being reduced to a bare external profession Would God have sent us a new Jerusalem a new Sion a new City from above and make this up of Righteous and Wicked Hypocrites and true Believers indifferently Does not the Apostle understand it so when he says that Jerusalem is free that her children are not in bondage i. e. those who are the Children by promise that they shall not be cast out like Children of the bondwoman but shall be Heirs and that there is the same difference between this and the other Jerusalem that was between the two Wives of Abraham Sarah and Agar Would God make him a new Tabernacle a new House a new Temple and build it of holy and profane materials indifferently St. Peter did not intend it so You says he as lively stones are built up a spiritual house Would God separate to himself a new people a new Israel a new Nation from all other Nations and require from it no more than an outward profession which alone works no regeneration at all To shew that God himself never intended this observe how himself speaks This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people We must take notice that all these names above mentioned are derived from the old figures of the Mosaical dispensation this the very reading of them plainly testifies Now this very thing makes directly against M. de Condom's definition For as it is essential to a figure to consist of something External and Corporeal so is it equally essential to the thing figured to consist of something Internal and Spiritual The Church therefore is no longer a Jerusalem an Israel a people linked together by outward bands only this would correspond well enough with the figures of the old Law but it is a people an Israel a Jerusalem united and compacted by the inward hands of the same Faith and the same Sanctification This very term the Church is of it self sufficient to confirm this truth M. de Condom acknowledges the Christians had it from the Jews which is true He says the Jews made use of it to signify the visible Society of God's people the Assembly which makes profession to serve him I agree with him in that too He adds That the Christians have kept it in the same sense I am not of that opinion This word when applied to the figure can signify no more than a visible outward Assembly but when to the thing figured it must of necessity imply something more it must denote an inward community a company not of Bodies only but Souls too for it is not enough that a confession be made with the mouth men must also believe with the heart unto Righteousness III. This will be yet more evident if you reflect on some other applelations given to the Church with relation to Jesus Christ For it is called His flock his sheep his spouse his sister his dove his well-beloved his body a Body whereof He is the head a Body that is his flesh and his bones a house built upon him as upon a Corner-stone the sanctified in Jesus Christ the Children which God hath given him and other expressions like these Now who can ever imagine these glorious Titles should import no more than an outward profession or that profane persons and reprobates can have any share in them It is his flock but what flock Fear not little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom They are his sheep but how My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand It is his Spouse and his Sister but in what respect Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse thou hast ravished my heart It is his Dove but why his Dove My dove my undefiled is but one the daughters saw her and blessed her She is his well-beloved but Wherefore his Well-beloved As the lilly among therns so is my beloved among the daughters It is his Body but how his body The edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ He is its Head but what sort of Head From him the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love It is his flesh and his bones but how these No man ever hateth his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church It is a structure built upon him but how In him all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord. They are the sanctified in Jesus Christ but how sanctsied They are such as in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. They are the Epistle of Jesus Christ but in what regard the Epistle Written not with Ink but with the spirit of the living God not in tables of stone but in fleshy tables of the heart It is his People but what kind of people Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness They are the Children which God hath given him But wherefore were they given him To exhibit them one day saying Behold I and the children which thou hast given me Thou hast given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me Can any man after all this grant that the Church should be defined A Society making profession to believe c. or imagine that Hypocrites belong to this mystical Divine Body IV. If we search the Scripture yet further we shall find other Arguments in confirmation of this Truth Among these I reckon the predictions concerning the Church of Christ to be met with in the Prophets Thus it is described by Moses The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live There shall be saith Isaiah a high-way and a way it shall be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over it but it shall be for those the wayfaring men tho fools shall not err therein No lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there And in another place All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children In righteousness
