depend upon her Authority as that I cannot be mistaken for this very Reason I cannot depend upon it because I am sure of this that God never designed for me any such Means of Believing as should render my Faith infallible For to what End should he require me to take so much Pains and Care to secure my Faith from Errors if he hath furnished me with any certain Means of being infallible It would be but applying that Means whatever it is and my Danger would be immediately over and then I need trouble my Head no further being now so secured as that I cannot be mistaken after which it would be very impertinent methinks for God to trouble me with those unnecessary Injunctions of trying all Things and holding fast to that which is good of searching the Scriptures and trying the Spirits whether they be of God and taking heed whilst I stand lest I fall What need a Man be at the Expence of all this Labour and Caution whose Faith is already secured Seeing therefore God requires these Things at our Hands it is a plain Case that he never intended us any Method how to be infallible in believing and therefore since the Church of Rome's Authority is pretended to be such a Method for that Reason it ought to be rejected It 's plain that God intended that our Faith should be a Grace and a Virtue and consequently that it should be an Act of our Wills as well as of our Understandings which supposes the Evidence of it not to be irresistible for what Virtue is it to believe that the Sun shines when it glares full in our Eyes Since therefore our Faith must be a free and voluntary Assent upon such Motives as are sufficient to satisfy an honest Mind but not to compel either an obstinate Infidel or self-deceived Hypocrite God did not think fit so to secure our Faith as to leave it impossible for us to err damnably And indeed if he had it would have been no Virtue in us to believe savingly for what Virtue is it for a Man to do that which it is impossible for him not to do It is sufficient that we cannot err damnably in our Faith without some damnable Fault in our Wills but if we either refuse to enquire into this Revelation for what is necessary for us to believe or will only enquire into it with a Mind that is byass'd with wicked and sinful Prejudices or will not submit our Understandings to it upon the clearest Conviction there is no doubt but we may be ignorant and we may be deceived in Things of the greatest Moment and it is but just and fit that we should And if notwithstanding these Faults we could not err for God's sake what Virtue would it be to be Orthodox But if with honest humble and teachable Minds we will diligently enquire into divine Revelation we shall there find all the Necessaries to Salvation so clearly and plainly proposed to us that 't will be morally impossible for us either to be ignorant of or deceived about them So that by relying on Scripture you see we are exposed to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith a Virtue and God doth as much require that our Faith should be vertuous as that it should be Orthodox that it should be the Act of an honest humble diligent and teachable Mind as that it should be extended to all Things necessary to Salvation Now our Faith may be Orthodox without an infallible Certainty but it canot be vertuous and rewardable with it To what purpose then do the Romanists talk of an infallible certainty in Believing Is it reasonable to expect more certainty than God ever intended to give He hath given as much as is necessary for honest Minds and no more and whether Knaves and Hypocrites believe right or wrong is of no great Concernment If therefore our Faith be liable to no other Uncertainty than just what is necessary to try our Honesty that is much better for us in Respect of the Virtue of our Faith than an infallible Certainty Supposing therefore that the Church of Rome were as infallible as it pretends it is certain that the Scripture is as infallible as that but whether we relie upon one or t'other we are fallible still And could that Church render us as infallibly certain as it pretends it would thereby preserve indeed the Orthodoxy of our Faith but then at the same Time it would destroy the Virtue of it For to believe right when we cannot believe wrong is fatal and necessary but to believe right when through our own Default we may believe wrong this is virtuous and rewardable By what hath been said therefore I think it is sufficiently evident that it is upon the Scripture we are to relie and not upon the Church especially upon the Roman Church for all Things necessary to Salvation and therefore since we are obliged to believe these Things upon Pain of Eternal Damnation it necessarily follows that they must be plain and clear and Scripture otherwise we could not be justly so obliged to believe them And thus I have shewn at large that the Scripture is the great Rule of our Faith and Manners and that as such it is both full and clear as containing in it all Things necessary to Salvation and proposing them so plainly and clearly as that upon an honest and diligent Enquiry all Men may find and discover them A Second Discourse Upon JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life WHether these Words are to be rendred Indicatively Ye do search the Scriptures as some would have them or Imperatively Search the Scriptures as our Translation renders them amounts to the same thing For if we render