equally assured that as well what is unwritten as what is written was preach'd by them as necessary to the Salvation of Mankind I must needs also own an equal Obligation upon me to believe them all alike But neither of these could I ever see clear'd nor can I conceive any hope that I shall hereafter And seeing the proof of both lies wholly upon them who affirm both I cannot be obliged to believe them till by such proof they have convinced me In the mean time it seems enough to me that God himself was pleas'd to signifie to the World his Will in writing which I cannot imagine why He should do had he not intended we should learn his Will from what is written and not from any unwritten Tradition And I am the more confirm'd in this Opinion by this that he did not use this way of revealing his Mind unto Men at the first nor till after the World had had a very long time to discern by experience the Unfaithfulness of unwritten Tradition So that this and some other Considerations whereupon the Papists use to ground their Arguments against both the Necessity and Perfection of the Scripture seem to me very fully to evince both the one and the other and so to leave no room at all for their unwritten Traditions as any part of the Rule of Faith and Life Yet seeing they who are always preaching this Doctrine to us That there is no Salvation for them that are not of their Communion preach it not as a private Opinion of their own or of some few others in that Communion but as the generally received Doctrine of that Church which pretends to be no less than Infallible it concerns me so much the more to use all possible diligence to find out what Truth there may be in this Assertion And that not only because I shall thereby discern the necessity of changing my Religion to make sure of my own future Happiness but also because the Determination of this one Point will at once put an end as it seems to me to all the Disputes that are now between the Papists and Us. If I can find it true that no Man can be saved out of that Communion I shall be a Fool to trouble my self with the Study of the Scriptures and seeking out for my self in them a Way to Heaven when I may be sure by stepping over the Threshold out of the one Church into the other to meet with an Infallible Iudg whom if I do but follow I cannot go amiss And to dispute any longer with my self whether I should do so or not would but shew me fitter for Bedlam than for any Church seeing none but the maddest Man alive would dispute for Damnation On the other side if I shall find it false that a Man cannot be saved out of that Communion I must needs be convinced that the Roman Church which hath determined it for a certain Truth hath already err'd both in Faith and Charity and that having erred she is not Infallible and being not Infallible by her own Confession cannot be that One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation So that as this Assertion of that Church shall be found to be true or false even so will the Popish Religion appear also to be But here I meet with a very great Difficulty in my way as I am going to seek out the Truth or Falshood of this Assertion that however I may be able to satisfy my self yet I shall never for ought I can see be able to satisfy them who are the Authors of it any other way than by a total Submission of my own Iudgment and Conscience too to their Determination and a blind Obedience to their Will. The Dispute as is evident is between two Churches the one whereof challengeth to it self the big-swoln Prerogative of being the Lady and Mother of all Churches a Sovereign Authority of prescribing to the Faith of all Christians the Right and incommunicable Priviledg of being the Sole and Infallible Iudg of all Controversies in Religion finally an unquestionable Power of defining and declaring to all the World the true and only Terms of Salvation Now that this Roman-Mother and Mistress-Church sole Commandress and Infallible Iudg having already in the fulness of Power determin'd it and by her Supreme Authority imposed an Oath upon her Subjects to maintain it That none out of her Communion can be saved should after all this in pure Condescension to Men declared Hereticks divest her self of her Authority lay aside her Infallible Definitions come down from the Tribunal and the Throne of Iudicature and Majesty and stand at the Bar submitting her self and the whole Cause to an indifferent and equal Trial is a thing as little to be hoped for as it is yet unagreed upon by what Law Iury or Iudg the Controversy should be decided And truly on the other side it seems to me altogether as unreasonable in her to accept That we Protestants of the Church of England tho we pretend to nothing of this Exorbitant Power over Her or other Churches or of determining Disputes for all the World should yet upon a naked Summons from Her whose Authority we question and see no reason to acknowledg forthwith subscribe to the Sentence of our own Condemnation without any fair and legal Process or indeed so much as yield to a Trial where our professed Adversaries must be at once the Law-makers Accusers Witnesses and yet this is most notoriously our Case What course now in this Case can be taken by us The Church of Rome tells us expresly and peremptorily We cannot be saved out of her Communion Must we believe her without any more ado That 's indeed the way to make a short end of all our Differences for then we must yield to be Her 's or else run headlong to Damnation But if we believe her not as for my part I know not how we can do till we see