World nor to have Men miraculously enabled to do it and give proof that it is Divine 3. We hold that God's written Word and Law is perfect in its kind Psal 19. and sufficient to its proper use and end Which Bellarmine Cassinus and the Council of Basil and many School-men in their Prologues on the Sentences confess extendeth to all things commonly necessary to Salvation yea and to be the Divine Rule of Faith 4. Yet we deny not that if God had seen meet to deliver any necessary part of Law or Gospel Faith or Practice as his will by bare word and Memory of Man we had been bound to believe and obey it when we had sound proof that it was indeed from God 5. We hold that for fullest certainty we have possession of the Bible it self and of the Essentials of Christianity brought us by two Means Conjunct that is The Scripture and practical Custom of the Church As the Scripture or written Word shineth to us by its own Light so Tradition tells us which be the Canonical Books and how the Church received them as Divine and that there are no other such And the practice of Baptismal Profession and Covenanting and of the Church Assemblies and reading Scripture and Catechizing and of Eucharistical Communion and Prayer c. tell us what in all Ages hath been taken for true Christianity As we hold a humane Belief needful in Subserviency as a means to Divine Belief so we hold humane Tradition needful to the conveyance of God's Word to us But by your leave we will distinguish the Messenger from the Authour If the King send me a Law or Mandate by a Messenger or by the Penny-Post I will receive and obey it and yet not take the Post or Messenger for King or Legislator or Infallible 6. And the Reformed Catholicks do own all true Tradition but are for a far surer Tradition than the Roman Sect. Our Tradition of Scripture and the great points of Christianity cometh to us by Evidence Infallible that may be called Natural with the greatest advantage of Moral Evidence also and not on the boast and bare word of one proud Sect that pretendeth to Fanatick Inspiration and Authority above all others I call that Natural Evidence which ariseth from such necessary Causes that cannot be otherwise nor can deceive And I call that the best Moral Evidence which cometh from Mens testimony of greatest credit for skill and honesty and we have both these Mans Soul hath some necessary acts that cannot but be and cannot be otherwise Such is sensation of sensible objects duely presented Intellectual perception of things presented according to the evidence in which they appear The Love of our selves and our own known welfare and any thing that is known to be an only and necessary means thereto and hath Omnimodam ratiomem boni The Love of Truth as Truth and Good as Good The hatred of misery c. These all Men have as men and that which dependeth on these dependeth not only on mens honesty And our evidence of Tradition is such as this It is from the Common Consent of all capable Witnesses of various Opinions Passions and Interests Friends and Foes whereas the Tradition of Sectarian Papists dependeth on the Credit of one Sect that falsly pretend a peculiar trust with both Scripture and Tradition tho' against the greater part of Christians And pretend Fanatically that even ignorant Popes and Prelates in Council have a gift of infallible knowledge For Example If there were a doubt raised Whether there be any such City in the World as Rome Paris Vienna or whether there was ever such persons as K. James K. Charles Ludovicus 14 of France c. Or whether the Statutes in our Books were really made by the Kings and Parliaments named in them and be the same unchanged c. There is Natural evidence of all this because it ariseth from necessary acts All sorts of men of contrary interests could never agree to lie and deceive men in such cases no more than they could all agree to kill themselves And if some would be falsifyers the rest would presently detect and shame them If any Lawyers would falsyfie or change the Statutes others would presently manifest the deceit they being commonly known and the cross interests of so many depending on them yea I say not only that this is Natural Infallible Evidence but that it is more than very much other Physical Evidence of many other things because we have better means to know Mans Natural necessary acts than we have to know most other Creatures of God And then for Moral Evidence we have all the Godly's attestation of all Ages and Nations and Sects of Christians and among the rest the Papists also agreeing that This Bible and This Creed and these Essentials of Christianity were all certainly transmitted to us from Christ and his Spirit in his Apostles And what 's the Tradition of the Papal Sect to all this who tell us falsely you cannot know the Scripture to be God's Word but by taking it on the belief of the Pope and Church of Rome as Endowed with the Power of Judgment and the gift of Infallibility Alas what abundance of Impossibilities must be proved true before any Man can by this method believe God's word 1. Before they can believe the Gospel and that Jesus is the true Christ they must believe that he hath a Vicar 2. And a Church 3. And the Pope is this Vicar and his Sect this Church And 4. That he hath the Office Power and Gift of infallible Judging which the Major number of Christians or Churches have not 5. And that Christ not yet believed in gave him power and Infallibility 6. And that he that now Reigneth is the true Pope by due Election Consecration Qualification c. With many more such Impossibilities And what is it to give up the Cause to the Infidels if this be not 7. But we judge that God's Law in Scripture secured from the charge of pretended Rememberers and Vsurpers is so sufficient to its proper use that there needeth no Supplemental Tradition as if it were but half God's Law but only subservient historical Tradition And we challenge the Papists to prove de facto 1. That any such supplemental Tradition is Existent 2. That they possess any other but what the other Churches know 3. That they are more than other Churches authorized to be the Keepers and Judges of that Tradition And 4. We fully prove them Innovators and that Popery is a meer Novelty It is copiously proved by Peter Moulin de novitate Papismi David Blondel de Ecclesia Andrew Rivet Defence of Morney against Coffetean and against Silvester and many others Can they without the most profligate Impudence pretend Apostolical Tradition for denying the Laity the Cup in the Eucharist and for their praying in an unknown Tongue and forbidding the Scripture and deposing Princes and dissolving Oaths of Allegiance and for tormenting and
