whereof they cannot give us a greater Certainty at least as great as this But besides all this every true Believer who hath a true saving Faith which is the Gift of God alone infused into him and wrought by the Operation of the Holy Ghost hath a further Certainty of what he believes For the Object to be believed being offered and brought home to his Faculties by the Preaching of the Word the Holy Ghost makes the Ordinances effectual for the working of Saving Faith in the Hearts of all who are ordained to Eternal Life by clearly shining upon the Truths proposed to them out of the Holy Scriptures in which respect it is called a Spirit of Revelation and by opening strengthning and raising their Understanding by a Special Donum intellectus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the owning and acknowledging of the Truth in which respect it is called a Spirit of Wisdom Eph. 1.17 by which they are enabled clearly to discern and fully to assent unto those Divine Rays and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherewith its self hath invested Divine Truth in the Scriptures by a kind of spiritual Sensation as the Eye doth unto Light and Colours or by a kind of Spiritual Intelligentia whereby it assents unto this Object as a First Principle in Credendis un-induced by any preceding Process of Ratiocination which is a Fides divina Principiorum And from it will be produced a Divine Faith to the Conclusion which may be inferred from it that so much of the Holy Scripture is the Word of God. Much after the same way by which those to whom the Word of God was immediately revealed were assured of its being the very Word of God and not any illusion which was offered to them But as the Matter there was new and to be by them offered to the Faith of others there were added miraculous Works of a Divine Power to accompany the Revelation into the World which might give Assurance that the Words because the Works did proceed from God and this Divine Working was to be observable by others to whom those Messengers were sent whereunto their own Senses might give Testimony of the Works done and their Reason That they must needs proceed from a supernatural Cause But now the Conviction here being but for the Person of the Believer in order only to his particular Salvation both the Illumination of the Mind Illustration of the Object and the powerful Workings which are here upon the Conscience accompanying it are all transacted within the Precincts of the Soul and intended no further only as they may be reported by him unto others and then they will have the force of an human Testimony of what has passed within himself And this cannot be called a private Spirit for it is the same Holy Spirit which opens the Hearts of all who receive the Word by a divine Supernatural Faith necessarily required for their Salvation and it works this Conviction and Assent not immediately at least ordinarily but by the means of that same word which it had before revealed by others for the common good of the Church and the common Salvation of all of them that believe Such an assurance as this is cannot be wrought but by God himself and therefore it is Supernatural Faith. And to shew that this is no singular Opinion but the common Doctrine owned and taught by the Learned of both Communions I shall mention only two Testimonies of each one Aquinas secunda secundae Qu. 8. Art. 4. in Corpore speaking of the donum intellectus saith that it illustrates the Mind of a Man enabling it to know a certain supernatural Truth His words are illustrat mentem hominis ut cognoscat veritatem quandam supernaturalem And in the same place ad tertium he saith of the same special gift of Understanding that it is never wanting unto Holy Men in things necessary to Salvation Nunquam se subtrahit sanctis circa ea quae sunt necessaria ad salutem The other is that of Archbishop Lawd in his Conference with Mr. Fisher the Jesuite where Paragraph 16. he hath these Words But if by Faith they mean the Habit or Act of divine infused Faith by which Vertue they do believe the credible Object and thing to be believed then their Speech is true and confessed by all Divines of all sorts For Faith is the Gift of God of God alone and an infused Habit in respect whereof the Soul is meerly recipient And therefore the sole Infuser the Holy Ghost must not be excluded from that work which none can do but He. For the Holy Ghost as he first dictated the Scripture to the Apostles so did he not leave the Church in general nor the true Members of it in particular without Grace to believe what himself had revealed and made credible So that Faith as it is taken for the vertue of Faith whether it be of this or any other Article though it receive a kind of Preparation or occasion of Beginning from the Testimony of the Church as it proposeth and induceth to the Faith yet it ends in God revealing within and teaching within that which the Church Preached without For till the Spirit of God move the Heart of Man he cannot Believe be the Object never so credible Thus far he and to the same purpose he produces St. Augustine Aquinas Canus and Stapleton And this is truly a Divine Faith not only as it is given to a Divine Testimony as the Object and as induced by a Divine Testimony as the Medium or motive of Assent but also as it is infused into the Soul by God as the Author and Giver of it and it cannot be but that the Special Providence of God that guides Men unto Salvation should concern it self to bring all such without fail to the knowledge and Belief and such knowledge and Belief of all those Truths without the Knowledge and Belief whereof he hath determined not to save them But as for any other Men they do never savingly believe And