deceived therfore this not the Rule Nor hath this any effect amongst those who pretend it for by this none of them ever as yet reconciled any differences but each pretender grows perverse and obstinate and seperates from all who pretend to have the spirit as well as himself and so endless Heresies and Schisms arise without any possibility to allay them or for either the Learned or the Ignorant to judge which of these bold pretenders hath a true spirit In the mean time it will not possibly be hard for a sober man to find that they are all of them governed by the Spirit of Error who pretend thus audaciously if he considers well the Rule which St. Iohn gives for discerning the spirit of truth from the spirit of error 1 Ioh. 4. 6. v. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth from the Spirit of Error As if he should have said Christ hath placed Apostles and Teachers and Doctors to govern and teach his Church we are those and therefore of God therefore whoever pretends to know the Will of God must hear and obey and submit unto us or it is evident what he saith is but a pretence and he doth not indeed know God nor is he of God for if he did know God or were of God he would certainly hear us Here therefore is your Rule to know true from false spirits The spirit of truth is alwaies remaining with that Authority which God hath placed in the World to teach truth to the world and bring them to the Faith and all that are actuated and lead by this spirit are taught by it to submit to this Authority and to hear those whom God hath sent and doth send by this Authority since Faith only comes by hearing those who are truly sent but the spirit of error is a spirit of Pride which refuseth to submit to that Authority which God hath set up and heaping to themselves Teachers having itching eares turn away their ears from the Truth 1 Tim. 4. v. 3. 4. By this I saw that although the Rule and the Judge which I looked for must have the assistance and influence of the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth yet it could not be every private man or woman who laid claim to such influences and who could no more satisfie another that they are guided by the Spirit of Truth then many who are cast into Bedlam for affirming themselves to be God can evince themselves to be so and whose affirmations for ought I know are as concluding as the other In this therefore I was satisfied The next thing which I considered was Reason which I found could not possibly be this Rule and Judge that I sought for because first it was to submit as a Subject and Vassall to that Rule and Judge therefore it could not be it Secondly it was fallible and strangely apt to mistake which is against the Nature of this Rule and Judge to be For if God should obliege us upon pain of damnation to submit unto and to be governed ruled by an Authority that might deceive us and might teach us that for a truth which is not we should be bound to beleive that for true which is not so and yet be damned for not beleiving the truth Thirdly if Reason were to be this Rule and Judge then it would follow contrary to the Scripture that it is not impossible to please God without Faith for Reason would teach us sufficiently how to please God yea it would be a breach of this rule to beleive what we do not understand and then every Religion would be the truth consequently contradictions would be true consequently there would be many Religions and not only not one faith but no faith at all for there is scarce a man living but his reason differs from anothers understandings and judgements differing as much as Faces and Reason excludes faith Therefore no one that followes his own Reason could in justice be condemned by God consequently all men would be saved unless peradventure you will say that in a business of such consequence as the salvation of our souls our private Reason perswades us to prefer the Authority of such as are wiser then our selves before our own judgements which is most true But then I inferr that Roman Catholicks are the most rational people in the world and consequently have the best Religion as acting most conformably to Reason for they rely upon the Authority of General Councels consisting of the ablest and most Learned men of all Nations which is the greatest Authority to be found on earth especially if they have the assistance of the Holy Ghost as it appears they have both by the testimony of Scripture and the constant tradition of all Ages Lastly that would probably be the truth and the true faith to one man this year which seven years hence would be an error and a false faith to the same person for in such a compass of time a mans reason hath such an alteration Upon these grounds I concluded that certainly God in his good Providence had appointed a more sure Guide Rule and Judge to bring me to the infallible faith of Christianity then my own Reason The next thing in order to be considered was the Scriptures whether these were solely sufficient to teach us the true Faith and from time to time to direct Rule and Govern us and to be this Rule and Jude to whose sentence and determination to whose directions and Authority all were to submit and which was to supply unto us the place of Christ and the Apostles And indeed I found this highly contended for and several Reasons urged for it First the words of our Saviour Joh. 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testify of me But to this I found several answers given which to me were a satisfaction For first it doth not appear whether this in the Original be the Imparative or Indicative Mood St. Ciril with whom Beza agrees takes it in the Indicative Mood and then the sence runs thus You do search the Scriptures because in them you have an Opinion that you have Eternal Life and yet even those Scriptures are so far from being against me that they testify of me so that I shall be no waies prejudiced if I should joyne issue with you and try my cause by your own Rule And in this sence they are so far from proving what they are produced for that they prove directly the contrary they are so far from being a command to all to read or search or make Scripture the sole Rule and Judge that they rather seem a reprehension to all who shall frame that conceit of the Scriptures Secondly these words cannot extend to prove this conclusion if they were in the Imparative Mood which can never be proved infallibly because they
