dore of Separatists and Schismaticks who by frustrating this Power render it contemptible and set open the dore to all Impiety and Atheism p. 122. CHAP. IX Of the Necessity of Vnity in point of Government as well as Faith in a National Church upon the account of Civil Policy Such Vnity the Design of all Religion in Reference to Humane Society No Happiness without it Government appointed by God with an Intention to promote this Design and therefore Disobedience a damnable sin p. 149 CHAP. X. A further discovery of the Impolitickness of Disunion in point of Church Government No Domestique Peace to be hoped for without it but perpetual Quarrels under pretence of Religion and Conscience The Rise and Spring of Fears and Jealousies from the several Interests of Dissenters p. 165 CHAP. XI The mischief of Disunion in respect of Foreign Affairs It Weakens any Nation and Exposes them to the Arms of their Enemies Robs them of their Alliances and Confederations Interest and Mutual Support the Foundation of all Leagues Different Churches in the same Nation incline People to Democracy p. 190 CHAP. XII Of Tolleration Some Animadversions upon a Book intituled The Advocate of Conscience Liberty in reference to all Dissenters p. 203 CHAP. XIII A further Examination of the same Author in his particular Plea for the Papists A short View of and Answer to their Boasting to be our Apostles Of their Antiquity Succession Visions Miracles c. Of the Oath of Supremacy Of the Powder Treason or Fifth of November p. 229 CHAP. XIV Of the Difficulty of Vnderstanding the Modes of things sensible much more those of the Intellectual World The Vnreasonableness of Obtruding things not certain as De Fide Of Faith It must be such a Condition of Salvation as All may perform because All have a Title to the Common Salvation The Scriptures the only Rule of this Faith which is the necessary Condition of being saved Of the difference between a Rule and a Guide p. 248 CHAP. XV. Of Episcopacy Proved to be of Divine Institution and the Government appointed over the Church by the Holy Ghost The Testimony of Scripture Of Ignatius the Disciple of the beloved Apostle St. John From the constant Vse and Consent of the Church in all Ages Of Aerius the Reason of his Heresie All Hereticks against Government The Doctrine of Calvin of the necessity of some to determine Differences p. 276 CHAP. XVI Of the Judge of Controversies No Humane Authority the Judge of Faith God only Infallible That part of the Catholique Church which is Militant may Err. The difference between not Erring and the Impossibility of Erring The Rulers of the Church the Interpreters of Scripture In all things not absolutely of the Essence of Faith which nothing can be that is not Evident in Scripture either in plain Words or necessary Consequence All private men Excluded from Interpretation of Scripture p. 302 CHAP. XVII The CONCLVSION p. 317 The Project of PEACE CHAP. I. The INTRODUCTION THEY must certainly have little good Nature and far less Christian Charity who are not most sensibly afflicted for the miserable Distractions the deplorable Differences and unnatural Divisions which are among those who profess the glorious Religion of Christ Jesus That Heart must be more flinty than a Stoick's which does not bleed it self and supply the Eyes with Tears whilst Christians who by the Command of their Great but Meek and Tender Lord ought to be harmless as Doves and innocent as Lambs are transformed by preposterous Zeal and pious Pretences into Wolves and Tygres and with a fierce and savage fury mutually Worry and Devour one another nay even exceed the madness of those Brutes and devest themselves of all Humanity to put on this new Nature as they term it of Religion For Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis The Greenland Bears are kind one to another But to the shame of those who call themselves Christians but are of the Synagogue of Satan that Aboriginal Murderer men are not so modest as to be confined within the limits of making true the Horrid Adage Homo homini Lupus that one man is a Wolf to devour another but they proceed to the utmost extremity of Malice and Madness and become Homo homini Daemon Devils to damn one another not Anthropophagi or Canibals but Psychophagi feeding upon humane souls turning that innocent Wisdom of the Serpent which our Lord commands to preserve our selves into the restless Malice of the Old Serpent to destroy others Souls Bodies and Estates and to infuse the Mortal Poison of Adders which is under their Lips into the Souls of Credulous Men through their Ears and Eyes with the pretext of Piety and true Religion The Glorious Company of Saints and Martyrs now triumphant in Heaven went thither through a Red Sea of Blood but it was their own which was shed by the cruel hands of Heathenish Persecutors who did it ignorantly in Unbelief and with joy it was that they set their seal to the Testimony of Jesus and his Truth in their dearest blood Emptying their Veins that their Souls might be filled with a glorious Immortality But now Christians who all profess one Common Name and Faith think they do not set to their seal to that Truth unless they shed the blood of one another and that most commonly for differences in Opinion for Words Names Fancies and Conjectures at least if we may believe there is no more in the bottom which they conceal than there is in what they pretend openly for the ground of the Quarrel Oh Barbarous Christianity Oh Heathenish Impiety In the importunate Croud of such mournful thoughts and considerations of former Experience of our late Shipwrack and fear of future Events which the Noisy Tempest that seemed to threaten our Crazy and bruised Vessel suggested to my mind my Soul was overwhelmed with Grief and fear and ready to sink into Dispair both at the remembrance of the past and the terrible Consequences of that Inevitable Ruin which Truth it self has pronounced against a house and a Kingdom divided within and therefore against themselves and distracted by Intestin Discords THE prophetique Caution of the Apostle came presently into my mind Gal. 5.15 But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I saw me thought with Horror the too plain truth of it in those once Golden Candlesticks Vid. Mr. Smiths Travels to the Seven Churches of Asia the Seven Churches of Asia who by their Discords were laid in ashes and are the habitations of Owls and Dragons or far worse Inhabitants the sordid Worshippers of that Great Imposter Mahomet I could not stand upon the Brink of such an amasing Precipice without extreme Horror nor see the Cause so Evident without a dreadful apprehension of the Tragical Issue Which made me break out into the Passionate Wish of the afflicted Jeremy Oh that my Head were Waters Jer. 9.1 2. and mine
which they are to Govern which is the Word of the Infallible God who cannot lye or be deceived and I suppose that they may act contrary to this Rule and that presumes they are not Infallible but if they follow the Rule then I say they cannot Err and should the Pope do so all Christians over whom he may Challenge a lawful Jurisdiction as their Patriarch ought to submit to him But it is Evident that the Roman Church does Err and has Erred in many things forsaking the Rule setting up the Authority of the Pope to alter and change that Rule by introducing new Articles of Faith new Books of Scripture and old Traditions his own Canons Decretals and Councels for a Rule nay his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sentence and Determination for an Infallible Rule of Faith and Life which is as far from me to believe of our Bishops as to say or believe it of him NOR does this Jurisdiction of Bishops either take away that subordination which for convenience of Government is among them or intrench upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate since his Supremacy consists in a Temporal Soveraignty and pretends not to any Pastoral Power but only such Kingly and Civil Authority in Cases Ecclesiastical as Constantine and several other Religious Emperors had and Exercised to whom even Popes as well as other Patriarchs yielded subjection as I can make appear out of the Epistles of Gregory the Great to Mauritius and the Ecclesiastical Historians in a hundred places And nothing is more plain than that Christ himself owned a Subjection as well as Commanded one to Cesar As for the Civil Magistrate and his Power I think nothing more Evident than the Duty all their Subjects whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks owe them and that they have Prescription the Law of God Nature Nations and those of their own on their side for the Defence of their Titles to their Crowns and Scepters and that the Church and Faith is and ought to be their Particular Care as well as it is their Interest the quiet of the State ever depending in a great Measure upon the Peace of the Church and that they have a Coercive Power by virtue of which they may compel men to Obedience to the Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical which in conformity to the Law of God are to promote the Peace Happiness Unity and Prosperity of their People Nor was this Doctrine ever deni'd till the Papacy growing great and the Empire declining began to think of a Temporal as well as a Spiritual Monarchy and to Unite St. Paul's Sword to St. Peter's Keys And till the Presbyterians reviving the Heresy of Aerius and his levelling Principle began to indeavour to set up their Spiritual Democracy in the Church in order to their Erecting it also in the State as the sad Probatum which they writ to their late deadly of the Solemn League and Covenant might convince us without the dangerous necessity of a second Experiment Ictus Piscator sapit The burnt Child dreads the fire and we have a great deal more reason to do so than to kindle it again and run our fingers into the Flame to try whether it will burn as hot now as formerly it did CHAP. XVII The CONCLVSION TO draw to a Conclusion I think it is evident from all that any person can in reason desire to give him Satisfaction That the Powers and Government in this Church and Nation are Lawful and of Gods appointment That Vnity in Faith and Obedience to their Government are the only Expedients to secure unto us Peace and Religion and that if these be our Desires the other are our Interest and ought to be our diligent indeavours and our constant Practice It is this Unity this Obedience that must make us Happy at home and Terrible abroad which are the only Ways to procure and Establish a lasting Peace both in our Souls in our State in our Church and with our Foreign Neighbours who may be obliged more by our formidable Vnity than by our feeble Arms or other Alliances I would gladly know therefore of Dissenters who and our sins are the great Obstructors of our Happiness Are you certain that the Government of Bishops is Unlawful and Antichristian Can you prove that any of the Commands of the Church or State are Unlawful contrary to plain Scripture and Publique Interpretation If you can you may pretend Conscience for your Disobedience but if you cannot and I am assured it is impossible how do you think you shall escape the dreadful and Revenging Power of the Judg of all men when he shall come in flaming Fire taking Vengeance on those that know not God and obey not his Gospel Flatter not your selves with the vain Opinion of your Sanctity Many shall say Lord have not we Prophesied in thy Name to whom he will answer Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity for I know you not and well he may for he says Positively He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me is not this Disobeying the Gospel The Holy Ghost says he has made Bishops you say they are Antichristian he sends them to Instruct you in the way of Righteousness and to Watch for your Souls you Watch for their Ruine their Lives Honors and Estates he commands you to Esteem them highly you despise them contemn and Vilifie them He commands you to Obey you not only refuse but teach that to Obey is Damnable He planted them among you to plant the Faith you vow and swear to Extirpate Root and Branch Go on and Prosper said the False Zedechiah with his Horns of Iron but Ahab fell Be not deceived you may Mock the Messengers of God but God is not to be Mocked if you sow the Wind your shall reap the Whirlwind the terrible Tempest of his Wrath and Indignation They that lay Snares for the Innocent shall be Ensnared in the Works of their own hands You believe you know God but in Works you deny him for as Saint John saith of himself and his fellow Apostles and of their successors as all lawful Bishops are and will be to the end of the World 1 Joh. 4.6 We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth us not Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error The Holy Church of God in all Ages for God has a Church in all Ages according to his Promise acknowledg this to be the sense and Meaning of the Scripture which I have shewn how then will you avoid this guilt with which St. John charges you this spirit of Error which he assures us is to be known by this Character of not hearing those whom God hath sent ARE you certain that you are in the Right and that all the Saints and Martyrs Bishops and Confessors who believed thus lived and dyed in Antichristian Error Ignorance and Superstition strangers to these
It was with this Ingine that the mistaken Jews gave the first shock to Christian Religion in the Person of our Saviour and though they in reality confirm'd it by fulfilling the Prophecies concerning him in his Araignment Tryal Sufferings and Death yet was that an Effect of the Wise and over-ruling Providence and no part of their Intention their Design was their own Interest the preservation of their Power and the Safety of their State and Nation for when he had done as great a Miracle as it was possible Joh. 1.8.47 in raising Lazarus after he had been dead four days and that Martha told him Lord by this time he stinketh Nay after they themselves did acknowledge not only this but many Miracles to have been done by him yet Powerful Interest not only closed their Eyes against the bright beams of Divinity which broke forth through the Clouds of his Flesh and contemptible Condition against those Gracious Words which proceeded out of that mouth which spoak as never man spoak but hurried them on obstinately blindly and in all appearance maliciously to contrive compass and procure his ignominious Death for then gathered the Chief Priests and the Pharisees a Councel and said What do we for this Man doth many Miracles if we let him thus alone all Men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our Place and Nation Upon which followed the Politick and beyond his sense Prophetick Determination of Caiaphas Te know nothing at all nor consider that it is Expedient for us it is our great Interest that one man should die and that the whole Nation perish not and from that Day forth they took Counsel together to put him to death And this Resolution grounded upon Interest they pursued with that Animosity and Violence that neither the Innocence nor Miracles of his Life the Justification of Pilate who openly pronounced him innocent and that he found in him no fault at all could prevail for his Release but that rather a Tumult was made and they cried out Away with him Away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him preferring a Thief and a Murderer to the Priviledge of their Custom of having one released at the Feast Nay even Pilate himself perhaps terrified with the dream of his Wife to have nothing to do with that Just man yet contrary to his avowed Judgment as appears in that 't is said he sought to release him yet was hurried down the swift torrent of Tumult and Interest to condemn the Innocent for no sooner had the Jews cried out If thou let this