all Christians agree and let me have your Warrant that I am bound to believe neither the Trinity nor Incarnation nor any thing wherein all Christians do not agree Now if you tell me I am obliged to stand to the Determination of one particular Church or some and not all tell me which and why that or those more than others What Church for Example were particular Persons bound to follow Two hundred years ago before the Reformation Our Author at first put the Question Whether all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture And upon this he argues If they be then they are either clearly contained in it so that there is no need of an Interpreter for the meaning of them or not If the Addresser could have gained the first Point That all necessaries are not contained in Scripture then the Case lay fair before him and it would follow as he supposes that there must be some external and speaking Authority from whence those Necessaries not contained in Scripture are to be received and where they are to be fought This is a Case he puts to the Question If not where must I seek them But there he leaves it Indeed it was a tender Point because of late they would have us believe that they have Scripture for what they differ from us in and then to talk of Necessaries not to be found in Scripture and to instance in those Necessaries would be to give up that Cause which they have so much laboured to support in that way and to tell the World that the Church of Rome is the Treasurer of all those Necessaries is a Doctrine not so suitable to the Genius of the present Age as it was to others heretofore But if that would not be yielded That all Necessaries are not contained in Scripture he then puts in with a Second That they are not so Clearly contained in it as not to need an Interpreter and if this be yielded he would in his own opinion save his Cause for then he concludes there must be some Guide and Interpreter and it will be necessary to know who and where the Interpreter is Now if we may guess what kind of Interpreter or Guide it is that he would have it 's one that is necessary for all to believe and whose Interpretation all are obliged to receive a Guide that is a Judg and whose Judgment is absolute final and conclusive into which all is to be resolved and from which there is no appeal that is to teach all Necessaries to Salvation not contained in Scripture and to interpret the meaning of those that are without which we cannot know whether there be a Trinity or our Saviour was Incarnate and upon whose determination all the Articles of our Faith do depend for their declaration Here the Case is immutably fixed says our Author I must believe it 's necessary to believe I am obliged to believe and am bound to follow as he puts the Case But now we that are for Ministerial Guides and Interpreters that are appointed by God for the teaching his Church and whose Office it is to teach them so as they may understand and judg for themselves know nothing of such a Guide as he would introduce upon us and we have reason to be cautious when we find both the Apostle declaring against it 2 Cor. 1.24 Not for that we have dominion over your Faith but are helpers and our Saviour warning us against such an Imposition Matth. 23.8 9 10. Call no man master on earth for one is your master It 's his Prerogative alone to challenge such an absolute submission from us and it 's a gross Usurpation in any other to claim and assume it So that we may leave our Author to find out Who and where the Interpreter is for we own no such Guide or Interpreter as he would impose upon us whether he means by it any particular Church or any part or Society of that Church or indeed any humane Authority whatsoever And when he or his Partizans think it worth the while to undertake the proof of it and shall as clearly prove it as the Trinity and Incarnation are from Scripture we that profess the latter and are as sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth as he can be do promise him to own the former and for this Reason and that they may have a fair occasion offered to try their skill upon it I shall put the Case a little forward I am sensible our Author would take it in good part to have it granted that all things necessary to Salvation are not contained in Scripture and to have it brought to his first Question If so where must I seek them Or that They are not clear enough in Scripture without an Interpreter that at least the next Question may be brought on Who and where the Interpreter is And therefore to gratifie him as much as I can I shall for the present suppose that all things necessary are not in Scripture and then in his order and words I ask What those necessaries to Salvation are that are not contained in Scripture and where each of them may be found Now he that supposes this must proceed upon the Principles of the Church of Rome since no Church besides that I know of is of this mind And whither may we expect to be directed so soon as to the Creed of Pope Pius IV. which contains the chief of those Doctrines they differ from other Churches in and which are made as necessary to be received and believed as the Articles of the