that rule of Faith which giveth us all the particular Articles which are necessary to eternal Life By this rule the Primitive Fathers govern'd themselves and this they commended to the Churches And Clemens Alexandrinus does in terms call the Consent of the Old and New Testament the Ecclesiastical Canon and the Touchstone of true and false I will not multiply Testimonies enough of them are already collected I will rather pursue the Argument before me in these three Assertions First a Protestant without the submission of his Judgment to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Canonical Books of Holy Scripture Secondly He may without such submission sufficiently understand the Rule of Faith and find out the Sense of such places in those Canonical Books as is necessary to the belief of a true Christian. Thirdly This rule of Faith is the principal means of Union in Faith in the Christian Church First a Protestant without the submission of his Judgment to the Roman Church may be certainly directed to the Holy Scriptures It is commonly said by Men of the Roman perswasion but injudiciously enough that we may as well receive our Creed from them as we do our Bible The Scribes and Pharisees might have said the like to the People of the Jews But with the good Text they conveighed down to them a very false gloss and misinterpreted the Prophesies as meant of a pompous temporal Messiah But for the Reformed they have received neither Creed nor Bible from the Church of Rome The first enumeration of those Books they find in the Apostolical Canons and in those of the Council of Laodicea no Western writings They have received the Scriptures from the Universal Church of all Ages and Places the Copies of them having been as widely dispersed as the Christians themselves And they receive them not from the infallibility of any particular Church but upon the validity of this sure principle that all the Christian World so widely dispersed could not possibly conspire in the imposing of false Books upon them For particular Churches we may of all others suspect the Roman in reference to the Scriptures For what sincerity of dealing may we hope for from such a Cabal of Men as has forged decrees of Councils and Popes obtruded upon the World Apocryphal Books as Books Canonical purged out of the writings of the Fathers such places as were contrary to their Innovations depressed the Originals under an imperfect Latin Copy and left on purpose in that Copy some places uncorrected for the serving of turns For example sake they have not either in the Bible of Sixtus or in that of Clement both which though in War against each other are made their Canon changed the word She in the third of Genesis for That or He. But contrary to the Hebrew Text to the Translation of the Seventy to the Readings of the Fathers they persist in rendring of it after this manner She shall break thy Head They believe this Reading tendeth most to the Honor of the blessed Virgin whom they are too much inclined to exalt in the Quality of a Mother above her Son The English Translation of Doway hath followed this plain and partial corruption Secondly A Protestant may without Submission of his judgment to the Roman Church find out in the Books of Holy Scripture the necessary Articles of Christian Faith Two things are here supposed and both of them are true First That the Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of our Faith Secondly That the sense of the Words in which these Articles are expressed in Scripture may be found out by a Protestant without the Submission of his judgment to the Papacy First The Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of the Faith This is true if the Scriptures themselves be so For this they Witness St. Paul saith of the Old Testament as expounded of Christ that it was able to make a Man wise unto Salvation Much more may this be affirmed of the entire Canon The Apostles preached the necessaries to Salvation and what they had preached they wrote down concerning the manner of it Eusebius may be consulted For the Primitive Fathers they allowed the Scriptures to be a sufficient Rule Irenaeus said of them they were perfect and of the words of St. Austine this is the sense Among those things which are plainly set down in Scrpture all those things are to be found which comprehend Faith and Good Manners Nay the Romanists themselves attempt to prove their very additional Articles out of the Bible That there are in it the Articles of the Apostolical Creed is evident enough to a common Reader But how the Romish Articles should be found in that Bible which was written some hundreds of years before they were invented is a riddle beyond the skill of Apollo Secondly the sense of the Scriptures in matters necessary to Salvation may be found out by Men of the Reformed Religion without Submission to Roman