over Jordan carried nothing with him save his staff only and yet returned enriched with a great flock of sheep Moses was a poor exile and feeding the flocks when God appeared to him in the bush and gave him commission for the conduct of his People David also was called to his Kingdom when he was feeding sheep and with many other such like examples doth the Sacred story abound Now concerning the Messias we read that he should be a gladsome Messenger unto the poor that he should make no noise in publick nor use any strife and contention but deal gently forbearing to break the shaken reed and cherishing that heat which remains in smoaking flax Neither ought the rest of his afflictions no not his ignominious death to make him despicable to any For God oftentimes suffereth the godly not only to be vexed and disquieted by the wicked as righteous Lot was by the Citizens of Sodom but also even to be destroyed and slain as is plain by the example of Abel who was cruelly murdered by his Brother of Isaiah who was sawn in pieces and of the seven brethren in the Macchabees who together with their mother were miserably tormented and put to death The very Jews themselves sing the Seventy-ninth Psalm wherein are these words The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven the flesh of those whom thou lovest O God unto the beasts of the earth Their bloud have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them And whosoever considers the words of Isaiah in the 53. Chapter cannot deny that the Messias himself ought to have passed thorow much affliction and death to come into his Kingdom and obtain power to adorn his Houshold or Church with the most excellent blessings The words in the Prophet are these Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground He hath no form or comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs And we hide as it were our faces from him He was so despised and in so small esteem among us Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth After imprisonment and sentence passed on him he was taken away but who shall worthily declare his duration when he was restored to life again For he was cut off out of the land of the living but for the transgression of my people he was stricken and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth But though it hath pleased the Lord to bruise him and he hath put him to grief Yet because he made himself an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many by taking away their iniquities Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death And he was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors Who is there either among the Kings or Prophets to whom these things can be applyed Surely none As touching that shift which some later Jews have invented telling us that the Prophet speaks here of the Hebrews dispersed thorow all Nations that by their example and perswasion they might every where make many Proselytes this sense is first of all repugnant to many testimonies of holy Writ which loudly proclaim that no evil is befaln the Jews which they have not deserved and a great deal more beside for their evil deeds He also of whom Esaias treats was to deprecate God for the Heathen which the Jews do not And lastly the very order and series of the Prophetical Discourse will not bear that interpretation For either the Prophet which seems more proper to that place or God saith This evil happened unto him for the iniquities of my People Now the people of Isaiah or the peculiar people of God are the people of the Hebrews therefore he who is said by Isaiah to have suffered such grievous things cannot be that same People But the ancient Doctors of the Hebrews more ingenuously confess that these things were spoken of the Messias whereupon some later among them have devised two Messiases the one they call the Son of Joseph who was to suffer many miseries and a bloudy death the other is the Son of David to whom all things should succeed prosperously When it would be far more easie and more consonant with the Writings of the Prophets to acknowledge but one Messias who was to pass unto his Kingdom through many difficulties and death it self which we believe of Jesus and the thing it self declares to be most true SECT XX. And as though they were honest men that put him to death MANY of the Jews are kept back from receiving the Religion of Jesus by a certain preconceived opinion of the vertue and honesty of their Ancestors and specially of the Priests who out of prejudice condemned Jesus and rejected his Doctrine But what kind of Men their Ancestors oft-time were that they may not think I defame them let them hear the words of their own Law and Prophets wherein they are often called uncircumcised in heart and ears a people that honoured God with their lips and with the garnish of Ceremonies but their hearts were far from him It was their Ancestors that went about and were very near to have kill'd their brother Joseph and in very deed sold him into bondage It was their Ancestors also that by their continual mutinies and seditions made Moses weary of his life who was their Leader and Redeemer whom the Earth the Sea and the Air obeyed These were they that loathed the Bread that was sent from Heaven complaining as though they had been in greatest want and scarcity even when they belched up again the Fowl that they had eaten It was their Ancestors that forsaking
