Layman that can not tell him what is in the Councils or by a Priest that never read the Councils and whether the variety of natural capacities bodily temperaments education and course of Life before do not make as great variety of proportions to be necessary to the sufficiency of this Proposal And what mortal man can truly take the measure of them And how then can any man be Certain what those points are which are necessary for him to believe X. Those things are uncertain which depend upon an uncertain Author or Authority For instance the Roman faith dependeth on the exposition of the Scriptures by the consent of the Fathers and on the Tradition of the Church and the decrees of an authorized Council And here is in all this little but uncertainties 1. It is utterly uncertain who are to be taken for Fathers and who not Whether Origen Tatianus Arnobius Lactantius Tertullian and many such be Fathers or not Whether such a man as Theophilus Alexandrinus or Chrysostom was the Father when they condemned each other Whether such as are justly suspected of Heresy as Eusebius or such as the Romanists have cast suspicions on as Lucifer Calaritanus called a Heretick Socrates Sozomens falsly called Novatians Hilary Arelatensis Condemned by the Pope Leo and Claud. Turovens Rupertus Tuitiens and such others When the ancients renounced each others Communion as Martin did by Ithacius and Idacius and their Synod when they describe one another as stark Knaves as Socrates doth Theophil Alexandrin and Sulpitius Severus doth Ithacius which of them were the Fathers 2. How shall we know certainly which are the true uncorrupted writings of these Fathers among so many forgeries and spurious Scripts 3. How shall it be known what exposition the Fathers consented on when not one of a multitude and but few in all have commented on any considerable parts of the Scripture and those few so much often differ 4. When in the Doctrine of the Trinity it self Petavius largely proveth that most of the writers of the three first Centuries after the Apostles were unsound and others confess the same about the Millennium the corporeity of Angels and of the Soul and divers other things doth their consent bind us to believe them If not how shall we know in what to believe their consent according to this Rule 2. And as to the Church they are utterly disagreed among themselves what that Church is which hath this authority 1. Whether the Pope alone 2. Or the Pope with a Provincial Council 3. Or the Pope with a General Council 4. Or a General Council without the Pope 5. Or the universality of Pastors 6. Or the universality of the people with them 3. And for a Council 1. There is no certainty what number of Bishops and what consent of the Comprovincial Clergy is necessary to make them the true representatives of any Church 2. And more uncertain in what Council the Bishops had such consent 3. And uncertain whether the Popes approbation be necessary The great Councils of Constance and Basil determining the contrary 4. And uncertain which were truly approved 5. And most certain that there never was any General Council in the world unless you will call the Apostles a General Council but only General Councils of the Clergy of one Empire with now and then a stragling Neighbour even as we have General Assemblies and Convocations in this Kingdom And who can be certain of that faith which dependeth upon all or any of these uncertainties XI That must needs be an uncertainty which dependeth on the unknown thoughts of another man. For instance with the Papists the Priests intention which is the secret of his heart is necessary to the being of Baptism and Transubstantiation And so no man can be certain whether he or any other man be baptized or not Nor whether it be Bread or Christs Body which he eateth We confess that it is necessary to the being of a Sacrament that the Minister do seem or profess to intend it as a Sacrament But if the reality of his intent be necessary to the being of it no man can be certain that ever he had a Sacrament XII It is a hard thing to be certain on either side in those controversies which have multitudes and in a manner equal strength of Learned Judicious Well-studyed Godly Impartial men for each part I deny not but one clear-headed man may be certain of that which a multitude are uncertain of and oppose him in But it must not be ordinary men but some rare illuminated person that must get above a probability unto a Certainty of that which such a company as aforesaid are of a contrary mind in XIII There is great uncertainty in matters of private impulse When a man hath nothing to prove a thing to be Gods will but an inward perswasion or impulse in his own Breast let it never so vehemently incline him to think it true it 's hard to be sure of it For we know not how far Satan or our own distempered Phantasies may go And most by far that pretend to this do prove deceived That which must be certain must be somewhat equal to Prophetical Inspiration Which indeed is its own Evidence But what that is no man can formally conceive but he that hath had it Therefore we are bid to Try the Spirits XIV It is a hard thing to gather certainties of Doctrinal conclusion from Gods Providences alone Providential changes have their great use as they are the fulfilling or execution of the word But they that will take them instead of the Scripture do usually run into such mistakes as are rectifyed to their cost by some contrary work of Providence ere long These times have fully taught us this XV. It is hard to gather Doctrinal certainties from Godly mens Experiences alone Even our Experimental Philosophers and Physicians find that an experiment that hits oft-times quite misseth afterwards on other Subjects and they know not why A course of effects may oft come from unknown causes And it 's no rare thing for the common Prejudices Selfconceitedness or corruption of the weaker and greater number of good people which needeth great repentance and a cure to be mistaken for the Communis Sensus Fidelium the Inclination and Experience of the Godly Especially when consent or the honour of their Leaders or Themselves hath engaged them in it In my time the common sense of the strictest sort was against long hair and taking Tobacco and other such things which now their common practice is for In one Countrey the common consent of the strictest party is for Arminianism In another they are zealously against it In Poland where the Socinians are for sitting at the Sacrament the Godly are generally against it In other places they are for it In Poland and Bohemia where they had holy humble perswading Bishops the generality of the Godly were for that Episcopacy as were all the ancient Churches even the Novatians