some reason why we should do so the Dispute for ought I can see is like to be endless For no such reasons can or ought she to give us if she will be constant to her self and stand to her own Principles as will plainly appear anon and if she desert her own Principles she must yield her self to be fallible and not the true Church and then in vain is all talk of Reasons why they that are not of her Communion should be damned However suppose it be pretended as indeed it is that we have had sufficient Reasons given us why we ought to believe her in this Point This then is the present Question between us Whether she hath given us sufficient reason for this or no. She confidently affirms it We as confidently deny it She calls us obstinate Hereticks for denying it and lays many a heavy Curse upon us We for this think her a very unreasonable and imperious Mistress usurping an Authority over us which God never gave
Joh. 5. 39. for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me I find that St. Luke writing his Gospel gives his Theophilus this good reason for it That thou mightst know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed Luk. 1. 4. The things which are most surely believed among us v. 1. all things of which himself had perfect understanding from the very first v. 3. I find St. Iohn who wrote last of all the Apostles affirming that tho Iesus did many other Signs which are not written in that Book of his yet these are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through his Name Joh. 20. 30 31. And finally I find St. Paul asserting the Perfection of the Holy Scripture as fully and plainly as any Man can speak 2 Tim. 3. 15 16 17. saying That the Holy Scripture is able to make a Man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Iesus That all Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works Now what more can we desire than to be made wise unto Salvation And we are here plainly told that the holy Scripture is able to make us so What more can be needful to direct us in the Way to Salvation than what we may learn from the Scriptare It is profitable for our Information and Establishment in the Truth for the Confutation of Error and Heresy for the Correction of Vice and Wickedness for our Instruction in Righteousness It is so profitable for all these purposes that thereby the Man of God the Pastor and Teacher may be made compleat and well furnish'd for all the branches of his Office all the works of his holy Calling In short it is able to bring us to Faith in Christ Iesus And whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Joh. 3. 16. Furthermore from the same Scripture I also learn that Unwritten or Oral Tradition hath ever been found too deceitful a thing to be relied on for so great a matter as Salvation I find that before the Flood notwithstanding the long Lives of Men the few Principles of Natural Religion and the easiness of learning and remembring things so agreeable to humane Nature yet all Flesh had soon corrupted his Way upon the Earth Gen. 6. 12. and every Imagination of the Thoughts of Man's Heart was only evil continually v. 5. And after the Flood the whole World was quickly over-run with Idolatry So ill was the Doctrine which had been preach'd by Noah and his Sons preserved by Oral Tradition Nay I find that after God was pleas'd to give the Iews his Will in Writing their Teachers had so corrupted the Doctrine of God with their Traditions that it was a great part of our blessed Saviour's business to rescue it from those Traditional Corruptions He reproves the Scribes and Pharisees for transgressing the Commandments of God by their Traditions Mat. 15. 3. shewing them how they had made it of none effect by the same v. 6. And that in vain they worshipp'd God teachiag for Doctrines the Commandments of Men v. 9. And St. Paul warns the Colossians to beware of being deceived through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ Col. 2. 6. And the special occasion of writing most of the Epistles yea and the Gospels too seems to be the Danger that Christians were in of being seduced by false Teachers from the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles under the pretence of Tradition Such were the Wolves in Sheeps cloathing Mat. 7. 15 False Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. Pretending to another Gospel Gal. 3. 6. Men of Sleight and cunning Craftiness lying in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. From what I find in the Scripture I must needs conclude till I be better inform'd that it is a sufficient Rule for us to go by and that so long as we hold us to it alone in our Faith and Practice there can be no necessity of resorting to the Church of Rome for that unto which our Bibles at home can direct us The Scripture is the Word of God and sure Rule of Faith saith the Infallible Church of Rome if Bellarmine may be believ'd This holy Scripture is able to make us wise unto Salvation saith the this Infallible Scripture and we take no other but this Holy and Infallible Scripture for the Rule of our Faith and Religious Practice say we Protestants What now should hinder me to infer from hence that if the Scripture be the Word of God we Protestants are very well as we are for we have the Word of the Infallible God and if it may stand us in any stead the Word of the Infallible Church as she will needs be accounted to assure us that adhering to the holy Scripture we are in the ready and sure way to Salvation Farther yet as I am a Protestant of the Church of England I do declare in the words of our