punishment 427 Spirit of God not to be known but by his fruits 150 Betwixt the Spirit of God and that of the Papacy the opposition is Diametral 449 c Christ would not suffer unclean spirits to publish the Gospel 354 Spirit of Antichrist 355 Spirits see Triall Proper sorcery in Jesuiticall doctrine 502 Sodom Straboes report of it 50. Circumference sixty furlongs Thirteen populous cities in that soyl destroyed by earthquake sayes he ib. Lots sons in law their wives Lots other daughters probably all destroyed in Sodom 49 Salt-sea might season the Atheist 50 Scriptures truth hath greater and surer tradition then any other Writings 10 Incitement to search the script 9 Madness not to search the script 9 Scripture miracles proved true 11 Script divine truth proved by its prevailing without outward help 11 Script confirmed by the solid marks of Historical truth 13 ad 17 Script divine truth proved by harmony of sacred Writers 17. script divine truth proved from its drift and scope 17 Script Authority proved from the vehemency and sincerity of spirituall affections 19 ad 25 Script truth proved by Poeticall fables 27 ad 30 Some scripture relations confirmed by the apparition of Heathen gods 34 ad 37 Scripture truths transformed into Poeticall fables 46 ad 57. scriptures relation of the Suns standing still misapplied to Atreus 48 Scripture relation of the fiery serpents changed into Cadmus his Dragon ib. Scripture relation of Sodom and Gomorâha proved true by reason and sense 50 Scripture genealogies agree with the names of Nations 52. scriptures relations of the first inhabited parts how proved 53 Scriptures truth proved by Gods proceeding with the Iews 61 ad 90 Scriptures proved by the Iews desolation 137 Scriptures truth how to be confirmed by experiments in our selves 140 ad 145 Scriptures how to be read and heard 142 Many good qualifications required in Readers of scriptures that they may understand them 210 to 219 223 to 229 233 c. 248 256 258 c 261 264 270 Scriptures why so ineffectual in their Readers and Hearers 142 script ineffectivenesse in some no derogation to their power 142. script truth confirmed by the consent of Papists Protestants Jews 146. scripture truth to be known by practise 150. scriptures how unreasonably neglected and distrusted ib. script writ by Moses a perfect rule to the Israelites 229 to 233 255 263 Agreements and Differences betwixt Papist and Protestant about script 163 Obscurity pretended by Papists hinders not script from being that Rule 201 How Protestants grant ' script obscure 201 to 206 Unto what men and for what causes scriptures be obscure 206 to 210 Roâish objections against perspicuity of script flye at God and the Pen-men of holy Writ as much as us 219 220 to 222 S. John and other Evangelists intended plainnesse 220. Pretences of Obscurity are vapours of fleshly corruption 223 233. Bellarmins darkning Lucerna 223 224 225 211. and Valentians 225 m. 226 c. yet this qualified 234. m. He sets a Candlestick upon the light 228 Papists sometimes made the holy Bible the holy Mount that might not be touched 229 m. But now may 257 upon condition m. ib. The Devil made the Jews depart from God by perswading them that Gods Law was too Obscure 230 What Protestants mean by scripture is the Rule of Faith 198 206 268 282 283. See Faith Scripture a rule of Faith even to the unlearned 199 Two Romish objections against scripture being Rule of Faith 155. The former answered 156 c Their other objections Hereticks urge scripture The Learned differ about sence of scripture private spirits uncertain answered 235 c Prove aut nihil aut nimium 266 c conclude against all science as much as against us 266 c See Hereticks Devil and Hereticks cunning in scripture Christ ââ¦inger and more ready to help 241 Scripture a slumbling block and snare to the unwise so Valent. 248 256. m Difficulty of scripture is the Jews vail so Valent. 209 252 Sufficiency of scripture 254 to 260. sine schola Simonis 259. m Christ submits his doctrine to scripture 255 Scriptures teach the remedy for the danger in reading scriptures 259 c The Objection Protestants permit all to use scripture and to take what sence they please ergo they have no means to end Controversies answered and retorted 271 Script must be understood by the same spirit by which they were written Bell. confesses this 286 Scripture supreme judge of Controversies in what sence 302. Councell of Trents Decree about interpreting scriptures 311 Scripture hath a Ruled Case for the successe of all State Business on foot in the World 144 About the Canon of scripture 146 T TAcitus his spleen against the Iews 70 c Against Christians 114 Tacitus objections against the Iews confuted 70 to 72. Tacitus a Tatler 76 Talmud seems to justifie the condemnation of Christ 396 Iesuites Tempt God 497 Templum Domini Templum Domini the Church the Church 374 422 508 Under the second temple no Bood added to the Canon Providence in it 59 Second Temple see Urim When the Temple was fired Titus kills the priests saying No need of them that being burnt 91 Tithes why so unwillingly payed 144 Titus dying expostulates with God 85 Tiberïus calls a Council about Pan 31 Ten Kings give power to the Beast 505 The word therefore imports not alwayes a cause of the thing but of our instruction to be taken from it 130 131 Testimony of Jesus spirit of prophesie 366 398 Testimony of Iews and papists usefull about Canon of scripture 146 147 c Thamous Egyptian 31 Thunder thought the Pythagoreans made to terrifie them in Hell 54 Turk partner with Ishmael in Circumcision A proselyt of Istmael Heir adopted to that promise Gen. 17. 20. 110 Turk signifies a wild man 110. Turks mad Historians Make Job and Alexander the Great Officers to Solomon 46 47. Under Turks and Saracens Christians suffer as Jews did under Greeks and Asiaticks 110 Tradition of parents how good for children 411 Traditions by Trent decree equal'd to script 487 Trajan in an earthquake drawn out at a window by miracle 96. Trajan shot in the shoulder 108 Trajans Army plagued with storms and flies 108 Traian pursues the Jews Enacts that if a Jew though driven by tempest set foot in Cyprus he is condemned ipso facto 111 Transubstantiation 328 Translation vulgar partly Lucians partly S Jeroms partly Theodotions the Heretick partly anothers may have scribe sâps in it sayes Bellarm. yet no errata in iis quae ad Fidem mores pertinent 300 Forerius his defence and dealing for the vulgar translation 301 Trent decree for the vulgar translation 311 Tryall of spirits 150 c. 265 354 Christians in every Age tryed in tryall of spirits and in their love to God 265 Ignat. Loyola's way of tryall of spirits 151 Tryall of prophesies 434 c S Thomas Moors Jest 192 Ren. Tudelensis his visi ing and relation of the Jews his Countrey-mens
Believe their Infallibilitie most infallibly it could be no Rule of Faith but might be rejected till we see it evidently proved whereas they contend it should be the Rule of Faith unto all and by their own confession a main Article of their Creed but according to their Positions as we shall hereafter prove the onely Article of Christian Faith How destitute these their Assertions are of all Grounds of Reason or Rules of Nature hath been made evident There remain onely Two Pillars possibly imaginable for supporting this pretended Infallibilitie Tradition and Scripture Against Tradition all the Arguments they can heap against the Certainty of Scriptures stand good as shall hereafter God willing be shewed That no Argument can be drawn from Scripture to their succour albeit the later Jesuites have earnestly sought to scrape a many for better then Scrapings are not the very best they bring we are now to prove 7 That our Belief of Scriptures Truth and their true Sense by what Means soever we attain thereto must be infallible Both agree The Means that must infalliblie ascertain or prove their Divine Truth and true Meaning unto us say our Adversaries is the Churches Infallibilitie which likewise must be infallibly Beleeved otherwise it could not be the Rule of Faith or Belief infallible It shall suffice here once for all to admonish the Reader That as often as we mention Belief of Scriptures or the Churches infallibility in this Dispute we mean not any kind of Belief but that only which is infallible so likewise whiles we mention the Means or Proofs of either we understand onely Means or Proofs infallible whereon Faith may immediately relie as upon a Rule most sure and certain In all these we demand nothing but what our Adversaries most willingly grant From their grant we argue thus 8 If either the Scriptures can thus ascertain or prove the Churches Infalibilitie or It the infallible Truth of Scriptures to our Souls we must of necessity either Believe the one of these before the other The Churches Infalibility before Scriptures or Scriptures before It or both together without all prioritie of Belief or praeexistent knowledge of the one whence the Belief or knowledge of the other must spring The members of the Division are in the Proposal actually two but in the Disquisition will prove three To begin with the first 9 If they say we must believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God before we ãâã believe ãâã ãâã ãâã of their Church they overthrow their own and est ablish ãâã Postions For thus they make the Scripture a Rule of our Faith at the least In this one Article of the Catholick Churches Infallibilitie which by this Assertion we may and ought infallibly to believe because the Scriptures which we first infallibly believe do teach and prove it Hence private men should be taught by the Holy Ghost first to believe the Truth of Scriptures and for it the Churches Infallibilitie Wherefore the Scripture must be the immediate Rule of their Belief in the Article of the Churches Infallibility which to them is the generall Rule of Faith and so by consequence the Scriptures which to us are onely the Rule of Earth must be more then so to them even the Rule of their Rule of Faith But if the Scriptures may be the immediate and insallible Rule of their Belief in this one Article of the Churches Infallibility what reason possibly can be imagined why they should not be the infallible and immediate Rule of their Faith in all other parts or Articles of their Creed For I call Heaven and Earth Men and Angels to witnesse bââ¦xt ours and the Romish Church whether the Articles of Christs Incarnation his Death his Passion his Burial his Resurrection his Aseension his Intercession for us the Resurrection of the dead and Life everlasting c. be not to any mans Capacitie in the World much more plainly set down in sundry places of Scripture then the Infallibilitie of the present Romish Church in these words Peter feed my sheep Peter to thee ãâã give the ââ¦s of Heaven Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us or in any place her sonnes can challenge for it Wherefore if the Holy Ghost teach us this Article of the Churches Infallibilitie immediately without the Churches infallible Authoritie which as we now suppose must be proved from the Scriptures first infallibly Believed then questionlesse he may and will immediately teach us the other Articles of our Creed and whatsoever necessary to Salvation which are more plainly and perspicuously set down in Scriptures without the help or assistance of the Churches infallible Authority which it is supposed to teach by places more doubtfull 10 Or if our Adversaries will hold it no Absurdity to say that the Holy Ghost may teach us the true Sense and Meaning of the fore-mentioned places of Scripture which seem to make for the Infallibility of the Romish Church as Petre pasce oves c. immediately without the help or assistance of the Churches Infallibilitie which is here the lesson supposed to be taught and refers all other Points of Faith or matters of Doctrine unto the Churches teaching immediately they are bound in Reason to shew a Scripture for this Assertion And besides they must perforce make the same comparison betwixt the Holy Ghosts immediate teaching and the Church or Popes immediat teaching which our Saviour Christ made between the Holy Ghosts extraordinary teaching which was to ensue his Glorification and his own immediate teaching before his Passion and as soon as the Holy Ghost hath once taught us the Meaning of these places which make for the Churches Infallibilitie that may be applied unto him in respect of the Popes Supereminencie in teaching which our Saviour Christ spake of himself and his own personall Instructions in the dayes of his Humility in respect of that ãâã âed Comforters Illuminations to be bestowed in abundant measure upon his Apostles immediately upon his Ascention For thus by their Assertions that Holy Comforter after that Lesson once taught Tues Petrâ⦠should take his leave of faithfull hearts in the same termes our Saviour there did of his Disciples I tell you the Truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter that Infallible Teacher on whose Authority your Souls must rest will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you and again I have many things to say unto you but ye cannot hear âoem now howâeit when He is come that hath the Spirit of Truth your infallible Teacher whose Tongue while he speaks ex Cathedra I must attend he will lead you unto all Truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear be shall speak he shall glorifie me for he shall receive of me and shew it unto you These words I say might be
dayes they were to undertake what the Priests appointed and to obey his advice at least by cautelous obedience untill the event did prove the truth But neither was this certain manifestation of Gods will so absolutely promised unto the Priests but not living according unto the direction of Gods Law he might fail in his Oracles Nor was this peoples Prerogative above others without all limit that if they lived no better then others did they should as often as they asked counsel of God infallibly know whether the answer were from him or no albeit there were no defect in the Priest For this reason the Lord answered not Saul when he asked Counsel of him neither by dreams nor by visions nor by Urim nor by the Prophets for Saul was now cast off by God not willing to vouchsafe an answer unto his demands which argues that the revelation made to the Priests was also manifested to the party solemnly and in sincerity of heart proposing the questions whereof he desired to be resolved 5 That the Priest had no such priviledge or absolute promise of Gods infallible presence as the Pope challengeth is apparant from the law of temperance prescribed And the Lord spake unto Aaron saying thou shalt not drink wine nor strong drink thou nor thy sons with thee when ye come into the Tabernacle of the congregation lest ye die This is an ordinance for ever throughout your generations that ye may put difference between the holy and unholy and between the clean and unclean and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes the Lord had commanded thee by the hand of Moses If these Priests themselves were unholy and unclean they could not infallibly discern between the holy and unholy between the clean and unclean if they lived not according to this they could not teach the children of Israel the rest of Gods expresse lawes much lesse could they infallibly manifest unto them his will in all doubts and controversies But the Pope so absolute is his Prerogative which the Jesuites attribute unto him must be thought to be infallibly assisted by the Holy Spirit albeit he lead a most unhallowed unclean polluted life 6 But for the promise made unto Levi and his seed God himself by his Prophet Malachy most expresly interprets the meaning of it And now O ye Priests this commandement is for you if ye will not hear it nor consider it in your heart to give glory unto my Name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and will curse your blessings yea and I have cursed them already because ye do not consider it in your heart behold I will corrupt your seed and ââst dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn feasts and you shall be like unto it and ye shall know that I have sent this commandement unto you that my covenant which I made unto Levi might stand saith the Lord of hosts My covenant was with him of life and peace and I gave him fear and be feared me and was afraid before my Name the law of truth was in his mouth and there was no iniquitie found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equitie and diâ turn many from iniquity for the Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and theysââll ãâã thâ law at his mouth As if he had said Such Priests I have had in former times and such might your praises from my mouth and your estimation with men have been had you framed your lives according to the Rules which my servant Moses had set you But were these Priests against whom he here speaks infallible in their doctrine still because Gods promise was so ample unto Levi If they were not why doth Bellarmin bring this place to prove the Popes infallible Authority in teaching divine truths If they were why doth the Lord complain in the words immediately following But ye are gone out of the way ye have caused many to fall by the law ye have broken the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts Therefore have I made you also to be despised and vile before all the people because you keep not my wayes but have been partiall in the law 7 This place alone though many others might be brought clearly evinceth Gods promise unto Levi and his posterity during the time of their priesthood to have been Conditional not Absolute And as Gods promise of Infallibility was unto him and his seed such was the Obedience due to them and their Authority not absolute but conditional and where the precepts may seem universal yet are they to be limitted oft-times by the Condition of the Priests life 8 But sundrie Propositions there be in Scriptures for their Form Universal which are also absolutely true in their proper subject whose full extent or limits not withstanding are not always Evident Whence many mistake in stretching them too far others seeing them fail in some particulars which seem comprehended under the universality of their forme suspect the absolutenesse of their truth and account them rather morally probable or conditionally true then necessary and certain yet are they most absolutely necessary and certain onely their universality is to be limited by their proper subjects This is a common difficulty in all Arts though lesse apparent in the Mathematicks or Metaphysicks or other like abstract contemplative Sciences But in Philosophie as well natural as moral many general rules there be most true and evident to such as know the nature or quality either of the subject or matter whereunto they are applied or of these particulars whence the induction was gathered and yet are obscure and doubtfull unto others who mark the universality of their form not so well acquainted with the nature of those subjects in which their truth is principally and most evidently seen not so able to discern the Identitie or Diversity the proportion or disproportion which other subjects may have with the former but of the triall of rules in Arts if God permit elsewhere I will now instance in Scripture onely what proposition could be for the form more universal what precept conceived in words more general then that of sanctifying the Sabbath In it thou halt do no manner of work ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Non facies ullum opus The Scribes and Pharisees putting a Religion in the letter of the Law as the Jesuites now do when it may make for their advantage did conclude from the generalitie of this precept that our Saviour brake the Sabbath when he healed the sick upon it Their pretences if we respect the universalitie of the Proposition only were far more probable then the Papist can pick any for their purpose Yet Jewish still in that they considered not the end of the Sabbath which might have limited the universal form of the precept and restrained it unto some kind of works onely for not all but onely all those works which were
which cause they were in conscience bound to examine his doctrine by Moses and the Prophets otherwise they might have believed the saving truth but falsly and upon deceitfull grounds The stronger or more absolute credence they had given unto his words or works without such examination the more they had ensnared their souls and set their consciences upon the Rack by admitting a possibility of contradiction betwixt two doctrines both firmly believed without any evidence of their consonancy or Both conspiring to the same end The speedier and higher this edification in Christ had been the sooner it might have ruinated that foundation which God by Moses and the Prophets had reared in Israel unlesse this new work had been orderly squared well proportioned closely layed and strongly cemented unto the former In secular schooles he is held an unwise answerer that will admit Socraticall Interrogations for albeit there appear no difficulty in any one proposed apart yet in the processe a respondent may be easily brought to grant Conclusions from which he knows not what Consequences may be drawn because their Consonancie with the Problem whose defence he undertakes is not so evident nor immediate as upon a sodain may be fully examined And not examining the consonancie of every other proposition with the principles of that faculty whereto the Problem belongs the best answerer living may be made either grant what he should not or deny what should be granted Now Christs doctrine was to Mosaical and Prophetical as the Conclusion to the Promises or as the Corollary of greatest use unto the Speculative Theorem Suppose then a Jew well skilled in Moses and the Prophets should instantly upon the first hearing of our Saviours Sermons or sight of his miracles have admitted him for such an infallible teacher upon termes as absolute and irrevocable as the Jesuite would have the Pope acknowledged by all Christians a good disputant might easily have staggered him by these or ãâã Socratical demands Do you steafastly believe Moses writings for Gods word Gââ forbid I should doubt of this Do ye believe this new doctrine confirmed by miracles as firmly What if I do Do you know as certainly whether both agree as well as one part of Moses writings with another What if I do not Untill you be fully resolved in this your belief in both cannot be sound for in case they should disagree the one must needs be false and if choice were given you whether in sooth would you disclaim Here a wise man that as the wise King speaks had eyes in his head and would not be led by a blind faith would have paused a while and thought with himself This is a point that should be looked to for if these new doctrines should prove incompatible as for any just examination hitherto made they may I cannot see whâther deserves more credence Whiles I consider Moses writings and call to mind those mighty wonders our fathers told us with like continuall experiments of their divine truth nothing can seem more certain then they again whiles I behold these new miracles me thinks his authority that works them should be as great as Moses was yet if they should happen to disagree the one must be better believed then the other or else for ought I see there can be no certainty of either for if this mans possibly may be why might not Moses doctrine likewise be false or if our fathers were deceived by his signes and wonders why may not we be so served by this mans miracles But if upon just triall they shall be found fully to agree in every point as I trust they do then doubtlesse both are from God and I shall stedfastly believe this new doctrine to be divine if such as Moses had foretold and withall more evidently acknowledge then before I could that Moses spake by the Spirit of the all-seeing everliving God if this Jesus of Nazareth be in all points like to him and so qualified as he foretold the great Prophet should be But in the interim till the triali âe made it is best to lay sure hold on Moses and the Prophets For prior tempore potior jure their writings doubtlesse were from God because hitherto they could not be destroyed time and they shall trie whether Jesus and his doctrine be so or no whether he be that great Prophet that should come or we are yet to look for some other 4 Thus when John Baptist sent his Disciples to our Saviour with this very question Art thou he that should come or shall we look for another The answer he returned again whether for confirmation of Iohns own faith or as the most interpreters think of his Disciples was this and no more Go and shew Iohn what things ye have seen and heard that the blind see the halt go the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead rise again and the Gospel is preached to the poor and blessed is he that shall not be offended in me These or other of their fellow Disciples had enformed their Master Iohn before of Christs healing the Centurions servant by his word or command though absent of his raising the widows son from death to life of the rumours spread abroad of him thorowout all Judea and the regions round about and upon this report as Saint Luke tells us did John make the former solemne demand But some will yet demand how could he or his Disciples be confirmed by the answer given them wherein is little more then formerly both had heard for the raising up of the widowes son which especially occasioned their coming was the greatest of all in this Catalogue and yet as great as this some of the ancient Prophets had done how could it then prove him to be the Messias Had he told them as much in plain termes they might have beleeved him because this great work did witnesse him to be a Prophet and therefore one that could not lie But by this answer how could they gather more then the people upon the astonishment of that accident had said for when the dead man sate up and spake fear saith the Evangelist came on them all and they glorified God saying A great Prophet is raised up among us and God hath visited his people Luke 7. 16. 5 Yet this objection at least the solution confirms the truth of my former assertion that by his miracles alone considered they were not bound absolutely to believe he was the Messias but by comparing them with other circumstances or presupposed truths especially the Scriptures received and approved prophesies of the Messias though no one for the greatnesse of power manifested in it could of it self yet the frequencie of them at that time and the condition of the parties on whom they were wrought might absolutely confirme John and his Disciples because such they were in these and every respect as the Evangelical Prophet had foretold Messias should work for this reason our Saviour delivers his
A Collection of Dr. Jacksons WORKS A COLLECTION OF THE WORKS OF THAT Holy Man and Profound Divine Thomas Iackson D. D Late President of CORPUS CHRISTI Colledge In OXFORD Containing His COMMENTS Upon the APOSTLES CREED c. First Volume With the Life of the Author and an Index annexed LONDON Printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwait at the little North-Door of S. Pauls Church 1653. To the Christian Reader more designedly to the Younger sort of Students in Divinity and Academicall men Grace Mercy c. With this Account of the Designe IT is a part of Ingenuity to acknowledge the Parties by whom a man hath benefited M. Aurel. Antoninus mentions with a Gratefull and particular Memoration some single Principles of Morality which He received from Such and Such the prudent Instructors of his Youth It is a piece of Charity to shew unto others those Mines that have enriched our selves or the Fountains out of which we have drunk Cleansing quenching and healing Waters We do not well to Conceal from those in the City though they have shut us out as unclean the great good we have discovered during our exclusion Thus much in effect said the Samaritan Lepers 2 King 7. 9. O that my Lord was acquainted with the Prophet in Israel said Naamans little captive Maid He would cure my Masters Leprosie 2 King 5. Come see a Man that told me all that ever I did said the Samaritan woman to her neighbours Joh. 4. 29. If I mistake not I shall in some acceptable measure at once performe at least resemble all the forementioned Offices when I have in short told the Christian more signally the Learned or Reader willing to learn Thus much That What acquired skill I have in Theologie what understanding I have got in Holy Scripture under God I owe it all to this Authour Hic vir Hic est This is the Man I acknowledge to have been my Master and Mystagogus in Divinis From him I learned how to use my small Stock of Humane learning in the pursuit of Divine By him was my soul convinced of the Truth of Scriptures and stored with Arguments to perswade others that at least it was worth their Labour to Try whether practise of Scripture Rules would not produce submission to the Authority of Scripture I did not know what a Monster that Idol Infallibility was till I saw it drawn out by his Pencill I had swallowed and as I thought concocted the common Definition of Faith by a Full particular Assurance But when I read this Authour I perceived that Plerophorie was the golden Fruit that grew on the Top-branch not the First seed no not the spreading Root of that Tree of Life by feeding on which the just doth live and that true Fiducia can grow no faster then but shoots up just parallel with Fidelitas I mean that true Confidence towards God is adaequate to sincere and conscientious Obedience Before I had Read this Authour I measured Hypocrisie by the grosse and vulgar Standard Thinking the Hypocrite had been one that had deceived men like himself but in this Author I found him to be a Man that had attained the Magisterium Satanae even the Art of deluding his own Soul with unsound but high perswasions of Sanctity and that not by the Cubeia or Cogging of unrighteousnesse but by vertue of some One or more excellent Quality wherein he out-strips the very Saints of God From Him I learned many instances and exemplifications of that Holy but heavie Doom of our Judge and Saviour Luke 16. 15. The things which are in high esteem with men are abomination in the sight of God And that the Common Receipts if not the Notions of the World touching Good and Evil are as distorted and monstrous as if a man should define an Humble meek man by Cowardise or a Prudent Christian to be One That had conquered his Conscience To end this First Stage of the Preface I must professe that I have not onely reaped from this Authors sowen fields an Harvest of knowledge but some weighty sheaves of consolation too He hath so convincingly above others proved out of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms and the Jews also That our Blessed Lord Jesus is the Christ That my soul Rests upon it as upon a Basis or Centre immoveable And I am perswaded were his Works translated into Latin the Christian world of what Division soever that keeps the foundation would confesse it self Confirmed by him and a Debtor to him And now having this opinion rooted in my heart I hope the Reader will approve at least pardon if I pronounce this Authour The Divine of his Rank and Age and if in token of my private thankfulness for good received from him I breath out first towards Heaven Benedic Anima mea Domino c. Psal 103. and then towards men on earth tokens of good will and wishes qui Te genuere Beati Et mater Foelix fortunata profecto Siqua Tibi soror est quae dedit ubera Nutrix Happy were the Parents that had such a Son of understanding Blessed was the womb that bore him and the paps that gave him suck Blessed was that Alma mater that had such a name writ in her matricula in whose blessing her other sister was blessed also and that Phrontisterion who had him first a nursling childe and then a nursing father of her children Blessed were the Places where these Apostolical Feet of Beauty trod when he went abroad Evangelizans pacem Evangelizans Bona And blessed be the memory of that man whose hand like the hand in the Margin pointed out first unto me this Author His name is sweet and his Bones shall one day flourish out of their Dust If Others at the first view Nay after some Readings and Reviews of this Author come not up to my Rate or esteem of Him I have their Excuse as ready in my Pen as mine own Blame is fresh in my memory For when a Fatherly friend of mine Mr. F. of happy Memory thinking my younger yeers had need of such an Instructor commended this Author unto my Reading for some good time after I wished he had lent me his understanding together with this Book Yet with constant and frequent Reading I first began to like at last I mastered and made mine own so much of him as enabled me to improve and impart his Sence to others I often took his matter and preparing it to their Capacity preached it in popular Auditories I shame not to tell this because I know my Title to it was just by Donation not by Plagium The Author intended it for this purpose His very designe being to afford helps to younger Students to the Abler Hints and provocations for searches into the lesse beaten but more profitable paths the abstruser but Richer veins of Theologie It is to be expected that two Objections will militare against the Labours of this great Authour and either break the Arms weaken
and charges Thus from perfection oft-times springs defect whilest judgement too much over-growing fancie and drying up that kind affection whereby the fruit and vertue of one soul is diffused unto another makes men more jealous of diminishing the high estimate of their fore-prized worth then zealous of their inferiours good which many times might be reaped in greatest abundance from such labours as yeeld least contentment to their Authors In this respect alone can I gratulate my imperfections hoping that as my meditations can neither please the delicate for their form nor inform the judicious for their matter so they may prove neither offensive for the one nor unfruitfull for the other unto many of a middle and inferiour rank At the least I trust they will occasion some others whom God hath blessed with better abilitie and opportunitie to hunt that out which in this long range I may chance to start or make full conquest of that goodly field wherein that inestimable pearl lies bid for whose discovery these my travels may happily yeeld some observations not impertinent To this end have I purposely trained my wits to untroden pathes to adventure on new passages unto that true treasure which all of us traffick for oft-times one to anothers hindrance the more because we beat one place too much when as many others might afford us the same or greater commodities better cheap Though the truth be one yet it is not alwayes of one shape whiles we look upon it divers wayes The Mine wherein it lies is inexhaustible oft-times more full of drosse and rubbidge where most have digged and though the inward substance of it be the same yet the refining of it admits variety of inventions Do not prejudice me charitable Reader so much as in thy secret censure as if these premises might seem to argue my dissent in any conclusions which our Church professeth the event I trust shall acquit me and condemn all my accusers if any I have and how I stand affected in points of spiritual obedience to my superiours thou mayest be informed if it please thee but to peruse some few sheets of these my first-fruits which I presume thou wilt surely thou oughtest ere thy censure passe upon me If in the explication of some Points I fully accord not with some well esteemed domestick Writers I trust Sarahs free-born children may enjoy that priviledge amongst themselves which is permitted the sons of Hagar in respect of their brethren though all absolute bondmen to their mother Yet that I do not thus far dissent from any of my mothers children upon emulation or humour of contradiction thou wilt rest satisfied upon my sincere religious protestation That the whole fabrick of this intended work was set and every main conclusion resolved upon before I read any English Writer upon the arguments which I handle From some indeed which had written before me I have since perceived a direct dissent in one or two points of moment but wherein they had in my judgement contradicted the most judicious Writers of our Church and all Antiquitie I am acquainted with more rashlie then I would do the meanest this day living Yet shall they or whosoever of their opinion find the manner of my disputing with them such as shall not I trust exasperate howsoever the dissonance of matter may dislike them For outlandish or forrain Latin Writers I must ingeniously confesse when I first laboured to be instructed in the fundamental principles of faith and manners some points which I much wished I found they had not handled in others wherein I misliked nothing as unsound I could not alwayes find that full satisfaction which me thought a more accurate Artist for a mean one I was then my self would require The greater since hath been my desire either of giving or by my attempt of procuring satisfaction But will not others when I have done my best so think and say of mine as I have done of these much better indeavours It were great arrogance to expect any lesse Notwithstanding if what they shall find defective in my labours move them to no worse patience then what I thought at least was so in theirs that every way go before me hath done me nor I nor they nor the Church of Christ by this means partaker and free to dislike or approve of both our labours shall I trust have any great cause to repent us of our pains For thy better satisfaction I will acquaint thee with the particulars which moved me to write First in unfolding the nature and properties of Christian Faith to omit the errours of the Romish Church wherein it is impossible it should ever come to full growth many in reformed too much followed in particular Sermons did strive to ripen it too fast I have heard complaints immediately from the mouthes of some yet living of others deceased that they had been set too farre in their first Lessons that the hopes they had out of hand directly built upon Gods general promises applied to them by their Instructours were too weighty unlesse the foundations of their faith had first been more deeply and surely planted That certainty of justification and full perswasion of inherent sanctifying grace whereat these Worthies whose footsteps I precisely track not aim is I protest the mark which I propose unto my self but cannot hope at the first shoot to hit if at the second third or fourth as shall please God it must content me In the mean time I hope I shall neither offend him nor any of his as long as I gather ground of what I prosecute and still come neerer and neerer the proposed end The first step me thought that tended most directly to this certain apprehension of saving faith was our undoubted Assent unto the divine truth of Scriptures in general and for the working of this assurance means subordinate I could conceive none better for the kinde particulars others happilie may finde more forcible then such as I have prosecuted at large in the first Book not ignorant that such as moved me more might move others lesse those every man most that were of his own gathering wherein the disposition of the divine providence alwayes concurrent to this search so men would mark it is most conspicuous For this purpose I have proposed such variety of Observations as almost every one able to read the Scriptures or other Authors of what sort or profession soever students especially may be occasioned to make the like themselves well hoping to find a Method as facile and easie for establishing the assent of the simple and altogether illiterate unto those articles whose distinct explicit knowledge is most necessary to salvation But many I know will deem the broken traditions or imperfect relations of heathen men for these I use but weak supporters for so great an edifice nor did I intend them for such service Their ignorance notwithstanding and darkned minds do much commend the light of divine truth so may the experience
of final judgement By this beloved Reader thou mayst perceive my journey is long and may well plead my excuse for setting forth so soon but from that course which I have chosen or rather God hath set me I trust nor hopes of preferment nor any desires of worldly wealth nor affectation of popularity by handling more plausible or Time-serving arguments shall ever draw me away So far I am from aiming at any such sinister end That since I begun to comment upon the nature of Christian faith I never could nor ever shall perswade my self it possibly can find quiet lodging much less safe harbour but in an heart alike affected to Death and Honour alwaies retaining the Desires and fear of both either severally considered or mutually compared in equal ballance Both are good when God in mercy sends them both evil and hard to determin whether worse to unprepared minds or whilest procured by our sollicitous or importunate suit or bestowed upon us in their Donours anger Onely this difference I find death is mankinds inevitable doom but worldly preferment neither so common to all nor so certain to any the less in reason should be our endeavors either for providing it or preparing our selves to salute it decently though comming of it own accord to meet us But what meditations can be too long or what endeavors too laborious for gaining of an happie end or giving a messenger of so importunate and weighty consequence as death one way or other brings correspondent entertainment This Christian modesty I have learned long since of the heathen Socrates to beseech my God he would vouchsafe me such a portion of wealth or whatsoever this world esteems as none but an honest upright religious mind can bear or to use the words of a better teacher That of all my labours under the sun I may reap the fruit in holiness and in the end the End of these my present meditations Everlasting Life Thine in Christ THOMAS JACKSON A Table of the Several Sections and Chapters in the 2. Books following The first Book divided into two general parts The one explicating the nature of Belief in general the other shewing the Method how our Assent unto the divine truth of Scriptures may be established The first general part contained in the first and second Sections SECT I. CAP. 1. THE definition of Belief in general with the explication from parag 1. to the 12. The diverse objects and grounds thereof and by what means it is increased parag 12 c. Page 2 SECT II. CAP. 2. Of Assent unto objects supernatural or unto what a natural Belief of such Objects or a bare acknowledgement of Scriptures for Gods Word binds all men pag. 7 CAP. 3. Of general incitements to search the truth of Scriptures or Christian Belief 9 The second general part containing the Heads or Topicks of such observations as may confirm the divine truth of Scriptures of which some are External some Internal SECT I. Of Observations internal or incident unto Scriptures without reference to any relations or events other then are specified in themselves 13 CAP. 4. Of Historical Characters of sacred Antiquities 13 CAP. 5. Of the Harmony of sacred Writers 17 CAP. 6. Of the Affections or dispositions of sacred Writers 19 SECT II. Of Experiments and Observations external answerable to the rules of Scriptures page 25 CAP. 7. Containing the Topick whence such observations must be drawn 25 CAP. 8. That Heathenish Fables ought not to prejudice divine truths 26 CAP. 9. Observations out of Poets in general and of dreams in particular 27 CAP. 10. Of Oracles 30 CAP. 11. Of the apparitions of the heathen Gods and their Heroicks 34 CAP. 12. The reasons of our mistrusting of Antiquities 37 CAP. 13. Of the diversity of events in different Ages 39 CAP. 14. Of the original and right use of Poetry with the manner of its corruption by later Poets 42 CAP. 15. Of some particular Fables resembling some true stories of the Bible 47 CAP. 16. Of Noahs and Deucalions floud with other Miscellane observations 50 CAP. 17. Of Sacred Writers sobriety and discretion in relating true miracles compared especially with later Heathens vanitie in coyning fruitless wonders 57 The third SECTION of the second general Part. Containing Experiments drawn from the revolution of States or Gods publick judgements but especially of the estate of the Jews from time to time 61 CAP. 18. Of the state of these Jews before our Saviours time gathered from heathen Authors with Tullies objection against them 61 CAP. 19. The ill successe of Pompey the great for his going into the Sanctum sanctorum the manner of his death witnessing his sin the miscariage of Crassus parallel likewise to the manner of his offence against Jerusalem with the like disasters of other Romans that had wronged or molested the Jews 63 CAP. 20. Tacitus objections against the Iews refuted by their palpable grosseness and more competent testimony of other heathen writers 69 CAP. 21. The means of these Iews thriving in captivity In what sence they might peculiarly be termed a mighty people wherein they did exceed or were exceeded by other nations 73 CAP. 22. That all the heathens objections against or doubts concerning the Iews estate ãâã prevented or resolved by Iewish writers 78 CAP. 23. The fulfilling of Moses and other prophesies touching the desolation of âewrâ and destruction of Ierusalem and the Signes of the Time witnessing Gods wonderful hand therein 83 CAP. 24. The fulfilling of our Saviours prophecie Matth. 24 with others concerning the time ensuing Ierusalems destruction That those signes in the Sun and the Moon are long since past as may appear from our Saviours words expounded parag 3. compared with the Prophet Joels parag 8. 90 CAP. 25. That the Saracens are the true sons of Ismael Of their conditions and manners answerable to Moses prophecie 103 CAP. 26. The beginning and progresse of Ismaels greatnesse 107 CAP. 27. The persecutions of the Iews by Traian and the desolation of their Country by Adrian their scattering through other Nations foretold by Moses 111 CAP 28. Of the Iews estate after the dissolution of the Roman Empire generally thorowout Europe until their coming into England 114 CAP. 29. Of the fulfilling of other particular prophecies of Moses in the Iews persecutions in England Germany France and Spain 120 CAP. 30. General collections out of the particular histories before mentioned the strange dispositions of the Iews and Gods judgements upon them all testifying the truth of divine Oracles 129 LIB I. SECT IIII. Of Experiments in our selves and the right framing of Belief as well unto the several parts as unto the whole Canon of Scriptures 140 CAP. 31. Shewing the facility and use of the proposed Method by instance in some whose belief unto divine Oracles hath been confirmed by Experiments answerable unto them 140 CAP. 32. Containing a brief resolution of doubts concerning the extent of the general Canon or the number of integral parts
145 CAP. 33. A brief direction for preventing scruples and resolving doubts concerning particular sentences or passages in the Canon of Scripture 148 CAP. 34. Concluding the first Book with some brief admonition to the Reader 149 The Second Book How far the ministery of Men is necessary for planting Christian Faith and retaining the unity of it planted SECT I. What obedience is due to Gods Word what to his Messengers Pag. 154 CAP. 1. The sum of the Romanists exceptions against the Scriptures 155 CAP. 2. The former objection as far as it concerns illiterate and Lay-men retorted and answered 156 CAP. 3. The general heads of Agreements or differences betwixt us and the Papists in this argument 162 CAP. 4. Of the two contrary extremities the one in excesse proper to the Papists transferring all obedience from Scriptures to the Church the other in defect proper to the Anti-papist defrauding the Church of all spiritual authority That there is some peculiar obedience due unto the Clergie 165 CAP. 5 Of the diversitie of humane actions the Original of their lawfulnesse unlawfulnesse or indifferencie which without question belong to the proper subject of Obedience which not 168 CAP. 6. That sincere obedience unto lawful authority makes sundry actions lawful and good which without it would be altogether unlawful and evil pag. 170 CAP. 7. That the Apostles rule Whatsoever is not of faith is Sin doth no way prejudice the former resolution What actions are properly said to be not of faith In what case or subject doubt or scruple make them such 177 CAP. 8. That such as most pretend liberty of conscience from our Apostles rule do most transgresse it with general directions for squaring our actions unto it or other rules of faith That by it the flock stands bound to such conditional assent as was mentioned Chap. 4. 185 CAP. 9. Of the nature use conditions or properties of conditional assent or obedience 189 CAP. 10. Wherein this conditional belief differeth from the Romans implicit faith That the one is the other not subordinate to Gods Word or Rule of faith 196 CAP. 11. In what sence we hold the Scriptures to to be The Rule of Faith 198 SECT II. That the pretended obscurity of Scriptures is no just exception why they should not be acknowledged the Absolute Rule of Faith which is the Mother-objection of the Romanist 201 CAP. 12. How far it may be granted the Scriptures are obscure with some premonitions for the right state of the question 201 CAP. 13. The true state of the question about the Scriptures obscuritie or perspicuity unto what men and for what causes they are obscure 206 CAP. 14. How men must be qualified ere they can understand Scriptures aright that the Pope is not so qualified 210 CAP. 15. The Romanists objections against the Scriptures for being obscure do more directly impeach their first Authour and his Messengers their Pen-men then us and the cause in hand 220 CAP. 16. That all the pretences of Scriptures obscurity are but mists and vapours arising from the corruption of the flesh and may by the pure light of Scriptures rightly applied easily be dispelled 223 CAP. 17. That the Mosaical writings were a most perfect rule plain and easie to the ancient Israelites 229 CAP. 18. Concluding this controversie about the obscurity of Scriptures according to the state proposed with the testimony of Saint Paul 233 SECT III. That the continuall practise of Hereticks in urging Scriptures for to establish Heresie and the diversity of opinions amongst the learned about the sence of them is no just exception why they should not be acknowledged as the sole entire and compleat Rule of Faith 235 CAP. 19. Containing the true state of the question with the adversaries generall objections against the truth 236 CAP. 20. That the former objections and all of like kind drawn from the cunning practise of Hereticks in colouring false opinions by Scriptures are most pregnant to confirm ours and most forcible to confute the adversaries doctrine 239 CAP. 21. The pretended excellencie of the supposed Roman rule for composing controversies impeached by the frequencie of Heresies in the Primitive Church and the imperfection of that union whereof since that time they so much boast Page 242 CAP. 22. That our Adversaries objections do not so much infringe as their practise confirms the sufficiencie of Scriptures for composing the greatest controversies in Religion 247 CAP. 23. The sufficiencie of Scriptures for final determination of controversies in Religion proved by our Saviours and his Apostles authority and practise 254 CAP. 24. That all their objections drawn from dissentions amongst the learned or the uncertainty of private spirits either conclude nothing of what they intend against us or else more then they mean or at the least dare avouch against Gods Prophets and faithfull people of old 260 CAP. 25. How farre upon what termes or grounds we may with modesty dissent from the Ancient or others of more excellent gifts than our selves That our adversaries arguments impeach as much the certainty of human sciences as of private spirits 266 SECT IIII. The last of the three main Objections before proposed which was concerning our supposed defective means for composing controversies or retaining the unity of faith fully answered and retorted That the Roman faith hath no foundation 271 CAP. 26. Containing the true state of the question or a comparison betwixt the Romish Church and ours for their means of preventing or composing controversies 272 CAP. 27. That the Romish Church hath most need of some excellent means for taking up of contentions because it necessarily breeds so many and so grievous 275 CAP. 28. Of two sences in which the excellencie of the Romish Churches pretended means for retaining the unity of faith can onely possibly be defended the one from the former discourse proved apparently false the other in it self as palpably ridiculous 278 CAP. 29. That their arguments drawn from conveniencie of reason or pretended correspondencie between Civil and Ecclesiastical Regiment do prejudice themselves not us 282 CAP. 30. That the finall triall of this controversie must be by Scriptures that the Jesuites and modern Papists fierce oppugning all certainty of private spirits in discerning the divine truth of Scriptures or their true sence hath made the Church their mother utterly uncapable of any Plea by Scriptures for establishing her pretended infallibility 285 CAP. 31. The insufficiencie of the Roman Rule of faith for effecting what it aims at albeit we grant all they demand in this controversie The ridiculous use thereof amongst such as acknowledge it The sufficiencie of Scriptures for composing all contentions further illustrated 297 CAP. 32. Brieflie collecting the summe of the second Book 306 THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF SCRIPTURES AND CHRISTIAN BELIEF thereon wholly Depending manifested by its own LIGHT The first Book of Comments upon the Creed First Generall Part. SECT I. I believe in God the Father c. IF in any at all most of