man go thou art no Friend to Caesar for whoso maketh himself a King speaketh against Caesar though he knew the Kingdom of Christ was not of this World and therefore stood not in Competition with Caesar for the Empire Yet when Pilate heard that saying he brought Jesus forth and sate down in the Judgment seat and though not without a scossing Reluctancy What shall I Crucifie your King he gave Sentence upon the Innocent and delivered him unto them to be Crucified in that Action shewing how much he was not a Friend to Caesar's Power but a slave to his own Interest in the Esteem of Caesar by whose favour he possessed the Government of Jary and and that he could rather violate the Laws of Equity and Justice disoblige his dearest Relations and slight the Importunities of his own Conscience than not worship this Idol of his own Interest A most notable Instance of the Power of Interest we have in that giddy Commotion which happen'd at Ephesus upon the account of the Gospel where though the crafty Silversmith made the people believe that all was Gold that glister'd and cunningly insinuated that he was the great Patron of their Ancient Religion which was in Danger to be lost and therefore laid that powerful Motive uppermost upon his Tongue yet Interest was at the bottom both of his Heart and Design For a certain man named Demetrius a Silversmith Acts. 19.24 which made silver shrines Medals bearing the stamp of Diana's Temple for Diana brought no small gain unto the Craftsmen whom he called together with the workmen of like Occupation and said unto them Ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth This was the main Ground of the Quarrel that of Religion comes in only to give the better Colour to the Mutiny with a colateral Moreover Moreover you see that not alone at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much People saying that they be no Gods which are made with hands so that not only this our Craft is in danger to be set at nought there it was the shoe pinch't this was the principal Motive of his Discontent and his main argument against Christianity but also that the Temple of the great Goddess Diana should be dispised and her Magnificence should be destroyed whom Asia and all the World worshippeth And of the same stamp where those of whom St. Paul speaks 1 Tim. 6.5 who supposed Gain was Godliness Interest true Religion from whom he commands therefore to withdraw 'T is this Interest which seems to be the great obstacle to the Conversion of the Mahumetans and Pagans to the Faith of Christ and the Truth of the Gospel For though the Vulgar amongst them are by reason of their stupid Ignorance and Custom wrapt up in clouds of darkness and have not a Capacity of Understanding much elevated above that of Brutes yet doubtless those of better Condition even by their conversations with the Christians cannot but have better conceptions of things and however they may varnish over this Obstinacy to their ridiculous Faith and sordid Principles with the pretence of Zeal for the Law of their Great Prophet yet doubtless finding the security of their Absolute and Arbitrary Dominion and Tyranny over their Subjects receives an Establishment from this blind Obedience and powerful Ignorance that Consideration sways them against all the Reason and Arguments in the World NOR will the Reman Religion Escape the danger of this overpoise of Interest 'T is this which has hitherto been the Obstacle to all the Indeavours which have been used or proposed to reform both those grosser Errors which they have introduced into Faith and good Manners and those lesser profitable Follies which have crept into their Church by the back-stairs of Advantage Riches and Esteem For by laying it down as a certain Foundation of Faith and Divine Verity that the Pope is Supreme Head of the Church above the Scriptures above Councels the Infallible Rule and sole Judge of all Controversies they necessarily Captivate all the Laity with the chains of blind Obedience and implicite Faith and that necessary and even Meritorious Ignorance especially of the Scriptures which they commend and incourage together with the easie Exercise of Religion which is made Satisfactory Meritorious and Supererrogating without the Intention or even Understanding of the Mind the Mercinary way of
that we through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope So were the Scriptures of the New Testament given us a new Rule and a Royal Law of Liberty that we might not Glory in Men 1 Gor. 3.21 22. c. 4.1.6 neither in Paul nor Cephas But that we might esteem them Stewards of the Mysteries of God And not to think of them above what is Written Which place if throughly considered teaches us not to prefer any Man or Men above the Scripture THIS will appear further if we consider the Nature of a Rule for a Rule is the constant certain infallible unchangeable measure according to which I judg of any thing whether it be true or false And if I can but suppose what is offer'd me for a Rule to be false or if I know it is or may be false it can be no Rule because it leaves me in an Uncertainty whether I am Right or Wrong But the Scripture cannot be supposed to be false for admitting that supposition they are no longer Scriptures or the Word of God for every word of God is true Men have been are and will be Fallible Traditions are dubious and uncertain but the Word of God is tried to the uttermost and coming from the Infallible Author of all Truth is the Touchstone of the Truth of Men and their Doctrines and by that we examine by that we judg of mens Faith and actions Isa 8.20 If they speak not according to the Law and the Testimony it is because there is neither Light nor Truth in them THE Mistake seems to be in Confounding the Difference between a Rule and a Guide and they who would advance the Authority of the Church above the Scripture set the Judg above the Law and Confound him with it The Church is indeed the Guide which instructs us but if her Instructions are not according to her Rule of Scripture when we hope for Bread she gives us a Stone and instead of a Fish a Scorpion Mortal Poyson for wholesome Nourishment To Illustrate this Suppose I desire to learn the Mathematicks I therefore apply my self to a Person skilful in that Incomparable Science and intreat him to direct me He shews me Euclid's Elements as the Foundation of Mathematical Knowledg and therefore reads and explains it to me Pray now who is the Rule the Master or the Book Certainly all men who have not forfeited their Reason will say the Book is the Rule the Man the Guide and if he give me any thing for a Demonstration contrary to the Principles therein contained I know by them that he is mistaken because he he has not instructed me according to the Rule The case is the same only the Infallibility of the Scriptures is more certain being founded upon the Infallibility of God They are the Rule the Governors of the Church the Guides appointed by God for that purpose to them therefore men resort for Instruction but if they teach either what is their own or other mens contrary to the Rule they are false Guides and why so But because they give a false Rule betraying that high Trust by God reposed in them to be Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame to conduct them to Eternal Bliss by the Directions of that Rule of which St. Paul says Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them and Mercy and upon the Israel of God AND even they who contend so earnestly against the Scriptures being the Rule of Faith and Life ought to shew some other End and Design of the Scriptures and a better Rule and not Confute themselves and all their Assertions and Arguments by making this the Rule of Believing whilst they bring Arguments out of it against it self which they would have therefore believed because they are Scripture plainly confessing it to be the Ultimate Rule and that nothing can properly be matter of Faith but what is agreeable to it Which has made the Romish Doctors sweat and toyl so vehemently to Extort Confessions from the Scripture Tert. de Praescript adv Heretic as Tertullian says Caedem Scripturarum faciunt ad materiam suam even Murdering it almost to make it speak to their purpose And since they could not prevail with it to Depose against the Truth they have put it into the Inquisition Imprisoning it in the Vulgar Latin lest if it should get abroad and speak Truth as it would do in despight of all Opposition it would proclaim their Injustice and Violence to the meanest Capacities of the Vulgar among them who would hereby come to detect the Pious Frauds and profitable Follies which are imposed upon them as matter of Faith THE ancient Church believed the Scriptures the Rule of Faith and therefore took care to have them Translated into Syrian Chrys Hom. 1. in Joh. Aegyptian Ethiopian Persian and other innumerable Languages as St. Chrysostom testifies and Theodoret says Theod. de Cur. Graec. affect lib. 5. the Bible was Translated into all Languages used in the World Greek Latin Persian Indian Armenian Scythian Sarmatian And this seems one if not the principal Reason why the Holy Ghost did Miraculously descend in Cloven Tongues upon the Apostles inabling them to speak in several Languages for the Parthians Medes Elamites Dwellers in Mesopotamia Judea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia in Lybia and Cyrene Crete and Arabia heard them speak the wonderful Works of God If they might have used the Compendious way of Instructing them to believe as the Church believes and had made themselves The rule of Faith and like the Priests of Memphis delivered their Hieroglyphical Faith from one to another there would have been no need of all this or of their Pains who afterwards were so diligent to Translate the Scriptures into all Languages to instruct all Nations and to let them see there was no Cheat or Juggle in Religion by exposing it to the view of the severest Criticks CHAP. XV. I Suppose there are no Dissenters among us except those of the Roman Communion but will willingly accord the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Manners And though there may be differences between us and them in some Material points of Doctrine yet the Apple of Strife is about the Government of the Church Some contending for a Parity and Equality as the Presbyterians others for an Absolute Independency of any the least Congregation of Men calling themselves a Church Others for a Democratick Anarchy as the Anabaptists and Quakers and several other Enthusiasts But all point blank against Episcopacy though hitherto they have not been able to satisfie the World for what Offence As for the Independency of Churches I shall only say in short that it opens the way to endless Separations and innumerable Errors and Hesies no man having power to Judg of them besides themselves And slies so far from the Popery of Hierarchy that it runs into a worse Extream and makes every Pastor Supreme
their Disobedience to both those Powers unless the things commanded be manifestly proved to contradict the Faith or be repugnant to good Life which till Dissenters can do they will be obstinate Schismaticks before God and Rebels against their Prince and in a fair way to be Traytors too whilst they break his Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical however they may flatter themselves with the Title of Saints And so soon as they can prove their Charge against any of the Ceremonies and that they are Unlawful in reality and not only in supposition they shall be gratified by their Abolition or amendment if that will do And if they cannot prove their Accusations would they be so unjust as to have not Justice but Injury done to the Innocent by abrogating those Modes of Worship and Customs in the Church which the whole Church has allowed that Government which God appointed which he has approved by maintaining supporting and defending it to this present day against all the Opposition of Infidels and Hereticks those two Gates of Hell One would think that Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis were satisfactory to men of Reason and Sobriety Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus id quidèm verè est Catholicum That which every where always and by all has been received must needs be a Catholick Truth but such is the Power Rule Authority of Bishops for Guiding the Church and appointing the Modes of Worship And they who will oppose this spring Tide of Universal Testimony will but drown themselves in the Odious name of Schismaticks and Heriticks of whom these have been the Characters Mos semper fuit Hereticorum quorum Doctrinam non possunt confutare illorum vitam in Odium trahere It has always been the Custom of Hereticks to asperse the lives of those whose Doctrines they have not been able to confute Which has been the constant Practice of late years against Episcopacy and Episcopal Men to throw dirt upon the Profession and Persons and then proclaim them Odious when in truth the blackness is in their own Mouths and not either in the Persons whom they calumniate or in the Office Treating the Church as some Impudent Villains do the Modest Woman whom they cannot Debauch Cry out A Whore a Whore and set the Rabble upon her who roll her in the Kennel and cover her with dirt till no body can tell what she is made of and then believe she is what they have made her ugly and what the other would have made her but could not Criminal St. Bernard gives us a second Property Haerent ad singula quae injunguntur Exigunt de quibusque rationem male suspicantur de omnî Precepto nèc unquà m libentèr acquiescunt nisi cum audire contigerit quod fortè libuerit They stick at every thing which is by Authority enjoyned they require a a Reason nay and we may add are not satisfied with Reason for every thing they are Jealously suspicious of every Precept of their Superiors nor do they ever willingly acquiess in their determinations unless it happens that they are agreeable to their own Judgment and as St. Augustine says Nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum Existimant They think well of nothing or Judge it right but what they do themselves LET St. Cyprian give them a third Mark. Initia Haereticorum c. Vt Praepositum Superbo tumore contemnant Sic de Ecclesia receditur sic Altare prophanum Foràs Collocatur sic contra pacem Christi Ordinationem atque unitatem Dei rebellatur The Original of Hereticks is Contempt of those who are set over them So men separate from the Church So is a prophane Altar erected out of it So men become Rebells against the Peace of Christ Order and Vnity because as in another place he says Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Superbâ quorundam presumptione contemnitur The Bishop who is one and set over the Church is by the proud Presumption of some Men Contemned We may write a Probatum est to these Prophetique Truths I might Pyle up Endless Authorities and swell this Discourse to a Volume but if what I have already said be not sufficient to Convince the greatest Enemies of Episcopacy that it is a Government of Gods appointment in the Church I think all that can be said will be to no purpose and if this will more would be supersluous if they will not believe the Scripture If they will not believe the Church Mat. 18.17 it is our Saviour's Rule Let them be as Heathen men and Publicans CHAP. XVI HAVING now found a Divine and unerring Rule of Faith and Life in the Scripture of Truth and having also found there who are by God appointed to be Governours of the Church viz. Bishops There remains only the great Enquiry after the Judg of Controversies and Differences which is abslutely Necessary in the Church of God to determine Differences which may happen not only about Matters of private Opinion but even the sense of the Scriptures and the Interpretation of the Holy Rule And as these Differences may be of several Kinds and Natures so there are several Judges appointed by God to hear and determine them that so the Church may be preserved in Peace and Charity As to what is matter of Faith Essentially Necessary to Salvation That God is the Sole Judg of himself And therefore it has by him long since been determined and received in the Church and what ever by all must be believed must be easy by all to be known and is therefore plainly set forth in Holy Scripture Nor can any be Judg of this but what cannot Err or deceive us which is only God And to say the Church is the Judg of this and that it cannot Err because the Catholique Church does not Err is to argue Fallaciously à non esse ad impossibile esse For that part of the Catholique Church whilest on Earth consisting of Men of whom some shall be saved and some Reprobated No man having a power to know which of them are those who shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation that they shall not Err and to distinguish them from those who shall not be so preserved and therefore there being a Possibility that those who may be Reprobates from the Faith themselves may yet be of great Authority in the Outward Visible Church it is unreasonable to admit them as Judges of Faith who Erring themselves my lead us into Errors too And therefore God who speaks to us in Scripture is only the Judg of what is matter of Faith and what not and it is to be tryed by that Rule and no Authority has power to impose any thing as matter of Faith Essentially necessary to Salvation but what is there to be found The Harmony of the Universal Church that such things as are offered as matters of Faith are agreeable to Scripture is in things not clear and
