whereas for many Ages past men have beaten their Brains Joel 3.10 To beat their Plough-shares into Swords and their Pruning Hooks into Spears have Employed those Parts and Abilities with which they ought to have broken up the fallow Ground Hos 10.12 to sow in righteousness what we might reap in Peace to wound one anothers sides Would they follow this Rule of Charity we might see the Glorious Prophecy of Micha fulfilled Mich. 4.1 2 3 4. For in the last Days it shall come to pass that the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it and many Nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his Ways and we will walk in his Paths and they shall beat their Swords into Plough-shears and their Spears into Pruning Hooks Nation shall not rise up against Nation neither shall they learn War any more but they shall sit every man under his Vine and under his Fig Tree and none shall make them affraid I know it will be objected That the Scriptures are full of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those things difficult to be understood To which I answer with the Apostle 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. The holy Scriptures are able to make any man wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Jesus Christ being given by Inspiration of God for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteotsness that the Man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good Works All this is contained in them in plain and easy Language and who can desire more what is necessary to be believed or done is to be found there without such Difficulty and that is all that either is or can properly be our Concern The Design of Religion is not to entertain the speculative or gratifie the Curious but to guide the Practical Christian in his Duty And if there be difficult places there is no necessity of our Understanding them For he that inspired the Holy Pens cannot without the greatest Impiety be argued of acting negligently insufficiently or without Design as other careless Writers may and that they are not more clear and perspicuous ought with a becoming reverence due to the only wise God to be believed that they are therefore wrapt up in Mysterious words either because they are not necessary or not fit for us to know Nor is there the least danger in such humble Ignorance but there is certainly in a presumptuous Curiosity and seeking after the Tree of Knowledge which God has prohibited by planting the Wall of Obscurity about it and if we will with the Bethshemites be Peeping into the Ark we may expect to be punished justly by wresting the Scriptures to our own Damnation and much more if being Unlearned and Private Men we undertake to give Publique Interpretations and Determinations different from both the Catholique Faith and Church 2 Pet. 1.20 For no Scripture is of Private Interpretation AND that this is the danger is as evident as the Punishment of it is certain for here is the Spring head of Errors and Heresies which always took their Original from the Transgression of this Caution For when men will leave the plain and beaten Path the easy Way to Happiness here and Heaven hereafter by Faith and Obedience to seek for it in their own Wisdom and Niceties it is no wonder if they wander out of the Way of Truth when they permit themselves to be lead by their Private Opinions and Interpretations it is the blind leading the blind in the Darkness of Midnight and no wonder then if at last they stumble and fall into the blackness of Eternal Darkness For self-love is a very blind Guide and self Conceit a worse and they must needs be in darkness to whom God denies the light of the Spirit which he does in all obscure places of Scripture and if as he told the Jews men therefore Err not knowing the Scripture they must needs Err who will know more than he will let them To confirm the truth of this Doctrine and that the Holy Canon is as the word Imports a Rule not only of our Actions but our Faith I would desire any Person to give me a reason why he Believes the three Famous Creeds which contain the sum and substance of our Christian Faith there can be but these three Reasons First Because he immediately by Divine Revelation is assured of his Faith or Secondly Because he is perswaded by some Person or Persons to believe or Thirdly Because he finds the Articles there mentioned either in plain Words or evident Consequences in Scripture which for good reason he believes to be the Dictates of divinely inspired Penmen THE First all sober Men reject as leading directly to Enthusiasm and under pretence of Heavenly Revelations to introduce Hellish Impieties and Doctrines of Devils who having a Power to transform themselves into Angels of Light may take that Advantage to Impose upon strong Fancies and weak Judgments FOR the Second a man will thus argue Why should I believe this or these Men since all men are Fallible and they who may be deceived may therefore deceive and if I believe this Man why not another why not Mahomet who pretended to the Holy Ghost as much as they AND therefore Thirdly Faith must be resolved into the first Principle of it which is Gods Truth and Infallibility and that Word which I believe to be his and therefore more Credible than the Word of any or all Men. Thus was Faith first propagated in the World and thus it must be increased for the Multitudes to whom the Apostles Preached throughout the World did not believe St. Peter or St. Paul that Preached Jesus and the Resurrection Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come but seeing the Miracles which they did they believed that this was the Word of God and that Jesus was the Son of God agreable to the Doctrine of the Prophets in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah This Method our Lord made use of with his Disciples Luke 24.5.4 Then opened he their Vnderstanding that they might Vnderstand the Scriptures that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning him and he said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day from the Dead and that Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem This Doctrine of Faith the Apostles believed this they Preached not as their own but the Faith of Christ this they committed to Writing and delivered to the Christians as the Rule of their Faith and Life Rom. 15.4 For as the Scriptures of the Old Testament and whatsoever was Writen aforetime was written for our Learning
