they were commanded by God to be worn to remember them of the Law as well as to difference the Jews from other Nations and to prevent Idolatry as often as they look'd upon these Fringes which the God of Israel commanded them to wear Numb 15.38 Scrupulous were these men in relation to all the circumstances of Religion but they regarded not so much the substance of it nor what these things were ordain'd to signifie and represent We read of some in the Apostles dayes that had a form of Godliness who yet denied the power thereof 2. Tim. 3.4 And this continues still in the World and will so long as Religion is capable of being vailed with hypocrisie and one man cannot discern the inside of another 'T is but being strict in outward appearance and a wicked man may be accounted a Saint and if open and scandalous sins be avoided mens inside may be full of rottenness and corruption and they be canonized still Thus the Devil may be taken for an Angel of light if he can but hide his malice and his flames And men may cheat their Neighbours commit adultery or secret murder if their actions escape the notice of others and they make not themselves a spectacle to the world This the Ministers of Sathan do like him acting deeds of darkness within whilst yet a Candle is hung out at their doors that are earnest for reformation in other men but do not at all reform themselves only they endeavour to cover those faults which yet they will not strive to amend If they bless God with their mouths they care not if they blaspheme him in their hearts because their business is not to recommend themselves to God but unto those men whom they designingly delude God himself complains of such Atheistical hypocrites that turn things upside down that seek to hide their counsel from the Lord and their works are in the dark They draw near me sayes God with their mouth and with their lips do honour me but have remov'd their heart far from me Isai 29.13 And there is yet sufficient cause of lamenting the sad state of Professors of Christianity who are still beguiled with good words into ill practices and under a pretence of Religion are drawn to renounce it But yet in the midst of such various Principles preached to the World with noise and confidence with great zeal though little reason which therefore as an enemy some disgrace and vilifie they distract the minds of those that are unsetled disturb the peace of all Society both Civil and Religious draw men into Heresie and Schism and every evil work and make them think those Prophets inspired with the breath of God that swell only with their own passion and disgorge themselves in fire and brimstone among mankind And the Doctrines that cause these disorders they manage with such art and such suitable applications and have so many plausible pleas to the World by which they spread them with too much success over the minds of men That it must fully convince us of a necessity to use diligence in our enquiries and to try the Spirits whether they are of God and so much the more because many false Prophets are gone out into the world And thus I have done with the Arguments and Reasons why we should examine the Doctrines of those that come to preach Religion among us let their pretensions of Authority be what they will Though they arise as high as inspiration and aver their Commission to be from Heaven CHAP. VI. I Proceed now to my second Particular proposed about this duty of trying Spirits And that is to give you some Directions how to know when Doctrines propounded as coming from God are indeed revealed from Heaven and the Deliverers to be believed as inspired from above and accordingly to be entertained in the world Now because men are apt sometimes to rely on false characters of trial and there being several marks set up by men of various humours and interests to guide them in their way to Heaven by which they pretend they are able to direct themselves and others and try Doctrines and Opinions I shall make some brief reflections on them that no prejudice may remain to hinder us from embracing the true methods of trying mens Propositions in Religion Especially those who come with so great an authority as inspiration And 1. We meet with many in the world who suppose what they call the Church which they make as narrow and little as they can to be either that into which they ultimately resolve their Faith or at least to have such Authority as to determine all points in Religion and what rules are to be accepted as Divine and therefore by her judgment all Spirits and Doctrines are to be tried and determined But this Guide will many times be uncertain Nay false too if a Society of men called the Church agree upon such Principles as are erroneous which we find a thing not impossible when our present experience may inform us that Rome which would be the only Church and many separate Congregations in the World who yet assume the honour of a Church err in Articles of the Christian Faith and in many wayes of Discipline and Manners And this is no wonder at all when we consider that a Church is a Society of men and that every man is capable of error and that all Councils are managed by votes and these many times are given wrong not only through ignorance or inadvertency but humour and interest so far prevail in the opinions of many that we cannot yield their determinations to be infallible Especially since we often find great Assemblies managed by the tricks and devices of a few whose designs being beyond the reach of the multitude draw them by degrees into the consent to what had they foreseen they would never have yielded Were the promises indeed of an infallible direction from the Spirit of God made to all ages of the Church and tied to the Assemblies which Christians call Councils we could not reasonably dispute their determinations but must obey them But the promises of this nature being confined to the first planters of the Gospel that were to publish an infallible Rule to the world and neither made nor useful to future Generations but only to prove the certainty of the Gospel to which every Christian is to submit both his Faith and Practice it being a rule in all things necessary to salvation The things now ordained by any Church or Society of men whatever authority they may claim above us as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority unless it may be declared that they may be taken out of holy Scripture And therefore General Councils may err and have err'd in things pertaining to God as our Church declares in the twenty first Article 'T is true indeed the Church of the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them They were custodes legis the keepers
