R. H.

“ Now then; what certainty the Guides of a particular Church may have, I hope may also those of the Church Catholick: and then, obedience being yielded to these by all their inferiors, this will restore all things to their right course. All this follows upon certainty, 1. That Scriptures are plain in Fundamentals; And 2. That due industry is used to understand them. But, if you should deny that men can have a certainty of their industry rightly used; then again, is all the fair security these men promise their followers of their not erring in necessaries quite vanished. ”

“ Those not manifested by them to be such; then, before we can censure any Council for its Anathema's, or its requiring of assent, we must know, whether the point, to which assent is required, is, or is not, evident divine Revelation. And then, by whom, or how, shall this thing touching the evidence of the Divine Revelation be judged or decided? for those that judge this, whoever they be, do sit now upon the trial of the rightness, or mistake of the judgment of a General Council: Or when, think we, will those who judge this (i.e. every person for himself) agree in their sentence? ”

“ For it is plain on the one side, where a Church pretends infallibility, the excommunication is directed against the persons for refusing to give internal assent to what she defines: But where a Church does not pretend to that, the excommunication respects wholly that overt Act, whereby the Church's peace is broken. And if a Church be bound to look to her own peace, no doubt she hath power to excommunicate such as openly violate the bonds of it; which is only an act of caution in a Church to preserve her self in unity ”

“ The Church determining matter of faith (saith he) ought to manifest it out of God's Word: and we may expect such Churches, proof, before we yield absolute assent of belief. And so Dr. Stillingfleet saith [39] ——All men ought to be left to judge according to the Pandects of the divine Laws, because each member of this Society is bound to take care of his Soul, and of all things that tend thereto. Now I for my part see no solid ground out of the Scripture for Consubstantiality, but rather for the contrary; which several of our Writers have made appear to the world. ”

“ None can be guilty of Heresie for denying any thing declared by the Church; unless they have sufficient reason to believe, that whatever is declared by the Church is revealed by God; and therefore the Church's Definition cannot make any Hereticks, but such as have reason to believe, that she cannot err in her Definitions. From hence also he gathers, That Protestants are in less danger of Heresie than Papists, till these give them more sufficient reasons to prove, that whatever the Church declares, is certainly revealed by God. ”

“ The Apostles Creed I totally embrace, and would have it the standing bound of a Christian Faith. For other Creeds: I suppose, no more belief is necessary to the Articles of the Nicene Creed, than is required to those of the Athanasian. And, of what kind the necessity is of believing those, Dr. Stillingfleet states on this manner [101] ——That the belief of a thing may be supposed necessary, either as to the matter, because the matter is to be believed in it self necessary; or because of the clear conviction of mens understandings ”

“ And at this rate, all those, who separate from the Church, requiring their assent to what is indeed a truth, will be Schismaticks, (and that, whether in a point Fundamental, or not Fundamental,) though they have used all the industry, all the means they can (except this, the relying on their Superiors judgment) not to err; unless you will say, that all truths, even not Fundamental, are in Scripture so clear, that none using a right industry, can (neither) err in them; which no Chillingworth hath maintained hitherto. ”

“ If, on the clearness of the express sense of these Scriptures, I cannot infallibly ground my faith, against many other rational men contradicting; on what plainness of the sense of any other Scripture is it, that Protestants can ground theirs against a contrary sense given by the learned; by several Councils; by the whole Church of some ages, as they do; not promising to the Councils, even to the four first, an absolute, but conditional assent, viz. only so far, as their Decrees agree with these clear Scriptures? ”

“ Neither is any thing necessary to be believed, but what is plainly revealed: for to say, that when a place of Scripture by reason of ambiguous terms lies indifferent between divers senses, whereof one is true, and the other false, that God obligeth men under pain of damnation not to mistake through error, and humane frailty, is to make God a Tyrant, and to say that he requires of us certainty to attain that end, for the attaining whereof we have no certain means. ”

“ It is not necessary expresly to believe, whatsoever the Council hath concluded, though it be true, unless by some other means it appear unto us to be true, and we be convinced of it in some other sort than by the bare Determination of the Council. ”

