by it he forfeits his natural Knowledge and has no supernatural Knowledge in the room of it For how can a man know and understand that which is contrary to all the natural Knowledge and Understanding he has There may be some revealed Principles of Knowledge super-added to natural Principles and these things we may know to be so though we have no natural Notion of them and this perfects because it enlarges our Knowledge as the Knowledge of three Divine Persons super-added to the natural Belief of one Supreme God which does not overthrow the belief of one God but only acquaints us that there are three Divine Persons in the Unity of the Godhead which whatever difficulty there may be in apprehending it yet overthrows no natural Notion this is an improvement of Knowledge because we know all we did before and we know something more that as there is one God so there are three Persons who are this one God and though we have no natural Notion of this how three Persons are one God because we know no distinction between Person and Essence in Finite Beings yet we have no natural Notion that there cannot be more Persons than one in an Infinite Essence and therefore this may be known by Revelation because there is no natural Notion against it But now I can never know that which is contrary to all the Principles of Knowledge I have such men may believe it who think it a Vertue to believe against Knowledge Who can believe that to be true which they know to be false For whatever is contrary to the plain and necessary Principles of Reason which all Mankind agree in I know must be false if my Faculties be true and if my Faculties be not true then I can know nothing at all neither by Reason nor Revelation because I have no true Faculties to know with Revelation is a Principle of Knowledge as well as Faith when it does not contradict our natural Knowledge of things for God may teach us that which Nature does not teach and thus Revelation improves enlarges and perfects Knowledge in such cases Faith serves instead of natural Knowledge the Authority of the Revelation instead of the natural Notions and Idea's of our Minds but I can never know that by Revelation which contradicts my natural Knowledge which would be not only to know that which I have no natural Knowledge of which is the Knowledge of Faith but to know that by Revelation which by Reason and Nature I know cannot be which is to know that which I know cannot be known because I know it cannot be So that Transubstantiation which contradicts all the evidence of Sence and Reason is not the Object of any humane Knowledge and therefore cannot be a Gospel-Revelation which is to improve and perfect not to destroy humane Knowledge I can never know it because it contradicts all the Notions of my Mind and I can never believe it without denying the truth of my Faculties and no Revelation can prove my Faculties to be false for I can never be so certain of the truth of any Revelation as I am that my Faculties are true and could I be perswaded that my Faculties are not true but deceive me in such things as I judge most certain and evident then I can no more believe them as to any Revelation then I can as to their natural Reasonings for the same Faculties must judge of both and if the Faculty be false I can trust its judgment in neither 3ly The Doctrine of Transubstantiation destroys all possible certainty what the true sence and interpretation of Scripture is and thereby overthrows all supernatural Knowledge The Scripture we know is Expounded to very different and contrary Sences and made to countenance the most monstrous and absurd Doctrines Witness all the ancient Heresies which have been Fathered on the Scriptures Now what way have we to confute these Heresies but to shew either that the words of Scripture will not bare such a Sence or at least do not necessarily require it that such an Interpretation is contrary to Sence to Reason to the natural Notions we have of God and therefore is in itself absurd and impossible But if Transubstantiation be a Gospel-Doctrine I desire any Papist among all the ancient Heresies to pick out any Doctrine more absurd and impossible more contrary to Sence and Reason than the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is and then it is no Argument against any Doctrine or any Exposition of Scripture that it is absurd and impossible contrary to Sence and Reason for so Transubstantiation is and if we may believe one absurd Doctrine we may believe five hundred how absurd soever they be And then what defence has any man against the most monstrous Corruptions of the Christian Faith Is this the way to improve Knowledge to destroy all the certain Marks and Characters of Truth and Error and to leave no Rule to judge by If the design of the Gospel was to improve our Minds by a knowing and understanding Faith Transubstantiation which overthrows the certainty both of natural and revealed Knowledge can be no Gospel-Doctrine 3. The Authority of an infallible Judge whom we must believe in every thing without examining the reasons of what he affirms nay though he teaches such Doctrines as appear to us most expresly contrary to Sence and Reason and Scripture is no Gospel-Doctrine because it is not the way to make men wise and understanding Christians which is the great design of the Gospel for to suspend the exercise of Reason and Judgment is not the way to improve mens Knowledge an infallible Teacher and an infallible Rule do indeed mightily