they differ from Scripture or from one another the constant Belief of the Church the constant Publick Practice the Authority of the Church the Summaries of Faith commonly called the Creed the example of Saints of God the great example of our Lord Jesus the common Tradition and sense of mankind those notices of good and evill implanted in our souls by our great Creator God blessed for ever commonly called Recta Ratio or the light of Nature Some of which are contain'd in the Scriptures as the Pith and Marrow of the same as the Creed and the example of Christ some are supposed to the whole body as right Reason and the light of Nature and some things are naturally annexed to the vigor of the Scriptures viz. the authority and practice of the Church in all points which the Scriptures have put into her hand Against any of which it will be unjust and violent to oppose the Scriptures upon this account because they all agree in a sweet and necessary subordination at least one to the other and 't is a material rule subordinata non pugnant subordinates are not to be set at variance The Scriptures that were left to the Church as a conservatory of Faith since Faith is but One must be left also by Gods design as a conservatory of unity But seeing that is lost among us it is too apparent that it is even with the Scriptures as with other Rules and Instruments Mathematical they are exact and infallible in themselves but yet every one knows not how to use them The error arises because Mathematical Instruments are not assumed by any without the precognition of some prolepses and postulata premised to their due operation To give you a more clear example in the Sun which is the Rule the only Rule and Index of the hour of the day so certain that all other Machines must be corrected by it but no man can find that hour of the day by the Sun it self unless he knows before-hand the Horizon which is East and which is West yea and the Meridian also Secondly These Rules must be applyed to their proper Correlatives the Ruler for Lines the Square for Angles not contrary the Rule for an Angle or the Square for a Line they were not given us to that purpose Scripture is a rule according to the Writers intent of Faith Not of Ceremonies Nor of every dictate of Nature and Nature again is a rule of practice and conscience within its sphere not of things beyond it matters of meer Faith and mystery For want of some such directions as these I say the error arises and doth not the Scripture attest the same that men know not how to use the Scriptures Doth not that learned Apostle S. Paul say of some that call themselves Teachers of the Law Which yet understand not what they say nor whereof they confidently affirm 1 Tim. 1.7 Doth not the Scripture confess that the Scripture is and may be wrested by such and such persons 11 Pet. 111.16 Those certainly that know not how to use them Doth it not once again say That the Law the Scripture is holy and good but then it must be used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawfully 1 Tim. 1.8 to bring us to Christ not to draw us from him and so in like manner to bring us to Unity not to draw us from it And is not the Scripture then used not lawfully when we wilfully exclude all other Guides or Lights or Rules which the Scriptures themselves own and abet and impose on all that will take her word These things if true as 't is pity they should not for Truth and Peace and Order sake we should quickly learn to search the Wounds of the Church and tent them and by Gods grace heal them For all contrary pleas of schism and disunion would fall to the ground since it would be as unreasonable to say I will be guided by Scripture only not regarding the Light of Nature or common dictates of Conscience I will be sway'd by Scripture only not respecting any Creeds or summaries of Faith how antient soever I will be judged by Scripture only defying all manner of publick Testimony or Tradition whether it hath footing in the Scripture or no Scripture shall be my Rule not the example of Christ for many cry up the one that little think they are obliged to the other This upon deliberation will appear to be q.d. I will be guided by the Sun alone not by the imaginary East and West or the humane invention of the Meridian I will build my House level by the Plumb-line not regarding which is up and which is down Now since we are engaged to prove all things matters of Faith Practice and Ceremonies also you are to take notice that we may duely prove all things that there is a difference between the former and latter that the difference stands thus as I trust we shall make it good that the Scripture which is a distinct Rule for Faith and Practice is not such for matters of Discipline It is only general for this as viz. When it commands Decency and Order and Obedience but in particular it is not whence a distinct testimony of Scripture is not to be called for by our Posers for every Ecclesiastical Usage nay it is ignorant and absurd so to think but in the other a distinct Rule is indeed acknowledged Yet again with these cautions that in matters of Faith no interpretation of Scripture must thwart the Creed or in matters of Practice cross-grain the Light of Nature To begin with this first The Light of Nature and Natural Principles are supposed to the holy Scriptures as Unit is to Numbers or the Dawning of the day to the Sun-rise a Beam of the Divine Conscience shot into the soul in the day of the Creation when God said to the little World Let there be light and there was light and God saw that it was good And though great was the loss of that light in our first Father yet the growing darkness reach'd not so far without question as to extinguish all that was good the very shame that was left him was a sign of some good remains he knew that disobedience was nakedness his fear and flying for the same shew that he was not past all grace he was not delivered up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Divine ever said so Natural Principles therefore remain in us and if they should not without doubt we should all run like Beasts into the Wilderness with Nebuchadnezzar in the head of us for by these all mankind know since I question whether the Sea-Monsters in our shape be of the same race with us know I say Good and Evil that there is a GOD a Law a Vengeance a Worship and we give more then guesses at what is truly Honest and Iust and Modest what becomes our natures and what misbecomes us Vnjust Inhumane and Vnholy also For the Heathen always could and can to