dore of Separatists and Schismaticks who by frustrating this Power render it contemptible and set open the dore to all Impiety and Atheism p. 122. CHAP. IX Of the Necessity of Vnity in point of Government as well as Faith in a National Church upon the account of Civil Policy Such Vnity the Design of all Religion in Reference to Humane Society No Happiness without it Government appointed by God with an Intention to promote this Design and therefore Disobedience a damnable sin p. 149 CHAP. X. A further discovery of the Impolitickness of Disunion in point of Church Government No Domestique Peace to be hoped for without it but perpetual Quarrels under pretence of Religion and Conscience The Rise and Spring of Fears and Jealousies from the several Interests of Dissenters p. 165 CHAP. XI The mischief of Disunion in respect of Foreign Affairs It Weakens any Nation and Exposes them to the Arms of their Enemies Robs them of their Alliances and Confederations Interest and Mutual Support the Foundation of all Leagues Different Churches in the same Nation incline People to Democracy p. 190 CHAP. XII Of Tolleration Some Animadversions upon a Book intituled The Advocate of Conscience Liberty in reference to all Dissenters p. 203 CHAP. XIII A further Examination of the same Author in his particular Plea for the Papists A short View of and Answer to their Boasting to be our Apostles Of their Antiquity Succession Visions Miracles c. Of the Oath of Supremacy Of the Powder Treason or Fifth of November p. 229 CHAP. XIV Of the Difficulty of Vnderstanding the Modes of things sensible much more those of the Intellectual World The Vnreasonableness of Obtruding things not certain as De Fide Of Faith It must be such a Condition of Salvation as All may perform because All have a Title to the Common Salvation The Scriptures the only Rule of this Faith which is the necessary Condition of being saved Of the difference between a Rule and a Guide p. 248 CHAP. XV. Of Episcopacy Proved to be of Divine Institution and the Government appointed over the Church by the Holy Ghost The Testimony of Scripture Of Ignatius the Disciple of the beloved Apostle St. John From the constant Vse and Consent of the Church in all Ages Of Aerius the Reason of his Heresie All Hereticks against Government The Doctrine of Calvin of the necessity of some to determine Differences p. 276 CHAP. XVI Of the Judge of Controversies No Humane Authority the Judge of Faith God only Infallible That part of the Catholique Church which is Militant may Err. The difference between not Erring and the Impossibility of Erring The Rulers of the Church the Interpreters of Scripture In all things not absolutely of the Essence of Faith which nothing can be that is not Evident in Scripture either in plain Words or necessary Consequence All private men Excluded from Interpretation of Scripture p. 302 CHAP. XVII The CONCLVSION p. 317 The Project of PEACE CHAP. I. The INTRODUCTION THEY must certainly have little good Nature and far less Christian Charity who are not most sensibly afflicted for the miserable Distractions the deplorable Differences and unnatural Divisions which are among those who profess the glorious Religion of Christ Jesus That Heart must be more flinty than a Stoick's which does not bleed it self and supply the Eyes with Tears whilst Christians who by the Command of their Great but Meek and Tender Lord ought to be harmless as Doves and innocent as Lambs are transformed by preposterous Zeal and pious Pretences into Wolves and Tygres and with a fierce and savage fury mutually Worry and Devour one another nay even exceed the madness of those Brutes and devest themselves of all Humanity to put on this new Nature as they term it of Religion For Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis The Greenland Bears are kind one to another But to the shame of those who call themselves Christians but are of the Synagogue of Satan that Aboriginal Murderer men are not so modest as to be confined within the limits of making true the Horrid Adage Homo homini Lupus that one man is a Wolf to devour another but they proceed to the utmost extremity of Malice and Madness and become Homo homini Daemon Devils to damn one another not Anthropophagi or Canibals but Psychophagi feeding upon humane souls turning that innocent Wisdom of the Serpent which our Lord commands to preserve our selves into the restless Malice of the Old Serpent to destroy others Souls Bodies and Estates and to infuse the Mortal Poison of Adders which is under their Lips into the Souls of Credulous Men through their Ears and Eyes with the pretext of Piety and true Religion The Glorious Company of Saints and Martyrs now triumphant in Heaven went thither through a Red Sea of Blood but it was their own which was shed by the cruel hands of Heathenish Persecutors who did it ignorantly in Unbelief and with joy it was that they set their seal to the Testimony of Jesus and his Truth in their dearest blood Emptying their Veins that their Souls might be filled with a glorious Immortality But now Christians who all profess one Common Name and Faith think they do not set to their seal to that Truth unless they shed the blood of one another and that most commonly for differences