believed by us to have bin heavenly inspired and the undoubted word of God and hence the settling of the Canon was no small sollicitude of the Primitive Church a point this of no small consequence for the attaining of Salvation to be believed yet not absolutely necessary since one may be saved without knowing the Scriptures and many were so before these writings * Nothing concerning Ecclesiastical Orders Ordinations Sacraments the Church'es absolving sinners inflicting censures prescribing publick Liturgies points fundamental and so called some of them at least Heb. 6. 2. in respect of the essence and government and unity of the Church tho not in respect of the Salvation of some member thereof Yet why not necessary to every person therein as having reference one way or other to their particular good * Nothing express concerning the obedience due to the Church and her Governours else why do so many deny it who confess the Creed and in it the Catholick Church and yet this a very necessary fundamental also in respect of Christian duties for ignorance whereof whilst especially they will not believe the Church in attesting her own authority how many deprive themselves of the help of her excellent rules not to name here the Evangelical Counsels of Celibacy and emptying our selves of our superfluous wealth recommended to us by her and her many injunctions sovereignly tending to the advancing of piety and bettering of manners which we will suppose here not to be contained in Scripture as frequent confession of sins to the Priest frequent Fasts hours of Prayer Communions which who knows not of how much moment they are for the abstaining from sin acquisition of Christian virtues and so consequently for our Salvation Now the obligation to know and believe these and such like Necessaries of this 2d sort varies according to several persons and conditions and according to the more or less evident proposal of them In this dispute as Dr. Potter acknowledgeth Char. mistak § 7. p. 242. of necessary and fundamental truths both truths and persons must be wisely distinguished The truth may be necessary in one sense that is not so in another and fundamental to some persons in certain respects which is not so to some others 1. * More points ought to be known and believed by one than by another according as more are made manifest to one than another by the Scriptures by the decision of the Church or any other way Where note that before the Church's determination of some points of faith one may have an obligation to believe them when another hath not if before this they be evidenced to him when not to another what I mean by evidence see before § 3. by what means or author soever it be he receives this evidence And after such evidence he that opposeth it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heretical in God's sight even before that he happens to be declared so by the Church'es censure and is made yet more perversly erroneous after her definitions and such obstinate error again is more or less dangerous besides the sin of obstinacy as the matter of the error is of more influence toward our Salvation whilst mean-while others not having the like evidence of them are yet free to dissent or disbelieve them but then after the Church'es definition those also upon this stronger evidence shall I call it or authority will become obliged to assent to them Again * more points ought to be known and believed by one than by another according as one hath more opportunity than another by studying the Scriptures the Church'es exposition thereof and her decrees to find out and discover such truths Art thou a Master in Israel saith our Saviour and knowest not these things See Heb. 5. 12. There are those who are not excused in acquiescing in the tenents of their particular education but who are bound to examine the general traditions and doctrines of the Church the ancient Fathers Ecclesiastical Histories c. Again others there are of another condition who are not so far obliged And in the former sort if they either depart from the foresaid doctrines themselves or continue a separation first made by others it will be a damnable Schism when perhaps the simplicity of the vulgar their followers will remain excused if the error be not in a point absolutely fundamental or will be much lightlier punished Luk. 12. 48. Which common people we must leave to God's secret mercies in the same manner as we do all those others who have not believed because they have not heard which Heathens also I charitably think shall not suffer for want of that Faith of which they had no Teacher as that Faith mentioned Jo. 3. 36. but for want of that the sound of which hath come to all the world in all times mentioned Heb. 11. 6. compared Rom. 1. 20 21. Thus many truths are necessary to be known by the Pastors and the Learned that are not so by the illiterate people And in respect of some vulgar I conceive that form Quisquis non confitetur or non credit Anathema sit concerning the Creeds drawn up against several hereticks by the four first General Councils is not to be understood to be of force against a pure nescience of some Articles thereof for there are many subtilties exceeding vulgar capacities and which they need not distinctly know but against an opposition of them or denial or non-confession of these points when they come to know the Church hath established them and condemned the contrary for thus to oppose the Church is not to be ignorant of them but heretical in them Tho t is not necessary to Salvation that either they should know the Church hath determined such a thing or that such a thing is a divine truth if such knowledg be beyond the compass of their moral endeavors sutable to their capacity and their vocation in the search of divine truth See this matter more largely discussed in the Disc. of Infallibility § 15. Nay if the Learned also should I say not be ignorant of but err in some point of such moment that by consequence such error destroys some chief principle of our faith yet this being supposed and granted possible that having used their just endeavor in the search of the truth they are by no sufficient proposal convinced of it and that mean-while they contend for the principle with the same or more pertinacity than for it with a resolution to desert it if once appearing to them any way repugnant to the other such an error will no way hazard Salvation Upon such Supposition Tho the Lutheran is conceived from his new fancied Ubiquity by consequence to destroy the verity of Christ's Humanity Again the Calvinist is conceived from God's eternal predetermination of all our actions c. by consequence to destroy God's Holiness and Justice in making him the Author of all sin points highly fundamental yet are not these holding
in which we may easily be deceived Ergo That it is true This for the Spirit In the next place to come to consider Whether all to have true and saving faith must be rationally assured thereof from the to-them-known Church-tradition And here we will grant as t is said before 1. That there is in Tradition sufficient ground for such assurance as is necessary and that it is a medium for necessary points of faith free from error 2. That the saith of very many hath this rational assurance and that any or most by some reasonable diligence may attain it for necessary points from the traditionary doctrine and practice which they may see and hear dispersed thro the Church for doubtles our careful Saviour hath provided a rational means sufficient for producing a full perswasion of faith in all sorts of men there where his Gospel is preached and this means all men for the ascertaining of their faith as much as may be are bound to seek after all their life according to their condition c. 3. That the Church-decrees may be certainly known and are easily understood and more easily in many things than the Scriptures namely where these happen to be doubtful to us and doubtful they are or should be where ever Church-tradition expounds them otherwise than we and hence that this point being supposed that the Church is infallible those who believing her to be so do rely upon her judgment have for the most part a stronger perswasion and those knowing her to be so have a more rational assurance of the truth of their faith in all other points than only relying on the perspicuity of Scriptures because the former persons faith rests on a double ground the saying of Scripture and the sense of the Church interpreting it And thus one adhering to the tradition and doctrines of the Church hath more warrant for his Faith than a single Scripturist 4. That those who hold Church-tradition fallible can have no other way an infallible evidence whereby they can demonstrate the truth of their faith But all these granted yet such a degree and measure of certainty or assurance as that of Tradition or Church-infallibility is seems not to be necessary to make faith salvifical or defect of such a motive sufficient to void it and render it no true divine and acceptable faith but an humane opinion and perswasion as some contend But saving faith may be begotten where the proponent of the word of God or of divine revelation mediate or immediate is not or at least is not known to be which is all one with the former to the believer's certainty infallible and it sufficeth to it that what one believes is the word of God and that he believe it in some degree or other predominant to unbelief to be so And this I think may be shewn in many instances and by many reasons 1. For first some at least of those primitive converts of the Apostles questionles endued with true faith yet believed before any certainty of the infallibity of their teachers or before or without seeing their miracles tho these also seen afforded to some no certainty who thought that such might be done by the Devil's power see Matt. 12. 24. Deut. 13. 1. meerly by the powerful operation of God's Spirit So the Eunuch to be a true believer needed no more than the bare exposition and relation of S. Philip So Cornelius and his friends some words of St. Peter The Jaylor and Lydia of S. Paul strangers and formerly altogether unknown to them the Holy Ghost presently unlocking their hearts and finishing the work For so the three thousand converted by S. Peter in one day supposing he at that time wraught miracles yet t is not probable that all these were spectators of them or yet auditors of his doctrine from his own mouth but believed only the relations of others persons fallible who stood near him The Bereans why examined they the Apostles doctrines if they knew or esteemed him infallible The Believers at Antioch zealous of the law why contested they with St. Paul and those of Jerusalem with S. Peter Act. 11. 2. if acknowledging them infallible Or the weaker brethren tho of the number of true Believers why doubted they long time of some meats unclean contrary to the Apostle's instruction T is true that whoever believes that which another relates must ipso facto believe the relater in that thing not to be deceived but yet he who in any other one thing doth not believe him doth not believe him to be infallible And granting that all the primitive Christians assented to the infallibility of the Hierosolymitan Council yet many points of their faith were learned not from the Council but private Doctors whom I have shewed that some of them accounted not infallible nor yet was their faith nullified thereby 2. Believers no way heretical or schismatical but submitting unto the Church in all things and believing her and her traditions to be infallible c and consequently whose faith is allowed by the most rigid exactors of certainty to be most safe and secure yet if things be well examined all of them cannot be said to have an infallible means or motive or proponent of their faith I mean so many as are neither able to search the H. Scriptures nor the Tradition of former times nor universal present Tradition nor yet the Catechisms and common writings of the Church neither for other points nor yet for this That the Church or the Tradition they rely upon is infallible But being young as many undoubtedly are made faithful Christians when children or illiterate necessitated to handy-labour quiescent in one place or perhaps inhabiting deserts and solitudes c do receive the doctrine of their faith believing and yeilding obedience thereto only from their Parents or the Curate of the place or from their bare reading or hearing read some portion of Scripture recommended to them for but not proved at all to them to be the word of God. Believing indeed what is truth and obeying it but having no more external argument or assurance thereof than another suppose educated in an erroneous Church and taking the false Tradition thereof for Apostolical hath of his error Now private teachers even within the Church may first possibly by their negligence be themselves ignorant or rationally uncertain of what they teach and a Catholic Priest be able to give no better account for his religion than the Protestant both inheriting their tenents from their next Ancestors For Error once begun is propagated afterward by Tradition as well as Truth Or 2ly being rationally certain of the truth yet may he wilfully for filthy lucre for fear for lasciviousnes c see 1 Thes. 2. 3 5 6. 2 Pet. 2. 14. misguide his disciples Or 3. lastly teaching only the truth which he perfectly knows yet is this his certainty tho something to the truth of the others faith nothing to their
