Vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat Lux, Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
Vnity of Faith wherein it consists. Principles of Protestants as to the setling men in Religion and Vnity of Faith, proposed and confirmed.
THe next thing proposed as a Good to be aymed at, is Vnity in Faith and settlement, or infallible assurance therein. This is a Good desireable for its self; whereas the moderation treated of, is only a medium of relief against other evils, untill this may be attained. And therefore though it be, upon supposition of our Differences, earnestly to be endeavoured after, yet it is not to be rested in, as though the utmost of our Duty consisted in it, and we had no prospect beyond it. It is a Catholick Vnity in Faith, which all Christians are to aym at, and so both you and wee profess to doe; only wee differ both about the Nature of it, and the proper means of attaining it. For the Nature of it, you conceive it to consist in the explicit or implicit belief of all things and Doctrines determined on, taught, and proposed by your Church be believed, and nothing else, (with faith supernaturall) but what is so taught and proposed. But this description of the Vnity of Faith, wee can by no means admit of. 1. Because it is Novel; it hath no footstep in any writings of the Apostles, nor of the first Fathers or Writers of the Church, nor in the practice of the Disciples of Christ for many Ages. That the Determination of the Roman Church, and its proposall of things or Articles to be believed should be the adequate Rule of Faith unto all Believers, is a matter as forreign unto all Antiquity, as that the Prophesies of Montanus should be so. 2. Because it makes the Unity of Faith after the full and last Revelation of the Will of God, flux, alterable, and unstable, lyable to increase and decrease; whereas it is uniform, constant, alwayes the same in all Ages, times, and places, since the finishing of the Canon of the Scriptures. For we know, and all the world knows, that your Church hath determined many things lately, some foreign, as it were but yesterday, to be believed, which its self had never before determined, and so hath increased the Rule of Faith, moved its Center, and extended its Circumference: and what she may further determine and propose to morrow, no man knows; and your duty it is to be ready to believe whatever she shall so propose; whereby you cannot certainly know unto your dying day whether you do believe all that may belong to the Vnity of Faith, or no. Nay 3. your Church hath determined and proposed to be believed express Contradictions, which Determinations abiding on record, you are not agreed which of them to adhere unto, as is manifest in your Conciliary Decrees about the Power of the Pope and the Councill, unto which of them the preheminence is due. Now this is a strange Rule of the Unity of Faith, that is not only capable of encrease, changes, and alterations, so that, that may belong unto it one day, which did not belong unto it another, as is evident from your Tridentine Decrees, wherein you made many things necessary to be believed which before were esteemed but probable, and were the subjects of Sophisticall altercations in your Schools; but also comprizeth in its self express Contradictions, which cannot at all belong unto faith because both of them may be false, one of them must be so; nor to Vnity, because Contrary and adverse. 4. Whereas holding the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, or the Unity of faith is so great and important a Duty unto all Christians, that they can no way discharge their Consciences unto God, without a well grounded satisfaction that they live in the performance of it, this description of its Nature, renders it morally impossible for any man explicitly to know, (and that only a man knows which he knows explicitly) that he doth answer his Duty herein. For 1. the Determinations of your Church of things to be believed are so many and various, that it is not within the Compass of an ordinary Diligence and ability to search and find them out. Nor when a man hath done his utmost, can he obtain any tolerable security, that there have not other Determinations been made, that he is not as yet come to an acquaintance with all, or that he ever shall so do; and how in this Case he can have any satisfactory perswasion that he keeps the Unity of Faith, is not as yet made evident. 2. In the Determinations he may meet withall, or by any means come to the knowledge of, he is to receive and believe the things determined and proposed unto him, in the sense intended by the Church, or else he is never the nearer to his end. But what that sense is in the most of your Churches proposals, your Doctors do so endlesly quarrell among themselves, that it is impossible a man should come unto any great Certainty in his enquiry after it; yet a precise meaning in all her proposals your Church must have, o… she hath none at all. What shall a man do when he comes unto one of your great Masters to be acquainted with the genuine sense of one of your Churches Proposals, this being the way that he takes for his satisfaction. First he speaks unto the Article or Question to be considered in Generall; then gives the different senses of it according to these and those famous Masters, the most of which he confutes; who yet all of them professed themselves to explain, and to speak according to the sense of your Church; and lastly gives his own interpretation of it, which it may be within a few moneths, is confuted by another. 3. Suppose a man have attained a knowledge of all that your Church hath determined and proposed to be believed, and to a right understanding of her precise sense and meaning in all her determinations and proposals, which I believe never yet man attained unto, yet what assurance can he have if he live in any place remote from Rome, but that your Church may have made some new Determinations in matters of faith, whose embracement in the sense which she intends belongs unto his keeping the Unity of Faith, which yet he is not acquainted withall. Is it not simply impossible for him to be satisfied at any time that he believes all that is to be believed, or that he holds the Vnity of Faith? Your late Pontific all Determination in the Case of the Jansenists and Molinists, is sufficient to illustrate this instance. For I suppose you are equally bound, not to believe what your Church condemneth as Hereticall, as you are bound to believe what it proposeth for Catholick Doctrine.
4. I desire to know when a man who lives here in England, begins to be obliged to believe the Determinations of your Church that are made at Rome. It may be he first hears of them in a Mercury or weekly News book; or it may be he hath notice of them by some private Letters from some who live near the place; or it may be he hath a knowledge of them by common report; or it may be they are printed in some Books, or that there is a brief of them published somewhere under the name of the Pope; or they are put into some Volume written about the Councels; or some Religious Persons on whom he much relyes, assures him of them. I know you believe that your Churches Proposition is a sufficient means of the Revelation of any Article, to make it necessary to be believed; but I desire to know what is necessary to Cause a man to receive any Dictate or Doctrine as your Churches proposition; not only upon this account, that you are not very well agreed upon the Requisita, unto the making of such a Proposition, but also because, be you as infallible as you please in your Proposals, the means and wayes you use to communicate those Proposals you make, unto Individuals in whom alone the faith whereof we treat exists, are all of them fallible. Now that which I desire to know is, What is, or what are those certain means and wayes of communicating the Propositions of your Church unto any Person, wherein he is bound to acquiesce, and upon the application of them unto him to believe them, fide divina cui non potest subesse falsum. Is it any one thing, or way, or means, that the hinge upon which his assent turns? Or is it a Complication of many things concurring to the same purpose? If it be any one thing, way, or medium, that you fix upon, pray let us know it, and we shall examine its fitness, and sufficiency for the use you put it unto. I am sure we shall find it to be either infallible or fallible. If you say the former, and that particular upon which the Assent of a mans mind unto any thing to be the proposall of your Church depends, must in the testimony it gives, and evidence that it affords be esteemed infallible, then you have as many infallible Persons, things, or writings, as you make use of to acquaint one another with the determinations of your Church; that is, upon the matter you are all so; though I know in particular that you are not. If the latter; notwithstanding the first pretended infallible Proposition, your faith will be found to be resolved immediately into a fallible information. For, what will it advantage me, that the proposall of your Church cannot deceive me, if I may be deceived in the Communicating of that Proposall unto me? And I can with no more firmness, certainty, or assurance, believe the thing proposed unto me, than I do believe that it is the Proposall of the Church wherein it is made. For you pretend not unto any self-evidencing efficacy in your Churches Propositions, or things proposed by it; but all their Authority, as to me, turns upon the Assurance that I have of their relation unto your Church, or that they are the Proposals of your Church; concerning which I have nothing but very fallible evidence, and so cannot possibly believe them with Faith Divine and Supernaturall. If you shall say that there are many things concurring unto this Communication of your Churches Proposals unto a man, as the notoritty of the Fact, suitable proceedings upon it, books written to prove it, Testimonies of good men, and the like; I cannot but mind you, that all these being sigillatim, every one apart fallible, they cannot in their Conspiracy improve themselves into an Infallibility. Strengthen a Probability they may, testifie infallibly they neither do nor can. So that on this account it is not only impossible for a man to know whether he holds the Vnity of Faith or no; but indeed whether he believe any thing at all with Faith Supernaturall and Divine; seeing he hath no infallible evidence for what is proposed unto him to believe, to build his faith upon.