of the Law So the Church among the Christians has the Gospel committed to her custody and has a power to determine in indifferent matters To order all the circumstances in Religion for decency order and edification and Authority to restrain such Controversies as tend to make a Schism and separation and dissolve that unity which Christians are frequently exhorted to keep So that although the Church be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same So besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of salvation as our Church declares in her twentieth Article I shall not deny nor could I without singular pride and Arrogance but that Fathers and Councils and all Congregations of holy and judicious Christians much more Bishops and Governours of the Church treating about a point in Religion attempted to be introduced a new or being old is controverted in the world are with great deference to be attended to For every mans reason will urge this obligation to himself That his own judgement is rendered suspected when it opposes the common and united determination of persons that cannot justly be reproached with want either of skill or honesty And 't is ordinary for men to mistrust the sight of their own eyes when a multitude of others having the same advantage cannot behold what a single person pretends to see And in Religious affairs and such matters as are of great moment when persons of learning piety and authority in the holy Church of Christ assemble with solemnity and have a real intention to employ with all faithfulness and diligence those parts which God has bless'd and encreased to them by the advantage of a peculiar education and study invoking a Divine influence upon their endeavours to find out the truth and meaning of any difficult and controverted proposition We have great reason to incline to the belief of what these shall deliver for truth Unless the contrary be so apparent to us upon sufficient enquiry that there is no cause of hesitation at all This being the moderate opinion of our own Church we are opposed in it both by the Papist and Fanatick The former asserts that major est autoritas Ecclesiae quam Scripturae That the Authority of the Church is greater than that of the Scripture And that Traditiones sunt pari pietatis affectu cum Scripturis recipiendae Their Traditions are to be received with the same affection and devotion as the Scriptures And truly the latter come not far short of these but as much confine when it is in their power the belief as well as practice of their members to the determination of their Assemblies and little differ from the Roman infallibility in the end and design For if any Churches among our selves do yet affirm as they have formerly declared that the Kirk of Scotland was to be the pattern of their Reformation then I am sure they expect the same submission both in opinion and practice to their Assemblies determinations as a Popish Council do to their Canons or the Pope himself to his Decrees For to the Assembly held at Glasgow 1638 they swore that for judgement and practice they would adhere to the Determination of it though perhaps they knew not what it would determine But to leave the persons of those that stretch the power of a Church beyond the Authority God has given her There are three Reasons which plainly shew that any Church or Council of men cannot lay down any Propositions which derive their utmost Authority from themselves that may be the ultimate Rules by which the Doctrines and Opinions of others are to be judged 1. Because God to whom our Religion relates has appointed a rule that being superiour to the inventions of men must bind their fancies and opinions in these things and determine their Faith with those general actions that are deem'd Religious To what purpose were the Scriptures given to the World if they were not to be Rules and Directions to men Nay God being the Creator of all things and in reason claiming the Supreme Sovereignty over the things which he has made It is in his power to impose what Laws he will upon the world and 't is most suitable to his goodness to reveal them That men may not err for want of knowledge nor their thoughts contradict the will of their Maker Now this he has done in the holy Scriptures which are sufficiently authorized by his own Sanction in that Miracles attended their first publication which are as it were the Broad Seal of Heaven that prove them Gods own Act and Deed when they no way contradict the natural Notions and the prime foundations of the Religion of men The Scriptures therefore being thus given and confirmed to us must either be our Supreme Direction and an infallible guide in matters of Religion or else they were deliver'd to no purpose or to cheat and delude mankind The former consists not with the wisdom of God and the latter would contradict both his goodness and his truth All the difficulty then will be whether this Rule is sufficient to guide us in the Doctrine and practice of Religion so that we need not any new inspiration or any rules to be superadded beyond the sence of Scripture it self to conduct men in their way to Heaven And consequently whether we may by them judge of all Doctrines and Opinions without the help of the Roman infallibility or what is the same in another dress the unerring Spirit of the Enthusiast But admitting the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority they themselves are a sufficient testimony of their own perfection whilst they declare that they proceeded from Divine inspiration to be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works 2 Tim. 3.16 2. No Canons or Decrees of whatever bears the name of Church or Council can be a Rule of trying Doctrines in Religion so as to be ultimate and Supreme Because all the conclusions and propositions of these are themselves the Doctrines and Opinions of men either with or without the pretence of inspiration and all Doctrines are to be tried themselves For this must be included as I have sufficiently proved in S. John's direction try the Spirits whether they are of God That therefore which is subject to an higher Tribunal cannot be it self the highest nor what is appointed solely to aid us in our trial and examination of Opinions nor the utmost Rule by which we must examine them Lastly If the Doctrines of the Prophets and Apostles of old nay of Christ himself the Saviour of the World were lyable to the examinations of men it being natural to mankind to try the truth of any Propositions before they believe them Then certainly no assembly of men can now in reason pretend such authority to impose their own