in Opinion for Words Names Fancies and Conjectures at least if we may believe there is no more in the bottom which they conceal than there is in what they pretend openly for the ground of the Quarrel Oh Barbarous Christianity Oh Heathenish Impiety In the importunate Croud of such mournful thoughts and considerations of former Experience of our late Shipwrack and fear of future Events which the Noisy Tempest that seemed to threaten our Crazy and bruised Vessel suggested to my mind my Soul was overwhelmed with Grief and fear and ready to sink into Dispair both at the remembrance of the past and the terrible Consequences of that Inevitable Ruin which Truth it self has pronounced against a house and a Kingdom divided within and therefore against themselves and distracted by Intestin Discords THE prophetique Caution of the Apostle came presently into my mind Gal. 5.15 But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I saw me thought with Horror the too plain truth of it in those once Golden Candlesticks Vid. Mr. Smiths Travels to the Seven Churches of Asia the Seven Churches of Asia who by their Discords were laid in ashes and are the habitations of Owls and Dragons or far worse Inhabitants the sordid Worshippers of that Great Imposter Mahomet I could not stand upon the Brink of such an amasing Precipice without extreme Horror nor see the Cause so Evident without a dreadful apprehension of the Tragical Issue Which made me break out into the Passionate Wish of the afflicted Jeremy Oh that my Head were Waters Jer. 9.1 2. and mine
Laws of God and Man just as they suit his Interest and his Inclination to make the Scriptures a Nose of Wax and the King and Church meer Heads of Wood and since the reason of Obedience is because we think it truth which is Commanded and that they who Command are better able to Judge for us than we our selves as being by God appointed over us for that Design should they be mistaken in what they Command yet the Judge of all the Earth who cannot do wrong would be so far from punishing that he would reward such Obedience because done according to his Command Nor shall the other for Commanding because they did it with a good Design provided when it does appear to them to be of ill consequence they cease to impose it any longer which is the true reason why many things in the service of God have been altered and abolished upon several Occasions THIRDLY It will be objected That by this Rule all the Gallicane German and other Protestant Churches who live under a Government which owns and Commands the Romish Discipline and Church will hereby be made Schismaticks to those several National Churches of which they are Members and that hereby a necessity is laid upon us to return to the Obedience of the Church of Rome for if those Churches may dissent from their National Churches and yet hold the true Faith why may not we why should their Disobedience be Lawful and ours Damnable To this I answer First That the Difference between those Churches and the National Church in which they are does not consist in Matters of Circumstance or Ceremony but in Matters of Faith and though I will neither undertake the Defence of those Churches either in Doctrine or Discipline yet I suppose they separate from the Roman Communion upon the account of the Impositions of that Church in Points of Faith such as are the Popes Supremacy never owned in France even by the Catholiques the Doctrines of Infallibility the real Presence by Transubstantiation Merit of Works and Supererogation Invocation of Saints Purgatory Adoration of Images c. and the Roman Church who imposes these as Articles of Faith is her self Schismatical if not Heretical from the Catholique Apolique Church of all Ages and therefore to depart from her where she departs from Truth is no more Heresie or Schism than it would be to depart from the Law of Moses or the Jewish Communion in Circumcision c. or of Mahomet if those were imposed as Matters of Faith by that or any other Church for the Apostles Rule holds good to the End of the World for all Christians in Matters of Faith and Manners Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 And would the Romish Church Impose no more upon Christians as necessary to Salvation than is contained in those three famous Creeds of the Apostles Nice and St. Athanasius and what is clearly contained in Scripture which have ever been the Standards of the Catholique Faith I think every good Christian over whom they may challenge a Lawful Jurisdiction ought to joyn with them in Communion of Government and even those over whom they can rightly challenge none ought yet to agree with them in the Communion of Faith Nay should they command many Ceremonies in the Service of God more than they do yet those who live in the Jurisdiction of that Church ought to submit to them for the maintaining of Unity Peace and Charity and I doubt not but the Foreign Protestants at least in Charity I hope so if there were no other matters of Difference between them would easily be perswaded to submit to all the Points of Government Ceremony and much more I remember what a Famous French Minister said to this Purpose when he was told that some of the English Nonconformists refused Communion with the Church of England because they were Enjoyned to wear the Surplice and other Vestments I wish says he that the King of France would command me to perform my Function in a Fools Coat so little did he think the outside and dress of Religion to be of the Essence of it and so necessary did he judge Obedience as well as true Faith to the Peace Unity and Happiness of the Church BUT Secondly Many of those Protestants have Licence and Tolleration given them to Celebrate the Worship and Service of God according to their own Way and by that Dispensation they are free from the guilt of Disobedience