certitude thereof as long as they are not certain that he is not deceived Neither doth any ones believing the Church to be infallible ascertain him of the truth of his faith if he believe this her infallibility only upon the relation of his Pastor for so he hath no more certainty of the Church'es infallibility than he hath of the truth of such a relation which we have shewed is liable to error And then again it is much to be noted that one believing only and not being certain of the Church'es infallibility tho he immediately received all his doctrines from her self yet this could produce no certainty of the truth of what he receives it being no good consequence I believe such a one is infallible therefore I am certain what he saith is true But lastly let one be certain of this one point That the Church or her tradition is infallible which how many are there that cannot clearly prove and then from this known let him have infallible certainty at once of all other points whatsoever that are delivered by her or it yet supposing any to learn what are these her doctrines not from her self but from his private Curate which doubtles many true believers within the Church'es communion do his faith cannot plead any certainty this way For there is some distance between my knowing the Churche's tradition to be infallible and knowing in every point what is her tradition That which is said by Mr. Knot against Chill p. 64 and 358. in this point That a fallible motive applying divine revelation by God's supernatural concours may produce an infallible act of faith is granted But then this act of faith is infallible not from the proponent but God's Spirit in respect of which as is shewed before all saving is also infallible faith but not therefore known always to the believer to be infallible See before § 38. Again that which is said by Dr. Holden Resol fidei 1. l. 2. ◠That their faith who depend on their Pastors instructions is tutissima ipsique in rebus fidei securi modo sint membra illius Ecclesiae quae veritatem omnem revelatam amplectitur docet cujusque pastores rectores medii istius quo sibi divina haec doctrina applicatur veram rationalem habuerint certitudinem is also granted but it seems to affirm only sufficient safety in their faith without their certainty of the truth thereof Now as those of one side cannot plead their faith certain and infallible from their hearing and believing their private Pastor so neither may those of another side from their reading and believing and resolving their faith into the Holy Scriptures For since not so much the Letter of Scripture as the Sense is the infallible word and revelation of God and the letter many times is capable not only when in expression ambiguous of divers senses but also when most seemingly-plain of another sense than they import because of the consonancy they are to have with some other Scriptures lest God's word be made to contradict Hence is one man's Bible where thus ambiguous as fallible a proponent to him in respect of the possibility of his mis-intepreting it as another man's Pastor in respect of his possibility of erring And indeed the former interpreting Scripture to himself seems to be less infallible in his faith than the other learning of his Pastor expounding it because he is more likely to mistake the sense thereof than the other els why is he appointed for his teacher whose faith he is to follow Heb. 13. 7 tho I affirm a sufficient and saving faith may be and is attained by either means hearing ones Pastor or reading the Scripture 3. Since all saving faith in us is the effect of the Spirit why may not our faith be so without any precedent rational certainty thereof According as it seems before granted That God's supernatural concours may advance an act of faith relying on a fallible motive into a belief infallible why may not this Spirit shew its strength then in the weaknes of external proposal But if we suppose it a partial cause and add to it for the production of faith not only some external proponent which that there is ordinarily is granted but this infallible and known also to be so Then to say nothing of the instances given before of the contrary nor to urge here why such an infallible proponent sometimes at least namely where the matter of our belief is as in many things it is most conformable to reason should not be a sufficient cause to beget saving faith without the supernatural concours of God's Spirit and what needs that to be also spiritually which is rationally discerned I ask what do we mean by a stronger and a weaker faith so often mentioned in Scripture Do we mean several degrees thereof the least of which is certain No. For we find doubt nay some degree of unbelief and that of the same thing sometime mixed with true faith See Mar. 9. 24. Mat. 14. 31. Which unbelief or doubt that it never happens in respect of the truth of the relation but always only in the supernaturalnes of the object I think none can rationally affirm See Luk. 24. 11. Only if there be not so much of assent as to turn the scale of our judgment then will it not be faith but either pure doubt or further unbelief Faith therefore as it comes both from the outward hearing of God's word and the several proofs thereof and also by the inward operation of the Spirit so is it capable of many degrees both from the several evidence of those proofs and also from the several influence of the Spirit God giving more external evidence to one than to another as to those who see miracles or who read and compare Scriptures and Councils than to those who only hearken to their Pastor and upon the same evidence made to many God giving a stronger adherence to such a truth to one than to another either * from the energy of the Spirit thro which many can die for Christ that cannot well dispute for him or also * from a natural more passionate temper or * from hiding from them contrary verisimilities and * from ignorance of the weapons of error c. So the unlearned many times believe and adhere to a truth more strongly thro ignorance of any arguments to the contrary than the learned do to the same thro reason assaulted with many doubts and a small argument to a weak understanding begets a more firm credence than a stronger to the learned So a true believer may be less confident thro a rational perswasion in his faith than another thro the violence of a misguiding lust in his falshood nay he may have less reason or proofs tho there be more for the one than this man hath for the other and yet his faith vivifical and acceptable and oftimes there is the greatest glory and merit in it when
carried away with every doctrine c. Eph. 4. 11 13 Her authority I say toward all such men is voided because these two the giving private men power thus to judge and then the punishing them if they do not consent or if they declare their dissent do contradict For t is saying to them I grant and teach you that when you shall judge any thing which I enjoyn you to be contrary to God's word as possibly it may be so often it is your duty not to obey me nevertheles for doing this your duty I may justly punish you by Excommunication Or 2ly Is it only to those decisions which she maketh in points of the truth whereof she is actually certain For thus it is pleaded by some That a Church which confesseth that she may err and mislead others and upon this consideration alloweth that private men may lawfully dissent from her may yet be sure that she doth not in such and such definitions contradict Scripture and therefore may according to the power given her by God Matt. 18. excommunicate her children for preaching contrary to or dissenting from her definitions and for violating her truth and her peace and upon this ground may affirm that what she thus binds on earth is bound in heaven as a man that may sleep run mad c may yet be sure that now at this time he is awake and in his wits See much-what the same said by Dr. Hammond concerning General Councils affixing Anathema's to their Decrees Paraenes § 12. p. 158. But this plea seems to ground the Church'es power of excommunicating and consequently her subjects necessity of obeying at least so far as not to contradict her definitions not upon her authority tho she as those Judges Deut. 17. 8. may be in some things liable to error but only upon her certainty of the truth in those things which she enjoyns as it is willingly granted she or any else of some things may be certain enough But then if others obedience depends not upon her determining or commanding but upon her being certain what is said before returns again they must have some means to know not only what she commands but also when she is certain in what she commands or that she commands nothing wherein she is uncertain in which she may be still uncertain even when she saith nay even when she thinks she is certain But there being no means to know this all men again will be left to their liberty The Church of England see before § 3. hath excommunicated all that shall say any thing is erroneous either in her Liturgy or 39. Articles Was she sure that she could not possibly mistake in any of these things which she hath said there if not such her Excommunication of contradicters will be according to this opinion unlawful Deut. 17. 12. it is said The man that will do presumptuously and not hearken unto the Priest even that man shall dye Matt. 18. 17. it is said If he will not hear the Church let him be as an heathen Are these punishments lawfully inflicted only in case that such Priest and Church be certain and infallible in their judgment or that such Priest and Church do not seem to any to mis-interpret the divine law 3ly Is it only to those decisions which she maketh in points fundamental But here the same doubts arise still For I demand Whether are you to judge or she which these are or how many Surely this is very necessary to be known If you grant that she must judge this too for you which or how many be fundamentals as Mr. Chillingworth saith 3. c. 39. § in all reason she must if in fundamentals she be acknowledged your guide and therefore he denies her to be a guide at all then this thing To how many of her decided points you are to consent lies only in her judgment And then I ask Since some Non-fundamentals are plain in Scripture and since in these Non-fundamentals if a private man may be infallibly certain of somethings as they say he may and upon this infallibility of his seems to be grounded all his dissent from the Church for in things tho not fundamental wherein he is not infallibly certain of the contrary I suppose he is also to consent to the Church'es judgment then surely the Church may be so too why should you not be here also tied to take her sentence when she saith that she is infallibly certain of them too as you do take her sentence when she telleth you how many are fundamental And if you are to consent tho it be against your own judgment in the greatest matters what reason is there you should not do it in lesser You will answer because in these greatest matters she cannot err but she may in others My reply is and may not you in others also err much more Is she to guide your judgment in the main and not in less matters Is Scripture be plain in these smaller points for you to guide your self by it is it not so much more in fundamentals why therefore relinquish you your own and adhere to her judgment in these things most plain in Scripture and then take up your own and leave hers in the rest especially when being asked your reason for this your plea is because such points are plain in Scripture But then if our Saviour as this opinion makes him enjoyns only subscription to the Church in fundamentals who sees not that it is as necessary that our Saviour should have told us which points those were els we may assent too much to her in things wherein she may err or too little in the other wherein she cannot err I mean fundamentals and so be certainly damn'd But then since tho the General Church cannot yet a National Church may err in fundamentals also and may apostatize therefore you are here according to that opinion to assume to your self to judge what points are truth and what not even in pretended fundamentals before you yeild any consent to any thing at all call'd fundamental or other which a National Church proposeth and thus a self-opinioned man may easily throw off the yoke of obedience to all the proposals of all except General Councils a thing very unreasonable And as unreasonable is that which some say on the other side That we may not contradict or oppose our Pastor or Bishop in smaller matters but may in the greater when-as indeed in these greater matters there is more reason for our obedience and far more danger if we err in our contradicting Therefore neither in Non-fundamentals nor yet in Fundamentals may we properly contradict them i. e. in opposing our particular judgment upon Scripture to theirs What then must be done you will say since our Pastors and Bishops may err in fundamentals and particular Churches may apostatize Resp. Why both in fundamentals and non-fundamentals also where any considerable doubting ariseth we may repair from them to a