VIIIth Article That the three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believ'd for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture Seeing then we receive and throughly believe the same Creeds and no other which the Church of Rome her self professeth to believe and which were thought by the Catholick Church of Christ for above 400 Years after the first planting of Christianity to contain all Points of Faith necessary for the Salvation of Christians I think I have hence gather'd this farther Confirmation of my Assurance that we Protestants are in the direct Way to Salvation that we are of the very same Religion and no other in all the necessary Points of Christian Faith whereof the Catholick Church evidently was in the first and purest Ages of it In the four first General Councils no other Articles of Faith were held needful to be believed by Christians but those of these Creeds which we entirely own and believe Either then it is true That these three Creeds contain all necessary Points of Christian Faith or it is not If it be true we are safe enough and can with no colour of Reason be said to err in Faith or to deserve the Name of Hereticks If it be not true then were all those Primitive Christians as much Hereticks as we are and knew no more than we do what belong'd to the Salvation of Christians And strangely partial is the Church of Rome in approving the Faith of those Councils which one of their most famous Popes and Saints is said to have reverenced as the four Gospels and yet to condemn ours tho in all
Responses The learnedst of the Romish Church are not yet well agreed about it and if the English Representer or French Expounder have had the luck to hit it I am sure that many heretofore who thought themselves as wise as either of them have strangely miss'd it Or else that Council and the Religion call'd Popery hath several Faces for several Times and Countries and in one place and time shall look like it self and in another shall be made to look as like the Protestant Religion as the Artificial Painter dares make it But that which here put us to a stand in this That as the Pope at first taught that Council to speak so hath he reserved the Interpretation of its Decrees to the See Apostolick or himself only and He is not always pleas'd in plain terms to let us know his Mind and if he should for once speak out plainly it will be a little hard for him to assure us that none of his Successors shall hereafter contradict him unless he can satisfy us that he has as well the Gift of Prophesying as that of defining and interpreting However it is for not believing the new Articles of Trent that we are accounted Hereticks and out of the way to Heaven And the reason is because these Articles are supposed to be as firmly grounded on the Word of God as any of those old ones which we believe For the Word of God saith the Council of Trent is partly contain'd in the Books of Scripture and partly in Traditions unwritten these are to be received with the same affection of Piety and Reverence and therefore he that disbelieves any Article grounded upon unwritten Tradition is no less a Heretick than he that disbelieves what is written in the Books of Scripture If I knew how to be satisfied concerning the Authority of this Council I could easily tell what Credit I should give to this which it so confidently affirms But so long as I cannot discern the reason of it's pretended Authority I am a little apt to suspect that it was not the clearness of this Principle that moved it to make so many either unscriptural or antiscriptural Decrees but rather the desire it had of vindicating its unscriptural Doctrines and Practices that made it necessary to espouse such a Principle And indeed when I well consider it I am not a little comforted by it that this equalling unwritten Tradition with Scripture which is the very Basis of the Romish Religion is one of the most incredible things in the World of it self and as destitute of any tolerable Evidence whence it may gain any Credit to it self It must needs seem very strange to any considering Man That the wise God should leave us a Rule in writing on purpose to direct us how to honour Him and attain to Salvation and give it this Commendation that it is able to make wise unto Salvation and yet omit a great many things altogether as necessary to those ends as those that are written and without the Belief and Practice whereof those that are written can no whit avail us and yet never so much as once tell us in all that Writing whither we should go to seek and learn them Nay that he should omit therein the principal Point of all and without which all that is either written or unwritten can signify nothing that is to tell us That the Roman Church is the only true Church the only sure and Infallible Interpreter of all that is written and the only faithful Keeper of all that is unwritten from the Mouth whereof we must receive all saving Truth This I think is a thing that must needs be very hard for any one to believe that believes the Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Veracity of God. And how it can ever be made evident that there are such necessary unwritten Traditions or that these which the Church of Rome holds are they I think no Man living can imagine I am sure if the Papists way of reasoning be good it 's safer not to believe this For all Sides consent that the Scripture which we have is the certain Word of God but all Sides are not agreed that unwritten Traditions are the Word of God therefore it is safer to believe the Scripture