amount even to a Demonstration Which way can any one maintain that Definition of the Church which goes upon a bare outward profession and makes it consist of bad as well as good men and which Stapleton Bellarmin Cardinal du Perron and some other Controversial Divines look upon as a principal point after having observed what I have written on this subject in the second question of the Letter to my Friend and the Examination of M. de Meaux's ninth Reflection What pretence can men have for carrying on the Churches visibility so far as to a plain particular and constant designation of mens persons that help to make up that Body after having considered what is said to this purpose in my Third Question and in the Examination of M. de Meaux's Eleventh Reflection How can men fancy that Jesus Christ's Promises belong to this exterior Body composed of good and bad men promiscuously after what I have written to this purpose upon the fourth Question and the Examination of the Twelfth Reflection Which way can the External Succession be defended in the sense these Gentlemen understand it after having weighed my answer to the Second Part of M. de Condom 's Discourse and compared it with my Examination of the Eighth and Thirteenth Reflection What can be sâ—â—d in behalf of the Supreme Authority Church Assemblies pretend to and the ready Obedience to them without any trying their decisions which these Gentlemen would make us believe ought to be paid them after having compared the Relation of our Conference with what I have written on the Six first Reflections I must confess the strength of my Reasons may possibly receive some disadvantage from the manner of my delivering them and that it required a more skilful hand than mine which might have spoke with all the elegance and address of my renowned Adversary But yet I dare aver that even in my plain way and in the midst of all my bluntness there will be found enough to satisfy and convince my Readers That the Systeme treated of is upon many accounts quite destroyed both as to the whole and as to each of its parts I am sensible this Systeme is a thing contrived with abundance of cunning and skill that it was never the invention of one single Brain that they have made it look as specious as the thing could possibly bear But all the skill and cunning in the World can never give a thing so great a lustre as Truth and it is plain that That Systeme can never be true which is repugnant to the evidence both of Scripture and Reason I may add too that notwithstanding all the pains taken to contrive it as strong as might be they are forced to leave it with many weaknesses which it was impossible for them to conceal Nay such a Systeme particularly is This which contradicts experience and contradicts it so far too that were the Church of Rome it self for whose advantage it was first establish'd to be tryed by these Principles that compose it she could not make her party good Let us if you please venture an experiment upon that principle which asserts the perpetuity of the same Exterior Body Will you take the confidence to call that of the three first Ages the same Body with the modern Church of Rome where there is not the least tittle to be found of direct Invocation of Saints and Angels in the publick service of the Church where there is not the least addressing to Images and Pictures in their worship where there is no prohibition of the Cup to the Laity nor of the use of Scripture in the vulgar Tongue without leave granted by the Ordinary nor of Praying in a Language which the people do not understand where we find nothing to the contrary but that the Scripture is the only and the sufficient Rule of Faith in all things necessary to Salvation where we meet with no such number of Sacraments as seven no use made of Papal Indulgences no necessity of Auricular Confession no Elevation of the Host that the people may prostrate themselves in adoration to it no Transubstantiation nor Real presence made Doctrines no mention of the Church of Rome's being the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches nor of I know not how many things besides which are of very considerable importance Will you call the Church of Rome as it stands at this day as it looks upon the opinion of the Mâ—llenaries to be erroneous as it prohibits giving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to little Children as it believes the beatifick vision of God antecedent to the last Judgment as it forbids the Clergy to Marry will you call this I say the same Exterior Body with the Primitive Church which believed and practised directly the contrary To call this the same Body is like Theseus his Ship which was always called the same Ship tho there was scarce a Plank in it all that had not been changed A Second experiment may be made in that Principle which relates to the Succession in Episcopal Sees as these Gentlemen are pleased to understand it For how can they ever maintain this Succession in the See of Rome which they look upon as the very Original and Centre of Church-Unity while they agree as they do that many of those Popes were intruders against all Law and Custom and consequently