reason or judgment may make use of the one for its guide as well as the other and when there seems contradiction against the other it seems much more easie by our private understandings to apprehend the Councils decision than to apprehend the sence of Scripture in such points as the Council decides and many may learn for example the orthodox tenets concerning the Trinity out of the Athanasian Creed that could not learn them out of Scripture without mistaking in some of them For tho it is true that a text of Scripture may be as plain as any decrees of a Council and that as we may judge what is the sence and meaning of such a decree so we may also of such a place of Scripture yet it may be presum'd that none of these plain Scriptures will ever be found opposite to the decree of such Council for if the place be so plain and intelligible to us surely so it would have bin to so learned and numerous a Council as well as to a private judgment Again what is said in Scripture concording with the decrees of Councils yet it may be presum'd is not there every way considering the counterpoise of other Scripture-texts so plainly said Else such Conciliary decisions are vain and we must likewise say that all expositions comments catechismes are no plainer than the text and to those who read Scriptures useles For words are only multiplied without necessity where what is said before is as plain as what is said after and the authority of the first infallible Thus if the Council remained as ambiguous as the Scripture supposing the Church infallible yet those who followed her sentence could receive no more satisfaction to their doubts than they had before and the sence of the Conciliary definitions might be disputed as much as of Scripture and both sides who subscribe to the Scriptures would also subscribe to them which we ordinarily see refused FINIS Concerning Obedience to ECCLESIASTICAL GOVERNORS and Tryal of DOCTRINES CONTENTS SUfficient Truth always to be found in the Church § 1. Yet false Doctors must be And their followers not safe § 2. Doctors therefore may be tried § 3. Several ways of Trial § 4. 1. By the H. Scriptures § 5. Where 1. Concerning Trials of Doctrines and Commands wherein Scriptures are silent § 6. 2. Concerning Doctrines and Commands where the Scripture seems to us doubtful § 12. 3. Concerning Doctrines c. to which Scriptures seem to us contrary § 13. 1. Where we must proceed to use a second Trial of Doctrines by the Doctors of the Church § 14. And beware of depending on our own judgment made upon the Scriptures § 14. That there is always some external Communion of Christianity or other not erring in knowledge necessary § 18. We necessarily to follow the judgment of the Church'es teachers where universally agreeing § 19. n. 1. Where divided 1. We to follow either side rather than our own judgment opposite to both § 20. 2. Of the two to follow those whom the other acknowledge to have the judgment or practice of former times on their side § 21. Where this judgment or practice is pleaded by both we to search and to follow that which we find so by our experience § 22. That this thing is not hard to be found § 23. The Fathers being not for the main either repugnant to one another or ambiguous or impertinent Where Of certain Cautions in making judgment of the tenets of the Ancients § 23. And some Church also in all ages being like the former § 30. And Heresy still either going or being thrust out of this Church § 32. And its beginning discerned by its paucity So that discreet Trial cannot mistake § 33. Who can search no further They to adhere to the judgment of the Christian Church wherein they live rather than to their own judgment against it § 36. 3. Trial of Doctrine and Doctors by the Holines those produce and these practise § 37. Where more Truth more Holiness § 38. And where more Holiness more Truth § 39. Where more Error more Vice and è converso § 40. In Churches therefore we to compare 1. the strictness or liberty of their doctrines discipline c. § 41. 2. Their abounding or deficiency in doctrines tending to Perfection § 42. 3. Their writings of Devotion § 46. 4. The Lives of their Saints or Holy men § 47. 4. Trial of Doctrines by the Conversion of Nations § 49. Concerning Obedience to Ecclesiastical Governors and Trial of Doctrines THat God by his Great Apostle Jesus Christ sent the clear light of all the mystery of our salvation into the world and that Christ hath and will continue it so much as is sufficient to us by his Substitutes in the same office unto the end thereof so that we need not remain in darknes but by our own default hath bin shewed you elsewhere in Sav. Ben. p. 12. c. and Succession of Clergy p. 1. But yet 1. it seems that notwithstanding these Substitutes there shall be some false teachers and as we hitherto see not all his other enemies so neither all error put under our Saviours feet as not sin so neither ignorance yet quite vanquished 1 Cor. 13. 12. because it so seemed good unto him for whom are all things as to permit evil always to make good arise more gloriously out of it so to permit error always 2 Pet. 2. 1. the more to illustrate truth and to make the followers of truth as well as of righteousnes by these oppositions more approved for their adherence to God and capable of greater reward it being far more glorious more acceptable to have discerned held defended the truth where there was a possibility a facility a pattern an opposition of error See for this 1 Cor. 11. 19. Matt. 10. 34 35. 17. 15. Act. 20. 29. 1 Tim. 4. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 20. compared with 16. c. 1 Jo. 2. 18. Luk. 2. 34. Jo. 9. 39. Rom. 9. 32. This is shewed also by experience even when there were infallible teachers there were also false ones mingled a contending for the law at Antioch Nicolaitanisme at Ephesus Rev. 2. 15 Divisions about their teachers at Corinth Circumcision at Galatia opposers of the Resurrection deniers of Christ's true Incarnation Hymeneus Diotrephes c. Else could not God at the beginning have published his truth to all Nations as well as to Abraham or spread the Gospel at first over all the world Could not our Saviour have laid the chief foundation of the Gospel so firm and evident that the whole Nation of the Jews together with the chief Priests and Pharisees and Herod and Pilat should have bin convinced thereof by their own sences in shewing himself with his wounded side and pierced hands and feet publickly at that grand Festival as formerly he had done in the Temple and in the Streets in their Palaces and Courts and
Teachers of the Church present and past by whom we may learn what is the constant tradition of the Church which Church hath always preserved and perused the Scriptures and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail 2. To conform our minds the better to the expositions of which Doctors of the Church we are advised not to rely much on our own reason and judgment See Rom. 12. 16. Prov. 3. 5. 28. 26. Is. 5. 21. Prov. 12. 15. 11. 14. And to be the more perfectly convinced by experience also how easily our reason is misguided by Reason I mean reasoning upon not its own but Scripture-principles after having recollected how many times our selves have changed our opinion in Theological matters the same holy writings guiding us at all times being as confident in our former then as now in our present tenet 1. Consider that whilst in every Nation doubtles there are many of excellent judgments turning the same Gospel reading the same books of controversie which they both mutually answer yet in a manner all those of one Kingdom or Government do so espouse one opinion and all of another a contrary that they will both lay down their lives in defence thereof and so their posterity after them And this happens partly because there is no tenet but that there is some verisimility in it and some reason for it that seems to many hard to be answered which reason according to our party we lay for a foundation and then fit all other contrary arguments by distinctions how absurd soever unto it being certain that no truths contradict one another and hence do both sides especially in answoring objections accuse the other of going against their conscience But this happens more from not equality of arguments for every side but opposite interests of the controvertists which interests commonly prevent the access to or just force of those arguments upon the understanding where the truth if it should prove contrary to those interests will undo them Therefore they make either none or a very negligent search into their adversaries tenets and reasons as delivered in their own writings or into the doctrines of Antiquity when quoted against them Notwithstanding which interest being rather hereditary than by themselves contracted they mistake themselves to be indifferent and any way unbiassed 2. Consider how those who have the Scriptures most common yet when free from the yoke of Ecclesiastical authority do run into most diversity of opinions and those not slight or void of danger to their salvation In particular the Socinian abstracting from all Church-authority and committing himself only to Scripture and his reason yet who more than he opposeth things which seem most clear in Scripture For what more plain there than that this world was created by the Word the Son of God Jo. 1. 1. Heb. 1. And therefore also the Reformed more than the Romanist tho in both there are many differences is censured for diversity of opinions Nisi adsit spiritus prudentiae nihil proderit verbum Dei saith Calvin witness those of Munster And worthy here of serious consideration is the reason why Timothy and Titus are advised to avoid i. e. not to interest much or practise themselves in or meddle with vain curiosities and questions of science falsly so called because they will increase still unto more ungodliness and eat further as doth a Canker or gangrene and strife gender strife and questions minister more questions See 2 Tim. 2. 16 17 23. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 2 Tim. 3. 7. Tit. 3. 9. compared with 10. which argues he was forbid much disputing with such perverse men And t is likely Hymeneus c at their first differing from doctrines delivered attempted not the denial of the Resurrection Which continually greater intanglings of Reason left to it self do extremely prove the weaknes of it and the unreasonablenes of trusting to it 3. Consider that as the Pharisee that was so blind Matt. 23. 16. thought he only saw Jo. 9. 41. and that others were blind Jo. 7. 49. so whilst we think others misled with passion we are no less misled therewith than they and so they also think of us only we do less discern it And in thus standing upon and preferring our own judgment before others that search the Scriptures as well as we we presume either that we have better naturals than they or else more integrity and honesty than they and what root can this proceed from but pride and uncharitablenes no good pre-dispositions for the discovery of truth see 1 Tim. 6. 4. 1 Cor. 8. 2. 4. Consider that for ordinary readers over the New Testament is spread a veil as was over the Law for the Jews 2 Cor. 3. 14. and the knowledge thereof is attained not thro the strength of Reason but illumination of the Spirit and the like entertainment as the word preached then found with several persons the same now doth the word written Now self-conceitednes of their own wisdom was then the greatest impediment that could be to the understanding of the mystery of the Gospel for that which was truth was some way or other to them foolishnes And no where were there so few converted as at self-conceited Athens See 1 Cor. 1. 17. c. 1 Cor. 2. 6. c. 3. 18. c. Rom. 1. 22. Lu. 10. 21. Why so because knowledge or a great stock of falsly so called reason maketh proud 1 Cor. 8. 1. and pride hinders the Spirit by which Spirit only is had true knowledge the way to which is humility mortification and abnegation of that which of all things is most our self the rational part of man and extremely addicting our selves unto holines that so we may discern truth see Psal. 25. 12 14. Ps. 111. 10. Jo. 7. 17. 14. 21. 8. 12. see below § 39. And he that is so disposed is more inclined to obedience of others than reliance on himself and then Qui didicit obedire nescit judicare And if we prove this way also betrayed to error yet is this error more excusable before God accompanied with these qualities than truth can be acceptable to him possessed with pride There is great reason then that we should not depend only on our own judgment or on the Scriptures as we interpret them but diligently search also the former practice and tenets of the Churches of God and consult the present judgment of those * who have the promise of not erring at least in knowledge necessary to salvation nor in other things so far as that any may therefore lawfully reject their external communion for which see Church-gov 2. part § 31. 3d. part § 62. * who are the Successors of the Apostles 2 Tim. 2. 2. the Apostles of the Churches and the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8. 23 * who are appointed by Christ for the building up of the Church and perfecting of the Saints and especially that
unrepented of before death must needs as other sins do exclude all such out of heaven and tho the Excommunications of the Church have also here a dreadful power whereby he is deprived of her prayers also and receives her curse yet in such a Church by the great light of Scripture therein retained there may be and ordinarily is so much truth asserted as joyned with christian obedience is sufficient for his salvation who is guiltless in these crimes Neither are the Church-Excommunications further powerful in their censure than others are guilty of the offence But yet such a one must know 1. First that he becomes guilty of Schism not only by not forsaking a known error or a byhim-counted unlawful communion but by where there is any remedy for it a purposed ignorance and carelesnes of further knowing truth where he hath reason to be jealous and sees a breach made in the Church of Christ. 2ly This misfortune happens to those not guilty of the Heresie or Schism of the Church wherein they live that the matter of the Heresie or Schism most times being in doctrines or practices if not necessary yet very beneficial for attaining Salvation that I say either by erroneous doctrines taught in such Church's or many profitable doctrines not taught or looser discipline practised there they run a much greater hazard of their Salvation See Dr. Potter sect 4. p. 115. Yet blessed be God for those whom he hath so far enlightned as to abide without obstinacy in their errors in any christian Society for we may presume that thence also many go to heaven and these not only hearers but perhaps some teachers also if not with their doctrines destroying the foundation Jesus Christ nor acting against conscience nor wilfully negligent to inform it as I fear many of them be See Ch. gov 3. part § 84. Besides trial of Doctrines by Scriptures and by the Doctors of the Church there is also a 3d. way of trial both of the Doctrines and Doctors and Churches which is much recommended by our Saviour Matt. 7. 15. c. and by his Apostles 1 Tim. 4. 7. 6. 3. 2 Tim. 2. 16. Tit. 1. 1. Jam. 3. 