Revelations which do contradict the Scriptures they cannot pretend to lay any Obligation on us to comply with them in those Matters which the Scriptures do contradict for we have every jot as good Authority to Believe and Practice in direct contradiction to them as they have to Believe and Act in express contradiction to us though we should condescend to an impossible Supposition viz. That a Divine Revelation may contradict the Scriptures Besides they have no need or occasion to trouble themselves to prevail with us to comply with them in their Points for supposing their Revelations to be as they prerend whether we comply or do not comply the Case is just the same for we are never the better if we do comply with them nor is our guilt and offence one jot the more if we do not comply But if what they call Divine Revelations be not really so and they will notwithstanding Believe or Act or both in contradiction to the Scriptures which are known owned and professed Divine Revelations let them seriously consider what is like to be the fruit of their so doing We have reason therefore to conclude that all those Doctrines and Practices which are inconsistent with and do contradict what is declared in the Holy Scripture have not a Divine Original but have their Rise from the fountain of Falshood and Untruth And therefore we cannot be justly blamed if we protest against and reject such Notions and Practices for we certainly have a good Foundation and just Authority for every part of our Religion which Scripture doth expresly and plainly warrant And they must needs be at a great loss for just Authority as to those Points which expresly contradict the Scripture whatever may become of those Points amongst them touching which they may conceive the Scripture is silent But lastly If the Holy Scriptures we are speaking of do contain the whole and intire Revelation of the Mind and Will of God which he hath designed for the constant and perpetual use of his Church and People and do furnish People with full Instructions and Directions in all Matters of Religion then Protestants have very good warrant to affirm and stedfastly adhere to this Point viz. That the Holy Scriptures are the only Rule we are to govern our selves by in all Matters of Religion And we are safe enough as to this part of our main Principle and cannot with any justice be reproached or blamed by our Adversaries on this Account till they can produce very good and substantial evidence for some other Divine Revelation really distinct from those we are discoursing of But this is a task so hard for them to undertake so impossible for them to perform that there is not one understanding person in that Communion I am perswaded who dares adventure to ingage in it For it will not serve the turn to talk honourably of Tradition in general nor to make a noise about Apostolical Traditions without mentioning particular Traditions and proving them to be Divine Revelations and that they are truly Apostolical and were by Divine Appointment set apart for the perpetual use of the Christian Church The Council of Trent speaks loud of Apostolical Traditions and advances them to the same degree with the Holy Scriptures and appears so resolv'd for these Traditions that she makes them necessary to compleat the Scripture in order unto its being a perfect Rule but alas her courage cool'd in a little time for she dared only to talk extravagantly and in excessive terms of Tradition in General she dared not to name particular Traditions which she would own and undertake to prove truly Apostolical and of Divine and constantly binding Authority to the Church And since she thought it not convenient to descend to particulars I am of opinion particular persons in that Communion will not care to meddle in the matter but rather chuse to refer it to another Council when they can get one because if they should undertake it it must only be for our sakes and those of that Communion cannot but know that nothing less will satisfie such cautious reasonable people as Protestants are in a matter of this nature than such evidence as is very substantial and proportionate to the thing to be proved And could they produce ever so good evidence for any particular they will call a Divine Revelation or Apostolical Tradition it would be of no use to those of their own Church who prefer particular Humane Testimony called by another Name before all sort of proper and suitable evidence And after all their pains though they could produce satisfactory evidence which I affirm to be utterly impossible in this case for some Tradition which would inforce some Point the Scriptures do not inforce yet this would not do them any service however it would weaken our Principle as touching the Perfect on of that Body of Divine Revelations we have For notwithstanding we should in obedience to a Divine Revelation though roughly proved and evidenced concur and joyn with them in some Point we did not imbrace before yet the difference betwixt them and us in that matter would be as great as before there would still remain a formal difference betwixt us touching this very particular because though we should Believe or Practice the same thing yet the formal Reason of Believing or Doing it would be totally different So that if any would attempt to produce substantial evidence for any Revelation distinct from the Scriptures their labour will be wholly useless with reference to their Church unless they can produce a Revelation relating to their Church like that Law the flattering Courtiers of an Eastern Prince told him they could find when they were at a loss for a particular Law to warrant some particular Practice the Prince was inclined unto though they knew of no Law relating to what was propos'd yet there was a Law that the Prince might Command and do what he pleased Such a Revelation our Adversaries must produce Indeed I am apprehensive they Act in that Communion as if they had such a Revelation but all the mischief is they cannot produce valid proof for it or else they must be at the trouble of providing distinct Revelations for the several Points in dispute and distinct Evidence unless they can make a shift to croud three or four of their Notions into a single Tradition and so make shorter work of it In short the Protestants do affirm That Divine Revelation is the only Rule of Christian Religion That the Holy Scriptures are confessedly Divine Revelations That these Holy Scriptures do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of perpetual standing obliging Use to his Church and People We acknowledge that were it possible for our Adversaries to produce solid proof that there is any Divine Revelation distinct from what these Holy Scriptures do contain which God hath appointed to be of constant perpetual binding Use to his Church they might thereby invalidate
