not-Fundamental may overspread the Church or at least a great and considerable part of it and why Several Instances of such Errors in the Roman Church Sect. 12. That the Holy Scripture or Written Word of God is the Rule of Faith That Tradition is a necessary means whereby to attain to the certain knowledge thereof That the Multitude or weakest sort of Christians are not able of themselves without the help of others to resolve Faith aright or be rationally assur'd what the Doctrine of Salvation is Sect. 13. The harm that may arise to the Church from the belief of an Error not-Fundamental to be an Article of Faith The true stating of the difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome The Church of England clear'd from the guilt of Schism and the Roman justly blam'd for being Cause of the separation That the joynt Concurrence of Scripture and Oral Tradition or the practical Delivery of Christs Doctrine was recommended by the Blessed Apostles to the Church the Restauration of which Concurrence 't is humbly conceiv'd would be a firm Foundation for re-uniting dissenting Christians in Matters of Religion and the Continuance of it a lasting Means for perpetuating Christianity in i'ts Ancient native Purity Errata In the Contents Sect. 6. l. 2. read for Reformed Reformation Sect. 8. l. 8. for intelligent intelligible Pag. 9. l. 15. r. but impious p. 17. l. last viz. p. 31. l. 1. r. Canonical Scripture p. 32. l. 12. 13. r. Church diffusive p. 40 l. 16. r. Efforts p. 47. l. 6. r. formerly p. 62. l. 5 6. r. to be perform'd actually p. 72. l. 7. r. so often as p. 82 l. 2. r. as prone as possible p. 91. l. 17. blot out if p 97. l. 10. r. die l. 11. r. sedet p. 99. l. 1. r. de scendit l. 13. r obtemperantibus p. 100. l. 1. r. Act. 4. 12. p. 101. l. 11. r. nascetur p. 106. l. 3. r. descendet p. 112. l. 15. r. in Scripture as l. 16. Traditionist p. 113. l. 5 r. Traditionist p. 121. l. 18. r. ascension p. 122. l. 2. r. ascension p. 126 127 r. of what validity Four are p. 128. l. 3. r. thus l. 14. those p 141. l 15 16. r. in the Creed there set forth l. 18 and that also p. 142. l. 23. r. or it is not p. 143. l. 14. r. Latins l. 19. Lombard p. 144. l. 4 5. r. ineandem nobiscum l. 8. unam eandemque fore sententiam p. 145. l. 1. r. Quaest 36. p. 146. l. 5. r. disertè dicant p. 154. l. 20. r. as an Article p. 158. l. 7. r. superfluous p. 161. l. 9. soever there be p. 162. l. 10. r. and not to be extended p. 170. l. 2. r. in such case p. 171. l. 16. r. spilt p. 179. l. 19. r. what they teach p. 183. l. 4. r. Distinction p. 192. l. 10. r. Lawd p. 195. l. 13. r. Polemical The rest are more obvious literal mistakes in appearences yeild adhear oblid'g Antichrist Writting all be it vulger with some small characters for great and great for small The several Ways of resolving Faith in the Roman and Reformed Churches With the Authors impartial thoughts upon each of them And his own Opinion at length shown wherein the Rule of Faith doth consist Which clears upon rational Grounds the Church of England from criminal Schisme and lays the Cause of the separation upon the Roman SECT I. There is a Rule of Faith instituted by God Three different Opinions among the Learned of the Roman Religion wherein that Rule doth consist SInce it was the Almighties good pleasure to create Man a reasonable Creature it became his Divine Wisdome and Goodness not only to ordain an End convenient for Him with Means likewise available thereto but also to constitute a Way by which he might come to the certain Knowledge of both for in vain would the two former have been instituted without the last when by this alone both the other were to be made known unto Him That therefore there is a Way ordain'd by God whereby to understand aright Mans Chief End and the proper Means available to it remains without dispute Yet such notwithstanding is the difference and disagreement amongst divers men of greatest Wit and Learning about it that through their subtil Arguments and eager Zeal to defend every one his espous'd Opinion not a few sober well minded Christians are brought into a Labyrinth of intricate difficulties and doubts what they ought to beleeve whilst the Controvertists in Religion though in general they acknowledge that the Gospel of Christ published to the World declares wherein Mans Felicity and the Means thereof consist yet are at perpetual discord what the particular Doctrines necessary to the Salvation of Mankind contain'd in that Gospel or Revelation be and that because they cannot agree where the Way which leads to the certain knowledge of Christs Doctrine is to be found or as for brevity 't is phras'd what the Rule of Faith is This gave the occasion of my undertaking the following Inquirie the designe whereof is to endeavour to the utmost of my power the gaining a well-grounded satisfaction in a matter of so great Concern as the Rule of Faith is to be truely known For the compassing of which longing desire of my heart I judge it the best expedient I know of to take an equal and impartial view of the differing Opinions about it that either by comparing them together I may be enabled to make a rational choice of some one before the rest or els to gather from the whole disquisition that satisfaction is not to be expected without a further enquiry to be made wherein