17. and that trial is as their doctrines tend more unto holines of life and as this fruit is more or less produced by them For tho this holines is by all doctrines equally pretended yet is it not by all doctrines equally advanced For many ill consequences there are following some doctrines more than others which tho they are disavowed and shaken off in the expositions of the teachers yet do they still adhere to them in the peoples practice As there are other doctrines which whereas perhaps as some mis-understood them they seem pernicious yet we find the followers thereof excelling in holines where the doctrine seems to commend and induce ignorance very studious and knowing where the doctrine seems to nourish boasting presumption and pride very humble and contrite in spirit whom when we find and that frequently walking just contrary to what we suppose their doctrines we are to imagin their doctrines not to be what we suppose the practice of the Church being the best expounder generally of her opinions But were it otherwise yet I conceive far better it were to have faulty doctrines mis-understood so as to produce holines than even those that are good mis-understood so as to produce profanenes and impiety Again there are fewer divine truths acknowledged in one Church perhaps than in another and so obedience less perfect and in a Church where there are no false doctrines affirmatively and positively taught yet perhaps many true ones areo mitted or also rejected such as are exceeding beneficial to produce sanctity Now 1. first this is certain that no lye abounds so much to the producing of holines as truth doth and the more true and orthodox any Church is and the more truths of God are embraced by her and none of his counsels rejected the more purity is in her For the whole design of our Saviour's coming into the world of the moulding of all the doctrines of the Law and of the Gospel these and not others was the advancing by them her sanctification So that I may say had there bin an error that could more have advanced it than these truths truth had bin error and that error had bin made truth Where then more of these divine rules are known and observed there will flourish more holines And therefore we may reflect Where more holines is found there probably are these better known and taught because where they are most taught there in all likelihood also they are most observed Therefore since all acknowledge the excellent sanctity and purity of the primitive times they must likewise grant that Church more orthodox which more closely retains their doctrines their discipline c. And it is an astonishment to me to see that those who so much admire the one yet so freely cut off and reject the other that effected it and now where practised do still effect it which they might by this know to have caused it for that where all other doctrines are put and these which used anciently are now cast aside in some Church's abrogated there such sanctity grows not nor is the brick made at all where the straw is denied How is it then that the fruit is so much commended and yet the root that bears it called superstition will-worship tyrannical abridgment of christian liberty * the equalling of things indifferent and of mens traditions so are all things called which in their conceit are not strictly commanded in Scripture notwithstanding all the holy examples which they may find in these Scriptures thereof and that the commands of God are made thereby not of none but of much more effect with the commandements of God * the placing salvation in mens devices and in the practising of their own inventions Again besides this that where more divine truths for I speak not here of other knowledge which many times proves a great enemy to piety are revealed there generally must be more holines because all divine truths tend to it see Psal. 119. 104 128. and ordinarily where the judgment is very much illuminated the affections cannot but follow it and the more light the soul hath in it the less likely it is to miss its way t is yet further to be observed that holines where ever we find it if not begotten by yet quickly begets truth that the passions brought into order do readily admit that heavenly light which less or more enlighteneth every one that cometh into the world The H. Ghost is a fire Matt. 3. 11. so that wheresoever the Spiritual light thereof is there is heat also and much more e contra And the mortification of lusts soon brings in orthodoxnes of opinion when the inclinations of the soul are so well regulated as truth is rather for at least not against them So that in that Church
teachers and is absolutely the aptest instrument for bringing in vices and making men in stead of being free from servants to their lusts See 2 Pet. 18 19. And we know what was the art of Jeroboam 1 Kin. 2. 28. It is too much for you c. Which thing wise Bacon also hath observed Nova secta ita se tantum late diffundit si portam luxuriae voluptatibus aperiat authoritati repugnet And 2ly when such pretence of liberty is not used for these things as doubtles many times it is not by the Doctors yet where there is no express restraint made of it it is almost irremediably abused to these ill ends by the people I mean to licentiousnes and satisfying of lusts to an occasion for the slesh Gal. 5. 13. to a cloak for wickednes and particularly as that place imports disobedience to authority 1 Pet. 2. 16. Therefore S. Paul much mistaken to be a patron of it Gal. 5. 1. tho he so much vindicated it in one thing against Jewish ceremonies and against these in one case that is when required as necessary to salvation for else himself many times conformed to them yet in the free using of all things lawful unto us c no man opposed liberty more than he nor practised it less See Rom. 14. cap. 1 Cor. 8. 9. cap. 1 Cor. 6. 12. He would teach for nothing and work at his trade would not eat and drink would not carry about a wife would keep under his body so as that he might not be brought under the power of any thing so as not to be able to abstain from it nay would not eat a bit of flesh as long as he lived if not himself but another should but receive any hurt by it And so no man more strict in his orders than he see 1 Cor. 14. cap. 11. 2 16. 4. 17. and in requiring obedience in all things For indeed however we slight small helps maxima pendent ex minimis 2. In Churches therefore in prosecution of this search we are to observe †not only whether they retain all truths absolutely necessary to be known to attain salvation for I think both the soberest of the Roman Church grant this to the Reformed and of the Reformed grant this to the Roman and both of them grant that the Scriptures plainly set them down †nor only whether their doctrines are not untrue or their commands not unlawful or either of these contrary to antiquity but also whether these Churches be not deficient in or also oppose many truths and practices delivered by Antiquity and taught and enjoyned elsewhere which neither are absolutely necessary to mens salvation nor yet absolutely indifferent but things very profitable and much conducing to it Where note that it is a great wrong to the perfection of Christianity if any should rank all points not absolutely necessary to salvation amongst things purely indifferent and of free use and wherein we may take our liberty of opinion or practice Those points which receive no excuse of impossibility nor no exception of time place or persons for the believing or practising of them are very few perhaps one Sacrament Baptism one Article of the Creed the belieiving in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour And yet those points without which the Church nor Christian religion cannot subsist and which those who have sufficient revelation are not to oppose or neglect to practice under some peril of their damnation are many We are therefore to observe in a Church whether these are not some way deficient whether as all vice is disallowed by her so all those means are recommended by her whereby vice may be destroyed and contrarily whether not some but all virtue and all the perfection thereof be proposed and pressed whether Christian virtues be recommended by her in the whole latitude of their efficacy and use or only in some part thereof As if something by her be pressed only as a duty of obedience to a command when as it is a special means also to procure some benefit As should she recommend alms only as a duty when as it is also a special means to appease God's wrath and to procure thro Christ remission of sin So should she recommend works only as a fruit of true faith when as they are a necessary condition of salvation since men will much sooner do these pressed to them in one sence than only in the other As many would sooner give some alms to appease God's wrath for some sin that afflicts the conscience than only not to commit the breach of a precept Again whether not only the precepts but all the higher counsels of the Gospel are held forth to her children For we must know that as under the Law none of all the Sacrifices were more grateful to God than the free-will-offerings i. e. when they willingly did more than God exacted from them in and conformably to those ways wherein he was pleased then to be worshipped by them So under the Gospel there is an acceptable free-willworship answering to that legal i. e. when one doth something for the measure time place and other circumstances of those holy duties wherein God is pleased to be served by us not in any thing else that is besides and unconformable unto them more than the Gospel hath prescribed Yet so that he who mean-while omits to do the like sinneth not against any command And this acceptable free-will-worship consists * either in an higher degree of performing some duty than is required under penalty of sin as praying seven times a day with David giving half his goods to the poor with Zacheus or yet more with the widow Lu. 21. 4. * or in using some means truly conducing to better performance of such duty more than is required or than we are confined to by any command As abstaining from some things lawfully used to help us the easilier to avoid some vice or excell in the practice of some duty as †when one liveth single useth course apparrel plain and spare diet chuseth an Ecclesiastical vocation more duly to wait on God more to subdue lust more to help the poor c. and †when one restraineth his liberty with Vows Provided always that this free-will-offering which is not required be always undertaken for the better doing of something commanded and required and be only a circumstance as it were of something that is in it self duty and be such as God hath recommended tho not enjoyned and Saints of God before us have practised Now since such things may lawfully be done upon our own undertaking much more are they not to be refused upon the Church's injunction which always with the command fails not to express a profitable end concerning which it is the duty of our humility to submit-unto and not question her judgment See more of this in Dr. Hammond's excellent note upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coloss. 2. We are therefore well to
2. And their followers not safe §. 3. Doctrines therefore may be tried §. 4. Several ways of Trial. §. 5. 1. By Scrip tures §. 6. Concerning trial of Doctrines and Commands which are not also enjoyned in Scripture §. 7. §. 8. §. 9. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. §. 10. 1. §. 11. 2. §. 12. Of Doctrines and commands where the Scriptures seem to us doubtful §. 13. Of doctrines c where the Scriptures seem to us contrary §. 14. Here we must use a 2d Trial by the Doctors of the Ch. And beware of depending on our own judgment upon the Scriptures 1. §. 15. 2. §. 16. 3. §. 17 4. Heb. â—â—◠§. 18. Always some external Communion or other not erring in knowledge necessary §. 19. n. 1. We necessarily to follow their Judgment where universally agreeing §. 19. 11. 2. §. 20. Where divided to follow either side rather than our own judgment opposite to both §. 21. Of the two to follow those whom the other acknowledg to have the practice of former times for them §. 22. Where this pleaded by both to search and follow that we find so by our experience §. 23. That this is not hard to find Of Fathers being not for the main repugnant ambiguous or impertinent §. 23. Certain Cautions concerning making judgment of the Tenets of the Fathers §. 25. §. 26. §. 27. §. 28. §. 29. §. 30. Some Church in all ages like the former §. 31. §. 32. Heresy still either going or being thrust out of it And in its beginning discerned by its paucity of followers §. 33. So that difence trial cannot mistake Lu. 22. 53. §. 34. See Submiss of judgm §. 15. §. 35. §. 36. Who can search no further to adhere to the judgment of the Christian Church they live in rather than their own against it §. 37. II. Trial of doctrines and Doctors by the holiness these produc◠〈◊〉 they practise §. 38. For where morâ— truth more holiness §. 39. And where more holines more truth §. 40. Where more error more vice and e converso §. 41. §. 42. n. 1. 1. In churches therefore to compare the strictnes or liberty of their Doctrines Discipline c. §. 42. n. 2. 2. Their abounding or deficiency in doctrines tending to perfection c. §. 43. §. 44. §. 45. §. 46. 3. Theâ—r writings of Devotion §. 47. 4. Thâ— lâ—ves of theâ—r Saints §. 48. §. 49. IVth Trial of Doctrines by the conversion of Nations §. 50. Conclusion §. 1. §. 2. Upon confession 1. that the Ch. Catholick contains not in it many oppositâ—â—â— but only one external Communion §. 3. â— That there is no salvation to any who are out of the internal communion of the Ch. Catholick §. 4. 3. Yet that salvation must be allowed to same who are out of the Ch. Catholicks external communion 4. Several sorts of those who live in an external communion Schismatical §. 5. 1. Those who make such separation not salvable without repentance §. 6. 2. Those who follow such leaders and continue the division upon the same motives and passions not salvable without repentance §. 7. 3. Those who follow such leaders in simplicity of heart and out of their condition considered invincible ignorance such in a salvable state tho suffering great disadvantages §. 8. n. 1. 4. Those who convinced of schism in such a Church yet rejoyn not themselves to the external communion of the Ch. Catholick tho consenting in all things with her Hindered 1. either by somerespects meerly temporal Such faulty but how highly I cannot pronounce §. 8. n. 2. Or by some considration and design mâ—eâ—y Spiâ—itual Such less fauâ—ty than the other yet â—em â—â—â— wholly justifiable §. 9. n. 1. Whether they continue still in a communion schismatical Which communion seems forbidden them 1. Both by the Scriptures §. 9. 11. 2. §. 9. n. 3. §. 9. n. 4. §. 10. 2. And by the injunctions of the Ch. Catholick §. II. To which such owe obedience §. 12. §. 13. Or whether they communicate with no Church at all who seem of the two the less unjustifiable §. 14. Yet are not wholly excusable §. 15. §. 16. §. 17. 5. Those who 1. much doubting the Church they live in to be schismatical yet are not fully convinced thereof or 2. who convinced yet deser their intended reconcilement till an expected opportunity That several circumstances considered both these may or may not be culpable §. 18. §. 19. A Query What is to be done if the Ch. catholick require some conformity to doctrines or practices against his conscience or particular judgment who seeks her communion §. 20. Several propositions tending to the solution of this Queâ—◠§. 21.
