as the giving of the Eucharist to Infants was once held by D. Innocentius 3. as a Doctrine of Faith and a Tradition of the Church but after 600 years practise wore out insensibly and hath been condemned by the Councils of Constance and Trent with an Anathema and to increases also and therefore their Religion is indeed Irregular But concerning Traditions as the word signifies particular points of beliefe or practise in Christian Religion these 3 Rules are worth Observation 1. Whatsoever is offered to us or enjoyned to us in belief or practise under colour of being a Tradition if it be repugnant to the written word of God or destructive of Gods precepts ought to be rejected by Christians Christs reason together with the refutation of Pharisaical Traditions confirms the Truth of this Rule 2. Whatsoever is obtruded upon us under the pretext of being a Tradition that is neither clearly delivered in nor fairly by good consequence deduced out of Gods written word needs not and ought not to be received as a matter necessary to Salvation The manner of conveniency or necessity wherein things which are strangers to Scripture are held is carefully to be taken notice of For several practises have been in early times introduced under shew of conveniency as the Apostle says some bodily exercises carry a plausible shew of wisdome which having once obtained credit by the favourable commendation of eminent persons and custome have been in succession of time adorned with the Title of Tradition and grown up from being thought convenient to be accounted and prest as necessary to Salvation This danger is to be prevented by circumspection And the perfection of Scripture as it is a compleat Rule of Religion proves the truth and usefulness of this second Rule 3. Doctrines of Faith and divine Worship being secured by Gods written word from intrusions of humane inventions if any Rites or Ceremonies can be proved by fair Testimonies of Antiquity to have been practised by the Church universal of primitive times and are still continued by the Authority of Church Governors as tending to edification or the free and open profession of our Faith whether they be called Traditions or no are not lightly to be rejected much less violently opposed by private Christians Thus much for Traditions as meaning Matters of Religion delivered down from former times to posterity But Tradition often bears another sence and is taken formally for the manner of conveyance of matters that concern Religion which is partly oral partly practical The joynt agreement of Doctrine and practice continued by succession of one Age after another whilst one generation derives to another the whole body of Religion is now called Tradition and of late is asserted by Papists in this Kingdom to be the only Principle and Rule of Faith and affirmed to be of its own nature infallible and incorruptible and to be evident by its own light And thus the order of inquiring for the ancient dayes and old wayes is quite inverted for now we need only as they teach mark what the present Church of Rome doth and because Tradition cannot fail nor vary therefore the Popes Court at this day with the Church Altars Pictures Wafers mangled Eucharist adoration of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Angels and Saints offering of a real Sacrifice for Souls in Purgatory and offering of the Masse to God for the honour of Saints is a true Glasse wherein you may see the face of the Church when St. Peter sate Bishop of Rome This is the aim of the Querists Discourse to set up this Tradition instead of Scripture If you will not believe him you may choose because he tels you plainly it is not his work to prove any thing But I will give you a little touch of proving the vanity of this pretence The experience of all Ages before the flood after the flood in the Jewish Nation and in the Christian Churches doth manifestly shew that the derivation of Religion from mouth to ear from hand to hand from Fathers to children from Priests to Successors from Age to Age this course of Tradition which is opposed unto and preferred before the Scriptural way of preserving and propagating and recovering of Religion hath been and may be quickly corrupted often interrupted and hath suffered notorious changes and may do at any time when sloth and sensuality and neglect of the light and vanity of mind set forward by the Devils malice and cunning make men weary of the true Religion But I will add another Argument to another purpose St. Paul by word of mouth taught the Thessalonians what he thought not expedient to write to wit what hindered the Man of sin from being revealed Here was a matter of consequence that concerned the Church delivered by word of mouth which if it had been written as well as that Character of the Man of sin the fame Scripture which preserved and conveyed the one would have also secured the knowledge of the other to posterity If now an eminent Church failed in deriving one point of Doctrine to after Ages which with little difficulty might have been kept and taught but is now lost for not being recorded in Scripture what likelihood is there that the whole body of Christian Religion was or could be traduced entire and pure meerly by oral Tradition without dependance on the Scripture for 1600 years For my part I think still that as the Church of the Jews were either more or less pure and their Religion more or less Hourished in truth and sincerity as the Governors gave heed more or less to the light of the Law written in like manner according to the degrees of Pastors attendance to the holy Scriptures the Tradition of Christianity hath varied Therefore the Scriptures are the only fixed and stable Rule of Religion 7. Lastly Let us allow the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus non est erratum sed traditum That which hath been taught every where always and by all Pastors of the Church is not an error but a true Tradition If we make Antiquity Universality and Consent twisted together the measure of our faith for certain we shall have a very short Creed and that large Assumentum that new piece of Italian stuff which was woven in the Shop at Trent and by the Popes stitching is added to the old garment of the Church the Constantinopolitan Creed must of necessity be pared off and thrown away But the main thing to be considered at present is the difficulty of applying this Rule for the examination of the Doctrines which pretend to Tradition and the tryal of the Spirits even of all Doctrines before we trust any Teacher is alwayes an act of Christian prudence so long as the world is pestered with false Prophets For can you or any reasonable man imagin that Universal Tradition of the Catholick Church is more evident in it self and more conspicuous to learned
or to the ending of frivolous Disputes The Rule of Faith is that publick standard of Christian Religion which includes things of belief and practice both in the service of God and also in conversation with men The adequate Rule of Faith for Christians is the Word of God revealed by Christ or the Gospel which was first preached and then written by the instinct of the same Spirit Rom. 10. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 25 The Gospel in this sence doth include in it the whole Scripture of the Old Testament the divine Authority whereof it affirms and confirms by the harmony of both This Rule is one and immoveable and so entirely delivered by the Apostles that it is uncapable of addition and the attempt of addition or mutilation or any corruption makes the falsifier of this Rule liable to a dreadfull Anothema denounced by St. Paul Gal. 1. 