force of which argument you had thought by a glosse and flourish to have evaded but all the cunning of man cannot doe it as in its due place will appeare But after you had once got your head into this fort and refuge you uttered many things very erroneous equalizing your traditions yea preferring them before the written Word accusing the Scripture of imperfection and denying them that due honour which is to be the rule of our faith and manners and the square by which we must order our lives affirming further more that they were accidentally written and not on purpose to be the rule of our doctrine and manners and that for the making of the Scripture a compleat and absolute rule the unwritten word received and entertained in all ages by tradition ought to be added to it which when the Church of England did not observe and admit of it did not believe as Christ ordained and as it ought to believe for the speculative and practicall parts of Divinity for to believe in Christ effectually and sufficiently to salvation as you said was not enough to believe both the natures of Jesus Christ and all his Offices but it consisted in this that we conforme our selves to a beliefe speculative and to a religion that is practicall for the Church was determined in these two points that is to say without the Church of England would imbrace and entertaine your traditions and believe your unwritten verities as they are commonly termed it could not be a true Church Hereupon I then undertooke to maintaine and prove first that the written Word in it selfe without any unwritten verities or traditions contained all things necessary to salvation Secondly that all Christians were tied to make that and that only the rule of their faith and manners which you said if I could prove you would be a Protestant and after some debate of these businesses and that Sir John Gotherick had said unto you magnifying your unwritten verities that if you could make it appeare that you had as good warrant for your traditions as we could shew for the Scriptures that then he would receive and imbrace them to whom you replyed that you could prove them by better authority than he could prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God But I perceiving at that time that you grew something weary and seeing withall for want of a moderator that things began something disorderly to be handled I told you that I would by writing reduce all those things that were then agitated and bring them into good order and set downe such other arguments as should sufficiently prove the Church of England to be a true Church and send you them all in writing which you not onely liked well of but earnestly also desired me so to doe and I promised likewise in the same writing evidently to prove that the Scriptures of the old and new Testament without any traditions contained all things in them necessary to salvation and that they are the onely rule and square which we are tied unto for the ordering of our faith lives and manners which is now my taske that in the following discourse I have taken upon me and I doubt not by Gods assistance but to make good and maintaine what I have undertaken But before I come to that that all men may see the Church of England faileth in nothing necessary to salvation either in respect of theory or practice although I have formerly proved it yet I thought fit briefly againe to runne over and to declare what she teaches for her beliefe speculative and her religion practicall that I may make use of some of your expressions and wherein she differs from the Church of Rome that the Church of Englands tenent being set downe on the one side and the errours and idolatry of the Church of Rome on the other all men may learne to love and imbrace the Church of England and to abhorre and abandon the Church of Rome that mother of abomination and that you Mr. Montague that have formerly undutifully deserted and forsaken her may with the Prodigall returne and yeild unto her your mother Christian and wonted duty and obedience Which I am confident will be more to your true comfort and honour than ever any thing done by you in all your life And now to begin I affirm for beliefe speculative and religion practicall it is orthodoxly and and clearely taught in the Church of England in all points and to begin with the speculative part Whatsoever I say is required of us to be knowne concerning God is perspicuously taught in the Church of England both in respect of the divine essence and nature of God as also of the persons in the blessed Trinity as likewise of their names and workes and of all their glorious attributes As that there is but one onely true God distinguished into the Father Sonne and holy Ghost the al-sufficient Jehovah Creator and governour of all things which onely living God the Church of England with an unanimous consent doth honour serve and worship in spirit and truth as he himselfe commands John 4. vers 24. and as he hath in all ages been worshipped by all the family of the faithfull that call upon his name in sincerity since the glorious ascension of Christ into Heaven and teaches the people so to worship him The Church of England doth fully likewise instruct the people in what a happy and blessed condition man was created being made after Gods owne Image and likenesse Genes 1. v. 27. and into what misery he afterwards plunged himselfe and all his posterity by reason of his transgression disobedience and infidelity in listning unto the suggestion of the diâ—â—ll as it is at large described in Genes chap. 3. And as it doth daily acquaint them with the nature of sinne the danger of it and the evill consequences that insue upon it as all manner of miseries here and eternall damnation hereafter if by timely repentance they breake not off the course of them which duty they daily exhort them unto In like manner it teacheth the people that next to the eternall love of God who in Christ Jesus made choice of them before the foundation of the world Ephes 1. v. 3 4 5. that they owe the whole worke of their redemption unto Jesus Christ alone who taking humane nature upon him was made sinne for us that knew no sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. vers 21. So that if we consider the whole summe of our salvation and all the parts of it they are contained and comprehended in Christ to whom alone all the honour glory and praise of all our blessednesse both present and future is to be ascribed and not any parcell of it to be attributed to any creature in Heaven or earth So that if any desires to be saved and to be eternally blessed the Church of England instructs them there is no other meanes to
the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary to salvation that perspicuously and clearly and that they are to be the only rule of our faith and manners and that all Christians are tied onely to them to the end of the world and that they are not to swarve in any thing from them though an Angell from Heaven should teach them otherwise Gal. 1. both which the Church of Rome doth deny and in that manifestly declare that she maketh Christ a Prophet no farther than pleaseth her selfe when she addeth her owne Councels Fathers Canons and Traditions and unwritten verities as they call them and maketh them not onely of equall authority with the written Word of God but preferreth them farre before the holy Scriptures when she affirmeth that without them the Scriptures cannot be a compleat and perfect rule for the ordering of our faith lives and manners which is not onely a point of high blasphemy but indeed an utter overthrowing of the Propheticall Office of Christ as I said before and a bringing in of a new Religion And now Master Montague I am come to prove these two last points viz. that the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary to salvation and that they onely are to be the rule of our faith lives and manners to the end of the world and this you know was the taske I tooke upon me to make good and had your promise if I performed it that you would be a Protestant To begin therefore with the first that the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary and sufficient to salvation I thus prove it That which is able to make us wise unto salvation containes all things in it necessary and sufficient to eternall life and happinesse or else we should be wise but in part But the holy Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation 2 Tim. 3. v. 15 16 17. Ergo they containe all things necessary and sufficient to eternall life and happinesse And by consequence we ought in matters of faith and religion to content our selves onely with the holy Scriptures which is manifest from the nature of the wisdome and perfection the Scripture speaketh of for if the Scriptures be able to make us wise to salvation and the very man of God perfect to every good worke as after we shall see what need then have we of unwritten Traditions For the wisdome that Saint Paul speakes of in this place containes all perfection of knowledge in it and comprehends all manner of Learning and divine Science that may make a man happy here and blessed hereafter What imperfection then Mr. Montague can any man charge the holy Scriptures with when they are able to furnish a man with all accomplished abilities sufficiency and knowledge for living vertuously and piously here in this world and for the saving of his soule eternally for if the Scriptures of themselves be of such vertue and efficacy the Spirit of God working with them that in the matter of salvation that great worke they are able to bring men to perfection yea happiness it selfe and that eternall then we ought onely to cleave unto them and content our selves with their perfection and not listen unto the vaine and lying oracles of the Pope But now to the words themselves in order which are the proofe of my Minor with the occasion of them in the examining of the which I shall also answer to your evasions made at our disputation From a child saith the Apostle to Timothy thou hast knowne the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation c. So that my minor is by this sufficiently proved and much more clearly it will appeare by and by when we consider both the occasion of these words and the other expressions of the Apostle in the following verses and what our Saviour Jesus Christ himselfe saith of the holy Scriptures The Apostle exhorts Timothy in the verse going before which is the 14. saying Continue thou in the things which thou hath learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them In these words the Apostle exhorts Timothy and in him all Ministers and Christians to persevere and continue in the things and doctrines taught by him with a reason why both Timothy and all Ministers and Christians should continue and remaine stedfast in that they had learned Knowing saith he of whom thou hast learned them for he had learned them of Paul the Doctor and Preacher of the Gentiles that elect vessell that was by Christ himselfe appointed to preach and carry his name among the Gentiles Acts 9. and who was guided in all that he taught and writ by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 14. v. 37 38. and who had preached unto them the whole counsell of God Acts 20. and confirmed whatsoever he taught them out of the holy Scriptures by which he convinced his enemies as all his Epistles and Sermons prove and as Paul himselfe witnessed before Felix Acts 24. ver 14. and chap. 28. and as Saint Luke testifies of him Acts 28. ver 23. saying that Paul expounded and testified the Kingdome of God perswading them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and out of the Prophets from morning till evening Paul in all his teaching to manifest that he was guided by the unerring Spirit of God confirmeth all his doctrines and preaching by the holy Scriptures which were written by his inspiration and therefore ever like it selfe and with this manner of teaching was Timothy instructed who having been not onely Pauls Scholler but his owne sonne in the faith 1 Tim. 1. v. 2. for he had converted him by his preaching proving every thing he had taught unto him out of the holy Scriptures and therefore he exhorteth him to continue and persevere in what he had learnt of him and formerly been assured of knowing that he proved all by the holy Scriptures which thou saith he art very well verst in having known them from thy childhood and by all this he proved the soundnesse of his doctrine that it was true and sure being grounded upon the written Scriptures and had not onely them for a witnesse of what he writ but he appeales unto Timothy also to be his witnesse in this behalfe as if he should have said Thou Timothy knowest well the Scriptures and that I taught nothing but out of the Scriptures thou art my scholler yea my sonne and canst ever witnesse for me that the doctrine that I have taught is of God for it is agreeable in all things to the inspiration of his holy Spirit as he hath declared himselfe in the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee and all men wise to salvation and in this St. Paul is an example to all Ministers to confirme all by Scripture and this I thought fit to speake of the occasion of these words and now I come to the more full handling of them and by them to prove the truth of my Minor after that I
Church under the old Testament so now under the new Testament he hath spake unto us sundry waies viz. by the writings of the Apostles by their Traditions not written and doth daily speak unto us by Ecclesiasticall Injunctions and Canons by Councels and Fathers and by the decrees of the Church all which how contrary they are to the meaning and doctrine of St. Paul every man can easily discerne Yea the very Papists themselves cannot deny it And thus much I thought fit to speak of the hypothesis or hypotheticall connexion of my argument Now for the Assumption it containes these three assertions The first that the Word of God necessary to the salvation of the Church was first delivered by the Prophets and afterwards by Christ and his Apostles which is manifest by the place alledged In time past God spake unto the Fathers by the Prophets but in these last daies he spake unto us by his Sonne Which is also to be extended unto the Apostles by whom Christ spake as is manifest out of the second chapter of this Epistle penned by the same Apostle vers 3. How shall we escape saith he if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoke by the Lord and was confirmed unto us that heard him And in the 20. of Saint John ver 21. As my Father sent me so I send you And Luke 10. ver 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me c. Neither can you Mr. Montague or any deny but that the doctrine of the Gospell was penned and written by the Apostles The second assertion of my Assumption was this that the Word of God delivered by the Prophets is onely to be found in their writings And that is evident from the frequent use of speaking in the holy Scripture which by the Prophets understand the writings of the holy Prophets As in the Epistle to the Rom. chap. 1. v. 1 2. The Gospell of God promised by the Prophets in the holy Scriptures And Luke 16. They have Moses and the Prophets And John 6. vers 45. It is written in the Prophets And Acts 26. vers 27. King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets Luke 24. v. 27. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe and the same vers 44. And St. Peter in his second Epistle chap. 1. vers 19. By the word of Prophesie understands the writings of the Prophets as by the words following is evident For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man saith he but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost And many more places to this purpose might be produced which I omit the truth being so well knowne Neither can any Papist produce an instance or president to the contrary The third assertion in my Assumption is this that there can no reason be given by the Papists why the same should not be determined and ordered concerning the word of God delivered by Christ his Apostles that is concluded or determined concerning the Word of God delivered by the Prophets viz. That the whole Word of God as much as concerned the knowledge faith and salvation of the Church as much as was requisite for their good is delivered and set downe in the writings of the Apostles Therefore Mr. Montague when the Papists doe affirme that there is a dissimilitude in this part or matter till they can shew a reason and that a theologicall reason and grounded upon the Word of God they say nothing and the argument will for ever hold and the conclusion remaine unmoveable that all things necessary to salvation are to be found in the writings of the holy Prophets and Apostles and that we have no need of any Traditions for the making of the Scriptures a compleat rule as the Church of Rome doth impiously and malignantly conclude I confesse Master Montague that I have been very large in this theame but I formerly gave you a reason of it and if I yet say a little more to confirme the truth and for the farther convincing of errour and to undeceive the poore deluded people I hope you will excuse me I therefore shall adde a few more reasons and proofes for the confirmation of the al-sufficiency of the holy Scriptures and that they have no need of any humane Traditions for the making of them a compleat rule Saint Paul in the third of the Galatians vers 15. Brethren saith he I speake after the manner of men though it be but a mans covenant or testament yet if it be confirmed no man disanulleth or addeth thereto Out of which words I thus argue If the Scripture of the new Testament be a Covenant and it be not lawfull to adde unto a Covenant then it is not lawfull to adde any thing to the Scriptures of the new Testament But the antecedent is true ergo the consequent and by vertue of the consequent no Traditions not written by the Apostles nor no unwritten verities as you terme them are to be received or entertained by the Church of God as to be a rule of their faith to be joyned to the Scriptures The connexion is cleare The assumption hath two parts The first is manifest from the very inscription and hath no need of any other proofe The latter is proved out of the words of the Apostle when he saith it is not lawfull to adde no not to a mans covenant or testament and then this conclusion with farre greater reason will ensue and follow that it is much lesse lawfull to adde unto Gods owne Covenant and Testament And they that doe adde their traditions unto the holy Scriptures of the new Testament doe that which is unlawfull unjust and impious and bring that curse and plague upon themselves that is pronounced Revel 22. v. 18 19. If any man shall adde unto these things saith Christ God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this booke And if any man shall take away from the words of the booke of this prophesie God shall take away his part out of the booke of life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in this booke That Mr. Montague that is spoke of this Prophesie is spoke of the whole Scriptures and therefore they that accuse the holy Scriptures of imperfection and adde their impious and vaine Traditions unto them are guilty both of addition and detraction to them and make themselves obnoxious to that fearefull curse but the Church of England dares neither adde or take from either the old or new Testament but acknowledge them both to be a most compleat rule and to containe all things in them necessary to the salvation of the Church and to have no need of unwritten verities But that I may farther confirme the truth and convince the erronious opinion of the Church of Rome I thus argue If the holy