3 Lastly the experiments which are related by Authors of this profession men in any reasonable mans judgement as much to be Believed herein as any other Writers in theirs are far more notable and apt to produce belief and hope of attaining the truth in this profession than any others can have in theirs The experiments of others were but ordinary and natural these are extraordinary and supernatural If the Atheist should impudently deny the truth of their report we may convince him with S. Augustines acute Dilemma If the Miracles related by our Writers be true they give evident experiment of the truth of Scripture if there were no such particular miracles but all feigned then this was a miracle above all miracles that Christian Religion should prevail against all other Arts Power or Policy without any extraordinary event or miracle It was not so easie a matter to cozen all the Roman Emperours and their Deputies with feigned Tales the World which hated Christians so much was inquisitive enough to know the truth of their reports I may conclude Nisi veritas magna fuisset non praevaluisset It was miraculous doubtless that it should so enrease without arms without any promise of carnal pleasure or security but even against their natural inclination that did profess it and all the Worlds opposition against it It had enemies both private and publick domestick and forraign even the flesh and sense of those which followed it fought against it 4 Mahomet since that time hath found a multitude of followers but all either enforced to follow him by threats of shame disgrace and tortures in this life or else allured thereto by fair promises of carnal pleasures to be perpetual without interruption in the life to come He hath set his followers such a course as they might be sure both of wind and tide And if the Haven whereat they arrive were as safe as their course is easie they were of all men the most happy But Christianity from its first beginning was to row against the stream of flesh and blood and to bear out sail against all the blasts that the Devil World or Flesh could oppose against it In a word the increase of Mahumetism hath followed the barbarous Turkish monarchies advancement as moisture in bodies doth the increasing fulness of the Moon And it had been an extraordinary Miracle if a barbarous multitude never acquainted with any civil pleasures should not have composed their mindes unto their Emperours in following a Religion framed as it were to court the senses and wooe the flesh But Christianitie then flourished most when the scorching heat of persecution was at the height When the countenance of Emperours as terrible to their foes for their Heroical valour as plausible to their friends for their lovely carriage were most fiercely set against it What Princes either more terrible to their enemies or more amiable to their friends than Trajan Dioclesian or others of the Christians persecutors were What man living is there of civil education that would not have lothed Mahomet and the whole succession of the Ottoman Familie in respect of these Roman Princes And yet a great part of their native Subjects men as otherwise excellently qualified so of a quiet and peaceable disposition yet readie alwaies to venture their lives for these Heathen Princes in most dangerous service against the enemies of the Roman Empire but most readie to follow the Crucisied Christ through fire and sword against their Emperors command dearer to them than this mortal life and all the Worlds threats or allurements It were sottish to think that such men had not perfect notice of some Higher Powers Commandment to the contrarie whom they thought it safer to obey when they contradicted the commandments or fair allurements of these supream Earthly Powers And it were as silly a perswasion to think that if the great Turk would change his religion for any other that might yeeld like hopes of carnal pleasure after this life any great number of his Subjects would lose their dignities for refusing subscription 5 The brief of what hath been or may be said concerning the grounds or motives of our Assent unto Objects supernatural may be comprised in these four Propositions following of which the first two are Axiomes evident in nature and received by all The two latter undoubted Axiomes amongst true Believers but suppositions onely to meer natural men or Novices in Christianity 6 The first The Stile or Title of these Sacred Books pretending divine Authority binde all men to make trial of their truth commended to us by our Ancestors confirmed to them by the Blood of Martyrs their Predecessors to use the means which they prescribed for this trial that is Abstinence from things forbidden and Alacrity in doing things commanded by them 7 The second Ordinary Apprehension or natural Belief of matters contained in Scriptures or the Christian Creed are of more force to cause men to undertake any good or abstain from any evil than the most firm Belief of any ordinary matters or any points of meer Natural consequence 8 The third Objects and grounds of Christian Belief have in them greater stability of truth and are in themselves more apt to found most strong and firm Belief then any other things whatsoever meerly credible 9 For as the most noble Essences and first Principles of every Art are most intelligible so are divine Truths of all other most Credible Not that they are more easie to be Assented to of any at their first proposal But that they have a greater measure of credibilitie in them and as their credibilitie and truth is inexhaustible so Belief of them once planted can never grow to such fulnesse of certaintie as not to receive daily increase if we applie our mindes diligently unto them so that true Christian Belief admits no stint of growth in this life but still comes nearer and nearer to that evidence of Knowledge which shall swallow it up in the life to come For the conceit of impossibilities or repugnances in nature objected by the obdurate Atheists to make the Principles of Christian religion seem incredible that they might like old Truants have the companie of Novices in Christianitie to loiter or mis-spend good hours with them we shall by Gods assistance dispel them and all other Clouds of like Errours in unfolding the truth of those Articles which they most concern 10 The fourth The means of apprehending the truth of Scriptures and experiments confirming their divine Authority are both for variety of kindes and number of Individual in every kinde far more and more certain than the means of apprehending the grounds of any other Belief or the experiments of any other teachers Authority 11 Some Particulars of every kinde with the General Heads or Common places whence like Observations may be drawn we are now to present so far as they concern the confirmation of the truth of Scriptures in general For the experiments which confirm the truth
of such particular places of Scripture as teach the Articles of our Creed expresly will come more fitly into the unfolding of the Articles themselves The second general part of the first Book SECT I. Of Observations internal or incident unto Scriptures without Reference to any relations or events other then are specified in themselves ALthough the Experiments confirming the truth of Scriptures be as I have said many and divers yet all may be reduced into these general heads or kindes They may be found either in the Stile or Character of these writings themselves the Affections or dispositions of their Writers or in Events or Experiments whatsoever the course of times affords answerable to the Rules set down in Scriptures CAP. IV. Of Historical Characters of Sacred Writings TO any man indued with reason not perverted the Books of Moses give more perfect proof of matters done and acted then any other Historie in the World can possibly do albeit we set aside the secret Characters of Gods Spirit speaking in them which we suppose can be discerned of none but such as have the mark of the Lamb answerable to it engraven upon their hearts But now we seek such inducements to Belief as may perswade the natural unregenerate man of the Historical truth of these sacred Volumes 2 The prejudices arising from the strangeness of matters related by him the Reader shall finde mitigated in the next discourse In the mean time I must request him to suspend his judgement of them and onely to intend the lively Characters of Historical truth in other relations of matters neither strange nor incredible in themselves Either Moses wrote a true Historie or else his words are but a Fiction either Poetical to delight others or Political to advantage himself or his successors Let such as doubt of their Historical truth duly examine whether many things related by him can possibly be referred to any of these two ends As for example if these relations Gen. 4. 1. and the 25. had not been either real Adjuncts of some Famous Truth then sufficiently known or else appointed by God to be notified for some special purpose to posteritie how could it possibly have come into any mans thought or to what end should it have gon thence into his Pen to shew the reason why Evah should call her first son Cain or her third Seth 3 He that would set himself to contradict might reply Moses his invention was so copious as to forecast that those insertions might make his History seem more probable or that he spake unawares according to the Custom of the times wherein he lived But why then should he omit the like in all the generations from Cain and Seth unto Noah the reason of whose name given him by his father he likewise specifies Genesis 5. 29. Genesis 5. 29. Then Lamech begat a son and called his name Noah saying This same shall comfort us concerning our work and sorrow of our hands as touching the earth which the Lord hath cursed It was doubtless from some diversity in the matter presupposed unto this work not from the workmans choice or invention why the reason of these three mens names should be specified as afterwards will more plainly appear For the positive notes or sure tokens of a true Historie they are most plentiful in the stories of Abraham Jacob and Joseph Each part of which the Divine Providence whereof these are the most Ancient most perfect and most lively patterns would have set out with such perspicuitie of all circumstances that the Reader might be an eye-witness of their Historical Truth The subject and issue whereof is in it self so pleasant as will ravish sober and attentive mindes and allure them to follow the main current of Divine Mysteries which flow from these Histories mentioned as from their first Heads or Fountains To point at some few rather than handle any particulars 4 If we may judge of the truth of mens writings by their outward form or Character as we do of mens honestie by their looks speech or behaviour what Historie in the World bears so perfect resemblance of things done and acted or yeelds without further testimonie then its own so full assurance of a true narration as the stories of Abrahams departure out of his Land his answers to God Sarahs distrust upon misconceit of Gods promises her seeking to fulfil it by giving her Maid to Abraham the manner of her speech upon her Maids contemning her the debate and issue of her controversie the Dialogue between the Angels of God and Abraham with Sarahs Apology for laughing at their Message Abrahams journey to Mount Moriah his servants expedition to Aram Naharim with his Commission to provide his young Master a Wife There appears not in any of these the least surmise of any Political respect not any signe of affected delight or Poetical representations seeing this Author falls immediately into other matters and relates every thing though many of most diverse natures with such natural specification of every circumstance as unless our hearts were prepossest with Belief that he had writ them by his direction who perfectly knoweth all things as well sore-past as present or to come we would be perswaded that most of them were relations of such as acted them uttered to their familiar friends immediately upon the fact whilest all circumstances were fresh in memory 5 How others are affected I cannot tell me thinks when I reade that story Genesis 34. I am transformed into a Man of the Old World and become a neighbour of old Jacob over-hearing him and his sons debating the slaughter of the Sichemites The old man complains Ye have troubled me and made me stink among the inhabitants of the land as well the Canaanites as the Perizzites and I being few in number they shall gather themselves together against me and so shall I and mine house be destroyed and they answered and said Shall he abuse our Sister as a Whore 6 Or if this description though issuing as naturally out of the real disposition of the true no fained parties described as brightness out of the body of the Sun yet because but short may seem more imitable by Art I will propose a longer Dialogue betwixt this old man and his sons for a pattern of which fairest colours that Art or Invention can put upon any fained Subject will come as far short as Solomons gawdy but artificial attire did of the native beauty of wild Lillies or any dy that Art can give of the natural splendor of finest Pearls the Onix or other more precious stone The storie is is Genesis 42. from the 29. unto the 15 verse of the 43 Chapter The circumstances which I would especially commend unto the Readers consideration are first The old mans jealousie v. 36. upon his sons relation what had befallen them in their journey and the Governours desire of seeing Benjamin v. 31 32 33 34 35. His peremptorie reply v. 33. to Reubens answer
v. 37. The manner of his relenting chap. 43. v. 6. upon necessitie of their going for more food and his sons peremptory refusal to go without Benjamin in the five first verses of the 43 Chapter * His condescending v. 11. upon their just Apologie for mentioning their youngest brother to the Governour and Judahs undertaking for Benjamins safe conduct back and forth in the 10. 9. 8. and 7. verses lastly the close or Epiphonema of his speech v. 13. and 14. Whilest I compare one of the circumstances with another and all of them with other precedent and consequent chiefly with Judahs speech to Joseph Genesis 44. from the sixteenth verse to the end of the Chapter although I knew no other Scripture to make me a Christian this one place would perswade me to become a Pythagorean and think that my soul had been in some of Jacobs sons where it had heard this controversie rather then to imagine that it could have been fained by any that lived long after 7 Or if we consider not the particular relations onely but the whole contrivance and issue of this storie what patern of like invention had Moses to follow If the Atheist grant such a Divine Providence as he describes let him tell us whence he learned it If from any more ancient description let this be suspected for artificial if not let this be acknowledged for the first natural representation of it Without either a former patern to imitate or true resemblance of such a Divine Providence in events immediately to be related how could such a Supream Power governing and disposing all things contrary to the designes and purposes of man be by mortal man conceived More probable is the Poets fiction that Minerva should be conceived in Jupiters brain then that Humane Fancie should bring forth a more Omnipotent more wise or excellent Deity than the Poets make their Jupiter without any true image of his Providence manifested in the effects But after the manifestation of it in the story of Joseph and the live-picture of it taken by Moses all imitation of it was not so difficult though he that would seek to imitate him fully should herein come as far short of the solid marks of his historical truth as the Egyptians Juglers tricks did of true Miracles 8 As all these and many other places yeeld undoubted Characters of true Historical narrations so do his speeches unto this people Deut. 29. 30. 31. Infallible symptoms of a dving man and one that indeed had born this mighty Nation as an Eagle bears her voung ones upon her wings These admirable strains of his heavenly admonitions and divine prophesies compared with the live images of former truths witnsse that he was the Janus of Prophets Vates oculatus tam prateritorum quain futurorum one that could both clearly see what had been done beso â⦠what should fall out after his death Both which shall hereafter God willing better appear by matters related and event foretold by him 9 But to proceed the whole Historical part of the Bible not Moses his Books alone yeeld plenty of such passages as being compared with other circumstances or the main drift and scope of the entire stories whereof they are parts leave no place for imagination either why they should or how possibly they could have been inserted by Art or Imitation or have come into any mans thoughts not moved by the real occurrence of such occasions as are specified in the matters related And seeing all of them are related by such as affect no Art many of them by such as lived long after the parties that first uttered or acted them we cannot conceive how all particulars could be so naturally and fully recorded unless they had been suggested by his Spirit who giveth mouth and speech to man who is alike present to all successions able to communicate the secret thoughts of forefathers to their children and put the very words of the deceased never registred before in the mouths or pens of their successors for many generations after as distinctly and exactly as if they had been caught in Characters of Steel or Brass as they issued out of their mouths 10 When I reade that speach in Ovid. 4 Metam Fab. 8. Sive es mortalis qui te genuere beati Et Mater foelix fortunata profectò Si qua tibi Soror est quae dedit ubera Nutrix If mortal thou thrice happy sure thy Parents be Or if thou any Sister hast thrice happy she Thrice happy Nurse whose breasts gave suck to thee I see no inducement to believe this for a true Story because I know the end and aim of his writing was to invent Verisimilia to feign such speeches as best besitted the persons whose part he took upon him to express thereby to delight his hearers with variety of lively representations But when I reade that narration of our Saviours Apology for himself against the Jews which said he had an unclean spirit Luke 11. 14. and a woman coming in with her verdict Now blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that gave thee suck v. 27. This unexpected strain with our Saviours reply unto it Yea rather blessed are those that hear the word of God and keep it v. 28. so briefly inserted into the Story inforce me to think that it was penned by one that sought onely to relate the truth part of which was this womans speech But with the means of knowing the New Testament to be the Word of God I will not here meddle the Old Testament sufficiently proveth it besides many other experiments to be prosecuted in the unfolding of sundry Articles CAP. V. Of the Harmony of sacred Writers AN other Inducement for believing the truth of the Old Testament is the Harmony of so many several writers living in such distance of Ages handling such diversity of arguments and covering them with stiles for the majesty of some and the familiarity of others more different then Virgils verses and the rudest countrymans talk and yet all of them retaining the self same relish Whiles we reade Tully Virgil Livie Salust and Ovid though all living near about one time yet their writings differ as much as Flesh and Fish Many learned men like some one or few of these and yet much mislike others reputed as excellent writers in their kinde living about the same time much more might he that should have read the common or vulgar Historiographers Poets or Orators of that time have contemned them as base in respect of the former But the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Historiographers of the same though differing infinitely in degrees of stile and invention yet agree as well in the substance or essential quality of their writings as the same Pomander chafed and unchafed There is the same odour of life and goodnesse in both but more fragrant and piercing in the one than in the other And no man that much likes the one can mislike
force of assimilating them unto the paterns of godly and religious mens Souls represented herein yea even of transforming them into the similitude of that Image wherein they were first created The Idaeas of Sanctity and Righteousnesse contained in this Spiritual Glasse are the causes of our Edification in good life and Vertue as the Idaea or Platform in the Artificers head is the cause of the Material House that is builded by it SECT II. Of Experiments and Observations External answerable to the rules of Scripture CAP. VII Containing the Topick whence such Observations must be drawn 1 IF the Books of some Ancient rare Author who had written in sundry Arts should be found in this Age all bearing the Authors name and other commendable Titles prefixed a reasonable man would soon be perswaded that they were His whose name they bore but sooner if he had any positive arguments to perswade himself or their Antiquitie or if they were commended to him by the authoritie or report of men in this case credible But besides all these if every man according to his Experience or Skill in those Arts and Faculties which this Ancient writer handles should upon due examination of his Conclusions or discourse find resolution in such points as he had alwayes wavered in before or be instructed in matters of his Profession or observation whereof he was formerly ignorant this would much strengthen his Assent unto the former reports or traditions concerning their Author or unto the due praises and Titles prefixed to his Works albeit he that made this trial could not prove the same truth so fully to another nor cause him to Believe it so firmly as he himself doth unlesse he could induce him to examine his writings by like Experiments in some Facultie wherein the examiner had some though lesse Skill And yet after the like trial made he that had formerly doubted would Believe these works to be the supposed Authors and subscribe unto the Titles and commendations prefixed not so much for the Formers Report or Authoritie as from his own Experience Now we have more certain Experiments to prove that the Scriptures are the word of God then we can have to prove any mens works to be their supposed Authors for one Author in any Age may be as good as another He perhaps better of whom we have heard lesse We could in the former case only certainly Believe that the Author whosoever was an excellent Scholler but we could not be so certain that it was none other but he whose Name it did bear For there may be many Aristotles and many Platoes many Excelllent men in every Profession yet but One God that is All in All whose Works we suppose the Scriptures are which upon strict examination will evince him alone to have been their Author 2 The meanes then of establishing our Assent unto any part of Scripture must be from Experiments and Observations agreeable to the rules in Scripture For when we see the reason and manner of sundrie events either related by others or experienced in our selves which otherwise we could never have reached unto by any Natural Skill or generally when we see any effects or concurrence of things which cannot be ascribed to any but a Supernatural Cause and yet they fully agreeing to the Oracles of Scriptures or Articles of Belief This is a sure Pledge unto us that he who is the Author of Truth and gives being unto all things was the Author of Scriptures 3 Such Events and Experiments are divers and according to their diversities may work more or lesse on divers dispositions Some may find more of one sort some of another none all Some again may be more induced to Believe the truth of Scriptures from one sort of Experiments some from others Those observations are alwayes best for every man which are most incident to his Vocation With some varietie of these observations or Experiments we are in the next place to acquaint divers Readers CAP. VIII That Heathenish Fables ought not to Prejudice divine Truth 1 NOthing more usual to men wise enough in their generation then for the varietie or multitude of false reports concerning any Subject to discredit All that are extant of the same And all inclination unto diffidence or distrust is not alwayes to be misliked but onely when it swayes too far or extends is self beyond the limits of its proper Circumference that is matters of Bargain or secular Commerce As this diffident temper is most common in the cunning managers of such affaires so the first degree or propension to it were not much amiss in them did they not Transcendere à genere ad genus that is were not their Mistrust commonly too generally rigid and stiff For most men of great dealings in the world finding many slipperie companions hold it no sin to be at the least suspitious of all Others being often cozened by such as have had the name and reputation of Honest men begin to doubt whether there be any such thing indeed as that which men call Honestie and from this doubting about the real nature of Honestie in the Abstract they resolve undoubtedly That if any man in these dayes do not dâ⦠ill with others it is onely for want of sit opportunitie to do himself any great good But as Facilitie in yielding Assent unless it be moderated by discretion is an infallible Consequent of too great simplicitie and layes a man open to abuse and wrong in matters of this life so General Mistrust is the certain forerunner of Insidelity and makes a man apt enough to cozen himself without a tempter in matters of the life to come though otherwise this is the very disposition which the great Tempter works most upon who for this reason when any notable truth of greater moment fals out labours by all means to fil the world with reports of like events but such as upon examination he foresees wil prove false for he knows well that the Belief of most pregnant truths may be this means be much impaired as honest men are usually mistrusted when the world is full of knaves And to speak the Truth It is but a very short Cut betwixt general and rigid Mistrust in worldly dealings and Infidelity in spiritual matters which indeed is but a kind of diffidence or mistrust and he that from the experience of often cozenage comes once to this point That he will trust none in worldly affairs but upon strong securitie or legal assurance may easily be transported by the varietie or multitude of reports in spiritual matters notoriously false to Believe nothing but upon the sure pledge and Evidence of his own Sense or natural Reason This is one main fountain of Atheism of which God willing in the Article of the Godhead In this place I onely desire to give the Reader notice of Satans Policy and to advertise him withall that as there is a kind of Ingenuous Simplicity which if it match with sobâieâie and serious
or some neer adjoyning Thus he expected Oracles should either come in use again in Greece or else burst out in some more convement Soyl. The Atheists of this Age our English home-bred ones at least have altogether as great reason to deny the decay or drying up of Rivers and Lakes as to suspect the frequency of Oracles or other events in times past for neither they noâ their fathers have had any more experience of the one then of the other Plutarchs testimony amongst many others is Authentick for the use and decay of Oracles but neither his Authority nor the reasons which he brings can give satisfaction to any man that seeks the true cause of their defect He refers it indeed in a generality to the Gods not that they wanted good will to mankinde still but that the matter did decay which their ministers the demoniacal Spirits did work upon as you heard before We may upon sure grounds with confidence affirm That even this decay of matter which he dreams of had it conferred ought to the use of Oracles was from God And he as the Psalmist speaks that turneth the floods into a wildernesse and drieth up the water Springs and maketh a fruitful land barren for the iniquity of them that dwell therein did also bring not onely the Oracle of Delphi so much frequented amongst the Grecians but all other kindes of divinations used amongst his own people in the old World to desolation and by powring out his Spirit more plenteously upon the barren hearts of us Heathen hath filled the Barbarous Nations of Europe with better store of Rivers of comfort then the Ancient Israel his own inheritance had ever known Or if we desire a more immediate cause of these Oracles defect amongst the Heathens the time was come that the strong mans house was to be entred his goods spoiled and himself bound now the Prince of this world was to be cast out 2 Plutarchs relation of his demoniacal Spirits mourning for great Pans death about this time is so strange that it might perhaps seem a Tale unlesse the truth of the common bruit had been so constantly avouched by ear-witnesses unto Tiberius that it made him call a convocation of Wise men as Herod did at our Saviours birth to resolve him who this great Pan late deceased should be Thamous the Egyptian Master unknown by that name to his Passengers until he answered to it at the third call of an uncouth voice uttered Sine Authore from the land requesting him to proclaim the news of great Pans death as he passed by Palodes was resolved to have let all passe as a Fancy or idle Message if the wind and tide should grant him passage by the place appointed but the wind failing him on a sudden at his coming thither he thought it but a little losse of breath to cry out aloud unto the shoar as he had been requested Great Pan is dead The words as Plutarch relates were scarce out of his mouth before they were answered with a huge noise as it had been of a multitude sighing and groaning at this wonderment If these Spirits had been by nature mortal as this Philosopher thinks the death of their chief Captain could not have seemed so strange but that a far greater then the greatest of them by whose power the first of them had his being should die to redeem his enemies from their thraldom might well seem a matter of wonderment and sorrow unto them The circumstance of the time will not permit me to doubt but that under the known name of Pan was intimated the great Shepheard of our souls that had then layd down his life for his flock not the fained son of Mercury and Penelope as the Wisemen foolishly resolved Tiberius Albeit even this base and counterfeit resolution of these Heathens coyning bears a lively image for the exact proportion of the divine truth Charactred out unto us in Scripture For it shall appear by sufficient testimonies in their due time and place to be produced that sundry general confused or Enigmatical traditions of our Saviours Conception Birth and Pastoral office had been spread abroad amongst the Nations Hence instead of Him they frame a Pan the God of Shepherds in stead of the Holy Spirit by whom he was to be conceived they have a Mercury their false Gods fained Messenger and Interpreter for Pans father instead of the Blessed Virgin who was to bear our Saviour they have a Penelope for their young Gods Mother The affinity of quality and offices in all the parties here paralleld made this transfiguration of divine Truth easie unto the Heathen and the manner of it cannot seem improbable to us if we consider the wonted vanity of their imaginations in transforming the glory of the Immortal God into the similitude of earthly things most dislike to it in nature and quality Thus admitting Plutarchs story to be most true it no way proves his intended conclusion that the wild goatish Pan was mortal but the Scriptures set forth unto us the true cause why both he and all the rest of that hellish crue should at that time howl and mourn seeing by the Great Shephe ds Death they were become Dead in Law no more to breath in Oracles but quite to be deprived of all such strange motions as they had seduced the ignorant World with before All the antick tricks of Faunus the Satyrs and such like creatures were now put down God had resolved to make a translation of his Church and for this cause the Devils were enforced to dissolve their old Chappels and seek a new form of their Liturgie or Service Whilest the Israelites were commanded to consult with Gods Priests Prophets or other Oracles before they undertook any difficult war or matters of moment Satan had his Priests and Oracles as much frequented by Heathen Princes upon the like occasions So Strabo witnesseth That the Ancient Heathen in their chief consultations of State did rely more upon Oracles then humane policy If Moses were forty dayes in the Mount to receive Laws from Gods own mouth Minos will be Jupiters Auditor in his Den or Cave for the same purpose In emulation of Shiloh or Kiriath-jearim whilest the Ark of God remained there the Heathens had Dodona and for Jerusalem they had Delphi garnished with rich donatives of forrain Princes as well as Grecians so magnified also by Grecian Writers as ãâã it had been the intended Parallel of the holy City Insomuch that Plutarch thinks the story commonly received of that Oracles original to be lesse probable because it ascribes the invention of it to Chance and not to the Divine Provivence or Favour of the Gods when as it had been such a direction unto Greece in undertaking wars in building Cities and in time of Pestilence and Famine Whether these effects in Ancient times had been alwayes from the information of Devils as I said before I will not dispute That this Oracle
Bassina and Childericks dayes I could bring which might confirm the Historical truth of the like mentioned in Scriptures to any civil Heathen as they have inforced such as we most suspect for Atheists to acknowledge a divine power or providence in them And I know not what reason any professour of truth can have to deny the like presignifications in later times upon extraordinary occasions or in some transmutations of Kingdoms if he have so much Religion as not to doubt of Nebuchad-nezzars vision But of such signs whether good or ominous and of their lawful use elsewhere Of the use of prophecies amongst the Heathen and Barbarous people and of that offence which some take at such as seem to give any credit to them as if this were against the truth of scriptures we may perhaps take occasion to speak when we come to unfold the divers kinds of prophecies amongst the Jews with their interpretations Thus much may suffice for the removal of that prejudice which Atheists Infidels and other Worldly-wise men have of their Ancestors Credulity or Fabulosity which were not incident to primary Antiquity but unto Ages in succession nearer to those times wherein wonders had been plentiful as commonly the Braggadochian humour doth hant the degenerate race of worthy Ancestors before their posterity come to be Sneaks or Pesants which in the race of private persons answers in proportion to Infidelity the common Symptom of decrepit Age in Kingdoms CAP. XIV Of the Original and right use of Poetry with the manner of its Corruption by later Poets 1 THe positive truth which in the removal of impediments and offences hath been made more then probable in the former discourse may yet be made more evident from more particular observations concerning the manner how Monstrous Fables have descended from true Wonders which will best appear by setting down the Original and right Use of Poetry 2 A Poet being as his name imports a Maker according to the Latin proverb is not made by Art but framed to this divine Faculty by Nature Not that any amongst the Romans became Poets on a sodain but that many very fruitful wits in all other kindes of learning could not be forced by any industry art or culture to such a temper as was befitting this plant of Eden which groweth not in any modern brest without more tender care and greater cherishing then any other slip or branch of the tree of knowledge and yet when all is done seldom comes to any proof unlesse it borrow grounds from the Ancient as tender plants can hardly be removed from a better soil to a worse without some of the earth wherein they naturally grow Were Arts to begin anew Poetry which was the first and most common among the Ancient in all probability would spring the last grow the slowest amongst us Their wits of old were not naturally or generally better then ours why then was the way to Parnassus which unto us using all help of Art and Imitation is laborious and hard to ascend so plain and easie to them without any guide or help all other Artificial learning being then either unknown or very scant Such knowledge or observations as they had or cared for they knew not otherwise how to convey unto posteritie then by Poetical numbers and resemblances He is a Poet by nature saith that excellent Poet and divine Philosopher That is apt to be ravished with the true and native beauty of such Objects as are represented to his senses and can express his conceit by such pleasant resemblances as often as he shall have occasion to utter his minde in writing or set speech This inclination or disposition is as the ground or soil whereon Poetrie doth naturally grow whether in Ancient or Modern breasts but the Ancient had this advantage The Fashion of the world in their times was more apt to ravish their thoughts with Admiration wonderful Events were then frequent nor did their frequency abate but rather increase wonderment because their variety was great and the apprehension of invisible or Supernatural Powers in them usual So that admiration was then inforced upon men and the breasts of such as diligently observed these events or were any way disposed by nature to the Faculty were inspired with lively and sublimate affections apt to vent themselves in such Poetical Phrase and resemblances as we cannot reach unto unless we raise our invention by Art and imitation and stir up Admiration by meditation and study And because neither our senses are moved with any extraordinary effects of Gods Power nor our minds bent to observe the ways of his Wisdom so as we might be stricken with true Admiration of them we have fewer good sacred Poems then of any other kind But as the Ancients chief learning did consist of Poetry so the excellency of their Poetry was chiefly seen in the proper and native subject of this Faculty that is in matters of Sacred Use or observation whence the title of Vates did descend unto secular or profane Poets which retained the number and manner of speech used by the former 3 That such as were Vates indeed were taught this sublimity of speech by admiration of extraordinary events may be confirmed by the Historical narrations of the Sacred Story wherin Poetical Hymns or sons are the usual consequents of strange or wonderful events As Judg. 5. after the victory gotten over Sisera Then sang Deborah Barach the son of Abinoam the same day saying Praise ye the Lord c. So likewise Hannah after the Lord had heard her prayer and taken away her barrenness burst out into the like Poetical Hymn 1 Sam. 2. So did the Blessed Virgin upon her cosen Elizabeths salutation and John Baptist springing in her womb take up her song Luke 1. 46. My soul doth magnifie the Lord c. So doth Zachary John Baptists father take up his prophecy Luke 1. 68. and Simeon Luke 2. 28. So likewise after the manifestation of Gods wonders in the red Sea all his people as if they had been baptized in a sacred Helicon presently turn Poets Exod. 15. 1. And again Numb 21. after they had returned to Beer the Well which Moses had opened out of the hard rock with his rod Israel as if they had washed their mouths in Hippocrene had their voices tuned to an high strain of Poetry Then Israel sang this song Rise up WELL sing ye unto it the Princes digged this Well the Captains of the people digged it even with their staves 4 That the frequent use of Poetry among the Ancient heathen did arise from like occasions may be gathered from Strabo who from Antiquity better known to him then us avoucheth it as unquestionable that all other set speech whether Historical or Rhetorical was but the Progeny of Poetry falling in latter times from its wonted state and dignity whereas the Ancients knew no other branch of Artificial or set speech but only Poetry Albeit to speak properly it
is it that the Prophets so often express the same things in divers words as if all they could say could not equalize the sensible Experiments which did move their Hearts and Fancies as the Musitians hands or breath doth his instruments to sound out such Pathetical Ditties Nor had their Ditties any greater disproportion with their subject then our Songs of Famous Victories have with theirs or other passionate Ditties with their composers affections albeit he that hath experience of Love or abundant Grief or Joy will speak in another Dialect then ordinarily he useth without any touch of affectation 5 Hence we may clearly discern whilest wonders decayed and men sought as great delight in Fained as their forefathers had done in True Representations how the disproportion betwixt Representations and the real Events or Experiments of the times wherein the later Poets lived became so Monstrous and Prodigious This fell out just so as if the Armorours of this Age should not observe the stature of men now living but fashion their Armour by old Guy of Warwicks Harnesse or our Painters not look upon the bodies of modern English-men but take their proportions from some Ancient Pictures which had been truly taken about some 1000 years ago in some other Countrey that had yielded men of more ample stature in that Age then this land of ours did in any Such an Errour as this which we have mentioned in Poetry would quickly have been reformed in any other Facultie that had concerned mens temporal profit or commodities or whereof others had been as competent Judges as the Professors for so when they had begun to wander or digress a little from their right end they should presently have bin called to this account Quid ad rem your Work may be Prety but not to our Purpose But when such Admirable Events as were well worth Poetical expression decreased and worldly cares did multiply as men increased the divine art of Poetry which admits not many competent Judges in any age was counted no better then a matter of meer delight or recreation and for this reason the Prodigious Representations of it so Monstrously disproportionable to the truth represented because oft times more pleasant to men wearied with other studies or imployments then the bare narration of the truth were never reformed And so at length that Audacious Licentiousnesse of Fictions for moving delight did in the judgement of posterity disparage the very patterns or Prototypes of Poetical representations whereunto later Poems had been framed As many Tall Fellows in this present age if they should see the true image or picture of some Ancient Giants would swear that the painter had plaied the Poet were it not that the dead bodies or limbs of some Ancient people lately digged out of the ground did by their unusual bignesse teach us to estimate as we say Ex pede Herculem how great others might have been whose big limbs and bones have not come unto this Ages sight 6 But most of these strange Events were such as did continue no longer then while they were a doing wherefore we must seek out the true proportion of these Heavenly Bodies by their shadows represented in the later Profane Poets The Original and manner of whose digression from the paterns of the Ancient Divine Poets or rather from Divine truth the pattern of Ancient Poetrie it self was partly as you have heard partly as followeth 7 Gods wonderful works have been more plenteous in Asia then in other parts of the world more plentiful in Judea and the Regions about it then mother parts of Asia most plentiful in them about the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt In that time and in the ages before or immediately succeeding it Artificial learning was very scant and Characters either not invented or their use very rare in most places The fresh memory of such wonders presupposed the lively image either of inch licentiousnesse in coining fables or confounding true Histories with the mixture of false and unnatural circumstances as these wants every where in all times naturally breed we may clearly behold in the modern Turks who are as abundant in Prodigious Fables as defective in good learning and for want of printing or neglect of writing have no perfect Character of the worlds Fashion in times past nor any distinct order of former Events It is but a petty solecisme among them to affirm that Job the Hussâite was chief Justice and Alexander the Great Lieutenent general unto King Solomon 8 The like confusion of times and places might be more incident unto the Asiatick Nations before Alexanders time because their Ancestors had been acquainted with more strange events latelier forepast then the modern Turks are Now alwayes the more strange the events be the more ready they be to Mount upon the Wings of Fame and once so mounted the more apt to receive increase in every Circumstance and vary their shape whilest they flie onely from mouth to mouth in the open air not fashioned or limited at their first birth by some visible Character or permanent Stamp set upon them 9 From this vicinity of true wonders in Jury or thereabouts were the Medes Persians and Syrians so much addicted to Fabulous narrations that their delight in such traditions did make their later writers ambitious in the skill of coining wonders as Strabo tels us And Greece as it received Artificial learning first from Asia so did it drink in this humour with it For the traditions of Gods Miracles in Jury and the Regions about it having been far spread when Greece began first to tattle in Artificial learning the Grecians Alwayes Children in true Antiquitie as the Egyptian Priest told one of their Philosophers were apt to counterfeit the form of Ancient Truths and misapply it to unseemly matters or foolish purposes as children will be doing that in homlier stuff which they see their elders do in better Finally the same humour which yet raigns amongst men might possess most of the Heathen There is no famous Event that fals out though it be but a notable Jest but in a short time is ascribed to a great many more then have any affinity with it As many of Diogenes conceits have been fathered upon Tarleton and what the Christians say of S. George the Turks ascribe to Chederley If it be any story concerning way-faring men every Hostler Tapster or Chamberlain will tell you that it fell out in their Town or in the Countrey thereabouts And though you hear it in twenty several places yet shall you have alwayes some new tricks of addition put upon it In like manner did the reports of sundry events which either fell out only in Jury or upon occasion of Gods people flie about the world sometime with cut and mangled but most usually with enlarged Artificial wings as if the same had been acted every where or the like invented upon every occasion CAP. XV. Of some particular Fables resembling some true stories
went first on land in that countrey The Storie of whose preservation in this Deluge and the propagation of Mankind from him and his children not being expresly recorded to the Scythians they Imagin that men had grown like Mushromes after Rain because they had been so few and now were come unto such great multitudes Nor did Noah onely go first on land in Armenia but his posteritie had their habitation in the mountainous Countries until their multitude caused them to seek more room as we may gather Gen. 11. v. 1 2. Then the whole earth was of one Language and one Speech and as they went from the East that is from Armenia they found a Plain in the Land of Shinar and there they abode Some broken Traditions of this Truth might cause the Ancient Scythians to stand upon their Pantofles and plead Prioritie of nature from superioritie of place And this conceit of Antiquitie being propagated to posteritie they seek to Fortifie their Title to it called in question by such reasons as were alledged before And even in these their reasons though false in particular there appears a certain general glimpse of Divine Truth For in that they take it as granted that either fire or water had stopped the course of nature this is an infallible Argument that they had heard of the Dominion allotted by Fate to those two Elements over other Bodies albeit they did not rightly apprehend the manner of the worlds destruction by them nor whethers course was first passed This Tradition of the Worlds destruction by Fire and Water and the distinction of their courses though not so plainly revealed in the old Testament had come more distinctly to Ovids hand who bringeth in Jupiter resolving to plague the old World rather by Water then Fire because it was to have a Fatal dissolution by Fire Fsse quoque in Fatis reminiscitur assore Tempus Quo Mare quo Tellus correptaque Regia Coeli Ardeat Mundi Moles operosa laboret He cals to minde the day would come for Fates had set the same When Sea and Land Heavens Elements and all this Mundane Frame Should sweat with Heat and melt as Wax before the Fearful Flame 4 The Egyptians likewise had many reasons why they might justly think themselves a very Ancient people and those not dissonant unto Scripture which witnesseth Egypt to have been a mightie Kingdom every way better replenished then any other Countrey that we can read of in times so Ancient first possest by Mizraim the son of Cham by whose name it is continually called by the sacred Writers as well the Prophets and late Historiographers as by Moses and in the Eastern Languages bears that name until this day as Mercerus tels us This Mizraim also did propagate sundrie particular Nations in short time as we find registred Gen. 10. 13 14. All which might make for the Egyptians conceit of their Antiquitie And albeit the old Canaanites were as Ancient and populous a Nation though not so united in a Kingdom as the Egyptians yet before these Altercations arose or at least before any other people took notice of them their posterity was rooted out by the Israelites who though they came in the others place yet came not into competition with the Egyptians for Antiquitie in the Judgement of any Heathen writer because the Israelites were no people till the time that Egypt was one of the mightiest Nations upon earth and the Heathen being ignorant as making little reckoning of their original took them for a Colonie of the Egyptians as appears by Strabo who in recompence of this his Error hath elsewhere acquainted us with another Experiment which may confirm the Antiquitie of Moses storie concerning Shems posteritie Moses tels us Gen. 10. 23. that Aram son of Shem and brother to Ashur had Uz and Chul and Mash unto his sons The Aramites no question had their name and propagation from Aram. Some think the Arabians or other Countries about Idumaea or both had their Original from Uz Others that the Massiani in Arabia were so called of Mash Josephus that the Armenians were the progenie of Chul Consonant to all these opinions is Strabâ his observation of these people whom the Grecians call Syrians the Syrians themselves call Aramaeans and his collection is That the Armenians and the Erembi that is the ancient Arabians have taken their denomination from the same name a little varied as the custom is by continuance of time and varietie of Dialect That these three Nations did all proceed from one stock he gathers from the similitudes and perfect resemblances of their nature customes and manner of life 5 Put for the first habitation or Antiquitie of Armenia or Scythia it skils not much That man-kinde had a new propagation about the time assigned by Moses of the Universal Floud and that the Nations were propagated from those Regions which Moses tels us were allotted to the Sons of Noah and inhabited by his Nephews is apparant from the suddain encrease of Arts and Sciences Which were in a good measure perfect in those Countries in times as Ancient as any profane Historie can point unto yet seated onely in a narrow room whence they were derived as from a Centre to more remote parts of the World The ripenesse of Literature Civil Discipline and Inventions amongst the Assyrians Caldeans and Egyptians before the like did so much as bud forth in Greece Italy or other Countries far distant from the former doth argue that these were the stock and others but slips or Branches transplanted thence Again the State and Pomp of these Eastern Countries before Greece or Italy or any other Western People did grow into the Fashion of a Kingdom or civil Nation demonstrates unto us That the Inhabitants of those places were the Heirs of the World who had the Court Kingdom and Metropolis amongst them and other Nations but as Colonies of men of meaner sort not so near allied unto the First-born or as it were of a younger house and far ruder Education And it is most likely or rather evident that the sons of Japhet did first inhabit Scythia or the Northern parts of Asia Minor and other parts near adjoyning before they came into Greece or other Countries of Europe And these were the sons of Noahs meanest posteritie until the fulnesse of Shem and Chams iniquitie were accomplished For as Gods promise unto Abraham was not accomplished in his Person but in his Posteritie many generations after his death so neither did his curse upon Cham take place till the sametime The Execution of Gods curse upon the one was the collation of his blessing upon the other but the enlarging of Japhets race came long after both Thus the Egyptians were the first great Princes the Assyrians Medes and Persians the next the Grecians and Romans after them and in later times the race of Ismael hath been the mightie People for of him the Saracens lineally descend and