as to other Matters the same special Providence will certainly give them such Assurance of them as he shall think needful for his own Glory and Service and for their Obedience Comfort and Salvation who dispenseth to all Men freely such Measures of Gifts and Graces as it pleaseth him Phil. 3.15 And for the ordinary extent of such Assurance it may be further considered That the Assurance which a Man hath of necessary Truths will reach unto many more Truths which have consanguinity or necessary connexion with them as Causes or Consequents or else by vertue of the Penning and Context As we see an whole Board fastned by a Nail driven in one Place because of the continuity of the Parts and a Seal confirming an whole Indenture though affixed but to one part of the Parchment And thus a Testimony of the Holy Scripture concerning some particular part of it self being the Word of God will take in very many others Thus have we considered
Imprimatur Feb. 13. 1689. Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã sacris Protestant Certainty Or A Short TREATISE Shewing how a PROTESTANT May be well Assured of the ARTICLES OF HIS FAITH Let every Man be fully Assured in his own Mind Rom. 14.5 LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the White-Hart in Westminster-Hall 1689. Protestant Certainty Or a short TREATISE Shewing how a PROTESTANT May be assured of the Articles of his FAITH ALthough I doubt not but every real Christian is well perswaded in his own Mind of the Truth of that Evangelical Doctrine taught by our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles which is indispensibly to be believed in order to his Salvation Yet seeing that in these times there is abroad so great a paroxism and fermentation of Dispute about the Certainty of Faith and the means whereby it my be attained and such endeavours used by some Men to unsettle us therein It will be our Wisdom to recollect and consider well of the Grounds which we have gone upon that we may be the better able to hold fast the form of sound of Words that which is good our Faith and Confidence and our Profession of it without wavering unto the End. According as we are Exhorted 1 Thess 5.21 2 Tim. 1.13 Heb. 3.6.10.23 By firmness of Assent and constancy of Profession notwithstanding all the force and fraud whereby we are or may be assaulted And this the rather because our Faith is Precious and a Treasure the keeping whereof is of infinite Concernment to our Souls and because we have been forewarned by Christ and his Apostles that there should come Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing false Prophets pretending infallible Revelation from God false Apostles pretending Mission and Commission from Christ False Teachers bringing in privily damnable Heresies Men of corrupt Minds resisting the Truth Reprobates concerning the Faith and of this sort are they that creep into Houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with Sins led away with divers Lusts ever learning and never able to come unto the knowledg of the Truth Matth. 7.15 Ch. 24.3.6 8. Against such Men we have seen many worthy and learned Champions of the Truth enter the Lists being raised up by God to be helpers of our Faith and to contend earnestly for that Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints And although their Antagonists have used all the slights of cunning Wrestlers stripping and oiling themselves by superficial and slippery Representations like false Arms that their Adversaries might not know where to have them where to assault them or where to fasten their hold upon them and Proteus like transforming themselves into all Shapes that if possible they might twist themselves out of their Gripe and Grasp yet have they been so effectually handled by them that one would think that were they capable of any impressions from truth or shame they would either have come over or at least have given over before this time Both sides in making their appeals to the Readers do seem to allow us a judgment of discerning both the cause and their defence at least for our own private Safety and Satisfaction But yet they will be understood with this difference The one will allow you to use your Eyes until you have chosen their Side but then you must resign them lest you should chance to see whither they lead you but the other exhort you to keep your Eyes still in your Heads and to make the best use of them you can for your own satisfaction and security that you are fairly dealt withal and not betrayed into Error and Perdition which is certainly the most ingenuous Method of the two and most becoming a good Cause and a good Conscience The Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles is that Faith which all Christians make Profession to believe and they question not but it is the Word of God and therefore infallibly true seeing God is Truth it self and cannot lye But it is much Controverted whether this Doctrine be all contained in the Holy Scriptures or some of it transmitted to these times by oral Tradition or by some other way And seeing we Protestants do profess that all the Articles of our present Faith are contained in the Holy Scriptures as the Doctrine taught by Christ and his Holy Apostles let us sit down and calmly consider with our selves what assurance we have of these and then come to take into consideration those other Articles which are offered to us some other way In both which Inquiries we may receive much Assistance from what hath been publickly offered to us by the Writings of excellent and Learned Men. And I think if we can make out to our selves but these two things we shall have a good Certainty of the Truth of what we believe as all may who have the use of Reason I and