contribute to the improvement of Knowledge but such an infallible Judge as the Church of Rome boasts of can only make men ignorant and stupid Believers For there is a vast difference between an infallible Teacher and an infallible Judge which few men observe at least have not well explained for an infallible Teacher is onely an external Proponent and while men only teach and instruct how infallible soever they are every man is at liberty to use his own Reason and Judgment for though the Teacher be infallible he that learns must use his own Reason and Judgment unless a man can learn without it But now an infallible Judge is not contented to teach and instruct which is an appeal to the Reason of Mankind but he usurps the office of every mans private Reason and Judgment and will needs judge for all Mankind as if he were an Vniversal Soul an Vniversal Reason and Judgment that no man had any Soul any Reason or Judgment but himself for if every man has a private Reason and Judgment of his own surely every man must have a right to the private exercise of it that is to judge for himself and then there can be no such universal Judge who must be that to every man which in other cases his own private Reason and Judgment is
concealed from the Peoples sight for I believe the World never heard before of worshipping invisible Images The original intention of Images is to have a visible Object of Worship for an invisible Image can affect us no more than an invisible God and if our Author had consulted all the Patrons of Image Worship whether Pagan or Popish he would have found most of the Reasons they alledge for this Worship to depend on sight and therefore whatever he thought are all lost when a man shuts his eyes A man who directs his Worship to an Image may be an Idolater in the dark and with his eyes shut but as blind as Idolaters are there never had been any Image-Worship had their Images been as invisible as their Gods and therefore sight has more to do in this matter than our Author was aware of But it seems the High-Priest once a year did see these Cherubims and adore and worship them But this is another mistake for the Jews did believe that the High-Priest never saw the Cherubims or Mercy-seat even when he went once a Year into the Holy of Holies and they have great reason for what they say since God expresly commanded That when he went into the Holy of Holies he should take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small and bring it within the veil And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony that he die not 16 Lev. 12 13. which shews that the Cherubims and Mercy-seat were to be covered with a Cloud of Incense and to become as invisible to the High-Priest within the Veil as to the People without it But suppose the High-Priest did see the Cherubims when he entred within the Veil I have one plain Argument to prove that he did not worship them not only because no act of Worship was commanded him when he went into the Holy Place but because as the Holy of Holies was the figure of Heaven and the Cherubims the types of Angels who stand about the Throne of God so the High-Priest entring into the Holy of Holies was the type of Christ ascending into Heaven with his own Bloud and therefore the High-Priest must do nothing in the Holy of Holies but what was a proper figure and type of what Christ does in Heaven and then he must no more worship the Cherubims which covered the Mercy-seat or the Typical Throne of God than Christ himself when he ascended to Heaven was to worship the Angels who stand about the Throne So that notwithstanding God's command to make two Cherubims and to place them at the two ends of the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies all Image-Worship was strictly forbid by the Law of Moses and God has provided the most effectual remedy against it by the Incarnation of his Son Mankind have been always fond of some visible Deity and because God cannot be seen they have gratified their Superstition by making some visible Images and Representations of an invisible God now to take them off from mean corporeal Images and Representations which are both a dishonour to the Divine Nature and debase the minds of men God has given us a visible Image of Himself has cloathed his own eternal Son with Humane Nature who is the brightness of his Father's glory and the express image of his person 1. Hebr. 3. And therefore St. John tells us That the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth 1 John 14. And for this reason when Philip was desirous to see the Father Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Christ tells him that the Father is to be seen onely in the Son who is his visible Image and Glory Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not seen me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then Shew us the Father 14 John 8 9. This was one end of Christ's Incarnation that we might have a visible Deity a God Incarnate to represent the Father to us who is the living and visible Image of God and there could not be a more effectual way to make men despise all dead material Representations of God than to have God visibly represented to us in our own Nature It is true Christ is not visible to us now on Earth but he is visible in Heaven and we know he is the only visible Image of God and that is enough to teach us that we must make and adore no other He is as visible to us in Heaven as the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies was to the Jews and is that true Propitiatory of which the Mercy-Seat was a Type and Figure 3 Rom. 25. Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mercy-seat as that word is used 9 Heb. 5. He is the natural Image of God and his Mercy-Seat or Presence and Throne of Grace he is his visible Image tho' he cannot be seen by us for the Typical Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies did prefigure that his residence should be in Heaven and therefore invisible to us on earth but there we may see him by Faith and there he will receive our Prayers and present them to his Father Now then to sum up this Argument since it was one main design of Christ's appearance to root all the remains of Idolatrous Worship out of the World is it credible that the. Worship of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary the Worship of Images and Reliques as it is practised in the Church of Rome should be any part of Christian-Worship or allowed by the Gospel of our Saviour If Creature Worship and Image Worship were so offensive to God here is the Worship of Creatures and Images still and therefore all the visible Idolatry that ever was practised in the world before All that they can pretend is that they have better Notions of the Worship of Saints and Angels and Images than the Heathens had but whether they have or no will be hard to prove The Pagan Philosophers made the same Apologies for their Worship of Angels and Daemons and Images which the Learned Papists now make and whether unlearned Papists have not as gross Notions about their Worship of Saints and Images as the unlearned Heathens had is very doubtful and has been very much suspected by learned Romanists themselves But suppose there were some difference upon this account can we think that Christ who came to root out all Idolatrous Worship intended to set up a new kind of Creature-Worship and Image-Worship in greater pomp and glory than ever and only to rectifie mens Opinions about it Suppose the Idolatry of Creature-Worship and
to the legal Holiness of Places and Things God dwelt among the Jews in the Temple of Jerusalem where were the Symbols and Figures of his Presence it was God's House and therefore a holy place and every thing that belonged to it had a legal Holiness for the Holiness of Things and Places under the Law was derived from their relation to God and his Presence this was the only place for their Typical and Ceremonial Worship whither all the Males of the Children of Israel were to resort three times a year and where alone they were to offer their Sacrifices and Oblations to God the very place gave Virtue to their Worship and Sacrifices which were not so acceptable in other places nay which could not be offered in other places without sin as is evident from Jeroboam's sin in setting up the Calves at Dan and Bethel for places of Worship and the frequent Complaints of the Prophets against those who offered Sacrifices in the High Places and therefore the Dispute between the Jews and Samaritans was which was the place of Worship whether the Temple at Jerusalem or Samaria but Christ tells the Woman of Samaria that there should be no such distinction of places in the Christian Worship Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father But the hour cometh and now is 4 John 21 23. when the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth Not as if the Father should not be worshipped neither at Jerusalem nor Samaria but that neither the Temple at Jerusalem nor Samaria should be the peculiar and appropriate place of Worship that God's Presence and Worship should no longer be confined to any one place that the Holiness of the place should no longer give any value to the Worship but those who worshipped God in spirit and in truth should be accepted by him where-ever they worshipped him Such Spiritual Worship and Worshippers shall be as acceptable to God at Samaria as at Jernsalem and as much in the remotest Corners of the Earth as at either of them for God's Presence should no longer be confined to any one place but he would hear our devout Prayers from all parts of the World where-ever they were put up to him and consequently the Holiness of places is lost which consists only in some peculiar Divine Presence and with the Holiness of places the external and legal Holiness of things ceases also for all other things were Holy only with relation to the Temple and the Temple-Worship For indeed God's Typical Presence in the Temple was only a Figure of the Incarnation Christ's Body was the true Temple where God dwelt for which reason he calls his Body the Temple Destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in three days And the Apostles assure us that the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ bodily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really and substantially in opposition to God's Typical Presence in the material Temple and therefore when Christ was come who was the true Emmanuel or God dwelling among us and had by his Incarnation accomplish'd the Type and Figure of the Temple God would no longer have a Typical and Figurative Presence I will not quarrel with any man who shall call the Christian Churches and the Utensils of it holy things for being employed in the Worship of God they ought to be separated from common uses and Reason teaches us to have such places and things in some kind of religious Respect upon the account of their relation