is to a hireling and daily labourer and that their Priests can forgive sinnes as Judges by their owne authority This Master Montague you know is the doctrine and faith of the Church of Rome and a great deale more such stuffe Now I intreat you candidly to tell me whether in your opinion the faith of the Church of Rome or the beliefe of the Church of England concerning Christs Priestly Office be more orthodox and which of them giveth most honour to their Mediator she that ascribeth the whole worke of her redemption to him alone or she that robbeth him of all his Priestly honour and Mediatorship Truly Master Montague if you will but duely consider this businesse and weigh it as it ought to be weighed you will quickly perceive that the Church of Rome doth in word onely acknowledge Christ to be a Priest and Mediator but in deeds and workes overthrowes the right and power of his Priesthood And to speake the verity there can be nothing more blasphemously thought imagined or practised against the honour and dignity of the Lord of life the onely and sole Mediator and high Priest of the everlasting covenant then that the Church of Rome doth against him robbing him of his due glory and overthrowing indeed the whole worke of our redemption making our selves and others our owne saviours and mediators and not Christ alone to whom all the honour and praise of our redemption of due belongeth I could be very large Mr. Montague in aggravating of the impiety and blasphemies of the Church of Rome concerning this point but I will say no more of it for the present but this that it is a doctrine that overthroweth all Christian religion and destroyeth the very foundation of our faith And now I come to the Propheticall Office of Christ where we will briefly take notice whether the Church of England or the Church of Rome be most orthodox in their faith concerning Christs Propheticall Office and which of them more venerably believeth touching that or giveth most honour to Christ the onely Prophet of his Church The Church of England believeth that Jesus Christ was appointed by God himselfe to be the onely and sole Prophet Pastor and Teacher of his Church and that he hath fully and perfectly revealed the whole counsell and will of God concerning the redemption of mankind and preached the Gospell and glad tidings of peace unto the World the which Gospell he doth daily vegetate and quicken in the soules of his people by his holy Spirit and corroborate and confirme by the holy Sacraments And she believeth that he hath delivered all things unto the Church that God the Father commanded him necessary for our salvation and that we are onely to heare him in all things whatsoever he shall say unto us and that every soule that shall not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people Deut. 18. v. 18. Matth. 3. v. 17. Matth. 17. v. 5. Acts 3. v. 22 23. And the Church of England believeth also that Jesus Christ did not onely declare and preach the whole and perfect Will of God unto the Church but also that whatsoever was necessary to salvation was written and penned by his appointment and direction and especiall assistance and is all contained in the writings of the old and new Testament and that not in obscure and ambiguous words but in plaine and evident expressions as farre as is necessary to salvation all which in the sequell of this discourse will be made evident She also believeth that all the people ought according to Christs command read them and that the holy Scriptures are the onely Judge of all controversies and have no need of any humane traditions And she farther believeth that we are to serve and worship God onely as he hath appointed in his holy Word and in the divine Scriptures as Christ the Prophet of his Church hath commanded in them and that whatsoever doctrines not expressed and contained in the Scriptures and written Word or grounded upon it or evidently deduced from it are not to be entertained received or obeyed but to be cast out of the Church as abominable things such as are prejudiciall not onely to our salvation and comfort but injurious also and derogatory to the honour of our great Prophet Jesus Christ whom we are commanded only to heare and listen unto And therefore the Church of England doth reject all those doctrins of Will-worship Image and Crucifix worship Bead worship Bread worship Place worship and all Saint and Angell worship and all those doctrines of Service Letanies Ceremonies and indulgencies and those of Fast-daies and Feast-daies all doctrines of Masses and Sacrifices for soules in Purgatory and prayers for the dead with all their doctrines of Pilgrimages and Monkery with their doctrines of devils prohibiting meats and marriage and all those doctrines of the reall and corporall presence of Christ in their blasphemous sacrifices destructive to the humane nature of Jesus Christ making it present in numberlesse places at once and enervating and overthrowing the al-sufficiency of Christs sacrifice And all their doctrins of transubstantiation self-merit works of supererogation and all the other doctrins they teach in the Church of Rome which would both endlesse needlesse to recount the observing of the which is the onely imployment of the Church of Rome the Church of England doth detest as execrable abominations because our Prophet Christ Jesus hath no where taught them in his holy word which must be the only rule of our faith and worship to the end of the world But now let us heare what the Church of Rome believeth concerning the Propheticall office of Christ that we may see how honourably she esteemeth of it The Church of Rome in word acknowledgeth that Christ was by God appointed to be the Prophet of his Church notwithstanding in deeds they deny that Christ did reveale the whole will of God unto the Church in the holy Scriptures and affirmes that the Scriptures were accidentally written and not purposely to be the rule of faith which by its clarity and brightnesse should determine the controversies in Religion they affirme also that the holy Scriptures are darke and obscure and very dangerous for lay-men and therefore that they are to be taken from them and that the Church hath need of the authority of Fathers and Councels and the helpe of Traditions for the compleating of the holy Scriptures and the making of them a perfect and absolute rule both of our faith and worship whereupon they bring in all those abominable doctrins and traditions I even now made mention of many more and thrust them upon the people as the worship and service of God and by the observation of the which they may merit Heaven as they say when neverthelesse there is not one word in all the booke of God concerning any one of them or any thing delivered by our Prophet Christ Jesus touching them all which things are as
I said before not onely injurious and hurtfull to the soules of men but full of blasphemy and derogatory to the honour of Christ our great and onely Prophet For what I pray Mr. Montague can be spoke more impiously of the holy Scripturs then to affirm they were accidentally written and not of set purpose and by the command of God and to the end that they should be the rule of faith when in the holy Scripture it is evidently cleare that they were written by divine providence for this very end and purpose that by them we should order both our faith lives and manners And what can be spoke more contumeliously against the holy Word of God then to accuse it of obscurity and darknesse when the Holy Ghost affirmeth the contrary and to take it out of the hands of the people and forbid them to read it when notwithstanding Christ commandeth it in expresse words Truely Master Montague these are most blasphemous assertions and such as you of the Church of Rome must earnestly and seriously repent of if ever you will finde favour at Gods hands and the very naming of these your erronious opinions were enough for any man to abhorre them But that you your selfe and all men may see the wickednesse of them I shal before I passe on to the other matters in hand briefly prove that the Scriptures were not accidentally written but of set purpose and by Gods appointment and that they are not obscure and darke in things pertaining to salvation and that they ought to be read by all the people and that they ought to examine all doctrines by them as they be recorded And then I will prove the al-sufficiency of the holy Scripture and that it is the rule which all men unto the end of the World are tied to for the regulating of their faith and manners which is my taske and then I will conclude But first as I said I will prove that the holy Scriptures were not accidentally written but of set purpose and by speciall command and that they are not obscure and darke in matters concerning salvation and that they are to be read to the people And first that they were not accidentally written I thus evince Those bookes that were written by Divine inspiration and by the counsaile of God for the salvation of mankind and for the benefit of the Church of God in all ages and for this very end that men might learne and know the mind and will of God fully and cleerly and have the certaine truth of the things they had heard that they might be preserved and kept from all errors and upheld and comforted in every condition they were not accidentally and occasionally written and out of the peculiar mation and pleasure of the Penmen thereof and by the will of man but by the Spirit of God But the holy Scriptures were written by Divine inspiration and by the counsell of God for the very ends specified Ergo they were not accidentally and occasionally written and out of the peculiar motion and pleasure of the Pen-men thereof and by the will of man but by the Spirit of God And for proofe of all these particulars the holy Scripture it selfe is clearly on our side 2 Tim chap. 3. v. 16. The whole Scripture saith the Apostle is given by divine inspiration or inspiration of God Now Mr. Montague Gods inspiration is Gods dictate and command as all that know any thing in Divinity can tell you if yee be ignorant and it is as much as to say they were written by Gods own appointment for what God inspires men to do that he appoints and commands them to doe so that it was not arbitrary in them to do it or not to do it but they were inspired to it and put upon that imployment to write the holy Scriptures and therefore the holy Scriptures through the whole Bible are called the Voice of God and the mouth of the Lord and the lively Oracles which were uttered and spoke by God himselfe first and afterwards delivered in writing unto the people by Moses and the other Prophets and holy Pen-men according to Gods command Acts 7. v. 38. and therefore the Scriptures were not accidentally written and by the peculiar motion and pleasure of men as the Church of Rome most blasphemously affirmeth S. Peter also is cleere in this point his words are these in his second Epistle chap. 1. vers 19 20 21. Wee have saith he a more sure word of prophecy whereunto yee do well that yee take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place c. Knowing this first that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Take notice first Mr. Montague of the occasion of these words and then consider the expressions duly and you will easily from thence conclude that the Scripture was not accidentally written and by the will of man but by command from God himselfe and of set purpose and that the written word is the rule wee are to be guided by and more sure then the Tradition of the very Apostles themselves although they were both eye and eare witnesses of that they spake and told unto the people For the Apostle Peter in this Epistle confirmes all those Christians that hee writes unto of the truth and certainty of the things that hee declared unto them saying that the holy Apostles had not followed cunningly devised fables when they made knowne unto them the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty for hee received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a Voice unto him from the excellent glory This is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven wee heard when wee were with him in the holy mount Here wee see the Apostle Peter with Iames and John as it is in Mat. 17. were both Eye and Eare witnesses of Christs transfiguration and glory and heard the voyce and the people by tradition and the relation of the Apostles that had seene those things admired and believed them and yet the Apostle Peter in this very place signifieth unto them that the written Word of God the holy Scriptures the written Prophecies of the old Testament were a more sure Word than any Tradition yea even of the Apostles themselves though they were both eare and eye witnesses of that they related and preached unto others and commends the people that they did take heed unto the written Word as a light that shineth in a darke place no obscure things then Mr. Montague and he giveth them a reason why the Prophecies of the Scripture were a more sure Word than any traditions of men because saith he we know that the Scriptures are not of any private interpretation or from the peculiar or
should be a rule of our faith and manners and that it is the very Word of God and his lively Oracles as having the testimony of Christ himselfe Luke 24 Luke 16. John 5. and many other places and Saint Paul Rom. 3. and Saint Peter in his second Epistle chap. 3. v. 15 16. confirmes the authenticality of St. Pauls Epistles and of all the holy Scriptures and affirmes that they were written for the comfort and benefit of all the faithfull and commands them to make them the rule and guide of their faith and manners which if they doe he promiseth them that they shall not be led away by the errour of the wicked and from their owne stedfaâ—â—nesse but that they shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus which is his prayer that they might do and it is and shall be my earnest prayer for you also Mr. Montague that the Lord would open your eyes and that you may see your errours and renounce them and at last believe that the holy Scriptures are Gods very Word and were writ by his speciall command and are to be the rule of our fath and manners and by the which we shall be judged at the last day And this shall suffice to have spoke concerning this point Now I come to prove that the holy Scriptures are not obscure and darke but cleare and perspicuous in all things that concerne salvation David in the 19. Psal ver 7 8. The Law of the Lord saith he is perfect converting the soule The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the Commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes Here are two things Master Montague confirmed by David who wrote by the Spirit of God which cannot erre the first is that the Law of the Lord is perfect and converting the soule and making wise the simple the second that it is cleare illuminating the eyes What Blasphemy then is it in the Church of Rome to accuse the whole Scripture not onely of imperfection but of darknesse and obscurity Yea what else is it but to give the Holy Ghost the lie who saith that the holy Scripture is not onely perfect but illuminating and enlightning the eyes And in Psalm 119. v. 103. Thy Word saith he is a Lampe unto my feet and a light to my waies And in the 130 verse The entrance of thy Word saith he giveth light it giveth understanding to the simple So that there are none Master Montague that will not turne their backe upon this Lampe but may see the light of it And in Proverb 1. ver 2 3 4 5. among the praises of the holy Word he saith That it giveth subtilty to the simple and to the young man knowledge and discretion And in the 6. chap. ver 23. he saith That the Commandement is a Lampe and the Law is light And in chap. 8. ver 8 9. All the words of my mouth saith he are in righteousnesse c. they are all plaine to him that understandeth and right to them that find knowledge Infinite places to this purpose might be cited but I will content my selfe onely with two more out of the New Testament 2 Cor. 4. v. 3 4. If our Gospell saith the Apostle be hid it is hid to them that are lost to whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine into them Take notice Mr. Montague that as the Sunne though it shineth forth never so gloriously and in all its greatest brightnesse yet the blind see never the more in like manner though the holy Scripture be never so cleare and perspicuous in all things necessary to salvation yet the unbelievers and incredulous whose eyes the God of this world hath blinded they can neither see nor comprehend the light of them St. Peter in his second Epistle chap. 1. v. 19. We have also saith he a more sure word of Prophesie whereunto you doe well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the Day-starre arise in your hearts If the holy Apostle Peter compares the writings of the Old Testament to a light and the Scripture of the New Testament unto the Day-starre what wickednesse then is it Mr. Montague in the Church of Rome to accuse all the holy Scriptures of obscurity and darknesse and to make them the cause of all errours and heresies and of all confusions I will now Mr. Montague briefly prove that the people ought to read the holy Scriptures and that it is their duty to study them diligently and that it is a great and insufferable injury and wrong done to them by the Church of Rome to take the Scriptures out of their hands and to prohibite the reading of them for in that they like the Scribes Pharisees and Lawyers take away from them the Key of knowledge and the meanes of their salvation Luke 11. v. 52. contrary to the command of God and Christs precept who was the onely Prophet of his Church whom we are bound to heare and obey in all things Matth. 3. Matth. 17. This Master Montague I will first doe and then come to the point The Lord after that he had proclaimed his Law unto the people and writ it with his owne hand commanded all the people carefully to observe to doe according to that he had taught them and that they might the better remember it he enjoynes them to keepe it in their hearts and to write it upon the Posts of their houses and on their gates the words are these Deut. 6. ver 6 7 8 9 All these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talke of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up And thou shalt bind them for a signe upon thy hand and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house and on the gates And in the 11. chapter of the same booke he reiterates the same command vers 18 19 20. Therefore saith the Lord shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soule and bind them for a signe upon your hand that they may be as frontlets between your eyes And ye shall teach them your children speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way when thou liest downe and when thou risest up and thou shalt write them upon the doore posts of thine house and upon thy gates Here is precept upon precept as if the Lord could never have spoke enough unto the people to stir them up to the diligent learning and studying of his holy Lawes and all for
