of them Secondly As to the reason of the Command That in them we have Eternal Life the Romists add that you must take along with you the explication of the Church and such other additions as the Church shall propose for the Church say they is guided by the same Holy Ghost as did guide the Apostles and Evangelists to dictate and write the Scriptures and therefore the Doctrines of the Church are equally to be held and as necessary to Eternal Life But Beloved these are meer juggling mists cast before the eyes of men to lead them blindfold into their superstitious gainful practices And God willing I shall prove unto you that both these their assertions are groundless and false First I shall prove that this command of our Saviour Search the Scriptures belongs to all that are capable to understand matters of Salvation whether Clergy or Laity Men or Women or even Children and that 't is not only lawful but pious to search into the Scriptures Secondly I shall prove that the belief of the Scriptures alone is sufficient to Eternal Life without any addition and that we are not bound to believe any Doctrine the Church shall teach but what is fully contained in Scripture or so clearly deduced from thence that any man of common understanding may plainly see the evidence of that deduction And farther I shall prove that 't is a damnable thing for any man or Church to teach any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation but what is so fully contained in or so clearly deduced from Scripture as I now mentioned And seeing both these points are matters of Salvation wherein all mankind learned or unlearned high and low are concerned I think it necessary to handle these matters in so plain a way as may sute with the capacity of all even the unlearned who are most easily seduced into error I begin with the first part the command of our Saviour Search the Scriptures and to prove that this belongs to all And for the more methodical proceeding in this business I shall divide all sorts of men into three ranks and shew that to search the Scriptures belongs to all three Priests Princes and People And first for Priests there can be no doubt The only doubt in this point is whether they do search the Scriptures so diligently and studiously as they ought that St Pauls objection be not laid to their charge Thou that teachest others teachest thou not thy self Wherefore I beseech you of the Clergy that are present to consider what a shameful and scandalous thing it is that a poor mechanick tradesman should be more ready in quoting Scripture for his error than you for the truth and you that should be able as the Apostle saith with sound Doctrine to stop the mouths of all gainsayers such weak silly gainsayers should stop your mouths with corrupted Doctrine and mistaken Texts and you not able to shew their gross mistakes and so with the noise of Scripture-proofs they go away triumphant confirmed in their errors by reason of your neglect of reading the Scriptures or not understanding what you do read I beseech you consider it well and let this brief admonition suffice without any farther enlargement on this matter And now I may proceed to the second sort of men that are to search the Scriptures that is Princes and all Magistrates for Deut. xvii 18 19 20. we find a command for them And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a book out of that which is before the Priests the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left This command was given hundreds of years before the Iews had any Kings which shews great providential care and earnestness in God that Kings should be studious in his Holy Laws And 't is a very pertinent note that learned Grotius hath on this place That the King is to write himself a Copy of Gods Laws which is the best way to imprint a thing in a mans memory for when a man Copies out any thing he insists upon every word the time of writing and so makes the deeper impression in his mind to remember it Whereby you see that Kings are required as well as Priests to be very conversant in the Scriptures to read them all the days of their life And the reason of this is given by the Prophet Isa. xlix where speaking of the Church of Christ which was to be set up among the Gentiles he tells the Church that Kings should be her nursing-fathers and Queens her nursing-mothers And sure Fathers and Mothers should be able to teach their Children and not their Children teach them From whence I might infer that Kings should be more knowing in Scripture than Church-men Kings being as it were their Fathers And so it was with King David he did so meditate on the Laws of God both day and night that he thereby became wiser than his teachers I suppose he means the Priests who taught him in his minority But let this pass and let us take nursing-fathers here as Protectors only and Governours yet as such they ought to be very knowing in Scripture that they may distinguish between sound and corrupted Doctrine for sure they are not to protect and nurse up Heresie which they may chance to do if they have not a right understanding of Scripture but are led away by false and deluding teachers as the Arrian Emperours were and so proved oppressing Tyrants over the Orthodox Church Thus you see 't is necessary for the Spiritual Government of the Church that Kings should observe this command of God and have the Bible before them and read therein all the days of their life And 't is very necessary also for the Civil Government of the State as 't is there in Deut. exprest that their hearts be not lifted up above their brethren and that they do not multiply to themselves wives nor silver nor gold What is here said of Kings or great Persons concerns all you that are in Authority under the King at present or are like to be hereafter For seeing that Kings cannot be personally present in all parts of their Dominion they are constrained to appoint others under them to perform that which they cannot do themselves From whence it necessarily follows that this command of God to Kings belongs to all those who act by their Authority And as it is in the business of Godfathers and Godmothers that inferior persons are often substituted to perform the parts of great ones so is it in Church-fathers and Church-mothers and their Substitutes are to be Nursing-fathers to
