from hence also that in the Conclusion of this Work of the Truth of Christian Religion he doth not interpret those words i. Hebr. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense making a purgation or expiating our sins as Socinus doth but in the past time expiatis peccatis nostris having expiated or purged away our sins How they come to be otherwise Translated in his Annotations on that place put forth since his death I can give no Account And in like manner I suppose he satisfied another doubt about a passage in this Book which Sarravius desired him to resolve though I cannot find his Answer to it For he gives a punctual Answer afterward to a Question propounded by a Minister of Rouen who askt him where he had that of Rabbi Nechumias who made that publick Declaration mentioned in the Fifth Book Sect. 14. concerning the appearing of Christ 50. Years before our Saviour to this effect That the time which Daniel had prefixed for the coming of the Messiah could not be prolonged above those Fifty Years Which he tells Sarravius * Epist Claud. Sarrav p. 52. is to be found in the Talmud in the Title Sanhedrin as he remembred and he thought also in Abenada upon Daniel This was in the Year 1640. when he first put out this Book with Annotations containing the Testimonies of those Authors in words at length whom he had alledged but had forgotten it seems to set down where he had this passage of Rabbi Nechumias Nor is it now to be found among the Annotations and therefore they that next Print the Book so inlarged will do well to supply it from hence out of Sarravius Who was the first Person * Epist ad Gallos p. 460. to whom he made a present of it after it came out with the Addition of Testimonies desiring to be admonished by him if in the midst of much business any thing had escaped him which was less exactly spoken while he studied to serve the Christian cause To which He replies immediately That as he could not but esteem it a very great honour to be acknowledged and beloved by the Coryphaeus of all Learning both Sacred and profane so he esteemed this as a Golden Book wherein Grotius had joyned Learning together with Piety consulting that is the Disease of the Age to whose Palate Piety of it self had little savour And as for the immense collection of Testimonies then added he made it appear by them that in all his studies the glory of Christ had alway been before his eyes his holy diligence and industry having discovered so many and such things which had escaped the sagacious eyes of others And not long after he propounded some doubts according to his own desire and mentioned some exceptions as was noted before which some who had no good will to him took at this Golden Book as he again calls it and notwithstanding the harsh censures of some Learned Men this excellent Person still persisted in his high esteem of the worth of this Author and believed all unprejudiced Men would ever look upon him with great Veneration So he tells Salmasius Five Years after * Epist Claud. Sarrav p. 146. 1645 Whether they will or no Grotius will alway be accounted a great Man by you and me and by all that love Equity and Goodness for he is full of envy who denies due praises to such a Hero And a little while after hearing of the news of his death he most sadly bewails it * Ib. p. 171. as the extinction of the bright Star of that Age whose Name would be great as long as either Books or Learning were in honour And while he had breath he saith he would glory in this that he once had familiar acquaintance with a Man who was re nomine Magnus no less great indeed than his Name imported This affection he seems to have carried with him to his Grave and honoured his Memory at such a rate that in the Year 1648. he still says he was proud of the Friendship of that Man by whom to have been known was glorious and who would be reverenced in all future Ages In conclusion he calls him that Blessed Soul even after he himself had pronounced this sentence against Grotius * Ib. p. 196. that he favoured the Papists and not only yielded too much to them in his later Writings but expressed too much disaffection to the reformed in those Countries All this he candidly passed over with this censure * Ib. p. 146. He is the best Man who hath fewest faults for there is no body to be found without some And the same favourable judgment I suppose all serious and considering men will pass upon him now and not be hindred by any prejudices which may have been taken up against him among our selves from reaping that benefit which they may receive by reading this excellent Book Which I present again to the view of the English World and have in a manner made a new Translation of it the former which came out near 50. Years ago being so defective that there were few Paragraphs in it which stood not in need of some amendment and in a great number the sense was quite mistaken Who the Translator was I am ignorant but it is certain he either did not understand the Latine Tongue or did not attend to what he was about as appears by innumerable Instances But one may suffice in the Third Book Sect. 3. where he Translates altera Petri the one Epistle of Peter Besides there is plain Arianism in his Translation Book V. Sect. 21. for he says the Son was not uncreate as the Father is when in Grotius the words are the Son is not ingenitus unbegotten as the Father is Yet where the Translation was passable I have let it go as it was that I might not seem to be too curious a Censurer of other Mens labours And I have added such passages as were not there the Book it self having been inlarged by Grotius since that old English Translation I know not how necessary it might be at that time when it was first put into our Language but now I think nothing can be more And to make it of larger use I have added also a Seventh Book of my own In which out of those Principles chiefly which Grotius builds upon in his Six Books I have shown that Christian Religion hath suffered very much by the Church of Rome and that we need not go thither to be assured of the Truth of that Religion but shall be better informed in our own Church by the Holy Scriptures and such works as these I have not quoted all my Authors no more than Grotius did in the first Editions of his Book And it would have made the Work also too long I thought to Translate his Testimonies and add the like of my own Nor would it have been so useful to common Readers who do but perplex themselves
Ministers Which as it is against the practice of the whole Church for many Ages from the beginning So directly opposes the Institution of Christ who set his Apostles in a superiority to the LXX as his Apostles set such Men as Timothy and Titus in a superiority over the Presbyteries of those Churches which they could no longer attend themselves SECT X. Arguments enough in the foregoing Books to prove the true Christian Religion not to be sincerely preserved in the Roman Church one is their way of worship IT would be easie to show how much the Roman Church hath deviated from the Rule of Faith by considering particularly the falsity of every one of those Doctrines which they have added to the ancient Creeds But it will be more proper in so short a Treatise as this only to bring to the Readers mind some Principles in the foregoing Books which direct us as plainly to reject Popery and upon the very same ground as those false Religions for whose confutation he alledges them And First let the Reader again weigh his Arguments against the worship of the Pagans and he will find them in several things as strong against the worship of the Roman Church whose practices it will hereby appear are no less faulty than their Faith As for example in the worship of Angels and Saints For the former They should not only as he discourses there Book IV. in their very worship make an evident difference between the most high God and those Angels to whom they commend themselves which they do not do in the Roman Church but quite contrary in the external acts of adoration have none that are appropriated to God alone but are all common to him with others as adoration invocation burning incense nay offering the Sacrifice of the Mass in their honour and making vows to them but be satisfied also what order there is among the Angels what good may be expected from each of them and what honour the most high God is willing should be bestowed upon every one of them All which being wanting for there is nothing revealed about such matters it is plain from thence how uncertain that Religion is and how much safer it would be for them to betake themselves as we do to the worship of Almighty God alone Especially for that to whomsoever He is favourable to them the holy Angels must needs be kind and serviceable though no Petitions be made to them being the Ministers and Servants of the most High who hath revealed this to us that He hath made them all subject to Jesus Christ to be sent forth by Him for the good of those who shall be heirs of Salvation In the number of which they above all others have reason to hope to be who have so great a respect to His Majesty and confidence in his Goodness that for fear of offending Him they dare worship none but Himself alone resting assured He will deal well with them even for this reason because they have such a regard to Him as not to presume without his warrant and authority so much as to recommend themselves to Him by any Angel in Heaven though never so great but by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ alone who is the Head of them all and whom He hath consecreated to be our perpetual Intercessor with Him The like we may say of the Worship of Saints to whom all Prayers are fruitless and vain unless they be able to do something for their Supplicants Of which they have no certainty nor is there more ground to say that they can than that they cannot but rather less ground since it is inconceivable how they should be able to hear and assist so many as address themselves to the same Saint in several far distant parts of the World without supposing them to be equal to our blessed Saviour for they have as many if not more Supplicants as He by such an union as He hath with the Divinity They worship also which is still worse such for Saints as never were in being and others whose Saintship there is too much reason to question being apparently guilty of such crimes as are inconsistent with it For instance our Thomas à Becket by whose bloud they have prayed our Lord Christ that they may ascend into Heaven and do still pray upon Decemb. 