Doctrines upon the World as Rules for all to submit unto without any farther examination And if they must be examined at all it must be by something of greater credit and authority in the World Now that the Prophets of old were to be tryed whether true or false is plain to any that will give themselves leisure to consider not only that otherwise there could be no such thing as a false Prophet in the determination of men true and false having the same evidence but that God himself gave directions under the Old Testament how to know the one from the other Deut. 13.1 and chap. 18.22 which rules had been vain and insignificant if by these men were not to try them Hence is it that those that attribute great authority to Christian General Councils do not think their Canons obligatory unless the things included in them bind antecedently by their own nature or a superiour Law till they are received in those Nations and Churches to which they are sent 2. As the Doctrines of the Prophets were to be examined so were also those of the Apostles Hence was it that S. Paul who was extraordinarily called to be an Apostle God himself supplying him with Unction and Ordination by giving him authority from Heaven and our Saviour descending by an apparition from the Clouds to invest him with dignity and power Hence it was I say that this great Apostle in his Call dignified beyond his Brethren commends the Bereans Acts 17.11 because they searched and examined his Doctrines whether they were true or false by those Scriptures they had already received and by comparing his Doctrines with the Natural Religion of Mankind with what our Saviour and other Apostles preached and most probably with the Scriptures of the Old Testament that they might be assured that what he delivered was consonant to that which was there exhibited concerning the Messias And therefore these were of more pliable and ingenuous and gentile tempers than those of Thessalonica who were more regardless of these concerns as S. Chrysostom comments upon this Text. 3. The Doctrines even of our Saviour himself though never man spake like him were lyable to examination by those that heard before they entertain'd them And certainly if any might recommend propositions upon his own authority he might who was the Wisdom of the Father in whom all fulness dwelt Nay the fulness of the Godhead was as it were inclosed in his own body Yet he bids the Jews to search the Scriptures and to consider how well his Person and his Doctrines agreed with the antient Predictions in relation to him and accordingly either to receive or reject him For these sayes he are they which testifie of me And in them ye think ye have eternal life John 5.39 So that it is plainly evident from the beginning that no Doctrines under pretence of what inspiration soever were to be received by men without examination But as those of the Apostles were to be compared with what our Saviour delivered his again to be measured not only by his own divine authority but this also was to be proved by the Law and the Prophets and the Prophets themselves by those Rules which God had given to the Jews to judge by So is there not reason that the doctrines of men pretending to Christianity under what authority soever they are published should still be examined by a superiour Rule even by what the primitive Planters of our Religion have left for our perusal and direction viz. the doctrine of Christ and his holy Apostles which priviledge whatever Romanists plead for themselves to hide from or deny to others is the greatest cruelty and irreligion Enough it is to render any doctrine suspected that thus hides and runs to corners and avoids all the tryals of men And we have great reason to mistrust those who take away mens judgement of discretion valuing them only like Beasts that perish whilst they are not perswaded but whip'd to their work and many times cripled under their burden when yet they know not what they carry Thus I have though more largely than my first thoughts designed not only stated the use and authority of the Church in her Synods and Councils in the examination of Doctrines and Opinions but shewed you withal that as their Decrees are not infallible so neither are they the highest Rules by which we judge of the Doctrines of men Had it been otherwise when our Saviour came to plant his Gospel the infallibility of the Jewish Sanhedrim had justly condemned him for an Impostor and all the Christian Religion deliver'd and authorized by him had proved only a Fable and a Dream CHAP. VII THe most considerable Adversaries that oppose this way of stating the Churches Authority in determining points of Faith seem to many to be the Romanists and therefore this Chapter will briefly confute their high pretences to a strange Infallibility by which they have introduced as strange Doctrines into the Christian Religion And indeed there was never a Law yet so plainly penn'd but that the inventions of men who make it their business to render Laws both Divine and humane subservient to their Secular interests will blunt its edge and endeavour to make it their own property by altering or over-urging its design The same use has been made of Texts of Scripture by the two Opponents of the Church of England enlarging or diminishing the Infallibility promised to the Apostles that it may the better countenance their own pretences Some restraining the promises expressing the holy Spirits miraculous assistance in the guiding the Sacred Pen-men of the Gospel to the Roman Church And others extending it to every man of their own persuasion or at least to the Ministers and Elders of their Churches I shall here therefore spend a few leaves to shew that the Papists can have no ground in the Scripture to build their infallible determinations on nor any reason at all to maintain their infallibility I know not how it comes to pass that other Churches must forfeit their interests in the promises of the Gospel that the Romanists may proudly arrogate them to themselves Or any reason why the right of others must sneak or stoop to their bold usurpations As if their Church could not well be Head of the World unless we allow it to have all the Brains too and dash them out of the Sculls of others to fill their head till their understandings become incomprehensibly infallible that all the race of Christians in the world may receive Rules only from them and give up the natural freedom of their minds to enlarge the Pope's Empire and Authority As if they only were like the Jews of old to whom were committed the Oracles of God And these they might either keep to themselves or allow them to others as they see occasion This makes a reproof to them like Rebellion against a Prince a crime so great that nothing but death can sufficiently expiate Among them