through the Ignorance Superstitions and Impurity which they had given way to and the just infatuation which God suffered to crawl on and over-power them that for a long time very few either of the Princes or People did make any considerable attempts to extricate themselves out of that Bondage or get rid of the Tyranny and Apostacy into which they were sunk But the time hastening on when God would deliver his People out of of that wretched estate The Head and principal Instruments of the Romish State were grown so secure and fearless of danger they gave up themselves to their Lusts and minded nothing but how to invent new ways to impoverish the people by which means they occasioned the people to awake and suggested to their minds the most powerful and justest prejudices against the way they were in and that Church they did then adhere to For though there were many beams of light which shone up and down in the world yet two things did principally dispose the people to cast off that Spiritual and Civil Yoke which had mightily gall'd both their Consciences and their Necks and to inquire after the Truth and Purity of Religion The first was the obvious prodigious Ignorance Sloth and beastly Sensuality and Debauchery of the generality of those who pretended they had the keeping of the people's Souls and Consciences the Wickedness Tyranny and Unsatiableness of the greatest part by far of the Clergy was such as struck most violently on the outward senses of the People So that they were forced to conclude God would not intrust any extraordinary Depositum with such persons A German Bishop in the year 1519 which was not long before the Reformation complains as in Museccle I find him quoted in this manner I am afraid the Doctrine of the Apostle touching the Qualifications of a Bishop is but very ill observed in these days or rather that we are fallen into those Times which he noted when he said I know that after my Departure Ravenous Wolves will come among you not sparing the Flock Where may one see a good Man chosen to be a Bishop One approved by his Works and his Learning And any one who is not either a Child or Worldly or ignorant in Spiritual things They have no love for ony but Sinners they despise the Poor they keep about their persons Pimps Debauchers of Women Flatterers Buffoons Players when they should have wise and holy Men. The Revenues of the Church are given not to the Servants of God but to those of the Devil to Debauchers of Women to Adulterers Gamesters Hunters Flatterers and such like Men. And hence it is that the House of God is become Tributary to the Devil Matthew Paris I remember speaking in his History of the corruption and wickedness of the Clergy saith It was risen to so infamous a height the Devil sent them Letters of Thanks because of the extraordinary service they did him in sending Souls to Hell in greater Troops than ever came thither before You may find large accounts of and complaints against their notorious wickedness in the Writings of Nic. de Clemang and others Several of the Popish Writers do acknowledge their Debauchery and Wickedness was such as did necessitate the people to seek after a Reformation And truly saith Meceray the extream Ignorance of the Clergy many of them scarce able to read the scandalons Lives of the Pastors most of them Concubinaries Drunkards and Userers and their extream negligence gave him viz. Luther a fair advantage to perswade the people that the Religion they taught was corrupt since their Lives and Examples were so bad A second thing which very much awaken'd the Princes and People and prepar'd them to cast off and renounce the Romish Trumpery was the Pope's Bishop's and other Ecclesiastical Officers most enormious prostituting those very things wherein they pretended to place very much of their Religion and by which they pretended to impart to the people the Merits of Jesus Christ and of the Saints For Leo the Tenth having a mind to raise great Summs of Mony to satisfie his own profuse humour and make large Provisions for his Kindred sent abroad his Agents through the Empire but especially in Germany to sell the pardon of Sins publickly under pretence to build the Church of St. Peters at Rome The Sellers of these Indulgencies did prostitute them at the strangest rate imaginable for they would sell them for any thing wherewith they might satisfie their Lusts They would play them away at Taverns at a Game at Dice they would stake a Man against so much Money the Pardon of his sins or a power to deliver Souls out of Purgatiry And when this was complained of and wrote against by Luther the Pope sent his Bull to confirm these Indulgencies asserting his power to give and divulge them in this manner By the power of the Keys given to St. Peter and his Successors the Bishops of Rome had a right to pardon the Faithful all the guilt and punishment of their Actual Sins to wit the guilt by means of the Sacrament of Pennance and the temporal Punishment by means of Indulgencies whether in this life or in Purgatory and that by those Indulgencies he could apply to the Living and the Dead the superabundance of the Merits of Jesus Christ and the Saints either by way of Absolution or by way of Suffrage So that the Living and the Dead participating of those Indulgencies were delivered from the punishment that the Divine Justice would inflict on them for their Actual Sins But Luther's contending this point with the Romish Agents put him and others on a more strict Inquiry into other Corruptions in that Church by which means Light broke forth dayly with more power to the full satisfaction of very many that there was an absolute necessity of a Reformation And the Agents being not able to contest the matter fairly with Luther Eccius and others being quite worsted and baffled in their arguings Sylvester Prierias positively insisted on the Pope's authority acknowledging the Scriptures did not warrant those Indulgencies but that the Pope did whose authority he asserted was above the Scriptures And thus he brought that point on the stage which upon examination appearing to be a meer cheat and gross untruth the people hastened to imbrace the Sufficiency of the Scripture and that the Holy Scriptures were the only Rule God had appointed Christians to guide themselves by in all matters of Religion in opposition to the Pope's pretended authority This of the Pope's authority being the point for which both Head and Members of that Church were mainly concerned and which supports and keeps all the other corruptions in that Church in life when the vanity and ungroundedness the absurdity and wickedness of that claim came to be exposed and laid open to the World the Interest of that Church did very mueh sink and the authority of Scripture was much advanced amongst people So that
