considerable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of great grossness and folly think so poor-spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot betwixt the Churches pardon me I know what temptation drew that note from me The next Schisme which had in it matter of fact is that of the Donatists who were perswaded at least pretended so that it was unlawful to converse or communicate in holy duties with men stained with any notorious sin for howsoever that Austin to specifie only the Thurificati Traditores and Libellatici c. as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must referre to all notorious sinners upon this he taught that in all places where good and bad were mixt together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution co-operating a way from sinners which blasted righteous persons which conversed with them and made all unclean on this ground separating himself from all that he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only men among whom wicked persons found no shelter and by consequence the only clean and unpolluted company and therefore the only Church Against this Saint Augustine laid down this Conclusion Vnitatem Ecclesiae per totum mundum dispersae praeceptam non esse disserendam which is indeed the whole summe of that Father's disputation against the Donatists Now in one part of this Controversie one thing is very remarkable The truth was there where it was by meer chance and might have been on either side the reason brought by either party notwithstanding for though it were De facto false that pars Donati shut up in Africk was the only Orthodox party yet it might be true notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the whole earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing Saint Augustine brings to confirm it For where or amongst whom or how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any number more or less it may be in any Place Countrey or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without the prejudice to the definition of a Church or the truth of the Gospel North or South many or few dispersed in many Places or confined to one None of these do either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schisme and likewise that former to a wise man that well understands the matter in Controversie may afford perchance matter of pity to see men so strangely distracted upon fancy but of doubt or trouble what to do it can yield none for though in this Schisme the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both parties be equally engaged in the Schisme yet you may safely upon your occasions communicate with either if so be you flatter neither in their Schisme For why might not it be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing of moment to the contrary For in all publick Meetings pretending holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook why may not I be present in them and use communion with them Nay what if those to whom the execution of the publick service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the garments they wear be censured nay indeed be suspicious what if the gesture or adoration to be used to the Altars as now we have learned to speak What if the Homilist have Preached or delivered any Doctrine of the Truth of which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear part in them our selves The Priests under Ely had so ill demeaned themselves about the dayly sacrifices that the Scripture tells us they made them to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest for in those Schismes which concern fact nothing can be a just cause of refusing of Communion but only to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act for not only in reason but in Religion too that Maxime admits of no release Cautissimi cujusque Praeceptum quod dubitas ne feceris Long it was ere the Church fell upon Schisme upon this occasion though of late it hath had very many for until the second Council of Nice in which irreconcileable Superstition and Ignorance did conspire I say until the Rout did set up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schisme upon just occasion of fact all the rest of Schismes of that kind were but wantons this was truly serious in this the Schismatical party was the Synod it self and such as conspired with it for or concerning the use of Images in Sacrifices First it is acknowledged by all that it is a thing unnecessary Secondly it is by most suspected Thirdly it is by many held utterly unlawful can then the enjoyning of such a thing be ought else but abuse or can the refusal of Communion here be thought any other thing than duty Here or upon the like occasion to separate may peradventure bring personal trouble or danger against which it concerns any honest man to have pectus Praeparatum further harm it cannot do so that in these cases you cannot be to seek what to think or what you have to do Come we then to consider a little of the second sort of Schisme arising upon occasion of variety of opinion It hath been the common disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of faith which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded us but out of a vain desire to know more than is revealed they have attempted to devise things of which we have no light neither from Reason nor Revelation neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church-authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but feigned they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon others a necessity of entertaining conclusions of that nature and to strengthen themselves have broken out into Divisions and Factions opposing man to man Synod to Synod till the peace of the Church vanished without all possibility of recall hence arose those ancient and many separations amongst Christians occasioned by Arianisme Eutychianisme Nestorianisme Photinianisme Sabellianisme and many more both ancient and in our own time all which indeed are but names of Schisme howsoever in the common language of the