had a great deal of reason to do it if a Scholar ought to respect his Instructor For 't is plain that S. Paul informed him in a point that he knew not or dissembled before though he knew enough to be the Apostle of the Circumcision a Province to which he was then designed so that the Romanists claiming Supremacy from S. Peter will add no great proof to their infallibility nor this be sufficiently evinced by the derivation of their succession from him Unless the second Chapter to the Galatians be razed out of the Sacred Canon Or the denyal of a justification by faith without the ceremonial works of the Law becomes a point in the determination of which infallibility is not at all concerned Or else 't is lawful for them to reject this authority of S. Paul if they still embrace the doctrine of S. Peter Fifthly Supposing there had been an infallibility made to S. Peter and from him derived to the Church of Rome yet what shall we now do for direction since neither they nor we know where to find it upon a diligent search into their own opinions of it For some place it in a General Council some in the Pope and this together some in himself and College of Cardinals and some again in the Pope alone If this Infallibility be placed in a General Council it will be as eagerly disputed when it may be said to be General Some giving Councils so fair an Epithet when others do as confidently deny them to be such The infallibility therefore cannot be found here Unless it remains in such a Council where all the circumstances and qualifications can be found that are able to give it such a denomination When the interests of Princes and Churches shall be determined previous to the Assembly and all are agreed who shall summon it And when this difficult if not impossible task is accomplish'd If they must all conclude in one opinion I fear this can never be Or if things must be determined by the major Vote and this makes infallible truth how came the greater part to be infallible when the lesser number are so far from being inspired at all that they give their Votes contrary to the truth Nay by shifting the Tables to a new point many of those may by these rules become infallible who in another had err'd just before but if the approbation of the Pope must be added to the determination of the Council the infallibility then will rest in himself Because if he pleases to be of a contrary opinion he can make void the Votes of the Council by refusing to comply with their determination And consequently they are not infallible in that which wants the Supreme evidence of the Popes assent But if after all this supposing their united concurrence infallibility should not rest in this Assembly but in the Pope and his College of Cardinals Then the Arguments for obedience to the General Council taken from their infallibility in determining are superseded by an higher Authority Though the same inconveniences obviate the infallibility of these which do attend the former opinion Finally suppose that it rests in the Pope alone Then if it be his priviledge as a man it will be the endowment of the rest of mankind And then they will need none of his single determinations If he is infallible as he is Pope Then either all his Speeches are infallible or else when he determines about matters of Faith If the former be true Then he cannot possibly deceive And consequently he would not prove so able and successful a Statesman as he is if he could not sometimes dissemble his opinion If the latter position be affirmed to be true Then either all his Propositions concerning Faith must be infallible and there is no disputing with him Nor is it lawful for him at any time to oppose in a School question where the Orthodox part is usually held by the respondent for fear his Propositions should become infallible and truth be rendered incapable of being held Or else he becomes only infallible when he is gravely seated and determines from his Chair And if this be the case of us mortals We must not only stay for resolution till he is dress'd and cloath'd in all his Robes and Pontificals any of which for ought I know being wanting he may fail in his determination and our Faith fail for want of some Ceremonial accoutrement But supposing all this to be done if he cannot be infallible till he is in his Chair Then the Chair seems more infallible than himself Yet when all this is accomplished for ought we know or ever can he may not be a lawful Pope For if he be unbaptized he cannot be a Priest and if he is no Priest he cannot be a Pope And if the intention of the Priest that Baptized him and of the Bishop that gave him the order of Priesthood be required to make both valid If at his Baptism he met with an untoward Priest Or at his Ordination with an ungodly Bishop that performed the Ceremonies without minding what they were about suspending their intention at those times either through malice or inadvertency or designing the contrary the whole business is still spoiled And the Chair will not bestow infallibility upon one that is indeed no lawful Pope But what shall we think of the Anti-Popes when two are chosen as it has been possible and they both struggle for the Chair where rests the infallibility then Or what becomes of it in the interval betwixt the death of the last and the Election of a new Let even the Chair keep it for the next that shall possess it And I wish it would alwayes sit there and never endeavour to trouble us If they will perish in their own folly I know no help being quite tired with exposing their Opinion Upon the view of the whole we see the Proposition is made good that since their own Opinions are so different about the Seat of Infallibility neither they nor we know where to find it Sixthly If there were this infallibility in the Church of Rome and they had agreed where to fix it so that they are sure they once knew how to find it Yet it plainly appears that it is now lost since their whole Church has determined and yielded to many things plainly erroneous and quite opposite to the authority of the Scriptures I shall at present only instance in three though I might produce a Catalogue of more The 1. Is the taking away the Cup from the people 2. Prayer in an unknown tongue 3. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation First I instance in taking away the Cup in the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper from the people as an error determined by the Church of Rome By Cup I mean the Sacramental Cup and not that of Ablution by which the Romanists have shifted from the doubts of some ignorant Objectors Now that the detention of the Cup notwithstanding all endeavours of