their ships but charge them with all speed Mean time I 'le go before and smooth the way you follow must I 'le turn the Grecian Chieftains back or lay them in the dust Such mysteries of Nature are often wrapt in Poetical Fictions though many of them not so easie to be discerned in such distance of time this kind of Divinitie being now worn out of date But we that have this Supernatural Commentarie upon the works of nature may see in the mixt colours of the Rain-bow more clearly then in any Prophetical vision the Old Worlds destruction by Water and This presents future consumption by Fire whose brightnesse is predominant in the waterish humour The resolution of the cloud by the heat of Sun-beams reflected upon it prefigures unto us the melting of the Elements with fire 2 Pet. 3. 12. 8 Scarce any thing in the frame of Nature no not the untruths of Poetical Fables or lying stories but bear Witnesse of the Divine Truth revealed in Scriptures so men would not be preposterous in their observations like Julian the Apostate who sought to discredit the Sacred Storie of the Tower of Babel by the Poets fictions of the Giants war against Heaven as if there had been no more probabilitie in the one then in the other If he could have shewed us any Poem of the same Subject more Ancient then that storie he might have had some piece of an excuse for his Impietie some pretence for accusing the Scripture of Poetical Imitation but if the Poets have been Imitators of Moses or other Writers of this storie the blame must lie upon them either for wilful corrupting of the truth or which is most likely for taking the Hyperbolical Phrase of Scriptures in a strict sense as if they had meant to build a Tower up to Heaven Indeed when as the Phrase importeth no other intendment in them then onely To build an Exceeding High Towaâ⦠which might secure them from Inundation as some think or else endure as a Monument of their Fame or a Refuge whereunto they might resort and continue their Combination 9 But the later Grecians having their Consciences convict with the Evidence not their Affections conquered with the Love of Truth were driven into more desperate Impudence to say that our Saviour Christ had taken those Divine Sentences which they could not but admire out of their divine Plato whereas Plato himself as S. Ambrose and S. Augustin out of Testimonies not now producible gather had his best Divinitie from such as wrote of Christ although the Medley of their Divinity and his Philosophie is but like the mingling of Jordans sweet streams with the salt Sea That Plato had either read ãâã been instructed by such as had read the Books of Moses he will easily Believe that shall read the speech of Aristophanes in the Dialogue of Love or Banquet-discourse In the beginning saith he there were three sorts or Sexes ãâã men not these two only which now are extant Male and Female But a thââ common nature composed of these whose Name now onely remaineth without any such real Nature as the word Androgyni imports 10 This opinion doubtlesse was conceived from a misconceit of Moâ⦠his meaning in making divers mention of our First Parents Creation Gen. 2. He makes first mention of Adams Creation then of Evahs distinct from it But Gen. 1. 26 27. and Chapt. 5. 1 2. He seemeth to relate both their Creations so joyntly and briefly that a man not acquainted with the Hebrew Dialect nor the Mysteries of Matrimonie represented in that Storie might think that neither distinct Man or Woman had been there created but Androgyni Furthermore God said Let us make Man in our likenesse according to our Image and let Them rule over the fish of the Sea and over the fowl of the Heaven and over the beasts and over all the Earth and over every thing that creepeth or moveth on the earth Thus GOD created Man in his own Image in the Image of GOD created âe Him he created Them Male and Female And a secular Artist that affecteth Artificial being ignorant of Moses his Method might think that these were not Repetitions of the same but distinct Stories of divers Creations From the like ignorance of the Grecians in the Eastern tongues or some default in the written copies which they followed did the River Perath enlarge its name by translation from one tongue to another as it doth its streams by passing from place to place For if we joyn the Hebrew Pronoun or Article with the Noun whereby this River is named in Scripture the compound is onely different in termination from the same Rivers name in Creek Moses Gen. 2. having mentioned Three Rivers of the Garden addeth And there was a Fourth which is Perath Hu Perath or rather Hu Prath which words conjoyned are Huphrath All these argue that the sacred Antiquity of Jewry was unto other Nations as Nilus to Egypt the main Stream or Principal River whence they drew most of their Inventions either of necessitie or delight albeit these Cuts or petty streams thence derived did quite alter their native qualitie in the conveyances receiving infection from the Soyl through which they ran or putrifying in the Cisterns wherein they setled 11 For confirmation of all we may adde this The Greek Alphabet hath been taken from the Hebrew as is evident to such as will compare both The Grecians themselves acknowledge that they had their very Letters from the Phoenicians who were next neighbours to Judea 12 To Recollect the sum of all that hath been said throughout this Discourse As both the first Elements and sundrie Primitive words of the Greek and Hebrew scarce differ so much one from another as Three from Four or one Digit number from the next unto it and yet after many deflections from the first Roots or Themes of both and new Frames of words by Artificial Composition a thing as natural to the Greeks as spreading branches to the Vine the Languages themselves or whole product of both Elements are much different So are the Principal or first Heads of the Grecian Inventions derived for the most part from the Hebrews although by successive Artificial Imitation their Varietie grow greater and their resemblance of divine Truth the less So likewise were Logical conceits first clothed like Natures children in Terms not much abhorrent from Common and Civil Use but after divers Reflections of Artists Imaginations and endless Revolution of Conceipt upon Conceipt the Logicians Dialect is become a Distinct Language from all others so that a man may as well speak Greek to a meer Latinist as Logick-Latin to a meer Humanitian Thus much of the Heathens digression from the Historical truth of Scriptures It remains that we compare the moral use and issue of their Inventions with the End Scope and Fruit of these Divine writings CAP. XVII Of sacred Writers Sobrietie and discretion in relating true Miracles compared especially with
before God had injoyned a General Silence throughout this Land that all might hearken more attentively unto the Criers voice appointed to prepare the wayes of the Lord after whose message once fully accomplished as it had been after the ringing of a Market-Bell every Mountebank throughout their coasts sets to sale the dreams and fancies of his own brain for Divine Prophecies 3 Lastly the Heathen in their most Sacred Traditions and matters of greatest consequence adde circumstances according to the occurrents of their own Times which suit no better with the Substance or Essence of their Ancestors Observations then a Pigmeies slipper with a Gyants Foot How shamefully doth the wanton Poets faign his Gods to long after such matters as he himself did most delightin The best end and use of his greatest Gods apparitions are oft times to accomplish beastly lust Divine truths are usually transformed into the Poets private affection Ovids description of Jupiters coming to Semele is not much unlike the manner of GODS passing by Eliah upon the mount and therefore not altogether unbeseeming the Majestie of the Great King if all circumstances were answerable to the substance of the description but it is brought to an absurd profane and foolish purpose So likewise Semeles petition unto Jupiter is but Moses his request unto God Effeminate and transformed in sundry circumstances to the Poets humour Moses Exod. 33 18. desired to see the Glory of the Lord and the Lord answered him Thou canst not see my Face for there shall no man see my Face and live Yet willing to confirm this his Servants Faith he condescends thus far to his suit Whilst my glory passeth by I will put thee into a cleft of the rock and will cover thee with mine hand whilst I passe by and thou shalt see my back-parts but my face shall not be seen Either from some mistaking of this place or from experience of others sodain death upon such apparition of the Divine Majestie as Moses and Elias by peculiar dispensation had escaped did that tradition spring which Manbah conceited so deeply Judg. 13. 22. And Manoah said unto his wife we shall surely die because we have seen God as Gideon had done likewise Judge 6. 22. Alas my Lord God for because I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face I shall die This Tradition had come to Ovids hands who makes that Majestie which he had described to be so great so Improvident withall as to grant her foolish request on whom he doted to her utter ruine and so Impotent that he could not protect her albeit he strove to cover her with his hand and so finally neither the God could injoy his Love nor his best Beloved her Life Such are the consequences of latter Heathens greatest Miracles but in the Sacred Storie wherein are specified Events as strange as Poets relate any such causes are assigned of them as are more weighty and the manner of their relation more Grave and Serious then the Events are Rare if God at any time appear either in vision by night or corporal shape by day it is for some Extraordinary purpose All the Miracles or wonders wrought in Israel were to bring that people unto the knowledge of the true God to rely continually upon his Providence A matter more hard if we consider the frailty of our own flesh then the effecting of any Miracles reported to have been wrought for the Jews Why his Wonderful Works should be most frequent amongst this people this reason is as plain as probable from the End This people was placed as a Light unto all the Nations of the World besides They injoyed extraordinary prosperity that others might be allured to reverence them and Taste the Goodnesse of their God Their unusual Judgements and strange kind of Afflictions were as so many Proclamations unto the World to beware of like Rebellion seeing all the world was set on wickednesse and God had appointed a day wherein he would judge the world in righteousnesse necessary it was to set out a patern of his Mercie and Justice in some People and without wrong to any other it was His especial Favour to make choice of Abrahams seed for this purpose on whom he showred his mercies in greatest abundance whilst they were obedient and faithful in the works of Abraham but when they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit then he turned to be their Enemie and he fought against them making them continual Examples of his unpartial Judgements as shall appear in the next Section SECT III. The Third Section of the Second general Part. Lib. 1. Containing Experiments drawn from the Revolution of States or Gods publick Judgements but especially of the Estate of the Jews from time to time OF all external Experiments the most Firm and solid for assuring the truth of these divine Oracles unto our soules are gathered from the Revolution of States or Gods Judgements upon several Lands and people In the observation of which the continual storie of the Jewish Nation doth best direct us The Intercourse of their particular afflictions before our Saviours time the maner of their Recoverie from them as from so many Spices of some grievous disease growing upon them The Epidemical disease which through every generation hants theirs since they desired our Saviours bloud to be upon them and their children are so many Probata or tried Experiments that these Celestial precepts containe the onley Method of preserving the Publick or private welfare of Mankind whose observations may cure whose neglect will breed all the miserie that can befall any people And this Method I would wish every Christian to follow First diligently to consider the State of the Iewes from time to time for it evidently confutes the Atheist and confirmes the Truth of the old Testament and the Truth of it established doth most evidently confute the Jew and witnesse the truth of the Gospel unto us as shall be proved God willing in due place CAP. XVIII Of the state of the Jews in General before our Saviours time with Tullies Objection against them 1 IT is storied of Alphonsus the Great that being sometime Prisoner to his Enemies he did so carry himself amongst them and prescribe them such Conditions for his release as might argue that they had overcome him only by Chance This was not so strange in a Prince so Famous and Venerable for the Integritie of his whole life and so Amiable in his cariage towards his Enemies A man as it were made to overcome and quel all the spightful malice or Base Intendments that could be devised against him by his Heroical open Heart and Bountiful Hand towards all and indefatigable Clemency even towards such as sought to outvie it by Ingratitude and just provocation of his heaviest displeasure But that the Jews a people whom others prejudicial conceipt of their peevish self-conceited Singularity raised from their strict observation of Laws
Wisdom more admirable in the other his Justice the same in Both. Yet a Roman would reply If Pompey had so grievously offended why should He not have born the whole burden of His sins So he should had either be alone offended or the Romans suffered him to have lived a Private Life but if they will associate themselves as members to their natural Head and professe their service and Allegeance unto Him that stood as prosâribed by the Court of Heaven Gods quarrel with the whole Faction is most Just All of them are guiltie of their Generals Sins All liable to the Plagues and Punishments due thereto Yet besides that Pompeys intolerable Presumption and Proph ãâã according to the usual Course of Gods Justice might propagate his Destinie unto such of his Adherents as had been free from any actual wrong done to the Jews or contempt of their God and Religion in particular a great many of his Chief Followers had polluted themselves with the like Sin in Jerusalem For as Josephus tels us Pompey went not into the Most Holy Place alone but accompanied with a Multitude All of them no doubt had sinned presumptuously against the Admonitions and Threathings of Gods Priests and this peoples curse it seems did follow them whither they themselves durst not for as the same writer testifies No other calamity in that war did grieve the Nation so much as this Polluting of their Temple 5 Whatsoever Tullies or other Politick Romans conceipt of this people in his time was many amongst the Romans as well as in most other Nations had without question either observed the like Fatal mischances of such as vexed them or else had felt some good in observing their Laws whose persons unknown they hated In one or both which respects these Jews stood upon better termes with their Conquerors then any other Captives did And unlesse it had been a received Opinion amongst other Romans that this had been A People Favoured of the Divine Powers why should ãâã have objected their late Conquest by Pompey to prove the contrary And me think ãâã it might have moved him and others so much devoted to the Roman Gods before to have thought these Jews did serve a better God then they knew any after they had seen their own state utterly ruined without all hope of recoverie and their gods either unwilling or unable as ãâã doubtfully complains to redresse those miseries and calamities of which they should at least have given them warning when as Hierusalems ãâã which Pompey had demolished were according to this peoples Hope from which no power on earth could deject them being supported by the â⦠Promise of their God Reedified within twentie years and they â⦠with great Priviledges for their good Service performed to Caesar For chiefly by their means became He Lord of Egypt the first and surest ground oâ bâ good successe in Africk as Josephus out of the publick Decrees and â⦠of Roman Writers boldly avoucheth challenging the Heathen to â⦠him or his Testimonies if they could Though this they easily â⦠have done if he had cited them amisse because the Originals were then every where Extant 6 The former testimonies alledged out of Tully whose works we have so well agreeing with Josephus who it seems had never read them will not suffer any ingenious man to suspect the truth of that which the same Josephus cites out of Strabo the Cappadocian whose works are lost The Jews saith he have crept into most Cities nor can a man almost name any place in the inhabited world where they once get footing but they hold possession Egypt Cyrene and many other nations have admitted their Rites and in liew of them nurse huge multitude of Jews using their own Domestick Law Besides that a great part of Alexandria is assigned to their use there be Colonies of this Nation throughout Egypt which enjoy Magistrates of their own for determining all controversies of right and wrong in such sort and form as is used in Absolute States Saint Augustin hath the same observation out of Seneca's Books concerning Superstition which this Reverend Father had perused though with divers others of that famous Philosophers works now lost 7 What Strabo had observed of these Jews in Syllas and Seneca in his time is intimated by Tullie in fewer words You know well saith he unto his adversary what a great faction it is how closely they hand together what sway they bear in assemblies But how great soever the number of this people was at Rome they durst not have been so bold in the Mistresse-city of the world unlesse their Patrons there had been many And it seems by Tullies conclusion in the fore-mentioned place that the bare unkindnesse offered by Flaccus to this Nation was worse taken at Rome then the wrongs and violence which he was accused to have done to sundry other people The gold saith he for which Flaccus was accused is in the Treasurie you charge him not with theft but onely seek to make him odious your speech is turned from the Judges and directed to the Company CAP. XX. Tacitus Objections against the Jews resuted by their palpable grosnesse and more competent Testimony of other Heathen writers 1 VNto this their powerfulnesse in perswading other Nations to renounce their own and imbrace their Laws and Religion Tacitus ascribes the increase of these Jews estate albeit he maliciously attributes this attractive force unto the Impietie of their Laws as if by Sympathie they had wrought most upon wicked and depraved natures Put wherein did their Impietie consist What we Romans esteem Sacred they account Profane what is polluted to us is lawful to them This argues that either the Roman religion oâ Theirs was Superst tious and profane and he like a true Patriot and right Romanist Ioath to suspect that Religion wherein his Forefathers had prospered so well charges the contrarie Orthodoxal with superstitious Impiety Most true it was that the Jews of his time were a wicked people but every way of the Loosing ââand their strength which had been long in gathering was sodainly broke by Titus and their wonted means of encrease by addition of Proselytes quite cut off For after the Temples destruction Nullus ad amissas that ãâã opâs From the first day of our Saviours Ministerial Function they did not win half so many Gentiles to Judaism as our Saviour and his Disciples did Jews unto Christianitie Tacitus then spake not of such Jews as lived in his time when their strength and greatnesse was in the Wane but of their Ancestors during the time of the Second Temple Nor was it that which was most wicked indeed in this people or their predecessors as their particular opposition or contrarietie unto divine truths but rather what was onely good in them as their Constancie in their Religion and stedfast Profession of Abrahams Faith common to them and the Christians which was the ground of this Politicks
Were that Register of Hierusalems Tragical Funerals to use his words now extant as entire as he intended it what other Conclusion from the former Premisses could we expect then such Wo and Miseries as Moses and Jeremy had foretold and others have related to us Josephus as if Jeremiahs spirit had directed his pen saith their Misery did far surpasse all Plagues inflicted upon any Nation either by God or Man The multitude of Jewâ dead in the Wars was equal to the number of living men in Israel under King David when Jacobs posterity flourished most besides Fifty Thousand taken Captives The number albeit he maketh it eleven hundred Thousand cannot seem strange if we consider the Confluence of this people from all Nations almost under Heaven unto Hierusalem at their Passeover Dion telleth us that besides the natural inhabitants of Jewry strangers not onely of Jewish Progeny but such as observed their Rites and Customes did flock to the Cities defence both from those parts of the Roman Empire through which they were scattered and from the Countries beyond Euphrates not Subject to the Romans Consonant herein to Josephus where he telleth us that the greatest part of the slain were strangers but most of Jewish Progeny The whole Nation to use his words was shut up by Fates as in a Prison or to speak more significantly Foyled by the Romans in the Field they were driven into the City as into a Slaughter-House And here the Psalmists curse beginneth to seize upon the Nation that which should have been for their Good proves the occasion of their Fall the Effect of Gods blessing upon Abraham proves a Plague to his Seed the huge number wherewith God had multiplied them which had late made them swell with hopes of Victory in the Open field brings grievous Famin suddenly upon them once inclosed in the City and Famin no sooner got within the Wals but le ts in her Fellowmessengers of Gods Wrath first breeding the Pestilence by the Carkases of the famished then disposing the Bodies of the living to receive this and such other loathsome infectious diseases as hunger and the huge Multitude of the besieged in such a streit place would quickly breed and yet they so desperately set to increase these Miseries as even in their greatest penury to receive Fugitives from Titus Camp For as Dion storieth divers of his Souldiers sled to the besieged being partly wearied of the difficult Siege partly animated thereto by a Rumour bruted throughout the Roman Army that this City could not be taken 8 Thus All Occasions conspire to work them wo whom God will plague The general perswasion of the East that Jewry about this time should bring forth the Monarch of the world ministers matter for their False-Prophets to work upon and from their trust in their Prophets it was that neither the present Adversity which they felt nor Prodigious Signs from heaven could disswade or terrifie the Seditious from their enterprise unhappily undertaken God no doubt had so disposed that the Roman Souldiers should despair of Victory to give Countenance to these false Prophets and make these Cast-a-wayes who still delighted most in Lies more confident in the wayes of death Though the Signs recorded by Tacitus and Josephus in his 7th Book 12. Chapt. of the Jewish Wars might seem Fearful yet their Interpretation was Ambiguous they might as wel menace Their Enemies Harm as Their Destruction howsoever to regard them much might argue Heathenish Superstition and In-discreet avoidance of Superstition makes Hypocritical Professors of true Religion preposterously stubborn in Imitation of true Confidence They could pretend the Prophets admonition Learn not the ways of the Heathen and be not afraid of the signs of Heaven though the Heathen be afraid of such For the customs of the people are vain Jer. 10. 2. and hence assume his Resolution to themselves Paveant Illi ne autem paveas Tu Let the Idolatrous Heathen tremble and quake but why should Israel be afraid of these Apparitions of their God Or if a man would have measured all by Politick Observations it was more likely the Romans should have for saken the Siege then the besieged have fallen into their hands But God was against Them and They could not be for Themselves For as Dion notes which I think Iosephus omitteth they themselves by making way for their more commodious defence did against their will demolish the chief Muniment of the Temple at which breach the Romans entred but net without some Stay Amated only with Reverence of The Place Nor did the Successe answer their Resolution in the Assault albeit they were far more in number then the defendants until Titus commanded part of the Temple to be set on fire But then as the same Author witnesseth Some offered their bodies for sheaths unto the Romans swords Some killed their Fellows requited instantly with like kindnesse from them again Some leapt into the fire All accounted it their Happiness to perish with the Temple Dion l. 66. 9 The Lord had often professed his dislike unto their Solemn Feasts and his loathing of their Sacrifices both fully manifested in this their last Calamitie Such as the Stench of their Dead was now to their polluted senses Such had the Abomination of their sweetest Incense long been to His Holiness now to be purged with the Priests own Bloud sacrificed in the flames and ruins of the Temple the City as oft before was now taken upon the Sabbath day Other particular Miseries described by Iosephus and Eusebius I leave for this time to the Readers private Meditations desirous onely in these Generalities to justifie theirs or other Ecclesiastical Writers reports against all Suspitions cast upon them by Atheists or Infidels from the Testimony of such as Infidelity it self cannot suspect for partial Both sorts afford us Evident Documents of the divine Truth of Scripture and might afford us more then we are aware off were we better acquainted with the Ancient manner of interpreting Scriptures amongst the Jews in our Saviours and his Apostles time of which hereafter If now upon Occasions of these relations concerning Ierusalems last Day and the Signs of the Times ensuing I interpret One or Two places otherwise then such as are most followed in our times do the Christian Reader I hope will grant me Pardon upon promise of such Satisfaction as shall befit one Ingenuous Christian to expect of another to be made when I shall come to explicate the divers kinds of Prophecies amongst Gods People with the right manner of their Interpretations CAP. XXIV The Fulfilling of our Saviours Prophecy Mat. 24. with others concerning the Times ensuing Jerusalems Destruction 1 REading Josephus I cannot but acknowledge Hieremiahs Lamentation as well for a Prophecy of these late times under Vespasian and Titus as an History or Elegie of the miseries that had befallen Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar The Lord I know had then done that which he purposed but now more properly
have been so frequent among the Nations presently after Jerusalems destruction and the Extirpation of the Jews were added as so many Seals to assure the Truth of the Prophets and Gospel and to testifie both to Jew and Gentile That if either the one did follow his Jewish Sacrifice or the other his wonted Idolatrie after the Truth of Gods new Covenant with Mankind was Sealed and proclaimed There remained no more sacri fice for sins but a fearful looking for of judgement and violent fire that there was no other name under Heaven able to save them from such everlasting Flames as they now had seen some Flashes of but only the Name of Jesus whom the Jew had crucified So the Prophet Joel concludes Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord that is of Jesus for now all Israel might know for a surety that God had made that Jesus whom they had Crucified both Lord and Christ He shall be saved The fruits of calling upon the name of the Lord and that distinction betwixt the state of the Elect and Reprobate intimated by the Prophet in the last Verse of that Chapter shall be most fully manifested in the Day of Judgement For such as have watched and prayed continually alwayes expecting their Masters Coming shall upon the first apprehension of his approach lift up their Heads as knowing that their Redemption draweth neer But for the Riotous or carelesse liver he shall not be able to stand before the Son of Man instead of calling upon his Name he shall cry unto the Hills Cover me and to the Mountains Fall ye upon me Yet was the same distinction between the Reprobate and the Elect truly notified by the confident Carriage of the Christians in those fearful times lately mentioned which did so much affright the Heathen as we may gather from Antoninus the Emperours Decree inhibiting the Christians persecution by the Commons of Asia It seems the other had accused the Christians as Hurtful Persons and offensive to the Gods unto which the Emperour makes Reply in this manner I know the Gods are careful to disclose hurtful persons for they punish such as will not worship them more grievously then you do those whom you bring in trouble confirming that opinion which they conceive of you to be wicked and ungodly Men It shall seem requisite to admonish you of the Earthquakes which have and do happen amongst us that being therewith moved ye may compare our estate with theirs They have more Confidence to God-wards than You have I will shut up this Discourse for the present with that Saying of our Saviour Remember Lots Wife and His Exhortation Take heed to your selves lest at anytime your Hearts be oppressed with Sârfetting and Drunkennesse and Cares of this Life and lest that Day come on you unawares for as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the Face of the whole Earth So did the former Calamities in Titus and Trajans time which were as the Dayes of Noah They ate they drank and rose up to play and when they said Pax tutaomnia suddain destruction came as an unexpected Actor upon the Stage For as you heard before one Cause of the great Concourse unto Antioch at that direful Season was to see Playes and Prizes and in the former under Titus two whole Cities were overwhelmed with the Tempest of Gods Wrath while the Citizens were sitting in the Theatre So must all such Fruitlesse Spectacles or pleasant but unseasonable Comedies be concluded with their Spectators Tragedie in the Catastrophe of this great and spacious Amphitheatre All that follows till you come at the 9th Paragraph was An APPENDIX in the former Edition yet set before the whole Book and so must be accounted and allowed for in the Reading ALbeit Lawful in every Age it hath been to Vary if without dissension from former Interpreters in unfolding divine Mysteries without Censure of Irregularity so the Explication be Parallel to the Analogie of Faith yet partly to clear my self from all Suspicion of Affecting Novelties partly more fully to satisfie the ingenious and unpartial Reader I have thought good to acquaint him with Some Observations which have almost beââothed my mind unto that exposition of our Saviours Words related by Saint Matthew and Saint Luke which I here commend to his Christian consideration That happily will cause others to suspend their Judgements which for a long time did retard my Perswasion and inhibit my Assent unto the Truth I here deliver For albeit the Reasons alledged seemed very probable whilest weighed apart but far more pregnant from comparing the Concurrence of all Circumstances which led me to that opinion yet on the other side strange it seemed that my best grounds being borrowed from the relation of Antiquity no Ancient Writer living shortly after those times should have observed the like But whilst I considered again how the Almighty whether in his just Judgement for the Sins of that present or in his Wisdom and Mercy for the greater good of future Generations had deprived us of all their sacred Meditations that lived about Titus's time or immediately after both Effects as I conceived might have One the same just Cause though secret and onely known to God not fit for us to make any further Inquiry after theâ⦠might stir us up to true Admiration of his Wisdome And truly Admirable his Wisdom seemed in this that the Canon of the new Testament being finished in the most known Tongue then extant in the World in which respect besides others The Gospel of the Kingdom might be truly said to be preached through The Whole for a witnesse to all Nations he would have it Severed from all other Writings as well by the Subsequent as Precedent Silence of Ecclesiastical Sacred Writers He that would not have any Prophet in Israel after the Erection of the Second Temple would not for the same Cause onely known to Him have any Writings of men otherwise most religious and devout to be extant in the Age immediately following the Gospels Promulgation that it thus shining like a Solid or compact glorious Star in the Transparent Sphere Environed every where with Vacuity might more clearly Manifest ât Self by its own Light to be Supercelestial Necessary it was the Period of that Generation wherein our Saviour lived and died should have the Divine Truth of his Gospel confirmed unto them by Signs as the Prophet speaks In the heavens and in the earth to increase their Care and diligence in commending it to Posterity who were to rely on it immediately not on their Fore-fathers relation of Signs past The like or more effectual and as fully answerable to the Rules set down in it they could not want so long as they carried souls or minds careful to observe and practise what is prescribed And who knows whether the Lord had not appointed that the serious consideration of those Prodigious Signs which followed the publishing of the
Argument Only that mutation in our deliverance from the Servitude of the Romish Church may not be omitted For if we compare it with the Israelites departure out of Egypt the manner of Gods Providence exemplified at large by Moses in the former is as a perfect rule to discern the same power in the later and the fresh Experiment of the later confirms unto our consciences the truth of the History concerning the former God from the spoils of the Egyptians furnished the Israelites with all things necessary for their journey the same God had revived the study of Tongues and revealed the Art of Printing a little before our fore-fathers departed out of Babylon that they should not come away empty but wel furnished to wage war with their Enemies whom they had robbed of their chief Jewels leaving small store of polite literature or skill in Scriptures amongst them though they have increased their Faculties that way since If we diligently view the disposition of Gods Providence before those times we cannot but acknowledge that it was the same power that first caused light to shine out of darknesse which then renewed the face of the earth again and brought the light of ingenious and sacred Literature forth of the Chaos of Barbarity obscurity and fruitless curiosity wherein it had been long inclosed It is me thinks a pleasant Contemplation to observe how the Worthies of the Age precedent did bestir themselves in gathering and dressing Armour not used for many hundred years before no man knowing for what purpose until the great Commander of heaven and earth gives our his Commission to the Captaines of his Host for invading his enemy the Man of Sin Little did that noble religious and learned King Alphonsus or Laurentius de Medicis with such like think of Luther Zuinglius Calvin Bucer Melancthon or other Champions departure from the Romish Church when they gave such countenance to Polite learning and learned men from whom these had their skill yea These Men Themselves and their Fellows did little think of such Projects as God by them after effected when they first began to use those weapons by which they finally foiled their mighty adversaries Again we have as it were a fresh Print of Gods dealing with Pharaoh in his like proceedings against the Pope Pharaoh being delivered over to the stubbornnesse of his own Heart had it so hardened at last that he desperately âoseth both life and kingdom whilst he wrangles with the Israelites for their Cattel The Popes heart likewise was so far hardened for his former pride and so strangely besotted with the sweetnesse of his own Cup that he cannot forgo the very dreggs but will have all swallowed down even Indulgences themselves that so the Lords Name might be glorified in his shameful overthrow Unlesse it had been for such a notorious and palpable blindnesse of heart in retaining that more then Heathenish and Idolatrous Abomination the just causes of Luthers revolt had not been so manifest to the world nor others departure from the Romish Church so general All this as it was the Lords doing so ought it to seem wonderful in our eyes For in this our deliverance was manifested the self same Power Wisdom and Providence for the stedfast acknowledgement of which all the former miracles in Egypt had been wrought then necessary to the Israelites but not to our Forefathers who had believed the truth of Moses Miracles instructed by the rules of Gods providence in them manifested to discern the same infinite power and wisdom in their own deliverance the manner of which was truly miraculous as Cheninitius well answered the Papist Jew-like requiring signs or miracles for Luthers doctrine which had the same signs to confirm it that Christianitie it self first had Vir sine vi ferri vi verbi inermibus armis Vir sine re sine spe contudit orbis opes Sans dint of sword by strength of word And armlesse harmlesse pains A wealthlesse wight hopelesse in sight Hath crash'd Romes golden veines 11 Luthers successe was apprehended by the worldly wise men of those times as impossible as the predictions of Pharaohs overthrow by Moses would have been to such in that Age as knew not the Will or Power of God And Albertus Krantzius a man as of an excellent Spirit so of far greater place and authority in Germany then Luther was and one that from as earnest detestation of the Romish Churches pride and insolencies notified as great a desire of reformation as Luther had yet thought he should but have lost his labour in oppugning that greatnesse whereto it was grown The same Bishop a little before his death being made acquainted with Luthers purpose after approbation of his good intents to reform the abuse of Indulgences burst out into these despairing Speeches of his good successe Frater frater abi in celâââ dic Miserere mei Deus Brother Brother get into thy cell and take up a Psalm of mercie 12 Would God the Incredulitie and carelesse carriage of the Israelites after their mighty deliverance had not been too lively represented by the like in most reformed Churches When that generation was gathered to their fathers would God another had not risen after them which neither knew the Lord nor the works which he had done for Israel Judg. 2. 10. A generation as much addicted unto Sacriledge as abhorring Idols Rom. 2. 22. dishonouring GOD by polluting that law of Libertie wherein they gloried Lib. 1. SECT IV. Pars. 2. Of Experiments in our selves and the right framing of Belief as well unto the several parts as unto the whole Canon of Scriptures THough these we now treat of be the surest Pledges of divine Truths without which all Observations of former Experiments are but like Assurances well drawn but never Sealed yet are they least of all communicable unto others He that hath tried them may rejoyce in them as of That Good Treasure hid in the Field which he that hath found can be content to sell all that he hath and Buy the Field wherein it is that is to moralize that Parable for good Students use he can be content to addict himself wholly or principally unto this studie suffering others to discourse of such matters as they most delight and glory in Sealing his own mouth with that Hebrew Proverb Secretum meum mihi It shall suffice then to set down some general Admonitions for the finding of this Hidden Manna albeit thus much cannot be so well performed in this place seeing the search hereof is not so easie or certain without the doctrine of Gods Providence and the matter or Subject of the most or best Experiments in this kind belong unto particular Articles of this Creed to be prosecuted in their proper place according to the Method used in these general Introductions by comparing divine Oracles with the Experiments answerable unto them CAP. XXXI Shewing the Facility and use of the proposed Method by Instance in
Infallibility wherewith they hale most silly souâ⦠to them were too far spread before the Trent councel too commodious to bâ called in on a sodain Had they then begun to deny the Authority of this Booâ though then pronouncing their mothers wo more openly then any Prophecies of old had done the ensuing desolations of the Jews every child ãâã have caught hold on this string that this Church as they suppose alwayââ the same never obnoxious to any errour had in former time acknowledgeed it for Authentick and divine albeit no question but many of them sincâ have wish'd from their hearts that their forefathers had used the same as Seraiah did Jeremiahs books which he wrote against Babylon Jer. 51. that botâ it and all memory of it had been drowned in the Bottom of the deepest seâ and a milstone thrown upon it by Gods Angel that it never might rise up again to interrupt their whorish mothers beastly pleasures by discovering her filthy nakedness daily more and more For conclusion of this point for this present That this and other Canonical books had been long preserved or rather imprisoned by the Romish Church in darkness and ignorance until the Almightie gave his voice and caused them to speak in every tongue throughout these parts of the world doth no more argue her to have been the true and Catholick Church then Moses Education in Pharaohs Court during the time of his Infancie or Nonage doth argue the Egyptian Courtiers to have been Gods chosen People CAP. XXXIII A brief direction for preventing Scruples and resolving doubts concerning particular Sentences or passages in the Canon of Scripture UNto the second demand How we know this or that Sentence in any Foâ⦠of Canonical Scripture to have been from God Not inserted by man Some perhaps would say this must be known by the Spirit Which indeed is the Briefest Answer that can be given but such as would require a long Apologie for its Truth or at least a large Explication in what Sense it were true if any man durst be so bold as to reply upon it Consequently to our former Principles we may Answer That our full and undoubted Assent unto some Principal Parts doth bind us unto the Whole Frame of Scriptures ãâã you will say we Believe such special parts from undoubted Experience ãâã their Truth in our hearts and without This our Belief of them could not be ãâã stedfast how then shall we stedfastly believe those parts of whose divâ⦠truth we have no such Experiments for of every Sentence in Scripture wâ⦠suppose few or none can have any Yet even unto those parts whereof we have no Experiments in particular we do adhere by our Former Faith because ouâ⦠Souls and Consciences are as it were tied and fastned unto other Parts wherâ⦠with they are conjoyned as the pinning nailing of two plain bodies in somâ⦠few parts doth make them stick close together in all so as the one cannot bâ⦠pulled from the other in any part whilest their fastning holds It will be rââ¦plied that this Similitude would hold together if one part of Canonical Scripture were so firmly or naturally united to another as the divers portions ãâã one and the same continuate or Solid Body are but seeing it is evident ãâã so they are not who can warrant the contrarie but that a Sentence or Peâ⦠od perhaps a whole Page might have been Foisted into the Canon by some Scribe or other Here we must retire unto our First Hold or Principles of Faith For if we sted fastly Believe from Experiments or otherwise that some principal parts of Scripture have come from God and that the same are sure Pledges for mans good the only means of his Salvation this Doctrine or Experience of Gods Providence once fully established will establish our Faith and Assent unto other parts of his Word whereof should we take them alone we could have no such Experiments For he that knoweth God or his Providence aright knows this withall that he will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength And once having had Experience of his Mercies past we cannot without Injurie to his Divine Majestie but in Confidence of it Believe and Hope that his All-seeing Wisdom and Almightie Power will still maugre the spight of Death Hell Satan and their Agents preserve his Sacred Word sincere without admixture of any profane false or humane Inventions that might overthrow or pervert our Faith begun Hereto we may refer all former Documents of His Care and Providence in preserving the Canon of our Faith from the Tyrannie of such as sought utterly to deface it and the Treachery of others who sought to corrupt it And it ought to be no little motive unto us thus to think when we see Austin Gregory and other of the Ancient writers either maimed or mangled or purged of their best Bloud where they make against the Romish Church or else her untruths fathered upon Them by her shamelesse sons in places where they are silent for her and yet this Sacred Volume untouched and uncorrupt by any violence offered to it by that Church only it hath lost its natural Beautie and Complexion by long durance in that homely and vulgar Prison whereunto they have confined it 2 But as from these and like Documents of Gods Care and Providence in preserving it and of His Love and Favour towards us we conceive Faith and sure Hope that he will not suffer us to be tempted with doubts of this nature above our strength so must we be as far from tempting Him by these or like unnecessary unseasonable curious Demands How should we know This or That Clause or Sentence if we should find them alone to be Gods word Why might not an Heretick of malice have forged or a Scribe through negligence altered them It should suffice that they have been commended to us not alone but accompanied with such Oracles as we have already Entertained for Divine And if any Doubt shall happen to arise we must rely upon that Oracle of whose truth every true Christian hath and all that would be such may have sure Trial. Deus cum tentatione simul vires dabit God with the Temptation will give Issue yea Joyful Issue to such Temptations as he suffers to be suggested by Others Not unto such as we thrust our selves into by our needless Curiosity When we are called unto the search of truth by Satan or his Instruments Objections against it the Lord will give us better reasons for our own or others Satisfactions then yet we know of or should be able to find but by the conduct of his untempted Providence CAP. XXXIV Concluding the First Book with some Brief Admonition to the Reader TO conclude this Treatise as it was begun The greater the Reward proposed to the faithful Practise or the Punishment threatned to the Neglect of these divine Oracles the greater is the Madnesse of many men in our time who in contemplative
Studies whose Principal End is delight can under go long toyl and great pains never attaining to exact Knowledge but by Believing their Instructors and taking many Theoremes and Conclusions upon Trust before they can make Infallible Trial of their Truth and yet in matters of their Salvation which cannot be exactly Known but only Believed in this life and whose Belief must be got by Practise not by Discourse demand Evidence of Truth and infallible Demonstration before they will vouchsafe to Believe or adventure their pains on their Practise and finally so Demean themselves in speech and resolution as if God Almightie should think himself highly graced and our Saviour his Son much beholden to them that they should Deign to be his Scholars sooner then Mahomets or Machiavels But we that are his Messengers must not debase His Word nor Disparage our Calling by Wooing them upon such Terms or professing to shew them the Truth before they be willing to learn it One first Principle whereof is this That such as will seek may find starting holes enough to run out of Christs Fold and escape his Mercies profered in his Church And as many reasons are daily brought sufficient to perswade a Right-disposed understanding of the Truth of Scriptures so no Argument can be found of force enough to convince a Froward Will or perswade perverse Affections These are they which make a many altogether uncapable of any Moral most of all of any Divine Truth and must be laid aside at the first Entrance into the School of Christ and continually kept under by the Rod of his Judgements and Terrours of that Dreadful Day Unto such as account these Consequents lesse dreadful or their dread lesse probable then that they should for a time at least lay aside all Perversitie of will or Humour of Contradiction to make sure trial of those divine Oracles for their Good we can apply no other Medicine but that of Saint John He that is Filthy let him be Filthy still Rev. 22. 11. 2. Thus much of general Inducements to Belief In the Observation and Use of all these and others of what kind soever we must implore the Assistance of Gods Spirit who only worketh True and lively Faith but ordinarily by these or like means These Scriptures are as the Rule or Method prescribing us our Diet and Order of life these Experiments joyned with it are as Nutriment and the Spirit of God digesteth all to our Health and Strength Without It all other means or matters of best Observation are but as good Meat to weak or corrupt Stomacks With It every Experiment of our own or others Estate taken according to the rules of Scriptures doth nourish and strengthen Faith and preserve our spiritual Health Many in our dayes uncessantly blame their Brethrens Backwardnesse to Entertain the Spirit or rely upon it only being more Blame-worthy themselves for being too forward in Believing Every Spirit and seeking to discern Canonical from Apocryphal Scriptures by the Spirit and again to Trie True from False Spirits by the Scriptures without serious Observation and setled Examination of Experiments answerable unto sacred Rules Such mens fervent Zeal unto the Letter of the Gospel is like an hot Stomach accustomed to light meats which increase Appetite more then Strength and fill the body rather with bad Humors then good Bloud 3 The Spirit no doubt speaks often unto us when we attend not but we must not presume to understand His Suggestions by His immediate Voice or Presence only by His Fruits and the inward Testimony of an appeased Conscience which he alone can work must we know him He that seeks as â Ignatius Ignatius Loyola taught his sons to discern Him without more ado by his manner of breathing may instead of him be troubled with an unwelcome Guest alwayes ready to invite himself where he sees preparation made for his Better and one I am perswaded that hath learned more kinds of Salutations then Loyola knew of able to fill empty Breasts or shallow Heads unsetled in Truth with such pleasant mild and gentle Blasts as are apt to breed strong perswasions of more then Angelical Inspirations 4 God grant the carriage of ensuing Times may argue these Admonitions needlesse which further to prosecute in respect of times late past and now present could not be unseasonable but thus much by the way must now suffice me purposed hereafter if God permit to Treat of the Trial of Spirits and certain apprehension of inherent Faith about the general means of whose production and establishment the Question most controversed in these days âs Whether beside the Testification of Gods Spirit which as all agree must by these late mentioned or other means work Faith in our hearts the Testimony or authority of others besides our selves be necessary either for ascertaining our Apprehension of the Spirit thus working or for assuring the truth of Experiments wrought by it in our Souls or if no other besides the testimony of Gods Spirit and our own Conscience be necessary either after their Sentence given or whilest they give it How far the Authoritie or Ministery of men is necessary or behoveful either for bringing us acquainted with the Spirit of God or for the assistance and direction of our Conscience in giving right Sentence of the Truth or true meaning of Gods word Of these questions and others subordinate to them we are to dispute at large in the Books following How far the Ministry of Men is Necessary for PLANTING True Christian Faith and retaining the Unity of It PLANTED The Second Book of Comments upon the CREED AS in the first Intention so after some Prosecution of this long work my purpose was to refer the full Examination of the Romish Churches pretended Authoritie in matters Spiritual unto the Article of the Catholick Church Which with those three others of the Holy Ghost Communion of Saints and forgivenesse of Sins for more exact Methods sake and continuation of matters in nature and sacred writ most united I have reserved for the last place in this Frame of Christian Belief annexing the Articles of the Bodies resurrection and Everlasting life unto that of Final Judgement whereon these Two have most Immediate and most direct Dependance 2 But after the Platform was cast and matter for Structure prepared upon evident discovery of the Jesuites Treachery in setting up the Pope as a secret Competitor with the Blessed Trinity for Absolute Soveraignty over mens Souls and for this purpose continually plotting to have the Doctrine of their Churches Infallibilitie planted as low and deep as the very first and Fundamental Principles of Belief albeit in laying the former Foundations I had come to ground firm enough if free from undermining to bear all I meant to build upon it I was notwithstanding in this place constrained to Bare the whole Foundation and all about it unto the very Rock on whose strength it stands lest this late dismal Invention concerning the Popes