Nicene Creed being by that Pope's Authority in consequence of the Order of the Council of Trent incorporated into one and the same Profession of Faith. By which means they are forced upon one of these two Difficulties either to prove their new-coined Articles by Scripture as well as those of the Nicene Creed or to show that the Articles of the Nicene Creed are no more to be proved from Scripture without Tradition and the Churches Explication than those of Pope Pius The former they are never able to do and all their attempts that way have proved vain and unsuccessful and therefore they have taken several ways for the latter sometimes detracting from the Sufficiency or Perspicuity of Scripture at other times exalting Tradition and Church-Authority to an equality with it For since all these Points are made by this means equally necessary to Salvation and since it 's as necessary to believe on pain of Damnation That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly really and substantially together with his Soul and Divinity in the Sacrament and the whole Substance of the Bread is turned into the Body and the whole Substance of the Wine into his Blood c. Since it 's as necessary to believe this as the Being of a God the Trinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and that they
are sensible they are not to be proved in the same way they find themselves obliged to give the same Authority to one as the other and to bring down the Scripture to the Church or exalt the Church to the Authority of Scripture So that if we will look for things necessary not contained in Scripture we must have recourse to the Church which can as they say ordain new Articles of Faith and which whenever so ordained are as much to be believed and received as those which have their Authority immediately from Scripture And after our Author hath beat about and done his endeavour to loosen the Articles of our Faith from the written Revelation and the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles hither he would bring the Case that we are obliged to stand to the Determination of one particular Church as he insinuates page 4. But now to return his own words upon him If you remit me to the Decision of the true Church it will be necessary to know which is that Church For since there are several pretenders and there are Christian Arrians as he saith and many other Dissenters how shall I find out this True Church and why that more than others Is it because she herself saith she is the True Church All the rest claim the like Character of being a True Church and besides this is to demand the thing that is to be proved Is it that she is like a City upon an Hill or the Sun in the Firmament to be known by a self-evident Light Why is it not then as well known and indisputably owned to be the true Church and the only True Church as a City to be a City or the Sun to be the Sun Is it to be found out by the Notes and Marks of the True Church Then we must find out the Marks before we find out the Church that is to be known by them And then the pinching Question comes on Where must I seek these Notes It 's to be feared that will lead us to the Scripture and then we know what follows Lastly Are we to find out the Church by an Infallible Guide Then we are to find such a Guide out of the Church and that we have no direction where to seek or by what Notes we may know it Here indeed we are left in a Maze to beat out the way and they that have made the Church a Guide have appointed no Guide to lead us to the Church That is a Track we must find of our selves there we must use our own simple Reason Consideration and Enquiry So that how certain soever we may be when in the Church we can never be infallibly certain which is the Church that we are bound to follow because this kind of certainty is peculiar to the Church and not to be had out of it But since we have gone thus far upon Supposition let us take it for granted once more that the Church is upon the Hill visible and demonstrable yet because the Church is a Collective Body where is the Seat of that Infallible Authority that I am to attend to and finally to be determined by Is it in every particular person Then because Infallibility knows no degrees I my self should in that Church be as Infallible as the Supreme Pastor of it Is it in one particular person or in a General Council Who and where is it Must I suspend till I know or till all the parts of the Church agree in it If you tell me all joyned together as our Author has taught me to Reason then it follows I am bound to believe nothing of this kind but what all agree in for what they disagree in cannot be the Sentiment or Decision of the whole Church but only of a part of it I am not then obliged to believe the Pope's Infallibility for the Councils of Basil and Constance and the French Church tho Papists deny it Nor am I obliged to believe a Council Infallible without the Pope because those at Rome deny it And because what 's a good Argument in one case is good in another let me have our Author's Warrant that I am bound to believe neither Infallible since neither of these agree with the other For certainly I am no more