a truth but in the Church who formerly had with too much facility admitted a conclusion so justly subject to exception And let this suffice for our third part Now because it is apparent that the end of this our Apostles admonition is to give the Church a Caveat how she behave her self in handling of Scripture give me leave a little in stead of the use of such doctrines as I have formerly laid down to shew you as far as my conceit can stretch what course any man may take to save himself from offering violence unto Scripture and reasonably settle himself any pretended obscurity of the text whatsoever notwithstanding For which purpose the diligent observing of two rules shall be throughly available First The litteral plain and uncontroversable meaning of Scripture without any addition or supply by way of interpretation is that alone which for ground of faith we are necessarily bound to accept except it be there where the holy Ghost himself treads us out another way I take not this to be any peculiar conceit of mine but that unto which our Church stands necessarily bound When we receded from the Church of Rome one motive was because she added unto Scripture her glosses as Canonical to supply what the plain text of Scripture could not yield If in place of hers we set up our own glosses thus to do were nothing else but to pull down Baal and set up an ephod to run round and meet the Church of Rome again in the same point in which at first we left her But the plain evident and demonstrative ground of this rule is this That authority which doth warrant our faith unto us must every way be free from all possibility of errour For let us but once admit of this that there is any possibility that any one point of faith should not be true if it be once granted that I may be deceived in what I have believed how can I be assured that in the end I shall not be deceived If the Author of faith may alter or if the evidence and assurance that he hath left us be not pregnant and impossible to be defeated there is necessarily opened an inlet to doubtfulness and wavering which the nature of faith excludes That faith therefore may stand unshaken two things are of necessity to concur First That the Author of it be such a one as can by no means be deceived and this can be none but God Secondly That the words and text of this Author upon whom we ground must admit of no ambiguity no uncertainty of interpretation If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall provide himself to battel If the words admit a double sense and I follow one who can assure me that that which I follow is the truth For infallibility either in judgment or interpretation or whatsoever is annext neither to the See of any Bishop nor to the Fathers nor to the Councels nor to the Church nor to any created power whatsoever This doctrine of the literal sense was never grievous or prejudicial to any but onely to those who were inwardly conscious that their positions were not sufficiently grounded When Cardinal Cajetan in the days of our grandfathers had forsaken that vein of postilling and allegorising on Scripture which for a long time had prevailed in the Church and betaken himself unto the literal sense it was a thing so distasteful unto the Church of Rome that he was forc'd to find out many shifts and make many apologies for himself The truth is as it will appear to him that reads his writings this sticking close to the literal sense was that alone which made him to shake many of those tenets upon which the Church of Rome and the Reformed Churches differ But when the importunity of the Reformers and the great credit of Calvin's writings in that kind had forced the Divines of Rome to level their interpretations by the same line when they saw that no pains no subtlety of wit was strong enough to defeat the literal evidence of Scripture it drave them on those desperate shelves on which at this day they stick to call in question as far as they durst the credit of the Hebrew text and countenance against it a corrupt translation to adde Traditions unto Scripture and to make the Churches interpretation so pretended to be above exception As for that restriction which is usually added to this Rule that the literal sense is to be taken if no absurdity follow though I acknowledge it to be sound and good yet my advise is that we entertain it warily St. Basil thought the precept of Christ to the rich man in the Gospel Go sell all that thou hast and give unto the poor to be spoken as a command universally and eternally binding all Christians without exception And making this objection how possibly such a life could be amongst Christians since where all are sellers none could be buyers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ask not me the sense of my Lords commands He that gave the Law can provide to give it possibility of being kept without any absurdity at all Which speech howsoever we may suppose the occasion of it to be mistaken yet it is of excellent use to repress our boldness whereby many times under pretence of some inconvenience we hinder Scripture from that latitude of sense of which it is naturally capable You know the story of the Roman Captain in Gellius and what he told the Ship-wright that chose rather to interpret then to execute his Lords command Corrumpi atque dissolvi omne imperantis officium si quis ad id quod facere jussus est non obsequio debito sed consilio non desiderato respondeat It will certainly in the end prove safer for us to entertain Gods commandments obsequio debito then to interpret them acumine non desiderato Those other ways of interpretation whether it be by allegorising or allusion or whatsoever the best that can be said of them is that which S. Basil hath pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We acount of them as of trim elegant and witty speeches but we refuse to accept of them as of undoubted truths And though of some part of these that may be said which one said of his own work Quod ad usum lusi quod ad molestiam laboravi in respect of any profit comes by them they are but sport but in respect of the pains taken in making of them they are labour and travel yet much of them is of excellent use in private either to raise our affections or to spend our meditations or so it be with modesty to practise our gifts of wit to the honour of him that gave them For if we absolutely condemn these interpretations then must we condemn a great part of antiquity who are very much conversant in this kind of interpreting For the most partial for antiquity cannot chuse but see and
