satisfaction in all points as well as in some Ah how palpable is the folly of vain and proud man when he opposes the wisdom of God But when I seriously consider what this man writes of the Scriptures referring us for the rest of our Faith to the Church or universal Tradition I cannot but wonder at his confidence of your credulity if you were bound to take his word who offers no proof of what he affirms But we shall justly conclude him to bely the Scripture till he or some body for him produce some place of Scripture which expressely referrs us for some important points of Religion unwritten to the oral teaching of the Church or to the universal Tradition of Christendom If this Querist be asked the Question Where hath Scripture made the partition of the Faith into the Word of God written and the word unwritten and set up a Christian to stand as the Angel in St. John's vision stood with the right foot on the Sea and the left foot on the land with one foot on the unstable waters of Tradition and the other fixed on the firm ground of Scripture he must be as mute as the man without the wedding garment was But after all this pray observe how irreconcileable this mans allowance of Scripture to be a Rule clear enough for many weighty points of Religion is with his Conclusion That the sole Rule general for all persons and all points of Religion is universal Tradition 3. Whereas he spends time to oppose a Christians receiving and knowing what he is to believe what not by his sole perusal of Gods written word he fights not against any assertion of ours but against his own Jackstraw we advise Christians to make use of faithful guides as well as the light and to learn the use of the Rule by conferring with spiritual builders that can inform them in the application of it and not to neglect any meanes which God offers them for their conduct in the way of truth 4. The common Objections against the dignity and efficacy of Scripture which Papists repeat usque ad nauseam to the Scandal of Christianity and the advancement of Atheism are abundantly answered by the Champians of our Religion to which I would refer you if I did not know you able to discover their impertinency and impiety together But I will put you in mind that the unlearned Protestants if they depend upon the credit of others what are the words of Scripture when the Laick that cannot read hears the Minister that doth and may ask his neighbour that can read whether the Minister read right and the ignorant may ask the learned and the weak Christian may ask the strong and all men by some means or other may be satisfyed of the words of Scripture being faithfully delivered unto them are in no worse condition then unlearned Papists who depend upon the credit of surly and very often silly Priests or interested Bishops for knowing what is the universal Tradition of Christendome 5. As to the learned whom the Querist takes into consideration I pray observe whether the Scholars of both the opposite sides do not dissent as much about the universal Tradition of the points in dispute as about the sense of Scriptures urged on either side If so as you will be sure to find it then upon the same ground which this man layes as sufficient for the removal of Scripture from being a rule Tradition also must be cashiered Remember that the learned Papists who differ about the Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary do on either side urge for their defence universal Tradition If then it be not sufficient to determine this controversie why should it be set up to justle Scripture out of its Seat to make room for another means of determining controversies which is as uneffectual and indeed infinitely more unfit If a Papist say that the determination of this point is not necessary which is a gross absurdity because this remaining undetermined no small part of Popish worship of the Virgin Mary as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception hath no certain ground of Faith and by the Apostle St. Paul's sentence is Sin we may with more reason say that the determination of the points in controversie between us is not necessary Or if it be necessary that determination is to be regulated now as the decision of things in dispute was of old in the general Councils by the Scripture or written word of God by which Tradition it self is to be measured and judged as St. Paul made the Scriptures the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or measure of truth between the Tradition of the Jews on the one side and the Christians on the other side concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 6. Because here is frequent mention of Tradition and the ambiguity of the word is apt to beget mistakes and confusion therefore give me leave to unfold the Senses of the word that we may have a clear apprehension of the matter in hand Tradition is sometimes put to signify the thing delivered whether the way of delivery be writing or speaking and Tradition thus taken materially is indifferent to the being written or unwritten for the same Tradition or Doctrine of the Gospel which was at one time unwritten might have been written and for certain was at another time writen And the Jewish Traditions which for many generations past by a successive conveyance without Book have been by the Rabbies committed at length to vvriting for their better Security And the Papists now make no scruple of vvriting their Traditions vvhich they call the unvvritten Word of God let them justify the presumption as vvell as they can Novv as the Traditions of the Elders mentioned in Scripture signify the doctrines and Ceremonies that vvere delivered by the Fathers but vvere distinct from the Law vvritten So when vve speak of Traditions in the Christian Church vve do now in these latter ages commonly understand some particular doctrines or Rites or matters of fact delivered with a pretence of divine or at least Apostolical Authority for their reception which are not expressed in the written word of God These Traditions once accepted and commended by the present Church of Rome the Conventicle at Trent hath very severely enjoyned to be received and embraced with an equal affection of holy reverence wherewith we entertayn the sacred Scriptures themselves But to keep up the mystery of iniquity with the liberty of laying aside old Traditions and giving credit to new inventions as their interest and occasions may require they who determined the Canon of Scriptures and numbred the Books yet would not reckon up and determine the Traditions of the Church that Christians might know what is the perfect and fixed Rule of Faith Thus Romanists though they have a larger Object of Faith then we have yet they have no certain measure because the Traditions of the Roman Church are like the Moon subject to decreases
as the giving of the Eucharist to Infants was once held by D. Innocentius 3. as a Doctrine of Faith and a Tradition of the Church but after 600 years practise wore out insensibly and hath been condemned by the Councils of Constance and Trent with an Anathema and to increases also and therefore their Religion is indeed Irregular But concerning Traditions as the word signifies particular points of beliefe or practise in Christian Religion these 3 Rules are worth Observation 1. Whatsoever is offered to us or enjoyned to us in belief or practise under colour of being a Tradition if it be repugnant to the written word of God or destructive of Gods precepts ought to be rejected by Christians Christs reason together with the refutation of Pharisaical Traditions confirms the Truth of this Rule 2. Whatsoever is obtruded upon us under the pretext of being a Tradition that is neither clearly delivered in nor fairly by good consequence deduced out of Gods written word needs not and ought not to be received as a matter necessary to Salvation The manner of conveniency or necessity wherein things which are strangers to Scripture are held is carefully to be taken notice of For several practises have been in early times introduced under shew of conveniency as the Apostle says some bodily exercises carry a plausible shew of wisdome which having once obtained credit by the favourable commendation of eminent persons and custome have been in succession of time adorned with the Title of Tradition and grown up from being thought convenient to be accounted and prest as necessary to Salvation This danger is to be prevented by circumspection And the perfection of Scripture as it is a compleat Rule of Religion proves the truth and usefulness of this second Rule 3. Doctrines of Faith and divine Worship being secured by Gods written word from intrusions of humane inventions if any Rites or Ceremonies can be proved by fair Testimonies of Antiquity to have been practised by the Church universal of primitive times and are still continued by the Authority of Church Governors as tending to edification or the free and open profession of our Faith whether they be called Traditions or no are not lightly to be rejected much less violently opposed by private Christians Thus much for Traditions as meaning Matters of Religion delivered down from former times to posterity But Tradition often bears another sence and is taken formally for the manner of conveyance of matters that concern Religion which is partly oral partly practical The joynt agreement of Doctrine and practice continued by succession of one Age after another whilst one generation derives to another the whole body of Religion is now called Tradition and of late is asserted by Papists in this Kingdom to be the only Principle and Rule of Faith and affirmed to be of its own nature infallible and incorruptible and to be evident by its own light And thus the order of inquiring for the ancient dayes and old wayes is quite inverted for now we need only as they teach mark what the present Church of Rome doth and because Tradition cannot fail nor vary therefore the Popes Court at this day with the Church Altars Pictures Wafers mangled Eucharist adoration of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Angels and Saints offering of a real Sacrifice for Souls in Purgatory and offering of the Masse to God for the honour of Saints is a true Glasse wherein you may see the face of the Church when St. Peter sate Bishop of Rome This is the aim of the Querists Discourse to set up this Tradition instead of Scripture If you will not believe him you may choose because he tels you plainly it is not his work to prove any thing But I will give you a little touch of proving the vanity of this pretence The experience of all Ages