certainty of all that Christ both did and spak in the knowledge and believing of the which consists our Eternall happinesse and salvation And this Mr. Montague might suffice to have spoke to prove the al-sufficiency of the Scriptures without Traditions but I will yet adde a few more arguments to establish this Truth more fully and so much the more willingly I do it because it is a point of so great concernment and that about which there hath been and is the greatest contestation betweene us true Catholicks and you Papists S. Luke affords us an other evident testimony to prove the al-sufficiency of the holy Scriptures Acts 1. vers 1. The former Treatise saith hee have I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach untill the day in which hee was taken up c. From which words I thus argue Those Bookes and writings that containe in them all things that Jesus Christ both did taught and suffered for the redemption and salvation of mankind by the knowledge and faith of the which men may be saved they containe all things in them necessary to salvation and have no need of any humane Traditions to be joyned unto them for the making of them a perfect Rule But the Scriptures of the new Testament comprehend in them all things that Jesus Christ both did taught and suffered for the redemption and salvation of mankinde by the knowledge and faith of which men may bee saved Ergo the Scriptures containe all things in them necessary to salvation The evidence of the truth of this argument is so manifest that besides Lukes owne Testimony which is enough for ever to stop the mouth of all gainesayers the very Rhemists themselves your owne witnesses do acknowledge it whose notes upon this place you may at your best leasure looke on their words are these Not all particularly for the other Evangelists wrote divers things not touched by him but all the principall and most necessary things These Mr. Montague are the expressions of your own men in which observe these two concessions The first that they do acknowledge that at that time that S. Luke writ his Gospell The other Evangelists had writ diverse things not touched by him And this overthrowes your opinion that when S. Paul writ unto Timothy that the Scriptures of the new Testament were not then pend but delivered only viva voce and by Tradition and this was long before that time that S. Paul writ to Timothy The second thing that they grant which is as much as I desired is this that S. Luke himselfe had writ all the principall and most necessary things so that if the principall and most necessary things to salvation were written by Luke alone and the other things of lesse necessity were written by the other Evangelists then by your owne witnesses it followeth Mr. Montague that all things necessary to salvation are comprised and contained in the Scriptures of the new Testament compleatly and fully and therefore they are absolutely in themselves perfect and have no neede of any humane Traditions for the making of them an intire and perfect rule And truly Mr. Montague I dare at any time undertake this taske against all the Papists in the would to prove that if wee had nothing but the very writings of S. Luke I meane the Gospell written by him and the Acts of the Apostles that there were enough pend for the salvation of men and that there were no just cause of complayning of the in-sufficiency of the Scripture seeing that the knowledge and believing of those principall and most necessary things are able to save our soules as most certaine it is the knowing and believing of what hee writ is sufficient to salvation But when God of his infinite favour and goodnesse to mankinde hath by so many of his blessed Servants Apostles and Evangelists in so many severall Gospells and Epistles besides the revelation of S. Iohn so abundantly declared his heavenly good will and pleasure it is not onely an intolerable ingratitude in any not to acknowledge it but also an insufferable blasphemy to accuse all the Scriptures of imperfection yea it is indeed an overthrowing of the Lord Christs propheticall office and to give the Spirit of God and his holy Apostles and Evangelists the lie when they affirme the contrary saying in expresse words that they have writ all things necessary to salvation as by the Testimonies following will appeare See what S. Iohn saith concerning this businesse of so great consequence Chap. 20. vers 30.31 And many other signes truly did Iesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Booke But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Sonne of God and that believing yee might have life through his Name than the which there cannot be a more pregnant proofe to shew the sufficiency of what was written to salvation The argument from these words is this That which teacheth and declareth unto us the soveraigne and chiefest good and the meanes of attaining unto this good that containes all things in it necessary to salvation But the holy Scriptures doe teach and declare unto us the Soveraigne and chiefest good to wit life eternall and the meanes of attaining this life eternall to wit faith in Jesus Christ Ergo The Scriptures containe all things in them necessary to salvation If Mr. Montague you have a minde to confute this Argument you must then dispute against the Gospell of S. Iohn which confirmeth it But heare Mr. Montague what he saith in his first Epistle vers 1. 3.4 That which was from the beginning which wee have heard which wee have seene with our Eyes which wee have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life That which wee have seene and heard declare wee unto you that yee may also have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ And these things write wee unto you that your joy may be full The Argument from these words I thus frame The holy Apostles did hear and see whatsoever was necessary to salvation but the Apostles did declare set downe pen and record in their writings whatsoever they thought usefull requisite and sufficient for the attaining of eternall life Ergo the Apostles have declared and set down in their Bookes and writings whatsoever is necessary to salvation and to affirme the contrary is to give the Spirit of God and the holy Apostle the lie who in expresse tearms assert it For the Minor it is also manifest out of the same words For that which unites us with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ and makes our joy compleat that undeniably containes all things necessary to salvation but the holy Scriptures unite us with the Father and with his Sonne Iesus Christ and make our joy compleate Ergo they containe all things necessary to salvation And the same Apostle in the
Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets containe all things in them that pertaine unto the old Testament and in expresse words call it a Covenant or Testament and the bookes of the new Testament doe not comprehend all those things that belong unto the new Testament which is also called a Covenant in those Divine writings then the Scripture of the old Testament is perfecter than the Scripture of the new Testament or neither of them both answer to their inscription but the consequent is most false impious and blasphemous false likewise and impious must the antecedent needs be For the consequence Mr. Montague of this hypotheticall connexion it is manifest from the very inscriptions of both the old and new Testament who are called Covenants or Testaments For Saint Paul in the second of Corinth chap. 3. ver 14. speaking there of the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets cals them a Covenant or Testament in these words For saith he untill this day remaineth the same vaile untaken away in the reading of the old Testament which vaile is done away in Christ And Moses in the 29. of Deut. v. 21. According saith he to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this booke of the Law And in the second of the Kings chap. 23. ver 21. it is called the booke of the Covenant The holy Scriptures of the new Testament also are in many places called a Covenant or Testament as in that place Gal. 3. v. 15. Heb. 12. ver 20. And it is most certaine that the Scriptures both of the old and new Testament answer unto their inscription and title neither can there any thing be produced that is not contained in the writings of the holy Prophets that can truly be said to belong unto the old Testament and the knowledge and faith of which thought necessary to the salvation of those that lived under the old Testament Now if the same be not concluded or granted concerning the new Testament who will not easily from thence inferre that the Scripture of the old Testament is perfecter then that of the new and that the Scriptures of the holy Apostles and Evangelists doe not answer to their inscription and title and this title or inscription the new Testament should be interpreted something belonging unto the new Testament which how absurd it is Master Montague you your selfe will easily perceive and therefore that has no need of any farther proofe But for any man to thinke or say that the Scripture of the new Testament is lesse perfect than that of the old is to give the Spirit of God the lie and to overthrow all the doctrine of the holy Apostles and to deny their expresse words as those of Paul in the second of the Corinth chap. 3. ver 8. and ver 18. and them of 2. Peter chap. 1. ver 19. where the Apostle Peter comparing the Scriptures of the old Testament and the new together he compares the old to a candle and the new to a Day-starre Neither yet Master Montague have I ever seene that Christian that durst affirme the Scriptures of the old Testament to be more perfect than them of the new so that this may suffice to have spoke for proofe of my Assumption and from the proofe of it I conclude that the Scriptures of the old and new Testament as they answer to their title and inscription so no man ought under paine and danger of execration to adde unto them or detract from them therefore they have all things in them necessary for the salvation of the Church without the Traditions of men or their unwritten verities Much more Master Montague could I speake for proofe of this truth and to the which you should never be able to answer but that I would not weary you or trouble your patience but lesse than this I could not speake And all that I have here set down doth evidently declare unto you these two things First that the Church of Rome doth onely in word acknowledge Christs Prophetical Office allow him to be a Prophet but in deeds and workes deny it when they heare him in nothing and not onely take away the Scriptures out of the hands of the people for whose cause they were written with a speciall command also that they should read them with a blessing added unto the command but affirm that they were accidentally written and not by the command of God and that they are obscure and darke and that they are not perfect and compleat in themselves without the Traditions of the Church Councels Fathers and the decrees of Synods be joyned to them all which are not onely impious and blasphemous tenents but as I said before overthrow the whole Propheticall Office of Christ and all Christian Religion and bring in other Prophets and another Law and Religion for the serving of God which they themselves have devised by all which they prove themselves to be no true Church and not to be the pillar and ground of truth but the very basis of all errour and abomination and this is the first thing that resulteth from the conclusion of this discourse The second is this that when the Church of England holdeth and believeth all these things viz. that Christ is the onely Prophet of his Church and onely to be heard that he hath fully revealed the will of God to his Church and that the Scriptures were written by the command of God himselfe and that they are not obscure but cleare and perspicuous and that they ought to be read of the people and that they containe all things in them necessary to salvation without the addition of any Traditions of men it followeth that she thinketh and believeth farre more honourably of the Propheticall Office of Christ than the Church of Rome and that she believeth as she ought to believe and is built upon the foundation of Peter and is the ground and pillar of truth and onely dependeth upon the Word and voice of Christ her true sole and alone Prophet And now Mr. Montague I am come to the last thing I undertooke to prove viz. that all Christians are tied to the written Word of God to the end of the world as we finde it penned in the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament and that the written Word of God and that onely is to be the rule of our faith and manners and that we are not to swarve or to depart from it or to listen to any doctrines whatsoever that are not either grounded upon the expresse words of the Scripture or necessarily and infallibly deduced from them or to admit in matters of faith of any Traditions Councels or Fathers no farther than they are consentany and agreeable to the holy Scriptures yea that wee ought not to listen to any doctrines whatsoever are contrary to the revealed Will of God in the Scriptures though the Apostles themselves should rise from the dead to teach us otherwaies than we have been taught or
forbidding them to listen unto any Traditions of men or unwritten verities For if we must not be wise above that which is written and the opinions and doctrines of faith belong unto true wisdome then wee ought in matters of faith to be contented solely with the Scriptures and onely to cleave and stick unto that rule But the antecedent is true Ergo The consequent The connexion is manifest and for the assumption the place cited proves it But if this place Mr. Montague be understood as it is expounded by many learned men that Paul has reference here to the things which himselfe had writ to the Corinthians and others and that he binds the Corinthians here to the things pend by himselfe and that which he had writ and injoynes them not to be wise above that then by how much more are all the whole Scriptures sufficient and with how much the more care ought we to take heed that wee be not wise above that which is written both in the old and new Testament for that must needs be a compleate rule to which with greater reason all men are for evertied unto if the very writings of the Apostle Paul are so perfect that no man ought to be wise or learned above that which hee hath written From the which I thus argue Whosoever propounds or establishes any doctrines or opinions of Faith from unwritten Traditions is wise above that which is written But no Christian truly obedient to the Apostolicall doctrine is wise above that which is written Ergo no Christian truly obedient to the Apostolicall Doctrine doth propound or establish any Doctrines or opinions of Faith from unwritten Traditions But to goe on Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians chap. 1. vers 8 9. Though wee saith he or an Angell from Heaven preach unto you otherwise then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed as wee said before so say J now againe if any men preach unto you otherwise then that yee have received let him be accursed The Apostle here doubles the execration as if he could have used no argument sufficient enough to deterre them from listning unto any doctrines contrary to that which they had received tying them only to the written Word the which they ought to make the onely rule of their faith and from the which they might not swarve though the Apostles themselves or an Angell from Heaven should teach them otherwise under a fearefull curse and execration And as he sets downe the danger that will follow to all such as disobay these his injunctions so in the conclusion of this his Epistle hee pronounces a blessing upon all such as shall be conformable to the rule prescribed unto them for their farther incouragement in these words Chap. 6. vers 16. And as many as walke according to this rule peace be unto them and mercy and upon the Israel of God Mercy therefore and peace is the reward of all the faithfull and obedient to this rule and to such as cleave onely to the Scriptures and a curse to all those that are disobedient and such as listen unto unwritten Traditions And in the fourth to the Ephesians exhorting them all that with lowlinesse and meeknesse c. they would indeavour to keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace he gives them a reason of his exhortation saying that there is but one body and one spirit and one hope and one Lord and one faith and one Baptisme and one God and Father of all and therefore that they should imploy that Talent of grace that God had given them for the keeping of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And that they might the better doe this hee tells them that the Lord gave them Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists and Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints and for the edifying of the Church till they come unto the unity of the Faith c. and declares unto them withall that they have fully discharged their duty and revealed and taught the whole Will of God unto them and also writ it to this very end vers 14. That wee henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lie in waite to deceive In the which words he giveth the reason why the Word of God was written viz. That they might have a certaine rule to walke by and to which they were only to adhere and constantly to cleave unto and not to be removed from it if they desired to keepe the unity of the faith and not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine So that by this very place it is manifest the written Word is to be the onely rule and not unwritten verities or humane Traditions And in Philip. 3. vers 16. Neverthelesse saith he whereto we have already attained let us walke by the same rule let us minde the same things Here also hee tieth them to the rule the written Word from which they might not swarve And to the Coloss chap. 2. vers 8. Beware saith he lest any may spoyle you through philosophy and vaine deceit after the traditions of men after the rudiments of the World and not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and yee are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and power and in vers 18.19 20 21 22. of the same chapter the Apostle reproveth them that they were subject unto the ordinances after the Commandements and Doctrines of men So that in this very chapter hee proveth that the Word of God is sufficiently perfect for the bringing us unto Christ in whom wee are compleat and forbids them to listen unto the Traditions and Ordinances of men with whatsoever seeming arguments out of philosophy and humane wisdome they are propounded unto them and enjoins them onely to cleave unto the written word and to the revealed will of God in the holy Scriptures and not to serve God after the Commandements and Traditions of men shewing them the danger of so doing for saith he they separate us from the head Christ Jesus and bring us to perdition And if wee looke through all the Epistles of the holy Apostles wee shall finde in them all speciall caveats to take heede of all Traditions of men and speciall charge given them to cleave onely to that Doctrine and those instructions that they in their writings had set downe unto them for for that very end they writ their letters unto them as they testify themselves that after their departure out of this life they might have a certaine rule to walk by by the following and observing of the which they might not onely be preserved from all the errors of the times but be kept unblameable to the appearing and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and bee filled with all saving knowledge And truly Mr. Montague all reason