be proved to be not sincere by the strength of Reason as to deny Tribute to Caesar and yet see the superscription to wipe the outside and let the inside be filthy to behold the mote in my brothers eye and not consider the beam in my own eye to be uncovered in the presence of my Master and not to shew the same reverence in the presence of my God I could adde more but I shall be too long on this point only this must not be omitted That Religion without Reason may carry us into a Frenzy I would this Land of ours did not shew you the truth of what I deliver The Spirit of God is no frantick Spirit but the Spirit of love and a sound mind 2 Tim. i. 7. The Apostle asks his disorderly Corinthians what they mean Will not they say that you are mad 1 Cor. xiv 21. The Apostle would not have us be of a crackt Religion If then the Light of Nature implanted in us be such a Light which we must have recourse to when the case serves if that must also with the holy Scriptures have some share in proving all things then we are something toward a settlement we have what will keep us sober at least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Rom. xii 3. We shall put up no hideous impudent pretences that shall dare to thwart this Light we shall not be wild or brutish with the untamed Heifers or the wild Ass that snuffes in the Wilderness we shall not be like the populous Fish of the Sea that have no Ruler we shall not preach down Crowns and Scepters the Ordinance of God and Nature and set that new Magistrate the People above them On pretence of Freedom we shall not bring in Confusion and invade other mens Estates on the Plea of Saintship we shall not from the example of Jael Phineas and the Canaanite preach hideous Massacres of all the Loyal Party to such numerous Congregations which are able to do the feat we shall not with those Fanaticks in Jeremy vii 10. believe that we can possibly be redeemed even to commit such abominations we shall have none strip themselves of Shame and Garments and display themselves Naked through our once civil Streets none will desie the civilities of a salute we shall not study to do things quite contrary to humanity only because all mankind that were in their wits had done so before we shall not forget we are men because we are fellow creatures we shall save our natures if we do not save our souls And so much for the first particular Prove all things which concern Conscience by the Rule of holy Scripture but at no hand excluding the Light of Reason or Nature Our second particular treats of the proof in matters of Faith Faith strictly so called in which sense not every point of Spiritual Knowledge is an Article of Faith i. e. necessary to salvation the Scriptures are the Rule of both Faith and Spiritual Knowledge but so as their interpretation keep a fair correspondence with the Rule of Faith the Creed the publick confession of Christ from the first minute of Christianity made in the Church by all the Candidates of the holy Baptism as you hear by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first Person I believe c. Which confession is brought down to after Ages not in Tables of Stone saith Saint Hierome but in the hearts of them that believe unto righteousness and in the mouths of those that have made confession to salvation For to this very practice doth the Apostle there referre Rom. x. The greatest searchers into the annals of the Church Voss de Symb. confess that the Apostles Creed as now it stands was in use above twelve hundred years ago viz. before four hundred years after Christ Let us take their grant and let us ask them in the Name of Christ Was the Apostles Creed then thought an Innovation such inferences giddy people are apt to make But if we look into the Scriptures there we shall find that Catechism into the Faith of Christ and Confession of the same is elder then the very name of Christian Acts xi 26 as it must be because nothing else could give them that name Elder by some years then the writings of the New Testament Saint Lukes Theophilus was catechis'd into Christian Religion before the Evangelist wrote his Gospel S. Luke i. 4 The Creed and the summe of Christianity differ secundum magis minus a straiter and a larger compass the Creed believes the Son of God the summe of Christianity saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one substance with the Father This believes the Resurrection of the Body that explaines it self a Shining and Glorious Body they differ not in substance but as the Bud and the Rose in Explication only Now the summe of Christianity is the Immediate Rule of Faith the Scriptures being the Rule quatenus They contain in them this great Pawn and Pledg the grand Depositum of our Religion This Depositum was left with the Church and also committed to writing Left with the Church thence the Apostle exhorts in in several places to hold it fast So 2 Tim. i. 13 