is come for then mens hearts will be so filled with fears and cares to avoid the present evil and to preserve what they have in this world as that they will not be able to make a right judgment of things relating to the world to come but their reason will be so biassed by their affections as then to think those Arguments for the Popish Religion rational and plausible which now they think very simple and absurd Wherefore now in this time of peace and calmness when your reason is not disturbed with tumults nor your conscience awed with dangers I here ask you in the presence of God Are your judgments convinced by those Arguments which I have laid before you in Gods Holy Word that the Scriptures contain in themselves compleatly Eternal Life and thus you ought to take them alone for the only rule of faith and that you are not to hearken to any Doctrines of men ever so holy ever so learned farther than they can make their Doctrine evident to your understandings by plain places of Scripture and that whatever miracles are pretended to be wrought by them if they tend to prove any things which you according to the best of your understanding verily believe are against Scripture you are to take them for lying wonders wrought by that great deceiver and tempter of mankind the Devil Are you now fully perswaded of all this or no For your fuller satisfaction I repeat it again and do you consider it well Are your judgments c. If you doubt of any part of this I as your lawful Pastor set over you by God and the King his vicegerent require you to repair to me and propose your doubts and I hope by Gods assistance to give you full satisfaction And if you are already satisfied then in Gods name I require you to hold fast to the Scriptures his Holy Word and not to suffer your selves to be carried away with any wind of Humane Doctrine And when if ever times of change and danger come and your judgment begins to alter from what now seems to you apparent truth and fully agreeable to Gods Holy Word you ought to conceive that alteration proceeds from the delusion of the devil the world and the flesh not from any new inspiration from God for he is the same to day and for ever he cannot change 't is you that change But perchance some will say in those days This Papist tells me things I never heard of before new and better arguments and upon better information I may and ought to change to better resolutions Oh my beloved take heed 't is not better information but the old man loves to have it so for it will then make better for his enjoyment of this world But I will now take from you this subterfuge you shall not 'scape me so Go now to the ablest Papist you can hear of consult with such see what new and better arguments they can now give you and if you think you have met with such come to me I shall take any pains to give you better satisfaction But if you come no more at me now but in the change of times your heart and reason change I shall if I so long live and you ought infallibly to conclude 't is not Reason nor Religion but the blindness of your heart and the corruption of your flesh that leads you blindly away from the God of truth to follow the Doctrine of erroneous man For no doubt you may now in times of settlement and quiet make a far better judgment of things than in times of bustle and danger No man whilest he carries this house of clay about him can mount to that high pitch as to be above the reach of storms and combustions but will undoubtedly be shak'd and disordered with them The stiffest Oak will bend with boisterous winds Wherefore now as I said is the time to make a clear rational judgment of truth and to make also firm resolutions to adhere to that And then if danger comes and your heart be besieged by powerful enemies be sure to observe the counsel of good King Hezekiah 2 King xviii 36. Hold your peace and answer not a word to any deluding Rabshakeh who shall endeavour to withdraw you from our Heavenly King Christ Jesus and his holy Word and revolt to the proud Prince of Babylon the Pope of Rome Disputing is dangerous when interest is the Argument that takes captive the hearts of most men silence then will be the safety And be you assured that in that great and terrible day of the Lord the word that I have now spoken unto you for 't is the Word of God shall judge and condemn you if you swerve from it Lastly for a Conclusion let me advise all those who are not throughly setled in their Religion to endeavour it with all speed no man ever so young ever so strong hath any assurance of life for a day we see it by daily experience and it would be a very sad thing for a dying man to be then to chuse his Religion I advise you therefore not to delay this necessary work and when you are on serious mature consideration well setled in the Faith admit no more of debates for 't is a great artifice of the Devil so to busie mens heads in matters of Faith as wholly to neglect good Life without which Faith is fruitless and dead for though we are justified by Faith yet it must be Faith working by Love Gal. v. 6. And he that loves God keeps his Commandments Iohn xiv 15. and 21. And therefore 't is meer Hypocrisie in those who seem so zealous for the truth of Religion but take no care to live the life of Religion of which sort there are too too many they wear out their Life and their Bible in tumbling it over for Texts to oppose the Papists but pass over all those Texts wherewith they should be armed to oppose the temptations of the Devil These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone Mat. xxiii 23. These persons will be ranked with those who in that final day shall come and say Lord Lord we have Prophesied in thy Name cast out Devils and done many wondrous works and yet shall hear that dreadful Sentence from the Lord I never knew you depart from me all ye that work Iniquity Mat. vii 23. You are then to search the Scriptures both for true Faith and good Life and to captivate yoâ—â— hearts in obedience to Gods Commandments as well as your understandings in obedience to the Faith both are equally requisite to Eternal Life and both are plainly and fully declared in the Scriptures they make us wise unto Salvation and throughly furnish us unto every good work so that we are lest without excuse in either You know these things and happy are ye if ye do them not otherwise And thus Beloved having laid plainly before you out of Gods Holy Word the way
the poor to the despised of the world to every creature ever so mean ever so contemptible be sure you preach it to them Thus much for the Gospel Then follow the Acts written to Theophilus one of the Laity And so the Epistles of the Apostles That to the Romans is directed all that are at Rome to all That to the Corinthians to all that call upon the name of the Lord Iesus to all in every place and so the rest And 't is observable that there is no mention made of the Clergy in any of his Epistles but in that one to the Philippians where he expresses the Bishops and Deacons and yet even there he puts them in the last place first to all the Saints that are at Philippi and then adds with the Bishops and Deacons so that this Epistle is primarily directed to all the Saints But perchance some ignorant people may stumble at the word Church in some of his Epistles as if those Epistles directed to the Church were intended to Church-men as we call them meaning thereby the Clergy the Ministers of the Church But Beloved this word in the Original Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated by us Church doth not at all signifie Church-men but the Laity assembled together which we properly call the congregation of the faithful and so in Scripture the Church of such a town the Church in such a house that is the faithful or the Saints of that town or in that house those that use there to assemble together for the worship of God But we use the word Church by corrupt custom promiscuously sometimes for the Congregation sometimes for the house wherein they meet sometimes for the body of Church-men and so we say the Canons of the Church that is the Canons composed by Church-men But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture is never so placed but only for the Congregation