besides her Authority She will have your Assent to their being of Divine Authority to depend wholly upon her Testimony Notwithstanding that God Almighty hath vouchsafed to the World marvellously full and plentiful Evidence thereof and such as is adapted to the capacities of all those who have the use of Reason but never once mentioned this as a part of that Evidence and therefore much less can it be thought the Whole How infinitely ill hath this Corrupt Church deserved at the hands of all Christians although this were the onely Abuse she had put upon them For to say nothing of her Horrible Pride and Uncharitableness in making the truth of the Scriptures dependent on her Testimony that her Pretence supposing her making her self the onely true Church this is the greatest injury imaginable to Christianity nor can she take a surer course than this to make all men Infidels And that upon these two Accounts First This Pretence of hers is immediately founded upon a Precarious and most Evidently false Principle viz. That of her Infallibility I dare appeal to those of her own Sons who have studied the Controversie whether there was ever a more shamefully baffled Cause in the World than this is Whether by their Infallible Church they mean with the Iesuits the Pope alone or with others the Pope with his General Council that is a pack of Bishops and Priests of his own Faction As the Psalmist saith If the Foundations be destroyed what shall the Righteous do So if this be the Foundation of our Christian Faith and that be proved to be a Rotten Foundation as nothing was ever proved if this be not then what shall we Christians do We must then acknowledge our selves a Generation of most Credulous Fools and that our Faith is vain If the Foundation be tottering the whole Superstructure must fall to the Ground But so fond is this Unsatiably Covetous and Ambitious Church of her Great Diana Infallibility by the Pretence whereof she hath raised her self to such a Height and Grandeur that she is well content if that must fall that our Saviour and his Apostles both the Old and New Testament should fall with it And she hath done all that lies in her to make it necessary that those who shall have the wisdom to reject her Ridiculous Doctrine of Infallibility should at the self-same time renounce Christianity If Popery were Chargeable with no other Crime as it is with innumerable others and many of them intolerable I say were it Chargeable with no other Crime but the making our Belief of the Authority of the Books of Scripture to be founded on the Infallibility of the Romish Faction we ought to be as zealous for the Preventing its Reestablishment in this Nation from whence it hath happily been twice Expelled as we are desirous to Preserve the Christian Religion Secondly The Romish Churche's making her Authority the sole Foundation of our Belief of the Scriptures makes the Testimony of the Spirit to the Truth of Christianity in our Saviour when on â—arth and in the Apostles and others in the Primitive Ages to be now perfectly Insignificant I think it makes them to be so as to the Church Representative for she pretends to her Infallibility and consequently to her Infallible Assurance of the Truth of Christianity as an immediâ—te Gift of the Holy Ghost therefore what need hath she of the Testimony of Miracles But as to Private Christians I can by no means understand in what stead they stand them for if the Churches Authority be necessary to their believing the truth of the Scriptures and therefore to their believing that there were those Miracles really wrought which the Writings of the Apostles tell us of then why may they not without any more ado make her Authority the immediate ground of their Assent to the truth of Christianity It is said that the truth of the Matters of Fact are not knowable at this distance such as whether there were such Persons as our Saviour and his Apostles whether they performed such Miracles and the Apostles wrote such Books c. but by the Tradition of the Church because no such Matters are to be known at any considerable distance but by Tradition To this it is Answered that it is one thing to believe the Matters of Fact upon the Churche's Tradition and another to believe them upon her Authority founded upon her Infallibility Now this latter we reject but adhere to the former as a Ground of our belief of those things But then by the Tradition of the Church we are far from meaning that of Rome onely We mean the Catholick Church or the whole Collective Body of Christians throughout the World from the Apostles times down to this present Age of which the Roman Church is but a Part and therefore does Impudently in appropriating Catholicism to her self and that a very Vitiated Part too and that Church Representative an exceedingly small Part. And we receive the Tradition of the Catholick Church as a Ground as I said of believing these Matters not as tâ—e Ground because we take in another Tradition viz. that of those who are out of the Church and Enemies to Christianity the Iews especially In short we believe those and the like matters of Fact upon the same ground that we believe all other wherein Religion is not concerned but there are Circumstances which give the Tradition of Christian matters of Fact a mighty Advantage above other Traditions as unquestionable Assurance as these give men when they are General and Uninterrupted But 't is well known to all who are not strangers to the Popish Writers what lamentable work they make in proving the Testimony of the Church to be the foundation of our Faith concerning the Authority of the Scriptures This Proof they fetch out of the Scriptures themselves and their main Text for this purpose and for the Infallibility of their Church is those words of S. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth But what a manifest Circle is this We ask them how it appears that the Scriptures are the Word of God They answer it appears from the Testimony of the Church We ask again how it appears that the Testimony of the Church is true They reply it appears from the Scriptures And so they prove the Authority of the Scriptures by the Testimony of the Church and then wheel about again and prove the Authority of the Church by the Testimony of the Scriptures But again We can either be certain of the truth of these words of S. Paul setting aside the Authority of the Church or we cannot be Certain If we can be Certain why then not of the truth of the whole Scripture as well as of this single Text If we cannot be certain of the truth of this Text without the consideration of the Churche's Authority what Folly or rather Knavery is it to make this Text an Argument to prove the thing
live And a multitude of such Declarations we find in the Holy Scriptures which abundantly speak the Divine Will and Power to be inseparably conjoyned with Righteousness and Goodness and never in the least to swerve from either And if any such providences have fallen under our notice at any time or come to our knowledge which we have been to seek satisfactorily to reconcile with the Rules of Righteousness or Goodness we ought to take occasion from thence to be humbled under a sense of our own short-sightedness and shallowness of Understanding and to take great heed how we charge our Creator with that which he hath so often professed to loath and abominate Now let us observe that this determination of God's Will and Power from within himself to things Just and Good is that which gives a greater lustre to his Nature and far more speaks him the most Excellent and most Happy Being than his mere unlimitableness by any thing without him Nay Uncontroulableness and Absolute Soveraignty would make him so much the Worse and less Happy Being except the exercise thereof were determined by a Holy Good and Righteous Nature If God Almighty were made up of Will and every thing were in it self indifferent to him and he did this or that merely because 't is his pleasure so to do he would I say be infinitely the Worse Being for his Absolute Sovereignty and Uncontroulable Power What is it that makes the Devils the most vile and hateful of all Creatures is it not this that they are Spirits indued with great Strength and Power with great Knowledge Sagacity and quickness of Understanding and with large Dominions though Usurped but have lost that integrity of Nature and those good Principles whereby they should govern themselves and be determined in the exercise of their Power and Wisdom 'T is certain they would be nothing so mischievous and wicked as they are if with the loss of their Moral endowments they had also been divested of their Natural I mean their Strength and Power their Knowledge and Acuteness of Understanding The Devils are in these far more like to God than any of us Men are in a possibility of being at least in this life but notwithstanding this they are of all his Creation the most unlike God namely because their great Power and Knowledge are utterly unacquainted with and estranged from Righteousness and Goodness are altogether employed in most unrighteous and wicked designs and enterprises So that irresistible power and All-comprehending knowledge are so far from denominating a Being the most Absolutely perfect considered alone that That would be the worst Being in the world which is supposed to have those perfections and is made to be the worst by those perfections if they do not exert themselves in Righteous and Good actions but the contrary if the exercise of them be not determined by Rules and Principles of Righteousness and Goodness And in saying that a Being will be the worse for Power and Knowledge c. separated from Goodness I say also it will be the more unhappy For the worse any one is the less satisfaction he must needs take in himself and the less he will necessarily have of self-enjoyment as hath been already shewed Now considering what hath been said 't is most apparent that the Divine Liberty the most excellent Liberty of God himself is his absolute Freedom to Good his being perfectly unbyassed by any evil Affection and infinitely out of the reach of corrupt Appetites so that he can as soon cease to be as fail to exercise his Almighty power his Omniscience and Unsearchable Wisdom in doing what is most fit most right and equal This is the Liberty which most highly commends the infinitely best of Beings and therefore 't is that which will make us poor Mortals most like to him and partakers of the Divine Nature And thus it is sufficiently I presume demonstrated that the most Excellent Liberty consisteth in or results from the Observance of the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness And to shew that this is eminently nay and solely too our Christian Liberty will be the business of the next Section SECT II. That this Freedom to holy Obedience and true Goodness or which consisteth in an intire compliance with the Laws of Righteousness is our Christian Liberty THis Phrase Christian Liberty being so much in the mouths of people professing Christianity one would think that nothing is better