29. that they who implore his help may have the saving effect of his petitions whom our Forefathers even in the time of Popery lookt upon as a perjured Person and as a Traitor being not only called so by the King but in Parliament accused of Treason the Bishops as well as others being present and the Bishop of Winchester pronouncing the sentence against him In short the Devotions of the Roman Church are so like the ancient Idolatry that the cunningest Man in the World cannot find any difference without a great many nice and subtil distinctions which in practice make no difference at all SECT XI Another is the way of promoting their Religion THERE is this Argument also against it as Grotius speaks of Paganism Book 4. Sect. 10. taken from the Religion it self that if it be not supported by humane power or policy immediately it falls to the ground For as the Church of Rome it hath been observed by wise Men of our own got and increased its absolute Authority over Mens consciences by obtruding on the World supposititious Writings and corrupting the Monuments of former times by false Miracles and forging false stories by Wars also and Persecutions by Massacres Treasons and Rebellions in short by all manner of carnal means whether violent or fraudulent so take away these supports and that Religion cannot stand by its own strength And truly his reason in the Third Section of the same Book against the Paganish worship that it was from evil Spirits because they instigated their Worshippers to destroy them that worshipped one God holds good still if there be any force in it to prove the Roman Church not to be acted by the good Spirit of God because they would not let those live had they sufficient power who worship only one God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and content themselves with the Belief before mentioned into which they were Baptized not presuming to superadd any thing else as necessary to Salvation And which is worse while they have been most cruel to those who for fear of offending God dare not allow the worship they give to Saints which they think belongs to him alone nor fall down before the Sacrament and adore it as very God Himself They have tolerated such without any censure who have raised St. Francis into an equality with if not superiority unto our blessed Saviour and made the blessed Virgin a kind of Goddess nay called the Pope the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords giving him such a power over all Kings and Kingdoms as sober Men among themselves are ashamed to own Which is just after the example of the
though the Scriptures be true may be false nay which if the Scriptures be true must be false because the Scriptures testifie against it Further 4thly to follow the Scriptures we have God's express Warrant and Commandment without any colour for any prohibition but to believe their Church infallible we have no commandment much less any express Commandment nay have reason to think we are prohibited so to do in such words as those Beware of false Prophets Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God c. Which require us to examine before we trust and consequently not to give up our selves blindfold to those who confidently claim the infallibility of St. Peter but cannot produce any evidence of it Again 5thly by following the Scriptures we shall keep to that which was always believed and every where received But by following the Church of Rome we shall make our selves guilty of the changes and alterations which they have made as another great Champion of our Church hath observed in the Apostolical Creed by making a new one containing things that hold no conformity with the Apostles and in the Apostolical succession by ingrossing the whole succession to Rome and making other Bishops to be but the Pope's Deputies as to their Jurisdiction and in the Apostolical Government by erecting a new and Universal Monarchy in the Church and lastly in the Apostolical Communion by excommunicating the greatest part of the holy Catholick Church By 6thly following the Roman Church also we shall be bound to hold many things not only above Reason but against it whereas by following the Scriptures we shall only believe some Mysteries but no impossibilities some things above reason but nothing contrary to it For though there be things in Scripture which had they not been revealed reason could not have discovered yet there is nothing there which being revealed can by true reason be confuted 7thly Contrary to flesh and blood indeed there are many things contained in the Scriptures therefore by following them we shall believe a Religion which notwithstanding that great prejudice which Men had to it prevailed and inlarged it self over the World in a short time without any assistance from worldly power wit or policy nay against all these whereas the Roman Church hath got all its Authority over Mens Consciences by no other means than by devising false Records false Miracles and Reports as was said before and by complying with Mens corrupt affections or by persecuting those that would not comply and by all other such like worldly means whether of policy or force 8thly To which add that by following the Scriptures we shall believe a Religion whose first Preachers and Professors could have no worldly ends to serve as hath been demonstrated in the foregoing Books but rather were to expect as they every where found nothing but disgrace vile nay cruel usage by all manner of punishments whereas the head of the Roman Church it is even palpable makes their Religion the Instrument of his Ambition and seeks thereby to intitle himself directly or indirectly to the Monarchy of the World And besides it is evident to him that hath but half an eye as we say that most of the Doctrines which they have added to the Scriptures make one way or other for the honour or temporal advantage of the Teachers of them 9thly Again following the Scriptures we shall embrace a Religion of admirable simplicity whereas the Roman Church and doctrine is even loaded with an infinity of weak childish unsavory Superstitions and Ceremonies under which its own Children have groaned and heavily complained 10thly Those Holy Books also teach us that we must not promise our selves salvation unless we effectually mortifie all our evil affections and lusts and forsaking every sin whatsoever betake our selves to the practice of all Christian Vertue But the Roman Church opens an easier and broader way to Salvation permitting at least this to be taught for as good and Catholick Doctrine as any other that though a Man have continued all his life long in a course of sin without the practice of any vertue he may notwithstanding be let into Heaven by an act of attrition at the hour of Death if joyned with confession or by an act of Contrition without Confession And therefore in this and several other regards the Religion of that Church is not so holy as the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles delivered in the Scriptures and consequently is not so likely to come from the Fountain of Holiness and Goodness 11thly But whatsoever ways they are pleased to devise to humour Mens depraved appetites we are sure of this advantage by following the Scriptures which they cannot pretend to by following their Church That if we happen to entertain an erroneous opinion grounded as we think upon some place of Scripture it is implicitly retracted and condemned by our precedent full and intire assent to all things contained in the Scriptures and our general resolution to hold nothing contrary to them nor admit any thing as necessary to salvation that cannot be proved by them Which makes the error that we unwittingly and unwillingly hold against the Scriptures less dangerous because our adherence to the Scriptures is nearer closer and firmer than it is to our particular error Whereas by following their Church not knowing what it is whether the whole Body of People in that Communion or a General Council or the Pope in or out of a Council we shall have no such excuse for our errors but they will be rather much aggravated by our adhering so strictly to a doubtful and uncertain Rule unto which the People in that Communion sticking closer than they do to the Word of God it lessens the value of all the Truths which they believe and doubles the guilt of all their errors And lastly as this is a great satisfaction to our selves so there is this to be added for the comfort of others also That by following the Scriptures we shall learn to bear with one another in our different opinions about things which cannot thereby be determined nay in things which are not directly against it or wherein we are not yet sufficiently instructed But by following the Roman Church we shall be taught to pass the heaviest sentences upon all those that believe not in all things as we do nay to take the severest courses with them though they be Men of the most innocent and useful lives conforming themselves in all things to the Precepts of Christ Jesus and to the Authority of their Governors for his sake where it doth not manifestly contradict Him To conclude this we for our parts are of the same mind even towards them which Grotius before observed the Apostles were of towards the Jews From whom saith he and let the words be taken as if spoken by us to those of the Roman Communion they would not so much as exact an acknowledgment of their happiness in being