will make use of it as they ought 1. That the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God revealed by him and committed to Writing by the infallible Guidance of the Holy-Ghost and contain the Doctrine of Christ his Holy Prophets and Apostles 2. That all the Articles of Faith which we Protestants do believe and profess are recorded in the Holy Scriptures as taught by Christ his Holy Prophets and Apostles and there contained either in express Words or in Principle from which they may be firmly deduced and concluded But before we come to consider these Particulars I shall observe two or three things for our more clear Proceeding and distinguish 1. Between the kinds of Certainty There is a certainty of the thing or Object which is here in the Doctrine believed or the Fides qua creditur and consists in its immutable Truth founded on God's Immutable Verity There is also a Certainty of the Person or Subject which is the firmness of the assent given unto that certain Doctrine of Faith on cogent Arguments and exists in the Person of him that Believes As for Instance That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners is a Truth certain in it self even before we hear of it But it is not certain unto us till we do know it certainly to be true This last is called Subjective Certainty and this it is which we are now chiefly inquiring after 2. Distinguish between this subjective Certainty or the Certainty of the Assent and the Kind of the Assent given The Assent for its kind may be an Assent of divine Faith caused by a divine Testimony and yet this Faith will have more or less Certainty in it according to the greater or less Certainty which we have of the Divine Testimony that the matter of it is true and that God doth testifie it 3. We must distinguish also between the Certainty or assurance given to another rational Man by discoursive Argument and that further Certainty which every faithful Soul hath particularly within it self For the Arguments causing them are differing and shall be considered
might have been done by some other Man So that I might fold up what hath been said into this form of Argument That which pretending to be revealed by God and penned by his Assistance hath been owned by his special Providence and which having manifest Characters of of Divinity shining in it hath been owned believed and attested by all the Churches of Christ in all Ages as the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost and containing the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles That is the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost and doth contain the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles But the Holy Scripture pretending to be revealed by God and penned by his Assistance hath been owned by his special Providence and having manifest Characters of Divinity shining in it hath been owned believed and attested by all the Churches of Christ in all Ages as the Word of God revealed by him penned by the infallible Guidance of the Holy Ghost and containing in it the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles Therefore the Holy Scripture is the Word of God revealed by him and penned by the infaillible guidance of the Holy-Ghost and doth contain in it the Doctrine of Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles And if all Men would be brought to have such a certainty as these Arguments are in themselves apt to produce in well disposed Minds they must needs think themselves under the highest obligations to provide for the Salvation of their Souls by following the Directions prescribed in the Holy Scriptures in order thereunto And for the number of Canonical Books in Scripture we have the like uniform Testimony of the Churches of Christ in all Ages ever since the Epistle to the Hebrews was received by the Latin Church and the Apocalypse by the Greek Church Which two Books do not add any Article of Faith necessary to Salvation which was not contained in those other Books which were before that time universally received But every faithful Soul hath a far greater Certainty of the Holy Scriptures being the word of God than hath been hitherto mentioned which I shall shew when I have considered the second Proposition which is this That all the Articles of Faith which we Protestants do believe and profess are recorded in the Holy Scriptures as taught by Christ and his Holy Prophets and Apostles and there contained either in express Words or in Principle from which they may be firmly deduced and concluded Now having such an assurance as I have shewn above that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God we have built the Articles of our Faith upon this Rock and shall be ready to receive any more which we can be convinced to be contained in it but no other till we have good assurance that they have been revealed from God some other way For divine Faith must be founded on a divine Testimony But for the better clarifying of our Thoughts and Apprehensions in this our second Inquiry it will not be amiss for us to distinguish 1. Of the Assent given to those Articles which must be alway an Assent of divine Faith but a divine Faith is sometimes Explicit and express when we do actually apprehend and conceive of the Proposition which we assent unto whether it be expresly laid down in Scripture or we plainly see it to be deduced from what is there laid down But sometimes it is implicite and vertual only as when we assent unto some general Proposition actually apprehended though we do not distinctly consider the particulars included in it and in like manner when we assent unto some Principle laid down in Holy Scriptures though we do not actually apprehend those other Truths which