Properties and Attributes of the most high God 66 c. This truth acknowledged by all sorts of men the Primitive Christians 69. the Jews 71. the Heathen 72. Our not comprehending the difficulties of it no reason against it 73. Some considerations added to lead us thro' 'em ib. 4. Proposition This One God is to be Worshipped For First consider'd as essentially his nature and perfections justly challenge the deepest veneration 75. Then Secondly considered personally the Scriptures require him to be Worshipped 76. 5. Proposition This God only is to be Worshipped This shewn First from Scripture 78. Secondly from Reason 79. Thirdly from Antiquity 81. What the Papists say in opposition to this considered with respect to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Invocation of Saints and Images 84. 1. As to the Eucharist That the Papists pay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it ib. and thereby put the greatest affront upon Scripture 91. upon the analogy of Faith 94. upon Antiquity 97. upon Reason 106. and upon Sense 108. The declaration of their Church in this matter and the impossibility of an innovation considered 110. 2. As to Invocation of Saints This injurious to the peculiar honour of God 115. and of Jesus Christ the only Mediator 116. and has not the same grounds and reasons as our praying to each other here below For First the Saints and Angels are at a distance 117. And then Secondly 't is the prerogative of Jesus Christ only to be our Mediator in Heaven 118. as the Primitive Christians thought 119. The Origine of Invocation c. 122. 3. As to Images 123. They who use them are of three sorts First such as say they use them only as memorials to quicken their devotions which has no kindly influence on Religion 124. Secondly such as say they give only inferiour worship to 'em which yet is either vain or sinful 125. Thirdly such as profess to give the same worship to the Image as to the Prototype in kind thô not in degree i.e. relative or respective worship only ib. the vanity of this distinction shewn 126. and that 't is Idolatry 128. contrary to the Second Commandment 132. and unknown to the Primitive Church 135. SECT III. Concerning the True Worshippers of God THE whole reduced to Three Inquiries 142. I. Enquiry Who they are that are obliged to Worship ib. And they are in general all rational Beings as Angels 142. and Men whether secular 143 or more especially Ecclesiastical and consecrated to the performance of Religious Offices 145. the necessity of these shewn ib. such have been in all ages 147. before the floud ib. between that and the Law 150. that the First-born then were Priests 151. such also there were from the giving the Law till Christ 154. as appears from the Priests and Levites ib. from the Schools of the Prophets 155. from their studies there 156 from their Ordination by imposition of hands 157 from the place where they exercised their function 159. such lastly there were under the Gospel ib. II. Enquiry How men are to Worship God 163. This shown in several Propositions 1. Prop. We are to Worship him with all our Soul and heart and strength ib. and 2. Prop. Outwardly with our Bodies 165. 3. Prop. All the modes of external Worship must be decent orderly and to edification ib. 4. Prop. Different deductions from this general rule are no just grounds for distinct Churches to differ among each other and so violate the Vnity of the Vniversal 166. 5. Prop. Yet in the same Church 't is very expedient and desirable That there should be the same external mode of Religion 167 but yet 6. Prop. If contests arise in the same Church about external modes a ready way to compose them is to appeal to Primitive Order and give the preference to those that come nighest to it 169. And 7. Prop. If it cannot be known what the Primitive Order therein was the next step to Peace is to make prudent condescensions on each side before Authority has made any determinations 171. Then 8. Prop. If condescensions cannot be had and yet a determination is necessary all both weak and strong are obliged to acquiesce in such a determination 173. which is neither against nor inconsistent with the perfection of Scripture as a rule 174. nor prejudicial to our Christian Liberty 175. nor yet induces any necessity of violating the Law about scandal 176. III. Enquiry What ends we are to propose in the acts of Religious Worship ib. This shewn in three particulars First and chiefly The Glory of God 177. Secondly The Salvation of our Souls 178. Thirdly The good of the Community 179. The tendency of Religious Worship to all these shewn under each SECT IV. Concerning Assistance relating to Divine Worship THE Introduction from the general and acknowledged depravation of our Natures whereby we want Light to direct and Strength to enable us in the Worshipping God a-right and Merits to render our Services acceptable 185. Against all these God has provided sufficient helps and remedies in that 1. We have the holy Scriptures to direct us 186 2. The Holy Spirit to communicate strength 186 3. The Merits of our Saviour to procure acceptance 186 All which are treated more largely of And 1. Of the holy Scriptures to direct us which that we have grounds to depend on shewn in several Propositions as First The Worshipping God is absolutely necessary to Salvation 187. Secondly Moses and the Prophets Christ and the Apostles did by Oral Tradition reveal all things necessary to this purpose ib. Thirdly What they spoke was evidenced to be the real mind of God by inward characters of Divinity and external miraculous operations ib. Fourthly This word of God thus evidenced was faithfully committed to writing 192. Fifthly This Writing is digested into 24 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New 193. Sixthly These Books have been transmitted to us without corruption 194. Two opinions inconsistent with what has been said considered 1. That the Church of Rome as being infallible is to be our guide in matters of Religion 206. 2. That every one ought to rely upon the conduct of his own reason ib. As to the First Proved that the Pope is not infallible 207. nor a Council ib. nor the body of the People 210. nor all these together ib. nor are the reasons they urge here sufficient such as first The peremptory necessity of such a Guide 211. nor secondly their having all reasonable evidence that the Church of Rome is such a Guide 216. For they have not first The evidence of Scripture ib. shewn as to the chief places they urge 221. nor secondly Vniversal Tradition 228. nor yet thirdly the motives of credibility 232. shewn particularly as to Antiquity Diuturnity Amplitude ib. uninterrupted Succession of Bishops 235. Agreement in doctrine with the Primitive Church 236. Vnion among themselves 237. holiness of doctrine 239. efficacy of it 240. holiness of life 242. Lastly the
glory of Miracles 247. Nay greater motives of credibility on our side That there is no such infallible Guide as First 'T is no where revealed by Jesus Christ 251. Secondly 'T is inconsistent with the nature of an intellectual Being 252. 'T is Thirdly destructive of True Virtue 253. Fourthly It can be of no advantage in our present circumstances ib. Fifthly 'T is not reconcileable to the divine intention in giving the sacred Oracles 255. Sixthly All the testimony for it comes only from the Church of Rome her self 256. Seventhly The Primitive Constitution of the Church plainly intimates that no one Guide was designed supream over all the Churches of the World 257. Eightly No provision made of an infallible Guide in a case of like importance 260. Ninthly Such a Guide not easily reconcileable with the constitution of Civil Empires 262. Tenthly and lastly There is a plain prediction in Scripture of one that would pretend to be that infallible Guide 264. Thus much in answer to the first opinion Then as to the 2 Opinion inconsistent with the Scriptures being our Guide namely That we ought to rely entirely upon the conduct of our own reason shewn First that it would have its effects with respect to Religion and the Church 269. Secondly That 't is not consistent with the interest of humane Society 270. Thirdly disagreeable to the propensity of humane Nature 273. Fourthly Prejudicial to the Souls of Men 276. For speculative error in Religion is no such indifferent thing as some think in that First Error is inclusive of disobedience 278. Secondly Errors in Religion are not unavoidable 279. Thirdly 'T is no uncharitableness to say Error is danmable ib. Fourthly The reason why a just Catalogue of errors can't be given is because one error may be damnable in one that is not so in another 280. Fifthly The fault may be known by the guilty if they take care to look back and fully examine things ib. Sixthly God doth not put us here into a state of mere probability 281. Seventhly An erroneous Conscience is not God's True Vicegerent 282. 2. As to the assistance God affords us by his Holy Spirit to enable us to Worship him This is either general or special so as to leave men inexcusable 283 as is more largely proved to p. 293. 3. Lastly As to God's affording us the merits of our Saviour to procure the acceptance of our performance This cleared by the following steps First The acceptance of our Worship and Service is not upon its own account 294. Nor Secondly Vpon account of the favour of God without the interposal of satisfaction for sin 295. This agreeable to Scripture ib. and the propensity of God's nature 296. and clear'd from the objections against it 297. Thirdly This necessary satisfaction Christ has performed 300. for First He suffered the punishment of our sins ib. Secondly What he suffered was in our stead 311 whether it be considered as a Sacrifice ib. or as a Ransom 316. Thirdly By what be suffered in our stead the damage done by sin is repaired und God appeased and reconciled to us on the conditions of the New Covenant 319. Crellius here answered 322. Fourthly Our acceptance with God is upon account of his meritorious satisfaction 325. And Fifthly and lastly upon acaccount of that only 326. SECT V. Concerning the Place of Divine Worship THIS Threefold according to the threefold capacity of Man may be considered in First any solitary place whatever as he is one single private person 331. or Secondly The family of which we are members ib. Such family-worship reasonable ib. practised by the Heathen 332. agreeable to the Old Testament ib. and the New 333. Thirdly Churches or places of Publick Worship as such are members of an Ecclesiastical Community 334. The reasons for such Assemblies shewn from the nature of a Church ib. and from the practice of God's people in all ages as before the Law 336. under it ib. and after it 340. SECT VI. Concerning the Time of Divine Worship BEsides our worshipping God daily 348. and upon particular occasions and emergencies by fastings and thanksgivings 349. there ought to be solemn set times peculiarly devoted to his honour 350 as will be better understood by considering I. God requires not only an inward but an outward Worship 351. II. This external Worship must not be only in private but in publick too 352. III. The time for this publick worship ought to be stated ib. IV. It is expedient it should be taken out of some part of the week ib. V. This part of the week can't in reason be less than one whole day 353. whether we consider the Object of our Worship ib or the Nature of it ib or the pattern of the Triumphant Church 354 or the practice of the Militant ib or the early division of time into weeks 355 or lastly the writings of the Heathens 358. VI. 'T is highly reasonable to believe the setting out the just time should be left to God himself 361. VII This time is determined by God in the Fourth Commandment to one day in seven as a proportion perpetually to be devoted to Religious Worship 363. For First It is one in seven and not the seventh from the Creation which is enjoyned by the Fourth Commandment ib. Secondly The Sabbath of the Fourth Command One in Seven is perpetual 372 for 't is part of the Decalogue which obliges in all ages ib as may be gathered First from its being distinguish'd in the Old Tastament from those Laws which the time of Reformation has put a period to ib Secondly from many intimations in the New that the Decalogue as delivered by Moses is to continue as a perpetual Rule to Christians 373 all which is agreeable to the opinions of the Primitive Fathers 378 and of our own Church 379 some Objections answered 380 c. and others 385 c. Thirdly This proportion of One in seven is by the Command to be devoted to Divine Worship and not only to bodily rest 395. shewn from the order of the Commandments of the First Table ib. from God's blessing the Sabbath day 396. and from the practice of the Israelites and the modern Jews upon the Sabbath ib some Objections by the Author of the Epilogue considered 397 c. VIII Propos This proportion One in Seven was determined to the Jewish day by another Precept which was to oblige only till the Jewish Oeconomy had a period put to it 403. IX Propos When the last of the Week had a period put to it the First was substituted in the room of it 414. as appears probable from the Law ib. the Prophets 415. our Blessed Lord 420. the holy Apostles and Disciples 425. and Lastly the Testimony of the following Ages 429. ERRATA PAge 20. line 16. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 58. l. 12 13. r. in sensible p. 84. l. 22. r. contrived p. 189. l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 190. l. 6. r.
