Man's Conscience beyond the valuableness of the Reasons of that Prudence and Order Except undeniable Holiness Industry and Improv'd Understanding recommend any Person to such Eminency For Eminency and being Taller than others in those Qualifications will make any Person a Bishop in the true sense of one whether so ordinated or not and cannot make him that is a Dwarf in these truly a Bishop however for Orders sake he may stand in the place of that Figure He that excels in his Knowledge of Obedience to Zeal for and Authority in the Word of God seeing that Word conveys all this kind of Power from it self must needs have more of that kind of Power so conveyed than others for the more purely this Word is understood and Preached the more Power goes out of it and along with those that display it and so they become Pastors of a higher Character whether of a higher Order or not CAP. XI Of every Man's Obligation to be wise for himself to Salvation Quest ACcording to all the precedent Accounts of the Church it seems not only reasonable but most necessary every Man should be wise for himself unto Salvation Answ It is certainly so for every Man is to be determin'd by the Word of God to the True Religion to which purpose he is to apply his Mind to search for true Wisdom as for Silver and to seek for it as for hidden Treasure Quest How should Men of so great Disadvantages to such High Things be inabled to Judge Answ Wisdom assumes most justly to it self to be of so high Value that every Man should think it worth his while to Labour and Travel herein and to them that do so it hath promised the most certain Success even the pouring out its Spirit to them and that they shall understand the Fear of the Lord and find the Knowledge of God The Things of greatest moment are not of such difficulty but that they are attainable in the use of Right Means under so great Promises Quest What are those Right Means Answ Bowing down our Ears to the Words of the Wise that is of those that by Inspiration from God have been Wise and written their Wisdom for Future Ages and by applying our Hearts to Divine Knowledge upon which they come to be inlay'd within us and to be fitted to our Lips to be agreeable and well matched to our Discourse and not like a Parable in a Fools Mouth Quest But are not these things spoken and written to the Learned and Elders of the Church that they might know for the People and the People put their trust in them Answ No They are written to thee even to thee that is to every one that they might have their Trust only in God that is find the Rock of Divine Veracity and Infallibility and have no need to trust in Men but to know the certainty of the Words of Truth and be able to answer the Words of Truth either to those that advise with them as Friends or challenge them as Enemies Quest If this was the sense of the Old Testament it is undoubtedly much more so of the New Answ It must needs be so as a higher and more Intellectual State of the Church as much freer and clearer in its Notions of Truth The Apostles Discourse Christians as no Christians if they are not able to Judge as Wise Men what they say If they are not Men in understanding if they attain not to the state of Teachers by skill in the Word of Righteousness and have senses exercised to discern by an Intellectual and Spiritual Gust Things Good and Evil if they cannot give an Apology or Defence of the Hope that is in them that is of their Christianity to every one that asks them a Rational Account of it Quest But in things of Perplexity and Doubt are not Christians bound to submit to the Judgments of their Teachers Answ If they can receive and digest their Reason and take in the Light they judge by so as to make it their own else if they cannot find their Reasons nor acquit themselves from doubt they must suspend For a Christian is Commanded by his Lord to call no Man upon Earth Master or Father Quest What is the meaning of that Answ It is this very Thing that we should receive nothing as Doctrine or Indisputable Truth or Precept upon any Man's Word that does not offer such Reason and Authority from God and his Word that we our selves see Reason not to receive it as the Word of Man but of God Quest But is it not said that they that have the Rule over us watch for our Souls as they that must give an Account for the same If we are not to believe them and surrender our Judgment to theirs how can they give an Account Answ They that Rule over us watch for our Souls and must give an Account as Ezekiel's Prophets and Watchmen by giving Warning laying Truth before us offering the sincere Word of God in all Cases the success of which upon Souls Converted and Saved is their Crown and Glory and their unsuccess lookes like a sorrow to see those Souls lost for whom they laboured in vain and spent their strength upon them for nought yet so that if they have been faithful though without success their reward is with the Lord and their Work with God But notwithstanding this every Man is so to account for his own Soul that the very success is not a Blind Obedience to Rulers but as is said a Receiving the Word not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God And if these Watchmen neglect their Duty or Seduce instead of Teaching Men are to apply to better Means afforded by God and if they do not they still die in their Iniquity and following their Blind Leaders fall into the Pit which is an unanswerable Argument that we may trust in no Man but in God only For if an implicit Faith could be a saving Faith it should save those that followed such Guides though they themselves were justly Condemned in not discharging their Trust Quest But were not the Apostles and Prophets to be Trusted at a higher rate than thus Answ No There were such evident Marks of Divine Doctrine always given by God to those that desired to Know Love and Obey him that even the very Prophets and Apostles were not to be received without them nor to be believed but according to them nay to be plainly Anathematiz'd if they varied from it Christians were therefore to judge to try the Spirits to search the Scriptures whether the things spoken were so to have recourse to undoubted Principles of Truth that were as standards to all that came after besides the Unction from the Holy One whereby they were inabled to know all things necessary to Salvation Quest But is not all Humane Teaching and Instruction hereby taken away and what becomes of the Ministry the Eldership of the Church and their Rule
they cannot give Satisfaction to cavelling Atheists or Infidels or to the Scruples of Good Men it still remains a just Ground of Satisfaction The Spirit that carried by an Almighty Hand the Writers of the Old Testament carried those Penmen of the New by the same also and from one single Glance of its Meaning that it self with Divine Artifice had left drawn there it derives that full Face of Truth in the New No more impossible then is that Sense it gives in the New to be its Sense in the Old than that Samson's Riddle in the Exposition should be his Sense in the dark Cover of it in Words that could not else import it He that created the Words in the Old Testament and even then inspired them with that Divinest Sense as with Life might yet suffer it to lie intoomb'd in them till it self that entrusted it there gave it a Resurrection in the New Quest But would you have none undertake in the Interpreting or Expounding Scripture except by Inspiration or the Evidences of immediate Divine Presence where either Scripture is not so express as to be its own undoubted Interpreter or the Interpretation deduced as evidently as any Consequence by Reason Answ Far be it from me to discourage or lessen such Undertakings I rather wish all the Lord's People thus far Prophets to search the Meaning of Scripture with all the Helps and Advantages they can attain and that in the mean time all those who have any part of the Prophetick Office upon them would read and meditate day and night to Interpret Scripture to themselves and others Quest But how is such Interpretation consistent with the Apostles so great Assertion That Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Answ First Interpretation guiding it self by the plain evident and Self-Interpreting Oracles of Scripture in things absolutely necessary to Salvation displays a Body of Divine Publick Truth which in regard of the Darkness Inattendence and Inconsideration of the generality of the very Professors of the Faith of the Scriptures and much more in regard of the great Indisposedness of their Hearts to the Obedience of Scriptures need such constant Displays by Applicatory Interpretation and a distinct Office to attend continually on this very Thing And yet the main Concernment of such Interpretation lies in what is so plain that when opened and applied it is impossible to be doubted of as Scriptures Sense 2. Such Interpretation as may be Private in regard of its Derivation of any Doctrine from such or such a particular Place of Scripture yet keeping it self to the Analogy of Scripture in the plain and undoubted Sense in other Places does still maintain the free and Publick Course of the Waters of Life 3. Interpretation of Scripture thus guiding it self according to the evident Sense of Scripture in its clearest Parts and taking that as a Clew into the more abstruse Parts of Scripture necessarily encounters much Sound and excellent Truth nearly allied to Publick and Divine in all Knowledge Natural Historical Chronological Moral Political pertaining to Language and Eloquence which makes the World more lightsom and less subject to the Tyranny of the Prince of Darkness How great a Light of all Learning hath broken out from the very Endeavours of Interpreting Scripture to the Glory of the Father of Lights the high Honour and venerable Estimation of Scripture the much Ascertaining True Publick Religion and the Universal Good 4. Many great Truths and undoubtedly Divine in themselves that being more at a distance from those that are necessary to Salvation it hath not pleased the Publick Wisdom of the World to give such Assurance of them as that they should be imposed upon the Belief of all that acknowledge the Sacred Authority of Scriptures and yet may present very large Satisfactions to the Minds of those who are assisted by the Holy Spirit into the great Scripture-Reason in such Points though but particularly for themselves They may then taste the Graciousness of God and the Gratefulness of Truth in them without imposing on any others who cannot see by their Light 5. Yea even in things controverted between Holy Wise and Good Men in Interpreting Scripture each part of the Controversie when both cannot be reconciled in their Sense yet supports and makes stronger to their Faith some grand evident Principles of Divine and Publick Truth in which both Sides meet and are firmly united and to which each reconcile their own Opinions wherein they seem to differ from such Principles or from one another and leave a Middle in which they may meet one another and wherein Persons unconcern'd in their Controversies rest Upon which Agitations yet follow great Illustrations and Confirmations of such Grand Principles and Enlargements of Knowledge by the very Traverses of Dispute among Men sincerely affected to Truth and who search into it without the Love of Contention without Bitterness and Animosity but humbly modestly and with largeness of Mind towards those that dissent from them 6. God the Friend of Universal Knowledge allows the Souls gratification of it self with probable Sentiments restrained within due Bounds that may grow from Scripture-Interpretation 7. And lastly Pardons the Infirmities adhering to Humane Transactions in this most necessary Duty of Searching the Scriptures and over-rules such Miscarriages yea and even the more malevolent Distempers of Men herein some way or other to Good and makes them oftentimes Servants to some great Points of Truth Quest All this that hath been described I confess agrees with so Publick and Catholick a Record as Scripture is A Record wherein every one that comes to it may search his own Interest and Concern in it and improve it to the utmost A Record that offers and exposes it self to be understood and closely inquired into by all But how is it secured from a multitude of Private Interpretations when so many Interpretations acknowledgedly Private continually pass upon it Answ Herein it is secure 1. That Scripture is not of any Interpretation but it s own native Sense It is not under the Power of any other It stands free and clear far above all Interpretation of Men to be considered by any one in it self and not under such Interpretation Such Interpretation does not become Scripture nor bind any one under the Curse fixed on those that add to Scripture or take from it These Interpretations may be added to or taken from according as Men see Reasons of Scripture preponderating one way or other This is the Freedom of Scripture to suffer all due approaches to its Sense This is its most severe Constancy to refuse all but it s own true Sense 2. As Scripture is not of any Interpretation but it s own Native Sense so its Sense is of no other Evidence but of Spiritual Divine and truly Rational Evidence so that if any Man does not bring such proofs of Scripture Sense as agree with Scriptures way of Evidencing it self and Scriptures way is not that of Private Authority
or Humane Imposition but of Divine Authority and Presence his Interpretation however true yet does not bind as it is his Interpretation or upon any other Recommendation but Scriptures proper ways of recommending it self I speak as to Wise Men judge ye what I say Quest What then is that Private Interpretation the Apostle remonstrates against Answ All Interpretation that brings no Credentials from evident Scripture-sense nor from Heaven of immediate Inspiration much more if False or Mean and impossible to be so derived and yet would impale and inclose Scripture within it self and impose it self upon the Consciences and Judgments of others and so bring them under Bondage That which forbids Men to Interpret for themselves though with utmost Industry and all the Assistance they can use and the Implorings of Divine Assistance That which gives out Private Oracles at pleasure and too often most False ones as if they were Scripture and for its own Private sake would lock Scripture from the possibility of being Interpreted even by it self sequestring it into an unknown Tongue from great Multitudes of all Nations professing Jesus Christ This is indeed Private Interpretation and adding to Scripture making another Scripture which yet is not another And thus are all lower Degrees of this Tyranny to be estimated according to their several Graduations in it imposing upon Men as from some Scriptural Authority what is not of the True Excellency Spirit and High Descent of Scripture nor manifested in Mens Consciences as Scripture manifests it self Quest Is it not then necessary in regard of the Confusion arising from the variousness and incertainty of every Man Interpreting for himself and without certain Divine Evidence that there should be some Infallible Publick Interpreter so Divinely assisted as you describe And is it not reasonable to believe there is such a one seeing we cannot suppose God is wanting to his Church in such a Necessary Answ 1. Scripture it self is such an Infallible Interpreter it being in all things necessary to Salvation both clear and certain to all but the self condemned Heretick or Ignorant 2. When there comes such an Infallible Interpreter bearing the Seal of such Credentials as the Scripture does we will receive him Till such an Interpreter so arm'd comes to us we are never the better for his Pretence to Infallibility But all that receive him are destroyed by him when he brings Falshood for Truth under so great a Title so that he becomes more an Apollyon or Destroyer of the Church than an open Enemy can be Quest Must we not then necessarily suppose great Tracts of Scripture lying like unknown Land for want of Publick Interpretation Answ That there may be so cannot be denied in Controverted or Prophetick Parts of Scripture Yet that God hath been pleased to communicate much useful Knowledge relating to them is most evident and most thankfully to be acknowledged to his Goodness and Bounty Quest What Expectation is there of a Full and Certain Publick Interpretation of all such Scriptures Answ It is not for us to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But most probably at the time of fulfilling the great Prophesies of the New Testament there shall be such extraordinary Effusions of the Divine Spirit as shall expedite all Doubt and make every thing clear the Knowledge of which is not reserved for Heaven to adorn the Absolute State of Persection there Quest Seeing by all that hath been said it appears how incongruous Private Interpretation is to Publick Scripture or that the Will of Man should be trusted with the one and not with the other What Account therefore can be given of Translations May not they bring in a Private Interpretation upon Scripture if not performed by an immediate Divine Assistance Answ Even as in the safe Conveyance of Scripture it self and preserving it pure from gross Falsifications so in Translations we must leave God to be the Governour of the World and of his Church He hath been pleased to order the Conveyance of Scriptures into so many Languages by raising up many to travel in the Knowledge of all Tongues and the Keys of them as in the Originals to find out their Meaning and to transfuse them into all other Languages and that by so many of several Ages and Nations as makes all Combination to deceive impossible and Universal Deception next to impossible upon the Translators themselves These things are under his supreme Care It is enough to us there is brought to our Knowledge such an excellent Doctrine rising out of so many Divine Sayings and Discourses that are as so many Stars in the Firmament of Truth clear as the Luminaries of that name in the Heavens Why should we then be more than modestly and humbly concerned to know all the Ages they have pass'd through before they came to us or all the Secrets concerning their Motion and Appearance that he onely knows that calls the Stars by their Names It is enough they evidently and undeniably declare God to us and assure us by their Light by their regular Motion according to the Laws of Truth and Goodness that they are Stars the Greater and the Lesser differing one from another in Glory yet all Stars and of a truly Divine Lustre Certain and not Wandring Quest Let us now hear the Conclusion of this whole Matter Answ It rests in these two things 1. That the Evidences of the Divine Presence in the Scriptures and all the principal Branches thereof are as clear and certain and do satiate the Soul and its Faculties inlightned by the general Influences of the Divine Spirit much more by its sanctifying Efficacy even as the clearest Notions we have of Things do and much above them And that these Evidences are the same in the Original Scriptures and in the Translations for that they are indeed All Original and not capable of any Translation but make even Translation an Original 2. That as Scripture is such a Contexture and makes up such a Book God the supreme Governour of the Church and of the World in general hath always and does always take care of its preservation from such Corruptions as would injure those Evidences of Divine Inspiration he hath ingraven upon it not only upon the Substance but upon the very Contexture and the very same care he hath taken for the Conveyance of it by agreeable Translations to the several Nations in their own Tongue to whom he hath vouchsafed the Scriptures themselves or the Doctrine of them Quest Hath God wrought miraculously to these Ends Answ That need not be asserted but he hath by the ordinary Interposals of Providence watchful in every thing over its own Ends brought all to pass he in Wisdom thought necessary Quest What Visible Means hath Providence used for the securing Scriptures against foul Corruptions Answ Continual and various Copyings of the Original even in the Days of the Writers in the very time of the Inspection and