have a necessary consequential Dependance on it we are said to believe these latter also implicitly and as it were in semine because we do expresly believe that which implies or infers them For instance when I assent unto this General God knows the Hearts of all Men I do implicitly assent unto this God knows my Heart though perhaps I may not have as yet particularly assented unto it And so when I assent unto this that Christ was true Man I do vertually assent unto this that Christ had a reasonable Soul because it may be firmly inferred from the former though I have not yet actually inferred it or assented to it 2. Of the necessity of such assent which is diverse according to the diverse Nature and import of the matters to be believed Some are necessary to be believed and done necessitate medii or else we shall never be Saved Some things are necessary necessitate Praecepti only that is without the Belief and doing whereof we sin For the first sort they are such things without the believing and doing whereof God has determined never to save a Man for both our Salvation and also the means and terms of it depend wholly upon God's Good-will and Pleasure and therefore we must take our Measures of such Necessity from God's revealed Will only And from that we learn that God has afforded greater Discoveries of things to be believed in some Ages than in others and given greater abilities and advantages to some Men than to others and acordingly doth require more things to be believed and more explicit Faith of them from some Men than from others unto which by his Providence he will bring them and not save them without such a belief of such Truths And as for the latter sort if they be necessary to be expresly and explicitly believed though we sin if we do not so believe them being sufficiently propounded unto us and we having abilities to apprehend them yet upon a sincere Repentance the Non-belief of them shall not prejudice our Salvation But in many things if we do but use our best endeavours to attain the knowledge of them having a readiness to believe and obey whatsoever we can get a particular Knowledge of to be the Will of God such an implicit Faith and readiness will be accepted for the Deed as if we had expresly believed them Now for such things are necessary to be explicitly believed by all Men with a Divine Faith or else they cannot be saved They are not many and are all contained in the Scriptures and may be clearly learned from thence by any ordinary Capacity The Ancients made account they were all comprised in the Apostles Creed the Lords Prayer and the ten Commandments and Bellarmine himself confesses that they are all contained in the Scriptures omnia sunt scripta quae sunt omnibus necessaria Lib. 4. De verbo Dei non scripto cap. 11. And that they are so will be evident to any one that will examine the Particulars And therefore they may be clearly learnt from thence and we may be as much assured of them as of any thing which we
read or hear And as for those other Matters which are further necessary for some Men to their Salvation they are also contained in the Holy Scriptures for else they were not propounded sufficiently to beget a divine Faith for there is no where else a divine Testimony to be found and then they could not be necessary for their Salvation And then for such things as are necessary to be believed only because else we Sin they also must needs be sufficiently proposed in the Holy Scriptures so as that using our best endeavours we may be sufficiently assured from thence of their Truth and divine Authority otherwise they would not be Obligatory But we may and do attain to such assurance by a diligent use of the means which God hath appointed and is wont to bless for that purpose viz. By the due and diligent reading and hearing of the Word with Prayer to God for the direction of his Holy Spirit by comparing of Scripture with Scripture and with the Analogy of Faith and particularly with those necessary Truths whereof we are already convinced and the rest of God's Image in our Souls and by consulting with others especially Ministers who were ordained by God to be the helpers of our Faith and by the Conscientious practising of what we have already attained to the knowledge of By these means used according to the abilities which God hath given all Men may be assured of all such Matters as are needful for Faith and Godliness but some Men may receive a greater Satisfaction and Confirmation therein who are able to search and add the concurrent Exposition of the ancient Orthodox Churches of Christ and the Fathers of the Primitive times agreeing among themselves and with the Holy Scriptures Would Men but make use of such means as these and embrace the Truth when it offers it self in the use of them none would wrest some obscure passages of Scripture to their own Destruction there being other places plain enough from which they might learn the Truth and their own Duty were they but truly humble and desirous to know it Nor would others have any pretence to keep the Scriptures from the People because of their obscurity But we may well suppose that those who do so do it rather because the Scriptures are too plain and express against their corrupt Doctrines and Practices What else should make them so unwilling to trust the People with the second Commandment and hide all the rest of the Scriptures even their very Pater noster in the dark Lanthorn of an unknown Tongue And here I do not expect to be asked how the common People can become assured that they see or hear that they are Letters and Words which they see and hear and words of such a Language and Signification because such mincing would be accounted triffling Altho' to dis-believe