8 9. Now because the holy Scriptures in their fulness contain this Gospel therefore they are usually called by the ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin the straight unerring unswerving Rule of Faith that can deceive none and needs no correction This Rule contains and like a Light holds forth the object of our Faith and is not the less a Rule of Faith because this holy Scripture comprehends many other things of great use for our instruction and spiritual delight as a Carpenters Rule justly carries that name and serves the turn of measuring stuff and work though it be set out with ornamental and useful Tables You may now apprehend what we mean by the Rule of Faith But the Means of Faith signifie another thing For whatsoever by its nature and efficacy doth serve to bring man to the knowledge right understanding and full assurance of the saving Truth comes under this Notion the Means of Faith The holy Scripture as it conveys unto us the Gospel which it contains and preserves is indeed a principal instrument of God to work that faith which is his gift Moreover God hath in his wise government of the World and his Church appointed many means which according to the course of his providence contribute to the working of faith in our hearts There are some outward whereof the chief is the publick Ministry which is compared to a Candlestick that holds forth the light to the houshold of faith And not only Pastors are the means of faith but also Parents and Masters of Families and every good Christian which is as Christ says of his Disciples in general for the twelve Apostles were not then selected out of the multitude the light and salt of the earth by communicating the Word unto others are very often the happy propagators of the faith Besides men some things as Books are instrumental to promote our knowledge and faith There are some inward means of faith as our sense and rat onal faculties in the exercise whereof if there be not an actual certainty allowed the whole frame of civil society will be dissolved into confusion and the foundation of Religion will sink since faith is a reasonable service and was first built upon their sight which were eye-witnesses of the Gospel and now comes by hearing Rom. 10. 17. which two senses are the instruments of Discipline Neither will I exclude Oral or Practical Tradition from being a means to propagate the faith But this is so slippery a way so changeable uncertain and liable to corruption and forgery as appears by the superstitions of Heathens and Jews for the divine Authority of all which Tradition was pretended that without Scripture to support it Tradition is too weak to hold up faith Thus it appears that the Rule of faith can be but one and it must be common to all as the faith and salvation are common and it must have the unmoveable certainty of a Rock for man to build on And this firmness you may call if you please Infallibility for this property of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 18. can neither be deceived nor deceive is communicated to his Word which is the Truth it self and therefore the Rule of faith But the term Infallible is a Scholastical Novelty which neither Scripture nor the ancient Fathers used to attribute unto the Church but now it makes such a noise in the world with the incessant ringing of Papists that it stupifies many mens senses and understandings But the Means of faith are manifold which where God himself by his Spirit manages them are effectual to beget a saving faith though many of them are far short of Infallibility though Papists in their confused way of talking require Infallibility in the Ground Rule and Means of Faith equally 2. Again Pray note his unprosperous fraud in the abatement of the Scriptures perfection and all sufficiency to teach us the whole mystery of godliness without setting us to seek out elsewhere for a remnant of faith or an unwritten Word For he confesses the Scriptures to be a profitable but a partial Rule which contains many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expresly enough to satisfie any capacity but wilful pertinacy and for the rest which are not thus expressed it refers us to the Church and the Governors thereof c. For certain the Monarchy of the Pope and the Infallibility of the Church of Rome are the fundamental stones of the Romish Religion and if they could be proved true are of the most importance to the ease of conscience and the peace of Christendom in that sluggish and servile way wherein Papists would lead us and therefore it is no wonder that Papists who are true to their interest contend earnestly for these that are such points as being once admitted they facilitate the reception of all other Doctrines whatsoever Now let the Papists shew these two clearly expressed in Scripture or shew us a good reason why the Apostle should have a greater mind to tell the after-Ages of the Church of his Cloak and Parchments then to inform them of those points which according to their opinion are necessary to preserve the Church in peace especially then and there when St. Paul had it in his design to recount all the grounds motives and means of Christians keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and yet hath left out the Headship of the Pope and the Magistery of the Infallible Guide the Roman Church What reason imaginable can be given why Christ and his Apostles should not have an equal kindness for all the important points of Religion and an equal care to conserve their memory by writing or indeed what need was there of writing any thing at all of particular points when one Reference of us to the Church for all would have served the turn would not one precept written of Ask the Church that is the governors of it or instead of Search the Scriptures Inquire for the universal Tradition of Christendome have been convenient and sufficient for our
the writings of both as Abraham in his Dialogue with Dives gives the name of Moses and the Prophets to their holy Books left behind them do reasonably expect that whosoever goes about to draw us off from that Church and way of salvation wherein we are engaged unto another Society under pretence that we can be safe no where else but in that Ark do strongly and clearly prove that our Religion is for the main body of it false treacherous and destructive of salvation and that the Society to which we are invited by Papists is the sole Mistress of saving truth For all that are acquainted with the course either of Judicial proceedings or of Scholastical disputations know well that this Rule holds Actori and Asserenti incumbit probatio The proof lies upon the Accuser or the Averrer of any thing But this puzling way without proving of any thing savours so strongly of deceit and is so far from a fair way of reasoning that it can catch none but them that are unsetled in their Religion and Novices in both divine and humane learning And because there are too many such in the world whose precious souls are in danger at this time the discovery of Popish illusions is now become a necessary work of the prudent and faithfull Guides of souls who by Gods grace have an actual certainty of their Religion and can justly say in the words of St. John We know that we are of the truth and We know that God hath given us a mind or understanding to know the true God and we are in him that is true 1 Joh. 3. 19. and 5. 20. although they have not the vanity to challenge to themselves an Infallibility So much for the five Questions in general which whether the Divine hath answered or no it is now free for the indifferent Reader to judge As for this Answerers Engagement in the Controversie it was very casual A Romanist that is very zealous to promote the Pope's Interest in this Kingdom had endeavoured to gain credit with the Eve by a surprisal and if the old stratagem had prospered by her insinuation to draw in the Adam presuming that the Rhetorick of love would be more prevalent then his Logick upon a considerate Gentleman To this end a Copy of the five Questions was commended to the persons with a presumption that no Minister of our Church could give a fit and full Answer to these confounding Queries And then it was to be hoped that the parties assaulted would presently despise and then desert a Church that was unfurnished of a Ministry able to answer such doughty Questions as the refined Wits of Papists devise It was also to be supposed that whosoever breaks off from our Church would without any further ado at the next step run into that which is next him the Church of Rome whose wide gate stands open day and night and is ready to receive all that would find a broad way to Heaven such as is the Roman passage by a Priests Absolution without a holy life or sincere contrition for a debauched But it fell out about this time that a Countrey Minister of the Gentlemans ancient acquaintance being in the City and invited to dine at his Lodging came to see his Friend a little sooner then some other Guests then expected The Gentleman thought fit to make these Questions a part of the Ministers