understood that there is no point of our Religion in the nature of which we less need to be instructed We mightily insist upon our Christian Liberty a very warm Zeal we seem to have for it and we are not a little concerned as hath been already intimated when we apprehend it to be invaded or in the least infringed And if we be not mistaken in our notion of this Liberty 't is most commendably done of us to contend earnestly for it to refuse to part with it or to consent to the smallest violation or abatement thereof upon any terms whatsoever But alas nothing is more misunderstood than Christian Liberty and nothing hath been more abused and therefore 't is well worth our while rightly to state the notion of it and to fix it where it ought to be How it hath been mistaken and abused shall be shewn in its due place our immediate business is First To Demonstrate the foresaid Proposition Secondly To shew what our Lord hath done to instate us in this our Christian Liberty CHAP. V. The foresaid Proposition Demonstrated by four Arguments viz. First That this hath been proved to be the most Glorious Liberty Secondly This was that Liberty the instating us wherein was the whole business of our Saviour and his Apostles Thirdly Our Saviours Abolishing the Ceremonial Law was chiefly designed in order to the thorough effecting this Liberty Where it is shewed that this Law accidentally became very prejudicial to the great Design of setting men free from the power of their Lusts in several particulars Fourthly That none but the Jews were obliged to the Observance of this Law FIrst We will demonstrate the truth of this Assertion that Christian Liberty consisteth in Freedom to holy Obedience in deliverance from the Power and Dominion of sin together with the direful effects and consequents thereof This we will do by these following Arguments First This is as we have shewed incomparably the best and most Glorious of Liberties and therefore it must needs be at least principally and in the most eminent sence our Christian Liberty For whatsoever Benefits our Blessed Lord is any where said to have procured for us the absolutely best of the kind is always to be understood For instance whereas he saith that he is come that we might have life he means the best of Lives the Spiritual life of the Soul here and Eternal life hereafter By the Riches he is said to bestow is meant those whereby the Soul is inriched the Divine Graces and Virtues called
instate us in this Liberty shewed in several particulars viz. that 1. He hath most fully informed us concerning all the Parts and Particulars of our Liberty 2. He hath furnished us with the most potent Means for the gaining of it 3. He hath purchased a rich supply of Grace and Strength to enable us to use these Means successfully 4. He hath laid before us the most powerful Motives and Arguments to prevail on our Wills to make use of this Strength and comply with this Grace HAving I hope sufficiently cleared the truth of this Proposition that our Christian Liberty both mainly and wholly consisteth in Freedom to holy Obedience and deliverance from Sin I now come to shew Secondly How Christ instates men in this Liberty or what Course he hath taken for the effecting hereof By the way we are to take notice that the Method our Lord hath made choice of for the setting us free from our Corrupt Affections is such as is most Suitable to the Nature of those that are to be delivered and such as is most suitable to the Nature of that Bondage and Slavery from which he delivers Those who are to be delivered being Reasonable Creatures Voluntary and therefore Free Agents who act not by mere Necessity of Nature or Blind instincts and much less from External Force and Compulsion he dealeth with them in Setting them free as with such a sort of Creatures Again the Slavery as also the Confinement from which he delivers being Spiritual not Corporal I mean being Originally in the Mind Will and Affections and not in the Outward man he hath accordingly applied himself to the effecting our deliverance So that our Deliverer hath not done all for us that is to be done and left nothing for us to do in order to our being set free Nor can this be said of any other who designs to deliver out of Bondage or Prison persons arrived at years of discretion and that are able to use their hands and legs Such a one accounts that he hath done abundantly enough when he hath paid the Slaves Ransom and removed the necessity he was under of continuing in servitude If afterward he will not stir a foot he doth not think himself obliged to hale him by main force out of the Gallies or House of bondage He also looks upon his work as done when he hath set the Prison doors wide open and hath cleared the Prisoner's passage out and put the Key into his hand for the unlocking his Fetters and offered to assist him if he cannot do it by his own strength But when all this is done if the Prisoner will do nothing towards his own escape he who hath done thus much in his behalf will think it great pity but that there he should lie There is no Prince but will be satisfied that he hath quitted himself bravely and fully performed the part of a Deliverer when he hath put Weapons into the hands of a Conquered People and furnished them with sufficient aids for the rescuing themselves from the Tyranny of their Oppressors but if after all they will not be perswaded to use their Weapons and are so dastardly as not to joyn with those Forces that are sent for their help he nevertheless deserves the Title of a