By doing thus the Church notoriously declared that they took not all the Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood but that the Govenant of Grace and the Catechism explaining it is the Gospel it self that is the Essence of it and of the Christian Religion and that all the rest of the Scriptures contain but partly the Integrals and partly the Accidents of that Religion He is the wisest man that knoweth Most and Best and every man should know as much of the Scriptures as he can But if you knew all the rest without this the Covenant of Grace and its explication it would not make you Christians or save you But if you know this truly without all the rest it will. The whole Scripture is of great use and benefit to the Church It is like the body of a man which hath its Head and Heart and Stomach c. And hath also Fingers and Toes and flesh yea Nails and Hair. And yet the Brain and Heart it self fare the better for the rest and would not be so well Seated separate from them Though a man may be a man that loseth even a Leg or Arm. So is it here But it is the Covenant that is our Christianity and the duly Baptized are Christians whatever else they do not understand These are the things that all must know and daily live upon The Creed is but the Exposition of the three Articles of the Baptismal Covenant I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Though the Jews that had been bred up to a preparing knowledge were quickly baptized by the Apostles upon their Conversion Acts 2. Yet no man can imagine that either the Apostles or other Ministers did use to admit the Ignorant Gentiles into the Covenant of God without opening the meaning of it to them or Baptize them as Christians without teaching them what Christianity is Therefore Reason and the whole Churches subsequent Custom assure us that the Apostles used to expound the three great Articles to their Catechumens And thence it is called The Apostles Creed Marcus Bishop of Ephesus told them in the Florentine Council as you may see Sgyropilus that we have none of the Apostles Creed And Vossius de Symbolis besides many others hath many Arguments to prove that this so called was not formally made by the Apostles Bishop Usher hath opened the changes that have been in it Sandford and Parker have largely de Descensu shewed how it came in as an Exposition of the Baptismal Articles Others stifly maintain that the Apostles made it But the case seemeth plain The Apostles used to call the Baptized to the profession of the same Articles which Paul hath in 1. Cor. 15.1 2 3 c. and varied not the matter All this was but more particularly to profess Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Two or three further Expository Articles are put into the Creed since Otherwise it is the same which the Apostles used not in the very syllables or forms of words but in the same sense and the words indeed being left free but seldom much altered because of the danger of altering the matter Of all the Antientest Writers not one repeateth the Creed in the same words that we have it nor any two of them in the same with one another Irenaeus once Tertullian twice hath it all in various words but the same sense That of Marcellus in Epiphanius cometh nearest ours called the Apostles and is almost it Afterward in Ruffinus and others we have more of it Yet no doubt but the Western Churches at least used it with little variation still The Nicene Creed is called by some Antients the Apostles Creed too And both were so for both are the same in sense and substance For it is not the very words that are truly fathered on the Apostles About 30â— years a go Mr. Ashwel having published a Book for the Necessity and Honour of the Creed I wrote in the Postscript to my Reformed Pastor Ed. 2. a Corrective of some passages in which he seemeth to say too much for it or at least to depress the Scripture too much in comparison of it But long experience now telleth me that I have more need to acquaint men with the Reasons and Necessity of the Creed Seeing I find a great part of ignorant Religious people much to slight the use of it and say It is not Scripture but the work of man Especially taking offence at the harsh translatiâ—n of that Article He descended into Hell. which from the beginning it 's like was not in It is the Kernel of the Scripture and it is that for which the rest of the Scripture is given us even to afford us sufficient help to understand and consent to the Covenant of Grace that our Belief our Desires and our Practice may be conformed principally to these Summaries It is not every Child or Woman that could have gathered the Essential Articles by themselves out of the whole Scripture if it had not been done to their hands Nor that could have rightly methodized the Rule of our desires or gathered the just heads of natural duty if Christ had not done the first in the Lords Prayer and God the second in the Decalogue Obj. But I believe these only because the Matter of the Creed and the words also of the other two are in the Scripture and not on any other Authority Ans If you speak of the Authority of the Author which giveth them their truth it is neither Scripture nor Tradition but God for whose Authority we must believe both Scripture and them But if you speak of the Authority of the Deliverers and the Evidence of the Delivery be it known to you 1. That the Creed Lords Prayer Decalogue and the Baptismal Covenant have been delivered down to the Church from the Apostles by a distinct Tradition besides the Scripture Tradition Even to all the Christians one by one that were Baptized and admitted to the Lords Table and to every particular Church So that there was not a Christian or Church that was not even Constituted by them 2. Be it known to you that the Church was long in possession of them before it had the Scriptures of the New Testament It 's supposed to be about eight years after Christ's Ascension before Matthew wrote the first Book of the New Testament and near the year of our Lord one hundred before the Revelation was written And do you think that there were no Christians or Churches all that while Or that there was no Baptism Or no Profession of the Christian Faith in distinct Articles No Knowledge of the Lords Prayer and Commandements No Gospel daily preached and practised What did the Church-assemblies think you do all those years No doubt those that had Inspiration used it by extraordinary gifts But that was not all Those that had not did preach the Substance of the Christian Religion contained in these forms and did Pray and Praise God