entertainment The Minister took the short time of that expectation to read the Riddle and after a small ruminating took Pen and Ink and set down the double Answer hereafter following and resigned the Writing to the Gentleman to be disposed of at his pleasure Shortly after the Romish Mountebank renewed his visit to see how the Pill had wrought The Gentleman then took the opportunity to deliver him the Ministers Paper But many moneths past before any return was made at length a Reply was communicated to the Gentleman who conveyed it to the Answerer as soon as he could conveniently being at a distance from him by the interposition of several Counties The Minister took his first time of leisure to give his sence of this Reply by a Letter to his Friend who was the person concerned in the Contest as being the man aimed at for to be made a Roman Convert that is to say in plain terms a child of Hell in a double measure for leaving the clear and living Well of salvation and then seeking it in a broken cistern or in a foul puddle of errors and corruptions Withall it was the Ministers intent that the Letter should be imparted unto the Romanist that he might make some good use of it For the Protestants charity is imployed to turn a sinner from the error of his way as well as to secure a Christian in the path of righteousness And although this transaction was past A. D. 1666. yet be that drove the trade pursued it no further and hath neither as it was on our side heartily desired acknowledged his error whereof he might be convinced and confess it with a wholesome shame nor attempted any vindication of his Writing that we know of which silence hath more of prudence then any fresh proffer of more impertinencies could have His silence therefore cannot be taken for consent in a matter of Religion where the confession of our faith is a duty but may be taken for a modest laying down of his weapons Now as for this way of publication of all that hath pass'd on both sides he that observes the bold activity of Romanists at this time may apprehend a sufficient reason of it without being told one Indeed the Gentleman who had an interest in the Papers had used his freedom by shewing them to some Divines of our Church who gave a favourable judgement of the Ministers whole design and advised the Gentleman to publish that which they conceived to be of a general concernment and might prove a publick benefit by the removal of a stumbling block laid in the way of weak Christians and might be usefull to the prevention of much mischief which these Questions might produce if permitted to pass uncontrolled The Minister hereupon hath been prest for his leave to let his Writings with the Adversaries to pass the Press And he considered that there was no reason imaginable why he should now conceal what was designed for the maintenance of our Religion from the sight of his Brethren which he had before exposed to the view and censure of our Adversaries who are seldom equal Judges of our Writings Since therefore the five Questions are spread abroad by our Adversaries who may have too great a complacency in their own inventions as unanswerable if we all pass them by as contemptible but may be Gods grace which often works by weak instruments and beyond mans opinion be moved and directed to consider their ways and turn their feet unto Gods testimonies even for their sakes who both are miserably misled
and also industriously mislead others as well as for the good of our fellow-travellers whose company we desire to keep in Gods wayes of truth and peace the Minister hath complied with the Gentlemans desires in this particular and both have the Christian civility to communicate the use of their Light to all travellers that may reap benefit by it whether they be in or out of the way But because we publish the Writings of a Papist we desire to assure the Reader that the Gentleman is not so void of Honour which is his particular Conscience and the Minister is not so forgetfull of his Office whereof Fidelity is the quality as that either of them should by any wilfull alteration corrupt and falsifie them in the private conveyance or in the present publishing The Minister indeed in his second pains of preparing all for the Press by transcription hath upon the review of his own Letter to his Friend added two short Considerations which for distinctions sake are inclosed within these marks Also he hath made some small alteration in a few sentences for the fuller explication of his own Answers This he thinks it necessary to advertise the Reader of because the Romanist who gave out the Questions and made the Reply may have the curiosity to peruse this Book as being concerned in it If then he shall compare my Letter as it now runs with that which was formerly imparted to him and find something altered and some things added he hath yet no reason to cavil or carp at the Ministers proceeding as unsincere or to charge him with foul play in calling this the Letter to his Friend dated June 18. 1666. For he hath unsaid nothing which was then delivered and he hath only endeavoured both to make himself to be better understood then he might have been before and also to instruct his Friend more fully concerning two particulars which he had occasion to treat of If therefore the Romanist list to read this second Edition of the Letter he will have cause to thank the Minister for his double diligence to discover his errors and to give him fuller satisfaction then formerly And this comes timely enough to prevent his Defence or to procure his Amendment Thus gentle Reader thou maist perceive the whole design of the publication of this party-coloured Discourse I shall detain thee yet a little longer with offering unto thee a Consideration that is near a kin to our Matter in hand We see the indefatigable diligence of Romanists equal to that of the Scribes and Pharisees whom our Blessed Saviour branded with the infamous character of Hypocrites and denounced a dreadfull Woe against them for their restless travels and divelish labours in compassing Sea and Land to make one Proselyte I desire my Christian Reader to observe the Parallel between them The Roman Sheep-stealers of this Age the Scribes and Pharisecs took upon them to be the Guides of Gods people in that Nation of the Jews which was the only visible Church of God at that day and had obtained great credit with the vulgar by the ostentation of counterfeit holiness boasting of knowledge and pretence of Authority The Jewish Church was then very corrupt in Religion not indeed by Idolatry as formerly before the Babylonian Captivity for the smart of Gods rod lying long on their backs made them after their return for everweary of Idols but by a tenacious adherence to humane Traditions which burden how heavy and hard to be born the Lawyers considered not but the Scribes and Pharisees bound upon the consciences of the people for religious Ordinances of divine original not written in the Law of Moses but traduced by oral tradition of the Fathers It was then as David speaks high time for the Lord to work to lay to his hand that is his Ministry when they had destroyed Gods Law and made his Commandements of none effect by the traditions of men Yea St. Peter says that Christ died to redeem his people by his blood from that vain conversation which the Jews were enslaved unto by the tradition of their Fathers The Pharisees then that took such pains to make Proselytes did not make it their business to gain strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel unto a communion with the people of the God of Abraham according to the pure Law of Moses for which Christ certainly would never have condemned them as he did But the aim of their labours was to increase their own party by captivating men under their yoke of Authority to the observance of a traditional Religion and thereby to strengthen their power and worldly interest in that Nation which was called by Gods Name Now for this inveagling of Disciples to the keeping of counterfeit Traditions some whereof were but vain and uneffectual to sanctification others were violations of Gods Law our just Master curses these seduced and seducing Guides for making their wretched followers the children of Hell even worse then themselves by engaging their new conquered Subjects to the most violent hatred and fierce opposition of