OF FAITH Necessary to SALVATION And of the NECESSARY GROUND OF Faith Salvifical Whether this alway in every Man must be INFALLIBILITY OXFORD Printed in the Year M DC LXXXVIII FIVE SHORT TREATISES I. Concerning Faith Necessary to Salvation II. Of Infallibility III. Concerning the Obligation of not Professing or Acting against our Judgment or Conscience IV. Concerning Obedience to Ecclesiastical Governors and Trial of Doctrines V. Concerning Salvation possible to be had in a Schismatical Communion Estius in Sent. 3. d. 23. §. 13. Utrum in haereticis vera sit Fides Articulorum in quibus non errant Quaestio est in utramque partem probabiliter a Doctoribus disputata Ibid. Fidei impertinens est per quod medium primae veritati credatur id est quo medio Deus utatur ad conferendum homini donum Fidei Ibid. Nihil vetat quo minus haeretici quamvis in multis errent in aliis tamen sic divinitus per fidem illustrati sint ut recte credant Courteous Reader THese Treatises by divers passages may seem to have been written before the Author was fully united to the Catholick Church So that some things in them are not so cautiously and clearly explained as had himself liv'd to publish them they would have been But we thought it our duty rather to represent them as he left them than to make any breach in the Discourse it self or to pull any threads out of so close and well wrought a contexture CORRIGENDA Page 8. Marg. such points very few p. 9. l. penult necessary besides the assent p. 32. l. 18. and is in some l. 38. some degree of incredulity Of Infallibility Pag. 15. l. 12. tho this can never p. 20. l. 1. pertaining to Faith methinks sufficient ibid. l. 9. in Doctrinals pertaining to Faith certain of truth p. 28. l. 17. But I say he shall never be so Of Submission of Judgment Pag. 30. l. 7. that it was generally practised Trial of Doctrine Pag. 21. l. 18. by most of differing p. 28. l. 5. He may be free l. 7. from the sin of Schisin and invincibly ignorant of the errors which are profess'd in his Communion he may attain in such a Church life everlasting because in desire he is hoped to be of the true Church l. 22. sufficient thro Godâ—s infinite goodness l. 23. crimes and invincibly errs in not-fundamentals errors unknown to them l. 30. we may hope Danger of Schism Pag. 3. l. 13. and if she deny it l. 14. which are accounted THE CONTENTS PART I. 1. COncerning Faith necessary for Salvation § 1. 1. Concerning the object or matter of Faith. 2. Concerning the necessity of our belief of such object of Faith. § 2. 1. That it is necessary to our salvation to believe whatever is known by us to be Gods word Where 1. Concerning our obligation to know any thing to be Gods word which knowledg obliges us afterward to belief § 3. 2. And concerning sufficient proposal § 6. 2. That it is not necessary to our salvation that all that is Gods word be known by us to be so or in general be known by us to be a truth § 10. Where 1. That it is necessary to salvation that some points of Gods word be expresly known by all Such points very few Not easily defined § 13. In respect of these the Apostles Creed too large 2. That it is highly advantageous to salvation that several other points of Gods word besides these be known § 14. 3. And our duty each one according to his calling to seek the knowledg of them In respect of which the Apostles Creed is too narrow § 15. 4. That the obligation of knowing these varieth according to several persons c. And § 17. That the Decrees of Councils not obligatory at least to some against a pure nescience but only opposition thereof and not any opposition but only when known to be their Decrees PART II. II. Concerning the necessary Ground of Faith Salvifical whether it must be in every Believer an Infallibility that the matter of such Faith is a Divine truth or Gods word § 20. Concessions § 21. I. Concerning the object of Faith that this is only Gods word II. Concerning the Act of Faith and the certainty which it may receive from the external motives of Scriptures Church Tradition § 22. That the Authority of Scriptures and Church is learnt from Universal Tradition § 23. Concessions concerning Tradition § 25. 1. That there is sufficient assurance in Tradition whether infallible or no to ground a firm Faith upon 2. That Tradition may have a sufficient certainty tho such Tradition be not absolutely Universal § 28. 3. That no one Age of the Church is mistaken in delivering any eminent Tradition § 29. 4. That the testimony of the present Age is sufficient to inform us therein § 30. 5. That Tradition of the Church is easier to be understood in some things expounded by her than the Scriptures § 31. 6. That the Church is a sufficiently-certain Guide to us in Doctrines proposed by her as Traditionary § 32. Digr 1. That all Traditions carry not equal certainty § 33. Digr 2. The difference between the Church's and Mahometan and Heathen Traditions III. Concerning the certainty which Faith may receive from the inward operation of God's Spirit § 35. Concessions concerning the Spirit 1. That it is always required besides outward means 2. That all Faith wrought by the Spirit is infallible § 36. 3. That sometimes the Spirit produceth evidence beyond science § 37. IV. That from these Concessions it follows not that all who savingly believe have or must have an infallible or such sufficient certainty as may possibly be had of what they believe § 38. Neither from the evidence of Scriptures § 39. Nor of the Spirit § 40. Nor of Church-Tradition § 41. For these following reasons § 43. Necessary Inferences upon the former reasons § 51. CONCERNING FAITH necessary to SALVATION AND Of the necessary Ground of Faith Salvifical Whether This always in every Man ought to be Infallibility SIR YOU have importuned me to communicate to You my opinion on these four Queries as being you say the chief subjects which are debated by our modern Controvertists and in which if one side should gain the victory there would follow a speedy decision of most other Theological Controversy The First concerning FAITH What or how much is necessary for our Salvation The Second concerning Infallibity in this Faith Whether it be necessary in every Believer to render his Faith Divine and Salvifical The Third concerning the Infallibility of the Church Whether this is at all or how far to be allowed The Fourth concerning Obedience and submission of private Judgment Whether this be due to the Church supposed not in all her decisions infallible For the two latter I must remain for a while your Debter On the two former I have returned you as briefly as
will be no more belief but sight and science which are opposed to faith properly so called See 2 Cor. 5. 7. Jo. 20. 29. The knowledge and assurance then of things past for time or far distant for place must be conveyed either by relation only or extraordinary revelation 2ly Again let it be granted That Tradition may be certain enough tho contradicted by some for what is there also in nature or sense that hath not by some bin opposed and not absolutely universal Els the Scriptures themselves are not received by sufficient tradition for most of the sacred books have bin opposed by some and that for a long time and some books by many But if notwithstanding this they be thought sufficiently attested so also may many other things whereof hath hapned some contest 3ly Let it be granted likewise that the universal Church of no one age can be mistaken in the delivering of any eminent and more material tradition wherein her care is interested For who so denies this must either affirm that no Tradition can be certain to us or that it is so only by the records and histories of former and those the very first times for if the present age may fail in these so might any present age before it except the first whereby the traditions of the present must be confirmed But since these records and writings of former times were casual and since our Saviour established his doctrine only in a succession of his messengers and from them only without any writings for a time the Church learned her faith surely Christians according to this tenent if destitute of writings would have bin left uncertain in their religion notwithstanding the provision made by our Saviour of Teachers of his Gospel to the worlds end 4ly Let it be further granted 1. Not only that he who diligently searcheth after the truth of a Tradition cannot ordinarily err or mistake that for a Tradition that is not or that for no Tradition that is but 2. that the general testimony of the present age is enough to warrant a Tradition to him from which he may receive a sufficient certainty without examining a succession of the same doctrine from the first age or searching the conformity of the present with former times as well as he is sufficiently assured that there was such a man as William the Conquerour or is such a City as Rome only by the general undisputed accord of all of the present time namely amongst whom he converseth without reading the Chronicles up to the Conquerour or consulting the several interjacent Provinces between his abode and Rome Nay 3ly let this also be yeilded concerning the present age That tho quo universalior as well universalitate loci as temporis traditio eo certior yet one without searching the universality of the present age may have sufficient assurance of what he believes from the publick Liturgies Canons Articles Catechisms and other common writings such as come to hand where they all or most accord one with another of which books also that such Fathers and Synods c. are the Authors as are pretended let it be likewise granted that he may learn from the same surenes of Tradition as he doth that such an one was an Emperour c. for so he believes the same Tradition for Tully or Livy being the author of such books as for Caesar being Emperour of such a people and then the same assurance which he hath of Secular Authors he may have of Sacred or as he doth that such are his Princes Proclamations or Edicts which he submits to without any signed testimony or any scruple that they are such nor doth any venture to transgres them upon the not absolute impossibility that they are forged 5ly Let it be granted which we know by experience That the Tradition of the Church is easilier understood in those points which she undertakes to expound than the Scriptures themselves which are by her explained For supposing the contrary then were Creeds Catechisms and all the Church'es teaching needles since of two things equally obscure the one can never illustrate or explain the other Therefore men may be more assured in many things of the doctrine and meaning of the Church than of the Scriptures As for example t is easier especially when not some single text is considered apart but all those which both sides urge are confronted together to understand what we are to hold concerning the Trinity from the Nicene Creed and concerning Grace and Free-will from the decrees of the Milevitan Council than from the Scriptures So in Luther's time it was easie for those to know the Church'es tenent and practice concerning Adoration of the Eucharist Auricular Confession Invocation of Saints c. who were not able to examin the doctrine of the Scriptures in such points so that it must be yeilded that Tradition is a more evident Guide for many things than those Sacred writings are 6ly Lastly since this Tradition of divine things in which above we have pleaded sufficient certainty to be is contained in the Church and delivered as it were from hand to hand by the successive Guides thereof therefore let it be granted That the Church which pretends not to make any new Articles of Faith at all but to recommend to her children what is deliver'd to her is infallible or a certain Guide to us in doctrines proposed by her as Traditionary in the same manner as Tradition may be said to be infallible or certain For to say Tradition is certain is to say we have some way to know Tradition suppose that Tradition of the Scriptures being God's word without being deceived in it and this way is the testimony of the Church therefore is this also certain Having made these Concessions concerning the evidence of Church-tradition and the sufficient testimony it affords us to ground our faith on at least in all the principal points of our religion wherein such Tradition both as to delivering a sufficient Canon of Scripture and the true meaning of this Canon is most full and unquestionable Yet I must mind you before I proceed further to avoid your mistaking that I hold not all Traditions that we meet with to have an equal certainty or creditablenes one as anther because all circumstances considered they have not an equal evidence but very different and therefore ought carefully to be examined and compared For example The Tradition that such a person suppose Mahomet lived in such an age may have much more certainty than that Mahomet or such a person said or did such or such a thing in that age Neither is the argumentation good The one is believed from Tradition therefore the other ought to be so because caetera non sunt paria and there may not be the same plenitude of Tradition for both and more may bear witness both in that and latter times of the one than do of the other Of Traditions therefore