Hold fast the Form of sound words in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Observe first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Form of sound words a Draught a Breviate so Ptolomy calls his Maps of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Form and a Rule Thus is our LORD's Prayer a Form of sound words and a Rule viz. of Prayer the Decalogue a Form of sound words and a Rule of Life Observe 2ly a Form of sound words or rather sound Articles and Propositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for single words are not capable of soundness or of the contrary Thirdly the Contents of this Form the Credenda and Agenda as all Creeds rightly understood do contain Matters of Faith and Matters of Practise witness that Article of Remission of sins Gloriously and Catholickly explained by I believe one Baptisme to Remission of sins Now these Credenda and Agenda the Apostle calls Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus Next that this Form must be held fast that 's some signe it was of no unreasonable extent it must be grassed first before it can be held fast such as doth not overlade the Memorie as the Apostle seems to speak 1 Cor. xv 2 where he is explicating the Articles of the Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Construe it how you please it makes for us Now to tell us that at first Voss de 36. Symb. dep 3. p. 14 it was enough for the Baptized to profess Belief in the Lord Jesus or the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Act. ii ch viii 12 c. is contrary to those very Scriptures and Reason For he that believeth in the Lord Jesus doth not believe in those two words only but in all those Great Things concerning him All that he
he that bids us not believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John iv 1 Now how must that be done even by the Articles of our Creed by the Rules of the Catholick Faith say the Contents of that Chapter You shall hear him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God That 's good How Every Spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God vers 2. and every Spirit that confesseth not is not of God He gives his Criterium from an Article of the Creed against the Hereticks of that Time which oppugned it for so the words following import This is that Spirit of Antichrist vers 3. that even now already is in the World He doth not 't is true give One Catholick Rule to try all Heresies by for how many Hereticks were there that were so cunning afterward as to confess the Incarnation as Saint Austin observes on that place but he giveth one pro tempore sufficient at that time and from the Creed he fetcheth it But the holy Apostle Peter speaks of all the Creed For when he had seasonably admonish'd us that some do abuse and wrest the holy Scriptures he gives us an account who they are viz. the unlearned and the unstable which can be none else but those that have not sufficiently learned and are not strongly confirmed in the fundamental Lessons of Christianity 2 Pet. iii. 16 The Scripture then is the un-erring Rule of Faith but so that its interpretation must have regard to the Rule and symbole of our Faith the reasons are the same as before because they sweetly agree the one is contai'nd in the other the one is suppos'd by the other as we said of the Law of Nature They are mutual helps one to the other The Scriptures were given that our Faith might not be interlop'd and the Creed was given that the Scripture might not be wrested Neither can be spared by the faithful So here 's no clashing the Decalogue is the Rule but not to shut out the Pentateuch The five Books of Moses are the Rule but not to exclude the Ten Commandments Nothing must exclude its own Quintessence And is not this necessary No question God saw it very necessary and the advantages are undeniably these First The Creed is one compact abridgement of fundamentals which in the Scripture lie as in the Myne here and there respersed Secondly It is plain and easie but the Scriptures have many things hard to be understood So said Saint Peter when yet the Book of the Revelation was not written Hence the old Hereticks few or none denied the Scriptures but the Creed many disowned After all this are we not nearer to Vnity now Yes For if this Rule were believed to be a Rule and Form preserved to us from the beginning we should none of us dream of new Lights and stand amazed at every puffe of doctrine from this or that or the other illuminate We should not reckon salvation by any Name but Jesus nor by that neither unless rightly understood We should not divide Christ into Parishes piece-meal making so many Catechisms as Congregations and Christianities as Pulpits We should none of us dare to scruple the very Godhead of our Blessed Lord and the Worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 founded in it we should not out-face the Church of God in her main mysterie whereby she is distinguished from the Jewish Synagogue or the Turkish Mosque We should not dare to contract this great salvation and deny the universality of Christs merits We shall not abuse the grace of God either to presume on a profane or to be secure in an indifferent life We should regard and respect the known wayes of Christ Baptism c. not dreaming of an invisible Spirit to twitch us to Heaven by the hair of the head There is none of us would make it an Article much less place all our saving Faith in an infallible absolute assurance of our well-doing We should rather tremble at the brightness of Him that is to come judge Quick and Dead and tremble again at our sacrilegious breaches of our Vow in Baptism and our indevout repentances therefore We should not imagine no necessity of