it 1. That it is the House of the Living God 2. That it is the Pillar of Truth 3. That it is the Ground of Truth Quest Before the Explanation of each of these Titles in the first place I desire it may be determined whether these things are spoken of the Catholick or of a Particular Church the Particular Church of Ephesus Answ Although I have already affirmed That the Catholick Church differs from a Particular True Church only in the Compass and Comprehensiveness of it yet I very willingly represent it over again in this Instance These things are truly applied to the Catholick Church to the Particular Church of Ephesus to every Particular Church nay it reaches down to every single living Member of the Church so far that God makes his abode with him dwells in him he is a Pillar in the House of God the Truth rests and dwells in him and shall be with him for ever so that he is a Ground of Truth and hath more of the Church in him than greater seeming Portions of it that erre from the Truth Quest If you please now to proceed in the Explanation of these Titles and first What is the Importance of the Churches being the House of God for the actuating the Scripture Answ God the most High Possessour and Owner of Heaven and Earth places his Court Family and particular Residence where he pleases and he hath chosen the Church to be this to him This is my Rest here will I dwell for ever for I have desired it Heaven is my Throne Earth is my Footstool where is the House you will build me To this Man will I look that trembles at my Word And where God dwells there he manifests himself As a Master of a Family makes known in his House and Family his Nature Will Laws and Government so God does in his Church In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel In his Church he shews the Light of his Countenance expects and rewards Services as a Great Master and makes known his Dislikes and Displeasure This is brought to pass in the Church by those many Ways that God hath of bringing his Word to any Places or Persons giving it Reception among them and then stirring up his Children and Servants to hear his Voice to search his Mind and Will and to understand it so that it is as a Voice continually behind them In his Temple therefore in his House every one must needs speak of his Glory His Word cannot lie still for all are concerned to meditate ponder inquire and discourse of it and are by Supreme Management excited so to do and so much as this Exercise in his Word is by any means depressed so far God is withdrawn and the Excellency of the Church-state lost Now of the Church being the House of God there was this great Type God dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem as in a Palace there was such a Diet of Shew-bread changed every day of Sacrifices of all sorts such Perfumes of Incense and Odours such Officers and Servants attending continually such Resorts of the whole Body of the People to the Court of this Great King and Princely Housholder Together with this State runs along in a mighty Stream Gods shewing his Word to Jacob his Statutes and Judgments to Israel In the New Testament the Pomp and Ceremonial Part is wholly transferred into Spirituality but Spirituality is not lower but higher in the Substance of all that could be figured by these things and the substantial part of that State the Communication of the Word of God is much exalted in the true Christian Church that the Light of One Day is now as much as the Light of Seven was before Thus the Church as the Family of God cannot but actuate his Word Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Pillar of Truth Does the Church support Truth Answ Not so for it self is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Quest How then is it said to be the Pillar of Truth And of what Importance is that to the Actuating Scripture Answ As the Laws and Ordinances of Courts and Governments are publickly fixed that every one may know and take notice of them so the Church in all its Members but especially by Deputed Ministers giving themselves wholly to it proclaims preaches and makes offer of the most Publick Notice of the Word of Truth within it self that all the Children and Servants of the Family may be continually catechiz'd and built up therein and Strangers have opportunity to know if they would apply themselves to it Thus it is a Famous City set on an Hill that cannot be hid and therefore its Laws Constitutions Manners cannot but in all reason be inquired of by all that do so much as pass by it It is a Candlestick bearing the lofty Torch of Divine Truth Of this the Pillars of the Temple at Jerusalem and the affixing to them the Rolls of Divine Revelation was an eminent Type and alluded to by the Apostle As therefore from a Prince come forth Edicts Proclamations Manifesto's and Declarations according to Laws which are fastned to Publick Pillars of the Court it self and all open and conspicuous Places of Concourse so are there in the Church the most advantagious Publications of the Divine Truth and Word to all both the Natives and Free-born of the Church it self and Ingenuous Strangers that would hearken out the most Reasonable Proposals of Truth or whom God is pleased to Naturalize to himself Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Ground of Truth And how does this actuate Scripture Answ It means nothing but the Perpetuity and Continuation of Truth with the Church establishing it self by all that Firmness of Divine Evidence and Reason and on those very Securities taking Possession of the Church as the Ark of its Strength where it self or the God that is Truth it self places the Soles of his Feet as on his unmovable Footstool for ever Of which the Ark in the Holiest was a Type the Footstool of the Throne of Mercy the secure Repository of the Tables of the Covenant the Ark of Testimony over which the Shecinah or Glory appeared as inthron'd attended with Cherubims and setting its Feet upon it the place of my Throne and the place of the Soles of my Feet Ezek. 43. 7. For thus the True Church against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail is the unchangeable Rest of Truth It adheres to Truth it buys the Truth and never sells it Truth dwells with it for ever God never suffers it to apostatize from Truth but by the constant holding of the Judgment and retaining the Love and Zeal of the Affections of those that are indeed his Church he hath setled his Word in his Church on Earth even as it is for ever settled in Heaven The Church therefore actuates Scripture by finding out Reasons debating enforcing defending by
Answ They are all hereby Established for they are the Ordination of God to this very purpose to make Men see to bring them Light to clear things to them that by the awakening their Judgments the summoning and collecting their Principles they may see with their own Eyes the ways of God and Religion the Holy Spirit graciously adjoyning it self to their Ministry They have no Dominion over their Faith but are helpers of their Joy that is they facilitate and make pleasant the knowledge and assurances of Religion and they Rule by Exhorting Admonishing Rebuking Comforting and even Commanding in the Evidences of Divine Authority on Account of which they are to be obey'd and highly esteemed for their Works sake Notwithstanding all this no Man is excluded from his own Office to himself for every particular Christian is in some Sense a Congregation and Preacher to himself as Solomon his Conscience hath the Keys binds and looses within it self nay Christians are not excluded from Rule in the Church when they have the Word of God on their side they may plead and reason with their Mother Hos 2. 2. When they have more understanding than their Teachers or the Rulers Rule not according to the Word of God they that speak according to the Law and the Testimony even Rule their Rulers and prove the more noble Organs of the Church when those that should Rule it are as the Idols Eyes that see not Ears that hear not or as the Idol Shepherd a Blâ—st is upon their Right hand and Right-eye that their Arm is clean dried up and their Eye utterly darkened the most naked unfurnished Christian with outward Accomplishments that yet knows the Word of God is among the Prophets in such a time of necesity CAP. XII Of Schism and Scandal Quest FRom the precedent Discourse of the Church I conceive the truest Notion of Schism may be deduced I desire you therefore to Explain what the true Nâ—ture of Schism is Answ The Question concerning the Nature of Schism follows very pertinently upon the right settlement of the Nature of the Church now the whole Being of the Church consisting in its Union to God and Christ in Love according to the Truth of his Word and that it receives all its Members into Union with it self by their being first united as it self is Schism which is Division must needs in its strictest and most formal Notion be a Division from that Truth wherein the whole Church is one and so from the Love consequent upon such an Union Quest What is that Truth of the Word of God in which the Church is One Answ The Truth of the Doctrine of God or the Unity of the Faith of the Son of God in things to be believed and the Truth of his Law and Commands in things to be done Quest How is the Love of the Church Vnited in these Answ It is a Love in the Truth and hereby we know we Love the Brethren when we Love God and keep his Commandments John Epist 2. No Love how great soever is Christian-love nor Union how close soever Christian-union if it be not in the Truth and Commandments of God From whence it necessarily follows the Schism that is a Schism from the Church must be a Disunion from the Faith of the Scriptures and the Love springing from that Faith and there is no danger of any other Schism from the Church as it is a Church Quest How does Schism differ from Heresie Answ Heresie in the highest Sense and worst Sense of it is a Disunion from Truth in some Fundamental and Grand Concernment of Religion either in the Doctrine or Commands of God so that a Man is subverted and sinneth and must needs be Condemned of a Separation from the Assembly of Truth both by himself and the Thing it self and that both as to Faith and Christian-love he is so separated Schism is a Disunion in some less momentous parts of this Truth under an apprehension of a greater moment than there is indeed in the Causes of such a Disunion and a proportionable abatement of Christian Love arising from it All Heresie therefore includes Schism but all Schism does not rise up to Heresie Quest Are these the Scripture Notions of Schism and Heresie according to its use of those Words Answ They are most agreeable with the Sense of it but the words were not so set solemn and formal in Scripture as afterwards in Ecclesiastick Writers for Dichostasyes or Division into two or more Parties and Contentions are by the Apostle used to the same Sense as Schism and Heresie sâ—metimes signifies no more than a Sect or Division though that is remarkably used in its worst Sense by both the Apostles Paul and Peter Quest Is every different Apprehension and Practice ensuing upon it though distant from Truth immediately to be Condemned of Schism Answ By no means if it be a Modest and Humble Distrust and Suspension concerning the Truth and Command of God in some things of smaller moment and doubtful yea though it comes to a positive Determination so far as a Man's judgment and yet erroneous can at the present discern it cannot be branded as Schism if there be no stress laid upon the Thing beyond its desert if the Union in the greatest and clearest Truths and Commands remains firm and the Love due to such an Union with the Church of God be sincere and fervent yea even Dissent in greater points thus qualified and free from ill practice hath not been rigidly censur'd for Heresie Quest Is there no danger then of running into Schism if there be an Vnion with Truth Answ In this Sense only when the weakness or misapprehension of others are rated against them beyond their Merit and without regard to the greater Truths they agree in and the Love due to them upon Union in those greater Truths is withdrawn or the Spirit of meekness in endeavouring to restore the Erring Christian denied This may be justly esteem'd like Schism as it recedes from the just value of Great Truths and from the Charity of Christians upon Union in them but no Man is to espouse any Mans Erroâ—s or to receive even Truth by an implicit Faith for fear of Schism in things that carry not a broad Evidence of Divine Truth there is great scope for Modest Suspensions and even Dissents without Imputation of Schism for Truths of magnitude either in Doctrine Worship Practice or Diâ—cipline are too bright to be refused by sincere and honest Minds after due admonition Quest Wherein lies then the great Evil of Schism Answ That Schism and the Evil of it may better be understood I will set before you the several Instances of Schism in Scripture and the Evils noted by the Apostle in each of them 1. The first sort of Schism is the Disunion in the sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and bringing in upon it the necessity of the Judaique Rites to concur with it This the Apostle to the Romans Rom.
A. Catholick Catechism SHEWING THE IMPOSSIBILITY THE CATHOLICK RELIGION Should be varied to the Degree of a Thought from the Measures left Sealed by the Apostles WITHOUT THE LOSS of TRUTH And therefore The Impossibility POPERY or whatever else is not found in Scripture should be CATHOLICK Composed to the Capacity of the Meanest that will but Consider that they may know and be ready upon unmovable Reasons to give an Apologie or Defensive Answer for the Catholick Religion if they are indeed of it and be secured from Temptation in Times of Danger 2 Pet. 1. 12. The Present Truth Prov. 22. 21. That I might make thee know the Certainty of the Words of Truth that thou mightest answer the Words of Truth to them that send unto thee LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will. Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Call this A Catechism because I design it a Familiar Instruction in Fundamental Truths Resounding the same Thing from Question to Answer the easiest way of Conveying Truth and Imprinting it upon the Minds of those that are even of the meanest Capacity But especially because the Principles of it are to be daily so Meditated upon Pondered and Applyed to use as to be a perpetual sound in our Ears and so to be properly stiled Catechism For Things of such great weight as Principles are must have as the most Advantageous Admâ—ssion as the most Deep and therefore Leisurely Insinuation as the most Resolved Adherence when found True and Right which is Buying the Truth and not Selling it so they must have the most Easy and Ready Application to all their Uses and Ends They must therefore be bound continually about our Neck that when we go they may lead us that when we sâ—eep they may keep us that when we wake they may talk with us Prov. 6. 21 22. I know the Things I have written cannot be duely received without much Thinking and without that they will be in danger of a Censorious rejection from the most or of a superficial unintelligent Acceptance in the Kinder which is as bad as the other and therefore I present it as a Catechism to those that shall at all approve it that they may be throughly versed in it and the Sense of it grow Domestick to them I call it a Catholick Catechism only with Relation to the Great Subjects it Treats of the Catholick Religion and the Catholick Church in those things wherein they are Catholick or in which their Catholickness consist That is that they are of God and that the whole Society of Holy and Happy Spirits is by that Catholickness united and closely banded with it self Catholick as the Epistles called Catholick that is after some Doubt Asserted to be Divine of the Publick Spirit of God and giving that Publick Doctrine in which the General Assembly is one I have endeavoured to contrive the Questions and Answers so that the Answers may be an Apology or Defensive Answer of that Catholick Truth giving a Reason or a Rational Account to any Demand that can be made upon it And it is the Apology of that Truth it self the Apology it gives and furnishes us with for other can no Man give Truth can need no other than its Native Apology for it self no other will it accept To give this and to be always ready to give it to keep it within us and to have it fitted to our Lips is the proper Fruit of such a Catechetical Instruction and the Apostle assures us it is the great Duty of Christianity and the greatest Honour we can do to God First to Sanctifie him in our Hearts by a full acknowledgment of him in his Divine Truth by a Plerophory or full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ For a Devotion to the True God without knowing him to be the True God cannot thus Sanctifie or Honour him There is nothing we should be more Rational in than in the True Religion the Account of which and of its whole Content ought to be so certain to us that nothing of a Diverse Spirit from it can be added to it nor any thing of its Integral or Essential Nature taken from it but we may plainly see it would change the Account and so we need not make a Traverse over all Falsehood to know Truth but by having a Right understanding in and Just Contemplation of Truth the most even thing in the whole World we come to know it self by it self and to be assured of it although there were no other False Religion in the World to compare it with and set it off by and withal to descry every false way offered to us and to hate it Yea we observe every thing that is but doubtfully Proposed and stay it its due time of Examination and so either accept or reject it or if we see full reason for neither still suspend It is not the Laws of our Country our Church our being Baptiz'd or Educated in it that will justifie our Religion to be the True It is not the High Reverence of it the Devotion we use in it our hating of those that speak Blasphemously of it will make good our Religion what Religion in the World may not be justified upon such Topicks It is not that we find many great Principles of Truth in a Religion that will justifie it There is no Religion that can be called Religion that does not espouse many True Principles And in Christian Religion Antichristianism vies with Christianity it self upon the Fundamental Creeds which it self Confesses with True Christianity but hath Built upon them New Creeds of its own and so Corrupted all For what is so pure and perfect as True Religion is must needs be Corrupted by any Addition All that is Pure and True is already its own who then can add to it and not be found a Lyar Nothing therefore as I have already intimated can be our security for True Religion but the Just Divine Measure the Common Faith the True Catholick Standard which in all things necessary to the main End is most evident and in entertaining nothing that is not so evident till it becomes so upon this Great Test this is our Security For it is very plain there is less danger when our Understandings are not yet extended to the breadth of Divine Truth if none of the Vital Principles are unknown to us unsensed by us which are so exceedingly plain that we cannot be except willfully ignorant of them for no Injury is done to Truth that we do not understand its whole Compass nor to our selves if we do not hate knowledge offering it self to our notices but in adding to Truth seeing we can have nothing to add but what is of no worth we must needs defile it in having only Truth though we have not all Truth we yet are under the Influence of Truth only