without teaching and that sound teaching nor by hearkening to Erroneous Deceivers 3. Nor that the Slothfull that will not meditate on it can understand it tho' they have the soundest teachers 4. Nor that Novices can understand as much in a short time and small Study as aged long exercised Students 5. Nor that wicked proud men that forfeit Gods help can savingly understand it without his Grace and Spirit 6. Nor that any man how holy soever perfectly understandeth every word in the Scriptures 7. Nor that a person may not be fallible and deceived that yet knoweth which is the Infallible Rule It maketh not all Infallible that know it 8. Nor that any Church or any Number of Christians on Earth have such a Vnity as consisteth in perfect knowledge and agreement in all matters of Faith that is of Scripture-record from God 9. Nor that God hath tyed this Infallible Regulation to the Bishop of Rome or made him this Rule seeing no such word of God is extant and General Councils have condemned Popes of Heresie Infidelity Ignorance and most brutish lust and wickedness 10. Nor that the Judgment of the major part of Christians or Bishops is the Infallible Rule for 1. The Papal part are but a third part And they will hardly believe that the other two or three parts Abissines Egyptians Syrians Armenians Georgians Circassians Greeks Muscovites Protestants are the Infallible rule 2. And if they met in an equal Council they that are most out of the Council would be the most in it And Ephes 2. and many others now condemned have had the Major part And Chrysostom that thought that few Bishops or Priests were saved thought not the greater number to be the infallible Rule 11. And Pope and Councils agreeing are not that Infallible rule for two fallibles makes not one infallible nor two Knaves one honest Man Popes and Councils have oft condemned one another yea they have oft agreed in evil as did that at Laterane the 4th under Innocent the 3d. that decreed the deposition of Princes that exterminate not all that renounce not all Senses and Humanity for those that have led into the Churches of the West all the horrid Errors of Rome to pretend yet that they are the Infallible rule of understanding Scripture is Impudency quite beyond that of Satan himself 12. If this Deceiver hold what is contrary to his accused Protestant Opinion he must condemn the Church of Rome that agreeth not of the sense of a thousand Texts of Scripture Horseloads of Commentators and Cartloads of School-contenders contradicting one another And he that will say that all revealed in Scripture is not matter of Faith reproacheth God as revealing that which is not to be believed All matters of Faith are not essential to Christianity but some are only for the perfection of it All is matter of Faith that we are bound to believe as Divine Revelation All the Scripture is such thô the ignorant must have time and help to understand it and explicitely receive it The Popes themselves e. g. Sixtus Quintus and Clem. 8. have differed in many hundred Texts about the very Latine Translation Many hundred Volumes of Controversies among them tell us how far they are from ending Controversies and agreeing in all matters of Faith But in so much as is necessary to Salvation all serious believing Protestants or Reformed Catholicks are agreed Now to trouble the Reader with the proof of any of these twelve particulars would be but to abuse Time and him as to prove that no Man is perfect and he that saith he hath no sin is a Lyar and to prove that the grand Deceivers of the Church are not Infallible and that Gods Word is not unevident and unintelligible and that such Villains as their own Councils and Historians say many Popes were speaks not more intelligibly and wisely than God and that the Volumes of Canons and Priests Writings are not of more evident meaning than Gods Word these need proof to none but those that are uncapable of it What Rule is there for the Infallible understanding the sence of all our Statute Laws none but what I mentioned The intelligible evidence in the words what else are words used for to men duely instructed and studyed The Judges govern by deciding particular causes by the Law but are not an Infallible Rule for all Men to understand the true sence of the Law by while Judges and Parliaments differ from each other as Popes and Councils did The Texts cited by the Deceiver are so vilely abused as if he purposed but to make sport by taking Gods Word in vain Point 2. Accused That in matters of Faith we must not rely on the Judgment of the Church and of her Pastors but only on the written word Ans The Deceiver would Cheat the Ignorant by Confusion and belying the Reformed Catholicks for 1. It 's false that the Reformed hold any of this undistinguishing Assertion They distinguish between humane Faith and Divine And I hope God and Man may be distinguished They say that it must be a Divine Faith that is The Belief of Gods word for the Infallible Veracity of God that must save us and not the belief of Man alone But that a humane Faith is needful in Subserviency to a Divine God hath appointed humane Teachers to the Flocks and Oportet discentem Credere He will never learn that will believe nothing on his Teachers Credit But he must believe Man but as Man an imperfect fallible Creature yet as like to know more than he that chooseth him for his Teacher And that which Man is to teach us is to see the Evidence of Gods own Word that we may believe it for that Evidence as our Teachers themselves must do For if the Teachers do but believe one another and not God or God only for Man's Authority this is not Religion nor Divne Faith but humane such as they had that believed Pythagoras Plato Mahomet c. If Boys learn of their School-Master to understand the Greek or Latin Testament and believe them as to Sence this is not Divine Faith but a help towards it The word of God is Infallible And by the help of fallible Men such as disagreeing Commentators be we are furthered for understanding it But false bloody Usurpers are not the likest to teach us the Truth nor fittest to be trusted His Citations of Scriptures to mistated Controversies are so putidly impertinent that I am ashamed to detect them by words which every Man may do The Third accused Point That the Scriptures are easy to be understood and therefore none are to be restrained from Reading them Ans Meer Cheat to the Ignorant by confusion and falshood 1. We and all Papists with us agree the more is the Guilt of the Deceivers Fraud that some of the Scripture is easy to be understood and is actually understood by all true Christians even all that is essentsal to Christianity and necessary to Salvation Bellarmine Castrus