the Rule of Christian Faith doth really consist The first difference worthy of notice about the Rule of Faith or the Way which guides and directs to the clear knowledge of Christs Doctrine is concerning the nature of the assurance which it is to afford some affirming that it ought to give infallible certainty whilsts others say that it needs only yield a Moral certitude or such an assurance as is sufficient to remove actual doubting but not which renders it impossible to be deceiv'd in Matters of Faith Those that hold the Rule of Faith to administer infallible certainty of Christian Doctrine are part of them of the Roman and part of the Reformed Church Those who maintain the contrary are only some of the Reformed As to the merit of either opinion I 'le leave the discussion of it to another place and at present shew wherein the Romish Controvertists of which there are three distinct sorts place the Rule of Faith The first sort maintain that A General Council confirm'd by the Pope or as the Proposition is rendred by some The Pope defining in a General Council cannot erre and so make The Definition of a General Council confirm'd by the Pope or The Definition of the Pope in a General Council The Rule of Faith is the same thing
with that which others of them name confirming whilst both place the suppos'd infallibility in the Popes assent which assent those who call it defining think perhaps they make the Proposition more obviously denote that Prelats infallibility as exclusive of all the rest thereby SECT III. The second Opinion amongst the Romanists viz. That a General Council conciliary proceeding is infallible in Matters of Faith taken into consideration and it 's double meaning explain'd the truth of which in one of them only is here brought to the Test the certainty of it in it's other sense being left to be examin'd in other Sections THis Assertion of the Second sort of Romish Controvertists that A General Council conciliarly proceeding cannot erre in Points of Faith may be taken in a two-fold sense either as the words conciliarly proceeding include Tradition which the Traditionists say and then the meaning of it is That A General Council defining according to Tradition or the living voice of the Church cannot erre in which sense the consideration of it belongs to some following Sections Or els as they are intended only to denote the exclusion of all fraudulent and forcible ways us'd to procure the votes of the Prelats so as that the Definition of the Council being left to it's own freedom will be infallibly true although the Means preparative to it were not at all so Against That whatsoever was deliver'd to the primitive Christians by Christ and his Apostles as a Point of Faith hath been perpetually handed down from time to time without interruption till our days as such and it 's assign'd proof the indefectibility of Tradition I shall say nothing here but remit the discourse I intend upon them to another place and at present enquire Whether the present Church of Rome does indeed depend on this Maxim for the certainty of the purity of her Faith That Christs Doctrine was deliver'd to her as descending without interruption from Christ and his Apostles For if it appear upon trial made she doth not then however indefectible Tradition be it may notwithstanding fall out that new Articles of Faith may be introduc'd into the Church upon some other Ground not firm and safe such as the Traditionists will I know grant That the Definition of a General Council not founded on Oral Tradition but on this Presumption That the Bishops effectually proceeding to define are immediatly inspir'd from Heaven is And that the Roman Church does not rely on the mentioned Maxim for the certainty of the purity and uncorruptedness of her Faith I have somthing which seems considerable and of moment to alledge in proof It will not I presume be deny'd That Cardinal Bellarmin and the learned Romish Controvertists more generally taken notice of after him ever since the Reformation till Rushworths Dialogues came to light for all that they made it their business to resolve Faith according to the belief and practice of their Church did not conclude and averr Tradition to be the alone safe Means of conveying Christs Doctrine to the knowledge of succeeding Ages And if such great Lights among the Roman Clergy mistook the Rule of Faith how can we reasonably think that the inferiour Pastors and Laics in their time knew it aright And if they knew it not neither could they rely on it as such For although it were granted which some say that Bellarmin himself and all the learned Clerks of the Roman Church no less then the other Clergy and Lay-men did practically rely on Tradition in as much as they were Orally taught their Religion by the preceding Generation and that again by the next before it and so still backwards one Age of another ever since the very first beginning of Christianity yet unless they also knowingly did it when once they came to make enquiry upon what stedfast Ground the Christian Faith was to be embrac'd they would no longer rest upon the instruction they had when they first in their younger years believ'd if so be upon search made they conceiv'd as it seems the chiefest of them besides many more if not the generality did that the certainty of