them Indicatively Ye do search the Scriptures it is evident that they are spoken with Approbation Ye do read the Scriptures and ye do very well in so doing For thus we find the Bereans commended for Searching the Scriptures and Timothy for knowing them from a Child And if to Search the Scripture be a commendable Practice then to be sure our Saviour here mentions it at least with Approbation and what he approves when done that to be sure he would have us do Whether therefore it be delivered in the Form of a Command or of a bare Assertion it is equivalent to a Command it being at least an Assertion of a Thing which he approves and consequently would have all Men to Practise But because there is a numerous Party in the Christian World which doth not only forbid the People to Search the Scriptures but represents it as a Practice of very dangerous Consequence it is hereby become necessary that we should not only assert but prove their Obligation to it which otherwise would be very needless there being nothing more plain and evident in it self Now to prove that the People are obliged to Search and Read the Scriptures I shall as
to believe such Things as are obscure and doubtful and uncertain and of which they can have no certain Knowledge Either the Necessaries to Salvation must be plainly and clearly expres'd in Scripture or we have not sufficient Reason to believe them and to say God will damn us for not believing those Things which he hath not given us sufficient Reason to believe is to charge him with the most outragious Oppression and Injustice But we are told that though God hath not clearly revealed to us in Scripture those Things which he hath obliged us to believe upon Pain of Damnation yet he hath left us sufficient Reason to believe them for he hath left us to the Conduct of an infallible Church that is to say of the present Church of Rome in all Ages whom he hath authorized to explain and define to us all Things that are necessary to be believed which we are to receive upon her Authority and not upon the Scriptures so that if we firmly believe what She defines and proposes to us we are sure to believe all Things that are necessary to be believed Now in Answer to this Objection which indeed is the great Foundation that the Faith of those of the present Church of Rome relies on I desire these Things may be seriously considered 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of the present Church of Rome in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture 2. That these Things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of that Church are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith 3. That after all these Things upon our relying on that Church's Authority we are left to the same or greater Uncertainties than upon our relying upon the Authority of Scripture 4. That in relying upon the Authority of Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainties than just what is necessary to render our Faith vertuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of that Church supposing it to be a certain Ground as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it 1. That before we can reasonably rely upon the Authority of that Church in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith there are sundry Things that we must believe upon the Authority of Scripture As for Instance we must in the first Place believe that there is a Church or Society of Christians separated from the World or incorporated by a peculiar Divine Charter Now whether there be such a Church or no is a Question that must be resolved by the Scripture and not by the Church because to believe that there is a Church because the Church saith there is a Church is to take that for granted which is the Thing in Question Secondly We must believe that this Church hath Authority to define and propose to us the Articles of our Faith which must also for the same Reason be believed on the Authority of the Scripture and not of the Church For to believe that there is a Church that hath Authority to propose to us the Articles of our Faith is to believe that there is a Church which we are obliged to believe and how can I believe this upon the Church's Authority unless I can believe it before I do believe it Thirdly Before we can rely upon this Church's Authority in defining and proposing to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe that this Church is infallible for if she be not infallible how is it consistent with the Truth of God to oblige us to believe Her seeing in so doing he must oblige us whensoever She errs to believe her Errors but that She is infallible is not to be believed upon her own Authority for then her infallible Authority must be the Reason of our Belief that She is infallible that is we must believe her infallible because we believe her infallible Seeing then we cannot believe it on her own Authority if we believe it at all it must be upon the Authority of Scripture Fourthly Before we can rely upon the Church of Rome's Authority to define to us the Articles of our Faith we must believe the Church of Rome to be this infallible Church But seeing this is no self-evident Principle we must have some other Evidence besides her self to induce us to believe it and what else can that be but Scripture We are told indeed by some of her greatest Divines that there are certain Marks and Notes of a true Church peculiar to