5. Protestants are not satisfied with your generall implicit assent unto what your Church teacheth and determineth, which you have invented to solve the difficulties that attend your Description of the Vnity of Faith. Of what use it may be unto, other purposes, I do not now dispute, but as to this, of the preservation of the Vnity of Faith, it is certainly of none at all: The Vnity of Faith consists in all mens express believing all, that all men are bound expresly to believe, be it what it will: Now you would have this preserved by mens not believing what they are bound to believe: For what belongs to this keeping the Vnity of Faith they are bound to believe expresly, and what they believe implicitly, they do indeed no more but not expresly disbelieve; for if they do any more than not disbelieve, they put forth some act of their understanding about it, and so farre expresly believe it: So that, upon the matter, you would have ment to keep the Unity of Faith, by a not believing of that, which that they may keep the Unity of Faith they are bound expresly to believe: Nor can you do otherwise whilest you make all the Propositions of your Church of things to be believed, to belong to the Unity of Faith. Lastly, The Determinations of your Church you make to be the next efficient Cause of your Unity; now these not being absolutely infallible, leave it, like Delos, flitting up and down in the Sea of Probabilities only: This we shall manifest unto you immediately; at least we shall evidence that you have no cogent reasons, nor slable grounds to prove your Church infallible in her Determinations. At present, it shall suffice to mind you, that she hath Determined Contradictions, and that in as eminent a manner as it is possible for her to declare her sense by; namely by Councils confirmed by Popes; and an infallible determination of Contradictions, is not a Notion of any easie digestion in the thoughts of a man in his right wits. We confess then, that we cannot agree with you in your Rule of the Unity of Faith, though the thing its self we press after as our Duty. For, (2.) Protestants do not conceive this Vnity to consist in a precise Determination of all Questions that are or may be raised in or about things belonging unto the Faith, whether it be made by your Church or any other way. Your Thomas of Aquine, who without question is the best and most sober of all your School Doctors, hath in one Book given us 522 Articles of Religion, which you esteem mraculously stated; Quot Articuli, tot Miracula. All these have at least five Questions one with another stated and determined in explication of them; which amount unto 2610 Conclusions in matters of Religion. Now we are farre from thinking that all these Determinations, or the like, belong unto the Unity of Faith, though much of the Religion amongst some of you, lyes in not dissenting from them? The Questions that your Bellarmine hath determined and asserted the Positions in them as of faith, and necessary to be believed, are I think neer 40 times as many as the Articles of the antient Creed of the Church; and such as it is most evident that, if they be of the nature and importance pretended, it is impossible that any considerable number of men should ever be able to discharge their duty in this business of holding the Vnity of Faith. That a man believe in generall that the holy Scripture is given by inspiration from God, and that all things proposed therein for him to believe, are therefore infallibly true, and to be as such believed, and that, in particular, he believe every Article or point of Truth, that he hath sufficient means for his instruction in, and conviction that it is so revealed, they judg to be necessary unto the holding of the Unity of Faith. And this also they know, that this sufficiency nf means unto every one that enjoys the benefit of the Scriptures, extends its self unto all those Articles of Truth, which are necessary for him to believe, so as that he may yield unto God the obedience that he requireth, receive the holy Spirit of promise, and be accepted with God. Herein doth that Vnity of Faith which is amongst the Disciples of Christ in the world consist; and ever did, nor can do so in any thing else. Nor doth that variety of Apprehensions that in many things is found among the Disciples of Christ, and ever was, render this Vnity, like that you plead for, various and incertain. For the Rule and formall Reason of it, namely Gods Revelation in the Scripture, is still one and the same, perfectly unalterable. And the severall degrees that men attain uuto in their Apprehensions of it, doth no more reflect a charge of variety upon it, than the difference of Seeing as to the severall degrees of the sharpness or obtuseness of our bodily eyes, doth upon the Light given by the Sunne. The Truth is; if there was any common measure of the Assents of men, either as to the intension of it, as it is subjectively in their minds; or extension of it, as it respecteth Truths revealed that belonged unto the Vnity of Faith, it were impossible there should be any such thing in the world, at least that any such thing should be known to be. Only this I acknowledg, that it is the Duty of all men to come up to the full and explicit acknowledgment of all the Truths revealed in the word of God, wherein the Glory of God, and the Christians Duty are concerned: as also to a joynt consent in Faith objective, or propositions of Truth revealed; at least in things of most importance, though their faith subjective, or the internal assent of their minds have, as it will have, in severall Persons, various degrees, yea in the same Persons it may be, at different seasons. And in our labouring to come up unto this joynt-acknowledgment of the same sense and intendment of God in all revealed Truths, consists our endeavour after that perfection in the Vnity of Faith which in this life is attainable; as our moderation doth in our walking in peace and love with and towards others, according to what we have already attained. We may distinguish then between that Unity of Faith which an interest in, gives Vnion with Christ unto them that hold it, and Communion in Love with all equally interested therein; and that Accomplishment of it, which gives a sameness of Profession, and consent in all acts of outward Communion in the worship of God. The first is found in, and amongst, all the Disciples of Christ in the world where-ever they are; the latter is that which moreover it is your Duty to press after. The former consists in an Assent in generall unto all the Truths of God revealed in the Scripture, and in particular unto them that we have sufficient means to evidence them unto us to be so revealed: The latter may come under a double consideration; for either there may be required unto it in them who hold it, the joynt perception of, and assent unto every Truth revealed in the Scripture, with an equall degree of certainty in adherence and evidence in perception, and it is not in this life, wherein the best of us know but in part, attainable; or only such a concurrence in an assent unto the necessary Propositions of Truth, as may enable them to hold together that outward Communion in the worship of God which we before mentioned. And this is certainly attainable, by the wayes and means that shall immediately be layed down: And where this is, there is the Vnity of Faith, in that compleatness which we are bound to labour for the attainment of. This the Apostolicall Churches enjoyed of old; and unto the recovery whereof, there is nothing more prejudiciall than your new stating of it upon the account of your Churches Proposals.
