upon the Consciences of all Persons as Protestants by or from the Scripture is yet the more considerable because whatever Worship Service or Religion we as Protestants do profess to give unto God we profess it only from the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and from the Authority of them as they are thus owned and professed by the Protestant Church to be our Supreme and consequently our immediate Tye in all that we believe and in all that we act as Protestants towards God which hath not its Termination in or its dependance so much upon men or upon the Ruling Clergy or upon the Church as upon the Scripture or Word of God it self We judging it lawful enough to forsake the Church when we once judge the Church in what it believes or in what it acts or practiseth toward God to have forsaken his Word And our Profession or Religion being thus founded I mean out of Conscience purely to Gods Word Every man then properly as a Protestant if he be Sincere doth as much believe that the Worship whatever it be that he professeth is as truly agreeable to the Mind and Will of God as is the very Scripture it self And consequently that he is as much to contend for the said Worship as he is bound to contend for the Authority of the Scripture it self For these two being taken by him but for one thing viz. the Truth and Authority of the Scripture and the Truth and Authority of what he professeth consequently the same Tye that binds him to the Scripture must of necessity bind him to that Religion whatever it be which he as a Protestant professeth unto God And consequently if there be no Tye so firm or so strong upon the Conscience as that of the Divine and Absolute Authority of the Scripture is There can be no Tye stronger than what Protestants as such and as Sincere must necessarily have for the Religion whatever it be that they do respectively profess unto God The Third Effect And Thirdly This now being made clear and undoubted viz. That the Tye and Obligation that every man hath to the Worship which he professeth unto God properly as a Protestant lyeth in and riseth immediately from the Scriptures And it being likewise cleared that the highest Tye which can possibly be laid upon the Conscience of any man is that proceeding from the Scriptures as they are The ONLY Rule of God's Mind and Will to us It must necessarily follow that if the Authority of men can neither remove the Use of the Scriptures themselves nor remove the Obligation which they have above all things upon the Consciences of men even from their very Education as they are The only Rule of God's Mind then no Authority of man can ever possibly remove the Obedience which men will always conceive themselves obliged to give to the said Word in whatever it be they apprehend it doth clearly command Seeing this Obedience is looked upon to be the same and no other with an Obedience given to God himself And if an Obedience given unto God be in Conscience also infinitely preferrable to any Obedience to man then must an Obligation to the immediate Law and Will of God be always preferrable to and stronger than any Obligation whatever to the Law or Command of men which is a third unavoidable Effect of it The Fourth Effect And Fourthly if the Law of the Church or of the Ruling Clergy cannot in the matter of Worship any way compel or bind men to Obedience farther or otherwise than as they apprehend it to be agreeable to the Law of God or to the Law of his Word Then neither can the Law of the Prince or the Law of the Civil Government bind mens Consciences in the matter of Worship further or otherwise than the Law of the Church viz. no otherwise than as the said Law shall appear to them to be agreeable to Gods Law which is the Law of his Scripture or Word And consequently it can never be avoided by any Protestant Prince but his Authority as relating purely to things Civil with the Efficacy of it must stand upon one Rule And his Authority as relating to things of Divine Worship with the Efficacy of it must necessarily and unavoidably stand upon another Rule And therefore that his Authority over his Subjects in the one and in the other of these must of necessity be distinguished Which is the fourth thing that we say cannot in any Protestant Government possibly be prevented That these four things are the certain Effects of that which is the Main part or the Chiefest Privilege of any that came by the Reformation it self before mentioned may be further and more fully demonstrated thus For if no Law can possibly Eradicate that Notion That there is a God Then no endeavour of man whatever can hinder his being worshipped by such at least as have a sence of his being and do verily believe that HE IS Wherefore if we are trained up from our Childhood and trained up not only as men but as Protestants firmly to believe that God will accept of no other Worship at all from us as Christians but what is agreeable to his Word And if it be a thing continually inculcated to us even from our very Infancy That it is in a Conformity to this Word alone that all Religion whatever doth consist Then it is not Reason only but Experience it self which attests it That a man may as soon quit his Notion that there is a God or be affraid to own it And may assoon quit the Notion that God is to be worshipped or be affraid to own it As he may quit or be affraid to own as he is a Protestant this Notion viz. That God is so only to be worshipped and no otherwise than he hath set down in his Word And if this Notion then about his Word as the only Rule of the Worship of God be as firmly planted in us by our Education as any Notion can be planted in us that belongs to our nature as men It must needs follow that a Government may as well and with as good success hope or propound to it self by a Law to extinguish common Notions as hope or propound to it self by a Law to extinguish among any Protestant Nation the Notion of the necessity of Worshipping God according to his Word And therefore if it be rightly considered it will likewise appear That it must be to him that is truly educated as a Protestant every way as grievous to be commanded by a Law to forsake Christianity it self as to be commanded by a Law to forsake that Worship which he as a Protestant cannot but believe in his heart is alone agreeable to the Mind and Law of God which is that Worship that is given to God directly conformable to his Scripture or Word And of the Truth of this the Martyrs in Queen Maries time are a competent Witness And consequently they that pretend to take another