before the flood after the flood in the Jewish Nation and in the Christian Churches doth manifestly shew that the derivation of Religion from mouth to ear from hand to hand from Fathers to children from Priests to Successors from Age to Age this course of Tradition which is opposed unto and preferred before the Scriptural way of preserving and propagating and recovering of Religion hath been and may be quickly corrupted often interrupted and hath suffered notorious changes and may do at any time when sloth and sensuality and neglect of the light and vanity of mind set forward by the Devils malice and cunning make men weary of the true Religion But I will add another Argument to another purpose St. Paul by word of mouth taught the Thessalonians what he thought not expedient to write to wit what hindered the Man of sin from being revealed Here was a matter of consequence that concerned the Church delivered by word of mouth which if it had been written as well as that Character of the Man of sin the fame Scripture which preserved and conveyed the one would have also secured the knowledge of the other to posterity If now an eminent Church failed in deriving one point of Doctrine to after Ages which with little difficulty might have been kept and taught but is now lost for not being recorded in Scripture what likelihood is there that the whole body of Christian Religion was or could be traduced entire and pure meerly by oral Tradition without dependance on the Scripture for 1600 years For my part I think still that as the Church of the Jews were either more or less pure and their Religion more or less Hourished in truth and sincerity as the Governors gave heed more or less to the light of the Law written in like manner according to the degrees of Pastors attendance to the holy Scriptures the Tradition of Christianity hath varied Therefore the Scriptures are the only fixed and stable Rule of Religion 7. Lastly Let us allow the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus non est erratum sed traditum That which hath been taught every where always and by all Pastors of the Church is not an error but a true Tradition If we make Antiquity Universality and Consent twisted together the measure of our faith for certain we shall have a very short Creed and that large Assumentum that new piece of Italian stuff which was woven in the Shop at Trent and by the Popes stitching is added to the old garment of the Church the Constantinopolitan Creed must of necessity be pared off and thrown away But the main thing to be considered at present is the difficulty of applying this Rule for the examination of the Doctrines which pretend to Tradition and the tryal of the Spirits even of all Doctrines before we trust any Teacher is alwayes an act of Christian prudence so long as the world is pestered with false Prophets For can you or any reasonable man imagin that Universal Tradition of the Catholick Church is more evident in it self and more conspicuous to learned
hand down to posterity the holy Scriptures without any falsification since the Church of Rome at this day doth both accept and impose upon her own Children and would but cannot upon others Apocryphal Books for Canonical I have now shewed that these Queries are not unanswerable by Protestants adhering to their own principles or Axioms I desire you to consider the result of the whole design Except you allow him at first that the Roman Church is in propriety of speech the Catholick Church this disquisition can advance you not an hairs-breadth to a better opinion of the Roman Church for a Guide then you had before For after all the clamour made for resolution of these Queries concerning the Catholick Church the main Question stands as it did Whether the Church of Rome at this day be to be subjected unto as an infallible Guide and to be communicated with all other Churches being abandoned and particularly the Church of England whereof you are now a setled member Till this be resolved you that know the frame of our Church and the module of our Religion may stay safely where you are It remains now that I examine his Answer to my conclusive Querie And I shall briefly note what you may by your own reason or experience discover either absurd or false in it He doth not require you to desert the Reformed Church of England for adhering to the Scriptures as the Rule of Faith For the Roman Church doth that as well as the Protestant as he says If this Querist do not pretend to Infallibility and Authority over you he will out of modesty allow you to examine whether Papists do as well that is as fully and firmly adhere to the Scriptures as English Protestants Certainly they do not well own them for a Rule who accuse them of obscurity and imperfection and make it a point of faith that the defectiveness of Scriptures must be supplied with unwritten Traditions And as certain it is that we who maintain the fulness of Scriptures in delivery of all things necessary to salvation and the perspicuity in that delivery and therefore admit of no point of Religion that is a meer stranger unto the Scripture do more closely stick to that Rule then the Papists But because you are free to examine the adherence of Papists to the Scriptures in particulars by comparison with the English Protestants try whether a mangled Eucharist the real Sacrifice of Christ by a Priest that makes his Maker and eats his God The publick service of God in a forreign and unknown language to the generality of the people that must say Amen to all Pictures of God used in Religious worship the superlative worship of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Saints Purgatory the ease of departed souls by offering of Masses the baptizing of Bels the treasury of superabundant merits of Christ and holy persons c. be as agreeable to the Scriptures as our Liturgy and the 39 Articles agreed on in our Church If you find it otherwise and Papists do not so much as pretend to make Scripture the Rule of these Doctrines and practices what credit can be given to such an impudent boaster But the ground of deserting us he pretends to be this That we will have the sole Rule of faith to be the Scriptures in exclusion of Universal Tradition and the voice of the Catholick Church 1. Suppose the chief Pastors and Doctors of England should dispute in the Schools about the Rule of faith and exclude Tradition and the voice of the Church from that honour which they think due only to the Word of God in Scriptures now since the decease of the Apostles and the unhappy divisions of Christians that make it difficult if not impossible to know assuredly what is delivered by Universal Tradition or taught by the Catholick Church why must you upon that account or any man desert the Church of England where the worship of God through Christ Jesus is celebrated without any mixture of superstition and the means of salvation are offered to you in a sufficient measure for your conduct in the way of truth and peace Let a Papist if he can prove that our making Scriptures the sole Rule of faith makes the communion with our Church unsafe Must you needs run out of our Church as if it were a House visited with the Plague meerly because it relyes only upon the Scriptures for a Religion And if you must do so must you needs then at the next step run into a Roman Assembly that as my Lord Falkland speaks keeps her children from Scripture as a Mother would keep her children from Rats-bane Think of both these because the Gentleman will not be pleased if you desert us but will not come to them He will think himself still a loser if any water go besides his Mill. 2. This calumny thus impudently fastned upon our Church shews this Querist to drive the Devils trade several wayes in tempting by impostures and in falsly accusing the brethren For I challenge any Papist to quote if he can and will cite an Author faithfully and fairly any Article of Religion or Writing of a Bishop or sentence of an Academy wherein we disclaim Universal Tradition or the voice of the Catholick Church For mine own part I do openly profess that if any point in controversie between us and Papists can be proved to have been taught by the Primitive Church as a matter of faith and derived by the voice of the Catholick Church from age to age and this Universal Tradition be manifested by as good evidence as is usually produced for the divine original of the Scriptures which we receive for Canonical I will embrace that Doctrine as the Word of God 3. SIR you cannot but know that we constantly reject many of the Popish opinions obtruded upon the Christian world as Novelties which not only want a sufficient warrant from the Scriptures but also cannot be made credible and acceptable by Universal Tradition Such are the Popes Universal Bishoprick or Occumenical Headship which Pope Gregorie the great called the character of Antichrist the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and many other points of Popish Religion some whereof I recited above and need not repeat We have incessantly required the Advocates for the Papacy to prove the consent and conformity of the present Roman Church in these particulars with the Primitive Church whose voice is the Precentor in the Quire and the first circle in the diffusion of Universal Tradition Thus let due esteem and credit be given to Universal Tradition but you see how little it is in earnest valued by Papists or how far they are from making use of that Rule which they extol so zealously as you hear thereby to prove the truth of their religion In fine you may apprehend the No reason to desert the Reformed Church of England therefore because she makes the Holy Scripture the sole Rule of Religion when indeed she knows no other given