Infallibility might prove as a Powder-plot to blow up the whole Edifice of Christian Faith as it certainly will if men suffer it to be once planted in their Hearts and Consciences The Jesuites speculative Positions of their Churches transcendent Authority are as the Train the Popes Thunderbolts as the Match to set the whole World on Combustion unlesse his Lordly Designes though in matters of Faith and greatest moment be put in execution without Question or demur as shall God prospering these proceedings most clearly appear in the sequel of this discourse Wherein are to be discussed 1 Their Objections against us the Points of Difference betwixt us with the Positive Grounds of Truth maintained by us 2 The Inconveniences of their Positions Erection of tripple Blasphemy by the overthrow of Christianitie 3 The Original Causes of their Errour in this and such erroncous Perswasions as held by them in other Points not descried by us prove secret Temptations for others to follow them or serve as previal Dispositions for their Agents to work upon 4 The possible Means and particular Manner how Orthodoxal may be distinguished from Heretical Doctrine or the Life-working Sense of Scriptures from Artificial Glosses These Points discussed and the Positive Grounds of Christian Faith cleared as well against the open Assaults of the professed Atheists as the secret Attempts of undermining Papists we may with better security proceed to raise the Foundation laid in the first general Part of the first Book to the height intended SECT I. What Obedience is due to Gods Word what to his Messengers THe whole Scripture saith the Apostle is given by inspiration of God and is profitable to Teach to Reprove to Correct and to Instruct in Righteousnesse that the Man of God may be absolute being made perfect unto all good works What or whom he means by The Man of God is not agreed upon by all that acknowledge his words in the sense he meant them most Infallible and Authentick Some hereby understand onely such men as Timothy was Ministers of Gods word or Prophets of the new Testament and so briefly elude all Arguments hence drawn to prove the sufficiency of Scriptures for being the Absolute rule of Faith at least to All as well unlearned as learned Yet should they in all reason might Gods Word rule their Reason grant them to be such unto all such as Timothy was publick Teachers men conversant in or consecrated unto Sacred Studies but even This they deny as well as the Former the former in their opinion be more absurd for us to affirm especially holding the Hebrew text only Authentick Briefly they charge us with debasing Peter for advancing Paul or rather for colouring or adorning our pretended sense of Pauls Words that is for giving too little to Peters Successors or the Church too much to Scriptures too little to Spiritual too much to Lay men 2 These are plausible Pretences and sweet Baits to stop the mouthes and mussle the pens of Clergy-men in reformed Churches unto most of whom as they object besides the Spiritual Sword little or nothing is left for their just defence against the Insolencies of rude illiterate profane Laicks And yet who more earnest then they in this Cause against the Church against themselves yet certain it is that no man can be truly for himself unlesse he be first of all for Truth it self of which he that gains the greatest share what other detriment or disparagement soever in the mean time he sustain in the end speeds alwayes best And seeing To Lie or teach amisse is a matter altogether impossible to Omnipotencie it self to be able and willing withall to defend a Falshood or set fair colours on foul Causes is rather Impotencie then Abilitie Hence was that quicquid possumus pro veritate possumus Seeing by Truth we live our Spiritual Life to weaken it for strengthning our Temporal Hopes can never rightly be accounted any true effect of Power but an infallible Argument of great and desperate Imbecillitie 3 For these Reasons since I consecrated my labours to the search of Divine Truth my mind hath been most set to find it out in this present Controversie whereon most others of Moment chiefly depend And as unto the Romanist it is though falsly termed the Catholick so should it be unto us to all that love the Name of Christ The very Christian Cause a Cause with which the Adversaries Fortunes our Faith their Temporal our Spiritual Estate and Hopes must stand or fall a Cause whose Truth and Strength on our part will evidently appear If we first examine what the Antichristian Adversary can oppose against it CAP. I. The Sum of the Romanists Exceptions against the Scriptures 1 THeir Objections against Scriptures spring from this double Root The One that They are no sufficient Rule of Faith but Many Things are to be Believed which are not taught in Them The Second that albeit they were the compleat Rule of Faith yet could they not be known of us but by the Authority of the Church so that all the former Directions for establishing our Assent unto the Scriptures as unto the Words of God Himself were vain seeing this cannot be attained unto but by relying upon Christs visible Church The former of these two Fountains or Roots of Errour I am not here to meddle with elsewhere we shall That the Scriptures teach All Points of Faith set down in this Creed they cannot denie or if they would it shall appear in their several Explications So that the Scripture rightly understood is a competent Rule for the Articles herein contained Let us then see whether the Sense or Meaning of these Scriptures which both They and We hold for Canonical may not be Known Understood and fully Assented unto Immediately and in themselves without relying upon any visible Church or Congregation of men from whose Doctrine we must frame our Belief without distrust of Errour or Examination of their Decrees with any intention to reform them or swarve from them 2 That the Scripture is not the Rule whereon Private Men especially Unlearned ought to rely in matters of Faith from these general Reasons or Topicks they seek to perswade us First admitting the Scriptures to be Infallible in themselves and so consequently to all such as can perfectly understand them in the Language wherin they were written yet to such as understand not that Language they can be no Infallible Rule because they are to them a Rule only as they are Translated but no Unlearned man can be sure that they are translated aright according to the true Intent and meaning of the Holy Ghost for if any man do infallibly Believe this and build his Faith hereupon then is his Faith grounded upon the Infallibilitie of This or That mans Skill in Translating whereof he that is Unlearned can have no sufficient Argument neither out of Scripture nor from Reason Nay Reason teacheth us that in matters of ordinarie capacitie most men are
consequence as Inferiour Ministers may If they could but duly consider and unpartially esteem the Goodnesse which accompanies Obedience which is better then sacrifice and the evil of Disobedience which is as the Sin of Witchcraft these two laid together would be more then equivalent to any evil that Lay-men or Inferiours usually conceive in such Actions as they deny Obedience in unto their Pastors Nay in this unbelieving Age wherein it is more to be Complemental then Religious it is thought an answer good enough so it be complementally performed unto their Pastors We would do as you Advise or Injoyn us in Christs Name if we certainly knew that it were Christs Will or agreeable to Gods Word Whereas in truth in giving such Answers when neither they certainly know nor are careful to learn whether their Advise be contrary to Gods Word or no they sin directly against Christian Faith advancing their own Humours above Gods Word which commands Obedience unto Pastors preferring the Liberty of their unruly Wils before the safety of their Consciences And it is preposterous to plead Ignorance of Gods Will before them whose Instructions therein they are bound duly to Hear and hearing to Obey until they can light on better or find them false upon serious and due examination that is They must Obey them not absolutely and irrevocably but with Limitation and Caution And questionlesse if men did infallibly Believe or absolutely from their hearts Obey that which they undoubtedly know to be Gods Will they would never make question but that for which they have Presumptions that it is part of Gods Will or that which is commended unto them for his Will by such as he hath appointed to be Messengers of the same should be conditionally Believed and without caution Obeyed especially when it is delivered solemnly upon deliberation and premeditation or out of that place whence he hath appointed them to learn his Wil. Did not Priests as the Proverb is forget that ever they were Clerks or such as take themselves for great proficients that they were sometimes Novices in the School of Christ they might remember how they came unto that absolute and infallible Belief of those Christian Principles by which they hope for Salvation by entertaining this conditional Belief which we speak of and by yielding like Obedience unto Divine Truths now fully but at the first imperfectly known for such And albeit such general Articles of Christian Faith as are necessary for all to Believe neither increase nor diminish their Number yet if we descend unto the Diversity of mens Estates and Callings and Difference of Time and Place Christian Faith receiveth perpetual increase not only in its proper Strength or as we say by way of Intention but in extent also unto many particulars either directly contained though not so easie to be discerned as essential parts under the former general Principles or else annexed unto them collaterally as limbs or borders Besides all Christian Duties or Matters of Practise are not promiscuously fir for every Time or Place but must be severally proportioned to their diversitie Again the same duties I mean of the same kind must be performed in different measure according to the different exigence of Time Place Persons or other Occurrents In all these and many more respects is this conditional Assent and Obedience unto Pastors most necessary And ere men can retain stedfastly that which is best they must make triall of all or many things of different kinds and yet trial of Spiritual Medicines without Spiritual Physitians prescripts is so much more dangerous to ordinary mens Souls then like trial of Physick-conclusions is to their Bodies by how much such men are more ignorant of the state of their Souls then of their Bodies The necessity and use of what hath been delivered concerning Obedience in general will appear in sundry points to be discust hereafter In respect of which especially of that point concerning the manner how we may know the Sense of Scriptures and that concerning the nature of Christians Faith some further unfolding of this Conditional Assent and Obedience will be likewise necessary CAP. IX Of the Nature Use Conditions or Properties of Conditional Assent or Obedience 1 THe first step in the way to Life is from this Infallible Ground of Nature Whatsoever God hath revealed concerning Matters of Mans Salvation is most True and by all means to be Obeyed This Principle All Men absolutely capable of Reason acknowledging a God do Believe and from their absolute Belief hereof they yield a conditional Obedience and Reverence unto those Books which we call Scripture From the trial of whose Truth we rise a step or degree higher and undoubtedly acknowledge Certain General Principles contained in Scripture without whose Belief no man ordinarily can be saved for the Oracles of God or Divine Revelations and unto them we yeeld absolute Obedience This second step brings men within the Lists or Borders of Christianitie where no Christian man is to set up his Rest Even the meanest that bears that Name once come to years of discretion or capable of Instruction must hold on his Progresse still thus resolving with himself Though I must be as a Child for Innocencie yet not in knowledge of Gods Will A shame it were I should alwayes be a Babe in that Profession which of All is onely Necessary a ãâã should accustome my self to Milk for this were to nourish unexpert ãâã in the Word of Righteousnesse A Christian I was from my Cradle and now as ãâã a Christian as a Man but strong Meat is fit for them that are of Age which have or should have their Wââs exercised through long ãâã to â⦠ãâã Good from Evil Not the fundamentall Principles of Christian Religion onely without which none can be saved not be that hath professed Christiâ⦠but an hour These are Grounds which once surely laiâ must as the Apostle speaketh be left that we may be led on to perfection not always haâmering upon the foundation of Repentance from ââad works of Faith towards God or of ãâã of Laying on of hands of the Resurrection from the dead and of eternall judgement but seaking to Build upon these whatsoever is bââating present times or seasons ãâã may make our Eleââion sure And thâr who laid the former foundations ãâã ãâã heart seek yet my farther Edification in many Points of whose Truth ãâã Conscience as yet hath no such firm Perswasion or lively taste as it now hath of the former but is so affected towards these later as it was to the other before better acquaintance with them Should I for this Reason forthwith deny Obedence to my Instructors or withdraw Assent from matters proposed by them God forbid For he hath Comman ' ed all not exâepting me to Obey their Overseers in the Lord Must we Obey them whilest they Plant and may we Disobey them whilest they Water how then can I expect that God should give Increase unto
that faith which they have planted in my heart heretofore I trusted them and I found their Sayings true even the Oracles of the Living God All which I so esteem as I had rather ãâã this present World than utterly disclaim any which upon like triall might prove such What if I know not this Particular to be such I may in good time be as well Perswaded of it as of the former if so I will vouchsafe to make like triall of it by sincere religious Obedience 2 Nor doth the greater stedfastnesse or Infallibility of the Point beleeved necessarily exact either Obedience of an higher Nature or more intention or Alacrity in the Act than may without Offence be performed unto some other Points of Doctrine lesse Infallible or lesse evident to their Consciences who must Obey Infallibility of it self exacts onely a more full and absolute Title over our Obedience than Probabilities or Presumptions can expect For that which is infallibly and absolutely Beleeved for a Divine Truth exacts such Obedience both for Qualitie and Degree as is conformable to the Nature of the thing proposed without all Limitation Condition or Reservation that is Perpetual and absolute Allegiance That which is but probably or conditionally assented unto as Divine Truth whatsoever the Nature of the thing proposed the End or Consequence pretended or Exigences of other circumstances be can exact onely conditional or cautionarie Obedience yet Obedience for the qualitie sutable to the Nature of the thing proposed and for the Alacritie or Intention of the Act proportionable to the End or Consequence pretended and avouched by Gods Embassadours So that if they commend it unto us as sit to be entertained in some higher rank of Goodnesse or as most necessarie for the present time albeit we our selves do not apprehend the same as expresly commanded by God yet may we perform Obedience both as sincere for the Quality and entire for Degree as we do unto some other things which we stedfastly Beleeve to be commanded in Gods Word But we must not tender our Obedience under the same stile or title Absolute Obedience of what kind soever we may not yeeld unto it untill it be absolutely known for Gods Will. When it is once known for Such we must absolutely yeeld up the same Obedience which before was but conditionally yeelded as a man may pay the same summe upon caution before he be thorowly perswaded of the demanders Right unto it which after his Right be fully known he paies absolutely In this Case these four things must be considered 3 First the Assurance or Probability which we can have that the Thing proposed is Gods Word Which sometimes may be grounded upon Reasons either communicated unto us by our Pastor or others or conceived by our selves as well as upon Authoritie sometimes all the Assurance which men of lesse Capacitie can have is onely from the Pastors Authoritie Secondly the Title or pretended Nature of the Truth Proposed Thirdly the Act or Qualitie of Obedience Fourthly the Manner or limitation of our Obedience 4 The Act or quality of our Obedience so we be more probablie perswaded that it is Gods Word than otherwise or know nothing to the contrarie must be proportioned to the Title or Nature of the thing proposed which is commended unto us as a spiritual Good So that our Obedience must be Religious and Spiritual not meerly Civil although our best Motive why we hold it to be a Divine Oracle or Spiritual Good be the Authoritie of our Teacher which is but Humane But now he exacts not Obedience to His own Authoritie but unto Gods Word as he affirms which because we know is Divine therefore we must yeeld religious Obedience to it and therefore religious albeit conditional Obedience unto this Precept which we probablie know to be Divine and assent unto Conditionallie as such The Act of our Obedience in this particular must proceed from the same Habit from which our Acts of Obedience unto such Truths as we infalliblie Beleeve for Divine do for even this very Act is performed primarilie and absolutely to Gods Word in general unto which we owe Religious and Spiritual Obedience and unto this Particular enjoyned by our Pastor only secondarilie and upon supposition that it is Part of Gods Word So as if the Particular by him enjoyned should in the event prove no part of Gods Word yet obeying it onelie upon the former Motives it might be truly said we had obeyed Gods Word not it as he that shews kindnesse to a Stranger upon presumption that he is a Brother or Alliance of his dear and familiar Friend albeit he were mistaken herein may be said to have done a friendly Office rather to his known Acquaintance for whose sake he used the Stranger kindlie than unto the Stranger himself thus kindly used upon a mistake But albeit the Quality be such as Gods Word absolutely known requires yet the Manner of our Obedience must be limited by the degrees of Probabilitie or moral Certaintie which we have of this Particular that it is Gods Oracle Where the Probabilities are lesse and the Inducements for Belief of this Particular weaker there the condition of our Assent and reservation of our Obedience must be more expresse that is we must stand further off from yeelding absolute and be more enclined to renounce this present conditional Obedience which we yet perform upon lesser Motives to the contrarie then we would if our Probabilities for Believing it were greater Where the Probabilities or Inducements for Belief of this particular are greater and stronger there we must the more encline unto absolute and ââ¦cable Obedience or Assent unto the same Particular and be more unreadie or unwilling to recall our Assent or renounce our Obedience but upon greater and more evident Reasons Onely there we are to six our Belief absolutely Onely there we may safely undoubtedly and fully passe over our âull and absolute Obedience unto it without all condition limitation oâ⦠or reservation when the Truth of it shall be as fully confirmed and manifested to our Consciences as the others are unto which we have formerly yeelded absolute Obedience without appeal or reservation or when we can as clearly disâ⦠and as stedfastly Believe the Consonancie of this Particular with the formers as we can the formers with Gods Word 5 And whereas we said before that the onely Motives which some men have to Believe the Sense and meaning of sundry Doctrines necessary perhaps unto them in particular at some seasons when God shall call them to some extraordinarie Point of Obedience might be the Authority of their Teachers this Authoritie may be greater or lesse according to the Qualitie of the Minister or Spirituall Governour As the World goes now adaies this Function is committed to some in whose Mouth the Word of God or any good Doctrine may rather seem to lose its Vertue and Power than âis any way bind men to Obedience unlesse besides his
common reason and cannot but command the Assent of every sanctified Mind That such Men are most likely to have the Meaning of Gods Spirit which walk according to Gods Spirit and seek not their own Gain Glory or pleasure but Christs Glory his Will and peoples Good and such again are most likely to use greatest sincerity in delivering the Truth which they know without partiality or respect of persons Again men are bound caeteris paribus to Believe them best and Obey them most of whose skil and sincerity in dispensing the Mysteries of faith they have had most comfortable and spiritual Experience For the Article of Gods providence binds us hereto and wils us to reverence our Fathers in Christ either such as by his Word first begot faith or nourished it in us more then others Thus much concerning this point I have thought good to insert in this place because the true and sincere Practise of Obedience according to that measure of Truth or Belief which men have though but imperfect is the excellentest Means for attaining the clear sight of Divine Truth and that perfect Measure of sanctifying Belief which in this life can be looked for as shall God willing afterwards appear CAP. X. Wherein this Conditional Belief differeth from the Romans implicite Faith That the one is the other not subordinate to Gods Word or Rule of Faith 1 AS this Opinion of conditional Assent unto Divine Truthes not absolutely known for such holds the Mean betwixt the two Extreams or contrary Errours above mentioned So is this conditional Assent it self a Mean betwixt that absolute Belief which all acknowledge to be necessarie in some principal Points of Christian Faith and that implicit Belief which the Romish Church exacts in all points whatsoever Our Assent unto many Articles of Faith is actually and expresly absolute The implicit Belief of the Romanists is but potentially or rather vertually and implicitely absolute This conditional Belief hitherto mentioned not so much as potentially much lesse implicitely or virtually absolute That properly is Believed by an implicite Faith which is not actually and expresly Assented unto in the particular but yet is so essentially and immediately contained in some general Article or Point of Faith absolutely or expresly Believed that this Particular likewise is Assented unto in grosse whilest we Assent to it and may be as absolutely as expresly and distinctly Assented unto as the General when it is once explicated and unfolded In this Sense we say the Conclusion is implicitely contained in the Premisses the Corollarie in the Theorem or the immediate Consequent in his necessarie Antecedent For he that grants One of these absolutely must upon the same terms grant the Other at the first proposal of it unto him But this conditional or reservative Belief may be of such Points as are not certainly and infallibly contained in any Principle of Faith absolutely expresly actually or infallibly acknowledged much lesse so essentually and immediately contained in any that a man cannot absolutely grant it but he must absolutely Believe them And albeit off-times they may be infallibly deduced from known undoubted Principles of Faith yet is not the deduction so immediate as can be made clear and evident to all Capacities at least not at the first sight without any further increase of Knowledge in Spiritual Matters And before the deduction be made as evivident and apprehended asinfallible as are the general Articles whence they are deduced the Particulars deduced from them may not be so infallibly and absolutely Believed as the Generals are The Papists besides their Explicit Belief of some few main Points demand an Implicit Belief of as many Particulars as the Church shall propose so as whatsoever the Church shall propose with them once proposed admits no conditional Belief all must be Absolute albeit the parties Believing cannot discern any necessary or probable deduction of the particulars from general Points absolutely and expresly believed It is enough that they know them to be proposed by the Church For once Believing Whatsoever the Church saith is most Infallible which is the main Article of Roman Faith no man can denie any particular proposed by it to be infallible more then he can deny the Conclusion for certain after he hath granted the Premisses for such Consequently to these Positions they make the Visible Church the Rule and Mistresse of mens Faith as they speak For albeit a man at this present think otherwise of many Points of greatest Moment then the Church or Pope doth or though he think not at all of many things which they in time may propose unto him yet after they have proposed either a contrarie Opinion to that which his Conscience tels him is Gods Word or a new and strange Position which he never thought of he must without more ado Believe both absolutely and expresly and so finally retract extend enlarge abridge direct and frame his Faith according to that Rule or Standard which they shall set him Hence God willing shal appear the Madness of some great Schollers among them who holding the Church to be such a Rule of Faith would perswade us if we would be so simple that their last Resolution of Faith is not into the Churches Authoritie but into the Scripture For nothing can be resolved beyond it rule to make the Churches authority such an absolute authentick unquestionable rule of faith as the Papists do and withal to seek the resolution of any point of faith further then it or to derive it from Scripture doth argue such a medley of Folly Impietie as if some gullish Gentleman desirous to prove the Antiquitie of his House should draw his Pedigree from Adams great Grandfather and yet hold the Records of Moses for most undoubted and true which affirm Adam to have been the first Progenitour of all Mankind Whether they seek to resolve their Faith into the Scriptures acknowledged by us and them or into other Unwritten Revelations pretended for Divine Truths their Folly will still appear the same so long as they hold that impious and blasphemous Opinion making the Churches Authoritie such a Rule of Faith as hath been said Their Injuries and Contumelies unto Gods written Oracles as hath heretofore been intimated are especially Two First they deny them to be any intire Rule for the number of Precepts Secondly they make those very Precepts which are acknowledged for Divine insufficient for the establishment of true Faith unto themselves without the Churches Authority We acknowledge them every way sufficient for the Edification of Christs Church in Faith and Manners and consequently both to our Positions and the Truth we teach that all Matters of Faith must be finally resolved into these Divine written Verities which for this reason we acknowledge the only Infallible Rule of Faith The Meaning of which Assertion is here to be further explicated that so the Truth may be maintained against their Objections CAP. XI In what Sense we
Rule of Life shall inlighten them unrepented of no other Rule or Authoritie shall teach them the way to Life 4 Since we thus grant that the Scriptures may be Obscure to most men by their own default but perspicuous to others free from like fault or Demerit it remains we further enquire whether the same Scriptures do not most plainly set down First the Causes why they are so Obscure to some and Perspicuous to others Secondly the Remedy or means how their Obscurity or difficulty may be prevented If they plainly teach these two Points this is a sure Argument that they are if not that they cannot be so excellent a Rule of Faith as we acknowledge them For this very Point That the Scriptures in respect of diverse Persons are Obscure and Perspicuous though Obscure to none but through their own Default is a Principle of Christian Faith and therefore must be plainlie set down in the absolute complete Rule of Faith And to omit others in their due place to be inserted what can be more perspicuonsly taught either by Scriptures or other Writings than this Truth God giveth grace to the Humble and resisteth the proud or this He will confound the Wisdom of the Wise or such as Glory in their Wisdom These and like Rules of Gods Justice in punishing the proud and disobedient hold as true in the search of Scripture as in any other matter yea especially herein Thus were the Scribes and Pharisees men of extraordinary skill in Scriptures blinded in the most necessary Points of their Salvation though most plainly set down in Scriptures For what could be more plainly set down then many Testimonies of their Messias Many places of far greater Difficultie they could with Dexteritie unfold how chanced it then they are so Blinded in the other They were scattered in the proud Imagination of their hearts and glorious conceits of their Prerogatives in being Mosis Successours and in their stead simple and illiterate but humble and meek spirited Men raised up to be infallible Teachers of the Gentiles to unfold those Mysteries of Mans Redemption which the Scribes and Pharisees could not see with evidence of Truth to enlighten the sillie and ignorant and convince the Consciences of their learned proud Oppugners By their Ministerie Prophetical and Mosaical Mysteries became a Light unto the Gentile whose life had been in the shadow of death whilest a Veil was laid before the hearts of the most learned Jewes so that even whilst the Sun of Righteousnesse which enlightens every man that comes into the World did arise in their coast and ascend unto their Zenith they groap their way as men that walk in dangerous Paths by dark-night 5 Was the Scripture therefore no Rule of Faith unto these Jews to whom it was so Dishcult and Obscure Or is it not most evident that this Blindnesse did therefore come upon Israel because they hated this Light being carried away with Lowd cries of Templum Domini Templum Domini as the Papists now are with The Church The Church And for words of supposed Disgrace offered to It onely upon a Surmise that Christ had said he would destroy and build It up again brought to seek the destruction of the Glory of It even of the Lord of Glory Thou that wouldest make others beleave the Pope is such dost thou beleeve the Scriptures to be Infallible How is it then whilest thou readest Gods Judgements upon thy Brother Jew thou doest not tremble and quake lest the Lord smite thee also thou painted wall with like Blindnesse seeing thou hast justified thy brother Pharisees stubborn Pride wilfull Arrogancie and witting Blasphemie in oppugning Scriptures And as for all such whose hearts can be touched with the terrour of Gods Judgements upon others in fear and reverence I request them to consider well whether one of the greatest Roman Doctours were not taken with more than Jewish madnesse in mistaking Scripture in it self most plain and easie who to prove the Scriptures Obscurity to be such as in this respect it could not be the Rule of Faith alledgeth for his proof that place of the Prophet And the vision of them all is become unto you as the word of a Book that is sealed up which they deliver to one that can read saying Read this I pray thee then shall he say I cannot for it is sealed 6 The Prophet relates it as a wonder that they should not be able to discern the Truth What Truth an obscure or hidden Truth Impossible to be understood This had been a wonderfull Wonder indeed that men should not be able to understand that which was Impossible to be understood Wherein then was the true Wonder seen In this that they whose eyes had formerly been illuminated by the evidence and clearnesse of the Divine Truth revealed by Gods Messenger should not be able to discern the same still alike clear and perspicuous but now to be shut up from their eyes as appeareth by the similitude of the sealed Book whose Character was legible enough but yet not able to be read whilst sealed A man might as well prove the Sun to be dark because Polyphemus after ãâã had put out his eye could not see it as the Scriptures by this place to be Obscure The Prophets words entire are these Stay your selves and Wonder they are blind and make you blind they are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not with drink For the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes The Prophets and your chief Seers hath he covered And the vision of them all is become unto you c. And more plainly Therefore the Lord said because this people come near me with their mouth and honour me with their lips but have removed their heart from me and their fear towards me was taught by the precepts of men doth he not mean the Blind Obedience of Modern Papists as well as ancient Jews Therefore behold I will do a marvellous work in this People even a marvellous work and a wonder For the Wisdom of the wise men shall perish and the understanding of the prudent man shall be hid The Lord himself foretels it as a wonder that this People should be so ignorant in the Word of God and yet will the Jesuite make us beleeve the Word of God is so Obscure that it cannot be unto us the Rule of Faith when as without the knowledge and light of it not which it hath in it self but which it communicates to us there is no Vision no Knowledge in the Visible Church but such wonderfull Darknesse as the Prophet here describes 7 Let the Reader here give sentence with me whether it were not wonderfull Jewish Blindnesse or wilfull Blasphemie in Valentian so confidently to avouch that the Veil which Saint Paul saith is laid before the Jews hearts was woven a great part out of the Difficulty of Scriptures such Scriptures as the
Bellarmine prove that Law was Obscure to him which as he himself confesseth had given Light unto his eyes If it were not why did he pray to God to understand it Then I perceive the Jesuites drift in this present Controversie is to establish a Rule of Faith so easie and infallible as might direct in all the wayes of Truth without Prayer to God or any help from Heaven Such a one it seems they desire as all might understand at the first sight though living as luxuriously as their Popes or minding worldly matters as much as their Cardinals Nili velint nimium esse âaeci unlesse they would as Valentian speaks desire to be Blinde 5 Surely more blind then Beetles must they be that can suffer themselves to be perswaded that ever God or Christ would have a Rule for mans direction in the Mysteries of Salvation so plain and easie as he should not need to be beholden to his Maker and Redeemer for the true and perfect understanding of it This is a Wisdom and Gift which cometh onely from above and must be daily and earnestly sought for at the hands of God who we may rest assured will be alwayes more ready to grant our Petitions herein with lesse changes then the Pope to give his Decisions in a doubtfull Case âad David ask a this Wisdom of him that sate in Moses Chair we might suspect the Pope might be sued unto But Davids God is our God his Lord our Christ our Redeemer and hath spoken more plainly unto us then unto David who yet by his meditations on Gods written Laws added Light to Moses Writings as later Prophets have done to his All which in respect of the Gospels Brightnesse are but as Lights shining in dark places yet even the least conspicuous amongst them Such as will give manifest evidence against us to our eternal Condemnation if we seek this Wisdom from any others then Christs his Prophets and Apostles Doctrine by any other Means or Mediatourship then David did his From Gods Law written by Moses 6 Let us now see what Valentian can say unto the fore-cited Testimonie and to that other like unto it We have also a most sure word of the Prophets to the which ye do well that yee take heed as unto a Light that shineth in a ââ¦k place untill the day dawn and the day-Star ariseth in your hearts It is true saith the Doctor the word of God is a Light and this Light is clear and illuminates the eyes But it must be considered how it comes to enlighten our eyes Do you su pos that it effects this in as much as every man doth comprehend it within the ãâã of his private wit or industry as it were in a little bushell Nothing lesse But â⦠it as it is placed in the Authority of the Catholick Church as in a Candlestick where it may give Light to all that are in the house For we shall shew saith he â⦠place that this Authoritie of the Church is the living Judge and Mistresse of ââ¦th ãâã therefore is it necessary that she should carrie this Light which is contâ⦠Holy Wâit and shew it unto all that associate themselves to her and remain â⦠bosome although they be unlearned men and such as are not able by themselves to behold this Light as it is contained in the Scriptures as in a Lanthorn 7 He that could find in his heart to spend his groat or go a mile to see a Camel dance a Jigge let him but lay his finger on his mouth that he spoil not the Pageant with immoderate laughing and he may without any further cost or pains be partaker of as prettie a Sport to see a grand demure school-School-Divine laying aside his wonted habit of Metaphysical Proof turned Doctour Similitude on a suddain and swaggering it in the Metaphorical Cut. For what one joynt or strain is there in this long laborious vast Similitude that doth any way encline unto the least semblance of Truth or can be drawn to illustrate any such Meaning as this man intended or any way to break the force of our Writers Arguments drawn from the forecited places For first what Semblance is there between a private mans Interpretation or Comprehension of Scripture-sence and the putting of a Light or Candle under a Bushel For what though some one some few or more such men will apprehend this or that to be the full Meaning of some controversed place in Scripture I am by our Churches Doctrine no more bound to Believe them then I am to Believe the Pope of Rome whom I never saw nor knew I am bound to Believe neither of them more then if they should tell me that the whole Light of that candle which shines alike to all were onely comprehended in their eyes For by our Doctrine I may behold the same Light of Scriptures which they do as freely as they Judge of it by mine own eyes and Sense as well as they not onely submit my Sense and judgement unto theirs But if we should as this âesuite would have us permit the judgement of all Scripture-sence wholly and irrevocably unto the Pope and his Cardinals as if their Consistorie were the compleat Hemisphere or rather the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã sphere the whole sphere wherein this heavenly Lamp doth shine then indeed we should see no more of its Light then we could of a Candle put under a Bushell or locked up in some close Room In which Case we might Believe others that it did shine there still but whether it did so or no we could not Judge by our own eyes And in like manner would this Doctor perswade us that we should judge of this Light of Scriptures onely by the Testimonie or Authoritie of such as see it shine in the Consistorie at Rome not with our own eyes Had the Lord permitted but one grain of good wit to have remained in this Bushel of Bran not Impudencie in grain could without Plushing have offered to accuse our Church for hiding the Light of Scriptures under a Bushell when as we contend the free Use of it should be permitted to the whole Congregation But he disputeth of the Light as Blind men may of Colours He lived at Ingolstade and the Light of Gods Word was at Rome lockt up within the compasse of the Consistorie so that he could not see to make his comparison of it Secondly what Proportion is there between the Churches Authority such Authority as he claims for his Church and a Candlestick Let the Consistory be supposed the Candlestick wherein the word of God doth shine as a Light or Candle Doth it indeed shine there unto whom To all that will associate themselves to that Church Come then let every man exhort his Neighbour to repair to the Mountain of the Lord. Shall we there immediately see the Truth of Scriptures clearly and distinctly with our own eyes because the Pope or Trent-Councel holds out unto us the Books
III. That The continual practise of Hereticks in urging Scriptures to establish Heresie and the diversity of opinions amongst the Learned about the Sense of Them is no just Exception why They should not be acknowledged as the Sole Entire and Compleat Rule of Faith OUt of the former Discourse their other Objections are almost answered already and they be especially Two The first If the Scriptures be plain and easie how comes it to passe that there should be such Contentions amongst the Learned about them Or whence is it that every Heretick is so forward to urge Scriptures for his Opinion even to the Death The Second lies as it were in the womb of this as this did in the former's and drawn out in its proper shape is thus There can be no certain Means of taking up controversies or contentions in the Church but only by admitting an Infallible Authority for deciding all controversies viva voce seeing the Scripture is alwayes made a party on all sides in such contentions 2 In the former Objection they indict the Scriptures as the Principal in the later our Church as an Abetter of such Quarrels and Contentions as it breeds For our Church we shall answer in the next for Gods Word in this present Section CAP. XIX Containing the true State of the Question with the Adversaries General Objections against the Truth 1 IT cannot be denied that alwayes there have been and alwayes will continue Contentions amongst learned men in Points of Faith or Doctrine or about the true Sence or Meaning of Scriptures in these other Cases For thus much these Scriptures themselves do plainly witnesse Oporâ⦠esse haereses For there must be Heresies even among you that they which are approved among you might be known But the Question is not whether there have been now are or alwayes shall continue many Contentions about the Sense of Scripture but First Whether the Scriptures have not plainly set down the original Causes and nurses of such Contentions and the Means how to avoid them so men will be ruled by them most plain for this purpose or Secondly Whether not submitting their wils desires and affections unto these plain and perspicuous Rules of life this supposed Infallible Rule of the Romish Church can prevent remove or compose all such Contentions according to the Truth and cause men stedfastly hold the Unity of Faith in the Bond of Peace 3 The Causes of Contentions about the Sence of Scriptures are the very same with the fore-mentioned which made the Scriptures unto sundry seem Obscure or the same which make men to mistake their true Sence and Meaning For even these Wars and Contentions whereof we speak specially these arise from Lusts which sight in our members â we lust and have not we envy and have indignation and cannot obtain we fight and war and got nothing not the Truth which we seek because we ask it not Do not such as contends most about the true Sence ask it most doth not every Heretick the earnester he is professe that he prayes for the Truth so much the more servently yea but such men receive not that which they so earnestly ask because they ask it amisse They desire skill in Scripture to advance their own Conceits and maintain their foolish and carnal Affections otherwise asking they should have and seeking they should find especially the true Sence and Meaning of Gods Word which must instruct us how to frame all our other Petitions unto God aright 4 These and infinite like places we acknowledge plainly declaring the Causes of Contentions and as many more some of which shall be here and there inserted directing us how to avoid all occasions of striâe and debate Both which if we observe Contentions will quickly cease Which those not observed must increase as a just punishment of Truth neglected coââ¦icted or low esteemed notwithstanding the best indeavours of any Authority upon earth imaginable to the contrary 5 But some perhaps will demand Is there no use of Humane Authority in this Case yes As for the begetting of true and lively Faith we supose the live-voice of an Ordinary Ministery as the Organ whereby the written Word must be conveyed to our Spirits so for retaining the Unity of this Faith in the Bond of Peace for suppressing or preventing all Occasions of Schismes Heresies or Contentions we acknowledge the necessary Use of a Lawfull Magistracie yet no infallibilitie in either The proper end and use of Both is to espouse mens Souls with an indissoluble knot of Love and Loyaltie unto the written Word the only Infallible Rule of that Faith whereby they live The One by unfolding the generall Points or Maximes of Christian Faith The other by constraining them at least to a civil Practise of undoubted Principles acknowledged by all and inhibiting such Courses as the Moral Precepts of this Canon have defected for Causes and Nurses of Contention Our Adversaries whether out of wilfull malice or oversight or out of both according to the diversities of their tempers have taken occasion to traduce our Churches Doctrine as if it admitted no Means for preventing or composing Contentions but onely the bare letter of Scripture Whereas we all teach that the written Word is the onely Means Infallible not the onely Means Simplie for effecting Both. Nor doth it skill how necessary either Ministerial Expositions or Juridical Decisions be for bringing us unto or retaining us in the Unitie of the Truth professed for not Necessity of Means but Infallibility of Direction is the proper unseparable Condition of the Rule of Faith And seeing Gods Word only endures for ever and therefore onely is Infallible it must be the Sole Rule of Faith how many or how necessary soever the Means be that must bring us to the true Knowledge of it 6 Valentian and Saero-boscus think it all One to acknowledge no Ecclesiasticall Authority or use of Ministerie and not to acknowledge an Infallibility in Both. But this is a Position devoid both of Sense and Reason For As our Senses though of themselves onely capable of particular and Material Objects subject to change and contingencie are the necessary and onely ordinary Means whereby our Intellective Facultie is brought to apprehend Universal and immaterial Principles whose Truth is necessary everlasting and immutable So may the Ministery and Magistracie though both in themselves fallible and obnoxious to Errors be the necessary and onely ordinary Means whereby we are brought as it were by a sensible Induction to the infallible Acknowledgement of the supernatural divine eternal Truths which are the proper Object of the illuminated or spiritual as immaterial and universal Principles are of the natural understanding which shall God willing be declared hereafter In this place I onely thought good to forewarn the Reader of this Hiatus in our Adversaries Collections whereunto the blind and ignorant English Papist led by such blinded forraign Guides as Valentian and Sacro-âosâââ who either
Delusions and Appearances as well as the true their divine Illuminations whence the Contention amongst the professed Prophets themselves was as great as any now amongst the learned Interpreters of Prophecies or other Scriptures And from this Contention amongst the Prophets the unlearned or rather all in that people not Prophets were by the Romanist Objections against us were they pertinent to waver and halt between the contrariety of Illuminations and Visions professed as well by the false Prophets as the true Nor will any Jesuite I think be so bold as to deny lest every man might perceive him to deny more then possibly he could know that those lying Spirits in the mouthes of Ahabs Prophets were then as cunning in imitating true Revelations as now in counterfeiting Orthodoxal Interpretations of Truth revealed Or if this they cal in question let them resolve us why Idolatry in those Ages wherein true Prophets flourished most should be as frequent and various as Heresies in later times wherein the preaching of the Gospel is most plentiful The true Reason whereof as we suppose is this These lying Spirits were alike apt to imitate Gods several manner of speaking whether by means ordinary or extraordinary in divers Ages At all times if we compare either their native Capacity or acquired skil with our own though in matters wherein we have been most conversant if to their sagââ¦y we adde their malicious Temper and eager Desires of doing ill which alwayes adde an Edge unto Wit in mischievous Invention In all these they so far exceed the sons of seduced Adam that unlesse the Almighty did either ãâã us by his Holy Spirit or restrain them in the exercise of their skil especially in Spiritual matters wherewith the natural man hath no acquaintance who could in any Age be able to discern their Jugling much less to avoid their snares alwayes suited to the present season Notwithstanding most evident it is that in Ahabs as in all other times tainted with the like or a quivalent Sins the Almighty gives them leave to do their worst to practise with such cunning in every kind as leaves men so disposed as these false Prophets were until they amend no more possibility of distinguishing Devilish Suggestions from Divine Oracles then Ahab had without repentance to escape his doom read by Elias and Michaiah For he had not fallen unlesse his Prophets had been first seduced Their Errour therefore was by Gods just judgement as Fatal as his Fall both absolutely inevitable upon supposition of their obstinate Disobedience to the undoubted Mandates of Gods written Law Thus no one tittle of our Adversaries Objections how the learned should be sure of their interpretations when others as learned as they are as strongly perswaded to the contrary but is as directly opposite unto the Certainty of true Prophets Revelations seeing many yea most of that Profession and in the judgement of man men of better gifts and places then such as proved true Prophets were otherwise perswaded usually such as the people esteemed best strangeliest deluded 3 That from this Variety of Opinions amongst the Prophets about their Illuminations others not endued with the gift of Prophesie were in the self same case the unlearned people throughout the Christian world are in wheresoever or whensoever Dissentions arise amongst the learned admits no question but amongst wranglers For albeit the excellent Brightness of Divine Truth did necessarily imprint an infallible Evidence in their apprehension to whom it was immediately by Means extraordinary revealed yet could they not communicate this Evidence or Certainty unto the people but by preaching the Word revealed after the self same manner we do Yea sometime it was only communicated unto them by the Ministery of others no Prophets Here let any Jesuite or other Patron of the Romish Churches Cause answer me to these Demands First whether the People were not bound to believe the true Prophesies either delivered by the Prophets own mouthes or read by others or directed to them in writing to be the Word of GOD and to reject the contrary Doctrine of false Prophets as Delusions Secondly whether if the ordinary People of those times could by any Christians though private men in later may not by the same Means distinguish the Word of God being in like sort read or expounded or preached unto them from the Word of Man The Word remains stil the same the Truth of it better confirmed unto the World by the continuance of it in power and strength throughout all Ages intermediate wherein Gods Spirit by which it was first manifested to the Prophets and written in the Peoples hearts hath been more plentiful then before especially since the Revelation of the Gospel most plentiful in this present if I may so speak the second time of Grace Our Argument then stands good A fortiori If every private man amongst GODS People of Old might and ought Believe and believing Obey his Word revealed to others only read or expounded unto him rejecting all contrary or erroneous Doctrines the People of this Age must do the like and all Objections possible against the judgement of modern private Spirits conclude as much against all private persons of Ancient times For their Means of knowing the Prophets Illuminations or Visions were ordinary such as we have now liable to all exceptions that can be made against our knowledge or perswasion of the true Sense of Scripture But neither theirs nor our Imbecillity in knowing or Facility of erring was or is any just Exception why the Scripture should not be a Rule to both Albeit all the Papists Arguments might be urged with far greater probability against them who were to Believe Prophetical Writings first For more easie it is to Assent unto Particulars contained in a general Canon already established by the approbation of former Ages and confirmed by joynt consent of Parties most adverse and contrary in the interpretation of several parcels then to admit the general Canon it self for the undoubted Word of GOD or yield obedience to the Particulars therein contained Yet were the Ancient people bound to admit the Prophesie of Isaias Jeremiah as the undoubted Word of God albeit unknown to their Ancestors but only in the generality of Moses doctrine much more as we conclude may Christians now living assent unto the true expositions or particular contents of these Prophesies or other Scriptures of whose absolute Truth in general they do not doubt and of whose ãâã articulars they may now behold the sundry Opinions and Expositions of divers Ages 4 To presse the former Arguments more fully parallel'd to our present Controversie a little farther I would demand of any Jesuite whether the Word of God taught by the Prophets who were to win credit by their skil not presumed skilful for their Authority in the Church or credit in Common-weal or the definitive sentence of the High-Priests or others in eminent place were to be the Rule of Israels Faith Whether the