obliged to believe the Infallibility of their Church which they do thus disagree in than our Author would perswade us that we are not obliged to believe the Trinity because the Arrians tho Christians deny it But supposing that the Seat of Infallibility be clear and evident Yet how can I that am at a vast distance of years or place from that Oracle whatever it is be infallibly assured that these that are put into my hands are the very Results and Decrees of that Authority Or that this that I think or am told is the true and undoubted sense of them Or to speak modestly How can I be as much assured of the Truth of these matters as I am of the Authority and Sence of Scripture Or that Christ hath not spoken as plainly and intelligibly in the Scriptures as his Vicar or Substitutes have in any of their Canons and Decrees So that tho the Church be Infallible and I a Member of that Infallible Church yet what will that Infallibility avail me when I am without the doors of that Infallible Council or out of the reach of the immediate Dictates of the Infallible Chair And unless the spirit of Infallibility descends from the Chair to the meanest Priest who is to instruct and direct me or is indorsed upon every Decree and inspires every Article with its own unerring sense I am not infallibly certain And I may be no more certain of the true Doctrine of the Infallible Church than I am of the sense of Scripture under the Conduct of a Fallible Church since the immediate Authority I depend upon for the Doctrine and the Sense of it is all this while Fallible As for example I am told that there is such a Creed as that before mentioned of Pope Pius IV. that contains in it such Articles that every one is so bound to believe as without the belief of which no Man can be saved And I find in that Creed that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches And yet how shall I be Infallibly assured first that there ever was such a person as Pope Pius the 4th or that he ever composed such a Creed or that the foresaid Supremacy of the Church of Rome is one of those Articles The Pope I never saw nor am like to see A Council is a rare thing and what they care not to hear of at Rome and are able to do as well without as with it And therefore where shall I be infallibly instructed in these matters How shall I then be sure that the Article aforesaid is not to be understood that the Church of Rome is the Mistress of all Churches within the particular Diocess of Rome only For
John Item in S. John ' s Gospel signifies a strict Identity which notwithstanding I conceive ought to be if all Necessaries to Salvation be clearly contained in Scripture Now if the Belief of a Trinity be not necessary to Salvation I desire it may be clearly owned in these or the like words 'T is not necessary for Salvation to believe Three Persons and one God notwithstanding the Creed of S. Athanasius and Definition of the first Council of Nice when the Church was in her Purity not the least corrupted The sum of our Author's Argument is this That the Doctrine of the Trinity is not clearly contained in Scripture because Unity in some places signifies not a Unity of Essence but of Will which way of arguing supposes that if a word be taken in two or more different senses then the Scripture doth not clearly contain the things contained in those words As for Example the word Door is sometimes taken in Scripture in a proper sense sometimes in a Metaphorical and being thus differently taken we cannot according to him certainly know when it is to be understood Properly and when Metaphorically and must be at a perfect loss to understand whether when our Saviour is called a Door John 10.7 it 's not meant properly and when St. Peter is said to stand at the Door John 18.16 it 's not meant Metaphorically Or to come nearer to our Author the Body of Christ is sometimes taken for a Natural sometimes for a Mystical Body and therefore we cannot be certainly assured whether when Joseph begg'd the Body of Jesus it 's not to be understood of the Mystical Body and that when the Apostles and Prophets c. were given for the edifying the Body of Christ Eph. 4.11 12. it 's not to be understood of Christ's Natural Body In this so difficult a case which is absolutely necessary to be answer'd for the salvation of his Soul p. 4. if you will believe the Addresser What is to be done What in reason will content him It 's nothing less than this That it be shewn that in some Verse and Chapter in Scripture we have these or the like words The Word One in St. John ' s Epistle signifies a strict Identity And he might have gone on without end in the same way and one as obstinate as himself may say Shew me some other Chapter and Verse wherein it is said that the word Door John 10. is to be understood Metaphorically and the word Body Ephes. 