the Pope notwithstanding all his Letters and Stratagems to destroy Luther and hinder the spreading of that Light which was now broken forth could not effect his design but knowledge increased every day and the authority of the Scripture was much insisted on to the great damage of the Pope and his Adherents 'T is true the Pope by his Letters and Nuncio's did prevail with the Emperour and some of the Princes of Germany to make an Edict when they were assembled at Worms which forbad Luther Fire and Water and the commerce of all the World it extended also to all his Favourers and Followers and Complices but the more violent the Pope and and his people were against Luther and the greater stir they kept with the Princes to see the Edict of Worms strictly executed the greater number of Friends God raised up for Luther and his Followers For the Princes assembled at Nuremberg declared they could not put the Pope's Bull nor the Edict of Worms in execution without involving themselves in great dangers and that the generality of the people were so sensible how matters stood having their eyes opened by the writings of the Lutherans that if they should execute those Sentences the people would believe they were only made to overthrow the Truth of the Gospel and to maintain and defend their evil abuses and impieties c. And having drawn up this their Answer in form of an Edict they sent their grievances to the Pope to the number of an hundred Articles which they call'd Centum Gravamina After this another Assembly of the Princes publish'd another declaration in form of an Imperial Edict which extreamly provok't the Pope and all his Creatures Upon this the Pope complained to the Emperour by Letters and to animate him the more he perswaded him that that was a manifest breach of his Authority and a form and design to withdraw themselves intirely from his Obedience the Emperour is hereby prevailed with to concern himself in the matter and accordingly writes very preremptorily to the Princes requiring them to execute the Edict of 〈◊〉 and make void that of Nuremberg And this brings me to to the very Rise of the Name Protestant an Account of which I will give you in the englished words of a Forreign Divine who hath very faithfully collected his Relation out of the most celebrated and authentick Historians who have writ the Affairs of those Times His Account is thus In the Month of April in the Year 1529 an Assembly of the Princes and other States of Germany was held at Spire whether Pope Clement did not sail to send a Nuncio the first thing they did there was to reject the Assembly at the City of Strasburgh under pretence that it had abolished the use of the Mass without waiting for the Imperial Diet. This violent procedure was quickly after followed by a Decree that Ferdinand Arch-Duke of Austria and some other Princes who took part with the Court of Rome made and whom the Emperour had expresly chozen for his Deputy Commissioners They ordained therefore in the first place that those who till then had observed the Edict of Worms that is to say who not only had not received the Reformation but who had persecuted it with all their might should for the future do the like and force their Subjects to do the same And that as for those in whose Countries those new Doctrines had been spread abroad provided they could not extirpate them without putting themselves into manifest danger of stirring up Troubles it should be their part at least to hinder any thing more from being Innovated till the calling of a Council Secondly They ordained that above all things the Doctrine which opposed the Substantial Presence should neither be propounded nor received by any in all the compass of Germany and that the Mass should not be abrogated In the Third place they decreed that they should not allow Preachers in any place to explain the Gospel otherwise than by the Interpretation of the Fathers In fine they ordained grievous penalties against the Printers and Booksellers who should print or vend for the future the Books that contained that new Doctrine The other Princes and States of the Empire beholding this manifest Oppression thought themselves bound to make an Act of Protestation to the contrary They Remonstrated therefore that that new Decree contradicted that which had been passed in the preceding Assembly where every one was to be free in respect of his Religion that they did not pretend to hinder the other Princes and States from enjoying that Liberty but that on the contrary they pray'd God that He would give them the knowledge of His Truth That they could not with a good Conscience approve of the Reason for which they would allow them to retain the Evangelical Doctrine to wit least they should fall into new Troubles for that would be to confess that it would be good to renounce that Doctrine if it could be done without Tumult which would be a criminal and wicked Confession and a tacit Denyal of the Word of God. That as to the Mass those who had abolish't it and who had re-established in its place the lawful use of the Supper of our Lord were led by the Institution of our Lord Jesus Christ That as for the Doctrine that opposed the Real Presence they did not believe that they ought lightly to condemn those who held it without hearing them and that proceeding was against Equity especially in a matter of so great consequence In fine that they could not consent to that Decree offering the Reasons of their carriage to the Emperour and all the World. That they did appeal to a Free Council and that in waiting for it they would do nothing for which they should justly deserve any blame This Act of Protestation was made at Spire the 19th of April 1529. And from thence came the Name of Protestants which has been since given to all those who have embraced the Reformation This is the true Account of the first Rise of this Name Protestant which was used by way of reproach by those who adhered to the Romish Corruptions and asserted the Pope's Authority above the Scripture towards them who renounced those Corruptions and protested against the Pope's Supremacy and for the Sufficiency and sole Authority of the Scripture And this Name hath ever since been applied to and appropriated by them who have renounced Popish Corruptions and especially that great Fundamental Article of the Supremacy because of their contradiction to and derogating from the Holy Scriptures The best Historians both Protestant and Popish do confirm the Truth of this Relation and that all people have promiscuously past in all Countries under the Name of Protestants who have renounced the Pope's Authority and that Body or System of false Doctrines and superstitious Practices which are maintained and justified in the Romish Church because of their contradiction unto Scripture For the