not to God but to his Worship but this is a very different thing from the Typical Holiness of the Temple and Altar and other things belonging to the Temple and there are two plain differences between them the first with respect to the cause the second with respect to the effect the cause of this legal Holiness was God's peculiar Presence in the Temple where God chose to dwell as in his own House which Sanctified the Temple and all things belonging to it the effect was that this Holiness of the Place Sanctified the Worship and gave value and acceptation to it the first needs no proof and the second we learn from what our Saviour tells the Scribes and Pharisees Wo unto you ye blind guides which say whosoever shall swear by the temple it is nothing but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple 23 Matth. 16 17 18 19. he is a debtor ye fools and blind for whether is greater the gold or the temple that sanctifieth the gold And whosoever shall swear by the altar it is nothing but whosoever sweareth by the gift that lieth upon it he is guilty ye fools and blind for whether is greater the gift or the Altar that sanctifieth the gift So that it seems there was such a Holiness in the Temple and Altar as conveyed a Holiness and Sanctity to other things even to the Oblations and Sacrifices which were offered there But now whatever Holiness there is in Christian Churches and Oratories they are sanctified by the Worship that is performed there not the Worship sanctified by them It is the Assembly of Christians themselves that is the Church the House the holy and living Temple of God not the building of Wood or Stone wherein they meet God and Christ is peculiarly present in the Assemblies of Christians though not by a figurative and symbolical Presence and thus he is present in the places where Christians meet and which are consecrated and separated to Religious Uses and there is a natural Decency in the thing to shew some peculiar Respects to the places where we solemnly Worship God but the Presence of God is not peculiar to the place as it was appropriated to the Temple of Jerusalem but it goes along with the Company and the Worship and therefore the place may be called Holy not upon account of its immediate relation to God as God's House wherein he dwells but its relation to Christians and that Holy Worship which is performed there and I suppose every one sees the vast difference between these two and thus all that vast number of Ceremonies which related to this external and legal Holiness of Places Vessels Instruments Garments c. have no place in the Christian Worship because there is no typical and symbolical Presence of God and consequently no such legal Holiness of places and things under the Gospel 4ly Nor are material and inanimate things made the Receptacles of Divine Graces and Vertues under the Gospel to convey them to us meerly by Contact and external Applications like some Amulets or Charms to wear in our Pockets or hang about our Necks There was nothing like this in the Jewish Religion though there was in the Pagan Worship but under the Gospel Christ bestows his holy Spirit on us as the principle of a new divine Life and from him alone we must immediately receive all Divine Influences and Vertue and not
seek for these heavenly Powers in senceless things which can no more receive nor communicate Divine Graces to us than they do Wit and Understanding to those who expect Grace from them For can Grace be lodged in a rotten Bone or a piece of Wood or conveyed to our Souls by perspiration in a kiss or touch 5ly The Christian Religion admits of no external or ceremonial Righteousness In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing 5 Mat. 20. nor uncircumcision but a new creature and obedience to the commandments of GOD and faith which worketh by love The great design of the Gospel and of all our Saviour's Sermons being to make us truly Holy that we may be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption which is in the World thrô Lust There is nothing our Lord does more severely condemn than an External and Pharisaical Righteousness which consisted either in observing the External Rites of the Law of Moses or their own Superstitions received by Tradition from their Forefathers and expresly tells his Disciples Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Now this cuts off every thing which is External in Religion at a blow because it cuts off all hopes and reliances on an External Righteousness and I believe men will not be fond of such Superstitions when they know they will do them no good 6ly And hence it appears that there can be no place for any thing that is External in the Christian Religion but onely for some Foederal Rites such as the two Sacraments of the Gospel are Baptism and the Lord's Supper the first of which is our admission into the new Covenant the second the exercise of Communion with Christ in his Gospel-Covenant And such Rites as these are necessary in all Instituted Religions which depend upon free and voluntary Covenants for since Mankind has by Sin forfeited their natural Right to God's favour they can challenge nothing from him now but by Promise and Covenant and since such Covenants require a mutual Stipulation on both sides they must be transacted by some visible and sensible Rites whereby God obliges himself to us and we to him but these being only the Signs and Seals of a Covenant are very proper for a Religion which rejects