down in the New Testament or what those things are that belong in common to all Christians as their Duty or their Priviledge and in respect of their joynt-performance of the former of which and their enjoyment of the latter they may be said to be One. 1. Therefore all Christians do unite in their Profession to submit to one Head who is our Lord Jesus Christ which is so necessary a Duty incumbent on all that he who makes not this Profession is in no respect within the Unity of the Church this being the Ground of all other Reasons of Unity whatsoever and therefore the Apostle makes this to be one principal Foundation of the Unity of the Church that it professes subjection to one Lord Eph. 4.5 And in the third Verse of this Chapter he lays down this mark of distinction between the impulse of the Spirit of God and the impulse of an evil Spirit That whosoever is led by the former doth say that Jesus is the Lord. They are also One in professing the common Faith that was at first delivered to the Saints which began to be preached when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles and hath ever since been contained in the Holy Scriptures and summarily expressed in the ancient Creeds And therefore to one Lord the Apostle doth in the forementioned place add one Faith Thus we find in Rom. 6.17 That one Form of Doctrine was delivered to Christians and that they are to stand fast in one Spirit and with one mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 Thus St. Paul charged Timothy That if any man taught otherwise and consented not to wholsome words the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he should from such withdraw himself 1 Tim. 6.3 Not looking upon them any longer as Christians or as such conversing with them which together with many other like Passages manifestly shews that he who in any point departed from the common Faith of Christians that was received from the Apostles was broken off from the Unity of the Church which is One by a common profession of certain Points of grand importance taught at first by the Holy Spirit For which reason St. Cyprian doubted not to say He cannot seem a Christian who doth not persist in the Vnity of Christ's Gospel and Faith 3. There is an Unity of Sacraments in the Christian Church One Baptism by which we are all admitted into the same state of Duties and Priviledges undertaking the Conditions of the New Covenant and gaining a Right to the Promises thereof and therefore the Apostle adds also one Baptism And here in the Text he expresly affirms that by one Spirit we are baptized into one Body into one Body of People professing one common Faith and claiming the Priviledges belonging to such a Profession The like Unity is inferred from the other Sacrament since we are all made to drink into one Spirit And in the 10th Chapter of this Epipistle v. 16 17. he saith The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 4. There is also an Unity of Obedience to the same Laws and Institutions For to all Christians it equally belongeth to govern themselves effectually by the will of their Lord Jesus Christ to observe his Ordinances and Commands by the doing of which they declare themselves to be of his Flock in that they hear his Voice and of his Kingdom in that they live by his Laws and that as there is one and the same Obligation so there is one and the same Correspondent Practice one and the same Spirit of Obedience that runs through all 5. There is also an Unity of Affection or mutual Charity prescribed to the Church Thus saith our Saviour By this shall all Men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another Thus saith the Apostle in this Chapter The Members should have the same care one for another and whether one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be honoured all the Members rejoyce with it which kind of Unity appeared most visibly after the Church was begun on the day of Pentecost for it is observed presently that the multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul Acts 4.32 6. There is also an Unity of Communion in the Service and Worship of God in joyning together in the same Acts of Piety and Devotion according to the Rules of the Gospel in Prayers and in Sacraments and in glorifying God with one mouth moreover in the common defence of the same Truth and in the joint opposition of every dangerous Error in propagating and promoting the same Faith of the Gospel and striving together for the Interest of it 7. There is also an Unity of Discipline or Government which is to be maintained by every Member's keeping in his Place and order in the Church the People of Christ receiving the Mysteries of Christianity from their Pastors and these confederating one with another for the maintenance of common Christianity without invading each others Liberty and Jurisdiction and accomodating as near as may be all Rites of Discipline and Worship to one another and assisting each other by Advice and Correspondence and giving no occasion to breach of Charity and Christian Communion by abusing a lawful or by claiming an undue Authority Other more particular Instances might be mentioned but I shall content my self with these believing that upon these Grounds of Unity which I have noted it will not be difficult to satisfie those Scruples which have been thrown into some Mens Minds concerning the necessity of being of that one Church which is the Body of Christ and they are chiefly two 1. That there must be one Church which is the only Church of Christ exclusively to all the rest that are not in Communion with her 2. That where there is most Unity there of necessity must be the true Church 1. That there is one-Society or Communion which is the Body of Christ exclusively to all other Communions whatsoever For thus they argue The Apostle here and the New Testament elsewhere affirms That the Disciples of Christ are one Body If therefore there be as there are several Bodies of Christians in this divided State of Christendom that are not united in Communion in Worship in Government no nor in Doctrine neither these cannot all be the Body of Christ which is but one and therefore there must be but one of them which is that Body of Christ or the true Church And from hence they proceed farther since we grant that they are a Church we do in effect grant that we are not so much as a part of the true Church our selves because we are not in Communion