the Church of Rome by which we are obliged to believe Her the true Church such as Antiquity Vniversality Holiness of Doctrine c. But seeing no Doctrine can be holy that is not true we must be satisfied that that Church is true before we can know that it is holy so that before we can reasonably submit to her Athority we must be very well assured that her Doctrine is true and this we cannot be assured of by her Authority because that as yet is the Matter in Qustion and therefore we can be no otherwise assured of it but only by the Authority of Scripture and when we are assured beforehand by the Authority of Scripture that her Doctrines are true her Authority comes too late to assure us Seeing therefore it is evident that there are some if not all the Articles of the Roman Faith that must be known and believed by us upon the Authority of Scripture before we can safely rely upon her Authority to define them to us how can we be obliged to settle our Faith upon her Authority when as before we can reasonably admit her Authority we must believe several of the Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of Scripture For I would fain know are these Articles of Faith or no That there is a Church that this Church hath Authority to define the Articles of our Faith and that in so defining this Church is infallible and that this infallible Church is the Church of Rome If they be as they themselves own they are then there are some Articles it seems that must be believed without the Church's Authority upon the single Authority of Scripture and if some why not all why should not the Scripture be as sufficient to authorize us to believe the Rest as these since its Authority is as great in one Text as in onother Especially considering 2. That these Things which we must believe from Scripture before we can rely upon the Authority of the Church of Rome are at least as obscurely revealed in Scripture as any other Article of our Christian Faith The great Reason urged by the Romanists against our Relyance upon the Scripture for our Faith is the Obscurity of it and if this be a good Reason it proves a great deal more than they would have it
Oral Tradition how can I know what that is who never heard Her speak either in its diffused Body or in a General Council or in any other Representative unless it be that of my own Parish-Priest perhaps who for all I know may be Ignorant or Heretical and so either not understand himself the Church's Oral Tradition or wilfully pervert it to a contrary Meaning And if the Church deliver her Sense to me by Writing as She hath done in the written Decrees of her General Councils must I read over all her Decrees How should I do that who understand not so much as the Languages in which they are written Or suppose they were Translated how shall I know that they are faithfully render'd any more than I do that the Scripture is so But suppose I were certain of this and should thereupon proceed to read them alass I find in them a great many difficult and dubious Expressions yea and at least seeming Contradictions to each other how then can I be more certain of the true Sense of these Writings than of the Sense of the Writings of Scripture But you will say the Church hath digested her Sense of all her Articles of Faith into a plain Creed and Catechism viz. that of the Council of Trent whereby the plainest Reader may without any laborious Enquiries be readily instructed what he ought to believe This I confess is something but as for those Articles of Faith wherein We and the Church of Rome are agreed we find them as plainly expressed in Scripture as in that Creed and Catechism and therefore we have Reason to believe that if those Articles wherein we disagree had ever been intended for Articles of Faith they would have been as plainly express'd there as these but 't is no wonder we should not find them plainly express'd there when we cannot find them express'd there at all But do we not find that the Scriptures even in the plainest Expressions of Articles of Faith have yet been perverted by Hereticks into a contrary Meaning And what then Are not the Words of Councils as liable to be perverted into a contrary Meaning as the Words of Scripture For do not the Roman Doctors differ as much about the Sense of their Councils as we do about the Sense of our Scriptures Yea and have we not a notorius Instance of it at this very Day For what can be more contrary than Belarmine's Exposition of the Trent Faith and the Bishop of Condom's And yet both allowed by the Pope who by the Authority of that Council is made sole Arbitrator of the Sense of it But then Fourthly and lastly As to the Sense of Scripture our Reliance on the Authority of that Church leaves us at as great an Uncertainty as it found us For where the Scripture designs to speak plainly as it doth in all Things necessary to salvation the Church cannot speak plainer and therefore there we may understand the Scripture as well without the Church as with it but where it doth not speak plainly the Church of Rome hath left us no infallible Commentary whereby to understand it so that where the Scripture is plain She hath not made it plainer and where it is obscure She hath left it as obscure as ever So that after all the Noise that is made of Infallibility her Doctors are fain to apply themselves to the same Methods of Understanding Scripture that is to consult the Sense of Antiquity and compare