circumstances of the time were such as required an extraordinary Medicine which whilst we administer without mixture of like Ingredients or not upon the same Occasions we may chance to poyson both our selves and our Patients Others of us again are so much accustomed to politick Observation that we commonly make no other trial of Divine Truths then by some such forinsecal form of proceeding as is used in secular Inquisitions wherein determinations go by calculation of most Voices But unlesse the Lord did suffer us to have plausible shews and goodly inducements in the worlds sight for Believing that which is contrary unto Truth our Faith should not be sincere nor as an Armour of proof to resist all temptations seeing there is no man almost but is apt by Nature to follow a multitude to do that which publick Laws have judged evil much more to think or Believe as most men or men most esteemed do On the contrary if we look into our Calling Not many wise men after the flesh not many noble are chosen of God Such as are His ought to be like Him in this that they see not as men not as Natural men be they never so many see nor judge not as they judge 7 The stay whereupon they as in all other Difficulties so especially in this Trial of Spirits must rely is his Providence which in time wil bring the Truth to light and daily diffuseth the odour of life able were not our Senses dull or prepossessed with the fragrant Smel of earthly Pleasures to lead us to that invisible Truth which in this life we must follow not by View but by Faith Yet not by Faith if we take the Jesuites for our Guides who in this present Controversie play false Huntsmen alwayes seeking to bring us from the Prints of Gods Providence unto the Pathes and foot-steps of Men that have corrupted their wayes casting the form of secular Proceeding before our eyes so to withdraw us from following him who hath sweetned the 21 wherein we breath with the words of Eternal Life If men would be so mad as to frame their lives according to their Doctrine Hell it self could not wish a more Devilish Means to make men Christians in conceit and At heists or Infideis in heart And yet besides the Impiety of all other kinds of Heresies or Infidelities that are or have been this of theirs is the most palpably absurd and most contradictory to the Rules of Reason and Principles of Arts received by all For if the Arguments they bring against us conclude any thing at all they conclude as much against all Certainty of secular or natural Sciences 8 And because whether purposely or as meer Instruments managed by Satan to what use they know not they still labour to make civil Modesty but a mask for Infidelity rightly judging though to a wrong end ingenuous Humility and mens lowly conceipts of their own worth the fittest disposition whence utter distrust of Gods Favour towards such poor Creatures as men so minded deem themselves can be wrought and if once wrought and deeply planted in soft minds or humble hearts the only sure Foundation whence they can hope to raise their Blind Implicit Faith It shall not be amiss whilst we prosecute the second Branch of their immoderate Folly last mentioned to discover withall and partly dissolve The Snares which they have set for the Simple and Ingenuous CAP. XXV How far upon what terms or grounds we may with Modesty dissent from the Ancient or others of more excellent Gifts then our selves That our Adversaries Arguments impeach as much the Certainty of Human Sciences as of private Spirits 1 LEt it be granted that many Places of great Moment are diversely expounded by learned men what will hence follow That not the greatest Schollars in reformed Churches can be as sure of their true Sense and Meaning as the Pope Not unlesse you first can make it evident that Learning or Subtility of wit is the only Means whereby the true sense of Scriptures can be found out And this being proved you must assure us that the Pope is alwayes better learned then others otherwise he may fail as wel as they Or if you admit not Learning for the only Means of distinguishing Doctrines as indeed it is not yet must you secure the world that the Pope hath all those other good Qualifications whose want caused the learned to erre Or if you require neither one nor other of these you must prove that the best Gifts of God the peculiar Attribute of whose Glory is to be no Respecter of persons are infallibly entailed to a certain succession of men without all respect of Learning Wit or Honesty Lastly you must prove that the Holy Ghost was a Private Spirit and might erre when he said The Lord giveth Grace to the Humble Or the Law of the Lord Wisdom unto the Simple And that our Saviours words Ventus spirat ubi vult did not import as he meant that his Spirit might enlighten whom he pleased For if all these and that Deus cujus vult miseretur be true who can hinder Him or His Spirit to open the eyes of some less learned to behold clearly the true Sense and Meaning of that Scripture wherein many excellent Writers have either erred or been overseen or who can hinder God if these places be true to reveal his Will to little ones and keep it secret from the wise and mighty because it is his pleasure so to do and that for this end that men should learn to rely upon his Mercy and Providence not upon the Authority or Skill of Men. Or who can hinder his Omnipotency even in this Age to make his Power seen in our Weaknesse If this his Power be not limited now then may he stil both reveal the true Sense and Meaning of his Word in some points unto men of lesse Capacity in others and furnish them with ability too for demonstrating by Evidence of Argument and surest Grounds of Reason unto others that this sense must needs be the true sense and that all other Interpretations given of the same places by men otherwise excellent for their Learning and Skill in Scripture cannot stand with those Principles of Christian Faith which all sorts of Believers stedfastly Believe Must such a man or those to whom God reveals the Truth by his Ministry doubt of the Evidence of the Truth revealed and mistrust Gods Word because others as learned or more learned then either he that hath the Truth revealed unto him first or they that take it from him are of another mind He must verily by this Objection For a Jesuite would say Why should he not think others as likely to have the Spirit as himself Let him esteem of them as far better Scholars and men indued with as great or greater Measure of Gods Spirit then himself for so the Scripture teacheth us not to be wise in our own conceipt but to think better of others then
of our selves And again the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets 2 And yet both these Rules concern the greatest Scholars and most skilful Interpreters in some degree as well as the meanest For none is so absolutely good none so far exceeds another but in part may be exceeded by him Nor doth this Christian Modesty which the Scripture thus teacheth bind any Christian soul or ingenuous mind to such absolute servility as the Objection must inforce upon all if it prove ought For there is no ingenuous man especially of meaner gifts but will in heart and conscience acknowledge many both Ancient and modern for far more excellent Scholars then himself and yet be fully perswaded in Conscience that in sundry particulars he hath the Truth on his side which they oppugne and the true sense of Gods Spirit in some points wherein they have erred or were ignorant For neither wil an indefinite Proposition in matters whose revelation depends upon the free Wil and Liberty of Gods Spirit and are in respect of us contingent infer every particular nor will one or sew particulars in any point infer an Universal Proposition or such as we call vera ut plurimum true for the most part Now to say believe that such a man is a better Scholar and of far more excellent gifts is but indefinite not infinite for the extent of his Scholarship or gifts beyond mine Wherefore it wil not hence follow that he is a better Scholar or interpreter in this albeit he be so in many or in most other particulars much lesse will it follow that I am a better Scholar or interpreter then he because I am better seen in this one or few particulars The Consequence or Corollary of which two Assertions is again as evident I may without breach of Modesty think I have the Truth on my side in sundry particulars against him that is far better seen in Scriptures and other Sciences then my self For albeit he were much better seen in both then he is yet are his gifts measured as well as mine although God hath given him a greater measure of such gifts then me Wherefore as I would willingly yield unto him in infinite others so may I safely dissent from him in this or ââ¦r particulars that are contained in the small measure of Gods gifts upon me without any just censure of Arrogancy or breach of Modesty for entring the lists of Comparison with him absolutely For now we are to be compared but in this one or few Cases not according to the whole measure of Gods gifts in us which I acknowledge far greater in him and reverence him as my Superiour for them And as I acknowledge him absolutely for my better so is he in these particulars in some sort to yield Superiority unto me Christian Modesty teacheth every man not to be hasty or rash in gain-saying the Doctrine of the Ancient or other men of Worth but rather binds him to diligence in examination of the Truth to use deliberation in gain-saying the Opinions of men better learned then himself But Christianity it self binds all Christians not to believe mens Authority against their own Consciences nor to admit of their Doctrines for Rules of Faith be they never so excellent unlesse they can discern them to be the Doctrine of that great Prophet Cui DEUS non admetitur Spiritum He cannot fail in any thing and whatsoever He saith or what his SPIRIT shall witnesse to my Spirit to have proceeded from Him I am bound to Believe But for men to whom God gives his Spirit but in measure albeit in great measure because I cannot know the particulars unto which it extends I neither may absolutely refuse nor absolutely admit their doctrines for true until I see perfectly how they agree with or disagree from his Doctrine of whose Fulnesse we have all received And even the Truth of their Writings to whom he hath given his gifts in great measure I am to examin by their Consonancy unto that small measure of his undoubted gifts in my self so far as they concern my self or others committed to my charge And in the confidence of Gods Promises for the increase of Faith and Grace to all such as use them aright every Christian in sobriety of spirit may by the Principles of Faith planted by Gods singer in his heart examin the Sentences and Decrees of the wisest men on earth to approve them if he can discern them for true to confute them if false to suspend his judgement and limit the terms of his disobedience unto them if doubtful and finally to admit or reject them according to the degrees of their Probability or Improbability which he upon sober diligent and unpartial search directed and continued in reverence of Gods Word and sincere love of Truth shall find in them 3 All the Arguments which they can heap up from the Variety of Opinions amongst the learned albeit they could make a Catalogue of Confusion in this kind as long as the tower of Babel was high can only prove thus much That no man especially no man indued with the gift of interpreting may rely upon any other mans Opinions Expositions or Decrees without further examination of them but only upon the Scripture it self which never varieth from it self nor from the Truth for this cause to be admitted as the only Infallible Rule of all Divine Truths whereunto every man must conform his Belief and Perswasions For even this Variety of Opinions about the particular Sense or Meaning of this Canon of Truth amongst such as joyntly acknowledge the Infallibility of it in general is a sufficient Reason to disclaim any mans Authority for the Rule of Faith seeing Experience shews such Variety and Partiality in them and the general Foundation of Faith held by all thus dissenting binds every man to Believe that the Scripture is not subject to any of these Inconveniences This undoubted certainty of it when it is rightly understood and perceived should incourage all to seek out the right Sense and Meaning of it which once found is by all mens consent the surest foundation of Faith for by our Adversaries consent it is the Ground of the Churches Faith and where they cannot presently attain unto it to suspend their judgements and not to follow mens Authorities but onely in Particulars whose Generals are contained in Scripture lest they may lead them against the true Sense and Meaning of it And if men generally should have no other Ground but mans Authority or Believe this or that to be the Meaning of Scripture because such a man or companie of men doth tell him so besides his wronging of Gods Spirit herein he should also wrong many other men oft-times far better learned and skilfull in Scriptures more dear in the sight of God and better acquainted with his Spirit then are they on whose Authoritie he relies Every one to whom God hath given a wise heart and Power in Scripture might
all though different in their particular Natures and peculiar Properties uniform for the transmission of Light But after the dissolution of the Christian Empire and the constitution of several States and Soveraignties throughout Europe all compleat within themselves and different one from another in Laws and Customes the transfusion of such an absolute Ecclesiastick Authoritie through all would be unequal and make Christendom like a Monster compact of many several entire Bodies made up in one or like some uglie living creature that had many Heads and but one Heart or Soul CAP. XXX That the final Trial of this Controversie must be by Scriptures That the Jesuites and modern Papists fierce oppugning all certainty of private Spirits in discerning the Divine Truth of Scriptures or their true Sense hath made the Church their Mother utterly uncapable of any plea by Scriptures for establishing her pretended Infallibility 1 BUt what Christian heart could have suspected that any man acknowledging the infinite Majestie of an Omnipotent God filling every place with his Presence ruling all things by his Power and having every least Creature of the World a world of Witnesses of his inconceivable Wisdome and unspeakable Providence over the Works of his own Hand durst once have presumed to think much lesse have opened his mouth to utter least of all have imployed his pen to proclaim such foul Impietie to the world as that a Power so infinite could not sufficiently provide for his Church in deciding matters of Faith surpassing all reach of Reason unlesse he had ordained some one Supream Tribunal Seat on earth the Judges whereof should be but mortal men whose Bodies can be but in one place at once whose Voices cannot reach without the precincts of their Consistories whereas the Law of this our God unto whose sentence in matters of Faith we appeal is or might be but for these our Antiscripturian Adversares importunitie every where throughout the Christian World dispersed and besides the external helps of an ordinary Ministerie or Magistracie alike common to all Nations the Holy Spirit is every where assistant to all such as seek him in the written Word by him revealed whose live-characters are as the prints or footsteps of his wonted Motions in Gods Prophets or Apostles hearts by which the faithful may discern his approach or Presence in their own Nor wil the Jesuites be so wilful I hope as to denie that this Holy Spirit who did dictate the Word to such as wrote it in these material Tables having first written it in the fleshly Tables of their Hearâts is able now also to write the same immediately in the Hearts of all such as with fear and reverence prepare themselves for his fit and decent entertainment That this was possible to be performed by the Almighty Wisdom of God they would not I know deny were this ãâã direct and plain termes made the main Controversie betwixt us Albeit as much as we have charged them withall will most necessarily follow from their absurd and lavishly blasphemous Speeches which in the heat of contention have distilled from their pens in this present Controversie But of the Possibilitie of Gods immediate teaching every Christian Heart or rather of the Probabilities which may induce all to relie immediately hereupon we shall have occasion to discourse hereafter Let us now in sobrietie of Spirit rather dispute of Gods Will then his Power As whether there be any sure Argument to perswade us that it was his intent or purpose either to instruct men in the true Sense of Scriptures or to take up all Controversies in matters of Faith by this supposed Infallibilitie of some visible Church All this and somewhat more our Adversaries in this Point seriously avouch and earnestly contend for Let us therefore briefly see whether or no Gods Spirit hath taught thus much That the Sense of Scriptures cannot be had without the Assistance or working of Gods Spirit both jointly acknowledge They must be understood and interpreted saith Bellarmin by the same Spirit which wrote them as he very well gathers out of Saint Peter Whence likewise he well collects that the whole difficultie in this Question about taking up Controversies and finding out the true Sense of Scriptures consists in this where this Spirit is and where the distressed Soul and doubtfull Conscience ought to seek it In the Visible and Catholike Church saith Bellarmin and all the Modern Roman Catholicks that is as they interpret it in the Consistorie of the Pope and Cardinals or in the Assemblie of Bishops or as the Modern Jesuites will have it in the Pope alone speaking ex Cathedra 3 Every man say we ought to seek the Spirit of God in his own Soul and Conscience being directed and ruled by the Sacred Word which was revealed and uttered by the same Spirit This Word directs them in this search and the Spirit once found out or rather finding them thus seeking him establisheth their Assent unto the Word already revealed and written by imprinting the same invisible Word or the true Sense and Meaning of it in their Hearts 4 Why this Spirit should be infallibly present to the Visible Church all our Adversaries uncessantly urge Scripture I will not abuse the Readers patience with allegation of the Places which have been very fully answered by many of our Church That which I intend at this time is First to debar them by their own Grounds of this Plea of Scriptures by shewing their Absurditie and folly in urging any Scripture at all for the proof of their Aâlertion And secondly to overthrow the Assertion it self by manifest proofs that either their Churches transcendent Authoritie as it is now taught must fall or Christianitie cannot stand To make way for our dearer passage in the former 5 They generally hold That this Infallibilitie of the Visible Church consists directly in this That the Holy Ghost is infalliblie present to it and gives it the true Sense and Meaning of Scriptures which he doth not give to private persons whom in their judgements he will not vouchsafe immediately to instruct so that his Dictates already revealed cannot be a Rule unto them because they want his infallible Assistance for their Exposition and for the same reason Certain they cannot be without the Churches Authority that they understand the Scripture aright 6 This their Assertion being two-fold for their Churches infallible Expositions and against all private Interpretations is grounded upon these two Principles They are to be Believed in exposition of Scriptures fide divina whom the Holy Ghost infallibly assists They are not so to be Believed whom the Holy Ghost doth not so assist Whence what he said before will follow that no man besides the Pope may believe his own interpretations of Scriptures His or the Churches all must nay all men must believe fide divina that the Church or Pope is in all Determinations infalliblie assisted by the Holy Ghost For if we were not bound to
taken as a typical Prophesie of the Popes Infallible Authoritie such a Prophesie of it I mean as the History of the Paschal Lamb was of Christs Passion if they will hold the first member of the former division That the Holy Ghost doth first teach us Infallibly to Believe these Scriptures which they urge for the Infallibility of their Church and having once made us infallibly to Believe them refers us to the Churches Infallibilitie taught and Believed by them for the Rule of Faith in all other Articles 11 Sed quia hac non successit alia aggredien lum est via Let us now see whether they be like to find any better successe by following the second member of the forementioned Division i. If they should say We must infallibly Believe the Churches Infallibilitie in expounding Scriptures or Points of Faith before we can infallibly Believe them to be the Word of God or to contain in them Doctrines of Faith This indeed they must say if they hold their Churches Authority to be the Rule of Faith or whereby infalliblie to distinguish Divine Truth from Apocryphal 12 Let us first take the Proposition supposed for Disputations sake viz. We must believe the Churches Infallible Authority before we can believe the Scripture to be the Infallible Oracles of God Secondly let us consider but this one part of the Churches infallible Authority which all the Modern Papists acknowledge That the Scriptures cannot be known infallibly to be the Word of God but by the confirmation of the present Church And let us see how these two Assertions can stand together By the first the Churches infallible Authority must be infalliblie Believed before Scriptures By the second which contains the chief part of the Churches Infallibilitie the Scriptures cannot be infallibly acknowledged or believed to be the Word of God but upon former supposal of Believing the Churches Infallibilitie confirming this Truth unto us 13 Here let all whose Brains are not intoxicate with the wine of Fornication pause a while and contemplate what Babylonish giddinesse hath possest their Brains that have run round about so long though alwayes staggering in urging Scriptures for to prove that as an Article of Belief which must be infallibly Believed before those places of Scriptures which they urge for it or else nor they nor any other Scriptures can ever be stedfastly Believed to be the Word of GOD or to have sufficient Authoritie in them to cause stedfast Belief unto that which they teach For this is the Issue of all our Adversaries Arguments in this Point That such matters as are contained in Scriptures cannot be stedfastly acknowledged or Believed for Supernatural or Divine Truths until they be confirmed by this Infallible Authority of the present Church Where again I would have the Reader call to mind what was before observed out of Bellarmines Positions That this Infallibility of the Church consists directly in this that it is perpetually assisted by the Holy Ghost and it is all one with them to say We Believe the Churches infallible Authority in matters of Faith and to say We Believe the Church is perpetually assisted by the Holy Ghost Again by all the later Jesuiteâ Positions it is all one to say We Believe the Church is perpetually assisted by the Holy Ghost in determining matters of Faith and to say We Beleeve that the Pope speaking ex Cathedra is assisted perpetually by the Holy Ghost in determining matters of Faith 14 Out of these Assertions compared with the Proposition supposed The Churches infallibilitie must be Believed before Scripture or other Articles of Faith this will immediately and directly follow We must Believe that the Holy Ghost the Supreme Judge of Scriptures and matters of Faith doth infalliblie assist the Church or Pope speaking ex Cathedra before we can Believe that there is an Holy Ghost For this is one Article of Faith taught in Scriptures which Scriptures say our Adversaries cannot be Believed but by the confirmation of the Churches Infallible Authority and this infallible Authoritie consists as we said before in this that it is infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost wherefore the Conclusion of this absurd Position is That we must first Believe the Holy Ghost is perpetually resident in the Popes breast or Consistory of Rome before it can be Believed that there is an Holy Ghost or Divine Trinitie in Heaven If we consider the Practise of our Adversaries in urging Scripture to prove their Churches Infallibility to be the Rule of Faith they should in Reason admit the first member of the fore-mentioned Division and hold that the Scriptures must be infallibly Believed for the Word of God before the Infallibilitie of the Church which they seek to prove by Scriptures can be infallibly Believed But again if we consider their assertions concerning the Churches Infallibilitie That the Scriptures cannot be known to be the Scriptures but by It and that It is the Rule of Faith they must of necessitie admit the second member of the fore-cited Division and maintain that the Churches Infallibilitie must infallibly be Believed before we can Believe the Scriptures to be the infallible Oracles of God For Regula semper est prior regulato but the Churches Infallibilitie is the Rule of Faith by their Positions and to Believe the Scripture to be the infallible Oracles of God is a main Point of Faith and necessary to Salvation for This is the Iesuites principal Topick to disprove the Scriptures Sufficiencie for being the Rule of Faith in all Points because it containeth not this one Point viz. that the Scriptures are the infallible Oracles of God It is hence evidently proved that neither of the two first members of the former Division can stand either with Reason the Allegators Practise or Positions For the first quite overthrows their Positions concerning their Churches Infallible Authoritie The second proves their Practise to be most absurd in urging Scriptures for to prove it And yet the third member is of all the three the most absurd albeit not so dissonant to their Positions or Practise in this Point because as are they so is it Senselesse both which will evidently appear by the bare proposal of it 15 The third member was That we must infallibly Believe the Scriptures to be the Oracles of God and the Churches Infallibilitic both together without any Prioritie of Time order or nature First if this Assertion be true then cannot the Churches Infallibility serve as a Rule to know the Scriptures to be the Word of GOD infalliblie because regula prior est regulato But by this Assertion there is no Priority in the Churches Infallibilitie their supposed Rule in respect of our knowing or Believing the Scriptures to be the Oracles of GOD. Secondly if the former Assertion be true then neither can the Scriptures prove the Churches Infallibility nor the Churches Infallibility prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God unto any Believer For all Means or
by a Condition requisite thereunto And so this Juglers ring or circular Fallacy is avoided and only a Reason is given of things connexed mutually from the things themselves connexed under a divers Reason or respect which is no Leger demain but fair play If the divers Objects of the Divine Revelation and the Churches Infallibility were the only Cause or Reason why we take this Resolution for circular Proof then this Exception of the diversity of their Objects were to some purpose But we impeach this his Resolution of naughtinesse for the very form or manner because the Proof is idem per idem And being so alalbeit the Object of the Divine Revelation and the Churches Proposal be divers yet is this no sufficient Testimony to acquit it unlesse they wil affirm that there can be no circular Proof where the Object of the things mutually proved are divers which if they universally affirm as without an Universal Affirmation in this kind there can be no Proof we shal as easily impeach this Affirmation of open Falshood as their form of Argument of circular Fallacie For wheresoever any thing uncertain to us is inferred by another thing alike uncertain and that other only proved by the former there is a circular Proof albeit we should by this form of Argument seek to prove one thing by another whose object was quite contrary to the former Nay although we should prove the very diversity or contrariety of the Objects in two several terms proposed by this or the like circular Form yet were our Proof naught albeit this same diversity of Objects might be proved by some other lawful Form of Argument For the diversity or Identity of Objects in syllogistical terms is meerly accidental to the nature of circular Proof or inference of idem per idem 18 To fit our Adversaries with a familiar Example every way parallel to their own Resolution in this point if they wil acknowledge their own Valentians Resolution for their own but more plain and easie to the Capacitie of the unlearned Reader Suppose some ambitious Captain or Courtier for whose Integrity no man of place would promise much should bring unto our King or some States-man in this land some forrain Princes as the renowned King of Denmarks Letters commendatory for his great sufficiencie in good place in War or State I would request but any ordinary Reader wel to consider what matter of resolution it would be if with reverence I may suppose that either his Majestie or any States-man in this land in the bestowing of any such place of worth as this supposed messenger would sue for might thus resolve Surely the King of Denmark is a renowned religious Prince and one that wisheth exceeding wel unto our King and State and whatsoever he should write in any mans commendations for his advancement to such a place as this party makes suit for I dare not once cal in question lest I should seem to disparage his Princely word but how shal I know that these are his Letters and no counterfeit If thus he should doubt and yet finally rest content with this or like suggestion why doth not he say they are his true Letters whose Fidelity and Integritie the King in his Letters commends no man in the world I think of any ordinary experience although he had never traverst the Schools to know the meaning of a circular proof but could perceive this resolution to be but dolus circulatorius and he that would be cozened with this or the like by any Traveller of what fashion soever may easily be circumvented by any domestick Pedlar or circumforaneal Copes-mate Yet is this resolution in every point the self same with Valentians resolution concerning the Roman Churches Infallibility and the Exception which here he brings why this resolution of his is none may altogether as directly and fitly be brought to shew that this supposed resolution is no circular resolution First let us parallel the several parts of both resolutions In that resolution of Faith which Falentian brings All Christians Believe that whatsoever God saith is true and so in this other resolution it is supposed that his Majestie or any of his States-men firmly Believes that whatsoever the King of Denmark writes or avoucheth in matters of this nature as of civil Integritie and Sufficiency for the discharge of such an Office is altogether true and may not be suspected yet may they suspect whether he wrote thus much in this mans commendations as these Letters import or no. And so saith Valentian and other Papists all Christians may suspect certain they cannot be whether God wrote those looks which we call Scripture or no. The Assurance which Christians in matters concerning Faith and States-men in this present case could have for their security is altogether the same For the States-man hath no other reason to perswade himself that these are the King of Denmarks Letters but only the Report Asseveration or Testimony of this Messenger whose preferment they concern And so likewise by the Papists Positions no private Christian can have any other certain Assurance that these Scriptures are the Word of God but only the Testimonie or Confirmation of the present Romish Church whose state and dignity they likewise seek to maintain by countenance of the Scriptures whose mis-interpretation did either first occasion or not hinder her rising to that height of temporal Dignity which she now enjoyes Thus finally it appears that all the reason or ground of Belief which any Papist following the Jesuites for their Instructors can have must be the Infallibility of the Romish Church whose Infallibility therefore cannot be proved out of Scripture because the Scriptures by their Positions cannot be infallibly proved to be Scriptures or that authentick Word which only can afford sure Proof in matters of Faith but by this their Churches supposed Authority As for Valentians Exception concerning the divers Object of the Churches Proposal and the Divine Revelations by it proposed the self same Diversity of Object may be observed in the former instance of the counterfeit Messenger whose resolution in effect is thus You must Believe these Letters because I commend them unto you in the King of Denmarks name and you must Believe me in commending them unto you because the King of Denmark whose words you trust in them commends my trust and sidelity To apply Valentians Exception to this resolution As the Object of that the Church proposeth or rather of the Churches Proposal is the Divine Revelation so likewise is the Object of this counterfeits Proposal the often mentioned Kings supposed commendation of him Again as the object of the âivine Revelation is the Truth Believed Veritas credita ut Deum esse trinum unum aut propositionem Ecclesiae esse in fallibilem as that there is a Trinity in the Godhead or the Churches Proposal is infallible So likewise the Object of the Kings commendation in the other instance is the Truth Believed or that
severe unpartial execution of known Lawes might easily restrain usually eclipse or hide it from us Such as are not so Eagle-sighted as to behold the brightnesse of every Divine Truth in it proper Sphere might yet safely behold the reflexion of it in one part or other of the sacred Fountain were it not troubled with the muddy conceipts of unsetled and unquiet Frains or were not such men oftentimes in great places as minding nothing but earthly things alwayes mingle filth and clay with the Chrystal-streams of the Water of Life Happie is that man of God that in this turbulent Age can in points of greatest moment see the Divine Truth himself small hope have any of causing others to see it whilest carnal mindes may every where without fear of Punishment but not without terrour of such Ecclesiastick Power as shall controul them foam out their own shame and overcast the face of Heaven whence Light should come unto their Souls with blasphemous unhallowed Breath whilest dunghill-Sinks may be suffered to evaporate the abundance of that inward Filth which is lodged in their hearts as it were of purpose to choak the good Spirit of God whilest it seeks to breath in others Mouthes whose Breasts it hath inspired with Grace 14 In brief lest my Adversary should challenge me of Partialitie As the Means which our Church from Gods Word prescribes for establishing mens hearts in the Unity of true Faith were the execution of known Lawes any way correspondent might as is said infallibly effect what the Papists falsely pretend so in truth it cannot without Hypocrisie be dissembled that whiles our Practise is so dissonant to our Doctrine and our Publick Discipline so loose though in detestation of their Errours we have turned our backs upon them with Protestation to follow a contrary Rule yet for the most part we jump with them at the journeys end To omit more finall agreements of our Contrarieties elsewhere shewed They wholly permit the Keyes of the Well of Life to ones mans hands who for his own advantage we may be sure will lock it up so close as none shall look upon it but with Spectacles of his making For as the Head is such we must expect the Eyes will be if the one the other must be universall too such as will leave nothing to be seen by private or particular eyes but what they have seen before or in one word if we admit one absolute visible Head his must be the onely Eyes of the Church We not through default of publick Constitutions nor so much by connivence of Ecclesiastick Magistrates as by presumptuous disobedience of Inferiours are so far from committing the custodie of this Sacred Fountain into one or few mens hands that the Flock for the most part never expect the Pastors marshalling but rushing into it without order trample in it with unclean feet If any Beam of Truth have found entrance into one of their Souls though quickly eclipsed or smothered by earthly cogitations he straight-way presumes Gods Word more plentifully dwels in him then in all his Teachers whence if his Purse be strong it is with him as with an Horse when Provender pricks him he kicks against all Ecclesiastick Authority and spurns at his poor Overseer that should feed him like the wanton Asse in the Fable that seeing the Moon lately shining where she was drinking suddenly covered with a cloud upon imagination she had drunk it up ran winsing out ere her thirst was quenched and threw her Rider 15 Thrice happie is that Land and State where Civil Policie and Spiritual Wisdom grave Experience and profound Learning in whose right Commixture consists the perfect Temperature of every Christian State do rightly symbolize These where they mutually clasp in their Extreams without intermedling in the Essence of each others Profession are like the Side-postes or Arches in the Lords House and the awfull respect of Christ Jesus the Judge of both and that dreadfull Day continually sounding in their ears by the voice of Gods faithfull and sincere Ministers would be as the Binding-stone or Coupling to fasten them surely in the joyning But whilest these each jealous of other start asunder that Breach is made whereat the Enemies of the Church and State hope for speedy entrance to the utter ruine of both CAP. XXXII Brieflie Collecting the Summe of this second Book 1 TO draw a brief Map of these large Disputes As the Occasions that breed so the right Means to avoid all Contentions and Schismes are most perspicuously set down in Scriptures Amongst others most necessary for this purpose for the plantation increase and strength of true and lively Faith sincere Obedience to Spiritual Authoritie is the chief For more willing and chearful performance hereof Choice should be made of Pastors or Overseers qualified as Scripture requires men of so high a Calling should be men not given to Quarrels or strife men of mild and lowlie Spirits fearing God and hating Covetousnesse men esteeming the hidden treasure of a good Conscience at so high a rate as neither Fear of man nor Hopes of any Worldly favour can move them to hazard or adventure it Were these Rules by such as have the oversight of Gods Flock as faithfully practised as they are by Scripture plainly taught the knowledg of Gods Word should daily encrease Piety Devotion and Christian Charitie continually flourish all Strife and Dissention quickly fade 2 But if through the default of Princes or Potentates no fit choice be made of spiritual Governours if by their negligence worse be made of inferiour Ministers the cause comes not by devolution to be reformed by the Congregation What then must they be altogether silent at such abuse No the Scripture hath given as plain a Rule for their imployment as for the others The more or more often Higher Powers offend the more fervently frequent should the lower Sort be in pouring out supplications prayers and intercessions for Kings and for all that are in Authority that they may Rule according to Gods Word In the mean time albeit they Rule otherwise Inferiours should consider that GOD gives them such Superiours for their pronenesse to disobedience scurrilitie scoffing at lawfull Authoritie or other like sins expresly forbidden by his Word To every People as well as Israel he gives such Rulers in his wrath as shall not seek them but theirs not his Glory in their salvation but their own Glory by their harm 3 But as the Tongues of Inferiours must be tied from scoffing or jesting at men in Authorities bad proceedings so must not the Word of God be bound If their Consciences rightly and unpartially examined direct them otherwise then their Governours command they must notwithstanding their Superiours checks speak as they think until Death command them silence if for the freedom of their Speech upon good warrant of Conscience they be punished Vengeance is Gods he will repay Superiours for it unto whose lawfull Authority whilest Obedience is denied upon
sinister Pretences or humorous though strong Perswasions of Conscience counselling us to the contrary our Punishment in this life is just whose present smart should teach us to beware of far more grievous in the life to come But whether offend or swerve more from the Rules of Scripture prescribed for their several Christian Carriage Superiours in commanding wrongfully or Inferiours in disobeying just commands cannot oft-times if we speak of particular Actions be infallibly known in this life but must be referred unto that day of Final Judgement The dread of which should in the mean time inforce every Superiour daily to consult his own Heart and strictly to examine his Conscience whether it be not likely then to give Evidence against him for imposing too heavy burthens upon his Inferiours And so must every Inferiour again use the like diligence in the daily examination of his Conscience whether it be likely or no to convince him before the Judge of quick and dead of Disobedience to such as he had set in Authority over him or of such sinister Pretences for using the Libertie of Conscience as Conscience it self never sought after but were suggested onely by Humour Popularitie or other Desires whose maintenance have either inforced him to obey Man against God or not to obey Man commanding for God 4 Our Partialitie it is towards our selves or rather to our sensual delights or pleasures that makes us so ignorant in all things which concern our Weal For would we truly and unpartiallie Judge our selves we should not be judged Not the best experienced Justice in this Land can by examining ordinarie Malefactors discern what issue their Cause shall have before an unpartiall Judge better then we by this strict pre-examination might foresee what finall Sentence were prepared for us good or bad according to the diversitie of our Actions and Course of Life To this end hath Christ left every mans Conscience in full Authoritie during his absence to examine reprove convince and sentence the desires of his own heart of which would we daily in sobriety of Spirit and fear of his last Judgement ask counsel and patiently expect Gods Providence we should by this ordinary Means discern who commanded aright who otherwise as clearly as others heretofore have done by Means most extraordinary For even the most extraordinary miracles did ascertain the Ancient of Divine Truth and confirme them in the practise of Christian Obedience not immediately as part of their Rule of Faith whereon finally to relie but by enforcing them to look into their own Souls and Consciences in which Truth was already written if they had urged it to confession If our examination without Miracles were as strict our Beliefe would be as firm Spiritual Governours commands as Christian-like and Inferiours Obedience in all points as sincere as was theirs 5 For Conclusion I would give the Christian Reader a present Antidote against all the poisonous inchantments of Romish Sorcerers The Medicine is very brief and easie onely to think every morning next his heart or at other seasonable hours That there is a Divine Providence in this life to guide us and after this life ended a fearful judgement to passe upon all such as here abjuring the Guidance of it follow either the Wayes of flesh and blood in breeding or of carnal Wisdom in composing strife and dissention about matters Spiritual He that will seriously ruminate on these matters in his vacant well composed thoughts calling the Adversaries Arguments home to the Point which they must touch ere they can wound us let me have onely his dying curse in recompence of all my pains if any Difficulty any Jesuite or other learned Papist either hitherto hath or ever shall be able to bring do trouble his mind Whatsoever can be brought either to countenance their unchristian Doctrine or disparage our Orthodoxal Assertions either presuppose a secret denial of Gods peculiar Providence and inward calling of men or else proceed from want of consideration that there is a final Judgement wherein all Controversies must be taken up all Contentious and rebellious Spirits punisht according to their deserts Indeed if the Authors or Abetters of Schisme and Heresie might escape for ever unpunished or Christian Modestie and Humilitie be perpetually over-born by Impudencie Scurrilitie and violent Insolencie the Inconveniences objected by the Romanists might as much trouble us as the wickeds thriving did the Heathen that knew not God nor his Providence But whilest we acknowledge him and It the best Arguments our Antagonists bring wil appear as improbable as they are impious TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in God and my Honourable Lord WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord Bishop of DURHAM Grace and Peace be multiplied RIght Reverend Father the sweet refreshing your Honourable Favours did yield to such of my labours as hitherto enjoy the light when a suddain uncomfortable blast had sorely nipt them in the very setting makes these last gatherings of that spring seek that comfortable warmth under your benigne Protection which the unconstant frowning season would hardly afford them in their growth Besides these and other my personal Obligements that Famous and worthy Founder of this Attick Bee-hive of whose sweetness would God I had been as capable as I have been long partaker had never allotted any Cell therein for me or other Countryman of mine but with particular relation to that seat of dignity which he sometimes did ââ¦r Lordship now doth and to the encrease of Gods gloâ⦠good of his Church long may enjoy Seeing this our â⦠Foster-Father is now ignorant of his childrens deâ⦠and knows not me it shall be my comfort to have â⦠honourable successors witnesses of my care and industry to fulfil his godly desire whose religious soul in his life time as his written Laws do testifie did detest nothing more then idleness in the Ministry specially in his adopted-Sons The matters I here present unto your Lordships and the worlds view are sometimes in themselves so harsh and hard to be concocted as he that would strive to make them toothsome unto nice tastes should put himself to excessive pains unless his judgement be much riper his wit readier his invention pleasanter his opportunities better and his leisure greater then mine are But it is one and the same point of judgement not to require exact Mathematical proofs in discourses of mortality or a smooth facile Rhetorical stile in Logical or Scholastick conflicts And as by the Statutes of that Society wherein I live I am bound to avoid barbarisme so my particular inclination moves me in controversies especially to approve his choise that said Fortia mallem quam formosa If any professed enemy to the truth we teach will answer me from point to point or attempt not as their custom now is onely in scoffing sort but seriously to avert those unsupportable but deserved imputations I lay upon the foundation of his Religion I shall I trust be able to answer him the better by
their Churches absolute priviledge from all error and That other of Christs real presence in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation It cannot again but add much to our grief and indignation if we call to mind how when the chief Governor and publick authority of this land were for them subscription was not urged upon such violent and bloudy terms unto any articles of their Religion as unto that of Real presence The mystery of which iniquity cannot better be resolved then into the powerful and deceitful working of Satan thus delighting to despight our Lord and Saviour by seducing his professed subjects unto the highest and most desperate kind of rebellion he could imagine upon the least occasions and shallowest reasons For such is their madness in that other point as hath been shewed in this Not one inconvenience they can object to our opinion but may be demonstrated against theirs not any fruits of Godliness they can pretend but our doctrine more directly brings forth then theirs could though we did admit it for true For to what other purpose such a Presence as they imagin should serve them save only to countenance those desperate idolatrous practices and Litourgies of Satan touched by the way in some parts of these discourses is inexplicable as shall be shewed more at large without depriving that heavenly mystery of any solemnity or devotion due unto it in the unfolding of that controversie Yours in Christ Jesus THOMAS JACKSON A Table of the Several Sections and Chapters in the Book following SECTION I. CAP. I. Containing the Assertions of the Romish Church whence her three-fold Blaspemie springs Page 309 SECT II. The first branch of Romish Blasphemie in preferring Human authority before Divine 315 2. Bellarmines replie to the main Objection joyntly urged by all Reformed Churches against the Romish the Equivocation which he sought in the Objection apparently found in his Replie 316 3. Inferring the general conclusion proposed in the Title of this Section from Bellarmins resolution of faith 319 4 Containing a further resolution of the Romish faith necessarily inferring the authority of the Roman Church to be of greater authority then Gods word absolutely not only in respect of us 324 5 That in obeying the Romish Churches Decrees we do not obey Gods word as well as them but them alone in contempt of Gods principal Lawes 327 6 Propounding what possibly can be said on our adversaries behalf for avoiding the force of the former Arguments shewing withall the special points that lie upon them to prove as principally whether their Belief of the Churches authority can be resolved into any Divine testimony 339 7 That neither our Saviours Prayers for the not failing of Peters faith Luke 22. 32. nor his commending his sheep unto his feeding Joh. 21. 15. prove any Supremacy in Peter over the Church from which the authority of the Pope can with probability be derived 31 8 That Christ not S. Peter is the Rock spoken of Matth. 16. 18. That the Jesuites exposition of that place demonstrateth the Pope to be The great Antichrist 347 9 That the Romanists Belief of the Churches infallible authority cannot be resolved into any Testimony better then Human whence the main Conclusion immediately follows That the Romanist in obeying the Church-decrees without examination of them by Gods word prefers mans Lawes before Gods 365 10 In what sence the Jesuites may truly denie They Believe the words of man better then the words of God In what sence again our Writers truly charge them with this Blasphemie 373 SECT III. 11 What restraint precepts for obedience unto the Priests of the Law though seeming most universal for their form did necessarily admit How universal Propositions of Scriptures are to be limited 376 12 The authority of the Sanhedrim not so universal or absolute amongst the Jewes as the Papists make it but was to be limited by the former Rules 385 13 That our Saviours injunction of obedience to the Scribes and Pharisees though most universal for the form is to be limited by the former Rules that without open blasphemie it cannot be extended to countenance the Romish cause that by it we may limit other places brought by them for the Popes transcendent universal authority 391 14 What it would disadvantage the Romish Church to denie the infallibility of the Synagogue 398 15 That justly it may be presumed the Iewish Church never had any absolute infallibility in proposing or determining Articles of Faith because in our Saviours time it did so grievously erre in the Fundamental point of salvation 400 16 That Moses had no such absolute authority as is now ascribed unto the Pope that the manner of his attaining to such as he had excludes all besides our Saviour from just challenge of the like 405 CAP. 17. That the Churches authority was no part of the rule of Faith unto the people after Moses death That by Experiments answerable unto the precepts and predictions the faithful without relying upon the Priests infallible proposals were as certain both of the divine truth and true meaning of the law as their forefathers had been that lived with Moses and saw his miracles Page 411 18 That the societie or visible company of Prophets had no such absolute authority as the Romish Church usurps 417 19 That the Church representative amongst the Jews was for the most part the most corrupt judge of matters belonging to God and the reason why it was so 422 20 That the Soveraignty given by Jesuites to the Pope is greater then our Saviours was 427 21 Confirming the truth delivered in the former Chapter from the very Law given by Moses for discerning the great Prophet further exemplifying the use and force of miracles for begetting faith The manner of trying prophesies Of the similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 434 22 That the method used by the great Prophet himself after his resurrection for planting faith was such as we teach The excesse of Antichrists exaltation above Christ The Diametral opposition betwixt the Spirit of God and the spirit of the Papacie 449 23 That the authority attributed to the present Pope and the Romish rule of faith were altogether unknown unto S. Peter the opposition betwixt S. Peters and his pretended successors doctrine 452 24 That S. Paul submitted his doctrine to examination by the Word before written That his doctrine dissposition and practise were quite contrary to the Romanists in this argument 456 25 A brief tast of our Adversaries blasphemous and Atheistical assertions in this argument from some instances of two of their greatest Doctors Bellarmin and Valentian That if faith cannot be perfect without the solemn testification of that Church the raritie of such testifications will cause infidelitie 460 SECT IIII. Containing the third branch of Romish Blasphemie or the last degree of great Antichrists exaltation utterly overthrowing the whole foundation of Christian Religion preposterously inverting both Law and Gospel to Gods dishonour and advancement of Sathans Kingdom 464 26
