in some things want the Application and Direction to our use dictated by Divine Wisdom in others the unerring Censure of even Apostolick Actions as in that of the Apostle Peter Galat. 2. 11. Now because our Consciences would be apt to be drawn into subjection to things of so great Reputation and yet there would be no Divine Authority to draw them nor Infallible Authority to support them in which Cases it is the Absolute Will of God they should not be in subjection God hath therefore in his Providence left that time so much in the dark that we may trust in his written Word only For separate Immediate Divine Presence from the Prophets and Apostles themselves and there remains nothing at the highest but the Wisdom and Prudence of Understanding and Good Men applying General Rules to particular Cases Times Places and Events as they for that time could best judge and yet besides the variation of Circumstances in every Age they themselves were as Men subject to mistakes as Nathan about David's building the Temple as Paul assaying to go into Bithynia to like Passions with other Men as in the Contention betwixt Paul and Barnabas to like Temptations as in the Miscarriage of Peter before referred to All they did and said not shining with immediate Light from Heaven must be tried in the Light of what themselves together with all the other Penmen of Scripture had written They themselves therefore acting or speaking by way of Prudence or general Assistance must be tried by themselves acting or speaking according to Revelation and special Assistance in which only they are and ought to be Authoritative Quest But it still remains There might be some things that were not so fit for vulgar Knowledge and so were Secreted into Tradition apart from Scripture and that Tradition deposited with Trusty Men who should successively so deposite it that it might at convenient Seasons be brought forth as Goliah ' s Sword from behind the Ephod Answ None like it indeed to serve a purpose But to satisfie Reason and Conscience nothing so improper For first let these Traditionaries give clear Expositions and such as are worthy to be acquiesced in of the Prophetick or otherwise Dark Places of Scripture If they cannot do that where is the Wisdom above the Vulgar and why did not Tradition without Scripture inclose those mysterious Visions of the Revelation from Popular Inspection But the things Tradition is imploy'd indeed in are quite of another Nature either the Prelation of Men in Church-Office and Dignity or some Rites of Worship that should change Devotion into Superstition or lull it into Ignorance or some Canons that turn Religion into Trade or Doctrines suited to that End or which serves to all such purposes a Tradition to call back all Scripture out of the Written Word into Oral Tradition by locking it up in a Tongue unknown to the generality of Christians And yet if there were any seemingly Purer or more Contemplational Traditions seeing they are not inrolled into Scripture they must as hath been said give such Evidences of themselves as Divine Revelation hath or be at their highest but Enthusiasm and Fanaticism Quest But what Esteem is to be had of the Writings and Transactions of the Ancients whom we call Fathers Doctors of the Church Men of eminent Holiness great Abilities Confessors and Martyrs of Christianity Answ It may be easily judg'd by what hath been said already that they must be brought to Scripture laid at its Feet and submitted to its Acceptance whether according to its true Sense or not For if the Apostles when the Holy Spirit was not upon them could not exceed Humane how much less can any of a lower Class pretend The Fathers therefore had so great an Awe of Scripture that they did not assume any thing to themselves or their Writings or yield any thing to the Persons or Writings of those of the same Time with them but according to the undeniable Sense of Scripture Quest But the nearness of these Fathers to the Days of Christ and the Apostles must needs enable them either from what they themselves received warm from their Lips or from what they had from others not quite cold to know the Apostles Doctrine Discipline Manner of Life Purpose their Sense of the Scope and Meaning of those Things wherein they were Divinely Inspired and so to deliver it to After-ages Answ Whatever they have spoken or written giving us more light and advantage to understand and behold Scripture in its own Light ought from them or from any other to be accepted with great regard but if it do not thus it cannot be accepted even from the Writers of Scriptures themselves upon a single or divided Authority They were so bounded by the very Things and Words they themselves had once spoken and written by the Holy-Ghost that all the deference to their knowledge in Divine Things above others was to be made reasonable in the clearest Expounding what themselves and others had written by Divine Inspiration and to be discerned in the very Writings themselves and not to be drawn oracularly out of their Breasts when the Evidences of Divine Inspiration were not upon them For he that is Spiritual i. e. that God vouchsafes Inspiration to or pretends to it must acknowledge all that is either truly written or spoken by the same Inspiration to be the Commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 37. And as for the newness freshness and life of Truth given by Divine Revelation God