you be perswaded to forsake your ordinary Guides who lead you not by their own light but by the Lanthorn they hold forth which enables you to judge of their leading and your own walking in the right way and then to look for this Chimerical Guide called the Church For you know 1. General Councils are not standing Guides 2. And how shall particular Christians be infallibly assured and less then that according to the common Hypothesis of Papists will not serve for a ground of divine Faith that a Council when it is assembled is truly a full meeting of only lawful Pastors and that they proceed so as to be assisted by the Holy Ghost since the Learned are not agreed on the Conditions requisite to make the Body of an Assembly fit for the spirit of Infallibility and the unlearned are never able by disquisition to be assured that the Council which pretends to be their Guide is justly qualified to be so 3. Again 3. Remember how silent Councils are in cases of conscience and particular matters of holy life in which there is as much danger if you mistake the way of rushing into Hell as in matters of Faith If reason and ordinary Pastors without any fancy of infallibility can apply Scripture-Light to guide our feet certainly in the way to Heaven why is there more necessity of a Council to teach us matters of Faith than to instruct us in holyness of life Mistake me not I acknowledg the Authority of Councils as useful for the preservation of Peace and for the more vigorous suppression of false teachers which corrupt the truth But I see no absolute necessity of that extraordinary power to teach the Church diffusive the form of wholesome Doctrine established now by the Consent of Ages to the Faith once delivered to the Saints 4. But supposing a general lawful Council to be the only teacher to be trusted how shall particular Christians be infallibly assured of their Doctrine the knowledg whereof is conveyed by no other means but such as are confessedly fallible And therefore you will still be to seek for a sufficient Guide according to the Sense of this Grand-Signior All the objections made against the Holy Scriptures as they are used for instruments to discover the truth and the will of God which certainly they were by God designed to be for the benefit of the People as well as Pastors will be more forcibly urged to the disenabling the Canons of Councils from being a certain Rule of Faith than they can be to the degrading of Scriptures from that dignity in the Church Since the words of a Council in the original cannot be planer nor more expressive of the mind of God then those which the eternal Wisdome and Holy Spirit of God immediately directed the Pen-men of Scripture to endite And their Translations into Vulgar Languages are subject at least to as many uncertainties as the Translations of the Bible And lastly there will still be wanting a living infallible Judg that shall expound and apply the Canons of Councils to particular Christians which may be called with less danger of Blasphemy a Dead Letter and a Lesbian Rule then the Holy Scriptures are when they are defamed by such disparaging Characters fastned upon those Holy Oracles of God by Popish writers who are as the antient Hereticks Lucifugae Scripturarum But notwithstanding his reprehension of me for a feigned correspondence between the Jewish and Christian Church yet at last to maintain the infallibility of general Councils which if granted comes very short of making good his design that we should mistake the Roman Church for the Catholik and the factious Conventicles of Italy packed by the Pope to serve the interest of the Court of Rome for Legitimate Councils He will be an Advocate for the Synagogue And rather then the Successors of the Scribes and Pharisees who imitate their crimes and inherite their woes denounced by our blessed Saviour against them shall lose their priviledg of Infallibility the Jews that in their consistory persecuted David murdered the Prophets set up Idols in the Temple of God corrupted Religion and condemned our Saviour the Truth it self shall have the Gift of Infallibility fined upon them What short-sighted men are other Papists in comparison of this Illuminado who derive the Pedegree of an Infallible Guide from St. Peter when this man deduces it from the Scribes and Pharisees whom Christ calls openly Blind Guides and from the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem who as the Holy Ghost says took counsel against the Lord and against his anoynted Observe what he says viz. If I had proved efficaciously that the High Priest with his forenamed Council taught the people Idolatry or any other breach of Gods Law to be lawful c. I had overthrown the whole fabrick of his Queries Indeed I offered no large proof of it to you Sir whom I know to be so very well versed in the Law and the Prophets that you could not be ignorant of the story and the Sermons which record plainly and reprove sharply the horrid crimes of the Priests and Elders whether in Council or out of Council it matters not since neither place nor company did change their manners in corrupting Religion in seducing the People which certainly was done by doctrine as much as by example and by Authority abused in both in persecuting the Prophets and in complying with Idolatrous Kings to the erecting Idols and Altars to them in the house and City of God to the shutting up of the Temple and extinguishing the Lamps and which is worse than all this to the rejecting of the very Books of the Law that the people might not see that Light which would reprove their deeds of darkness I may ask the Querist as St. Paul did K. Agrippa Believest thou the Prophets But I dare not answer for him as St. Paul did for the King I know that thou believest them For indeed the Prophets assure us that the Priests whose lips should have kept knowledg and should have taught the people the true way of serving God and therefore the people were bound to seek the law from the mouth of Gods appointed Messenger but were not tyed to receive chaff instead of wheat much less poison instead of wine were themselves departed out of the way and caused many to stumble at the Law and broke the covenant of Levi. And notwithstanding their vain presumption controlled by the Prophet Ezekiel which you see is taken up by their successor that the Law should not perish from the Priest yet they that handled the law knew not the Lord the Pastors also were brutish and transgressed against God But though the prevarications of the Priests in the Law and their seductions of the credulous people to their ruine for if the blind lead the blind and none were so blind as Gods servants and messengers were in the Prophet Esays daies that they not both fall into the ditch be
to affirm that which any one but indifferently versed in the Scriptures knows to be false Or it may be and that is very likely he himself is very little acquainted with the Bible but borrows both his citations of Scriptures by halves and also his Answers to them that are commonly alledged by us from his deluding Masters Otherwise how were it possible that a diligent reader of Scripture should say mark his words It was far from the Ordinances of Moses that every private believer had license to peruse the Scriptures When nothing is more inculcated by God and Moses then that parents should learn and teach their children the Law bind it about their arms make Phylacteries of it and by all means possible derive unto posterity the Ordinances of God and the History of his Providence which are the subject of the Holy Scriptures If it be said that all this they might do without Book because once in seven years they heard the Law read we must then allow the Jews quicker apprehensions and more comprehensive and tenacious memories then we have in our generations But see the unpardonable ignorance or impudence of this cross-grained Querist who says the Law was to be read once onely in seven years Deut. 31. 10 11. Doth that precept which enjoyns the Law to be read in the Panegyris at the Feast of Tabernacles in the Sabbatical year include a Prohibition of the Jews to read the Bible by themselves and to meditate in the Law day and night as occasion serves which is a blessed imployment Psaal 1. 1 2. Would Moses deprive them of this happiness Or was that Statute broken by the Jews every Sabbath day as often as Moses was read in the Synagogues in every City as St. James tells us it was the Custome of old so to do Mark then the Sophistry of this illiterate impostor and his companions I say Illiterate because he says that passage of Moses and the story of Esdras Nehem. 8. 12 13. was all We that is Papists read in Scripture of the common Peoples knowing the written word Blessed be God that We Protestants may and do read more that assures us that the word of God did dwell plentifully among the Jews and ought to do so with all Christians without Bushels set over the Light as in the Church of Rome Yet we do not affirm that every Idiota or private servant of God could by his private study attain to the full meaning of every hard sentence None of us thinks this necessary or possible Yea we make a question at least whether any High Priest or Council under the Old or New Testament ever fully understood all the things hard to be understood or hard to be interpreted in the Law and Prophets or in the Evangelical and Apostolical writings It is enough as to my purpose and indeed for the safety of Gods people that the Faith and Duty of every one was written with a suâ—-beam and lay open to be read and understood by the common people with the help of a good Guide though he were below Infallibility And it was a grievous fault in the despisers of the riches of Gods Grace that God had written for them the great things of his Law and they were counted as a strang thing This Querist doth bewray his ignorance by another mistake of some consequence in his design to make the Levites and People dependent on the High Priest for the sense of Scripture He says Esdras the chief Priest interpreted the Law to the Levites and enabled them to expound it to the people Indeed Ezrah was a Priest and a perfect Scribe by whose industry and Gods special assistance the Books of Moses the Psalmes and Prophets were collected into one body of Oracles which was in trust committed to the custody of the Jews But not Ezrah but Jehoshuah was then High Priest who no doubt was diligent in the discharge of his sacred office whiles Ezrah was active in interpreting that is translating the Law written in the Hebrew Language which was well-nigh lost with the vulgar in their long captivity who were accustomed to the common speech of the Chaldeans their Lords and rendring it intelligible in their familiar tongue and also in expounding and applying the Law to their present use and in assisting the Levites that they might be well instructed to perform their office of teaching the people Now this work of Ezrah did much help but not hinder or obstruct the common people in their private study of the Law and the use of their own particular judgment was fairly consistent with the attendance on the publick Ministery which was then sincere and uncorrupted but was not so throughout the whole course of the Jewish Politie And for this reason nothing can be concluded from Ezrah's age and actions to strengthen the pretended Infallibility of the Jewish Priesthood for ever Now the Jews indeed wanted the beneficial Art of Printing and this defect