false Popes such as Baronius calls Violent seizers of the Apostolick See unlawful Vsurpers of the Papal Name and Chair False Popes which only served to make the times they lived in notorious And now seeing this intrusion continued for almost one whole Age and the call to all Ecclesiastical Functions depends upon the See of Rome what must we think of those which proceeded from these false Popes and those that followed after them How can they make good this Succession in the person of Vigilius who by their own confession was an Usurper of the See over Sylverius and a Schismatick excommunicated he and all his party that adhered to him by Sylverius the rightful Pope Which adherents were not only all the Clergy of Rome but all the Archbishops and Bishops of the Empire excepting only four Bishops that were banisht with Sylverius and joyned with him in signing the sentence of Excommunication Sylverius dyed Vigilius kept the Papacy still and yet the Excommunication was not taken off It is acknowledged to be a just and valid sentence and yet from these excommunicated persons are all the Popes Patriarchs Primates Archbishops and Bishops descended ever since Baronius in the relation of this Accident endeavours all he can to deprive us of the Conclusions we draw from it He tells us therefore that he guesses Vigilius acted a part all that while and that being informed of Sylverius his death he of his own accord resigned the Popedom usurped by him before and at the same time got the Clergy of Rome to chuse him into it again This conjecture he grounds upon four
shalt thou be established In the same sense Jeremiah speaks of it They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them for I will forgive their inquity and I will remember their sin no more Ezekiel says as much I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean I will give you a new heart and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements In like manner Joel Then says he shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no strangers pass through it any more Likewise Zechariah In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts What can all these great and wonderful promises mean This Circumcision of Heart This way of Holiness where the unclean shall not pass over This keeping out of Lions and ravenous beasts This being taught of God This universal knowledg joyned with a pardon of sins This pouring out of the spirit which shall take away the hearts of stone and change them for hearts of flesh This Holiness of Jerusalem so as to suffer no stranger nor Canaanite in the midst of her I say What signifies all this if the form and essence of a Church consist in a bare profession and if this Communion can be composed of unjust as well as just of Bad as well as Good men V. St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians endeavours to make us apprehend the Church aright by resembling it to a man's body As the body says he is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ For by one spirit are we all haptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have all been made to drink into one spirit I need not here observe that by Christ he means the Mystical body of Christ That is his Church this is manifest of it self and he explains himself so afterwards You says he are the body of Christ and members in particular All we have to do is to enquire what he makes to be the principle and â—and of this unity here attributed to the Church and with respect to which he likens it to the body of a Man And this is easily understood for in his opinion it is the spirit and consequently not a bare profession But still it may be doubtful what Spirit this is Is it a spirit of direction only that attends upon the Clergy and prevents their giving erroneous determinations and publickly professing any such how wicked sover the persons exercising this Authority be By no means It is the spirit which the faithful receive and whereof Baptism is a sign For says the Apostle we are all haptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have all been made to drink into one spirit Thus you see the band and principle of the Churches Unity The evident consequence whereof is that inward regeneration is essential to it and that as many as have not been washed by nor made to drink into this heavenly spirit cannot be parts of this body VI. But the Apostle carries on his Argument yet further for he takes notice that although God had put a difference between the members as there is likewise in those of the Church yet he had so qualified this difference That there should be says he no schism or division in the body but that the members should have the same care one of another so that whether one member suffers all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it From hence it is plain that according to St. Paul there is as real an agreement between the members of the body of the Church as there is between those of a humane body without any contrariety or discord and that this good correspondence is founded on that Unity which makes each part to have one and the same common interest Now what true agreement or common concern can there ever be between the members of Christ and members of the Devil Or in St. Paul's own phrase What fellowship between light and darkness What continual enmity on the contrary must there needs lurk under the