anothers humors But in the other there is licence granted to depart and be divorced Here the Husband performs himself what he requires of his Wife and by his own example teacheth her to fasten her affection upon him alone But there they may have Wives after Wives there being still new incentives and fresh provocations to lust Here Religion is planted within and rooted in the very heart and Soul that it being well cultivated may bring forth fruit profitable for Mankind but there Religion spends almost its whole force in Circumcision and in some other things that of themselves are neither good nor bad Finally here in Christianity a moderate use of Meats and Wine is allowed of but there in Mahumetism Men are forbidden to eat Swines flesh and to drink Wine which notwithstanding is a great gift of God beneficial both for body and mind if it be soberly taken And truly it is no wonder if some childish rudiments were taught before the most perfect law as that of Christ is But after the promulgation thereof to return again to types and figures were preposterous Neither can any just reason be given why after Christian Religion which is far the best it should be fit that any other should be brought forth SECT IX Answer to the Mahumetans Objection concerning the Son of God THE Mahumetans tell us they are not a little displeased with us for saying that God hath a Son seeing he useth not a Wife As though the word Son could not have a more divine signification in God But Mahumet himself attributes many things as dishonorable and ill-beseeming God as if he should be said to have a Wife Thus he saith that God had a cold hand which himself knew by experience that God was carried in a chair and the like Howbeit when we say that Jesus is the Son of God we do but signifie the same thing that he means when he calls him the word of God For the word is after a sort begotten of the mind Add further that he was born of a Virgin only by the operation of God supplying the vertue or efficacy of a Father that by the power of God he was carried up into Heaven all which being confessed even by Mahumet himself do shew that Jesus by a singular prerogative and peculiar right may and ought to be called the Son of God SECT X. Many absurd things in the Books of Mahumetans BUT on the other side it would be long to relate how many things there are contrary to the truth of history and many things very ridiculous in the writings of the Mahumetans Such is that fable of a fair and beautiful Woman that learned a solemn charm or Song of some Angels that were drunk whereby she was wont to ascend into the Sky and likewise descend again and ascending once a great height into Heaven she was caught of God and there fixed and made that Star which is called Venus Like to this is that of a mouse in Noah's Ark that was bred of an Elephant's Dung and a Cat of the breath of a Lion More specially that most notorious fiction concerning Death to be changed into a Ram that must remain in the middle space between Heaven and Hell And the Fable of sweating out their good chear in the other life When likewise they imagine there shall be whole troups of Women assigned to every Man for pleasure of carnal copulation All which are so very egregious absurdities that whosoever believes them deserves to be stupified and given over to a reprobate sense for his iniquity specially such a one as lives where the light of the Gospel shineth SECT XI A Conclusion directed unto Christians admonishing them of their duty upon the occasion of what hath formerly been handled AND thus having ended this last disputation against the Mahumetans there follows a conclusion of the whole not to aliens or strangers but to all sorts of Christians of what Name Nation or Quality soever they be Showing briefly the use or application of what hath hitherto been delivered to the end those things may be followed and sought after which are good and on the contrary the evil eschewed First of all that they lift up pure hands and hearts unto that God who of nothing made all visible and invisible things having sure confidence in him that his providence and care watcheth over us seeing that without his permission not so much as a Sparrow falls to the ground And let them not fear those which can only kill the body but rather let them fear him that hath like power both over soul and body And let them not only trust in God the Father but also in Jesus Christ his Son since there is no other name upon Earth by which we can be saved And this they may rightly do if they be verily perswaded that eternal life is prepared not for such as in word only call God their Father and Jesus their Lord but for such as frame their life according to the will of Jesus and their Father which is in Heaven Furthermore Christians are admonished faithfully and with due care to preserve the doctrine of Christ as a most precious treasure And for this cause let them often read and meditate the Books of the Holy Scripture whereby no Man can be deceived unless first he deceive himself For the Authors and Pen-men of those Writings were more just and full of Divine Inspiration than that they would deprive us of necessary truths or cover and conceal the same with any clouds Howbeit for the right understanding hereof we must bring a mind disposed and prepared to obedience which if we do then nothing shall be hid from us which ought to be believed hoped for or done by us And by this means that holy Spirit will be cherished and excited in us which is given us for a pledge and earnest of our future happiness Moreover I deterr Christians from imitating the Pagans first in