ones Senses is no new thing in the Pyrrhonian Philosophy But if we be asked how such People can be assured that their English Bibles agree with the Greek and Hebrew from which they have been Translated We hope our Neighbours will let us know the Secret how themselves are ascertained that what their Priest tells them in English by word of Mouth is agreeable I say not to the Originals but to their Latin Bible or that there is any true authentick Copy of it extant in the World and that the Popes have done correcting and altering its infallibility or confuting their own and how they are certain that it is true which the Priest tells them was done or said at Rome by some-body he knows not who nor when which yet he requires them to believe And then we may use the same or a better Method and hope they will not charge us with Uncertainty But in the mean while if we can have but a moderate Certainty from Sense Reason and humane Testimony concerning such things as these which serve only to propound and hand the object to our Faculties we shall then be better able to assure our selves of the Truth contained in the Letter and learn from whom it came by looking into it than by laying hold on the hand that brings it And for the Certainty which we have concerning the matters of our Faith though we dare not pretend to any subjective Infallibility yet it is as great a Certainty as God was pleased to allow the Church of the Jews before our Saviour's coming which was sufficient in its self both as to proposal of the Object and the Medium inducing Assent to have wrought Divine Faith in them and to have saved them We read that our Saviour sent them to the Scriptures and when they sought for signs from Heaven He did peremptorily reject them No sign shall be given them And when the rich Man in Hell desired on behalf of his Kinsmen on Earth that Lazarus might be sent to testifie to them what Lazarus saw and himself felt Our Saviour puts words into Abraham's Mouth to check his Error Luk. 16.29 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and then adds If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the Dead Yea though himself spake by an infallible Spirit and wrought so many Miracles yet he saith to the Jews If ye believe not his Writings how shall ye believe my Words Joh. 5.47 Agreeable unto which St. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.19 That the word of Prophecy is more sure than the Voice which came from Heaven which he had heard for indeed the Glory which accompanied that did so astonish him that he knew not what himself said Mark 9.6 And those who heard the Voice from Heaven in answer to our Saviour's Prayer John 12.29 were so far from being edified or convinced by it that some of them said It Thundered And therefore let us content our selves with the Certainty which God hath given us by his written Word especially having the Types enucleated and Prophecies fulfilled by Christ's Appearing and the Law of God Expounded by our Saviour's Doctrine and having better Assistances for the understanding of the Scriptures than ever the Jewish Church enjoyed And thus much of the Certainty which we have of our Faith from such Considerations as may pass in Argument between Man and Man which I do aver to be abundantly sufficient for any prudent Man to act upon who I am sure would upon less certain Grounds think himself bound to make more hazardous Attempts if he were in but half the danger of losing his Life that he is now in of losing his Soul to all Eternity and therefore it affords a Man a sufficient external Motive of a prudent Belief and Ground to follow it with his utmost Endeavours And therefore if Men be not wrought upon hereby the fault will be found to be in themselves alone And if any shall blame this Certainty as insufficient we may reasonably expect from them that they do not require us to believe any Doctrines
is there that a suspected and accused Party 's own Word should be admitted as his sufficient Justification Especially in things known to be false by Sense and Reason and contrary to Holy Scripture and therein contrary to that far mor general certain and impartial Tradition for the Scriptures being the Word of God. The as for the Infallibility of this Delivery we know that there is no such Attribute as Infallibility belonging to any Creature or its actings although it be impossible in sensu Composito for any one to err or deceive while he thinks and speaks the Truth and therefore all Mans Infallibility consists in his Faculties being guided infallible by the Infallible God and by Him kept from Error and so far and so long as he is so he can neither deceive nor be deceived Yet even then he is fallible in himself But now that God ever did or will ever so guide any Man we must come to know it either by his Promise to do it or his Testimony that he has done it or by the Testimony and Tradition of others concerning it As for his Promise 'T is very true that our Blessed Saviour did Promise to his Holy Apostles and Disciples That his Spirit should guide them in all Truth John 16.13 i. e. Those Truths which he had taught them vers 14 15. And that by enabling them to remember them John 14.26 And also into Truth concerning things to come for so it follows in verse 13. And that the Holy Ghost should dwell in them Chap. 14.17 Now if this Guidance be understood of Infallible and as promised to all Christ's Disciples and all their Successors in their common Faith it will prove that all true Christians are infallible which perhaps will be thought too much Or if promised only to all the Apostles and all their Successors in the Ministry of the Gospel this also will prove too much for the Romanists purpose But the truth is that though the