graciously providing it should remain as Revelation left it and the Evidences it hath done so appearing with it it is the same in all Ages Divine never loses of its life nor abates of its vigor what it was so many Ages ago that it abides now what the Holy-Ghost spoke so many Ages ago that it speaks now as warmly as then All Divine Truth given is after the power of an endless life the Eternal Increates Spirit lives in it and gives Divine Quickness to it It is yesterday to day the same for ever and so breathes its own sense in Scripture by the ordinary Assistances it vouchsafes to Holy Humble and diligent Waiters upon him in this even as it did in the first Ages though the extraordinary Motions are withdrawn Quest But still the Gifts and Endowments of those Eminent Men with all the Light Truth Grace Learning and Reason they shine to us with ought to be esteemed and improved Answ Yes doubtless For whatsoever Things are true whatsoever things are pure are of Virtue and deserved praise they are Publick and of God wherever they are found And whatever there is in these Elders in their nearness to the First Times their Holiness their Sufferings their great Learning their Encounters of Paganism their Apologies for Christianity their Heavenliness their Contempt of this World all is a Donation and a Grace of God by them to his Church and Mankind in general Quest And does not there arise great Evidence
Rational Discourse and manifestation of themselves in Mens Consciences witness'd to by the Holy Spirit and authorised by a Power of Miracles generally of Beneficence or doing good and in some but sparing Instances of infliction of Bodily Pains or Death Quest Did the Apostles never err in their Administration Answ Whenever that Infallible Guidance was not present to them they might err as was before observed in the Apostle Peter's Miscarriage which no doubt was recorded to shew their Power was not in themselves but in the Divine Spirit acting by them that none in After-ages might pretend to dictate as their Successors having not their Power and yet requiring Obedience as if they had it whereas even the Apostles themselves might err and so lose their Power if never so little deserted by the Holy Spirit And therefore what they consigned over to After-ages was winnowed from every thing Humane and Fallible that both Officers and People might know the one Common Rule by which one is to Govern the other in the Application of it is to be Governed Quest Who were next to the Apostles in this Office and Power Answ Evangelists such as were Timothy and Titus who having a Portion of the Apostolick Work to plant and settle Churches and Ordinary Officers in them had also a Portion of their Power to enable them to it it being absolutely necessary there should be such till the General Rule was fully settled and fixed Quest Were not the Apostles and Evangelists above Ordinary Pastors and Teachers Answ They were in this great Point of Difference that they had the Word of God by Immediate and Infallible Revelation committed to them to commit the same to others by direction from the same Spirit who gave them Discerning to whom to entrust it till all things relating to the Kingdom of God in the Church were sealed in the Canon of the New Testament else they owned themselves Compresbyters as the Apostle Peter stiles himself A Presbyter with Presbyters Quest From all that hath been spoken we are to conclude That the whole Power in the Church and in all things pertaining to Religion is retained in the Word of God Answ It is so For Christ in his Word is the only King and Lawgiver of his Church which Glory he will not give to another Whatever Power can be supposed resident in the whole Church together is no other than in that Word of Truth publickly offered by it The Apostles Power was only the presence of that Word to them by the Immediate Revelation and infallible Guidance of the Holy Spirit for the Preaching it throughout the World and thereby founding the Christian Church Such was the ordinary Power of any extraordinary Ministers under them The and constant Rulership of the Elders of the Church remains unmoveably in the Word which it is their Office to speak Quest Are not those we distinguishingly call Bishops Successours to the Apostles in that Preeminency they had over other Pastors and Elders Answ That Successors to the preeminency of the Apostles may be well established Three things are necessary 1. That there be found and produced Distinct Commands given in Scripture to the Inferior Ministers of the New Testament to obey Superior Ministers or Bishops Commands to Christians to obey Inferior Ministers or Ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors We must find the Apostle distinguishing ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors as we find him distinguishing Civil Magistrates into the King as Supreme and Governors as those that are sent by him 2. Seeing it is very clear and apparent there is nothing more distant from the Design of the Gospel than to Constitute any thing for the sake of making a great Figure without as great an Use or End and that Christ hath not given Power to his Rulers to Command the very least thing but as Commanded by himself first for then they would be Lords which he plainly declares against and absolutely denies to them and that what they do as Commanded by him they should do so in Duty and Service to the Supreme