Name Protestant is a common Title to discriminate all those who renounce and forsake the Romish Communion because of its contradiction to the Holy Scripture from those who do own and are of that Communion But it was not designed to descriminate one sort of people renouncing and protesting against that Communion on the aforesaid Account from others who agree in the same Point And therefore in every Age and Nation other Names have been made use of to discriminate Protestants one from another according to the matter in difference betwixt them True Protestantism then consisteth more especially in two Points First Protesting against and renouncing Popish Corruptions and especially all such Infallibility Supremacy and Authority as the Bishops of Rome have for some Ages laid a claim to It is the renouncing the thing it self which Protestantism chiefly respects its reference to such a particular person is only accidental by reason of his audacious and arrogant challenging that Power But Protestantism would be equally against the Claim if that Bishop should lay it down and any other either in France or in any other Countrey should challenge it or if it should be pretended to be lodged in any other Man or Body of Men. Secondly Protesting for the Sufficiency and Authority of the Scripture That the Holy Scripture is a safe and full Rule for the Instruction of us in all things needful to be known or done in order to Eternal Life and that nothing ought to be admitted as an Article of Christian Faith which cannot by just consequence be proved by this Rule according as the Church of England expresseth her self Article 6. In these two things Protestantism doth consist the denial and renouncing of the Pope's arrogated Supremacy and all those Superstructions which have no foundation but that Authority and the owning and adhering to the Scriptures as the only compleat Rule of Religion This is the great fundamental positive Principle in Protestantism For Protestantism doth not take away an andue boundless Power and Authority from the Pope and conser it on another person It ascribes indeed to the Supream Power in every Nation what belongs to the same according to the constitution of the Government protesting against all forreign and every unjust pretence and claim to the prejudice of the rightful Owner And it asserts the only right of the Scripture to be the Rule that every Supream Power on Earth should observe in restoring and reforming Religion as occasions are offered by reason of the Decays or Corruptions which may have prevailed The Bible I say the Bible only is the Religion of Protestants whatsoever else they Believe besides it and the plain irrefragable indubitable Consequences of it well may they hold it as a matter of Opinion but as matter of Faith and Religion neither can they with coherence to their own grounds Believe it themselves nor require the Belief of it of others without most high and Schismatical Presumption And now seeing Protestantism doth mainly or rather only consist in asserting the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule the only Rule by which all Christians are to govern and manage themselves in all matters of Religion So that no Doctrine is to be owned as an Article of Faith on any account but what hath very plain warant and sound evidence from the Scriptures nor no instance of Religious Worship to be owned or submitted to as necessary nor any thing to be entertained as a part of Religion but what the Scripture doth appoint and warrant It may not be altogether unuseful to inquire briefly whether this Principle be really justifiable or no Or whether those who are called Protestants on this Account be truly in the right touching this matter For if we be right in this Point then the great Fundamental opposite Point of our Adversaries must needs have a slaw in it and cannot be solid and substantial and consequently all the particular Doctrines and Practices which have their whole being and Dependance on that Authority must necessarily expire and give up the Ghost Now much might be offered to evince that Protestants have very good ground to rest assured that they are not mistaken in this matter but I will only offer these few considerations which being well considered and improved may suffice to satisfie any unprejudiced and impâ—â—tial honest meaning person that Protestantism is not a â—â—mersome precarious thing but is really accompanied with the greatest evidence and certainty any Perswasion can justly pretend unto First It is universally acknowledged by all who profess themselves Christians that the Holy Scriptures viz. those Books contained in the Old and New Testament as received by Protestants are the Word of God and were written at the appointment of God for the constant Use and Benefit of his Church and People by Persons Divinely Inspired for that purpose Secondly Supposing but not granting that those Scriptures do not contain the whole Revelation God hath made of his Mind and Will for the constant perpetual and obliging Use of his Church yet it is most evident that these Scriptures are a safe and most certain Rule in Matters of Religion so far as they do extend They are a certain Rule touching those matters of which they do treat and so far as they do treat of them So that there can be no just pretence of a Divine Revelation for any Doctrines or Practices which are inconsistent with or contradictory to what God hath declared in these Scriptures Because the Divine Veracity and Truth which is Essential to the Deity cannot permit that God should contradict himself All that can be pretended with reference to this matter is that God may make more Declarations of his Will and either inlarge the Discoveries He hath made of his Will touching particulars already made known or add Declarations of His Mind concerning Matters which He doth not at all discourse of in the Scriptures But it is not consistent with the Natural Notions of a Deity not with the Revelations God hath made any way of Himself that He should overthrow the Truth of a Former Revelation by a Latter or that Contradictions should be reconcileable in His Will. For any Man to affirm that a Divine Revelation may contradict any thing taught in the Scriptures whil'st he professeth these Scriptures are pure Divine Revelations is not only to involve himself in most obvious and horrid Absurdities but to contract upon himself to burthen and overwhelm himself with the guilt of the most plain and unnatural Blasphemy against God. If any thing that plainly contradicts the Scripture can be a Divine Revelation then a Man may be indispensibly obliged to Believe and not to Believe the same thing to do and not to do the same work And so Man will be brought under such Circumstances that whether he Believe or do not Believe whether he Practice or do not Practice it will be the same thing he will be equally guilty But certainly if our Adversaries can pretend to