as for your most excellent education as also in regard of the opportunities you have had at home and abroad of attaining to erudition you ever being in the society of learned men and in the Schooles of wisdome and knowledge in the which you were never accounted a trewant who alwaies so improved your time as you have made as good a progresse in all learning as any of your yeeres And in this notion I consider you and shall ever allow you the full waight of your prayses earnestly intreating you that you would imploy that talent of understanding and learning that God had bestowed upon you to the advancement of his Glory and Kingdome and that you would not make use of it to the wronging of your owne soule and the dammage of others And especially I intreat you that in this bright Sun-shine of the Gospell and truth you would open your eyes and not love darknesse more than light And now I come to prove my minor the truth of which I thus assert That Church which is built upon the foundation of Peter that Church teacheth the way the truth and the life against which the gates of hell shall never prevaile c. But the Church of England is built upon the foundation of Peter Ergo the Church of England teacheth the way the truth and the life against which the gates of hell can never prevaile and is a true Church the house of God the ground and pillar of truth where salvation may be found You answered that the Church of England was not built upon the foundation of Peter and therefore denied the minor Which by Gods assistance in the sequell I shall sufficiently prove But as then I desired favour that I might for the benefit of the standers by and that the ensuing discourse might the better be understood by all interpret the termes of my Syllogisme First what I meant by the foundation of Peter Secondly what I understood by building upon that foundation and which but in part you then gave me liberty to expresse So I shall now by your good liking take leave more fully to set it down because as I said before it doth much conduce to the more cleare understanding of the following disputation By the foundation of Peter I understand Jesus Christ And it is evident there is no other foundation of Peter nor of the true Church As we may see in the 16. of Matth. ver 13 14. in that parly which was betweene Christ and his Apostles where our Saviour asking his Disciples what men said of him and they replying answered that some said he was John Baptist some Elias and others Jeremias or one of the Prophets Then said Jesus but whom say yee that I am And Simon Peter answered and said Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God And Jesus answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Bar-Iona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven And I say unto thee upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it Here Peter in the name of all the Disciples acknowledgeth Jesus Christ to be the foundation of the Church The same he doth John the 6. vers 69. where againe in the name of all the Apostles he saith We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God And in the verse before he said Lord to whom shall we goe thou hast the words of eternall life There was no other rock known to Peter and the blessed Apostles no other foundation no other to flie to for life eternall but Jesus Christ But in the 4 of the Acts vers 11. in that glorious Sermon of his Peter in his own name thus speakes concerning Christ This is the stone which was set at naught by you builders which is become the head of the corner neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved No other foundation therefore of the Church but Christ And in his first Epistle the second Chapter the fourth and fift verses he thus speakes To whom comming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious yee also as living stones are built up a spirituall house c. No other foundation for all Christians to be built upon but Christ according to that of Paul in the first of Cor. chap. 3. ver 11. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ the eternall Son of the eternall Father The same is confirmed in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians vers 19 20. Now therefore ye are no more strangers but fellow Citizens c. and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone So that the foundation of all the Prophets and Apostles and all that ever were saved was Jesus Christ who is yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 13. vers 8. the onely Saviour of his people and the foundation of his Church and the onely way and the truth and the life as he declareth himselfe in the 14 of John and therefore in his name onely is salvation preached amongst the Gentiles and to all Nations And this I thought fit to say concerning my meaning of the foundation of Peter Now I will signifie what I understand by the terme of building and to be built upon the foundation of Peter This is a metaphoricall expression taken from Architects and in Gods dialect it is nothing else but to believe in Jesus Christ For as in building the stones polished are by cement and morter joyned to the foundation so all believers those lively stones are built upon Jesus Christ that living stone by faith which joynes them to their head and foundation Christ Jesus and that onely as Peter himselfe interprets it in his first Epistle chap. 2. vers 6. Wherefore it is contained in the holy Scripture Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect precious and he that believes on him shall not be confounded Vnto you therefore which believe he is precious So that to be built upon the rock Christ Jesus by Peters own interpretation is to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation which we cannot doe in any creature without blasphemy The same doctrine is preached by Paul in the second Chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians vers 5 6 7. For though I be absent in the flesh yet I am with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastnesse of your faith in Christ As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walke ye in him rooted and built upon him and established in the faith c. Here to be rooted and built up in Christ is to believe in Jesus Christ and by his alone merits to hope for salvation who was
to whom he is not their Lord he will be obeyed and have his pleasure submitted to or else we cannot be his disciples nor obtaine life eternall So that inevitably and most necessarily it followeth that we must renounce our owne merits and justification by our owne workes if we will believe in Christ as we ought to believe All which when the Church of England teacheth it is built upon the foundation of Peter and therefore is a true Church But that I may conclude this point and clearely evidence the truth of it to you Mr. Montague and all men and by other testimonies confirme it and in so doing prove the Church of England a true Church which you stifly deny I will briefly declare wherein our justification before God consisteth and what it is that makes us acceptable with him and to believe aright which is not to rely upon our own righteousnes but upon the righteousnes of Jesus Christ apprehended by faith And this doctrin we learn out of the holy Scriptures which teach us a twofold righteousnesse Rom. 10. v. 3. a righteousnesse of God and a righteousnesse of our owne which the Jewes relying upon as all Justiciaries do did not submit themselves to the righteousnesse of God therefore did not deny themselves and come unto Christ rely upon him Who was the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that believeth vers 4. For Moses saith the Apostle describeth the righteousnesse which is of the Law that the man that doth those things shall live by them But the righteousnesse which is of faith speaketh on this wise that if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation Here faith alone is the hand that reacheth forth the righteousnes of Christ unto us and by which apprehending Christ we stand justified before God So that out of the words of the Apostle this twofold righteousnesse appeares the righteousnesse of the Gospell and the righteousnesse of the Law which the Apostle so describeth as no mortall man ever living besides Christ onely since the fall of Adam was righteous or just or indeed could be as is sufficiently by the places above mentioned proved But the righteousnes of the Gospell is that whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. For the just shall live by his faith Rom. 1. Gal. 3. Now then when the righteousnesse of the Law consisteth in the absolute and perfect observation obedience and fulfilling of the whole Law and no man can perfectly keepe observe and obey it it of necessity followes that we cannot attaine unto righteousnesse by the Law but we must seeke another righteousnesse which is onely to be found in the Gospell and that righteousnesse is the remission of all our sinnes and our reconciliation with God and the imputation of Christs righteousnesse freely bestowed upon us of God for Christs sake who is our onely Saviour and redeemer And this is to be built upon the foundation of Peter And this is the righteousnesse by which we must be saved and justified before God For we are justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ As Paul saith to the Rom. chap. 3. ver 24. and in vers 28. farther expresseth himselfe saying We conclude therefore that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law The sense and meaning of the which words if we do duely consider them will so cleare unto all men this Evangelicall and everlasting truth that there will be no doubting of it to any rationall creature For the finding out therefore of the true sense of these words three things offer themselves to be deliberated on First what is meant here by being justified Secondly what is meant to be justified by faith Thirdly what are those works and deeds which are excluded from justification As concerning the first we are to observe three distinct actions of God in it First the freedome absolution of a sinner from the guilt of his sins and iniquities for the merits of Jesus Christ Acts 13. v. 38 39. Be it knowne unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgivenesse of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses That is by Jesus Christ they are freed and absolved from the guilt of those sinnes which the Law could not free them from And in this sense doth the Apostle oppose justification to condemnation in Rom. 8. v. 33. which is nothing else but a binding over a man to undergoe the due and deserved punishment The second action of God is imputation or the esteeming or the accounting of a sinner as just for the merits of Jesus Christ Woe be to him that justifieth the wicked Esay 5. ver 22. that is that doth not make him just but accompts esteems and declares him as just So in the Gospell wisdom is said to be justified of her children that is approved of and acknowledged The third action of God is the acceptation or receiving of a sinner to life eternall in Christ For after God hath freed and absolved a sinner and imputed righteousnesse unto him this receiving of him after that to life eternall doth necessarily follow which is therefore cald justification of life Rom. 5. ver 18. where the reason of it is likewise rendered for as Adams sinne and offence was imputed to all or came upon all and by it death entered into the world and reigned so the obedience of Christ being imputed to all believers they are made righteous and obtaine justification of life From the consideration of all which this definition of justification is easily gathered That it is an action of God the Father absolving and freeing a sinner from all his offences and transgressions for the merits of Jesus Christ and imputing righteousnesse unto him and receiving of him to life eternall And now I come to the second thing viz. What is meant to be justified by faith The sense and meaning of the which as it is a matter of great moment and consequence and concernes no lesse than our eternall happinesse so it cals for and requires at our hands all care and diligence for the right understanding of it which the great Rabbins of the Church of Rome are ignorant of and that it may the more easily be delucidated and understood I will declare first what that thing is for which a sinner is justified and accounted just And that is the obedience of Jesus Christ our mediator and redeemer and that both his active and passive for those are not to be separated that God hath joyned together the last of which doth consist in Christs suffering of the first death in respect of his
Christ is become of no effect unto you saith Paul whosoever of you are justified by the Law yee are falne from grace All those therefore that will be justified by the works of the Law deprive themselves of the grace of God in Jesus Christ but the Church of Rome doth this Mr. Montague ergo But for the Church of England it followeth the Apostles example Phil. 3. ver 8 9. Counting all things losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and that it may be found in him not having its owne righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith By the which righteousnesse of Christ all the workes of the Law are excluded from justification But I will yet more fully prove that the workes of grace are also excluded from justification Ephes 2. ver 8 9. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of workes lest any man should boast Here againe all workes are removed withall we may observe that the holy Apostle in this place a firming that we are not saved by workes speakes not of those workes before grace and regeneration according to the ordinary evasion of the Church of Rome but he speakes of all the workes men doe in the state of grace and after conversion and which shall accompany us as we presse to the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus as we may see in the 10. verse For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walke in them So that good workes are not the meritorious cause of the Kingdome of Heaven but onely the way which God hath prepared and appointed for us to walke in to Heaven And in the 11. to the Rom. ver 6 7. he saith And if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace He speakes here of the regenerate Romans and of the workes dond by them after their conversion which he excludes from justification and therefore it is a poore evasion or quillet of the Church of Rome to excuse their pride when they say that God hath given us the grace of meriting which is a flat contradiction for grace doth ever exclude merit as the words of Paul inferre who saith If it be by grace then not of workes and if of workes then it is no more grace otherwise worke is no more worke And in his Epistle to Titus ch 3. ver 4 5. But after saith he that the kindnesse and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by workes of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Here the Apostle includes himselfe in the number of the regenerate as in all the other places and disavowes all workes and excludes them from justification for the mercy and grace of God cannot stand with mens merits as hath been sufficiently already proved And in that verse he further addes that being justified by grace we should be made heires according to the hope of eternall life From which words we learne that we have life eternall as heires of God and not in the way quality of mercenaries So that by all these proofes it is evident that all workes are excluded from justification as by many reasons also may be evinced For sinners are and ought so to be justified before God that all occasion of gloriation and boasting may be taken away as we see Rom. 3. ver 27. Where is boasting then it is taken away By what Law of workes Nay but by the law of faith Now if a man by the workes of grace might be justified he should then have something whereof to glory notwithstanding he acknowledged he received those workes from God as we may see in the example of the Pharisee in the 18. of Luke and should also have more to glory of than Abraham Rom. 4. ver 3 4. where it is said that if Abraham be justified by workes he hath whereof to glory but not before God For what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse Againe if a man be justified by workes then the justification of the Law should stand and be of force but that stands not as by all the testimonies before mentioned is evident and from the 14. verse of this chapter For if they which are of the Law be heires faith is made void and the promise made of no effect And not onely this verse but the tenour of the whole chapter proves that Abraham though he abounded in good workes yet was justified before God without the workes of the Law howsoever before men according to that of St. James chap. 2. He declared by his workes the livelinesse of his faith for St. James himselfe saith vers 23. That Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse and he was called the friend of God And that was long before he offered his Sonne Isaac And when the Apostle Paul saith that Abraham was not justified before God by his works it cannot be understood of the works of the ceremoniall Law which was not given till foure hundred yeares after the justification of Abraham But the principall things we may gather out of this whole fourth chapter to the Romans are these First that the workes of grace and after regeneration are excluded from justificaton Secondly that the justification of Abraham the father of the faithfull is the modell and patterne of the justification of all believers and sonnes of Abraham as appeares from the 22. and 23. verses And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousnesse Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him who raised up Jesus from the dead And therefore as Abraham was justified before God by faith without the workes of the law so all believers are justified which the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians chap. 3. ver 8. doth againe clearely prove And the Scripture saith he foreseeing that God would justifie the heathen through faith preached before the Gospell unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed so that they which be of faith are blessed with faithfull Abraham And from this very place it is manifest that Abraham then believed when the Apostle affirmes that he was not justified before God by his workes to confirme unto us likewise that we are not justified before God by our workes after that God hath given unto us faith Yea Paul evidences the same by his owne example and by the example of the faithfull that the works of grace also are excluded from justification for in 1 Cor. chap. 4. ver 4. I know nothing saith the Apostle by my selfe yet am I not hereby justified Here