Measure of Protestantism than according to what is thus firmly rooted in the hearts of men both by their Education and by the very Principles and Doctrine of the Reformation do seem but to prevaricate only with the reformed Religion and with the sixth Article of the Church of England and do if not in Words yet in Actions seem manifestly to declare that they neither really believe the Scriptures or the Christian Religion or the Reformation to be of God For if the whole of the Christian Religion be contained in the Scripture and in the Scripture alone as the sixth Article of the Church of England doth both plainly and expresly confess it is Then to make the rule of the Word to be our rule wholly as Christians in the Worship of God is so far from an Obstencie and so far from any thing of Humour or Superstition or Conceitedness that the contrary can be no way dispensable and much less maintainable before God and therefore there is neither any part of Popery it self nor any thing of Idolatry though never so gross but it may be as easily imposed upon and as easily entertained by a Protestant as any worship may which he evidently seeth or is sufficiently perswaded of in his Conscience to be against the Mind of God or against the Rule of his Word Seeing it is This Rule that is the only Index of his Mind as to us and it is This Rule alone to which all the Promises of God are intirely made and all the Promises of God being made to This Rule only This Rule and no other must then as we are Christians be The alone Foundation both of all our hope and of all our trust toward God And must consequently be the only ground upon which we can as Christians have any expectation of Salvation and Life And therefore the whole Interest and Concern of our Souls at least as we are Protestants doth and must stand entirely upon the said Word Which things if they cannot possibly any way be denyed Then the disobeying of all such Laws in the matter of Worship as are NOT agreeable to The Word of God or which at least appear not to be so is a thing wholly inevitable and is impossible to be avoided in a Protestant Government even as we are rational persons because there is a threefold reason that necessarily impels it First as it hath its rise from that most forcible and indeleable Character which is writ in the Minds of all men which is That seeing GOD IS HE ought to be worshipped in some manner or another of necessity Secondly as it hath its rise from that Character which hath equal force with the other in the Minds of us as we are bred Protestants viz. That God is no other way to be worshipped nor will accept of any other worship from us as Christians but what is agreeable to his Word Which two Principles seeing by vertue of our Education they make but one indeed in our hearts as we are Protestants they do and must constrain us assoon to abandon all worship it self unto God as to abandon that worship which is properly agreeable to his Word Because so far as we abandon this we do abandon all Worship that is according to our Principles as Protestants either acceptable with God or agreeable to the Mind of God Wherefore if to these two we shall add the third ground of its rise which is as certain also as either of the other viz. That we neither have hope in God nor any Promises made us by God further than as we obey him in his Word or further than as we worship him according to the Rule of it I say these three things being now joyntly considered and seriously weighed by us what man is there or what man can there be who firmly believes that there is any such thing as Salvation and Life who will not run any hazard rather than forbear what he judgeth to be the Worship of God or rather than he will observe such a Worship unto God as he cannot but know or cannot at least but verily believe to be contrary to his Mind and contrary to the Rule of his Word If it be evil then for any man to believe that God is indispensibly to be worshipped after some manner or another or evil for a man to believe that there is no other rule of his Will or Mind to us as we are Christians but his Word and therefore no other Rule wherein his Worship is contained besides his Word Or if it be evil to expect that God will most truly faithfully and fully perform his Promises to us if we shall serve him according to his Word and not otherwise I say if any of these three things are evil then it may be evil to disobey any Law relating to the Worship of God though it be not agreeable to his Word But if none of these things be evil in themselves they can never make any man evil who simply conforms to them I say not simply for his conformity how strictly or intirely so ever it be And therefore if these three Principles are of such a nature as creates a necessity of our compliance with them even as we are rational persons we must either then remove the Principles themselves and the lawfulness of them or we must unavoidably suffer and permit their efficacy as lawful over men For to allow the Principles themselves as