holiness toward eternal remission of sins we should not be afraid of good Works Thing nor Name We should talk less of the Spirit and live more by it We should look upon Christianity as a kind of pure Angelical life the exertion of the Spirit of God received in Baptism We should believe a Church be such men in understanding as to know our Mother and so natural as to reverence her We should not make such a vast Hiatns in Church-History as to reckon none from the Apostles to our dayes for if we reckon any we could not place Reformation in a wilful departure from it in every thing where humour prompts us to do that easie thing of wresting Scripture And to see that I would be impartial neither should we out of a pretended esteem of this Apostolick Form content our selves with a scanty measure of the knowledge of Christ Seeing there is Duty and Knowledge and to believe in Christ rightly understood is a World of both And thus much for proving of matters of Faith Now for Ceremony and Order the endless Dispute in this Island How shall we prove this what Rule have we for these Here as no where else do I look that my authority should be acoepted How can it when the Churches is denied a very demonstration from so private a person shall not pass Yet I deem these things cannot be banished out of the Church My reason is all Beauty lies in Order all Decency in Ceremony With Order there is Beauty even in the Furrowes of the Field and without it there is none in the Beds of a Garden Irrational is the despoiling of Order hence such care taken least the Swine break into the Garden God by the very Creation is a God of Order Gen. i. And behold all was very good altogether as well as each particular Besides his Title of Lord of Hosts shews as much Every one that knows what belongs to an Army knows without Order 't is nothing Yea and Nature her self is not without her Ceremonies the Leaves of the Trees and the Flowers of the Field Solomon in all his Ceremony could not out-strip them and so decent are these that without them the Trees look bald and the Earth withers into desert So in Animals the House-Cock hath his Spur and Crest the Ensigns of Chivalry the rest of the Birds have their Habits and Liveries the Turkies neck is fac'd with Scarlet and the Lapwing hath his Cap of Maintenance Yet nearer The hair of our Face and Beard is but a Ceremony viz. a mark of distinction and decency and these instances that I have given are so much to the purpose that 't is known they have the Fate of Ceremonies to wit to be thought superfluous as the
Custome the decent rational custome of the Church of God ver 16. Nay but what is the Rule The Apostle answers We know not how he will please you Tradition Apostolick ver 2. Which places if again consulted you shall find that he speaks of such Natural Light as it is shame not to obey Such Customes which have enough in them to silence the Contentious and such Traditions as he praises them for observing and exhorts them to hold fast and so I am upon my Text this third time Prove all things hold fast that which is good And this the Presbyterians abroad with open face acknowledge that much is to be attributed to the Antient Customes of the Church that it is no Derogation to the Perfection of Scriptures imployed in the determination of Greater Articles to leave the less to the Publique Wisedome of the Church but 't is not the Interest of ours at home that these things should be taken notice of Yet let Chamiers 9th Book de Canone be consulted particularly cap. 1. p. 20. where he saith Et sanè illum oportet esse oris impudentissimi qui eam Traditionem Consuetudinem Ecclesiae contemnat Nos verò illum parum abest quin sacrilegum appellemus quidem non tantum in Rebus levioribus the Ceremonies c. sed grauioribus c. Et ix cap. xviii sect 52. Resp per observantias nulla dogmata intelligi sed duntaxat varios ritus quorum exempla quaedam subnectit speaking of Origen Genu flexionem conversionem ad Orientem Ritus sumendae Eucharistiae c. Atqui illa omnia Catholici the Protestants libere permittunt Traditioni But once more for I appeal to the whole Book he hath these words Hinc autem non sequitur Scripturas esse imperfectas nisi prius demonstrentur dogmata Fidei ab Apostolis instituta esse quae omninò scripta non sunt ix 20 32. For as to the Rites he saies It is not denied quandam ab Apostolis potuisse constitui quae quia non essent de essentia naturafidei minùs curavint scriptis referre ix 19 20. Pray let it be ponder'd The same reason give we Scripture is not their Rule because it is above them Secondly Because they are of a mutable condition where the first constituent Reason of the practise proves to be such otherwise not There are some Traditions immutable which 't is not in the power of the Church to change as the institution of the Lords Day fixed on the first day of the Week and yet they bely Calvin if he would not have changed it to Thursday but that Reason of our Lords Resurrection hath determined it to that day of the Week as the Sabbath by another was determined to the Jew Here it is to be noted when we say Custome or Tradition we do not mean an Arbitrary usage of the Church as the Gentry put on their Garments and the Ladies their Fancies meerly for variety but there is discernible with it something more of moment either the Light of Nature as in all Humble Postures Institution of Festivals many times Gods and Christs own Wisdome and Spirit in all of them Reason sufficient to constitute them For why the Apostles Love-Feast Why the Veil S. Jude xii 1 Cor. xi 10 2 Cor. xiii 13 Why the Holy Kiss Why the Love-Feast because it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love the Reason is in the Name Why the Kiss the Reason is