The True Way of Concord of All the Christian Churches, Part 3 · Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
The Vniverſal Church will never unite in many pretended Articles of Faith, not proved to be Divine: nor in owning unneceſſary doubtful Opinions or Practices as Religious, or Worſhip of God; notwithſtanding the pretenſe of Tradition.
Sect. I. I Need ſay no more for proof of this than is ſaid in the firſt Part. If Preachers ſay that this or that is an Article of Faith; If Popes ſay it; If Councils ſay it, this ſaying will never unite all Chriſtians in the belief of it. It is no belief of God whoſe object is not revealed by God, and perceived ſo to be, and received as ſuch. That the ſacred Scriptures are written by Divine Inſpiration, Chriſtians are commonly agreed; But that Popes, Prelates or Councils ſpeak by Divine Inſpiration, even when they expound the Scriptures, all Chriſtians neither are agreed, nor ever will be; And till a man perceiveth that it is God that ſpeaketh, or that the word ſpoken is Gods Word, he cannot believe it with a Divine Faith, which is nothing but believing it to be Gods Word, and truſting it accordingly. God is true, but men are Lyers, Rom. 3.
Sect. II. Before we can receive any thing as Truth from Man, we muſt have evidence that it is true indeed: And that muſt be, 1. Either from the nature of the thing, and its cauſes; 2. Or from ſome teſtimony of God either concomitant (as Miracles were) or ſubſequent, (in the Effects;) 3. Or from our knowledge of the Veracity, Authority, Inſpiration and Infallibility of the Inſtrument or Speaker. If therefore any Church or company of men ſhall tell us, that this is a Divine Truth or Article of Faith, no more of the World can be expected to believe them, than are convinced of it by one of theſe three proofs: The firſt is the caſe of natural Revelation, and not now queſtioned: The Second none but the Church of Rome do plead for their own belief, viz. that they work Miracles, and therefore are to be believed in whatever they affirm to be the Word of God. Knot againſt Chillingworth, and others of them do ultimately reſolve their Faith, or their proof of the truth of their Religion into the Miracles wrought in the Church of Rome, by which God teſtifieth his approbation of their Aſſertions: Other Chriſtians that may have more miracles than Papiſts, yet reſolve not their proof of Chriſtianity into them, but lay more ſtreſs on other Evidence, and particularly on Chriſts and his Miniſters miracles atteſting the holy Scriptures and Goſpel to be of God. And when we can find juſt proof of the Papiſts Miracles, we ſhall be willing to ſtudy the meaning of them: But hitherto we have not found ſuch proof. If any Council in Rome, France, Germany or England ſhall ſay, Theſe are Divine revealed Truths, and as ſuch, you muſt believe, ſubſcribe or ſwear to them, the world will never agree in believing them, when no ſober man is bound to believe them, but as humane, uncertain and fallible witneſſes, according to the meaſure of their Credibility.
Sect. III. Long experience fully proveth this: No Age of the Church did ever agree in Articles of meer humane Aſſertion; (for that had been but a humane Faith.) That which the Council of Nice ſaid, was denyed by the Councils at Sirmium, Ariminum, &c. That which the Council at Epheſus the firſt, and at Chalcedon affirmed, they at the Council of Epheſus the ſecond denyed: That which the Monotholites under Philippicus (innumerable Biſhops ſaith Binius) affirmed many other Councils condemned: That which the Council at Nice the ſecond decreed for Images, was condemned by many other Councils: That which the Councils at …iſa, Conſtance and Baſil decreed to be Articles of Faith, the Council at Florence and others abhorre. Much leſs will a Provincial Synod, or a Convocation, or a Parliament be taken by all the Chriſtian world to be infallible.
Sect. IV. And indeed the obtruding of …alſhoods, or Uncertainties on the Churches, is a notorious cauſe of Schiſm: For what can you expect that men of Sobriety and Conſcience ſhould do in ſuch a caſe? Diſcern the certainty of the thing they cannot; nor can they believe that all muſt needs be true, that is ſaid by a Synod, a Convocation or a Parliament: And they dare not lie, in ſaying they believe that which they do not: And to take all for Schiſmaticks that dare not deliberately lie, or that ſet not up … men as Lords of their Conſcience inſtead of God, is Schiſmatical, unchriſtian and inhumane.