only to be the Word of God and not Traditions We hold us to Scripture and the Papists grant that to be the safest Rule their greatest strength lies in unwritten or as they are wont to speak Oral and Practical Traditions which in plain English is no more but Report and Custom and whether there can reasonably be thought any certainty in these equal to that of the written Word of God given by Divine Inspiration can be no hard matter for a very weak Understanding to determine That which makes these unwritten Traditions of the less Credit with me is the assurance I have that a pretence to them and a vain confidence in them hath produced much Error and Division in the Church 'T is well known how far and how long the Errors of the Millenaries and of administring the Eucharist to Infants to mention no more prevail'd on this account And the early Schisms betwixt the Roman and Asian Churches about the keeping of Easter and the hot Contests between the Roman and African Churches about rebaptizing Hereticks were occasion'd and upheld by Pretences on all hands to Tradition This was the only Refuge of old for Hereticks when they were confounded by the Scripture to take shelter under Tradition whence Tertullian call'd them Lucifugas Scripturarum Men who shunn'd the Light of the Scriptures Again saith he They confess indeed that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing and differed not among themselves in their preaching but they will not have it that they revealed all things to all for some things they deliver'd openly to all some things secretly and to a few and that because St. Paul useth this saying to Timothy O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust And again that good thing which is committed to thee keep Irenaeus also makes mention of Hereticks who affirm'd That out of the Scriptures the Truth could not be found out by them who understood not Tradition because it was not deliver'd by Writing but by living Voice for which cause also St. Paul said we speak Wisdom among them that are perfect St. Augustine in his 97th Tract upon Iohn saith that all the most foolish Hereticks who desire to be accounted Christians used to colour their audacious Fictions with a pretence from that Sentence of the Gospel Joh. 16. 10. I have many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Thus did the Hereticks of old both plead Tradition and sought to strengthen their Plea by such places of Scripture as these which are the very same that the Papists produce to the same purpose as may be seen in Bellarmine and others But I find that the Orthodox Fathers of the Church were of another Mind The
Imprimatur Liber cui Titulus The Protestant Resolved c. Marâ— 12. 1687. Guil. Needham RR. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep Cant. a Sacr. Dom. THE Protestant Resolved OR A DISCOURSE Shewing the UNREASONABLENESS Of his Turning Roman Catholick FOR SALVATION The Second Edition LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXVIII No Necessity for a Protestant to turn Roman Catholick for Salvation WE are all I hope thus far argeed That sincere Christianity is the sure Way to Salvation That to be saved we must have the Hearts and not content our selves with the bare Name and naked Profession of Christians That the Authority of God and Divine Truth and no worldly or carnal Concern must sway and govern our whole Conversation If we be not religious in good earnest resolving and endeavouring to honour God in Heart and Life according to the Holy Gospel of our Blessed Iesus it 's no matter to us what Religion we profess or to what Church we join our selves Wickedness and Hypocrisy through what Church soever our Way lieth lead assuredly to Hell. A wicked Protestant and a wicked Papist will in Hell be of the same Communion True Christianity is none other but that which was taught at first by Christ and his Apostles and all they who believe and live according to their Doctrine shall be saved Herein again we are all I suppose agreed And if so I think it very reasonable we should agree as well in that which I now add It is not material to enquire whether a Man be of the Church of Rome or of the Church of England to find whether or no he may be saved but he that would satisfy himself of the possibility of Salvation in the Way wherein he now is ought to enquire whether he believe and live according to the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles seeing they who do this are good Christians what other Names soever Men may bestow upon them and all that are such shall be saved If therefore I may be able to satisfy my self that I believe and live according to the Doctrine deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles I have no reason to doubt of the Possibility of my Salvation in the Way wherein I now am tho it were so that I had never heard to this day of any such Thing as a Church headed by a Pope or Bishop of Rome And I am yet somewhat confident that a Man may believe and live according to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and never hear of a Bishop of Rome because once Men certainly did so and yet were saved The next thing therefore that I have to do is to enquire by what Means I may certainly know what was the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles for by the same Means whereby this may be known I may also know the certain Way to Salvation If there be no such Means left us we are all Fools in professing a Religion the certain Doctrine whereof can by no means be known If such Means there be there must be some certain