common sense which tells all men that what is once done can never be done again obliges them to understand an abatement in the property of that Language which attributes the sacrificing of Christ to a Priest because once done upon the Crosse it can never be done agâ—in Neither can it be in reason supposed that he who inflames the improperty of his Language intends therefore to renounce the common faith concerning the redemption of man-kind by the sacrifice of the Cross But when all derive all virtue in the Mass from it to take such Language for equalling the Mass to it will require a great lust to maintain partiality in the Church And make but once the consecrating and offering of the Eucharist for the necessities of the whole Church by the prayers of those who celebrate it to be the act of the respective assembly by the ministry of him whom the Church deputes for the purpose it will easily appear what follows For the virtue thereof will still be ex opere operato in opposition to the Sacraments of the old Old Law The spirituall intent whereof not being discerned by all because not openly preached at that time the spirituall effect of them could not be attributed to the common work but to the particular intent of those that belonged to the Gospel under the Law which is a true ground of opposition between opus operatum and opus operantis The work meerly done and done by such a one Besides seeing the truth of Christs body and blood is eaten and drunk by living faith without the Sacrament He that believes that God instituted not the Sacrament to no purpose though he abhorre to think that the effect thereof can be had without any good motion must of necessity allow the devotion which a living faith is exercised with in assisting the celebration of it an effect by virtue of that work which without it it cannot challenge As for the effect of the Prayers which it is offered with it is not to be ascribed to the quality of the Priest and therefore in that regard also it may be ascribed to the work it selfe not to the quality of him that doth it But seeing the common obligation of all Christians extendeth their Prayers to all necessities of Christs Church it will not lye in the intent either of the Priest or of the whole assembly whose act more properly it is to make it more beneficial to particular Christians then it can be thought that God accepteth the charity and devotion of particular Christians more particularly for their particular relations As for the mater of private Masses and the assistance of the people with their devotion as well as presence of an unknown tongue in Gods service of the extending of the benefit thereof to the dead Thus much being said generally here I referre the rest to their own places In fine what other reason soever can be pretended by any that shall make it his interest to maintain not to excuse the abuses of the Church of Rome why the Eucharist should be counted such a Sacrifice if it be not contained in that which hath been said will easily be wiped off by that which hath been said Those Scriptures which wee ground our selves upon when wee make the Eucharist a Sacriâ—â—ce being the onely ground to determine though not the onely means to evidence for what reason and to what purpose it is to be counted such a Sacrifice For how much regard soever wee ought to have to the consent of the Church in this point as without doubt if in any then in this without doubt the agreement and correspondence visible to common sense betweâ—n the original practice and sense of the Church and that which hath been alleged out of the Scriptures will be evidence enough of the right reason or reasons for which the Eucharist is not or is to be esteemed a propitiatory Sacrifice There is no man can thrust his nose into the writings of the Fathers even of the first times but hee shall finde the Oblations of the faithfull that are once deputed to the celebration of the Eucharist called Sacrifices in that regard This consideration therefore is not owned by them that strive most to make the Eucharist properly a propitiatory Sacrifice
quà m ex institutionis disciplinâ Caeterùm inquit immundi nascerentur quasi designatos tamen sanctitati ac per hoc etiam saluti intelligi volens fidelium filios Ut hujus spei pignore matrimoniis quae retinenda censuerat patrocinaretur Alioquin memin erat dominicae definitionis Nisi quis nascetur ex aquâ spiritu non ibit in regum dei id est â—oâ— erit sanctus Ita omnis anima eo usque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseaâ—ur For hereupon the Apostle also saith that men are born holy of either sex sanctified as by prerogative of seed so by breeding and discipline Otherwise saith he they should be born unclean giving to understand that the children of Christians are as it were designed to holinesse and thereby to salvation that he might patronize those mariages which he thought fit to be maintained by the pledge of this hope Otherwise he remembred the determination of our Lord Unlesse a man be born of water and the spirit he shall not go into Gods Kingdom That is he shall not be holy So every soul is so long listed in Adam till it be listed again in Christ Which you see is not done but by Baptism according to Tertullian Therefore in the end of the next Chapter Proinde cùm ad fidem pervenit reformata per secundam nativitatem ex aquà supernâ virtute detracto corruptionis pristinae aulaeo totam lucem suam conspicit Therefore when it comes to the faith being reformed by a second birth of water and the power above and the curtain of former corruptions drawn she sees her whole light And de Bapt. cap. XVII shewing in what case a Lay-man might baptize Sufficiat scilicet in necessitatibus utaris sicubi aut loci aut temporis aut personae conditio compellit Tunc enim constantia succurrentis excipitur cùm urget circumstantia periclitantis Let it suffice thee to use it the right of baptizing in cases of necessity if at any time the condition of place or time or person constrain For then is the resolution of him that helpeth accepted when the case of him that runneth bazard presseth There is no such thing as any case of such necessity in the opinion of our Anabaptists therefore it is not Tertullians He shows that the Church alloweth a Lay-man to baptize because it believed that the children of Christians could not enter into the Kingdom of God otherwise The words of Gregory Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be all this saith he that delays Baptism in those that demand Baptism But what would you say of Infants that are neither sensible of the losse nor of the Grace Shall we baptize also these By all means if any danger should presâ— For it is better they should be sanctified insensible then depart unsealed and not persued And of this circumcision that is applied on the eighth day to those who cannot reason is a reason to us The daubing of the door-posts also preserving the first born by things unsensible For the rest I give mine opinion staying three years or something over or under that at which age they may hear and answer something of Religion though not perfitly but grosly understanding it then to sanctifie their souls and bodies with the great Sacrament that perfecteth us By and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is in all reason of more advantage to be fortified by the Laver for the suddain accidents of danger that incounter us not being capable of helpe He proceeds disputing against those that would not be baptized aâ—ore thirty because of our Lords example All this is so plain that I will adde nothing to point out the effect and consequence of his words Nor doth the VI Canon of Neo-caesarea signifie any more then this providing that women be baptized while they are with childe And that it be not thought that the baptism of the Mother concerns the child 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because every ones proper purpose upon profession is declared Nor Walafridus Strabus de Rebus Ecclesiasticis cap. XXVI saying plainly that in the primititive times the Grace of Baptism was wont to be granted onely to them that were found in body and mind to understand what they expected and what they undertook by being baptized For though the solemn profession of Baptism be a powerfull means to make it effectuall yet what is that to the necessity of baptizing before death And that the custome here testified was not generall the Infant that received the Eucharist in S. Cyprian de Lapsis besides the opinion of Nazianzene which you had even now will witnesse Neither do the examples of S. Chrysostome who being bred under Meletius Bishop of Antiochia was not Baptized till one and twenty or of the same Nazianzene who having a Bishop to his Father was not baptized till he came to mans age prove any more than the then custome of the Church allows that it was by particular men thought fit to be deferred supposing that in case of necessity it were secured But a great many witnesses speak not so much as the Law the rule the custome of giving Baptism by any man that was a Christian in that case of necessity For out of that case of necessity the office of baptizing belonged to the very highest in the Church to wit to as might stand with the more weighty imployments of their office For otherwise a little common sense would serve to inform them that those offices which required more of their personal knowledge skill wisdome and goodnesse were to be preferred before the office of Baptizing which though it concerns salvation yet requires no such qualities Can any man then imagine any reason why all Christians are licensed or rather commanded to baptize in that case but the necessity of the office and that no Infant should go out of the world unbaptized And this chokes all the exception that is made from the custome of giving Infants the Eucharist in the ancient Church For as I have shewed before that it was not held necessary to salvation as Baptism was so here I must alledge that it cannot be said that the Eucharist was celebrated and that all Christians might celebrate the Eucharist in this case of necessity to the intent that Infants might not go out of the world either unbaptized or without the Eucharist As for Origen upon the Romans and S. Austin de Gen. X. 43 who affirmed the Baptism of Infants to come from the Tradition of the Apostles suppose we for the present that it is not Origen that speaks them but Ruffinus that translated him and that this is said IVC years after the birth of Christ CCC and more after the death of the Apostles was it not visible to them what came from the Apostles what from the determination or practice of the Church For that it should come from abuse he that would tell me must first perswade me that Antichrist was in being
guilty of those excesses which they are charged with by Epiphanius S. Jerome and others Of these particulars you may see in S. Augustine de Haeresibus and Sirmondus his Praedestinatus both of them Haeresi XXVI and LXXXVI But all the while the subject of this separation is the discipline of Penance received by the whole Church as from the Apostles the limitation of the practice thereof being the ground upon which the difference is stated And for the ground of this ground Whether it could then be pretended that the Keyes of the Church could do no more then cure the scandall of notorious sinne on the one side Or whether it could then be pretended on the other side that the Keyes of the Church import any Power to pardon sinne immediately not supposing that disposition which qualifieth for pardon visible to the Church and procured by those actions which the authority of the Church injoyneth All this I am content to referre to that common sense which is capable to understand these particulars I shall not need to say much of the Novatians at Rome and elsewhere the Donatists in Africk of the Meletians in Aegypt having said this of the Montanists all of them if we regard the subject of the separations which they made in severall parts of the Church being nothing else but branches of the same sect and forsaking the unity of the Church for their part of that cause which ingaged Montanus The Novatians because they would not indure that those who fell away from the Faith in the persecution of Decius should be readmitted to the communion of the Church upon demonstration of repentance The Meletians for the same cause in Aegypt under the persecution of Diocletiane The Donatists upon some appertenâ—nce of the same cause Onely they serve to evidence the discipline of Penance to have been as universall as the Church of Christ when no part of it is found free from debates about the terms liâ—iting the exercise of it They serve also to evidence the ground and the pretenâ—e of the Power of the Keyes in the discipline of Penance by the same reason which I alledged afore After these times when the customes of the Church which from the beginning was governed by un-written Law delivered by word of mouth of the Apostles but limited more and more by the Governours of several Churches began to be both reduced into writing and also more expresly determined by the Canons of severall Councils greater and lesse it were too vain to prove that by dicourse which of it selfe is as evident as it is evident that there are such Rules extant which in their time had the force of Law to those parts of the Church for which they were respectively made Onely I do observe the agreement that is found between the originall practice of the Church in this point and that order which I have showed you out of the Apostles writings evidencing that interpretation which I have given of them by that rule which common sense inforces that the meaning and intent of every Law is to be measured by the primitive practice of it For we see so much doubt made whether those three great crimes of Idolatry Murther and Adultery were to be reconciled by Penance that is by the visible and outward demonstration of inward repentance to the Church not onely by Montanus but partly by Novatianns that that great Church of Antiochia remained doubtfull a great while whether Cornelius or Novatians should be acknowledged the true Bishop of Rome We see the Eliberitane Canons which were unquestionably made divers years before the Council at Nicaea and therefore may be counted as ancient as any that the Church hath exclude some branches of those sinnes from reconciliation with the Church We see this vigor abated by the succeeding discipline of the Church It is indeed said in the Church of Rome at this time that the ground of the Heresie as without ground they call it of the Montanists and Novatians was this that acknowledging the Church to have power to forgive lesse sinnes they the Novatians denied it the Power to forgive Apostasy or Idolatry To which the Montanists added Murther and Adultery But I have showed in my Book of the Right of the Church p. 17-27 that within the Church also as well as among the Montanists and Novatians some of these sinnes were not admitted to communion no not at the point of death And that there never was any opinion in the ancient Church that the Church hath any Power to forgive sinne immediately but onely by the medicine of Penance which it injoyneth I referre my selfe to that which here followeth Now it is plain that neither those parts of the Church nor the Novatians did hold those sinnes desperate but exhorted them to Penance as their cure in Gods sight agreeing in not readmitting them whither for the maintenance of Discipline or for fear the Church warranting their pardon who might prove not qualified for it should become guilty of their sinnes according to S. Paul 1 Tim. V. 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man nor partake in other mens sinnes For S. John and the Apostle to the Hebrews had authorized the Church to make difficulty of it though S. Paul had readmitted a branch of one of them the incestuous person at Corinth whether for the unity of that Church then in danger to be divided upon that occasion or as reasonably satisfied of the truth of his repentance But when the zeal of Christianity decreased as the number of Christians increased within and persecution without withdrew so many that there was no means left to preserve the Body without abating this severity the number of Apostates in some persecutions being considerable to the number of Christians we need seek no other reason why the Montanists and Novatians should be Schismaticks not properly Hereticks then their separating from the Church rather then condescend to that which the Body of the Church found requisite to be granted Let us see what crimes they are which the Eliberitane Canons that is the Canons of the Council of Elvira in Spain exclude from the communion even in case of death As if a man at age after Baptism commit adultery in the Temple of an Idol cap. I. If an Idol Priest having been baptized shall sacrifice again II. If such a one after Penance shall have committed adultery III. If a Christian kill a man by Witchcraft wherein there is Idolatry VI. If a Christian commit adultery after Penance VII If a Woman leaving her Husband without cause mary another VIII If a Father or Mother sell a child into the Stews or a child it selfe XII If a professed Virgine shall live in uncleannesse XIII If a man marry his daughter to an Idol Priest XVII If a Clergy-man commit adultery XVIII If he who is admitted to communion upon adultery in danger of death shall commit adultery again XLVII If a Woman kill the childe which she hath conceived of adultery
reconcilement with God For where there is means for those that are detected of notorious sinnes to be restored to the Communion of the Church without the hardship of Penance there can be no reason to imagine that those whose sinnes are secret will of themselves submit themselves to the Keyes of the Church to procure pardon or to assure themselves of it I find great reason to believe that at the first those sinnes which were brought under publick Penance by the primitive Church were onely those three great crimes of Murder Adultery and Idolatry which the Montanists and Novatians excluded from reconcilement by Penance and the branches that were reducible to the same For Pacianus Paraenesi ad Poenitentiam speaking expresly of this mater expresses no more But when the Empire was Christian and the Church became ingraffed into the State then was the Rule inlarged to all crimes that the Laws of the State made capital to which in point of conscience those that are infamous by Civil Law are not inferiour though being not so pernicious to the world they are not by Civil Law punished with death The Reformation of Ecclesiastical Law intended here under Edward VI. hath taken notice of these terms As for the Presbyterians that would so fain be authorized by the State to swagger domineer over the consciences of their poor Neighbors that they have not been ashamed to submit the Original power of the Church to an appeal to the secular which is in English to let Parliament men live as they list so themselves might be inabled to do what they listed with litle ones to give them the power of the Church is to destroy the Church the power whereof they pretend not to exercise to the curing of sin but onely to the abolishing of scandall which the Church never pretended to abolish but by curing the sinne And yet they must give me leave to ask further either how that conscience can be cured of sinne that is not wounded with it or how it can be wounded with it that is bound to believe the pardon of sinne before repentance So necessary it is that they be required to disclaim the remission of sinne and the opinion of saving faith without supposing repentance and the same to be procured by the Keys of the Church before we suppose them to be a Church CHAP. XI The Unction of the sick pretendeth onely bodily health upon supposition of the cure of sinne by the Keyes of the Church Objections answered The Tradition of the Church evidenceth the same BEfore I leave this point I am here to consider what Ecclesiasticall power it is and how well grounded which the Church of Rome pretendeth to exercise in extream Unction so called because it belongeth to the sick in extremity and being accounted by them in the number of the seven Sacraments is applyed unto the sick over and above the Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist The question of the Sacraments wherein the nature of them consisteth and by consequence how many of them there are I wholly set aside from the present discourse Because I conceive it will be determined more briefly upon more setled grounds all at once when I shall have discovered what powers they are which the Church indeed exerciseth by those actions which are or which may be pretended to be Sacraments But it is plain enough that the Church of Rome pretendeth also to exercise the power of the Keys in extream unction because according to the words of S. James afore quoted they assign the effect of it to be the remission of sinne On the contrary they who by the promise of bodily health to be restored to the sick upon the unction which the Apostle prescribeth do gather that the whole office there commanded was temporary as only intended for those ages when the miraculous grace of healing was in force in the Church by consequence do not admit any office to be incharged or any power estated upon the Church by it That which hath been premised to show that the circumstances of the Apostles words together with the originall and generall practice of the Church argueth aloud his intent to concern the exercise of the Keyes of the Church and the power of them towards those that are in danger of death ingageth my resolution to be this That the unction of the sick together with the prayers of the Church for the recovery of their bodily health which Christianity alloweth not without praying principally for the health of the soul is no way commanded by S. James but as an appertenance or an appendant to the exercise of the power of the Keyes in reconciling the sick to the Church whereupon the prayers thereof become due and therefore without further promise of remission of sinne or grace then that generall promise which the injoyning of prayer for the sick presupposeth The reason of this assertion is now to be deduced out of the Scriptures supposing for grounds those things which hitherto have been setled When our Lord sent his Disciples to preach the Gospel and to do those works that might witnesse them to be the Disciples of him that was sent by God it is said Mark VI. 13. That they cast out many Devils and annointed many sick with oyl and healed them Now it is evident that the miracles of the Apostles as did their Masters tended to one generall purpose by bodily cures to intimate the cure of sinne and the recovery of life and health to the soul which our Lord pretended to bring and tender them though by his works convincing them that he was the Messias whom they expected to bring them deliverance from their bodily enemies and the happinesse of injoying freely the Land promised by their Fathers Whereby we may see what consideration those Writers of Controversies have of the Scriptures that ground the unction of the sick which they will have to be a Sacrament of the New Testament upon this action of the Apostles when as the Gospel though now in preaching by the Apostles as well as our Lord yet was not established till his death past and accepâ—ed by God and by his resurrection declared to be accepted as the ratification of that ambassage of reconcilement and peace which he came to publish Far more discreet is that which the Council of Trent hath said that being intimated by S. Mark it is published by S. James At least if we understand the ground whereupon we maintain that the cure of sin is intimated by that bodily health which S. Mark relateth to have been restored by the Apostles For so indeed it is The bodily cures which the Apostles then did seemed to intimate that the imbracing and undertaking of Christianity is from Christs death forwards in consideration thereof the cure of the soul and the restoring of it from death to life Which if it be so then hath the Church no further power in the pardoning or abolishing of sinne then the absolute