Thus is there one way in Mathematicks another in Physicks a third in matters of advice and counsel and lastly another kind when a matter of fact is in question wherein verily we must rest content when the testimonies are free from all suspicion of untruth Otherwise down goes not only all the use of history and a great part of the art of Physick but all the piety also that ought to be between Parents and Children which cannot be known other ways And indeed it is the pleasure of Almighty God that those things which he would have us to believe so that the very belief thereof may be imputed to us for obedience should not so evidently appear as those things which are apprehended by sense and plain demonstration but only be so far forth revealed as may beget faith and a perswasion thereof in the hearts and minds of such as are not obstinate That so the Word of the Gospel may be as a touchstone whereby Mens dispositions may be tried whether they be curable or not For seeing these arguments whereof we have spoken have induced so many honest godly and wise Men to approve of this Religion it is thereby plain enough that the fault of other Mens infidelity is not for want of sufficient testimony but because they would not have that to be had and embraced for truth which is contrary to their affections and desires It being that is an hard matter for them to make no great account of honours and other worldly advantages which they must do if they receive what Christ hath taught and so become ingaged to observe his Precepts Which is discovered to be true by this very thing that they take many other Historical Narrations to be true which notwithstanding appear to be so meerly by authority and not by any such foot-steps of them remaining at this day as the History of Christ hath partly in the confession of the Jews who are now in being and partly in those things which are every where found in the Assemblies of Christian People of which it must needs be granted there was some cause Lastly seeing the long duration or continuance of Christian Religion and the large extent thereof can be ascribed to no humane power therefore it must be attributed to miracles or if any deny that it came to pass through a miraculous manner this very getting so great strength and power without a miracle may be justly thought to surpass any miracle The THIRD Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. To prove the authority of the Books of the New Covenant AFTER that a Man is once perswaded by the reasons abovesaid or is induced by any other arguments to believe that this Religion which Christians profess is the truest and absolutely the best if he desire to learn all the parts thereof then must he have recourse unto the most ancient writings that contain the same Religion which commonly we call the Books of the New Testament or rather new covenant For he is very unreasonable who denies this Religion to be contained in those Books as all Christians affirm Since it is but equity to believe every Sect be it good or be it bad when it says its opinions are to be found in such or such a Book as we believe the Mahometans that the Religion of Mahomet is contained in the Alcoran Forasmuch then as we have before proved that the Christian Religion is most true and it is manifest withal that it is contained in these Books if there were no other ground yet this alone is sufficient to prove and avouch the authority of those Books But if any body requires a more particular demonstration of it I must first lay down this Rule which all indifferent Judges will allow that it is incumbent upon him who will impugne the authority of any writing received for many Ages to produce Arguments which prove that Writing to be false which if he cannot do that Book is to be defended as in possession of its Authority SECT II. Here is shown that such Books were written by the Authors whose names they have prefixed WE say then that those Books which are not in question amongst Christians and carry before them a certain Name are the very Works of those Authors whose names they bear Because those primitive Fathers Justin Irenaeus Clemens and others after them do quote those Books under these very names As also because Tertullian witnesseth that there were Original Copies of some of those Books extant in his time And besides all the Churches received those Books for authentical before there were any common publick Meetings Neither did ever the Pagans or Jews raise any controversie about this as if these were not the works of those Men whose they were said to be but Julian himself plainly confesseth that those were the writings of Peter and Paul Matthew Mark and Luke which Christians under those names have read and received For as no Man in his wits can doubt that those Writings which go under the names of Homer and Virgil are truly theirs because the one hath been so long time received among the Latine and the other among the Greek Authors in like manner it were more absurd to bring the Authors of those Books in question which are granted almost by all the Nations in the World SECT III. Some Books were anciently doubted of IN the Volume of the new Covenant there are some Books indeed now received which were not so received from the beginning as the second Epistle of St. Peter that of St. James and Jude two of St. John the Elder the Revelation and the Epistle to the Hebrews Yet this is certain that they were acknowledged by many Churches which appears sufficiently from hence that the ancient Christians use their Testimonies as Sacred Which makes it credible that such Churches as from the beginning had not those Books either were ignorant of them or doubtful Yet afterward when they were better informed touching the same they admitted them into the Canon as we now see according to the example of other Churches Neither can any good reason be given why any Man should counterfeit those Books since there is nothing comprised in them neither can ought thence be collected which is not abundantly expressed in other Books unquestioned SECT IV. The Authority of such Books as have no Titles is proved from the quality of the Writers AND here let no Man mistrust the verity of the Epistle to the Hebrews because the Writer of it is unknown nor doubt of the two Epistles of St. John and the Revelation because some Men do question whether the Author of them was John the Apostle or some other of that name For the name is not so much to be regarded as the quality or condition of Writers Hence it is that we receive many Books of History whose Authors are to us unknown As that concerning the Alexandrian War by Caesar because we may perceive that whosoever writ the same
out or added But it is an unjust thing to bring in question the truth of such a Book or evidence only because in so many ages there could not but be great variety of Copies since both custome and reason requires that what appears in the most and most ancient Copies be preferred to the rest But that either by fraud or any other way all the Copies were corrupted and that in point of doctrine or some remarkable piece of history will never be proved for there are neither any evidences nor any witnesses of those times which attest it But if as was said before there be any thing urged in much later times by those who bare an implacable hatred to the Disciples of these Books that ought to be lookt upon as a Reproach not as a Testimony And this truly which we have said may be well thought a sufficient Answer to those who object a change in the Scripture for he who affirms that especially against a writing which hath been long and in abundance of places received ought himself to prove his charge But to make the vanity of this Objection more fully appear we will show that what they feign neither was nor could be done We have proved before that the Books were written by the Authors whose Names they bear which being granted it follows that other Books were not foisted into their room nor was any notable part of them changed For since that change must needs have some design that part would notoriously differ from the other parts and Books which were not changed which cannot now any where be discerned nay there is an admirable agreement as we said in their Senses Besides as soon as any of the Apostles or Apostolical Men published any thing there is no doubt to be made but Christians with great diligence as became their piety and care to preserve and propagate truth to Posterity took from thence many Copies for their use Which therefore were dispersed as far as the Christian Name through Europe Asia and Egypt in which Places the Greek Language was spoken And more than this the Original Copies also as we said before were preserved till Two Hundred Years after Christ Now it was not possible that any Book diffused into so many Copies and kept not only by the private diligence of particular Persons but the common care of the Churches should be altered by the hand of any falsifier Add further that these Books in the following ages were translated into the Syriac Ethiopick Arabick and Latine Tongues which translations are yet extant and do not differ in any thing of moment from the Greek Copies themselves Besides we have the Writings of those Men who were taught by the Apostles themselves or by their Disciples wherein many places are cited out of these Books to the same sense and meaning which now we read them Neither was there any in the Church of so great authority in those times as to have met with obedience if he would have changed any thing As is plain enough by the free and open dissent of Irenaeus Tertullian and Cyprian from those that were most eminent in the Church After which times there succeeded many other men of great Learning and Judgment who having first made diligent inquiry thereof received these Books as retaining their original purity Hitherto also may be referred what but now we said of divers sects of Christians all which at least such as acknowledged God to be the Maker of the World and Christ to be the Author of a new Law did receive and use these Books accordingly as we do the same And if any had attempted to alter or put any thing new into any part thereof they should have been accused by the rest for forgery and false-dealing therein Neither was there ever any Sect that had the liberty at their pleasure to alter any of these Books for their own turns For it is manifest that all of them did draw their arguments one against another out of the same And as for that which we touched concerning divine providence it belongs no less unto the chiefest parts than unto the whole Books namely that it is not agreeable to it that GOD should suffer so many Thousand Men which sincerely desired to be godly and earnestly sought after eternal life to be led headlong into that error which they could no way avoid And thus much shall suffice to be spoken for the authority of the