made the Copies of the Law less frequent then the Bible is now adayes Yet such was the zeal and diligence of pious men in that Nation that the Law was not so rare a thing as this man would perswade you There was then no prohibition of the High Priest or Sanhedrim either to transcribe or to translate the Law and Prophets or to read them in their Original or translated no not in our Saviours Age when he sent his Auditors to the Scriptures to search for testimonies of him when indeed it had been in vain for the people to have made their recourse to the Scribes Pharisees Priests and Elders who through ignorance of the Scriptures denied Jesus to be the Christ and out of malice excommunicated all those that understood the Scriptures better then themselves and by their light were led to own Jesus to be the Glory of Israel I hope you will apprehend this to be sufficient to vindicate your title to the Scripture and your power to use it according to that judgement of discretion which every Christian that stands bound to give an account of his faith cannot be denied without usurping a dominion over faith the very suspicion whereof St. Paul although he were truly infallible yet did carefully decline The Querist treads the beaten path of Papists in debasing the holy Scripture and divesting it of the fitness and power to be a compleat Rule and an effectual instrument of faith that he may make room for a new Quack of which impious way to diminish the credit of Gods Word I leave you or any sober Christian that loves and reverences that invaluable pledge of Gods love to make a judgement without my further censure But give me leave to propound briefly some remarks of this Discourse 1. First I observe that he often joyns the Rule and Means of Faith together and confounds them so as if they were one and the same thing But the distinction of these two is of great importance to the preventing
or to the ending of frivolous Disputes The Rule of Faith is that publick standard of Christian Religion which includes things of belief and practice both in the service of God and also in conversation with men The adequate Rule of Faith for Christians is the Word of God revealed by Christ or the Gospel which was first preached and then written by the instinct of the same Spirit Rom. 10. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 25 The Gospel in this sence doth include in it the whole Scripture of the Old Testament the divine Authority whereof it affirms and confirms by the harmony of both This Rule is one and immoveable and so entirely delivered by the Apostles that it is uncapable of addition and the attempt of addition or mutilation or any corruption makes the falsifier of this Rule liable to a dreadfull Anothema denounced by St. Paul Gal. 1. 8 9. Now because the holy Scriptures in their fulness contain this Gospel therefore they are usually called by the ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin the straight unerring unswerving Rule of Faith that can deceive none and needs no correction This Rule contains and like a Light holds forth the object of our Faith and is not the less a Rule of Faith because this holy Scripture comprehends many other things of great use for our instruction and spiritual delight as a Carpenters Rule justly carries that name and serves the turn of measuring stuff and work though it be set out with ornamental and useful Tables You may now apprehend what we mean by the Rule of Faith But the Means of Faith signifie another thing For whatsoever by its nature and efficacy doth serve to bring man to the knowledge right understanding and full assurance of the saving Truth comes under this Notion the Means of Faith The holy Scripture as it conveys unto us the Gospel which it contains and preserves is indeed a principal instrument of God to work that faith which is his gift Moreover God hath in his wise government of the World and his Church appointed many means which according to the course of his providence contribute to the working of faith in our hearts There are some outward whereof the chief is the publick Ministry which is compared to a Candlestick that holds forth the light to the houshold of faith And not only Pastors are the means of faith but also Parents and Masters of Families and every good Christian which is as Christ says of his Disciples in general for the twelve Apostles were not then selected out of the multitude the light and salt of the earth by communicating the Word unto others are very often the happy propagators of the faith Besides men some things as Books are instrumental to promote our knowledge and faith There are some inward means of faith as our sense and rat onal faculties in the exercise whereof if there be not an actual certainty allowed the whole frame of civil society will be dissolved into confusion and the foundation of Religion will sink since faith is a reasonable service and was first built upon their sight which were eye-witnesses of the Gospel and now comes by hearing Rom. 10. 17. which two senses are the instruments of Discipline Neither will I exclude Oral or Practical Tradition from being a means to propagate the faith But this is so slippery a way so changeable uncertain and liable to corruption and forgery as appears by the superstitions of Heathens and Jews for the divine Authority of all which Tradition was pretended that without Scripture to support it Tradition is too weak to hold up faith Thus it appears that the Rule of faith can be but one and it must be common to all as the faith and salvation are common and it must have the unmoveable certainty of a Rock for man to build on And this firmness you may call if you please Infallibility for this property of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 18. can neither be deceived nor deceive is communicated to his Word which is the Truth it self and therefore the Rule of faith But the term Infallible is a Scholastical Novelty which neither Scripture nor the ancient Fathers used to attribute unto the Church but now it makes such a noise in the world with the incessant ringing of Papists that it stupifies many mens senses and understandings But the Means of faith are manifold which where God himself by his Spirit manages them are effectual to beget a saving faith though many of them are far short of Infallibility though Papists in their confused way of talking require Infallibility in the Ground Rule and Means of Faith equally 2. Again Pray note his unprosperous fraud in the abatement of the Scriptures perfection and all sufficiency to teach us the whole mystery of godliness without setting us to seek out elsewhere for a remnant of faith or an unwritten Word For he confesses the Scriptures to be a profitable but a partial Rule which contains many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expresly enough to satisfie any capacity but wilful pertinacy and for the rest which are not thus expressed it refers us to the Church and the Governors thereof c. For certain the Monarchy of the Pope and the Infallibility of the Church of Rome are the fundamental stones of the Romish Religion and if they could be proved true are of the most importance to the ease of conscience and the peace of Christendom in that sluggish and servile way wherein Papists would lead us and therefore it is no wonder that Papists who are true to their interest contend earnestly for these that are such points as being once admitted they facilitate the reception of all other Doctrines whatsoever Now let the Papists shew these two clearly expressed in Scripture or shew us a good reason why the Apostle should have a greater mind to tell the after-Ages of the Church of his Cloak and Parchments then to inform them of those points which according to their opinion are necessary to preserve the Church in peace especially then and there when St. Paul had it in his design to recount all the grounds motives and means of Christians keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and yet hath left out the Headship of the Pope and the Magistery of the Infallible Guide the Roman Church What reason imaginable can be given why Christ and his Apostles should not have an equal kindness for all the important points of Religion and an equal care to conserve their memory by writing or indeed what need was there of writing any thing at all of particular points when one Reference of us to the Church for all would have served the turn would not one precept written of Ask the Church that is the governors of it or instead of Search the Scriptures Inquire for the universal Tradition of Christendome have been convenient and sufficient for our
more necessary for Christians then now Little Children keep your selves warily from Idols And Christs Admonition concerns us nearly Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees Since Papists are thus manifestly the heirs and successors of the Scribes and Pharisees let all that love their own souls decline the snares of these travellers to make Proselytes lest while they think to find a new way to Heaven which is called Tradition they be made the children of Hell Here indeed we have set one snare of the Devil before thine eyes the Papists first set it to take Christians captive and set it in secret in chambers whispering in the dark but now what was spoken in the dark and in the closet is brought forth to be examined by the light and I hope that this stratagem of our enemies is defeated by being discovered Indeed it is a happy ignorance not at all to know the depths of Satan but since God hath in his wise and just providence let loose Satan amongst us who can transform himself into an Angel of light and transfigure's his messengers into the Apostles of Christ who spare no pains to vent his delusions we had need to pray heartily that God will be our Sun to enlighten us with the saving beams of his heavenly truth which shine in his written Word and our shield our shelter our shadow to secure us from the snare of the Fowler from the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction the bold faced Devil that wasteth at noon-day And that the Christian Reader may be provided of an Antidote against this noysom pestilence and that he may both see and escape the deceit and destruction of this snare is the end of this publication which God make prosperous to his Glory Amen C. G. First SECTION Containing the PAPISTS QUERIES Five Queries propounded in Religion _1 WHether there is not in all ages a visible Catholick Church 2. Whether out of the visible Catholick Church any can attain Salvation 3. Seeing there are now very many