to the Civil Magistrate and for the Obedience they owe to the Church of Rome I presume they are willing to give it with all their hearts if Rome Exacted no more in matters of Faith than God Almighty requires as necessary to Salvation BUT the Case is clearly different betwixt our Dissenters and the Foreign Protestants for our Differences are or at least are pretended to be about matters of Polity and the Manner of performance of the Offices of Religion and let the Nonconformists prove us but Guilty of destroying one Article of Faith or imposing any thing to be believed or done contrary to the Scriptures and let them dissent from us in Gods Name and till they can do that their Separation will be a horrid Schism and their Nonconformity a manifest Disobedience to the Laws of God and Men. And should the Foreign Churches refuse the Communion of the Church of Rome and disobey the Princes whose Subjects they are commanding them if there were no greater Differences than Matters of Ceremony and Circumstance I doubt not but their Separation and Disobedience would deserve the same Character BUT supposing the Supreme Power of those Countries should absolutely prohibit the Protestants the exercise of their Religion I think they ought to obey and fall to the Old Arms of the Primitive Christians Prayers and Tears and not to the new Methods of Manaces making Parties and endeavouring by force of Arms to obtain that from Authority by Violence and Compulsion which they cannot by Perswasion A Practice shameful to the Protestant Cause and for any thing I can see if they Judg of all by the Example of our Dissenters more likely to perswade all Princes to Extirpate them out of their Dominions for Seditious Schismaticks and Dangerous Rebells than to Tollerate them as Innocent and Religious Christians THIS was the Custom of the Ancient Christians who Conquered more by the Cross than the Persecutors by all their Cruelty who overcame by Suffering and not by Rebelling A remarkable Instance of which we have in the Army of Julian the Apostate who were obedient to him as their Temporal Soveraign so long as he liv'd but after he had jested out his impious Soul with a Vicistî Galilaee and that Jovinianus was chosen Emperor which he refused as being a Christian and thinking the whole Army Pagans they all cried out Et nos sumus Christiani We are all of us also Christians Here were men in Arms a Powerful Number of Veterane and Victorious Legions
of Less Extent are to be regulated were intended as a defence and Protection to all providing one injure not another and that Common Peace and Safety be secured No other Subsequent inferiour Law can therefore debar any peaceable Christian that answers the Necessities of Church and State Civil Spiritual and Political in equal Justice and in Foro Conscientiae from this Priviledge Originally due to all And this he fortifies with the Confession of a Presbyterian Divine without a Name who never saw any Argument yet that could clearly Evince why any sort of Men who would profess a peaceable subjection unto the Civil Government might not in all their Civil Rights be protected by it Does not this oblige every Government to an easie Credulity to its own Ruine For the greatest of its Enemies will profess this Subjection till they have power to effect their Ends and by this Rule there is no care to be taken of Mens Principles or Practices if they can but speak Fair and profess they mean no hurt to the Government no matter for what may happen afterward the Governours may sleep securely till their throats are cut by these harmless Professors BUT taking this for a Maxim granted I proceed upon his own Words That no Tolleration of different Religion is to be permitted and that first from the Apostle St. Pauls Rule pag. 49. Hast thou Faith have it to thy self And seeing that Vniversal Vnity among Christians is not to be attained such a Tolleration of things tollerable is not only Lawful but necessary where a Latitude or Liberty is left in such things as are not clearly and positively laid down in Scripture in things of private Practice Which is just giving that Liberty which no man can take away every man being at liberty to believe and do so so long as he keeps it to himself and that it is Tollerable Faith by being to himself and his practice is truly private But why then does the Church of Rome Command us to believe Supremacy Purgatory Transubstantiation c. which are not clearly nor positively laid downin Scripture is this Good Just and Equal dealing with us BUT Secondly I Argue from his own Reason because nothing is more clear than that this Tolleration must of necessity destroy that Original Fundamental Law of Protection due to all from the Government which will not be able to Protect it self since it must Embroyl the Government and indanger its Ruine that being the very thing for which Tolleration is so earnestly desired For a Wise Government pag. 50 51. may tollerate at least in a private way with the Old bounty of giving what they cannot help different Opinions when otherwise the Publique may be intangled or indangered or rather because the Conscience cannot be compelled or Faith forced and more especially if they be such Religions as do not overthrow the Foundations of Truth nor such as disturb or impugn the Government Establisht or if the Professors thereof be such as are not Factious or pertinacious but Honest Simple Tractable Obedient to Superiors having no other End in holding their Opinions in Religion than Gods Glory or satisfaction of their own Conscience and withall are willing to submit to better Judgments when they are convinced to be Erroneous Pag. 52. For we ought to have a Latitude of Charity for those who Dissent if they be not Impostors or turbulent Incendiaries And who are there that will own themselves to be such It looks like Oliver