the Apostle declares two things concerning himselfe The first his good conscience The second that he was not thereby justified By which all the workes of grace are excluded from justification Yea it is most evident that a man must be justified before he can doe any good workes or any thing pleasing unto God so that those workes that follow justification can no way effect it or be the cause of it And as all workes are excluded so all vertues faith onely excepted for as he that receives a gift puts forth his hand onely but after he has received it not onely his hand but his tongue and his feet and his other members which conferred nothing in the receiving testifie their thankfulnesse After the same manner we receive the matter of justification by faith onely the hand of the soule not by hope or charity But after Christ is received and imbraced these graces likewise manifest themselves with all the rest which spring from faith the fountaine that sanctifies cleanses and purifies the heart sprinkling it with the blood of Jesus Christ from which fountaine arise all the streams of all other saving graces that appear in our lives And this Mr. Montague is the saving doctrine of justification which when the Church of England so firmely holdeth forth declares and preaches it believeth in Jesus Christ as it ought to believe and is built upon the foundation of Peter when it excludes all merits and workes from justification and lookes for salvation in Christ by faith alone for which its believing it hath very good reason for if the children of Israel did not by their owne righteousnesse merit the Land of Canaan which is by God himselfe there excluded Deut. 9. which was but the type how much lesse can any man by his merits merit Heaven it selfe which is the thing typified But that I may neither leave you Mr. Montague nor any Romanist any ground of cavill I shall by your patience say something here severally and by it self to a poore objection that is often made by the Papists against our doctrine of free justification by faith alone who often contest that in the whole Scripture it is no where said that man is justified by faith alone that particle alone say they is no where inserted in the holy Scripture but is onely put in by us But for answer I desire you to take notice that howsoever that particle in so many letters be not in expresse terms specified there is in many places of the Scripture that set downe that that is equivalent to it as will by and by appeare And however I say that word alone be not in the Scriptures notwithstanding the Apostle Paul doth clearely confirme our opinion of free justification by faith alone so that no man can doubt of it that hath not resigned his reason and so evidently declares it as if he had in expresse words said by faith alone For faith beholds and lookes upon something without us that is the mercy and favour of God promised in a mediator which are the sure mercies of David and this mercy alone doth justifie us and this mercy doth faith alone apprehend wherefore the name of faith taken by it selfe denoteth as much as faith alone and by it selfe Besides Paul in this businesse and worke of justification joynes nothing with faith and therefore he teacheth that faith alone doth suffice for if it hath nothing joyned and coupled with it in justifying or absolving of us then it is plaine and evident that faith alone doth justifie us For whatsoever could adde or conferre any thing to our justification all that is removed and excluded from faith in our justification For what is it Mr. Montague I pray thinke you that in this cause or businesse should be joyned with faith I presume you will say workes Now then if workes be removed severed and disjoyned from faith and that in expresse words it followes then necessarily that we are justified by faith alone Heare then I pray what Paul saith Rom. 3. vers 28. We therefore conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law And in the same chapter vers 20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified And vers 24. Being justified freely by grace through the redemption of Jesus Christ And in chap. 4. ver 5 6. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousness even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works And in his epistle to the Gala. cap. the 2.16 knowing that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ c. I beseech you Mr. Montague tell me ingenuously what could be spoke or cited more cleerly for the confirming of our opinion and doctrine For if wee be not justified by the workes of the Law and if we be not justified but by the faith of Jesus Christ and if all workes of the Law be so often by the Apostle excluded from justification and twice in expresse tearmes removed from justification in this verse and that with an irrisistible reason added by the Apostle shewing the impossibility of justification by workes saving that by the workes of the Law shall no flesh be iustified I say in all these regards it necessarily followes that we are justified by faith alone And we may adde to all this what the Apostle often speakes that wee are justified freely it is the gift of God which excludes all reason of merit Ephes 2. vers 8 9. for by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of workes lest any man should boast Mr. Montague if all that I have spoke cannot yet satisfy you I hope it will satisfy all rationall men and it doth abundantly confirme me in this truth and also prove that that Church which teacheth the free grace of God and the doctrin of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ is a true Church and believes as it ought to believe But before I draw to an end and couclude this point I shall at your best leisure desire you to answer this Argument If wee be not justified by the workes of the Law if to him that workes not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse if by the workes of the Law no flesh shall be justified if Righteousnesse without workes be imputed if freely if by grace if it be the gift of God and to conclude if we be not justified but by the Faith of Jesus Christ Then we are iustified by Faith alone But the antecedent is true therefore the consequent Wherefore then should any man cavill against our Doctrine of free justification by faith alone because the particle alone is not in expresse tearmes set down when there are divers expressions of as full efficacy
and as prevalent to declare the truth of that tenent as if indeed that word had been expressed Notwithstanding all that I have now said to prove the doctrine of free justification by faith alone to bee grounded upon the Scripture and that according to the holy Word of God the Church of England preacheth it and by that proves it selfe a true Church yet the Church of England doth not teach that that faith by which we are justified is alone or solitary without the company and fellowship of good workes and other vertues and graces which are the fruits of faith but urgeth likewise and teacheth all holy duties to be joyned with Faith as wee shall see afterwards and that wee should be abounding in good workes which God hath before ordained that we should walke in for the glorifying of his name and to justify unto the world the livelinesse of our faith as all the Saints of old have done But now Mr. Mountague that you may see the error of your wayes and that all men may behold the impiety and vanity of the doctrine of selfe-merits and of the works of supererogation and that we may all be humble under the mighty hand of God and learne this lesson of selfe-denyall I shall for a corollary adde a few things and then conclude this point Our Saviour Christ saith Luke the 17. When you shall have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to doe Is not this an extreame arrogancy think you Master Montague in any man when our Saviour Christ himselfe teacheth us to say we are unprofitable servants when we have done whatsoever is commanded us both in the law and the Gospell to say and affirme that we are meriting and deserving servants yea is it not an impious ridiculosity to affirme it when notwithstanding we do transgresse the Commandements of our Master a thousand wayes For these two conclusions do necessarily result out of our Saviours words First that when wee have done all that God commands we are yet but unprofitable servants The second that we have done but that was our duty to doe Out of the which words I thus argue Hee that when he has done all that he is commanded to do is yet but an unprofitable servant he cannot merit much lesse doe workes of supererogation But every man when he hath done all that is commanded him to doe is yet but an unprofitable servant Ergo he cannot merit much lesse do workes of supererogation All this is confirmed by our Saviours owne words who cannot erre we must leave the works of merit to Christ alone and say we are unprofitable and deny our selves if we will be his Disciples Out of the same words I gather this argument also They which have done but that which was their duty to do when they have done all that was commanded them they cannot merit much lesse do workes of supererogation But when they have done all that was commanded them both in the Law and Gospell they have done but that which was their duty to do Ergo they cannot merit much lesse do works of supererogation You must needs understand Mr. Montague the Doctrine of merits who are able to discourse a weeke together of them and therefore you know very well that in your Roman Dialect merits works of supererogation are such things and performances as are done above that that is commanded them and when men do more than they are injoyned by God and exceede in their duty to a superplus This I say is your language But if no man can attaine to such perfection of obedience as the Romanists speake of then by their own confession the Doctrin of merits is a false doctrin and ought by all men to be abominated and so much the rather we ought to abhor it because it is a Doctrine of blasphemy and is as much in effect as to give the Lord of Life truth it selfe the lie for Christ sayth When you have done all things that are commanded you say you are unprofitable servants for you have done that which was your duty Notwithstanding the Papists say they can merit But Christ who is the Master and Doctor of his Church and whom we are commanded to heare Mat. 3. Mat. 17. has taught us otherwise affirming we cannot merit much lesse do workes of supererogation which will plainly appeare if we examine a few instances and go through some particulars We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our mind and with all our mighâ— and to love our Neighbour as our selfe I now demand of you Mr. Mountague whether either your selfe or any man can attaine unto this perfection of love the Lord requires at your hands and so fulfill the Law If it be acknowledged that no man can attaine to this perfection of love then he is a transgressor of the Law and is so far from meriting favour at Gods hand as he merits eternall death by it for the soule that sinnes shall die Ezekiel 18. for the wages of sin is death Numb 6. But if you answer that you can keepe this Law notwithstanding you cannot yet merit by it by Christs own words who proclaimeth you an unprofitable servant affirming that you have done but your duty Againe in the fifth of Matth. 4. vers 8. our Saviour saith Be yee therefore perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect Here the Lord Jesus Christ for the ordering of our obedience and regulating of our lives sets before us as a modell rule and example which we must ever follow the perfection that is in God himselfe our Heavenly father and commands all men to be perfect as he himselfe is perfect I demand of you Mr. Montague can you or any man attaine unto this perfection that is in God which neverthelesse we are commanded to do If you do acknowledge that no man can attaine to it as no man can indeed then you are a transgressor of this command and fayling in your duty you deserve condemnation and therefore are far from meriting But if you shall affirme that you can attaine to this perfection and should really do that you are commanded yet you are still an unprofitable servant and have done but your duty and therefore have not yet merited any thing We are commanded both in the old Testament and in the new to be holy and for the pattern of our holinesse as of our perfection the holinesse of God is set downe before us for our imitation As he that hath called you saith St. Peter is holy so be you holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be yee holy as I am holy Levit. 11. ver 24. 19.2 the 20.7 I desire you to tell me whether you or any man can attaine to that perfection of holinesse through the whole course of your life that is in God if not you have transgressed this
as they finde it in the written word of the old and new Testament as they make that and that only the Rule of their faith and obedience and no unwritten word or Traditions Councells or Fathers no farther than they are grounded upon the written word contained in the holy Bible And this the Church of England hath good warrant to do from Christs both precept and example and from both the Prophets and Apostles practice John the 5. v. the 39. Search the Scriptures saith Christ for in them yee thinke to have eternall life and they are they which testify of mee And v. 46.47 for had yee believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote of me but if yee believe not his writings how shall you believe my words Here our Saviour Christ ratifyes Moses his writings to be of Divine authority and equalizes them with if not prefers them before his owne words saying if yee believe not his writings how shall yee believe my words And in the sixteenth of Luke in the person of Abraham Christ sendeth all men that desire salvation to the writings of Moses saying v. 29 30 31. they have Moses and the Prophets let them heare them if they would escape damnation and have eternall life And Dives sayd Nay Father Abraham but if one come unto them from the dead they will amend their lives and repent And he said unto him If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Here our Saviour tyes them precisely to the Scriptures and affirmes they are more prevalent to bring men unto Repentance and to save their soules than any miracles whatsoever and therefore that they are only to be cleaved unto by all the sonnes of Abraham And as he commanded all men to have recourse to Moses and the Prophets so all the time of his life and after his resurrection hee taught all his auditors out of the holy Scriptures Luke the 24. vers 27. and after that our Saviour Christ had upbrayded his Disciples for their unbeliefe He began saith the Evangelist at Moses and all the Prophets and expounded to them through all the Scriptures the things concerning himselfe And vers 44. he said unto them These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalmes concerning me Here our Saviour Christ instructs and teaches his Disciples onely out of the written Word and in them all Christians and sends them onely to the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalmist and affirmes that they were the voice of God which the Lord spake and uttered by them All the Prophets likewise sent the people to the written word as Deut. 30. Isaiah 8. ver 20. To the Law and to the Testimonies saith the Prophet if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Here the Lord by his Prophet sends all men to the written Word in which he declared his pleasure and will unto them and affirmes that they that speake not according to that Word they have no light in them that is they are in errour and darknesse according to that of our Saviour Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. ever sending them to the Scripture for knowledge And Malac. 4. the Lord there vers 4. Remember saith he the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements Here all the Church of the Jewes were sent unto the written Word and manded ever to remember that that was left by Gods appointment for the rule of their faith and obedience and to that onely they were stedfastly to cleave And Paul in Acts 24. vers 14. in his owne defence before Felix speakes thus This I confesse unto thee that after the way which they call heresie so worship I the God of my fathers believing all things in the Law and the Prophets The written word was the ground of his faith he continued stedfastly in the doctrine of the Prophets and taught all men so to doe proving and confirming his doctrine out of the holy Sciptures of the Prophets and convincing the Jewes out of them from morning to evening Acts 28. ver 23. And in Acts 26. ver 22. Witnessing saith the Apostle both to small and great saying no other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come Nothing but Scripture and the doctrine contained in them was the foundation of both the true Jewish and Christian Church And Apollos a man eloquent and mighty in the Scripture used the same way of teaching Acts 18. vers 28. who shewed by the Scriptures that Jesus was that Christ And Paul to the Thessalonians in the first Epistle chap. 5. vers 19 20. Quench not the spirit saith he despise not the Prophesies a thing worthy the noting after he had exhorted them to nourish in themselves the sparks of the Spirit of God kindled in them that they might not be deluded by any false spirit or conceive they had the Spirit when they had it not he ties them to the rule by which they should try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and that rule was the Prophesies of the old Testament and the studying of them As much as if he had said to the Thessalonians nourish daily within you all the graces of knowledge and wisdome the Spirit of God hath bestowed upon you and increase more and more in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus saying Quench not the Spirit and that you may the better increase in knowledge and abound in all gifts and graces and the truth and that ye may not be led away with any deceiving spirit and vaine delusion instead of true illumination after the manner of many enthusiasts who dreame of new inspirations new lights regulate your whole illumination and your spirit and knowledge according unto the written prophesies of the old Testament follow them and you cannot erre therefore saith he despise not the prophesies but by them try all things and keepe that which is good and agreeable to them and whatsoever is not agreeable to them is a meere delusion and not the true Spirit who is ever like it selfe and therefore he ties them to the prophesies of the old Testament as well as to the Scriptures of the new So Saint Peter in his second Epistle chap. 1. vers 19. We have also a more sure word of the Prophets saith he to the which ye doe well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a darke place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in our hearts Here the holy Apostle Peter ties all Christians as well to the written Word of the old as to the Scriptures of the new This written Word was the foundation of the Church of the Jewes and
inventions and doctrines and that with all simplicity and godly integrity and administers the holy Sacraments without any addition diminution or detraction according as Christ appointed and cals upon the name of God according as he hath taught it is cleare to all men that the Church of England is a true Church and built upon the foundation of Peter All which will more perspicuously be evidenced if we examine the severall commissions of the Apostles and consider what they preached unto the people whose example for preaching and doctrine the Church of England in all things follows and swarves not from Saint Peter in Acts 2. ver 37. When the people were pricked in their hearts at his Sermon and said unto the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe in Verse 38. according to his commission Repent saith he and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sinnes and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost for the promise is to you and your children and to all that are afarre off even as many as the Lord our God shall call To preach faith and repentance unto the people was their commission And in chap. 3. ver 23. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out c. and Saint Paul sets downe his commission in the places following in Chap. 13. ver 23. Be it knowne unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgivenesse of sinnes And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses And in Acts 26. the Apostle Paul shewes his commission to King Agrippa and what by that he was to doe in Gods service and imployments His words are these I have saith the Lord Jesus appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a witnesse both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things I will appeare unto thee in delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee To open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Here is the Apostles Commission Now let us take notice how he executes it Whereupon O King Agrippa saith he I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision but shewed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and through all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turne to God and doe workes meet for repentance So that in the execution of his commission in opening their eyes and turning men from darknesse unto light and from the power of Satan unto God for the receiving of remission of sinnes and inheritance among them that are sanctified he preacheth unto them onely that they should repent and turne to God and doe workes meet for repentance and believe in Jesus Christ And in this consisted all the preaching of all the Apostles and Prophets and this is all the worke that the true Ministers of Jesus Christ have to doe unto the end of the world Which Commission when the Church of England fully and punctually observeth teaching them to repent and turne from sinne and idols unto the living God and to change their minds and purposes and to come out of themselves and flie unto God for mercy and pardon puting off their old mind and putting on a new in a word when the Church of England teacheth all men that true repentance consists in the universall change of the mind and of the whole life and turning unto God by unfeigned sorrow which proceedeth from an earnest serious and reall feare of God which continueth unto the last houre of mans life in the mortifying of the old man and crucifying of the flesh and in the quickuing of the new man and vivifying of the Spirit and labours by all meanes to humble men for their sinnes by which they have offended God that so they may obtaine mercy and become new creatures and manifest this change wrought in them by the amendment of their whole lives and returning into the waies of Gods Commandements and exhorteth them to the practising of all those vertues and graces God hath adorned them with and bestowed upon them and as they are a chosen generation a Royall Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. vers 9. Againe when the Church of England instructeth the people fully in the doctrine of saving faith teaching that it is a certaine setled and assured knowledge of the free grace mercy and love of God towards mankinde in Jesus Christ and grounded upon the truth of the gracious and free promise of God in Christ and is both revealed unto their minds and soules and sealed in their hearts by the holy Ghost so that as the Spirit of God doth illuminate their understanding worketh faith in their hearts withall he doth witnesse unto them their adoption and assureth them of their salvation in Jesus Christ and of life eternall according unto the Commission delivered unto the Apostles and which likewise they in their own particulars preached unto their auditors as the whole Scriptures witnesse now when the Church of England I say not onely instructeth the people rightly to believe and repent but also calleth upon them that they should joyne practise with theory and shew forth their faith by all good workes and a godly life and holy conversation and that they should daily increase and abound in all knowledge and labour for particular faith and certaine assurance of Gods love and that they may the better attaine unto this speciall assurance by which they may be supported in all temptations and tryals they exhort them diligently and carefully to read the Word of God which was written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15. ver 4. and call upon them likewise to be diligent in the hearing of the holy Word and frequenting of the holy assemblies and encourage them to the reall practice of all those instructions and wholsome doctrines that they learne by the ministery of the Gospell that they may not only be Saints in the Church and in publique but at home in their houses yea and in their private closets and be holy in all manner of conversation both publique and private ever instructing their family ever shewing them good example and going before them in a godly and unblameable life walking before God in uprightnesse inall sincerity and before men unreproveable Again when the Church of England administers the Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper according to Christ institution without addition and diminution but as they have