of the faithful This is more expresly declared Rev. ii 1. where the Bishop is called the Angel and the Congregation distinct from the Minister is called the Church The Angel of the Church that is the Bishop the Pastor or chief Minister of the Congregation And therefore St. Pauls Epistles directed to the Church of such a place is just the same as to the Congregation to the faithful or to the Saints of such a place which consisted of the Laity and not only of men but Women also and Children they were likewise to read the Scriptures And according to this he gives it as a great commendation to Timothy that of a Child he had learned the Scriptures And we know that this was the practice of the Primitive Christian Church many Ages For St. Hierome one of the four eminent Doctors and Fathers of the Church who lived 400 years after Christ in his Epistle to Laeta a Roman Matron sets down a method for her to teach her little Girl the Scriptures what books she should read first and what next first the book of Psalms then the Proverbs then Ecclesiastes and after other books named in the Old Testament he concludes Ad Evangelia transeat nunquam ea depositura de manibus Acta Apostolorum Epistolas tota cordis imbibat voluntate Let her then pass over to the Gospels and never let them go out of her hands And as for the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles let her apply her heart to learn them with all diligence And St. Gregory another of the four eminent Doctors who was the last of them and lived 600 years after Christ and was Bishop of Rome who for his great sanctity and learning was called Gregory the Great he in his book of Morals written for the instruction of all gives this Rule Divinas Scripturas saepiùs lege imo nunquam de manibus tuis sacra lectio deponatur Read often the divine Scriptures yea rather let them never go out of your hands And in another place he tells us Dictis obscurioribus fortes exercet parvulis humili sermone blanditur There you will find obscure sayings to exercise strong men and lowly sayings for little ones Here you have the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church for many Ages And yet the Romanists will most impudently affirm that we are the deserters of Antiquity and they only follow the practice of the Primitive Church But let us return to St. Paul who as I have shewed you directs his Epistles to the whole Congregation of the faithful And as St. Paul so St. Iames to the twelve Tribes who were the faithful So St. Peter the first Epist. to all the Elect the second to all the faithful So St. Iohn St. Iude all written to the faithful in general And I pray you observe what a strict charge St. Paul gives at the end of his Epistles to the Colossians and the Thessalonians I charge you by the Lord that this Epistle be read to all the Holy Brethren to all It were very superfluous to add more for this business But notwithstanding all this the Governours of the Roman Church shut up the Scripture from the people and with very great reason they teaching the people so many things clean contrary to Scripture The Scripture severely forbids the worship of images the Governours of the Roman Church teach the people to worship them The Scripture commands exact performance of all vows made unto God the Pope takes upon him to dispense with the most solemn vows that can be made even though the blessed Sacrament be received upon them The Scripture commands obedience to Kings and all that are in Authority the Pope dispenses with all obedience and oaths made unto their Kings and often commands them to rebel make war and murther them yea the Son to rebel against his own Father as the Son of Henry the fourth Emperour The Scripture forbids marrying with many near Relations the Pope dispenses with all The Scripture commands the Service of the Church to be in the known language of the people the Pope commands it to be in a language the people understands not at all The Scripture tells us God only can forgive sins the Pope says he also can and if you will give him largely he will forgive you largely The Scripture tells us there is but one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Iesus the Roman Church teaches there are thousands of Saints and Angels and pray unto them and the blessed Virgin much more than to Christ or God the Father ten Ave Mary's for one Pater Noster Good reason then have the Romanists to add unto these contradictions of Scripture and many more that grand iniquity of shutting up the Scripture from the people lest they should discover these contradictions They do wisely in their Generations But now that some Protestants who teach none of these things should think it fit to shut up Scripture from the people is wonderful and the reason they give for it is as bad as the thing because forsooth ignorant people
Imprimatur Jan. 20. 1678. Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã sacris domesticis THE LEGACY OF THE Right Reverend Father in GOD HERBERT Lord Bishop of Hereford To his DIOCESS OR A SHORT Determination of all Controversies We have with the PAPISTS By Gods Holy Word JOHN xvii 17. Thy Word is Truth LONDON Printed for Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1679. To All within my Diocess especially those of the City of HEREFORD Dearly Beloved in the Lord T IS now a year and half since in my Cathedral I told you my sad apprehensions of Popish designs to destroy both us and our Religion for though no particular discovery could then be made yet the discourse and actings of several Papists in these parts did plainly shew they were then preparing that which is now discovered for they were then providing Horse and Arms they posted about day and night they threatned many that they must ere long turn or burn and some told their friends that if it came to cutting of throats they should be saved which made it evident that not only they had some bloody design but thought themselves also sure to effect it Whereupon I besought you to arm your selves for the day of Tryal and preached a Sermon to that effect and afterwards the better to strengthen you against the incursion of Popish Superstitious Doctrines I preached several Sermons how you were to stick close to the Scriptures Gods Holy Word which was our only Rule of Faith and not knowing what kind of Pastor you might have after my death whether a Protestant Pastor not well verst in such matters or a Popish Pastor wholly devoted to them I resolved at my decease to leave you these Sermons as a Legacy for my great age of seventy five years past assuring me according to 2. Pet. 1. 