Lord and Subordinately to his Church as not to be called or esteem'd Benefactors for their Services so that it must be evident what their Superior Service is it must be plainly expressed in the Word of God and there at least so determinately set down as to be deduced with greatest clearness to the Understanding and Conscience of Christians and distinguishingly from the Service of other Subordinate Rulers appointed by Christ that so it may be waited for and received according to his Ordinance with Faith and Obedience 3. Seeing Christ appoints none to an Eminency of Service without a suitable Eminency of Abilities as is plain in the Apostles and Evangelists it is therefore reasonable to expect some extraordinary promises of the presence of Christ to those Superior Ministers to assist them in the Conduct of their Superiority wherein they might above any other Ministers of the Gospel Visibly and Experimentally make some approaches to the Eminent Assistances the Apostles and Evangelists had in the time of their Ministry and that they have continued and succeeded in their High Function in the Church of Christ so that the History of the Real Substantial Services of Bishops to Christianity hath come near to the Acts of Apostles and as much excelled that of Common Presbyters as the Order it self is supposed to do Now without these three self evident concurrent marks of Superiority secret invisible Characters are of no signification Quest How then is such a Succession of Bishops in a Superiority over Presbyters so uncontrolably deduced from Antiquity Answ Besides all other Coincident Accounts there is this to be given After the Apostles there was but a Gradual Cessation of Apostolick Men Men of Eminent Graces and Extraordinary Gifts though not of the Infallible Guidance of the Divine Spirit for the Revelation of the Gospel or the writing of Scripture yet of more immediate Divine Assistances in resemblance of Timothy and Titus for the Confirmation of the Churches planted by the Apostles Supervisal over them and Care for them and also for the further propagation of Christianity which being but newly set out had not arrived many places where it was to come and so needed some more than ordinary Assistances Even as Miracles did not immediately Cease no more did these Personages extraordinary in their Endowments Such as these were worthily in a Degree of Superiority over those that had not the same miraculous Inablements nor Knowledge as yet in Christianity Afterwards such Manifestations of the Divine Presence by Degrees retiring and Christianity having fixed it self where it was then to go and the Churches settled the best accounts of the continuing Distinction between those that were upon the same level in regard of their Gifts and Graces were but Humane Prudence and Order which oblige no
much less against Omnipotency Or who can spread tender Mercies over all the Creation but the Faithful Creator himself All which are absolutely necessary to the Concernments of the truly Catholick Publick Religion Quest What are the Records God hath vouchsafed to men of this Catholick Publick Religion Answ They are two The Law ingraven upon Man's heart justified and sealed by the constant Miracle of Creation and Providence that carry semblable Lines of all that is written upon Mens hearts For that which may be known of God is manifest in men for God hath shewed it to them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead The Work that God commands Men to do is written in their heart their Consciences bearing witness and their Thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another The Eternal Word or Reason that made all things is the Light that lighteth the Reason of every man that cometh into the world Quest Which is the second Record Answ The second Record is Divine Revelation collected into Holy Scriptures All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine Reproof Instruction Correction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work No Prophesie of Scripture is of any Private Interpretation for Prophesie came not in old time by the Will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And even as the Law of Nature is seal'd by Creation and Providence so hath Revelation always been by Evidences of Divinity and Miracles a new Creation proportioned to the Ends of those Revelations Miracles of meer Power or Justice as upon Pharaoh of greatest Mercy and Benefaction only as by the most merciful Saviour of Mercy and sometimes of Justice as by Moses the Prophets and the Apostles who were to establish the Laws of the Old and New Testament Quest I perceive then all the things of Religion were not clear to Man by the Law written in his heart Answ No For some Parts of Religion are so necessary to our very Natures as Men that they were concreated with us and engraven upon our very Souls and the immediate motions of our Faculties must needs lead us to them while right and streight and continuing in that perfect state wherein our Creator left them For he looked upon all things that he had made and behold all was good and very good And he appointed a Sabbatism for all his Creatures and especially his Rational Creatures the Morning Stars to sing together and praise him for them But there are other Divine Truths which are as the breaking up of the Great Deep of the Infinite Wisdom Grace and Goodness of God that can be known to the highest