Chapter 11: Scripture and New Principles

Scripture; and new Principles.

The next Paragraph, p. 182. is a naughty one. A business it is spent in and about, that I have now often advised our Author to meddle with no more: if he will not for the future take advice, I cannot help it; I have shewed my good will towards him. It is his debating of the Scripture and its authority which I intend. This with the intertexture of some other gentle suppositions is the subject of this and the following Section. And because I will not tire myself and Reader, in tracing what seems of concernment in this Discourse, backward and forward, up and down, as it is by him dispersed and disposed to his best advantage in dealing with unwary men; I shall draw out the Principles of it, that he may know them where ever he meets them, though never so much masked and disguised, or never so lightly touched on, and also what judgment to pass upon them. Their foundation being so taken away, these Sections, if I mistake not, will sink of themselves.

Some of these Principles are co-incident with those general ones insisted on in the entrance of our Discourse; others of them are peculiar to the design of these Paragraphs. The first I shall only point to, the latter briefly discuss.

1. It is supposed in the whole Discourse of these Sections; That from the Roman Church so stated, as now it is, or from the Pope, we here in England first received the Gospel; which is the Romanists own religion, and theirs by donation from them, whom they have here pleased to accommodate with it. This animates the whole, and is besides the special life of almost every sentence. A lifeless life; for, that there is not a syllable of truth in it, has been declared before; nor, were it so, that by the ministry of the Roman Church of old, the faith was first planted in these nations, would that one inch promote our Author's pretensions, unless he could prove, that they did not afterwards lose, or corrupt, at least, that which they communicated to us; which he knows to be the thing in question, and not to be granted upon request, though made in never so handsome words. To say then, that the Gospel is the Romanists own religion, from them you had it, you contend about that which is none of your own; hear them whose it is, from whom you had it, who have the precedency before you; is but to set up scare-crows to fright fools and children. Men who have any understanding of things past, know that all this bluster and noise comes from emptiness of any solid matter or substance to be used in the case.

2. It is also doughtily supposed, that whatever is spoken of the Church in the Scripture, belongs to the Roman Church, and that alone; the privileges, the authority, the glory of the Church are all theirs; as the mad man at Athens thought all the ships to be his, that came into the harbour. I suppose, he will not contend, but that, if you deny him this, all that he has said besides, is to little purpose. And, I believe, he cannot but take it ill, that any of his Readers should call him to an account, in that which he every where puts out of question. But this, he knew well enough, that all Protestants deny; that they grant no one privilege of the Catholic Church as such, to belong to the Roman. All, that any of them will allow her, is but to be a putrid corrupt member of it; some say, cut off, dead, and rotten. But yet that the Catholic Church and the Roman are the same, must be believed, or you spoil all his market. The Church is before the Gospel, gives testimony to it, none could know it, but by her authority, nothing can be accepted as such, but what she sets her seals to; so that, to destroy the Church, is to destroy the Gospel? What then, I pray? Suppose all this, and all the rest of his assertions about the Church, pag. 199, 200, &c. to be true, as some of them are most blasphemously false; yet, what is all this to his purpose? Why this is the Roman Church of which all these things are spoken. It may be, the Roman Church indeed, of which much of it is spoken, even all that is sinfully derogatory to the glory of Christ and his Apostles upon whom and whose authority the Church is built, and not their authority on it (Ephesians 2:18, 19, 20). But, what is truly spoken in the Scripture of the Church, does no more belong to the Roman, than to the least assembly of believers under heaven; wherein the essence of a true Church is preserved; if it belongs to it at all. And yet this rude pretence, and palpable artifice is the main engine in this Section, applied to the removal of men from the basis of the Scripture. The Church, the Church! the Roman Church, the Roman Church! and these forsooth are supposed to be one and the same; and the Pope to have monopolized all the privileges of the Church, contrary to express statute-law of the Gospel. Hence he pretends, that if to go out from the Catholic be evil, then not to come into the Roman is evil; when indeed the most ready way to go out of the Catholic, is to go into the Roman.

3. Moreover, it is taken for granted, that the Roman Church is every way what it was, when first planted. Indeed, if it were so, it would deserve as much particular respect as any Church of any city in the world, and, that would be all. As it is, the case is altered. But its unalteredness being added to the former supposition of its oneliness and catholicism, it is easy to see what sweet work a witty man, as our Author is, may make with this Church among good company. Many and many a time have the Romanists attempted to prove these things; but failing in their attempt, they think it now reasonable to take them for granted. The religion they now profess, must be that which first entered England; and there, says our Author, it continued in peace for a thousand years; when the truth is, after the entrance of their religion, that is, the corruption of Christianity by Papal usurpations, these nations never passed one age without tumults, turmoils, contentions, disorders; nor many without wars, blood and devastations, and those arising from the principles of their religion.