the truth and the professors of it See now how the Papists tread in the steps of the Pharisees and in one particular out-act their crimes Their pretence to the Chair of Authority indowed with Infallibility their outward varnishes of sanctity laid over their covetousness and uncleanness their horrid hypocrisies I omit to speak of But their Proselytizing is that which I propound to your notice Their work is not to convert Pagans from the worship of Devils and dead Idols to serve the true and living God nor to turn Jews and Turks who abhor Idols and therefore are too rationally scandalized by Roman Idolatries and averted from Christianity by that conspicuous Mother of spiritual fornications but to pervert Christians who know and worship the only true God through and with the One Mediator Jesus Christ according to the simplicity of the Gospel and to perswade these to break off communion with all other Christians who have obtained the like precious faith with themselves and to subject their souls to the conduct of Traditionaries and so to become an accession to a potent Sect or Faction in Christendom Indeed the Roman Sectaries are in no small measure more pernicious false Teachers then the Pharisees because they not only evacuate the Authority of the Gospel and corrupt the purity of Christian Religion by novel devices some directly repugnant to Law and Gospel others vainly superstitious and all obtruded under the false title of Traditions but also have introduced into their Religion the most gross Idolatries that ever the Devil did pollute the confederate servants of God withall Since then the purple Whore hath made the Kings of the Earth and many Nations drunk with the poysoned Wine of her fornications as St. John being in the Spirit foresaw and foretold and it is the labour of Roman Emissaries to invite Englishmen to drink of her golden Cup St. John's Caution was never
any of them I therefore answer that when any such question arose amongst the Jews they were neither to have their last refuge to the Kings of Israel or Judah nor to the State Magistrates or common people for resolution in what they were to believe but to the lawful High Priest for the time with his High Council or Synod of other chief Priests and Doctors in the Law of Moses And they were to conform their belief to what they defined and taught them so that whatsoever either the Kings or some number of inferior Tribes or some particular Priests taught practised or believed contrary to the Doctrine and definition of this Supreme Spiritual Council was to be held erroneous and those who held forth such erroneous Doctrine pertinaciously or practised publickly contrary to it were to be esteemed in their doctrine Hereticks and in their practise Nonconformists to the True Church or Separatists from it If therefore a Jew in the times mentioned in the Querie should have demanded which was then the True Visible Church wherein Salvation could be acquired the answer must have been That it was the High Priest then being and all these believers who conformed their Faith Practises and Communion to him and his high Council ut supra And all such as stood in oppositions against him and division from him were Aliens so long as they continued in that state from the True Church Now if the Querist had proved efficaciously that the High Priest with his fore named Council taught the people either Idolatry the common sin of the Jews or any other breach of Gods Law to be lawful or any error against Gods Revelations to be true or any of his Revelations to be false he had overthrown the whole fabrick of my Queries But seeing this is not yet done by him his Queries are neither an Answer nor any obstruction to mine and therefore they remain in their full vigour against him For notwithstanding all he says in his second Query which is the main force of his instance I have clearly shewed a Jew of those times which was then the True Visible Church out of which Salvation could not be had Now it is impossible to prove any such matter unless he enervate the words of our Saviour Mat. 23. 2 3. where he says That whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught who had and did sit in Moses his chair that is succeeded in his Spiritual authority was to be observed and done by all the Jewish people which supposes evidently they could not teach them either error in Faith and Manners as part of Gods word for then he should have commanded to do evil and believe errors so that they were infallible in their teaching till Shiloh came And the reason why they were so infallible says our Saviour was because they sate upon Moses his chair and so governed successively the Church of God faithfully in matter of doctrine as he did in his time Upon the chair of Moses have sate the Scribes and Pharisees All therefore that they shall say unto you Observe and do it And this reason proves not only those that sate then when our Saviour spake these words but that all those who sate before them ever since the time of Moses were infallible in all divine doctrines both of Faith and Manners The third Querie is therefore thus answered That the Jewish Church understood ut supra could not teach any error as matter of Divine Faith or Religion To the fourth Querie I answer That though from the precedent Answers it followes that the Jewish Church by divine direction preserved the Holy Scriptures so entirely that it never rejected any true part of Gods written word nor received into their Canon of Gods written word any Book or Sentence which was not his word yet it followes not thence that every private person should find out every particular point of Religion by particular or express proofs out of that written word alone but that the Authority of the Jewish Church ut supra in matters controverted should interpose it self and determine the controversie Nor do the two Texts quoted in the Querie prove thus much For that Esa 8. 20. proves only this that they were neither to have recourse to Soothsayers nor to extraordinary visions but to the Law and Testament when doubts arose Now this is so far from forbidding to have recourse to the present respective Priests and Governors of the Church that the Law and Testament command expresly that recourse is to be had to them in doubtful cases Deut. 17. from the 8th to the 12th verse and Malachi 2. from the 4th to the 8th In which places the interpretation of the Law is reserved to the Priest and the disobedience to the Priests command declared to be so great a sin that it is to be punished with no less than death And for the Scriptures themselves it was so far from the Ordinance of Moses his Law that every particular or private Believer had license or opportunity or ordinary possibility to peruse them and gather from them by his sole perusal what was and what was not to be believed as private Protestants now do that the Law was only to be read to them once in Seven years Deut. 31. 10 11. and was accordingly performed by Esdras Nehem. 8. 1 2 3. And this was all we read in Scripture of the common People knowing the written word And it appears that the people were so far from undertaking by their own private judgements to attain to the full meaning of every hard sentence in the Law that it is said v. 79. that the Levites interpreted to the people and that Esdras taught them And v. 13. not only the people but the inferior Levites and Priests came to Esdras the chief Priest to hear from him the interpretation of the Law Now the respondent if he will make a parallel between the common people of the Jews and his Protestants must produce some clear place of Scripture where the Books of the Law of Moses and not only they but the whole Old Testament was as common and familiar in the houses and hands of every ignorant Jew as the Old and New Testament is now in the houses and hands of every ignorant Protestant which I believe he will find a very hard task seeing Printing being then unknown to the world it would have been very difficult to have found so immense a number of copies as are now since Printing of the Bible amongst Protestants Yet are not we of opinion that the Scriptures are either not profitable as Saint Paul says they are or not sufficient supposing them to be the written word of God by some precedent proof by way of Rule to make us wise unto Salvation For they contain many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expressely to all who are not willfully pertinacious and what they contain not in particular expressions by general rules they refer to the Church
