their Church declares it nor is any sense or meaning to be fixt upon as the certain sense of any Scripture but what they determine to be the meaning of the place Accordingly the Trent Council out of their great power have determined the vulgar Latin Translation of the Bible to be authentick and equal to the Greek and Hebrew originals Council of Trent Ses 4 though their own authors acknowledge it to be most false defective and in many things ridiculous Now then our faith is not ultimately resolved into the Scriptures we do not believe and obey because we know and are sure from Scripture that this is the mind of God but because the Pope or Church declare it to be the mind of God yea though the words of Scripture plainly condemn what they teach or though the Translation of a Scripture be contrary to the original which was indited by the spirit of God immediately yet if they say this is the meaning of the place and the true translation of it we must believe it The foundation then of all our faith and obedience is the determination of the Church or Pope Obj. But they are infallible they say Answ This they can never prove but if they were if I must believe meerly upon their Testimony and saying they are infallible my faith is still resolved into the witness of men their testimony concerning themselves is but a humane Testimony they do not cannot prove it by any divine infallible proof therefore my faith and obedience must ultimately pesolve into humane authority The Apostles were infallible yet had not they dominion over the faith of the Church 2 Cor. 12.24 to command what should be believed and practised but they proved by infallible and divine Testimony of miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost that what they taught came from God and so the belief of the people was built upon the Testimony of God to the Apostles doctrine 1. Cor. 2.4 5. the Apostle saith his preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and of power That their faith might not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God If their faith had been grounded upon the Apostles own Testimony of his self that he was infallible and upon his determination concerning any Scripture or doctrine out of his own wisdom though he had seemed to prove it strangely their faith had stood upon the authoty wisdom of man but therefore their faith was built on God because his spirit did powerfully demonstrate what the Apostle preacht to be from God therefore unless the Papists can prove their infallibility by miracles and demonstration of the spirit theirs is but a humane Testimony and so we know it is and a false one too and therefore it is an intolerable abuse to take the Church off from faith and obedience to Christ as the head commanding and ruling her and from the holy Spirit as inditing and confirming the holy Scriptures and to subject her to the authority and determinations of fallible and sometimes most wicked men To let pass that the Papists themselves not being agreed who is the infallible supreme judge whether the Pope Council or the whole Church no man of them hath any sure foundation for his Faith If they say the Scripture declares who is the supreme infallible Judge I answer that Judge must again tell us what is the meaning of that Scripture The Pope saith it means him the Council and Church say it means them here are three pretenders to supreme and infallible authority and to interpret the Scripture which soever a man adheres to it is two to one but he is mistaken however here is no way to determine who is the infallible Judge unless there be infallible marks and Testimonies of it given by God and then they are of the supreme authority and neither Pope Council nor Church themselves but such they can never produce Thus the whole matter is but an inconsistent juggle to bring the Church into subjection to the Pope 3. Because the Church of Rome takes away the Scriptures from the people yea and alloweth the Clergy themselves the use of the corrupt vulgar Translation of the Bible only Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Rom. 10.14 How then shall the people get Faith or grow in it when they must not have the Scriptures to read themselves nor have them read to them by their teachers but in an unknown tongue and that Translation so corrupt also that if any of them should understand Latin they would yet have much difficulty to find the truth The Scriptures are Christs Law whereby he governs his Church and the peoples Magna Charta the Charter of all their priviledges and of all Gods promises spiritual and temporal to take this from them is to deprive them both of the rule of their obedience and of the foundation of all their faith and hope in God This is not to be endured upon any pretence whatsoever 4. Because they impose the celebration of Gods worship in an unknown tongue the Papists celebrate their prayers Sacraments and singing of Psalms all in Latin which as they know the people understand not so they would not have them understand it by this means the people are deprived of all true worship For worship is the reverence and affection of the soul to God either in ascribing honour to him or desiring of him and trusting in him for whatever we need This it is impossible man should give to God in and by those words and expressions which he understandeth not which for what he knows may blaspheme God or beg a curse instead of a blessing which as managed by illiterate Priests oftentimes are nonsense and signifie nothing and sometimes contrary to sound Doctrine yea may at all times for what the people know be directed to an Idol or a Devil instead of God For preaching of the word the Papists pretend but little to it And thus the Roman Church is a Church of Christ which acknowledgeth not him for her head and Governour nor his word for her rule and Law nor his worship for her practice but sabjecteth her self to a wicked man under the name of Christs Vicar taketh his will for her Law and his institutions for her worship without Question and without understanding This is an abuse Jot to be tolerated 5. The Idolary that the Papists impose on the Church the Apostle is express You cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devils the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils 1 Cor. wor-10 20 21. and these Devils he saith are shipped in Idols by Idolaters with whom therefore we must have no communion now the greatest part of the Papists worship consists in the worship and invocation of Saints Angels and the Virgin Mary and their waser-God which they practise upon the very same grounds on which the Heathens worshipt their Idols and therefore are Idolaters as well as the