This Unity of Faith we judg good, and necessary, and that it is our Duty to press after it: So also in generall do you. It remains then, that we consider what is the way, what are the means and Principles, that Protestants propose and insist upon for the attainment of it; that is, in answer to your Question, What it is that can settle any man in the Truth of Religion, and unite all men therein. And then because you object this unto us, as if we were at some loss and incertainty therein, and your selves very secure, I shall consider what are the grounds and principles that you proceed upon for the same ends and purposes, namely to settle any man in the Truth of Religion, and to bring all men to an harmony and consent therein.
Now I shall herein manifest unto you these two things; I. That the Principles which the Protestants proceed upon, in the improvement whereof they obtain themselves assured and infallible settlement in the Truth, and labour to reduce others unto the Unity of Faith, are such as are both suited unto, and sufficient for, the end and work which they design to effect by them, and also in themselves of such unquestionable Truth, Certainty, and Evidence, that either they are all granted by your selves, or cannot be denied without shaking the very Foundations of Christianity. 2. That those which you proceed upon, are some of them untrue, and most of them dubious and questionable, none of them able to bear the weight that you lay upon them; and some of them such as the admission of, would give just cause to question the whole Truth of Christian Religion. And both these Sr, I crave leave to manifest unto you, whereby you may the better judg whether the Scripture or your Church be the best way to bring men unto settlement in Religion, which is the thing enquired after.
1. Protestants lay down this as the foreign, as the very beginning and first Principle of their confidence and Confession, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, as the Holy Ghost teacheth them, 2 Tim. 3. 16. That is, that the Books of the Old and New Testament were all of them written by the immediate guidance, direction, and inspiration of God; the hand of the Lord, as David speaks, 1 Chron. 28. 19. being upon the Penmen thereof in writing; and his Spirit, as Peter informs us, speaking in them, 1 P…t. 1. 11. So that whatever is contained and delivered in them, is given out from God, and is received on his Authority. This Principle I suppose you grant to be true; do you not? if you will deny it say so, and we will proceed no farther, untill we have proved it. I know you have various wayes laboured to undermine the foreign of the Holy Scriptures; many Queries you put unto men, How they can know it to be from God, to be true, from Heaven, and not of men; many scruples you indeavour to possess them with, against its Authority; it is not my present business to remove them: It is sufficient unto mee, 1. That you your selves who differ from us in other things, and with whom our contest about the best way of coming to settlement in the Truth alone, is, do acknowledg this Principle were proceed upon to be true. And 2. That yee cannot oppose it without setting your selves to digge up the very foundations of Christian Religion, and to open a way to let in an inundation of Atheism on the world. So our first step is fixed on the grand fundamentall Principle of all the Religion and acceptable worship of God that is in the world.
2. They affirm that this Scripture evidenceth it self by many infallible foreign, to be so given by Inspiration from God; and besides is witnessed so to be, by the Testimony of the Church of God from the dayes of Moses, wherein it began to be written, to the dayes wherein we live; our Lord Christ and his Apostles asserting and confirming the same Testimony; which Testimony is conveyed unto us by uninterrupted Catholick Tradition. The first part of this Position, I confess, some of you deny; and the latter part of it you generally all of you pervert, confining the Testimony mentioned unto that of your present Church, which is a very inconsiderable part of it, if any part at all. But how groundlesly, how prejudicially, to the verity and honour of Christian Religion in generall you do these things, I shall briefly shew you.
Some of you, I say deny the first part of this Assertion; so doth Andradius Defens. Concil. Trident. Lib. 3. Ne que enim, saith he, in ipsis Libris quibus Sacra Mysteria conscripta sunt, quicquam inest Divinitatis, quod nos ad Credendum qua illis continentur, religione aliqua constring at; Neither is there in the Books themselves, wherein the holy Mysteries are written, any thing of Divinity, that should constrain us by vertue of any religious respect thereunto, to believe the things that are contained in them. Hence Cocleus, Lib. 2. de Authoritate Eccles. & Script. gathers up a many instances out of the Book of the Scripture, which he declares to be altogether incredible, were it not for the Authority of the Church I need not mention any more of your Leaders, concurring with them; you know who is of the same mind with them, if the Author of Fiat Lux be not unknown to you. Your resolving Vniversal Tradition into the Authority of your present Church, to which end there is a Book written not long since by a Jesuit under the name of Vincentius Severinus, is no less notorious. Some of you, I confess, are more modest, and otherwise minded, as to both parts of our Assertion. See Malderus Episcop. Antwerp. de Object. Fidei, qu. 1. Vaselius Groningen. de Potestat. Eccles. & Epist. ad Jacob. Hock. Alliacens. in Lib. 1. Sentent. Artic. 3. Gerson Exam. dos. part. 2. Consid. 1. Tom. 1. sol. 105. and in twenty other places. But when you come to deal with Protestants, and consider well the Tendency of this Assertion, you use I consess an hundred rergiversations, and are most unwilling to come to the acknowledgment of it; and rather then suffer from it, deny it downwright; and that with Scurrilous reflections, and Comparisons, likening it, as to any characters of Gods truth and Holiness upon it, unto Livy's Story, yea Aesops Fables, or a Piece of Poetry. And when you have done so, you apply your selves to the canvasing of Stories in the Old Testament, and to find out appearing Contradictions, and tell us of the uncertainty of the Authors of some particular Books; that the whole is of its self a dead letter which can prove nothing at all; enquiring, Who told us that the Penmen of it were divinely inspired, seeing they testify no such things of themselves and if they should, yet others may do, and have done so, who notwithstanding were not so inspired; and ask us, Why we receive the Gospel of Luke who was not an Apostle, and reject that of Thomas who one; with many the like Cavilling Exceptions.