good and lawful and as necessary and indispensible in themselves and to disallow nevertheless the Practice of them or to disallow such persons as follow them and imbrace them and to account such persons to be only disturbers or to be men so evil and bad as that they are not fit to be tolerated in a Nation even though no Crime besides this be objected against them Is either grosly to prevaricate with the said Principles and to make but a mock or sport of them or it is to do that which is absolutely repugnant absurd and contradictory in it self which is wholly against the Reason and Nature of a man as a man For though it cannot be maintained that all the Laws of men must or ought necessarily to arise out of the Laws of God viz. either that of his Word or that Law written in the heart of man Yet it is maintained among all Christian Governments whatever That no Law of the Civil Magistrate hath any power to supersede any Law of God whether it be that writ in the heart of man or that writ in his Word and therefore it is universally agreed by all Governments and cannot be denyed by any that profess Christianity That all humane Laws if they be inconsistent either with any of those common Principles that are writ in our Nature which are called the common Principles of Reason or with any thing that is expresly writ in the Word of God They are null and void in themselves Because they are against a prior or preceding Obligation which
Nature of her Policy For the Acquiring of that Arbitrary Absolute and unlimited Power which she exerciseth And first we find that she doth upon her own Authority affirm That it is neither the Letter of the Scripture nor the Grammar of it how Plain Clear or Express soever it be that doth or ought to bind the Consciences of men but the sence of the said Scripture only And Secondly she doth affirm That it is not the sence of the Scripture also which doth or can any way directly bind the Consciences of men if this sence be considered nakedly in it self either as literal or mystical but that the said sence is capable of binding only considered as it is Catholick And Thirdly That it is not either in the Letter or in the Grammar of the said Scripture how clear or plain soever it be that the Divine Authority of it is placed but simply and only in the sence of it as this sence is the sence of the Universal Church and therefore that sence which is properly called Catholick Which Propositions she having in her Prudence thus peculiarly laid down as the Grounds or Foundations not only of all Christian Faith but of all Christian Verity and Truth it self In the next place she builds upon these unsound Grounds an Assumption that is parallel to them and that is every way as entirely her own as the former viz. That she alone hath not only the Right as exclusive to all others of Dispencing this Catholick Sence to all the Members of the Christian Church but of dispencing it in order to their Salvation and hath inherent in her the full and absolute Power finally and Inappealeably to determine at all times and upon all Occasions what the said Catholick Sence is concerning all Points whatever that may be controverted and concerning all places of Scripture whatever that may be doubted of or disputed And that as this Power is absolutely necessary for the Preservation of the Unity so for the Preservation of the Purity of the said Christian Faith in regard it is impossible that such a Sence of the Scripture as is wholly Universal and Catholick should at any time Err. The Conclusion then if all these Premises be true is That the Church of Rome is to be believed and that all her Determinations whatever they be are for Conscience sake to be Obeyed and Submitted unto even by the whole Christian Church without any Dispute or without so much as any scruple of Mind This Conclusion being that which all the Partizans and Champions of the Church of Rome do labour with Might and Main to bring every man to and therefore it is the same with that Security and Rest which they pretend all men may have not only with absolute Safety but with absolute satisfaction in the Bosom of their Church But indeed this Conclusion hath not any tendency to Salvation at all but is quite contrary to all that is alledged and leads expresly to nothing else but to the utter Overthrow and Subversion of the whole Scripture it self with the Mind Law Will and Counsel of God so far at least as depends upon Revelation in regard it puts the Scripture together with the whole Authority of it though Divine in it self absolutely perfectly and entirely into the Arbitrary Will and Power of the said Church And therefore the Protestants upon Consideration of the extreme Mischiefs that must of necessity follow from such a Conclusion as this they do with Indignation reject it And First The Protestants do wholly deny that the said Church of Rome hath any rightful Authority to make null the Grammar of the Scripture Secondly The Protestants do much more deny that she hath any Right to institute or set up such a Sence of the Scripture under any name or pretence whatever that is either opposite to the Grammar of the Scripture or that at least pretends that there is not a necessity to follow and observe the Rules of it Thirdly Consequently they utterly deny that she hath any Right to transfer the Authority of the Scripture from the Sence proper to the Letter of it self to such a Sence as is only and properly hers And Fourthly They deny that she hath any Right or any Power to set up any Sence of her own at all which is not absolutely subjected to the Rule and Authority that is inherent to the Scriptures Letter and Word with the proper Sence of it as this is and ought to be Supreme to all others Fifthly And they do much less acknowledge that she hath any such