Professions amongst Christians which give themselves out to be either the holy Catholick Church or part of it I desire to know by designation which amongst them all is now the holy Catholick Church 4. Whether the Holy Catholick Church so designed can teach her Children any error as matter of Christian Faith either destructive of Salvation or endangering the attaining of it 5. If the said Catholick Church can teach errors as matter of Christian Faith how any Christian can be infallibly certain that She hath not taught some error in determining the Canon of Scripture and in teaching some Book or Books to be the word of God which is not so and then what certainty any one can have that all those Books are Gods word which Gods Church delivers to be his word A Categorical Answer to these Queries is demanded Second Section containing the Divines Answer 1. THe Queries answered by propounding others reflecting upon the State of the Jewish Church of God to which God had made as ample promises of its continuance till Shiloh came in humility as he made of the Christian Churches perpetuity till the same Saviour come in glory 1. Whether according to the veracity of Gods promises there were not then to be a Visible Church of the Jewes 2. Seeing the Kingdom and Church of the ten tribes pretended to the truth and service of God as well as the House of David with the Priesthood at Hierusalem and even that Kingdom and Priesthood were sometime infected with gross Idolatry and that publickly set up and erected I desire to know by what designation a Jew that was truly inquisitive of the way and means of Salvation should then discern and discover that Church in which he might find it and out of which he could not since as Christ himself affirms John 4. 22. Salvation was then of the Jews 3. Whether the Visible Society of the Jewish Nation that was in covenant with God could not teach her Children any error as matter of Religion that was corruptive of the same and destructive of Salvation 4. If the said Church could teach such errors how any Jew could be infallibly certain that the living Oracles committed to that people were not corrupted or lying legends obstructed under pretence of Holy Scripture 5. If God in that Oeconomie did preserve the Holy Scriptures which were to be the standing Rule of Religion to which private persons were to have recourse for their direction to secure themselves from the seducement of erring Guides Esa 8. 20. and 9. 16. compared and also the Instrument of publick Authority for reformation of a corrupted Church why may not the Scriptures of the New Testament added to the Oracles of the Old be sufficient to make us wise unto Salvation and to enable them who have their senses exercised therein to discern between good and evil If the Querist can frame a good Answer that might satisty the conscience of a Jew then mutatis mutandis the same will be an Answer to his own Queries II. Take this Categorical Answer to the said Queries 1. There was is and shall be till the worlds end ae Catholick Church that in every age is visible by the profession of Christianity to the persons then living 2. Out of this Catholick Church ordinarily there is no Salvation 3. That is the Holy Catholick Church which professeth that One Holy Catholick Faith once for all delivered unto the Saints whereof the Holy Scriptures are the Conservative and Rule 4. That Holy Catholick Church teaches no error destructive of Salvation 5. Therefore cannot so long as it continues so abuse the world by imposing false or forged Scriptures upon it Quere further What reason now from hence can be deduced why any rational person should desert the Church of England that adheres to the acknowledged Rule of Faith the Scriptures and enter into the present Church of Rome which at the threshold requires him to renounce his Senses Reason and Charity and obliges him to the belief of a Creed composed a few years ago at Trent which we desire the Papists to prove was the Catholick Faith of the truly antient and Catholick Church Third Section containing the Papists Reply N. 1. A Categorical Answer to the Queries concerning the Jewish Church I Admit the promises of God here mentioned respectively to Jews and Christians To the first I answer affirmatively The Second commits a fallacy of Ignoratio elenchi The Queries about the Christian Church to which these ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church nor on every one or any particular mumber of the Priests or Pastors of the Church but upon the representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matter of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when questions arise about
any of them I therefore answer that when any such question arose amongst the Jews they were neither to have their last refuge to the Kings of Israel or Judah nor to the State Magistrates or common people for resolution in what they were to believe but to the lawful High Priest for the time with his High Council or Synod of other chief Priests and Doctors in the Law of Moses And they were to conform their belief to what they defined and taught them so that whatsoever either the Kings or some number of inferior Tribes or some particular Priests taught practised or believed contrary to the Doctrine and definition of this Supreme Spiritual Council was to be held erroneous and those who held forth such erroneous Doctrine pertinaciously or practised publickly contrary to it were to be esteemed in their doctrine Hereticks and in their practise Nonconformists to the True Church or Separatists from it If therefore a Jew in the times mentioned in the Querie should have demanded which was then the True Visible Church wherein Salvation could be acquired the answer must have been That it was the High Priest then being and all these believers who conformed their Faith Practises and Communion to him and his high Council ut supra And all such as stood in oppositions against him and division from him were Aliens so long as they continued in that state from the True Church Now if the Querist had proved efficaciously that the High Priest with his fore named Council taught the people either Idolatry the common sin of the Jews or any other breach of Gods Law to be lawful or any error against Gods Revelations to be true or any of his Revelations to be false he had overthrown the whole fabrick of my Queries But seeing this is not yet done by him his Queries are neither an Answer nor any obstruction to mine and therefore they remain in their full vigour against him For notwithstanding all he says in his second Query which is the main force of his instance I have clearly shewed a Jew of those times which was then the True Visible Church out of which Salvation could not be had Now it is impossible to prove any such matter unless he enervate the words of our Saviour Mat. 23. 2 3. where he says That whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught who had and did sit in Moses his chair that is succeeded in his Spiritual authority was to be observed and done by all the Jewish people which supposes evidently they could not teach them either error in Faith and Manners as part of Gods word for then he should have commanded to do evil and believe errors so that they were infallible in their teaching till Shiloh came And the reason why they were so infallible says our Saviour was because they sate upon Moses his chair and so governed successively the Church of God faithfully in matter of doctrine as he did in his time Upon the chair of Moses have sate the Scribes and Pharisees All therefore that they shall say unto you Observe and do it And this reason proves not only those that sate then when our Saviour spake these words but that all those who sate before them ever since the time of Moses were infallible in all divine doctrines both of Faith and Manners The third Querie is therefore thus answered That the Jewish Church understood ut supra could not teach any error as matter of Divine Faith or Religion To the fourth Querie I answer That though from the precedent Answers it followes that the Jewish Church by divine direction preserved the Holy Scriptures so entirely that it never rejected any true part of Gods written word nor received into their Canon of Gods written word any Book or Sentence which was not his word yet it followes not thence that every private person should find out every particular point of Religion by particular or express proofs out of that written word alone but that the Authority of the Jewish Church ut supra in matters controverted should interpose it self and determine the controversie Nor do the two Texts quoted in the Querie prove thus much For that Esa 8. 20. proves only this that they were neither to have recourse to Soothsayers nor to extraordinary visions but to the Law and Testament when doubts arose Now this is so far from forbidding to have recourse to the present respective Priests and Governors of the Church that the Law and Testament command expresly that recourse is to be had to them in doubtful cases Deut. 17. from the 8th to the 12th verse and Malachi 2. from the 4th to the 8th In which places the interpretation of the Law is reserved to the Priest and the disobedience to the Priests command declared to be so great a sin that it is to be punished with no less than death And for the Scriptures themselves it was so far from the Ordinance of Moses his Law that every particular or private Believer had license or opportunity or ordinary possibility to peruse them and gather from them by his sole perusal what was and what was not to be believed as private Protestants now do that the Law was only to be read to them once in Seven years Deut. 31. 10 11. and was accordingly performed by Esdras Nehem. 8. 1 2 3. And this was all we read in Scripture of the common People knowing the written word And it appears that the people were so far from undertaking by their own private judgements to attain to the full meaning of every hard sentence in the Law that it is said v. 79. that the Levites interpreted to the people and that Esdras taught them And v. 13. not only the people but the inferior Levites and Priests came to Esdras the chief Priest to hear from him the interpretation of the Law Now the respondent if he will make a parallel between the common people of the Jews and his Protestants must produce some clear place of Scripture where the Books of the Law of Moses and not only they but the whole Old Testament was as common and familiar in the houses and hands of every ignorant Jew as the Old and New Testament is now in the houses and hands of every ignorant Protestant which I believe he will find a very hard task seeing Printing being then unknown to the world it would have been very difficult to have found so immense a number of copies as are now since Printing of the Bible amongst Protestants Yet are not we of opinion that the Scriptures are either not profitable as Saint Paul says they are or not sufficient supposing them to be the written word of God by some precedent proof by way of Rule to make us wise unto Salvation For they contain many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expressely to all who are not willfully pertinacious and what they contain not in particular expressions by general rules they refer to the Church