for Practice but to the Governors of the Church which all shall be bound to observe for the obtaining Peace and Vnity I have already proved who are those Governors who by the Appointment of the Holy Ghost are to Rule to feed the Flock of Christ to Watch over mens Souls as they that must give an Account to Rebuke Exhort with all long suffering but not with suffering always for if Seducers will persist in subverting houses and vain talking then by proceeding to stopping their Mouths that so they may study to approve themselves unto God Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth And the Temporal Power of the Civil Magistrate may assist the Spiritual to bring men to Peace Unity and Obedience to these their Guides and Governors by being a Terror to Evil doers and Encouragement to those who do well which is both the Will and the Word of God I know it will be Objected That these Intepreters of Scripture and Judges of Controversies may Err and be deceived Bishops may Err Counsels have Erred and therefore this leaves us still in an Uncertainty since it is possible that we may be misled by them and how shall we be certain they do not Err or we in following them and wherein is it Lawful to refuse to Obey them To this I answer That the Qualificatîon of such a Guide and Interpreter of Scripture as we are to expect is not such a one as cannot Err but such a one as does not Err for had God left us such a Guide besides his own Word and Will there would have been a state of Perfection attainable in this Life and by consequence an Immortality and no necessity of his Divine assistance to keep us by his mighty Power from falling through Faith unto Eternal Salvation such a Guide must have been a God Omniscient Omnipotent and Omnipresent which is as unreasonable to believe as to expect from any or all Mortal Men. And besides it is a vain and frivolous Objection for those who are under any Lawful Government to run into the most dangerous Errors and manifest breach of Gods Command by Schism and Disobedience to the Laws of Men for fear of imaginary danger of future Errors which if they shall really happen we have a plain and easy remedy against them if we know them to be such and that is in our own persons to protest against them and to refuse to Joyn with those that hold them and if we know them not to be so though we be in Error as who lives that does not Err they will do us no injury for it is obstinacy in Error and not bare Error of ignorant frailty that is damnable but we can have no Plea or Excuse to make to God Almighty for our Error of Separation breach of Vnity Peace Order Communion Division from a Church not yet convicted of any manifest Error either in Doctrine or Practice which is the Case between Dissenters and the Church of England And besides every Error in Circumstantials which does not destroy Faith or a good Life is not a sufficient and warrantable Cause for any private Man to throw off all Subjection to his Superiors for if it were there could be no such thing as a Catholique Church or Communion of Saints there being no particular Men or any Society of Men without Sins and by consequence not without Errors both in Doctrine and Practice BUT Secondly The Governours of the Church neither do nor can Err in point of Faith and Doctrine or Discipline and Government so long as they follow the Rule of the Scriptures in Cases plain and clear as before I shewed the Matters of Faith essentially necessary to Salvation are Nor so long as they Judge of such as are dubious according to their Catholiqueness in the Esteem of all Ages of the Church for no Error was ever Universal And though they may be mistaken yet do they not Err if in Interpretation of the more difficult and obscure places of Scripture they indeavour to Expound the meaning of them by others which are more clear and perspicuous following the received sense of them acknowledged so by the Vniversal Church so long as in those Interpretations there can be nothing repugnant to the Common Faith of Christians or prejudicial to Peace Charity and Practical Piety Neither can they Err as to the point of Discipline and the External Polity of the Church if in indifferent things in their own Natures and not Essentially necessary to Salvation they do not impose them as such if they follow the Direction of the General Rules of the Holy Canon that every thing be done with respect to Decency Order Edification for the avoiding Confusion and obtaining Peace Unity and Christian Love according to the Examples of the best Christians in former Ages in the Church and the Canons of such General Counsels as are not found manifestly Guilty of Partiality and Corruption in the long Train of Errors which the Indeavouring to Erect the Primacy into a Supremacy and the Supremacy into a Monarchy has brought into the Roman Church THIRDLY If the Governors of the Church Impose any thing contrary to Scripture Faith or Holy Life then do they forsake the Rule and it is Lawful and Necessary for every good Christian to forsake them for so is St. Paul's Rule 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I am of God And praises them for observing the Commandments delivered to them by God But if they fall from the Faith as did the Gnosticks the Manichees the Arrians and many others we are not then to be Followers of them but Followers of God as Dear Children But if any Private man or many shall think because in some things which are contrary to their apprehension that therefore the Determinations are against Scripture and therefore their Obedience not due it is a mistake for they must be certain otherwise they are bound to be subject for if they be not certain and from the best Grounds and clear Evidences it is but their Opinion which cannot weigh enough in the Scale of Truth to warrant their Disobedience against the Publique Opinion of their Superiors but that such a Disobedience will be a certain Sin for if any or many mens Private Opininion which is private Interpretation may authorize them to renounce their Obedience to their Superiors there can never be any such thing as subjection in the World nor any Government and by good consequence No Vnion no Catholique Church and then no Faith and in short at last no such thing as Religion OTHERS will Object That hereby I seem to introduce Romish Infallibility and make our Bishops Lords of our Faith and that we had better submit to one Pope who is as free from Error as other Bishops To this I Answer That there is nothing more contrary to Sense or Truth than such an Objection For I do not make nor believe them Infallible but the Rule by
Imprimatur Hic Liber cui Titulus The Project of Peace c. June 12. 1678. Guill Sill R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. à Sac. Dom. THE Project of Peace OR UNITY of FAITH AND GOVERNMENT The only Expedient to Procure PEACE BOTH Foreign and Domestique AND To PRESERVE these NATIONS From the DANGER OF Popery and Arbitrary Tyranny By the Author of the Countermine Is there no Balm in Gilead No Physician there Si penés singulos Jus Arbitrium erit Judicandi nihil certi constitui poterit quin potius vacillabit tota Religio Cal. Inst London Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Sign of the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1678. TO THE DISSENTERS FROM THE Church of ENGLAND OF WHAT NAMES or DISTINCTIONS SOEVER AS it is very Possible that nothing will be less Welcome to you than these Papers so contrary both to your Inclinations and what you believe your Interest So it may be nothing is less customary than Dedications of this Nature But since I neither propose to my self the Hopes of any Patrons Beneficence nor can submit to such unmanly Complyances as are usually the Effects of such Hopes and Expectations I have rather chosen to Address my self to you where even the Hope of a Charitable Reception is scarcely to be hoped for as the Reward of my Charity And where the Flattery of Swelling Hyperboles would prove as false and unsuccessful to me as to Millions who have made large promises to themselves of Recompences and Gratifications for that Gentiler way of Begging And of all the World it would be most Pernicious to You who have been too long accustomed to your own and the dangerous Flatteries of your Party There is nothing that is at all times more Welcome to the World than Peace Pacem te poscimus Omnes But most Men would be Conquerors and oblige the World by giving it upon their own Terms And there are but few who will be content to receive it as Christians upon God's Terms and Conditions Here I have endeavoured to Manifest the true Foundations of a solid and a lasting Peace Which are Faith Vnity Government and Obedience to the Laws of God and Men. A Peace capable of rendring the Vniverse Happy and any particular Society of Men prosperous here and Glorious hereafter in the Peaceful Regions of Joy and Immortality I am not ignorant of your Plea of Zeal and Sufferings But must the Church of England be allowed nothing for hers Has not She by your means been forced to drink the very dregs of your Animosity whilest like the Children of Edom in the day of her Calamity You cryed Down with her Psal 137.8 Down with her even to the ground Did you ever suffer such Persecution from Her as She has suffered from you Whose Zeal therefore or Afflictions must intitle them to the Character of the truer Church Would you Establish the Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth So would She only with this Difference that what you would effect by the Rude Method of Force and Violence the Power of the Sword She labours to do by the Power of Perswasion and the Spirit of Meekness as her Treatment of you now She is in Power so far from Retaliation or Revenge does abundantly testifie to the Shame of your former Cruelty and present Obstinacy and endeavours to compass and effect her Ruine Is She therefore Criminal for endeavouring that Lawfully which you would and do and as you perswade the World are bound in Conscience to do Per fas Nefas either Lawfully or Unlawfully it matters not is not the same Obligation of Conscience and far greater and a truer Conscience upon her And if one must be satisfied whose rather Hers which is True and properly Conscience or yours which is only your Private and uncertain Opinion clothed with that Venerable Name Your Way of Establishing this Worship has been notoriously guilty of Rebellion Disorders Confusion and many Evil Works The Civil State of Affairs has been ruin'd and overturn'd Houses have been made Desolate and left without Inhabitant Churches have been robbed defaced abused demolished Holy things set apart and dedicated to the Service of God and so made Holy have been prophaned The Church of England is innocent of any such Crimes The infamous Brand of Rebellion Sedition Tumults Sacriledg or Rapine were never burnt upon her hand She indeavours to prevent this for the Present and the Future by teaching all men their just Duty towards God and towards Man and obliges them to the Performance of it You call this Persecution and Hate her for it This may be Zeal in you but it is not according to the knowledg of God She imposes some Methods and certain Directions in their own Nature confessedly indifferent only in order and with no other Design than for Decency avoiding Confusion and to bring all Christians to maintain the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace You refuse these Means and therefore the Great End of Christian Religion and Religion it self You prefer your own Way and Means before Hers and by Obstructing Peace pretend that her Impositions are inconducive to those Excellent Ends when as in Truth it is not their want of Efficacious aptness but your want of Will and your traversing them by an obstinate Disobedience that frustrates their desired Effects You quarrel her Commands and call them Traditions of Men and Will-Worship when in reality yours is so And it is perfectly because you are not permitted to have your own Wills in the Worship of God that makes you Accuse Her of what you are most horribly guilty of your selves She appoints nothing but what is agreeable to the Will and Word of God and the Primitive Usage of the Church You term those Determinations Antichristian Popish Superstitious As if God Almighty whose Word and Rules She follows where he does not please your Humour or suit your Interest or Designs were Popishly inclined As if the Scriptures in declaring for Episcopacy were Antichristian As if the best and purest Ages of the Church and the whole Succession of Saints and Martyrs were Superstitious Because many of them Bishops and all of them Worshipping God at least as to the Main according to Her Way and Method Whereas it is you that are Popish while you endeavour to Obtrude upon us your own Infallibility It is you who are Antichristian who ruine the Foundation of all Christianity Faith Government a Catholique Church Obedience Charity and Unity It is you who are Superstitious if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a needless Fear of any thing in Religion be Superstition whilest you start at an Innocent Rite as if it were a Goblin And for fear of a Ceremony run from the Church as if it were hanted with Evil Spirits And though you strain as if you were afraid of being Choak't at these Gnats yet you can swallow the Camel of plain and barefac't Disobedience That goes smoothly over your Palate being gilded over