errour is charged in sacred Writ upon the Will as the original of it This doth not render Religion uncertain Fallibility and certainty are not inconsistent There may be an actual certainty where there is no absolute infallibility A Judge is not infallible and yet he may be certain that the sentence which he pronounceth is right A man may be sure of what he sees plainly demonstrated before him altho' he is not out of the power and influence of all deception When a foundation is laid and some build gold silver and precious stone upon it others wood hay stubble it is as easie for one who is not infallible to discern the difference betwixt these superstructures as to distinguish a wall of marble form that which is made of brick If there be no certainty without infallibility Scepticism must be admitted and a stop put to all proceedings of Justice No Man ought to be condemned to suffer a penalty except it be certain that he deserves it and who are there but fallible Men to give evidence and judge of his demerits If the Promises of Scripture have sâ—â—â—â— sence as is contended for how comes it to be known It is a received principle amongst those with whom we are concerned That they cannot be sure of the meaning of the Bible without the interpretation of an infallible Spirit and by consequence we must be sure that the Church is infallible before we can be sure of the Sence of Scripture and if so the promise cannot be alledged as an argument to prove infallibility for then there will be a perfect circle The sence of the promise is justified by the infallibility of the Church and the infallibility of the Church by the sence of the promise From hence it is apparent That the meaning of the promise may be known without the interpretation of an infallible Spirit and if so why not the sence of other places of Scripture If we should enter upon an examination of the particular Texts of Scripture which are pretended to favour the Infallibility which the Romanists contend for they would be found no way answerable to that purpose for which they are produced They are such as these If he neglect to hear the Church c. Lo I am with you to the end of the world He will guide you into all truth He that heareth you heareth me It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us The Church which is the pillar and ground of Truth He that will not hearken to the Priest shall die Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church I have prayed that thy faith fail not Feed my Sheep To all which we briefly answer in order 1. When we are commanded To hear the Church This Church may be the Greek or Protestant as well as the Roman and hearing doth not imply the infallibility of it Every Parishioner is commanded to hear the Minister which is set over him and yet no body from thence will infer that he is infallible This Church we are not to believe without making any scrutiny but lie under obligation to try all things and hold fast that which is good The command of the Church doth not free us from sin in our conformity to it The Jews contracted a deep guilt in compassing the death of our blessed Lord tho' they did it in obedience to their Governours Not only Pastors but the Sheep know the voice of their supreme Shepherd and are in a capacity to distinguish it from the voice of a stranger 2. When it is said I will be with you to the end of the world This assures us of the presence of Christ with his Ministers so long as the world endures but not that he will give the same measure of assistance which the Apostles did enjoy That which is sufficient in every Age is ascertained by this promise but not that which is efficacious to such a degree as will secure them from all errour for then every particular Pastour will be as Infallible as every Apostle was 3. When it is asserted That when the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all truth it cannot be proved That this promise is made to any besides the Apostles The context plainly appropriates it to them I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now These words have an evident aspect upon the Disciples only If we should grant That not only the Apostles but their Successors are the objects of the promise what is intended to be proved will not follow namely Infallibility The direction of the Spirit may be opposed He gives in all ages a sufficient but not an irresistible guidance Many tho' they are put into a right way by him yet desert it and follow their own erroneous apprehensions 4. Those words He that heareth you heareth me are spoken of the Seventy Disciples not assembled in a Council but as going up and down from place to place to preach the Gospel So that if they be construed in such a fence as to favour Infallibility they will prove more than is desired namely That this priviledge of not erring belongs to every Preacher who has a lawful authority conferred upon him to publish the Gospel 5. Those words It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us do not argue That the blessed Spirit will infallibly assist in all future Councils They assert what was done at this present Convention but hold forth no promise of the same degree of assistance in all Ages The reason of this extraordinary aid was peculiar to those times The Apostles then were to lay the foundation to fix an unerring rule both for the converted Jews and Gentiles The rule being once setled the necessity of the continuance of the same degree of assistance did cease The Heavens did forbear to rain down Manna so soon as the Israelites were in possession of a Country furnished with all convenient provision It is no good consequence That because the Sanhedrim in Moses's time was endued with an extraordinary Spirit therefore the same favour must be indulged to all their Successours even to the Council which put the Lord of Life to death 6. In those words The Church of the living God the pillar and ground of Truth The word Church must import That in which Timothy is directed how to demean himself and that undoubtedly was the Church of Ephesus of which he had the Ecclesiastical inspection That Church did hold forth the True Doctrin of the Gospel in its publick Profession even as pillars upon which the Edicts of Princes are fastned expose them to the view of all that pass by The expression alludes to the Temple of Diana much celebrated for its magnificent Pillars upon which the rules of the Religion of that Goddess were inscribed The Apostle intimates That those Columns were the Pillars of falshood but the Church of Christ in the City the Pillar of Truth holding forth the True Doctrin of
who by a Divine appointment notwithstanding his notorious miscarriage was to joyn with the rest of the Apostles in teaching all Nations he is commanded by Christ as many times to feed his flock as he had denyed him All this will make it evident That the Church of Rome has no promise made to her in the Scripture of Infallibility As for Universal Tradition That will be as hard to be found as a Scripture-promise It imports the delivery of this doctrin from one age to another ever since the Apostles times and an acknowledgment and reception of it in all places by all true Christians The following particulars cannot be reconciled with such a Tradition Many Heresies did emerge in the first Ages by which the Church was exceedingly disquieted Yet we never read in any authentick Record that the Bishop of Rome did summon those which adhered to them to appear in his infallible Consistory If any such Judicatory had been then known it is incredible he should so far neglect his duty as not to attempt the reducing of them to a sober and orthodox mind by his unerring Authority The Bishops of that Church lived so near the Apostolical Age that they could not be ignorant of the power which Christ had left with them and they were so pious and good that it would be a manifest injury to their memory to think that they would not exert it in matter of such importance If these Hereticks were summoned altho' no such thing is rècorded and did refuse to submit to the Authority which is pretended it is unaccountable how it comes to pass that Irenaeus Epiphanius Theodoret who have composed Catalogues of Heresies with which the Church was then infested should be so forgetful as not to reckon That in the number which those were guilty of who would not acquiesce in the supposed Authority This is now reputed an errour of the first magnitude All others are esteemed but trifles in comparison If it had been so accounted then it would not have been passed by in so profound a silence The African Bishop's denial of a compliance with Sozimus Boniface and Celestine Cyprian's refusal of a submission to Stephanus Irenaeus's opposing the decree of Victor do manifestly declare That they knew nothing of the Tradition which is pretended Had they been acquainted with it their integrity would not have suffered them to be engaged in so much disrespect towards the Church of Rome When Tertullian and Vincentius Lirinensis apply themselves to prescribe the best method how to prevent the spreading of Heresie they speak not one syllable of an infallible Judicatory at Rome If it had been known in their days no doubt they would not have failed to mention it as the most sovereign expedient If a Man sets himself to write a Book concerning the best way how to cure the Plague and knows of one infallible remedy it is not consistent with the rule of common honestly to pass it by in silence and to entertain his Reader with some uncertain conjectures It was anciently decreed That Controversies should be determined in the Province where they did arise If it had been believed That there was then such an Oracular Judge as is now asserted this had been a very unjust decree What can be more injurious than to oblige men to acquiesce in the decision of those who may impose upon them when they might if left to their liberty have had recourse to one in whom there is no possibility of deception A belief of this infallibility would have drawn such respects upon the Bishop of Rome That no other would have dared to account himself his equal and yet S. Cyprian treats him in such terms as plainly import a parity He stiles him Frater Collega Co-episcopus S. Jerome says That all Bishops are of an equal merit and the same Priesthood wheresoever they are whether at Rome Eugubium Constantinople Rhegium c. In the Communicatory Letters no more respect is expressed to him than to others The primacy which is some times spoken is not of jurisdiction but order He living in the City where the seat of the Emperour was when he did convene with other Bishops some regard was signified upon the account of his relation to that place but none upon the account of any Infallibility and Oecumenical jurisdiction which he was believed to be invested with When applications were made to him by those who were in distress it was not done with an opinion That he was inspired with an unnerring Spirit to determine their case but because he was of the same Sentiment with them and had great advantages by reason of his residence in the Imperial City to procure their relief What he did in favour of such persons as S. Athanasius and Chrysostome was not done juridically but declaratively He did not act as an authorized Judge but a sincere and resolved Friend to that Truth for which they were oppressed The infirmity of these pleas for Infallibility makes the Defenders at last'to fly to the Motives to Credibility as the securest Sanctuary The chief of them are Antiquity Diuturnity Amplitude uninterrupted succession of Bishops agreement in Doctrin with the ancient Church union of Members holiness of Doctrin efficacy of Doctrin holiness of Life the glory of Miracles If we should enter upon a particular examination of these they would be so far from proving the Church of Rome infallible that they will not amount to prove her a True Church The Church of Rome in those points which are peculiar to her is not so ancient as is pretended The novelty of those things in which she differs from the reformed Church is notoriously manifest as Supremacy the Worship of Images Transubstantiation c. When she has screw'd every thing to the highest pin it will not appear That any point of difference was before the Mystery of Iniquity began to work Diuturnity may with as much efficacy induce us to believe That the Mahometans are a True Church for they have been a thousand years in the world much longer than some Articles in the Roman Creed Amplitude may as well prove the Community of Rome Apostatical as Apostolical Antichristian as Christian Antichrist is described as sitting upon many waters and those Waters are interpreted people and multitudes Rev. 17.1 15. Those who have taken the greatest care to survey the World assert That if it be divided into thirty parts nineteen are inhabited by Polytheists Of the eleven that remain six be Jews and Mahometans Of the space which is left the greatest part is possessed by those who refuse a submission to the Bishop of Rome as Protestants Greeks Nestorians Jacobites He who takes a deliberate view of the vast body of the first in Poland Transylvania Hungary Germany Sweden Denmark Britany France and Ireland Of the second in Achaia Epirus Macedon Thrace Bugaria Walachia Podolia Moscovia Russia Natolia Syria Of the third in Assyria Mesopotamia Parthia Media India Tartaria Of the fourth in