their worship of false Gods which are nothing but vain names which evil Daemons use to alienate our minds and affections from the worship of the true God Wherefore we cannot possibly participate with them in their services and expect to receive benefit by the Sacrifice of Christ Secondly neither may Christians imitate the Heathen in their licentious and dissolute manner of life having no other Law than what is suggested by lust and prompted by sensual desire from which Christians ought to be far removed who should not only far excel the vitious and prophane Pagans but likewise the Lawyers and Pharisees among the Jews whose righteousness consisting only in some outward performances could never bring them to the heavenly Kingdom Circumcision that is made with hands is now nothing worth but it is the inward Circumcision of the heart the keeping of Gods commandments the new creature faith that is perfected in love which make Men known to be true Israelites and mystical Jews that is praisers of God and commendable in his
nature that doth communicate any thing of its own unto God neither is he capable of ought that any other thing can impart being as before we said altogether absolute and necessary of himself SECT V. That God is eternal omnipotent omniscient and absolutely good AGain forasmuch as all things that have life are said to be more perfect than those without life and those which have power of acting than those which want it and those endued with understanding superiour to such creatures as lack it and those which are good better than those that come short in goodness it followeth from that which hath been spoken that all those attributes are in God and that after an infinite manner Therefore is he infinite in life that is eternal infinite power that is omnipotent So likewise is he omniscient and altogether good without any exception SECT VI. That God is the Author and cause of all things FUrther more it follows from that which hath been spoken that what things soever subsist the same have the original of their being from God for we have proved that that which is necessary of it self can be but one whence we collect that all other things besides this had their original from somewhat different from themselves Now such things as have their beginning from another we have seen before how that either in themselves or in their causes they proceeded from him which had no beginning that is from God Neither is this manifest by reason only but also after some sort by very sense for if we consider the wonderful frame and fashion of Man's body both within and without and how that each part and parcel thereof hath its proper use without the study or industry of his Parents and yet with such art that the most accomplished Philosophers and Physitians could never sufficiently admire it this verily shows the Author of Nature to be a most excellent Mind concerning which matter Galen hath written well especially where he speaks of the use of the eye and of the hand Yea more the very bodies of mute beasts do testifie the same for their parts are not framed and composed by the power and vertue of the matter whereof they consist but by some superiour and higher cause destinating them to a certain end Neither is this plain by man and beasts alone but also by plants and herbs as hath accurately been observed by some Philosophers This further is excellently noted by Strabo concerning the scituation of the waters which if we consider the quality of their matter ought to be placed in the middle between the earth and the ayr whereas they are now included and dispersed within the earth to the end they might be no hinderance either to the fruitfulness of the ground or to the life of Man Now to propose that or any other end to any action is the peculiar property of an understanding nature Neither are all things only ordained for their peculiar ends but also for the good and benefit of the whole Vniverse as appears particularly in the water but now mentioned which against its own proper nature is moved upward lest by the interposition of a vacuity there should be a gap in the Universe which is so framed that by the continued cohesion of its parts it sustains and upholds it self Now it cannot possibly be that this common end should be thus intended together with an inclination in things thereunto but by the power and purpose of some intelligent nature whereunto the whole Vniverse is in subjection Moreover amongst the beasts there are certain actions observed to be so regular and orderly done that it is manifest enough they proceed from some kind of reason as is plain in Pismires and especially in Bees and likewise in other creatures which before they make any trial do naturally eschew such things as are hurtful and seek after such things as are profitable for them Now that this instinct or inclination of finding and judging things is not in them by their own power it is clear for that they do always operate after the same manner neither have they any vertue or efficacy at all to the doing other things which are no more weighty wherefore they must needs receive their power from some reasonable external Agent which directs them or imprints in them such efficacy as they have and this reasonable and intelligent Agent is no other than God himself In the next place consider we the Stars of Heaven and amongst the rest as most eminent the Sun and the Moon both which for the making the earth fruitful and preserving living Creatures in their health and vigour do so