is there that a suspected and accused Party 's own Word should be admitted as his sufficient Justification Especially in things known to be false by Sense and Reason and contrary to Holy Scripture and therein contrary to that far mor general certain and impartial Tradition for the Scriptures being the Word of God. The as for the Infallibility of this Delivery we know that there is no such Attribute as Infallibility belonging to any Creature or its actings although it be impossible in sensu Composito for any one to err or deceive while he thinks and speaks the Truth and therefore all Mans Infallibility consists in his Faculties being guided infallible by the Infallible God and by Him kept from Error and so far and so long as he is so he can neither deceive nor be deceived Yet even then he is fallible in himself But now that God ever did or will ever so guide any Man we must come to know it either by his Promise to do it or his Testimony that he has done it or by the Testimony and Tradition of others concerning it As for his Promise 'T is very true that our Blessed Saviour did Promise to his Holy Apostles and Disciples That his Spirit should guide them in all Truth John 16.13 i. e. Those Truths which he had taught them vers 14 15. And that by enabling them to remember them John 14.26 And also into Truth concerning things to come for so it follows in verse 13. And that the Holy Ghost should dwell in them Chap. 14.17 Now if this Guidance be understood of Infallible and as promised to all Christ's Disciples and all their Successors in their common Faith it will prove that all true Christians are infallible which perhaps will be thought too much Or if promised only to all the Apostles and all their Successors in the Ministry of the Gospel this also will prove too much for the Romanists purpose But the truth is that though the Promise be to be applied to all the Apostles and Disciples and all their Successors yet not to all in the same extent of Guidance for then all their Successors must have the Spirit of Prophecy and the afore-knowledge of things to come which is not pretended by any to be true and common Experience shews the contrary The assistance therefore and guidance promised relates diversly to those to whom the Promise was made 1. As to all holy Disciples in all Ages whom the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie it guides them by infallibly bringing them to believe all Truths necessary to be believed by them in order to their Salvation so that they shall not fail to believe them who are therefore said to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 And to be the Sons of God and to have the Spirit dwelling in them Rom. 8.9 John 14.17 But yet they are not subjective infallible in their Faculties or Act of Believing but only as guided by the Holy Spirit 2. As to all the Holy Apostles and divers others Holy Disciples of that Age the Guidance promised is to instruct and enable them infallibly to know remember and Preach unto others the whole Counsel of God taught by our Saviour for Mans Salvation and to confirm that Assistance in Teaching by miraculous Works and to some of them infallibly to pen is also and unto some to fortel things to come 3. And as to all the Successors of the Apostles in the office of the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel whether single or conjoyned the Guidance of the Holy Ghost promised is not immediate constant or subjective infallible but is only so far forth as by its Pastoral Gifts and Graces it enables them to discover and deliver those Truths which it hath inspired others in that first Age infallibly to record in the Holy Scripture and which it now intends by their Ministry to work the Hearts of all who shall be Saved to give a true divine Faith unto and by it to bring them infallibly to Salvation For which Purpose Christ hath promised to be with them alway even to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 assisting them by Gifts protecting their Persons and blessing their Labours and that the true doctrine of Faith which St. Peter had professed and should both Preach and Pen by infallible Assistance should never fail to be Preached and Believed nor his personal Belief of it wholly fail but continue to eternal Life and that the Gates of Hell should not be able to prevail against his Church but that there should always be on Earth a faithful People professing the Gospel Truth and worshiping God in the Spirit But for any Infallibility that such Successors have in giving the meaning of Scripture we cannot find that Christ ever promised it much less to any particular Church or Pastor above all the rest And indeed some interpretations of Scripture which those have given us who pretend most to Infallibility are so evidently false and vain not to say prophane that they have thereby sufficiently convinced us of the Vanity of their own Pretensions And as for that appropriating Claim which is laid to it by the particular Church of Rome and those of its Communion there are many shrewd and violent Presumptions in prejudice of it As 1. That the Assertors of it are not yet agreed in what Ensuring-Office to lodge their Infallibility whether in the Bishop or in a General Council or both or in oral Tradition and it may well seem strange to us that those who as is now