and celebrate the Lords Supper provoking one another to Love and to good works 3. Be it known to you that these three Summaries come to us with fuller Evidence of Certain Tradition from God than the rest of the Holy Scriptures Though they are equally true they are not equally Evident to us And this I thus prove 1. The Body of the Scriptures were delivered but one way but the Covenant Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue are delivered two ways They are in the Scripture and so have all the Evidence of Tradition which the Scriptures have And they were besides that delivered to the memories of all Christians If you say that the Creed is not in the Scripture or that the Scripture is not altered as it is I answer 1. That it is in the Scripture as to the matter signified in as plain words even of the same signification 2. There is no alteration made but a small addition which is no disparagement to it because the ancient substance of it is still known and the additions are not new made things but taken out of Scripture And if yet any Heretick should deny that God is Wise and Good and Just and Merciful it were no dishonour to the Creed nor weakening of its certainty to have these attributes yet added to it 2. These Summaries as is said were far ancienter than the rest of the New Testament as written and known and used long before them 3. These Summaries being in every Christians mind and memory were faster held than the rest of the Scriptures Therefore Parents could and did teach them more to their Children You never read that the Catechizers of the people did teach them all the Bible nor equally ask them who Jared or Mehaleel or Lamech was as they did who Christ was Nor put every History into the Catechism but only the Historical Articles of the Creed 4. Therefore it was far easier to preserve the purity of these Summaries than of the whole Body of the Scriptures For that which is in every mans memory cannot be altered without a multitude of reprovers Which makes the Greeks since Photius keep such a stir about Filioque as to think that the Latines have changed Religion and deserved to be separated from for changing that word But no wonder that many hundred various Readings are crept into the Bible and whole Verses and Histories as that of the Adulterous Woman are out in some that are in others For it is harder to keep such a Volume uncorrupt than a few words Though writing as such is a surer way than memory and the whole Bible could never have been preserved by memory Yet a few words might especially when they had those words in writings also 5. Add to this that the Catechistical Summaries aforesaid were more frequently repeated to the people at least every Lords day Whereas in the reading of the Scriptures one passage will be read but seldom perhaps once or twice in a year And so a corruption not so easily observed 6. And if among an hundred Copies of the Scripture ten or twenty only should by the Carelesness of the Scribes be corrupted all the rest who saw not these Copies would not know it and so they might fall into the hands of Posterity when many of the sounder might be lost 7. And Lastly The danger of depravation had no end For in every age the Scripture must be written over anew for every Church and person that would use it And who that knoweth what writing is could expect that one Copy could be written without errors and that the second should not add to the errors of the 1st as Printers now do who print by faulty Copies And though this danger is much less since Printing came up that is but lately And the mischiefs of Wars and Heretical Tyrants burning the truest Copies hath been some disadvantage to us Obj. Thus you seem to weaken the Certain incorruption of the Scriptures Ans No such thing I do but tell you the case truly as it is The wonderful Providence of God and care of Christians hath so preserved them that there is nothing corrupted which should make one Article of faith the more doubtful I assert no more depravation in them than all confess but only tell you how it came to pass and tell you the greater certainty that we have of the Essentials of Religion than of the rest And whereas every man of brains confesseth that many hundred words in Scripture by Variety of Copies are uncertain I only say that it is not so in the Essentials And I do not wonder that Virgil Ovid Horace Cicero c. Have not suffered such depravations For 1. It is not so easy for a Scribes error to pass unseen in oratione ligata as in oratione soluta in verse as in prose 2. And Cicero with the rest was almost only in the hands of Learned men whereas the Scriptures were in the hands of all the Vulgar Women and Children 3. And the Copies of these Authors were comparatively but few Whereas every one almost got Copies of the Scripture that was able And it 's liker that some depravation should be found among ten thousand Copies than among a hundred So that I have proved to you that the Creed Lords Prayer Commandments and Covenant of Baptism are not to be believed only because they are in the Scripture but also because they have been delivered to us by Tradition and so we have them from two hands as it were or ways of Conveyance and the rest of the Scriptures but by one for the most part I will say yet more because it is true and needful If any live among Papists that keep the Scripture from the people or among the poor Greeks Armenians or Abassines where the people neither have Bibles commonly nor can read or if any among us that cannot read know not what is in the Bible yea if through the fault of the Priest any should be kept from knowing that ever there was a Bible in the world Yet if those persons by Tradition receive the baptismal Covenant the Creed Lords Prayer and Commandments as Gods Word and truly believe and Love and Practice them those persons shall be saved For they have Christs promise for it And the very Covenant itself is the Gift of Christ and Life to consenters Whereas he that knoweth all the Scripture can be saved only by consenting to and performing this same Covenant But having greater helps to understand it and so to Believe it and Consent he hath a great advantage of them that have not the Scripture And so the Scripture is an unspeakable mercy to the Church And it is so far from being too little without the supplement of the Papists Traditions and Councils as that the hundredth part of it as to the bulk of words is not absolutely it self of necessity to Salvation Yet I say more If a man that hath the Scripture should doubt of some Books of it whether