Infallibility The Learned know the Originals and the true ways of Interpretation And amongst us those of the Episcopal Clergy have obliged the World with such an Edition of the Bible in many Languages as was not before extant in the Roman Church And a Romanist who writes with great mastery in such matters prefers it before the great Bible of Paris For those of the Laity who are Unlearned they have before them a Translation which errs not in the Faith And the phrases are not so obscure but that by study and Ministerial helps they may understand them They have before them a Translation which errs not in the Faith Of this the Italians and French may be convinced by comparing the Translations of James de Voragine and the Divines of Lovain with those of Signior Diodati and Olivetan or Calvin And the English may receive satisfaction in this matter by comparing their Translation with that of Doway In all of them they will find the same Fundamental Doctrines of Faith And were there any such material alteration made in our Bible it would appear by the notorious inconsistence of one part of the Canon with another It would have been long ago detected and exposed to publick shame both by the Romanists and the other Dissenters from our Communion But the former are not able to produce one instance and the latter agree with us in the use and excellence of the Translation though in other things they extreamly differ from us And where they do but dream we err they forbear not to proclaim it In so much that a difference in the Translations of the Psalter which concerns not Faith or Manners and a supposed defect in the Table for keeping Easter have been made by them publick Objections and stumbling blocks in the way to their Conformity It is true there is a Romanist who hath raved against the Bible of the Reformed in these extravagant words The
Sectaries have as many different Bibles in Canon Version and sense as are days in the year The Sectarian Bible is no more the Word of God then the Alcoran Almanack or Aesops Fables Of great corruption he speaks in general but his madness has admitted of so much caution that he forbears the mention of any one particular place The Learned Romanists understand much better and the Ingenuous Will confess it And they are not ignorant that we Translate from the Original Tongues after having compared the Readings of the most Ancient Copies and of the Fathers Whilst they Translate the Bible from the Vulgar Latin which indeed in the New Testament is a tolerable but in the Old a very imperfect Version If our English Bible were turned into any one of the Modern Tongues by a Judicious Romanist who could keep Council it would pass amongst many of that Church for a good Catholick Translation And this is the rather my perswasion because I have read in Father Simon that not unpleasant story concerning the Translation of Mr. René Benoist a Doctor of the Faculty of Paris This Doctor had observed that a new Latin Translation of the Organon of Aristotle performed by a person who understood not the Greek Tongue had been very well received Upon this occasion he was moved to turn the Bible into the French Tongue though he was ignorant of those of the Greek and Hebrew For the accomplishing of this Design he served himself upon the French Translation of Geneva changing only a few words and putting others of the same signification in their room But it seems he was not exact enough in this change of words For he having over-looked some words which were used by the Genevians and not the Romanists a discovery was made by the Divines of Paris and this Edition of the Bible was condemned by them though published under the name of one of their Brethren I do not say that such places of Scripture as contain Matters of Faith are plain to every Man But those who have a competence of capacity who are not prejudiced against the Truth who pray to God for his assistance who attend to what they read who use the Ministerial helps which are offered to them shall find enough in Holy Writ to Guide them to everlasting life In finding out the sense of the Scriptures the Church gives them help but it does not by its Authority obtrude the sense upon them The Guides of it are as Expositors and School-Masters to them And by comparing phrase with phrase and place with place and by other such ways they teach them how to judge of the meaning themselves They give them light into the nature of the Doctrine they do not require them to take it upon trust They endeavour to open their understandings that they may themselves understand the Scriptures And if they cannot themselves understand the Doctrine it will be of little use to them in their lives For they then believe in general that it is a necessary Truth but what Truth it is or for what ends it is necessary they apprehend not A Foolish Master in the Mathematicks may