and sufficiently to salvation whether or no it would then satisfie you and perswade you that the Church of England was built upon the foundation of Peter and was a true Church And if my memory faile not you told me that then the worke was done Whereupon I thus argued That Church that declares preaches and teaches unto the people all that Jesus Christ both taught did and suffered for the salvation of mankind after he had taken humane nature upon him as he was our King Priest and Prophet which is all that we are to believe for the speculative part and declares likewise and preaches plainly and distinctly whatsoever concernes the peoples dutie of love and obedience to God againe for his infinite love to mankind and instructs them in like manner of their duty of love and charity one towards another all which belongs unto the practicall part of religion that Church teacheth all things both for theory and practice necessary for salvation and building them upon the foundation of Peter But the Church of England doth all this ergo Here Mr. Montague you denied my minor then many of the Gentlemen that were standers by Sir Francis Wortly Sir John Gothericke Sir Wil. Morton Sir Edw. Bishop and others whose names I know not demanded of you seeing you denied my minor that you would declare and specifie wherein the Church of England failed either in the speculative or practicall part of Divinity and wherein she was silent in any thing that was necessary to salvation either for theory or practice And you were not then able as they can all witnesse to shew any particular where the Church of England failed in her duty or concealed any thing from the people either for speculation or practice Notwithstanding Master Montague you yet persisted in the deniall of my minor and put me upon my proofe Wherupon I thus argued That Church that teaches the whole counsell of God the knowledge of the onely true God and whom he hath sent Jesus Christ which is life eternall John 17. and testifies unto the people repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20. v. 21. and instructs them in all things how to believe aright and how to obey aright that Church teacheth all things for theory and practice that are requisite for the making of a true Church and for the building of it upon the foundation of Peter But the Church of England teacheth all these things ergo You againe denied my minor whereupon the Gentlemen as before desired you to instance in any particular where the Church of England was defective or failed in declaring the full counsell of God or in preaching the knowledge of God or of faith and obedience to the people And however Mr. Montague you were not able in any particular to make it appeare where the Church of England was deficient yet you continued in deniall of my minor and urged me to prove it when neverthelesse the truth of it is so evident as very children are able to discerne it All men know that faith and obedience is the whole duty of man Jehosaphat was well instructed in this doctrine and taught it to all his people 2 Chron. chap. 20. v. 20. where he saith Heare ye me O Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem believe in the Lord your God so shall ye be established believe his holy Prophets so shall ye prosper And whosoever believeth on him shall not be confounded Esay 28.16 Rom. 9. vers 33. Faith and obedience was the theame of all the Sermons of all the holy Prophets and Apostles and of Christ himselfe as the whole Scriptures witnesse Esay 1. v. 19. the Prophet saith If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eate the good of the Land but if ye refuse and rebell you shall be destroyed with the Sword all which proofes cleere the truth of my argument But to satisfie your then desire I prove my minor thus That Church that teaches the people their whole duty both towards God and one towards another and instructs them both what they should doe and what they should leave undone by the observing of the which they may live happily here and come to life eternall hereafter that Church teacheth the whole counsell of God all for theory and practice that is necessary for the making of it a true Church and the building of it up upon the foundation of Peter But the Church of England doth all this Ergo. And for proofe of my minor I cited that of Paul in his Epistle to Titus chap. 2. v. 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and holily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes Many places more may be cited to confirme the truth of my argument as Eccles 12. vers 13 14. where Solomon saith Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter feare God and keepe his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man So in like manner in 1 Sam. 12. ver 13 14 15. God forbid saith he that I should sinne against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you but I will teach you the good and the right way Onely feare the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he hath done for you But if you still doe wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King The truth of my minor is so cleare that there is not a man in whom there is but one eye of reason but can easily perceive and discerne it for the Church of England teacheth and publisheth the whole Law and the whole Gospell and all that is contained in the whole written Word of God both in the old and new Testament and therefore all the counsell of God and all both for theory and practice and whatsoever is necessary for the building of men up upon the foundation of Peter and proving it selfe a true Church But when you were by argument thus urged you at last after many windings and turnings betooke your selfe to the common refuge of all those of your profession to wit to an unwritten word your traditions and affirmed that the Scriptures contained not all things that were to be learned and practised by the people and that the people ought to be as well acquainted with that as with the written Word whereupon Sir John Gotherick a learned Gentleman to assert and maintaine the alsufficiency of the Scripture without the addition of mens traditions cited that of St. Paul to Timothy the second Epistle chap. 3. v. 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction and for instruction c. The
and all the other Pen-men of the Sacred writ and dictated unto them what they should write and all for the establishing of the people more and more in the Truth and that they might not be carried about with every winde of Doctrine Eph. 4. v. 14. And therefore it doth of necessity follow that the Word of God was not accidentally written or by the will of man but by Gods appointment and by his holy Spirit and of set purpose And this shall suffice to have spoken of my second Argument My third Argument is this That of which there was a necessity of writing for the common salvation and for the encouragement of all Christians earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints that was not penned accidentally and occasionally by the peculiar motion and will of man but by the inspiration and moving of the Holy Ghost and of set purpose But the sacred Scriptures were written of necessity for the common salvation and for the animating and encouragement of all Christians earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Ergo they were not accidentally and occasionally penned and by the peculiar instigation of man but by the inspiration and moving of the Holy Ghost and of set purpose And for proofe of this see what Saint Jude saith ver 3. Beloved saith he when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needfull for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 2. v. 21. I have not written saith he unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it c. and in the 14 15 16. vers Let that therefore abide in you saith he which ye have heard from the beginning if that which ye have heard from the beginning remaine in you ye shall also continue in the Sonne and in the Father And that is the promise that he hath promised even eternall life These things have I writ unto you concerning them that seduce you Here the Apostle Saint John writes unto knowing and understanding Christians and sets before their eyes the examples of some that were fallen away and gone from them to the end to make them more watchfull and diligent in taking heed unto themselves that they be not led away by the errour of the world but saith he they were not of us for then they would have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us And withall he forewarnes them of false Teachers and gives them rules of direction in writing and directs them to all sorts of people fathers young men and very little children to the end they should all read them and have them continually by them and observe them diligently if they would be preserved from all errours according to that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. vers 12. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and that they might not fall away from the truth he exhorts them in the place above cited to abide in the truth which they had heard from the beginning that was in the faith once delivered unto the Saints and for their comfort he assureth them if that truth they have heard from the beginning shall remaine in them they shall also continue in the Sonne and in the Father that is they shall have eternall life and not onely be freed here from all the errours of the times and of Antichrist but be everlastingly blessed as the expresse words declare and therefore he tieth them all to the written Word which was of purpose penned by the inspiration of the holy Ghost and by the appointment of God and his peculiar motion and not accidentally and by the will of man and for this very end that they might not by vaine Traditions and erroneous opinions of any Antichrists be seduced and fall away as others had done And thus much shall serve to have spoke for the confirmation of my third Argument The fourth and last followeth That which God himselfe writ with his owne hand and that which was penned by speciall command from himselfe for the salvation and edification of the whole Church that was not accidentally and occasionally written and by the peculiar motion of the Pen-men or by the will of man but by the speciall appointment of God and by the inspiration of his holy Spirit and of set purpose but the holy Scriptures were all of them either written by God himselfe and with his owne hand or by his speciall command and appointment and by the inspiration of his holy Spirit and of set purpose for the salvation and edification of the whole Church Ergo they were not accidentally or occasionally written and by the peculiar motion of the Pen-men or by the will of man For proofe of all which let us see what the holy Scripture saith of these things Exod. 31. ver 18. Thus when the Lord had made an end of communing with Moses upon Mount Sinai he gave him two Tables of the Testimony Tables of Stone written with the finger of God And chap. 32. v. 16. Deut. 9. v. 10. The Lord had spoke all these words out of the Mount and there fully declared his will unto them with thunderings and lightnings as is at large described in Exod. 20. yet such was his infinite mercy and love to his people and so gracious he was towards them and so desirous that they might not forget this Law and by that fall into errour and faile in their duty of thankfulnesse and obedience to him in their duty of love and charity towards their brethren as he recorded it and writ it with his owne hand that they might have a more venerable esteeme of it and that not in Paper or Parchment but in more durable materials in two Tables of Stone distinctly and orderly set downe to teach them that it was a perpetuall Law ever binding and to continue to the end of the world And when the Tables were by Moses out of zeale broke the Lord againe of his unspeakeable goodnesse commanded others to be made and he wrote on the Tables according unto the first writing the ten Commandements c. Deut. 10. v. 1 2 3 4. Now that which was written by God himselfe for the salvation of his people and for the preserving of them from all errour that was writ of set purpose and not accidentally and occasionally and by the peculiar motion of man as all men that have not abjured their reason will easily perceive But that is not all Mr. Montague that is to be taken notice of here but we are to consider likewise that what the Lord writ in the two Tables was sufficient to the salvation of his people if we had had no more written so that none could have complained that God
have given an answer to your cavill and evasions which was this that Saint Paul in this place spake onely of the Scriptures of the old Testament because said you Paul writes only of those Scriptures which Timothy had learned from his youth and they were onely the Scriptures of the old Testament that Timothy was instructed in This Mr. Montague was your evasion which if it be true will notwithstanding adde force and strength unto my argument as I then proved and shall by and by more clearely and fully evince But Mr. Montague that Saint Paul in this place joynes the Scriptures of the new Testament with those of the old is most manifest by the addition following saying Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ which words perspicuously evince that to the knowledge of the old Testament he joyneth likewise the doctrine of the Gospell and the Scriptures of the new Testament But you then replied that the doctrine of the new Testament was not at that time written and committed to Pen but onely delivered viva voce and received by Tradition But all this you spake without either ground or any good reason and against all light of right understanding For it is well knowne that this very Epistle to Timothy was either the last or one of the last Saint Paul ever writ it being a little before his death as appeares by the six and seventh verses of the fourth chapter where he saith I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith hence forth there is laid up for me a Crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me onely but to all them that love his appearing So that it is evident that most of all Pauls Epistles were written before this time neither will you deny Master Montague but his first Epistle to Timothy was written before this and in that he had given to Timothy and in him to all the Ministers of the Gospell a perpetuall and sufficient rule how to order and governe the Church unto the worlds end so that all men may perceive that the Apostle joynes the Scriptures of the new Testament with them of the old when he addes through faith which is in Jesus Christ And for further evidence of this consider what Saint Peter writes in his second Epistle chap. 3. ver 15 16. in these words Even as our beloved brother Paul according unto the wisdome given unto him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things c. This Mr. Montague as all men of ordinary wit and all Historians acknowledge was writ some good time and space before this last Epistle and a good time before his death so that the Epistle that Paul writ to the Hebrews his Countreymen to whom Peter also at that time in their dispersion writeth and most of his other Epistles if not all were written when Peter writ this Epistle which by all probability was long before Saint Paul wrote his last Epistle to Timothy so that if you please to take an accurate account of the times it will be evident that all the Apostolicall writings and the whole Scriptures of the New Testament or almost all were then written when Paul writ his last Epistle to Timothy so that not onely the most of Pauls Epistles as Peter witnesseth but Peters first and second Epistle also were then written So that your cavill Mr. Montague and evasion was but a demonstration of the weaknesse of your cause and in nothing impeaches or enervates the dint and force of the argument but rather addes strength and vigour unto it for if I should grant you which I cannot with any reason that the holy Scriptures of the new Testament were not then written when Paul writ his last Epistle to Timothy it would be nothing to the purpose or a matter of any moment seeing that afterward all the doctrine of the new Testament was written and commended by the Pens of the Apostles and Evangelists to future ages and to this end that they should order their faith and regulate all their doctrines and manners according to them with an especiall command from St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. vers 6. That they should not be wise above that which was written Saint John also denouncing a fearefull woe and curse to all those that shall adde unto the holy Scriptures or detract from them Revel 22. ver 18 19. which all they doe Mr. Montague that accuse the holy Scriptures of imperfection which is a great taking away from their perfection and from the honour that belongeth unto them and when they not onely joyne their owne Traditions to the holy Scriptures but preferre them before them which is not onely to be wise above that which is written but prodigiously to adde unto the holy Scriptures which makes you all liable to that curse denounced by Saint John So that if you Master Montague repent not of this so great a sinne The Lord will take away your part out of the booke of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in the Scriptures But now Master Montague I will make it evident that the argument will be of more force and more convince your erroneous opinion of the insufficiency of the holy Scriptures and prove the authority and al-sufficiency of them if the Apostle Paul should there speake onely of the Scriptures of the old Testament as you and your brethren would have him and not of the new also And thus I prove it If the Scriptures of the old Testament are able to make men wise unto salvation much more then are all the holy Scriptures both of the old and new joyned together when those of the new Testament fully and clearely interpret the old and with open face the vaile being taken away set forth Christ unto us I say much more then are they being all joyned with the old Testament able to make men wise to salvation But the antecedent is true ergo the consequent The truth is Master Montague they that say the holy Scriptures containe not all things in them necessary to salvation and that they are not without the Traditions of men able to make us wise to salvation blaspheme and give the lie unto the Spirit of God which affirmeth the contrary saying that they are able to make a man wise to salvation And whosoever Mr. Montague shall deny this golden sentence of Paul that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and profitable c. vers 26. to belong unto the the Scriptures of the new Testament would be thought worthy not onely to be spewed out of the Schooles of all learned Divines but indeed out of the number of all Christians and adjudged unfit for all godly mens society But that