our Principle which doth affirm that the Holy Scriptures are the Only Rule by which Christians are to govern themselves in all Matters of Religion But yet we affirm their doing this would not really advantage their Cause because the same Formal difference would remain betwixt them and us after as before for though we should be obliged on their exhibiting such proof for some particular Revelation which should warrant and oblige to own and use some Doctrine or Practice at present in dispute betwixt us yet the agreement which would then seem to be betwixt them and us in that particular would only be material and not formal because we should then own the Doctrine or Practice what is injoyned purely because taught and commanded by a Divine Revelation throughly evidenced And they would own the Doctrine or Practice the Duty injoyned purely because taught and commanded by a meer Humane Authority which they are pleased to name Infallible And it will not be to any purpose for them to undertake a more quick dispatch in this matter by talking of an Infallible Judge for he cannot be Judge and Rule too There must be Divine Revelation which must be the Rule for their Infallible Judge to exercise and imploy his Infallible Judgment about And seeing all their attempts to prove their Infallible Judge by Scripture have been very unfortunate and without success I may take it for granted when once they have agreed together and found out their Infallible Judge their best proof that that Person or Body of Men which ever they shall agree upon is a Judge and an Infallible Judge in Matters of Religion must be some new Revelation or some old Tradition never hitherto known to be a Divine Revelation for we must have better proof than any that has yet been offered on the behalf of any of their Traditions before we can entertain them as Divine Revelations And when they have well proved that Tradition and its Divine Authority which shall fix and settle their Infallible Judge they must still be at the trouble and pains to produce very substantial proof for every other Tradition they will make a part of the Christian Rule For the Authority of their Infallible Judge will not do here because his Infallibility does not reach to make nor declare a Rule but is purely concerned about the true sense and meaning of an acknowledged Rule when Controversies do arise about the importance of any Expressions contained in that Rule But besides all this Protestants have such evidence as doth create certain assurance that the Holy Scriptures are fully Perfect to instruct and direct Believers in all matters of Religion and do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of necessary and perpetual Use unto his Church greater evidence cannot be desired than the express Witness Testimony and Declaration of the unerring Spirit of the Faithful and True God. And this we have most plainly to the unavoidable and full Conviction of every honest piously disposed ingenious and unprejudiced Person who really owns and believes the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God And this you heard before is the professed Belief of all who profess themselves Christians And if such kind of evidence will not serve peoples turns I must acknowledge they are of a temper I do not much care to deal with for I must confess I am no preat admirer of booted blunderbus Apostles nor do I think he makes any real Proselites who only dragoon's Men into a Perswasion I never lik'd murthering Men for Religion nor persecuting Men because their Consciences would not stretch to every body's phancy I think whil'st the Scriptures are acknowledged on all sides to be Divine Revelations the greatest and best evidence we can have in matters of Religion is plain and express Scripture And if in all our Disputes with our Adversaries we did strictly keep within this compass we should guard and maintain our owe Cause the better and wound our Adversaries Cause the more fatally not but that I am very sensible we have Antiquity the Fathers rhe Primitive Writers and the most General Councils on our side either expresly or by way of silence thereby certifying us that no such Points were known or in question in those days But alas by having ordinary recourse to the Fathers c. we mightily gratifie our Adversaries for hereby they get out of the immediate reach of the Sword of the Spirit And all the Testimonies of Antiquity taken together in their own strength will not do rhe thousandth part of that execution against a Heresy as one plain and express Scripture will. Besides how often do we see that when the greatly Read and Learned on both sides do fall together by the Ears over the Fathers they lengthen the Dispute beyond measure and not only bewilder the Hearer or Reader but even themselves too that by the time they are got half through the Dispute they have well night forgot what it was they began to dispute about And having slipt into this digression I may even adventure to hint one digression more relating to the common way of managing Controversies with our Adversaries the Romanists It may be if it be well inquired into it may appear that we do not ordinarily proceed in our Controversial Discourses with them in that free and ingenious manner we ought but do too much limit and straighten our selves According to that little measure of apprehension I have it seems to me most expedient and most proper for us in opposing our Adversaries to maintain Protestantism or the Protestant Doctrines both really and professedly as such and not to pinnion our selves by pretending to maintain them as Taught or Owned by particular Communions The Cause is a common Cause and the Arguments we can truly maintain it with are common Arguments one Party is no more interested in them than another nor do the Matters in dispute amongst our selves concern the Controversies betwixt us and our Common Adversaries Why should we so affect and hug our selves in our private Notions and particular Differences as to please our selves with or at least receive and keep up the unreasonable Remembrance of them Indeed I do acknowledge the candor of our Adversaries in that they have not improved the advantage they might have taken to have made some Tragical Appearances by falling upon us with reference to this very matter of undertaking to maintain Protestant Doctrines meerly as owned by a particular Party for what doth this properly import but that we relinquish the Common Principle and undertake only to maintain our Doctrines not by the Scripture as the General and Only Rule of Christian Religion but by the Scripture as limited and bounded by those discriminating Terms and Instances whereby we are distinguished from all others who take the Scripture to be the Only Rule in all Matters of Religion Now will not this if insisted on make our task the harder and the more confound and perplex our