be seen heard or felt without a deception of the Senses Now it is far more opposite to humane reason to believe one to be three and three to be one and that in the very self same being without any difference or mutation then to believe bread to be changed into flesh or one body to be in more places at once What you say of breach of Charity is misconceit of our doctrine We censure not the Persons but the Doctrine and that maintained pertinaciously and obstinately Now who does so we cannot absolutely judg and therefore pass no absolute judgment upon particulars And this is so far from breach of Charity that it is only out of Charity that we let Protestants know what danger they are in that they may avoid it whereas otherwise we should be Flatterers and Sycophants in letting them go on securely in the danger we conceive them to be in The Council of Trent composed no new Creed at all but gave a Catalogue of such points to be professed by all those who were to teach in publick Academies before they were admitted to that office As the English Protestants do exact a profession of the 39 Articles of such as she admits to Orders I have nothing to do with the proof of any thing till these Queries be answered by Protestants Fourth Section containing an Examination of the foregoing Reply made by the Romanist which was comprised in a Letter to the Gentleman assaulted Mr. F. M. SIR I Received the Papers which you conveyed unto me by many Ambages on the 12th of April since which time I have been intangled in several businesses that allowed me no leisure to consider the Cavils of the Factors for the Court of Rome who are like the Clients of the Idol God of Ekron the Flies not only for their insinuation into secrets but also for their restless importunity who though beaten off from the Hesh they would taint and corrupt yet return again But now though enough hath been lately published by eminent persons in our Church to stop the mouths of gainsayers or at least to secure prudent readers from the dangerous practises of those who like Elymas cease not to pervert the streight waies of the Lord yet I have taken some spare time to examine what is returned to that Paper which you know Sir I writ in your Dining-room whilst you staid a while for your company to dinner Upon the perusal I find nothing that may render the defence of mine own former writing so difficult to me as it may be tedious to you For you will see that Oracle of Solomon verified The beginner of strife is like one that opens a passage to waters As waters let in at a small breach quickly spread to a deluge so you may observe how contentions about Religion begun by admission of a few questions swell to Volumes that cloy or tire rather then instruct readers except they be such lovers of Truth as to seek it with patience But least my silence might give some occasion to the Adversarie of triumphing over our Church whereas indeed neither the validity of our cause or profession nor the credit of our Church depends on so weak a Basis as the acting of one of the meanest of her Children I shall endeavour to repair this breach and to retrench these bitter waters of Romish contentions against the Truth into their own channels And that you may not be affrighted with the very bulk of my Reply I shall not enlarge my discourse to disprove every particular which these Papers may tempt me to contradict but make short animadversions upon whatever occurs and appears material to our present Queries My first Querie ministers no occasion of dispute The second in which he rightly apprehends the main force of my instance against his Queries to lie is attacked by him confidently with such weapons as I may safely trust you to judge of their validity And indeed you that are assaulted in the possession of the truth of Christian Religion conveyed unto you by the light of Gods Word in the Scripture which is held forth by a Ministerie that doth not pretend to Infallibility but professeth legitimate Authority to instruct all under their charge in the Doctrine of the Gospel must be Judge in the Court of your own conscience whether the Roman Questionist or I speak that which is agreeable to the common Rules of Truth And your Reason assisted with the blessing of God the Father of Lights who freely and liberally gives wisdom sufficient to salvation unto all that with humility meekness and resolution of obedience implore his holy Spirit of understanding must be permitted to be your Guide in discovering the True Church from the False and may as well and safely be allowed to distinguish the wholesome Doctrine from the corrupt and noxious since this may be easier and sooner discerned by the agreeableness of any Doctrine to the sence of Scripture in which all things necessary are plain then the truth of a Church can be discovered by those Notes commonly given by the Papists which are uncertain variable difficult to be examined and which is of most importance not infallibly known to be the infallible Notes of a True Church nor infallibly applied to their Church except you will take their Testimony of themselves to be infallible which is the thing in question But not to make unnecessary excursions I shall betake my self to examine his Answer to my second Querie I will not waste time to unfold the Logical term Ignoratio Elenchi though I can shew how unjustly this fallacy is charged upon me and how easily it may be retorted upon him I shall appeal to your reason and leave you to determine who is guilty of mistaking the Argument in debate or of proceeding fallaciously He thinks he hath convinced me of such a sophistical dealing by saying That the Queries about the Christian Church to which those propounded by me ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church But I desire you to consider whether there be not an exact analogy as to the sufficient way and means of salvation between the Christian Church under the Gospel diffused through all Nations and the Jewish Church which was the only Nation which had then the peculiar priviledge to be in Covenant with God and to enjoy the living Oracles of truth and whether there be not a just correspondence in the obligation that lies upon the members of either Church both to serve God sincerely according to his will revealed in his Word and also at the same time to yield obedience to their Superiors in the Lord and according to that Law which was given to Prince and Priests and People The whole Kingdom of Israel at first as it was undivided was the only Church of God And the Kingdom of Judah after the Rent was the only Spouse of God till she had a Bill of Divorce for her
spiritual whoredoms And therefore let any indifferent Reader judge whether I proceeded not upon a good ground when I compared the present Catholick Church with the only Church though then confined to one Nation since both are equally furnished by God with sufficient means to preserve Religion and both are equally liable to corruption in their members and if you will believe St. Paul's warning to the Church of Rome the visible Roman Church is more then equally with that of the Jews obnoxious to a grand apostacy and excision There is indeed one difference between the particular members of the Jewish Church under the Law and particular Christians under the Gospel for which the condition of Gods servants under the Old Testament was much harder then ours is under the New For the prescript service of God being of old tied to the Temple at Hierusalem and the people being bound to worship God there when the Temple was shut up and the worship of the Lord wholly laid down as under King Ahaz read 2 Chron. 29. 7. or when the City and Temple were polluted and prophaned with the execrable Altars and Images of Baal of the Sun and of the Host of Heaven and Devil-worship which were set up by Manasseh who required obedience of Priests and People and filled Jerusalem with the blood of them who chose to obey God rather than Man See 2 Chron. 33. 3 9. 2. Kings 24. 