seasonably perform their course of motion that a better cannot be devised For when otherwise their motion through the Aequator had been much more simple we see that they have another motion by an oblique Circle to the end the benefit of their favourable aspects might be communicated to more parts of the earth Now as the earth is ordained for the use and benefit of living Creatures so are all terrestrial things appointed chiefly for the service of man who by his wit and reason can subdue the most furious creature among them whence the very Stoicks did collect that the World was made for Man's sake Howbeit since it exceeds the sphere of humane power to bring the heavenly bodies in subjection to him neither is it to be imagined that they will ever submit themselves to man of their own accord it follows therefore that there is some superior mind or spirit by whole sole appointment those fair and glorious bodies do perpetual service unto man though he be placed far below them which same mind is no other than the framer of the stars even the Maker of the whole World Also the motions of these stars which are said to be Excentrical and Epicyclical i. e. in a Circle within the Orb of another Star do plainly shew not the power of matter but the appointment of a free Agent The same do the Positions of the Stars testifie some in this part others in the other part of Heaven together with the so unequal form of the Earth and of the Seas Nor can we refer it to any thing else that the Stars move this rather than another way The most perfect form also and figure of the World viz. roundness as also the parts thereof shut up as it were in the bosom of the Heavens and disposed with a marvellous order do all expresly declare that they were not tumbled together or conjoyned as they are by chance but wisely ordained by such an understanding as is endued with super-eminent excellency For what Ninny is there so sottish as to expect any thing so accurate and exact from chance He might as well believe that Stones and Timber got casually together and put themselves into the form of a House or that out of Letters shuffled carelesly as it hapned there came forth an excellent Poem A thing so unlikely that
and Apparel we ought to content our selves with so much as will suffice nature and the like Or if happily there be some points in Christianity hard to be believed yet the like also is found amongst the wisest of the Heathen themselves as before we have shewn concerning the immortality of Souls and of the Resurrection of Bodies Thus Plato as he learned from the Chaldeans distinguished the Divine nature into the Father and the mind of the Father which he calls also the branch of God the Maker of the World and the Soul or Spirit which keeps together and preserveth all things Julian as great an enemy as he was of Christians thought that the Divine Nature might be joyned to the humane and gave instance in Aesculapius whom he imagined to have descended from Heaven to the end he might teach Men the Art of Physick The Cross of Christ offendeth many But what do not the Pagan Writers tell of their Gods that some of them waited upon Kings and Princes others were Thunder-struck others cut in sunder And the wisest of them say that the more it costs us to be honest the more joy and delight it affords us To conclude Plato in the second Book of his Common-wealth as if he had been a Prophet saith for a Man to appear truly just and upright it is requisite that his vertue be bereaved of all outward ornaments so that he be by others accounted a wicked wretch and scoffed at and last of all hanged And indeed that Christ might be the Pattern of greatest Patience could no otherwise be obtained The Fifth Book OF THE TRUTH OF Christian Religion SECT I. A refutation of the Jews beginning with a speech unto them or prayer for them JUST like that glimmering between light and darkness which appears to those who by little and little are endeavouring to get out of a dark Cave or Dungeon such doth Judaism present it self to us who are stepping out of the thick mist of Paganism of which we have been discoursing as a part and beginning of Truth I request the Jews therefore not to be averse to hear us We are not ignorant that they are the off-spring of holy Men whom God was wont to visit both by his Prophets and by his Angels Of this Nation sprang our Messias and the first Doctors of Christianity It is their Tree whereinto we are ingraffed they are the keepers of God's Oracles which we do reverence as much as they and with St. Paul sigh unto God for them and pray that the day may quickly come when the Vail being taken away which hangs over their Faces they with us shall see the fulfilling of the Law And when as it is in their Prophecies every one of us that are strangers shall lay hold on the Cloak of him that is an Hebrew desiring that we may together with a pious consent worship the only true God who is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. SECT II. The Jews ought to account the Miracles of Christ sufficiently proved FIRST of all then we must intreat them not to think that to be unjust in another Man's case which they judge to be just and equitable in their own If any Pagan demand of them why they believe that Miracles were wrought by Moses they can give no other answer save that there was always so constant a report thereof among their Nation that it could not but proceed from the testimony of such as had seen the same Thus that the Widows Oyl was increased by Elisha that Naaman