they be the Word of God as of Ruth Judges Joshua Chronicles c. Yea if he doubted of all the Old Testament and much of the New yet if he believe so much as containeth all the Covenant of Grace and the foresaid Summaries though he sin and lose much of his helps yet he may and will be saved if he sincerely receive but this much The reason is before given Though no man can believe any thing truly who believeth not all that he knoweth to be Gods Word yet a man may doubt whether one thing be Gods Word who doubteth not of another by several occasions And here you see the Reason why a particular or explicite Belief of all the Scripture it self was never required of all that are baptized nor of all or any man that entered into the Ministry For the wisest Doctor in the world doth not attain so high For no man hath a particular explicite Belief of that which he doth not understand For it is the matter or sence that we believe and we must first know what that sence is before we can believe it to be true And no man in the World understandeth all the Scripture Yea more it is too much to require as necessary to his Ministry a subscription in General that he implicitely believeth all that is in that Bible which you shall shew him For 1. Many faults may be in the Translation if it be a Translation 2. Many errors may be in the Copy as aforesaid Nay such a subscription should not as absolutely necessary be required of him as to all the real Word of God. For if the man by error should doubt whether Job or the Chronicles or Esther were Canonical and none of the rest I would not be he that should therefore forbid him to Preach Christs Gospel I am sure the ancient Church imposed no such terms on their Pastors when part of the new Testament was so long doubted of and when some were chosen Bishops before they were Baptized and when Synesius was chosen a Bishop before he believed the Resurrection I would not have silenced Luther Althamer or others that questioned the Epistle of James What then shall we say of the Roman insolence which thinketh not all the Scripture big enough but Ministers must also subscribe to many additions of their own yea and swear to Traditions and the Expositions of the Fathers and take whole Volumes of Councils for their Religion No wonder if such men do tear the Churches of Christ in pieces 1. By this time I hope you see to what use Baptism and the Summaries of Religion are 2. And of how great use Catechizing is 3. And that Christianity hath its essential parts 4. And how plain and simple a thing true Christianity is which constituteth the Church of Christ And how few things as to knowledge are necessary to make a man a Christian or to Salvation Multitudes of opinions have been the means of turning Pastors and People from the holy and diligent improvement of these few truths in our practice where we have much to do which might take up all our minds and time Chap. VIII Inference 2. Of the use of Catechizing THough it be spoken to in what is said I would have you more distinctly here note the use of Catechizing 1. It collecteth those few things out of many which the Ignorant could not themselves collect 2. It collecteth those necessary things which all must know and believe that will be saved 3. It containeth those Great practical things which we have daily use for and must still live upon which are as Bread and Drink for our food Other things may be well added the more the better which God hath revealed But our Life and our comfort and our Hope is in these 4. And it giveth us the true method or order of holy truths which is a great advantage to understand them Not but that the things themselves have the same orderly respect to one another in the Scripture but they are not delivered in the same order of words Therefore 1. Catechisms should be very skilfully and carefully made The true fundamental Catechism is nothing else but the Baptismal Sacramental Covenant the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments the Summaries of our Belief Desires and Practice And our secondary Catechism must be nothing else but the plain expositions of these the first is a Divine Catechism the second is a Ministerial Expository Catechism And here 1. O that Ministers would be wiser at last than to put their superfluities their controversies and private opinions into their Catechisms and would fit them to the true end and not to the interest of their several sects But the Roman-Trent Catechism and many more of theirs must needs be defiled with their trash and every sect else must put their singularities into their Catechisms so hard is it for the aged decrepit body of the diseased Church for want of a better concoction of the common essentials of Christianity to be free from these heaps of inconcocted crudities and excrementitious superfluities and the many maladies bred thereby I deny not but a useful controversie may be opened by way of Question and Answer But pretend it not then to be what it is not Milk for Babes Him that is weak in the Faith receive but not to doubtful disputations The Servant of the Lord must be apt to teach but must not strive 2. And it is not commonly believed how great skill is needful to make a Catechism that the method may be true and that it may neither be too long for the memory nor too short for the understanding for my part it is the hardest work save one which is the full methodizing and explaining the whole body of Divinity that ever I put my hand to And when all 's done I cannot satisfy my self in it II. Why is not Catechizing more used both by Pastors and Parents I mean not the bare words unexplained without the sence nor the sence in a meer rambling way without a form of words But the words explained O how much fruit would poor Souls and all the Church receive by the faithful performance of this work would God but cure the prophaneness and sloth of unfaithful Pastors and Parents which should do it But I have said so much of this in my Reformed Pastor that I may well forbear more here Chap. IX Inference 3. The true Preservative of puzled Christians from the Errours of false Teachers who vehemently sollicite them to their several parties IT is the common out-cry of the World. How shall we know which side to be on And who is in the right among so many who all with confidence pretend to be in the right Ans Your Preservative is obvious and easie but men usually bestow more labour and cost for Error and Hell than for Truth and Heaven Pretend not to Faith or knowledge before you have it and you are the more safe SUSPEND your judgments