wearied with their ill carriage And in the times of the Prophets there were usually false Prophets seducing the people 2 Pet. 2.1 Our Saviour foretold false Christs and false Prophets should arise soon after his days Mat. 24.24 And his Apostles that there should be false teachers in the Church privily bringing in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and that many should follow their pernicious ways 2 Pet. 2.1 2. The Primitive times as they were most happy in Zeal and affection in the sound and Orthodox professours so they were as unhappy in the manifold errors Sects divisions that did disturb them as any of these latter Ages Augustin hath given us a Catalogue of 80. Heresies that troubled the Church in those days August Lib. de Haer. ad Quod vult Deus and yet he saith he omitted many and named but the principal It appears by their Epistles that the Apostles had no sooner planted Churches but the weeds of errors and opinions did straight ways spring up amongst them and this chiefly by these three means here mentioned 1. By pretence of the spirit When God did afford his spirit in extraordinary gifts and revelations to his Prophets and Apostles there never wanted men who pretended to the same spirit and the like revelations for their own devices most of them wilfully feigning some artificially and some by diabolical means procuring revelations and Enthusiasms and some weakly mistaking their own fancies and strong perswasions for dictates and inspirations of the Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 4.1 2. Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God for many false prophets are gone out into the world such as pretended to the spirit and that to the subversion of the greatest truths in the Gospel even to deny the person and coming of Jesus Christ as Simon Magus and his followers therefore he subjoyneth this mark v. 2 3. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that confesseth that he is not come is not of God The same direction is given 1 Cor. 12.2 3. I give you to understand that no man speaking by the spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed Such it seems there were that preten ding to the spirit the Apostles had rejected and reviled Jesus Christ 2. By pretence of a word or oral tradition They that could not pretend the spirit speaking in themselves pretended the judgment and sayings of Christ and his Apostles when absent for their own opinions sometimes forging their sayings sometimes mistaking the meaning of them affixing their own sence to them Thus a tradition was received as coming from the mouth of Christ that the beloved Disciple should not die Joh. 21.22 23. and is yet believed in the Greek Church who shew a place near Ephesus where they say that Apostle when old commanded himself to be buried alive where by some estuation or bubling of the earth they conclude he still breatheth St. Paul was often troubled by the Judaizing Christians who would have kept up the ceremonial law pretending the authority and practice of Peter and other Apostles that lived among the Jews which he refuteth at large Gal. 2. And it appeareth by almost all Pauls Epistles that this tradition was importunately urged and scattered through all the Churches by that sort of men even when the Apostles and Church of Jerusalem had declared that they never commanded such doctrine to be preached Acts 25.24 3. Thirdly By the pretence of Scripture our Epistle in the text And this either by pretence of forged Scripture or false and forced interpretations of the true Canonical writings Of the former sort were the writings of the false Prophets among the Jews and those fabulous Legends of Tobit Judith Susannah c. which were never received by the Jewish Church And such were the many suppositious writings in the primitive times as the Gospel of Peter Andrew Thomas Nicodemus and almost of all the Apostles the Gospel and Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans the Liturgie of James and the like mentioned by Eusebius and other writers Of the latter sort the Apostle speaketh 2 Pet. 3.15 16. That there were many unlearned and unstable Christians who did wrest some hard places in Pauls Epistles and the other Scriptures to their own destruction of this kind is this in the text as some suppose Cartwr in Locum that this opinion of Christs coming to judgment was rashly collected by some from those words in the former Epistle to the Thes ch 4. v. 15. We that are alive and remain unto the coming of our Lord shall not prevent those that are asleep hence they thought that the Apostle supposed that at least some of them who were then alive might live to the coming of Christ Though it seems that all these three means of pretended revelations traditions and Scriptures were used for this doctrine These arts have been all along used to disturb the Church and to pervert souls The Gnosticks Montanus and Manes pretended their inspired revelations Cont. Haer. De praeser and many others in latter ages Irenaeus and Tertullian tell us that many of the Hereticks of their days pretended traditions from one Apostle or other for their doctrine and practice as also others had their Apocryphal Scriptures or Canonical texts misapplied to maintain their errors The Papists make great use of all three of these pretences to establish their grossest errors The doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the bread of the worship of Saints and of religious Orders and Images is mainly built upon Revelations dreams and apparitions Lindanus ingenuously confessed that all those doctrines and practices wherein the Protestants do oppose them and dissent from them are to be proved by traditions of the Apostles not from the Scripture Their doctrines of Purgatory invocation of Angels equivocations and dissemblings are proved by the book of Tobit Judith Susan c. The Apostles Canons increased from 50 to 85 in the last age do them great services in the matters of their discipline and sometimes they wrest Scriptures for their purpose but they have been so baffled and shamed out of this since the Bible hath been common and studied by Protestants that they have forsaken this hold and the Jesuites think the poor secular Priests have betrayed their cause by undertaking to dispute for it out of the Scriptures These troubles by errors arise from the weakness of some who have more zeal than judgment and usually desire new things 2 Pet. 3.16 2 Tim. 4.3 People unlearned and unstable and that have itching ears from pride and conceit in others who that they may seem wiser than their brethren will be wise above or against what is written some teach perverse things to draw disciples after them some for secular interest There was no other reason why the Popes of Rome imbraced the worship of images transubstantiation and some such doctrines but because