are thought to make the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace and that are set in the least opposition or competition with Christs Merits or in any place save commanded subordination to him nay he says he firmly holds That Works done with a conceit of obliging God by Merit in commutative Justice or as conceited sufficient without a Saviour and the pardon of their failings do more further their Damnation than Salvation Yea p. 97. none but Christ merited of strict distributive Justice according to the Law of Innocency nor by any Works that will save from the charge of sin and desert of death And that thou mayest know what he ascribes to our Graces Holiness or Works He tells us p. 119. we mean by Merit but the moral aptitude for the reward of a free Benefactor who also is Rector when the ordering of a free gift suspended on official conditions is sapientially made a means of procuring obedience This one Clause if understood and he is a bold Traducer of so great a Man that cannot understand words so plain will acquit Mr. B. and inform thee of the place of all Gospel Conditions 1. All Gospel-blessings are the free gifts of Christ as Benefactor they have their being without any regard to what we do therefore nothing in man is a jot of the righteousness or merit for which they are bestowed 2. Christ is our Rector or Governor he will rule us as well as be beneficent to us 3. As a means to incline us to comply with him as Rector he suspends these blessings on terms of what he makes our Duty and wisely orders them as Motives to our Obedience 4. Any Act of our Obedience is no more than a conformity to that Order of his and doth not hinder all we receive from him to be of free gift Obj. But he saith that good Works are necessary to Salvation Answ He doth so and how few deny it But 1. Not if a man dye as soon as he be converted but if he have time p. 94. 2. Their rewardableness is by Gods free Grace and Promise for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness Sacrifice and Intercession their imperfection being pardoned and their holiness amiable through him These are his words p. 76. 3. He saith Not without or as a supplement to the Sacrifice Merits and free Grace of Christ our Saviour and Faith in him p. 93 75. And we give our selves to Christ as our Prophet Priest and King to be saved by his Merits p. 94.4 He saith our best Works will not save a man from the charge of sin and desert of death p. 97. 5. He denies that external Obedience is necessary to our admission into a justified state as he shews in the Thief on the Cross And when he saith we are justified by our Faith Godliness and Works Justification is not taken by him for the pardon of sin which he ascribes wholly to the Merits of Christ but he takes Justification there for our acquittance against the accusation that we are Infidels Ungodly and Hypocrites And saith that against the charge that we are Sinners deserving Hell we are justified by Christ believed in p. 94. His meaning is plainly this Christ alone by his Merits forgives our sins and purchased eternal Life for us But seeing that Christ hath promised to forgive none but the penitent Believer and declared he will destroy all impenitent unbelieving ungodly sinners Now he thinks that we must be truly acquitted that we are not such or we shall not be saved by Christ Yea he thinks that when God justifies a man for Christs Merits he doth also declare a man to be a true Believer because he will justifie no other and will justifie all such and when God admits a man into Glory he doth even thereby adjudge him a believing penitent holy and upright man and free from the charge of being an infidel hypocritical unholy Enemy against whom the Gospel denounceth Vengeance and bars relief Let these things be weighed and none will wonder that he should say on his sick bed No works I will leave out works if he grant me the other And truly in health none spake more humbly of his own Works than he used to do But because some confident weak persons have inferred from that passage that he changed his Principles when he came to dye we shall inform thee that after that passage was utter'd by him even the night before his death Mr. Baxter was asked whether he was of the same sentiments as formerly about Justification He answered That he had told the World sufficiently his thoughts about it by several Writings and otherwise and thither he referr'd them And after a little pause with his Eyes lifted up to Heaven he cryed Lord pity pity pity the Ignorance of this poor City And in the time of his sickness he declared to us and others that his thoughts in these things were the same as formerly Our regards to Mr. B. force the Publication of what we here insert tho' we would not be judged so happy as to arrive at his Light to lead us to a full Agreement with all his Sentiments As to this Book we wish there be not still great need of such helps against Popery and we are assured it will give more light than some greater Volumes on this Subject That God may render it useful shall be the Prayer of Thy Servants in the Gospel Daniel Williams Matthew Sylvester Protestant Religion Truly Stated and Justified c. THE Deceiver calleth his Book The Touchstone of the Reformed Gospel as if he owned a Gospel distinct from that of the Reformed Church And he undertakes to name fifty two points which the Protestants affirm but tells you not where nor proveth his affirmation but you must believe him as a Touchstone of Truth Dec. The first Protestant affirmation feigned is That there is not in the Church One and that an infallible Rule for understanding the Holy Scripture and conserving of Vnity in matters of Faith Answ A meer Lye if he mean that this is any part of Protestant Doctrine but he may find as crude confused words in some ignorant person that is called a Protestant The Reformed Catholicks hold that there is in the Church one and that an infallible Rule for understanding the holy Scripture and conserving of Vnity in matters of Faith And that Rule is The Evidence of its own meaning as inherent in its self discernible or intelligible by men prepared and instructed by competent Teaching and Study and the necessary help of Gods Grace and Spirit This is that Rule But the Reformed believe not 1. That there is any Rule by which ignorant prejudiced heretical wilfully blind wicked uncapable men can understand such Scripture as they are hereby undisposed to understand unless by a great change made on themselves Nor that any Prince can make a Statute which on Man can misunderstand abuse or violate 2. Nor that Men can understand it