Covert of such an untoward seeming Peace as a bare outward profession may make Every one aims at advancing his own Master's honour so that the sentiments designs and methods of the Servants must of necessity carry as great opposition as there is between the Masters they serve VII In his Epistle to the Galatians he gives us another description of the Church very like this As many says he as have been baptizeed into Christ have put on Christ There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Thus far respects Communion with the same Christ which is the very thing that constitutes the Unity of the Church and is the essential form of it so that persons out of this Communion are not of the Church because they have no part in the Churches Unity If you would now Know what kind of Communion this is attend to what follows If ye be Christ's Ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise So that St. Paul does not treat of a Communnion consisting in a bare outward profession but such a one as makes men Mystical Children of Abraham and heirs of God VIII In his Epistle to the Romans he thought it not enough to say They that are in Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but after the spirit which yet is intimation sufficient what nature that Communion is of that makes this Mystical Body of Christ the Church but he goes further and is express afterwards If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Words of such strength as will not allow us to acknowledg wicked men belong to the Church unless we should make a Church that is not Christ's If the Church formally and as such be Christ's this must be true of all that are of the Church and participate of that which constitutes it such Now according to M. de Condom's definition wicked men and reprobates may be of the Church therefore in his opinion they may be Christ's Notwithstanding St. Paul avers that they that are Christ's live not according to the flesh and that as many as have not Christ's spirit are none of his so that he is of a judgement different from M. de Condom's If an outward profession alone be the common
Jesus Christ says of such Many will say unto me in that day Lord have not we prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out Devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works Then will I say unto them I never knew you depart from me ye workers of iniquity And can any man after all this allow them a propriety in the Promises of Christ The second passage M. de Condom makes use of is that of Jesus Christ which I will here set down at length Tell the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a Publican verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Jesus Christ M. de Condom says used the word Church to signify this visible Society I agree with him that the Church there signifies a visible Church I say further that it signifies a Church represented by the Pastors by whom it binds and looses by whom it asks the Father I am still of opinion that those excellent Promises of Jesus Christ that God will ratify what they have bound and loosed that he will grant what they ask and that the Lord himself will be in the midst of them are all made to the Church taken in this sense But then I say withal that this visible Church is that of the true Believers only and that Hypocrites have no share at all in it It is to the true Believers alone that this Ministry belongs they are the persons represented by the Pastors they the only people that ask and obtain that are gathered together in Christ's name and in the midst of whem he is And yet it often happens that the Ministers of this Church tho they be in this function and do the business of it are not yet true Members of it themselves It often falls out says St. Augustin by reason of this mixture here upon Earth that people really belonging to Babylon administer the things belonging to Jerusalem All they of whom it is said whatsoever they bid you observe obesereveand do Matt. 23. 3. but do not ye after their works are Citizens of Babylon that rule the Commonwealth of Jerusalem For if they had no charge belonging to Jerusalem why should it be said They sit in Moses seat therefore what they bid you observe that observe and do Again if they were true Citizens of Jerusalem who should reign with Christ for ever What occasion was there for adding But do not ye after their works It is not then to the Ministers that the Promises belong but to the Body they represent and whose Offices they discharge Now this body is the New Jerusalem which shall reign with Christ for ever That is the true Believers M. de Cendom's third passage is this Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Jesus Christ says he would shew something illustrious and clear when he said that his Church maugre the opposition of Hell should be always invincible he would I say shew something clear and resplendent which might serve in all Ages for a sensible and palpable assurance of the immutable certainty of his Promises He adds The Church of which Christ speaks is then a confessing Church a Church that publishes the Faith and consequently an exteriour and visible Church He says further That it is a Church to which an exteriour Ministry is given for 't is added I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven I answer The Church spoken of in this passage is really a Confessing