Remonstrating or a Declaration of 41. and by this Rule all Sects Heresies and Rebels if they may be their own Compurgatorâ— must be Tollerated too since they will Profess all that is here desired for Tolleration but by clear Consequence if notwithstanding these Professions they do intangle and indanger the Government then they are not be Tollerated but the Tolleration of all Sects though Charitably supposing them not Hereticks does not only destroy some one Fundamental of Religion but Religion in the Main by making it Morally impossible for any Man to know where he shall find a true Religion and plainly introduces Mahometanism that a Man may be saved in any and will confirm the Atheist and Libertine in their Opinions that there is no such thing more than in Mens melancholy Humors And it is impossible but the Professors of different Religions will be Factious and Disobedient to Superiors as daily Experience assures us and to Tollerate them is to give them leave to be so and to hold their Opinions for the subversion of Government and not satisfaction of Conscience as some who called themselvs Papists as well as other Dissenters have done in former times and for ought we know Design the same again and therefore I conclude with the Advocate p. 55. That where every one has Liberty to hold what he pleases which by this profession cannot be denied him so soon as he believes his Party strong enough to grapple with Authority he will Publish and Preach what he holds confined to no Rule or Order but contemning Law will Rule as a Transcendent and as he quotes the most incomparable Hooker lib. 3. cap. 107. Let them tell us of Obeying the Laws of God as long as they please we dare not believe them who break the Laws of those appointed by God to Rule over them For it is a Distinction without a Difference to seperate and divide the Laws of God from the Laws of Men and unless we observe both we Obey neither pag. 56. In these Cases says our Advocate Christian Governors are not to regard such Pleas for private Liberty as overthrow Publique Order and Peace Nor to regard those Clamours against them and the Laws as Persecuting when they do but oppose and restrain such perillous Exorbitancies as strike at the Foundation of Christianity and open a gap to Atheism Profaneness and Blasphemy here the Magistrate must interpose his Coercive Power for remedy Nor are they in this infringers of the Peoples Liberty but preservers of freedom not Oppressors of others Consciences but dischargers of their own by prohibiting men to vent their raw undigested Fancies to others to start Principles distructive to Government subverting Order violating Laws breaking Oaths and contemning Authority publiquely acting according to private Perswasion not regarding common Order or publique Peace but by a Seditious and Factious Liberty broaching their Opinions to others And there is a great deal of Reason why the Magistrate should use this Power to crush the Cockatrice in the Egg For pag. 58. if the publique Power shall suffer arrogant Ignorance excess of Passion perverseness of Will to come to its full Rudeness and Extent which it can do no way so readily as by Tolleration Tumultuary Numbers and Brutish Power will soon make good private Presumptions and cover the most Impudent Lusts Passions and Ambitions of Men with the Pleas and Outcrys of Christian Liberty And those who hold forth Notions and Conceptions of Reformation or wholly changing Religion and Goverment
their Disobedience to both those Powers unless the things commanded be manifestly proved to contradict the Faith or be repugnant to good Life which till Dissenters can do they will be obstinate Schismaticks before God and Rebels against their Prince and in a fair way to be Traytors too whilst they break his Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical however they may flatter themselves with the Title of Saints And so soon as they can prove their Charge against any of the Ceremonies and that they are Unlawful in reality and not only in supposition they shall be gratified by their Abolition or amendment if that will do And if they cannot prove their Accusations would they be so unjust as to have not Justice but Injury done to the Innocent by abrogating those Modes of Worship and Customs in the Church which the whole Church has allowed that Government which God appointed which he has approved by maintaining supporting and defending it to this present day against all the Opposition of Infidels and Hereticks those two Gates of Hell One would think that Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis were satisfactory to men of Reason and Sobriety Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus id quidèm verè est Catholicum That which every where always and by all has been received must needs be a Catholick Truth but such is the Power Rule Authority of Bishops for Guiding the Church and appointing the Modes of Worship And they who will oppose this spring Tide of Universal Testimony will but drown themselves in the Odious name of Schismaticks and Heriticks of whom these have been the Characters Mos semper fuit Hereticorum quorum Doctrinam non possunt confutare illorum vitam in Odium trahere It has always been the Custom of Hereticks to asperse the lives of those whose Doctrines they have not been able to confute Which has been the constant Practice of late years against Episcopacy and Episcopal Men to throw dirt upon the Profession and Persons and then proclaim them Odious when in truth the blackness is in their own Mouths and not either in the Persons whom they calumniate or in the Office Treating the Church as some Impudent Villains do the Modest Woman whom they cannot Debauch Cry out A Whore a Whore and set the Rabble upon her who roll her in the Kennel and cover her with dirt till no body can tell what she is made of