But (1.) That must needs be a bad Cause which stands in need of such a Defence. Is this the voice of Jacob, or Esau? Are these the expressions of Christians, or Pagans? from whose quiver are these arrows taken? Is this fair, sober, Candid Christian dealing? have you no way to defend the Authority of your Church, but by Questioning the Authority of the Scripture? Did ever any of the Fathers of old, or any in the world before your selves, take this course to plead their interests in any thing they professed? Is this Practice Catholick, or like many of your Principles; singular, your own, Donatisticall? Is it any great sign that you have an interest in that living Child, when you are so ready he should be destroyed, rather than you would be cast in your Contest with Protestants? (2.) Do you think that this course of proclaiming to Atheists, Turks, and Pagans, that the Scripture, which all Christians maintain against them to be the Word of the Living GOD, given by inspiration from Him, and on which the Faith of all the Martyrs who have suffered from their opposition, rage, and cruelty, and of all others that truly believe in Jesus Christ, was and is founded, and whereinto it is resolved, hath no Arguments of its Divine Original implanted on it, no lines of the Excellencies and Perfections of its Author drawn on it, no power or efficacy towards the Consciences of men, evidencing its Authority over them, no ability of its self to comfort and support them in their tryals and sufferings with the hope of things that are not seen? Is this, think you, an acceptable service unto the Lord Christ, who will one day judg the secrets of all hearts according unto that Word? or, Is it not really to expose Christian Religion to scorn and contempt? And do you find so much sweetness in, Delus an Virtus? quis in hoste requirat, as to cast off all Reverence of God and his Word, in the pursuit of the supposed Adversaries of your earthly Interests? (3.) If your Arguments and Objections are effectuall and privalent unto the end for which you intend them, will not your direct issue be the utter overthrow of the very foundation of the whole Profession of Christians in the world? And are you, like Sampson, content to pull down the house that must fall upon your selves also, so that you may stifle Protestants with its sall? It may be, it were well you should do so; were it an house of Dagon, a Temple dedicated unto Idols: but, to deal so with that wherein dwels the Majesty of the Living GOD, is not so justifiable. It is true; Evert this Principle, and you overthrow the foundation on which the faith of Protestants is built; but it is no less true, that you do the same to the foundation of the Christian Faith in generall, wherein wee hope your own concernment also lyes And this is the thing that I am declaring unto you; namely, that either you acknowledg the Principles on which Protestants build their Faith and Profession, or by denying them you open a door unto Atheism, at least to the extirpation of Christian Religion out of the world. I confess you pretend a relief against the present instance, in the Authority of your Church, sufficient as you say to give a Credibility unto the Scriptures, though its own self-evidencing Power and Efficacy, with the Confirmation of it by Catholick Tradition exclusive to your present suffrage, be rejected. Now I suppose you will grant, that the Prop you supply men withall upon your casting down the foundations on which they have laid the weight of their eternall Salvation, had need be firm and immoveable. And remember that you have to do with them, who though they may be otherwise inclineable unto you, Non tamen ignorant quid distent aera a lupinis; and must use their own judgement in the Consideration of what you tender unto them. And they Ask you, 1. What will you do if it be as you say with them who absolutely reject the Authority of your Ch…ch, which is the condition of more than a moyety of the Inhabitants of the world, to speak sufficiently within compass? And 2. What will you advise us to say to innumerable other Persons that are pious and rational, who, upon the meer consideration of the lives of many, of the most, of the guides of your Church, your bloody inhumane practices, your pursuit of worldly carnall designs, your visible secular interest wherein you are combined and united, cannot perswade themselves, that the Testimony of your Church in and about things that are invisible, spirituall, heavenly, and eternall, is at all valuable, much less that it is sufficient to bear the weight you would lay upon it. 3. Was not this the way and method of Vaninus for the Introduction of his Atheism; first to question, sleight, and sophistically except against the old approved Arguments, and Evidences manifesting the beeing and existence of a Divine selfsubsisting Power, substituting in their room, for the confirmation of it, his own Sophisms, which himself knew might be easily discussed and disproved? Do you deal any better with us in decrying the Scripture's self-evidencing Efficacy, with the Testimony given unto it by God himself, substituting nothing in the room thereof but the Authority of your Church? A man certainly can take up nothing upon the sole Authority of your Church, untill, contrary to the pretensions, Reasons, and Arguments of far a greater number of Christians than your selves, he acknowledge you to be a true Church at least; if not the only Church in the world. Now, how I pray will you bring him into that state and condition that he may rationally make any such judgement? How will you prove unto him that there is any such thing as a Church in the World; that a Church hath any Authority, that its Testimony can make any thing credible, or meet to be believed, You must prove these things to him, or whatever assent he gives unto what you say, is from fanaticall credulity. To suppose that he should believe you upon your word, because you are the Church, is to suppose that he believes that, which you are yet but attempting to induce him to believe. If you persist to press him without other proof, not only to believe what you first said unto him, but also even this, that whatever you shall say to him hereafter that he must believe it, because you say it; Will not any rationall man nauseate at your unreasonable importunity? and tell you that men who have a mind to be befooled, may meer with such Alchymisticall pretenders all the world over. Will you perswade him that you are the Church, and that the Church is furnished with the Authority mentioned, by rational Arguments? I wish you would inform me of any one that you can make use of, that doth not include a Supposition of something unproved by you, and which can never be proved but by your own Authority, which is the thing in Question, or the immediate Authority of God which you reject. A number indeed of pretences, or, it may be, Probabilities you may heap together, which yet upon examination will not be found so much neither, unless a man will swallow amongst them that which is destitute of all Probability; but what is included in the evidence given unto it by Divine Revelation which is not yet pleaded unto him. It may be then you will work Miracles to confirm your Assertions. Let us see them. For although very many things are requisite to manifest any works of wonder that may be wrought in the world to be reall Miracles, and good Caution be required to judge unto what end Miracles are wrought; yet if we may have any tolerable evidence of your working Miracles in Confirmation of this Assertion, that you are the true and only Church of God, with the other Inferences depending thereon, which we are in the Consideration of, you will find us very easie to be treated withall. But herein also you fail. You have then no way to deal with such a man as we first supposed, but as you do with us; and produce Testimonies of Scripture to prove and confirm the Authority of your Church; and then you will quickly find where you are, and what snares you have cast your selves into. Will not a man who hears you proving the Authority of your Church by the Scripture, ask you, And whence hath this Scripture its Authority? yea that is supposed to be the thing in Question, which denying unto it an foreign, you yet produce to confirm the Authority of that, by whose Authority alone, its self is evidenced to have any Authority at all. Rest in the Authority of God manifesting its self in the Scripture, witnessed unto by the Catholick Tradition of all Ages, you will not. But you will prove the Scripture to be the Word of God by the Testimony of your Church; and you will prove your Ch…h to be enabled sufficiently to testifie the Scriptures to be of God, by the Testimonies of the Scripture. Would you knew where to begin and where to end? But you are indeed in a Circle which hath neither beginning nor ending; I know not when we shall be enabled to say, Inventus, Chrysippe, tui finitor acervi. Now do you think it reasonable that we should leave our stable and immoveable firm foundations, to run round with you in this endless Circle, untill through giddiness we fall into Unbelief or Atheism? This is that which I told you before, you must either acknowledge our Principle in this matter to be firm and certain, or open a door to Atheism, and the Contempt of Christian Religion; seeing you are not able to substitute and thing in the room thereof, that is able to bear the weight that must be laid upon it, if we believe. For how should you do so; shall man be like unto God, or equall unto him? The Testimony we rest in is Divine, fortified from all Objections by the strongest humane Testimony possible, namely Catholick Tradition. That which you would supply us with, is meerly Humane and no more. And 4. your Importunity in opposing this Principle, is so much the more marvellous unto us, because therein you openly oppose your selves to express Testimonies of Scripture and the full Suffrage of the Ancient Church. I wish you would a little weigh what is affirmed, 2 Pet. 1. 