Church a Church that publishes the Faith a Church to whom Christ hath given an exteriour Ministry a Church that uses the Ministry of the Keys that binds and looses and by Consequence an exteriour and visible Church The Question is whether wicked men let them dissemble never so well and carry never so fair an outside do truly belong to this Church or whether it consist of sincere Believers only 'T is a Church exteriour and visible I acknowledg it but it is also a Church interiour and real otherwise it would differ nothing from a Phantome a cheating apparition 'T is a Confessing Church and publishes the Faith but it is likewise a Church believing in what it confesses and publishes 'T is a Church to which not only St. Peter's Confession must be attributed but also the principle and ground of that Confession Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona for flesh and blood hath net revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven And therefore whose Confession proceeds not from Flesh and Blood but from Grace and Divine Illumination 'T is a Church built upon a Rock and not upon the Sand therefore not a Church that Hypocrites are of 'T is a Church built by Jesus Christ a Church therefore of true Believers only because such only are built by Christ 'T is a Church to which this Promise of the Gates of Hell never prevailing against it belongs And can we with any pretence to modesty say that the Gates of Hell do not prevail against the wicked ingulfed in vâ—ce Can we say those admirable words carry no stronger importance than the preservation of a mere exteriour profession But this is a Chruch which hath and exerciseth such a Ministry Who questions it But does this Ministry belong to the wicked and hypocrites No. It belongs only to true Behevers the rest have no part in it only as they sometimes exercise the external Offices without any true right to them or receive them unworthily under the covering of hypocrisy and being intermixt with good Christians But M. de Condom says further Jesus Christ promised something illustrious and clear which might serve in all Ages for a sensible and palpable assurance of the immutable certainty of his Promises These words want a little unfolding If they understand hereby a temporal prosperity a perpetual visibility promised to the Church in pomp and lustre I deny that Christ promised any such thing If they understand an Earthly Dominion a worldly Greatness under the title of Hierarchy I deny still that Christ ever promised any such thing If they understand a constant unblemisht purity in the Ministry in the Matters of Doctrine and Worship of moral Rules and orderly Government This again I deny that Christ ever promised If they understand Believers perseverance in Faith and Holiness so far forth as
who instead of adhering to the Peoples Errors or dissembling them rose up against them with force and this Succession was so constant that the Holy Ghost fears not to say That God rose up Night and Morning and daily admonisht the People by the Mouth of his Prophets M. de Condom must give us leave to make some Observations upon this Passage The first of which is that in the Corruptions of Israel heretofore when the publick Worship and ordinary Ministry suffered such Depravation there was not any where in the World another publick Worship or another Ministry that was preserved in Purity and Perfection So that if men must needs have lookt for the Church in the Body of the Peoples living under their ordinary Pastors and in the publick worship as he is of opinion we now must under the Gospel there could not have been any longer a Church upon Earth because his own Principle maintains that if this visible and exteriour Church composed of Pastors and People do not keep and teach all truth that is if She teach any thing that is false She is not the Church I observe secondly That in the very same place where God is said to rise up Night and Morning and daily admonish the People by the Mouth of his Prophets it is also said That all the chief of the Priests and the People trespassed wonderfully according to all the Abominations of the Heathen and polluted the House of the Lord which he had sanctified in Jerusalem It is said further too That they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his Words and misused his Prophets Which shews that both People and Priests were generally corrupted and the Church reduced to a Remnant I confess some certain Persons of this Remnant did not keep silence but instead of adhering to or dissembling the Peoples Errors opposed them strongly But besides that a great many more no question sighed in secret for these things it is manifest that this Remnant did not make a separate Body by themselves nor exercise any publick Worship different from the rest And consequently the Churches visibility tho not wholly extinct yet was mightily darkned and diminished and that is all we would infer from hence My third Observation is That there was indeed in that Ancient People a continued Succession of Prophets and as M. de Condom says a Prophetical Ministry ordinary with the People where the Prophets made an Order always subsisting whence God continually drew Divine Men by whose Mouth he spake loudly and publickly to all his People But then we must say withal that the Body of this Order of Prophets were every whit as corrupt as the Priests and