unclean or unlawful in its own nature to be used nor can any man's touch make it so nor can any of these things defile a man's Conscience but a man's Conscience is defiled by that which comes from his heart by evil Thoughts by evil Words and by Actions contrary to the Command of God such as murders and adulteries c. These are the things that defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man i. e. doth not by any means affect his Soul or his Conscience for in this respect he is neither better for washing nor worse for letting it alone and to think otherwise is a Superstition hurtful to your selves and dishonourable to God and of very bad consequence tho it be not so impudent and notorious an abuse as the making void of God's Law by the other lewd Tradition that I mentioned before It is to this purpose that we are to understand the method and design of our Saviour's Discourse in this place in answer to the Objection of the Pharisees brought against the Disciples From which Answer there are some things to be gathered well worth our observation 1. That it is sufficient to overthrow the Authority of a pretended Tradition that it is contrary to the Commandment of God 2. That if there be one Traditionary Doctrine that notoriously contradicts the Law of God that one instance is sufficient to overturn the credit of that Tradition which pretends to deliver unwritten Doctrines of equal Authority with those that are written 3. That the universal consent of some one Age or more That such and such Doctrines were delivered by word of mouth many Ages before is no Argument that they were so delivered 4. That we have great reason to stick to the Word of God delivered to us in the Scriptures and to examine all Doctrines and Rules which are said to be necessary to Salvation by that Rule and to reject the Authority of unwritten Traditions 1. That it is sufficient to overthrow the Authority of a pretended Tradition That it is contrary to the Commandment of God For if when Tradition is pretended for any Doctrine or Practice it be not enough to shew that the same Doctrine or Practice is inconsistent with what is plainly required in the Scriptures which are acknowledged by all to contain the Word of God I say if this be not enough then our Saviour used an insufficient Argument against the pretended Tradition of not suffering the Son that was under a Vow of the contrary to relieve his Father or Mother that it made void the commandment of God But doubtless our Saviour was so far from using a bad Argument that he used the best and most convincing of all And truly if we did not in this case consider our Saviour's Authority yet it must be a monstrous prejudice that keeps any man from discerning the strength of this Argument against the Authority of any unwritten Doctrine That it is contrary to what is written for nothing is more certain than that Contradictions cannot be true and yet they must be true if that Doctrine for which unwritten Tradition is pretended can be of God tho it contradicts the written Tradition which is by all acknowledged to be Divine But as plain as this Argument is yet it is very well for us that we find our blessed Saviour giving such Authority to it because there are Christians in the World bearing up themselves upon the Tradition of the Church that are loth to admit this Argument which we have no cause to be amazed at because it is an utter Confutation of all their pretences We charge them with having brought into the Church new Articles of Faith and new Doctrines of Worship which are not only very different from what was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles but some of them contrary thereunto as we can shew them out of the Scriptures But this way of proceeding doth by no means content them and they insist upon it that the Cause may be tried otherwise For say they You acknowledge that our Church was once a pure Church and taught the Gospel sincerely but if as you say she departed from the pure Faith and Worship which the Apostles left it is impossible but this must have been very notorious because it could not have been done without opposition and resistance from some that must needs observe it Tell us therefore When were these new and false Doctrines introduced Who were the men that brought them in Who were the first that made the discovery What Council condemned them after they were discovered For if none of these things can be shewn it is absurd to think that any such alteration should have been as you say Which reasoning amounts to thus much That it is impossible we can be sure that in the compass of a thousand Years there was a great alteration happened in the state of Religion unless withal we can tell how it came about and just when it came about the precise time and the punctual manner and circumstances thereof which is just as if a man almost desperately sick of a Disease that had been for some Years growing