19, 20. Psal. 119. 152. Joh. 5. 34, 35 36, 39. 1 Thess. 2. 13. Act. 17. 11. 1 Joh. 5. 6, 10. 1 Joh. 2. 20. Heb. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Act. 26. 22. And will you take with you the consent of the Ancients? Clemens Alexand. Strom. 7. speaks fully to our purpose, as he doth also lib. 4. where he plainly affirms that the Church proved the Scripture by its self… and other things, as the Unity of the Deity, by the Scripture. But his own words in the former place are worth the recital, foreign, saith he, foreign. For the beginning of Faith, or Principle of what we teach, we have the Lord; who in sundry manners, and by divers parts, by the Prophets, Gospel, and holy Apostles, leads us to knowledge. And if any one suppose, that a Principle stands in need of another (to prove it) he destroys the nature of a Principle; or, it is no longer preserved a Principle. This is that we say: The Scripture, the Old and New Testament, is the Principle of our Faith. This is proved by its self, to be of the Lord who is its Author; and if we cause it to depend on any thing else, it is no longer the Principle of our Faith and Profession. And a little after, where he hath shewed that a Principle ought not to be disputed, nor to be the foreign of any debate, he addes, foreign: It is meet then, that receiving by Faith the most absolute Principle without other demonstration, and taking demonstrations of the Principle from the Principle its self, that we be instructed by the voice of the Lord unto the knowledge of the Truth. That is; we believe the Scripture for its own sake, and the Testimony that God gives unto it, in it and by it; and do prove every thing else by it, and so are confirmed in the faith or knowledge of the Truth. So he further explains himself, foreign For we do not simply or absolutely attend or give heed unto men determining or defining, against whom it is equall that we may define or declare our judgements. So it is; whilest the Authority of man, or men, any Society of men in the world, is pleaded, the Authority of others, may be as good reason be objected against it; as whilest, you plead your Church and its definitions, others may on as good grounds oppose theirs unto you therein. And therefore Clemens proceeds; foreign. For if it be not sufficient meerly to declare or assert that which appears to be truth, but also to make that Credible or fit to be believed which is spoken, we seek not after the Testimony that is given by men, but we confirm that which is proposed, or enquired about with the voice of the Lord, which is more full than any demonstration, or rather is its self the only demonstration; according to the knowledge whereof they that have tasted of the Scriptures, are believers. Into the voice, the Word of God alone, the Church then resolved their Faith, this only they built upon, acknowledging all humane Testimony to be too weak, and infirm to be made a foundation for it; And this voice of God in the Scripture evidencing its self so to be, is the only Demonstration of Faith which they rested in; whereupon a little after he addes foreign; so wee having perfect Demonstrations out of the Scriptures, are by Faith demonstratively assured or perswaded of the Truth of the things proposed. This was the Profession of the Church of old; this the resolution of their faith; This is that which Protestants in this Case adhere unto. They proved the Scripture to be from God, as he elswhere speaks, foreign, foreign, as we also do. Strom. 4. To this purpose speaks Salvianus de Gub. Lib. 3. Alia omnia (idest humana dicta) argumentis & testibus egent; Dei autem Sermo ipse sibi test is est, quia necesseest ut quicquid incorrupta verityas loquitur, incorruptum sit testimonium veritatis: All other sayings stand in need of Arguments and witnesses to confirm them, the Word of God is witness to its self; For, whatever the Truth incorrupted speaks, must of necessity be an incorrupt Testimony of Truth, And although some of them allowed the Testimony of the Church as a motive unto believing the Gospell or things preached from it, yet as to the belief of the Scripiure with faith Divine and Supernaturall to be the Word of God, they required but these two things; 1. That Self-Evidence in the Scripture its self which is needfull for an indemonstrable Principle; from which, and by which, all other things are to be demonstrated: And that Self-Evidence Clemens puts in the place of all Demonstrations. 2. The Efficacy of the Spirit in the heart, to enable it to give a saving assent unto the Truth proposed unto it: Thus Austin in his Confessions Lib. 6. cap. 5. Persuasisti mihi, ô Domine Deus, non eos qui crederent libris tuis quos tanta in omnibus ferè Gentibus authoritate fundasti esse culpandos; sed eos qui non crederent, new audiendesesse, siqui mihi forte dicerent, Unde scis, illos libres unius veracissimi Dei Spirituesse, humano generi ministratos; idipsum enim maximè credendum erat. O Lord God, thou hast perswaded me, that not they who believe thy Books which with so great Authority thou hast setled almost in all Nations, were to be blamed; but those who believe them not, and that I should not hearken unto any of them who might chance to say unto me, Whence dost thou know those Books to be given out unto mankind from the Spirit of the only True GOD; for that is the thing which principally was to be believed. In which words, the holy man hath given us full direction what to say when you come upon us with that Question which some used it seems in his dayes. A great Testimony of the Antiquity of your Principles. Adde hereunto what he writes in the 11th Book and 3d Chapter of the same Treatise, and wee have the summe of the Resolution and Principle of his Faith: Audiam, saith he, & intelligam, quomodo fecisti Coelam & terram: Scripsit hoc Moses, scripsit & abiit, transivit hinc ad Te. Ne que enim nunc ante me est: nam si esset, tenerem eum, & rogaremeum, & per Teobsecrarem ut mihi ist a pa…derct, & praberem aures corporis mei, sonis erumpentibus ex ere ejus. At si Hebraea voce loqueretur, frustra pulsaret sensum meum, nec inde mentem meam tangeret: si autem Latinè, scirem quid diceret; sed, Unde scirem an verum dicoret? quod si & hoc scirem, num & ab ill… scirem? Intus uti que mihi, intus in domicilio cogitationis, nec Hebraea, nec Graeca, nec Latina, nec barbara verityas sine oris & linguae organis, sine strepitu syllabarum diceret, verum di…it; & ego statim …tus confidenter illi homini tuo dicerem, Verumolits. Cum ergo illum interrogare non possim, Te, quo … vera dixit, Veritas, rogo Te Deus meus, rogo, partepeccatis meis, & qui illi servo tuo dedisti haec dicere, … & mihi haEc intelligere. I would bear and understand, O Lord, how thou hast made the Heavens and the earth: Moses wrote this, he wrote it and is gene, and he is gone to Thee. For now he is not present with mee; if he were, I would lay hold on him, and ask him and beseech him for thy sake, that he would unfold these things unto me, and I would cause the ears of my body to attend unto the words of his mouth. But if he should speak in the Hebrew tongue, he would only in vain strike upon my outward sense, and my mind within would not be affected with it. If he speak in Latine, I should know what he sayed; but whence should I know that he spake the Truth? should I know this also from him? The Truth, that is neither Hebrew, Greck, Latine, nor expressed in any Barbarous Language, would say unto me inwardly in the dwelling place of my thoughts, without the organs of mouth or tongue, or noyse of syllables, He speaks the Truth; and I with confidaence should say unto him thy servam, Thou speakest the Truth. Seeing therefore I cannot enquire of him, I beseech Thee that art Truth, with whom he being filled spake the Truth, I beseech thee O my God, pardon my sinnes, and thou who gavest unto him by servant to speak these things, grant unto me tounderstand Thus this holy man ascribes his assent into the one unquestionable Principle of the Scripture, as to the effecting of it in himself, to the work if Gods Spirit in his heart. As Basil also doth on Psal. 11. foreign: Faith which draws the soul unto consent above the efficacy of all rational wayes or methods of perswasion; Faith, that is wrought and begotten in us not by geometricall enforcements or demonstrations, but by the effectuall operations of the Spirit. And both these Principles are excellently expressed by one amongst your selves, even Baptista Mantuanus. Lib. de Patientia, Cap. 32, 33. Saepenumerò, faith he, mecum cogitavi, Unde tam s…adibilis esset ista Scriptura, ut tam potenter insluat in animos auditorum; unde tantum habeat energiae, ut non adopinandum sed ad solidè credendum omnes inflectat. I have often thought with my self Whence the Scripture is so perswasive, whence it doth so powerfully influence the minds of the hearers; whence it hath so much efficacy, that it should incline and bow all men, not to think as probable, but solidly to believe, the things it proposeth. Non, saith he, est hoc imputandum rationum evidentiaequas non adducit, non artis industriae & verbis suavibus & ad persuadendum accommodatis quibus