People This cannot be denied for the Scripture affirms it expresly The Priests said not where is the Lord and they that should Minister the Law knew me not the Pastors also offended against me and the Prophets prophesied in Baal The Prophets prohesie lies and the Priests bear rule by their means and my People love to have it so I have heard what the Prophets said that Prophesie lies in my Name saying I have dreamed How long shall this be in the hearts of the Prophets that Prophesie lies Yea they are Prophets of the deceit of their own heart Which think to cause my People to forget my Name by their Dreams which they tell every Man to his Neighbour as their Fathers have forgotten my Name for Baal And a vast number of Passages to the like purpose So that we cannot say there was at that time any visible Body that opposed the Corruptions or maintained the Worship of God in its genuine Purity The Prophets by whom God spoke so loudly and publickly were only lookt upon as private Persons of an Opinion different from the generality of the Society And therefore how loudly and publickly soever they spoke if in order to the constituting a Visible Church it be necessary to find a Body or Society of Men making Profession of pure Doctrine M. de Condom must acknowledg that there was not then any Visible Church in the World And now Sir give me leave I beseech you to ask with what pretence to Reason men can still cavil at this instance of the Corruptions in Israel heretofore and not own it for a sensible Proof that confirms most of the Truths established in the former part of this Letter In it you see the several Bodies that made up the ordinary Ministry all of them ensnared in Idolatry and false Worship In it you see the whole Body of the People blindly following the exorbitancies of their Guides In it you see the true Church of God subsisting not in an exterior Society enjoying its Ministers Assemblies and publick Worship peculiar to its self but in some reserved Persons that still maintained their Integrity in the midst of all these Confusions In it you see God himself and after him St. Paul making his true People to consist in these Persons so reserved All this proves and proclaims to the World That the true Church consists of true Believers only That this Church is not otherwise visible but as mixt with wicked Men and Reprobates That this mixture does sometimes so obscure it that it is very difficult to come to a knowledg of it That it does nevertheless still subsist even in that state of obscurity And that in these true Believers and Persons whom God has reserved he does fulfil the Promises of Perpetuity made to the Church I close this Letter with sincere Protestations That it is much to my dissatisfaction that I find my self obliged to put Pen to paper in a Dispute against M. de Condom I have all along had and ever shall have not only all the Respect for him which is due to his Quality and Station but more especially I esteem his Virtue so universally acknowedged and admire his Perfections and the excellent Gifts God hath imparted to him as they really deserve In our Conference I observed in him a Wit lively and piercing a clear Apprehension a proper and easy way of Expression and especially an extraordinary Candour and Civility of Behaviour He maintain'd his Principles with all the strength and advantage imaginable made them look as fair and specious as it was possible for any man and managed them with abundance of Skill and Address In a word I was strangely taken with the Accomplishments of his Person and did often feel such kind Inclinations and Wishes as Men should do upon such Occasions My Sentiments of Honour and Respect for him are sincere but the more they are so the more frequent I must complain of one thing inserted by him in his Discourse with Mademoiselle de Duras and that is That in our Religion we believe there is a point of time when a Christian is obliged to doubt whether the Scripture was inspired by God whether the Gospel is a Truth or a Fable whether Jesus Christ was a Deceiver or a
the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes That the whole Jewish Church had in their Assemblies declared Jesus Christ a Deceiver That nevertheless this was not only a Church but the one sole Church in the World at that time invested with the Authority of God who had founded nourisht and brought it up till that time That God had taught it by his Prophets and depesited his Holy Oracles there That this Church laid a just claim to a succession of Two thousand years continuance and valued her self upon it That she held formal solemn Assemblies and such as Jesus Christ himself acknowledged They sit says he in Meses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do And yet this very Church determin'd the greatest and most heinous Error that ever could be in the World even that Jesus Christ was to be rejected as a wicked man and a Deceiver That we cannot avoid affirming that at that time siâ—gle and private persons might understand the Scripture better than the whole Body of the Church met together and that in allowing M. de Condom's Principle to be true viz. That men ought to yield an absolute obedience to the decisions of Ecclesiastical Assemblies without taking upon them a right to examine what is so decided we do condemn Jesus Christ and as many as then believed in him For according to this principle