concerned has a ready and open way to Examine and in all Cases to be resolved Quest Have all Nations since the Days of the Blessed Seed been Communicated with these Revelations Answ There hath been a Freedom given to Communicate them and a Right in all Nations to demand the benefit of them granted by God and Christ to them but there are many sad Accounts to be given why this Universal Grace to Mankind has not yet taken Effect 1. The unaccountableness of the Methods of Gods Government of the World in the Efficacies of his distinguishing Goodness even when things seem equally disposed to the advantage of one as of another 2. The Experiment made upon so great a part of Mankind that have the Gospel justifies God in not effectually conveying it to others who would make as ill an use of it The Idolatry Superstition of some the sottish Ignorance Sloath and neglect of others The Cruelty and Barbarity exercised by Christians upon one another and the unanswerable living to it in all Sects make plain the great perverseness of our degenerate Nature and how Nations that have not the Gospel would have abused it if they had had it 3. But especially the great Enmity to and Contempt of the Heavenly Doctrine great Nations are inviron'd with against the approaches of it so far as it has come within their notice as among Jews Turks and Pagans are a very obvious Reason why they receive not the benefit of the Gospels free promulgation Quest What then is the immediate Reason why so many Nations that have the Light of Nature to guide them and the Jews that have the Scriptures of the Old Testament have been the one great Enemies to all Scripture Revelations and the other to the new Testament Answ Because Nations that have the light of Nature stay not themselves upon that which is clear and evidently Divine and Publick in Natures Law but either by unnatural Collections and miserable wrestings of its Principles or flying to false and dark Revelations fortifie themselves in falshood or misapplyed Truth As to the Jews it is very plain they were bemisted with the private Interpretation they had affixed to the Old Testament so that they could not see the clear easie and certain Trains of the same Publick and Divine running betwixt the Old and the New but the Rudiments in the Old being more kind to the Cabal or Cypher of their self-interested Sense they venerated them and hated the Perfection and Life in the New that would not at all bear their privy Gloss although both Scriptures had the same Credentials from Heaven and carried the same Publick Sense So great is the Delusion of Private Quest But how comes it to pass that even among those that enjoy the Light of the Gospel the Scriptures and profess the same Christianity nay the most Refined and Reformed Christianity there are so great Differences and Divisions Answ All proceeds from the same unhappy Spring Men cannot endure to rest in the Clear and Certain Oracles of Truth but by forc'd Additions Misinterpretations violent Detorsions forsake that which is Publick and Divine for that which is Private and their own and are greatly offended and too often enraged that others do not concur with them Quest It seems then the best Method of keeping off from Errour is to rest upon the most undoubted Points of Truth before we remove from them to any thing further Answ It is undoubtedly so Religion in all the Branches of it having suffered much more by forreign and disagreeable Additions than by wary Suspensions For hereby a Man keeps himself from False Religion and stands ready and open to receive Truth Quest But how then should a Man make forward from Natural Religion to Revealed or from what he does not understand to what he may in time come to see very good Proof for Answ By staying the due time upon the Uncontrovertible Doctrines and Commands of Natures Laws yielding full Obedience to God in them trembling to add any thing of baser Alloy to them A Man shall see Revealed Truth shining out upon Natural and joyning it self to it and with it Thus many of the Fathers came over to Christianity And so in all parts of Scripture by rising from the most Fundamental Truths lov'd and obey'd a Man shall ascend by due degrees to those more remote Thus Good Men in the Old Testament waited for the Kingdom of God and upon just Considerations moved upon the Line of Truth from the State of Religion in the Old Testament to that of the New except sometimes a Light shines suddenly round about Men as in extraordinary Conversions Quest You seem then to think False Religion and All Divisions in the True have most nearly sprung up from over-confidence of Things not of the Evidence of Publick and Divine Truth Answ I do so indeed although I know Mens not liking to retain Truth but being bewitched by false Imagination betrays them both to the Plague of Lost and Fallen Spirits warring under the Prince of our disordered Air the Ruler of the Darkness of this World and to the various Arts of Men who corrupt Religion for the Ends they have to serve themselves of by it I know Mens Faculties of Search Inquiry into and Comprehension of Truth are much shrivell'd and shrunk up I know Endless Doubts and Incertainties are brought upon Religion by Darkness and false Appearances to Souls that are so full of all the Reasons and Causes of Delusion within themselves and deserted by the just Judgment of God giving them over to believe a Lie I acknowledge all these Causes of Errour Yet I am assured the close Adherence to God in Truths evidently Divine and not removing farther into a Religious Esteem of Things till upon the same Evidence is the Means under the Conduct of the Holy Spirit to be secure from dangerous Errour or Schism from the true Publick And whatever is not so evidently Publick and Divine is liable to Private Interpretation and so to Errour And when Men are overweening upon Private Interpretation they easily fall into Errour and when they are surly and masterly upon it it moves Wrath Emulation Strife so that both Falshoood and Cruelty have entered in at this Door and rang'd over the World Quest But ought we to stupifie all Inquiry and benumb Judgment in every thing not evidently Divine Answ Not so but to behave our selves humbly and modestly to acknowledge there are vast Tracts of Truth and Knowledge beyond what we know but we must feel the Evidence of them before we can receive them yet to carry our selves with due concession to every Mans Sense that though their Sense cannot nor ought to master us no more ought we to expect ours should them which would exceedingly reconcile or abate Differences and retrench the mischievous Effects the World hath so long groan'd under by so many Religions of Nations Names of Churches and Persons propagating their Private that is not Divine
Sense and that with Clamour and too often with rude Force Quest What are the Instances of the Mischief of making Defection from this Publick Catholik Divine Truth for Private Sense Answ The Angels Fall from Heaven was certainly upon Private Sense and Interest Adam's from Innocency and Paradise upon the same the Jews Fall from being the Church and People of God was upon the Idiotism of having Religion for their own All Idolatry and Superstitions of Heathens have risen from hence All the Heresies in the Church have come from an over love to Private Opinion This is the most damnable Antichristianism of Rome to make its Private Catholick All Persecutions of Heathens Romes Inquisition and Massacres have been inflam'd in this Furnace the love of making Private Publick And in lesser and more unfundamental Points Private Interpretation enforc'd as if it were Publick hath discompos'd the Peace of the Purest and best reformed Churches and not only disturb'd their Peace but stain'd their Purity Quest I seem to my self in all this unhappy Babelism or Confusion of Religion to be very apprehensive for the Glory of God and Religion Answ It is most necessary to be zealous for Divine Glory and for the Honour of Religion that Rivers of Tears should run down our Eyes because of the Injuries done by Men to the Divine Law But yet to be so concern'd as to be scandalised is to forget that God is infinitely more the Publick than we are and therefore to be offended at his Disposes is to make our Private the Publick We must then consider that if God does not miraculously interpose it must needs be so it is no other than the Necessity of the Case Men moving with so great Disadvantages as the Active Soul of Man does in so great a Concern as Religion is in our highest Interest and as thereupon Men will make use of it in the present World it must needs be so There must be Heresies in Religion But that this Mormo or dreadful Apparition may vanish we must remember 1. That to the Soul humble and fearing God all that is of Grand Interest in Faith Worship and Practice is so Publick and evidently Divine that no Man need be ever learning and never come to the Knowledge of the Truth After this God hath given this Employment to those that through Office or Desire set themselves to seek and intermeddle with all Knowledge to travel with advantage to themselves and others in their Inquiries into the whole Compass of Divine Knowledge whatever Difficulty can be supposed to be in things of higher Advance to Salvation is resolv'd to them that do the Will of God as a Reward of their Obedience They shall know the Doctrines that are of God that rise higher towards Heaven than others The due and diligent Search after Wisdom is a Test upon the truly Sincere and well-resolv'd in Religion that have in them another Spirit as Caleb to follow God fully and do not as the Israelites bring up an ill Report on this good Land as if the Difficulties were unconquerable and the Entertainment Hungry and Barren through the many Disputes and Differences in Religion Hereby lastly the Conduct of the Free Spirit is seen leading into all Truth and the Unction of the Holy One by which the True Christian knows all things necessary to him to be known appears most desirable and necessary Thus the Wise and Holy Government of God who brings Light out of these Clouds and Darkness is made manifest and it is to be ascribed to the Infinite Perfection of Light with the Father of Lights who is without any variation or shadow of turning Quest What Rule is then to be observed in the great Diversities of Men in Religion that may most abound to the Honour of Catholick Religion Answ To own and embrace any thing we find in any Man or Society of Men that is truly Catholick if it be but according to the Light of Natural Religion to joyn with them in the Performance of any of such Services so far as they will admit it and keep to the Simplicity and Sincerity of them according to the Instances before-named of Jonah and St. Paul And much more should we do this when True Revealed Religion is joyned with Natural if nothing be requir'd of us that corrupts and defiles it No Man's Errour in which we are not forced to communicate should drive us from Truth or any part of it And upon these Foundations we should endeavour to win further and further upon all to bring them home to God wherein they wander We should make Allowances to every Man differing in smaller things receiving him without conditioning him to subscribe to us in things of Doubtful that is Private Disputation If any one erre from the Truth and one convert him by Evidences of that Truth let him know that he that converts a Sinner from the errour of his way shall save a Soul from Death and hide a Multitude of Sins But if we cannot be admitted to such Communions with those that are so enslav'd to False or would bring us under the power of Private or will have nothing to do with us nor admit us to them we must not yet desert our Catholick Respect to all that is True and Good among them but acknowledging what is so value and praise it desire the Divine Acceptance for them in any Good thing so as to bring them out of the Errours they have adjoyned to it and as you have opportunity reason them out of the one by the Evidence of the other CAP. V. Of the Publick or Divine Original of Sacred Writing or Scripture Quest SEeing Scripture is the only Publick Record of True Pure Natural Religion and more eminently of Revealed it is most necessary to be fully informed in all Points concerning it And first What Care God hath been pleased to take that his Word and purely that should be committed to Writing Answ God held the Hands and Pens of Holy Men by an efficacious overshadowing their Minds and conducting all their Motions that they could not erre In some things he so fully possessed their Understandings and Affections with a full Knowledge and Sense of what they were to reveal that they could not so much as muse any thing Strange or Diverse from what they were so carried and born by the Divine Spirit in even as Elijah in his Body In other things wherein they could not look round about them nor fully comprehend what the Spirit in them did signifie though they convey'd it to After-times yet they were by Almighty Impressions upon all their Faculties necessary to that Service held in stronger than Adamantine Confinements that they could not extravagate from Divine Truths Even Balaam thus overpower'd against his will could not go beyond the Word of the Lord to speak either Good or Evil upon the greatest Reward much less Holy Men whose Wills were perfectly resigned to the Divine Will Quest But was not there a
Revealed Religion in the World is Scripture Quest Is Ratiocination then or the Just Compass Reason goes to be neglected concerning Scriptures Answ By no means For when these Self-evidences of every thing have struck us earlier than our Scrutinies of Reason and its Inquest can be performed about them that they may neither appear Fancies to us on our second Thoughts nor we run into Mistake concerning them by the Power of Imagination there is then liberty for Reason to inquire further and assure it self Nor will the Evidence hereupon amount to less than Divine For Divine only can satisfie the Reason that rationally and like it self inquires into Divine Quest What then are the great Assurances to Reason of the Divinity of Scripture Answ I account this the Chief That there are Two great Volumes the Book of the Natural Law of Religion written upon the Heart and engraven in the Conscience and the Book of Scripture That both these are addressed purely to the Mind as abstracted from Sense That each of them is Counterparted by Two great Manifestations of Divinity to Sense which Sense is Reason incarnate or Mind acting in and by Body These two are either Ordinary or Constant as Creation Conservation or Providence or Extraordinary as Miracles That each of them have also two Executive Powers acting them to their Ends The Motions and Activities of Reason inabled by the constant Concourse of General Illumination and the Supernatural Illuminations and Motions of the Divine Spirit And that all these agree in one unite with and fortifie one another all of them carrying the Evidences of Divine Presence and filling all the Apprehensiveness of our Faculties concerning God that he is in them so that nothing is Divine in the whole World the contrary of which we may feel or Scripture is Divine Quest But what is to be allowed to Consent of History Vniversal Tradition and Education in the Belief of Scriptures Answ All that can be desired to be allowed for it speaks the Absolute Sovereignty of God in making use of whom and what he pleases in introducing his Word into any Parts of the World and contriving the Testimony of Men as preparatory to the Testimony from himself which is much greater even as our Saviour received the Service of John's Testimony but had much higher or as Reason may receive from Sense some accidental Testimonies Quest But is there not much more to be yielded to the Rational Assurance that such Historians as the Prophets Apostles and Inspired Writers of such Honesty and Integrity would not prevaricate nor give any false Account of Things of the Miracles wrought by themselves or our Saviour of the Doctrines of Christianity or of their Divine Original especially when they seal'd all these with the Contempt of all things in this World even of Life it self and died in the constant Affirmation of them which remov'd all base Designs far from them even the suspicion of it Answ These Proofs of the Doctrine and Divine Descent of Scripture are undoubtedly of the highest Account that any Created Testimony can be and are a down-weight of Proof to all sober Reason Yet that they can rise above the Value of John Baptist's Testimony to Christ I cannot find and therefore we must remove higher to the Doctrines that those Holy Men preach'd and writ the spiritual Wisdom and admirable Contexture they us'd in Writing the Works they did carrying the Evidences of Divinity in themselves and applied by the Holy Spirit to the Senses of true Believers with its own assuring Attestations and gracious Operations of which all that was but created is no more than the Tube Pipe or Channel of Conveyance if we enter it into a compare with what is Higher and Divine But if the last Resolution of Proof were into any thing Humane there might be mistake in that for Humane at its highest elevation is but Created and Created is not firm and sure enough for a Foundation nor can it raise an Assent noble and generous enough for a Faith in that which is Divine All that can be summon'd may be an outward Fortification or Introduction but the Rock of Truth is the Son of God Divinity it self Upon this the Church is built that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Quest But are there no Parts of Scripture that receive greater Service from Humane Testimony than others Answ There are some Parts of Scripture that are but Ministerial and almost Servile in comparison of others And that these are found in all Authentick Copies and have been delivered down from Age to Age with the Sacred Rolls may depend more upon Humane Testimony especially where the Connexion with the more Divine Parts is not evident For these being but as the Body and some of them of the more remote Parts from the Soul of Scripture cannot sparkle that Divine Light and Heat the Spirit of Scripture does and so may stand in need of borrowed Light from the Superiour Luminaries of Sacred Truth and in many Cases may like the Moon need Reflexions of Light from our very Earth but the Sun of Scripture receives the Highest Testimony by the strongest Reflexions of its own Original Beams Quest How comes it to pass that there are such different Degrees of Scripture Excellency in the several Parts of it and that it is not one Even Form of Doctrine methodically laid together and of the same Tenour of Discourse Answ In this seeming Disorder appears the great Wisdom and Majesty of Divine Contrivance that without obliging it self to the low and even pedantick Laws of Humane Discourse it raises so great a Record of Truth upon variety of Occasions and by an Infinite Foresight predetermining to it self the several Measures and Ends of Scripture raises them out of a great variety of Accidents and in such an Order as seem'd best to it self for those Ends so as to give easie and ready Advantages to him that runs to read and gather Instructions of weightiest moment and also of quickest and suddenest sally upon his Mind of greatest aptness to fix upon the Memory without loading it and yet in the mean time to lay the Obligations of all Degrees of Search and Diligence to join one part of Scripture to another so as to comprehend the whole Complex of Divine Doctrine and extract the Order of History For by a most natural free and unaffected occasional way all Truths to make wise to Salvation and a complete Sum of all Goodness is to be found in Scripture with infinite Varieties of Address all the ways possible to the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Imagination suited to all Capacities States Conditions full of plain and obvious of most retir'd secret and farthestreach'd Wisdom which no Mind can fully grasp nor Tongue express And with these Things of main Importance runs along such a Chronology of the Dealings of God with the World and especially with his Church as serves the main Design All Learning and Knowledge