and then believe she is what they have made her ugly and what the other would have made her but could not Criminal St. Bernard gives us a second Property Haerent ad singula quae injunguntur Exigunt de quibusque rationem male suspicantur de omnî Precepto nèc unquà m libentèr acquiescunt nisi cum audire contigerit quod fortè libuerit They stick at every thing which is by Authority enjoyned they require a a Reason nay and we may add are not satisfied with Reason for every thing they are Jealously suspicious of every Precept of their Superiors nor do they ever willingly acquiess in their determinations unless it happens that they are agreeable to their own Judgment and as St. Augustine says Nisi quod ipsi faciunt nihil rectum Existimant They think well of nothing or Judge it right but what they do themselves LET St. Cyprian give them a third Mark. Initia Haereticorum c. Vt Praepositum Superbo tumore contemnant Sic de Ecclesia receditur sic Altare prophanum Foràs Collocatur sic contra pacem Christi Ordinationem atque unitatem Dei rebellatur The Original of Hereticks is Contempt of those who are set over them So men separate from the Church So is a prophane Altar erected out of it So men become Rebells against the Peace of Christ Order and Vnity because as in another place he says Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae praeest Superbâ quorundam presumptione contemnitur The Bishop who is one and set over the Church is by the proud Presumption of some Men Contemned We may write a Probatum est to these Prophetique Truths I might Pyle up Endless Authorities and swell this Discourse to a Volume but if what I have already said be not sufficient to Convince the greatest Enemies of Episcopacy that it is a Government of Gods appointment in the Church I think all that can be said will be to no purpose and if this will more would be supersluous if they will not believe the Scripture If they will not believe the Church Mat. 18.17 it is our Saviour's Rule Let them be as Heathen men and Publicans CHAP. XVI HAVING now found a Divine and unerring Rule of Faith and Life in the Scripture of Truth and having also found there who are by God appointed to be Governours of the Church viz. Bishops There remains only the great Enquiry after the Judg of Controversies and Differences which is abslutely Necessary in the Church of God to determine Differences which may happen not only about Matters of private Opinion but even the sense of the Scriptures and the Interpretation of the Holy Rule And as these Differences may be of several Kinds and Natures so there are several Judges appointed by God to hear and determine them that so the Church may be preserved in Peace and Charity As to what is matter of Faith Essentially Necessary to Salvation That God is the Sole Judg of himself And therefore it has by him long since been determined and received in the Church and what ever by all must be believed must be easy by all to be known and is therefore plainly set forth in Holy Scripture Nor can any be Judg of this but what cannot Err or deceive us which is only God And to say the Church is the Judg of this and that it cannot Err because the Catholique Church does not Err is to argue Fallaciously à non esse ad impossibile esse For that part of the Catholique Church whilest on Earth consisting of Men of whom some shall be saved and some Reprobated No man having a power to know which of them are those who shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation that they shall not Err and to distinguish them from those who shall not be so preserved and therefore there being a Possibility that those who may be Reprobates from the Faith themselves may yet be of great Authority in the Outward Visible Church it is unreasonable to admit them as Judges of Faith who Erring themselves my lead us into Errors too And therefore God who speaks to us in Scripture is only the Judg of what is matter of Faith and what not and it is to be tryed by that Rule and no Authority has power to impose any thing as matter of Faith Essentially necessary to Salvation but what is there to be found The Harmony of the Universal Church that such things as are offered as matters of Faith are agreeable to Scripture is in things not clear and
evident the best Method to obtain Assent to them As the disagreement of the Church is to suspend our Belief But this can only be about such things as are collaterally of Faith and by coming under the Notion of things Dubious are matter of Opinion and which if a man never knows he may be saved and therefore if he does not believe he cannot be Damned the Church is the Interpreter but not the Judg and indeed every man is a Judg for himself by his Eyes his Ears his Reason and Understanding whether that which the Church Interprets be according to the Scripture the Rule of that Faith by which he is to be saved and which therefore it is necessary that he know before he believe it to Salvation BUT since doubts are of divers Natures Private and Publique let us see how any Person may be determined in both First therefore Where the doubt is only Private about things not determined by Publique Authority derived from Scripture which are of an Indifferent Nature Every Mans full perswasion is his Judg according to the best Evidence the things in doubt admit of from the light of Nature Reason or probability that they are good and Lawful or Evil and Unlawful This full Perswasion St. Paul calls Faith Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin that is what I am not fully perswaded in my own mind of the Lawfulness of I cannot lawfully do This was the Case of the Gentiles who having only the Law of Nature were a Law to themselves their thoughts either Accusing or Excusing them as they acted according to the best of their knowledg and full Perswasion But this Judgment is only