killing all baptized persons that obey not the Pope with many such 8. If Tradition tell us of any Customs used in the Apostles or Primitive times that be not in Scripture and so be not made matters of Necessity to all yea or of any occasion all mutable Customs that are mentioned in Scripture as washing the Saints Feet the Holy Kiss the Womans Vail long or short Hair Collections each Lords Day Preachers Travelling on Foot c. we quarrel not with the then use of such Traditions when they were seasonable no more than with forbearing things strangled and blood Nor quarrel we with the Churches after that setled Easter Day and made the 20th Canon of the Nicene Council and used divers Ceremonies at Baptism But Traditions of things Indifferent and Mutable we receive but as such to be laid aside when the occasion ceaseth And if any will turn them into a necessary common Law we disclaim such Usurpers for they cross that very Tradition It was delivered as Indifferent and you feign and make it a necessary Law and so destroy it 9. We maintain openly that Tradition is against the Papacy and its Corruptions They are but a third or fourth part of Christians The other two or three parts of the Christian World profess that the Tradition of their Churches is against the Popes universal Sovereignty and against all the Corruptions of which they accuse him None but the shameless will deny that the Abassians Armenians Greeks and others plead that this is their Tradition And Reader tell us why the Tradition of two or three parts of the Church should not rather be believed against a third part than that which the third part boast of against all the rest 10. Ask them which way they know and keep their Traditions Whether they have any History Records or any other way which we may not know as well as they If they pretend that it is a Secret kept by their Church it 's a strange Secret that so many Thousands know But if it be a thing proveable let them prove it 11. Is it not unmercifulness to tell all the Christian World that as big and hard as the Bible is if they knew and obeyed it all they cannot be saved unless they believe and do more kept by the Pope and called Tradition When yet these Deceivers can dispense with the knowledge and practice of God's own word and think the Bible a Book too big and hard and the Prophane say too strict to be commonly understood and kept And yet all the Bible is not Enough but we must be bound to as much more as they will call Tradition yea Volumes also of Papal Canon Laws 12. Did not Christ for this thing Condemn the Old Pharisees Mat. 15 Prove your Traditions to be Apostolical and about things necessary and not your Forgeries or about things mutable and indifferent and we will obey all such Apostolical Traditions But your Novelties and Usupations shall not pass with us for Divine Laws because you can call them such The Fifth accused Point That a Man by his own understanding and private Spirit may rightly judge and interpret Scripture Ans Can any Man unriddle what this Deceiver meaneth 1. Can a Man judge without his own understanding 2. What meaneth he by a private Spirit Little know I. If he mean God's Spirit it is no contemptible nor private Spirit even in a private Man If he mean a Man 's own Spirit Soul or Intellect it is the same as his own understanding If he mean any Evil Spirit or fancy and Erroneous self-conceit we defie such Spirits and Deceivers that use them To understand without our own understandings is a Mystery fit for Rome Why may not a Dog or a Sheep be said so to understand the Scripture if it may be understood without our own understandings What a Curse is on the ignorant Nations that will be led by such words as these But if he will say that he meant By his own understanding alone without a Teacher why did he not say so but say one thing and do another But that had been too gross a Lye to have been believed by them that see that we set up Teachers in all our Congregations 3. Therefore I can imagine nothing but absurdity in his words unless he mean that we hold that a Man may rightly Interpret Scripture by his own understanding immediately instructed by his Teacher and God's Spirit without taking the Sence only at the rebound on the belief of the Pope and his Clergy For we never thought that a Man 's own natural Wit without a Teacher and the help of God's Spirit can savingly understand and apply the Scripture And yet we would fain tell Papists a better way to Convert a Philosopher or a Turk than to Preach to them thus God hath written his Law and Gospel to the World but you cannot tell what is the meaning of it till you take that sence on trust from our Pope and Clergy and know that Christ authorized him to be Judge and that before you believe in Christ or understand the word that so authorizeth him Were not corrupted Nature very blind in things Spiritual Plow-men and Tinkers and Coblers would be able to confute such Fopperies and much more Priests and Popes and Prelates 4. But I pray you tell me whether the Pope and his Prelates do not interpret Scripture by their own understandings Whose understandings else do they judge by in Conclaves or Councils 5. And tell me whether he that judgeth that the Pope is Christs Vice-Christ and Ruler at the Antipodes and is infallible tho' he be by Councils condemned for a Simonist and Infidel an Atheist a Seducer or an ignorant Sot Doth not this Man judge all this by his own understanding If a Man take an ignorant sottish Priest for the Mouth of the Catholick Church tho' he know no more what he talks against than this Roman Deceiver doth he not judge this by his own understanding If a Sot will believe you that your Sect is the whole Church and all are Damned tho' they love God and believe in Christ if they will not be ruled by the Pope and every Mass-Priest doth he not judge thus by his own understanding Do you Preach to Men or Beasts that have no understanding of God's Law and Will If a Man must believe all the Canons of Popes and Councils in Baronius Binnius Surius Nicolinus Caranza c. doth he not do it by his own understanding 6. Oh! But the meaning is You are all private ignorant Men and we are the Clergy Kings choose some of us and Popes choose others and whether we are Wise or Fools Learned or Vnlearned Infidels or Christians you are all Damned if you will not follow us and if we be Damned you must be content to be Damned with us And is it so Hath God made Man for no safer and better a Condition than to be Damned when ever Sottish Drunken Priests will