plenary Tradition or undeniable deduction therefrom it being agreed that all her proposals or decrees are not such A Quaere very necessary to be resolved for those if any such there be who affix obedience of assent only to infallibility and this infallibility again only to such decrees but a Quaere for all others me-thinks not of so much concernment I find the marks of such distinction set down in Bell. de Conc. 2. l. 12. c. thus Quando autem decretum proponatur tanquam de fide facile cognoscitur ex verbis Concilii semper enim dicere solent 1. Se explicare fidem Catholicam 2. vel Haereticos habendos qui contrarium sentiunt vel quod est communissimum dicunt Anathema ab Ecclesia excludunt eos qui contrarium sentiunt What then what if it be only Anathema iis qui contrarium dicunt aut docent Quando autem nihil horum dicunt non est certum rem esse de side Thus Bellarmin But note here that Bellarmin tells us not plainly whether something in Councils is proposed tanquam de side without any Anathema set to it only he doubtingly saith non est certum and those others again who build the Church'es inerrability on Tradition and the evident Consequences thereof tel us not whether some of those Decisions that are enjoyned with Anathema's are not sometimes some of those secondary consequences more doubtful ad quas colligendas studium aliquod scientia requiritur or which are made by the judgment and learning of the Bishops considering texts of Scripture the doctrines of ancient Fathers and modern Doctors c. As indeed t is likely some of them are Anathema's being added so frequently even in smaller matters and in the newest controversies And perhaps it can hardly be shewn by these writers that every Proposition in a General Council that hath an Anathema affixed to it is traditional to such a degree of evidence since some Traditions are much more universal and evident than some others that it amounts to infallibility not from the assistance of the holy Spirit but from the clearnes of Tradition In this distinction therefore of points de fide or necessary credends wherein the Church is infallible exactly from others I think these Authors cannot speak out so clearly because tho some points are of much more certainty and also of much higher concernment than others yet Councils seem not so punctual in severing them by a diversity of expression unless in very few perhaps a thing not possible to be done by them see § 3. See Dr. Holden 1. l. 8. c. acknowledging some such thing In tradenda doctrina Christiana nunquam audivimus Ecclesiam articulorum revelatorum divinarum institutionum catalogum exhibuisse vel composuisse quo separatim cognosci possint hujusmodi sidei divinae dogmata ab omnibus aliis quae vel Ecclesiasticae sint institutionis vel quae centae revelationi divinae haud immediate innitantur atque ideo omnia simul confuse indistincte semper docuisse tradidisse Yet the same Councils may and do require subscription and obedience to all their definitions as they being the supreme and unappealable Judge * authorized by Christ for the peace and unity of the Church to give the law to all men * abundantly assisted by the Spirit of Truth for all Necessaries even the obscurest and most unacquainted doctrines if you can once prove them necessary and besides this if in some other matters of less concernment they be liable to error yet how much less they than private men And therefore their submission of judgment to these remains still most rational as well as obligatory The chief note which I find for the distinction of these points de fide wherein the Church is infallible from other determinations or proposals is the affixing of Anathema's which are the same with Excommunication But 1. first several of these Anathema's if we do rely on their form may require not internal assent as looking meerly at faith but non-contradiction as looking perhaps in some points more at peace many running only si quis dixerit c Anathema sit But if it be said that the Anathema's only that are set upon a Si quis sentiat or credat are the Index of such points de fide for necessary credends then will very few decrees of Councils pass for such for example not above four or five of all those made in the Council of Trent I mean as to this particular Index of Credends viz. Anathema and doubtles many more of the decisions of Councils are contended to be such credends than those that can shew this mark of Anathema fixed expresly to dissentients of which see more in Church-Government 4. Part. § 79. Again this injunction of Non-contradiction or of keeping silence tho it be * such as opposeth the saying that the contrary to the Church'es determination is a truth or that the Church erreth in any such decision much more an open departing for such unnecessary matter for the Church errs in no necessaries from her communion yet perhaps it is not * such as opposeth the making or humbly proposing of any doubt thereof at least in a second convening of the same Authority See I pray you in the denouncing of her Anathema's the great warines of the Council of Trent in 24. sess 7. c. Si quis dixerit Ecclesiam errare cum docuit propter adulterium c Anathema sit noted by Soave in his History of it p. 755. Engl. Ed. to be done because she would not censure * some of the Greek Church who held the contrary opinion as likewise * some of the Fathers as S. Ambrose And surely this Council's affixing Anathema's sometimes to so many Lutheran errors some doubtles of smaller moment as they were gather'd here and there by some persons appointed to that purpose out of Luther's writings because they were opposite to the common doctrines of the Church shews that her Anathema sometimes eyed more the petulancy and contradicting spirit of the Author than the importance of the Tenet and was sent forth more to secure her peace than her faith What should hinder I pray since some questions possibly may arise in the Church undecidable clearly by Tradition and since no doubt of all questions now agitated among the Schoolmen or other Catholicks one side is not traditional for then how could so many Catholicks oppose a thing of such evidence again since it is the Church'es duty to provide for peace and unity among her children as well as faith and truth and lastly since sharp and vehement contests may arise in such new controversies to the great disturbance thereof what should hinder I say that the Church in such cases may not impose silence on both parties or secondly using her best search and going upon such Scriptures and reasons as perhaps some side urgeth declare her judgment and that under some penalty on the opposers and gainsayers
I answer That from this judgment of such a Church so often as it is suspected by me I will not retreat to my private judgment but I will appeal to a more general judgment of the present Church which judgment I can either have conjunctim or divisim as it was ordinarily procured in ancient time and by the reformed opinion I shall be secure if I part not from the present Church for in fundamentals she shall in no age err but hold forth to me visibly the truth and if this error be in Non-fundamentals it amounts not as the reformed say to a heresy therefore will I still cleave to her i. e. the present Church and the supremest Authority I can find therein neither will I embrace any sence put upon Scriptures or Fathers against her because she cannot be at least in points of great consequence opposit to them And if that religion as it might have bin had bin conveyed to our days by unwritten Tradition and only so as the Apostle directed in 2 Tim. 2. 2 and that we had had neither New Testament-Scriptures nor writings of Fathers then I must have relied only on the guidance of the present Church neither needed she for this to have bin made more infallible than now she is and doubtles my faith should have bin nevertheles sufficiently grounded i. e. on the word of God still orally delivered by her neither could any have made an argument that my faith was not salvifical for this reason because fidei non potest subesse falsum for she must then in defect of all writings have bin confess'd the pillar and ground of truth and the dispenser or steward of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. the same then must she be still and Nations now as at the first before writings are still converted by her by her preaching before they come to peruse those Scriptures And so are we all also taught our faith first by her neither suffers she diminution in her authority from co-extant Scriptures and Fathers But yet besides that in these Scriptures is ascribed to her great authority any help that is from these writings enjoyed by any other is also by her that no body may boast over her in these advantages 2. It is objected That our faith to be salvifical must be grounded on something that is infallible and therefore only on God's word See this answered at large in the Treatise of Necessary faith § 43. c. Surely the Church groundeth her faith which she recommendeth to us on the Scriptures as well as private men think they do theirs when they leave hers to follow their own judgment And if the Church'es judgment is not neither is their own infallible for which they desert the Church'es But tho it is most true that true faith is always grounded on the word of God which word of God is infallible yet is it not necessary that every one who hath true faith do know that it is infallible or be infallibly certain of it For many have saving faith doubtles that learn this word of God only from a fallible man suppose from their Father or from their Pastor Neither is it necessary that this faith should be received from another person infallible besides God nor that it should be received from a writing at all There may be a strong adherence beyond evidence neither can it be unsufficient if it be so strong as to produce obedience to God's commands 3. T is said That one is for his salvation secure enough where ever these two are Unity of faith with the Church in fundamentals and then Charity toward the Church in the points not-fundamental wherein I disagree from her Charity i. e. not condemning her for them to be no Church c. I answer 1. First such a one must know well what are Fundamentals that perhaps he take not liberty to differ from the Church in any of them The Apostle reckons doctrines of Baptism and of laying on of hands among foundations Heb. 6. 2. if we will make unity in fundamentals so large as he doth I know not how many other points may be brought in And I am perswaded by reading the Catalogues of anciently-accounted Heresies that the Fathers and Primitive times would not have stuck to have pronounced some side highly heretical in those differences between the Reformed and the Catholic Church and even in those differences that are now in this Church of England about Baptism Bishops Ordination c. 2ly Without doubt there may be a larger unity of faith than only in fundamentals unles all points of faith be fundamental and if so then Churches that differ in any point of faith differ in fundamentals 3ly If there may be a larger unity then Spiritual Guides doubtles are set over us to build us up in the unity also of this faith and not only of fundamentals See Heb. 5. 11. c. 6. 1. And therefore why Eph. 4. 11. compared with 13. should be restrained only to fundamentals as it is by some it seems to me strange I cannot think that the Corinthians differed amongst themselves in fundamentals see 1 Cor. 1. 4. c and yet the Apostle is very angry with them for their divisions and exhorts them to be all of one judgment which union of judgment could not be by following the judgment each one of their private reason but of the Apostle and of their orthodox teachers appointed by him See 1 Cor. 1. 10. Rom. 12. 16 18. Rom. 15. 5 6. Phil. 1. 27. Phil. 2. 2 3. 1 Pet. 3. 8. where speaking the same thing and being joyned in the same judgment contending for the faith of the Gospel with one mind glorifying God with one mind and one mouth c. argue an unity required not only of charity but of opinion and judgment and that not only in fundamentals in which as I said all the factious Corinthians or most of them accorded but other beneficial truths which union how could so many judgments undependent of one another attain but by all of them retaining the same doctrine of their Pastor or Pastors 4ly If these points wherein the reformed recede from the authority of superior Councils be not very necessary tho not fundamental how can a separation for them be justified but if necessary why should we say that God requires not an unity of faith in them 5ly Again as faith and charity secure not our salvation if we be guilty of some other vice adultery c so they do not secure it if there be any denial of obedience where t is due especially to the Church disobedience towards whom is in a more special manner disobedience to Christ and to God himself and why may not this then endanger us if God hath provided teachers to keep us in the same judgment and we to the great hurt both of the Church and of our selves too by these divisions will every one follow his own judgment especially since
union of charity as this opinion limits it excludes not all separation from a superior authority but only requires non-condemning of such authority or those that adhere to it in our separation But here methinks the words of Cassander Consult Art. 7. are of some weight where granting that the reformers did not condemn the Church from which they separated yet Non video saith he quomodo illa interna societas consistere possit si publicam Ecclesiae consuetudinem in observatione tam universalium quam particularium rituum violes condemnes institutis majorum pertinaciter repugnes quod certe est contra officium charitatis qua maxime internam hanc unitatem consistere certissimum est Contra officium charitatis I say if we take charity not negatively for not hating cursing damning but positively for love and amity which sure the Apostle requires in all the members of Christ especially toward their Mother the Church which charity he describes 1 Cor. 13. 4. c to think no evil and well to interpret all things and we may judge this in private amity where our love ordinarily happens to be very cold toward the person whose ways customs conditions we once hate and condemn Certainly in the many sects now in this Church of England and in the division of the Protestant from the former Church tho it be supposed all these agree in fundamentals and have all such an union of charity to one another as is mentioned before yet there is a great fault somewhere for diversity of opinions that must be answered for by some side at the day of judgment nor doth the Church seem sufficiently in charity toward those superior Church-governors whose decisions and Canons she not only refuseth but also proceedeth so far as to reject their external communion and not to admit them or the Churches adhering to them to her communion because of the faultines wherewith she chargeth such their canons and decisions 6. Lastly let this be considered which you may find more prosecuted in Tryal of Doctr. § 42. c. that tho one follow the Church in fundamentals yet by departing from her judgment in other points he may lose many wholsom advices in things practical extremely profitable and advantageous to attaining salvation Our own judgment sways us to liberty and God knows how many souls have perisht in the reformed religion by throwing away the Church'es counsels and commands tho in to-them-seeming small matters as Fasting Confession c. And that text 2 Pet. 3. 16. methinks might a little affright us wherein the Apostle saith that there are things in Scripture that are hard to be understood sure these are not Fundamentals then which we contend are plain which are wrested by the unlearned and the unstable sure he means here men not adhering to the fixed doctrines of the Church to their own not harm but destruction 4ly It is urged that the H. Scriptures have commanded that all men lest they should perhaps be misguided should try and that by the same Scriptures their teachers doctrines that so if they find these doctrines not to agree with the H. Scriptures they may withdraw their belief from them See Jo. 5. 39. Act. 17. 11. 1 Jo. 4. 1. 1 Thes. 5. 21. 1 Cor. 10. 15. Matt. 16. 6 12. 15. 14. Gal. 1. 8 9. Esay 8. 