non utitur. It is not to be ascribed unto the evidence of Reasons, which it bringeth not, neither to the excellency of Art, sweet words, and accommodated unto per swasion, which it makes no use of. Sed vide an id in causa sit quod persuasi sumus eam à prima veritate fl…xisse; But see if this be not the Cause of it, that wee are perswaded that it proceeds from the prime Verity. He proceeds, Sed unde sumus ita persuasi nisi ab ipsa, quasi ad ei credendum non sua ipsi… trahat Authoritas. Sed unde quaeso hanc sibi Authoritatem vindicavit? Neque enim vidimus nos Deum concionantem, scribentem, docentem; tamen ac si vidissemus, credimus & tenemus à Spiritu Sancto fluxisse quod legimus: Forsitan fuerit haec ratio firmiter adharendi, quòd in ea veritas sit solidior quamvis non clarior, Habet enim omnis veritas vim inclinativam, & major majorem, maxima maximam. Sed cur ergo omnes non credunt Evangelio? Respondeo quod non omnes trahuntur à Deo. And again, Inest ergo Scripturis Sacris nescio quid Natur â sublimius, idest inspiratio facta divinitus & divinae irradiation is influxus certus. But whence are wee perswaded, that it is from the First Verity, but from it Self; Its own Authority draws us to believe it. But whence obtains it this Authority … we see not God preaching, writing, teaching; but yet, as if we had seen him, we believe and firmly hold that which we read to have come from the Holy Ghost. It may be that this is a reason of our firm adhering unto it, that the Truth in it is more solid, though not more clear (than in any other way of proposall) and all truth hath a power to incline unto belief; the greater the Truth the greater its power, and the greatest Truth must have the greatest power so to incline us. But, why then do not all believe the Gospell? I answer, because all are not drawn of God. There is then in the holy Scripture somewhat more sublime than Nature, that is, the Divine Inspiration from whence it is, and the Divine Irradiation wherewith it is accompanied. This is the Principle of Protestants. The Sacred Scripture is credible as proceeding from the first Verity: this it manifests by its own Light and Efficacy; and we are enabled to believe it by the effectuall working of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Whence our Saviour asks the Jews, Joh 5. If you believe not the writing of Moses, how will you believe my words. They who will not believe the written Word of the Scripture, upon the Authority that it hath in its self, would not believe if Christ should personally speak unto them. So saith Theophylact on the place; foreign?
3. Protestants believe and profess, that the End wherefore God gave forth his Word by Inspiration, was that it might be a stable Infallible Revelation of his mind and will, as to that knowledge which he would have mankind entertain of him, with that Worship and Obedience which he requireth of them, that so they may please him in this world, and come unto the fruition of him unto all eternity. God who is the formal object, is also the prime Cause of all Religious worship. What is due unto him as the first Cause, last End, and Soveraign Lord of all, as to the substance of it, and what he further appoints himself, as to the manner of its performance, suited unto his own Holiness, and the Condition wherein in reference unto our Last end we stand and are, making up the wh…le of it. That he hath given his Word to reveal these things unto us, to be our Rule, Guide, and Direction in our wayes, walkings, and universal deportment before him, is, as I take it, a fundamentall Principle of our Christian Profession. Neither do I know that this is denied by your Church; although you startle at the inferences that are justly made from it. I shall not need therefore to adde any thing in its Confirmation, but only mind you again, that the calling of it into question, is directly against the very heart of all Religion, and the unanimous consent of all that in the world are called Christians, or ever were so. Yea, and it must be granted, or the whole Scripture esteemed a Fable, because it frequently declares, that it is given unto us of God for this End and Purpose. And hence do Protestants inferre two other Conclusions, on which they build their Perswasion concerning the Vnity of Faith, and the proper means of their Settlement therein.
1. That therefore the Scripture is perfect and every way compleat; namely with respect unto that end whereunto of God it is designed. A Perfect and compleat Revelation of the Will of God as to his Worship, and our Obedience. And we cannot but wonder that any who profess themselves to believe that it was given for the end mentioned, should not have that sacred Reverence for the Wisdome, Goodness, and Love of its Author unto mankind, as freely to assent unto this Inference and Conclusion, He is our Rock, and his work is perfect. And lest any men should please themselves in the imagination of contributing any thing towards the effecting of the end of his Word, by a supply unto it, he hath strictly forbidden them any such addition, Deut. 4. 2. & 12. 12. Prov. 30. 6. Which if it were not compleat in reference unto its proper End, would hold no great correspondency with that Love and goodness which the same Word every where declares to be in Him. I suppose, you know with how many express Testimonies of Scripture its self, this Truth is confirmed, which, added unto that light and evidence, which as a deduction from the former fundamental Truth it hath in its self, is very sufficient to render it unquestionable. You may at your leasure, besides these forenamed consult, Psal. 19. 8. Esa. 8. 20. Ezek. 28. 18. Mat. 15. 6. Luk. 1. 3, 4. ch. 16. 29, 31. ch. 24. 25, 27. Job. 5. 39. ch. 20. 10 Act. 1. 11. ch. 17. 2, 3. ch. 20. 27. chapt. 26. 22. Rom. 10. 17. ch. 15. 4. 1 Cor. 4. 6. Gal. 1. 8. Eph. 2. 19, 20. 2 Tim. 3. 16, 17. Heb. 1. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 19. Rev 22. 18. For though Texts of Scripture are not appointed for us to throw at one anothers heads as you talk in your Fiat, yet they are for us to use and insist on in the Confirmation of the Truth; if we may take the example of Christ and all his Apostles, for our warrant. And it were endless to recite the full and plain Testimonies, of the Ancient Fathers and Councels to this purpose. Neither is that my present design; though I did somwehat occasionally that way, upon the former Principle. It shall suffice me to shew, that the deny all of this Assertion also, as it is inferred from the foregoing Principle, is Prejudiciall, if not pernicious to Christian Religion in Generall. The whole of our Faith and Profession is resolved into the known Excellencies and Perfections of the Nature of God. Amongst these, there are none that have a more immediate and quickning influence into them, than his Wisdom, Goodness, Grace, Care and Love towards them, unto whom he is pleased to reveal himself. Nor is there any property of his Nature that in his Word he more frequently gives testimony unto. And all of them doth he declare himself to have exalted and glorified in a signall manner, in that Revelation, which he hath made of himself, his Mind and Will therein. I suppose, this cannot be denied by any, who hath the least sense of the importance of the things revealed. Now, if the Revelation made for the End before proposed be not perfect and compleat, that is sufficient to enable a man to know so much of God his Mind and Will, and to direct him so in his Worship and Obedience unto him, as that he may please him here, and come to the fruition of him hereafter; it must needs become an evident means of deceiving him, and ruining him, and that to all eternity. And the least fear of any such event, overthrows all the notions which he had before entertained of those blessed Properties of the Divine Nature, and so consequently disposeth him unto Atheism. For if a man hath once received the Scripture as the Word of God, and that given unto him to be his guide unto Heaven, by God himself; if one shall come to him and tell him, Yea but it is not a perfect Guide, but though you should attend sincerely to all the Directions that it gives you, yet you may come short of your Duty and Expectation; you may neither please God here, nor come to the fruition of Him hereafter: In case he should assent unto this suggestion, can he entertain any other thoughts of God, but such as our first Parents did, when by attendance unto the false insinuations of the old Serpent, they cast off his Soveraignty, and their dependance on him? Neither can you relieve him against such thoughts by your pretended Traditionall supply; seeing it will still be impossible for him to look on this Revelation of the Will of God, as imperfect and insufficient for the End, for which it plainly professeth its self to be given forth by him, without some intrenchment on those notions of his Nature which he had before received. For it will presently occurr unto him, that seeing this way of revealing himself for the Ends mentioned, is good and approved of Himself so to be, if he hath not made it compleat for that end, it was either because he could not, and where then is his Wisdome; or because he would not, and where then is his Love, Care, and Goodness; and seeing, he saith, he hath done, what you would have him to believe, that he hath not done, where is his Truth and Veracity? Certainly a man that seriously ponders what he hath to do, and knows the vanity of an irrationall fanatical Credo, will conclude, that either the Scripture is to be received as Perfect, or not to be received at all.