Private and has nothing to do with any other Person Hast thou Faith have it to thy self who art thou that Judgest anothe Happy is he that Condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth This is the Error of our Times men will make their Private perswasions Judges of all other men and impose their Private Opinions as matters of Faith necessary to Salvation Against which the whole Scope of that whole 14th Chapter to the Romans is designed BUT there is also another Private Judg whom God has appointed with Reference to things both of Private and Publique Concern and that is Conscience the Rule of Conscience is the Scripture the measure of Conscience is the certainty of Knowledg and the Judgment of Conscience is the determination of the Mind and the Direction of our Practice according to it For thus I and every man Judges I therefore believe the Articles of the Christian Faith that I am to do good to All men to be Obedient to God and my Lawful Superiors to live Righteously soberly and Godly in this present World because I certainly know that these things are by God commanded in Scripture and whatever is not so in plain Words or Consequence is only matter of Opinion and not of Conscience Certainty of Knowledg being of the Essence of Conscience as Probability is of the Essence of Opinion BUT Secondly In regard this very Rule is in things of Publique Doubt and Concern in some things Dubious such as is the Controversie about Government And since the Holy Oracles may seem to admit of Diverse interpretations so that what satisfies one mans Judgment is quite Opposite and contrary to another We must inquire who are to be Judges and Interpreters of the Rule in these Publique Affairs For that there must be some Judg or Judges is plain because God commands Vnity and Obedience but these cannot be obtained without men be determined What and Whom to Obey St. Peter informs us 2 Pet. 1.20 2 Pet. 3.16 That it is not the Duty of Private men For no Scripture is of private Interpretation and shews us the danger Notwithstanding which bold men will venture at it as St. Hierom says of his days Hier. Ep. ad Paulinum Scripturarum Ars est quam passim omnes sibi vendicant hanc Garrula anus hanc delirus Senex hanc Sophista verbosus hanc universi presumunt lacerant docent antequam discant It seems in his time all people read the Scriptures For every prating Old Woman and Doating Old Man every Wrangling wordy Sophister challenges and presumes to tear the Scriptures in pieces and to teach others before they have learnt themselves Whereas these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Peter calls them Unlearned ungrounded People ought first to Learn But of whom There is but this Choice either this Power is in the People or in the Governors of the Church IT cannot be in the People for they are Private Persons and are incapacitated by being so to perform this Publique Office for what no one can do singly neither can all do Collectively what every man wants all must For if every man in the World had but one Eye all the World must want two And the People are to Obey in Learning and therefore not to Rule in Teaching Neither would it be possible to come to any Determination in any thing it being impossible to find all the People of one Nation City Village or Family Nay even one Person of the same mind for any continuance of Time and by consequence all Religion must stagger and totter with continual Changes Uncertainties and Alterations and at last fall to Ruine and Confusion Which Great Truth forced even Calvin himself to drop this Oracle so contrary to the Pretences of his now Followers who would have the Fences of Government which incloses Gods Vineyard thrown down and all laid Common by Tolleration and Liberty of Conscience Cal. Inst lib. 4. p. 10. Sect. 31. Quantarum Rixarum saith he semen futura sit Earum Rerum Confusio si prout cuique libitum sit mutare liceat quae ad communem Statum pertinent Quando nunquam futurum est ut omnibus idem placeat si res velut in medio Positae singulorum arbitrio relictoe fuerint Si penes singulos jus Arbitrium erit Judicandi nihil unquam certi constitui Poterit Quin potius tota vacillabit Religio Of how many and great Quarrels would such Confusion be the Nursery If it shall be Lawful for every man according to his Pleasure to change those things which belong to the Common State of Christianity Since it can never be possible that the same thing should please all so long as indifferent things are left to be determined according to every mans Arbitrary Pleasure And if the Power and Right the Liberty of Judging Arbitrarily be left to the pleasure of All nothing of certainty can ever be Established but rather all Religion will totter and tumble down THE Scripture must be Interpreted and is not of Private Interpretation what remains but that it is of Publique God commands Vnity but in doing so he would command an Impossibility if he had not appointed Means to obtain it to whom then can this Power be delegated to draw all mens private Opinions into one Common Rule