Right in her or derived to her therefore as to make her Sence of the Scripture or what she declares to be so the Sence of the Universal Church Sixthly Or that she hath any Right to make her sence of the Scripture to be the Absolute or Supreme Rule of all Infallible and Christian Truth or to disallow any Appeal from her proper Determinations to the living Rule of the Scriptures Grammar and to the Letter or Word of it Seventhly And the Protestants denying all these things they do deny therefore that she hath any Authority Power or Right to dispence with That Duty and Obligation which is divinely and absolutely laid upon the Consciences of men which is To obey the Word of God in the litteral plain and express Sence of it Eighthly And the Protestants do deny consequently that the Consciences of men are or can any way possibly be obliged to her bare Determination of the Sence of the Scripture Especially so far as this is set up absolutely by her and is not dependant upon any Sence proper to the Words and Grammar of the Scripture it self All and every of which Powers as the Protestant Church doth wholly deny to the Church of Rome So for as much as the Church of Rome can pretend to no one of the said Rights or Authorities now mentioned otherwise than as it must by some means or other be lawfully conveyed or derived to her The Protestant Church therefore challengeth her and provoketh her to shew that special and peculiar Commission by which SHE and SHE alone is impowered to do all or any of those things before named Because without this Commission can be produced and produced upon some Clear Evident and Sufficient Warrant or Ground for it All Her pretences to the said Authority seeing it is so manifestly destructive to the Scripture it self must needs appear to be not only Precarious but very frivolous and very absurd The Church of Rome being thus challenged and provoked in the point of her Commission and yet well knowing that there is nothing which she can possibly appeal unto for the proof of her Authority beside the Scripture it self She becomes hereupon to be several ways distressed and perplexed First because she finds that she cannot allow of the Grammatical Sence of the Scripture in any one Case whatever But she must necessarily and unavoidably allow it in all other Cases also where it may
to the Universal Church and to the Scripture as it is the Sence of neither of them properly and entirely and yet is the Sence of both of them at one and the same time For though this Catholick Sence cannot be had without the Scripture and though it is and must necessarily be given therefore to the said Church by the Scripture Because it is the Scripture only that the said Church doth always refer to when it doth at any time cite or alledge the said Sence as it is Divine And consequently though without the said Scripture it had been wholly impossible that the said Church should either have Challenged or laid Claim to any Truth that had been Authoritative or Divine Notwithstanding this The said Catholick Sence both is given and must necessarily be given to the Scripture by the said Church because without the said Church it would be impossible that this Sence should ever be found out in the Scripture it self in regard nothing is more certain than that the Scripture hath of it self properly no Sence at all at least none that is True Certain and Infallible but as this is by the Universal Church and by the Prudent Care and Foresight of it bestowed upon it And so we must unavoidably grant that though the Catholick Sence be but One yet this One Sence is both created by the Church for the Scripture and created by the Scripture for the Church Which is a very rare and unusual sort of Production And therefore it will follow also that if we regard the Truth Certainty and Infallibility of this Catholick Sence it is wholly and entirely from the Church because neither the Authority properly of it nor its Divinity doth consist in its Truth or in its Certainty If we regard the Divinity and Authority of this Catholick Sence it is not only originally but entirely from the Scripture because it may be Divine though it have neither Certainty nor Infallibility in it at least as the Church of Rome tells us And consequently the said Catholick Sence considered as it is strictly in the Scriptures hath indeed both Authority absolutely in it and Divinity but it neither hath Truth Certainty nor Infallibility But considered as it is strictly in the Church it hath both Truth Certainty and Infallibility absolutely in it But it hath not for all this any thing of Divinity or Authority for this it must borrow from the name of the Scripture So that it is plain That the said Catholick Sence is neither the Sence of the Church properly and entirely nor the Sence of the Scripture properly and entirely and yet that it is the Sence of both of them entirely And the Reason for this is also plain viz. Because according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Divinity of the Catholick Sence is one thing its Truth and Infallibility is quite another for though the Church can give to the Catholick Sence its Truth and Infallibility entirely yet she cannot give any part of its Divinity And though the Scripture can give to the Catholick Sence its whole Divinity and consequently its Authority entirely yet it cannot of it self give it any thing of truth or any thing of Infallibility but this it must have from the Church So mystically is this Catholick Sence parted and divided between both By which partition of the Catholick Sence which is strange we come to know another thing also which is as strange and which otherwise we should never have been able to have found out viz. That though the end of giving the Scripture was unquestionably for the enlightening