Epist IX ad Probum Statuimus fide Catholica suffragante illud esse conjugium quod primitus erat divina gratia fundatum Conventumque secundaemulieris priore superstite nec divortio ejectâ nullo pacto posse esse legitimum We decree the Catholick faith voting for it that to be mariage which first was founded upon Gods grace that was first made according to Christianity and that the wedding of a second wife leaving the first can by no means be lawful Which exception could possibly signifie nothing if in no case not of adultery a second could be maried while the first is alive And in the West Chromatius of Aquileia in Mat. V. as well as in the East Asterius Homil. an liceat dimittere uxorem the first damns him that shall mary again excepting adultery The second would have his hearers perswaded that nothing but death or adultery dissolves mariage But do I therefore say that the Church cannot forbid the innocent party to mary again or is bound by Gods law to allow it All Ecclesiastical Law being nothing but the restraining of that which Gods Law hath left indefinite And the inconveniences being both visible and horrible I conceive I am duly informed that George late Arch-bishop of Canterbury was satisfied in the proceeding of the High Commission Court to tie them that are divorced from marying again upon experience of adultery designed upon collusion to free the parties from wedlock having been formerly tender in imposing that charge The Greek Church may beter avoid such inconveniences not being tied to any Law of the Land but the tempering of the Canons remaining in the Governors of the Church But they that would not have the Lawes of the Church and the justice of the Land became Stales and pandars to such vilanies must either make adultery death and so take away the dispute or revive publick Penance and so take away the infamy of his bed and the taint of his issue that shall be reconciled to an Adulteresse or lastly bear with that inconvenience which the casualties of the world may oblige any man to which is to propose the chastity of single life in stead of the chastity of wedlock when the security of a mans conscience and the offence of the Church allows it not But though this in regard of the intricacies of the question and the inconveniences evident to practice may remain in the power of the Church yet can it never come within the power of the Church to determine that it is prejudiciall to the Christian faith to do so as by Gods Law And the Church that erres not in prohibiting mariage upon divorce for adultery will erre in determining for mater of faith that Gods law prohibites it so long as such reasons from the Scriptures are not silenced by any Tradition of the whole Church It is easie to see by S. Augustine de adulterini conjugiis II. 5-12 that publick Penance was the means to restore an adulteresse to the same reputation among Christians which an adulteresse that turned Christian must needs recover among Christians And that is the reason why the Canon of Arles orders that young Christians be advised not to mary again that their wives may be recovered of their adultery by Penance and so their mariage re-estated I see also that Justiniane Nov. CXVII hath taken order that women excessive in incontinence be delivered to the Bishop of the City to be put into a Monastery there to do Penance during life And supposing adultery to be death according to Moses Law the inconvenience ceaseth If the Civil Law inable not the Church to avoid the scandall of this collusion it is no marvail that the Church is constrained to impose upon the innocent more then Gods law requires to avoid that scandall which Gods law makes the greater inconvenience And thus having showed you that S. Austines interpretation of fornication is not true I have into the bargain showed you that it cannot serve to prove divorce upon other causes besides adultery and so the insolubility of mariage excepting our Saviours exception is as firmly proved as the consent of the Church can prove any thing in Christianity I know Origen argues that poysoning killing children robbing the house may be as destructive to the Society of Wedlock as Adultery And he thereupon seems to inferre that our Saviour excepts adultery onely for instance intending all causes equally destructive to wedlock as Grotius who follows his sense seems to limit it But Origens opinion will not interrupt the Tradition of the Church unlesse it could appear to have come into practice sometime in some part of the Church Neither would it serve his turn that would have those divorces which the secular Power allowes to extend to marying again For Origen never intended that his own opinion should bind but that it is in the power of the Church to void mariages upon other causes For he saith he knew some Governours of Churches suffer a woman to mary her former husband living Praeter Scripturam besides the Scripture And that as Moses permitted divorce to avoid a greater mischiefe But I may question whether they thought that against the Scripture which Origen thought to be against the Scripture And in the mean time as I do not see what breach his report can make upon the Tradition of the Church so it is plain the Power of the Church and not the secular did that which he reports And truly what the testimony of S. Austine extending that Adultery upon which our Saviour grants divorce to all mortall sinne but confining him that is so divorced not to mary another can avail him that would intitle the secular Power to create causes of divorce to the effect of marying again let all reason and conscience judge I shall conclude my argument Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis An exception settles the rule in all that is not excepted Either our Saviour intended that who had put away a Yoke-fellow for adultery should mary again or not If so he hath forbidden marying again upon other causes If not much more For though upon adultery he hath forbidden to mary again And thus is the Power of the Church in Matrimoniall causes founded upon the Law which our Lord Christ hath confined all Christians to of marying one to one and indissolubly whither without exception or excepting adultery For seeing that of necessity many questions must arise upon the execution of such a Law and that Civil Power may as well be enemy to Christianity as not and that as well professing to maintain it as professing to persecute it to say that God hath left the Consciences of Christians to be secured by the Civil Power submitting to what it determines is to say that under the Gospell God hath not made the observing of his lawes the condition of obtaining his promises This is that power which Tertulliane in several places expresly voucheth de Pudicitiâ cap. IV. Penes nos speaking
shall be of force to void mariage contracted afore upon wich ground the opinion which I propounded last would justifie the divorces which the Imperiall Laws make to the effect of marrying again will be a new question Seeing that if any thing bâ— to be accepted it will be in any mans power to dissolve any mariage and the law of Christ allowing no divorce but in case of adultery will be to no effect Neither will there be any cause why the same Divines should not allow the act of Justine that dissolves mariage upon consent which they are forced to disclaim allowing the rest of those causes which the Imperial Laws create Indeed whither any accident absolutely hindring the exercise of mariage and falling out after mariage may by Law become of force to dissolve it I need not here any further dispute For so the securing of any Christian mans conscience it is not the act of secular Power inacting it for Law that can avail unlesse the act of the Church go before to determine that it is not against Gods Law and therefore subject to that civil Power which is Christian The reason indeed may fall out to be the same that makes impotence of force to do it and it may fall out to be of such force that Gregory III Pope is found to have answered a consultation of Boniface of Mence in the affirmative XXXII q. VII c. Quod proposuisti But this makes no difference in the right and power of the Church but rather evidences the necessity of it For though as Cardinall Cajetane sayes the Canon Law it selfe allows that Popes may erre in determining such maters cap. IV. de divortiis c. licet de sponsa duorum which every man will allow in the decree of Deuededit Pope Epist unicâ yet the ground of both Power witnessing the Constitution of the Church as a necessary part of Christianity as it determines the true bounds of both so it allows not the conscience of a Christian to be secured by other means And were it not a strange reason of refusing the Church this Power because it may erre when it must in that case fall to the secular Powers who have no ground to pretend any probable cause of not erring For he that proceedeth in the simplicity of a Christian heart to use the means which God by Christianity hath provided for his resolution may promise himselfe grace at Gods hands even when he is seduced by that power which is not infallible But he that leans upon that warrant which God by his Christianity hath not referred him to must answer for his errors as well as the consequences of the same CHAP. XVI Of the Power of making Gouernours and Ministers of the Church Upon what ground the Hierarchy of Bishops Priests and Deacons standeth in opposition to Presbyteries and Congregations Of the Power of Confirming and the evidence of the Hierarchy which it yieldeth Of those Scriptures which seem to speak of Presbyteries or Congregations NOw are we come to one of the greatest Powers of the Church For all Societies according as they are constituted either by the act of Superiors or by the will of members are by their constitution either inabled to give themselves Governours or tied to receive them from those by whose will they subsist The Society of the Church subsisting by the will of God is partly regulated by the will of men voluntarily professing themselves Christians If God having limimited the qualities and the Powers by which his Church is to be Governed do referre the designing of persons to bear those qualities and powers to his Church it must needs appear one of the greatest points that he hath left to their choice Therefore I have made it appear from the beginning that the originall of this Power was planted by our Lord Christ in his Apostles and Disciples to whom immediately he committed the trust of propagating it And now that I may further determine within what bounds and under what terms those his immediate Commissaries did appoint it to be propagated to the end of the world I say that by their appointment the bodies of Christians contained in each City and the territory thereof is to constitute a several Church to be governed by one cheif Ruler called a Bishop with Presbyters or Priests subordinate to him for his advice and assistance and Deacons to minister and execute their appointment The said Bishops to be designed by their Clergy that is their respective Priests and Deacons with consent of neighbour Bishops ordaining them and by the assent of the people whom they are to govern I say further That the Churches of greater Cities upon which the Government of the lesse dependeth are by the same Rule greater Churches and the greatest of all the Churches of the chiefe Cities So that the chief Cities of the Christian world at the planting of Christianity being Rome Alexandria and Antiochia by consequence those were by this Rule the chief Churches and in the first place that of Rome This position excludeth in the first place that of Independent Congregations which maketh a Church and a Congregation to be all alone so that the people of each Congregation to be able first to give themselves both Laws and Governours then to govern and manage the Power of the Keyes according to Gods word that is according to that which they shall imagine to be the intent of it For whatsoever authority they allow their Ministers or Elders seeing they are created out of the people by the meer act of the people and that the consent of the People is required to inact every thing that passeth it will be too late for them to think of any authority not subordinate to the people upon whom they have bestowed the Soveraign On the other extreme this position excludeth that of the Romanists who will have the fulnesse of Ecclesiasticall Power to have been first setled upon S. Peter as sole Monarch of the Church and from him derived upon the rest of the Apostles as his Deputies or Commissaries So that the Power which other Bishops Priests and Deacons have in their respective Churches being granted by the successors of S. Peter Bishops of Rome is therefore limitable at their pleasure as no otherwise estated by divine right then because God hath setled it in S. Peter and his successors as the root and source of it Between these extremes there remain two mean opinions whereof one is the platform of the Presbyteries in which every Congregation is also a Church with a Consistory to rule it consisting of a Minister with his Lay-Elders whom now they call Triers referring to them the â—riall of those who come to communicate and Deacons Of these Congregations so many as they without Rule or Reason so farre as I know think fit to cast into one resoâ—t or division they call a Session or Class and as many of those as they please a Synod and of Synods a Province So that as the
to restore those that were fallen away in persecution contrary to the resolution of the Church which had referred it to a Council as we learn by S. Cyprian Epist XXXVIII XL. with Fortunatus a Bishop of this party betaking themselves to Rome are first refused by Cornelius but upon appearance of a party in his Church for them put him to a stand In this case S. Cyprian writing his LV. Epistle acknowledges the Church of Rome the seat of S. Peter and the principal Church whence the unity of the Priesthood was sprung but maintaines that every Bishop hath a portion of Christs flock assigned him to govern upon his account to Christ And therefore that causes are to be ended where they riâ—e and the good intelligence between Bishops ought not to be interrupted by carying causes abroad to be judged again Is not all this true supposing the case For who câ—n chuse but blame a schismaticall attempt But could any man hinder Basilides and Martialis from seeking the Church of Rome had their cause been good seeing their adverse paâ—ty did and might seek to foâ—â—ain Churches Was it not necessary to seek both to Carthage and to Rome for the freeing of the Church of Arles under Marciâ—nus from communion with the Novatians Here I conâ—eive lies the truth Some causes of necessity have recourse to the Church of Rome to wit such as necessarily concern the whole Church either in the faith or in the unity of it Such was the cause of Marcianus which could not be ended but by the same consent which cast the Novatians out of the Church Was the cause of Basilides and Martialis of the same weight was it not meerly personal and concâ—rning mater of fact whither they had indeed sacrificed to Idols or not no question remaining in point of right that such could not be Bishops yet could not the Bishops of Spain over-rule the Bishop of Rome not to receive information from the aggrievâ—d Their way was to have recourse to other Churches the consent whereof might out-way the Church of Rome together with the goodnesse of the cause And the Church of Carthage must have done the same had Felicissimus and Fortunatus found reception at Rome and credit to balâ—nce their cause against S. Cyprian and the African Church So that causes of Faith necessarily concerning the whole Church whensoever they rendâ—r the peace thereof questionable those that for their weight do not concern â—he whole will concern it when they render the peace thereof questionable And so long as Law provideth not bounds to determine what causes shall be ended at home in the parts where they rise what cause is there that may not be pretended to concern the whole and by consequence the Church of Rome which being the principal Church what cause concerning the whole can end without it He that admits not this supposition conâ—â—sting in the regular pre-eminence denying the unlimited Power of the Church of Rome over other Churches will never give a reason why recourse is alwayes had to the Church of Rome and yet if the cause require to other Churches to ballance it The unity of the Church and communion with it is the thing that is â—ought The consent of the greatest Churches that of Rome in the 〈◊〉 place is the meanes to obtain it This businesse therefore is much of kin to that of the Donatists triall under Constantine when they petitioned the secular Power that they might be heard by the Bishops of Gaul intimating the reason vvhy they declined the Bishops of Italy to be because they might be tainted with falling away or shuffling in the perâ—ecution of Diocletian which they charged their adverse party in Africk with because they expresse this for the ground of their Petition in Optatus I. that under Constantius there had been no persecution in Gaâ—l Here I must pass by the consideration of any thing that may concern the dispute between secular and Ecclesiasticall Power as not concerning this place But when Constantine by his answer assigns them for Judges the Bishops of Rome and Milane with such and such of their suffraganes joyning with them the Bishops of Collen Autun and Arles in Gaul to satisfie them it is plain that he refuses them to transgresse that respect which the constitution of the Church challenged for the Churches of Rome and Milane that such causes as concerned the unity of the Church in the Western parts of the Empire should be determined not by the Pope alone noâ— the Church of Rome alone but by the Churches of Rome and Milane as the chief Churches of that part of the Empire the Church of Rome alwayes in the first place On the other side when the Donatists not satisfied with their sentence petition the Emperour again that it may be review'd and the Emperour adjourns them for a second triall to a Council at Arles it is plain that hee allowes them not an appeal from the former sentence because many of those that were Judges in the former Synod did vote in the later Synod But it is as plain that the parties then held not the Popes judgement either alone or in Council unquestionable unlesse all were madd in pretending to give either check or strength to that sentence which was originally unquestionable If therefore a sentence given by the Pope in a Council of Italy which some Gaulish Bishops joyned thereunto might be revised in a fuller Council of Gaulish Bishops with the concurrence of many others as well Italian and Spanish to say nothing of three from Britaine the first unquestionable record of the British Churches is it not manifest that Euclids axiome that the whole is greater then any part of it takes place in the Church as well as the words of S. Jerome Orbis major est Vrbe that the world is greater then the City of Rome Surely if S. Austine Ep. CLXII say well that the Donatists might have appealed to a General Council had they been justly grieved by the sentence at Rome his saying will hold if they had been grieved by the Council of Arles though concluding the Western Church But it will hold also of the Council of Arles that it had been madnesse to call it had not the generality thereof extended to conclude the Western Church further then the former at Rome though the cause came not to it by appeal CHAP. XX. Of the constitution and authority of Councils The ground of the pre-eminences of Churches in the Romane Empire The VI. Canon of the Council of Nicaea The pre-eminence of the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople Some instances against the superiority of Bishops out of the records of the Church what offices every Order by Gods Law or by Canon Law ministreth HEre the next consideration for time being that of the Council of Nicaea the VI Canon whereof first limited by written Law the pre-eminences of Churches in the Empire having taken place by custome before I will not repeat that