Text with Text and the like that we fallible Protestants do and when they have done all are as lyable to be mistaken as we Nay they themselves confess that even General Councils themselves may be mistaken in their Applications of Scripture that is that they may misapply them to wrong Purposes which they cannot do without mistaking the Sense of them of which there are a great many notorious Instances in the second Council of Nice which to prove it the Duty of Christians to worship Images urges God's taking Clay and making Man after his own Image and likewise that of Esay There shall be a Sign and Testimony to the Lord in the Land of Egypt and also those Passages of David Confession and Beauty is before him Lord I have loved the beauty of thy House O Lord my Face hath sought for thee O Lord I will seek after thy Countenance O Lord the light of thy Countenance is sealed over us And from that Passage As we have seen so have we heard they argue that there must be Images to look on and because it is said God is marvellous in his Saints they conclude that the Church must be deck'd with Pictures And from No man lighteth a Candle and putteth it under a bushel they wisely infer that Images must be set upon the Altar All which are as remote from their Sense as the first Verse of the first Chapter of Genesis What greater Certainty have they with their Infallibility than we without it We can know as well the Sense of plain Texts of Scripture as of plain Texts of Councils or Creeds or Catechisms and we can as easily pervert the Sense of the one as of the other And as for those that are not plain even General Councils you see for all their Infallibility may be mistaken about them as well as we So that when all comes to all by forsaking the infallible Authority of Scripture to rely upon the infallible Authority of that Church we are so far from arriving at a greater Certainty of Faith that we are involved in greater Uncertainties than ever But then 4. And lastly in relying upon the Authority of Scripture we are left to no other Uncertainties than just what are necessary to render our Faith vertuous and rewardable whereas by relying upon the Authority of the Church of Rome supposing it were as sure a Ground of Faith as it is pretended our Faith would have little or nothing of Virtue in it It is pretended though falsly you see that that Church's Authority is so sure a Ground of Faith that while a Man depends upon it he cannot be mistaken in any necessary Article of Faith which in Reality amounts to no more than this That while a Man believes as that Church believes which infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation he infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation and it is equally true that while a Man believes as the Scripture teaches which infallibly teaches all that is necessary to Salvation he infallibly believes all that is necessary to Salvation that is both are equally false For no Man can infallibly believe either the Church or Scripture because Infallibility exceeds the Capacity of humane Nature no Man can so believe either but that he may be mistaken and if he may be mistaken its possible he may not believe all that is necessary to Salvation whether he grounds his Faith upon the Church or the Scripture But because this Church pretends so to secure my Faith while I
only forfeited our selves to it but have also sinned our selves into an Incapacity of having any good done upon us the only Use which the Divine Goodness can make of us for the future is to do good to others by us which it can no otherwise do but by making our everlasting Suffering an everlasting Example for them to take warning by For though there is no doubt but every vertuous Soul shall be hereafter so confirmed in its state of Beatitude as that it shall never fall from it yet shall it be confirmed no otherwise than by the force of those Reasons and invincible Motives which shall then continually urge and immovably determine it unto that which is good One of which Reasons as we may reasonably suppose will be their Prospect of the endless Miseries of the Damned which will be an everlasting Monitor to them and together with their own sense of the ravishing Pleasures of Goodness will secure them for ever from falling For if the Angels of Heaven took warning by the Fall and Ruin of their Apostate Brethren as doubtless they did and thereupon became more immovably confirmed in Innocence and Goodness why may we not as well suppose that one of those Reasons by which the Spirits of just Men are so immovably confirmed in their Heavenly State is the sad Example of the endless Miseries of the Wicked If therefore when God hath denounced eternal Misery against us on purpose to threaten us into Happiness we will take no warning it is an Act of Goodness in him to inflict it upon us since thereby he may so effectually contribute to the confirming of others in eternal Happiness For if we will not be wrought on by such a dreadful Denunciation there is no good can be done upon us and when we are past Recovery and are forfeited by our own Obstinacy into the hands of God's Vengeance it will be an Act of Goodness in him so to dispose of us as may be most for the good of others and consequently to dispose of us to eternal Misery and by so doing to make use of us as Arguments to confirm and establish others in eternal Happiness that so our Sufferings may be to them what