upon him should prove to his Friend that he is as well as ever he was in his Life for says he You know I was well once and if I am now so ill as you say pray shew me the time when this Disease first happened the manner how and what Physicians were called about me which kind of arguing would certainly prove no more than that the Disease had taken his head When the Servants came and told their Lord that the tares came up with the wheat it was excusable in them to say We sowed good seed whence hath it these tares But when their Master told them An enemy hath done this if they had disputed and told him It was impossible there should be any Tares at all because he could not tell punctually that very Night when they were sown and who the Persons were that took the malicious pains to sow them then they had been very inexcusable thus to renounce their own certain knowledge for the sake of a vain Speculation Now we are very sure that the Apostles did at first sow nothing in the Church but good and true Doctrine Our Fathers that lived about fourteen hundred Years after found quite another sort of Doctrine gotten into the Church and some of them contrary to what the Apostles taught as the Scriptures manifestly shew and yet there have been a long time and still there are certain Disputers that go about to stagger others with such like questions as we have been speaking of and teach them to defy all reasoning out of the Scriptures till these questions are satisfied What Age What Year of our Lord were these Errors brought into the Church Who were they that brought them in and who first complained of them Now although a very reasonable account both may be and hath been given of
Authority of Interpretation as I will shew this Disputer when he pleases If nothing less than Infallibility will serve to understand or as he says to sense Words why does this Disputer put into my Hands this Paper of his which is none of the plainest neither I am sure he does not take me to be Infallible and yet I am confident he would be angry if I should say his Paper was not to be understood without an infallible Interpreter let him answer this if he can The Reason he gives why Scripture sensed by a fallible Authority cannot be the Rule of Faith is because all such Interpretations may be false That is to say because there is a bare Possibility of any fallible Man's mistaking the sense of plain Texts Which kind of Reasoning makes impossible that every Man should come to be a Believer unless himself be first Infallible And this I shall demonstrate so plainly that no Man who has any share of Understanding and Modesty shall be able to deny it There is no possible way for any sort of Christians to make known either the Articles or Reasons of Faith to those that are yet ignorant of them but by Words or Sentences written or spoken He who hears or reads the words and sentences cannot tell either what is to believe or why he should believe till he understands or in the Disputers Phrase till he senses those Words and Sentences but as yet his Authority is but fallible and Words sensed by a fallible Authority can never give a Man certainty either of the Rule or of the Reason of his Faith if this Disputer be in the Right therefore 't is impossible to make him a Believer unless you can make him Infallible first that it may not be possible for him to be mistaken in sensing the Words which he hears or reads And thus farewel to all Advantage that any Man can have by the Infallibility of Popes and Councils or Oral Tradition as well as by the Scriptures nay and to all possible means of arriving to certainty in any matter of Faith unless every body be Infallible first so that upon supposition that God would have all Men to be sav'd and therefore to believe it inavoidably follows from the wild reasoning of this Man that God has made every Man Infallible But if it be evident that Men are fallible Creatures then this Disputer has advanced a Principle the most destructive to all certainty of Faith that ever was heard of in the World But the comfort is that 't is so very absurd that no body well in his Wits can be misled by it Pap. And therefore Faith cannot be obtain'd by any such means Ans Which is as much as to say that Faith cannot be obtain'd till a Man have the Gift of Infallibility And if every Man has it before he can be taught to any purpose what need can there be of an infallible Interpreter to teach him But as I observed before 't is impossible to make Believers of those that are not Infallible unless the Disputer or his Church has a way to make known the Doctrines and Reasons of Christian Faith without Words Pap. For that which is doubtful can only create opinion which is also doubtful Ans Therefore since all Words are doubtful to him that has but a fallible Authority to sense them as no Man has more before he believes 't is impossible for the Disputers Church to create any thing more than opinion which is also doubtful in those whom she teaches unless as I have already said she can make them Infallible first and teach them afterwards And even then there would be no need of teaching them at all because they are now Infallible themselves Of all the Papers that ever I read I never met with any thing more absurd and contradictious than the reasoning of this In which the Disputer out of a vehement desire to overthrow our Faith and the Grounds of it has laid down Principles that do effectually overthrow all ways of making Men sure of any thing and in particular the use of those very Methods by which his own Church pretends to lead Men to Faith Pap. And he that doubts in Faith the Apostle saith is Infidelis and a company of Doubters are