all External and Ceremonial Righteousness and Worship for it is not our being in Covenant with God nor the Sacraments of it that can avail us without performing the Conditions of the Covenant and therefore this does not introduce an External Righteousness Now whoever has such a Notion and Idea of the Christian Worship as this and let the Church of Rome confute it if she can will easily see without much Disputing how unlike the Worship of the Church of Rome is to true Christian Worship For whoever only considers the vast number of Rites and Ceremonies in the Church of Rome must conclude it as Ritual and Ceremonial a Religion as Judaism itself the Ceremonies are as many more obscure unintelligible and useless more severe and intollerable than the Jewish Yoke itself which St. Peter tells the Jews neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear it is indeed almost all Outside and Pageantry as unlike the Plainness and Simplicity of the Gospel-Worship as Show and Ceremony can make it It is true external and visible Worship must consist of external Actions and must be performed with such grave and decent circumstances of time and place and posture and habit as become the Solemnity of Religious Worship this Reason and Nature teaches and this the Church of England prudently observes whose Ceremonies are not Religious Rites but decent Circumstances of Worship few in number as the necessary Circumstances of Action are but few and grave and solemn in their use but this is not to place Religion in any thing that is external but only to pay an external Homage and Worship to God which differ as worshipping God in a decent Habit differs from the Religion of consecrated Habits and Vestments or as praying to God with an audible Voice differs from placing Religion in Words and Sounds which we do not understand or as Kneeling at receiving the Sacrament differs from a Bodily Worship of the Host in bowing the Knee But though the bear number of external Ceremonies which are always the seat of Superstition be a great Corruption of the Christian Worship yet the number of them is the least fault of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome as will appear if we consider a little their Nature For 1st Most of their external Rites are professedly intended as Expiations and Satisfactions for their Sins This is the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome that notwithstanding the Satisfaction made by Christ every Sinner must satisfie for his own Sins or have the satisfaction of other mens applied to him out of the Treasury of the Church by the Pope's Indulgences this is the meaning of all external Penances in Whippings Fastings Pilgrimages and other superstitious Severities their Backs or their Feet or their Bellies must pay for their Sins unless they can redeem them out of their Pockets too now it is plain that these are such external Superstitions as can have no place in the Christian Religion which allows of no other Expiation or Satisfaction for Sin but the Blood of Christ 2ly Those distinctions between Meats which the Church of Rome calls Fasting for a Canonical Fast is not to abstain from Food but only from such Meats as are forbid on Fasting-Days can be no part of Christian Worship because the Gospel allows of no distinction between clean and unclean things and therefore of no distinction of Meats neither for meat commendeth us not to God 1 Cor. 8.8 The Church of Rome indeed does not make such a distinction between clean and unclean Beasts as the Law of Moses did and therefore is the more absurd in forbidding the eating of Flesh or any thing that comes of Flesh as Eggs or Milk or Cheese or Butter on their Fasting-Days which is to impose a new kind of Jewish Yoke upon us when the reason of it is ceased For there is no imaginable reason why it should be an Act of Religion meerly to abstain from Flesh if Flesh have no legal uncleanness and if it had we must all turn Carthusians and never eat Flesh for how it should be clean one day and unclean another is not easie to understand I am sure St. Paul makes this part of the Character of the Apostacy of the latter days That they shall Command to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth 1 Tim. 4.3 4 5. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer And let no man judge you in meat or
which is to un-Soul all Mankind in matters of Religion And therefore though there have been a great many infallible Teachers as Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles yet none ever pretended to be infallible Judges but the Church of Rome that is none ever pretended to deny People a liberty of judging for themselves or ever exacted from them an universal submission to their infallible Judgment without exercising any act of Reason and Judgment themselves I am sure Christ and his Apostles left People to the exercise of their own Reason and Judgment and require it of them they were infallible Teachers but they did not judge for all Mankind but left every man to judge for himself as every man must and ought and as every man will do who has any Reason and Judgment of his own but an infallible Judge who pretends to judge for all men treats Mankind like Bruits who have no reasonable Souls of their own But you 'll say this distinction between an infallible Teacher and an infallible Judge is very nice and curious but seems to have nothing in it for does not he who teaches infallibly judge infallibly too And must I not submit