Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A30359
|
The infallibility of the Church of Rome examined and confuted in a letter to a Roman priest / by Gilbert Burnet.
|
Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.
|
1680
(1680)
|
Wing B5805; ESTC R15581
|
20,586
|
38
|
of the Gospel we are not left to the uncertainties of our own conjectures But there must be a great High Priest of Christendom for judging all Controversies But if this be well considered it will not advance your pretences a whit for the Jews were in all their Political Affairs in their Commerce and Treaties with Foreiners in their Government at home and in the matters of Peace and War to be determined by the Judiciary Laws Moses gave them and as they enjoyed the Land of Canaan by that Law which was then Magna Charta so they were in all Civil matters to be judged by the Law of Moses Now since no Law can give provisions for all emergents there was a necessity of a constant Exposition of that Law in all dubious cases And therefore God was pleased to continue this among them by the Urim and Thummim Their Worship was also made up of a multitude of particular Rites and many cases occurring in these of great intricacy God continued that extraordinary Presence among them But nothing of this was necessary under the Gospel in which the policy of the several States is left to be determined according to the Laws of Nature and the several Humors Customs and Interests of Nations Our Belief is also plain and our Worship simple so that none of these things remain that made an Infallible decision necessary under the Old Testament And besides the mysteriousness of the Communication and the plain express words of the Institution do shew the difference betwixt that and any thing can be pretended to under this new and more perfect dispensation Moses plainly told them what that series of men should be and of whom descended he also declared how they were to inquire Counsel from God and how all must submit to their Sentence Nor was the High Priest by his Character vested with this Authority but when he put on the Ephod and went in before the cloud of glory and brought back the sacred response Now the exactness Moses observed in delivering that seems convincing that when God intended to bring any part of mankind under that subjection he delivered his Commission to these so impowred in so formal and solemn a manner that it was not to be disputed but by one that rejected the Law of Moses From which I presume I may infer That if God had set up such Anthority in the Christian Church the Institution had been express the persons clearly designed their Succession as plainly pointed out to have put so great a matter beyond dispute So that the manner of the divine emanations of unerring direction had been as clear as it was of old Now since I meet nothing of this in the whole New Testament I see no reason to make me believe it is as you pretend For what you infer from our Saviours words to St. Peter from his saying Tell the Church and from his promises of the Holy Ghost will never conclude that you pretend to For before you can oblige me to believe any thing from these Premises you must allow me to acknowledge the sacredness of the Books wherein these words are so that my belief of the Scriptures shall not depend on the decision of the Church but shall rather lead me to acknowledge its Authority You must also allow me to believe these Scriptures are to be so expounded before I own the Authority of the Church to be absolute since from them you bind me to believe it Therefore I must expound them so as may agree best both with the plain literal sense of the words and the design on which they are set down by all which you allow me the Exposition of Scripture Now if I may expound it in some places why not in all that is indispensably necessary to salvation And your Churches claiming that Authority to her self must not oblige me to believe it a whit the more unless by some other cogent reasons I be bound to it for none must be both Judg and Party and no mans assertion must pass for proof in his own case and yet the very places you alledg come far short of what seems requisite on such an occasion for whatever may be said of St. Peter which I shall not now inquire into where have we any formal account who shall be his Successors what shall be necessary to make any such and by what means they shall come by these infallible directions And indeed I can see no reason to think that had there been such an Institution in the Gosspel the same goodness which moved our blessed Saviour to provide so well for his Church should not likewise have drawn from him such an explicit account of it in all circumstances as was necessary for setting the thing beyond dispute and securing any such Court in their Authority by an express constitution of it in its Members and a Declaration of their power such as Moses gave the People of Israel in the obedience due to the responses of Urim and Thummim 3. My third Question shall be supposing an Infallible Church How shall I be directed in my search for it so as to find it out For the several Societies that name the name of Christ being so broken off from one another to which of all these must I address my self for a decision in all Articles of Faith When I consider the beginings of Christianity that it first arose in Ierusalem and did spread most in the East when I also consider that the Eastern Churches had most Confessors and Martyrs in the Ages of persecution and had also the greatest interest in the four first and best General Councils as appears from the Subscriptions where the Western Bishops were scarce the twentieth part When I add to this how undisputed their Succession is and how long they have kept the prosession of the Christian Faith amidst all the severities and cruelties of the Saracens and Mahometans under whose bondage they continue to this day I am tempted to seek this Judge there but when I see in what ignorance they live and how the pressures they groan under though they have not prevailed on them to renounce the name of Christ yet have brought them to a degenerate means which I love not to dwell on nor aggravate since the circumstances they are in plead pity rather than scorn or disdain I am forced to turn away from them but if I look Western I see a Church triumphing indeed in outward splendor their Worship is solemn and magnificent their Priest in great esteem and their High Priest culminates in Glory and Power but after all this I cannot see what must oblige me to an implicit belief to every thing this Church imposes on me since the Piety to which she pretends is either immured in her Cloysters or appears only in faces and outward postures of devotion but after my most impartial inquiries I can see no reason to esteem the Head of this Church a Saint or such a Clerk that I