Records safely convey'd down from their Time to ours for by what other Means we at this distance of so many hundred years should be certainly inform'd what they taught is by me unconceivable These Records then are to be diligently searched into and impartially examined and whosoever is found to believe and practise according to the Doctrine in those Records contained may be concluded to be in the Way to Salvation Such certain Records we have even the Books of the holy Evangelists and Apostles which together with the Books of the Old Testament we call the Holy Scripture In this we are all again unamimous both Papists and Protestants agree that the Doctrine in these Books contained is the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles and Divine Truth Whence it certainly follows that whatsoever Doctrine is contrary to the Doctrine contained in these Books whether it it be taught by Papists or Protestants is to be rejected as none of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles It ought not therefore to satisfy me that this or that Doctrine is taught by the Church of Rome or by the Church of England for by which of them soever it be taught if it be found contrary to the Doctrine of the holy Scripture it is by the Consent of both Churches to be rejected Now seeing we Protestants take this holy Scripture and it only for the Rule of Faith and Life it is certain that holding to this Rule we do not err either in Belief or Practice while on the other side we cannot be sure thot they do not err in both who receive another Rule till it appear that the other Rule which they receive is as true and certain as ours is acknowledged to be Our part of the Rule and that which indeed we take to be the whole being granted us all the Question is about their part of it Ours is on all hands granted to be most sure and certain their 's alone remains disputable and therefore I cannot yet see any reason why I should think their Way safer than our own except it can be safer to follow an uncertain than a certain Rule which I think no body will be so hardy as to affirm The Rule which they of the Roman Communion advance against ours is that of Tradition I am therefore next to to consider First what they understand by it And Secondly what greater reason I can find to perswade me that it is safer to trust to it whether singly or in Conjunction with our own than to our own alone which is the holy Scripture This Tradition consists of such Doctines of Faith and Practice as are supposed to have been taught either by Christ himself or being dictated by the Holy Ghost to his Apostles were delivered by them to the Church not in Writing but in Word only and so have successively been handed down from Father to Son unto the present Age. And these are all according to the Council of Trent to be received with equal affection of Piety and Reverence as the holy Scripture Now I confess if it may appear as evidently to me that Christ or his Apostles left such Doctrines to the Custody of the Church of equal necessity to the Salvation of Christians with those that are written in the Scpipture as it doth that they left us these which are written in the Scripture and if I may be well assured that these very Doctrines which the Church of Rome now holds and pretends to an Authority of imposing upon all Christendome are indeed the very same which were at first as abovesaid deliver'd to the Church I can see no reason why I should not be bound to believe the one as firmly as the other For seeing it is the Authority of the first Preachers of it and not barely the Writings of it that bind me to believe the Doctrine if I can be
things which we find not in the Scriptures saith St. Ambrose how can we use them Ambr. Offic. l. 1. c. 23. Let those of Hermogenes his Shop saith Tertullian shew that it is written If it be not written let them fear that Woe design'd for those that add or take away Irenaeus saith that what the Apostles had preach'd the same afterwards by the Will of God they deliver'd unto us in the Scriptures to be the foundation and pillar of our Faith. St. Hierome against Helvidius calls the Holy Scriptures the only Fountain of Truth Let us bring saith St. Austin for trial not the deceitful Ballances where we may hang on what we will and how we will at our own pleasure saying this is heavy and this is light but let us bring the Divine Ballance of the Holy Scriptures and in that let us weigh what is heavier nay let us not weigh but let us own the things already weighed by the Lord. And elsewhere The Holy Scripture saith he fixeth the Rule of our Doctrine And indeed the excellent sayings of the Antients to this purpose are so well known that I should be very vain to cite any more here If now after all this I should suppose what I can by no means yet grant that God having order'd the Scriptures to be written and said so much in the Commendation thereof they do not yet contain all things necessary to Salvation but that some part of those necessary things as both some Hereticks of old and Papists now would have it believed was only whisper'd privately into the Ears of the Apostles as Mysteries unfit at that time to be communicated to vulgar Christians and that the Apostles tho they were commanded by Christ to preach upon the House-tops that which he had told them privately in the Ear Mar. 10. 