4. Gods faithful servants must needs have been in a sad streight between their zeal for Gods House and service and their obligation to their superiors who caused at least urged them to err and to do worse then the Heathen as the Holy Ghost speaks in that story when there was no appearance as this Romanist fondly dreams of a standing Council assistant to the High Priest resident at Hierusalem as a Visible guide in Gods way but the Priest that shewed their heads were all Sycophants and Seducers But now the Service of God being spiritual and not tyed to any one place nor the Law of Christ confined to one Bishops chair only but the Church being spred throughout all nations and every Church that is associated orderly in any Kingdom or Nation or being endowed with a sufficient power of conduct and government in which the Christian Magistrate is concerned if a prevalent party of Governours be not only corrupted in matters of Religion but also so abusive of power that the communion with that Church be unsafe Christians are much more at liberty than the Jews were because by removal of their habitation they may leave a gangrened limb of the Catholick Church and joyn to a sounder part where they may be it in the East or in the West offer a pure oblation and incense unto God with acceptance upon the Altar Christ Jesus This advantage of freedom and safety for the Service of God and working out their own salvation a Christian gains above a Jew by the propagation of the Gospel unto the Gentiles and the settlement of particular Churches in several Territories under several jurisdictions But still the parallel holds between Jews and Christians both in regard of their duty to God and their Governours and in respect also of the provision for their eternal Salvation when the iniquity of the times is such that their Governours will either make the people committed to their charge drunk with the poysoned wine of their fornications or make themselves drunk with the blood of Martyrs But he goes on to tell us that his Queries proceed upon the Representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matters of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when Questions arise about any of them 1. Now Sir again I appeal to your reason 1. whether you did apprehend or could divine or by any thing in those Queries imagine that by the Visible Catholick Church which he supposes must be consulted as the Guide of Salvation is to be understood a truly general Council lawfully assembled But now you may be satisfied that when the Papists make a noyse with crying up the Catholick Church they do not mean the Body of the Christian Church diffusive over the whole earth which though it cannot err in matters of Faith necessary to Salvation for then it should cease to be a Church by not holding the head Christ Jesus yet can not this be a Guide because it cannot be consulted by particular Christians or others who having got an incling of the truth and desirous of Salvation may be inquisitive for a Guide And though every Christian which is a sound member of the Catholick Church by holding the true Faith and being ready to joyn upon every good occasion with all his Fellow members in the worship of God through Christ Jesus according to the Rules of the Gospel be obliged to communicate his Light to any man that wants it yet is not every man that agrees with the Catholick Church an Infallible Guide And less than Infallibility will not serve a papists turn when he talks of a Guide though the poor souls in that Synagogue never see any but such Guides which are confessedly fallible because Infallibility is not the Lot of particular Priests And now being instructed to take their meaning which was a secret not to be foreseen for their saying I hope you have not forgot what you have heard my Lord Falkland often say The Pastors assembled in Council though a governing part are still but a part of the Church Catholick and this may be secured from the gates of Hell though they may be permitted to err in matters of Faith 2. But allowing all due honour of Reverence and Obedience to a truly General Council lawfully assembled in the name of Christ and proceeding sincerely by the assistance of the Holy Ghost I desire you to consider how particular Christians are by this mans explication of the word Church set forward in the way to find that which is pretended to be absolutely necessary to wit an Infallible Guide in matters of Faith and holy Life You know that after the Apostles had finished their course the Church subsisted upon the stock of their doctrine with an ordinary Ministry erected and supported by Christ in several Churches respectively for many years and some ages without a general Council Yet particular Christistians had all that while a sufficiency of certain means for the conduct of their Souls in the wayes of Truth Peace and Holyness unto eternal life And therefore doth it not appear evident that there was Salvation attained without a Church in the sense of this Querist But never was there Salvation out of the Catholick Church I pray marke now who is ignorant of or wilfully mistakes the Argument we treat of the Querist or the Respondent 3. Thirdly I desire you to consider in what a wilderness you are intangled without certain path or issue if once
written with a pen of Iron and graven with the point of a diamond upon the horns of their altars yet this Querist would have told a Jew that inquired for the good old way that the Prophets of the Lord were mistaken For he says he hath clearly shewed a Jew of those times that the High Priest then in being suppose for example Vriah the Priest who to please King Ahaz set up an Illegitimate Altar according to the pattern of one at Damascus and set aside the Altar of the Lords appointment with his crew of Court-parasites was the true visible Church to whose word and practise the whole people of God were bound to stand and conform SIR I know not what apprehensions you may have of this mans extolling the Jewish Priest with contradiction to Gods Prophets But I cannot without horror look upon the discourse because I foresee the consequence of it and discover the drift of it which is to palliate yea too justify the Doctrines of Devils taught and the Superstitious and Idolatrous practices in the present Church of Rome which are as reconcileable to the second Commandement and that of Christ Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve as the Calf in the desert and those at Dan and Bethel and the worship of Baal were consistant with the Law of Moses But that which the Prophets have done he says is impossible for me to do unless I enervate the words of our Saviour Mat. 23. 2 3. God forbid that I should attempt to enervate the words of him that is the Truth it self but give me leave to shew you if you do not already clearly perceive that there are no sinews in his discourse strong enough to tye Infallibility to the Chair in which the Scribes and Pharisees sate To pass by the observation of some learned expositors that by the chair of Moses our Saviour did not mention the chair of Aaron the High Priest to whom alone this man no friend to Soveraign Magistrates confines the recourse of Gods people is meant not so much the Spiritual Authority as the Querist presumes as the Civil Power the Remains whereof yet indulged by the Roman Conqueror to the Jews our Saviour would have preserved Let us allow that Christ enjoyns Obedience both to the Civil and to the Spiritual power then exercised by the Governors of that Nation What then Do precepts of Obedience to our mortal superiors necessarily infer Infallibility in Parents who are but the Fathers of our flesh or in Princes who though they be the Sons of God and as the Angels of God yet may fall as one of those celestial Princes Are they thereby so priveledged that they can never enjoyn any thing so repugnant to Gods word as that the inferior shall be driven for tryal of his Faith to the choice of obeying God rather than man But though Kings are not made infallible when they are invested with a divine power albeit Solomon says that a Divine Sentence is in the lips of the King and his mouth transgresseth not in judgement and their subjects are tyed by the Oath of God to keep the Kings commandement yet Priests it may be have a priviledg above Kings You see what these men would be at and you may quickly discover their intention to seclude Magistrates from medling with Religion when he says that the Jews in questions about Religion were not to have the last refuge to the Kings But the sacred History