Books of the new covenant whence alone if there were no other helps we might be sufficiently instructed concerning the true Religion SECT XVI For the Authority of the Books of the Old Testament NOW forasmuch as it hath pleased God to leave us also the writings and evidences of the Jewish Religion which was anciently the true and affords no small testimonies for Christianity Therefore it will not be amiss in the next place to justifie the authority of the same First then that these Books were written by the same Men whose Names they bear is manifest in like manner as we have proved of ours before of the new covenant These Authors were either Prophets or other very faithful and credible men such as was Esdras who is thought to have collected the Books of the Old Testament into one Volume during the life time of the Prophet Haggai Malachy and Zachary I will not here repeat again what is said before in the commendation of Moses Both that part of history which at first was delivered by him as we have shown in the first Book and that also which was collected after his time is witnessed even by many of the Heathen Thus the Annals of the Phoenicians have recorded the names of David and Solomon and their Leagues with the Men of Tyre Aswel Berosus as the Hebrew Writers makes mention of Nobuchadonosor and of other Chaldean Kings He whom Jeremy calls Vaphres King of Aegypt is termed Apries by Herodotus In like manner the Books of the Grecians are replenished with Narrations concerning Cyrus and his Successors until the times of Darius And many other things concerning the Nation of the Jews are related by Josephus in his Books against Appion whereunto we may add what before we have touched out of Strabo and Trogus But as for us Christians we cannot in the least doubt of the truth of these Books out of every one of which almost there are testimonies extant in our Books which are found likewise in the Hebrew Neither do we find when Christ reprehended many things in the Doctors of the Law and Pharisees of his time that ever he accused them of forgery committed against the Writings of Moses or the Prophets or that they used counterfeit Books or such as were changed Then after Christ's time it cannot be proved neither is it credible that the Scripture was corrupted in matters of any moment if we consider rightly how far and wide over the face of the earth the Nation of the Jews was spread who every where were
sight The distinction of meats the Sabbaths and feast-days were but types and shadows of things which exist in Christ and in Christians In like manner by occasion of Mahumetisme these Admonitions are given that our Lord Jesus foretold that after his time there should arise false Christs and false Prophets which should lye and say they were sent of God But suppose that an Angel should come from Heaven yet we may not receive or entertain any other doctrine than that which Christ hath left us confirmed by so many testimonies For God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the godly that lived in times past hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son the Lord of all things the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express Image of his substance by whom all things are created that ever were or shall be who upholdeth and governeth all things by his power and having purged our sins is now set at the right hand of God and hath obtained a dignity above Angels and therefore nothing can be expected more magnificent than this Law-giver Upon the same occasion Christians are remembred that the weapons of Christ and of their Christian warfare are not such as Mahumet used but spiritual able to cast down strong holds and every thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God For our buckler we have the shield of faith whereby we may repel the fiery darts of the Devil For a brest-plate we have righteousness or integrity of life The hope of eternal salvation is a helmet which may cover the weakest part And for a Sword we have Words delivered from God which pierce into the most inward parts of the Soul After this follows the exhortation to mutual concord which Christ at his departure so solemnly and with such earnestness commended unto his Disciples There ought not to be many Masters and Doctors amongst us but we must have one Master even Jesus Christ All Christians are baptized unto one name wherefore there ought to be no Sects or Divisions among them for the cure and remedy of which evils those Apostolical sayings are suggested as let no man think more highly of himself than he ought to think but let Men be wise with sobriety according as God hath dealt to every Man the measure of faith If any do not so well conceive and rightly understand all things as they ought then their weakness must be born with that so without any brawlings or fallings out they may be sweetly united and knit together with us If any do excel the rest in understanding it is but meet also that they surpass them in love in holy affection and endeavours to do them good And as for those that in some points are of different opinion from such as hold the truth God's leisure must be waited for until it please him to reveal the same truth that yet lies hid from them and in the mean while those things which are agreed upon must be stedfastly kept and duly practised We know now in part only but the time shall come when all things shall be known most plainly and after a perspicuous manner This also I beg of every one that they do not unprofitably detain the talent committed to them upon trust but that they endeavour by all means possible to win others unto Christ For which purpose we must not only use good exhortations and wholsome speeches but also the example of good life that so the goodness of our Master may appear by his servants and the purity of the law by our landable actions Lastly my Discourse returning thither where it began I intreat such Readers as are my Country-men that if hereby they reap any good they would give thanks to God for it And if any thing be less pleasing to them they would have a regard both to the common infirmity of man's nature that is prone to errour and to the time and place wherein this work was rather hastily brought forth than elaborately composed THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion Against the Present ROMAN CHVRCH The Seventh Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. An Introduction showing what makes the Addition of another Book necessary IF those Apostolical Exhortations which conclude the last Book had been carefully followed there would have been no need of saying any more for the confirmation of Mens minds in the belief of the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Religion But the unhappy differences which are among Christians and which are maintained with unspeakable animosities and hatreds nay with anathema's also which one part pronounces against the rest have made many Men doubtful which of these hold the true Christian Faith for which the Apostle exhorts us most earnestly to contend and in this doubtfulness there are some who embrace none at all For we see the Eastern Church disjoynted from the Western and the Western divided into three great parts every one of which condemn the other two and all of them are subdivided into several little parties by variety of opinions for which they contend with the same zeal that they do for the Faith of Christ Which is thereby disgraced and reputed by some to be of no greater certainty than those dubious opinions SECT II. Divisions among Christians no such objection against Christianity as is imagined BUT to a considering Man this will be no occasion of scandal but rather confirm him more in the true Christian Faith which every one of us ought to preserve with the greatest care as a most inestimable Treasure For as this is common to every Religion to have many disputes about it and different opinions in it and as Christ and his Apostles foretold there would many false Christs and false Apostles and false Prophets arise as was said before in the end of the foregoing Book who would lye and say they were sent when they were not introducing false doctrines and calling them by the Name of his Religion and as they give us a good reason also why it should be so that Mens probity and sincerity might be tried and brought hereby to the touchstone and that their diligence and care in preserving themselves might be exercised So blessed be our Lord the true Christian Religion is still retained and kept intire every where by all these disagreeing Parties notwithstanding the fierce quarrels they have one with another As appears by this which is a short easie and certain way to our satisfaction in this matter that the Faith into which they are all baptized is one and the same without any variation That is they all enter into the Church at the very same gate and upon the same terms and conditions neither more nor less are made members of Christ and have a title given them if they live according to this Faith unto Eternal Salvation SECT III. As appears even in the Roman Church which hath given the greatest scandal THE Church of Rome it self which