neither be clear nor evident unlesse â— limite the greatness of Churches by such degrees as took place afterwards when Constantine having put the civill Government of the Empie under some Praefectis Prâ—torio whom we may call in English Masters of his Palace appointed every one of them several Lieutenants in their severall quarters As him of Gaul to speak of the West which concernâ— us most one in Britain one in Gaul and one in Spain Him of Italy one at Rome one at Milane and one at Carthage in Africk which was laid to that Government Him of the East one at Alexandria for Aegypt one at Antiochia for that quarter which was properly called the East of the Empire one at Casarsa for Pontus one at Ephesâ—s for Asia and one at Constantinople for Thrace And him of Illyricum one for the East of it at Thessalonica one for the West of it at Sirmium For every one of these Lieutenants having under his disposition a certain mass or number of Provinces and every one of these Provinces a certain chief City the seat of the civill Government as well as the chief Church of the Province and the residences of the Lieutenants themselves being the resorts of the appeals out of the Provinces the Rule of the Church remains setled by the subject of it the Churches of the Head Cities of every Diocese so theycalled that Mass of Provinces which was allotted to each Lieutenant challenging a regular pre-eminence over the Churches of the chief Cities of other Provinces as they over the Churches of ordinary Cities within the same Province But as it would be ridiculous to attribute these pre-eminences to the secular Power because it createth the civill pre-eminences of the Cities and not to the Church which presupposing the act of civill Power cast it selfe into the like foâ—m for the same rule was in force when the Empire enemy to the Church did nothing in it So I shall challenge all men that have their senses exercised to discern of such maters to judge whither all Christians could have agreed of their own heads to yeeld these pre-eminences had they not found the rule delivered them by the Apostles to require it For it is manifest that from the beginning afore Constantine there was respect had to the pre-eminence of Churches proportionably to the greatnesse of their Cities in the Government of the Empire The instances of Rome Alexandria Anâ—iochia Ephesus Corinth Thessalonica Câ—sarea Carthage Milane Lions and others as others come to be mentioned in the records of the Church not admitting any visible exception to a rule so originally so generally so evidently received Therefore as for that plea which the Church of Rome advanceth so farre beyond reason and measure of S. Peters Headship by divine right of his sitting last at Rome before at Antiochia and by his Deputy S. Mark at Alexandria as if all the Churches of Asia Africk and Europe were by this means of his lot if we take it as it sounds it will appear a contradiction to the light of common reason that the Church of Rome should have that pre-eminence by being the seat of the first Apostle to which other Churches have nothing proportionable by having been the seats of other Apostles For had there not been more in the case that which Epiphanius Haer. LXX saith That had the controversie about keeping Easter risen before the removing of the Church of Jerusalem to Pella at the beginning under the Apostles it must have resorted thither must have taken place alwayes That is the Church of Jerusalem which was at the first the seat of all the Apostles must have been for ever the chiefe Church But if we suppose that the Apostles order was the greatest Churches to be those of the greatest Cities we give a reason of the greatnesse of the Church of Rome from the priviledge not of S. Peter alone but of S. Peter as the chief Apostle and as S. Paul as him that laboured most when they upon that agreement made choice of Rome for their seat and the exercise of their Apostleship But that the Church of Alexandria the priviledges whereof never extended beyond the Diocese of the Governour of Aegypt Lieutenant in that quarter should have right over all the Churches of Africk that the Church of Antiochia the priviledges whereof were never visible beyond the Diocese of the East should have right over all the Churches of Asia by S. Peters Headship and yet Alexandria where he never sat but in and by S. Mark before Antiochia where he sat in person seven years is such a devise as nothing but prejudice and faction can make probable For the right then of summoning and ordering Councils if we speak of Provincial Councils it is manifestly in the Bishop of the Mother City which succession hath called the Archbishop If of a greater resort in the first Bishop of a Diocese called since the Primate If it were gathered out of severall Dioceses whereof we have an instance in that of Antiochia against Samosatenus out of Pontus and Asia as well as the East it is to be ascribed to the authority of the greatest and next Bishop concurring to quench the fire in their neighbour Church as Firmilianus of Caesarea and Macarius of Jerusalem were presidents in that of Antiochia For though the priviledges of the Church were setled upon the form of the Empire yet it seemeth thâ—re was alwayes an exception for that of Jerusalem as having been the Mother Church before the Rule was to take place not onely by the Canon of Nicaa which now I come to but by the act of Chalcedon which made it absolute within certain quarters utterly exempted from Antiochia by a concordate confirmed in Council The Canon of Nicaea which I spoke of is thought to have been made upon occasion of the Schism of Meletius in Aegypt which had with-drawn the Churches there from their obedience to Alexandria For it orders that the ancient rights thereof be maintained as also those of Antiochia with an exception for Jerusalâ—m saving the respect due to the Mother Sea of Caesarea because the Church of Rome also hath the like priviledge over these Churches which Ruffinâ—s in his Histories of the Church translates Suburbicarias This Translâ—tion hath occasioned many Books to show what were these Ecelesiae subâ—â—bicariae whereof it seems there are but three meanings possible There was then a â—overnour of the City of Rome to whom resorted all appeals from the Magistrates of the City and within a hundred miles all which Country being comprised in one title of Regiones suburbicariae there is an opinion that the Churches of that Precinct by the name of Ecclesiae suburbicariae were then of the Popes Jurisdiction and they alone Another conceit may be that urbs in the 〈…〉 ivative suburbicariae is opposed to Orbis and all Churches in the World â—â—bjâ—cted by the Canon to the Church of Rome as all Cities were to Rome Wâ—iâ—h â—â— for
For all Priests have by their Order the Power of the Keys and by virtue of the same of baptizing and giving the Eucharist to those whom the Laws of the Church not their private judgment admits unless it be in cases which their private judgment stands charged with And that which they shall do upon such terms is to as good effect towards God in the inward Court of Conscience as if a Bishop had done it But because there be cases that concern the unity and good estate of that particular Church whereof each man is a member others that may concern the whole others some part of the whole Church the constitution of the Church necessarily requires in â—â—â—ry Church a Power without which nothing of moment to the State thereof shall be of force in the outward Court as to the Body of the Church This the Chief Power of the Apostles this S. Pauls instructions to Timothy and Titus this the Epistle to the seven Churches this the practice of all Churches before the Reformation settles upon the Bishop And therefore I should think that I showed you a peculiar act which Bishops can do and Priests cannot if I could onely show you that according to this Rule nothing is to be done without the Bishops consent For whatsoever either Law or unreprovable custom may inable a Priest to do that hee doth by the consent of his Bishop involved in passing that Law or admitting that custom And hereof the Bishops peculiar right of sitting in Council is full evidence which if the practice of the Church could justifie nothing else would be an act peculiar to the Order of Bishops according to the premises It was an ancient Rule in the Church that a Priest should not baptize in the presence of a Bishop nor give a Bishop the Eucharist To show that it is by his leave that hee acts as Tertullian saith of the right of Baptizing de Bapt. cap. XVII So the Canons which allow not a Priest to restore him to the communion that had done publick Penance in the face of the Church require the consent of the Bishop to acts that concern the Body of it That ancient author that writ de VII Ordinibus Ecclesiae among S. Jeromes works reckons divers particulars some whereof hee complains that the Bishops where hee lived did not suffer the Priests to do Doth hee therefore make Bishops and Priests all one Certainly hee speaks my sense and my terms when hee sayes the Bishop is the Priests Law That Bishops in Council give Law to the Clergy as well as the people out of Council that which is not otherwise determined nothing but his Order can determine And this is the ground of the difference between the Power of Order and the Power of Jurisdiction comparing the Bishop and Presbyters of one and the same Church one with another For the Order of Priesthood importing the Power of the Keys in baptizing in binding and loosing in the invvard court in giving the Eucharist it is plain there is a Power of Order common to both But the use of it without limiting any due bounds at the discretion of every Priest would be destructive to the Unity of the Church which I suppose That Power therefore which provideth those limitations according to vvhich the common povver of the Keys is lawfully exâ—râ—ised whether it be properly called Jurisdiction or not is necessary to the being of every Church even by the common Power of the Keys upon which the foundation of the Church standeth I can therefore allow the said author to complain that Priests in his partâ— were not suffred to do those acts which in the Fast in Illyricum in Africk they did do For all those parts were governed by Synods of Bishops But I allow not his argument Because a Priest can celebrate the Eucharist which is more It is more to the salvation of those that receive toward which the Eucharist immediately worketh no less if a Priest than if a Bishop give it But it is not so much to the Body of the Church as to excommunicate or to restore him that is excommunicate That therefore some offices may be done by both and that according to the order of the ancient Church is no argument that both are one but that it is no prejudice to the Chief Power of the Bishop that they are done by a Priest Let Confirmation be the instance for our author instances in it Certainly there never was so great necessity for it as since all are baptized infants For it expresly renueth the Covenant of Baptism not onely in the conscience between God and the soul but as to the Body of the Church implying an acknowledgment of the obligation then contracted And of the Church to which this acknowledgment is rendred For hee that desires baptism of the Church at years of discretion desireth it upon those terms which the Church tendreth And therefore hee who is baptized an infant and afterwards confirmed submitteth to the same terms in his own person which hee could not do when hee was baptized It is not therefore said That none can be saved that is not confirmed For let him observe the rule of Christianity and that within the Unity of the Church and hee wants nothing necessary to the common salvation of Christians But how effectual a means the solemnity of this profession might be to oblige a man to his Christianity and to the Unity of the Church let reason judg Now S. Hierome saith most truly that this office is reserved to the Bishop for the preserving of Unity in the Church by maintaining him in his prerogative But is that an argument that his prerogative is not original but usurped To me it is not who acknowledg the Eucharist of a Priest as effectual to the inward man as that of a Bishop the difference between them standing in reference to the visible Body of the Church Our author acknowledgeth the same that S. Hierome advers Luciferianos teacheth Demanding onely that it may be lawfull for Priests to consecrate the Chrism which they confirmed with in case of necessity which hee saith was done in many Churches and protesting not to impose Law on the Bishop vvho saith hee is Law to the Priest The supposed S. Ambrose says that in Egypt Priests did confirm in the Bishops absence It is no news that Gregory the Great alloweth Priests to confirm in Sardinia Epist III. 26. for Durandus hath made him an Heretick for it in IV. Dist VII Quaest IV. and Adriane himself afterwards Pope Quaest de Confirm in IV. art ult yields thereupon that a Pope may â—rr in determing mater of Faith And the Instruction of the Armenians by Eugenius IV. in the Council of Florence acknowledges it had been done by Priests the Chrism being consecrated by the Bishop afore The limitations of necessity of the Bishops absence of Chrism consecrated by the Bishop import his allowance and that his prerogative Though as the case is now
is easily seen extendeth further then those Psalms which by the Titles of them or by other circumstance of Scriptures may appear to have been composed to be sung in the Temple though this contain a peremptory instance against this strange demand that it should be unlawful to serve God with set forms For what difference can be imagined between Psalms and Prayers as to that purpose But the conclusion is directed against that new light which pretendeth to cast the Psalms out of the Church because it appeareth that they were composed upon the particular occasions of the Prophet David or other servants of God by whom they were penned and therefore not concerning the state of Christs Church so as to be frequented by Christians upon publick as well as private occasions for the praises of God This conceit is sufficient to show how litle these new lights do understand of our common Christianity over-looking that which the Church hath alwayes supposed against the Jews as the onely ground whereupon she wresteth the Scriptures of the Old Testament out of their hands and turneth them to the interest of the Church against themselves To wit that the Prophets being inspired by the same spirit which our Lord sent his Apostles did preach the same Christianity with them though according to the dispensation of that time figuring the spiritual estate of Christians by the temporall estate of Gods then people and injoyning the duties of Gods spiritual obedience in a measure correspondent to the light of the time For upon this ground hath it been received by the whole Church that the case of David and of other the servants of God who penned the Psalms is the case first of our Lord Christ then of Christs Church whitheâ— in the whole thereof or in the state of particular Christians David and the rest bearing first the person of Christ then of his Church according to the principles premised in the first Book I might here allege that ingenious saying of S. Hilary that Christ hath the Key of David because the spiritual sense of the Pâ—â—lter is opened by the discovery of Christ and his Church I might allege S. Austine accepting of Tychonius the Donatist his rules for the exposition of the Psalmes that those things which are literally understood of the temporall state of David and Gods then people are to be spiritually understood of the state of our Lord Christ here on earth first then of the spiritual estate of his whole Church and of each Christian But I had rather allege the practice of of Gods whole Church of which there is no age no part to be named and produced in which it may appear that God was not served by singing the Psalms of David to his praise Not that I would confine this office to that form which the Psalter yeelds or think that the Apostles exhortations Col. III. 16. James V. 13. Ephes 19. can be confined unto them Being well assured by comparing that which I read in the Apostles whith that which I read in Tertullians Apologetick where he saith that the Christians at their feasts of love were wont to provoke one another to sing something of Gods praises that they did in a simple stile but from a deep and losty sense compose the praises of God in Psalms of their own fitted to that light which the coming of Christ hath brought into the Church But that I would have this lothing of the Book of Psalms recommended not by the Church of England but by the whole Church to be taken for an evident mark that we are weary of the common Christianity of Gods people and do lust for new meat of our own asking if not for the fleshpots and Onyons and Garlicke of Egypt As for the reading of the Scriptures in the Church which the whole Church hath used as generally as it hath had the Scriptures for we understand by Irenaeus and may see by our ancestors the Saxons that Christianity hath subsisted among people that had not not the use of leters Though our anceflors the Saxons had the Scriptures before they had the use of leters by the means of them who brought them Christianity But Irenaeus speaks of barbarous Nations that were Christians before they knew of any Scriptures I see it rather neglected then disputed against by the sects of this time Why neglected divers reasons may be conceived though they perhaps as a disparagement to the Spirit whence they may pretend to have their Orders the carnall man onely chusing in Religion that which by the use of reason he is convinced to come from God contrary to the principles setled at the beginning think fit to allege none Their illuminati perhaps are already so perfit in the Text that it were loss of time for them to assemble to hear the Scriptures read To whom I must say That those who are inlightned by God are alwayes humble and ready to continue in the unity of the Church as I have showed by the premises that all Christians ought to do That if they do so the greater part of the Church by much will have need to learn the Scriptures that â—is instruction out of them by hearing them read in the Church That all that are inlightned by God are taught to condescend to the necessities of the weak and simple And that those who break from the Church rather then do so may think themselves strong but their strength is the strenth of Madmen that see not what they do In fine that they who have received light by the knowledge of the Scriptures must needs add to their light by hearing them read and that there is no beter way for them to add to it being the way which the primitive Fathers took for that purpose It may perhaps be imagined that the reading of the Scriptures takes up the time of assemblies and excludes the preaching of the Word To which I must say for the present that it is a strange piece of providence to exclude the reading of the Scripture which we know to be the word of God and to have in it no cause of offence but that which the want of understanding in the hearers thereof ministreth out of a desire to make way for that which pretendeth indeed always to be the word of God but no understanding so simple no conscience so seared that must not needs know that it is not that it cannot always be the word of God because of the contradictions that pass under that Title And that in maters of so high nature at this time that if the one be the word of God the other must not be counted the word of humane weakness but of diabolical malice There are indeed certain bounds within which that which is preached out of the Pulpit may be presumed and taken for the word of God as it might be if it were said in another place But if ignorant people that cannot take upon them to judge shall presume it of that