not a Church of Faithful but a society of such as the Apostle calls Infidels Ans What Apostle says this if the Disputer refers to Rom. 14.23 as I think he does he has shewn his skill in the Interpretation of Scripture to be equal to his mastery in Reasoning If in the Infallible Church they can Interpret Scripture no better than thus give me the honesty and industry of a Fallible Church before it The Conclusion AND now after all this Paper is as absurd in the design as it is in the management for the business of it is to prove That Protestants have no Faith but are Infidels and that by this Argument they are and must be Doubters Now whether I doubt or do not doubt is a Question concerning a matter of Fact that I have more reason to know the Truth of than the Disputer can possibly have and if I know that I do not doubt and he can yet prove that I do doubt he is an extraordinary Man indeed For then I am sure he can prove That Truth not only may be but is false which perhaps such a Man as he can reconcile with what he said at first That truths are impossible to be false And this alone had been a sufficient Answer to his Paper for nothing can be more frivolous than to go about to prove to a Man by fine Reasoning that he does doubt of a thing when hâ— is as sure that he does not doubt of it as he caâ— be of any thing in the World But the design of this Paper seems to be as impious as 't is absurd And that is to bring weak Persons to Infidelity first that they may afterwards be setled upon Romish Grounds I do acknowledge 't is a very proper way to bring us over to the Church of Rome to make us Infidels first But this they will not find so easie a mattter for we trust that we are not of those who draw back to Perdition but of those that believe to the saving of the soul I have omitted nothing in the whole Paper but to take notice of that little and mean Reflection in calling the Protestant a Parliamentary Protestant I have told this Disputer the Reason and Ground of our Faith If we moreover are protected in the Profession of it by the Laws of the Land I suppose 't is no more than what he would desire for the Profession of Popery and he would think never the worse of himself for being a Parliamentary Papist Thus I have answered this Paper through every Clause of it And I am confident destroy'd all that little Appearance of Reasoning that it made Let the Disputer build it up again if he can I promise him by God's Grace that I 'll pull it down again FINIS
some awakening Reproof from men or some merciful Providence of God may make the Truth which he is already provided with the belief of effectual to his Conversion But there is little reason to hope this of a man whose very Principles are corrupted and has no fears within himself for a charitable man to take hold upon And therefore that Saying of our Saviour may be well applied to such a Person If the light that is in him be darkness how great is that darkness Moreover as there is little hope to reform that man's evil Practices whose Persuasions make him secure and easy all the while so there is no little difficulty to be met with in trying to undeceive him for men will hold comfortable Errors as long as they can find the least pretence for it And which is not the least mischief of this Offence though such Errors are not laid down without a great trouble yet they are taken up with much readiness they are apt to spread far and wide And to this I believe the experience of the world agrees viz. That although there are mistakes that lead to Trouble of Mind and over-much Restraint yet for one that is led away by such Mistakes an hundred there are that believe comfortable Lies which either wholly take off the Restraints of Religion or in such part as to render them ineffectual 3. Perverse Disputes and an obstinate maintenance of Error by all the Arts of Sophistry has this lamentable evil commonly attending it That it renders many persons utterly careless to examine on which side the Truth lies Perhaps they are but few in comparison that are framed to an inquisitive Spirit and they who are not so framed by Nature or by Education must force their Tempers to Patience and take pains with themselves which is an Employment that men soon grow weary of and commonly they break off pretending it is to no purpose to search any farther but that when there is so much to be said on both sides when there is such an appearance of Reason for and against the same thing it is time for them to give over being Judges for themselves And indeed in things that are either really disputable or of less moment this were not much to be blamed But in matters of high consequence and questions that touch the very Vitals of Religion it often happens that men grow weary of searching Truth and give up themselves wholly to be led by the Authority and Judgment of others after the Controversy is stifly maintain'd for some time on both sides And it were well in this case if it were an even Lay whether they chuse the true Guide or not But when a Guide is to be chosen and followed with an implicit Faith the false Guide hath this Advantage always that he exceeds in Confidence in lofty Pretences in swelling Titles in positive denouncing Damnation to all that are not of his way And though a modest man that speaks justly of things and claims not to be infallible deserves the most credit yet 't is great odds that the other has most Followers amongst those that understand not the Merits of the Cause 4. The same Cause has too often a yet worse Effect and that is to run some persons into Infidelity and an utter neglect of Religion as if no Certainty could be had of the Principles of Religion