he knows more and better what he ought to do than he who has Power to Command him This is the knowledg which St. Paul says puffeth up but Charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8.1 2. And therefore he subjoyns If any man think he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know that is if his knowledg occasions a breach of Charity he does not yet know himself or his Duty to God and Man This is so clear a Case with those of the Separation who break both Charity and Unity by their Disobedience that they must shut the clearest beams of Truth out of their Souls if they do not discover it SECONDLY An obstinate adherence to any private Opinion whereby the Peace of the Church is destroyed especially in things no ways in themselves Essentially necessary to Salvation must of necessity proceed from Pride for why should any person prefer his private Judgment before the Determination of his Superiors before that of the Catholick Church in all Ages but because he thinks himself wiser and more able to discern what is for the Publick Good than all that were before him or that are above him though hereby Solomon will tell him from the Spirit of God that he only purchases the Character of a Fool Prov. 12.15 The way of a Fool is right in his own eyes but he that hearkeneth unto Counsel is wise And therefore the Prophet pronounceth a Woe against such Woe unto those that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight Esa 5.21 Which must be meant of private persons for the Wisdom of Superiors is not so much their own as the Wisdom of all former Ages and for this Reason St. Paul commands Rom. 12.16 Be of the same mind mind not high things prompted by Pride or Ambition but condescend to men of low Estate much more to those of high be not wise in your own conceit And for Encouragement to this kind of Private Wisdom once more hear Wisdom it self speak by the wise man Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit Prov. 26.12 there is more hope of a Fool than of him And it is impossible to give any other Reason why men should not submit to Truth and their Superiors when they may be sensible to a demonstration from Reason Scripture and Experience that their private Opinions are unlawful because dangerous contrary to Charity and Gods Command but because they think such a Submission a Retractation or Compliance with Authority would be a lessening of them as to that Opinion for Wisdom and Sanctity which others attribute to them and that dangerous Flatterer Pride perswades them they are Masters of THIRDLY To indeavour to strengthen themselves by making a Party to secure them in their Disobedience and Obstinacy is the certain and unseparable Symptom of Ambition as well as Pride for if I dislike any thing I may do so to my self but to perswade others to it must have respect to a further Design and declares that I intend not only to own my Disobedience but to justifie and maintain it by Power The best Men in the World may Err privately but it is to be suspected they are the worst who make their Errors Publique to draw Disciples after them by Disobedience a man Equals himself to his Superiors for it is a plain denying their Authority over him by Obstinacy he shews his intention to stand his Ground and make good his Incroachment upon their Power and by his making of a Party he does as it were make secret Levies and inrols a Militia to defend himself from the Power of his Superiors and looks as if he meant to struggle with them not only for Precedence but Dominion I wish these were only Suppositions and that we could not from woful Experience say they are but too true but it was this very way that lately laid the Crown as well as the Mitre in the Dust too lately to give us the least reason to doubt that the same Methods may do it again if not in time prevented either by the vigilance of Authority or by reducing the disorderly and disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just and by informing their Understandings to oblige them voluntarily to abandon those Men and Principles whose Practices will infallibly lead them to these Conclusions or oblige Authority by the utmost Severities of Laws to prevent the Danger and Ruine of the whole Frame of Government both in Church and State AND as Pride and Ambition are but too visible amongst the Principles of Dissention amongst us and the principal Obstacles of our Peace and Vnity so are they no less Obstructions to a Reconciliation with the Roman Church for it is the Ambition of Supremacy over all other Churches and over all Temporal Powers and even over our Faith it self the incommunicable Prerogative of our blessed Jesus Heb. 12.2 the Author and Finisher of our Faith which has render'd all Reunion with them not only dangerous but impossible unless we will resolve by believing as that Church believes to disbelieve not only our Sense and Reason but Scripture and all Antiquity and not only those but God himself who has given us them to assist us in our Faith IT is the Ambition of the Clergy which obliges them to keep the Laity in Ignorance so blind that they are not permitted to inquire or doubt And for the Clergy as before was observed in the point of Interest they are constantly fed with the nourishment of Ambitious Thoughts hopes of Dignities and Promotions The meanest Priest or Recluse may come to be head of his House Superior and after General of his Order a Prior or Abbot and it may be a Bishop the Bishop may advance the Mitre to the Honour of a Cardinals Hat and the Red Hat may turn to the Triple Mitre and all this by being a Zealous Maintainer of the Usurped Power of that Church justifying her Incroachments upon the Crowns of Princes and the Mitres of all other Bishops Primates Metropolitans and Patriarchs owning her Monopoly of the Word Catholique avowing her Canonical and Decreed Errors for Rules of Faith and Manners and divulging her fictitious Collusions for real Miracles though to the hazard of rendring the true ones of Christ and his Apostles suspected upon which the sole confirmation of our Religion depends These are the Stairs by which men ascend to the Papal Dignity which now out-flies the Imperial Eagle as well as the smaller Royal Birds of Majesty Et Caput inter Nubila condit for to oppose any of these is a certain way to be prefer'd to the Torments of the Inquisition to be branded with Heresie and Apostacy and to Expire in Flames and Torments So that I hope by this time it is evident how pernioiously powerful the Principles of Interest and Prejudice Custom and Education Pride and Ambition are in the Minds of Men to hinder them from Embracing Truth and her Beautiful Children Peace and
affraid he had bestowed upon them Labour in Vain for that they were relapsing to Jadaism and to the observing of Days and Years according to the Mosaick Law THIS has been a Constant Quarrel amongst Christians this bred those Mortal Divisions betwixt the Eastern and the Western Churches which has almost intirely ruin'd one of them and not advantaged the other as to Truth for whilest both pretended to be the only true Church of Christ by that exclusive Arrogance they were both so far False and this Unlawful claim was the Mother of the Doctrine of Infallibility in the Catholique Church which if it be understood of any particular company of Men and not of the whole Body of the Faithful which are in all Churches have been or shall be guided by the Spirit of God into all truth must be False for whoever is infallible must be without Sin which none can be in this imperfect State For if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us and the Maxim is undoubtedly true Quod predicatur de singulis universalium predicatur etiam de universalibus singularium If all men are Sinners they are fallible if every man is a Sinner then are all men here in this Mortal State So that if men would with Justice and Modesty allow degrees of Truth and that every Church possessed some so long as they retain the foundation of one only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent whom to know is Life eternal if they would strive more for Peace and Purity than for this Supremacy and impossibility of being the only true Church they would certainly have more Truth because more Charity Peace Vnity THERE were Seven Churches in Asia though now nothing but the Names and those scarce Legible in their Ruins to which our blessed Lord commands St. John to write Rev. 1 2 3 Chapters What thou seest write in a Book and send it to the seven Churches which are in Asia unto Ephesus and unto Smyrna and unto Pergamos and unto Thyatira and unto Sardis and unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea Every Church was a Golden Candlestick and every one had a Star which was the Angel Guardian or Governour of the Church and which Christ held in his right hand These Candlesticks were all of Gold but some more refined and purer Mettal than others the Stars were all bright and shining but some more dim and obscure than others for one star exceeded another star in glory 1 Cor. 15.41 42. even in the Firmament of the Church as well as in Heaven And doubtless if that place be true shall hereafter for so is the Resurection of the Dead From this Instance of the Seven Churches these Deductions seem evidently to follow FIRST That several Nations are several Distinct Coordinate not subordinate Churches for so the Son of God calls these Seven which yet were comprised in the lesser Asia and People of one Language though of distinct and separate Polities which seems to be that which differences Nations and not Languages SECONDLY That distinct and several Coordinate Churches may all be true Churches and Vnited in the Common Bond of the same Faith and Charity who yet may not be of equal Purity two only are here commended for their Purity viz. Smyrna and Philadelphia the other are condemned Ephesus for having forsaken her first Love her Zeal and Devotion Pergamos for the Doctrine of Balaam and for suffering the odious Sect of the Nicolaitans Thyatira for suffering Jezebel a woman to teach contrary to the Express Command of God and therefore to seduce the People by eating things offered to Idols Sardis for having a name to live but being dead Loadicea for being luke-warm neither hot nor cold a Church of Latitudinarians all these are threatned and reproved but not rejected from the name and being of Churches THIRDLY That the holy Catholique Church is composed of several distinct National Churches for we must not think the Son of God could be guilty of an impropriety of Speech he distinguishes them by the places where they were planted and by their degrees of Purity as so many several Churches without giving them any precedency on preheminence one over another he does not direct the Angels of the several Churches to Rome or Alexandria or Jerusalem or Antioch though all then famous Churches for redress of their Errors he does not send them to St. Peter or his Successors the Catholique Apostolique Roman Church as the Pillar and Ground of Truth not a word of the Sancta sedes Apostolica Petri Cathedra Ecclesia Principalis nothing of the Romanorum Fides ad quos perfidia habere non potest accessum which place of St. Cyprian the Romanists boast so much of whilest they indeavour to appropriate the word Catholique only to their Church which is as good sense as that any one man is humane Nature But for the redress of their Errors amendment of their Lives and reformation of their false Doctrines he gives them all this short Direction He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches and that to every one of them distinctly so that what the Spirit of God speaks to the Churches was to be the Rule of Faith Life and Doctrine and what was it which the Spirit spake unto the Churches was ever any Tradition said to be spoken by the Holy Spirit No certainly nothing was ever spoken by the Spirit to the Churches but the Books of the Holy Canon which all Ages have consented to without the least Addition or Diminution as the late Bishop of Durham Dr. Cosins has made appear more distinctly till such time as the Absolutissima Syndus Tridentina as they call the Trent Session for some passages which seem favourable to Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead was pleased to adopt these into the Holy Canon though nothing is more evident than that till then they were Esteemed only Humane Writings and Apocryphal however hereby they have given a Specimen of the Power they pretend over our Faith for by the same Authority they may impose Aesops Fables and the Alchoran as matters of Faith Neither did the ancient Churches when Heresies sprung up resort to Rome for infallible Determinations but to Oecumenical and General Councels not Esteeming their Determinations valid neither unless agreeable to the Holy Scripture which was always accounted the Norma or Rule by which they were to be guided and at which Councels the Pope did assist not as the Head but as a Principal Member and the respect he had given him was as Patriarch of the Imperial City and the Western Churches and not as Monarch of the whole Catholick Church and even some later Councels as that of Basil have undertaken to reform Errors and Abuses and to depose the Pope being found guilty of them LASTLY It may from hence be concluded That Christ himself is the only head of the Catholick Church which is composed
of several distinct Churches who are all Members of that Mystical Body he walks among the Candlesticks he holds the Stars in his right hand The Angel of every distinct National Church is to be the mover of the Orb to guide it by the Light of Divine Truth spoken by the Spirit of the Churches the Temporal Power may be Supreme Head of the Church as they are a Society of Christian Men but neither the one nor the other can justly pretend a Power over the Angel of another Church or the Dominions of another Prince for that is the Prerogative of the Son of God who Unites them in his Right hand and who alone can challenge the Title of that Name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords NOR will this Independency of Churches one upon another which is only in point of Jurisdiction and Limits which was anciently practiced and commanded by the Decrees of Councels give the least disturbance to their Charity and Vnion so long as they maintain the same Universal Doctrine of Faith as to the substance and all acknowledge one Catholique Church and themselves Members of it Nay it is observable that this incroachment of the greater Churches upon the less and indeavouring to aggrandize themselves by imposing upon all other Churches a Soveraignty and Dominion never intended for Christian Religion and striving by force to oblige them to use their Rites and Ceremonies in indifferent Circumstantials and not only so but to receive all their Opinions as matters of Faith were the first occasion of the most remarkable Schisms and Divisions and the loss of Peace and Unity and still continue so to this very day Whereas did they all resolve to content themselves with their own Precincts and not indeavour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and act out of their own Provinces but would permit others to make use of such indifferent Rites as the Governours of the several Churches judge necessary and expedient in their respective Charges and if any Controversies should arise in Point of Doctrine resolve amicably to compose them by hearing what the Spirit saith to the Churches and how the Universal Church has already determined in the same or like Affairs according to the Rule of Scripture would they study more to propagate Peace and Vnity than Dominion and Soveraignty to increase Piety and Purity of Life more than outward agreement of Rites and Ceremonies the ancient Happiness of the Church in her first and Vnambitious Age when the Office of Government was the surest way to Martyrdom would in a great measure be restored to the Members of the Catholique Church and there would be that Vnity which is by God Commanded and by all good Christians not only to be desired but promoted to the uttermost of their Power Were it possible that this true and ancient Temper Modesty and Moderation of Primitive Christianity might obtain in the World the Names of distinction with the occasions of them would be taken away one would not be of Paul another of Apollos another of Cephas one a Romanist another a Calvinist Lutheran Hugonot or a Zuinglian but all would be of Christ but alas what hope so long as the Church of Rome will be Vniversal and will exclude all those who Refuse the tyranique Yoak