a prejudice peremptorily over-ruling all the pety exceptions that our time hath produced to dissolve this Unity which ought to have been preferred before them had they been just and true as none of them proveth CHAP. XXIV The Service of God to be prescribed in a known Language No pretense that the Latine is now understood The means to preserve Unity in the Church notwithstanding The true reason of a Sacrifice inforceth Communion in the Eucharist What occasions may dispense in it Communion in both kindes commanded the People Objections answered Who is chargeable with the abuse I Would now make one Controversie more how much soever I pretend to abate Controversies than hitherto hath been disputed between the Reformation and the Church of Rome because though wee hear not of it in our books of Controversies yet in deed and in practice it is the most visible difference between the exercice of Religion in the two professions that you can name For what is it that men go to Church for but to hear a Sermon on one side and to hear a Mass on the other side And yet among so many books of Controversies who hath disputed whether a man is rather to go to Church to hear a Sermon or not to hear a Mass but to receive the Eucharist This is the reason indeed why I dispute not this Controversie because the Mass should be the Eucharist but by abuses crept in by length of time is become something else untill I can state the question upon such terms as may make the reason of Reformation visible Whether the celebration of the Eucharist is to be done in a Language which the people for the most part understand not in Latine as the Mass supposing the most part understand it not is first to be setled before wee inquire what it is that Christians chiefly assemble themselves for Though the question concerns not the Eucharist any more than the other offices of Gods publick Service onely as the Eucharist if it prove the principal of them is principally concerned in it I am then to confesse in the beginning that those of the Church of Rome have a strong and weighty objection against mee why they ought not to give way that the Service of the Church though in a form preseribed by the Church as I require should be celebrated in the Vulgar Languages which every people understand The objection is drawn from that which wee have seen come to pass For the Service of the Church the form and terms of it being submitted to the construction of every one because in English hath given occasion to people utterly unable to judg either how agreeable maters excepted against are to Christianity or how necessary the form to the preservation of unity in the Church first to desire a change then to seek it in a way of fact though by dissolving the Unity of this Church For hee that maintains as I do that whatsoever defects the form established may have are not of waight to perswade a change in case of danger to Unity And secondly that those who have attempted the change have not had either the lot or the skill to light upon the true defects of it but to change for the worse in all things considerable must needs affirm that otherwise they could never have had the means to possess mens fansies with those appearances of reason for it which have made them think themselves wise enough to undertake so great a change And truly there is nothing so dangerous to Christianity as a superficial skill in the Scriptures and maters of the Church Which may move them that are puffed up with it to attempt that for the best which it cannot inable them for to see that so it is indeed Whereas they who hold no opinion in maters above their capacity because concerning the state of the whole are at better leisure to seek their salvation by making their benefit of the order provided Seeing then it cannot be denied that the benefit of having the Service of God prescribed by the Church in our Vulgar English hath occasioned so great a mischief as the destruction of it it seems the Church of Rome hath reason to refuse children edge tools to cut themselves with in not giving way to the publick Service of God in the Vulgar Languages Unless it could be maintained that no form ought to be prescribed which is all one as to say that there ought to be no Church in as much as there can be no Unity in the Faith of Christ and the Service of God according to the same otherwise Now that you may judg what effect this objection ought to have wee must remember S. Pauls dispute upon another occasion indeed but from the same grounds and reasons which are to be alleged for the edification of the Church in our case God had stirred up many Prophets in the Church of Corinth together with those who celebrated the mysteries of Christianity in unknown Languages and others that could interpret the same in the Vulgar partly out of an intent to manifest to the Gentiles and Jews his own presence in his Church including and presupposing the truth of Christianity but partly also for the instruction of the people novices in Christianity for a great part in the truth of it and for the celebration of those Offices wherewith hee is to be served by his Church It came to pass that divers puffed up with the conceit of Gods using them to demonstrate his presence among his people took upon them to bring forth those things which the Spirit of God moved them to speak in unknown Languages at the publick assemblies of the Church Who might indeed admire the work of God but could neither improve their knowledg in his truth nor exercice their devotion in his praises or those prayers to him which were uttered in an unknown Language This is that which the Apostle disputeth against throughout the fourteenth Chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians making express mention of Prayers Blessings which I have showed to be the consecration of the Eucharist and Psalms ver 14-17-26 and concluding v. 27 28. that no man speak any thing in the Church though it be that doctrine those prayers or praises of God which his own Spirit suggesteth unless there be some body present that can interpret Which what case can there fall out for the Church which it reacheth not For you see S. Paul excludeth out of the Church even the dictates of Gods Spirit evidencing his presence in the Church by miraculous operations unless they may be interpreted for the edification and direction of the Church What can hee then admit for the Service of God in the name of his Church or for the instruction thereof which it can neither be instructed by nor offer unto him for his service Nay what cause can there be why the Church should meet according to S. Paul if there be nothing done that is understood What
people by virtue of the meer act of assisting at the Sacrifice which hath been called opus operaetum or the very external work done without consideration without knowledge without any intention of doing that which he is to do in it that is of concurring every one for his share to the doing of the same Supposing alwayes that this Sacrifice consists in substituting the Body and Blood of Christ to be bodily present under the accidents of the elements the substance of them being abolished and ceasing to be there any more And not in offering and presenting the sacrifice of Christ crucified here now represented by this Sacrament unto God for obtaining the benefits of his passion in behalfe of his Church And this opinion I may safely say I know to be still maintained because I have heard it maintained though as I suppose by the more licentious and ignorant sort of Priests that it concerns not the people to consider to know to intend to joyn their devotions to the effecting of that which this Sacrament pretends But onely to mind their own Prayers assisting and accompanying that which the Priest doth with those affections which they came to Church with But can I therefore say that this is the doctrine of that Church because it allows such things to be taught and said without punishment or disgrace Surely he that peruses not onely the Testimonies which Doctor Field hath produced in the Appendix alleged afore to show that the true understanding of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist was maintained in the Church even till the Reformation together with the opinions of many Divines of credit in that Church and instructions of Catechisms and devotions that have been published since the Council of Trent shall easily conclude that it is allowed though not injoyned by the Church to oppose this palliating of abuses in the Church by opinions so prejudiciall to Christianity And without doubt those who pretend no more then to excuse the Church in not reforming the abuse of private Masses by saying that the Church commands them not nor forbids any man to communicate at any time but rather exhorts them to it are farr from saying that the people are no further concerned in the Mass then to assist it with their bodily presence and the generall good intentions affections which they come to Church with imploying themselvs in the mean time at their own devotions Though it is much to be feared that this opinion is farr the more popular The opposition which the Reformation hath occasioned and the countenance given by the Sea of Rome to those who are the most zealous and extreme in opposing the Hereticks bearing down the indeavours of more conscientious Priests to maintain more Christian opinions in the minds of their people In the mean time it is visible that the resolution of this point dependeth upon the true reason of offering the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross in celebrating the Sacrament of the Eucharist Which I have showed to consist in presenting unto God the Sacrifice of Christ crucified represented here now by the elements sacramentally changed by the act of consecrating into the body and blood of Christ by those Prayers whereby the Congregation which celebrateth this Sacrament intercedeth with God for their own necessities and the necessities of his Church For if the virtue and efficacy of these Prayers be grounded upon nothing else then the fidelity of the Congregation in standing to the Covenant of Baptism as if Christianity be true it consists in nothing else and if the celebration of the Eucharist be the profession of fidelity and perseverance in it what remaineth but that the efficacy of the Sacrifice depend upon the receiving of the Eucharist unlesse the efficacy and virtue of Christian mens Prayers can depend upon their perseverance in that Covenant which they refuse to renew and to professe perseverance in it that profession being no lesse necessary then the inward intention of persevering in the same For the receiving of the Eucharist is no lesse expresly a renewing of the Covenant of Baptism then being baptized is entering into it So that whosoever refuses the Communion of the Eucharist in as much as he refuses it refuses to stand to the Covenant of his Baptisme whereby he expects the world to come I say not therefore that whosoever communicates not in the Eucharist so oft as he hath means and opportunity to do it renounces his Christianity either expresly or by construction and consequence For how many of us may be prevented with the guilt of sinne so deeply staining the conscience that they cannot satisfie themselves in the competence of that conversion to God which they have time and reason and opportunity to exercise before the opportunity of communicating how many have need of the authority of the Church and the power of the Keys not onely foâ— their satisfaction but for their direction in washing their wedding Garments white again How many are so distracted and oppressed with businesse of this world that they cannot upon all opportunities retire their thoughts to that attention and devotion which the office requires How many though free of business which Christianity injoyneth are intangled with the cares and pleasures of the world though not so farr as to depart from the state of Grace yet further then the renewing of the Covenant of Grace importeth Be it therefore granted that there is a great allowance to be made in exacting the Apostolical Rule for all that are present to communicate But be it likewise considered what a pitifull excuse it is in behalfe of the Church that it forbiddeth no man to communicate that is prepared as the rules thereof require subsisting for no other purpose but to procure the people thereof to be prepared for the service of God whereof the principal part is this office But when it is further allowed to be taught and said that it concerns not Gods people to assist the office of the Church with their actuall intentions and devotions but with their bodily presence and the generall affection which they bring with them to Church what reason can be alleged why they should go to Church to cary those affections to the Congregations which are exercised at home with their particular devotions to the same purpose Nay to what purpose subsisteth the Communion of the Church if it subsist not in order to the service of God in the publick Assembly of his people the chief office whereof is taught to be of that nature that the presence of a Christian is of no effect to the purpose of it Or what reason can be alleged why the parts of Christendom should not provide for themselves by restoring the primitive practice of Christianity without the consent of the whole forbidding them to provide for themselves but not providing for them in maters so grossely and palpably concerning our common Christianity But having cautioned that the service of God and the Eucharist be in a language
Wisdome XIV 14-17 When a Prince hving lost a deare Son causeth the image of him to be made for his comfort and remembrance of him which is propagated by the honour done to his image Not that he meanes that all idolatry came from this beginning for certainely it would have been utterly senselesse to have expected this from men possessed of the beliefe of one true God till that time But because this might become the beginnig of that Idolatry that was performed to the deceased among those who having once admitted the beliefe of more Gods then one and in particular worshiping dead men could give no reason why they should doe lesse for them then for others And if it were posible for the Devil to induce men to worship the creature for God it is not strange that by pretended apparitions revelations and miracles don about these statues or Images he should maintain in them a belief of the presence of that imaginary deitie which they intended thereby to represent record in the statue or image which must needs be a powerfull meanes to multiply those ceremonies and solemnities wherewith they pretended to honour the Deity there inclosed Certainely for this reason it was that among the Greeks and Romans the consecrating of a Temple was the setting up and dedicating in it the statue of that Deity in honor whereof it was built So you see it every foot in Pausanias and in the life of Alexander Severus it is related for a singularity of Adrians curiosity in following all Religions that he built in every City a Temple without any statue in it which he had intended for our Lord Christ had he not been advised that all the world would turne Christians if he should take that course And though it is rather thought that Adrian indeed did intend them for Temples to himselfe yet still that holds which the history addeth Quae hodie idcirco quia non habent numina dicuntur Hadriani That they are called Adrians because they have no Godhead Which the Heathen believed them to have so soone as the statue of that God was set up whose the Temple was to be And this is not questioned that Alexander Severus intended that our Lord Christ should be worshiped as one of their Gods which would have made him as much an Idole as their Gods as the same Emperour did indeed worshiping as wel Christ and Abraham as the deified Emperours Orpheus or Achilles among his closet Gods as his life relateth Thus much is to be noted that Maimoni where he relateth the beginning of Idolatry as I alleaged afore acknowledgeth that it was mightily promoted by revelations apparitions miracles pretended to be done by the stars or elements of the world at such monuments of their presence as had been provided Which since Gods truth imputeth to the Devill the worship of these creatures was no lesse the worship of the Devill then sacrifices offered to the dead And all this is further confirmed by the Idolatry of Magicians which for Balaams sake I hold unquestionable For having showed before that Balaam though he knew there was a God which was able to defeat all his witchcraft did neverthelesse addresse himselfe to his familiars by offering sacrifices to obtain of them the cursing of Israel which he knew could not be obtained without the leave of their God whom he acknowledgeth under the same name which his people never conmunicated to any besides shall it seeme strange that people weary of their Christianity because it easeth them not of the little discontentments of their estate in this world which they meet with should either formally or by due construction renounce the benefit of it by contracting for some curiosities which they desire but their Christianity hath appointed them no meanes to procure Or that renouncing God and Christ in the same maner and degree as they contract for those things they should translate the honor which the little Religion that can allow such a contract leaves in him that cannot deny a God and yet serves him thus unto the Devile from whom they expect their desires Especially the experience of all nations Christians Jewes and Pagaus acknowledging those acts which themselves though worshippers of Deviles counted unlawfull because upon contracts tending to the mischiefe of mankind And the evidence of the Sabbaths and solemnities of witches in these times of Christianity being no way to be baffled by such reasons as â—end to take away all reason for the punishing of witches which the Law of Moses establisheth Though nothing hinder the alleging of such as may make men wary what evidence they accept in cases more private and secret In the life of Pythagoras by Jamblichus Cap XXIIX there are divers and sundry feates of his doing reported which to Christians that know the difference between cleane and uncleane spirits cannot see in to have been don otherwise then by familiarity with uncleane spirits Which he might easily learne by his travels among the Egyptians and Caldeans Nations among whom as well Magick as Idolatry had been both bred and advanced if we believe either the scriptures or the writings of Pagans as well as of Christians And truly it is manifest that the being and office of Angels about God was knowne to him and to his followers but without any distinction between the good and the bad which the scripture onely teacheth Which is also to be seen in the writings of Plato where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is never taken in any ill sense as necessarily it is by all them who acknowledge Apostate Angels Neither is it possible for any Christian to make any other interpretation of that familiar which Socrates in Plato affirmeth that he was alwaies attended with called Socrates his Daemon or Genius then of a deceiving sâ—irit unlesse it could stand with Christianity to believe that God granted the assistance of his spirit or Angels to Pagans and that so constant as is not to be found of any of his prophets It is true indeed that there are many things in Plato which learned men doe compare and reduce to the rule of the Christian Faith concerning the Holy Trinity blessed for ever more But he that compares The mind of God the Word of God the Idea of God the Spirit of God the Wisdome of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Plato delivereth with that Fulnesse of the Godhead that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Saturninus and Basilides propounded to be worshipped by their followers in Ireneus and Epiphanius considering withall that the Angels which are not distinguished from God by Plato according to that infinite distance which is to be acknowledged between God and his creatures were by most sects of the Gnosticks admitted into that Fulnesse of the Godhead which the severall sects of them worshiped will have reason to believe the Fathers of the Church when they make the Philosophers the Patriarches of the Hereticks And that the