in the appellation a Holy Kiss a Kiss of Charity Why the Vail because of Modesty and Reservedness in the Virgin in the presence of God and his holy Angels Thou shalt not adde thereto 1 Cor. xi nor diminish therefrom establisheth Gods authority but it doth not overthrow his Churches Moses his Chair and the Sanedrim were put up by God to make Canons of Church and State in points not decidible by the Text. The Church of God always knew it her Innocent Right to ordain a Ceremony on a just Reason before Moses was born Gen. xxxii 32 witness the abstaining from the sinew in memory of Jacobs wrestling so do the Jews ever since observe solemn Fasts for Miriams Leprosie Moses his breaking of the Tables and the Death of the sons of Aaron as the learned Vsher hath noted them and more for us in his Ages of the World Many that are used to this day come from Gods own wisdome under the Law-Dispensation and therefore adopted by the Church under the Gospel the Spirit of Christ so thought it good who is thereby throughly witnessed to the Jew to be their Messias promised by the God of their Fathers in this that bating the meer shadows and servile work in whose room he hath put substantial and more glorious services in founding his Church he hath retained all that was fit and solemn and decent such as are the distinction of the Courts of the Lords House the Orders of Priest and Levite their hours of Prayer their attendances by night in the Temple secubations in times of Humiliation the Baptism of the Infant about the eighth day the giving of the Name at Baptism and the Godfathers at they used at Circumcision the seclusion of the Woman after Child-bearing for a Moneths space the Reading the Law in their Synagogues their singing the Hebrew Amen and Alleluja the Dominical day for the Sabbath nay our very Sacraments themselves advanced from the Jews who had their Baptism and Cup Eucharistical and many others in which God God I say is visibly evident I should surfet you if I should lead you as I thought to have done through every particular but at present it cannot be Only thus far have I attempted to bring all good Christians to Truth and Vnity Let no man do me that wrong past repair to think that I have in any of this an evil eye toward the holy Scripture whatsoever is said I wish un-said that is not proved thereby If for matters of Faith and practical conscience the holy Scriptures suppose the Creed and Light of Nature it cannot exclude them If for matters of Ceremony the Scripture undertaketh not but commendeth to us other subordinate authority let those places be expunged or else we dare not say but what we have said If we be judged by Scriptures let us be judged by Scriptures and he that maketh conscience of one clause must make conscience of all uniformly or else he had better never seen it Would men but consider this That the holy Scripture is the Rule I have not insisted on because I took it for granted and I should have been tedious in asserting what every body knows It is a Rule and such a Rule that he that loves his salvation must diligently attend it see how many Precepts are in it Think not of x or xx but of x times xx And as many as there are I never counted my self to understand any thing till I perfectly believed that every one of them were my Rule in order to salvation so that men of unwary conversations such as I am cannot read them without a sigh and shaking of the head as S. Austin uses to say Yerret me this and that Precept frights me when I know how far I come short All that I have laboured for is that the Scripture may not be wrested that we may not lose the fruit of it by abusing it Hereby will I nill I owning it to be a Rule if it be but in this that it is liable to be wrested But let no man strange that Scripture may be abused as profane and audacious as the Practise is though I fear not commonly thought so even by those that seem to cry it up How do we take it when some cry up Liberty to bring in Confusion Do they not abuse Liberty thereby The seditious Party do so What think you of those that magnifie grace in flat opposition to all duty Do they not abuse it the Autinomian does so Nay if one shall cry up Jesus Christ himself can Christ be extolled too much yea but if he should be set up in opposition to his Father I have seen a Cursed Paper do so Nothing is done right but what is stated according to its due limits of explication This is the sourse of all our misery And now this objection is out of the way how shall I bespeak you to return to the unity of that Church to which if you had once proved all things by Scripture Rules you must at last retire the worst that you can gain is the character of an understanding and peaceable person a wise man and a meek one Why must a Ceremony fright you What deformed Multiplying-Glass do you see that in which of it self is rational innocent and solemn Do we place the substance of Religion in them Nay we say indeed there is no outward profession without them no real body but what will cast its shadow Which of us would not have censur'd Mary Magdalen of superstition to have wiped Christs feet with her hair and have pitied the ignorance of those men that threw their Garments under our Saviours Asses feet How many counted our Saviour himself a breaker of the Sabbath because they consulted not right reason and how many a Blasphemer because they knew not his authority Our Lord was not stanch enough for those that called him wine-bibber and the holy Baptist for his fasting and prayer had a Devil Have we no need of proving all things and take in all the lights and helps that God vouchsafes us Let not Reason Creed Scripture Christ all be against us for in the end they will be too hard for us FINIS