pretended did formerly make so much use of it should forget in what Cabinet they laid up so precious a Jewel or forget to deliver the Keys of it to ther Successors which alone if ever they had it may sufficiently shew how possible it is for a Tradition to miscarry 2. It is also vilely suspicious that they so keep up their Traditions in their Sleeve for either they cannot or will not ever give out a perfect Catalogue of their traditional Doctrines which as they tells us are kept up in reserve with wise Men perfectioribus in occulto tradita Which truly has an evil appearance as if they did purposely conceal the just number of them that so they might forge some upon occasion to serve a turn when there should be need of a new Article to promote the interest of that Church in some present juncture of affairs though we would willingly be so Charitable as to hope it is not so 3. But how shall we ever be able to overcome the so many Contradictions which have happened between Pope and Pope yea the Pope and himself between Council and Council pila minantia pilis we cannot see how such Contradictions can be consistent with a Spirit of Infallibility and in the mean while what a scandalous diversion was it to the World to see two or three Popes at once thundring out Anathema's and tilting their Infallibilities at one another and a Council at last putting them all in a
from thence returning to recover as much as we can of that which we laid aside to try the Experiment And lastly for the new Demonstrations which some have lately advanced to prove the infallibility of Oral Tradition from the impossibility of its miscarrying and that what is this day declared for Apostolical Doctrine must needs have been always so declared because it cannot be imagined that those who delivered it one day for such should have forgotten what they had heard but the day before or that they would report that to others which they had not heard themselves This I say doth require and needs more Charity and good nature in an Adversary than it is like to meet withal out of their own Communion and but rarely there And really the Demonstration is so extraordinary that did not we see it made use of by themselves we might rather have supposed it to have been hatched by the heat and sweat of some Man's Brain who was no well-wisher to the Doctrines which it is brought in favour of But however that be I am confident that seven Cities will hardly contend for the honour of his Birth who had the felicity to be the first Inventor and for our selves we shall desire to be well assured not only of the goodness and infallibility of their Memories and of their Honesty who all along delivered these things but also of their due attention to and right apprehension of the things which they heard And also that Men of so good Memories might not likewise have so good Inventions or at least some of them as to light upon some private opinions of their own which they might impart unto others and which might insensibly in tract of time be spread abroad and so far liked by the generality that for the very agreableness of them to their Minds and conveniences for their Interests they might be worthy to be ascribed either to some extraordinary Spirit in the Author if known or else to the Apostles themselves And this be spoken without any worse reflection upon their Memories or Fidelity which have been shewn to be a very insufficient enumeration of the possible yea and probable causes of a miscarriage in Oral Tradition But this demonstration has convinced Protestants of this at least that as far as this is confided in Demonstration at present runs very low in the Church of Rome And to keep our Country People from being overmuch convinced by it we shall need only to put them to read a leaf in Chaucer where they may perceive that our Language notwithstanding daily use and Tradition is so much altered from what it was three hundred Years ago that what was then ordinarily spoken is now hardly to be understood But wherever the Romanists shall at length agree to place this their Infallibility nay though every one of their Communion might have it who would but pretend to it let them make the best use of it they can for their own private assurance and comfort But if they will needs make it Argumentative to convince others of the Divine Authority of what they deliver we hope they will first prove to us such their Infallibility by clear promises in Scripture or testimonies from Scripture or else by universal Tradition of the Churches of Christ concerning it or else shew us some unquestionable works of divine Power wrought in Confirmation I say not of their Doctrines but of their own Infallibility in testifying that the Doctrines were taught by Christ and his Apostles which is pretended to have accompanied the Tradition through all Ages and therefore the Miracles must run parallel with it and accompany it in a constant Succession to be the Credential Letters of the successive deliverers and reporters to the Men of each particular Generation For it seems a very unreasonable thing for any Disputant to require such a Postulatum to be granted him by his Antagonist that whatsoever he shall say is not only true but infallibly true which is such a begging of the Question as shews how poorly he is provided to give Men a just satisfaction