Society much more in such a one as is purely Christian that we may be regular and uniform in our practice and that there may be no divisions among us And that the common Acts which we are to join in as a Body or Society of Christian men may not be disturbed by particular members withdrawing from them or rendered indecent or invalid by noise or confusion But yet there is no obligation upon any man to resign either his sense or reason in any point of which he is a capable Judge But only to captivate it to the obedience of faith in such points as are apparently revealed by God though the points themselves may be above the determination of the faculties of men And therefore no Authority can oblige us to contradict the Scriptures in their standing Laws of Faith and Manners Because these ought to be a Law both to our Governours and our selves antecedently to the Laws and Canons of men Hence is it that we reject the pretences of aspiring men to any absolute and compleat infallibility by virtue of any promise supposed to be made to the Successors of the Sacred Apostles Because there is no such promise made to any but the Apostles and the first Writers and Publishers of the Christian Religion whose Writings are to be our standing Rules in all things absolutely necessary to Salvation Nay the end and design of the first Divine and infallible guidance was only to introduce a new Law superstructed upon the Old Law of Nature and to free Religion from the corrupt glosses and customs of men who abusing their Authority had falsly imposed things on others To obliterate the old Ceremonial injunctions prescribed to the Jews To draw the Gentiles from their Heathen Idolatry and to erect the Christian Church among men that all Nations might flock to it be sheltered in one Fold being redeemed from the power of the destroyer and feed together under the Government and conduct of Jesus Christ the great Pastor and Bishop of our souls Hence was it that our Saviour promised the immediate and infallible guidance of the Spirit to his Apostles that being before of meaner capacities they might be able to understand his Laws so well as to publish them to the World as the standing Rules to all future Generations But this rule being once compleated by the informations which our Saviour gave to his Apostles whilst he was with them And by the continued inspirations and assistances which they received from the holy Spirit after his Ascension into Heaven to explain some things and bring others to their remembrance and to enable them to preach the Gospel to the World and to publish the Doctrines and Rules of it in Writing to be the standing Law of Religion to which all future ages might have recourse for guidance both in Faith and Manners When this Law was fully and compleatly written which was to be the great and only Rule of mens Religion there was no need of a standing infallibility to interpret what was so fairly written that in things absolutely necessary to Salvation none but Ideots can possibly be mistaken and none but Knaves will endeavour to mislead them For there is no man who has humility enough to use the help of the learned in Religion and grace enough to implore the ordinary assistances of the Divine Spirit which God gives to those that ask him but if he endeavours with sincerity to live according to what he already knows and faithfully and honestly applies his rational faculties to the diligent search of Divine truth he shall certainly attain such degrees and advancements of knowledge as shall be sufficient to make him wise unto Salvation if he does not too much strive to be wise above what is written And if after all this he chance to fall into any error through the naked infirmities of human nature it shall be such as will be consistent with the foundation nor will it be so severely laid to his charge as to be the cause of condemning him hereafter when it was not in his own power to help it The Scriptures certainly were first designed to be the Rule of Faith and Manners And a rule ought to be so plain that all who are to take their measures by it may be able by some means or other to compare their belief and actions with the Rule and also to pass a judgment upon the whole Nay if we reflect upon our own rational powers together with those assistances we are directed to and make use of these when we consider the Scriptures themselves we must of necessity yield this to be true Unless we will be perverse and obstinate in every thing For if we think upon the quality of those persons to whom our Saviour and his Apostles applyed themselves in their usual discourses we shall find that they spake not in their Sermons nor wrote their Epistles only to the Rabbins among the Jews nor only to the Philosophers among the Gentiles Nor were there at the first many Rich or Noble called But the Poor had the Gospel preached to them The Apostles declared their Doctrine freely to the multitude Nay so did our blessed Saviour himself And therefore they must preach it in such language as all might be capable of understanding and receiving it if prejudice did not resist the impression For their design being to plant Christianity in the World to make Proselytes to the Kingdom of Heaven and in the belief and practice of this Religion to bring the lapsed race of men once more to God by disswading them from the error of their wayes and by guiding their feet into the way of peace Why should any think that they delivered the matters of mens future and everlasting concerns and the present Laws to guide them by in so mysterious a manner or such muffled language that the end of all their discourses might be lost by their speaking unintelligibly to the people Now since the souls of men that are not too much hindered by a very bad constitution of their bodies have all the same principles of Reason and every Individual has a proper judgement peculiarly his own and either we understand the languages and schemes of speech in which the Doctrines and Rules of life delivered by Christ and his Apostles were written Or else we receive them faithfully translated especially in necessary Doctrines and rules which the Criticks themselves cannot well torture because they are oftener than once delivered from several pious and learned men who more perfectly and compleatly understood them Why should things therefore that were at first plain to the capacity of the meanest be so obscure to us that we must want a guide who is infallible to direct us almost in all our wayes and what is worst of all he splits us at last against a stone If God has not thought it fit to bridle mankind so as to curb them from becoming sinners but has in this left them to their own