Faith was not sounded on Oral Tradition their first Instructor in it but on something els Yea I think I shall not mistake the truth if I say that it was not the private opinion of some great Doctors and their followers only but the sense of the Council of Trent it self also That Faith is not resolv'd into Tradition as it 's adequate Rule whilst in consulting the first Decree of the fourth Session of that Council I find two Passages which seem to make it out The former of them is this Sacrosancta Oecumenica Generalis Tridentina Synodus c. perspiciens hanc nempe Christianam veritatem Disciplinam contineri in Libris scriptis sine Scripto Traditionibus quae ex ipsius Christi ore ab Apostolis acceptae aut ab ipsis Apostolis Spiritu Sancto dictante quasi per manus traditae ad nos usque pervenerunt Orthodoxorum Patrum exempla secuta omnes Libros tam veteris quám novi Testamenti cùm utriusque Deus sit Author necnon Traditiones ipsas tum ad Fidem tum ad Mores pertinentes tanquam vel ore tenus a Christo vel à Spiritu Sancto dictatas continuâ successione in Ecclesia Catholica conservatas pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ suscipit ac veneratur The latter Passage closeth up the Decree thus Si quis Libros ipsos integros Scripturae scilicet cum omnibus suis partibus prout in Ecclesia Catholica legi consueverunt in veteri vulgata Latina Editione habentur pro Sacris Canonicis non susceperit Traditiones praedictas sciens prudens contempserit anathema sit Omnes itaque intelligant quo ordine via ipsa Synodus post jactum Fidei Fundamentum sit progressura quibus potissimùm Testimoniis ac Praesidiis in confirmandis Dogmatibus instaurandis in Ecclesia Moribus sit usura In both these Passages Scripture and Apostolical Traditions are plainly contradistinguish'd as equally relating some way or other to Christian Faith and Manners And although in the former place they seem to be principally oppos'd as the Written and unwritten Word of God yet not without this apparent intimation also that as the Books or written Words call'd Scripture leade to the sense or Doctrine contain'd in them so likewise the unwritten words wherein Apostolical Traditions are taught guide to the meaning couch'd in them so that as Scripture and Traditions taken in the former sense are held by the Council to be equally the Word of God so are they moreover in the latter sense held to be equally significative and expressive of the Doctrine of Salvation delivered by them But in the latter rehearsed place of the Decree Scripture and Traditions are chiefly to be understood of written and unwritten words directing to the knowledge of the Objects of Faith as appears
impossible for although in Metaphysics Philosophers speak abstractedly first of a substance and afterwards difference it by corporeal and incorporeal yet such discourse doth not at all intend or suppose that there either is or can be a substance really existing which is neither of the two no more then from saying animal est rationale vel irrationale it can be presum'd that an animal doth or may possibly exist and be neither man nor brute The design of inventing such general words as substantia animal homo was not to make signs of any real or possible Being to be signified by them but to contract and abbreviate mens discourse for the more ready understanding of one another as for Instance when we would signify in short that Peter James John and every other individual person in the world is of the same nature to wit a creature compounded of soul and body endued with sense and Reason a word is fram'd to comprehend and import all that which is Homo Man and then we affirm of Peter of James of John c. that he is a Man in stead of saying he is a Creature compounded of Soul and Body endued with Sense and Reason When again it is observ'd wherein Peter James John c. agree with every singular Brute a word is devis'd to denote that agreement to wit animal And since it is found that not only all these but that also every corporeal and spiritual Thing whatsoever accords together in this that they have a Being subsisting of it self a word is us'd to shew that which is substantia a substance to avoid therefore the trouble of saying Peter James John c. this horse bird fish c. is a Thing that has a Being of it self we contract it into this Peter James c. this horse bird fish is a substance since then we see that a Substance abstractedly taken is not only void but even incapable of all kind of existence to say Christs Body is present in the blessed Sacrament after the manner of a Substance is to the same effect as to say That it is neither corporeally nor incorporeally there present that is in verity not at all But suppose we that Christs Body were present in the Eucharist without extension and no other substance for the Accidents of Bread and Wine to subsist in the Accidents in such a case must either subsist in Christs Body and so extension be in a Subject unextended which is plainly contradictory or els they must subsist of themselves without a Subject which is equally impossible for if we duly reflect we shall find That an Accident is not any Thing really differing from it's Subject but a meer Mode only or manner of it's Being or an appearance of the Subject under some particular consideration as will I think by the