4. is to be understood Mystically or else it is apparent that we cannot know what Door Proper or Metaphorical or what Body whether Natural or Mystical is meant in those places for This ought to be if these things are clearly contained in Scripture This is a Thought for ought I know peculiar to our Author for I don't find this Address comes out with other Allowance than Printed for R. Taylor and as I do not envy him the Glory of the Invention so I shall leave him the satisfaction of self-enjoyment Indeed his Friends the Learned Arrians went not his way in opposing the Trinity nor the Orthodox in defending it and therefore if this Point was now to be argued the Ministers of the Church of England that hold with the Orthodox and amongst other places produce this of 1 John 5.7 for it would say that it 's as plainly said The Father Word and Holy Ghost are One as that they are Three and that tho Unity is sometimes taken in a Moral sense as John 17.21 yet the arguing of St. John in the former place shews it not to be understood in the same sense as the latter he making a plain difference betwixt the Unity that is betwixt the Three that bear record in Heaven and the Three that bear witness in Earth for of the Three that bear Record in Heaven it 's said They are one but of the Three that bear witness on Earth it 's said They agree in One. Now if it had been a mere Moral Union that was betwixt the Father Word and Holy Ghost who are the Three in Heaven it would have been as well said of them as of the Spirit the Water and the Blood which are the Three in Earth that they Agree in One. In like manner would the Ministers of the Church of England support the proof of this Article from John 10.30 I and my Father are One and shew that it 's to be understood of the Unity of Essence and not of mere Will and Consent because the Jews took up stones to stone him for blasphemy and because that thou being a man makest thy self God. But since there is a Union that may be betwixt God and Man without making man to be God as it is John 17.21 it follows that neither did our Saviour speak nor the Jews understand him to have spoken of a Moral but a Natural Union but for this let me recommend the Addresser to the Second Part of the Dialogue concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared p. 10 11. and Published the last Year His second Instance is of the Incarnation of which he saith Again Is the Belief of the Incarnation necessary for Salvation Where is it clearly expressed in Scripture You refer me to S. John chap. 1. The Word is made Flesh. But you know that many Learned Men Nestorius and others denied that word to signifie a strict Incarnation but either a Moral Vnion or a meer external appearance of a Man as those who held Christ not to have a real but a phantastick Body Now be pleased to shew me in what Verse or Chapter it is clearly expressed that the said words signifie a strict Incarnation But if you deny the belief of this Mystery to be necessary to Salvation own it for our satisfaction in these or the like words It is not necessary for Salvation to believe that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity was made true Man. And if the Belief of neither Trinity nor Incarnation are necessary shew me what 't is and where expressed in Scripture Setting aside what the Opinion of Nestorius was which our Author for ought I perceive understands not the sum of what is said amounts to this That the Scripture is not clear in this Point because as he saith Many learned Men Nestorius and others deny that word he means that phrase to signifie strict Incarnation So that if a learned Man or learned Men dispute the Point that Point so disputed or the words expressing it cannot be clear or the Sense certain But I have before shewed that this is no reason against the perspicuity of Scripture in such a case because nothing can be clearer express'd than many of those things which are sometimes made matter of Disputation As what can be clearer than that Christ had a Body of Flesh and Bones Yet there were some of our Authors Learned men that held Christ was a meer external appearance of a man and not
fully as to meet with all temptations and all cases that may fall out and all good works that as Gregory expounds it he needs speak no more to us concerning any Necessary matter seeing all things are found in Scripture Q. 2. Whether all things necessary to Salvation are clearly contained in Scripture It was we have seen the Opinion of St. Austin that not only all things thus necessary are contained in Scripture but also that they are plainly therein contained And yet neither that Father nor any of the same mind with him as who was not then and who is not now except the Church of Rome did ever thereby understand that all these Necessaries are expresly contained in Scripture since an evident Consequence is equivalent to a plain and express Proposition as it was Matt. 22.31 32. Nor 2. do they understand by being clearly contained in Scripture that all persons may immediately learn all Necessaries by the meer reading of it as our Author puts the Case without the use of those means for the understanding of it that God has appointed and the nature of the thing requires such as attention consideration and the assistance of Teaching Guides For the plainness or clearness of the things to be learned and understood and an Instructor to lead us to or help us in the understanding them are not only consistent but generally to be supposed It 's a good saying of one upon this Argument