now makes the greatest differences in the Christian World requires nothing more at this day to be believed by those that are by Baptism received into the Church of Christ but only those things which are contained in the Creed commonly called the Apostles This Creed is recited there by the Priest and this alone when he comes to the Font and he interrogates the Persons to be baptized if they be adult or their undertakers if they be Infants about no other belief Upon the profession of which he bids them enter into the holy Church of God that they may receive the Celestial blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ and have a part with Him and with his Saints And having again examined adult Persons asking them Do ye believe in God the Father Almighty c. and mentioning no other Articles of Faith he baptizes them and declares them to be regenerate and to have remission of all sins And so do we do here nor is there any different practice in any other part of the Christian World but every where it is sufficient to consent to this Creed which is nothing but a brief explication what we are to believe concerning the Father the Son and the Holy-Ghost in whose Name we are baptized If there were any thing beyond this which we are necessarily bound to believe it should have been then propounded when we were admitted into the state of Christianity For Baptism gives us a right and title to Salvation if we do not forfeit it afterward by Apostasie or by a wicked life and this Faith with a promise to live according to it gives us a right to Baptism Herein indeed the Roman Church contradicts it self in decreeing many other Articles of belief without which it declares Men cannot be saved and yet receiving Men at Baptism into a state of Salvation without demanding their consent to any such Articles But so they do in many other things and cannot avoid it while they forsake the ancient Universal Rule and set up their own private Authority to impose what they please under pain of Damnation SECT IV. But both contradicts it self and departs from the Ancient and truly Catholick Church FOR that no such things as they would now oblige all Christians to believe were anciently exacted it appears most manifestly by Irenaeus and Tertullian to name no others in several places Who call the Creed now mentioned the Rule of Truth and the Rule of Faith which the Church throughout all the World saith Irenaeus though it be dispersed to the most extream parts of the Earth received from the Apostles and their Disciples and believes as if there were but one Soul and one Heart in so many Men and with a perfect consent preaches and teaches and delivers these things as having but one mouth For though there be divers Languages in the World yet one and the same Tradition prevails every where For neither the Churches in Germany believe otherways or deliver any thing else nor they in Spain nor they in France nor they in the East nor they in Egypt nor they in Libya nor they that are founded in the midst of the World But as the Sun is one and the same in the whole World So is the preaching of the Truth inlightning all Men who will come to the knowledge of it And neither he who is most eloquent among the Governours of the Church preaches any thing different for no man is above his Master nor doth he that is weakest in speech lessen in the least this Tradition For there being one and the same Faith he that hath most to say cannot inlarge it nor he that hath least diminish it Thus they declared their minds in those early days when there was no Catholick Man or Woman in the World required to believe any of those Doctrines now in controversie between us and the Roman Church and set down in the Creed of Pope Pius IV. as necessary to Salvation but they all contented themselves with the simple belief of those things which the Apostles have delivered in their Creed the greatest Men in the Church delivering no more nor the meanest saying less And with this wise and good Men satisfied themselves in times succeeding as appears by this remarkable passage of St. Hilary in his little Book which he himself delivered to the Emperour Constantius Where he thus complains Faith is now enquired after as if we had none Faith must be set down in writing as if it were not in the heart Being regenerated by Faith we are now taught what to believe as if that regeneration could have been without Faith WE LEARN CHRIST AFTER BAPTISM AS IF THERE COULD HAVE BEEN ANY BAPTISM WITHOUT FAITH IN CHRIST SECT V. Christianity therefore is not there in its purity but much corrupted WHICH is a sufficient Argument to prove that the Christian Religion is not sincerely preserved in that Church and ought to with-hold us from joyning with them in imposing thus upon the Christian World and thereby breaking the bond of Unity and turning Men away from the Faith by the palpable falsities and absurd mixtures which are brought into it and that as necessary parts of the Faith of Christ To the adulterating of which we ought by no means to consent but maintain it in that purity wherein the Apostles delivered it to their Successors as we find it set down in the Works of a great many following Doctors of the Church whose Names I forbear but are ready at hand to make good what I quoted just now out of Irenaeus Who acknowledges him for a sincere Christian who holds fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Epiphanius recites his words which were then extant in Greek that Rule of Faith which he received in Baptism firm and unmoveable He cannot be a Heretick who thus believes on the Son of God in the sense wherein the Nicene Creed not adding any new Article of Faith but only declaring what was believed from the beginning hath explained the Word But they are Schismaticks who call him so and will not admit him into their Communion unless he consent to other things and hold them to be equally certain and necessary with the Ancient Rule of Faith SECT VI. Answer to an Evasion from the force of the foregoing Argument TO pretend that all those Articles of Faith which they now impose though not expresly mentioned in the Creed yet are contained in one Article of it Viz. in the belief of the Holy Catholick Church is in effect to make all the rest of the Creed unnecessary and to establish this sole Rule of Faith in the room of it For if by believing the Catholick Church we are to understand as they would have us whatsoever the Catholick Church propounds then it had been enough to have said to those Catechumens that came for Baptism Do you believe in the Holy Catholick Church and to add any more had been utterly superfluous But the vanity of this further appears in that
hand I now take into my hands to present unto thy Majesty under the form of Bread and Wine Him thou canst not reject nor me his Priest who offer Him unto Thee c. Or some such like words more befitting their present notions than desiring an Angel may carry what the Priest offers and present it unto GOD. But we find quite contrary which is the last thing I shall observe that in conclusion the Priest acknowledges that by Christ Jesus God always creates and sanctifies and quickens and blesses making a cross upon the Host and the Chalice at every one of those three last words all these good things Which can be meant of nothing but the Bread and Wine consecrated to the commemoration and representation of Christ's body and bloud sacrificed for us For Christ's own very natural body and bloud cannot in any tolerable sense be said to be continually created and quickned or made alive unless you will suppose him to have been dead before nay not to have been at all For creation implies the thing not to have been and vivification not to have been then alive when it was quickned Yet this fancy of Christs real presence in the Sacrament by Transubstantiation against which there are such numerous Testimonies in their own Communion Service is now become the main Article of their Religion For we all know to our great grief and astonishment that when the publick Authority of this Realm was on their side subscription was not urged to any Article of their Religion upon such violent and bloudy terms as unto this of the Real Presence The Mystery of which iniquity as a great Man of our own said in the Age before us cannot be better resolved than into the powerful and deceitful working of Satan who delights thus to do despite to our Lord and to his Religion by seducing his professed Subjects into a belief of such things as make them and Him ridiculous unto unbelievers and ingage them in the worst kind of Rebellion he could imagine by worshipping Bread and Wine instead of their Saviour and all this upon the least occasions and shallowest reasons SECT XIII Other Instances of it BUT besides these plain confessions of that Church against it self there are many other things which I shall but just name wherein we have the testimony of several of their own learned Men ready to be produced for our and against their belief proving clearly that the present is not the old Religion of that Church but that they have brought into it many Innovations by adding to the Canonical Books of Scripture by making their vulgar Latine Translation of the Bible about which they themselves cannot agree authentical by forbidding the People to read the holy Scriptures in their own Language and by denying them the publick Prayers in a Language they understand by giving the Pope not only a new Title of Universal Bishop but an authority and jurisdiction which was never heard of for many Ages by increasing the number of Sacraments and altering their nature by taking away the Cup from the People and turning the Sacrament of Christs body and bloud into a proper expiatory sacrifice by celebrating the Eucharist without any body to communicate by setting up Images in Churches and ordaining Religious Worship to be given to them by invocating Saints and Angels as was said before and by the Doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences and many other together with a vast number of strange ceremonies in the making holy water consecrating bells c. For which no antiquity can be pretended The woful effect of which is this if we may speak the plain Truth that by pressing upon Mens belief a great deal too much and placing great vertue in trifles they have tempted Men to believe nothing at all As is apparent from hence that where and when as an excellent Writer of our own speaks this Religion hath most absolutely commanded there and then Atheism or Infidelity hath most abounded And how should it do otherwise when as he observes so many lying Legends have been obtruded upon Mens belief and so many false Miracles forged to justifie them as are very likely to make suspicious Men question the truth of all And so many weak and frivolous ceremonies devised and such abundance of ridiculous observances in Religion introduced as are no less apt to beget a secret contempt and scorn of it in witty Men and consequently Atheism and Impiety if they have this perswasion setled in their mind which is indeavoured to be rooted in them from their childhood that if they be not of that Religion they were as good be of none at all And when a great part also of the Doctrines now mentioned so apparently make for the temporal ends of those who teach them that sagacious Men can scarce forbear thinking they were on purpose devised to serve those designs That