the Syrian was suddenly cured of the Leprosie that the Womans Son in whose House he lodged was restored to life and other such like are believed by the Jews for no other reason than because witnesses of good credit have recorded to posterity that such things were done And they believe Elias his taking up into heaven only for the single testimony of Elisha as a Man beyond all exception But we produce twelve witnesses of unblameable life to testifie that Christ ascended up into Heaven And many more that saw him upon the Earth after his death Which things if they be true then necessarily Christs doctrine is true also and indeed nothing at all can be alledged by the Jews for themselves which by equal right or more just title may not be applyed to us also But to omit further testimonies it is the confession of the Authors of the Talmud and other Jews themselves that strange wonders were wrought by Christ which ought to suffice for this particular For God cannot any way more effectually gain authority unto a doctrine published by Man than by the working of miracles SECT III. And not believe that they were done by the help of Devils THESE Miracles of Christ some said were done by the help of Devils But this calumny hath been confuted before when we shewed that wheresoever the doctrine of Christ was taught and known there all power of the Devils was broken in pieces Others reply that Jesus learned Magick arts in Egypt but this slander hath no more nay not so much colour of truth than the like accusation by the Pagans framed against Moses whereof we read in Pliny and Apuleius For that ever Jesus was in Egypt doth not appear save only out of the Writings of his Disciples who add further that he was an Infant when he returned thence But it is certain by his own and others report that Moses lived a great part of his time after he was grown to Mans estate in Aegypt Howbeit the Law as well of Moses as of Christ frees them both from this crime plainly forbidding such arts as abominable in the sight of God And without all question if in the time of Christ and his Disciples there had been either in Egypt or any where else any such Magical art whereby Men might have been enabled to do the like marvels as are related of Christ to wit giving speech to the Dumb on a suddain making the Lame to walk and the Blind to see then would Tyberius Nero and other Emperors have found it out who spared no costs and charges in the inquiry after such like things Nay if it were true which the Jews relate how that the Senators of the great Council were skill'd in Magick arts that they might convince them that were guilty of that iniquity then surely they being so mightily incensed against Jesus as they were and envying the honour and respect which he obtained chiefly by his miracles would either themselves have done the like works by the same art or by sufficient reasons would have made it appear that the works of Christ proceeded from no other cause SECT IV. Or by the Power of Words and Syllables MOreover that is not only a meer fable but impudent lye which some of the Jews have invented concerning the Miracles done by Christ which they ascribe to a certain secret name which as they say being placed in the Temple by Solomon was preserved safe by two Lions
during the space of One Thousand Years and more but afterward stolen away by Jesus For there is no mention made of those Lyons though it be a thing most remarkable and wonderful either in the Books of Kings and Chronicles or by Josephus nor was there any such thing found by the Romans who accompanying Pompey entred into that Temple before the times of Jesus SECT V. The Miracles of Jesus were divine because he taught the worship of one God the Maker of the World IT being then granted as the Jews cannot deny that Wonders were wrought by Christ it will follow from the very Law of Moses that he must be believed For God saith Deuteron xviii 15 c. that other Prophets after the time of Moses should be raised up of God to whom the People should be obedient or otherwise become liable to grievous punishments Now miracles are the most infallible marks of the Prophets Nor can any more illustrious be so much as conceived But in Deuteron xiii it is said that if any professing himself to be a Prophet doth work wonders yet He must not be believed if he go about to entice the People to a new worship of the Gods For though such miracles be done yet this is only by God's permission for trial whether the People would persist constantly in the worship of the true God From which places compared together the Hebrew Interpreters do rightly collect that every one must be believed that worketh miracles unless thereby he intice Men from the worship of the true God and in that case only miracles are not to be credited though in shew most glorious Now Jesus did not only not teach the worshipping of false Gods but also expresly condemned it as a most grievous crime and taught us to reverence the writings both of Moses and the Prophets that succeeded him Wherefore there is nothing that can be objected against the miracles that were wrought by Christ 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 AS touching that which some alledge concerning the difference between the law of Moses and the law of Christ it is but of small moment For the Hebrew Doctors themselves make this rule that by the authority of a Prophet who worketh miracles any precept whatsoever may be boldly violated and transgressed except that only which concerns the worship of the