of both her Declared and Implicit Faith and to be subject to her absolute Dominion not only from the Name of Churches and being Parts of the Church Universal but from the Communion of Saints from all hopes of the Resurrection of the just nay even from her Purgatory too which is very severe if there be such a place as admits of Hope for Sinners after Death and in a word from all possibility of the Life everlasting How disterent is this from the ancient Charity and Doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul whom they believe the Founders of their Church for they incourage us to hope we may receive the Benefit of the Common Salvation Act. 10.35 for God is no respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him for with him there are no Distinctions neither Greek nor Jew Col. 3.11 to v. 16. Circumcision nor Vncircumcision Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but all are Christs who have put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of Mercy kindness humbleness of Mind meekness long-suffering forbearance one of another and forgiveness one towards another if there be differences as Christ also forgave us and above all things they who have put on Charity which is the bond of Perfection and whose Hearts are ruled by the Peace of God But in regard that this is to be dispair'd of and may well seem forreign to the Design of these Papers let us come to consider what Influence this ought to have upon us as to Vnity amongst our selves which without Excluding our Neighbours from our Charity though they do us from theirs and Heaven is the principal Intention of this Discourse CHAP. VI. HAVING shewn that the Peace and Vnity of the Catholick Church Militant upon Earth depends in a great Measure upon this Justice in preserving the Common Faith of Christ as the bond of Vnion not only among our selves but with that part of the Church which is now Triumphant in Heaven and in order thereunto in allowing every distinct and National Church their particular Bounds and Jurisdiction free from Incroachments and Invasion permitting them a freedom of Using such Rites and Customs in the Celebration of Divine Worship as the Governors of each respective Church shall judge to be nearest the Rule of Scripture the Constant Usage and Determination of the Catholique Church in the best Ages and of the best Men in all most conducive to the Great End of all Religion by promoting the Happiness of Mankind both here and hereafter before we proceed any further it will be requisite to answer what may and will be certainly objected by all Dissenters FOR if an Independency of Churches of Distinct Nations and Polities so long as they agree in matters of Faith may be permitted a distinct Jurisdiction different Rites and manner of Worship to the increase of Charity Peace and Unity why may not the same be likewise practised by several Churches in the same Nation To which I answer That as Vnity in point of Faith is the Bond of Vnion in the Vniversal Church so Obedience to the Supreme Government of any Nation is that which Vnites them into one Polity and distinguishes them from all other People who do not own that Subjection and Obedience And this Vnion of Obedience is also that which preserves and maintains them as well as Constitutes them a distinct Political Body from all other Nations Herein lies their Strength herein their Security their Safety and Happiness For as I may be Lawfully permitted to disobey the King of Spain or France nay and ought to do it in many Cases for the Interest of my Nation but cannot disobey my
obedience to a private doubt to break a known Command of God who commands Obedience to my Superiors in all things which are not contrary to his commands and whether we should obey God or Man our selves or the Magistrates and Rulers of of the Church is no such hard Question as some people have made it BESIDES Though wilful Errors in Faith are Damnable yet Errors in Circumstances neither are nor can be so unless we make them so our selves by Disobedience to God in refusing for Peace and Vnity to submit to our Superiors which is Damnable Nor indeed can any of the several Rites and Ceremonies of Religion be properly called Errors though they be different nay contrary one to another For where there is no positive Command of God to Determine us either part is lawful or unlawful only according as it is commanded or forbidden by those who are in Authority and if it be not determined by them then as we in our own Judgment shall be perswaded that is conducive to Gods Glory and the Happiness of Mankind For whether I should pray in a Surplice or in a Cloak is not a point of Salvation for I may do it with either or neither and yet go to Heaven but Disobedience to my Lawful Superiors should they command me to pray to God in Publique in either of them is an Error in Faith for who ever is guilty of that Disobedience must either believe that God is not the Author of that Command or that it is not true which is Infidelity and Error Now let any person of Sobriety Judg whether such a Conscience is a good Conscience and void of offence to God and Men which will strain at the Gnat of an indifferent Ceremony and swallow the Camel of Disobedience And whether all good Christians ought not to joyn with the National Church in such Ceremonies and manners of Worship as admitting them to be as bad as any Ceremonies can be which are not Damnable rather than by endeavouring to avoid them and refusing to use them to run the certain Hazzard of ruining the Peace of the Church and Nation and certain Damnation by their Disobedience to the Command of God I desire to make this as clear as I can and therefore we will Instance in the sign of the Cross after Baptism This Ceremony is by many so much abhorred that they will rather not have their Children received into the Covenant of Grace by Baptism or which is the same thing have the Sacrament from those who having no lawful Ordination have therefore no Commission to go and Baptize all Nations Now supposing the sign of the Cross after Baptism a superfluous or superstitious Ceremony which yet will never be proved as by the Church explained in the Office of Baptism and the 30 Canon yet still the Use of it could not be injurious to Salvation or Damnable because it is no where in Scripture forbidden nor ever asserted to be Essential to the Sacrament Nor condemned by either Councels or the Practice of the Church in any Age but frequently used by the Primitive Christians both upon that and many other Occasions what a man may do without fear of Damnation he may do safely nor is he to be judge of the Expedience or edifyingness of the Ceremony for who made any private man a Judge over others that very capacity Excludes him from that Power But for any person to refuse to have his Child Baptized because of this Ceremony or to refuse to obey his Superiors is to make himself a Judge over them and a damnable Sin Washing with Water in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost is the Essence of the Sacrament but there are some Prayers to be made 1 Tim. 〈◊〉 For every Creature of God is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer some Gestures some Postures to be used in such a weighty Solemnity some Praises due for so great a Benefit and these being no where directed what they shall be are left to the Care and Wisdom of the Governors of the Church who to avoid Confusion and to Establish Vnity by Vniformity to preserve the Decency of so Sacred a Duty prescribe this Form of words these Gestures and Rites and this sign as of great signification that as St. Paul says We should Glory in the Cross of Christ and receive that as a Badge or Cognizance of our Christian Profession THE same Answer will serve for all the Ceremonies which are made use of or commanded by the Church of England Nor shall we need to fear lest by this Power of the Church the Ceremonies should swell to such a bulk as to be burthensom by being too numerous since the Governors themselves are not without a Rule in this particular which is the Determination of the first General Councel at Jerusalem Acts 15.28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things one of those necessary things was before indifferent viz. to abstain from things strangled and St. Paul seems to make even the other about the things offer'd to Idols the same which now were made by the Councel necessary BUT supposing that there were a real Clog of Ceremonies which none can justly complain of amongst us yet would any man loose the substance for fear of the shadow refuse to Eat good and wholsome Diet because the Dish was Silver and too much Garnished and by Schism and Disobedience run the hazard of his own Soul and all those seduced by him meerly to avoid the doing of those things which if he does them cannot in the least prejudice his Salvation for these are only the Conditions of our maintaining Peace Vnity and Charity but not the Conditions upon which our Salvation depends because God has no where said he that does these things shall be damned and he that abstains from them shall be saved but he has said we must hear the Church and if she Commands this for Peace sake we must Obey lest we be justly esteemed as Publicans and Heathens BESIDES they who Command must answer to God for themselves and they who are to Obey shall not answer for the Errors of their Superiors but no man can answer to God for his disobedience against them in these Commands not only because they are not Judges whether they ought to do or not to do what they are Commanded but because there can then be no such thing as Obedience if every man may be his own Judge for what one man may do out of pure doubt or scruple of Mind thousands will pretend to do and it being impossible to discover the Tender Conscience from the Obstinate and Designing all Duty to our Superiors in the Church will be Evaded with pretence of Doubting or else consist in obeying only so far as we like the Commands which is for fear of Popery to make every Man his own Pope to dispense with the
Laws of God and Man just as they suit his Interest and his Inclination to make the Scriptures a Nose of Wax and the King and Church meer Heads of Wood and since the reason of Obedience is because we think it truth which is Commanded and that they who Command are better able to Judge for us than we our selves as being by God appointed over us for that Design should they be mistaken in what they Command yet the Judge of all the Earth who cannot do wrong would be so far from punishing that he would reward such Obedience because done according to his Command Nor shall the other for Commanding because they did it with a good Design provided when it does appear to them to be of ill consequence they cease to impose it any longer which is the true reason why many things in the service of God have been altered and abolished upon several Occasions THIRDLY It will be objected That by this Rule all the Gallicane German and other Protestant Churches who live under a Government which owns and Commands the Romish Discipline and Church will hereby be made Schismaticks to those several National Churches of which they are Members and that hereby a necessity is laid upon us to return to the Obedience of the Church of Rome for if those Churches may dissent from their National Churches and yet hold the true Faith why may not we why should their Disobedience be Lawful and ours Damnable To this I answer First That the Difference between those Churches and the National Church in which they are does not consist in Matters of Circumstance or Ceremony but in Matters of Faith and though I will neither undertake the Defence of those Churches either in Doctrine or Discipline yet I suppose they separate from the Roman Communion upon the account of the Impositions of that Church in Points of Faith such as are the Popes Supremacy never owned in France even by the Catholiques the Doctrines of Infallibility the real Presence by Transubstantiation Merit of Works and Supererogation Invocation of Saints Purgatory Adoration of Images c. and the Roman Church who imposes these as Articles of Faith is her self Schismatical if not Heretical from the Catholique Apolique Church of all Ages and therefore to depart from her where she departs from Truth is no more Heresie or Schism than it would be to depart from the Law of Moses or the Jewish Communion in Circumcision c. or of Mahomet if those were imposed as Matters of Faith by that or any other Church for the Apostles Rule holds good to the End of the World for all Christians in Matters of Faith and Manners Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 And would the Romish Church Impose no more upon Christians as necessary to Salvation than is contained in those three famous Creeds of the Apostles Nice and St. Athanasius and what is clearly contained in Scripture which have ever been the Standards of the Catholique Faith I think every good Christian over whom they may challenge a Lawful Jurisdiction ought to joyn with them in Communion of Government and even those over whom they can rightly challenge none ought yet to agree with them in the Communion of Faith Nay should they command many Ceremonies in the Service of God more than they do yet those who live in the Jurisdiction of that Church ought to submit to them for the maintaining of Unity Peace and Charity and I doubt not but the Foreign Protestants at least in Charity I hope so if there were no other matters of Difference between them would easily be perswaded to submit to all the Points of Government Ceremony and much more I remember what a Famous French Minister said to this Purpose when he was told that some of the English Nonconformists refused Communion with the Church of England because they were Enjoyned to wear the Surplice and other Vestments I wish says he that the King of France would command me to perform my Function in a Fools Coat so little did he think the outside and dress of Religion to be of the Essence of it and so necessary did he judge Obedience as well as true Faith to the Peace Unity and Happiness of the Church BUT Secondly Many of those Protestants have Licence and Tolleration given them to Celebrate the Worship and Service of God according to their own Way and by that Dispensation they are free from the guilt of Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate and for the Obedience they owe to the Church of Rome I presume they are willing to give it with all their hearts if Rome Exacted no more in matters of Faith than God Almighty requires as necessary to Salvation BUT the Case is clearly different betwixt our Dissenters and the Foreign Protestants for our Differences are or at least are pretended to be about matters of Polity and the Manner of performance of the Offices of Religion and let the Nonconformists prove us but Guilty of destroying one Article of Faith or imposing any thing to be believed or done contrary to the Scriptures and let them dissent from us in Gods Name and till they can do that their Separation will be a horrid Schism and their Nonconformity a manifest Disobedience to the Laws of God and Men. And should the Foreign Churches refuse the Communion of the Church of Rome and disobey the Princes whose Subjects they are commanding them if there were no greater Differences than Matters of Ceremony and Circumstance I doubt not but their Separation and Disobedience would deserve the same Character BUT supposing the Supreme Power of those Countries should absolutely prohibit the Protestants the exercise of their Religion I think they ought to obey and fall to the Old Arms of the Primitive Christians Prayers and Tears and not to the new Methods of Manaces making Parties and endeavouring by force of Arms to obtain that from Authority by Violence and Compulsion which they cannot by Perswasion A Practice shameful to the Protestant Cause and for any thing I can see if they Judg of all by the Example of our Dissenters more likely to perswade all Princes to Extirpate them out of their Dominions for Seditious Schismaticks and Dangerous Rebells than to Tollerate them as Innocent and Religious Christians THIS was the Custom of the Ancient Christians who Conquered more by the Cross than the Persecutors by all their Cruelty who overcame by Suffering and not by Rebelling A remarkable Instance of which we have in the Army of Julian the Apostate who were obedient to him as their Temporal Soveraign so long as he liv'd but after he had jested out his impious Soul with a Vicistî Galilaee and that Jovinianus was chosen Emperor which he refused as being a Christian and thinking the whole Army Pagans they all cried out Et nos sumus Christiani We are all of us also Christians Here were men in Arms a Powerful Number of Veterane and Victorious Legions