in the mean time attending with lowliest Submission and not with pompous Appearance Now from this Supreme Dispose of all things to the Ends of God in Scripture out of such a variety of Emergencies of all sorts arises such a diversity of several Excellencies in the Parts of Scripture that yet all meet in that Great Center of the Glory of God in a Communication of his Counsels concerning Man and that turn round those Two Globes that little one of the present World a Point like this Earth and the other that vast Circumference of Eternity Quest But is there not as great a difference arising from the various States and Conditions of the Writers of Scripture and the so different Periods of Time they were upon Answ That there is and must needs be a difference is undeniable yet to the great Glory of Scripture and assurance it is from God even those smallest and lowest things last spoken of are all treated with all the Purity Gravity becoming the Penmen of the Holy Spirit and with all the Usefulness their Nature can extend to Even so the Holy Men used by God in this Service how various and differing soever in their several Ages and Times of writing in their Circumstances of State and Condition in this World High Low Rich Poor Learned Unlearned how distant soever in their Times of Writing in the outward Forms and Modes of their Worship of God in the Things that fell under their Account and Relation before the Law under the Law in the Days of the Messiah after his Death yet there is the same Spirit Scope Chastness of Style Majesty and Authority in the Contexture one Aspect upon the Glory of God Obedience to him Desire of his Favour as the whole Happiness of Man the same Reflexions upon the great Evil of Sin and the consequent Misery and even of their own Sins So that where any Combination or Conference to concert things was impossible yet there is such an Union without a set Uniformity as assures the One Hand of the Divine Spirit and Guidance upon All. Quest Is not the Church of God the Trustee and Depository of Sacred Oracles Answ It is so in Divine Ordination and the general Course of Providence but yet it adds nothing to them but receives all from them The Church is known to be the Church by the Scriptures not the Scriptures by the Church except declaratorily only The Church is the Pillar and Rest of Scriptures where God is pleas'd to fix them that they may be exposed to Publick View but their Authority is of God evident in themselves Quest Do we then attribute nothing more to the Church in which we were Baptiz'd and received the Knowledge of Religion Answ A very great Favour it is of God that when he writes up the People he counts that we were born within his True Church where all the Springs of Salvation run but as to the Proof of Religion or the Records of it it can be no more than a Private Proof For till we make a true Judgment by what is Divine and Publick and of God in the true Church it does no more than equal other Societies walking with Confidence and Assurance with great Awes and Devotion in the Name of their God in the Profession of their Religion Till therefore there is a Trial of every Religion and the Records of it all such Societies are upon the same Level When the Religion and Oracles of every Religion come to be tried and duely examined the Church of God rises to Heaven and all else except so far as they joyn in any Parts of the same Truth sink down beneath Quest But how can we know that every Book of Scripture is Scripture but by the Testimony of the Church or that we have all the Books of it but by the same Testimony Answ That the Books we own for Scripture are Scripture and all of them so arises to our Assurance by finding the same Divine Spirit of Truth running through one as does through another For upon this account the True Church received them when first received and so transmitted them making the same Judgment successively in the several Ages as the first did the same Reason always continuing What is besides this is to be attributed to the Discerning of Spirits in all the Times while Scripture was writing by the due Exercise of which True Scripture was received and all other shut out for the Writings of Prophets was subject to Prophets and by them enroll'd into Scriptures That we have the same Scripture justly and faithfully consigned over to us from Age to Age is to be own'd and acknowledg'd to Divine Providence watching over his Church and Oracles together and conveying to us by the ordinary Security of the Churches Testimony the Precious distinguish'd not only from the Vile but from the less Precious also but yet we must have greater Testimony than this as hath been already urged Quest But how could we be assured we have all the Scripture were it not for the Churches Testimony Answ Finding so much Divine and no more of the same stamp in the World we may be concluded that way and abundantly satisfied that God will accept us in our Faith and Obedience to so great a Revelation When any measure of Divine Truth hath been adhered to sincerely the Danger hath always been greater in losing True Religion by corrupt Additions and the injurious Refusals of further Revelation come to pass more through the Prejudices of that Corruption than by humble and modest Suspensions till God hath assured us of his further Revelations But besides this we may easily find we must needs have the whole Globe of Truth and the Horizon of the Gospel gives us the whole Heaven or Kingdom of it as it is administred in this World so that all further Degrees of Light and Discoveries of it shall be but greater Clearnesses of what we already have in the main and Substance For if even the New Testament though it made so great a change did but thus compleat and illustrate Christ yesterday and to day the same how much more may we be assured who have the New it self so much excelling the Old as it every where assures us So that we can expect a Milennium or the New Hierusalem on Earth only for the highest Exaltation of what we now have till we come to Heaven it self Quest Do the various Readings so often bandied by Learned Men make no Abatement from the Certainty of Scripture Answ Those various Readings are such as excite and quicken Search and yet cannot distract the Doctrine being not able to alter the Scope Coherence and Design of the Context much less to change the Analogie of Scripture in other Places While therefore they do not that they take away the suspicion of Conspiracy they preserve from greater Corruptions by turning the Eyes of Men to look every way they shew how many excellent Senses dwell near the Divine Writing
Reason No other but Interpretation and that strictly taken will fit the Apostles Purpose Quest What was the Apostles Purpose Answ To assure the Jewish Christians in the Truth of Christianity out of that more sure Word of Prophesie in the Old Testament Quest Was it not then to the purpose to assure the Divine Original of that Word of Prophesie and to assert its immediate Descent from the Publick Holy Spirit Answ That indeed was necessarily suppos'd and included or rather concluded on all hands but not the close Point in discourse For the Sacredness of the Old Testament being agreed both by Jews and Christians the Apostle commends the giving heed to it as to a Light that shone in a dark place a great Lamp shining when all was dark and deep Night about till the Day of the Gospel dawn'd and Christ the Day-star arose in their Hearts by Faith Quest What was the precise Mark the Apostle was to aim at Answ To vindicate the true way of Interpreting this sure Word of Prophesie Quest Why was this so much to his purpose Answ Because the whole Stream of Interpretation of the Old Testament among the Jews run against Christianity Quest Whence came this Current of False Interpretation Answ Even from whence Interpretation might seem least of all to deserve the name of Private from the Scribes and Pharisees Doctors of the Law Elders of the People who vogued themselves the Publick and so Proprietors of the Sense and Interpretation of the Scriptures but as our Saviour says they had indeed taken away this true Key of Knowledge neither entring in themselves nor suffering those that would Quest How does the Apostle vindicate this Point Answ By a vehement Caution on those to whom he vrit to measure from the Publick and Divine Original of Scripture to the Interpretation as necessarily to be Publick and Divine also You do well saith he to take heed to the Word of Prophesie of the Old Testament as yet more sure to you than the New can be if you do but know and well consider this first and lay it in the Foundation That Scripture cannot be subject to a Private Interpretation whose Original you your selves together with us acknowledge as Publick as the Holy Spirit For can that be subject to the Will and Dispose of Man in the Interpretation that came not by the Will of Man but by the Supreme Motion of the Holy Ghost in the Original Quest Wherein lies the Strength of this Argument Answ In this If the Interpretation of Scripture be not as high as the Original so high an Original is to no purpose For Sense being more Scripture than Words and Interpretation assigning the Sense if That be Private All is Private at the Rebound and not Divine else a Divine Original shall be mismatch'd controll'd and even made servile by and to a Private and often a False and Unworthy Interpretation Quest Into what Vse and Effect did this Argument issue Answ To a silent calling them to compare the Manner and Kind of Interpretation used by the Lord and his Apostles and that other of the Jewish Doctors and then to udge which appeared Divine and from God which not and they would easily give the Preference to our Lord and his Ministers as the only Divine Interpreters Quest How then did our Saviour and the Apostles justifie their Interpretation to be Publick and Divine Answ By one of the two fore-named ways either from the evident Importance of some very express Scriptures of the Old Testament applied in the New as David's calling Christ who was his Son Lord which muzled the very Adversaries or by the immediate Presence of the Divine Spirit discovering what it had treasured and sealed up in such Expressions which Eye could not see nor Heart conceive till in due time the Spirit it self revealed them The Spirit that knows its own Depths the Spirit to whom are known all its own Designs from the first Foundations or Beginning of Scripture to the highest Stone in the Structure or End of it The Top is known to it in the very Bottom the End in the Beginning That therefore which was seen to Men only in the Rudiment or Foundation and seem'd to mean no more appeared at that very time to him in the Complement and he applies it to that Complement as certainly and justly as they did to the first Rudiment or Foundation As Out of Egypt have I called my Son was as truly applied to Christ's coming out of Egypt being then come to its Perfection of Sense as it was applied to Israel coming out of Egypt in the first Rudiment and the Divine Spirit as truly meant the last as the first though none could know its Sense but it self till it self revealed it Quest How could it be proved the Ministers of the New Testament had the true Key of Interpretation committed to them by the Spirit Answ By the concurrence of all things that justified the first Writers of Scripture to be Commissioned by God Great and weighty Truth Holy Heavenly becoming God as the Author such Speech as none beside the Writers of Scripture ever spoke all of a piece with former Scripture Miracles mighty Efficacy upon Consciences the Glory of God the Salvation of Souls the abolishing of Sin the Ends designed in all the removing all lower Forms and Ceremonies for the time being into a most High Spiritual Substantial Religion True Peace of Conscience introduced These with innumerable others concurring in any Interpretation of former Scripture that could not else be found out in its full Meaning do both enlighten former Scripture and enlarge it into further and more Scriptures Quest If then our Lord and his Apostles in Interpreting the Old Testament by the immediate Presence of the Holy Spirit resting without measure on our Saviour and in full measures on the Apostles discover'd that Sense in the Ancient Scriptures which was indeed deposited there but could not be unlock'd by any Created Wisdom it will follow thence That it is an unnecessary Labour of many Worthy Expositors of Scriptures to press too hard in every Quotation of the Old Testament we find in the New for a free and full Confession of all that Sense it there expresses as if it could naturally arise from so many Words and Syllables so put together having power and vertue by themselves to signifie so high since the Holy Spirit had a reach in them which none could grasp or fathom but it self and contriv'd that Sense so into Words as none could summon it but it self and that it rested upon the Lord and his Apostles to bring it to light and reveal it into New and Higher Scriptures and that it appears as undeniably they did so as that the Old Testament it self is Scripture Answ The Industry of such Worthy Persons is not to be blamed to trace the Sense of the New Testament in the Words of the Old as far as it is possible for them to go But if
Ministry of the Prophets and Apostles and downwards from them both by Manuscript and Print which various Copies being compared though they have not to the degree of a Miracle agreed in Minutes have yet concerted the Substance Quest What care hath God been pleased to take with regard to Translations Answ Very eminent where it needed most For some Ages before the coming of the Messiah it came no doubt by Divine Superintendency which hath the Hearts of Kings in his Hands and turns them as the Rivers of Water into the Heart of a Great and Learned Prince of Aegypt to procure the Translation of the Divine Law into the Greek the then most known Language of the World Seventy two Seniors of the Jews as History most generally agrees the Learnedest in their Native Hebrew were employed in it This Translation was generally and publickly received among the Jews was approved by our Lord and his Apostles in several Quotations Hereby there was at once a Preparation of those Scriptures to the most Publick Notice an Assurance of the true Import of the Hebrew Tongue and an authorised Translation And in the same so known Greek Language wherein are reposed such Treasures of all Literature is added that most Sacred Roll of the New Testament And from that time have there been by the great Industry God hath excited Men to several Versions of the Old and New Testament into a great variety of Languages with strict Expository Researches and Criticisms upon all that concerns either the Readings or the Sense of Words and Phrases as well as the Doctrine contained in them by which there might be a freer Propagation of Sacred Knowledge and a Security against such Corruptions and Mistakes as might efface the Divine Image or any of the Lineaments of it in these Records or their Translations however differing as I have said in minuter Things CAP. VIII Of Tradition and Antiquity Quest BY what hath been said Scripture and its Interpretation appear guarded by their own Divineness against all Private and Counterfeit as by Cherubims and a Flaming Sword turning every way But hath there been no Stratagem of the Adversary to undermine Divine Catholick Religion and the Authority of Scripture the Publick Record of Religion with its Publick Interpretation and yet that all these should seem still to rest firm upon their own Base Answ The great Enemy of God and Truth hath been wanting in no Artifice and therefore hath fallen upon that very Method inquired of that what could not be atchieved by denying Scripture by bringing in False Scripture or Private Interpretation monstrous to the Text all such gross Frauds being in some Times and Places exposed and exploded might be more successfully attempted and effected by yoaking Tradition with Scripture a Private Incertain Oracle with a Publick and Certain one and so avowed to be by the Traditionists themselves Quest What is Tradition Answ These four things concur to the making up Tradition 1. That from the Divine Authority of Scriptures and the True Religion of them which as hath been said it acknowledges it borrows not only Countenance but Occasion and more than that a shew of Reason and Necessity for it self 2. That it therefore endeavours to tack and joyn it self to Scripture and the Religion of it as necessary to compleat and fill it up or to provide something more requisite to that Religion that Scripture hath not provided for 3. That it having grown up from no true Root nor risen upon any just Foundation it hath stollen into its Authority and Reverence by being passed from Hand to Hand so long that its Elderliness looks like a Patent for that Authority and Reverence And its Original some Injudicious Devotion at the best not being easie to be trac'd it comes to be supposed or rather superstitiously to be suspected to be Divine and at length like a long told Lie assuming to be Truth it takes upon it self to be Divine and to curse all those that derogate from it 4. That having thus rivetted it self it by degrees like Pharaoh's Lean Kine eats out the generous and rich Sense of Scripture and devours the Authority of it and yet it self remains a jejune and starv'd Superstition Quest Who are the great Masters of Tradition Answ They that have under the True Religion set up some private Diana of Profit Honour or Worldly Advantage and cannot maintain it by that True Religion they eke out therefore with Private Tradition what may support it Quest What Antidote is there against the Mischief of Tradition Answ To cleave with full purpose and resolution of Heart and Soul to the Word of God and to that only to have no Religion nor any thing in Religion but what is enjoyned and recommended by Divine Authority in that Blessed Word of God and this is indeed to be of the truly Catholick Apostolick and Publick Religion Quest But is the Sense that hath now been given of Tradition the best Sense of it in Scripture-use Answ No it is not and the Consideration of a better Sense will much clear to us the Nature of Tradition When therefore our Saviour discoursed of the Commandments of Men delivered down from Hand to Hand subsisting only upon the Private Authority of the Elders not founded on the written Canon of the Old Testament at that time the only Rule of Faith Worship and Practice he always names Tradition in the ill Sense already given But when the Doctrine and Rules of the New Testament in those grand Points were just breathing from the Holy Spirit and not yet fixed in that abiding Canon Tradition is so long accepted in a good Sense The History of the Things done by our Saviour though most surely believed Luc. 1. 1. was first but delivered or tradition'd by Word of Mouth but afterwards written that the certainty of them might be more fully known to those that had been before Catechiz'd in them by Oral Tradition All the Ordinances of the Christian Worship were first Traditions 1 Cor. 11. 2. and the very Rules of Life were in Tradition 2 Thess 3. 6. But yet all these though they were Traditions delivered by those that were Commissioned immediately by the Holy Ghost and were themselves Eye-witnesses and Ear-witnesses of most Things they gave in Tradition were yet not sealed so sure as the more sure Word of Prophesie because they were not yet written by Divine Inspiration though given out by it nor generally received and assured as so written till the due time of Trial by former Scripture had passed upon them The first Christians did therefore well to take heed to that former Scripture till they had the full Day of the Gospel as hath been before spoken If Tradition then was not so sure in the first and truly pure Times of it how much less would it have been sure afterwards if it had continued in Tradition All therefore of Doctrine in the New Testament was first prepared by Tradition laid in and proved by the
