particular or universal as infallibly inspired that is deprehended to be actually deceived in any Points she proposes to be believed as necessary Articles of Faith This is so plain that it wants no farther proof The sixteenth That the Moral and Humane Certainty of Faith is grounded upon the Certainty of Vniversal Tradition Prophecy History and the Nature of the things delivered Reason and Sense assisting the Minde in her Disquisitions touching these matters That Certainty of Faith I call Moral or Humane that is competible even to a carnal man or a man unregenerate as it is said of the Devils that they believe and tremble By Vniversal Tradition I understand such a Tradition as has been from the Apostles that is to say has been always since the completion of their Apostleships as well as in every place of the Church For since there was to be so general and so early a Degeneracy of the Church as is witnessed of in the Holy Scriptures the generality of the Votes of the Church was not alwaies a sufficient warrant of the truth of Tradition But those Truths that have been constantly held and unalterably from the Apostles times til now it is a sign that they were very Sacred unquestionable and assured Truths and so vulgarly and universally known and acknowledged that it was not in man's power to alter them By Prophecy I understand as well those Divine Predictions of the coming of Christ as those touching the Church after he had come By History I mean not onely that of the Bible and particularly the New Testament but other History as well Ecclesiastick as Prophane And what I mean by the Nature of the things delivered is best to be understood out of such Treatises as write of the Reasonableness of Christianity such as Dr. Hammond's and Mr. Baxter's late Book See also Dr. More 's Mystery of Godliness where the Reasonableness of our Christian Faith is more fully represented and plainly demonstrated * Book 7. chap. 9 10 11. that it has not been in the power of the Church to deceive us as touching the main Points of our Belief though they would The seventeenth That no Tradition is more universal and certain then the Tradition of the Authentickness of such Books of the Bible as all Churches are agreed upon to be Canonicall There can be no more certain nor universal Tradition then this in that it has the Testimony of the whole Church and all the parts thereof with one Consent though in other things they do so vehemently disagree Wherefore no Tradition can be of any comparable Autority to this And therefore we may set down for Conclusion The eighteenth That the Bible is the truest Ground of the Certainty of Faith that can be offered to our Understanding to rest in The Reason is because it is the most universal both for time and place the most unexceptionable and universally-acknowledged Tradition that is The nineteenth That the Bible or Holy Writ dictated by the Spirit of God that is written by Holy and Inspired men is sufficiently plain to an unprejudiced Capacity in all Points necessary to Salvation This must of necessity be true by Conclusion the seventh Otherwise the manner of Gods's revealing his Truth in the Holy Scriptures would be repugnant to the Divine Attributes and which were Blasphemy to utter he would seem unskilfully to have inspired the Holy Pen-men that is to say in such a way as were not at all accommodate to the end of the Scriptures which is the Salvation of mens Souls nor to have provided for the Recovering of the Church out of those gross Errours he both foresaw and foretold she would fall into The twentieth That the true and primarie Sense of Holy Scripture is Literal or Historicall unless in such Parts or Passages thereof as are intimated to be Parables or Visions writ in the Prophetick style or the literal Meaning be repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science c. For then it is a sign that the Place is to be understood Figuratively or Parabolically not Literally The truth of this appears out of the immediately-foregoing Conclusion For else the Scripture would not be sufficiently plain in all Points necessary to Salvation Indeed in no Points at all but all the Articles of our Faith that respect the History of Christ might be most frivolously and whifflingly allegorized into a mere Romance or Fable But that the History of Christ is literally to be understood is manifest both from the Text it self and from perpetuall and universal Tradition Which if it were not the right Sense it were a sign that it is writ exceedingly obscure even in the chief Points which is contrary to the foregoing Conclusion But that those Places or Passages that are repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or natural Science are to be interpreted figuratively is plain from the general Consent of all men in that they universally agree when Christ says I am the Door I am the true Vine c. That these things cannot be literally true And there is the same reason of Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body The twenty first That no Point of Faith professed from