and is as much as to say He is resolved never to dispute about any thing which he proposes I will add no more but only this upon the whole Master That while the Romanists do offer us more Certainty for the Scriptures being the Word of God than we need They cannot perform to us so much Certainty for those unscriptural Doctrines as we do justly require and expect before we entertain them So prone are some Men to dream of Supererogating while in truth they fall shamefully short of doing their necessary Duty FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Henry Mortlack at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-yard A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury's Relation of a Conference c. from the pretended Answer by T. C. Wherein the true Grounds of Faith are cleared and the False discovered the Church of England vindicated from the Imputation of Schism and the most important particular Controversie between us and those of the Church of Rome throughly examined By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. and Dean of St. Paul's Folio The second Edition Origines Britannicae Or the Antiquity of the British Churches with a Preface concerning some pretended Antiquities relating to Britain in vindication of the Bishop of St. Asaph By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls Folio The Rule of Faith Or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. J. S. Entituled Sure Footing c. By John Tillotson D. D. To which is adjoyned A reply to Mr. J. S.'s third Appendix c. By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Octavo A Letter to Mr. G giving a true Account of a late Conference at the D. of Pauls A second Letter to Mr. G. in answer to two Letters lately published concerning the Conference at the D. of Pauls Veteres Vindicati In an Expostulary Letter to Mr. Sclater of Putny upon his Consensus Veterum c. wherein the absurdity of his Method and the weakness of Reasons are shewn his false Aspersions upon the Church of England are wiped off and his Faith concerning the Eucharist proved to be that of the Primitive Church Together with Animadversions on Dean Boileu's French translation of and Remarks upon Bertram An Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium Wherein is shewn That Antiquity in relation to the Points in Controversie set down by him did not for the first five hundred Years Believe Teach and Practice as the Church of Rome doth at present Believe Teach and Practice together with a Vindication of Veteres Vindicati from the late weak and dis-ingenuous Attempts of the Author of Transubstantion defended by the Author of the Answer to Mr. Sclater of Putney A Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuit in answer to his Letter to a Peer of the Church of England wherein the Postscript to the Answer to the Nubes Testium is vindicated and Father Sabran's Mistakes farther discovered A second Letter to Father Lewis Sabran Jesuite in answer to his Reply A Vindication of the Principles of the Author of the Answer to the Compiler of Nubes Testium in Answer to a late pretended Letter from a Dissenter to the Divines of the Church of England Scripture and Tradition compared in a Sermon Preached at Guild-Hall Chappel Nov. 27. 1687. By Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls the second Edition A discourse concerning the Nature and Grounds of the Certainty of Faith in Answer to J. S. his Catholick Letters by Edward Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St Pauls The Council of Trent examined and disproved by Catholick Tradition in the main Points in Controversie between us and the Church of Rome with a particular Account of the Times and Occasions of introducing them Part I. To which a Preface is prefixed concerning the true Sense of the Council of Trent and the Notion of Transubstantiation By Ed. Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of St. Pauls
in the general what Certainty we have or may have of all the Articles of our Christian Faith which we do hold to be all contained in the Holy Scriptures or else may by good Inference be deduced from it both what Certainty a Professor may have within himself and also what Certainty he may give of it unto others or receive of them in dispute or by way of Perswasion And as for such Articles in Particular it is neither consistent with the designed brevity of this Paper nor indeed needful to shew where every one of them is contained in the Scriptures or how deduced thence this being already done to every ones Hand in the many excellent Writings and particularly in the Catechisms and Systems of the Christian Faith written both formerly and of later times by learned Men of both Communions whereunto private Persons may have recourse if they have not yet attained sufficient Knowledge and Satisfaction therein by hearing the Word Preached and Reading the Holy Scriptures PART II. BUT besides the Articles of Faith which we in common have received from the Holy Scriptures there are divers other Matters and Articles offered by the Church of Rome as necessarily to be believed by us which she tells us were also delivered and taught by Christ and his Holy Apostles and ought to be received and believed by us equally with those contained in the Holy Scriptures which are not expresly contained in them