Promise be to be applied to all the Apostles and Disciples and all their Successors yet not to all in the same extent of Guidance for then all their Successors must have the Spirit of Prophecy and the afore-knowledge of things to come which is not pretended by any to be true and common Experience shews the contrary The assistance therefore and guidance promised relates diversly to those to whom the Promise was made 1. As to all holy Disciples in all Ages whom the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie it guides them by infallibly bringing them to believe all Truths necessary to be believed by them in order to their Salvation so that they shall not fail to believe them who are therefore said to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 And to be the Sons of God and to have the Spirit dwelling in them Rom. 8.9 John 14.17 But yet they are not subjective infallible in their Faculties or Act of Believing but only as guided by the Holy Spirit 2. As to all the Holy Apostles and divers others Holy Disciples of that Age the Guidance promised is to instruct and enable them infallibly to know remember and Preach unto others the whole Counsel of God taught by our Saviour for Mans Salvation and to confirm that Assistance in Teaching by miraculous Works and to some of them infallibly to pen is also and unto some to fortel things to come 3. And as to all the Successors of the Apostles in the office of the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel whether single or conjoyned the Guidance of the Holy Ghost promised is not immediate constant or subjective infallible but is only so far forth as by its Pastoral Gifts and Graces it enables them to discover and deliver those Truths which it hath inspired others in that first Age infallibly to record in the Holy Scripture and which it now intends by their Ministry to work the Hearts of all who shall be Saved to give a true divine Faith unto and by it to bring them infallibly to Salvation For which Purpose Christ hath promised to be with them alway even to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 assisting them by Gifts protecting their Persons and blessing their Labours and that the true doctrine of Faith which St. Peter had professed and should both Preach and Pen by infallible Assistance should never fail to be Preached and Believed nor his personal Belief of it wholly fail but continue to eternal Life and that the Gates of Hell should not be able to prevail against his Church but that there should always be on Earth a faithful People professing the Gospel Truth and worshiping God in the Spirit But for any Infallibility that such Successors have in giving the meaning of Scripture we cannot find that Christ ever promised it much less to any particular Church or Pastor above all the rest And indeed some interpretations of Scripture which those have given us who pretend most to Infallibility are so evidently false and vain not to say prophane that they have thereby sufficiently convinced us of the Vanity of their own Pretensions And as for that appropriating Claim which is laid to it by the particular Church of Rome and those of its Communion there are many shrewd and violent Presumptions in prejudice of it As 1. That the Assertors of it are not yet agreed in what Ensuring-Office to lodge their Infallibility whether in the Bishop or in a General Council or both or in oral Tradition and it may well seem strange to us that those who as is now pretended did formerly make so much use of it should forget in what Cabinet they laid up so precious a Jewel or forget to deliver the Keys of it to ther Successors which alone if ever they had it may sufficiently shew how possible it is for a Tradition to miscarry 2. It is also vilely suspicious that they so keep up their Traditions in their Sleeve for either they cannot or will not ever give out a perfect Catalogue of their traditional Doctrines which as they tells us are kept up in reserve with wise Men perfectioribus in occulto tradita Which truly has an evil appearance as if they did purposely conceal the just number of them that so they might forge some upon occasion to serve a turn when there should be need of a new Article to promote the interest of that Church in some present juncture of affairs though we would willingly be so Charitable as to hope it is not so 3. But how shall we ever be able to overcome the so many Contradictions which have happened between Pope and Pope yea the Pope and himself between Council and Council pila minantia pilis we cannot see how such Contradictions can be consistent with a Spirit of Infallibility and in the mean while what a scandalous diversion was it to the World to see two or three Popes at once thundring out Anathema's and tilting their Infallibilities at one another and a Council at last putting them all in a
Bag together It seems very unworthy of the whole Blessed Trinity to assert that the Holy Ghost that holy Dove which was wont to inhabit only those Candida tecta of pure and sanctified Souls and to move and inspire only Holy Men of God 2 Pet. 1.21 under the mosaick Dispensation should now in times of a more plentiful effusion of its Grace and Holiness under the Gospel take up its residence in and give out Oracles from such impure Sinks of Sin Error and Ignorance as many of those who have pretended to this infallible Guidance are confessed to have been That the Holy Spirit who is so apt to be grieved by the resisting of his Motions and even by corrupt Communication Eph. 4.29 should digest things so contrary to his holy Nature and not withdraw from such a Soul Or can it be imagined that the Holy Jesus would ever by his Promise oblige the Holy Spirit to such an Office And for