Controversies But would it not seem odd for a Remonstrant or a Contra-Remonstrant to defend Christianiry or the particular Doctrines of Christianity against Jews or Heathens purely as a Remonstrant or a Contra-Remonstrant For what have their particular differences to do in matters wherein they all agreed and in maintaining of that for which both sides are equally concerned The main of the Controversy betwixt us and those of the Romish Communion is either whether the Holy Scriptures be the Only Rule in all Matters of Religion Or whether those particular Doctrines wherein they and we do differ have warrant from the Scriptures And what need we intreating on these points to interest any discriminating notions amongst our selves As far as we do agree let us walk by the same Rule Besides by concerning our selves for Protestantism and Protestant Doctrines even in opposition to our Adversaries in common as fixing the Scriptures to be the Only Rule and that our particular Doctrine have plain warrant from the Scripture and those we oppose are either contrary to the Scriptures or have no warrant at all from thence we are excused from any obligation to trouble our selves with defending any unwary or less proper expressions which may have slipt from particular Parties or particular Persons in declaring their sense of particular Doctrines for whether they exprest themselves properly or no or whether their opinion were right or no is not at all material to the Controversy betwixt those of the Church of Rome and us For if any Parties or single Persons have declared their sense and opinions concerning any Doctrine or matter of Practice either that their opinion doth accord with Scripture or it doth not if it do it is the Protestant Doctrine if it do not it is not a Protestant Doctrine and so it doth not at all affect us since we own that persons professing themselves Protestants may mistake as well as we do declare our assurance that those who have been named Infallible in another Communion have erred most grieviously But this we affirm that so far as any do keep strictly and closely to the Holy Scriptures they cannot mistake And Protestants have no real concern to vindicate any Party or Person any further than they do keep unto the Scripture But now to return from these digressions unto what was said before viz. That Protestants have such evidence as doth create certain assurance that the Holy Scriptures are fully perfect to instruct and direct Believers in all matters of Religion and do contain all those Divine Revelations God hath appointed to be of necessary and perpetual use unto his Church I need not relate the whole evidence that might be produced on this occasion I will therefore content my self with these two particulars relating to this matter which certainly must sway powerfully with them who are under an influence which is truly Religious The first is this 1. That the Holy Spirit of God hath expresly declared that the Holy Scriptures are compleat and perfect to all the ends and purposes of Divine Revelations Hear how large and particular the Holy Spirit of God is in declaring the Fullness and Perfection of the Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be Perfect throughly furnished unto all Good Works 2. The same Holy Spirit hath solemnly devoted to the most dreadful Curse of Almighty God whomsoever shall be so arrogant and presumptuous as to offer any other Doctrine besides what the Holy Scriptures do teach as a Divine Revelation Gal. 1. 8. But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Now if people will pretend to produce other Divine Revelations which God hath appointed to be of perpetual use to his Church either those must invalidate these Holy Scriptures or else these Holy Scriptures must invalidate them they cannot consist well together If we will own and stick to the Holy Scriptures we must reject whatever additional Discoveries shall be produced because the Spirit hath in these Scriptures excluded them What hath been discoursed concerning the evidence Protestants have for their great and main Principle may justly promt to take notice of two things 1. That they who would hinder and discourage people from reading and studying the Holy Scriptures do give them just occasion to suspect that they have none of the honestest and most commendable designs to manage We are very certain the Holy Prophets of God the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles were Persons beloved of God and Persons who were greatly concerned for Peoples Spiritual Welfare and we are as certain that these were very much and in good earnest in pressing exciting and perswading the common sort of People to read and study the Scriptures they command them in the Name of God to read and learn the Scriptures and those Revelations of the Mind of God which were communicated unto them read Deut. 31. 11 12 13. Deut. 6. 6 7 8 9. John 5. 39. Col. 3. 16. Nay does not the design and end for which God hath made his Will known and caus'd it to be committed to Writing manifest and prove our Duty evidently enough For what end hath God given the Holy Scriptures unto his Church and People Are we not assured that the Scriptures were written for our Learning for our Instruction for our Admonition c. And must we not read them then How will they answer these ends if we must not consult them Were not the Scriptures written for our Learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have Hope Read and consider Rom. 15. 4. Have we not then too much ground to suspect that those who would take or keep our Bibles from us are Enemies to our Faith Patience Comfort Hope and Happiness Is not the Word of God that Sword of the Spirit with which we are to defend our selves and worst our Spiritual Enemies Ephes 6. 17. And now what reason have we to take them for our Friends who would lay us open and expose us Naked to the Assaults of Sathan and his Instruments The Holy Penmen of the Scriptures did by the direction of the Blessed Spirit commend People for applying themselves to the Holy Scriptures and endeavouring to improve in the knowledge of them See Psal 1. 2. Act. 17. 11. Act. 18. 24. 2 Tim. 3. 15. And it is certain that the People of God of every rank and condition under the Old Testament Dispensation were obliged by Especial Appointment from God to take care to read and labour after a continual Increase in the knowledge of the Scriptures Now can we imagine that God having given