Scriptures of the Old Testament either by direct Consequence or by Interpretation from immediate Revelation demonstrated as the First giving of Scripture always was by Miracles and so all at once and once for all consigned over to the Posterity of Christians by Divinely Inspired Writings so assured so confirmed as to leave no place for Tradition of the Best sense There remains therefore nothing for Tradition now but its Ill sense Quest Why might not True Religion continue in Tradition committed all along to Faithful Men even as it did in the Custody of the Apostles and such Faithful Persons as they committed it to Answ Even in the time of the Apostles it was trusted no longer to Tradition than it must needs for the Apostle John the Survivor of them closed the Canon of the New Testament that was drawn apace into Writing all along But at that time there was such a continual immediate Energy or Efficacy of the Holy Spirit that Truth mov'd every way like Lightning and both by its direct and straight forward Motion in Doctrine and its reverse strokes in the Conviction of all Falshood Errour was blasted every way But when this Extraordinary Appearance ceased there was then no safety for Truth but in an unchangeable Written Word that was in such an extraordinary Season of Miracles and immediate Revelation setled and established under so great a Supervisal in the midst of so many Witnesses of all things by their Eyes and Ears and it being once written and always so secured by Divine Providence as hath been represented it always speaks the same Things in the same Words it first did Quest Why might not Divine Truth be committed some more Fundamental Parts to Writing and some according to variety of Occasion to Tradition Answ God to whom all Futurity is present who foresaw all that was necessary to be written before he had done writing cannot be supposed to commit his Will in part to Writing and that upon great Reasons and the same Reasons notwithstanding to leave a considerable part or so much as any one Branch obligatory upon the Conscience to Parol-Tradition For if he that offends in one Point is guilty of all there needs the same Authority and as well assured for one Point of Faith and Obedience as for all the rest 2. It is unconceivable what End Tradition unconsign'd by Scripture can serve that Scripture does not more fully and effectually take care for Publick Religion reserves nothing to be a Cabal for Private Interest within a close Cabinet or Conclave 3. Whatever is supposed to be entrusted to Tradition must either be the very same we have in Scripture and then Tradition is needless and superfluous for we have it in Scripture if we duly exercise our selves in it or it is more than Scripture hath declared and yet supposed to be of equal Authority with Scripture and then it must be a Motionary and Itinerant Word of God But where are the daily and continual Seals and Credentials Divine Tradition had and in a constant fresh Motion with it as it moves for so it had need be in so fluid a Thing as Tradition if it would pretend to be Sacred and so Divinely Inspired Tradition had while it continued in Tradition But what Reason can be given Tradition as we now speak of it was not incorporated into Scripture as was argued before Or that in so long a Course of Time it hath not been enroll'd into Scripture as the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles still was Seeing if it had all things else it cannot but want the Benefit of the Divine Contexture and Conveyance that Scripture hath in Words chosen and put together by Inspiration and the ready easie and certain Access to it by all For all are equally concerned in it Now seeing Tradition wants all these how can we accept it How can we look off from Scripture to pore upon Tradition or what hold can we have of it Quest But how can it be but there must be Tradition seeing there were so many Things spoken and done more than the Scripture contains or the World it self could contain if they were all written These then being known in the first Times have been conserv'd by Tradition Tradition made valuable by those of Honourable Name among Christians and their Discourses of Christianity Answ Granting such things so preserv'd suppose them the Actions and Words of our Saviour himself yet if not written by Inspired Penmen they are not recommended as obligatory upon After-ages For whatever was necessary that we might believe and have Eternal Life was so written and that not only just so much as might serve Necessity for that the One Gospel of St. John might serve to That it self witnesses but also be matter of Bounty and Abundance so that out of that greater World of Truth than our World could receive there was so much selected as was bountifully sufficient and abundant to all Intents and Purposes of Clearness Certainty Enforcement upon the Affections Variety continual Exercise and Delight that so every Christian might be throughly furnished to every good Work to all things that pertain to Life and Godliness As for all that Christ did and spake or that the Apostles spake or did by Infallible Guidance and Immediate Assistance if it be not written a Veil is drawn over it and a Cloud hath received it out of our fight It is a secret thing that belongs not to us but is sealed up from us like the things which the Thunders uttered in the Revelation And indeed the Wisdom of Providence seems to have dealt with all such Sayings or Actions as with the Body of Moses all Monuments of Worth and Certainty after Scripture in relation to them are concealed from us There is a great Darkness upon the History of that Time lest we should superstitiously venerate in place of that which is divinely written and preserved to us the things that were not prepared for our Learning and so to us but as a Body not divinely inspired that is a Body without a Soul All too fierce Disputes about them are therefore raised only by Sathan the Enemy of Light and Truth to no other purpose than that about the Body of Moses that is to found an occasion of Superstition and silently to whisper Scripture is not sufficient And yet we see with what an eager Zeal Men are set upon such Researches not satisfied with the Proportion of Manna allowed by God but even as the Israelites that gathered much had nothing over so may it be truly said of those that would abound beyond Scripture in that which pertains to the true guidance of Conscience That they have nothing over and what they will needs keep as such corrupts Quest Is there Reason sufficient to support this Sentiment Answ This great Reason If we had undoubted but not inspired History of that Time it could not be like the Evangelistick History or the Actes of the Apostles to us we should
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
to Christianity and the Doctrines and Practices of it from such eminent Witnesses Answ No doubt there does both to Christianity in particular and to all Religion Virtue and Goodness in general But yet neither their Writings nor Practices can in any wise become Scripture to us they all lead to Scripture and ought to do so they are all to be seen and reflected in Scripture Light and from thence they receive their lustre For though they are a Subordinate Testimony as hath been said yet Christian Religion hath greater Testimony and first enabled them to give a valuable Testimony to it self by Communicating so great knowledge and worth to them And besides all that hath been spoken the Writings of the Fathers are so Voluminous as not to be read over by the most so doubtful in their Genuiness that they cannot be Examined but with great Labour and well prepared Judgment so disputable in their sense that to attain a certainty in it would cut off Time from the greater Imployment of Meditation in the Word of God day and night where Men's Callings lie otherwise so that to receive our Religion from hence were of too remote an assurance to any one much more to those who have not Books and studie for their Profession But every Man whether learned or unlearned is concerned deeply to try his Religion with his own Eyes and not anothers for him and God hath therefore provided a Word nigh him even in his Mouth and in his Heart and hath also taken care by stirring up so many both of the Ancient and Modern Christians to separate themselves to intermeddle with all sacred knowledge that there is a worthy exercise of the learned World herein and great advantages arise thereby for universal knowledge even to the less learned and the very unlearned Quest But did the Fathers themselves distinguish thus their own and one anothers Writings from Scripture Answ It is most evident as hath been already affirmed they put a greatest difference betwixt the most excellent Monuments of Christianity that were but Humane whether their own or others and inspired Pages else Clement Ignatius and others might as well have been Canoniz'd by them as what is from them come down to us for Sacred Canon it self and even as they did we may see the great odds betwixt the one and the other and as we adore God the supreme Author so the Sovereign Preserver of Scripture who by Divine Evidences and by superintending Providence hath divided the bound of Scripture at so great a remove from all the Writings in the World whether Christian or Prophane the Apocryphal Books not excepted which though too adventurously joyn'd so generally in a Volume with Scripture yet are evidently disproportioned in the Majesty of Sense and Divine Eloquence Quest Is there no greater Authority of the First Councils Answ How many Humanes soever meet they cannot make up Divine where it was not before nor can a multitude of Privates constitute a Publick Divine and Publick may be declared but cannot be made so by such Contribution All Determinations of Councils are infinitely outweighed in Value and over-ruled in Authority by Scripture indeed Publick and Divine Quest But in such a number of his Servants may we not conclude God is certainly among them and does guide them Answ Give them all the advantages that can be given and either we must say they are Infallibly guided and then we must receive their Decrees as Scripture and they must be attested to us as Scripture is attested or they are not Infallibly guided and then their Decrees must be tryed as all Fallibles ought to be by a Rule surer than themselves If even Divine Revelation it self was at first tryed and found perfect nay if even all that God proposes to us as from himself comes laden with its own proper Evidences how much more must that which is confessedly humane be tryed by that which is confessedly Divine The great use of Councils is therefore so to debate and bring things to a Result by a confluence of Wisdom and Learning that we may see Divine Truths in their own Light in Scripture light to hold out which they are but ministerially imploy'd and not to impose upon any under the name of Publick for that alone is Publick that is Divine All Comparison of Privates among themselves must needs be lost in this Publick before which the greatest name of Publick is but as the drop of the Bucket and the small dust of the Ballance And the union with that true Publick makes the most Private a Publick and Separation from it the most seemingly Publick a most Idiottal Private And it were very happy if the Experiment hereof were not too evident in the Councils that have been how little Number of it self can Contribute to truly Publick or Divine yet the fitness of the Means is withall to be acknowledged as ordain'd by God CAP. IX Of the Church-Catholick Quest SCripture the Publick Record of Catholick Religion being thus far Establâ—â—â—â—â— and Secured both by Internal Characters and External Care of Providence it still remains necessary there should be some stated Ordination of God for the Actuating this Record to its several Purposes and Ends. 1. Because Divine Revelation 〈◊〉 now finished its measures there cannot be expected 〈◊〉 immediate motions of Truth that were vouchsafed by God â—n his extraordinary Presences but all is to be deriv'd from and display'd in Scripture 2. Scripture yet being but of the nature of a Record it would lye still and unmoved and as it were dead if not produced and applyed even as other Laws and Records do that are not continually executed to their proper Vses be their Virtue never so great if so Executed What therefore is that Ordinance of God in the Cessation of Immediate Presence for the exposing this Record to its universal notice and for the applying it daily to its great purposes which is the Executing it as far as it is to be Executed in this World Answ God hath by his extraordinary Ministers whom he gave his Divine Revelation and Word first founded the Church and according to the Degrees of that Revelation exalted it to be serviceable to this great End and so to supply the place of Immediate Presence Quest What is to be understood by the Church Answ The Church is The Catholick Congregation of Mankind called to the Faith and Obedience of that Word it self and which being called it self is entrusted to call others to the sâ—me Faith and Obedience and so is Govern'd and Governs according to it by daily Exercises in and according to that Word Quest Why do you give the Church the stile of a Congregation are not the Parts of it so distant that they cannot be Congregated in the Worship of God Answ They 〈…〉 all so united in the Faith and Obedience of this Sacred Word and in the Worship of God according to it as to be most properly called a Congregation in that
all Arguments that Truth of Scripture and so persisting in it for ever Quest Cannot then the Church fail Answ It hath been said before the True Church cannot fail For the True Church is as hath been described the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth and that which is so cannot fail and God will have such a Church always in the World If any Person City or Nation that seem to have been the Church have this Light eclipsed the Candlestick removes for it is only a Candlestick for the sake of the Light and the Pillar it self shakes and falls if the Records fixed to it are taken away and the Palace and Court remove with the Prince who is always with his Truth and the lively Motion of it So much Truth therefore and active Display of it so much a Church in any Place and the Truth removing or lying dead the Church removes also or is ready to die in that Place Quest But is thâ—re no higher Sense of the Church being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ No other but what arises from the most intimate and inseparable Union betwixt the Church and Truth Truth taking an undefailable possession of the Church so that whereever Truth in that Fulness as to lead to Life and Happiness is there is the Church and no where else The True Church then may be stiled a Pillar and Ground of Truth in the highest Sense if rightly understoo that is Truth it self that is the unmovable Pillar and everlasting Foundation hath so closely banded the Church with it self that it is One Pillar and Foundation with it Thus the Church may be both the Building and the Rock and Foundation to succeeding Parts and Members of the Church The Building as it self rests upon the Pillar and Foundation of Truth else it can't be the Church The Pillar and Foundation of Truth to the still succeeding and rising Church as it is One with Truth it self to which every True Member first comes and unites and therein to the Church even as every Degree of Building is a Foundation and Support to the still growing Building not in it self but as it is surely cemented to the Foundation regulated by it and partakes its Strength Yet if it swerve never so little from the Foundation it is presently a Deformity and the more it swerves the greater danger of the Ruine of it self and all that rests upon it Quest May not this help to explain that so much disputed Expression of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not preval against it Answ I shall be glad if it may give any Light to it and hope it may For the Apostle Peter making that Confession of the Divinity of Christ not singular but representing the whole Body of Apostles and Christians and being possessed with and by that Truth he confess'd was both part of the Building upon that Rock and as united with that Rock he became Rock it self upon which succeeeding Christians were to be built The Prophets and Apostles are in this Sense Foundations and the Twelve Apostles Twelve Foundations Christ himself being the Corner-stone in whom alone the whole Building even the Apostolick Foundation it self rises in a strict and proper Sense Quest Is there not a good Security then in joyning our selves to the Church to those that have been in the Building before us Answ No otherwise than as we joyn our selves by their Ministry to that Foundation it self which always lies sure upon which they themselves must alone rest if the True Church For by placing our selves not upon them but upon that Common Foundation we are adjusted to the whole Building that was before us that lies regular with that Foundation by the Care of him who is both the Foundation Corner-stone and is also he that built all things even God in Christ Quest We must then seek to find the Truth by it self and then the Church by that Truth and not the Church by it self and then the Truth by the Church Answ Very true For God hath so in his Infinite Wisdom establish'd the very Nature of Things Truth can give many Assurances of it self to us by it self so suited to our Faculties The Church can give us none but by its agreement with Truth revealed in the Word of God We could not have known such a Congregation as the Church at all to be much less which it is but by that Word manifesting it self in our Consciences and so distinguishing to us the True Church among the many Associations in the World each calling to us as having the best Religion among themselves Even the True Apostles themselves could be known to be so and False Apostles tried and found Liars no other way but by this Truth view'd and considered singly and distinctly by it self Quest But when we have found the Church by the Truth may we not then deliver up our selves wholly to the Church as so united to Truth Answ No by no means We can never so deliver up our selves nor will the True Church desire any such thing of us seeing its Office is not to hold out it self but the Word of Truth and in doing any thing else it acts not as a Church but as any other ordinary Society and on no other Terms can we have to do with it For the very Attempt to hold out as a Church any Laws of its own ought to enter us into a Jealousie whether it be the True Church which is as a Church the Pillar and Rest of Divine Truth only Quest What Reason is there of such a Jealousie when once we have found it a Church by the Truth it holds out Answ Because a Church that hath been a True Church may several ways decline from its State Quest How then can it he said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Answ That Prophetick Promise does not secure this or that Particular Church but that there shall be a Seed of the Church in the World with which the Covenant of God is Eternal My Word shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed or thy Seed's Seed for ever But it is yet further true the True Seed the Holy Seed the Substance of the Church can never utterly and finally fail in any Particular Member of it for if it could it were too great a violation of our Saviour's Truth in that Declaration The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church or force that Immortal retrograde into Mortality even that most dreadful one of the Second Death for which a Succession of others and in the same Danger is but a faint Salvo though it go on so to the End of the World Quest Who are this True Church in every Age and Place Answ They which are by True Saving Faith united to Christ the Son of God the Rock of Eternity and being so founded upon him are Pillars