but have been delivered and conveyed down from Hand to Hand to those very times by word of Mouth or some other way Which are therefore called Traditions or traditional Doctrines from this particular way of conveyance distinct from the Holy Scriptures which is also called Tradition in an active Sense And for the Doctrines themselves which they offer to us if they were really taught by Christ and his Apostles we grant they must needs be infallibly true and the Word of God and attested so to be by the self same Miracles which they wrought to confirm their other Doctrines But we must have good assurance that these were taught by them which we can never have if they contradict those recorded in the Holy Scriptures to have been taught by them whereof we are so well assured already which yet many of them manifestly do Therefore let us see what Grounds or Arguments are offered to us for the Proof that these Doctrines were indeed taught by Christ and his Apostles And these Proofs must at least be equal to those by which we are ascertained that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God else we cannot be obliged to receive these out-lying Doctrines with equal Faith and Certainty which they tell us is due unto them as those recorded in Holy Scriptures For our Satisfaction herein we are offered Infallible Tradition as is pretended that is that some Men have in all Ages to this present day been infallibly guided by the Holy Ghost to deliver these Doctrines to their Successors and infallibly to testifie that they were taught by Christ and his Apostles which is indeed a very great and liberal offer if they can but make it good and too great an offer not to be suspected and therefore we had need to consider it well lest so great a matter if rashly rejected should involve us in Infidelity or if blindly swallowed should prove a Sluce to let in upon us an Inundation of Men's Dreams and Fictions pretending Commission from our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles And that we may the better judge of this Matter let us distinctly consider first the Tradition and then the Infallibility And here it is something surprizing and entertaining to find that some Men after they have to shew the necessity of Tradition told us that without it such and such particular points of Faith cannot be proved from Scripture should yet attempt to prove the same when they come to treat of them in Retail from several Texts of Scripture For instance Bellarmine de verbo Dei non Scripto Lib. 4. cap. 4. Quarto necesse est nosse extare libros aliquos vere Divinos Quod certe ex Scripturis nullo modo haberi potost i. e. That it cannot be known from Scriptures that there are any Books extant in being which are truly Divine and yet the some Man Lib. 1. De verbo Dei cap. 2. can argue in this manner Scripturas certissimas autem atque verissimas esse nec humana inventa sed oracula Divina continere 40. Testis est ipsa Scriptura cujus vera praedictiones Verum igitur est quod dicitur omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata 2 Tim. 3. Verum quod dicunt omnes Prophetae haec dicit Dominus That the Scriptures are most certain and most true and contain not any human Inventions but the Divine Oracles Fourthly The Scripture it self is Witness-whose Predictions are true therefore that is true which it says All Scripture is of divine Inspiration and that is true which all the Prophets say Thus saith the Lord. Nor can it be pretended to be an Argument ad homines since they are never like to convince us of any thing from Scripture which they themselves have told us cannot be proved from Scripture But it seems such a Disputant as Bellarmine can prove that which cannot be proved or rather it shews how little they dare rely upon their own Traditions and how gladly they would beg a little Credit for some others of them by rubbing their Copper Coin against the Gold of Scripture and how little they matter it if they may but advance the reputation of their Traditions though they contradict both the Scripture and themselves also But they offer us Tradition for Proof and why may we not allow Tradition for good Proof that such Points of Doctrine were taught by Christ and his Apostles as well as we have done for the Scriptures being the Word of God But till they can bring us as good Tradition for these as that for the Scripture was they ought not to blame us as unfair and partial if we do not receive them Let them shew us the unanimous Comsent of all the Churches of Christ ever since the Apostles time attesting Matters which they judged to be of universal concernment for our Salvation and let this Testimony and Tradition concerning these things be collaterally corroborated by as evident Beams of Divinity resulting from the things themselves and then we shall be ready to pay a like Assent unto these Doctrines as we do unto those which are contained in the Holy Scriptures But if the Tradition for these exotick or exoterick Doctrines be not to be found in the first and purest Ages of the Church but they have been kept under ground by the Disciplina Arcani as we are told for so many hundred years together and if they have since been rejected by many Churches and are apparently the private Interest of one particular Church and that none of the best which teaches them What reason