20. In answer to this for a stricter examination of some of the texts here urged I must refer you to Succession of Clergy § c. and to Trial of Doctrines § 3. 11. c Only here this I say to them in general Trial of Doctrines by Scripture is 1. either of the doctrines of private teachers by the Church-governors of which no question is made or 2. of the doctrines of private teachers by private men and these they may try by the Scriptures so that they guide themselves left their trial be mistaken in the sence of these Scriptures according to the exposition thereof by the Church i. e. * in her General Councils or * in the most unanimous consent of those whom our Saviour departing left to be the Guides of the Church and Expositors of the Scriptures and if thus searching we find the doctrines of the teachers contrary to the Scriptures so expounded we may and ought to withdraw our belief from them Or 3ly this trial by Scriptures is of the doctrines of the Church i. e. of those doctrines which are delivered not by a private teacher but * by a general consent of the Church-guides at least the fullest which we can discover or * by General or other Superior Councils or * by the Apostles or by our Saviour Himself Now the allowance of such a trial may be understood in two sences 1. Either in this sence Search and try my or our doctrine by the Scriptures for you will surely find my doctrine agreeing thereto if you search aright and as you ought And in this sence the tryal by the Scriptures of the doctrines of the Church nay of the Apostles St. Paul's by the Bereans nay of Christ himself whether the Old Testament as he urged testified of Him is both allowed and recommended For since there is no difference of the teaching of Christ or of S. Paul or of the Church from the teaching of the Scripture the one will never fear but freely appeal to a trial by the other if it be rightly made Or 2ly it may be understood in this sence Search and try my doctrines by the Scriptures and if you in your search do not perceive it agreeable unto them I declare that you have no reason to believe or that you are excusable in rejecting my doctrine Now in this sence our Saviour or S. Paul or the other Scriptures never recommended private men's searching or gave any such priviledge to it unles you put in this clause that they have searched aright But if you put in this clause then is the searcher after his searching not yet at liberty to disbelieve the Apostle's or the Church'es doctrine till he is sure first that he hath searched aright I say our Saviour or the Scriptures cannot recommend searching in such a sence or upon such conditions 1. Because such a searcher or tryer by the Scriptures there may be as is prejudiced by passion or interest ormis-education or as searcheth negligently and coldly or as hath not a sufficient capacity to understand the Scriptures he searcheth when perhaps it is in some difficult point wherein they are not so clear as if he should search the text of the Old Testament in the point delivered by St. Paul of the abrogation of Circumcision under the Gospel Neither can any be easily secure of his dis-ingagement from all such Letts of using a right judgment in searching 2ly Because however the search or searcher prove there are other means and mediums by which is proved to men the truth of such doctrines and by which not bearing witnes to a falsity one may discover
then before all the people have ascended into Heaven to God and so have sealed for ever to that whole Nation the Confession of his being the Messias and thus with a great access to his Glory on earth have prevented their so great and long Apostacy What meaned he then to appear so sparingly and in corners the doors being shut and not to all the people saith the Apostle but to some few chosen to be witnesses tho he was not here defective in what was sufficient Again could not his Spirit that hath led some have led all into all truth if he had pleased to give it to them in a greater measure How easie had it bin for our Saviour who foresaw that sharp controversie concerning observance of the Ceremonial law by Christians the maintainers of which ceremonies contended only for them because they thought Christ had not abrogated them to have declared himself openly in that point when he was here on earth How easie for him foreseeing the controversies ever since even those so many about his own person those now between the Reformed and the Roman Church to have caused instead of an occasionally-written Epistle such a Creed as the Athanasian or such Articles as those of Trent or of the Augustan Confession or such a methodical clear Catechisme as now several Sects draw up for the instruction of their followers in the principles of their religion to have bin written by his Apostles Will any one say that had such writings bin H. Scripture yet these controversies had not bin prevented or at least not in some greater measure prevented than now they are Or would not brieflier all controversies have bin prevented had our Saviour as plainly said that the Roman Bishop should regulate the faith of his Church for ever as it may be said and is said by others There must be heresies then and therefore it seemed good to the wisdom of the Father that all things should not be done that might but only so much that was sufficient whereby they should be prevented Neither is it a good reasoning This was the best way for taking away all controversy and error in the Church that the Scriptures should plainly so as none may mistake set down all truths necessary to salvation or that there should be a known infallible Judge therefore they do so or therefore there is so because this seemed not best to God for the reasons fore-mentioned and for many other perhaps not known which made the Apostle cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11 33. to take away all controversie and error c no more than it did to prohibit in the world the being of evil I know not whether Tertullian's saying in praescript cont haer concerning this matter be not too bold Ipsas quoque Scripturas sic esse ex Dei voluntate dispositas ut haereticis materiam subministrarent And haereses sine aliquibus occasionibus Scripturarum accidere non poterant But we may make good use of it in being less rash and more circumspect in interpreting especially when we are singular where we may be so easily mistaken 2ly It seems since there is supposed sufficient means for all those who are in the Church to attain to the knowledge of all necessary truth for God and our Saviour have not bin wanting to his Church in necessaries that those who blindly obey such false guides as shall be in the world shall not be free from punishment tho they offend thro ignorance See Matt. 15. 14. Ezek. 33. 8. 3. 18. 3ly There being some doctrines false and danger in being misled by them it seems all doctrines may be tried and that by all persons See Jo. 5. 39 our Saviour bidding them try his Act. 17. 11. the Bereans and Act. 15. 2. the Antiochians trying S. Paul's See to this purpose 1 Jo. 4. 1. 1 Thes. 5. 21. Rev. 2. 2. 1 Cor. 10. 15. 11. 13. And the more trial the better so it be rightly performed whereby we may discover false doctrines and teachers that we may not be seduced by them whereby we may know more of God may confirm our belief of which there are many degrees in what we are taught and may be able to give better account to others of our faith 1 Pet. 3. 15. Col. 3. 16. and whereby truth will always have a great advantage of error For verum vero consonat 4. Now seeing that all Spiritual knowledge cometh first by Revelation from God the trial of any doctrine we doubt of is to be made either by the holy Scriptures written from the beginning by men inspired by the Holy Ghost or by the Interpreters of these Scriptures and those who were ordained by these men that were inspired and who had the form of sound doctrine committed unto them viz. by the Doctors and Pastors of the Church where also the doctrines of some Doctors whose tenets we doubt of are to be tried by the rest of the Doctors of the present times or the doctrines of all the present Doctors to be tried by the writings of the Doctors of former times Trials by the Scriptures were those Act. 17. 11. Jo. 5. 39. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Trials by the Doctors of the Church those Act. 15. 2. Gal. 1. 9. Rom. 16. 17. 2 Thes. 3. 14. 1 Cor. 14. 32. c. 2 Jo. 10. Now these H. Scriptures and Holy Doctors collectively taken to the not-yet-so-far-grounded and illuminated are capable of being tried too The first Scriptures and Teachers by those who lived in the same times were tried by Miracles by those who lived afterward are tried by Tradition the second Scriptures are tried by their accord with the first as also by Miracles the 2d Teachers are tried by their Ordination from the first which Teachers if we find all agreeing in one judgment we need try no further our Saviour having promised his perpetual presence with them and that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against the truth taught by them 5. Now first concerning trial of our Superiors commands and doctrines by Scriptures of which there are many several ways As trying 1. Whether such doctrines or commands be contained or commanded in Scripture 2. Whether the contrary to them be contained or commanded in Scripture Again if the contrary of them be contained there 1. whether as fact only 2 or also as precept 1. Now the first of these trials seems not necessary to be used 1. For it doth not follow that it is unlawful to do or to believe a thing because H. Scripture doth not say or command it Angumentum ab authoritate non valet negative Some things both in doctrine and discipline may possibly descend from the Apostles that are not set down by them in writing and these tho not absolutely necessary which very few points are yet very useful to Salvation Timothy might hear some things from S. Paul more than are set down in his Epistle see 2 Tim. 1. 13.
c see Jo. 5. 36. Matt. 16. 3. that Jesus was the Messias and the Prophet whom he had promised to raise unto them like unto Moses to whom they were now to obey in all things and to hearken to none contradicting his doctrines The many expressions therefore in the Old Testament that seem to speak of a total falling away of the Priest and a failing of the Church many of which were urged by the Donatists and answered to by St. Austin and other Fathers which see more fully discoursed in Success of Clerg § either speak not of the Priests ignorance at all but vitiousnes and neglect of duty or not of their teaching false doctrines as Priests but of their making false predictions as pretended Prophets or are texts Prophetical of their falling away after the coming of the Messias or speak not of their falling into Heresy but of their open Apostatizing unto Idolatry For Heresies and Sects retaining a distinct communion in the worship of the same God and acknowledgment of the divine law in those times of the Jewish Church we find none but both the Priests and people divided between true worshippers of God and flat idolaters Here therefore the Trier had always those to whom he might safely adhere and might always clearly discern who they were 2ly Nor those that try and after it make choice of falshood are thereby excused because since there is evidence enough one way or other given of the truth they who in searching find it not are some way or other defective in their trial Perhaps because they will not try * by all those ways which God hath left to witness his truth as both by Scriptures and also by the authorized Expositors thereof but only by one way which themselves most fancy Whenas doubtles the Jew or the Berean after their search of Scriptures had not bin excused in dissenting from the Apostles or from our Saviour's doctrine so long as this doctrine was also confirmed to them by other sufficiently evident and convincing arguments besides the testimony of former Scriptures viz * by the mighty signs and wonders which our Saviour and the Apostles did thro the power of the H. Spirit given them from God * by the Resurrection of Jesus and their mission by his authority c. After which confirmation the Apostle's advice to believers is to hold to Tradition to the doctrine formerly delivered Rom. 16. 17. Heb. 13. 7 9. and to prove and try the new spirits 1 Thess. 5. 20. 1 Jo. 4. 1. that perhaps might speak under pretence of that frequent gift of prophecying which the Devil also then imitated something dissenting from doctrines formerly received as appears by 1 Thess. 5. 20. and the clause of 1 Jo. 4. 1. the one bidding that they should not altogether despise these Spirits the other that they should not altogether credit them But of the Apostles doctrines coming with such a testimony of the Spirit Gal. 3. 5. they would not have them at all to doubt pronouncing Anathema to any that should contradict these Gal. 1. 7 9. Col. 2. 6 7 8. 1 Jo. 4. 6. Which 6th verse sheweth that the first verse is meant of the Church's or others trying the spirits of private men 1 Cor. 14. 29 32. not of particular men trying the Spirit of the Apostles or of the Church And should any now not out of affection to learn and to strengthen his faith nor to know what was the reason of them but whether there be any reasons for them try the doctrines of the ancient Councils as some have lately and by the just judgment of God upon curiosity have dissented from them such trial would argue much infidelity against our Saviour's promise and his vigilancy over his Church would much offend against the obedience we owe to the decrees of the Church and against the humble conceit we ought to have of our selves Whereas on the contrary the more indisputing obedience is which is the daughter of true humility the more christian the spirit especially where one is not in a communion of a Church of a later original nor that hath professedly departed out of another Church elder than it self And if any think that such an humble submission and assent to Church-decrees forfeits the use of reason and patronizeth ignorance 1. First the same thing may be said of our assent being tied to the larger Nicene and Athanasian Creeds 2ly Again the Church's decrees are but very few if we take only the decrees of Councils and not all the Theological controversies and determinations of private Divines of any side for such in comparison of the large field of divine knowledge wherein great intellects may still freely expatiate as appears in that great liberty which we find in the Roman writers I mean the Schoolmen freely dissenting from one another in many points Which differings when-as we also urge against them they defend themselves that such are points undefined in Councils But 3ly in things defined also we must acknowledge that learning and searching all arguments for truth well consists with obedience to Church-definitions as it did with our Saviours and the Apostles inasmuch as we find those who most profess this submittance as skilful and copious in giving reasons of their faith as any others and no way laying aside the use of reason or pursuit of knowledge Even as they who from the testimony of Scripture believe there is a God yet seek arguments from the Creation and Nature to strengthen or if I may so say multiply their faith Faith both to what the Scripture and to what the Church saith being alway capeable of a further growth And as oportet discentem credere so credentem discere See more concerning this in Infallibility § and Ch. gov 3. part § 39. But next since one may be born and bred in a Church Schismatical and here also by his condition and profession not capable of making this trial by comparing his present teachers with other modern and ancient Doctors yet upon the reasons above § 20. he is in far less danger in obeying his Spiritual Guides than in steering himself and in obeying them so long as heknows none better tho they be Schismatical he is free from Schism whereas following himself he becomes guilty of a 2d Schism and being free from Schism he may attain in such Church life everlasting nor can there any doubt be made but that a pious man living in the state of Schism and free from the crime is in a far better condition than an orthodox christian living in the habit and state of sin For tho Heresy Gal. 5. 20. i. e. either an error opposit to some truth necessary to be explicitly known to enter into heaven such as that Mar. 16. 16. Act. 4. 12. or an obstinate professing in other things against the known definitions of the Church and tho Schism i. e. a factious breaking the unity and peace of the Church