Church can Err and hath Errors Ans This is truly and honestly recited All Protestants hold it and marvel that all the Devils in Hell can so befool any as to deny it 1. No Body can tell what it is that they call the Church till they tell us But what ever it is except confirmed Angels and Souls in Heaven if they cannot Err God and our Saviour and the Apostles have Erred For they tell us that we know but in part and if any Man say that he hath no Sin he is a Lyar 1 Joh. 1. 1 Cor. 13.12 And in many things we offend all Jam. 2.2 Psal 19.12 Who can understand his Errours cleanse thou me from secret faults It was the Church of which God complaineth that they alway Err in their Hearts and have not known God's ways Psal 95.10 Heb. 3.10 unless Caleb and Joshua were all the Church Isa 53.6 All we like Sheep have gone astray c. If by the Church they mean the Priests how full of Complaints against their Errours are all the Prophets and History of the Kings and Chronicles Isa 3.12 O my people they that lead thee cause thee to Err and destroy the way of thy paths Isa 9.15 16. For the Leaders of this people cause them to Err and they that are led of them are destroyed Mal. 2. The Priests Lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the Law at his Mouth for he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts But ye are departed out of the way and ye have caused many to stumble at the Law Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi saith the Lord of Hosts Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my ways c. Hos 4.6 My people are cut off for lack of knowledge Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will olso reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me Jer. 53.31 The Prophets prophecy falsely and the Priests bear Rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end hereof 2 Chron. 36.14 16 17. All the chief of the Priests and the people Transgressed very much after the abominations of the Heathen But they mocked the Messengers of the Lord and despised his words and misused his Prophets till the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and there was no healing so Isa 1.2 3 4. Reader is it not worse than Infidelity that these Men teach if they say that the Church hath not Erred Was it no Error when Aaron set them up the Golden-Calf nor when they went after the Idols of the Heathen and worshipped in the High places Was it no Error to take Christ for a Deceiver and Blasphemer worthy to be Crucified Was it no Error to reject the Gospel and persecute the Apostles And had the Apostles no Error when they believed not that Christ must Die for our Sins and rise again and ascend to Heaven but thought he must then set up an Earthly Kingdom Was it no Error of Peter Math. 16. to disswade Christ from Suffering for which Christ said Get thee behind me Sathan thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of Men And I think he Erred when Paul openly rebuked his Separation Gal. 2. If all the Church on Earth consist only of persons that have many Errors then the whole Church hath many Errors But the Antecedent is so true that I take him that denyeth it to be so far from knowing what the Church is or what a Christian is that he knoweth not what a Man is and a Church of such are so unfit to be trusted as infallible with all Mens Salvation that they have not the Wit of common illiterate Men or Children And if in all things else they were as mad as in these two Opinions 1. That the Church never did nor can Err. 2. And that all Mens Senses must be denyed for Transubstantiation doubtless they should be kept in Bedlam from humane Converse But for my part I do not think that any Man of them not stark mad doth believe himself that there are any men in the World that have no Error that have any use of Understanding He is far from knowing what Man is that knoweth not that he swarmeth with Errours I oftner doubt whether the greater number of most mens thoughts are true or false But if by the Church they mean only the Pope if he cannot Err then it is no Errour to believe that there is no Life but this and that Mans Soul dieth as the Beasts and that it is lawful to Murther Gods Servants by Thousands or hundred Thousands if all the foresaid Popes in the ages 800 900 1000 1100 Erred not sure there is no such thing as Errour in the World But perhaps by the Church is meant General Councils But 1. If they Erred not in their Decrees doth it follow that therefore they had no Errour 2. But did not the second Council at Ephesus Err Where they tell us that Sola Petri Navicula only the Popes Messengers escaped the Heresie Did not the Council of Calcedon Err in their Opinion when it determined that the Reason of Romes Primacy was because it was the Imperial Seat c. Were all the Councils free from Errour that were for the Arrians And those that were against them And all that were for the Monothelites And those that were against them And all that were for Images and those that were against them c. But at last they come to this that the Pope may Err and Councils may Err but when they agree they cannot Err A happy meeting of Erring persons if they are both cured by it But sure it is not the meeting For the Pope is at Rome when the Council is at Trent Ephesus Constantinople c. If a Council may Err and the Pope Err what proveth it impossible for them to agree in Errour The Pope and Council at Lateran 4th agreed for the Popes deposing Princes that Exterminate not all out of their Dominions that deny Transubstantiation c. Was this no Errour Obj. But this was not a matter of Faith Ans Is it no matter of Faith with them Whether it be Lawful or not according to Gods Law to kill men that believe their Senses and to depose Princes And whether Subjects may break their Oaths of Allegiance and forsake their Prince if the Pope Command them and all because their Prince will not be a Murtherer or Persecutor These are no matters of Faith with them But sure they have made them Articles of their Religion And either the Rebels and Murtherers and Pope and Council Err or else Gods Law and Gospel Err. The Judgment of the Reformed Catholicks is this 1. That there is no man living without Errour 2. That the Apostles of Christ were Commissioned to deliver his Gospel to the World by Word and Record and had his promise of his Spirit to