their common and generall faith even in our Saviours time though they were then much degenerated from their ancient purity in the service and worship of God and had brought in their owne Traditions which our Saviour so often reproved them for Matth. 15. and Marke 7. and by that also shewed the al-sufficiency of the Scriptures of the old Testament for the Salvation of them that were under the Law without any traditions of men so that the witnesse the Jewes gave of the sufficiency of the Scriptures that they had in them eternall life was as a cloud of witnesses a whole Nation testifying the same thing and Christ himselfe approving of their evidence and allowing of their testimony and addes his owne witnesse for the confirming of the same doctrine and backes it with an unanswerable reason You believe saith he that the Scriptures containe all things necessary to salvation and in that you believe well and rightly for so they doe I will give you also my reason of it another argument to prove the truth of your witnesse and of the sufficiency of the Scriptures without traditions and to move you to read them for they testifie of me saith Christ for they speak of me preach me and bring you to me who am the Messias the Saviour of the world and they are the Schoole-master God hath appointed for that purpose to teach you to believe that I am he Galat. 3.24 Rom. 10. ver 4. for all the Law sets me forth all those washings and purifications of the Law and all those Ceremonies and Sacrifices have me for their end they are but shadowes and not the body nor the truth it selfe Yea and the Morall law also and all the Commandements that are the waies God would have you walke in bring ye unto me who am the doore of Heaven the doore of the sheepe John 10. v. 9. Who am the way the truth and the life and no man commeth unto the Father but by me Now then when all the Scriptures testifie of me and teach you how ye may come unto me where ye may finde rest unto your soules Matth. 11.28 and bring ye to the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ which is life eternall John 17. v. 3. they containe all things necessary to salvation So that Master Montague if there were no other argument in all the holy Scripture but this very place in the 5. of St John for the proving of the al-sufficiency of the Scriptures of the old Testament for the saving of those that were under the Law without any humane Traditions this alone were sufficient to prove it For that which hath the testimony both of God and men that it containeth all things in it necessary to salvation that is by the knowledge and faith of which they might have eternall life and be blessed for ever that comprehendeth all things in it sufficient for the attaining to life eternall and for saving of mens soules But the holy Scriptures of the old Testament have this testimony from God himselfe and from the Lord Jesus Christ and from the whole Nation of the Jewes which is an Iliad and cloud of witnesses that they have life eternall in them that is by the knowledge and faith of which they might have eternall life and be blessed for ever Ergo they containe all things in them necessary to salvation And if the Scriptures of the old Testament containe all things sufficient to salvation then the whole Scriptures when they also of the new Testament are joyned unto them of the old must of necessity be most absolutely compleat and have in them eternall life and neede no Traditions of men for the perfecting of them and making of them an absolute Rule which is a high point of Blasphemy to affirme So that Mr. Montague hee that shall dispute against the Al-sufficiency of the Scriptures shall dispute against Christ himselfe and call the very witnesse of God himselfe into question who cannot lie You will finde it a hard thing to kick against prickes as Christ said unto Saul persecuting him Acts 9. And this shall serve to have spoke concerning this place in S. John for the proofe of the sufficiency of the holy Scriptures under the Law And I will prove it by other places also of the old Testament before I come to those of the new Deuteronomy 4. verse 2. Yee shall not adde saith the Lord unto the Word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it that you may keep the Commandements of the Lord your God which I command you That to which nothing was to bee added nor from which nothing was to be detracted or taken away by the command of God himselfe that was absolutely perfect But to the written Word of God nothing was to be added nor nothing to be detracted or taken away and that by Gods own Commandement Ergo the written Word and the Law of God was absolutely perfect For the Major Mr. Montague no man will as I suppose deny it and for the Minor the place above cited proves it David also in Psal 19. vers 77. The Law of the Lord is perfect saith he converting the soule the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple from the which words I thus argue That which is perfect in it selfe converting soules and giveth wisdom unto the simple and furnisheth them with all saving knowledge that containes all things in it necessary to salvation and is a perfect and absolute Rule and has no neede of humane Traditions for the making of it compleat But the Law of the Lord is perfect in it selfe converting soules and giveth wisdome unto the simple and furnisheth them with all saving knowledge Ergo it containeth all things in it necessary to salvation and is a perfect and absolute Rule and hath no need of humane Traditions for the making of it compleate For the proof of my whole Syllogisme the words themselves of the Text are sufficient I might here Mr. Montague accumulate proof upon proof out of the old Testament to evince the sufficiency of the Scriptures of Moses and the Prophets for the salvation of those that were under the Law without the helpe of any Traditions of men but because I have been very large in my former discourse I shall produce no more out of the old Testament at this time only let mee say thus much that our Saviour and all the Apostles for the confirmation of the absolutenesse and perfection of the holy Scriptures of the old Testament comfirmed all their Doctrines of faith from them only and send the people ever to the written word as a sufficient and compleate rule of Direction Yea all the Prophets of the old Testament likewise did the same as wee see from Moses in Deut. 30. to Malachy the last Prophet who in Chap. 4. v. 4. sendeth all Israel to the Lawes of Moses and so also the Prophet Isaiah in the 8 Chap. To the Law and to the Testimony saith
he speaking to all the people And if we run through all the new Testament Moses and the Prophets and the Psalmes are the grounds of all their doctrines and thither they send the people upon whom the ends of the World are come and tie us alwayes to the Scriptures of the old Testament and the writings of the Apostles under the new with this expresse command that we should cleave onely to them and not to be wise above that which is written which sheweth the absolute perfection both of the old and new Testament and that they neede no Traditions of men for the making of them a compleat rule And so now I returne againe to the new Testament and will from thence produce some more arguments for the proving of the Al-sufficiency of the holy Scriptures in themselves and then conclude that point And for the better proceeding in my discourse I will goe on with the place of S. Paul in the 2 Epist to Timothy chap. 3. vers 15.16 where I began All Scripture saith he is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in Righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good workes from the which words I thus argue That which has all things in it sufficient for the begetting of Faith and Repentance and for the guiding ordering and regulating of our obedience and manners and for the supporting of us in every condition that containes all things in it necessary to salvation But the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament have all things in them sufficient for the begetting of Faith and Repentance and for the guiding ordering and regulating of our obedience and manners and for the supporting of us in every condition Ergo the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament containe all things in them necessary to salvation For the Major Mr. Montague there is no man that either can or will deny it for the Minor it hath sufficiently by all the former discourse bin proved yet for the further confirmation of it the very enumeration of the benefits that redound unto us by the holy Scriptures set downe by the Apostle in these words that they are profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in Righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to all good workes do abundantly prove it for that which teacheth the truth convinceth error corrects vice frames us to all virtue and comforts us in every condition and is able to make the very man of God accomplished and throughly furnished to all good workes must needs containe all things in it necessary to salvation but the holy Scriptures doth all this as is apparent from this very place and that in Rom. 15. vers 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that were through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Ergo the holy Scriptures containe all things in them necessary to salvation And by consequence have no neede of any humane Traditions for the making of them a compleat rule But for further illustration of this truth I will produce some other Testaimonies of the holy Scriptures of the new Testament Luk. 1. vers 1.2 3 4. For as much saith S. Luke as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us Even as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast beene instructed Here Mr. Montague before I come to frame my argument out of these words I shall desire you well to consider and to take notice of S. Lukes Testimony which is this that before hee wrote his Gospell many had set forth in order a declaration of those things which were most surely believed among them and such men as were eye-witnesses of the things they related and Ministers of the Word and therefore men without exception and even these men had orderly declared and delivered in writing all things of which they were eye-witnesses So that by this it is manifest that a great part of the Scriptures of the new Testament were already pend when S. Luke wrote his Gospell which was long before Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy as all that are any thing verst in the holy Scriptures in the history of those times do very well know contrary unto your assertion Mr. Montague that the holy Scriptures and Doctrines of the new testament were not then pend but only delivered viva voce and received by Tradition when Paul wrote to Timothy And now I come to my argument which out of the words of S. Luke I thus frame Those writings that comprehend in them a perfect declaration of all things that were most surely believed conterning Christs doings preachings and sufferings and have in them a certaine and orderly narration of them all from the very first and that set downe by them that had a perfect understanding of them from the beginning as being Eye-witnesses of them and Ministers of the Word and were also pend to this very end that the truth and certainty of those things wherein they had been instructed and taught might be knowne to all future ages that all men might be kept from error and be established and confirmed for ever in the truth they containe all things in them necessary to salvation But the Scriptures of the new Testament comprehend in them a perfect declaration of all things that were most surely believed concerning Christs both doings preachings and sufferings the knowledge and believing of the which is sufficient to salvation and have in them a certaine and orderly narration of them all from the very first and that set downe by them that had a perfect understanding of them from the beginning as being Eye-witnesses of them and Ministers of the Word and were also pend to this very end that the Truth and certainty of those things wherein they had bin instructed and taught might be known to all future Ages that all men might be kept from error and be established and confirmed forever in the Truth Ergo the holy Scriptures containe all things in them necessary to salvation For the Major Mr. Montague I presume you will not deny it and for the Minor it is apparent from S. Lukes own words and therfore these two consectaries do from thence necessarily follow the first that the holy Scriptures have no neede of any humane Traditions for the making of them a compleate rule the second is that the Scripture is the certaine rule all Christians are tied unto to the end of the World and that they are the onely meanes to informe us of the truth
to walke in for the attaining unto eternall happinesse they are the rule that all men are to be guided by and therefore he proclaimeth him blessed that delighteth in the Law of the Lord and doth meditate in it night and day Psal 1. Solomon likewise in Prov. 3. v. 1 2 3. and in Prov. 6. v. 20 21 22 23. and in many other places sendeth his sonne and all the people to the Law of the Lord for the rule of their lives and manners saying My sonne keepe thy fathers commandement and forsake not the law of thy mother Bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy necke when thou goest it shall lead thee and when thou sleepest it shall keepe thee and when thou awakest it shall talke with thee For the Commandement is a Lampe and the Law is light and reproofes of instruction are the way of life And in Eccles 12. v. 13. Let us heare saith he the conclusion of the whole matter Feare God and keepe his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man By all which places it appeareth that the holy Prophets made the written Word of God and that onely the rule of their lives and manners and commanded all people to have ever recourse unto that and that onely for the square to order their lives by And the Prophet Isaiah in the 8. v. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony saith he if they spake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them There was no other rule Mr. Montague knowen to the Prophets for the directing of the people how to serve God and to which they were tied but the Law and Testimonies the written Word and if under the Law they were ever to have recourse unto the Scripture and nothing in matter of faith was to be received which was not contained in the Scripture it was then a perfect rule and the onely rule by which they were to be guided and much more now Mr. Montague ought we to content our selves with the Word of God and to make that the onely rule of our faith and manners and of all our doctrines when the doctrine of the Gospell also written by the Apostles and Evangelists is joyned unto the Law the which hath also fully explained the meaning of all those hidden mysteries and shadowes and brought us into the cleare sunshine of all truths and hath indeed taught us the way the truth and the life The Prophet Jeremiah also in the 6 chap. vers 16. Thus saith the Lord Stand yee in the wayes and see and aske for the old pathes where is the good way and walke therein and yee shall finde rest unto your soules Here the Prophet sends them to the Law and the Testimony that old way and tells them the benefit that will accrue unto them by following his counsell viz. That by it they shall finde rest unto their soules And the Prophet Malachi 4. vers 4. Remember yee saith he the Law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Jsrael with the statutes and judgments The Law of Moses and the Prophets was the rule Mr. Montague that all Israel was tied unto as that which was an absolute and perfect rule of direction from which they were bound not to swarve and which had no neede of any Traditions for the compleating of it much more now is it a perfect rule when the Gospell is annexed to it and therefore all Christians ought to make the old and new Testament the sole rule of their faith and manners and by all these precepts they are commanded and many more to cleave onely unto it But now Master Montague let us see what precepts and directions wee finde layd downe unto us in the New Testament that by the mouth of both these Witnesses the Truth of God may yet more fully be confirmed In Matthew 17. vers 51. And behold a voyce out of the clouds which said This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare you him And Acts 3. vers 22 23. For Moses truly said unto the Fathers A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise unto you of your brethren like unto mee him shall ye heare in all things whatsoever hee shall say unto you and it shall come to passe that every soule that will not heare that Prophet shall be destroyed from the people Here are two things Mr. Montague observable first a command viz. that we should heare Christ that Prophet the Lord our God should raise up Secondly the danger that would insue if we heard him not viz. destruction for that is pronounced against those that do not heare him Now let us take notice how he teacheth us John 5. vers 39. Search the Scriptures saith he Here our great Prophet Mr. Montague sendeth us onely to the Scriptures he makes them the onely rule which wee are to follow And in Luke 16. in the person of Abraham hee sendeth all men to Moses and the Prophets vers 29. they have Moses and the Prophets saith he let them heare them This Mr. Montague was the old way to salvation where men might finde rest for their soules Moses and the Prophets and thither doth Christ the onely Prophet of his Church send all men to the holy Scriptures and to the Doctrines contained in them as the absolute and compleat rule that all the Christians are for ever tied to and out of the Scriptures and them onely did Christ confirme all his preaching as is evident out of Luke 24. and many other places averring that the people erred not knowing the Scriptures Mat. 22. The Apostles likewise in all their Sermons and Writings did the same and inoyned all Christians to cleave unto the holy Scriptures and to make them onely the rule of their faith and manners as by the places following do most cleerly appeare Paul in the 16 of the Rom. v. 17.18 Now I beseech you brethren saith he marke them which cause division and offences contrary unto the doctrine yee have received and avoyd them for they that are such serve not our Lord Iesus Christ but their owne belly and by good words and faire speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Here the holy Apostle ties the Romans unto the doctrine they had received and which he writ unto them and forbids them to have any communication with any members of that Church that should teach contrary unto that Doctrine they had received for they that are such saith he serve not our Lord Jesus Christ All therefore Mr. Montague that teach any Doctrine contrary unto the written word swarve from the truth and are not by the Apostles command to be communicated with and therefore the written Word must be the onely rule of our direction And in the 4 of the 1 of Cor. vers 6. Hee commands them not to be wise above that that is written tying them ever to the doctrine that is set down in the written Word and in that
dictates unto us that if the holy Apostles in their writings give precepts unto all the Pastors and Teachers of the Church how they shall teach and instruct the people and prescribe unto them a rule which they are ever to follow and from which they may not swarve in their preaching and injoyne them withall to keepe that rule unblameable untill the second comming of the Lord Jesus Christ and in those instructions among other things in speciall charge them to take heed of all the Traditions and Precepts of men in Gods service and injoyne them also to reprove such as teach any other doctrine than that they have received from them and also command to shun and decline them that teach contrary to that doctrine I say as the Ministers of the Gospell have a rule set them by which they shall teach and from which they may not vary if they notwithstanding will goe beyond their commission and teach contrary yet the people are not to listen unto them or to heare them in so doing for they are bound and tied likewise by the same rule and written word to the contrary as by the places above specified is manifest and many more that follow But now Mr. Montague let us a little examine what Paul writeth to Timothy and Titus and in them to all Ministers and Teachers and what rules hee prescribeth unto them in their preaching and what rules after in the following Epistles and Writings of the Apostles are given to all Christians S. Paul in his 1 Epistle to Timothy before he comes to any particular instructions gives him a reason why he left him at Ephesus when he went into Macedonia and that was saith he vers 3.4 That thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine neither give heed to fables c. Here the Apostle ties all Ministers to the rule the Doctrine that they had received from him and the other Apostles And accounts all the Traditions of men fables and vanities as in the third Chapter he more fully declareth and in the 16 verse he saith Take heede unto thy selfe and unto thy doctrine continue in them for in doing this saith he thou shalt both save thy selfe and them that heare thee Here hee ties Timothy to the rule and tells him withall of the benefit that will redound unto him and others continuing in it and that is the salvation both of him and his hearers So that the swarving from it must needs be pernicious to both Teachers and Hearers And in the 5 chap. 21. J charge thee before God saith he and the Lord Jesus and the elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before an other And in chap. 6. vers 3. Jf saith hee any man teach otherwise and consent not to the wholesom words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godlinesse c. from such withdraw thy selfe Here againe he ties him to the rule to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ the doctrine taught by Christ as it is set down in the severall Gospells and commands Timothy to withdraw himselfe from all such as taught not according to that doctrine and in vers 13.14 I give thee charge saith hee in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Iesus who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession that thou keepe this Commandement without spot untill the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ Here is a rule given to the end of the World which all Teachers and Hearers are bound to observe and keepe The Ministers and preachers by it are to teach nothing contrary unto the wholesome words and doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and what hee taught and the people they are not to receive or heare any thing contrary to that doctrine but both Ministers and people are commanded to shunne such and to withdraw themselves from them And in his second Epistle as if the Apostle could never sufficiently enough have taught all Ministers their duty in Chap. 1. vers 13. Hold fast saith he the forme of sound words which thou hast heard of mee in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Have a speciall care thou variest not from that way of teaching thou hast learned from mee the two principall heads of the which doctrine or the sum of which is faith and charity teach them the saving doctrine of faith therefore as I taught it according to the written Word ground all thy preaching concerning faith upon the Scripture not upon the vaine Traditions of men and humane authority but upon the written word So likewise when thou teachest them their duty of love both towards God and towards their Neighbours and one towards another instruct them in that according to the written Word and not after the Precepts and commandements of men and from this way of preaching swarve thou not but hold fast that forme of sound Words for so I taught thee And in Chap. 3. vers 14. Continue thou saith he in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them Here againe hee injoynes him to preseverance in that doctrine onely which he had taught him who was guided by the Spirit of God and confirmed all that hee taught out of the Scriptures and therefore there could be no doubt of the Truth of it and that he commands Timothy and all other Ministers to continue in their Teaching and not to vary from it or to give eare or heed unto the Traditions of men And in his Epistle to Titus chap. 1. vers 13.14 Wherefore saith he rebuke them sharply that they my be sound in the Faith Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandements of men which turne from the truth What Mr. Montague can be spoke more evident against all Traditions of men which teach that the worship of God consisteth in outward performances as in the observation of dayes and ceremonies and abstaining from Meats and Marriage all inventions of crafty men and which teach that wee must worship God according to the commandements of men when the Apostle in expresse words in Chap. 3. of the 1 of Timothy vers 12 3. affirmes that these are the doctrines of Devills and in this place commands Titus sharply roughly and plainely to reprove all such preachers as teach men by such performances to serve God or instruct them to worship him after the commandements and traditions of men and gives him a reason why Titus should sharply rebuke such teachers because saith he they that indoctrinate the people in this manner to serve God are so far from teaching the truth as they turn them from it and lead them into errours and by-waies to their eternall perdition Truely Mr. Montague if there were but this very Text in all the new Testament for our direction for the right serving of God it were enough for ever to deterre us from the traditions of men and to make us cleave close to the
a true Church nor the ground and pillar of truth when she is not built upon the foundation of Peter nor teacheth not the way of the truth and the life nor honoureth not Christ as her King Priest and Prophet nor continueth constantly in the doctrines of the holy Prophets and Apostles and in the which the Gospell of Jesus Christ is neither purely preached nor the Sacraments rightly administred and in the which there is not the true invocation of God nor the true religion that Christ the great Prophet of his Church hath taught us All which Mr. Montague I have as I hope so sufficiently proved in this discourse as I am most confident that there is not any rationall man but will easily perceive and you your selfe Master Montague if you have not resolved to shut your eyes at noone day will now clearely discerne which of the Churches believeth best and which of their faiths and beliefes is most orthodox concerning the Kingly Priestly and Propheticall Office of Christ Jesus and which of them giveth the Lord Jesus most honour either she that neither regardeth what Christ commandeth or forbiddeth or she that in all things heareth his voice and followeth the direction of his Word as it is set downe in the holy Scriptures which I have by Gods assistance proved to containe all things in it necessary to salvation and that wee have no need of humane traditions for the making of it a compleat rule and that this Word is onely the sole rule of our faith and manners and that all Christians to the end of the world are tied unto that to be the rule and square both of their faith and manners and that they ought not to swarve from it upon what termes soever And therefore now Mr. Montague I shall look for the performance of your promise viz. that if I could prove the Church of England to be a true Church and that the Word of God contained all things in it necessary to salvation and that it was the onely rule of our faith unto which all Christians were tied to the end of the world all which I conceive I have fully done that then you would be of our Religion and turne Protestant This was your promise Master Montague before all the Gentlemen and the performance of the which will be to the honour of God and your owne eternall comfort and will ever rejoyce the heart of him that wisheth you all happinesse here and hereafter But Master Montague before I shut up this discourse I shall in way of a corollary desire you to ponder and seriously consider not onely the vanity but the impiety of all those tenents you hold in the Church of Rome more than we have warrant for in the Word of God and that you would deale ingenuously betweene God and your owne conscience in the examination of a few Queries that I shall now before I finish my discourse propound unto you I desire you Master Montague to answer mee truely what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Jesus Christ is the onely and sole King and head of his Church and Saviour of his body that infuseth life and spirituall motion into it and all saving graces and that guideth it by his holy Spirit and Word and believeth also that he and he onely is to be obeyed in whatsoever he commandeth or forbiddeth and that we are not in matters of faith and doctrine to follow or heare any voyce or word but what he the King of his Church hath made knowne unto us in his Lawes and heavenly Statutes as they are recorded in the holy Scriptures tell me I pray Master Montague candidly what you think of the condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this beliefe any waies prejudice his salvation though he never heareth of the Pope of Rome whom you and the other Romanists proclaime to be head of the Church and to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose oracles Lawes and Ordinances you affirme ought to be obeyed in all things as the commands of Christ I say if he never heares of so much as the name of the Pope or of any such creature as he is will not his faith in Jesus Christ alone whom hee believeth to be the onely King and head of the Church and Saviour of all such as trust in him save him eternally If you shall affirme that his thus believing will not save him you overthrow the Christian faith and destroy the true Christian religion which teacheth us thus to believe and assureth us that living and dying in so believing and in this faith we shall be saved Againe Master Montague I demand of you what you thinke of the condition of that Christian that shall peremptorily believe that the Pope of Rome is not the King and head of the Church militant but that hee is the enemy of Jesus Christ one guilty of blasphemy as assuming unto himselfe those glorious attributes and prerogatives that are peculiar to Christ alone the King of Saints and King of Kings and the onely head and sole governour of his Church Can this Master Montague his so believing prejudice his salvation or be any sinne against Almighty God If you shall answer that it may then I shall demand your reason why you conceive that it may be any way prejudiciall to his eternall happinesse for where there is no transgression there is no sinne for sinne is the transgression of the Law and what law I beseech you doth that Christian transgresse that believeth that Christ onely is the King and head of his Church and the Saviour of his body and that these incommunicable prerogatives peculiarly belong unto Christ and that they are not to be given to any mortall man and that it is a sinne in any to assume these titles or for any to give them to the Pope Master Montague let me tell you that except you will overthrow the faith of the Gospell you can never make either the ignorance or the contempt of your Romish doctrine concerning the Popes Supremacy any sinne but that a man may live and die in the detestation of it and be eternally saved if by a stedfast and lively faith and full perswasion hee cleaveth unto Christ Jesus the onely head and King of his Church and believes by his alone power to be delivered out of the hands of all his bodily and spirituall enemies Againe Master Montague I desire you to answer me ingenuously what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Christ Jesus is the onely and sole Prophet of his Church and that he hath fully revealed the whole will and counsell of his Father concerning the redemption of man-kind and that all things necessary to salvation are fully and compleatly set downe in his holy Word by his command in the writings of the old and new Testament and that the sacred Scriptures are a perfect rule of themselves for
the regulating of our Faith and manners and ought to be the onely square and rule of all our thoughts words actions and of our faith and doctrines unto the end of the world and that there is no need of any humane traditions for the compleating of them and making of them perfect and intire and that all doctrines that are not either grounded upon the expresse words of the Scriptures or evidently and by good consequence deduced from thence ought to be rejected and to be abandoned I pray Master Montague what thinke you of the state and condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this his so believing any way prejudice his eternall salvation though he never heareth of any of your traditions or unwritten verities which you notwithstanding affirm are to be entertained with equall beliefe that the holy Scriptures are by us received and imbraced I say if he never heare so much as of the name of your Traditions and of your Councels Canons or Inâ—unctions will not his faith in the holy Scriptures alone imbracing the doctrine revealed in them and believing that they containe all things in them necessary to salvation save him eternally If you shall affirme the contrary you will not fight against mee but against God himselfe and give the Spirit of God the lie who hath so often declared that believing those things that are writ in the holy Scriptures it will save our soules Againe Master Montague I demand of you what you thinke of the condition of that Christian that shall peremptorily believe that all those Traditions of Purgatory and humane satisfactions of Will-worship and Image-worship of Self-merits and workes of Supererogation of Indulgences and Pilgrimages of praying to Saints and Angels and all the other bundles of your Traditions thrust upon the poore people as the service of God and the meanes by which they may please God are detestable abominations as being things full of blasphemy placing our redemption in other meanes than in the bloodshed and meritorious death and passion of Jesus Christ and denying the perfection of the holy Scriptures and equalizing or rather preferring the Traditions and Inventions of the Pope the enemy of the Lord Jesus before the authority of the written Word which was dictated by the Spirit of Christ himselfe the onely and sole Prophet of his Church whom wee are commanded onely to heare and obey in all things that he hath declared in his blessed Word which is for ever to be the rule of our faith Doe you conceive Master Montague that any Christian so believing and persevering in this his beliefe unto the last houre of his death it can any way prejudice his salvation If you say it may give me I beseech you your reason for sinne onely excludeth men out of Heaven shew me therefore what Law of God any Christian transgresseth in believing Christ to be the onely Prophet of his Church and that he hath fully revealed the Will of God his Father concerning the redemption of man-kind and that this his Will and good pleasure is as much as is necessary to the salvation of the Church is fully set downe and contained in the holy Scriptures and that the written Word of God is compleat in it selfe without any humane Traditions and that we are bound to make that onely the rule of our faith and manners and to reject all doctrines whatsoever are not grounded upon the written Word and much more all such doctrines as lead us from Christ and teach us another way to Heaven than he hath taught us who is our onely Prophet and another way of serving God than he hath appointed I pray Master Montague is the obedience of any man to Christ our Prophets command a sinne or transgression of his holy Law If you say so then you make that a sinne which God accounteth of as a vertue and obedience to his blessed Will and Word and so by your traditions breake the Commandements of God and our glorious Prophet Christ Jesus and by that as by all your other damnable doctrines proclaime your selves open transgressours of his holy Lawes which without speedy and hearty repentance will bring you to eternall perdition Againe Master Montague I intreat you candidly to tell me what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Christ Jesus is the onely and sole Priest of the new Testament and that hee by his obedience death and passion and by the Sacrifice of himselfe once offered upon the Crosse when he was made sinne for us who knew no sinne hath reconciled God the Father unto us and made for ever our atonement with him and laid downe a sufficient ransome for our redemption by the which we are freed from both the guilt and punishment due to our sinnes and transgressions and that the vertue of this his sacrifice as it is ineffable and everlastingly able to save all such as believe in him so it is never to be reiterated but to be applyed unto the soule and hearts of men by such meanes onely as God himselfe hath appointed viz. by the vertue and powerfull working and operation of the holy Ghost by the preaching of the Gospell by the administration of the holy Sacraments by faith and prayer and that hee is our onely high Priest and Mediator both of satisfaction and intercession by whom alone wee have continually accesse to the Throne of grace and that in his Name onely and through his mediation wee are to put up all our prayers supplications and thanksgivings unto God the Father and that there are now no reall Priests on earth for the offering up of any propitiatory Sacrifice for the reconciling of God unto us or any other Mediators in Heaven between God and us that can make God propitious unto us but the man Christ Jesus Tell me Master Montague sincerely what you thinke of the state and condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this his beliefe any way prejudice his salvation though he never heare of your Romish Priests whom you affirme to be reall Priests after the order of Melchisedeck and assert that they offer up the body and blood of Jesus Christ daily a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead Can this his faith I say prejudice the salvation of any man though he never heareth such doctrines as these be or can this his faith prejudice his eternall happinesse though hee never heareth of any other Mediator of the new Testament but Jesus Christ alone or never prayeth to Saint or Angell to entreat their mediation for him with God the Father but onely putteth up all his prayers and praises in the Name of Christ alone I beseech you Master Montague tell me if hee never heard so much as the name of any reall Priests besides Christ or of any other Mediator but of Jesus Christ or of any other propitiatory Sacrifice but of that onely which Christ offered to God the Father upon