the Apostles time to this very day and acknowledged by all Churches in Christendome but is plainly revealed in the Scripture This may be partly argued out of the nineteenth and twentieth Conclusions and also farther proved by comparing these Points of Faith with Texts of Scripture touching the same matter The twenty second That the Comprehension of these Points of Faith always and every-where held by all Christian Churches from the Apostles time till now and so plain by Testimony of Scripture is most rightfully termed the Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith The twenty third That there is a Divine Certainty of Faith which besides the Grounds that the Moral or Humane Certainty hath is supported and corroborated by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and by illuminated Reason This is not to be argued but to be felt In the mean time no more is asserted then this That this Divine Certainty has an higher Degree of Firmness and Assurance of the truth of the Holy Scriptures as having partaken of the same Spirit with our Saviour and the Apostles but does not vary in the Truths held in the common Faith The twenty fourth What-ever pretended Inspiration or Interpretation of the Divine Oracles is repugnant to the above-described Common or Catholick and Apostolick Faith is Imposture or Falshood be it from a private hand or publick The Reason is apparent because the Articles of this Common Faith were the Doctrines of men truely inspired from above and the Spirit of God cannot contradict it self The twenty fifth None of the Holy Writ is of it self unintelligible but accordingly as mens spirits shall be prepared and the time sutable as God has already so he may as Seasons shall require still impart farther and farther Light to the Souls of the Faithfull
do in many things most wickedly calumniate and that those that are not Calumnies as concerning Fact are no such horrid Crimes as theirs that accuse them but more venial Infirmities or less commendable Humours Insomuch that notwithstanding all their Cavills I am not at all shaken in my belief of Reformed Christendom's being the true visible Kingdome of God and his Christ. Which is the first Document Philotheus that you gave us tending to the Interest of Reformed Christendome I pray you now therefore since I am so well satisfied in this proceed with what dispatch you can to the rest without any farther interruption Philoth. The Second Document then The Second Principle Philopolis is this That as Reformed Christendome is the Kingdome of Christ so the Popedome is the Kingdome of Antichrist This as it is a Truth in it self so it is of mighty consequence to be known believed and declared in the Kingdome of Christ to settle them and establish them in the Profession they are in For it is not at all beyond the capacity of the meanest to be fully ascertain'd of this Truth And yet though it be but one and so easie it is worth all the Arguments besides for the fixing a Soul to the Reformed Religion so hugely accommodate it is to strike their Imagination and satisfie their Judgement and settle their Conscience at once For if the Church of Rome be Babylon as most certainly it is then think you with your self Philopolis what mighty force that voice of the Angel will have in the Apocalypse Come out of her Apoc. 18.4 my people lest you partake of her sins and of her plagues Philop. That is to say It will be as potent to call others from the Communion of the Church of Rome as to establish our own in the true Faith they already profess And indeed methinks when they cast their eye upon the multifarious gross Idolatries and bloudy Cruelties of the Papacy and compare them with the Character of the Whore of Babylon whose very Whoredome signifies her Idolatry upon whose forehead is written Apoc. 17.5 6. Mysterie Babylon the great the Mother of Fornications and Abominations of the Earth and who is said to be drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and it be plainly made out to them as it may that this cannot be understood of Rome Heathen but of Rome calling itself Christian methinks the Reflexion upon their known practices compared with their description in this Prophecy should so plainly convince them that they could not but presently run from her Communion with sudden horrour and affrightment Philoth. One would think so indeed Philopolis and that there is not a better Engine imaginable then this to beat down the Mysticall Babylon And that therefore it must be out of a great deal of either Unskilfulness or Unfaithfulness to the Interest of Christ's Kingdome that any should persuade us in our Oppositions against Rome to lay aside this weapon whenas indeed as David said to Abimelek concerning the sword of Goliah there is none like unto it 1 Sam. 21.9 And certainly our first Reformers found it so who generally made this Out-cry against the Roman Church And there are of their own Writers that confess how much prejudice has been done them by that Opinion of the Pope's being Antichrist Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif lib. 3. cap. 21. Wherefore the taking away of these Bulwarks against the forces of Babylon looks like the betraying of us again to the Tyranny of the King of that City Bath The thing it self Philotheus I am afraid looks thitherward But I believe withall that severall persons out of a consciencious tenderness over the Interest of the Reformed Churches may be so backward from charging the Church of Rome with being that Mysticall Babylon or the Pope the King of that City that is to say that notorious Antichrist for fear that by conceding that Church to be Antichristian they should therewithall acknowledge that it is not a true Church Whence that fearfull Inconvenience would follow that Succession were destroy'd and that we should thereby be at a loss to prove our selves to be the true Church of Christ. Philoth. XXVI Of the Church of Rome 's being a true Church If that be at the bottom Bathynous their well-meaning is commendable But I believe they fear where no fear is For we have more strings to our bow then one For none of those Titles that the Church of Rome may be perstringed by in the Propheticall parts of Scripture whether the City of Babylon or the Seat of Antichrist that Man of sin or the like do necessarily infer they are not a true Church but an extremely-faulty Church and such as God would have his people forsake their Communion if they will not reform as forfeiting their Salvation by partaking of such sins as have passed among them into a Law A Wife that is an Adulteress is a true Wife till she be divorced though a faithless one and a Ship with an hole at the bottom is a true Ship and an House whose Walls are besmeared with the Plague or Leprosie or infested with murtherous Goblins is a true House but that not to be sailed in nor this to be inhabited before they be reduced to an useful and safe condition The Form of a thing makes it to be true but the Sincerity or Integrity of it makes it to reach its end and become useful Wine is still Wine though some drops of Poison be convey'd into it but it 's such as no man that knows thereof will adventure to drink We will therefore grant that the Church of Rome is a true Church but in such a sense as a Ship that will sink a man to the bottome of the Sea is a true Ship or such an House as I described a true House Nay we will concede that it is the House or Temple of God but such as wherein the Man of sin sits that son of Perdition 2 Thess. 2.3 4. that exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped Wherefore I say those reprehensive and reprochful expressions of Scripture against the Church of Rome do not imply her to be no true Church but a very impure and faulty one and grown not onely not useful to them that adhere to her but extremely mischievous She is a Cup of Wine mixt with deadly Poison in it an House infected with the Pestilence or infested with wicked Daemons Wherefore if we succeed in the true pattern of the House or Ship in the sincere nature of the Wine in the due Offices of a Wife and leave out the Adultery the Poison the Plague the Leprosie and the Devil himself is our Succession the less perfect If a Family were once sound and then diseased for some Ages and then some of this Family by skill in Physick or more then ordinary Temperance should grow sound again are these sound branches less
for a fuller and a more general understanding the obscurest Passages in the Divine Oracles The truth of this Assertion is so clear that it seems little better then Blasphemie to contradict it For to say the Holy Writ is in it self unintelligible is equivalent to the pronouncing it Non-sense or to averre that such and such Books or Passages of it were never to be understood by men is to insinuate as if the Wisedome of God did not onely play with the children of men but even fool with them This is but a Subterfuge of that conscious Church that is afraid of the fulgour of that Light that shines against her out of such places of Scripture as have for a long time seemed obscure The twenty sixth That there are innumerable Passages of Scripture as well Preceptive as Historicall that are as plainly to be understood as the very Articles of the common Faith and which therefore may be very usefull for the clearing those that may seem more obscure This wants no proof but Appeal to Experience and the twentieth Conclusion The twenty seventh That no Miracle though done by such as may seem of an unexceptionable Life and of more singular Sanctity can in reason ratifie any Doctrine or Practice that is repugnant to rightly-circumstantiated Sense or Natural Truths or Science or the common Christian Faith or any plain Doctrine or Assertion in Scripture The Truth of this is manifest from hence That no man can be so certain that such a man is not a crafty and cautious Hypocrite and his Miracle either a Juggle or Delusion of the Devil or if he was not an eye-witness of it a false report of a Miracle as he is certain of the truth of rightly-circumstantiated Sense of Common Notions and Natural Science of the Articles of the Apostolick Faith