be deceived is a Contradiction For then it is not the same Thing It is not that which we call now formally Sense and Intellect or Sensation and Intellection And Contradictions are not things for Omnipotency to be tryed about God can make a man to be no Intellectual Creature But thereby he maketh him no man For to be a man and not Intellectual is a contradiction And so it is to be men and yet to have no Sense nor Intellect that can truly perceive sensible Objects as before qualified Therefore they unman all the World on pretext of asserting the power of God. 2. But suppose that all Sense be fallible and Intellection of things sensible yet it is the first and only entrance of all things sensible into the mind or knowledge of man And therefore we must take it as God hath given it us for we can have no surer No sensible thing is in the Intellect which was not first in the Sense Whether my Eyes and Ears and Taste be fallible or not I am sure I have no other way to perceive their Objects but by them I must take them and use them as they are All the words and definitions in the World will not give any man without sensation a true conception of a sensible Object 3. Such absurd suppositions therefore are not to be put What if God should tell you by his Word that all the senses of all men are deceived in one thing or in all things would you not believe him It is not to be supposed that God will give us all our Senses and Intellective perception by them to be our discerner of things sensible and then bid us not believe them for they are false unless he told us that all our perceptions are false and our whole Life is but deceit And I further answer if God tell me so it must be by some word or writing of Man or Angel or Himself And how should I know that word but by my sense But the great answer which seemeth to satisfie Bellarmine and the rest is that sense is no judge of Substances but of Accidents only therefore it is not deceived But 1. It is false that sense perceiveth not substances It is not only colour quantity figure which I see nor only roughness and smoothness which I feel nor only sweetness which I taste but it is a coloured extended figured substance which I see a rough or smooth substance which I feel and a sweet substance which I taste And if the Accident were the only primary object the Substance is the secondary and certain Else no one ever saw a Man a Tree a Bird a Plant the Earth a Book or any substance but only the colour quantity or figure of them no man ever felt or touched a Body but only the Accidents of it 2. And I pray you tell me how Substances come to the understanding if they were never in the sense Prove a Substance without sensation as a medium if you can Do you perceive any Substances Intellectually or not If not why pretend you that there are any if yea it must be either as Conclusions or as Intellectual Principles which are both Logical complex Objects and therefore not substances or as the immediate immaterial objects of Intellection which is only the Souls own acts or what is by Analogy gathered from them or else the objects of sense it self It can be none of the former therefore it must be the latter And how can the understanding find that in sense which was never there If it be said that it is there but by Accidents I answer 1. That is false though said by many I do as immediately touch substance as accidents though not substance without the accidents 2. Whether it be there by the mediation of the accidents or immediately it self we are sure that the understanding no otherwise receiveth it than as the sense transmitteth it we must know material substance as it is sensed or not at all We see then what a pass this Roman Religion bringeth the World to That they may be Christians they must believe and swear by the Trent Oath that they are not men and that they may have Faith they must renounce their Senses and that they may be sure Gods Word is true and the Churches decrees they must be sure that they are sure of nothing and how then are they sure of that And while they subvert all the order of Nature in the World they pretend that God can do it and therefore we are to believe that he doth it meerly because these Doctors can call themselves the Church and then can so expound the Scripture When it is Gods setled order in Nature that a Man as an Animal shall have Sense to perceive things sensible by and as a Man shall have understanding to receive from the Imagination and Sense these objects we must now suppose that God hath quite overturned the course of Nature either by making sense no sense or the object no object or the medium no fit medium and yet this is to be believed by Men that have nothing but the same senses to tell their understandings that it is written or spoken or that there is a Man in the World. Suppose we grant it to be no contradiction and therefore a thing that God can do no man can question but that he must do it as a Miracle by altering and overturning Natures course And shall we fain 1. Miracles to become ordinary things through all the Churches in the World and every day in the week or every hour to be done 2. And Miracles to be made a standing Church Ordinance 3. And every one in the Church even all the wicked and every Mouse that eateth the Host to be partaker of a Miracle 4. Yea that every such Man and Mouse may all the week long live on a continued Miracle while Accidents without substance do nourish them and turn to Flesh and Blood 5. And all this ordinary course of Miracles to be wrought at the will of every Priest be he never so ignorant or wicked a Man 6. And yet the same words spoken by the holiest of the Protestant Pastors will not do the Miracle 7. But if a Papist Priest should be unduely ordained or forge his own orders sobeit the Church think him truly ordained he can do the Miracle All this must be believed And the Plague of all is all men must be Burnt as Hereticks or exterminated that cannot believe all this and disbelieve their Senses And yet worse all temporal Lords must be dispossest of their Dominions who will suffer any such to live therein and not exterminate them An Epicure and a sensual Infidel who think man is but of the same species of Brutes do but unman us and leave us the Honour of being Animals or Brutes But the Papists do not leave us this much but must reduce us to a lower order and teach us to deny our sense it self and Torment