my private Judgment which all men allow to be fallible to a publick infallible Judgment which I know to be infallible If I know that I may be deceived and that such a man cannot be deceived is it not reasonable for me to be governed by his Judgment rather than my own I answer All this is certainly true as any demonstration but then it is to be considered that I cannot be so certain of any man's Infallibility as to make him my Infallible Judge in whose Judgment I must acquiesce without exercising any Reason or Judgment of my own and the reason is plain because I cannot know that any man teaches infallibly unless I am sure that he teaches nothing that is contrary to any natural or revealed Law. Whoever does so is so far from being Infallible that he actually errs and whether he does so I cannot know unless I may judge of his Doctrine by the Light of Nature and by Revelation and therefore though there may be an Infallible Teacher there never can be any Infallible Judge to whom I must submit my own Reason and Judgment because I must judge of his Doctrine my self before I can know that he is Infallible As for instance when Moses appeared as a Prophet and a Law-giver to the Children of Israel there was no written Law but only the Law of Nature and therefore those great Miracles he wrought gave authority to his Laws because he contradicted no necessary Law of Nature but had any other person at that time wrought as many Miracles as Moses did and withal taught the Worship of many Gods either such as the Aegyptians or any other Nations worshipped at that time this had been reason enough to have rejected him as a false Prophet because it is contrary to the natural Worship of one Supream God which the Light of Nature teaches When Christ appeared there was a written Law the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and all the Miracles he wrought could not have proved him a true Prophet had he contradicted the Scriptures of the Old Testament and therefore his Doctrine was to be examined by them and accordingly he appeals to Moses and the Prophets to bear testimony to his Person and Doctrine and exhorts them to search the Scriptures which gave testimony to him and how the Miracles he wrought gave authority to any new Revelations he made of God's Will to the World since he did not contradict the old The Law of Nature and the Laws of Moses were the Laws of God and God cannot contradict himself and therefore the Doctrine of all new Prophets even of Christ himself was to be examined and is to be examined to this day by the Law and the Prophets and therefore though he was certainly an Infallible Teacher yet men were to judge of his Doctrine before they believed him and he did not require them to lay aside their Reason and Judgment and submit to his Infallible Authority without Examination So that all this while there could be no Infallible Judge to whom all men were bound to submit their own private Reason and Judgment and to receive all their Dictates as divine Oracles without Examination because they could not know them to be such Infallible Teachers till they had examined their Doctrine by the Light of Nature and the Law of Moses and we cannot to this day know that Moses and Christ were true Prophets but in the same way Since the writing of the New Testament there is a farther Test of an Infallible Teacher if there be any such in the world that he neither contradicts the Light of Nature nor the true intent of the Law of Moses nor alter or add to the Gospel of Christ and therefore there can be no Infallible Judge because be he never so Infallible we can never know that he is so but by the agreement of his Doctrine with the Principles of Reason with the Law and the Prophets and with the Gospel of Christ and therefore must examine his Doctrine by these Rules and therefore must judge for our selves and not suffer any man to judge for us upon a pretence of his Infallibility Could I know that any man were Infallible without judging of his Doctrine then indeed there were some reason to believe all that he says without any inquiry or examination but this never was never can be and therefore though there may be an Infallible Teacher there can be no Infallible Judge to whom I must submit my own Reason and Judgment without asking any Questions Which by the way shews how ridiculous that Sophism is The Church has not erred because she is Infallible when it is impossible for me to know she is Infallible till by examining her Doctrine by an Infallible Rule I know that she has not erred And the truth is it is well there can be no Infallible Judge for if there were it would suspend and silence the Reason and Judgment of all Mankind and what a knowing Creature would Man be in matters of Religion when he must not reason and must not judge just as knowing as a man can be without exercising any Reason and Judgment And therefore not only the reason and nature of the thing proves that there can be no Infallible Judge but the design of Christ to advance humane Nature to the utmost perfection of Reason and Understanding in this World proves that he never intended there should be any for to take away the exercise of Reason and private Judgment is not the way to make men wise and knowing Christians and if Christ allows us to judge for our selves there can be no Infallible Judge whose Office it shall be to judge for us all 4ly To pretend the Scripture to be an obscure or imperfect Rule is a direct contradiction to the