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have much more reason to conclude, that the new dispensation should be much brighter. If there was no need of a certain expounder of Scripture then, there is much less now: nor is there any provision made in the New for a sure guide; no intimations are given where to find one: From all which we may conclude, that the books of the New Testament were clear in those days, and might well be understood by those to whom they were at first addressed. If they were clear to them, they may be likewise clear to us: for though we have not a full history of that time, or of the phrases and customs, and particular opinions of that age; yet the vast industry of the succeeding ages, of these two last in particular, has made such discoveries, besides the other collateral advantages which learning and a niceness in reasoning has given us, that we may justly reckon, that though some hints in the Epistles, which relate to the particulars of that time, may be so lost that we can at best but make conjectures about them, yet, upon the whole matter, we may well understand all that is necessary to salvation in the Scripture. On Article vi.

On this head it is very easy to employ a great deal of popular eloquence, to decry private men's examining of Scriptures, and forming their judgments of things out of them, and not submitting all to the judgment of the Church. But how absurd soever this may seem, all parties do acknowledge that it must be done....

Since, then, there is an assistance of the divine grace given to fortify the understanding as well as to enable the will, it follows, that our understanding is to be employed by us in order to the finding out of the truth, as well as our will in order to the obeying of it. And though this may have very ill consequences, it does not follow from thence that it is not true.

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quences can be worse than the corruption that is in the world, and the damnation that follows upon sin and yet God permits it, because he has made us free creatures. Nor can any reason be given, why we should be less free in the use of our understanding than we are in the use of our will; or why God should make it to be less possible for us to fall into errors, than it is to commit sins. The wrath of God is as much denounced against men that hold the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. i. 18. 24. 26.) as against other sins; and it is reckoned among the heaviest of curses, to be given up to strong delusions, to believe a lie, (2 Thess. ii. 11). Upon all these reasons, therefore, it seems clear, that our understandings are left free to us as well as our wills; and if we observe the style and method of the Scriptures, we shall find in them, all over, a constant appeal to a man's reason, and to his intellectual faculties..

If the mere dictates of the Church, or of infallible men, had been the resolution or foundation of faith, there had been no need of such a long thread of reasoning and discourse, as both our Saviour used while on earth, and as the Apostles used in their writings. We see the way of authority is not taken, but explanations are offered, proofs and illustrations are brought to convince the mind; which shews that God, in the clearest manifestation of his will, would deal with us as with reasonable creatures, who are not to believe but upon persuasion, and are to use our reason in order to the attaining that persuasion. And therefore, upon the whole matter, we ought not to believe doctrines to be true because the Church teaches them; but we ought to search the Scriptures, and then, according as we find the doctrine of any Church to be true in the fundamentals, we ought to believe her to be a true Church; and if, besides this, the whole extent of the doctrine and worship, together not only with the essential

parts of the Sacraments, but the whole administration of them and the other rituals of any Church, are pure and true then we ought to account such a Church true in the largest extent of the word true; and by consequence we ought to hold communion with it. On Article xix.

For if every good man, that prays earnestly to God for the assistance and direction of his Spirit, has reason to look for it; much more may a body of pastors, brought together to seek out the truth in any point under debate, look for it, if they bring with them sincere and unprejudiced minds, and do pray earnestly to God. In that case, they may expect to be directed and assisted of him. But this depends upon the purity of their hearts, and the earnestness of their endeavours

and prayers.

When any synod of the Clergy has so far examined a point as to settle their opinions about it, they may certainly decree that such is their doctrine; and as they judge it to be more or less important, they may either restrain any other opinion, or may require positive declarations about it, either of all in their communion, or at least of all whom they admit to minister in holy things.

This is only an authority of order for the maintaining of union and edification; and in this a body does no more, as it is a body, than what every single individual has a right to do for himself. He examines a doctrine that is laid before him, he forms his own opinion upon it, and, pursuant to that, he must judge with whom he can hold communion, and from whom he must separate.

When such definitions are made by the body of the pastors of any Church, all persons within that Church do owe great respect to their decision. Modesty must be observed in descanting upon it, and in disputing

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about it. Every man that finds his own thoughts differ from it, ought to examine the matter over again, with much attention and care, freeing himself all he can from prejudice and obstinacy; with a just distrust of his own understanding, and an humble respect to the judgment. of his superiors.

This is due to the considerations of peace and union, and to that authority which the Church has to maintain it. But if, after all possible methods of inquiry, a man cannot master his thoughts, or make them agree with the public decisions, his conscience is not under bonds; since this authority is not absolute, nor grounded upon a promise of infallibility. On Article xx.

None of those places which are brought to prove the infallibility of Councils, come up to the point: for so great and so important a matter as this is, must be supposed to be either expressly declared in the Scriptures, or not at all." On Article xxi.

29. SOUTH, CANON OF CHRISTCHURCH.

"Besides all which, that they (the Papists) might not in the last place want a sure shelter and stronghold to defend them, in case this terrible book of the Scriptures should come to be unsealed and let loose upon them, they had two other refuges to fly to; to wit, that of unwritten traditions, without which they held the Scriptures imperfect; and of an infallible judge, without which they affirmed them to be obscure; two qualifications which must unavoidably render the Scriptures an incompetent rule of faith." Sermon on 2 Cor. xi. 14.

30. WHITBY, PREBENDARY OF SALISBURY. "This text is so far from being an argument for receiving doctrinal traditions, no where writ in Scripture, upon the sole authority of the Church of Rome, or

even of the Church Catholic, that it is rather a demonstration, that she is no sure preserver of them, she having actually lost those very traditions touching the man of sin, which are mentioned in this chapter, and particularly referred to in this text.........So that the tradition which the Church received from the apostles, touching this matter, is wholly lost; how therefore can she be relied on as a sure preserver, and a true teacher of traditions, which hath confessedly lost one of great moment, deposited with the Thessalonians, and the primitive Church? Annotation on 2 Thess. ii. 15.

Having given my conjecture, that the Jewish Church, with their rulers, were the Antichrist mentioned by St. Paul, I proceed to shew, how their apostacy, when they were thus deserted by God, resembled and ran parallel to the apostacy of the Romish Church, when she began in like manner to apostatize from and to corrupt the Christian faith......First, in the doctrine of infallibility, the mother of incorrigible errors....... Secondly, whereas the Trent council, in her fourth session, determines that "besides the written word contained in the canon of the New Testament, there were also oral traditions, concerning both faith and manners, received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ, or dictated to them by the Holy Spirit, and preserved in the Church Catholic by a continual succession, which therefore they received pari pictatis affectu, with the same pious affection as the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament," in all this they plainly copied from the apostatizing Jewish Church." Parallel betwixt the Jewish and the Papal Antichrist.

31. GIBSON, BISHOP OF LONDON.

"Every minister declares at the time of his ordination, that he is determined to instruct the people committed

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