following Instance evidently be seen Take a piece of Paste and mold it into several forms one after another making it now long then round afterward square and t will be no thing all the while but the very same Paste still under various appearances which for distinction sake we give different appellations to so that to suppose length roundness squareness or long round square take whether we please really to exist without some Thing which we denomintate long round square is to suppose the meer mode of a Thing not to be the meer mode of a Thing but a Thing of it self which is utterly impossible Many strange incredible things beside would follow upon the supposal of the Accidents subsisting without a Subject as that they are apt to do and suffer all things which the Bread and Wine before their Transubstantiation were liable unto as to nourish the Body to be broken to be split to be corrupted to be turn'd into ashes smoke c. which seem to involve in them a contradiction also in that a meer accident which is nothing should do and suffer something SECT XII That the Holy Scripture or Written Word of God is the Rule of Christian Faith That Tradition is the best and safest way and means whereby to attain to the certain knowledge thereof That the Multitude or weakest sort of Christians are not able of themselves without the help of others to resolve Faith aright or be rationally assur'd what the Doctrine of Salvation is NOw at length having master'd all the difficulties in my Way I see nothing of moment to obstruct or hinder me why I may not from the premis'd Discourse securely inferr That the Sacred Scripture i. e. Such places of it as contain the necessario credenda and agenda of Christs Gospel is the Rule of Christian Faith yet so as that without the help of Tradition it can neither be known to be the Word of God nor when in general 't is known so to be any rational assurance can be had That the Texts containing the Necessaries to Salvation remain uncorrupt but by the same Tradition nor lastly That those Necessaries to Salvation can be manifested what they are save as Tradition guides unto and gives notice of them All which if I have been clear in the proof of he that goes about to seek for the Rule of Faith and makes not Tradition his chief and best Assistant shall never have any rational ground of certainty that he has met with it and explicitly knows the Contents of it even though perchance he have really and indeed found it and peradventure explicitly believes whatsoever is contain'd in it If it be so difficult a thing as it seems to be by what hath been sayd to resolve Faith aright or to make such use of Scripture as to be certainly inform'd by it of Christs Doctrin without danger of erring or being mistaken it might be demanded how the generality of Christians should be able of themselves to do it True but such demand as it would be reasonable and pertinent if the Multitude were oblig'd to learn the Christian Religion of themselves immediatly from Scripture so on the contrary if they have no obligation to do it 't is neither the one nor the other And that no such obligation lies upon them the unpracticableness to say no worse of the thing manifested in the sixt Section of this Treatise sufficiently testifies We must then would some say pin it seems our Faith on others sleeves To wave that catachrestical effeminate speech let 's put the Question more manlike and fairly thus Whether the generality of the People must not of necessity rely on others Learning and Fidelity in comming to the knowledge of Christs Doctrin And my Answer then is That there is no possible way of avolding it without a continued Miracle of immediat Revelation but that most certainly they must and 't was and ever will be so For first if we look back towards the begining of the Gospel we shall find that the New Testament was writ by the Apostles and Evangelists in Greek which Tongue though granted to have been the most generally known of
any one then in the Eastern Parte yet that every third Christian understood that Language is not at all to be thought on Secondly Nor was the Scripture presently Translated into every Tongue where there were those who imbrac'd Christianity Thirdly Neither could poor Mechanicks Labourers Servants and Slaves procure it when Translated before the ready way of Printing was Invented because 't was not formerly a little money that would buy both or even one of the Testaments Fourthly Neither yet if all Christians had had wherewith to buy would there have been till the Art of Printing was found Books enough for half or a quarter of them Fifthly Suppose we now that by means of the Press every one has or might have a Bible in their native Tongue How is it possible that the vulgar should know of themselves that it is the Word of God that it has been kept free from corruption in things of necessary Belief and Practice that it is faithfully Translated out of the Originals that considering what variety of Doctrins are in it and in how many places dispers'd they should be able and at leisure to cull out of it a Summary of Fundamentals in case the thing it self were attainable without other helps besides Scripture seeing millions of them are necessitated to spend their whole time almost to get a poor Livelihood for themselves and