The âesuits unwillingnesse to acknowledge the Churches proposal for the True Cause of his faith Of differences and agreements about the final Resolution of faith either amongst the adversaries themselves or betwixt us and them 464 27 That the Churches proposal is the true immediate and prime cause of all absolute Belief my Romanist can have concerning any determinate divine revelation 468 28 Discovering either the grosse ignorance or notorious craft of the Iesuite in denying his faith is finally resolved into the Churches veracitie or infallibility that possibly it cannot be resolved into any branch of the First Truth 471 29 What manner of causal dependance Romish belief hath on the Church that the Romanist truely and properly believes the Church onely not God or his Word 478 30 Declaring how the first main ground of Romish faith leads directly unto Atheisâ the second unto preposterous Heathenism or Idolatry 484 31 Proving the last assertion or generally the imputations laid upon the Papacie by that authority the âesuites expreslie give unto the Pope in matters of particular Fact as in the Canonizing of Saints 495 32 What danger by this blasphemous doctrine may accrew to Christian States that of all heresies blasphemies or idolatries which have been since the world began or can be imagined ãâã Christ come to judgement this Apostasie of the Iesuites is the most abominable and conââ¦ous against the blessed Trinity 499 BLASPHEMOUS POSITIONS OF JESUITES And other Later ROMANISTS Concerning the Authority of their CHURCH The Third Book of Comments upon the CREED SECT I. Containing the Assertions of the Romish Church whence her threefold Blasphemy springs HAving in the former dispute clearly acquitted as well Gods Word for breeding as our Church from nursing Contentions Schisms and Heresies we may in this by course of common equity more freely accuse their injurious calumniators And because our purpose is not to charge them with forgery of any particular though grossest Heresies or Blasphemies though most hideous but for erecting an Intire Frame capacious of all Villanies imaginable far surpassing the Hugest Mathematical Form human fancy could have conceived of such matters but only from inspection of this real and material patern which by degrees insensible hath grown up with the Mysterie of Iniquity as the Bark doth with the Tree Such inconsiderate passionate speeches as heat of contention in personal quarrels hath extracted from some one or few of their private Writers shall not be produced to give evidence against the Church their Mother whose trial shall be as far as may be by her Peers either by her own publick determinations in this controversie or joynt consent of her authorized best approved Advocates in opening the Title or unfolding the contents of that Prerogative which they challenge for her 2 Our accusations are grounded upon their Positions before set down when we explicated the differences betwixt us The Position in brief is This That the infallible authority of the present Church is the most sure most safe undoubted rule in all doubts or controversies of faith or in all points concerning the Oracles of God by which we may certainly know both without which we cannot possibly know either which are the Oracles of God which not or what is the true sense and meaning of such as are received for his Oracles whether written or unwritten 3 The extent of divine Oracles or number of Canonical books hath been as our Adversaries pretend very questionable amongst the Ancient though such of the Fathers as for their skil in antiquity were in all unpartial judgments most competent Judges in this cause were altogether for us against the Romanists and such as were for their opinion were but for it upon an errour as thinking the Jews had acknowledged all those books of the old Testament for Canonical Scripture which the Churches wherein they lived received for such or that the Christian Church did acknowledg all for Canonical which they allowed to be publickly read Safe it was our adversaries cannot deny for the Ancient to dissent one from another in this question or to suspend their assent till new probabilities might sway them one way or other No reasons have been produced since sufficient to move any ingenious mind unto more peremptory resolutions yet doth the Councel of Trent bind all to an absolute acknowledgement of those Books for Canonical which by their own confession were rejected by S. Hierom and other Fathers If any shall not receive the whole Books with all their parts usually read in the Church and as they are extant in the old vulgar for sacred and Canonical Let him be accursed So are all by the same decree that wil not acknowledg such unwritten traditions as the Romish Church pretends to have come from Christ and his Apostles for divine and of authority equal with the written word 4 So generally is this opinion received so fully believed in that Church That many of her Sons even whilest they write against us forgetting with whom they have to deal take it as granted That the Scriptures cannot be known to be Gods word but by the Infallible authority of the present Church And from this supposition as from a truth sufficiently known though never proved they labour in the next place to infer That without submission of our faith to the Churches publick spirit we cannot infallibly distinguish the orthodoxal or divine sense of Gods Oracles whether written or unwritten from heretical or human 5 Should we admit written Traditions and the Church withal as absolute Judge to determin which are Apostolical which not little would it boot us to question with them about their meaning For when the point should come to trial we might be sure to have the very words framed to whatsoever sense should be most favourable for justifying Romish practises And even of Gods written Oracles whose words or characters as he in his wisdom hath provided cannot now be altered by an Index Expurgatorius at their pleasure That such a sense as shall be most serviceable for their Turn may as time shall minister occasion be more commodiously gathered the Trent Fathers immediately after the former decree for establishing unwritten Traditions and amplifying the extent of divine written Oracles have in great wisdom authorized the old and vulgar translation of the whole Canon Which though it were not purposely framed to maintain Popery as some of our writers say they have as frivolously as maliciously objected yet certainly as well the escapes and errors of those unskilful or ill-furnished interpreters as the negligence of transcribers or other defects incident to that work from the simplicitie of most ancient the injuries or calamities of insuing times were amongst others as the first heads or petty springs of that raging sloud of impiety which had well nigh drowned the whole Christian world in perdition by continually receiving into its chanel once thus wrought the dregs and filth of every other error under heaven
given in Heaven and in earth hath got an interest in the chief Kingdoms of the World disposing such as he can best spare or worst manage to any potent Prince that wil fall down and worship him and his copartner the Prince of darknesse who of late years have almost shared the whole World betwixt them the one ruling over insidels the other over professed Christians And seeing the Pope because his pomp and dignity must be maintained by Worldly wealth and revenews dares not part with the propriety of so many Kingdoms at once as Satan who only looks for honour profered he hath found out a trick to supply his wants for purchasing like honour and worship by his office of keeping S. Peters keys if earthly Provinces or Dominions fail him Gods Word his sons bloud and body all shal be set to sale at this price Fall down and worship him For no man we may rest assured no Nation or Kingdom whom he can hinder shal ever taste of the Lords Cup unlesse they wil first acknowledge lawful authority in him to grant deny or dispose of it at his pleasure which is an homage wherewith the Devil is more delighted then if we did acknowledge him Supream Lord of all the Kingdoms of the Earth for that were as much lesse prejudicial to Christs prerogative royal as a damage in possession or goods would be to a personal disgrace or some foul maim or deformity wrought upon a Princes body CAP. VI. Propounding what possibly can be said on our adversaries behalf for avoiding the force of the former arguments and shewing withal the special points that lie upon them to prove as principally whether their Belief of the Churches authority can be resolved into any divine Testimony 1 UNto all the difficulties hitherto proposed I can rather wish some learned Priest or Jesuite would then hope any such ever wil directly answer point by point For the Readers better satisfaction I wil first briefly set down what possibly can be said on their behalf and after a disclosure of their last secret refuge draw forth thence the dead and putrified darknesse of Romish faith which unto the ignorant and superstitious that cannot uncover the holes and clefts wherein these impostors upon every search are wont to hide it may yet seem to live and breath as the Fable went of S. John the Evangelists body after many years reposal in the grave or as the blinded Jews to this day brag the scepter of Judah yet flourisheth beyond Babylon in Media or some unknown part of India whither no European is likely to resort for a disproval of his relation 2 Unto the Demonstrative Evidences as wel of their error in expounding Scriptures pretended for as of other Scriptures rightly alledged by us against their former or like Decrees they wil be ready to oppose what Bellarmin hath done That the Church must judge of Scriptures Evidence and private errours in expounding it not private men of the Churches expositions Unto the objected dreadful consequences of their decrees could these possibly be erroneous they would regest disobedience to the Church that to disobey it is to disobey God Father Son and Holy Ghost a sin as hainous as mangling of Christs Last Will and Testament as Idolatry On the contrary to obey the Church even in her negative decrees and naked decisions unguarded with any pretence of Scripture much more where this loving Mother for the education of her children wil vouchsafe what she need not to alledge some clause or sentence of Holy writ we obey not the Church only but Gods Word also though not in those particular places which in our judgements either contradict the former or like decrees or else make nothing at all for them yet in texts produced for the Churches transcendent general authority As he that adores the consecrated host in procession because his holy Mother commands him so to do or accounts want of Christs bloud no losse because denied him by her authority although unto private spirits he may seem to contradict that Law Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve doth yet sincerely obey the Holy Ghost and rightly observe the true sence and meaning of these his dictates Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith should not fail Peter feed my sheep Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church From these places once firmly believing the Church possibly cannot erre he must not question whether the the practises by it injoyned contradict the former laws both being delivered by the holy spirit who cannot contradict himself This I take it is the sum of all the most learned of our adversaries can or would reply unto the former difficulties Not to draw faster but rather remitting the former Bonds wherein they have inextricably intangled themselves by their circular progresse in their resolution of faith admit their late doctrine left any possibility of knowing Scriptures acknowledged by both to be Gods word or of distinguishing humane testimonies written or unwritten from divine The present question we may draw with their free consent unto this issue whether their belief of the Churches infallible authority undoubtedly established as they pretend in the fore-cited places can be truly resolved into any branch of the First Truth or into humane testimonies only If into the later only the case is clear that absolutely obeying the Romish Church in the former or like decrees which her authority set aside to all or most mens consciences would seem to contradict Gods principal laws we believe and in believing obey men more then God humane authorities laws or testimonies more then divine 4 The strength or feeblenesse of Roman faith wil best appear if we try it in any one of these joynts Whether by Divine testimony it can be proved that S. Peter had such an universal infallible absolute authority as these men attribute unto the Pope Whether by like infallible testimony it can be proved the Popes from time to time without exception were Peters undoubted successours heirs apparant to all the preheminencies or prerogatives he injoyed Whether either the soveraignty or universality of their authority supposed probable in it self or to themselves or particular injunctions derived from it can be so fully notified to all Christians as they need not question whether in yielding obedience to decrees of like consequences as were the former they do not grievously disobey Gods Word For though the Popes themselves might know this truth by Divine revelation or otherwise their internal assurance unlesse generally communicable by divine testimonies could be no warant unto others for undertaking matters of fearful consequences whereof they doubt not only out of secret instinct or grudging of their consciences but from an apprehension of opposition betwixt the very forms of laws papal and divine 5 First it is improbable that he to whom our Saviour said If thy brother trespasse against thee dic Ecclesiae
and feeling of his goodnesse and truth of his word 7 Though no Law-giver or Governour whether temporal or spiritual especially whose calling was but ordinary could possibly before or since so well deserve of the people committed to his guidance as this great General already had done of all the host of Israel were they upon this consideration forthwith to believe what soever he should avouch without further examination sign or token of his favour with God without assured experience or at the least more then probable presumptions of his continual faithfulnesse in that service whereunto they knew him appointed Albeit after all the mighty works before mentioned wrought in their presence they had been bound thereunto the meanest handmaid in that multitude had infallible pledges plenty of his extraordinary calling lockt up in her own unerring senses But from the strange yet frequent manifestation of Moses power and favour with God so great as none besides the great Prophet whom he prefigured might challenge the like the Lord in his al-seeing wisdom took fit occasion to allure his people unto strict observance of what he afterwards solemnly enacted as also in them to forwarn all future generations without express warrant of his word not absolutely to believe any governour whomsoever in al though of tried skil and fidelity in many principal points of his service That passage of Scripture wherein the manner of this peoples stipulation is registred wel deserves an exact survey of all especially of these circumstances How the Lord by rehearsal of his mighty works so epassed extorts their promise to do whatsoever should by Moses be commanded them and yet will not accept it offered until he have made them ear-witnesses of his familiarity and communication with him First out of the Mount he called Moses unto him to deliver this solemn message unto the house of Jacob Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you upon âagles wings and have brought you unto me Now therefore if you will hear my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be my chief treasure above all people though all the earth be mine After Moses had reported unto God this answer freely uttered with joynt consent of all the people solemnly assembled before their Elders All that the Lord commanded we will do was the whole businesse betwixt God and them fully transacted by this Agent in their obsence No he is sent back to sanctifie the people that they might expect Gods glorious appearance in Mount Sinai to ratifie what he had said upon the return of their answer Lo I come unto thee in a thick cloud that the people may hear whilest I talk with thee and that they may also believe thee for ever They did not believe that God had revealed his word to Moses for the wonders he had wrought but rather that his wonders were from Gâd because they heard God speak to him yea to themselves For their principal and fundamental lawes were uttered by God himself in their hearing ãâã Moses expresseth These words to wit the Decalogue the Lord spake unto â⦠ãâã âulââtude in the âouât out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the ãâã with a great voice and addâd no more And lest the words which they had heard might soon be smothered in fleshly hearts or quickly slide oââ of their brittle memories the Lord wrote them in two Tables of stone and at their transcription not âoses onely but Aaron Nadaâ and Aâthâ with the seventy Elders of Israel are made spectators of the Divine glory ravished with the sweetnesse of his presence â They saw saith the Text thâ⦠of Isrââl and unâer his feet as it were a work of a Saphire stone and as the ãâã hâaâân when it is clear And upon the Nobles of the children of Israel âe ãâã his ãâã also they saw God and did eat and drink After these Tables through Aââsâs anger at the peoples folly and impiety were broken God writes the ãâã same words again and renews his Covenant before all the people promising undoubted experience of his Divine assistance 8 Doth Moses after all this call fire from heaven upon all such as distrâât his words âaron and Mâriam openly derogate from his authority which the Lord consirmes again viva voce descending in the â pillar of the ãâã coââ¦ng these dâtractors in the doore of the Yabeââacce Wherefore were you ãâã aâraid to spâak against my servant even against Moses Thââs the Lord was ãâã aâgââe and depaâtâd leaving his mark upon Miriam cured of her leprosie by Moses instant prayers No marvell if Korah Dathan and ââirams judgements were so grievous when their sin against Moses after so many documents of his high calling could not but be wilfull as their perseverance in it after so many admonitions to desist most malitious and obstinate Yet was Mâsâs further countenanced by the appearance of Gods glory unto all the Congregation and his authority further ratified by the strange and fearfull end of these chief malefactors â foretold by him and by fire iâluing from the Lord to consume their confederates in offering incense ungratefull to their God Tantae molis erat Judaeam condere gentem So long and great a work it was to ââ¦ie Israel in true faith But without any like miracle or prediction such as never saw him never heard good of him must believe the Pope as well as Israel did their Law-giver that could make the Sea to grant him passage the clouds send bread the windes bring flesh and the hard rock yeeld drink sufficient for him and all his mighty host that could thus call the heavens as witnesses to condemn and appoint the earth as executioner of his judgements upon the obstinate and rebellious yet after all this he inflicts no such punishments upon the doubtfull in faith as the Romish Church doth but rather as is evident out of the places before alledged confirms them by commemoration of these late cited and like Experiments making â God 's favours past the surest pledges of his assistance in greatest difficulties that could beset them To conclude this people believed Moses for Godâ testimony of him we may not believe Gods Word without the Popes testimony of it He must be to God as Aaron was to Moses his mouth whereby he onely speaks distinctly or intelligibly to his people CAP. XVII That the Churches authority was no part of the rule of faith unto the people after Moses death That by Experiments answerable to his precepts and predictions the faithfull without relying upon the Priests infallible proposals were as certain both of the divine truth and true meaning of the Law as their fore-fathers had been that lived with Moses and saw his miracles 1 TO proceed unto the ages following Moses How did they know Moses law either indeed to be Gods Word or the true sence and meaning of it being indefinitely known
dealt far otherwise with us 7 But doth this defect of faith in him convince the Law of imperfection rather the object of his distrust might have taught him to have believed the perfection of Moses Law which had so often forewarned them of such oppression by their enemies when they forsook the God of their fathers These forewarnings had Gideon believed aright he had not distrusted the Angels exhortation What was the reason then of his misbelieving or rather overseeing that part of the law Not ignorance of Gods word in general for the miracles related by Moses he had in perfect memory What then want of sufficient authority to propose unto him these particular revelations or their true meaning This is all the Romanist can pretend Yet what greater authority could he require then that Angel had which spake unto Gideon Our Apostle supposeth any Angels proposal of divine Doctrines to be at the least equivalent to Apostolical Though we saith he whether Paul or Cephas or which he supposeth to be more an Angel from heaven preach unto you otherwise then we have preached unto you let him be accursed Or if we respect not onely the personal authority of the proposer but with it the manner of proposing Gods word What proposal can we imagine more effectual then this great Angel of the Covenants replie unto Gideons distrustfull answer and the Lord looked upon him and said Go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel out of the hands of the Midianites have I not sent thee 8 Whether Gideons diffidence after all this were a sin I leave it to be disputed by the Jesuites A defect or dulnesse no doubt it was and onely in respect of the like in us they hold a necessity of the visible Churches infallibilitie unto whose sentence whosoever fully accords not is by their positions uncapable of all other infallible means of divine faith To pretend doubt or distrust of Gods Word once proposed by it yea to seek further satisfaction or resolution of doubts then it shall vouchsafe to give is more then a sin extreme impiety Yet had this great Angel stood upon his authority in such peremptory termes Gideon had died in his distrust For after a second replie made by Gideon Ah my Lord whereby shall I save Israel behold my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least in my fathers house and a further promise of the Angels assistance not like the former have I not sent thee but I wil therefore be with thee and thou shalt smite the Madianites as one man he yet prefers this petition I pray thee if I have found favour in thy sight then shew me a signe that thou talkest with me Depart not hence I pray thee until I come unto thee and bring mine offering and lay it before thee After he had by more evident documents fully perceived it was an Angel of the Lord that had parlied with him all this time erecting his dejected heart with these comfortable words Peace be with thee fear not thou shalt not die He yet demands two other signes before he adventures upon the Angels word But after it is once confirmed unto him by experience of his power in keeping his fleece drie in the middle of moisture and moistning it where was nothing but drinesse about it he is more confident upon a Souldiers dream then a Jesuite in like case would be upon the Popes sentence or blessing given ex Cathedra When Gideon heard the dream told and the interpretation of the same he worshipped and returned to the host of Israel and said Up for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian 9 Nor he nor his people could at any time have wanted like assurance of Gods might and deliverances had they according to the rule which Moses set them turned unto him with all their heart and with all their soul but as far were they as the Papists from admitting his words for their rule of faith The unwritten traditions of Baal were at the least of equal or joint authority with his writings and in deed and action though not in word and profession preferred before them Longer then their assent was by such miraculous victories as Gideon had now gotten over the Midianites as it were tied and fastned to the blessings and cursings of Moses law this stiff-necked generation did neither cleave to it nor to their God But when Gideon was dead they turned away and went a whoring after Baalim and made Baal-Berith their God and remembred not the Lord their God which had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side Miracles after the Law-given were usually either tokens of precedent unbelief or for signes to unbelievers serving especially to put them in mind of what Moses had foretold the attentive consideration of whose predictions wrought greater faith and confidencie in such as without miracles laid this law in their hearts then this people conceived upon the fresh memory of Gideons extraordinary signes and glorious victory 10 The like occasions of such distrust as were observed in Gideon were frequent in those times wherein the four and fourtieth Psalm was written yet the Authour of it is not so daunted with the oppression of his people as Gideon was The manifestation of such reproach contempt and scorn as Moses said should befall them did alwayes animate such as indeed had used the Law as a perpetuall rule to notifie the diversitie of all successe good or bad by the degrees of their declining from it or approach unto it The greater calamities they suffered the more undoubted Experience they had of divine truth contained in Mosaical threats the more undoubted their Experience of their truth upon consciousnesse of their own transgressions the greater motives they had upon sincere and hearty repentance to apprehend the stability of his sweetest promises for their good No depression of this people but served as a countersway to accelerate intend or enlarge the measure of their wonted exaltation so long as they rightly weighed all their actions and proceedings in Moses ballances equalizing their permanent sorrow for sins past unto their wonted delight in transient pleasures 11 Thus when Jeremy more admired then distrusted Gods mercies in tendering the purchase of his kinsmans sield to him close prisoner for denouncing the whole desolation of his Countrey when the Kings and Princes of Judah had no assurance of so much possession in the promised land as to inherit the sepulchres of their fathers the Lord expels not his suspensive rather then dissident admiration with signs and wonders as he had done Gideons doubt or his stiff-necked fore-fathers distrust By what means then by the present calamities which had seized upon the Cities of Judah and that very place wherein his late purchased inheritance lay When he cast these and the like doubts in his mind Behold the Mounts they are come into the City to
since to take universality as a sure note of the Church traditions and customs of the Elders for the rule of faith and which is the undoubted Conclusion of such premisses to follow a multitude to any mischief So mightily did the opinion of a major part being all men of the same profession sway with the superstitious people of those times that Ahabs Pursevant conceived hope of seducing Micaiah whilst they were on the way together by intimating such censures of schisme of heresie of peevishneââe or privacy of spirit as the false Catholick bestows on us likely to befal him if he should vary from the rest The best answer I think a Roman Catechism could affoord would be to repeat the conclusion which Bellarmin would have maintained All the rest besides were Baals Prophets They were indeed in such a sense as Jesuites and all seducers are but ãâã not by publick profession or solemn subscription to his rites as may partly appear by jehosaphats continuing his resolution to go up to battel against Micaiahs counsel which questionlesse he would rather have died at home then done had he known Micaiah only to have belonged unto the Lord and all his adversaries unto Baal partly by that reverent conceit which even the chief of these seducers entertained at that time of Elias whose utter disgrace Baals servants would by all means have sought for his late designs acted upon their fellows Yet as Josephus records the chief argument used by Zidkiah to diminish Micaiahs credit with both Kings was an appearance of contradiction betwixt his and Eliahs prediction of Ahabs death the accomplishment of both being apprehended as impossible lesse credit as he urged was to be given to Micaiah because so impudent as openly to contradict âo great a Prophet of the Lord as Elias at whose threatnings Ahab King of Israel trembled humbling himself with fasting cloathed in sackcloth And is it likely he would so shortly after entertain the professed servants of Baal for his Councellors yet seeing the event hath openly condemned them for seducers and none are left to plead their cause it is an easie matter for the Jesuite or others to say they were Baals Prophets by profession But were not most Prieâ⦠and Prophets in Judah and Benjamin usually such yes and as afterward shall appear did band as strongly with as joynt consent against Jeremy and Ezechiel as these did against Micaiah The point wherein we desire resolution is by what rule of Romish Catholick Divinity truth in those times might have been discerned from falshood before Gods judgements did light upon the City and Temple He is more blind then the blindest Jew that ever breathed who cannot see how such as professed themselves Priests and Prophets of the Lord as wel in Judah as in Israel did bewitch the people with the self same spels the Papist boasts of to this day as the best prop of his Catholick faith Yet such is the hypocrisie of these proud Pharisees that they can say in their hearts Oh had we lived in the dayes of Jezabel we would not have been her inquisitors against such Prophets as Elias and Micaiah were When as in truth Jezabels impiety towards them was clemency in respect of Romish crueltie against Gods Saints her witchcrafts but as venial sins if we compare them with Jesuitical sorceries But of this errour more directly in the Chapter following of their sorceries and impieties hereafter 3 Unto our former demand whether the society of Prophets were the Church representative whether the people were bound without examination to believe whatsoever was by a major part or such of that profession as ââre in highest or most publick place determined What answer a learned Papist would give I cannot tel Then this following better cannot be imagined on their behalf That this supream authority which they contend for was in the true Prophets only that they albeit inspired with divine illuminations and endued with such authority as the Jesuite makes the Popes âmana divinitas inspirata did notwithstanding permit their declarations for the hardnesse of this peoples heart to be tried by the event or examined by the law not that they wanted lawful power would they have stood upon their authority to exact belief without delay seeing readinesse to believe the truth proposed is alwayes commended in the sacred Story And no doubt but the people did wel in admitting the true Prophets doctrine before the false at the first proposal the sooner the better But were they therefore to believe the true Prophets absolutely without examination Why should they then believe one of that profession before another seeing seducers could propose their conceits with as great speed and peremptorinesse as the best Nor did reason only disswade but the law of God also expresly forbid that people alwayes and in all causes to trust such as upon trial had been found to divine aright of strange events Yet grant we must that hardnesse of heart made this people more backward then otherwise they would have been to believe truths proposed that oft-times they required signs from their Prophet when obedience was instantly due from them to him that oft-times they sinned in not assenting immediately without interposition of time for trial or respite to resolve upon what terms belief might be tendered Thus much we may grant with this limitation if we consider them absolutely or so wel disposed as they should and might have been not as the Prophets found them For in men inwardly ill affected or unqualified for true faith credulity comes nearer the nature of vice then vertue a disposition of disloyalty a degree of heresie or infidelity rather then a preparation to sincere obedience or any sure foundation of true and lively faith Assent perchance men so affected may more readily then others would unto sundry divine truths yet not truly not as they are divine and consonant to the rule of goodnesse but by accident in as much as they in part confort with some one or other of their affections And the more forward men are upon such grounds to believe some generalities of Christian duties the more prone they prove when opportunity tempts them to oppugn others more principal and more specially concerning their salvation For credulity if it spring not out of an honest disposition uniformly inclining unto goodnesse as Sucâ⦠from some unbridled humor or predominant natural affection will alwayeâ sway more unto some mischief then unto any thing that is good Many ãâã in Jesus saith Saint John when they saw his miracles It pleased them weâ⦠had turned water into wine That he had given other proofs of his power ãâã driving buyers and sellers out of the Temple did minister hope unto proud hearts he might prove such a Messias as they expected as elsewhere upon the like occasion they said â This is of a truth the Prophet that should come intâ the world The ground of this their aptnesse to believe thus
did his words give life unto his greatest works his Divinations were to his Miracles as his humane soul was to his body And no question but the conception of their Faith that heard him preach was as immediately from those words of eternal life which issued from his mouth as ours is from the Word preached by his Messengers To what other use then could miracles serve save onely to breed a praeviall admiration and make entrance for them into his hearers hearts though his bodily presence at all times was not yet were his usuall works in themselves truly glorious more then apt to dispell that veil of prejudice commonly taken against the meannesse of his person birth or parentage had it been meerly naturall not occasioned through wilfull neglect of extraordinary means precedent and stubborn opposition to present grace most plentifully offered His raising others from death to life was more then sufficient to remove that offence the people took at that speech If I were lift up from the earth I should draw all men unto me To which they answered We have heard out of the Law that the Christ bideth forever and how sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lift up Who is that Son of Man 18 To conclude then his distinct and arbitrary foretelling Events of every sort any Prophet had mentioned many of them not producible but by extraordinary miracles withall including divine testifications of farre greater glory ascribed to him then Moses or any Prophet ever challenged was The demonstrative Rule according to Moses prediction whereunto all visible signes and sensible miracles should have been resolved by their spectators as known effects lead contemplators unto the first and immediate causes on which their Truth and Being depends That Encomium This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear him with the like given by John Baptist Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sins of the world unto all such as took him for a true Prophet did more distinctly point out the similitude peculiar to Him with Moses expressed in the forecited place of Deuteronomy literally though not so plainly as most Readers would without direction observe it seeing even interpreters most followed either neglect the words themselves in which it is directly contained or wrest their meaning Unto him shall ye hearken according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly Their request then was Talk thââ with us and we will hear but let not God talk with us lest we die Here the whole multitude bound themselves to hear the word of the Lord not immediately from his mouth but by Moses For whiles the people stood afar off he onely drew neer to the darknesse where God was This their request and resolution else-where more fully expressed the Lord highly commended I have heard the voice of the words of this people which they have spoken unto thee they have well said all that they have spoken Oh that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all my commandements alway that it might go well with them and with their children for ever If we observe that increment the literal sence of the same words may receive by succession of time or as they respect the Body not the Type both which they jointly signifie the best reason can be given of Gods approving the former petition and Israels peculiar disposition at that time above others will be this That as posterity in rejecting Samuel rejected Christ or God the second Person in Trinity so here the Fathers in requesting Moses might be their spokesman unto God requested that Great Prophet ordained to be the Author of a better Covenant even that promised womans seed their brother according to the flesh to be Mediator betwixt God and them to secure them from such dreadfull flames as they had seen so they would hearken as then they promised unto his words as unto the words of God himself esteeming him as the Apostle saith so farre above Moses As he that builds the house is above the house And in the Emphasis of that speech Whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him purposely resumed by Moses with these threats annexed as if he had not sufficiently expressed his mind in the like precedent Unto â him ye shall hearken The same difference between Moses and the Great Prophet then meant is included which the Apostle in another place expresseth He that despiseth Moses Law dieth without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye he shall be worthy which treadeth under foot the Son of God and counteth the blood of the Testament as an unholy thing Untill the soveraignty of the Law and Prophets did determin that Encomium of Moses did bear date There arose not a Prophet siââe in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knâw face to face but vanished upon the Criers voice when the Kingdom of heaven began to appear The Israelites to whom both promises were made did far exceed all other nations in that they had a Law most absolute given by Moses yet to be bettered by an Everlasting Covenant the Former being as an earnest penny given in hand to assure them of the Latter In respect of Both the name of a Soothsayer or Sorcerer was not to be heard in Israel as in the nations which knew not God much lesse expected a Mediator in whom the spirit of life should dwell as plentifully as splendor doth in the body of the Sun from whose fulnesse ere he visibly came into the world other Prophets were illuminated as those lights which rule the night are by that great light which God hath appointed to rule the day at whose approach the Prince of darknesse with his followers were to avoid the Hemisphere wherein they had raigned In the mean time the testimonies of the Law and Prophesies served as a light or candle to minish the terrors of the night Even Moses himself and all that followed him were but as messengers sent from God to sollicit his people to reserve their alleageance free from all commerce or compact with Familiar spirits until the Prince of glory came in person 19 Thus without censure of their opinion that otherwise think or teach albeit the continuance of Prophets amongst this people were a mean to prevent all occasions of consulting sorcerers or witches yet the chief ground of Moses disswasion from such practises according to the literall connexion of these words The nations which thou shalt possesse hearken unto those that regard the times and unto sorcerers as for thee the Lord the God hath not suffered thee so with those following hitherto expounded The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet was the consideration of their late mighty deliverance by Moses the excellencie of
Aristotles forge so the fire be out of us when we come into the Sanctuary But just in this manner doth the Mimical Jesuite reply to the former truth I demand saith he whether the Doctour would approve this consequence Paul preaching to the Athenians confirmed his Doctrine with the testimony of the Poet Aratus and the Athenians had done well if they had sought whether Aratus had said so or no therefore all Doctrines must be judged by Poets But what if the Beraeans practise considered alone or as Jesuites do Scriptures onely Mathematically do not necessarily inferre thus much The Learned Doctors charitable mind would not suffer him to suspect any publick Professor of Divinity as Sacroboscus was could be so ignorant in Scriptures as not to consider besides the different esteem of Prophets and Poets amongst the Jews what Saint Paul had Acts 26 22. expressely said I obtained help of God and continue unto this day witnessing both unto small and great saying none other things then those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come Unlesse he could have proved Christs resurrection and other Articles of Christian faith out of Moses and the Prophets the Jews exceptions against him had been just For they were bound to resist all Doctrines dissonant to their ancient Ordinances especially the abolishment of Rites and Ceremonies which Paul laboured most knowing the Law-giver meant they should continue no longer then to the alteration of the Priesthood but in whose maintenance his adversaries should have spent their bloud whiles ignorant they were without default of the truth Paul taught as not sufficiently proved from the same Authority by which their lawes were established Nor was any Apostle either for his miracles or other pledges of the Spirit that he could communicate unto others to be so absolutely believed in all things during his life time as Moses and the Prophets writings For seeing the gift of miracles was bestowed on hypocrites or such as might fall from any gifts or graces of the spirit they had though the spectatours might believe the particular conclusions to whose confirmation the miracles were fitted yet was it not safe without examination absolutely to relie upon him in all things that had spoken a divine truth once or twice In that he might be an hypocrite or a dissembler for ought others without evidence of his upright conversation and perpetuall consonance to his former Doctrine could know he might abuse his purchased reputation to abet some dangerous errour Nor do our Adversaries though too too credulous in this kind think themselves bound to believe revelations made to another much lesse to think that he which is once partaker of the Spirit should for ever be infallible Upon these supporters the forementioned Doctors reason which the Jesuite abuseth to establish the Churches Authority stands sirme and sound I absolutely believe all to be truâ⦠that âod saith because he saith it nor do I seek any other reason but I dare not as ãâã so much unto man lest I make him equall to God for God alone and he in whom the Godhead dwelleth bodily is immutably just and holy Many others have continued holy and righteous according to their measure untill the end but who could be certain of this besides themselves no not they themselves alwayes And albeit a man that never was in the state of grace may oft-times deliver that Doctrine which is infallible yet were it to say no worse a grievous tempting of God to rely upon his Doctrine as absolutely infallible unlesse we know him besides his skill or learning to be alwayes in such a state Though both his life and death be most religious his Doctrine must approve it self to the present Age and Gods providence must commend it to posterity Nor did our Saviour though in life immutably holy and for Doctrine most infallible assume so much unto himself before his Ascension as the Jesuites give to the Pope For he submitted his Doctrine to Moses and the Prophets writings And seeing the Jesuites make lesse account of Him then the Jews did of Moses it is no marvell if they be more violently miscaried with envious or contemptuous hatred of the Divine truth it self then the Jews were against our Saviour or his Doctrine These even when they could not answer his reasons drawn from Scriptures received though most offensive to their distemperate humour were ashamed to call Moses and the Prophets Authority in question or to demand how do ye know God spake by them Must not the Churches infallibility herein assure you And if it teach you to discerne Gods Word from mans must it not likewise teach you to distinguish the divine sence of it from humane This is a strain of Atheisme which could never find harbour in any professing the knowledge of the true God before the brood of Antichrist grew so flush as to seek the recovery of that battail against Gods Saints on Earth which Lucifer their Father and his followers lost against Michael and his holy Angels in Heaven CAP. XXV A brief taste of our Adversaries blasphemous and Atheistical assertions in this argument from some instances of two of their greatest Doctours Bellarmin and Valentian That if faith cannot be perfect without the solemne testification of that Church the rarity of such testifications will cause infidelity 1 FOr a further competent testimonie of blasphemies in this kind where-with we charge the Church of Rome let the Reader judge by these two instances following whether the Christian world have not sucked the deadliest poison that could evaporate from the infernal lake through Bellarmines and Valentians pens Valentian as if he meant to out-flout the Apostle for prohibiting all besides the great Pastor Christ Jesus for being Lords over mens faith will have an infallible authority which may sit as Judge and Mistresse of all Controversies of faith and this to be not the authoritie of one or two men deceased not peculiar to such as in times past have uttered the divine truth either by mouth or pen and commended it unto posterity but an authority continuing in force and strength amongst the faithfull thorowout all ages able persptcuously and openly to give sentence in all Controversies of Faith Yet as these Embassadours of God deceased cannot be Judges shall they therefore have no Say at all in deciding conroversies of faith You may not think a Jesuite would take Jesus Name in vain he will never for shame exclude his Master for having at least a finger in the government of the Church Why what is his office or what is the use of his authority registred by his Apostles and Evangelists Not so little as you would ween For his speeches amongst others that in their life time have infallibly taught divine truths by mouth or pen may be consulted as a witnesse or written law in cases of faith but after a certain sort and manner either to speak the truth or somewhat thereto not impertinent
as shall be declared in due place The place he means is where he disputes whether the Pope be bound to consult other authority besides his own or use any means to search the truth before he passe sentence ex cathâdra that is before he charge the whole Christian World to believe his decision This he thinks expedient but so far forth onely as if it please his Holinesse to enjoyn the belief of some particular point upon the whole World all must believe that he hath consulted Scripture and Antiquity as far as was requisit for that point as you shall after hear 2 That in such Controversies he includes The means of knowing Scriptures to be the Word of God is evident out of his own words in the fore-cited place For the knowledge of Scriptures he would have to be an especial point of faith yet such as cannot be proved by Scripture but by this living and speaking authority as he expressely contends in the eleventh paragraph of the same question His conclusion is If it be necessary there should be some authority though humane yet by divine assistance infallible to sit as Mistresse and Judge in all controversies of faith and not to be appropriated to any deceased as is already proved it remains that it be alwayes living in the Church alwayes present amongst the faithfull by succession he means of Popes Thus you see the present Pope must be Judge and Christ and his Apostles must be brought in as witnesses And yet whether there were such a Christ as Saint Matthew Mark Luke and John tell us there was or whether the Gospels which go under their names be Apocryphal and that of Bartholomews onely Canonical we cannot know but by the Popes testimony so that in the end he is the onely Judge and onely witnesse both of Christ the Apostles and their writings yea of all divine truths at least assisted with his Bishops and Cardinals Which Bellarmine though otherwise a great deal more wary then Valentian hath plainly uttered Unlesse saith he it were for the authority of the present Church of Rome he means the Trent Councel the whole Christian faith might be called in question so might all the Acts and Decrees of former Councels his reason was because we cannot know these Antiquities but onely by Tradition and historical relation which are not able to produce divine firme infallible faith 3 Thus whilest this great Clerk would dig a pit for the blind for he could not hope I think this block should stumble any that hath eyes in his head he is fallen into the middest of it himself by seeking to undermine us he hath smothered himself and buried the cause he was to maintain For if without the Trent Councels testification we cannot by divine faith believe the Scriptures or former Councels to be of Divine authority How can such as were born within these thirty yeers believe that Councel it seât which ended above fourty years ago Few this day living were Auditors of the Cardinals and Bishops decisions there assembled not hearing them their saith must needs be grounded upon hear-sayes Again if it be true the Scriptures cannot be known to be divine but by the Authority of the present viâible Church If this Church do not viva voââ confirme all Christians in this fundamental truth their faith cannot be divine but hu mane What the Pope or his Cardinals think of these points is more then any living knows unlesâe they hear them speak and then it may be a great question whether they speak as they think Pope Alexander the sixths decisions should have been negative like the fools bolt in the Psalm Tâerâ is no God No Christ No Gospel for so his meaning might have been interpreted as they say dreams are by contraries seeing he never spake as he thought Lastly if the Trent Councel were so necessary for the confirmation of Scriptures and other Orthodoxal writings how detestable was your Clergies backwardnesse to affoord the Christian World this spiritual comfort For whether fear it were the Popes Authority should be curbed on meer sloth and neglect of matters divine that did detain them their shifts to put the Emperour off the Reader may sufficiently conjecture from Sepul veda at that time Chronicler to the Emperour in his Epistle to Cardinal Contârââ one of the Popes Legates in that Councel That my intermissâân of writing and silence in that question concerning the Correction of the âear hath ãâã so long I wish the fault had laid in my slouth or forgetfulneââ that I might have been hence ocâasioned to acknowledge and depreccate the blanââ rather then as noâ I freely must impute the true cause to the negligence of your Romanâ Priests whom I perceive to wax cold and to think of nothing lesse then of calling the Councel with hopâ whereof as heretâfore I was excited so now ââspair hath made me dull For I see well that such as are most bound to have a ââgilant care oâ the Churches publick welfare and not to foreslow any opportunity of increasing her dignity never so much as mention the Councel at this time as necâssary as alwayes usefull but when Christians either are alâcaay or are likâ⦠be at viriance In one word never but then when there is sure hope it may bâ⦠hindeâed by their discord For when peace gets it turn and all is quiet not ãâã word of the Councel So as what they aime at by these unseasonable ãâã is so manifest as will not suffer the slon est capacity to live in doubt or sââpition 4 This great Learned Antiquaries Learned advice in ââ¦âile sent to the same Cardinall then imployed by the â⦠cel was not to suffer matters Decreed in any former â⦠assembled together to be disputed or called in question Sufferance hereof was in his judgement no lesle prejudicial to the State Ecclesiastick then unto the temporal it would be to permit malefactors traverse the equity of publick Lawes established and known after sufficient proof or confession made of Capital offences committed against them The marginal quotations of the Trent Councel compared with this grave admonition which had antiquitie-customes Canonical as the Authour urgeth to give it Countenance may serve as a perfect Index for our instruction with what prejudice the Bishops there assembled came to determine by whose manuduction or set rules they drew their supposed inerrable lines of life Now it is impossible any determination that takes it force from multitude of voyces should be either in it self more certain or more forcible to perswade others then are the motives or inducements that swayed the suffragants so to determine and these in this case could by Bellarmines reason be but historical perswasions or presumptions For no Jesuite I think will say these Bishops had the Popes sentence ex Cathedra to assure them before-hand what Councels had been lawfully called and fully confirmed or whether all the ancient Canons they afterwards reestablished were already as authentick and
Without the help or ministerie of man We maintain as wel as they God is not a father to such as will not acknowledge the Church for their Mother Notwithstanding thus we conceive and speak of the Church indefinitely taken not consined to any determinate place not appropriated to any individual or singularized persons Now to verifie an indefinite speech or proposition the truth of any one particular sufficeth As he that should say Socrates by man was taught his learning doth not mean the specifical nature or whole Mankind but that Socrates as others had one man or other at the first to instruct him The same Dialect we use when we say Every one that truly cals God father receives instructions from the Church his Mother that is from some in the Church lawfully ordained for planting faith unto whom such Filial Obedience as elsewhere we have spoken of is due The difference likewise between the Romanists and us hath partly been discussed before In brief it is thus We hold this Ministery of the Church is a necessary condition or mean precedent for bringing us to the Infallible Truth or true sense of Gods word yet no infallible Rule whereon finally or absolutely we must rely either for discerning divine Revelations or their true meaning But as those resentââances of colours which we term Species visibiles are not seen themselves though necessary for the sight of real colours so this Minisiery of the Church alâ⦠in it self not infallible is yet necessarily required for our right apprehension ãâã the Divine Truth which in it self alone is most infallible yea as infallible to us as it was â to the Apostles or Prophets after it be rightly apprehended The difference is in the manner of apprehending or conceiving it They conceived it immediately without the Ministery or instruction of man so cannot we This difference elsewhere I have thus resembled As trees and plants now growing up by the ordinary husbandry of man from seeds precedent are of the same kind and quality with such as vvere immediately created by the hand of God so is the immediate ground of ours the Prophets and Apostles Faith the same Albeit theirs was immediately planted by the finger of God ours propagated from their seed Sown and cherished by the daily industry of faithful Ministers 3 Neither in the substance of this assertion nor manner of the explication do we much differ if ought from Canus in his second book where he taxeth Scotus Durand and others for affirming the last resolution of our faith was to be made into the veracity or infallibility of the Church The Apostles and Prophets saith he resolved their faith into truth and authority divine Therefore we must not resolve our faith into the humane authority of the Church For the faith is the same and must have the same Formal Reason For better confirmation of which assertion he adds this reason Things incident to the object of any habit by accident do not alter the formal reason of the object Now that the Articles of faith should be proposed by these or these men is meerly accidental wherefore seeing the Apostles and Prophets did assent unto the Articles of faith because God revealed them the reason of our assent must be the same Lastly he concludes that the Churches authority miracles or the like are only such precedent conditions or means for begetting faith as sensitive knowledge exhortations or advise of Masters are for bringing us to certain knowledge in demonstrative faculties Had either this great Divine spoken consequently to this doctrine in his 5th Book or would the Jesuites avouch no more then here he doth vve should be glad to give them the right hand of fellowship in this point But they go all a wrong way unto the truth or would to God any way to the truth or not directly to overthrow it Catharinus though in a manner ours in that question about the certainty of salvation saith more perhaps then they meant whom Canus late taxed Avouching as Bellarmin cites his opinion that divine faith could not be certain and infallible unlesse it were of an object approved by the Church Whence would follow what Bellarmin there infers that the Apostles and Prophets should not have been certain of their Revelations immediately sent from God until the Church had approved them which is a doctrine wel deserving a sharper censure then Bellarmin bestows on Cathirinus Albeit to speak the truth Bellarmin was no fit man to censure though the other most worthy to be severely censured Catharinus might have replied that the Prophets and Apostles at least our Saviour in whom Bellarmin instanceth vvere the true Church as wel as they make the Pope Nor can Valentia's with other late âesuites opinions by any pretence or thew hardly Bellarmins own be cleared from the same inconveniences he objects to Catharinus as will appear upon better examination to be made hereafter CAP. XXVII That the Churches Proposal is the true immediate and prime cause of all obsolute belief any Romanist can have concerning any determinate divine Revelation 1 WHereas Valentian and as he sayes Caietan deny the Churches infallible proposal to be the cause why we believe divine Revelations This speech of his is Equivocal and in the equivocation of it I think Valentian sought to hide the truth The ambiguity or Fallacy is the same which was disclosed in Bellarmins reply unto us objecting that Pontificians make the Churches authority greater then Scriptures In this place as in that the word of God or divine revelations may be taken either indefinitely for whatsoever God shall be supposed to speak or for those particular Scriptures or Revela tions which we suppose he hath already revealed and spoken Or Valentian may speak of the object of our belief not of belief it self If we take his meaning in the former sense what he faith is most true For the Churches infallibility is no cause why we believe that to be true vvhich vve suppose God hath revealed nor did vve ever charge them with this assertion This is an Axiom of nature presupposed in all Religions yet of which none ever knew to make so great secular use as the Romish Church doth But if we speak of that Canon of Scripture which vve have or any things contained in it all which vve and our adversaries joyntly suppose to have come from God the only cause vvhy vve do or can rightly believe them is by Jesuitical doctrine the Churches infallibility that commends them unto us 2 If that Church which Valentian holds so infallible should have said unto him totidem verbis you must believe the books of Maccabees are canonical even for this reason that your holy Catholick Mother tels you so he durst not but have believed as wel the reason as the matter proposed To wit That these Books were Canonical because the Church had enjoyned him so to think albeit his private conscience left to Gods grace and