on vice but that the Church wants a main and necessary complement without which she cannot be perfect and well secured and you know St. Paul reckons Heresies among the works of the Flesh. Now what reason is it that of all the works of the flesh provision should only be against Heresie Therefore I freely acknowledge that as God has left the Will at liberty that so the glory of his Saints might be the greater serving him not by constraint but willingly so he hath also left our Reasons free to judge of things proposed to us whether they be true or false Nor indeed can we believe but as our Reasons are convinced for we cannot put a force on our perswasion And since our Saviour told us it was impossible but that Offences must come so I allow it impossible but that Errors should come for the greater trial of sound and true Believers And I must add that Religion consists in a few plain things in which if a man bring along with him a sincere and pure mind he is sure not to err mortally He may be mistaken in some particular opinions which though they pass for matters of Religion yet are as extrinsick to it as the various Hypatheses in Philosophy are I acknowledge every body ought to have that humble mistrust of themselves and reverence to the Church wherein they were born as not to be easily engaged in new opinions and ought to be very well assured both of the truth and importance of any new Doctrine before they receive it and much more before they broach and vent it to the disturbance of the peace of the Society they live in And who so without a very clear assurance after the diligent application of his thoughts having purified his mind in the exercise of mortification and self denial doth obtrude new Doctrines on the World is highly guilty in the sight of God for renting the body and breaking the unity of the Church But if one after a severe inquiry and all due preparation be clearly convinced of any truth how generally soever it be either unknown or derived he may nay cannot chuse but must believe it But though this assurance may warrant his private departing from the received opinion yet his assurance must be full and his Call clear before he offer his opinion to others But in that case I acknowledge the Guides of the Church may and ought to consider such opinions and pass a Censure on them according to the Scriptures which flowing from persons whose Character makes them both more particularly devoted to God and more conversant in Sacred Writings and as it is to be supposed are by the purity of their minds qualified for a higher sense of divine truth and by their exemplary lives are possessed of the esteem of those over whom they are set will undoubtedly have great influence on all serious and sober persons yet such as are convinced that their decisions are contrary to the Scriptures must still believe God rather than man But in that case the Magistrate may secure the peace of the Society by obliging them either to rest quiet with their Opinions or to go out of his Dominions The Church may also by excommunicating them preserve others from being infected by their misperswasions And thus except you give me better proof I am not convinced there is a necessity of any Infallible Iudge for deciding Controversies and neither for the salvation of souls nor for the peace of the Society of Christians Not for the first since no Proposition is clearer than this That every Christian who studies to be well informed in divine matters and sincerely follows his Conscience shall certainly be saved Nor is this Infallible Iudge necessary for the Society since those who have the Legislative Power whether Civil or Ecclesiastick may govern a Society well though they be not Infallible so that the Church may have an Authority though not infallible and yet sufficient to secure her peace 2. My second Question shall be Whether there be really such an Infallible Iudge on Earth For though this be not necessary yet I shall not deny but our Saviour according to that overflowing love he bears his Church may have provided Her with this security against Error But herein I must crave your pardon to tell you I am very apt to think there is no such Court on Earth for in all extraordinary things to which our assent is craved the means of conveying or rather imposing such belief since no man of a strong mind will easily credit an extraordinary thing especially that which subjects to it the very freedom of his thoughts must have an Evidence and Authority proportioned to the Greatness and Importance of that they recommend to our Faith And therefore when God sent Moses to deliver his People and be their Guide he gave him a power of working such mighty Works which being done in the sight of both Egyptians and Israelites might convince both one and t'other that there was an extraordinary Authority communicated to him he also told the Israelites to demand a Sign or Wonder from every pretender to Prophesie or Divine Mission And because the power of evil Spirits is undoubtedly far beyond ours so that many extraordinary things may be performed by Magick and evil Arts therefore Moses Deut. xiii allows even the People of Israel a previous judgment of the Doctrine of any Pretender to Prophesie before they acknowledged his Authority or were wrought on by his Sign or Wonder We find also the Prophets either by Miracles or Predictions proving their Divine Authority And though the History of all the Prophets is not so full as to give us an account of the Signs or Wonders of each of them yet we have no reason to doubt but they did follow the Rule prescribed by Moses which indeed natural Religion teacheth all men Therefore when our Saviour appeared as he proved himself the Messias by the completion of the Prophesies in his Person he made it also appear by the purity of his Doctrine and the Authority of his Miracles wrought in the sight of his Enemies as well as Followers The same Method was observed by the Apostles as appeared from their Acts and Epistles And it is certain that as no man can be witness in his own cause so no mans or company of mens pretence to an infallible Jurisdiction must engage me to believe it otherwise there were no end of Impostors Therefore I must conclude That except you can shew me a Succession of men who by some clear demonstrations of an unerring Spirit and divine Authority prove themselves Infallibly directed and uncontroulably assisted by God I am not obliged to submit my self to any as such Nor is it to any good purpose to say That because there was a Succession of High Priests under Moses Law who by the Oracle in the Pectoral did authoritatively decide all Controversies therefore we may be well assured that under the clearer illumination