for above three hundred years after St. Paul wrote this Epistle and was so far from denying her Communion to all other Churches but those which would accept it upon such terms as those which Nahash the Ammonite propos'd to the men of Jabesh-Gilead 1 Sam. 11.2 On this condition will I make a Covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes Or from saying to them as the Bramble in the Parable of Jotham said unto the Trees Judg. 9.15 If in truth ye anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let fire come out of the Bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon That in the sixth Canon of the Council of Nice which in the Arabick Canons is the eighth the Bishop of Rome is proposed as an example to the Bishop of Alexandria to contain himself within his own limits 2. It is not Apostolick for the Apostles knew nothing of any Superiority and Subjection among themselves or among the Churches which were founded by them They knew no other Head of the Church Col. 1.18 but Him who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the pre-eminence They knew no other Foundation but that of Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2.20 Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone And in that Foundation all the Apostles were as much of the Foundation as any one of them and therefore are called Twelve Foundations Revel 21.14 The Church of Jerusalem was in some sense the Root of all Churches St. Paul calleth it so Rom. 11.17 But it never claimed any Superiority over all other Churches upon that account But as for the Church of Rome he saith plainly in the same Verse that it was not the Root but a Branch of a Wild-Olive graffed in among other Branches and with them partook of the Root and Fatness of the Olive-Tree And as if he had foreseen how ready that Church would be to boast it self against other Churches he gives them an Admonition against it in the next Verse Boast not against the Branches but if thou boast thou bearest not the Root but the Root thee And argues the matter with them in the next Verse Thou wilt say then the Branches were broken off that I might be graffed in Well because of Vnbelief they were broken off and thou standest by Faith be not high-minded but fear for if God spared not the Natural Branches take heed lest he also spare not thee And sets before them the example of Gods Severity against the Natural Branches as a warning to them not to be high-minded but fear at the next Verse Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but towards thee Goodness if thou continue in his Goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off 3. As it is not Catholick nor Apostolick so it is so far from Truth that there never was a more Fundamental Errour than that of a Local Church which is such a Pillar and Ground of Truth that it cannot err But if in the Epistle to the Romans there is no mention of such a Pillar and Ground of Truth and in this Epistle to Timothy where these words are found there is not any mention of the Church of Rome I need not say any more to shew how much they are out in the first Particular which is the Church Let us proceed to the second Particular which is the Truth and see if they be not as much out in the Truth as they are in the Church 1. The Truth of which the Church is the Pillar and Ground is not all Truth For there are many Truths for which the Church is not concern'd they may stand or fall according to the strength or weakness of those Arguments by which they are supported or with which they are assaulted without any peril or prejudice to the Church God who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth hath set up a Church to lead men to the knowledge of all that Truth which is necessary for them that they may be saved but as for many other Truths which are profess'd and taught in Schools and Universities as all men are not born to be bred up in them so the knowledge of them is not so necessary to them but that they may be saved without it When Christ promis'd his Disciples that he would send them the Spirit of Truth Joh. 16.13 to guide them into all Truth He spake of that Truth which was necessary for them to know for the discharging of that Office and Ministry which he had committed to them not all other Truth And therefore when the Manichees gloried in him who was the Patriarch of their Sect that he was a man full of the Holy Ghost and led into all Truth for that he could discourse of Truths in Astronomy and other Mathematical Sciences St. Austin answer'd them very well That this was no Argument to prove that he was full of the Holy Ghost for the Holy Ghost was not given to lead men into such Truths for he was not given to make Mathematicians but Christians And though it is true that the Infallible Chair doth not in these days meddle with Truths of this nature there was a time when it did but so unluckily as to condemn one Virgilius for holding that there were Antipodes and that the Earth is round and the Sun and Moon and Stars move about it in the other Hemisphere as they do in this which is a demonstrable Truth But to let this pass as it is not all Truth so neither is it all Theological Truth or Truth in Divinity for Divinity is a Science in which there are some Truths which dwell in that Light which is so inaccessible that the most learned men are not asham'd to confess that such knowledge is too wonderful for them and that they cannot attain