it self would rather have held the Negative For if we believe as the Papists generally instruct us that we our selves all private spirits may erre in every perswaâon of faith but the Church which onely is assisted by a publick spirit cannot possibly teach amisle in any We must upon terms as peremptory and in equal degree believe every particular point of faith because the Church so teacheth us not because we certainly apprehend the truth of it in itself For we may erre but this publick spirit cannot And consequently we must infallibly believe these propositions â Christ is the Redeemer of the world not Mahomet â There is a Trinity of persons in the divine nature for this reason only that the Church commends them unto us for divine revelations seeing by their arguments brought to disprove the sufficiency of Scriptures or certainty of private spirits no other means possible is left us Nay were they true we should be only certain that without the Churches proposal we stil must be most uncertain in these and all other points because the sons are perpetually obnoxious to errour from which the mother is everlastingly priviledged The same propositions and conclusions we might conditionally believe to be absolutely authentick upon supposal they were Gods word but that they are his word or revelations truly divine we cannot firmly believe but only by firm adherence to the Churches infallible authority as was in the second Section deduced out of the Adversaries principles Hence it follows that every particular proposition of Faith hath such a proper causal dependance upon the Churches proposal as the conclusion hath upon the premisses or any particular upon it universal Thus much Sacroboscus grants 3 Suppose God should speak unto us face to face what reason had we absolutely and infallibly to believe him but because we know his words to be infallible his infallibility then should be the proper cause of our belief For the same reason seeing he doth not speak unto us face to face as he did to Moses but as our adversaries say reveals his will obscurely so as the Revealer is not manifested unto us but his meaning is by the visible Church which is to us in stead of Prophets Apostles and Christ himself and all the several manners God used to speak unto the world before he spake to it by his only son this Panthea's infallibility must be the true and proper cause of our Belief And Valentian himself thinks that Sarah and others of the old world to whom God spake in private either by the mouth of Angels his son or holy spirit or by what means soever did not sin against the doctrine of saith or through unbelief when they did not believe Gods promises They did herein unadvisedly not unbelievingly Why not unbelievingly because the visible Church did not propose these promises unto them 4 If not to believe the visible Churches proposals be that which makes distrust or dissidence to Gods promises infidelity then to believe them is the true cause of believing Gods promises or if Sarah and others did as Valentian faith unadvisedly or imprudently in not assenting to divine truths proposed by Angels surely they had done only prudently and advisedly in assenting to them their assent had not been truly and properly belief So that by this assertion the Churches proposal hath the very remonstrative note and character of the immediat and prime cause whereby we believe and know matters of saith For whatsoever else can concur without this our aslent to divine truths proposed is not true Catholick belief but firmly believing this infallibility we cannot erre in any other point of faith 5 This truth Valentian elsewhere could not dissemble howsoever in his prosessed resolution of Faith he sought to cover it by change of apparel Investing the Churches proposal only with the title of a Condition requisite and yet withal so dislonant is falsity to it self making it the Reason of believing divine Revelations If a reason it be why we should believe them need must it sway any reasonable minde to embrace their truth And whatsoever inclines our minds to the embracement of any truth is the proper efficient cause of belif or assent unto the same Yea Efficiency or Causality it self doth Formally consist in this inclination of the minde Nor is it possible this proposal of the Church should move our minds to imbrace divine Revelations by any other means then by believing it And Belief it self being an inclination or motion of the mind our minds must first be moved by the Churches proposal ere it can move them at all to assent unto other divine truths Again Valentian grants that the orthodoxal or catechistical answer to this interrogation Why do you believe the doctrine of the Trinity to be a divine revelation is because the Church proposeth it to me for such He that admits this answer for sound and Catholick and yet denies the Churches proposal to be the true and proper cause of his Belief in the former point hath smothered doubtlesse the light of nature by admitting too much artificial subtilty into his brains For if a man should ask why do you believe there is a fire in yonder house and answer were made Because I see the smoak go out of the Chimney should the party thus answering in good earnest peremptorily deny the sight of the smoak to be the cause of his Belief there was a fire he deserved very wel to have either his tongue scorched with the one or his eys put out with the other Albeit if we speak of the things themselves not of his Belief concerning them the fire was the true cause of the smoak not the smoak of the fire But whatsoever it be Cause Condition Circumstance or Effect that truly satissieth this demand Why do you believe this or that it is a true and proper cause of our belief though not of the thing believed If then we admit the Churches proposal to be but a condition annexed to divine revelations yet if it be an infallible medium or mean or as our adversaries all agree The only mean infallible whereby we can rightly believe this or that to be a divine revelation it is the true and only infallible cause of our Belief That speech of Valentian which to any ordinary mans capacity includes as much as we now say was before alledged That Scripture which is commended and expounded unto us by the Church is eo ipso even for this reason most authentick and clear He could not more emphatically have expressed the Churches proposal to be the true and prime cause why particular or determinate divine revelations become so credible unto us His Second Sacrobosâus hath many speeches to be inserted hereafter to the same effect Amongst others where Dâ Whittaker objects that the principal cause of faith is by Papists ascribed unto the Church he denies it only thus far What we believe for the Churches proposal we
jointly believe for God speaking either in his written word or by tradition Yet if a man should have asked him why he did or how possibly he could infallibly believe that God did speak all the words either contained in the Bible or in their traditions he must have given either a womans answer because God spake them or this because our holy mother the Church doth say so For elsewhere he plainly avows the Books of Canonical Scripture need not be believed without the Churches proposal whose infallible authority was sufficiently known before one tittle of the New Testament was written and were to be acknowledged though it had never been he plainly confesseth withal that he could not believe the Scriptures taught some principal Articles of faith most firmly believed by him unless the Churches authority did thereto move him against the light of natural reason Now if for the Churches proposal he believe that which otherwise to believe he had no reason at all but rather strong inducements to the contrary as stedfastly as any other truth the Churches infallibility must be the true and only cause both why he believes the mystery proposed and distrusts the natural dictates of his conscience to the contrary In sine he doth not believe there is a Trinity for in that Article is his instance because God hath said it but he believes that God hath said it because his infallible Mother the Church doth teach it This is the misery of miseries that these Apostates should so bewitch the World as to make it think they believe the Church because God speaks by it when it is evident they do not believe God but for the Churches testimony well content to pretend his authority that her own may seem more Soveraign Thus make they their superstitious groundless magical Faith but as a wrench to wrest that principle of nature Whatsoever God saith is true to countenance any villany they can imagin as wil better appear hereafter But first the Reader must be content to be informed that by some of their Tenents the same Divine revelations may be asâented unto by the Habit either of âheologie or of Faith both which are most certain but herein diâferent That tâe former is discursive and resembles science properly so called the later not so but rather like unto that habit or faculty by which we perceive the truth of general Maxims or unto our bodily sight which sees divers visibles all immediately not one after or by another Whilst some of them dispute against the certainty of private spirits their arguments suppose Divine revelations must be believed by the Habit of Theologie which is as a sword to oââend us Whiles we assault them and urge the unstability of their resolutions they slie unto the non disâursive Habit of faith infused as their best buckler to ward such blows as the Habit of Theologie cannot bear off 6 Not here to dispute either how truly or pertinently they deny âaith infused to be a discursive habit the Logical Reader need not I hope my adâonition to observe that faith or belief whether habitual or actual unlesse discursive cannot possibly be resolved into any preexistent Maxim or principle From which grant this Emolument wil arise unto our cause that the Churches authority cannot be proved by any divine revelation or portion of Scripture seeing it is an Article of Faith and must be believed âodâm intuââu with that Scripture or part of Gods Word whether written or unwritten that teacheth it as light and colours are perceived by one and the same intuition in the same instant And by this assertion we could not so properly say We beleeue the divine revelation because we believe the Church nor do we see colours because we see the light but We may truly say that the objects of our faith divine revelations are therefore actually credible or worthy of belief because the infallible Church doth illustrate or propose them as the light doth make colours though invisible by night visible by day This similitude of the light and colours is not mine but Sacroboscus's whom in the point in hand I most mention because Doctor Whitakers Objections against their Churches Doctrine as it hath been delivered by Bellarmine and other late Controversers hath enforced him clearly to unfold what Bellarmine Stapleton and Valentian left unexpressed but is implicitely included in all their Writings But ere we come to examine the full inconveniences of their opinions I must request the Reader to observe that as oft as they mention Râsolution of faith they mean the discursive habit of Theologie For all resolution of Belief or knowledge essentially includes discourse And Bellarmine directly makes Sacroboscus expressely avoucheth the Churches authority the medius terminus or true cause whence determinate conclusions of faith are gathered From which and other equivalent assertions acknowledged by all the Romanists this day living it will appear that Valentian was either very ignorant himself or presumed he had to deal with very ignorant Adversaries when he denied that the last resolution of Catholick faith was into the Churches authority which comes next in place to be examined CAP. XXVIII Discovering either the grosse ignorance or notorious craft of the Jesuite in denying his Faith is finally resolved into the Churches veracity or infallibility That possibly it cannot be resolved into any branch of the First Truth 1 IT were a foolish question as Cajetan saith Valentian hath well observed if one should ask another why he believes the First Truth revealing For the Assent of Faith is finally resolved into the First Truth It may be Cajetan was better minded towards Truth it self first or secondary then this Jesuite was which used his authority to colour his former rotten position That the Churches proposal by their doctrine is not the cause of faith but our former distinction between belief it self and it object often confounded or between Gods Word indefinitely and determinately taken if well observed will evince this last reason to be as foolish as the former assertion was false No man saith he can give any reason besides the infallibility of the Revealer why he beleeves a divine Revelation It is true no man can give nor would any ask why we believe that which we are fully perswaded is a divine Revelation But yet a reason by their positions must be given why we believe either this or that truth any particular or determinate portion of Scripture to be a divine Revelation Wherefore seeing Christian Faith is alwayes of desinite and particular propositions or conclusions and as Bellarmine saith and all the Papists must say these cannot be known but by the Church As her infallible proposal is the true and proper cause why we believe them to be infalliblie true because the onely cause whereby we can believe them to be divine revelations so must it be the essential principle into which our Assent or Belief of any particular or determinate
proposition must finally be resolved Every conclusion of faith as is before observed out of Bellarmine must be gathered in this or like Syllogisme Whatsoever God or the first Truth saith is most true But God said all those words which Moses the Prophets and the Evangelists wrote Therefore all these are most true The Major in this Syllogisme is an Axiom of Nature acknowledged by Turks and Infidels nor can Christian faith be resolved into it as into a Principle proper to it self The Minor say our Adversaries must be ascertained unto us by the Churches authority and so ascertained becomes the first and main principle of faith as Christian whence all other particular or determinate conclusions are thus gathered Whatsoever the Church proposeth to us for a divine Revelation is most certainly such But the Church proposeth the Books of Moses and the Prophets finally the whole volumes of the old and new Testament with all their parts as they are extant in the vulgar Roman Edition for divine revelations Therefore we must infallibly believe they are such So likewise must we believe that to be the true and proper meaning of every sentence in them contained which the Church to whom it belongs to judge of their sence shall tender unto us 2 For better manifestation of the Truth we now teach the young Reader must here be advised of a Twofold Resolution One of the things or matters believed or known into their first parts or Elements Another of our Belief or perswasions concerning them into their first Causes or motives In the one the most general or remotest cause In the other the most immediate or next cause alwayes terminates the resolution The one imitates the other inverts the order of composition so as what is first in the one is last in the other because that which is first intended or resolved upon by him that casteth the plot is last effected by the executioner or manual composer In the former sence we say mixt bodies are lastly resolved into their first Elements houses into stones timber and other ingredients particular truths into general maximes conclusions into their immediate premisses all absurdities into some breach of the rule of contradiction Consonantly to this interpretation of final resolution The First Verity or divine infallibility is that into which all Faith is lastly resolved For as we said before this is the first step in the progresse of true Belief the lowest Foundation whereon any Religion Christian Jewish Mahometan or Ethnick can be built And it is an undoubted Axiom quod primum est in generatione est ultimum in resolutione when we resolve any thing into the parts whereof it is compounded we end in the undoing or unfolding it where nature begun in the composition or making of it But he that would attempt to compose it again or frame the like aright would terminate all his thoughts or purposes by the end or use which is farthest from actual accomplishment Thus the Architect frames stones and timber and layes the first foundation according to the platform he carries in his head and that he casts proportionably to the most commodious or pleasant habitation which though last effected determines all cogitations or resolutions precedent Hence if we take this ultima resolutio as we alwayes take these termes when we resolve our own perswasions that is for a resolution of all doubts or demands concerning the subject whereof we treat A Roman Catholicks faith must according to his Principles finally be resolved into the Churches infallibility For this is the immediate ground or first cause of any particular or determinate point of Christian faith and the immediate cause is alwayes that into which our perswasions concerning the effect is finally resolved seeing it onely can fully satisfie all demands doubts or questions concerning it As for example if you ask why men or other terrestrial Creatures breath when fishes do not to say they have lungs and fishes none doth not fully satisfie all demands or doubts concerning this Subject For it may justly further be demanded what necessity there was the one should have lungs rather then the other If here it be answered that men and other perfect terrestrial creatures are so full of fervent blood that without a cooler their own heat would quickly choak them and in this regard the God of nature who did not make them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or give them life in vain to be presently extinct did with it give them lungs by whose respiration their naturall temper should be continued This answer doth fully satisfie all demands concerning the former effect For no man of sense would further question why life should be preserved whose preservation immediately depends upon respiration or exercise of the lungs and is therefore the immediate cause of both and that whereunto all our perswasions concerning the former subject are lastly resolved Or if it should be demanded why onely man of all other creatures hath power to laugh to say he were indued with reason doth not resolve us for a Philosophical wit would further question Why should reasonable substances have this foolish faculty rather then others A good Philosopher would perswade us the spirits which serve for instruments to the rational part are more nimble and subtle and so more apt to produce this motion then the spirits of any other creatures are But this I must professe resolves not me for how nimble or subtle soever they be unlesse man had other corporeal Organs for this motion the spirits alone could not produce it and all organical parts are framed for the operation or exercise of the faculty as their proper end Whence he that would finally resolve the former Problem must assigne the true final cause why reasonable substances more then others should stand in need of this motion Now seeing unto reason onely it is proper to forecast danger and procure sorrow and contristation of heart by preconceit of what yet is not but perhaps may be it was requisite that our mortality through reason obnoxious to this inconvenience should be able to correct this contristant motion by the contrary and have a faculty to conceive such pleasant objects as might dilate the heart and spirits that as man hurts his body by conceited sorrow whereto no other Creature is subject so he might heal it again by a kind of pleasance whereof he alone is capable 3 Answerable to this latter acception of final resolution if you demand a Roman Catholick why he believes there is a Trinity there shall be a resurrection or life everlasting his answer would be because God or the First Verity hath said so but this doth not fully satisfie for we might further question him as he doth us why do you believe that God did say so Here it sufficeth not to say This truth is expresly taught in Canonical Scriptures for the doubt whereby he hopes to stagger us most is this Why do you believe
purpose in whose will or pleasure the finall cause of any natural effect alwayes consists And seeing nothing in Nature can preoccupate his will no cause can be precedent to the finall This consideration of naturall effects tending as certainly to their proposed end as the arrow flyes to the mark caused the irreligious Philosopher to acknowledge the direction of an intelligent supernatural agent in their working the accomplishment of whose will and pleasure as I said must be the finall cause of their motions as his will or pleasure which bestows the charges not the Architect unlesse he be the owner also is the final cause why the house is built Finally every End supposeth the last intention of an intelligent Agent whereof to give a reason by the Efficient which onely produceth works or meanes thereto proportioned would be as impertinent as if to one demanding why the bell rings out it should be answered because a strong fellow puls the rope 7 Now that which in our Adversaries Doctrine answers unto the cause indemonstrable whereinto final resolution of Natures works or intentions of intelligent agents must be resolved is the Churches Authority Nor can that if we speak properly be resolved into any branch of the first Truth for this reason besides others alledged before that all resolutions whether of our perswasions or intentions or of their objects works of Art or Nature suppose a stability or certainty in the first links of the chain which we unfold the latter alwayes depending on the former not the former on the latter As in resolutions of the latter kind lately mentioned imitating the order of composition actual continuation of life depends on breathing not breathing on it breathing on the lungs not the lungs mutually on breathing so in resolutions of the other kind which inverts the order of composition the use or necessity of lungs depends upon the use or necessitie of breathing the necessitie or use of breathing upon the necessity or use of life or upon his will or pleasure that created one of these for another Thus again the sensitive faculty depends upon the vital that upon mixtion mixtion upon the Elements not any of these mutually upon the sensitive faculty if we respect the order of supportance or Natures progresse in their production Whence he that questions whether some kinds of plants have sense or some stones or metals life supposeth as unquestionable that the former have life that the second are mixt bodies But if we respect the intent or purpose of him that sets Nature a working all the former faculties depend on the sensitive the sensitive not on any of them For God would not have his creatures indued with sense that they might live or live that they might have mixt bodies but rather to have such bodies that they might live to live that they might enjoy the benefit of sense or the more noble faculties 8 Can the Jesuite thus assigne any determinate branch of the First Truth as stable and unquestionable before it be ratified by the Churches authority Evident it is by his positions that he cannot and as evident that belief of the Churches authority cannot depend upon any determinate branch of the First Truth much lesse can it distinctly be thereinto resolved But contrariwise presse him with what Divine precept soever written or unwritten though in all mens judgements the Churches authority set aside most contradictory to their approved practises for example That the second Commandement forbids worshipping Images or adoration of the consecrated Host he straight inverts your reason thus Rather the second Commandement forbids neither because the holy Church which I believe to be infallible approveth both Lastly he is fully resolved to believe nothing for true which the Church disproves nothing for false or erroneous which it allowes Or if he would answer directly to this demand To what end did God cause the Scriptures to be written He could not ââsonâât to his tenents say That we might infallibly rely upon them but rather upon the Churches authority which it establisheth For Gods Word whether written or unwritten is by their Doctrine but as the testimony of some men deceased indefinitely presumed for infallible but whose material extent the Church must first determine and afterwards judge without all appeal of their true meaning Thus are all parts of Divine truthes supposed to be revealed more essentially subordinate to the Churches authority then ordinary witnesses are to royal or supreme judgement For they are supposed able to deliver what they know in termes intelligible to other mens capacities without the Prince or Judges ratification of their sayings or expositions of their meanings and judgement is not ordained for producing witnesses but production of witnesses for establishing judgement Thus by our adversaries Doctrine Gods Word must serve to establish the Churches authority not the Churches authority to confirm the immediate soveraigntie of It ever our souls 9 Much more probably might the Jew or Turk resolve his faith unto the First Truth then the modern Jesuited Papist can For though their deductions from it be much what alike all equally sottish yet these admit a stabilitie or certainty of what the First Truth hath said no way dependant upon their authority that first proposed or commended it unto them The Turks would storme to hear any Mufti professe He were as well to be believed as was Mahomet in his life time that without His proposal they could not know either the old Testament or the Alcoran to be from God So would the Jews if one of their Rabbines should make the like comparison betwixt himself and Moses as the Jesuite doth betwixt Christ and the Pope who besides that he must be as well believed as his Master leaves the authority of both Testaments uncertain to us unlesse confirmed by his infallibility But to speak properly the pretended derivation of all three heresies from the First Truth hath a lively resemblance of false pedegrees none at all of true Doctrine and resolutions Of all the three the Romish is most ridiculous as may appear by their several representations As imagine there should be three Competitors for the Roman Empire all pleading it were to descend by inheritance not by election all pretending lineal succession from Charles the Great The first like to the Jew alledgeth an authentick pedegree making him the eldest The second resembling the Turk replies that the other indeed was of the eldest line but long since disinherited often conquered and enforced to resigne whence the inheritance descended to him as the next in succession The third like the Romanist pleads it was bequeathed him by the Emperors last Will and Testament from whose death his Ancestors have been intit'led to it and produceth a pedegree to this purpose without any other confirmation then his own authority adding withall that unlesse his competitors and others will believe his records and declarations written or unwritten to be most authentick they cannot
that here he maks That the sence of Scriptures is the sword of the spirit This is as much as we contend that the sence of the Scripture is the Scripture Whence the inference is immediately necessary That if the Romish Church bind us to believe or absolutely practise ought contrary to the true sence and meaning of Scriptures with the like devotion we do Gods expresse undoubted commandements she prefers her own authority above Gods Word and makes us acknowledge that allegiance unto her which we owe unto the spirit For suppose we had as yet no full assurance of the spirit for the contradictory sence to that given by the Church we were in Christian duty to expect Gods providence and invoke the spirits assistance for manifestation of the truth from all possibility whereof we desperately exclude our selves if we believe one mans testimony of the spirit as absolutely and irrevocably as we would do the manifest immediate testimony of the spirit yet Sacroboscus acknowledgeth he believes the mysterie of the Trinity as it is taught by their Church onely for the Churches authority and yet this he believes as absolutely as he doth yea as he could believe any other divine Revelation though extraordinarily made unto himself 3 In both parts of Belief above mentioned the causal dependance of our faith upon the Churches proposals may be imagined three wayes either whilest it is in planting or after it is planted or from the first beginning of it to it full groweth or from it first entrance into our hearts untill our departure out of this world How far and in what sort the Ministery of men in the Church is available for planting faith hath been declared heretofore Either for the planting or supporting it the skill or authority of the teacher reaches no further then to quicken or strengthen our internal tast or apprehension of the divine truth revealed in Scriptures or to raise or tune our spirits as Musick did Elishahs the better to perceive the efficacy of Gods spirit imprinting the stamp of those divine Revelations in our Hearts whose Characters are in our Brains The present Churches proposals in respect of our Belief is but as the Samaritan womans report was unto the men of Sichar Many saith the Evangelist believed in him for the saying of the woman which testified he hath told me all things that ever I did But this Beliefe was as none in respect of that which they conceive immediately from his own words For they said unto the woman Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed The Christ. The ãâã saith Job trieth the words as the mouth tasteth meats Consonant hereto is our Churches doctrine that as our bodily mouthes taste and trie meats immediately without interposition of any other mans sense or jugement of them so must the ears of our souls trie and discern divine truths without relying on other mens proposals or reports of their rellish No external means whatsoever can in either case have any use but only either for working a right disposition in the Organ whereby trial is made or by occasioning the exercise of the faculty rightly disposed How essentially faith by our adversaries doctrine depends upon the Churches authority is evident out of the former discourses that this dependance is perpetual is as manifest in that they make it the judge and rule of faith such an indefectible rule and so authentick a Judge as in all points must be followed and may not be so far examined either by Gods written law or rules of nature whether it contradict not it self or them 4 It remains we examin the particular manner of this dependance or what the Churches infallibility doth or can perform either to him that believes or to the object of his belief whence a Roman Catholicks faith should become more firm or certain then other mans It must enlighten either his soul that it may see or divine revelations that they may be seen more clearly otherwise he can exceed others only in blind Belief The cunningest Sophister in that school strictly examined upon these points wil bewray that monstrous Blasphemy which some shallow brains have hitherto hoped to cover We have the same Scriptures they have and peruse them in all the languages they do What is it then can hinder either them from manifesting or us from discerning their Truth or true meaning manifested Do we want the Churches proposal we demand how their present Church it self can better discern them then ours may what testimony of antiquity have they which we have not But it may be we want spectacles to read them our Church hath but the eyes of private men which cannot see without a publick light Their Churches eyes are Cat-like able so to illustrate the objects of Christian faith as to make them clear and perspicuous to it self though dark and invisible unto us Suppose they could Yet Cats-eyes benefit not by-standers a whit for seeing colours in darkness albeit able themselves to see them without any other light then their own The visible Church saith the Jesuite is able to discern all divine truth by her infallible publick spirit How knows he this certainly without an infallible publick spirit perhaps as men see Cats-eyes shine in the dark when their own do not Let him believe so But what doth this belief advantage him or other private spirits for the clear distinct or perfect sight of what the Church proposeth Doth the proposal make divine Truths more perspicuous in themselves Why then are they not alike perspicuous to all that hear read or know the Churches testimonie of them Sacroboscus hath said all that possibly can be said on their behalf in this difficultie The Sectaries albeit they should use the authoritie of the true Church yet cannot have any true belief of the truth revealed If the use of it be as free to them as to Catholicks what debars them from this benefit They do not acknowledge the sufficiencie of the Churches proposal And as a necessary proof or medium is not sufficient to the attaining of science unless a man use and acknowledge it formally as necessary so for establishing true faith it sufficeth not that the Church sufficiently proposeth the points to be believed or avoweth them by that infallible authority wherewith Christ hath enabled her to declare both what books contain Doctrines Divine and what is the true sense of places controversed in them but it is further necessary that we formally use this proposal as sufficient and embrace it as infallible 5 The reason then why a Roman Catholick rightly believes the Truth or true meaning of Scriptures when a Protestant that knows the Churches testimonie as well as he rests in both points uncertain is because the Catholick infallibly believes the Churches authority to be infallible whereof the Protestant otherwise perswaded reaps no benefit by it but continues still in darkness
labouring in vain to see the Truth of Divine revelations without it as much in vain as if a man should strive to see colours without light For this is Sacroboscus instance Besides the habit of faith seated in the understanding and the supernatural concourse of the Holy Spirit due to all endued with the babit of faith but necessary in respect of the subject or party two things more are requisite on the behalf of the object of which if either be wanting the facultie can never perform it proper function Of these two the one is that the proposition to be believed be revealed by God the other that there be a sufficient proposal made to us that God hath revealed it For an unsufficient proposal of any object is as none as may appear by the example of light which proposeth colours to be seen For when the light is weak or scant we cannot discern Colours not that we want a visible object but because we want light sufficient to illuminate the object or the space betwixt us and it He adds withall such as disclaim the Churches Authority and are content with this That Truths of faith are revealed by God in his Word and hence promise themselves the supernatural concourse of the Holy Ghost for producing acts of faith are destitute of a sufficient proposer and their presumption such as if a man should perswade himself because he hath Colours before his eyes and God ready to afford his ordinary concourse as oft as he is disposed to exercise his visive faculty he should be able to see them without light For saith this Jesuite the Prophets are dead Apostles dead Christ gone to heaven and instead of all Prophets Apostles or himself hath left us his Church Nor is it to be expected that God will every where upon all occasions supply the want of the external proposals by the abundance of internal illuminations as he did to our first parent or Saint Paul who had his Gospel neither from man nor by man but by the revelation of Jesus Christ For those are priviledges 6 The calumnie intended in this last instance hath often heretofore been prevented We never denied either the necessity or suffâiciencie of the Churches proposal as an external mean we account no other of that rank and nature is or could be either more necessary or more sufficient Saint Paul we grant had an extraordinary priviledge and yet for his private information had the truth proposed unto him by Ananias though the gifts of his publick Ministery were immediately from God Both the measure of his faith and manner of attaining it were unusual but his faith it self once attained no otherwise independent of any external proposal then ours is and all Christians must be We should have been more beholden to this professor had he distinctly told us what it is in their language to have a sufficient proposer albeit this we may gather from his words late cited and these following The Sectaries take upon them to correct the Churches sentence as oft as they list and then they oppose Christ to the Church as if the Church did propose one thing and Christ teach another If they admitted any Church as a sufficient proposer they were bound to conforme their opinions to it in all things As you heard before out of Bellarmine That the Popes Decrees may not be examined whether consonant or contrary to Gods Word or the foundations of faith already laid in our hearts and out of Canus That we must believe the Church absolutely without its or ands Thus believing we have Gods Word sufficiently proposed without this belief or acknowledgement of such authority in the Church we have no sufficient proposal of it but strive as foolishly to hear God speak as if we sought to see Colours without the light 7 It appears I hope as clearly to the Reader as to me that the Churches testimony or authority by our Adversaries Doctrine benefits none but such as stedfastly and absolutely believe it in all things But he that so believes it may by it easily believe all other points as he that can perfectly see the light may see Colours by it Want of this radical belief in us makes our faith in their opinion so unstable or rather blind and dead Yet can I hardly perswadâ my self all of them will grant the Church addes any inherent or participated splendor to divine revelations whereby they become perspicuous in themselves as Colours are made visible by irradiation of the Sun Thus much notwithstanding all of them I know willingly would subscribe unto A Protestant can neither of himself be infallibly perswaded of the Truth of Scriptures or other conclusions of faith nor doth he absolutely believe any others that are infallible in their determinations but a Roman Catholick albeit by his private spirit he cannot infallibly believe them yet he infalliby believes the Church which cannot erre in belief All then that a Papist hath more then a Protestant is this his Belief of the Church if once he doubt of this he is where he was Which in plain termes is as much as to say â He believes the Church concerning Scriptures not Scriptures That this is the true interpretation of their Tenent may easily be gathered from their own writings For Bellarmine expressely contends and all of them suppose that saying of Saint Austin Non crederem Evangelio nisime commoveret Ecclesiae authoritas I would not believe the Gospel unlesse the Churches authority did thereto move me to be true as well after faith is produced whilest it continues as whiles it is in planting Now if a man should say Non crederem Francisco nisi me commoveret Petri fiâelitas I would not trust Frances but for Peters word this speech resolved into it natural or proper sence is aequivalent unto this I do not trust Frances but Peter that gives his word for him And in case Peter should prove false or be distrusted by him that took his word for Frances as yet not believed but for Peters sake the creditor could have no hold of either Thus if Bellarmine and his fellows be as they would seem to make S. Austin minded not to believe the Gospel but for the Churches authority or proposal of it let them speak plainly and properly not in parables or metaphors and so we shall know their meaning to be That they indeed believe not the Scriptures but the Church or the Church truly and really the Scriptures onely by extrinsecal denomination 8 Nor can they reply either consequently to Sacrobos us instance or their general Tenents that as he which sees colours by the light truly sees colours not the light onely so he that believes Scriptures by the Churches infallible proposal believes not the Churches proposal onely but Scriptures as truely and properly The diversity of reason in these two consequences ariseth from the diverse manner of seeing colours by the Suns light and believing
Scriptures by the Church which we are now to gather from this short Catechisine containing the summe of Roman faith CAP. XXX Declaring how the First main ground of Romish faith leads directly unto Atheisme the second unto preposterous Heathenisine or Idolatry 1 IT is a prety Sophisme as a judicious and learned Divine in his publick exercise for his first degree in Divinity late well observed where-with the Jesuite deludes the simple making them believe their faith otherwise weak and unsetled is most firm and certain if it have once the visible or representative Churches confirmation when as the Church so taken seldom or never instructs or confirms any at least not the hundred thousandth part of them unto whose salvation such confirmation is by Jesuitical perswasions most absolutely necessary But suppose the visible Church or Romish Consistory the Pope and his Cardinals should vouchsafe to catechize any the Dialogue between them and the Catechized would thus proceed Cons. Do ye believe these sacred Volumes to be the Word of God Catech. We do Cons. Are you certain they are Catech. So we hope Cons. How can your hope be sure for Mahomet saith His Alchoran is sundry other Hereticks say their fained revelations or false traditions are Gods Word How can you assure us ye may not be deceived as well as they Are not many of them as good Schollers as you Catech. Yes indeed and better Cons. Are not you subject unto error as well as they Catech. Would God we were not Cons. What must you do then to be ascertained these are divine revelations Cat. Nay we know not but this is that which we especially desire to know and would bind our selves in any bond to such as could teach us Cons. Well said do you not think it reason then to be ruled in this case by such as cannot be deceived Cat. It is meet we should Cons. Lo we are the men we are the true visible Church placed in authoritie by Christ himself for this purpose These Scriptures tell you plainly as much ãâã Petrus super hanc Petram c His holiness whom here you see is Peters Successor sole heir of that promise far more glorious then the Jewish Church ever had any 2 This is the very quintessence and extraction of huge and corpulent volumes written in this argument which our English Mountibanks sent hither from the Seminaries venditate as a Paracelsian medicin able to make men immortal The summ of all that others write or they alleadge is this âvery one may pretend what writings he lists to be the word of God who shall be the infalliale Judge either of written or unwritten revelations Must not the Church for she is Magistra Judex fidei These are the words and this is the very Argument wherein Valentians soul it seems did most delight he useth them so oft But to proceed The parties Catechized thus by the visible Church it self should any Protestant enter Dialogue with them how they know those received Scriptures to be the Word of God could answer I trow sufficiently to this question thus Mary sir we know better then you For we heard the visible Church which cannot erre say so with our own ears Prot. You are most certain then that these are the Oracles of God because the visible Church Gods living Oracle did bear testimony of them Catech. Yea sir and their testimony is most infallible Prot. But what if you doubt again of their infallibilities How will you answer this objection Mahomet saith his Alcoran is Scripture the Turkish Priests wil tel you as much viva voce and shew you if you be disposed to believe them evident places therein for his infallibility Manes could say that he had divine revelations The Pope pretends he hath this infallibilitie which neither of them had Who shall judge the Consistory But why should you think they may not erre as wel as others Did they shew you any evidence out of Scriptures or did they bring you to such entire acquaintance with their publick spirit as to approve your selves Divine Criticks of all questions concerning the Canon as oft as any doubt should arise Catech Oh no these audacious Criticismes of private men they utterly detest and forewarned us upon pain of damnation to beware of For there is no private person but may erre and for such to judge of Scriptures were presumption justly damnable Rely they must for this reason upon the Churches infallibility and that continually It alone cannot without it all others may erre as wel as Manes Mahomet Nestorius or Eutyches undoubtedly believing it cannot erre we our selves are as free from error as he that follows such good counsel given by others as he cannot give himself is more secure then he that altogether follows his own advice albeit better able to counsel others then the former Prot. Then I perceive your onely hold-fast in all temptations your onely anchor when any blasts of vain doctrine arise is this The present Romish Church canndt erre for if you doubt of any doctrine taught to the contrary ask her and she will resolve you or if you cannot see the Truth in it self yet believe without all wavering as she believes that sees it and you shall be as safe as if you rode in the harbour in a storm Catech. Ah yes Gods holy name be praised who hath so well provided for his Church for otherwise hereticks and schismaticks would shake and toss her even in this main point or ground of faith as evil spirits do ships in tempests we must either hold this Test sure or else all is gone God hath left off speaking unto men and wee cannot tell whether ever he spake to them or no but as the present Church which speaks viva voce tels us 3 But the Reader perhaps expects what inconvenience will hence follow First hereby it is apparent that Belief of Scriptures divine Truth and their true sense absolutely and immediately depends upon the Churches proposal or rather upon their Belief of what it proposeth as well after they are confirmed in that general point That they are Gods words as in the instant of their confirmation in it The first necessary consequence of which opinion is That the Church must be more truely and properly believed then any part of Scriptures or matter contained in it For in this matter of dependance that transcendent rule of Nature ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hath it proper force whether we speak of the Essence Existence or Quality of things being or existing that upon which any other thing thus absolutely and continually depends doth more properly and really exist and hath much firmer interest in it essence and existence then ought can have which depends upon it One there is and no more that can truely say My Essence is Mine own and my Existence necessary Whatsoever is besides is but a shadow or picture borrowed from his infinite being Amongst created Entities all essentially depending
on Him Accidents have a kind of existence peculiar to themselves yet cannot so properly be said to exist as their subjects on whom they have such double dependance Nor can the Moon so truely say my beauty is my own as may the Sun which lends light and splendor to this his sister as it were upon condition she never use it but in his sight For the same reason That for which we believe another thing is alwaies more truely more really and more properly believed then that which is believed for it if the one belief necessarily depend upon the other Tam in facto esse quam in sieri from the first beginning to the latter end For of beliefs thus mutually affected the one is real and radical the other nominal or at the most by participation only real This consequence is unsound Intellective knowledge depends on sensitive therfore sensitive is of these two the surer The reason is because intellective knowledge depends on sensitive onely in the acquisition not after it is acquired But this inference is most undoubted We believe the conclusion for the premisses therefore we believe the premisses the better because belief of the conclusion absolutely depends upon the premisses during the whole continuance of it This is the great Philosophers Rule and a branch of the former Axiom And some justly question whether in Scholastick proprietie of speech we can truely say there is a belief of the conclusion distinct from the belief of the premisses or rather the belief of the premisses is by extrinsical denomination attributed unto the conclusion This latter opinion at least in many Syllogismes is the truer most necessarily true in all wherein the conclusion is a particular essentially subordinate to an universal of truth unquestionable As be that infallibly believes every man is a reasonable creature infallibly believes Socrates is such Nor can we say there be two distinct beliefs one of the universal another of this particular for he that sayeth All excepteth âone If Socrates then make one in the Catalogue of men he that formerly knew all knew him to be a reasonable Creature all he had to learn was what was meant by this name Socrates a man or a beast After he knows him to be a man in knowing him to be a reasonable creature he knows no more then he did before in that uniuersal Every man is a reasonable creature The like consequence holds as firm in our present argument He that believes this universal Whatsoever the Church proposeth concerning Scriptures is most true hath no more to learn but onely what particulars the Church proposeth These being known we cannot imagine there should be two distinct Beliefs one of the Churches general infallibilitie another of the particular truths or points of faith contained in the Scripture proposed by it For as in the former case so in this He that from the Churches proposal believes or knowes this particular The Book of Revelations was from God receives no increase of former belief For before he believed all the Church did propose and therefore this particular Because one of all 4 The truth of this Conclusion may again from a main principle of Romish Faith be thus demonstrated Whatsoever unwritten traditions the Church shall propose though yet unheard of or unpossible otherwise to be known then onely by the Churches asseveration all Romanists are bound as certainly to believe as devoutly to embrace as any truths contained in the written word acknowledged by us the Jews and them for divine Now if either from their own experience the joynt consent of sincere antiquitie or testimony of Gods spirit speaking to thâm in private or what means soever else possible or imaginable they gave any absolute credence unto the written word or matters containd in it besides that they give unto the Churches general veracitie the Scriptures by addition of this credence were it great or little arising from these grounds peculiâr to them must needs be morefirmly believed and embraced then such unwritten traditions as are in themselves suspicious uncapable of other Credit then what they borrow from the Church For in respect of the Churches proposal which is one and the same alike peremptory in both Scriptures and traditions of what kind soever must be equally believed And if such traditions as can have no assurance besides the Churches testimony must be as well believed as Scriptures or Divine truths contained in them the former conclusion is evidently necessary That they neither believe the Scriptures nor the truths contained in them but the Churches proposal of them onely For the least belief of any Divine Truth added to belief of the Churches proposal which equally concerns written and unwritten verities would dissolve the former equality But that by the Trent Councel may not be dissolved Therefore our adversaries in deed and verity believe no Scriptures nor Divine written Truth but the Churches proposal onely concerning them And Sacrobosous bewrays his readâness to believe the Church as absolutely as my Châistian can do God or Christ though no ãâã of the New-Testament were extant Foâ âhat the Church cannot erre was an ââ¦led by God proposed by the Church â⦠by the thâ faithful before any part of the New âestament was written Now he that without ãâã Dâctrines of Jesus Christ would believe the Doctrines of faith as sirmly as with it believes not the Gospel which now he hath but their authorities onely upon which though we had it not he would as absolute rely for all matters of Doctrine supposed to be contained in it 5 Of further to illustrate the truth of our conclusion with this Jesuites former comparison which hath best illustrated the Romish Churches Tenent That Church in respect of the Canon of Scriptures or any part thereof is as the light is to colours As no colour can be seen of us but by the light so by his Doctrine neither the Canon of Scriptures or any part thereof can be known without the Churches testimony Again as removal of light presently makes us lose the sight of colours so doubt or denial of the Churches authority dâprives us of all true and stedfast belief concerning Gods Word or any matter contained in it God as they plead hath revealed his will obseurely and unto a distinct or clear apprehension of what is obscurely revealed the visible Churches declaration is no less necessary then light to discernment of colours The Reason is one in both and is this As the actual visibility of colours wholly depends upon the light as well for existence as duration so by Jesuitical Doctrine True belief of Scriptures wholly depends on the visible Churches Declaration as well during the whole continuance as the first producing of it By the same reason as we gather that light in it self is more visible then colours seeing by it alone colours become actually visible so will it necessarily follow that the Churches Declaration that is the Popes priviledge for not