And as mens mere wills ought not to rule their underſtandings, nor the will of Synods, of Biſhops, or others, to be the rule and meaſure of our wills, ſo though we were never ſo willing to believe all to be true that Councils of Biſhops or Princes ſay, … are not our underſtandings in the power of our …. We cannot believe what we liſt. To know or believe without evidence of truth, is to ſee without light. Falſe Hypocrites may force their tongues to ſay that they believe this or that at the Command of man; but they cannot force themſelves indeed to believe …. How then can a book of Articles or the Decrees of a Council, or the Laws of a Prince, bring the World to any unity of Belief, in things not evidently of God?
Sect. V. What I ſay of Divine Faith, I ſay of Points of Religious Practice: For though all things believed be not to be done, yet all things to be done as commanded by God, muſt firſt be believed to be commanded by him: And to believe and do, is ſomewhat more than only to believe.
Sect. VI. But it's one thing to ſay, This is Gods Command; and another to ſay, This is our Command. The firſt none will agree to, that ſee not evidence to believe it. The ſecond is, 1. Either according to Gods Command (to drive Men to obey it.) 2. Or beſide his Command. 3. Or againſt his Command.
1. Thoſe Laws of Men which are according to Gods Laws, thoſe only will obey who diſcern them ſo to be, on that account: Therefore it muſt be in evident Caſes, or they will be no meaſure of Concord as ſuch.
2. Thoſe that are but beſides Gods Laws, Men ſhould obey, ſo far as they can find that the Commanders have power from God to make them; And how few ſuch will be matter of Univerſal Concord?
3. Thoſe that are against Gods Laws, no good Chriſtians will knowingly conſent to.
Sect. VII. And I have before truly told them, what great diverſity of capacities and underſtandings there be in the world, ſo that even in common matters that are ſtill before our eyes, at leaſt in many or moſt, few perſons long agree: In matters of Fact at any diſtance, or matters of Prudence, Husband and Wife, Parents and Children, Maſter and Servants, daily differ: Mens faces ſcarce differ more than their underſtandings: It is only in few, plain, eaſie things, that all Men are agreed: And are ever all Chriſtians like to agree in many humane, dark opinions? Or will it be taken for certain to all Men, becauſe it is ſo to ſome of clearer underſtandings? or becauſe a ſelf-confident Impoſer vevehemently aſſerteth it? They know not themſelves, they know no Man, that preſume to unite the Church this way.
Sect. VIII. Therefore the Popiſh numerous Decrees de Fide, are but ſo many Engines of Schiſm made on the pretence of declaring Points of Faith. If they were Articles of Faith before, they may be mani…est to be ſo in the Divine Revelation, that is, the Holy Scriptures: But for the Council to tell a Man, [This or That is in the Bible, but we cannot ſhew you it there, nor can you find it if you ſearch, but you must take our words as infallible:] This is not a center that the Chriſtian world will ever unite in.
And if it be an Article of Faith, either the Church held it before the Council declared it, or not: If they did, then it was known without a Councils Declaration. And what need a Council to declare that which all the Church did hold before, and was in poſſeſſion of? But if not, then either it was an Article of Faith before, or not. If it was, then the Church before held not that Faith, and ſo was Heretical, Corrupt, or wanted Faith, and ſo by their own reckoning (who will not endure the diſtinction of eſſentials from the reſt) was no Church. If not, then the Council declared that to be an Article of Faith, which was none: It muſt be ſuch, before it can be truly declared ſuch; elſe a falſe Declaration that it was ſuch, did now make it ſuch: But if they had openly profeſſed, That by Declaring it an Article, they meant the Making one, they muſt prove,
1. That they are Prophets, and have new Revelations even of Faith.
2. And that the Scriptures were not ſufficient meaſures of the Churches Faith to the end of the world.
3. And that the Churches Faith is alterable and creſcent, and the old Church had not the ſame Faith which the preſent Church hath. And will the Chriſtian world any more agree in ſuch abſurdities, than in a Quakers of Familiſts profeſſing, that he ſpeaketh by Inſpiration? If the Members of the Council before they came thither, were no wiſer nor honeſter than other Men, nor their words more credible, how ſhall we know that when they are there, they are become inſpired, and their words are Gods own words?