require his Schollars to take it upon his word that a Problem is demonstrated But a wise and useful teacher will give them light into the manner of the demonstration in such sort that they themselves shall at last be able to judge that it is truly performed And till they can do this they are not instructed St. Hierom relates it in praise of Marcella a Roman Lady that she would not receive any thing from him after the Pythagorean manner or upon bare Authority She would with such care examine all things that She seemed to him not so much his Schollar as his Judge It is certain that there are great depths and obscure Mysteries in the Holy Bible But the Doctrines of Christian Faith are to the sincere and industrious and such as wait on God in the way of the Reformed Church sufficiently plain But to the Idle the prejudiced the captious Light it self is Darkness The Romanists affright with this pretence of obscurity and profoundness as if we must not adventure into any part of the Waters because in some places we may go beyond our depth If there are hard and difficult places which the Vnstable wrest who required their meanness to make a judgment of that for which they might perceive themselves to be insufficient But whilst St. Peter speaketh of some few places in St. Paul's writings which are obscure he does at the same time suppose many others to be plain enough for the capacities of the Unlearned And if they be evil Men though very Learned they will wrest the plainest places and as some did in St. Hieroms days they will draw violently to their private sense a Text of Scripture which is incongruously and with relectance applied to it It is true all Sects of Christians cite the Scriptures but that does not prove the obscurity of those Sacred writings It rather shews the Partiality Boldness and Sophistry of those who alledge them All Laws are obscure if this Argument hath force in it For every Man in his own case has the Law on his side Men take up their opinions and Heresies from other reasons and then because the name of Scripture is venerable they rake into the several Books of it and they bend and torture places and force them on their side by unnatural construction So do the Socinians producing all the niceties of Grammar and Criticism in a matter of Faith Yet the Guide in Controversies useth it as an Argument against the plainness of this Rule of Faith that the Socinians cite the Holy Scriptures in favour of their Heresie But is not this Argument two-edged And will it not cut as well on the other side and do Execution against the words of Fathers and Councils and the Apostolical Creed it self For the Socinians those especially who are turned Arians since Petavius hath furnished them with Quotations will cite the writings of the Ancients And Slichtingius a mere Socinian hath expounded every Article of the Creed in a sense agreeable to the Heresie of his Master But if the Scriptures were so obscure in necessary matters what remedy would be administred by the Roman Church They cannot offer to us any Ancient infallible exposition What the Antients have said the Reformed generally understand much better then Popes amongst whom there have been some who could scarce read the Holy Gospel in Latin For the Fathers of the earliest Ages they were more busied in writing against Heresies then in explaining of Scriptures Nor to this day hath the Roman Church given any Authentick Collection of Expositions either of the Ancients or of her own And if we must go to any Church for a comment on the Scriptures let the Roman be one of our last Refuges For it is manifest that the Key the Papalins use is the Worldly Polity of that
BOOKS Printed for Fincham Gardiner 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in answer to his three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of mixt Communion Whether it be Lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions 9. An Answer to Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other parts of Divine Service prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament stated and resolved c. In two Parts 11. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where Men think they can profit most 12. A serious Exhortation with some important Advices relating to the late Cases about Conformity recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England 13. An Argument to Union taken from the true interest of those Dissenters in England who profess and call themselves Protestants 14. Some Considerations about the Case of Scandal or giving Offence to the Weak Brethren 15. The Case of Infant-Baptism in Five Questions c. 16. The Charge of Scandal and giving Offence by Conformity Refelled and Reflected back upon Separation c. 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 2. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be received and what Tradition is to be rejected 3. The Difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith c. A DISCOURSE Concerning a GUIDE IN Matters of Faith With respect especially to the ROMISH pretence of the necessity of such a one as is infallible LONDON Printed for Ben. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-yard and F. Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street 1683. THE CONTENTS THE Question Whether a Man without submitting his judgment to an infallible Guide on Earth may arrive at certainty in Matters of Faith p. 1. The Moment of this Question p. 2. The Temptations to a belief of the negative part of it Sloth and vitious Humility p. 2. The Resolution of the Question in six Propositions p. 3. Propos. 1. The True Faith and the Profession of it never failed yet nor shall it ever fail in all places 3 4 5. Propos. 2. Wheresoever God requires Faith he gives means sufficient for the obtaining of it 5 6. Propos. 3. Whatsoever those means are the Act of Assent is ultimately resolved into each Mans reason 6 7 8. Propos. 4. No true reason directeth to an infallible Guide on Earth 8. This is proved by several Considerations Consid. 1. God did not set up such a Guide amongst the Israelites 8 9. Consid. 2. God hath no where promised such a Guide to Christians 9 10. Either directly 10 11 12. Or by consequence 12 13. Consid. 3. God hath not given direction for the finding of such a Guide which he would have done had he designed the setting of him up 13 14. Consid. 4. We cannot find out such a one by the strictest enumeration 14. For 1. This Guide is not the Church diffusive of the first Ages 14. Nor 2. The Faith of all the Governours of all the Primitive Churches 14. Nor 3. An Universal or General Council 14 15 16 17. Which whilst the Reformed deny they do not assume to themselves such Authority in their Synods 17 18. Nor 4. Is this Guide any present Church pretending to declare the sense of the Churches of former Ages 18 19. Nor 5. Is this Guide the Bishop of Rome 20. This is shewed by the following Arguments Arg. 1. The Romanists themselves are not at agreement about his Authority 20. Arg. 2. The infallible Guidance of it is denied in the publick form of the Popes Profession 21. Arg. 3. His Plea for this Guidance as Successor of St. Peter is insufficient 21. Arg. 4. The Writings of the Popes manifest their Ignorance and Fallibility 21. Both in lesser matters 22 23. And in Matters of Faith 23. Particularly Pope Vigilius erred in a Matter of Faith 23 24. And Pope Honorius 24 25 26. Arg. 5. There seems not in the constituting such a Guide either necessity or fitness 26. Propos. 5. The Reformed especially those of the Church of England refuse not all Ecclesiastical Guidance though they submit not to any pretended infallible Guide 26 27 28 29 30. Nor doth our Church pretend to immediate illumination in Matters of necessary Faith 30 31. Nor doth it exalt private reason to the prejudice of just Authority 31 32. But the Vnlearned have more of the just Guidance of Authority in it then in the Church of Rome it self 32. Propos. 6. Though Ecclesiastical Authority is a help of our Faith yet the Scripture is the only infallible rule of it 32 33. This Proposition is handled in three Assertions Assert 1. A Man without a Papal Guide may know which are the true Canonical Books 33 34. Assert 2. He may also find out the necessary Articles of Faith contained in those Books 35. The necessary Doctrines are therein contained 35 36. The sense of the words in which they are delivered may be found out without submission to such a Guide 36 37 38 39 40 c. Assert 3. A submission of our unprejudiced Assent to the Holy Scripture as the Rule of Faith is the true means to Vnion in Faith in the Christian Church p. 42. ERRATA PAge 2. marg l. 5. for affirmative r. negative p. 16. l. 13. for Abots r. Abbots p. 17. l. 10. for doubts r. doubles p. 18. l. 21. for Christian Ancient r. Ancient Christian. p. 19. l. 19. for them r. it p. 20. l. 27. blot out the Comma betwixt Mauritius and Burdin p. 22. l. 13. for Salvations r. Salutations p. 23. l. 2. after this add refuse matter It. l. 12. for nomina r. nomine p. 24. l. 3. after of add an l. 25. for rigour r. vigour p. 26. marg l. 3. for Consid. 5. r. Arg. 5. p. 36. marg put p. 583. after Critique p. 38. l. 1. for Council r. Counsel p. 40. l. 6. for relectance r. reluctance A DISCOURSE Concerning a GUIDE IN Matters of Faith THE design of this Discourse is the Resolution of the following Query Whether a