the using of it as a dedicating Symbol of Christianity in Baptismal Covenanting to bind the Covenanter to that Confession and holy warfare which is the promised duty of the Covenant nor for denying Christendom to those that refuse this use of the Cross out of a fear lest this Covenanting use make it a human Sacrament added to Baptism yet I meet with few of them that Condemn the ancient Christians that lived among Heathens who scorned them as worshiping a Crucified God for their seasonable Crossing themselves in those Heathens sight meerly to shew that they were not ashamed of such a Crucified Saviour not thinking what Papists would bring it to at last The Two and Fiftieth accused Point That the publick Service of the Church ought not to be said but in a Language that all the People may understand Ans The Reformed Catholicks indeed hold this with these exceptions 1. That by All be meant the Ordinary Congregation not meaning that if a French-man or a Dutch-man come in among them they must needs speak to him apart in his own Tongue 2. That if any Rustick Illiterate or Novices understand not many words in the Translation of the Bible or some apt words of the Minister we must not therefore change the Translation nor forbear those apt words that are suited to the more Intelligent but help to amend the understanding of the Ignorant But that in Publick and Private the Congregation should understand what they hear as the Word of God and what is said in Confession Prayer and Praise to God this we hold as a matter of grand importance 1. Because it 's purposely plainly and copiously decided so by the Holy Ghost in the Apostle Paul 1 Cor 14. Do but read the Chapter and judge 2. Because Christ always Preached to the people in a known Tongue 3. He prayed Joh 17. in a known Tongue and taught them so to pray 4. The Apostles where ever they came Preached and Prayed in a known Tongue 5. They wrote the Gospels the Acts and all their Epistles to whole Churches in the Tongue most commonly known to the Reader and so to be read to or by all 6. It was their standing Rule Let all be done to Edification 7. Their Preaching and writing was all for Teaching And it is no Teaching to speak to men in a strange Language unless we be teaching them to understand it 8. Praying is the expressing of known desires to God It 's no Prayer that expresseth no Desire and Ignoti nulla Cupido There is no Desire save sensitive Appetite that supposeth not Knowledge that the thing is good and needful The words of a Parrot are not a Prayer And confession of Sin is the act of a penitent Soul and it is no Repentance or Confession that is but words of they know not what It 's no penitent Confession to hear or speak words not understood what Sin they signifie And to give God thanks implyeth that we understand what Mercies or benefits the words express And to praise God is understandingly to magnifie his perfections or Works So that words without understanding them are no more to be called Prayer Praise Confession Thanksgiving than the singing of a Bird is or the Crowing of a Cock. 9. No reasonable man would be thus served or conversed with A Parent indeed can understand an Abba or a look from an Infant but it is on supposition that the Infant himself perceiveth what he would have And if it be not by intellectual but sensitive perception it is no more a Petition to his Father than a Dogs waiting for Food tho' the person deserves more pity So God understandeth the meaning of Spiritual Groans in one that wants words for large expression But that supposeth that it is true inward desires after him which those Groans signifie But publick worship requireth a conjunction of Soul and Service and therefore a conjunct understanding Else there is no true Union and Communion in the worship For one sound of words with discord of desires is no Christian Union and Communion It must be supposed that either the Hearers are not praying at all or else that every one is secretly praying after his own thoughts for various things without any Concord What melody would it be for all the Church to sing in as many Tunes as persons What King or Judge will take it for a Petition for a man to talk-gibberish to him or say he knoweth not what 10. Even Papists deride Quakers for meeting to say nothing And what difference is there when they hear and say nothing understood saving that the Voice maketh it a more pompous Mockery than the Quakers Silence O! who would have thought that the primitive manner of publick worship should ever have degenerated into such a prophane abuse of God and man against plain Scripture universal practice and humane Reason And this as a part of a grand design to kill the Life of all true Religion and delude Souls with the dead Carkass of mortified Formalities and Ceremonies and that men should think that Souls are saved as Wizards do pretend to do Cures by Charms of words not understood they serve God with empty shells when they have cast away the Kernels Like the silly Samaritan Woman that lookt for a Christ to come to tell them whether in this Mountain or at Jerusalem men ought to worship little knowing what it was to worship God as a Spirit in Spirit and Truth when it should be neither at that Mountain or at Jerusalem But hath this man no Scripture against Scripture Yes Luk. 1.8 The people were praying without while the Priest was offering Incense within Therefore the publick Worship may be performed so as the people understand not That 1. The Priests action only out of their sight is the publick worship and the peoples praying is not so 2. The offering Incense is Praying or because the people are not to do the Priests Office in Incense and Sacrificing therefore Ministers must pray and praise God alone without the people and all this publick worship 3. If the Levitical Sacrifices were offered by the Priest alone Christs Gospel worship must be performed by the Priest alone the people not knowing what he saith And the precepts and examples of the New-Testament must all be reduced to the Levitical Order of Incense and Sacrificing 4. And is he sure that all the people in the outer Court prayed they knew not what or in an unknown Tongue What use is Scripture of to these men His next is Levit. 16.17 None was to go in with the Priest to make attonement for the Congregation c. Ans You see that these men are Judaizers and set up the Levitical Law for the Churches Rule of Service as if Christ had not changed the Law But our Question is not now Whether their Priest have any solitary attonement to make for the Congregation but whether Christ hath not instituted such publick worship in which Ministers and people