informs us abundantly that the Kings of Gods people were the Guardians of the Law and governed the Priests and the Religious Kings by their severe edicts established the true Religion and reformed the Church as well as the State and prest the Priests of themselves otherwise backward to attend their charge and to teach the people so that a zealous Jew might with better success have made his resort to an Ezekiah or a Josiah then to some cheif Priests and Pastors that had been infected with the fashions of an Idolatrous Court But not to insist more on that consider the impudence of this man who fastens upon our blessed Saviour that which he was so far from saying that he says elsewhere the contrary For he affirms that Christ sayes that the Scribes and Pharisees were infallible because they sate in Moses's Chair and so governed the Church of God successively and faithfully in matter of doctrine whence he concludes that neither their predecessors nor they could teach Error in faith or manners As I have evinced by the Prophets that the Predecessors of the Scribs and Pharisees or rather the Priests and Elders which commonly bear the name of the Church were so far from Infallibility that God himself for their teaching lies overthrew their Chair and for their prophaning the Temple in which they vainly trusted when they turned it into a den of thieves God deserted his own habitation and laid it wast So he that reads the Gospel will quickly perceive this figment of Infallibility not so much usurped by Scribs and Pharisees themselves as pinned upon them by Papists overthrown by our Saviour Christ were they secured from error in expounding the Law and teaching the people the sense thereof whose partial righteousness our Saviour condemns as inconsistent with true justice and whose corrupt glosses Christ confutes and opposes his own authority to their comments which adulterated the meaning of Gods law But because it may be said that this was a defect in them for want of light and spiritual obedience was the proper Doctrine of the Gospel so that this is not enough to convince the Scribes and Pharisees of error in Doctrine I answer that St. Paul says the Law is in it self spiritual and it was a gross seducing the people in faith and manners to teach such carnal Doctrines as incouraged and hardned men in sin and kept them from repenting of their vain thoughts and vile lusts which lodged in their hearts But to go a step further Christ that commanded obedience to them which necessarily must be limited by the standing and known Laws of Gods people expresly warns his Disciples to beware of the Leaven of their Doctrine If Christ did by the Precept alledged evidently suppose as the Querist says that the Scribes and Pharisees could teach the people no error in faith and manners then why did our Saviour go about to secure his Disciples by such a Caution whereas they had no reason to suspect that which the Scribes and Pharisees offered them for the food of their souls Their very sitting in Mose's Chair was a sufficient assurance that they were as faithful in the House of God as Moses if you will take this mans word Christ meant and said so and were so wise as they could not be mistaken and so honest as they would not give sowr Leaven instead of heavenly Manna Oh brave Patron of the accursed Scribes and Pharisees But Sir I believe you have read the
23 Chapter of St. Matthew throughout wherein our Saviour sets out those blind Guides and abominable Hypocrites who had the Key of knowledg as the Pope pretends to the custodie of St. Peter's Keys in such detestable characters as are inconsistent with Infallibility But some will say their corruption in manners doth not infer their erroneousness in Doctrine and therefore Pope Alexander the 6 th though a Devil incarnate might be infallible in the Chair as a learned Lady of the Romish side whom you knew once told me I answer that it will be hard to perswade a sober Christian that hath reverent apprehensions of Gods holy Spirit that the Spirit of Discipline will abide with such unrighteousness and uncleanness or that persons immersed in worldly lusts should enjoy the constant presence and influence of that Spirit which leads humble and holy men into all truth But he that can perswade you that they whom Christ calls blind Guides were not only fit but also infallible Directors may with the same confidence and arguments make you believe that the Sun shines in our Horizon at midnight I do not forget that it is not the Pope's Infallibility but a Councils which the Querist pleads for by the example of the Scribes and Pharisees albeit they were perhaps Doctors of the Law but few of them members of the great Council But I touch this briefly because it may be the next Papist that creeps into your familiarity will be for the Pope or perhaps this person who hath in his second Paper resolved the Catholick Church into a Council will in his next Paper melt down a Council into the Pope which is the more likely to be a Guide because a living person to be consulted with if many reasons did not hinder our acceptance of him for an infallible one But that the Scribes and Pharisees were guilty of teaching for Doctrines obligatory of conscience the traditions of men and did by their devices annul the Commandements of God and encourage men under pretence of Religious Vows to disobey their parents and by false Doctrines involved souls in the guilt of perjury is evident by our Saviours convicting and condemning them Can you now be of the opinion that this ungodly fraternity of Villains could make up an infallible Consistory by possessing the Chair of Moses If you can entertain such a conceit you bless whom Christ hath cursed and put darkness for light and call blind Guides the Seers and so draw down the woe upon your self Indeed such Guides are sit for them who wilfully wink against the light and make themselves slaves to the enemies of true Religion who put out the eyes of their captived Proselytes that they may with quiet grind in their Mills I will conclude my Reply to this Paragraph with one Proposal This Querist defers such honour to the Jewish Priesthood that the Priests ought to be simply believed upon their word till Shiloh came because they or at least a Council of them could not erre in faith I will not instance in the Council that condemned our Saviour because although some plead for Caiphas by vertue of his Priesthood to have been inspired by the Holy Ghost which alwayes assisted the Chair yet perhaps this Querist will not extend the continuance of Infallibility thus far And yet he that hath feigned Christ to assign it to the Scribes and Pharisees cannot give a good and solid account how Caiphas and his Confederates came in that critical hour to lose it or why the people without a manifest Declaration of God to abrogate their Authority should not then also be bound to believe their sentence though it were blasphemy and tended to the murder of the Son of God or how Joseph of Arimathea could be absolved according to this mans principles from being an Heretick and Schismatick for not consenting to the counsel and practice of the High Priest with his Assembly for which very thing the Gospel commends him to be a good and a just person since at that very time the whole Nation of the Jews were obliged according to this mans assertions by Christs own injunction to rest in the Doctrine and Determination of the Council of Jerusalem as infallible in matters of Religion and consequently to deny Jesus to be the Christ Think of this seriously But there is another instance which I aim at It is well known that in the degenerate estate of the Jews there started up a powerful Sect of the Sadducees These though pretending to adhere unto the Law of Moses yet are noted to have been infected with pernicious errors in Religion for they believed not any world of Spirits present or to come and therefore denied the existence of Angels or Spirits departed and the resurrection of the body by the return of souls to resume their earthly tabernacles repaired The heads of this Heresie were the chief of the Nation and as it fell out in the vicissitude of Priests whose office was made venal by the Court the High Priest himself was sometimes a Sadducee Read Act. 4. 1. and 5. 