do and that I beleived the Scriptures to be Gods word from the infallible testimony of Gods spirit bearing witness with my spirit that they were Gods Words and that I was fully convinced that this proceeded from the infallible testimony of Gods spirit from a certain knowledge and feeling which I had of the same within my self and in my own Conscience To all which it was mildly replyed that upon the Grounds which I had laid and whereon I founded my self it was impossible for me to be infallibly assured that this testimony which I mentioned was infallibly the testimony of the spirit of God For having granted the Protestant Principle that I was not infallible that no man or number of men was or were infallible this spirit which I talked of might for ought I knew be the spirit of error And for farther evincing thereof I was desired to reflect on these Scriptures Jer. 17. 9. The heart of Man is deceitful above all things who can know it Eccles 9. 1. No man knoweth Love or Hatred by all that is before them And to consider the strange delusion which bewitched the Angel or Bishop of Laodicea Revel 3. 17. Because thou sayest I am Rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked How much was he deceived in his own jupgement of his own Estate In fine what would you said he answer to an Arrian or Jew or Turk should they urge the like knowledge and feeling with the like confidence to prove they were in the truth and Christianity a delusion What you would reply to them suppose as said unto your self and see if it will not satisfie In the mean time said he you seem to imply and so to grant that we ought to have an infallible certainty of what we beleive with Divine Faith this the Apostles had in the time of our blessed Saviours conversing with them upon earth they had sufficient to prevail with their wills to command their understandings into the beleif of his being God consequently infallible and consequently that whatsoever he taught was to be assented unto as infallibly true without being questioned by our little feeble limited Reasons And this was necessary for the Church then otherwise they could not have been sufficiently assured that what Christ taught them was true consequently it would not have been a sin in them to have doubted This infallible assurance also the Christians who lived in the Apostles times and after the Ascension of our Lord enjoyed they had sufficient to enduce them to a beleif that the Holy Apostles were infallible guides and reachers and that whatsoever they taught and commanded them was as infallible true as if God had immediately spoken to them the same things and no more to be doubted contradicted or disputed against by their reasons which doubtless were as good and strong as ours then the immediate words commands or dictates of Almighty God otherwise those who refused to hear and obey them had been in no fault and it would have been an unsufferable Pride and presumption in St. Paul to have required such an absolute submission to what he taught as to oblige the Christians of his time not to have beleived an Angel from Heaven teaching contrary to what he taught them Hence it is that the remaining writings for so much as we have of them of the Blessed Apostles are by all Christians esteemed as the Words of God And this was necessary in the Age after Christ for the Church of God namely in the Apostles times to have a living infallible way of direction in so much as had we then lived and had encountred with any doubts or difficulties relating to Religion and to the true meaning of what was either spoken or written by any Apostle or by all the Apostles we should without all doubt have made our immediate recourse to them some or one of them for the solving of such doubts and the explayning of such difficulties and should have received and submitted unto such solutions as made by God himself without ever interposing our own reasons or senses in opposition This we see was the course taken in the fifteenth of the Acts when certain doubts were arisen amongst Christians the Apostles met in a Council they considered the things they determined with an It seemeth good unto the Holy Ghost and to us Their Decrees and Canons were obeyed and submitted unto by the whole and the Disputes were at an end But suppose some dispute had arisen touching the sence and meaning even of some of those Decrees must not it have been interprited by some judicial Authority Doubtless yes And questionless the then Christians would have appealed or applyed to the same Authority that made those Canons and Decrees for the interpretation of them and would have submitted to such interpretations otherwise it would have been with the Primative Christians then as it is with you now every one would have framed his own interpretation those who had been Masters of the greatest Wit power or interest would have framed Parties or Churches to themselves and in fine the Sword of the Flesh and not the Spirit of God must have given the Rule and Law to Christianity they would have been so far from any possibility of maintaining The Unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace from being One body that they would have divided into as many parts to speak without grateing as you now are and have gone to Cuffs and raised Wars for the decideing of Controversies as we have seen you do since you divided your selves from the Holy Catholick Church of Christ It is not hard for you to imagine into what confusion these Discourses put my poor soul to hear such things so great evidences of Reason produced by a private Gentleman of that party whom I had beleived so ignorant I had oftentimes in Disputations both publickly and privately encountred and I thought worsted several of the English Clergy in those points wherein I differed from them But I found nothing now to say against these Principles which I had yet hitherto supposed the most ridiculous that any people could imagine to set up Well I could no longer contest but resolved to have recourse unto Almighty God by Prayer for his Divine Assistance and to make it my business according to the utmost of my poor skill and understanding to take a full view of the Grand Principles of the Catholick Faith and of Christianity and laying aside all Prejudices Pride and Humour I resolved by the assistance of God to embrace and submit unto whatsoever I should understand to be most agreeable with his most holy will and pleasure without taking any regard to worldly interest or the censures of men which I had reason to beleive would run high against me And the better to enable me in this search and examination I borrowed from this Gentleman several books