Families that they should be able to compare places of Scripture so effectually as rightly to compose seeming Contradictions in Points of Faith thereby when not without difficulty they are got to understand but ordinarily well even plain and common things Who so shall seriously reflect on these matters will doubtless think it strangely unbecoming Mans most gracious Maker and Redeemer to require at the hands of the poor ignorant people to pick out their Religion of themselves from Holy Scripture or to depend upon their own weak performances for finding out the true sence and interpretation of it For over and above what has been already shewn for the unreasonableness of the thing after this be first well weigh'd in the balance of sound Reason that the Multitude must of necessity trust others for the truth of the Translation of Scripture let an irrefragable Reason be given by any that can why they should not aswell and might as safely give credit to those for the sense of it who are in prudence to be entrusted by reason of their Knowledg and Honesty for recommending to them the sincerity of the Version since 't is to be presum'd they understand it to be a true translation no further then they know the sence of the words translated Notwithstanding the plain verity of what has here been said 't is not unknown how frequently and vehemently some popular men use to cry out to the people from the Pulpit Believe not us believe the Scripture as if the meanest of their Auditors were thought by them to be the proper Judges of the Scripture sense amongst the rest But though their words seem to import as much if we look to the bottom of the business we shall discover That even these Preachers must acknowledge they intend otherwise or els confess their design in doing it is unlawful For when they say Believe not us believe the Scripture they either intend the Texts they quote for a Proof of what they touch or they do not If they intend them for a Proof their meaning must be this believe us yet not for our own sakes but for the Scriptures that is believe us because we teach the very same Doctrine which the Scripture doth or believe the Scripture to the same intent and purpose or in the same sense we alledge it for to believe it in any other would not have the effect of a Proof with them But if they have no intention to use the Scriptures they quote to prove what they Preach let them inform us to what other good intent they do it for I cannot think of any To several bad ends 't is obvious enough to conceive how it may be done as out of covetousness or through the desire of applause or for promoting a faction to humour and gratifie the people they Preach unto But for none of these ends will they yield I am well assur'd they do it and therefore I see no way to avoid it but that the Quotations must be granted to be produc'd for Proofs and consequently that the persons using them have no real design by saying beleeve not us beleeve the Scripture that the truth of their Doctrine should stand or fall accordingly as their Auditors judge it consonant or disagreeing to the places of Holy Writ which they 're directed to for examination and tryal of the verity of what their Teachers deliver as they themselves often I beleeve apprehend but for Proof and confirmation indeed of the Doctrine taught according to the intendment of the Preacher Some perhaps would here be encourag'd to assert that this which I have last discours'd concerning Holy Writ viz. that the Multitude cannot without better help then their own make right use of Scripture as 't is the Rule of Faith makes for Oral Tradition which instructs every one from the Prince to the Peasant in all the Articles of Christian Faith To such I should answer That Tradition could no more be made use of as the Rule of Faith supposing it were so by the People without the assistance of some more skilful then themselves then Scripture can For first They must trust others that what they are instructed in by their immediat Teachers is the sense of the present Catholick Church Secondly They must have it from better Arguments then themselves can frame That the Doctrine of the present Church is the very same with the Doctrine of the Church in all foregoing Ages since Christ Thirdly They must beleeve others That Tradition is the alone Rule of Faith for the Multitude I may safely say is not so quick sighted as clearly to see that there 's no other way to come to a right knowledge of Christs Doctrine but by an Oral Delivery of it So that in fine I am much assur'd That the Rule of Faith was never intended by God for the Multitude to resolve immediatly of themselves the Christian Faith into and that therefore the Destinction of Ecclesia docens discens is good yea necessary to be practically maintain'd and upheld among Christians To the former of which I mean the Ecclesia docens consisting of Prelats and Pastors the Depositum or Rule of Faith is principally not solely because it is lawful for any to make good use of it that can entrusted for that in reason the Clergy is justly presum'd to be fittest both for Skill and Will to understand it aright and to employ it to it 's due End whilst they can want no Helps possible to be had for gaining the true sense of it and that it is the Main of their Employ for which they are called to