2. Protestants conclude hence, That the Scripture given of God for this purpose is intelligible unto men, using the means by God appointed to come to the understanding of his Mind and Will therein. I know many of your way are pleased grievously to mistake our intention in this Infêrence and Conclusion. Sometimes they would impose upon us to say, that All places of Scripture, all words and sentences in it are plain, and of an obvious sense, and easie to be understood. And yet this you know, or may know if you please, and I am sure ought to know, before you talk of these things with us, that we absolutely deny. It is one thing to say, that all necessary Truth is plainly and clearly revealed in the Scripture, which we do say; and another that every text and passage in the Scripture is plain and easie to be understood, which we do not say; nor ever thought, as confessing that to say so, were to contradict our own experience, and that of the Disciples of Christ in all ages. Sometimes you faign, as though we asserted all the things that are revealed in the Scripture, to be plain and obvious to every mans understanding; whereas we acknowledge that the things themselves revealed are many of them mysterious, surpassing the comprehension of any man in this world; and only maintain that the propositions wherein the Revelation of them is made, are plain and intelligible unto them that use the means appointed of God to come to a right understanding of them. And sometimes you would commit this with another Principle of ours; whereby we assert that the supernaturall Light of Grace to be wrought in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, is necessary to give unto us a saving perception and understanding of the Mind of God in the Scripture; for what needs such speciall assistance in so plain a matter? as though the asserting of perspicuity in the object, made ability to discern in the subject altogether unnecessary: Or that he who affirms the Sun to give light, doth at the same time affirm also that men have no need of eyes to see it withall. Besides we know there is a vast difference between a notionall speculative apprehension, and perception of the meaning and Truth of the Propositions contained in the Scripture, which we acknowledge that every reasonable unprejudiced Person may attain unto; and a gracious saving spirituall perception of them, and assent unto them with faith Divine and Supernatural; and this we say is the especiall work of the Holy Ghost in the hearts of the Elect. And I know not how many other exceptions you make to keep your selves from a right understanding of our intention in this Inference; but, as your self elsewhere learnedly observes, who so blind as he that will not see? I shall therefore once more, that we may proceed, declare unto you what it is that we intend in this Assertion. It is, namely; that the things which are revealed in the Scripture, to the end that by the belief of them, and obedience unto them, we may please God, are so proposed and declared, that a man, any man, free from prejudices and temptations; in and by the use of the means appointed him of God for that purpose, may come to the understanding (and that infallibly) of all that God would have him know or do in Religion; there being no defect or hinderance in the Scripture, or manner of its revealing things necessary, that should obstruct him therein. What are the means appointed of God for this purpose, we do not now enquire, but shall anon declare. What defect, blindness, or darkness, there is, or may be, in and upon the minds of men in their depraved lapsed Condition, what disadvantages they may be cast under by their prejudices, Traditions, negligences, sins, and prophaneness, belongs not unto our present disquisition. That which we assert concerns meerly the manner of the proposall of the Truths to be believed, which are revealed in the Scripture; and this we say is such, as that there is no impossibility, no nor great difficulty, but that a man may come to the right understanding of them; not as to the comprehension of the things themselves, but the perception of the sense of the Propositions wherein they are expressed. And this Assertion of ours, is, as the former, grounded on the Scripture its self. See if you please, Deut. 30. 11. Psal. 1. 19. 9. and 119. 105. Prov. 6. 22. 2 Cor. 4. 3. 2 Pet. 19. And to deny it, is to pluck up all Religion by the roots, and to turn men loose unto Scepticism, Libertinism, and Atheism; and that with such an horrible reproach unto God himself, as that nothing more abominable can be invented. The Devil of old, being not able to give out certain Answers unto them that came to onquire about their Concernments at his Oracles, put them off a long time with dubious, aenigmaticall, unintelligible Sophisms. But when once the world had by experience, study, and observation, improved its self into a Wisdome beyond the pitch of its first rudeness, men began generally to despise what they saw could not be certainly understood. This made the Devil pluck in his horns, as not finding it for the interest of his kingdome to expose himself to be scoffed at by them, with whose follies and fanaticall credulity in esteeming highly of that which could not be understood, he had for many generations sported himself. And do they not blasphemously expose the Oracles of the true, holy, and living God, to no less contempt, who for their own sinister ends would frighten men from them with the ugly scare-crow of obscurity, or their not being intelligible unto every man by the use of means, so far as he is concerned to know them, and the mind of God in them. And herein also Protestants stand as firmly as the fundamentals of Christianity will bear them.