true God And surely that power of making laws which belonged unto God when he gave the commandments by the hand of Moses went not from him afterward Neither can any Man that of his own right makes laws be thereby hindred from making the contrary That which they object that God then would be mutable is nothing for we speak not here of Gods nature and essence but of his works Light is changed into darkness youth into old age summer into winter and all by the work of God Thus God at the beginning gave Adam leave in Paradise to eat of other apples but he forbad him to eat of the fruit of one tree Why even because it so pleased him Generally he prohibited Men to kill others yet he commanded Abraham to kill his Son One while he forbad to offer sacrifices apart from the Tabernacle another while he admitted of them Neither will it follow because the Law which was given by Moses was good therefore no better could be given Parents are wont to speak half words and stutter with Infants to wink at the vices of their childhood and entice them to learn with a piece of Cake But so soon as they come to riper age their speech is corrected the precepts of vertue are instilled into them by degrees and they are taught what is the beauty of vertue what its rewards Now it is plain that the precepts of that law of Moses were not exactly perfect because many holy Men of those times led a more excellent life than those commandments required Thus Moses who suffered the revenge of a wrong to be exacted partly by blowes and partly by sentence of the Judges himself being vexed with most bitter injuries became an Intercessor for his enemies So David willing to have his rebellious Son to be spared did patiently endure reproachful speeches cast upon himself We no where read that any good Men put away their Wives which notwithstanding was permitted by the law The reason of which is that Laws are accommodated to the greater part of a People therefore in the state and condition they were in it was meet something should be winked at to be reduced to a more perfect Rule when God by a greater efficacy of the Spirit was to chuse unto himself a new peculiar people out of all Nations Yea all the rewards which are expresly promised by the law of Moses belong only to this mortal life wherefore it must be granted that there might some better law be given whereby the reward of eternal happiness should be promised not under any shadows but in plain and express terms which we see is done by the law of Christ SECT VII The Law of Moses was observed by Jesus who abolished no Commandments that were essentially good AND here by the way for the conviction of the Jews iniquity it must be noted that they who lived in Christ's time used him most basely and punished him most unjustly when as there could no just accusation be laid against him for transgressing the Law He was circumcised he used the same food and apparel that the Jews used those that were healed of Leprosie he sent unto the Priests The Passeover and other Festival days he religiously observed Though he did cure some upon the Sabbath day yet he shewed both by the Law and by the common received opinions that such works were not forbidden to be done upon the Sabbath-day Then it was that he first began to publish the abrogation of some Laws when after his triumph over Death he ascended into Heaven adorning his Disciples upon Earth with illustrious gifts of the holy Spirit whereby he made it evident that he had obtained a regal power which includes in it the authority of making a Law And that according to Daniel's prophecie ch 3. 7. compared with chap. 8. 11. where he foretold how that a little after the destruction of the Kingdoms of Syria and Aegypt the latter whereof happened in the Reign of Augustus GOD would give the Kingdom to a man who should seem but a vulgar Person over all Nations and Languages which Kingdom should never have an end Now that part of the Law the necessity whereof was taken away by Christ contained nothing that was honest in its own nature but consisted of things that were indifferent in themselves and consequently not immutable For if those things had had in them any thing of themselves why they should be done then would God have prescribed them not to one
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
should mistake in the sense of the Scriptures yet they secure us that if we with honest and upright hearts continue to inquire after the truth designing nothing else that error shall not prejudice us But God will either discover to us his mind or not condemn us for our error of weakness not of wilfulness SECT XX. The Vanity of their appeal to Traditions AS for Interpretations of Scripture by Tradition they may be pretended and talkt of but cannot be produced in most places where we are desirous of that help which we gladly receive when we can have it by a truly Universal consent But as for particular interpretations of the ancient Fathers they do not absolutely agree with each other in their Expositions of those Texts upon which controversies of greatest moment are now grounded Nay they oft times propound divers interpretations alike probable And sometimes plainly intimate their doubtfulness and make but imperfect conjectures in such a manner as if they intended to excite Posterity to seek for further resolution Therefore we shall not dissent from them though we do not assent to all their particular interpretations Nay we cannot more dissent from them than by following their interpretations on such