their Sacred Office to use and exercise the same to it 's proper End whereas others generally speaking neither have the like aduantages to understand it as it ought to be nor so great Motives and Obligation to promote the true intendment and design thereof Have not then the People even every particular person of them it might well be ask'd a Judgement of Discretion in the choice and matters of Religion If by Judgement of Discretion be meant That they are to do nothing but what they themselves approve of I readily yield they have But in case they set themselves to oppose their own Judgement to the Judgment of the Clergy in Matters of Faith their Judgment will be found a Judgment of intolerable and pernitious Indiscretion For to make a true discovery of an Error in Faith the Rule of Faith must be well consulted and the Point in question duly apply'd to 't to be try'd by it so that if either the Rule it self be mistaken or the Thing to be regulated by it be not rightly apply'd no Doctrine concerning Faith can rationally be discover'd whether it be an Error or a Truth And 't is ridiculously absurd to think that the vulgar sort consisting of Servants Labourers Mechanicks and others generally busied and spending their days about Temporal affairs should be more sufficient and able to understand the Rule of Faith aright and to apply things doubted of thereto so as truely to determine of their rectitude or obliquity by it then the grave and Learned Prelats with the profound Doctors and others of the more Ancient and Reverend Divines who have spent many of them thirty several of them fourty and some amongst them fifty years or more in the study for the most part of sacred Learning being legally also call'd to the Office of teaching and directing Mankind as Christian by a Mission successively deriv'd from Christ and his Apostles which none besides the Clergy how Learned or Pious soever can justly make claim to Would it not then astonish and work compassion in any man of sobriety to see the ignorant people grossly misled to believe They are able enough of themselves to understand the Scripture in all things necessary to Salvation when as 't is principally for instructing them aright in those very things and keeping them to the due observance of them that they have spiritual Guides and Governours set over them by God and his Holy Church Which yet they are many of them poor souls being strangely infatuated with a conceit of their own endowments so farr from having any regard to that although they dayly see before their eyes That the wise and gracious God in the Oeconomy of his great Family the World has provided and placed several men skill'd in several things some in Civil Government some in Laws some in Physick and others in other Professions all for the Good of the Community in assisting men in those things wherein they are presum'd not to have skill enough to do the best for themselves yet nevertheless they will not understand and discern a necessity of some skilfuller then they themselves be to advise direct and order them in those grand Matters which are of more Weighty and lusting Concern to them then all the things in the whole World besides but in contradiction to the Analogy of Providence seen round about them despiseing those who ought to have the oversight of their Belief and Manners make themselves their own Instructors and Rulers in the Learning and Management of those things wherein if they finally miscarry they are ruin'd to eternity SECT XIII The harme that may arise to the Church from the belief of an Error not-Fundamental to be an Article of Faith The true stating of the difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome Whether or no the Church of England be justly accus'd of criminal Schism That the joynt Concurrence of Scripture and Oral Tradition or the practical Delivery of Christ Doctrine was recommended by the Apostles to the Church the Restauration of which Concurrence 't is humbly conceiv'd would be a firm Foundation for re-uniting dissenting Christians in Matters of Religion and the Continuance of it a lasting Means for perpetuating Christianity in ' its ancient native Purity I have now only one Scruple more remaining concerning Matters of Faith and it arises from what my self concluded before which was That no Fundamental Error could ever get a setled footing without disturbance but should perpetually meet with opposition from Orthodox Christians so that all necessary Truths shall be continually nourish'd in the Bosom of the visible Church In which if I have said right what harm may it with great appearance of reason be ask'd can be found to accrew upon it if an Error not fundamental chance to creep into the Church and grow by degrees to be held at length an Article of Faith seeing the belief thereof is not in it's self destructive of Salvation I answer there is this great harm in it if no other that in case it at any time come to be discover'd and National Churches be thereupon divided about it one holding it to be an Article of Faith another taking it to be an Erroneous Doctrin there will unavoidably a Schism happen upon it because that Church which thinks it to be an Article of Faith will conceive herself oblig'd to deny Communion to the other which rejects it as an Error and that other