14 15. That shortly I must put off this my Tabernacle I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things alwaies in remembrance But now I have a new and farther reason to hasten this my Legacy to you because I hear my bloody Enemies the Jesuitical Priests are resolved as soon as they can find opportunity to hasten my death This hath made me speed these Sermons to the Press lest I and they fall into their hands who will give the same speedy end to both And the truth of what I now deliver to you I trust by Gods assisting grace to seal with my blood if he call me to it for then I know he will enable me for it And though I am a weak carnal worm of my self not able to do any thing yet by Gods powerful grace I may and I hope I shall be enabled to do all things for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And therefore I most humbly and most readily commit the keeping of my Soul to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator His will be done Amen TO THE Christian Reader THere being so many Books of our Controversies with the Papists both learned and unlearned already printed this may seem both useless and vain yet I hope it may prove otherwise because I humbly conceive you may find some useful things here not uttered before and if but one yet considering the great concern of the matter in hand our right faith and our salvation thereon depending no conscientious man will repent the spending five or six hours time in that short space the whole may be perused in the pursuit of it and I heartily wish more hours were not spent in things as useless sometimes even by good and learned men But put the case there be not one good thing here but what hath formerly been better set forth yet this little Book may be useful Experience shews man to be so affected with novelty as soon to grow weary of the best things and for variety take up worse and so this meaner discourse may have better effect by being new And if I may any way contribute to the establishing my Diocess and others in the true primitive Catholick Religion I shall not repent my labour though you do yours Considering with my self that the greater part of men are illiterate and can reap but little benefit by learned Treatises and of the more literate some not so zealous in Religion as willingly to spend much time in the search of truth I resolved on such a plain and compendious way as might satisfie and settle the greater part of men not troubling their heads with many or scarce any quotations out of several Authors which pardon me if I say can be useful but to very few men For such small scantlings as are there set down can give little or no assurance of the sence of the Author We see that Christian Writers taking here and there pieces of heathen Virgil make him speak Christianity so taking small parcels of any Orthodox Father you may make him speak Popery Wherefore such short quotations can serve only as Indexes to guide men to the Tracts from whence they are taken and before you can have the clear meaning of the Author you must observe the main business in hand and the scope he drives at you must also know his usual way of expression whether allegorical or plain literal rhetorical or concise with several other circumstances and it will be often necessary to compare one place with another of the same Author all which not one man of a thousand hath ability leisure and will to perform and he that hath and doth so yet after all his labour he hath but human assurance in a matter of his salvation which is no better than a bank of sand to build his eternal ill or welfare on which sure no wise man will do but only on that Rock Christ Jesus and his Holy Gospel hold fast to that and be sure to observe our Saviours way of encountring the Devil and his deluding ministers with a Scriptum est thus and thus it is written you will be sure to drive them away and overcome them But if you once quit the Word of God and hearken to the doctrines of men your unstable heart like a wave of the sea will be tossed to and fro with diversity of doctrines For you will find one Father say this another that yea the same Father say diversly in divers places St. Austin wrote a whole Tract of Recantations with great piety and ingenuity acknowledging his former Errors had he dyed before he wrote those Recantations then all those Errors by the rule of the Papists had past with great Authority for Truths I heartily wish the other great Doctors of the Church had seriously reviewed in their riper Age what they wrote in their Youth as St. Austin did doubtless some of them would have found things to recant as well as he Whoever hath a mind to see more of this let him read Daillee of the true use of the
burthen of his imposed Superstitions and zealously embrace them then perchance you may have leave as I said of your Confessor to read the Scriptures and then 't is no sin Your Confessor your Confounder thus insolently to usurp over your Christian Liberty You that are called to the glorious liberty of the Children of God and have heard God the Father speaking unto you in the Law God the Son speaking to you in the Gospel God the Holy Ghost speaking to you in the Apostles three Persons one Almighty God commanding you to read the Scriptures and teach them your Children must you now ask a silly blind worm of the Earth leave to read them Can you ever suffer your selves thus to be blindfolded fettered and enslaved under Popish Tyranny Thus to be deprived of the Gospel the Word of Life the Power of God unto Salvation No Beloved I hope you will never be so infatuated by deluding words nor so terrified with any threatning powers upon Earth or under the Earth as to quit this Heavenly Food of your Souls Man liveth not by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Earthly Food entreth into the belly and so passeth out into the draught but this Heavenly Food the Word of God abideth for ever and shall nourish up our Souls unto Everlasting Life This ought to be our daily bread herein we should read and meditate day and night and say with David I have more delight in thy Commandments than in thousands of gold and silver For here we find a Heavenly Treasure for our Souls here we learn all things profitable for our Salvation this is the Book which teaches Priests that blessed work of gaining Souls unto Christ by sound Doctrine and godly Example which will make them shine in this World as Stars in the Firmament Let your Light so shine This is the Book that teaches Princes and all Magistrates their duty to God for the People to administer justice with uprightness to shew mercy with prudence to subdue the rebellious to protect the oppressed and this will make them feared loved and even adored as Gods upon Earth I said ye are Gods this Book will teach the People their duty and piety towards God their duty and loyalty to their Sovereign reverence to all in Authority love and peace with their fellow Subjects Here great ones learn humility rich men charity poor contentedness the oppressed patience the afflicted comfort it worketh all in all to Gods glory and our own eternal happiness Happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God and his Holy Law for their instruction in all things as we have other Books may be helps to Devotion and give us some instruction for life but all come much short of this Holy Book When you would have a Tree thrive and bear fruit you dig about it you manure it with soil and water it all these are good helps yet all these without Sun-shine upon it effect little 't is the Sun that fetches up the sap causes it to budd blossom and bear fruit And so 't is that Sun of Righteousness who there speaks to us and sends the powerful raies of his grace upon our hearts 't is he that worketh in us and causeth us to bring forth fruit The Law of the Lord as David saith converteth the Soul it doth not only instruct the Soul as other Books but also converts the Soul gives life unto Souls dead in sin for 't is the word of life the power of God unto salvation And blessed be the infinite goodness and mercy of God who so freely imparts this Heavenly Blessing to us all Come come hither all ye that hunger and thirst ofter Righteousness come Clergy come Laity come Male and Female come Old and Young come Rich and Poor come and ye shall all be satisfied Come buy without money and without price for our God is a most gracious God he will not send any one away empty no but giveth liberally to all men And to this our most gracious God be ascribed as is most due all honour and praise majesty and glory now and for ever Amen The Second SERMON ON JOHN V. Ver. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life THE former part of this Text Search the Scriptures I have already treated of shewing you that this Command of our Saviour belongs to all conditions of men and women and that 't is not only lawful but pious also and profitable for all to read the Scriptures and to teach them their Children that from their very infancy they may suck in the sincere milk of the Word that they may grow thereby And this I proved unto you by the whole current of the Bible both Old and New Testament And therefore it is a strange presumption very foolish and very impious for vain man born ignorant as the wild Asses Colt to pretend to give reasons for shutting up the Scripture from the People God having so expresly and so often commanded all to read the Scriptures And consequently 't is a blasphemous speech to say that the peoples reading the Scripture causeth them to fall into schisms and heresies for it casts a reproach upon Gods Command making him the Author of Sin But now put the case that the peoples reading of Scripture were the real cause of their falling into Schisms and Errors which God forbid we should say in earnest but only let us suppose it and then consider whether or no it be not far worse with them that shut up the Scripture from the people than with us that let them read it For first none of our Sectaries that depend on Scripture fall into such damnable Errors as the Papists Idolatrous worship and dismembring the blessed Sacrament and some others Secondly we have but few in corners here and there run into Errors not one of a hundred or scarce of a thousand whereas their whole Church from the lowest to the very highest People Priests Bishops Archbishops Pope and all as it was with the Iews in their fits of Idolatry all run into the same Nay 't is worse with these than with the Iews for these have not recovered themselves out of their Errors many hundred years together but most obstinately persist in them notwithstanding the many learned Protestant Writers that have so palpably discovered them yet like Demetrius the the Silver-Smith with his Crafts-men so the Pope and his adherents animate one another saying their Craft will be in danger to be set at nought their Idol-Temples would be despised and their wealth and magnificence utterly destroyed And thus Beloved you see the miserable and desperate condition of these poor blinded and fettered Christians the Pope hath got them fast within his enchanted Chain and 't is his interest never to let them go and all this by shutting up the Scripture Lord have mercy upon them and
great examples and leaders to piety and godly life but I say it only to prevent our being led into errors by their Authority who though they were very learned and godly men yet still were men and being men were subject to error and for this cause no assurance can be had in the word of man alone but of him only who was God and man for God only is truth And as for the miracles pretended to be wrought by the Fathers of the Church in confirmation of their Doctrine I answer First We find in no authentick Author any miracles wrought by the prime and principal Fathers of the Church in confirmation of any Doctrine taught by them St. Cyprian St. Ambrose St. Ierome St. Austine St. Chrysostome St. Gregory Nazianzen and such like Secondly For the pretended Fathers of the Church in later Ages and Mothers also it is sufficiently known what gross and ridiculous impostures have been in later Ages noised abroad for great miracles Our learned Dr. Stillingfleet hath sufficiently set them forth in their proper colours These fine devices began about the six hundredth year after Christ and in a few years after they grew as familiar as jugling feats especially in the female sex of whom I find none that wrought them in the Apostles days when true miracles were frequent among men and when there were women certainly as holy as any whatsoever in future Ages We do not find that the blessed Virgin her self ever wrought any miracle though now the Papists will tell you of a thousand wrought daily by several images of hers But this we know that in the later days lying wonders shall be wrought to deceive if it were possible the very Elect and we also know that whatever seeming miracle is wrought contrary to the word of God is a lying wonder for Gods word is truth and all liars that speak against that But these miracles which they pretend to be wrought at the images of the blessed Virgin and other Saints are apparently contrary to the word of God which commands us not to bow down to nor worship any images and consequently these must needs be lying wonders wrought to deceive the people who are thereby induced to worship those images and do daily visit them and prostrate themselves before them with as much reverence and devotion as if Christ himself were there present This is fully known to every man that hath travelled those parts But the Popish Priests here surely ashamed of their own Devotions will boldly deny it and finding us too strongly fortified with Scripture truth to be seduced by their supposititious Saints with their lying wonders and too quick-sighted to be catched with such stauking horses they come upon us with a whole Army of the Church Militant the Universal Catholick Church meaning the Romish Church falsly so called yea and back'd with Scripture too and so fight us at our own weapon and thence thunder out irresistable Cannon Shot He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publicane Matt. xviii 17. Beloved my time would fail me should I now engage in a fresh battel I shall therefore refer this to another time and for the present add only a few words of direction for those who take comfort in reading the Scripture and desire to improve their knowledge therein but meet with many obscure and difficult places which exceed their capacity in which they would gladly be farther instructed To this I answer first That I conceive it fit to advise with some learned orthodox sober and godly Divine if they have any such in their Neighbourhood for give me leave to say men so compleatly qualified are not every where to be found in these unfortunate days But if they can find any such let them desire his assistance and if this godly person can by other plain places of Scripture and clear reason make the sense of that doubtful place evident to his understanding then he may well conclude that to be the true meaning of the Holy Ghost But if this godly Counsellor makes use of any human Authority that is any one or many Fathers of the Church or Councils or the like to make