“ The Texts therefore that you produce here so manifest on your side, that they may not contradict many more others as clear against you, are to be understood to speak of our Lord only according to his Incarnation, Messias and Mediatorship, in which he hath an inferiority to the Father and is our Lord, by a special Redemption with his blood, in another manner, than He together with his Father, in the same essence, is the one true God. ”

“ That when we have certain knowledge of a thing, we may safely learn from the Schools, viz. Ubi non est formido contrarii; that after diligent search and inquiry when there remains no scruple, doubt, and fear of the contrary, when the understanding is fixt, we are said to be certain—And that they who will say it, and do think so too, may safely be absolved from the guilt of disobedience. ”

“ Whilst I cannot distinguish Fundamentals in their Definitions, thus no Definition of a General Council may be receded from by me, for fear of my incurring Heresie; a consequence which Protestants allow not. Again: Since Protestants affirm all Fundamentals plain in Scripture, why should they place autocatacrisie, or self-conviction, in respect of the Declaration of the Church rather than of the Scripture? ”

“ But yet, though upon such consideration, a free use of your own judgment, as to providing for your own Salvation is granted you; yet, methinks in this matter you have some greater cause to suspect it, since several Churches, having of late taken liberty to examine by Gods Word more strictly the corrupt doctrins of former ages, yet these reformed, as well as the other unreformed, stand opposite to you; and neither those professing to follow the Scriptures, nor those professing to follow Tradition, and Church-Authority ”

“ That an unanimous Consent of the whole Catholick Church in all ages, such as the Protestants require for the proving of a point of faith to be necessary, can never be shewed, concerning this point of Consubstantiality. ”

“ Articles, he saith,——That the Church of England, excommunicates such as openly oppose her doctrin, supposing her fallible; the Roman Church excommunicates all, who will not believe whatever she defines to be infallibly true.——That the Church of England bindeth men to peace to her determinations, reserving to men the liberty of their judgments, on pain of excommunication if they violate that peace. ”

“ In matters of Religion, when the question is, whether any man be a fit judge, and chooser for himself, we suppose men honest, and such as understand the difference between a moment and eternity. And then I suppose that all the necessary points in Religion are plain and easie, and consequently every man in this case to be a compleat Judge for himself, because it concerns himself to Judge aright, as much as eternal happiness is worth: and if through his own default he Judge amiss, he alone shall suffer for it. ”

“ Or can our London Carrier have no certainty in the middle of the day, when he is sober, and in his wits, that he is in his way to London? [13] —This I am certain of, that God will not require of me a certainly unerring belief, unless he had given me a certain means to avoid error, and if I use those which I have, will never require of me, that I use that which I have not [14] .——This is Mr. Chillingworth's solid Plea, against the Papist's grand Objection, for the proving an uncertainty in the Protestant's Faith upon any their pretence of evident Scripture. ”

“ Or how can it consist with his justice to require of men to know certainly the meaning of those words which he himself hath not revealed? [7] ——For my error or ignorance in what is not plainly contained in Scripture, after my best endeavour used; to say that God will damn me for such errors, who am a lover of him, and lover of truth, is to rob man of his comfort, and God of his goodness; is to make man desperate, and God a Tyrant. ”

“ No Authority on Earth can oblige to internal assent in matters of Faith, or to any farther Obedience than that of Silence.
Prot. Yes, you stand obliged to yield a conditional assent, at least to the Definitions of these highest Courts, i. e. unless you can bring evident Scripture, or Demonstration against them.
Soc. I do not think Protestant Divines agree in this. I find indeed the Archbishop [49] requiring Evidence and Demonstration, for Inferiors contradicting, or publishing their dissent from the Councils Decrees, but not requiring thus much for their denial of assent. ”

“ If the consent of the much major part is to be taken for the whole, then the Reformed cannot maintain their dissent from the much more numerous body of Christianity, that opposed their opinions, and sense of Scriptures at the beginning of the Reformation, and do still oppose them. ”