Understandings of Angels or Arch-Angels only by Revelation Much less to Man a Reason of a lower Orb and least of all as fallen and corrupted Yet supposing the Souls of Men had abode in their first Clearness and Luster all his Faculties would have immediately received and adored God in all such Manifestations of himself and Congratulated those mighty Accessions of Light and Truth Quest But what need was there of any Revelation when Man was made perfect and good while he continued so Answ Revelation was even then necessary to shew that it is not consistent with the Nature of a Creature to have Happiness and Perfection within it self but to be in continual dependence upon and expectation from the Creator For even that Perfection wherein Adam was made was thus to maintain continue and assure it self and so to rise to higher Perfection He had therefore at first a Doctrine by Revelation sutable to the two Sacramental Trees so that though he was Perfect as such a Creature without Sin yet he was made with a possibility of higher Advancement and Perfection as he was of falling from his present Perfection by not adhering to his Creator according to what was revealed to him Quest What Relation do these two Records bear to one another being both of God Answ It is therefore impossible they should either of them one contradict another but that they unite with confirm and justifie one another and one pass out of and repass into another but the latter being more full clear and perfect makes not only the Additions of what was not contained in the former but does much inlighten and clear it and since the Fall it is no where else perfectly to be found but in Revelation Yet so that whatever of it remains or is reinkindled by Revelation does both prepare a Man to receive and does also assure him the truth of Divine Revelation Quest You have shewed with what Wisdom Goodness and excellent Contrivance all things were laid by the Creator let me now hear from you the use I am to make of it Answ This teaches us to adore applaud the Fidelity and Goodness of our Holy Maker and to confess whatever disorder hath invaded this State of things is owing altogether to the perverseness and weakness of Man whose Destruction is of himself alone and his help only in God returning him to himself according to this first Designation Quest What then is the Supreme End of this Publick and Catholick Religion Answ God the Universal Being receiving into his own most Publick Glory Life and Happiness the Universe of his Holy Creation is Praised Glorified Enjoy'd and admired in them and by them to Eternity CAP. II. Of the Violation of this Catholick Order of Religion and the Means provided by God to restore it Quest HOw did a change begin in this Catholick State of Religion in the place of which we now see endless Schisme and Confusion Answ The Fallen Angels a higher Region of Spirits being Anathematiz'd out of Heaven settled in a black and detestable Heresie and Separation from God Quest How did this affect Man Answ They immediately endeavoured upon Humane Natures being newly breathed from God and received into Society with himself and all Blessed Spirits to propagate their own Malignancy into it in our First Parents and to separate it with themselves from the Creator and his happy Publick Quest With what appearance was so malicious an Attempt covered Answ Under the plausible Disguise of Mans setting up for Happiness and becoming a Publick within himself without and against the Divine Oracle Quest What was the mischievous Design that lay hid under this Answ To have enslav'd Humane Nature under perpetual Vassallage to the Pseudo-Catholick Synagogue of Satan and to have depended upon a lye and the Father of it for Infallibility Quest What was the Effect of this Hellish Attempt Answ Too unhappily successful it was for drawing our unwary Progenitors from the Royal Law implanted in their hearts and rendring suspicious to them the Oracle of the Divine Universal Spirit they gave heed to an unknown obscure Spirit and
to the Doctrine of Devils Quest What was the dismal Consequence of so monstrous a Seduction Answ They lost their place in the General Assembly and Church of the First-born written in Heaven and forfeited it from all their Posterity Quest But did these Excommunicate Spirits prevail upon our First Parents to become absolutely and immediately of their Separation Answ No For God clothing himself in his Son with the Compassions of a Mediator and Redeemer laid hold upon Humane Nature as the Head of its Recovery in that very Nature certainly reconciling his own Seed the Seed of Abraham or his Church into a state more Catholick than the first He God-Man being so inseparably united with it And with a redundance of Grace to all Mankind laid the Foundations of their Restoration to their first Communion with advantage if built upon aright Quest What were the Foundations laid by the Son of God the Saviour of all Men especially of them that believe for the restoring them to the first Catholick state of Religion Answ The very same that were Ordained by God before the Fall viz. the Law of Natural Religion preserved in the Soul with direct Aspects upon God Obligations to serve him and Desires of his Favour And when Man found himself in a fallen estate and under Guilt and yet that God spared him and had patience with him there must needs arise from True Reason Hopes of and Desires after his