XIX. ART. fill among them. And thus though we fhould not dif pute the truth of the many legends that fome are daily bringing forth, which yet we may well do, fince they are believed to be true by few among themfelves, they being confidered among the greater part of the knowing men of that Church, as arts to entertain the credulity and devotion of the people, and to work upon their fears and hopes, but chiefly upon their purses: all thefe, I fay, when confeffed, will not ferve to prove that there is an infallibility among them, unless they can prove that these miracles are wrought to prove this infallibility. The fecond fort of proofs that they may bring, is from fome paffages in Scripture, that feem to import that it was given by Chrift to the Church. But though in this difpute all these paffages ought to be well confidered and anfwered, yet they ought not to be urged to prove this infallibility, till feveral other things are firft proved; fuch as, that the Scriptures are the word of God; that the book of the Scriptures is brought down pure and uncor rupted to our hands; and that we are able to understand the meaning of it: for before we can argue from the parts of any book, as being of divine authority, all these things must be previously certain, and be well made out to us: fo that we must be well affured of all thofe particulars, before we may go about to prove any thing by any paffages drawn out of the Scriptures. Further, thefe paffages fuppofe that thofe to whom this infallibility belongs are a Church: we must then know what a Church is, and what makes a body of men to be a Church, before we can be fure that they are that fociety to whom this infallibility is given: and fince there may be, as we know that in fact there are, great differences among feveral of thofe bodies of men called Churches, and that they condemn one another as guilty of error, fchifm, and herefy; we are fure that all thefe cannot be infallible: for contradictions cannot be true. So then we must know which of them is that fociety where this infallibility is to be found. And if in any one fociety there fhould be different opinions about the feat of this infallibility, thofe cannot be all true, though it is very poflible that they may be all falfe: we must be then well affured in whom this great privilege is vefted, before we can be bound to acknowledge it, or to fubmit to it. So here a great many things must be known, before we can either argue from, or apply thofe paffages of Scripture in which it is pretended that infallibility is promifed to the Church and if private judgment is to be trufted in the enquiries that arife about all XIX. all these particulars, they being the most important and ART. moft difficult matters that we can fearch into, then it will be thought reafonable to truft it yet much further. It is evident, by their proceeding this way, that both the authority and the fenfe of the Scriptures must be known antecedently to our acknowledging the authority or the infallibility of any Church. For it is an eternal principle and rule of reafon, never to prove one thing by another, till that other is firft well proved: nor can any thing be proved afterwards by that which was proved by it. This is as impoffible, as if a father should beget a fon, and fhould be afterwards begotten by that fon. Therefore the Scriptures cannot prove the infallibility of the Church, and be afterwards proved by the teftimony of the Church. So the one or the other of thefe muft be firft fettled and proved, before any use can be made of it to prove the other by it. Tom. 24 The laft way they take to find out this Church by, is Bellar. from fome notes that they pretend are peculiar to her, Contr. fuch as the name catholic; antiquity; extent; duration; 1.4. fucceffion of bishops; union among themfelves, and with their bead; conformity of doctrine with former times; miracles; prophecy; fanctity of doctrine; holiness of life; temporal felicity; curfes upon their enemies; and a conftant progress or efficacy of doctrine; together with the confeffion of their adverfaries: and they fancy, that wherefoever we find thefe, we muft believe that body of men to be infallible. But upon all this, endlefs queftions will arife, fo far will it be from ending controverfies, and fettling us upon infallibility. If all these must be believed to be the marks of the infal lible Church, upon the account of which we ought to believe it, and fubmit to it, then two enquiries upon every one of these notes must be difcuffed, before we can be obliged to acquiefce in the infallibility: Firft, whether that is a true mark of infallibility, or not? And next, whether it belongs to the Church which they call infallible, or not? And then another very intricate question will arife upon the whole, whether they must be all found together? or, how many, or which of them together, will give us the entire characters of the infallible. Church? In difcuffing the questions, whether every one of these is a true mark, or not, no ufe muft be made of the Scriptures; for if the Scriptures have their authority from the teftimony, or rather the decifions of the infallible Church, no ufe can be made of them till that is firft fixed. Some of thefe notes are fuch as did not at all agree to the Church XIX. ART. in the beft and pureft times; for then fhe had but a little extent, a fhort-lived duration, and no temporal felicity; and he was generally reproached by her adversaries. But out of which of thefe topics can one hope to fetch an affurance of the infallibility of fuch a body? Can no body of men continue long in a conftant feries, and with much profperity, but muft they be concluded to be infallible? Can it be thought that the affuming a name can be a mark? Why is not the name Chriflian as folemn as Catholic? Might not the Philofophers have concluded from hence against the firft Chriftians, that they were, by the confeffion of all men, the true lovers of wisdom; fince they were called Philofophers much more unanimously than the Church of Rome is called Catholic? If a conformity of doctrine with former times, and a fanctity of doctrine, are notes of the Church, these will lead men into enquiries of fuch a nature, that if they are once allowed to go fo far with their private judgment, they may well be fuffered to go much further. Some ftandard must be fixed on, by which the fanctity of doctrine may be examined; they must also be allowed to examine what was the doctrine of former