personal favours of his Prince to pay the Rights which belong to the Crown yet the formal object and reason of his so doing is the Sovereignty and dominion which the Prince is invested with As the Son so likewise the Spirit is the Object of Adoration He is placed in the same rank with the Father and the Son Mat. 28. v. 19. Jo. 1.5 7. and honoured with the attribution of the peculiarities of the Deity as Eternity Immensity Omniscience The dishonour done to him by Blasphemy has as black a character in the Scripture as the dishonour of the Father or Son It is represented as a delinquency of the first magnitude and excluded the benefit of pardon He who is thus dignified and secured by the most severe commination against dishonour must necessarily of right challenge the same degree of Honour and Worship which is due to the Father and the Son The Adoration given to them all must be so directed that we may worship the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity The ground of divine Veneration is the unlimited and peerless perfection of God The motives conducing to it are the benefits which none but so transcendent a Being can conferr The same internal eminency is common to the Three Persons Every external benefit is the product of their joint concurrence They having all an equal interest in the foundation of Religion and the motives conducing to it it is very reasonable when we direct an act of Worship to one that we should not exclude the other When we name the Son only the Father and holy Spirit are to be understood or the Father only the Son and the Spirit or the Spirit only the Father and the Son Consonant to this doctrine are the words of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us Worship in Three one Deity and the practice of the universal Church which is apparent by the Latin and Greek Liturgies Now I have done with the fourth Proposition This One God is to be Worshipped 5. This God is only to be Worshiped This is the express assertion of the Holy Scripture the dictate of Reason the sence of the Ancient Church 1. The assertion of Holy Scripture It is the first of the moral Laws Thou shalt have no other Gods but me and placed in the front of the Gospel Him only shalt thou serve In a sense of this appropriate allegiance to Jehovah the Angel did forbid S. John and S. Paul and Barnabas the people of Lycaonia to pay them any Divine Veneration Daniel's refusal of the portion of meat which was first consecrated to an Idol will easily induce us to believe that he had an equal disgust of the Idolatrous worship which was given to him If Abraham's deportment when the Angels appeared had more than a moral or civil respect The Son of God his being in the company will excuse him from Idolatry one of them is expresly dignified with the incommunicable name of the Deity 2. The dictate of reason Worship is either internal or external Internal includes a deep and reverential esteem as an ingredient essential to its nature This esteem must be of an elevation agreeable to the excellency of the Object it is terminated upon There being no object that can be a Rival with the Supreme Being in point of perfection it is not possible that the same esteem which his transcendent dignity challengeth from us should with justice be given to any other External imports a declaration of inward esteem by some outward acts As the Veneration terminated upon God is peculiar and appropriate So must the Acts be which are designed for the signification of it Betwixt the sign and the thing signified there ought to be such a similitude that the one may be known by the other This cannot be done in the present case except there be such an appropriation as we speak of The nature of Divine Supremacy requires in outward as well as inward Worship a discrimination from that which is given to the Creature Earthly Monarchs expect an agnition of their Sovereignty to be made by the payment of an appropriate homage They have some Jewels in their Crown which they will not permit any of their Subjects to wear Tho' Moral and Civil regards may be tendred to a Creature yet if they rise so high as to have any mixtures of those peculiarities which are devoted by nature or institution to signifie Divine Veneration they are as distasteful to God as it would be to a Prince to stand by and see the Allegiance which is due only to himself given to another This Truth is warranted with so much clear reason that those who have had no other advantage but the light of Nature have taken notice of it Among those instructions which Orpheus left with Musaeus Lib. de Monarch Det p. 104 108. This is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adore him alone who is the King of the World It was the advice of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to honour him alone who is Lord of all Ad Antolycum p. 122. The Verses of the Sibyl in Theophilus Antiochenus are of the same importance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laâ—t de â—â—lsa Relig. p. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Ruler of the World alone adore Who ever was and shall be ever more 3. The Sence of the Ancient Church Among those Truths which are owned by the most early Writers this is of the first magnitude that God only is to be Worshipped They never mention the worshipping any thing else as the Sacrament the Cross the Relicks of Saints When they delineate the rites appertaining to the Eucharist there is not the least intimation of that Veneration which the Romanist say is due to the Sacrament They were far from asserting that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae debetur vero Deo is to be given to it Circumstances purely accidental as the time when the Institution was made the place where the mingling Water with Wine are recorded Those who had leisure to preserve the memory of these circumstances would not have omitted a point so material in case any such thing had been known to be agreeable to the mind of God As for the individual Cross upon which our blessed Lord suffered there could be no Adoration directed to it for the first three hundred years It is confessed that it lay concealed under ground till the time of Helena mother to Constantine the Great Neither is there the least signification of any religious addresses made to artificial imitations of it When the Veneration of the Cross is objected by the Heathens against the Christians Mirâ—â— Fâ—l it is answered by them Cruces etiam nec colimus nec optamus We neither Worship Crosses nor wish for them Bellarmine indeed infers that the objection implies that some such practice was then in use but he may by the same reason perswade us that the Christians Worshipped the Head of an Ass because their
which the ingredients of a humane body are exposed unto To what is received in the Eucharist the primitive Church in relation to the body attributes the power of Nutrition The Analogy of Faith obligeth us to believe that God will not command inhumanity But if the sence of the Church of Rome be true the greatest inhumanity is practised according to his Will What is more savage than to eat the body of a living man much more must it be to champ with our Teeth and swallow down the living Body of our blessed Lord to whom supreme Veneration is due This made a Pagan to say Who dost thou think Cott. in Cicer. de nat Decr. l. 3. can be so mad as to believe that to be his God which he eats It was an abomination to the Aegyptians to eat with the Hebrews Gen. 43.32 The Chaldee paraphrast gives the reason because the Hebrews eat those Cattle which the Aegyptians use to worship Those words except ye eat the flesh of the son of man c. Joh. 6.55 give no countenance to what is asserted by the Church of Rome By Flesh is meant the bread spoken of v. 51. The bread that I will give you is my flesh and by the Bread we are to understand our blessed Lord himself I am the bread of life v. 35. and by eating believing on him as is evident by the consequent words he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst As eating and drinking satisfie our natural appetite so believing in Christ our spiritual By faith we draw out of his fulness and plenitude a supply of our necessities This spiritual Sence is pointed at v. 56. and very agreeable to the manner of speaking amongst the Jews with whom Christ conversed when he spoke the words under consideration Maimon More Nevoâ— par 1. c. 30. The Hebrews use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comedere not only to express the feeding upon that which conduceth to the nourishment of the body but likewise the acquisition of Learning and Wisdom such as faith imports which tends to the nutrition of the Soul Psal 33. or 34 v. 2. S. Basil says that there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an intellectual mouth of the inward Man With this we receive the impressions made by external objects and ruminate upon and digest them by meditation All this being considered it is evident that Transubstantiation is contrary to the Holy Scripture 2. Antiquity Those who assert the Body of Christ to be corporally present in the Sacrament and the substance of the Bread and Wine not speak contrary to the sence of all the primitive Fathers Ignatius who lived in the first Century 〈…〉 calls that which is broken and given in the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr in the second Century Apol. 2. stiles it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and attributes to it a nutritive power in relation to the body Tertullian in the third Century asserts L. 4 cont Marc. that Christ made the bread which he took to be his body that is a figure of his body Origen says L. 8. cont Celsum we have a symbol of thanksgiving to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bread which is called the Eucharist S. Cyprian affirms 〈…〉 that the Lord calls the bread compounded of many grains his Body Eusebius in the fourth Century terms L. 1 â—emon Evan. c. ult what is received in the Sacrament symbols of the Body and blood of Christ Cyril of Jerusalem stiles it Bread and Wine Catech. Mystagog 1.3 and compares the change which is made by consecration to that in consecrated Oil which doth not lose its old Nature but is dedicated and set apart to a higher use and purpose S. Ambrose affirms L. 4. de Saâ— c. 4. that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament sunt a â—â—â—e panis vinum altho changed into the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ Gregory Nissen owns that which he calls the Body of Christ by the name of Bread Orat. de San. Bapr and expresseth at large that the Bread and Wine being Consecrated retain their pristine nature even as Baptismal Water an Altar a Priest do after Consecration has passed upon them Gaudentius represents the Sacrament as an image of the passion and figure of the Body and Blood of Christ Tract 2. in Exo. S. Chrysostome in the fifth Century useth these words Epist ad Casâ—arium Monashum Before the Bread is sanctified we call it Bread when the Divine Grace hath sanctified it by means of the Priest it loseth the name of Bread and is held worthy to be called the Lord's Body altho the nature of the Bread doth remain in it and is not called two bodies but the body of the Son S. Austin says Ad Adamantum â— 12. That the Lord doubted not to say This is my Body when he gave the sign of his Body Cyril of Alexandria asserts L. 4. c. 14. in Evang. Joan. that our Lord gave fragments of Bread saying Take eat This is my Body Theodoret affirms 1. Dial. cont Eutyc that our Saviour honoured the visible Symbols with the name of his Body and Blood not changing the nature but adding grace to nature Gelasius is of the same mind De duabus Christi naturis The Sacraments which we receive of the Body and Blood of Christ are a divine thing by means whereof we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and yet the substance of the Bread and Wine doth not cease to be Bellarmine in his Polemical Discourse concerning the Eucharist useth most of the names which I have mentioned to a contrary purpose and brings them into the field with a great deal of pomp His policy seems to resemble that of a great Commander When he had drawn up his Souldiers into a military order and was ready to engage the enemy a great part of them declared they would not fight He being not in a capacity to retreat with honour or security told them that the only kindness which he desired of them was to march to a Hill a little way of and there be Spectators of the courage and fate of their fellow Souldiers hoping they might appear to the enemy as a Reserve and prove as great a discouragement to them as if they had actually engaged them I cannot imagine why these antient Fathers who have so positively declared in the Testimonies above-cited that they will not fight should be continued in view except it be with the like design to impose upon the Faith of those who are strangers to their intentions To the Authorities already produced I might add many more which do evidently manifest that the Church was a stranger to the doctrin of Transubstantiation for many hundred years What might be alledged I will sum up in the following particulars 1. They all agree in an imitation of the stile of Scripture and