or to Breathe and this Notion belongs to the FATHER and the SON alike for Pater Filius spirant Spiritum Sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God If any man think this Confession to be Defecti for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives be deficient and I shall thank him for his favour How we come to know the Scriptures to be the Word of God HOw come I to know that the Works which we call Livie's are indeed his whose name they bear Hath God left means to know the prophane Writings of men hath he left no certain means to know his own Records The first and outward means that brings us to the knowledge of these Books is the voice of the Church notified to us by our Teachers and Instructors who first unclasp'd and open'd them unto us and that common duty which is exacted at the hand of every learner Oportet discentem credere And this remaining in us peradventure is all the outward means that the ordinary and plainer sort of Christians know To those who are conversant among the Records of Antiquity farther light appears To find the ancient Copies of Books bearing these Titles to find in all Ages since their being written the universal consent of all the Church still resolving it self upon these writings as sacred and uncontrolable these cannot chuse but be strong Motioners unto us to pass our consent unto them and to conclude that either these Writings are that which they are taken for or nothing left us from Antiquity is true For whatsoever is that gives any strength or credit to any thing of Antiquity left to posterity whether it be Writings and Records or Tradition from hand to hand or what things else soever they all concur to the authorising of holy Scriptures as amply as they do to any other thing left unto the world Yea but will some man reply this proves indeed strongly that Moses and the Prophets that St. Matthew and St. Paul c. writ those Books and about those times which they bear shew of but this comes not home for how proves this that they are of God If I heard St. Paul himself preaching what makes me beleive him that his Doctrine is from God and his words the words of the holy Ghost For answer There was no outward means to perswade the world at the first rising of Christianity that it is infallibly from God but onely Miracles such as impossibly were naturally to be done Had I not done those things saith our Saviour which no man else could do you had had no sin Had not the world seen those Miracles which did unavoidably prove the assistance and presence of a Divine power with those who first taught the will of Christ it had not had sin if it had rejected them For though the world by the light of natural discretion might easily have discover'd that that was not the right way wherein it usually walk'd yet that that was the true path which the Apostles themselves began to tread there was no means undoubtedly to prove but Miracles and if the building were at this day to be raised it could not be founded without Miracles To our fore-fathers therefore whose ears first entertain'd the word of life Miracles were necessary and so they are to us but after another order For as the sight of these Miracles did confirm the doctrine unto them so unto us the infallible records of them For whatsoever evidence there is that the Word once began to be preach'd the very same confirms unto us that it was accompanied with Miracles and Wonders so that as those Miracles by being seen did prove unanswerably unto our fore-fathers the truth of the doctrine for the confirmation of which they were intended so do they unto us never a whit less effectually approve it by being left unto us upon these Records which if they fail us then by Antiquity there can be nothing left unto posterity which can have certain and undoubted oredit The certain and uncontrolable Records of Miracles are the same to us the Miracles are The Church of Rome when she commends unto us the Authority of the Church in dijudicating of Scriptures seems onely to speak of her self and that of that part of her self which is at some time existent whereas we when we appeal to the Church's testimony content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time viz. since its first beginning and out of both these draw an argument in this question of that force as that from it not the subtilest disputer can find an escape for who is it that can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable men by opposing not onely the present Church conversing in earth but to the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages So that in effect to us of after-ages the greatest if not the sole outward mean of our consent to holy Scripture is the voice of the Church excepting always the Copies of the Books themselves bearing from their birth such or such names of the Church I say and that not onely of that part of it which is actually existent at any time but successively of the Church ever since the time of our blessed Saviour for all these testimonies which from time to time are left in the Writings of our fore-fathers as almost every Age ever since the first birth of the Gospel hath by God's providence left us store are the continued voice of the Church witnessing unto us the truth of these Books and their Authority well but this is onely fides humano judicio testimonio acâ—quaesita what shall we think of fides infusa of the inward working of the holy Ghost in the consciences of every beleiver How far it is a perswader unto us of the Authority of these Books I have not much to say Onely thus much in general that doubtless the holy Ghost doth so work in the heart of every true Beleiver that it leaves a farther assurance strong and sufficient to ground and stay it self upon But this because it is private to every one and no way subject to sense is unfit to yeild argument by way of dispute to stop the captious curiosities of wits disposed to wrangle and by so much the more unfit it is by how much by experience we have learn'd that men are very apt to call their own private conceit the Spirit To oppose unto these men to reform them our own private conceits under the name likewise of the Spirit were madness so that to judge upon presumption of the Spirit in private can be no way to bring either this or any other controversie to an end If it should please God at this day to adde any