times: and here it will be natural to begin at the first times, the age of the Apofiles. It must therefore be first known what was the doctrine of that age, before we can examine the conformity of the prefent age with it. A fucceffion of bishops is confeffed to be ftill kept up among corrupted Churches. An union of the Church with its head cannot be supposed to be a note, unless it is first made out by fome other topics, that this Church must have a head; and that he is infallible: for unless it is proved by fome other argument, that the ought to have a head, the cannot be bound to adhere to him, or to own him; and unless it is alfo proved that he is infallible, fhe cannot be bound abfolutely, and without reftrictions, to adhere to him. Holinefs of life cannot be a mark, unless it is pretended that thofe in whom the infallibility is are all holy. A few holy men here and there are indeed an honour to any body; but it will feem a ftrange inference, that because fome few in a fociety are eminently holy, that therefore others of that body who are not fo, but are perhaps as eminently vicious, fhould be infallible. Somewhat has been already faid concerning miracles: the pretence to prophecy falls within the fame confideration; the one being as wonderful a communication of omnifcience, as the other is of omnipotence. For the confeffion of adverfaries, or fome curfes on them; thefe cannot fignify much, XIX. much, unless they were univerfal. Fair enemies will ac- ART. knowledge what is good among their adverfaries: but as that Church is the leaft apt of any fociety we know, to fpeak good of those who differ from her, fo fhe has not very much to boaft as to others faying much good of her. And if fignal providences have now and then happened, thefe are fuch things, and they are carried on with fuch a depth, that we must acquiefce in the obfervation of the wifeft men of all ages, that the race is not to the fwift, nor Eccl.ix.11. the battle to the ftrong: but that time and chance happeneth to all things. And thus it appears, that these pretended notes, inftead of giving us a clear thread to lead us up to infallibility and to end all controverfies, do ftart a great variety of queftions, that engage us into a labyrinth, out of which it cannot be eafy for any to extricate themfelves. But if we could fee an end of this, then a new set of questions will come on, when we go to examine all Churches by them whether the Church of Rome has them all? And if the alone has them fo, that no other Church has them equally with her or beyond her? : If all these must be difcuffed before we can settle this queftion, which is the true infallible Church? a man must ftay long ere he can come to a point in it. Therefore there can be no other way taken here, but to examine firft, what makes a particular Church: and then, fince the Catholic Church is an united body of all particular Churches, when the true notion of a particular Church is fixed, it will be eafy from that to form a notion of the Catholic Church. It would feem reafonable by the method of all Creeds, in particular of that called the Apoftles' Creed, that we ought first to fettle our faith as to the great points of the Chriftian religion, and from thence go to fettle the notion of a true Church: and that we ought not to begin with the notion of a Church, and from thence go to the doctrine. ; The doctrine of Christianity must be first stated, and from this we are to take our measures of all Churches and that chiefly with refpect to that doctrine, which every Chriftian is bound to believe: here a distinction is to be made between thofe capital and fundamental Articles, without which a man cannot be esteemed a true Christian, nor a Church a true Church; and other truths, which being delivered in Scripture, all men are indeed obliged to believe them, yet they are not of that nature that the ignorance of them, or an error in them, can exclude from falvation. To ART. To make this fenfible; it is a propofition of another fort, that Chrift died for finners, than this, that he died at the third or at the fixth hour. And yet if the fecond propofition is exprefsly revealed in Scripture, we are bound to believe it, fince God has faid it, though it is not of the fame nature with the other. Here a controverfy does naturally arife that wife people are unwilling to meddle with, what Articles are fundamental, and what are not? The defining of fundamental Articles feems, on the one hand, to deny falvation to fuch as do not receive them all, which men are not willing to do. And on the other hand, it may feem a leaving men at liberty, as to all other particulars that are not reckoned up among the fundamentals. But after all, the covenant of grace, the terms of falvation, and the grounds on which we expect it, feem to be things of another nature than all other truths, which, though revealed, are not of themfelves the means or conditions of falvation. Wherefoever true baptifm is, there it seems the effentials of this covenant are preferved: for if we look on baptifm as a fœderal admiffion into Christianity, there can be no baptifm where the effence of Chriftianity is not preferved. As far then as we believe that any fociety has preferved that, fo far we are bound to receive her baptifm, and no further. For unlefs we confider baptifm as a fort of a charm, that fuch words joined with a washing with water make one a Christian which feems to be exprefsly contrary to what St. Peter Pet. iii. fays of it, that it is not the washing away the filth of the flefb, but the anfver of a good confcience towards God that Javes us; we muft conclude, that baptifm is a fœderal thing, in which after that the fponfions are made, the feal of regeneration is added. 21. From hence it will follow, that all who have a true baptifm, that makes men believers and Chriftians, must also have the true faith as to the effentials of Chriftianity; the fundamentals of Christianity feem to be all that is neceffary to make baptifm true and valid. And upon this a diftinction is to be made, that will difcover and deftroy a fophifm that is often ufed on this occafion. A true Church is, in one fenfe, a fociety that preferves the effentials and fundamentals of Chriftianity: in another fense it ftands for a fociety, all whofe doctrines are true, that has corrupted no part of this religion, nor mixed any errors with it. A true man is one who has a foul and a body, that are the effential conftituents of a man: whereas, |