if the ordinary sort of People be well vers'd in the Holy Scriptures it will not be easie to impose upon them Why cannot Men that would be Teachers now a days be as open and plain as the Prophets and as Christ and as his Apostles were These came not to vent any counterfeit false Wares and therefore they were wiling the People should examine and try what they taught them They were for the People's reading and searching of the Scriptures and judging of the Doctrines which were taught them by those Holy Scriptures which had been delivered unto them They came to deliver people out of Darkness not to keep them in or lead them unto Darkness And those who are their true Successors and Followers will do the like If Men have no Notions to scatter about and perswade People to swallow and submit to but what are sound and true and good and which are authorised by Jesus Christ they will have no occasion to be ashamed or afraid that People should examine them by the Scripture None flee from the Light but those whose Doctrines or Practices will not bear the Light. Christ's Doctrines did accord very well with those Divine Revelations those Jews had amongst them But the Unscriptural Traditions they had got amongst them and our Saviour's Doctrines could not stand together To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them Isaiah 8. 20. Secondly Those who profess themselves Protestants ought to take care that they be well fixed and settled in the Protestant Religion The Apostles often require their Followers and Disciples and those they write unto to Stand fast in the Faith 1 Cor. 16. 13. And to Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. And to Strive together for the Faith of the Gospel Phil. 1. 27. Now by these and the like Expressions which you meet with in the Apostolick Writing they plainly first warn them of the danger there is of Peoples Apostarizing from the True Faith and Religion of Jesus Christ after that they have made a Profession of the same And secondly excite and stir those up who make a Profession of the True Faith to take care that their Minds and Hearts may be throughly fixed and settled in the Faith least they should yield and waver and decline when Storms and Tryals shall arise and their constancy shall be assaulted And if there be but too much ground to fear that many who make a Profession of the Truth will Apostatize and forsake it when they shall be called to bear witness to it in some Instances which are ungrateful to Flesh and Blood. It highly concerns all who at present profess True Christianity to look well to it that they be so established and confirmed in what they profess that if a day of Tryal should come they may not loose their Crown destroy their Souls or betray the Truth First Those who do profess the True Religion may afterwards Apostatize from and relinquish it And there is too great occasion to fear that many however forward they appear in Profession will do so should they be tryed in any difficult and beloved Instances I do not mean that People who have long habituated themselves to profess the Christian Religion will easily be brought to an open and avowed renouncing of the Name of Christianity as though none could be justly charged with Apostacy from the Truth but those who can vye with Julian for impudence in contemning and trampling under foot the very Name and Profession of the Son of God. The estate of those who proceed so far is beyond measure dreadful Heb. 6. 4 5 6. But there are two things which the Scriptures more especially insist on as imported by People's Apostatizing from the True Faith and which People are generally too prone unto and both which are very displeasing unto and greatly provoking of God. 1. Departing from the Purity and Simplicity of the Faith of the Gospel espousing and imbracing together with those Doctrines and Practices which Christ hath authorized in his Holy Scriptures other Opinions and Practices which are destructive of the Truth and power of Religion Christianity is as really impaired and injured by evil mixtures as by open professed opposition The Apostacy the Apostles spake of which was to accompany or rather constitute that great Antichristian State they foretel would have such a vast and large and durable Empire in the Christian World seems plainly to be of this kind The great Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity should be retained in outward Profession but yet other Doctrines should be introduced and be so vehemently imposed and insisted on that thereby the main Essential of Religion should be slighted oppressed and become in a great measure useless And way has been made for these Innovations by first forging some gross Impostures and counterfeiting some strange things to which they have given the Name of Miracles and so unwary ignorant People have been prevailed with to entertain no better than Diabolical Delusions as Divine Instructions and Commands very agreeable to what the Apostle foretells of Antichrist's coming After the working of Sathan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders 2 Thes 2. 9. 2. Altering the nature and use of many things which were Innovated by the pious Antients without any Divine Authority and purely by the conduct of a warm Zeal and a devout Intention Had no further progress been made in those Instances than those Antients made little prejudice would thence have happened to Religion But God is so jealous of his own Honour that usually when People manifest they have an Opinion that God hath not carefully enough provided for his own Cause and therefore they will guard and sence and provide more effectually for it He blasts all those Devices and suffers such Humane Inventions to be occasions of more than ordinary trouble and sometimes to be prosecuted so far as to make a formal and mortal Opposition to the Vitals of Religion 3. Depressing the Offices and Devotional Duties of Religion with unreasonable heaps of outward Formalities and Ritual Observations that so the Senses might be superfluously carest and by accomodating the Matters of Religion too much to the Rules of Carnal Policy By this means inward Seriousness and the Spirituality of Religion have been dispenc't with and Peoples Minds have been rendred lax and vain aiery and garish And having been thus inured for some time to these meer Externals which they have taken upon trust they have at last been so easie as to content themselves with an Implicite Faith and have rather chose to swallow any thing that should be offered them whole than put themselves to the trouble to enquire into its Nature Rise and Grounds 4. Finding out ways to reconcile what they stile Religion to Men's Carnal Lusts and Natural Tempers and Constitutions devising easier ways as they pretend to Heaven than any of the Saints in
And have you such numerous examples and presidents take heart then and go on as they did joyfully in the strengrh of you God. How many have ventured all and sustained all both in former Ages and in this present Age in a neighbouring Countrey with astonishing Joy for this self same Religion But Oh! what will you loose and what must you suffer if you wickedly depart from your God and renounce his Truth Would you be in Judas his despair or sustain the horrour Spira was filled with for Worldly Favour and Preferment Would you be willing for ease and pleasure here to be the object of God's heaviest displeasure for ever To be shut out of Heaven to be continually followed with God's Curse To be a perpetual Companion of Devils and the worst Sinners To lie roaring and howling to all Eternity in unquenable flames In a word consider how the Faith you profess is the Faith which God Almighty hath taught and appointed which the Lord Jesus hath born witness unto and sealed with his Blood which the Apostles preached to the World and suffered for the Faith which has been justified and confirmed by multitudes of most real and undeniable Miracles a Faith that is pure and peaceable and tends most