4. To this is added, that the Bible is the Pope's own book, which none can lay claim to, but by and from him. This will be found to be a doubtful assertion, and it will be difficult to conclude aright concerning it. He that shall consider, what a worthy person the Pope is represented to be by our Author, especially, in his just dealing and mercifulness, so, that he never did any man wrong; and, shall take notice how many he has caused to be burned to death, for having and using the Bible without his consent, must need suppose, that it is his book. For surely, his heavenly mind, would not have admitted of a provocation to such severity; unless they had stoln his goods out of his possession. But on the other side, he that shall weigh aright his vilifying & under-valuing of it, his preferring himself and Church before and above it; seeing we are all apt to set a high price upon that which is our own; may be ready to question whether indeed he have such a property in it as is pretended. Having somewhat else to do, I shall not interpose my self in this difference, nor attempt to determine this difficulty, but leave it as I find it, free for every man to think as he sees cause.

5. But that which is the chief ingredient of these Sections, is the plea, that we know not the Scripture to be the word of God, but by the Church, that is, the present Church of Rome; which he manages by urging sundry objections against it, and difficulties which men meet withal in their enquiry, whether it be so or no. Nor content with that plea alone, he interweaves in his discourse, many expressions and comparisons, tending directly to the slighting and contempt, both of its penmen, and matter, which is said to be, laws, poems, sermons, histories, letters, visions, several fancies in a diversity of composure; the whole, a book whereby men may as well prove their negative, in denying the immortality of the soul, heaven or hell, or any other thing, which by reason of many intricacies, are very difficult, if not impossible at all to be understood; see p. 190, 191, 192, &c. Concerning all which, I desire to know, whether our Author be in good earnest or no; or, whether he thinks as he writes; or, whether he would only have others to believe what he writes, that he may serve his turn upon their credulity. If he be in good earnest indeed, he calls us to an easy, welcome employment; namely, to defend the holy word of God, and the wisdom of God in it, from such slight and trivial exceptions, as those he lays against them. This path is so trodden for us by the ancients, in their answers to the more weighty objections of his predecessors in this work, the pagans, that we cannot well err or faint in it: If we are called to this task, namely, to prove that we can know and believe the Scripture to be the word of God, without any respect to the authority or testimony of the present Church of Rome; that no man can believe it to be so, with faith divine and supernatural upon that testimony alone; that the whole counsel of God in all things to be believed or done, in order to our last end, is clearly delivered in it; and that the composure of it, is a work of infinite wisdom, suited to the end designed to be accomplished by it, that no difficulties in the interpretation of particular places, hinder the whole from being a complete and perfect rule of faith and obedience, we shall most willingly undertake it, as knowing it to be as honourable a service and employment as any of the sons of men can in this world be called to. If indeed himself be otherwise minded, and believes not what he says, but only intends to entangle men by his sophistry, so to render them pliable to his further intention, I must yet once more persuade him to desist from this course. It does not become an ingenious man, much less a Christian, and one that boasts of so much mortification as he does, to juggle thus with the things of God. In the mean time, his reader may take notice, that so long as he is able to defend the authority, excellency, and usefulness of the Scripture, this man had nothing to say to him, as to the change of his religion from Protestancy to Popery. And when men will be persuaded to let that go as a thing uncertain, dubious, useless, it matters not much where they go themselves. And for our Author, methinks, if not for reverence to Christ, whose book we know the Scriptures to be; yet for the devotion he bears the Pope, whose book he says it is, he might learn to treat it with a little more respect; or at least prevail with him, to send out a book not liable to so many exceptions, as this is pretended to be. However, this I know, that though his pretence be to make men Papists, the course he takes is the readiest in the world to make them Atheists; and whether that will serve his turn or no, as well as the other, I know not.

6. We have not yet done with the Scripture. That the taking it for the only rule of faith, the only determiner of differences, is the only cause of all our differences, and which keeps us in a condition of having them endless; is also pretended and pleaded. But, how shall we know this to be so? Christ and his Apostles were absolutely of another mind; and so were Moses and the Prophets, before them. The ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church walked in their steps, and umpired all differences in religion, by the Scriptures; opposing, confuting, and condemning errors and heresies by them; preserving, through their guidance, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In these latter days of the world, which surely are none of the best, we have a few unknown persons come from Rome, would persuade us, that the Scripture, and the use of it, is the cause of all our differences, and the means of making them endless. But why so, I pray? Does it teach us to differ, and contend? Does it speak contradictions, and set us at variance? Is there any spirit of dissension breathing in it? Does it not deliver what it commands us to understand, so as it may be understood? Is there any thing needful for us to know, in the things of God, but what it reveals? Who can tell us, what that is? But do we not see, de facto, what differences there are among you, who pretend, all of you, to be guided by Scripture? Yes, and we see also, what surfeiting and drunkenness there is in the world; but yet, do not think, bread, meat, and drink to be the causes of them; and yet they are to the full as much so, as the Scriptures are of our differences. Pray, Sir, do not think, that sober men will cast away their food, and starve themselves, because you tell them, that some continually abuse and surfeit on that very kind of food which they use. Nor will some men's abuse of it, prevail with others to cast away the food of their souls, if they have any design to live eternally.