27. did not yet think themselves obliged to obey this Command in writing all that was necessary but rather to conceal for a time a considerable part of that mysterious Doctrine Yea suppose that this was one principal use of St. Peter's Keys to lock up all these Mysteries in the Cabinet of the Churches Breast let the Church signify what it can to be communicated to the World in after-Ages by piece-meal so as she should find Men prepar'd by a blind credulity to receive them Yet after all I must needs think that we are too hardly dealt with to be called Hereticks for not believing these things till something be produced whereby we may be assur'd either that these things which they commend to us come indeed from Christ his Apostles or that we are obliged to take the Church of Rome's word for a good Assurance It seems to me a very unreasonable thing that we should be condemn'd as obstinate for not believing things never sufficiently proved whilst we know and declare our selves prepared in Mind to yield upon the first rational Conviction Why should not that Church have the charity to forbear her Censures till she have tried the strength of her Arguments Why was the Council of Trent contrary to the Custom of other Councils so liberal of her Curses and so sparing of her Reasons One good Reason would do more to make us of her Communion than a thousand Anathema's Would not a Man suspect that they have no good Reasons to shew who keep them so close The plain Truth is there have been such vain Pretences to Tradition in all Ages one contradicting another that it seems impossible in this Age to discern between true and false Did not Clemens Alexandrinus call it an Apostolical Tradition that Christ preach'd but one Year And did not Irenaeus pretend a Tradition descending from St. Iohn that Christ was about fifty Years old when he was crucified And do the Papists accout either of these to be true Many things might be named which for some time have been received as Apostolical Traditions which the Church of Rome will not now own to be so And those which she owns she can no more prove to be so than those she hath rejected It were easy to shew this even from abundance of their own Writers who assert the Perfection of the Scripture and complain of the Mischief this pretence to Tradition hath done and who confess they cannot be proved to come from the Apostles But I shall now content my self with the ingenuous Confession of the Bishops assembled at Bononia in their Counsel given to P. Iulius the 3 d. We plainly confess say they among our selves that we cannot prove that which we hold and teach concerning Traditions but we have some conjectures only And again In truth whosoever shall diligently consider the Scripture and then all the things that are usually done in our Churches will find there is great difference betwixt them and that this Doctrine of ours is very unlike and in many things quite repugnant to it What said Erasmus long since on the 2 d Psalm They call the People off saith he from the Scriptures unto little humane Traditions which they have honestly invented for their own Profit And Peter Suter a bitter Adversary of his hath these words Since many things are delivered to be observed which are not expresly found in Holy Scripture will not unlearned Persons taking notice of these things easily murmur complaining that so great Burdens should be laid upon them whereby the Liberty of the Gospel is so greatly impaired Will they not also easily be drawn away from the observance of Ecclesiastical Ordinances when they shall find that they are not contained in the Law of Christ And must we be Hereticks for not believing these so uncertain Traditions Must our Faith be accounted defective and not entire meerly because we do not believe what no Man can make us understand to co come from God This seems very hard It is now time for me to consider the second Objection made against our Faith which is That it is not rightly grounded it is not built on the Authority of the Church that is the Church of Rome And indeed so much weight I find laid upon this one Point that I have some reason to think that they who have been very forward at all times to give such liberal allowances of implicit Faith to their Friends at home would be contented with a very small measure of explicit Belief in us if we would once be taught to ground our Faith aright on the sole Authority of that Church It seems to me that for the talk about it they are no such rigid Exactors of an entire explicit Faith in order to Salvation but that if we will explicitly believe this one fundamental Point the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church over all Christians they will deal very favourably with us in most others and excuse our Ignorance easilier than they can perswade us to be content to be ignorant I think I have very good reason to believe this because I know they can have no reason to reject them that
have the least Zeal for God's Honour I am verily oerswaded that the good Language they bestow upon the Scripture hath kept more out of their Church than ever their Arguments yet won I will not now take notice of those too well known Encomiums bestow'd upon it by some of their Communion calling it a Nose of Wax a Leaden Rule a dead Letter unsens'd Characters and I am ashamed to say what more I shall only observe what is ordinarily taught us and endeavour'd with much Art to be prov'd by their best most modest and generally approved Authors as That the Scripture is not Necessary that it hath no Authority as to us but from the Church that it is an imperfect an insufficient Rule that it is an obscure Book and finally a very dangerous one to be read by the People I know very well That the Representer and others of them tell us That the Papist believes