seeing there is so much Controversy about it And some have said That it will be then time enough for them to believe in God and to worship him when they that pretend to oblige them to it are agreed about it The truth is were it not for that secret Impression of his own Being which God hath left upon our Nature it is not improbable but the monstrous Errors that have been obtruded upon a great part of mankind under the name of Faith and the Force and the Fraud wherewith they have been maintained had let in Atheism like a Deluge upon the world especially considering that there are those in the world who are so full of Zeal for their own way that they have no tenderness for the common Principles of Faith but are rather content that all should sink together than that their own Doctrines should not stand We have been born in hand that no assurance can be had of the Truth of Christianity but from the Authority of such and such men and they that believe upon other Grounds had as good have no Faith at all That if it were possible for them to propound any thing that is false we cannot be certain of any one Article that is true That the same exceptions may be made to the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles that are made against the Stories of latter Miracles And finally That by the same reason that any of their Traditions are rejected the Holy Scriptures may be rejected too and indeed we have lived to see the utmost that can be done by Wit and Learning to diminish the Authority of the Bible Now this I say is a most dreadful Offence and has done infinite mischief in the world that men who are violently engaged in a wrong way of Religion care not for the most part what they venture in the service of their own Cause for whilst they lay the same stress upon false or at least disputable Points that they do upon the most necessary and acknowledged Principles of Religion and bend all their Wit to shew that no difference ought to be made they give occasion to men that would fain be Atheists to deceive themselves into what they would be For a very little Consideration will serve to satisfy them that something is false which is propounded to them as an Object of their Faith and they know they have then leave given them to conclude that nothing is true 5. There is another great mischief of Offences that are given by Errors in Doctrine or Practice and a mischief that often happens in the world which is that of running into a contrary Extreme The Church found this by sad experience in the Fourth and Fifth Ages when men of no small Note disputing against one Heresy fell into another of an opposite nature to the no small trouble of Christendom Truth sometimes as well as Virtue lies in the Mean and they that transgress on any one side do not only this mischief to give what authority they can to the wrong side they are of but they do this mischief too of giving occasion to others to offend on the other Extreme Thus the abuse of Church Authority on the one side has bred in some men contempt of all such Authority on the other The Scandals that have been given by propagating Opinions by Force and Violence have produced in many a fond persuasion that there ought to be no restraints whatsoever in matters of Religion Superiors have required unlawful things in Divine Service and to be revenged upon that abuse it has been said that they are not to
very same Epistle he commends them all for taking heed to the words of Prophecy of the Old Testament in which there were some things as hard to be sure as any are in St Paul's Writings and I hope St. Peter was as wise a Man in this point as any that have come after him And now I beseech you let us not say That we are Believers already and therefore we need not trouble our selves with constant reading of the Bible Were not they so to whom St. Peter wrote Nay the Apostles were then alive to instruct them by Word as well as by Writing and moreover daily Miracles were wrought for confirmation of the Faith yet they did well in taking diligent heed to the Scriptures and shall not we do so too who can find Apostles and Miracles no where but there We believe already but have we all of us that stedfast Faith which the Gospel requires which is not grounded meerly upon Education and the Custom of our Country but upon the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power Have we that Faith which will bear examination and encounter opposition If we have a very little Exhortation will serve the turn to make us persevere in reading God's Book whereby we shall be yet more strongly built up in our most holy Faith But if not our want of Faith will not be admitted at the last Day for an excuse of the badness of our Lives when we had the Scriptures laid before us the Holy Scriptures I say which if they had been diligently and honestly read by us would have furnished us with such an immovable ground of our Christian Belief as would have supported us in the Day of Temptation Nay if our Faith was grown never so strong yet the reading of the Scriptures would be necessary for us to make the Precepts and Rules of the Christian Life and the Motives and Reasons of practising them daily present in our Minds For the Temptations to sin are always present the Snares of Hell are still round about us we are ever in some danger and therefore we ought always to be strong in the Lord by having a constant sense of those Divine Truths upon our Minds which are our great defence and security And I see not how this can be if we neglect to have recourse unto that ever necessary Treasure of Divine Truth the Holy Word of God St. Chrysistom therefore doubted not to say and I wish we may