particular doctrine also of Transubstantiation being so portentous that joyned with the forenamed perswasion of No Papists no Christians it hath in all probability brought more than Averroes to this resolution since Christians eat that which they adore let my Soul be among the Philosophers And lastly the pretence which is so common that there is no ground to believe the Scriptures but their Churches infallibility and yet no ground to believe their Churches infallibility but some Texts of Scripture being too plain a way to lead those who discern the labyrinth wherein they are to believe neither Church nor Scripture SECT XIV Whereby they have spoil'd Christianity as the Pagans did the Natural Religion THESE things which have been already urged by the Writers of our Church for the conviction of those who are capable of it I repeat here again because they seem to me very powerful for the preservation of those who are not already tainted or too far gone in that delusion Which is so great that to summ up all belonging to this Head we may safely say Popery is just such a depravation of the true Christian Religion as Paganism was of the Natural Religion There cannot be a righter conception of it than this which appears too plainly in the absurd doctrines and opinions which they have mingled with the Christian Faith in their multiplied superstitions in their fabulous relations of the Saints wherein they have surpassed the very Poets themselves and to pass by the rest in their prostrating themselves before Images and giving religious worship to Men departed Which last instance furnished the Pagans of Cochin with this answer to the Jesuits as Christoph Borrus one of that Order relates when they pressed upon them the belief of one God and no more We do believe it said they but those whom you see us worship in their Images were Men of great Sanctity whom pious People therefore worship according to their merit just as you give to the Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors divers degrees of honour and religious service as you know them to have excelled in vertue
and piety And that they might confirm this to be their sense of the Divinity they bid the Jesuites observe one part of the Altar in their Temple to be void of Images and to be hid in an obscure and dark place which they said was the proper seat of the most high God the Maker of Heaven and Earth who could not be represented in any form and shape and that the Images which stood about that place were the representations of their Intercessors with Him who having great power with the most high God did obtain many gifts and blessings for those that invocated them How this differs from the notions of the Roman Church I do not see unless it be in this that they have sometimes adventured to represent God himself in a shape Otherwise the worship is the very same the dead Men who are the objects of it only changed and may very well justifie us if we say and therein we speak very moderately that their worship is an Image at least of the ancient Idolatry And moves them to make the resemblance more perfect unto the very same rage and violence which was in the Pagans against all those that differ from them and cannot consent to worship God in that way prosecuting them with all manner of cruelty as if they were utter enemies of God and of all Religion By which we may certainly know that they are so far from being the only true Christians that they are a very degenerate part of Christs Church wanting that great mark of his faithful Disciples to love one another even as Christ loved us To which they are such strangers that quite contrary they not only hate and persecute but endeavour as I said to root out those from the face of the Earth who obediently believe all that they can find our Lord and his Apostles have delivered and profess they are ready with all their hearts to receive and do whatsoever any body can further teach them to be his mind Nay are very desirous and diligent to know it sparing no pains to understand the whole Truth as it is in Christ Jesus SECT XV. Answer to what they say about Miracles THEY pretend indeed abundance of Miracles wrought in their Church as a sufficient condemnation of those who obstinately refuse to invocate Saints to worship their Images and the consecrated Hoste to believe Purgatory and all other things for the proof of which these wonders are alledged But herein also they imitate the Pagans who were guilty of the like deceit and the same answer will serve here which Grotius gives there L. iv Sect. 8. in his confutation of the old Idolatry For First the wisest Men among them have rejected many of these Miracles as not supported by the testimony of any credible witnesses nay as plain fictions Others also of them which are pretended to be of better credit hapned in some private place in the night before one or two Persons whose eyes crafty Priests as he speaks might easily delude with false shows and counterfeit appearances of things And further there are others which only raise admiration among People ignorant of the nature of things and are no true miracles I deny not but there may have things been done among them which no humane power could effect by the strength of natural causes and yet no Divine that is omnipotent Power be needful to their production For those Spirits which are interposed between God and Man are able by their nimbleness cunning activity and strength to make such strange application of things very distant one to another as shall astonish the Spectators with wonderful effects But there is too great reason to think they are not good Spirits that do these feats because they revive hereby the ancient superstition or uphold the Image of it still in the Christian World to the great dishonour of our Saviour and the indangering the Souls of his People Who have been so far misled as not only to fancy great Virtue in the Images of the Saints and to cry up also some Images particularly of our Lady of Loretto for instance as indued with some singular power and vertue which is not to be found in others but to honour them so highly as for one Miracle said to be done by a Crucifix to report a hundred to be wrought at such or such a Shrine of hers It is very considerable also to omit the rest which he notes in the V. Book out of the Law of Moses that it supposes God might permit some wonders to be done only for their trial whether the People would persist in the worship of the true God which had been confirmed by undoubted and far greater and more numerous Miracles Read Deuteron xiii 1 2 3 c. This is excellently expressed and with advantage by a great Man of our own in these words or to this effect The Doctrine which we believe that is the Bible hath been confirmed as is confessed on all sides by innumerable supernatural and truly Divine Miracles and consequently the Doctrine of the Roman Church which in many points is plainly opposite to the Bible is condemned by them I mean the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles And therefore if any strange things have been done in that Church they prove nothing but the truth of Scripture which foretold that God's Providence permitting it and the wickedness of the World deserving it strange signs and wonders should be wrought to confirm false doctrine that they which love not the Truth might be given over to strong delusions So that now we have reason rather to suspect and be afraid of pretended Miracles as signs of false Doctrine than much to regard them as certain arguments of Truth Neither is it strange that God should permit some true wonders to be done to delude those who have forged so many wonders to deceive the World SECT XVI Answer to another Objection BUT it is not likely they say that Religion should be thus depraved in the Roman Church because their Ancestors were Men of greater vertue and honesty than to suffer the least alteration Which is the very thing that is alledged by the Jews why they should not believe our Saviour was unjustly condemned and his Religion rejected by their Priests and Elders as Grotius observes in the Vth. Book Out of which I might produce several things as I have done out of the foregoing to prove the vanity of the Romish Traditions as well as of the Jewish and show also how they have brought back Judaism in a great measure by the vast burden of Rites and Ceremonies wherewith they have incumbered Christian Religion But I shall wave all this because I would make this Book as short as the rest and only observe in answer to what was now pretended that whosoever shall consider as he speaks of the Ancestors of the Jews what kind of Men for several Ages sate in the Chair of Rome and how ignorant the People generally were he
truly since GOD hath implanted in Mens minds the power and faculty of judging there is no part of truth that better deserves the imployment of this faculty about it than that of which we cannot be ignorant without hazard of our Salvation After this whosoever inquires with a godly mind he shall not dangerously erre And where should he enquire after it but in God's most holy Word without which we cannot know whether there be either Church or Priest or any thing else wherein they would have us trust SECT XIX And refuses to be tried by Scripture IT is a manifest sign therefore of imposture that when they cannot for shame but sometimes suffer their Religion to be tried yet they will not have it tried by the holy Scriptures In the reading of which as was excellently said in the conclusion of the foregoing Books no man can be deceived but he who hath first deceived himself For the Writers of them were more faithful and fuller of Divine Inspiration than either to defraud us of any necessary part of Divine Truth or to hide it in a Cloud so that we cannot see it Why then should any body decline this way of trial unless they see themselves so manifestly condemned by the holy Scriptures that they dare not let their cause be brought into so clear a light Which hurts indeed sore eyes but comforts and delights those that are sound showing us so plainly what we are to embrace and what to refuse and being so sure and so perfect a Guide in all such matters that S. Hilary not only commends and admires the Emperor Constantius for desiring a Faith according to what was written