Man who liveth where Christianity is profess'd and refuseth to submit his Judgment to the Infallibilty of any Guide on Earth and particularly to the Church or Bishop of Rome hath notwithstanding that refusal sufficient means still left him whereby he may arrive at certainty in those Doctrines which are generally necessary to the Salvation of a Christian Man Satisfaction in this Inquiry is of great Moment For it relateth to our great end and to the way which leads to it And it nearly concerneth both the Romanists and the Reformed If there be not such a Guide the Estate of the Romanists is extreamly dangerous For then the Blind take the Blind for their unerring Leaders and being once misled they wander on without correcting their Error having taken up this first as their fixed Principle that their Guide cannot mistake the way On the other hand If God hath set up in his Church a Light so very clear and steddy as is pretended the Reformed are guilty of great presumption and expose themselves to great uncertainty by shutting their Eyes against it Now there lyes before Men a double Temptation to a belief of the being of such a Guide in the Christian Church Sloth and Vitious Humility of Mind Sloth inclineth Men rather to take up in an Implicit Faith than to give themselves the trouble of a strict Examination of things For there is less Pain in Credulity then in bending of the Head by long and strict Attention and severe Study Also there is a Shew of Humility in the deference which our understandings pay unto Authority especially to that which pretends to be under Christ Supreme on Earth Although in the paying of it without good reason first understood Men are not Humble but Slavish But these Temptations prevail not upon honest and considerate Minds which inquire without prejudice after Truth and submit to the Powerful Evidence of it Such will resolve the Question in the Affirmative and they may reasonably so do by considering these Propositions which I shall treat of in their order First The Christian Church never yet wanted nor shall it ever want either the Doctrines of necessary Faith or the Belief and Profession of them Secondly Wheresoever God requireth the Belief of them he giveth means sufficient for Information and unerring Assent Thirdly Whatsoever those means are every Man 's Personal reason giveth to the Mind that last Weight which turneth Deliberation into Faith Fourthly The means which God hath given us towards necessary Faith and the certainty of it is not the Authority of any Infallible Guide on Earth Yet Fifthly All Ecclesiastical Guidance is not to be rejected in our pursuance of the Doctrines of Christian Faith in the finding out or stating of which it is a very considerable help Sixthly By the help of it and Principally as it offers to us the Holy Scriptures in the Quality of the Rule of Faith we have means sufficient to lead us to certainty in that Belief which is necessary to Life Eternal First The Acknowledgment and Profession of the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Faith are annexed inseparably to the Christian Church There is but one Faith and according to the saying of Leo the great If it be not one it is not at all For it cannot be contrary to it self And though it be but one yet Men of differing Creeds pretend to it as the Merchants of Relicks in the Church of Rome shew in several places the one seamless Coat of Christ This one Faith never did nor ever shall in all places fail The Apostles were themselves without error both in their own assent to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith and in the delivery of them They heard the Oracles of Christ from his own mouth and they were Witnesses of his Resurrection And they spake what they had seen and heard And they gave to the World Assurance of the Truth by the miraculous signs of their Apostolical Office And if they had not had such Assurance themselves and could not have given proof to others of their mission there would have been a defect in the first promulgation of the Gospel and such as could not afterwards have been amended That which at first had been delivered with uncertainty would with greater uncertainty have been conveighed down to after Ages and Men who in process of time graft error upon certain Truth would much more have grafted error upon uncertain Opinion Ever since the Apostles times there has been True Faith and the Profession of it in the Catholick Church And it will be so till Faith shall expire and Men shall see him on whom they before believ'd For a Church cannot subsist without the Fundamentals of Christianity And Christ hath Sealed this Truth with his promise that there shall be a Church as long as this World continues I mean by a Church a visible Society of Christians both Ministers and People for publick Worship on Earth cannot be invisible But the True Faith and the Profession of it is not fixed to any place or to any succession of Men in it God's Providence has written the contrary in the very Ashes of the Seven Churches of the lesser Asia Neither is any particular Church though so far infallible in Fundamentals as to be preserved from actual error an infallible Rule to all other Christians If they follow