20 years old but they are in conceit wiser than I and are still in the right and I am in the wrong in things Natural Civil Religious or almost any thing we talk of if I say not as they say and it is so hard to abate their confidence or convince them that I have half ceased to endeavour it but let every one believe and say what he will so it be not to the dishonour of God the wrong of others and the hazard of his Salvation For I take it for granted before-hand that contradiction ofter causeth strife than instruction and when they take not themselves for Scholars they seldom learn much of any but themselves And their own thoughts and experience must teach them that in many years which from an Experienced man they might have cheaplier learnt in a few days Obj. IV. You speak against taking things on trust and so would keep Children from Believing and Learning of their Parents and Masters and from growing wise Ans I oft tell you that humane faith is a necessary help to Divine Faith But it must not be mistaken for Divine Faith. Men are to be believed as fallible men But in some things with diffidence and in some things with confidence and in some things where it is not the speakers credit that we rely upon but a Concurrence of Testimonies which make up a natural certainty Belief and Knowledge go together and the thing is sure But man is not God. Obj. V. May not a man more safely and Confidently believe by the Churches Faith than his own That is take that for more certain which all men believe than that which I think I see a Divine word for my self Ans This is a Popish Objection thus confusedly and fallaciously often made 1. Properly No man can believe by any faith but his own any more than understand with any understanding but his own But the meaning being that we may better trust to the Churches Judgment that this or that is Gods word than to our own perswasion that it is Gods word from the Evidence of the Revelation I further answer 2. That the Churches Judgment is one part of our subordinate motive and therefore not to be put in competition with that Divine Evidence which it is always put in Conjunction with And the Churches Teaching is the means of my coming to know the true Evidences of Divinity in the word And the Churches real Holiness caused by that word is one of the Evidences themselves and not the least Now to put the question Whether I must know the Scripture to be Gods word because I discern the Evidences of its Divinity or rather because the Church Teacheth me that it is Gods word or because the Church saith it is Gods word or because the Church is Sanctified by it are all vain questions setting things conjunct and co-ordinate as opposite 1. By the Churches Judgment or Belief I am moved to a high Reverence of Gods word by a very high Humane Faith supposing it credible that it may be Gods word indeed 2. Next by the Churches or Ministers Teaching the Evidences of Divinity are made known to me 3. The Effect of it in the Churches Holiness is one of these Evidences 4. And by that and all other Evidences I know that it is Gods word 5. And therefore believe it to be true This is the true Order and Resolution of our Faith. 3. But because the Popish Method is barely to believe the Scripture to be Gods word because a Pope and his Council judgeth so I add 1. That we have even of that humane sort of Testimony far more than such For theirs is the Testimony of a self exalting Sect of Christians about the third part of the Christian world But we have also the Testimony of them and of all other Christians and in most or much of the matter of Fact that the Scriptures were delivered down from the Apostles the Testimony of some Heathens and abundance of Hereticks 2. And with these we have the Evidences of Divinity themselves 3. But if we had their Churches or Pope and Councils Decrees for it alone we should take it but for a humane Fallible Testimony For 1. They cannot plead Gods word here as the proof of their Infallibility For it is the supposed question what is Gods word which they say cannot be known but by their Infallible Judgment 2. And they cannot plead number for 1. The Mahometans are more than the Christians in the world Brierwood reckoneth that they are six parts of thirty we but five And yet not therefore Infallible nor Credible 2. And the Heathens are more than the Mahometans and Christians being four sixth parts of the world and yet not infallible But of this I have the last week wrote a Book of the certainty of Christianity without Popery and heretofore my safe Religion and others Obj. VI. At least this way of Believing and Knowing things by proper Evidences of Truth will loosen the common sort of Christians even the godly from their Faith and Religion For whereas now they quietly go on without doubting as receiving the Scriptures from the Church or their Teachers as the word of God when they fall on searching after proofs they will be in danger of being overcome by difficulties and filled with doubts if not apostatizing to Infidelity or turning Papists Ans Either these persons have already the Knowledge of Certain Evidence of the Divinity of the Scripture or Christianity or they have none If they have any the way of studying it more will not take it from them but increase it Else you dishonour Christianity to think that he that knoweth it to be of God will think otherwise if he do but better try it Upon search he will not know less but more But if he have no such certainty already 2. I further answer that I take away from him none of that humane belief which he had before If the belief of his Parents Teachers or the Church only did satisfy him before which was but a strong probability I leave with him the same help and probability and only perswade him to add more and surer arguments And therefore that should not weaken but confirm his Faith. Obj. But you tell him that the Churches or his Teachers Judgment or word is uncertain and that sets him on doubting Ans 1. I tell him of all the Strength and Credibility that is in it which I would have him make use of 2. And it is not alone but by his Teachers help that I would have him seek for certainty 3. But if he did take that Testimony for certain which was not certain If he took man for God or took his Teachers or Pope for inspired Prophets and a humane Testimony for Divine do you think that this errour should be cherished or cured I think that God nor Man have no true need of a lie in this case and that lies seldom further mens Salvation And that