which rejects it as an Error must needs judge it to be an heinous Sin to acknowledge and profess that She beleeves a Doctrin to be an Article of Faith which in truth she holds to be an Erroneous Opinion and yet without such acknowledgment and answerable profession she cannot be admitted to Communion with the Church that believes it to be an Article of Faith Upon this very account it is that the Divisions between the Church of Rome and Church of England as to the Doctrinal Part of Religion are continued for I find that the most cautious and wary Vindicators of the English Church from the guilt of Schism which the Romanists incessantly accuse her of allege in excuse for her Separation that the Church of Rome requires as necessary Conditions of her Communion the acknowledgment of some erroneous Doctrins to be Articles of Faith together with a publick profession of them which Doctrins although not damnable in their own nature because not directly repugnant to any Fundamental Truth yet would become damnable to those who judging them to be Errors should acknowledge and profess them contrary to their Judgments to be Articles of Faith To this purpose writes the learned Bishop Montague the renowned Arch-Bishop Laud Doctor Ferne Doctor Hammond the late Lord Primat of Ireland Bishop Bramhal with others whereunto I 'le add one Cantrovertist more of the present time Doctor Stillingfleet of which two last mentioned not to multiply needless quotations about a thing so well known I 'le here transcribe two Passages
It was not saith the learned Primate the erroneous Opinions of the Church of Rome but the obtruding them by Laws upon other Churches which warranted a separation Bishop Bramhals Vindication against Mr. Baxter Pag 101. This is clearly the state of the difference saith Doctor Stillingfleet between the Church of Rome and Church of England The Church of Rome imposeth new Articles of Faith to be believ'd as necessary to Salvation as appears c. But the Church of England makes no Articles of Faith but such as have the Testimony and Approbation of the whole Cbristian World of all Ages and are acknowledg'd to be such by Rome it self and in other things she requires subscription not as Articles of Faith but as inferiour Truths which She expects a submission to in order to her peace and tranquillity Thus the ingenious Doctor in his Rational account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion Pag. 54. The Church of England then by this holding nothing to be an Article of Faith but what Rome it self acknowledges to be so it 's evident That if the Church of England believe all the Articles of Catholick Faith as she professes she doth the Church of Rome does likewise the same and consequently since every Fundamental Truth is an Article of Catholick Faith that she believes all Fundamental Truths no less then the other doth So that the true and real difference between those two Churches is not about Fundamentals but Superstructures which if they be Errors or any of them as I think some of them are prov'd to be in Sect. 11. and if it were necessary others I conceive might be the imposing of them as Articles of Faith by the Romish Church layes the guilt of Schism at her door But that it ever will be granted by the Romanists while they esteem the Living Voice of the Church the Rule of Faith and hold the Council of Trent to be a true Representative of the Church that she proposes any Errors as Articles of Catholick Faith is not to be expected And that they 'l yield to change their pretended Rule of Faith there 's small encouragement yet to hope since 't is true aswell of them as of too many others what the rational Animadverter upon the Pamphlet entituled The naked Truth rightly observes That Political Authors commonly oppose those Passages in their Adversaries Books which are ready to fall of themselves and pass by those which urge and press them harder If it were not too truely so 't would be a matter of great amazement to me That Scripture and Tradition should still be cryed up one against the other and made to look as if they were at enmity when 't is manifestly clear that God at first joyn'd them amicably together in that the Blessed Apostles and Evangelists recommended the Holy Gospel or Revelation of Jesus Christ the Son of God both in Writing and by an Oral Delivery and practical Profession of it to the World designing them no doubt to go hand in hand for Instructing Confirming and Regulating Men in the Belief and Practice of Christianity till the end of all things And therefore till their joynt Concurrence be restor'd to the Church I see not what great Good we can rationally expect by Controversie whereas if due respect and regard were had to both the Issue and Event thereof would as it appears in reason to me be this That nothing father'd on Scripture could be assented to and receiv'd as a Catholick Point of Faith unless there were likewise found a practical Tradition of it in the Church nor any Doctrine be taken and held for a Catholick Tradition but what was evidently seen by the Chief of the Clergy at least to have a real Ground in Holy Writ whence the Christian Religion 't is humbly conceiv'd might be in a certain way whensoever Interest or Passion prevented not to be secur'd from Error and the Church from Schism FINIS