But saith He is an Antichrist who refuses this and an Anathema that counterfeits it And thereupon calls to him in this manner O Emperour thou seekest for faith hearken to it not out of new little Papers but of the Books of God There we must seek for it if we mean to find it and if they be silent and can tell us nothing says St. Ambrose who shall dare to speak Let us not therefore bring deceitful ballances they are the words of S. Austin in his second Book of Baptism Chap. vi wherein we may weigh what we list and as we list after our own liking saying This is heavy that is light But let us bring the Divine Ballance out of the holy Scriptures as out of the Lords Treasures and in that let us weigh what is most ponderous or rather let not us weigh but acknowledge those things which are already weighed by the Lord. Yes say they of the Church of Rome we will be put into that Ballance and tryed by the Scriptures but not by them alone Which is in effect to refuse to be tried by them for they give testimony to their own fulness and perfection and plainness too in things necessary and so do all other Christian Writers that succeeded the Apostles who do not send us to turn over we know not how many other Volumes but tell us here we may be abundantly satisfied In so much that the first Christian Emperor Constantine the Father of Constantius now mentioned admonished the Bishops in the famous Council of Nice to consult with these heavenly inspired Writings as their Guide and Rule in all their Debates because they perspicuously instruct us as his very words are what to believe in divine things and therefore they ought he told them to fetch from thence the Resolution of those things which should come in question To which Cardinal Bellarmine indeed is pleased to say that Constantine truly was a Great Emperour but no great Doctor But as herein he speaks too scornfully of him so he reflects no less upon the understanding and judgment of those venerable Fathers assembled in that Council which as Theodoret tells us in his Ecclesiastical History was composed of Men excelling in Apostolical gifts and many of them carried in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus and were for the far greater part a Multitude of Martyrs assembled together who all consented unto and followed this wholsome counsel of the Emperour as he there testifies knowing he did but speak the sense of the truly Catholick Church Which did not meerly bid Men hear it and bring all doctrines to its touchstone but confessed plainly that even the Church it self must be tried by the Scriptures It is the express sentence of the same S. Austin in his Book of the Vnity of the Church Where in the second Chapter he saith the question then was as it is now where is the Church Now what shall we do says he seek for it in our own words or in the words of our Head our Lord Jesus Christ I think we ought to seek it rather in his words who is the Truth and best knows his own Body And in the beginning of the third Chapter thus proceeds Let us not hear thus say I and thus sayest thou but let us hear thus saith the Lord. The Lords Books there are certainly to whose authority we both consent we both believe we both yield obedience there let us seek the Church there let us discuss our cause And to name no more the Author of the imperfect work upon St. Matthew carrying the name of S. Chrysostome declares this so fully that it leaves no doubt in us what course they took for satisfaction in this business Heretofore says he there were many ways whereby one might know what was the true Church of Christ and what was Gentilism but now there is no way to know what is the true Church of Christ but by the Scriptures Why so Because all those things which belong properly to Christ in truth and reality those heresies have also in show and in appearance They have Scriptures Baptism Eucharist and all the rest even Christ himself like as we have Therefore if any one would know which is the true Church of Christ how should he know it in such a confusion of multitude but only by the Scriptures which he repeats over again a little after he therefore that would know which is the true Church of Christ how should he know it but by the Scriptures To them let us go and in them let us rest and if you are the Disciples of the Gospel may we say to the Romanists as Athanasius does to the Followers of Apolinarius in his Book about the Incarnation of Christ Do not speak unrighteously against the Lord but walk in what is written and done But if you will talk of different things from what are written why do you contend with us who dare not hear nor speak beside those things which are written Our Lord telling us if you abide in the word even in my word you shall be free indeed What immodest frenzy is this to speak things which are not written and to devise things which are strangers to piety To which if we faithfully adhere there is this to be added for our incouragement that though we
which are plainly and perspicuously enough set down in the Scriptures without the help and assistance of the Churches infallible authority which the Scriptures cannot be supposed to teach but by places far more doubtful SECT XXII It is our Wisdom therefore to adhere to the Scriptures TO this Rule then let us stick keeping those words of our Saviour always in mind iii. Joh. 21 22. He that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved But he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Let that be his Guide who would not go astray in dangerous Paths into which he cannot fall who keeps close to the directions of the Holy Books wherein all necessary Truth being set down as the most ancient and best Doctors unanimously agree we are certain every way by believing them to believe all necessary Truth and if our lives be accordingly without which they tell us our belief will be vain it is impossible we should fail of everlasting Salvation To these alone as St. Austin speaks for himself in his Book of Nature and Grace we owe an absolute consent without refusing any thing they propound to us Whatsoever it be as his words are in his CXII Epistle that is confirmed by the perspicuous authority of the divine Scriptures those viz. which are canonical in the Church it must be believed without any doubting But as for any other witnesses or testimonies to which thou art perswaded to give credit thou mayest believe them or not believe them according as thou perceivest them to deserve or not deserve to be relied on A great reverence is due to the Church and its testimony though less to the present Church of Rome than others because it hath so grosly abused the World by false records and forged Miracles and such like things yet only as to an humane Testimony which cannot equal that of the Holy Scriptures SECT XXIII Which have more manifest notes of certainty than the Church FOR if we take their own way and method to assure our minds that we follow an infallible Guide there is no note which they give of the true Church which they say ought to be our Guide but pleads far more strongly for the Holy Scriptures that we should rather follow them and give an undoubted credit to them I shall not run over all those Notes nor examine the certainty of them but only briefly name some of them and show that if they prove any thing it is the Authority of the Scriptures above the Church First they say the very name of the Catholick Church is venerable and ought to be regarded But as that Name is not proper to them alone so if there be any power in Names to make us respect any thing what more awful than the Name of the Word of God and the Sacred Scriptures which were always given to these Books to which we advise all Christians to adhere The next Note which is Antiquity is on the side of the Scriptures also which more justly claim to be ancienter than all other Books which pretend to any Divinity than the Catholick Church can claim to be ancienter than all other Societies which call themselves by the Name of a Church Nay the Doctrine contained therein must be supposed as I have shown to be before the Church which is made by belief and profession of that Doctrine and the Old Testament certainly written long before the Church was made Catholick As for unity in that the Church is not comparable to the Scriptures whose agreement and consent of parts is admirable And if we speak of the surest bond of true Catholick Vnity it is as manifest as the Sun that the Holy Scriptures lay the foundation of it and preserve us in it if we adhere to them by keeping us close to one Lord one Faith one Baptism but the Church of Rome which hath usurped the Name of Catholick makes this blessed Unity impossible For there being but two ways to it either that we all agree in our Opinions about Religion or that while we differ it be no hinderance to Communion they have made the latter as impossible as the former because they make it absolutely necessary to communion and salvation to believe in every thing as they do The like might be said of Holiness and efficacy of Doctrine which depends upon the Churches speaking according to the Scriptures sanctity of the authors of our Religion which cannot be known but out of the Scriptures the glory of Miracles the light of Prophecy and all the rest but I shall only touch upon one more the Amplitude and Universality of the Church in which they make their boast But herein the Scriptures most evidently excel their Authority being there sacred where the Church of Rome whose Notes these are is not known or not regarded For all Christians in the World of whatsoever Sect they be believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God whereas they alone say that they are the only true Church of God All Christians besides who know any thing of this pretence of theirs absolutely deny it and maintain the Divinity and Authority of the Scriptures against all their Cavils SECT XXIV The great incouragement we have to do so BY following the Scriptures then we follow the surest Guide by their own confession For first by following the Scriptures we are certainly led by God but by following the Church we are only led by Men. And consequently the Faith we build upon the Scriptures is a Divine Faith but the Faith we build upon the authority of the Church meerly can be no more than humane For the Scriptures are fully and amply proved to be of Divine Authority by all those Arguments which are alledged in the Third Book of this Work the like to which cannot be produced to prove the infallible authority of the Church Which cannot so much as pretend that God hath bid us believe it but by sending us to the Holy Scriptures from whence it derives all its Authority Which is the second thing to be considered and here I will take the liberty to transcribe part of the discourse of a great Man on this Subject with some Additions that by following the Scriptures we follow that which they themselves are forced to follow as was noted before and on which they intirely depend for the proof of their own authority on which they would have us intirely depend Who have reason rather to rely on that which they rely and in so doing tacitely confess the Scriptures are of greatest authority and that they are surer of their Truth than of the Churches Infallibility And Thirdly by following the Scriptures we follow that which must be true if their Church which they would have us follow have any truth in it for their Church cannot but give attestation to them whereas if we follow their Church we must follow that which