where most holines is is also most truth either causing or else caused by it See for this those many promises * of illuminating the Saints Jo. 7. 17. Psal. 111. 10. 2 Pet. 1. 9. Eph. 3. 17 18. Phil. 1. 9. 2 Cor. 3. 16 17. Psal. 25. 12. Jo. 8. 12. Jo. 14. 21 23. Jo. 15. 2. Wisd. 1. 2 3 4. Rom. 12. 2. Psal. 37. 23 30. Prov. 2. 7. Matt. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 2. 11. c 16. Psal. 119. 100. Jo. 14. 15 16. Act. 16. 14. 10. 34 35 44 compared with 2. 15. 8 9. Jam. 4. 8 10. Matt. 25. 29. and * of granting it the Spirit unto prayer and devotions Luk. 11. 13. 1 Cor. 2. 7. 1 Cor. 3. 3. compared with Col. 1. Jam. 1. 5. 1 King. 3. 9. 11. For true knowledge not only of understanding divine truths revealed but of understanding the revelation also of them I mean the Scriptures cometh more from the operation of God's Spirit than the discourse of Reason Jam. 1. 5. 1 Kin. 3. 9 11. tho this Spirit is working with Reason See Act. 16. 14. Luk. 24. 32. Heb. 4. 2. Eph. 1. 17. 1 Cor. 2. 14. And the same connexion that is found between truth and holines is also between vice and error or blindnes they also mutually producing one another For †whether we say that the passions run counter to the judgment so they will soon vitiate it especially in things tho very reasonable yet not plainly evident as matters of faith are and by hindering any light that may descend into it they will make it study things only in their defence suffer it to consider no arguments that make against them and over-aw it with fear lest any truth should oppose the satisfaction of them Facilè deos non esse credit cui deos esse non expedit and so vice begets error Or †whether we say that the affections follow judgment so error and blindnes here will soon cause in ordinacy there the unholy are always some way or other blind See 1 Jo. 2. 4. 2 Tim. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 8. 2 3. 2. 14. Hos. 4. 11. Rom. 8. 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 3. 3. compared with the first Jo. 3. 19 20. 5. 44. 1 Tim. 1. 19. 6. Tit. 1. 11. Lu. 16. 14. Phil. 3. 19. 2 Thess. 2. 12. 2 Tim. 2. 19. compared with 18. Our Saviour accused the blind Pharisees of many vices especially of ambition and covetousnes who therefore placed religion more in ceremonies washing fasting c than in justice and judgment Lu. 11. 42. And the Apostles noted the false teachers much guilty in their lives both of sensuality lust and gluttony and of covetousnes and vain glory by which their doctrines became such as pleased men such as tended to liberty and licentiousnes See 2 Pet. 2. 3 18 19. and were contrary to mortification and the cross Phil. 3. 18 19. See 2 Pet. 2. cap. and Epistle of Jude Men of corupt minds 1 Tim. 6. 5. Lovers of their own selves 2 Tim. 3. 2. Self-willed or self-pleasers 2 Pet. 2. 10. Loving to have the Preeminence 3 Jo. 9. Their spirit proud 1 Tim 6. 4. contentious Jam. 3. 17. Tit. 3. 9. 1 Tim. 6 5. ever learning and never able to come to any certainty 2 Tim. 3. 7. Separating Jud. 19. Heb. 10. 25. Nor can such teachers unholy themselves by the truths they teach propagate holines easily in others For tho many truths are taught by the most erroneous yet are they truths not such as more immediately tend to holines or not to those parts of holines wherein himself is deficient else if their doctrines could have had any effect in the auditor they would have had so in the teacher which as long as they have not and that he wanteth experience and the practick the theory is nothing worth but like him that reads a lecture of war and never was Soldier Or if they be such as tend more to holines yet they are but a few with the omission of many other that are mainly conducing to the production of piety so that the effect follows not a partial cause or if they be sufficient yet are they ineffectual and unperswasive whilst he speaks them from the brain and not from the heart from the memory not from the affections and whilst they are unaccompanied with the power of the Spirit Jude 19. 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Spirit applying what they say See Luk. 18. 34. compared with Act. 16. 14. which ordinarily doth not cooperate in the word with such a ministery see 1 Cor. 4. 19 20 the ministery tho not for necessary Sacraments yet for many other things becoming much less effectual when in the possession of a wicked person endued with a lawful mission yet void of the sanctifying Spirit Certainly it much matters whether we be recommended to God and God's grace recommended to us by the prayers and teaching of an holy or of a wicked man. S. Cyprian saith Oportet eos ad sacerdotium deligi quos a Domino constat audiri quoting Hos. 9. 4. Jo. 9. 34. And S. Hierom saith the like quoting Lev. 21. 17. And Gelasius Quomodo coelestis Spiritus invocatus adveniet si sacerdos qui eum adesse deprecatur criminosis plenâ—is actionibus reprobatur And very much every where is said in the Prophets of the mischiefs descending on the people from the superintendence of a vitious Clergy Whereas the holy man speaks with power the Spirit both in and from him working upon the people God imparting it unto his auditors as Moses's unto the Elders See Matt. 10. 20. Act. 6. 10. and also * from God cooperating with him 1 Cor. 7. 9. God both hearing his prayers and intercessions Jam. 5. 16. Job 33. 23. and also blessing his labours more than other mens Now what hath bin said of particular persons is to be understood the same of Churches being a collective body made up of particulars in all of which Churches tho there are some men holy and in the best of Churches many bad yet where more light and truth there doubtles are the more good and the fewer wicked and so è converso 1. To try then what Church is such 1. You are to observe and weigh well †their Teachers and Divines who are educated and prepared for their office in speculations and controversies more and who more in mortifications who strive rather to rectifie the peoples manners and who rather to inform the peoples understandings †their doctrines their discipline their ceremonies which Church gives stricter education to her children whose doctrines tend more to liberty whose discipline is more remiss whose ceremonies are more reverent and by all manner of ways helpful to devotion For the severest religion is the best and Spiritual comforts are in it to such a degree possessed as worldly consolations are by it retrenched and where-ever more liberty there less holines For liberty is 1. First both the most used pretence of false
or God's word §. 21. Concessions 1. Concerning the object of Faith that this is only God's Word §. 22. 2. Concerning the act of faith and the certainty which it may receive from the external motives of Scriptures Church Tradition §. 23. That the authority of Scriptures and Church is learn'd from universal Tradition §. 24. §. 25. Concessions concerning Tradition 1. That there is sufficient assurance in Tradition whether â—â—fallible or no to ground a firm faith upon §. 26. §. 27. §. 28. 2. That Tradition may have a sufficient certainty tho notabsolutely un versal §. 29. 3. That no one age of the Ch. is mistaken in delivering any eminent Tradition §. 30. 4. Thaâ— the testimony of the present age is sufficient to inform us therein §. 31. 5. That Tradition of the Ch. is easier to be understood in some things expounded by her than the Scriptures §. 32. 6. That the Ch. is a sufficiently certain Guide to us in doctrines proposed by her as Traditionary §. 33. Digression That all traditions carry not equal certainty §. 34. Where concerning the Church'es and the Heathen and Mahometan Traditions §. 35. 3 Concerning the certainty which Faith may receive from the inward operation of God's Spirit Concessions concerning the Spirit 1. That it is always required besides outward mean. §. 36. 1. That all Faith wrought by the Spâ—rit is infallible §. 37. 3. That sometimes the Spirit produceth evidence beyond science c. §. 38. 4. Thâ—t from these concessions it follows not that all who sâ—vingly believe have or must have aninfallible or such sufficient certainty as may possibly be had of what they believe §. 39. Nâ—iâ—ther from the evidences * of Scriptures §. 40. Nor * of the Spirit §. 41. Nor * of Church-Tradition §. 42. §. 43. For these following Reasons §. 44. §. 45. §. 46. §. 47. §. 48. §. 49. §. 50. §. 51. Necessary Inferences upon the former reasons §. 52. §. 53. §. 54. §. ◠§. 2. Concerning the Infallibility of the Church how far this is to be allowed §. 3. 1 Infallibility of the Church in Necessaries granted both by Catholic and Protestant writers §. 4. Where How for Points necessary are to be extended §. 5. §. 6. That the Church not private men is to define what Points be necessary §. 7. If these points be necessary at all to be defin'd and exactly distinguished from all other her proposals §. 8. 2. Infallibility of the Ch. in matters of universal tradition tho they were not necessary conceded likewise by all §. 9. 3. Infallibility universal in whatever the Ch. proposeth delivereth is not affirmed by Catholic writers §. 10. But only in those points which she proposeth tanquam de side or creditu necessaria §. 11. Where conc the several sences wherein points are affirmed or dâ—nied to be de fide §. 12. That as only so all divine revelations or necessary deductions from them are de Fide. i. e. the oâ—jects and matâ—ters of Faith. And that the Ch. can make nothing to be de Fide i. e. to be divine Revelation c. which was not so always from the Apostolick times §. 13. §. 15. That all divine revelation or necessary deductions therefrom are not de Fide i. e. creditu necessaria §. 16. And that the Church lawfully may and hath a necessity to make de novo upon rising errors such points de fide i. e. creditu necessaria which formerly were not so §. 17. §. 18. Or as some other of the Catholick writers usually express iâ— only in points clearly traditional §. 19. §. 20. §. 21. §. 22. §. 23. §. 24. §. 25. §. 26. §. 27. Whether and by what marks those points which are proposed by the Church tanquam de side or creditu necessaria or which are proposed as constantly traditional are clearly distinguished by her from her other proposal §. 28. §. 29. Anathema no certain Index thereof PART II. §. 30. Concerning obedience and submission of private judgment whether due to the Ch. supposed not in all her decisions infallible §. 31. §. 32. §. 33. â—â— That no submission of Our judgment is due to the proposal of the Church where we are infailibly certain of the contrary §. 34. 2. That no submission is due to an inferior person or court in matters whereof I have doubt when I have a Superior to repair to for resolution §. 35. 3. That submission of judgment is due to the supreme Ecclesiastical Court in any doubting whatever short of infallible certainty §. 36. §. 37. Submission of judgment proved 1. From Scripture §. 38. 2. From Reason §. 39. Several objections and scruples resolved §. 40. §. 41. §. 42. §. 43. §. 44. 3. From the testimony of learned Protestants § 45. §. 46. §. 47. §. 48. §. 49. §. 50. §. 51. 4. From the testimony of learned Catholicks §. 52. §. 53. §. 54. Conclusion §. 55. §. 56. §. 57. §. 58. §. 59. §. 60. §. 1. §. 2. n. 1. In what sence it may be lawful to believe or do a thing against our own judgment §. 2. n. 2. §. 2. n. 3. §. 4. 11. 2. §. 3. §. 4. Concerning the church'es lawful authority to excommunicate dissenters in non fundamentals §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. As likewise to decide which points are fundamental which not §. 8. 2 Tim. 4â— 1 Cor. 12. 7 8. §. 9. Several exceptions against obedience of non-contradiction only for non-fundamentals §. 10. §. 11. And that all at least not infallibly certain of the contrary are bound in non fundamentals to anobedience of assent Therefore the most are so bound §. 12. Replies to several Objections 1. Concerning an inferior Council's decreeing some new dangerous error which no former Council superior hath condemned §. 13. 2. Concerning faith salvifical that it is to be infallible §. 14. 3. Concerning union of Charity sufficient §. 15. 4. Concerning tryal of Doctrines necessary §. 16. 5. Concerning what Churches determinations when several contradict one another we are to adhere to §. 17 §. 18. Conclusion §. 19. Concerning infallible certainty §. 201 1. Infallible certainty excusing all submission of judgment to anyother §. 21. Infallible certainty to be had in some things §. 22. Of the difficulty of knowing when one is infallibly certain §. 23. §. 24. §. 25. §. 26. 3. The plea of infallible certainty at least not usable against any general contrary judgment of the Church §. 27. An instance in the controversy about giving the Communion in one kind only AEn Sylv bâ—st Bohem 35. c. §. 28. §. 29. 4. The greatest probability short of infallible cer tainty not excusing one dissenting from the judgment of the Church §. 30. §. 31. An explication of Rom. 14. 23. §. 1. Sufficient truth alway to be found in the Church Yet false Doctors must be 1 Cor. 11. 19. §.