it damnable in any one to think speak or to do any thing irreverently towards the Scripture and that he holds it in the highest Veneration of all Men living I know also that most of them even whilst they are industriously proving all that I but now said do yet labour to mollify and sweeten their own harsh Expressions which they know must needs grate the Ears of all pious Persons I am also verily perswaded that many Papists have a very venerable esteem for the Scripture and are not a little troubled to hear it reproachfully used And yet I cannot see that highest Veneration for it or that they speak not very irreverently of it who speak no worse of it than the Representer himself hath taught them viz. That it is not fit to be read generally of all without License tho he gives this very good reason for it Lest they should no longer acknowledg the Authority of the Roman Church or in his own words No Authority left by Christ to which they are to submit As tho Men might be taught by the Scripture to be disobedient to any Authority which Christ hath set up in his Church I cannot see any great Veneration he hath to the Scripture in saying They allow a restraint upon the reading of the Scriptures for the preventing of a blind ignorant Presumption or the casting of the Holy to Dogs or Pearls to Swine such too is his respect for Christians That he hath no other assurance that they are the Word of God but by the Authority and Canon of the Church That almost every Text of the Bible and even those that concern the most essential and fundamental Points of the Christian Religion may be interpreted several ways and made to signify things contrary to one another That it is altogether silent without discovering which of all those Senses is that intended by the Holy Ghost and leading to Truth and which are erroneous and Antichristian That a Man may frame as many Creeds as he pleases and make Christ and his Apostles speak what shall be most agreeable to his Humour and suit best with his Interest and find plain Proofs for all That it alone can be no Rule of Faith to any private or particular Person Certainly they who talk of the Scripture at this rate have not the highest Veneration for it of all Men living They that say and labour to prove that the Scripture is not necessary may well be supposed to think that the Church of God might do well enough without it And tho to lessen the Odiousness of this Assertion they are forced to confess it is a Lie without the help of some such mental Reservation as this So that God could not if he pleas'd preserve his Truth among Men some other way than by writing it yet doth not this speak in them the like Veneration for the Scripture as Protestants have who down-rightly affirm it to be necessary And it must needs sound ill to say That the All-wise God hath been very careful to leave and preserve in his Church an unnecessary thing Yea 't is altogether as absurd to say the Scripture is not necessary because God could if it had seem'd good to him have preserv'd his Church and Faith without it As it would be to say that Plowing and Sowing or Eating and Drinking are not necessary because God could if he pleas'd make the Ground bring forth without the one and preserve Man's Life without the other Nor can it be imagin'd that any Man upon this account only would venture to say and attempt to prove the Scripture not to be necessary in a sense wherein no Man ever affirm'd it if he were not so zealously bent upon lessening the Esteem which we have for it that he will chuse rather to say nothing to the purpose and dispute against no Body than to be silent and say nothing that sounds ill of it and that he thinks it needful for the ends of his Church so to do In like manner when they contend that the Authority of the Scripture is from the Church which is the thing whereof at every turn they are forward enough to mind us they are forced again to make some Abatements to make it seem a Truth 'T is true they say that consider'd in it self alone it hath its Authority from God whereby they can mean no more but that God is the Author of it but in relation to us it hath its Authority from the Church Now I would fain know what any Man can understand properly by the Authority of the Scripture but its relation to us or the Power it hath to command our Faith in it and Obedience to it as the Word of God. And if it have all this Power from the Church as is confidently affirm'd then tho it self be of God yet all its Authority is from the Church and it must needs be true which was said by one of them That it is of no more Authority than Livy or Aesop ' s Fables without the Churches Declaration Thus is the Authority of God's Word made to depend upon the Authority of Men and all our Faith is no more but humane Faith resting upon humane Testimony And if the Authority which it hath to oblige us be from the Church I would know by what Authority it doth oblige the Church it is not sure by any Authority from Her for then I see no reason why the Church may not chuse whether she will receive it or no whilst yet I think that it is only by the Authority of the Scripture that she can pretend to be a Church and to have any Authority at all However this I am sure of that they who say the Scripture is to be receiv'd for the Churches Sake have not so high a Veneration either for it or the Author of it as they who say it is to be receiv'd for God's Sake And in the next place whether we who say the Scripture is a perfect and sufficient Rule of Faith and Manners containing all things necessary to Salvation or they