all well consider that earnest saying of so wise and holy a Man as he was It cannot be says he It cannot possibly be that a Man should attain Salvation unless he be diligently conversant in Spiritual Reading Himself was so excellent and constant a Preacher that if any one Man not extraordinarily inspired could have made it needless for his Hearers to read the Scriptures at home he I should reckon was the Man and yet I observe he often complains to them that the reason why most of them gained little profit by what he said either as to improvement of Knowledge or good Practice was because they did not read the Scriptures he explained to them either before or after his Sermons And says he it is the neglect of this Reading that causeth all Heresie and corrupt Life Now I beseech you how much time do we spend in other things of little concern to us either as to our Health or Wealth or our wordly Callings And what a shame and a sin is it for us to find so little time as generally we do to furnish our selves with the knowledge of God's Truth and with pious Affections towards the doing of his Will out of God's Holy Book What a great matter were it if we borrowed some time for this purpose from our Recreations or even from our ordinary Business For what is this Life to Life Everlasting What is the Wealth and Pleasure of this World to our Salvation in the World to come And therefore the forementioned excellent Person argued with his Hearers in this manner Perhaps some may say That they are otherwise employed in their worldly Callings and others that they have not Money to spare to buy the Scriptures but says he what a ridiculous thing would it be for a Man of a Secular Employment to neglect it upon pretence that he has not time for it or that he has not wherewithal to purchase the necessary Tools of his Calling These things are seldom or never pleaded but by idle Persons And do you not all know that you are professed Christians and called to the hope of Eternal Life and that diligent reading and hearing the Holy Scriptures is as necessary to your Christian Calling as any thing can be to the successful management of your Secular Professions I shall add this one thing That besides that improvement in Knowledge and Vertue which is naturally consequent upon much conversing with God's Book they that do so have a peculiar Title to GOD's supernatural Blessing who is wont to reward a Pious and Reverend Use of Holy Things with greater Measures of his Grace In one word by other studies we may grow wise for this World but if we add this to the rest we shall yet grow wiser for this World by taking heed to those incomparable Instructions that the Holy Bible abounds with and which is something more we shall grow wise unto Salvation The Tenth Sermon 1 COR. XII 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit AFter the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles there was a continual Communication of Supernatural and extraordinary Gifts to other Believers for a long time To one was given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom To another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit To another Faith by the same Spirit To another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit To another working of Miracles To another Discerning of Spirits To another Divers kinds of Tongues To another the Interpretation of Tongues But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will And this manifestation of the Spirit was given to every man to profit withal i. e. to profit the whole Body whereof himself was a Member For though that one Spirit which distributed his wonderful gifts amongst the Faithful could have given them all to the same Man so as that one and the same Person should have had the Word of Wisdom and the Gifts of Healing and the working of Miracles and a Prophetick Power and discerning of Spirits and divers kinds of Tongues yet to maintain a mutual dependance and a charitable serviceableness of the Members one amongst another he gave to one one Gift to another another dividing severally to every Man for by this means one would stand in need of another and each Member would be obliged to take care of the rest
the Temptation Men of Probity and Lovers of Truth should upon diligent examination hold it faster than otherwise they would have done This is one of the great advantages to which that opposition tends which Truth has met with in the World And therefore the more lofty those Pretences are by which the other Church would bring us to an intire submission to her Authority in every point of Religion so much greater reason there is to examine every one of her particulars and if I find that she is mistaken in any of them I am very sure that she is not infallible in all And if she will not allow me to make a Judgment of the Particulars 't is just as if a Man should try to hinder me from casting up my own Accounts by going about to prove that he cannot possibly mistake in doing it he might indeed shew some Wit in working his Demonstration but I should shew a great deal more folly in trusting him To conclude We have a Rule whereby to try the Doctrine I will not only say of a Church or a Pope or a Council but even of an Angel from Heaven if an Angel should come and preach to us and that Rule is the Holy Scripture especially the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles These are by all Christians acknowledged to be the undoubted and the most ancient Records of our Holy Religion and they have had a Tradition so uncontroulable as no Books in the World ever had the like Whoever therefore is our Guide it is very reasonable that this should be our Rule