World And just as each single Sheep so long as it remains in the society and Communion with the Flock and under the aare and custody of the Shepherd is safe and secure from the mouths of wolves so is each single Christian so long as he remains joyned and tyed up in the unity of the Church that is submits to the sence and doctrine of the whole Church is never err'd yet in matter of faith nor ever can now I presume you may require to know of me whether all and every one of this Church hath this great assistance and direction of the Holy Spirit that he cannot erre in matter of Faith I do readily answer that every one of the faithfull has it but by way of dependance upon the Church and from it So long therefore as any man remains in conjunction with the Church he cannot erre if he separates or dissents from it he must needs of necessity fall into an errour which I 'le thus explain to you by two Examples or similitudes The one may be taken from the proportion of a humane body in which we see that all the members do jointly and severally paticipate of the vitall and sensitive spirits by which life is preserved in them all but yet they have these spirits derivatively from and by way of dependency upon the head and heart for it is from them as from a double Fountain those spirits are derived into the other members so that when the Channells and passages by which that derivation and distribution is made are stopt or intercepted it must follow necessarily that the other Members must be left destitute of spirits and be rendred incapable of performing their Office but being open all will be well So likewise in the Church all the faithfull which are as it were Members of it have a certain assistancy and direction from the holy Ghost but by way of dependency upon the Pope who is as the head of the Church and from Councils which are safe and secure from all danger of errour and infidelity In the last place as sheep that go astray from the flock are out of the protection of the Shepherd and by consequence must fall into the danger of Wolves so Christians which depart from the common sence and doctrine of the Church must of necessity fall into millions of errours for want of the assistance of the holy spirit which is the Judge and Guardian of that I pray you good Mistriss N. have a care how you expose your self to this terrible danger To the Fifth I utterly deny that generall Councells have er'd in matters of faith it is possible that some particular Councells might or some false Councells more truely call'd conventicles Then that some councills have determined variously as to discipline and Ecclesiasticall government I grant for variety of times requires diversity of Laws and God himself gives the president of that who changed many things in the new Testament that were commanded in the Old And as for Lay-men to be present in Councels we do not at all deny so they be as witnesses defenders Counsellors Suggestors or Executioners of their decrees but never as to have a Voyc in any Councill or Church businesse and this is plain by those Gouncils that we find in the Acts celebrated by the Apostles and so clearly in every Age since and why should Lay-men have to do more now Now give me leave to reply something to you and I 'le be short in my proof having been so long in my answers That the Pope with a generall Council may detrmine what is of Fath and what is not I pove by expresse Scripture thus We find in Scripture some Councils celebrated by the Apostles that have actually made such determinations As first for the taking off the burthen of Circumcision and other Indaicall obligations we find the result thus For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15.28 29. to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things that they abstein from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and from Fornication from which if ye keep your selves ye shalde well See here the form of an Apostolical Councell First the Text tells us that the Apostles and Elders came together and that St. Peter was President and Prolocutor then they issued out their decrees with this authoritative preface It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Now do you find that any faithfull Christians then did question their authority ver 6.7 as you do now that of other Conncells assembled in like manner and assisted by the same spirit Thus you see that Councell did decree somethings to be necessary for a time which were not simply and of themselves matters of faith and to take off from the Jews many things that were to them before matters Faith as circumcision and other mosaicall Statutes Why should not I say the Church now have the same power when the same necessity shall require we have I 'm sure the same Christ the fame holy spirit the same faith the same Church why not the fame power in Councills We read again of another Council celebrated by the Apostles when they wer to part one from another Apostles Creed and to go preach the Gospel as the Lord had commanded them over the whole World when they met together and upon a large debate delivered to us the Creed which you your selves and I 'm sure the whole Church of Christ submits to as as points of faith and is to this day called the Apostles Creed and for some of those Articles we have no Scripture at all nor any other authority but this that they were so delivered by the Apostles and I conceive it a duty incumbent upon all good Christians what the wise Man adviseth Prov. 22.28 not to remove the antient Land-marks which our Fathers have set In what respect a Councill or Convocation of Elders was with God and ever taken for the representative body of the Church is plain in many places of Exodus Exod 19.3 7 8. especially that where God commands Moses to say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israell c. And yet afterwards it is said of Moses that he came and call'd for the Flders onely of the people and laid before their faces all these Words which the Lord commanded him c. And though it is plain that the Elders of the people onely answered with whom Moses was talking Deut. 32.7 yet the Text tell us That all the people answered together and said c. Which could dot be â—nless onely so representatively by their convocation of Elders How well therefore does the same Moses express this in his fong when he saith Remember the days of old confider the years of many generations Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thy Elders and they will tell thee c. I should be infinite to run through all the