17. when such an Heretick possest the Chair of Moses or Aaron who understood not Moses aright as our Saviour ascribes the error of the Sadducees to their ignorance of the Scriptures you may be sure that men of the same judgement made up the greater part of the Sanhedrim For the an mosity of the Sadducees against the Pharisees together with their interest in the Nobility was such that they would not allow many birds of another feather to pearch upon the same branch of Authority though one Pharisee Gamaliel once was permitted to be of the Council Now then if a Jew loth to rely on his own understanding should desire to be instructed in this main Article of Religion which is the chief root of obedience and supporter of patience to whom should he repair and whom should he believe If you will take the Querists word The High priest with his Council was the true visible Church to be hearkned unto But if they declared their own sense and no body can reasonably imagine that they would contradict themselves or as Balaam once was so they all being met together in Council should by a powerful Enthusiasm be constreined to speak contrary to their own mind and deliver that Truth which they did not approve in their own consciences and should in speaking Truth lye by the power of the Holy Ghost the inquisitive Jew was bound contrary to the general sentiment of the 12 Tribes which did in the Expectation of a Resurrection called the hope of Israel serve God day and night to become a Sadducee to disbelieve Moses and to condemn himself to an everlasting death which should swallow up his person and his piety and separate him for ever from having any communion with the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob. If the Council it self should happen to be divided by factions and interrupted by
clamour and violence from determining any thing as it was the fate of the Council to which the Apostle Paul appeared then what is become of the Visible Guide Or how shall the Jews conscience be satisfied of this fundamental doctrine Certainly he must remain a Sceptick and that is next degree to Atheist if he do not find a clear Rule and a firm Rock whereon to build his holy faith which is the ground of a holy life And if he do he need not look for an Infallible Guide which if he have yet the vain curiosity to seek for he will never have the good hap to find I leave you now to judge of this mans resolution of my Queries And though he be like the Scribes and Pharisees in his industry to make Proselytes yet I have no fear of you but that you can discern the fraudulent course he takes to perswade and discover the sad end to which he leads his abused followers Since now I have out of Gods word evinced that the Priests of the Jews high and low were not only corrupt in their private manners but also grossely ignorant of Gods Law and seducers of the people from the true service of God and suborners of false prophets for that also may justly be taken into consideration for the support of their eredit and power with the people and imployed their Judicial power to condemn the true Prophets I have done enough mine Adversary himself being Judg to overthrow the frame of his Queries which were set up as a Gate or Bulwark of Hell to maintain the Devils devise The Infallibility of the Church of Rome masked with the specious Title of the Catholick Church And because I have also by our blessed Saviours sermons and sentence shewed the impiety as much as absurdity of honouring the Scribes and Pharisees with a priviledg of Infallibility I have said all that I conceive requisite concerning his answer to my second and third Queries which he resolves thus The Jewish Church understood ut supra that is the Pastors of the Church representing the whole and acting with authority for the government of the people could not teach any error as matter of divine Faith or Religion Only take this Corollary He must have a mind able to swallow and concoct Transubstantiation that can believe these Idolatrous Pastors so often complained of by God could do all this mischeif in the Church if they had been as dumb dogs in the Devils cause as they were in Gods and as silent for teaching any error in matter of Religion as they were in the instructing of men in the true way of God Or that these ignorant and debauched Priests being consulted concerning the Law of God would or should of necessity by a secret and powerful instinct of an Infallible Genius perpetually waiting upon them at least inspiring them upon such occasions teach the people contrary to their own perswasions and practise To the fourth Querie c. The vanity falshood and impiety of the precedent Answers to my 3 counter Queries being sufficiently evidenced it may seem superfluous to disprove what he builds upon the sand because this will sink of it self with the unsound foundation But because from that absurd supposition of Infallibility settled in the Jewish Priesthood he inferrs that the Jewish Church he means the Priests or chief Pastors thereof for he is much in proving that the people had very little to do with the Bible by divine direction preserved the Holy Scriptures intire without mutilation or addition of any thing uncanonical I shall briefly consider this Consequence which imports that the preservation of Scriptures depends upon the Infallibility of the Priests or the Church that keeps it I confess that Gods gratious providence is remarkable in preserving his pretious Word conteined in the Book of the Law But I pray you consider how little the Priests above montioned contributed their care to the conservation of the Scripture For in the reign of Idolatrous Kings who sometimes profaned the Temple with Idols sometimes shut up the doors of it the Priests who basely flattered and officiously served their Kings were so far from considering the Law at all and much more from reading and teaching it publickly that it might be the rule of Gods service that in Josiahs time the Penta teuch or the whole Law of Moses or as some think the Book called Deuteronomie being casually found in the ruines and rubbish of Gods house and then read by the High Priest was looked upon as a strange thing which they were not acquainted withal But though Priests were sometimes careless Depositaries yet God inspired such a Love of the Law into many of his People both Priests Levites and Laicks that that inestimable Juel was never lost which God would have preserved to be the Standard of his publick worship the measure of private devotion and the constant light to their walking with God and with men in the fear of God And notwithstanding the scandalous corruption of the Holy Order it self for a time pious persons could then be and were rationally assured that the Book of the Law as well as the law of the Lord was perfect and uncorrupted And I desire you to take notice that this is the Principal thing which is aimed at by way of instance or retortion to his fift Querie For if a direct true Answer be given to my fourth Querie it will follow by Analogie that Christians may be as perfectly ascertained of the integrity of the Canon of Scriptures though the major or more eminent part of Bishops the Bishop of Rome not exempted should be infected with Arianism as once it happened and although all the Bishops of the Roman Church which the Querist would fain have us to take for the Catholick but can never perswade us that a member of a Body is the whole as we can never believe that The Tyrrhene Sea is the whole Ocean do teach errors as matters of Christian Faith Now this being the design of my Question by getting out of a Papists mouth an Answer for a Jew to furnish a good Christian with an Answer to a Popish Cavil and to ensnare the Querist in his own ginn he craftily slips the Question out of the way and without making any direct answer to the Jews inquirie as he offered to do in handling the former Queries turns aside to make an impertinent Harangue concerning private mens use of the Scriptures Mark I pray my fourth Querie and compare the return and you will see nothing of an Answer in this That the infallibility of the Jewish Church was the means to preserve the Scriptures entire The question was not about the means by which the Book of Moses was preserved but about the manner how a Jew might be assured of the integrity of it Now the truly pious Jew who with Jeremy bemoaned the corruption of the Church by the errors and seducements of the Priests could not make