Deliverer In like manner it is not our Blessed Saviour's Method to drag men with irresistible force out of their Spiritual Vassallage and Slavery He doth not deliver us against our Wills nor in such a manner as if we were Creatures that have no Wills nor doth so overpower our Wills at least ordinarily as that they shall have left them no power of resistance but be necessitated to give their Consent But this is the Course he hath taken which is the most wise and in its own nature the most admirably effectual First He hath fully informed us concerning all the Parts and Particulars of our Liberty Secondly He hath Directed us to the most potent Means for the gaining thereof Thirdly He hath purchased a rich supply of Grace and Strength to enable us to use these Means successfully Fourthly He hath laid before us the most powerful Motives and Arguments imaginable to prevail with our Wills to use this Strength to comply with this Grace First He hath fully informed us concerning all the Parts and Particulars of our Liberty I mean he hath instructed us in all those Rules of Righteousness and Goodness in the Observance of which consists our best and most desirable Liberty This he hath done by the Precepts he hath given us as also by the Example he hath set before us In Matthew 11. 28 29. he proposeth both these the one to be obeyed the other to be followed in order to the possessing our selves of this Liberty Come unto me saith he all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest And what he meaneth by Coming unto him he tells us in the next words Take my Yoke upon you or obey my Precepts and Learn of me or follow my Example for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find Rest unto your Souls Rest from the Slavish drudgery of sinful Affections As to our Saviours Precepts whatsoever he hath required of us it is either a Part of our Liberty or a Means for the gaining and maintenance thereof Now as to the Christian Precepts which oblige us to those things in the doing of which our Liberty consisteth as they incomparably excel the Precepts of whatsoever Religion was before or since the coming of our Saviour so there is nothing defective or wanting in them There is not any thing left out of them that is necessary to the completing of the freedom and happiness of our Souls All the defects of the Mosaical Law and of the Law of Nature are supplied and made up by them As our Lord came not to destroy the Law so he came to fulfil it To perfect it and fill it up as he himself hath told us Matth. 5. 17. There is nothing that conduceth to the restoring humane nature to its Primitive Perfection to the bringing every thing in man into due order to the effecting a complete Harmony and Agreement between his various disagreeing Powers and Faculties to the putting him into that state wherein every thing would be with him as his own heart could wish to have it or in one word to the making him partaker of the God-like Nature and consequently of the God-like Liberty Freedom and Blessedness There is nothing I say conduceable to these excellent purposes but our Saviour hath in his own Person when he was on Earth and by his Apostles since he left the World acquainted us with it over and over inculcated it again and again minded us of it and urged it upon our practice To speak in the words of the Apostle S. Paul Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are true or remote from insincerity and hypocrisie Whatsoever things are honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 venerable
prayed not for the World Iohn 17. 9. From whence some would infer that surely he would not shed his Precious bloud for those on whom he would not vouchsafe to bestow a Prayer But 't is apparent his meaning was that at that time he peculiarly prayed for his Disciples They only as appears by the Context are meant by those that his Father had given him out of the World But afterwards ver 20. He proceeds to pray for all that should believe on him through their word And at his death he prayed for his very Crucifiers And that he could not refuse to pray for the World is apparent from ver 21. where he prayeth that Believers might be one in him and his Father for this reason That the World may believe that He had sent him or might be converted to the Faith of the Gospel These two Objections as weak as they are are the chief ones that are taken out of Scripture against the most Ancient and Catholick Doctrine we have been asserting But I must needs say I have often wondred at their Boldness who have used their utmost endeavours to run down a Doctrine that not only for so many Ages together hath stood unshaken but is also so Abundantly and in the Clearest manner imaginable asserted by Truth it self and those who were Guided into all truth And how they are able not to perceive how grosly they wrest the Holy Scriptures so that if they should use the same Artifice in interpreting all other Texts they would make the Bible to look like a thing that is contrived for the service of every Humour and every Phancy and for both the proving and disproving every thing Certainly if we should take the same liberty in understanding our own and other mens sayings that they take in Expounding the forementioned and the like sayings of our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles Speech would signifie nothing nay be of very pernicious consequence and serve only to abuse and put tricks upon one another If so many plain Texts as can be to all Appearance should require so much labour and pains