Old Scripture to shew what a stamp of Majesty and Authority God Almighty fixt upon such assemblies and what respect the people always rendred them So it shall suffice to give you our Saviours own words and so conclude this point We find in St. Matthew thus Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven Matth. 18. v. 18 20. for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Now I would fain know who can be convinced more evidently not to hear the Church then he that will not hear a Councell there can be no where a greater and more conspicuous consent than in a Council nor can there be any Congregations assembled more in the name of God then generall Councells are and yet you are pleased to cast contempt upon them But give me leave to tell you let the Authority of Councells be once taken away and all things in the Church will bee ambiguous and uncertain First all the antient Heresies that have been condemned by the authority of Councells and cast out of the Church may be reviv'd and reinforced upon Christians with as much reason as any primitive and Catholick Doctrine Then set up the Authority of Scripture alone against that of the Church and Councills and then Scripture it self will be uncertain for thrusting out that authority wich ha's commended sacred Scripture to us and commanded us to recive it what Scripture is it that opinionated men wil not reject and condemn for Apocrypha which will not save their own turns as some of your Doctros have notoriously done and so in fine we can never agree upon the point what is Scripture and what is not Thus must the Church of Christ fall into a most miserable condition for upon the arising of any doubt in matter of faith there can be no way found out to decide it but every particular person according to the proportion of wit in his own pate shall frame to himselfe faith of what form or fashion he pleaseth How then hath Christ provided for his Church a sufficientrule to go by and why should his Evangelioall Law be called the most perfect if he has not otherwise order'd a determination of all emergent coutroversies But thanks be to our most gracious God and Saviour he has abundantly done it for us as I shal more amply shew in my answers and replyes to the following heads of this your Paper which God give you grace with prudence and impartiality to petuse To what you alledge for Scripture to be the only Rule of our faith and against the Authority of the universall Church and it's Traditions I answer thus To the first I say that you are very much mistaken in matter of Scripture so I shall be bold to inlarge a little upon it for your better understanding And first it is to be observed that our Saviour himself writ no book at all neither commanded his disciples or Apostles to write any inso much as being to send them to plant his Church Matth. 28. he said not to them go and write but go and preach to the whole World Therefore we find the Old Law written in Tables of Stone but the Gospell had no other writing then but in the hearts of Christians So St. Paul plainly expresseth it Ye are our Epistle c. again 2 Cor. 3.2 3. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declard to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not in Tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart c. This was before prophesyed by the Prophet Jerem. Behold the days come Jer. 31.31.302 3 saith the Lord that I will make a new Cavenant with the House Israell and with the House of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers But this shall be the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days saith the Lord I wil put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I wil be their God and they shall be my people c. Again we find that the Church is much ancienter then Scripture for when the Apostles began to preach there was no Evangelical Scripture no Epistle of St. Paul extant and yet the Church was then purchased and sprinkled with the blood of Christ Acts 1. and governed by his unerring Spirit So the Apostles without any authority of the Scripture of the New-Testament proceeded to the election of Matthias and to the ordination or seven Deacons Acts 5.6 c. So Peter proceeded to the sentence against Ananias and Saphira which struck the breath out of their bodies c. Now we know that the Apostles were very diligent in preaching and sowing the word of God and yet we finde but very little that they left us in writing so it must follow that they taught a great deal more then they wrote which must have equal authority with their writings Yet further it is plain that the Scripture it self cannot be authentical without the authority of the Church for the Canonical Writers themselves were but members of the Church and how shall any private man know what Scripture is Canonical and what not but by the Church John 3. Why should any man believe the Gospel of St. Mark to be Canonical who never saw Christ and the Gospel of Nicodemus not to be so who both saw and heard Christ as St. John testifies of him and why should the Gospel of St. Luke the Disciple be receiv'd and the Gospel of St. Bartholomew the Apostle be rejected unless we humbly comply with the power and authority of the Church which hath so ordered it and clearly confess that the Church can judge of Scriptures Thus since it is plain that the Church is ancienter then Scripture and that no Scripture can be thought authentical without the authority of the Church Exod. 20. can any Christian be blamed for saying that he would never believe the Scripture but that the Authority of the Church commanded it over over and above all this the Authority of the Church over Scripture is hugely evident in many particulars of Scripture As first Matth. 28. Act. 15. the Scripture commands thus Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day six days shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast to do but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God c. And yet the Church changed the Sabbath into the Lords day by its own authority Matth. 28.19 20. and not only without but against known Scripture Again Christ said to his Disciples in the Mount that he came not to dissolve the Law but fulfill it and yet the Church in the Apostles Councel decreed and pronounced boldly for the Cessation