that never remove and a Rest of Truth for ever having been taught and learnt it as it is in Jesus Quest Who are the Professionary Church only Answ They that though they may as Artificial Pillars give some Ornament to the House of God and offer Truth yet not being indeed united to the Foundation are movable and may go out of the House They are such as have not received the Truth in the Love and Obedience of it within themselves and so may fall away from it It cannot be said of them as of the former The Truth shall be with them for ever having made its Edraioma or Settlement in them Quest How does the Professionary Church fall away in the Bulk and Body of its Professors and Profession Answ The Office of the Church being to Actuate Truth and only Truth it may fail either in abating the Fervours due to Truth though nothing False or Forreign be admitted or in receiving Falshood or things of a baser Alloy for Truth and wasting those Fervours due only to Truth upon them The one may be called a departing from the true State of a Church the other from the State of a True Church and they usually meet one in another Quest How does this come to pass Answ From the Judgment of God upon the present sinful State permitting things so to themselves that in very few Instances it is but that the Imperfections of Good Men and the prevailing Corruptions of Professionary Christians change the Holy Lively Activities of the True State of a Church into Lukewarmness and Formality or by admitting Falshood and impure Mixtures into Doctrine Worship and Discipline corrupt the State of the Church so that it loses its Truth Quest What becomes of the Professionary Church when it loses the True State of a Church Answ It is as the Prophet expresses a Civil State or a City that hath lost its Splendour It becomes like a burnt Mountain or extinguish'd Globe of Light It retains the Form but loses the Life and Vigour of a Church like Ephesus that lost its First Love or Sardis that had a Name to live but was dead or Laodicea that was neither cold nor hot Quest What becomes of it when it is corrupted and loses in its Truth Answ It exchanges the Lively Oracles for Forms of Doctrine and Lifeless Discourse not of the High Spirit of Scripture It debases pure Worship into Ceremonialness Superstition or Idolatry and the Gospel Rule and Discipline it sells for a Worldly Politie and the true Graces of Christianity expressed in a Holy Conversation for what is much beneath or contrary Sometimes it forsakes Truth in some Fundamental Article that it swells out from the Foundation in a Breach ready to fall And there is one Instance of all these in the Anti-Church which will deserve a greater Consideration Quest How does God deal with such Churches Answ Sometimes sweeps them with the Beesom of Destruction taking away both the Candlestick and Place of it together Alienes Both to them and their Religion thrusting them out of their whole Possession Sometimes he suffers them to continue even for Ages yet so that their Candlestick is moved out of its due stately Positure hardly appearing like a Candlestick and that by the Indignation of God Quest In these Cases how does it fare with the True Holy Seed the Substantial Church Answ God chastens them to Repentance Self-purification and greater Zeal in that Case of the Churches losing its Brightness and Vigour that they may recover their first State and Work aad sets them on work to retrive Truth lost in that other Case of the Churches Defection Quest How is it with them when the very Place and Candlestick are taken away Answ They are either first removed into the higher State of the Church in Heaven or driven before into other Parts of the World by Persecution or the violence of the Judgment makes no distinction but carries them Captive with the rest though in different Baskets as the Prophet Jeremy represents Quest How do they survive in the time of the displac'd and dejected Candlestick Answ They are either called out to a Zealous Appearance and Suffering for Truth or sometimes retired into Corners like the Seven thousand in Israel or the Church in the Wilderness that they cannot appear like a Church offering those Publick Notices of Divine Truth a Church is designed for Quest How is a Visible Profession lost from Particular Persons Answ It is too often thrown up by Apostasie or Profaneness or dwindled into a very Spiritless Form but very often a Profession without the Power being not inconsistent with the working of Iniquity it may pass out of this World like a Lamp burning but being found to burn only in a small Temporary Light without Oyl in the Vessel a Plenitude of Grace in the Heart shutting out every Lust it becomes a Lamp put out in utter Darkness Quest What is to be inferred from all this Answ That there is no Trust but in the Lord himself the Truth it self by which at all times the Church that is indeed the Pillar and Ground of Truth and wherein it is so will be known to us and in uniting to Truth we are united to That Quest There remains one thing yet to be understood in the Description of the Church which is its Power of Governing even as it is Governed by the Word of God Vnder what Notions I beseech you is that Government expressed in Scripture Answ That Power is by our Saviour represented under the Mataphor of Keys and the Use of those Keys in opening and shutting or in Binding and Losing Quest What is the meaning hereof Answ The meaning is plainly this When the Church of Christ hath by the Key of Knowledge inquir'd into all the Divine and Heavenly Doctrine of the Gospel and Word of God it hath in and according to that Word and only so a Power of Application of that Doctrine to Particular Cases binding Men under the Sense of Guilt and fear of Damnation in such or such Sins and an impenitent Continuance in them or of Absolving and assuring Men of the Divine Favour and Acceptance in a holy course of Life and Obedience to God and of Pardon upon Repentance after Falls into Sin and Disobedience and so of Declaring and Pronouncing upon Men as to their present State in the Church by Excommunication or Absolution all these are the Power of Binding and Loosing according to what our Saviour speaks in parallel Words Whose Sins you remit they are remitted whose Sins you retain they are retained meaning still according to his Word the Pole-Star by which they are to direct all their Motions who claim any such Power For only where it is declard according to the Word is it that what is bound on Earth is also bound in Heaven and what is loosed on Earth is loosed in Heaven there being an Invariable Agreement between what is Published from Heaven in the Word of
God concerning the State and Actions of Men on Earth and the Transactions in Heaven in relation to them He then that pronounces agreeably with that word pronounces as Heaven does and will pronounce Heaven binds what he binds and looses what he looses because he speaks the Voice of Heaven in both Cases But that there should be any Binding or Loosing except in the Power of this Word and according to it in its Vertue in its Truth nothing can be more contrary to the Ends to the Glory to the Soveraignty of Christ To bind any single Christian by Excommunication and not according to this Word is as much a Brutum Fulmen a Thunder to no purpose a causeless Curse that shall not come as for the Pope to Excommunicate whole Protestant Churches Quest What is a Particular Church Answ It is the Catholick Church in a Neighbourhood or number of Christians Communicating one with another ordinarily even as the whole Cotholick Church would if it were possible Communicate with it self in the Ordinances and Worship of Christ exactly according the to Rules of his Word wherein this is the distinguishing Character of the True Church that its Communion is not with it self primarily but â—ts Communion is so with it self as to be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ principally as the Fountain-Head Center and Rule of the Communion and therein it holds out and invites to its Communion CAP. X. Of the Officers appointed by Christ in his Church Quest CAn there be either an Orderly or an Effectual Actuation of the Truth by the Church as a Congregation without distinct and separate Offices and Officers that may attend continually on this very thing Answ It is imposible for an Assembly without Order would cease to be an Assembly and fall into a Confusion or Rude Multitude All Wise and Prudent Assemblies have always had Elders to preside over them and our Lord hath ordained such to moderate throughout his Congregation or Church to conduct all the Publick Services of Religion For all things therein are actually administred by the Ministers of Christ the Noblest Organical Parts of the Church like those Senses that attend upon the Understanding most immediately Seeing Eyes and Hearing Ears so these upon the Word of Christ And that they may be most fitted ingaged and provoked hereunto they are even according to the very Laws of Nature separated to their Offices and unto all Preparations for them by Reading and Meditation as to their Proper Calling and Business of Life seeing they do not pretend to Immediate and Extraordinary Inablements or Excitations to their Service Quest What Titles or Characters does the New Testament place upon these Officers Answ Those that we have especial Respect to for in the Deacons if strictly taken we are less concerned receive Denominations either from their Work and Service or from that Honour and Estimation due to the Faithful Discharge of such a Service From their Work they are stiled Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers Ministers Servants of God and Christ and in a just sense of the Church also From the Estimation and Honour due to the Discharge of their Work and the Authority it ought to carry in the Hearts and Consciences of Christians they are styled Bishops Elders Rulers Guides and Ensamples as also Embassadours And the Work and the Honour do so enclose one another that they ought not to be separated and are in their Institution the Measure one of another extending both to Obedience and Support of them in their Work and the Titles are so prepared by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost that they ought not to be changed for any other nor the Scripture-Language herein to be altered for any Words not importing the same proper Sense Quest How shall the True Ministers of Christ be known that there may be that Obedience and Submission paid to them that is commanded Answ There can be no other Means to discern them but by the Word of Righteousness of which all True Ministers are the Ministers on account of which alone Obedience and Submission to them is due Their bringing that Word in its own Life Evidence and Power is their best Commission Quest But how are they most orderly enstall'd into so high a Function Answ Christ as the Head of the Church hath ascended up on high and given gifts to Men and as the Lord of the Harvest takes it upon him as his Supreme Care to thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest The several Congregations of Christians observing Ministerial Abilities and Meetness to Teach call out to such to help them and herein in the Cessation of Extraordinary Gifts the Schools of Learning and Religious Education like the Schools of the Prophets do best prepare and the Judgment of those that have been Pastors and Teachers before them does most orderly recommend to Choice and Acceptance in the great Service such as are Scribes instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven and commits to them the Charge of Teaching others For in this as in all other Acts the Elders of the Church are to preside with due Respect to the Congregation Quest Is the Lord Christ pleased then to act generally by the Elders and Officers of the Church Answ Generally and ordinarily he does so the Officers are therefore more particularly entrusted by Christ with the Keys even as the Church in general is Thus eminently by the Ministry of the Apostles our Lord founded his Church and so edifies and builds it up in After-ages by Pastors and Teachers and when great Defections have prevailed upon it summons it to Reformation by some rais'd up among those Officers and whom he sends out as such to reform and recover his Church Yet still all this Power is in and according to his Word and no other and so that in all things as much as may be the Knowledge Judgment and Approbation of the Church is to be joyn'd in all the Officers do as having their Interest in the Keys also because they have their Interest in the Word of God in the Understanding Opening and Applying of which to Particular Cases the whole Power of the Keys rests The Apostles Elders and the Brethren or whole Church were together pleased and together joyn'd in that Famous Conciliary Epistle Acts 15. 22. Quest I desire your more full Explanation of the Publick Offices of the Christian Church and the Power accompanying it Answ I will very willingly do as you desire and begin with the Apostles Quest Wherein stood their Power Answ It stood in their Preaching Acting Directing Governing by that Immediate and Infallible Assistance of the Divine Spirit by which they writ and sealed Scripture and by which they were so guarded every way that they could turn neither to the Right Hand nor to the left in any thing wherein they exercised this Power Quest How was this Power Justified Answ By the Divineness substantial Goodness and Reasonableness of all their Prescriptions propos'd in all the Methods of
in the Church of God to be confined within the Monarchy and Word of Christ and nothing to be Imposed or Forbidden but according to that so it doth every where disinterest the Church of Christ to judge or intermeddle in Civil Government or Things pertaining to it it supposes Civil Powers will oblige to and determine Indifferencies in Civil things this way or that way as they please and therein exercise a Lordship but Christ having declared it shall not be so among his Disciples does yet Command by himself and his Apostles all Obedience to these Principalities and Powers even thus Commanding if not against Gods Command directly so that in all such things the Doubting Conscience is only to be instructed in its Rule and Duty but can have no more Relief against Obedience to Civil Commands than it hath against Obedience to the Commands of God when it is mistaken about those Commands for such Obedience to Magistrates is Obedience to the Divine Command Quest There appears so near an Affinity in the Commands concerning Indifferent Things of those that have Rule in the Church with the Commands of those that have Civil Rule that the one may be a Measure for the other or wherein is the difference especially when they joyn in one in their Commands concerning these Indifferoncies Answ The Commands of Civil Authority concerning Indifferent Things in Religion deserves a particular consideration for which a proper place shall be reserv'd But that the Church is such a kind of Political Regiment that should set up for it self as one of the Polities of this World by Canons and Constitutions of its own not founded in the Word of God but introduced on other pretences and that if Christians do not Submit to them they should be accounted Schismaticks and Excommunicated as Heathens if they do not hear the Church that is the Rulers of the Church thus Ordaining in their own Wisdom and all this by the Charter of the Keys or the Power of Binding or Loosing is as gross a Forgery as Popery hath any in this Point Indeed if there were such a state of things there were reason to believe the whole Church should by proper ways and means found out by Christ be modelled into one universal Uniformity of Government and Ceremony seeing the whole Church is but one and that the Romane supposing it had not so grossly contradicted the Laws of Christ might sooner pretend to be the Metropolis of it and the Bishop of Rome the Head of the Unity than any other it being the first Imperial City that was famous for Christianity But how little Uniformity is to Christ or his Kingdom in those things wherein he hath not interposed at all but left Christians free and intended they should be free appears in the Ununiform Unity of the History of the Evangelists concerning his Life Doctrine Death and Resurection To suppose therefore the Church to be in this manner Uniformed by the Prudence of its Governours is to turn it so far into a Civil State and the Bishops of it into Lay-Elders CAP. XIII Of the Anti-Church and its Opposition in every Thing to the True Church Quest IS there not an Anti-Church or Antichristian-Church that stands in Opposition to the True-Church Answ There is and hath been so for many Ages and that hath taken upon it in the most Publick way to be the Church of Christ the House of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Quest With what Advantages hath it been arm'd thus to take upon it self at all the Name of a Church Answ It having risen out of the True Ancient Apostolick Church that received the True Christianity from the Apostles at Rome and the Faith of which as the Apostle Paul witnesses Rom. 1. 8. was spoken of throughout the World it hath retain'd the Scriptures and the Fundamentals of Christianity the Writings of the First Christians and Apostolical Men and so hath continued to do from that very time of the Apostles to this Day and hath also actuated the Truth of the Scripture and those Fundamentals of it according as its Interest hath led it in some Ages more in some less as shall be presently more discovered Quest Having then the Scriptures those Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors upon them in such a length of time with what reason can it be looked upon as an Anti or Antichristian-Church Answ With very great reason because by a multitude of Additions fowlest Idolatrous and Superstitious Corruptions and false Interpretations upon the Scriptures the Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancients shamefully interpolated and by Spurious Writings under their Names despited it hath turned whole Christianity into a very contrary thing to it self while therefore it holds those points of Christianity and the Records of it in veneration and yet supports all its Falshoods thereby it becomes perfectly an Antichurch or Antichristian It hath in regard of those Articles of Truth it holds and actuates so much as to have the Name of a Church and Christian and yet having them so falsified corrupted and changed from themselves it becomes a Mock-Church a Mock-Christianity that is an Antichurch and Anti-christian in despite of the True-Church and True-Christianity And as to its Actuation of Truth it hath so Actuated Truth as to Actuate by Truth its own Falshoods and Lies upon Truth Quest How then did it rise to such an Eminency and pretence of being Catholick and Publick Answ The many Concurrences of Divine Providence under his deep and unsearchable Judgments in the Government of the World in relation to that state he had appointed for his Church I leave to the History of the Church and Roman Empire in those times by which may be understood how the Papacy took the advantage to Exalt it self not only above the Episcopal Chairs then in an Ambitious Contest for Supremacy but above all that was called God that is the Imperial Power it self and so set its Foot upon the Necks of Christian Princes throughout the World till the great Cheat began to be detected and all this by and upon pretence of being the Vicar of Christ or the Head of the Catholick that is the Roman-Church Quest These things I confess not so convenient to my Inquiry I desire only to know how in the middle of so many horrible Corruptions this Antichurch could be so bold as to vaunt it self the Vniversal Church of Christ Answ Taking the utmost benefit of its Antiquity in the Christian-Faith and Fundamentals of it and especially of the Conspicuousness and Famousness of its State and in the mean time the Corruptions growing up by degrees and not so observably as at once for Papal Rome was not built in a Day It usurped the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as its own the Key of Knowledge in its Infallibility the Keys of Power in opening and shutting Heaven Gates so as that in the Darkness then overspreading