the promoters of them did also promote their authority and strengthen their hands against the Godly and most serious part of the Church But the most usual causes of errors are ignorance of the Scriptures and of the principles of religion founded on them which in the primitive times had a great occasion given it by the prejudicate opinions that new Converts brought from Judaisme and Paganisme and from the new Testament not being fully written in a considerable time and the several books thereof not gathered into one volume in a long space after and chiefly corrupt affections Men will imbrace errors because they love not the truth Vse 1. This sheweth the necessity of adhering to the Scripture and of a standing Ministry If we stick not to the Scripture the pretence of the Spirit and Traditions will lead us into a wilderness where there is no end Heathens Mahometans Papists and all Enthusiasts will distract us by their several and contrary pretensions And if there be not a standing and learned Ministry Apocryphal Scriptures and false interpretations of Scripture will easily beguile the unskilful and hinder the edification of the more wise 2. The Papist's brags of infallibility of the Pope or Church and the necessity of it to the foundation of our faith is as foolish as it is untrue The Apostles and Apostolical men were infallible and yet this will not prevent errors and Heresies of the highest nature either in their own or in the next succeeding ages An infallible head or guide will not secure the Church from errors and divisions unless all the people be infallible likewise certainly able to discern the truth declared to them and perfectly free from all evil affections which may hinder their receiving and submitting to the truth 3. It is no Wonder to see errors and divisions in these last days of the Church sith they were in the first While men are subject to ignorance and evil affections there will be both errors and divisions and if we go to the Church of Rome to avoid all errors and Schisms because they boast of such Unity which was never promised nor long enjoyed by any Church we shall but do like Children that tear many little holes in a garment into one great one that comprehends them all and more and cannot be repaired Obs 2. It is certainly foretold that there should be an Apostasie in the Church The same Apostle almost in the same words foretels it 1 Tim. 4.1 The spirit speaks expresly that some shall depart from the faith The first Christians might be apt to expect the coming of Christ and their everlasting rest to be at hand from the love and joy they had conceived upon their first receiving the Gospel but they are here told that happy time is not so nigh There must come a departure of many from the faith first and many contests and persecutions should ensue thence and therefore they should arm themselves with patience to a conflict before they must expect the Crown When God made the world he made it wonderful great and large and stored it with almost infinite variety of creatures to set forth his own Majesty he hath also continued it some thousands of years with as great variety of providences in his governing of it to shew his manifold wisdom power mercy and justice and what will be the wonderful transactions of the world to come throughout eternity to set forth the glory of the â—ernal God no creature can conceive In like manner when our Lord came from Heaven to purchase a Church to serve him it was not quickly to expire but to conflict with the world and the Devil with enemies without and within through many changes and vicissitudes a considerable time and at last through faith and patience to inherit the promises It was long that the Church continued under the bondage of the Law and there were many changes and declinings of it at several times under the Judges and Kings of Judah but there was one great Apostasie of the Ten tribes under Jeroboam which ended in the ruin of that State and people Such a departure was there to be in the Christian Church signified here by the indeterminate word There shall come a departure or Apostasie for the falling off of a few particular persons was no strange thing but happened in every age Now such Apostasies are permitted 1. To punish the ingratitude of men for the Gospel Because they receive not the love of the truth because Christ and his Gospel are not welcome to the generality of men but any or no religion would content them as well if they might have outward peace and prosperity therefore Christ suffers them to be inticed with Errors and Heresies to their own destruction which at last bring publick calamities and ruin 2. To punish the Hypocrisie of others Some pretend great zeal and affection in the peace of the Church which is either meerly pretended for worldly interest or but a light and transient passion as in the stony ground who can never be perswaded to be zealous and rooted Christians Matth. 13.20 therefore when they have been tryed a convenient time opportunities of backsliding are sufferred to come to discover and shame them 3. To manifest and honour those that are sound 1 Cor. 11.18 19. There must be heresies among you that they which be approved may be made manifest among you When peace and truth meet together the sound and best Christians are unknown and for the most part less regarded than the Hypocrites that make more shew and noise Christ therefore suffers apostasies to come to discover and honour his sincere humble diligent and stedfast servants 4. Errors are also permitted to clear the trut more and make them that are sound more stedfast and strong The truths of the Gospel have in all ages been prejudiced by the zeal and good affection of some well minded as well as by the opposition of enemies because their affection over-run their judgment and their care to get a distinct knowledge of the principles of religion but the appearance of errours and corruptions makes them more careful to search the truth which hath been always more cleared and fortified by occasion of the oppositions against it and those who are upright have been put upon getting a clearer knowledge of the grounds of their faith worship and practices thereby 5. And in all this Christ manifesteth his distinguishing grace to some and his righteous judgments upon others Rom. 11.22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness 6. Hereby all are stirred up to diligence and watchfulness When there shall come a falling away of many all are warn'd thereby to take care how they stand lest they also fall Rom. 11.20 Vse Be not therefore suprized at discouraged or tempted by the apostasies of others Though the Church be fair as the Moon she hath