Church I beseech you be pleased to make your own application Over and above all this I shall prove that the Church is not only incapable of errour because it is the Spouse of Christ his body and called the Kingdome of Heaven but because she is governed by the perpetual presence power and authority of the Holy Ghost who is never to forsake her Joh. 14. and first our Saviour promiseth that be will ask the Father and he shall send another comforter and so accordingly he did not long after in the same Gospell Holy Father Joh. 17.11 keep through thine own name those that thou hast given me c. and he explains himself in the same chaâ—ter that he prayes not for them onely meaning his Apostles but for them who were afterwards to believe in him through their preaching 1 Tim. 3.15 Does not S Paul tell his Disciple Timothy how he is to behave himself in the house of God which is the Church of God the pillar ground of truth how then can it possibly erre Then S. John tells us that our Saviour said that he had many things to say unto them but that they could not bear them then but when the spirit of truth should come he should teach them all truth Again the same S. John in his Epistle General tells us 1 John 2.20 that we have an unction from the holy one and that we know all things and that we shall be alwaies capable to distinguish a lye from truth it must be therefore the unction of the holy Ghost that alwaies teacheth the Church In fine Matth. 28.20 S. Matthew makes them the concluding words of his Gospel Go yet herefore teach all Nations c. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and loe I am with you alwaies even to the end of the world Christ who is the way the truth and the life said this to his Disciples it is plain therefore that this Church which is the pillar and ground of truth that has him for its leader and the Holy Ghost for its teacher can never erre how probable is it then that it should be in an errour for above a thousand years together as you fondly imagine Then as the Church is but one so it is necessary that unity should be in the Church I prove out of the express words of S. 1 Cor. 1.10 Paul Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there he no divisions amongst you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement and then in another place in the same Epistle sayes 1 Cor. 14.33 that God is not the author of confusion but of peace as in all Churches of the Saints What then will you say for your selves that have nothing but confusions amongst you nay is it not more probable that God will rather inspire his own body that is the concord and unity of his Church than any private Doctors whatsoever that teach a dissent from it Nay how much this unity of his Church is desired by God himself is evident by what the same S. Paul writes to the Romanes Rom. 15.4 5 6. for whatsoever things are written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Again the same Apostle in the same Epistle laies an injunction upon the Romanes Rom. 12.16 whose faith he acknowledged before was celebrated over the whole world that they should be of the same mind one towards another not to mind high things but condescend to men of low estate and not to he wise in their own conceits which all they are and must be that are out of the Church Observe I pray you the most pathetical exhortation of S. Paul to this purpose Phil. 2.1 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowells of mercy fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one wind Nay the breach of this peace unity and unanimity in Gods Church is most passionately if it be lawfull to say so Jerem. 2.12 13. bewailed by God himself as the Prophet Jeremy expresseth it nay proposeth it as a matter of amazement to Heaven it self be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord foy my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water I pray you seriously examine with your self whether you do lesse by leaving off the Church the true and living fountain and digging to your selves broken cisterns out of Wicklif Huss Luther Calvin c. In vain sure hath God sent his Son in vain the Holy Ghost and yet more in vain hath he sent Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors in all ages to perpetuate the truth of his Church to us when a few of such precious persons as those of yours would have served the turn Here are only two things now as I conceive left to be cleared the one is that the Prelates and principal Persons of Christs Church assembled together do make the representative body of the whole Church the other is that the Romane Catholick Church is that universal Church disperst over the whole world As to the first it is sufficiently clear by many such Scriptures as thse And he stood and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice c. And the King and all Israel with him offered Sacrifice before the Lord now that this must be onely meant of the body representative of Israel is plain to sense and particularly exprest in the beginning of the Chapter Then Solomon assembled the Elders of Israel and all the heads of the Tribes the chief of the Fathers of the Children of Israel unto King Solomon in Jerusalem 1 Kings 8.58.62.1 Thus it is plain that the heads of the Church assembled represent the body of the whole Church Then as to the clearing of the next point I must tell you a great mistake amongst you for you commonly speaking of the Church of Rome take it only for the particular Church which formerly was and still is there and so it is no more indeed than particular But if you take it for the collection of all the faithfull who being disperst over all the world did in old daies alwaies adhere and still do to the Bishop of Rome so it is called Catholick or Universal because diffused over the whole world and it is called