good his exposition and cannot do it by clear places of Scripture or such circumstances as make that doubtful place clear to your understanding but require you to submit meerly to their Authority then you are to afford him no more than a human belief which helps you nothing forward to your salvation for that wholly depends on divine faith and belief in God not in man as I have shewed you And as for the doubtful places pass them over as doubtful and the clear knowledge thereof not necessary to your salvation God requires of no man beyond the talent which he hath given him and in his infinite goodness hath so provided that all things necessary for salvation may be understood of all What can be more plainly set forth to common understanding than it is in Scripture That there is one God Creator of Heaven and Earth one Saviour Iesus Christ the Son of God who dyed for all men rose again the third day ascended into Heaven and shall come again at the last day to judge and reward every man according to his deeds And then for the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and such like necessary things they are also plainly set forth in Scripture even to vulgar understandings And lastly for our course of life what can be more plainly prohibited than fornication adultery all lasciviousness murther striking railing cousening What can be more plainly commanded than to do justice shew mercy charity c. and in sum to do unto all men as we would have them do unto us Now whosoever shall believe and practise all these plain things my Soul for his he shall never miss of his Salvation though he miss the understanding of a hundred places of Scripture many whereof the most learned understand very little better though they can talk more of them When our Saviour represents unto us the great Judgment day Mat. XXV He doth not call any to his right hand because they understood these and these dark places in Scripture nor curse any on his left hand because they understood them not but the whole Judgment depends on doing or not doing Come ye blessed for ye have fed the hungry cloathed the naked c. and go ye cursed for ye have not done so Wherefore the question in the Gospel is Good Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life and our Saviour's Answer is This do and thou shalt live And S. Paul tells us though we understood all Mysteries yet this profiteth not without Charity Charity and the deeds thereof with a firm belief of so much of Scripture as God enables us to understand would undoubtedly bring us to Christ's right hand in that great day Were but our practice according to the measure of our knowledge it
Loosing the same that is said here to Peter is said to all the Apostles Matt. xviii 18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And again Ioh. xx 23. Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And what a silly childish noise do they make with those words said to Peter unto thee will I give the keys of heaven for the whole sence of those words is fully contained in those Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained For 't is sin that shuts us out of Heaven and when sin is remitted Heaven-Gate is again opened Whoever then hath power to remit and retain sin he hath the keys of Heaven to all intents and purposes Where is then I pray you S. Peter's preheminence over any other Apostle for the Church was built on all the Apostles as well as on Peter and they all had the keys of Heaven given unto them But now mark what goes before in Iohn xx 21. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you This cuts off all manner of pretence to the least precedency of power given to Peter before the rest of the Apostles for our Saviour here saith unto them all As my Father sent me even so send I you Even so in the self same manner And sure the Papists are not so desperate as to say St. Peter had a higher and more powerful Commission than Christ himself and as you see Christ here gives all the Apostles Commission equal with himself As my Father sent me even so send I you So that 't is impossible Peter could have a greater Is it not then a strange presumption for the Papists to boast of such a transcendent power and preheminence given to Peter above the rest of the Apostles as to make him Lord and Master over them which doubtless would have raised no small indignation in the rest of the Apostles We see when Iames and Iohn desired only the precedency before the rest no Lordship but only to sit the one on his right hand the other on his left they were greatly offended at it Wherefore to make Peter their Lord and Master must needs offend them far more yet we find not the least murmuring at it because they found no precedency at all given him And do not we see how St. Paul though a late born Apostle out of time took the boldness to resist him to the face when he walked not uprightly which you may be sure St. Paul would not have done had he taken St. Peter for Christ's High Priest Lord over all for St. Paul repented for having too severely reproved the High Priest of the Iews though he did it unwittingly and for his cruel injustice Certainly whoever reads the two first Chapters of S. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians if he be not much possest with S. Peter's preheminence before hand must needs see that S. Paul gives him no such thing but rather the contrary mark I pray you S. Paul's design there 't is to shew that he received not the knowledg of the Gospel nor the Commission to preach it from man but from Christ only And therefore as soon as Christ had revealed himself to him and sent him to preach Immediately I conferred not says he with flesh and blood neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before me but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days But other of the Apostles saw I none As if the seeing the other Apostles Iames and Iohn whom in the next Chapter he calls Pillars had carried more appearance of his receiving Commission from man than his seeing Peter and tarrying with him fifteen days Now had Peter been as the Papists would have it Head of the Church Lord over all the seeing of Peter Head of the Church and tarrying with him so long had signified far more towards his receiving Commission from man than had he seen all the other Apostles and tarried with them fifteen months for Peter being Head he and not the other Apostles was to give him Commission And then again when he names the great Pillars of the Church who seemed to be somewhat more than the rest he puts Iames in the first place But though they seemed to be somewhat yet whatever they were S. Paul tells us it maketh no matter to him he gave them not any subjection how not any subjection no not for an hour for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to him but contrariwise mark I pray you contrary to all subjection they gave unto him yea and unto Barnabas also the right hand of fellowship far from any Lordship over Paul or over Barnabas either though he were none of the twelve for he and they were all fellows in preaching the Gospel dividing the work betwixt them Paul and Barnabas to preach unto the Heathen and they unto the Circumcision Is it not then most evident by all this that S. Peter was no Lord nor Head over