And of all Churches in the World I will never trust my self to her discretion that will not trust me with the Knowledge and Study of this Rule Here we may if we please make our selves very sure that we are of those whom God will justifie for here we may discern what kind of Persons St. Paul and the Christians of whom he speaks in this place and what all the Apostles and Primitive Disciples of our Lord were For those Books which acquaint us with their Names and which were written by some of themselves do also discover to us what Faith they professed what Doctrine they taught and what Lives they led Now if we profess that very Faith and teach no other Doctrine and frame our practice by their Rules and good Examples then without all question we are such kind of Christians as they were and then altho' we should be used by the World as they were too yet the encouragement and comfort which they had will also belong to us and we too may say Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again Having therefore the infallible Rule of God's Word whereby to guide our selves We beseech you Brethren and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound more and more that while evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived ye may continue in the things which ye have learned knowing of whom ye have learned them even from the Sayings of our Lord Jesus and his holy Apostles delivered to us in the Scriptures which are able to make us wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus Let us remember that it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us not forgetting by any means that 't is a way of righteousness we have been made to know and an holy Commandment that hath been delivered to us from which therefore we may depart as damnably by an impure Conversation as by leting go our pure Profession in which case we are so far from being justified that we shall be the more condemned by our Faith We have no false Principles to save our Hearts from condemning us if we allow our selves in any way of wickedness and God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Whoever else condemns us that is more than recompence enough if God justifieth But who is he that shall justifie us if God condemns FINIS THE SUMM OF A CONFERENCE On Feb. 21. 1686. BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden About the Point of TRANSUBSTANTIATION The Third Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1698. The SUM of a CONFERENCE On Feb. 21. 1686. BETWEEN Dr. Clagett and Father Gooden About the POINT of TRANSUBSTANTIATION Introduction IT will perhaps appear to some a little strange that I do not say almost Incredible that there should have pass'd a Conference above two years since in which Mr. Gooden was concern'd and the World yet to learn the Substance of it The Vanity of that Gentleman to thrust himself upon all Occasions into Disputes with the most Learned Men of our Church first and then to boast of his own Performances in them was so great that there is scarce a Coffee-house in the Town that has not been filled with the Noise of his impertinent Vapours And if those of the other Communion have been always remarkable for an Assurance becoming the pretended Infallibility of their Church I may venture to say that next to Father P the Jesuit and his Friend Mr. M I scarce know any among them that have ever talk'd so loud or made such Heroical Defiances of the Champions and Armies of our Israel in all Places and upon all Occasions as Mr. Gooden these late Years has done among us But thus shallow Waters always run with the greatest Noise and Violence and little Sophisters who either want Capacity to see into their own Fallacies or think they have forehead enough to carry that off with Clamour and Confidence which they cannot do by Reason and Argument delight to expose themselves and their Religion to the most dangerous Tryals whilst Men of Learning and Judgment are modest and ingenuous and know it to be neither for the Honour of their Church nor their own Reputation to challenge all Mankind to answer Paradoxes and to shew that not to be Demonstration which when brought to the tryal is hardly sense See Mr. G's Pap. I hope this will not be thought too severe a Reflection on the late Pretenders of this kind among us which I speak out of a just respect to the more learned and charitable Persons of the Church of Rome who have been no less scandalized at these forward Zealots than our selves and to whom I ought to give this Testimony That during a long acquaintance with many of them I never met with any thing of the Vanity of those I have before-mentioned Our Differences in matters of Religion made no Disturbance either in our Friendship or Conversation with one another If the discourse at anytime led to a Controversie of
had gone this way to work to convert Infidels Pap. Therefore those who obtain the Articles of the Christian Faith must have some Rule to acquire them by which cannot deceive them Ans This is an obscure Saying and I must make the best of it By obtaining Articles of the Christian Faith I suppose he means believing them and by a Rule by which to acquire them He must understand a Rule or means whereby to know what the Articles of the Christian Faith are and then his meaning is That those who believe the Articles of the Christian Faith must be provided of some such Rule or Means to know what they are as cannot deceive them Now whether this be in it self true or false it does not at all follow from what he had laid down before For though the Truth of Things or Propositions is so sure that as he wisely says 't is impossible they should be false yet it