of Less Extent are to be regulated were intended as a defence and Protection to all providing one injure not another and that Common Peace and Safety be secured No other Subsequent inferiour Law can therefore debar any peaceable Christian that answers the Necessities of Church and State Civil Spiritual and Political in equal Justice and in Foro Conscientiae from this Priviledge Originally due to all And this he fortifies with the Confession of a Presbyterian Divine without a Name who never saw any Argument yet that could clearly Evince why any sort of Men who would profess a peaceable subjection unto the Civil Government might not in all their Civil Rights be protected by it Does not this oblige every Government to an easie Credulity to its own Ruine For the greatest of its Enemies will profess this Subjection till they have power to effect their Ends and by this Rule there is no care to be taken of Mens Principles or Practices if they can but speak Fair and profess they mean no hurt to the Government no matter for what may happen afterward the Governours may sleep securely till their throats are cut by these harmless Professors BUT taking this for a Maxim granted I proceed upon his own Words That no Tolleration of different Religion is to be permitted and that first from the Apostle St. Pauls Rule pag. 49. Hast thou Faith have it to thy self And seeing that Vniversal Vnity among Christians is not to be attained such a Tolleration of things tollerable is not only Lawful but necessary where a Latitude or Liberty is left in such things as are not clearly and positively laid down in Scripture in things of private Practice Which is just giving that Liberty which no man can take away every man being at liberty to believe and do so so long as he keeps it to himself and that it is Tollerable Faith by being to himself and his practice is truly private But why then does the Church of Rome Command us to believe Supremacy Purgatory Transubstantiation c. which are not clearly nor positively laid downin Scripture is this Good Just and Equal dealing with us BUT Secondly I Argue from his own Reason because nothing is more clear than that this Tolleration must of necessity destroy that Original Fundamental Law of Protection due to all from the Government which will not be able to Protect it self since it must Embroyl the Government and indanger its Ruine that being the very thing for which Tolleration is so earnestly desired For a Wise Government pag. 50 51. may tollerate at least in a private way with the Old bounty of giving what they cannot help different Opinions when otherwise the Publique may be intangled or indangered or rather because the Conscience cannot be compelled or Faith forced and more especially if they be such Religions as do not overthrow the Foundations of Truth nor such as disturb or impugn the Government Establisht or if the Professors thereof be such as are not Factious or pertinacious but Honest Simple Tractable Obedient to Superiors having no other End in holding their Opinions in Religion than Gods Glory or satisfaction of their own Conscience and withall are willing to submit to better Judgments when they are convinced to be Erroneous Pag. 52. For we ought to have a Latitude of Charity for those who Dissent if they be not Impostors or turbulent Incendiaries And who are there that will own themselves to be such It looks like Oliver Remonstrating or a Declaration of 41. and by this Rule all Sects Heresies and Rebels if they may be their own Compurgatorâ— must be Tollerated too since they will Profess all that is here desired for Tolleration but by clear Consequence if notwithstanding these Professions they do intangle and indanger the Government then they are not be Tollerated but the Tolleration of all Sects though Charitably supposing them not Hereticks does not only destroy some one Fundamental of Religion but Religion in the Main by making it Morally impossible for any Man to know where he shall find a true Religion and plainly introduces Mahometanism that a Man may be saved in any and will confirm the Atheist and Libertine in their Opinions that there is no such thing more than in Mens melancholy Humors And it is impossible but the Professors of different Religions will be Factious and Disobedient to Superiors as daily Experience assures us and to Tollerate them is to give them leave to be so and to hold their Opinions for the subversion of Government and not satisfaction of Conscience as some who called themselvs Papists as well as other Dissenters have done in former times and for ought we know Design the same again and therefore I conclude with the Advocate p. 55. That where every one has Liberty to hold what he pleases which by this profession cannot be denied him so soon as he believes his Party strong enough to grapple with Authority he will Publish and Preach what he holds confined to no Rule or Order but contemning Law will Rule as a Transcendent and as he quotes the most incomparable Hooker lib. 3. cap. 107. Let them tell us of Obeying the Laws of God as long as they please we dare not believe them who break the Laws of those appointed by God to Rule over them For it is a Distinction without a Difference to seperate and divide the Laws of God from the Laws of Men and unless we observe both we Obey neither pag. 56. In these Cases says our Advocate Christian Governors are not to regard such Pleas for private Liberty as overthrow Publique Order and Peace Nor to regard those Clamours against them and the Laws as Persecuting when they do but oppose and restrain such perillous Exorbitancies as strike at the Foundation of Christianity and open a gap to Atheism Profaneness and Blasphemy here the Magistrate must interpose his Coercive Power for remedy Nor are they in this infringers of the Peoples Liberty but preservers of freedom not Oppressors of others Consciences but dischargers of their own by prohibiting men to vent their raw undigested Fancies to others to start Principles distructive to Government subverting Order violating Laws breaking Oaths and contemning Authority publiquely acting according to private Perswasion not regarding common Order or publique Peace but by a Seditious and Factious Liberty broaching their Opinions to others And there is a great deal of Reason why the Magistrate should use this Power to crush the Cockatrice in the Egg For pag. 58. if the publique Power shall suffer arrogant Ignorance excess of Passion perverseness of Will to come to its full Rudeness and Extent which it can do no way so readily as by Tolleration Tumultuary Numbers and Brutish Power will soon make good private Presumptions and cover the most Impudent Lusts Passions and Ambitions of Men with the Pleas and Outcrys of Christian Liberty And those who hold forth Notions and Conceptions of Reformation or wholly changing Religion and Goverment
from the Advocates own Words that none can justly plead for a Tolleration whose Devilish Principles and furious Practices tend to the Subversion of Government which both by what has been said and by Experience the surest Demonstration in the World both Papists and other Dissenters especially Presbyterians have been proved guilty of Let us now see how he manages the Cause of his own Party for whose sake this Project of a Tolleration was principally intended as is plain by his comparing Luther Calvin Buchanan c. with Mariana Suarez and Bellarmine Whose Doctrines are at least as he says as Dangerous to Monarchy and therefore unfit to be Tollerated the one or the other LET us therefore examine the Plea of Innocency which he descends to defend in particular And as their manner always is pag. 70. he tells us That the Roman Catholique Religion was the first Christian Religion planted in our Countrey from whom we had our very Christianity Suppose it were yet Quantum mutatus ab illo The present Roman Catholique Religion is not the same which they planted But with his good leave his Assertion is contrary Pol. Virgil. Hist Angl. l. 2. not only to great Probability but to the consent of Historians for Polydore Virgil tells us Test is est Gildas Britannos jam inde ab initio arti Evangelii Christianam accepisse Religionem That our Ancestors received the Christian Faith according to the Testimony of Guildas in the very beginning of the Gospel Baronius thinks St. Peter was here Theodoret Bar. An. 58. n. 51. Theod. de curand Graec. affect l. 9. Niceph l. 2. cap. 40. Baron An. 36. n. 5. Bede lib. 1. cap. 25 26. lib. 2. cap. 2. Saint Paul Nicephorus Simon Zelotes Some Joseph of Arimathea and even when Austin the Monk came from Gregory to Convert us as they say to the Christian Faith he found a Church among us as Beda testifies Bertha a Christian Queen and at Bangor a Monastery or rather a Colledg of many hundreds who upon the Question Whether they should admit of Austin put it upon this Issue Si sit humilis admittatâ—â—â— But finding him proud and Imperious they rejected him which they durst never have done had they believed even the bare Primacy of his Master or that they were owing for their Faith and Conversion to the Roman Church I will not enter into a long dispute about Merits Pardons Purgatory Adoration of Images or Transubstantiation which were but actum agere only methinks the Apothecaries Argument deserves to be put upon the File who being pressed to believe the Doctrine of Transubstantiation told the Zealous Agressor pleasantly but truly Sir I will make a Wafer and set a mark upon it that it may not be changed you shall send it to the Pope let him Consecrate it and I will venture you a 100 l. you dare not take it Oh says the other but I dare and would well reply'd the Apothecary then I will venture a 1000 l. that you shall be dead before next Morning which if it were really transubstantiated were impossible that the poison of the Body should be the food of the Soul and Christ be made a Murderer which demonstrative Conclusion so little expected puts the Romanist a little out of Conceit with his Doctrine and struck him as dumb as the other would have done dead for all the Transubstantiation there are very gross Stories and Slanders abroad if some in the Romish Church have â—â—â—tried the Experiment and have received their Death by what was given them as the Body of Christ and the Bread of Life BUT I will observe his Method p. 166. He tells us confidently That there makes for them all that may or can be of any Christian man required Literal Text of Holy Scripture approved Tradition General Councels Ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories Christian Laws Conversion of Nations Divine Miracles Heavenly Visions Vnity Vniversality Antiquity Succession all Monuments all Substance all Accidents of Christianity Here is not a word of Proof and therefore I may take the same Liberty in contradicting it if I please But to answer this There makes against them Literal Text of Holy Scripture â—usanus Ep. 2. ad Bohem. of that Scripture which a Cardinal says is a Nose of Wax of that Scripture which the Pope has Power to inlarge at his pleasure as the Trent Councel has done making the Apochrypha Canonical Of that Scripture which speaks not a single word for the Popes Supremacy Transubstantiation Purgatory Masses for the Dead Invocation of Saints Vows of single Life c. but in a thousand places against them and therefore they are obliged to fly for refuge to their Approved Traditions and set them in the Throne above the Scriptures whose mouths must be stopped by the vulgar Latin and the Vulgar confined from reading them and even these approved Traditions are most of them such as the Universal Church never knew never acknowledged Conc. Trid. Sess 4. Dec. 1. which yet must be received with the same Reverence and Affection as the Scriptures for as Baronius affirms Bar. Ann. 53. Num. 11. Traditio Scripturarum Fundamentum and the Traditions of Men are made the Foundation of Scripture and of Faith And the Canon Law of Pope Gregory XIII Dist 40. Si Papa in Ann. Margin goes higher yet and sets the Pope above them all For men rather desire to know the ancient Institution of Christian Religion from the Popes mouth than from the holy Scripture And yet all of their own Church do not approve these Approved Traditions for Basil says Basil Reg. contract p. 502. It is necessary and agreable to Reason that all men learn what is their Duty out of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both for the fulfilling all Godliness and lest they should be accustomed to Humane Traditions Iren. l. 3. c. 2. And Irenaeus tells us it was the Custom of Hereticks to call in Tradition to their assistance against Scripture alledging that those Truths as they called them which they held were not delivered by Writing but by word of Mouth AGAINST his General Counsels we oppose the first four and have offered a thousand times to put the Issue upon their Verdict Against Ecclesiastical Histories Ancient Fathers Christian Laws we oppose the frequent Forgeries of all these detected even by themselves and the Index Expurgatorius which Castrates all the Fathers that they may be fit Eunuchs for the Papal Seraglio the Vatican by being disabled to propagate truth For Conversion of Nations we refer them to the Acts of the Apostles for the first Age and for these last to Acosta the Jesuite and Bartholomeus Casas a Bishop in the Indies Acost de Ind. salut procurand their Conversion was such that the miserable People chose to go to Hell with their Ancestors rather than to Heaven with such Christians and if their Relations are true gives occasion to the Romanists to blush rather than boast