those few others among them who were holy and good Men we must be well assured that they were true Bishops but whether they were duly elected and ordained or so much as Baptised their Doctrine of the Priests Intention being necessary to a Sacrament makes it impossible for us to know and for one that is not so qualified such Assistance is not claimed or pretended to And as for Councils being infallible the claim allows it only to General Councils Which certainly may best of any pretend unto it from the Promise as being supposed to be the universal Church represented and thereby also impowered to conclude all by its Determinations But was there ever a true General Council besides that at Jerusalem Acts 15. whose Canons are recorded in the Holy Scriptures of which we are well assured that it was infallibly guided in decreeing as St. Luke was also in recording of its Canons but that Council tells us nothing of a successive Infallibility in the Church of Rome nor any thing of these its Doctrines And for all other Councils be they what they will all their decisions were to be guided by the Holy Scriptures and not to be received if contrary thereunto as the best and most ancient of them have professed and practised and so did the Holy Fathers own concerning them and acknowledge concerning their own Writings never pretending to give or admit of any infallible rule of Faith distinct from the Holy Scriptures And if they did not pretend to it but rather disclaim it we have little reason to believe others who pretend to it for them but rather to suspect that they do therein but serve their own private Interest And if we do but well consider the Pretence we shall find it clogged with so many Uncertainties that it can never make its way through them to give any tolerable Security to particular Christians which yet it is now made use of for 1. For first a private Christian may be convinced of Truths delivered in the Holy Scriptures and firmly believe them and yield Obedience to the Commands therein contained and be assured that in so doing he shall not fail to attain Salvation and not only morally and rationally assured but also have a Divine supernatural Faith thereof wrought in his Heart by the Gift of God and the Operation of the Holy Ghost as was shewed before Now either of these Convictions or Beliefs do bind the Man not to let go those Truths which he hath so believed whereof Christ will one day take an Account how they have been kept by him as he did of the Churches Revel 3.8.10 And therefore he must neither through Carelessness lose them nor through Cowardise deny them through Treachery betray them nor through Apostacy renounce or disclaim them Wherefore I see not how one that hath so believed the Truth can resign up himself to others and compromise his Faith to believe whatsoever they shall offer to him Since thereby he would trust his eternal Concernments in the Hands of Men foregoing that sure hold which God had given him on the sure word of Prophecy to which he ought to bind himself as unto a Rock or Mast But were that Lawful for him to resign up his Faith to the Decisions of a general Council yet before he could do it prudentially it were fit he should have good Assurance given him 1. That the Council whose Canons are offered to his Faith was really a General Council and duly elected by all that were to be represented and concluded by it But if he must suspend till the Church of Rome be agreed on a just list of general Councils I believe he may wait till Dooms-day for at present they fluctuate between Eight and one and twenty as they do for the Notes of the Church between Costerus his three and Bozius his Hundred 2 That the major number of Suffrages were always for the truth and had the infallible Guidance on their side and therefore that they were never contradicted by the greater number in any other such general Council and that the Canons made were the judgment of that major Part and not of the lesser 3. That these Canons which are now offered to us are the genuine Canons which that major part did then make and subscribe unto and not since counterfeited or corrupted and that here are all For Bellarmine and Baronius we see make no scruple to cashier a Canon out of an admitted Council if it be not for their turn upon pretence that the Pope consented not to that Canon though he did to all the rest and also that a like divine Providence hath watched over these Canons as hath done over the Holy Scriptures And yet further if the Romanists think by this Argument to produce in Christians an infallible Assent of a Divine Faith unto these Doctrines then the Priest who brings them to Mens Ears had need not only to be infallible in receiving and delivering them but also give Evidence that he is so by some unquestionable Miracle And yet after all this unless the faculty of the hearer be infallibly guided to assent unto it he will not believe infallibly for we find that many of the Jews did not so much as believe although they heard our Saviours Doctrine and saw his mighty Works All which and many more that might be named are so great Incertainties that they are sufficient to deterr any prudent Christian from ever parting with his present Security for a new one which is thus attended tho it were Lawful for him to do it But how much better is it a for a well-grounded Christian to keep his sure Footing on the Terra firma of Holy Scriptures than to commit himself to so great Uncertainty Which seems to be an adventure not much unlike the Methods of the new Philosopher who would perswade us to strip our selves of all the prejudices of Faith Sense Reason yea and of our very first notions that we may the better swim unto that rocky Truth That we have a Being and