driven out of paradise If you call the same Jerusalem it will appeare why the place of the damned is called Gehenna which was the place without Jerusalem where those that were sacrificed to the Idoles of Canaan were consumed with horrible tortures of fire The Scripture of the old Testament yeeldeth not the name but the true interpretation of it In the meane time though our Lord by carying the thiefe into Paradise show that it continues not shut yet continues it no lesse secret no better knowne then it is knowne where Adam first dwelt It is strange that the bosome of Abraham should signifie the same He is acknowledged the Father of the faithfull by Jewes as well as Christians His hospitality is recounted in the scripture The kingdome of God which his people then expected is proposed by our Lord in dâ—vers passages of the Gospell under the figure of an entertainement as an expression then familiar to his people It is no marvaile that it should be called Abrahams bosome from whom the faith that purchaseth it hath so eminent a beginning though the Fathers before Abraham be there One thing we must note A vast gap wee see between it and the flames where Dives was tormented But where the partition is fixed so little is determined by the words of the scripture that whether both within the earth or one within the earth the other in the heavens or whether both without this visible world as of the place of the damned some argue with great probability from the darkenesse that is without in the Gospell no rule of â—aith determines And therefore whether the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the parable useth Luke XVI 23. when the rich man lifts up his eyes in Hell and sees Lazarus in Abrahams bosome whether it comprehend the bosome of Abraham as well as the place of torments no Rule of faith determineth For as it manifestly signifyeth the place of the damned in the scripture which it is manifest Gods people must needs distinguish by the scripture is the place where they were sure by the scripture that God would punish his and their enemies So comprehending also the place of righteous soules nor distinguished from the other to Gods people by the ancient scriptures how should the signification of it be restrained here For as the Hethen so Josephus also manifestly extendeth it to the place of righteous as well as wicked soules after death For when he saies that de Bello Jud. II. 12. the Saduces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and rewards of the World to come under the one name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he comprises both estates which the rest of Gods people attributed then to good and bad The Pharises he saies Antiq. XVIII 2. maintaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishments and honors under the earth And that as it followeth for ever which is as much as if he had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because those things which were thought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things under the earth Again of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And agreeing with the Greekes they affirme that good soules are assigned a seate beyond the Ocean in a place not grieved with raine or snow or heate but alwaies refreshed with a milde West wind blowing from the Ocean But the evill ones they assigne a darke and stormy nooke full of torments without ceasing And yet in an other place he saith they assigne them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most holy place of the Heavens So little ground is there for the distinct signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense of those to whom our Lord spoke It behoveth us therefore to acknowledge the victory of our Lord Christ and his triumph over the Devill and all the damned which S. Paul as in the text quoted out of the Epâ—stle to the Ephesians he ascribeth to the Ascension of our Lord according to the Psalme which he alleageth so Col. II. 15. to the Crosse when he saith Spoiling principalities and powers he made open show of them triumphing over them in it by it or upon it to wit his Crosse to which he had said just afore that he nayled the hand writing which was against us This victory and triumph belongs to the rule of faith and the beliefe of it to the substance of Christianity because by vertue of it we have reconciliation with God and the rest of that which the Gospell promiseth But that it should be performed by the descent of Christs soule into the place of the damned being begun upon the Crosse and finished at the ascension as the necessity of our redemption requireth not so no Rule of Faith will oblige to believe There is great appearance that the devil did not understand the effect of it till our Lord rose againe as Ignatius saith that he understood not the the birth of the blessed Virgine Pilates Wives dream is a signe that doubting of the consequence he would have hindred that which by Judas he did procure He thought himself Lord of mankind because for sin they were condemned to death That by the death of Christ this condemnation was to be voided possibly he might not understand till Christ rose againe Though the soules of the Fathers were delivered out of his Power before the death of Christ yet might he not understand that by virtue of it Our Lord saith John XIV 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Because he found nothing of his owne that is of sinne in Christ Though he had nothing to do with Christ in justice seeing in deed he had meanes to swallow him and might not know that the swallowing of him would oblige him to render his interest in all that should escape with him is it a marvaile that he swallowed him being a murtherer from the beginning Thus farre I have owned the reason of our redemption against Socinus Which if it be true the victory of Christ was declared that is the triumph begunne at his rising againe And therefore it is no way prejudiciall to the common Faith which I know some have imagined that our Lord Christ having been in Paradise with the good thiefe or in the bosome of Abraham with Lazarus till Easter day morning when he was to rise againe went from thence in his humane soul to the place of the damned to declare to the devil that by laying violent hands on him who had not sinned he had lost not onely the Fathers but all that should believe at the preaching of the Gospel For herein the triumph of his victory upon the Crosse consisteth But the substance of this ceremony being so fully provided for by the death of his Crosse and by his riâ—ing againe in virtue of it that he who believeth it not should be thought to come short of believing all that which it is necessary to salvation to believe seemeth to me
answer to the Jesuites Challenge Pag. 308-326 that the spoiling of Hell is attributed by the Fathers to the rising of our Lord Christ from the grave whereby the law of death was voided Which if it be true what Tradition can there remaine in the Church that our Lord Christs soule should harrow hell and ransacke it of the soules of the Fathers there detained or in the Verge of it Saint Basil de Sp. S. cap. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How then do we go down to Hell aright Imitating the buriall of Christ by Baptisme For the bodies of these who are Baptized are as it were buried in the water Saint Chrysostome in 1 ad Cor. Hom XL. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For to be baptized and first to sink then come up againe is an Embleme of going down into Hell and coming up againe And truly if the force of Christs death in voiding the dominion of death stood by the merit of his sufferings Then was the descent of his flesh into the grave of force to that effect without any descent further of his soul into the lower parts thereof And if the death of Christ and his continuing in death for the time that God had appointed was declared by God to be accepted by him to that effect then was his rising from death his triumph over hell and death whereby the title of his rising againe being declared it must needs appear that neither death nor hell nor the devil hath any more interest in Christians Nor is it so strange that the descent of Christ into hell should be mentioned by the Apostles Creed after his buriall if it signify not the descent of his soul as it would be that it should be left out of other Creeds if it did signify that it is necessary to the salvation of all so to believe For neither is it expressed in the Creed of Nicaea or Constantinople nor was it found in that which the Church of Rome or that which the Churches of the East used saith Ruffinus upon the Creed who notwithstanding expoundeth it because the Church of Aquileia which he belonged to used it Which had the signification of it been a distinct truth necessary to the salvation of all to be believed the Churches could by no meanes have connived at one another in not delivering it And truly seeing the dominion of death intimating the second death to which those who belong not to the New Testament are accursed is signified in the Old Testament by going under the earth The signification of going down into Hell in the Creed can by no meanes be thought superfluous though our Lord neither went thither to rescue the Fathers soules nor to triumph over the Powers of darknesse For as thereby the common curse from whence we are redeemed so is also the reason and meanes of our deliverance from it intimated And seeing there is appearance from that which hath been said that the divell himself did not understand the secret of Gods intent to dissolve his interest in mankind by the death of Christ untill it appeared by what right our Lord resumed his body which he had Laid downe this being declared in the other world by his rising again and in signe thereof the soules of the saints that slept rising againe with him and resuming their bodies there is no reason why the mention of his resurrection following immediately upon the descent into Hell in the Creed should not sufficiently expresse that triumph which this declaration importeth Which triumph being effected by the Godhead though in his flesh it will be no marvaile to meet with some sayings of the Fathers that ascribe it to his Godhead Now the common doctrine of the Schoole maketh it no matter of Faith to believe the descent of Christs soule into that Hell where the damned were but onely to the Verge of it where the souls of the Fathers were It is enough with them that the effect of this Power reached to the place of the damned Cardinall Bellarmine when he published his controversies held it probable that the soul of Christ descended to the place of the damned But upon better consideration in the review of them thinks that the other opinion of Thomas and the rest of the Schoole is to be followed And yet it is not possible to distinguish between this Verge and the lowest hell by any Tradition of the Church Nay Durandus goes so farre out of their rode as to maintaine that the soul of Christ went not to hell that is to Lymbus but onely by the effect of it in making the soules of the Fathers happy Which is in my opinion declaring to them the reason of their happinesse And the opinion of Suarez the Jesuite is remarkable That taking an Article of Faith for a truth necessary for the salvation of all Christians to be known the descent of Christ into hell is no Article of Faith For that is not very necessary for single Christians to know And for that cause perhaps it is not in the Nicene Creed which whoso believeth believes enough to save him And that perhaps for this cause some Fathers expounding the Creed to the People make no mention of it In III. Disput XLIII Sect. II. and IV. I may adde for the advantage of my opinion That if it be not necessary for single Christians to believe much lesse is it necessary for the Church as a body to believe it For those things which the Church believeth as a body it imposeth to be believed upon them who are of the body But it cannot be reasonable for the Church as a body to impose upon the members thereof the beliefe of that which it is not necessary to their salvation as single Christians to believe And therefore allowing the conscientiousnesse of S. Augustine who having presumed that he who believes not the descent is no Christiane doubts not that by the descent as many were delivered as Gods secter justice thought fit Epist XCIX And of Saint Jerome in Eph. II. allowing some work of God to be managed by it which we understand no more then what good our Lords death did the good Angels I allow also the reservedness of those of the Confession of Auspurg or of Suisse who acknowledging the literall sense of this Article find not themselves bound to maintaine for what reason it was I am not offended with those in the Church of England that assigne the triumph of our Lord for the reason of it But believing with Saint Gregory Nyssene in Pascha Resurrect Christi Epist ad Eustath that our Lord by the descent of his body into the grave abolished him that had the power of death by his soul made way for the thiefe into Paradise where it self was count this enough for the salvation of all Christians to be believed And therefore that the Church cannot impose upon them as the necessary meanes of their salvation to believe any more I do not intend to say much more
the acts of them that teach these prayers the acts of the Church because it tolerates them and maintaines them in it in stead of casting them out it would be hard to free that Church from Idolatrie which whoso admitteth can by no meanes grant it to be a Church the being whereof supposeth the worship of one God exclusive to any thing else But the words of them are capable of the same limitation that I gave to the words of our Lord when I said that they whom Christians do good to here may be said to receive them into everlasting habitations because God does it in consideration of them and of the good done them And so when Irenaeus calls the Virgine Mary the advocate of Eve V. 19. he that considers his words there and III. 33. shall find that he saith it not because she prayed for her but because she believed the Angels message and submitted to Gods will and so became the meanes of saving all though by our Lord Christ who pleadeth even for her as well as for Eve Ground enough there is for such a construction even the belief of one God alone that stands in the head of our Creed which we have no reason to thinke the Church allowes them secretly to renounce whom she alloweth to make these prayers And therefore no ground to construe them so as if the Church by allowing them did renounce the ground of all her Christianity But not ground enough to satisfie a reasonable man that all that make them do hold that infinite distance between God and his saints and Angels of whom they demand the same effects which if they hold not they are Idolaters as the Heathen were who being convinced of one Godhead as the Fathers challenge to their faces divided it into one principall and divers that by his gift are such How shall I presume that simple Christians in the devotions of their hearts understand that distance of God from his creatures which their words signify not which the wisest of their teachres will be much troubled to say by what figure of speech they can allow it Especially if it be considered how little reason or interest in religion there can be to advance the reverence of Christian people towards the Saints or Angels so farre above the reason and ground which ought to be the spring-head of it For so farre are we from any Tradition of the Catholicke Church for this that the admonition of Epiphanius to the Collyridians takes-hold of it Haer. LXXIX For they also would have been Christians being a sort of women in Arabia who in imitation of the Eucharist offered to the Virgine Mary and communicated Therefore Epiphanius reproves them by the Custome of the Church that no such thing was ever done in the Church as well as by the ground of Christianity that Christians worship onely one God This admonition then takes hold though not of the Church yet of the prayers which it alloweth signifying the same with their oblations So doth the admonition of Saint Ambrose in Rom. I. to them who reserve nothing to God that they give not to his servants So doth that of Saint Augustine de vera Rel. Cap. LV. that our religion is not to consist in worshipping the dead And that an Angel forbad S. John to worship him but onely God whose fellow-servants they were So doth the argument of S. Gregory Nyssene contra Eunom IV. and Athanasius contra Arian III. concluding our Lord to be God because he is worshipped which Cornelius was forbid by Saint Peter Saint John by the Angel to do to them saith Athanasius In fine so dangerous is the case that whoso communicateth in it is no way reasonably assured that he communicateth not in the worship of Idols Onely the Church of England having acknowledged the Church of Rome a true Church though corrupt ever since the Reformation I am obliged so to interpret the prayers thereof as to acknowledge the corruption so great that the prayers which it alloweth may be Idolatries if they be made in that sense which they may properly signify But not that they are necessarily Idolatries For if they were necessarily Idolatries then were the Church of Rome necessarily no Church The being of Christianity presupposing the worship of one true God And though to confute the Heretickes the stile of moderne devotions leaves nothing to God which is not attributed to and desired of his Saints Yet it cannot be denied they may be the words of them who believe that God alone can give that which they desire The second sort it is confessed had the beginning in the flourishing times of the Church after Constantine The lights of the Greek and Latine Church Basil Nazianzene Nyssene Ambrose Jerome Augustine Chrysostome Cyrils both Theodoret Fulgentius Gregory the Great Leo more or rather all after that time have all of them spoken to the Saints departed and desired their assistance But neither is this enough to make a Tradition of the Church For the Church had been CCC years before it began Irenaeus is mistaken when he is alledged for it as I said even now Cardinall Bellarmine alleges out of Eusebius de Praeparat XIII 10. Vota ipsis facimus We make our prayers to them But the Greek beares onely We make our prayers to God at their monuments Athanasius de sanctissima deipara whom he quotes is certainly of a later date then Athanasius Out of S. Hillary I see nothing brought nor remember any thing to be brought to that purpose In fine after Constantine when the Festivalls of the Saints being publickly celebrated occasioned the confluence of Gentiles as well as Christians and innumerable things were done which seemed miracles done by God to attest the honour done them and the truth of Christianity which it supposed I acknowledge those great lights did think fit to addresse themselves to them as petitioners but so at the first as those that were no wayes assured by our common Christianity that their petitions arrived at their knowledge You have seen Saint Augustine acknowledge that they must come by such meanes as God is no way tied to furnish Gregory Nazianzene speakes to Gorgonia in his Oration upon her and to Constantius in his first oration against Juliane but under a doubtfull condition if they were sensible of what he spake Enough to distinguish praying to God from any addresse to a creature though religion be the ground of it And when the apparitions about their monuments were held unquestionable yet was it questioned whether the same souâ— could be present at once in places of so much distance or Angels appear like them as you may see in the answer aforesaid pag. 391. 394. Nay Hugo de S. Victore in Cassander Epist XIX hath inabled him to hold that the Litanies do not suppose that the Saints hear them and therefore are expounded by some to signify conditionall desires if God grant them to come to their knowledge But of that I speak