the Doctrine of it they err not because it is true but if they follow that Church as an unerring Guide or Canon they mistake in the Rule and Motive of their Faith For that particular Church which Teacheth Truth might possibly have err'd and the Church which errs might have shined with the True Light But the whole Church cannot so err in any Age for then the very being of a Church would cease Neither doth it hence follow that the Faith of the Roman Church when Luther arose was the only true and certain Doctrine For that Church was not then the only visible Church on Earth The Greek Church for instance sake was than more visible than now it is and more Orthodox The Rich Papacy having much prevailed upon the necessities of it by Arguments guilded with Interest That Church did not err in Fundamental Points the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father by the Son which the Romans accuse of Heresie being easily acquitted of it if Men agreeing in the sense forbear contention about the Phrases Besides if our Fore-Fathers under the Papacy embraced the True Faith we have it still the Faith not being removed but the Corruption Their Question therefore Where was your Religion before Luther is not more pertinent amongst Disputers than this is amongst Husbandmen Where was the Corn before it was weeded We have seen that necessary Faith is perpetual and it is as manifest that wheresoever God requireth the belief of it he vouchsafeth sufficient means for information and unerring Assent Of all he does not
The same course was taken with the Remonstrants in the Synod of Dorâ— Wherefore Protestants ought not to detract from the Authority of general Councils whilst they assume to themselves so great a Power in their particular Synods The force of this Objection is thus removed Every Church hath Power of admitting or excluding Members else it hath not means sufficient to its end the order and concord of its Body Every particular Church ought to believe that it does not err in its definitions for it ought not to impose any known error upon its Members But though it believes it does not err it does not believe it upon this reason because God hath made it an infallible Guide but rather for this because it hath sincerely and with Gods assistance followed a rule which is infallible And upon this supposition it imposeth Doctrines and excludeth such as with contumacy dissent from them 4. This Guide is not the present Church declaring to particular Christians the sense of the Church of former Ages How can this declaration be made seeing Churches differ and each Church calls it self the true one and pretendeth to the Primitive pattern The Church of Rome hath on her side the suffrages of all the Councils and Fathers the first the middle the last if Campian the Jesuite may be believed On the other hand Monsieur Larroque hath Written a Book of the Conformity of the Protestant Churches in France with the Discipline of the Christian Ancient Church taking it for granted that their Doctrine was Catholick And we likewise pretend both to the Doctrine and Discipline of it All of us cannot be in the right The Roman Church without any proof calleth her self the Church Catholick and she pretendeth to conveigh to us the sense of the Ancient Fathers and Councils which sense was that they understood formerly by the word Tradition And in this sense a Romanist said of Pope Honorius that he had broken the rule of Tradition But how can we esteem that Church a faithful representer of the sense of the Ancients whilst the Reformed consult the Ancients with equal ability and find a contrary sense in them Whilst the Church of Rome by a kind of Ecclesiastical Coinage stampeth Divine Authority upon Books esteemed by the Councils and Fathers to be Apochryphal Whilst it hath forged decrees of Popes and like a deceitful Gibeonite rendred that which was really new in appearance old and mouldy on purpose to promote imposture How doth it give us the sense of the Ancients when it owneth what it formerly disowned as Canonical the Epistle to the Hebrews When it taketh away the Cup which Pope Gelasius called a grand Sacrilege When it now rejecteth the Communicating of Infants which in former times was esteemed by many a very necessary point When a former Pope Gregory condemns the Title of Universal pastor as Anti-Christian and a latter insists upon it as the choicest flour in the papal Prerogative When St. Austin and from him the very Breviary shall expound Christs promise of being always with his Church of the presence of his Divinity and of his Spirit and not of his Body And Pope Innocent the third shall interpret them as meant also of his corporal presence And if the Roman Church falsifyeth written Tradition how shall we trust her for Oral And how and at what time did that Oral Tradition remove from Greece to Rome where the Greek