to be rightly understood 't will be impossible to defend the Holy Scriptures from that Obscurity which the Papists most injuriously charge them with and to preserve the Bible from that Contempt which the higher to advance the Authority of Holy Church it suffers from their prophane Tongues and Pens and wicked Practices But this Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption being so strongly fortified could never have been assaulted were it reconcileable with that of Absolute Reprobation either in the Supra or Sublapsarian way as it is impossible it should be which the too great Admirers of the otherwise very judicious and pious Calvin are so exceedingly tenacious and fond of But 't is much to be wondred at what these men should see in this Doctrine which is so severe in it self and horrid in its necessary Consequences that they should be contented to buy it at so dear a Rate as the Parting with that other most Comfortable Doctrine Especially since this hath no Antiquity to commend it and is not so much as seemingly befriended but by a very few Texts of Scripture and those very fairly capable of quite another sence than at first sight may seem to belong to them but is contradicted by innumerable plain Texts and the concurrent strain both of the New and Old Testament But I must not forget that this Chapter is a Digression from our Main Business And I have thus long insisted upon this Argument that the great Motives contained in the Death of Christ to exchange the Slavery of Sin for his Free service might have their full weight and cogency which would be in danger not only of being weakned but even quite lost by limiting the Design of Christ's Death to some particular persons where the Consequences of such a Limitation are apprehended And I appeal to every Considerative Person whether it be not a mighty Motive and Encouragement to the engaging all the powers of our Souls in this great work of using the Means prescribed for the subduing our Lusts to be assured that every individual person of us is one of those for whom Christ gave himself to redeem them from all iniquity CHAP. IX Wherein are contained Five more Evangelical Motives which are of wonderful Power to excite us to diligence in using the Means of our Deliverance from the Dominion of Sin viz. Our Saviours excellent Example The assurance he hath given us that he will not take such advantage of our Frailties and Weaknesses as to cast us off for them Our Saviours Mediation and Intercession The Glorious Reward he hath purchased for and promised to those who by the Assistance of his Grace overcome their Lusts. And the most dismal Threatnings he hath pronounced against those who receive that Grace in vain and will not be delivered from the Dominion of Sin HAving presented you with the First powerful Motive to diligence in using the Means of our Deliverance from the Dominion of Sin namely The unconceivable Love of God in sending his only Begotten Son upon this Errand of Delivering us and of Christ in so readily taking our Nature upon him and dying a cursed Death for that End And having also fully Demonstrated that no man in the World is excluded from the Benefit designed by the Death of Christ in order to our giving that Motive its full force and strength I proceed to shew that Secondly Another singular Motive is our Saviour's Example As we are by his Example Directed in the several parts of our Duty as hath been shewed And as the frequent Eyeing thereof is a Means as hath been intimated whereby we may be more and more transformed into his Likeness so is it to be considered as a Wonderfully Exciting Motive to comply with those Rules of Righteousness and Goodness which we have naturally the greatest Aversation of Will towards As particularly those which oblige us to the Meek bearing of Indignities the Forgiving the greatest and most Provoking Injuries the Loving our Enemies whereby we shall be set free from the Cruel Tyrants of Revenge and Malice Those also that oblige us to Humility Patience and intire Resignation to the Will of God under the severest Dispensations of his Providence and Contentation with a mean Fortune and low Circumstances in the World which will free us from the inslaving Passions of Pride Anger immoderate Grief Covetousness c. When we consider with what Admirable Evenness of Mind this Great Prince of the Kings of the Earth indured the Contradiction of Sinners against himself How when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously When we consider with what strange Sedateness of Spirit he bore the Mockings Buffettings and most Contumelious and insolent Behaviour of vile Creatures towards himself It is then hardly Possible that We despicable Worms should Rage and be inflamed upon the