to their best understandings and Consciences to be the sole and only rule of Faith and judge of controversies is not he that professeth to follow this principle allowed by all to be a perfect good Protestant though never so much differing in faith from others who make the same profession Good God hast thou told us that Heresies must be and yet left us without all possibility of convincing or condemning them or knowing who are and who are not Hereticks But those who pretend this Rule and Judge to be Scripture do in truth as little intend it as any who oppose them for if they will please but to speak their consciences clearly it would soon appear that it is not the Holy Scriptures which byass them but their own private reasons puting private sences and glosses upon those Scriptures which were easily quitted if they would once give themselves the liberty to see how easy it is for their reason to erre in divine things which are as far above the reach of reason as Heaven is above the Earth as it is for the same reason to mistake so much in humane affairs as we see it to do The second reason was that the Letter of Scriptures was to be construed and applyed by men wherefore as mens Judgements and interests differ so will their Expositions of written words from hence differing sences will be raysed and from thence different faiths For Example If I were to dispute against an Arrian and to prove that God the Father and God the Son are of the same substance I should urge that Text Joh. 10. 30. I and my Father are one thing And by this according to my judgement I should think I had proved the question But then my Arrian comparing this with Joh 17. 22. Where Christ prayeth to his Father that his Disciples might all be one thing as thou Father in me and I in thee concludes that this One or One thing in both these Texts are to be intended One in Affection not in substance for saith he it can never be understood that Christ intended to pray that his Disciples might be One in substance If I should urge the Arrian farther and say that the Council of Nice gave the same interpretation which I do to the Text which I urge he would answer as Protestants generally do that he hath a Worthy esteem of Councils and Fathers so far as they agree with Scriptures but he doth not think them infallible he beleives they may mistake and therefore where he finds them disagreeing with the Word of God he must contradict them all The third Reason which I thought forcible was that those who are thus far from for the sole Scriptures do not say that One or any perticular number of the Books of Scriptures but All the works of Scripture which were written by Inspiration of God do being joyned together make up this Rule and Judge to be a compleat Rule and Judge I concluded therefore if any of these Books be now lost this Rule is not perfect and then Man is left by God without means to beleive consequently must be damned for that which is not his fault Now that many of these books are lost I found clear from those which remain there is mentioned Num. 21. v. 14. The Book of the Warrs of the Lord. This is lost It is said of Solamon 1 Kings 4. 3. 2. That he spoke three thousand Proverbs and his Songs were a thousand and five I conceive some of these upon a just reckoning will be observed to be wanting We find named 2 Chron. 9. 29. The book of Nathan the Prophet the Prophecy of Ahijah and the Visions of Iddo These are lost as also those named 1 Chro. 29. 29. The book of Samuel the book of Nathan the book of God It is clear from Mat. 27. 9. That part of Ieremy is lost for that Evangelist cites a Text of Ieremy not to be found in any of Ieremies books which we have So also are the Books of that Prophet mentioned Matt. 2. 23. who foretold that Christ should be called a Nazarene We shall find by 1 Cor. 5. 9. That the Epistle which our Canon calls St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians was not truly his first to them for there he saith I wrote to you in an Epistle not to company with Fornicators wherefore if he hid the written an Epistle to them this was not his first to them St. Paul wrote also an Epistle from Laodicea which he mentions thus Col. 4. 16. Read the Epistle from Laodice It seems there was something in it which was material yet we do not find that Epistle the conclusion I think falls out very naturally The fourth Reason was this nothing can be a sole sufficient Rule to all or the only way and means to convey Divine and infallible Faith to all or a Judge to whose Sentence all are to submit on pain of Damnation which cannot be certainly and truly understood by all But the Scriptures cannot be certainly understood by all Nay they are very subject to be desperately misunderstood if you beleive the second Epistle of St. Peter and beleive it we must for it is Gods word 2 Pet. 3. 16. where speaking of all St. Pauls Epistles in general he saith In which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction It is in vain to say that the Scriptures are easy in Fundamentals and in what concerns our salvation for we have here a testimony that they are hard and wrested by the unlearned and unstable to their destruction that is to their Damnation Now if they were only hard in things not appertaining to Salvation the wresting of such things could not bring men to Destruction It followes that they cannot be a safe and infallible secure Rule nor indeed any Rule at all the ignorant who are infinitely the greater part of those for whom Christ dyed The fift Reason is this if the Scriptures that is the writings of the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles c. be this Rule and Judge it can only be meant of their true Authentical and Original writings not of corrupted copies Therefore if we have not their true Originals our Rule is imperfect Observe what the most learned Protest Chamier saith in this perticular of Scripture Translations We acknowledge them to be made but by a private Spirit as far as every mans judgement skilfulness in Languages dilligence and sincerity were able to reach Therefore there is none either in our own tongue or in any other unto which we think meet to subiect either our selves or other men As for Translations the sence of Protestants is this that all of them of what standing name or credit soever they be and with what diligence sincerity or Learning soeuer they were made are only so far certain as they agree with the first Context I mean as far as they express