the subversion of his Gospel when his infinite understanding could baffle their arguments and his visible Miracles rebuke their folly in setting up any Doctrine for Divine that contradicted what he delivered certainly much more now when the Gospel is delivered and Miracles for its confirmation are ceased And men are not now to expect new but to believe the old Nay when the Gospel it self is often perverted to evil designs and under a pretence of mens Offering to God they Sacrifice to the Devil The Church is now and our Religion in it like a Ship at Sea toss'd in a storm and through the Providence of God we are put into a Creek to careen and repair Let us examine therefore all the leaky parts of the Vessel and supply all the defects of Masts or rigging before we put to Sea again And mind what Passengers we take in that they may neither blow us up nor sink us As the Apostle warns the Ephesians so must I admonish you that no man deceive you with vain words Ephes 5.6 As if any wickedness by what authority soever coloured could free those who teach or practise it from the revenge of Heaven For because of these things saies the Apostle cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience Here indeed in this world good men frequently suffer the same temporal evils with the bad Because being in the same community and the offence being that of the whole Society when the greater part become vicious the Wheat is sindged by those flames that burn the chaff For the separation of these is not compleated till a future state renders justice exact and glorious And communities must be punished here because in the other life these shall cease and every man bear his own burden It becomes us therefore since we must every one then answer for our selves to examine well our belief and practice and not to deceive our own souls in being led by the false principles of another Hence is it that S. Paul advises that every man examine himself before he partakes at the Lords Table 1 Cor. 11.28 And in the second Epist 13 th Chap. 5 th vers he exhorts men to examine themselves whether they are in the faith and to prove their own selves And that a man should try his own work that he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Because every one shall bear his own burthen Gal. 6.4 5. But yet because many things in Religion are placed beyond the examination of every man whose duty 't is to embrace them I must here lay down some directions and rules to limit such as may be otherwise apt to be extravagant and extend this duty of trying Spirits beyond their own power and capacity And 1. We that discourse of the Christian Religion and are fully convinced that it is true must take it as it is expressed to the world in those Books of Scripture in which it is contained Now these acquaint us that there are some set apart to be Guides to others and therefore distinguish the Church into Pastors and people Into those that are Guides and those that are to be conducted by them Into learned and unlearned But because all rules guide men no farther than they are designed To render these proper and effectual all collateral and subordinate helps are to be used in the application of the Rule We must take therefore the help of the Learned and rely on their honesty and skill in those things which an inferiour Education without such Miracles as are not now reasonably to be expected cannot capacitate men to reach Nor can they pass a judgement upon those things which they have not the advantage of knowing Thus that the Scriptures are truly Translated must be taken for granted by those that cannot understand the Originals And the Books which we receive as the Rule of Faith and directions for mens lives must be supposed to have been written by those inspired men whose names they bear among those that have not leisure nor skill enough to prove them to be so by any argument or authority And when these principles are setled 2. The Scriptures having some points more difficult to be understood we must farther make use of our Guides and those whom our Saviour has appointed over us to interpret to us such points in Religion which we are not capable of unridling our selves and not adventure above our strength in judging things which we have not learned This becomes the natural modesty of mankind and is more especially agreeable to that humility of mind and those docile dispositions which become the Gospel The contrary humours and actions of men are what make so many Schisms in the Church and lay them open to the errors and impostures of those who out of ignorance or design easily prevail upon and lead the simple In plain things such as most of the duties of Religion are every man of an ordinary capacity may well be able to judge for himself But if they will enter into Controversie especially such as have puzled the learned 't is no wonder that they are led into mistakes and their own obstinacy added to their ignorance makes their error become an Heresie Or if men will proceed in those things of which they might be capable of understanding by false measures and courses which are irregular not relying at all on those helps and aids which reason dictates and God hath both appointed and allowed 'T is no wonder then that they impose upon themselves by false reasoning instead of true or that they may be fit to receive the impressions of others when designing men impose upon them by any fallacious and alluring pretensions 3. Even in plain cases when private men that are not distinguished by any publick character judge for themselves they ought to confine their opinions to themselves and permit them only to have an influence on their own actions they having no more power to impose them on others than other private men have to impose theirs on them For all private men being in this respect equal none has authority to trouble others but they must leave them to their own reason and choice which is the same liberty that they claim themselves by vertue of the natural priviledge of men 4 It must be supposed antecedently to the trial of the Doctrines of men that pretend to inspiration that under the same claim and title some are true and some false For if all were true there would be no need of trying Spirits But we must contrary to the Apostles caution believe all who confidently affirm that they are inspired from above Yet our own experience sufficiently informs us that opposite Doctrines at the same time have been and are still vented in the world with the same confidence with the same pretension And we know that the parts of a contradiction cannot at the same time be true And therefore one being false must by search and trial be