Ruling and Governing the Church yet the end of setting up the Church was equally also for the enlightening Ruling and Governing of the Scriptures Which as it is a Consequence that can no way be avoided by the Rules of the Church of Rome so it is as manifestly absurd as all the rest Secondly The Divinity of the Catholick sence with the necessity absolutely of it will appear also yet the more clearly if we shall consider that unless we do admit the Church in the first place to be holy infallible and free from all manner of Error imaginable it will and must be impossible that the Catholick sence of the Scripture should be absolutely True Holy Infallible and free from all Error Because the sence of the Scripture becomes thus Catholick Holy Infallible and True only as it is the sence of the Catholick Church first and as it is by this means derived to the Scripture it self And for any to seek a sence in the Scripture therefore that is Holy True Infallible and free from all Error alone by the Scripture it self without the Direction and Assistance of the said Catholick or Universal Church is manifestly absurd Both because the Scripture hath properly of it self no sence at all that is certain and because it is the immediate Authority of the Church only upon which the sence of the Scripture so far as it is properly Catholick Infallible and absolutely True is wholly and entirely built And yet on the contrary in regard it must be confessed that the Church could not possibly have so much as either Name or Being were it not for the Scripture it self and much less that it could have those Privileges or that Authority placed in it which it challengeth above all others for being Holy True Infallible and free from all manner of Error Unless we admit therefore the Scripture in the first place to be originally True Holy and Divine and therefore to contain all Authority and Truth prmitively in it self that is Holy Absolute and Divine and that by reason of this its primitive Sanctity Divinity and Truth it hath a power simply and properly of its self to confer a Divine Right Authority and Infallibility to the Church it will and must be impossible that the said Church should be any way impowered or enabled either to teach such Doctrines as are Certain True Holy and Divine and without any fallibility whatever or that it should be able to declare what that sence of the Scripture is which is absolutely Holy True Infallible and free from all manner of Error Because if the whole being of the Church is entirely from the Scripture then not only all the Holiness Truth and Infallibility of the said Church with the truth of whatever it teacheth but all the Authority also which it hath or challengeth by reason of any of these extraordinary Properties is and must unavoidably be built upon the Scripture also and upon the primitive Truth Authority and Sanctity of it Both which things now being admitted it must necessarily follow that if we will fully comprehend the Divinity of the Catholick sence and come to be convinced of the necessity and absoluteness of its Infallibility Authority and Truth we must grant that the Truth Holiness Infallibleness and Authority of the Church was and could not but be before the Truth Holiness and Infallibility of the Scripture sence And
Popish Clergy do punish men viz. for their worshipping God and for their worshipping of him not contrary to the Scripture or contrary to any thing that seems clearly and plainly their Duty in the Word of God but contrary only to some Order or other in the Church And if the quality of the Persons that do suffer and that are punished by the Protestant Clergy are the same also with those that are punished by the Popish Clergy that is such men as are neither blameable in Nor so much as accused or charged by them with or for any Crime Or any Immorality in their Lives and Conversations But such as otherwise demean themselves in all Duty and with all Subjection to their Superiors I say if both these are the very SAME one with another wherein doth the Essential Difference lye between the Persecution of the Popish Clergy and the Persecution of the Protestant Clergy unless it be strictly in this That the Protestant Clergy do pretend to believe the Scriptures to be the Supreme Rule and mind of God to his Church and if asked do freely grant That men are NOT bound in Conscience to any Rule Superior to this Nor can be bound in the things of Faith or in things relating to the Worship of God to any Rule above this And yet at the same time that they own this they persecute their Brethren not only in their Liberties but in their Goods Fortunes and Estates and sometimes in their Lives also through nasty Prisons and want of Conveniences for acknowledging the said Scriptures to be such as they themselves do own them to be and for that they accordingly conform to their own Principles Whereas The Popish Clergy though they persecute men for the same Crimes yet they do not give so much Honour to the Scriptures nor do so much as pretend to it But which of these two Are for this very Cause the greater Crimes before God may be left to all rational men to consider In the mean time I am most sure of this That whereas our first Reformers did call the Church of Rome Antichristian and did charge her with Innocent Blood and did put the name of Scarlet-Whore for this Reason upon her Yet now it is most certain the Stain and Discredit of it is in her eyes manifestly lessened if it be not wholly bletted out For it is impossible that the Church of Rome should ever hereafter grant these things to be Stains or Crimes proper only to her which she doth not only see but can daily observe some Protestant Church or other to follow her in upon such Grounds as are far less justifiable in the said Protestant