the World and the Church Ignorance the Mother of False-Devotion so bewitching the Minds of Men that they all wondered after the Roman-State as new modelled under the Beast Arm'd with two Horns like those of a Lamb counterfeiting Power from Christ the Lamb but that spake as a Dragon pursuing all its pretendedly Christian Decrees with the extreamest Salvageness of any of the greatest Earthly Tyrants but all under a Mask of the Catholick Apostolick Church by which Fascination of Zeal to the most excellent Religion though so Vitiated Princes and People Surrendred their Power to this great Sorceress using at once all the Frauds and Cheats of False-Prophesie and the Arts and Policy of the most Designing Universal Monarchy Thus while this Antichurch stole into Power by the best appearances of True-Religion and secured it by all the Blandishments of a Meretricious Religion it found it self so strong as to force its False-Religion by its Power and using both together raised the Grandeur of both a Secular and Spiritual Tyranny to such a height Quest But how did the True-Church in this time Actuate Truth or agree with those Characters of being the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ It was by the might and prevalency of this Secular and Spiritual Tyranny so suppressed that it was in a manner known only to God who reserv'd a number to himself in the midst of so great a Defection wherein that promise was made Good the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church Exposing and Actuating Truth pure from those Corruptions is hardly and very hardly to be found in History in any of the Lines and Motions of it in the most dark and dolesom period of that Defection Quest How was it with the True-Church recovering it self from this great Darkness Answ God raised up by extraordinary Measures of though but an ordinary presence such who by Indefatigable searches into his Truth and Word and those Records of Christianity that Antichurch was concerned to preserve because as was said it could not without so much of a Church be an Antichurch and by bold Publications of it shook so that Inchanted City that a tenth part of it fell And by the great contrivance of Providence even the chief of that Antichurch were forc'd by way of Repercussion to raise greater Light by endeavours to defend themselves from Scripture Antiquity and Reason by the Summons of all that Learning Wit and Industry could levy in their Defence so that they were necessitated to awaken out of that Barbarity and Ignorance in which they had been so long drown'd and to Actuate even Truth more fiercely that they might together with it make as potent and prevalent as they could and give countenance to those great Falshoods they had interwoven with it From all which broke out such a light in the World that Princes rowz'd themselves and no longer crouch'd down under such an intoxicated Servitude which had long gall'd and pinch'd them but that they knew not how to rid themselves from it till the Sorcery was laid bare which still gave greater scope for the display of Truth Quest Could the Scripture be inconscious or silent concerning so great Revolutions in the Church of God as these Answ It is in all True Reason most impossible and therefore it is a mighty Argument that those great places of Scripture that do so notoriously agree to such a purpose as the Discovery of this Antichristian State are justly apply'd to it by Protestant Interpreters Quest If you please point me to the chief of those places you refer to Answ I will do it very briefly as being too large for the present purpose to enumerate many or enlarge upon any of them But what more proper to delineate such a State than the Apostasie the Apostle describes 2 Thess 2. 3. and 1 Timoth. 1. 4. or than the Church in the Wilderness Revel 12. 14. the Witnesses Prophecying in Sackcloth being slain and lying dead three Days and a half True Christianity being in all appearance extinct The measuring the Altar the Temple and those that Worship in it signifying the close Retirement of Pure Religion and the outward Court left to be trodden down by the Gentiles or Heathen Christians and their impure Rites and Worship and therefore excluded from those strict measures true undefiled Christianity is enclos'd within Revel 11. 1. Now upon all these Representations of such a State of the Church so exquisitely shadowed and resembled and compared with that deep plunge and immersement of Christian Religion in the time of the Popish Midnight who can but believe these with many concurrent Delineations in all those forecited Scriptures were on purpose to give the Portraicture of that so Fatal Apostasie that believes it at all to be Prophesied in the Book of God and who that considers the weight of the thing can but believe it foretold if there be any thing prophetick of the State of Christianity to the end of the World As it most evidently appears there is But if any be so incredulous as to suppose such a State of Christianity beneath the prefigurations of the Divine Spirit he cannot if he be indeed a Protestant but agree that nothing does with more Art and Divine Skill Pourtray and Draw to the Life such a Devastation of Christs True Religion as all History knows Popery hath made and as far as it can prevail does now and would do much farther and in its very Frame is constituted so to do Quest But seeing you suppose these Types of Popery may be applyed another way though it is I confess very hardly to be supposed yet I desire if any thing hath fallen under your Observation that can be less avoided to make plain how different a Religion Popish-Christianity is from the Scripture-Christianity you would give me leave to ask what it is Answ I must needs commend your Rational Enquiry for I know neither the Veneration given to any Religion by the Natives of it nor the ill Words against any Relion by those that are Strangers and Enemies to it should conclude against it The Professors of every Religion are startled at any reproach of their own Religion as at horrible Blasphemy but freely speak ill of a diverse from it Mahometans call themselves Believers and Christians Infidels Popish Religion calls it self Catholick and Protestancy a Grand Heresie and Schism Judaism charges whole Christianity with Cheat and Imposture It is therefore necessary we should have some Magnetick Needle to point us to the True Religion and to the True Christianity seeing its Name is not only distributed to many but so solemnly divided into the Popish and Protestant Profession of Christianity Quest What then can be our Invariable Northpole in Religion in such a Wide and Tumultuous Ocean Answ I hope you have not forgotten what was at first given in Instruction concerning Natural and Revealed Religion their exact Agreement with one another and with all our Faculties so
Offered by the Eternal Spirit which certainly makes the comers thereunto perfect On the other side this Liberty lays not open the Inclosures of a Holy Life nor removes the Barriers of Justice against Sin if not satisfied and attoned by Faith in the Blood of Christ 4. Lastly That which answers to each of these Characters of True Religion is that it hath no Secular Interest no Interest of this present World that it looks not upon the things that are seen that are but for a Moment but on the things that are not seen that are Eternal such is the Godliness such is the Sacrifice such the Christian Liberty that their Uses and Ends are too great and large to center in Earthly things and though themselves are the True Interest of the present state yet they no way make it or the Grandeur of it an Interest but seek a Heavenly Country and City even as the Lord of this Religion said My Kingdom is not of this World Now as this measures each of the other Characters so each of them measures it such a Transcendant Holiness and Purity can alone see God in Eternal Habitations such a Sacrifice alone can have its Blood enter into the Holy Place made without Hands having obtained an Eternal Inheritance such a Blood speaks alone in the Heavens better things than the Blood of Abel a Conscience so free so perfected hath boldness to enter into the Holiest and none else These are all fitted and Consecrated to Eternity and Eternity to them Light and trivial Holiness Insignificant Ceremonies and Rites of Purgation a cumber of External Observations invented by Men can never enter within the Vail nor endure for ever And on the other side by such Divine Things to grasp at this World and a Patrimony on Earth is as gross and out of Square so that these things exactly measure one another and square together Quest How is the Four-Square City or the True Church adjusted to these Dimensions Answ In all these things I before mentioned in having these and these only in its Doctrine its Worship its Practice and Obedience its Discipline or Government Quest How is the False Church out of Square to all these Answ In that retaining the Profession of the Christian Religion constituted according to these and pretending an Imitation of them and the Miracles attesting them it hath been most extravagant from them by its Traditional Additions and Counterfeits of them every of which are a Violation and Irregularity from one or all of these Characters or equal Sides of True Religion a great Lie upon them with which they can never be brought to agree being not only an endless Variation from but a flat Opposition to them and a despiting them with themselves so strangely so monstrously mis-shapen and that in so great numbers that as in mockage to the many excellent things our Saviour did and taught so many that if they were all written the World it self could not contain the Books that would be written even so if all the numerous and prodigious excursions of the Antichristian Church and Antichrist the Head of it from Christian Religion by its indeterminable swarm of New pieces of Antichristianism should be written the whole World it self would not be able to contain the Volumes that would be written Quest But does not the Profession of so much of the Christian Religion in such an Eminence like the City upon the Hill that cannot be hid give it the Reputation of a most Famous Church if not the Catholick as it calls it self Answ Christianity so abused as in the Popish Religion is infinitely the more dishonoured for the Eminence of the Antichurch that so exposes it and it is only the Eminence of Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God and the exalting himself above all that is indeed and truly God in his Church and shewing himself that he is God in his Oracles Wonders and Miracles but they are all but one great Lie of this Son of the Father of Lies the Image of the God of this World the Son of his falshood and perdition contrary to Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love But if any one receiving Christianity or the Scriptures from the Antichurch and measuring them in and by themselves separates True Christianity from the Antichristianism and retains it Pure it is but like the Service God received from the False Prophet Baalam when he Prophefied Truth into whose Place and Office Antichrist succeeds and is therefore styled the False Prophet Revel 16. 13. Quest What then can this pretended Catholick Church be in relation to the True Catholick Publick Religion Answ It can be no other upon strict account than the Synagogue of Satan the Pseudocatholick Antichurch in a Damnable Heresie from and hatred to the General Assemby and Church of the First Born written in Heaven united with the God of Truth and Love and the Son of the Father in Truth and Love in a Hellish Schism and Separation from the Apostolick Catholick Church of which God and Christ are the Head Quest How can it be believed that so great a Lie upon Christianity should be received by so large a proportion of the Christian World or that Persons of so vast Abilities and Comprehensions should so deceive others or be themselves deceived Answ Scripture has taken all the care possible to Arm us against this Objection which is indeed very great It calls this Apostacy a Mystery of Iniquity and to assure us the Apostle Paul and the Divine Person in the Revelation point to the same Thing upon the Forehead of this Adulterous Church is written Mystery Now a Mystery if it were presently understood and all easie and plain were no Mystery It hath the Energy of Delusion in causing Men to believe a Lie it is the whole Deceit of unrighteousness it sets up a great Stage of Counterfeit Miracles that it vaunts upon and that it might have that Reverend Face of Antiquity to deceive with and say it comes from a far-off Ages It was a Mystery that was then at work in the Apostles time Lastly It hath its effect upon them that may be Christians and receive Truth but not the chaste unprostitute Love of Truth alone Quest But it seems imposible that any parts of the Christian World that have been once disabused should return any more under so great a Delusion Answ There are very great hopes that God who hath Commanded his Light to shine out of this Darkness will interpose by the perpetual Brightness of his own appearance and by that Divine Breath of his Mouth in his Word against the return of so great a Darkness This set aside there are so many Reasons of fear and such possibilities of laying a Train of Causes reaching to such an Effect that there can be no place for Security but in the Almighty Providence and yet what Degrees of that deadly Scourge may fall on the Protestant World God only knows we know our Sins
Images of the most High in their Vicegerency according to what is said to them by Inspired Wisdom I have said ye are Gods and Sons of the Most High Quest But why hath it not pleased God to appear himself in this Authority and Power Visibly and Immediately which would cut off all Dispute as to Supreme Right and Male-Administration which do now often disturb the Peace of Government and the People under it or at least why hath he not given Angels a Superiority and Visible Presidency over Kingdoms as that which would much more awe and Compose the World Answ The Wisdom of God hath in all things appeared in attempering things one to another with greatest Equality So he hath thought fit in infinite Wisdom to Govern Men by Men. He hath Committed all Judgment to Christ because he is the Son of Man he will Judge the World at last by that Man whom he hath appointed Christ Jesus Thus he Governs Men all along by the Men of his Right-Hand as Images of himself but more immediately of Christ the Great Son of Man thus in his Word he speaks to Men by Men like themselves And as to the Conceit of Mankind Submitting with greater awe to a Government from Heaven it is but like that of having one from the Dead to speak to them when they have Moses and the Prophets by which if they are not persuaded neither would they be persuaded though one should rise from the Dead nor would they be Governed by one from Heaven that are not Governed by that Humane Majesty and Soveraignty Created by God on purpose for them as is most Evident in those many Rebellions of the People of Israel under so evident a Theocrasie or so immediate a Government of God Quest Is the Power of Magistrates only in those clear and undoubted points of Godliness Righteousness and Soberness Answ Because under the two latter of these there is a vast Compass of the Interests of the Peace and Weal and Honour of Nations in all Traffique and Commerce in provision for safety and security and adjusting of Laws to all these ends there must be a vast Compass also of Power in these extending to all Indifferent things Indifferent till they come to be determined by Princes and Powers but then by the Ordinance of God to be observed according to those Laws determining them this way or that way Quest But I desire you to give yet a closer and stricter Account of the Power of Soveraigns in Religion or Godliness being the main point of of the present Enquiry Answ That I may answer your desire I must consider Religion as it is Natural Religion written in the Hearts of Men as it is Revealed Religion published by extraordinary Ministers and Consign'd to after Ages by inspired Writing or Scripture and lastly as Religion is so or so Circumstantiated and Modelled in the External Administration of it Now by Natural Religion as distinguish'd from Revealed Religion I do plainly intend that Religion whether it be drawn out by the meer force of Natural Conscience without any plain or known Assistances of Revealed Truth or whether it was not known to be Natural Religion till being Revealed Natural Conscience acknowledges it and must needs Confess it to be True Natural Religion or that the wisest and soberest part of Mankind confesses it to be so or whether it be what Natural Religion teaches upon the supposition of Revealed Religion acknowledged and confessed to be from God for then Natural Religion confesses and urges that all Revelations from God that evidence themselves to any Mans mind to be from God should be received with Reverence and submitted to with Obedience In all these cases of Natural Religion I boldly and positively assert the Soveraign Power hath a Right given it by God to Make and Execute Laws according to the Obligations of Natural Religion even as in all Cases of Righteousness and Soberness or Common Peace and Welfare and to punish Offenders and Transgressors according to the Degree of their Guilt and can no more be Impeached in that procedure than in any the most undoubted Functions or Rights of Government whatever Quest I must desire to be guided in my Thoughts concerning the Power of Governours in Revealed Religion Answ Besides the Legislative and Vindictive Power of Supreme Magistrates in Natural Religion there is that Divine stamp of Authority God hath Engraven upon them so that besides their Laws they recommend Religion by the very representation of God himself whose Presence they bear and have not only the more Remote Authority of a Prince but the nearest most Natural and kindly Authority of a Father On account of which Solomon as a King so often speaks Hear O ye Children the Instruction of a Father and as having all Parental Affection in himself forsake not saith he the Law of a Mother The Care of all means for Instruction and Propagation of Religion is most proper to Government And all these Administrations in Religion run not only through all points of Natural Religion in that ampleness before expressed but do most genuinely and freely stream through all points of Revealed Truth and the whole Counsel of God in the Scripture nothing being more Princely and Paternal than the utmost Providence and Influence of Princes and Soveraign States herein wherein they fulfill the Prophesie of Kings being Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church of God But there is this difference between Natural and Revealed Religion Natural Religion is written in the Heart and may certainly be found there however it comes to be known clearly and truly only by Revelation and so may be absolutely Commanded But Revealed Religion is recoâ—ded by Faith and Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God and therefore cannot be Commanded but must be expected by the Blessing of God upon Instruction But if any Man profess to believe Revealed Religion to have receievd it as the undoubted Truth of God it is then the Law of Nature he should deport himself in it and towards it as to the Truth of God Nebuchadnezzer Darius and the King of Nineveh their Laws were rightly grounded upon the Principles of Natural Religion concerning the True God The Laws of Moses and the Princes of Judah in Revealed Religion were upon the so unavoidable acknowledgement of the Divine Presence and Authority in and with those Laws the so many Repeated Covenants Indentures and Engagements of that People on the evident Appearances of God to be obedient to those Laws But in the Revelation of Jesus Christ we find no tracks of Humane Power but all was done by Instruments fitted from Heaven naked of all Humane Authority that the Excellency of the Power might be of God and not of Men till Princes and People agreed in the Faith of the Gospel not by Compulsion but by Evidences and inward Assurances of the Faith and so it is still to continue Quest Before you pass from this point that