considered together brings the promise of the Spirit and infallibility to the Apostles under determinate restraints and limitations But 2. This will further appear if we compare the promise of guiding into all truth with that other relating to the Holy Ghost Joh. 14.26 where the Apostles are told that he should teach them all things more plainly those which our Saviour had delivered and bring those things to their memory which they might forget though before declared He shall teach you all things sayes he and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you So that it appears that the Apostles had not the Spirit without measure though they may be said to be filled with the Holy Ghost And that this promise of infallibility to them was made in a limited and restrained sense Secondly Supposing the promises of Infallibility were made in never so enlarged a sense yet they are to be restrained to the persons to whom they were at first made as to the unerring conduct and I might easily make it appear that they cannot in their full sence concern any but the Apostles themselves and the first Preachers of the Christian Religion Because the end of this extraordinary inspiration was to make them capable of prescribing to us an infallible and unerring rule Which being accomplished there is no farther occasion of an infallible inspiration For to what end should this be continued to one or a certain number of men unless they were upon new emergencies to deliver new Doctrine to the world If it be necessary to the understanding of what has been already prescribed the Laws of the Gospel will not only want one of the most excellent qualifications of a Law that it be plain and easily intelligible But the same necessity will argue infallibility useful to all which renders it thus necessary unto some For if it be therefore necessary to some that they may become Guides to others Since their conduct in relation unto others must consist in advice and declaring that sence of the Law which could not be understood without them all which must be expressed by word or writing every man has as much need of infallibility that he may not misunderstand the interpretation as any have to prevent their misapprehensions of the Law if there can be no peace without infallibility Now that all men have not infallibility is as readily yielded as it is to be proved that the Pope has none Thirdly If there were now this infallibility amongst men there must be a perpetual revelation For if the perfection of the humane nature could here render any men infallible we may well conjecture that many might have been in every age that might have been Directors to the rest Or if it had been founded in humane nature why should not an equal perfection render all mankind infallible Either of them being granted will invalidate the necessity of a Divine Revelation and turn the word of God into a story and do despight to the spirit of grace if rendering it useless and a fable will do it For to what end should any men be inspired when they were before infallible in themselves The infallibility therefore which we discourse of must proceed from a strong and certain inspiration And whatever is delivered by vertue of this is of equal authority with the Scriptures themselves And then none can be safe in his life or fortunes when ever any inspired man makes it his pleasure to take them away Nay if we are conscientious we must yield them up upon demand lest haply we may be found fighters against God And this appears in the Romanists themselves as well as others taught by them The more conscientious any of them are the more readily do they yield to the impositions of their superiours and they have reason for it if they think them to be absolutely infallible For no private evidence of a thing must subvert their faith in the Churches determination and so much the more triumphant is their faith by how much the more it captivates their understandings As it is so much the more meritorious by how much the less it has of evidence So the greater the Objections are that meet and encounter the Churches determinations their faith is rendered the more glorious and full of victory Let the Doctrine then be never so wicked in it self or consequences the conscientious believer of the point of Roman Infallibility must neither see the one nor the other But renounce all the evidence of his reason and if occasion be as there is sometimes of his senses too For what evidence can reasonably be attended to that bears a testimony against that which is infallible This then must be a ready method to change the nature of good and evil and the eternal Law instamp'd upon our minds if the mutation proceeds from the Roman Chair Nay the nature of things need not be changed if the Pope please to change their names Men may borrow then and never pay if he pleases to cancell the debt Ruining families and overturning Kingdoms will become noble and a glorious exploit Nay religious acts when he is at leisure to adopt them into the number Burning Cities and murdering Princes shall be accounted means of propagating the Gospel if he please once to determine that we may do evil that good may come of it And blowing up the Estates of Kingdoms is presently holy if he will but sanctifie the Powder and Canonize the man that has the courage to attempt it So powerful is this Doctrine of Roman Infallibility that it can change the Devil into an Angel of Light And let the Pope himself be never so wicked his determinations are all true and good and he may remain his Holiness still He may subvert by degrees or all at once the whole Doctrine of Christianity though from thence he receives his pretensions of authority if he pleases to declare it a Fable when it shall no longer comport with his advantage Nay he has already so blended it with the Religion of the Jews and practice of the Heathens that Christianity is so buried in an heap of rubbish that 't is an hard matter to gather it up out of such a great confusion of ruines The substance is lost in the midst of Ceremony internal devotion is interrupted by a pompous Scene of Pageantry and Shew and yet the evidence of our senses must be rejected in the Doctrine which they so much applaud in practice And yet Fourthly Notwithstanding all the Roman pretences to Infallibility If there are any promises made of it they do as well concern other Churches as themselves For if these promises were made to the Apostles in general as is very plain from the circumstances of their delivery if they were not terminated in them but reached also the whole succession of those by vertue of whom Christs promise was made good of being with the Apostles alwayes to the end of the world Then either