does by no means follow that the Reasons upon which I believe these things must necessarily be as sure as the Truth of the Things themselves And this I make no doubt the Disputer was well aware of But because I am sensible who they are whom he designs to pervert by this Paper and for whose sake I answer it I will explain this matter by an Instance that will bring it down to all Capacities If there was such a Man as Henry the 8th it is certainly impossible that there should be no such Man but my belief that there was such a Man is grounded upon such Reasons as do not imply an absolute impossibility of the contrary because it is grounded upon the Testimony of Fallible men And yet I should be very little better than a mad-man if I should entertain the least doubt that there was such a Man which plainly shews that I may have sufficient Reason to believe a thing without any Evidence of the impossibility of the contrary and this is enough to overthrow his Consequence I shall now inquire what truth there is in the Conclusion it self To which end I observe That there are two things which may be understood by those Words cannot deceive them either first that the Rule it self is so plain and certain that no Man who uses it can be deceived by the Rule or secondly That 't is impossible any Man should be mistaken in the Use of it If he means the former then I shall shew him presently that we have such a Rule as he speaks of and that he hath said nothing to make us ashamed of it If he means the latter then I say it is absolutely false That those who without doubting believe the Articles of the Christian Faith must have such a Rule to know what they are as that they cannot possibly mistake in the Use of it To make which plain to every bodies understanding I shall add another Instance easie to be applied If a Man skilful in Arithmetick hath a great many Numbers before him and desires to know what Sum they make when they are put together he has the Rule of Addition to do it by which Rule cannot deceive him Now there are these two things to be observed farther which I think the Disputer himself will not deny first that it is in the Nature of the thing possible that this Man may be mistaken every time that he put these several Numbers together to bring them all into one Sum but secondly that notwithstanding this Possibility of being mistaken yet after he has tryed it over and over again he may be sure without the least doubt that he has done his work right Even so we may have a Rule of Faith that cannot deceive us and though it is not Absolutely Impossible that we should be mistaken in the use of it yet we may for all that be assured and believe without the least doubting that we have learn'd what the true Faith is by that Rule For all the World knows that it is no sufficient Reason to doubt of any thing that the contrary is barely possible Pap. To a Parliamentary Protestant the ancient Fathers can't be such a Rule because they are accounted fallible Ans We never said they were such a Rule this therefore is impertinent Pap. Nor Councils because they also are accounted fallible Ans This is impertinent also for we never said they were our Rule of Faith But we have better Reasons to give why Fathers and Councils cannot be our Rule of Faith than this that the Disputer has made for us And one is this That we cannot make them the Rule of our Faith but by so doing we must depart from the Primitive Fathers and the ancient Councils in as much as all agree That the Holy Scriptures are the Rule of Faith and they made it theirs Pap. Nor Scriptures sensed by a fallible Authority because all such Interpretations may be false Ans This is the Place where I shall tell the Disputer what we believe and why we believe it And when I have done I shall consider whether he hath said any thing in this Clause to shake our Assurance We firmly believe all the Articles of the Creed into the Profession whereof we have been baptized We moreover believe all other Doctrine that is revealed in Holy Scriptures The Grounds of this our Faith are these That in the Holy Scriptures are recorded those Testimonies of Divine Revelation by which the Doctrines therein contained are confirmed That these Testimonies were too notorious and publick to be gainsaid insomuch that the Doctrine built upon them could not be overthrown by the Powers of the World engaged against it That the holy Books were written by the inspired Preachers of that Doctrine which they contain And that for this we have the Testimony of universal and uncontroulable Tradition which is a thing credible of it self This is the Sum of that External Evidence upon which our Faith is grounded In assigning of which I do by no means exclude that internal Evidence that arises from the excellent Goodness of the Doctrines themselves which shews them to be worthy of God Now whereas this Disputer says That these Scriptures cannot be an infallible Rule to us because they are sensed by a fallible Authority that is because we who are fallible understand them as well as we can I answer That no Man needs to be Infallible in order to the understanding of plain Scripture I who do not pretend to Infallibility am yet certain which is enough for me That I do find the Articles of the Creed in the Scriptures and many other Doctrines besides which I do understand I am sure that I know what these Words of St. John signifie 1 John 2.25 And chap. 5.3 This is the Promise that he hath promised us even eternal life And this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and the like The ancient Fathers thought the Scriptures to be so plain that they argued out of them without pretending to an infallible