fit for a private person to say what might be condescended to for the reunion of the Church stopping the way upon those mischiefs which the flourishing times of the Church have not prevented While all bounds are refused all extreamities maintained I alledge it for one of the most considerable titles for reformation without the consent of the whole As for the remaines of the Saints bodies and the honour of them having said this of their Souls whereof their bodies had been the instruments I shall need to say but a little Gennadius I will not forget De Eccles dogmat Cap. LXXIII Sanctorum corpora praecipue beatorum Martyrum reliquias acsi Christi membra sincerissime honoranda Basilicas eorum nominibus appellatas velut loca sancta divino cultui mancipata affâ—ctu piissimo devotione fidelâ—ssima adeundas credimus Si quis contra hanc sententiam venerit non Christianus sed Eunomianus Vigilantianus est We believe that we are most sincerely to honour the corpses of the Saints specially the reliques of the Martyres as of the members of Christ And to come to the Churches called by their names with most pious affection and most faithfull devotion If any man do against this sentence he is no Christiane but a follower of Eunomius and Vigilantius At the first the places of their buriall and times of their triumphs determined the circumstances of Gods service Afterwards when more Churches were requisite then there were Saints to bury their remaines where the Eucharist was celebrated seemes an honor proper for the purpose Nay though S. Jerome confesse that those pore women which lighted candles in houour of them had the zeale of God not according to knowledg supposing both Jewes and Gentiles had a custome to light candles on all occasions which they would honourably celebrate why should it seeme a ceremony unfit to expresse mens esteeme of Gods Grace in them If Vigilantius could not downe with this I have nothing to doe with Vigilantius But there were abuses even before that time Lucilla reproved by Cacilianus Deacon of Carthage for kissing the reliques of some questionable Martyre before the Eucharist by her mony and faction raised the schisme of the Donatist upon his being chosen Bishop Optatus I. S. Austin knew many Christians that worshipped tombes and pictures de moribus Eccles Cath. cap. XXXIV Vigilantius might desire onely that bounds might be put to prevent abuses and in that might be borne out by those Prelates whom S. Jerom taxes In that I doe not find Vigilantius condemned by the Church And those bounds were easily determined if prayer to Saints did not transgresse the bounds of revealed truth For were nothing done that should suppose that they heare the prayers that are made them there should be no considerable occasion to transgresse the bounds of honour due unto their reliques As for the worshipping of images of necessity the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or carved Image in the second commandement must either stand for any similitude so the making or having of any maner of image will be forbidden by the precept Or for the similitude of any imaginary Godhead And so no image but those are forbidden by it According to that former sense the making of the brazen serpent the Cherubins over the Arke is a dispensation of God in his own positive law which is easily understood But Solomon making the Buls the Lions Eagles Cherubins in his temple will be no lesse and wil require a revelation to warrant it According to the later making of images will be no more prohibited the Jewes then other nations by the Law But God having constituted a power in the Nation to limit the Law and so to make a hedge for it as the Jewes speake that which they forbid will be by that meanes prohibited by the Law And so there might be such an image in Davids house as we read of 1. Sam. XIX 12. that is such an one as was not so prohibited And by the sâ—me reason the tribute money might have Caesars picture on it which otherwise must be against the Law And when Josephus saies that Solomon incurred blame â—y making images of living creatures in the Temple it will appear that their constitutions in his time forbad the making of such Tertullian contra Marc II. 22. manifestly affirms the making of the Brazen Serpent Cherubines not to have been against the Law because not made for Idoles alleging the words of the precept Thou shalt not worship them nor serve them For a restriction limiting the generality of a carved image And this opinion I doubt not to be true and that there is no third to be named For if it be said that the meaning of the precept is Thou shalt make no Image that may give occasion to worship it Noâ— supposing a conceit of more Gods then one an image is not a thing that can make a man thinke so supposing the conceite of a God besides the true God without an image a man will worship the same Now either God by saying Thou shalt make no image that may give occasion to worship it refers it to every man to judge whether the image that he may make gives occasion to worship it or not And then he leaves it to every man to make any image which he judges to give none Or he refeâ—â— it to the power which he appointeth to oblige the nation in that behalfe to judge Which is that which I say And therefore seeing no man is left to himselfe to judge in that which God hath appointed a power to determine of necessity this sense is the same which I maintaine The consequence whereof is that it is in the power of the Church to judge whether images are to be had and that in Churches or not For the power that concludes the Church being the same with the power that concludes the Synagogue as the Synagogue and the Church are both one and the same people of God under the Law and the Gospell It is not possible to limit this power under the Gospell not to place images in Churches by vertue of this Law which provides nothing concerning Churches The case would come to be the same if we should suppose the precept to prohibit the making of an Image For then the matter would necessarily evidence that it was positive and given onely the people of the Jewes for that estate which the Law introduced Seeing not onely that which is ceremoniall but also that which is positive in Moses Law necessarily ceaseth to oblige Christians The reason why the Law provideth not to the contrary is that which I have alleged why Christians are not tyed to parte with wives or husbâ—nds that are Idolaters as the Jewes were out of S. Austine That whilst the blessings of the world were the promises which God conditioned to give them that should keepe his Lawes the prosperity of this world might move Israelites according to
Gods Church But here you have S. Jeromes argument if S. Paul require the use of wedlock to be foâ—borne for extraordinary devotions then hath the Church reason to indeavour that they whose ordinary devotions ought to be extraordinary in comparison of the people be such as forbeare it alwaies Especially in regard of those offices of the Church the occasions whereof may fall out at any time and sudaine Truely were there nothing to doe but to preach twice a week there could no such fall out Nor can I show you better evidence then this that that order is not the order of Gods Church Againe Epiphanius in the premises chargeth the Novatians with ignorance in not permitting the Laity to marry second wives which their Fathers the Montanists are evidently chargeable with Not considering that the Clergy were intended for the creame of Christians not in knowledg or language but in Christianity Therefore he that had been baptized in danger of death not afore and he that had done publike penance was not admitted No more was he that had marryed a second wife which when all is said is S. Pauls meaning 1. Tim. III. 2. For he that had more wives then one was no Christian and therefore in no capacity for the Clergy who was not to communicate with the Church And they who think S. Chrysostome in Epist ad Titum hom II. expounds him of those who being parted by divorce should mary a second wife must say whether afore baptisme or after For that alters the case For though it was a doubt in S. Jeromes time whether he that had marryed one afore baptisme another after were under this incapacity or not But after baptisme it is not to be thought that the Church had so little respect of our Lords Lawes as to admit adulterers though not as to the Roman Lawes yet as to Gods Athenagoras calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fashionable adultery in regard to the world For as to the Church adultery it was alwaies but never fashionable Wherefore S. Chrysostomes argument is to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How should he governe well the Church that kept no good will for her that was gon For a man is not chargeble for not keeping affection for her whom he puts away when she is gon but well and good for her that is dead And if he say that S. Paul hereby pun shes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the incontinent and that the case hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many blames it is plain that civill people have alwaies had them in esteeme above others that have staid at their first marryage And therefore though no civill Law forbid it as S. Chrysostome observeth nor Christianity yet is it no marvell if the lawes of the Church which the Apostles hereby inacted set a marke upon it which civility disesteemeth See Grotius his annotations on the place and Luke II. 36. If we consider that the widowes which the Church maintayned were to be such 1. Tim. V. 9. then that it hath alwaies been an incapacity by the Canons of the Church we shall not need seek any other beginning for it S. Chrysostome in 1 ad Tim. Hom X though the copy be not cleare saies plaine enough that the Apostles exacted no more then this signifying what the Canons at that time did require For I doe not pretend that the Apostles themselves either injoyned themselves single life or gave over theire wives when they went about their office Though nothing can appeares to the contrary the many examples of Bishops and Priests that gave over the use of wedlock from the time of their ministry with the consent of their wives giving appearance that they thought the Apostles had done the same It is enough that their instructions were a ground for the Church to proceed in it and a step towards it That course which the Councill of Nicaea confirmed by resting content with it seemeth agreeable both with justice and that holinesse to which the Church pretendeth But before I come to that I must not forget the second reason moving the Church to indeavour it to wit the dispensing of the Church goods according to the intent for which they are dedicated to God in being estated upon it For by the ground hereof setled in the first book it evidently appeareth that the Clergy are not proprietaries in the fruits of them But have onely full right to maintaine themselves upon them with that moderation and abstinence in their private expence which continuall attendance upon Gods service involved in their profession necessarily inferteth Otherwise it is manifest that they are trusted by Christian people with the dispensing of their oblations and consecrations to the maintenance of the poore part of the originall consideration upon which they were estated upon the Church Nor can any civill Law providing contribution of the people for the necessary subsistence of the poore of every parish ever extinguish this obligation so long as the Church is a Church and stands upon its owne title That hospitality to which Church goods are and alwaies have been accounted liable consisting not in secular intertainment which bringeth on ambition of worldly expence and costly superfluities But in providing for the poore and strangers and distressed whether at home or abrode the intent whereof redounds to the account of him that provideth the meanes and therefore the execution thereof to his account that dispenseth the same For if the intent of the Church and all the Lawes of it demonstrate that the Clergy are to be the first fruits of Christianity then doth the renouncing of the world which all Christians by their Baptisme professe in the first place take hold of them But that the injoying of superfluities in the world is utterly inconsistent with Therefore the profession of the Clergy necessarily limiteth their right in Church goods to a spare and moderate maintenance the trust which is upon them by intent of pious consecrations expressed in the originall custome and practice of the Church taking place in point of conscience where their owne necessities cease Now it is indeed become evident by corruption prevailing in the Church that single men becoming trusted with Church goods can abuse them so well to their owne riot or to the inriching of their relations that maried men could have don no more But that never came to passe til chiefly by the coming of the world into the Church those maners and customes in which the eminency of the clergy above the people did and ought to consist suffered shipwrack in the multitude of offenders after they had beene maintained a great while by the eminent abstinence of Prelates and inferiour Clergy able for authority and meanes to have produced bad examples Whether common reason is tyed to judge it more probable that the moderation and abstinence which the Clergy professeth should prevaile and take effect they living single or maried that I suppose onely comes in consideration when the dispute
such thing as a Councill according to the supposition of the congregations And therefore in the acts of Counciles which are the Lawes whereby the Church is to be ruled the people can have no further satisfaction then to see them openly debated under the knowledge of the people Indeed the interest of Soveraigne powers in Church maters which I allow not onely in order to the publicke peace but as they are members of the Catholicke Church and so trusted with the protection of all that is Catholicke in behalf of the people gives them that power over the acts of Counciles which by and by I shal declare Which though grounded upon another account and belonging to them in an other quality then that which the constitution of the Church createth is notwithstanding provided by God to secure his people of their Christianity together with the unity of the Church But the suffrage of the people of every Church that is their acknowledgment that they know no exception against the persons in nomination for Bishops or other orders of the Church as it agreeth with the proceedings of the Apostles and primative Church so must it needs be a most powerfull meanes to maintaine that strict bond of love and reverence between the Clergy and the people in the recovery whereof the unity of the Church consisteth And supposing publick penance retrived without which it is in vaine to pretend Reformation in the Church there can be no stronger meanes to maintaine Christianity in effect then the satisfaction of the people though not in the measure of penance to be injoyned yet in the performing of it Alwaies provided that this interest of the people be grounded upon no other presumption that any man is the child of God or in the state of Grace and indowed with Gods spirit then that which the law of the Church whereby he injoyes communion which the Church createth For this presumption must needs be stronger concerning the Clergy by their estate then it can be concerning the people Because by their estate they are to be the choice of the people And though as all morall qualities are subject to many exceptions some of the people may be better Christians then some of the Clergy yet a legall presumption that any of them is so must needs be destructive to the Unity of the Church But no disorder in religion can be so great as to justifie the obdurate resolution of the Church of Rome to withdraw the scriptures from the people There is nothing more manifest then that the lamentable distractions which we are under have proceeded from the presumption of particular Christians up on their understanding in the scriptures proceeding to think their quality capable of reforming the Church Onely those that can have joy of so much mischief to our common Christianity can thinke otherwise But I am not therefore induced to thinke our Christianity any other then the Christianity of those whom our Lord whom S. Paul and other Apostles and Prophets exhort and incourage to the study of the scriptures Whom S. Chrysostome and others of the Fathers so earnestly deale with to make it their businesse All the offense consists in this that private Christians observe not the bounds of that which is Catholike when they come to read the scriptures For if they be not content to confine the sense of all they read within that rule of faith in which the whole Church agreeth because they understand not how they stand together If they thinke the Lawes of the whole Church can command things contrary to that which God by scripture commandeth It is no marvaile they should proceed to make that which they think they see in the Scripures though indeed they see it not a Law to the Church For they think it is Gods will that ties them to it But if the Church be the Church as I have showed it is then was the Scripture never given private Christians to make them Judges what all Christians are bound to believe what the Church is to injoine the Church for the condition of communion with the Church If any man object the inconvenience that it appeareth not who or where that Church is and so we are confined to those boundes that cannot appeare This inconvenince is the clearest evidence that I can produce for the Catholike Church For unlesse we grant this inconvenience to come by Gods institution and appointment we must confesse the unity of the Church to be Gods appointment because the dissolution thereof produceth this inconvenience For were the unity of the Church in being I could easily send any man to the Catholike Church by sending him to his owne Church Which by holding communion with the whole Church must needs stand distinguished from those which hold it not though under the name of Churches And he who resorts to the Church for resolution in the Scriptures supposes that he is not to break from the Church for that wherein the whole Church is not agreed Now that the unity of the Church is broken in pieces it remaines no more visible to common sense what it is wherein the whole Church agrees as the condition for comunion with it But the meanes to make it appear againe having disappeared through disunion in the Church is that discourse of reason which proceeds upon supposition of visible unity established by God in the Church And the meanes to make it appear againe to common sense is the restoring of that unity in the Church by the interruption whereof it disappeareth Then shall the edification of particular Christians in our common Christianity proceed without interruption by meanes of the Scriptures every one supposing that his edification in the common Christianity dependeth not upon the knowledge of those things wherein the Church agreeth not but of those things wherein it agreeth In the mean time it remaineth that offenses proceed to be infinite and endlesse because men giving no bounds to their studies in the Scriptures imagine the edification of the Church to consist in that wherein themselves not regarding the consent of the Church have placed their own edification in the Scriptures CHAP. XXXII How great the Power of the Church and the effect of it is The right of judging the causes of Christians câ—aseth when it is protected by the State An Objection If Ecclâ—siasticall Power were from God Secular Power could not limit the use of it Ground for the Interest of the State in Church matters The inconsequence of the argument The concurrence of both Interests to the Law of the Church The Interest of the State in the indowment of the Church Concurrence of both in matrimoniall causes and Ordinations Temporall penalties upon Excommunication from the State No Soveraigne subject to the greater Excommunication but to the lesse The Rights of the Jewes State and of Christian Powers in Religion partly the same partly not The infinite Power of the Pope not founded upon acts of Episcopacy but upon the Secular Powers
for poor soules that they receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist They who depart from the Church that they may minister the Sacraments on such grounds and to such effects as the Church allowes not incurre the nullities and sacriledges which departing from the Church inferreth But if beside the Faith of the Church the authority of the Church be supposed to the effect of the Sacraments how shall the Sacraments be Sacraments though ministred upon profession of the true Faith where no authority of the Church can be pretended for the ministring of them Or where it can onely be pretended but is indeed usurped and void Posterity will never forget that there are in a Land inhabited by Christians called England Country Parishes in which the Sacraments have not been ministred for so many years as the order of the Church of England hath been superseded by the late warre If the Word and Sacraments be the marks of the Church what pretense for a Church where there is indeed a pretense of the Word though no presumption that it is Gods but of Sacraments not so much as a pretense What hath the rest of England deserved of the Congregations or of the Presbyteries that they should be left destitute of the meanes of salvation because they cannot see reason to be of Congregations or Presbyteries Lay men preach and Lay men go to Church to hear them preach because they cannot preach themselves at home to their families The horror of profaning the Sacraments of the Church by Sacriledge is yet alive to make them tremble still at usurping to celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist But will those Lay men that preach answer for the Lay mens soules to whom they preach that they have sufficient means of salvation by hearing them preach being of no Church that might answer that it is Gods Word which they preach ministring no Sacraments for a mark of the Church Is it possible a Christian should hold himself able to preach who holds not himself able to baptize Or is it the appetite of devouring consecrated goods that insnares men to preach who when it comes to baptizing had rather let innocent soules perish then own the authority of the Church which inables every Christian to baptize in case of necessity because they know they usurp the office of preaching without authority from the Church It is I that have said that a Lay man may be authorized to preach by the Church And I believe still I said true in it But shall I therefore answer for him that preacheth without authority from the Church Should he preach by authority from the Church there were presumption for his hearers that it is the Word of God which the Church authorizeth When he preacheth without authority from the Church shall he not answer for the soules whom he warrants salvation by his preaching without Church or Word or Sacraments But these are not the Godly Those that know themselves such are thereby authorized to retire themselves into Congregations that they may injoy the purity of the Ordinances It is then mens Godlinesse that inables them to forsake the Church and betake themselves into Congregations And indeed I know an Oxford Doctor who to prove himselfe no Schismaticke for it hath alledged that he can be no Schismatick because he knowes himself to be Godly and to have Gods Spirit I deny not that he hath alledged other reasons why he is no Schismaticke the ground whereof I considered afore But what Quaker could not have alledged the Spirit of God as well as he And did not he who pretends himself Christ alledge reasons for it as well as pretend the Spirit A nice mistake it is to imagine that a Christian is to accept the Scriptures for the Word of God because the Spirit of God assures him that so they are For of a truth untill the Spirit of God move him to be a Christian he accepteth them not for such When it doth he is moved so to accept them by the Spirit of God as by the effective cause But for reasons which though contained in the Scriptures yet were they not visibly true before a man can accept the Scriptures for the Word of God he could never so accept them by Gods Spirit Unlesse we can imagine the virtue of Gods Spirit not to depend upon the preaching of his Gospel which I suppose onely Enthusiasts do imagine Nor doth the Spirit of God distinguish to any Christian the Apochrypha from Canonicall Scripture but by such meanes as may make the difference visible No more doth it assure him that he is a good Christian but upon the knowledge of such resolutions and actions wherein Christianity consisteth If it be requisite to make a man no Schismatick that it be not his own fault that he is not of the Catholicke Church If he perswade himselfe upon unsufficient reasons that there is no such thing by Gods Law as the visible body of a Catholick Church Just it is with God to leave such a one to thinke it Gods Spirit that assures him a godly man being a Schismatick It is not therefore supposition of invisible godlinesse that can priviledge men to withdraw themselves from the Church into Congregations supposing such a thing as a Catholicke Church The purity being invisible but the barre to it separation from Gods Church visible the Ordinances for which they separate will remaine their own Ordinances not Gods The Presbyterians sometimes pleade their Ordination in the Church of England for the authority by which they ordaine others against the Church of England to doe that which they received authority from the Church of England to doe provided that according to the order of it A thing so ridiculously senselesse that common reason refuseth it Can any State any society doe an act bâ— virtue whereof there shall be right and authority to destroy it Can the Ordination of the Church of England proceeding upon supposition of a solemne promise before God and his Church to execute the ministery a man receiveth according to the Order of it inable him to doe that which he was never ordained to doe Shall he by failing of his promise by the act of that power which supposed his promise receive authority to destroy it Then let a man obtaine the kingdome of heaven by transgressing that Christianity by the undertaking whereof he obtained right to it They are therefore meere Congregations voluntarily constituted by the will of those all whose acts even in the sphere of their ministery once received are become voide by theire failing of that promise in consideration whereof they were promoted to it Voide I say not of the crime of Sacrilege towards God which the usurpation of Core constituteth but of the effect of Grace towardes his people For the like voluntary combining of them into Presbyteries and Synodes createth but the same equivocation of wordes when they are called Churches to signify that which is visible by their usurpation in point of fact