or of any plain Assertion in the Scripture And therefore that which is most certain in this case ought in all reason to be our Guide The twenty eighth That it is not onely the Right but the Duty of private men to converse with the Scriptures being once but precautioned not to presume to interpret any thing against rightly-circumstantiated Sense Natural Truth common Honesty the Analogie of the Catholick Faith or against other plain Testimonies of Holy Writ The truth of this appears from the Conclusion immediately preceding For why should they be kept from having recourse to so many and so profitable and powerful Instructions from an infallible Spirit when they are so well fore-armed against all Mistake and are so laid-at by so many not onely fallible but fallacious and deceitful persons to seduce them And why is there not more danger of being led into Errour by such as are not onely fallible but false and deceitfull then by those Inspired men that wrote the Scripture who were neither fallible in what they wrote nor had any design to deceive any man Wherefore there being no such safe Guide as the Scripture it self which speaks without any Passion Fraud or Interest it is not onely the Right but the Duty of every one to consult with the Scripture and observe his times of conversing with it as he tenders the Salvation of his own Soul The twenty ninth That even a private man assisted by the Spirit of Life in the new Birth and rightly-circumstantiated Reason being also sufficiently furnish'd with the knowledge of Tongues Historie and Antiquity and sound Philosophy may by the help of these and the Blessing of God upon his industry clear up some of the more obscure Places of Scripture to full satisfaction and certainty both to himself and any unprejudiced Peruser of his Interpretations That this Assertion is true may be proved by manifold Experience there having been sundry persons that have cleared such Places of Scripture as had for a time seemed obscure and intricate with abundant satisfaction and conviction But it is to be evinced also à priori viz. from the seventeenth and eighteenth Conclusions which avouch the Scripture to be the most Authentick Tradition that is as also from the twenty fifth that concludes it not unintelligible in it self nor to mankinde and lastly out of the first that asserts that Certainty of Faith presupposes Certainty of Reason For thus the Object of our Understanding being here certain and we not spending our labour upon a Fiction or Mockery and our Reason rightly-circumstantiated not blinded by Prejudice nor precipitated into Assent before due deliberation and clear comprehension of the matter if after so cautious a Disquisition she be fully satisfied she is certainly satisfied or else there is no certainty in rightly-circumstantiated Reason which yet is presupposed in the Certainty of Faith by the first Conclusion So that the Certainty of Faith it self seems ruinous if no private man have any Certainty of any Interpretation of Scripture that has once been reputed obscure Not to add that all the Scripture that has been once obscure and the Interpretation thereof not yet declared by the Church universal has been hitherto and will be God knows how long utterly useless Which is a very wilde Supposition and such as none would willingly admit unless those that would rather admit any thing then that Light of the Scripture that discovers who they are and what unworthy Impostures they use in their dealings with the children of men The thirtieth That no Tradition can be true that is repugnant to any plain Text of Scripture The Reason is because the Scripture is the most true and the most Authentick Tradition that is and such as the universal Church is agreed in The thirty first That if any one Point grounded upon the Autority of Tradition that has been held by the Church time out of minde prove false there is no Certainty that any Tradition is true unless such as it has not been in the power of the Church to forge corrupt deprave or else their Interest not at all concerned so to doe The Reason is because the Certainty of Tradition as Tradition is placed in this by those that contend so much for it that nothing can be brought into the Church as an Apostolick Practice or Doctrine but what ever was so from the Apostles Wherefore if once a Point be brought into the Church and profest and practised as Apostolicall that may be clearly proved not to be so this Ground for Tradition as Tradition is utterly ruined and considering the Falseness and Imposture that has been so long practised in Christendome can be held no Ground of Certainty at all As not Reason quà Reason nor Sense quà Sense but quatenus rightly-circumstantiated can be any Ground of Certainty of Knowledge so not Tradition quà Tradition can be the Ground of the Certainty of Faith but onely such a Tradition as it was not in the power of the degenerate Church to either forge or adulterate And such were the Records of the Holy Bible onely The thirty second That rightly-circumstantiated Sense and Reason and Holy Writ are