for Practice but to the Governors of the Church which all shall be bound to observe for the obtaining Peace and Vnity I have already proved who are those Governors who by the Appointment of the Holy Ghost are to Rule to feed the Flock of Christ to Watch over mens Souls as they that must give an Account to Rebuke Exhort with all long suffering but not with suffering always for if Seducers will persist in subverting houses and vain talking then by proceeding to stopping their Mouths that so they may study to approve themselves unto God Workmen that need not be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth And the Temporal Power of the Civil Magistrate may assist the Spiritual to bring men to Peace Unity and Obedience to these their Guides and Governors by being a Terror to Evil doers and Encouragement to those who do well which is both the Will and the Word of God I know it will be Objected That these Intepreters of Scripture and Judges of Controversies may Err and be deceived Bishops may Err Counsels have Erred and therefore this leaves us still in an Uncertainty since it is possible that we may be misled by them and how shall we be certain they do not Err or we in following them and wherein is it Lawful to refuse to Obey them To this I answer That the Qualificatîon of such a Guide and Interpreter of Scripture as we are to expect is not such a one as cannot Err but such a one as does not Err for had God left us such a Guide besides his own Word and Will there would have been a state of Perfection attainable in this Life and by consequence an Immortality and no necessity of his Divine assistance to keep us by his mighty Power from falling through Faith unto Eternal Salvation such a Guide must have been a God Omniscient Omnipotent and Omnipresent which is as unreasonable to believe as to expect from any or all Mortal Men. And besides it is a vain and frivolous Objection for those who are under any Lawful Government to run into the most dangerous Errors and manifest breach of Gods Command by Schism and Disobedience to the Laws of Men for fear of imaginary danger of future Errors which if they shall really happen we have a plain and easy remedy against them if we know them to be such and that is in our own persons to protest against them and to refuse to Joyn with those that hold them and if we know them not to be so though we be in Error as who lives that does not Err they will do us no injury for it is obstinacy in Error and not bare Error of ignorant frailty that is damnable but we can have no Plea or Excuse to make to God Almighty for our Error of Separation breach of Vnity Peace Order Communion Division from a Church not yet convicted of any manifest Error either in Doctrine or Practice which is the Case between Dissenters and the Church of England And besides every Error in Circumstantials which does not destroy Faith or a good Life is not a sufficient and warrantable Cause for any private Man to throw off all Subjection to his Superiors for if it were there could be no such thing as a Catholique Church or Communion of Saints there being no particular Men or any Society of Men without Sins and by consequence not without Errors both in Doctrine and Practice BUT Secondly The Governours of the Church neither do nor can Err in point of Faith and Doctrine or Discipline and Government so long as they follow the Rule of the Scriptures in Cases plain and clear as before I shewed the Matters of Faith essentially necessary to Salvation are Nor so long as they Judge of such as are dubious according to their Catholiqueness in the Esteem of all Ages of the Church for no Error was ever Universal And though they may be mistaken yet do they not Err if in Interpretation of the more difficult and obscure places of Scripture they indeavour to Expound the meaning of them by others which are more clear and perspicuous following the received sense of them acknowledged so by the Vniversal Church so long as in those Interpretations there can be nothing repugnant to the Common Faith of Christians or prejudicial to Peace Charity and Practical Piety Neither can they Err as to the point of Discipline and the External Polity of the Church if in indifferent things in their own Natures and not Essentially necessary to Salvation they do not impose them as such if they follow the Direction of the General Rules of the Holy Canon that every thing be done with respect to Decency Order Edification for the avoiding Confusion and obtaining Peace Unity and Christian Love according to the Examples of the best Christians in former Ages in the Church and the Canons of such General Counsels as are not found manifestly Guilty of Partiality and Corruption in the long Train of Errors which the Indeavouring to Erect the Primacy into a Supremacy and the Supremacy into a Monarchy has brought into the Roman Church THIRDLY If the Governors of the Church Impose any thing contrary to Scripture Faith or Holy Life then do they forsake the Rule and it is Lawful and Necessary for every good Christian to forsake them for so is St. Paul's Rule 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I am of God And praises them for observing the Commandments delivered to them by God But if they fall from the Faith as did the Gnosticks the Manichees the Arrians and many others we are not then to be Followers of them but Followers of God as Dear Children But if any Private man or many shall think because in some things which are contrary to their apprehension that therefore the Determinations are against Scripture and therefore their Obedience not due it is a mistake for they must be certain otherwise they are bound to be subject for if they be not certain and from the best Grounds and clear Evidences it is but their Opinion which cannot weigh enough in the Scale of Truth to warrant their Disobedience against the Publique Opinion of their Superiors but that such a Disobedience will be a certain Sin for if any or many mens Private Opininion which is private Interpretation may authorize them to renounce their Obedience to their Superiors there can never be any such thing as subjection in the World nor any Government and by good consequence No Vnion no Catholique Church and then no Faith and in short at last no such thing as Religion OTHERS will Object That hereby I seem to introduce Romish Infallibility and make our Bishops Lords of our Faith and that we had better submit to one Pope who is as free from Error as other Bishops To this I Answer That there is nothing more contrary to Sense or Truth than such an Objection For I do not make nor believe them Infallible but the Rule by