is a thing necessary to the subsistence of all communities Nor is a private person chargeable with the faults of the Lawes under which he lives untill it appeare that by the meanes of those faults he must faile of the end for which the community subsisteth That is of salvation by communicating with the Church of Rome But to make a private Christian a party to the decrees and customes of the Church by swearing to admit and imbrace them all because he communicateth with it is to make him answerable for that which he doeth not He that would swear no more then he believes nor believe more then he can see cause to believe being a private Christian and uncapable to comprehend what Lawes and customes are fit for so great a Body as the Church must not swear to the Lawes of the Church as good or fit were there no charge against them because past his understanding but rest content by conforming to them to hold communion with the Church But in stead of mending the least of those horrible abuses which the complaints of all parts of Christendome evidence to be visible to exclude all that will not sweare to them is to bid them redeem the communion of the Church by transgressing that Christianity which it ought to presuppose Well may that power be called infinite that undertakes to do such things as this But how should the meanes of salvation be thought to consist in obeying it Here is then a peremptory barre to communion with the Church of Rome onely occasioned by the Reformation but fixed by the Church of Rome That order which severall parts of Christendome had provided for themselves under the title of Reformation might have been but provisionall till a better understanding between the parties might have produced a tollerable agreement in order whereunto a distance for a time had been the lesse mischievous had not this proceeding cut off all hope of peace but by conquest that is by yeilding all this And therefore this act being that which formed the Schisme the crime thereof is chiefly imputable to it As therefore I saide afore that the Sacrament of Baptisme though the necessary meanes of salvation becomes a necessary barre to salvation when it inacteth a profession of renouncing either any part of the Faith or the unity of the Church So here I say that the communion of the Eucharist obtained by making a profession which the common Christianity alloweth not a good Christian to make is no more the meanes of salvation to him who obtaineth it upon such termes how much soever a Christian may stand obliged to hold communion with the Church And this is the reason that makes the communion of the Church of Rome absolutely no more warrantable then afore now that it is become unwarrantable to communicate with Presbyteries and Congregations But comparatively an extremity in respect to the contrary extremity holds the place of a meanes Nor did I ever imagine that the humor of reforming the Church without ground or measure may not proceed to that extremity that it had been better to have left it unreformed then to have neglected those bounds which the pretense of Reformation requireth I say not that this is now come to passe comparisons being odious But this I say that he who goes to reforme the Church upon supposition that the Pope is Anti-Christ and the Papists therefore Idolaters is much to take heed that he miskenne not the ground for that measure by which he is to reforme And taking that for Reformation which is the furthest distant from the Church of Rome that is possible Imagine that the Pope may be Antichrist and the Papists Idolaters for that which the Catholick Faith and Church alloweth It is a marvaile to see how much the zeale to have the Pope Antichrist surpasses the evidence of the reasons which it is proved with For otherwise it would easily appeare that as an Antipope is nothing but a pretended Pope so Antichrist is nothing else but a pretended Messias He who pretends to be that which Christ is indeed and to give salvation to Gods people Our Lord foretells of false Christs and false Prophets Mat. XXIV 24. Marke XIII 22. and those are the Preachers of new Sects which pretended to be Christs and which pretended not to be Christs Simon Magus and Menander we know by Irenaeus and Epiphanius Dositheus by Origen upon Matthew pretended all of them to be the Messias to the Samaritanes who as Schismaticall Jewes expected the Messias as well as the Jewes Saturninus and Basilides were false prophets but not Antichrists because not pretending that themselves were the Messias but pretending some of those whereof they made that fullnesse of the Godhead which they preached to consist to be the Messias Among the Jewes all that ever took upon them to be the Messias besides our Lord Jesus are properly Antichrists Among whom Barcochab under Adriane was eminent But there is reason enough to reckon Manichaeus and Mahomet both of that ranck As undertaking to be that to their followers which the Jewes expected of the Messias to save them from their enemies and to give them the world to come For Manichaeus seems indeed to have given himself the Name of Menahem signifying in the Ebrew the same as Parucletus in Greeke because he pretended to be assumed by the holy Ghost as not he but Christians believe that the Word of God assumed the manhood of Christ But when he writ himself Apostle of Jesus Christ in the head of his Epistle called the foundation which S. Austine writes against it was not with an intent to acknowledge our Lord the true Christ whose coming he made imaginary and onely in appearance but to seduce Christians with a colourable pretense of the name of Christ and some ends of the Gospels as you heard Epiphanius say to take himself for that which Christ is indeed to Christians Saint Austine contra Epist Fund cap. VI. suspecteth that he intended to foist in himself to be worshipped in stead of Christ by those whom he seduced from Christ And shows you his reason for it there But whether worshipped or not for it cannot be said that Mahomet pretended to be worshipped for God by his followers though he could not be that which our Lord Christ is to Christians unlesse he were worshipped for God yet he might be that which the Messias was expected to be to the Jewes in saving them through this world unto the world to come Whether Christians are to expect a greater Antichrist then any of these towards the end of the world or not is a thing no way clear by the Scriptures And the authority of the Fathers is no evidence in a matter which evidently belongs not to the Rule of Faith It is not enough that Saint John saith Ye know that the Antichrist is coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John II. 28. for how many thousand articles are there that signify no such eminence and
restoreth and establisheth it not is not Baptisme or the Eucharist but by equivocation of words which so long as we are not secured of how should the word and Sacraments which such establishments hold forth be that word those Sacraments which are the marks of Gods Church And are they not revenged of the seven Sacraments in the Church of Rome beyond the measure of moderate defense who to renounce them for Sacraments suppresse the offices which by them are solemnized If they allow the Baptisme of Infants and the Covenant of Baptisme what reason can they have to abolish the solemne profession of it at yeares of discretion with the blessing of the Church for the performance of that to which their profession obliges What account will they give either for not blessing Marriages leaving private Christians to contract without the authority of the Church Or for blessing them without being warranted by the Law of the Church that they are such as Christianity alloweth Are they not most Christianly revenged of extreme Unction by providing no visitation for the sick Of auricular confession by consining the Keyes of the Church to the taking away not of sinne from before God but of scandall from before the Church Ordinations I mervaile not that all are forced to maintaine for how should altar be set up against altar not providing who should minister at it As for the ceremonies and circumstances of Gods service doth not superstitious strictnesse in abolishing them oblige reasonable men to think that they imagine themselves nolesse acceptable to God for neglecting them then the Papists for multiplying them beyond that which the order of them to their end can require That the memories of the Saints should be fit occasions of serving God which the Christianity of the ancient Church made one of the powerfullest means to extinguish Hethenisme is now so abhorred as if we had found out some other Christianity then that which it served to introduce That there should be set times of Fasting is so fâ—rre from the care of Reformers as if there were no such office of Christianity to be exercised by Gods Church In fine what is become of the substance while we talke of ceremony and circumstance Whether Churches were provided revenues founded persons consecrated to the intent that the service of God might daily and hourely sound in them by the Psalmes of his praises by the instruction of his word by the prayers of his people by the continuall celebration of the Eucharist Or that there should be two Sermons a sunday with a prayer at the discretion of him that preaches before and after it Provided nothing be done to signify that humility of mind that reverence of hart that devotion of spirit which the awfull majesty of God is to be served with I report my selfe to the piety of Christendome from sunne to sunne This I see woe worth my sinnes that have made me live to see it an effectuall course is taken that the Church dores be allwayes shut and no serving God there unlesse some body preach This is the summe of that which the premises inable me to allege why I can have no part in the present reformation so called Besides the utter want of all pretense for authority the whole title and pretense upon which and the end to which an equitable mind might question whether ordinary authority though of Gods institution and appointment may be superseded in a case of extrarodinary necessity to restore the true Faith and service of God which all authority of the Church presupposeth for the ground and proposeth for the end of all communion with it is found utterly wanting upon the best inquiry that I have been able to make I am to seek for a point any one point wherein I can justly grant that the change is not for the worse Even that frequency of preaching which was the outside of the businesse even granting it to be by the Rule of true Faith Yet hath the performance of it been so visibly so pittifully defective that he must have a hard heart for our common Christianity who can think that there is wherewith to defend it from the scorn of unbelievers had they nothing to do but to minde it I confesse as afore I allowed the Church of Rome some excuse from the unreasonablenesse of their adversaries So here considering the horrible scandales given by that communion in standing so rigorously upon Lawes so visibly ruinous to the service of God and the advancement of Christianity and the difficulty of finding that meane in which the truth stands between the extreames as our Lord Christ between the theeves saith Turtulliane I doe not proceed to give the salvation of poor soules for lost that are carried away with the pretense of Reformation in the change that is made even to hate and persecute by word or by deed those who cannot allow it For as for the appearance of Heresy though the mistake be dangerous to the soule because if followed it becomes the principle of those actions which whoso doeth shall not inherit the kingdome of God Yet it may be so tenderly held as not to extinguish other points of Christianity which necessarily contradict it For though indeed they do not stand with it yet it is possible that those who through the difficulty of finding the truth have swallowed a mistake may not proceed to act according to the consequence of it but of the rest of that Christianity which they retaine and contradicteth it For as for the authority of the Church the neglect wherof creates that obstinacy in consideration whereof heresy is held heretically the rigorousnesse of the Church of Rome extending it beyond all bounds that our common Christianity can allow and necessitating well disposed Christians to waive it what mervaile if the due bounds becoming in visible to common sense by communion with the Church the misprision of Heresy possesse them with the esteeme of Christianity And the difficulty of avoiding the temptation create an excuse to God for them whose intentions are single As for the crime of schisme justly sticking to them who presuming upon their understanding in the scriptures by the scriptures alone which God hath no where promised to assist without using the helpes which he hath provided by his Church though the sacrilege thereof justly render void of effect the ordinances of God which are ministered by virtue of that usurpation which it involveth yet there being abundance of soules that may live and dye without knowing any better much lesse that can ever be able to judge the best upon true principles why should I not hope that God passing by the nullities which it createth will make good the effect of his Grace to those who with singlenesse of heart seek it in a wrong way when by his Law he cannot be tied to concurre to the meanes But this resolution being the result of the premises demonstrateth how much reason the parties that is those
CHAP. IX The Keyes of the Church given to the Apostles and exercised by excommunication under the Apostles The ground thereof is that profession which all that are baptized are to make That Penance and abatâ—ment of Penance hath been in force ever since and under the Apostles In particular of excluding Hereticks CHAP. X. Evidence of the Apostles act from the effect of it in preserving the Vnity of the Church Of the businesse of Marcion and Montanus That about keeping Easter That of the Novatians of rebaptizing Hereticks of Paulus Samosatenus of Dionysius Alexandrinus and Arius Of communicatory leters and the intercourse of the Church under and after the Apostles CHAP. XI Upon what grounds the first book de Synedriis holds that the Church cannot excommunicate Before the law there was no such Power nor by it Christians went for Jewes under the Apostles His sense of some Scriptures What the Leviathan saith in generall concerning the Power of the Church Both suppose that Ecclesiasticall Power includeth Temporall which is not true Of the Oxford Doctors Paraenesis CHAP. XII That the Law expresly covenanted for the Land of Promise A great Objection against this from the Great precept of the Law The hope of the world to come under the Law and the obedience which it required was grounded upon reason from the true God the tradition of the Fathers and the Doctrine of the Prophets The Love of God above all by the Law extendeth no further than he precepts of the Law the lâ—ve of our Neighbor onely to Jews Of the Ceremonial Judicial and Moral Law CHAP. XIII That the Law tendereth no other promise but that of the Land of Canaan How the Resurrection is signified by the Prophets Expresse texts of the Apostles Their Arguments and the Arguments of our Lord do suppose the mystical sense of the Scriptures That this sense is to be made good throughout the Scripture wheresoever the ground of it takes place Christianity well grounded supposing this What parts of Scripture may be questionable whether they have a mysticall sense or not The sayings and doings of our Lord have it As also those passages of the Old Testament which are fulfilled by the same The sense of the Fathers CHAP. XIV The Leviathans opinion that Christ came to restore that Kingdome of God which the Jewes cast off when they rejected Sâ—muel It overthroweth the foundation of Christianity The true Government of Gods ancient people The name of the Church in the New Testament cannot signifie the Synagogue Nor any Christian State CHAP. XV. How the Power of the Church is founded upon the Law The Power of the Kingdome Priesthood Prophets and Rulers of that people all of divine right How farre these qualities and the powers of them are to continue in the Church The sense of the Fathers in this point That the acts of S. Paul and the rest of the Apostles were nâ—t of force by virtue of the Law What Ecclesiastical Power should have been among the Jewes in case they had received the Gospel and so the state had stood CHAP. XVI The Church founded upon the Power given the Apostles What is the subject mater of Church Lawes The Right of the Church to Tythes and Oblations is not grounded upon the Law though evidenced by it and by practice of the Patriarchs Evidence of the Apostles Order in the Scriptures The Church of Jerusalem held not community of Goods The original practice of the Church CHAP. XVII The Power of Excommunication in the Church is not founded in the Law What argument there is of it in the Old Testament The allegorical sense thereof is argumentative It was not necessary that the Christians should incurre persecution for using the Power of the Keyes and not by virtue of the Law CHAP. XVIII The difference between S. Pauls anathema and that of the Jews It is not necessary that the Christians anathema should signifie cursing That the incestuous person at Corinth was Excommunicated by S. Paul Jurisdiction of the Church Telling the Church binding and loosing holding him that is bound for a Heathen or a Publicanâ— signifie the same The coherence of our Lords discourse Of Excommunication and Indulgence by private persons in the Ancient Church That Excommunication and the Power of the Church could not come in force by the voluntary consent of the first Christians How it may be said to be voluntary Of the confederacy of the primitive Christians CHAP XIX That Power which was in Churches under the Apostles can never be in any Christian Soveraign The dâ—fference between the Church and the Synagogue in that regard The interest of Seculâ—r Power in determining maters of faith presuppâ—seâ—h the Socieâ—y of the Church and the act of it No man can be bound to profâ—sse tâ—e contrary of that which he believeth Every man is bound to professe thâ—t Christianity which hee believeth The Church is the chiefe Teacher of Christianity through Christendom as the Soveraign of Civil Peace thorough his Dominions Why the Church is to decide maters of Faith rather then the State neither being infallible 146 CHAP. XX. The rest of the Oxford Doctors pretense The Power of binding and loosing supposeth not onely the Preaching of the Gospel but the outward act of Faith Christians are not at liberty to cast themselves in what formes of Churches the Law of Nature alloweth They are Judges in chief for themselvss in mater of Religion supposing the Catholick Church not otherwise Secular Power cannâ—t punish for Relâ—gion but supposing the act of the Church nor do any act to inforce Religion unlâ—sse the Church determine the mater of it 151 CHAP. XXI How the Tradition of the Church limits the interpretation of Scriptures How the declaration of the Church becomes a reasonable marke of Heresie That which is not found in the Scriptures may have been delivered by the Apostles Some things delivered by the Apostles and recorded in the Scriptures may not oblige S. Austines Rule of Apostolical Traditions 159 CHAP. XXII The Authority of the Fathers is not grounded upon any presumption of their Learning or Holinesse How farr they challenge the credit of Historical truth The pre-eminence of the Primitive The presumption that is grounded upon their ranks and qualities in the Church Of Arnobius Lactantius Tertulliâ—n Origen Clemens and the approbation of Posterity 165 CHAP. XXIII Two iâ—stances against the premises besides the obâ—ection concerning the beginning of Antichrist under the Apostles The General answer to it The seven Trumpeâ—s in the Apocalypse fore-tell the destruction of the Jewes The seven Vials the plagues inflicted upon the Empire for the ten persecutions The correspondence of Daniels Prophesie inferreth the same Neither S. Pauls Prophesie nor S. Johns concerneth any Christian Neither the opinion of the Chiliasts nor the the giving of the Eucharist to Infants new Baptized Catholick 169 CHAP. XXIV Two sorts of means to resolve whatsoever is resolvable conceâ—rning the Scripture Vpon what terms the Church may or