That is not obscure which by ordinary means may be apprehended but that is so which either hath no means at all to open it or hath such as are not ordinary Neither 3. can it be supposed that the Scriptures do so clearly contain all things necessary as that nothing of that kind ever was or can be excepted against For they may be plain and yet for some prevalent reasons it may not be confessed They may again be plain and yet not be understood to be so from several Impediments Sometimes this proceeds from a natural Impediment as it is in Children and such as are of a very weak capacity And yet even to such St. Austin supposes them to be intelligible God having bowed down the Scripture to the capacity of Babes and Sucklings that when proud men will not speak to their capacity he himself might Sometimes from moral Impediments such as prejudices and prepossessions as it was with the Apostles who understood not our Saviour when he told them openly and plainly again and again that he must be killed Mark 8.31 32. 9.31 32. Such again are vile affections as Pride and the Love of the World Interest and Obstinacy into which our Saviour resolved the Jews Infidelity John 5.40 44. Such are Partiality Negligence Sloth and Inconsideration There are also Judicial Impediments when for their contempt and obstinacy c. God sends men strong delusions that they should believe a lye 2 Thes. 2.10 11. But now where those and the like Impediments are not but that men lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and as new born babes in the Apostles Phrase desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.1 2. that they come with an honest heart and use a competent diligence with a Dependance upon God's assistance for the Wisdom he hath promised I know nothing necessary to Salvation unless what the Church of Rome hath made so but what is plainly taught in Scripture and may be learn'd from it But without this temper the plainest and most express words and the necessary meaning of those words will not convince some men As for Example what more plain than that in Exodus 20. there is a 2 d Commandment distinct from the First What more plain than thou shalt not make to thee any graven Image nor the likeness of any thing to bow down before it or worship it What more plain than drink ye all of it Matth. 26.27 What more plain than that Prayer is not to be in an Vnknown Tongue 1 Cor. 14. Lastly what more clear than that the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto Salvation And yet we know where these things will not be confess'd The Truth is that as long as there are Prejudices and Interest and depraved Affections in mankind Truth will be obscure And the things that are easy are yet to Hereticks hard to understand saith St. Cyril But the defect in them makes none in the Scripture which is as entire compleat and clear when men do disagree about it as when it is by all unanimously consented to I shall sum up what I have said in the words of St. Chrysostom who thus delivers himself upon this Argument The Scriptures are easy to understand and exposed to the capacity of every Servant and Plough-man and Widow and Boy and him that is most unwise And again Therefore God penned the Scriptures by the hands of Publicans Fisher-men Tent-makers Shepherds Neat-herds and unlearned Men that none of the simple People might have any excuse from reading and that so they might be easie to be understood of all men the Artificer the Housholder and Widow-woman and him that is most unlearned Tea the Apostles and Prophets as School-masters to all the world made their Writings plain and evident to all men so that every man of himself only by reading them might learn the things spoken therein If the Reader desires further satisfaction he may find it in a Learned Book newly publish'd called A Discourse concerning the Nature and Grounds of the certainty of Faith p. 40 80 81 c. Q. 3. What are these Necessaries to Salvation Our Author offers Three Instances of such Necessaries as are not clearly revealed in Scripture viz. The Trinity the Incarnation of our Saviour and the observation of the Lord's Day Of the first of these he thus discourses For Example Is the Belief of a Trinity One God and Three Persons necessary to Salvation If it be as the Creed of S. Athanasius assures us it is in what Chapter and Verse of Scripture is it clearly expressed If you send me to the 1 Epist. of S. John Chap. 5. Ver. 7. where we read There are Three who give Testimony in Heaven the Father the Word and Holy Ghost and these Three are One or to the Gospel of S. John Chap. 10. Ver. 50. I and my Father are One I desire you to shew clearly out of Scripture that the word One here signifies a strict Identity or Vnity of Substance as the Church of England holds not a meer Moral Vnion as many Learned Arrians and others will have it and as we all confess the same word signifies in S. John Chap. 17. Ver. 21. where our Lord Prays that all Believers may be One as he and his Father are One where certainly he cannot be supposed to mean One in Substance In what Verse then and Chapter in Scripture have we these or the like words The word One in the 1 Epist. of S.