Jesus Christ ought not any more to have taught the people publickly after the Church had past such decisions against him nor ought the people to have given him their attention any more because they were not suffered to examine those decisions And yet proceeded he Jesus Christ did not forbear Preaching to the people and converting many of them nor did they withdraw their attention not withstanding all the decisions given against him This principle then of a blind and implicit obedience is consequently false and contrary to the conduct of Jesus Christ and his Disciples To preclude this Argument by urging that Jesus Christ wrought such miracles as did evidence his Authority to be Divine is here of no significancy at all For there are two sorts of Miracles the one true the other false the one that men may believe a lye the other to convince them of the truth This distinction was made by God himself in the 13th Chapter of Deuteronomy where he tells the Israelites That if a Prophet give them a sign or a wonder and would perswade them to go after other Gods They must not hearken unto him for the Lord their God proveth them Jesus Christ also hath himself owned the truth of this distinction Now said he if M. de Condom's principle had taken place the people had nothing to do to make this distinction after once the Church had determined that Jesus Christ wrought his Miracles by the help of Beelzebub and not by the Power of God They must not any more according to M. de Condom so much as open their eyes to see these Miracles or suffer the least impression to be made upon themselves by them And by consequence this principle is false and destructive of the Christian Religion Hereupon M. de Condom interrupted Mr. Claude telling him that this Instance of the Jewish Church ought not to have been produced in the present case For said he the Synagogue was to fall thus the Prophets had foretold and therefore the people ought not then to pay such an obedience to their Guides as is now owing to the Church of Christ which must never fail To which Mr. Claude return'd That seeing the Synagogue was to fall it might consequently so fall out that single and private persons should understand the meaning of Scripture better than the whole body of a Church met together in its solemn Assemblies which was the very point in debate and from hence it follows clearly that it was neither pride nor presumption for private people either to believe it possible for them at some time to understand Scripture better than the whole Body of an Assembly nor upon this principle to take their decisions into examination And that this was all he desired Besides said he This Reason could have no manner of influence upon the Jews because the Synagogue were not only not agreed upon it but quite contrary asserting that it should never fail they produced in their own behalf several promises which at first blush seemed to have a great deal of strength 'T is but lost labour to urge in defence of this the Prophets who foretold its fall for the meaning of those Prophesies was the thing then in question and the Synagogue having explained these in a sense that made for them according to M. de Condom's principle it was the people's duty to stick close to that explanation without examining it at all In a word said he this fall of the Synagogue does not make their Assemblies differ at all from those of the Christian Church with relation to the matter now in dispute between us For what Promises soever the Church of Jesus Christ may have that she shall subsist for ever there is not any thing in Scripture gives us assurance that the Assemblies of Councils shall never fail Here M. de Condom took up the Discourse and said That Mr. Claude's Argument concerning the time of the Synagogues fall was the most impertinent thing in the World For at that time it could not be said that there was any visible Authority upon Earth to which men were necessarily obliged to submit because Jesus Christ himself was there that is the very Truth appearing visibly among men to whom God had given testimony from Heaven and who wrought Miracles Do but you proceeded he bring again Jesus Christ Teaching Preaching doing Miracles among us and we shall have no further occasion for the Churches Authority My Argument said Mr. Claude was not only the most pertinent to our present purpose but the clearest and most concluding Argument in the World and I hope you your self will grant it to be so after I have entreated you to consider that the visible Authority of the Son of God was the very point in dispute between the Synagogue and Jesus Christ and that this very point the Synagogue had determined in the negative That the main business was to know whether Jesus Christ were a Deceiver or not whether his Miracles proceeded from God or Beelzebub That Jesus Christ's visible Authority could not decide that question in the peoples minds for no Authority can decide a doubt till it be first received and Jesus Christ's Authority was not as yet received for the main controversy then depending was whether it should be received or rejected So that there remained only the Authority of the Church and this had determined against him According then to M. de Condom's Principles private persons ought consequently to have stuck to that and rejected Jesus Christ M. de Condom called this Argument of Mr. Claude's a Jewish