Church which it alloweth to have been once possessed of the true Tradition is accused of Heresie At the same time I suppose that the Chappel of the Virgin removed from Nazareth to Loretto This principle of Oral Tradition is most uncertain to their Judges and to those to whom they offer it it is most obscure It is a principle on which they can serve a purpose in justifying novel Doctrines as Oral Traditions not known to any but the Roman Church which pretendeth to the custody of them 5. God hath not set up any one Person in the Catholick Church in the Quality of an unerring Guide in the Christian Faith The Bishops of Rome who pretend to this Prerogative do but pretend It is a tender point and the Pope's Legates in the Council of Trent were enjoyned to give forth this Advertisement that the Fathers upon no account whatsoever should touch it or dispute about it They who examine it will soon reject it as false and useless And 1. Whether the Pope be or be not the Guide the Men of the Roman Communion are exposed to dangerous uncertainty For it is not yet determined amongst them whether they are to follow the Pope with or without or against a Council Yet a Pope hath owned a Council which deposed other Popes and by decree set it self above them or rather vindicated the superiority due to it Thus Martin the fifth received the Papal Mitre from the Council of Constance after it had deposed Gregory the twelfth Benedict the thirteenth and John the twenty third Again there have been by the account given us in their own Historians more than twenty formed Schisms in that Church two or more Popes pretending at the same time to the infallible Chair and each of them not being without their followers and giving Holy Orders And at this time there is risen an Apologist for Mauritius Burdin or Gregory the eighth though he was ejected by the Roman Church which received Gelasius into his place Burdin being disliked by them as a Creature of Henry the Emperour This Schism saith St. Bernard distracted that Church and gave it a wound only not incurable And Baluzius professeth that it was then difficult to understand which of the two Gregory or Gelasius was the Legitimate successour of Pope Paschal Now how useless to them is the pretence of a Guide when they want some other Guide who should tell them which of the pretenders they may securely follow Secondly the Popes themselves in their Solemn Profession suppose themselves liable to the misleading of the People even in Matters of Faith For having owned the Faith of the Six general Councils They further profess themselves and others to be subject to an Anatâ—ema if they advance novelty contrary to the aforesaid Evangelical Tradition and the integrity of the Orthodox and Christian Faith Thirdly If the Pope challengeth this Power of infallible Guidance he must lay claim to it by his succeeding of St. Peter in the Chair Apostolical But then by equal reason the successors of each Apostle may challenge the office of an infallible Guide For the Power which Christ gave to St. Peter he gave to the rest It was not special And for the Bishops of Antioch who first succeeded St. Peter they have a much fairer pretence than those of Rome The Truth is Hierusalem was properly the Mother-Church Though Rome was the Imperial City and if by this means the Popes had not
Church And as they like so they interpret Had not they governed themselves by this art we should not have found in the writings of their Popes and in the very Canon Law it self those words which were spoken to Jeremiah expounded of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome I have set thee over Kings to root out to pluck up and to destroy The Donatists found their Church in these words of the Canticles Tell me thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flock to rest at noon For they expounded this as it liked them best of the Flock of their party in the Southern Country of Africa Such Expounders of Scripture are those Popish Writers who interpret Feed my Sheep of the Universal Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome and conclude that a Pastor must drive away Wolves or depose Princes hurtful to the Church But the straining of such Metaphorical expressions as an excellent Person saith proves only that they want better proofs And by a like way of interpretation from the same Text it might be concluded that all Christians are Fools because Sheep are silly Creatures No expositions are more besides the sense of the Text or more ridiculous then some of those which may be found in the Authentick Books of the Roman Church And those who composed them appear to have looked asquint on the Scriptures For whilst they looked on them they seem to have looked another way I will instance only in a few of those many absurd expositions with which the Roman Breviary abounds The words of the Angel