must teach them to understand God's Book or to throw it away May not the Teacher and the Book consist together Must School-Boys be forbid to Learn their Grammar because they must have a Teacher Must he teach them the Book or teach them without Book But all the Craft is to get all the World to take only such Cheaters as this for their Masters and then Bible or no Bible may serve turn 16. Is it not the Office of Teachers to Translate God's Word into known Tongues that the People may understand it This is the first part of Preaching it If not why do they use Translations in the Church of Rome the Septuagint and the Vulgar Latin And why did Sixtus 5th and Clem. 8. make such a stir to Correct the Latin And why do so many Comment on them And the Rhemists turn it into English But what is all this for but to help Men to understand the Book 17. Doth not all the Word of God cry down Ignorance and cry up Knowledge from End to End And what Knowledge is it but Divine of the Word and Law of God What else is the scope of all the first Nine Chapters of Solomons Proverbs and of Psal 1. 19. and 119 c. God saith Hos 4. 6. My People perish for lack of knowledge And Isa 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not save them Ignorance and Blindness are made the common cause of Errour Sin and Misery But we are so far from taking all parts of Scripture to be equally necessary to be understood that we are more than the Papists for first and most diligently teaching them the Essentials the Creed Lord's Prayer and Commandments and Baptism and Church Communion and the Lord's Supper and lesser parts as they grow up what they must learn first their Teachers must instruct them 18. If he say as they still do that the Ignorant will misunderstand the Scripture and every one turn it to his own Fancy and Heresie I answer The way to prevent this is to teach it them diligently what else is the Ministry for and not to forbid it them Every Knave may pervert the Law of the Land to maintain his own ill Cause and must the Law therefore be forbidden them Reason is far more commonly abused than Scripture There is no Heresie or Error no Villany Perjury Cruelty Persecution Oppression or Injustice but Reason is pleaded for it Must Reason therefore be renounced Heresies are for want of understanding God's word and must be cured by understanding it 19. And if all the World must take the Popes or Priests words instead of Gods or for their Rule how shall those in Aethiopia Syria America or here know what the Popes Word is That never see him or any that hath seen him And how shall we know when above twenty times there have been two Popes at once which of them is the Right And when they contradict and Damn each other which of them must we believe And when General Councils accuse them of Errour and Condemn them which is to be trusted with our Souls Or if it be Councils that must be to us instead of Scripture when they Damn each other which must we believe And so abundance of them have done When the Pope and they agreed to depose Christian Princes and give away their Dominions and disoblige their Subjects from all their Oaths of Allegiance is it as true as the word of God that all Subjects must believe and obey them But how shall all the poor People know what the Pope and Councils say and hold They can neither read their Volumes nor understand them nor know which are authentick and true Must they all believe their Parish Priest What if he be as very a Deceiver as the writer of this Touchstone that doth but Cheat from the beginning to the end Yet must we take his word instead of Gods Or when other Priests or Fryars contradict him which of them must we believe What if his Parishoners know him to be ignorant or a common Lyar Yet must our Salvation rest on his word and God's word be forbidden us What if we obey him in Error and Sin will he undertake to be Damned for us Or will his undertaking or Damnation save those whom he mislead c. As to his Citation of Scripture against Scripture it is so palpable a perversion that I will leave any Man that will but Read the Text to his own ability to answer him Rev. 5.1 No Man in Heaven or Earth was worthy to open the Sealed Books that John saw in his Vision What then must no Man therefore open the Bible Or because the Revelation is hard must therefore the People be forbidden to Read it and the rest of God's word which was written for them as sufficient to make them wise to Salvation yea to make the simple wise Psal 19. And with as shameless a Face doth he cite the Fathers against the drift of all their writings and Labours and the Judgment of all the Churches of Christ for many hundred years of its purest foundest Primitive times The Fourth accused Point That Apostolical Traditions and ancient Customs of the Church not Founded in the written word are not to be received nor do oblige us Ans This is but more Deceit by confusion and false report The Reformed Catholicks hold 1. That Memory is not so sure a way to deliver any Laws and Doctrines to Posterity through many hundred years as writing is For it must lie on the Memories of so many Thousands in so many Ages and so many parts of the World Of so many Languages Kingdoms and cross Interests and Opinions in their quarrels and the things to be remembred are so many that this needs no proof with any but Fools or Mad-men What a Religion should we have had if instead of the Bible it must have all been brought us down by the Memories of all the Rabble of ignorant and wicked Popes yea or of the best and by the Memories of all the Prelates and Priests that have pretended to be the Church Why do they themselves write their pretended Traditions if writing them were not needful And why have we all our Statutes Records and Law-Books if the Lawyers and Peoples Memories would keep and deliver them without these When Men's Memories Wits and Honesty are so weak that we can scarce get one Story carried without falsifying through many Hands 2. We hold that God in mercy hath therefore considered Man's Weakness and Necessity and before the Apostles died inspired them to Record so much of his Law and Gospel and Will as was universally necessary for all his Subjects to know in order to Divine belief Obedience and Salvation And hath left nothing of this importance and necessity unrecorded in the Law of Nature God's Visible works and Scripture knowing that after Ages were not to have new universal Legislators to make such Laws for all the