it may be made the clearer will you give the Distinction between Sovereign Powers and the Elders of the Church For they are both called Rulers they are both called the Ministers of God Answ This is indeed most necessary to be known as tending much to Illustrate this whole Matter 1. The Power of the Elders of the Church lies wholly and intirely in the Evidence of the Truth and the Word of God they Minister without which their Persons are Invested with no Power or Authority at all But there is a Sacred Character upon Soveraign Powers and their very Persons so that Reverence Prostration Obeysance Honourable Titles and Obedience in all Lawful Things are due to them even when their Commands in some things being unlawful cannot be obeyed as appears every where in Scripture 2. The Authority Power and Majesty of Sovereign Princes remains Inviolable and not to be invaded by any no not by those who have Commission to speak the Word of God There is no Temporal Power in order to Spirituals Conferred by Christ or Ordained to his Ministers to Create a Civil-Spiritual Power within a Civil and to rencounter it But Princes are in all Causes and over all Persons within their own Dominions under God and according to his appointment Supream Governours so contrary is Scripture to the Usurpation of the Anti-Church herein All Religious Princes guiding themselves by Gods Word have great Power and Authority not only by that Word but by Virtue of that Authority and Majesty God hath Cloathed them with as his Vicegerents to Direct and Govern according to Truth wherein the Divine Spirit is pleased often to be so immediately present with them that a Divine Sentence is in the Kings Lips that they may direct according to Truth and in all Truth they are to be Obey'd not only for the Truths sake but for that Authorities sake also God hath Invested them with 3. The Elders of the Church lose their Power by erring from Truth and the Word of God for of what Authority is the False Prophet or the False Teacher But Princes and Soveraign Powers have a Power though misapply'd to vindicate their Authority upon those that cannot Obey them except they should Disobey God to Obey Magistrates which none dare assert that acknowledge God in which Power Magistrates must not be resisted even while they cause Men to suffer for Righteousness sake 4. The Admonitions Excommunications Anathema's of Church Rulers have no Force when not grounded upon Divine Truth nor ought to make Impression upon Conscience but to be rejected with Disdain But the Penal Sentences and Vindictive Decrees of Sovereign Powers have their Effect so far even when they are unjust as to be received as an Ordination of Power appointed by God though us'd to a wrong purpose Where the Word of a King is there is Power and his Wrath is as the Roaring of a Lion and it is so appointed by God Against such a Supream Executive Power Arm'd with the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation there is no rising up no remedy but appeal to God by Prayers and Tears Quest This whole Account might be much Illustrated if it be declared on the other side what Obedience is due to the Ministers of the Word and Truth of God whether extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles or ordinary as the Elders of the Church and Ministers of the Gospel even when Supream Magistrates Command the contrary Answ The Word and Truth of God are of so Supream Authority that though the Ministers of it are of no Authority separated from that Word yet the Word and Truth of God of which they are Embassadours is much higher than the Kings and Princes of the Earth and there is no Compare between the one and the other God therefore raised up extraordinarily what Messengers he pleased and sent them with what Messages he thought good to what Princes or Magistrates soever because immediately from God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and yet these extraordinary Ministers in all things wherein they were not Commanded by God preserv'd the Just Rights of Soveraignty Thus the Word of God ought by ordinary Ministers to be faithfully declared by those who are called to do it and if it be so declared it hath and ought to have a Soveraignty above all Earthly Soveraignty both with Princes and Subjects and yet the Publishers of it and they to whom it is Published stand in their Just Distances and in all things pay the Homage due to Soveraignty by Obedience Active wherein they are not Countermanded by God or by Submission to penal Laws and Decrees made against them by the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation wherein they cannot Obey God and the Powers at once because so is the Will of God that they should by suffering for well doing put to silence the Cavils of the Ignorant or Malicious Quest But ought we not to expect that Princes should be the Supream Interpreters of the Mind and Will of God that so their Command and Superiority might be more absolute and because that Government that does not determine the Religion of the Subject cannot have so free a display of it self nor rest so secure as is necessary to Government Answ While the Holy Patriarchs Ruled who by the Laws of Nature more unsullyed so near the Creation by purer Tradition by Divine Revelation vouchsafed to them as occasion required preserv'd Religion Undefiled Supream Authority and Instruction in True Religion Resided in the same Persons yet even then their Authority in Religion was from the Evidences of Divine Truth even as afterwards in Moses Samuel David and Solomon who were both Supream Princes and immediately Commissioned by God as Prophets for wherever Men are Deputed by God either as ordinary or extraordinary Ministers of his Truth the Authority is not in Man but in the Word of God evidencing it self to be the Word of God When therefore the Patriarchal both Power and Holiness expired and the Revolt of Princes and People from True Religion grew greater God begun to Instruct his Church by Messengers sent on purpose and Separated betwixt Princes and Prophets Yea even in the time of so Sacred a Priesthood Established by God himself among the Jews he taught his Church very often by Prophets of an extraordinary and immediate Character And lastly by the Apostles Founded the Christian Church without any Consultation with or Concurrence of the Powers at that time in the World and yet those Apostles taught all Subjection to those very Powers until the whole was settled in the Canon of Scripture Consent with which is now the only Credential of a Teacher appointed by God however he be Ordinated by Men. Quest What is to be Inferred from hence Answ Especially that the Truth of Religion is so independent upon all Humane Soveraignty that it is to be accepted only upon Tryal by its own Evidences and not by those of Humane Authority This Treasure is therefore for the most
not to resist the Power vindicating its Commands by Sufferings and Penalties upon those that cannot actively Obey wherein Religion Justice or Soberness are contradicted which are Gods and must be rendred to him according to themselves who is able to make them recompense who suffer for Righteousness sake as he pleases in this World or most certainly in the Resurrection of the Just But if there were not such an absolute Legislative and Executive Power in every Community thus fixed and unmoveable and accountable only to God the Restless Love of Change would be always disturbing and calling to account Government and every Man take upon him to be a Lawgiver and a Justicier or indeed to be Licencious and Inordinate and as they could Consult and together Collect themselves into a Rebellion would enter into open Hostilities against it and so the ends of Government in the Peace and Order of Humane Societies be quite lost so that till any Principalities sitting on the Seats of Government are so bad as to retain less of the Uses and Ends of Government than they destroy and it can be made apparent endeavours of Change cannot introduce so great and general Mischiefs or that even Anarchy it self cannot introduce greater Mischiefs than that Government is the Author of which hath come to pass in few Instances till then I say we must fear the Lord and the King and not meddle with them who are given to Change For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knows the ruin of them both Quest But what are Christian Subjects to do when Titles of Soveraignty or Legislative or Executive Powers of Laws are Disputed either betwixt various Pretensions of Princes or where the bounds of Power and Rights of Soveraignty and the Liberties and Properties of People are in Controversie Answ I shall no more intermeddle in that than the Doctrine of Christianity does which leaves all those things to the Laws and Constitutions of Nature of Nations and of each Particular Country The Duty of Christians is to those Soveraign Powers whose Authority is Current whose Image and Superscription is upon all things Publick the Powers that are in being are to be Obey'd according to the Ends of Government already Discoursed that is for the Punishment of Offenders for the Executing Judgment betwixt Man and Man for the securing Common Peace in all Godliness and Honesty Our Lord and his Apostles intimate nothing either way to strengthen or weaken the Claim of the Powers then present but declare Obedience to them Prayers and Thanksgivings for them as they then were although they could not have the clearest of Titles Christianity as it is strictly the Religion of Jesus Christ doth not make it self a Divider over Men nor Decide such Controversies which are quite of another Cognisance yet it subverts no Rights it betrays no Liberties justly so called it reverses no Laws of Nature nor rescinds Constitutions and Compacts of Government but teaches Men to do all they can to preserve Common Good and Right determinable upon other Principles Only this the more clear ancient and indisputable the Titles of Princes are the more indisputable Boundaries betwixt Prince and People are kept the greater are the Obligations of Obedience of quiet and peaceable rest in that Obedience of the most vigorous Defence of the Power over us and the greater the Guilt of any of the Sins of Mutiny Faction Sedition Rebellion Quest The Discourse of the Power of Magistrates in Religion hath brought to my thoughts National Religion and a National Church wherein I desire your Instruction Answ I can but apply what I have said in general to this Particular Case which I shall endeavour to do to your satisfaction in these six Propositions Quest What is the first Proposition I am to be Instructed by Answ It is this That to join in True Religion with our Native Country or Nation is such a Law of Nature that cannot be reversed For the sake of the True Religion we may be oblig'd to forsake not only our Country but our Fathers House and to unite to the Church of God founded in that True Religion yet in the mean time we must own all that is Divine Rational True weresoever we find it much more in our Native Country and if it be possible propagate True Religion upon it For we shall not only be judged in this World with our Nation but shall rise with it at the Day of Judgment in the same Station or Lott wherein we were placed in this World according to our doing good in it we shall receive our Reward with those of it that are saved who shall then survive in Glory and become as if they were the whole Nation the perishing part being lost as we therefore desire the prosperity of it in this World so ought we to endeavour by all means the Eternal Happiness of as many of it as we can by joyning with them and ingaging them in True Religion Quest I desire your Second Proposition Answ It is this That in a Political Sense National Religion is when Magistrates and the Body of the People joyn in the True Religion and Establish it by Law and devote to it the most Publick Advantages that the Largeness and Grandeur of such a Nation have in their Power fixing Characters of Civil Honour and ample Condition upon the Rulers of the Church and Communicating to them Magistratical Power in things pertaining to the External Defence Honour and Provision for the True Religion as it is National all which so far as it is Serviceable to the best Ends is acceptable to God our Saviour who is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace and ought to be Submitted to with Reverence both in Obedience to Government and also as it is done in Honour to the Name of God and True Religion The State of the Church in times of Persecution being not the Standard as to these things in the prosperous times of it Quest I now desire the Third Proposition Answ The Government of a Nation in Religion appointing and prescribing Liturgies Confessions of Faith Catechisms and Publick Forms of Instruction or Homilies they may be so far useful as when they are composed according to the Word of God to secure True Religion and the Publick Administration of it by so much publickly Ratified and requiring of all whom it Intrusts as Ministers of the Word of God under its Approbation and Maintenance to assent to the Truth of Religion so Compriz'd and Publickly to declare it by using them as is appointed But these are not to be understood to put Limits upon the Ministers of the Word first entrusted by Christ who are both in Prayer Preaching the Gospel and all means of Instruction to search into all the Scripture that is profitable for Doctrine Instruction Reproof and to Pray with all Prayer and Supplication according to the particular occasions and in that abundance and liberality of the Divine Oracles that they themselves may
Possibility those Holy Men Writers of Scripture might at other times when the Spirit was not so immediately present to them alter or add of another Alloy to what themselves had been the Instruments of conveying from God to the World Or might not Pretenders arise and give out False Scripture to the World that had none of that True Spirit Answ When once any Part of Divine Testimony was committed to Writing it became a Boundary to those very Penmen much more to all others that they were always concluded by it So that besides the Dread and Awe of God and of the great Sin of Falsification of his Truth or Name they could not alter any thing so as to disagree with what they had before spoken by the Divine Spirit whose Righteous Judgments endure for ever nor could they so much as imitate themselves when unassisted by the Holy Spirit When therefore they did not understand by immediaâ—â— Assistance the utmost End and Reach of what themselâ—â—â— were enabled to speak and write they did and they could do no more search and pronounce by all the best ordinary Helps God afforded them but could change nothing could add nothing they searched what or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ in them did signifie they could not pronounce of the Time when not revealed to them They knew the dreadful Anathema ready to fall even upon an Angel from Heaven that should preach another Gospel The least Iota once established by Unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness was less movable than Heaven and Earth and would bear no Addition but of the same Authority by which it self was given And even the very Manner Method Words as they meet to carry such a Sense have their Majesty and Divineness so that whatever was by Inspiration from God bridled that which was not and they that were inspir'd knew in what they were inspir'd and what they spoke as so inspired and in what they were not but were as Samson with his Locks cut no more than like other Men and most cautiously distinguish'd betwixt the one and the other Nothing therefore hath assayed to joyn it self to Scripture if any hath dar'd to do it it hath been rejected by it when not of the High and Publick Spirit of it Quest But did not the Writers of the New Testament reverse the Writings and Commands of the Old which thing so scandalised the Jews against our Lord his Disciples and Gospel Answ No otherwise than as the Sun commands the Shadow to fly away and the lesser Lights to retire when it self appears or the things typ'd out being come make useless the Types so that they necessarily give place or as Pictures vail when the Life is present Else there was such a Respect to the Scriptures of the Old Testament in those of the New as to avow them of God before them â—nd Elder Scripture than themselves so that they vouch'd them for all they said and taught and staid the time of themselves being tried proved and sufficiently confirmed and Canonized into Scripture by the Scriptures that were undoubtedly so before them and in the very same Methods that they came into the Honour of being Scripture Upon which account the Apostle calls them the more sure Word of Prophesie more sure because of greater Antiquity and Elder Reception into Scripture than that Historical Relation and Doctrine which yet was immediately to pass into Scripture of the same Authority and Value with former Scripture and of greater Evidence and Divine Clearness and recommended by Higher Appearances of Divinity And on this same account the New Testament derives it self from the Old sometimes by Proofs out of it drawn according to the most regular Trains and Consequences sometimes by more immediate and authoritative Interpretation but of the same Publick and Divine Inspiration with the Prophecy of Old Time it self as shall be presently more fully discours'd under the Head of Interpretation Quest How far and to what things does the Rule of the Word of God extend Answ To all things most assuredly that are necessary to Salvation and Eternal Life or to the true perfecting the Conscience in Purity and Peace whether they are things to be believed as the Springs of Heavenly Action or Things to be observed in the Worship of God or to guide the Practice and order the Conversation aright to that Salvation or that are prescribed according to the Will of God for Discipline and Government of the Church All these are plainly written or by just Consequences to be derived from the Word of God so far as they are necessary to shew Men the way to please God or to assure them they do please God that so they may attain the Promise of Eternal Life Quest Is there no other Rule of Religion then but the Scriptures embracing the Law of Nature Answ There can be none except either Religion were not derived wholly from God and therefore not so Catholick as we have asserted it or except any other Record of Religion can shew its Descent as High and Publick as Scripture does Of which Proof which Scripture gives of it self and what it is Inquiry is in the next place to be made CAP. VI. Of the Proof of Scripture That it is of God and that the Proof also is Publick and Divine Quest WHat kind of Proof of so Divine a Record as Scripture is high enough to prove it to be so Divine Answ That which is even as the Original of Scripture Divine also Quest Why must the Proof or Evidence of Scripture be Divine Answ 1. Because it is below the Dignity of Divine to receive its principal Proof from Private or lower than Divine or Publick 2. Because nothing but Divine can so reach the Conscience as to fill and possess it with satisfactory Evidence in so great a Concernment as Religion nor strikes the Heart with those great Effects of Love to Fear of Joy in Scripture and the Word of God so essential to Religion but Divine When ye received the Word of God ye received it not as the Word of Men but as it is in Truth the Word of God 3. Because it is impossible what is truly Divine should not dart the Rays of Divinity as all other Things of Excellency send out the Beams of that Excellency they have and thereby discover themselves For we know all things especially by themselves The Light remonstrates it self by it self The Genius of every Writer shews it self first by it self We see the Divineness of Creation and Miracles by themselves Best and Greatest is self-evidently Divine and whatever it is written upon is evidently Divine also Quest How does Scripture shew it self thus Divine Answ By a Majestick Assumption to it self to be Divine it speaks so in and of all things it speaks and as it pleases effects as Divine only does and can effect and is the Best and Greatest Record of Truth to all Holy and Wise Minds The only extant inviolate Record of Natural and