7. The great safety and security that there is in committing our selves as to all the concernments of religion, to the guidance, rule and conduct of the Pope, is another great principle of this discourse. And here our Author falls into a deep admiration of the Pope's dexterity in keeping all his subjects in peace and unity, and subjection to him; there being no danger to any one for forsaking him, but only that of excommunication. The contest is between the Scripture and the Pope. Protestants say, the safest way for men, in reference to their eternal condition, is to believe the Scripture, and rest therein; the Romanists say the same, of the Pope. Which will prove the best course, methinks, should not be hard to determine. All Christians in the world ever did agree, that the Scripture is the certain infallible word of God, given by him on purpose, to reveal his mind and will to us. About the Pope there were great contests ever since he was first taken notice of in the world. Nothing, I confess, little or low, is spoken of him. Some say, he is the head and spouse of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, the supreme moderator of Christians, the infallible judge of controversies, and the like; others, again, that he is Antichrist, the man of sin, a cruel tyrant, and persecutor, the evil servant characterized (Matthew 24:48, 49, 50, 51). But all, as far as I can gather, agree, that he is a man; I mean, that almost all Popes have been so; for about every individual, there is not the like consent. Now the question is, whether we shall rest in the authority and word of God, or in the authority and word of a man, as the Pope is confessed to be? And, whether is like to yield us more security in our assiance? This being such another difficult matter and case, as that before mentioned, about the Bible's being the Pope's book, shall not be by me decided; but left to the judgment of wiser men. In the mean time, for his feat of government, it is partly known what it is; as also what an influence into the effects of peace mentioned that gentle means of excommunication has had. I know one that used in the late times to say of the excommunication in Scotland, He would not care for their Devil, were it not for his horn; and, I suppose, had not Papal excommunication been always attended with wars, blood, seditions, conspiracies, depositions and murders of kings, fire and faggot, according to the extent of their power, it would have been less effectual than our Author pretends it to have been. Sir, do but give Christians the liberty that Christ has purchased for them, lay down your carnal weapons, your whips, racks, prisons, halters, swords, faggots, with your unchristian subtleties, slanders, and fleshly machinations, and we and you shall quickly see what will become of your Papal peace and power.

These are the goodly principles, the honest suppositions of the discourse which our Author ends his third book withal. It could not but have been a tedious thing, to take them up by pieces, as they lie scattered up and down, like the limbs of Medea's Brother, cast in the way to retard her pursuers. The reader may now take a view of them together, and from there of all that is offered to persuade him to a relinquishment of his present profession and religion. For the stories, comparisons, jests, sarcasms, that are intermixed with them, I suppose he will know how to turn them to another use.

Some very few particulars need only to be remarked.

1. No man can say what ill Popery did in the world until Henry the Eighth's days. Strange! when it is not only openly accused, but proved guilty of almost all the evil that was in the Christian world, in those days; particularly of corrupting the doctrine and worship of the Gospel, and debauching the lives of Christians.

2. With the Roman Catholics unity ever dwelt. Never; the very name of Roman Catholic, appropriating Catholicism to Romanism, is destructive of all Gospel-unity.

3. Some Protestants say, they love the persons of the Romanists, but hate their religion: the reason is plain, they know the one, and not the other. No, they know them both; and the pretence, that people are kept with, as from knowing what the religion of the Romanists is; is vain, untrue; and, as to what color can possibly be given to it, such an infant in comparison of that vast giant, which of the same kind lives in the Romish territories, that it deserves not to be mentioned.

Protestants are beholding to the Catholicks, (that is, Romanists) for their Universities, Benefices, Books, Pulpits, Gospel. For some of them, not all; for the rest, as the Israelites were to the Aegyptians for the Tabernacle they built in the Wilderness.

The Pope was anciently believed sole judge and general pastor over all. Prove it; ask the ancient Fathers, and Councils, whether they ever heard of any such thing? They will universally return their answer in the negative.

The Scripture you received from the Pope. Not at all, as has been proved; but from Christ himself, by the Ministry of the first planters of Christianity.

You cannot believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, but upon the authority of the Church. We can and do, upon the authority of God himself, and the influence of the Churches Ministry or Authority into our believing, concerns not the Church of Rome.

You account them that brought you the Scriptures, as liars. No otherwise than as the Scripture affirms every man to be so; not in their Ministry, wherein they brought the Word to us.

The Gospel separate from the Church can prove nothing. Yes, itself to be sent of God; and so doing, is the foundation of the Church. Sundry other passages of the like nature might be remarked, if I could imagine any man would judge them worthy of consideration.