Mercy and Pardon and Motions of return to him by Repentance as is plain in the King of Nineveh 2. Revelation most exactly suited to our Recovery out of that miserable Estate with which God immediately succour'd our First Parents against Despair For that was the Word of Promise in relief against Satan's taking possession of Man as his Spoil The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's Head an everlasting Enmity being immediately kindled between them Quest Who is the Supreme Superintendent missioned or sent in the Son's Name to negotiate our Return to and preserving our selves in the True Catholick Religion Answ The Divine Spirit alone conducting us by Heavenly Assistances inlightning us in the uncorrupted Principles of Natural Religion by Revealed and assuring to us Revealed Religion by its Intimate Union with Natural and enabling us to cut the Lines of the one running into the other with innumerable Mazes of Union Sometimes preparing us for Revealed Religion by Natural always to the true Natural by Revealed and so confirming them to us by one another Quest You have made no mention of Creation Providence Evidences of Divine Presence and Miracles what Place they have in the Renewal of Man's State towards God by the Redeemer Answ These are all in the very same Place they were in the first Settlement attending the Doctrine and Divine Law they are to seal with Assurances they are Divine and giving the Image and Likeness of that Law in the Power Majesty Rectitude and Order they themselves carry and so testifying of God and his Word of what Excellency it is and that even before the Reason of Man as it is imbodied and ministred to by his Senses Quest How shall there be a Distinction betwixt Miracles and Lying Wonders that impose on Men Answ There can be no Counterfeit of Creation and Providence the Universal Miracles and all True Divine Miracles are like them generally in their Beneficence to the World Besides the Excellency of the Doctrine they come along with manifestly distinguishes them CAP. III. Of the Uncontroversible Laws of Natural Religion Quest THere having been so much of Account given in general of Publick and Catholick Religion shewing that it can be no other than what is from God it is now necessary to enter into a more particular Consideration and first what it is that remains Certain and Evidently Publick or that is of God in the Law written upon Man's Heart Answ Whatever is indeed written in Man's Heart must certainly be from God seeing no Created Hand could write there The Hand that Made can alone Ingrave it Quest How then shall we make a Judgment what is written upon the Heart Answ That which is universally acknowledged and amidst all the Differences in Religion falls under no Variation assures us it was placed there by that Supreme Hand that alike fashioned all Mens Hearts and especially seeing to this universal Acknowledgment there is no Temptation from the sensual and worst Part of Man it being against its Interest but it springs from the wisest and best Parts most unconcerned in this World or any of the brutish Pleasures of it Quest What Principles do you account thus to be of Natural Religion Answ I account these following That there is a God the Greatest and Best of Beings that governs the World That God vouchsafes to be acknowledged ador'd and worshipped by Man and that he takes notice when he is so worshipped or neglected and that with Favour or Displeasure That there is a Distinction betwixt Good and Evil setled by the Unchangeable Laws of God That God being himself so Good is pleas'd in Men doing well and rewards it and displeas'd when Men do ill and punishes it That Men have a Conscience viz. a Knowledg of and Government of their own Actions with Approbation of them if Good and Dislike if Bad. That there are Rewards and Punishments beyond this Life That therefore the Notions of Virtue Righteousness Temperance Soberness Beneficence and the contrary Vices are of unchangeable Truth and the Actions flowing from them of the same Notion That God is both the Judge and Observer of them now and will be so in the Future State That in the time of God's Patience and Bounty to sinful Man there is Forgiveness with him that he may be feared and that he thereby leads Men to Repentance That upon all accounts Solemn Worship of him by Prayer Praises Honourable Discourses of him of all Obedience to him and Returns to him after our Falls are most due from Humane Nature and according to the sociable Nature of Man in Publick Associations Quest Do you believe these so close to and inseparable from the Reason of Man Answ I am fully assured so and that these and all the immediate genuine and natural Deductions from them are so nearly allied with Humane Nature and Reason that they are in no Parts of it wanting however overcome but where extreme Barbarity and Brutishness in all things else make it plain such People cannot weigh against the wiser Societies of Mankind in whom the more vigorous Efforts of Reason shew themselves Quest But would you have Men rest in Natural Principles without Revelation Answ No by no means For if Adam in Paradise had Revelation to make his State towards God Consummate how much more Man Fallen in whom all Natural Light is but glimmering and obscure Heavenly Objects at so great a remove by his being sunk down so low from them and the Mists and Fogs of this Earth so prevalent upon him in the great