though they do some job of present service the next way at the end we shall find that they did more harm than good And that to say the contrary and that men will cease to be Christians unless they be kept to it by deceit is the way to downright infidelity And yet that you may see how much more than ordinary I favour the weaknesses of such I will here answer a great question Quest Whether a Man can have true saving Faith who believeth the Gospel or Scripture to be Gods word and Christ to be the Saviour of the World upon reasons or grounds not sure nor cogent and concluding yea possibly not true for the most part Ans He that readeth Mr. Pinks excellent Sermons and many other such Divines will find them thus describing the Faith of Hypocrites that they conclude have no true saving Faith that they believe in Christ but on the same or like reasons as a Turk may believe in Mahomet that is because the most the greatest the Learnedst and the best and all the Countrey are of their minds and in that way their Parents did educate them in For my part I easily confess 1. That such a belief which buildeth on unsound grounds is wanting proportionably in its own soundness 2. And that it should not be rested in 3. Much less cherished against all counsels that would cure it 4. And that though uncertain reasons are 1. The first 2. And the most prevailing with him afterwards yet every true Believer discerneth some intrinsick Signs of Divinity at least as probable in the Word it self But yet supposing that wrong motives be his chief and that he discerneth not that in the word it self which most prevaileth with him I am of opinion that 1. If the end of such a Believer be sound the reducing of the Soul to God and attainment of Glory and the perfect Love of God. 2. And if that man unfeignedly believe all that is Gods Word to be true 3. And if he believe all the substance of the Gospel to be Gods word though by an unsound and non-concluding medium as his chief 4. And if he by this belief be brought himself to the actual love of God as God This unsound Believer is sound in the Essentials of Christianity and shall be saved The objection is An uncertain yea deceived belief upon false suppositions is no true belief and therefore cannot save I answer There is a double Truth in such a belief 1. That all Gods Word is true 2. That this Gospel is Gods Word and Christ is the Messiah You will say that there can be no more no surer no better in the Conclusion than is in the weaker of the Premises I answer I grant it And all that will follow is that the Conclusion is not necessary from these Premises and that the believer was mistaken in the reason of his inference and that he concluded a truth upon an unsound medium I grant all this and consequently that his Faith hath some unsoundness or diseasedness in it But for all this I see not but such a believer may be saved 1. Because Christs promise is that whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life without excepting such as are drawn to it by non-cogent arguments And he that will put in an exception against the Covenant of Grace must prove it or be injurious to Christ to his Gospel and to mens Souls 2. Because by experience I find that it is but a small part of serious Godly Christians who believe the Scriptures upon cogent evidence or at least many do not But abundance take it upon trust from Godly Preachers or Parents and go on without much examining of their grounds And are not able to bring a cogent proof of the Divinity of the Scriptures when they are called to it And I am not willing to conclude so great a part of humble upright Christians to Damnation as know not such reasons for their Faith as would hold good in strict disputation Not that our Charity must bend the Scripture to it But that Scripture commandeth such Charity and it no where condemneth any man that believeth upon uncogent reasons For he that doth so may yet firmly Trust on Jesus Christ and firmly believe that the Gospel is true as being the very Word of God and may take Heaven for his Portion and Love God as God and therefore may be saved Though yet I think it impossible that any man should truly believe the Scriptures and not perceive in them some Characters of Divinity which as an intrinsical Evidence much encourage and induce him to believe them And-though this secret gust and perception be not the medium that he useth in arguing or be not the chief yet it may have an effectual force with his Soul to hold him close to Christ But if you suppose the man to have no Spiritual sight and tast of a difference between Gods Word and a common Book then he cannot be supposed to be a sound believer As a man that hath one ingredient in his medicine which is effectual may be cured though in the composition the main bulk be vanities or as a debtor that hath many insufficient sureties may do well if he have one sufficient one though he more trust the rest or as a mans cause may go for him in Judgment that hath one or two good Witnesses and twenty bad ones which he put more trust in and as he truly proveth his position who bringeth one sound argument for it and twenty bad ones So I think that the common way of the illiterate in believing is first to believe Gods Word to be his Word by humane Faith and after upon trial to find a Spiritual light and goodness in the Word it self and by both together to believe that it is Gods Word And the worser reasons may be the more powerful with him and yet not destroy the sincerity of his Faith. Nor doth this make his Faith meerly humane For the Question now is not why he believeth God's Word to be True trusteth on it For that is because it is God's Word discerned by him so to be but he that by an insufficient Medium at least with a Better though less understood doth take it to be God's may yet by a Divine Faith believe it because he judgeth it his Word If a man should counterfeit himself an Angel from Heaven and come in some splendid deceitful appearance in the night to an Heathen and tell him that he is sent from God to bring him this Bible as his Certain Word and if the man receive it and believe it on his credit to the death and by that Believing it be brought to see an excellency and credibility and taste a spiritual sweetness in it and be brought by it as he may be to Holiness and the Love of God that man shall be saved though I cannot say that the Intrinsick Evidence of the Word alone would have