no evidence in Courts of Justice sufficient to ground a condemnatory Sentence upon Eye-witnesses tho' of the greatest integrity will be of no signification all will be left in a perfect state of Scepticism The grand pillars which support Religion will be utterly overthrown and demolished How can we be assured that there is a God but by his Word and Works And how can we perceive the Contents of his Word or be acquainted with his Works without using our Senses We cannot be sure that The Heavens declare the Glory of God or that this Proposition This is my Body is contained in the New Testament if we may not conside in our eyes Miracles the great Seals of Evangelical Verity are rendered insignificant if the Senses of those who were present when they were wrought may not be trusted to their attestation will be of no value Indeed we are told that the Sense is not deceived in the Sacrament The accidents of the Bread and Wine are its proper objects and they remain there according as they appear but as for the Substance that is miraculously changed and Sense is no competent Judg about it To which the reply is easie Accidents alone are not the proper objects of Sense but Accidents together with those material subjects in which they inhere It is matter which properly makes the impression upon our Nerves the Particles of it are under diverse modes and figures commonly stiled Accidents The Essence of these consists in inhesion Accidentis esse est inesse So that if they be separated they presently cease to be and by consequence have no power to make any impulse upon Sense They can have no more a solitary existence than the height breadth and length of a house with all the colours and modes of every room may remain after the whole fabrick is demolished If there be any miraculous change in the substance of the Bread and Wine nothing can be more sit to discern it than our Senses The essential effect of a Miracle is to work wonder and admiration and nothing can produce this but that which is manifest to our faculties Tho' the mode of doing is latent yet the thing done is clear and accommodated to the apprehension of every Spectator These four Topicks Scripture Antiquity Reason Sense standing in an irreconcileable opposition to the doctrin of Transubstantiation nothing is left to support it except these two pretences the Declaration of the present Church and an impossibility that what she declares should be an Innovation As for the first If by the Church we understand the Universal no such thing is done by her The Eastern Churches declare the contrary The Greeks in their Liturgies have nothing of this nature expressed They adhere to the seven first General Councils only which are wholly silent in this matter Tho' they have a proper word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to express Transubstantiation by yet they never use it when they speak of the Eucharist When they call the Bread the Body of Christ it is with an extenuating term as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi or the like After Consecration they give no adoration to it They deny that an unworthy Communicant receives the Body and Blood of Christ Cyril Patriarch of Constantinople says in the name of the Greek Church Vid. Hotting An. Appen p. 422. We confess and believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the true and firm Presence of our Lord Jesus to wit that which Faith offers and gives us and not that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the invented Transubstantiation doth inconsiderately teach These are his words in his Oriental Confession of the Christian Faith To say notwithstanding all this that Transubstantiation is the declared belief of the Universal Church is to cut off the Greeks from being any part of it altho' they receive the Holy Scriptures embrace the ancient Creeds submit to the seven first General Councils have an uninterrupted succession of Bishops If it be said That Schism and Heresie has deprived them and all other Churches of this priviledge and dignity who do not submit to the Papal Supremacy this may be as easily denied as asserted The Universality of jurisdiction contended for is a perfect usurpation which can never be legitimated by length of time against the institution of our blessed Lord who constituted all the Apostles in a parity No Man can with justice be charged with Schism or Heresie for not owning of that which bears an opposition to the appointment of the Supreme Head of the Church If we must believe the declaration of the present Church in the point under consideration what were those obliged to do who lived in the time of Pope Gelasius when there was a declaration diametrically opposite The present Pope declares That the Bread and Wine do not remain in the Sacrament Gelasius a person of equal Authority and every jot as Infallible declares That they do Both these we cannot be obliged to believe they being contrary one to the other If the present Church of Rome must be credited whensoever she thinks sit to declare her self How is this to be known She has no peculiar promise made to her That to the Universal is nothing to the purpose she being but a part and a very corrupt one too All that the promise imports is that there shall be always a people with their Pastors in the World retaining all the points which are fundamental and of peremptory necessity to Salvation which may be tho' the Community of Rome utterly cease As for any Universal Tradition about this matter it is but a futilous and vain pretence as is evident by the contests betwixt the Roman and African Bishops If the last had known of any such Tradition and believed the first to be infallible a sudden stop would have been put to all contradiction No man will dare to oppose a Church which he believes cannot err Neither are there any motives of Infallibility efficacious enough to induce us to receive this doctrin Bellarmine has reckoned up fifteen but they are so far from evincing that the Church of Rome is Infallible in her declarations that they will not amount to prove her a True Church as will be manifest in the Fourth Section As for the Second pretence the impossibility of Innovation it is in vain to alledge it against so much evidence as may be produced for the matter of fact The antient Church for many Centuries did assert That the substance of the Bread and Wine remains after Consecration as I have already proved The doctrin of the present Church of Rome is That it doth not remain Here is an undeniable change To set up an imaginary demonstration against so clear a matter of fact and to commend it to our belief with all the advantages of Art is a method not unlike to that of Pericles who when he had received a fair fall by his Antagonist attempted to impose upon his Spectators with his Rhetorical flourishes and
never charge this crime upon the Primitive Professors of it Amongst the errours objected against them in the conference with Tryphon in the discourse of Tertullian and many other disputations we never read of the Adoration of Images The Mishna which is believed to be Written about Two Hundred years after Christ is wholly silent in this matter altho' the Composer had a convenient opportunity to speak of it in his Treatise concerning strange Worship Their implacable enmity to the Laws of Christ gives us the highest degree of assurance that nothing could be the cause of their silence but the innocence of the Christians In the Gemara which was finished about the time that Images were brought into Churches a Christian Temple is stiled a House of Idolatry The Heathens when they were accused by the Christians for worshipping Idols never mention in their vindication of themselves the adoration of Images among Christians which certainly they would have done in case there had been any such practice Dall de Imag. When the Idols of the Americans were demolished by the command of Alphonsus Suasus they sent four men to complain of the injury who acquainted him that they did not expect such usage from Christians who gave Divine Honour to Images and pointed to the Picture of Sebastian which hung in his chamber and told him That the same honour which he gave that Picture they gave to their Idols When he replied That Christians did not worship such Pictures upon their own account but as they were representations of glorified Persons in Heaven They answered Neither did they their Idols for their own sakes but as they represented the Sun Moon and Stars When Bernier told the East-Indians That he was scandalized upon the account of their worshipping Idols he received a like answer from some of the chief of them Hist of the Gent. of Indostan Vol. 3. p. 172. We have indeed in our Deuras or Temples store of divers Statues as those of Brahma Mehaden Genick and Gavani who are some of the chief and most perfect Deutas and we have also many other of less perfection to whom we pay great honour prostrating our selves before them and presenting them Flowers Rice Scented Oiles Saffron and such other things with much Ceremony But we do not believe these Statues to be Brahma and Bechen c. but only their Images and representations and we do not give them that honour but upon the account of what they represent They are in our Temples because it is necessary for praying well to have some thing before our eyes to six our mind and when we pray it is not the Statue we pray to but he who is represented by it For the rest we acknowledge that it is God that is absolute and only Omnipotent Lord and Master If these barbarous People were so quick as to make so apposite a retort when they were set upon by Christians the first expresly accusing them of the like practice the second drawing a representation of their own religion exactly parallel to what they knew to be in use in the Roman Community No doubt Tryphon and Celsus c. would have done the like in case in their time there had been the same reason The Primitive Christians in many places were so remote from the worshipping Images That they did not allow the making of them as is plain by the words of Clemens and Tertullian Strom. 5. de Specta c. 23. In case they were made they would not permit them to be brought into Churches When Adrian gave command That Temples should be built without Pictures it was taken for granted that he intended them for the Worship of Christ When Epiphanius found in a Church a Veil with the Picture of a Man painted upon it he presently rent it in pieces and defended his action by alledging that it was contrary to the Scripture That the Picture of a Man should be hanged up in the Church of Christ When Images were brought into Churches the worship of them was utterly disallowed Serenus was for the banishing them out to prevent danger Greg. Mor. lib. 9. Gregory for the keeping them in to instruct the illiterate Both agree in this That they are not to be adored When Philippicus being transported with an intemperate love to the Monothelites took down the Pictures of the first Six General Councils and by this action provoked Rome to a greater measure of zeal for Images than the adoration of them was thought upon The hint that was expressed gave an alarm to the Synod called by Constantius Copronymus and occasioned the making a decree That to give religious veneration to Images is nothing else but to revive the Superstition of the Pagans When the Council under Irene did rescind this decree it is observable that it did prohibit the making the Picture of God This impiety then had no Umbrage from Authority If we consult the Monuments of Antiquity it will be apparent That in the Sixth Seventh and Eighth Ages there were hot disputes about the worship of Images but no countenance given to the making or worshipping the Image of God In the Three Ages immediately before They are sometimes mentioned as Ornaments of Churches and instruments to teach the ignorant but not as the Objects of Worship In the Three first Centuries there is no mention of them at all in the concerns of Religion The Resemblance upon the Chalice which Tertullian speaks of was an Emblem of the Parable of the lost Sheep and not a Picture of Christ or any particular Saint It was not drawn with a design to be Worshipped but to signifie That those who are gone astray may upon their repentance be received into the Communion of the Church The story in Eusebius Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. 18. concerning the Statues of Christ and the Woman cured by him of her issue of blood is too dubious to lay a foundation for a clear testimony Eusebius indeed asserts That he saw two Statues of brass at Caesarea Philippi but he doth not say That they were the Statues of Christ and Woman but that the people said so Nothing is more familiar than for them to be mistaken in their account of such publick Monuments It is incredible that such famous testimonies of the Truth of Christian Religion should remain in the open street untouched for the space of Three Hundred Years amidst the slames of the hottest persecutions when the greatest privacy could not secure any thing appertaining to the Christians from the rage and fury of the Heathens Suppose all this was so yet the Romanists will gain no advantage by it For no Religious Addresses were made to these Statues They were not in the Church but the street Not erected to be Objects of Worship but Memorials of a Miracle That which was reputed to be the Statue of Christ Philostorgius assures us had no adoration given to it and adds his reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not