spiritual whoredoms And therefore let any indifferent Reader judge whether I proceeded not upon a good ground when I compared the present Catholick Church with the only Church though then confined to one Nation since both are equally furnished by God with sufficient means to preserve Religion and both are equally liable to corruption in their members and if you will believe St. Paul's warning to the Church of Rome the visible Roman Church is more then equally with that of the Jews obnoxious to a grand apostacy and excision There is indeed one difference between the particular members of the Jewish Church under the Law and particular Christians under the Gospel for which the condition of Gods servants under the Old Testament was much harder then ours is under the New For the prescript service of God being of old tied to the Temple at Hierusalem and the people being bound to worship God there when the Temple was shut up and the worship of the Lord wholly laid down as under King Ahaz read 2 Chron. 29. 7. or when the City and Temple were polluted and prophaned with the execrable Altars and Images of Baal of the Sun and of the Host of Heaven and Devil-worship which were set up by Manasseh who required obedience of Priests and People and filled Jerusalem with the blood of them who chose to obey God rather than Man See 2 Chron. 33. 3 9. 2. Kings 24. 4. Gods faithful servants must needs have been in a sad streight between their zeal for Gods House and service and their obligation to their superiors who caused at least urged them to err and to do worse then the Heathen as the Holy Ghost speaks in that story when there was no appearance as this Romanist fondly dreams of a standing Council assistant to the High Priest resident at Hierusalem as a Visible guide in Gods way but the Priest that shewed their heads were all Sycophants and Seducers But now the Service of God being spiritual and not tyed to any one place nor the Law of Christ confined to one Bishops chair only but the Church being spred throughout all nations and every Church that is associated orderly in any Kingdom or Nation or being endowed with a sufficient power of conduct and government in which the Christian Magistrate is concerned if a prevalent party of Governours be not only corrupted in matters of Religion but also so abusive of power that the communion with that Church be unsafe Christians are much more at liberty than the Jews were because by removal of their habitation they may leave a gangrened limb of the Catholick Church and joyn to a sounder part where they may be it in the East or in the West offer a pure oblation and incense unto God with acceptance upon the Altar Christ Jesus This advantage of freedom and safety for the Service of God and working out their own salvation a Christian gains above a Jew by the propagation of the Gospel unto the Gentiles and the settlement of particular Churches in several Territories under several jurisdictions But still the parallel holds between Jews and Christians both in regard of their duty to God and their Governours and in respect also of the provision for their eternal Salvation when the iniquity of the times is such that their Governours will either make the people committed to their charge drunk with the poysoned wine of their fornications or make themselves drunk with the blood of Martyrs But he goes on to tell us that his Queries proceed upon the Representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matters of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when Questions arise about any of them 1. Now Sir again I appeal to your reason 1. whether you did apprehend or could divine or by any thing in those Queries imagine that by the Visible Catholick Church which he supposes must be consulted as the Guide of Salvation is to be understood a truly general Council lawfully assembled But now you may be satisfied that when the Papists make a noyse with crying up the Catholick Church they do not mean the Body of the Christian Church diffusive over the whole earth which though it cannot err in matters of Faith necessary to Salvation for then it should cease to be a Church by not holding the head Christ Jesus yet can not this be a Guide because it cannot be consulted by particular Christians or others who having got an incling of the truth and desirous of Salvation may be inquisitive for a Guide And though every Christian which is a sound member of the Catholick Church by holding the true Faith and being ready to joyn upon every good occasion with all his Fellow members in the worship of God through Christ Jesus according to the Rules of the Gospel be obliged to communicate his Light to any man that wants it yet is not every man that agrees with the Catholick Church an Infallible Guide And less than Infallibility will not serve a papists turn when he talks of a Guide though the poor souls in that Synagogue never see any but such Guides which are confessedly fallible because Infallibility is not the Lot of particular Priests And now being instructed to take their meaning which was a secret not to be foreseen for their saying I hope you have not forgot what you have heard my Lord Falkland often say The Pastors assembled in Council though a governing part are still but a part of the Church Catholick and this may be secured from the gates of Hell though they may be permitted to err in matters of Faith 2. But allowing all due honour of Reverence and Obedience to a truly General Council lawfully assembled in the name of Christ and proceeding sincerely by the assistance of the Holy Ghost I desire you to consider how particular Christians are by this mans explication of the word Church set forward in the way to find that which is pretended to be absolutely necessary to wit an Infallible Guide in matters of Faith and holy Life You know that after the Apostles had finished their course the Church subsisted upon the stock of their doctrine with an ordinary Ministry erected and supported by Christ in several Churches respectively for many years and some ages without a general Council Yet particular Christistians had all that while a sufficiency of certain means for the conduct of their Souls in the wayes of Truth Peace and Holyness unto eternal life And therefore doth it not appear evident that there was Salvation attained without a Church in the sense of this Querist But never was there Salvation out of the Catholick Church I pray marke now who is ignorant of or wilfully mistakes the Argument we treat of the Querist or the Respondent 3. Thirdly I desire you to consider in what a wilderness you are intangled without certain path or issue if once
and unlearned and easier to be applied by particular Christians then the Scripture the study whereof for the discovery of so much as is necessary to be believed and done requires infinitely less pains then is requisite for the certain knowledge of what the Church in all ages and places hath taught as matter of faith necessary to salvation You Sir are pretty well versed in Books and have been inquisitive into Antiquity and I believe you will conclude it much easier to know the mind and will of God which is the measure of spiritual wisdom and the Vnum necessarium the One thing necessary for us to seek after then to learn the sence of the Church that is still according to the Querists Exposition of the chief Pastors in all Ages concerning the points in debate between us To close up this Discourse try whether you find not within your self enough of reason to consent to this resolution he that by attendance on Gods Ordinances dispensed by a faithful Ministry and by private study of Gods Book hath learned the Gospel of Christ and is a good practical Scholar of the saving Grace of God which hath appeared unto all men a Catholick Light common as the Sun teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we live soberly righteously and religiously in this present world this man I say being * taught of God doth know à priori before-hand and by the very seed and in the first principle what the true Church Catholick holds For that Word of God which lives and abides for ever in Heaven Psal 119. 8 9. in the hearts of believers 2 Cor. 3. 3. 1 Joh. 3. 9. in the Scriptures and in the Church is that incorruptible seed by which the Church Catholick is begotten and by which it lives Since then the Church is no longer or further a Church then as it believes the Gospel and the faithful Pastors in all ages do teach that Gospel it must needs be that whosoever knows the Gospel knows what is the sense of the Catholick Church though he never spend an hour in the reading of history whereas if he spend Methusalahs age in tumbling over the Fathers Schoolmens Ecclesiastical Histories and other Volumes he may weary his flesh and yet notknow by them what was the Faith of the Catholick Church Now to the mans conclusion He acknowledges that a direct fit and true answer to my Queries mutatis mutandis would be an answer to his captious questions which he propounds with the same mind as his admired Masters the Scribes and Pharisees did trouble our Saviour Christ with Interrogatories thinking but in vain that we should be intangled in our ovvn Ansvvers whereas indeed he had been catched if he had given apposite Answers But after mine examination which I resign up to your discretion I desire you to transform your self by the power of imagination for a while into the person of a well-minded Jew that seeks for satisfaction in Religion in a distracted estate of the Church and try whether this Querist being forced to turn Respondent hath fully and fitly answered my Counter-Queries My next Task is to examine his exceptions against my Categorical Answers I shall not contend about words nor much crave excuse for want of accurate expression in that hasty delivery of my Conceptions to comply with your request at that time As to the first he