his Threatnings were to us Arguments to oblige us to be happy for ever And so I have done with the First Thing propos'd which was to shew you that if God be so determined he may without any Injury either to his Iustice or Goodness retain lost Souls in the Bondage of Hell for ever and absolutely refuse to accept any Ransom for them I now proceed to the Second Head of Discourse namely to prove that God is actually determined so to do And this I shall endeavour to demonstrate by these three Reasons 1. Because he hath already exacted a Ransom for the Souls of Men to which no other can be equivalent from whence we may reasonably infer that if this be rejected he will accept no other 2. Because he hath expresly declared himself to be thus determined 3. Because having thus declared himself we must suppose that either he intended this Declaration only for a Scare-crow or that he is determined to act accordingly 1st That God is determined to conclude lost Souls under endless Misery and admit no Ransom for them appears from hence because he hath already exacted a Ransom for them to which no other can be equivalent from whence we may reasonably infer that if this be rejected he will accept no other When by our first Apostacy from God we stained the Innocence of our Natures and forfeited our Lives to the just Vengeance of Heaven so terribly was it then incensed against us that it would accept no meaner Ransom for us than the precious Blood of the Son of God for so St. Peter tells us That we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. And though this Ransom was of such a vast and incomparable Value that all the Treasures in Heaven and Earth are insignificant Trifles to it yet was the Virtue of it to extend no further than to those who by a lively Faith and unfeigned Repentance returned from their Rebellion to their Duty and Allegiance which if we do not but instead thereof obstinately persist in our Wickedness and Folly we renounce all our Part and Interest in the Blood of our Saviour and do in effect declare that upon such Terms as those we will not be beholding to him for our Ransom but that rather than accept of Redemption upon such ungrateful Conditions we will trust to the Courtesy of the Vengeance of God and abide the most fatal Effects of it When therefore by persisting to the End in our Unbelief and Impenitence we have finally rejected the Blood of Christ and utterly extinguish'd all our Right and Title to it what Pretence of Reason have we to hope that God will ever accept of any other Ransom for us When to the Sins by which we made the first Forfeiture of our Souls we have added the rank and horrid Impiety of trampling on the Blood of the Son of God and so are not only not redeemed by it from the Vengeance to come but are a thousand times more deeply inthralled to it by reason of that additional Guilt we have contracted by squandring away the Price of our Redemption With what Face can we expect in the midst of such black Circumstances that God should accept of any Exchange for our Souls He that would not release us from the Obligation of our first Guilts upon any less Consideration than the Blood of his Son what likelihood is there that any Consideration should move him to release us after we have so prodigiously augmented our Guilt by rejecting his Blood and finally renouncing all our Interest in it Doubtless he that demanded so vast a Ransom for us when our Guilt was so comparatively small and inconsiderable will account no Ransom sufficient when we have so transcendently inhanced and multiplied it For if the Blood of Christ which is of such an unspeakable value can give us no Relief without our willing Acceptance of it upon the Terms it is proposed to us then when we have finally refused it on those Terms it must be something that is more valuable than his Blood that must relieve us something that is sufficient not only to redeem us from those Guilts which his Blood was a Ransom for but also to expiate the Guilt of our trampling on his Blood which is the greatest and blackest of all But since the Blood of Christ is incomparably the most precious Ransom that Heaven and Earth could afford what hope is there that when this is rejected by us God should accept any other in exchange for our Souls 2dly That God is really determined to conclude lost Souls under endless Misery and admit no Ransom for them appears also from hence
those Things that were surely believed among Christians and wherein he himself had been instructed And if it were to assertain us of the Principles of Chrstianity that he wrote his Gospel certainly he would take care to write it after such a Manner as that those that read it might understand it otherwise he must run counter to his own Design Thus also St. Iohn saith that he wrote his Gospel that Men might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God but how could his Gospel induce Men to believe This unless it be so written as that Men may understand it And so also for his Epistles he tells us that he wrote them that they that believed in Iesus might know that they have eternal Life and that they may believe or continue to believe on the Name of the Son of God And if this were his End to be sure he would take care to write so as that they might understand otherwise how could they know by his Writing that they had eternal Life or be moved thereby to continue to believe on the name of Jesus For there