4. Protestants believe, that it is the Duty of all men who desire to know the will of God, and to worship him according unto his mind, to use diligence in the improvement of the means appointed for that end, to come unto a right and full understanding of all things in the Scripture, wherein their faith and obedience are concerned. This necessarily follows from the Principles before laid down. Nor is it possible it should be otherwise. It is doubtless incumbent on every man to study and know his Duty; that cannot be a mans Duty which he is not bound to know, especially not such a Duty as whereon his eternall welfare should depend: And I suppose a man can take no better Course to come to the knowledge of his Duty, than that which God hath appointed for that purpose. The Commands and Exhortations which we have given us in the Scripture for our Diligence in this matter, with the Explications and improvements of them in the Writings of the Fathers, are so obvious, trite, and known, that it were meer loss of time to insist on the Repetition of them. I suppose, I should speak within compass, if I should say, that one Chrysostome doth in a hundred places exhort Christians of all sorts, to the diligent study and search of the Scriptures, and especially of the Epistles of Paul, not the most plain and easie part of them. I know, the practise of your Church lyes to the contrary, and what you plead in the justification of that practise; but I am sorry both for Her and you; both for the contrivers of and consenters unto this abomination: and I fear what your accoun… will be as to this matter, at the last day. God having granted the inestimable benefit of his Word unto mankind, revealing therein unto them the only way by which they may attain unto a blessed eternity; Is it not the greatest ingratitude that any man can possibly contract the guilt of, to neglect the use of it? What then is your Condition, who, upon sleight and triviall pretences, set up your own Wisdome and Authority, against the Wisdome and Authority of God; advising and commanding men, upon the pain of your displeasure in this world, not to attend unto that which God commands them to attend unto, on pain of his displeasure in the world to come? So that though I confess that you deny this Principle, yet I cannot see but that you do so, not only upon the hazard of your own souls, and the souls of them that attend unto you, seeing, that if the blind lead the blind, both must fall into the ditch; but also, that you do it to the great prejudice of Christian Religion in the very foundations of it. For what can a man rationally conclude, that shall see you driving all Persons, and that on no small penalties, excepting your selves who are concerned in the conspiracy, and some few others whom you suppose sufficiently initiated in your Mysteries, from the reading and study of those Books, wherein the world knows, and your selves confess, that the Arcana of Christian Religion are contained; but that there are some things in them like the hidden Sacra of the old Pagan Hierophants, which may not be disclosed, because however countenanced by a remote veneration, yet are indeed turpia or ridicula, things to be ashamed of, or scorned? And the Truth is, some of your Doctors have spoken very suspiciously this way; whilest they justifie your practise in driving the people from the study of the Scripture, by intimations of things and expressions, not so pure and chast as to be fit for the knowledge of the promiscuous multitude; when in the mean time Themselves or their Associates do publish unto all the world, in their rules and directions for Confession, such abominable filth and ribaldry, as I think was never by any other means vented amongst mankind.
5. Protestants say that the Lord Christ hath instituted his Church, and therein appointed a Ministry, to preside over the rest of his Disciples in his Name, and to unfold un to them his mind and will as recorded in his Word; for which end he hath promised his presence with them by his Spirit unto the end of the World, to enable them in an humble dependance on his assistance, to find out and declare his Commands and Appointments unto their brethren. This Position, I suppose, you will not contend with us about; although I know that you put another sense upon most of the terms of it, than the Scripture will allow, or wee can admit of.
These are the Principles of Protestants; this is the Progress of their Faith in coming unto settlement and assurance. These are their Foundations, which are as unquestionable as any thing in Christianity; the most of them, your selves being judges. And from them, one of these two things will necessarily follow; Either that all men, unto whom the Word of God doth come, will come to an agreement in the Truth, or the Unity of Faith; or Secondly, That it is their own fault if they do not so do: For what upon these Principles should hinder them from so doing? All saving Truth is revealed by God in the Scripture, unto the end that men may come to the knowledge of it. It is so revealed by Him, that it is possible, and with his assistance, easie formen to know aright his Mind and Will about the things so revealed: and be hath appointed regular wayes and means for men to wait upon him in and by, for the obtaining of his assistance. Now pray revive your Question that gave occasion unto this discourse; however men may differ in Religion, why is not the Scripture sufficient to bring them unto an agreement and settlement? Take heed that in your Answer, you deny not some Principle that will involve the whole interest of Christianity in its ruine: Where is the defect? where the hinderance, why all men upon these Principles however differing at present, may not come to a full Settlement and Agreement? I hope, you will find none but what are in them selves; and for them; ipsi-viderint; the Scripture is blameless. Here is Certainty of Revelation from God, Fullness of that Revelation as to our Duty, Clearness and perspicuity for our understanding of it, Means appointed and sanctified for that end; what I pray is wanting? All Truths wherein it is the Duty of men to agree are fixed and stated, so that it can never be lawfull for any man, in any generation, to call any of them into question; plain and evident, that no man can mistake the mind of God in them in things wherein his Duty is concerned, without his own crime and guilt. You will say then, it may be, But why then do not men agree, why do you not agree among your selves, but I would hope, that it is scarcely possible for any man to be so ignorant of the Condition of mankind, and amongst them of the best of men, as seriously to ask this Question. Are not all men naturally blind in the things of God? Do not the best of men know only in part? have not the different tempers, constitutions, and Educations of men, a great influence upon their understandings and judgements? Besides do not Lusts, Corruptions, Carnall Interests, and Respect unto Worldly things bear sway sin the minds of many that profess Christian Religion? Are not many prepossessed with prejudices, traditions, customes and usages against the Truth? And are not these things and the like, sufficient to keep up variance in the world without the least suspition of any disability in the Scripture to bring them to an holy agreement and immoveable Settlement? Neither is there any other way for men to come unto Settlement and Agreement in Religion according to the mind of God, but that only which hath been now proposed, and this they will come unto, when all men shall be perswaded to captivate their understandings to the obedience of Faith. I deny not but that by outward force and compulsion, by supine negligence of their own concernments, by refusing to btehink themselves, and such other wayes and means, some men may come to some Agreement amongst themselves in the things of Religion. But this Agreement, we say, is not of God, it is not built upon the foreign, the foundation of faith towards God, and so is of no esteem with him. That such is all the Vnity which on your Principles you are able to bring men unto, wee shall manifest in our next Discourse. For the present, I dare challenge you, or any man in the world, to question or oppose any one of the Principles before laid down▪ and which whilest they stand firm, it is evident unto all, how the Scripture is able to se…tle men unquestionably in the Truth and that for ever; foreign. I shall close this Discourse with a passage out of Chrysostome, which fully confirms all that I have asserted; it is in Homil 33. in Act. Apost. Chap. 15. foreign, saith he, foreign. What shall wee say unto the Gentiles? A Gentile cometh and faith, I would be a Christian, but I know nat unto whom amongst you I should adhere. Let us hear the reasons of his haesitation; saith hee, foreign. There are many contentions, seditions, and tumults amongst you: what opinion to choose I know not: every one sayes, I am in the Truth; and I am utterly ignorant of what is in the Scripture about these things. Do you know whose Objections these are, and by whom they have been lately mannaged? Will you hear what Chrysostome answers? Saith he, foreign. This makes wholly for us; for if wee should say, that wee believe on probable reasonings, thou maist justly be troubled; but seeing wee profess that we believe in the Scriptures, which are plain and true, it is easie for thee to judg and determine. He that yeilds his consent unto them, he is a Christian; and he that contends against them, is farre from the Rule of Christianity. And in the process of his Discourse, which is well worth the perusall before you write any more familiar Epistles, he requires no more of a man to settle him in the Truth, but that he receive the Scripture and have foreign, a mind and judgment, to use in the consideration of it.
It remaineth now that wee consider what it is that you propose unto men to bring them unto a Settlement in Religion, and all Christians to the Vnity of Faith, with the Principles that you proceed upon to that purpose: which because I would not too far lengthen out this Discourse, I shall refer to the next Chapter.