erring is more stedfastly to be believed as more credible in it self then either the Canon of Scriptures or any thing therein contained because these become actually credible unto us onely by the Churches Declaration which cannot possibly ought avail for their belief unless it were better believed 6 Perhaps the Reader will here challenge me that this last instance proves not all that I proposed in the Title of this chapter For it onely proves the Popes supremacie is better to be believed then that Christ is come in the flesh that God did ever speak to men in former ages by his Prophets and ââ¦tter by his Son But this infers no absolute alienation of our belief from Christ seeing even in this respect that we believe the Church or Pope so well we must needs âelieve that Christ is come in the flesh and that God hath spoken to us sundry ways for thus much the Pope avouââeth Yea but what if the Church teach us that Christ is our Lord and Redeemer and âet urge us to do that which is contumelious to his Majesty What if it teach us that these Scriptures are Gods Word and yet binde us by her infallible dââââes to break his Laws and give his spirit the lye Should we make profession of believing as the Pope teacheth and yet take his meaning to be only such as Marnixius whom we better believe would make it His Holiness would quickly pronounce us Apostat's from the Catholick faith Or if this suffice not the indifferent Reader for satisfying my former promise let him have patience but for a while and I will pay him all 7 Their first main position That no private man can certainly know the Canon of Scriptures to be Gods Word but by relying upon the present Church infers as much as hath been said much more will follow from their second That no man can certainly be perswaded of the true sense and meaning of particular propositions contained in the general Canon without the same Churches testimony unto whom the authentick interpretation or dijudication of Scriptures âholly belongs Imagine the former parties now fully perswaded of the Scriptures divine truth in general should by the Consistory which late Câââchized them be questioned about the meaning of some particular plaâââ Consist We hope you adore the consecrated host with Divine worship as oft as you meet it in procession Cat. Desirous we are to do any thing that becomes good Christians and obedient Sons unto our holy mother the Church but we cannot satisfie our consciences how this may stand with the principles of Christianity Your Holinesses for which we rest yours unto death have assured us these sacred volumes are the very words of God and his words we know must be obeyed Now since we know these to be his words we have found it written in them Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve It is we doubt our simplicity that will not suffer us to conceive how the consecrated Host can be adored as God without open breach of his commandement For to our shallow understanding there is no necessity to perswade us Christ God and man should be hid in it These words Hoc est corpus meâm may bear many interpretations no way pregnant to this purpose And it is doubtful whether Christs Body though really present in the Sacrament should retain the same presence in procession whereas the former commandement is plain We must worship the Lord our God and him only must we serve Consist Ye think this Text is plain to your late purpose we think otherwise Whether is more meet ye to submit your private opinions to our publick spirits or us that are Pastors to learn of you silly sheep Cat. Therefore are your servants come unto you that they may learn how to obey you in this decree without Idolatry well hoping that as ye enjoyn us absolutely to obey you in it so ye can give us full assurance we shall not disobey the Spirit of God in the former great commandement whose exposition we most desire 8 Would these or like supplications though conceived in Christian modesty though proposed with religious fear and awfull regard of their persons though presented with tears and sighes or other more evident signes of inward sorrow find any entrance into Romish Prelates ears or move the Masters of the Inquisition house to forbear exaction of obedience to the forâer or other Decree of the Trent Councel Were the Form of the Decree it self unto private judgements never so contradictory to Gods expresse written lawes or the consequence of practizing as it prescribes never so dreadful to the doubtful conscience How much better then were it for such silly souls had they never known the Books of Moses to have been from God for so committing idolatrie with stocks and stones or other creatures they had done what was displeasing to their Master and justly punishable yet with fewer stripes because his will was not made known unto them But now they know it and acknowledge the truth of this Commandement To what end That they may be left without all excuse for not doing it They see the general truth of Gods Oracles that they may be more desperately blinded in wilfull perverting the particulars For what glory could the allurement of silly ignorant men to simple idolatry be unto great Antichrist Let them first subscribe to the written Lawes of the everliving God and afterwards wholly submit themselves to his determinations for their practise and so the opposition betwixt him and the Deity betwixt his injunctions and the Decrees of the Almighty may be more positive more directly contrary The Heathen or others not acknowledging Gods Word at all are rightly termed unbelievers men thus believing the Scriptures in general to be Gods Word from the testimony of the Church and yet absolutely relying upon her judgement for the meaning of particular places are transported from unbelief to misbelief from grosse ignorance to wilfull defiance of God and his Lawes Finally they are brought to know Gods Word that they may doubt in this and like fearful practises enjoyned that so first doubting and afterwards desperately resolving absolutely to follow the Churches injunction against that sence and meaning of the divine decrees which the holy Spirit doth dictate to their private consciences they may without doubt be damned for not abiding in the truth Like their first parents they hear Gods sentence but prefer the interpretations of Sathans first-born before their own because it must be presumed he is more subtle then they Or to referre the two main streames of thâs iniquity to their proper heads The first That we cannot know the old or new Testament to be Gods Word but by relying upon the Church makes all subscribers to it real Atheists or Infidels and Christians onely in conceit or upon condition If the Church whose authority they so highly esteem be as infallible as is pretende Heretofore I have
much grieved at the Trent Councels impietie but now I wonder at these grave Fathers folly that would trouble themselves with prescribing so many Canons or overseeing so large a Catechisme when as the beginning of Protagoras Book one or two words altered might have comprehended the entire confession of such mens faith as rely upon their Fatherhoods The Atheist thus began his Book De dijs non haââo quod decam utrum sint necne Concerning the Gods or their being I can say nothing A private Roman Catholick might render an entire account of his faith in termes as brief De Christo Christiana fide non habeo quod dicam utrum sint necne Whether there be a Christ or Christian Religion be but a Politick Fable I have nothing to say peremptorily yea or no the Church or Councel can determine whom in this and all other points wherin God is a party I will absolutely believe whilest I live if at my death I find they teach amâe let the devil and they if there be a devil decide the controversie Yet this conceit or conditional Belief of Christ and Christianity conceived from the former serves as a ground colour for disposing mens souls to take the sable dye of Hell wherewith the second main stream of Romish impietie will deeply infect all such as drink of it For once believing Gods Word from the Churches testimony this absolute submission of their consciences to embrace that sence it shall suggest sublimates them from refined Heathinisme or Gentilisme to diabolisme or symbolizing with infernal spirits whose chiefest solace consists in acting greatest villanies or wresting the meaning of Gods written Lawes to his dishonour For just proof of which imputation we are to prevent what as we late intimated might in favour of their opinion be replied to our former instance of light and colours 9 Some perhaps well affected would be resolved why as he that sees colours by the sun sees not only the sun but colours with it so he that believes the Scriptures by relying upon the Church should not believe the Church onely but the Scriptures too commended by it The doubt could hardly be resolved if according to our adversaries Tenent the Churches declarations did confirm our faith by illustrating the Canon of Scriptures or making particular truths contained in it inherently more perspicuous as if they were in themselves but potentially credible and made actually such by the Churches Testimony which is the first and Principal Credible in such sort as colours become actually visible by illumination of the principal and prime visible But herein the grounds of Romish doctrine and the instance brought by Sacroboscus to illustrate it are quite contrary For the light of the Sun though most necessary unto sight is yet necessary onely in respect of the object or for making colours actually visible which made such or sufficiently illuminated are instantly perceived without further intermediation of any other light then the internal light of the Organ in discerning colours alwayes rather hindered then helped by circumfusion of light external For this reason it is that men in a pit or cave may at noon day see the starres which are invisible to such as are in the open air not that they are more illuminated to the one then the other but because plentie of light doth hinder the Organ or eye-sight of the one Generally all objects either actually visible in themselves or sufficiently illuminated are better perceived in darknesse then in the light But so our Adversaries will not grant that after the Church hath sufficiently proposed the whole Canon to be Gods Word the distinct meaning of every part is more clear and facile to all private spirits by how much they lesse participate of the visible Churches further illustration For quite contrary to the former instance the Churches testimony or declaration is onely necessary or available to right belief in respect not of the object to be believed Scriptures but of the party believing For as hath been observed no man in their judgement can believe Gods Word or the right meaning of it but by believing the Church and all belief is inherent in the believer Yea this undoubted Belief of the Churches authority is that which in Bellarmine and Sacroboscus's judgement makes a Roman Catholicks belief of Scriptures or divine truths taught by them much better then a Protestants If otherwise the Churches declaration or testimony could without the belief of it infallibility which is inherent in the subject believing make Scriptures credible as the light doth colours visible in themselves a Protestant that knew their Churches meaning might as truely believe them as a Roman Catholick albeit he did not absolutely believe the Church but onely use her help for their Orthodoxal interpretation as he doth ordinary Expositors or as many do the benefit of the Sun for seeing colours which never think whether colours may be seen without it or no. For though it be certain that they cannot yet this opinion is meerly accidental to their sight and if a man should be so wilfull as to maintain the contrary it would argue only blindness of mind none of his bodily sight Nor should distrust of the Romish Churches authority ought diminish our Belief of any divine Truth were her declarations requisite in respect of the object to be believed not in respect of the subject believing 10 Hence ariseth that difference which plainly resolves the former doubt For seeing the Sun makes colours actually visible by adding vertue or lustre to them we may rightly say we see colours as truely as the light by which we see them For though without the benefit of it they cannot be seen yet are they not seen by seeing it or by relying upon it testimony of them Again because the use of light is onely necessarie in respect of the object or for presenting colours to the eye after once they be sufficiently illuminated or presented every creature endued with sight can immediately discern each from other without any further help or benefit of external light then the general whereby they become all alike actually visible at the same instant The Suns light then is the true cause why colours are seen but no cause of our distinguishing one from another being seen or made actuallie visible by it For of all sensible objects sufficiently proposed the sensitive faculty though seated in a private person is the sole immediat supreme Judge and relies not upon any others more publick verdict of them On the contrary because the Romanists supposed firm belief of Scriptures or their true meaning ariseth only from his undoubted belief of the Churches veracicie which is in the believer as in it subject not from any increase of inherent credibilitie or perspicuitie thence propagated to the Scriptures Hence it is that consequently to his positions most repugnant to all truth he thinks after the Church hath sufficiently avouched the Scriptures divine truth in general we
cannot infalliblie distinguish the true sence and meaning of one place from another but must herein also rely upon the Churches testimony and onely believe that sence to be repugnant that consonant to the analogie of faith which she shall tender albeit our private consciences be never so well informed by other Scriptures to the contrary The truth then of our former conclusion is hence easily manifested For seeing they hold both the Scriptures and their distinct sence to be obscure and unable to ascertain themselves unlesse the Church adde perspicuitie or facilitie of communicating their meaning to private spirits such after the Churches proposal cannot possibly discern them any better or more directly in themselves then they did before but must wholy rely upon their Prelates as if these were the onely watchmen in the Tower of Gods Church that could by vertue of their place discern all divine truth Others must believe there is an omnipotent God which hath given his Law a Mediator of the new Testament but what the meaning either of Law or Gospel is they may not presume otherwise to determine then weak sights do of things they see confusedly a farre off whose particular distance or difference they must take onely upon other mens report that have seen them distinctly and at hand 11 To illustrate these deductions with the former similitude of the prime and secondary visibles Let us suppose for disputations sake that the Sun which illuminates colours by its light were further indued as we are with sense and reason able to judge of all the differences between them which it can manifest to us and hence challenge to be a Pope or infallible proposer of colours This supposition the Canonist hath made lesse improbable For Deus fecit duo luminaria God made two lights that is by his interpretation the Pope and the Emperour Or if you please to mitigate the harshnesse of it let the Man in the Moon whom we may not imagine speechlesse be supposed the Sun or Pope of colours his Mercurie or Nuncio As the Papists say we cannot know Scriptures to be Scriptures but by the infallible proposal of the Church so it is evident we cannot see any colour at all unlesse illuminated or proposed by the Suns light But after by it we see them suppose we should take upon us to discourse of their nature or determine of their distinct properties as now we do and the Sun or Pope of colours by himself or his Nuncio should take us up as Duke Humphrey did the blind man restored to sight which he never had lost Yea who taught you to distinguish colours were you not quite blind but now as yet you cannot discern any colours without my publick light and yet will you presume to define their properties and distinguish their natures against my definitive sentence known Must not he that enables you to see them enable you to distinguish them seen Must you not wholly rely upon my authority whether this be white or that black If a man upon these Motives should absolutely believe the Suns determinations renouncing the judgement of his private senses could he truely say that he either knew this colour to be white or that black or another green Rather were he not bound to say I neither know white from black nor black from blew nor blew from green but I know that to be white which the Sun the onely infallible Judge of colours saith is white that onely to be black that blew and that green which he shall determine so to be I may think indeed that the snow is white or coals black but with submission to the Suns determination 12 And yet as you have heard at large out of the Trent Councel and best Apologies can be made for it the Church must be the infallible Judge of all Scripture sence and must absolutely be believed without all appeal to Scriptures not conditionally as she shall accord with them The conclusion hence issuing is most infallible and on their parts most inevitable Whosoever absolutely acknowledgeth this authority in the Church or Consistory and yeelds such obedience unto it in all determinations concerning the Canon of Scriptures doth not believe either this or that determinate proposition of faith or any definite meaning of Gods Word The best resolution he can make of his faith is this I believe that to be the meaning of every place which the Church shall define to be the meaning which is all one as if he had said I do not believe the Scriptures or their meaning but I believe the Churches decision and sentence concerning them He that believes not the Church saith Canus but with this limitation if it give sentence according unto Scriptures doth not believe the Church but the Scriptures By the same reason it followes most directly he that believes not the true sence and meaning of Scriptures but with this reservation if the Church so think or determine doth not believe them but the Church onely For as the Schoolmen say Ubi unum propter aliud ibi unum tantum He that serves God onely because he would be rich doth not serve God but his riches albeit he performe the outward acts of obedience Or if we love a man onely for his affinity with another whom we dearly love we truely and properly love but the one the other onely by way of reflexion or denomination in such a sence as we say a man appears by his proxie that is his proxie appears not he In like sort believing the sence of Scriptures onely from the supposed authentick declaration of the Church or because we believe it we infalliblie believe the Church alone not the Scriptures but onely by an extrinsecal denomination 13 Yet as a man may from some reasons lesse probable have an opinion of what he certainly knowes by motives more sound or as we may love one in some competent measure for his owne sake and yet affect him more entirely for anothers whom we most dearly love so may an absolute Papist in some moral sort believe the Scriptures for themselves or hold their authodoxal sence as probable to his private judgement albeit he believe them most for the Churches sake and that sence best which it commends But this his belief of the Church being by their doctrine more then moral or conditional doth quite overthrow all moral or probable belief he can possiblie have from what ground soever of Scriptures themselves For as I said before the Church shall determine ought contrary to his preconceived opinion the more probable or strong it was the more it encreaseth his doubt and makes his contrary resolution more desperate yea more damnable if habitual because ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã extreamly contrary to the doctrine of faith Bellarmins prescription in this case is just as if a Physitian or Surgeon should seek to case the pain by ending of the Patients dayes Lest a man should sin against his conscience this
Doctor adviseth him to believe the Church cannot teach anusse 14 To conclude then He that absolutely believes the Pope as Christs Vicar general in all things without examination of his Decrees by Evangelical precepts neither believes Christ nor his Gospel no not when this pretended Vicar teacheth no otherwise then his Masters lawes prescribe For thus believing a divine truth onely from this mans authority he commits such Idolatry with him for the kind or essence as the Heathen did with Mercurie their false Gods supposed messenger though so much more hainous in degree as his general notion of the true God is better whose infinite goodnesse cannot entertain an interpreter no better qualified then most Popes are did his wisdom stand in need of any But if when the Pope shall teach the doctrine of Devils men absolutely believe it to be Christs because his pretended Vicar commends it to them in thus believing they commit such preposterous Idolatrie as those of Calecut which adore the Devil upon conceit doubtlesse of some celestial or divine power in him as the absolute Papist doth not adore the Pope but upon perswasion he is Christs Vicar and teaches as Christ would do viva voce were he again on earth And lesse it were to be lamented did these Pseudo-Catholicks professe their allegiance to Sathans incarnate Agent as to their supreme Lord by such solemne sacrisices onely as the inhabitants of Calient performe to wicked spirits But this their blind belief of whatsoever he shall determine upon a proud and foolish imagination he is Christs Vicar emboldens them to invert the whole Law of God and nature to glory in villany and triumph in mischief even to seek praise and honour eternal from acts so foul and hideous as the light of nature would make the Calecutians or other Idolaters blush at their very mention It is a sure token he hath not yet learned the Alphabet of their religion that doubts whether Jesuitical doctrine concerning this absolute belief extend not to all matters of fact And if out of simplicity rather then policie so they speak I cannot but much pity their folly that would perswade us it were not the fault of Romish Religion but of the men that profess it which hath inticed so many unto such devilish practises of late I would the Jesuite were but put to instance what kind of villany either hath been already acted on earth or can yet possibly be hatched in the region under the earth so hideous and ugly as would seem deformed or odious to such as are wholly led by this blind faith if it should but please the Romish Clergie to give a mild or favorable censure of it No brat of hell but would seem as beautifull to their eyes as young todes are to their dammes if their mother once commend the feature of it or acknowledge it for her darling Did not some of the Powder-plot after Gods powerfull hand had overtaken them and sentence of death had passed upon them even when the Executioner was ready to do his last office to them make a question whether their plot were sinfull or no So modest were some of them and so obedient sonnes to the Church of Rome that they would not take upon them to say either the one or other but referred the matter to their mothers determinations hereby testifying unto the world that if the Church would say they would believe so great an offence against their Countrey were none against God One of them was so obstinate as to sollicit his fellow whilest both were drawn upon one hurdle to the gallowes not to acknowledge it for any sin Or if these must be reputed but private men not well acquainted with their Churches Tenents and therefore no fit instances to disapprove her doctrine let the ingenious Reader but peruse their best Writers answers to the objections usually made against the Popes transcendent authority and he shall easily perceive how matters of fact are included in the Belief of it how by it all power is given him in heaven and earth to pervert the use and end of all Lawes humane or divine I will content my self for this present with some few instances out of Valentian CAP. XXXI Proving the last Assertion or generally the imputations hitherto laid upon the Papacie by that authority the Jesuites expresly give unto the Pope in matters of particular Fact as in the canonizing of Saints 1 HOw oft soever the Pope in defining questions of faith shall use his authority that opinion which he shall determine to be a point of faith must be received as a point of faith by all Christian people If you further demand how shall we know when the Pope useth this his absolute authority this Doctor in the same place thus resolves you It must be believed that he useth this his authority as often as in controversies of faith he so determines for the one part that he will binde the whole Church to receive his decision Lest stubborn spirits might take occasion to calumniate the Pope for taking or the Jesuites for attributing tyrannical authority unto him this Jesuite would have you to understand that the Pope may avouch some things which all men are not bound to hold as Gospel nay he may erre though not when he speaks ex Cathedra as Head of the Church yet when he speaks or writes as a private Doctor or Expositor and onely sets down his own opinion without binding others to think as he doth Thus did Innocent the third and other Popes write divers books which are not in every part true and infallible as if they had proceeded from their Pontificial authority Yea but what if this present Pope or any of his Successors should bind all Christians to believe that Pope Innocents Books were in every part infalliblie true Whether must we in this case believe Valentian or the Pope thus determining better If Valentian in the words immediately following deserve any credit we must believe the Pope better then himself yea he himself must recant his censure of Pope Innocents works For so in the other part of his distinction he addes Secundo potest Pontifex asserere The Pope again may avouch something so as to bind the whole Church to receive his opinion and that no man shall dare to perswade himself to the contrary And whatsoever he shall thus avouch in any controversie of Religion we must assuredly believe he did avouch it without possibilitie of Error and therefore by his Pontificial authoritie His proof is most consonant to his assertion I will not recite it in English lest the meer English Reader should suspect any able to understand Latin could be possibly so ridiculous 2 These lavish prerogatives of the Popes authoritie the Jesuites see wel to be obnoxious to this exception When the Pope doth Canonize a Saint he bindes all men to take him for a Saint Can he not herein erre As for Canonizing of Saints saith
then demonstrative Evidence of divine Truths which glorified Saints enjoy and obseurity or Jewish Blindness The particular manner how Gods Spirit works lively Faith by such Experiments as ââ¦tly I did and hereafter must acquaint him withall the Reader I hope will gather of his own accord out of the discourses following concerning the nature of Christian Faith and the Principal Objects thereof whereunto my Meditations are now add ãâã my long durance in this unpleasant subject having bred in my soul a more eagâr thâ⦠after these well springs of life FINIS Though the Observant Reader may serve himself well of the Contents of every Chapter and the Table of Texts of Scripture as also of the Titles of every Page and Marginal Briefs yet for his further advantage is made this ensuing Table To which every Reader may adde what he pleases space being left The Figure signifies the Page M. the Margin A THe sin of Aaron extenuated by Jews pag. 38 Abrahams faith and Jews stubbornness 132 The sin of Abiram aggravated 410 The Authors Aboadment 507 His prayer 508 Apparitions of Heathen Gods 34 c. Actions humane distinguished 168 Actions not of faith 177 to 184 See Doubts Not of Faith Obedience The same ill Action may be less of faith in the confident then in the scrupler 184 Best method to square our actions to the rule of faith 185 Adrians severity against the Jews 111 112 c. Acosta's zeal for Popes supremacy 314 Adam did eat not doubting yet condemned 185 Adoration of the Hoast dangerous to mens souls 328 Council of Trents decree for adoration 329 m. To Adore a creature wherein the divel lurks Vasques thinks lawful if one direct not Worship to him 329 Saracens Adore a stone and a star 107 Adoration of a dead dog deliberated if not done 501 m. Ahabs Prophets 418 Elijahs and Michaiahs Prophesies abused by Polititians 1b Albigenses and Picards persecuted by the Provost Stenelda who wrote to S. Bernard about them 245 c. Alexander the great General to Solomon say the Turks 46 Ancient times not to be measured by latter and why 37 to 42 How we may dissent from the Ancient 266 267 268 Angels sent to gather the elect how meant 101 Angels got Israel miraculous victories 35 Androgyni Platonis 56 Different Ages divers events 309 c. We mistrust Antiquity why 37. c. Alphon. the great got great honor being prisoner 61 Antoninies Army relieved with water 78 Arnuphis the sorcerer by the Heathen said to do it ibid. Arabians cruelty to the Jews Ambassadors 77 Antichrists exaltation first degree 315 c. Second degree of it 375 c. Third degree 464 c. Excesse of His exaltation 449 c. Antichrist may in formall termes confesse Christ 355 Antichrists spirit ib. Antichristianisme not contradictory to Christianity but contrary 355 Romish religion So. ib. 360 Antichrist a Judas a secret underminer 373 The Great Antichrist 347 c. 374. Antidote against Romish enchanting sorcery 307 Apothegmes Crantzius 139. Carafa's 505. P. Leo's ib. Assent conditional 189 c. It differs from implicit faith 196 Four things considerable for guiding our Assent to truth proposed 191 Assent See belief and faith Atheists credulous in their kind though mistrustfull of Scripture 37 Atheists rare in old time 38 Authorit as docentis how it is a ground unto unevident Assent 2 3 Authority Divine is ground of faith infallible 7 Authority of Jewish Church after Moses his death 411 c. Authority see Pope Sanedrim Universall Aristotles Rule for Poets To have a true History for ground 27 Aristotle confounds the Causes 54 He leads us not to the First Cause or last end ergo imperfect ib. B BAal See Prophets Beclzebub might cast out devils upon designe as Cheaters lose 436 Baptisme with water and the holy Ghost Typified by the pillar of cloud and of fire 447 Babels building transformed by Poets into the Giants war 56 Roma Babel rediviva 244 245 Bassina's vision 4â Belief is an assent without plain evidence 2 3 Belief how increased in strength and certainty 4 5 6 Objects of Belief distinguished 5 Belief of Gods Word though but conditionall what it effects and requires 8 9 Belief of Scriptures how to be confirmed by experiments in our selves 140 to 145 Belief of known Oracles confirmed in S. Peter by experiment 140 Belief of God wrought in Naaman by experiment onely 141 See experiment Belief of principal parts of Scripture ties our faith to the rest 148 c. Belief of Scripture to be got by practise not by Discourse 150 Belief must be wrought by the Spirit though by means 150 See Faith Conditional Belief the nature use conditions properties of it 189 Pronenesse to Believe when and in whom good or ill 419 Romish Belief meerly Humane 365 c. He that Believes the Romish Churches Authority as some teach it Believes no Article of Christian faith 464 He that Believes the Pope absolutely without all examination believes nor Christ nor his Gospel 494 Such Belief emboldens the Believer to villany ib. Romish Belief on the Church not on God 478 c. Bellarmin cited Bellarmins Catholick fyllogisme and resolution of faith 319 c. Bellarmins strange position if the Pope call evil good Papists must believe it 322. m. Bellarmins Put-off about Ahabs 400 prophets 418 Bellarmin confesses that nor Pope nor Councils can judge of scripture translated into modern Languages 157 St. Bernard against Rodulphus a vile Monk who preach't it was lawfull to spoil the Jewes to maintain the Holy war 117 Blasphemie Romish 309 c. 315 c. Blasphemy preferring Human Authority before Divine 316 Mouth of Blasphemy 450 502 More Blasphemy Romish 460 499 507 C CAnonical Books of the Old Testament to be known by the Jew 146 Of the New now confirmed 147 Trent Canon about Canonical Books 310 c. Cansuizing vide Saints Canus cited Caxus See Romish Writers in letter R. Cajetan and Cassander desired Reformation 276 Cardinall Carafa's blessing to the people 505 French Cardinals addresse to St. Cuthbert at Durham 160 Carbarinus defends the Council of Trent yet holds certainty of salvation 274 Ex Cathedra hard to know when the Pope speaks of it 404 Characters of sacred Writings 13 Charles Martel his martial Act. 110 c. Christian Religion confirmed by the ceasing of Oracles 30 c. Christ why so little spoken of by Heathen Writers 113 Christian Expeditions to recover Jewry bring evil upon the Jews 116 The Christian Cause and Cause called Catholick 155 Similitude betwixt Christ and Moses 434 c. Christs predictions and discovery of secrets prove him to be God and the Messiah 441 Church our Church in Romish as gold in drosse 245 m Comparison between our Church and the Romish for means of ending Controversies 272 c. The Church of Rome most needs means to end and take up Controversies 275 c. Jewish Church Representative a corrupt Judge in matters of God 422
c. He hath not God for his Father that hath not the Church his Mother 465 Churches proposal the Cause of Romish faith 467 The Church the Church see Templum Domini Church see Infallibility Belief The Enthusiasts Circle 150 Circle dolus circulatorius 291 to 293 508 Sacrebosco in a Circle 294 297. see Valentian Coaliers Circle 242 Coaliers Catechisme 292 Conditional see Assent faith belief obedience Cassius his sacriledge at Jerusalem and pilling the Jews punished 67 Crassus his sacriledge at Jerusalem the cause of his destruction 65 66 Crassus his overthrow and sin misapplied ib. Crassus his sinne pointed out in his punishment 66 67 Young Crassus and Old their Ominous stumble as they came out of the Temple at Hierapolis 65. c. St. Cyprian sinned not deadly in contradicting Pope Stephen sayes Bellarmin 313 m. Cup confessed by the Trent Council usuall of old yet forbid by it 330 c. and that upon a Text fore strained 332 c. Cup essentiall 335. Pope may grant it 338 m. A Queen poisoned in the Cup Greg. Tours 330 Council of Trent cited D DAlilah by Poets made Scylla 48 Day of the Lord not limited to one day 100 102 Deliverance from Popery like that from Egypt 138 Divine Authority ground of faith 7 Dialogue of Protestant and Papist 485 Dialogue of Catech. and Consistory 489 Differences dissensions amongst Learned See Scripture Disobedience see Obedience Deucalions flood 50 c. Divels believe how 3 Doctrine Christs doctr tried by Moses his and the Prophets Popes must not be so no not by Christs 428 Belief of Christs Doctrine without triall by Moses c. had been not belief but blindness 429 Christs Doctrine is to Moses his c. as the Conclusion is to the premisses 430 S. Peter proves his doctrine by Moses and the Prophets 453 S. Paul lets his doctrine be examined 456 So doth Christ 428 All doctrine to be tried by scripture 458 Doctrine of Infallibility dangerous to States 499 507 worst of all errors heresies blasphemies ib. in Canonizing Saints dangerous 501 danger from Gods wrath 502 more of the danger of that doctrine 503 This doctrine inverts the Frame of Christian Religion ib. Doubts may arise from extending unduly the meaning of scripture 179 One may in some Case obey or disobey not without doubt yet without sin 180 Every doubt is not sufficient to deny obedience 186 The Text He that doubts c. expounded 179 180 Adam condemned for eating though he doubted not about it 185 One may sin doubting of the Popes or Churches power yet not sin in examining it whilest he doubts says Bell. 313 m. 458 m. 420 Dreams of them in particular 27 c. Wickedness worldliness policie caused defect of Gods warning men by Dreams 29 Bassinas Dream 41 Dreams usual amongst the Patriarchs c. 28 yea to eminent persons and others perhaps that knew not the true God 29 Strabo says Moses taught chastity requisite in those that expected direction from God in Dreams 29 E EDition vulgar part Lucians part S. Jeroms part Theodotions the heretick saies Bellarmine 300 See translation Ecclesiastick writers of the first age why so silent of the wonders of that age 98 99 End he that commends the end commends the necessary means is a rule 420 Eleazar presents a Golden beam to Crassus 66 Emicho wastes the Jews and kils twelve thousand of them 116 Enthusiasme dangerous 150 c. England Jews calamities there 120 c. See Jews Euphrates compounded of Hu prath 56 Evidence excluded from belief 2 Evidence drowns belief 2 Evidence excluded from the thing directly believed not from things united to it 2 Exceptions See objections and universal Experiments of Scripture-truth in our selves how to be found 140 to 145 how to be framed in our selves 144 Experience confirmed S. Peter in the truth of a known Oracle 140 Experiments fruitful and powerful in hearts prepared 142 c. Experiments uneffectual in hearts indisposed why 143 c. Experiments of scripture truth small in our dayes and why so 145 Script as rule of dyet Experiments as nutriment Gods spirit as the digestive 150 c. Experiments confirm faith 408 411 428 433 508 Experience of evil threatned begets hope of good promised 415 F FAbius Ursinus his Oration 50â Fables resembling truths Helicon Bââr Cadmus Moses Scylla Dâlâla Nâobe Lots wâ⦠47 c. 59 Fathers how they used the authority of the Church 243 Faith to beget it in children parents instructions be necessary 411 412 413 Faith confirmed how See experiments Jeremies Faith confirmed by seeing Gods threats fulfilled 416 Gideons Faith confirmed 414 To settle and ripen Faith a rule 421 See rule Christ risen revived his disciples Faith by what Moses and Prophets had foretold of him 449 Not of Faith three meanings of that text or phrase 177 to 184 The universality of it limited 178 See Actions see doubts The doubt and disobeying may be not of Faith as well as the positive action 179 Omission may be not of faith as well as commission 185 Implicate Faith Romish differs from conditional Belief 196 Popish writers make the Church mistress of mâns Faith 197 Roman rule of Faith unsufficient 297 to 305 Of Romish Faith the first main ground ââ¦ds to Atheism second to Heathenism c. 484 c. Resolution of Faith by Valentian 292 464 c. He resolves Faith into the Churches authority not into the first verity 471 472 c. Not into Gods veracity or truth of his word 478 c. Resolution of Faith two fold 472 Foundation what a Foundation the Papists make Christ 356 G GIdeons faith confirmed 414 Gersons caveat to the Pope about Canonizing of Saints 501 Godesaealchus a dutch priest perswades the King of Hungary to kill the Jews 117 Greek letters and inventions taken from the Hebrew 57 Great day of the Lord not to be limited to one day 100 102 Gyants frequent in Moses's daies 35 c. Gyants about mount Vesuvius 101 Gods patience to the Iews a mercy to the Gentiles 80 c. Gods mercy and justice exemplified in the Iews 91 Gods justice and wisdom in the Iews calamity 133 His proceedings against them even to this day most just and most wise ib. Gods favours to Ancient Iews paralleld with the the like to the Gentiles 135 c Gods judgements why not so signal now as in former times 137 Gods providence in the reformation from Popery remarkable 138 c Gods providence how little observed 143 c Gods providence in making the Papists to acknowledge the Apocalyps for Canonical 148 Gods providence in preserving clauses of scripture 149 Gods Spirit not to be discerned but by his fruits 150 H HAnnahs faith confirmed by experiment 142 c Of Hannah more 143 Harmony of sacred Writers 17 c Henry 3. cruel to the Iews 123 Henry 8. by prosopopaeia brought in 372 Heathen objections against the Iews all prevented by Iewish Writers 78 c Hereticks urge scripture 235
Matth. 4. Joh. 22. 13. Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out The Arguments proââsed in the last chapter can have no Ground to prove ought against us but this Sathan is more powerfull or skilfull in Scriptures then Christ or more ready to help his Instruments then Christ to assist his Chosen * * That the Fathers if we take the liâerall plain GraÌmatical Sense of their words attribute as much to Scriptures as we do our adversaries cannot deny May we not then safely think they meant what their words naturally import No Valentian hath found out a Mystical Interpretation of them Tom. 3. disp 1. quâst 1. punct 7. paragr 5. Quen admodum quando uni Personae divinae al qua perfectio divinitatis absoluta tribuitur intelligunt Theologi ab ejus perfectionis communione creaturas tantum excludi non autem Personas alias divinas quae sunt ejusdem naturae Ita Sancti Patres sicubi Scripturae authoritatem solam ad fidei qââstiones finiendas valere significant Ecclesiae certè authoritatem quam item pro divina habent quam ipsa nobis commendat Scriptura minimè excludunt sed alia five testimonia five argumenta quae sint tantum humana Nam si non ita intelligerent profecto nunquam illi in controversiis fidei ipsa per se authoritate Ecclesiasticae traditionis ad probandum âârentur At utuntor ea ipsi frequentissimè utendum esse docent As the non consequence of this Collection so how fâr the Fathers did urge the Churches Authority how the most pregnant Speeches that can be found in any of their Writings must be ââ¦ted will easily appear if we consider the Two former distinctions The one between the Infallible Rule of Faith and the Mems or Motives inducing us to Believe The other between that Conditional Assent which in Cases doubtfull we must give to the Viâ⦠Church and that Absolute Belief which is onely due unto Scriptures The Fathers used the Churches Authority against Heâ⦠as we do theirs against Novelists not as a Rule whereby finally to examine or determine Divine Truths but as a ãâã to bridle presumptuous gainsaying Opinions generally received or supposed for true by men of sincerity and skill in Divine Misteries * * â⦠of the other differing but as the resolution of Quick-silver into â⦠The City of ãâã likewise ãâã all God willing elsewhere appear â⦠the other the daughter each evidents ãâã the ãâã â⦠why the â⦠Rome with the name of â⦠Romish filthinesse Gen. 11. 7. * In the beginning of his Hermathena â The reason why our old English participates most of Buttery-hatch-Latin â That such was the disposition of the Romans at that time as would easily condescended to admit a mixture of Paganism may appear out of S. Auââiusââ¦st ââ¦st books de Civitate Dei and Salvâanus de providentia a As may appear out of sâme works going under the name of Gregory the great and Gregory of âowers History Our Church was in the Romish Synagâgue as a little portion of sine Gold in a great mass of Dâosse until the flames of Persecution severed it and made it conspieuous The miserable and shameful Persecution of ââ¦o Jam olim ante annos 400. Prapositus quidam venerandus Steneldensis interropabat Deatum â⦠vellum inquit ââite Sancte pater si pââsens â⦠cis ãâã membris tanta fortitudo in sua haeresi quanta vix reperitur etiam in valdè religiosis Christi fidelibus â⦠ãâã apud nos Haeretici qui in sustragiis mortuorum orationibus sanctorum non confidunt mark the â⦠ââ¦mia caeterasque afflictiones quae pro peccatis fiunt ajunt justis non esse necessaria purgatorium ignâ⦠concedunt altari Corpus Christi sieri negant Ecclesiam apud se esse dicunt non habentes agros nequeâ⦠Novin us etiam ex istis nonnullos esse raptos à populis nimio zelo permotis nobis invitis in ignem patros â⦠qui tormentum ignis non solum in patientia sed cum laetitia introierunt Vellem igitur scire Sancte pater unde in Diaboli memb it tanta fortitudo Driedo Lib. 4. de Eccles dog scrip cap. 5. * Nihil simile haber constantia Maâtyrum pertinacia hareticorum quia in illis pietas in istis duritia cordus contemptuÌ mortis operatur Bernardus Han. 66. in Canticum Canâ⦠* â⦠quâ ad judicandâs on nes fidei quaestiones divinitus est ãâã procul dubio est acconâ⦠ãâã ad cognâ sâândos Cavebdos ãâã on nes fidei contratios Scriptura sacra sic composita est ut experientia etiam doceat eam per se solam non ãâã regulum accommodatam esse ad declââandos errores quâ arcano Dei judicio esse velut lapidem ostensionis âia â⦠pedibus insipientiuâ ut qui veliut âa sola niti sacitinâè impingant errent Valent. Tom. 3. disp â⦠Sect 6. â The like blasphenous Speeches he iterates in the very next paragraph â It seems his Meaning as that the Scripture by Gods just judgement is a Snare to all such as rely infallibly upon it alone even because they rely upon it alone The place cited by ãâã Wisd 14. 10 11. Luke 16. 31. So the Councel of Trent it self declares Sess 14. cap. 2. John 21. 16. * To ãâã Pâ⦠the â⦠toward Confusion of Geââ¦sm and Christianity which cannot symbolize or rather their in perfect â⦠ãâã ãâã as the â⦠is ãâã then ãâã of the Ingredients taken apart Thus Lodovicus Vives â⦠of ãâã Auââ¦n lib. 14. De civi ate Dei cap. 18. ãâã â⦠terrâna civitas lici â⦠ãâã ãâã such Vives non ãâã prohibitâ⦠quem ex legibus de conâ⦠Dâ⦠25. ãâã Augustious testatur esâe jure civili vâââte Ron ãâã ãâã permisa quae â⦠divââs Hââ illi nolâât qui ãâã gentiliâ⦠em ãâã coâ⦠Cheistianismo laborant â⦠impatiente nâ⦠Christianisâum ââ¦ent â So ãâã in his â⦠such matters ãâã Mââhâân ãâã and hiâ Successâuâs as a mââ night â⦠had ââ¦ed ãâã ãâã â ãâã It is â⦠Iâ⦠in â⦠and nât aâmit the same as good against themselves many of whose Popes by their â⦠the most â⦠of then that have been or may be they all â⦠Mâhonââ Sed illis as triplex âiâca siontem suit then â⦠that can ââ¦ut ãâã object intâmpeâancy to Lutheâ or Infaâây to â⦠and ââ¦sation and uâge their forged Blemishes to the â⦠life Death or Doctrine as their Catholick Religion â⦠it âad might any wââ prejudice ours the intiâty of their â⦠ssity utterly â⦠etheââ Religion * By Gods good Providence for the poor Indians ãâã it was no doubt that the Spanish Catechists did not use this which we call the Aââsâles Cââed ãâã they might have been thââe ãâã sâ⦠to over ãâã in thââ ãâã ãâã â⦠of the â⦠mentioned in that Creed or confession which they following Aquinas
whether the Pope alone speaking ex Cathedra be the Church for that he was to dispute of afterwards and he and all his fellows do and must acknowledge it as shall in due place be shewed That in this place he grants the communication of that Spirit by which the Scriptures were written unto private men doth not argue any agreement with us but rather his disagreement from sâme of Eis own profession who urge the necessity of the Churches Proposal so much and so far that not Gods Prophets or others to whom his Word was ââ¦dinarily revealed could without it be certain Vide Bellar. lib. 3. de justif cap. 3. * The Papists Assertions whence the proposed Conclusion is gathered â⦠The general Points of Difficultie how either the Church can ascertain the Divine Truth of Scripture unto us or the Scripture the Churches infallible Authority â â John 16. 7. ¶ Verse 12. * ãâã Valenâ⦠cap. 22. Valentians attempted Evasion out of the inchanted Circle of Roman Faith resuted * Ut breviter quae susius disputata sunt de resolutione fidei colligamus placet modum tradere quo quis de fide inteârogatus debeat respondere Igitur siquis rogetur v. g Quare credat Deum esse trinum unum distinguat utrum viz. firmiter infallibiliter id credat vel de causa ob quam acceptaverat eam fidem Si primum respondeat qui a Deus revelavit Si rursus interrogetur unde cognoscat Deum revelasse respondeat se quidem non nosse id clare credere tamen eadem side infallibiliter id quidem non ob aliam revelationem bene tamen ob infallibilem propositionem Ecclesiae tanquam ob conditionem ad id credendum requisitam Si rursus unde cognoscat propositionem Ecclesiae esse infallibilem similiter dicat se claââ non nosse credere tamen fide infallibili ob revelationem Scripturae testimonium perhibentis Ecclesiae cui revelationi non credit ob aliam revelationem sed ob seipsam quamvis ad hoc ipsum opus sit Ecclesiae propositione ut conditione requisita Valent. tom 3. in Aquinat Disp 1. quaest 1. punct 1. Sect. 10. â Neque in sic respondeÌdo erit aliquis vitiosus circulus Tum quia reveâatio propter quam dicitur credi infallibilitas propositianis propasitio ob quam dicitur credi revelatio non habent unum idem objectum sed aliud aliud Objectum n. propositionis est ipsa revelatio objection autem revelationis est ipsa veââ¦redita ut Deum esse trinum unum aut propositionem Ecclesiae esse infallibilem Tum quia cum ex revelatione redditur ratio credendi propositionem reditur per causam revelatio enim est causa assensus fidei cum autem ex propositione Ecclesiae redditur ratio credendi revelationem ratio redditur non per causum credendi sed per conditionem ad id requisitam ita vitatur vitiasus circulus solum reditur ratio connexotum vicissim ex ipsismet connexis sub diversatione id quod omnino licet Valent. ibid. * In matters of Knowledge or Belief Reason and Curse are Synonymal and every Cause in ãâã goes before the Effect And even when we demonstrate the Cause by its proper Effect the Effect must needs be first known to us seeing it is the reason or Cause of our knowing the Cause though no Cause of the real Cause it self â Sacrobosous intangled in the former circle and caught in his own share â Sed quaeris num quando quis credit ali quid propter authoritatem Ecclesiae necessariaÌ sit priâââ¦pore vel saltem natura formaliter explicite credat ipsam Ecclesiam esse infallibilis authoritatis quemadmodum ãâã ãâã conclusion propter Praâ⦠necesse est ut prius assentiamur ipsis praemistis Respondeo id minime ãâã ââ¦rium nam actus fidei ferâ⦠in suem objectum modo simplici ut visus in suum itaque sicut visus per spe ãâã albi v. g vider album non videndo ipsam speciem sic potest quis per Ecclesiae authoritatem credere ita ut ãâã prius formaliter explicite credat Ecclesiae Authoritatem Christophorus à Sacrobosco Dubliniensis è Societ Jesu ãâã 128 139. A good examiner may know this fellow to be a Jesuite by his Answer so full stuft with mental Reservations ãâã Evasions and ambiguities First he will not resolve us whether men ordinarily must Believe the Church before Scriptures ãâã a man may Believe the Scriptures although he do not first Believe the Church explicitè or formally And in the very next ãâã be impertinently adds that Believing the Scriptures we cannot but implicite and vertually Believe the Church Which ar ãâã that the Scriptures must be Believed before the Church But say we could not Believe the one but âe must upon equal termes ãâã the other this proves that neither could be any infallible or effectual Means of Believing the other For there is no man â⦠twice 4 make 8 but knows as well twice 2 make 4 yet is neither a Means of knowing the other for both are immediately ãâã of themselves This shews the impertinency of their Answer that matter they know not what as if the knowledge of points of ãâã did resemble habitum principiorum rather then habitum conclusionis If so they do then cannot the Churches Infal ãâã being by their Positions a point of Faith be any Means of knowing the Scriptures to be Drvine which is a main point of faith * This ãâã of his doth very well illustrate our former â⦠Chapâ 12 concerning the Use of an ordinary â⦠And the Visible Church may â⦠the shapes and resemâ⦠are called visible being indeed by naâ⦠and are visible only by external demonstratââ⦠as much as they present colours to ãâã sight â⦠visible Were they really visible being received into our eyes they would hinder â⦠of all colours so doth this admission of a real â⦠in the Church exclude all infallible Belief of â⦠* Jisdem serè argumeÌtis efficitur neque solam traditioneÌ viâ⦠vocis eorum qui olim vita desuncti sunt esse judicem sufficientem fidei quae valeat per ãâã fine alia aliqua insallibili ac praeââ¦te authoritate omnes oââ¦ino definite fidei quaeâ⦠Nam ãâã ãâã sicut de an thoritate iâsius ãâã neceâ⦠ãâã per aliquam aliâ⦠au hâritatem conâ⦠iââ etiam ãâã authâ⦠traditionis siâ⦠quoâ revocetur in dubium Non enim traditio loquitur etiam ipsa clarè perspicuè de sese ut neque ipsa scriptura Deinde cum traditio scriptis ferè doctorum orthodoxorum in Ecclesia conservetur quaestiones ac dubia moveri possunt de ãâã illius sicut dubitatur saepe de sensu mente doctorum Valentianus Tom. 3. Disp 1. quaest 1. de objecto sidei punct 7. Sect. 12. * The politick Sophisines of the Papists in their Councels