whereas for many Ages past men have beaten their Brains Joel 3.10 To beat their Plough-shares into Swords and their Pruning Hooks into Spears have Employed those Parts and Abilities with which they ought to have broken up the fallow Ground Hos 10.12 to sow in righteousness what we might reap in Peace to wound one anothers sides Would they follow this Rule of Charity we might see the Glorious Prophecy of Micha fulfilled Mich. 4.1 2 3 4. For in the last Days it shall come to pass that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it and many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his Ways and we will walk in his Paths and they shall beat their Swords into Plough-shears and their Spears into Pruning Hooks Nation shall not rise up against Nation neither shall they learn War any more but they shall sit every man under his Vine and under his Fig Tree and none shall make them affraid I know it will be objected That the Scriptures are full of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those things difficult to be understood To which I answer with the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The holy Scriptures are able to make any man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ being given by Inspiration of God for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteotsness that the Man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good Works All this is contained in them in plain and easy Language and who can desire more what is necessary to be believed or done is to be found there without such Difficulty and that is all that either is or can properly be our Concern The Design of Religion is not to entertain the speculative or gratifie the Curious but to guide the Practical Christian in his Duty And if there be difficult places there is no necessity of our Understanding them For he that inspired the Holy Pens cannot without the greatest Impiety be argued of acting negligently insufficiently or without Design as other careless Writers may and that they are not more clear and perspicuous ought with a becoming reverence due to the only wise God to be believed that they are therefore wrapt up in Mysterious words either because they are not necessary or not fit for us to know Nor is there the least danger in such humble Ignorance but there is certainly in a presumptuous Curiosity and seeking after the Tree of Knowledge which God has prohibited by planting the Wall of Obscurity about it and if we will with the Bethshemites be Peeping into the Ark we may expect to be punished justly by wresting the Scriptures to our own Damnation and much more if being Unlearned and Private Men we undertake to give Publique Interpretations and Determinations different from both the Catholique Faith and Church 2 Pet. 1.20 For no Scripture is of Private Interpretation AND that this is the danger is as evident as the Punishment of it is certain for here is the Spring head of Errors and Heresies which always took their Original from the Transgression of this Caution For when men will leave the plain and beaten Path the easy Way to Happiness here and Heaven hereafter by Faith and Obedience to seek for it in their own Wisdom and Niceties it is no wonder if they wander out of the Way of Truth when they permit themselves to be lead by their Private Opinions and Interpretations it is the blind leading the blind in the Darkness of Midnight and no wonder then if at last they stumble and fall into the blackness of Eternal Darkness For self-love is a very blind Guide and self Conceit a worse and they must needs be in darkness to whom God denies the light of the Spirit which he does in all obscure places of Scripture and if as he told the Jews men therefore Err not knowing the Scripture they must needs Err who will know more than he will let them To confirm the truth of this Doctrine and that the Holy Canon is as the word Imports a Rule not only of our Actions but our Faith I would desire any Person to give me a reason why he Believes the three Famous Creeds which contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith there can be but these three Reasons First Because he immediately by Divine Revelation is assured of his Faith or Secondly Because he is perswaded by some Person or Persons to believe or Thirdly Because he finds the Articles there mentioned either in plain Words or evident Consequences in Scripture which for good reason he believes to be the Dictates of divinely inspired Penmen THE First all sober Men reject as leading directly to Enthusiasm and under pretence of Heavenly Revelations to introduce Hellish Impieties and Doctrines of Devils who having a Power to transform themselves into Angels of Light may take that Advantage to Impose upon strong Fancies and weak Judgments FOR the Second a man will thus argue Why should I believe this or these Men since all men are Fallible and they who may be deceived may therefore deceive and if I believe this Man why not another why not Mahomet who pretended to the Holy Ghost as much as they AND therefore Thirdly Faith must be resolved into the first Principle of it which is Gods Truth and Infallibility and that Word which I believe to be his and therefore more Credible than the Word of any or all Men. Thus was Faith first propagated in the World and thus it must be increased for the Multitudes to whom the Apostles Preached throughout the World did not believe St. Peter or St. Paul that Preached Jesus and the Resurrection Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come but seeing the Miracles which they did they believed that this was the Word of God and that Jesus was the Son of God agreable to the Doctrine of the Prophets in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah This Method our Lord made use of with his Disciples Luke 24.5.4 Then opened he their Vnderstanding that they might Vnderstand the Scriptures that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning him and he said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day from the Dead and that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem This Doctrine of Faith the Apostles believed this they Preached not as their own but the Faith of Christ this they committed to Writing and delivered to the Christians as the Rule of their Faith and Life Rom. 15.4 For as the Scriptures of the Old Testament and whatsoever was Writen aforetime was written for our Learning
daily in his own person he therefore takes Care that there should be some left behind him who might and Ephesus being one of the most Populous Cities of Asia in regard of the vast Concourse of People from all Parts to the Famous Temple of Diana and there being many Congregations of Christians there he having by the space of two years continued there so that all they who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus both Jews and Greeks he therefore sends for the Presbyters who resided in that City by virtue of his Apostolical Authority and there declares unto them that for the time to come they were to take that care of the Churches which he had done and that they might not do this of their own heads or fear to do it for want of a Lawful Calling and Ordination he declares the Will of God to them and that the Holy Ghost had appointed them to be Bishops So that they came indeed Presbyters to him but they went away Bishops from him and Bishops not of his own but the Holy Ghosts appointment IT is a Rule among Divines That where the Literal sense of Scripture is plain we are to follow that And that this is the plain Historical and Literal meaning of the Words without the least wresting or violence offer'd to them is most obvious and that by this Power of Episcopacy which the Holy Ghost added to their former of Presbytery they were to take the Care of the Government of the Church as well in Ruling as Instructing there are these Reasons FIRST When he sends for them he calls them Presbyters and not Bishops which if there had been no difference he might as well have done and supposing that the Holy Ghost must foresee that this Controversie would arise in the Church we cannot believe he would contribute to it by such an ambiguity but the contrary that they were only Presbyters as the Holy Ghost calls them first and then advanced to be Bishops by his appointment SECONDLY He puts the Government into their hands by resigning his own in regard he was to see them no more THIRDLY He directs them in their Office which he divides into three Particulars First Vers 28. To feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own Blood to instruct them in the Faith and Doctrine of Christian Religion Secondly To watch against Errors and Heresies Vers 29 30 31. For I know this saith he that after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the Flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them therefore Watch. Now what signifies Vigilancy without Power and what Power have the Watchmen but to Admonish and Rebuke and at last to Excommunicate the Obstinate And let them shew me this Power ever Exercised in the Church by any besides a Bishop and let them take the Cause Thirdly To Exercise Hospitality to support the Poor and to remember the words of our Lord Jesus how he said It is more blessed to give than to receive According to another Precept of his in which he comprises them all For a Bishop must be blameless 1 Tim. 3.2 the husband of one wife vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach Lastly Here is no imperfect footstep of their Solemn Consecration for when he had ended his Message and Direction Vers 36. When he had thus spoken he kneeled down and prayed with them all AND to manifest that though every Bishop be a Presbyter yet every Presbyter is not a Bishop and that the Difference consists in Power and Rule which the Bishops have over the Presbyters as well as the rest of the People I doubt not to make most plain from Scripture and Antiquity For FIRST St. Paul says Expresly That it is one qualification of a Bishop 1 Tim. 4 5. He must be one that ruleth well his own house having his Children in subjection with all gravity for if a man know not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God how shall he rule the house of God and find me but one Example in Scripture or ancient Church History where any one who was not a Bishop as well as a Presbyter ever Exercised this Jurisdiction of Ruling the Presbyters had indeed a Rule but with subordination to the Bishops 1 Tim. 5.17 18. Let the Presbyters that Rule well be counted worthy of double Honor especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine for anciently in the Church every Priest was not a Preacher as is plain not only from this place but from the Church History but that the Presbyters might not be Exalted beyond their Bounds to think this Rule equal to that of the Bishops over the Church he allays the Tumor in the very next words and shews the the difference the subordination and subjection which they owed to the Judicature of the Bishop as Timothy was there Against a Presbyter receive not an Accusation but before two or three Witnesses which is not spoken of Private Adomnition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless there be two or three Witnesses and them that sin Rebuke openly that others may fear To receive an Accusation plainly infers a superior Jurisdiction a power to hear Witnesses and according to their Depositions to rebuke openly is certainly an Effect of Authority And he follows the blow close giving him another Direction about Ordination Vers 21 22. that he should Lay hands suddainly on no man preferring one before another by Partiality So that here is a distinct Power of a Bishop from a Priest To lay on hands or Ordain to receive Accusations against Presbyters to Examine Witnesses and according to their Testimony to proceed to Judgment to give Sentence openly to Rebuke those that Sin even the Presbyters as well as others for if they may be accused and convened and found guilty of sin they also ought and may be rebuked and punished As to that place of the 5th Chap. Rebuke not an Elder it is apparently meant of those who are such by Years and not by Office Presbyters or Priests and to teach us that there is a respect due to the Reverend head Age as is plain from the words Rebuke not an Elder but intreat him as a Father and the younger Men as Brethren the Elder Women as Mothers and the younger as Sisters with all Purity This he further Explains in his Epistle to Titus Tit. 1.5 6 7. For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in Order the things that are wanting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appoint Constitute Presbyters in every City making them Bishops as I have appointed thee That Saint Paul left Presbyters there both in Age and Office no doubt can be made but yet something was wanting still and because he would not himself lay hands suddenly upon them and the Affairs of the Church
calling him a-away he leaves Titus a Bishop there to set in order what was wanting that was upon their good demeanour to advance them into the Power of Bishops which was wanting at St. Pauls departure and the following words make it plain that this was the thing wanting and which he appointed Titus to do By the Direction he gives about them Vers 10 11. For a Bishop must be blameless as the Steward of God a high Office and a large Jurisdiction for there are many unruly there was the Necessity of Bishops to Rule whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole Houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy Lucres sake So that Titus was to make Bishops in that Populous Island that so they might have Authority which as Presbyters they had not to stop the mouths of the Seducers And how were these unruly Subverters to be Treated and Governed even by rebuking them sharply Vers 13. and stopping their Mouths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by silencing them And how could that be done but by the Authority of the Bishop who was to let them and the People know that if they persisted in their disobedience Vers 16. They were abominable and Reprobates and therefore to be cast out of the Church For though they profess to know God yet in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good Work Reprobate Therefore abominable because disobedient Silencing then of Subverters of Houses unruly vain Talkers Deceivers is no new thing in the Church nor Bishops Persecutors for so doing Nor is there any way of stopping their Mouths in the Church but by this Authority of Excommunication and if they submit not to this all their Pretences to Godliness will not excuse them from denying him and being Reprobates because Disobedient What must we then think of those who will not have their Mouths stopped either by the Power of the Church or Civil Magistrate but in the highest degree of Unruly and Mutinous Disorder are Disobedience to both Indeavouring to draw Disciples after them that they may first take away from the Bishop the defence of the Magistrates Sword and then with Ease Extirpate Episcopacy Root and Branch Office and Name Power and Authority THUS you see that the Holy Ghost appointed Bishops in the Primitive Church you see their Office and Authority and that Presbyters were their Lawful Inferiors that they had Power to Ordain to Rebuke to acquit or Condemn to stop the Mouths of the Unruly So that here is both the Name and the Thing the Title and the Office confirmed by clear and evident Testimony of Scripture Now let us see what Obedience is due to them We intreat you Brethren saith St. Paul 1 Thess 5.12 13. and his Modest Intreaty â—â—â—y I hope without offence pass for a Command to know them that labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them very highly in Love for their Works-sake and be at Peace among your selves How know these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these Rulers For they could not be ignorant of their Persons or Names but know their Office know their Power that so by submission you may maintain Peace BUT the Author to the Hebrews is plain and Positive Heb. 13.17 Obey them that have the Rule over you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word will carry more than some Envious People will well like of in Bishops and will not only intitle them to Rule but their Honour too as will appear to any who is not a stranger to the Greek Language For it signifies not only a bare Ruler or a Guide but a Captain and a Prince and warrants a Bishops being so in the New Testament as well as a Priest under the Old But to avoid Offence I know there are none of those Reverend Fathers of the Church but will be pleased to derive their Titles from another Fountain of Honour I speak this to shew that God Almighty by his Spirit in Scripture is pleased to Honour them with the high Character of Princes and Governors and that therefore they are not to be Vilified and Despised as sonâ—n Wanton and other Virulent Tongues and Pens too frequently do But to proceed He continues to shew what kind of Obedience this must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 submit your selves without resisting be in Subjection And he adds the Reason For