Reason which I shall recount unto you is this that to make the Scripture this sole Rule and Judge is in effect not to make the Scripture so but to make every individual man and woman who take upon them to read and understand the Scriptures such a Rule and Judge unto themselves for what difference is there between judging by my own Reason and judging by a Law to be Interpreted by my own Reason This is to make the Scripture not Gods Word but the word of every private man Hence I concluded that if Christ be God as certainly and infallibly he is and if he truly loved those soules for which he dyed he hath certainly provided for them some more assured means by which to know the true Faith without which he will not save them then by leaving them to the Scriptures to be interpreted by each one as he thinks best for what Law maker was there ever found so ridiculous as to gather a people into a body and give them a Law book in writing to govern them and to be their only judge in all their differences without appointing nay expresly prohibeting that there should be any living judge or Judges or any Court to expound this Law and to have the Executive Authority and jurisdiction from whence there should be no appeal Having considered after this manner what could be said for the private Spirit Reason and the sole sufficiency of Scripture I was in the last place to see what could be said on the behalf of the Catholick Church resolving from these premises that if here I could not find a satisfaction in point of certainty and an infallible assurance I was not to expect it as far as I yet understood from the Principles of Christianity and consequently must conclude that Religion and Faith were no more then Fancy and Opinion I thought it not unreasonable and other persons would doubtless have thought the Argument strong enough if I had sought no further but concluded the Private spirit is not Reason is not the Scriptures are not this Rule and Judge therefore the Church is But I resolved to examine farther and having agreed the point that such a Rule and Judge there must alwaies be of necessity and therefore there hath alwaies been and ever shall be such a One unless we shall say which I hope none will that God is defective in necessaries I found first for the first 2000 years before any Scriptures were written the Church of God was this Rule and Judge Was not Circumcision and other Rights brought in by Abraham and practised by the Church then without any Scripture to try them by what would you have said if you had then lived would you have disobeyed the then Church and rejected those Ordinances because there were then no Scriptures to warrant them Secondly the Church of the Jews was so to the Jews after that the Scripture was written and this by the express direction of Scripture Deut. 17. 8. Thou shal come to the Priests the Levites and unto the Iudge that shall be in those daies and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of Iudgement c. And according to the judgement which they shall tell thee you shall do Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left hand And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest or unto the Iudge even that man shall dye Therfore our Blessed Lord whilst the Jewish Church was yet in being gave directions Mat. 23. 2. 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all therfore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Would God direct them unto punish with Death for not obeying an Authority which might deceive them would our Lord command the doing of whatsoever should be done by an Authority when that Authority was capable of mistaking From hence I concluded that it was possible for the Church of God to be such a Rule and Judge and to be the means appointed by God to give infallible instructions in the Truth Now as concerning the Church in the new Law under Christ I found Thirdly that God had promised such a Church such an Authority by the mouthes of his Prophets Isa 2. v. 2. 3 c. It shall come to pass in the last dayes so the Apostles called the time of the New Law That the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Established in the top of the mountains behold its visibility All Nations shall slow unto it see its Universality and extent and say come ye and let us goe up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob And He that is God will teach us his waies in this his house or Church for out of Sion shall go forth the Law as by the Apostles on Whitsunday and the Word of God from Ierusalem where the first Preaching of the Gospel begun And he shall judge amongst the Nations Not personally for Christ went not of Iewry but by his Churches Tribunal erected amongst all Nations so conspicuously that they may all flow to it Will any one say this judgement which is Gods judgement can be fallible Or that in this Tribunal he that teacheth can teach us Errors Isa 35. 8. where God promiseth to establish a way of holiness so direct unto us that Fooles should not erre therein Isa 54. 3. 13 17. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles thy children shall be taught of the Lord and every tongue that shall rise against thee in Iudgement thou shall condemne Isa 56. 21. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my spirit infallible that is upon thee and my words infallible also which I have put in thy mouth the mouth by which the Church teacheth and judgeth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever Behold here the spirit of Truth intailed upon the Church to preserve it from Error Isa 60. 10. 12 c. The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls their Kings shall minister unto thee thy Gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought For the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve thee by submitting to thy doctrine shall perish I will make the place of my feet glorious they shall call thee the City of the Lord I will make thee an eternal Excellency thy sun shall no more go down nor shall thy moon withdraw it self but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light If those shall perish who refuse to submit to this Authority to whom God is an everlasting Light and whom he makes an everlasting Excellency we need not fear that it can deceive us or that it can ever so be Eclipsed as to be at any time invisible