the rest of the Apostles nor did he outlive all the rest and so become Head of the Church by survivancy S. Iohn that great and beloved Apostle outlived him long and 't is thought all the rest and then by survivancy he should be Head and consequently his Successor Head of the Church not S. Peter's Successor for S. Peter himself was not Head And then I pray you tell me when S. Peter was dead and S. Iohn remained Who was then Head of the Church Was S. Peter's Successor whoever he was Linus or Clemens was he Head and Lord over S. Iohn or S. Iohn over him Speak I beseech you No your modesty will not suffer you to say that your Pope Linus was Head and Lord over S. Iohn the beloved of our Lord. I dare venture my life on it Linus never assumed any such Lordship to himself for Eusebius tells us that when Polycarpus a Successor of S. Iohn came to Rome to treat with Anicetus a Successor of S. Peter about the time of celebrating the Feast of Easter which was then much disputed the Church of Asia holding it at one time and the Church of Rome at another Anicetus S. Peter's Successor did not assume any Lordship over Polycarpus nor require him to submit unto the Roman Custome No he was so far from it that he gave the honour to Polycarpus and the precedency to celebrate the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper in his own Church at Rome This was a mark of great honour and precedency for in those days the Chief did always celebrate If then your Church had no Headship over the Asian Church in the time of S. Iohn nor in the time of Polycarpus many years after I
send them the light of his Holy Gospel to shine amongst them Amen So much for the first part of my Text Christ's Command to search the Scriptures Now we come to the second part the reason of the Command For in them ye have Eternal Life a most weighty reason there cannot be a greater than the gaining of Eternal Life We all find by experience in our selves the truth of that saying Iob ii 4. Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for his Life For which there is great reason according to nature for all that a man hath affords him no content or comfort in death which takes away the sense of all things If therefore life be so dear unto us because it gives us a capacity to enjoy these poor earthly delights that have so great and drossy an alloy of intermingled cares and troubles which alwaies attend them or if it were possible to enjoy them with more ease and tranquillity yet are they but momentary surely then Eternal Life which alwaies brings with it the enjoyment of heavenly pleasures free from all solicitous care and fear and full of all imaginable delight yea far beyond all that our narrow brain can now imagin for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And this unconceivable delight being to continue beyond Methusalem's Age or the Age of the whole world to have an eternal duration for ever and ever I pray you then consider at how high a value we should esteem the means whereby we are to attain such an excessive weight of glory For the present then my business must be to shew you that the Holy Scriptures contain in them compleatly without any additional requisite the means to attain Eternal Life and then doubtless there will need small exhortation to move you to put a high value on them Let us then fall immediately on this business Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life Though I doubt not to make out this matter absolutely clear unto you yet I fear some weaker persons may stagger a little at one word in my Text and may erroneously fancy that it gives great cause of doubt and that is the word Think ye think ye have Eternal Life Our Saviour doth directly say that in the Scriptures we have Eternal Life but only tells the Iews that they thought they had in them Eternal Life and perchance they thought amiss Who can tell Who can tell certainly he could tell who gave them this counsel to search the Scriptures which you may be sure he would never have done did not the Scriptures contain in them Eternal Life if not it had been a vain thing to search the Scriptures for it and our Saviours Advice had been vain which God forbid we should say or think wherefore we may assuredly conclude that our Saviour who advised the Iews to search the Scriptures he both could tell and would have told them had they thought amiss for he came down from Heaven for this very end namely to teach them and us the way to Eternal Life and therefore says of himself I am the Way and the Truth and the Life I came to teach this unto you and all the world And as St. Paul declares Acts xiii he came to teach first the Iews verse 26. To you is the word of Salvation sent And again verse 46. It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you And our Saviour himself preached only to the Iews and in their sight he wrought all his Miracles All which makes it most evident that he used all means possible to inform them aright in the way to Eternal Life who then can doubt but that if the Iews had been mistaken in their opinion of the Scriptures our Saviour would most readily have corrected their error So that this manner of speaking in our Saviour In them ye think ye have Eternal Life is far from intimating any doubt in this matter 't is rather a fuller conviction of the Iews 't is a way of arguing which the School-men call Argumentum ad hominem which is the shortest and plainest way to confute another You think you your selves confess that the Scriptures contain Eternal Life in them this is a truth you cannot deny And our Saviour Luk. x. 25 26 27 28. fully declares this to be his sence likewise where being asked by a Lawyer of the Iews Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life He said unto him What is written in the Law how readest thou And he answering said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self And he said unto him Thou hast answered right this do and thou shalt live Here you see our Saviour directs him for the gaining of Eternal Life to look into the Law and when the Lawyer had declared what was written in the Law our Saviour presently concludes This do and thou shalt live thou hast no need to be instructed farther the Law fully declares what thou art to do for the gaining of Eternal Life And this Evangelist St. Iohn who wrote my Text tells us toward the end of his Gospel that he omitted to write many things of our Saviour But these were written that we might believe and believing that we might have Life Now if we can have life by believing these things it follows most evidently that there is no necessity of believing other things If you answer That the belief of other things may prove great helps to Eternal Life and who would not be glad to have all the helps he can to obtain Eternal Life To this I reply That the belief of other things may prove hinderances for ought we know and not helps Were it not then most desperate folly for me to venture upon other things which may prove hinderances to my Salvation when God tells me that he hath revealed unto me by his holy Prophets Apostles and by his own Son all things necessary to Salvation Was not this the business for which our Saviour came into the world as I said before to teach us the way to Eternal Life And when our Saviour went out of the world he left his Apostles to finish the work he had begun promising them that he would send them the Holy Ghost who should lead them into all truth And as the Apostles received the knowledg of all truth so they faithfully delivered it to others for so St. Paul Acts xx assures the Elders of Ephesus whom he sent for to Miletus That he had declared unto them the whole counsel of God and that he had not kept back any thing that was profitable to them vers 20. Mark I beseech you he declares not only necessary things but all things profitable all kept nothing