they watch for your Souls as they that must give an Account that they may do it with Joy and not with Grief Does God expect an account of Souls from these spiritual Guides and Rulers Then certainly he cannot in Justice leave them Destitute of Power and Authority to Rule and Guide as means to enable them to give a good Account of their Charge And to suppose the contrary were to suppose an End without a Way And since they have such a Charge all those who are within their respective Jurisdictions are bound to yield Obedience to them as they will answer before the Bar of Divine Justice for the Guilt not only of Destroying their own Souls but those of others whom they teach to Refuse to Obey those who have the Rule over them and are appointed Bishops by the Holy Ghost AND whereas St. Peter calls himself a Presbyter and by ranking himself among them seems to intimate they are all one this does not at all prove that he was not a Bishop too 1 Pet. 1.1 For he calls himself Peter an Apostle of Jesus Christ and his Humility in calling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 5.1 their fellow Presbyter does no more prove that a Bishop and Presbyter are the same than that a Presbyter and Apostle are for though they were his fellow Presbyters yet they were not his fellow Apostles and further it appears that these Presbyters of which he calls himself a Sym-Presbyter were Bishops as well as Priests for Writing to the several Churches scattered through Pontus Galatia Cappadocia and Bithynia and calling the Governors of those Churches Fellow Presbyters argues as much but the second Verse puts it out of doubt for he says they must Episcopize 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed the Flock of Christ as Bishops and therefore this place will never prove that the Authority of a bare Presbyter is equal to that of a Bishop or one who was a Fellow Presbyter of Saint Peter LET us see now what the next Age thought of it I will not run through the whole Church-History but content my self with the Testimony of Ignatius who was the Scholar of Saint John the beloved Apostle and Disciple of our Lord who leaned on Jesus's Bosom and one may well suppose therefore knew his Breast and what Government his Lord appointed in the Church and had Episcopacy been Antichristian would not have failed to tell us so and when he tells us there are many Antichrists he would have told us that this was one if he had believed it to be so and
have instructed his Scholar to put down and not Exalt this Antichrist in the Church of God 1 Jo. 2.18 This Ignatius who was afterwards in the Eleventh year of Trajan Crowned with Martyrdom at Rome being torn in pieces by Wild Beasts as Eusebius gives us an account Euseb Eccl. His l. 3. c. 19. 35. he speaks as plain of the Difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter as Pen can write or Heart can wish In his Epistle to the Magnesians Ig. Ep. ad Magnes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop saith he is seated in the first place as in the place of God and the Presbyters as the Senate of the Apostles And in another place of the same Epistle They says he who Act without a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to such Christ will say Why do ye call me Lord Lord and do not the works which I Command you Such Persons seem to me not to be of a good Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to be Hypocrites and Dissemblers And in his Epistle to the Trallians he Commands them in the Language of the Author to the Hebrews Ignat. Epist ad Trall To be subject unto this Bishop as unto the Lord for he Watches for your souls And in another place he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is absolutely necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you should do nothing without the Bishop Thus we see the Sons of the Church in the first Century of the Apostles of Christ being yet living thought of Bishops as we do And therefore it is both Undeniable and Undubitable that Episcopal Government was of Divine Institution and that a Bishop and a Presbyter are two different things in the Primitive Church both as to Power and as to Name I might bring a whole Cloud of Witnesses of less Antiquity but if these will not convince if the Testimony of Scripture and so Primitive a man and a Bishop as Ignatius be of no value I can have little hopes of convincing Gainsayers by multitude who have abandoned Reason THUS stood the Affairs of the Church for above 300 Years no man making the least Question or Dispute but that the Government by Episcopacy was of Gods appointment one Bishop still succeeding another as in the Ecclesiastical Historians my be seen in most of the Principal Cities of the World Epiphan l. 3. Tom. 1. Haeres 25. till Aerius being Educated with Eustathius and being his equal in Learning and Age took it as a great disparagement that Eustathius was preferred before him to a Bishoprick for which they were Competitors upon this discontent he not only fell foul upon Eustathius objecting as our Aerians do against him Pride and Covetousness but his Resentments for the Mortal displeasure broak out against the whole Function contemning the prescribed Fasts of the Church and teaching by the same Arguments with ours that a Bishop and a Priest were all one by the Scriptures of equal Power Authority and Jurisdiction which saith Epiphanius is an Assertion stultitiae plena full of Folly But this being but one discontented Priests Opinion was neither much regarded nor long lived the current belief of the Scripture and the constant Usage of the Church which knew no other Government run so strong that he was drowned in it nor did the Heresie ever float again till this last Age of which St. Clement who was contemporary to St. Paul and his fellow Labourer Phil. 4.3 as he calls him seems to prophecy in that Epistle of his to the Corinthians which I think was never suspected to be spurious where he tells us there would come a time when there should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Ep. ad Cor. a contention about the very name of a Bishop BY virtue of this Power it was that the Rulers of the Church ordered and appointed all things which were done which were of an indifferent Nature in Government as about the Observation of Holy Fasts and Festivals the manner of Celebrating the Service and Worship of God the Prayers and Alms of the Church the Postures Gestures and Habits which were to be made use of and all other Rites and Ceremonies following herein the Scripture as the Rule of Faith and Manners and the General Precepts therein contained as Rules of Government which were principally these FIRST That nothing imposed should be repugnant or contrary to any Article or Branch of Faith or a Holy Life or to any Customs of the Church recorded in Holy Writ SECONDLY That all their Commands might have a respect to Decency Order Reverence and Edification THIRDLY That All might have a tendency to Vnity Peace and Concord and that diversity of Customs and Opinions might not breed Schisms and Contentions and I shewed before how when in some of these things there was a difference in several Churches yet still they held Communion one with another maintaining inviolably the same Faith and Government in all THIS was the Condition of the Church both as to Faith and Polity till such time as the great Powers of the Earth the Roman Emperours and other Kings became Christians and took up the Cross of Christ as the Glory of their Crowns The first of which was Constantine the Great These Temporal Powers then took the Church into their Protection made Temporal Laws for the better Management of it and to preserve it from the Injuries of Heathen Idolaters without and Hereticks within and having the Sword in their hand undertook as it was their Duty to punish Evil doers who darst transgress the Laws of the Church with Temporal Punishments as well as those who broak the Laws of the Civil Magistrate and to incourage the Peaceable and Religious From the Bounty of these Princes and that of others of plentiful Fortunes and and by their Example the Church came to be Endowed with Temporalties and an Honourable Constant and Encouraging Maintainance was provided and settled upon those who were to serve at the Altar that so they might be inabled and furnished with all sorts of Learning well knowing that proportionate Rewards are the spurs to Learning and Virtue as the Wisdom of God for our Encouragement to Pursue and Obtain her tells us Prov. 8.18.3.4 Riches and Honour are with me yea durable Riches and Righteousness and that length of days are in her right hand and in her left hand Riches and Honour And that according to the Apostolical Command 1 Cor 9.11 14. They which sow Spiritual things should also reap Carnal for so hath the Lord commanded that they which Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel BY this it appears That now there was a double Obligation laid upon all Christians to be Obedient to the Commands of the Church both because they derive their Power from God and because the Temporal Power did now concur to strengthen the Duty by the Obligations of Humane Laws nor can any thing or any pretence of Conscience authorize
evident the best Method to obtain Assent to them As the disagreement of the Church is to suspend our Belief But this can only be about such things as are collaterally of Faith and by coming under the Notion of things Dubious are matter of Opinion and which if a man never knows he may be saved and therefore if he does not believe he cannot be Damned the Church is the Interpreter but not the Judg and indeed every man is a Judg for himself by his Eyes his Ears his Reason and Understanding whether that which the Church Interprets be according to the Scripture the Rule of that Faith by which he is to be saved and which therefore it is necessary that he know before he believe it to Salvation BUT since doubts are of divers Natures Private and Publique let us see how any Person may be determined in both First therefore Where the doubt is only Private about things not determined by Publique Authority derived from Scripture which are of an Indifferent Nature Every Mans full perswasion is his Judg according to the best Evidence the things in doubt admit of from the light of Nature Reason or probability that they are good and Lawful or Evil and Unlawful This full Perswasion St. Paul calls Faith Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin that is what I am not fully perswaded in my own mind of the Lawfulness of I cannot lawfully do This was the Case of the Gentiles who having only the Law of Nature were a Law to themselves their thoughts either Accusing or Excusing them as they acted according to the best of their knowledg and full Perswasion But this Judgment is only Private and has nothing to do with any other Person Hast thou Faith have it to thy self who art thou that Judgest anothe Happy is he that Condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth This is the Error of our Times men will make their Private perswasions Judges of all other men and impose their Private Opinions as matters of Faith necessary to Salvation Against which the whole Scope of that whole 14th Chapter to the Romans is designed BUT there is also another Private Judg whom God has appointed with Reference to things both of Private and Publique Concern and that is Conscience the Rule of Conscience is the Scripture the measure of Conscience is the certainty of Knowledg and the Judgment of Conscience is the determination of the Mind and the Direction of our Practice according to it For thus I and every man Judges I therefore believe the Articles of the Christian Faith that I am to do good to All men to be Obedient to God and my Lawful Superiors to live Righteously soberly and Godly in this present World because I certainly know that these things are by God commanded in Scripture and whatever is not so in plain Words or Consequence is only matter of Opinion and not of Conscience Certainty of Knowledg being of the Essence of Conscience as Probability is of the Essence of Opinion BUT Secondly In regard this very Rule is in things of Publique Doubt and Concern in some things Dubious such as is the Controversie about Government And since the Holy Oracles may seem to admit of Diverse interpretations so that what satisfies one mans Judgment is quite Opposite and contrary to another We must inquire who are to be Judges and Interpreters of the Rule in these Publique Affairs For that there must be some Judg or Judges is plain because God commands Vnity and Obedience but these cannot be obtained without men be determined What and Whom to Obey St. Peter informs us 2 Pet. 1.20 2 Pet. 3.16 That it is not the Duty of Private men For no Scripture is of private Interpretation and shews us the danger Notwithstanding which bold men will venture at it as St. Hierom says of his days Hier. Ep. ad Paulinum Scripturarum Ars est quam passim omnes sibi vendicant hanc Garrula anus hanc delirus Senex hanc Sophista verbosus hanc universi presumunt lacerant docent antequam discant It seems in his time all people read the Scriptures For every prating Old Woman and Doating Old Man every Wrangling wordy Sophister challenges and presumes to tear the Scriptures in pieces and to teach others before they have learnt themselves Whereas these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Peter calls them Unlearned ungrounded People ought first to Learn But of whom There is but this Choice either this Power is in the People or in the Governors of the Church IT cannot be in the People for they are Private Persons and are incapacitated by being so to perform this Publique Office for what no one can do singly neither can all do Collectively what every man wants all must For if every man in the World had but one Eye all the World must want two And the People are to Obey in Learning and therefore not to Rule in Teaching Neither would it be possible to come to any Determination in any thing it being impossible to find all the People of one Nation City Village or Family Nay even one Person of the same mind for any continuance of Time and by consequence all Religion must stagger and totter with continual Changes Uncertainties and Alterations and at last fall to Ruine and Confusion Which Great Truth forced even Calvin himself to drop this Oracle so contrary to the Pretences of his now Followers who would have the Fences of Government which incloses Gods Vineyard thrown down and all laid Common by Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience Cal. Inst lib. 4. p. 10. Sect. 31. Quantarum Rixarum saith he semen futura sit Earum Rerum Confusio si prout cuique libitum sit mutare liceat quae ad communem Statum pertinent Quando nunquam futurum est ut omnibus idem placeat si res velut in medio Positae singulorum arbitrio relictoe fuerint Si penes singulos jus Arbitrium erit Judicandi nihil unquam certi constitui Poterit Quin potius tota vacillabit Religio Of how many and great Quarrels would such Confusion be the Nursery If it shall be Lawful for every man according to his Pleasure to change those things which belong to the Common State of Christianity Since it can never be possible that the same thing should please all so long as indifferent things are left to be determined according to every mans Arbitrary Pleasure And if the Power and Right the Liberty of Judging Arbitrarily be left to the pleasure of All nothing of certainty can ever be Established but rather all Religion will totter and tumble down THE Scripture must be Interpreted and is not of Private Interpretation what remains but that it is of Publique God commands Vnity but in doing so he would command an Impossibility if he had not appointed Means to obtain it to whom then can this Power be delegated to draw all mens private Opinions into one Common Rule