Truth of Christian Religion p. 47 Sect. II. Here is showen that Jesus lived p. 48 Sect. III. And was put to an ignominious death ib. Sect. IV. Yet afterward was worshipped by prudent and godly Men. p. 49 Sect. V. The cause whereof was for that in his life time there were Miracles done by him p. 50 Sect. VI. Which Miracles were not wrought either by the help of Nature or assistance of the Devil but meerly by the Divine Power of God p. 51 Sect. VII Christ's Resurrection proved by credible Reasons p. 55 Sect. VIII Answer to the Objection that the Resurrection seems impossible p. 60 Sect. IX The Resurrection of Jesus being granted the Truth of his Doctrine is confirmed p. 61 Sect. X. Christian Religion preferred before all others p. 62 Sect. XI For excellency of reward p. 63 Sect. XII Answer to an Objection that Bodies once Dead cannot be revived again p. 66 Sect. XIII The excelency of holy Precepts given for the worship of God p. 69 Sect. XIV Concerning the Offices of Humanity which we owe unto our Neighbour p. 72 Sect. XV. Of the Conjunction of Man and Woman p. 74 Sect. XVI Touching the use of Temporal goods p. 76 Sect. XVII Of Swearing p. 79 Sect. XVIII Of other Matters ib. Sect. XIX Answer to an Objection touching the Controversies abounding among Christians p. 80 Sect. XX. The excellency of Christian Religion is further proved from the dignity of the Author p. 82 Sect. XXI Also from the wonderful spreading of this Religion p. 86 Sect. XXII Considering the meekness and simplicity of them that first taught this Religion p. 88 Sect. XXIII What great impediments there were that might terrifie Men from the embracing or the professing hereof p. 90 Sect. XXIV Answer to them that require more forcible Reasons p. 94 The Contents of the third Book Sect. I. TO Prove the authority of the Books of the New Covenant 〈◊〉 Sect. II. Here is known that such Books were written by the Authors the Names they have prefixed p. 99 Sect. III. Some Books were anciently doubted of p. 100 Sect. IV. The authority of such Books as have no Titles is proved from the quality of the Writers p. 101 Sect. V. These Pen-men writ the Truth because they had certain knowledge of what they writ p. 102 Sect. VI. As also because they would not lye p. 104 Sect. VII A confirmation of the fidelity of these authors from the Miracles which they wrought p. 106 Sect. VIII The Truth of the Writings confirmed from hence that many things are found there which the event hath proved to be divinely revealed p. 108 Sect. IX As also from God's care in preserving his People from false writings p. 109 Sect. X. Answer to the Objection that divers Books were not received by all p. 110 Sect. XI Answer to an Objection that these Books seem to contain things impossible p. 113 Sect. XII Or things contrary to Reason p. 114 Sect. XIII Answer to an Objection that some of these Books are repugnant to the other p. 116 Sect. XIV Answer to an Objection taken from outward testimonies which make more for these Books p. 118 Sect. XV. Answer to the Objection that the Scriptures were changed p. 119 Sect. XVI For the authority of the Books of the Old Testament p. 123 The Contents of the fourth Book Sect. I. A Particular Confutation of the Religions opposite to Christianity p. 129 Sect. II. And first of Paganism that there is but one God Created Spirits are good or bad the good not to be honoured but as the most high God directs p. 131 Sect. III. Evil Spirits adored by Pagans and how impious a thing it is p. 132 Sect. IV. Against the worship which in Paganism is exhibited to men after their death p. 135 Sect. V. Against worshipping of Stars and Elements p. 136 Sect. VI. Against worshipping of Bruit-beasts p. 137 Sect. VII Against worshipping of things that are no substances p. 139 Sect. VIII Answer to the argument of the Gentiles taken from Miracles done among them p. 141 Sect. IX And from Oracles p. 144 Sect. X. Paganism decayed of its own accord so soon as humane aid ceased p. 146 Sect. XI Answer to the Opinion of some that think the beginning and decay of Religions depend upon the efficacy of the Stars p. 147 Sect. XII The chief Points of Christianity are approved of by the Heathen and if there be any thing that is hard to be believed therein the like or worse is found among the Pagans p. 150 The Contents of the fifth Book Sect. I. A Refutation of the Jews beginning with a speech unto them or prayer for them p. 153 Sect. II. The Jews ought to account the Miracles of Christ sufficiently proved p. 154 Sect. III. And not believe that they were done by the help of Devils p. 156 Sect. IV. Or by the Power of Words and Syllables p. 158 Sect. V. The Miracles of Jesus were divine because he taught the worship of one God the Maker of the World p. 159 Sect. VI. Answer to the Objection taken from the difference between the Law of Moses and of Christ where is shown that a more perfect Law than that of Moses might be given p. 160 Sect. VII The Law of Moses was observed by Jesus who abolished no Commandements that were essentially good p. 163 Sect. VIII As the Sacrifices which of themselves were never well-pleasing unto God p. 167 Sect. IX The difference of Meats p. 172 Sect. X. And of Days p. 174 Sect. XI Also of outward Circumcision p. 177 Sect. XII And yet the Apostles of Jesus were gentle in the toleration of these things p. 179 Sect. XIII A Proof against the Jews from the promised Messias p. 180 Sect. XIV Who is proved to be already come by the limited time of his coming which was foretold p. 181 Sect. XV. Answer to that which some conceive touching the deferring of his coming for the sins of the people p. 184 Sect. XVI Also from the present state of the Jews compared with those things which the Law promiseth p. 185 Sect. XVII Jesus is proved to be the Messias by those things which were foretold concerning the Messias p. 188 Sect. XVIII Answer to that which is objected of some things that are not fulfilled p. 190 Sect. XIX And to that which is objected of the mean condition and death of Jesus p. 192 Sect. XX. And as though they were honest men that put him to death p. 197 Sect. XXI Answer to the Objection that many Gods are worshipped by the Christians p. 200 Sect. XXII And that a humane nature is worshipped p. 201 Sect. XXIII The Conclusion of this part with Prayer for the Jews p. 203 The Contents of the sixth Book Sect. I. A Confutation of Mahumetanisme the beginning of it p. 205 Sect. II. The overthrow of the foundation of Mahumetanisme in denying inquiry into Religion p. 208 Sect. III. A Proof against the Mahumetans taken out of the Books of the Hebrews and Christians which are not corrupted p. 209 Sect. IV. By comparing Mahumet with Christ in their Persons p. 212 Sect. V. And in their Deeds p 213 Sect. VI. Also such as first embraced both Religions p. 214 Sect. VII The manner how both their Laws were pro pagated ib. Sect. VIII The Precepts of both Religions compared p. 216 Sect IX Answer to the Mahumetans Objection concerning the Son of God p. 218 Sect. X. Many absurd things in the Books of Mahumetans p 219 Sect. XI A Conclusion directed unto Christians admonishing them of their duty upon the occasion of what hath formerly been handled p. 220 The Contents of the seventh Book Sect. I. AN Introduction showing what makes the Addition of another Book necessary p. 229 Sect. II. Divisions among Christians no such objection against Christianity as is imagined 230 Sect. III. As appears even in the Roman Church which hath given the greatest scandal p. 232 Sect IV. But both contradicts it self and departs from the ancient and truly Catholick Church p 234 Sect. V. Christianity therefore is not there in its purity but much corrupted p. 236 Sect. VI. Answer to an Evasion from the force of the foregoing Argument p. 237 Sect. VII Their absurd explication of the Vnity of the Catholick Church p. 239 Sect. VIII Which forbids us to joyn in Communion with them upon such terms p. 240 Sect. IX But on the other side not to slight Episcopal Authority p. 243 Sect. X. Arguments enough in the foregoing Books to prove the true Christian Religion not to be sincerely preserved in the Roman Church one is their way of worship p. 244 Sect. XI Another is the way of promoting their Religion p 248 Sect XII The Romanists themselves overthrow their own Religion p. 250 Sect XIII Other Instances of it p. 256 Sect XIV Whereby they have spoil'd Christianity as the Pagans did the Natural Religion p. 259 Sect. XV. Answer to what they say about Miracles p. 262 Sect. XVI Answer to another Objection p 265 Sect. XVII Popery and Mahometisin had the same Original p. 268 Sect. XVIII And supports its self by the same means p. 269 Sect XIX And refuses to be tried by Scripture p. 272 Sect. XX. The Vanity of their appeal to Traditions p. 277 Sect. XXI And their guilt in what they say about the holy Scriptures p. 279 Sect XXII It is our wisdom therefore to adhere to the Scriptures p. 283 Sect XXIII Which have more manifest notes of certainty than the Church p. 284 Sect. XXIV The great incouragement we have to do so p. 287 Sect. XXV Conclusion of all p. 294 THE END