beseech you tell me from whence sprang this mighty Headship of the Pope to be Lord of the whole World Successors as Successors can challenge no more Authority than their Predecessors had If the present Bishop of Salisbury hath no Authority over the Bishop of Lincoln certainly Salisburies Successor can have none over Lincolns Successor And so Saint Peter having no Lordship over S. Iohn nor any other Apostle Peter's Successor can have none over their Successors this is clear How then Did Christ ever come again upon Earth to establish this Headship or Did an Angel come from Heaven to do it Though I must tell you should an Angel come from Heaven and preach any other Doctrine than what is in Scripture we are fully warranted not to receive it But if neither Christ nor Angel nor any one Scripture declare this Headship is it not a most unreasonable thing to require us to believe this as a matter absolutely necessary to Salvation and to believe it with as full assurance as we believe Christ was born of the Virgin or that Christ was Crucified and that he rose from the dead Let them shew us then in such plain Scripture words that the Pope is to be Head of the Church that the Church of Rome shall be Infallible unto the worlds end that we are to receive all her Doctrines as the Oracles of God or that in the Church of Rome we have Eternal Life Let them but shew us some promise some command plain like this and we shall readily submit really we should be heartily glad to see it it would save us much trouble But beloved you all know there is nothing like this in all the Scripture How then dare any man venture the eternal salvation of his Soul and in obedience to the Church of Rome practise things so apparently contrary to Gods Commands as to worship Images pray unto Saints receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in one kind and such like as I mentioned formerly I know there are in the writings of several Fathers many expressions which highly magnifie the Authority of the Church in general and some for the Church of Rome in particular all which signifie very little if you consider the circumstances and motives for their so speaking When the Church was infested with Heresies the Orthodox Fathers disputing with them used all the Arguments they could to reduce them to the Truth but perverse men not hearkening to their reasons their last and pressing Argument was the Authority of the Church which they set forth with great lustre to make the Argument more powerful and force their submission unto it And because the generality of the Church in those days by Gods blessing was not yet infected with errors they urged the Authority and true belief of the Universal Church to reclaim the particular Heretical Churches from their Error and the most general Language being then Greek they used the word Catholick which in that Language signifies Universal and hence arose the phrase of the Catholick Church Moreover it pleased God to preserve the Roman Church in the true Faith with great Zeal and Piety for many years their Bishops being successively Martyr'd by the Heathen Emperors and their Officers at Rome And their true Faith being celebrated also in Scripture by S. Paul it was magnified by the true believing Fathers of other Churches as Antioch Ephesus Constantinople Alexandria c. that it might the more move the Heretical Members of their Churches to conform unto it telling them how S. Peter and S. Paul the two great Pillars of the Church were Martyr'd there and therefore they ought to believe no Error could enter that Church which was so sanctified with the blood of those two great Apostles and divers other famous Martyrs All which they uttered with great zeal that they might make the unbelievers to reverence it the more and submit unto it As when two of our Lawyers differ in opinion he that hath the Lord Chief Justice Coke on his side will magnifie him as such an Oracle of the Law that could not err and say all that his wit can invent to set it forth it doth not therefore follow that he seriously thinks Coke to have been infallible no more do these sayings of the Fathers conclude the Roman Church to be infallible as I shall now shew you by one Example sufficient to satisfie any man without farther trouble S. Cyprian was a Bishop and Martyr of the true Catholick Church as famous for Learning and Sanctity as for his Faith and Martyrdom he wrote a zealous Tract for the unity of the Church wherein he uttered those sayings which the Papists have so frequently in their mouths Habere non potest Deum Patrem qui Ecclesiam non habet Matrem he cannot have God for his Father who will not have the Church for his Mother And As no man was saved out of Noah ' s Ark so no man can be saved out of the Church Which being spoken by so great a man seem to carry great Authority with them But if I might freely speak my mind I would say of them that they are fine flourishing sentences sounding handsomely to the ear but cannot much satisfie a mans reason unless he had clearly exprest what he means by the word Ecclesia Church I know full well what the Papists mean by it they mean the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy and all those that are of his Faith and Communion and believe that no man can be saved that is not in that Communion And this is with them the Mother Church and Noah's Ark. But I shall now plainly shew that S. Cyprian meant no such thing for in the beginning of this Tract he declares that St. Peter whom the Papists would needs have to be the Founder of their Church had no Authority over the rest of the Apostles and Churches founded by them but that all the Apostles were of equal honour and authority Pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis Which saying he fully confirmed by his practice which is the clearest exposition of a mans meaning for a great dispute arising between him and Stephen the Bishop of Rome about Rebaptizing those which were Christned in Heretical Churches S. Cyprian declared his Judgment was for Rebaptizing Stephen declares the contrary and both parties adhering stifly to their own opinions the dispute grew so high that Cyprian held a Council of all the African Bishops and there Decreed that they ought to be Rebaptized for there being but one Baptism which was to be had only in the true Church the Heretical Baptism being done out of the true Church was no Baptism Here 't is plain S. Cyprian meant by the word Church his Church and all that were in Communion with him Stephen on the other side calls a Council at Rome and there Decrees that the Heretical Baptism being performed in due manner though the Priest Baptizing were an Heretick out of the Church yet the Baptism