is to determine controversies of Faith And what obligation that determination produceth Traditions of the Apostles oblige the present Church as the reasons of them continue or not Instances in our Lords Passeover and Eucharist Penance under the Apostles and afterwards S. Pauls vail eaâ—ing blood and things offered to Idols The power of the Church in limiting these Traditions 178 CHAP. XXV The power of the Church in limiting even the Traditions of the Apostles Not every abuse of this power a sâ—fficient warrant for particular Churches to reforme themselves Heresie consists in denying something necessary to salvation to be believed Schism in departing from the unity of the Church whether upon that or any other cause Implicite Faith no virtue but the effect of it may be the work of Christian charity p. 163 CHAP. XXVI What is to add to Gods Law What to adde to the Apocalypse S. Pauls Anathema The Beraeans S. Johns Gospel sufficient to make one believe and the Scriptures the man of God perfect How the Law giveth light and Christians are taught by God How Idolatry is said not to be commanded by God 168 CHAP. XXVII Why it was death to transgress the determinations of the Jewes Consistory and what power this argueth in the Church A difference between the authority of the Apostles and that of the Church The being of the Church to the worlds end with power of the Keyes makes it not infallible Obedience to Superiours and the Pillar of truth inferre it not 175 CHAP. XXXI The Fathers acknowledge the sufficiencie 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—rnesse of the Scriptures as the Traditions of the Church They are to be reconciled by limiting the termes which they use The limitations of those sayings which make all Christian truth to be contained in the Scriptures Of those which make the authority of the Church the ground of Faith 181 CHAP. XXXII Answer to an Objection that choice of Religion becomes difficult upon these terms This resolution is for the Interest of the Reformation Those that make the Church Infallible cannot those that make the Scriptures â—â—ear â—nd sufficient may own Tradition for evidence to determine the meaning of the Scriptures and controversies of Faith The Interest of the Church of England The pretense of Rushworthes Dialogues that we have no unquestionable Scripture and that tâ—e Tradition of the Church never changes 192 CHAP. XXXI That the Scriptures which wee have are unquestionable That mistakes in Copying are not considerable to the sense and effect of them The meaning of the Hebrew and Greek even of the Prophets determinable to the deciding of Controversies How Religion delivered by Tradition becomes subject to be corrupted 198 CHAP. XXXIV The dispute concerning the Canon of Scripture and the translations thereof in two Questions There can be no Tradition for those books that were written since Prophesie ceased Wherein the excellence of them above other books lies The chiâ—fe objections against them are questionâ—ble In those parcels of the New Testament that have been questioned the case is not the same The sense of the Church 207 CHAP. XXXIII Onely the Originall Copy can be Authentick But the truth thereof may as well be found in the translations of the Old Testament as in the Jewes Copies The Jewes have not falsified them of malice The points come neither from Moses nor Esdras but from the Talmud Iewes 218 CHAP. XXXIV Of the ancientest Translations of the Bible into Greek first With the Authors and authority of the same Then into the Chaldee Syriack and Latine Exceptions against the Greek and the Samaritane Pentateuch They are helps never thelesse to assure the true reading of the Scriptures though with other Copies whether Jewish or Christian Though the Vulgar Latine were better than the present Greek yet must both depend upon the Original Greek of the New Testament No danger to Christianity by the differences remaining in the Bible 224 The CONTENTS of the second Book CHAP. I. TWo parts of that which remains How the dispute concerning the Holy Trinity with Socinus belongs to the first The Question of justification by Faith alone The Opinion of Socinus concerning the whole Covenant of Grace The opinion of those who make justifying Faith the knowledge of a mans Predestination opposite to it in the other extream The difference between it and that of the Antinomians That there are mean Opinions p. 1 CHAP. II. Evidence what is the condition of the Covenant of Grace The contract of Baptism The promise of the Holy Ghost annexed to Christs not to Johns Baptism Those are made Christs Disciples as Christians that take up his Cross in Baptism The effects of Baptism according to the Apostles 5 CHAP. III. The exhortations of the Apostles that are drawn from the patterns of the Old Testament suppose the same How the Sacraments of the Old and New Testament are the same how not the same How the new Testament and the New Covenant are both one The free-will of man acteth the same part in dealing about the New-Covenant as about the Old The Gospel a Law 12 CHAP. IV. The consent of the whole Church evidenced by the custome of catechising By the opinion thereof concerning the salvation of those that delayed their Baptism By the rites and Ceremonies of Baptism Why no Penance for sins before but after Baptism The doctrine of the Church of England evident in this case 17 CHAP. V. The Preaching of our Lord and his Apostles evidenceth that some act of Mans free choice is the condition which it requireth The correspondence between the Old and New Testament inferreth the same So do the errors of Socinians and Antinomians concerning the necessity of Baptism Objections deferred 23 CHAP. VI. Justifying faith sometimes consists in believing the truth Sometimes in trust in God grounded upon the truth Sometimes in Christianity that is in imbracing and professing it And that in the Fathers as well as in the Scriptures Of the informed and formed Faith of the Schools 30 CHAP. VII The last signification of Faith is properly justifying Faith The first by a Metonymy of the cause The second of the effect Those that are not justified do truly believe The trust of a Christian presupposeth him to be justified All the promises of the Gospel become due at once by the Covenant of Grace That to believe that we are Elect or justified is not justifying faith 37 CHAP. VIII The objection from S. Paul We are not justifyed by the Law nor by Works but by Grace and by Faith Not meant of the Gospel and the works that suppose it The question that S. Paul speakes to is of the Law of Moses and the workes of it He sets those workes in the same rank with the works of the Gentiles by the light of nature The civil and outward works of the Law may be done by Gentiles How the Law is a Pedagogue to Christ 43 CHAP. IX Of the Faith and Justification of Abraham and the Patriarkes according to the Apostles
Church in time perhaps they may declare I have not hitherto understood Shall I say there is not sufficient argument for the sense of the Church in the Gospels It is no part of my meaning Shall I therefore say it is clear of it selfe in the Gospels that is to say by the sayings and doings of our Lord recorded in the Gospels Doth not our Lord plainly make himself equal to the Father John V. 17-23 Doth hee not answer again being questioned for this John X. 33 34 35. by the words of David spoken of meer men Psal LXXXIII 6. I have said yee are Gods Doth hee not say plainly again My Father is greater than I John XIV 28 Which things as it is plain by argument that they may stand with the sense of the Church so that those arguments are plain of themselves to all understandings is as much as to say That a seeming contradiction argues an intent in our Lord that all men should see the resolution of it Again that all that will be saved by our Lord Christ must take up his Crosse and professe him to the death is plaine by the Gospels But so long as the Disciples might and did believe that they should raigne with our Lord in his Kingdome over that people which should destroy their enemies was the intent of suffering death for Christ to raign with him in heaven plaine by the Gospels That the Law should stand for ever is it not plainly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel and is it not as plainly of the necessity of salvation to believe that wee are saved by the Gospel and not by the Law I appeal to S. Pauls Epistles Though I dispute not whether this be abrogating the Law as Divines commonly speak or derogating from it Certainly though I know not whether the Socinians would be content with the Leviathan that no thing be thought necessary to salvation to be believed but that our Lord is the Christ Yet I know they would be astonished to hear that hee who believes that and lives according to the Lawes of his Soveraign hath done the duty of a Christian and may challenge his share in the kingdome of heaven for it But this I must not dispute further in this place Onely here I must answer his reasons out of the Scripture and show you upon what a weak pinne hee hath hung all this waight Christ is the foundation 1 Cor. III. 11. Mat. XVI 18. which all the Gospels pretend to induce us to believe John XX. 31. as also the exhortations of the Apostles Acts XVII 2 3 6. by this the good thief was saved believing onely our Lord anointed by God to his Kingdome Luke XXIII 42. Everlasting life is to be had by believing this and the Scripture because it witnesseth this John V. 39. and XVII 3. XI 26 27. Which is all blown away with this breath That hee that admits our Lord to be the Christ cannot refuse any part of his doctrine And therefore salvation is justly imputed to that which whoso receiveth shall be bound to admit and undergo whatsoever his salvation requireth This is eternal life to know thee the onely God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ John XVII 3. These things are written that yee may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing yee may have life John XX. 31. How have life believing Because hee that believes will be baptized and hee that is baptized must undertake to live as Christ teacheth professing to believe in the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost which believing in Christ coming from the Father to send the Holy Ghost implieth And therefore the Eunuch Acts VIII 36 37. is baptized upon this Faith as others into it Acts II. 38. VIII 16. XIX 5. The belief of the Creation of the world of Providence the Resurrection and Judgment to come not being introduced by Christianity but found in force among the Jewes when our Lord came So that limitation by which the Leviathan inlargeth his sense of that which the believing of our Lord to be the Christ implieth is not worth a straw It is not onely necessary to salvation to believe all that the Messias was to be or to do to be verified and to have been done by our Lord Jesus Unlesse we believe that wee are to believe and to do whatsoever hee taught us to believe and to do And that as I have showed is not determinable by any means but that which Christ by himself or by his Apostles hath provided us neither whether so or not and much lesse whether necessary to salvation or not That which hath been alleged to show That the substance of Christianity necessary to the salvation of all under the Gospel is not clearly contained in the Old Testament nor in the sayings and doings of our Lord related by the Evangelists Holds not in the writings of the Apostles For being directed to Christians already reduced into Churches constituted upon supposition of the knowledge and profession of Christianity there is no reason why they should be sparing in declaring the truth of it to those to whom they write True it is and evident by their writings that they used great reservation in declaring to those that were of Jewes become Christians the discharge of their obligation to Moses Law But whatsoever their proceeding was in that case not onely the reason of the truth but also the reason of that proceeding is clearly declared by their writings But if all their writings suppose in them to whom they write knowledge sufficient for the salvation of all Christians and none of them pretend to lay down the summe and substance of that whereof the salvation of all Christians requireth the knowledge evident it is that the perfection of none of them nor the whole Scriptures consisting of them and those which wee have spoken of hitherto requireth that they clearly contain all that is necessary to the salvation of all Christians For the Perfection of every writing consisteth in the sufficience of it for the purpose to which it is intended If therefore the occasions of the Apostles writings and so the purpose of them evidently express not an intent to lay down clearly to all understandings the whole substance of that which is sufficient to render all Christians capable of salvation as evidently neither any nor all of them do then neither doth the perfection not sufficience nor clearnesse of the Apostles writings require that all things necessary to the salvation of all be clear in them to all understandings For let no man object That they were all of them necessary to the salvation of all or most of them to whom they were sent Unless it could be said That whatsoever was necessary to the salvation of those to whom the Apostles writ is necessary to the salvation of all Christians Which so long as there is a difference between necessity of means and necessity of precept That is between that which is necessary to the common
salvation of all and that which becomes necessary to the salvation of some by reason of their particular states and conditions cannot be said The writings of the Apostles are their Epistles with their Acts and S. Johns Revelations if these may not be referred to the rank of their Epistles The chief of their Epistles that to the Romanes that to the Galatians that to the Ebrewes with the greatest part of the rest are either occasioned by the reservation which they used in declaring to those that were become Christians of Jewes their discharge from the Law as justified by Christ or by the secret indeavors of Hereticks pretending Commission from the Apostles on one side on the other practising compliance with the Jewes to seduce those that inclined to the Law to the damnable inventions of Simon Magus and his Successors But none of them pretendeth more than preventing or avoiding those particular disorders which appeared in the respective Churches For what the Apostles did in setling Christianity at Jerusalem or propagating it by S. Paul especially so farre as the book of the Acts relates what S. John saw touching the state of Christianity to come I suppose is something else than the summe of all that is necessary to the salvation of all Christians And though in discretion every man may presume that upon occasion of the expresse purposes of these writings there is nothing necessary to the salvation of all that is not touched in some place of them yet it is one thing to be touched upon the by another thing to be delivered upon expresse purpose For those things that are but touched upon occasion referring to the knowledge which they presuppose cannot must not containe the clear understanding of those things which they onely touch Unlesse wee will have the Writer so impertinent as upon every occasion to turne aside and instruct him that hee writes to in such things as hee supposes him to know afore So the reason why the summe or substance of Christianity is not clear in the Old Testament and Gospels is because it was not then clearly preached Why not in the writings of the Apostles is because it was clearly delivered afore the clear delivering of it being seen in the catechizing of them that came to the profession of the Gospel and the communion of the Church Beside this reason particular to the Apostles writings there is another that is seen not onely in the Law and Prophers as well as in them but in all ancient records of learning arising from the distance of time between us and the writing of them and the change which such a succession produceth in the stare of things necessarily inferting obscurity answerable to that difference in the condition of those things which they expresse There is no record of Learning so flight that any man who knowes what belongs to Learning can presume of a cleare understanding of it till by comparing it with other writings nearest to it in nature and time hee get satisfaction in it For such a change of language followes the changes that come to passe in Times and Places and Lawes and Fashions and the condition of persons consequent to the same that till they be understood by reading seeing and hearing not being available in languages out of use the meaning of Writers is not to be had from their words How much more in writings of such consideration as the Scriptures are to the Church of such antiquity as the Law and Prophets and the primitive Church of the Apostles of such difference from the present state of things as between the Law either flourishing under the Princes of Gods people or tolerated by their Soveraignes between the Gospel springing up in the midst of the Empire professing Heathenisme but protecting Judaisme and the Gospel professed and protected by Christian powers and people So little record remaining otherwise either of things done under the Law or under the Apostles so farre from priding themselves in writing books How much more I say must we be in the dark for the clear meaning of that whereof every tittle is conâ—â—derable That the Apostles writings were no way obscure to those they were directed to is to mee unquestionable For though it is reasonable that they should as wee see they do in some passages rise above the pitch of the common capacity even of them they were writ to least they should become subject to neglect So that for the most part they should not be understood of the most part would be a manifest inconvenience But it is no inconvenience that by distance of time they should become liable to the same difficulty of being understood which all other ancient writings necessarily become subject to And that reason appeareth no lesse in those things which concern the necessary salvation of all than in maters of lesse consequence It will therefore be hard to reconcile to any capacity of reason that which is advanced for the first truth towards the deciding of all Controversies of Faith that all things necessary to salvation are clear in the Scriptures to all understandings Those Scriptures which onely can be pretended to deliver the truth of Christianity clearly neither professing to deliver the whole summe and substance of it and being directed to those who are supposed already instructed in all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians Therefore this unreasonable presumption is not to create any difficulty to that reason of deciding Controversies of Faith which wee proceed to settle upon the premises I cannot tell whether or no it was requisite to say so much against a presumption meerly voluntary and which common experience contradicts For if all agreeing in the truth of Christianity and the Scriptures there remain dispute about things which some count necessary to salvation others not It is enough that the truth of Christianity inferreth means sufficient to clear the truth of what remaines on dispute But first it is manifest that what remaines in dispute is not of it self manifest to all that acknowledge the Scriptures but may become manifest to them that use such means as the truth of Christianity inforceth Neverthelesse since they that are in love with their own presumptions though never so dangerous to the supreme Majesty take whatsoever crosses them for a derogation to the Scriptures let thus much be said to show that by giving the Scriptures no man may presume that God intended to declare in them whatsoever is necessary to the salvation of all clearly to all understandings But if this must have been supposed as a principle or ground whereupon wee are to resolve all Controversies of Faith it would have been requisite to have showed us that this truth is of all other so much more clearly laid down in the Scriptures as that which concurres to the clearing of all ought it self to be the most clear Now if wee consider that this privilege of containing all that is necessary to the salvation of all belongs