excepts against the term Christianity as dubious to make my Answer acceptable I will insert the Term he desires and say True Christianity But I fear the addition will dispel no mist of doubtfulness if there were any such about the answer For Hereticks alwaies pretend to Truth as much as to Christianity and would be taken for the only true Christians But to satisfy his nice and curious palate I answer as fully as he desires There was is and shall be till the worlds end a Catholick Church that in every age is visible by profession of true Christianity to the persons then living That is to say In all ages God had and will have and preserve some Christians who shall so profess the Truth according to the doctrine of the Gospel that their light of Faith shall shine to the men of their generation respectively But I cannot so easily admit another addition sliely made by the Querist to my Answer viz. in their whole profession Latet anguis in herbâ He that professes true Christianity may build hay and stubble upon the foundation and yet not miscarry in his person whilst he holds fast his profession of the saving truth unto the end though he be saved through the fire and loose his superstructure as St. Paul assures us It is not therefore necessary that any person or Church which maintains true Christianity should profess it in such an absolute purity as that water should never be mixed with the wine It is enough that poyson is not admixed with the liquor of life But because I perceive that there is much ambiguity in the termes of the Query for which it deserves to be called Fallacia plurium interrogationum a sophistical trick of asking many things under one word that hath two faces under a hood I will weigh the vvords over again and mould my answer anevv fitted to his explication of the vvord Catholick In common speech Catholick is no more-than Universal Justin Martyr vvho vvith many others of that age believed a particular Resurrection of some that should rise and reign 1000 years before the end of the World calls the last Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Catholick or in plain English Universal Resurrection There is also a Catholick Faith vvhich is common to all Christians and comprises all that is necessary to Salvation And the Church of Christ novv unconfined to any one place or nation but spreading like a fruitful vine her branches throughout the earth is called Catholick that is not National as the old Church of the Jevvs vvas but Universal since the Gospel is preached to all the vvorld indifferently and the voice of the Apostles vvent forth into all the earth and their vvords unto the ends of the habitable vvorld It is not to be omitted that in a secondary and borrovved sense the word Catholick is applied to them that hold the true Faith which is common to all Christians and therefore Catholick In this sense not only a particular Church but also a singular person may be called Catholick meaning one that professes the Catholick Faith But the Querist who hath a peculiar language and though he speaks English yet means Italian hath taught me since I first read his Questions and answered them according to the common usage of the words that he meant by the Catholick Church the Representative Church in a full and lawful meeting of the Priests and Pastors to teach the Church diffusive Now according to this sense of the words Catholick Church I do turn my Affirmative Answer into a Negative and
discern a good tree from a bad by the fruit as our Saviour directs us to do then we must first know what is good and bad in fruit and then consider what fruit the tree bears and from thence give a judgement of the tree This is the method which we must take in the enquiring for a true Church Till we know what is Truth and that is the Faith once delivered to the Saints we cannot know what Church brings forth good or bad fruit Profession of faith is bearing of fruit The goodness of this fruit is Truth that is agreeableness to the Word of God It is therefore necessary that we know the Truth before we can know a Church to be true Now though the Truth or the holy Catholick Faith may be under doubt and debate yet hath God set it up in the Scriptures so conspicuously that if the Gospel be hid it is hid to them that perish Therefore I added to the Character of the Church by which I designed it to be known that is the profession of faith the means whereby we may know what the faith is which being professed is the sole certain mark of a true Church For the marks of the Church which Romanists commonly give are separable from the Truth and if they be taken singly without truth are false and treacherous indices whereas the true faith of it self is a sure note of a true Church And I pointed at Scripture which is the Rule of faith on purpose in mine Answer that I might not be thought to send a man to look for a thing in the dark without a light And now Sir do you judge whether I have deserved blame by my designation of the Catholick Church by professing the Catholick Faith But to make mine Answer both applicable to the Question and also useful to you I shall a little explicate and enlarge my sence It is presumed that the enquiry after a Church is made by a Christian that may be distracted in the variety of visible Societies differing one from another but every one equally pretending to be a Church but his distraction is the greater because of all Societies only the Roman Synagogue doth challenge to her self to be the Ark out of which there is no salvation There are three Reasons which may move Christians to enquire for a Church or a visible Society of Christians 1. That they may serve God and offer up the spiritual sacrifices of praise and prayer by Christ Jesus 2. That they may grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ 3. That they may joyn with Gods people and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace by communicating together in Gods holy Ordinances To compass these ends a Christian is not concerned to enquire where the Catholick Church is for it is confessedly diffused through the Nations but so spread by Gods dispensation of the light that the Sun of righteousness doth not at one time arise to all parts of the world Besides the Candlestick is moveable from any place and the Kingdom of God may be transferred from one Nation to another neither hath God by any the least indication of his will and pleasure encouraged any portion of mankind or part of the world to promise to themselves a perpetual establishment of the Church in that place and in that successive body of men which at some time hath been or is now irradiated with the Gospel It is therefore not at all material to trouble our selves with delineations of the Catholick Church which hath no set or certain limits of extent That which concerns us to know is what Church pretending to be a member of the Church Universal for no men but Papists that can admit contradictions into their Creed will speak such non-sense with deliberation as that is when they call a particular society of Christians combined under one Bishop the Universal Church is fit and safe to be communicated withal that we must reap the benefits of a Christian Congregation Therefore the Question is now whether the Church wherein I was born and baptized and by Gods Providence am seated under its government or another different society of Christians which invite me to their communion be such a company as I may safely joyn with them in all publick offices of Religion For if it be I am bound to communicate with that Church as being a member of the Body of Christ the unity of which Body I am bound to maintain The Truth therefore of the doctrine taught the integrity and purity of the divine worship celebrated and the way of administring Ecclesiastical power must be examined by some Rule and known to be agreeable to the Gospel of Christ before a Christians conscience can be satisfied of the necessity of communion with that Church upon this account because it is a member of a Church Catholick Since then it is the custome to call any publick society of Christians that are compacted together by a frame of political government into one body a Church that particular Church is a member of the Catholick which holds that Faith the profession whereof constitutes the Church Catholick He that sleights this Designation would have dealt kindly with us if he had discovered unto us a better way or a clearer Light by which we might find the Church and discover a true Church from a vain pertender Till he or some other do that office for us we think it best to seek for a Church if we were now to seek by looking for the light of truth in it which alwaies shines in the house of God And because truth and peace are both the legacies of Christ bequeathed unto the Church we may do well to try what society of Christians doth follow peace and edification of the Body of Christ If the Church of Rome that sets up Images of God which are the teachers of lies in their Temples and by her Anathemaes makes divisions in Christendome be tryed by those two marks I leave the event to any one that will impartially pronounce sentence according to the evidence of fact in the whole bulk of their doctrines and Devotions and in their publick Government My fourth Answer hath the same fate with the former to be called not Categorical I must learn new Logick as well as new Theologie to understand this Gentleman But it is charged with defect because it reflects not upon the whole Question and takes no notice of the tail wherein the sting of the Scorpion lies I confess mine Answer comes short in that particular because I did not apprehend then the last clause of his question to be of any moment For I thought it enough that the Church Catholick is secured from any error that is destructive of Salvation But because I am now informed that the main force of the Querie lies in this Whether the Holy Church so designed can teach any error as matter of Faith endangering of Salvation