lead them into all Truth and keep them from doing that Work Erroneously which they were commissioned to do Tho' not to make them absolutely free from Sin or Errour in all other things And therefore the Scripture written by them is free from Errour by Virtue of the special promise and Spirit 3. That all true Christians really regenerate are free from all Errour inconsistent with true saving Faith and Title to Salvation 4. That therefore the Church as it signifieth only the said regenerate true Christians hath no Damning Errour or none but what is pardoned as consistent with saving Faith and Holiness 5. That the Universal Visible Church is the whole Company of men on Earth that profess true saving Faith and are by Covenant Vow Baptized into this Profession And that all this true Visible Church professeth no Errour inconsistent with their Profession of the foresaid saving Faith Because the profession of saving Faith is essential to visible Christianity and to the visible Church For mark that I say not that they profess no Errour inconsistent with sincere Faith in themselves subjectively nor yet that as to objective Faith may not by unseen consequence overthrow it For there is such a concatenation of Divine revealed Truths that it is a doubtful case whether any one Errour which all men have do not by remote Consequence subvert the very Foundations But no true Visible Church or Christian so professeth any one Errour as not to profess the essential points of Faith and Godliness tho' they may think falsely that both are true Therefore Protestants teach that unseen Consequences are not to be so charged on those that see them not and hold fast the injured Truth as if it were a known or direct denyal of the Truth 6. But every Church and every man being imperfect both in knowledge Faith and Holiness have all some Errour For to be objectively de fide is to be of Divine Revelation And all the Scripture is Divine Revelation And if the question be Whether any Pope Council or Church understand all the Scripture without any Errour judge by Commentators and common Experience And now what saith the Deceiver against all this 1. He citeth Isa 59.21 God hath promised to preserve his Word in the Church Ergo the Church cannot Err A forged Consequence no more followeth but that the true Church shall not lose or forsake Gods Word For then it would cease to be the Church But 1. Not that the best Churches understand all that Word without any Errour 2. Nor that any particular Church visible may not apostatize or turn Hereticks or corrupt Gods Word and forbid men to use it in a known Tongue as the Papists do Next he citeth Joh. 14.16 As if all the Church had the same promise of the Spirit of Infallibility as the Apostles had If so then 1. Papists are none of the true Church because they have many Errours 2. And if the major part be the Church rather than a minor Sect then all other Christians that are against Popery are free from Errour for they are twice or thrice as many as the Papists 3. And when the far greater part were Arrians they were free from Errour Yea the Council of Sirmium to which Pope Liberius professed full consent Or did Christ break his promise to all these 4. If the Pope or all his Prelates have as full a promise of the Spirit as the Apostles then they may write us a new Bible and Word of God as they did No wonder then if the Canons and Decretals be as much Gods Word as the Bible But why then do they not confirm their Canons by Miracles as the Apostles did And why did so many Popes contradict each other Had both Stephanus Formosus Nicholas and the foresaid Johns that denyed the Life to come c. the same Gift as the Apostles Surely we may well say to them as St. James Shew me thy Faith by thy Works They did shew it by most odious Simony Gluttony Drunkenness Lying with Maids and Wives even at the Apostolick Doors Murdering Christs Members by Thousands Silencing faithful Preachers Deposing Emperours Commanding Perjury and Rebellion even to Sons against their own Fathers Forbidding all Church Worship of God to whole Kingdoms for many years when a King will not obey the Pope By such Works they shew their Faith O the power of Satan and the horrid pravity of man when such things are not only Justified but trusted to for Justification and made consistent with a Church that never Erred Indeed these Errours crept in by Degrees which maketh it difficult to Expositors of Scripture Prophesie to know just the year when the mischief became so ripe as to prove Rome to be Babylon Apostate to Pagano-Christianity and the Pope to be Antichrist But if I see a man Raging mad in Bedlam I will not make it an Article of my Faith that he is Sanae mentis because I know not just when his amentia deliratio or Melancholly became a Mania or Furor The Deceiver also citeth Mat. 18.17 viz. Because men must hear the Church where a Sinner dwelleth that calleth him to Repentance after due Proof and Admonition therefore the Pope and his Prelates cannot Err. An Argument liker a Derision than a serious Proof Did not the Pope then Err when Bishops and Councils have in vain called him to Repent Doth not the Church Err then most damnably that commandeth Murder Treason and most heynous Sin and is the Leader of the Impenitent Must we take such then as Heathens and Publicans But as the man thinketh so the Bell tinketh Do but Fancy that by the Church is meant only the Pope and his Clergy and that all is such Sin which the Pope calleth so tho' God command us and then all such Texts will seem to them to say what they would have them say The man also citeth Eph. 5.27 viz. Christ will present his Regenerate Church perfect and spotless in Judgment What then Ergo the Visible Church on Earth hath no Errour or Spot And Ergo the Pope and his Clergy are this Visible perfect Church And why not as well Constantinople Alexandria Antioch or Jerusalem the Mother Church Which part is it that is the whole or indefectible What is profaining Gods Word if this be not If any should be forbidden the Scripture it is these prophaning Priests The Eighth accused Point That the Church hath been hidden and Invisible Ans We do not think that the Pope and his Clergy-Church have been hidden and invisible Their Wars even in Italy and Rome for many Ages made them Visible Yea and palpable too The Kings and Emperours that they Fought against or Deposed knew them above 100000 Waldenses and Albigenses felt them to the Death Quae Regio in terris talis non plena laboris Whether this man knew not the Protestants Judgment herein or whether he would not have his Reader know it I cannot tell but I shall tell you what it