is usually more violent than that which ariseth from a diversity in Civil The pretence of a Sacred Institution communicates an edge to the Spirits of those who are concerned for them They are easily induced to believe That they are engaged in the quarrel of the Deity and that their zeal for them will render the Divine Power propitious to them This consideration pushes them forward and makes them as fierce as the Poet represents the Combites to be against the Tentyrites An old grudge to immortal hatred turn'd Juv. Sat. 15. Betwixt the Tentyrites and Combites burn'd A wound in those adjacent towns past cure Because that neither people could endure Their neighbours Deities or would have more Held to be Gods than they themselves adore Such heats are frequently attended with very direful consequences Rev. 8.5 They produce strong Convulsion-fits in the Community Thundrings Lightnings and an Earthquake are represented as proceeding from the Fire of the Altar The Fire which consumed the Senate-House in Constantinople began in the Church Socr. p. 727. Nothing can be safe when Men are inflamed with a zeal for their own private Sentiments They think every one is under an obligation to submit to them The want of power is the only thing which gives a temper to their deportment So soon as they are numerous and prevalent enough nothing will satisfie but a complete Conquest all must stoop to their perswasions They account it an evidence of weakness if they cannot and of irreligion if they will not settle that which they conceive to be best And they believe they are not secure in the enjoyment of their power except they suppress others and bend them into a compliance with them 6. If Contests arise in the same Church about external modes a ready way to compose them is to appeal to Primitive Order and give the preference to those who come nearest to it If we view it as it lies in the Holy Scriptures and those undoubted Records which are next in Antiquity we shall find it to be not pompous and theatrical but grave and comely not calculated for the gratification of the Sensitive but Intellectual part not apt to divert the Intention from the import of Worship and yet sufficient to secure it against the assaults of Rudeness and Contempt The Ministerial part was appropriated to Three Orders of Men Apostles Elders and Deacons persons sound in Doctrin Sober and unspotted in their Conversation Presbyters were ordained in every Church and City The solemn time for Sacred Conventions was the first of the week In the Assemblies The Men were uncovered the Women veiled The Minister began with Prayer This he directed to God with the most important expressions of Devotion without the help of such a Prompter as the Ethnick Priests use to have lest they might forget the names of any of their Gods which were very numerous After this were read the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets And because some things are hard to be understood and those which are easie ought not only to be entertained in the Head but the Heart in the next place followed Preaching with the most pathetical Exhortations to Practice When the Sermon was finished all did rise from their seat and joyn in Prayer After this succeeded the celebration of the Holy Communion in which the President poured forth Thanksgiving and Supplication with all his might the People expressing their concurrence by saying Amen All was concluded with a contribution for the relief of the Poor Besides these circumstances There were some Symbolical Rites in use namely The Love-Feasts the Holy Kiss As the laying of these aside in some time doth plainly express That the Church did not believe they were grounded upon a perpetual institution but taken up upon Prudential Considerations in a Conformity to the general rules of Scripture So the Practice of them in the purest Age when Christian Simplicity was in its greatest vigour doth manifestly teach us That we have no just grounds to condemn our own Church because she retains some Rites not burdensome in their number and as innocent in their meaning as They were 7. If by reason of paucity of records or any obscurity in those which are extant it cannot be agreed what was the Primitive Order The ready way to Peace before Authority has made any determination is for the several Members of the Church to make prudent Condescensions one to another so as none may be nourished in their errour nor any have any just reason of offence administred to them This was the condition of the Romans when S. Paul did address his Epistle to them Their contests were violent Authority had not yet interposed The Counsel of the Apostle has an entire aspect upon this purpose Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him who eateth not judge him who eateth One man esteemeth one day above another another man esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind Matters were not then ripe enough in that Church for a decision The converted Jews had not a full insight into the liberty which Christ purchased for them Therefore S. Paul doth not determine the case on either side but adviseth every member to a prudent demeanour and To follow the things which make for peace and things with which one may edisie another The Apostle suspending the exercise of his authority in these circumstances cannot be brought into an argument against all determinations about things which are adiaphorous for he in other Churches did decide this matter as appears by his Epistles to the Galatians and Colossians How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ye observe days months times and years Gal. 4.9 10. Let no man therefore judge ye in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the New Moon or Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ Col. 2.16 17. Certainly if the Apostle had believed That all Churches are to enjoy a freedom equal to that in which he left the Romans he would not have been so positive as he is with these eminent Churches 8. If Condescensions cannot be procured and circumstances become such That Rulers believe it prudential to make a determination both weak and strong are bound to acquiesce in the decision Such a determination is within the Sphere of humane authority God has commanded all that is Good and interdicted all Evil. The only things which are left to be the immediate object of Sublunary Power are those which are neither They may become useful or not useful as circumstances happen but in their own nature they are neither good or evil If any apply themselves to the doing of them for the sake of some intrinsick bonity which they fansie to be in them and others stand at a distance from them upon the account of some
there can be no difficulty in discerning when they are exceeded and by consequence when a true Miracle is produced 4. The Word of God with its Internal Characters together with a perfect relation of the miraculous External effects whereby it was evidenced are faithfully committed to Writing Supernal direction was given not only about the matter but the manner S. Paul stiles the letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and saies that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of Divine Inspiration The Men imployed about this Work were perfectly acquainted with all circumstances Their information was so exact That had they been lest to the conduct of their own private Spirits they could not have been mistaken thro' ignorance in setting down matters of fact Neither have they made any misrepresentation out of design If Moses had been instigated by private regards to compose the Pentateuch he would not have recorded the infamy of his own family If any fraud had been used in the Penning the New Testament no doubt many enemies as well as friends who were Spectators of the Miracles and Auditors of the Doctrin living to see the relation in Writing would have discovered it Yet we never read of any attempt of this nature but on the contrary Porphyry Celsus and Julian in their cavils against Christian Religion suppose the matter of fact That such Doctrin was Preached and such Miracles done 5. This Writing in the Old Testament is digested into four and twenty Books In the New into twenty seven five Historical one and twenty Epistolical one Prophetical For this number we have the most clear Tradition Ezra having consigned the Canon of the Old Testament S. John of the New both of them persons inspired by the Spirit of God and of great Authority amongst Men The Tradition came in so full a stream from their hands that in every age it has born down all the opposition which has been made against it This Tradition we have just reason to embrace altho' we reject others because it adds nothing to the doctrin of the Bible as the Pipe adds nothing to the Water which is conveyed by it It is virtually contained in the Scripture It owes much of its universality to the intrinsick excellency of the Sacred Oracles which upon the first consulting commend themselves to the good opinion of every intelligent Reader It is of greater latitude than any other Tradition which is not formally contained in the Scripture As for others the Romanists are able to produce only the testimony of their party but for this we have not only the Testimony of all which adhere to the Community of Rome but that vast body of Christians which appertain to the Greek Protestant and all the Oriental Churches It must be acknowledged That there was for a time some hesitancy in some persons about some part of the New Testament The Christians concerned being dispersed and kept by persecution from holding correspondencies one with another could not possibly have an information equally early about those Books which were last written Upon this account when they first arrived at their hands they made some demur as the Apostles did at Christ when they believed him to be a Phantasin but upon a deliberate view consulting with those who had a more perfect intelligence they corrected the errour of their apprehension Insomuch That there is no instance which can be produced of any Church or Council which in any Decree or Canon has disallowed their Authority 6. These Books of the Old and New Testament have been transmitted to us without corruption We have the attestation of all sorts of men in every age for their passage thro' it Councils have made them the foundation of their Theological divisions The Fathers appeal to them in their Concertations as the most equal Arbitrators Divines before their Homilies prefix a Text taken out of them The Hereticks in every age have drawn from them whatsoever they conceive may favour their Sentiments Porphyrie's cavils at the Old Testament Hierocles comparing the Life of Christ in the New with the Life of Apollonius Julian's spending his Winter-nights in the refutation of it the Jews calling of it a volume of iniquity argue That they were extant and passed by them in those ages in which they lived Shimei's cursing and throwing stones at David at Bahurim make it evident that he went that way As these Books of the Old and New Testament have passed thro' every age down to us So in their passage they have escaped depravation What is spoken concerning the Essential Word may be applied to the Written Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption If the Old Testament in any point material to Religion has been depraved it must be by the common fate which all humane Writings are exposed unto or else out of design by the Jews or by some unadvised neglect in those who copied it out Not the first way It is notorious what a signal discrimination Divine Providence has made betwixt the Scripture and other Writings in point of conservation When the book of the Law was given forth every Master of a family was obliged to have a Copy of it in his house The Prince was bound as is conceived to Write it out with his own hand Every Sabbath it was read in the Synagogues in the audience of the people Peculiar Persons were appointed to prevent any mutation in Words or Letters The Massorites who began in Ezra's time did reckon up all the Verses in every Verse the Words in every Word the Letters and have punctually expressed how many times every Word is used and which is the middle Verse Word and Letter in every Book It does not appear That the like care has been used by Divine Providence for the securing any other Book from depravation The event has been answerable to the care The Writings of the Penmen of the Scripture which they composed by the aid and conduct of their own Spirits have been corrupted and at last are utterly perished as Solomon's natural History But what they composed by the help of the Divine Spirit is preserved in its purity In all Copies of the best account there is a miraculous harmony in all material points The burning of the Book of the Law by Antiochus is very reconcileable with the vigilancy of Providence which has been asserted Tho' he was permitted to destroy some Copies yet his rage was not suffered to reach to all After this The Israelites in Maspha are said to lay open the book of the Law 1 Macc. 3.47 This fire made the Jews more warm in the defence of the Scripture against injurious attempts It is observed That from this time they began to be more Critical about the Text. That which was designed for the ruine of it was by the propitious influence of Heaven improved into a security The burning the sacred Oracles like the burning the Sibyll's books did make the Copies which remained have the greater value set