in Controversie by when the truth of this Text is questionable upon the same grounds that the truth of the Scriptures in general is Again When they say that the Testimony of the Church is the Ground of this our Faith they tell us that by the Church they mean the Church of Rome and that She onely is the True Church We reply that there are a many Societies of Christians in the World that hold no Communion with the Church of Rome and Each of these calls it self a True Church and therefore how shall we know that they are none of them so but that the Church of Rome alone is They tell us that this Church alone hath the Notes and Characters of the True Church We ask again how it doth appear that those Notes and Characters they give are true and genuine and if they are that their Church onely hath them Here they are forced to fly again to the Scriptures and produce us some which they would have us believe are very pertinent to the purpose though none but those who see by their Light are able to discern any such matter But whether they be to the purpose or no is no part now of our Enquiry but this is that which we shew from hence how still they are intangled in their own Net and Run round in a Circle Yet once again these People would perswade us that there is no knowing the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority but by the Testimony of their Church whenas 't is impossible to know that there is any such thing in being as a Church but by the Scriptures And thus you see what prime Christians these Romanists are what Worthy Catholicks If there were no better Champions than these for the Authority of the Scriptures or the Truth of Christianity Atheists and Infidels long since would have filled all Places As it is well known how they abound in the Popish Countries and most of all in Italy and of all Italy most in Rome And but for Old Mother Ignorance whom they have a marvellous Fondness for as well they may their Holy Mother the Church would by this time have had but a very small number of Children or Friends But I would this had been the worst on 't as alas it is not For Multitudes among them being well aware that they are merely imposed on and being Acquainted with no better than an Implicit Faith and thinking that no more is to be said for Christianity than they learn from them shake off both their Popish and Christian Faith together But we must not let that forementioned Text wholly pass on which is laid such mighty Stress for the proving of the Infallibility of the Roman Church which gives her such a plausible Pretence for the Enslaving of Mens Minds and Understandings The whole Verse runs thus with the Verse foregoing Thâ—â—e things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth According to Episcopius his reading of these latter words it is not the Church that is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth but God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. in the next Verse For he makes that 15. Verse to conclude with living God Verses and Pointings being arbitrary and The Pillar and Ground of Truth to begin the next Verse thus The Pillar and Ground of Truth and without controversie the great Mystery of Godliness is God manifested in the flesh c. But there is no need of using any artifice to make these words unserviceable to the design of proving the Infallibility of the Church of Rome for all that can be gathered from them is no more than this That the Church is the support of that Truth which is necessary to Salvation viz. the Doctrine of the Gospel That which preserveth it in the world is the Churches constant profession of it and standing up for it That is this is the External and Visible means whereby this Truth is kept from perishing and being lost Or according to Grotius The Church doth uphold and lift up the Truth it causeth it not to slip out of mens minds and also to be beheld far and near For the Testimony of many good men who all say that they received these Doctrines and Precepts from the Apostles must needs have great force and efficacy upon those who are not obstinate and contumacious So that First This Great man seems to understand by the Church in this place onely that which was most Ancient But Secondly There is no reason at all to understand by the Church here onely the Church Representative but the whole Body of Christians must necessarily be meant It being called the House of God but the Apostles Bishops and Pastors are called the Builders of the House and Governours never the House it self And besides the Church which is here called the Pillar and Ground of Truth is that over part of which Timothy presided That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God c. that is as a Bishop and Pastor in it Thirdly If it should be understood of the Church Representative 't is however intolerable impudence to make it onely the Roman But Fourthly This Text makes nothing to the purpose of Infallibility in the Church of Rome's sence understand by the Church of the living God which Church you please especially if you do not limit it to the First Age As is plain from what hath been said and it needs no more words to make it plainer Now how can we have greater assurance that the Church of Rome is an Arrant Impostor than this one thing gives us viz. That She will not allow us the Liberty of judging for our selves The Great Apostle S. Paul allowed this Liberty to the Corinthians in those words I speak as unto wise men judge â—e what I say 1 Cor. 10. 15. And dare they say that he overshot himself in that saying or passed a mere Complement upon the Corinthians 'T will not be at all strange if they do considering how many worse things several of them have said of this Apostle But I say this Church will not permit us to see with our own Eyes but we must take the whole of our Religion upon trust that is upon her bare word pin our whole Faith upon her Sleeve and receive the most Fundamental Articles upon her Warrant and Authority Nay though she would seem to give us leave to use our Reason in the choice of our Church yet neither doth she this really but what she gives with one hand takes away again with the other in that she will not suffer us to judge of the sence of Scripture and consequently not of those Texts whereby she pretends to prove her self the onely true Church For if we be