is nothing can create in Men either Knowledge or Faith but what they understand Seeing therefore the great End of Writing the Scripture was to instruct the World in the great Things of Religion either we must say that both the Writers of the Scripture and the Holy Ghost that inspired them were defective in Skill or in Care so to write as to obtain this End or that their Writings are an effectual Means to obtain it which it is impossible for them to be unless they are plain and clear as to the great Things of Religion In short every wise Agent pursues his End by the most proper and effectual Means and I would fain know whether to write plainly or obscurely be the most proper Means to instruct Men by Writing if to write plainly then either the Apostles wrote so or they were not wise Agents since to instruct was the great End of their Writing The most natural Way of conveying to Mens Minds the Notices of Things is by Words either spoken or written and seeing whatsoever can be spoken in plain and intelligible Words may be written in the same Words there can be no doubt but those Words will be as intelligible when they are written as when they are spoken for why should the same Words be more obscure when conveyed to us by our Eyes than when conveyed to us by our Ears Seeing then the Sense of Scripture may be as plainly conveyed by Words written as by Words spoken and seeing that even those who deny the Plainness of Scripture do yet allow that the Sense of it may be plainly conveyed by Words spoken or which is the same thing Oral Tradition if the Scripture be not plain it can be resolved into no other Reason but this that God would not have it so for there is no Doubt but he could have spoken as plainly as Men and have written as plainly as he spoke and therefore if he hath not done so it was because he would not but to say that he would not write those Things plainly which he thought necessary for all Men to know and which he wrote on purpose that all Men might know is to say that he would and would not at the same time or that he wrote them on purpose that Men might know them and yet that he wrote so as that they might not know them 3. From the frequent Commands God lays upon us to read the Scripture it is also evident that in all necessary Things it is plain and clear That God doth not only allow but will and require us to read the Scripture I shall shew at large hereafter when I come to treat of searching the Scripture Supposing therefore at present the Thing to be true I would fain know to what Purpose should God require us to read the Scripture if in those things which are necessary for Men to know and believe it be not plain and intelligible Doth God require us to read it for the sake of reading it or for the sake of understanding it If the former reading any other Book might as well have answered God's End as reading the Scripture because reading is reading whatsoever it be that we read if the later then either the Scripture is plain and intelligible as to all those Things which he requires us to understand or he requires us to read it in vain For to what Purpose should we read that we may understand if that which we are to read be not plain enough to be understood by us As for Instance the Bereans Acts 17. 11. are highly commended for searching the Scriptures daily now I would fain know was this a Virtue in them or was it not If not why are they commended for it if it were it was certainly their Duty What was the Intendment of it was it only that they might be expert Readers Why are they so commended for reading the Scriptures above any other Book seeing that reading any other Book would have done as well for that Purpose as reading the Scriptures But the Text it self tells us that the Intendment of their reading the Scripture was that they might know whether those things were so or no which St. Paul had preached to them but how should they know this by reading the Scripture if the Scripture which they read were not plain enough to be understood by them Again St. Paul gives this as a great Commendation of his Son Timothy that from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures whence by the Way we may learn that it is not so great a Reproach to our Church as the Romanists intend it for that we permit Women and Children Tinkers and Cobblers to read the Scripture But I pray what was the Meaning of Timothy's knowing the Holy Scripture from a Child Was it that he knew the Words of it only or the Sense of it also If the former a Parrot may be taught as much as Timothy had learned and consequently deserve as high a Commendation as he if the later then it seems the Scripture is plain enough for a well-disposed Child to know the Sense of it so far forth at least as it is necessary to be known and this is as much as we desire If therefore God requires us to read the Scripture as Timothy did to the End that we may know and understand it as he did then either we may understand the Sense of it by reading it or else God requires us to read it in vain 4. And lastly From the Obligation we lie under upon Pain of Damnation to believe and receive those Necessaries to Salvation contained in Scripture it is also evident that as to all those Necessaries it is plain and clear That we are obliged to believe under Pain of Damnation all that the Scripture proposes as necessary to our Salvation is agreed on all hands but how can Men be justly obliged