upon them From that time the Jews divided the Prophets into Sections Elia. Tisbi vo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and began to read them in their Synagogues As the Books of the Old Testament have not been corrupted by that fate which other Writings are exposed unto So neither designedly by the Jews If they had been guilty in this respect it must be either before or after the coming of the Messias If before this crime would not have been concealed in the New Testament The Apostle who has noted That the Oracles of God are committed to them would undoubtedly have recorded their unfaithfulness in the discharge of their trust in case any such thing had been If it be said That the Apostles have sufficiently discovered their thoughts touching this matter in that they have waved the Hebrew Text in their citations out of the Old Testament and made use of the Greek Version I answer That the Hebrew Text is never waved if the words be not directly followed yet the sence which is the Soul of the Text always is If the Shell be wanting yet we have the Kernel The Pen-men of the New Testament represent the sence of the Old in such words as seem meet to the Spirit of God Those words being of great Authority were put into the Margin of the Greek Version as a good illustration of it Disser in Appen ad Crit. Sacr. Capelli p. 489. and in process of time were inserted by the Transcribers into the Text it self Several insertions of this nature are visible to those who diligently peruse that Version If the corruption pretended was made after the Age in which our blessed Lord and the Apostles lived it is very strange That the Fathers should take no notice of it They speak of the depravation of the Greek Text but never of the Hebrew It is unaccountable why the Corrupters should suffer those Texts to continue in the Bible unaltered which are most pertinent for the refutation of their error We desire no greater advantage against the Jews in our concertations with them than what the Bible as it is now pointed will give unto us None are able to nominate the Text where this fraud has been committed If any such deceit has been used no doubt but those Jews which were converted to the Christian Faith would have disclosed it As the Books of the Old Testament have not been corrupted out of design So neither by any neglect of those which copied them out He who considers their accuracy about Transcribing the Law will not be inclinable to charge them with this crime They were careful that the Ink which they used might have no corrosive ingredients in it The Parchment which they wrote upon was made of the skin of a clean beast and prepared after the most exquisite manner The Columns were measured and a computation made how many lines were to be drawn in every Column These lines were accurately drawn out and the distance betwixt every word and letter limited Tho' many of them did remember the Law by heart yet they did not write a word till they looked upon it in the Authentick Copy All this being duly pondered doth evidence That the Books of the Old Testament are not depraved Neither are the Books of the New In order to the preventing corruption Divine Providence has signally appeared in waving the methods of Art which requires That those things which are homogeneous be put together and in dispersing the fundamental points throughout the whole Volume By this disposition all attempts to deprave it are easily detected If we have several pieces of money it is not difficult to know by comparing of them together whether any of them have been clipt If the Truth should be rased out in one place yet it will be preserved in another It is the pleasure of the Divine Wisdom to divide the important Articles of our belief as Jacob did his flock that in case Esau smite the one the other might escape The divine care is equally conspicuous in ordering That Versions should be made into several Languages and communicated to the World Every Nation is in a capacity to hear the Spirit of God speaking in their own tongue All these people living at a great distance one from another could never combine together to corrupt this sacred Canon If any such attempt had been in any one Nation the Copies preserved in others would presently have discovered the fraud The Premises being seriously considered it will be evident That it is our duty to entertain the Bible both Old and New Testament as the Word of God and depend upon it for our primary conduct in Divine Worship Tradition doth put it into our hand as a complete Directory in the concerns of Religion The Testimony of the Church doth prepare and quicken our minds to look into it and begets a Moral certainty that it is the Word of God There is no reason to question that which has been asserted with so much unanimity in all Ages We may as well doubt of that which we perceive with our senses as that which has been the sence of the best and wisest of Men at all times When we are thus prepared and seriously consult the matter of the sacred Oracles ponder the internal characters of Divinity and the external Seals of the Verity of them we find our Moral Certainty presently translated into a Divine Faith When we receive a letter from a friend we believe it comes from him because it is so asserted by the bearer but when we look upon the hand and seal and find that both are his we are prefently exalted to a higher degree of assurance The inward characters are God's Hand and the Miracles his Seal Those who assert We believe the things contained in the Scripture to be True because God who is True has revealed them and that we believe God has revealed them because it is so affirmed by the Church in all Ages make the foundation of Faith weaker than the superstructure For the Revelation of God is more sure than the Universal Tradition of Men. Those who assert That this Proposition The Bible is the Word of God is capable of no other evidence must ground their perswasion either upon the want of Power or Will in God to impress such Characters upon it as are sufficient to evidence the divine Original of it We cannot reasonably affirm the first For if by the impressions of reason upon a discourse it may be known to be the composition of a Man of excellent Learning why may not such words of Wisdom be spoken by God as need nothing to attest their Original but their innate evidence If God may be known by his Works there is just cause to believe that he may be so by his Words He can imprint peculiar Characters upon the one as well as upon the other The second cannot be asserted For when he gave forth his Word he willed that it should be received as his
Titulars and Pensioners sent from that Court with many other devices P. 18 19 20. insomuch that a Romish Priest in his Letter to the Bishop of Ferns saies That the Council was neither Oecumenical nor Occidental nor free He who considers all this will be under no inclination to believe That the Council of Trent was inspired with any thing besides the infallible Spirit of Worldly Policy As for the People They can make no just plea to infallibility If the Head cannot justifie his plea much less the feet which are guided by and take their measures from him If the Head and Members together are the recipients of it for it is not agreed whether the Decrees of the Pope without a Council or the Decrees of a Council without the Pope or the Decrees of the Pope and Council without the acceptance of the whole body of the People be authentick Some say one thing some another Their Language is confounded that they may be hindred from building the aspiring tower of Infallibility it ought to be examined how this comes to be known Two things are alledged 1. There is a peremptory necessity for such a guide 2. The Church of Rome has all the evidence that can be reasonably desired that she is such a one 1. The necessity is not apparent It was necessary that the doctrin concerning Religion should be revealed by God the first Proponents of it infallibly guided by the influence of the Divine Spirit but there is no just reason why such persons should be continued in the Church to the end of the World The certainty of Religion may be secured without them We have an infallible rule to steer our course by The Books in which it is contained are conveyed to our hand with all the desirable assurance That they are not forged but really such as they pretend to be We have as much evidence for this as the nature of the thing is capable of The Tradition whereby they are delivered to us is so universal That could the like be produced for those points which are in controversie betwixt us and the Church of Rome we should not be backward in the entertainment of them We have far less evidence for many Writings as Plato's Tully's Caesar's which without any hesitancy we believe to be genuine These are conveyed unto us but by a very few hands in comparison but the Books of the Scripture being of general concernment were perused by all sorts and by this means have gain'd the most universal attestation Porphyry and Julian with other implacable enemies to the Christian Faith did acknowledge those books to be composed by those whose names they bear The Books being thus delivered when we come to consult the doctrine contained in them we find ingraven upon it peculiar characters of Divinity agreeable to the impressions of the Deity made upon the Souls of all men together with the broad Seal of Heaven annexed unto it many Miracles which God never gives to any a power to do for the confirming an errour In order to the gaining the true Sence and meaning of this doctrine we have great advantage from the clearness of the stile in all points of absolute necessity to Salvation Truths of this importance are set in a very clear light What is more manifest than the following particulars There is a God a peculiar Worship is due to him in the Deity are Three Persons The Second cloathed himself with our Nature that he might be in a capacity to transact the work of our Redemption Those that would have a title to the benefits of his Redemption must Believe Repent lead a holy Life An eternal reward will be given to those that do these things and an everlasting punishment inflicted upon those who neglect them A day is appointed when all must stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ These particulars with many others of a-like nature are written with the greatest perspicuity If any complain of obscurity it is in themselves and not in the object If men will devest themselves of their prejudices dissipate those mists which are cast before them they cannot remain long unacquainted with these Truths If any controversie arise we have visible Guides to advise with who are devoted to the study of the Sacred Oracles and solemnly set apart by a Divine appointment to this purpose even as in secular concerns there is not only a Law to walk by but Men wholly devoted to the search of the meaning of it who are able in difficult cases to assist us Tho' these Persons whether alone or congregated in a Synod are not infallible yet when they are duly improved sincerely Religious free from the Bias of an irrelative interest they give us a high degree of assurance That their thoughts are agreeable to Truth and just Reason if we cannot internally assent to keep our Faith to our selves and not to disturb the Peace of the Church by an imprudent publication We attribute to the Divine Spirit speaking in the holy Scripture supreme and infallible Conduct To the Governours of the Church Subordinate and Ministerial To private Men who are under their Government we dare not deny the judgment of discretion God requires of them a reasonable Service 〈…〉 a compliance as is in brute creatures who are entirely subject to the discretion of those who use them and can give no account of the action they are directed to He expects the concurrence of the Heart He has endued us with a freedom to determine our selves and requires that our election be made upon such evidence that in case our Rulers command us to do otherwise than we apprehend to be right we may be able to give a sober account of our dissatisfaction an answer to every one that asketh us a reason of the hope which is in us with meekness and fear We are obliged to prove all things try the Spirits whether they be of God This Exhortation is not directed only to Fathers and Governours in the Church but such as are stiled young men and children who are under their conduct This liberty in point of discretion doth not lessen and impair the certainty of Religion Those who use it have a rational power conferred upon them by the Supreme Being for the searching and finding out of Truth They have visible Guides to make their application to in order to the removing their scruples They have the enjoyment of the publick Ministry which by Heaven is designed as the ordinary means to convey information to them the promise of the divine Spirit which doth accompany it and will be assistant to them if they do not resist it but expose themselves to its operations a power to suspend their assent till the matter be clear and evident When the object is so and the faculty duly prepared by the use of such means as have been specified it will be unreasonable to assert That we may in such circumstances be imposed upon He to whom veracity