intirely to propagate and increase all that is truely excellent and praise-worthy amongst Men a Faith which God hath taken care of in all Ages of the Christian World and which assures its sincere Professors of things incomprehensibly great and glorious hereafter and fills them with unspeakable peace and comfort at present amidst all the Suffering they can be exposed to on its account a Faith God hath wonderfully freed from the Corruptions which were formerly mixed with it in these Nations and for which He hath often and even miraculously appeared in discovering and blasting the projects the designs and the attempts of its most subtle and unreconcileable Enemies a Faith your Ancestors after mature consideration priz'd above all their worldly Interests and Lives a Faith they took a great deal of care and pains to have transmitted to you pure and undefiled a Faith which brought with it multitudes of outward Blessings and which occasioned these Nations to be eas'd of a Yoke which all the Inhabitants who had ingenious sense complained often of and groaned under a Faith you cannot part with but in all probability you will again involve your selves in Calamities and Miseries like to those out of which your Predecessors strove with all their might to extricate themselves Have you an ambition now to expose your selves and your Posterity to all the mischief and evil which people of the adverse perswasion have been known industrious and unwearied to bring upon those they look upon as Hereticks Are you resolved to pull down with your own hands upon your selves all the sad and direful Plagues which are reserved to be inflicted in the next World on them who perfidiously betray the Faith of the Gospel and wickedly Apostatize from the True Religion If not then take care and look well to your selves and see that you be fixed and confirmed in the Protestant Religion And therefore 1. Be sure you be built upon the true Foundation Take heed you profess not the True Faith meerly because it is owned by any Society of some particular extrinsical denomination any particular Church may fall There is a Body of Men now in the World who assume to themselves a very glorious Title and yet when a just enquiry is made and the largest allowances Charity can prompt to are yielded them that Society can only pass for a very corrupt part of the Christian Church and yet the antient Inhabitants of that place where the Head of this Society hath fixed his See were a people in St. Paul's time so hearty in and true to the Doctrines of Christ their Faith was spoken of throughout all the World. Rom. 1. 8. Where are any tracts and footsteps now of those Churches you read of in the Revelations And yet God never forsaketh any till they first forsake him There has been I fear there is still altogether a fault amongst us that we are immoderately concerned for the credit and outward grandure of particular Parties and Christians are respected not for their being Christians but for their espousing some distinguishing Notions and Characters of Man's devising I am perswaded God will utterly overthrow at least mightily abase Men's affections to and zeal for all Party-making Notions amongst Christians before he will raise his Church to that prosperous flourishing State prophesied of and promised in the Scriptures There must be more Love and Charity and Unanimity amongst Christians Christianity will endure to the End of the World but as for all the Modes and Fashions of Man's devising wherewith any do dress up the Profession of Christianity these may all fall to the Earth as the Inventers of them have fall'n or will fall Mat. 16. 18. Gal. 6. 15. The True Foundation you should be built upon is that of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Corner-Stone Eph. 2. 20. Therefore 2. Embrace nothing as an Article of Faith or part of Religion but what the Holy Scriptures are express or very clear concerning You have in these Scriptures all that is necessary to any Man's Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 16. 17. Joh. 20. 13. Believe no Man nor no Society of Men in these Cases further than the Scriptures do warrant what they teach Act. 17. 11. Isai 8. 20. 3. Be not extreamly hot and zealous about any thing but what the purity of Faith and power of Godliness are really concerned in Good Men and Orthodox Christians may have different apprehensions about Matters of small moment without much prejudice to their own Souls or the common Faith provided these Differences be managed without uncharitableness and unchristian violence But too much heat and violence about things diverts from the weighty matters of God's Laws and Religion soon sensibly decays Phil. 3. 16. Gal. 6. 16. Tit. 3. 9. 4. Expect and prepare for Tryals Christ hath dealt plainly and openly with us In the World ye shall have Troubles See Mat. 16. 24. Learn to resign up your selves and live in expectation of Sufferings Read 1 Pet. 4. 12 13. 5. Be earnest in Prayer that your Hearts and Souls may have an inward real spiritual affectionate sense of the Truth and Importance of the Doctrines of Christianity 1 Cor. 2. 12 13 14. 6. Study the Holy Scriptures diligently and make them your dayly delight Psal 1. 2. Psal 119. 97 98. 7. Make a good Improvement of the plain faithful Ministry of the Word whil'st you can injoy it you know not what Times may come 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. 8. Take heed of Self-confidence and depend wholly on thy Saviour 9. Learn to be expert in using every part of the Christian Armour Eph. 6. 13. c. 10. Watch your selves carefully and your Enemies too 2 Pet. 3. 17. 11. Take a due care that your Faith may effectually influence you to all Holiness of Life and Conversation That Man is in a great preparation to renounce his Faith that hath prostituted his Conscience and is regardless how he lives 1 Tim. 1. 19. Read consider and improve what is offered unto you and the God of all Grace who hath called us to his Eternal Glory by Christ Jesus after that we have suffered a while make you Perfect c. 1 Pet. 5. 10. FINIS Per lustra popinas quotidie sine pudore in aleae lusum ususque turplssuhos potestatem extratendi animas functoâ—um ex igne expiatorio profundebant In Aug. Thuam Hist l. p. 13. vide Mezenrah Ann. 1517. Sleid. Com. lib. 1. An. 15. Qnicunque non innititur doctrinae Romanae Ecclesie ac Romani Pontificis tam quam regulae fidei infallibili aqua etiam sacra Scriptura â—obur trabit authoritatem est Haeriticus Mouns Clauddef of the Reformation part 3d. M. Clauddes of the Reform part 3d. pag 51. c. Vnde Protestantium nomen quod ad omnes postea qui eorum quae perperum in religionem invecta sunt emendationem amplecti se professi sunt obitque ab Ecclesia Romana defecere dimanavit Thuan Hist lib. 1. p. 26. Nomen per contemptum ab adversariis ob protestationem Spirae impositum D. Prideaux Lect. 9. de visibil Eccles Chilling worth 's Safe way to Salvation pag. 375. Catholick Ballance pag. 19.