obstinacy still increased till it was the ruine of himself and followers who all perished in the Red Sea Ahab forsook the commandments of God and worshipped Baalim and led the people into Idolatry joyning the Service of Baal with the God of Israel And thus halted betwixt two opinions till the trial betwixt their Sacrifices was determined on Elijah's side who was the Prophet of the Lord Whilst fire came down from Heaven and consumed the Sacrifice upon Gods own Altar which Baal could not effect on his But then the people determined their choice and gave their assent that the Lord is God and presently slew the Prophets of Baal for whom before they had great esteem 1 Kings 18 th Chap. Hence was it also that our Saviour said concerning the Jews who by Miracles evidencing Moses's Commission had justly received the Law of Moses That if he had not superseded their Religious Customs which till his coming were justly established by shewing his Authority and Gospel to be Divine by greater Miracles than those that introduced and established the Law they had done well to adhere to it and to look upon the Gospel as an imposture Because a new Doctrine pretending to be Divine and evacuating that which having proof from Heaven was established before must be confirmed with greater Miracles than that which it pretends to abolish Therefore sayes our Saviour If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin John 15.24 Which way of trial will by the way hold good to the end of the World From all which it is plainly manifest that all the Opinions and Doctrines of men pretending to inspiration if they are rationally to be received by us must come with such Evidence and Authority as may surmount all difficulties and Objections to the contrary So that if any men should now pretend Miracles to give testimony to any Opinions that contradict the Doctrines of the New Testament they are not sufficient to command our assent and to determine our belief Unless they are greater than any which Christ and his Apostles did to confirm their Doctrine which these new Opinions do oppose and contradict Eighthly In this trial of men pretending inspiration for the Doctrines they deliver we must be sure that the evidence they give for such inspiration be peculiarly Divine and such as cannot be given to men by any thing inferiour to the power of God It is not the grave deportment of the inspired nor the colour or shape of their faces Nor the seeming innocence of their own lives extraordinary austerities or a less decent and morose living that retires them from the conversation of the World It is not a peculiar habit nor any uncouth or sluttish garments 't is neither feeding upon Locusts and wild Honey nor yet eating with Publicans and Sinners that proves a Prophet to be Divine Nor is it a full and copious expression attended with abundance of zeal and passion nor yet a slow and pumping delivery as if their notions were too bigg for their words and their words too large for their mouths that will evidence them to come from God 'T is neither their natural parts or acquired ornaments the antiquity of error nor the glory or number of those that are proselyted to it 't is neither the rendring error plausible by distinction nor glozing it over with misrepresented testimonies of others or pretending some latent Authority from the most obscure places pf the Scripture or rendring those obscure to countenance their Dotrine that are plain and open to the contrary that must lead us from Divine truth into Diabolical error and make the God of truth to patronize a lye In a word 'T is not an Argument from the success an Opinion has in the world though Providence thereby seems with some to be entitled to it nor any countenance from the Authority of men nor the iterated affirmations of him that pretends to be thus inspired that are sufficient to prove his Doctrines true Because all these things have frequently been publick attestations to those that are false But there must be such evidence to those Propositions which are pretended to come immediately from God as that by which he has always confirmed his Laws to the world Something beyond the power of nature that cannot be parallel'd by men or Devils The Broad Seal of Heaven must be annex'd that neither nature nor art is able to counterfeit And this Ninthly must be real Miracles in which the Spirit of Prophecy is included There have been many wonders effected in the world and more stories of these than are true which the Romanists glory as much in as if they were Miracles if their art can hide their craft subtilty from those that are more curious and inquisitive The Pagan Priests led the van assisted by the power of subtil Daemons to gain the peoples worship to themselves or to those Images which they animated and moved And how far the Romanists have followed them in this cheat and imposture has been sometimes too apparently discovered And would be more would they but be as ingenuous in their confessions as they are witty in their subtil though impious inventions The philosophical knowledge of natural causes together with an industrious application will make some extraordinary and unusual effects look like Miracles For the most of men being by reason of an inferiour education ignorant of many effects of Art and Nature which men of more refined understandings easily discover the causes of are apt to attribute those things to the immediate operation of the first cause which are results from those that are second Art will do much and Nature more And the Devil many times makes more strange and unusual appearances being assisted with the knowledge of both And how many times do men admire the slight of a Jugler till perhaps they make discovery of his Craft and attribute that to the power of the Devil which he ingeniously does by slight of hand Nay the sport that Devils make in the Air we often take as the voice of Gods Thunder and tremble and are afraid at the Storm But yet there is as much difference betwixt true Miracles and very real Wonders as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell or the power of Nature and that which first made and continues it who can either suspend its power or alter its effects Or as there is betwixt Nature and Art which though the latter imitates it can never equal no more than the former vye with the God of Nature Miracles especially such as are above the power of any thing inferiour unto God have alwayes been receiv'd by men as sufficient attestations of Divine Truths These were those Divine Testimonies by which the blessed Jesus evidenced his Commission to the World and added Gods authority to the reasonableness of his Doctrine When S. John the Baptist sent his Disciples to him to know whether he were the Messiah of which he