is essential made the faculty He formed it with a design to find out Truth He requires no other condition in any object to qualifie it for assent but clearness We have as much clearness in all points necessary to Salvation as the nature of the thing will bear So that in this case we have a security from the divine Veracity and Goodness with which it is no reconcileable That our faculty should be so formed as to be deceived when the Proposition we assent unto is manifest and perspicuous So that the ultimate resolution of our Faith is not made into the fallible testimony of a private Spirit but a testimony given by an infallible attribute of the immutable nature of the Deity which assures us not only That what God has revealed is true but that those things are revealed by him in the Bible which are plain and manifest to a duely qualified mind Errour proceeds from the giving too hasty an assent to propositions upon such grounds as are irrelative to their Nature as Education Interest c. He who will devest himself of his prejudices which way soever contracted and sincerely apply himself to the use of such means as are of Divine designation as Praying Reading Hearing Meditating consulting the living Guides which God has set up in his Church will certainly arrive at the perception of that which is necessary to his Salvation He has the highest degree of assurance that this sublunary 〈…〉 â—â—pable of Nothing can be thought 〈…〉 an addition to it but a new revelation and if this was granted as many difficulties would emerge about the meaning of it as there are about the true importance of the old No acquiescence in it could be obtained but upon such considerations as now induce us to believe the Bible and the clear sence of it to be the Word and mind of God All this will evidence That there is not a peremptory necessity for such a Guide as the Church of Rome contends for 2. It is not true That the Church of Rome has all the evidence that can be reasonably desired that she is such a one Three Topicks are commonly made use of in this case Scripture-promises Universal Tradition Motives of Credibility As for the first Let the Text be cited where any such promise is made to the Church of Rome S. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans is so far from insinuating any thing of this nature that he gives them advice which evidently imports the possibility of their fall He acquaints them if they boast against the branches as it is manifest they have done and grow insolent that they shall be cut off To mention those promises which respect the Universal Church is wholly irrelative The Church of Rome is so far from being the Universal that she is but a part exceedingly degenerated Pessimum acetum ex optimo Vino She hath obtained the title Catholick by the same method which Abimelech used to make himself King and Phocas Emperour She attempts to murder the right Heirs and true Sons of the Church with the unjust imputation of Heresie that she may enjoy the inheritance alone Her deportment has been as if one member of the body which has a distemper in it should value if self upon that account and pronounce all the other parts to have no interest in the whole because they are not infected with it Indeed it is said That the Catholick Church is One and always visible which can be applied to none but the Church of Rome But this may as easily be denied as affirmed She has not been in any age the One only Church The Eastern Churches have had always an existence as well as the Western in which from the first age there has been the Baptism of Christ the Creed of the Apostles an uninterrupted succession of Bishops In the Western when abuses began to insinuate themselves there was always a number not only of private but publick persons which gave their testimony against them as will be manifest to any who have leisure to peruse the History of the Ages betwixt Boniface the third and Luther These persons we have more reason to account the Church which God has promised always to preserve than those who were willing without any reluctancy to submit to the grossest innovations Tho' they were not equal in number yet there were enough of them to make the little flock to which a Kingdom is promised The Church of Rome as it is now has not been always visible There was no such thing in the three first Centuries Where was then the doctrin of Supremacy Infallibility Transubstantiation worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints Praying in an unknown Language keeping the Scripture from the People mutilating the Sacrament making the Apocryphal Books equal to the Bible These are some of the Characteristical notes of the present Church whereby she stands distinguish'd from others Those Ages were utterly unacquainted with these Tenents We dare appeal from the Church of Rome as it is now to the Church of Rome as it was then and stand to her arbitration In the following Ages errours began more to shew themselves yet they did not grow to such a height as to be received for the Faith of the Church The infernal Spirit has been always busie to sow his tares yet those Ages were not so blind as to take them for wheat Insomuch that we lawfully say That there was not a man in those days which may be properly called a Papist As for the Promises which respect the Universal Church the utmost that can be made of them is That there shall always be upon the Earth a people owning the fundamentals of Religion together with Teachers which shall have a sufficient assistance in order to the directing and inabling them to discharge their duty But there is no assurance given that this aid shall be so efficacious as to furnish them with such an universal Infallibility as the Church of Rome pretends to Such help is promised as is sutable to the exigencies of every Age. In the Primitive it was necessary That it should be so powerful as to secure the first Proponents of our Religion from errour But in after ages this necessity did not continue Greater skill is required to make an exact rule than when it is made to draw a line exactly conformable to it The foundation of Religion being completely laid and the rule of Faith and Worship given out by an unerring hand such aid only is ordinarily to be expected as if we be not wanting to our selves and prevent the effects of it by a voluntary neglect will lead us into the sence of what is revealed God has endued us with a faculty whereby we are in a capacity to make a free choice of that which is propounded unto us He helps us to do it by such means as are agreeable to an intellectual nature He does always enough to enable us to make an advantagious election and therefore
Armenia Aegypt Aethiopia will be under no temptation to believe That the Romanists have any such great cause to value themselves upon the account of the amplitude of their Community I know that it will be said That all these are cut off from the Church by Heresie But the best way to try whether it be so or no will be to examine the Confessions of their Faith and compare them with the unerring rule of Scripture Upon an impartial inquiry it will be found That the worst of them has a much better consistency with the Primitive Standard than the Creed of the Romanists has The greatest fault which is found with the Protestants is their compliance with the advice of S. John Little children keep your selves from Idols with the Greeks The believing the words of our Saviour which evidently import an equality among the Apostles and their refusing to stoop to the imaginary Supremacy of S. Peter Indeed the denial of the procession from the Son is pretended which altho' it be an errour yet was never accounted fundamental The Pope has done with the Church of Christ as the Jews say Herod did with the Temple of Solomon enlarge the foundation If the errour of the Greeks be fundamental it is not because it is opposite to the foundation which a greater than Solomon laid but the additional laid by the Bishop of Rome Filióque in the Nicene Creed is believed to be inserted by Nicolaus the first about eight hundred and fifty years after Christ when the animosities betwixt him and Photius Patriarch of Constantinople were very high Sguropulus has given assurance enough That what was done in the Council of Florence was brought to pass by the collusion of the Roman party The Greeks being forced by their necessities and tempted by the most alluring promises into such concessions as their whole Church was highly dissatisfied with As for the Nestâ—rians it is evident by their Confessions that they have abandoned that errour which was condemned by the Council of Ephesus the Jacobites Breerw Iâ—quâ— p. 15.4 altho' they retain their denomination from Jacobus Sanzalus a defender of the Eutychian Heresie yet they renounce his doctrin Leonard Legate of Pope Gregory the Thirteenth in those parts of the World where the Jacobites live hath recorded that their Patriarch professed to him That tho' indeed they held but one personate nature in Christ resulting of the unity of the two natures not personated yet they acknowledge those two natures to be united in his person without any mixtion and confusion and that they themselves differ not in understanding but in terms from the Latin Church From all this it is evident That the Romanists have no reason to insist upon their amplitude as a character of the Truth or Infallibility of their Church the next Motive is the uninterrupted succession of Bishops by which is meant the coming of one Bishop into the place of another from S. Peter to the present Bishop of Rome without the interposition of any unduly qualified Such a Succession they are never able to demonstrate For those who are rightly qualified according to their own Principles must be no Symonists no Schisinaticks no Hereticks Men and not Women And yet it is confessed That some of them have obtained their dignities by Symoniacal contracts as Alexander the Sixth Sextus the First Others have been under the guilt of Schism The Council of Pisa deposed Benedict the Thirteenth and Gregory the Thirteenth under that notion and elected Alexander the Fifth who continued in the place without deposition the Council of Basil deposed Eugenius upon the like account And yet after the Council was ended he recovered his dignity without any Conciliary Act And from him all to the present Bishop of Rome are descended So that whether the Pope be above a Council or the Council above the Pope the Succession is interrupted Some of them have been under the imputation of Heresie Liberius was an Arrian Anastasius a Nestorian Vigilius an Eutychian and it is believed by some That one of them was a Woman For this we have the unanimous consent of all the Romanists till Luther's time They were so ingenuous as to confess the thing till the Protestants began to urge it to their prejudice To all this I may add That those Churches which have as good a Succession as they contend for are notwithstanding branded with the infamy of Heresie as our own and the Greek Church Therefore their Succession which is only personal and not doctrinal can be no motive to induce us to believe That they are a True much less an Infallible Church As for their agreement in Doctrin with the ancient Primitive Church This would be a motive indeed could they demonstrate any such harmony Till they have reconciled their Doctrin of withholding the Cup from the Disciples of Christ with the words of our Saviour drink ye all of it Concerning Prayer in an unknown Tongue with the words of the Apostle If I pray in an unknown tongue my understanding is unfruitful Concerning the Worshipping of Images with the Second Command and the Primitive Christians not allowing so much as the making of them we shall not easily believe that there is a consent in all things betwixt their doctrin and the doctrin of the ancient Apostolical Church The next Motive is the Union of the Members amongst themselves He who well considers the Schisms betwixt the Anti-Popes as Novatianus and Cornelius Foelix and Liberius Vrsinus and Damasus Eusebius and Bonifacius the second Vigilius and Sylverius c. with many others Six and Twenty in Bellarmine's account Thirty according to Onuphrius and thinks fit to enlarge his Meditations with the consideration of the divisions betwixt the Emperours and Popes the last pretending a power from Christ to devest the former of their Authority and with the differences betwixt the Popes and the Bishops about their Power Whether it be derived immediately from the Pope or from Christ the Bishops and Regulars these pleading an exemption from their jurisdiction the Regulars and the Parochial Priests with all the diversities betwixt the Jansenists and Molinists Franciscans and Dominicans the Sorbonists and the followers of the doctrin of Lombard and Anquinas together with the grand contest about the fundamental Article Infallibility some making it Canonical some absolute some saying it is in the Pope some in a Council will not find himself under any strong inclination to believe That the Concord so much boasted of is so perfect as is pretended Indeed they say Tho' they be not actually agreed yet they have the most ready way that leads to it They all acknowledge one visible Head in whose judgment all are to acquiesce So that when differences arise they have nothing to do but to speak with him But this is nothing to the purpose For the Motive is not potential but actual Union not what may be but what is It is no good consequence that they are United because they