Church according to the Principles they profess than they are in her self And that this is not a thing ever to be hoped or expected from her hereafter is the more clear in regard the said Church of Rome hath already in so many words sharply and closely Retorted it upon the Protestant Church So that the VERY things which we blame the said Church of Rome for and for which we accuse her Criminally And which we pretend to be the main Grounds why we could no longer have any Communion with her which was her laying aside the sole Authority of the Scriptures And her persecuting such as desired to walk according to the Rule of it some Protestant Churches have not only imitated her in but have outgone her and have done so much worse than she ever did by how much we have contradicted the Principles we profess which she hath not And that she hath cast this as a Reproach upon us in words and hath alledged several Arguments to confirm it and such as have not to this very day been answered by us is matter of Fact And if in all Courts of Judicature matter of Fact be good Evidence and if the highest Evidence that can be given in matter of Fact is when the Fact is able to speak and attest it self or when it is capable to be attested to by thousands then is the Evidence which I here bring every way as good and every way as vallid to prove what I affirm Which is That the Church of Rome hath endeavoured to justifie and acquit her self from the Crime of unjust Persecution and Blood by instancing the same thing in the Practice of Protestants one toward another and therein hath exonerated her self from the sole Guilt of this evil and from the sole Guilt of her being alone that Babylon mentioned Rev. 17. which hath been frequently fixed singly upon her and attributed to none besides her And she hath produced several Arguments also and those of Weight to make it appear That Protestants In their Persecution one of another are far more unjust upon the Principles we profess as Protestants than she is upon her own Principles how much so ever we have pleased to inveigh against her and revile her And these Arguments she hath no way scrupled publickly and openly to divulge in English to the end that every man that is rational may the better examine them and judge of them And that we have not as yet pleaded to the said Arguments Or to the Retortion she hath made upon us either by denying the Fact it self absolutely or by distinguishing the respective differing Circumstances and Grounds of it is also well known Whereby she hath the more just occasion to think that those Protestants that have thus persecuted others are conscious to themselves of their own Guilt And seeing all this is pure matter of Fact one of these two Conclusions therefore do seem to be impossible to be avoided viz. That either we have done very evil in charging the Church of Rome as Antichristian and in charging her as guilty of the Blood of the Saints which is mentioned Rev. 17.6 which must nevertheless be inevitably charged some where and very evil to impose the name of Scarlet-Whore and of Babylon upon her Or If the Protestant Churches have said all this really in Judgment and really in Truth against her Then have some Protestant Churches done much worse themselves in being actually guilty of the same things which have been so criminally charged upon her And if the Church of Rome be guilty of Innocent Blood then none that is sober can doubt but she must at length be lyable to the extreme Judgments of God for it And therefore if any Protestant Churches have followed her in that very Guilt the same judgments must as unquestionably come upon them and perhaps more severe And to the end that all Protestant Churches may be awakened to consider their great Danger in this Case if they have been Persecutors of their Brethren I need do no more than to lay before them the express Prophesie of our Lord Jesus Christ in this Case viz. That there should be some who delaying in their hearts the Consideration of his coming should instead of giving a portion of Meat to their fellow-Servants be found smiting of them The
equally and with as good warrant be alledged Secondly she discerns that if she should allow the Grammar of the Scripture to be Authoritative at all she should never be able to prevent the pretences that others would have even among the Laity it self to be as competent Judges of the said Grammar as her self Thirdly besides these two extreme Inconveniences which by her are not to be endured she evidently also seeth that the Words of Scripture themselves will not of themselves by any literal Construction or Exposition of them be sufficient to prove any such Authority as she claims and that should the words of the Scripture be urged therefore no further than according to the express Tenor of them or according to the sence that the Grammar it self would bear of them she should be so far from gaining the Power and Commission which she pretends to have a Warrant for that instead of it she should expose her Authority to a manifest hazard even not only to be sifted ventilated and discussed by others but as freely censured by such as should observe the nature of her Inferences and how weakly and infirmly they are deduced with respect to the genuine Force or Construction of the words themselves And therefore as for all these Reasons she apparently discerns that the Grammar of the Scripture is an Adversary absolutely to her so she doth as smartly and dexterously perceive that the Scripture it self were the Authority of it allowed to be in the Grammar would be as great an Enemy every way to her as even the literal and Grammatical Sence of it is For in as much as these three things are at once both equally and necessarily Incumbent upon her and such as cannot any of them