by God to the Church and looks upon Universal Tradition whensoever it appears fair and full with reverence as being the sense of the Church He proceeds to abate the force of my dissuasive of you from entrance into the Roman Church when the condition of your entrance is the renouncing of your senses reason and charity For the two former though the terms seem hard yet his rigour abates nothing of them You must be contented to lose the use of your senses and reason when you become a vassal to Rome To mitigate the severity he tells you this is no more than Scripture and the Protestant Church requires He abuses Scripture in two instances 1. He says was not Lot to deny his senses when he perceived them to be Angels c. I say no and the Scripture doth not say any such thing as this man supposes When God thought fit either to appear himself to the Patriarchs in humane shape clad with flesh in a transitory manner which is generally taken to have been a Praeludium of the words or the Son of God his incarnation or to send Angels invested with humane bodies the servants of God to whom those heavenly messengers were sent so fitted for converse were not bound to renounce their senses but by their reason and their knowledge of Gods way of enter course with his choice servants by Angels they were to regulate the notices of the object which their senses represented unto them 2. He cries out How could our Saviour pass through a croud of People and neither be seen heard or felt without a deception of the senses Judg I pray whether it suits with the Faith and Reverence we owe to Christ the truth it self in his Person Doctrine and Actions to ascribe unto him the deception of the Peoples senses which comes very near to the practise of Magicians and will if admitted diminish the credit of Christs Miracles Our Saviours passage through the multitude so that he escaped their fury and left them in amazement might be wrought many wayes which we are not concerned to imagine and must not determine though we could devise because the Gospel hath not recorded the manner of it But it is rashly and irreverently said to be effected with a deception of the senses But how is Christs action at that time an obligation laid upon Christians to the worlds end to deny their senses in the Eucharist where Christ instituted the material objects of our senses to be the instruments of our faith and the Bread and Wine are designed to be sensible Symbols of spiritual things even as the Water in Baptism is Briefly since our Blessed Saviour the Angels and the holy Apostles have made our senses competent instruments to assist our faith and reason in judging of the truth and presence of Christs Body even after the Resurrection and Christ hath not any where by himself or his Apostles limited the free exercise of our senses nor lessened the credit of their Verdict in the Sacrament of the Eucharist more then in Baptism is it not a horrid tyranny over Christians to require that we renounce both senses and reason and at the command of a Romish Priest believe that there is no Bread and Wine where all our senses almostâ— conspire to inform us of their presence and the very nature of the Sacrament requires it and on the other side to believe that Christs Body is in every consecrated Host and in every crum whole and entire and continues one though divided from it self in a million of places when our senses can give us no information of this presence and our reason assures us that it is inconsistent with many Articles of our Creed But observe the confidence of this Factor who with a fore-head well rubbed tels you that Protestants require you to renounce your senses whereas we think that our Saviours command He that hath ears to hear let him hear holds by proportion in the rest He that hath eyes to see let him see with assurance that the God of truth who fitted man with senses for the service of his Maker as well as for his own benefit doth secure him from deceit in the use of them about their proper objects in Religion as well as in civil conversation As for our Reason this he would perswade you must be renounced in the belief of the Trinity that you may renounce it for the easie swallowing the Camel of Transubstantiation Think what advantage this man gives to Heathens Socinians Anti-Triniarians and indeed all the adversaries of the Gospel by confessing that the prime Article of our faith concerning the God whom Christians worship is more opposite to reason then the scandalous Monster of Transubstantiation The Doctrine of three Persons in one God is indeed a sublime mystery which is beyond the discovery of reason before it is revealed and incomprehensible by reason after revelation as many secrets in the very course of nature cannot be accounted for by our dark and narrow understandings Reason it self tels us that the infinite nature of God is not to be measured by the limited being of the creatures and also that the glory of the invisible God cannot be discovered but by his own manifestation of it and that according to his own good pleasure with different degrees of light as Gods wisdom thinks fit to impart unto man the knowledge of God And lastly Reason resolves that Gods Word especially of himself who like the Sun is seen by his own light is to be believed without dispute Since therefore God in his Word written hath clearly revealed that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are one God it is a kindly office of enlightened reason to bring down every vain thought and weak reasonings that lift up themselves against the knowledge of God and to lead them captive under the obedience of faith But there is no cause why we should struggle with our reason and un-man our selves that we may admit the divelish figment of Transubstantiation whereof there is not the least shadow in the Word of God This subtil Sophister aggravates the difficulty that may be fancied in the Trinity to the greatest advantage of Atheistical cavillers but he would lessen the absurdities of Transubstantiation by an imperfect and false representation of his own Doctrine which hath no ground in Gods Word All that is with any colour alleadged out of Scripture to give countenance to the lie which we are required to believe is the sentence of Christ This Bread is my Body This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood or My Blood of the New Testament Mark now what a vast difference between the speech of our Blessed Saviour The Bread is my Body that is signifies and represents my Body as God himself says Ezek 37. 11. These bones are the whole house of Israel and Ezek. 25. 3. This to wit the Hair before-mentioned is Jerusalem and the definition of the Tridentine Fathers The whole
from the dead Where note that the holy Scriptures bear in them the same Authority that was in the living persons of Moses and the Prophets and also have the same efficacious vertue to beget faith as their words had being orally pronounced and where these lively Oracles are freely confuted and faithfully applyed though by men that are short of Infallibility but faithfull dispensers of holy mysteries an infallible Guide is superfluous Also mark that where the Authority of Scriptures is despised Miracles and there is the same reason to say so of Infallibility are useless because uneffectual to work faith †Mat. 7. 13. Noctâ—s atque dies patet atri janua Ditis * This Rustack Divine says of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He speaks plainly he calls things by their right names Non est pudor ad meliora transire Ambros Rom. 10. 10. Psal 119 59. Mos est miseris trahere omnia secum Mersa juvat Lucan * 1 Cor. 4. 2. Mat. 23. 15 Psal 119. 126. Mat 15. 3. Mark 7. 9 13. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Apoc. 17. 18. 1 Joh. 5. 20. Mat. 16. 6. * 2. Tim. 2. 26. Read Luk. 12. 1 2 3. Apoc. 2. 24. 2 Cor. 11. 13 14. Psal 91. 1 3 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A. to 1. 2. A. to 2. Q. A. to Q. 3. A. to Q. 4. * Beelzebub the Lord of Flyes 2. Reg. 1 2 3. the Prince of Devils Musca est meus pater clam illum nihil haberi potest Plaut Act. 13. 10. Prev 17. 14. Rom. 11. 18. 22. Joh. 4 21 24. Malac. 1. 11. Heb. 13. 10. 15. Apoc. 14. 8. 17. 6. Mat. 23. 24. Psal 2. 2. Read 2. Chron. 36. 14. Ezek 8. 5. to theend Act. 26. 27. Jer 32. 28. Mal. 2. 7 8. Ezek. 7. 26. Jer. 18. 18. Jer. 2. 8. 10. 21. Esa 42. 19 20. Mat. 15. 14. Jer. 17. 1. Mat. 4. 10. Prov. 16 10. Eccl. 8. 2. Mat. 5. 20. c. Rom. 7. 14. Mat. 16. 11 12. Luk. 11. 52. Wisd 1. 5. See Joh. 14. 17. Mat. 15. 14 Mat. 15. 3. 9. Mat. 23. 16 17 18 19 20. Esa 5. 20. Luk. 23. 50 51. Act. 5. 17. Mat. 22. 23 Act. 23. 8. See Act. 26. 6 7. Act. 23. See Jer. 5. 31. Mat. 23. 37. See Jer. 2. 26 23. 1 2. Read Esa 56. 10 11. Certainly blind watchmen dumb and yet greidy doges Shepheards that could not understand were but sorry Guides and as far from being infallible teachers of Religion as Hell is from Heaven * Hos 8. 12. Esa 11. 2. Joh. 3. 34. Eph. 4. 7. Phil. 1. 9 10. Col. 1. 9. Act. 17. 11. Rom. 15. 4. Hos 8. 12. psal 19. 7 8. Prov. 8. 7 8. Esa 35. 8. * The Jews at this day are so enslaved to their Rabbies that if a Rabbi or wiseman tell them their Right hand is their left they are bound to believe it Now what difference is there between an obstinate Jew and an infatuated Papist †Esa 9. 16. Esa 8. 20. Deut. 17. 8. If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood blood between plea and plea and between stroke and stroke c. Act. 15. 21. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Pet. 1. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb Hos 8. 12. Rom. 3. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 24. Tertul. l. de veland virgin speaking concerning the Creed Regula fidei una omninò est sola immobilis irreformabilis Mat. 5. 13 14. Luk. 1. 2. Act. 4. 20. 1 Joh. 1. 1. * Tit. 1. 3. Iud. v. 3. Read Eph. 4. 3. to 14. Apoc. io 10. Rom. 14 23. * Mat. 26 15. Read 1. Cor. 15. 3 4. Mat. 14. 2 3 6. Maldonate on John 6. confesseth thus much Nihil credi Deus voluit adversus Scâ—iptuâ—arum authoritatem Aug. l. 13. cont Faus Manich. Mark 7. 5 13. 2 Thes 2. 1 Joh. 4. 1. 2 Thes 5. 21. Rom. 12. 2 Eph. 5. 10 17. Tit. 2. 11 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 6. 45. 1 Pet. 1. 23 25. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 12 13. Just. Mart. dial cum Tryph. Col. 2. 6. Rom. 10. 18. Mage cernit acutum quam aut Aquila aut Serpens Epidaurius Horat. Of this see Is Cafaub Exerc 1. ad Card. Baron App. c. 1. Read the Bul. of P. Pius 4. which enjoyns all Clergy-men and all in Religious Orders to swear to the new Creed whereof this is one Article I acknowledge the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Roman Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches Mat. 7. 16 17 18. * Thy scil Gods Law is the Truth Psal 119. 142. Gods Word is the Truth Jok 17. 17 2 Cor. 4. 3. Heb. 13 15. 1 Pet. 2. 5. 1 Pet. 3. 18 Apoc. 2. 5. 5. Col. 14. 16. L. k. 24. 39. Joh. 20. 27. Mat. 28. 26. Act. 10. 41. 1. 9. 1 Joh. 1. 1 3. Mat. 13. 9. Apoc. 2. 9. Luk. 22. 19 20. Mat. 26. 26 28. Coâ—…il Tâ—…d Sess 13. c. 4. Rom. 12. 1 1 Cor. 14. 2 Tim. 2. 7. * Mr. Lee once Tutor to that Gentleman did often say that his Scholar would one day prove a Jesuit