strict terms as the Romanists would bind us all to do when they seem to make for their advantage For then there is not the least surmise or conjecture of any one Father but must suffice against the joynt Authority of all the rest To which Rule of serving their interest they are so true that they stick not to reject any interpretation of the Fathers when they think good and which is more to prefer their own expositions before theirs And so they do in the matter of all other Traditions though called Apostolical For instance the threefold immersion in Baptism which seems to have flowed from an Apostolical Canon is long ago abolished saith their Canus by a contrary custome And so is the custome of giving the communion to Infants which prevailed says their Maldonate for 600. Years in the Church not only antiquated by them but decreed to be unlawful Which clearly shows that they might if they pleased make an end of all the controversies that trouble the Church without any disparagement but rather with the increase of its Authority For challenging a power to alter even the Institutions of Jesus Christ as they have done in taking away the Cup from the People in the Holy Communion and much more those of the Apostles what need all this stir about Apostolical Traditions or the Decrees of the Church which they may lay aside at their pleasure and have laid aside as appears by many other instances besides those now named that may be given of it But it is sufficient for the direction of every honest hearted Man to know which is as certain as any thing of that nature can be and may be undoubtedly relyed on that nothing is clearer in the Tradition of the Church than this that the Doctors of it declare the Scriptures to be full and perspicuous in all needful matters And therefore there needs no other Tradition but the Tradition of the Scriptures which satisfie us abundantly in the Truth of all those things which are universally received SECT XXI And their guilt in what they say about the holy Scriptures THERE cannot therefore be a greater demonstration of their guilt than this that notwithstanding such evident testimonies from the Scriptures themselves and the concurrent stream of the ancient Doctors of Christ's Church they have been forced to avoid this trial by the Scriptures to say so many scandalous things as they have done in disparagement of the Sacred Writings Many of them are commonly known and I am not willing to repeat the rest but only say this great truth that whether they will or no their Church such as it is receives all its Authority from the Scriptures and not the Scriptures from it For we can have no notion as was said before of a Church or of its authority but from the Scriptures Which therefore must be of greater authority than that which receives authority from them and be first supposed to be infallible before they can make us believe any thing else is so For we must be secure of the proof before we can be sure of the thing proved by it otherwise it is no proof but leaves us as much in doubt as we were before it was alledged If they say and what else can be said with any colour of reason that we must indeed learn their Churches infallibility from the Scriptures but then learn the rest from their Church mark I beseech you what follows Then it is manifest First that they themselves make the Scriptures the Rule of Faith in this one Article at least concerning the Catholick Churches infallibility Which we must therefore believe and for no other reason because the Scriptures which we first infallibly believe do teach and prove it Whence it plainly follows that private Men may and must be assured of the Truth of Scriptures without the help of their Churches Authority before they can believe any thing else because it is the ground for their belief of that infallibility which their Church pretends which to them is the General Rule of Faith And from thence it follows further that the Scriptures which to us are the only Rule of Faith ought to be acknowledged by them to be more than so even the Rule of their Rule of Faith And if it be so what reason can any Man alledge why it should not be the immediate Rule of Faith without sending us elsewhere to seek it in all other Articles of the Creed as well as in that of their pretended infallible Church We may appeal to all the World and call Heaven and Earth Angels and Men to witness between us and the Roman Church as a worthy Champion of our Cause did long ago whether the Articles of Christ's Incarnation his Death Passion Burial Resurrection Ascension Intercession the Resurrection of the Dead and life everlasting c. be not much more plainly set down in the Scriptures to any Mans apprehension whatsoever than the infallibility of the present Roman Church is in such words as these Thou art Peter c. Feed my Sheep or any other from whence they challenge it And therefore why should we be required to learn these or any other part of Christian Faith meerly from their Church when we learn them so easily by the Scriptures in which they are to be found more clearly delivered than any thing we read about their Church Let no Man doubt but if the Holy Ghost will teach us that Article of the Churches Infallibility immediately by the Scriptures without the help of the Churches infallible Authority as they themselves are forced to confess because else the Church can have no authority then He will immediately teach us by the same Scriptures any other Article of our Creed and whatsoever is necessary to Salvation