him and his Successours 2. Such a Guide as the Romanists would have who must be followed blindfold and his dictates received with an implicit faith without examination is not consistent with the nature of an Intellectual Being Our understanding is appointed to be our immediate Guide insomuch That if we act contrary to it we pervert the order of Nature and vitiate the action It is designed by a divine institution to make scrutiny and search into that which is propounded to us Therefore when there were infallible guides upon the Earth the people were commanded to look into the facred Oracles and make tryal by them of what was tendered to them They were not to rely only upon the words of them who spake but examine their Authority by a standing rule and inquire into the sence of what was spoken by them Joh. 5. Act. 17.11 Our blessed Lord directed the Jews to take this course and the Beraeans are commended for the using of it To suffer our understandings to be lapped up in an implicite belief is to keep our talent in a napkin Our Intellect was given to us to be exerted to the uttermost that all the Acts of our Religion might become a reasonable Service 3. Such a Guide is destructive of true Virtue in the Acts of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is defined by the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an elective habit It disposeth us when good and evil are set before us to make a free election to chuse the good and reject the evil Now the Guide supposed who must be followed without scrutiny deprives us of this liberty He must be believed whatsoever he propounds whether right or wrong If he commands us to believe that to be black which appears white to our sence we must not dispute his dictate Amongst the Eighteen rules of the prevailing Order in the Church of Rome the Thirteenth runs in these words Vt ipsi Catholicae Ecclesiae omnino unanimes conformesque simus Si quod oculis nostris albus apparet nigrum illa definierit debemus itidem quòd nigrum est pronunciare Bellarmine is very agreeable to this rule as is manifest by the following expression Si autem Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas c. If the Pope should err in commanding Vices or prohibiting Virtues the Church would be obliged to believe Vices to be good and Virtues evil 4. Such a Guide can be of no advantage to us in our present circumstances We have already an infallible Rule to walk by the true sence of which if we receive and comply with we cannot err Now this sence may as easily be obtained as the sence of an infallible Guide If there was such a one as is supposed he could not be spoken with by one of a Thousand of those who are concerned in the meaning of his determination And therefore they must receive it from the relation of others or by some Writing under his hand The Relators being fallible and obnoxious to the like infirmities with other men can give us no infallible assurance They may be byassed with partiality and irrelative respects A Writing from him is liable to the same exceptions which are usually formed against the Scripture We see that all parties among the Romanists pretend favour from the determinations of the Church They are like Pictures which seem to look upon every one in the room where they hang. When interest is concerned it will find out as many evasions as the most subtle Adversary can devise to elude any text of Scripture There are many divisions among the Romanists yet all assert the sence of the infallible Judge is on their side Why may not we as well understand the sence of the Bible immediately as the meaning of a Decree in Writing of such a Judge The Scripture was written by an unerring hand with a sincere purpose that it might be understood Clearness of stile is a necessary condition in order to this end and therefore must be designed by the Composer God undoubtedly is able to write with as much perspicuity and with as manifest accommodations to the meanest capacity as men are Thousands have had so firm a Faith grounded upon the sence which they immediately derived from his Word That rather than they would depart from it they have with alacrity endured the loss of their sublunary comforts and chearfully resigned up their lives to the inhumanity of their Persecutors The Divine Spirit is ready to assist those who are sincerely desirous of true knowledge Peculiar persons are devoted to the study of the Scripture in order to the dissipating of Clouds and the clearing of what is obscure Why a Writing composed by an infinitely Wife Being and attended with these advantages in order to the gaining the true meaning of it may not be as easily understood as the decrees of a Pope or the Canons of a Council I could never discern any good reason 5. Such a Guide is not reconcileable to the Divine Intention in giving us the sacred Oracles These are evidently designed as a rule which every one is obliged to consult Blessed is he which readeth Rev. 1.4 Reading is enjoyned in order to the gaining understanding Let the word dwell richly in you in all wisdom The supreme Head of the Church commands us to search the Scriptures S. Peter whom the Romanists assert to have been his Vicegerent upon the earth requires us to attend unto them as unto a light without suggesting the necessity of having recourse to himself or his Successors for interpretation All this assures us That we are to take our measures from the Bible and judge for our selves what is to be done or not done with a judgment of discretion that our conformity to the Divine Will may be an act of our Understanding Now a Guide whose Dictates we are to swallow down without examination is not consistent with the practice here enjoyned us To be bound to examine the rule with all diligence and yet to resign up our selves to the decrees of a Guide about the sence of it without any scrutiny are two contrary obligations If the first be intended as it is plain it is the last cannot God never wills that we should be engaged to those things which are contradictory one to another In a civil Community where there is a Law and a Judge If it be commanded That every Subject read this Law search it diligently use his best endeavours to understand it That his conformity to it may be an act of his own Reason this would plainly signifie That the Judge is not to be followed blindfold whether right or wrong but his Decree is to be compared and fully considered Tho' the Judge has the power of decision which the subject is so far to acquiesce in as not to disturb the publick order by any inutinous demeanour yet the judgment of discretion
of that Church which he is the Head of Indeed it is said That the man of Sin is the same with him who is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he is expressed to be one who denies the Father and the Son which cannot be affirmed of him who is the great pretender to infallibility To which we reply That tho' he owns them in words yet in reality he denies them by authorizing that Worship which is peculiar to them to be given to created Beings Tho' a Subject does verbally own his True Sovereign yet if he pays that homage to another which is due only to him he does in truth deny him and will be treated by the Law as such a person Actions are more faithful indications of the mind than verbal expressions As all this argues the agreeablenss of the Character of the Man of Sin to the great pretender to Infallibility So we know of no other to which it can with so much reason be applied Three are pretended to have an interest in it Caius Caligula Simon Magus and a Jew of the Tribe of Dan. As for Caius Caligula He cannot be the person Tho' he was a Man of Sin yet he was not the Man which the Apostle had his eye upon He was come and gone before the writing of the Epistle to the Thessalonians Baronius Capel Appen aed Histor Aposto p. 3913. which was about the end of the Ninth or the beginning of the Tenth year of Glaudius his Successor and we must not so interpret S. Paul as to make him prophesy of that which was already past The same exception lies against Simon Magus He was in his altitude and greatness about the beginning of Claudius His flying in his fiery Chariot and being brought down headlong by the Devotion of S. Peter are usually believed to have happened about the Second Year of his Reign about Eight Years before the Prophecy was extant The Man of Sin was hindred from appearing in those times by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Secular Power of Rome as Tertullian S. Chrysostome and S. Austine assert The first calls it Romanum Statum the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third Romanum Imperium This was not taken away till some Hundreds of Years after and then the great pretender to Infallibility did display himself in his proper colours Indeed the Mystery of Iniquity began to work in the Apostles dayes There were then many Antichrists As Christ had his Types to represent him before his Manifestation in our Nature So had his great Antagonist In the number of these Simon Magus may be reckoned but to make him the person which the Apostle has in his eye in his prediction concerning the Man of Sin cannot be reconciled to any good reason Lastly it is said That a Jew of the Tribe of Dan is the Person aimed at by the Apostle who will abolish the Mass oppress the Church subdue the whole World in Three Years and a half and then presently shall be the comeing of Christ to the last judgment But this is as easily denied as affirmed There is not the least intimation of any such matter in the Holy Scripture Gen. 49. Num. 2. Jer. 8. Rev. 2. The Texts which have been sometimes produced are so irrelative That the wisest of our Adversaries are ashamed to alledge them The Person which the Apostle aims at must be a Christian in Profession who in reality makes a great defection from the Doctrine of our Saviour which cannot be asserted of a Jew who is and was always an open and professed enemy to it There is an impossibility in the thing That one should subdue all the World in Three Years and a half It would be very difficult for him to visit every part tho' very well mounted in so short a time much more to conquer it In the times immediately preceding the last day there will be worldly joy in the greatest altitude Eating and Drinking Marrying and giving in Marriage which cannot be consistent with that Sorrow which must be an inevitable product of the universal oppression and tyranny of an insatiable Conqueror It does not appear That there is any preparation for any such matter in any part of the Universe The Tribe of Dan for any thing we know is utterly extinct There is not a Jew now that takes his denomination from it It is strange That the Mystery of Iniquity should begin to work in the Apostles daies and now altogether cease to make any progress The infernal Spirit is as active as ever It is his chief design to set up the person whom the Apostle describes He cannot be imagined to be wanting in his endeavours to accomplish so grateful a purpose The Jews to requite the Advancers of this Hypothesis say That Antichrist shall be begotten in Rome and his name called Armillus Buxt Rab. Lex in voc Armillus Hitherto I have considered the first Opinion That the Church of Rome must be our Guide The Second is That this priviledge belongs to every Man's Reason By the Reason of every Man we must understand That Light which every one has in his Intellect Tho' this be the immediate Guide yet it is not the Supreme and is no farther valuable for conduct in Religion but so far as it is conformable to the Supreme Rule This rule is the revelation of God contained in the Scripture This was given to be a Lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths Those Texts which respect our Salvation and promise to us a security against the revenger of blood like the Cities of Refuge in Palestine are placed upon Hills and made very conspicuous There is no need of Four Hundred Camels as the Jews speak loaden with Commentaries to give them light Matters of Faith and Worship necessary to the enjoyment of a future state of happiness are clear in them When it is said That every Man must be guided by his own reason if the meaning is That he must be ruled by the light of his Intellect from whatsoever Topic it is derived without any limitation many ill consequences will be unavoidable 1. Such conduct will necessarily produce an effect very disagreeable to the mind of the Supreme Being If it be allow'd there will be as great a diversity of opinions and practices in Religion as there is of tempers educations and interests These usually mould the Intellect and make the most prevailing impressions upon it From hence commonly proceeds the Light which the generality pretends unto This variety will certainly suffocate the Spirit of Christian love Men in their several apartments are naturally propense to meditate their own defence and the justification of their separation They usually believe That the most compendious way to it is to weaken the reputation of those who differ from them This creates on both sides the hottest jealousie the most sinister interpretation of each others actions an exchange of the greatest unkindness and an utter