But if it be ſaid, That they neither make new Articles of Faith, nor declare what is in Scripture by Expoſition, but declare the Verbal Tradition of the Apoſtles; I ask,
1. If ſo big a Book as the Bible, contain not ſo much as all the Churches Creed;
2. Where hath this Traditional Faith been kept till now? If by all the Church, then it was held, poſſeſſed and known before that Declaration: If but by part of the Church, then it was but part of the Church that had the true Faith, and one part was of one Religion, and another part of another.
And which part was it that kept this Tradition? And how come we to know that they were righter than the reſt, that had it not? If it was Rome only, then they had a Faith different from the reſt of the Churches; And how ſhall we know that they are not as true and ſound as Rome?
But how hath this Tradition been carried on, and kept right? Was it by Writing, or by Word? If by Writings, why are they not cited, ſeen and tryed? Other men can read as well as Popes and Councils: If unwritten, was it by publick Preaching, or private Talk? If the former, then it was commonly known and declared, before the Council declared it. If by private Talk, how ſhall we be ſure,
1. That they were honeſt men that would keep private the Publick Faith, eſpecially being Preachers that by office were to publiſh it.
2. And that it hath been well remembred and carried on without alteration. And were it preached or whiſpered, mans memory is ſo frail, and words ſo uncertain, that for the Church, or a piece of the Church to carry down from the Apoſtles from Fathers to Children ſo many Articles, (more than are in all the Bible) and ſo hard and myſterious, and by many now controverted, and this not by writing, and to be ſure that no miſtake hath been made by oblivion, or miſexpreſsion, this is a thing that the Church will never unite in the belief of.
And was it in a ſet form of unchangeable words, that all theſe Articles (or Expoſitions) were carried down till now, or not? If yea, we ſhould have had that Form deliver'd us, as we have other Forms (the Creed, Lords Prayer, &c.) If not, how ſhall we know that the Fathers and Children had the ſame underſtanding of the matter, and changed not the Faith by change of words? And it's like that all the Churches, ſince the Apoſtles, delivered not theſe Articles down in the ſame words, when in ſeveral Countries and Ages they ſpake not the ſame language. And it is a wonder that they would never write their Faith, for their Children to learn, when the Jews, Deut. 6. and 11. were commanded to teach their Children, by writing the Law upon the very Poſts of their Houſes, and their Gates: And it is a greater wonder, that Parents and Children ſhould through ſo many Generations and Countries have ſo unerring ſur… a memory.
And it is ſtrange how their own Commentators come to differ about the ſenſe of Thouſands of Texts of Scripture, if the Churches Tradition have publickly and notoriouſly delivered down the meaning of them. If not, how Councils come to be the infallible Commentators, and Declarers of the Senſe of Scriptures.
But if really ſuch men believe themſelves, it will be long before either by fraud or force, they can make all others believe ſuch things.
Sect. IX. Gods wiſdom appointed a few great and neceſſary things to be the terms of the Churches Unity and Love; but Ignorance and Pride, by pretences of Enmity to Error and Hereſie, have plagued and torn the Churches by Decrees and Canons, and led us into a Labyrinth, ſo that men know not where they are, nor what to hold, nor what the Chriſtian Religion is, nor who are Orthodox, and who are not; ſo great a work it is to underſtand ſuch Voluminous Councils, and then to be ſure that they are all right, even when they condemn and damn each other. That which hath been the chief Cauſe and Engine of Diviſion, will never become the means or terms of the Unity or Concord of all the Churches: But ſuch are the multitude of unneceſſary, uncertain humane Decrees, Laws and Canons of Faith and Religion, whatever the proud and ignorant ſay to the contrary.