to the Holy Virgin a Sword shall go through thine own Soul also are interpreted of that word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper then any two-edged Sword And this sense is designed as an evasion of their reasoning who from that Text conclude concerning the blessed Virgin that she died and was not miraculously assumed The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded He was taken up into the aerial not the aetherial Heavens from whence he was dropped in an obscure place on Earth there to remain to the end of the World and then to expire with it They say of Job That when he spake of a Bird and of her path in the Air he by a figure called Christ a Bird and by the motion of it in the Air figured also our Lords Ascension We may perceive by these few Instances what an entrance into the sense of Scripture is like to be given whilst a Pope has the Key of Knowledge in his keeping Thirdly If Men would use the Church as their Ministerial Guide and admit of the Scripture as the only Rule by which all Matters of Faith are to be measured they would agree in the proper means to the blessed end of Unity in the Faith This was the perswasion of St. Austin who thus applieth himself to Maximinus Neither ought I at this time to alledge the Council of Nice nor you that of Ariminum For neither am I bound to the Authority of the one nor you to that of the other Let us both dispute with the Authorities of Scripture which are Witnesses common to both of us Whilst the Romanists ascribe the differences which arise amongst the Reformed to their want of an infallible Guide and to their different interpretations of the Scriptures they unskilfully derive effects from causes which are not the natural Parents of them There is saith St. Austine one Mother of all strifes and she is Pride Neither doth the Scripture divide us nor does the infallibility of their judge unite them Their Union such as it is ariseth from the mighty force of their External Polity and they speak not differently because they dare not and the strength of that Polity arose at first from Rome not as the Chair of St. Peter but as the Seat of the Empire Our divisions like theirs arise as all Wars do be they Ecclesiastical or Civil from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And from these likewise arise generally the misinterpretations of plain Laws and Rules the sense of which must be made to chime according to the Interest of prejudiced Men or else they will not give attention to them If the Lusts and Passions of Men were mortified all Christians agreeing in the certainty of the Scriptures though not of any Living Guide and the words of the one being as intelligible as those of the other All might agree in one Creed and put an end to those unnecessary Controversies which entangle Truth and extinguish Charity FINIS The Question The moment of â—his Question The Temptations to believe the Affirmative part of this Question The true Resolution of the Query Prop. I. * Nisi una est Fides non est L. M.Ser 23. †See Ferrand l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 4. disquis Relig. * Acts 4.19 20. * S. Mat. 28.20 Prop. II. * Joâ— 15.22 24. Prop. III. * To the Reader of the Dis. of Govern of Churchâ—s * R. H. Guide in Controv. in Pref. p. 3. Prop. IV. Consid. I. * Isai. 56.10 Jez 2.8 Ez. 7.26 C. 22.26 †Mâ—l 2.7 8. * Deut. 17.8 to 12. See Levit. 4.13 Consid. II. * S. Mat. 16.18 †S. Mat. 28.20 Revel 3.1 2 3. * S. Luke 10.16 †S. Luke 10.1 9. * Ver. 12. 1 Tim. 3.15 †Ryc of the Greek Ch. p. 44. * Revel 3.12 †In 1 Cor. 9.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * S. Mat. 18.15 16 17. See Deut. 17.6 * Launoy in Epist ad Carol. magistrum ad Jacob. Bevil ad Guil. Voell ad Raim Formentinum in 5. par Epist. Consid. III. * Joh. 20.21 †S. Mat. 9.36 C. 10.6 2. Pet. 5.2 * S. Mat. 28.16 17 18 19. †S. Chrys. in 1 Cor. 9.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. †See R. H. Guide in Controv Dis. 1. p. 5. and Socin in Loc. * S. Hil. de Trin. l. 6. dixit Petrus Tu es filius Dei c. super hanc igitur Confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est v. Launoy in Epist ad Voellum †Revel 21.14 Ephes. 2.20 * Act. 2.14 41 47. IV. Consid. †Euseb. l. 3. vit Const. c. 7. 8. p. 487. Socrat. E. H. l. c. 8. p. 19. * V. Concil Labâ— Tom. 2. p. 50 c. †Socr. Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 6. p. 9. * From A. 1545. to A. 1563. †V. Council Const. sess 39. * V. Greg. magn Ep. 6.31 Leo. 1. Ep. 53. Gelas 1. Ep. 13. †Concil Labb Tom. 10. p. 23 379. Pontific Roman (a) A. D. 1542. in Coll. Sorb See Richer H. Conc. general vol. 4. p. 162 163 c. Object * R.H. Annot. on D. Still Answer p. 82 83. †Art 31. Ch. 5. du consistoire si un ou plusieurs c. * Syn. Dord sess 138. Answer (a) See Artic. 20 21 22. (b) Camp Rat. 3. p. 180. Rat. 5. p. 185. * Lib. diurn Pontif. p. 35. etenim hujus Apostolicae