unto it And there be many other Truths about which learned men may differ in opinion and dispute with so much probability on either side that though the Truth cannot be with both of them because what the one affirms the other denieth yet they who are in the Errour may be perswaded that the Truth is with them and their Errour shall not prejudice their Salvation unless they suffer themselves to be led into it by some prejudice or passion or be so obstinate in it as to shew that they seek not Truth but Victory and would rather persist in an Errour than by suffering themselves to be led out of it seem to acknowledge that they were in an Errour The Scriptures which are able to make all men wise unto Salvation are not so clear and evident in all things but that we may say of other Books of Scripture as St. Peter saith of the Epistles of St. Paul There are some things in them hard to be understood But the more hard they are to be
the City who got their Wealth by making Silver Shrines for Diana were so alarm'd at the success of it as to perceive that the Temple of the great Goddess Diana would be despis'd and her Magnificence destroyed whom all Asia and the World worshipped And which troubled them more their Trade was in great danger to be lost for that was the first Argument which Demetrius us'd to raise them up into an uproar Vers 25. Sirs ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth The Church of Ephesus had this further Honour not only to be one of the Seven Churches which were presented to St. John in the Vision of Seven Golden Candlesticks and Christ in the midst of them commanding him to write so many Epistles to them which he himself dictated to him but to be the first of them Revel 1.11 and the Character which he gives of that Church is such as might well become a Church which was a Pillar and Ground of the Truth Revel 2.2 3. I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil And thou hast tryed them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them lyars and hast born and hast patience and for my Names sake hast laboured and hast not fainted Now if the Church of Ephesus which had all this Honour had aspir'd to a Supremacy over all other Churches it might have made a fairer Title to it by St. Paul than that which the Church of Rome hath made by St. Peter For St. Gal. 1.15 Paul was separated to his Office from his Mothers Womb. He was called to it in a singular and extraordinary manner by Christ appearing to him in a Vision from Heaven Acts 9.3 He was honour'd by him with this Character Vers 15. He is a chosen Vessel unto me to bear my Name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel 2 Cor. 11.5 He was not a whit behind the very chief Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 He laboured more abundantly than they all 2 Cor. 11.28 The care of all the Churches lay upon him Rom. 15.20 He strived to preach the Gospel not where Christ was named lest he should build upon another mans foundation He conferred not with flesh and blood Gal. 1.16 17 neither went he up to Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before him They who seem'd to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him Gal. 2.6 He was so far from learning any thing of St. Vers 11. Peter and from looking upon him as his Superiour that he withstood him to the face and told him plainly that he and others whom he had misled walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel Vers 14. And St. Peter was so far from rebuking him for his insolence as to make an honourable mention of him 2 Pet. 3.15 Our beloved Brother Paul according to the Wisdom given to him St. Paul who was thus highly honour'd had been Preaching the Gospel to the Ephesians for the space of three years Acts 20.31 But there is not so much as any express mention in the Scripture that ever St. Peter was at Rome and we may see they are hard put to prove it when they cannot alledge any one Text for it but that 1 Pet. 5.15 The Church which is at Babylon elect together with you saluteth you It was likewise a singular care which St. Paul had of the Church of Ephesus that in his absence he commended the care of it to Timothy 1 Tim. 1.1 a person indear'd to him by many Names 2 Tim. 1.1 Col. 1.1 Rom. 16.21 His own Son in the Faith His beloved Son His Brother His Work-fellow and wrote two Epistles to him to let him know how he ought to behave himself in so excellent and worthy a Province as that which he calleth The House of God the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth Whereas St. Peter never wrote any one Epistle to the Romans nor do we read of any one whom he left to take care of that Church in his absence though he was so much absent that it is much doubted whether he were ever there For all that the ancient Fathers have written of his being Bishop of Antioch seven years and after that Bishop of Rome twenty and five years and after that crucified under Nero is upon the Testimony of Eusebius of whom Bellarmine saith that he was deceiv'd in some things and we are very well assur'd that he was deceived in this for three years after St. Paul's Conversion he went up not to Rome but to Jerusalem to see Peter Gal 1.18 and there he found him and abode with him fifteen days Gal. 2.1 9. Then fourteen years after he went up again to Jerusalem and there he found him He was present at the Council at Jerusalem as we read Act. 15. which was eighteen years after Christ And in the former Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles we find him there or thereabouts a great way from Rome After that he preach'd the Gospel to those of Pontus Asia Galatia Cappadocia and Bithynia And if after all this time he sate Bishop of Antioch seven years and after that five and twenty years Bishop of Rome he must out-live Nero more years than Nero Reigned and therefore he could not be crucified under him But as St. Paul who knew very well that he was not a whit behind the very chief Apostles 2 Cor. 11.5 did never offer to put himself before and above them all and among the Apostles there were some who in regard of their Personal Excellencies are called Chief and Pillars yet without any Jurisdiction over the rest so among Churches though the Churches of the East were more numerous and of greater note than those of the West they never requir'd any subjection from them and among the Eastern Churches though the Church of Ephesus was of great note and eminence it never assumed any Soveraignty over the other Churches There is no ground in Scripture nor in the Catholick and Apostolick Church that will afford any standing for such a Pillar as that of a Local Church which is to all other Churches as the Head in a Body to all the Members of that Body as a Foundation in a Building to all the Building that stands upon it as a Root in a Tree to all the Branches For though the Church of Rome arrogates to it self all these Titles together with that of the Catholick and Apostolick Church this is so far from being Catholick and Apostolick Truth that it is neither Catholick nor Apostolick nor Truth 1. It is not Catholick for though the City of Rome had that Dominion over the Kings of the Earth for which it was called Caput Orbis the Head of the World the Church of Rome did never claim any such Headship over all other Churches
serv'd to let them see that it was so well setled upon a sure and strong Foundation that it could not be overthrown And as all the Pillars of Heathenish Idolatry and Superstition which were so many Pillars of Lyes fell before it like Dagon before the Ark of God so that we may say of them as the Angel said of Babylon Revel 18.2 Babylon is faln is faln So we may say of this Pillar and Ground of Truth as Christ saith of the House built upon a Rock The Rain descended Matth. 7.25 and the Floods came and the Winds blew and beat upon it and it fell not for it was founded upon a Rock There have been from the beginning such as St. 2 Pet. 2.1 Peter calls False Prophets who have privily brought in damnable Heresies denying the Lord that bought them and have brought upon themselves swift destruction But that swift destruction which they have brought upon themselves hath served to the Edification of the Church in that Truth which they sought to destroy But this Pillar and Ground of Truth was never in so much danger to be thrown down by all the force and violence which Jews and Heathens have rais'd against it nor to be undermined by all the Heresies which False Prophets and False Apostles have devised as the Truth of it hath been to be perverted by that Church which hath endeavoured defendendo concutere to shake this Pillar and Ground by seeming to defend it For though it hath not removed the Pillar from the Ground but is so far Catholick and Apostolick as to hold the Foundation of which St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 3.11 Other Foundation can no man lay save that which is laid Jesus Christ they have done great wrong to the Truth by defacing the ancient Inscriptions which were first written upon this Pillar with such Alterations and Additions as they have made But all these Alterations and Additions have served to raise up many learned men and not a few of them of this Church of England to revive those ancient Inscriptions and make many Truths which are good and profitable to be known more legible than they were before St. Paul speaks of a time that should come 2 Tim. 4.3 when men would not endure sound Doctrine but according to their own lusts they would heap up to themselves Teachers having itching ears But as he saith in another place 1 Cor. 11.19 There must be Heresies that they which are approved may be made manifest So we may say of these itching ears and the confused multitude of Teachers which they have heaped to themselves They have serv'd to make them that are approved for holding fast the form of sound words and Doctrine which they have received from the Apostles and Apostolick Church the more manifest Some Profane Wits have pleas'd themselves in making Pasquins and clapping them upon this Pillar but they could never make them stick so fast but that they have faln to the ground and been trodden under feet of men But the Pillar and Ground of Truth can never fall The Ground on which it stands is the Rock Matth. 16.18 against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail The Faith by which it stands is the Belief of a Kingdom which cannot be moved Heb. 12.28 The Doctrine which is built upon this Faith is Sound Doctrine Tit. 1.9 and as there have been so there will be so many holding the profession of this Faith and Doctrine without wavering as will keep up this Pillar and Ground of Truth so long as the Pillars of Heaven and Earth shall stand and till He who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith bring us to the end of our Faith which is the Salvation of our Souls FINIS