possibly be dispensed with by her viz. First to prove the peculiarity of her Authority above any other Church beside her whatever And Secondly to justifie the Incorruption of her Doctrine And Thirdly to preserve the pretence that she hath by this consequently to Infallibility And seeing these three do so much concern her that it is a thing very plain and very easie to perceive that unless they can all be maintained upheld and defended in some measure rationally by her she can no way keep up her temporal Power nor any way avoid a lyableness to a Reformation Wherefore having upon a due and serious survey of the Letter and Grammar of the Holy Scripture sufficiently found and clearly observed that the Scripture as thus strictly considered in the Order Disposition and Construction of its Letter will never be serviceable to her in any one of these three Respects but will on the contrary expresly oppose her As she is hereby expresly convinced then that there can be no cause why she should magnifie the express word of it and much less any cause why she should trust in it or appeal to it so lest that others should be carried away with a rational Opinion of it and should for this cause be induced to urge and press several things against her from it She saw it but necessary that she should come to a deliberate Resolution with her self To weaken the Credit of the Scripture wholly and not only to deny all Authority and even all Divinity it self to be in the Word Letter and Grammar of the Scripture strictly considered by it self but to deny also that any Sence is capable to be certainly had from it or any truth that is infallible which how hold a thing soever it might seem to be yet she saw it no way avoidable by her because she had no way besides this to secure her self against all that Inconveniency that she knew the Scripture would and must otherwise cast upon her necessarily by vertue of the expressness and Authority of its Letter Having then taken up this Resolution in the first place considering nevertheless maturely with her self that if she should cast off all her Relation to the Scripture wholly and entirely she could not maintain the very Authority of the Church it self and much less should be able to defend either the Divinity or the Infallibility of those things that are sought by her She therefore cometh to a second Resolution which she judgeth no less necessary and expedient for her than the former viz. To maintain the Divinity and set up the Authority absolutely of the Scripture though not in the express Letter of it nor in the Sence proper to it yet as we have said already in another Sence that she sets up instead of it That is according to such a Sence which she judges convenient that she her self should as a Church put upon it and put upon it in such manner also and with such a Construction and Exposition as might be most sutable to her own end and most answerable to her own particular Interest which Sence she therefore stiles by the specious Name or Appellation of the Catholick Sence or of the Sence of the Universal Church in distinction at least from and for the better avoiding of that Sence which is truly literal and is properly Constructive and Grammatical And as it is this Sence alone therefore as Catholick that she confines both the Authority and Divinity of the Scripture to and that also entirely So she doth this in her own more than ordinary Judgment and Prudence In regard she is sure that this Sence will never fail her but will always be ready to abett whatever shall upon any occasion be determined by her Because this Sence requires no deeper Reason nor any firmer Bottom or Ground at any time for it Than what resolves it self at length into the meer arbitrary Will and Pleasure of her self And so she can never be accountable further for it than barely to declare it or affirm it to be the Catholick Sence because she saith it is the Sence of the Universal Church And is not this rare Policy And therefore to justifie this medly Sence which if what she saith be true is both the Sence of the Scripture and is not And which must necessarily be the Sence of the Scripture because the Church will so have it and not because it is a Sence really properly or radically inherent in it To justifie also her Rightful throwing off the Authority of the Grammar it self and to justifie her transferring the whole Divinity of the Scripture from the natural Order and Construction of its Words to a Sence altogether forreign to its Letter and to the expressness of it I say to justifie ALL THIS she pleads her own Authority not only as Divine but as absolute and infallible and consequently as that which ought to be submitted unto by every one and that readily as to the very Ordinance and Appointment of God himself Which being the very Question it self that was in dispute and that very thing therefore that was first of all necessary to be proved by her she is constrained by this means whether she will or no to run round in a Circle viz. To