prevailed with him without that false belief of a deceiver When it is once become a Sanctifying Belief then there is no doubt but the Man hath better Evidence than the uncertain word of man He hath the witness in himself And it is not a Glorifying Faith till it be a Sanctifying Faith. But the Question is What soundness of Reason or proof that this is God's Word is necessary to make it a Sanctifying Faith at least as most prevalent and trusted in By this you may know what I judge of the Faith of honest illiterate Papists and of illiterate Protestants for a great number of them who live in Love and Obedience to God. And yet to speak both more concisely and distinctly I. I may believe by Historical Tradition all that matter of Fact which those that saw Christ's and the Apostles Miracles and heard their words did know by sense and those that saw not believed on the credit of the reporters II. And yet I may know by reason through God's help that these Miracles and this Scripture Impress and Efficacy are God's attestation and none but God could do it And of this all Believers have some perception in various degrees III. And then we know it to be true because it is sealed by those attestations and is the Word of God. Obj. VII But would you have men take the matters of Fact for uncertain that this is a true Bible and Copy and was given the Church by the Apostles c. and so not pretend to be certain of them Ans I have oft said and elsewhere largely proved that as 1. A Humane Faith of highest probability prepareth the way so 2. These things are known by an Historical Evidence which hath a proper certainty above meer Humane Faith For Humane Faith resteth on mens Veracity or Fidelity which is uncertain But there is a History such as that there is such a City as Rome Venice c. which is evident by a surer ground than mens fidelity even from such a concurrence of consenters and circumstances as will prove a forgery impossible Obj. VIII You seem to favour the Popish Doctrine of Ignorance while you would have all our Knowledge confined to a few plain and easie things and perswade men to doubt of all the rest Ans 1. I perswade no man to doubt of that which he is certain of but not to lie and say he is certain when he is not 2. I am so far from encouraging Ignorance that it is Ignorance of your Ignorance which I reprove I would have all men know as much as possibly they can of all that God hath revealed And if the self-conceited knew more they would doubt more and as they grow wiser will grow less confident in uncertainties It is not knowing but false pretending to know that I am against Do you think that a thousand self-conceited men and women do really know ever the more for saying they know or crying down that Ignorance Doubting and Uncertainty which they have themselves How many a one yea Preachers have cryed down the Popish Doctrine of Uncertainty of Salvation who had no Certainty of their own but their neighbours thought by their lives were certainly in the way to Hell. Obj. IX But you would have men resist the Spirit that convinceth them and make so long a work in doubting and questioning and proving every thing as that Christians will come but to little knowledge in your way Ans They will have the more knowledge and not the less for trying Peremptory confidence is not knowledge The next way here is farthest about Receive all Evidence from God and Man from the Word and Spirit with all the desire and all the delight and all the speed that possibly you can Study earnestly Learn willingly Resist no Light neglect no Truth But what 's all this to foolish conceit that you know what you do not What 's this to the hasty believing of falshoods or uncertainties and troubling the Church and World with self-conceit and dreams I remember two or three of my old acquaintance who suddenly received from a Seducer the Opinion of Perfection that we might be perfectly sinless in this life And because I denied it they carryed it as if I had pleaded for sin against perfection and they presently took themselves to be perfect and sinless because they had got the Opinion that some are such I told them that I desired Perfection as well as they and that I was far from hindering or disswading any from Perfection but wisht them to let us see that they are so indeed and never to sin more in thought word or deed And ere long they forsook all Religion and by Drunkenness Fornication and Licentiousness shewed us their Perfection So here it is not a conceit that men have Faith and Knowledge and quickly saying I believe or turning to the Priest or Party that perswadeth them which maketh them ever the wiser men or true Believers Obj. X. But that may seem certain to another which seemeth uncertain or false to you Therefore every man must go according to his own Light. Ans 1. Nothing is Certain which is not true If that seem True to you which is False this is your Errour And is every man or any man bound to err and believe a falsehood Being is before Knowing If it Be not true you may Think it to be so which is that which I would cure but you cannot Know it to be so much less be Certain of it 2. If it be Certain to you it is Evidently True And if so hold it fast and spare not It is not any mans Certainty but Errour which I oppose Obj. XI But if we must write or utter nothing but Certainties you would have but a small Library Ans 1. The World might well spare a great many uncertain Writings 2. But I say not that you must think say or write nothing but Certainties There is a lawful and in some cases necessary exercise of our understandings about Probabilities and Possibilities The Husbandman when he ploweth and soweth is not certain of an increase 1. But call not that certain which is not 2. And be not as vehement and peremptory in it as if it were a Certainty 3. And separate your Certainties and Probabilities asunder that confusion fill not your minds with Errour Obj. XII While you perswade us to be so diffident of mens reports and to suspend our belief of what men say you speak against the Laws of Converse Ans I perswade you not to deny any man such a Belief as is his due But give him no more If a man profess himself a Christian and say that he sincerely believeth in Christ and consenteth to his Covenant though you may perceive no ascertaining Evidence that he saith true yet you must believe him because he is the only opener of his own mind and the Laws of God and Human Converse require it But what is this believing him Not taking it for a