prove her proper Authority by the Catholick Sence of the Scripture And To prove the Catholick Sence of the Scripture by vertue of her proper Authority And at length not only without all ground but without all shame or sence of Justice to beg the whole Argument it self in Controversie between us Than which we say there can be nothing whatever that is either more unreasonable or more impudent and base And having gotten her Authority therefore in this manner not only or not so much by shuffling as by plain snatching it and being conscious to her self that it would be a very vain thing for her to suppose she should be able to defend the said Authority by any better Argument than that very Stratagem she made use of it to prove it she concludes it to be most safe to maintain it therefore in the same manner as she got it which is by force and therefore resolves to punish all men with Death that will be so hardy as to deny it so far at least as her Power or Mediation can any way extend to do it And yet lest the Quarrel should by this means look as if it were too personal and too private and that such Princes as were less concerned at it should not be much disposed to ingage with her in it She as if she were Pious in the very Execution of her Malice pretends this shedding the Blood of men though it may seem indeed to be very severe yet is absolutely necessary not so much because they disobey her as because they disobey and oppose the Catholick Sence of the Holy Scripture In which Catholick Sence all the Authority and Divinity of it if you will believe her is properly placed and that by opposing of this they oppose by Consequence not only the Catholick Faith of the Church but the consent of all Christianity it self In the unquestionableness of which the Security and Salvation of men can only and alone rest which pretext is another part as well of her Absurdity as of her Violence and Fraud That notwithstanding she neither hath nor can prove any Obligation that men in Conscience can have to her Authority or to rely upon the Determination of it And though she cannot otherwise require the belief of it from any but as it is a thing meerly precarious yet she puts all to death that yield not to this absolute Usurpation of her Power The Use of this last preceding Discourse From this brief Scheme or summary Prospect of the Nature of this new and peculiar Policy of the Church of Rome We may easily make a measure of her Wisdom as well as of her Truth for by this short State or Account that we now have of these Motives which did mainly induce the said Church intirely to lay aside the express Letter and Grammar of the Scriptures at least as to the Certainty Truth or Infallibility of it we may easily have a view of several horrible Absurdities Contradictions and indeed Impieties that she is by this means forced and necessitated to fall into of which we shall now mention a few Particulars For first as it is Matter of Fact which is the most infallible Evidence in the World that all the Doctrines of the Church of Rome do depend solely upon The Authority of the said Church So it is Matter of Fact equally That both the said Doctrines and the said Authority it self which upholds the said Doctrines do depend upon the Catholick Sence of the Scripture For the same Reason therefore it is even from the strictness of the Connexion and mutual Dependance of these three one upon another That as the Doctrines of the Church of Rome must necessarily be all of them True and all of them Divine If the Authority of the said Church is altogether True and altogether Divine So also the Authority of the Church of Rome must be unquestionably Divine If the Catholick Sence of the Scripture upon which it is alone built be absolutely Divine and free from all possibility of Error And consequently then as the surest proof that we can possibly have of the Divinity of all the Doctrines of the said Church doth lye in the proof the divine Authority of the said Church and in the sureness of it So the surest proof of this doth lye in the proof of the Catholick Sence of the Scripture viz. in the Proof that this Catholick Sence is both divine and infallible and free from all manner of Error imaginable For it is this Sence alone that gives being to the said Authority In as much then as it is strongly alledged that the Catholick Sence cannot possibly but be Divine Infallible and free from all manner of Error The Authority of the said Church therefore must necessarily be Divine Infallible and free from all manner of Error and therefore it is impossible but the Doctrines which are taught by the said Church must be such also that is They must be Divine Infallible and free from all Error So then these three are and must be all of them Divine alike viz The Doctrines of the Church of Rome and the Authority of the said Church and The Catholick Sence of the Scripture And consequently the Sence of the Universal Church must be as Divine as any of these three Because the Catholick Sence of the Scripture and the Sence of the Universal Church is but one and the same Et quae in eodem Tertio conveniunt inter se conveniunt wherefore seeing of all these The Catholick Sence of the Scripture is The main and sure Basis of all the rest and that upon the Divinity certainty and infallibility of This ALL the Divinity Authority and Infallibility of the Church of Rome with its whole Doctrine doth and must wholly and intirely depend The absolute and unquestionable Certainty or Divinity of this therefore is first to be cleared seeing this as we said is of all others the most strongly alledged To one that is an apt Schollar to understand and receive whatsoever the Church of Rome teacheth we shall here shew how this is by her cleared To evidence then the truth of the Catholick Sence of the Scripture how Infallible and Unquestionable it is and to manifest not only the necessity but the absoluteness of its Divinity We need not much more than one Reason because this doth of it self upon the matter amount to a Demonstration which is That there is nothing more clear or more certain than that the said Catholick Sence neither really is the Sence of the Scripture nor really is not nor any thing more certain than that the said Catholick Sence is Both That is to say both it is and it is not the Sence of the Scripture And that we may be yet the more fully and distinctly instructed in the nature of this Mistery and of the strangeness of it we are to know That the extraordinary wonderful and peculiar Power of this Catholick Sence lyeth in the singular Relation which it hath